Prabhupāda: So for attaining Kṛṣṇa consciousness, there are several stages. The first stage is faith or inquisitiveness. Just like you have come to me. This is the first stage, out of inquisitiveness or some faith, that "These people are teaching Kṛṣṇa consciousness. We have heard it is very nice. Let us see what it is." This is the first stage. This is the first stage. One should be inquisitive and have little faith or little respect for Kṛṣṇa consciousness. "It is very nice, they are speaking, doing nice work." This is the first stage. The second stage is that in the first stage, if you find it, it is interesting, then the second stage is to associate with us, to understand more. Just like we are having our classes three days in a week. We are having class morning daily, but for public we are holding classes in the evening from seven to nine in our temple. Perhaps you know. You have been yesterday there? So we are holding classes there and discussing on this book, having kīrtana, distribution of prasādam. So it is very nice. There is no labor. Simply you come, you hear nice songs, you dance, you take nice food, you hear nice philosophy, and you think over, and you may go home. We don't ask anybody that "You press your nose like this, you make your head down like this, make exercise like this." We don't ask anybody. But people automatically like to dance with us. Although dance is labor, but they like it. So the next stage is to associate with us, to understand more and more. This is the second stage, to associate. First stage, faith and respect, and second stage, association. The third stage, if by association one becomes serious, that "I shall become a regular student of Swamiji," that is third stage. That is called initiation.
Nose (Conversations and Letters)
Conversations and Morning Walks
1968 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Kṛte means in the golden age, when everyone is pious. That is called kṛta-yuga, age of kṛta, very pious age. So in those ages people used to live one hundred thousands of years, and they were very pure, there was no sinful activity. In that stage, meditation was possible. Meditation requires certain principles. You have to select a solitary, sacred place. You have to sit alone. You have to close your eyes half, not full. If you close your eyes full, then you will sleep. And you have to concentrate on the tip of your nose, and you have to sit straight under posture, and then you have to exercise the breathing. If your inhalation is going this side, then you have to breathe this side. There are so many processes. So these things are not possible. Because our mind is so disturbed, we are engaged in so many outside work, it is not possible to concentrate on... You cannot find out a solitary place. The so-called meditation going on in a class. That is not meditation.
Interviewer: You also have a garland of flowers around your neck.
Prabhupāda: That is offered by the disciples as a matter of respect to the spiritual master. It is not necessary that a sannyāsī have a garland like this, but if it is offered with respect he does not refuse.
Interviewer: Now, one more thing, you have some paint or color down your forehead and your nose and on all your followers who are here in the studio.
Prabhupāda: Yes. These marks are a temple of Kṛṣṇa. We mark these different twelve parts of the body. The idea is that we are being protected by God from all sides.
Prabhupāda: Either personally his body, senses, or then expanded; wife, children; then family, community, society, and country, humanity; extending. But there is no, I mean to say, satisfaction. Because the real lovable object is Kṛṣṇa. And when he goes to Kṛṣṇa, then, oh, svamin krtartho 'smi. The same example: just like you are feeling hunger. Now, somebody told you, "Give food." So you are trying to put food in the nose, in the ear, in the mouth, in the anus(?), in this and that. No satisfaction. You give it here, oh, fully satisfied. We do not know where to put our love. That we are teaching, best spot. Most valuable conclusion. But unfortunately, they are not...
1969 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Caitanya Mahāprabhu teaches that "O Kṛṣṇa, You are so kind that You have come to Me in the sound vibration, word, 'Kṛṣṇa.' I can very easily chant, and You remain with Me. But I am so misfortunate that I have no attraction even for this." You say people, "You chant Kṛṣṇa; you get everything." They will not believe it. If you say, "You press your nose. You pay me fifty dollars. I'll give you some nice mantra and this, that. You make your head like this, leg like this," "Oh," he'll say, "here is something." Something. "And this Swamiji says, 'Simply chant Kṛṣṇa.' Oh, what is this?" Therefore Caitanya Mahaprabhu said, etādṛśī tava kṛpā bhagavān mamāpi durdaiva: "But I am so unfortunate that You have become so easily available in this age, but I am so unfortunate, I cannot accept it." So the Kṛṣṇa consciousness so easily being distributed, but they are so unfortunate, they cannot accept. Just see.
1970 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: What...? What they are doing for the hippies? In U.S.A. they have thousands of hippies. They are doing nothing. That problem is already there. Go on.
