So apratikāram, pratikāram. There are two things. Pratikāram means counteraction. Here in this material world, for everything there is counteraction. Just like if you are diseased, so you have to take the medicine. That is pratikāram. The disease is caused by some, what is called, disarrangement within the body. So we have to arrange, we have to set up the disarrangement within the body. That is pratikāram. Medicine, counteraction. Similarly, if somebody is coming to kill you, so you also become prepared to kill him. This is pratikāram. If somebody is drowning in the sea, then you have to give him some help, send some boat or some lifeboat so that he can be saved. So we have got so many... This material world is going on. It is full of dangers. Padaṁ padaṁ yad vipadam (SB 10.14.58). Material world means step by step, simply danger. That is material world. So we have to find out pratikāram, counteraction, how to save yourself from danger. Just like when we walk, we see in so many doors, "Danger." So that you are warned. Sometimes the doors are: "Beware of the dog." So you have to take care, "No, I shall not enter." So everything there is danger, and there is pratikāram, counter, counteraction, how to save yourself from it. This is called struggle for existence. In this material world, there is only this danger and counteraction. I am unhappy; so just to become happy I have to work, I have to get money. Whatever I want... So this is going on.
Save yourself
Expressions researched:
"save yourself"
|"save yourselves"
Lectures
Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures
The living entity in this way wandering in different species of life in different planetary platform, and therefore this is very disgusting, so if one is fortunate, then he comes in contact with a devotee. This Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is meant for giving this opportunity to everyone. We are opening centers all over the world, inviting people to "Come in our place. Understand the philosophy. We have got so many books. And try to save yourself from this botheration of repetition of birth and death."
So this Kali-yuga so strong that it attacks even the so-called devotees also. Kali-yuga is very strong. Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu has recommended that if you want to save yourself, if you at all desire to take the position of amṛta, if you are interested... Nobody is interested. Kṛṣṇa says sa amṛtatvāya kalpate. That is the aim of life: How I shall become immortal. How I shall not become subjected to the four principles of distressed condition—birth, death, disease and old age. Nobody is serious. They are so dull. Therefore they have been described, manda. Manda means so bad, so rascal that they have no ambition of life. They do not know what is the goal of life.
Pāpebhyaḥ means the reaction of sins. Now, if I don't repay my indebtedness to the persons to whom I am obliged, then I have become sinner. I am sinner. Just like I owe to you $100 or $1,000. I don't pay you. So then I become a culprit in the consideration of the state law. I have to pay you. Similarly, all indebtedness has to be liquidated. If you are unable to liquidate, then you will be a sinner. But you can save yourself from the reaction of all sins if you surrender unto the Supreme Lord. Sarvātmanā yaḥ śaraṇaṁ śaraṇyaṁ gato mukundaṁ parihṛtya kartam. You have got some duties, but if you give up all your duties and simply surrender unto the Supreme Lord, then you are liquidated at once.
So you have to be fully in knowledge how to save yourself from the contamination of the modes of material nature. That is called gata-saṅgasya muktasya. Then you are free. So that is also stated, how you can become gata-saṅgasya. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā.
This Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is there all over the world just to help the people to understand real God, Kṛṣṇa. This is the purpose of Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. Because people are suffering, they are all mūḍhas. They do not understand Kṛṣṇa or they deride Kṛṣṇa. Therefore they will, he will go on suffering. Tān ahaṁ dviṣataḥ krūrān kṣipāmy ajasram andha-yoniṣu (BG 16.19). Those who are envious of Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa says, "I put them eternally in the hellish condition of life." So if you want to save yourself from the hellish condition of life, you must take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness and surrender unto Him.
Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures
So you will find many paṇḍitas like this, many learned scholars. And ask him, "What you are?" He is silent. "Wherefrom you have come?" Silent. "Where you are going?" Silent. "What is God?" Silent. So these kind of paṇḍitas will not save you. If you actually want to save yourself from dragging down again to the lower abominable species of life, then you must take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, bhakti-yoga. Vāsudeve bhagavati. Then you will be enlightened.
