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Power (Lectures, Other)

Expressions researched:
"power" |"power's" |"powered" |"powerhouse" |"powers"

Notes from the compiler: VedaBase query: power or powered or powerhouse or powers or power's not "supreme power" not "power* of" not "no power*" not "without * power*" not "without power*" not "mystic power*" not "mystic * power*" not "power to" not "powers to"

Lectures

Nectar of Devotion Lectures

The Nectar of Devotion -- Bombay, December 27, 1972:

Actually, premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena santaḥ sadaiva hṛdayeṣu vilokayanti (Bs. 5.38). Those who are yogis, bhakta-yogis, because they are in love with God, Kṛṣṇa, they are seeing every moment within their heart the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Anyone you love, you see always within your heart. Similarly, if you have love for God, Kṛṣṇa, then you can see Kṛṣṇa always. That is called yoga system. Dhyānāvasthita-tad-gatena manasā paśyanti yaṁ yoginaḥ (SB 12.13.1). Yoginaḥ, those who are yogis, under meditation, they see the Supreme Personality of Godhead within the heart. Dhyānāvasthita-tad-gatena manasā paśyanti yaṁ yoginaḥ. So there are many evidences in the śāstras. Yoga means to see the Supreme Lord within the heart. Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe arjuna tiṣṭhati (BG 18.61). Īśvara, the Supreme Lord, is situated in everyone's heart. One has to see. One has to develop that visionary power, how to see God within the heart. That is wanted. That is called yoga system.

The Nectar of Devotion -- Bombay, January 2, 1973:

But even if we remain in the sattva-guṇa, that is also not transcendental platform. Sattva-guṇa means brahminical qualification. Satya śama dama titikṣa ārjava jñānaṁ vijñānam āstikyaṁ brahma-karma svabhāva-jam (BG 18.42). These, these are the symptoms of sattva-guṇa. But rajo-guṇa-tejo īśvara bhāvaś ca yuddhe cāpy apalāyanam. Just like kṣatriyas: They're very powerful. They want to control. They are not afraid of fighting. These are kṣatriya qualifications. Rajo-guṇa. Creative power. They want to expand their kingdom, ruling over the people, taxing the people. These are the qualification of the rajo-guṇa. And tamo-guṇa means śūdra, ignorance and lazy. That is tamo-guṇa. These are the symptoms. They have no activity. They cannot become independent, because they are very lazy. Brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, they have their independent life, but the śūdras, they are dependent. Therefore śūdra... Just like a dog. A dog, if he has no master, it is street dog. It has no value. It must be chained by a very big master. That is his life. And he very voluntarily agrees: "Come here." "Yes." So paricaryātmakaṁ kāryaṁ śūdra-karma svabhāva-jam (BG 18.44). Paricaryā, to satisfy the master.

The Nectar of Devotion -- Bombay, January 9, 1973:

But we get the Vedic information that one minus one equal to one, one plus one equal to one. Pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya pūrṇam evāvaśiṣyate. You take whole thing, but still, advaita acyuta. Acyuta. Advaita. God may expand Himself and so, eko bahu śyām, He has expanded Himself as svāṁśa and vibhinnāṁśa. Svāṁśa means viṣṇu-tattva, just like Kṛṣṇa, Balarāma, Vāsudeva, Saṅkarṣaṇa, Aniruddha, Pradyumna, Nārāyaṇa, Viṣṇu, Mahā-Viṣṇu, Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, so many. Ananta, advaita acyuta ananta-rūpa. So ananta-rūpam, that does not mean the original, kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam (SB 1.3.28), He is lost. No. He is not lost. He is there, although He has expanded Himself. We are also expansion of Kṛṣṇa. We are vibhinnāṁśa. We are small particles, not with the full power. The Viṣṇu expansion, They're with full power. We, living entities, we are also expansion, eko bahu śyām. That one God has become many. As viṣṇu-tattva, as Viṣṇu energy, as Viṣṇu svāṁśa, as Viṣṇu vibhinnāṁśa, so many He has expanded.

The Nectar of Devotion -- Bombay, January 9, 1973:

So You are offering benediction. I can ask from you any kind of material opulence. I know that. But, what I shall do all these material opulences. I've seen my father was so strong materially, that when he was angry even the demigods trembled. He was so powerful. Now everything is finished within a second by You. So what is the value of this material opulence? Why shall I ask you all these nonsense. Kindly engage me, kindly engage me in the service of Your servant, that I want." This is devotion. They don't want anything. Kindly engage me nijunkaman ātmā dāse (?). That is the prayer. So the devotees, they do not want anything material. They are not captivated by so-called followers. No. Na dhanaṁ na janam, janam means followers, na dhanaṁ na janaṁ na sundarīṁ kavitāṁ vā jagadīśa kāmaye (Cc. Antya 20.29, Śikṣāṣṭaka 4). What is this false power? Ekaś candras tamo hanti na ca tara sahasrasaḥ. If one disciple is enlivened with Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he can work as the moon. Otherwise so many foolish followers, what they'll do? Just like stars. Thousands and millions of stars, they cannot do anything. One moon is sufficient. Ekaś candras tamo hanti na ca tara sahasrasaḥ. So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, it is not required that everyone will be follower. That is not possible, because it is very difficult. But still, if one follower, sincere follower is there, it will go on. It will go on. Nobody can stop it. Go on.

The Nectar of Devotion -- Bombay, January 9, 1973:

Yes, we should not be very much proud that "I have created wonderful." Why? What wonderful? What? I am not a magician that I can create wonderful. Sometimes people, they give me so much honor. "Swamijī, you have created wonderful." I do not feel that I have created wonderful. What I have done? I say that I, I do, I'm not a magician. I do not know how to create wonderful. I have simply Bhagavad-gītā, presenting Bhagavad-gītā as it is, that's all. If there is any credit, this is only credit. Anyone can do it. The Bhagavad-gītā is there, and anyone can present Bhagavad-gītā as it is. So it will act wonderful. I am not a magician. I do not know the tricks of magics and the yoga-siddhi, I am creating (visual expression) like this. (laughter) I have no such power. Neither I do it. So I, my only credit is, I do not want to mix with this pure Bhagavad-gītā teaching, any rascaldom, that's all. That is my credit. And whatever little miracle has been done, only on this principle. That's all. Go on.

The Nectar of Devotion -- Vrndavana, October 28, 1972:

So that is also a subtle sense enjoyment. Leave this world, and enter into Brahman. Then you feel happy. So that is also sense enjoyment. Similarly, yogis, they also want power, material power. Aṇimā laghimā siddhi. Aṣṭa-siddhi. So if you have some power, you can fly in the air, you can walk over the water, you can get anything you desire immediately. These are yoga-siddhi. So that is also satisfying own sense gratification. So except bhakti, everything is for sense gratification. That is unfavorable. Kṛṣṇa does not want to satisfy anyone's senses. That is not Kṛṣṇa's business. Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme. He wants everyone should serve Him. He's not going to serve anyone. That is Kṛṣṇa's position. Therefore anyone who serves Kṛṣṇa and preaches this philosophy, to serve Kṛṣṇa, that is favorable. Ānukūlyena kṛṣṇānuśīlanam (CC Madhya 19.167). Go on.

The Nectar of Devotion -- Vrndavana, November 4, 1972:

So devotional service is the only way. Karmī, karmī means they are working very hard for their personal benefit. Not for Kṛṣṇa's benefit. Similarly, jñānīs, they are also trying for personal benefit, mukti. He wants mukti, liberation, nirbheda-brahmānu-sandhana. And similarly, yogis also, they want personal benefit, some material power, aṣṭa-siddhi-yoga, aṇimā-laghimā-siddhi. Bhukti-mukti-siddhi-kāmī sakali aśānta. Caitanya-caritāmṛta Kaja says except pure devotee, who only wants to satisfy Kṛṣṇa, everyone is working for his personal benefit, karmī, jñānī, yogi. But Kṛṣṇa says, "Pure devotional service..." Not... Rūpa Gosvāmī says, "Pure devotional service is the only means to attract Kṛṣṇa." Now... But ignorance is no excuse. Go on reading. Next. "Generally, one commits sinful activities..."

The Nectar of Devotion -- Vrndavana, November 6, 1972:

Durvāsā. Yes, Durvāsā Muni. Durvāsā Muni, because he offended to Ambarīṣa Mahārāja, he was not excused even by Viṣṇu. He had to fall down on the feet of Mahārāja Ambarīṣa. Yes. Ambarīṣa upākhyāna. So vaiṣṇava-aparādha is the greatest offense. Even a great sage like Durvāsā was not excused. He was so great, Durvāsā, that he could go personally to all the lokas, Brahma-loka, Śiva-loka, Viṣṇuloka. Personally he could go, by his yogic power. Just imagine how much he was powerful. He saw face to face Lord Viṣṇu and requested Him to give him protection from the sudarśana-cakra, and Viṣṇu refused: "So I cannot give you protection because you are offender to a Vaiṣṇava. Only Ambarīṣa Mahārāja can give you protection." Just see. He was so exalted yogi that he could see personally Lord Brahmā, Lord Śiva, Lord Viṣṇu, but still, he was not excused on account of his offense to a Vaiṣṇava. Caitanya Mahāprabhu has warned very severely: tāra madhye vaiṣṇava aparādha hātī matta. Vaiṣṇava-aparādha is the greatest offense. We should be very careful. In... According to our Vedic civilization, a Vaiṣṇava, a saintly person, was never under the government laws. They, they were not under the govern... Why government laws? Even Yamarāja's law. That is also stated. Yamarāja also warned his servants not to approach Vaiṣṇava. So Vaiṣṇava's position is so great.

The Nectar of Devotion -- Vrndavana, November 8, 1972:

Yes. Caitanya Mahāprabhu practically exhibited that hari-nāma saṅkīrtana, kṛṣṇa-kīrtana, can attract even animals, tigers, elephants. They also join with Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Of course, His power, our power is not the same. But there is potency. The potency... The potency, as we become powerful, gradually, by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, Caitanya Mahāprabhu has shown that one can come to the stage of enchanting the forest animals also. Go on.

The Nectar of Devotion -- Vrndavana, November 9, 1972:

Pradyumna: "There are many instances, especially in India, where these Māyāvādī sannyāsīs descend to the material platform again. But a person who is fully in Kṛṣṇa consciousness will never return to any sort of material platform. However alluring and attracting they may be, he always knows that no material welfare activities can be compared with the spiritual activity of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. The mystic perfections achieved by actually successful yogis are eight in number. Aṇimā-siddhi refers to the power by which one can become so small that he can enter into a stone. Modern scientific improvements also enable us to enter into stone because they provide for excavating so many subways, penetrating the hills, etc. So aṇimā-siddhi, the mystic perfection of trying to enter into stone, has also been achieved by material science. Similarly, all of the yoga siddhis, or perfections, are material arts."

Prabhupāda: Yoga siddhis, they are simply material arts. Just like one example is given, that aṇimā siddhi, aṇimā siddhi means to enter into the stone. So we see in the Western countries they are boring big, big hills and entering in the stone. So that aṇimā siddhi is being possible, is made possible by modern scientific research. So all the siddhis, aṣṭa siddhi, aṇimā, laghimā, prāpti, prākāmya, īśitā, vaśitā, these all siddhis are material. They are not spiritual. But people do not know what is spiritual perfection. They become amazed by seeing some magic by these yogic arts. They're simply material arts. Go on.

The Nectar of Devotion -- Vrndavana, November 13, 1972:

Artificially practiced, Kṛṣṇa consciousness is not possible. There is Kṛṣṇa consciousness: nitya-siddha kṛṣṇa-bhakti 'sadhya' kabhu naya. It is not by the practice, but following certain methods... Just like sex impulse is there already in everyone's heart. When there is opportunity, it becomes awakened. It is not that artificially a dull stone can be awakened in sex impulse. No. In a human being, or animal, a living being, there is sex impulse, but it becomes awakened in favorable circumstances. Similarly, if we keep ourself in favorable circumstances, that means bhakta-sane vāsa, living with pure devotees, without any material desires, then the Vṛndāvana... Living in Vṛndāvana—what is the meaning of living...? Because bhakta-sane vāsa. Here, whatever comes, he comes for the purpose of developing devotional attitude. Not for any... Here nobody comes for making business or making money. If anyone comes, he makes offense, dhāma-aparādha. Dhāma-aparādha. It is called... There are many kinds of dhāma-aparādha, nāma-aparādhas, sevā-aparādha. There are aparādhas, offenses. That will be described in the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu. So here, in Vṛndāvana-dhāma, nobody should make any business. Nobody should try to satisfy his senses in Vṛndāvana-dhāma. Then his living in Vṛndāvana-dhāma will be profitable. Of course, anyone living in Vṛndāvana-dhāma, he is fortunate because the dhāma itself has its own power. But ānukūlyena kṛṣṇānu-śīlanam (CC Madhya 19.167). Similarly, if we live in the dhāma in ānukūla way, favorable way, then our achievement of ultimate success is very easy. If we commit offenses, it will be delayed. But still, anyone, some way or other, who is living in Vṛndāvana, sticking to the dust of Vṛndāvana, he is certainly benefited

The Nectar of Devotion -- Vrndavana, November 13, 1972:

Pradyumna: "Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu has given us an authorized program for this purpose, centered around the chanting of the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. This chanting has so much power that it immediately attaches one to Kṛṣṇa. That is the beginning of sādhana-bhakti. Somehow or other, one has to fix his mind on Kṛṣṇa. The great saint Ambarīṣa Mahārāja, although a responsible king, fixed his mind on Kṛṣṇa, and similarly, anyone who tries to fix his mind in this way will very rapidly make progress in successfully reviving his original Kṛṣṇa consciousness."

Prabhupāda: Because fix up mind on the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa is yoga. Dhyānāvasthita-tad-gatena manasā paśyanti yaṁ yoginaḥ (SB 12.13.1). Who is yogi? Dhyānāvasthita, always thinking of Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa's lotus feet. Dhyānāvasthita-tad-gatena manasā... Tad-gatena manasā, absorbed in the thought of Kṛṣṇa. This is yoga system. Some way or other, if you fix up your mind on the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, that is perfection of yoga. Yoginām api sarveṣāṁ (BG 6.47). That is the verdict of all śāstras. So by fixing up your mind on the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, immediately you become first-class yogi. There is no doubt about it.

The Nectar of Devotion -- Calcutta, January 29, 1973:

So that is also troublesome. Where is śānti? Yogis, they're also practicing praṇāyāma, so many āsanas, dhyāna dhāraṇā, āsana, praṇāyāma. So where is śānti? He has to keep his head down and, what is called? Śīrṣāsana. That is also another āsana. Then he has to show magic. Otherwise he'll not be recognized. He has to prepare a rasagullā by magic. These are all troublesome things. So bhukti-mukti-siddhi. Bhukti means karmī, mukti means jñānī and siddhi means yogi. Bhukti means siddhi kāmī sakali aśānta. Their process is aśānti. Kṛṣṇa-bhakta niṣkāma ataeva śānta (CC Madhya 19.149). Kṛṣṇa-bhakta does not require to possess anything or to renounce anything or to show some magic power. No. He has nothing to do all these things. Kṛṣṇa-bhakta does not want that "I shall show some magic and people will be attracted." If one is Kṛṣṇa-bhakta, he attracts thousands without any magic. The only magic is kṛṣṇa-bhakti. That's all. He doesn't require to show any yogic magic. It is so nice thing.

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures

Lecture on CC Adi-lila 1.1 -- Mayapur, March 25, 1975:

So the Gosvāmī's siddhānta, that Kṛṣṇa is one. There is no rivalry with Kṛṣṇa. God is one. Eka-brahma dvitīya nāsti. There cannot be many Gods. So when God, Kṛṣṇa, wants to enjoy His pleasure potency, that is Rādhārāṇī. So He manifests Himself, manifests His energy... His energy and He, there is no difference. Śakti-śaktimator abhedaḥ. The śāstra says śakti and the śaktimat—means one who possesses the śakti (śakti means power, potency)—they are equal. There is no difference. Just like the sun. Sun is the powerful, and the sunshine is the power. So there is heat in the sun and there is heat also in the sunshine. There is light in the sun and there is light in the sunshine also. Therefore qualitatively they are one so far heat and light is concerned. But the temperature of the sun and the temperature of the sunshine may be different. May be not. Actually there is difference. This is the basic principle of all philosophies. Acintya-bhedābheda. Acintya means inconceivable, bheda means different, and abheda means nondifferent. The whole situation... The one is there, God, but He has expanded Himself in different way. Eko bahu syām.

Lecture on CC Adi-lila 1.10 -- Mayapur, April 3, 1975:

So wherefrom this gas came? The answer is here. Of course, from the gas, water comes out. If you cover one boiling pot, the gas, the vapor coming... And you will find spots of water. So from the gas, the water comes, and from the water, gas comes. This is nature's way. But the original water came from the perspiration of this Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu. Just like you have got perspiration. You can produce, say, one gram or, say, one ounce of water through your bodily heat. That we have got practical experience. So if you can produce one ounce of water from your body, why God cannot produce volumes and millions of tons of water from His body? Where is the difficulty to understand? You are a tiny soul, and you have got a small body. You can produce one ounce of water by your perspiration. Why God, who has got the gigantic body, He cannot produce water, the Garbhodakaśāyī, the Garbhodaka water? There is no reason to disbelieve. This is called acintya-śakti, inconceivable power.

Lecture on CC Adi-lila 1.12 -- Mayapur, April 5, 1975:

You can take it as chunk. But this material energy in the form of chunk is agitated by the glance of Mahā-Viṣṇu. That is stated, sa aikṣata sa asṛjata. Material energy itself cannot explode. the explosion theory is there... Not theory, fact. But the total material energy, mahat-tattva, when it is glanced over by Mahā-Viṣṇu, then it becomes agitated, and the modes of material nature begins to act. So then these activities are executed by Mahā-Viṣṇu, by His glancing, simply by His glancing. The power... Kṛṣṇa is all-powerful. Viṣṇu is all-powerful. So simply by glancing, He can agitate the material energy, and the creation begins. Sa aikṣata sa asṛjata. Eko nārāyaṇa āsīt. These are the Vedic information. "In the beginning, there was only Nārāyaṇa." Na īśa na brahmā: "There was no Lord Śiva or Lord Brahmā." We have studied that. Nārāyaṇa, the Mahā-Viṣṇu, er, Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, He created, first of all, Brahmā. He is already there, from Mahā-Viṣṇu to Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu. Then He created Brahmā. Then, through the material energy and Brahmā's cooperation, the whole creation came into existence.

Lecture on CC Adi-lila 1.12 -- Mayapur, April 5, 1975:

So actually the original person for material creation, Mahā-Viṣṇu, through the agency of māyā, He has created. Māyayā sṛjaty adaḥ. All this cosmic manifestation is created in that way. Those who are not devotee, they cannot see that over the chunk, total material energy, there is the vision of Mahā-Viṣṇu. That they cannot see. Just like you'll find on the ground, so many flowers and grasses are coming up. How? By the sunrise, the glance of the sun. Where there is no sunshine, there the vegetables do not grow. We have got practical experience. Similar... Therefore the field or the earth is not exploding with the vegetation. It is due to the sunshine. Therefore it is coming out. It is the real cause. Similarly, accepting that chunk, the total material energy, it is agitated by the glance of Mahā-Viṣṇu. Then it explodes and things are coming out. We can accept that in that way, but not that automatically there was explosion. That is not fact. Therefore to the foolish person, the power behind the explosion is not visible.

Lecture on CC Adi-lila 1.16 -- Mayapur, April 9, 1975:

So these trees and plants, they are also living beings. They are not ordinary living beings, but they have decided to serve Kṛṣṇa by supplying fruits and flowers. They want that service. Everyone has got his particular propensity. So someone is serving as the land there, someone is serving as the throne, someone is serving as the supplying agent of fruits and flowers, someone is engaged in His service as the gopīs, confidential servitors. The cows, calves, everything—they are all different living entities. They are not made of these material things, material body. Ānanda-cinmaya-rasa-pratibhāvitābhis tābhir ya eva nija-rūpatayā kalābhiḥ (Bs. 5.37). They are all also expansion of Kṛṣṇa's pleasure potency. In one sense they are also Kṛṣṇa; they are not different from Kṛṣṇa. Śakti-śaktimatayor abheda: "The power and the powerful, they are not different, identical." Just like the sun and the sunshine. So in the sun globe there is heat and light, and the sunshine, there is heat and light. So, so far heat and light is concerned, they are one. Similarly, Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa's pleasure potency, ānanda-cinmaya, ahlādinī... It is already described, rādhā kṛṣṇa-praṇaya-vikṛtir hlādinī-śaktir asmāt.

Lecture on CC Adi-lila 7.3 -- Mayapur, March 3, 1974:

He is situated in His own place, own abode, known as Goloka Vṛndāvana, but He is expanding Himself, akhilātma-bhūtaḥ. Everywhere He is present. Aṇḍāntara-stha-paramāṇu-cayāntara-sthaṁ govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi (Bs. 5.35). He has expanded Himself by His energies. Just like heat and light, the energy of fire expands. It is very easy to understand. Similarly the energies, multi-energies... Not only one, but multi-energies. Parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate (Cc. Madhya 13.65, purport). So His energies are acting so nicely, that everything is coming in front as if automatically done. But it is not automatically done. This is foolishness. To understand that nature is working automatically is foolishness. The nature is working under the direction of Kṛṣṇa. That is real understanding. Mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram (BG 9.10). At the present moment, the so-called scientists, philosophers, they are simply studying the working of the material nature. But they do not know behind this material nature the real powerful is there. Just like we are enjoying the electric light, electric power, but as soon as it has failed from the powerhouse, everything stoped. Similarly, the real power is Kṛṣṇa. He's the powerful, śaktimān. When He desires, there is creation, this material manifestation, and when He winds up, everything is finished. This is the way. So how He is doing that? That is explained in this chapter. Pañca-tattva: He's acting by expansion of His different features.

Lecture on CC Adi-lila 7.5 -- Mayapur, March 7, 1974:

When Kṛṣṇa wants to enjoy... The enjoyer... Bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasāṁ sarva-loka-maheśvaram (BG 5.29). He's enjoyer. So when He wants to enjoy, that is not material enjoyment. That is spiritual, superior energy, not material energy. Because Kṛṣṇa is the supreme, therefore He enjoys the superior energy. So Kṛṣṇa's... The Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa līlā is not material. One who understands Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa līlā as material, they are misled. Kṛṣṇa cannot enjoy anything material. He's supreme pleasure... If you say that "We are seeing daily that you are offering prasāda, the vegetable, rice. They are all material," no, they are not material. This is real understanding. How it is not material? That is acintya, inconceivable. Kṛṣṇa can turn material into spiritual and spiritual into material. That is Kṛṣṇa's inconceivable power, acintya-śakti. Unless you accept acintya-śakti of Kṛṣṇa, you cannot understand Kṛṣṇa. Acintya-śakti.

