Without transcendental knowledge, the human race has actually become no more than the tigers and the wolves. It is therefore necessary at the present moment to understand something about absolute knowledge if we want to bring the human race back to sanity. Thus intelligent persons or leaders of men should not devote their energies only for worldly betterment in the matter of eating, sleeping, defending, and gratifying the material senses. Leaders who think a hungry man or woman has no use for God and religion should be told emphatically that no man or woman in the world is not hungry—and that it is precisely the hungry man or woman who has to understand the meaning of God and religion now, more than ever.
God means...
Other Books by Srila Prabhupada
Message of Godhead
Light of the Bhagavata
Light of the Bhagavata 25, Purport:
Becoming one with God does not always indicate that a living being merges into the existence of the Lord. To become one with God means to attain one's original, spiritual quality. Unless one attains one's spiritual quality one cannot enter into the kingdom of God. The members of the impersonalist school explain their idea of oneness by the example of the mixing of river water with the seawater. But we should know that within the water of the sea there are living beings, who do not merge into the existence of water but keep their separate identities and enjoy life within the water. They are one with the water in the sense that they have attained the quality of living within the water. Similarly, the spiritual world is not without its separate paraphernalia. A living being can keep his separate spiritual identity in the spiritual kingdom and enjoy life with the supreme spiritual being, the Personality of Godhead.
Lectures
Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures
Lecture on BG 2.11 -- Edinburgh, July 16, 1972:
Revatīnandana: In other words, you... Can you say that as a question? If you have a question, we can answer; otherwise, if you have a philosophy, then we can discuss it later. So what is the question? (man says more) Well, what is the contradiction? (man says more) Well, his question it is why must we do something to become God when we're already God?
Prabhupāda: You are not God, you are dog. Just the opposite. Do you know what is God?
Man: According to you, we are all parts of God in either language.
Prabhupāda: How you are God? God is the controller. Are you controller? You are controlled. Therefore the controlled cannot be God. God means controller. Anyone who is controlled, he cannot be God. Anyone who... If one is controller, then he is God.
Lecture on BG 2.11 -- Edinburgh, July 16, 1972:
Man: If God is the controller and I am a part of God, then I'm a controlled part.
Prabhupāda: Yes, part of controller, part of God means you have got little power of controlling. But that you are not absolute controller. (man speaks—too faint) But first of all you have to ascertain whether you are an absolute controller or you are controlled. First of all you answer this question. Are you absolutely controller?
Man: I am not...
Prabhupāda: Therefore, nobody is absolutely controller. He's controlled by the laws of nature. How he's absolutely controller? You are controlled by death, you're controlled by birth, you're controlled by disease, you're controlled by old age. How you became controller? So therefore you are not God!
Lecture on BG 2.11 (with Spanish translator) -- Mexico, February 11, 1975:
Bhaga means opulence. So there are six kinds of opulences. One opulence is to become very rich, another opulence is to become very powerful, another opulence is to become very strong, another opulence is to become very famous, another opulence is to become very wise, and another opulence is to become very much renounced. So these six kinds of opulences, when present in the superlative degree, that is Bhagavān. This means, as it is stated in the Vedic literature, na tasya samaḥ adhikaś ca dṛśyate: "Nobody is found equal to Him or greater than Him." In this material world any person you take, next moment you'll find somebody equal to him and somebody greater than him. But the Vedic information is: God means who has no equal and who has no greater person than Him. Actually Bhagavad-gītā was spoken by Kṛṣṇa, and here it is said, bhagavān uvāca. So Bhagavān, the Supreme God, means Kṛṣṇa. That is the statement in all Vedic literature.
Lecture on BG 2.22 -- Hyderabad, November 26, 1972:
Mṛtyuḥ sarva-haraś cāham. Mṛtyuḥ. Kṛṣṇa is appearing to the atheist class of men as sarva-haraḥ. Sarva-haraḥ means "Taking everything." I am very much proud. "Oh, I have got so much bank balance. I am the leader of this country. I am the father of so many children. I have got so beautiful wife and so..." So many things I am thinking, puffed-up. "I don't care for God. I am God." All right. At the time of death, are you God? Are you God at the time of death? God means controller. Can you control your death? Then how you are God? God, īśvara... Īśvara means controller. Are you īśvara? Are you controller? Can you control birth? Can you control death? Can you control disease? Can you control old age? Then what kind of God you are? The foolish, foolish person, mūḍha. They are called mūḍha. Avajānanti māṁ mūḍhāḥ (BG 9.11). "The rascals only, avajānanti, defy Me."
Lecture on BG 2.51-55 -- New York, April 12, 1966:
Just like we recited that śloka, the verse, īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ (Bs. 5.1). Īśvara, every one of us, īśvara. The translation of īśvara word is "god." Now, god, god means, īśvara means controller. So every one of us is controller, but Kṛṣṇa is the supreme controller. He has no controller. I am controller, I am Brahman, but at the same time, I have got superior controller over me. But Kṛṣṇa is called Paraṁ Brahma, or the īśvara parama, the supreme controller, because He has no controller over Him. That is the acceptance of Arjuna. This is the mode of studying Bhagavad-gītā. If we don't interpret in our own way. If we really want to study Bhagavad-gītā, then here is the confirmation by Arjuna how he understands Kṛṣṇa after hearing Bhagavad-gītā.
Lecture on BG 3.8-13 -- New York, May 20, 1966:
Now, this Rūpa and Sanātana, when they retired from their service, they brought home gold coins. At that time there was no currency notes. Actual value gold coins were in... Now, that gold coins was about two and a half ounce weight. Just like imagine what is the value now, whatever it may be. That means the estimation is some millions of rupees they brought home after their retirement. And they divided the money in this way: 50% for God... Whatever they accumulated, they set aside 50% for God or God's service. God means God's service. God is not want of your money. (chuckles) He is quite competent to earn money. He doesn't require anything. But if we give, it is our interest. It is our interest. So he set aside 50% of his accumulated money for God, 25% for the relatives, family members, and 25% he kept in some village banker or the original bankers, for emergency.
Lecture on BG 3.27 -- Melbourne, June 27, 1974:
You will find in this practical experience. Suppose a boy is very rich man's son. But still, he thinks "Why shall I live under the rules and regulations of my father? Let me go out. I shall enjoy life freely." Freely, what freedom? You are already rich man's son. You can enjoy the property of your very, very rich powerful father, and what independence you will enjoy? This is criminality. This is criminality. We are sons of God, part and parcels of God, and God means almighty. So we have got almighty father, and leaving His place, I have come to this material world to enjoy independently. That is criminality. And we are suffering. That is explained here: prakṛti-stha, "being placed in this material world," puruṣa, bhuṅkte prakṛti-jān guṇān, "he is enjoying, but enjoying the quality of the modes of material nature."
Lecture on BG 3.27 -- Melbourne, June 27, 1974:
And all the desires and propensities what God has got, we have also got. God has got this propensity to love Rādhārāṇī. We have got also the same propensity to love another young girl or young boy. So originally it is there. Therefore in the Vedānta-sūtra it is said janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). God means from whom everything has come. So if there is a question of love, the (indistinct) a man loving a woman and woman loving a man, that is in God. It must be there. Otherwise wherefrom it has come?
Lecture on BG 4.4 -- Bombay, March 24, 1974:
So this is the qualification of God. He knows past, present and future. And those who are false God, they cannot say. That is not possible. This is the test. They are claiming, falsely claiming. But God means, He knows. His body does not change. Past.... He knows past, present, future means His body does not change.
Lecture on BG 4.6 -- Bombay, March 26, 1974:
The so-called incarnations of God, they declare that "I am God." But... He may be God. God means a subordinate god. Not the Supreme God. The Supreme God is Kṛṣṇa. God means controller. You have, you may have some controlling power, admitted, but you are not Supreme Controller. The Supreme Controller is Īśvara. Therefore here Kṛṣṇa... Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, bhūtānām īśvaro 'pi. Īśvaraḥ. All bhūtas... Bhūtānām means all living entities, or everything which has appeared within this material world. Janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). He is the Supreme Source of everything.
Lecture on BG 4.11 -- Geneva, June 1, 1974:
In the Upaniṣads, the Vedas, it is said that nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām: (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13) "The God is the chief of the living beings. He is the chief of the persons. He is the chief of knowledge." In this way He is described. Just like we can find out amongst us. One is more intelligent, more in knowledge. In this way you search out. God means the most intelligent, the full of knowledge, full of opulence, everything full.
Lecture on BG 4.13 -- Johannesburg, October 19, 1975:
So in the Vedas the description is there about God and ourselves. Nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām eko yo bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13). What is God? God means He is the chief, nitya, chief. Nitya means eternal. Nityānām. There are millions and millions, unlimited. Nityānām, this is plural number. That we are, living entity. We are also nitya. We are also eternal and God is also eternal. But He is the chief eternal. Nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām. He is also living entity, we are also living entities, but He is the chief living entity.
Lecture on BG 4.14 -- Vrndavana, August 6, 1974:
So in the material condition, that is not applicable perfectly, but so far spiritual condition is concerned, God must be given full freedom. Otherwise there is no meaning of God. If God is also under the, under your laws... Sometimes: "Why God has done like this?" They inquire like that. This question sometimes put. "Why God has put us into this condition?" These are foolish questions. But the real conception of God is that He is free to do anything, whatever He likes. You cannot say, "Why God can... Will... God will do this, will do not that." No. That is not the conception of God.
Lecture on BG 4.20 -- Bombay, April 9, 1974:
o even those who are trying for that, because that original disease is there, therefore even one who has advanced spiritually, he also says, "I am God. I am God." The same spirit, to make competition with Kṛṣṇa. The māyā is there. "Why you are going to worship Kṛṣṇa? You are God." "Oh, yes, I am God." This is the last snare of māyā. Therefore they are Māyāvādīs. Nobody can become Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa says, mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat kiñcid asti dhanañjaya (BG 7.7). Nobody can be equal to Kṛṣṇa; nobody can be greater than Kṛṣṇa. Then what is the meaning of God? If there are so many rascal Gods, then what is the specific personality of God? So this is the last snare of māyā, if one is trying to become God. That is not possible. That is asuric. Āsuraṁ bhāvam āśritāḥ.
Lecture on BG 4.23 -- Bombay, April 12, 1974:
This is the position. Otherwise where is the difficulty of understanding God? "God is dead. There is no God. I am God, you are God." So many theories. Why? Here is God. God personally comes to show you what is the position of God, and He has shown what is the meaning of God. Aiśvaryasya samagrasya balasya yaśasaḥ śriyaḥ. What is the meaning of Bhagavān, He has shown. Still, we are so unfortunate, we cannot accept. Because we are not free from the contamination. Yeṣām. One can understand. Yeṣāṁ tv anta-gataṁ pāpaṁ janānāṁ puṇya-karmaṇām.
Lecture on BG 4.34 -- New York, August 14, 1966:
There are many gods. Many gods means that in one sense we are also god. God means controller, that's all. God, the literary meaning of god, this word, is controller, īśvara. So every one of us has some controlling capacity, everyone. Either we control the family, or control the office, we control the state, we control the municipality, or so on, so on, everyone is a controller. But nobody is the supreme controller.
Lecture on BG 4.39-42 -- Los Angeles, January 14, 1969:
Somebody says, "I am God." I am God in this sense, that God is like me. Just like if you say, "I am American," your president is also American, so exactly you are like president, American. There is no harm. But if say, "I am as powerful as President Nixon," that is not applicable. Similarly, "I am God" means I am qualitatively one with God. It does not mean I am as powerful as God. That does not mean. He is the supreme controller. I have got the controlling capacity or I do control in my limited circle, but He is the supreme controller. In this way, if you understand, it is not very difficult to understand what is God, what you are, what is this material nature, what is time, and what is work. And if you understand these five things, then you are in full knowledge.
Lecture on BG 6.46-47 -- Los Angeles, February 21, 1969:
The Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, this word is used, avajānanti sthānād bhraṣṭāḥ patanty adhaḥ. Similarly the same word is used in Bhagavad-gītā: avajānanti māṁ mūḍhāḥ (BG 9.11). Mūḍhāḥ means rascals. Only rascals, they think that...do not care for Me. Rascals. He does not know that he will suffer but he dares to say like that, "I don't care for..." that is avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam, paraṁ bhāvam ajānantaḥ (BG 9.11). Without knowing the supreme position of the Lord. Cheaply, cheaply they select God. God has become so cheap. "I am God, you are God." What is the meaning of God? Do you know? If I am God, you are God, then what is the meaning of God? So, avajānanti, this word is very appropriate. Avajānanti means neglectful, don't care. But they are mūḍhāḥ. Mūḍha means senseless, without any knowledge. Avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam (BG 9.11).
Lecture on BG 7.1 -- Sydney, February 16, 1973:
These are the description in the Vedas, that God means that as we are persons, He is the supreme person. That's all. Just like you are also persons, you are also Australians, and the president of the Australian government, he is also a person. He is not imperson. The government may be imperson, but the head of the government is a person. Similarly, in the universal government there are so many living entities, just like we are. Not only human beings—8,400,000 species of life, all living entities. God is also living entity, but He is the supreme living entity. That is the difference. Nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13). So as we act under the leadership of a supreme person, similarly, if we act, if we live under the leadership of God, that is our perfection of life. This is called yogaṁ yuñjan mad-āśrayaḥ.
Lecture on BG 7.1 -- Upsala University Stockholm, September 8, 1973:
Śrī bhagavān uvāca. Bhagavān means the Supreme Being. That is also dictionary word. In the... I consulted the Oxford Dictionary, "God." God means "the Supreme Being." And the Supreme means... That is also stated in the dictionary, "The greatest authority." So God means the greatest authority, supreme, Supreme Being. We have got little idea of supreme. Suppose when you go to work in our office, the proprietor of the establishment or the managing director of the establishment, he's called the supreme. We have got experience of the Supreme Court. In India, we have got Supreme Court. If there is any judgment which is not accepted by the litigant, he can go to the Supreme Court. And in the judgment given in the Supreme is final. No more any appeal. That is final. Supreme means that, final.
Lecture on BG 7.1 -- Hyderabad, April 27, 1974:
So there is no difference of the philosophy. You have to accept. Nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13). That is the Vedic instruction. What is meaning of God? God means the head of the living entities. What is the difficulty to understand it? Nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām. Nitya means eternal. We are also eternal. And God is also eternal. So what is the difference? So qualitatively we are one. Because God is eternal, I am also eternal. I am now somehow or other in diseased condition, that I have to change my body. But God does not change His body. Sambhavāmy ātma-māyayā (BG 4.6). He says, ātma-māyayā: "By My own will-power. I am not forced." Just like according to my karma, I have been forced to accept this material body, certain type of body. I cannot dictate.
Lecture on BG 7.1 -- Fiji, May 24, 1975:
Somebody is localized. Somebody is personalist. But actually, if we ask every man, "What is your conception of God?" I think hardly anyone will be able to explain what is the meaning of God. They have no clear idea. Is it not a fact? Can any one of you give me a clear idea what do you mean by God? No. Therefore if you want clear idea of God without any doubt, asaṁśayam, and samagram... Samagram means full, not partially. The spiritual understanding is partial in this way, brahmeti paramātmā iti bhagavān iti śabdyate. The Absolute Truth is realized in three features, Brahman, beginning from Brahman, then Paramātmā, Supersoul. I think in Christian world they call holy ghost. Anyway, Paramātmā, the Supersoul. And ultimately the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa. That is the statement of the śāstra.
Lecture on BG 7.1 -- Bombay, December 20, 1975:
So there are so many things to learn and to understand what is God and what is Kṛṣṇa. God means Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam (SB 1.3.28). Na tat-samaś cābhyadhikaś ca dṛśyate. God means nobody is equal to Him and nobody is greater than Him. That is God. There is no completion that in this quarter there is one God and in another neighborhood there is another God. Just like it has become a fashion, so many Gods, competition is going on. No. There is no competition. God is one. Na tasya kāryaṁ karaṇaṁ ca vidyate, na tat-samaś cābhyadhikaś ca dṛśyate. That is God. So because God is complete in knowledge, therefore we have to take knowledge from Him, not from the persons who have got incomplete knowledge. That knowledge is not perfect.