Haṁsadūta: "It will create a national problem of a magnitude the like of which he has not seen before. In fact, Western society is in for a great jolt. A. Karim Saikh.(?)" Then two more letters.
Prabhupāda: But the old woman's crying.
Haṁsadūta: Do you want to hear the next letter? This is the second letter. "I do not see why you devoted two full pages to the article on 'Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa,' November 8th. Wearing a plain white sari, applying sandal paste on the forehead and wearing nose-rings do not transform one. Churning milk gopī fashion is no way to attain spiritual bliss. The statements made by the devotees of the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement reflect an attitude of escapism."
Prabhupāda: Hm. Anyway, we are getting publicity.
Prabhupāda: So she took some interest?
Yamunā: She took a courteous interest. As I say, there was no doubt that at the time that she saw him she was pressed with other matters. A very personal friend of hers that Gurudāsa is now staying with told us that she was very impressed, her personal secretary was very impressed, and that she said—we have it on tape—that she would like to see us again and she was sorry that she didn't realize that we had been waiting for so long. Otherwise we could have come earlier, she would have (indistinct) In that way (indistinct) some time in the future.
Devotee (4): In (indistinct) we saw some yogi.
Prabhupāda: Pressing nose. Nose-pressing philosophy.
Devotee (5): Haṭha-yoga also.
Yamunā: (indistinct)
Prabhupāda: So what was his philosophy?
Yamunā: You do some exercises and know God, be self-realized.
Prabhupāda: You should have said to him, "Are you self-realized?"
Prabhupāda: And smoking also?
Yamunā: I didn't inquire into his vices.
Devotee (5): In New York they call them "uptown swamis."
Yamunā: His example of spiritual life is based on material prosperity.
Prabhupāda: So why they should go to the yoga system? The science is more advanced. Before flying in the sky by a yogi he has to press his nose for so many years and the science has given us the airplane. He can purchase ticket, immediately fly. (laughter) What is use of pressing nose?
Yamunā: You explain that in Bhāgavatam.
Prabhupāda: Yes. What is the use, wasting time?
1971 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Yes. So here the love propensity is being misplaced in this material world. That should be placed in God. Then the love will be perfection. Just like if you pour water on the leaves of the tree or branches of the tree it is simply a waste of time. If you pour water on the root then the effect of pouring water is distributed. Similarly, foodstuff, if you place the foodstuff on your nose, on your eyes or your ears, it is simply wasted. But if you put foodstuff to the mouth in the stomach immediately the energy derived from the foodstuff is distributed throughout the whole body. Similarly, if you love God then your, automatically your love is distributed to everyone, every entity.
Prabhupāda: That's all right but do you think it is natural to pour water on the leaves?
Dr. Weir: Well, why not then, that for leaves, water's natural.
Prabhupāda: No. If you pour water on the leaves, but you don't water on the root, it will dry up. If you put food on your nose, on your eyes, the eyes will be blind and the nostril will be suffocated, but if you put in the proper place, in the stomach, the energy will be distributed.
1972 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: So therefore, a saintly person duty is to protect the praja, the citizens, in a system so that they may become happy both materially and spiritually. This is one of the duties of the saintly person. Not that let me go to Himalaya and press my nose and I become liberated. This is not saintly person. This is not saintly person. Saintly person means they should be interested with the public welfare, real public welfare. And public welfare means every citizens should be Kṛṣṇa conscious, and then they will be happy both materially and spiritually. My point is that our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is not selfish movement. It is the most philanthropic movement. But people in the name of philanthropic movement generally, because they are not actually saintly persons, they collect money and live.
1973 Conversations and Morning Walks
Devotee (3): One man came here, a haṭha-yogī, so-called haṭha-yogī, and he was putting water in his nose and cloth in his stomach and all twisting this way, going under water, and they were all very amazed and many people came to see. Just like the circus.
Prabhupāda: Yes. And then they say "I will make you perfect man, whatever you like you can... You become my disciple, give me some money."
Devotee (3): And enjoy.
Prabhupāda: There is a proverb, that a drowning man catches even a straw. A man is drowning, he's seeing the straw is floating, he wants to catch it. So in western countries, they are so much fed up with this materialistic way of life that any person from India comes, they think he may give something spiritual.