If we actually want to make our life perfect, the directions are already there in our... We have got the Vedic knowledge, treasurehouse of spiritual knowledge, and the Bhagavad-gītā is the gist, is the summary. Gītopaniṣad. It is called Upaniṣad. If you simply study Bhagavad-gītā as it is, without foolishly interpreting it... That will spoil. Don't interpret. Just like you are given paramānna, or kṣīra. Everyone knows what is kṣīra, milk and rice cooked together with sugar, very nice foodstuff. But if you add with it several grains of sand, it becomes useless. You can add it, simply a few grains of sand—we spoil Bhagavad-gītā. Therefore Śrī Sanātana Gosvāmī has advised how to save yourself from this rascaldom.
So you cannot become kṛṣṇa-bhakta and indulge at the same time in sinful activities. Then it will be spoiled. You must be very careful. We have selected, summarized the essence of sinful activities is illicit sex, meat-eating, intoxication, and gambling. This is the essence. If you save yourself from these four principles, then you become sinless. And unless you become sinless, there is no question of kṛṣṇa-bhakta. Rest assured.
And as soon as there will be scarcity of food, the government men will take advantage of it: "Now we have to supply food." "Where is food?" "No, you give me money, we shall purchase from importer." The taxation. One side, I am suffering—no food; another side—whatever money I have got, it will be taken by taxation. Now see what is your position. The position will be people will become mad, so much troubled. Ācchinna-dāra-draviṇā gacchanti giri-kānanam. People will be so much harassed that voluntarily they'll give up their family, home, and go to the forest, hopeless. This will be done. Don't think that Kṛṣṇa consciousness is a joke, is a jugglery. It is the only remedy if you want to save yourself. Otherwise, you are doomed. Don't take it, I mean to say, as a joke. It is a fact.
That is explained in the beginning of Bhāgavata, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam: abhijñaḥ svarāṭ. Svarāṭ means He's not dependent to anyone. He is self-sufficient. Everything. That is God. Nowadays there is so many incarnation of God, but as soon as there is some toothache immediately: "Ooooonh, doctor, give me... Save me, save me. Save me, save me, save me, save me." You are God. You save yourself. Why you have come to doctor? So these rascals are going on. So it is very difficult to preach Kṛṣṇa consciousness. The whole world is overburdened by these rascals and demons. So atom, atom bomb is waiting for them. Yes. It will be finished. All the demons will be finished.
Our teeth is just like... You take fruit, you can easily cut. But if you take meat, bite... That is not natural. Unnaturally. But you take fruit, immediately you cut. and... So that is discrimination, that "We have to take some food, but what kind of food we shall take?" So our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is that you take only kṛṣṇa-prasādam, that's all. You save yourself. Even if I cannot discriminate, Kṛṣṇa's prasādam I take, it is transcendental. I don't require any discrimination.
Nobody is free. Everyone is under the grip of material laws. Even if I think, "I am free," that is my foolishness. I will be forced to act. Even if I do not want to become old man, I will be forced to become old man. And if I, after this giving up this body, if I... Suppose nature is offering me a dog's body. If I say "No, no, I will not accept this," no, you will be forced to accept it. That is nature's law. But you can save yourself if you follow conscientiously. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. If you keep yourself in Kṛṣṇa consciousness and act accordingly, then you will be saved. Otherwise there is no saving.
He delivered Jagāi-Mādhāi. They were very sinful. Sinful means they were born in a respectable brāhmaṇa family, but by bad association they became drunkard, woman-hunter, cheater, and plunderer, like that. That is sinful. So Caitanya Mahāprabhu delivered them. Then how delivered them? Caitanya Mahāprabhu made them promise that "You will not do any more all these things." They said, "Yes, we promise. We shall not do." "Then you are delivered." Similarly, by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, all the sinful activities are excused, but you don't commit it again. Therefore we are prescribing... Along with chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, we are asking our disciples, "No illicit sex, no meat-eating, no intoxication, no gambling." If you save yourself from these four pillars of sinful activities and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra—not very much, only sixteen rounds minimum—then you are saved from the hellish condition of life for which Parīkṣit Mahārāja was so disturbed and he was asking, "How to save these people from this hellish condition of life?"
