The purport is that one should not accept as a spiritual master someone who is fool number one, who has no direction according to the scriptural injunctions, whose character is doubtful, who does not follow the principles of devotional service, or who has not conquered the influence of the six sense-gratifying agents. The six agents of sense gratification are the tongue, the genitals, the belly, anger, the mind and words. Anyone who has practiced controlling these six is permitted to make disciples all over the world. To accept such a spiritual master is the crucial point for advancement in spiritual life. One who is fortunate enough to come under the shelter of a bona fide spiritual master is sure to traverse the path of spiritual salvation without any doubt.
Spiritual salvation
Bhagavad-gita As It Is
BG Chapters 1 - 6
In the system of the varṇāśrama institution there are many principles of religious traditions to help members of the family grow properly and attain spiritual values. The elder members are responsible for such purifying processes in the family, beginning from birth to death. But on the death of the elder members, such family traditions of purification may stop, and the remaining younger family members may develop irreligious habits and thereby lose their chance for spiritual salvation. Therefore, for no purpose should the elder members of the family be slain.
The purport may be understood as follows. Humanity may be divided into two sections, namely, the regulated and the nonregulated. Those who are engaged simply in bestial sense gratifications without knowledge of their next life or spiritual salvation belong to the nonregulated section. And those who follow the principles of prescribed duties in the scriptures are classified amongst the regulated section. The nonregulated section, both civilized and noncivilized, educated and noneducated, strong and weak, are full of animal propensities. Their activities are never auspicious, because while enjoying the animal propensities of eating, sleeping, defending and mating, they perpetually remain in material existence, which is always miserable. On the other hand, those who are regulated by scriptural injunctions, and who thus rise gradually to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, certainly progress in life.
Srimad-Bhagavatam
SB Canto 1
The Vedas are the storehouse of knowledge, both material and spiritual. But such knowledge aims at perfection of self-realization. In other words, the Vedas are the guides for the civilized man in every respect. Since human life is the opportunity to get free from all material miseries, it is properly guided by the knowledge of the Vedas, in the matters of both material needs and spiritual salvation. The specific intelligent class of men who were devoted particularly to the knowledge of the Vedas were called the vipras, or the graduates of the Vedic knowledge.
His father, Vyāsadeva, was his natural spiritual master because Śukadeva Gosvāmī heard Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam from him. After this, he became completely self-satisfied. Thus he was not dependent on any formal process. The formal processes are necessary for those who are expected to reach the stage of complete liberation, but Śrī Śukadeva Gosvāmī was already in that status by the grace of his father. As a young boy he was expected to be properly dressed, but he went about naked and was uninterested in social customs. He was neglected by the general populace, and inquisitive boys and women surrounded him as if he were a madman. He thus appears on the scene while traveling on the earth of his own accord. It appears that upon the inquiry of Mahārāja Parīkṣit, the great sages were not unanimous in their decision as to what was to be done. For spiritual salvation there were many prescriptions according to the different modes of different persons. But the ultimate aim of life is to attain the highest perfectional stage of devotional service to the Lord. As doctors differ, so also sages differ in their different prescriptions. While such things were going on, the great and powerful son of Vyāsadeva appeared on the scene.
SB Canto 3
The devotees of the Lord are by nature peaceful because they have no material hankering. A liberated soul has no hankering, and therefore he has no lamentation. One who wants to possess also laments when he loses his possession. Devotees have no hankerings for material possessions and no hankerings for spiritual salvation. They are situated in the transcendental loving service of the Lord as a matter of duty, and they do not mind where they are or how they have to act. Karmīs, jñānīs and yogīs all hanker to possess some material or spiritual assets. Karmīs want material possessions, jñānīs and yogīs want spiritual possessions, but devotees do not want any material or spiritual assets. They want only to serve the Lord anywhere in the material or spiritual worlds that the Lord desires, and the Lord is always specifically compassionate towards such devotees.
