Sentient

Expressions researched:
"sentient" |"sentiently" |"sentients"

SB Canto 1

SB 1.5.22, Purport:

Advanced people are eager to understand the Absolute Truth through the medium of science, and therefore a great scientist should endeavor to prove the existence of the Lord on a scientific basis. Similarly, philosophical speculations should be utilized to establish the Supreme Truth as sentient and all-powerful.

SB 1.14.8, Purport:

"If I should cease to work, then all humanity would be misdirected. I would also be the cause of creating unwanted population, and I would thereby destroy the peace of all sentient beings." (BG 3.24)

SB Canto 2

SB 2.7.24, Purport:

The Personality of Godhead has every sentiment of a sentient being, like all other living beings, because He is the chief and original living entity, the supreme source of all other living beings. He is the nitya, or the chief eternal amongst all other eternals. He is the chief one, and all others are the dependent many. The many eternals are supported by the one eternal, and thus both the eternals are qualitatively one.

SB Canto 3

SB 3.18.6, Purport:

The Supreme Personality of Godhead is decried by the Māyāvādī philosophers, who are almost demons. They say that God has no head, no form, no existence and no legs, hands or other bodily limbs. In other words, they say that He is dead or lame. All these misconceptions of the Supreme Lord are a source of dissatisfaction to Him; He is never pleased with such atheistic descriptions. In this case, although the Lord felt sorrow from the piercing words of the demon, He delivered the earth for the satisfaction of the demigods, who are ever His devotees. The conclusion is that God is as sentient as we are.

SB 3.21.19, Purport:

The example of the spider is very significant also. The spider is an individual living entity, and by its energy it creates a cobweb and plays on it, and whenever it likes it winds up the cobweb, thus ending the play. When the cobweb is manufactured by the saliva of the spider, the spider does not become impersonal. Similarly, the creation and manifestation of the material or spiritual energy does not render the creator impersonal. Here the very prayer suggests that God is sentient and can hear the prayers and fulfill the desires of the devotee. Therefore, He is sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha (Bs. 5.1), the form of bliss, knowledge and eternity.

SB Canto 4

SB 4.7.39, Purport:

In the external energy, the interaction of the three qualities makes it possible for things to be created, maintained and annihilated. But in the spiritual world, or the kingdom of God, there is no such exhibition, since everything is eternal, sentient and blissful.

SB Canto 6

SB 6.18.8, Purport:

As the Lord says in Bhagavad-gītā (4.6):

ajo 'pi sann avyayātmā

bhūtānām īśvaro 'pi san

prakṛtiṁ svām adhiṣṭhāya

sambhavāmy ātma-māyayā

"Although I am unborn and My transcendental body never deteriorates, and although I am the Lord of all sentient beings, I still appear in every millennium in My original transcendental form."

SB Canto 7

SB 7.15.34, Purport:

Nirvāṇa means the cessation of all material desires. Sometimes desirelessness is understood to imply an end to the workings of the mind, but this is not possible. The living entity has senses, and if the senses stopped working, the living entity would no longer be a living entity; he would be exactly like stone or wood. This is not possible. Because he is living, he is nitya and cetana—eternally sentient. For those who are not very advanced, the practice of yoga is recommended in order to stop the mind from being agitated by material desires, but if one fixes his mind on the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, his mind naturally becomes peaceful very soon.

SB Canto 8

SB 8.1.3, Purport:

Nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13). Both the Lord and the living entities are eternal and sentient, but the difference is that the Lord is unlimited whereas the living entities are limited.

SB 8.6.8, Purport:

The Lord says in Bhagavad-gītā (4.6):

ajo 'pi sann avyayātmā

bhūtānām īśvaro 'pi san

prakṛtiṁ svām adhiṣṭhāya

sambhavāmy ātma-māyayā

"Although I am unborn and My transcendental body never deteriorates, and although I am the Lord of all sentient beings, I still appear in every millennium in My original transcendental form."

SB Canto 10.1 to 10.13

SB 10.8.49, Purport:

"Although I am unborn and My transcendental body never deteriorates, and although I am the Lord of all sentient beings, I still appear in every millennium in My original transcendental form." (BG 4.6)

Nectar of Devotion

Nectar of Devotion 22:

This contradictory treatment by Kṛṣṇa is just befitting His position, because in all the Vedic literature He is described as the complete independent. In the beginning of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam the Lord is described as svarāṭ, which means "completely independent." That is the position of the Supreme Absolute Truth. The Absolute Truth is not only sentient, but is also completely independent.

Krsna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead

Krsna Book 87:

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and the Vedānta-sūtra also say that the original cause is sentient and both indirectly and directly cognizant of everything within this creation. In the Bhagavad-gītā Kṛṣṇa says, ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavaḥ (BG 10.8), "I am the original cause of everything," and mattaḥ sarvaṁ pravartate, "From Me everything comes into existence." Therefore, atoms may form the basic combinations of material existence, but these atoms are generated from the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Thus the philosophy of Gautama and Kaṇāda cannot be supported.