So Kṛṣṇa consciousness is such nice medicine. Unless you come to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, your habits, formed by the association with the three modes of material nature, will continue. You cannot check it. They... Therefore, if you want to save yourself from this repetition of different types of birth and death, then you must come to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is the medicine.
If you engage yourself in pure devotional service incessantly, without any stop, then you always remain transcendental, above these three guṇas. So our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is to keep the devotee above the three guṇas. Just like in the ocean, if you are fallen in the ocean, it is very dangerous position. But if somebody helps you to lift you from the ocean water and keep one inch above the ocean water, there is no danger. Your life is saved.So that is wanted, that guṇa-vaicitryāt, if you want to save yourself from these varieties of life, birth, death, old age and disease, and accept so many varieties of life...
So when you come to this senses, that "I am punished by māyā on account of my forgetting Kṛṣṇa consciousness; therefore my duty is to come back again to Kṛṣṇa consciousness and be saved from the punishment of the material nature," that is human duty. You cannot say that "I don't want Kṛṣṇa consciousness." If you don't want, then you must suffer. If you want to save yourself from suffering, then you must take to Kṛṣṇa. It is a question of "must." It is not your option. Your option is there. Because you are part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa, you have got little independence. But if you misuse that independence, then you are punishable.
In the śāstras there are different varieties of ritualistic ceremony, vratas, to counteract our sinful activities within this material world. The material world is so situated that if you do not want to become a sinful man, unless you are devotee, you will be forced to commit sinful activities. You'll be forced. Just like you are very good man, but when walking on the street you are killing so many ants. We have got experience while morning walk. You cannot avoid it. It is not possible. And you are responsible for killing the ant. Then? How you can save yourself from the sinful activities? Therefore in the śāstra it is said, padaṁ padaṁ yad vipadam (SB 10.14.58).
Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures
People want to be satisfied with little benefit, with little benefit. No, that is not our mission. We want the supreme benefit. Supreme benefit is that you are now entangled in the process of birth, death, old age and disease in the material existence. The real benefit is how to save yourself from these four difficulties. As Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā, janma mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). We are embarrassed with so many difficulties, but real difficulty is janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi: birth, death, old age and disease. So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is to give you ultimate benefit: no more birth, no more death, no more disease, no more old age. Always mind that.
So preacher has to see four things. First of all God, īśvara, and tad-adhīneṣu, and those who are devotees. God, His devotees, and bāliśa, innocent. He does not know anything about... So three: God, devotee, and the innocent. And dviṣat, envious, atheist class. He has to see four things, and he has to deal with four persons differently. With God, īśvare prema: how to advance my love for God, these dealings. Prema-maitrī, and to the devotees, we have to make friendship with them. Prema-maitrī. And to the innocent, we have to preach, kṛpā: "Oh, here is an innocent person. He does not know; he's eager to learn." There teaching is required. Teaching, you cannot teach God or you cannot teach God's devotees. But you can teach the innocent. And those who are dviṣat, atheist, upekṣā, don't go there, save yourself. These are the four things.
Therefore Sanātana Gosvāmī has gone to his spiritual master, he's asking this... This is also common, also very grave questions, that "In this material world, I do not want so many things, but they are enforced upon me. Why?" This is human life, to inquire why. Not to... The modern theory is struggle for existence. There are troubles, and you try to save yourself, and survival of the fittest. But nobody is fit, nobody survives. Nobody wants death, but we are talking of survival. Who can escape death? There is no possibility.
