Prabhupāda: So you have to convince people like that, that it is not a sentimental institution. We are teaching the thing which is very absolutely needed for the human society. As soon as one becomes Kṛṣṇa conscious, his personal questions and problems are solved. And if others adopt the same principle, then social-political questions are also solved. So we have to teach. They will say it is not practical. Why not practical? No, anything is not, not practical. There are so many scientific... You discovered. Just like this tape recorder. This is advantageous to the human society. But it is not practical that everyone will have a nice tape recorder. That is not practical. But when you go to manufacture, say the discoverer, "Oh, that it is not practical; therefore it should not be manufactured." Similarly, Kṛṣṇa consciousness may not be practical for all, but that does not mean it should not be preached. The customer will take. Just like this tape recorder, one has got money, you have purchased, taking advantage. Similarly, there are many pious persons who can take Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Just like you have taken. You are not ordinary common men. There must have been some pious activities in your past lives.
Past Life (Conv. and Letters)
Conversations and Morning Walks
1968 Conversations and Morning Walks
1969 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: This is the association, effect of association. So they surrendered. So Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, "Yes, I will accept you. I don't care for your past deeds, but you have to agree that no more this nonsense." That means before initiation one might have done all nonsense things. That doesn't matter. That is not disqualification. But after initiation one should not. Then his life is changed immediately by this Hare Kṛṣṇa movement. This is the instruction of Jagāi-Mādhāi. So there were only two Jagāi-Mādhāis, but you'll meet hundreds of Jagāi-Mādhāis. So... But they can be delivered. There is no question that in their past life they had been sinful. Simply they have to agree that "No more this nonsense." Therefore I have kept these restrictions, these four restrictions. Anyone who adopts this life and initiated, and follows these restrictions, then he begins a new life.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: How can we show... We can't throw a pot at someone's head every night we perform this. It's not feasible to throw something at someone's head each time we do this.
Prabhupāda: You do? No? No, no. You just make a...like this. That's all. And Nityānanda may be smearing his head and found some blood. In this way you can do like that. After all, it is show.
1970 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Self-preservation. So self-preservation... They do not know what is self-preservation. That is another ignorance. They consider this body as the self. Their self-preservation means to keep this body. And that is also not possible. If you do not follow regulative principles, it is not possible to keep your body in good condition. That is also not possible. Those who do not follow the regulative principles, mostly they are diseased, some kind. We find in the medical, modern medical shop the customers are educated people. Mass of people, they are not customers in the medical shop. You'll find it. They are not so much diseased. In every gentleman's house, modern, you'll find so many bottles of medicine. But you won't find such medical bottles in any house of less educated persons. They are not so diseased. So this is one of the items. If you want to advance in spiritual life you must follow the regulative principles to rectify your mistakes in the past life and this present life. Without being freed from all contamination nobody can understand God. That is not possible. Bhagavad-gītā says, yeṣāṁ anta gataṁ pāpaṁ: "One who has become completely freed from all kinds of sinful reaction," yeṣāṁ tv anta-gataṁ pāpaṁ janānāṁ puṇya-karmaṇām, "Persons who are engaged in pious activities only," te, "such person," te dvandva-moha-nirmuktā... (BG 7.28).
Prabhupāda: If you get a dog's body you suffer according to that. If you get a man's body... Suffering will be there more or less as soon as you get this material body. Therefore Ṛṣabhadeva said, na sādhu mānye: "You are acting abominable. It is not good because you are already suffering in this body." Otherwise why you are stealing? You are in want of money. You are suffering. Therefore necessity is now law. Therefore you are accepting. Even you know that stealing is bad, still, you are accepting it because that is a suffering. So for some of your activities in the past life you are now suffering, and if you go on, continuing committing this nonsense, then you will again, you will have to again accept a body and you'll suffer. Therefore garhitāṁ. There are so many things to know but these things are not discussed nowadays. Very cheap thing: "You can do whatever you like. You simply meditate and become God, that's all." So much cheating is going on everywhere, all over the world. So-called yogis, they go, "Oh, you meditate. You are... And as soon as you realize, you are God, within six months." No. Therefore in this age the only method... It is a concession to the fallen people of this world, this Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra.
1972 Conversations and Morning Walks
Guest (2): I believe they were great yogīs in their past lives.
Prabhupāda: And why you not?
Guest (2): I don't know that.
Prabhupāda: Because you don't surrender. That is the fact. If you surrender, you become also great yogī.
- yoginām api sarveṣāṁ
- mad-gatenāntarātmanā
- śraddhāvān bhajate yo māṁ
- sa me yuktatamo mataḥ
- (BG 6.47)
He is first-class yogī who is always thinking of Kṛṣṇa, topmost yogī. So you think of Kṛṣṇa always; you'll become topmost yogī.
