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Unavoidable

Bhagavad-gita As It Is

BG Chapters 1 - 6

BG 2.27, Translation:

One who has taken his birth is sure to die, and after death one is sure to take birth again. Therefore, in the unavoidable discharge of your duty, you should not lament.

BG 2.31, Purport:

When one is liberated, one's sva-dharma—specific duty—becomes spiritual and is not in the material bodily concept. In the bodily conception of life there are specific duties for the brāhmaṇas and kṣatriyas respectively, and such duties are unavoidable. Sva-dharma is ordained by the Lord,

Srimad-Bhagavatam

SB Canto 1

SB 1.8.25, Purport:

Less intelligent persons prepare plans to adjust to those calamities without knowing that the nature of this place is itself full of calamities. They have no information of the abode of the Lord, which is full of bliss and without trace of calamity. The duty of the sane person, therefore, is to be undisturbed by worldly calamities, which are sure to happen in all circumstances. Suffering all sorts of unavoidable misfortunes, one should make progress in spiritual realization because that is the mission of human life.

SB 1.13.33, Purport:

As a pious man, Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira took into account all his unavoidable misdeeds, and he never thought of the misdeeds of his uncle and company. Dhṛtarāṣṭra had suffered the effects of his own misdeeds by the will of the Lord, but Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira was thinking only of his own unavoidable misdeeds. That is the nature of a good man and devotee of the Lord. A devotee never finds fault with others, but tries to find his own and thus rectify them as far as possible.

SB 1.15.17, Purport:

In the warfield, scarcity of water is a well-known fact. Water is very rare there, and both the animals and men, working strenuously on the warfield, constantly require water to quench their thirst. Especially wounded soldiers and generals feel very thirsty at the time of death, and it sometimes so happens that simply for want of water one has to die unavoidably. But such scarcity of water was solved in the Battle of Kurukṣetra by means of boring the ground.

SB Canto 3

SB 3.14.19, Purport:

A family man has a responsibility to perform five kinds of sacrifices, called pañca-yajña, in order to get relief from all kinds of unavoidable sinful reaction incurred in the course of his affairs. When a man becomes qualitatively like the cats and dogs, he forgets his duties in cultivating spiritual values, and thus he accepts his wife as a sense gratificatory agency.

SB 3.14.36, Purport:

Lord Śiva is the worshipable lord of all women. He is naturally very kind towards women, on whom even the uncivilized hunters also show their mercy. Since Lord Śiva is himself associated with women, he knows very well their defective nature, and he might not take very seriously Diti's unavoidable offense, which occurred due to her faulty nature. Every virgin girl is supposed to be a devotee of Lord Śiva. Diti remembered her childhood worship of Lord Śiva and begged his mercy.

SB Cantos 10.14 to 12 (Translations Only)

SB 10.50.32-33, Translation:

Jarāsandha, whom fighters had highly honored, was ashamed after being released by the two Lords of the universe, and thus he decided to undergo penances. On the road, however, several kings convinced him with both spiritual wisdom and mundane arguments that he should give up his idea of self-abnegation. They told him, "Your defeat by the Yadus was simply the unavoidable reaction of your past karma."

SB 10.74.31, Translation:

(Śiśupāla said:) The statement of the Vedas that time is the unavoidable controller of all has indeed been proven true, since the intelligence of wise elders has now become diverted by the words of a mere boy.

SB 11.23.40, Translation:

The brāhmaṇa understood that all his suffering—from other living beings, from the higher forces of nature and from his own body—was unavoidable, being allotted to him by providence.

Other Books by Srila Prabhupada

Renunciation Through Wisdom

Renunciation Through Wisdom 1.9:

The aim of all sacrifices should be to please the Supreme Lord, Viṣṇu or Kṛṣṇa. Contact with matter is unavoidable in our present conditioned state, because while performing activities to sustain the body and to accomplish other purposes, we become intimate with material nature. But if we can spiritualize these activities by performing every one of them as a service to Brahman, the Supreme Absolute Truth, then these activities become yajña, or sacrifice.

Message of Godhead

Message of Godhead 2:

Although we may take so many precautions against these vices and sinful reactions, even in the course of ordinary business exchanges and ventures we have to commit so many sins. For instance, we find it necessary and unavoidable in business dealings to speak lies—not to mention the volumes of lies that are spoken by members of the legal profession. Lawyers have to resort to all sorts of trickery to get around a law in which they have become professionally entangled. And of course, those who are in the service of other professions have to do the same kind of thing without fail. Intentionally or unintentionally, one has to commit such sins—and incur the sinful reactions—without any doubt.

Message of Godhead 2:

The law books known as the smṛtis mention five kinds of sin which everyone inevitably commits, no matter how unwillingly. They are as follows: (1) Sins committed by itching, (2) sins committed by rubbing, (3) sins committed by starting a fire, (4) sins committed by pouring water from a pot, and (5) sins committed by cleaning the house. Even if we do not commit any intentional sins, we have to commit the above five kinds of sin, without a shadow of doubt. Thus, it is our duty to accept the remnants of offerings made to Viṣṇu, to escape the reactions of all sinful actions committed unconsciously and unavoidably. Unfortunately, those who cook food not for offering to Viṣṇu, but only for satisfying their senses, have to undergo punishments for all the sins they have committed consciously or unconsciously, while discharging prescribed duties.

Lectures

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Lecture on BG 2.26-27 -- London, August 29, 1973:

"For one who has taken his birth, death is certain; and for one who is dead, birth is certain. Therefore, in the unavoidable discharge of your duty, you should not lament."