Lecture on CC Adi-lila 7.5 -- Mayapur, March 7, 1974:

Sambhavāmy ātma-māyayā (BG 4.6). He does not accept this mayic body. Etad īśanam īśasya. That is the, I mean to say, power, omnipotency of Kṛṣṇa. Even He accepts this material body, it does not mean that He is material. Just like we see the Deity, the Deity, Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa Deity, in our front. Everyone will say, "Oh, this is a Deity made of brass, material." But no, it is not material. You have to study in that way. Arcye viṣṇu śilā-dhīr guruṣu nara-matiḥ. These are nārakī buddhi. Vaiṣṇave jāti-buddhiḥ. The Deity as material, śiladhiḥ, considering as metal or stone or wood, and guruṣu nara-matiḥ, and guru as ordinary human being. Vaiṣṇave jāti-buddhiḥ: a Vaiṣṇava, to consider, "Here is American Vaiṣṇava and here is a brāhmaṇa vaiṣṇava." No, Vaiṣṇava is Vaiṣṇava. This is absolute. Guruṣu nara-matiḥ. Guru, although he is appearing like human being, he should not be considered. Ācāryaṁ māṁ vijānīyān nāvamanyeta karhicit (SB 11.17.27). These are the injunction of the śāstras. Suppose we are worshiping here.

Lecture on CC Adi-lila 7.7 -- Mayapur, March 9, 1974:

In Brahma-saṁhitā also, it is stated, sṛṣṭi-sthiti-pralaya-sādhana-śaktir ekā chāyeva yasya bhuvanāni vibharti durgā (Bs. 5.44). Here it is the vibharti, and bibhavanti... So nature is dependent, although nature has got this power, very extensive power, sṛṣṭi-sthiti-pralaya, to create, to maintain and to annihilate. Such power nature has got, and therefore she is called Durgā, Durgādevī. In Bengal there is great pompous Durgā-pūjā. That is nature worship. So... But nature is yasya ajñāya; she is working under the order of Kṛṣṇa. We Vaiṣṇava, it is not that we do not care for Durgā-devī. Somebody, they say like that. No. We offer her all respect because she is the agent of Kṛṣṇa, but we do not accept foolishly that Durgā is all in all. No. That we do not accept. Durgā is the agent, working agent of Kṛṣṇa. Yasyajñaya. Sṛṣṭi-sthiti-pralaya-sādhana-śaktir ekā chāyeva yasya bhuvanāni vibharti durgā, icchānurūpam api yasya ca ceṣṭate sā (Bs. 5.44). Sā ceṣṭate yasya icchānurūpam. And Kṛṣṇa also confirms this: mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram (BG 9.10). Therefore Kṛṣṇa is the supreme īśvara, controller.

Lecture on CC Adi-lila 7.107-109 -- San Francisco, February 15, 1967:

If I say, "My dear such and such, give me a glass of water," now you interpret, "Oh, Swamijī wants water. Oh, he has taken water. Let me supply this or that, interpretation," what is the use of interpreting? I'm asking for water. Give me water. Call a spade a spade. This should be the... This should be the understanding of Vedānta. Because all foolish nonsense, they are interpreting... "Such and such person's commentation of Vedānta-sūtra." Because they were trying to manifest and expose their thinking power, that "I think that this should be like this." What nonsense you are? What you can think? You think as it is. This is... Caitanya Mahāprabhu says. Don't think otherwise. As it is. In the Upaniṣads, īśāvāsyam idaṁ sarvam: "Everything belongs to God." Believe it as belongs to God. Don't interpret. Then you'll understand Vedas. Īśāvāsyam idaṁ sarvaṁ yat kiñcit jagatyāṁ jagat: (ISO 1) "Anything, any minute thing in this material world, everything belongs to that Supreme Lord." Who can deny it? Why do you interpret? Tena tyaktena bhuñjīthā: "So you enjoy as He orders you."

Lecture on CC Adi-lila 7.108 -- San Francisco, February 18, 1967:

Yes. It is... Just like above the cloud there is sunshine, fully. We have seen it in an aeroplane. This airlines, U.S. airlines, they say, "Friendly skies." So go to the friendly sky. Why do you remain here, nonsense sky, always covered with cloud? Go to the friendly sky. Just go above the cloud. The cloud is māyā. Go above the māyā. Then you see. You are seeing already, but it is not full-fledged experience. Everything we are seeing. We have experienced God's power, God's energy. But because we are in ignorance, therefore we cannot conceive perfectly. And as soon as you are above the māyā... Māyām etāṁ taranti te (BG 7.14). That māyā you can, I mean to say, surpass simply by Kṛṣṇa consciousness. As you become full-fledged Kṛṣṇa conscious, oh, then you see always brahma-jyotir and Brahman and Kṛṣṇa and everything. And so far your present condition is, you are seeing also just now. Because without Brahman, there cannot be any existence. So one has to learn. In the flower you can see. In the tree you can see. In the taste you can see. In the water you can see. In the sound you can see. That is all stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. Raso 'ham apsu kaunteya: (BG 7.8) "I am the taste of the water." Water is so popular, so tasteful, to every living entity.

Lecture on CC Adi-lila 7.108 -- San Francisco, February 18, 1967:

Bhaktijana: Could they ever misuse it?

Prabhupāda: Yes, they can misuse it also. That power is there. Yes?

Devotee: Well, I believe you once said that once a conditioned soul becomes perfected and gets out of the material world and he goes to Kṛṣṇaloka, there's no possibility of falling back.

Prabhupāda: No! There is possibility, but he does not come. Just like after putting your hand in the fire, you never put it again if you are really intelligent. So those who are going back to Godhead, they become intelligent. Why going back to Godhead? Just like we are in renounced order of life. So we have renounced our family life after thinking something. Now, if somebody comes, "Swamijī, you take thousand millions of dollars and marry again and become a family man," I'll never become, because I have got my bad experience. I'll never become. So if one is intelligent enough, if he has got actually the bitter taste of this material world, he'll never agree. He'll never agree. But those who have not advanced to such knowledge, oh, they think, "Oh, this material enjoyment is very nice. Let me taste it and let me do business in my sannyāsī life, and stealthily and privately, let me enjoy." These things are going on. That means they have no taste. They come to hospital-making or this philanthropy. This come again.

Lecture on CC Adi-lila 7.109-114 -- San Francisco, February 20, 1967:

Kīrtanānanda: But there seems to be also a stage of not thinking. Is that... When one is chanting, should they not think or should they think of Kṛṣṇa?

Prabhupāda: No, no. Not thinking is not there. Thinking of Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa means thinking of Kṛṣṇa and His energy. There is no question of destruction. It is purification. The psychic power—thinking, feeling and willing—is purified. Tat-paratvena nirmalam. Nirmalam means purified. But it is not lost. It is not lost. Purified. And when it is purified, hṛṣīkena hṛṣīkeśa-sevanaṁ bhaktir ucyate (CC Madhya 19.170), with that purified sense, purified mind, when you apply it for Kṛṣṇa, that is called bhakti, Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Lecture on CC Adi-lila 7.113-17 -- San Francisco, February 22, 1967:

As soon as these material eyes will be taken away, we cannot see. We are blind. But He... Here is the statement, īkṣāñcakre: "He saw." "He saw" means He saw with His spiritual eyes. Otherwise where is the material creation, that He can have material eyes? So these things are to be considered. Similarly, if He has got spiritual eyes, then He has got spiritual ear, He has got spiritual nose, He has got spiritual head, body, everything spiritual. And it is confirmed in the Brahma-saṁhitā, aṅgāni yasya sakalendriya-vṛttimanti paśyanti pānti kalayanti ciraṁ jaganti (Bs. 5.32). The Supreme Lord, Kṛṣṇa, Govinda, His bodily, different, I mean to say, limbs of His body, or different senses, they are so perfect that every sense organ can act the, I mean to say, work of the other senses. Just like we can see with our eyes. Simply we can see. But if I close my eyes, I cannot see. But my... I can hear only by my ears, but I cannot see. If I close my eyes, I cannot see with my ears. But about the Supreme Personality of Godhead it is said that He can see with His ears, He can see with His hand, and He can hear with His hand. He can do anything from any part of His body. That is spiritual. He can do any part of His body. Just like, this is the philosophy. Now, we offer something to Kṛṣṇa. That Kṛṣṇa, I mean to say, Deity is not different from original Kṛṣṇa because absolute. Everything is Kṛṣṇa. Why this Deity should not be Kṛṣṇa? This is quite reasonable. If Kṛṣṇa is everything, why not this Deity Kṛṣṇa? This is also Kṛṣṇa. He can do. He has, His power is just like... If you take my photograph and if you put it in my seat, and I am not here, that photograph cannot act because it is material. But for Kṛṣṇa, His photograph, His statue, His everything can act because He is spiritual. So we should always know that as soon as we chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa is immediately there. Immediately. Kṛṣṇa is already there. But we should know that He has, by sound vibration, Kṛṣṇa is there. So aṅgāni yasya. Sa īkṣāñcakre.

Lecture on CC Adi-lila 7.113-17 -- San Francisco, February 22, 1967:

So His vision, His presence, His activities, they are all spiritual. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is said, janma karma me divyaṁ yo jānāti tattvataḥ: "Anyone who understands the absolute nature of My birth, of My appearance, disappearance and activities," tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti (BG 4.9), "he becomes immediately liberated." Sa aikṣata. Sa imāḻ lokān asṛjata. This is Aitareya Upaniṣad. What is that? Sa aikṣata. The same thing: "He saw. He put His glance." Sa aikṣata. Sa imāḻ lokān asṛjata: "He has created all this material manifestation, cosmic manifestation." So tad vā īśan vijato tebhya ha prabhur babhūva. In this way, there are so many instances, so many quotations. Apāṇi-pādaḥ. In the Śvetāśvatara, apāṇi-pādaḥ. He has no, I mean to say, hands and legs. If He has no hands and legs, then how can He see? Is there any instance in your experience that something which has no hands and legs, he can see? No. He has no... Whenever... This is impersonal... The impersonalists quotes these authorities, that "He has no hands and... Therefore He's impersonal." No, it is not... If He sees, sa aikṣata, if He sees, if He hears, if He creates, then there is hand, there is eyes. But another place, if it is said, apāṇi-pādaḥ: "He has no hands and legs." That means He has no hands and legs like us. Because we have got material hands and legs, but the... "He saw; therefore there was creation." Therefore His seeing power existed before this material creation. So it is natural that He has no material hands and legs. So when it is denied that "He has no hands and legs," it is to be understood that He has no material limited hands and legs, but He has spiritual.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 6.151-154 -- Gorakhpur, February 14, 1971:

It is spent. It is zero now. Or that one rupee has been distributed in purchasing several commodities. So the one rupee is distributed. There is no more separate existence of that one rupee. This is material idea. But according to Vedic scripture, pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya pūrṇam evāvaśiṣyate (Īśo Invocation). If you take one rupee from that one rupee, still that one rupee is there. That you cannot adjust in your teeny brain. Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, acintya. It is not accommodated in our teeny brain. Therefore those who are teeny brain, or poor fund of knowledge, they think that when the Absolute Truth is distributed, sarvaṁ khalv idaṁ brahma, then where is the person? But that is not the conception. The conception is He is unlimitedly powerful, ṣaḍ-aiśvarya pūrṇa, with all power. He can create so many personalities Himself. Just like Kṛṣṇa expanded Himself into 16,000 forms. When He married 16,000 wives, He expanded Himself in 16,000 forms. When He was dancing in rasa-līlā, He expanded Himself. Each gopī was thinking that "Kṛṣṇa is dancing with me." So that is Kṛṣṇa's, or God's, unlimited potency. Not that if He expands, He becomes zero.

In the Brahma-saṁhitā also, it is stated, goloka eva nivasaty akhilātma-bhūtaḥ (Bs. 5.37). Although He is living in His abode, Goloka Vṛndāvana, He is all-pervading.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.100-108 -- Bombay, November 9, 1975:

So anyway, this Sanātana Gosvāmī, he is approaching Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu very humbly and tolerantly, putting himself that he is fool number one. Yes. Grāmya-vyavahāre kahaye paṇḍita: "These general people, they do not know what is a paṇḍita, but they call Me paṇḍitajī, but actually I know what kind of paṇḍita I am. I do not know what I am." Grāmya-vyavahāre paṇḍita satya kari māni. So his first proposal is, ke āmi kene āmāya jāre tāpa-traya: "What is my position? What I am? I do not want to suffer, but in this material world, three kinds of suffering are always there, and they are giving me trouble." This consciousness is not there. People have become so dull-headed that they are always suffering by three kinds of suffering: adhyātmika, adhibhautika and adhidaivika; still, they are thinking they are very happy. This is called māyā. This morning we were discussing. Āvaraṇātmikā-śakti. Māyā has got a covering power so that everyone, even he's a cat and dog, he's thinking that he is very happy. This is māyā. Nobody can be happy in this material world. That is the fact. Why? Kṛṣṇa says. The creator of this world, He says, duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam: (BG 8.15) "It is the place for suffering. How you can be happy? It is meant for suffering." But people are thinking they are happy or, if they make this plan executed, then they will be happy. You see.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.101-104 -- Bombay, November 3, 1975:

So we change body; otherwise we are eternal. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). This is the information we get, that after this destruction of this material body, the eternal soul is never destroyed. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). We get another body. The same example: the child gets the body of a boy, boy gets the... Therefore we are eternal. And what is God? He is also eternal. So nityo nityanānām. We are eternal, we are many, and God is also eternal, but He is one. He is singular number. Not that all of us, we are God. That is nonsense. We are part and parcel of God, but we are not as powerful as God. Anyone can understand it very easily. They are claiming to become God. So does he think that he is equal in power with God? No. That is foolishness. Mūḍha. God is one, but we are... We are also eternal, God is also eternal, but we are many.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.105 -- New York, July 11, 1976:

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: Śrī-guru-caraṇa-padma, kevala-bhakti-sadma, vando mui sāvadhāna mate.

Prabhupāda: So this is the beginning, that if you want to be devotee, then you must approach the spiritual master who has got the power. Śrī-guru-caraṇa-padma, kevala-bhakti-sadma, vando mui sāvadhāna mate. Sāvadhāna means very carefully, not whimsically. Then?

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: Yāṅhāra prasāde bhāi

Prabhupāda: Yāṅhāra prasāde bhai, ei bhava toriyā yāi. Huh? Kṛṣṇa-prāpti hoy yāhā hoite. So why one should go to spiritual master? Because yāṅhāra prasāde bhāi: "My dear brother, if you get the benediction from the spiritual master..." Yāṅhāra prasāde bhāi, ei bhava toriyā yāi. What is that benediction? The benediction is not that "Cure my disease." They do not know, generally. Therefore they are cheated. The other day in Washington, one lady came with backache. So she came for curing the leg trouble. That is going on. "So you should approach a spiritual master? There is so many doctors, hospital. You go there." "No. Here you show me your miracles." And people are also cheating like that—some miracles and he becomes God. This is going on. But the miracle of spiritual master is yāṅhāra prasāde bhāi, ei bhava toriyā yāi. This is miracle: no more material existence. Then ei bhava toriyā yāi. So real thing (?) is one can cross over the ocean of nescience.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.111 -- New York, July 19, 1976:

So śakti... In the Bhagavad-gītā also it is confirmed, apareyam itas tv prakṛtim viddhi me parām. When Kṛṣṇa described about the material energy, bhūmir āpo 'nalo vāyuḥ (BG 7.4), earth, water, air, fire... These are material energies, gross. And there are subtle material energies, mind, intelligence and egotism. Beyond that, apareyam... These are inferior energies. Beyond that, there is spiritual energy. What is that spiritual energy? Jīva-bhūtaḥ. That you know. (?) That is spiritual energy. That spiritual energy is always different from the material energy. Unfortunately the so-called scientists, they have no sufficient intelligence. On account of poor fund of knowledge, they are mixing up. They are thinking that there is no spiritual energy separately, but by combination of matter, chemicals, the spiritual energy comes into existence. That is wrong; that is not fact. Spiritual energy is completely different from the material energy. That is energy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but spiritual energy is direct, and material energy is indirect. Both of them are energies of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and when there is question of energy, śakti, some energy, so we have to accept the source of energy. Just like electric energy. We see there is electric energy, but there is source of electricity, the powerhouse. How can you deny it? Those who are foolish persons, they think that a childish, that this bulb is giving light automatically. No. That is not fact. The fact is, the electric energy is coming from the background, the powerhouse, then about the bulb is giving light.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.125 -- New York, November 27, 1966:

If we try to find out our father and father's property by the ritualistic process—there are ritualistic processes in every religion and in every scripture—but if we stick to that, then the result will be they will be entrapped by the search, fanaticism, and it will be not possible to make progress. This is called dakṣiṇa system. Dakṣiṇa, dakṣiṇa means if he is giving him instruction that "Your house is bounded by east side, west side, north side and south side. So if you go to the south..." South is translated into Sanskrit, dakṣiṇa. And dakṣiṇa also means giving something to the priest in respect of his service for performing rituals. So this is figuratively being used, dakṣiṇa. Dakṣiṇa means priesthood. If you follow the priesthood, then the result will be that 'bhīmarula-barulī' uṭhibe, dhana nā pāibe. "There are some poisonous insects which will bite you, and you will not be able to dig out the wealth left by your father." So this poisonous effect is that the priesthood, they are for business. They will never give you the right thing, not it is in their power. Not it is in their power. That is going on. But if you find out, if you want to find out the Absolute Truth through this rituals and priesthood, then the result will be that you will be bitten by some poisonous insects and your attempt will be unsuccessful. Paścime, paścime khudibe.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.154-157 -- New York, December 7, 1966:

So Lord Caitanya has explained the particular features of Kṛṣṇa, and He's giving evidence from Brahma-saṁhitā and other authentic Vedic literatures. So we have concluded that Kṛṣṇa is the origin. Origin. There are many demigods, gods, and living entities, energies, millions and millions. Parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate (Cc. Madhya 13.65, purport). There is no estimate. But He is the origin of all. Just like in your New York City there are so many manifestation of electricity, but the origin is the powerhouse, similarly, He is the origin, powerhouse. Sarvādi, sarvāṁśī. He is the whole, and everything is part. And He is always just like a young boy of sixteen years old. And His body is transcendental, spiritual, full of bliss, eternity, and He is the shelter of everything. On Him everything is resting, and sarveśvara, He is the Supreme Lord.

svayaṁ bhagavān kṛṣṇa, 'govinda' para nāma

sarvaiśvarya-pūrṇa yāṅra goloka-nitya-dhāma

Now, that Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa... Kṛṣṇa is the original name of God, and Govinda is the qualitative name, transcendental qualitative. This Govinda, we have explained.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.154-157 -- New York, December 7, 1966:

Therefore God incarnates. Yadā yadā hi dharmasya glānir bhavati (BG 4.7). Glānir means when there is discrepancies. In that law, which is given by God, when there is discrepancies and people are disturbed, especially the devotees are disturbed, when there is satanic influence, there is, devotees are very much disturbed. So paritrāṇāya sādhūnām (BG 4.8). When incarnation comes, now, paritrāṇāya sādhūnām, the first business is to give protection to the devotees. There is no necessity of God's coming here to settle up things. There is no necessity. He has got omnipotential power. He can do without His presence. But when His devotees become very much disturbed, He comes personally. He comes personally, sends His representative. Paritrāṇāya sādhūnām. Sādhūnām means devotees. Paritrāṇāya and vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām. And, simultaneously, when He comes, all these miscreants, they are killed. They are annihilated. Vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām. Dharma-saṁsthāpanārthāya, and reestablishing the principle of religion. Yuge yuge sambhavāmi. The Lord says, "I come in different millenniums."

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.164-173 -- New York, December 13, 1966:

Svayaṁ-rūpa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself, He is called svayaṁ-rūpa, His personal feature. Then tad-ekātmā. Tad-ekātma-rūpa means not exactly the same person, but almost the same. Tad-ekātma-rūpa. And āveśa. Āveśa means that empowered. There is always difference between the individual soul and the Supreme Absolute Soul. When the individual soul is specially empowered by the Supreme Soul, that is called āveśa. He can act almost like God. We accept, according to this āveśa, āveśa-avatāra incarnation, authorized incarnation, we accept, my Guru Mahārāja accepted Lord Jesus Christ and Hazrat Muhammad, this āveśa incarnation, almost the same power.

svayaṁ-rūpa tad-ekātma-rūpa, āveśa-nāma

prathamei tina-rūpe rahena bhagavān

Now, in the first instance the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself, and tad-ekātmā, His next expansion with the same features, and āveśa, a powerful incarnation or powerful living entity...