Guest: (Hindi)
Prabhupāda: (Hindi) Don't be sorry. Indians, generally they say, "Oh, we know everything about Kṛṣṇa. What we have to learn?" Yes. When they go to some Indian, they say like that. What do they say?
1973 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Sometimes Englishman, sometimes cats, dogs. Because after death you'll get a body that will be chosen not by you but by the material nature. You'll create your body by your present activities, and nature will simply award you that body. So, so long we have got this material body, the four kinds of miserable conditions, repetition of birth, death, old age and disease, you have to suffer. Therefore, this human life should be utilized in such a way that we do not become subject to these four tribulations, birth, death, old age and disease. That is perfection. But people are not given that chance, the modern education, modern civilization. They've no knowledge; they do not know that there is life after death, although it is a simple fact. Just like in our present existence we have got past, present and future. Just like you are young man, you have your past. You are a child, or a boy, now that is past. Present, you are young man, and in future you are expecting to become old man. So as you have got past, present and future, similarly, I'm old man, I've got my past life, why not future?
Prabhupāda: Yes, she remembers of her last birth. That is quite possible. Because we are changing body. So one who can remember about his past life, they are called jāta-smaraṇa.
Yogeśvara: Jāta-smaraṇa?
Prabhupāda: One who can remember about his past life. (break) ...means forgetting everything of the past life. (break) ...times a person remembers.
Yogeśvara: She asks for a definition of the word "occult." What is something that is occult, something occult or mystic? What is it?
Prabhupāda: Mystic?
Yogeśvara: Mystic. What is mysticism?
Prabhupāda: I do not say anything on mysticism. Mystic, something. It is called rahasya.
Yogeśvara: Rahasya?
Prabhupāda: Rahasya. Something wonderful. Is that meaning?
Prabhupāda: Yes, in the past. You forgot, but in the past you had life. Just like in the past I was young man. That's a fact. Similarly, but that young body is no more existing. Similarly, I had a past life but I have forgotten. That is the... Forgetfulness is our nature. Death means forgetting what was your first, past life. That is by nature you become forgetful because if you remember our past life and compare with this life... Suppose one was very rich man and if he becomes a poor, a cat and dog, then if he remembers, then it is very unbearable for him. Therefore nature helps him to forget. Forget. Otherwise he cannot do it. But the real problem is that we are eternal soul, we are changing our body one after another, birth and death. Apart from worldly happiness and distress, this birth and death, that is not very good process. At death time we have to suffer so much that we give up this body. And then again we enter into the womb of a mother. That is not very good situation. Then when come out there are so many tribulations, disease, then again old age. So people do not understand that he is passing... Especially when we are in other than human life. There are 8,400,000 species of life. Aquatics, then birds, trees, plants, insects, then beasts. In this way we come to human form of life. This is evolution. So in this human form of life there is chance of understanding the problems of life. In other forms of life it is not possible.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Graham Hill: Can we?
Prabhupāda: Yes. There is... There is... Even astrology, Bṛghu-saṁhitā. Astrological calculation. You can know your past life, present life, and future life. There is system. Bṛghu-saṁhitā.
Graham Hill: So by our behavior (indistinct) will determine what sort of body we will get when we return?
Prabhupāda: Yes. Just like if you are educating your son for future life. So according to his education, according to his qualification, his future life will be fixed up. If he is properly educated he can become a very big man. And if he is not, he may not become. So this life is preparation for the next life. So this human form of life, if we are advanced in our consciousness then we should try to get our next life going back to home, back to Godhead.
Prabhupāda: Oh. There are so many songs. So you have devotional tendency. Develop it. Make your life successful. That is my humble suggestion. Manuṣya-janama pāiyā, rādhā-kṛṣṇa nā bhajiyā, jāniyā śuniyā bi... Anyone who has got this human form of life, he does not engage himself in developing Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then he's drinking poison knowingly. Jāniyā śuniyā biṣa khāinu. Biṣa means poison. A great opportunity, this human life. That is our mission, that this modern civilization, they have created such entanglement that people are rotting and they are losing the opportunity of this human form of life. Only on the basis of this bodily concept of life.
- yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke
- sva-dhīḥ kalatrādiṣu bhauma-ijya-dhīḥ
- yat-tīrtha-buddhiḥ salile na karhicij
- janeṣv abhijñeṣu sa eva go-kharaḥ
- (SB 10.84.13)
So by order of our superiors, we are trying to introduce. But we are very unhappy, seeing these people. They are spoiling their life in the bodily concept of life. He does not know what is going to happen next life. But there is a next life. That's a fact. As we had past life as child, as boy, as young man, similarly, we have past life also. This simple truth, they cannot understand. Or there is no attempt in the educational field.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Because he had already practiced. So if he, if he remembers, if he's intelligent, that "I've got this nice position, according to śāstra, because I had some good devotional activities in my past life. Now let me finish. I'll not fall down. I have no economic problem. I have got so much facilities. So let me advance in Kṛṣṇa consciousness." If he gets this... He'll get that sense.
