Go to Vanipedia | Go to Vanisource | Go to Vanimedia


Vaniquotes - the compiled essence of Vedic knowledge


Perfect and complete

Srimad-Bhagavatam

SB Canto 1

When the hearing process is perfect and complete, the other processes become automatically perfect in their own way.
SB 1.8.36, Purport:

The Bhagavad-gétä is one of the popular literatures which are generally heard, chanted, repeated, etc., by the people in general, but in spite of such hearing, etc., sometimes it is experienced that the performer of such devotional service does not see the Lord eye to eye. The reason is that the first item, çravaëa, is very important. If hearing is from the right sources, it acts very quickly. Generally people hear from unauthorized persons. Such unauthorized persons may be very learned by academic qualifications, but because they do not follow the principles of devotional service, hearing from them becomes a sheer waste of time. Sometimes the texts are interpreted fashionably to suit their own purposes. Therefore, first one should select a competent and bona fide speaker and then hear from him. When the hearing process is perfect and complete, the other processes become automatically perfect in their own way.

SB Canto 2

Common sense is always imperfect, whereas the description in the śāstras is always perfect and complete. If there is any incongruity, it is due to our imperfection and not the śāstras'. That is the method of approaching Vedic wisdom.
SB 2.1.30, Translation and Purport:

The sphere of outer space constitutes His eyepits, and the eyeball is the sun as the power of seeing. His eyelids are both the day and night, and in the movements of His eyebrows, the Brahmā and similar supreme personalities reside. His palate is the director of water, Varuṇa, and the juice or essence of everything is His tongue.

To common sense the description in this verse appears to be somewhat contradictory because sometimes the sun has been described as the eyeball and sometimes as the outer space sphere. But there is no room for common sense in the injunctions of the śāstras. We must accept the description of the śāstras and concentrate more on the form of the virāṭ-rūpa than on common sense. Common sense is always imperfect, whereas the description in the śāstras is always perfect and complete. If there is any incongruity, it is due to our imperfection and not the śāstras'. That is the method of approaching Vedic wisdom.

SB Canto 6

"The Personality of Godhead is perfect and complete, and because He is completely perfect, all emanations from Him, such as this phenomenal world, are perfectly equipped as complete wholes. Whatever is produced of the complete whole is also complete in itself. Because He is the complete whole, even though so many complete units emanate from Him, He remains the complete balance."
SB 6.19.4, Translation and Purport:

(She should then pray to the Lord as follows.) My dear Lord, You are full in all opulences, but I do not beg You for opulence. I simply offer my respectful obeisances unto You. You are the husband and master of Lakṣmīdevī, the goddess of fortune, who has all opulences. Therefore You are the master of all mystic yoga. I simply offer my obeisances unto You.

A devotee knows how to appreciate the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

oṁ pūrṇam adaḥ pūrṇam idaṁ
pūrṇāt pūrṇam udacyate
pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya
pūrṇam evāvaśiṣyate
(Īśo Invocation)

"The Personality of Godhead is perfect and complete, and because He is completely perfect, all emanations from Him, such as this phenomenal world, are perfectly equipped as complete wholes. Whatever is produced of the complete whole is also complete in itself. Because He is the complete whole, even though so many complete units emanate from Him, He remains the complete balance." Therefore, to take shelter of the Supreme Lord is required. Whatever a devotee needs will be supplied by the complete Supreme Personality of Godhead (teṣāṁ nityābhiyuktānāṁ yoga-kṣemaṁ vahāmy aham (BG 9.22)). Therefore a pure devotee will not ask anything from the Lord. He simply offers the Lord his respectful obeisances, and the Lord is prepared to accept whatever the devotee can secure to worship Him, even patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyam (BG 9.26)-a leaf, flower, fruit or water. There is no need to artificially exert oneself. It is better to be plain and simple and with respectful obeisances offer to the Lord whatever one can secure. The Lord is completely able to bless the devotee with all opulences.

SB Cantos 10.14 to 12 (Translations Only)

SB 10.14.23, Translation:

You are the one Supreme Soul, the primeval Supreme Personality, the Absolute Truth—self-manifested, endless and beginningless. You are eternal and infallible, perfect and complete, without any rival and free from all material designations. Your happiness can never be obstructed, nor have You any connection with material contamination. Indeed, You are the indestructible nectar of immortality.

SB 12.11.24, Translation:

O best of brāhmaṇas, He alone is the self-luminous, original source of the Vedas, perfect and complete in His own glory. By His material energy He creates, destroys and maintains this entire universe. Because He is the performer of various material functions, He is sometimes described as materially divided, yet He always remains transcendentally situated in pure knowledge. Those who are dedicated to Him in devotion can realize Him to be their true Soul.