Anyone who is slightly in touch with the Lord, somehow or other, is greatly benefited, even to the point of salvation, due to the excellence of the Lord. He is so kind that He awards salvation even to His enemies because they come into contact with Him and are indirectly absorbed in Him by their inimical thoughts. Actually, the demons can never be equal to the pure devotees, but Uddhava was thinking in that way because of his feelings of separation. He was thinking that at the last stage of his life he might not be able to see the Lord face to face as did the demons. The fact is that the devotees who are always engaged in the devotional service of the Lord in transcendental love are rewarded many hundreds and thousands of times more than the demons by being elevated to the spiritual planets, where they remain with the Lord in eternal, blissful existence. The demons and impersonalists are awarded the facility of merging in the brahmajyoti effulgence of the Lord, whereas the devotees are admitted into the spiritual planets. For comparison, one can just imagine the difference between floating in space and residing in one of the planets in the sky. The pleasure of the living entities on the planets is greater than that of those who have no body and who merge with the molecules of the sun's rays. The impersonalists, therefore, are no more favored than the enemies of the Lord; rather, they are both on the same level of spiritual salvation.
The Lord appears in this universe in different incarnations like Matsya, Kūrma, Varāha and Nṛsiṁha, and He manifests His different transcendental activities for the welfare of the twice-born, the cows and the demigods. The Lord is directly concerned with the twice-born or civilized men. A civilized man is one who has taken his birth twice. A living entity takes birth in this mundane world due to the union of male and female. A human being is born due to union of the father and mother, but a civilized human being has another birth by contact with a spiritual master, who becomes the actual father. The father and mother of the material body are so only in one birth, and in the next birth the father and mother may be a different couple. But the bona fide spiritual master, as the representative of the Lord, is the eternal father because the spiritual master has the responsibility to lead the disciple to spiritual salvation, or the ultimate goal of life. Therefore, a civilized man must be twice-born, otherwise he is no more than the lower animals.
It is recommended in this verse that one find a person who knows the science of God, or a tattva-vit. Tattva-vit means "one who knows the Absolute Truth." There are many pseudotranscendentalists, even at places of pilgrimage. Such men are always present, and one has to be intelligent enough to find the actual person to be consulted; then one's attempt to progress by traveling to different holy places will be successful. One has to be freed from all contamination, and at the same time he has to find a person who knows the science of Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa helps a sincere person; as stated in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta, guru-kṛṣṇa-prasāde: by the mercy of the spiritual master and Kṛṣṇa, one attains the path of salvation, devotional service. If one sincerely searches for spiritual salvation, then Kṛṣṇa, being situated in everyone's heart, gives him the intelligence to find a suitable spiritual master. By the grace of a spiritual master like Maitreya, one gets the proper instruction and advances in his spiritual life.
SB Canto 4
Lord Viṣṇu advised Mahārāja Pṛthu that a king is not enjoined to give up his kingdom and the responsibility of protecting the prajās, or citizens, to instead go away to the Himalayas for liberation. He can attain liberation while executing his royal duties. The royal duty or the duty of the head of state is to see that the prajās, or the general mass of people, are doing their respective duties for spiritual salvation. A secular state does not necessitate a king or head of state who is indifferent to the activities of the prajās. In the modern state the government has many rules and regulations for conducting the duties of the prajās, but the government neglects to see that the citizens advance in spiritual knowledge. If the government is careless in this matter, the citizens will act whimsically, without any sense of God realization or spiritual life, and thus become entangled in sinful activities.
As soon as the living entity engages in the transcendental loving service of the Lord, he immediately attains freedom from all material conditions (sa guṇān samatītyaitān brahma-bhūyāya kalpate (BG 14.26)). In the material state the living entity is on the jīva-bhūta platform, but when he renders devotional service to the Lord, he is elevated to the brahma-bhūta platform (SB 4.30.20). On the brahma-bhūta platform the living entity is liberated from material bondage, and he engages in the service of the Lord. In this verse the word dhīra is sometimes read as vīra. Actually there is not very much difference. The word dhīra means "sober," and vīra means "hero." One who is struggling against māyā is a hero, and one who is sober enough to understand his position is a dhīra. Without becoming sober or heroic, one cannot attain spiritual salvation.
SB Canto 5
The purpose of Vedic study is to transcend the activities of the three modes of material nature. Of course in the material world the mode of goodness is accepted as the best, and one can be promoted to the higher planetary systems by being on the sattva-guṇa platform. However, that is not perfection. One must come to the conclusion that even the sattva-guṇa platform is also not good. One may dream that he has become a king with a good family, wife and children, but immediately at the end of that dream he comes to the conclusion that it is false. Similarly, all kinds of material happiness are undesirable for a person who wants spiritual salvation. If a person does not come to the conclusion that he has nothing to do with any kind of material happiness, he cannot come to the platform of understanding the Absolute Truth, or tattva jñāna.