Lecture on BG 7.1 -- Hyderabad, August 22, 1976:
This Bhagavad-gītā is for the human being, not for the cats and dogs. So Kṛṣṇa says that "If you want to know Me..." It is not easy to understand Bhagavān, or God. God is not the exact word of Bhagavān; therefore we use the word "Godhead." "Back to Godhead." Bhagavān means the Supreme Lord, the Supreme Being. God means the ruler, the controller. But when we come to the supreme controller, He is Bhagavān. You are controller, I am controller. I am controller of my disciples within the Kṛṣṇa conscious society, but I cannot control the whole world. I have got some... You are controller in your home, of your wife, children, servants. But you are also controlled. You are not absolute controller. Therefore Bhagavān means the absolute controller.
Lecture on BG 7.3 -- Bombay, February 18, 1974:
Arjuna understood Kṛṣṇa because Kṛṣṇa, Arjuna was devotee of Kṛṣṇa. But to clear the idea of Kṛṣṇa, as the rascals take, he asked this question, aparaṁ bhavato janma, that "Your birth is just recently, say a hundred years ago, but the sun planet? Millions, millions of years. How can I believe that you spoke this philosophy, or science, to the sun-god, Vivasvān?" So the reply was that "My dear Arjuna, you are My devotee. Whenever I appear, you also appear, but I remember what I spoke to the sun-god. You were also present at that time with Me, but you have forgotten. I have not forgotten." That is the difference between Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna, or God and human being. That is the difference. Vedāhaṁ samatītāni (BG 7.26). Kṛṣṇa, God, knows everything, past, present and future. Just like in the Bhāgavata, in the beginning, God means janmādy asya yataḥ: (SB 1.1.1) "From whom everything has emanated." So everyone can say, "I have given birth to so many children, so many houses, so many factories. I am also God." No. You cannot be God, because you do not know, abhijña... You do not know the past, present and future. Janmādy asya yataḥ anvayād itarataś ca artheṣu abhijñaḥ (SB 1.1.1). Kṛṣṇa is abhijña. Just like in our body.
Lecture on BG 7.3 -- London, March 11, 1975:
So the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is completely scientific. As Kṛṣṇa said... We have given therefore. When I was registering this association in New York, some friend suggested that "Why you are giving this name 'Kṛṣṇa'? Why not put the name 'God,' 'God consciousness'?" Then "Yes, I can give the name 'God consciousness.' Then it will be confused." Because we want to preach Bhagavad-gītā as it is. That is Kṛṣṇa's speaking. And we are trying to place this Kṛṣṇa's teachings to the world. And not only that, Bhagavān, God, means Kṛṣṇa. And if I give the name of "God" instead of "Kṛṣṇa," they will bring forth so many competition of Kṛṣṇa. That is not our purpose. Kṛṣṇa means God. If God has any perfect name, that is "Kṛṣṇa." Because "Kṛṣṇa" means all-attractive. God cannot be attractive for certain person.
Lecture on BG 7.3 -- London, March 11, 1975:
The Supreme God is Kṛṣṇa. Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ (Bs. 5.1). Parama means supreme. God... You are also god, I am also god, and every one of us, god. Why? God means controller. So controller, every one of us is a controller to certain extent, not the complete controller. But Kṛṣṇa means the complete controller. Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ (Bs. 5.1). Controller... You may be controller; I may be controller; he may be controller; but not controller like Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa can control all other controllers. Therefore He is called supreme controller, Parameśvara, Paramātmā, Parabrahman.
Lecture on BG 7.4 -- Nairobi, October 31, 1975:
It is explained in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, janmādy asya: (SB 1.1.1) "The original person from whom everything is born," yataḥ, anvayād itarataś ca artheṣu abhijñaḥ, "He knows everything perfectly, indirectly and directly." Anvayād itarataś ca abhijñaḥ. And wherefrom He got the knowledge? Now, svarāṭ. That is His... God means svarāṭ. He hasn't got to get any knowledge from anyone else. Everyone gets knowledge from Him, but He hasn't got to take knowledge from anyone, svarāṭ, independent. So the Brahmā, the first lord, first creature, living creature, so he got knowledge from Kṛṣṇa. Tene brahma hṛdā ādi-kavaye: (SB 1.1.1) "That Supreme Person gave the knowledge to the ādi-kavi." Ādi-kavi means Lord Brahmā, the first learned man.
Lecture on BG 9.1 -- Melbourne, April 19, 1976:
Bhagavān means one who possesses six kinds of opulences, richness, aiśvaryasya samagrasya, total richness. You are rich, I am rich, he is rich, but nobody can claim that "I am the only rich," or "Nobody is richer than me." That is not possible. But if you find somebody who is the richest—nobody is richer than him—then he is God. Then he's God. God is not so cheap thing that in every street, every village, there is incarnation of God. Don't accept that. You must know what is meaning of God. At least we followers of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, we do not accept such cheap God. The God's description is there in the śāstra.
Lecture on BG 9.1 -- Melbourne, April 19, 1976:
This breathing period, taking advantage of the breathing period of Mahā-Viṣṇu, millions of universes, jagad-aṇḍa-nāthāḥ... Not only universes, the chief person of the universe, Brahmā, they are coming and going, coming and going. And the Brahmā's duration of life, that is described in the Bhagavad-gītā, sahasra-yuga-paryantam ahar yad brahmaṇaḥ (BG 8.17). We cannot calculate even the twelve hours day period by our mathematical calculation. So that is meaning of God. And this God, Mahā-Viṣṇu, is partial representation of Govinda. Viṣṇur mahān sa iha yasya kalā-viśeṣo govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajā... So sometimes cheap gods in the Western country. They cheat you. But God is not so cheap. This is one of the description of God, that within the breathing period of God, Mahā-Viṣṇu, who is not directly God—He is an expansion of God, Mahā-Viṣṇu—the total material energy is being created an annihilated. That is God. So that aiśvaryasya samagra. This is one opulence.
Lecture on BG 9.4 -- Melbourne, April 23, 1976:
So God... Sometimes some foolish question is there, "Can you show me God?" The answer God is giving, that mayā tatam idaṁ sarvam: "I am everywhere. If you have eyes to see, you can see Me." So actually God is everywhere; otherwise how He is God? God means the great. But you do not know how great He is. We simply say, "God is great," but we have no idea how God is great. That is explained in the Vedic literature, that He is everywhere. God is everywhere. Aṇḍāntara-stha-paramāṇu-cayāntara-stham. Eko 'py asau racayituṁ jagad-aṇḍa-koṭim (Bs. 5.35).
Lecture on BG 9.4 -- Melbourne, April 23, 1976:
Just like I am here, you are here, but you are not in your apartment. You are absent from your apartment. But God, God means He is in his apartment and He is everywhere. That is God. The rascals, they claim that "I am God." What kind of God you are? Are you everywhere spread? So you should not accept such cheap God. God's description is there in the śāstra. Eko 'py asau racayituṁ jagad-aṇḍa-koṭim (Bs. 5.35). One part, one portion is Paramātmā, the Supersoul. In His Supersoul feature He is present in innumerable universes. Eko 'py asau racayituṁ jagad-aṇḍa-koṭi. Jagad-aṇḍa means the universe. It is just like an egg. They are aṇḍa. Aṇḍa means egg. The form is like egg. So there are millions. So to maintain the millions and millions of universes by His one portion, Paramātmā, He is spread. He is called Kṣīrodakaśāyī Viṣṇu. It is a great science.
Lecture on BG 9.5 -- Melbourne, April 24, 1976:
When we speak, "Kṛṣṇa," you should understand "Kṛṣṇa" means God, the Supreme Being. "Kṛṣṇa," the etymological meaning is "the all-attractive." Without being all-attractive there is no meaning of God. It is not that God is attractive only to certain class of men. No. God is attractive for all classes of men, unless he is animal. Animal does not know what is God and what is the attraction of God. He does not know. But human being, in the human society, at least in the civilized human society there is a certain idea of God. Either you follow Christianity or Vedic principle of Mohammedan religion or even Buddha religion, there is conception of God.
Lecture on BG 9.10 -- Calcutta, June 29, 1973:
The Supreme Life is Kṛṣṇa. Nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām eko yo bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13). These are the versions of the Upaniṣads. Kṛṣṇa, or God... What is God? God means the Supreme Person. That's all. Just like I am person. You are also person. You may be bigger in quality, in opulence, than me. And somebody else may bigger, may be bigger than you. Somebody else bigger than him. So similarly you go on, searching after who is the biggest? Then you come to Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is person. Simply go on searching. As we search. Here is a big man, and here is a bigger man. Here is another biggest man. So go on, go on, you go up to Brahmā. Then after Brahmā, Brahmā is also not the ultimate. Because from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam we understand: tene brahma hṛdā ādi-kavaye (SB 1.1.1). Ādi-kavaye. Ādi-kavi (means) is Brahmā. Brahmā is also educated by superior person. Tene brahma hṛdā ādi-kavaye muhyanti yat sūrayaḥ. Brahmā is also educated. He's not self-sufficient. He gets education from Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa haite catur-mukha. So in this way, if we try to find out, if we'll find out, if we are actually sincere to find out the ultimate source of everything, then you will come to Kṛṣṇa. Which is confirmed by Kṛṣṇa: ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavaḥ (BG 10.8). Mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram (BG 9.10). Kṛṣṇa says this.
Lecture on BG 13.3 -- Paris, August 11, 1973:
Now in the previous verse, śrī bhagavān uvāca. Vyāsadeva could have said "kṛṣṇa uvāca," Kṛṣṇa said. No. He has purposefully said "bhagavān." Kṛṣṇa, you may not like, but He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Bhagavān, with six opulences. One of the opulence is full knowledge. Aiśvaryasya samagrasya vīryasya yaśasaḥ sriyaḥ jñānam (Viṣṇu Purāṇa 6.5.47). Kṛṣṇa is complete in knowledge. Sarvajñam. Janmādy asya yataḥ anvayad itarataś cārtheṣv abhijñaḥ (SB 1.1.1). God means abhijñaḥ. He knows everything. You cannot hide anything from God. That is abhijñaḥ. Vāsudeva. Vāsudeva sarvam iti sa mahātmā sudurlabhaḥ. One who can understand Vāsudeva. Sa mahātmā sudurlabhaḥ. Such great saintly person is very rare who can understand Kṛṣṇa.
Lecture on BG 16.1-3 -- Hawaii, January 29, 1975:
In our Vedic knowledge there is no vague idea, rascal's idea. All clear. What is Bhagavān? Immediately you get the enunciation, definition, "This is Bhagavān," not that so-called Bhagavān, incarnation, this Baba, this yogi. These are all nonsense. Bhagavān is different. God is different. God means... Definition, you take the definition, Vedic definition, aiśvaryasya: all wealth. Who can claim that "I am wealthy. I possess all the wealth of the universe"? Who can say? Only Kṛṣṇa can say; nobody can say. You may be millionaire. You may be Rockefeller or this Tata or Birla. That is very insignificant position. But a Tata, Rockefeller or this, they cannot say, "No, I possess the whole wealth of the universe." That you cannot say. But Kṛṣṇa can say. Therefore He is Bhagavān. Aiśvaryasya samagrasya. Samagra means as much wealth there are. You may imagine.
Lecture on BG 16.7 -- Hyderabad, December 15, 1976:
Real self-interest is that "I am spirit soul, I am son of God, my father is very, very rich, opulent. I have given up my father's association and therefore I am suffering." Otherwise there is no question of suffering. We have got experience. A very rich man's son, why he should suffer? So here Kṛṣṇa says that ahaṁ bīja-pradaḥ pitā: (BG 14.4) "I am the seed-giving father of all living entities." Then... God means ṣaḍ-aiśvarya-pūrṇaḥ, six kinds of opulences. He is complete. He is the proprietor of everything, bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasāṁ sarva-loka-maheśvaram (BG 5.29). So if I am the son of a person who is the proprietor of everything, where is the question of my suffering? So therefore the basic principle of self-interest is lost. So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is to revive their consciousness that "You are not this body. You are spirit soul. You are part and parcel of God. Why you should suffer? So cultivate Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and simply by cultivating Kṛṣṇa consciousness you will go back home, back to Godhead, and then you'll be happy."
Lecture on BG Lecture -- Ahmedabad, December 8, 1972:
God must be asama ūrdhva. Asamor... Nobody's greater than God, nobody's equal to God. That is God. If you find somebody equal to you, then you are not God. You may be demigod, but the God means supreme. Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ (Bs. 5.1). That Supreme God is Kṛṣṇa. Parama, supreme. Nobody is equal to Kṛṣṇa, nobody's greater than Kṛṣṇa. Therefore Kṛṣṇa is God. There are so many gods nowadays. The... Actually, the Māyāvādī philosophers, they say everyone is Nārāyaṇa. But what is the proof? We find out from the śāstra that Nārāyaṇa has got four hands. So where is your four hands? You are claiming to become Nārāyaṇa. So where are your four hands? Just manifest your four hands at least so that we can understand you are Nārāyaṇa.
Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures
Lecture on SB 1.1.1 -- London, August 6, 1971:
Vyāsadeva says that "I offer my obeisances to the Supreme Absolute Truth." Satyaṁ paraṁ dhīmahi (SB 1.1.1). There is no more truth beyond that. And as Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā, mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat kiñcid asti dhanañjaya (BG 7.7). Mattaḥ, "Beyond Me there is no more superior power." Mattaḥ parataraṁ na anyat. So Vyāsadeva is offering his obeisances to the person above whom there is nobody. God means controller, I have several times explained. But here in our experience we see that one controller is controlled by another controller. Nobody is absolute controller. Therefore nobody is Absolute Truth. But there is..., there must be the Absolute Truth. Janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1), as it has begun, "the source of all emanations."
Lecture on SB 1.2.1 -- New Vrindaban, September 1, 1972:
Sat means eternal. So if we compare with our body, this body is not eternal; it is destructible. It has got a history, it is produced at a certain period, it exists for a certain period, it grows, it gives some by-product, then it becomes older and older, and then vanquished, no more. That is our practical experience, we know. But God's body is eternal. Therefore He hasn't got a body like this. This body is not eternal. Everyone can understand. But His body is eternal. Another symptom, sat, cit. Cit means knowledge. So we have got also knowledge, but not full knowledge. That has been described in the beginning of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, what is the nature of God. Nature of God is described, janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). Nature of God means He is the supreme source of everything. Whatever, janma... Janmādy asya (SB 1.1.1). Janma ādi. Ādi means "beginning with janma."
Lecture on SB 1.2.2 -- Rome, May 26, 1974:
So the supreme destination, back to Godhead, back to home, is for everyone. It is not that God... God means for everyone. God does not say, "Only the brāhmaṇa class of men, please come here. Others all rejected." No. He is inviting everyone. Even the lowest of the lowest, low-born, pāpa-yonayaḥ, women, śūdra, or vaiśyas, everyone. Now, Kṛṣṇa says that "Everyone has got the potency of coming to Me, go back to home, back to Godhead." That is admitted by Kṛṣṇa. Now, who will make them qualified to go back to home, back to Godhead? That is the Vaiṣṇava, those who are actually very sincere servant of Kṛṣṇa. It is their duty. Kṛṣṇa says that "Everyone is competent to come to Me if he is following the rules and regulations." Vyapāśritya.
Lecture on SB 1.2.5 -- Montreal, August 2, 1968:
Just try to understand whether this definition is complete, that Kṛṣṇa means all-attractive. Therefore Bhāgavata says, kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam (SB 1.3.28). There may be many Gods, according to our conception. God means all-powerful, or full of... Our definition, in the Vedic śāstra: God means full of all opulences. There are six kinds of opulences: to become rich, to become very powerful, influential, very much famous, very beautiful, very wise, and very much renounced, unattached. The six kinds of opulences, when they are found in fullness somewhere, that is God. This is the definition of God, these six kinds of opulences.
