Undergo (Lectures, SB)

Nitāi: (leads chanting, etc.)

sūta uvāca

yaṁ pravrajantam anupetam apeta-kṛtyaṁ

dvaipāyano viraha-kātara ājuhāva

putreti tan-mayatayā taravo 'bhinedus

taṁ sarva-bhūta-hṛdayaṁ munim ānato 'smi

(SB 1.2.2)

"Śrīla Sūta Gosvāmī said: Let me offer my respectful obeisances unto that great sage, Śukadeva Gosvāmī, who can enter the hearts of all. When he went away to take up the renounced order of life, sannyāsa, leaving aside home without undergoing the sacred thread ceremony, his father, Vyāsadeva, cried out to him, 'O my son!' Indeed, only the trees echoed in response to the begrieved father."

Prabhupāda: Yaṁ pravrajantam. Pravrajantam means to leave home in renounced order of life. That is called pravrajantam. Therefore a sannyāsī is called parivrājakācārya. A sannyāsī is supposed to be wandering without any shelter. That is called pravrajya. So Śukadeva Gosvāmī, he remained sixteen years within the womb of his mother. He did not come out. He was hearing his father within the womb. So this is called paramahaṁsa. So a paramahaṁsa does not require any reformatory process, because they are already reformed. Yaṁ pravrajantam anupetam (SB 1.2.2). Anu. Ana means without. Upeta. Upeta means taking shelter of guru or being offered the sacred... Upanayanam. The sacred thread ceremony is called upanayanam. That means he did not undergo the regulative principles because he was within the womb. Without any saṁskāra, he was going immediately, taking birth. Dvaipāyano viraha-kātaraḥ. The father certainly was expecting the son to remain at home. Every father expects. But he, Śukadeva Gosvāmī, immediately after his birth, he began to go away. He was simply just waiting, "When I shall be fit to immediately go out of home, I shall take my birth."

Asaṁskṛtāḥ kriyā-hīnā mlecchā rājanya-rūpiṇaḥ. That is stated in the Śrīmad... Asaṁskṛta. The present government men, they did not go any saṁskāra. Formerly, the kings, they... The higher castes, never mind he is king or not, but higher caste... Therefore they claimed higher. Not claimed. Actually they were. The brāhmaṇas and the kṣatriyas especially, and also the vaiśyas, they went the saṁskāra, reformatory. Just like saṁskāra means educational process, to elevate one. Just like we send to school, college, for elevating a child to the higher standard of life, knowledge, similarly, these saṁskāras also like that. One must undergo the saṁskāras, the reformatory method, and act in life. If I have taken the saṁskāra of brāhmaṇa, if I have accepted the sacred thread, then I must act as a brāhmaṇa. It is very practical. Just like if you have passed your examination as an engineer, then you must act as an engineer. Not that simply you have got the qualification of engineer, and now you are engaged in the business of a shopkeeper. No. You must act as engineer. That is qualification.

So Śukadeva Gosvāmī, he did not undergo any of these principles because he was paramahaṁsa, above all these things. Therefore anupetam. (reading purport:) "The institution of varṇāśrama prescribed many regulative duties." Daśa-vidhā-saṁskāra, ten kinds of reformatory methods. But he did not undergo. (reading purport:) "Such duties enjoin that a candidate willing to study the Vedas must approach a bona fide spiritual master." If anyone wants to become a brāhmaṇa, it is not that the brāhmaṇa's son would automatically become brāhmaṇa. No. Anyone could become brāhmaṇa. Just like Jābāla Upaniṣad. Satyakāma Jābāla. This Satyakāma was the son of a prostitute. He was not a brāhmaṇa's son. So he wanted to become brāhmaṇa. So he went to Gautama Muni, "Sir, please initiate me. I want to become a brāhmaṇa." Śūdras were not initiated. In the formerly... Śūdras are common. Therefore Gautama Muni inquired that "What you are? Because I do not initiate who is not born of a brāhmaṇa father." So he said, "I do not know."

Lecture on SB 1.2.3 -- Rome, May 27, 1974:

"Generally, a man is born as ordinary being, and by the purificatory process, he is born for the second time." That is called dvija. Even a man is born, so he is not accepted as human being. Because unless the purificatory process is there, he cannot be accepted as human being. Therefore unless in any society the varṇāśrama-dharma is not there, they are not human beings. They are called animals or mlecchas, yavanas. Civilized society means he must know, he must (have) undergone all the regulative principles. But at the present moment, in the Bhāgavata it is said, asaṁskṛta: "without any reformatory method." All these posts, government posts, are occupied by persons asaṁskṛtāḥ kriyā-hīnā mlecchā rājanya-rūpiṇaḥ. So what will be their business? They do not know what is the responsibility of government. They do not know. Therefore the whole world is in chaos. They are neither themselves perfect gentlemen or perfect brāhmaṇa or kṣatriya. They are also like animals, śūdras. How they can rule over nicely? But formerly that was not. The brāhmaṇa, or the kṣatriya especially, they must undergo the reformatory method.

So when one becomes inquisitive how to go to the light, for him the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is required. Therefore it is said that atititīrṣatām. Titīrṣatām means to surpass, to overcome. Ati, desiring to overcome, atititīrṣatāṁ tamo 'ndham, this darkness, the position in darkness. Who are in the darkness? Why these people are in the darkness? Saṁsāriṇām. They are undergoing the punishment. Because they have forgotten Kṛṣṇa, they have defied the supremacy of Kṛṣṇa, they are put into the darkness. Just like one who defies the laws of the government, they are put into the jail, outlaws. Similarly, kṛṣṇa-bahirmukha hañā bhoga vāñchā kare. These rascals who have forgotten Kṛṣṇa, God, to serve Him, and wants to remain independent, without serving, they are made servant of the prison house, māyā. Just like the criminal. "We don't care for government's law. We can do anything." "All right, come in here. Force you. Sleep. Remain here." This is our position. Simply defying, "I don't care for God," you may not care, but māyā is there. He will give you kick and put you in the..., That... You will learn how to care. You will learn how to care.

Lecture on SB 1.2.3 -- Rome, May 27, 1974:

He is thinking that "I am independent," vimūḍha, rascal. Kartāham. He is not kartā. When there is death, you do not like to die. Why there is death? Why you are forced to die? What your scientists will say? "Oh, this is natural." But you cannot fight. You do not want to die, but death is forced. And even though you do not like, you say, "Oh, it is natural." You cannot explain why death is forced there, why birth is forced there. Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi (BG 13.9). You do not want to become old man. Why you are forced to become old man? You do not want to have disease. Why you are forced to accept disease? They have no sense. They are so dull-headed. They do not want any solution. But there is solution. Therefore it is called saṁsāriṇām. They are dull-headed rascal. They are undergoing the nature's process from one life to another. All miserable condition.

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

So his spiritual master, Nārada, appeared before his disciple Vyāsadeva. So Nārada could understand that Vyāsadeva was not happy even after compiling so many big, big volumes of literature, Vedic literature. So he questioned, "Pārāśara..." Vyāsadeva's father was Parāśara Muni. So he addressed him, "Pārāśara." "So why you are unhappy? You have studied everything. You have undergone all kinds of penances. You have performed all Vedic rituals. You have written so many books. Why you are unhappy?" He answered, "My dear lord, what you say, it is all right, that I am not happy. But you can find out the cause. Because you know everyone's heart, you can find out the cause." So Nārada Muni replied that—these things will be discussed in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam—that "You have considered so many things, but if..., you have not written anything absolutely for the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Without discussing about the Supreme Personality of Godhead, you cannot be happy."

Lecture on SB 1.2.6 -- Calcutta, February 23, 1972:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Guest (1): Why do you (indistinct)?

Prabhupāda: No, I don't require. Of course, there is a process which is called tapasya. That is another thing. Tapasya, according to our, this Kṛṣṇa consciousness, we also undergo tapasya. Just like we say that "Don't have illicit sex life."

Guest (1): If you follow yama, niyama, then...

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Guest (1): If you follow yama and niyama then...

Prabhupāda: This is yama and niyama, that you don't have illicit sex life, don't eat meat, don't take intoxication, don't engage yourself in gambling, and observe ekādaśī fasting, janmaṣṭamī, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. So our method is very simple. Everyone can follow.

Lecture on SB 1.2.7 -- Vrndavana, October 18, 1972:

But we are after śānti. We are not for aśānti. Therefore in the previous verse it has been explained, yayātmā suprasīdati, yenātmā suprasīdati. What is that? Sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmo yato bhaktir adhokṣaje (SB 1.2.6). Unless you come to the platform of bhakti, devotional service, there is no question of śānti. That is not possible. After all, everyone is hankering after śānti. So if for achieving śānti we follow some path which is full of aśānti, how we can get śānti? Therefore Bhāgavata says, dharmaḥ projjhita-kaitavo 'tra (SB 1.1.2). I am searching after śānti, but I am accepting, say, for karma... Karma, ordinary karma, a person is working hard, day and night, going here and there. Where is śānti? But because he's a fool, therefore working very hard, when he gets some money, he thinks it is śānti. He thinks it is śānti. But it is not śānti, because to get that money he has to undergo so much aśānti. But because they are flatterers, they, the modern civilization, they want śānti, and if somebody is chanting or is engaged in bhakti-yoga, they do not like it. They say, "They're escaping."

Lecture on SB 1.2.9 -- New Vrindaban, September 7, 1972:

So pious and impious activities, this is going on. Generally, people understand dharma by these. But here Bhāgavata says, "No. Dharma, religious principles, should be executed to nullify..." Hy āpavargyasya. Dharmasya hy āpavargyasya na arthāya upakalpate. "Not for material benefit." Material benefit... Either you become poor or rich, you have to undergo the tribulations of this material existence. Because you are rich man, you cannot avoid death. Because you are rich man, you cannot avoid hard working. Because you are rich man, you cannot avoid fearfulness. So the same thing is for the poor man. He's also working hard. It may be that he's not getting more money; you are getting more money. But getting more money, you have to work like ass and dog. So you cannot get out of these principles, either you become rich or poor. Generally, they understand that "By becoming religious, I shall be rich." That is fact; you can become. But what is the benefit? Suppose you are rich. Do you think that you will not die? Do you think that you will not be attacked by any disease? Do you think that you will not become old? So what is the benefit? But real religion means to nullify these principles. Dharmasya hy āpavargyasya nārtho 'rthāyopakalpate. Not that becoming religious I become richer, I become, I get so many material benefits. No. That is not. But you can say that "We require some money for existence." Yes, that's a fact, that's a fact.

Lecture on SB 1.2.12 -- Vrndavana, October 23, 1972:

Although we have got this temporary body... You can say that "Although I am suffering, I'll, it will be finished, within, say, twenty years, ten years." Asann api. It is not permanent. But why you should make yourself under these tribulations of life? That is the problem. Not only that. Asann api kleśada āsa dehaḥ. I have got this body. I am suffering. I am undergoing threefold miseries, threefold miserable condition of life. Why I shall make another body, again undergo the threefold miseries of life? Not only human life, any form of life. Human life, there... Human form of life, there is possibility of little comfort. Suppose if I get a body like a tree. Just like here is an eucalyptus tree standing. Then I'll have to stand for thousands of years. And I have to suffer scorching heat, shivering cold, and blast wind, and so many things.

Lecture on SB 1.2.12 -- Delhi, November 18, 1973:

That is stated in the Bhāgavata. Āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ patanty adhaḥ anādṛta-yuṣmad-aṅghrayaḥ. Ye 'nye 'ravindākṣa vimukta-māninas tvayy asta-bhāvād aviśuddha-buddhayaḥ (SB 10.2.32). There are certain persons, they are thinking, "Now I have become liberated." Ye 'nye 'ravindākṣa vimukta-māninaḥ. Vimukta-māninaḥ means "thinking that they have become liberated." But aviśuddha-buddhayaḥ, their intelligence is not yet clear. So what is the result? Suppose one realizes Brahman realization. He is not mukta? Yes, he is mukta. That's all right. But the intelligence is not yet purified. Why? Āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ (SB 10.2.32). After undergoing sever austerities and penances, they rise up to the Brahmaloka, paraṁ padam. Patanty adhaḥ, again falls down, again falls down. Why? Anādṛta-yuṣmad-aṅghrayaḥ. Just like the impersonal sky. You can go in the sky with your seedy airplane, but if you don't get a shelter in any planet, you will have to come again. Just like this moon planet-goers, going and coming. Why don't they stay there? So it doubtful whether they are going.

Lecture on SB 1.2.15 -- Vrndavana, October 26, 1972:

So we are teaching our people to become the first-class yogi. People are very much attached to the yoga system, mystic yoga system. But the goal of yoga system is Kṛṣṇa. Therefore Kṛṣṇa's name is Yogeśvara. By practicing yoga, if you don't find Kṛṣṇa, then śrama eva hi kevalam (SB 1.2.8), then simply you have wasted your time for nothing. For nothing. Yes. That is the version. Ārādhito yadi haris tapasā tataḥ kim. Tapasya, austerity, means to understand Kṛṣṇa. So if we understand Kṛṣṇa, then there is no need of any more tapasya. Tapasya business is finished. But if you do not understand Kṛṣṇa, simply undergoing tapasya, it is simply waste of time.

ārādhito yadi haris tapasā tataḥ kim

nārādhito yadi haris tapasā tataḥ kim

(Nārada Pañcarātra)

So here it is the same thing. Yad-anudhyāsinā yuktāḥ karma-granthi-nibandhanam. Nibandhanam. It is tightly interknotted, our karma-granthi. We had some types of activities in our past lives, and we have got this body. Everyone. Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa jantur deha upapattaye (SB 3.31.1). The different types of body, 8,400,000 species of life, different types of body. Jalajā nava-lakṣāṇi, 900,000 species in the water. In this way, planets, creepers, serpents, insects, birds, beasts, then human form. This is the process of evolution.

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

So one has to come to the platform of the modes of goodness. Just like illiterate, uncultured, animal-like man is trained up to come, to become civilized. By training, it is possible. Just like, by training, even cats and dogs and tigers, they are also become obedient. That is our practical experience. The tiger in the circus, they play obediently to the orders of the master. So by training, it can be possible. But there are two kinds of training process. One process is scheduled: tapasā brahmacaryeṇa śamena ca damena ca (SB 6.1.13). Undergoing tapasya, austerity, brahmacaryeṇa... Brahmacaryeṇa means controlling sex indulgence or sex impulse. Brahmacarya means practically no sex life. Tapasā brahmacaryeṇa śamena, damena (SB 6.1.13), by controlling the senses, by controlling the mind. Tyāgena, by giving up in charity. So there are gradual process, but there is another process. Another process means this Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Either you practice in this way... Just like if you want to go up, there are two vehicles or process. You go step by step, one step after another. Suppose you have to go one hundred steps. So you have to go step by step. Tapasā brahmacaryeṇa śamena damena (SB 6.1.13), practicing. The another process is... (someone making tapping sound) (aside:) Why you are making this sound? Stop it. Another process is the lift. You go by step by step or take the process of lift. Within a second, you come up.

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

So what are the symptoms of goodness? Kāma-lobhādayaś ca ye. Lusty. Lust and greediness. The whole world is moving by lust and greediness. This is the stage of ignorance and passion. Those who are embarrassed with the lower qualities of material nature, they are embarrassed with two things: lust, not satisfied; and greedy, and lobha. "Give me more, give me more, give me more." "Give me..." Anything, he's not satisfied. The whole world, you see... They, sometimes they think that "If I get my income, say, one thousand dollars, I will be satisfied." But as soon as he gets one thousand, he wants one hundred thousand. If he gets one... Just like in your... Everywhere, all over the world, the worker class, they are given increment, but again they undergo strike, "More, more wages, more wages, more wages." So... But as soon as they get more money... Not only... Here in these Western countries, then they'll utilize it for lust. Lust and greediness. That's all.

Lecture on SB 1.2.19 -- Vrndavana, October 30, 1972:

He takes charge. If we... So there are two processes. Either you can go through the prescribed method, as they are described in the Vedic injunctions... Tapasā, brahmacaryeṇa, tyāgena, śamena, damena (SB 6.1.13). These are the processes. One must undergo austerity, penance, tapasā; brahmacarya, one must be brahmacārī, not unnecessarily using sex life. So tapasā brahmacaryeṇa śamena damena vā, tyāgena (SB 6.1.13). Tyāga, renunciation, is required. So this is one process. Another process that if you fully surrender unto the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa sincerely, then all things are done automatically, immediately. Only by kṛṣṇa-bhakti, one becomes purified, immediately. So that kṛṣṇa-bhakti begins, as we have studied, the previous verses, śṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṇaḥ (SB 1.2.17). We have to hear patiently, by aural reception. Caitanya Mahāprabhu also accepted this process. This is the process, Vedic process—to hear about Kṛṣṇa.

Lecture on SB 1.2.23 -- Los Angeles, August 26, 1972:

Pradyumna: "When Viṣṇu or the Personality of Godhead appears in the material world, He comes to deliver the conditioned living beings who are under the material energy. Such living being appears in the material world with intention of lording it over falsely, and thus becomes entrapped by the three modes of nature. As such, the living entities have to change the material coverings for undergoing different terms of imprisonment. The prison house of the material world is created by Brahmā, under instruction of the Personality of Godhead, and at the conclusion of a kalpa, the whole thing is destroyed by Śiva. But so far maintenance of the prison house is concerned, it is done by Viṣṇu, as much as the state prison house is maintained by the state. Anyone, therefore, who may wish to get out of this prison house of material existence, which is full of miseries like repetition of birth, death, diseases and old age, must please Lord Viṣṇu for such liberation. Lord Viṣṇu is worshiped by devotional service only, and if anyone has to continue the prison life in the material world, he may ask for relative facilities from the different demigods like Śiva, Brahmā, Indra, Varuṇa, etc., for temporary relief. No such demigods can, however, release the imprisoned living being from the conditioned life of material existence except Viṣṇu. As such, the ultimate benefit may be derived from Viṣṇu, the Personality of Godhead."

Prabhupāda: Just like one is a prisoner. So if he pleases the superintendent of prison, he can get some little facilities. Now I have seen, practically, that one young boy, he was imprisoned for some criminal act. So he was typing in the office of the jail superintendent. So that means he was educated, but he was put into ordinary prison term. He was breaking some stone. But he satisfied the jail superintendent that "I am not accustomed to this. However, I can serve you in some other way." So, he saw that "He is educated. He knows. All right. You come to my office. Just help me, in typing."

Lecture on SB 1.2.28-29 -- Vrndavana, November 8, 1972:

The bodily concept of life is meant for the animals. It is not for the human being. Therefore, vāsudeva-paraṁ jñānaṁ vāsudeva-paraṁ tapaḥ. People are taking to so much austerities. Just like modern scientists, they have discovered the atomic bomb. That is tapasya, of course. It is tapasya. But that kind of tapasya was done by Hiraṇyakaśipu also. What is the value of such tapasya? Tapasya must be to understand Vāsudeva. Vāsudeva-paraṁ tapaḥ. If one has actually undergone severe austerities of life to understand Vāsudeva, that is perfect tapasya. Otherwise it is simply... Hiraṇyakaśipu or the manufacturer of the atomic bomb, they are also undergone severe austerities. It is not manufactured all of a sudden. But it required brain and perseverance. They have manufactured, but what is the value? Killing, killing men. The killing, it is automatically being killed. You discover something that people will not die. People are dying. You have accelerated the death process, that's all. But they want to take credit out of it. "We have discovered this scientific..." That is not knowledge.

Lecture on SB 1.2.32 -- Vrndavana, November 11, 1972:

Therefore Bhāgavata says, vimukta-māninaḥ. They are thinking that after undergoing such severe austerities and penances, now he has become God. That is māyā. He does not know. He's not God. But he claims like that, falsely. This is the cause of his suffering. Nobody can be..., can become God or equal to God. That is not possible. The same quotation: ekale īśvara kṛṣṇa, āra saba bhṛtya (CC Adi 5.142). Only the Supreme God, Supreme Person, Īśvara, supreme controller, is Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam (SB 1.3.28). You are, why you are, rascal, trying to become Bhagavān, God? This is māyā. He does not know. He's thinking that "I have become God." This is māyā. Aviśuddha-buddhayaḥ (SB 10.2.32). Aviśuddha-buddhayaḥ means his intelligence is not yet cleansed. It's still dirty. Although he has undergone good austerities, penances or taken sannyāsa, but the mind is dirty. Mind is dirty. So that will not help. The whole process is ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam. We have to cleanse our heart. We have to understand our position. Then it will be successful.

Lecture on SB 1.3.9 -- Los Angeles, September 15, 1972:

So to become actual human being, one has to undergo tapasya. Tapasā brahmacaryeṇa, jñānena, śamena, damena (SB 6.1.13). This is the prescription, that if you want to become actually a human being, then you have to undergo tapasya, brahmacarya, śama, dama, titikṣā (BG 18.42). These things have to be practiced. Not that because I want sense gratification, therefore let me under the name of independence, let me become naked and have sex life on the street. That day is coming. It already has come to some extent. They are taking this as freedom. This freedom is not very good. This freedom means that as soon as you become so free that to have sex life on the street like cats and dogs and hogs, you will get your next life. Nature will give you very good chance, that "All right, you have got this human form of life to understand God, but you have misused it. Now you want to become hog? Please become hog." How you can check it? Is there any science to check? Because after this death, all this science and philosophy is finished after this body is finished. Then you are under the control of nature. What will you do? The nature will force you to enter the womb of a hog or a dog. How you can check it?

Lecture on SB 1.3.9 -- Los Angeles, September 15, 1972:

You are not independent, you are part and parcel of God. God wants you to come back home and live peacefully. If you do not do that, then you will have to undergo the severe punishments of transmigrating from one body to another. And there are 8,400,000 bodies in which you will have to suffer. And you can see that they are suffering. So don't misuse this human form of life; don't give way to the sense gratification. Have a little tapasya. Not severe tapasya, not like Nara-nārāyaṇa. They went to the Himalayas and underwent severe, very severe, just like Dhruva Mahārāja. In this age it is not possible; therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu has given you a concession. You take these sixteen words, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare. Chant these sixteen rounds. If you can increase, all right, or these sixteen rounds. And observe these four principles—no illicit sex, no gambling, no meat-eating, no intoxication. Is it very difficult?

But we are not even prepared to undergo such a little tapasya, penance. What is that difficulty? We don't eat meat, and instead we get nice other food. So what is the difficulty? If we don't become hogs and enjoy senses like hogs without discrimination of mother, sister and daughter, if we become attached to one wife and enjoy life, what is the difficulty? No, although I have got my wife, I am implicated with others' wives; I have got husband, I am implicated with others' husbands. No tapasya. They are not prepared for any kind of tapasya. They want cats' and dogs' lives. Therefore their next life is waiting, cats and dogs.

Lecture on SB 1.3.18 -- Los Angeles, September 23, 1972:

Just like Hiraṇyakaśipu, just a strong atheist. He thought, "I am the biggest atheist. People are after God. They should come to me and worship me as God. I am God." But his godship or his lordship was finished within a second. Therefore Prahlāda Mahārāja, his son, when he was offered a benediction by the Lord, "My dear Prahlāda, you have undergone severe penances, suffering for My sake. Now you can take any benediction from Me, whatever you like." First of all he said, "My dear Lord, I am not a businessman that I serve You for getting some profit. I am born of a father-rajo-guṇa, passion—so naturally my body is made of the modes of passion. And You are so powerful You can give me anything I want. So if You allure me in that way, I think You should not do that. I may be allured, because my body is passionate." So Narasiṁhadeva became very happy, "Yes, here is a true devotee." A true devotee does not make any exchange business, "God, I have rendered You so much service. You give me something." People generally, they want, "I have become a devotee, I have done so much. So God must give me something as I desire. If He does not give, then I do not care for such a God." That is exchange business, that is not devotion.

Lecture on SB 1.3.22 -- Los Angeles, September 27, 1972:

Just now they are planning that everyone will go to the moon planet without any qualification. That is their plan. It is Rāvaṇa's plan. Rāvaṇa said that "Why you are undergoing so much severe austerities to go to heaven? I shall make a staircase, and you go directly, without having performed any austerities." So to go to the moon planet, according to the Vedic description, it requires a qualification. The moon planet, that is one of the heavenly planets, and if anyone can go there, he gets ten thousands of years span of life. And the standard of living is very higher than this planet. These are the description in the Vedic literature. In the Bhagavad-gītā also, it is said, yānti deva-vratā devān (BG 9.25). If you want to be promoted to a heavenly planets, then you just perform the duties to please the particular demigod, you'll be... So these materialist scientists, they are thinking that they can go anywhere by the force of their so-called scientific advancement. But it has not proved successful till now. But still, they will say, "Yes, in future we shall go." All right, in future. "Trust no future, however pleasant." That's all. Go on.

Lecture on SB 1.3.22 -- Los Angeles, September 27, 1972:

Pradyumna: "He wanted a staircase to be built up directly reaching the heavenly planet so that people might not be required to undergo the routine of pious work necessary to enter that planet. He also wanted to perform other acts against the established rule of the Lord. He even challenged the authority of Śrī Rāma, the Personality of Godhead, and kidnapped His wife, Sītā. Of course, Lord Rāma came to chastise the atheists, answering the prayer and desire of the demigods. He therefore took up the challenge of Rāvaṇa, and the complete activity is the subject matter of the Rāmāyaṇa. Because Lord Rāmacandra was the Personality of Godhead, He exhibited superhuman activities which no human being, including the materially advanced Rāvaṇa, could perform. Lord Rāmacandra prepared a royal road on the Indian ocean with stones that floated on the water. The modern scientists have done research in the area of weightlessness, but it is not possible to bring in weightlessness anywhere and everywhere. But because weightlessness is the creation of the Lord by which He can make the gigantic planets fly and float in the air, He made the stones even within this earth to be weightless, and prepared a stone bridge on the sea without any supporting pillar. That is the display of the power of God."

Prabhupāda: So incarnation, in the śāstras... Here in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, some of the incarnations are described. But all incarnations are described in the śāstra. We should not be blind to accept any rascal and rogue as incarnation of God. Incarnation of God is not so cheap. That we should understand.

