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Tit for tat

Srimad-Bhagavatam

SB Canto 1

SB 1.18.30, Translation and Purport:

While leaving, the King, being so insulted, picked up a lifeless snake with his bow and angrily placed it on the shoulder of the sage. Then he returned to his palace.

The King thus treated the sage tit for tat, although he was never accustomed to such silly actions. By the will of the Lord, the King, while going away, found a dead snake in front of him, and he thought that the sage, who had coldly received him, thus might be coldly rewarded by being offered a garland of a dead snake. In the ordinary course of dealing, this was not very unnatural, but in the case of Maharaja Pariksit's dealing with a brahmana sage, this was certainly unprecedented. It so happened by the will of the Lord.

Lectures

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Lecture on BG 2.36-37 -- London, September 4, 1973:

So it is the kṣatriya. Kṣatriya means who gives protection the citizens from being hurt by the irreligious person. That is called kṣatriya. Kṣat. Kṣat means injury, and tra means deliver. Just like Mahārāja Parīkṣit. When he saw that a black man Kali was going to kill a cow, so he was going to inflict injury to the cow, and immediately Mahārāja Parīkṣit took his sword, that to give protection to the cow from the injury of black man. So that violence required. Tit for tat. One who is going to commit violence unnecessarily, the king, government, should immediately take the sword and kill that person. That is government's duty. Had it been Vedic culture prevailing now, all these persons who are unnecessarily killing the cows in the slaughterhouse, they would have been killed by the king. "You have done so sinful." So that kind of killing is pious. To give protection innocent citizen or animals from being injured by the rascals, the government or the king should take his sword and kill immediately. This kind of killing is there in the Bhagavad-gītā. Not that general killing. You can capriciously kill anyone and give the evidence, "Oh, it is Bhagavad-gītā. It is there." How... See how rascals, they are interpreting. Therefore we are presenting Bhagavad-gītā as it is, without interpreting in a rascal's way.

Lecture on BG 2.58-59 -- New York, April 27, 1966:
So Bhagavad-gītā says that yajña-śiṣṭāśinaḥ santo mucyante sarva-kilbiṣaiḥ. Sarva-kilbiṣaiḥ. Sarva-kilbiṣaiḥ. Kilbiṣa means sinful reaction, sinful reaction, "Tit for tat," good reaction or bad reaction. But one who eats after offering to the Supreme Lord, he is not under the regulation of reaction. Whatever we eat... Even we eat, that, we have got to repay for that. Now, the Sanskrit word, the flesh... Flesh, Sanskrit word, is called māṁsa. Māṁsa. The māṁsa means..., mām means "me," and sa means "he." "So I am eating some animal; so in my next life that animal will eat me." That is called māṁsa. So now, apart from animal... Don't think that those who are vegetarian, they are free from all these reaction. No. They are also. They are also. The law is that one has to repay which he is taking the help from other living entities. That is the law of karma. So either you eat vegetables or either you eat flesh, you have to repay that. But yajña-śiṣṭāśinaḥ santo mucyante sarva-kilbiṣaiḥ. The Bhagavad-gītā says that if you eat the remnants after offering sacrifice to the Lord, then you, not only you are free from all reaction, but you do not eat anything sinful. That is the direction of Bhagavad-gītā. So in every aspect of our life... This is also one of the insignificant example of our activities of our life. If we act, dovetailing our actions with the Supreme Lord, then we are free from reaction. Otherwise we are bound up by the reaction. That is the law. So in order to get myself free from all reaction of my activities... Because so long I am... Because I am living entity, I have to act. Either I act spiritually, either act materially, I have to act. My activities will not stop. It is foolishness to say that "I will stop my activities." No. That cannot be. Your activities will go on. If you don't act spiritually, then you have to act materially. And if you are fully engaged in spiritual activity, then there is no chance of material activity. Because after all, you are actor, one, if you are engaged in something. Just like in our ordinary life, if we do something at a particular moment, we cannot do other things; similarly, we have to engage ourselves fully in the spiritual life. Then our material activities will be stopped altogether, and then there will be no reaction. In spite of our acting... Just like the soldier. In spite of his killing hundreds and thousands of people, he is not to be hanged; he is to be rewarded. This is the technique.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Lecture on SB 1.8.40 -- Mayapura, October 20, 1974:
"The more we go on increasing such troublesome industries to squeeze out the vital energy of the human being, the more there will be unrest and dissatisfaction..."—that is practical—"...of the people in general, although a few only can live lavishly by exploitation." So our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is all-round. If people understand that this is a religious movement... No. Religious movement is different thing. Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement... Kṛṣṇa. It is not our manufactured ideas. Kṛṣṇa speaks in the Bhagavad-gītā to make people Kṛṣṇa conscious in every way. He's suggesting how to live, annād bhavanti bhūtāni; (BG 3.14) how the division of the society should be made, cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭaṁ guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ; (BG 4.13) everything, social, political and... Political also. He is enthusing Arjuna, "You must fight. They are... They have committed so much injustice upon you. So you must fight. Don't consider that he is your brother, he is your..." Even when Arjuna said, "Yes. This is all right. I'll fight with my enemies, but how can I kill Bhīṣmadeva? He is not my enemy. He's my maintainer, my grandfather. We lost our father at early age. He took care. How can I kill? How can I kill my teacher, Droṇācārya?" But Kṛṣṇa supported that "You must kill them." "Why?" "Because they have taken the wrong side. Because Bhīṣmadeva, in spite of his becoming so learned, still, he has gone to the side of the Duryodhana, and simply for matter of getting some money, maintenance." And actually Bhīṣmadeva went to the side of Duryodhana, considering that "These people are maintaining me. How can I give up their company at times of danger?" That is also another consideration. So similarly, Droṇācārya, although he's guru, teacher of military art, he also went to Duryodhana's side for money. So therefore... Karṇa... Nobody came to this side. So Kṛṣṇa was doing justice, that He was... This is politics, "Tit for tat." This is politics. Śaṭhe śāṭhyamācaret.(?) Cāṇakya Paṇḍita says. "If somebody is śaṭha"—śaṭha means very cunning—"so you should be also cunning." This is politics. You should not be, at that time, a brāhmaṇa, liberal. No. So the idea is that in the Bhagavad-gītā Kṛṣṇa teaches everything very rightly, properly. The whole Vedic literature is meant for that, not one-sided.
Lecture on SB 1.15.24 -- Los Angeles, December 3, 1973:

