University department

Expressions researched:
"university department" |" university departments"

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

The jail department is also government department. It is not that government is absent from the jail department. Rather, government is spending more money for the jail department, more than the government spends on the university department.

Lecture on BG 9.5 -- Melbourne, April 24, 1976: The government, say, the university department, educational department, and the jail department. The jail department is also government department. It is not that government is absent from the jail department. Rather, government is spending more money for the jail department, more than the government spends on the university department. So both of them are government concern, but one department is full of criminals, and one department is full of learned scholars. This is the difference. Try to understand. You don't think that material world is out of the control of God. It is also under the control, exactly. The jail department is also under the control of the government. So that is the difference, material world and spiritual world. Material world means full of criminals, or against God, or defying the authority of God. And the spiritual world? Everyone is accepting the supremacy of God. That is material world and spiritual world.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

There are so many university departments, but there is no department for understanding what is the soul or what is God.

Lecture on SB 7.6.1 -- Montreal, June 10, 1968: There are so many university departments, but there is no department for understanding what is the soul or what is God. No department. This Bhagavad-gītā teaches this department of knowledge. Beginning. From the very beginning. The Bhagavad-gītā is begun from the understanding that Arjuna was spoken by Kṛṣṇa, aśocyān anvaśocas tvaṁ prajñā-vādāmś ca bhāṣase [Bg. 2.11]. "My dear Arjuna, you are talking like a very learned man but," gatāsūn agatāsūṁś ca nānuśocanti paṇḍitāḥ, "but actually one who is learned man, he does not bother about this body either dead or alive." This is not the subject matter, to supply the necessities of body. This is not the subject matter of study for a learned man. In other words, the whole world is absorbed in the study of this body only. So there is no learned man according to Bhagavad-gītā. Aśocyān anvaśocas tvaṁ prajñā-vādāmś ca bhāṣase [Bg. 2.11]. That you are talking Actually, so many learned men, M.A., Ph.D., with university qualification, they are talking so much, but as soon as they are asked, "Do you know what is the soul?" They stop.

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures

If a prisoner says, "Yes, I am in government department," that sort of knowledge is not very good. "Because prison department is also government department, so instead of becoming in the university department, let me go to the criminal department." That is not congenial.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 21.49-61 -- New York, January 5, 1967: In the Bhagavad-gītā, Tenth Chapter, you will find that Kṛṣṇa says, dyūtaṁ chalayatām asmi: "Amongst the all kinds of cheating professions, I am gambling." Kṛṣṇa says that "Amongst all kinds of cheating business, I am gambling." Gambling... There is in gambling... It requires some expert brain, how to play gamble. So that expertness, that part of expert endeavor, is Kṛṣṇa. So we should not think, "Oh, because Kṛṣṇa is gambling also, so let us engage and devote in gambling." No. Kṛṣṇa is everything. Kṛṣṇa is everything, but we have to select favorably, not unfavorably. Svalpaṁ khalv idaṁ brahma. Without Brahman, without Kṛṣṇa, nothing can exist. Everything existing on His energy. The same example can be given that every department is government department. Therefore, if a prisoner says, "Yes, I am in government department," that sort of knowledge is not very good. "Because prison department is also criminal department, is also government department, so instead of becoming in the university department, let me go to the criminal department." That is not congenial. We have to select. Kṛṣṇa is everything. So Kṛṣṇa says that every dhāma, every place, belongs to Him, but yad gatvā na nivartante tad dhāma paramaṁ mama: [Bg. 15.6] "There is an eternal dhāma, where going nobody comes back. That is My supreme dhāma."

General Lectures

The government does not force anybody to go to the criminal department, neither government forces anybody to come to the university department. It is your individual liberty. You become criminal or a high standard scholar.