This is karma-vāda. In the previous verse, Kṛṣṇa tried to explain bauddha-vāda, nāstika-vāda, atheism. Atheist means one who does not believe in the soul and God. These are correlative terms. If you understand what is soul, then you can understand what is God. If you understand what is God, then you can understand what is soul. But those who are agnostic, atheist, they neither believe in God nor in the soul.

Lecture on BG 5.22-29 -- New York, August 31, 1966:

Now, this process is to give up that lust and anger. But if you engage yourself direct in Kṛṣṇa consciousness the result of this process is achieved very easily. Yatendriya-mano-buddhir munir mokṣa-parāyaṇaḥ, vigatecchā. Icchā-bhaya-krodha. Icchā means we desire so many things. And in material life we shall be always afraid. Afraid. Everyone is afraid. So icchā-bhaya-krodha. Anger is unavoidable because in so many things we are frustrated in our dealing that anger is possible.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Lecture on SB 1.16.13-15 -- Los Angeles, January 10, 1974:

So anyone who cannot understand the simple truth of the transmigration of the soul, he is no better than this cat and dog. So these karmīs are like that. Some of them understand. They at least believe in future life. But they do not know how to stop this transmigration of the soul. That they do not know, karmīs. They know, "It is unavoidable to change the bodies. So there is no need of endeavoring..." Therefore they do not know, they cannot know, neither they can do. They simply, "Yes, there is life, but let me become in more comfortable situation."

Lecture on SB 6.1.39-40 -- Surat, December 21, 1970:

In Vṛndāvana still, a snake found in the house is never killed, snake. Still a rat is never killed. If you kill a rat in Vṛndāvana, then so many people will come: "Oh, you are committing such sinful acts. You are killing a rat." That depends on the mentality of the person. You can take care of this animal, I mean to say, against the disturbance created by this animal, but you cannot kill them. That is not. But when it is unavoidable, we have to do like that. But as far as possible we should avoid.

Festival Lectures

Janmastami Lord Sri Krsna's Appearance Day -- Montreal, August 16, 1968:

So that by this exquisite attraction for Kṛṣṇa they might forget their lower desires, which are now leading everybody to a hellish condition of life in which it seems inevitable there are going to be wars and pestilences and starvation, diseases, all kinds of social injustice. All these things are unavoidable so long as the world at large does not understand who owns everything, who owns the land, who owns the money, who owns the food. So long as they don't understand that Kṛṣṇa is the owner and enjoyer of everything, so long as they don't understand that it is the highest enjoyment for the living soul to serve Kṛṣṇa, it is the perfect harmony in this condition to serve Kṛṣṇa, so long there will be fighting due to ignorance and deluded cross purposes.

Philosophy Discussions

Philosophy Discussion on Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibnitz:

Hayagrīva: He says we must... "Therefore we must not doubt that God has so ordained everything that spirits not only shall live forever, because this is unavoidable, but that they shall also preserve forever their moral quality so that His city may never lose a person."

Prabhupāda: Yes. This is Vaikuṇṭha conception, yaj jñātvā na nivartante tad dhāma paramam, "That is My specific place, where going nobody returns back to this miserable material world." These ideas are taken from Vedic literature, that's all. They are not new. It is known already to the Vedic students. Everyone has taken from Vedas, and they have presented their own way.

Conversations and Morning Walks

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Irish Poet, Desmond O'Grady -- May 23, 1974, Rome:

Bhagavān: The world as it is, the society, the materialistic society, puts these bodily demands...

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes. The materialistic society means duality.

O'Grady: But that's unavoidable.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

O'Grady: Because of your physical existence...

Prabhupāda: Unavoidable, yes...

O'Grady: And your personal spiritualism as well.

Prabhupāda: But it can be avoided in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Just like the leaf of lily. It is in the water but it does not touches the water.

Correspondence

1947 to 1965 Correspondence

Letter to Sri Padampat Singhania -- Kanpur 7 May, 1957:

I beg to inform you further that in every Mantra the prefix of Namah is generally added. Just for example you said the other day Namah Sivaya. Now this Mantra is practically indicating the holy name of Lord Siva. Na means negation and Ma means false ego or Ahamkara. Therefore Namah means surrendering to the name Siva. In other words to accept the supremacy of Lord Siva means Namah Sivaya. Therefore the conclusion is that in Mantra the name of the deity is unavoidably amalgamated. And in the Mantra the spiritual power, by the Rsis like Narada etc. is surcharged like the copper is electrified by magnetic force. The etymological alphabets are so surcharged with spiritual potency and as such all Mantra indicating the transcendental holy name of God or Godhead is to be understood in that way.

1969 Correspondence

Letter to Syama -- Los Angeles 18 January, 1969:

You have asked me some questions about the functions of sex life in Krishna Consciousness, and the basic principle is that it should be avoided as far as possible. However, if it is unavoidable, then it should be utilized only for begetting Krishna Conscious children. In that case, the husband and wife should chant at least fifty rounds before going to sex. The recommended period is six days after the menstruation period.

1977 Correspondence

Letter to Nandarani, Unknown -- Unknown Place Unknown Date:

Krsna has made all living entities perfect and therefore every living entity has independence. Misuse of independence is the cause of imperfection. Living entity being minute there is always a chance of misuse of his independence. This is unavoidable because that is the meaning of independence.

Page Title:Unavoidable
Compiler:Visnu Murti, ChandrasekharaAcarya, Alakananda
Created:21 of Jan, 2009
Totals by Section:BG=2, SB=8, CC=0, OB=3, Lec=6, Con=1, Let=3
No. of Quotes:23