A child may think that "How this motor car is running without the help of any horse or any pulling agent?" But a sane man or an elderly person, he knows that in spite of all engineering arrangements in the motor car, without the driver it cannot move. That engineering arrangement of a motor car, or in electric powerhouse... Now at the present moment it is the day of machinery, but we should always know that behind the machinery, behind the wonderful working of the machinery, there is a driver. So the Supreme Lord is the driver, adhyakṣa. He is the Supreme Personality under whose direction everything is working.
Machine (Lectures, BG)
Lectures
Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures
Introduction to Gitopanisad (Earliest Recording of Srila Prabhupada in the Bhaktivedanta Archives):
And the living entities, being part and parcel of the Supreme Lord, he's not actually the creator or the enjoyer, but he's a cooperator. Just like the whole machine. The part of the machine is the cooperator, is the cooperator. Or if we can study just the constitution of our body.
Lecture on BG 1.1 -- London, July 7, 1973:
Kim akurvata sañjaya (BG 1.1). He was asking his secretary. He was blind man. He was always conducted by his secretary Sañjaya, a very faithful secretary. And he is explaining the Bhagavad-gītā by experiencing, by television within the heart. That art is not yet developed. You have got television through machine, but there is another television—you can see within your heart everything, what is going on outside.
Lecture on BG 1.24-25 -- London, July 20, 1973:
I understand that you have got intelligence, or everyone knows we have got mind, but we cannot see. This is subtle. They are also matter, subtle matter. So the television is a machine made of gross matter, but there is possibility of making another machine of subtle matter. There is possibility. Because matter, they are also matter. That subtle matter machine is not yet discovered.
Lecture on BG 1.24-25 -- London, July 20, 1973:
But actually there is the planet where God lives, Kṛṣṇa lives. But you have got your machine, aeroplane, sputnik. You can reach there, but you cannot reach even the highest planet, even on this material planet, material universe. Everyone sees. We see the stars or planets. Now you have got the machine; you go there. No. You cannot go.
Lecture on BG 1.30 -- London, July 23, 1973:
. Just like a ḍheṅki, you do not understand. The husking machine. Say, a typewriter. So if you send the typewriter to the heaven, what does it mean? It is to be worked as typewriter. Does it mean because it has gone to heaven, the work has changed? No. The work will continue.
Lecture on BG 1.45-46 -- London, August 1, 1973:
So pratikāram and apratikāram. Whatever we have manufactured, pratikāram, counteraction, that will be also failure if Kṛṣṇa does not sanction it. That is realized by Prahlāda Mahārāja. He says "My dear Lord," Hiraṇyakaśipu, that "people have manufactured so many pratikāram, counteraction." But tanu-bhṛtām, "Those who have accepted this material body, they are simply manufacturing things to counteract dangers. But even though they have all this counteracting machine or counteracting agents, still, without Your sanction, this counteracting machine or agent will not be fruitful."
Lecture on BG 2.1-11 -- Johannesburg, October 17, 1975:
Yantra: it is a machine. This machine has been given by Kṛṣṇa to me because I desired that "If I get a machine like a human body, then I can enjoy like this." So Kṛṣṇa fulfills your desire: "All right." And if I think, "If I get a machine in which I can directly suck blood of other animal," "All right," Kṛṣṇa says, "you take the machine of a tiger's body and use it." So this is going on. Therefore His name is Hṛṣīkeśa.
Lecture on BG 2.1-11 -- Johannesburg, October 17, 1975:
And when we understand properly that "I am not the proprietor of this body. Kṛṣṇa is the proprietor of the body. I wanted a certain type of body to use it for my sense gratification. He has given it and I am not happy. Therefore I shall learn how to use this machine for the proprietor," this is called bhakti. Hṛṣīkeṇa hṛṣīkeśa-sevanaṁ bhaktir ucyate (CC Madhya 19.170). Because Kṛṣṇa is the proprietor of the senses—He is the proprietor of this body—so when this body will be utilized for Kṛṣṇa's service, that is our perfection of life.
Lecture on BG 2.1-11 -- Johannesburg, October 17, 1975:
So bhakti means, when things are used properly, that is called bhakti. Now we are thinking that this machine, this body, "I am born in India, so it is Indian machine. It should be utilized for India's profit." Another person is thinking, "This machine, it is gotten from America, so it should be used for America." That is going on in the name of nationality or communism, or society or friendship and this and so on.
Lecture on BG 2.1-11 -- Johannesburg, October 17, 1975:
We have invented so many "isms," but they are all misuse because actually the machine does not belong to the American or the Indian or the African. The machine belongs to Kṛṣṇa. So this is misuse. So when we understand that we are misusing this machine improperly, that is called pure machine. That is called pure understanding, or Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Sarvopādhi-vinirmuktam (CC Madhya 19.170). "I am not American. I am not Indian. I am not brāhmaṇa. I am not kṣatriya. I am not human being." Ahaṁ brahmāsmi: "I am Brahman."
Lecture on BG 2.1-11 -- Johannesburg, October 17, 1975:
Ahaṁ brahmāsmi: "I am Brahman." I am not this machine. I am put into this machine, but because the machine is gotten either from America or from India or from heaven or from hell, I am designating this machine as American machine or Indian machine. Actually this machine belongs to Kṛṣṇa, and it should be used for Kṛṣṇa. Therefore the definition of bhakti means hṛṣīkeṇa hṛṣīkeśa-sevanaṁ bhaktir ucyate (CC Madhya 19.170). This is bhakti.
Lecture on BG 2.7 -- London, August 7, 1973:
You can study God's quality by studying your quality, or anyone's quality. Simply the difference is quantity's different. I have got some quality, some productive capacity. We also produce, every individual soul is producing something. But his production cannot be compared with production of God. That is the difference. We are producing one flying machine. We are taking very much pride that: "Now we have discovered the sputnik. It is going to the moon planet." But that is not perfect. It is coming back.
Lecture on BG 2.11 -- Mauritius, October 1, 1975:
So as a layman or as child cannot understand how the red light and blue light, green light, is working... He sees simply, he thinks automatically it is being done. That is foolishness. It is not being automatically done. There is machine. There is manipulator behind this red light. So this is intelligence. Anyone who is concluding that "On the street the red light and green light is working automatically; there is no brain behind it," he's a rascal.
Lecture on BG 2.11 -- Rotary Club Address -- Hotel Imperial, Delhi, March 25, 1976:
What is this breathing? It is air only. Now, when the breathing is stopped, a man is dead. Now, you are so much advanced in science. Why don't you replace this breathing? It is nothing but air. So you can manufacture some machine working in electric battery and put some air and fix up, and that same air will come: "Woosh, woosh, woosh, woosh. "Will that give you life? No.
Lecture on BG 2.13 -- Pittsburgh, September 8, 1972:
The soul is there, but it is so small that it is not possible to see by your these blunt eyes. Any microscope or any machine, because it is stated it is one ten-thousandth part of the top of the tip of the hair. So there is no machine. You cannot see. But it is there. Otherwise, how we can find distinction between the dead body and the living body?
Lecture on BG 2.13 -- Manila, October 12, 1972:
Ūrdhvaṁ gacchanti sattva-sthā, those who are situated in brahminical qualification, goodness, modes of goodness, they are promoted to the higher planetary system. You are, at the modern times, they are trying to go to the higher planetary system by the machine. It is not possible. But if you place yourself in the modes of goodness, you can go to any higher planetary system up to Brahmaloka.