Therefore we have to accept this, that if we be engaged in devotional service of the Supreme Lord, then we are transcendental to these material modes of nature. Therefore anyone who is so engaged, he is liberated. He is liberated. Officially he is liberated. But if he falls down by the attraction of these three modes of nature, that is a different thing. That is possible. That is possible if we are not strong enough because... Always remember that this Kṛṣṇa consciousness is a sort of declaration of war with this illusory material nature. So there is war. She will always try to get you fall down. Daivī hy eṣā guṇa-mayī mama māyā duratyayā (BG 7.14). It is very strong, powerful. How you can save yourself? Mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti te. If you persistently simply adhere to the devotional service of Kṛṣṇa, there will be no more strength of this illusory nature to drag you.
So if you adherently be always engaged in some sort of service, twenty-four hours in the service of the Supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, there is no power in the world who can drag you into this sense gratification province. You at once become nirguṇa. This is the process. So we have to stick to this principle: "How I can serve Kṛṣṇa always, always?" Īhā yasya harer dāsye. If you cannot do, if you simply think, "How can I do? How can I do? How can I do?" simply this, if you practically cannot do, but if you simply think that "How can I do?" oh, then also you become liberated. Then also you become liberated. And what to speak of when we actually serve. This is such a nice thing, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So if you want to save yourself from this material turmoil, then always stick to this Kṛṣṇa consciousness persistently.
Even Śaṅkarācārya, who was impersonalist, at the last stage of his life he advised everyone,
- bhaja govindaṁ bhaja govindaṁ bhaja govindaṁ mūḍha-mate
- prāpte sannihite kāle na hi na hi rakṣati ḍukṛñ-karaṇe
He advised, "You fools, you are talking about philosophical speculation, grammatical meaning, and eschewing. Oh, these are all nonsense. You cannot save yourself by doing this. When there will be death, Govinda can save you. The Govinda can save you from falling down".
Sri Isopanisad Lectures
So you read every śloka, every mantra. Whenever you get time, you read the purport, you read the meaning. The whole philosophy is there. Now you are growing. There will be so many questions, so many philosophers. But our philosophy is so sound and solid, that we can meet any philosopher of the world, any philosopher. But you have to learn it. The books are there, your intelligence is there, the guidance is there. Because you are preaching, sometimes we have to meet opposing elements. So if you cannot answer properly, that will be disqualification. So every one of you should learn this philosophy. As soon as you are able to, I mean to say, guide yourself, or save yourself from the attack of the opposing element, then you'll know that you are making progress.
General Lectures
Indian man (3): But he says that why should that surrender should be, when we know that we are..., God right within ourselves...?
Prabhupāda: Because you are... Because you are becoming old and you do not want to become old; therefore to save yourself, not to become old, you have to surrender.
Philosophy Discussions
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.
Conversations and Morning Walks
1970 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Therefore in this age the only method... It is a concession to the fallen people of this world, this Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. They 'll not be able to follow all the regulative principles; therefore they must commit all kinds of abominable activities. Under the circumstances the śāstra or God has given a concession that you simply chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra and gradually you will be elevated to the highest position of spiritual life. Other things you cannot follow. You are already fallen. So you take to this process of chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra without any offense. And in order to save yourself from the offenses, a little austerity that you cannot have illicit sex life.
Prabhupāda: No, liver extract preparations there are many medicines. For anemic patient liver extract is recommended.
Devotee (6): That's all right for us to take?
Prabhupāda: No, but if you are going to die, then you can take.
Yamunā: Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa.
Prabhupāda: When required for such trouble, if you are going to die, then, to save yourself, you can.
1971 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: The difficulty is at the present moment the theory that everyone can invent his way of understanding God. He can speculate. Therefore there is chaos. There is chaos. If you want to save yourself from this chaotic condition of life you must take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is our proposal.
Prabhupāda: What benefit you will derive by going to (indistinct)?
Reporter: But, well, he'll go to the... Supposing somebody is out to kill me. That's changing, if you can't tell him...
Prabhupāda: But suppose (indistinct) does not kill you. Will you be safe?
Reporter: No, sir. That I can see, but...
Prabhupāda: Then what is the use of going to (indistinct)? You will die today or tomorrow. That's all. If you want to save yourself, then go to Kṛṣṇa. That is our proposal. (laughter) As soon as you go the (indistinct), he does not fight, do you mean to say you will live forever?