Lecture on SB 1.2.6 -- Delhi, November 11, 1973:
Bhaga. Bhaga means opulence. Just like we sometimes speak bhagavān. That comes from this word bhaga. Similarly, bhagavān. Bhagavān means the owner of all opulences. That is called bhagavān. There are now nowadays so many bhagavāns, but they are not owner of all opulences. Maybe partly. But God means, bhagavān means samagrasya. Samagra means complete. One rich man can claim that "I am owner of so many crores." Another can claim, "No I have got one or two more crores more than you." Others may say... So on, so on, so on, go on. But nobody can claim that "I am the owner of all opulences." But in the Bhagavad-gītā, you will find, Kṛṣṇa claims, bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasāṁ sarva-loka-maheśvaram (BG 5.29). Sarva-loka-maheśvaram, "The supreme proprietor of all the lokas." That is admitted by the śāstra.
Lecture on SB 1.2.6 -- Hyderabad, November 26, 1972:
We cannot understand God by mental speculation, that is not possible. Realization God means when God reveals unto you. Ataḥ śrī-kṛṣṇa-nāmādi na bhaved grāhyam indriyaiḥ (CC Madhya 17.136). By our these blunt senses, speculating, we cannot understand what is God. Therefore His name is Adhokṣaja, beyond material speculation. And still you have to apply your bhakti, devotion. Just try to understand. He is beyond our sense perception, but still we have to search Him out and employ our feelings of devotion, love. Therefore, yato bhaktir adhokṣaje. One side is beyond the perception of senses and another side you have to love Him.
Lecture on SB 1.2.6 -- Hyderabad, April 18, 1974:
This is our movement. Otherwise how these Europeans and Americans... They never heard what is Kṛṣṇa, but why they have left everything? They are young boys, young girls. They could enjoy life in their county very nicely. But the name is so powerful. I started this movement simply by chanting this Hare Kṛṣṇa. Still we are going that. So this Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra is so powerful. You understand or do not understand; if you go on chanting regularly, one day you will come to the platform—you will clearly understand what is the meaning of God. This is Hare Kṛṣṇa movement. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement.
Lecture on SB 1.2.7 -- New Vrindaban, September 5, 1972:
In your country this example is very applicable. So many boys, they have left their rich father, rich family, and lying down on the street. I have seen. Why? Maybe some reason, but he is not expected to lie down on the street because he has got rich father, at least rich nation, your American nation. Similarly when we become puzzled and confused and want to live independently of God, the richest father—who can be richer than God? God means the richest. No one can be richer than Him. That is another definition of God.
Lecture on SB 1.2.7 -- New Vrindaban, September 5, 1972:
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. If you can find out a person who is superior in everything, in wealth, in strength, in beauty, in fame, in knowledge, in renouncement, He is God. Don't capture any fourth-class God. If you are intelligent, try to understand what is the meaning of God and try to understand.
Lecture on SB 1.2.8 -- Hyderabad, April 22, 1974:
That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. Mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat kiñcid asti dhanañjayaḥ (BG 7.7). Leaders there are, gods are, there are. God means controller. There is controller always. So there are many gods. Anyone is god, because he is, somehow or other, he is a controller; a leader also. But we are meaning the supreme leader, the supreme controller. That is Kṛṣṇa. Leader you have to accept. But... Controller you have to accept. But nobody is supreme leader or supreme controller. That is Kṛṣṇa. Every leader is also controlled by some other leader. But Kṛṣṇa is such a leader that He is not controlled by any other leader. That is Kṛṣṇa. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat... (BG 7.7).
Lecture on SB 1.2.9 -- Detroit, August 3, 1975, University Lecture:
When you come to the point when the controller is there but no more controller upon him, that is God. That is God. If I am controlled by a dentist—a god has become affected with tooth trouble and goes to the... Then he is not God. Such kind of god we do not worship, that when there is some toothache, he goes to a doctor. So no, that is not God. God means īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ (Bs. 5.1). And Kṛṣṇa says, mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat: (BG 7.7) "There is no more superior authority than Me." And Arjuna accept, paraṁ brahma paraṁ dhāma pavitraṁ paramaṁ bhavān (BG 10.12).
Lecture on SB 1.2.13 -- Los Angeles, August 16, 1972:
They are claiming to become God, but how they will control this death? That will come, "As sure as death." God means controller. Can you control death, can you control disease, can you control old age? No? Then how do you become God? Rascal, you are claiming to have become God. If I give you a kick on your face, you cannot control, yet you claim to have become God. You see, this is going on.
Lecture on SB 1.2.20 -- Vrndavana, October 31, 1972:
Those who are contaminated with tamo-guṇa, rajo-guṇa, they can create their own God. There are different types of "God" also. In one sense everyone is God. God means the controller. So everyone is to some extent a controller. But as I have explained several times, real controller means who is not controlled by others. That is God. If I am controlled by the material nature, daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā duratyayā... (BG 7.14). Birth, death, old age and disease, if I am controlled by these conditions of nature, then how I can become God? God is never controlled. Therefore one who can understand God must be free from the contamination of this material nature.
Lecture on SB 1.3.28 -- Los Angeles, October 3, 1972:
He does not know what is the meaning of God. God is never controlled by anyone. That is God. That is the definition of God. If you are God, then why you are being controlled? Because they're rascals, demons, foolishly speaking something nonsense. But we should know that God means controller. He's not controlled. And when God was present on this planet, He showed what kind of God He is. Paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṁ vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām (BG 4.8). Anyone, any demon who tried to imitate God, they were all killed, all killed. The Kaṁsa, his only policy was to kill Kṛṣṇa. "As soon as Kṛṣṇa comes, kill Him." So many plans he made.
Lecture on SB 1.5.35 -- Vrndavana, August 16, 1974:
Aiśvaryasya samagrasya vīryasya yaśasaḥ śriyaḥ (Viṣṇu Purāṇa 6.5.47)—everything complied. Kṛṣṇa, the richest personality, the most beautiful personality, the most wise. He has given the Bhagavad-gītā. Apart from other instructions, the Bhagavad-gītā is there. Who has given such wise instruction throughout the whole world, throughout the whole universe? Nobody has given. God means the wisest, the richest, the most powerful, the most beautiful. So He was so beautiful that 16,108 very, very beautiful women... And this is married. And unmarried, many millions, they were attracted by Kṛṣṇa, the most beautiful. Śyāmasundara. His name is sundara, very beautiful. Although śyāma, blackish, still He's so attractive. Kandarpa-koṭi-kamanīya-viśeṣa-śobham (Bs. 5.30). Kandarpa-koṭi, He's so beautiful that He can surpass in His beauty the Cupids, millions and millions of Cupids.
Lecture on SB 1.7.6 -- Vrndavana, April 23, 1975:
All these fools and rascals, if they hear with great attention from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam about the activities and glories of Kṛṣṇa... Yasyāṁ vai śrūyamāṇāyāṁ kṛṣṇe parama-pūruṣe (SB 1.7.7). He is the parama-puruṣa. That is the verdict of all Vedic literature. Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ (Bs. 5.1). He is īśvara, parama-puruṣa, the Supreme Person. Īśvara means the Supreme Person. In the English dictionary also it is said "God means the Supreme Person." God means the Supreme Person. So that Supreme Person is Kṛṣṇa, and Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā, mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat: (BG 7.7) "There is no more superior authority than Me." But people do not understand, because ajānataḥ. Ajānataḥ means without any knowledge.
Lecture on SB 1.8.23 -- Los Angeles, April 15, 1973:
God means there is no equal, there is no greater. Asamordhva. That is God. God, there cannot be any competition, that "You are God, I am God, he is God, he is God." No. These are dogs. They are not God. God means without competition: one. God is one. Nobody is great... asamordhva. Nobody is greater than Him. Nobody is equal to Him. Everyone is lower. Ekale īśvara kṛṣṇa āra saba bhṛtya (CC Adi 5.142). The only master is Kṛṣṇa, God; and everyone, servant. Never mind. Even if he's Brahmā, Viṣṇu or Śiva, big, big demigods. And what to speak of others?
Lecture on SB 1.8.23 -- Mayapura, October 3, 1974:
He's singular number; we are plural number. That is the Vedic instruction. He is the singular number eternal, and we are plural number eternal. Nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām. He is singular number living entity, and we are plural number living entity. Therefore in the dictionary you'll find, this Oxford Dictionary, "the Supreme Being." God means "the Supreme Being." He's a being. He's not a stone. He's a living being. Even the dictionary accepts. He's not a stone, dead stone. That is explained in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavata, janmādy asya yataḥ: (SB 1.1.1) "The Supreme Absolute Truth is the original source of all creation." Janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). Everything that we see, matter and life, everything comes from Him.
Lecture on SB 1.8.43 -- Los Angeles, May 5, 1973:
So king is honored because a king is supposed to be representative of God. Therefore he's honored. His business is... Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa is maintainer, eko yo bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān. Nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13). God means the supreme living being. Nityo nityānām. We are also living beings. We all living beings in different forms, 8,400,000 forms. We are all living beings. And Kṛṣṇa is also a living being. Kṛṣṇa is not impersonal. God is not impersonal.
Lecture on SB 1.15.39 -- Los Angeles, December 17, 1973:
They simply have the slogan, "In God We Trust." Nobody knows what is God. But we are trying to give the contribution, what is God. Not only God—His form, His name, His address, everything we are giving. Here is the form of God, Kṛṣṇa. If you do not believe, that He is not God, then you must say what is your idea of God. If you do not know what is the idea of God, then you must accept from me. And how can you deny that Kṛṣṇa is not God? First of all you have to know what is God. God means the Supreme. That is the dictionary word, "Supreme Being." So Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Being. Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Being.
Lecture on SB 2.3.21 -- Los Angeles, June 18, 1972:
The same disease. Up to the end, the same disease. God means "enjoyer." So this disease can be cured only by surrender. That is the only medicine. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). Here, also, the same thing: bhāraḥ paraṁ paṭṭa-kirīṭa-juṣṭam. A princely order, a king, he has been given the chance of ruling over, over a kingdom, but if he forgets his position, he actually becomes the proprietor, then this kingdom will be burden. Just like it became so in the case of Rāvaṇa, and he was finished.
Lecture on SB 2.8.7 -- Los Angeles, February 10, 1975:
So the science of Kṛṣṇa is not speculation. It is exactly science. Tad-vijñānam. Tad-vijñānam. Tad-vijñānārtham. Vijñāna means science, not speculation. So one should understand God scientifically. That is required, not imagination. The Māyāvādī philosophers, they say, "You can imagine your God." This is rascaldom. How you can imagine your God? God is God. God means the supreme controller, the Supreme Being. In the dictionary you'll find this word: "God means the Supreme Being." He is also a being like us, individual. Just like we are here face to face. You are one individual; I am one individual. We are talking or hearing. Similarly, God is also individual.
Lecture on SB 3.25.1 -- Bombay, November 1, 1974:
I have told them, given the information that Kṛṣṇa, kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam (SB 1.3.28). I have not given any wrong information. Right information. Bhagavān means Kṛṣṇa. God means Kṛṣṇa. So I have given them this information as a peon, that "Here is God," and they have taken it seriously. Therefore they are advancing. See practically. Why they are advancing? Because they are not misled. They have been given the right information, and they have taken it seriously, and they are trying their best to do, to render service. That is the reason. People are surprised how these Americans and Europeans have become such great devotees and dancing in ecstasy. They are surprised. Yes, it is surprising. Even in their country the priests are surprised. But what is the reason they are advanced? Because they have taken the right thing, kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam (SB 1.3.28).
Lecture on SB 3.25.8 -- Bombay, November 8, 1974:
So to see God you have to make your eyes cleansed. Just like with cataractic eyes you cannot see anything. Everything is dark. But if you have operation, the cataract is taken away, then you can see. Similarly, with these eyes, these material eyes, you cannot see God. Not only you see God, you cannot understand Him although His name is there. Ataḥ śrī-kṛṣṇa-nāmādi. Nāmādi. To understand God means to understand first of all His name, nāmādi. Therefore... From the beginning with nāma. Therefore Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra means the name of God. God is not different from His name, absolute. "Kṛṣṇa" and the Kṛṣṇa person is the same. I have already explained that absolute means Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa's name, Kṛṣṇa's form, Kṛṣṇa's place, Kṛṣṇa's dress, Kṛṣṇa's throne, Kṛṣṇa's prasādam, everything Kṛṣṇa, they are not different.
Lecture on SB 3.25.17 -- Bombay, November 17, 1974:
Here it is said, nirantaram. So nirantaram means there is, so far jyoti is concerned, there is no difference, but the small, very small. Aṇimānam akhaṇḍitam. This is self-realization. Don't falsely claim that "Because I am qualitatively one with God, therefore I am God." No. You may be god. God means controller. But you are not the Supreme God. The Supreme God is Kṛṣṇa. Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ. Parama means Supreme. We are īśvara, we may be īśvara. I may be īśvara for few persons, another may be for a big nation, another may be for the... You can go on increasing. But you cannot reach the, I mean to say, position of God. That is aviśuddha-buddhayaḥ.
Lecture on SB 3.25.36 -- Bombay, December 5, 1974:
Prītis tad-vasati sthale, nāma-gāne sadā ruciḥ, avyartha-kālatvam (Cc. Madhya 23.18-19). Their business is to increase love of God. To increase love of God means there is also process, how to increase. The process is given by Rūpa Gosvāmī:
- ādau śraddhā tataḥ sādhu-saṅgo 'tha bhajana-kriyā
- tato 'nartha-nivṛttiḥ syāt tato niṣṭhā rucis tataḥ
- athāsaktis tato bhāvas tataḥ premābhyudañcati
- sādhakānām ayaṁ premṇaḥ prādurbhāve bhavet kramaḥ
- (Cc. Madhya 23.14-15)
These are the gradual steps. Śraddhā. Śraddhā means faith. Faith is the beginning. Without faith, you cannot make..., there is no question of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Faith means that faith is created after reading Bhagavad-gītā. If you read Bhagavad-gītā carefully and if you actually understand Bhagavad-gītā as it is, then the faith will be created.
Lecture on SB 3.26.40 -- Bombay, January 15, 1975:
Generally, they think Bhāgavata reading means rāsa-pañcādhyāya, bas, immediately jump over to the rāsa-līlā of Kṛṣṇa. Actually to know God means to know everything in detail. Kasmin tu bhagavo vijñāte sarvam idaṁ vijñātaṁ bhavati. That is the Vedic injunction. If we understand Kṛṣṇa, then we must understand also how Kṛṣṇa's different energies are working. That is called tattvataḥ. Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā, manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu kaścid yatati siddhaye (BG 7.3).
Lecture on SB 5.5.2 -- Johannesburg, October 22, 1975:
God cannot be all. God is one. God means He has no equal, He has no..., nobody above Him. That is God, asamaurdhva. Nobody is more than God; nobody is equal to God. Therefore God is one.
Lecture on SB 5.5.26 -- Vrndavana, November 13, 1976:
So premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena santaḥ sadaiva hṛdayeṣu vilokayanti (Bs. 5.38). The atheist class men, they say that "I do not see God. How can I believe there is God?" But the advanced devotee, he sees every moment God's presence. Premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena santaḥ sadaiva (Bs. 5.38). He doesn't say that "I do not see God." Santaḥ sadaiva hṛdayeṣu vilokayanti yaṁ śyāmasundaram. And what is that God? It is not manufactured God. Śyāmasundaram, Kṛṣṇa. Yaṁ śyāmasundaram. It is particularly mentioned. God means śyāmasundaram. This is also..., appears to be contradictory. Śyāmasundaram. We have got idea: what is black is not beautiful. But here Kṛṣṇa, Śyāmasundaram. Although He is black, He is sundaram. Barhāvataṁsam asitāmbuda-sundarāṅgam. Asitāmbuda, black cloud. Black cloud, like that, color, but He is very sundaram. Kandarpa-koṭi-kamanīya-viśeṣa-śobham (Bs. 5.30). He's so beautiful that if you compare with millions of Kandarpa, Cupid Cupid is supposed to be very beautiful. So if you bring together millions of Cupids, still, their combined beauty cannot be compared with Kṛṣṇa's beauty.