Thank you. (end)

Lecture on SB 1.4.25 -- Montreal, June 20, 1968:

We are thinking that we are making progress, but actually we are reducing. This is called māyā. We are making progress on the wrong side. That means reducing. Everyone, you know that people are not so much merciful at the present moment. If a man is attacked by some rogue, nobody is going to help him. If a man's apartment is, there is a burglar, thief, nobody is going to help him. Or if a man is very poor, nobody is going to help him. It is dwindling. It is decreasing. Similarly, duration of life. Your grandfather, your forefathers, they were living up to hundred years or more than that. And nowadays hardly they are living sixty or seventy years. Similarly, memory. The memory is also reducing. Knowledge is also reducing. This is the symptom of this age. Things will be reduced. Therefore Lord Caitanya is the most magnanimous. He knows that "People will not be very much alert in accepting spiritual knowledge after undergoing so much austerities and penances. Let them chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and take everything.(?)" That is the special gift of Lord Caitanya. And Rūpa Gosvāmī therefore prayed Him, namo mahā-vadānyāya: "You are the greatest munificent incarnation." Kṛṣṇa prema-pradāya te: (CC Madhya 19.53) "You are the greatest munificent incarnation." Kṛṣṇa prema-pradāya te: "You are distributing love of Kṛṣṇa." So unfortunately, we are not ready to accept His benediction. Any other question?

Lecture on SB 1.5.14 -- New Vrindaban, June 18, 1969:

In the, in the Padma Purāṇa also there is a verse, ramante yogino 'nante: "Those who are yogis..." Yogi means transcendentalist, not the so-called yogi. Those who have contacted the Absolute Truth, they are called yogis. So yoginaḥ, actually a yogi, ramante, they enjoy. They also enjoy. Why they are, I mean to say, undergoing so much austerities and penances and regulative principles? Because they are trying for being elevated to the real platform of happiness. So ramante yogino 'nante. Everyone is hankering after happiness, either materialistic or spiritualistic, but the difference is that materialistic, materialistic persons, they are satisfied with temporary happiness, and those who are transcendentalists, they are also seeking happiness. That is real happiness, spiritual happiness, eternal happiness. So therefore it is stated in the Padma Purāṇa that ramante yogino 'nante. Anante means unlimited happiness. They enjoy unlimited happiness. Ramante yogino 'nante. And satyānande. And that is real happiness. Happiness does not mean it is for few minutes. No. Happiness should continue, eternally. One should be situated in that happiness so that other, temporary happiness will not attract him.

Lecture on SB 1.5.14 -- New Vrindaban, June 18, 1969:

We cannot be void. That is not possible. Therefore the impersonalists, about impersonalists, this Bhāgavata version is that although they rise up almost to the spiritual platform, but because they cannot enjoy... Impersonalists means there is no enjoyment. There is simply light, a life of knowledge. But simply knowledge will not make me happy. I must enjoyment. I must have enjoyment. Ānandamayo 'bhyāsāt (Vedānta-sūtra 1.1.12), because my nature is to enjoy. That enjoyment cannot be done in the impersonal or void philosophy. That is not possible. Therefore Bhāgavata says, ye 'nye 'ravindākṣa vimukta-māninaḥ: "If somebody thinks that he has become liberated after undergoing the process of impersonal philosophy and austerities and penances..." The impersonalists, they also practice severe penances to attain to that Brahman stage. That is also nice thing. But they cannot stay there, because there is no enjoyment.

Therefore, as I was saying the other day, that many sannyāsīs, they say that "This world is false; Brahman is truth." So in spite of their rising to that platform of Brahman understanding, they again come down. That is described in the Bhāgavatam, āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ: (SB 10.2.32) "After undergoing severe penances and austerities, they may rise to the Brahman platform but again falls down." Why falls down? Anādṛta-yuṣmad-aṅghrayaḥ: "Because they do not enjoy Your association." They have neglected the association of Kṛṣṇa and company.

Lecture on SB 1.5.14 -- New Vrindaban, June 18, 1969:

The same example can be explained: just like if you go on a plane or sputnik very high, very high, it is void, all side void. If you go very high, 25,000 miles, you'll see void. But that, there you cannot stay. You can travel for many years in that void, but if you don't take shelter in a planet, then you'll come back again to this planet. Similarly, the impersonalists, they cannot stay in their impersonal understanding. Simply they suffer some trouble. Kleśa... Bhagavad-gītā says, kleśo 'dhikataras teṣām avyaktāsakta-cetasām (BG 12.5). Those who are attached, those who are attached to that impersonal feature of the Absolute Truth, they undergo greater trouble. We transcendentalists, we personalists, we also, from the materialistic point of view, we are... Our standard of living is not very opulent. We lie down anywhere. We are... Our dresses are not so clean. Our rooms are not clean. From the materialistic point of view, somebody comes. He says, "Oh. How wretched these people are living!" That is also another kind of austerity. They have adopted. But that is pleasing. Even they are in so-called wretched condition, they are happy. They are happy. So they're in both ways. But those who are simply attached to the impersonal feature, their trouble is more painful. That is described in the Bhagavad-gītā.

Lecture on SB 1.5.22 -- Vrndavana, August 3, 1974:

So everyone knows I have got a father. But who is my father, that I do not know. At least, in India, one who cannot say his father's name, immediately he becomes degraded. Just like the Jābāla Satyakāma. Jābāla Satyakāma, he, he was... He went to Gautama Muni, "Please initiate me." And according to Vedic conclu..., initiation is meant for the brāhmaṇa. Brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya and vaiśya. Not for the śūdras. Śūdras are not initiated. And in the Kali-yuga, because everyone is a śūdra, therefore he's first of all given training to become a brāhmaṇa. Then the sacred thread is offered. This is the process. Because actually, initiation cannot be given to anyone except a brāhmaṇa. So kalau śūdra-sambhavaḥ: "In the Kali-yuga, everyone is śūdra." That is to be accepted without any disagreement. Kalau śūdra-sambhavaḥ. Because they have no saṁskāra. Asaṁskṛtāḥ kriyā-hīnā mlecchāḥ. One who is not undergone the reformatory processes, garbhādhāna-saṁskāra, upanayana-saṁskāra... There are ten kinds of saṁskāras, reformatory. One who has not gone, or one who is not permitted to undergo the saṁskāra, he's śūdra. Saṁskārād bhaved dvijaḥ. Everyone is born śūdra. By reformatory method, he becomes twice-born—by the spiritual master and Vedic knowledge. Vedic knowledge is the mother, and spiritual master is the father.

Lecture on SB 1.5.22 -- Vrndavana, August 3, 1974:

So this verse is very important thing. And everyone should make research work. But a devotee, one who has concluded, one who has perfectly known that Kṛṣṇa is the original cause of everything, he hasn't got to do anything. His business is finished. He doesn't require any more to go, undergo severe austerities to find out whether Kṛṣṇa is cause or not cause. Because he has already known. He has already known. Ārādhito yadi haris tapasā tataḥ kim (Nārada Pañcarātra). No more tapasya. Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. But if you have got doubt, make research work. You'll have to come to the conclusion. But if you have concluded it, "Yes, Kṛṣṇa is the original cause of everything," then your business is finished. Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. But if you have got doubt, then do it. That is your business. Don't be blind. Either you accept here the words of Kṛṣṇa... Kṛṣṇa says, "I am the original cause of everything." That's all right. If you believe that "Kṛṣṇa says," it is all right. If you do not believe, then make the research and find out. That is perfection. In both ways you'll have to come to the...

Because the fact is fact. Either... Suppose somebody says, "Don't touch fire. It will burn your hand." If you accept it, your father's advice or your teacher's advice, "Don't touch fire," it is as good. And if you want to make research, "No, why shall I believe my father, my teacher. Let me experiment, touch," the result will be the same. Result will be the same. But if you want to make experiment, do it. But come to this conclusion, that Kṛṣṇa is the original cause of everything. Then your life is perfect.

Lecture on SB 1.5.30 -- Vrndavana, August 11, 1974:

Because people are suffering for want of this knowledge. Therefore our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is the only movement—I can declare very proudly—which can actually do some benefit to the human society. It is the only movement. All other, bogus movements, I declare. Let them come and study the śāstras and decide for themselves. They're all cheating. Only this bhagavad-bhakti. Because you cannot understand Bhagavān without undergoing the process of devotional service. Bhaktyā mām abhijānāti yāvān yaś cāsmi tattvataḥ (BG 18.55). If you want to know in truth, tattvataḥ... Kṛṣṇa wants that one should understand Him tattvataḥ. Not that superficially to take Kṛṣṇa, that "He was very fond of the gopīs, and let us hear the līlā of Kṛṣṇa." Why Kṛṣṇa's gopīs' līlā? Why not Kṛṣṇa's līlā killing the demons? That, the people are not interested, to hear about Kṛṣṇa's killing the demons. Because the gopīs' līlā, it appears to be the transaction between young woman and man, it very quickly appeals. But Kṛṣṇa's other business is there. Paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṁ vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām (BG 4.8). That is also Kṛṣṇa's līlā. That is Kṛṣṇa's līlā. Just like Lord Rāmacandra is killing the Rāvaṇa. That is also Kṛṣṇa's līlā.

Lecture on SB 1.5.31 -- Vrndavana, August 12, 1974:

Sometimes they say that we do not accept the Gosvām... (indistinct) We accept actually the Gosvāmīs. But following the footprints of Śrī Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura, what kind of... Ei chay gosāi jāṅr mui tāṅr dās. One who is accepting the path of the six Gosvāmīs, we are servant of the servant of such persons (CC Madhya 13.80). Ei chay gosāi jāṅr mui tāṅr dās. Rūpa-raghunātha-pade hoibe ākuti kabe hāma bujhabo se jugala-pīriti. Jugala-pirīti, the love affairs of Kṛṣṇa and Rādhārāṇī. This is not ordinary thing. It is completely spiritual. Rādhā kṛṣṇa-praṇaya-vikṛtir hlādinī śaktir asmād ekātmānāv api bhuvi purā deha-bhedaṁ gatau tau, caitanyākhyaṁ prakaṭam adhunā tad-dvayaṁ caikyam āptam (CC Adi 1.5). Vande... That verse I am forgetting. This is the process. Rādhā kṛṣṇa-praṇaya-vikṛtiḥ, it is not the affair of one young boy and young man. It is not that. It is the exhibition of the pleasure potency of Kṛṣṇa. Hlādinī śaktir asmāt, so it is completely spiritual. Do not try to understand Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa playing immediately. "Oh, because I have come to Vṛndāvana, let me understand immediately Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa's rāsa-līlā." It is not so easy. You have to undergo severe penances. Not severe. It is very easy. But we do not like to take.

Lecture on SB 1.7.5-6 -- Johannesburg, October 15, 1975:

So, but the fact is that. Fact is that, that the, after the old body... Just like we have got several types of body: babyhood to childhood, child to boyhood, youth-hood, old body. Then after this, he is... Vāsāṁsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya (BG 2.22). When we give up this body as dress, old and rotten, we get another. This is going on. But this is anartha. Anartha means unnecessarily we are undergoing this change of body. Anartha. If you want to stop it anarthopaśamaṁ sākṣāt, directly, immediately, what is that? Bhakti-yogam. Anarthopaśamaṁ sākṣād bhakti-yogam adhokṣaje (SB 1.7.6). And Kṛṣṇa also confirms. This is statement of Vyāsadeva, and Kṛṣṇa also says,

māṁ ca yo 'vyabhicāreṇa

bhakti-yogena sevate

sa guṇān samatītyaitān

brahma-bhūyāya kalpate

(BG 14.26)

So, bhakti-yogam adhokṣaje. This is real purpose of life. This is real purpose of religion. Sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmo yato bhaktir adhokṣaje (SB 1.2.6). The same thing. That is first-class religion. It doesn't matter what kind of religion you are following, but if the religious system teaches you how to become a devotee to Adhokṣaja-adhokṣaja means beyond our sense perception, the Supreme Lord—then your life is perfect. Then you will be happy.

Lecture on SB 1.7.7 -- Vrndavana, September 6, 1976:

So how one can understand Vāsudeva? Bahūnāṁ janmanām ante jñānavān (BG 7.19). After many, many births. Because we are—all living entities in this material world—we are all rascals. We must know it. All rascals. Abodha-jataḥ. Everyone who is born in this material world, either he may be... Even Lord Brahmā, and down to the small insect. Anyone who has come to this material world... Because we are not material. We are spiritual identity. Na jāyate na mriyate vā. Never takes birth, never dies. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). This is the identification given by Lord Kṛṣṇa. But we are so foolish and rascals we never question that "My position is na jāyate na mriyate vā. I never take birth, never I die. Then why I am afraid of death and why I am actually undergoing birth and death? I am born, everyone knows. I come out from my mother. Therefore jāyate. So why I have taken birth? And again everyone knows, 'As sure as death,' mriyate vā. So why this discrepancy?" This is human being. The cats and dog, they cannot question these things.

Lecture on SB 1.7.9 Excerpt -- Vrndavana, September 8, 1976:

Pradyumna: "Śrī Śaunaka asked Suta Gosvāmī: Śrī Śukadeva Gosvāmī was already on the path of self-realization, and thus he was pleased with his own self. So why did he take the trouble to undergo the study of such a vast literature?"

Prabhupāda:

śaunaka uvāca

sa vai nivṛtti-nirataḥ

sarvatropekṣako muniḥ

kasya vā bṛhatīm etām

ātmārāmaḥ samabhyasat

(SB 1.7.9)

So Śukadeva Gosvāmī, he is ātmārāma, he... This śloka will be explained in the next verse, ātmārāmāś ca munayo. Ātmārāma, there are many varieties of meaning of ātmārāma. Caitanya Mahaprabhu has explained in sixty-four different ways in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta. So how Caitanya Mahāprabhu was a great scholar—He is great in everything—but to make a show at least, He showed His scholarship in explaining this ātmārāma verse. Sa vai nivṛtti-nirataḥ sarvatropekṣako muniḥ. Nivṛtti means one who has ceased all material activities. He has practically nothing to do with this material world and still it is said, kasya vā bṛhatīm etām. And still, he went out and preached Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam when Parikṣit Mahārāja was going to die. So this is the question: how the ātmārāma becomes interested in other activities? He is ātmārāma, he is already satisfied.

Lecture on SB 1.7.10 -- Vrndavana, September 9, 1976:

So this is a wrong idea, that matter is doing independently. That is not possible. Therefore it is clearly said in the Bhagavad-gītā, mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram (BG 9.10). Matter does not work. The Supreme Personality of Godhead, by His different energies, He is working. That is Kṛṣṇa. You have to understand like that. Kṛṣṇa is in the background. In another place in the Bhagavad-gītā it is said, aham ādir hi devānām (Bg 10.2). If you say that Lord Brahmā has created, because he is the creator of this universe... Deva, there are three principle devas-Brahmā, Viṣṇu, Maheśvara. Kṛṣṇa says aham ādir hi devānām. Actually that is the fact. Even Brahmā is originated from Viṣṇu's navel; therefore Brahmā's name is Padma-yoni. And he, when he was created, he saw everything dark, so he was instructed to undergo tapas—these are explained in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam—then he was given the intelligence how to work. So even a person like Brahmā is also instructed by Kṛṣṇa how to create. So any person, any ingredient, any matter, everything is working under the direction of Kṛṣṇa. Therefore His name is Kṛṣṇa.

Lecture on SB 1.7.26 -- Vrndavana, September 2, 1976:

So that is Kṛṣṇa. He can give you immediately liberation. Simply you have to surrender. Therefore He's deva-deva. Sometimes we go to this demigod, to that demigod for some material perfection or ultimate liberation. But Kṛṣṇa can give you liberation within a second. That is Kṛṣṇa. Within a second. Otherwise, it is not very easy. Āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ patanty adho 'nādṛta-yuṣmad-aṅghrayaḥ (SB 10.2.32). The jñānīs, they are trying for liberation and undergoing very severe type of austerity and penances. Kṛcchreṇa. Kṛcchreṇa means very severe type of austerities they undergo. But still they fall down. Āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ patanty adho 'nādṛta-yuṣmad-aṅghrayaḥ (SB 10.2.32). One who does not understand Kṛṣṇa, then his knowledge, his so-called jñāna... Maybe to some extent it is perfect, but it is not completely perfect. Completely perfect will be possible when you understand Kṛṣṇa.

Lecture on SB 1.7.27 -- Vrndavana, September 24, 1976:

So when Kṛṣṇa comes, you cannot see Kṛṣṇa. You cannot capture Kṛṣṇa, mahato mahīyān. When He comes before you, arcā-mūrti, arcā-vigraha... This is arcā-vigraha, Deity. Arcye viṣṇau śilā-dhīḥ. Kṛṣṇa has appeared. Just like the same thing: Kṛṣṇa... Yaśodāmāyi wanted the Supreme Personality of Godhead as his (her) son, for which hundreds of years he (she) undergone, or she undergone austerities. And when the Supreme Personality of Godhead appeared before him, before her, both the husband and wife: "What do you want?" "Now we want a son like You." So Kṛṣṇa said, "There is no second one beyond Me, so I shall become your son." So He became son. So He must play perfectly, that Yaśodāmāyi may not understand that "Here is the Supreme Personality of Godhead." Then the feelings of mother and son will disappear. Kṛṣṇa is playing exactly like a little child. So that is Kṛṣṇa's mercy. This is Kṛṣṇa's mercy. Similarly, to us. We are not so elevated like Nanda Mahārāja or Yaśodā Mahārāja (māyi). We're just beginners. So we do not know what is Kṛṣṇa. We cannot see Kṛṣṇa, either His virāḍ-mūrti or this mūrti. So what we can see? We can see stone, wood, or material things. So when Kṛṣṇa appears to be seen by you and He appears like a stone statue, He's not stone statue. Don't think. Therefore we must learn how to see Kṛṣṇa.

Lecture on SB 1.7.45-46 -- Vrndavana, October 5, 1976:

Pradyumna: "He (Droṇācārya) is certainly still existing, being represented by his son. His wife Kṛpī did not undergo a satī with him because she had a son. O most fortunate one who knows the principles of religion, it is not good for you to cause grief to glorious family members who are always respectable and worshipful."

Prabhupāda:

sa eṣa bhagavān droṇaḥ

prajā-rūpeṇa vartate

tasyātmano 'rdhaṁ patny āste

nānvagād vīrasūḥ kṛpī

(SB 1.7.45)

tad dharmajña mahā-bhāga

bhavadbhir gauravaṁ kulam

vṛjinaṁ nārhati prāptuṁ

pūjyaṁ vandyam abhīkṣṇaśaḥ

(SB 1.7.46)

So, in continuation of the Pāṇḍavas' position in relationship with Droṇācārya, the guru, so many things are being explained by Draupadī. So she is not ordinary woman. She knows everything of the religious principles, and therefore she is teaching the assembly of respectable, learned persons how the spiritual master should be respected. Droṇa is also, I mean to say, qualified as bhagavān. Bhagavān Droṇa. Anyone who is extraordinarily powerful, he is addressed sometimes as bhagavān. Nārada Muni is also sometimes addressed as bhagavān. Lord Śiva is also sometimes addressed as bhagavān.

Lecture on SB 1.7.47-48 -- Vrndavana, October 6, 1976:

Just like Prahlāda Mahārāja said, śoce tato vimukha-cetasa indriyārtha-māyā-sukhāya bharam udvahato vimūḍhān (SB 7.9.43). Because my father has done so much injustice unto me, so Kṛṣṇa wanted to give him benediction. But he refused. "No. I do not require anything. I am quite happy. I don't want anything. And in exchange of my service... Because I have done some work as Vaiṣṇava, it is my duty..." Jīvera svarūpa haya nitya-kṛṣṇa-dāsa (Cc. Madhya 20.108-109). "It is my duty as a servant. I have tolerated all tribulations offered by my father. I was never disturbed. I preached amongst my class friends. Whatever possible I have done. But that does not mean I want some benefit. No. I am not a bāniyā, vaṇik. Sa vai vaṇik. So do not offer my any benediction. I am quite satisfied." So the question may be that "You are satisfied in spite of undergoing so much trouble? Still, you are...?" "Yes, I am satisfied. Yes, I am satisfied."

Lecture on SB 1.8.18 -- Chicago, July 4, 1974 :

Everyone is trying to become perfect, but the perfection means when one can see Kṛṣṇa within and without. That is perfection. Ārādhito yadi haris tapasā tataḥ kiṁ. If you have been able to worship Kṛṣṇa, then there is no need of any more austerities, penances, (indistinct) to self-realize or to know God. There are so many processes, austerities, penances. Sometimes we go to the forest, go to the forest to see where is God, where... There, there are different processes, but the śāstra says that actually if you are worshiping Kṛṣṇa, ārādhito yadi haris tapasā tataḥ kiṁ, that there is no more need of your undergoing severe penances and austerities. And narādhito, narādhito yadi haris tapasā tataḥ kim, and ultimately after going severe..., undergoing severe austerities and penances, if, if you do not know what is Kṛṣṇa, then what is the use? It is useless. Narādhito yadi haris tapasā tataḥ kim, antar bahir yadi haris tapasā tataḥ kiṁ. Similarly, if you can see twenty-four hours Kṛṣṇa, within and without, then the that is the end of all tapasya.

Lecture on SB 1.8.18-19 -- Bombay, April 9, 1971:

Therefore śāstra says that alakṣya... Ārādhito yadi haris tapasā tataḥ kim: (Nārada Pañcarātra) "If one has come to the point of worshiping the Supreme Lord, there is no more necessity of undergoing severe austerities and penances." Because others, karmīs and yogis, for their sense gratification, karmīs, jñānīs, and yogis, they have to undergo severe austerities. But the bhakta, somehow or other, he can, if he simply learns how to love Kṛṣṇa, then he hasn't got to undergo severe austerities and penance. Immediately he is released. Because that is the perfectional stage. If you live in Kṛṣṇa, always loving... Just like the gopīs. The gopīs, they learned how to love Kṛṣṇa. That's all. They never underwent any severe austerities like the great saintly persons going to Himalaya and pressing their nose and something like that. No, never did. Their only business was how to love Kṛṣṇa. Automatically. Without any... Of course, that stage is not easily obtained, but the śāstra says if you come to that stage, simply to love Kṛṣṇa, then you are on the highest platform of blissful life. Premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena santaḥ sadaiva hṛdayeṣu (Bs. 5.38). Santaḥ, those who are devotees, they are twenty-four hours seeing God. That is to be... That is the highest stage of perfection. And by Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, one can be brought to the platform, how to love Kṛṣṇa twenty-four hours without any cessation.

Lecture on SB 1.8.30 -- Los Angeles, April 22, 1973:

So therefore Kṛṣṇa's, this plan of appearance and disappearance, they are to be very greatly understood. Not that whimsically Kṛṣṇa has come. He has got a great plan. Otherwise why He should come here? He is very much eager to take you back to home, back to Godhead. That is Kṛṣṇa's business. Therefore He says:

sarva-dharmān parityajya

mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja

ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo

mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ

(BG 18.66)

He is giving assurance. "My dear..." Everyone of us, we are children of Kṛṣṇa, God. So He is more unhappy. Because we are unhappy on account of this material body, we are undergoing repetition of birth, death, old age and disease. That is not very comfortable situation. But we are so fool, rascal, that we do not take care of this. We are busy for a temporary comfort of this life. But we are neglecting the real discomforts of life, birth, death, old age and disease. This is our ignorance. This is our foolishness.

Thank you very much. (end)

Lecture on SB 1.8.31 -- Mayapura, October 11, 1974:

So these people, these Māyāvādī people, they are trying to become one with the God. But a devotee doesn't like to be one with God but better than God or higher than God. That is devotee's position. Devotee's so powerful that Kṛṣṇa, a devotee can claim to become higher than God. They can produce God. Just like Yaśodā-mātā, Devakī. He (she) produced God. And God agrees. These Devakī and Vasudeva, they underwent severe penances, austerities. Without any conjugal union, they undergone tapasya. And Kṛṣṇa came to them, that "What do you want?" "Now I, we want a son like You." So Kṛṣṇa said, "Who can be equal to Me? That is not possible. I shall become your son." This is the reason that Kṛṣṇa took birth as the son of Devakī, because they become... Kṛṣṇa... Vasudeva and Devakī or Mother Yaśodā or Nanda, they became the father and mother of Kṛṣṇa, and now they are chastising Kṛṣṇa. It is not so easy thing. They had to undergo thousands of years in penances to take this position of chastising Kṛṣṇa. It is not... (end)

Lecture on SB 1.8.35 -- Mayapura, October 15, 1974:

So why? Ignorance. Ignorance. So therefore this very word is used, avidyā. He never thinks... He is so much absorbed in ignorance that he has no time to think that "Repeatedly I am stealing, and repeatedly I am arrested, and I am punished. I sent to jail. Why I am doing this?" Result is not very good. Just like a person too much sexually inclined. He suffers in so many venereal diseases, undergoes operation, and still, he goes to prostitute, again does the same thing. This is avaidha-strī-saṅga, illegitimate. And legitimate also. After sex, the woman is pregnant, and she has to suffer for ten months. And at the time of delivery it is very dangerous sometimes. And the man also, after he gets the child, he has to take care of the child. He has to work hard to give education. This is proper, proper sex. The proper sex there are so many difficulties. And what is the..., what to speak of the improper sex? You kill the child. You take contraceptive.

Lecture on SB 1.8.40 -- Mayapura, October 20, 1974:

Kṛṣṇa's arrangement is very complete. Pūrṇam idaṁ pūrṇam adaḥ pūrṇāt pūrṇam udacyate (Īśopaniṣad, Invocation). Kṛṣṇa has given us everything in complete. There is no question... Although we have come to this material world for undergoing some tribulation on account of our rebellious attitude towards Kṛṣṇa... Kṛṣṇa, we are meant for serving Kṛṣṇa, but we have rebelled: "Why shall I serve Kṛṣṇa? I shall serve my senses. I shall remain independent without Kṛṣṇa." This is our folly. That is not possible. We have discussed already that without Kṛṣṇa there is no question of happiness. There is no question of happiness. It is our... This is called ignorance.

kṛṣṇa bhuli' sei jīva anādi-bahirmukha

ataeva māyā tāre deya saṁsāra-duḥkha

(CC Madhya 20.117)

There is something like... Our only fault is that we have forgotten Kṛṣṇa and we have come to enjoy this material world. Material enjoyment means sense gratification. That's all. That is the material world. And spiritual world means there is no sense gratification, only activities for Kṛṣṇa's satisfaction. That is spiritual world. The so-called material world can be converted into spiritual world when this Kṛṣṇa consciousness is there, that everything should be used for Kṛṣṇa's pleasure. That is spiritual world. Otherwise, it is material world.