Śyāmasundara: He automatically gets that standard.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Hm.
Śyāmasundara: So he must come back to that point again, starting there.
Prabhupāda: Just like you have given. Your children are given the good chance.
Śyāmasundara: Ah yeah.
Prabhupāda: The Sarasvatī's given chance. Now he's, from very childhood, she's chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare...
Śyāmasundara: yes.
Prabhupāda: Never go in vain. This is her... She had executed devotional service in her past life. Therefore from the very beginning of her life, she's in association of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, very beginning. This is the chance. Now it is the duty of the father and mother, and when she grows up it is her duty to finish this business, go to back to home. This is chance. So where is the loss? Even she failed last life, then where is the loss? She's getting another chance, whereas the ordinary karmīs, they'll not get that chance. That is explained. Read it.
Śrutakīrti: One who has forsaken his material occupation to engage in the devotional service of the Lord may sometimes fall down while in an immature stage, yet there is no danger of his being unsuccessful. On the other hand, a nondevotee, though fully engaged in occupational duties, does not gain anything.
Prabhupāda: That is the translation. Purport?
1974 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: The body is changed.
Dr. Patel: It's not icchā-dveṣa samutthena dvandva-mohena? (break)
Prabhupāda: That past life, because the body is changed, you forget.
Dr. Patel: Some of the people...
Prabhupāda: Some of the...
Dr. Patel: I don't know how it is, it is difficult to explain.
Prabhupāda: That is special. That is special.
Dr. Patel: There is a big research going on in the parapsychology, here in India and America.
Prabhupāda: No, it is by the grace of God one can remember about his past life. (break) ...practical experience. In our family, my mother's eldest sister, her son of a previous birth came to see her. Old man, very old man. (break) This is called illusion.
Prabhupāda: ...to becomes angry by Kṛṣṇa is auspicious, auspicious. It is a very nice verse. "It is very auspicious that you have become angry upon him. He is getting salvation." (break) ...the punishment of Kṛṣṇa, one has to execute many pious activities in his past life, just to get the punishment of Kṛṣṇa. And what to speak of love of Kṛṣṇa, how much pious activities one has to do. If for being punished by Kṛṣṇa, one has to undergo lots of pious activities in the past life, then just see, to be loved by Kṛṣṇa, how much one has to undergo pious activities. Kṛta-puṇya-puñjāḥ (SB 10.12.11). That is described. Kṛta-puṇya-puñjāḥ. Puñja means heaps, volumes, volumes of pious activities. Then one can come to Kṛṣṇa. Yeṣām anta-gataṁ pāpaṁ janānāṁ puṇya-karmaṇām. Nobody can come to Kṛṣṇa unless he has background of pious activities and one who has become freed from all sinful activities. Yeṣām anta-gataṁ pāpaṁ janānāṁ puṇya-karmaṇām. This is the qualification. (break)
Prabhupāda: Hm? By association. If you mix with the drunkards, you'll learn how to drink. And if you mix with the devotees, similarly, you can become cleansed. By the association. Saṅgāt sañjāyate kāmaḥ. One's desires develop according to the association.
Bhagavān: Śrīla Prabhupāda, in the Bhagavad-gītā, you state that sometimes they begin to take on these demonic qualities within the womb. These demonic qualities are inherited from the past life. So if we begin Kṛṣṇa conscious education very young, it's possible to stop these demonic qualities from developing?
Prabhupāda: No. His demonic qualities will be purified. Otherwise, what is the use of preaching? If the qualities cannot be changed, then what is the meaning of preaching?
Bhagavān: No, I said if we begin education early, they can be...
Prabhupāda: Yes, as early as possible. From the very womb, you begin education. Let the mother hear about Kṛṣṇa. He'll be purified from the womb. Just like Prahlāda Mahārāja became. He was born by a demon father. But his quality changed when his mother was instructed by Nārada Muni, everything was changed. If the demons cannot be changed, then what is the meaning of preaching?
Mādhavānanda: Śrīla Prabhupāda, once you said that if we could remember our past life, we would go crazy because it is so frustrating to continue transmigrating.
Prabhupāda: Even in this life we experience so much frustration. Even if we remember now, we become horrible: "Oh, I was in this state of life, I was in this state of life." Immediately shudder. "Oh, Kṛṣṇa has saved me." You should be obliged that Kṛṣṇa has given you shelter. You should... "Do not go again to that other platform." That is intelligence. The other day who was telling me that in Northern Pole, because there is no day, so many people commit suicide. Is it not?