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta

CC Adi-lila

"The Personality of Godhead is perfect and complete, and because He is completely perfect, all emanations from Him, such as this phenomenal world, are perfectly equipped as complete wholes."
CC Adi 3.71, Translation and Purport:

The word "aṅga" indeed refers to plenary portions. Such manifestations should never be considered products of material nature, for they are all transcendental, full of knowledge and full of bliss.

In the material world, if a fragment is taken from an original object, the original object is reduced by the removal of that fragment. But the Supreme Personality of Godhead is not at all affected by the actions of māyā. The Īśopaniṣad says:

oṁ pūrṇam adaḥ pūrṇam idaṁ
pūrṇāt pūrṇam udacyate
pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya
pūrṇam evāvaśiṣyate

"The Personality of Godhead is perfect and complete, and because He is completely perfect, all emanations from Him, such as this phenomenal world, are perfectly equipped as complete wholes. Whatever is produced of the complete whole is also complete in itself. Because He is the complete whole, even though so many complete units emanate from Him, He remains the complete balance." (Śrī Īśopaniṣad, Invocation) In the realm of the Absolute, one plus one equals one, and one minus one equals one.

"The Personality of Godhead is perfect and complete, and because He is completely perfect, all emanations from Him, such as this phenomenal world, are perfectly equipped as complete wholes. Whatever is produced of the complete whole is also complete by itself."
CC Adi 5.41, Purport:

There is no such rule as cause and effect outside of the material world. Therefore the understanding of cause and effect cannot approach the full, transcendental, complete expansions of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The Vedic literature proves this:

oṁ pūrṇam adaḥ pūrṇam idaṁ pūrṇāt pūrṇam udacyate
pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya pūrṇam evāvaśiṣyate
(Īśo Invocation)

"The Personality of Godhead is perfect and complete, and because He is completely perfect, all emanations from Him, such as this phenomenal world, are perfectly equipped as complete wholes. Whatever is produced of the complete whole is also complete by itself. Because He is the complete whole, even though so many complete units emanate from Him, He remains the complete balance." (Bṛhad-āraṇyaka Upaniṣad 5.1) It is most apparent that nondevotees violate the rules and regulations of devotional service to equate the whole cosmic manifestation, which is the external feature of Viṣṇu, with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is the controller of māyā, or with His quadruple expansions. Equating māyā with spirit, or māyā with the Lord, is a sign of atheism.

Other Books by Srila Prabhupada

Teachings of Lord Caitanya

"You are so perfect and complete that even though You give Yourself to Your devotee, You are still full and perfect."
Teachings of Lord Caitanya, Chapter 12:

The Lord is very kind to His devotees, and He is very grateful, able and magnanimous. It is our duty to believe His words, and if we are intelligent and educated enough, we will follow His instructions without hesitation. In Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (10.48.26) Akrūra tells Kṛṣṇa:

kaḥ paṇḍitas tvad aparaṁ śaraṇaṁ samīyād
bhakta-priyād ṛta-giraḥ suhṛdaḥ kṛta-jñāt
sarvān dadāti suhṛdo bhajato 'bhikāmān
ātmānam apy upacayāpacayau na yasya

"Who can surrender to anyone other than Yourself? Who is as dear, truthful, friendly and grateful as You? You are so perfect and complete that even though You give Yourself to Your devotee, You are still full and perfect. You can satisfy all the desires of Your devotee and even deliver Yourself unto him." A person who is intelligent and able to understand the philosophy of Kṛṣṇa consciousness naturally gives up everything and takes to the shelter of Kṛṣṇa.

Sri Isopanisad

The Personality of Godhead is perfect and complete, and because He is completely perfect, all emanations from Him, such as this phenomenal world, are perfectly equipped as complete wholes. Whatever is produced of the Complete Whole is also complete in itself. Because He is the Complete Whole, even though so many complete units emanate from Him, He remains the complete balance.
Sri Isopanisad Invocation:

The Personality of Godhead is perfect and complete, and because He is completely perfect, all emanations from Him, such as this phenomenal world, are perfectly equipped as complete wholes. Whatever is produced of the Complete Whole is also complete in itself. Because He is the Complete Whole, even though so many complete units emanate from Him, He remains the complete balance.