Lecture on SB 6.1.1 -- Melbourne, May 21, 1975:
First of all we should understand that we are part and parcel of God. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, and actually it is fact. What is God? God means what we are doing, He is also doing, because we are part and parcel. Just like your son, your daughter. They are your part and parcel of your body. So what is the difference? They are also acting, you are also acting. Similarly, God, Kṛṣṇa, is the supreme father. So so far the activities are concerned, the same. But the difference is that God is great; we are small. That is the difference. God can create the so many planets. Just like the sun globe, it is... There are other globes also.
Lecture on SB 6.1.6 -- Los Angeles, January 3, 1970:
Either collectively or individually, everyone is trying to become a certain type of God. What is that God? God means, I have several times explained that God means the richest man, the richest, famous man, the most famous man, the strongest man, the beautiful man, the learned man, and the renounced man. You just find out who is God. That is defined in the Vedic literature, that the person who has got the utmost opulence, utmost strength, utmost beauty, utmost knowledge, and utmost renunciation, He is God. This is the definition of God. You can find out some rich man, but you cannot find out the richest man. Every day you will find so many competitors. So as soon as you find the richest man, nobody can surpass him, then he is God. So these are some of the examples.
Lecture on SB 6.1.13-14 -- Los Angeles, June 26, 1975:
And in the Vedas it is said, nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām, eko yo bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13). God means He is also nitya, eternal, amongst the eternals. There are many... We living entities, we are many, plural number. Nityānām. Nityānām means plural number. And nitya, singular number. So God is singular number person, and we are plural number. We are many. God is one, but living entities are many. Not that God also is many. No. God may have many expansion—that is another thing—but God is singular number. God is not plural number. Nityo nityānām.
Lecture on SB 6.1.14 -- Bombay, November 10, 1970:
God means nobody can be richer than Him, nobody can be stronger than Him, nobody can be more beautiful than Him, nobody can be wiser than Him, and nobody can be influential than Him. That is God. When you find somebody that "Here is the richest man in the whole universe or in the whole creation. Here is the most beautiful man in the whole universe," in this way, when you compare the six opulences, then that you will find in Kṛṣṇa. When Kṛṣṇa was present He exhibited this practically. Therefore, Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
Lecture on SB 6.1.15 -- Auckland, February 22, 1973:
God means controller. So everyone controls. So in that sense everyone is god. Everyone is opulent. In his relative position, everyone is opulent. I have got one thousand, you have got ten thousand, he has got hundred thousand. But we have got something. So in that way everyone is opulent. Everyone is god. I control my children, my family. Or bigger than me, my boss, he controls a big establishment, a factory, big factory. And similarly, the president, he controls the state. So relatively, everyone is controller, god; but he is not supreme controller. That is not possible. Supreme controller is Kṛṣṇa. Īśvaraḥ-paramaḥ-kṛṣṇaḥ (Bs. 5.1). Therefore it is stated in the śāstra, "The supreme controller is Kṛṣṇa." Kṛṣṇa also says in the Bhagavad-gītā, mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat kiñcid asti dhanañjaya: (BG 7.7) "My dear Arjuna, above Me, there is nobody." Above Him, there is nobody. Therefore He is the supreme controller or Supreme Lord, Parameśvara.
Lecture on SB 6.1.34-39 -- Surat, December 19, 1970:
So kingdom of God means purity. So if there is slight impurity, he will not be allowed: "Keep aside." And it is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, yeṣām anta-gataṁ pāpam. Yeṣām: "Persons who are completely being freed from the contamination of sinful activities," yeṣām anta-gataṁ pāpaṁ janānāṁ puṇya-karmāṇām, "simply engaged in pious activities, they can become a devotee." Te dvandva-moha-nirmuktā bhajante māṁ dṛḍha-vratāḥ (BG 7.28). These are clear statements. And the pillars of sinful activities, that is also mentioned in the Bhāgavata. Striya-sūna-pāna-dyūta yatra pāpaś catur-vidhāḥ: (SB 1.17.38) "Four kinds of sinful activities: illicit sex, and intoxication, and unnecessarily killing of animals, and gambling." All the slaughterhouses of the world are being maintained unnecessarily. That is recruiting simply sins.
Lecture on SB 6.1.43 -- Los Angeles, June 9, 1976:
If you want to go and see the sun-god Vivasvān, that requires qualification. It is not so easy. You cannot enter even the sun planet, what to speak of talking with him. But Kṛṣṇa could talk. Kṛṣṇa can go anywhere. And when there is sun-god, then "god" means not alone. A king does not mean alone. King means he has got his kingdom, he has got his subjects, he has got minister, he has got military strength. Everything is there. So similarly, if we accept Kṛṣṇa's statement that "I spoke to sun-god," the sun-god is there in the sun globe, and he has his kingdom, so dazzling kingdom. It looks like fire, blazing. But don't think it is impersonal. Impersonal? How Kṛṣṇa could talk with him? There is no question of impersonality.
Lecture on SB 6.1.45 -- Laguna Beach, July 26, 1975:
As soon as the public wants, immediately pulls me down. That we do not understand, that we are posing ourself as master controller, but I am controlled by somebody else. So he is not controller. Here we will find a controller to some extent, but he is controlled by another controller. So Kṛṣṇa means He is controller, but nobody is there to control Him. That is Kṛṣṇa; that is God. This is the science of understanding. God means He is controller of everything, but He has no controller.
Lecture on SB 6.2.14 -- Vrndavana, September 17, 1975:
A devotee's kingdom of God means where he gets the chance of serving the Lord. That is wanted. So sāṅketyam. Therefore in the Hindu families they keep the name of the children with the God's name. Just like this Ajamila, although he was a very, very sinful man, still, because the culture was there, he kept his son's name Nārāyaṇa. He did not lose the culture, although he was so much sinful. The culture is so important. Still in India, as there is very, very good propaganda to make the people godless atheist, still, you see, find, in Vṛndāvana thousands and lakhs of people are coming. It is their birthright.
Lecture on SB 7.5.31 -- Mauritius, October 4, 1975:
Durāśayā ye bahir-artha-māninaḥ. Bahiḥ. Bahiḥ means external. This material world is the external energy of God, and the spiritual world is the internal energy of God. So we are in the external energy of God. The external energy of God means although we are eternal, we have to accept different types of body according to our desire, according to our tendency to enjoy this material world, and therefore that facility is given in this material world. In the spiritual world there is only one aim—they are all eternal servitors of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. They have no other desire. That is spiritual world. So you can transform this material world into spiritual world if you have got only aim to please the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
Lecture on SB 7.9.3 -- Mayapur, February 10, 1976:
Just like nobody can excel the Supreme Personality of Godhead in anything, similarly, when He is angry, nobody can excel Him. He becomes so angry. So He is always... "God is great" means great in everything. When He is angry, nobody can excel Him in His anger. And when He is very peaceful, nobody can excel Him. This is God. Asamaurdha. God means nobody is equal; nobody is greater. So when the Lord was angry, nobody can show His anger equally and nobody can become greatly anger or more greatly angry than Kṛṣṇa. He is always topmost.
Lecture on SB 7.9.6 -- Mayapur, February 26, 1977:
Science means not only observation but experiment also. That is complete. Otherwise theory. It is not science. So they have got different theories. That anyone can put forward. That is not But real fact is that Kṛṣṇa is spiritual and He's the Supreme. Nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13). This is the Vedic injunction. God is the supreme nitya, eternal, and the Supreme Living Being. In the dictionary also it is said, "God means the Supreme Being." They could not understand Supreme Living Being. But in the Vedas it is said not only Supreme Being, but Supreme Living Being. Nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetānām eko yo bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān. That is the description of God.
Lecture on SB 7.9.8 -- Seattle, October 21, 1968:
Avyavasāyinām means those who are not in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, those who are flickering, for them, bahu-śākhā, many branches. They think that "This will save me, this will save me, that will save me, that will save me." But one who is fully surrendered to Kṛṣṇa, he knows, and it is certain that Kṛṣṇa will save him. That's all. It's very easy to become Kṛṣṇa conscious. One. God is one. God cannot be many. God is one. Otherwise there is no meaning of God. God means, the definition of God means that "the person or the entity who has no equal, neither superior." Nobody is superior to Him and nobody is equal to Him. Asama ūrdhva. Asama means equal. Sama means equal. Asama. Everyone is not equal to Him. Nobody is equal to Him and nobody is higher than Him. That is God. So God is one. There cannot be many Gods, but God can expand Himself in many forms. That is different thing.
Lecture on SB 7.9.8 -- Calcutta, March 5, 1972:
When I registered this society, some friend suggested that "Why don't you make it God Consciousness?" I said "No. God means Kṛṣṇa." Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇah (Bs. 5.1). God means..., the Supreme God means Kṛṣṇa. Mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat (BG 7.7). So Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme God. If we say God, it remains a vague thing. It is not clearly understood. Everyone can be God. God, this word can be applied to everyone. God means controller. So everyone can be controller. Therefore, we have distinctly mentioned Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So in our society, anyone who joins, that means he is interested in Kṛṣṇa, little. May not be very much. At least they come here out of inquisitiveness to hear what they speak about Kṛṣṇa, what do they do about Kṛṣṇa. But our everything is open. There is no secrecy. We worship Kṛṣṇa, we think of Kṛṣṇa, we work for Kṛṣṇa, we glorify Kṛṣṇa, we chant for Kṛṣṇa, we dedicate our life for Kṛṣṇa. That's all.
Lecture on SB 7.9.31 -- Mayapur, March 9, 1976:
Īśvara means controller. So every one of us, we are more or less little controller. We sometimes control some little children or some disciples or some kingdom. So everyone may be controller. They are very much fond of becoming God. God means controller. So everyone can become... He is. Kṛṣṇa has given. Because we are part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa, so the quality of controlling must be there. Although very insignificant part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa, still, the power of controlling is there, very minute quantity. This is understanding. Svāṁśa vibhināṁśa. Everyone... Viṣṇu-tattva is also Kṛṣṇa's aṁśa, part and parcel. Yasya kalā-viśeṣaḥ. Kalā-viśeṣaḥ means part, part of the part. Kalā, aṁśa, and aṁśa's aṁśa, that's called kalā-viśeṣo. So that kalā-viśeṣa, Kṛṣṇa, Mahā-Viṣṇu, He's creating millions and millions of universes. So just imagine what is the creative power of Kṛṣṇa.
Nectar of Devotion Lectures
The Nectar of Devotion -- Vrndavana, October 17, 1972:
Just like the modern theory is going on. "Everyone is God." That's all right. God means īśvara, controller. But there are different qualities of controller. I may be controller of my disciples, a few dozen or few hundred. But there are controllers, millions. They are controlling millions. Therefore my control and his control is not equal. Therefore you find out one controller of another. Everyone is relative controller. He controls and he becomes controlled. Nobody's absolute controller. Just like our Minister Saheb. He's controller, but he's also controlled. So when you come to the point, if you find out some person that he's simply controller, not controlled, He's Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is simply controller, not controlled, He's Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is simply controller.
Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures
Lecture on CC Adi-lila 1.10 -- Mayapur, April 3, 1975:
You take knowledge from the śāstra, from the person who is perfect in knowledge. We have got knowledge. We have got knowledge. Somebody has got more knowledge than me, than you. But Kṛṣṇa says, mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat kiñcid asti dhanañjaya (BG 7.7). You cannot find out a person who has got more knowledge than Kṛṣṇa. And God means one who has got full knowledge.
- aiśvaryasya samagrasya
- vīryasya yaśasaḥ śriyaḥ
- jñāna-vairāgyayoś caiva
- ṣaṇṇāṁ bhaga itīṅganā
- (Viṣṇu Purāṇa 6.5.47)
So Kṛṣṇa has got full knowledge, and Kṛṣṇa's expansion has got full knowledge. So we have to receive knowledge.
Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.152-154 -- New York, December 5, 1966:
So that greatness of Lord Kṛṣṇa is being described here by Lord Caitanya to His disciple, Sanātana Gosvāmī. Advaya-jñāna-tattva, vraje vrajendra-nandana. Advaya-jñāna-tattva. Advaya-jñāna-tattva means He is Absolute. He is not relative. Here everything is relative, but God means He is Absolute. He has nothing to be dependent. Here everything, we are all dependent. To understand something, to understand light, we have to understand darkness. To understand good, we have to understand what is bad. So here it is everything duality. So Kṛṣṇa is Absolute. That is the first understanding, that there is no duality. Kṛṣṇa, His name, His fame, His pastimes, His quality, His association, associates—everything is one.
Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 25.29 -- San Francisco, January 21, 1967:
So God means the greatest. Caitanya Mahāprabhu explains on that line. Brahman means the greatest, the Supreme. And how we can estimate one's greatness? These are the symptoms of greatness. So how He can be impersonal? If the Brahman is the richest, if the Brahman is the most beautiful, if Brahman is the most learned, then where is the question of impersonality? Can any impersonal thing become learned? Can any impersonal thing can become richest? That is... Who can challenge this explanation? If you say "God is great," then how we estimate God is great? These are the symptoms. He must be great in richness. He must be great in strength. He must be great in beauty. He must be great in knowledge. He must be great in renunciation. These are the symptoms of greatness.
Arrival Addresses and Talks
Arrival Lecture -- San Francisco, July 15, 1975:
So deva means the Supreme Personality of Godhead who is praised by the Vedic mantra. Lord Brahmā, Lord Śiva and all the demigods, they are offering their prayers. The Sāma Veda is singing in glorification of the Supreme Lord. The yogis, they are always seeing the Supreme Lord within the heart, core of heart. So that is deva. Devāya tasmai namaḥ. So yasya deve parā bhaktir yathā deve tathā gurau (ŚU 6.23). Anyone who has got unflinching faith in God... God means Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam (SB 1.3.28). So anyone who has got unflinching faith in God and similar faith in guru, then the Vedic purpose becomes revealed to him. Yasya deve parā bhaktir yathā deve tathā gurau, tasyaite kathitā hy arthāḥ. The Vedic mantras and their artha becomes revealed. This is the process.
Initiation Lectures
Talk, Initiation Lecture, and Ten Offenses Lecture -- Los Angeles, December 1, 1968:
God is one. There cannot be many Gods. If God is not one, there is no meaning of God. God means, according to Vedic definition, asamordhva. Asama means one who has no equal. Nobody is equal to God. And urdhva means nobody is greater than God. God is great. Nobody can be greater than God. Therefore God is one. Nobody is greater, nobody is equal. That means everyone is lower.
Sannyasa Initiation -- Mayapur, March 16, 1976:
In the dictionary, English dictionary, God means Supreme Being. So Supreme Being, He's also living being. He's not a dead stone. The difference is that He is the maintainer, and we are maintained. He is the ruler; we are ruled. This difference we have to understand. And He is the proprietor; we are servants. Caitanya Mahāprabhu's philosophy is this. That is a fact. Jīvera svarūpa haya nitya kṛṣṇa dāsa (Cc. Madhya 20.108-109). So this consciousness, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, is being spread all over the world for the peace of the world, for the peace of the mind, for the peace of the society. So take it very seriously. It is very authorized.
General Lectures
Lecture on Maha-mantra -- New York, September 8, 1966:
This expansion of the living entities, they are not equally powerful, but the expansion of Viṣṇu-tattva is equally powerful, as good as God Himself. So the incarnation... Incarnation of God means the expansion which is as good as God Himself. That is called incarnation. So this, I mean to, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare, is the expansion, incarnation, sound incarnation, of God. It is expansion and a plenary expansion, sound, sound representation... Not representation. God, present Himself in this form of sound.
