Go to Vanipedia | Go to Vanisource | Go to Vanimedia


Vaniquotes - the compiled essence of Vedic knowledge


Perfect consciousness

Bhagavad-gita As It Is

BG Chapters 1 - 6

BG 2.58, Translation:

One who is able to withdraw his senses from sense objects, as the tortoise draws its limbs within the shell, is firmly fixed in perfect consciousness.

Srimad-Bhagavatam

SB Canto 2

We should know in perfect consciousness that human life is bestowed upon the conditioned soul to achieve spiritual success, and the easiest possible procedure to attain this end is to chant the holy name of the Lord.
SB 2.1.12, Purport:

In order to encourage the king, who had only seven remaining days of life, Śrīla Śukadeva Gosvāmī asserted that there is no use in living hundreds of years without any knowledge of the problems of life—better to live for a moment with full consciousness of the supreme interest to be fulfilled. The supreme interest of life is eternal, with full knowledge and bliss. Those who are bewildered by the external features of the material world and are engaged in the animal propensities of the eat-drink-and-be-merry type of life are simply wasting their lives by the unseen passing away of valuable years. We should know in perfect consciousness that human life is bestowed upon the conditioned soul to achieve spiritual success, and the easiest possible procedure to attain this end is to chant the holy name of the Lord.

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta

CC Adi-lila

For the perfect yogī who has attained success in the method of leaving his body in perfect consciousness, transferring from one planet to another is as easy as an ordinary man's walking to the grocery store.
CC Adi 5.22, Purport:

For the perfect yogī who has attained success in the method of leaving his body in perfect consciousness, transferring from one planet to another is as easy as an ordinary man's walking to the grocery store. As already discussed, the material body is just a covering of the spiritual soul. Mind and intelligence are the undercoverings, and the gross body of earth, water, air and so on is the overcoating of the soul. As such, any advanced soul who has realized himself by the yogic process, who knows the relationship between matter and spirit, can leave the gross dress of the soul in perfect order and as he desires. By the grace of God, we have complete freedom. Because the Lord is kind to us, we can live anywhere—either in the spiritual sky or in the material sky, upon whichever planet we desire. However, misuse of this freedom causes one to fall down into the material world and suffer the threefold miseries of conditioned life.

Lectures

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

You have got discrimination, you have got conscience, you are claiming civilized, human being. So you should utilize these things. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness, perfect consciousness.
Lecture on BG 3.11-19 -- Los Angeles, December 27, 1968:

Guest: What you're saying, then, you believe that nature's perfect.

Prabhupāda: Nature's law. That is... A tiger is made by nature's law in that way; therefore he can do that. You cannot do it. Your nature is different. You have got discrimination, you have got conscience, you are claiming civilized, human being. So you should utilize these things. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness, perfect consciousness. So human life is meant for raising oneself to the perfection of consciousness, and that is Kṛṣṇa conscious. We cannot remain in tiger consciousness. That is not humanity.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Generally the consciousness is absorbed in a particular type of thought, similarly, when your consciousness will be absorbed in Kṛṣṇa's thought, that is called Kṛṣṇa consciousness. And that is your perfect consciousness.
Lecture on SB 5.5.2 -- Boston, April 28, 1969:

Prabhupāda: Similarly, when your consciousness will be absorbed in the thought of Kṛṣṇa, that is Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Student: (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: That you have to learn. Yes. That you have to learn, how they are becoming Kṛṣṇa conscious, what is the process, how they're executing. But Kṛṣṇa consciousness means, as generally the consciousness is absorbed in a particular type of thought, similarly, when your consciousness will be absorbed in Kṛṣṇa's thought, that is called Kṛṣṇa consciousness. And that is your perfect consciousness.

Here is a body, where is perfect consciousness. I can understand that if I like I can get next birth God's body.
Lecture on SB 7.6.1 -- Montreal, June 10, 1968:

But if you want a God's body you will get it also. So why not take a God's body? This is the opportunity. This is the opportunity. (break) ...desire this body, that body, this body, that body, I have traveled so many bodies. 8,400,000's of bodies. Now here is a body, where is perfect consciousness. I can understand that if I like I can get next birth God's body. (break) ...means the same body as God has, sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ (Bs. 5.1). So this is illusion that I think that I am maintaining this body. You are not maintaining this body. The nature's law, nature's supply, nature's arrangement, that is Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27). The nature is acting according to the different qualities. And ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā, being puffed up, one thinks that "I am doing this." Nonsense, you cannot do it anything. You are being forced to do by the laws of nature.

