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Hair (Other Lectures)

Lectures

Nectar of Devotion Lectures

The Nectar of Devotion -- Bombay, December 26, 1972:

The system was that one should dress herself in such a way that people can understand what is her position—whether she's unmarried, whether she's married, whether she's widow, whether her husband is away, whether she's a pro..., she's a prostitute, everything. By the dress one should understand. "She is, she is widow," "She has got her husband," "Her husband is now away from home." "Oh, she is a prostitute," "She's not married." In this way. Because she's not to be asked. Simply by the dress one can understand. So the proṣita bhartṛkā. She does not dress herself, she lies down on the floor, does not change her clothes very nicely, does not dress the, comb the hair, proṣita bhartṛkā. And the same woman, when her husband is at home, she take twice bath and dresses herself, applies oil and very nice dress, ornaments, and so many things. Women know how to decorate themselves. But the... There is no difference. Her not dressing herself nicely and dressing herself nicely, it may be considered that bhoga and tyāga. But either of these positions is for center is husband. Center is husband. Therefore bhoga-tyāga is not consideration. If for Kṛṣṇa I have to give up everything, I will give up. And if Kṛṣṇa, I'll have to accept everything, I will accept. This is required. Not the position of bhoga-tyāga, but service.

The Nectar of Devotion -- Vrndavana, October 26, 1972:

As Kṛṣṇa has got form, sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha (Bs. 5.1), similarly spirit soul, jīvātmā, being part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa, it has got form. That form is also described in the śāstra. Keśāgra-śata-bhāgasya śatadhā kalpitasya ca, jīva bhāgo sa vijñeyaḥ (CC Madhya 19.140). A rough idea of the form of the living entity has been given in the Padma Purāṇa that one ten thousandth part of the tip of the hair... Now, perhaps we have no instrument how to measure one ten-thousandth part of the tip of the hair. But this is given there. So anyway, because we get information from the Bhagavad-gītā, that this body, material body is, is like a dress. Vāsāṁsi jīrṇāny yathā vihāya. As we give up old dress, garment, similarly, when this body becomes useless, we give up this body and accept another new body. Navāni ghṛṇāti.

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures

Lecture on CC Adi-lila 1.9 -- Mayapur, April 2, 1975:

So the Kāraṇābdhiśāyī Viṣṇu another name is ajāṇḍa aṅghāśrayanda. His whole body is producing universes. Ajāṇḍa-saṅghāśraya. Saṅghāśraya means aggregate, congregation. Just like we have got holes on the body, pores in the body. So we do not know even how many pores are there in my body, but it is a fact. We cannot, even in a localized head, we cannot count how many pores are there from which the hairs are coming. Is it possible to count? And how many pores are there in our body? This is a little body. And just imagine Mahā-Viṣṇu. Therefore His name is Mahā-Viṣṇu. From His pores of the body, the universes are coming.

Lecture on CC Adi-lila 7.80-95 -- San Francisco, February 10, 1966:

Sveda: when actually one comes to the perfectional stage of emotion, there is perspiration, perspiration from the body, sveda. Kampa: there is shaking of the body, like this. Yes. Shaking of the body. Romāñca: the hairs stands on the holes, romāñca. Gadgada: he fails to speak. He cannot express his words exactly. Vaivarṇya: there is sometimes paleness of the body. Unmāda: just like a madman. Viṣāda: he becomes morose, very sorry, viṣāda. Dhairya: and calm and quiet. Then garva: he becomes pride, sometimes just like a chivalrous man, pride, proud. Harṣa: ecstasy. And dainya: and humble, humbleness. So these are the symptoms of perfection. So sometimes they imitate. So imitation is no good. It will come. When you are in perfectional stage, these symptoms will automatically come.

Lecture on CC Adi-lila 7.119 -- Gorakhpur, February 17, 1971:

Kṛṣṇa is infinite, we are infinitesimal. So when there is question of merging into the existence of the Supreme, that means we remain in the effulgence, Brahman effulgence, as the minute particle of Brahman. There is dimension. That is mentioned in the śāstras: keśāgra-śata-bhāgasya śatadhā kalpitasya ca (CC Madhya 19.140). One ten-thousandth part of the upper portion of hair. That minute particle, cetana. So there is... Anantāya kalpite. There are innumerable such particles. That is the formation of nirviśeṣa-brahman.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.66-96 -- New York, November 21, 1966:

It is the system when a sannyāsī, or renounced order of life, is in the village or in the vicinity of a... So it is the Hindu system that somebody will invite. So Tapana Miśra invited him to take, accept prasādam at his place, and Lord Caitanya said that "First of all you get him to a barber and have him cleansed of, of his beard and hairs which has grown for so many days. Let him become a gentleman." The Lord said that "Let him become a gentleman."

