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Tabernacle

Bhagavad-gita As It Is

BG Chapters 1 - 6

BG 5.25, Purport:

A person engaged only in ministering to the physical welfare of human society cannot factually help anyone. Temporary relief of the external body and the mind is not satisfactory. The real cause of one's difficulties in the hard struggle for life may be found in one's forgetfulness of his relationship with the Supreme Lord. When a man is fully conscious of his relationship with Kṛṣṇa, he is actually a liberated soul, although he may be in the material tabernacle.

Srimad-Bhagavatam

SB Canto 1

SB 1.3.29, Purport:

In the Bhagavad-gītā the Personality of Godhead has declared that anyone who knows the principles of the transcendental birth and activities of the Lord will go back to Godhead after being relieved from this material tabernacle. So simply knowing factually the mysterious way of the Lord's incarnation in this material world can liberate one from material bondage. Therefore the birth and activities of the Lord, as manifested by Him for the welfare of the people in general, are not ordinary. They are mysterious, and only by one who carefully tries to go deep into the matter by spiritual devotion is the mystery discovered. Thus the knower is relieved of all miseries. In other words, one gets liberation from material bondage. It is advised therefore that one who simply recites this chapter of Bhāgavatam, describing the appearance of the Lord in different incarnations, in sincerity and devotion, can have insight into the birth and activities of the Lord.

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta

CC Adi-lila

CC Adi 2.103, Purport:

The internal potency of the Lord, which is called cit-śakti or antaraṅga-śakti, exhibits variegatedness in the transcendental Vaikuṇṭha cosmos. Besides ourselves, there are unlimited numbers of liberated living beings who associate with the Personality of Godhead in His innumerable features. The material cosmos displays the external energy, in which the conditioned living beings are provided all liberty to go back to the Personality of Godhead after leaving the material tabernacle. The Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad (6.8) informs us:

na tasya kāryaṁ karaṇaṁ ca vidyate
na tat-samaś cābhyadhikaś ca dṛśyate
parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate
svābhāvikī jñāna-bala-kriyā ca

(Cc. Madhya 13.65, purport)

"The Supreme Lord is one without a second. He has nothing to do personally, nor does He have material senses. No one is equal to Him or greater than Him. He has unlimited, variegated potencies of different names, which exist within Him as autonomous attributes and provide Him full knowledge, power and pastimes."

CC Adi 4.62, Purport:

The pastimes and manifestations of the Lord in the material world are therefore not at all material; they belong to the pure transcendental state. The Bhagavad-gītā confirms that anyone who understands the transcendental nature of the Lord's appearance, activities and disappearance becomes eligible for freedom from material bondage upon quitting the present material tabernacle. He can enter the spiritual kingdom to associate with the Supreme Personality of Godhead and reciprocate the hlādinī potency in transactions between him and the Lord. In the mundane mode of goodness there are tinges of passion and ignorance. Therefore mundane goodness, being mixed, is called miśra-sattva. But the transcendental variegatedness of viśuddha-sattva is completely free from all mundane qualities. Viśuddha-sattva is therefore the proper atmosphere in which to experience the Personality of Godhead and His transcendental pastimes. Spiritual variegatedness is eternally independent of all material conditions and is nondifferent from the Supreme Personality of Godhead, both being absolute.

Other Books by Srila Prabhupada

Easy Journey to Other Planets

Easy Journey to Other Planets Preface:

A complete absorption in bhāva, or love of God, makes one fit to be transferred to the spiritual sky just after leaving the material tabernacle. The perfection of love of God by a devotee actually situates him on the spiritual platform, even though he may still maintain a gross material body. He becomes like a red-hot iron which, when in contact with fire, actually ceases to be iron and acts like fire. These things are made possible by the Lord's inscrutable and inconceivable energy, which material science has not the scope to calculate. One should therefore engage himself in devotional service with absolute faith, and to make his faith steadfast one should seek the association of the standard devotees of the Lord by personal association (if possible) or by thinking of them. This association will help one develop factual devotional service to the Lord, which will cause all material misgivings to disappear like a flash of lightning. All these different stages of spiritual realization will be personally felt by the candidate, and this will create in him a firm belief that he is making positive progress on the way to the spiritual sky. Then he will become sincerely attached to the Lord and His abode. Such is the gradual process of evolving love of God, which is the prime necessity for the human form of life.