So these rascals they do not know how things are going on. Īśvarasya viceṣṭitam. "Tit for tat." There must be. If in ordinary laws, in the state laws, that if you have killed somebody you must be hanged, so do you think you can simply bluff the Supreme Authority, Kṛṣṇa, that you are going, killing, killing, killing, and you will be saved? No. You will be killed in pestilence, in famine. Even within your mother's womb, you will be killed, where it is supposed to be good protection, there also you will be killed. The human nation being degenerated in such a way, the killing business is increasing daily, daily, daily. Īśvarasya viceṣṭitam.

Lecture on SB 6.1.25 -- Honolulu, May 25, 1976:
Spiritual life means purification. So if you purify and again become unclean, that we have discussed hasti-snāna, the elephant. Elephant takes bath very nicely, and as soon as come on the shore, take some dust and throw on... Kuñjara śaucavat. Parīkṣit Mahārāja said that "What is this cleaning?" But without cleaning, your life is spoiled. If you don't clean your life, then you'll have to accept another body according to karma. We have to accept that the whole human mission is to stop this repetition of birth... They do not know. There is no science, there is no philosophy, there is no education throughout the whole world. But the aim of life is to stop these four things: birth, death, old age and disease. They cannot think of. How it can be stopped? They cannot think of. They're trying the different way—contraceptive method of killing the child. That is not how to stop this. No. Nature's law is so strong that if you kill the child in the womb then you'll be also killed. You'll be also killed. Tit for tat. There is no escape. "Life for life," just like in the law. You cannot do that. So this is very important things to understand. You are thinking very free but no, there is: prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27). Exactly. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa saṅgo 'sya (BG 13.22). Just like if you contaminate some disease, you must suffer from it. That is natural law. You cannot avoid. There is no escape. So similarly, this spiritual life, this human life is a chance that you learn how to purify yourself. That is human life. And if you don't purify yourself, you remain impure without any endeavor, then what is the difference between you and cats and dogs? There's no difference.
Lecture on SB 7.9.35 -- Mayapur, March 13, 1976:

So those who are ordinarily sinful, they can at least see the light once, but those who are very severely sinful, they're killed within the womb. They cannot see even the light coming out. There are so many cases now, it is very (indistinct) that so many children, before coming out of the womb of the mother and before seeing the light of the sun, they are killed. And after killing, after being killed, the body is finished. Then he has to be put another body. Then enters another mother's body. Again the body is developed, and again he is killed. Just imagine. This... Because if... Tit for tat. If I kill a child in the womb—"Now I am very much proud of my scientific advancement"—then I am have to be killed in my birth. That's all. You cannot avoid this nature's law. Daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā duratyayā (BG 7.14). There is very, very sūkṣma. The word is used sūkṣma, very, very fine laws. Who can see it? Ātma-yoni, so he's also not free. Although he is Lord Brahmā, he's also not free. He's perplexed: "Wherefrom I came? What is the source of my birth in darkness?" He could see only the lotus flower on which he was sitting, nothing else. Exactly our position... Just like so many scientists, they think that this world is everything, and other planets and worlds, there is no life. Only because he is there, there is life. This is the modern presentation.