'svayaṁ-rūpa' 'svayaṁ-prakāśa'—dui rūpe sphūrti
svayaṁ-rūpe-eka 'kṛṣṇa' vraje gopa-mūrti

Svayaṁ-rūpa, the supreme personal feature, and svayaṁ-prakāśa... His immediate expansion is called svayaṁ-prakāśa.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.164-173 -- New York, December 13, 1966:

Now, the yogis, some of the yogis, not all the yogis... Those who are highly qualified and advanced yogis always remain in... There is a name of Saubhari Muni, Ṛṣi, and he was in meditation, in trance within the water. Because the trance, there is no breathing, so there is no difficulty to remain even in water, because breathing causes difficulty within water. Within goes... So he was in trance, and he was a great yogi. He was meditating within water, but he... Some way or other, he was agitated by sex desire, by seeing the fish have sex intercourse. Just see. The sex power is so strong that even such a yogi who could meditate within the water, he was also agitated by sex desire. So he came out of the water and went to the king and asked him that "You give me your daughter as my wife." Oh, he was a great ṛṣi, and because he was in the water, his feature was very ugly. So the king became perplexed: "Oh, how my daughter will select such a nasty body as my son-in-law?" So he was yogi; he could understand: "Then all right..." (snaps fingers) He became very nice. Because yogis, they can do anything, very nice bodily feature. Then the king tried to avoid him, and the king told him, "Well, sir, my determination is I have got eight daughters. So I can offer my daughters to one who can become eight at least." He wanted to see how much he was yogi. And he bifurcated himself at once into eight forms.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.245-255 -- New York, December 16, 1966:

Now, out of these three different potencies, then Kṛṣṇa expands Himself also to conduct or to control or to act on these three potential power. The icchā-śakti, willing potency, that is being controlled by His expansion which is known as Vāsudeva. Icchā-jñāna vinā nā haya sṛjana. Without desire and without knowledge, nothing can be created, nothing. Suppose we are manufacturing so many things. Now, the manufacturer is first of all thinking, willing, that "This sort of thing, if we manufacture, it will be very nicely sold in the market." That is icchā-śakti. Then he acts, acts on it. That is called jñāna-śakti. Without jñāna, without willing, nothing is produced. So whenever you find something produced, you must know, behind that production there is that will, the supreme will, the supreme knowledge. This is study. Icchā-śakti-jñāna...

icchā-jñāna vinā nā haya sṛjana
tinera tina-śakti meli' prapañca-racana

So this icchā-śakti, this potency of will, supreme will, and the potency of supreme hand and the potency of supreme knowledge, these three things are conducting all affairs in this material world.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.245-255 -- New York, December 16, 1966:

And the potential activity, that is being done by the expansion of Saṅkarṣaṇa, either in this material world or in the spiritual world. So parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyat (Cc. Madhya 13.65, purport)e. In this way the Lord is working in so many ways, and because we have no knowledge, we think that "There is no brain behind it. There is no knowledge behind it. Everything is coming out automatically, and we are the master of everything." That is called illusion. So by Kṛṣṇa consciousness, you will be free from this illusion, and you will know how God is working by His different potential power.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.294-298 -- New York, December 19, 1966:

So Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu; then next Viṣṇu, the third incarnation, is Kṣīrodakaśāyī Viṣṇu. Within this universe there is a planet near the polestar which is called Kṣīrodakaśāyī planet, and there Lord Viṣṇu in His incarnation of antaryāmi, Supersoul... He is acting as the Supersoul. And He is the universal form. When you think of universal form of the Lord, that is the manifestation of this Kṣīrodakaśāyī Viṣṇu. And that Kṣīrodakaśāyī Viṣṇu as Paramātmā, Supersoul, is situated in everyone's heart, even within the atom also. Aṇḍāntara-stha-paramāṇu-cayāntara-stham (Bs. 5.35). Paramāṇu means atom. Within the atom also. We think of God as very great, universal form, but God can take also form less than the atom. That is God's power. He is not only great, greatest, but He is the smallest. Aṇor aṇīyān mahato mahīyān. Mahato mahīyān means greatest of the great, and aṇor aṇīyān, the smallest of the small. We cannot think how small He can become. That is His inconceivable potency. So within this material world, He is within the atom, and He is within everyone's heart, in everywhere, all-pervading, and at the same time universal form, the biggest form.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.294-298 -- New York, December 19, 1966:

The poet Jayadeva, a great devotee poet, is singing that "In the devastation, my Lord Keśava, You have assumed the form of fish." A great muni was sitting. He was meditating. And after taking his bath in the ocean, in the sea, he brought one pot of kamaṇḍalu. Kamaṇḍalu, that pot, you have seen. He found a little fish there. Then, within few seconds, that fish covered all the pot, and the muni thought, "Oh, He is growing so rapidly. All right, let Him have some big pot." So he gave Him big pot. Then again He became full. Then in this way he had to put it in the ocean, and He became oceanlike. Then he understood that He is God. So this is Godly power. He can take the shape... As the ocean is big, so He'll take and take this bigger-than-the-ocean form. But He is the maker of all forms. He has made ocean. But is it very difficult to understand how God becomes fish? That does not mean that every fish is God. No. So there is Matsyāvatāra.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.294-298 -- New York, December 19, 1966:

Everything is now secure. I cannot be killed in day. I cannot be killed at night. No man can kill him (me). No demigod can kill me. No animal can kill me. Then where is the killing? Everything finished." But God is so cunning that He assumed neither man nor animal, and no weapons. He killed him with the nails. He never expected that "I will be killed by the nails." This is the definition by negation, defective definition. In argument, if you define negatively, "This is not this. This is not this. This is not this," then something will come that will nullify all your arguments. So he protected himself in all negative ways: "This will not. This will not. This will not. This will not." Something came which was not in his power. So this Nṛsiṁhāvatāra.

Then Vāmanāvatāra. Vāmanāvatāra, I have already mentioned, that He became a dwarf brāhmaṇa boy and took all the possession that Mahārāja Bali. This Mahārāja Bali was grandson of this Mahārāja Prahlāda. So these are līlāvatāra pastimes. Pastimes means exchange of dealing between the devotees and the Lord, between the living entities and the Lord, exchange. Either there are twelve kinds of humor, rasas... Sometimes He deals as enemy; sometimes He deals as friend; sometimes He deals as so many things. There are twelve. So we are all related with God in some humor out of these twelve, either as enemy or as friend or servitor or lover or as son or father, as the master and servant. In so many ways we are related. And when these relationship is exchanged between God and the living entity, that is called līlā, līlā, pastimes.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.298 -- New York, December 20, 1966:

So all these incarnations, especially this līlāvatāra, līlā incarnation, they come, they descend on this material world, to settle up some disturbances by the demons. There are two classes of men in this world, the deva and the asura. Deva means those who are devotees, those who are conscious, Kṛṣṇa conscious, they are called deva, gods, demigods. And demigod does not mean that something extraordinary. They are also living entities like us, but they are completely Kṛṣṇa conscious, and therefore they have got unlimited power, and they are entrusted with some of the management of this material world. They are called deva. And the asuras, demons, atheists, they are not entrusted. They are simply meant for creating disturbances. So when the atheist class, the number of atheist class, increases, at that time it becomes intolerable for the devas and the gods to remain here because the asuras can create much disturbances. So at that time, indrāri-vyākulaṁ lokaṁ mṛḍayanti yuge yuge (SB 1.3.28). Indrāri. Indra means the head of the demigods. When his enemies are increased and create disturbance, these līlāvatāras, they come. As it is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṁ vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām: (BG 4.8) "Just to deliver the faithful and to annihilate the unfaithful," yuge yuge sambhavāmi, "I come in every millennium."

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.298 -- New York, December 20, 1966:

Now Lord Caitanya says, "I have mentioned some of the līlāvatāra. Now, Sanātana, you just hear from Me about guṇāvatāra." Guṇāvatāra means the incarnation of the material qualities. There are three qualities in the material world: goodness, passion and ignorance. So each quality is controlled by the Supreme Lord Himself by His expansion of different incarnation. Brahmā, viṣṇu, śiva—tina guṇa avatāra. Now on these three qualities, material modes of nature, the heads are Brahmā-Brahmā, the first living creature, Brahmā—and Viṣṇu—Viṣṇu, God Himself—and Śiva, Lord Śiva. Śiva's position is between Brahmā and Viṣṇu. Viṣṇu is God, and Brahmā is living entity. Gradation. Living entities, they are also parts and parcels of God. Śiva is also part and parcel of God. Viṣṇu is also part and parcel of God. But there are degrees of power. That we have already discussed. Kṛṣṇa is cent percent, Viṣṇu is ninety-four percent, Śiva is eighty-four percent, and we living entities, we are seventy-eight percent. So tri-guṇa aṅgīkari' kare sṛṣṭy-ādi-vyavahāra. They have nothing to do with these material modes of nature. Just like a person in charge of the criminal department or jail department, but we should not think that he is also one of the prisoners because he is in charge of the jail department. No. Similarly, Śiva, Lord Śiva, he is in charge of the modes of ignorance, but he is not ignorant. He is the most enlightened devotee of Lord. He has got a paramparā, disciplic succession, which is called Viṣṇu Svāmī-sampradāya.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.337-353 -- New York, December 25, 1966:

In the Bhāgavata you'll find, svīkāra eva hy udhvāhe: "In the Kali-yuga, marriage will be performed simply by agreement." Just see. Another... Lāvaṇyaṁ keśa-dhāraṇam: "People will think by keeping long hairs they will be very beautiful." It is stated in Bhāgavata. They'll look very beautiful. Lāvaṇyaṁ keśa-dhāraṇam. It is written there if you see. It is not story. Svīkāra eva hy udvāhe. Dāmpatye ratim eva hi: "And husband and wife relation means sex. That's all." If the husband has got sex power, then there will be no divorce. These are all written there. Simply sex life, husband and wife relationship. Simply sex life. Vipratve sūtram eva hi: "And one will be considered a brāhmaṇa simply by this thread." These are all written there. A two-cent-worth thread, you get it..., "Oh, you have got thread. Oh, you are a brāhmaṇa." That's all. This is going on in India. Two-paisa-worth brāhmaṇa. He has all the qualification of less than a caṇḍāla, but, because he has got this nonsense thread, he's considered a brāhmaṇa. So these things are all mentioned. And we have to believe it also that, in the last stage of the Kali-yuga, nobody will understand what is God, what is religion. And there will be no supply of these grains. Now we are getting all these grains. But, as you are, as you are thinking grain is not meant for human being, they are meant for animals, all right, God will stop completely. Then you'll have to live only on the seeds and animal flesh. That is also mentioned. There will be no milk. There will be no sugar.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.353-354 -- New York, December 26, 1966:

Now he says, "My dear Lord, those who are asura prakṛtayaḥ..." Asura prakṛtayaḥ means the atheistic demons. Atheists are called demons. In the Vedic literature, those who are atheists, they are called demons, rākṣasas. Just like Rāvaṇa, he was a great scholar in Vedic philosophy. He was son of a brāhmaṇa, and he was very learned. And he materially advanced his kingdom so nice that his capital was called golden. He was so rich. Everything, he was, in every way, in education, in opulence, in power, everything was so great. Only fault was that he was atheist. Therefore he's called rākṣasa, asura. All the asuras that are mentioned in the śāstra, their only fault is that they are atheists. Otherwise, from education point of view, from opulence, they are very much advanced.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.354-358 -- New York, December 28, 1966:

We cannot see the sky. So the..., in the material world also, there are so many finer things which we cannot see. And what to speak of spiritual? So that spiritual, Supreme Spirit, when He appears before us, seeable, so that we can see, so that is His mercy. That is His mercy. Because we cannot see even the soul within ourself; we are seeing only the body. So what to speak of the Supreme Spirit? That is not possible. Yasyāvatāra jñāyante śarīriṣv aśarīriṇaḥ. Therefore it is the inconceivable power that the incarnation of God appears before us.

'svarūpa'-lakṣaṇa, āra 'taṭastha-lakṣaṇa'

ei dui lakṣaṇe 'vastu' jāne muni-gaṇa

The symptoms are analyzed in two divisions. Svarūpa-lakṣaṇa means the symptom which (is) always present. That is called svarūpa-lakṣaṇa. And taṭastha-lakṣaṇa, the symptoms which are sometimes present and sometimes not present. They are called... In this way, the experienced sages, they analyze the characteristics of the avatāra, or God—two symptoms. One symptom is always there. As soon as there is God, that constant symptom is there. And there are other symptoms which may appear, sometimes may not appear.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.354-358 -- New York, December 28, 1966:

Ākṛti, prakṛti. The form and the activities, all uncommon. Just like Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa, He married sixteen thousand wives and He divided Himself into sixteen thousand. Kṛṣṇa. This is called ākṛti. This is uncommon. God can expand Himself in any number of forms. We cannot do that. That is the..., symptom of God. Ākṛti, prakṛti. Prakṛti is His nature, supreme nature. As soon as He likes anything to do, He'll do it. There is no impediment. Parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyat... And He does in such nice way that we cannot conceive how it is being done, nature's way. Ākṛti prakṛti, these are taṭastha lakṣaṇa, uh, svarūpa lakṣaṇa, personal symptoms of God. And kārya-dvārā jñāna—ei taṭastha-lakṣaṇa. And the activities... Just like Kṛṣṇa, when comes as incarnation, His activities and activities of Rāma, or activities of Nṛsiṁha, activities of Vāmana, these activities may differ according to time, according to place, according to the mission. The activities may be different. But Their, Their ākṛti, Their feature, and Their power—extraordinary. We should understand very nicely that incarnation means Their feature and Their nature—uncommon.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.367-84 -- New York, December 31, 1966:

So far Buddha is concerned, he's also considered śaktyāveśa avatāra. He preached this nirvāṇa philosophy. Although he did not speak about God, because it is considered that he was himself God, but the people amongst whom he preached, they were mostly atheistic people; therefore he did not preach about God. But he did not deny also. He simply wanted to make extinction of this present worldly activities. That was, yes... Nirvāṇa. And he represented the sacrifice of renouncement. He..., you may remember that the Supreme Personality of Godhead, out of His six opulences, one opulence is renouncement. So Lord Buddha's life is renouncement. He was prince. He, he was in a very young time. He renounced the world and underwent severe penances. These are the symptoms by which we can understand that he's also śaktyāveśa avatāra. And the Bhagavad-gītā you'll find, yad yad vibhūtimat sattvaṁ mama tejo-'ṁśa-sambhavam. Anyone, not only Lord Buddha or others, but anyone, Lord, in the Bhagavad-gītā it is stated, anyone who has got some extraordinary power, uncommon power, he's to be considered vibhu. Śaktyāveśa avatāra, there are two kinds, one directly empowered for particular mission, comes from the transcendental spiritual sky, and others, those who are in this material world, but they have got some specific power, uncommon power, not found in ordinary man. They are called vibhūti. This vibhūti (is) explained in the Bhagavad-gītā: yad yad vibhūtimat sattvaṁ mama tejo-'ṁśa sambhavam. That is out of the opulence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.367-84 -- New York, December 31, 1966:

Śeṣe, Śeṣa-avatāra, He is personally serving the Supreme Lord as Mahā Viṣṇu, Kāraṇodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu. You have seen the picture that Viṣṇu is lying on a serpent bed. That serpent bed is supposed to be Śeṣa-avatāra. And pṛthute, Mahārāja, King Pṛthu, he was ideal king. Therefore 'pālana', God has another opulence: maintenance. Eko bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān. That Supreme One is maintaining so many, innumerable eternals. Nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām eka bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13). So this maintenance performance, opulence, was invested to Pṛthu Mahārāja. He exhibited extraordinary power, how to maintain the citizens, as king and subjects. Paraśurāme 'duṣṭa-nāśaka-vīrya-sañcāraṇa' Paraśurāma... Paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṁ vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām (BG 4.8). Under two, these two missions, the Lord comes, incarnates, descends. And Paraśurāma was supposed to kill the duṣṭa, the wicked kṣatriyas, when they forgot to rule over the world as bona fide kṣatriyas. They..., they..., they were killed twenty-one times, and it is mentioned in the Mahābhārata during that killing process, many kṣatriyas fled from, fled away from India and they settled in other parts of the world, especially in Europe. It is mentioned in the Mahābhārata. So Paraśurāma was especially meant, vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām, to kill the miscreants.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.367-84 -- New York, December 31, 1966:

Another definition is given by Sanātana Gosvāmī. This same Sanātana Gosvāmī who is now being taught by Lord Caitanya, he also has written many books. These two brothers, Rūpa Gosvāmī and Sanātana Gosvāmī, and their nephew, Jīva Gosvāmī, composed many valuable literatures. So Sanātana Gosvāmī has written one book, Laghu-bhāgavatāmṛtam. Laghu-bhāgavatāmṛtam, supplementary to Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. So in that Laghu-bhāgavatāmṛtam book, he has written,

jñāna-śaktya-ādi-kalayā
yatrāviṣṭo janārdanaḥ
ta āveśā nigadyante
jīvā eva mahattamāḥ

He has defined that these śaktyāveśa avatāra, they are all living entities; they are not on the level of Viṣṇu-tattva. But they have special power and special, I mean to say, opulence to glorify the Supreme Lord.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.385-394 -- New York, January 1, 1967:

This sun planet, according to your modern science, it is fixed. But we cannot understand why sun should be fixed. Every planet has its orbit. So sun must be moving in the orbit. That is described in the Brahma-saṁhitā: yac-cakṣur eṣa savitā sakala-grahāṇāṁ rājā. He's the king of all planets—rājā samasta-sura-mūrtir aśeṣa tejāḥ. Aśeṣa tejāḥ means inexhaustible temperature. The sun planet has got inexhaustible heat and temperature. That we can experience. Nobody can say what is there that the sun planet is diffusing unlimited temperature and heat for millions and trillions of years, still, it is not exhausted. So this is called aśeṣa. Aśeṣa. There is no end. Just like we are in the fire. Unless we put some fuel, fuel, it is not possible to continue the temperature. But there, the supply is so, so sufficient that there is no end of temperature. Every planet is self-sufficient. That is described in the Īśopaniṣad. Īśāvāsyam idaṁ sarvaṁ yat kiñcit jagatyāṁ jagat... (ISO 1). No. Pūrṇam idam, pūrṇam adaḥ, pūrṇaṁ pūrṇāt udacyate pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya pūrṇam eva avaśiṣyate (Īśo Invocation). The Supreme Lord is pūrṇa. Pūrṇa means complete. And whatever He creates, that is also complete. The actions and reactions of sun planet to diffuse heat all over the universe is complete. By Lord's grace, by Lord's creative power, energy. That is also inferior energy. This is not superior energy. This is inferior energy. So still it is complete.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 21.1-10 -- New York, January 3, 1967:

He, bhūman: "O the great, O the Supreme Personality of Godhead, O the Supersoul, O the master of mysticism, how You are acting tri-bhuvane, tri-bhuvane, within the three worlds?" Three world means that in the materially there is lower planet and middle planets and upper planets, these three worlds. So "How You are acting within these three worlds, and how You are utilizing Your internal potency, yogamāyā, extending Yourself in so many expansions, plenary expansions? Who can understand You? Nobody can understand You." You may say if nobody can understand, what is the use of discussing such things? That is the qualification of the devotees. In spite of their inability to understand His supremacy, the expansion, the extension of the Supreme Lord, still, by discussing about the Supreme Lord, hearing and chanting, they take transcendental pleasure. It is not that anybody can understand Kṛṣṇa, but still, it is a transcendental pleasure to try to understand. Not that we shall be able to understand Kṛṣṇa fully; it is not in our power. But still, bodhayantaḥ parasparam, tuṣyanti ca ramanti ca. Mahātmā, those who are great souls, in their society, in their spiritual society of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, by discussing about Kṛṣṇa in terms of the Vedic literature and authoritative literature, they enjoy transcendentally. This is transcendental pleasure. (end)

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 21.13-49 -- New York, January 4, 1967:

Brahmā, he was bewildered. When Kṛṣṇa came on this planet, Brahmā... Muhyanti yat sūrayaḥ. Brahmā was astonished and Indra was astonished: "How is that my Lord Kṛṣṇa has come at Vṛndāvana as a cowherd boy?" So they came to Vṛndāvana to test. So all... So Brahmā, by his... He has got so much power. He had kidnapped all the cows and the boys of Kṛṣṇa. And when he came back he saw Kṛṣṇa is playing with the same cows and boys again. Then he could understand that "This boy is Kṛṣṇa." Then he offered his prayer and begged pardon from Him that "I misunderstood." In this way there are many narrations in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Here Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu is referring to that incident.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 22.11-15 -- New York, January 9, 1967:

So the demons... Demons means their characteristic: to challenge the existence of God. And therefore this prakṛti, nature, is piercing, the trident. The trident means threefold miseries: miseries pertaining to the body, pertaining to the mind... Just like yesterday night you had some trouble due to the body. So sometimes mind: "Oh, today I am not very good mood. There is something wrong." The body is all right, but the mind is not all right. This is called ādhyātmika. Then adhibhautika. Adhibhautika means miseries offered by other living entities. Just like at night, bedbugs. (laughter) (laughs) So, very nice situation, whole night there is no sleep. Why? Now there is adhibhautika. Adhibhautika. Or some enemy. This is... There are... These are all miseries, but we forget. And adhidaivika. Adhidaivika. Just like heavy snowfall, severe cold, severe heat, earthquake, famine, war. These are adhidaivika, forced by you by superior power. Nobody wants war, but it is forced. These are called adhidaivika miseries. So three kinds. Here it is stated, ādhyātmikādi tapa-traya tāre. So we are under the control of this material nature, and that trident is pierced on my chest. How can I understand? Now this trident I am experiencing every moment. These three kinds of miseries are there. Either this or that or three or two or one—must be there. Must be there. So those who are, I mean to say, enlightened, they can understand that we are miserable. We are in a miserable condition. And those who are not enlightened, in ignorance, they think, "Oh, this is all right. Don't care for it."

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 22.31-33 -- New York, January 16, 1967:

So Pūtanā, a demoness, she, in the dress of a very nice girl, approached Yaśodāmayī, and she had the desire... Because she was the agent of Kaṁsa. Kaṁsa was searching out to kill Kṛṣṇa. So she came with poison in her breast so that she'll take the child, and naturally, the child, they suck breast of lady. And as soon as Kṛṣṇa will suck the breast, and there is poison, it will die. That was his plan. Now Yaśodāmayī, she's very innocent lady. She came: "Oh, Yaśodā, you have got very nice child. Will you kindly give in my lap?" "Yes, yes. Why not? Take." And she at once put the child on the breast and Kṛṣṇa sucked. Kṛṣṇa sucked the poison and Kṛṣṇa sucked the life also. At once the demon fell, a gigantic body, and there was... "Oh, how He is powerful."(?) So He's all-powerful there in the lap of His mother. Yaśodāmayī thought, "Oh! God has saved my child! This demoness, they came to cheat me." Yaśodāmayī does not know that here is God on her lap. This is another māyā. This is called yogamāyā. If Yaśodāmayī understands He is God, then (s)he cannot, I mean to say, bring up the child just like her own child, ordinary child. Therefore she must be in ignorance, that she... Because there is the connection of love only. That's all. So out of love, as somebody forgets what he is or she is, similarly Yaśodāmayī constantly seeing so many wonderful things played by Kṛṣṇa, still she is thinking, "Oh, He is my child. These things are happening by some supernatural power. It is God's grace. It is God's grace that my child is saved." She is simply anxious to save her child. That's all.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 25.31-38 -- San Francisco, January 22, 1967:

And Caitanya Mahāprabhu said that... Not Caitanya Mahāprabhu, I'm sorry. That disciple, the chief disciple of Prakāśānanda Sarasvatī, he's repeating what Caitanya Mahāprabhu explained about the Vedānta-sūtra. He also accepts. Yes. Brahman, the great, means He is great in all respect. He is great in richness, He is great in strength, He is great in power, He is great in knowledge, He is great in renouncement. Then He is great. So if a man is the greatest man in richness, greatest man in power, greatest man in fame, greatest man in knowledge, greatest man in beauty, then where is the impersonality? These are all personal qualifications. So Brahman, or the Supreme, or the Absolute Truth, cannot be imperson. Imperson may be a feature, but ultimately He is person.

