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Womb (Lectures, SB)

Expressions researched:
"womb" |"womb's" |"wombs"

Lectures

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Lecture on SB 1.1.3 -- London, August 20, 1971:

Prabhupāda: Don't close your eyes.

Pradyumna: "...just seven days before the King's death. Śrīla Śukadeva Gosvāmī was a liberated soul from his very birth. He was liberated even in the womb of his mother, and he did not undergo any sort of spiritual training after his birth. At birth no one is qualified, neither in the mundane nor in the spiritual sense. But Śrī Śukadeva Gosvāmī, due to his being a perfectly liberated soul, did not have to undergo an evolutionary process for spiritual realization. Yet despite his being a completely liberated person situated in the transcendental position above the three material modes, he was attracted to this transcendental rasa of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is adored by liberated souls who sing Vedic hymns.

Lecture on SB 1.1.4 -- London, August 22, 1971:

When we were in the womb of our mother, the situation was so troublesome that we remembered at that time Kṛṣṇa. "Kṛṣṇa..."Just like when we are in great trouble we sometimes remember God. Similarly, that condition, packed-up condition, when the child's in the belly... You get consciousness back... Death means unconscious for seven months. That's all. That is death. There is no death. Death means I give up this body, enter the womb of another mother's body. And the mother nourishes by the materials..., the intestine joined with the belly. So mother supplies it through the pipe and the child grows. When it is fully grown, then he gets back his consciousness. So at that time it becomes very much troublesome to remain in that packed-up condition. So those who are pious, virtuous, they remember at that time, "O Kṛṣṇa, I am again put into this condition of..."(laughter) Oh, don't laugh. It is very serious subject. Try to understand.

Lecture on SB 1.1.4 -- London, August 22, 1971:

So everyone has passed this condition, but by the influence of māyā forgets. Bhajibo boliyā ese saṁsāra-bhitare. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says, "At that time again I promised: 'This time by coming out of my mother's womb, I shall become a devotee.' " But as soon as he comes out, he becomes forgetful. This is going on. This is going on. There is no science, so-called science, who know, the scientists, who know these are facts, how we are passing through repeatedly unpleasant condition. When, as soon as we get a little light with this body, we forget everything. That is called māyā. So Caitanya Mahāprabhu said the pushing, the point pushing, enechi auṣadhi māyā nāśibāro lāgi': "Now I have brought this."

Lecture on SB 1.2.1 -- New Vrindaban, September 1, 1972:

Prabhupāda: Material nature is our mother. God is our father, and material nature is our mother. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. Just like the father gives the seed of the child within the womb of the mother. Similarly God impregnates this material nature with the living entities, and after that they come out in different forms. So material nature is our mother, and God is our father.

Guest: What happens to us immediately after our material body dies, in other words...

Prabhupāda: You do not die, your body changes. So you accept another body.

Guest: You said, you say that we, our relationship to Kṛṣṇa is as children. But, I've also read that we, our relationship is also as, as Kṛṣṇa as our son.

Lecture on SB 1.2.2 -- London, August 10, 1971:

That is the... How to become devotee? Ādau gurvāśrayam. One has to seek out a bona fide spiritual master. Just like Sūta Gosvāmī has become disciple of a bona fide spiritual master, Śukadeva Gosvāmī, and he's describing the activities of his spiritual master, yaṁ pravrajantam. Śukadeva Gosvāmī was liberated. He remained within the womb of his mother for sixteen years because he was conscious that "As soon as I get out of the womb of my mother, I'll be immediately captured by māyā. So let me become little strong." (laughter) You see? So he remained sixteen years within the mother. Just like Prahlāda Mahārāja. He learned all about God consciousness from the, within the womb of his mother. Nārada Muni was teaching Prahlāda Mahārāja's mother. Because she was pregnant and she was being taken away by Indra and others, Nārada Muni rescued her, and because her husband was defeated and he fled away... He underwent severe austerities, "How to defeat these demigods?"