1974 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Sa vai manaḥ kṛṣṇa-padāravindayor vacāṁsi vaikuṇṭha-guṇānuvarṇane (SB 9.4.18). This is... Different parts of our senses should be utilized. The first business is to fix up the mind at the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa. Then engage the tongue in describing the activities of Kṛṣṇa. Therefore Kṛṣṇa has acted in so many ways so that we can remember the history of the activities of Kṛṣṇa and discuss it. Vacāṁsi vaikuṇṭha-guṇānuvarṇane. Then the legs should be used for going to the temple. Hands should be used for cleansing the temple. Nose should be used for smelling the flowers offered to Kṛṣṇa. Ears should be used for hearing about Kṛṣṇa. In this way if we engage our senses in different activities relating to Kṛṣṇa, that is success of life. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness, Vacāṁsi vaikuṇṭha-guṇānuvarṇane. (Hindi) So now you can talk. (laughter) Hare Kṛṣṇa. (Hindi) (break) Practical purposes. This land and that water is matter, but we are walking on the land. Can you walk on the water?
Prabhupāda: To execute bhakti-yoga, there is no difficulty. It is always happy. Just like our program. Program is chant, dance, take prasādam. And if you take yoga system, jñāna system, first of all you have to become a very great learned scholar, and then yoga system, you have to practice so many āsanas, press your nose, and so many things. But here everything is very happy: chant, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, dance and then take prasādam, and you understand where you are. This is the su-sukham.
Prabhupāda: Just like other rascal yogis and swamis, they say, "Yes, yes. You can eat whatever you like. You can do whatever... You practice nose pressing. That's all. And give me my fees.
Paramahaṁsa: They argue that all paths lead to Kṛṣṇa. So why is one better than another?
Prabhupāda: If you know that all paths leads to Kṛṣṇa, then why don't you take this path? Why you are going round about way? If somebody asks you, "Where is your nose?" What is the use of showing like this. (laughter) Show like this. If you know really nose. But you do not know. Therefore you are going like this.
Madhudviṣa: And in other Russian... But these countries are all under Communist rule. It is very difficult in those countries.
Prabhupāda: Not difficult. Nothing is difficult. For the time being it is difficult but in due course of time it will be very easy. Now who knew that in Europe and America or all over the world, Hare Kṛṣṇa will go on? Bon Mahārāja left the field; others left the field. You see? Other swamis came. They talked all nonsense, yoga, this and that, nose pressing, eyes pressing—all finished. Now Hare Kṛṣṇa is going on. Now people, the nose-presser and eyes-presser, they are no more important. Is it not? Eh? Now our men go and challenge these rascals. And in New York they did it, huh?
Prabhupāda: So we take advantage of this meeting. We do our business and go away. And they have no books. They have simply that pressing of nose, that's all, nothing else. They have no philosophy, nothing of the sort. What they will write? They have no philosophy. Simply cheat that "Press your nose; you get Bhagavān." That's all. And people think, "It is so easy. Why shall I go to Bhaktivedanta Swami? Let me go to this Guru Mahārāja." They think like that. And some of our men, feeling too much pressure, they go away. But here there is nothing cheap, that simply by pressing nose and eyes and you become God. Don't make compromise. This principle must be observed.
Bahulāśva: Unless one surrenders to Kṛṣṇa.
Prabhupāda: Then you can get rid of māyā's tricks. Otherwise, you may dress yourself like anything, but you are simply māyā's servant. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura has sung one... Ei ota kalir chelā: "Here is another disciple of Kali." Nake tilaka galai mālā. "He has got tilaka on the nose and mālā, kaṇṭhi, also." Sahaja bhajana kache mamu saṅge lana pare bhalo: "And he's, he has become a Vaiṣṇava by illicit sex." This is stated by Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura. "Here is a Kali's chelā. He has dressed like a Vaiṣṇava, but he is doing his bhajan with illicit sex." Sahaje bhajana kache mamu saṅge lana pare bhalo. You know? There is a class of sahajiyās?
1975 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: If Kṛṣṇa desires, simply by air this whole city will be devastated. The other day we saw so many trees fell from (New?) Kurukṣetra. All trees and houses will be smashed within half an hour if some hurricane is sent. Poking nose in the affairs of God. They'll simply try to prove that there is no God. This is their attempt.