śruti-purāṇa kahe-kṛṣṇera cic-chakti-vilāsa

tāhā nāhi māni, paṇḍita kare upahāsa

So śruti, śruti means the Vedas. The Vedas clearly say that all these manifestation, they are out of the energy. Janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). From this fountainhead, from the Supreme Source, the energies. Just like the electric light, it is very brilliant, illuminating. But this is energy emanating from the powerhouse. The powerhouse is person. It is managed by a person, executive engineer or resident engineer. So when you go, the government, United States, externally, ephemerally, it appears imperson, but if you go deep into the matter, you see that there is president, a person.

Sri Isopanisad Lectures

Sri Isopanisad, Mantra 10 -- Los Angeles, May 15, 1970:

So people are searching what is God. And searching, searching, searching, and they fail. They say, "Oh, there is no God. I am God." Finished. You see? This is not possible. Here it is said, iti śuśruma. This is Vedic knowledge. Heard, śuśruma. Wherefrom śuśruma? From the storekeeper? No. Dhīrāṇāṁ śuśruma. Iti śuśruma dhīrāṇām. What is dhīrāṇām? From the sober sect. Not this fanatic sect, but the sober sect, dhīra. Dhīra means whose senses are not agitated by material influence, or svāmī, or gosvāmī. He is called dhīra. There are different kinds of agitation. The first agitating agent is the mind, then the another agitating agent is this tongue. Another agitating agent is our speaking power. Vāco-vega krodha-vega. Another agitation is when we become angry. When we become angry, we forget. We do any nonsense due to the agitation of anger. When we speak in anger, we speak so many nonsense things. Vāco-vegaṁ krodha-vegaṁ manasa-vegaṁ jihvā-vegam. Jihvā-vegam, agitation of the jihvā, tongue. Don't you see? For the agitation of the tongue so many advertisement: "Oh, here is this liquor," "Here is this chicken," "Here is this beef." What for? To satisfy the agitation of the tongue.

Sri Isopanisad, Mantra 13-15 -- Los Angeles, May 18, 1970:

So that seeing power is the bhakta's, the devotee's, because Kṛṣṇa certifies, bhaktyā mām abhijānāti (BG 18.55). Premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena santaḥ sadaiva hṛdayeṣu vilokayanti (Bs. 5.38). Those who have developed love of Godhead by that ointment, prema, ointment... Just like sometimes... In India it is very... They have got some... What is called? Surma? Ungent, surma. Yes. If you apply that surma your sight becomes bright immediately. So if you smear your eyes with love of Godhead, then you will see God always. Santaḥ sadaiva hṛdayeṣu vilokayanti. Yes. So devotion. So this is the way of understanding God. By service, by enhancing love... This love can be increased only by service. Otherwise there is no possibility. Sevonmukhe hi jihvādau (Brs. 1.2.234). The more you increase your service spirit, the more you increase your dormant love of God. And as soon as you are in the perfectional stage of love of God, you see God always, every moment. Twenty-four hours you can see.

Sri Brahma-samhita Lectures

Lecture on Brahma-samhita, Verse 33 -- New York, July 27, 1971:

They are called nitya-mukta, ever-liberated. And we, in this material world, we are nitya-baddha, ever-conditioned. Besides that, Kṛṣṇa has got Viṣṇu tattva form, personal. Viṣṇu tattva form means that one form is as powerful as the other form. In the vibhinnāṁśa form, we are not as powerful as Kṛṣṇa. But there are forms of Kṛṣṇa who are as powerful as Kṛṣṇa. Dīpārcir eva hi daśāntaram abhyupetya (Bs. 5.46). Just like you take this candle and you light on another candle, another candle—but all these candles are of the same power, although the original candle is there. Similarly, Kṛṣṇa is the original Supreme Personality of Godhead, and there are innumerable other forms of Godhead also. But they are as good as Kṛṣṇa. Pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya pūrṇam evāvaśiṣyate (Iso Invocation). The potency of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is so great that if another Godhead is expanded, both of them are of the same potency. Therefore it is advaita acyuta. Acyuta means who never falls. Living entities, although they are forms of Kṛṣṇa, they fall down. Just like our present condition is fallen condition. We are in the matter. But the personal expansions, they never fall in the matter. Therefore another name of God, or Kṛṣṇa, is Acyuta. Acyuta means never falls.

Lecture on Brahma-samhita, Verse 34 -- San Francisco, September 13, 1968 :

Just like, taror mūla-niṣecanena, if you supply water on the root of the tree, the water is immediately transferred to the branches, to the leaves, to the flowers, to the fruits—everywhere. Everyone knows it. It is scientific. But if you supply water to one leaf, or thousand leaves, it does not mean that other leaves are also getting the benefit. So, at the present moment, people are captivated for human welfare activities. Oh, what human welfare activities they will do? It is not in your power. You can do something, but very limited. There are living entities, they are not only human beings. There are 8,400,000's of living entities, and the human living entities they are only minute portion. They are only 400,000's these, only. Other living entities, they are eight million. That is not very difficult to understand. If you take a census of the living entities in the city of San Francisco, then the census of the human being residing in this city, they will be very, a small number in comparison to the birds, bests, aquatics, ants, and so many other living entities, so many other living entities. So, suppose a portion of human living entity you serve, then what is the value of service? What is the value of that service?

Festival Lectures

Lecture-Day after Sri Gaura-Purnima -- Hawaii, March 5, 1969:

So after the appearance of Lord Caitanya, there was great ceremony. All the inhabitants of Navadvīpa, His father, Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu's father, was not very rich man but was very respectable brāhmaṇa. The brāhmaṇa community, especially in those days, five hundred years ago, the brāhmaṇa community, as a community, they were not very rich because they did not care for material opulence. That is the specific quality of brāhmaṇas. There are four classes of men all over the world. (break) ...people, they are interested for success of this human form of life. They are called brāhmaṇas. And the next class of men, they are interested for political power, next important class. First important class is called who are seeking success of the human form of life, and the next class, they are seeking success to become very rich within this material world by political power. Another next class is trying to be successful by material opulence, by earning money, the mercantile community. First class, second class, third class. They are third class. And the fourth-class men, they are called śūdras. That means they have no other ambition than to fill up their belly also. That's all. They have no intelligence to become brāhmaṇa, neither to become kṣatriya, administrator, or to occupy political powers; neither they have energy to become very rich businessmen or industrialists. Therefore they are called fourth-class men.

Lecture-Day after Sri Gaura-Purnima -- Hawaii, March 5, 1969:

If you divide all people, they will..., you will find one class of men: they are not interested with this opulence of material happiness. They are seeking-philosophers, learned scholars, scientists, religionists, reformers. Their business is different. So naturally, the brāhmaṇa class of men, they are not very rich. (baby starts crying) Oh. What happened? (break) ...are always, because they do not endeavor for material opulence, apparently they look very poor, but actually, they are rich in knowledge. But people do not care for knowledge, at the present moment at least. They care for material opulence. They think that this life is meant for highest grade of sense gratification. That is the general thinking. In this city, any city you go, they are struggling very hard. Everyone is trying to get very rich, to get monetary power, so that they can satisfy their senses. Just like I hear from my students that this island, Hawaii, is meant for tourists. Tourists means they are all rich class of men. They come here to spend money for sense gratification. That is the way of civilization, the modern civilization: "Earn money at any cost. At the risk of all advancement of life, enjoy." So this is not new thing, but at the present moment in this age, this mentality has increased very improportionately. So when I came to the compound, to the yard of this house, I was very happy to hear the chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, because in this great city of sense gratification, at least in one corner there is the vibration of Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra.

Lecture-Day after Sri Gaura-Purnima -- Hawaii, March 5, 1969:

So Lord Caitanya said the same thing. Lord Kṛṣṇa said... As the Supreme Lord, He commended—He has got the commanding power because He is the Supreme God—that "You surrender unto Me." Just like some superior, the teacher or father or king, says "You must do it." But there is force. A state says "You must do it," but if you do not do it, then there is force. Just like this draft board. They are demanding that "You must join. If you don't join, there will be force, and you will be forcibly joined after that." So here, in the Kṛṣṇa's order, because He is Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Lord, there is no force. That voluntary. He says that "This is life. You surrender unto Me." But He could force Arjuna to surrender, or anybody, because He is Supreme Lord. But that force He does not apply because He has given us little independence. Therefore, if He forces, then His gift of independence is misused from His side. We are misusing our, that gift of independence, but for that reason, Kṛṣṇa cannot withdraw your independence. Just like you are independent citizen. You are... If somebody misuses that independence, he becomes a criminal, but still, the independence continues. You are criminal. You are punished. Again you are set free.

Sri Rama-Navami, Lord Ramacandra's Appearance Day, Cornerstone Laying -- Bombay, April 1, 1974:

Govinda, Kṛṣṇa, is the ādi-puruṣa, original Personality of Godhead. In the Bhagavad-gītā Kṛṣṇa says, mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat (BG 7.7). Ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavaḥ (BG 10.8). In other śāstras also, like Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, it is said, kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam. There are many expansions of Kṛṣṇa, but the original person, kṛṣṇas tu..., ete cāṁśa-kalāḥ puṁsaḥ kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam (SB 1.3.28). So He is existing with His expansions. Lord Rāmacandra is also one of the expansions. Rāmādi-mūrtiṣu kalā-niyamena tiṣṭhan (Bs. 5.39). All these expansions are existing eternally. There is no inferiority or superiority. All the expansions are of the same potency, same power. The example is given like this candle. One candle is now burned and you can get another candle burned, you can get third candle burned, ignite. But all the candles are of the same power. The difference is that one you can call the original candle and the others you can call the second candle, the third candle, the fourth candle. But so far the candle's power is concerned, there is no difference. Pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya pūrṇam evāvaśiṣyate (Iso Invocation). Kṛṣṇa, or the Supreme Lord, can expand Himself, eko bahu syāma, in millions and trillions of forms, but all of them are of the same potency. But the potencies are sometimes exhibited according to the time and circumstance.

Ratha-yatra -- San Francisco, June 27, 1971:

When our eyes are anointed with love of God, we can see Him everywhere. That is the injunction of the śāstras. We have to develop our seeing power by developing love of Godhead. Premāñjana-cchurita bhakti-vilocanena (Bs. 5.38). When one is sufficiently developed in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he can see the Lord every moment within his heart and everywhere, wherever he goes. So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is an attempt to teach people how to see God, how to see Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa can be seen if we practice. Just like Kṛṣṇa says, raso 'ham apsu kaunteya (BG 7.8). Kṛṣṇa says, "I am the taste of the water." Every one of us, we drink water everyday, not only one, twice, thrice or more than that. So as soon as we drink water, if we think that the taste of the water is Kṛṣṇa, immediately we become Kṛṣṇa conscious. To become Kṛṣṇa conscious is not very difficult job. Simply we have to practice it. Just like this is an example how to practice to become Kṛṣṇa conscious. Whenever you drink water, as soon as you are satiated, your thirst is quenched, immediately you think that this thirsting, the quenching power is Kṛṣṇa. Prabhāsmi śaśi sūryayoḥ. Kṛṣṇa says, "I am the sunshine. I am the moonshine." So during daytime, every one of us seeing the sunshine. As soon as you see sunshine, immediately you can remember Kṛṣṇa, "Here is Kṛṣṇa." As soon as you see moonshine at night, immediately you can remember, "Here is Kṛṣṇa." In this way, if you practice, there are many instances, many examples given in the Bhagavad-gītā, in the Seventh Chapter, if you read them carefully, how to practice Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Then at that time, when you are mature in love of Kṛṣṇa, you will see Kṛṣṇa everywhere. Nobody has to help you to see Kṛṣṇa, but Kṛṣṇa will be revealed before you, by your devotion, by your love. Sevonmukhe hi jihvādau svayam eva sphuraty adaḥ (Brs. 1.2.234). Kṛṣṇa, when one is in service mood, when one understands that "I am eternal servant of Kṛṣṇa, or God," then Kṛṣṇa help you how to see Him.

Janmastami Lord Sri Krsna's Appearance Day -- Montreal, August 16, 1968:

So Lord Kṛṣṇa for this reason has appeared. He wants to call the conditioned souls back to Godhead. He wants us to realize that He is the source of the whole universe, He is the owner of the universe, He is the supreme enjoyer, the supreme knower of everything, and that we are always welcome to associate with Him by the grace of His devotees, by the grace of a spiritual master. And so He has appeared, and we are now celebrating the Janmāṣṭamī day, the day when Lord Kṛṣṇa came to this conditioned plane out of His own transcendental power, with His full spiritual potency, in order to reveal the supreme nature of sac-cid-ānanda vigrahaḥ (Bs. 5.1), eternal knowledge, consciousness, and bliss, to all the conditioned souls so that they might be attracted to Him, and so that they might come out of the miseries of material existence and of ignorance. At this particular time in the world it is very much necessary that all people hear about Kṛṣṇa and that they should become attracted to chanting the name of Kṛṣṇa, to hearing about Kṛṣṇa's wonderful pastimes. So that by this exquisite attraction for Kṛṣṇa they might forget their lower desires, which are now leading everybody to a hellish condition of life in which it seems inevitable there are going to be wars and pestilences and starvation, diseases, all kinds of social injustice.

Sri Vyasa-puja -- Hamburg, September 5, 1969:

So spiritual master means he must be just like the cloud. How it is possible? It is possible. It is possible in this way, provided he follows the disciplic succession of spiritual master. Then it is possible. He must inherit the power from the superior source. Then it is possible that by his teaching, by his lessons, the forest fire which is burning within our heart, it can be extinguished, and the person who receives such spiritual instruction bona fidely, he becomes satisfied. This is the process. So,

saṁsāra-dāvānala-līḍha-loka-
trāṇāya kāruṇya-ghanāghanatvam
prāptasya kalyāṇa-guṇārṇavasya
vande guroḥ śrī-caraṇāravindam **

Now, this spiritual master's succession is not very difficult. Of course, my students, they offer me so much respect, but all these respects are due to my spiritual master. I am nothing. I am just like peon. Just like peon delivers one letter. He is not responsible for what is written in that letter. He is not responsible for what is written in that letter. He simply delivers. But a peon's duty is that he must sincerely carry out the order of the postmaster and deliver the letter to the proper person. That is their duty. Similarly, this paramparā system is like that. Every one of us should become a spiritual master because the world is in blazing fire. (aside:) You can give them prasādam. Now, of course, time is very high. So to understand the spiritual master... Spiritual master is not a new invention. It is simply following the orders of the spiritual master. So all my students present here who are feeling so much obliged... I am also obliged to them because they are helping me in this missionary work. At the same time, I shall request them all to become spiritual master.

Govardhana Puja Lecture -- New York, November 4, 1966:

He says, "My dear boy, water is very essential because without rains we cannot have any produce. Therefore... This rain is controlled by Bhagavān Indra. The heavenly king Indra, he controls the megha." Megha means cloud. He is the master of the cloud. He can send cloud, and he can stop cloud. He is representative of God, so he has got the power. Te 'bhivarṣanti bhūtānāṁ prīṇanam: "So when he allows this raining, people become satisfied. They get their produce."

taṁ tāta vayam anye ca
cārmucāṁ patim īśvaram
dravyais tad-retasā siddhyair
yajante kratubhir narāḥ

"Therefore it is our duty. Because he supplies us water, so it is our duty to show him respect by this sacrifice." This is the Vedic injunction. Just like we pay departmental tax. We pay to the Con Edison bills for the supply of electricity and gas. Similarly, we pay the bills of the telephone. But we have no program to pay the bills of the sun who is supplying us so much light. (aside:) What is that?

Sri Sri Radha Gokulananda Deity Installation -- London, August 21, 1973:

His one plenary portion has entered this material world as Garbhodakaśayī Viṣṇu. From Garbhodakaśayī Viṣṇu, there is expansion of Kṣirodakaśayī Viṣṇu. That Kṣirodakaśayī Viṣṇu has entered every atom. Eko 'py asau racayituṁ jagad-aṇḍa-koṭiṁ yac-chaktir asti jagad-aṇḍa-caya yad-antaḥ. So Kṛṣṇa is everywhere, and if you are devotee, then you can catch Him. This is the secret. Just like electricity is everywhere, electrons. One who can tackle the electrons, they can talk without any direct connection by electronic method, thousand thousand miles away. Just like radio message, television message. So similarly, Kṛṣṇa is also everywhere. Just like the waves of sound wave is going on. As soon as you produce, I produce one sound, immediately within a second the sound goes round the earth seven times. So if a material thing has got so much power, just think how much power God has got. So He is everywhere. Simply you have to catch Him. And He's also ready for being caught. Yes. If somebody wants to catch Him... Suppose you are a devotee. If you want to catch Him, He comes forward ten times than your desire. He's so kind. Therefore, we have to simply receive Him.

Arrival Addresses and Talks

Arrival Address -- Los Angeles, February 9, 1975:

The atheist will say, "They are worshiping some idol." No. That is not fact. They do not know that here is Kṛṣṇa personally. He is accepting the devotees' service in a manner in which we can serve Him at the present moment. If Kṛṣṇa shows you the virāṭ-rūpa, then you cannot serve Him. Where you'll get the dress of the virāṭ-rūpa? The whole world's cloth factory will fail you. (laughter) Therefore Kṛṣṇa is accepted, a four-feet-small Deity, so that you can acquire Kṛṣṇa's dress within your means. You can put Kṛṣṇa within your means. That is Kṛṣṇa's mercy. Therefore it is forbidden, arcye viṣṇu śilā-dhīḥ. If any rascal thinks that in the Viṣṇu form, as stone, as wood..., vaiṣṇave jāti-buddhiḥ, devotees considered as belonging to certain nation, caste, these are nārakī-buddhi. This is not to be done. It is fact that here is Kṛṣṇa. Very kindly, just to show me favor, He has come in this form. But He's Kṛṣṇa; He's not stone. Even it is stone, that is also Kṛṣṇa, because there is nothing else but Kṛṣṇa, anything. Without Kṛṣṇa, there is no existence. Sarvaṁ khalv idam brahma. So Kṛṣṇa has got the power that even in his so-called shape of stone, He can accept your service. That is Kṛṣṇa.

Arrival Talk -- Aligarh, October 9, 1976:

Indian man (1): But our government is supporting them, you see.

Indian man (2): Swami Mahārāja said that they are forces which when if you want to keep yourself in power, you have to sometimes ban and this...

Indian man (3): That's true.

Prabhupāda: No. Apart from government, the first thing is... Sometimes we say, "Rāma-rājya." The Rāma-rājya means... There is a verse in Bhāgavatam that when Lord Rāmacandra took charge of the, after coming back from the forest, His brother Bhārata surrendered and He took charge of the kingdom. So the residents, the subjects, are described as a varṇāśrama guṇanvita (?).

Indian man (3): Varnāśrama...?

Prabhupāda: Gunanavita. So Rāma-rājya can be established. And it is said there that Lord Rāmacandra was maintaining the kingdom, taking the citizens as His own son. Pitṛvat rāma. It is said there. Pitṛvat. As the father of the family takes charge of the children very nicely, so it is the government's duty to become the sensible father of the citizens. And the citizens will be qualified following the institution of varṇāśrama. Then there will be Rāma-rājya.

Arrival Talk -- Aligarh, October 9, 1976:

Indian man (3): That's the most scientific understanding...

Indian man (2): No. Prabhupāda rightly said in one of the meetings in Delhi that you people try to follow people who are in power. If Indira Gandhi were to do mālā just like this, I'm sure millions of people in India would be doing mālā like this. So she's doing that.

Indian man (3): Yad yad ācarati śreṣṭhas tad tad evetaro janaḥ (BG 3.21).

Indian man (2): But you will not follow me because I have no political power; therefore you have not mālā japa. (Hindi)

Indian man (1): He is my eldest grandson. Here is another man, Subhoda.

Prabhupāda: He is subhoda and abodha. (laughter)

Indian man (1): Yes, subodha, suvrata.

Prabhupāda: Subhoda (Hindi) avatāra.

Indian man (1): He has described God. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: Do you know what is God? Do you know?

Indian man (1): Do you know what is God or not?

Boy: I want to know.

Prabhupāda: You want to know? Do you know the meaning of the God? Then how you are asking what is God? If I say something wrong, how you'll understand if you do not know? Suppose you go to purchase something, "Give me gold," and if he gives you iron, then what you'll do? You do not know what is God, gold. You must know first of all what is God.

Initiation Lectures

Talk, Initiation Lecture, and Ten Offenses Lecture -- Los Angeles, December 1, 1968:

Revatīnandana: "The sixth offense is committing sin on the strength of chanting."

Prabhupāda: Yes. Now we have explained the mantra that as soon as one chants Hare Kṛṣṇa, immediately, bahyābhyantaraḥ śuciḥ, he becomes purified. Now if one takes advantage of this holy name, "Let me commit sins..." Just like sometimes in the Christian church they take advantages that by confessing sin one becomes free from sinful reaction. So go to church and confess, and again come out and do all sorts of sins, and again confess. This sort of (laughs) minimizing is nonsense. It is fact. When you confess before the church, before God, you are free from all sinful action. That's all right. But if you commit again, then next confession will not be accepted. They do not know this. You cannot... Suppose a child has committed some mistake. Father says, "All right, don't do this." If he again does it, there is no excuse. They do not know that. They think, "We shall commit sin and go to church and confess and finish. So let us do this balancing business." Yes. Similarly, don't do this balancing business, that "Because chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa will wash off all my accounts of sinful activities, so in the morning, from morning to night, let me do all kinds of sinful activities, and at night, at bedtime, let me chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Then finish." No. (laughs) Don't do that. Don't do that. That is the greatest offense. Yes. You'll never be forgiven. Those who purposely do like that—"I have got very nice instrument for washing off my sinful activities. So whole day let me do all sinful activities, and at night let me chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Let me meditate. That's all. Finish."—no. You should note that the name, the holy name has got the power. Now, from this date, you are free from all sinful activities, reaction. But don't do it. That is the greatest offense. Yes.