Lecture on SB 1.2.2 -- London, August 10, 1971:

If you want to get relief from this temporary world and the distresses within this world, then bhajasva mām: "Just become a devotee of Me." (aside:) What is the time?

So the activities of Śukadeva Gosvāmī is that he purposefully remained within the womb of his mother for sixteen years, and as soon as he got out, immediately he left home. Immediately. Anupeta. Anupeta. Because according to Vedic system there is upanayana, upetam. Upanayana. Upa means near, and nayana means bringing. When the spiritual master brings the disciples nearer by giving him gāyatrī-mantra, that is called upanayana-saṁskāra. So Śukadeva Gosvāmī did not take any such saṁskāra. He learned from his father within the womb of his mother, and as he became perfectly in knowledge, liberated soul, immediately he got out of the womb of his mother and immediately started for the forest. Naked, he was going on.

Lecture on SB 1.2.2 -- London, August 10, 1971:

And because the father was so aggrieved, so the trees replied. There was, what is called, vibration, echoes. Yes.

So taṁ sarva-bhūta-hṛdayaṁ munim ānato 'smi: (SB 1.2.2) "I am offering my respectful obeisances unto the great sage, Śukadeva Gosvāmī, whose activities is like that. Immediately coming out of the womb of his mother he left home without being, undergoing any saṁskāra." So saṁskāra is required who is impure. So we should not imitate, neither it is in our capability that as soon as we get out of the womb of mother we can walk. No. That is not possible. It is special. It is special. Therefore everything is special. Even without taking any initiation. He was initiated by his father, Vyāsadeva, but he left immediately home, and Sūta Gosvāmī is describing the wonderful activities of his spiritual master and offering obeisances. Taṁ munim ānato 'smi: "That great sage, ānato 'smi, I humbly bow down on his lotus feet."

Lecture on SB 1.2.2 -- Rome, May 26, 1974:

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.

Lecture on SB 1.2.2 -- Rome, May 26, 1974:

So father became very much afflicted on account of separation from the son. Therefore dvaipāyana, means Vyāsadeva, viraha-kātara, became very much aggrieved, that "This son was sixteen years within the womb, and as soon as he is born, he is going away." Viraha-kātara ājuhāva: "My dear son, where you are going? Where you are going?" So he did not care for anyone's calling. He went on. Putreti, "My dear son," tan-mayatayā, being absorbed in the thought of putra. Taravaḥ abhinedus tam. There was, what is called, echo from the trees. Just like he was asking, "My dear son, where you are going? Where you are going?" And there was echo in the forest, "Where you are going? Where you are going?" So taravaḥ abhineduḥ.

So these are all adjectives of the Śukadeva Gosvāmī.

Lecture on SB 1.2.5 -- Montreal, August 2, 1968:

Yaṁ labdhvā cāparaṁ lābhaṁ manyate nādhikaṁ tataḥ.

There are many examples. Just like Dhruva Mahārāja. He went to worship God with a motive. His father did not accept him on the lap. His stepmother insulted him, that "You cannot sit on the lap of your father because you were not born in my womb." (noises) (aside:) Stop that. So he went to worship God in the forest with a motive. He was a kṣatriya. He was determined that "I must have my father's property." And everyone thinks like that, some motive. But his mother advised that "Your determination... Your, this promise can only be fulfilled if Kṛṣṇa helps you. Otherwise, it is impossible." So he went to worship Kṛṣṇa. But actually, when he met Kṛṣṇa face to face, he said, svāmin kṛtārtho 'smi varaṁ na yāce: (CC Madhya 22.42) "My dear Lord, simply by seeing You I have become satisfied. I don't want anything more from You." That is the result of pure devotion.