1973 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Dehāpatya. Deha means body. Apatya means children. Dehāpatya-kalatra. Kalatra means wife. Dehāpatya-kalatrādiṣv ātma-sainyeṣu. He thinks: "They are my soldiers. I'll fight with nature, struggle for existence. And they'll save me." Dehāpatya-kalatrādiṣv ātma-sainyeṣv asatsv api. Although he knows that they'll not exist, still he's so mad, teṣāṁ pramatto nidhanam, he knows I'll not exist, the soldiers will not be able to help me. paśyann api na paśyati, he sees and still he does not see. Paśyann api na paśyati. He knows by practical experience that "This society, friendship, love, nation, nobody can save me." But still he thinks that "They'll save me." Just like when you, in the aeroplane, there may be thousands of aeroplanes, others, but when your aeroplane is in danger, nobody can save you. You have to save yourself, Otherwise, you go to hell. Similarly, we have to save ourself individually by Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
Prabhupāda: Even if you reduce or increase, suppose you are to live for hundred years, if you make it hundred and ten, so what is your profit? And if you are to live for hundred years, reduce time ten years, so what is the profit? You cannot live here, that is a fact, reduce or increase. This is all nonsense. What is increase? The trees, they have more longer period, increased the period, of life. Is, that kind of living is very profitable? What for increasing? To suffering? Your life is already suffering. Why you are covering this body? You cannot stand here, open body. That is suffering. You are trying to save yourself from the suffering. This is life, struggle for existence.
Karandhara: Well, I was just using that as a comparison to...
Prabhupāda: No, why comparison? Then everyone is God. I want to see that you have got the opulence of God. You are the richest. You are smuggling, and you are richest? You rascal, you smuggle, and you are the richest? I kick on your face. (laughter) Now I challenge you. I shall kick on your face. You save yourself. You save if yourself.
Yaśomatīnandana: Yes. Pauṇḍraka tried to imitate Kṛṣṇa, and Kṛṣṇa killed him.
Nalinīkaṇṭha: No, but as more people become Kṛṣṇa conscious, there will more of a desire to live simply.
Prabhupāda: That is good for them. That is good for them. Because at the present moment they are missing the aim of life. That is the defect. They do not know what is the goal of life. They are thinking, "We are also cats and dogs." And that is the defect of the modern civilization. Our human life is to achieve the highest perfection. Otherwise this āhāra-nidra-bhaya... Even the small birds they know. Just see how they are protecting themselves. They are also afraid of danger, and they are doing their own way. So if we simply discover atomic weapons for defense, that is not final advancement of civilization. Final civilization is how to save yourself from death. That is civilization.
1974 Conversations and Morning Walks
Bhagavān: Because they can fight with guns, but afterwards neither one of them knows how to set an exemplary life. So they just keep fighting with guns.
Prabhupāda: With gun or without, gun, you will die. The fascist will die and the other party also will die. Gun or without gun, he cannot exist. But our fight is to stop death. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti (BG 4.9). Our fight is for this purpose, no more death. This is real fight. Your, what is your fight? You may save yourself for two years or three years or ten years, but you have to die. You have no such program not to die. But here is a program, no more death.
Prabhupāda: Yes, and the grains are put within it and they are all smashed. But one grain who takes shelter of the center, the pivot, it is not smashed. Similarly the modern civilization is such that everyone will be smashed. And one takes the central point shelter, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he will not be. Kaunteya pratijānīhi na me bhaktaḥ praṇaśyati (BG 9.31). So best thing is to take shelter of Kṛṣṇa and save yourself.
Prabhupāda: At the time of danger, we remember providence or God. That is also good. So that is a Hindi proverb that duhkse sab hari bhaje, sukse bhaje kol, sukse ajar hari bhaje, duhka ase hay(?). Means "When one is in danger, he remembers God, and when he is in happiness he forgets God. Therefore if he remembers God always, then where is danger?" So our business is to become God conscious. Then there will be no anxiety. So we are preaching that, I, here, that you become God conscious. Death is there. You cannot save yourself. Either you are on the land or on the plane, death will be there. You must be prepared for the death. But if by practicing remembering God, even at the time of death you continue to remember God, then your life is successful.