Initiation of Lokanatha dasa -- New Vrindaban, May 21, 1969:

So we have to give up this nonsense habit. Jñāne prayāsam udapāsya. Udapāsya means give up. Then what is next? Namanta eva. Just be submissive. Don't be puffed up artificially. You are being slapped always by the laws of material nature. Don't think that you are independent. It is foolishness to say that "I am independent. I don't care for anything of..." No. You have to care. You are being kicked every moment by the laws of nature. You should know it. You are not independent. Therefore be namanta eva, be submissive. Namanta eva. Jñāne prayāsaṁ namanta eva, be submissive. Namanta eva. Jñāne prayāsaṁ namanta eva san-mukharitāṁ bhavadīya-vārtām. San-mukharitām. And try to hear about the Supreme Lord from the right source. San-mukharitām. San, sat. Sat-mukharitām. Sat means eternal, and mukharitām means speaking, coming out from the mouth of a person who is eternally situated. Who is eternally situated? Not this body. Eternally situated, I am, I am real "I am," the spirit soul. So the spirit soul can speak when he is Kṛṣṇa conscious; otherwise he is covered. His speaking power is stopped. Just like an unconscious man is without any consciousness, but he has got the life—the soul is there—similarly, in the other species of life, although the soul is there, it is not, the soul is not speaking. The outward, the influence of the soul... (aside:) What is this? That means the soul is not manifested there fully. Labdhvā sudurlabham (SB 11.9.29). That is being manifested from aquatic life to plant life, then in insect life, then bird's life, then beast's life, at last human life. Out of human life, there are civilized life, uncivilized life. And out of the civilized life, there are atheists and theists, and those who are actually developed conscious. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Initiation Lecture -- Hamburg, August 27, 1969:

So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness is very nice. If we try to make progress on this line, we'll feel even... Yasmin sthite guruṇāpi duḥkhena na vicālyate (Bg. 6.20-23). Bhagavad-gītā says if one is situated in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, even in the terrible situation, fearful situation, he is not afraid. Just like Prahlāda Mahārāja. You see? Prahlāda Mahārāja, a five-years-old boy, his father tortured him like anything. But he was not afraid. He was not afraid. This is the Kṛṣṇa consciousness state. The boy is not afraid. Even in such tortured condition, when his father challenged him, "Prahlāda, with whose strength you are so powerful that you do not care for me?" he immediately answered, "My dear father, by whose power you are talking like that?" So Kṛṣṇa consciousness is so nice that even one is put into the terrible condition of distress, he is not perturbed. Nārāyaṇa-parāḥ sarve... There are many verses like that. We can quote hundreds. Nārāyaṇa-parāḥ sarve na kutaścana bibhyati (SB 6.17.28). If one becomes Kṛṣṇa conscious, he is not afraid, any condition of life. Na kutaścana bibhyati. Svargāpavarga-narakeṣv api. If he is put into the hell or in heaven or in the spiritual world or any world, he is happy. Tulyārtha-darśinaḥ. He thinks everything is all the same. "Either you put me in the hell or heaven or this or that, (it) is all the same." Because he is always with Kṛṣṇa, chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is always with him. So where is the cause of being afraid that "This place is not good; this place is very good"? No. Wherever Kṛṣṇa is there is very good. That's all.

Initiation Lecture -- Los Angeles, July 13, 1971:

In the śāstra it is said that if you commit some offense to Kṛṣṇa, He excuses, but if you commit offense to His devotee, He never excuses. Personal offense to Kṛṣṇa can be excused by Kṛṣṇa. He is so merciful. The Durvāsā Muni, he offended Mahārāja Ambarīṣa and he went up... He was so powerful that he went to Viṣṇuloka to see Viṣṇu for being protected because the sudarśana cakra was after him. So Viṣṇu said, "Oh, this is beyond My power. I cannot excuse you. You have to go to Ambarīṣa Mahārāja and ask his pardon. Otherwise there is no excuse." So that Durvāsā Muni, he was a great yogi and brāhmaṇa, and he was very proud, so he came back and fell down on the feet of Ambarīṣa Mahārāja. Then he was excused. You see? Ambarīṣa Mahārāja was a kṣatriya, a king. He was neither yogi, but he was a great devotee. So this yogi, Durvāsā Muni, he wanted to supersede him, that "He is ordinary kṣatriya king, and because he is advertised that he is a devotee, I shall teach him some lesson." So that was the quarrel between the... The king was very nice, he never picked up quarrel, but this old man picked up quarrel and he was chastised by Viṣṇu like that. Yes. Go on.

Initiations -- Sydney, April 2, 1972:

Yogi, there are many yogis. They have got very exalted power, extraordinary power. Just like this Durvāsā Muni. He once traveled all over the space. Not only within this universe—he traveled outside the universe in the spiritual world, and he saw the Supreme Personality of Godhead face to face. He was such a powerful yogi. And he took only one year to come back again. So still, he was defeated by a devotee. He was very angry. Anyway, he was a great yogi. And anyone, a great personality, we should ask his blessings for making advancement in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That's all.

Initiations -- San Diego, June 30, 1972:

Simply you have to become little intelligent. That's all. Not rascal. If you remain rascal, then your human life is spoiled. If you become little intelligent, then your human life is successful. This is intelligence, that "God is giving us... God is giving us daily bread. Why not offer to God first?" That is intelligence. And simply, "God is giving me bread. I shall eat. That's all..." I am meant for eating only? And why not offering? God will not eat. Simply you feel gratitude: "Oh, God has given me this bread. Let me offer it to God first of all. Then I take." What is the wrong there? What is loss there? But these narādhama, lowest of the mankind, they even do not recognize this. Lowest of... They have been described in Bhagavad..., narādhama. Na māṁ duṣkṛtina mūḍhāḥ prapadyante narādhamāḥ, māyayāpahṛta-jñānā. His intelligence, his knowledge, has been taken away by māyā. He has not this knowledge even, that "God has given me to eat. Why not offer first of all to God?" This intelligence has been taken away by māyā. Therefore they are narādhama. Na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ prapadyante narādhamāḥ (BG 7.15). So those who are narādhama, lowest of the mankind... Just like here, something being offered to Kṛṣṇa, to God, He will eat it, but He will leave everything for you as prasādam. How? Pūrṇāt pūrṇam udacyate. Pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya pūrṇam eva avaśiṣyate (Iso Invocation). This is God's power. He will eat everything, but He will keep everything for you as prasādam. Pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya. Taking everything, but still, it is there.

Wedding Ceremonies

Initiation of Sri-Caitanya dasa and Wedding of Pradyumna and Arundhati -- Columbus, May 14, 1969:

The Lord is within you. He will give you all knowledge, all enlightenment, all dictation, and He will make your life progressive. Ādau śraddhā tataḥ sādhu-saṅgaḥ tato bhajana-kriyā, anartha-nivṛttiḥ syāt tato niṣṭhā tato rucis tato bhāvas tato prema (Cc. Madhya 23.14-15). In this way your life will be sublime. Yaṁ labdhvā cāparaṁ lābhaṁ manyate nādhikaṁ tataḥ. And if you can contact the Supreme Personality of Godhead by some way or other by discharge of this devotional service in any position, never mind, then you will feel no more profit. Everyone in the material world, they are working hard day and night for some profit. But if you can be engaged in the service of the Lord, you will feel that you are so much profited that you will say, svāmin kṛtārtho 'smi varaṁ na yāce: (CC Madhya 22.42) "I don't want any more profit. I have got all the profits now. I am fully satisfied." That is required. Yayātmā suprasīdati. Sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmo yato bhaktir adhokṣaje (SB 1.2.6). You can... If you can develop that stage of life, yato bhaktir adhokṣaje... Adhokṣaje. The Lord is beyond your sensual perception; therefore He is called Adhokṣaja. Avāṅ-manasā gocaraḥ. But He can reveal Himself. That is His power. Nāhaṁ prakāśaḥ sarvasya yoga-māyā-samāvṛtaḥ (BG 7.25). He reveals Himself. Premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena santaḥ (Bs. 5.38). You cannot reach the Absolute Truth simply by mental speculation because He is beyond your mental speculation. Avāṅ-manasā gocaraḥ. Sadaiva hṛdayeṣu vilokayanti. If you are absorbed in love of Godhead, then you will see God everywhere, within your heart and outside. Premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena (Bs. 5.38). That real purpose is bhakti. So anywhere you be situated, you take this process of loving service to the Lord, and the Lord will reveal Himself. Lord will reveal Himself.

Philosophy Discussions

Philosophy Discussion on Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibnitz:

Śyāmasundara: He explains the mechanistic phenomena, like the laws of nature. He explains that that is the only effective means of fulfilling God's purpose.

Prabhupāda: That's it. Yes. All the laws of nature are working (indistinct). The body is durgā, the superintendent of the fort. This is called durgā. Just like fort is very much fortified; you cannot go; they say nobody can enter, nobody can leave, like that. This is called durgā. And the superintendent is called Durgā. From durgā it has come to Durgā. She is also confidential maidservant of Kṛṣṇa, but she has got (indistinct) to punish these demons. Demon is (indistinct), that I worship his mother, but mother is engaged to punish him because (indistinct). She is giving whatever the demon wants. "Give me money. Give me good wife. Give me reputation. Give me strength." "All right," but at the same time everything is frustrated with this (indistinct). Two things are going on. One thing, that whatever he wants he is given: "I will get it." On the other side, punishment. This is nature's flow, and she is doing this under the instruction of Kṛṣṇa. "This living entity, he has, or he wants immediately to become an enjoyer, so give him all sources of material enjoyment, but at the same time go on punishing him." Just like sometimes politicians give them everything (indistinct) military force. So that is going on. And this nature is working under the direction of Kṛṣṇa. That is confirmed in the Brahma-saṁhitā, (Sanskrit). Durgā, the goddess of the fortress of the material world, she is so powerful that she can create such things, she can maintain cities, (indistinct) she has got all the power. (indistinct), she is so powerful. Her name is Durgā. But (indistinct), but she is working just like a shadow. Shadow is called not independent-moving. Here is shadow; I move this hand, then it is moving. She is called (indistinct). But the movement is from Kṛṣṇa. Sṛṣṭi-sthiti (Sanskrit). All our activities are just like shadows. Icchānurūpam (Sanskrit). She is working under the direction of Govinda. Therefore, "I worship Govinda, the cause of all causes." This is stated in Brahma-saṁhitā.

Philosophy Discussion on Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibnitz:

Śyāmasundara: Just like, for instance, say, this particulate substance, he would say that there is a force or activity which constitutes the essence of this substance, and that is the monad of this substance. He is attributing it to everything, matter.

Prabhupāda: So we take the atom. Atom is the smallest. So we say within the atom the force is Kṛṣṇa. He is simply suggesting there is some enforcing power. We are giving directly that that is Kṛṣṇa.

Śyāmasundara: But he says that in that enforcing power each atom is individual, separate, different.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Kṛṣṇa, by His omnipotency, can expand Himself in innumerable forms. Advaitam acyutam anādim ananta-rūpam (Bs. 5.33). Ananta, unlimited. As it is clearly said, aṇḍāntara-stham. He is within the atom.

Śyāmasundara: Is He between each atom as an individual entity, different from each other entity?

Prabhupāda: Yes. If Kṛṣṇa is there, Kṛṣṇa is individual. And atoms also, there are varieties of atoms. Sometimes they are combined together, six atoms, five atoms, three atoms.

Philosophy Discussion on Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibnitz:

Śyāmasundara: So even the particle of matter is eternal?

Prabhupāda: Ultimately everything is spiritual, because the matter is Kṛṣṇa's energy and spirit is also Kṛṣṇa's energy. If Kṛṣṇa is the original cause, therefore the matter can be changed into spirit, spirit can be changed into matter. Just as it is the same electric energy acting as heater and as cooler, but the electrician, he can change the cooler to heater and the heater to cooler, because the original cause is electricity. Similarly, the original cause is Kṛṣṇa. So Kṛṣṇa can change matter into spirit, spirit into matter. That is in His power. The rascals and fools, when Kṛṣṇa appears in His own body, ātmamāyā, they think it is just like material body, but they do not know that to Kṛṣṇa there is no such distinction of material and spiritual. Even accepting that He had got a material body, there is no hampering—He has changed into spiritual body. Otherwise how is it possible, Kṛṣṇa, He has got material body, now He was seven-years' boy, Kṛṣṇa is lifting the whole Govardhana Hill? And as much as Kṛṣṇa desires, "Let this big planet sun float in the air," so is it difficult for Him to lift the whole hill? There is no difficulty at all. That is omnipotency. And those who cannot understand Kṛṣṇa, avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā (BG 9.11), deride Him, "He is a man, therefore these are all stories," they have no idea of Kṛṣṇa. But we don't take Him as ordinary human being. Therefore He can change anything into anything, matter into spirit, spirit into matter, as He likes. That is His omnipotency. Otherwise what is the meaning of omnipotency?

Philosophy Discussion on David Hume:

Śyāmasundara: He says that there is no such thing as a cause-and-effect relationship. Just like, for example, we associate friction with heat, but he says that it's a mistake to assume that friction causes heat or possesses any power which must inevitably produce heat. He says that it is a mere repetition of two incidents, so that the effect habitually attends the cause, but it is not necessarily a consequence of it. So the fact that I rub my hands together and there is heat produced, I am used to assuming that the friction causes heat, but he says that it is not necessarily so. Whenever there is friction, there is heat, but that is only because they are associated with each other, not that one causes the other.

Prabhupāda: Then how are they associated?

Śyāmasundara: That one habitually attends the other, but not necessarily as a consequence of it.

Prabhupāda: But who made this law? As soon as they associate, immediately after friction there is heat. So there is a systematic law. The association may be accidental, but as soon as there is friction between the two associates, the law is there must be heat. So there is systematic law. Either you rub the hands, or I rub the hands, the law is that heat must be there, either in your hands or in my hands. That is law.

Philosophy Discussion on David Hume:

Śyāmasundara: His idea is that God is limited.

Prabhupāda: That is nonsense. If God is limited, then He cannot be God.

Śyāmasundara: He says either God is limited in His goodness, in order to allow evil to exist...

Prabhupāda: No. He is unlimitedly good.

Śyāmasundara: Then He must be limited in His power, because He cannot stop evil from existing.

Prabhupāda: No. Evil works under His guidance. Good and evil, both are control] by Him. Therefore He is called supreme controller. He is not limited. The exact word used in Sanskrit is called ananta, unlimited. Advaitam acyutam anādim ananta-rūpam (Bs. 5.33). Ananta. Advaita, non-dual; acyuta, infallible; and ananta, unlimited. (end)

Philosophy Discussion on David Hume:

Hayagrīva: He says, "All the new discoveries in astronomy which prove the immense grandeur and magnificence of the works of nature are so many additional arguments for a Deity according to the true system of theism," that is his natural, what he calls natural religion. In this way Hume rejects the necessity or desirability of miracles as well as the conception of a God transcendental to his creation. He says it's not the being of God that is in question but God's nature. This nature cannot be ascertained through study of the universe itself. However, if the universe can only be studied by imperfect senses, what is the value of our conclusion? How can we ever come to know the nature of God?

Prabhupāda: Nature of God, it can be explained by God Himself. That is our Vedic process. We know who is God, and He explains, "My nature is this." Just like He says, "I am the greatest principle," mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat (BG 7.7). "There is no more higher principle than Me." This is fact. If something is greater than God, then how one can become God? That is not possible. So greatest means He is great in everything. He is great in richness, He is great in reputation, He is great in influence, He is great in bodily power, He is great in beauty and He is great in renunciation. If we can find out somebody that He tallies with this greatness, then He is God. So that we find in Kṛṣṇa; therefore Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Lord, and what He says in the Bhagavad-gītā we accept as fact. And if we analyze His statements intelligently, pruriently, then we will find that what Kṛṣṇa says, that is fact.

Philosophy Discussion on Immanuel Kant:

Śyāmasundara: So they can exist simultaneously. On one hand, there are very strict laws of nature, which no one can counteract. But on the other hand, we see something like Kṛṣṇa lifting the Govardhana Hill.

Prabhupāda: That is also not miracle. That is not miracle, because in the yoga-siddhi you can make anything lighter than this cotton. So Kṛṣṇa is Yogeśvara. So by His yogic power He made the whole hill as a cotton swab. That is yogic principle. But for a layman, for a human being, he has to practice this yoga for millions of years; then he comes to perfection. But Kṛṣṇa is Yogeśvara. By His will, immediately it is done. It is not a miracle. It is turning the whole thing. Just like Kṛṣṇa is floating so many big big planets in the air. These modern scientists can say all nonsense, but it is miracle, it is miracle to them. But to Kṛṣṇa it is not. Kṛṣṇa has got such a saṅkarṣaṇa. He has got some power, Yogeśvara. He can do that.

Śyāmasundara: What is this yogic power? What does that mean?

Prabhupāda: That is called laghimā siddhi, aṇimā siddhi, laghimā siddhi. Aṇimā, you become the smallest. The yogis, you pack in a box. I've seen it. Pack them in a box. One Mr. Cakravartī, (laughter) he was packed in... I told you, he was packed in a bag, it was sealed then put in a box. The box was locked, it was sealed, and he came out. I have seen it. That is called aṇimā siddhi. Simple: there must be some hole-however tightly you pack it, there is little hole—and the spirit soul is so little, one ten-thousandth part of the tip of the hair, then comes out...

Śyāmasundara: And then he materializes another body outside.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Philosophy Discussion on Immanuel Kant:

Śyāmasundara: And the other yogic powers?

Prabhupāda: There are eight kinds: aṇimā, laghimā, prāpti. Prāpti, now you are sitting here, now you have left something in London, you simply... (laughter). No telephone call; stretch your hand and get it. Prāpti. They can go by the beams of the sun in the sun globe. Prāpti. Then mahimā, you can become bigger than the biggest.

Śyāmasundara: How is that?

Prabhupāda: How is that? That you have to learn. (laughter) You practice yoga and you learn. Just like Hanumān, he jumped over the sea. So it is a question of becoming bigger. Just like you can jump over this space, but if you have got bigger body, then you can jump bigger space. That is called mahimā-siddhi. So if you increase you body proportionately, then you can cross the sea from here to here. Your legs become bigger and your jumping becomes more bigger. This is the process. It is called mahimā-siddhi. Again he carried the hill. Rāmacandra asked him, "You bring Me that medicine from there." He could not find it so he got up the whole hill. So those are yogic siddhis.

Philosophy Discussion on Immanuel Kant:

Prabhupāda: Aṇimā, laghimā, prāpti, mahimā, prākāmya, īśitā, vaśitā. You can control anyone. Whatever you say, he will carry out. Any big man, you can put some influence. Vaśitā. Just like these this rascal Maharishi, he has got little yogic power. So he controls, gives you some mantra you'll become God and all this nonsense, but he is controlling. Whatever he'll ask, you will pay. That is control. Actually he is controlling his mind, that whatever he asks, you will do. These are bogus things.

Śyāmasundara: Like hypnotism.

Prabhupāda: By hypnotism, yes. I think I have discussed in The Nectar of Devotion. So this is possible even by ordinary yogis, and what to speak of Kṛṣṇa, who is known as Yogeśvara. He is the master of all mystic power. So one who does not know these things, they say, "Oh, these are all stories." It is not story. It is no miracle. They are all possible. So there is no such thing as miracle. It is a process of doing. One must know how to do it. There is no miracle. We don't say anything miracle. But for appreciating, you can say it is. You see Kṛṣṇa is said as Yogeśvara, master of all mystic yoga processes: yatra yogeśvara hari. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is said. So our yogic power is, our yoga process is to take shelter of Kṛṣṇa. He'll act, and you'll get the credits. (laughter) Just like our movement: Kṛṣṇa is doing and I am getting the credit. (laughter) Yes. Why should we bother about acquiring all this mystic power? Just depend on Kṛṣṇa. He is Yogeśvara. He'll do everything, and you'll get the credit. And Kṛṣṇa wants that. Just like his advice to Arjuna, "This is already planned. You don't think that if you do not fight they'll go back. That is not possible. But you simply take the credit, that's all."

Philosophy Discussion on Immanuel Kant:

Hayagrīva: He maintains that certain knowledge of God's existence would destroy a man's freedom and reduce human experience to a show of puppets frantically currying the favor of the Almighty.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is favor. Just like nobody wants to die, but the superior power obliges everyone to die. So he is dependent. Why should you think that he is independent? That is foolishness.

Hayagrīva: He sees uncertainty as a necessary ingredient for faith.

Prabhupāda: What is that?

Hayagrīva: Uncertainty is a necessary ingredient for faith.

Prabhupāda: No. Faith, faith should not be blind. That is useless. Faith... Just like I believe in the government. This is not faith, this is fact. There is government, and I am under government's law, so I have to obey the orders of government. This is not faith; this is fact. Similarly, to one who knows God and becomes dependent on Him, that is not faith; that is fact. He is happy by his depending on God. Just like a child, he knows that "Here is my father and mother." He voluntarily depends on the parents and he is happy.

Philosophy Discussion on Hegel:

Śyāmasundara: He says that acting in accordance with a conscience is the right type of activity.

Prabhupāda: The conscience, the so-called conscience is created. You go on killing, your conscience will be killing conscience, "It is all right." The thief becomes accustomed to steal, the conscience will say, "Yes, I must steal. It is my right." So you can create your conscience in that way. By association, by misguiding, they also create their conscience. Just like the Christian religion says, "Thou shalt not kill," but they are killing, creating a conscience, "Yes, killing is all right." In the religion it is forbidden, "Thou shalt not kill," but they are creating another conscience, "It is right." The conscience is created by association. By good association, conscience is the good conscience and by bad association, a bad conscience is created. So there is no such standard as conscience. Conscience means discriminating power.

Śyāmasundara: He says that there is an absolute conscience, which means pure rationality. Whatever is purely rational is conscience.

Prabhupāda: Pure rationality is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is purest. Unless one comes to that standard, the so-called conscience, so-called philosophy is of no value.

Philosophy Discussion on Hegel:

Śyāmasundara: But because he was so vague, this left room for someone like Hitler to come in and use this philosophy...

Prabhupāda: Well, Hitler came not as a king, he came as a usurper. He's not king. That is going on that any rascal, somehow or other he gets power, he becomes the head. But he has no training how to become actually the protector of the citizens. Therefore after the whole world is in trouble. He whimsically declares war and involve all the citizens, implicate. Therefore this support to monarchy is better in this sense that a person, by saint to saint, or by disciplic succession, or hereditary succession, he can be trained and if one man is trained nicely, he can govern over hundreds and thousands inhabitants(?) very nicely.

Śyāmasundara: He says that in a well-ordered monarchy, the law alone has objective power to which the monarch has got to affix the subjective "I will". In other words the law alone rules, the king is simply the order-supplier for the law.

Prabhupāda: That is now, democracy, constitutional king. He is simply show-bottle. But if the king has got complete power and if he is trained, he is God conscious king, rājarṣi... Imaṁ rājarṣayo viduḥ, the Bhagavad-gītā, the Fourth Chapter it is said, imaṁ rājarṣayo viduḥ (BG 4.2). The saintly king understood it. Not ordinary man. Therefore a king, monarch is supposed to be saintly. He must understand the philosophy of Bhagavad-gītā and he should introduce educational system so that people may understand Bhagavad-gītā, or the science of God. That is the first duty of the state, of the king. And in another place the Bhāgavata says that one should not become father, one should not become the head of the state, one should not become guru, if he cannot save persons from the imminent danger of death. So we are, we are now in entanglement, repeated birth and death, it is the state duty to stop the citizens' repeated birth and death.