Lecture on SB 1.2.5 -- Visakhapatnam, February 20, 1972, At Ladies Club:

The soul is eternal and the body is temporary. It is changing every minute. Just like from our mother's womb, our first birth takes place between the father and mother. Two secretions emulsified, forms into a pealike body, a small pealike body. First night the soul takes shelter within that body, and the mother supplies the energy, and it develops. From that pea it becomes a small body, but the small body becomes greater and greater, and when it is fit for developing, or increasing in this material atmosphere, mother delivers the child and again it becomes developing. So developing means changing the body. Child's body... Every one of us had a body like a child, baby, but that body is now missing; we have got a different body. Young man has got a different body, old man has got a different body.

Lecture on SB 1.2.5 -- Melbourne, April 3, 1972, Lecture at Christian Monastery:

Besides that, so far I am concerned, I do not want so many things. So many things. Just like I do not want to become old, but old age is forced upon me. I must become old. I do not want to die. Then death is forced upon me. I do not want to take birth. These are all very troublesome business. We have forgotten birth, death, old age, and disease. But when we are within the womb of our mother, it is very precarious condition. Any medical man knows. We have to live there in this way, in a packed up bag, practically without any air. Airtight condition. Just imagine. Now just at the present moment if you are put into the airtight condition, you will die within three minutes or three seconds. The medical opinion is that. But in the womb of our mother we have to live for clear ten months or more than that in that airtight, packed-up condition. Just imagine how much troublesome condition was there. That is practical. We may have forgotten.

Lecture on SB 1.2.5 -- Melbourne, April 3, 1972, Lecture at Christian Monastery:

We are living entities, we are living soul. Birth and death takes place of this body. The body takes birth and the body is vanquished. Death means sleeping for seven months. That's all. That is death. The soul is... When this body is unfit for living, the soul gives up this body. And by superior arrangement the soul is put again into the womb of a particular type of mother, and the soul develops that particular type of body. Up to seven months the soul remains unconscious. And when the body is developed, again consciousness comes and the child wants to come out of the womb and he moves. Every mother has experienced how the child moves at the age of seven months within the womb.

Lecture on SB 1.2.6 -- Delhi, November 12, 1973:

You have to accept. And that is explained in other places, in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa jantur deha upapatti (SB 3.31.1). As you are creating the situation... In the Bhagava d-gītā it is also stated, yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran bhāvaṁ tyajaty ante kalevaram (BG 8.6). At the time of your death, the situation which you have created, it will carry you. Because mind is there. Mind is subtle. Intelligence is subtle. That mind, intelligence and ego. The subtle body is there. The gross body is lost. But the subtle body will take you to another gross body. It will take to the womb of another mother. And according to your karma, the mother's..., by the mother's help you will get a body, and duly you will come out and begin your work. This is nature's process. It is going on.

Lecture on SB 1.2.7 -- New Vrindaban, September 5, 1972:

So the scientist, they are finding out so many miracles within the atom, but here Vedic information is that within the atom there is God. Find out God. Without God, without the spirit, nothing material can develop. Just like we have got experience, just like father and mother, they unite, there is secretion in the womb. But if there is the spiritual spark... (break) ...becomes pregnant. If the spiritual spark is not there, you can have sex life hundreds and thousands of, but... Therefore the theory, the fact not theory, that unless a spiritual spark enters into the matter, the matter cannot develop. At least we can experience that as soon as the spiritual spark is out of the lump of matter, big elephant, it is dead, finished. Therefore the Vedic injunction that aṇḍāntara-stha-paramāṇu cayāntara-stham (Bs. 5.35), this big universe is developed because the Karanasaya..., the Garbhodakaśayī Viṣṇu has entered within this (indistinct).

