Obedience (CC and other books)

Expressions researched:
"obedience" |"obediences" |"obedient" |"obediently"

CC Adi-lila

CC Adi 1.37, Purport: By accepting the six Gosvāmīs as his instructing spiritual masters, the author specifically makes it clear that one should not be recognized as a Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava if he is not obedient to them.

CC Adi 5.22, Purport: There is no difference between atheists and the faithful in the Vaikuṇṭha planets because all who settle there are freed from the material qualities, and thus suras and asuras become equally obedient loving servitors of the Lord.

CC Adi 7.147, Purport: Everyone who actually desires to understand the Vedānta philosophy must certainly accept the explanation of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu and the Vaiṣṇava ācāryas who have also commented on the Vedānta-sūtra according to the principles of bhakti-yoga. After hearing the explanation of the Vedānta-sūtra from Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, all the sannyāsīs, headed by Prakāśānanda Sarasvatī, became very humble and obedient to the Lord, and they spoke as follows.

CC Adi 7.148, Purport: We are propagating the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement simply by following in the footsteps of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu. We may not be very well versed in the Vedānta-sūtra aphorisms and may not understand their meaning, but we follow in the footsteps of the ācāryas, and because of our strictly and obediently following in the footsteps of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, it is to be understood that we know everything regarding the Vedānta-sūtra.

CC Adi 8.9, Purport: Formerly there were kings like Jarāsandha who strictly followed the Vedic rituals, acted as charitable, competent kṣatriyas, possessed all kṣatriya qualities and were even obedient to the brahminical culture but who did not accept Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Jarāsandha attacked Kṛṣṇa many times, and each time, of course, he was defeated. Like Jarāsandha, any man who performs Vedic rituals but does not accept Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Personality of Godhead must be considered an asura, or demon.

CC Madhya-lila

CC Madhya 14.18, Translation: The King replied, “My Lord, I am the most obedient servant of Your servants. It is my ambition that You will accept me as the servant of Your servants.”

Teachings of Lord Caitanya

Teachings of Lord Caitanya, Chapter 8: The Viṣṇu incarnation, although master of the modes of goodness within each universe, is in no way in touch with the influence of material nature. Although Viṣṇu is equal to Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa is the original source. Viṣṇu is a part, but Kṛṣṇa is the whole. This is the version given by Vedic literatures. In Brahma-saṁhitā the example is given of an original candle which lights a second candle. Although both candles are of equal power, one is accepted as the original, and the other is said to be kindled from the original. The Viṣṇu expansion is like the second candle. He is as powerful as Kṛṣṇa, but the original Viṣṇu is Kṛṣṇa. Brahmā and Lord Śiva are obedient servants of the Supreme Lord, and the Supreme Lord as Viṣṇu is an expansion of Kṛṣṇa.

Teachings of Lord Caitanya, Chapter 19: Lord Caitanya immediately informed Prakāśānanda that in the modern age people in general are more or less bereft of all spiritual intellect. When such people come under the influence of Śaṅkarācārya's Māyāvādī (impersonalist) philosophy before beginning the most confidential Vedānta-sūtras, their natural tendency toward obedience to the Supreme is checked. The supreme source of everything is naturally respected by everyone, but this natural tendency is hampered when one takes to the impersonalist conceptions of Śaṅkara. Thus the spiritual master of Lord Caitanya suggested that it is better that one not study the Śārīraka-bhāṣya of Śaṅkarācārya, for it is very harmful to people in general.

Nectar of Devotion

Nectar of Devotion 2: Rūpa Gosvāmī defines the first part of devotional practice, or vaidhi-bhakti, as follows: "When there is no attachment or no spontaneous loving service to the Lord, and one is engaged in the service of the Lord simply out of obedience to the order of the spiritual master or in pursuance of the scriptures, such obligatory service is called vaidhi-bhakti."

Nectar of Devotion 22: Kṛṣṇa is full in all opulences—namely strength, wealth, fame, beauty, knowledge and renunciation. When Kṛṣṇa was present in Dvārakā, His family, which is known as the Yadu dynasty, consisted of 560 million members. And all of these family members were very obedient and faithful to Kṛṣṇa. There were more than 900,000 big palatial buildings there to house all the people, and everyone in them respected Kṛṣṇa as the most worshipable. Devotees were astonished to see the opulence of Kṛṣṇa.