Lecture at Harvard University -- Boston, December 24, 1969: There are so many things. If you like, you take it; if you don't like, you don't take it. There is no enforcement. Every individual soul has got little independence. Not full independence. That can be used properly; that can be misused also. That depends on me. I am the master. So similarly... Just like the government. The government does not force anybody to go to the criminal department, neither government forces anybody to come to the university department. It is your individual liberty. You become criminal or a high standard scholar. [break] ...has to make his choice. He has got the freedom. He may be Kṛṣṇa conscious or he may be material conscious. If he's material conscious, he'll never be happy. If he becomes Kṛṣṇa conscious, he'll be always happy. Now it is up to you whether to accept this or that.

1969 Conversations and Morning Walks

So material energy is the covering energy, is also Kṛṣṇa. Just like police department is also government, but it is not very convenient because putting under police department... That is also government department. For government the university department and the police are equally important.

Room Conversation with Allen Ginsberg -- May 12, 1969, Columbus, Ohio:

Prabhupāda: Material energy that's said by Kṛṣṇa aparā, inferior energy. Bhūmir āpo, bhūmir āpo analo, prakṛtir me bhinnā aṣṭadhā. Apareyam itas tu viddhi me prakṛtiṁ parā [Bg. 7.5]. So material energy is the covering energy, is also Kṛṣṇa. Just like police department is also government, but it is not very convenient because putting under police department. (laughter) That is also government department. For government the university department and the police are equally important. They are spending equally, are taking care of both the, but for us, "Oh, police department horrible." This man is under police department, police custody, and that man is in education.

Lady: That's much better.

Prabhupāda: But when you go to the government state, they are equally important. They are distributing the finance everywhere. So similarly either you take material energy or spiritual energy or marginal energy, all energy of God's, Kṛṣṇa's, but they are acting differently.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Superficially they look the same room, same food, same office, same typewriter. So it is the question of understanding why it is called criminal department and why it is called university. So as soon as it is university department, that is good. The same building, the same dictaphone, the same typewriter, same table, same chair, when they are used for Kṛṣṇa, it is spiritual.

Room Conversation -- April 20, 1976, Melbourne:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They all take that this is some kind of a materialistic business, selling books and collecting money, and we purchase a beautiful temple...

Prabhupāda: Therefore I said that we are not material; it is all spiritual. That they do not know. Where is material? If everything is prepared and everything, there is Kṛṣṇa, then where is material? When it is misused, other than Kṛṣṇa, then it is material. Now, just like the university department and the criminal department. Where is the difference superficially? That's a building; that's a building. There are officer; there are officer. There are rooms; there are rooms. Why it is called criminal, prison house?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: The activities inside.

Prabhupāda: Yes, it is the activity which concerns. In the university there is only activity of education, learning. And here, all the criminals are violating the laws, they are put together. But superficially they look the same room, same food, same office, same typewriter. So it is the question of understanding why it is called criminal department and why it is called university. So as soon as it is university department, that is good. The same building, the same dictaphone, the same typewriter, same table, same chair, when they are used for Kṛṣṇa, it is spiritual.

1968 Correspondence

The police department may be horrible for the criminals, but to the government it is a department as good as university department. Similarly, mahamaya is horrible to the conditioned soul, but to the liberated soul, there is no fear of mahamaya, because he is protected by yogamaya.

Letter to Madhusudana -- Montreal 29 July, 1968: Subhadra is yogamaya. The spiritual energy is called yogamaya. And she has 16 different expansions. Out of these 16 expansions, Subhadra is one. The mahamaya of the material energy is also expansion of the energy of yogamaya; and both yogamaya and mahamaya are equally important to Krishna as much as any government department is equally important for functioning of the government. The police department may be horrible for the criminals, but to the government it is a department as good as university department. Similarly, mahamaya is horrible to the conditioned soul, but to the liberated soul, there is no fear of mahamaya, because he is protected by yogamaya. It is stated in the Bhagavad-gita when Krishna said the following: "I am not visible to everyone on account of being curtained by yogamaya." So when a conditioned soul surrenders unto Krishna, the yogamaya winds up the curtain and Krishna is visible to the devotee.