Mādhavānanda: Sweden has the highest suicide rate.
Prabhupāda: Because that is horrible condition for any intelligent man. There is no day. Why they commit suicide in Sweden?
Mādhavānanda: Because it is horrible condition.
Prabhupāda: On account of that?
1975 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: First of all, we have to understand that we... There are many sources of knowledge, but the summary is that knowledge gathered by experience and knowledge gathered by, through authority. So both knowledge is helping me about the change of body. So how can you deny it? And still, if you remain ignorant, then you are foolish. How you can say there is no life after death? I am giving you evidence by experience and by authority. Then mostly, perhaps you have got experience of the... In the, especially in the Western countries... Here, if you ask ordinary cultivator, he'll believe: "Yes, there is life." They they are philosopher. "Yes, in my past life I did something wrong. Therefore I am suffering. And if I do wrong, I'll suffer in my next life." You'll get this knowledge even from the cultivator. This is India.
Girl: India has the knowledge.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Anyone who is born in India, he has got immediately this knowledge. He immediately knows there is God. That is the advantage of taking birth in India. What it will take hundreds of years to understand, they understand it by the birth. You have seen, so many thousands of people came. So the... Apart from this, the whole world, they do not believe that there is soul and after annihilation of this body, we shall get another body, another chapter of life. They do not believe it.
Prabhupāda: Australian, that's nice. Learn this art and preach. There is good potency in your country. You are also not poverty. Kṛṣṇa says, imaṁ rājarṣayo viduḥ (BG 4.2). Rājarṣi means very rich, kings. He never said, "All the bungees understood it. All the wretched class understood it." He never taught. It is meant for the leaders of the society, opulent kings and leaders. It is meant for them. Poverty-stricken man cannot under... But there is no bar, there is no hindrance. But this is especially meant for the opulent person. Otherwise why Kṛṣṇa says imaṁ rājarṣayo viduḥ? And He instructed first to the sun-god. He is not ordinary person. He instructed later on to Arjuna. He is not ordinary person. Because one important person learns the science, he will preach it all over the earth. Caitanya Mahāprabhu has directly said they are not ordinary persons. So unless one is materially not ordinary, he cannot preach. All the Gosvāmīs, they were coming from respectable... And where Gauḍīya Maṭha came? These are third-class men, no position in their past life.
Paramahaṁsa: Most of them just came from the villages.
Prabhupāda: Become a crab. That's all right. This is their solace. This is ignorance. You don't like it, but "When I become crab, I'll like it." That is māyā's covering. Otherwise he cannot live. If the crab thinks that "I was king in my past life. Now I have become a crab," it would be horrible for him. Therefore he forgets. That is a concession of māyā. Forget whatever you have had. Just like here they try to forget by drinking, intoxication. That kind of forgetfulness is also happiness for the rascals. Nobody wants to be degraded. But if in degradation one forgets his past life, if that kind of happiness is happiness, you can do it. This is for the fools. The dog forgets that he was a prime minister in his past life, and his statue is now being worshiped in the memorial hall. And he has become a dog. (If) this kind of happiness is happiness, let him take it. Actually it is like this.
Paramahaṁsa: Well, all of these things are relative anyway. So whether I am a dog or human being, it doesn't really make much difference, because I'm still existing.
Prabhupāda: Still, you don't want to become a dog when you are a human being.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Then you will turn your America as Vaikuṇṭha. And that is your duty, to save your countrymen. I think the America is... The people were pious in their past life. They have got this opulent position. Now they should use this opulent position. They have no poverty. They haven't got to work so hard, and they take advantage of this knowledge. Other countries, they are poor. They are busy how to earn their livelihood. But your country, because you are favored on account of your previous pious activities, you should utilize this position. People are embarrassed for improving their economic condition in other countries. Of course, if one is cultured, he is not embarrassed in any condition of life. But without Kṛṣṇa culture, poverty-stricken people, they are very much hampered. So you have no such problem. Therefore you can utilize your position, this opulent position, for advancing in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. As a learned scholar you should advocate this cause. Why should you waste your time in sense gratification? That is being done by the cats and dogs and hogs. Why this life? That is also... We have described in the Fifth Canto, nāyaṁ deho deha-bhājāṁ nṛloke kaṣṭān kāmān arhate viḍ-bhujāṁ ye (SB 5.5.1). For simply to satisfy the senses, why you should make such a gorgeous program for working? The sense gratification is enjoyed even by the hogs, the stool-eater. This particular animal is mentioned because they are gratifying senses without any discrimination. You will find the hogs eating stool, and they are with mothers and sister and have sex life, that's all. They have no discrimination.