SB Canto 7
"The Vedas mainly deal with the subject of the three modes of material nature. Rise above these modes, O Arjuna. Be transcendental to all of them. Be free from all dualities and from all anxieties for gain and safety, and be established in the self." (BG 2.45) Elsewhere in Bhagavad-gītā the Lord says, ūrdhvaṁ gacchanti sattva-sthāḥ: (BG 14.18) if one becomes a very good person—in other words, if one is in the mode of goodness—he may be elevated to the higher planetary systems. Similarly, if one is infected by rajo-guṇa and tamo-guṇa, he may remain in this world or go down to the animal kingdom. But all of these situations are hindrances on the path of spiritual salvation. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu therefore says:
- brahmāṇḍa bhramite kona bhāgyavān jīva
- guru-kṛṣṇa-prasāde pāya bhakti-latā-bīja
- (CC Madhya 19.151)
If one is fortunate enough to transcend all this so-called goodness and badness and come to the platform of devotional service by the mercy of Kṛṣṇa and the guru, his life becomes successful.
SB Canto 10.1 to 10.13
Those who are interested in ātma-tattva worship the Supreme Personality of Godhead (yasmin vijñāte sarvam evaṁ vijñātaṁ bhavati) (Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad 1.3). However, as explained in the next verse of this chapter, those who cannot understand ātma-tattva (apaśyatām ātma-tattvam) worship Yogamāyā in her different features. Therefore Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (2.1.2) says:
- śrotavyādīni rājendra
- nṛṇāṁ santi sahasraśaḥ
- apaśyatām ātma-tattvaṁ
- gṛheṣu gṛha-medhinām
"Those persons who are materially engrossed, being blind to the knowledge of ultimate truth, have many subject matters for hearing in human society, O Emperor." Those who are interested in remaining in this material world and are not interested in spiritual salvation have many duties, but for one who is interested in spiritual salvation, the only duty is to surrender fully unto Kṛṣṇa (sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66)). Such a person is not interested in material enjoyment.
Because Kṛṣṇa and His energy appeared simultaneously, people have generally formed two groups—the śāktas and the Vaiṣṇavas—and sometimes there is rivalry between them. Essentially, those who are interested in material enjoyment are śāktas, and those interested in spiritual salvation and attaining the spiritual kingdom are Vaiṣṇavas. Because people are generally interested in material enjoyment, they are interested in worshiping Māyādevī, the energy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Vaiṣṇavas, however, are śuddha-śāktas, or pure bhaktas, because the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra indicates worship of the Supreme Lord's energy, Harā. A Vaiṣṇava prays to the energy of the Lord for the opportunity to serve the Lord along with His spiritual energy. Thus Vaiṣṇavas all worship such Deities as Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa, Sītā-Rāma, Lakṣmī-Nārāyaṇa and Rukmiṇī-Dvārakādhīśa, whereas durgā-śāktas worship the material energy under different names.
Other Books by Srila Prabhupada
Nectar of Devotion
Lectures
Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures
Now, the first thing is in the sacrifice according to the Vedic rites, there are five principle factors. What are those? There is sacrificial fire, altar, and the person who is offering the... Generally, in the sacrifice grains and butter, clarified butter, is offered. So the sacrificial altar, fire, and the offering ingredients, grains and clarified butter, and the person who is offering sacrifice, three, and the result and the performer. These five things are there in the matter of sacrifice. Now, Kṛṣṇa says that if the five things are transformed into Kṛṣṇa consciousness or Brahman realization, then the result will be that the man who is performing that sacrifice is sure to attain his spiritual salvation and go back to Godhead.
Brahmārpaṇam brahma havir. And the thing which we are sacrificing, we have to understand that the things belong to the Supreme Brahman. Brahmārpaṇaṁ brahma havir brahmāgnau. And the fire which is on the altar, that is to be understood as the energy of the Supreme Brahman. And brahmaṇā hutam. And the person who is offering the sacrifice, he is also part and parcel of the Supreme Brahman. In this way, if we offer sacrifice, then brahmaiva tena gantavyam. The person who is offering such sacrifice is sure to attain spiritual salvation. This is brahma-karma-samādhinā. And the performance is just according to the Vedic injunction. So in this way, if we, I mean to say, execute the duties of our living condition, then the result will be that at the end we shall be attaining Brahman. And the whole process is called Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
Yoga is also recognized, but that was meant for in the Satya-yuga when all people were very much all virtuous, cent percent virtuous. There was no, I mean to say, sinful men at all. Now, as the age advanced, in the Tretā-yuga there was seventy-five percent virtuous and twenty-five percent sinful. In the Dvāpara-yuga, fifty percent virtuous and fifty percent sinful. And in this age, Kali-yuga, almost cent percent sinful, although it is calculated in the śāstra that seventy-five percent are sinful and twenty-five percent are...