Arrival Addresses and Talks

Arrival Lecture -- Dallas, March 3, 1975:

So these children... Kaumāra ācaret prājño dharmān bhāgavatān iha (SB 7.6.1). That is Prahlāda Mahārāja's instruction, that you produce children as much as you can train them to become eternally family members of Kṛṣṇa. That is spiritual contraceptive. Don't produce children like cats and dogs. This is our philosophy. If you can produce Kṛṣṇa conscious children, produce one hundred children. There is no objection. But if you cannot do that, then either don't produce children or produce children as much as you can manage. This is Kṛṣṇa philosophy. Our philosophy is not simply a negation. It is positive. They, general people, they are unnecessarily producing children, then cannot manage. So they are adopting so many sinful activities, so much so that they are now killing their own child within the womb and becoming implicated in sinful activities and prolong the life in this material world very miserably. Just see the miserable condition of the child, baby within the womb. She is... It is in the mother's womb, and the mother, at the advice of the doctor, is killing. Why? Because that child—now it is child—he did it. He killed so many other children in his previous life; now he is being killed. Not only in one womb, but he will enter another womb—he will be killed. As many children he has killed, he will be killed in this way. But they do not know. They do not know this, blind, mūḍha, that how nature's law is going on, how tit for tat is going on. They do not know it. Therefore this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is to give them right knowledge and become free from all sinful life. So long there is sinful life, you cannot be allowed to enter into Kṛṣṇa's family. That will not be allowed.

Conversations and Morning Walks

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- June 11, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: So use this. This is one of the business. Kṛṣi-go-rakṣya-vāṇijyaṁ vaiśya-karma svabhāva-jam (BG 18.44). We don't stop trade. We don't stop food, producing food grains. But we want to stop these killing houses. It is very, very sinful. Therefore in Europe, so many wars. Every ten years, fifteen years, there is a big war and wholesale slaughter of the whole human kind. And these rascals, they do not see it. The reaction must be there. You are killing innocent cows and animals. Nature will take revenge. Wait for that. As soon as the time is ripe, the nature will gather all these rascals, and club, slaughter them. Finished. They will fight amongst themselves, Protestant and Catholic, Russian and France, and France and Germany. This is going on. Why? This is the nature's law. Tit for tat. You have killed. Now you become killed. Amongst yourselves. They are being sent to the slaughterhouse. And here, you'll create slaughterhouse, "Dum! dum!" and killed, be killed. You know. You showed me?

Bhagavān: Yeah, French guillotine.

Prabhupāda: You see. As soon as there is bell, the Roman Catholics began to kill the Protestants. So this is nature's law. You don't require to be sent to the slaughterhouse. You'll make your slaughterhouse at home. You'll kill your own child. Abortion. This is nature's law. What are these children being killed? They are these meat-eaters. They enjoyed. Now they are being killed by the mother. They do not know how nature is working. You must be killed. If you kill, you must be killed. That I've discussed in this now Caitanya-caritāmṛta.

Room Conversation -- August 12, 1975, Paris (with French translator):
Prabhupāda: Just like some birds flying in the sky. The father, mother, and children, but nobody is responsible for anyone. When there is danger in the sky, you cannot give protection. Suppose one bird is hit, he is falling. The father, mother, and others, they cannot give any protection. He has to become responsible for himself. Just like the aeroplane. When the one plane is in danger, no other plane come and help it. Even if you see that the other plane is flying a few yards and if it is in fire, you cannot help. There is one nice story that one hunter was hunting birds and he spread his network. So when the children of the parent birds, they become victimized by the network. So when the parents came, they saw, "Oh, my children have been caught up by the net of the hunter." So mother became very overwhelmed. She went to rescue them and she also become victimized. Then the father was intelligent, he saw that "My children, my wife, they all have been victimized, and if I foolishly go to save them, then I will be also victimized. Let me go this way." Take sannyāsa and go. No responsibility. It is not possible when everyone is captured by the laws of nature. How you can help and what is your responsibility? So this is called māyā. The children are thinking that "My father and mother will give me protection," and the father and mother is thinking that "There is my responsibility." This is called māyā. With this false responsibility, they are packed up in a home. But when death comes, nobody can help. Nobody. This is happening every day, every moment, and still we are falsely thinking I am responsible. So what is the value of your responsibility? If you cannot give protection, then what is the value of your responsibility? There is no responsibility. The only responsibility is that I have got this human form of life. Even in this life I do not realize God, then I remain cats and dogs, that's all. This is the only responsibility. If you miss this opportunity, then I do not know what I am going to become in my next life. So gaining or losing this opportunity, that is my responsibility. If I am not responsible... (break)

But if the head, king, or president excuses him, he can save. So nobody in this material world can transcend or overcome the laws of material nature. But if one is devotee, by the mercy of Kṛṣṇa, he can. This is the sum and substance. Therefore, we have no responsibility. If we have touched fire, then it must burn. So whatever we may be, very big man, we cannot violate the laws of nature. Tit for tat we accept. So those who are violating laws of material nature, they suffer continuously. But when he takes to Kṛṣṇa's lotus feet shelter, sincerely surrendering, then he can be saved. Otherwise not. So everyone should become Kṛṣṇa conscious, and he should try to save his relatives, friends, husband, wife, children from these clutches of laws of material nature by educating him to become Kṛṣṇa conscious. That is the only responsibility. That is intelligence.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Two Lawyers and Guest -- May 22, 1975, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: Injustice.

