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Sink (Lect., Conv., & Letters)

Lectures

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Lecture on BG 16.7 -- Tokyo, January 27, 1975:

The cause is going on, suffering only, but we are trying to cover this cause of suffering, and by temporary stopping the cause of suffering, we are thinking that we are enjoying. But actually there is no enjoying in this material world because you will find in the Bhagavad-gītā this material world has been described as duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam (BG 8.15). It is for suffering. Even if you do not take very seriously about this winter season or summer season, suffering or enjoying, at the end, either you accept these temporary sufferings and enjoying... Ultimately we are suffering. Ultimately we are suffering. How? Because we will have to die. Who wants death? Does anyone want death voluntarily? No. As soon as there is any cause of death, immediate death, we become very much sorry. Suppose you are sitting in a airplane and you understand, "Now it is going to be crashed," are you..., will you be happy? No. Why? Because you are going to die.

Suppose you are on the sea and it is going to sink in the water. Will you be happy? No. That time we chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Sukhe... Duḥkhe saba hari bhaje, sukhe bhaje kaya.(?) When we are in danger... In Japan you have got many times the experience of earthquake, earthquake. What do you do at that time? Huh? You all Japanese boys and girls, what do you do? Have you experienced earthquake? You have? What do you do at that time? (pauses waiting for an answer) When there is earthquake, what do you do? Hmm? But I have seen in America. They all, everyone, they scream. (laughter) And perhaps they remember about God. Naturally they will remember, "God save us. God save us." What is your...? That means that we do not wish to die. That's a fact. You cannot say that death is very good thing. Nobody will say. Death... But we have to die. There is no excuse, that "I shall not die." Death is "as sure as death," they say. But you don't want death. This is suffering.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Lecture on SB 2.3.21 -- Los Angeles, June 18, 1972:

A foolish puffed-up man defies the science of God and says that God has no meaning for him, but when is in the grip of God's law and is caught up with some disease like cerebral thrombosis, that godless man sinks into the ocean of nescience by the weight of his material acquisition. Advancement of material science without God consciousness is a heavy load on the head of human society. So one must take heed of this great warning.

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures

Lecture on CC Adi-lila 3.87-88 -- New York, December 27, 1966:

There is a very nice verse in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. I cannot recite it, but the purport I can say that... Prahlāda Mahārāja was praying that "The parents care to the children is not sufficient to protect him. And medical help to a patient is not sufficient to cure a disease or cure a man. And the shipping arrangement on the sea is not sufficient to protect a man from going down." In this way he has given so many list that "The counteraction which we are trying to put in our impediments of progress, that is not sufficient if there is no will of God. If there is no will of God, then it is not sufficient protection." Perhaps you know, every one of you. It happened to your country—of course, long, long ago; I heard it from papers in India—that the Americans manufactured a ship, Titanic. (laughter) And it was considered the safest: it will never sink down. On the first voyage, with all important men, it sunk down. Is it a fact? So it is not that your arrangement is sufficient—unless there is God's desire.

Philosophy Discussions

Philosophy Discussion on Samuel Alexander:

Hayagrīva: Well that's one hand, theism. He says, "For pantheism God is eminent in the universe of finite things, a pervading presence."

Prabhupāda: Yes. Presence is just like the water has come from Him. We say the semina of God. The light is coming from God. We say the sun is the eye of God. In this way everything is related, emanation from God. So, so long we do not understand wherefrom these things are coming, it appears God is imperson. But when we understand that "Here is the source of this sky, this air, the light, the water, the land," then He is person. So impersonal feature means a subordinate feature to the person. That is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā, mayā tatam idaṁ sarvam: "All the sky, air, fire, air, land, water, everything, that is My expansion." Mayā tatam idaṁ sarvam. Sarvam means everything. And mat-sthāni sarva-bhūtāni: (BG 9.4) "They are staying on Me." Just like the sunshine is on the sun. As soon as sun sinks, the sun, there is no sunshine. Similarly, the sunshine appears to be very big and the sun globe appears to be small, but the whole sunshine is depending on the sun globe. Similarly, the whole exhibition of impersonal representation—earth, water, air, fire, sky, so on, they are all depending on God. There..., therefore Kṛṣṇa says, mayā tatam idaṁ sarvam: "Everything that you see, that is My expansion, and everything is resting on these elements." Therefore He says, mat-sthāni sarva-bhūtāni, nāhaṁ teṣu avasthitaḥ: (BG 9.4) "But personally I am not there." And standing on this vast land or in the ocean he is in God, but personally he cannot see. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, "Personally I am not present there, although he is standing on Me." Oh, Kuntī also says that, that "You are within and without, but still, the fools cannot see. Only the paramahaṁsas can see You."