Nectar of Instruction

Nectar of Instruction 4: The conclusion is that we should always keep company with devotees, observe the regulative devotional principles, follow in the footsteps of the ācāryas and in full obedience carry out the orders of the spiritual master. In this way we shall be able to develop our devotional service and dormant Kṛṣṇa consciousness. The devotee who is neither a neophyte nor a mahā-bhāgavata (a greatly advanced devotee) but is within the middle status of devotional service is expected to love the Supreme Personality of Godhead, make friends with the devotees, show favor to the ignorant and reject the jealous and demoniac.

Krsna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead

Krsna Book 22: The gopīs were all simple souls, and whatever Kṛṣṇa said they took to be true. In order to be freed from the wrath of Varuṇadeva, as well as to fulfill the desired end of their vows and ultimately to please their worshipable Lord, Kṛṣṇa, they immediately abided by His order. Thus they became the greatest lovers of Kṛṣṇa, and His most obedient servitors.

Krsna Book 29: "All living creatures are My parts and parcels, and naturally they are affectionate to Me. So this affection for Me is very welcome, and I congratulate you for this. Now you can go back to your homes. Another thing I must explain to you is that for a chaste woman, service to the husband without duplicity is the best religious principle. Not only should a woman be faithful and chaste to her husband, but she should also be affectionate to the friends of her husband, obedient to the father and mother of her husband, and affectionate to the younger brothers of her husband. And most importantly, a woman must take care of her children.”

Krsna Book 29: “O dear Kṛṣṇa,” they continued, “You are the supreme instructor. There is no doubt about it. Your instructions to women to be faithful to their husbands and merciful to their children, to take care of household affairs and to be obedient to the elder members of the family, are surely just according to the tenets of the śāstras. But we know that one may perfectly observe all these instructions of the śāstras by keeping oneself under the protection of Your lotus feet.

Krsna Book 30: They said that this chief gopī, Rādhārāṇī, must be very proud of Her position, thinking Herself the greatest of the gopīs. “Yet how could Kṛṣṇa take Her away alone, leaving all of us aside, unless She is extraordinarily qualified and beautiful? She must have taken Kṛṣṇa into the deep forest and told Him, ‘My dear Kṛṣṇa, I am now very tired. I cannot go any further. Please carry Me wherever You like.’ When Kṛṣṇa was spoken to in this way, He might have told Rādhārāṇī, ‘All right, better get on My shoulder.’ But immediately Kṛṣṇa must have disappeared, and now Rādhārāṇī must be lamenting for Him, ‘My dear lover, My dearest, You are so fine and so powerful. Where have You gone? I am nothing but Your most obedient maidservant. I am very much aggrieved. Please come and be with Me again.’ Kṛṣṇa, however, is not coming to Her. He must be watching Her from a distant place and enjoying Her sorrow.”

Krsna Book 33: The brāhma-muhūrta takes place about one and a half hours before sunrise. It is recommended that one should rise from bed at that time and, after finishing daily ablutions, take to spiritual activities by performing maṅgala-ārati and chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. This period is very convenient for the execution of spiritual activities. When that auspicious moment arrived, Kṛṣṇa asked the gopīs to leave. Although His beloveds were not willing to quit His company, they were very obedient to Him. As soon as Kṛṣṇa asked them to go home, they immediately left and returned home.

Krsna Book 38: Akrūra thought, “That Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, has now appeared as one of the descendants of the Yadu dynasty. The principles of religion are His enacted laws. Those who are abiding by such laws are demigods, and those who are not abiding are demons. He has advented Himself to give protection to the demigods, who are very obedient to the laws of the Supreme Lord. The demigods and the devotees of the Lord take pleasure in abiding by the laws of Kṛṣṇa, and Kṛṣṇa takes pleasure in giving them all sorts of protection. As confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā, these activities of Kṛṣṇa—His protecting the devotees and killing the demons, as confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā—are always good for men to hear and narrate. The glorious activities of the Lord will ever increasingly be chanted by the devotees and demigods.

Krsna Book 43: The famous wrestler Cāṇūra then began to talk with Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma. “My dear Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma,” he said, “we have heard about Your past activities. You are great heroes, and therefore the King has called You. We have heard that Your arms are very strong. The King and all the people present here desire to see a display of Your wrestling abilities. A citizen should be obedient and please the mind of the ruling king; acting in that way, the citizen attains all kinds of good fortune. One who does not care to act obediently is made unhappy because of the king’s anger. You are cowherd boys, and we have heard that while tending Your cows in the forest, You enjoy wrestling with each other. We wish, therefore, for You to join with us in wrestling so that all the people present here, including the King, will be pleased.”