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.98-102 -- April 27, 1976, Auckland, New Zealand:

So this is the proposition to the spiritual master, that one must submit that "Actually, I do not know what I am. Am I this body or something else?" I am not this body, that I can understand, because I say, when somebody asks... Even a child, you ask, "My dear child, what is this?" he will say, "It is my finger." He'll never say, "I finger," what to speak of others. If every one of us, we say, "This is my hair, this is my nose," then where is "I"? He doesn't inquire "Where is I?" Then there will be analysis of the body, where is that "I"? Everyone knows "my," but who knows "I"? That is education.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.101-104 -- Bombay, November 3, 1975:

We are part and parcel of God, but we are not as powerful as God. Anyone can understand it very easily. They are claiming to become God. So does he think that he is equal in power with God? No. That is foolishness. Mūḍha. God is one, but we are... We are also eternal, God is also eternal, but we are many. There is no...

keśāgra-śata-bhāgasya
śatadhā kalpitasya ca
jīvaḥ bhāgo sa vijñeyaḥ
sa anantyāya kalpate
(CC Madhya 19.140)

The description of the living being is given in the śāstra that the magnitude... Keśāgra-śata-bhāgasya śatadhā kalpi...: "One ten-thousandth part of the tip of the hair." And anantyāya kalpate: "There is limitless." As in practical experience also, we have this understanding that we require a leader.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.110 -- New York, July 17, 1976:

Everything is perfectly—the flowers, the leaves—perfectly done. Svābhāvikī jñāna-bala-kriyā ca. It doesn't require any research work how this leaf has come out. It is coming out automatically. They cannot understand. They say, "Automatically." No automatically. There is the working of the potency, but it is so perfect that svābhāvikī, as if natural, coming out. Everywhere you'll find, in your body also, potencies. You shave your head, immediately next day again coming out, again coming out. But you do not know. Let the scientist say how it is coming out, his own hair, what to speak of others.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.110 -- New York, July 17, 1976:

You can study Kṛṣṇa's position from the sun. It is stated here that eka-deśa-sthitasyāgner jyotsnā vistāriṇī yathā. So His potencies are working. What is the sun and the sunshine different? The sunshine is combination of illuminating molecules, that's all, but each of them particle. Not that it is homogeneous. Each and every that particle, kana-kana means atomic (indistinct)—they are all individual. Similarly, in the impersonal Brahman effulgence, these living entities are small particles. This smallness is also described in the śāstra: one ten-thousandth part of the tip of the hair, such a small particle. They are congested. That is called Brahman effulgence.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.112 -- Bombay, November 24, 1975:

From śruti we understand that the Supreme Lord is full of potencies. Even we are. We are a small particle of the Supreme Lord; still, we are full of potencies. Just like you shave today, and tomorrow morning, by your own potency, the hairs again grown. We see actually things are happening. How it is happening, that we do not know, even in our body. But it is a fact it is happening. Things are happening. That means due to my potency. As soon as I leave this body there will be no more hair growth. The potency is gone. So as we are a small particle, mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūtaḥ... (BG 15.7). Jīva, the living entity is a very small particle, one ten-thousandth part of the top point of hair. Keśāgra-śata-bhāgasya śatadhā kalpitasya ca (CC Madhya 19.140). So such a small particle, atomic particle of the Supreme Lord, has got so much potencies. We see different varieties of life, different intelligence all over the world. What is that? Potency. So if we have got so much potencies, just imagine what Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Person, has got, potency.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.142 -- New York, November 30, 1966:

Although he determined, "Now I am going to Vṛndāvana," on the way he was again attracted by another woman. So he followed that woman. That woman belonged to a respectable family. So he came, and the woman said to her husband, "Oh, this man is following me. Please ask, 'What is the idea?' " So the husband asked, "My dear sir, you appear to be very nice gentleman, and you belong to very aristocratic family. From your appearances I understand. What do you want? Why you are following my wife?" He said, "Yes, I am following wife because I want to embrace her." "Oh, you want to embrace? Come on. Embrace. Come on. You are welcome. Come on." So the wife also... She (he) ordered, "Oh, here is a guest. He wants to embrace you and kiss you. So please decorate yourself nicely so that he may enjoy." So the wife also followed the instruction of the husband because wife's duty is to follow the instruction. And when Bilvamaṅgala came inside before the woman, he said, "My dear mother, will you kindly give your hairpins?" "Yes. Why?" "I have got some business." Then he took the hairpin and at once pierced his eyes: "Oh, this eye is my enemy." And he became blind. He became blind. Then all of them... "That's all right. Now no more I shall be disturbed."