Conversations and Morning Walks

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- April 25, 1973, Los Angeles:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: So this suffering is all due to the desire of the individual souls.

Prabhupāda: That... The...suffering is there. Suppose you are in the ocean. It is suffering, but if you have got a good ship, you may think that: "I'm very well situated." That good ship also can sink at any moment. Suffering is always there. You cannot avoid the suffering. Because you are in the ocean. Suppose you are in the air in a very nice plane. Does it mean you are secure? Any moment it can be... There is dangers everywhere. Therefore this place is always dangerous. Padaṁ padaṁ yad vipadām (SB 10.14.58), always dangerous. So the real intelligence means you have to find out where there is no danger. That is the... Where there is real happiness. In the material world, we cannot have happiness.

Room Conversation with Anna Conan Doyle, daughter-in-law of famous author, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle -- August 10, 1973, Paris:

Prabhupāda: Desert expands. As everything expands and diminishes, desert also... That is nature's course. Desert means less production. So na..., if nature wants, she can make the whole world desert. What your tractors and so many agricultural machines will help? It will turn into desert. There will be no rain. What you can do? And still you are very proud of your scientific advancement. You cannot struggle with nature.

Bhagavān: They have one city in Italy. It's called Venice. And it's built... They say they have conquered the ocean. So they've gone out into the ocean and built it up, and there are so many houses. And you travel through the city on boat. That's the only way you can get... And now the city's sinking.

Prabhupāda: Sinking?

Bhagavān: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Just see. Then what they are doing?

Bhagavān: They are concerned.

Prabhupāda: The indication is already there. Still, they are not alarmed. They have to leave that place. Sinking also Mexico.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- May 29, 1975, Honolulu:

Gurukṛpa: About fifty years ago they made a ship called the Titanic.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Gurukṛpa: And they were very proud, but it smashed into an iceberg.

Prabhupāda: We were children at that time. Not children, we were young men. The first voyage, it was finished. And all big men were there. It was assured that "It will never drown."

Bali-mardana: They said, "This is the ship that can never sink."

Prabhupāda: Big chunk, ice block...

Morning Walk -- June 28, 1975, Denver:

Kuruśreṣṭha: At like eleven, twelve thousand. This is five thousand feet altitude, here in Denver.

Prabhupāda: Snow falls above ten thousand feet?

Kuruśreṣṭha: Oh, yes.

Prabhupāda: (break) ...Kashmir, that is sixteen thousand feet. (break) ...do not sink? Guarantee? (laughter) (break) ...glass building.

Kuruśreṣṭha: That's a hospital, Śrīla Prabhupāda. The temple is in a hospital zone. It keeps the price of the land very high.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- July 11, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: That's all right. I'll die, but I am... Just like one has to go somewhere, he'll know everyone has to go. Man..., suppose a building has to be dismantled. So the tenants or the residents, they make arrangement "Where shall I go next?" And the foolish rascal, he doesn't care. And when the times comes for dismantling the house, he becomes busy, oh, he does not know. That is the difference between you and me. I know this house is to be dismantled, so I'm making preparation where to go and stay. But you are such a fool, you are thinking that we'll stay here.

Bali-mardana: It's like on the ship they have a drill in case the ship is going to sink, so you know where to go. But they make no preparation where to go after death, which is certain.

Prabhupāda: That is dog's life—the dog does not know.

Bali-mardana: They are two-legged dogs.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Conversation with George Harrison -- July 26, 1976, London:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Bombay is just like garden. As good as your place here. No. Not so big. It is seventeen acres, and Bombay is five. Just go on. (prasādam being served) Give him whatever you have got to give. But don't give much. When he wants something more.... Waste not, want not. Give more, that preparation, you should give more. (laughter) That is called (indistinct). You can bring it, prasāda.

