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Proclivity

Bhagavad-gita As It Is

BG Chapters 7 - 12

Mahārāja Kulaśekhara prays, "My dear Lord, just now I am quite healthy, and it is better that I die immediately so that the swan of my mind can seek entrance at the stem of Your lotus feet." The metaphor is used because the swan, a bird of the water, takes pleasure in digging into the lotus flowers; its sporting proclivity is to enter the lotus flower.
BG 8.2, Purport:

At the time of death all the bodily functions are disrupted, and the mind is not in a proper condition. Thus disturbed by the bodily situation, one may not be able to remember the Supreme Lord. Mahārāja Kulaśekhara, a great devotee, prays, "My dear Lord, just now I am quite healthy, and it is better that I die immediately so that the swan of my mind can seek entrance at the stem of Your lotus feet." The metaphor is used because the swan, a bird of the water, takes pleasure in digging into the lotus flowers; its sporting proclivity is to enter the lotus flower. Mahārāja Kulaśekhara says to the Lord, "Now my mind is undisturbed, and I am quite healthy. If I die immediately, thinking of Your lotus feet, then I am sure that my performance of Your devotional service will become perfect. But if I have to wait for my natural death, then I do not know what will happen, because at that time the bodily functions will be disrupted, my throat will be choked up, and I do not know whether I shall be able to chant Your name. Better let me die immediately." Arjuna questions how a person can fix his mind on Kṛṣṇa's lotus feet at such a time.

Srimad-Bhagavatam

SB Canto 1

A student sacrifices his childish proclivities to gain better education. A servant gives up his job for a better job. Similarly, a devotee renounces the material world not for nothing but for something tangible in spiritual value.
SB 1.8.27, Purport:

A living being is finished as soon as there is nothing to possess. Therefore a living being cannot be, in the real sense of the term, a renouncer. A living being renounces something for gaining something more valuable. A student sacrifices his childish proclivities to gain better education. A servant gives up his job for a better job. Similarly, a devotee renounces the material world not for nothing but for something tangible in spiritual value. Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī, Sanātana Gosvāmī and Śrīla Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī and others gave up their worldly pomp and prosperity for the sake of the service of the Lord. They were big men in the worldly sense. The Gosvāmīs were ministers in the government service of Bengal, and Śrīla Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī was the son of a big zamindar of his time. But they left everything to gain something superior to what they previously possessed. The devotees are generally without material prosperity, but they have a very secret treasure-house in the lotus feet of the Lord.

SB Canto 3

Persons who do not care for the path of realization get full facilities from the Lord for executing their proclivities to the fullest extent, and Brahmā helps in that procedure without fail.
SB 3.12.3, Purport:

Almost all the conditioned souls who are rotting in the material world are misusing their independence, and therefore five kinds of nescience are imposed upon them. As an obedient servitor of the Lord, Brahmā creates all these as a matter of necessity, but he is not happy in doing so because a devotee of the Lord naturally does not like to see anyone falling down from his real position. Persons who do not care for the path of realization get full facilities from the Lord for executing their proclivities to the fullest extent, and Brahmā helps in that procedure without fail.

SB Cantos 10.14 to 12 (Translations Only)

My dear sons, the mind has a natural proclivity to enter into the material sense objects, and similarly the sense objects enter into the mind.
SB 11.13.25, Translation:

My dear sons, the mind has a natural proclivity to enter into the material sense objects, and similarly the sense objects enter into the mind; but both this material mind and the sense objects are merely designations that cover the spirit soul, who is part and parcel of Me.

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta

CC Adi-lila

The Personality of Godhead Śrī Kṛṣṇa, whose permanent feature is adolescence, enjoys His transcendental proclivities by performing pastimes in these six forms.
CC Adi 2.100, Purport:

The Personality of Godhead manifests Himself in six different features: (1) prābhava, (2) vaibhava, (3) empowered incarnations, (4) partial incarnations, (5) childhood and (6) boyhood. The Personality of Godhead Śrī Kṛṣṇa, whose permanent feature is adolescence, enjoys His transcendental proclivities by performing pastimes in these six forms. In these six features there are unlimited divisions of the Personality of Godhead's forms. The jīvas, or living beings, are differentiated parts and parcels of the Lord. They are all diversities of the one without a second, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Other Books by Srila Prabhupada

Nectar of Devotion

Rādhārāṇī was feeling ashamed and was absorbed in thought, and Kṛṣṇa took the opportunity to mark Her breasts with different kinds of tilaka. Kṛṣṇa proved Himself to be very expert in that art." In this way Kṛṣṇa, as dhīra-lalita, was enjoying His youthful proclivities in the company of the gopīs.
Nectar of Devotion 23:

A person is called dhīra-lalita if he is naturally very funny, always in full youthfulness, expert in joking and free from all anxieties. Such a dhīra-lalita personality is generally found to be domesticated and very submissive to his lover. This dhīra-lalita trait in the personality of Kṛṣṇa is described by Yajña-patnī, the wife of one of the brāhmaṇas who were performing sacrifices in Vṛndāvana. She tells her friends, "One day Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī, accompanied by Her associates, was taking rest in Her garden, and at that time Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa arrived in that assembly. After sitting down, He began to narrate very impudently about His previous night's pastimes with Rādhārāṇī. While He was speaking in that way, Rādhārāṇī became very embarrassed. She was feeling ashamed and was absorbed in thought, and Kṛṣṇa took the opportunity to mark Her breasts with different kinds of tilaka. Kṛṣṇa proved Himself to be very expert in that art." In this way Kṛṣṇa, as dhīra-lalita, was enjoying His youthful proclivities in the company of the gopīs.