Lecture on SB 1.8.42 -- Los Angeles, May 4, 1973:

So by cutting off or giving up the attraction for material things, that is not sufficient. The Māyāvādī philosophers, they say, brahma satyaṁ jagan mithyā: "This world is false and Brahman is truth." We also say the same thing. But what is the difference? The difference is that you are living entity. You want enjoyment. Enjoyment means varieties. Without varieties you cannot enjoy. Just like here is a flower vase. There are so many flowers. Why has God created so many colors, so many forms? They create enjoyment, variety. Variety is the mother of enjoyment. That's a common saying. The Māyāvādī philosophers, they spoil the varieties, impersonalists. So what the result is? The result is āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ patanty adhaḥ anādṛta-yuṣmad-aṅghrayaḥ (SB 10.2.32). Bhāgavata says. They labor hard. They undergo severe penances. Just like our sannyāsīs, they can sit down here although there are many women. So Māyāvādī sannyāsī will not sit down. Where there are women, they will not sit down. They are very strict. And if some, some of the Māyāvādī sannyāsīs, if, by chance, they touch one woman someway or other, then he has to undergo some penances. Of course, a sannyāsī should be very cautious about intermingling with woman. For a sannyāsī... Not for a sannyāsī; even for a person who is desiring to go back to home, back to Godhead...

Lecture on SB 1.8.42 -- Los Angeles, May 4, 1973:

By service Kṛṣṇa is very satisfied. Kṛṣṇa does not require anyone's service; He's perfect Himself. But if you give Him service wholeheartedly, sincerely, then by the mercy of Kṛṣṇa, you'll make advancement. Sevonmukhe hi jihvādau svayam eva sphuraty adaḥ (Brs. 1.2.234). God will reveal. You cannot see God by your these blunt eyes. That is not possible. Premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena santaḥ sadaiva (Bs. 5.38). You have to smear your eyes with the ointment of love. Then Kṛṣṇa will reveal. Kṛṣṇa will come in front of you. Just like Dhruva Mahārāja. Dhruva Mahārāja was undergoing tapasya and he was meditating upon Viṣṇumūrti within his heart. All of a sudden the Viṣṇumūrti disappeared. So his meditation broke, and immediately opened his eyes. He saw the Viṣṇumūrti in his front. He's there. So similarly, you think of Kṛṣṇa always, always think of, when you will be perfect, you'll see Kṛṣṇa in your front, talking with you. This is the process. You'll see one day. But you should not be very much hasty. Oh..., of course, that is good: "Why I am not seeing Kṛṣṇa? Why I am not Kṛṣṇa, seeing, seeing...?"

Lecture on SB 1.8.52 -- Los Angeles, May 14, 1973:

They think it is some religious sentiment. Like so many other religions, it is like that. No. It is most the scientific movement, purifying the existence of the living being so that he can eternally, blissfully live, with complete knowledge. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. To purify. Yena śuddhyet sattvam. And for such... Just like for being cured from your attack of cold and cough, you take so many medicine, go to so many physician, you spend some money. Why? You want to be cured. Similarly, if you understand that "This is my disease, repetition of birth, death, old age and disease," so you'll have to sacrifice. Just like you are sacrificing money for being cured from the diseased condition, similarly, śāstra says that this human life is meant for tapasya, tapasya. Tapo divyaṁ yena śuddhyet sattvam (SB 5.5.1). This human life is meant for tapasya, not for indulging in sensual gratification like the animals. Tapasya. So in the tapasya method these things are prescribed. So Yudhiṣṭhira Mahārāja is mentioning them.

So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement means training people how to become tapasvī, tapasvī, who is undergoing tapasya, regulative, so that he may be cured from this permanent disease, birth, death, old age and disease. The Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. The whole Vedic process is meant for that purpose, to purify the existence of the living being so that he can be saved from the repetition of birth, death, old age and disease. You read some of the purport.

Lecture on SB 1.9.2 -- Los Angeles, May 16, 1973:

Therefore Bhagavad-gītā recommends, cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭaṁ guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ (BG 4.13). Here you cannot find all one class of men. That is not possible. There is those rascals who are trying to have a classless society, no class, all one. That is rascaldom. That is not possible. There must be classes. That is scientific. Why? Because this material nature is being conducted under three modes: first class, second class, third class. Goodness, passion and ignorance. So how you can make classless society? There must be divisions. There must be classes, color, colorful. So it has to be scientifically arranged, how all classes can cooperate for one purpose and they develop very nicely in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭam (BG 4.13). Mayā sṛṣṭam means anything created by God, you cannot nullify it, you cannot reject it. That is not possible. You have to accept it and possibly utilize it. Therefore devotees, they take it for granted, even there is distressed condition of life, they take it that "It is created by God. I am now in distress. It is creation of God. So why shall I hate it? Let me tolerate. Let me undergo this distressed condition of life."

Lecture on SB 1.9.48 -- Mayapura, June 14, 1973:

Now here is a word: Gāndhārīṁ ca tapasvinīm. Gāndhārī, the wife of Dhṛtarāṣṭra... He (She) is qualified herewith as tapasvinīm. Tapasvinīm. She was a householder, wife, having children. Not only children; she had one hundred sons. But still she is addressed here as tapasvinī. Tapasvinī means one who undergoes austerity. Because this human life is meant for practicing austerity. Human life is not meant for extravagancy. Tapasya. Tapo divyaṁ yena śuddhyet sattvam (SB 5.5.1). This is the principle of human civilization. Śuddhyet sattvam, existence. Our existence... We are eternal. Every living entity is eternal, but we are subjected to birth and death. Why? Because we are not pure. Just like when you are impure, some disease infects. If you are pure, follow the hygienic principle, you'll not be infected. Similarly, this existence, material existence, we, every one of us, part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa originally, the same purity qualitatively...

Lecture on SB 1.9.48 -- Mayapura, June 14, 1973:

We are conditioned by these four principles: birth, death, old age and disease. This is our condition. The scientist rascals, they are trying to improve the condition of living, but what is the improvement? There is death, there is birth, there is old age, and there is disease. No improvement. If you want to improve your condition, if you want to come back to original constitutional position, then tapasya, then you require to undergo austerity.

Tapo divyaṁ yena śuddhyet sattvaṁ yasmād brahma-saukhyam anantam (SB 5.5.1). If you undergo tapasya... Therefore we prescribe this tapasya: no illicit sex. Our tendency is to have illicit sex. That is the condition of this material nature. But we have to deny it. That is tapasya. Tendency's there. Tapasya means I have got some tendency, but voluntarily I have to check it. That is called control, tapasya. My tongue is dictating: "Oh, let us go to some place and eat such-and-such thing." But if you can control the tongue... "No," that is tapasya. "No, you cannot eat this. You cannot be allowed to eat anything and there's no and except Kṛṣṇa prasādam." That is tapasya. Not that "My tongue has dried up. I must drink a cup of tea," and I take it. "No. It is intoxication, prohibited. So I shall not take it." That is tapasya. And that tapasya, what for? Tapasya divyam, tapo divyam (SB 5.5.1). Otherwise, there are many men, they're also undergoing austerities for some material purpose. There are many men who wants to accumulate some money, begins business from low standard, works very hard day and night. In your country, there are many examples.

Lecture on SB 1.9.48 -- Mayapura, June 14, 1973:

But they do not know that there is next life. Next life he may become a dog, and what this millions of dollars will help him? That he does not know. Therefore tapo divyam (SB 5.5.1). Take austerity, penances, for reviving your original consciousness, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. For that purpose, you undergo austerity. Otherwise, if you simply undergo austerities, penances, hardship, for some material gain, then it is waste of time, defeat, parābhava. Parābhavas tāvad abodha-jātaḥ. Because he's a fool, rascal, he does not know what for hardship should be taken. Just like Hiraṇyakaśipu. He also underwent tapasya. The whole universe became trembled. Brahmā came: "Why you are undergoing such severe tapasya?" On one finger he stood up, and undergoing tapasya. Brahmā came: "What is your purpose of this tapasya?" "Sir, I want to be immortal." "So that is not possible. You cannot become immortal." Then in so many ways he wanted to become immortal. What is the purpose of becoming immortal? There are many trees standing for ten thousands of years. That is very successful life, to stand in a place for ten thousands of years without any movement? Or prolonging life for many thousands of years? Brahmā lives also for many millions of years.

So people are misled in this way. They undergo hardship for some temporary gain, which is condemned. Śāstra says that if you take hardship, if go under, undergo tapasya, it must be for realization of God. Tapo divyam (SB 5.5.1). That will give you permanent happiness.

Lecture on SB 1.10.1 -- Mayapura, June 16, 1973:

Therefore in our śāstra, when you commit some necessary sinful activities, to counteract it, a fasting, fasting is recommended. Therefore Yudhiṣṭhira Mahārāja was observing fasting, taking little necessities. Therefore śaunaka Muni is inquiring that sahānujaiḥ pratyavaruddha-bhojanaḥ kathaṁ pravṛttaḥ kim akāraṣīt tataḥ: (SB 1.10.1) "Then he was undergoing some prāyaścitta system; then how did he take the reigns of ruling over the kingdom?" That was his inquiry, Śaunaka Ṛṣi. Actually, the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam was first of all, in the beginning... The first beginning of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam was in front of Mahārāja Parīkṣit. Śukadeva Gosvāmī explained, and Sūta Gosvāmī was in that meeting also. So he learned explanation of Bhāgavatam from Śukadeva Gosvāmī. This is called paramparā system. Now, generally the professional reciters of Bhāgavatam, they do not follow the paramparā system. They make business. Just like we are reading Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, we are discussing about the warfares, the professionals, they will go immediately to rāsa-līlā, as if these things are not necessary. Anyone who hears Bhāgavatam from these professionals, they do not know what are the other subject matter in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Because they haven't got the chance to hear. They do not discuss. Whenever there is recitation of Bhāgavatam, it means they are discussing some rāsa-līlā. Because the rāsa-līlā is very palatable to the rascals. They think that Kṛṣṇa is ordinary young boy, and the gopīs are young girls, and as they read novel and dramas, one man, one woman, their activities, they think Bhāgavata is like that. They think... Arcye viṣṇau śilā-dhīr guruṣu nara-matiḥ. They think like that.

Lecture on SB 1.15.1 -- New York, November 29, 1973:

We want to be happy, with so many ideas. Everyone is making his own idea, "Now this is the..." But the rascals, they do not know that, what is the actual process for getting happiness, that is Kṛṣṇa. That they do not know. na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇuṁ durāśayā ye bahir-artha-māninaḥ (SB 7.5.31). You, you can see in your country, they are trying so many things, so many skyscraper buildings, so many motor cars, so many big, big cities, but there is no happiness. Because they do not know what is missing. That missing point we are giving. Here is, "You take Kṛṣṇa and you will be happy." This is our Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Kṛṣṇa and the living entity, they are very intimately connected. Like father and son, or friend and friend, or master and servant, like that. We are very much intimately connected. But because we have forgotten our intimate relationship with Kṛṣṇa, and trying to become happy in this material world, therefore we have to undergo so much tribulations. This is the position. Kṛṣṇa bhuliya jīva bhoga vañcha kare.

Lecture on SB 1.16.16 -- Los Angeles, January 11, 1974:

Kṛṣṇa consciousness begins from the tongue, not from the eyes. Some rascals want to see Kṛṣṇa. They will see that Guru Maharaj(-ji). You see? Such rascals will see that so-called Kṛṣṇa. But to see real Kṛṣṇa, one has to purify the eyes, purify the senses. Not that anyone comes, "I am Kṛṣṇa," and I can see and become perfect. No. Sevonmukhe. And how the senses will be purified? By sevonmukha, by rendering service. For many, many thousands of years, if one is engaged in the service of Kṛṣṇa, then one day there is chance of understanding what is Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is not so easy thing. Ataḥ śrī-kṛṣṇa-nāmādi na bhaved grāhyam indriyaiḥ, sevonmukhe hi jihvādau (CC Madhya 17.136). Kṛṣṇa also says in the Bhagavad-gītā: manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu kaścid yatati siddhaye (BG 7.3). Kṛṣṇa seeing is not so easy. Manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu. Out of many millions of people. Manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu kaścid yatati siddhaye. To siddha, to become siddha, is not that "I go on doing all nonsense work, I become perfect man." No, no. Tapasā brahmacaryeṇa śamena ca damena ca, tyāgena satya-śaucābhyām (SB 6.1.13). This is a process, how to become perfect. The rascals cannot become perfect. These are the process. One has to undergo austerity, penance, brahmacaryeṇa, completely cessation from sex life, brahmacaryeṇa. Not that any rascal doing everything and he has realized Kṛṣṇa, he has seen Kṛṣṇa. These are all rascaldom.

Lecture on SB 1.16.26-30 -- Hawaii, January 23, 1974:

Yes, tolerate, yes. Kṣānti. We should not be intolerant. Even somebody has done some wrong unto me, tapasvī. Kṣamā-rūpa-tapasvinām. Tapasvī, those who are advancing in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, undergoing tapasya, austerities, their first qualification is to forgive the offender. This is the qualification. Tapasvinām. Kṣamā-rūpa-tapasvinām. Then tyāga. Tyāga means to give your energy for Kṛṣṇa. Everyone is giving energy for his sense gratification. When we give our energy, Kṛṣṇa... Parārthe prajñā utsṛjet(?). This is Cāṇakya Paṇḍita. Sannimitte varaṁ tyāgo vinas emiyate sati. Sannmivitte varamṁ tyāgaḥ(?). Tyāga means to give in charity for others' benefit. That is called tyāga. So what is the best tyāga? When you give up everything... (break)

...such thing. You do your best, but depend, the result, on Kṛṣṇa. That is wanted. If somebody comes to attack you, you must also attack. You first attack. But you should not think that "I am so powerful. I can gain victory over you." Depend on Kṛṣṇa, do your best. Yudhyasva mām anusmara (BG 8.7). This is our policy. When there is question of fight, we have to fight. Just like in Bombay, we fought, but the result, we depended on Kṛṣṇa. We have come out victorious.

Lecture on SB 2.1.1-5 -- Boston, December 22, 1969:

So Bhāgavata says, "No. You should immediately try for the ultimate success of your life. Don't spoil your life." If we become absorbed in the thoughts of materialistic way of enjoyment, then naturally we have to take birth again in any other form of body, may be human body or may not be human body. But unless we purify our mind and consciousness, we must have to accept the material body.

And if we accept a material body, then all the miserable conditions that we are undergoing with this body, we have to accept it. This is not pessimistic view of life, but this is a fact. Only responsible persons, they can understand. Sanātana Gosvāmī was minister of government. His society was very aristocratic. Very rich men they were. So rich society, aristocratic society, could not satisfy him. He... They resigned the post and joined Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu for ultimate solution of life. These examples are many. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu's disciples, direct disciples, they were all very important men, just like Six Gosvāmīs. Even Svarūpa Dāmodara, His private secretary, he was very learned man, Vedantist.

Lecture on SB 2.1.5 -- Delhi, November 8, 1973:

But the śāstra says that this human life is meant for understanding God, nothing else. Other things are already arranged. You are harassed by the problems of eating, sleeping, mating, but there is no such question. Eating arrangement is there. Even the birds and bees, they are confident. They have no office-going, they are not lawyers, engineers, politicians, to earn their bread, but the bread is ready for them. Even for the beast, birds, so they are confident. So this is not problem. Real problem is to understand God. And what will the benefit by understanding God? Then the problem of your birth, death, old age and disease will be solved. That is the real problem. We are undergoing repetition of birth, death, old age and disease. These problems can be solved simply by understanding what is God. This is the solution.

Lecture on SB 2.3.10 -- Los Angeles, May 28, 1972:

So he was a son of kṣatriya. He was so determined. He said, "My dear sir, I thank you for your instruction. But I'm so rascal, I cannot accept." Just see. "I am kṣatriya. Your, this brahminical instruction will not be accepted by me. So if you can give me any mantra by which I can see the Supreme Lord, just talk of that. I want to see Him." Then Nārada Muni saw, "Oh, he's so determined, he's not going back." Then he gave him: oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. "Chant this." And he saw Kṛṣṇa, Viṣṇu, within six months. He was so determined. But when Kṛṣṇa offered him, "Now, you ask Me whatever you like. You can take from Me. You have undergone such severe austerities. You can take." So he was sorry. "Oh..." Now, svāmin kṛtārtho 'smi varaṁ na yāce (CC Madhya 22.42). "My dear Lord, I have no more any desire. I don't want anything. I have got everything. Not only everything, more than everything. I have seen You. So I don't want anything."

Lecture on SB 2.3.20 -- Bombay, March 24, 1977, At Cross Maidan Pandal:

Yes. People are so fallen that they cannot take the life of tapasya. Athāto brahma jijñāsā. This is the life of tapasya. Tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena śuddhyet sattvam (SB 5.5.1). So, tapasā brahmacaryeṇa yamena niyamena vā (SB 6.1.13). So, there is process of tapasya, but in this age, Kali-yuga, people are so fallen that they cannot undergo all the items of tapasya. It is very difficult. Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu... Caitanya Mahāprabhu has not manufactured. It is mentioned in the śāstra that only by this process.

kaler doṣa-nidhe rājann

asti hy eko mahān guṇaḥ

kīrtanād eva kṛṣṇasya

mukta-saṅgaḥ paraṁ vrajet

(SB 12.3.51)

This is special concession to the Kali-yuga, that there are so many faults in this age, but if one sticks to this principle of kīrtanād eva kṛṣṇasya mukta-saṅgaḥ paraṁ vrajet, he becomes liberated and go back to home, back to Godhead.

Lecture on SB 2.4.2 -- Los Angeles, June 25, 1972:

So this was a puzzle. So the king, he invited his ministers, that "What is the meaning of this?" The ministers were very intelligent, so he explained that "Your son has been blessed"ciraṁ jīva " Because your son is so licentious that as soon as he dies he is going to hell. So therefore he has blessed 'You better live forever; otherwise you are going to hell. (laughter) Your life is so sinful that next life is hellish. So better you live forever.' " Then, the next, muni-putra. Muni-putra means... Just like our disciples. They have to undergo austerities: no meat-eating, no illicit sex, no intoxication, so many no's.

But similarly, muni-putra, he is also execute all these functions, and there is no comfortable life. A muni-putra lives in a cottage. There is no good bedstead, and eating simple fruits and flowers. So from materialistic point of view, this is a miserable condition of life. So he was blessed that "You have sufficiently undergone austerities. Now your next life is in Vaikuṇṭha. So better you die and go to Vaikuṇṭha. Why you should suffer any more?" So therefore he was blessed that muni-putra muni-putra mā jīva. And the saintly person, he was blessed by the words jīva vā māra vā. "Either you die or live, the same thing." Because, a saintly person is engaged in the service of the Lord so his life is so blissful. So either he lives or when he dies, he goes back to home, back to Godhead. He'll do the same business.

Lecture on SB 2.9.1 -- Tokyo, April 20, 1972:

Kṛṣṇa says, mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti te: (BG 7.14) "As soon as one surrenders unto Me, he has no more illusion." Māyām etaṁ taranti. Immediately. So people are conditioned, encaged. So many big, big words The Māyāvādīs, they are undergoing austerities or penances just to become liberated. Yogis, they are also trying to become one. So many endeavors are going on. But the simple process is, as soon as you surrender, that you are not fallen, "It was illusion. I was dreaming. I am Kṛṣṇa's," finished. All gone. "I am Kṛṣṇa's. I am Kṛṣṇa's eternal servant. These are all nonsense"—he immediately becomes liberated. Just try to understand. Immediately, within a second. Liberation can be attained within a second, provided we abide by the order of Kṛṣṇa. Sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). This is the position. We are not fallen. We are thinking fallen. So we have to give up this nonsense thinking. Then we are liberated. There is no... Is there any difficulty to understand? Just see how important this verse. It is already there, but you are not reading. Each verse, read every day carefully. Try to assimilate, understand, and you will get more profit, every day, hundred yards forward, hundred yards forward, yes. They are so important verses. How nicely composed by Vyāsadeva. In two lines the whole thing is explained. This is called śāstra. In two lines. Then read the purport.

Lecture on SB 2.9.4 -- Japan, April 22, 1972:

Bhakti-yoga therefore requires little tapasya, not playthings, tapasya, that "We are addicted to so many sinful activities. We must give it up." That is tapasya. "We must observe fasting on ekādaśī day, on Lord's birthday." These are tapasya. If we do not... "We must chant sixteen rounds. We must observe the rules and regulations." This is tapasya. Don't make God very cheap thing: "Oh, it is very cheap thing." No. It has been made very easy for the Kali-yuga people because they cannot undergo any kind of tapasya. There is simple tapasya—"Chant sixteen rounds. Don't take this. Don't do this, four items. Take prasādam. Don't take anything." So nothing is stopped. A little regulated, that this much, if we do not do, then how we can expect to see God and understand God? Tapo divyam (SB 5.5.1). If simply we remain like hogs and cats and dogs, then how it is possible to realize God? Paraṁ pavitram. If I do not become pavitra myself, pure, how I can see the supreme pure? It is impossible. Tapasya must be there. But for this age the tapasya has been minimized. Brahmā is the most important person within this universe. He underwent tapasya for a hundred years. Then he could see God and realize God. You cannot go such tapasya, undergo such tapasya. That is not possible in this age.

Lecture on SB 2.9.4 -- Japan, April 22, 1972:

They are going by plane from Vancouver to Montreal or something like that, their daily business. Similarly, in your country also, there are many men coming daily Los Angeles, five hundred miles by plane. This is your civilization. For two meals only, you have to make so much tapasya-fifty miles, hundred miles, five hundred miles, go and come back. There is a story that one gentleman, he was coming to Calcutta early in the morning because he has to go hundred miles, so to catch the first train at six o'clock. Then he will reach at nine o'clock in city. Then he can attend office at ten o'clock. So... And again, going back, the office hour is finished at five o'clock. He was to go to home at ten o'clock. But still, he will go for sleeping six hours. The whole day and night is engaged for earning two meals. So they will undergo so much tapasya only for two meals which is obtained very easily by the cats and dogs. But they are not prepared to undergo any tapasya for understanding God. This is their position. For meals the birds, bees, they are not going to office. There are 8,400,000 forms of life. Only the civilized form of, the so-called civilized men, they are undergoing so much trouble for their meals. But others, they are not going fifty miles. They have got ready food. They sit down on any tree. Oh, there are enough fruits. Little eating, finish their business. Or take the elephants also. They are eating so much. They have got also food. Therefore śāstra says that "Food is already there."

Lecture on SB 2.9.9 -- Tokyo, April 25, 1972, Informal Class in Room:

This man has got so much money. Therefore I have taken some money." Will the court excuse you? Even if you have no food, you cannot encroach upon other's right unless you are sanctioned. Therefore according to Vedic system, the meat-eater is given chance by sacrificing an animal before some demigod. Not free slaughterhouse. No. That you cannot do. Undergoing that process, someday he will come to his senses that "Meat-eating and killing of animal is not good." Because there are so many mantras. If you understand mantras, the mantra, when a goat is sacrificed before Goddess Kālī, before the goat being cut by his throat, the priest says that "Because you are sacrificing your life before Goddess Kālī, next life you are going to have human form of body for your, this sacrifice." Otherwise you have to undergo the process. That is gradual evolutionary process. But because you are forced somehow or other in the presence of mother material energy, she will give you the facility to promote immediately to the human form of life. And as human being, you will have every right to kill this man who is killing you. That is meaning of māṁsa. Mām means me, sa means he. "He will also eat me." So I will have to take the form of a goat next life. And he will take the form of a human being and he will get the chance of killing me. He can excuse, but he will get the chance. This is the bandhana. Karma-bandhana.

Lecture on SB 3.12.19 -- Dallas, March 3, 1975:

Therefore, to get that freedom, you have to work for it. Freedom does not come so automatically. Just like you are diseased. You are under the control of fever or some other painful condition, under some disease. So you have to undergo some penance. Just like you are suffering from some boil on the body. It is very painful. Then, in order to cure it, you have to undergo the surgical operation if you want to be cured. Therefore tapasā. That is tapasā. Tapa means painful condition, tapa. Just like temperature. If you are put into high temperature, 110 degree, then it is very intolerable for you. It is very painful. Even for us Indians—we are born in India, tropical climate—still, when the temperature is more than hundred, it becomes intolerable. And what to speak of you? You are born in a different temperature. Similarly, we cannot tolerate lower temperature. If it is below fifty degree, it is intolerable for us. So there are different climates, different temperature. And in Canada they tolerate forty degree less than zero. So it is a question of different condition of life. But we are conditioned: high grade temperature, less temperature, high grade cold. But we can we trained up to any kind of conditional life. That capacity we have got. There is a Bengali proverb, śarīre na mahāśaya ya sahabe taya saya,(?) means "This body is," means, "it can tolerate any condition, provided you practice it." It is not that, that you are under certain condition, and if you are changed, it becomes so intolerable that you cannot live.

Lecture on SB 3.12.19 -- Dallas, March 3, 1975:

Just like nowadays nobody is going. Formerly they are going to the Himalayan mountain, and there is very cold. And the tapasya... There is practice, method: in high scorching heat the saintly person or sages, they will ignite fire all round. Already there is high temperature, and still they will get fire all round and go on, meditation. This is tapasya. These are the items of tapasya. There is scorching heat and they will arrange that. There is pinching, chilly cold, less than hundred degree, and they will go under water and put the body up to this and meditate. These are the items of tapasya. Tapasya. So for God realization formerly people used to undergo such severe type of penances, and at the present moment we are so fallen, we cannot tolerate these four principles? Is it very difficult? We are imposing some tapasya, that "Don't indulge in these things. No illicit sex, no intoxication, no meat-eating, no gambling." These are the items of tapasya for advancing in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So is it very difficult? It is not difficult. If one can practice, go within the water up to the neck in chilly pinching cold, is it more difficult to give up illicit sex and meat-eating and intoxication? We are not advising, "No sex." Illicit sex. So where is the difficulty? But the age is so fallen that even these primary tapasya we cannot execute. That is the difficulty.