1975 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: So, if you don't infect a certain disease, then you don't grow it. And if you infect... Therefore you must know or you must know the rules and regulation, how you can save yourself from infection. If you are ignorant and if you infect some disease, epidemic, then you have to suffer. If you remain disinfected, then you don't get inferior body, you get superior body, in other planets. Or you can go back to home, back to Godhead. Therefore I said that this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is for purification so that you may not get infected by the material modes.
Prabhupāda: Why philosophically? Philosophy means, at the present moment, mental concoction. We don't say that. Philosophy means to find out the reality. That is philosophy, not that "I think like this. He thinks like this. He thinks like this." That is not philosophy; that is mental concoction, hovering over the mental plane. Philosophy is here. Kṛṣṇa says, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam: (BG 13.9) "Keep always in your front that there is death, there is birth, and try to save yourself from this." This is philosophy.
Prabhupāda: Mūḍha. Therefore they have been called mūḍhas. Na mā duṣkṛtino mūḍhā prapadyante narādhamāḥ. They have been described in the Bhagavad-gītā as duṣkṛtinaḥ. First of all they are very, very sinful. They have got merit, but sinful merit, duṣkṛtinaḥ. Kṛti means meritorious, but duḥ, duṣkṛtina. So on account of their (being) duṣkṛtinaḥ they are mūḍhas. They cannot understand what is scripture, what is God, what is Kṛṣṇa. They cannot understand. It is not possible.
Indian man (3): Yes, I at least understand what is God.
Prabhupāda: You want to save yourself.
Indian man (2): His definition is different, absolutely. According to his...
Prabhupāda: No, God cannot be defined differently. God is one.
Devotee (2): They know how to destroy everything, but they can't create anything nice.
Prabhupāda: No question of creating. They have destroyed themselves. Save yourself from destruction. Then you talk of destruction. You destroy. That's all right. But you will be destroyed by some other greater power. What you are going to do that? What you have done for that purpose? You destroy. That is going on, nature's way. I am killing somebody, somebody is killing me. That is nature's way. So what is your special credit? There is no credit. There is no credit. You save yourself not to be destroyed by others. "I can destroy others but nobody can destroy me"—that Hiraṇyakaśipu tried. But that is not possible. Ultimately he was destroyed. That's all.
Prabhupāda: Defamy. So the last defamy is that you die. I say, "You are rascal. You are fool. You are this, and that." This is all not so dangerous. But if I say that "You die," that is the last defamy. So in spite of all their clever invention, they are going to die. Then what is the value? That you cannot check. "I have done wonderful things"—that's all right, invention, so many things. That's all right. "But what about my death?" Have you done anything that you can save yourself? You, Mr. Darwin, you have so experience. Millions of millions of years you have got. Why don't you stop your death? You cannot live more than a hundred years, and you are talking of millions of years. What is this nonsense?
Prabhupāda: Yes. If the mind is not controlled by intelligence, then it will disturb. Then the senses will be disturbed, agitated. Then you are bound up by karma. Unrestricted sense gratification means karma-bandhana, bound up by the laws of karma. And bound up by the laws of karma means repetition of birth and death in different species. Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa jantor dehopapatti (SB 3.31.1). Different bodies means resultant action of karma. So if you want to save yourself from this resultant action of karma, then the first thing is to control the mind. That is yoga system, to control the mind. But one who has got intelligence, he takes to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and the mind is automatically controlled.
1976 Conversations and Morning Walks
Devotee(reading):Therefore, the chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare should be continued without stoppage. This will protect a devotee from all accidental falldowns. He will thus remain perpetually free from all material contaminations."
Prabhupāda: It is the only process to save yourself.