Philosophy Discussions

Every living entity is Kṛṣṇa's part and parcel. He always remembers that "I am part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. It is my duty to serve Kṛṣṇa." Then he'll be in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, perfect consciousness.
Philosophy Discussion on John Dewey:

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa consciousness. The greatest need is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. (Hindi with guest) Kṛṣṇa consciousness, that is the supreme consciousness. Yes. That is pure consciousness, Kṛṣṇa. Mamaivāṁśo jīva loke jīva-bhūtaḥ sanātanaḥ (BG 15.7). Every living entity is Kṛṣṇa's part and parcel. He always remembers that "I am part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. It is my duty to serve Kṛṣṇa." This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Śyāmasundara: He says that...

Prabhupāda: Jīvera svarūpa haya nitya kṛṣṇa dāsa (Cc. Madhya 20.108-109). If he remembers always this.

Devotee: Eternal position of the living entity...

Prabhupāda: Yes. Then he'll be in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, perfect consciousness. But they are thinking that "I am Kṛṣṇa. I am God." That is not Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Conversations and Morning Walks

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Everything is development of consciousness. So when one comes to Kṛṣṇa consciousness that is perfect. Consciousness is there even in the tree, but that is not developed.
Morning Walk -- May 5, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: It has connection, if somebody was not very important and now he has become important, so the logic is how this man can be important? This logic. That because the mother was naked in the childhood, therefore she should not put on any garment. This is nagna-mātṛkā-nyāya. We change according to the circumstances. You cannot say that this must remain like this.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: It is also not because of the development of consciousness.

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes, yes. Everything is development of consciousness. So when one comes to Kṛṣṇa consciousness that is perfect. Consciousness is there even in the tree, but that is not developed. When you cut the tree, it feels. Even a child their consciousness is not developed. Sometimes operation in the body of a child does not require anaesthetic, because they do not feel much. Can go on surgical operation on the child's body and they will feel little. Because the consciousness is not developed.

Perfect consciousness means full understanding. If you understand only God, then you understand everything.
Room Conversation with Lord Brockway -- July 23, 1973, London:

Lord Brockway: And you, you may easily have a person who is very God conscious, beautiful in their own lives, beautiful to all the group around them, who have no understanding of the problems of the world at all.

Prabhupāda: That is not perfect God conscious. That is partial. Perfect consciousness means full understanding also. That is perfect God consciousness. Yasmin vijñāte sarvam evaṁ vijñātaṁ bhavati (Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad 1.3). This is the Vedic injunction. If you understand only God, then you understand everything. But if he does not understand everything rightly, that means he's not fully understanding God. This is the... If, as you say, that a man is fully God conscious, but he cannot do this, cannot do that, that means his understanding of God consciousness is still lacking. It is not full understanding. A full understanding of God consciousness means he's a perfect man.

These people, they are taking the body as everything. They have no information of the soul. Therefore Kṛṣṇa consciousness is the perfect consciousness.
Morning Walk -- December 17, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: No. Just like we all know that "I am not this body." But why you are covering the body? So long you are in material condition, you have to do that. The same example. Although you are not the motorcar, but if there is some accident, you have to take care of it, because you have to work on it. Therefore this body, although I am not this body, I have to work in this material world with this body. That is the vehicle. You cannot neglect it, neither you become identified. This is knowledge. Yuktāhāra-vihāraś ca. That is recommended, yuktāhāra, "as much as necessity." But these people, they are taking the body as everything. They have no information of the soul.

Rūpānuga: They cannot tolerate it. Like the prisoner cannot tolerate being in the prison house without knowledge. They cannot get along.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: So our consciousness is affected by our conditioning.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Therefore Kṛṣṇa consciousness is the perfect consciousness.

Page Title:Perfect consciousness
Compiler:Sharmila, Visnu Murti, Matea
Created:09 of Dec, 2008
Totals by Section:BG=1, SB=1, CC=1, OB=0, Lec=4, Con=3, Let=0
No. of Quotes:10