Lecture -- Seattle, October 11, 1968:
Just like what is material civilization? All activities minus God. This is material. And as soon as all activities plus God, it is spiritual. So all activities minus God means trouble, and all activities plus God is wholesome, is pleasing. So Kṛṣṇa consciousness means all activities plus God. That's all. We are also doing the same thing. The candle is burned here, you also have candles at your home. You have got your apartment; this is also apartment. What is the difference between this apartment, your apartment? Because here is relationship of Kṛṣṇa. So you make everything in relationship with Kṛṣṇa, it is spiritual. That is the technique you have to learn in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
Brandeis University Lecture -- Boston, April 29, 1969:
This science of God is not a petty thing. You see? We are going to understand the supreme cause of everything. What is God? God means the Supreme, the ultimate cause, or sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam (Bs. 5.1). That is stated in the Brahma-saṁhitā. Just like you are searching out what is the cause of this thing, what is this cause of this thing, this thing... Go on searching. When you come to the ultimate cause, that is God. That is explained in the, I mean to say, Vedānta-sūtra. The Vedānta-sūtra, the first code is athāto brahma jijñāsā: "Now let us discuss about the Supreme Absolute Truth."
Northeastern University Lecture -- Boston, April 30, 1969:
Lord Caitanya says that the Lord's name... Lord's name is not, I mean to say, limited with Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is the perfect name. Kṛṣṇa means all-attractive. Kṛṣṇa means all-attractive. And Rāma means the supreme pleasure. So if God is not all-attractive and supreme pleasure, then what is the meaning of God? God must be. He must be the supreme pleasure. Otherwise how you can be satisfied with Him? Your heart is hankering after so many, so many pleasures. If God cannot satisfy you with all the pleasures, Rāma, then how He can be God? Therefore these two names, Rāma and Kṛṣṇa, and all-attractive. If Kṛṣṇa cannot be attractive to any person, then how He can be God? He is attractive actually. So these three names... We are chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa.
Lecture 'Nobody Wants to Die' -- Boston, May 7, 1968:
So these are explained in the Vedic literature. Na tasya kāryaṁ kāraṇaṁ ca vidyate na tat-samaś cābhyadhikaś ca dṛśyate: "He has nothing to do and nobody is equal or greater than Him." Therefore God is great. Nobody can be equal. You cannot claim that you are God. Then you claim "God," I claim "God," he, she claims "God," he claims "God." Then what is the meaning of "God"? Nobody... God is great. Nobody can be greater than Him. Then how you can claim that you are God, I am God? Then either you do not know what is the definition of God or you are foolishly claiming that you are God.
Lecture 'Nobody Wants to Die' -- Boston, May 7, 1968:
Just like the part and parcel of your body, this finger, and the whole body... If you make analytical study: "Oh, there is blood, there is vein, there is muscle, there is skin, there is bone, everything complete," as much as there is blood, vein, muscle, bones, everything in the whole body, so, as part and parcel, the, all the qualities, or all the ingredients of God are there. But he is a small quantity; therefore part and parcel. But even it is small quantity, if you actually come to the platform of God, then you'll become almost equal like God. But you cannot be God. That is not possible. Then there is no meaning of God, because God is great. And in the Vedic literature it is confirmed that na tasya kāryaṁ ca vidyate na tasya sama adhikaś ca dṛśyate: "Nobody's greater than Him, nobody's equal to Him. He, He has nothing to do. Everything is being performed by His multi-energies."
Lecture -- Bombay, November 2, 1970:
Everything has got the ultimate, the supreme summum bonum. The summum bonum of Vedic knowledge, or Vedānta, is Kṛṣṇa. So that Vedānta knowledge, Kṛṣṇa personified, He is explaining Himself in the Bhagavad-gītā. Everyone is searching after God: "Where is God?" "What is God?" "What is the meaning of God?" "What God does?" "What is the power of God?" So many things. So everything He explains in the Bhagavad-gītā, what is God. Sarvasya... In the Vedānta-sūtra it is said... "What is God?" That is the first question of Vedānta-sūtra. Athāto brahma jijñāsā. The human life especially meant for inquiring about God. Unfortunately, people, instead of inquiring God, they're very much eager now to inquire about dog. This is the position.
Lecture at Art Gallery -- Auckland, April 16, 1972:
Every one of us is a controller. You are controller, I am a controller. But above me there is another controller. And above that controller there is another controller, another, another controller. You go on searching out controller after controller. When you come to the supreme controller, that He is not controlled by everyone but He controls everyone, that is Kṛṣṇa. That is Kṛṣṇa. Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ (Bs. 5.1). This is our definition of God. God means controller. So everyone is controller. In that sense everyone is god. But everyone is not supreme God, supreme controller.
Sunday Feast Lecture -- Los Angeles, May 21, 1972:
These Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa love affairs is the originally there. Rādhārāṇī, the female counterpart, is the manifestation of ahlādinī-śakti, pleasure potency of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He has got many potencies. Parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate (Cc. Madhya 13.65, purport). God, God means with His potencies. Just like ordinarily, we are part and parcel of God, a minute particle; still, we have got so many potencies. Every man, every living entity... Not only man, the animals also, they have got various potencies, creative energy. So you just imagine how much creative energies and potencies are there in God. This is the understanding.
Lecture -- London, July 12, 1972:
Just like Arjuna accepted Kṛṣṇa, paraṁ brahma paraṁ dhāma pavitraṁ paramaṁ bhavān: (BG 10.12) "Kṛṣṇa, You are Parabrahman." That is accepted by the Vedas. Nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām eko bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13). "God" means He is also a living entity as you are, as I am. As we are sitting, I am speaking, we are face to face, similarly, God is also a person like you, like me. But He is very, very powerful. Nityo nitya... Just like here in this material world also I see that you are more powerful than me, and another person is more powerful than you, another person is more powerful than him. If you go on searching, when you find the supreme powerful, that is God. That is God. Supreme powerful.
Rotary Club Lecture -- Ahmedabad, December 5, 1972:
By logical conclusion, there must be a leader. That is... That indication we get from Bhagavad, yes, Vedas, Kaṭhopaniṣad: nityo nityānām. Who is God? God means the chief of all living entities. It is not very difficult to understand. Just like in order to manage the whole government, we require a chief man. In order to manage a big establishment, we require a chief man. So why not this cosmic manifestation, the whole cosmic, cosmology. Why not a chief person? That we do not know. Still, we are passing on as advancement of education. That we do not know, who is the chief.
Pandal Lecture -- Bombay, January 14, 1973:
Everything has got the ultimate, the supreme summum bonum. That summum bonum of Vedic knowledge or Vedānta is Kṛṣṇa. So that Vedānta knowledge, Kṛṣṇa personified, He is explaining Himself in the Bhagavad-gītā. Everyone is searching after God: "Where is God. What is God? What is the meaning of God? What God does? What is the power of God?" so many things. So everything is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā, what is God. Sarvasya. In the Vedānta-sūtra it is said what is God. That is the first question of the Vedānta-sūtra. Athāto brahma jijñāsā. The human life (is) especially meant for inquiring about God.
Arrival -- Dallas, May 19, 1973:
Just like very, if you have got a very wealthy friend or very learned friend or beautiful friend, you try to love him. You want to make friendship with him. So God means He is the most richest, most powerful, most learned, most beautiful. In this way, there is no comparison of God's opulence. So why should we not be attracted with God? If some rich man in your quarter attracts the attention of the neighbor, neighborers... If God is the richest man... He is not man; He is God. But He looks like man. He... Just like we see Kṛṣṇa here, He has got also two hands and two legs. That is His original form. If He likes, He can expand thousands of hands and thousands of legs, as it was exhibited to Arjuna in His virāṭ-puruṣa form.
Lecture What is a Guru? -- London, August 22, 1973:
Just like somebody came here, he said that he's God, every one of us God. (aside:) Stop this. So I asked that "Just find out in the dictionary what is meaning of God. Let us see whether he is God." The dictionary, as soon as dictionary was consulted, the meaning of God is "the supreme being," meaning of God. So I asked him, "Are you supreme? If you cannot understand, then find out the meaning of supreme." Then when he consulted dictionary, the supreme, it is said "the greatest authority." So I asked him, "Are you the greatest authority?" The rascal could not answer. He does not know even the dictionary meaning, and he's claiming that he's God. This rascaldom is going on, whole world. Big, big rascal swamis, they say, "Why you are finding out God anywhere? You do not see so many rascal gods are loitering in the street?" This is going on. If you simply consult dictionary, you can understand what is the meaning of God. God is so cheap thing, huh? Supreme being. Are you supreme being? Supreme means the highest authority. Highest authority means nobody is equal to him, nobody is greater than him. That is supreme.
Lecture -- London, August 23, 1973:
s there are laws given by the state, similarly, the supreme state, supreme governor is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. God means the supreme being, supreme person. So... Or the supreme authority. Supreme means the greatest authority. As in a state the greatest authority is the government, similarly, throughout the cosmic manifestation, throughout the whole creation, there must be some supreme authority. So that supreme authority is God, and whatever He gives, the rules and regulation, that is called religion. You cannot change it. That the law whimsically, you cannot change. Then you will be punishable. Similarly, the laws or the words (are) of the regulative principles given by God. That is religion. And if you do not follow it, then you'll be punished.
Lecture -- London, August 23, 1973:
We may float one mechanic airplane in the air, but by the God's brain, millions and trillions of heavy planets are floating in the air. That is God's brain. He has got also brain; He has got also creative power. We have also creative power, but we have got little and He has got supreme power. That is the difference. God means the supreme brain, the supreme powerful, and we are teenies, we are subordinate; therefore our position is to abide by the orders of God. That is actually religion. That's all. Less powerful men serve the more powerful. That is the nature. Nūnaṁ mahatāṁ tatra.
Lecture at Upsala University Faculty -- Stockholm, September 7, 1973:
These are the Vedic information. God means na tasya kāryaṁ karaṇaṁ ca vidyate. He has nothing to do; He has simply to desire. I think in your Christian Bible also it is said, "God said 'Let there be creation,' and there was creation." He has to simply desire. Other things will be done by His energies. Just like big man, a king or president, his simply sanction order—"This must be done"—the things will be done by the subordinates, by... He has go so many energies, secretaries. So why not for God, the Supreme Being, God? So therefore the Vedic instruction is, God has nothing to do, practically. Simply His desire is sufficient. Na tasya kāryaṁ karaṇaṁ ca vidyate na tasya samaś cābhyadhikaś ca dṛśyate. There is nobody equal to Him or above Him. Everyone must be below, subordinate. That is Vedic instruction.
Lecture at Upsala University Faculty -- Stockholm, September 7, 1973:
Just like we believe that God is great. So this is fact. The Vedic instruction is also there, na tasya samaś cābhkyadhikaś ca dṛśyate: "Nobody is equal, nobody is greater than Him." Therefore God is great. Now who is that great? That is decided: īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ (Bs. 5.1). Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Being. Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ. Īśvaraḥ means controller. That is the exact equivalent for the word God. God means controller, supreme controller. So that supreme controller means He has nobody else to control Him.
Lecture at the Hare Krsna Festival at La Salle Pleyel -- Paris, June 14, 1974:
So before the creation, the God was there. Then all the created creatures, wherefrom they came? They came from God. It is clearly stated in this verse, "All things were made by Him." So original creator of everything was God. Everything means including all, not only a certain person or certain thing. Everything means everything, all. So all things were made by God means..., "made by Him" means that all these creatures... There are different creatures, 8,400,000. They were created by God. One who creates, he is the father.
Lecture at the Hare Krsna Festival at La Salle Pleyel -- Paris, June 14, 1974:
So from this statement of the scripture, either you take it Bible or Bhagavad-gītā, it is understood that God is a person like you. That is the statement of the Vedas, nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām eko yo bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13), namely that God means He is the supreme being. In the dictionary also it is stated, "God means the Supreme Being." We are all beings, but God is the Supreme Being. Just like in every state, there are citizens, but there is one chief citizen. He is president or something like that.
Sunday Feast Lecture -- Atlanta, March 2, 1975:
In many religions they have got different names of God. And in Vedic scripture there are many demigods and incarnation of God. But Kṛṣṇa is the original name of God. Kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam. Ete cāṁśa-kalāḥ puṁsaḥ kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam (SB 1.3.28). There is list of incarnations, and in the conclusion the śāstra says, "In this long list there are many names, but the name 'Kṛṣṇa' is particularly to be noted, that He is the original Supreme Personality of Godhead." "God" means He is not like us. He can expand Himself. Even the yogis, some of the yogis, not these ordinary third-class yogis, but those who have attained yogic perfection, they can expand the body in at least up to eight. The yogis can do that. There are instances. So if an ordinary yogi can do that, just imagine how much potential there is of the Supreme Lord.
Philosophy Discussions
Philosophy Discussion on Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibnitz:
Prabhupāda: It is in Bhāgavata. This question was raised by Yudhiṣṭhira Mahārāja. So sometimes that is special favor. By force the whole plan is like that, but everyone wants to delay. By special favor he draws by force, "Come on. This time." Because that is explained in Caitanya-caritāmṛta that a rascal, he wants Kṛṣṇa, or he wants God, but at the same time he wants to enjoy this material world, because to want God means finish with material world. But sometimes he is both ways. When Kṛṣṇa sees the other way is hampering, He breaks his profit by force, so that in helpless condition. Everything is explained in the Bhāgavata. "I take away his all money. He may try to get money—again I take. So in this way, when he becomes hopeless and there is no money, then he surrenders to Me."
Philosophy Discussion on Henri Bergson:
Prabhupāda: Yes. Although it may be rascaldom, false, still if they see like that, miracles... That means less intelligent class of men. They want to see some miracles. That is mysticism.
Śyāmasundara: And he says that God means love. And the creative..., thus the creative... Through creative love the world came into being, and the world is a manifestation of God's love.
Prabhupāda: Yes. God loves. Because, unless He loves, why does He come personally? Why He gives instructions through the scriptures?
Philosophy Discussion on William James:
Prabhupāda: So this system, following the Bhagavad-gītā, is definitive understanding of God, so people may take this system, and by practical example they can see how those who are Kṛṣṇa conscious, how they are advancing in the religious system, in every system, because God has instructed everything—religious, political, social, cultural, philosophical, science, physics—everything perfectly. God, God means He gives perfect instruction. So this perfect instruction in the Bhagavad-gītā, we, we have accepted. Not accepted; we have known. God is there; you accept or not accept, it doesn't matter. So those who are fortunate, they will see the actual form of God, follow His instruction, and be perfect in the life. That is wanted.
Philosophy Discussion on John Dewey:
Śyāmasundara: Just like the Communists would say that "God is the state, and all my supreme devotion is for the state, to serve the state."
Prabhupāda: That's all right, but your state, Communist Russian state, is not overgrowing others. So that cannot be God. God is obeyed by everyone. Your state may not be obeyed by other states. God means the supreme controller. You are not the supreme controller. Then how can you make the state as God, your state?
Śyāmasundara: So actually his idea of God would change. For the Communists God means the state; for the primitive savage God means the...
Prabhupāda: Just like Gandhi made Cāṇakya his god.
Philosophy Discussion on John Dewey:
Prabhupāda: God means supreme controller. So everything is being controlled. So how he can say there is not God? That is his imperfect knowledge. The nature is going on in perfect order, and we have got experience that without being a director, controller... (break) ...first proposition, that the natural phenomena, that is going on in systematic way, and we have no experience anything going on in a systematic way has no controller. How they can think of this big phenomena without any controller? At least any sane man cannot think like that, that it is going on automatically, it is happening automatically. The season is changing in time, the sun is rising in time, the moon is rising—everything is going on systematically—and how he thinks that there is no controller, there is no God? That is insanity. To become atheist is, means, a greatest insane person. It has no meaning to become atheist.
Philosophy Discussion on Soren Aabye Kierkegaard:
Śyāmasundara: He says that in a way because he said that at this stage one stands transparently before God, and this is his integrity, when he realizes his...