Krsna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead

Unless we have a particular type of body, we cannot enjoy or suffer according to our mental proclivities inherited from the previous life.
Krsna Book 1:

“The nature of the mind is flickering. Sometimes it accepts something, and immediately it rejects the same thing. Accepting and rejecting is the process of the mind in contact with the five objects of sense gratification—form, taste, smell, sound and touch. In its speculative way, the mind comes in touch with the objects of sense gratification, and when the living entity desires a particular type of body, he gets it. Therefore, the body is an offering by the laws of material nature. The living entity accepts a body and comes out again into the material world to enjoy or suffer according to the construction of the body. Unless we have a particular type of body, we cannot enjoy or suffer according to our mental proclivities inherited from the previous life. The particular type of body is actually offered to us according to our mental condition at the time of death.

Lectures

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

One must be very much eager to see God, actually. Not that as a proclivity, frivolous thing, "Can you show me God?" A magic, just like God is a magic. He must be very serious.
Lecture on SB 1.2.12 -- Los Angeles, August 15, 1972:

Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā: nāhaṁ prakāśaḥ sarvasya yoga-māyā-samāvṛtaḥ: (BG 7.25) "I am not exposed to everyone. Yogamāyā, yogamāyā is covering." So how you can see God? But this rascaldom is going on, that "Can you show me God? Have you seen God?" God has become just like a plaything. "Here is God. He is incarnation of God." Na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ prapadyante narādhamāḥ (BG 7.15). They are sinful, rascals, fools, lowest of the mankind. They inquire like that: "Can you show me God?" What qualification you have acquired, that you can see God? Here is the qualification. What is that? Tac chraddadhānā munayaḥ. One must be first of all faithful. Faithful. Śraddadhānāḥ. He must be very much eager to see God, actually. Not that as a proclivity, frivolous thing, "Can you show me God?" A magic, just like God is a magic. No. He must be very serious: "Yes, if there is God... We have seen, we have been informed about God. So I must see."

Boys are generally restless. But Nārada Muni was not restless. Cāpale. What is given there? Proclivities.
Lecture on SB 1.5.24 -- Vrndavana, August 5, 1975:

These are the qualifications how to receive favor of the devotee. He was, Nārada Muni, in his previous birth, a boy servant. But boys are generally restless. But Nārada Muni was not restless. Cāpale. What is given there? Proclivities. Generally, boys are attached to so many different types of playful things. This also becomes possible by association. Just like you are all young men, you have got so many desires, naturally, especially in the Western countries. But you have voluntarily given up not to go to the restaurant, not to go to the club or theater or cinema. These are good qualifications.

General Lectures

When he wanted to resign, the Nawab was very much sorry, because he was right-hand man. He frankly said that "I am engaged with sporting and so many other proclivities, and you are my only representative to rule over the country. If you resign, then I shall be in great danger. I cannot accept your resignation."
Speech to Maharaja and Maharani and Conversations Before and After -- Indore, December 11, 1970:

Because Sanātana Gosvāmī, although he was born in a Sarasvata brāhmaṇa family, he accepted the service of a Muhammadan king, he was rejected from the brāhmaṇa society, so practically he became Muhammadan. His name was Sākara Mallika, name was also changed. But this Sākara Mallika later on decided that he would propagate the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement started by Lord Caitanya. So when he wanted to resign, the Nawab was very much sorry, because he was right-hand man. He frankly said that "I am engaged with sporting and so many other proclivities, and you are my only representative to rule over the country. If you resign, then I shall be in great danger. I cannot accept your resignation." Then he said, "Your majesty, I am sorry. I cannot proceed any more. I shall retire from the service." Then Nawab said that "Then I shall punish you. I shall immediately arrest you. I cannot let you go." The answer of Sanātana Gosvāmī was that "You are king, representative of Nārāyaṇa, so whatever punishment you give, I shall accept." So that was the Hindu culture, that in spite of being punished by the king, he accepts the king as the representative of Nārāyaṇa. And actually, the Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Lord, He is the proprietor of everything.

Conversations and Morning Walks

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Because they are first-class men, they cannot indulge in the third-class, fourth-class proclivities. We are training them in that way.
Room Conversation with Richard Webster, chairman, Societa Filosofica Italiana -- May 24, 1974, Rome:

Prabhupāda: Our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is meant for creating some first-class men. This is our ideal. Therefore we forbid them not to take meat, not to have illicit sex, not to..., because these things are accepted by the fourth-class, fifth-class men: unrestricted sex life, meat-eating, intoxication, gambling. They are not to be indulged by the first-class, second-class men, even third-class. It begins from the fourth-class men. Fourth-class, fifth-class. So if one remains to the category of the fourth-class, fifth-class man, how he can be trained up as first-class man? Therefore these things are prohibited because our aim is to create some first-class men.

Richard Webster: Well, I agree with you.

Prabhupāda: These boys, although they are young men, they will never go to cinema. They are young men. They have got all propensities. But they are so elevated, they have given up all these low propensities, going to the club, restaurant, and cinema or naked dance and this and that, no. Because they are first-class men, they cannot indulge in the third-class, fourth-class proclivities. We are training them in that way. That is required.

Page Title:Proclivity
Compiler:Matea
Created:28 of Sep, 2009
Totals by Section:BG=1, SB=3, CC=1, OB=2, Lec=3, Con=1, Let=0
No. of Quotes:11