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.245-255 -- New York, December 16, 1966:

You take a seed, how it develops, a great tree. How much potency is there. So svābhāvikī jñāna-bala-kriyā ca. Everything is being done. I do not know. I claim, "It is my body," but I do not know how even a hair is growing. I do not know how it is replaced. I cut in the morning, and the next day, I see again there is. So these things are going on. Svābhāvikī jñāna-bala-kriyā ca. We have to study God's activity in this way, so many things, nature's study.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.337-353 -- New York, December 25, 1966:

In the Bhāgavata you'll find, svīkāra eva hy udhvāhe: "In the Kali-yuga, marriage will be performed simply by agreement." Just see. Another... Lāvaṇyaṁ keśa-dhāraṇam: "People will think by keeping long hairs they will be very beautiful." It is stated in Bhāgavata. They'll look very beautiful. Lāvaṇyaṁ keśa-dhāraṇam. It is written there if you see. It is not story. Svīkāra eva hy udvāhe. Dāmpatye ratim eva hi: "And husband and wife relation means sex. That's all." If the husband has got sex power, then there will be no divorce. These are all written there. Simply sex life, husband and wife relationship. Simply sex life. Vipratve sūtram eva hi: "And one will be considered a brāhmaṇa simply by this thread." These are all written there. A two-cent-worth thread, you get it..., "Oh, you have got thread. Oh, you are a brāhmaṇa." That's all. This is going on in India.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.385-394 -- New York, January 1, 1967:

So God's creation is wonderful. Nobody can... Everything is unlimited. He's unlimited. His creation is unlimited. His pastimes are unlimited. His forms are unlimited. Everything unlimited. Everything. His incarnations are unlimited. Everything. Just like see, even in your own body, can you count how many hairs are on your body and head? They are unlimited. I am claiming "This is my body," but I do not know how many hairs are there. But you ask Kṛṣṇa, He'll tell you.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 22.11-15 -- New York, January 9, 1967:

You have seen the Devī picture, picture of Goddess Durgā. She has got a..., what is called? Trisura, like this. Trident? Yes. This trident, she has got in her hand a trident. And a asura, a demonic person, is struggling with lion, and the goddess is piercing that trident on the chest of that demon. This figure is there. That is called Durgā. Have you seen that picture? That one lion has attacked that demon, and the lion is the carrier of Devī, Goddess Durgā. She rides on lion. Just like we ride on horse, Devī, she rides on lion. And the lion has attacked that demon. And demon is also very strong, fighting with the lion, and the mother, Goddess Durgā, she has caught the demon by the hair and piercing the trident on the chest, and the lion has attacked. So this is our position. We are thinking like the demon.

Sri Brahma-samhita Lectures

Lecture on Brahma-samhita, Verse 33 -- New York, July 19, 1971:

Kṛṣṇa, being the original person, ādi-puruṣam... Govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ. Ādi means original. So you do not think that he might have become very, very old. Because our material conception... Sometimes we paint picture: "God is the original person. Then He must be very old. He must have grown so much white, gray hairs." No. The Vedic knowledge says, advaitam acyutam anādim ananta-rūpam ādyaṁ purāṇa-puruṣam (Bs. 5.33). The oldest man, but nava-yauvanaṁ ca, always just like a young man, sixteen to twenty years old. That is called nava-yauvana.

Festival Lectures

His Divine Grace Srila Sac-cid-ananda Bhaktivinoda Thakura's Appearance Day, Lecture -- London, September 3, 1971:

So on the trial day, Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, Kedāranātha Datta, when he came to the bench the man was presented, the so-called yogi, and he had big, big hairs. So Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura ordered that "Bring one barber and cut his hair." So no barber dared. The barbers thought, "Oh, he's a Lord Viṣṇu. If I offend, as he's suffering from fever, so I shall also die." So Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura ordered that "Give me the scissor. I'll cut." So he cut his hairs and ordered him to be put into jail for six months, and in the jail that Viṣṇu incarnation managed to take some poison, and he died.