Lecture on BG 2.13 -- Manila, October 12, 1972:
The dead matter has no value. It is valuable so long we utilize it in different purposes. Otherwise, it has no value. A nice motorcar with nice machine, first class, it has value so long it is driven by a living entity. Otherwise, who cares for it? Nobody cares for it. Jīva-bhūtāṁ mahā-bāho yayedam (BG 7.5). Therefore matter, however valuable it may be, it is inferior to the spirit. The spirit is superior energy of God. Matter is inferior energy of God.
Lecture on BG 2.13 -- Hyderabad, November 18, 1972:
Actually, you are not master. How we can become master? Because we may be very scientifically advanced. We may manufacture very wonderful machine and weapon, but after all, we are subjected to the rules of māyā: janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). You cannot get out of these four principles of māyā's machinery janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi. Therefore the sane man, who is actually learned, he surrenders to Kṛṣṇa.
Lecture on BG 2.13 -- Hyderabad, November 18, 1972:
You are also qualitatively one with God. You have got creative power. Just like we are creating this flying machine, sputniks. That is also flying in the sky, and the Paramātmā has created the millions of planets floating in the sky. So you have got the creative power, but you cannot create like that, Paramātmā. That is the difference.
Lecture on BG 2.13 -- Public Lecture With German Translation Throughout -- Hamburg, September 10, 1969:
Even scientists have proved this consciousness is there in the tree also. If you cut the tree, there is sensation, feeling some pain, and this is recorded in the machine. So here it is hinted that this consciousness is spread all over the body, that is eternal. The body is not eternal. As soon as the consciousness is gone, the body is dead. Therefore we should take care of the thing which is cons... That is the soul. On account of presence of the soul, there is consciousness.
Lecture on BG 2.15 -- London, August 21, 1973:
In the winter we aspire, "If it would have been warmer." That means you want summer. And again summer you'll require, you aspire had it been, I mean to say, cooler. You apply cooling machine. So this is our struggle. In the summer, we apply cooling machine, and in the winter, we apply heating machine. So undisturbed happiness, either in coolness or warmth, you cannot have. This is not possible.
Lecture on BG 2.15 -- London, August 21, 1973:
But they do not think that "Why these material disturbances are disturbing me? I do not want them." That question do not come... They simply struggle how to counteract it. Struggling like fool. But here is the solution. Here is the solution. The solution is that don't be disturbed with this cooling and heating machine. Be pleased in whatever condition Kṛṣṇa has placed you. Of course, there is no harm if you can put yourself in a comfortable... But simply for putting yourself in comfortable situation, don't forget Kṛṣṇa. That is our aim.
Lecture on BG 2.15 -- Mexico, February 15, 1975:
The Lord is situated in my heart and in your heart, and He is working... He's staying. He hasn't got to work. He's staying to see my activities. And He also understands what is my desire. Accordingly, He offers a machine. This is a machine. It is said, yantrārūḍhāni māyayā (BG 18.61). Yantra means machine. So just like in our car we can travel here and there, similarly, on this machine of body we can go anywhere.
Lecture on BG 2.17 -- Hyderabad, November 22, 1972:
Just like our motorcar is being driven. So when the petrol is finished, matter... Because motorcar running means combination of matter—some machine, made of matter, and some oil, acting—so it is running. Of course, the driver is there. But foolish persons, they do not understand, simply combination of matter will not act. There must be a driver, a living person. Then the motorcar will go.
Lecture on BG 2.17 -- (with Spanish translator) -- Mexico, February 17, 1975:
The modern education, they are simply giving lessons on some art, generally known as technology. So by that advancement of knowledge we can construct high skyscraper building, nice motorcar, nice airplane, nice machine. That is art. But we do not know what is going to happen next life, my soul. That we do not.
Lecture on BG 2.21-22 -- London, August 26, 1973:
Just like the father gives a toy, the child wants a motorcar. "All right, take a toy motorcar." He wants a engine, he wants to become a railway man. Now these kinds of toys were(?) there. Similarly Kṛṣṇa is supplying these toy bodies Yantra, yantra means machine. This is a machine. Everyone understands this is a machine. But who has supplied the machine? The machine is supplied by nature, material ingredients, but it is prepared under the order of Kṛṣṇa. Mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram (BG 9.10). "Prakṛti, nature, is preparing all these things under My direction."
Lecture on BG 2.22 -- Hyderabad, November 26, 1972:
They are finding out the brain substance, how it is working. But the brain substance is already there in the dead body. Why don't you work with that? No. That is not fact. The fact is the brain substance is a machine, but the man, or the person, is within the body. He's working with the brain substance. Just like you have got a nice machine. But it must be worked by somebody. At the present moment, the computer is a very subtle machine. But this computer cannot work without an experienced mechanic who pushes the button and it works. These people, they cannot understand that without spiritual touch, matter cannot work.
Lecture on BG 2.23 -- Hyderabad, November 27, 1972:
Now in the material world we find that anything, however hard it is... Just like stone or iron, it can be cut into pieces. There is separated machine or instrument. It can be cut... Anything can be cut into pieces. And anything can be melted also. It requires a different type of temperature only, but everything can be burned and melted.
Lecture on BG 2.25 -- London, August 28, 1973:
They are trying to travel in the space by machine. There is no necessity of machine. Yantrārūḍhāni māyayā (BG 18.61). The machine is made of māyā. But you have got your own power. That is very speedy. So it is being checked. Therefore one should be very much careful how to get the soul out of this encagement of this material body.
Lecture on BG 2.30 -- London, August 31, 1973:
A big 747 airplane taking five hundred, six hundred passengers is floating, flying in the sky without any difficulty. Why? Because the pilot is there. Not the machine. Don't think that it is gigantic machine; therefore it is flying. No. The pilot is there. Machine is there also, but the floating is depending not on the mechanical arrangement, but on the pilot. Is there any disagreement? If the pilot is not there, the whole machine immediately will fall down. Immediately.
Lecture on BG 2.32 -- London, September 2, 1973:
Otherwise, if they are unemployed, idle brain, then idle brain will be devil's workshop. That is happening. Because everyone is not employed, they have discovered machine, and the machine is working hundred men's work. So actually, a hundred men are unemployed. So the machine has not improved the situation. It has improved the pocket of the capitalist. But it has not improved the condition of the mass of people. No. They are unemployed. Therefore, in the Western countries, because the machine and industry, therefore, now they are producing from the university hippies. Unemployed.
Lecture on BG Lecture Excerpts 2.44-45, 2.58 -- New York, March 25, 1966:
Now, if you think this ingredient has been decomposed or deteriorated, then replace that ingredient. Just like in a machine. In a machine some part is wear and tear. It is not working, stopped. You can replace that part into new part, and the machine will work. But this is not like that. If you think that something has deteriorated in this body, therefore it has become dead. Say, for example, that they say generally, due to heart failure.
Lecture on BG 2.46-47 -- New York, March 28, 1966:
But nobody could produce a single living being in the laboratory, scientific laboratory. That is not possible. You could produce great, complicated machinery, but you cannot produce the machine driver. The machine can be produced, but machine driver cannot be produced. And without machine driver, all machines are useless. All machines are useless. A child may see in the street, oh, how a nice motorcar is passing with so much speed. He is struck with wonder that "Without any horse how the motorcar is going on?" I mean those who have no experience how machine works.