Lecture on SB 3.12.19 -- Dallas, March 3, 1975:

So if we are not prepared to undertake even this very, very easily executable tapasya, then how we can expect go back to home, back to Godhead? No, that is not possible. Therefore here it is said, tapasaiva, tapasā eva. Eva means certainly. You have to. Now, executing this tapasya, penances, are you loser? You are not loser. Now, anyone who will come from outside, they will see in our society, our members, boys and girls. They say, "bright-faced." Do they not? They see distinction. One priest in plain cloth... I was going from Los Angeles to Hawaii. One priest, he came to me in the plane. So he asked my permission, "Can I talk with you?" "Yes, why not?" So his first question was that "I see your disciples very bright-faced. How it has been done?" He's sincere. So where is the loss? By undergoing, by denying all these things, sinful activities, we are not loser. We can live very simple life. We can sit down on the floor, we can lie down on the floor. We don't require much furniture, neither large amount of gorgeous dress. So tapasya required. If we want advancement in spiritual life, we must accept some sort of tapasya. In the Kali-yuga we cannot accept such severe type of tapasya as in the cold, we go underneath, under water, sometimes drowning or sometimes up to this, and then meditate or chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. That is not possible. The minimum. So tapasya must be there.

Lecture on SB 3.25.5-6 -- Bombay, November 5, 1974:

We have seen many, many sannyāsīs. They first of all give up... Brahma satyaṁ jagan mithyā: "The jagat is mithyā." And ahaṁ brahmāsmi: "I have no more anything to do. I have become Nārāyaṇa." Then he comes down again to feed the daridra-nārāyaṇa. That's all. He becomes Nārāyaṇa, but he comes to take activities in feeding... But why? It is mithyā. You have already left. Why do you come here again? That means he hasn't got anything. The unnecessary labor... Āruhya kṛcchreṇa. They undergo severe penances and austerities, and they reach up to the impersonal Brahman, but because there is no pleasure... Suppose if I send you in a nice aeroplane in the sky... There is no varieties. Just like so many aeronautics. They, after flying in the impersonal sky, they become tired. And sometimes they pray to God, "Please let me go back to the land." And I have read in the paper, when the Sputnik was carrying the Russian aeronautics, he was simply seeing down, "Where is Moscow?" (laughter) "Where is Moscow?" Because this impersonal traveling was very much agitating, he was finding out, "Where is Moscow?" So this kind of realization of the Absolute Truth will not stay, will have, will have to fall down. Exactly like that. The Russian aeronautics, without getting any shelter in the sky, he was simply hankering after Moscow. That my book, that Easy Journey to Other Planets... One gentleman, he became very much enthusiastic, that "Oh, we can go to the other planet?" And "Yes, you can go. Read this book." "Then I shall come back again?" "And why you shall come back again? You shall remain there." "No, no, no. I don't want that. I don't want that. I shall go and come back."

Lecture on SB 3.25.13 -- Bombay, November 13, 1974:

We should not be captivated by the material distress, or we should not be very much aggrieved by the material distress, and we should not be very much happy for material happiness. These are bondage. Material happiness is not actually happiness. That is through distress. Just like we are trying to be happy, trying to be very rich, get some money. That is not very easily obtained. We have to undergo so much distresses. So actually, it is distress, but with the hope of getting some false happiness, we accept this distress. Actually, there is no happiness. Sukham ātyantikaṁ yat tad atīndriya-grāhyam (BG 6.21). So that atīndriya means spiritual senses. If we purify our senses, come to the spiritual platform, sarvopādhi-vinirmuktaṁ tat-paratvena nirmalam (CC Madhya 19.170), if we become purified, then when that senses are engaged, hṛṣīkeṇa hṛṣīkeśa-sevanaṁ bhaktir ucyate, then that is real happiness. When we are engaged in the satisfying of the senses of Kṛṣṇa, not these material senses, then that is called ādhyātmika-yoga, or bhakti-yoga. So we have to learn bhakti-yoga from Kapiladeva. Gradually, He has begun the preliminary instructions.

Thank you very much. (end)

Lecture on SB 3.25.16 -- Bombay, November 16, 1974:

So the human life is meant for understanding that how we are undergoing this tribulation of birth and death, old age and disease. The cats and dogs, they cannot understand. That is not possible. Therefore for human life so many Vedic literatures are there, not for the cats and dogs. If you don't take advantage of this Vedic literature,... There is no need of education. It is not needed that one has to become very learned scholar. No. Sat-saṅga. Hear. Sthāne sthitāḥ śruti-gatāṁ tanu-vāṅ-manobhiḥ. You remain in your position, but go to a person who is speaking kṛṣṇa-kathā. Hear him. That's all. Everyone can do that. Where is the difficulty? So our this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is that. We give chance to the people to hear about Kṛṣṇa. That is our men... Therefore we have specifically mentioned: Kṛṣṇa consciousness. We don't talk any other nonsense things. We don't talk. We have no other business. Simply we talk of Kṛṣṇa. That will purify. Śṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṇaḥ puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtanaḥ (SB 1.2.17). If you, even if you do not understand a single word, if you simply hear, then you become pious. It is so nice. Śṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṇaḥ puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtanaḥ. Śravaṇa means when there is talks of Kṛṣṇa, somebody is hearing and somebody is talking. Śravaṇaṁ kīrtanam.

Lecture on SB 3.25.21 -- Bombay, November 21, 1974:

So if you want to go, you must qualify yourself. Otherwise it is not so easy. Just like if you want to go to America, you must have qualification. You must have your visa, you must have your passport, you must have the... So many things—if you want to be immigration or if you want to go as a visitor. Similarly, the other conn... If there are so many processes you have to undergo from this country to that country, is it possible that you want to go to another planet without such qualification? This is futile attempt. It is not possible. Therefore you are conditioned. It is called conditioned. We cannot go, we cannot move freely, without being sanctioned by the superior authority. So we generally say, "Not a blade of grass moves without the sanction of God." Similarly, we cannot do anything. Daivī hy eṣā. God does not take as the supervision personally. Parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate (Cc. Madhya 13.65, purport). Na tasya kāryaṁ karaṇaṁ ca vidyate—in the Vedas, Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad. He hasn't got to do personally, but He has got so many agents to do. Parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate. He has got so ma... They will do. You are not free even to twinkle with your eyelids. That is also being controlled. That information... You are moving this hand very freely. It can be immediately paralyzed. I am claiming that "I... It is my hand." What is your hand? It can be stopped immediately. Your eyes, it can be stopped.

Lecture on SB 3.25.22 -- Bombay, November 22, 1974:

This is the beginning of sādhu. Because to come to this stage, ananya-bhāvena bhakti-yogena, you have to tolerate so many things. Just like Prahlāda Mahārāja. Ananya-bhāvena yogena. He was simply thinking of Nārāyaṇa. How much trouble he had to undergo, even by, offered by his father. So we should be very much... Titikṣavaḥ. The matter... This material nature will not give you freedom so easily. It will not give so much freedom... Daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī mama... mām eva ye prapadyante (BG 7.14). If you become strong enough to capture the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, then mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etām... Then māyā will give you, "No, he's very strong. I cannot any more keep him under my clutches." So that is ananya-bhāvena. That is described. Ananyena bhāvena bhaktiṁ kurvanti ye dṛḍhām, mat-kṛte. For the sake of Kṛṣṇa, one can give up everything. That is ananya-bhāva. The first-class example is the gopīs. They gave up everything. Their family, their relatives, their husband, their sons, their father, their prestige, their honor—everything sacrificed, simply for Kṛṣṇa. That is the highest perfection.

Lecture on SB 3.25.23 -- Bombay, November 23, 1974:

Therefore it is said that tapanti vividhās tāpā na etān mad-gata-cetasaḥ. Just like Prahlāda Mahārāja. So how much suffering he had to undergo, the five-years-old boy, and his father was putting in dangers, sometimes under the feet, leg of the elephant, sometimes throwing from the mountain, sometimes on burning oil, sometimes amongst the snakes, so many ways. But he was silent. Haridāsa Ṭhākura. Haridāsa Ṭhākura was a Muhammadan by birth. So he became a very good devotee and always chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. That was his fault. So the Muslim Kazi called him, that "You are Muhammadan. You born in a such great family, Muhammadan family, and you are chanting Hindu's Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra? What is this?" So he mildly replied, "My dear sir, there are many Hindus, they also have become Muhammadan. So suppose I have become Hindu. So what is the wrong? What is the wrong there?" So Kazi became very angry, that "You are talking before me? All right." So he was punished to be caned in twenty-two bazaar, in front of twenty-two bazaar. That means he was to be killed by caning. So it is understood, when he was beaten by the cane, Caitanya Mahāprabhu was on his back. So he did not feel any suffering. So there are many instances. A devotee had to suffer many sufferings, but they did not take it very much severely. They tolerated. And a devotee is educated to tolerate.

Lecture on SB 3.25.23 -- Bombay, November 23, 1974:

So this devotional service, this line of action, is so nice that if we practice, if we make advance, then even in this material world, staying, there will be no more suffering. That is called jīvan mukta. Jīvan mukta means although he is in this body, but he is not suffering the bodily miserable condition. It is a question of absorption of thought. I have read in some paper that Mr. Stalin, the communist leader, he had to undergo a surgical operation of operating on the belly. But doctor wanted to, what is called, chloroform, but he said, "No, there is no need. You can go on with your operation." So even in ordinary life it is possible. Because the mind is absorbed in a different way, even a surgical operation does not disturb a man. Similarly, what to speak of spiritual life, if your mind is always absorbed in Kṛṣṇa thought, Kṛṣṇa consciousness... That is stated mad-gata-cetasaḥ, always thinking of Kṛṣṇa. And Kṛṣṇa advises also. What is His advice? Man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru: (BG 18.65) "You always think of Me."

Lecture on SB 3.25.24 -- Bombay, November 24, 1974:

We have discussed these verses. A sādhu... Because everything you want to learn, you have to take some penance voluntarily, so we have to give up something in the beginning. Just like we advise, "No illicit sex, no intoxication, even up to smoking biḍi and taking tea." So one who is accustomed to these habits, for him to give up immediately these things, it becomes a little painful. Therefore one has to become tolerant, "Never mind. I will have to become free." Just like to become cured from some disease, we agree to undergo surgical operation although it is very painful, tolerate; similarly, we have to learn toleration although there will be some pain. That is called titikṣavaḥ.

Lecture on SB 3.25.38 -- Bombay, December 7, 1974:

The Vasudeva and Devakī, in their previous life they underwent severe austerities. After their marriage, they immediately were not anxious to beget child. They went to the forest and began practicing austerity and penances, severe, some hundreds of years. Then Kṛṣṇa appeared that "What do you want? Why you are undergoing so much severe...?" "No, we want a son like You. Then we enter into the family life." So Kṛṣṇa said that "Where is another Kṛṣṇa?" Because God is one. "So if you want a son like Me, then I will have to become your son. There is no competitor." God has no competitor. God is one. Ekaṁ brahma dvitīyaṁ nāsti. This is the... Kṛṣṇa therefore says, mām ekam. Mām ekam. Sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekam (BG 18.66). Kṛṣṇa is one, but Kṛṣṇa can expand. That is Kṛṣṇa. The Māyāvādī philosophers say that "If Kṛṣṇa has become everything, then where is Kṛṣṇa? Kṛṣṇa is finished." This is Māyāvādī philosophy. That is materialistic idea.

Lecture on SB 3.26.7 -- Bombay, December 19, 1974:

So you will find in the Fifth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam his life. He enjoyed his kingdom, then voluntarily he left. After the end of his material way of life, he divided the property to his sons and left. And he was living alone at Pulahāśrama near Haridwar, and undergoing severe tapasya. That is human life, to accept tapasya. Tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena śuddhyet sattvaṁ yasmād brahma-saukhyam anantam (SB 5.5.1). You are searching after happiness, but why don't you see that in this material life your happiness is conditioned? That is not easily going or flowing. There are so many conditions. If you have to become a millionaire, before becoming millionaire there are so many condition. So this is not happiness, after going through so many conditions, and which we get, that is also not for good.

So to come to the so-called conditional happiness we have to undergo so many difficulties, and when we come to that position... Suppose after working very, very hard I get one millions dollars, so I will not be allowed to enjoy this one million dollar for all the days. Aśāśvatam. Duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam (BG 8.15). Kṛṣṇa says that this place is full of miseries. To get that one million dollar you have to undergo so many miserable condition of life. And even if you get it... Perhaps you may not get it. Everyone is trying, but they cannot. Everyone is not getting. Who is destined to get, he will get it, not that everyone, because he, one is trying very hard, it is guaranteed that he will get one millions dollars. That is not possible. That one who is to get by destiny... This is the śāstra. Actually, this is the fact.

Lecture on SB 3.26.8 -- Bombay, December 20, 1974:

So it is exactly like that. We are in this material world on account of this icchā and dveṣa. We wanted to satisfy the senses, material senses, independently. And we wanted to disobey the orders of the Supreme Lord. These are the two causes for which we are put into this material world. So we have to rectify this mentality, that "I am independent. I am God. I can do whatever we like." This mentality has to be rectified. For that rectification we are in this material world, and we are undergoing different types of miserable condition of life to become rectified so that we may come to the senses, that "I want to be happy. I want to enjoy life. Why I am put into this unfavorable circumstances? The most unfavorable circumstance is that I do not want to die. Still, I have to die." This is common sense. So in order to... On account of this puruṣa mentality... Just like I have already explained the strī can enjoy happy life along with the husband, not independently, similarly, we, being prakṛti, our business is to remain eternal servant of Kṛṣṇa. Then we will be happy. Otherwise we will not be happy. It is not possible.

Lecture on SB 3.26.10 -- Bombay, December 22, 1974:

So that self-realization is not very difficult. But it requires a little fortune and intelligence. Ahaṁ brahmāsmi. These big, big saintly person, they are undergoing severe penances and austerities to understand ahaṁ brahmāsmi. But if you believe in the Bhagavad-gītā statement, Kṛṣṇa says, mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūtaḥ: (BG 15.7) "The living entities are My part and parcel." So if Kṛṣṇa is Para-brahman... Paraṁ brahma paraṁ dhāma pavitraṁ paramaṁ bhavān (BG 10.12). This is accepted by Arjuna when he heard Bhagavad-gītā. At the end, he is accepting, "Kṛṣṇa, You are Para-brahman." So if we are part and parcel of Para-brahman, then we must be Brahman. Where is the difficulty? So this brahmāham, brahmāsmi, this Brahman realization, can be understood in a moment if you believe Bhagavad-gītā as it is. But if you foolishly interpret in this way and that way, then it will take millions of years. You will not understand what is Bhagavad-gītā, what is God, what is... But if you take it as it is, then immediately you can understand that you are Brahman. There is no difficulty.

Lecture on SB 3.26.20 -- Bombay, December 29, 1974:

Kṛṣṇa says, sarva-dharmān parityajya (BG 18.66). This sarva-dharmān means everyone has got a particular type of occupational duty. That is called sva-dharma. Generally, the brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra, they have got particular type of duties. And as Kṛṣṇa said, sarva-dharmān parityajya: (BG 18.66) "You give up your brāhmaṇa-dharma, or kṣatriya-dharma, or vaiśya-dharma or śūdra-dharma, or Hindu dharma, Muslim dharma, this dharma, that dharma." Sarva-dharma means everything. Sarva-dharmān parityajya (BG 18.66). If we are little inclined, that is called..., that is explained in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam: tyaktvā sva-dharmaṁ caraṇāmbujaṁ hareḥ (SB 1.5.17). He gives up all other duties: "I am no more any followers of any dharma. I am followers of Kṛṣṇa's lotus feet." If this determination is there, then everything is possible.

There is a verse, ārādhito yadi haris tapasā tataḥ kim: (Nārada Pañcarātra) "If you take the shelter of the lotus feet of Hari, Kṛṣṇa," ārādhitaḥ, "and worship it," ārādhito yadi haris tapasā tataḥ kim, "then there is no more necessity of austerities, penances, and so many other things. Simply this is required." Ārādhito yadi haris tapasā tataḥ kim... Nārādhito yadi haris tapasā tataḥ kim: "And after undergoing your religious principles and ritualistic ceremonies and austerities, penances, fully executing the occupational duty, everything done," but nārādhito hariḥ, "but you could not understand how to worship Hari," so tapasā tataḥ kim, "then what is the use of your this tapasya?" There is no use. It is simply waste of time. Śrama eva hi kevalam. This is confirmed everywhere. Śrama eva hi kevalam.

Lecture on SB 3.26.23-4 -- Bombay, January 1, 1975:

So some way or other, we are fallen in this material condition of life, making a... Manaḥ ṣaṣṭhānīndriyāṇi prakṛti-sthāni karṣati (BG 15.7). This manasaś cendriyāṇi, as it is stated here, manasaś ca indriyāṇāṁ ca bhūtānāṁ mahatām api. Mahā-bhūta, mahā-bhūta, these five elements, kṣitir āp tejo marud vyoma, and mind. So in this way we are entrapped, and there is struggle. Manaḥ ṣaṣṭhānīndriyāṇi prakṛti-sthāni karṣati, mamaivāṁśa: (BG 15.7) "They are My part and parcel. They can live as good as I am, but unfortunately, they are undergoing a struggle for existence on account of this polluted mind." What is that pollution? Kṛṣṇa-bahirmukha hañā bhoga vāñchā kare. He thinks that "What is the use of..." this is, what is called, "service mentality, slave mentality." They say, "This bhakti-mārga is slave mentality. Instead of becoming God, they want to become servant or slave of God. So this is slave mentality." No, this is not slave mentality. This is actual liberation, because our constitutional position is to remain. We are servant of Kṛṣṇa. But somehow or other, we revolted. Still we are revolting. Although Kṛṣṇa coming and canvassing, "Just surrender unto Me," but still we are revolting. This is our disease. Manaḥ ṣaṣṭhānīndriyāṇi prakṛti-sthāni karṣati (BG 15.7).

So if we want to be cured again and come to our original consciousness, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, which is svacchatvam avikāritvam śāntatvam iti cetasaḥ, then we have to take to this Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is the only way. There is no other way to become peaceful. Śāntatvam avikār..., without any change, fixed-up mind—that is Kṛṣṇa consciousness, śānti. If you want... Everyone is hankering after śānti. The śānti formula is given everywhere in the śāstra. And the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, is personally saying, "This is śānti."

Lecture on SB 3.26.26 -- Bombay, January 3, 1975:

So we are all undergoing prārabdha-phalam, manifest phala, for our past deeds. So they are very deep-rooted. It is very difficult to uproot them. But there is one process. That is recommended: bhaja vāsudevam. Bhaja... The others... There are many yogis, jñānīs, they are trying to get out of the situation, kūṭa-stha, phalonmukha, prārabdha situation of our life. But Śrīmad-Bhāgavata says that the devotees, they can very easily uproot the causes of our material miserable condition of life. Yat-pāda-paṅkaja-palāśa-vilāsa-bhaktyā. Vilāsa. Vilāsa means enjoying, and bhaktyā means devotees. They are always attached to the lotus feet of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa. Sa vai manaḥ kṛṣṇa-padāravindayoḥ (SB 9.4.18). The devotees are always engaged, they are always attached, padāravindayoḥ. Aravinda, lotus flower and the lotus feet. So devotees, they are concerned, always seeing the lotus feet of the Lord. They do not try to see even the face. Beginning with the lotus feet. The devotee begins offering tulasī leaves with sandalwood pulp and offering to the lotus feet of the Lord. That is their vilāsa, enjoyment. Yad-pāda-paṅkaja-palāśa-vilāsa. They enjoy. That is transcendental bliss, offering a little sandalwood pulp and tulasī leaves on the lotus feet of the Lord. Yat-pāda-palāśa-vilāsa...paṅkaja-palāśa-vilāsa, vilāsa. That is their vilāsa.

Lecture on SB 3.26.41 -- Bombay, January 16, 1975:

If there is possible to establish temple and serve Kṛṣṇa properly according to the regulation mentioned in the śāstras or instructed by the spiritual master, that is called vaidhī-bhakti. Vaidhī-bhakti. Vaidhī-bhakti means discharging devotional service under regulative principles. So without vaidhī-bhakti, you cannot jump to the rāga-bhakti. Rāga-bhakti is spontaneous. That does not require any regulative principles. Out of love, out of feeling anyone wants to serve Kṛṣṇa. That is called..., that is gopīs. All the inhabitants of Vṛndāvana, they did not undergo any regulative principles. But spontaneously, they are always ready to serve God, Kṛṣṇa. That is called rāga-bhakti. Just like to... The example... There are examples. Just like a mother, as soon as there is child, baby, she takes care. She takes care. Although she does not go to a school how to take care of a child, but automatically. Automatically she takes care. Similarly, this automatically serving Kṛṣṇa, that is called rāga-bhakti. That is reached by vaidhī-bhakti, by practicing. Just like formerly there was marriage, child marriage—a small boy, a small girl. But simply by association the girl understands how to serve the husband and the husband also understand how to give protection to the wife, and mostly, the life was very pleasing, happy. From the very beginning she knows, "Here is my husband," and he knows, "Here is my wife." At least we have seen in our India. There is no question of separation. There is no question of divorce. The love is there from the very beginning. The propensity was there and immediately the object of love is there. A girl has got husband; a husband has got a wife. So the love continues spontaneously.

Lecture on SB 3.26.46 -- Bombay, January 21, 1975:

We have to give up this body. But if we give up this body, at the time of death, if we can think of Kṛṣṇa, it is very difficult, but if we practice it... Sadā tad-bhāva-bhāvitaḥ. Sadā means always. If we practice this simple method: Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma..., then it is possible. So where is the difficulty? Where is the loss? If we ask you to do something, if you think there will be loss, you may reject it. But if there is no loss and the gain is that you get Kṛṣṇa, then why don't you do it? Such is our, what is called, bigotry, "No, we shall not chant. We shall not do this." This is our misfortune. Therefore, those who have taken to this Kṛṣṇa consciousness, chanting this Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, they are the most fortunate persons in the world. Yaj-jihvāgre nāma tubhyam, the śāstra says. Aho bata śva-paco 'to garīyān: "Even one is born in the family of dog-eaters, but somehow or other, if he takes to this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement and chants Hare Kṛṣṇa, he is garīyān, he is glorious. He is very glorious." Nāma tubhyam. Tepus tapas te: (SB 3.33.7) "It is to be understood in their previous life they undergone severe type of penances and austerities." Tepus tapas te sasnur āryāḥ: (SB 3.33.7) "They are really Aryan."

Lecture on SB 3.28.21 -- Nairobi, November 1, 1975:

Why should you pay the electric bill? Go there and live there. There is no need of... Na yatra... Na tad bhāsayate. It is... The spiritual world is not lighted by the sun, moon. Na tad bhāsayate sūryaḥ. Because everyone is effulgent, every planet is effulgent, so therefore there is no need of these things. There is no ignorance. There is no scarcity. There is no miserable condition. That is called Vaikuṇṭha. Vaikuṇṭha means vigata kuṇṭha yasmād iti vaikuṇṭha. Kuṇṭha, anxiety. Here every man, even the richest man is full of anxiety. Your president, he is the richest person in this country, and he is the third richest man in the world, somebody. But do you think he is without anxiety? No. That is not possible. That is not possible. He is full of anxiety: "The other party may not take." (aside:) You sit down properly. Other party may not take his position. This is all politicians' anxiety. Even the king of heaven, Indra, he is also full of anxiety. There are Hiraṇyakaśipus. So sometimes they drive away that Indra, King Indra, and he enjoys there. This is going on, not only in this planet. In all planet, wherever you go, the same condition prevails. Ābrahma-bhuvanāl lokān punar āvartino 'rjuna. Don't think that by going to the heavenly planet you'll be happy there. No. There is no possibility. Either you go to the heavenly planet or you go to the hell, you will have to undergo the threefold miserable conditions.

Lecture on SB 4.14.14 -- November 16, 1971, Delhi:

That is stated in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, that loke vyavāyāmiṣa-madya-sevā nityā hi jantor na hi tatra codanā. These things—to be intoxicated, to enjoy sex life, to eat meat—a natural propensity is there in everyone. When śāstra says that "You do it like this," that means that is restriction. Just like according to Vedic civilization, those who are meat-eaters, for them it is allowed that you can kill..., not kill, you can sacrifice one goat before Goddess Kali on the amāvasyā night under such-and-such restriction. That means indirectly it is discouraging, "Don't do it. But if you do it, you do in this way." But people even do not do that. The meat-eaters, without undergoing the process of meat-eating as it is described in the dharma-śāstra, they directly purchase from the slaughterhouse and, therefore, so many slaughterhouses are maintained in this world. So everything is becoming against the religious principle. Therefore, the world is unhappy. The munaya, the great sages, therefore, advising the king, dharma ācaritaḥ puṁsāṁ vāṅ-manaḥ-kāya-buddhibhiḥ.

Lecture on SB 5.5.1 -- Tittenhurst, London, September 12, 1969:

So this is the beginning of life, and these strictures are followed even if he is son of a king or even if he is Supreme Personality of Godhead. Just like Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa also undergone this disciplinary action when He was a brahmacārī for some time. So this is the system. In the beginning of life one should become brahmacārī, and then he marries and lives with wife and children, at most twenty-five years. Then he retires. The husband and wife goes from one pilgrimage to another, in this way travels. Because the children are grown up. And when the husband is completely free from all family attachment, he takes sannyāsa. This is the process. Brahmacārī, gṛhastha, vānaprastha, and sannyāsa. So this Mahārāja Ṛṣabhadeva, before retirement it is the duty of the father to give instructions how to look after family affairs, their personal affair, their spiritual advancement, everything, so here Ṛṣabhadeva is instructing, "My dear sons, do not think that this particular body, human body, is equal to the body of the cats and dogs and hogs. Don't consider like that." He has particularly mentioned viḍ-bhujām. Viḍ-bhujām means the stool-eater. As in the human society, the dog-eater human being is considered the lowest of the human society, similarly, in the animal society, the animal which eats stool is considered the lowest. So the gradation of human being is also calculated according to the eating process. This is... Modern thinker also says, in your country, Dr. Bernard Shaw? He has written one book. I think it is named You Are What You Eat. So eating is very important thing. If you eat like cats and dogs, then you'll become cats and dogs even in this human form of life. If you behave like cats and dogs, you become cats and dogs even in the human form of life.