Arrival Addresses and Talks

Arrival Lecture -- Gainesville, July 29, 1971:

If you put your foodstuff on the stomach, then the energy will be distributed to your finger, to your hairs to your nails and everywhere. And if you take foodstuff in the hand and do not put in the stomach, it will be useless waste. So all this humanitarian service has been wasted because there is no Kṛṣṇa consciousness. They're trying so many ways to serve the human society, but they're all being frustrated in useless attempt, because there is no Kṛṣṇa consciousness. And if people are trained to become Kṛṣṇa conscious, then automatically everyone will be happy.

Arrival Address -- Paris, June 8, 1974:

If the soul is important in this body, why there shall not be bigger soul, the Supersoul, in this gigantic body? What is this universal body and this body? The same thing. It is only small, and that is very big. The same material construction. Bhūmir āpo 'nalo vāyuḥ (BG 7.4). This earth, water, air. Just like you have got your bones, the huge earth mountain, that is also another bone of this gigantic body. As you have got your hairs on the body, the millions and millions of trees and plants, they are also the hairs on the gigantic body. So as you have got holes in your body here, there, and the navel, similarly these oceans and seas, they are also different holes. So they are described—it is not my imagination—they are described in the Bhagavad-gī..., Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Second Canto, to conceive the gigantic body.

Arrival -- Chicago, July 3, 1975:

Prabhupāda: What is this? This is airport O'Hare?

Brahmānanda: O'Hare (pronouncing as "hair").

Prabhupāda: Hare (as "hair") it is.

Initiation Lectures

Initiations -- New York, July 22, 1971:

Prabhupāda: Harikeśa. (Harikeśa offers obeisances) Harikeśa means hairs of God. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Initiations -- Sydney, April 2, 1972:

Śyāmasundara: It's Vyāsadeva dāsa.

Devotees: Oooḥ!

Prabhupāda: Vyāsadeva had also long hairs and beard also. (laughter) But he is without beard.

Excerpt from Sannyasa Initiation of Viraha Prakasa Swami -- Mayapur, February 5, 1976:

The Māyāvādī sannyāsīs, who are enamored of the external energy of the Lord, cannot understand the mind of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. To date, all the devotees of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu following in His footsteps accept the sannyāsa order and keep the sacred thread and tuft of unshaved hair. The ekadaṇḍī-sannyāsīs of the Māyāvādī school give up the sacred thread and do not keep any tuft of hair. Therefore they are unable to understand the purport of tridaṇḍa-sannyāsa, and as such, they are not inclined to dedicate their lives to the service of Mukunda. They simply think of merging into the existence of Brahman because of their disgust with material existence.

General Lectures

Lecture -- Montreal, June 26, 1968:

Hṛdaya-granthim means everything is within the heart. If I study, "Oh, what is this attraction?" if I understand how it is simply combination of blood, stool and urine and intestine and muscle and skin and hair and nails, then if I study philosophically, so what is there? Have I got any attraction for all these things? No. So it is all false. Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu said that ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12), that if we clarify our heart, then we become liberated. So this Hare Kṛṣṇa chanting process is clarifying.

Lecture Excerpt -- Montreal, July 20, 1968:

The material nature is exactly like your body. This body is working so nicely because you, the soul, is present within this body. That is a fact. You do not know how your hairs are growing, how your nails are growing. You are claiming, "It is my hair; it is my nail," but can you explain how it is growing? No. Similarly, the nature's work is going on wonderfully. Just like my... That is... So many things are going on wonderfully due to the presence of the spirit soul. Similarly, all this nature's work is going on so wonderfully due to the presence of God, the Supersoul. This is understanding of the material nature.

Lecture -- Seattle, October 9, 1968:

Young man (4): The sādhus in India who have long hair and wander in the woods and stuff, I guess, do they have spiritual teachers? The sādhus in India. The ones who live in the forest and places like that? You know? Wander around...

Prabhupāda: Of course, those who are living in the forest, there is no barber. Naturally they have got long hairs. But why the sādhus in the city imitate them? There is no meaning. If a man is living in the forest, there is no facility of the barber. So he can keep long hairs. Why in the city?

Young man (4): No, I didn't mean the hair. I meant does a sādhu who lives in the woods, does he have a spiritual master or...