Lecture on BG 2.46-47 -- New York, March 28, 1966:
So somebody suggested that "There must be horse within the engine. Otherwise it cannot go." Because they have got experience that without horse nothing can be pulled on. It is horseless, so the hypothesis was that "There must be horses within the engine. Otherwise it cannot go." So similarly, the machine, the machine, however wonderful it may be, so if not horse, at least if there is no driver it cannot move. It cannot move.
Lecture on BG 2.49-51 -- New York, April 5, 1966:
Yogaḥ karmasu kauśalam. Kauśalam means expert trick, expert trick. Just like there are two men working. One man is very expert; another man is not so expert. Even in machinery. There is something wrong in the machine. The, the man who is not very expert, he's trying whole day-night, how to adjust it, but the expert comes and at once sees what is the defect, and he joins one wire, this way and that way, and machine becomes start. Hrzum, hrzum, hrzum, hrzum, hrzum, hrzum. You see?
Lecture on BG 2.51-55 -- New York, April 12, 1966:
Now, at the present moment, I am bounded by one kind of activities, and I am producing another kind of activities. Just like in the cinematographic spool, there are hundreds and thousands of pictures. One picture passed, another picture present, and another picture is ahead. The whole picture, when put into the machine, it represents some activity. So we are bound up by nature's law in such a way... Why nature's law? Even in your state laws, we are bound up by so many laws.
Lecture on BG 2.62-72 -- Los Angeles, December 19, 1968:
Just like the sputnik men, they go sometime. People think, "Oh, where he has gone, so high, so high." But he has not gone anywhere. He's coming down again. So it is false clapping, "Oh, he has gone so high, so high." What is the use of going so high? You are coming down next moment. Because you have no power to enter into another planet. So what your machine, this sputnik or these planes, will help you? You have to come down again. Rather, you shall fall down in some Atlantic Ocean, or Pacific Ocean, and somebody will go and pick you up.
Lecture on BG 3.8-13 -- New York, May 20, 1966:
You cannot manufacture grain in your factory. You have manufactured or set up so many factories for manufacturing tools, machinery, motor cars, and so many other things for your comfort. But there is not a single factory in the whole world which can manufacture wheats, rice, grains, or vegetables, or something like that.
Lecture on BG 3.11-19 -- Los Angeles, December 27, 1968:
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "Bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasām (BG 5.29). Therefore ultimate satisfaction of the Lord is the chief purpose of all yajñas. When these sacrifices are perfectly performed, naturally the demigods in charge of the different departments of supply are pleased and there is no scarcity in the flow of natural products."
Prabhupāda: Yes. Because after all, however tractor, machine, or farm arrangement you may make, unless there is supply of heat and water, it is all useless. You cannot produce grains just like wheat or rice or pulses(?) in your factory or by your will, defying the nature's law. Oh, that you cannot do. Real, your life is in the hands of the demigods. If they stop supply, sunshine, if they stop supply, water supply, how you can produce? Therefore you have to satisfy them. People have practically forgotten their duty.
Lecture on BG 3.13-16 -- New York, May 23, 1966:
Now, you are eating. You do not know how your foodstuff is going to the stomach, how it is being transformed into different kinds of secretion, how it is being transferred from the stomach to the heart, how that secretion becoming red, and that red blood is again circulated from the brain to the toe. These nice machinery work is going on within your body. This physiological condition is present in your body. You are taking your foodstuff.
Lecture on BG 3.27 -- Melbourne, June 27, 1974:
Just like a child may ask his father that "What is this?" because he is astonished that the sound is very loud. So the child may not know, so inquires from the father, "Father, what is this? So father says, "My dear child, this is microphone. And when you speak through this machine, your sound becomes louder." So the child takes the knowledge from the father, and if he repeats or he understands firmly, "My father has said. It is perfectly right," then his knowledge is perfect. The child may be imperfect.
Lecture on BG 3.27 -- Melbourne, June 27, 1974:
Just like we see through the telescope and we come under certain conclusion, but the fact is that I am the same person seeing through the telescope, and telescope is also manufactured by me or by you. So machine is imperfect and my seeing power is also imperfect. Then how you can have perfect knowledge? The machine is created by a person who has got imperfect knowledge, and the seer is also a person; he is also imperfect. The imperfect person is seeing through the imperfect machine. Then how we can conclude perfect knowledge? This is not possible.
Lecture on BG 3.27 -- Madras, January 1, 1976:
By force you cannot go even any other parts of the world here. If you want to go to America you have to take passport, visa, and so many things. And you'll be allowed to go to the moon planet without any visa or passport? How it is possible? It is common sense. They are so fools that some rascal will take some machine and go there? That is not possible. So we have to prepare.
Lecture on BG 4.2 -- Bombay, March 22, 1974:
A child sees: he sees that it is automatically going, without any horse. He's amazed. But one who can see, he knows that there is machine, there is brain. So this is our position. Even to understand material things we are not perfect. Our senses are not perfect. How we can understand God? That is not possible, because we have got defects. Our senses are not perfect: I cannot see perfectly. I cannot smell perfectly. I cannot touch perfectly. I cannot hear perfectly. So many defects.
Lecture on BG 4.6-8 -- New York, July 20, 1966:
Just like this tape recorder... There was some difficulty in running on. So as soon as some superior nature, some living entity comes and touches it, it goes on. Although the machine is all right, so unless there is touch of the superior nature, it cannot work. You have manufactured many wonderful machines. You have manufactured the sputnik, flying in the outer space, but do you know that, in spite of all wonderful mechanical arrangement of sputnik or any machine, can it go on without any touch of a man? No.
Lecture on BG 4.6-8 -- New York, July 20, 1966:
Unless the man in the laboratory touches the switch of electronic machine, oh, the sputnik cannot fly in the space. That is not possible. Therefore however wonderful may be the sputnik machine, unless there is touch of the living force, it cannot go on. That is the distinction between superior nature and the inferior nature. You can understand.
Lecture on BG 4.6-8 -- New York, July 20, 1966:
Just like the, in a machine, you'll find, a big machine, there are thousands of parts in the machine, but these small parts, they are all giving service to the whole machine. Just like your body. Your body is a machine. So you have got your finger. Now, what is the, what is the function of the finger? What is the religion of the finger? The religion of the finger is to give service to the body. Just like I am giving service this way, this way, and serve this way.
Lecture on BG 4.6-8 -- New York, July 20, 1966:
Student: I suspect you mean this is how the machine works. Is there any reason why it works that way, or is it just that way?
Prabhupāda: Reason... Of course, if you say, "What is the reason why the water is liquid?" it is very difficult to answer. "Why water is liquid? What is the reason?" if you ask like that, it is very difficult to answer why water is liquid, why fire is hot. This is the natural sequence.
Lecture on BG 4.8 -- Montreal, June 14, 1968:
You just try to understand your own body. You are eating, it is going to the stomach, and it is transforming into different secretions. Then it is pumped up to the heart. And in the heart it becomes reddish blood, and the blood is transfused or transported to different parts of the body through the veins. There is a big mechanical arrangement undoubtedly. Every scientist or every sane man will admit. But it is just like a machine. It is just like a machine. Any machine you take, motor car, typewriting, whatever you have got experience... There are many in your country; it is machine country.