Lecture on SB 5.5.1 -- Johannesburg, October 20, 1975:

So there is no reason. We shall get. But we have been habituated for economic development. Let us do it. It doesn't matter. But don't forget God. That is wanted. If you forget God, then you are no better than dog. This is the movement of Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, that we are reminding everyone that "Don't remain like lower animals. You have got this opportunity of human life. You go, accept little austerity." So what we are prescribing, austerity? Just like these European, American boys. They are under training. Our first business is to take declaration that the devotee will not indulge in illicit sex life, not meat-eating, no intoxication and no gambling. This is austerity. And chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. It is very easy. It is not very difficult. Just like these boys, girls, they are chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, and they are undergoing the austerity. So they have not died. Nor they are unhealthy. You can see. They are living, and they will live. But they have become purified. Tapo divyaṁ yena sattvaṁ śuddhyet (SB 5.5.1). This is purifying our existence. Purifying existence means no more material body. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti kaunteya (BG 4.9). These are the information we get, that if we purify our existence, our existential position, then the result will be that... Tyaktvā deham. We have to give up this body. The cats and dogs also will give up, and I'll also give up. That's a fact. But the cats and dogs, they'll get another material body, but if you purify your existential position, then tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti (BG 4.9), you'll not to have, accept any more material body. You shall stay in your spiritual body. And when you stay in your spiritual body you become equal with God—sac-cid-ānanda: eternal, ānanda, blissful, and full of knowledge. That is the human form of life..., er, aim of human mission. Don't miss this. There is ample information. The practice is very easy. Anyone can do it.

Lecture on SB 5.5.1 -- Vrndavana, October 23, 1976:

And Kṛṣṇa put this problem before us: janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). This is knowledge. They are making plans for so many things, but where is that plan to stop janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha? That is not so easy. Therefore they have avoided it. They do not touch this point. They are making arrangement for temporary so-called happiness. That attempt is done even by cats and dogs. That is not successful life. I have several times told you... This is Vedic civilization. When Visvamitra came to see Mahārāja Daśaratha... It is etiquette. Suppose a friend comes, we ask, "How are you, my friend? How things are going on?" So similarly, when Daśaratha Mahārāja inquired Viśvāmitra, "How are you?" that "How are you" was not ordinary question. He inquired, aihiṣṭaṁ yat punar janma jayāya. The great great saintly persons, sages, they are engaged in devotional service. What is the purpose? The purpose is not for some material gain. The purpose is different. That was inquired by Dāsaratha Mahārāja: aihiṣṭaṁ yat punar janma jayāya. "You are undergoing tapasya, austerities, for conquering over rebirth."

Lecture on SB 5.5.1 -- Vrndavana, October 23, 1976:

Without tapasya, we cannot get out of this conditioned state. That is not possible. Those who are thinking that "Let us do whatever nonsense I can do, and at the same time I become free from this material condition..." No. That is not possible. One has to undergo tapasya. Just like if you are diseased you have to undergo some tapasya. Just like first of all you go to a medical man. Immediately he charges ten rupees, twenty rupees. In our country. In your country it is more. No doctor charges less than ten dollars. Ten dollars means in our exchange it is ninety rupees. So who can pay ninety rupees in this country? That is the minimum charge. Then there is medicine. So you have to pay it because you have got disease. And you have to earn this money with hard labor. So to cure your disease you have to undergo some penances, some austerities. This is an ordinary... And according to the gravity of the disease you have to pay more, which you may not have. You have to gather, you have to borrow, you have to beg. So these tribulations are called tapasya. So just for curing our ordinary disease we have to pay to the doctor, pay for the medicine, and then we have to starve also. We cannot take anything. So many things forbidden. So this austerity is called tapasya, denial, self-denial. So we should learn it.

Lecture on SB 5.5.1 -- Vrndavana, October 23, 1976:

We think it is painful. "Ah! Who is going to read books? We are meant for selling books, not for reading books." This is not good. We should read also. That is tapasya. Saddhaya. That is tapasya. Don't think that simply our books are meant for selling. No. It is meant for reading also. If we read regularly, at least two hours, three hours, that is tapasya. Tapo divyam (SB 5.5.1). To understand spiritual position, my spiritual position, Kṛṣṇa's spiritual... (aside:) Stop that. (child making noise) So that is tapasya. These are the tapasyas. To rise early in the morning, that is also tapasya. Not that every day we have to ring bell—dung, dung, dung, dung—"Get up! Get up!" "No, I am sleeping." No, you have to accept. These are the tapasyas. We cannot avoid. If we actually want to avoid this body, working like cats and dogs, like animals, then we have to undergo tapasya, a very simple tapasya.

In this age, it is not possible that as big, big saintly persons they go to the forest and undergo meditation in Himalayan mountain under the snow and so many dif... No food, no shelter, secluded place, there are so many animals. That kind of tapasya is not possible in this age. You remain. We have constructed big, big nice building. But because the building is there, you simply come here as free guest and make life very easy for eating and sleeping, that is not tapasya. That is not tapasya. You must be very careful how to keep the temple very cleansed, yourself clean, worshiping the Deity. That is recommended.

Lecture on SB 5.5.1 -- Vrndavana, October 23, 1976:

Uddhava, when he came to take Kṛṣṇa to Mathurā, he immediately fell down on the grass of Vṛndāvana, that "These grasses are so fortunate that over this grass Kṛṣṇa and the gopīs and Kṛṣṇa's friends, they trample over." This is vaiṣṇava-vicara. Not that he's thinking grass is insignificant than Kṛṣṇa. No. Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa's name, Kṛṣṇa's fame, Kṛṣṇa's form, Kṛṣṇa's qualities, Kṛṣṇa's paraphernalia, Kṛṣṇa's associates—everything is Kṛṣṇa. And you should treat like that. That is tapasya. And following the footsteps, mahājana yena gataḥ sa panthāḥ. Sādhu mārgānugamanam. These things we should learn. Sādhu mārgānugamanam. Just like sādhu... Akrūra is a sādhu. How he respected even grass of Vṛndāvana. So unless we read books, literature, and follow their example, then how tapasya will be there? So things should not be neglected. Divya (?).

So if we undergo this tapasya then our existence will be purified. This is... This method, this process, is devotional service. The devotional service, from the very beginning it is transcendental. Īhā yasya harer dāsye. If you simply desire to serve Kṛṣṇa, that's the beginning of existentional purification, immediately. Īhā yasya harer dāsye karmaṇā manasā vāca. Simply if you sincerely think that "How shall I serve Kṛṣṇa?" "Kṛṣṇa" does not mean simply Kṛṣṇa. "Kṛṣṇa" means Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa's name, Kṛṣṇa's form, Kṛṣṇa's quality, Kṛṣṇa's paraphernalia, Kṛṣṇa's association—everything in connection. Nirbandhe kṛṣṇa-sambandha yukta vairāgyam ucyate. Everything.

Lecture on SB 5.5.1 -- Bombay, December 25, 1976:

Our position is we never take birth. We are not subjected to take birth because we are part and parcel of God, spirit soul. And na jāyate na mriyate vā: we do not die. How we are seeing... Every day we are dying. My father die, my brother die, my neighbor die. How is that? Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). This is our position. We do not die, even the body is destroyed. So where is that knowledge throughout the whole world? There is no such... There is no university, no school, no college to impart this knowledge, that na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20), this simple word. This is fact. And who is speaking? The Supreme Personality of Godhead. He accepted. Arjuna accepted. Arjuna listened to Kṛṣṇa about Bhagavad-gītā, and he understood that "Here is the Supreme Person." Not only that, he admitted that "Not that I'm Your friend." Just like it has become a fashion if I like somebody I make him God. Kṛṣṇa is not that type of God, by meditation or by votes. He is God. Kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam (SB 1.3.28). Just like when He was only three months old on the lap of His mother, the Pūtanā came to kill Him. But He killed that Pūtanā rākṣasī. He was that time also God, when three months old. And He had not to undergo the austerities of meditation. He had no time. So from the very beginning up to the time of His departure from this world, He is God. That is God. God is not manufactured. God is always God. Neither God falls down. Therefore Kṛṣṇa is addressed in the Bhagavad-gītā as Acyuta. Cyuta means falling down, and Kṛṣṇa is acyuta.

Lecture on SB 5.5.1-2 -- Paris, August 12, 1973:

In the western countries to give up these habit is little difficult, because about forty years ago, one of my brother, God-brother, came to London and he had a talk with Marquis of Zetland, and the Lord inquired from him whether he can be converted into a brāhmaṇa. He inquired from my God-brother whether he can be made into a brāhmaṇa, brāhmaṇa. So our God-brother said, "Yes, you can be converted into a brāhmaṇa if you give up these habits, namely illicit sex, intoxication, meat-eating, and gambling." The gentleman's reply, Lord Zetland, "It is impossible." So that means he was not prepared to accept the tapasya. Voluntarily, abnegation. But here Ṛṣabhadeva says that the human life is meant for tapasya, and not for living like pigs, hogs, and dogs. Next he says tapo divyam (SB 5.5.1), because tapasya means to accept voluntarily some painful situation. It is not very much painful, but they consider. But we are undergoing already, some painful situation working day and night. To satisfy the senses that also requires tapasya, hard labor, but here Ṛṣabhadeva says that you accept some painful condition. It is not at all painful, but it appears. Tapo divyam, for God realization. (break) ...that everyone is working hard day and night, but that is for sense gratification. Similarly, if you take little trouble, if you accept voluntarily some painful condition for realizing God, divyam, that is the human mission. Now the question may be raised that both ways I have to accept some painful situation, so why shall I accept painful situation for realizing God? For material sense gratification, although I am working very hard, I am getting, immediately, some pleasure, sense pleasure. So why shall I work hard or accept some painful situation for realizing God which is unknown and fictitious to me? So the reply is, tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena śuddhyed sattvam (SB 5.5.1), "My dear boys, if you accept a little trouble for realizing God, then your existential condition will be purified."

Lecture on SB 5.5.1-2 -- Bombay, March 25, 1977:

So we have to understand this responsibility of life. That is human life—not to enjoy senses by imitating the hogs and dogs. This is not human civilization. We have to learn from the śāstras how our life is being transformed from one form to another, and there are 8,400,000 different species of life. Once this human form of life missed and if you are put into these waves of birth and death, then the opportunity finished. We must always be alert that we have got this responsibility. The Ṛṣabhadeva says that tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena śuddhyed sattva (SB 5.5.1). Sattva means existence. Your existence is eternal. That is the first information in the Bhagavad-gītā. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). Na jāyate na mriyate vā. This is the first instruction. There are so many commentator or instructor of Bhagavad-gītā, but they are missing the first instruction. They are not interested that "What is going to happen my next life?" They are not interested. Nobody takes care. They have concluded they have no life after death. This body is finished, everything is finished. Most irresponsible life. This is not to be carried on. Ṛṣabhadeva says that "My dear sons, don't live this irresponsible life like animals, hogs and dogs, but take the responsibility of human life. Undergo austerities, penances, as they ae recommended in the śāstras and make your life..." It is individual. If this movement cannot be taken massively, every individual can practice it. That is Indian culture. Every Indian was educated how to become a brāhmaṇa, for coming to this platform of austerity. And following the examples of brāhmaṇa, the kṣatriya and the vaiśyas and the śūdras, they also benefited.

Lecture on SB 5.5.1-8 -- Stockholm, September 6, 1973:

Amṛtatva, amṛtatva means no more births, no more death. No more birth, no more death, no more disease, no more old age. That is called amṛtatva. Amṛta means eternity or immortality. Hiraṇyakaśipu tried. Hiraṇyakaśipu, you know Prahlāda Mahārāja's father, he was defeated by the demigods. Therefore he left home and went for tapasya, to become immortal. So he was a demon, so he was undergoing tapasya, other demigods, not Kṛṣṇa, because he was against Kṛṣṇa. Demons means against God. They'll never go to God. They'll go to somebody else for power. So Hiraṇyakaśipu, when Brahmā visited, that, "Why you are undergoing so serious tapasya that the whole world is trembling by your tapasya? What do you want?" So he said, "I want to become immortal." Lord Brahmā said, "That is not in my power because myself is not also immortal? How can I give immortality?"

Lecture on SB 5.5.1-8 -- Stockholm, September 6, 1973:

In the Bhagavad-gītā it is said, janma karma me divyaṁ yo jānāti tattvataḥ tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti (BG 4.9). Kṛṣṇa says, "Simply if somebody knows what I am, what is my activities, janma, why do I appear in this material world, janma karma." He appears like human being, not exactly, but it is supposed that He accepts one father and mother, and He appears. Devakī-vasudeva. But that is not ordinary thing. Here also it is said that "You undergo tapasya, but not like Hiraṇyakaśipu, for cheating Brahmā. Divyam, for understanding God." Just like Kṛṣṇa says, janma karma me divyam, transcendental, yo jānāti tattvataḥ. Simply to understand Kṛṣṇa, His transcendental position. If you try to understand, then Kṛṣṇa says, "What is the result?" Janma karma me divyaṁ yo jānāti tattvataḥ. Where is that verse? Find out. Where is Bhagavad-gītā? Yo jānāti tattvataḥ tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti kaunteya (BG 4.9). Find it, yes, yes, read it.

Lecture on SB 5.5.2 -- Boston, April 28, 1969:

So we do not understand that our materialistic way of life, our this material existence, every one of us, is diseased condition of life. It is not healthy condition of life. That we do not understand. We are thinking, "Oh, I am eating, sleeping and dancing, and then nice, so what is the disease? It is nice." But that your very body is a disease, this very body, because it is subjected to so many tribulations, so many sufferings. So we should try to understand that what is the cause of our suffering. The cause of our suffering is this body. The root cause of our... Either this body is American body, Indian body, cat's body, dog's body or prince body or demigod's body, because the body is material, therefore you have to undergo certain types of tribulations. At least, you'll have to die. You'll have to take birth. You'll have to suffer from diseases. You have to undergo the tribulation of old age. It does not mean that because I have got a princely body, therefore there will be no disease. No. The disease will be there. And the death will be there. And the sufferings of old age. Just like I am old man. I have got sometimes sufferings, backache, this ache... Old man, you see, rheumatic. So these things are to be suffered.

Lecture on SB 5.5.2 -- Johannesburg, October 22, 1975:

We do not like to be without any knowledge. This is our nature. But because this nature is hampered on material condition, therefore the business of the human being is to cure this disease—birth, death, old age and disease. This is the mission of life, not to waste time, not to waste our life, duration of life, just simply jumping like dog and hog. That is not human life. Tapo divyam (SB 5.5.1).

Therefore we have to undergo tapasya. We should not indulge whimsically to anything. That is not human life. Therefore human life, there is need of education; there is need of regularities; there is need of following the instruction of the authorities. That is in human life. Law is meant for the human life, not for the cats and dogs. Therefore Ṛṣabhadeva suggested that "You practice austerity." Means... Austerity means... I have already explained. I do not like to do anything, but for curing my, this material disease, I have to do that. This is called austerity. The same example: I am habituated to smoke. I don't like. If somebody said, "Don't smoke," it is difficult for me. But I have to do it if I want to cure my disease. This is called austerity.

Lecture on SB 5.5.2 -- Johannesburg, October 22, 1975:

Prabhupāda: Yes. That I have already explained, material energy and spiritual energy. In the material energy you have got all these birth, death, old age and disease. In the spiritual energy there is no such thing. So we have to go to the spiritual energy.

Woman: What do you call disease?

Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: You are eternal spirit soul, and you have to undergo birth and death. That's an unnatural condition, just like a fever is an unnatural condition for a healthy person. That's a disease.

Woman: But why should the supreme energy make it a disease? It's been ordained to have that, the form of the body...

Prabhupāda: Disease you contact. Nobody forces you to contact disease. When you become diseased, you contaminate some infection, not that anyone forces you to contaminate. So when you come to the material world, it is your own disease.

Woman: But it is a disease if you have to be reborn. It's reincarnation then, going to another form of disease again. But you haven't attained the spiritual, complete spiritual...

Prabhupāda: Yes. Then you'll be cured of this material disease. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement.

Lecture on SB 5.5.3 -- Boston, May 4, 1968:

Yes. The real aim is spiritual realization. But for realizing perfect spiritual life one has to undergo some training. Just like if one is serious of being cured of a certain type of disease he has to undergo certain type of training or regulation as prescribed by the physician. Then he gets cured. Similarly, we are all materially diseased at the present time. So spiritual life means completely freed from material disease. The material diseases are birth, death, old age, and bodily diseases. They are material disease. Because I am spirit soul, I am eternal. I have no death. I have no birth. But because I am contaminated with this material body, therefore with the birth and death of this body I am thinking that I am taking birth and dying. That is my material condition of life. Actually I am not subjected to birth and death. These things are very nicely described in the Bhagavad-gītā. Na jāyate na mriyate vā kadācin na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). So the immortality of the soul, transmigration of the soul, everything is described there. So there are books of authority. If we learn, if we'll be trained, then our spiritual liberation is open. Therefore it is recommended here that one should associate with great souls. Without associating with great souls we don't get all this information.

Lecture on SB 5.5.3 -- Vrndavana, October 25, 1976:

So the recommendation is that if you want to go back home, back to Godhead, divyam, so you have to practice austerities, penance. That austerity and penance is according to the age, deśa, kāla, patra. Not that... Just like in the common law also, if a grown-up man commits some theft, he is punished more. And if a child or a boy commits theft, he is not so much punished. So there is consideration of deśa kāla patra. In the Kali-yuga people cannot undergo very severe austerities. That is impossible for them, because mandāḥ sumanda-matayo manda-bhāgyā hy upadrutāḥ (SB 1.1.10). They are already very much suppressed and suffering because they are all unfortunate, manda-bhāgyā. Mostly people, they have no provision for eating either today or tomorrow. Manda-bhāgyā. There is no sufficient grains. Formerly even in the villages you would see that a common man has very good stock of foodgrains and cows, dhanvena dhanavan, gavaya dhanavan. Formerly the standard of richness was considered how many morai, the bank, what is called? Where grain is stocked? Silo. So in India it is called morai, grain stock. And how many cows one has got in stock. Then he is rich man. Nowadays how much paper money he has got. Actually it has no value. Suppose you have got some papers. Each paper it is written there "one thousand dollars." But if there is no grain, what will this one-thousand-dollars paper will do? It actually so happened in the last war in Germany.

Lecture on SB 5.5.3 -- Vrndavana, October 25, 1976:

So they are not mahātmā. Mahat, the first qualification is sama-cittāḥ. Everyone must be delivered. Not "I am... I am undergoing severe austerities. I shall become brahmalina and my business is finished." No. Others should be. That is sama-cittāḥ. Others. Just as Prahlāda Mahārāja said, "I do not wish to go alone to Vaikuṇṭha unless I take all these rascals with me." That is Vaiṣṇava. Māya sukhāya bharam udvahato vimūḍhān (SB 7.9.43). "These vimūḍhān who are so much entangled in this material world and trying to adjust things for peace and happiness, unnecessarily they do not know. So I want to take them." That is Vaiṣṇava. "Alone I don't want to go." Just like Nārada Muni. Nārada Muni is traveling all over the universe. He's going to hell, heaven, everywhere, and trying to make disciples who can become Kṛṣṇa's devotee. He does not stay anywhere for more than three minutes, like that. He's traveling always. This is sama-cittāḥ: always going everywhere: "You become devotee, you become Kṛṣṇa conscious so that your life will be successful." Preaching, that is wanted. Sama-cittāḥ. As soon as there is some facility, one should approach the fallen souls. People are suffering. Mandāḥ sumanda-matayo manda-bhāgyā (SB 1.1.10). They are so unfortunate, they are suffering in this material world. Give them the information at least that "Why you are suffering? You take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness and be happy." That is wanted. That is sama-cittāḥ.

Lecture on SB 5.5.5 -- Stockholm, September 10, 1973:

So when one comes to understand that "This is my business, this my goodness, everything, it is all useless. Unless I become attached, I am a devotee of Vāsudeva, Kṛṣṇa, all these attempts are simply futile attempts," that is enlightenment. When one understands, "Yes, my only business is to surrender to Kṛṣṇa, to love Kṛṣṇa," then he is to be understood, he is enlightened, educated. Ei rūpe brahmāṇḍa bhramite kona bhāgyavān (CC Madhya 19.151). That is fortune. Yadā na paśyaty ayathā guṇehāṁ svārthe pramattaḥ. He does not know his interest. Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇum (SB 7.5.31). They do not know that "My svārtha, my interest, my goal of life, is to love, to find out God and to love Him. That is my real interest." So, so long one is not enlightened to that standard of life, then he is defeated. Then how he is defeated? Gata-smṛtir, gata-smṛtir vindati tatra tāpān āsādya maithunyam agāram ajñaḥ. He remains a ajñaḥ, foolish. And what is his happiness? His happiness is sex life. That's all. That is his happiness. Maithunyam agāram. He is in the prison house of this material nature, but he does not know that "I am in prison." He is simply enjoying the three things. Udāram varitha.(?) Udāram varitha: the tongue, the belly and the genital. That is stated here. Gata-smṛtir vindati. And to enjoy this material, he has to undergo so much tribulation. Tāpān vindati.

Lecture on SB 5.5.10-13 -- Vrndavana, November 1, 1976:

Pradyumna: "O My sons, you should accept a highly elevated paramahaṁsa, a spiritually advanced spiritual master. In this way, you should place your faith and love in Me, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. You should detest sense gratification and tolerate the duality of pleasure and pain, which are like the seasonal changes of summer and winter. Try to realize the miserable condition of living entities, who are miserable even in the higher planetary systems. Philosophically inquire about the truth. Then undergo all kinds of austerities and penances for the sake of devotional service. Give up the endeavor for sense enjoyment and engage in the service of the Lord. Listen to discussions about the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and always associate with devotees. Chant about and glorify the Supreme Lord, and look upon everyone equally on the spiritual platform. Give up enmity and subdue anger and lamentation. Abandon identifying the self with the body and the home, and practice reading the revealed scriptures. Live in a secluded place and practice the process by which you can completely control your life air, mind and senses. Have full faith in the revealed scriptures, the Vedic literatures, and always observe celibacy. Perform your prescribed duties and avoid unnecessary talks. Always thinking of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, acquire knowledge from the right source. Thus practicing bhakti-yoga, you will patiently and enthusiastically be elevated in knowledge and will be able to give up the false ego."

Prabhupāda:

haṁse gurau mayi bhaktyānuvṛtyā

vitṛṣṇayā dvandva-titikṣayā ca

sarvatra jantor vyasanāvagatyā

jijñāsayā tapasehā-nivṛttyā

(SB 5.5.10)

So this is called regulative principle. In the previous verse, it was recommended that karmānubaddho dṛḍha āślatheta. This attachment, karmānubaddha, for this material world, everyone is busy—we have discussed many times—from morning till late at night, and night also, they are busy. Big, big factories, they are working day and night, one shift, other shift. That has become the criterion of civilization. Formerly it was less, because this ugra-karma... These factories means ugra-karma, unnecessarily severe, hard work. Unnecessarily. We have seen in Detroit, they are manufacturing one Ford, manufacturing Ford, simply wheels of the motorcar.

Lecture on SB 5.5.10-13 -- Vrndavana, November 1, 1976:

If dust and rocks, then why from the sunshine so much heat is coming, and why from the moonshine so soothing and pleasing shine is coming? These rascals, they do not know. And they are passing as scientists. I call them directly rascals, simply, set of rascals. They have never gone to the moon planet. They do not know what are the different position of the different planets. Simply they are, I mean to say, cheating people to get good salary. That's all. And in the name of scientist.

But you should know from the Vedic literature the position. You should know that each and every planet is full of different types of living entities, and in the higher planetary system, the standard of living may be very... Not maybe. It is mentioned, thousands and thousands of times better than this planet. They... This is called Bhūrloka, then Bhuvarloka, then Svargaloka, Janaloka, Maharloka, Tapoloka, Satyaloka, Brahmaloka—these are different higher planetary system—and each loka, the standard of happiness is thousand times better than the earth. This is the position. And Kṛṣṇa says, ā-brahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ. And similarly down, there are different lokas—Tala, Atala, Talātala, Vitala, Sutala, like that. This is the constitution. But here Ṛṣabhadeva says that anywhere you go, the threefold miseries of material existence, that will continue. You cannot get free. Even Brahmaloka, the Brahmā, he is subjected to die. He is also undergo the principles of death, and what to speak of others. Nobody will exist here. Ā-brahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ punar āvartino 'rjuna (BG 8.16).

Lecture on SB 5.5.15 -- Vrndavana, November 3, 1976:

So we have... People are becoming inclined to karma-sukha(?). So it is a very difficult position to convince them that this is not needed. The real life is to become Kṛṣṇa conscious, and for that purpose one should undergo austerities, pen... Tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena śuddhyet sattvam (SB 5.5.1). You have to purify your existence. You are suffering. You are not meant for birth and death. Na jāyate na mriyate vā kadācit. You are not meant for that. Then you are undergoing birth and death and do not know what kind of life you are going to get next life. You have no information. Today you may be very big man and tomorrow you may be a dog. These things going on. They do not know. They simply working hard, making plan to be happy. That is not possible. Therefore it is forbidden. Na yojayet karmasu karma-mūḍhān. Engage them how to acquire Kṛṣṇa's favor. Kṛṣṇa's favor, mad-anugrahārthaḥ. Teach them like that, how. So Kṛṣṇa will be very much pleased if you simply... Kṛṣṇa says... Here it is said that mal-loka-kāmaḥ. How one can go to Kṛṣṇaloka or Vaikuṇṭhaloka? Very easy. Very easy. Kṛṣṇa personally says. It is not our manufactured word. Kṛṣṇa said, man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru (BG 18.65). Do these four things: "Always think of Me." That is Kṛṣṇa conscious. Manmanā bhava mad-bhaktaḥ: "Become My devotee. Worship Me and offer obeisances to Me," and asaṁśaya, "you'll come." Mal-loka. Very good. Very easy thing. Asaṁśaya. "Without any doubt you'll come to Me." Why do they not accept this proposal of Kṛṣṇa? It is not our manufacture. We are not washing brain. It is Kṛṣṇa's word, that simply by doing four things, manmanā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru mām evaiṣyasi asaṁśayaḥ (BG 18.68), without any doubt. That is required. Kṛṣṇa will be pleased.