Lecture on SB 1.2.14-16 -- San Francisco, March 24, 1967:

One may say, "If I get next life in a very rich family and becomes very rich man and becomes very learned man, very beautiful man, why shall I not take this opportunity?" But intelligent man says that "Even if I get such opportunities, the material miseries are there." It is not that because a child is born of a very rich family, he hasn't got to go into the womb of his mother and suffer the consequence. Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi (BG 13.9). The distress of birth, death, disease and old age equally there, either you become born in a very high family or either you born in a very low family, either you're born in India or you are born in America. This suffering, the four kinds of sufferings are everywhere. Not only India and America, they are in this planet, but even if you go to the moon planet or if you go to the sun planet. Ābrahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ. Even the highest planet. The modern scientist says that if we want to go to the highest planet it will take forty thousands of years. No. Four hundred thousands of years. Something like that they say. By sputnik.

Lecture on SB 1.2.15 -- Los Angeles, August 18, 1972:

Not that by nature there is a, I mean to say, gradual evolution. Not evolution, it is already there. This living entity simply enters a particular type of body. Actually, it enters, because... Suppose I am doing something, my next life has to become a dog, that is my punishment. Then I'll have to enter into the womb of a dog mother, and she will give me the body of dog. Then I come out and enjoy like dog. This is the law. This is the law. Not that my body is turning.

So you can become dog; you can become god also. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā: yānti deva-vratā devān pitṟn yānti pitṛ-vratāḥ (BG 9.25). So you create your body at the present moment. You have got the facility, the human form of body. Now you can make your choice, whether you are going to be dog or whether you are going to be god. Both. Mad-yājino 'pi yānti mām. "Those who are devotees engaged in My devotional service, they come to Me."

Lecture on SB 1.2.17 -- San Francisco, March 25, 1967:

Just like the father gives the seed, and the mother receives the seed, and the body is formed according to the mother's body. And when the body is completely formed, it comes out, either from cats, either from dog, either from man, or anything. That is the process of generation. The father gives the seed, and it takes, emulsified, two kinds of secretion within the womb of the mother, and in the first night the body is formed like a pea. Then gradually it develops. There are certain holes, the nine holes. They first of all come out, nine holes. We have got nine holes, two eyes, one mouth, two ears, and penis, and so many things. So when they are fully developed, they come out. And according to their last karma, or action, they get this body and enjoy, or suffer. That is the process of birth and death which is going on. And after finishing this life, again dies, again enters into the moth..., womb of the mother, again gets another type of body, again comes out. This is going on. This is going on.

Lecture on SB 1.2.17 -- San Francisco, March 25, 1967:

We are also anxiety, anxious. The politician is anxious. So long we are in contamination of this material body, we must be anxious. We must be anxious.

There is a nice instruction by Prahlāda Mahārāja, a great devotee, boy devotee. And he was, from his boyhood, childhood, from his mother's womb, he became a devotee by the grace of Nārada Muni. That is the history. Now, he, he was five-years-old boy, and his father was too much materialistic. And he wanted that his son should be great politician, economist, and so on, so on, just like the materialists want. But the boy, he's a devotee. So father did not like the idea. So one day he called his boy, "My dear boy, come on." He came. A small boy. "Sit down on my lap. All right, my dear boy, will you kindly tell me what you have learned, the best thing in your school?" "Yes, my dear father, I shall tell you."

Lecture on SB 1.2.19 -- Calcutta, September 27, 1974:

Kṛṣṇa advised Arjuna, "My dear Arjuna, you, if you go to the Brahmaloka, many millions of years duration of life, still, you have to die."

So that is the standard of highest perfection. If you do not die, if you do not take birth... If you know what are the miserable conditions of birth, to remain within the womb of the mother... Not only to remain. Nowadays, modern advanced civilization, they are being killed by the mother. Not only abortion, but they are being killed. Now the Western world is very familiar with these things. So just imagine. First of all, you have to remain within the mother's womb, head down, packed-up condition. You cannot move, ten months. And that is also not secure. Even within the... Now this is the... Within the mother's womb you are not secure. At any moment the doctor may advise that "Kill the child." So these are the miserable condition of birth, but we do not remember them.