Message of Godhead

Message of Godhead 2:

Among the beasts, the cow is the embodiment of this same mode of goodness. The elephant and the lion are embodiments of the passionate mode of nature, while the dog and the caṇḍāla (dog-eater) are the embodiments of nature's mode of darkness, or ignorance. However, instead of focusing on the various external tabernacles of these living entities (their embodiments under various modes of nature), with his absolute vision the karma-yogī penetrates to the spirit which is embodied therein. And because this infinitesimal spirit emanates from the infinite Supreme Spirit, the karma-yogī in the highest state can observe everyone and everything with equanimity. Such a karma-yogī views everything in relation to the Absolute, and therefore he engages everything in the transcendental service of the Absolute. He observes all living entities as so many transcendental servitors of the absolute Godhead, Śrī Kṛṣṇa. His perfect spiritual vision cannot but penetrate the encagement of every material body, just as a red-hot iron cannot but burn everything that it contacts.

Sri Isopanisad

Sri Isopanisad 7, Purport:

There is no clash of interest.

The spiritual entities are meant for enjoyment, as stated in the Vedānta-sūtra (1.1.12): ānanda-mayo 'bhyāsāt. By nature and constitution, every living being—including the Supreme Lord and each of His parts and parcels—is meant for eternal enjoyment. The living beings who are encaged in the material tabernacle are constantly seeking enjoyment, but they are seeking it on the wrong platform. Apart from the material platform is the spiritual platform, where the Supreme Being enjoys Himself with His innumerable associates. On that platform there is no trace of material qualities, and therefore that platform is called nirguṇa. On the nirguṇa platform there is never a clash over the object of enjoyment. Here in the material world there is always a clash between different individual beings because here the proper center of enjoyment is missed. The real center of enjoyment is the Supreme Lord, who is the center of the sublime and spiritual rāsa dance. We are all meant to join Him and enjoy life with one transcendental interest and without any clash.

Lectures

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Lecture on BG 2.8-12 -- Los Angeles, November 27, 1968:

There is no possibility. This voidism, impersonalism, they are artificial ways of negating the perplexing variegatedness of this material existence. That is the negative side only. That is not a positive side. A positive side is that, as Kṛṣṇa says, tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti kaunteya (BG 4.9). "After giving up this material tabernacle, one comes to Me." Just like after leaving this room, you have to enter another room. You cannot say that "After leaving this room, I shall live in the sky." Similarly, after leaving this body, if you go to Kṛṣṇa in the spiritual kingdom, your individuality will be there, but you'll have that spiritual body. When there is spiritual body there is no perplexities. Just like your body is different from the body of the aquatics. The aquatics, they have no disturbance in the water because their body is made like that. They can live there peacefully. You cannot live. Similarly, the fishes, if you take them out of the water, they cannot live. Similarly, because you are spirit soul, you cannot live peacefully in this material world.

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

Prabhupāda: Yes, just change the consciousness and everything will be clear. Just change the consciousness. Real treatment is to get him Kṛṣṇa conscious. That is real treatment. Yes.

Revatīnandana: "When a man is fully conscious of his relationship with Kṛṣṇa, he is actually a liberated soul, although he may be in the material tabernacle."

Prabhupāda: That's all right. So please try to push on this movement as far as possible. That is our duty. (devotees pay obeisances)

Devotee (1): Vīrabhadra has a question.

Vīrabhadra: You said that, um...You said that there are many living entities in the temple and that they can hear. You said that they can hear. But...

Prabhupāda: They can eat also. Your Kṛṣṇa prasādam left, they come and eat.

Vīrabhadra: But a snake, he doesn't have ears. The snake doesn't have ears.

Prabhupāda: Who says?

Lecture on BG 6.21-27 -- New York, September 9, 1966:

This requires little intelligence. I am thinking that "I am enjoying with my sense organs," but you are not enjoying. The real enjoyer is that small spiritual spark within you. That spiritual spark has got the potency of enjoyment, but that is not being manifested on account of being covered by this material tabernacle, and therefore this enjoyment is not perfect.