Lecture on SB 5.5.19 -- Vrndavana, November 7, 1976:

You do not know what is the form of the Lord because your present senses are imperfect. Ataḥ śrī-kṛṣṇa-nāmādi na bhaved grāhyam idriyaiḥ (CC Madhya 17.136)—the Lord's name, His form, His pastimes—na bhaved grāhyam indriyaiḥ—our present senses are unable to conceive. Just like the soul is there within the body but nobody can see where is that soul, similarly, God is also within this body but nobody can see. It is specifically mentioned, īśvaraḥ sarva bhūtānām hṛd deśe arjuna tiṣṭhati (BG 18.61). The Lord is situated in everyone's heart, but find out the heart, where is God. There is, but you cannot see. Ataḥ śrī-kṛṣṇa-nāmādi na bhaved grāhyam indriyaiḥ (CC Madhya 17.136). Present senses are unable to see. You have to prepare your eyes. Just like with cataract you cannot see anything. You have to undergo surgical operation. Then you will see. That surgical operation process is bhakti.

Lecture on SB 5.5.24 -- Vrndavana, November 11, 1976:

So the meaning is clearly described in the translation. So the brāhmaṇas, why they are accepted as the supreme in the human society? On account of these qualities. We have discussed this point, that either brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, especially dvijottama... The brāhmaṇas are called dvijottama. Dvija-śreṣṭhā. Ataḥ pumbhir dvija-śreṣṭhā. Dvija means twice-born, one birth by the father and mother and the other birth by Vedic knowledge and spiritual master. Twice-born. So the daśa-vidhā-saṁskāra, purificatory processes... Saṁskarād bhaved dvijaḥ. Unless one undergoes the purificatory process, he cannot be called twice-born. Janmanā jāyate śūdraḥ: "By birth everyone is a śūdra, fourth-class man." Practically we see that children, they are sent to school. Why they are sent to school? Because by birth he is foolish, abodha-jātaḥ. There is no knowledge. Therefore he should be sent to school, as he makes progress, to colleges, to learn higher, higher. This is the material arrangement.

Lecture on SB 5.5.25 -- Vrndavana, November 12, 1976:

And what is that surrendering? Man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru, mām evaiṣyasi asaṁśayaḥ (BG 18.68). Without any doubt. He is giving assurance. Four things only. Always think of Kṛṣṇa. Man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī mām. Anyone can do it. Everyone can offer Kṛṣṇa patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ (BG 9.26). Everyone can hear from Kṛṣṇa what is Kṛṣṇa. Where is the difficulty? The difficulty is that we want enjoyment in this material world. That is the difficulty. Therefore it is recommended that akiñcanānāṁ mayi bhakti-bhājām. For a devotee there is no problem. He is not attracted by liberation or by Svargaloka, by yogic perfection. He is not at all interested. Bhukti-mukti-siddhi-kāmi-sakali 'aśānta'. Because they cannot get śānti because they want something The bhukti, the karmīs, they are working so hard. They want some material profit or go to the Svargaloka to enjoy more. This is bhukti. And mukti, they are also undergoing severe austerities, penance, tapasya, for becoming one. Kaivalya sukham. Kevalādvaita. They are also working. And the yogis, they also work very hard. Yoga practice is not so easy. Dhyāna, dhāraṇā, āsana, prāṇāyāma, pratyāhāra, samādhi. It requires And especially in this age it is not so easy. It was easier in the Satya-yuga. Kṛte yad dhyāyato viṣṇu (SB 12.3.52). Samādhi, that was possible. And now it is not possible. Our bhakti-yoga is so easy, simply man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru (BG 18.65), very simple thing. So we should take to bhakti, devotional service, and reject everything. Niṣkiñcana. That will make your life successful.

Lecture on SB 5.5.33 -- Vrndavana, November 20, 1976:

So it is very easy, bhakti-yoga. It is not at all difficult. You haven't got to strain your body as in other haṭha-yoga practice you have to very undergo hardship, to sit in a particular posture, in a particular place. These things are stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. Not that you become yogi in a fashionable city as you'll find nowadays, yoga-āśrama signboard in a fashionable house, and you show some gymnastic, you become a yogi and get some money. Not that. This is bhakti-yoga, begins from jihva. Exercise your jihva, tongue; then you become a perfect yogi.

Lecture on SB 5.5.34 -- Vrndavana, November 21, 1976:

So our real life is spiritual life, not this bodily conception of life. Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura says that anyone who is above the bodily conception of life, he is liberated person. Saṁsāra bandhana Deha-smṛti nāhi yāra, saṁsāra-bandhana kāhāṅ tāra. Deha-smṛti: "I am this body," "I am Indian," "I am American," "I am brāhmaṇa," "I am kṣatriya." These are bodily conception of life. One who forgets this bodily conception of life, he is liberated. So how we can forget bodily conception of life? It can be forgotten. Just like one big person Sometimes we have seen practically. We have, of course, heard, we have not seen, that Mr. Stalin, the great Communist leader, he was to undergo a surgical operation of the intestine. So the physician, the doctor, surgeon, he wanted to give him anaesthetic, chloroform. He refused: "There is no need of. Let the operation go on. I shall see what is there within the belly." Strong-minded, here, even in material conception, he was, he undergo, underwent the surgical operation without any chloroform. So that is possible. If one is fully absorbed in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then he has no more bodily conception of life. That is not to be imitated. It is on the highest stage it is possible to forget completely, and he is liberated. Deha-smṛti nāhi yāra saṁsāra bandhana kāhāṅ tāra. He is no more conditioned by the material nature.

Lecture on SB 5.6.2 -- Vrndavana, November 24, 1976:

Yajña, dāna. Brahmacārī should offer yajña, gṛhastha should give in charity, and sannyāsī, vānaprastha, should undergo tapasya. Yajña-dāna-tapaḥ-karma. We should not give up this, these things. "Because I have become sannyāsī—I have given up my family—therefore I give up also all other regulative principles." No. That you cannot. The sannyāsī means... Sannyāsī, they have got also rules and regulation. Caitanya Mahāprabhu very rigidly followed. He did not lie down even on a quilt, only one naked cloth. He did not use... And no woman should come to offer Him obeisances very near. They must do it from a distant place. He was so strict. One of His personal associates, Haridāsa, Junior Haridāsa, he simply glanced over a young woman with lusty desire. He immediately rejected him: "Ask Haridāsa not to come anymore." So He never excused him very strictly. And Haridāsa, being disappointed, he... On his behalf, very close devotees like Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya, Rāmānanda Rāya, big, big devotees, Svarūpa Dāmodara and others, requested Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu that "He has committed mistake, but he is Your personal servant. Kindly excuse him." Then Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, "All right, then you can call him. You live with him. I shall go from here. You live with him; let Me go away." He was so strict. Then, when Haridāsa Ṭhākura Junior... The senior is another. Then he committed suicide—"Now it is hopeless. I cannot come to Caitanya Mahāprabhu." He committed suicide. And when this information was given to Caitanya Mahāprabhu, He did not regret. "Oh, this man has committed suicide? Yes, it is right." He said, "Yes, it is right." So He was so strict.

Lecture on SB 5.6.3 -- Vrndavana, November 25, 1976:

So it is duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam (BG 8.15), and you have to practice tapasya if you want to get out of it. Tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena śuddhyet sattva (SB 5.5.1). We are now accustomed to this miserable condition of life. If you want actual happiness, then you have to undergo austerity, tapasya. Tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena śuddhyet yasmād brahma-saukhyam anantam. You are hankering after happiness. That happiness, brahma-sukha, eternal happiness, you will get by practicing tapasya. So don't believe, don't make friendship with your restless mind. This is the instruction. Don't make friendship. Simply beat the mind with shoes and broomstick; otherwise cannot bring in control. And other alternative is kevalayā bhaktyā. So if you can engage your mind at the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, then it is possible. Sa vai manaḥ kṛṣṇa-padāravindayoḥ (SB 9.4.18). Then Kṛṣṇa will control. Kṛṣṇa means light. Darkness, you are suffering in the darkness. So somehow or other, if you bring a light there is no darkness.

Just like you are suffering from some disease. So according to the nature of the disease, you have to pay for its medicine. One who is suffering from malarial disease, tuberculosis disease, asthmatic tendency, these disease are considered very severe type of disease. Coughing or having some little fever, they are not very severe. But there are many severe diseases. So as you pay to the specialist doctor or you pay for the medicine according to the severity of disease, similarly—yasmād evaṁ tasmād pāpasya niṣkṛtau prayaścitte yateta—you have to make treatment. And according to the symptoms of the disease, you have to undergo treatment. That is called prāyaścitta.

So this kind of sympathy, just like this Rāmakrishna Mission daridra-nārāyaṇa sevā, under the plea of accepting this suffering humanity as Nārāyaṇa and appealing to the compassion of the people... Although they cannot do anything. Actually they are not doing anything but this philosophy is a rubbish philosophy. You cannot do. If you can do anything good to the people, then you can simply awaken them to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is the best service. Other service you cannot do. Te 'pīśa-tantryām uru-dāmni-baddhāḥ. Just like by any means you cannot get released a man who is condemned in the prison. Against law. However sympathetic you may be to your friend, but you cannot release him. That is against law. Similarly, people are suffering, undoubtedly, but they have to undergo the prāyaścitta process. In the śāstras there are prāyaścitta process. Formerly, even our childhood days, we have seen in Calcutta, there is a special quarter of the bhaṭṭācārya brāhmaṇas. The bhaṭṭācārya brāhmaṇas' business is that if you have committed some sinful act, you should immediately go and consult the bhattācārya: "What is the process of prāyaścitta?" Just like you go in case of disease, consult a physician, and take his prescription and diagnosis, similarly, that was the Vedic system.

But in the śāstras there are... In every scripture... Just like in Christian, their prāyaścitta is to confess, similarly, there are different types of prāyaścitta. So here Parīkṣit Mahārāja is advised, yathā puraiva. Yathā evaṁ tasmāt pāpasya niṣkṛtau prāyaścitta yateta kadā mṛtyu puraiva. So prāyaścitta. If you want to be free from the reaction of the sinful activities in this life—exactly in the same way as Christian Bible advises that you have to make some atonement, go to the church and confess your sinful activities and pay some fine—exactly in the same way in Vedic scriptures also, that "Before death you must make some atonement; otherwise you will continue in your next life." Tasmāt puraivaṣv iha pāpa-niṣkṛtau yateta mṛtyor avipadyatātmanā (SB 6.1.8). "Before you meet your death, that you should take." Doṣasya dṛṣṭvā guru-lāghavaṁ yathā. And you have to make atonement according to the gravity of your sinful activities. Yathā bhiṣak cikitseta rujāṁ nidānavit. Just like nidānavit. Nidāna means a expert physician. He prescribes medicine and advises treatment according to the gravity of the disease. Similarly, you have to undergo atonement for the sinful activities according to the gravity. That is the treatment. Then... The king is very intelligent. He is not only king but he's a great devotee of Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa conscious. So he replied, "What is the use of this kind of atonement?"

Lecture on SB 6.1.6 -- Sydney, February 17, 1973:

So dṛṣṭa-śruta yat pāpam. So this kind of sinful activities, janānn apy, everyone knows. Yesterday we were speaking of seeing and hearing. These experiences gathered by seeing and hearing is very important. This is tangible. So these two words have been used, dṛṣṭa-śruta: "by hearing and by seeing." Everyone knows that there is sinful reaction. Janānn apy. What is that? Ātmano ahitam, ātmanā: it is disastrous for his self. He has to undergo so much punishment. Still, karoti bhūyo vivaśaḥ. Vivaśaḥ means automatically. He has been habituated. Automatically he commits the same sin, vivaśa. Prāyaścittam atho katham. Then, if he remains always a victim to the sinful reaction and if he is habituated to do that, so artificially this kind of confession in the church or giving some bribe to the bhaṭṭācārya, what is the meaning of this? It is practical question. If the man is habituated to commit sinful activities throughout the whole week, what is the use of his going to the church and confessing and give some bribe or... You take in any, any field. So it is very intelligent question. There is practically no use. If you remain a thief always, so for your theft you are put into the prison, and as soon as you get out of the prison again you commit theft. He knows that "I shall be again put into the prison." Still, he commits the same thing. Actually there are many thieves. At least in India I have seen. Their business is stealing, and they are put into the jail, and as soon as he comes out, again commits the same thing and put into the jail for many days.

So Parīkṣit Mahārāja addressed Śukadeva Goswāmī as mahā-bhāga, the most fortunate. Because he's perfect Vaiṣṇava, therefore he addresses, "My dear, the most fortunate," mahā-bhāga. Adhunā, "Now," yathaiva narakān naraḥ, "these people are suffering in the hellish condition of life. How they can be rescued?" Nānā ugra-yātanān. Very severe punishment they are undergoing. People cannot see. They have no eyes to see, you see? They suffer in great calamities, and still they cannot see that "I am suffering." Just like when you pass through the streets of Australia, we go daily, morning walk, big, big skyscraper buildings have been constructed, and people are making plans, designs, working very, very hard, lifting so many heavy things. These are very heavy tasks, but they are thinking, "It is very happiness." (laughter) They are thinking, "We are making progress, we are making progress. We are bringing stones and irons on head and putting together, and it is progress. We are very happy." (laughter) This is going on. This is called varāta māninaḥ(?). They are enamored by the external energy of the Personality of Godhead. These material things are products of the external energy of the Lord. Bhūmir āpo 'nalo vayuḥ khaṁ mano buddhir eva ca (BG 7.4). Bhūmi, the earth, the iron, stone, wood, they are nothing but transformations of earth. Similarly, apo, water. So whatever we are manufacturing here, they are simply combination of earth, water, air, fire, that's all. Nothing but.

Lecture on SB 6.1.6 -- Sydney, February 17, 1973:

"Therefore, my dear King, according to the gravity of sinful activities, one has to atone similarly." The example is, according to the gravity of the disease, the physician prescribes different types of medicine. If your disease is very severe then the physician says, "You have to take this medicine. This is very costly. You have to live like this." You know, you know everyone. Ordinary disease, that can be cured by giving some tablet, but if the disease is very severe, then you have to undergo severe medical treatment and suffering and so on. This very example. This is practical. This is practical. There is no question of doubt. The example is given that in this life, if you have some severe type of disease, you have to pay the doctor's bill, also severe. That you cannot avoid. So why not for sinful activities? And what is disease? Disease infection means that is also violating the laws of nature. That is disease. Just I gave you the example, a little scratching of nail, again means (indistinct) so much trouble. So you cannot violate, that is, that is breaking the laws of nature, breaking the laws of God. That is sinful. Either you take it as disease or take it as sinful activities or whatever you call it. This is... So you have to atone.

Lecture on SB 6.1.6 -- Nellore, January 5, 1976:

You have got practical experience that if you violate the law of the state you become criminal and punished. But if the cats and dogs or animals, they violate the law, they are not punishable. Therefore human life must be very responsible. Yes. So Śukadeva Gosvāmī says, "My dear king, if before one's next death whatever impious acts one has performed in this life with his mind, words, and body are not counteracted through proper atonement according to the description of the Manu-saṁhitā and other dharma-śāstras, one will certainly enter into the hellish planets after death and undergo terrible sufferings as I have previously described." So just like in our ordinary life if we commit some sinful activity and if we plead in the court, "My dear judge, I did not know the law," so this kind of pleading will not help him. Ignorance is no excuse. Therefore human life is distinct from animal life. If we live in human life without caring for the supreme laws, then we are destined to suffer.

Lecture on SB 6.1.7 -- San Francisco, March 1, 1967:

So last night in our meeting, we were... Not last night; day before last night. Parīkṣit Mahārāja, King Parīkṣit, is very much, I mean to say, compassionate by hearing different kinds of miserable conditions in different hellish situation. He is asking Śukadeva Gosvāmī whether there is any possibility of delivering them. Vaiṣṇava, a devotee of the Lord, is always anxious to reclaim the fallen souls, who, out of ignorance, they are suffering. We must know always that by ignorance only we suffer. Just like we have got practical experience: by ignorance if I take something which is not suitable for my constitution, I become ill, sick. So that sickness is due to my ignorance. I have seen in Calcutta one neighbor, he died out of ignorance. He took too much pakori one day, and they were fried in oil, and the next day he was attacked by cholera and died. So similarly, whatever suffering we are undergoing, that is due to our ignorance.

Lecture on SB 6.1.7 -- San Francisco, March 1, 1967:

"My dear King, one cannot get rid of the reaction of one's sinful activities unless he undergoes the counter-affecting means." In every scripture, there is a process of atonement. Just like in Christian religion, at the time of death, if somebody admits that "I have committed this kind of sin," it is supposed that he is forgiven. Similarly, in Muslim scripture there is also similar injunction, and in Hindu scripture there are many such injunctions. And as far as possible, they are followed by different followers. So the same thing is confirmed here: "My dear King, if somebody does not atone for his sinful activities..." Sinful activities function in three ways. Here it is stated. What is that? Mana-ukta-pāṇibhiḥ. Mana-ukta-pāṇibhiḥ: by mind, by activities of the mind, and by activities of our words, and by activities of our senses. And if I hurt you by harsh word, then that is also a sin. And when actually commit violence or do something with my hands or legs or something, that is certainly sinful. So we can commit sins in three ways: mind and words and karma, by action. Thinking, feeling and willing and acting. Therefore a svāmī or gosvāmī means who has control over the function of the mind, of the words, and of the activities of the senses. There is definition. "One who can control the tongue, one who can control the mind, one who can control the words, one who can control the belly, one who can control the generative organ, he is svāmī." And pṛthiviṁ sa śiṣyāt: "He is allowed to create disciples all over the world."

Lecture on SB 6.1.7 -- Honolulu, June 15, 1975, Sunday Feast Lecture:

No, why this is...? Stop it. So we are responsible. Even if we kill one mosquito, we are responsible. It is not man-made law, that "If you kill a human being, then you are punished, and if you kill another animal, you are not punished." This is man-made law, according to our convenience. "We have to eat the animal; therefore there is no punishment for animal killing." But God is for everyone the same. Every living entity is part and parcel of God. So they have been given an opportunity to undergo the punishment or enjoyment. You cannot disturb him. You cannot disturb him. Just like you are living in an apartment according to your position, but if I forcibly I ask you, "Go out of this apartment," then I will be punishable by the law. I have no right to get you out from that apartment. Similarly, every living entity by the laws of nature, all laws of nature, is imprisoned or allowed under certain apartment, either in the body of a tree or a human being or demigod or cat or dog. These are all ordained. So you cannot get out the living entity, soul, by force from that body. Then you will be punishable. The living entity is never killed, but you have no right to get him out from that body. That is sinful. If you argue that "What is the harm if I kill one animal, because it is said, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre: (BG 2.20) 'The living entity, soul, is never killed even after the annihilation of this body'?" that is all right. But you cannot force him. Just like if you get one person, by force, get out from his apartment—he is not dying, of course, but still, it is criminal because you are forcing to go out of the apartment. So that is the law of nature. You cannot force anyone to get out of the body. Then you are punishable.

Lecture on SB 6.1.7 -- Honolulu, May 8, 1976:

So Śukadeva Gosvāmī said, "My dear King, if before one's next death whatever impious acts one has performed in this life with the mind, words and body are not counteracted through the proper atonement according to the description of the Manu-saṁhitā and other dharma-śāstras, one will certainly enter the hellish planets after death and undergo terrible suffering, as I have previously described to you."

So atonement is prescribed in every scripture. Even in Christian Bible there is atonement. So in other scriptures also there is atonement. Just like a man who has committed murder, he must die. "Life for life." This is atonement. When the government punishes a murderer with capital punishment, death, that is a mercy upon him. That punishment is accepted practically all over the world from time immemorial. So there must be atonement. So if a person who has committed murder, killed somebody else, then if he is punished by death, then the sinful activities which he has committed, that is counteracted. Otherwise he will have to suffer next life very severely, four times. So people do not believe even in the next life, and what to speak of atonement and punishment. They are kept in darkness. Otherwise they would have been... If they would have followed actually the injunction of the śāstras... First of all one should not be killing anyone. In the Bible also it is said, "Thou shall not kill." Why it is forbidden? Because if he kills, he'll have to suffer. But they do not care for it. Therefore they suffer.

Lecture on SB 6.1.8 -- Los Angeles, June 21, 1975:

So therefore we are preaching Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Lokasya ajānataḥ, they do not know what kind of risky life they are conducting. So the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is trying to make them awakened to the consciousness. That is the duty of a sane man or a gentleman. That is the instruction of the Vedas, to awaken people. Uttiṣṭhata jāgrata prāpya varān nibodhata. This Vedic instruction is, to the human society, uttiṣṭhata: "Get up." Jāgrata: "Don't sleep. Be awakened." Uttiṣṭhata jāgrata prāpya varān nibodhata. "You have got a boon. Try to understand it." Nibodhata. Prāpya varān. Varān means benediction. What is that benediction? The benediction is this human form of life. You should understand that you are not cat and dog, simply you shall spoil your life by eating, sleeping, and sex and defense. No. This is very valuable life. Labdhvā su-durlabham idaṁ bahu-sambhavānte. This is the instruction of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. "No, don't spoil it. You have got this boon, this human form of life, after many, many births, evolutionary process. Don't you see so many different varieties of life? And you had to undergo through all these life. Now you have come to human form of life, so you should utilize it."

Lecture on SB 6.1.8-13 -- New York, July 24, 1971:

So, so long we have got this bodily concept of life, so long we have to abide by the laws of material nature, by the laws of the state, or any other laws. Because this body is conditional. Every one of us who are sitting in this meeting has got a different body. Because everyone is under different condition, varieties, varieties of condition. Therefore I'm responsible. If I do not atone for the sinful activities I'm doing within this body, then I have to suffer in my next body because I'll get another body according to my karma. Yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran bhāvaṁ tyajaty ante kalevaram (BG 8.6). Kalevaram means this body. That is a nature's law. So Śukadeva Gosvāmī recommended that considering the gravity of your sinful life, you should undergo a type of atonement. They are prescribed in the śāstras. You have to do that. Otherwise, there is no rescue. Exactly like that, if you have committed murder, if you become killed here, then your sinful activities is neutralized. Otherwise, you'll have to suffer next life. So when a king orders a subject, or the state orders that "This man should be hanged," it is not cruelty to him. It is mercy. They do not know. It is a mercy. Otherwise why... Every state, anywhere you go, the law is there, "Life for life."

Lecture on SB 6.1.11 -- New York, July 25, 1971:

So, apart from that historical point of view, the Vedic culture prescribes tapasya. Tapasya. Tapasya means voluntarily accept some bodily inconvenience. That is called tapasya. There are many tapasvīs undergoing austerity. They meditate in winter in water up to..., up to the neck, standing within water, meditating. To stand within water in winter, severe cold, is not very comfortable business, but they voluntarily accept it. This is called tapasya. And summer season, they blaze fire all round and sit down in the midst and meditate. I am giving you some of the examples, how severely they accept tapasya. So tapasya is required. Without tapasya you cannot make advancement in spiritual life, or life of knowledge. If you simply give away..., in the animal propensities of life, eating, sleeping, mating and defending and don't accept the process of tapasya, then your human life is failure. You have to accept some tapasya if you want to make solution of the problems of life. Śukadeva Gosvāmī first recommends tapasya. Just like here, in our institution, whoever comes and becomes an initiated member, we first of all ask them to undergo tapasya. Tapasya. Especially in your country, it is a great tapasya to give up illicit sex life, to give up intoxication up to the point of smoking and tea drinking, and to give up meat-eating, and to give up gambling.

Lecture on SB 6.1.12 -- Los Angeles, June 25, 1975:

So this is intelligence. Therefore we should live very regulative life. And as I was going to say, the Vedic civilization... Just like the Visvamitra when he went to Mahārāja Daśaratha, kṣatriya, to get help, Mahārāja Daśaratha inquired that... Just like if we go to a friend, so what is our inquiry? "You are happy with your family, with your children?" Because they have a family. But here is a saintly man. So what should we inquire? Inquire, the inquiry is aihiṣṭhaṁ yat tam punar-janme-jayāya: "My dear Viśvāmitra Muni, brāhmaṇa, I know that you are all trying to get release from repetition of birth and death." Why he has gone to the forest? He has gone to the forest for executing austerity, so that next life may be not material but spiritual life. This is the aim of life. The whole human effort, civilization, should be conducted with the aim how to stop this repetition of birth and death. This is science. Aihiṣṭhaṁ yat tam punar-janma-jayāya. He inquired—he was a brāhmaṇa, great sage—that "You have taken so much trouble that you are living in the forest, you are undergoing meditation and other regulative principles—why?" Punar-janma-jayāya: "To stop next birth." Punar-janma-jayāya, the Buddhist philosophy, punar-janma-jayāya means they take it that no more birth, but finish this business in the different way. They do not believe that there is next life, but dismantle this material condition of life. That is their nirvāṇa theory. Because Buddha philosophy was taught not amongst very intelligent person, atheist class of men.

Lecture on SB 6.1.13-14 -- New York, July 27, 1971:

So practice. So practice means if you undergo austerity, tapasya, everything will be practiced. That is a Bengali proverb: śarīre nā mahāśaya(?). Mahāśaya is a word used in India, a very respectable gentleman, mahāśaya. So this śarīra, this body is mahāśaya. Ya sa haye sa taicha(?). Whatever he'll practice, it will be accustomed. So practice. So here this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is bringing them to the practice. Therefore you find, so nice, boys and girls, they're practiced. As soon as they're neglectful to the practice—falls down. They cannot stay. Immediately goes out. So that is called austerity, tapasya. Practice. Practical life. So these are the processes.

tapasā brahmacaryeṇa

śamena ca damena ca

tyāgena satya-śaucābhyāṁ

yamena niyamena vā

deha-vāg-buddhijaṁ dhīrā

dharmajñāḥ śraddhayānvitāḥ

kṣipanty aghaṁ mahad api

veṇu-gulmam ivānalaḥ

(SB 6.1.13-14)

Veṇu-gulmam ivānalaḥ. Just like there is a jungle—so many unwanted creepers—so you set fire. Everything will be burned into ashes and the field will be cleared, cleansed. So it is said: deha-vāg-buddhijaṁ dhīrā dharmajñāḥ śraddhayānvitāḥ. Those who are dhīra... Dhīra and adhīra. Dhīra means sober and adhīra means extravagant. There are two classes of men, dhīra and adhīra. Here Śukadeva Gosvāmī's speaking of the dhīra. Who is dhīra? Dhīra means in spite of provocation, in spite of something present which agitates the mind, one remains, I mean to say, in his position, steady. He's called dhīra.