Prabhupāda: Still there is a science, Bhṛgu-saṁhitā, which will give you prediction of your next birth. Still there is science, Bhṛgu-saṁhitā. He'll give you description of three lives: your past life, present life, and future life. Bhṛgu-saṁhitā. (break) ...Bhāgavata it is said bhaviṣyati. Kikaṭeṣu bhaviṣyati. Bhaviṣyati means "He will appear." Why it is not possible? You haven't got that knowledge, that is another thing. But it is possible. (break) ...one word: tri-kāla-jñā. Tri-kāla-jñā means "one who knows past, present, and future." Kṛṣṇa says, vedāhaṁ samatītāni (BG 7.26). "I know everything past, present..."
Brahmānanda: Equally, He says. Sama tītāni. He knows the past, the present and the future.
Prabhupāda: And He says in another place, "It is not that we were not existing in the past, and neither it is that we shall not exist in the future." So this is past, present, future. Tri-kāla-jñā. So we are not going to the temple?
Śrī Govinda: Oh, yes.
Prabhupāda: Change—if they become Kṛṣṇa conscious.
Harikeśa: But the system itself is defective. How can...
Prabhupāda: No, the defective will be correct when you become Kṛṣṇa conscious. Just like in your past life you had so many defects. Now it is corrected. That is practical.
Harikeśa: Let's say somebody is a minister...
Prabhupāda: Anybody.
Harikeśa: ...but his occupation is cheating.
Prabhupāda: That's all right. Let him become Kṛṣṇa conscious. He will stop this cheating business.
Harikeśa: But he has to stop.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Rājarṣi.
Prabhupāda: Yes. He has to stop. It will be stopped as soon as he becomes a devotee.
Harikeśa: So then gradually it will become the varṇāśrama, with the one central head.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Prabhupāda: Yes. They are not yet so advanced.
Brahmānanda: But it means in past life there must have been some connection if he immediately takes it so wholeheartedly, without any previous connection.
Indian man (4): The Indian people, when they see the Africans in the temple, singing and all that, they criticize, you know. They criticize us. They say, "Oh, you..." That boy, he told me. He read your Nectar of Devotion. Then he came to the conclusion... He read the story also of Mahārāja Ambarisa. So he used to go to the Hindu temple to clean the floor early in the morning before going to university. He told me that he went for one week and they never said anything. When he was going daily the temple, they told him, "Don't come here. Don't clean here. We don't want the African to come." So then he told me that "What should I do? I want to follow the Prabhupāda instruction. So what should I do? Prabhupāda said in his books that if one cannot do anything, simply he should go to the temple and clean the room." He was so serious. Then I told the pūjārī that "Why you are doing like that? He wants to serve the Lord. Why don't you let him serve? You want to keep out the inside the temple and throw the pots and the cigarette in the temple?" (?) So they criticize like that sometimes. They're simply imitating us.
1976 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Darwin has captured that portion, how the body is changing one after another.
Duryodhana-guru: Śrīla Prabhupāda, in Bhagavad-gītā it is said śucīnāṁ śrīmatāṁ gehe yoga-bhraṣṭo 'bhijāyate (BG 6.41). So, for somebody who is now a disciple of the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, are we to understand if he is not born in a family of devotees and if he is not born in an aristocratic family, that he was not a yogi in his past life?
Prabhupāda: Eh? Past life, they had some good deeds. Therefore they have come to Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. It is called ajñāta-sukṛti. Besides that, whatever he may be in the past life, the movement is there, it is open for everyone. Everyone can come and take advantage, despite whatever he did in his past life. It doesn't matter. If he comes and if he is fortunate, if he chants, then he becomes advanced.
Duryodhana-guru: This is Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu's special mercy.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Rāmeśvara: Śrīla Prabhupāda, you were explaining to the reporter yesterday that the difference between the animal and the human is that the animal cannot think of God; he has no religion. So, when the living entity is passing through these different species, he doesn't have sufficient knowledge of...
Prabhupāda: No knowledge. That is animal. That is animal.
Prabhupāda: Don't be attached. (laughs) Rascal. Don't be attached. (devotees laugh)
Rāmeśvara: But the.... Certain psychologists are very, very interested in trying to put a person under hypnosis, and then he can talk about experiences he has had in his past lives. They are very eager to have a person under a certain condition where he will remember experiences from his past life.
Prabhupāda: So why the psychiatrist does not remember? Why he does not remember?
Rāmeśvara: They say that only certain people have the ability to remember.
Prabhupāda: Certain rascals.
Candanācārya: They hypnotize them, and they say, "Remember your last life."
Prabhupāda: And whatever nonsense he says, it is all right.
Candanācārya: Yes.
Rāmeśvara: Is that possible, that the living entity can remember?
