Ridiculous

Expressions researched:
"ridiculous" |"ridiculously"

SB Canto 1

SB 1.12.28, Purport:

There is a sort of imitation of this reciting and hearing of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam by professional men, and their foolish audience thinks that they will get free from the clutches of material attachment and attain the life of fearlessness. Such imitative hearing of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is a caricature only, and one should not be misled by such a performance of bhāgavatam saptāha undertaken by ridiculous greedy fellows to maintain an establishment of material enjoyment.

CC Adi-lila

CC Adi 3.87, Purport:

When He was a child on the lap of His mother, He killed the demon Pūtanā. Then He killed the demons Tṛṇāvarta, Vatsāsura and Baka. When He was a little more grown up, He killed the demons Aghāsura and Ṛṣabhāsura. Therefore God is God from the very beginning. The idea that someone can become God by meditation is ridiculous. By hard endeavor one may realize his godly nature, but he will never become God. The asuras, or demons, who think that anyone can become God, are condemned.

The authentic scriptures are compiled by personalities like Vyāsadeva, Nārada, Asita and Parāśara, who are not ordinary men. All the followers of the Vedic way of life have accepted these famous personalities, whose authentic scriptures conform to the Vedic literature. Nevertheless, the demoniac do not believe their statements, and they purposely oppose the Supreme Personality of Godhead and His devotees. Today it is fashionable for common men to write whimsical words as so-called incarnations of God and be accepted as authentic by other common men.

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Lecture on BG 6.13-15 -- Los Angeles, February 16, 1969:

This is the process. First of all you have to select a nice place, solitary place and you have to execute alone. Not that you go to a yoga class and pay your fees and make some gymnastic and come back home and do all nonsense. You see? Don't be entrapped by all these ridiculous things. Simply such society I can declare, is the society of the cheaters and the cheated. You see? Here is the practice. Here you can see. And spoken by the supreme authority, Kṛṣṇa. Is there any person better yogi than Kṛṣṇa?

Here is the authoritative statement. That you have to practice like this. Now, one should hold one's body, first of all you have to select your place, holy place, alone, and special seat. Then you have to sit straight like this. "One should hold one's body, neck and head erect." Straight line. This is the yoga process. These things help to concentrate the mind. That's all. But the real purpose of yoga is to keep Kṛṣṇa always within yourself.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- July 9, 1973, London:

Haṁsadūta: It's the same thing I learned in Germany. First I wanted to get my own press and I studied the situation very carefully and I saw it was ridiculous for us to do that, it's so much hard work. It's much easier to collect the money in the street by giving the magazine and then paying someone. They work very hard and do it. Everything is like that. They have so many people that can do everything. The one thing that people can't do is distribute Kṛṣṇa consciousness and for that Kṛṣṇa's giving so much money.

Prabhupāda: Yes, therefore tasyaiva hetoḥ prayateta kovidaḥ. That verse. Only for this purpose one should endeavor.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- June 10, 1975, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: And our devotees also agreed to sit down like that?

Harikeśa: Yes. I thought it was ridiculous.

Śrutakīrti: They're probably getting some money for doing it.

Harikeśa: Every week they go, and every week another man comes, and they give all of these tests, psychological tests. We would say yes or no to different questions, material questions.

Prabhupāda: So why do they agree to?

Harikeśa: They're being, more or less, forced to.

Prabhupāda: Forced?

Morning Walk -- June 23, 1975, Los Angeles:

Brahmānanda: Oh, yes. (break) ...Bhavānanda Mahārāja, he did not give a very good report about New York, that the devotees there are not very enthusiastic. He says he was there one day, they collected... The temple collected only $125, which is ridiculous.

Prabhupāda: So Bhavānanda has given report to the GBC. Now you do the needful.

Brahmānanda: Well, he's heading back towards New York now. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...everything will be all right.

Morning Walk -- October 5, 1975, Mauritius:

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Brahmānanda: Some of the men yesterday...

Prabhupāda: So I replied in that way, yes, that "Why you put these ridiculous questions?"

Cyavana: Yes. Before he asked it.