Lecture on SB 6.1.13-14 -- Honolulu, May 14, 1976:

So in this age it is very difficult, but this is the meaning of tapasya, voluntarily accepting inconveniences. When there is cold, one has to take the help of heater, fire. No. No heater, no fire, but go deep into the cold water. Of course, it is very difficult in your country because the water is so cold, and if you go deep, immediately finish. (laughter) I have seen in New York. One dog, he jumped over—immediately finished. I have seen it. That is actual fact. So Caitanya Mahāprabhu is so kind that these people in this age, they will not be able to undergo severe austerity. That is not possible. Mandāḥ sumanda-matayo manda-bhāgyā hy upadrutāḥ (SB 1.1.10). In this age every man is alpāyuṣaḥ. Alpāyuṣaḥ means very short-living. The limit is hundred years, but who is going to live hundred years? Nobody. If one is eighty, seventy years, it is considered... Within sixty, seventy years everyone finished. But the age limit is hundred years. So what tapasya he'll do? What meditation he will do? In the Satya-yuga, by meditation one could get perfection. Just like Valmiki Muni. He meditated for sixty thousands of years. Because in those days a man used to live for 100,000's of years. Gradually it is reducing. In the Satya-yuga man and woman used to live, human being, up to 100,000's of years. Then, next yuga, it was ten thousands of years, reduced by ten times. And then, next yuga, next millennium, it is one thousands of years. And now, in the Kali-yuga, it is one hundred years. So it is very difficult to perform tapasya. But the recommendation is there, tapasā brahmacaryena (SB 6.1.13).

Lecture on SB 6.1.15 -- London, August 3, 1971:

This is a discussion between Śukadeva Gosvāmī and Mahārāja Parīkṣit. The question was that "Why people are suffering in different types of hellish condition of life, and how they can be delivered?" Parīkṣit Mahārāja heard from Śukadeva Gosvāmī that there (are) different kinds of hellish condition of life according to different types of sinful activities. So in this material world everyone is implicated or involved in some sort of sinful life. Just like in the prison house. One may be a first-class prisoner, just like sometimes big politicians, they are put into first-class prison arrangement. A second-class prisoner, a third-class prisoner, there are. But as soon as we understand this man is in the prison or prisoner, it should be understood that he's criminal. He has committed some criminal activity; therefore he is in prison. Now, you can compare between the first-class prisoner or third-class prisoner, that is another thing. But they're all prisoners. They're undergoing the duration of prison life.

Lecture on SB 6.1.15 -- London, August 3, 1971:

At the time of death the situation of mental situation, according to that mental situation he gets the next body. How? The example is: just like air passing over a nice rose garden. The air is carrying the flavor of the rose garden. And if the air is passing through some filthy place, stool, urine, then it carries the smell of stool and urine. The air is pure, but according to the blowing of the air under certain situation, it is carrying the flavor or smell, a bad smell or good smell. Similarly, we spirit souls, we are all parts and parcel of the Supreme Lord. Therefore, qualitatively we are one. If God is gold, then I am also gold. How can I be otherwise? Because I am part and parcel. If God is iron, then I am also iron. That is my position. But as I am carrying different airs by my association with this material nature, I am getting a different body. It is very simple to understand. We are getting different bodies, that's a fact. Even in our present life we have passed through so many different bodies: a baby's body, a child's body, a boy's body, young man's body. All those bodies are gone. Now I am undergoing in an old man's body. Similarly, when this body will be useless for any purpose, then I accept another body. This is called transmigration of the soul. So for another body, that will be created according to the mental situation we made here at the present body—just like the same air passing through rose garden and air passing through a toilet room.

Lecture on SB 6.1.15 -- New York, August 1, 1971:

So therefore Śukadeva Gosvāmī says, "By one stroke, kevalayā—without waiting for the austerity, undergoing severe penance, austerities, celibacy, controlling the mind, controlling the senses, and giving in charity, performing great sacrifices, to become, becoming very truthful, clean—but without waiting for all these things, simply by one stroke, accepting Kṛṣṇa consciousness, one immediately ascends the highest position." There is ample proof in our Society. They had never any austerity, penance or celibacy, or they tried to control the senses or mind, or they gave any big amount of charities, or they observed cleanliness. Nothing of the sort. But immediately, simply by accepting Kṛṣṇa consciousness, just see how they are nice. Practical proof. Now bring any yogi, any jñānī, any person undergoing severe penances, and compare with these boys and girls. He'll fail. This is practical... Simply by accepting this devotional service, kevala-bhakti, without waiting for the other penance. They're already under penance. They're already leading the life of celibacy. They have already controlled the senses. They have already controlled the mind. They're giving in charity. Whatever they have, they're giving to Kṛṣṇa. Damena tyāgena, tyāga. They have given their life. What to speak of money and other things, they have given their whole life for Kṛṣṇa. Otherwise, how this Movement is improving? If I... I came here alone. Still, no Indian helping me.

Lecture on SB 6.1.15 -- New York, August 1, 1971:

It is just like, I sometimes give example: The blacksmith's method and the goldsmith's method. The goldsmith, he has got a small hammer—tuk, tuk, tuk, tuk, tuk, tuk, tuk, tuk, tuk. And the blacksmith has a big hammer—dumh, finish. So our is blacksmith method. We take the big hammer of bhakti yoga and finish all, everything. You see. We won't have to undergo so many tuk, tuk, tuk, tuk. And there is no possibility. If I say, "Now you have to become completely brahmacārī. You have to sit down in the forest and stay at right angle and press your nose for six months," who will follow? There is no possibility. This tuk tuk method, there is no possibility. We have to get this hammer, blacksmith hammer of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and immediately finish everything. This is Kali-yuga. Simply one... Who can do this? This one hammer, finishing all, who can do this? Vāsudeva-parāyaṇāḥ. Bhaktyā vāsudeva-parāyaṇāḥ. By devotional service one has to become vāsudeva-parāyaṇa, devotee of Lord Vāsudeva. That's all. That is being taught here: how to become lover of Vāsudeva. This prescribed method, that rise early in the morning, have maṅgala-ārātrika, kīrtana, then bhoga-ārātrika, kīrtana, then go to the street saṅkīrtana, then come back, again kīrtana, again ārātrika—simply engaged in Vāsudeva's service. That includes everything.

Lecture on SB 6.1.15 -- New York, August 1, 1971:

So our conception is very clear. Therefore we are liberated. Liberation means to become free from all false conception of life. That is liberation. Liberation does not mean that you have got now two hands, and, as soon as you are liberated, you'll have ten hands. No. Liberation means that you become free from all nonsensical, false conception of life. That is liberation. That is the definition given in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, what is liberation. Muktir hitvā anyathā rūpam. Mukti means to give up... Anyathā rūpam... As we are now living under some false conception, so when one gives up this all false conception, that is called mukti. Muktir hitvā anyathā rūpaṁ svarūpeṇa vyavasthitiḥ (SB 2.10.6). And when one is situated in his original, constitutional position, giving up all false notions, he's liberated. That is liberation. Liberation is not very difficult. Simply... There is another verse that by awakening knowledge, one becomes liberated immediately. But, but what is that knowledge? This knowledge is very simple: God is great; we are small. We are His part and parcel; therefore it is our duty to serve Him. Two lines—liberation. Instead of undergoing so much difficult processes, if simply you understand these two lines: God is great, I am very small. He is the Supreme Proprietor, or master, He is supplying us all necessities of life; therefore our duty is to serve Him. That's all.

Lecture on SB 6.1.15 -- Auckland, February 22, 1973:

Therefore it is recommended here, kecit kevalayā bhaktyā (SB 6.1.15). Somebody, without undergoing so much austerities, penances and practice in yoga for controlling mind, the senses... It is not possible for the time being, in this age. People are so fallen that they cannot take to these processes. But they can take to this bhakti process. That is the easiest. Kecit kevalayā bhaktyā vāsudeva-parāyaṇāḥ (SB 6.1.15). Bhaktyā means to become devotee of Vāsudeva, Kṛṣṇa. Vāsudeva-parāyaṇāḥ, aghaṁ dhunvanti. Agham means all sinful reaction of life. Not only one life. Life after life, we have done. So that can be solved in this human form of life simply by taking to this Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Aghaṁ dhunvanti kārtsnyena. In toto, wholesale, kārtsnyena, wholesale. How? Nīhāram ivaṁ bhāskaraḥ. Just like the whole atmosphere is surcharged with fog; nobody can see. The other day we were going from Calcutta to Māyāpur, and so many accidents took place. Yes, actually we could not see even five feet away what is there. And two sides motors are running. Nobody could see. There were so many accidents. Even for few hours' fog, there were hundreds of accidents. Just see. So this is fog.

Lecture on SB 6.1.15 -- Auckland, February 22, 1973:

Now, there is two alternatives offered. One side is austerity, penance, controlling the mind, controlling the senses, and giving in charity. So many formulas are given, the tapa-ādibhiḥ. Because the other side, the tapasya, therefore tapa-ādibhiḥ, "beginning with tapasya, austerity." So Śukadeva Gosvāmī says, "My dear King," na tathā hy aghavān rājan pūyeta tapa-ādibhiḥ, "if one is practicing the other side, namely tapasya, brahmācārya, celibacy, austerities, yogic principle, controlling the mind, the senses, charity, so many things, so they are also purifying, but they are not so strong. They are not so strong as this devotional service is strong." That is tapa-ādibhiḥ. Na tathā hy aghavān rājan pūyeta tapa-ādibhiḥ, yathās kṛṣṇa-arpita-prāṇaḥ. One who has dedicated his life to Kṛṣṇa, he is very strong. Kṛṣṇārpita-prāṇaḥ. Yathā kṛṣṇārpita-prāṇas tat-puruṣa niṣevayā. Or dedicated his life to Kṛṣṇa or Kṛṣṇa's representative. He is very strong than the other man who is undergoing austerities, penances, and He is also making progress, certainly. But better process is this: one who has surrendered completely to the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa or his representative. Kṛṣṇārpita-prāṇaḥ tat-puruṣa-niṣevayā.

Lecture on SB 6.1.16 -- Denver, June 29, 1975:

So Kṛṣṇa says that "If you are working so hard to become happy in this material world, the same labor, if you worship Me, Kṛṣṇa, then you come to Me." Mad-yājino 'pi yānti mām. What is the benefit especially? Mām upetya kaunteya duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam nāpnuvanti: (BG 8.15) "Anyone who comes to Me, he hasn't got to come back again to this material world." So our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is teaching people how to go back to home, back to Godhead, Kṛṣṇa. That will make the people happy eternally. So in this life also, Kṛṣṇa conscious people, they are not unhappy. You can see practically. We are sitting in a very nice room and chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa and taking prasādam. Where is unhappiness? There is no unhappiness. And other processes, they have to undergo so many unhappy processes. Here, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, there is nothing unhappiness. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā: susukham kartum avyayam (BG 9.2). Susukham. When you execute devotional service, it is not only sukham—sukham means happiness—but another word is added, susukham, "very comfortable, very happy." Kartum, to execute devotional service, is great pleasure, great happiness. And avyayam. Avyayam means whatever you do, that is your permanent asset. Other things, that is finishable.

Lecture on SB 6.1.18 -- Denver, July 1, 1975:

So this purificatory process... Bhakti means purificatory process. We are impure. Because we are impure, therefore we are undergoing so many tribulations, so many miserable condition of life. Otherwise we are spirit soul, ānandamayo 'bhyāsāt (Vedānta-sūtra 1.1.12). Our position is ānandamaya. Ānandamaya, the Vedānta-sūtra says, ānandamaya..., "By nature, spirit soul is ānandamaya, always full of jolly." You see Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is full of jolly. Always you see pictures of Kṛṣṇa, either He is playing with the cowherds boy or either He is killing some demon, He is laughing, very sportively He is killing. And what to speak of with the gopīs and Rādhārāṇī? Because He is sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ (Bs. 5.1), always full of happiness and bliss. And we are also part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. Therefore our position is the same, maybe in small scale. The position is the same, ānandamayo 'bhyāsāt (Vedānta-sūtra 1.1.12). Ānandamaya. So why should we be morose? Why should we be unhappy? Because we are now at the present moment covered with the sinful reaction of our life. So if we purify ourself... Tapasā brahmacaryeṇa (SB 6.1.13). We have already discussed, or that will be discussed later. The human life is meant for that. Purify. Don't keep yourself unclean. Purify. Then you regain your original, spiritual life. That is the only business.

Lecture on SB 6.1.27-34 -- Surat, December 17, 1970:

Revatīnandana: In the picture in the revealed book, Nāradajī is asking questions of Lord Brahmā. I was thinking that Nārada has actually an all-spiritual body, and Brahmā has a material form, material body. And yet Nārada appears to Brahmājī to ask questions from him as spiritual master. How is that?

Prabhupāda: Brahmājī also enters the spiritual kingdom at the time of annihilation with his persons.

Revatīnandana: Does he undergo a change of body at that time?

Prabhupāda: Yes. That automatically takes place. Just like Hiraṇyakaśipu's son is Prahlāda. It doesn't matter. And spiritual body, material body, that can be changed. (break)

Revatīnandana: It will all be one thing(?), spiritual into material or material...

Prabhupāda: Material means when the consciousness is not Kṛṣṇa. That is material. The same example, that iron rod, if kept to the fire, gradually it becomes warm, warmer, and at last it becomes red. When it is red, it is no longer iron; it is fire. Similarly, by spiritual association, your body gradually becomes spiritualized. And at the perfection stage, there is no more material activities, simply the activities of the fire.

Lecture on SB 6.1.30 -- Philadelphia, July 14, 1975:

So that is our mistake. Our mistake is that we have got advanced or developed consciousness. We should utilize it for going back to home, back to Godhead. Why should we misuse it unnecessarily? And you are not perfect. Suppose you are studying the machine throughout the whole life. What you will get that? Can you make the machine to your favor that this machine will not be lost, there will be no death? You all scientists, you are studying the machine. Have you found out any means that there will be no death? Where is that knowledge. Death will be there. You study the machine or do not study the machine, in due course, time, the death will come and will take you. The machine will stay. So this is intelligence. Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānu... (BG 13.9). You cannot cure even one disease. You are embarrassed with the cancer disease. You find out how the cells are working, how it can be changed, and there will be no cancer. No, that you cannot do. You go on studying simply, waste your time. So śāstra says, "Don't waste your valuable time in that way. Try to understand God. Use your intelligence for this purpose." Tapaḥ. Tapo divyaṁ yena śuddhyet sattvam (SB 5.5.1). You have to undergo austerities that you may not be subjected to this machine. That is your business, not to study the machine. How to become independent of the machine. So long you are in this material world, you are desiring differently. Nature is supplying you a different type of machine, and you are busy. Then again, the machine is broken, then you accept another machine. This is going on.

Lecture on SB 6.1.44 -- Los Angeles, July 25, 1975:

So how it can be stopped? Unless there is spiritual education, unless one is spiritually enlightened, you have to undergo the process of birth, death, old age and disease. You may talk very highly and foolishly, but the process of nature, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi (BG 13.9), that you cannot stop. That is... Therefore any education which does not give enlightenment on the subject matter of how to stop death, they are all foolish talking. That's all. This is the conclusion, not bhadrāṇi, abhadrāṇi. Sambhavanti bhadrāṇi viparītāni cānaghaḥ, kāriṇāṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sti. Guṇa-saṅgaḥ. Therefore the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is trying to give the association of goodness. There are three guṇas. Just like in a brothel, they are giving the association of darkness, similarly, this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is opening so many centers to give the facility to the people in general the association of goodness. That is the difference. Saṅgāt sañjāyate kāmaḥ. If you associate with persons addicted to so many drugs or brothel men, then you will become like that. And if you associate with the Kṛṣṇa conscious men, then you become Kṛṣṇa conscious; you understand what is your real position, what is the aim of life, how to stop birth, death, old age. This is the profit of Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. And actually, learned, educated circle, they are appreciating that "Government spends so much money for stopping the drug habit, but they have failed. But this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement have saved so many hippies and young men from this fallen condition of life." That is the practical way. Anyone who has got intelligence, they will see to it.

Lecture on SB 6.1.48 -- Dallas, July 30, 1975:

In another place, in the Third Canto, I think, it is described, karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa (SB 3.31.1). We are acting in different way. We are not independent. This is foolishness. Just like an outlaw. He is thinking that he is free from the jurisdiction of state laws, and he is working irresponsibly, but when he is arrested, then he has no independence. He has to undergo the punishment. Similarly, in this life we may think very independent, "Whatever we like, we can do." That is foolishness. You cannot do that. If you do it wilfully, then you will be punished. That they do not know. Punished means by a different body. If a man, human being, is punished to stand up like as a tree for five thousand years, just imagine how much great punishment it is. And that is possible. Just like in the śāstra it is stated that those who want to remain naked, they are punished in the next life to become tree, that "You wanted to be naked. Now you stand naked." The trees, they do not dress; neither they have the opportunity. Nobody goes to dress them.

Lecture on SB 6.1.49 -- Detroit, June 15, 1976:

So we have got this body according to our past work. Karmaṇā daivā-netreṇa jantra jantor deha upapatti (SB 3.31.1). How one gets a particular type of body? Because according to his past karma. Nature will automatically act. Just like if you contact some contaminous disease, nature will act. You will have to undergo the process of disease or develop that disease. So nature's law is working so nicely. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27). Everything is being done by the laws of nature. So, human body, when we are civilized, we should know that "Why I am suffering?" Although under the spell of māyā we take suffering as enjoyment. That is called māyā. Māyā means what is not. We are thinking we are enjoying, but actually we are suffering. In this material body we have to suffer. Mātrā-sparśās tu kaunteya śītoṣṇa-sukha-duḥkha-dāḥ (BG 2.14). This example is given by Kṛṣṇa in the Bhagavad-gītā, that suffering means on account of this body. There is pinching cold, scorching heat. We feel these things on account of this body. At a certain circumstances, we feel pain; at a certain circumstance we feel happy. But actually, this so-called happiness and distress is due to the body.

Lecture on SB 6.1.49 -- Detroit, June 15, 1976:

Therefore Sanātana Gosvāmī, he was minister of the then Muhammadan government. So he presented himself to Caitanya Mahāprabhu that: ke āmi, kene āmāya jāre tāpa-traya. This is the intelligence, that "I am undergoing constantly some sort of distresses due to this body, due to this mind, due to distresses inflicted by other living entities, and due to natural disturbances. A combination of distresses. But I don't want all these distresses." Everyone is aware. He doesn't want distresses, but it is enforced. This should be the question, to... When one accepts the spiritual master... Caitanya Mahāprabhu, Sanātana Gosvāmī, he is by his practical example, he said that one should go and inquire from the spiritual master that "Why I am in this condition of life, always suffering?" Tri-tāpa yātanā. But we have become so dull, like the animals. The animals, they cannot question. They are suffering. Everyone knows animal life is full of suffering, but they cannot realize.

Lecture on SB 6.1.49 -- Detroit, June 15, 1976:

So Ṛṣabhadeva said, "For only sense gratification, why you are accepting so much suffering life after life? Now you have got this human form of life, you just try to rectify, that no more material body. This is human life." Tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena śuddhyed sattvam (SB 5.5.1). "You purify your existence, tapa, by tapasya, by austerity, penances." Therefore in the human life you'll find so many tapasvīs undergoing tapasya. Voluntarily not accepting the so-called material pleasures, that is called tapasya. Tapo divyam. So tapo means undergo some austerities, penances, for divyam. For awakening your spiritual existence. Then your struggle for existence will stop. Tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena śuddhyed sattvam (SB 5.5.1). Just like one man is infected with some disease. That is aśuddha, impure condition. So we try to make it purified by injection, by medicine. And similarly, we are getting repeatedly different types of body. Now we should purify this bodily existence. And that purification in this age, it is very, very simple: chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. That's all. That is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's contribution. Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanaṁ bhava-mahā-dāvāgni-nirvāpaṇam (CC Antya 20.12). If you chant this Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, paraṁ vijāyate śrī-kṛṣṇa-saṅkīrtanam. So very simple thing. There is no question of cast, creed, nationality, color, richness. No. Everyone has got the tongue by the grace of God. Everyone can chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare. So just continue and be happy.

Lecture on SB 6.1.50 -- Detroit, August 3, 1975:

So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement means to deliver people from this ignorant ignorance platform and bring him to the light platform, or..., and knowledge platform, so that one can understand what is his constitutional position, how he can stop the sufferings of life, and how one can become eternally blissful life of knowledge. (break) ...ness. Caitanya Mahāprabhu, He has given us the Śikṣāṣṭaka. Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12). By chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra... (break) In the Bhāgavata says tapasā. Tapasā means "by undergoing severe austerities, penances." Tapasā brahmacaryeṇa śamena damena vā (SB 6.1.13). This is the instruction in the śāstra. One has to become perfect by tapasā, by austerities. Tapasā brahmacaryeṇa. And becoming brahmacārī, celibate. What is called? Celibate life? Eh?

Lecture on SB 6.1.51 -- Detroit, August 4, 1975:

So if we want to be really... Because we are within this entanglement, twenty-four elements, as we have analyzed, within this, the result is that, being influenced by this māyā or mahat-tattva, who is working with the three modes of material nature, and I am desiring, my basic principle of my material existence is my desire, and as soon as I desire, by the order of Kṛṣṇa, immediately the instruments and facilities are given to me. In this way, dhatte anusaṁsṛtiṁ puṁsi. As I desire, immediately the instrument... This body is instrument. Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe arjuna tiṣṭhati (BG 18.61). (child making noise) (aside:) Stop this child. Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe 'rjuna tiṣṭhati. Kṛṣṇa is situated everyone's heart, and as I am desiring, He has given us full freedom, not full freedom, but freedom. Kṛṣṇa is so kind that just like father, mother, gives the child little freedom and it moves here and there, but always looking after—may not catch up any fire, for may not fall down in the water, or some animal may not attack—so similarly, we are desiring and Kṛṣṇa is giving us facilities. But if we want to stop this repetition of birth and death and change of different atmosphere, as it is said, harṣa-śoka-bhaya ārti. This material existence means sometimes we are very jubilant: "Oh, I have got this. Now I have got in America, I have got so many cars." Now harṣa, jubilant. Then śoka. And you take birth in some other place, lamentation, scarcity: "This is not. This is not." And bhaya. So there are 8,400,000 species of forms of life, and by this process we are entering into different types of atmosphere and subjected to sometimes harṣa, jubilation, sometimes lamentation, sometimes fear. Even in this life we are undergoing such changes.

Lecture on SB 6.1.52 -- Detroit, August 5, 1975:

All living entity, anyone who has come into this material world, under different body or different dress, they are suffering in this material world. Therefore the śāstra is meant for the human being so that he can understand his awkward position. So everywhere this is advised, ayaṁ deha: "You had many other bodies in your past lives' evolution. Now, this body," ayaṁ deha, nāyaṁ deho deha-bhājāṁ nṛloke, "one who has got this human form of body," nāyaṁ deho deha-bhājāṁ nṛloke kaṣṭān kāmān arhate viḍ-bhujām (SB 5.5.1), "don't engage yourself for simply for eating, sleeping, in very hard labor." Just like at the present moment huge, big, big industries, karma It is called ugra-karma. Ugra-karma means ferocious activities. Anyone who has gone into the factories, it is ferocious activities, unnecessarily economic development. So this is kaṣṭān, so much laboring. Even the animals, they do not undergo so much laboring. And a human being is engaged in so much laboring? Kaṣṭān kāmān. And what for, laboring, working? Now, kāmān, to sense gratify, that's all. This is the highest state. Whole day and night, night shift, day shift, and—who was telling? Upendra—that our next door neighbor, he wanted to sleep up to ten o'clock. So when they were, I mean to say, sweeping the floor he became disturbed because last night he had drunk and sense gratification, now, little disturbance, he cannot sleep. You are creating in this way entanglement, ajñaḥ, dehy ajñaḥ, on account of his ignorance. And this education system is keeping him more and more in ignorance. Mūḍha.

Lecture on SB 6.1.55 -- London, August 13, 1975:

Kṛṣṇa is actually bhoktā. Bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasām (BG 5.29). So we are imitating Kṛṣṇa. This is our position. Everyone is trying to become Kṛṣṇa. The Māyāvādīs, although they have undergone penances, austerities—very strictly they follow the principles of spiritual life—but because they are under māyā, at the end they are thinking that "I am God, Purusa," the same disease, puruṣa. Purusa means bhoktā. That "I am Kṛṣṇa..." Bhoktāraṁ yajña... And even after advancing so much by austerities, penances, following regulative principle, the māyā is so strong that still, he is under this impression that "I am puruṣa." Not only ordinary puruṣa, but the Supreme Puruṣa, as Kṛṣṇa is described in the Bhagavad-gītā. Paraṁ brahma paraṁ dhāma pavitraṁ paramaṁ bhavān, puruṣam śāśvata: (BG 10.12) "You are puruṣa." So māyā is so strong that after being kicked so many lives, life after life, still he is thinking, "I am puruṣa. I am enjoyer." This is the disease.

Lecture on SB 6.2.17 -- Vrndavana, September 20, 1975:

So the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement means to cure the heart disease full with lusty desires. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. And the perfection comes when anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ (Brs. 1.1.11)—no more any material desire. That is possible. Yaṁ labdhvā cāparaṁ lābhaṁ manyate nādhikaṁ tataḥ. If you get something, that something, "I don't want anything more." Svāmin kṛtārtho 'smi varaṁ na yāce (CC Madhya 22.42), Dhruva Mahārāja said. He went to the forest to undergo severe austerities so that he can see Nārāyaṇa and beg some benefit, to get a greater kingdom than his father. He was insulted by his stepmother, so the boy, son of a kṣatriya, he determined that "I shall have a better kingdom than my father." So he got it. By Kṛṣṇa's grace he got it, that Dhruvaloka, the polestar. It is very big star. So he went for this purpose. Arthārthī. Catur-vidhā bhajante māṁ sukṛtino arjuna. Arthārthī. Ārto arthārthī. So he was in search after money, Dhruva Mahārāja, and therefore at five years old he went to the forest. His mother advised that "Kṛṣṇa can help you only." Others cannot help. So he was simple boy. He decided, "Where is Kṛṣṇa?" "Now, my dear child, I know that He is found in the forest." So he went to the forest, and he very severely Nārada Muni tried to persuade him, "No, no, you are simply a small child.