That you can see how many percentage are going to join our saṅkīrtana movement. We can see from the audience. You see? So it is difficult, but it is the fact. If we perform this sacrifice nicely, according to the rules recommended by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, we are sure to get salvation. Niścitam. Niścitam means sure. So let us perform this sacrifice with patience and perseverance, with steadiness, and then surely we shall achieve the desired result, spiritual salvation, which is that... It is stated, brahmaiva tena gantavyam. The whole thing is meant for go back to home, go back to Godhead. That is the whole thing.
Now, He explains that manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu kaścid yatati siddhaye: (BG 7.3) "Out of many, many thousands of people, a few people may try how to get spiritual salvation." Not all. Everyone is not expected to hanker after spiritual salvation. That requires also many, many years qualification. So manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu. After many... Out of many, many thousands of people, one is very much anxious for spiritual realization. And then Lord Kṛṣṇa says, yatatām api siddhānām (BG 7.3). And out of many perfected spiritualists, some may know what is Kṛṣṇa. Just try to understand. First of all out of many, many, many thousands of people, who wants to have perfection in spiritual life, then those persons who have attained such perfection, out of them, one or two may understand what is Kṛṣṇa.
If we can find out such a person who is experienced in the Absolute Truth, and if we follow the principles, as it is stated here, praṇipātena paripraśnena sevayā. Praṇipāta means to surrender, and paripraśna means to inquire, and sevayā means service. Three things. You should find out a person who is self-realized, who has experience in the Absolute Truth, and, on your part, you have to surrender there, and you have to inquire, and you have to render service. When these things are completed, there is no doubt about one's spiritual salvation. If we have actually found out a person who is self-realized and we have surrendered there honestly, with inquiry and service, then we must know that our spiritual salvation is guaranteed. Guaranteed. There is no doubt about it.
Prabhupāda: So those who are interested in spiritual salvation, they need not worship other demigods, but those who are interested for material profit, they can worship demigods. Yajante anya-devatāḥ. Karmaṇā... There is a verse. Just to have immediate result of material profit, the Vedas recommend, "All right, you worship this demigod, that demigod." So our concern is we don't want any material profit; we want Kṛṣṇa. Therefore we do not require to worship demigods.
Indian guest (5): But why not Viṣṇu?
Prabhupāda: Viṣṇu and Kṛṣṇa the same. Viṣṇu and Kṛṣṇa the same. Kṛṣṇa is viṣṇu-tattva.
Therefore our only duty is to think of Kṛṣṇa, Puruṣottama, so that we may die at any moment, but we become spiritual salvation. This is our only duty. We have no other duty. How to remember Kṛṣṇa twenty-four hours? That is the greatest process of yoga perfection. Yoginām api sarveṣāṁ mad-gatenāntar-ātmanā. Mad-gatenāntar-ātmanā: (BG 6.47) "Always thinking of Me, he is first-class yogi." So this Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra is so nice that as soon as you chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, you immediately remember Kṛṣṇa. You go on chanting; that means remembering. So in chanting, chanting, if there is death, so I am remembering Kṛṣṇa. What is my fear? I am going to Kṛṣṇa, back to home, back to Godhead. It is so nice.
Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures
In this age people are generally, seventy-five or eighty percent or ninety percent, they are all sinful. Mandāḥ sumanda-matayo manda-bhāgyā hy upadrutāḥ (SB 1.1.10). This is the position of the people in this age. They are mandāḥ, all bad, all bad. You cannot distinguish who is bad and who is good. All bad and very slow. They do not know what is the value of life, how to make this human form of life successful. Mandāḥ. Just like we are chanting all over the whole world that "Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra and you will be happy." Still, they are not very much interested. Mandāḥ, slow: "All right, I shall do it at the time of death. Now let me enjoy." Mandāḥ. And manda-matayo. And if one is interested for spiritual advancement of life, he will go to some rascal, some avatāra, some yogi, some bluffer, some magician, as spiritual salvation. Mandaḥ manda-matayo. Why they are attracted by these rascals? Manda-bhāgyā, unfortunate. Kṛṣṇa says directly, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). They will not hear Kṛṣṇa. They will hear these rascals, so-called yogis, so-called avatāras, so-called mahātmās. Manda-bhāgyāḥ. Therefore upadrutāḥ. They are always, constantly, disturbed. This is the position.
Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures
So, sabe eḍāila mātra kāśīra māyāvādī. Māyāvādī means materialist. Māyā means this matter, and vādī means those who stick to this principle of material... There are different kinds of materialists. Because we should always know that up to the point of intelligence, it is matter. First point is the senses, the gross. The grossest type of materialist is that they are addicted to sense gratification. So this is materialist. And above this, there are mental speculators. They are also materialists because mind is matter. So the sense gratifiers and the mental speculationists, and those who are trying to reach spiritual perfection by bodily exercise... Because body is not at all spirit; it is matter. But by intellectually, by making proper adjustment... Just the only benefit of such exercises is to concentrate the mind. The mind is very disturbed. So that is also materialist. That means jñānī, yogi and karmī. Karmī means those who are working very hard day and night simply for sense gratification. That's all. They are called karmīs. And jñānī means they are finding out solution by mental speculation. And yogi means they are trying to find out spiritual salvation by bodily exercises. They are all, in strict sense, they are all materialist. There is no question of spiritualist. Spiritualism (means) there where one understands that what is the constitutional position of spirit and act according to that. Therefore bhakti, this devotional service, is only spiritualism because those who are devotees, they know that they are eternally part and parcel of the Supreme Lord, and therefore to be engaged in transcendental loving service of the Supreme Lord is spiritualism.
If you take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, if you simply try to understand Kṛṣṇa, then the whole problem solved. What is the problem solved? Tyaktvā deham, this body we have to give up. Because it is material body, you must have to give up. But those who are Kṛṣṇa consciousness, in the..., after giving up this body, no more material body. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti (BG 4.9). Punar janma means next birth. If you accept a material body, then there is question of next birth. But if you remain in your spiritual body, there is no question of next birth. That is spiritual salvation or liberation. If you remain in your spiritual body, then you go back to home, back to Godhead. Kṛṣṇa is complete spiritual body. The kingdom of God is also spiritual, and you go there, and you live there eternally. Tyaktvā deham. Yad gatvā na nivartante tad dhāmaṁ paramaṁ mama (BG 15.6). Where going you do not come back again to this material world. That is the supreme abode of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
Festival Lectures
So Balarāma... In the Vedic literature it is said, nāyam ātmā bala-hinena labhyaḥ; na bahunā śrutena. So bala means strength. Sometimes some rascal philosophers, they take it that bala means bodily strength. They propagate this philosophy that "Unless you are bodily stout and strong, you cannot achieve spiritual salvation. You must be very strong and stout and eat meat and fight, and then you'll get next spiritual birth" No. This bala, this strength, is different. This is spiritual strength.
So there is a huge plan and huge scheme. Therefore we have to follow the footsteps of the mahājanas. As it is stated here, that dvādaśaite vijānīmo dharmaṁ bhāgavataṁ bhaṭāḥ. He said that "We, the selected mahājanas, representatives of Kṛṣṇa, we know what is bhāgavata-dharma, what is Kṛṣṇa dharma." Dvādaśa. Dvādaśa. The dvādaśa means twelve names, already mentioned: svayambhūr nāradaḥ śambhuḥ... (SB 6.3.20). I have explained. So Yamarāja said, "Only we, these twelve men, representatives of Kṛṣṇa, we know what is bhāgavata-dharma." Dvādaśaite vijānīmaḥ. Vijānīmaḥ means "we know." Dharmaṁ bhāgavataṁ bhaṭāḥ, guhyaṁ viśuddhaṁ durbodhaṁ yaṁ jñātvāmṛtam aśnute. "We know." Therefore it is advised, mahājano yena gataḥ sa panthāḥ (CC Madhya 17.186). These mahājanas, as they have prescribed, that is the real way for understanding Kṛṣṇa, or spiritual salvation (service?).