PURPORT

The Complete Whole, or the Supreme Absolute Truth, is the complete Personality of Godhead. Realization of impersonal Brahman or of Paramātmā, the Supersoul, is incomplete realization of the Absolute Complete. The Supreme Personality of Godhead is sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha (Bs. 5.1). Realization of impersonal Brahman is realization of His sat feature, or His aspect of eternity, and Paramātmā realization is realization of His sat and cit features, His aspects of eternity and knowledge. But realization of the Personality of Godhead is realization of all the transcendental features—sat, cit and ānanda, bliss. When one realizes the Supreme Person, he realizes these aspects of the Absolute Truth in their completeness. Vigraha means "form." Thus the Complete Whole is not formless. If He were formless, or if He were less than His creation in any other way, He could not be complete. The Complete Whole must contain everything both within and beyond our experience; otherwise He cannot be complete.

The Complete Whole, the Personality of Godhead, has immense potencies, all of which are as complete as He is. Thus this phenomenal world is also complete in itself. The twenty-four elements of which this material universe is a temporary manifestation are arranged to produce everything necessary for the maintenance and subsistence of this universe. No other unit in the universe need make an extraneous effort to try to maintain the universe. The universe functions on its own time scale, which is fixed by the energy of the Complete Whole, and when that schedule is completed, this temporary manifestation will be annihilated by the complete arrangement of the Complete Whole.

All facilities are given to the small complete units (namely the living beings) to enable them to realize the Complete Whole. All forms of incompleteness are experienced due to incomplete knowledge of the Complete Whole.

Lectures

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

The Īśopaniṣad, it is said that He is so perfect and complete, even complete is taken away from complete, it is still complete. That is Brahman.
Lecture on BG 4.24 -- Bombay, April 13, 1974:

Kṛṣṇa is spread in so many ways by His energy, by His personal expansion. Advaitam acyutam anādir ananta-rūpam ādyaṁ purāṇa-puruṣaṁ nava-yauvanaṁ ca (Bs. 5.33). He is not finished. This is material idea, that "If Brahman is spread everywhere, then where is the existence of Brahman in one place?" This is the Māyāvādī idea.

Just like you take a big paper, a newspaper, and tear it into pieces and throw all over, the original newspaper is finished. But Kṛṣṇa is not like that, that because Kṛṣṇa has spread by His energies, prakṛti—energy means prakṛti—that does not mean Kṛṣṇa is finished. This is Māyāvāda philosophy, that when Brahman, the Supreme, is distributed everywhere, the original form, or the fact, is finished. No. That is not the fact. The Īśopaniṣad, it is said that He is so perfect and complete, even complete is taken away from complete, it is still complete. That is Brahman.

So a high-court judge, why his son becomes a loafer? Is it guaranteed that because one is son of high-court judge, he'll also become a high-court judge? There is no such guarantee.
Lecture on BG 9.3 -- Melbourne, April 21, 1976:

Guest (2) (man): Śrīla Prabhupāda, when Kṛṣṇa is perfect and complete in Himself, so why are there individual minute living entities? If Kṛṣṇa is perfect, surely there would be no need for smaller living entities.

Prabhupāda: What is that?

Gurukṛpā: If Kṛṣṇa is perfect and complete, then why does He need little entities like us?

Prabhupāda: So a high-court judge, why his son becomes a loafer?

Gurukṛpā: If there is a high-court judge and he has a son, why does the son sometimes become a loafer?

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Guest (2): I do not know.

Prabhupāda: Is it guaranteed that because one is son of high-court judge, he'll also become a high-court judge? There is no such guarantee. Everyone is individual. We are sons of God, that's all right, but we have got little independence. If we misuse our independence, then we become lower. Kṛṣṇa is perfect, there is no doubt, but we are part and parcel of. Just like another example. There is a fire and there are sparks of fire. The sparks are very little, small fire particle. Sometimes they fall down from the fire and becomes extinguished. The fiery quality is lost. Similarly, we are all parts and parcels of God, but when, by misusing our intelligence, our independence, we come here in this material world to enjoy, our godly qualities becomes lost. Again if you revive, then you go back to home, back to Godhead.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

God is so perfect and complete. Just like you take the example of the sun. For millions and millions of years, unlimited temperature, light and heat is coming out, but still, it is the same.
Lecture on SB 2.1.5 -- Delhi, November 8, 1973:

Just like a fire is there in one place, in a particular localized place, but it expands in heat and light, similarly, the Supreme Personality of Godhead is there. He is person. That is described in the Brahma-saṁhitā. Goloka eva nivasaty akhilātma-bhūtaḥ (Bs. 5.37). That is God. Although He is everywhere present by His energy, it does not mean that He is lost, He has lost His personality. No. Pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya pūrṇam evāvaśiṣyate (Īśo Invocation). He is so perfect and complete. Just like you take the example of the sun. For millions and millions of years, unlimited temperature, light and heat is coming out, but still, it is the same. Pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya pūrṇam evāvaśiṣyate. Similarly, God is so perfect, so complete, that unlimited number of suns and energies... We are also energy. We sons of God, we are also energy.