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Lecture -- Seattle, October 11, 1968:

Now, how this change of body is being done? That change of body is being done according to your mentality. Just like here you have got different dresses, different features, different modes of life, all these boys and girls and ladies and gentlemen who are sitting. Why? Due to different modes of mind. Somebody likes to keep hair, somebody like to cleanse hair. Why? This difference. Difference due to mind. So according to your mind at the time of your death, the position, the status of your mind will give you a next body. So if your mind is God conscious, then you get your body next like God. And if your mind is dog conscious, then you get your body, next body, a dog. So it is a question of training your mind so that at the point of death if you keep yourself Kṛṣṇa conscious mind, then you get as good a body like Kṛṣṇa. This is the whole philosophy.

Lecture Excerpt -- New York, April 12, 1969:

Your infinitesimal identity is very small. Keśāgra-śata-bhāgasya śatadha kalpitasya ca (CC Madhya 19.140). Just divide the tip of your hair (in) ten thousand parts, and that one part is your identification, spiritual measurement.

Lecture with Allen Ginsberg at Ohio State University -- Columbus, May 12, 1969:

The soul is there, but you cannot see it by material instrument. It is very fine. It is one ten-thousandth part of the tip of your hair. These are explained in the Vedic literature. So how you can find with your material eyes? You cannot see it. And because you cannot see it, you are concluding there is no soul. That is the ignorance. There is. There is soul, and this body has developed on the platform of that soul, and that soul is migrating from one body to another. That is called evolution. And that evolutional process is going on, 8,400,000's of species of life, aquatics, birds, beasts, plants, and so many species of life.

Lecture 'Nobody Wants to Die' -- Boston, May 7, 1968:

If ordinary beauty painted by a, an artist, it takes so much time and labor, do you think that this beauty is done automatically? What is the explanation? This is nonsense, that there is no brain behind it. There is. That is the brain of God. That is explained: na tasya kāryaṁ kāraṇaṁ ca vidyate. Although it is so beautifully done, but He has nothing to do. How? Parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śruyate (Cc. Madhya 13.65, purport). His energy is so powerful that svābhāvikī jñāna-bala-kriyā ca: everything is coming out as natural product, energy. Just like so many things happening in your body. The hair is growing. Can you explain how the hair is growing? You do not know even in your body how things are taking place. But there is energy. It is accepted that there is energy in your body which is helping to grow so many things in your body. So if you have got so much energy that things are taking automatically, just imagine how much energy He has got.

Speech to Maharaja and Maharani and Conversations Before and After -- Indore, December 11, 1970:

Prabhupāda: Bogus humbug things they can present, but there is no clear explanation. Even in our body. Now, these hairs are coming out, and what is the explanation of these rascals? These hairs are coming. You're cutting, and coming. Your energy. You do not know your energy, even, what is that energy by which the hair is coming. It is from your body. That means it is your energy. The energy is within you. You do not know how many hairs are there, although it is put in by your...

Indian man (1): Thousands, thousands of... (laughter)

Prabhupāda: This is... Abodha-jāta. Therefore a living entity is called abodha-jāta, "born ignorant, born rascal, born foolish." Abodha-jāta.

Speech to Maharaja and Maharani and Conversations Before and After -- Indore, December 11, 1970:

Abodha means no knowledge, and jāta means born. By birth he is fool, and he is claiming, "I am God." By birth he's a fool, and he's claiming, "I am God." Just see. This is illusion. This is the māyā. He cannot... He does not know how the hairs are growing, and he is God. Just see. "I am God." This has become a fashion, dangerous fashion. And these Māyāvādī philosophers, daridra-nārāyaṇa, this Nārāyaṇa, that Nārāyaṇa... Because Nārāyaṇa is there, therefore he's Nārāyaṇa. Because you are within your coat, therefore you are coat. This is their argument. Because I am in the room, I am room. Is that very sound argument? Because Nārāyaṇa is there, therefore he is Nārāyaṇa.

Speech to Maharaja and Maharani and Conversations Before and After -- Indore, December 11, 1970:

Prabhupāda: Calcutta, there are many good manufacturers of musical instruments. Bengal is famous for music and hair.

Girl: And hair.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Haṁsadūta: Hair?

Prabhupāda: There is oil in (?). Bengali women, they have got hair like this. My sister had so bunch. (laughter) Black hair, and very long. So Bengal is famous for hair and music.