Krsna Book 61: Kṛṣṇa had 16,108 wives, and in each of them He begot ten sons, all of them equal to their father in the opulences of strength, beauty, wisdom, fame, wealth and renunciation. “Like father, like son.” All the 16,108 wives of Kṛṣṇa were princesses, and when each saw that Kṛṣṇa was always present in her respective palace and did not leave home, she considered Kṛṣṇa a henpecked husband who was very much attached to her. Every one of them thought that Kṛṣṇa was her very obedient husband, but actually Kṛṣṇa had no attraction for any of them. Although each thought that she was the only wife of Kṛṣṇa and was very, very dear to Him, Lord Kṛṣṇa, being ātmārāma, self-sufficient, felt neither attraction nor enmity toward any one of them; He was equal to all the wives and treated them as a perfect husband would, just to please them. For Him, there was no need of even a single wife. In fact, since they were women, the wives could not understand the exalted position of Kṛṣṇa, nor the truths about Him.

Krsna Book 62: This great hero Bāṇāsura, born of Mahārāja Bali, was a great devotee of Lord Śiva and was always ready to render service unto him. Because of his devotion, Bāṇāsura achieved a great position in society, and he was honored in every respect. Actually, he was very intelligent and liberal also, and his activities are all praiseworthy because he never deviated from his promise and word of honor; he was very truthful and fixed in his vow. In those days, he was ruling over the city of Śoṇitapura. By the grace of Lord Śiva, Bāṇāsura had one thousand arms, and he became so powerful that even demigods like King Indra were serving him most obediently.

Krsna Book 65: While Balarāma was in that happy mood, He desired to enjoy the company of the gopīs in the water of the Yamunā. Therefore He called the Yamunā to come nearby. But the Yamunā neglected the order of Balarāmajī, considering Him intoxicated. Lord Balarāma became very much displeased at the Yamunā’s neglecting His order. He immediately wanted to scratch the land near the river with His plowshare. Lord Balarāma has two weapons, a plow and a club, from which He takes service when they are required. This time He wanted to bring the Yamunā by force, and He took the help of His plow. He wanted to punish the Yamunā because she did not come in obedience to His order. He addressed the Yamunā, “You wretched river! You did not care for My order. Now I shall teach you a lesson! You did not come to Me voluntarily. Now with the help of My plow I shall force you to come. I shall divide you into hundreds of scattered streams!”

Renunciation Through Wisdom

Renunciation Through Wisdom 2.10: The devotee himself arranges for all expenditures incurred in executing devotional service. To an ordinary eye, earning and spending money in this way may look like sense enjoyment. But when the devotee is devoid of all material desires, the Supreme Lord feels great satisfaction in fulfilling all his needs. Though the obedient son may never express his wants to his father, the loving father spontaneously tries to make his son happy and derives joy from doing so. Therefore the Lord's devotees never lack anything, even materially, and at the end of this life, after leaving the body, they are situated in eternal bliss. This is the transcendental wealth a devotee inherits. Others—the fruitive workers, empiric philosophers, demigod-worshippers, and mystic yogīs—cannot attain eternal bliss.

Message of Godhead

Message of Godhead 2: It is very difficult to ascertain which exigency is the cause of the other, but we can describe this process of reciprocity as the wheel of work. And to travel all over the universe is to circumambulate the wheel of work. There is no estimation of our circumambulation and the concomitant distress resulting from such travel life after life for illusory, material happiness, which is compared to the will o' the wisp. In the capacity of a false enjoyer, without any obedience to the supremely powerful Lord, the living soul searches for permanent happiness life after life, but he does not know where the real happiness is. Therefore, Prahlāda Mahārāja says that no one knows that his ultimate goal of self-realization is to reach Viṣṇu, the all-powerful Godhead.

Light of the Bhagavata

Light of the Bhagavata 2: There are different yajñas prescribed for different ages, and in the present age of iron industry the yajña that enlightens the mind of the masses for God consciousness is recommended. This process of yajña is called the saṅkīrtana-yajña, or mass agitation for invoking man's lost spiritual consciousness. As soon as this movement is taken up through spiritual singing, dancing, and feasting, the people will automatically become obedient and honest. Obedience is the first law of discipline. The people have become disobedient to the laws of God, and therefore neither rain nor wealth is equally distributed. A man who is ultimately disobedient cannot have any good qualifications. When disobedient leaders lead the disobedient people, the whole atmosphere of the administration becomes polluted and full of dangers, as when a blind man leads several other blind men. The state taxes, therefore, should be spent to build the character of the people in general. That will bring happiness to the citizens of the state.