Lecture on BG 4.8 -- Montreal, June 14, 1968:
So the constructor, construction of the machine may be very complicated, wonderful, very nice, everything is all right, but a living entity required to pull on the button. Without pulling on the button, however nice arrangement may be in the machine, it cannot work. That is our experience. We cannot deny it. The wonderful machine, working... Now, business machine, there are so many wonderful machine. They are working also. Sometimes calculating brain is required; electrical brain is there. Everything is all right.
Lecture on BG 4.8 -- Montreal, June 14, 1968:
But how you can deny the living force behind this gigantic, mechanical arrangement? Call it material world, material machine, or whatever you may call. How you can deny? At least from your practical experience you cannot deny. You may put some jugglery of words, but the actual fact is this.
Lecture on BG 4.10 Festival at Maison de Faubourg -- Geneva, May 31, 1974:
The material nature is inferior because the superior nature living entity controls over it. We have got experience. Just like a big machine, computer, or any other machine, it is combination of matter, but it cannot work independently until and unless there is touch of the spiritual nature, a human being.
Lecture on BG 4.10 -- Calcutta, September 23, 1974:
We are not dying. So far we are, living entities are concerned, we are not dying. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). We do not die. This is a disease, that we accept a foreign body, material body. And the foreign body is a machine. Just like you have got a car. You can ride on, drive on the car so long the machine is working. But as soon as the machine does not work, you have to change your car.
Lecture on BG 4.10 -- Calcutta, September 23, 1974:
Knowledge, nowadays they are fond of the technical knowledge, but try to understand what is the technical knowledge. In Boston I was invited by the Massachusetts Technical Institute. So I asked them, all the students, that "What has, what is that technology that when this machine stops to work, what technology you have got to get this machine again working? Have you got any department?" So they could not answer that, but they were very much attracted.
Lecture on BG 4.11 -- New York, July 27, 1966:
Just like we are seeing here a thing, say, suppose a motor car. A layman is seeing, and another mechanic who knows how the motor car is running, what are the machinery, how it is fitted, he is also seeing. So this layman seeing and the expert seeing is different. The expert mechanic, he can see the car, who has made it, who is the maker and how it is running, and so many things he can see.
Lecture on BG 4.12 -- Vrndavana, August 4, 1974:
It is naturally happening. God's, I mean to say, machine is so perfect that it is automatically taking place. Parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate (Cc. Madhya 13.65, purport). Śakti. God's energy, Kṛṣṇa's energy, is so perfect that it is automatically being done.
Lecture on BG 4.12 -- Vrndavana, August 4, 1974:
We have got some experience nowadays. The pilot is sitting in front of the airplane, and there are very fine electronic machine, and he's pushing one button. Immediately the wings is working, and it is going down, it is, it is very, mean, a delicate position in the air. A little mistake in the pushing of the button, the whole plane may be crashed.
Lecture on BG 4.12 -- Vrndavana, August 4, 1974:
But at the same time, we should appreciate that how much nice machinery are there which is conducting the whole cosmic activities. So that is stated in the Vedas, that parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate, svābhāvikī jñāna-bala-kriyā ca. Kṛṣṇa's knowledge is so perfect.
Lecture on BG 4.12 -- Vrndavana, August 4, 1974:
Any scientist can understand that no machine, however nicely made, finely made, without pushing the button, it cannot work. So the huge machinery of the cosmic manifestation, which is working so nicely and perfect, perfectly... Our Dr. Svarūpa Dāmodara has mentioned in his book very nicely. So... There must be some brain. All big, big scientists... Even Professor Einstein, he also admitted. So there is brain. That brain is Kṛṣṇa.
Lecture on BG 4.12-13 -- New York, July 29, 1966:
Karma-jā means those who are acting here on the line of fruitive activities. Suppose... You have experienced that there are so many political leaders. They follow some particular leader, and they capture the governmental machinery, but after some time they are taken away from the scene.
Lecture on BG 4.13 -- Bombay, April 2, 1974:
Therefore it is very essential to understand this verse. Cātur-varṇyam, train a class of men. Everyone required. There is intelligent class of men, but there brain is being misused, and intelligent man is being taught technology, how to manufacture machine. This is śūdra's business. This is śūdra's business. Misuse, brain misuse. There must be university where brain is properly utilized.
Lecture on BG 4.13-14 -- New York, August 1, 1966:
Just like I am speaking here. This vibration is being recorded all over the universe, this sound vibration. You know the radio message, how it is transmitted in the modern world. Similarly, as I am speaking, so whatever I am doing, that is immediately recorded and there will be some reaction. Just like the sound vibration, it reacts who has got some radio machine, there is reacting, similarly, every, any action, either good action or bad action, it will have reaction. That is the law of nature. You cannot be free from the reaction of my action.
Lecture on BG 4.14 -- Bombay, April 3, 1974:
His energies are multi. Svābhāvikī jñāna-bala-kriyā ca. It is multi-energies working so nicely that we are seeing that it is automatically being (done). Not automatically. Mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram (BG 9.10), under His direction. But the machine, but the energy is so subtle, it appears like "Oh, it is has become automatically." But it is not being automatically. There is superintendence. But parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate svābhāvikī jñāna-bala-kriyā ca.
Lecture on BG 4.19-25 -- Los Angeles, January 9, 1969:
Just like these foolish men, they are going very high on sputniks and other machine but they cannot find out the shelter and come back. You see. But they are thinking, "Oh, we are so much advanced in science. We go so high." You go high, what is your result? You come back again. They will be puffed up. "Yes, it will be perfect in so many years, in this way and that way." They will never accept defeat. But actually you see they go and come back, that's all.
Lecture on BG 4.20-24 -- New York, August 9, 1966:
Now, everyone can understand what is the duty of the fragment to the whole, fragment to the whole, that the Kṛṣṇa is the whole, whole machine. Suppose... In this mechanical world we can understand that the whole machine is there, but there is a small screw which is fragment of that machine. So that screw should be properly adjusted in the machine and it will help machine working nicely. Similarly, we are all different fragments of the Supreme, Kṛṣṇa, and if we dovetail ourself in the work of Kṛṣṇa that is the highest yajña. That is the performance of yajña.
Lecture on BG 4.23 -- Bombay, April 12, 1974:
And aiśvarya. Janma-aiśvarya-śruta, education. Now they are advanced education. By scientific advancement, they are trying to go to the moon planet. Not only that. Many machine up to date they have discovered, using.... There is very big company IBM. Machine, business machine, IBM. International Business Machine. You know everything.
Lecture on BG 4.25 -- Bombay, April 14, 1974:
People generally understand that electricity is coming from the powerhouse. But the powerhouse is maintained by the resident engineer, a person. That is real understanding. Or just like this airplane is flying in the sky. A child may see what a wonderful machine is flying in the sky. He does know the importance of the pilot. The big gigantic airship can fly in the sky so long the powerful, or one who knows how to conduct the power, pushing the button. By pushing one button, the plane goes high, and pushing another button, it comes down. It is not automatically. Any machine you take. Nowadays wonderful machine, computer. That is also handled by an expert. Any machine you take, without an expert technologist, it cannot work.
Lecture on BG 5.17-25 -- Los Angeles, February 8, 1969:
Some philosophers, they are meditating to the voidness, that "These things are all nonsense. Voidness is best." This is frustration. But we know that everything belongs to Kṛṣṇa and it can be used for Kṛṣṇa. Why void? Why false? Reality. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness, to accept everything in reality, not false. This tape recorder machine, it is material. The Māyāvāda philosophers, they will say it is false. We say,"It is not false. It is temporary, but it can be used for Kṛṣṇa." That is the best use of a bad bargain.