Prabhupāda: Transparently before God means to be engaged in His service. So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is teaching that way. They are always engaged in Kṛṣṇa's service, twenty-four hours; therefore they are self-realized. They are standing on their self. That is mukti. That is liberated. And those who are, these karmīs, the jñānīs, the yogis, they are not engaged in the self. They are trying to realize self. Therefore all these students, or the disciples of the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, they are liberated persons, because they are acting as such. So everyone should join this movement and become liberated, immediately. You preach like that. Try to understand and preach.
Philosophy Discussion on Soren Aabye Kierkegaard:
Prabhupāda: God being everything, mayā tatam idaṁ sarvam (BG 9.4), as it is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, nothing can exist without God, and everything is expansion. Another word is there in the Viṣṇu Purāṇa. It is said that the fire remaining in one place distributes its heat and light. Eka-sthāne sthitasyāgner jyotsnā vistāriṇī yathā. The fire can distribute its heat and light although localized in a place. Similarly God, He is in His own abode, but by His energy He is present everywhere. Sarva-vyāpī, all-pervading. The all-pervading feature of God means everything is manifestation of His energy. Nothing can exist without God. But it does not mean everything is God. Everything is resting on His energy, but not everything God. In spite of expanding, God, by His different potencies, He keeps His personality. That is God.
Philosophy Discussion on Soren Aabye Kierkegaard:
Prabhupāda: Yes. Personal God means He is demanding, as Kṛṣṇa is demanding, man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru: (BG 18.65) "Always think of Me, or offer Me worship, offer Me obeisances, and become My devotee. And give up all other engagement. Simply be engaged in My service." This is the demand of God, and if we carry out His demand, then we are perfect. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti (BG 4.9). If you simply carry out the orders of God then you become qualified, fit for going back to home, back to Godhead. This is clearly stated. Tyaktvā deham. We have to give up this body, but a devotee, a pure devotee, after giving up this body, he doesn't accept another material body, but in his original, spiritual body he goes back to home, back to Godhead.
Philosophy Discussion on Sigmund Freud:
Prabhupāda: This ultimate knowledge can be acquired by the human being, not by the cats and dog. So if a philosopher, without any knowledge of God, doubtful knowledge of God, so he is imperfect, he is not even human being. He is cats and dogs. (break) God means supreme controller. So everything we see is controlled. The government is controller, but the supreme controller there must be. That's a fact. Now, if you want to know it clearly, then be educated. That is Vedānta. That is very reasonably said, that "What is that Brahman, God?" Immediately answer is, janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). God means, the Absolute Truth means, Brahman means from whom everything has emanated. We see everything is emanating. Just like we see the trees are emanating from the earth, and by eating the fruits, flowers, grains, the animal, human being, they are also emanating. So ultimate cause is this earth. We are emanating. We can say that "I am emanating from my mother." So the mother does not eat, then how he, his, her body can continue and how she can give another body within the womb? So ultimately we can see that the earth or the water is the source of emanation of everything.
Philosophy Discussion on Jean-Paul Sartre:
Prabhupāda: He has to accept that God exists. He cannot deny it, because practically we see. You may be intelligent, more intelligent than me, and he may be more intelligent you. So go on, go on, and find out, if you have got power, that we come to a person there is no more more intelligent than Him, as God defines: mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat (BG 7.7). And Kṛṣṇa, "Above Me there is no more intelligent person." There is not. So you cannot deny this existence, a superpowerful, superintelligent person, because we practically see. Not that everyone is on the equal level. That is not the case. He is a philosopher, another philosopher more intelligent than him, another philosopher more intelligent. So you go on searching. Anyway, either in richness or in intelligence or in power, strength, beauty, there is comparative superlative degrees. So God means the superlative degree in everything. How he can deny this existence? That is not possible.
Philosophy Discussion on Jean-Paul Sartre:
Prabhupāda: But he does not know what, what is the meaning of God. We have several times repeated this. God is the Supreme, Supreme Being. So we have defined in so many ways. Another thing that God is the Supreme, Supreme means He is supreme father. The Supreme everything means He is supreme father also. The conception of father is there. So as we are standing, we are talking with that gentleman priest, that mother nature, nature is giving, producing so many living entities. So she is supposed to be the mother. And as soon as we accept mother, there must be father. Mother cannot, alone cannot give birth to any offspring, so there must be the conception of father. And that is, practically we are seeing that mother nature... We say "mother nature" because she gives birth to so many forms of life, and if we accept mother, then you must to accept father, and that God is supreme father. How he can deny it? Father's duty is to maintain the children. So all living beings are being maintained, so there must be father. How he can deny that?
Philosophy Discussion on Karl Marx:
Prabhupāda: Religion means, to understand God means, a system. A system is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā in three principles. God says that He is the proprietor of everything, sarva-loka-maheśvaram (BG 5.29). So we see this planet, and there is different proprietors-individual proprietor of the land or the state proprietor, the king. So there is a proprietor of this earth, either you divide it nationally or you take it wholly. So similarly there are many, many millions of others, so they are called sarva-loka. So there must be a proprietor. So if we know who is that proprietor and how He is working... That is also stated, that the supreme proprietor is the supreme friend of everyone. So if we find out the supreme proprietor, supreme friend, and if we understand the proprietor is the enjoyer of everything, that is real religion. Then peace will prevail.
Philosophy Discussion on Karl Marx:
Prabhupāda: God means, as I have explained, the supreme father. He is the father of every man or every living entity. So how the father can be different? If man manufactures a different... There are ten sons in the family; the father is one. It is not that one son say, "No, I shall select my own father." So what kind of father he is? So that is imperfectness of understanding the father. Nobody can say that "I can select my own father." How it is possible? Father is one. Similarly God is one, and if one is actually religious and obeying the same one father's order, then where is dissension? That the difficulty is nobody knows who is that supreme father, neither they are prepared to obey the orders of the father. That is the difficulty. In one family there cannot be two father. The one father. Similarly, when you speak of the supreme father, "O father, give us our daily bread," He is father of everyone. So why one should select one father, another man will select another father? That means he does not know who is father. That is the defect.
Philosophy Discussion on Socrates:
Prabhupāda: As soon as the body is finished, your whole scholarship is finished. Then you have to accept another body, and you have to act according to that body. So how you have..., this scholarship will help you? But if you worship God, as Kṛṣṇa says, that janma karma ca me divyaṁ yo jānāti tattvataḥ... (BG 4.9). To worship God means to know God, actually what is God, more perfect—how He is managing, how material nature is working under Him. People cannot even imagine that God can be person, but here is everything person. Mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram: (BG 9.10) "Under My supervision the material nature is working." So these impersonalists or less intelligent persons, they cannot understand that how a person can dictate the wonderful activities of the material nature; therefore they remain impersonalist. But actually, person. That is the understanding of Bhagavad-gītā. God is person. Mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat kiñcid asti dhanañjaya: (BG 7.7) "There is no more superior authority than Me." So when He says mattaḥ, that means there is a person, person.
Philosophy Discussion on Benedict Spinoza:
Hayagrīva: Because he is pantheistic.
Prabhupāda: This is..., expansion also we accept. What is called, there is technical name, pracāra (?). Expansion, that is stated in Bhāgavatam, mayā tatam idaṁ sarvam: "By Me everything is expanded." This very word is used. Mayā tatam idaṁ sarvam (BG 9.4). So expansion is also God, but at the same time in expansion there is no God. "No God" means not in person. The expansion is imperson, but expansion is from the person. Just as a government, this is impersonal, but the governor is person. So government means under the control of the governor. So impersonal expansion of God is controlled by the personal God. This is like pantheism. And pantheism, so I think that because everything is God, that God has no personal existence. Is it not?
Hayagrīva: Yes. Pantheists would say that God is eminent in everything.
Prabhupāda: Everything.
Philosophy Discussion on Benedict Spinoza:
Hayagrīva: Well, he says no one can hate God, but what about Kaṁsa and others?
Prabhupāda: That is demonic. Naturally one is in love with God. He should love God. But when he is in māyā he thinks himself as separate from God. Instead of loving Him, he thinks himself as separate from God. Instead of loving Him, he thinks that God is hindrance, my competitor of sense gratification, therefore avoid God, kill God, I become absolute sense gratifier. Anyone who hates God means he is a demon.
Philosophy Discussion on George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel:
Prabhupāda: But God has no past, present, future. So where is history? It is all nonsense. He does not know what is the meaning of God.
Hayagrīva: Hegel placed a great deal of emphasis on human freedom.
Prabhupāda: There is no freedom. That is another nonsense.
Hayagrīva: Yes.
Prabhupāda: (laughs) He is subjected to birth, death, old age. Where is his freedom? That is another nonsense.
Conversations and Morning Walks
1968 Conversations and Morning Walks
Interview -- February 1, 1968, Los Angeles:
Interviewer: What are the basic beliefs of the Kṛṣṇa religion?
Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa means God. So God, this word, does not explain the nomenclature of God. Now this Kṛṣṇa is Sanskrit word, and it conveys the full meaning of God. Kṛṣṇa means all-attractive. All-attractive means He is full of all opulences. In this world we are attracted by one who is very rich, we are attracted by one who is very famous, we are attracted by one who is very highly educated, we are attracted by someone who is very beautiful. Similarly, these are features of attraction. And when all these attractions are reposed in one place without any rivalry, He is God. That is the conception of God. So Kṛṣṇa means all these six opulences in fullness together. That is the full definition of God.
Radio Interview -- March 12, 1968, San Francisco:
Prabhupāda: God means the controller. Everywhere we have got some controller. So... But you will find there is another controller over the controller. So if you go on searching one after another, controller and the supercontroller, and, or the next controller, next controller, in this way, when you come to a place when the controller is absolute, there is no other controller, He is God.
1969 Conversations and Morning Walks
Room Conversation -- April 27, 1969, Boston:
Prabhupāda: Na tasya kāryaṁ karaṇaṁ ca vidyate na tasya samādhikaś ca dṛśyate. This is from Upaniṣad. Parasya saktir vividhaiva sruyate svabhaviki-jnana-bala-kriya ca (Cc. Madhya 13.65, purport). It is said that nobody is seeing... This is called research. You are accepting any nonsense as God, and they do not have any information from the..., that God means na tasya kāryaṁ karaṇaṁ ca vidyate na tasya samādhikaś ca dṛśyate: "God has nothing to do, no responsibility. Nobody is found greater than Him." So if this Vedic injunction is followed, if somebody is claiming, "I am God," we have to see whether he has nothing to do and whether nobody is greater than him. And these two tests will make him false immediately. He has to prove that nobody is greater than... Even contemporary... Suppose I am claiming I am God. So I have to show that at the present moment, throughout the whole world, apart from universe, nobody is greater than me. Then I am... Will these pretenders be able to show that nobody is greater than him? This is a simple test. And na tasya kāryaṁ karaṇaṁ ca vidyate: "And he has nothing to do." There are so many things to test who is God. Ṣaḍ-aiśvarya-pūrṇaḥ.
Room Conversation with Allen Ginsberg -- May 12, 1969, Columbus, Ohio:
Allen Ginsberg: Yes. Lord, God. That is the basic one.
Prabhupāda: Controller. God means controller. Is it not?
Allen Ginsberg: What is the etymology of God? Do you know?
Hayagrīva: I don't know.
Prabhupāda: God is the equivalent of īśvara. Īśvara means controller.
Room Conversation With John Lennon, Yoko Ono, and George Harrison -- September 11, 1969, London, At Tittenhurst:
John Lennon: Does Kṛṣṇa mean God?
Śyāmasundara: Yes.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Kṛṣṇa means God, and God means Kṛṣṇa.
John Lennon: So for the Bible or any other holy book, they all talk about one God, but they all have many ways of...
Prabhupāda: That's all right.
George Harrison: Personalities.
John Lennon: Yes.
Prabhupāda: That's all right.
Discussion with Guests -- December 23, 1969, Boston:
Guest (3): But you are me and I am you. We are both God. Right?
Prabhupāda: No, no.
Guest (3): Why not?
Prabhupāda: You are not God because God... You do not know what is the meaning of God. What do you mean by God? First of all define.
Guest (3): Everything is God.
Prabhupāda: If you apply that definition, then you are God. First of all define what is God.
Guest (3): God is everything. God is it.
Prabhupāda: That is not the definition. God is not everything.
1971 Conversations and Morning Walks
Room Conversation -- January 17, 1971, Allahabad:
Guest (5): (Hindi) What is the meaning of God.
Prabhupāda: He does not... He does not know what is meaning of God. He thinks that God is something plaything. Therefore he claimed that "I am God." He does not know what is God. Therefore God personally showing—He's coming, Kṛṣṇa: "What is God, see." God is from very beginning God. Kṛṣṇa, from the birth He is God. He hasn't got to meditate. He hasn't got to go to the forest and..., to become God. He is God.
Guest (5): God is made for, sir.
Prabhupāda: Not "God is made." God is never made. God is God.
Room Conversation with Dr. Weir of the Mensa Society -- September 5, 1971, London:
Dr. Weir: You know that's just an analogy.
Prabhupāda: Yes. This is natural. Similarly, if God is the root of everything, as we understand from Vedānta-sūtra. God means the original root of everything. Janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). The description of Absolute Truth, of God is there in the Vedānta-sūtra. The first aphorism is, "What is God?" Athāto brahma jijñāsā, inquiry about God. The next aphorism is "God is that which is the root of everything, from which everything emanates." That is the perfect definition of God, the origin of everything. So the same example as God, that the root is the origin of the whole tree.
Room Conversation with Dr. Weir of the Mensa Society -- September 5, 1971, London:
Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa is God, (indistinct). That is accepted. We accept Kṛṣṇa, īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ (Bs. 5.1). Īśvara. Īśvara means the controller. Just like here there are controllers. But here any controller is controlled by another controller. But param īśvara, God means Who has no other controller. He's the supreme controller. That is described in the Brahma-saṁhitā: īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ (Bs. 5.1). He's the supreme controller. Here any controller, he's controlling, just like this physician. He has learned his medical science from another physician, another physician, another physician. So we are not the supreme physician or supreme controller.
Room Conversation with Dr. Weir of the Mensa Society -- September 5, 1971, London:
Dr. Weir: I mean this is just unnecessary. It is just tautological. This is in your definition of God. You don't have to go any farther.
Prabhupāda: But God means He's above mistake,
Dr. Weir: Yes.
Prabhupāda: ...above the illusion, above cheating, above imperfection. This is God.
1972 Conversations and Morning Walks
Room Conversation with Kenneth Keating, U.S. Ambassador to India -- October 14, 1972, New Delhi:
Prabhupāda: You do not require to pass the milk through the finger, then with the toes. No. Simply put the tea, tea or milk, within, and every part of the body is satisfied. Just like you pour water in the root of the tree. The energy immediately, I mean to say, distributed to the leaves, to the tree, to the flowers, to the fruits, everything, immediately. Similarly, there must be something which is the root of everything. That is God. The Vedānta philosophy says God means the origin, the source of everything. That is God. Now you can imagine how that source should be. That is also explained. But God, or the Absolute Truth, is that, is the original source of everything.
Room Conversation with Kenneth Keating, U.S. Ambassador to India -- October 14, 1972, New Delhi:
Prabhupāda: Just like you are ambassador, representative of USA, so you are attractive. So this attractiveness you have got. Sometimes I have also got. Somebody comes to me, "Let me see this Swami speak," you see. So this attractiveness everyone possesses. But God means who has got all the attractiveness in full. That is God. You may be very rich, but you cannot say that "I am the richest person in the world." That is not possible. But God can say "I am the richest person in the whole creation." Bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasāṁ sarva-loka-maheśvaram (BG 5.29). He says, "I am the proprietor of everything."
Room Conversation with Kenneth Keating, U.S. Ambassador to India -- October 14, 1972, New Delhi:
Prabhupāda: No, no, first of all, principle of religion. What is the principle of religion?
Mrs. Keating: Well I think it comes from within, inside. I think we are at one with God and I am a reflection of God. I am an idea of God. That's what I believe.
Prabhupāda: That is very nice. Idea of God means whatever you have got, God has got the same idea. Is it not?
Mrs. Keating: Huh?
Prabhupāda: You mean to say like that?
Mrs. Keating: Ah huh.