Lecture at Krsna Niketan -- Gorakhpur, February 16, 1971:

Prabhupāda: So many things are happening in your body. You do not know how it is happening. Therefore it is called prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni (BG 3.27). The nature is doing. You are completely in the hands of the nature. How, after shaving, how your hairs are growing, do you know?

Devotee (1): No.

Prabhupāda: Then? It is completely under the hands of the nature. Similarly, everything is. As you cannot explain, cannot know how the hairs are growing, similarly, you cannot know how you are changing. It is, by nature, it is being done so nicely. Parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate svābhāvikī jñāna-bala... (Cc. Madhya 13.65, purport). It is taking place.

Lecture at Boys' School -- Sydney, May 12, 1971:

I do not know everything of my body. Suppose I am eating, I am eating something. How this eatable substance transforms into vitamin secretion and how it is being distributed all over the body and is supplying the energy? Or take, for example, I have got my hairs, but I do not know how many hairs I have got. Is not that a fact? Can you count your hairs, how many hairs you have got? So, so many things we do not know even of our body, although I am claiming that "This is my body."

Speech at Olympia Theater -- Paris, June 26, 1971, (with translator):

In this Bhagavad-gītā we understand that the living entities, not only human beings, but other than human beings... There are many types of living entities. All of them are parts and parcels of God. The part and parcel of God means... You can understand from your own personal experience. Just like your body but there are many parts and parcels of the body, just like the legs, the hands, the fingers, the hair, so many things. The idea is that the parts and parcels are meant for serving the whole body. Similarly, we living entities, being part and parcel of God, it is our duty to serve Him.

Lecture Excerpt -- London, August 13, 1971:

Anvaya-vyatirekābhyām, directly and indirectly. That is full knowledge. Just like I say "my head" or "my hair," but if I ask you or you ask that "How many hairs are there?" oh, I am ignorant. I do not know. Similarly, we are so imperfect that we may have little knowledge even of our own body. We are eating, but how the eatables are being transformed into secretion, how they are becoming blood, how they are being passed through the heart, and it becomes red, and again diffuse all over the veins, and in this way the body is maintained, we know something, but how the work is going on, how this factory is going on, how the factory, machine, is working, we have very little knowledge. So indirectly we know that "This is my body." "Indirectly" means we have heard, but we have no direct knowledge. But Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme, the original of everything, He knows everything.

Rotary Club Lecture -- Ahmedabad, December 5, 1972:

The soul is there, and the dimension is also there: one ten-thousandth part of the tip of your hair. So you have no eyes to see. But soul is there; that is evident. But as soon as the soul is gone, this body—is beautiful body—is a dead lump of matter only. That distinction is there. Therefore we have to hear from the authority what is that soul. Therefore Kṛṣṇa is describing... First of all, He said that there is soul within this body. Dehino 'smin yathā dehaṁ dehī, deha. Dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanam... (BG 2.13). Because the soul is there, therefore we are changing different types of body.

Lecture on Gurvastakam at Upsala University -- Stockholm, September 9, 1973:

Artificially, you cannot dance. These dances, they are not artificial. They feel some transcendental bliss; therefore they dance. It is not they are dancing dog. No. They dance from the spiritual platform. Vaditra-mādyan manaso rasena. Romāñca-kampāśru-taraṅga-bhājo. And there are sometimes transformation of the body with spiritual symptoms—sometimes crying, sometimes there is, I mean to..., swelling on the end of the hairs. There are so many symptoms. These are later. These are not to be imitated. But when one is spiritually advanced, these symptoms are visible.

Lecture at World Health Organization -- Geneva, June 6, 1974:

From the Padma-Purāṇa, we can understand that the living entities, they're very, very small particles of the supreme spirit soul, or God. Mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūtaḥ (BG 15.7). And their dimension is also mentioned, keśāgra-śata-bhāgasya śatadhā kalpitasya ca: (CC Madhya 19.140) the one ten-thousandth part of the top of the hair. And jīva-bhāgo sa vijñeya sa anantaya kalpate. So the living entities are already ananta, unlimited.

Philosophy Discussions

Philosophy Discussion on Immanuel Kant:

Śyāmasundara: What is this yogic power? What does that mean?

Prabhupāda: That is called laghimā siddhi, aṇimā siddhi, laghimā siddhi. Aṇimā, you become the smallest. The yogis, you pack in a box. I've seen it. Pack them in a box. One Mr. Cakravartī, (laughter) he was packed in... I told you, he was packed in a bag, it was sealed then put in a box. The box was locked, it was sealed, and he came out. I have seen it. That is called aṇimā siddhi. Simple: there must be some hole-however tightly you pack it, there is little hole—and the spirit soul is so little, one ten-thousandth part of the tip of the hair, then comes out...