Lecture on BG 6.1 -- Los Angeles, February 13, 1969:
Pleasure is the ultimate goal. But you do not know where is the pleasure. that is illusion. Real pleasure is in the transcendental form of Kṛṣṇa. You'll find Kṛṣṇa always jolly. There's so many pictures you see. And if we join, you become jolly. There's so many pictures you see. And if we join, you become jolly, that's all. Have you seen any picture Kṛṣṇa is working with machine? (laughter) Huge machine? Or have you seen any picture He is smoking? (laughter) By nature, pleasure, you see? Pleasure.
Lecture on BG 6.2-5 -- Los Angeles, February 14, 1969:
. A person is said to have attained to yoga, that means, yoga means connection. Just like, the same example. Suppose this finger was out of my body. Or don't take this finger, take any machine part. It is out of the machine, lying idle. And as soon as you join with the machine, it works with different functions. Cutacut, cutacut, cutacut, it works. That is yoga. It has been joined. Similarly, we are now differentiated.
Lecture on BG 6.13-15 -- Los Angeles, February 16, 1969:
Now Kṛṣṇa describes, "My abode, how it is. In that sky, where My abode is there, there is no necessity of sunlight, there is no necessity of moonlight, there is no necessity of electricity." Now you cannot find such abode within this universe. You travel with your sputnik or any machine, you find out some place where there is no sunlight, there is no moonshine.
Lecture on BG 6.25-29 -- Los Angeles, February 18, 1969:
Then I require some sex. If I eat more, if I use my tongue unnecessarily, if I allow my mind to do anything and everything, then I cannot check my genital also. There will be sex urge which I cannot check. In this way there are so many pushing. Rūpa Gosvāmī says one who has control over all this pushing machine, he can become spiritual master. Not that spiritual master is manufactured. One has to learn this. How to check the pushing of these things.
Lecture on BG 6.46-47 -- Los Angeles, February 21, 1969:
Householder can simply have sex life to beget nice child, that's all, no more. That is householder life; completely controlled. Householder does not mean whenever he has got this machine and he can use it. No. Householder, husband and wife, both Kṛṣṇa conscious, engaged in Kṛṣṇa conscious business, but when they require a child, Kṛṣṇa conscious, that's all. That is also voluntary contraceptive method.
Lecture on BG 6.46-47 -- Los Angeles, February 21, 1969:
Everything is complete. Your foodstuff is complete, your arrangement is complete, your human body is complete. Just you try to utilize it and you become completely liberated from this all pangs of life. Śabda. The Vedānta-sūtra, simply by sound vibration one can get liberation. So this śabda, śabda means sound. Śabda. You see? So the machine is already with you, everyone. Just utilize it. this simple method. Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and hear.
Lecture on BG 7.1 -- San Francisco, March 26, 1968:
Just like we have got now mechanical arrangement, similarly, at that time, maybe the same arrangement, but there was no machine. Still, the secretary of Dhṛtarāṣṭra could see what was going on in the battlefield, and he was just narrating to Mahārāja Dhṛtarāṣṭra, who was blind.
Lecture on BG 7.1 -- Bombay, January 13, 1973:
So unless the soul is there... There are so many instances. A very nice, big machine, aeroplane, 747, but if there is no pilot, who will drive it? The machine is worthless unless there is the pilot. Similarly this is also machine, this body.
Lecture on BG 7.1 -- London, March 9, 1975:
So karaṇa, these are imperfect. I am catching with my hand, but if the hand is paralyzed... So long we are not paralyzed, our machine is going nicely, we can catch. Otherwise, we cannot catch. This is condition.
Lecture on BG 7.1 -- Durban, October 9, 1975:
I have given this example many times, that a child learns from his father. The child asks the father, "Father, what is this machine?" and the father says, "My dear child, it is called microphone." So the child receives the knowledge from the father, "This is microphone." So when the child says to somebody else, "This is microphone," it is correct.
Lecture on BG 7.1 -- Durban, October 9, 1975:
It is just like television nowadays. You can see things happening thousands of miles away in television, and you can explain to your friends. This is like that. It is a question of seeing power. So now we have got the instrument, television machine. It is not difficult to understand. In the football ground the matches is going on, and it is being relayed in your room. It is alike that.
Lecture on BG 7.1-3 -- Stockholm, September 10, 1973:
Actually if we make analysis what is the symptoms of possessing soul, you will find everywhere. Even in plants' life you will find. Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose, one of the greatest scientist of the world, he has proved by machine that when you cut the trees or the leaves, they feel sensation, pain, and that is recorded by machine. So everyone has got soul.
Lecture on BG 7.1-3 -- Stockholm, September 10, 1973:
Similarly, the body is made of earth, water, air, fire. This lump of matter is nothing but distribution of the material elements. Just like we make some machine by manipulating the material elements. This is also just like a machine. And it is stated here in the Bhagavad-gītā, yantrārūḍhāni māyayā. We have been given this machine to move. By whom it is given? By māyā, by the illusory energy.
Lecture on BG 7.1-3 -- Stockholm, September 10, 1973:
We are given a certain type of machine, certain type of body, according to our desire, and we are moving. Just like if we have got a car, we can move from here to there. Similarly, by this body we are moving not only within this planet, but sometimes in other planet also—but within the universe. With this material body we can move within the universe, material world.
Lecture on BG 7.2 -- Hyderabad, April 28, 1974 :
Just like you receive some message, vibration of the material world, from Europe, from America. So that is not Indian vibration but American vibration or European vibration. Similarly, there is vibration in the spiritual world. Simply one has to catch. You must have that machine. So, that machine is there within you. The heart is the machine where you can receive the spiritual message, because within the heart there is Nārāyaṇa.
Lecture on BG 7.3 -- London, March 11, 1975:
Therefore Kṛṣṇa says that all these men, they are engaged. But the śāstra says, "No, no. You live with the minimum necessities. Don't increase your necessities unnecessarily." This is Vedic civilization. And the modern civilization is even increase your necessities—a machine for shaving your cheek. You see? Another machine, another attention diversion. More machine means more diversion of attention. I have to take care, more technician, more technologies. Simply if one razor can shave, can make my cheek very clean, where is the necessity?
Lecture on BG 7.3 -- London, March 11, 1975:
But the modern civilization means that in everything there must be machine. That is the advancement of material... But the śāstra says, "What is the use of taking so much labor?" Kaṣṭān kāmān. Kaṣṭān means with so much labor. If you create some convenience by the so-called machine use, you create so many other inconveniences.
Lecture on BG 7.3 -- London, March 11, 1975:
Just like a landlord. He has got many houses. The occupier is there, or apartment. He is concerned with that apartment or the house he is occupying, but the landlord has concern with so many houses. Similarly, this body, I am the occupier. God has given me this body, this machine, but proprietor is Lord, the Supreme Lord. Therefore both of us has got the concern with this body. Ātmā, Paramātmā. Soul, Supersoul.
Lecture on BG 7.4 -- Bombay, February 19, 1974:
That jīva, ananta, unlimited. That is our magnitude. They cannot find out one ten-thousandth part of the upper portion of the hair. There is no machine, no microscope which. Therefore these foolish people, because they cannot see the dimension, length and breadth, of the soul, they say the soul is nirākāra. It is not nirākāra.