Krsna Book 87:

It is confirmed in the Brahma-saṁhitā that the Brahman effulgence is the personal bodily rays of Kṛṣṇa. As such, impersonal Brahman cannot be the original cause of the cosmic manifestation. The original cause is the all-perfect, sentient Personality of Godhead, Govinda.

Krsna Book 87:

Kṛṣṇa Himself declares in the Bhagavad-gītā that because He is transcendental to all sentient and insentient beings, He is known as Puruṣottama, which means the Supreme Personality. (Puruṣa means "person," and uttama means "supreme" or "transcendental.") In another place the Lord says that as the air is situated in the all-pervading sky, everyone is situated in Him, and everyone is acting under His direction.

Sri Isopanisad

Sri Isopanisad 17, Purport:

People have very little time to talk about the Personality of Godhead or to inquire about Him. They have dismissed God's existence in so many ways, primarily by declaring Him to be impersonal, that is, without sense perception. But in the Vedic literature—whether the Upaniṣads, Vedānta-sūtra, Bhagavad-gītā or Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam—it is declared that the Lord is a sentient being and is supreme over all other living entities.

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Lecture on BG 5.17-25 -- Los Angeles, February 8, 1969:

Now, these things are very important things, "whose mind is engaged within, who is always busy working for the welfare of all sentient beings." This chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa, it is welfare work for all sentient being, even the worms, the microbes, the cockroaches. So many living entities are within this room. By hearing this vibration of Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra they will be getting also the result.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Lecture on SB 1.2.7 -- New Vrindaban, September 5, 1972:

God, God is cognizant, He knows everything. He is a sentient being. Not that a dead stone. If God is not sentient being, if God is not a person, how so many powerful persons, sentient persons coming from Him? If the father is not intelligent, how the sons and daughters can become intelligent? A dog cannot give birth to an intelligent person, a person who is intelligent, he can give birth to intelligent children. This our practical experience. Therefore this description of God, aiśvaryasya samagrasya vīryasya yaśasaḥ śriyaḥv, we should try to understand what is God.

Lecture on SB 1.2.22 -- Los Angeles, August 25, 1972:

So find out the original source of everything, that original source, whether it is sentient or insentient? The conclusion is original source must be sentient. Because in this, our experience, experimental knowledge, we see something matter and something living. I am seeing here is a small ant and here is a big stone. The big stone is insentient. It cannot move. For millions of years you wait, whether the stone will move—you cannot see. No, it will not move. Because it is insentient. Whereas a small ant, it is going. You just check its marching. It will struggle. It will struggle this way, this way, this way. And ultimately you have to give way. This is sentient. Therefore sentient is superior.

Lecture on SB 1.2.22 -- Los Angeles, August 25, 1972:

There are two things within our experience: one, matter, not sentient; and another sentient. So this... Now, I am seer. Or sometimes I control both these things. But I am not supreme controller. But I can observe that there are two things, sentient and insentient, and I am observing. So, for the time being, I am superior of both the sentient and nonsentient. So the conclusion is the ultimate source of everything, ultimate knower, ultimate analyzer, must be a sentient. It cannot be insentient. That is experimental knowledge.

Lecture on SB 1.2.22 -- Los Angeles, August 25, 1972:

So here it is said: chidyante sarva-saṁśayāḥ. Chidyante sarva-saṁśayāḥ. One, by this, following this bhāgavata-dharma, studying from Bhāgavata, the ultimate knowledge of everything, one can become completely doubtless that God is a person, He is sentient, He is the supreme director, He's the supreme knower, He's the supreme physist, the supreme chemist—everything, supreme.

Lecture on SB 1.4.25 -- Montreal, June 20, 1968:

Kṛṣṇa is situated in everyone's heart. It is not that because I am a sannyāsī, Kṛṣṇa is sitting within my heart. No. Kṛṣṇa is sitting in everyone's heart. Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe 'rjuna tiṣṭhati (BG 18.61). And He is sentient. He is perfect in knowledge. So this very act, that one is trying to understand Kṛṣṇa, that makes Kṛṣṇa very pleased.

Lecture on SB 7.9.21 -- Mayapur, February 28, 1976:

Bhāgavata begins that "The origin of everything, the Absolute Truth, is sentient." He's not a chunk. He's sentient. Janmādy asya yataḥ anvayād abhijñaḥ (SB 1.1.1). Abhijñaḥ means sentient. He's not a dull matter.

Lecture on SB 7.9.27 -- Mayapur, March 5, 1976:

So Prahlāda Mahārāja knows it, that naiṣā parāvara-matir bhavato: "You have no such thing as discriminating." So one may say that "I may... I am foolish, I may not surrender to Kṛṣṇa cent percent, but why He is not kind cent percent?" So that is Kṛṣṇa's discrimination. Why He should? He can... He can become cent percent, but He does not do so. That means Kṛṣṇa is sentient; He is not impersonal. Don't think that whatever you are doing, Kṛṣṇa cannot see. In the Deity room, if you think that "This Deity is made of brass. Whatever nonsense I can do, He does not see," no, He can see everything.