Lecture on SB 1.2.22 -- Vrndavana, November 2, 1972:

Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti: (BG 4.9) we accept another body immediately after death. It is said just like go forward, when the first step, you find it is secure, you take up the second step. Similarly, as soon as the next body is arranged by superior arrangement, we give up this body and enter into another gross body. Immediately. Immediately we are transferred to a mother's womb for manufacturing another gross body. This is the law.

So here Kṛṣṇa says, tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti (BG 4.9). If the living entity does not enter into another gross body, then where does he go? So Kṛṣṇa says, mām eti. "He comes to Me." Now just imagine what is the speed of spirit soul, just after leaving this body after death, he immediately goes to Goloka Vṛndāvana, or at least where Kṛṣṇa is there. Mām eti. Kṛṣṇa's nitya-līlā, that has been described in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta, how Kṛṣṇa's nitya-līlā is going on. Kṛṣṇa is present in a bhauma-līlā in one of the universes every time.

Lecture on SB 1.3.1 -- Vrndavana, November 14, 1972:

From the skinholes of Mahā-Viṣṇu, the small particles of universes are coming into being. Everything, the nature's way, it comes a very small particle, then it grows. Anything you take. Just like our body. The small particle, the soul which is measured as one ten-thousandth part of the tip of the hair, when it is placed in the womb of the woman by the man, then the body grows. That is the seed. Ahaṁ bīja-pradaḥ pitā (BG 14.4). Kṛṣṇa says that "I am the seed-giving father."

So just like here, we practically see, the male semina is injected within the womb of the female, and because the living entity, very small, one ten-thousandth part of the tip of, is there, because that living entity's there, the body grows. Unless the living entity's there, there will be no pregnancy. As soon as the living entity is there, the body grows. And that is known as pregnancy. Daily grows. The mother can understand it is growing. Similarly, without the spirit soul entering into the matter, there is no possibility of creation.

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

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?

prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni
guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ
ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā
kartāham iti manyate
(BG 3.27)

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.

Lecture on SB 1.3.11-12 -- Los Angeles, September 17, 1972:

Pradyumna: (leads chanting, etc.)

ṣaṣṭham atrer apatyatvaṁ
vṛtaḥ prāpto 'nasūyayā
ānvīkṣikīm alarkāya
prahlādādibhya ūcivān
(SB 1.3.11)

Translation: "The sixth incarnation of the puruṣa was the son of the sage Atri. He was born in the womb of Anasūyā, who prayed for an incarnation. He spoke on the subject of transcendence to Alarka, Prahlāda and others, (Yadu, Haihaya, etc.)."

Prabhupāda: Purport?

Pradyumna: "The Lord incarnated Himself as Dattātreya, the son of Ṛṣi Atri and Anasūyā. The history of the birth of Dattātreya as an incarnation of the Lord is mentioned in the Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa in connection with the story of the devoted wife. It is said there that Anasūyā, the wife of Ṛṣi Atri, prayed before the lords Brahmā, Viṣṇu and Śiva as follows: 'My lords, if you are pleased with me and if you desire me to ask from you some sort of blessings, then I pray that you combine together to become my son.' This was accepted by the lords, and as Dattātreya the Lord expounded the philosophy of the spirit soul and especially instructed Alarka, Prahlāda, Yadu, Haihaya, etc."

Lecture on SB 1.3.11-12 -- Los Angeles, September 17, 1972:

In the Bhagavad-gītā. So He has created everything. He is actually the father. But out of love, the devotees, they accept the father as son, to give more service. Father is obliged to give service to the son. He has given birth; therefore he has obligation to maintain the son, to give service.

So here, if you accept God as son, then you cannot avoid the obligation of service. In other way you can avoid. This is compulsory. Therefore sometimes devotees, they pray... Here it is said..., prayed for. The sixth incarnation of the puruṣa was the son of the sage Atri. He was born in the womb of Anasūyā, who prayed for an incarnation. She requested that "You all three, you become my son." So next.

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

So his father marked it and immediately asked, "Do you think your God is there in the column?" He said, "Yes, my father." Immediately he broke the column, and Nṛsiṁha came out.