Prabhupāda: He can remember, but not these rascals' mechanical process.
Prabhupāda: A devotee, because a nondevotee has become a devotee, he is practicing how to simply accept Kṛṣṇa's orders. But by his previous habit he's still engaged in "do it" and "don't do it." That is his previous habit. Just like this fan is running. You take out the switch, the current is stopped, but it's still running, at least three, four rounds. So similarly, if you have taken to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, your, that current of "do it" or "do not," is stopped. Because you have agreed to do only what Kṛṣṇa says. If you have actually decided like that, then you are free. There is no more current of "do it" or "not do it." But because you were habituated in your past life to this "do it" or "not do it," sometimes it is found. But that is... Therefore Kṛṣṇa says,
- api cet sudurācāro
- bhajate mām ananya-bhāk
- sādhur eva sa mantavyaḥ
- samyag vyavasito hi saḥ
- (BG 9.30)
He has got little practice of these nonsense things. But if he sticks to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, this will be stopped very soon. That is the only remedy. So a devotee means he has taken vow before the spiritual master, before the fire, before... If he sticks to his principle, then he's free.
1977 Conversations and Morning Walks
Rāmeśvara: Here's the description of that. "The initial appearance of this luminous being and his questions are the prelude to a moment of startling intensity, during which this luminous being presents to the person a panoramic review of his life. It is obvious that this luminous being can see the individual's whole life and he doesn't need the information," but he is getting the dead man to reflect on his past life. It says that "The remembrance is extraordinarily rapid. Everything appears at once and can be taken in with one mental glance. Yet despite its rapidity, all the..."
Prabhupāda: That is happening in dream also. So many remembrances come together; it becomes topsy-turvied. Therefore we see all of a sudden: "Oh, it is done long, long ago."
Rāmeśvara: Yes. They say that the review, even though it's very quick, is incredibly vivid.
Hari-śauri: Find out where it discounts about punishment and reward.
Prabhupāda: One idea, another idea overlaps. Therefore it appears mysterious.
Prabhupāda: (aside:) Who is he?
Hari-śauri: Somebody stuck his head through the fence. Why not read about the..., about a review of the past life? There, this section here.
Rāmeśvara: But again, that's just subjective. These people who encountered this luminous being, they did not feel that they were being judged. They just felt that he was their friend coming to help them. That is their description.
Prabhupāda: And how they can feel they are being judged? That very, very subtle thing, they cannot imagine it.
Hari-śauri: They get shown this review of their life, but they don't feel that they're being judged on their sinful activities.
Prabhupāda: Then why different types of forms? Who is giving them different types of forms?
Prabhupāda: ...and sometimes we mix together and we see golden mountain. So in dream we see like that. We have got hundreds and thousands of experiences in our this life and past life. They are all stocked there, and they can sometimes get like a bubbles. You have seen the bubbles come out? It is like that. We should not give much importance to these things. But it is a fact that bona fide spiritual master is bona fide representative of Kṛṣṇa. That's a fact. So there is no question of subtle or gross. It is a fact. That's all right.
Satsvarūpa: But we've been discussing, and Pṛthu-putra Mahārāja is saying that some devotees are very sensitive about thinking that they're having these experiences. And if we tell them, "Ignore this. It's not important," that will not be good for them, because they are definitely feeling visits from persons from another plane, and if you simply tell them, "No..."
Prabhupāda: No, that's all right. You say that "You are fortunate that you're having, but do your business." That's all.
Pṛthu-putra: They want to feel satisfaction from Kṛṣṇa consciousness point of view.
Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Therefore Kṛṣṇa has brought them here in Māyāpur. Previously they were advanced, all of you. You are simply born because the mission was to be started. Just like in Yadu-vaṁśa Kṛṣṇa ordered all the devotee demigods to "Go and take birth there to help Me." Similarly, you are also... You were born in Europe, America, to help this. Otherwise you were devotees in you past lives. I have explained that in my recent writings. The purport was mām eti: goes to Kṛṣṇa where His pastime is going on, and then they are transferred to the original. So all the devotees picked up and they were placed together where Kṛṣṇa is having His pastimes in either of these innumerable universes. He's going on. Just the moving... The sun is moving-little, little, little. So Kṛṣṇa's pastimes go on—this universe, that universe, that universe, that universe. In some universe He's present. In all universes present, that is called nitya-līlā. So those who are advanced, perfect devotees, first of all they are sent there and then, further trained up, they enter. Mām eti. Just like after passing the administration examination he's made one assistant of some magistrate, and then gradually he'll be promoted up to the high-court judge.
Prabhupāda: Otherwise we are all part and parcel of God. When we realize this, then our life is perfect.
Italian woman: (Italian-translated into English by translator throughout)
Translator: She's saying that after rediscovering of last past life...
