Vaniquotes:Quote of the day/October 3, 2008

Real atonement is to be thoughtful, sober, think over... That is called meditation

Lecture on Brahma-samhita, Verse 32 -- New York, July 26, 1971: So these are the things to be studied in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Don't be frivolous. Don't waste your time. This is the greatest opportunity, human form of life. We have to understand all these things. They are mentioned in the authoritative books, Vedic knowledge. Just we are reading, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, before you. So Śukadeva Gosvāmī's recommending that prāyaścittaṁ vimarśanam. Real atonement is to be thoughtful, sober, think over... That is called meditation. You think over whether your body, or if you are something else, transcendental to body, what is God. So if you want to know all this knowledge, then you have to practice austerity, tapasya. And the beginning of tapasya is brahmacarya. I've explained yesterday: brahmacarya, celibacy, or restricted sex life. Not unrestricted. That's not good. Then you forget yourself. This material attraction is sex life.