This requires little intelligence, that "Where is the enjoyment for the dead body?" The dead body no more can enjoy. Suppose if a man is offered a dead body of a beautiful woman, will he accept? Or a woman is offered the dead body of a beautiful man, will she accept? No. Because that enjoying spark is moved now. That requires intelligence. Who is enjoying? Who is enjoying? The enjoying, the enjoying spirit. The spirit is enjoying, not this body. That requires intelligence. Then again... Now, if that spirit is enjoying, then the spirit must have enjoying senses also. Otherwise how it can enjoy? If you have no enjoying sense organ, then how you can enjoy?

Lecture on BG 6.21-27 -- New York, September 9, 1966:

This body is just like dress. When we speak of dress, the dress is made according to your body. If you go to a tailor, the tailor will take measurements of your body and the dress will be supplied to you, fit. Similarly, unless that spiritual spark has got body, how this, I mean to say, dress of this material tabernacle has grown? This requires intelligence.

So the conclusion is that that spiritual spark is not impersonal. It is actually personal. The soul is actual person. As God is actual, personal, similarly, because we are part and parcel of the Supreme, therefore, if I am a person, then God must be person. God is the father of everyone. Now, if I am the son—I have got personality; I have got individuality—how can you deny the individuality and personality of the Supreme Lord? So these things require intelligence. Intelligence. Sukham ātyantikaṁ yat tat buddhi-grāhyam atīndriyam (BG 6.21). Atīndriyam. Atīndriyam means you have to transcend these material senses. Then you can actually appreciate what is happiness.

Lecture on BG 9.1 -- Melbourne, April 19, 1976:

The definition of God is given there, īśvaraḥ paramaḥ. The Supreme Being is Kṛṣṇa. Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ (Bs. 5.1). And He is... Vigraha means He has form. He is person, sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha. But His person, His form, is different from our form, our present form. Our present form, as we have got the material tabernacle, that is temporary. Your form, my form, this is changing. We are not existing in the same form.

Just like we have got this form, human form of life. It is not permanently I shall be able to enjoy. Just like you have got a particular dress now. It is not permanent. You can change your dress any moment. Similarly, this body, material body, is considered... Actual fact... It will not endure. We'll have to change. Therefore it is not sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha. But Kṛṣṇa's form is sac-cid-ānanda. Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ (Bs. 5.1). Vigraha means form. So everyone has got form. There are 8,400,000 forms of living entity. In the water there are 900,000 forms. Jalajā nava-lakṣāṇi sthāvarā lakṣa-viṁśati.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Lecture on SB 1.2.5 -- New Vrindaban, September 4, 1972:

There are different types of living entities, and the learned brāhmaṇa is considered to be the topmost. Vidyā-vinaya-sampanne brāhmaṇe gavi (BG 5.18), a cow, hasti, an elephant, śuni, the dog, śva-pāka, caṇḍāla, dog-eater. There are different varieties of living entities, but one who is paṇḍita, learned, he sees everyone on the same level. Why? He does not see the outward tabernacle; he sees the soul within everyone. Brahma-darśanam. Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā na śocati na kāṅkṣati (BG 18.54). So that brahma-darśanam is possible when actually one is contact with Brahman, the Supreme. Therefore the central point is missing. And everyone is manufacturing his own way of spiritual knowledge. Therefore the whole world is in a turmoil, confusion. So in this point all the sages assembled in Naimiṣāraṇya for discussing Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and this took place after the departure of Lord Kṛṣṇa. Lord Kṛṣṇa was present on this planet five thousand years ago, and after His departure, the Bhāgavata discussion was going on at Naimiṣāraṇya.

Lecture on SB 1.2.19 -- Los Angeles, August 22, 1972:

Then you will be able to see everyone on the spiritual platform. Paṇḍitāḥ sama-darśinaḥ (BG 5.18). Then you are learned. You are seeing the cats and dogs and a human being, a learned man, because you don't see the dress, outward covering, tabernacle, but you see, "Here is a spirit soul, part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa." That is universal brotherhood. Not by passing resolution with the United Nations and fighting. That is not possible. You have to come to the stage of spiritual platform; then there is question of love, brotherhood, equality, fraternity, otherwise, all bogus propaganda. It's not possible. Samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu mad-bhaktiṁ labhate parām (BG 18.54). Then real, pure devotional service begins. Then we become completely fit to serve Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa accepts your service at that time.