Therefore God is everywhere, not that because God takes birth as human being, from the womb of a human being, it does not mean that He is ordinary human being. He can come out from any source, not necessarily that He has to, but when He plays like a human being, He comes out like that. As if Devakī has become pregnant and the child is there within the womb. But that was simply a conception. Actually, when Kṛṣṇa appeared before His father and mother, He appeared as Lord Viṣṇu, four-handed. So later on, He became like ordinary child.

So the purport is, God is everywhere. That's a fact.

Lecture on SB 1.3.21 -- Los Angeles, September 26, 1972:

Pradyumna: (leads chanting, etc.)

tataḥ saptadaśe jātaḥ
satyavatyāṁ parāśarāt
cakre veda-taroḥ śākhā
dṛṣṭvā puṁso 'lpa-medhasaḥ
(SB 1.3.21)

Translation: "Thereafter, in the seventeenth incarnation of Godhead, Śrī Vyāsadeva appeared in the womb of Satyavatī, wife of Parāśara Muni, and he divided the one Veda into several branches and sub-branches, seeing that the people in general were less intelligent."

Prabhupāda: So this Parāśara actually was not husband of Satyavatī. When Satyavatī was not married, Parāśara gave birth to Vyāsadeva. Later on Satyavatī became the wife of Mahārāja Śantanu, father of Bhīṣmadeva. This Satyavatī was the daughter of a fisherman. She was neither born of a brāhmaṇa father or kṣatriya father. So formerly, a higher-caste man could accept a girl born of lower caste, but a lower-caste man could not accept a girl born of higher caste. That was the system. Because in the śāstra it is... Ordinary, I mean to say, instructive śāstra.

Lecture on SB 1.3.21 -- Los Angeles, September 26, 1972:

So Satyavatī happened to be a daughter of a fisherwoman, and, but she was very qualified, beautiful. So before her marriage, Vyāsadeva was born out of her womb. It is not that..., that before marriage girls were not giving birth to child. It was there, the society. But the society was so elevated that this was not done commonly. In extraordinary cases. So Satyavatī gave birth to Vyāsadeva, such a son, Vyāsadeva, incarnation of God. Vyāsadeva is not ordinary being. An incarnation of Nārāyaṇa. And he was meant for expanding Vedic knowledge. Then again, Vyāsadeva was born, but nobody could understand. She remained a virgin girl by the blessings of Parāśara Muni. Then she was again attractive to Mahārāja Śantanu. Mahārāja Śantanu became attracted by Satyavatī, and he wanted to marry.

Lecture on SB 1.3.21 -- Los Angeles, September 26, 1972:

So this was the society principle, how to keep principle. Brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya. A very exalted status of society. So this Satyavatī is a famous woman in the history. Satyavatī. The whole Pāṇḍu-vaṁśa from Satyavatī. So now, here it is said that tataḥ saptadaśe jātaḥ satyavatyāṁ parāśarāt. Parāśarāt, semina given by Parāśara Muni in the womb of Satyavatī, satyavatyām. And cakre veda-taroḥ śākhāḥ. Veda, the knowledge, he divided. Vyāsadeva divided into many branches. Therefore Vyāsadeva is known as Veda-vyāsa. He expanded the Vedic knowledge. Formerly there was only one Veda, Atharva-veda. And this Atharva-veda was learned by tradition, by hearing from the spiritual master. There was no book. Therefore Veda is known as śruti. Śruti means hearing. The spiritual master will recite Vedic mantra, and the disciples will hear. Just like we chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra or any other Vedic mantra. You hear.

Lecture on SB 1.3.30 -- Los Angeles, October 5, 1972:

There must be judgment. Otherwise why one man is born rich and other man is working so hard, but he is lying down on the street?