Prabhupāda: Past life means... As we are not this body, past life means there was another body; we have forgotten it. Just like at night we dream, "I have gone to some foreign place and talking with some foreigners and so on, so on." But in the morning that situation is changed and we forget everything. Again, at night we forget this body and we dream in another body. Every night we have experience that we forget this body. This is going on.
Translator: She says she's conscious of the relation, karmic relation, with a person that for last life she's having, and right now that person is also present with her in this life.
Prabhupāda: Past life?
Translator: Yes. She's says that four past lives she's having some relations.
Prabhupāda: Yes, that is forgotten or...
Correspondence
1947 to 1965 Correspondence
The sacred meeting organized by you at your place yesterday will be remembered by me with great reverence and I must thank you from the very core of my heart for giving me a chance to serve the cause of the potency of the almighty God. I think you have inherited some transcendental talents by the good deeds of your past life and as such you have taken your birth in the family of the srimatam as stated in the Bhagavad-gita. God willing you shall render tremendous transcendental service in the rest of your life and by doing so you shall not only glorify the family in which you have taken your birth but also the community and the country will be benefited.
Yesterday evening when we were talking at your veranda we had some talks over the advent day of Lord Caitanya which falls today the most auspicious Dol-yatra purnima day and as such I myself along with some members of my family today observing fast till the advent moment of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu just in the evening. Guru Maharaj Sastriji advised the members assembled yesterday to observe fast today and this is being done as a matter of course on the occasion of Gaura Jayanti day.
1967 Correspondence
They appreciated the meeting. If we can arrange such meetings in the schools and colleges it will be a very nice thing, because my purpose of coming here to enthuse the younger generation and it is very pleasing to me that Krishna is sending me younger generation and sincere souls like you. I think some of you like yourself, Satsvarupa, Brahmananda and Mukunda and Gargamuni, Acyutananda and all of you had already cultivated this Krishna Consciousness in your past lives, now Lord Caitanya wants that this movement should be spread in the western countries, so most probably in your previous births you were all Indians and cultivated this Krishna Consciousness. Now Lord Caitanya has placed you in the western part of the world so that you can now combine together and broadcast the holy message all over the world. Your detailed account of the receipt and expenditure is very nice, do your duty and Krishna will help you. I have got all approval of your activities and I am thanking you very much.
I have your letter of 8/22, and thank you very much for it. I am so glad that you have returned to Krishna. Krishna is kind that He does not let us go, anyone who sincerely takes to Him. And therefore you do not wish to leave Him anymore. This decision will lead you to your eternal life of bliss and knowledge. Certainly in your past life you must have had been a devotee of the Lord, otherwise you wouldn't have felt like becoming a nun at such a young age. Anyone who has a natural tendency for rejecting sense-gratification is considered to be advanced or liberated in spiritual life. Your appreciation of Maya as false and Krishna as the only reality is a great asset. Nobody has ever gained anything by becoming a tool in the hands of Maya, but everyone has become eternally happy by serving Krishna.
The feeling which you had by becoming compassionate to the fallen bum is very good, but the best way to deliver a bum is to revive his dormant Krishna Consciousness. If you can do that then give the bums good food and shelter. If you cannot do that, then simple supplying food and shelter, is serving the Maya. But there is no benefit to serving Maya, as you know, as it is all false, temporary or illusion. We are concerned with Reality, not Maya, and that should be the object of life.
1968 Correspondence
Regarding Randy, I understand that he is addicted to heroin intoxication, and he is taking some medicine to give it up, but I am sure that the best medicine is chanting the HARE KRISHNA mantra. For the time being, let him take the substitute medicine as he is taking, and at the same time let him seriously chant HARE KRISHNA. And I hope he will be able to give up that substitute medicine also. I have got experience—one of my God-brothers, he related about his past life, that he was addicted to all kinds of intoxication, and he was distilling wine in his village without any license—he was such a great intoxicant. But later on, we found him completely free from all intoxication—even he was not even smoking and was quite fit to work for Krishna Consciousness. So everything is possible provided one is serious. In the Srimad-Bhagavatam it is stated that if somebody is not too much addicted, neither he is completely powerful to give up some bad habits, this via media stage is favorable. Immediately if he cannot give up the medicine as he is taking, that doesn't matter. Let him chant HARE KRISHNA very seriously and he will gradually be able to give up everything.