Prabhupāda: What Kṛṣṇa is saying, He is saying as a person. Aham. You know the Sanskrit word? Aham, "I," first person. So why these foolish interpreters, they interpret "imperson"? What right they have got? They have no right. Suppose you are teaching something from your own point of view. What right I have got to say that "This is not Mr. Such and such opinion. What I say, that is opinion"? Is that very good judgment? You are saying something from your point of view, and I poke my nose that "This should be spoken like this." Is this honesty?
Dr. Copeland: It's a difference of opinion.
Prabhupāda: No, why should you... I showed opinion on your book? If I have got opinion, I publish another book. Why should I interpret, why shall I poke my nose in your business?
Prabhupāda: But you cannot say that "Kṛṣṇa says something else." Kṛṣṇa says, "Always think of Me." So we have to present that "Kṛṣṇa says, you always think of Kṛṣṇa." That is honesty. And if I say, "No, no, you don't think of Kṛṣṇa," that is dishonesty. That is dishonesty. We are fighting against that. Why should you poke your nose in the statement of Kṛṣṇa? If you have got different views, you put your own book.
Harikeśa: They will think we are completely crazy.
Prabhupāda: Huh? Well, then kick on their face, on their nose, rascal. We are crazy or you are crazy?
Harikeśa: Well, it's just a tumor. It's like a tumor.
Prabhupāda: Then why you say that it is mother's right to kill? And tumor, can you bring life in tumor? Kick simply on their face, on their nose. That is the only thing to treat with such... Murkhasya latausadhiḥ. Such fools in the society, they should be hanged. Misleading the whole population.
Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. Jaya. So they are guests. They are coming. Kṛṣṇa says everything practical. He never says that "You press your nose and everything will come." He never said like that. "You become a yogi by pressing your nose, and keep your head downward, and then you'll become perfect and everything will come." He never says. And Arjuna also never accepts anything impractical. That is Bhagavad-gītā.
1976 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Suppose a small ant is on some big wheel, does it feel anything, movement? A big wheel and a small ant. What he will feel? This is called relativity. Law of relativity. Why you are thinking that relatively you are very big? That is your foolishness. You are nothing, insignificant. Therefore you are surprised when Kṛṣṇa appeared as Varāha-mūrti, to take the whole earth on His nose. Who will say it is mythology? You do not know how great Kṛṣṇa can become.
Prabhupāda: Then what do you want more? And simply by chanting, dancing, and eating prasādam you are making progress. Therefore it is su-sukham. You haven't got to press your nose and make your head down and starve for three hundred years, nothing like that. Go to the forest, go to the Himalayas.... No. At your place you chant, dance, and take prasādam.
Devotee (4): Do you mean, Śrīla Prabhupāda, in order to conceive of something, a thing must be there?
Prabhupāda: There is no "conceive." Necessity. You require it. Just like when you're hungry you require food. Food is there. The eyes want to see; therefore the object of seeing is there. The hand wants to touch, so the object of touching is there. The nose wants to smell: the object of smell is there. So as soon as you feel necessity, the thing is there.
Prabhupāda: Simply to satisfy the eyes, to see something illuminating. That is one sense, eyes. Then there are other senses. They also want satisfaction. There are hands, there are legs, there are tongue, eyes, ears, nose. So every one, every one of these senses, they are engaged for sense satisfaction. So this is the life. But that sense satisfaction is differently exhibited for different bodies.
Prabhupāda: There is no fundamental difference. The same. Bhagavad-gītā recommends that you should select a very secluded place in a solitary sacred place, you should make your āsana, sit down perpendicularly, don't close your eyes completely, half open, and concentrate on the tip of the nose. Everything is there. "And then think of Me." But Arjuna said, he said, "Oh, it is not possible." He was a frank gentleman. He was not a hypocrite.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: It's a mystery, why they don't accept Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
Prabhupāda: Because they cannot poke their nose there. Then it will be cut off. (laughter) But still they are attempting to cheat by reading Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
Prabhupāda: No, important. No, because if you have no eyes to see spiritual, you have to see physically, and they are all physical. Either you see with your eyes or touch with your hand or smell with your nose or lick up with your tongue, everything is physical.