Nectar of Devotion Lectures

The Nectar of Devotion -- Bombay, January 1, 1973:

Somehow or other, the material energy came into existence, and therefore there is creation. This is their argument. This is asuric argument, or the demoniac argument. But the Vedas says, "No." Vedas says that janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). There is original. Absolute Truth, or God, is He from (whom) everything emanates. Janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). And that God must be sentient. He's not zero. Not zero. The śūnyavādi. He has got brain. He's person. That is explained. The Vedānta-sūtra says, janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). Now they, that Absolute Truth, from where everything is

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures

Lecture on CC Adi-lila 7.106-107 -- San Francisco, February 13, 1967:

Vedānta-sūtra says that "from whom everything is emanated." So He's not imperson. Therefore Bhāgavata explains this verse, this sūtra, very nicely. Janmādy asya yataḥ anvayād itarataś ca artheṣu abhijñaḥ svarāṭ (SB 1.1.1). That Supreme Person, God, is cognizant. He's sentient, not imperson, because He knows everything.

General Lectures

Lecture Excerpt -- London, August 13, 1971:

Prabhupāda: What is that original cause, chunk? Can you say?

Śyāmasundara: Something gas.

Prabhupāda: Gas.

Śyāmasundara: Liquid gas.

Prabhupāda: So anyway, that is not sentient. That is material. Gas is also material. Gas is another form, vapor. Vapor. Vapor is made out of water. Water or... Vapor is air, major portion of air and minor portion of water. In this way, vapor. So that means it is airy. But no. Air has got its cause. They do not know. Air has got its cause, the sky. The sky has its cause. In this way there is creation. In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam everything is explained.

Lecture Excerpt -- London, August 13, 1971:

So here, the original cause is being explained by Vyāsadeva. Janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). Now, what type of that supreme cause is that? Is it a stone or sentient? No. Vyāsadeva informs, no. The original cause, how it can be a stone? Original cause cannot be. It must be sentient. Creator must be sentient. Without brain, without creative power, how there can be creation? Where is your argument? No, that is not. These are false arguments. Therefore Vyāsadeva gives you information that He is sentient, in full knowledge. In full knowledge.

Lecture -- Bombay, March 19, 1972:

But here in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam Vyāsadeva says that origin of the emanation of everything is sentient, conscious. He's not like matter, unconscious. Janmādy asya yataḥ 'nvayād itarataś cārtheṣv abhijñaḥ sva-rāṭ (SB 1.1.1). He says that the origin of creation must be conscious, abhijñaḥ. Abhijñaḥ means conscious. Unless the origin of creation is conscious, how things are so happening so rightly and nicely?

Philosophy Discussions

Philosophy Discussion on Plotinus:

Prabhupāda: 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.

Philosophy Discussion on Plotinus:

Prabhupāda: Nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13). He is the chief amongst the eternals, chief amongst the sentients, but unless He has got unlimited transcendental qualities, how He can be omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent, all-powerful? That is not perfection. A perfect conception of the Supreme One: He is unlimited, we are limited. That is sense.

Philosophy Discussion on Thomas Henry Huxley:

Prabhupāda: "Impersonal," "personal," that we shall consider, but God is sentient. He is all-pervasive. That is accepted.

1968 Conversations and Morning Walks

Interview -- March 9, 1968, San Francisco:

Prabhupāda: How do you attain Kṛṣṇa consciousness? These are the stages. So if we follow cautiously and sentiently these six stages of development, you come to Kṛṣṇa consciousness automatically.

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- April 2, 1972, Sydney:

Prabhupāda: That I wrote in my poetry. "The Absolute is sentient thou hast proved." That was striking to me. Not impersonal, "sentient thou hast proved, impersonal calamity thou hast moved." "Absolute is sentient thou hast proved." That was my acceptance.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Scientists -- July 2, 1974, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: Advanced people are eager to understand the Absolute Truth through the medium of science, and therefore a great scientist should endeavor to prove the existence of the Lord on a scientific basis. Similarly, philosophical speculations should be utilized to establish the Supreme Truth as sentient and all-powerful. Similarly, all other branches of knowledge should always be engaged in the service of the Lord.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- June 9, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: This is God, the origin of everything. Who is there who can challenge this explanation, "The origin of everything"? Now, what is that origin? Whether it is matter or sentient? No. Janmādy asya yato 'nvayād itarataś ca abhijñaḥ (SB 1.1.1). He knows everything. Therefore He's a person. Otherwise, how He can be origin of everything?

1967 Correspondence

Letter to Rayarama -- San Francisco 14 December, 1967:

We have to save the world-people from the misconception of voidism and impersonalism. "The absolute is sentient Thou hast proved all impersonal calamity Thou has moved." These lines were presented by me to my spiritual master and He was highly pleased with me. Let me follow the same principle and my Guru Maharaja will bless me.

1968 Correspondence

Letter to Mario Windisch -- Los Angeles 25 February, 1968:

The Srimad-Bhagavatam explains the very beginning of its starting that the Absolute Truth is Sentient, and Person, and Independent. The Absolute Supreme Personality of Godhead is distinct from all other living entities, in His being the Absolute Independent.