Harikeśa: That's what he could not understand, that you knew he was a... (laughter)

Prabhupāda: The other man I said, "Why do you bring India? Never... Kṛṣṇa never said, 'yadā yadā hi Hindu dharmasya glānir...' (laughter) Nonsense, what is this? Dharmasya glānir bhavati. Why do you bring 'Hindu dharma,' India?" That is their imperfectness of knowedge. We are not talking of Hindu dharma, Muslim dharma, this dharma. We are talking of what is religion. Dharmaṁ tu sākṣād bhagavat-praṇītam (SB 6.3.19). Religion means the law given by God. You should know what is God, what is that law. That is religion.

Morning Walk -- December 20, 1975, Bombay:

Śravanānanda: Some life members (indistinct).... completely ridiculous. They were worshiping everything as God, so in every temple they go in they would pay their obeisances, and if there is some tree, they will pay their obeisances, if there is some stone or brick, and is covered with kuṁkuma and turmeric, they would also pay their obeisances.

Prabhupāda: So, what is the question?

Dr. Patel: Your answer is all right. Gurur brahma gurur viṣṇuḥ. So I mean that is the philosophy of...

Prabhupāda:

sākṣād-haritvena samasta-śāstrair

yuktas tathā bhāvyata eva sadbhiḥ

kintu prabhor yaḥ priya eva tasya

vande guroḥ śrī caraṇāravindam

In every śāstra you'll find, just like you say, gurur brahma gurur viṣṇuḥ. In other words, sākṣād-haritvena, directly Hari.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Garden Conversation -- June 14, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: What was the point?

Jayādvaita: He was trying to show somehow that these foolish fish were speculating something just to make some story that would sound..., that this is a ridiculous thing to think. But it was a very sensible thing to think.

Prabhupāda: What is that sensible thing?

Jayādvaita: That the environment is being controlled by someone, not by us. So there is someone superior. So I just said that to his students, "So your professor is giving a good example."

Prabhupāda: In our favor.

Jayādvaita: In our favor.

Prabhupāda: That's a fact. The fish may be swimming in the water, but a sensible fish must inquire that "Who has created this water?" He is enjoying in the water, or in the land, so the enquiry should be, "Who's land it is?" We are demarkating this land "mine," he has demarkated this land "mine," but originally, who is the owner of this land? Īśāvāsyam idaṁ sarvam (ISO 1).

Interview with Kathy Kerr Reporter from The Star -- June 17, 1976, Toronto:

Prabhupāda: Yes. We must come to the correct position of our spiritual life, then it is perfection of life. Otherwise, they're ignorant. If the husband comes at home and the wife calls him by the name, "John, come here." "Oh, you are not addressing 'my lord,' " it will be ridiculous. He might be "my lord," in the court, but when he's in the family, the wife calls by the name. So our, with the change of dress we are changing our name, circumstances, thoughts, and everything. Therefore we find differentiation. American, Indian, Hindu, Muslim, black, white, this, these are all designation of the dress. And therefore we do not agree. As soon as I accept, identify myself with the dress, there will be disagreement. And as soon as we, everyone of us, we know that this is superficial, this is dress, I am spirit soul, then there will be agreement. Samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu, find out this verse. Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā na śocati na kāṅkṣati samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu (BG 18.54). So without this understanding they have opened United Nations, keeping them cats and dogs. And they are simply barking, that's all.

Letter to Sai Baba -- September 13, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Where is your incarnation is described? Will you kindly give the reference. Anyone can say like you, that one is incarnation, as it has become a fashion nowadays. But is that claim only is the proof of one's becoming incarnation? Some such unauthorized claim of becoming an incarnation is certainly ridiculous. Such...

Pradyumna: ...unauthorized claim of one's becoming an incarnation...

Prabhupāda: Is certainly ridiculous. Then you have claimed to take form. What is he has written?

Pradyumna: "Then you have claimed to take..."

Prabhupāda: No, no. What he has written.

Pradyumna: "In my present avatāra I have come armed with the fullness of the power of the formless God to save humanity."

Letter to Sai Baba -- September 13, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: No, no, no. Last what you have written.