Philosophy Discussion on Hegel:

Śyāmasundara: So what is the meaning, then, that America is the dominant nation?

Prabhupāda: America is dominant now. Actually most of you don't support Mr. Nixon. But he is on the head. So how he has become head, that is mysterious. Because people, when you study the people, they do not support him. There are so many, I mean to say, procession against, protesting against Mr. Nixon's policy and so many things. But still he is on the head, of the executive power. So there is something mysterious. Actually, the present government does not represent the others. That is everywhere. So, how we can understand that this nation is good or bad by the state behavior. Just like we issued that statement that these Americans not... These Americans were following the Nixon philosophy. There was a cartoon, that in our temple nobody is coming.

Philosophy Discussion on Hegel:

Prabhupāda: In India. Because there was a feeling against the Americans. People are going to the ambassadors and place, the consulate, they are protesting, the police was there, very good. Eh? Against, against killing, counter feelings against the Americans doing the work. So I issued one statement that these Americans, they are devotees, they have nothing to do with politics. So at the present moment (indistinct), actually what is the American nation, simply by seeing the state we cannot give our judgment that this is the American nation, because there are many who are not in agreement with the state power. But they are posing themselves, that we represent America.

Śyāmasundara: He says that it is God's will that a certain nation will be dominant at a certain time, so I'm just wondering what is the reason that God has made America dominant.

Prabhupāda: That is his philosophy. He says. God does not say. He has no connection with God that he can speak on behalf of God, "It is God's will, God's..." (indistinct), like this?

Śyāmasundara: No, he says that whatever is, is right, and that this good and this reason in its most concrete form is God. God governs the world.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That also we admit because in the Bhagavad-gītā it is said, yad yad vibhūtimat sattvam, mama tejo 'ṁśa-sambhavam, whenever there is some extraordinary power, it should be understood that it is derived partially from God's power. That we accept. So the dominance of American nation is God's favor. We can accept that. Now, if you put on the head representative like Mr. Nixon or some other, then it will deteriorate. If you spread Kṛṣṇa consciousness and if you make your president Kṛṣṇa conscious, then actually you will be God's empowered nation. Let the president become Kṛṣṇa conscious man. Why not? You are American, you can also capture the post. You can become senator, you can be congressman. So educate the American public (in) Kṛṣṇa consciousness, elect Kṛṣṇa conscious president and actually you will be God's favored nation is there.

Philosophy Discussion on Hegel:

Śyāmasundara: So he says that these two things are opposing, idea and substance, they are thesis and antithesis but the spirit contains both of them so it is the synthesis.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That we agree. Viruddha (Sanskrit), viruddha, contradictory thing can be adjusted in Kṛṣṇa. Because what is viruddha, opposite, that is also coming from Kṛṣṇa, and what is substance, that is also coming from Kṛṣṇa. We are thinking viruddha. Just like this same example, cooler and heater. They are opposite but they are coming from electricity. Therefore in electricity power, both can be adjusted(?). You can say, "Electricity can be cooler, electricity can be heater." That is called viruddha (Sanskrit). Contradictory things adjusted in Kṛṣṇa. Inconceivable, therefore we say inconceivable. Simultaneously one and different. That is our philosophy. Simultaneously we are all equal, one with God, and different. In our..., this material world, it is impossible to think like that, therefore it is called inconceivable.

Philosophy Discussion on Charles Darwin:

Śyāmasundara: But we don't see any dinosaurs existing.

Prabhupāda: You do not see—your power is very limited—but we have to conclude in this way, when we see at the present moment all the different species of life are existing. Therefore it is existing always.

Śyāmasundara: But I don't see all the...

Prabhupāda: You don't see because you have no power to see. Your senses are very limited. You don't see. And because you don't see, it is not to be accepted. So many people say, "I don't see God." That does not mean we shall accept, "Oh, so many people say—majority of people will say like that—'We don't see God.' " Then we are merely crazy fellow, we are after God?

Śyāmasundara: No. But dinosaurs...

Prabhupāda: But simply by dinosaur missing you cannot say that what about other all species of life, other.

Śyāmasundara: Many, many, many, many are extinct, according to...

Prabhupāda: I am accepting many are extinct, but the evolutionary process, it means one extinct, and another comes. But we see that the monkey, from monkey, man comes. The monkey is there and man is there. The monkey is not finished.

Philosophy Discussion on Charles Darwin:

Karandhara: But ultimately they'll say it'll come down to we propose that Kṛṣṇa is the creator or that God is the creator, then they'll say "That must be proved to me." In other words, they want to fit God within their own empiric gaze. That will be their only satisfaction when they actually become able to circumvent God's existence and create a power by their own intelligence.

Prabhupāda: He has to admit that the theory of uncertainty is bogus, but everything is there, and that masking behind all these things there must be big brain. That one has to accept. Simply uncertainty, that is not a science. The certainty is that behind all these things there is a big brain. I do not know Him—that is a different thing—but there is a big brain.

Śyāmasundara: Darwin, he was not so much interested in those questions of origin and those things, but he was a botanist and a biologist, and he simply wanted to investigate how things evolved from one simple form to a more complex form...

Prabhupāda: That he cannot say, how the evolved. He captured something out of his imagination, but he cannot explain scientifically.

Philosophy Discussion on Charles Darwin:

Śyāmasundara: Just like some children are born with blood disease or some incurable disease; the parents take all care, but they still have to die young.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So then it is to be understood that different natural laws are working, and they are working under one controller, and that is God. Just like we are taking so many services from this electricity current, but all this electricity current are working under one leader in the powerhouse, the resident engineer. From him, the original electricity current is coming, is generated. And we are utilizing the same current in different varieties, purposes. So then, just like electric current, the same electric current working in this machine, in a way; another machine another way. It may be contradiction, but the power is the same. According to the machine, the same example: one machine is cooler, one machine is heater, although the current is the same. Parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate svābhāvikī jñāna-bala-kriyā ca (Cc. Madhya 13.65, purport). Everywhere God's energy is working as if natural.

Philosophy Discussion on Charles Darwin:

Karandhara: They had a big meeting recently in Europe of the foremost scientists, chemists, physicists and researchers, and they predicted that by the year 2050, the scientists will be able to make the superhuman eternal human being. Then they started asking themselves, "Well, who will decide? Who will play God? If we can make an eternal person or manipulate, who will decide?" What if they make a hundred Hitlers or some demoniac scientists who knows how to do this makes a hundred Hitlers. So even if their whole thing is (indistinct), they'll misuse whatever power they acquire by understanding the laws of nature. They've misused the atomic energy.

Prabhupāda: They can produce for human being, many (indistinct)?

Śyāmasundara: They call it the genetical xerox machine.

Karandhara: They can analyze someone's genes. Say they take my genes and analyze their chemical structure. They can reproduce that structure and make a hundred me's, just like me—the same brain, the same body, the same mentality, everything.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. But who made you? Just like I have written one letter; you can make a hundred copies. But I have written the letter. Similarly, there may be hundreds of copies of your personality, but who made you?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: (indistinct) about the genetic code (indistinct) concerned persons taking our material (indistinct) some people are more intelligent than others, like scientists, Einstein said he had a different brain than other people.

Prabhupāda: Our explanation is that from previous life he is modeled. That is coming. It's continuation.

Philosophy Discussion on Charles Darwin:

Prabhupāda: What does he mean by survive? What is the meaning of his dictionary, "survive"? Nobody survives.

Hayagrīva: Well, by that he means that the strong pass on their hereditary characteristics to their offspring, and that the race..., no individual survives, but that the race improves. But isn't this contradicted by the Vedas? In the present Kali... For instance, Arjuna's physical powers, prowess, was much greater, and that was, what, five thousand years ago. So isn't, instead of improving, instead of the race improving in strength and other qualities, isn't it actually...

Prabhupāda: They are degrading.

Hayagrīva: ...degenerating. What is the cause of man's physical, mental and spiritual deterioration in the succeeding yugas?

Prabhupāda: That is education. Every individual person, he is a soul, and he has got a particular type of body. Especially in the human body he requires education. What is this animal and what is higher than human race, these are Vedic description. So there are 8,400,000 different forms of life, and the body is being evolved. The body is machine, and the individual soul desires and he gets a suitable body made by material nature under the order of God. This is Vedic idea, as it is said in the Bhagavad-gītā, īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe arjuna tiṣṭhati (BG 18.61). God is existing within the core of everyone's heart, and the individual soul is desiring something, and upon the order God he is given a machine made by material nature. So this is evolution, and even a man, although he is human form of body, he can again degenerate to animal form of body according to his desire. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). He has to change the body, and the body is changed according to his work and desire.

Philosophy Discussion on Henri Bergson:

Śyāmasundara: He says that the life impulse moves through the universe, creates ever newer forms or varieties, just like an artist creates different paintings. But he says that that painting the artist creates becomes better than the previous one.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that you can say, evolution. That is evolution. Similarly, this living force is also coming through 8,400,000 species of life, so the next one is better than the last one. In this way they come to the human form, and from this human form they can become demigods or they can become as good as God. Just like Brahma, Brahmā is also a living entity. He is not in the Viṣṇu category, but still, Brahma's power, he can create this universe. God can create many universes, but he can create at least one universe. So it is not less powerful.

Śyāmasundara: He says that evolution through the past history has moved in three stages so far. He says that the first stage of evolution was instinct. The second stage of evolution was intelligence. And now man has moved into the realm of intuition, which is higher than both.

Prabhupāda: Then he agrees that from the lowest stage he has come to the higher?

Śyāmasundara: But you said instinct and intuition were the same thing.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Philosophy Discussion on John Stuart Mill:

Śyāmasundara: Well, since knowledge is limited to our experience...

Prabhupāda: Yes. That's all right. If your knowledge is limited, then you cannot generalize. Therefore our conclusion is that we don't take knowledge from anyone whose power is limited. There are four defects of the ordinary man—he may be John Stuart Mill or something—because he's to commit mistakes, he's illusioned. Just like he's talking of that induction, studying all men. This is an illusion. He cannot study. Suppose you have hundreds and thousands of men you have studied. That does not mean the whole set of human being is finished. That is, therefore, this theory is illusion. And because he's an ordinary man, he's illusioned that it is possible. So these are the defects. One commits mistakes, one is illusioned, one cheats. This is cheating also. The theory which he is putting forward is never possible to be executed, and still he's posing himself that he is philosopher. That is cheating. His senses are imperfect. He cannot do that. And still he proposes the theory. That is cheating. So these four defects are there: committing mistake, to illusion, to cheat others, and studying everything with imperfect senses.

Philosophy Discussion on John Stuart Mill:

Śyāmasundara: He says that the presence of evil indicates that if God were everything, that He would be not so good.

Prabhupāda: Why? Therefore God has to depend on the free will or on the opinion of Mr. Mill? Is that? He says that God is not so good. God is good, but not so good because he does not approve all of His activities.

Śyāmasundara: No. He says that God is good, but He is limited in His power; otherwise everything would be good.

Prabhupāda: How nonsense he is! And he is philosopher. He is making God limited, and he is philosopher. Just see.

Śyāmasundara: He says if God were good then everything would be good.

Prabhupāda: Everything is good! That is our philosophy. When the God kills the demons, immediately flowers are showered upon Him from the sky. You have not read in...? He is good. He is always good. He has no idea of God, and still he poses himself as philosopher. God is good. Kṛṣṇa chanted, danced with others' wives at dead of night. Any man who does it, he is immediately a debauch, licentious. But still we worship that rasa-līlā. We worship that rasa-līlā. We keep the picture of God's dancing with others' wives. That is God. In all circumstances, God is good. That is worshipable. That is idea of God. Not that I put Him under my judgment: "Oh, yes, you are good, but not so good." Then I am a fool. I create my own God. "I am better than God. I can create God." No. God creates you. You cannot create God.

Philosophy Discussion on John Stuart Mill:

Hayagrīva: Mill envisions God at war with evil, and man's role is in aiding or helping God in this war. He writes, "If providence, or God, is omnipotent, providence intends whatever happens and the fact of its happening proves that providence intended it. If so, everything which a human being can do, is predestined by providence, and is a fulfillment of its designs. But if, as is the more religious theory, providence intends not all which happens, but only what is good, then indeed man has it in his power by his voluntary actions to aid the intentions of providence."

Prabhupāda: Yes. Providence desires only good. The man, the living being, is in this material world on account of his imperfect will. God is very kind that even though he is willing imperfectly to enjoy this material world God is giving him a directed facilities. Just like a child wants to play in certain way, still the child is guided by some nurse, or some servant by, engaged by the parent. So our position is like that. We have come to this material world to enjoy, giving up the company of God. So God has allowed him, "All right, you enjoy and experience. When you will experience that this material enjoyment is not good, then you will again come back." So He is guiding the enjoyment of the living being, especially of the human being so that he may again come back to home, back to Godhead. And nature is the via media agent, under the instruction of God. So if he (is) too much addicted to misuse the freedom, then he is punished, and that is also according to his desire. It is not God's desire that a human being become a pig, but he develops such mentality to eat everything. So God allows him to do everything, to eat everything up to stool in the body of a pig. That is God's concession. But he wanted to eat all this nonsense abominable thing so God gives him the chance that, you take this body of a pig, you can eat up to steel, up to stool. You will not find any difficulty to eat stool.

Philosophy Discussion on John Stuart Mill:

Hayagrīva: This is the continuation of Mill. He writes, "Limited as, on this showing, the Divine power must be, by inscrutable and insurmountable obstacles due to the existence of evil." Mill concludes that the existence of evil in the universe, or what he considers to be evil, pain and death, excludes the existence of an omnipotent God. He sees man in a position to aid the intentions of providence by surmounting his evil instincts. So God is not all-powerful, infinite in His power. If He were, there would be no evil, according to Mill.

Prabhupāda: No. God, evil is created by God undoubtedly, but the, it was necessary on account of the human being as, misuse of his free will. God gives him good direction but when he is disobedient, then naturally the evil power is there to punish him. Therefore the evil is not created by God but still it is created. It is necessary. Just like the government constructs the prison house. So this prison house creation is not the government's intention. Government wants that university is sufficient, people may be educated and highly enlightened, but because some, not all, misuses the independence, little independence, he creates evil circumstances, and he is compulsorily put into the prison house. Similarly, we suffer on account of our own evil activities but God, being Supreme, He punishes us for our evil activities. For God there isn't... When we are under the protection of God, there is nothing evil, only good thing. There is no evil. So God does not create evil but man's evil activities obliges God to create an evil situation.

Philosophy Discussion on John Stuart Mill:

Hayagrīva: Concerning morality, Mill writes, "Belief then in the supernatural, great as are the services which it rendered in the early stages of human development, that is for children," because he says early religious teachings "has owed its power over mankind rather to its being early than to its being religious." That is you can train a child...

Prabhupāda: Religion means to carry out the orders of God. This is the simple definition of religion.

Hayagrīva: But the power over man, he says, is due to early training.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that I have already said, that there are two authorities, one God the master authority and God's representative is the master author..., is the servant authority. So it is the duty of the servant authority to preach the instruction of God. That will make the human society happy, and this instruction should be taught from the very beginning of life. That is said in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam by Prahlāda Mahārāja. Prahlāda Mahārāja was teaching God consciousness when he was five years old only and he was teaching amongst the class friend. The class friends wanted to play in the tiffin hour and Prahlāda Mahārāja asked them to sit down and to learn God consciousness. So the class friend protested, "My dear friend, why you are insisting now? We are now children, let us play." That Prahlāda Mahārāja protested, "No, no, you should not waste your time playing because this God consciousness should be learned from the very beginning of life." Kaumāra ācaret prājño dharmān bhāgavatān iha (SB 7.6.1). From the very childhood Kṛṣṇa consciousness should be learned. Why from the, so early, that durlabhaṁ mānuṣaṁ janma tad apy adhruvam arthadam. He says that this human form of life you have got after many, many millions of births so we should not misuse this opportunity. We do not know when we shall meet next death, but if before meeting the next death we make our life perfect in Kṛṣṇa consciousness that is the special boon to this human form of life. We should utilize it.

Philosophy Discussion on John Stuart Mill:

Hayagrīva: there's only one good. That's God.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That's a fact. You are thinking that this man is, so how he is good? He is limited in his power. He may think of his brother, of his nation, of his society but what does he do of other living beings? So how he can be good? A good man, speaking even a man like Gandhi, he is a good man, but when he was approached that stop cow killing, he could not do anything. Although he is advocating non-violence but he, the violence committing in the slaughterhouse, thousands and thousands of animals being killed, violence, what did he do? So how he is good man? Nobody can be good man.

Philosophy Discussion on William James:

Hayagrīva: Concerning the founding of religions, James writes, "The founders of every church owe their power originally to the fact of their direct personal communion with the Divine. Not only the superhuman founders—the Christ, the Buddha, Muhammad—but all the originators of Christian sects have been in this case. So personal religion should still seem the primordial thing even for those who continue to esteem it incomplete."

Prabhupāda: Yes. God is person. If He is the supreme father, the father is a person. We have got no experience of father being imperson. My father is person, his father is person, his father is person. In this way go on, father's father's..., searching. So the ultimate father is also person. There is no doubt about it. Either human father or animal father, every living being is a person. Therefore the right conclusion is God the father of all living being is person. Personal conception of God is there in every religion-Christian religion, Muhammadan religion, or Vedic religion. In the Vedic religion, oṁ tad viṣṇoḥ paramaṁ padaṁ sadā paśyanti sūrayoḥ. Those who are sura, means advanced in spiritual knowledge, or the brāhmaṇas, one who knows the Supreme, they find the supreme father is Lord Viṣṇu. Lord Viṣṇu and Kṛṣṇa is the same category, or same substance. So God is person and the ultimate end. The impersonal realization is imperfect realization of God. The Supersoul realization is still advancement, but the final advancement is Bhagavān, or person God. So we must know our relationship with, and first of all our first business is to know God and our relationship with Him, then act accordingly. Then our life becomes perfect. This is the process of God realization.

Philosophy Discussion on William James:

Hayagrīva: James writes of the characteristics of a sādhu in this way. He says, "There is a certain composite photograph of universal saintliness, the same in all religions, of which the features can easily be traced. They are these." And he numbers, "Number one: a feeling of being in a wider life than that of this world's selfish little interests; in a conviction not memerly intellectual, but as it were sensible of the existence of an ideal power. In Christian, saintliness this power is always personified as God." So that's the one characteristic of a sādhu.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hayagrīva: A feeling of being in a wider life than that of this world's selfish little interest.

Prabhupāda: Yes. God, the definition of God is there in the Vedic literature, that God is the great. The Christian idea is also that. That greatness, that if we soberly think what is the greatness, the greatness in six opulences, that God is the richest, God is the strongest, and God is the famous, and God is the wisest, and God is the most beautiful, and God is the perfect renounced. He has got so many states, sarva-loka-maheśvaram (BG 5.29), but still He is not very much interested within this material world. He is in spiritual world along with associates. Therefore our proposition is, let us go back to home, back to Godhead. This is our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. That is perfection of life.

Philosophy Discussion on William James:

Hayagrīva: His second characteristic of a sādhu is thus: "He has a sense of the friendly continuity of the ideal power with our own life in a willing self-surrender to its control."

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is the ideal. Kṛṣṇera saṁsāra kara chāḍi' anācāra. We are member of the same family. God is the supreme father. That is ideal society. What does he say further?

Hayagrīva: The uh... What?

Prabhupāda: Second point.

Hayagrīva: Oh, the second point again? "A sense of the friendly continuity."

Prabhupāda: Yes. Friendly continuity means the, there are so many relationship, five relationship. First relationship is the master and the servant, and then friend to friend, then son and father, and then beloved and the lover. So these are all friendly relationship. We can, when we are actually in God relationship, we have got natural instinct to accept any one of them. So our friendly relationship with God can be chosen. Somebody likes sometime as friend to friend, father and son, or beloved and the lover, master and the servant, and the Supreme and the subordinate. They are five relationship. Any one of them, when we are actually liberated, free from material contamination, we being eternal part and parcel of God, the particular relationship is revived. That is called svarūpa-siddhi, revival of our original relationship with God.

Philosophy Discussion on John Dewey:

Hayagrīva: Mythology.

Prabhupāda: Hah. Just like Kṛṣṇa is lifting the hill, that what is the difficulty for God to lift a hill if He is all-powerful? But as soon as they read it, that Kṛṣṇa is lifting hill, they will take it as mythology. So when God shows that "I am God," that is mythology, and they imagine God. That is rascaldom. When God comes and shows His godly power, they take it myth, mythology. And they imagine God according to your definition. Is that sanity? The ācāryas have described Him: "Yes. Kṛṣṇa lifted this Govardhana Hill," and they have appreciated. And they are taking as mythology. That when there is Avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā mānuṣīṁ tanum ā... (BG 9.11). These rascals, when God shows His godly power, they take it mythology. Just see how much fool they are, and we are to follow these Dr. Frogs.

Philosophy Discussion on John Dewey:

Hayagrīva: In the, in the realm of philosophy and religion...

Prabhupāda: In the history we find that Kṛṣṇa went within the sea. Within the sea. Kṛṣṇa penetrated the universe. He is God. God can do that. We have no conception of God, and when God comes and shows His godly power, we take it as mythology. Then what, how God will be proved? When you see Him doing uncommon activities, you say it is mythology; and he does not see, he will say there is no God. This is your position. So this is not sanity. It is all insanity. Let them talk all this nonsense. We do not accept that.

Hayagrīva: He says in the realm of philosophy and religion, certainty is impossible. He says, "The moment philosophy supposes it can find a final and comprehensive solution, it ceases to be inquiry and becomes either apologetics or propaganda. Any philosophy that in its quest for certainty ignores the reality of the uncertain in the ongoing processes of nature denies the conditions out of which it arises."

Prabhupāda: There is uncertain when you do not accept the reality. The reality is God, and God is explaining how things are going on, but you take it as mythology. Then how you will know?

Hayagrīva: No way.

Philosophy Discussion on Soren Aabye Kierkegaard:

Prabhupāda: And he accepts that self is eternal, integrating past, present and future.

Śyāmasundara: Yes. Well, this is the next level. This is the third and highest level. He said that first of all there's the aesthetic level of unrestricted sense gratification, but this ends in despair. Then comes the ethical level, when one decides, "Well, I will take a cause, good cause, and I will commit myself to it and act upon that." Then he comes to the development of the religious stage, or the highest stage. When he, his decision-making power is so advanced that...

Prabhupāda: In other words, he's supporting our movement.

Śyāmasundara: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Because we are in the topmost stage.