This is the process, but if we follow the rules and regulations given by spiritual master, śāstra, then gradually, gradually... Therefore we should be very careful. We should be very cautious that māyā may not attack us.

Lecture on SB 2.2.5 -- Los Angeles, December 2, 1968:

They are under different designations, that's all. Different living entities means under different designations. That's all. And when that designation is off, then he's Kṛṣṇa's. That's all. Actually he is Kṛṣṇa's, but under different designations he has got different bodies. So if we place ourself in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, in spite of this designated body, still we become purified. Jīvan-muktaḥ sa ucyate. He's liberated even living within this material tabernacle. Īhā yasya harer dāsye. If anyone fixes his mind up to the service of Kṛṣṇa, then in whatever condition he may be, he is a liberated person. Simply we have to fix up that we shall simply execute business of Kṛṣṇa. That's all. All right. Thank you. Now chant. Who is this child? (kīrtana) Distribute from the end there, just. Yes. That's all.

Philosophy Discussions

Philosophy Discussion on William James:

Prabhupāda: That they have to understand through Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is a fact. Not as yet. Because they do not know the verse in the Bhagavad-gītā that "You are not proprietor." Neither you are Chinese, neither you are Americans. This they have to know. That is Caitanya Mahāprabhu, nāhaṁ vipra na ca narapati. He does not identify Himself with this tabernacle identifications, with this body.

Śyāmasundara: So where we differ from James is that we say that the truth exists, and it is revealed to a person...

Prabhupāda: As he becomes...

Śyāmasundara: ...as he experiences it.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Or as he becomes wiser.

Śyāmasundara: Yes.

Prabhupāda: He is born fool. Either Mr. James or Mr. something, they are all born fools.

Conversations and Morning Walks

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- April 15, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: No, samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu means he knows that everyone is spirit soul, part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa, and this body is simply external tabernacle. That is samaḥ sarveṣu.

Dr. Patel: Not visualizing the presence of God everywhere?

Prabhupāda: Presence of God is there. When God's part and parcel... (Hindi) This is vision. (Hindi) ...ninety million miles away... (Hindi)

Dr. Patel: Sir, this one question is asked by many people, that "How God can have aṁśas? He is perfect. He cannot be divided into multiple parts."

Prabhupāda: He is not divided.

Dr. Patel: That is what I say.

Prabhupāda: No, that is foolishness.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 21, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Rāmeśvara: And also later missionaries went all over the world alone, to Africa, all countries of the world, converting people, although it was very difficult. So they had a very good missionary spirit formerly. When I went to Fiji I saw many Christian churches in Fiji. Right next door to the house where Vasudeva lives there is a Christian tabernacle, and they wake up every morning at 4:30 and they have hymns-same practice as we have, but it's Christian hymns.

Hari-śauri: Along with all, that, though, they're allowed to please their senses in any way that they like. So their teaching doesn't really have much benefit for anyone. They're still doing all kinds of sinful activity. Now their idea is that if you accept Jesus, it means that you can carry on doing as many sinful activities as you like, but Jesus is going to take all the sinful reaction.

Rāmeśvara: Yes. "He died for us, so why should we suffer?" (laughter)

Prabhupāda: Jesus Christ is the contractor. They say that "Our religion is very good. If you simply have faith in Jesus Christ, we can do anything."

Correspondence

1973 Correspondence

Letter to Jayapataka, Bhavananda -- Los Angeles 9 May, 1973:

Regarding keeping the Mohammedans in our temple I have no objection provided they follow or rules and regulations. Our philosophy is that we are not this body, outer tabernacle, but one must stick to our principles and live with us like other devotees. The difficulty will be the Mohammadans will not agree to shave their heads and beards. Our principle is anyone can live with us provided he becomes clean shaved, dresses like us, follows the regulative principles and chants the beads regularly. So you can let me know what is the reaction on the Mohammedan side to these conditions. Most of my students are coming from the Christian and Jewish groups but because they agreed to follow our principles there was no difficulty to organize the society. Similarly Mohammedan or anyone else who has no objection to our principles is welcome.

Page Title:Tabernacle
Compiler:Visnu Murti, RupaManjari
Created:22 of Dec, 2010
Totals by Section:BG=1, SB=1, CC=2, OB=3, Lec=9, Con=2, Let=1
No. of Quotes:19