Madhudviṣa: ...he cannot shoot a man if he gets off his chariot. And Kṛṣṇa said, "There was no mercy with Abhimanyu, so therefore there will be no mercy now."

Prabhupāda: Tit for tat. (laughter)

Guest 1: But where was the generosity then?

Prabhupāda: That is happening, tit for tat.

Guest 1: Was that generosity, or...? Where was the generosity?

Prabhupāda: No. That is war tactics. That is war tactics. Sometimes we have to use war tactics because we have to own victory. But they were generous because in the Battlefield of Kurukṣetra they would fight like anything, like enemies, but at night they were friends. The one man is going. Just like sportsman. They fight during the play, but after that, they are friends, talking together, drinking together, like that.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- August 23, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: That is most sinful activity. Birth control should be done by restrained sex life.

Indian man: That is one way.

Prabhupāda: That is the way. Other way all sinful.

Indian man: Sinful, but sinful things are being committed...

Prabhupāda: They'll suffer. They'll suffer. Those who are killing the children, they will be killed. They will enter into the mother's womb and they will be killed. They'll be punished. Tit for tat. That they do not know. This way or that way?

Indian man: This way. This way.

Prabhupāda: These rascals, they have no education about this law of nature. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27). They're acting very independently. But ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā kartāham iti manyate (BG 3.27). Rascals, ahaṅkāra, vimūḍhātmā. They are rascals. They'll be punished. Just like a thief defies the laws of government, but they are punished.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Evening Darsana -- February 15, 1977, Mayapura:

Hari-śauri: Rasagullā, yes.

Prabhupāda: If I require, I'll take. So Gandhi discovered, and the discovery was there Surendranath Ban... That they're exploiting us, so noncooperate. They are ruling over us by our cooperation, so let us noncooperate." But that is a foolish policy. Poverty-stricken country, how they can noncooperate? That was not successful, but this program, Subhash Bose's tit-for-tat, military, that was successful. They're keeping our men as soldiers and police, and by their strength they're ruling over India. And Subhash Bose made a plan—the soldiers and police will noncooperate. They'll join his INA. And when they began to join Indian National Army, these intelligent Britishers could understand, "Now it is no more possible. With whose cooperation, we shall kick?" Then they made a friendly settlement. Friendly means "Divide it so that they'll perpetually fight, and let us go."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It seems like that division was simply spiteful.

Prabhupāda: That is politics.

Room Conversation -- February 19, 1977, Mayapura:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Sometimes we did that. There was one man, very, very big demon, who was breaking up all the sales in one airport. So finally the devotees hired a professional man, and this professional watched how this man went home, and after about a month of observing him, this professional man hid himself near the man's garage, so when the man came back home—after disturbing our sales for five months—the professional beat him very severely.

Prabhupāda: That's nice.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And then he never came back again.

Prabhupāda: That's it, tit for tat.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. He never came back.

Prabhupāda: So we should adopt that means. Anyone who is opposing, give him good beating.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That's what they do.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They employ this.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- February 19, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Fight!

Hari-śauri: Then we'll have to fight.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Why not? Kill them.

Hari-śauri: Yes. If we don't get protection from the government, then what can we do?

Prabhupāda: Oh, you must kill them. Tit for tat. As soon as we detect that "Here is deprogrammer and kidnapper," kill him. Finish!

Hari-śauri: And if we go to court, then it's self-defense.

Prabhupāda: Yes. At least give him some good lesson. Yes.

Hari-śauri: Yes. Definitely.

Prabhupāda: That should be done.

Srila Prabhupada Vigil -- May 28-29, 1977, Vrndavana:

Jayapatākā: The other temples they have not even maintained. Only Caitanya Maṭha somehow or another they are maintaining, but the other branches are falling apart.

Prabhupāda: Yes. The same condition as it was. They have no life, dead body. Now it will deteriorate more and more. Tīrtha Mahārāja, envious, managing. And they will not give. So tit for tat. You can do that. Then that is very glorious. That is a different country, different law. Some way or other, if you get the sympathizer, then take it.

Page Title:Tit for tat
Compiler:Visnu Murti, Serene
Created:08 of Feb, 2013
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=1, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=7, Con=8, Let=0
No. of Quotes:16