If we associate with rajo-guṇa and tamo-guṇa, then our desires will be lusty and greediness. Kāma-lobhādayaś ca. Tato rajas-tamo-bhāva kāma-lobhādayaś ca. And if we increase our sattva-guṇa quality, then this kāma-lobhādaya, these two things, will not touch us. We may be little aloof from kāma-lobha. So if in the sattva-guṇa... This is stated in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam:
- śṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṇaḥ
- puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtanaḥ
- hṛdy antaḥ-stho hy abhadrāṇi
- vidhunoti suhṛtsatām
- (SB 1.2.17)
So we have to transcend all these three qualities, sattva-guṇa, rajo-guṇa, tamo-guṇa, especially rajo-guṇa, tamo-guṇa. If we do not try to do that, then there is no hope of spiritual salvation or liberation from the material entanglement. But in the Kali-yuga there is no practically sattva-guṇa, simply rajas, rajo-guṇa, tamo-guṇa, especially tamo-guṇa. Jaghanya-guṇa-vṛtti-sthaḥ (BG 14.18). Kalau śūdra-sambhavaḥ. Therefore Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu spread this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra.
General Lectures
Anyathā means other process. Anyathā. Because we are chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, it does not mean that we are condemning other process. No. The other process is there in the scriptures and authoritative scriptures. But other process is not possible to be practiced in this age. Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu says, kalau, "In this age," nāsty eva nāsty eva, "it is..., there is no possibility to practice other process." Nāsty eva nāsty eva, three times. Just like if I say three times, "It is not possible, not possible, not possible," that means to confirm it, three times. Caitanya Mahāprabhu says, nāsty eva nāsty eva nāsty eva: "It is not possible, not possible, not possible." Gatir anyathā: "There is no other alternative." If you are at all seriously, I mean to say, interested for spiritual salvation, then this is the process. This is the process.
So we have to follow the prescribed process. There are different processes mentioned in the Vedic literature that kṛte yad dhyāyato viṣṇu (SB 12.3.52). Kṛte means in the Satya-yuga. There is no English translation, what is called Satya-yuga, but people have got imagination, "Golden Age," or something like that. Satya-yuga. Satya-yuga means cent percent people are pure. And Tretā-yuga means seventy-five percent people are pure and twenty-five percent impure. And Dvāpara-yuga means half and half-half pure, half impure. And Kali-yuga means almost impure. Impure. Ninety-nine percent impure. This is Kali-yuga. So, for spiritual salvation, for transcendental realization, it is said when... Kṛte yad dhyāyato viṣṇu. When people were cent percent pure, at that time, the process of meditation was successful, because this meditation requires fully purification of the body. Otherwise, simply closing your eyes, if you meditate and sleep... I've seen, practically. They are meditating (snores). I have seen. Perhaps you have also seen. Yes. Because it is naturally. If you close your eyes and you have nothing to do, oh, naturally you'll be, feel sleepy. And you'll feel sleepy and go on. You see? So this is not possible. Therefore śāstra says, kṛte yad dhyāyato viṣṇu. The meditation of Viṣṇu was possible in the Golden Age when everyone, cent percent, people were pure.
Purports to Songs
So śravaṇaṁ kīrtanam, first hearing and then chanting. And hearing and chanting about whom? About Viṣṇu, not for any nonsense. Śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ (SB 7.5.23). These things are stated in the śāstra. The ordinary people, they are also engaged in hearing and chanting. They are hearing in the newspaper of some politician, and the whole day they are discussing and chanting, "Oh, this man is going to be elected. This man is going to be elected." So hearing and chanting is there everywhere. But if you want spiritual salvation, then you have to hear and chant about Viṣṇu, nobody else. Śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ.
Correspondence
1947 to 1965 Correspondence
I am therefore thinking of bringing a Sankirtana party from India but I do not know how to do it. Unless there is an organized party or association it is very difficult to do it. The Rama Krishna Mission here is busy in preaching a misrepresentation and therefore practically they have failed to preach the real cult of India. The so called Yogis also could not establish the real cult of Bhagavad-gita. They are after material gains. The Bhagavata Cult is not there at all although it is the only remedy for raising the people in the world in the path of self realization and spiritual salvation.
| Page Title: | Spiritual salvation |
| Compiler: | Visnu Murti, Kanupriya, Labangalatika |
| Created: | 15 of Jan, 2008 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=2, SB=12, CC=0, OB=1, Lec=16, Con=0, Let=1 |
| No. of Quotes: | 32 |