Lecture on BG 7.4-5 -- Bombay, March 30, 1971:
These preachers, they are also mahā-bāhu. They are fighting with persons who are not Kṛṣṇa conscious. They are pushing on Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement by fighting. But this fighting is in different way. This was taught by Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Kṛṣṇa-varṇaṁ tviṣākṛṣṇaṁ sāṅgopāṅgāstra-pārṣadam (SB 11.5.32). Sa aṅga upāṅga astra. Astra means weapons. Just like these Pakistanis are fighting with machine gun, Caitanya Mahāprabhu fought with māyā not with machine gun but with His most confidential associates.
Lecture on BG 7.5 -- Bombay, February 20, 1974:
Just like the motorcar is going, gacchati. But the motorcar is not moving without any driver. There is a machine, first-class machine, Rolls-Royce car, Cadillac car, good machine, but the machine is useless unless there is a driver. The aeroplane is moving, but without the pilot it cannot move. Therefore material elements, however, I mean to say, wonderful it may be, it has no value without the spirit soul.
Lecture on BG 7.5 -- Bombay, February 20, 1974:
The Māyāvādī philosophers, they think that living entity is puruṣa, the Supreme, but that is, that is not the fact. Prakṛti. Prakṛti means subordinate. Energy acts under the direction of the Puruṣa. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27). Just like a machine is made by a person, and the machine is working. That machine is working, that is prakṛti, but who has made the machine or pushing on the machine, that is puruṣa.
Lecture on BG 7.5 -- Bombay, February 20, 1974:
So prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ. When you set up the machine... Just like electricity. You set up, machine will work. But the setter, or who first sets the machine, pushes on the machine, that is a puruṣa. Similarly, the whole material world is working very nicely, wonderfully, but behind that machine, behind that working, there is Kṛṣṇa. Mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram (BG 9.10).
Lecture on BG 7.5 -- Bombay, February 20, 1974:
Just like electric powerhouse. You see the machine is going on. Kat-kat-kat-kat-kat-kat, it is going on. But there is a supervising engineer. He's looking that whether the machine is rightly going on, if there is any defect. If there is oil required, he's putting some oil or something else. So the supervisor is the engineer. Similarly the whole machine of this material world... Or this material... You do not try to study the whole material world, but you study your own machine, this body. This body is also machine. Yantrārūḍhāni māyayā.
Lecture on BG 7.5 -- Bombay, February 20, 1974:
Just like a pig. He wanted to eat everything and anything, without any discrimination. So, by the order of the Supreme, anumantā, upadraṣṭā..., He orders to the māyā that "You give him a body, a vehicle, a machine of pig body, so that he can very nicely eat stool."
Lecture on BG 7.5 -- Bombay, February 20, 1974:
So this is karma, karma-vāda, that I want to possess a certain type of machine, or body, and Kṛṣṇa, Īśvara, is within everyone's heart. He understands, "He's persistent to get this machine. All right. You get this machine." This is called janmada(?)... Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). In this way, we are desiring something in this life, and the next life is being prepared. And that next life or this life, it is just like machine.
Lecture on BG 9.1 -- Vrndavana, April 17, 1975:
. People are thinking, "We shall make it śubha." Śubha means auspicious by material adjustment. By having nice car, nice road, skyscraper building and so many machine and bodily comforts which is known as material advancement. But the śāstra says it is all inauspicious, all inauspicious.
Lecture on BG 9.1 -- Melbourne, April 19, 1976:
A small child, he does not know what is this watch, and the father explains to him, "My dear child, this is called watch. It is moving by this machine," and as far as the child can understand, it is explained. So when the child says, "This is watch, and it is working like this. I have heard it from my father," that is perfect knowledge. That is perfect.
Lecture on BG 9.2-5 -- New York, November 23, 1966:
Just like in the sunshine many planets, they are resting. It is a scientific fact. The all the planets, they are rotating due to the sun heat. Here there is a machine... What is called? We have seen. As soon as there is heat, within the ball begins to rotate. So everything resting.
Lecture on BG 9.4 -- Calcutta, March 9, 1972:
So His energy is acting, working. Parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate svābhāvikī jñāna-bala-kriyā ca. His energy is acting in such a way, perfect way, that as we see that it is automatically, automatic. An electronic machine, just by putting here, a button, it is immediately responding five thousand miles away, the same button working. That this scientific method we have discovered.
Lecture on BG 9.4-7 -- New York, November 24, 1966:
Without spiritual touch, there is no possibility of acting. Matter cannot act automatically. Just like you take for example a nice arrangement of machine, wonderful, but unless a person touches that machinery, it cannot work. It cannot work. And what is that person? That person is spirit, the driver, the engineer. He's a spirit.
Lecture on BG 9.4-7 -- New York, November 24, 1966:
How can you say that He's not in statue? He's also in statue. So it is my devotion, it is my qualification, that I can induce that statue to speak with me. Just like the same way—if I am electrician, then I can fit any electrical instrument or machine or light from the electric energy which is all over—similarly, God's energy, He is present everywhere...
Lecture on BG 9.4-7 -- New York, November 24, 1966:
He says, yathā ākāśa-sthitaḥ nityaṁ vāyuḥ. The air is situated in the sky. Everyone knows it, that air is passing or blowing within the sky. And nityaṁ vāyuḥ, sarvatra-go mahān. And it is blowing everywhere. You cannot find out any place where there is no air. If you want to drive out air, then you have to make by machine, by vacuum, airtight.
Lecture on BG 9.5 -- Melbourne, April 24, 1976:
So God, Kṛṣṇa, indicates the Supersoul who is situated within your heart. You desire something and He immediately orders the material nature that "You give him such and such body." Yantra. The body is yantra, machine. This body is a machine. So yantrārūḍhāni. He is seated in one kind of machine and he goes from one place to another, from one planet to another, from one life to another. This is going on.
Lecture on BG 9.10 -- Calcutta, June 29, 1973:
These rascals, foolish persons, they are thinking that the prakṛti is working automatically. No, that is not possible. Prakṛti is jaḍa. Jaḍa-prakṛti. Jaḍa-prakṛti. Without any sense. The motor car has got the wheels, the machine, everything, but it has no sense. So unless there is a sensible driver there, it cannot move. Very plain truth. Anyone can understand. But we are so foolishly educated that we do not accept this fact.
Lecture on BG 9.11-14 -- New York, November 27, 1966:
So this speculating process will also not help. Moghāśā mogha-karmāṇo mogha-jñānā vicetasaḥ (BG 9.12). Vicetasaḥ means they are bewildered, that God cannot be perceived by your own endeavor unless God reveals before you. Vicetasaḥ. Vicetasaḥ means bewildered. Just like if you want to see the sun, can you see the sun just at this time, all over darkness? Have you got any machine or any apparatus or any searchlight, you can show me sun? No. It is not possible.
Lecture on BG 9.11-14 -- New York, November 27, 1966:
Rākṣasa means almost man-eaters. Rākṣasa are called man-eaters, more than tigers. They, for their self-satisfaction, they can eat, I mean to say, even, even their own sons. You see? They are called rākṣasas. No shame. "My sense gratification should be satisfied. Never mind. You go to hell." So this is the age. So we, we create a machine that everyone comes and becomes smashed in that machine, and my sense satisfaction is there. Although I'll never be happy by that sense satisfaction. This is going on.