Conversations and Morning Walks

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

It requires elucidation. "Complete whole" means, just like your body is complete whole, and there are so many other things, there are so many holes in the body, there are so many hairs on the body, there are so many hairs on the head, so many fingers, eyes, ears—so many things—but the body is a complete unit, working as a complete machine.
Room Conversation with Kim Cornish -- May 8, 1975, Perth:

Kim: "The Personality of Godhead is perfect and complete, and because He is completely perfect, all emanations from Him, such as this phenomenal world, are perfectly equipped as complete wholes. Whatever is produced of the complete whole is also complete in itself. Because He is the complete whole, even though so many complete units emanate from Him, He remains the complete balance."

Prabhupāda: Now read the purport. After reading the translation do you understand everything?

Kim: No. (reads purport to) "...and Paramātmā or Supersoul realization is the realization of His sat and cit features." I don't understand that. I read the words, but...

Prabhupāda: It requires elucidation. "Complete whole" means, just like your body is complete whole, and there are so many other things, there are so many holes in the body, there are so many hairs on the body, there are so many hairs on the head, so many fingers, eyes, ears—so many things—but the body is a complete unit, working as a complete machine. And there are so many things. Similarly, the whole cosmos is complete, exactly like this body is a machine. Similarly the whole cosmos is a big machine. It is complete. One sun is there and keeping everything complete. The day and night, the seasonal changes, the equator, the temperature, the moonlight, the other planets, we living beings, the vegetables—everything is complete by God. And because the sun is there. Similarly, this body, machine, is complete. And the soul is there, it is working nicely. The body is also a creation, and the universe is also a creation, and the brain which has created these things, He is complete. Therefore He has created these complete units. That is the idea.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Why you should waste? Wasting is not allowed.
Morning Walk -- June 22, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Devotee (3): Śrīla Prabhupāda, when we take that which is not our quota, by using, wasting a lot of clean water, how is that perfect and complete, oṁ pūrṇam? How are things still perfectly complete even when we're wasting and destroying it?

Prabhupāda: Why you should waste? Wasting is not allowed.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

"Take perfect knowledge of God from Me." Why don't you do that? Boliye. What is the reason? Boliye, Swamiji. When God is speaking that "You take from Me perfect and complete knowledge of God," so why don't you take it?
Evening Darsana -- May 13, 1977, Hrishikesh:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: When Prabhupāda first did the first public kīrtana, they said that "We thought God is dead, but now we see that Swami Bhaktivedanta has made God alive again."

Prabhupāda: This was the first remark. Then, gradually, these boys joined. They were after God, but they were given to understand that "God is dead. Now you take LSD." So the... God is speaking:

mayy āsakta-manāḥ pārtha
yogaṁ yuñjan mad-āśrayaḥ
asaṁśayaṁ samagraṁ māṁ
yathā jñāsyasi tac chṛṇu
(BG 7.1)

"Take perfect knowledge of God from Me." Why don't you do that? Boliye. What is the reason? Boliye, Swamiji. When God is speaking that "You take from Me perfect and complete knowledge of God," so why don't you take it?

Correspondence

1972 Correspondence

We welcome all impersonalists to come because if they are real impersonalists they will see that our Society is perfect and complete.
Letter to Atreya Rsi -- Nairobi 26 January, 1972:

It is my wish that you work more and more closely with the ISKCON management. You have good intelligence and this should be engaged cent per cent in propogation of this movement of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. So you please go on increasing your involvement with the administration.

You speak of impersonalism. We welcome all impersonalists to come because if they are real impersonalists they will see that our Society is perfect and complete. Ramanujacarya is considered to be very stalwart acharya simply because he completely defeated the impersonalism of Sankaracarya. And even to this day in India, especially in the south, the followers of Ramanujacarya and Sankaracarya engage in talks and always the Sankarites are defeated. But most of the so-called impersonalists of today are rogues.

You may adopt this principle, that whatever conditions increases your facility to preach this Krishna Consciousness Movement should be accepted. If we accept this all of these discouragements etc. . . will disappear.

Page Title:Perfect and complete
Compiler:Laksmipriya, MadhuGopaldas
Created:02 of Dec, 2008
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=5, CC=2, OB=2, Lec=3, Con=3, Let=1
No. of Quotes:16