Prabhupāda: No, first of all you have to understand. So Kṛṣṇa is explained Himself, "I am this." Mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat kiñcid asti dhanañjaya (BG 7.7). "There is no more superior authority than Me." We accept it. Why you accept another authority to understand Kṛṣṇa? Kṛṣṇa says mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat (BG 7.7). So there is no difficulty as it is. But we create difficulty. If somebody asks me, "Where is your nose?" if I say, "Here is my nose." And if I say, "No here," (laughter) then it is difficulty. If I say directly, "Here is my nose," then there will be no difficulty. But if I want to do like this, then it is difficulty. There is no difficulty. We have created difficulty. That is our folly.
But this life I've got this ear, I can hear. If I don't take chance, then how much foolish I am. Next life, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13), I'll get next life, next birth. Now it is not necessarily that I'll get the next life also same ear. No. The ear may be different. The eyes may be different. The eyes are there, ears are there, nose is, but it is different. So long we have got these eyes, these ears, this nose, utilize it properly. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
Instead of loving dog, you love God. Then dog will be loved and everyone will be loved. If you simply love dog, then your love will be simply in dog. But if you love God, then you'll love God and dog also. Just like you are eating. So the eatable is going to the stomach. If you distribute this eatable to the eyes, to the ears, to the nose—there are nine holes—it will be uselessly spoiled. And if you give this foodstuff to the stomach, the energy will be immediately distributed to the ears, to the eyes, to the nose, to the... Similarly, if you have got a propensity to love, you love God, your love will be distributed everywhere.
Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa is giving the instruction, paraṁ brahma paraṁ dhāma pavitraṁ paramaṁ bhavān (BG 10.12), the Supreme Personality of Godhead. What business you have got to poke your nose and give interpretation? Are you bigger than Kṛṣṇa? Kṛṣṇa left it for you? This nonsense going on. Big, big swamis, big, big yogis, big, big politicians, simply misinterpreting, he's spoiling his own life and he's spoiling others. Bas. This is going on.
Prabhupāda: If you can help, you can simply help by spreading Kṛṣṇa consciousness, as Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, yāre dekha tāre kaha kṛṣṇa-upadeśa (CC Madhya 7.128). "Sir, I have come to you." "Why?" "To request you that you become Kṛṣṇa conscious." "How?" Man-manā bhava mad-bhaktaḥ, "Always think of Me, just become My devotee, offer little obeisances." Anyone can do, a child can do. You cannot do? What is the difficulty to become Kṛṣṇa conscious? Is there any difficulty? You haven't got to practice any yoga process, pressing your nose or keeping your head or this or that, no. Nothing. Man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru mām evaiṣyasi asaṁśayaḥ (BG 18.65). "Without any doubt you are coming back to Me." And that is the highest perfection.
Prabhupāda: In the Bhagavad-gītā before meditation it is clearly stated one should not close the eyes. As soon as you close the eyes and meditate, you will sleep. Immediately. They should be half closed and concentrate your eyesight on the top of the nose. That is meditation. Not that closing and snoring and huhuh. These rascals are going on.
1977 Conversations and Morning Walks
Correspondence
1968 Correspondence
In distributing the "perfection in yoga" leaflet, when people come to your temple you may explain to them the principles of yoga as they are described in the Bhagavad-gita. Such instructions by you may be preceded and followed by Krishna kirtana. If they are interested, you may show them how to sit, concentrating the eyesight on the tip of the nose. The concentration should be on Lord Krishna or Lord Visnu, as is explained in Bhagavad-gita As It Is. So if they come to know about hatha yoga you can show them in the authoritative scriptures how it cannot be successfully practiced in this present age of kali.
1969 Correspondence
So far as the 10 sense organs, they are eyes, ears, nose, mouth, touch, these are the five sense organs for acquiring knowledge. The five moving organs are the legs, hands, tongue, genital, and rectum.
There is no necessity to practice the various yogic postures, pressing the nose, and there is no need of becoming a great learned scholar to advance in spiritual life. Simply we have to turn our attention back to the Lotus Feet of Krishna, and then all spiritual perfection is automatically there.
1973 Correspondence
Kapiladeva was a young man, say 15 or 16 years. He appeared as a baby. Salagrama sila is a black stone ball, round, with eyes and nose painted with gopicandana with a golden crown on and placed on one small srngasana. Advaita Acarya was worshiping this way.
| Page Title: | Nose (Conversations and Letters) |
| Compiler: | Rishab, Visnu Murti, ChandrasekharaAcarya |
| Created: | 09 of Feb, 2011 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=40, Let=4 |
| No. of Quotes: | 44 |