Lecture on BG 9.20-22 -- New York, December 6, 1966:
So any planet, wherever you want to go... Of course, you may try to go there by sputnik but we have no such mention in the śāstras that you can manufacture some machine and you can go there. You have to qualify yourself. You have to qualify yourself. Just like even there is machine, jet plane, still, you require the visa to enter into America or any other country, similarly, even if you can manufacture some machine, although it is not possible, but you have to qualify yourself to be a resident in the better planets.
Lecture on BG 9.23-24 -- New York, December 10, 1966:
Vidhi-pūrvakam means under regulation. Just like in your body. In your body you have to take special care of your stomach, the digesting machine for your foodstuff. If your digestion is all right, then the energy will be supplied equal to the all parts of the body. So that is necessary. But at the same time, it is not prohibited that you should not take care of the hand which is a part of your body. That's all right.
Lecture on BG 9.34 -- New York, December 26, 1966, 'Who is Crazy?':
Therefore what is the difference between materialism and spiritualism? The same typewriter is there. The same dictaphone is there. The same mimeograph machine is there. The same paper is there. Same, I mean, ink is there. The same hand is there. Everything is same, but everything is done for Kṛṣṇa's account. That's all, Kṛṣṇa's account. This is spiritualism.
Lecture on BG 9.34 -- August 3, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):
Just like we are here, we are given this planet to live, and there is this moon planet, we can see. And these rascals try to go there so many ways. They refused, "No, you cannot go." Live there, go. It is practical. We see the moon planet is there, we have got machine, we can go, but you cannot go. This is laws of nature. (laughter) This is laws of nature. This is practically proof.
Lecture on BG 9.34 -- August 3, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):
Why should we go to the moon planet? (laughter) But there is process. If you want to go, there is process. Not this that by force I can go there by machine. That is not possible, that is not possible. That is foolishness. Just like I am Indian. If I want to come to France, I must take visa, I must have the passport and so on, so on. By force, I want to enter, no.
Lecture on BG 9.34 -- August 3, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):
. So we have got experience that by force we cannot do anything. You must be competent to go anywhere, provided you qualify yourself. Yānti deva-vratā devān pitṟn yānti pitṛ-vratāḥ (BG 9.25). You can go, but not in that way, that because you have got a tiny machine you can go. That is not possible. That is useless. It is not possible.
Lecture on BG 10.4-5 -- New York, January 4, 1967:
Somebody may say, "Oh, how fine discoveries are these. They are working so nicely." But one should see that this tape recorder or this microphone cannot work for a single moment unless a spirit soul touch it. This is intelligence. We should not be wonderful by seeing a machine. We should try to find out who is working the machine. That is intelligence, sukhārtha-vivecanam, to see the finer.
Lecture on BG 10.4-5 -- New York, January 4, 1967:
They were sitting, consulting books: "Oh, why it is not working?" Then the managing director, Dr. Bose... He was very intelligent man. He at once went to another firm. They were also chemical. He knew there was an ordinary worker; he was very experienced. So... He was Muhammadan. He called him at once, "Just come and see what is defect there." And he at once came and manipulated some machine—at once acid transformed. All the theoretical scientists, they sat down. So this kind of experience you'll find even an ordinary man.
Lecture on BG 10.4-5 -- New York, January 4, 1967:
They have taken only the material side of the activity. So if you come to according to the Bhagavad-gītā, then it is a civilization of fools. That you may call...(?) They are giving too much stress on the motor car machine and not to the driver. The driver is neglected. This is foolish civilization. Man is neglected.
Lecture on BG 13.1-2 -- Paris, August 10, 1973:
Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe arjuna tiṣṭhati, The Lord is situated in everyone's heart. Arjuna tiṣṭhati. Bhrāmayan sarva-bhūtāni yantrārūḍhāni māyayā (BG 18.61). Bhrāmayan. He is causing to wander all over the universe all living entities, riding on a car or machine. This machine is this body. Now I am walking, I am going here, preaching. What is the machine? The machine, first machine is my body. So who has given me this body? Māyayā. Māyā, the illusory energy, has given me this body. My real body's spiritual body.
Lecture on BG 13.1-2 -- Bombay, September 25, 1973:
Just like father makes the body, father gives the seed and mother gives the body, similarly, Kṛṣṇa is the supreme father. He has given the seed. Just like the father impregnates within the womb of the mother, the seed is given by the father, the mother develops the body, similarly, in this material world we have come from Kṛṣṇa. He is the seed-giving father, and the material nature has given us this body. This is compared with a yantra or a machine.
Lecture on BG 13.1-2 -- Miami, February 25, 1975:
The other day in Caracas some psychiatrists came. Their question was that "The problems of the world are increasing, so what is your prescription to solve these problems?" So the problem is very easy to be solved. I gave the example that this body is there. And there is something which is moving the body, living force. So that living force is the driver of the body, and the body is also described in the Bhagavad-gītā as a machine. It is... Actually it is a machine.
Lecture on BG 13.1-2 -- Miami, February 25, 1975:
Yantra means machine. So we are seated on this machine. This is the knowledge. The person who is seated in this car, on the machine, nobody knows. There are so many advancement of knowledge department, but where is the department to understand that the living force which is driving this machine, what is that living force? How it is working? There is no enquiry and no education.
Lecture on BG 13.1-2 -- Miami, February 25, 1975:
Education means to enquire about the living force which is moving this body. That is education. This is not education, that we have manufactured nice car or nice machine. That is called craftsmanship, that is not education.
Lecture on BG 13.2 -- Melbourne, April 4, 1972:
You may have tractors, you may have very good arrangement for producing food, machinery, but still, if the land or earth does not produce food, your, this tractor or all other arrangements will be failure. So after all, we should know the supply of things are in the hands of the material nature. And material nature works under the direction of God. That is stated in Bhagavad-gītā, mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram (BG 9.10). Prakṛti means this material nature.
Lecture on BG 13.2 -- Melbourne, April 4, 1972:
Just like nowadays the electronic age, when you have got a television machine within our room, simply push a button, push on a button, and immediately the photo is there, the sound is there. But do not think that it is being done automatically. No. There is a good brain. There is a good brain who has discovered this machine. You do not know.
Lecture on BG 13.2 -- Melbourne, April 4, 1972:
You are simply pushing on this button, you are seeing. But don't think it has come automatically by nature. That is not possible. You do not know how it is working. That is your ignorance. But that is not working without direction. There is direction. There is a television house who are broadcasting their direction. They know how to work the machine and everything. The brain is working, but it is so advanced that in your room, as soon as you push on a button you see everything. But don't think it is becoming automatically done. No, that is not the fact.
Lecture on BG 13.3 -- Paris, August 11, 1973:
I am running my ca... That is also kṣetra. The world is kṣetra. The car is kṣetra. But the doer, the driver, is kṣetrajñam. That knowledge is lacking. A child may think that the airplane, big airplane, 747 is running. No, it is not running automatically. There is a pilot—kṣetrajñam. He knows the machine, how to work on it. Everywhere. You study. There is kṣetra and kṣetrajñam. So Kṛṣṇa says kṣetra-kṣetrajñayor jñānam. One who knows how this kṣetra and kṣetrajñam is working... Not only in individual body, in gigantic body, in everything.