So there is judgment. So the small particle of the living entity, by the judgment, superior judgment, is transferred to the semina of a particular father. And the living entity is injected in the womb of the female, and both secretion combine, the living entity develops body. This is the science. If you use contraceptive, that means if you contaminate the emulsion, the poor living entity cannot take place. That is contra... You cannot kill the living soul, but you make the circumstances unfavorable for his staying, or... Then he has to be transferred to another womb.

So, so many subtle laws are going on. But the basic principle is that small particle of soul. Then the body develops. That we can see. Not that a pregnancy, on the day of pregnancy, immediately the body develops. No. It develops gradually, gradually. First it is just like a small pea, then gradually develops.

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

There are many other big trees in other planets. So..., but that big tree means that seed. Within that seed, there is so much potency. That we do not understand. Actually, the materialist scientists, they cannot produce such seed. That if you want the tree, you have to sow one seed. If you have to produce a child, you have to sow. The man has to sow the seed in the womb of the woman. This is a practical.

So the seed is eternal. That we get information from Vedic literatures. Bījo 'haṁ sarva-bhūtānāṁ (Bg 7.10). Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). That bīja, that seed, does not, I mean to say, annihilate because the body is annihilated. This is the basic principle of understanding for making progress in spiritual life. One who does not understand this basic principle, that the spirit soul, the seed, is eternal, and it is transmigrating different bodies... And factually we know that "My father gave the seed in the womb of my mother, that seed. And from that seed developed this body. But I am... When my body was just like, as small, just like a pea, I was there.

Lecture on SB 1.5.32 -- Vrndavana, August 13, 1974:

Just like we are feeling very warm. This is one of the traya. It is called adhidaivika. You cannot check it. Similarly, when you will feel severe cold, you will wrap, you'll go to the fireplace. That is another suffering. So either in warmth or in, I mean to say, winter, you are suffering. Everyone is suffering. Suffering is there. Even when we are within the womb of the mother there is suffering. For ten months, packed-up condition. That is suffering. Then come out from the womb of the mother-suffering. In the womb also there is suffering. Not only packed-up, but there are worms with the stool and urine of the mother, and they find very delicate skin. They enjoy by cutting him. The worms enjoy. Naturally, he's... He cannot move. Therefore at the seventh month, when he's little conscious, he feels, "How can I get out of...? Kṛṣṇa, save me." If one is little pious, he prays to Kṛṣṇa, "Kṛṣṇa, this time save me. Now I shall begin worshiping You so that get out of this entanglement of birth and death, birth and death."

Lecture on SB 1.7.8 -- Vrndavana, September 7, 1976:

He becomes qualified. Vyāsadeva preferred to teach Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam to his son Śukadeva Gosvāmī because he was niratam, nivṛtti-niratam. He was engaged. From the very beginning of his life, as soon as he was... It is said for sixteen years within the womb of his mother, he did not come out purposefully so that he may not be materially attached. Because a small child, the baby comes out from the mother's womb. Within the womb, when he's in suffering, he prays to God, "This time kindly release me. Now I shall begin bhagavad-bhajana." One who is little advanced in his previous life... Because it is very, very terrible condition within the womb of the mother. We have forgotten. But we can imagine, if you are packed up in a bag and put hand and legs tightly knotted, just imagine. You cannot live even for three minutes. They say if you are airtight packed-up like that, as we are put into the womb of the mother, we cannot exist more than three minutes. But we existed by the mercy of Kṛṣṇa. Only by the mercy.

Lecture on SB 1.7.8 -- Vrndavana, September 7, 1976:

Only by the mercy. That is also nowadays very dangerous. In that packed-up condition, he's there, he's already suffering, and the mother is planning to go to the doctor and kill the child. Just imagine how precarious condition in the womb of the mother. And if we do not try in this life that "I shall not again enter into the womb of the mother," then what is the value of this life? We have to learn it from the śāstra. You cannot see actually, but the medical science explains that a child is placed in this way. In Bhāgavata also it is stated how the child grows his body, how it is put into that precarious condition.