Lecture on SB 6.3.18-19 -- Gorakhpur, February 12, 1971:

As I have explained yesterday, devotees will have enemies. Kṛṣṇa had enemies. This world is such, envious. Ordinarily, they are envious. The whole world is full of enviousness. Even the greatest personalities like Indra, he is also envious. If somebody is undergoing great austerities, thus Indra becomes envious. Just like Viśvāmitra. Viśvāmitra was meditating by the yoga process. Immediately Indra became disturbed: "Oh, this man is practicing so much severe austerities. He may capture my post some day. So this man must be curbed down immediately." Just like in political party, everyone is thinking, "Oh, this man is becoming greater than me. So he should be curbed down; he should be checked. Otherwise, some day he may occupy my ministership." This is the position of the world. Everyone is envious. So the devotees have enemies. But the Viṣṇudūta protects, as Kṛṣṇa says, that kaunteya pratijānīhi na me bhaktaḥ praṇaśyati (BG 9.31), "My dear Arjuna, you can declare on My behalf that a devotee will never be... A pure devotee..." Always remember—a pure devotee.

Lecture on SB 6.3.25-26 -- Gorakhpur, February 18, 1971:

So the great compiler of religious scripture, headed by Manu and others, without knowing the simple method, they prescribe gorgeous ritualistic ceremonies. Kim ca māyayā divyalam vimohitam matir ayam jana madhu, madhunam yatha bhavati evam puspitayam puṣpa-sthaniya ratavadi mano-harayam trayyam jadi-kṛta abhinivista-matir yasya ata eva mahaty eva karmany agni-stomadau śraddhayā yujyamānaḥ.(?) So being bewildered by the material or external energy, they take to these gorgeous ceremonies or sacrificial performances. Actually there is no need. The whole thing is that Śrīdhara Svāmī is giving stress very strongly that you can simply chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra without undergoing any ritualistic ceremonies. Actually it is very difficult to understand. Mādhavendra Purī, our predecessor ācārya, he also has composed a nice verse. He says, "My dear gāyatrī-mantra, I offer you my respect, but no more I can chant gāyatrī-mantra." In this way... Taking bath early in the morning, that's a good recommendation for spiritual advancement. But Mādhavendra Purī said, "Now I am unable to execute this order. Please excuse me." In this way he has described in many ways. At last, he concludes that "I shall sit down somewhere underneath a tree and simply remember Govinda's name. That is sufficient. Yes." He says, "Please excuse me, please excuse me, please excuse me."

Lecture on SB 7.5.22-30 -- London, September 8, 1971:

So devotees are generally very good, godly qualities. Just like Arjuna. Arjuna, he was insulted by his brothers, his wife was insulted, his kingdom was usurped, taken away, that..., forced to go to the forest for twelve years. So many troubles they had to undergo due to the political intrigues by the cousin-brothers. Still, while he was in front of fighting, he thought, "What is the use of fighting and killing my cousin-brothers? Better let them enjoy. I retire. Kṛṣṇa, I cannot fight," he said. Why? Because he was a devotee. He was prepared to forego his claim. It is not that he was a coward. He was a great warrior, fighter. He could fight immediately. But because he was devotee, he was avoiding, trying to avoid fight, "No." This is godly quality. So in order to induce him to fight, Kṛṣṇa had to speak to him the whole Bhagavad-gītā. When he understood that "Although I do not wish to fight, Kṛṣṇa desires," then he took: "All right. Then I change my decision because Kṛṣṇa's desire is my first duty." That is devotee's duty. If Kṛṣṇa says, God says to devotee, that "You jump on the fire," he will do immediately. That is devotee: without any argument. So there is no consideration. Just like commander in the military active field. The commander says, "You jump in this fire," he jumps. He knows that "I'll surely die." Similarly, a devotee, fully surrendered devotee, means he is prepared to do anything for God. That is pure devotee.

Lecture on SB 7.5.22-30 -- London, September 8, 1971:

"Such persons immediately becomes liberated from the bondage of three modes of material nature." Sa guṇān samatītyaitān. Great philosophers, great yogis, they are undergoing severe type of austerities. Why? Just to get out of the clutches of these three modes of material nature, the three modes of material nature: goodness, passion, and ignorance. Everyone is being conducted under the influence of these different types of material nature. Even in this material world, goodness, that is also bondage, and what to speak of passion and ignorance. So Kṛṣṇa says anyone who is engaged in devotional service, immediately, sa samatītyaitān guṇān. Etān guṇān means these three qualities of material nature, brahma-bhūyāya kalpate (BG 14.26). That is real stage of ahaṁ brahmāsmi. Śaṅkarācārya taught his philosophy, to develop your consciousness to the platform of Brahman understanding. When one understands himself that "I am not this body, I do not belong to this material world. I am spirit soul," that is Brahman understanding. Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā (BG 18.54). At that time he becomes very jolly. So there are many different process of austerity to come to this platform of Brahman understanding, but if one is engaged in this devotional service, sravanam kīrtanam visnu, he is to be understood as already on the Brahman platform. Therefore Prahlāda Mahārāja says, "I think such person has studied completely. His knowledge is perfect."

Lecture on SB 7.6.2 -- Toronto, June 18, 1976:

In the kṛte, means Satya-yuga, when people used to live for one hundred thousands of years, at that time it was possible. Just like Valmiki Muni meditated for sixty thousands of years. So actually this meditation, dhyāna, dhāraṇā, prāṇāyāma, pratyāhāra, the yogic system, it is recommended in the śāstras, the Bhagavad-gītā also it is there, but in this age it is not possible. Even Arjuna denied. "Kṛṣṇa, You are recommending me to undergo the process of yoga, but it is not possible for me." Tasyāhaṁ nigrahaṁ manye vāyor iva suduṣkaram. It is not possible. But Arjuna was a pure devotee. He was always thinking of Kṛṣṇa. He had no other business. Therefore Kṛṣṇa, to encourage Arjuna, He said that "Don't be disappointed. Because you are thinking that you are unfit to meditate upon Lord Viṣṇu, don't be disappointed. The first-class yogi... You are first-class yogi." Why? Because,

yoginām api sarveṣāṁ

mad-gatenāntarātmanā

śraddhāvān bhajate yo māṁ

sa me yuktatamo mataḥ

(BG 6.47)

Anyone who is thinking of Kṛṣṇa always within the heart, he's first-class yogi. Therefore kalau tad dhari-kīrtanāt. This is first-class yoga system. In this age, Caitanya Mahāprabhu recommended, in the śāstra also it is recommended, that harer nāma harer nāma harer nāma eva kevalam kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva nāsty eva (CC Adi 17.21).

Lecture on SB 7.6.4 -- Vrndavana, December 5, 1975:

Your material gain, happiness or distress, you are destined to get. You'll get it. Again the same, duḥkhavad anyataḥ. Anyat nataḥ. Nobody tries to get distress. If you ask anybody that "Why you are working so hard?" nobody says that "I am working so hard, I want distress." Nobody will say. Everyone will say, "I'll be happy. I'll get happiness. Therefore I am working hard." "No, this is distress." "Yes, this is distress, but I'll get happiness after this." This is called māyā. He is undergoing distress, but he is thinking, "I'll get happiness." This is called māyā. So there is no use. This is śāstric injunction. You have to see your future through the śāstra. So don't waste your time in that way. Āyur-vyayaḥ param. Ayur-vyayaḥ. This duration of life, human life—Prahlāda Mahārāja has begun with the words durlabhaṁ mānuṣaṁ janma—this life is very, very important, and after many, many births you have got it. So you should always remember that every moment of this life is so important. How much it is important, that is explained by Cāṇakya Paṇḍita. Anyone can understand. He says... He is not a, I mean, Kṛṣṇa conscious person but moralist. He was prime minister. He says, āyuṣaḥ kṣaṇa eko 'pi na labhyaḥ svarṇa-koṭibhiḥ. Your duration of life... You have got a certain years' duration of life. You cannot live more than that. If you have got your duration of life for fifty years, you can live up to fifty years, not hundred years. These are all destined.

Lecture on SB 7.6.5 -- Vrndavana, December 7, 1975:

So Prahlāda Mahārāja concludes this instruction in this way: tato yateta kuśalaḥ kṣemāya bhavam āśritaḥ. Bhavam means this material world, where we take birth and die after some time. Bhavam. Bhavam means "become, manifest." This is material world. We take birth, we exist for some time, we grow, then there are some by-products, and then we become old and then die. This is called ṣaḍ-vikāra, six kinds of changes. But the ātmā is the same. The example is given: just like a tree, any tree, say a mango tree. During season, summer season there are flowers in the tree, and then they grow a small green mango, then it becomes yellow or reddish, and then it becomes ripened. Then there is a seed within the mango. And then, when it is over-ripened, it falls down. Then finished, business finished. Similarly... But when the mango is finished, it does not mean the tree is also finished. The tree is there, and again, in the next season, there will be mango and the same changes will go on. Similarly... It is a crude example. We spirit soul, we are eternal exactly like the tree. Tree is not eternal, but in comparison to the fruit, it is eternal. A tree lives for hundred thousand, five hundred, years and the same business go on. The mango, it is coming in fu..., just like flower, then green, then grows, then dwindles. So we are eternal, and our different bodies are just like seasonal fruits. On account of our different karma, we get different body. So this body is undergoing the six kind of changes. But the soul, he is not going any change. He is the same.

Lecture on SB 7.6.7 -- Vrndavana, December 9, 1975:

He is advising to the sons of the demons because the demons, they cannot understand. But it is the duty of the Vaiṣṇava to preach, although Kṛṣṇa advises that "You don't preach the truth of Bhagavad-gītā to the demons." He said, "Those who have not undergone austerities, those who are not very serious, don't speak about these lessons of Bhagavad-gītā, sarva-dharmān parityajya (BG 18.66)." Means they'll not understand. But still, the devotees, they take the risk that "All right, let me try to convince this person that 'Take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness.' " Even Kṛṣṇa says that "Don't try, because they will not be able to understand," still, they try. That is a devotee. Therefore devotee is more merciful than Kṛṣṇa. Devotee is more merciful. Even there is no hope to understand, still, he goes door to door: "Please take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Please take to Kṛṣṇa, and you'll be happy." It is not always... Just like you are trying to spread Kṛṣṇa consciousness with so much endeavor. It's not that cent percent people of the world will take. That is not possible.

Lecture on SB 7.6.10 -- Vrndavana, December 12, 1975:

You can eat even stool. I give you the facility." Mattaḥ smṛtir jñānam. "Now, here you have got this body, you eat stool." Smṛtir jñānam. In this way we are going on, life after life. We are creating different types of body. This is called seasonal changes. Just like there is tree, and every season there are fruits. The fruits, they are undergoing six kinds of transformation. First of all it is just like a small bud, or flower, then grows into a green fruit, then it is ripened fruit, then there is seed, then it is completely ripened, then falls down and finished. The fruit is going on, these six kinds of transformation, but the tree is standing. Similarly, as living entity we are permanent, and according to our karma, fruitive result of our karma, we are getting different body. So I am steady, as spirit soul. My bodies are changing, seasonal changes. But Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). Because the fruit is grown, stays for some time, then dwindles, then vanishes, that does not mean the tree is finished. This is a crude example. So this change of body is there on account of presence of the Supersoul. He is noting down. He doesn't require to note down, but He notes that "This living entity wants this kind of facility." So each and every body means a kind of facility for fulfilling our desires. So that desire is fulfilled by Kṛṣṇa. He is within our heart. He is giving, has given full independence. "Desire Whatever you desire, I will give you." Ye yathā mām prapadyante tāṁs tathaiva bhajāmy aham (BG 4.11).

Lecture on SB 7.6.10 -- New Vrindaban, June 26, 1976:

Some calamity will disturb me. So because all these disturbances are, this is nature's daivī hy eṣā guṇa-mayī mama māyā duratyayā (BG 7.14). That māyā is always ready to disturb us. Because to remind us that "You want to be happy in this material world, that is not possible. I shall disturb you always, in this way or that way." That we haven't got eyes to see, that we are being disturbed. But if we want undisturbed happiness then we have to purify our existence. That is wanted. It is for our interest. To become Kṛṣṇa conscious means that is our interest. Kṛṣṇa doesn't want that you become... Kṛṣṇa wants, but if you do not become Kṛṣṇa conscious, He has nothing to lose. But if we do not become Kṛṣṇa conscious, it is, our chance is lost. This is the problem. So when Kṛṣṇa comes and He advises sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66), it is for our interest. If we do that, then we become happy. Because we want happiness, so little tapasya. Just like if you want to cure your feverish condition you have to accept some rules and regulations ordered by the physician. If we want to cure, bhavauṣadhiḥ. So simple thing: tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena śuddhyed sattvam (SB 5.5.1). Little tapasya. It is not very difficult. But if we undergo a little tapasya—no illicit sex, no meat-eating, no gambling, no intoxication—little, not very... Now those who have given up these bad habits, they are not dying for want of these. But this little tapasya, tapasā brahmacaryeṇa... (SB 6.1.13).

Lecture on SB 7.7.22-26 -- San Francisco, March 10, 1967:

So how I am being carried to different kinds of body, although I am the eternal and existing? How? Now, the very example is here, that gandhair vāyum. Just like vāyu. Vāyu means air. Air is passing through a, I mean to say, garden of rose. So air is carrying the flavor. The aroma of rose is being carried by the air. Now the air is passing through some filthy place, obnoxious, very bad smell, so air is catching. So air has neither this flavor, nor this bad or good. But as it is passing on, according to the association, it is getting certain time of, certain type of flavor and aroma. Similarly, by your association, you are getting different types of body. If you make your association with Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then you get next your Kṛṣṇa body. And if you make your association with non-Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then you'll have this material body, and you have to undergo birth and death repeatedly.

Lecture on SB 7.7.30-31 -- Mombassa, September 12, 1971:

I shall become a high-court judge, I shall become a military man, I shall become a very good businessman." As there are different ambitions, similarly, for your next life also you can maintain different ambitions. That is in your hands. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, yānti deva-vratā devān (BG 9.25), if you are ambitious to elevate yourself... Just like people are trying to go to the moon planet, that is an ambition. But they are trying to fulfill the ambition wrongly. That is not the way, that we manufacture some machine and by force we enter into the moon planet. That is not possible. You have to undergo certain rules and regulations so that after quitting this body you are allowed to get a particular type of body suitable for a particular type of planet.

yānti deva-vratā devān

pitṟn yānti pitṛ-vratāḥ

bhūtāni yānti bhūtejyā

mad-yājino 'pi yānti mām

(BG 9.25)

Those who are desiring to enter into the higher planetary system where demigods live, Candraloka, Sūryaloka, Indraloka, Varuṇaloka, Vāyuloka, Brahmaloka, Dhruvaloka, Bhūr, Bhuvar, Svar, there are different millions of..., vibhūti-bhinnam. Yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-aṇḍa-koṭi-koṭiṣv aśeṣa-vasudhādi-vibhūti-bhinnam (Bs. 5.40). In the brahma-jyotir of Kṛṣṇa, there are innumerable planets. The spiritual portion, there are innumerable Vaikuṇṭhas. Vaikuṇṭha means... Kuṇṭha means anxiety. Where there is no anxiety, simply pleasure, that is our life. Here also we want a very happy life without any anxiety. That is our tendency.

Lecture on SB 7.7.30-31 -- Mombassa, September 12, 1971:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Devotee (2): But then the individual, he cannot by his efforts or something...

Prabhupāda: But Kṛṣṇa point is that you... Your point is Kṛṣṇa knows your destiny, is that (indistinct)?

Devotee (2): That's correct.

Prabhupāda: But He can change your destiny. That is Kṛṣṇa's power. Nobody can change, but He can change. Kṛṣṇa says, ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi (BG 18.66). Suppose your life is full of sin, sinful actions. So your destiny is already there. But Kṛṣṇa says ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi, "I shall give you protection." So He can change what you (indistinct). You haven't got to undergo the result of your destiny. Brahma-saṁhitā also says, karmāṇi nirdahati ca bhakti-bhājām (Bs. 5.54). Bhakti-bhājām, those who are engaged in devotion, they are karmāṇi nirdahati. (end)

Lecture on SB 7.9.10 -- Montreal, July 10, 1968:

But in this age it is very difficult. To undergo such voluntary tribulations for realization, self-realization, meditation is not possible in this age. Therefore the Vedic injunction is that "You simply chant Hare Kṛṣṇa." Harer nāma harer nāma harer nāma eva kevalam (CC Adi 17.21). You don't have to take any botheration. In whatever position you are, you just try to consent in your mind to hear the sound of Hare Kṛṣṇa, best type of meditation, because it is not possible to acquire all these qualities, tapa. So śamo-damas-tapa-śaucam. Śaucam means cleanliness, hygienic principles, to take bath thrice, at least once, daily. Therefore to keep no hair is better. You wash, there is no question of moisture in the hair. And those who have got big hairs, they cannot take daily bath. But if you keep your bald-headed, there is no trouble. Śaucam. So bathing is required, taking bath daily, śaucam. And kṣānti. Kṣānti means toleration. Because this world is full of miseries, and you have to execute Kṛṣṇa consciousness in this condition... Kṛṣṇa advised in the Bhagavad-gītā, Arjuna, that... Because the topic was on the body, so Arjuna said, "Accepting that the soul is immortal and it never dies, still, if some relative dies, we feel pain. Is it not a fact?" Kṛṣṇa said, "Yes, it is a fact." Even if I know that my son is dead, my son is not dead. The soul of my son is departed from this body to another body. So there is no cause of anxiety. He has got another body, but still, I feel, "Oh, my son...," for the body, because I am accustomed to love my son by the body. So this concession should be allowed. If somebody is crying, that does not mean he is a fool, but it is material affection. So Kṛṣṇa advises that this kṣānti, titikṣa, toleration. How toleration? Śītoṣṇa-sukha-duḥkha-dāḥ. Just like we tolerate there is severe cold. There is no use fighting and howling, "Oh, there is so much cold, so much cold, so much." You have to tolerate. You cannot fight.

Lecture on SB 7.9.11-13 -- Hawaii, March 24, 1969:

You remain always in, what is called, antiseptic stage, or prophylactic stage. Purification is there simply by remembering Kṛṣṇa. Yaḥ smaret puṇḍarīkākṣaṁ sa bāhyābhyantaraḥ śuciḥ. There is another verse. The purport of that verse is that simply by pronouncing this transcendental vibration, one becomes so purified that immediately he becomes eligible to operate sacrificial, ritualistic ceremonies. Now, sacrificial, ritualistic ceremonies, in the Vedas, priestly, that is, that work is, I mean to say, allotted to the brāhmaṇa class. Now, Jīva Gosvāmī has discussed this verse in this way, that "Even a caṇḍāla, a person born in the family of dog-eaters, if he chants the holy name of the Lord, he becomes so purified that immediately he becomes eligible to operate sacrificial, ritualistic ceremony." So Jīva Gosvāmī has commented in this connection that a boy, a child born in the brāhmaṇa family, in order to accept him as real brāhmaṇa... He's born in a pure family. That's all right. But there are other ceremonies, reformatory ceremonies, and this thread ceremony is also one of the ceremonies. So even taking birth in the brāhmaṇa family, he has to undergo the ceremonies to come to the stage of a pure brāhmaṇa. But here chanting of holy name is so powerful that he does not require even dependence on those ceremonies. Immediately he becomes. Unless a person... A boy is born in a brāhmaṇa family, but unless he's educated, unless he's purified, he cannot be allowed to perform the sacrificial rites. That means he's dependent on these other processes. So..., but here a devotee who is chanting without any offense, he becomes immediately purified without depending on the other purificatory process. These things are discussed.

Lecture on SB 7.9.24 -- Mayapur, March 2, 1976:

This is intelligence. The karmīs, they are trying to enjoy life by increasing the duration of life. The modern scientists, they are trying that there will be no more death. They think like that foolishly, that by scientific methods, the duration of life will be increased. Everyone is trying that. Nobody wants to become old. If you ask any old man, "What is your age?" he'll decrease it. He'll say... He is eighty years old, he'll say, "I am sixty years" or "sixty-five." That means he wants to live for long duration of life. That is the intention. Nobody wants to die. But still... They cannot do anything. Still, they are trying. One Marwari gentleman, at the age of seventy or eighty years old, he went to somewhere in Germany for undergoing surgical operation of the gland so that he can continue his sex life. Many monkeys are exported from India to Western countries for taking away the sexual glands, they know, hormone or something like, and replace it to man so that in old age they can enjoy sex. Perhaps you know all these things. So this attempt is going on, how to keep young and how to enjoy life. But nature will not allow. You may try your best. Nature's law is there. They forget that. And nature will not allow us to live here or to remain as young for all the years of life. It is not possible. But they're trying for that.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: "Lord Brahmā, who is celebrated as ātma-yoni, 'born without any mother,' became struck with wonder and could see only the lotus flower on which he was sitting. Thus, undergoing severe austerities for many hundreds of years, he became purified. At that time he could see in his own body the cause of all causes. The Supreme Personality of Godhead is spread all over his body and senses."

Prabhupāda:

sa tv ātma-yonir ativismita āśrito 'bjaṁ

kālena tīvra-tapasā pariśuddha-bhāvaḥ

tvām ātmanīśa bhuvi gandham ivātisūkṣmaṁ

bhūtendriyāśayamaye vitataṁ dadarśa

(SB 7.9.35)

So dadarśa means "he saw." This seeing, this is impersonal seeing how the Supreme Personality of Godhead is present in everything. Although he is born directly from the Supreme Lord, Viṣṇu, still, he could not see the Lord. Sa tv ātma-yonir ativismita. Suppose all of a sudden you are sleeping and you are put into a place where nobody else there—you are simply there and everything, it is dark. How much perplexed you would be. So the Brahmā's position was like that. After each millennium, Brahmā's death, and then again birth... Our birth and death is going on, the same process. We are in the womb of the mother, and all of a sudden we come out, we see light, began to cry, and the relatives take care of us and we forget everything, in how much precarious condition I was before my birth.

But that is not the fact. There are many, many millions and trillions of planets. Everywhere there is life. Even in the sun planet there is life. We see it is fiery. If there is no life, then where is the opportunity of Kṛṣṇa's speaking, imaṁ vivasvate yogaṁ proktavān aham avyayam: (BG 4.1) "I spoke first of all this science to Vivasvān"? Vivasvān manave prāha... (break) "First of all I spoke this science to the sun god, the chief person in the sun planet." So we cannot accept the so-called scientists' version that there is no life in the sun planet. Everywhere there is: sun planet, moon planet every... In the moon planet al... (break) ...arhad yad brahmaṇo viduḥ. So many millions of years is equal to twelve hours... (break) Lord Brahmā had to undergo austerity for hundreds of years of his calculation. So not our hundreds of years. Our hundreds of years may be Brahmā's a few hours only. Law of relativity. So Brahmā, even though he is directly born of Viṣṇu, he's not ordinary living be... He's also a living entity like us, but very, very pious. Just like here somebody is very rich, very influential, very beautiful, very learned. These are the results of pious activities, janmaiśvarya-śruta-śrī (SB 1.8.26). If you are pious, then you get good opportunity of taking your birth in good family, aristocratic family, brāhmaṇa family, like that. You become beautiful, become educated. So Brahmā is also a similar living entity, but he's very, very pious. Very very pious. And Brahmā... Brahmā's post is so exalted that when there is no living entity available, then Lord Viṣṇu Himself becomes Brahmā. The post is so important. My point is that although he's so pious, greatly exalted, still, he had to purify himself.

So this is the important point, that sa tu ātma-yonir ativismita. He became very much surprised: "Wherefrom I am coming, and where I am situated? What is the purpose?" So to understand all these intricacies, he had to undergo... It was ordered: tapo. In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, there was a sound vibration. When Brahmā was perplexed there was a sound vibration. That sound vibration was indirectly said that "You undergo tapasya. Tapasya. Then you'll understand wherefrom you have come, why you have come, what is your business. These things will be revealed." Tapasya. So that tapasya he had to perform many hundreds years. Nābhinandat, avindad abda-śatam apsu. Not only he... He had to go underneath the water, apsu, and he performed tapasya there. Just imagine how much difficult it was to go underneath the water. He first of all wanted to search out "Wherefrom my birth is?" Then he saw the stem of the lotus flower on which he was sitting, and then he found there is water. So he went within the water. It is said, apsu. And there he executed tapasya.

So this human form of life, we are born out of Brahmā. Brahmā is called, therefore, great-grandfather. Not great-grand... Grandfather. He is called grandfather. Because Manu, from Manu we have come, therefore our name is mānuṣya, "man," from the word Manu. That Manu is born of Brahma. Therefore he is called grandfather, pitāmahā. And Kṛṣṇa has been addressed in the Bhagavad-gītā, "the great-grandfather." So He is the father of Brahmā also. Ātma-yoni. So this is the position of Brahmā. So he had to undergo so great austerity to understand his position, so how much austerity we have to perform to understand our position: "What I am? What is my business? Why I have come here? Why I am suffering?" Everyone is suffering, but we are so callous, so rascal, we don't take care of it. We say, "That's all right. I shall die peacefully." Yes. I met one very exalted man, lord, in London.

So we have to undergo tapasya because our grandfather, he had to undergo tapasya. So anyone who is in this material world, Brahmā, beginning from Brahmā down to the ant, must undergo tapasya. But for the ant, cats and dogs, it is not possible. They are condemned. They will have to come to the human form of life by evolutionary process by the help of nature. But as soon as we come to the human form of life, the responsibility is there. What is that responsibility? Because you have got developed consciousness more than the cats and dogs, you have to decide, "How I have come to this material world? Why I am suffering? I do not wish to die. The death is there. I do not want disease. The disease is there. I don't want to take birth, enter into the womb of the mother. Still I am forced to do it. I don't want to become an old man. I become old man." So this is human intelligence. Unless you come to this intelligence, athāto brahma jijñāsā, "What I am? Am I this body or something else...?"