Prabhupāda: Or you are a sample of God.
Mrs. Keating: Yes.
1973 Conversations and Morning Walks
Morning Walk -- May 1, 1973, Los Angeles:
Svarūpa Dāmodara: They take it as a material object.
Prabhupāda: Then accept you are under its control. God means controller. Īśvara. Īśvara means controller. God means controller. So He is controlling you. It is material but it is not under your control. You are under its control. So if anything is controlling you, that is God. God means controller. If you cannot see Kṛṣṇa, you can see the sun.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: The sun is a product of Kṛṣṇa.
Morning Walk -- May 9, 1973, Los Angeles:
Svarūpa Dāmodara: That is a yogic process.
Prabhupāda: That is yogic process. Real yogic process is to find out Paramātmā, but side by side many other dormant powers become awakened. Another example, that tree is producing chemicals. So every living entity has got dormant potencies, more or less. So God, Kṛṣṇa, is the supreme living entity; therefore He has the full potency. God means full, complete. Nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13). The best living entity, that is God. (pause) Is there any difficulty to understand the best living entity?
Svarūpa Dāmodara: The best living entity?
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Room Conversation with David Wynne, Sculptor -- July 9, 1973, London:
Prabhupāda: Yes. To glorify God means the glorify the nature also. Just like here is a poem in Brahma-saṁ...
- yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-aṇḍa-koṭi-
- koṭisv aśeṣa-vasudhādi-vibhūti-bhinnam
- tad brahma niṣkalam anantam aśeṣa-bhūtaṁ
- govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi
- (Bs. 5.40)
Now, the whole creation is there. Yasya prabhā prabhavataḥ (Bs. 5.40). On account of the bodily rays of Kṛṣṇa, Govinda, which is called brahmajyoti... Just like on account of the sunshine, the whole universe is existing. So similarly, there is a shine, bodily shining, what is called brahmajyoti. So when the brahmajyoti is there, then innumerable universes are created. Yasya prabhā prabhavataḥ (Bs. 5.40). When the effulgence, brahmajyoti, is there, innumerable universes are created. Yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-aṇḍa-koṭi. Jagad-aṇḍa means universe. Koṭi, innumerable. Yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-aṇḍa-koṭi-koṭisv aśeṣa-vasudhādi-vibhūti-bhinnam (Bs. 5.40). And in each universe is created with innumerable number of planets. And each planet has got different atmosphere. Now the whole universe is described.
Room Conversation with Two Buddhist Monks -- July 12, 1973, London:
Prabhupāda: So that is, I am pointing out. Leadership,... God means "the leader." According to Vedic injunction, God means "the supreme leader." Nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13). He is the chief living entity. Mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram (BG 9.10). God means the Supreme Leader. So leader you have to accept. That is the conception of God. Either you select Buddha or Lenin or somebody else, you have to accept one leader and follow. That is your business. So our philosophy is that Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Lord, He's the Supreme Leader. And we are to obey His orders. This is our philosophy. So if you do not obey the orders of Kṛṣṇa, if you obey the orders of Lord Buddha, or somebody obeys the orders of Lenin, the principle is there that you have to follow the orders of somebody.
Room Conversation with Sir Alistair Hardy -- July 21, 1973, London:
Prabhupāda: These things are to be understood. God means... Just like when we speak of "king." King does not mean alone. King means he has got his queen, he has got his kingdom, he has got his secretary, he has got his minister, he has got his palace, he has... so many things, king, royal. When we speak of Queen, we immediately remember the Buckingham Palace, his (her) bodyguards and so many, so many other things. Similarly, God means He has got His entourage also, everything. He's not alone. To understand God means to understand everything of God—His name, His fame, His līlā, His pastimes. So nāmādi. With all these blunt senses, how can we... We cannot understand even the Personality of Godhead, what to speak of other things? "God is a person:"—it is a very difficult subject matter for ordinary man to take it, very difficult subject. That is stated in the... Even the demigods they cannot understand. That is... Because he's thinking materially that "This cosmic manifestation, then creation, is so big, and it is created by a person. How it is possible?" But... Because they do not know what is that person.
Room Conversation with Indian Ambassador -- September 5, 1973, Stockholm:
Prabhupāda: The king must be representative of God. Because... Who is God? God means nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām, eko bahūnāṁ yo vidadhāti kāmān (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13). Kaṭhopaniṣad. So God, what is God? God means He's also person. Nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām. He is also eternal, He's also cognizant. We are also eternal, we are also cognizant. But what is the difference between God and we? The difference is He maintains us. Eko bahūnāṁ yo vidadhāti kāmān. Bahu-vacanam, nityānām, cetanānām, this is bahu-vacanam. And nityaḥ, cetanaḥ, eka-vacanam. So what is the difference between this singular number and plural number? The singular number is maintaining the plural number. Eko bahūnāṁ yo vidadhāti kāmān. So God is maintaining everyone. So difference is that He is so powerful, He can maintain every living entity.
Room Conversation with Banker -- September 21, 1973, Bombay:
Prabhupāda: One who is freed from all sinful activities, he can be allowed to enter into the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God means the place for the pure, not for the impure. And impurity means sinful activities. So therefore Kṛṣṇa says, "You surrender unto Me. I give you protection from impure," because... Ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyaḥ. Because by impure life, they have committed so many sinful activities. But not that I surrender to Kṛṣṇa and I continue my impure life. Kṛṣṇa can forgive you, whatever impurities are there, "All right, squared up. Don't do it." Ara nare baba. (?) Jagāi and Mādhāi. Jagāi and Mādhāi said, "No sir, no more this life. Yes, I accept." Caitanya Mahāprabhu immediately accepted. Not that that confession system, go to the church-conference on Sunday and again come back, on Monday begin again sinful activities, and again go to church on Sunday and confess and nullify it. Not like that. When you deny that "I shall not do it," don't do it again. Then your life is perfect. Ara nare baba.
Morning Walk -- December 10, 1973, Los Angeles:
Prabhupāda: Yes. So this Hiraṇyakaśipu's mother, when she understood that his son should be so rogue and then, when she was informed that "After all, your sons will be killed by God," she was very satisfied. "Oh, then it is all right. Never mind." Because she knew, killing by God means he's going to Vaikuṇṭha. Just like cursed by Nārada Muni, Yamala-Arjuna, they saw Kṛṣṇa. By cursing of Nārada, although for some time they had to remain as tree, but still they got the opportunity of seeing Kṛṣṇa.
Morning Walk -- December 12, 1973, Los Angeles:
Prabhupāda: If God has cause, then he is not God. That is the difference between God and everything. Everything has got cause, but God has not cause. Therefore he is God. That, the rascal, he does not know. He equalizes God and everything on the same level. Then what is the meaning of God? If He hasn't got the extraordinary qualification, then how he is God? He is everything. He does not know. Why there is distinction between God and everything? Because God is not caused by everything, but everything is caused by God. That is the difference. (break) ...is equal to God, then everything is God. That is going on, Māyāvāda philosophy.
Morning Walk -- December 12, 1973, Los Angeles:
Prabhupāda: Yes. (break) ...of the same quality, then what is the necessity of another God? It is a conclusion like this, that in the hospital everyone is patient. Therefore doctor is also patient because he's in the hospital. In the prisonhouse they're all prisoners. Therefore the superintendent of police he is also prisoner. Or the governor comes to see, visit, he is also prisoner. It is conclusion like that. God means He has got a special potency that He exists without any cause. Sva-rāṭ. This word is used in Bhāgavatam, sva-rāṭ: "completely independent." Who is that rascal, Bernard Russell? He is a well...
Yaśomatīnandana: Bertrand Russell. Yeah, British philosopher. He died probably. He died long time ago?
Morning Walk -- December 15, 1973, Los Angeles:
Karandhara: Well, then they say, "By objective empirical analysis it has to be researched, scientific."
Prabhupāda: Oh, then let us analyze, analyze. Let us analyze. That... We say that God means Supreme, Supreme Being. So how you can say that Supreme Being is an idea? How you can say? You accept Supreme Being. So how you can say it is idea? It is fact.
Karandhara: Well, they say there is no necessity for a Supreme Being.
Prabhupāda: No, there's a necessity. If you don't accept, then you will be beaten with shoes. Because as soon as there is light, you have to accept supreme authority.
Morning Walk -- December 30, 1973, Los Angeles:
Prajāpati: But would it be a good proposition to present Kṛṣṇa conscious philosophy in such a systematic way?
Prabhupāda: Oh yes, you do it. Do it. That is intelligence. Here is the only systematic way to understand God. You simply try to understand the first verse of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Then everything is explained there. Now you can... I have explained that, what is meant by God. God means the source of everything. Where is that theologician who can deny it? The first proposition is "God is that which is the source of everything." Now the next question will be, "What is that source, animate or inanimate?" Just like the scientists, they are claiming matter. This should be discussed.
1974 Conversations and Morning Walks
Morning Walk -- April 11, 1974, Bombay:
Prabhupāda: Therefore he is not God. That is existence of God. You cannot do because there is higher power controlling you. God means controller. He is controlling you. You cannot do that. Therefore you are not God. There is superior controller, who does not allow to do this. You have to abide by the laws. This is common sense reasoning. If you are being controlled, how you become God? God means the supreme controller. Is it all right? So long you will be controlled, you are not God. But where is the position that you are no more controlled? That position is never.
Room Conversation with Irish Poet, Desmond O'Grady -- May 23, 1974, Rome:
Prabhupāda: All of them. Not this brother, that brother. All brothers, all sisters.
O'Grady: Yes, but what I was saying...
Prabhupāda: The God means complete.
Room Conversation with Christian Priest -- June 9, 1974, Paris:
Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa is God. Kṛṣṇa is God. God is the idea of greatness. That is Brahman. Or you can say also person, but not the particular person. God means, the Sanskrit word is īśvara, the controller. So everyone is controller to some extent. In his own atmosphere he is a controller, as I am controller of my disciples. So the conception of God is there, but I am not the Supreme God. Therefore, there are two words. We use the word "Godhead," "the Supreme God." That is explained in the Brahma-saṁhitā, īśvara, God. Everyone is God; that is another thing. But īśvaraḥ paramaḥ, the Supreme God, is Kṛṣṇa.
Room Conversation with Mr. Tran-van-Kha, and President & Members of the Society of Buddhists in France -- June 15, 1974, Paris:
Prabhupāda: Yes, every..., everyone is representation of God. Sun is more powerful representation. You are also representation of God. The God is also a living being. That is said in the dictionary, Oxford Dictionary. God means, "Supreme Being." So we are all beings, and God is the Supreme Being. We are limited by our power. God is unlimited by His power.
Morning Walk at Marina del Rey -- July 14, 1974, Los Angeles:
Prabhupāda: Conditioned soul is imperfect by the four deficiencies. Bhrama, pramadā... He must commit mistake. So what is the value of his knowledge? There is no value. We take knowledge from the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is unconditioned. There is a verse in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavata: eṣad īśānām īśasya. That is God. God means He becomes, He comes within this material world, but He's not conditioned. That is Kṛṣṇa.
1975 Conversations and Morning Walks
Room Conversation with Professors -- February 19, 1975, Caracas:
Prabhupāda: We say that God is one. Whether you accept it or not? Unless God is one, there cannot be God. God cannot be many. God means, in the dictionary it is said, "Supreme Being." The Supreme Being can be one. If there is competition of Supreme Being, then he is not Supreme Being. That is the philosophy. That is the philosophy. Then we have to find out who is that Supreme Being. You cannot say... You find somebody who has got little power. You cannot say, "Now here is God." The supreme power, that is God. Just like money, that is also one of the qualification of God. But money, He has got all the money. You may have got some money, some millions dollars. I may have got little more than that. But nobody can say, "I have got all the money." Or one can say that "I have got all the money," then He is God.
Room Conversation with Metaphysics Society -- February 21, 1975, Caracas:
Prabhupāda: Just like you take one candle and you lit up another candle, you lit up another candle, another candle and millions of candle, but this candle remains the same powerful, and all the candles lit up, they are also same power. But for our understanding, we take the original candle as first candle, the next as second candle, the third, fourth, fifth, millions. But each candle is equally powerful, and the original candle is still there. So by this expansion, God does not diminishes. That is the meaning of God, and that is the meaning of unlimited.
Room Conversation with Metaphysics Society -- February 21, 1975, Caracas:
Prabhupāda: God means controller. God is not name. Just like the president, Mr. Ford. That is name, and president is the controller. So every controller has got name. So why the supreme controller will not have any name? That is ignorance.
Room Conversation with Reporter -- March 9, 1975, London:
Prabhupāda: Nobody is following Kṛṣṇa's instruction. Kṛṣṇa says, "I am God." Mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat: (BG 7.7) "There is no more superior person or superior position than Me," Kṛṣṇa says. And "God" means that. In the dictionary "God" means the Supreme Being. Supreme Being means nobody is greater than Him; nobody is equal to Him. That is called supreme. So here God personally says that mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat kiñcid asti dhanañjaya (BG 7.7). But this rascal will not accept. They will say, "No, here is another dini-kṛṣṇa." They will bring one competitor. That is going on. "God" means there cannot be any competitor. Nobody is equal to Him; nobody is greater than Him. But they will bring so many competitors. "Why Kṛṣṇa alone will be God?" This is the position of the modern Hindus.
Room Conversation with Yoga Student -- March 14, 1975, Iran:
Prabhupāda: That He says, mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat (BG 7.7). God means the Supreme. So He says, "There is no more superior supreme than Me." Then He is God. And if you accept the teachings of Bhagavad-gītā, then you have to accept He is God. Otherwise what you have understood, Bhagavad-gītā? You have manufactured your own way. He says... If you study Bhagavad-gītā, He says, mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat kiñcid asti dhanañjaya (BG 7.7). So God means the Supreme. So He says, "I am the Supreme. There is no more superior supreme." Then you have to accept Him God.
Room Conversation with Press Representative -- March 21, 1975, Calcutta:
Prabhupāda: He's God. Yes.
Guest: God, or you can give another name as you like, any way.
Prabhupāda: No, God or the Supreme Being. God means the Supreme Being in the dictionary. He is not like you, not like me.
Conversation with Devotees on Theology -- April 1, 1975, Mayapur:
Prabhupāda: To the nonbelievers, he has no access. About discussion in God he has no access. When we discuss about God, it is supposed they are all believers. So if you say... Just like we are holding meeting to ascertain... There are so many names of God. Now we ascertain who is real God. God means there should be no more above Him. Mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat (BG 7.7). That is God.
Morning Walk -- April 3, 1975, Mayapur:
Haṁsadūta: They have, they... As soon as they come on the scene, they begin to become jolly.
Prabhupāda: So why don't you take advantage of this?
Haṁsadūta: Yeah, we do... (break)
Satsvarūpa: ...it's no longer logical. But by the same logic...
Prabhupāda: No, it is... That is the meaning of God. Everything comes from Him, but He's self-sufficient. That is God.
Room Conversation with Ganesa dasa's Mother and Sister -- May 14, 1975, Perth:
Prabhupāda: Well, there cannot be Hebrew religion, Christian religion, Hindu... Religion is one. Religion means God's rules. So God is one. So if you are this or that, you can manufacture so many ways, but God's ruling is one, that "You surrender to Me." That's all.
Mother: So we all believe in the one God.
Prabhupāda: Yes. God is one. God cannot be two. Then He is not God. There cannot be two Gods. God is one. Otherwise how..., what is the meaning of God?
Morning Walk -- May 17, 1975, Perth:
Prabhupāda: That I answered, that "That is God."
Amogha: Then they were defeated.
Prabhupāda: God means that without father, He can, He will exist. That is God. That is the difference between you and God.
Amogha: How can darkness argue with the sunlight? Their trying to argue is just like darkness trying to argue with the sunlight.
Prabhupāda: And that Burmese said, "We don't believe in God." And you don't believe in God. You don't... Why you believe Lord Buddha? He is God.
Room Conversation with Jesuit -- May 19, 1975, Melbourne:
Jesuit: Let me see if I can understand what you mean by God.