George Harrison: I'll just wash my hands.

Prabhupāda: You can wash here. The sink is there. Here is also water. You can put the bowls outside, here, so that there will be sufficient place. Our Indian system is like this. That's all right. Sit down, you also sit down.

George Harrison: I see you've done new books. You've been so busy, there's so many books.

Prabhupāda: Yes. There are already fifty-four, and another at least thirty books I have to finish before my death. (laughs) That I am.... Give him a puri. Where is Ravi Shankar?

George Harrison: He's in.... I think he's in New York. He'll be here the first of August, and then I think he's...

Prabhupāda: He has got his house there? In New York?

George Harrison: No, just a house in Benares. Benares. He doesn't have anything. He just stays in hotels.

Prabhupāda: I thought in Washington somebody told me that George Washing..., George Harrison has got his house here.

Room Conversation -- August 2, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Prabhupāda: Not a garden, but there was some vegetables.

Hari-śauri: Few plants.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Not bad. For me, it was very convenient, come down immediately to my down storefront. And some boys were living in the storefront. There was a sink in the storefront, and for toilet I allowed them sometimes in my bathroom. Not some, only two or one. So he was washing my dishes also. In this way, I was living.

Hari-śauri: That was Mukunda, or...?

Prabhupāda: No, that was another boy. He was drunkard. (laughter)

Harikeśa: Yogeśvara has many pictures of those meetings at 26 Second Avenue, with Hayagrīva with the beard and the long hair hitting this... There's pictures of all those meetings, photographs. Of Hayagrīva with the beard and long hair hitting the gong next to you.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Long hairs almost everyone. This Umāpati was also one of them.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Ram Jethmalani (Parliament Member) -- April 16, 1977, Bombay:

Ram Jethmalani: The sugar produces energy to digest your food.

Girirāja: No, no, I will take. (taking prasādam)

Prabhupāda: So I am very glad that you have taken the prasādam. I am pleased. Therefore I wanted that you eat before me. It is a great pleasure.

Ram Jethmalani: We are also very fortunate to eat before you, sir.

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. Jaya. (Hindi) You take. There is. No. There is sink? There is sink?

Devotee: Here, Śrīla Prabhupāda. Here.

Prabhupāda: All right.

Bhu-mandala Diagram Discussion -- July 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And how high is the Himalayan Mountains?

Bhakti-prema: Eighty thousand miles.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Ten thousand yojanas, 80,000 miles. Here it says that "The highest mountain is Mount Everest, 29,000 feet." Not very high. That's about six miles. And we are saying 80,000 miles. So we want to know where is that. How high is Govardhana supposed to be?

Bhakti-prema: Govardhana (indistinct). Govardhana mountain is sinking.

Prabhupāda: Sinking.

Bhakti-prema: Crushed by (indistinct).

Correspondence

1968 Correspondence

Letter to Aniruddha -- Montreal 16 June, 1968:

Everyone should be careful to make only as much as they can eat; they cannot keep any leftovers in refrigerator. I know this is a practice in your country, but in the temples or at homes of any Krishna Consciousness persons, a person should not indulge in such unclean habits. If there is any food extra, that should be kept separately; and if there is a separate refrigerator, not within the kitchen and not having in it any unoffered foods, then you may have such special refrigerator for leftover prasadam. But it cannot be kept within the same refrigerator as the unoffered, unprepared foods. That cannot be. One should never eat within the kitchen, there is ample place to eat so why should one eat in the kitchen? Kitchen should be considered as good as the Lord's room, and nobody should wear shoes in the kitchen, smelling and tasting of foods being prepared for the Lord should never be done, talking within the kitchen should be only what is necessary for preparing the prasadam, or about the Lord, and dirty dishes (those taken from kitchen and eaten from) should not be brought back into the kitchen (but if there is no other place to wash them, then they should be put into sink and washed immediately.), hands should always be washed when preparing prasadam, and in this way, everything shall be prepared very cleanly and pure.)

Page Title:Sink (Lect., Conv., & Letters)
Compiler:Visnu Murti, Serene
Created:18 of Dec, 2011
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=4, Con=9, Let=1
No. of Quotes:14