Dhṛṣṭadyumna: Once you said, Śrīla Prabhupāda, "If you are God, what will you do when I kick on your face?" Because if God is creating the sun, such a great planet in the sky, thousands of tons of energy, so if they are the source of the sun, but "What can they do if I kick in their face? Nothing. So how is that God?" Kṛṣṇa, when..., someone was, Paundraka, he was saying he was God, He said, "All right, hold My cakra." And He took off his head. So to these false Gods we can say "What will you do if we kick you in the face? You cannot save yourself."
Prabhupāda: That is the proper treatment. (laughter)
Prabhupāda: Yes. If he's going to become a dog next life and if he does not take precaution, then he is not envying himself? In this life you are prime minister, and next life, you are preparing to become a dog, so what is the use of becoming prime minister? You could not save yourself. Nature's law will go on. You may become prime minister or any minister, but the law will act. If you have infected some disease, so the disease will develop. It doesn't matter whether you are prime minister or this minister. So these rascals say they do not know it.
Prabhupāda: We are teaching people to become Kṛṣṇa conscious, to become servant of Kṛṣṇa, and the so-called gentlemen, enlightened gentlemen, take Kṛṣṇa as a debauch. Black debauch. (break) ...Vaiṣṇava religion is sex. (break) There are aborigines in India. Santal, (?) they are called santal. Black men, live in the forest like the African aborigines. So I asked him that "You, jungle, do you meet the tigers?" "Oh, yes, yes. Why not?" "So how do you save yourself?" So he had a small axe in his hand. So he showed me that "So long I have got this axe, even the tiger will not dare to attack me."
1977 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Yes. Whatever it may be... We should be satisfied locally by our food, by our cloth, by our milk. That's all. Let the whole world go to hell. We don't care. If you want to save yourself also, you do this. Here is an example. If you want artificial life, city life, and hellish life, you do. But we shall live like this. This is the ideal life.
Prabhupāda: Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, janma sārthaka kari' kara para-upakāra (CC Adi 9.41). Be strong so that you may not be rascal, and then you can do; others you can check. Otherwise, it will be impossible. How it is possible? A man is drowning. If you are strong enough, you can save. But if you also become drowned, then how you'll save him? So the everything is there. Save yourself, save others. This is our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. First of all save yourself; then try to save others. Or both things can go on simultaneously.
Pradyumna: Oh, that's how they do it. When there's a hair hole? They put it there.
Prabhupāda: Immediately. And the warning: "I have come." (makes sound like flying mosquito) "Hnn nn nn." Where is that brain? The mosquito has so nice brain that he gives you warning that "I have come to bite you. If you like, you can save yourself." And he goes and immediately bites, and immediately the business is finished. A mosquito has such a nice brain. Who has made this brain?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Born as a cockroach in that country.
Prabhupāda: And then by flit(?) he will be killed. "No, no, sir, I am your countryman, I am countryman. I belong to the same nation." "Who cares for you, flies, cockroaches? Kill them. American flies, who cares for you?" "I was a staunch nationalist. Now I have become fly. Don't kill me." "Who cares for you?" Will they excuse American flies, American cockroaches? But dehāntara-prāpti. That you cannot avoid. Then where is your nationalism? Nation means one who has taken birth in that land. The cockroach, the flies, the animals, they also born in that land, but who cares for them? Dehāntara-prāpti. So you are great nationalist. But the body is changed. How can you save yourself, not become a cockroach? Because the body is changing. That is in other's hand, Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa (SB 3.31.1). By superior supervision. It is not your choice.
Prabhupāda: And Caitanya Mahāprabhu has advised, "Save yourself from aparādha." Some aparādha, and they are going away, just like Nitāi. Guror avajñā.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's called the elephant offense?
Prabhupāda: Hm. Vaiṣṇava-aparādha. The weak and the fools, they will be victimized.
| Page Title: | Save yourself |
| Compiler: | Labangalatika, Govardhan, Sureshwardas |
| Created: | 09 of Nov, 2009 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=27, Con=26, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 53 |