Prabhupāda: God means all-powerful, the great. You say also, "The great."
Jesuit: I'd say all-powerful, omnipotent, the great, yes.
Prabhupāda: That is God.
Jesuit: All-loving?
Prabhupāda: Yes, everything He's great. Nobody can surpass His love.
Room Conversation with writer, Sandy Nixon -- July 13, 1975, Philadelphia:
Prabhupāda: To understand God means one must be first-class civilized man. Just like university is meant for first-class student, similarly, God consciousness means meant for the first-class human being.
Sandy Nixon: O.K. This question's a hard one for me to ask because it shows ignorance on my part. But I'm not asking it in ignorance. I want your answer on tape, O.K.? Does all desire ultimately have to go, including the desire to attain Kṛṣṇa consciousness?
Prabhupāda: Without Kṛṣṇa consciousness, you will have simply rubbish desires. And when you are Kṛṣṇa conscious, then you desire rightly.
Room Conversations -- July 26, 1975, Laguna Beach:
Prabhupāda: We say that. But ask the professor that "You are engineer; you are not so powerful. There is another big engineer who has done it. So God means you try to understand who is that biggest engineer."
Devotee (4): They were saying that all the highways and all the nice buildings...
Prabhupāda: And all the oceans? Here is the highway, and there is the ocean. Which is important? (laughter) You might have created these highways, but another engineer has created that ocean, side by side. So who will get the greater credit?
1976 Conversations and Morning Walks
Morning Walk -- March 16, 1976, Mayapura:
Prabhupāda: The leader, perfect leader, is God. Nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānāṁ (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13). That nitya and cetana, all living entities, we are eternal, and we are conscious. And He is the supreme conscious. Therefore God means Supreme Being. You take His leadership. Then He'll properly guide you. That is our philosophy.
Room Conversation -- April 22, 1976, Melbourne:
Prabhupāda: The body is under your control. You can do that. Similarly, when you understand this fully, then you'll understand that in this huge, gigantic body, material cosmic manifestation, there is a controller, easily. But if you do not understand yourself, how you can understand God? God is not different in quality than from you. God means like you in huge, unlimited quantity. As you have got little intelligence—you can create a wonderful thing, 747 airplane flying in the air—so God has got unlimited brain. Millions and trillions of universes are floating in the air. The process is the same. You are tiny. You are very much proud that "I am so advanced that I have manufactured 747." And just why not compare the intelligence of God? Such a huge lump of matter, the sun, is floating also there. That is the difference between you and God. You have got brain, He has got brain, but your the brain is very tiny, little, and his brain very big. That is difference between God and you. So if you understand yourself, sample of God, then you understand the Supreme God.
Room Conversation -- April 23, 1976, Melbourne:
Prabhupāda: So love of God means six things. This is the difference between other literature and Vedic literature. Here it is said, "love of God," but in the Vedic literature you will find the process of love,
- śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ
- smaraṇaṁ pāda-sevanam
- arcanaṁ vandanaṁ dāsyaṁ
- sakhyam ātma-nivedanam
- (SB 7.5.23)
Nine different processes. First of all you should hear about the glories of God, śravaṇam. Then you should preach the glories of God. Śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ. You should always remember God, smaraṇam. Pāda-sevanam: you should worship the Lord by worshiping, giving service to His lotus feet. But if God is imperson, where is feet? And if God is no form, then how you can remember Him?
Interview with Jackie Vaughn (Black Congressman) -- July 12, 1976, Detroit:
Prabhupāda: The institution is already there. We are conducting Kṛṣṇa consciousness. But if the government cooperates that a certain number of students must be trained up scientifically what is the meaning of God, that will be very much beneficial to the state or to the country. We can give solution for any problem. "We" means Kṛṣṇa. We are simply preaching Kṛṣṇa's message. Kṛṣṇa means God. Kṛṣṇa means black also. Kṛṣṇa, this word, (chuckles) means black also. He is following?
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Another meaning of kṛṣṇa is blackish.
Jackie Vaughn: Black is beautiful?
Answers to a Questionnaire from Bhavan's Journal -- June 28, 1976, Vrndavana:
Prabhupāda: The conclusion is religion means to love God, and to love God means you must know who is God. There cannot be any other alternative. You must know the person who is God. Then you exchange. That we are teaching. We are asking our disciples to rise early in the morning, offer maṅgala ārati, then bhoga ārati. Are we so fools, rascals, that we are wasting time in worshiping a doll like that? Sometimes they think like that. But that is not the fact. You know definitely, "Here is Kṛṣṇa. He is God, and we must love Him like this." That is the superexcellence of Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. We do everything definitely on positive platform. Is that clear?
Room Conversation with Professor Francois Chenique -- August 5, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):
Yogeśvara: One possibility would be to say God the Supreme Person is light. That we can translate.
Prabhupāda: God means Supreme Person. But these advaitavādī, Māyāvādīs, they have made God everyone. God means Supreme Person, that is the dictionary word. "Supreme Being." That is the dictionary meaning. God does not mean ordinary, but they have made ordinary, anyone God. "I am God, you are God, he is God." Then what is meaning of God?
Yogeśvara: Therefore we say Godhead.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Head man. There are many men, he is the head man. Godhead word is also there in the dictionary. You find out.
Room Conversation -- August 8, 1976, Tehran:
Prabhupāda: "God" means He must possess all the wealth. Just like in Persia you have got so many wealthy persons, but nobody can claim, even the Shah cannot claim, that he possesses all the wealth. That is not possible. Persia. Do you follow what I say? So this is one of the items, that God is the richest, or He possesses all the wealth. Similarly, He possesses all the strength, He possesses all the beauty, He possesses all knowledge, and He is the renouncer also, the most exalted renouncer. Although He possesses so many things, He is renounced. Just like this universe is the property of God, but He has given to you, all the living entities. "Now you wanted to enjoy, enjoy it to your best capacity." He doesn't interfere. "All right, you go on." And we are trying to enjoy this material world to our best capacity.
Evening Darsana -- August 9, 1976, Tehran:
Ali: Is it necessary to get to know the true self before knowing God?
Prabhupāda: Yes, God means spirit, supreme spirit. If you cannot understand what is spirit, then how you'll understand God? You must know what is spirit, what is matter, and when we have little understanding of the spirit, then we can make progress spiritually.
Room Conversation -- August 10, 1976, Tehran:
Prabhupāda: No, the Vedic injunction is eko bahūnāṁ yo vidadhāti kāmān. God means He's supplying the necessities of all his sons. That is God. And that is practical. You are dependent. The animals, they are dependent on grass. So wherefrom the grass is coming? Why that land is deserted and this land is green place. Can you change it? Why you don't change the desert to be green? So if you think that "I'm living on animal, I don't care for grass," but the animal depending on grass, and the grass is depending on God's mercy. So how you can say you are not dependent on God? You are dependent. But because you are a rascal fraud, you want to cheat and become a Freud, that's all. You are a great fraud, therefore you're talking like that. You are dependent on God in every step. You cannot be independent.
Evening Darsana -- August 11, 1976, Tehran:
Parivrājakācārya: When they say there is no God, sometimes we say, "How do you know?"
Prabhupāda: No, we say that there is a creator, and that is God. By experience we see that there is a creator, and God means the supreme creator. That's all.
Room Conversation with Dr. Theodore Kneupper -- November 6, 1976, Vrndavana:
Dr. Kneupper: What do you understand by that word God?
Prabhupāda: God means supreme controller.
Dr. Kneupper: Super?
Prabhupāda: Controller.
Dr. Kneupper: The master of the universe.
Prabhupāda: That's it.
Room Conversation with Dr. Theodore Kneupper -- November 6, 1976, Vrndavana:
Prabhupāda: There is hope. There is cent percent hope, provided you accept the right way.
Dr. Kneupper: But would you say the right way would have to be, let's say, to be a follower of Kṛṣṇa?
Prabhupāda: God means Kṛṣṇa.
Dr. Kneupper: What about...? As I understand, in the Gītā...
Prabhupāda: God... Kṛṣṇa means all-attractive. So God must be all-attractive, full controller.
Room Conversation with Dr. Theodore Kneupper -- November 6, 1976, Vrndavana:
Dr. Kneupper: Do you think if a person is to be a real believer in God he has to also worship Kṛṣṇa or speak of Him?
Prabhupāda: No, God means Kṛṣṇa. He has to understand it. Therefore so many books. God has many names, millions, of which Kṛṣṇa name is the most important. Kṛṣṇa means all-attractive. Then you have to understand the science of God. How Kṛṣṇa is God, that you have to understand. But for that reason we are publishing so many books. We have already published eighty-four books, simply in English language. And they are being translated in German, French, Portuguese, then Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Hindi, Bengali, like that.
1977 Conversations and Morning Walks
Morning Walk -- January 29, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:
Prabhupāda: If you have no religion, then you are animal. You must be chastised. Sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmo yato bhaktir adhokṣaje (SB 1.2.6). Religion means you believe in God and love Him. That's all, three words, religion. "You believe in God" means know God, what is God. And love Him. That's all. This is religion. So it doesn't matter whether you understand God through Christian method or Hindu method. But you love God and you abide by the orders of God. Then you are religious. Dharmaṁ tu sākṣād bhagavat-praṇītam (SB 6.3.19). Dharma means, religion means, the words of God. So you must know what is God, and you must know what does He say. Then you are religious. It doesn't matter what it is, Christian and Hindu. Gold is gold.
Room Conversation -- January 30, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:
Prabhupāda: (break) Oh. In the dictionary it is clearly stated, "God the Supreme Being." So He's a being, but supreme. And what are the signs of supremacy? One must be very rich, very famous, very strong, very learned. In this way analyze. So God means one who is in possession of all these things, all the reputation, all the beauty. That is God. On this point discuss. Now, who is God, that is to be found. But this is the position of God. Try to convince them.
Room Conversation Varnasrama System Must Be Introduced -- February 14, 1977, Mayapura:
Prabhupāda: It is condemned in the Bhagavad-gītā, kāmais tais tair hṛta-jñānāḥ prapadyante 'nya-devatāḥ (BG 7.20), that "Anyone who is worshiping a demigod, he is lost of all sense." So this man, by losing his all senses, worshiping a demigod, he became God. People do not take reference from Bhagavad-gītā, that "A demigod worshiper has no sense, and he has become God?" What kind of God? Senseless God? And God's definition is aiśvaryasya samagrasya vīryasya yaśasaḥ śriyaḥ (Viṣṇu Purāṇa 6.5.47), jñāna. God means full in knowledge. And a man who has no sense, he has become God? From logic. Jñāna-vairāgyayaś caiva. God means he has got full knowledge.
Room Conversation -- April 2, 1977, Bombay:
Prabhupāda: Love of God means God's mercy. If God is pleased, He can do anything. So that pleasure of God can be awakened by love. This is called in Sanskrit kṛpā-siddhi. Perfection out of affection. Out of mercy.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He wants to know whether it is possible to attain that affection of love for God...
Prabhupāda: No, that is not generally...
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: ...without taking part in this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement.
Prabhupāda: One must follow the regulative principles and refrain from sinful activities. Then it depends on Kṛṣṇa's mercy. You cannot force Him to give you mercy. That is not possible. Mercy is mercy. You have to do your duty, and the mercy depends upon Him.
Evening Darsana -- May 15, 1977, Hrishikesh:
Prabhupāda: Dūre parjakanam(?) tīrtham. If gaṅgā-jala is pure, it is pure here and there also. So Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura says, tīrtha-yātrā pariśrama, kevala manera bhrama: "It is simply satisfying the mind." Otherwise, wherever there is Ganges, there is Yamunā, that is sacred place. Delhi also, sacred place. There is Gaṅgā. Anyway, so, we should take advantage of the knowledge of sādhu. And that is real progress. So catur-vidhā bhajante māṁ sukṛtinaḥ. Four kinds of men, they come to God, Kṛṣṇa. God means Kṛṣṇa, not ordinary... Caitanya Mahāprabhu said,
- ei rūpe brahmāṇḍa bhramite kona bhāgyavān jīva
- guru-kṛṣṇa-kṛpāya pāya bhakti-latā-bīja
- (CC Madhya 19.151)
Kṛṣṇa also says, bahūnāṁ janmanām ante jñānavān māṁ prapadyate (BG 7.19). To approach Kṛṣṇa is not so easy thing. After many, many births... We are rotating... (break) ...superintendent of this egglike aṇḍa, universe. It is all Brahmā's. And there are innumerable planets. That we can see. So we are wandering in all these places, sometimes down, sometimes up, sometimes in the middle, according to our karma, in different species of life, in different planets, in different position. So we are rotating.
Conversation with Svarupa Damodara -- June 21, 1977, Vrndavana:
Prabhupāda: (Bengali) Just see the dictionary, what is the meaning of God...
Svarūpa Dāmodara: "God: superhuman being worshiped as having power over nature and the human persons; deity..."
Prabhupāda: "Superhuman being."
Svarūpa Dāmodara: "Superhuman..."
Prabhupāda: So His body is like human being. That is admitted. (Bengali)
Svarūpa Dāmodara: It also says, "Supreme Being, creator and the ruler of the universe."
Prabhupāda: That's it.
Correspondence
1968 Correspondence
Letter to Upendra -- Los Angeles 1 March, 1968:
This nonsense statement can be refuted in full with our information from Bhagavad Gita, Srimad Bhagavatam. What, then is the definition of God? How can God become a dog? If you are God, why are you suffering, life after life? God means Supreme Controller; can you control anything? Not even your own body. What to speak of the millions of planets spinning so perfectly in their orbit. In this way, we must learn all of us, to defeat these nonsense rascals, and curtail this epidemic of Impersonalism,, which is fatal to the innocent people. We can stop this epidemic with this information of Krishna Consciousness, and it is our duty to do it.
1970 Correspondence
Letter to Syamasundara -- Los Angeles 15 April, 1970:
So God has two features of appearance—to the atheist He appears as Death and to the devotee-theist He appears as the Supreme Beloved. The hypocrite atheist says that he does not believe in God, but he cannot say that he does not believe in death. Our definition of God is that He is great. That the atheist does not believe in God means that nobody is greater than him—he is "God" himself, but he is enforced to believe that Death is greater than him. In other words, Death is the representation of God before the atheist.
Letter to Upendra -- Calcutta 29 September, 1970:
Regarding your invitations to speak at different gatherings of "yogis" etc., wherever you go speak pure Krsna Consciousness. God is One. He is All-Attractive. Therefore His technical Name is Krsna. In other words, Krsna is God and God means Krsna. So you can preach this philosophy anywhere, never mind whether it is to yogis or bhogais.
1971 Correspondence
Letter to Locanananda -- Delhi, India 8 December, 1971:
So far your questions: No one can be avatara. unless he is authorized in the scriptures. We have no such record of avatara. in the present age, according to Srimad-Bhagavatam. Real God means he accepts a spiritual master, even He is God Himself. Like Krishna, His Spiritual Master was Sandipani Muni. And Krishna confirms in Bhagavad-gita, IV, that the supreme science is only received in disciplic succession, so where is the question of receiving this knowledge in nay other way? Are these people greater authority than Krishna? As for the teachings of Sri Aurobindo, his idea is not correct.
1976 Correspondence
Letter to Mr. Dhawan -- Vrindaban 2 April, 1976:
There cannot be many gods, otherwise there is no meaning of God. In the English dictionary, you find that God means the "Supreme Being." There are unlimited number of living beings, but God is one Supreme Being. Supreme Being must be one. Nobody can be equal to Him, and nobody can be greater than Him, otherwise there is no meaning of God. At the present moment it has become a fashion to become God very cheaply, therefore, such system being very cheap and not authorized, there are so many religious systems. Otherwise, God is one, all living entities are His eternal servants, and therefore, the real religious system is to learn how to serve God.
| Page Title: | God means... |
| Compiler: | Visnu Murti, Serene |
| Created: | 25 of Sep, 2012 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=2, Lec=127, Con=62, Let=5 |
| No. of Quotes: | 196 |