Śyāmasundara: He does. The modern philosophers, his foIlowers like Sartre and Camus and people like that, they have only followed his lower development stages. They have not thought of this aspect of a religious stage. He said that the ethical stage is typified by a regard for duty, but this advances to the religious stage when there is obedience and commitment to God. And the chief symptoms of this stage...

Prabhupāda: So it is not that he is supporting our movement?

Śyāmasundara: No, no. He does. He says that the chief symptoms of the religious..., when one is advanced to the religious stage, are suffering and faith.

Prabhupāda: Not always suffering. (indistinct) We are, we in religious. Suppose we are in the topmost. Does it means that we are suffering?

Philosophy Discussion on Ludwig Wittgenstein:

Śyāmasundara: But everything you say, you are also showing, you are also giving examples that we can perceive. Just like the body, you say the soul has left the body so the body does not move. So even though it cannot be seen, the soul is leaving the body.

Prabhupāda: "It cannot be seen" means you have no seeing power. You cannot see beyond this wall, but that does not mean that because it cannot be seen, that is not fact. That is another foolishness. You have no seeing power. You admit your imperfection. Why you are proposing like that, "Because it cannot be seen"?

Śyāmasundara: No. Because it cannot be shown, he says. But it can be shown.

Prabhupāda: It can be shown, but you have no eyes to see. That is my proposal. Your eyes are just as blind man. If he says that "Show me this," how he can see? He is blind man. So you are blind, you cannot see, but those who have eyes, they can see. Therefore they say, śāstra cakṣuṣa: don't believe those eyes. Śāstra cakṣuṣa. Make the śāstra your cakṣuṣa. That is Vedic position. Don't see with these naked eyes. What is the value of your eyes? Why are you so much proud of your eyes? You cannot see. You see under certain conditions. Therefore adhaksi(?) Adhaksi means those who believe only the eyes. And what is the value of the eyes? That you won't admit, that "I am blind." He won't say. He will say simply, "I cannot see." How you can see? You're blind. That he won't admit, that he's blind. He will simply say that "I cannot see; therefore I don't agree." But you are blind!

Philosophy Discussion on Sigmund Freud:

Śyāmasundara: But it's not artificial; naturally the...

Prabhupāda: Not natural. The child forgets... Our formula is bhayaṁ dvitīyābhiniveśataḥ syāt. This fearfulness is created when one is not Kṛṣṇa conscious. This is a quality of the conditioned soul. Īśād apetasya viparyayo 'smṛtiḥ. So as soon as one becomes Kṛṣṇa conscious, these things become almost nil. Nārāyaṇa-parāḥ sarve na kutaścana bibhyati (SB 6.17.28). One who is God conscious doesn't fear anything. Just like Prahlāda Mahārāja. Such a giant, his giant father, is threatening him. He is calm and (indistinct). He doesn't care for his father's (indistinct). His father is asking, "Prahlāda, how is it that you are so proud and fearless when I am trying to chastise you?" But he replied, "The person who has given me this power is protecting me." That was his answer. "You have power because it is gifted by Kṛṣṇa. So that same personality is giving me protection." He replied that.

Philosophy Discussion on Sigmund Freud:

Prabhupāda: That, that means he has no clear conception of God, because God has to take power from some parliament. God does not take power from anyone. He is God. That is described in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, that janmādy asya yataḥ anvayād itarataḥ ca artheṣu abhijñaḥ svarāṭ (SB 1.1.1), that the Supreme, God, or Supreme Truth, Brahman, He knows everything. He knows everything in details. And wherefrom? Abhijñaḥ. He is, abhijñaḥ means completely in awareness. Then the question may be raised that "How He got this complete knowledge? From whom He received?" The answer is immediate, svarāṭ. Svarāṭ means independent. That is God. If one has to take knowledge from Mr. Freud, then he is not God. Anyone, if you come to that person that He is independent, parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate svābhāvikī (Cc. Madhya 13.65, purport), naturally He is all-perfect. He hasn't got to become perfect by some process or from some authority. That is God. He is all-perfect automatically. That is God. So anyone who is trying to be perfect, he is not God. One who is... That, that, that is in the history, we find in the history of life of Kṛṣṇa. When He was three-months-old child He, He could kill big giant like Pūtanā. That is automatic. Either He is child or He is a young man or He is old man, the godly power is there. The nowadays these so-called yogis, they are becoming God by meditation, but the three-months-old child in the lap of His mother, how He became God? The God is God always. He hasn't got to learn it from anyone. That is His svarāṭ, independent. So these people have no conception of God; therefore they are simply speculating and misleading persons. God is not the subject matter of speculation. We, if we want to know God, then we must know it from God Himself or a person who knows Him.

Philosophy Discussion on Carl Gustav Jung:

Hayagrīva: Yes.

Prabhupāda: He is person. That is the Vedic description. He is person exactly like us, but His personality is unlimited. The same example I was giving, that I am a person so far I am concerned with this particular body, but He is a person living in every body, Super Person. And in the Bhagavad-gītā it is also said that that personality, either of God or of the individual soul, eternally existing. In the Bhagavad-gītā Kṛṣṇa says that in the past we are existing, at present we are existing, and in the future we shall continue to exist. So past, present, future. That means all the time, eternally, both of them are person. One person is unlimited, and the other person is limited. Finite and infinite. So God is person, but the unlimited qualities, unlimited characteristics, unlimited power, unlimited strength, unlimited influence, unlimited knowledge. That is God. And we are also the same—person—with little power, little influence, little knowledge, everything limited. That is the difference between two personalities. One is limited, another is unlimited, but the qualities are the same.

Philosophy Discussion on Jean-Paul Sartre:

Śyāmasundara: There are certain events that we cannot control. They simply happen to us.

Prabhupāda: Cannot control, that can be accepted. But it is supposed that we have controlling power. Nothing is accident. Sometimes, when you are miscontrolling, that is accident. But actually that is not accident; that is your miscontrol, not accident. The reason is miscontrol.

Śyāmasundara: Ah, miscontrol.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Because you are responsible, as soon as you act irresponsibly something happens which you take as accident. It is miscontrol. It is not accident. The same thing, just like I am shaving with control, and as soon as I am inattentive, it may cut my cheek. But it is not accident. It is due to my inattention. Nothing is accident. I am responsible for shaving, but as soon as I become inattentive, my cheek is cut. That is not accident. That is due to my inattention. So there is nothing like accident.

Philosophy Discussion on Jean-Paul Sartre:

Śyāmasundara: Just like moods. For instance, today I may be happy, tomorrow I may be unhappy. So I'm not definite. There is no definite nature that I have.

Prabhupāda: That can be admitted to some extent, that it has not cause. Just like if you are put into the sea, so there you have no control and you are moving according to the waves. That means you have controlling power, but you are put in a certain condition where you lose your controlling power. So it is to be admitted that you are in an awkward position; therefore you cannot ascertain what change is going to take place next. That means you are not in a good situation. Just like a man, when he is on the land, he has got control. If a car is coming, he can take care. He can save from the accident. But when he is put into the ocean, the waves are floating him. So it is circumstantial, not accidental.

Philosophy Discussion on Jean-Paul Sartre:

Śyāmasundara: Because today we are one thing, tomorrow we are another thing. So therefore we are nothing.

Prabhupāda: Nothing, of course, nothing in this sense, that you are under the full control of a superior power, carried away by the waves. The ocean is a superior power, and if you put yourself under the superior power, you are carried away by the waves. Therefore you say "I am nothing." But you are something. Your something will be very much exhibited when you are put on the land. So this nothingness conclusion is out of despair.

Śyāmasundara: Yes. That's his whole philosophy.

Prabhupāda: It is out of despair. So that is not intelligence. That is not intelligence.

Śyāmasundara: Intelligence doesn't come from despair.

Prabhupāda: No.

Philosophy Discussion on Jean-Paul Sartre:

Śyāmasundara: His idea is that because we have to choose for ourselves, everything is in our hands. That for instance we can become in a situation either a coward or a hero. This is in our hands, some situation that we must confront.

Prabhupāda: Then what you can do? If you say that you are being tossed by some superior power, how you can become a hero? If you become a hero, then you will be more kicked, because you are under superior power. Therefore a man who is culprit, he is under police custody, so if he becomes hero he will be simply beaten and punished, that's all.

Śyāmasundara: I remember one example he gave was that supposing there is wartime, and you are called upon to go to war. He said it wouldn't matter if you went or didn't go. If you went, then you must choose to be a hero; you must fight very bravely, and not a coward. But if you don't go, then you must choose to be a hero to resist the war. You must choose to be a hero resisting the war. One way or the other, you have to choose to be a hero and not a coward.

Prabhupāda: Coward... You are neither coward nor hero. You are simply an instrument. You are... Just like a child plays with a doll. A doll is placed sometimes on this side, that side, sometimes so, sometimes on his breast. So you are just like a doll. You can neither become hero nor become coward. You are completely under the control of somebody who is superior.

Philosophy Discussion on Jean-Paul Sartre:

Prabhupāda: Has he seen that? Has he gone up to there?

Śyāmasundara: The level that he takes it to is that man is basically a "being for himself."

Prabhupāda: That's all right, that individuality.

Śyāmasundara: And that his decision-making power, his freedom to make decisions, is his real essence, his real nature.

Prabhupāda: So he agrees also at the same time, responsibility.

Śyāmasundara: Yes.

Prabhupāda: So that means he must have the power to make decisions, right and wrong. That is responsible.

Śyāmasundara: The main thing, though, is that he must abide by his decision. Whatever he chooses, that he must live it.

Prabhupāda: Not necessarily. If I decide to steal, it is better to avoid it. Not that because I have to decided to steal, I must do it just like a hero and then go to prison.

Philosophy Discussion on Jean-Paul Sartre:

Śyāmasundara: But because he doesn't see any purpose in the universe, then he thinks that...

Prabhupāda: That is his blindness. He has no sufficient knowledge; he has no sufficient seeing power. There is a plan. That is stated in the Sixteenth Chapter of Bhagavad-gītā, asatyam apratiṣṭham, that the word is there is no truth, there is no creator. These are the decisions of the demons. We don't say. We say janmādy asya yataḥ: (SB 1.1.1) the Supreme. Not that everything that we want to try to understand is the truth. That is our philosophy. This philosophy is demon philosophy—there is no plan, there is no truth, everything is happening accidentally. This is demon's philosophy.

Śyāmasundara: Because he doesn't see any purpose, that he sees all of our efforts...

Prabhupāda: There is purpose, but because he is foolish, therefore he does not see anything as purpose. There is purpose. Just if like I am hungry, this philosopher says accidentally I am hungry, I eat something. No. I am hungry when there is purpose. My bodily limbs are exhausted, they require energy, so therefore I am hungry, I must take some food. The foodstuff will be converted into energy. There is a plan. It is not blank. Everything is going on by plan. The sun is rising under some plan. The moon is rising under some plan. Seasonal changes under plan. Everything is plan. But those demons, they cannot see. They say, "No, there is no plan here."

Philosophy Discussion on Jean-Paul Sartre:

Śyāmasundara: Now I am seeing everyone as an object—"He is black," "He is American," "He is white"—but I want to see everyone as a person.

Prabhupāda: That means discrimination. Every individual person has got discrimination. That is discrimination. That is discriminating "This is good," "This is bad," "This is black," "This is white." Duality. So he has got this discriminating power.

Śyāmasundara: But I want to see everyone as a person, not as an object. So how do I do that?

Prabhupāda: Because he is person, therefore he is discriminating.

Śyāmasundara: But how do I perceive someone as a person? How do I do it?

Prabhupāda: Because he has got discriminating power.

Śyāmasundara: What is the method for doing it? What is the method of seeing someone as a person?

Prabhupāda: There is no method. It is directly perceived. As soon as I see you, you have got individuality.

Philosophy Discussion on Jean-Paul Sartre:

Śyāmasundara: He says that this desire to be makes us seek after "thingness," solidity, density. I want to become like this table, because it is something that exists-stable—but because my nature is unstable, that I am always seeking after "thingness," but my real nature is "no-thingness."

Prabhupāda: The table also will not exist. Just like if I see that a tree is existing ten thousand years and I do not exist one hundred years, that does not mean the tree will exist. It will be finished after one thousand years. Because I do not see the duration of time, of its existence, I think that it will go. Similarly, I am thinking the table is existing. Table also will not exist. That is my deficiency in seeing power. Nothing will exist.

Śyāmasundara: Still this does not prevent me from wanting something solid, something dense, some situation of permanency.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That situation is spiritual world. That we are giving information, because everyone is seeking after that, but they do not know where it is. We are giving that information here, paras tasmāt tu bhāvo 'nyo 'vyakto 'vyaktāt sanātanaḥ (BG 8.20), in the Bhagavad-gītā. "There is another nature which is permanent, sanātana. Even after the annihilation of this whole universe it will exist." That information we are giving.

Philosophy Discussion on Jean-Paul Sartre:

Hayagrīva: Then He must be the center.

Prabhupāda: No, no. He has to accept that God exists. He cannot deny it, because practically we see. You may be intelligent, more intelligent than me, and he may be more intelligent you. So go on, go on, and find out, if you have got power, that we come to a person there is no more more intelligent than Him, as God defines: mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat (BG 7.7). And Kṛṣṇa, "Above Me there is no more intelligent person." There is not. So you cannot deny this existence, a superpowerful, superintelligent person, because we practically see. Not that everyone is on the equal level. That is not the case. He is a philosopher, another philosopher more intelligent than him, another philosopher more intelligent. So you go on searching. Anyway, either in richness or in intelligence or in power, strength, beauty, there is comparative superlative degrees. So God means the superlative degree in everything. How he can deny this existence? That is not possible.

Philosophy Discussion on Bertrand Russell:

Śyāmasundara: But how does someone prove that something exists beyond his..., beyond our senses?

Prabhupāda: That I have already explained. Just like child does not know. He simply sees the fan is running-superficially. But he does not know that there is electricity power, and there is a powerhouse. So that is lack of knowledge. Therefore Bhagavad-gītā says, bahūnāṁ janmanām ante (BG 7.19). After many, many births, one comes to the real knowledge, and that is vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti (BG 7.19). Then he knows that Vāsudeva, Kṛṣṇa, is the original (indistinct). It is a question of knowing, and knowing through the direct current via media-guru. Otherwise he remains in darkness. Therefore guru-namastaya. Ajñāna timirāndasya. Everyone is blind by the darkness of ignorance. Jñānāñjana śalākayā. And the guru's business is to lighten ignorance, the śalāka. What is called, śalāka?

Devotee: Lamp.

Śyāmasundara: Torch.

Prabhupāda: Torch. Yes. Torchlight. The torchlight. Guru gives the torchlight, jñānāñjana śalākayā. What is that torchlight? By awakening his dormant knowledge. That is torch. Then he can see what is world.

Philosophy Discussion on Bertrand Russell:

Śyāmasundara: He says that matter is simply a series of events in which energy and not force as the real motive power, that what we call the material world, rather than being described as solid and understood in terms of force, that actually it is energy performing different events.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes. It is forced by the energy. Matter has no form, but by the superior energy, the living entity (indistinct) mixed up (indistinct) matter and make the form. Just like a (indistinct) plate, clay, water, and fire. So the potter makes a form from the clay. Clay means earth and water, mixed up, and it makes a pot and then puts it with fire and it becomes a glass and so on. So tejo-vāri-mṛdāṁ vinimayam. It is simply exchange of earth, water, and fire. But this mixture is being made by the potter. And the instrument is the potter's wheel. So similarly, God is the potter, and the material nature is the wheel, and so many things are coming out. But if there is no potter to turn the wheel or make the clay into pots, this is not (indistinct). There is already water, there is already earth, there is already fire, but unless a spirit, a being, a living being, comes into it, there is no question of (indistinct). Therefore in Bhagavad-gītā it is said, (indistinct). Because the living entities are there, the formation is taking place. A (indistinct), it is a combination of matter. But because we see that the living entity is there, it is taking a certain type of shape. Matter does not out of itself take the shape. That is wrong theory. We have no such experience where matter is taking automatically shape. (indistinct). Is there any exception?

Philosophy Discussion on B. F. Skinner:

Devotee: One thing they (indistinct) Prabhupāda, that we are thinking in terms of Vedic culture, and they say well, if this Vedic culture was previously existing, then why did it dissolve? Why did it fall apart and now we have to make a new one?

Prabhupāda: That is not (indistinct). A new way we cannot. If you want perfection, you must take to Vedic culture, because it is not with the four defects of human beings. Anything introduced for... Just like we are pushing on this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, and some of the students are falling back. How (indistinct)? That is not the defect of the institution. That is some other power. So people might have fallen from the standard of Vedic culture, but they cannot invent any new one. That is it.

Devotee: That is the same thing we say about the scientific process. The scientific process isn't imperfect, it is just the masters who are imperfect. They claim that the empiric process is perfect. We have not developed it to perfection.

Devotee (2): For instance, they would say if our students are falling back, that is because of the environment.

Prabhupāda: They are not falling back. Some of them (indistinct).

Śyāmasundara: Some of them...

Prabhupāda: That is (indistinct) anyway.

Philosophy Discussion on Karl Marx:

Hayagrīva: The last point is... And this is a point that most Marxists tend to ignore because Communism, when Communism comes to power, they, oh, like in Tibet, I believe when the Communists came in they abolished...

Prabhupāda: All religious system.

Hayagrīva: The Dalai Lama had to flee to India, I believe, and the Tibetan Buddhists had to...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hayagrīva: They had a temple in Delhi.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hayagrīva: Well, he says, Marx says, "The incompatibility with religion with the rights of man is so little implied in the concept of the rights of man that the right to be religious according to one's liking and to practice one's own particular religion is explicitly included among the rights of man. The privilege of religion is a universal human right."

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hayagrīva: So he felt that man should at least be allowed to practice his religion, although he felt that the state should encourage the abolition of religion. That it is an inherent human right for man to be able to practice religion...

Prabhupāda: That, that I explain always, that state duty is the freedom of religion, but the state must see that a person advocating particular type of religion, whether he is acting according to that religion...

Philosophy Discussion on Mao Tse Tung:

Śyāmasundara: His idea is that all political power comes out of the barrel of a gun. Comes from the barrel of a gun.

Prabhupāda: Because he is rude. He cannot have that there may be, amongst the sober gentlemen, the gun is reasoning. And for the crude rascals argumentum vaculam. Of course, the gun reason is sometimes needed when the other party is completely animal. But if both of them are animals, then what further decision can come? You see? Therefore our conclusion is taken from śāstra. The gun is used also in terms of śāstra. Just like Kṛṣṇa first of all wanted to settle up the fight, the opposing elements, the Kurus and Pāṇḍavas. He personally became a messenger and personally requested Duryodhana that "All right. Settle up things. They are kṣatriyas. They cannot take up the business of a brāhmaṇa or a vaiśya. Give them five villages, let them rule, and they will be satisfied." But he said, "Oh, what to speak of five villages, I cannot spare the, that small portion of land which can hold the tip of a needle." Then Kṛṣṇa said, "Yes. Then you do not come to reason? Then let us turn to weapon." So this śāstra and śastra. When śāstra fails, then according to śāstra, there is śastra. Śastra means weapon. Both of them come from the śas-dhātu. Śas-dhātu, from śas-dhātu we take śāstra, śastra, śāsana, śiṣya, like that. It is coming from the same root.

Philosophy Discussion on Mao Tse Tung:

Śyāmasundara: He attacks speculators and especially empiricists, or those who draw conclusions of reality through their fragmentary sense perception.

Prabhupāda: He is also doing that. He is also one of them. Because he says that ultimately the barrel... What is that?

Śyāmasundara: That all political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.

Prabhupāda: That's all. He is one of them.

Śyāmasundara: Speculator.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That's all.

Śyāmasundara: Well, he says that the criterion for truth is man's social practice, that it has proven over...

Prabhupāda: But what is that social practice? What is the standard of social practice? You manufacture...

Śyāmasundara: Whatever is practical for the most people's happiness, that is truth.

Prabhupāda: So practical happiness, that differs between persons. Just like ordinarily in your country boys and girls meet very intimately, without any restriction. But we say, "No mixing." So which is practical? That is according to circumstance? For our purpose, if we allow illegitimate sex, then there is no spiritual progress. Therefore this stoppage is practical. And because others, they have no spiritual idea, they think, "Oh, why not? Why the sex urges should be restricted? Let us enjoy it. It is enjoyment." They're animals. So which one ms practical? This one is practical or... That practical means according to the aim and object.

Philosophy Discussion on The Evolutionists Thomas Huxley, Henri Bergson, and Samuel Alexander:

Śyāmasundara: He is more fit to survive.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Why do they not say like that?

Śyāmasundara: But we have developed high powered rifles to kill tigers.

Prabhupāda: Well, that is defense. So the tiger has also defense: claws and nails. So defense will be... When there is fight between man to man, does it mean because man is highly developed and he will not be killed? When there is fight between man to man there is chance of one being killed. So similarly, when there is fight between tiger and you, one being killed, what is your superiority? Simply nonsensical. Simply nonsensical. Therefore our conclusion, "Simply rascal," is perfect. Anyone who has no Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he is simply rascal. That's all.

Philosophy Discussion on Johann Gottlieb Fichte:

Śyāmasundara: In Bhagavad-gītā.

Prabhupāda: Yes. You may be very expert but the ultimate will be daivī cause is not in favor, it will not (indistinct). Here example is just like you (indistinct) your service, suffering, sick, and you are employing first-class doctor, first-class medical, first-class attendant there is no guarantee that you (indistinct). Then where is the cause? What is the cause? From the scientific world you can say that my (indistinct) I have appointed first-class physician, first-class medicine, first-class, everything, but my son died. Then where is the power?

Śyāmasundara: Whatever caused this person's death is the ultimate cause.

Prabhupāda: Therefore the ultimate cause is Kṛṣṇa. If Kṛṣṇa does not sanction your so-called first-class medicine, physician, place, and everything will be spoiled. And if he sanctions, even you don't appoint any physician, he will (indistinct). Rakhe kṛṣṇa mareke mare kṛṣṇa rakheke. If Kṛṣṇa kills nobody can save him, and if Kṛṣṇa saves, nobody can kill. Just like Rāvaṇa, Hiraṇyakaśipu. They made plans that they'll never die, but Kṛṣṇa killed them. No condition will be (indistinct). That is our philosophy.