1969 Correspondence
I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated June 28, 1969, and I am very glad that Krishna has after all given you a nice place to remain in London and spread Krishna Consciousness with more enthusiasm. Your successful meeting in Oxford is also very encouraging. There is a verse in Caitanya Caritamrta in which Krsna dasa Kaviraja says that the whole world is busy to enjoy or to suffer by their respective results of karma, pious or impious, from past life. So in this material world, somebody is enjoying material life in some higher planet and somebody is suffering some material inconveniences in some lower planets. But they do not know that suffering or no suffering, this material existence itself is not at all congenial to the living entity. In the Western countries, Europe and America, they appear to be enjoying life in the view of the Eastern people, and therefore they hear so much about the opulences in the different universities and towns of the Western countries. But actually, they have no knowledge how to get out of the material entanglement. The only bona fide engagement is Krishna Consciousness for the all around benefit of the human society. That is a fact.
1970 Correspondence
I understand that your wife is not very much interested in our movement and I understand the cause you have written to say. Anyway, we will pray to Krishna to save her; that is our duty.
Yes. The boy, Mayurdhvaj, is a very nice Krishna Conscious child. Why his mother is checking him? Although in the beginning she was so enthusiastic? This is called in Vedic language sva karma bhuk, one is destined to undergo reaction of one's past life. This reaction can only be checked by Krishna Consciousness. So our duty is heavy, to induce persons to come to this platform of consciousness; and if we can save even a single soul from the clutches of Maya, the value of such act is millions of times better than fruitive actions or any kind of altruistic and philanthropic activities.
Trivikrama is a very nice boy, sincere to Krishna Consciousness activities. In a previous letter, Krishna das asked me if Hamsaduta and Himavati can go there. So I think this pair will be very much helpful in our German centers. Hamsaduta is born in Germany but he came here in childhood, and Himavati is born in Germany although she is Russian originally. She knows how to speak in Russian language. So I have asked them to go there to help you in Sankirtana Movement and other Temple activities. Both of them are experienced in the Sankirtana Movement especially.
I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated February 4, 1970, and I am glad to learn that you have now become steady in comparison with your flickering past life. The association of devotees is the most important element in learning Krishna Consciousness way of life. By association with undesirable companions we have learned so many bad habits and similarly by association with pure persons or devotees we can become purified of our acquired bad habits. So constant association and working cooperatively with devotees is the prime and easy method to relearn our original good habit of Krsna Consciousness.
I am also very pleased to know that you are living happily with your good wife, and you are expecting a child in July. So now you must take especial care to raise the new child in such a nice way that he will become a pure devotee in Krsna Consciousness; that is the responsibility of the parents, to see that their child is freed from the clutches of Maya.
Therefore I have not only wasted my valuable time, but also I have willingly drunk poison for committing suicide. My heart is always in blazing fire because of my association with material sense enjoyment, and I did not fix up my mind in the Krsna Consciousness movement which is imported directly from the Kingdom of God. This Krsna Consciousness movement is inaugurated by Lord Caitanya and Lord Nityananda Who are Krsna and Balarama respectively. They have descended very kindly to reclaim all fallen souls of this age of whom the typical examples are the two brothers Jagai and Madhai. Now, forgetting all mistakes that I have committed in my past life, I humbly surrender unto You, my Lord Krsna the Son of Nanda Maharaja, and also to Srimati Radharani the daughter of King Vrsabhanu. So both of You are present together, and I fully surrender unto You. Please do not reject me as I have no other shelter except Yourselves."
Perhaps you have heard, and George has also heard, my song on this theme, "Hari Hari bifale janama gonainu . . ." So if George can compose a nice song in his own words, and sings, I am sure it will be an epoch making incident. There are many hundreds of thousands of such themes, and if he wants to introduce such songs propitious for pushing Krsna Consciousness movement, that will be very nice.
1972 Correspondence
I have received your letters dated August 13 and August 15 respectively and have noted the contents with some dismay. I do not like to hear these things, but whatever is done, is done. What you have is all right, now go on preaching as you are doing. So far the presidents are concerned, they should not be abruptly changed in future. If there is any complaint they should be first of all informed to me. One thing we should always remember is that all of our devotees picked up here are accustomed to all of these bad habits in their past life, so if sometimes they reveal their old characteristics, instead of rejecting them, it is up to us to rectify them as far as possible. So try to reform Mohananandan there. What he will do by coming here? Amogha has indicated he has already shaved his sikha and has left everything. do you think U.S.A. is a magic place, simply by coming here he will become reformed? If possible you can send to the U.S.A., but it is better to correct him to the standard point by friendly gestures. We can reject anyone, that is very easy, but to reform him that requires great skill and tact and if you can reform him there by kind words and dealings, that is best. When I was there in Sydney, I observed that Mohananandan is very, very good boy and he has great intelligence and talent, simply it has become little bit misguided due to circumstances.
| Page Title: | Past Life (Conv. and Letters) |
| Compiler: | Mayapur, RupaManjari |
| Created: | 06 of Oct, 2011 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=31, Let=9 |
| No. of Quotes: | 40 |