Śyāmasundara: And then he materializes another body outside.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Philosophy Discussion on Charles Darwin:

Śyāmasundara: Animals, trees, plants, insects, men, he examines all the different varieties. For instance if you put a certain animal in a cold climate, he will develop hair to protect his body against the cold, and he will pass on this characteristic to his sons.

Prabhupāda: So why...? The people in Greenland, do they develop hair?

Śyāmasundara: They don't have so much hair, but they develop very fatty tissues. Their eyes are slitted so there is not so much snow and bright light...

Prabhupāda: Then development of hair is not only the existent; there are other many conditions. You cannot say that development of hair is due to the condition as he says, natural condition.

Philosophy Discussion on Charles Darwin:

Prabhupāda: The question is that this development of body, is there any plan that this body should exist in certain condition of nature, and therefore he must have these equipments, either you say, tissues or veins or hair? Who has made these arrangements? That is the question.

Philosophy Discussion on Charles Darwin:

Atreya Ṛṣi: Can the scientists control that, the type of genes, the kinds of body, the child will get? The theory is...

Prabhupāda: Not theory... Just like we give dimension of the soul, so that statement is given by some man. Just like one ten-thousandth part of the tip of the hair, we get information from the Purāṇas. So this statement is also given by a man, but he is not ordinary. He is not ordinary. So any extraordinary man can give it.

Śyāmasundara: These genes are visible through a microscope, so they are not...

Prabhupāda: This is also visible. When I say that one ten-thousandth part of the hair, it is visible. Otherwise how I say? But it may not be visible to you.

Philosophy Discussion on Henri Bergson:

Śyāmasundara: His conception of the soul, which he calls elan vital in French language, means the vital impulse.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Vital..., this is living force, vital force. (indistinct), it is never addressed. God has (indistinct) for the mind, for the intelligence, for the body, God has (indistinct).

Śyāmasundara: Is it (indistinct) in the same quantity in every body, in every living body?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes. Same quantity. The same measurement: one ten-thousandth part of the tip of the hair.

Philosophy Discussion on William James:

Prabhupāda: In the Kali-yuga, in this age, people will think by keeping their long hair he has become beautiful. Now, then, see all the hippies. That is written in the Bhāgavatam in India. How it is happening in Europe? Now the Indians also are imitating. So five thousand years before, this was written, lāvaṇyaṁ keśa-dhāraṇam.

Philosophy Discussion on Bertrand Russell:

Prabhupāda: I say anti-matter is spirit. That spirit soul is very small, keśāgra-śata-bhāgasya: (CC Madhya 19.140) the tip of the hair divided into ten thousand parts. So it is unimaginable by the modern scientist. Therefore the ultimate smallest part is the spirit soul, spark, part and parcel of the Supreme Spirit.

Philosophy Discussion on Rene Descartes:

Prabhupāda: Without soul being present within the womb of the woman there is no pregnancy, there is no development of the matter. We can see the same thing, that the child is developing or changing the body because the soul is there. This is reasoning. Where is the difficulty? So the philosophy, first of all find out what is that external thing which is the living force. By analyzing this material body we don't find any symptom of life either from breathing or from blood or from (indistinct). Therefore something extra. Now you find out what is that extra. That extra you will find out if you come to the right platform—that it is soul, jīvātmā. And on the basis of jīvātmā, that is very minute. If you take authority of the Vedic śās..., very, very minute, one ten-thousandth part of the top of the hair, a very small particle that we cannot find it where it is in the body. It is very small. So with your material eyes and material instruments it can not be found. We are missing. But this thing is there, we get information from the śāstra. Therefore the life is going on, it is so powerful. Just like the sun is ninety-three million miles away, but it is keeping the whole universe illuminated. Similarly, although the soul is very, very small particle, it is keeping this body alive, fresh. So by material analysis you cannot find out, because it is so small you cannot see that. But it is to be accepted that because that small particle is there, this body has developed. So the conclusion is that matter comes on account of soul, not that combination of matter produces soul.

Page Title:Hair (Other Lectures)
Compiler:Rishab, Priya
Created:13 of Jan, 2011
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=49, Con=0, Let=0
No. of Quotes:49