Philosophy Discussion on Socrates:

Hayagrīva: And through meditation—they call..., he called it arete (?)—a person attains knowledge. Through knowledge a person becomes virtuous. When one is virtuous, he acts in the right way. When one acts properly, he becomes happy. Therefore the enlightened man is a man who is meditative, knowledgeable, virtuous and, because of his proper action, he is happy.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā: brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā na śocati na kāṅkṣati (BG 18.54). This is the symptom of self-realized person. If one is self-realized, he is immediately happy, prasannātmā, jolly, because immediately he is on the right. Just like one is going on under some mistaken ideas, and when he comes to the real idea, he becomes very happy: "Oh, so long I was going on such a mistaken idea." So immediately the result will be happiness: "How foolish I was. I was doing like this, doing like that." So right..., as soon as one comes to the right position, he, the symptom is he is prasannātmā. What is that prasannātmā? Na śocati na kāṅkṣati (BG 18.54). Prasannātmā, happiness, means he has no more anything to hanker. Just like Dhruva Mahārāja said, svāmin kṛtārtho 'smi varam: "I don't want any material benediction." Prahlāda Mahārāja said, "My Lord, don't tell You want me for any material benefit. I have seen so much afflict. My father was so big materialistic that even the demigods, they were afraid of him. You have finished it within a second. So I am not after these things." So this is real knowledge, that na śocati na kāṅkṣati, he has no more hankering. The karmīs, jñānīs, yogis, they have got hankering. The karmīs, they are hankering after how to get material wealth, how to get material position, how to get nice woman, how to get nice position. That is karmī. Their business—simply hankering, hankering. bankruptcy (?). And if they have lost, they cry, "Oh, I have lost it, I have lost it, I have lost." Two business. So when one becomes self-realized, these two things are conspicuous by absence: no more hankering, no more lamenting. The karmīs are hankering; the jñānīs, they are also expecting to become one with God, to merge into the existence of God. That is also hankering. The yogis, they are hankering after some magic power so they can befool others that he has become God, "I can manufacture gold, I can fly in the sky," and foolish people after them. Intelligent person will see, "What is this perfection? Even if he can fly in the sky, there are so many birds are flying. What is the difference between this flying and that flying?" So he doesn't care. So these are not perfection. But they, people, foolish people, they think it is perfection. If one can say that "I will walk over the sea," actually say it shall happen, thousands and thousands fools will come. Just as, the same thing, that there is a man advertises that he will show how he can bark like dog, people will pay ten rupees ticket and go to see how a man is barking like a dog. But he doesn't hear so many dogs are barking, creating disturbance. So this is going on. Some extraordinary power, showing, making one karmī, jñānī, yogi, but a devotee, he is so satisfied in the service of the Lord, he doesn't want anything, all this nonsense. That is perfection.

Philosophy Discussion on Plato:

Prabhupāda: We say that the living entity is part and parcel of God, mamaivāṁśa. Under the circumstances he has got almost all the qualities of God, but partially, because God is great and we are minute. So even though we have got all the qualities of God—not all, certain percentage, say seventy-eight percent—in minute quantity. Just like God has creative power, we have got also creative power. We have created the 747 flying machine. All right, get credit for that, but you cannot create a flying ball like sun floating in the sky. That is difference between God and me. You can take credit that you are keeping suspension in the air a big machine, 747, but it is not in your power that you can float millions and millions of planets floating in the air. That is not possible. Therefore God is great; I am small. That is real Kṛṣṇa consciousness. And as soon as he says, "I am as good or as great as God," then He is a rascal. That is Māyāvādī. He is in māyā. Just like one man in India, he is showing some jugglery. He makes like this and creates some gold, a little gold, but foolish people are enamored. "Ah, he is God." But we are not enamored, but we know that he may create a small piece of gold, but God has created many millions of gold mines. So if creation of gold is the standard of becoming God, then why shall we accept this tiny man as God, who has created the mines, not only one mine, in this planet there are hundreds and thousands of gold mines and there are so many planets. There are, there is, I was reading this, Trikūṭa, Trikūṭa mountain, eight thousand miles high, eight thousand miles wide and long, and it has got three big, big peaks. One is of iron, one is of silver, and one is of gold. So the mountain, eight thousand miles high, peak gold, silver. So who can manufacture such gold? You cannot manufacture gold. That is not possible. So even you may so-called manufacture that, can you manufacture the peak of gold?

Philosophy Discussion on Plotinus:

Prabhupāda: The One is Vedic conception, ekaṁ brahma dvitīyaṁ nāsti, Supreme Truth, Absolute Truth, advaya-jñāna. So this is our philosophy, that these living entities, soul, they are of the same quality as the one Supreme, but they are fragmental parts, emanation from Him. He has got the same intelligence, same mind, but limited jurisdiction. God is... That One is omnipresent, but we are not omnipresent, but we are present. Omniscient; but we are not omniscient, but we are (sic:) sentient, not that dull matter. In this way, that One has got all spiritual qualities in fullness; we have got spiritual qualities in minute quantity. That is our constitutional position. But we are like sparks, and the Supreme One is like big fire. When we leave the association of the big fire, as sparks we become extinguished, means our illumination stops. That is called māyā, māyā andhakāra, darkness. That we can revive also, again be put with the One and revive our illuminating power, spiritual power, and live with the Supreme One peacefully, eternal life of bliss.

Philosophy Discussion on Origen:

Hayagrīva: He uses this metaphor. He writes, "The human body has unity because its various members are all made for specific functions in it, and it is bounded by a single soul. In the same way, it seems to me, the whole immense, gigantic world should be regarded as one being kept alive by God's power and logos, as by a single soul."

Prabhupāda: But single soul is created, he says. But that single soul, his spiritual identity is never created. That is the difference between matter and spirit. Anything material, that is created. Spiritual is never created.

Hayagrīva: At the same time...

Prabhupāda: (aside:) You go and wash your face with water, running.

Hayagrīva: At the same time Origen differed from the later Church tradition in his belief in the transmigration of the soul. Although he believed that the soul was originally created, he believed that it transmigrated, and it transmigrated because the soul, the individual soul, could always refuse to give itself to God, although he believed that ultimately the time will come when everyone will return, and God's rule will be restored to its original integrity. This differed from later Christian tradition, which said that the choice one made in this one lifetime was decisive for all eternity. Origen doesn't believe this. He believes that you can be reincarnated at the end of this lifetime if you don't attain the ultimate goal. You'd be reincarnated in some other form.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is our version of the Vedas. Unless he is liberated or goes to the kingdom of God, he is, repeats, transforms, or transmigrates from one material body to another, because material body is not eternal. You can enter one material body; the material body grows or it remains for sometime; then it becomes old, and then it is useless for any purpose; you have to give up this material body and enter again into a new material body. Then you continue or fulfill your desire in that body, again it becomes old, again you have to give up, and again you have to accept another new body. Because everything material deteriorates, and the soul, being eternal, it cannot remain in the deteriorated body to function materially; therefore transmigration of the soul is essential. As the example is given that when you have got a material shirt and coat, when it is old enough, it cannot be used, you have to throw it out and accept another new shirt and coat. The material conditional life is like that. That is called transmigration.

Philosophy Discussion on Thomas Aquinas:

Hayagrīva: Concerning law and government, Aquinas believed in the Divine Law, which consisted of the commandments of God given in the Bible. Aquinas felt that human laws also have some moral bearing, and that they also emanate indirectly from God, for he felt that all earthly powers exist by God's permission. Ideally, the Church is God's emissary on earth, and Aquinas considered it proper that the Church control earthly secular power as well. That is, he felt the secular rulers should remain subservient to the Church, and he felt that the Church could excommunicate, that means throw out, a monarch or ruler, in which case the ruler could no longer claim his throne. In other words, that the church has not only spiritual power but secular power on earth. Should have.

Prabhupāda: Yes, because the world activities must be regulated to the ultimate goal, understanding of God. Human civilization is meant for understanding God. So although the Church or the brāhmaṇas may not directly handle administrative activities, but it must be done under their supervision, or under their instruction. That is Vedic system. The brāhmaṇa is the Church, and the kṣatriya, the administrator. So the administrator used to take instruction from the brāhmaṇas, or one who can deliver a spiritual message. This is also mentioned in the Bhagavad-gītā, that Kṛṣṇa, millions of years ago, He instructed the message of Bhagavad-gītā to the sun-god. Sun-god is the origin of administrators, kṣatriya. So therefore the king, or the kṣatriya who administrators the business of the state, if he follows the instruction of veda through the brāhmaṇa or the Church, then he is called rājarṣi-king, and at the same time saintly person. Although he is king, he is following the instruction of saintly person or the Church. So in this way if the brāhmaṇas or the Church are in order, their instruction is in order, and the administrators, kṣatriya, they follow that instruction, he is in order. So the brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya. Vaiśya, if he follows the instruction of the kṣatriya, he is in order, and śūdras, they have no intelligence; therefore they follow the instruction of the three superior orders. This is the division of the society.

Philosophy Discussion on Thomas Aquinas:

Hayagrīva: But in any case, how can a sin, any sin, stain the soul if the soul cannot be stained in any way?

Prabhupāda: He is not stained, but as spirit soul, but he can be put into sinful activity. Just like the water and the oil, if you put the oil on the water, it does not mix with the water, it remains as separate from the water, but he is carried away, this. The oil floating on the water is carried away by the water. So that means as soon as we put in material contact then, on account of our contact, we are practically under the clutches of the water, or material world. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27). As soon as the living entity puts himself in the material world, he loses his own power. He is completely under the clutches of the water. This is the exact similarity. The oil never mixes with the water, but as soon as the oil is in touch with the water, it is being carried away by the waves of the water.

Philosophy Discussion on Thomas Aquinas:

Hayagrīva: This is a continuation of Thomas Aquinas. We've been discussing sacred doctrine, which is the same as scripture. He states that the only author of sacred scripture is God Himself, within whose power is not only to adjust words to their meaning, which even man can do, but also to adjust things themselves. In reading the scripture, one should avoid two mistakes. 1) One should not think that they can be false in any way.

Prabhupāda: False?

Hayagrīva: That there's no falsity.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Hayagrīva: Falsity cannot form the basis of Divine scripture, which has been handed down by the Holy Spirit. That's one mistake one can make in reading scripture. Another, he says, "No one should try to restrict scripture to one meaning to such an extent that other meanings containing some truth and quite possible in relation to the context would be excluded. In fact it belongs to the dignity of Divine scripture to contain many meanings in one text, so that in this way it may be appropriate to the various understandings of men."

Prabhupāda: Meaning is one, but interpreter are different. Just like even in the Bible it is said, "God created the universe." So that is a fact, God created. So unless you interpret in a different way, how you can say that the universe is created by some chunk and this way and that way? So we accept scripture in that sense, without any change; therefore we are presenting Bhagavad-gītā as it is. We cannot change the words of God. That is our principle. And interpretation with motive, there are so many interpreter, and that has spoiled the God consciousness of the human society.

Philosophy Discussion on Rene Descartes:

Hayagrīva: He says reason is by nature equal in all men. Now isn't reasoning power different in different men?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Otherwise why it is called "This man is intelligent," other man is called "You are ass." So when, on this reasoning platform, when one comes to the conclusion that the living force within the body is different from this lump of matter, then he is on the human platform. And if he keeps himself that this life means combination of these material things, then he remains an animal. This is the reasoning. Where is the life? You analyze beginning from the breathing up to the urine and stool—where you will find life? That is human reasoning. Human civilization is now advanced in analyzing things in the chemical laboratory. So if we analyze this breathing, it is air. So you replace this air, let life come again. What is this breathing? Breathing is simply exhaling and inhaling some air. So by machine, by electric, what is called, batteries, let it work and it will act accordingly, breathing. But does it mean it will bring life? So they say breathing is stopped; therefore life is stopped. So breathing can be revived, but where is the life? They say the blood has become white. So blood can be colored. So anything of this body, analyze perfectly and bring life; then you say that life is combination of this matter. You cannot bring it; therefore it must be concluded that life is different from this combination of matter. This is reasoning. This is human reasoning. And if you still keep yourself that this body is, it is everything, then you are animal. This is reasoning.

Philosophy Discussion on Rene Descartes:

Hayagrīva: And this reason... He says, "I fall into error because the power which God has given me of distinguishing the true from the false is not in me an infinite power." So by reason we can never...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hayagrīva: ...be certain...

Prabhupāda: Yes, infinite. I am, I am finite. I, as soul or as Brahman, am finite Brahman, and therefore there must be one infinite Brahman. That infinite Brahman is God, and finite Brahman is jīva, living entity. Therefore in the Vedic literature the God is accepted as the chief living being. Just like we have got in our family the father is supposedly chief man in the family, and sons and daughters, they are subordinate. These are common understanding. Similarly, God is the origin of all living entities and we are subordinate living entity, just like the father and the sons, and that is accepted by any religious sect, that God is the supreme father and we are son. That is accepted everywhere. And as the sons, children, they exist by the mercy of the father, similarly, our existence is continuing on account of mercy of the supreme father. This is reasoning.

Philosophy Discussion on Rene Descartes:

Prabhupāda: But they are finite. They are finite, very small particle. That I have already explained many times, that the creative force is in me. I can create also. Now in the modern scientific knowledge, so I have created a big plane floating in the air, but I cannot create another planet with so many mountains and vast water, oceans, and trees. That I cannot do. That is done by God. This planet is also floating in the air and the tiny 747 plane is also floating in the air. So that is created by me, infinite, ah, finite. I have no other more power. Even if I float a city like plane, still I am finite. But God has created this planet or many other planets with so many things—mountains, seas and forests and cities and so many. That is the difference between... The creative power is there. Because I am part and parcel of God, I have got that creative power. So I have got also little knowledge. I know my knowledge within my atmosphere, but God knows everything. That is explained, janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1), abhijñaḥ, itarataś ca. Abhijñaḥ, abhijñaḥ means He knows everything. In the Bhagavad-gītā also it is said, vedāhaṁ sarvam, "I know everything." That is the difference. When Arjuna questioned Kṛṣṇa that "How it is that You remember millions of years ago, You taught Bhagavad-gītā?" And that Kṛṣṇa says, "Yes, that is the difference between you and Me. I remember; you forgot." So therefore in all cases God is also living being, I am also living being, but I am very, very small, finite, and He is infinite. He is also living being.

Philosophy Discussion on Blaise Pascal:

Hayagrīva: He believed that it is impossible..., it is impossible for man to understand the universe or his position in the universe. In the material world we cannot look for certainty or stability because our reasoning powers, our reason, is always being deceived. Consequently, man must surrender to the dictates of his heart and to God.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is our position. We, we are teaching Kṛṣṇa consciousness means that you act according to the instruction given by Kṛṣṇa. We are not depending on heart, because a heart, the dictation is coming, but it is not appreciated by the demons, nondevotee. Therefore direct, direct instruction is the Bhagavad-gītā, and it is explained by His devotee. So in this way, if we take right from God and His representative. Not that (indistinct). So therefore Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is teaching or preaching God consciousness so that people may take instruction of this Bhagavad-gītā as it is and act accordingly and be happy. That is our program. We do not manufacture any ideas. The ideas are already there. Simply we are preaching. If one is intelligent, fortunate, he will take it and be happy.

Philosophy Discussion on Blaise Pascal:

Hayagrīva: Of all things in the world, Pascal considered this to be the strangest. He says, "A man spends many days and nights in rage and despair over the loss of his job or for some imaginary insult to his honor, yet he does not consider with anxiety and emotion that he will lose everything by death. It is a monstrous thing to see in the same heart and at the same time this sensibility to trifles and this strange insensibility to the greatest objects—death. It is an incomprehensible enchantment and a supernatural slumber, which indicates as its cause an all-powerful force," such as māyā.

Prabhupāda: This is, this is instruction of Bhagavad-gītā, that one who does not believe in God or disobeys the orders of God, a day will come when God will come as death, and his all power, all false prestige, all imagination, all plans will be all broken. Then after that, according to the transmigration of the soul, that person, because he did not obey the orders of God, he acted like animals, he gets the body of an animal. This is transmigration. And he suffers.

Philosophy Discussion on Benedict Spinoza:

Hayagrīva: Spinoza's God is clearly not a personal God. Spinoza is an impersonalist, and his love for God is more intellectual or philosophical than theistic or religious. Being an impersonalist, Spinoza believed in the identity of the individual soul with God. This is not to say that he believed that the individual soul is infinite, but that it is not distinct from God. He writes, "Thus that love of the soul is a part of the infinite love with which God loves Himself." He sees the soul's intellectual love of God and God's love for the individual soul, which is within man, to be one and the same love.

Prabhupāda: Love is five kinds of love: śānta, dāsya, sākhya, vatsalya, mādhurya. The beginning of love is awe and adoration: "Oh, God is so great. God is everything." When he understands God's potency, unlimitedness, the soul adores Him. That adoration is also love. When that adoration is further advanced, then he serves God as master and servant. When the service is more intimate, then friend to friend—as one friend renders service to other friend, the other friend renders to other friend, like that, reciprocal. Then further expanded, the love is turned into paternal love, and further expanded it is expanding into conjugal love. So there are different stages of love. So Spinoza is touching only the beginning of love, simply adoring, appreciating God's power, expansion, that much. But when this love of adoration expands, that is called dasya-rasa, sākhya-rasa, vatsalya-rasa, madhurya-rasa. So he is on the beginning state of loving God. He has not advanced farther.

Philosophy Discussion on John Locke:

Hayagrīva: He writes, "The knowledge of our own being we have by intuition. The existence of a God, reason dearly makes known to us. We have a more certain knowledge of the existence of a God than of anything our senses can discover." Now how is this? If this is the case, how is it that some men have no conception of God?

Prabhupāda: He has conception of God, practically, but because under the spell of māyā he has become foolish, he tries to cover that conception, that somebody is there. How any sane man can deny that some superior power is there who has created this vast ocean, vast land, vast sky? How one sane man can avoid this conception? Nobody can avoid, but artificially, foolishly, he tries to avoid. Atheism. But that will not endure, that will not stay. His foolishness will be exposed. So this is innate idea, but the atheist class, demon class, they want to cover this innate idea artificially.

Philosophy Discussion on George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel:

Prabhupāda: "On service of his origin." What is? On His Majesty's service. What is that slogan?

Devotee: "On His Majesty's service."

Prabhupāda: Ah. (indistinct) That does not mean the..., Her Majesty is there. The Majesty, Her Majesty's power, order, is everywhere. Mat-sthāni sarva-bhūtāni. The government is acting with the seed on Majesty's service, but that does not mean Her Majesty is there. This is simultaneously one and different, acintya-bhedābheda. Majesty is there because the order is there, but still personally he is not there. So the, another, that begun already, is that daridra, in daridra Nārāyaṇa is there, but not that daridra is Nārāyaṇa. But he has no vision. He is talking of this daridra-nārāyaṇa. This is mistake. Nārāyaṇa is there undoubtedly, but not that daridra is Nārāyaṇa. This is impersonalism, Māyāvāda mistake. That is pantheism.

Philosophy Discussion on Thomas Henry Huxley:

Hayagrīva: He says, "There is no external power which could affect the sequence of cause and effect which gives rise to karma. None but the will of the subject of the karma which could put an end to it." Now by willing to surrender to Kṛṣṇa, the individual allows Kṛṣṇa to put an end to his karma.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hayagrīva: Is that...? So Kṛṣṇa is called Mukunda.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So our idea is(?) that is Mukunda.

Hayagrīva: So Huxley has no idea that, of the, of this.

Prabhupāda: I said, I said this, that Kṛṣṇa is therefore called Mukunda.

Hayagrīva: You said that.

Prabhupāda: Yes. I think this is my statement.

Hayagrīva: Yes. No, this isn't Huxley.

Prabhupāda: Huxley said...

Hayagrīva: Huxley says, "This salvation of liberation from karma was to be attained through knowledge and by action based on that knowledge." The supernatural, in our sense of the term, is entirely excluded.

Prabhupāda: Yes. We are acting under certain designation, that just like Mr. Huxley said a few minutes before, that "We are Englishmen." So this is designation. So, so long you will work under designation, there is no freedom. Because under false impression that "I am Englishman," "I am Frenchman," "Let me work in this way," that means you are entangling himself, yourself into some other way, so that today you are Englishman, next day you may be Frenchman or dog's man, that you are entangling yourself. But when you give up this designation, that "I am no man, no other's man, but I am Kṛṣṇa's man," then you will save yourself. Otherwise... Therefore to become Kṛṣṇa consciousness, conscious, is actual platform of freedom from karma.

Purports to Songs

Purport to Sri-Sri-Gurv-astakam -- Los Angeles, January 2, 1969:

So the spiritual master is not self-made. It is not that if anyone comes before you and bluffs you that "I have attained spiritual perfection, and I have realized something by some method." No. The spiritual master, bona fide spiritual, means he has to receive the power from authority. Otherwise it is useless. No It is not that one can become spiritual master overnight. He has to take the power from his spiritual master. Therefore it is called prāptasya. Prāptasya means one who has obtained, one who has got the merciful blessings of his spiritual master.

Purport to Gauranga Bolite Habe -- Los Angeles, January 9, 1969:

This is the process of disciplic succession. We have to acquire the spiritual strength. No amount of material strength can help me in the advancement of spiritual life. We must derive the spiritual strength. Just like we have to take electricity from the powerhouse by directly connecting with the powerhouse. Not the wiring but the electricity. Similarly, this disciplic succession means the strength is descending from the original person through the spiritual master. That is the idea. So Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura explains that "When Nitāicānd will be pleased?" And the result of such pleasure of Nitāicānd is that one becomes free from all desires for material enjoyment.

Purport to Gaura Pahu -- Los Angeles, January 10, 1969:

Otherwise it is to be taken as a fact that even Brahmā, who is the chief living entity within this universe and has got a mass of years as duration of life, all power, still, that is also considered as misdeeds. Because he has got the material body. So we are going deep down and down, one after another, body, by our misdeeds. In the Bhāgavata also it is stated that they do not know that by this sense gratificatory process they will have another body. And the body is the cause of material pangs. Because I have got this body, therefore I feel headache, I feel stomachache. I feel this and that. But, as soon as we are out of this material body, there is no more material pangs. It is simply joyful life. Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā (BG 18.54). Prasannātmā means joyful. As soon as one gets spiritual life.

Purport to Parama Koruna -- Atlanta, February 28, 1975:

So what is the value of your seeing? You cannot see what is behind the wall. Still, you are proud of seeing—"Can you show me? Can you show me God?" And what power you have got to see? That he does not consider. He thinks, "I have got seeing power." Similarly, you study every sense—they are all imperfect, blunt. So any knowledge you acquire by gymnastic of the senses-useless. This is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's teaching. Not Caitanya Mahāprabhu's, it is the Bhāgavata's teaching and Caitanya Mahāprabhu's the same. So we have to give up this nonsense idea, that "I can attain to the perfect knowledge by speculation, manodharma, by speculation, manodharma, mental gymnastic." This will not help us.

Page Title:Power (Lectures, Other)
Compiler:Visnu Murti, Mayapur
Created:15 of Dec, 2011
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=155, Con=0, Let=0
No. of Quotes:155