Pradyumna: "Similarly, Lord Rāma's incarnation, Lord Buddha's incarnation, Lord Caitanya's incarnationness, we have got full information from the Vedic scriptures. Where is your incarnation described? Will you kindly give the reference. Anyone can say like you, that one is an incarnation, as it has become a fashion nowadays. But is that claim only the proof of one's becoming an incarnation? Such unauthorized claim of one's becoming an incarnation is certainly ridiculous. Then you have claimed to take a form of the formless God. But we see in the Bhagavad-gītā that God is never formless."

Prabhupāda: (dictating:) Only the rascals and less intelligent class of men think that God is formless and when He incarnates, He takes a particular form. In this connection, a verse from Yāmunācārya may be quoted as follows. You have quoted the Bhagavad-gītā? That quote?

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 19, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Hari-śauri: They can never prove that. It's ridiculous.

Rāmeśvara: I have heard that now, this month, we have already been on the biggest television shows in America, big night shows. They have these shows that go two, three hours at a time, and everyone in America watches them. Forty million people watch them. So we've already been on those shows now. Our devotees have already been on those shows now because of this controversy. We're becoming more famous.

Prabhupāda: And they are chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Rāmeśvara: Yes.

Jayapatākā: You are getting everyone to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. Yadaiva śraddhāiva(?). Some way or other, let them chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. So that is being done, whole countrywide. It has become a national show. (laughter)

Room Conversation -- February 18, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: So call him. That's all. (break) First of all say, "You have no brain."

Hari-śauri: If we present these points in the right way, then we'll have to make them consider these points as being valid. They can... 'Cause there's so many things in our literature that they can just not believe and claim as just plain ridiculous, but by your presentation it becomes acceptable.

Prabhupāda: You talk with them again. They're intelligent. You can talk, yes. It is recorded again, again.

Hari-śauri: Yes. I'm making spares of all these tapes, so they can take them back with them and listen to them.

Prabhupāda: All tell, "You have no brain. So where is the question of brainwash?" That you have to prove, that "You have no brain. You are all dull-headed, animals." This is our challenge. "And animals cannot... Their brain cannot be washed, but washed, I have brain, yes... Because a human being, we have tried. At the present you have no brain. All useless."

Room Conversation -- July 1, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That is a good example. Yeah, I mean, I'm your personal secretary.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "So give me an entry visa(?)." Ridiculous.

Prabhupāda: This should be done very carefully. "He's acting as a secretary, so important, and he's serving."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "Could you please give a little..." And if they say, "Then why did you come as a tourist and not on an entry visa?" I'll say, "Because it's impossible even to get entry visa."

Prabhupāda: Yes.

1968 Correspondence

Letter to Brahmananda -- Seattle 6 October, 1968:

The next point is that you should dress just like perfect American gentlemen, but the sikha and tilak must be very prominent. Coat, pants, necktie, and everything, Brahmacari and Grhasthas, they can put on, because you are not Sannyasi. In the temple, you can dress as brahmacari, but in order not to become ridiculous in the eyes of others, outside you should dress just like a very nice perfect aristocratic American. So there is no objection. But we must have always our tilak and sikha and there is no compromise for this purpose.

Regarding Kirtanananda's payment of $100, that is known to you and me also, but why they forget that they have taken also $500? This is known to Janardana and everyone. So I paid I think $200 from San Francisco, and $300 from New York, what about this money? Anyway, if they are financially weak they may not pay immediately, but they must pay that $500. So in this way, try to adjust things.

1974 Correspondence

Letter to Karandhara -- Mathura 31 August, 1974:

I have received your letter with enclosure dated August 21, 1974 and presented your proposal to Srila Prabhupada of his writing a memo to the negligent temples. The following was his reply:

"I am not going to manage Spiritual Sky. This is ridiculous. Why they are dragging me into the management. Now the acharya is meant for handling business? Jayatirtha should handle this. He is the manager. Jayatirtha and Karandhara are the chief men. they should manage. Why I have to manage? They have big, big brains. Why they are failing? Now the Founder-Acarya has to manage. Without my consent the BBT has financed."

He has suggested that the GBC take steps to correct the Spiritual Sky mismanagement, and that local GBC men request the temples under their jurisdiction of those listed in your letter to pay instead of Srila Prabhupada writing himself. He said that this is not the business of the Founder-Acarya of ISKCON.