Lecture on BG 13.4 -- Miami, February 27, 1975:
The same example, as I have already said many times, that within the cage there is the bird. You don't take care of the bird, and you simply cleanse this cage—the bird will not be satisfied. He will cry always, "Give me food. Give me food." The another example I gave the another psychiatrist, that this body is a machine. Actually it is a machine. And it is being driven by two persons. One is God and one is the living entity, individual. The God is giving direction.
Lecture on BG 13.4 -- Miami, February 27, 1975:
God is always helping us, but we do not care for God. That is our disease. Therefore we are getting different types of bodies and suffering. This is the philosophy, real philosophy, that God is there with me in the same bird, in the same, exactly the same, that the driver is there and the proprietor is there in the same car. The car is a machine. Similarly, this body is a machine.
Lecture on BG 13.4 -- Miami, February 27, 1975:
It is stated in the Bhagavad..., machine. Yantrārūḍhāni māyayā.
- īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ
- hṛd-deśe 'rjuna tiṣṭhati
- bhrāmayan sarva-bhūtāni
- yantrārūḍhāni māyayā
- (BG 18.61)
"Īśvara, the Supreme Lord, God, is situated in everyone's heart, and He is directing the travel, or wandering, of the living entity."
Lecture on BG 13.4 -- Miami, February 27, 1975:
Yantrārūḍhāni: "sitting on the machine of this body." And who has supplied this machine? Māyayā: "the material nature." The material nature, according to the order of God, has given me, you or me or anyone, the cats, dogs, a particular type of machine, this body. And the living entity is driving the machine or driving the car and God, the Supersoul, is reminding him, "You wanted to enjoy like this? Now you drive your car in this way.
Lecture on BG 13.16 -- Bombay, October 10, 1973:
Just like a machine, computer, a very subtle machine. It is working wonderfully. But there is a person who is pushing the button. Without that the machine is useless. It is lump of matter. Similarly this gigantic universe, cosmic manifestation, nature, is working very wonderfully.
Lecture on BG 13.18 -- Bombay, October 12, 1973:
What is this material world? This material world is resting on the sunshine. Because the sunshine is there, therefore all the planets are rotating. There is a small machine. You'll find it. As soon as it is heated, within that machine the balls begin to rotate. Similarly, the certain temperature of the sunshine, the whole planetary system is rotating on the orbit, on account of the sunshine. This is scientifically true.
Lecture on BG 13.26 -- Delhi, September 22, 1974:
Just like I was a young man like you. I was also very beautiful at that time. But where is that body? But that body is gone, but that does not mean I am dead. Similarly, when this body, this old body, when it will be not workable, the machine will not act, so I or you, every one of us will have to change. Suppose your car is going on. Somehow or other the car stops.
Lecture on BG 13.26 -- Delhi, September 22, 1974:
But this car, next car, is not ready, but it will have to be manufactured. How? You have to enter into the particular type of mother, and the mother's material ingredients will help you to manufacture a particular type of car, or body. The body is also a car, a machine. It is said in the Bhagavad-gītā, bhrāmayan sarva-bhūtāni yantrārūḍhāni māyayā (BG 18.61). Yantra. It has been said as yantra, a machine. This is just like machine. And we can perceive that. As soon as some part of the machine is slackened or not in order, that is your diseased condition. You cannot work.
Lecture on BG 15.15 -- August 5, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):
The other day I explained, Vedas means just like this dictaphone machine is manufactured along with one literature is also compiled. So customers, they are given the delivery of the machine as well as the literature how to use it. That is the Vedas. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says that vedānta-kṛt, "I am the compiler of the Vedas." Because if He does not give the literature, then how he will use the machine. The manufacturer of the machine, he knows how to use it, what for it is, how to manipulate it. Everything is there. The Vedic knowledge means that. We have come to this material world. So just like we have purchased this machine for some enjoyment, similarly, we are fallen down to this material world for some material pleasure.
Lecture on BG 16.1-3 -- Hawaii, January 29, 1975:
There are so many universities all over the world and so-called scientists and philosophers, but they do not know that we are eternal. Just see their knowledge, advancement of knowledge. Eternal, aja. There is no birth. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). After this destruction of this body, I am not finished. I still exist. What is the destruction of this body? Death means it is a machine. It is called machine. Yantrārūḍhāni māyayā (BG 18.61). It is a machine given to me.
Lecture on BG 16.1-3 -- Hawaii, January 29, 1975:
Just like you take a car. That is a machine. Now some way or other, if the car stops, not working, does it mean that you are finished? No. I can take another car. This is knowledge. But this knowledge is lacking.
Lecture on BG 16.1-3 -- Hawaii, January 29, 1975:
Film means there are different bodies in different position and when they are taken at once, it, likes that it moves. The picture is not moving. Similarly, we are changing of the different body, but it is taking place so quickly and so imperceptibly by Kṛṣṇa's energy. The machine is so nice that we are thinking that it is growing. It is not growing, all different bodies, all different. Every moment, every second. That is the scientific. The blood corpuscles are changing, and the body is different.
Lecture on BG 16.2-7 -- Bombay, April 8, 1971:
So there are two kinds of muktis. So far sāyujya-mukti is concerned, that is not very sure. What is this sound? (thumping sound like drum or machine in background) Sāyujya-mukti, one who takes liberation of merging into the existence of the Supreme Absolute Truth, that is not very secure position because they may fall down again to the material world. That is also stated in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
Lecture on BG 16.8 -- Tokyo, January 28, 1975:
So anyone who is simply exploiting the resources of nature, the so-called industrialist, others, they are taking all goods from Kṛṣṇa. Now, suppose you are making some machine. In making machine, you want the iron. But have you produced the iron? Wherefrom you have got the iron?
Lecture on BG 16.8 -- Hawaii, February 4, 1975:
Where is your experience that simply combination of material thing can move the machine? Where is your experience? How do you say like that? It is very common sense. Therefore Kṛṣṇa said these rascals, these demons, they say, jagad āhur anīśvaram: (BG 16.8) "There is no controller." He's thinking. The scientist thinking.
Lecture on BG 16.10 -- Hawaii, February 6, 1975:
Just like in your country I have seen the machine. In the beginning, when I came to your country, I saw some typewriter machine is throw in the garbage. Of course, in India they do not throw. They repair it. But here your repairing cost is very, very high. Therefore you throw away. So the machine which is costly, but as it does not work, you throw away—it has no value—similarly, this is also machine. This body is also machine. That is described in the Bhagavad-gītā, yantrārūḍhāni māyayā (BG 18.61). It is a machine given by māyā, the material energy. Asat. Just like the aeroplane is also a machine. It has no life. But life is the pilot. So long the pilot is there, the machine is useful. If there is no pilot, it may stand in the airport for millions of years; it will not fly. Very practical.
Lecture on BG 18.41 -- Stockholm, September 7, 1973:
When you pinch my body, I feel pain, when I pinch your body, you feel pain, when I pinch an animal's body, he also feels pain. Even I pinch even the tree's body he feels pain. It is scientifically proved. Sir Jagadish Candra Bose has proved by machine that when you cut a tree, it feels pain and it is recorded in this statistic machine. So everyone has got the soul.
| Page Title: | Machine (Lectures, BG) |
| Compiler: | Visnu Murti, Alakananda |
| Created: | 25 of Dec, 2010 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=141, Con=0, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 141 |