So one should be senseful, that "So much suffering awaiting..." Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ. And Kṛṣṇa says, "You have to accept another body." Not that death is finish. They have made it a very easy formula, that after death everything is finished—because they are rascals. They do not take lesson from Kṛṣṇa.

Lecture on SB 1.7.8 -- Vrndavana, September 7, 1976:

Simply hear. But hear from the right person, Śukadeva Gosvāmī. Not rascals, professionals. Then it will be useless. Here... Why? Anyone knows some grammar or little literary education. Why...? Śukadeva Gosvāmī had no opportunity to go to a school. Śukadeva Gosvāmī... Śukadeva Gosvāmī, as soon as he took birth, after sixteen years keeping himself within the womb of the mother, immediately left home. So where is the possibility of taking education? And he was given instruction while he was in the womb of his mother.

So these things are sometimes inconceivable. But it is not inconceivable. It is possible to... Our real point is that Śukadeva Gosvāmī was not a grammarian, but he learned everything from his father by hearing. Therefore it is called śrūyamāṇāyām. If you hear from the right person, properly, then you become perfect. There is no need of literary education. Therefore Vedas are called śruti.

Lecture on SB 1.7.22 -- Vrndavana, September 18, 1976:

This is called ignorance. Continuously suffering. They are thinking, "We are very happy," but this material world means continuously suffering. So one living entity is dying, and his gross body is left and the subtle body, mind, intelligence, ego, carrying him in another body through the semina of the father to the womb of the mother. Then it is placed, and the body again forms, and when the body is formed, then he comes out. And within the womb of the mother there is so much suffering, we know that. Many times we have discussed. And coming, from the very moment the child is crying, there is inconveniences. So many things he cannot express. In this way, within the womb there is suffering, out of the womb there is suffering. Then growing, child or baby or boy, there are so many sufferings. Then young man—suppose he becomes family man—then earn for the family. That is also suffering. Then old man, disease, inability, many, many thoughts, that is also suffering. And again death is suffering.

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

We cannot even imagine what is the length and breadth of the hair, but the soul is one ten-thousandth part. So how you can see the soul? That small particle is being carried by the subtle body—mind, intelligence, and ego. And it is pushed through the semina of the father into the womb of the mother, and another body is manufactured in due course of time, and it comes out and works. This is called transmigration of the soul—from one body to another. That body is given by superior examination, Yamarāja. Yamarāja fixes up what kind of body this soul will get. Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa (SB 3.31.1) (SB 3.31.1). Just like in the court, there is case, and the magistrate decides what kind of punishment this criminal should be awarded. So similarly, here in this material world, we are simply engaged in sinful activities. Here the so-called pious and impious, that is simply imagination.

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

Kṛṣṇa says, ābrahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ punar āvartino 'rjuna: (BG 8.16) "Even if you approach the topmost planet, Brahmaloka, you have to come back again." Again come back, again become grass and again be eaten by cows, and again somebody drinks milk, and he gets the semina, again gives you birth in the womb of woman. These subtle laws they do not know, how things are happening in the subtle ways.

Therefore Arjuna knows, but for our education he's asking Kṛṣṇa that "Wherefrom this high temperature is coming?" Kim idaṁ svit kuto veti deva-deva na vedmi. We cannot understand. It is not possible. So many things are there even in this material world we cannot understand. We cannot get full information. But if we take Kṛṣṇa's instruction... He's giving personally the instruction in the Bhagavad-gītā. If we take care of them, then we can understand everything very easily.

Lecture on SB 1.7.38-39 -- Vrndavana, September 30, 1976:

He wanted to please Duryodhana, his master, promising him that he would kill all the five brothers, the Pāṇḍavas. But instead of killing the Pāṇḍavas, he killed their sons. Duryodhana did not like that, because he knew that the whole Kuru family practically was killed. Only the five brothers. And Mahārāja Parīkṣit was in the womb of his mother. They survived. So Duryodhana did not like. Duryodhana, whatever he may be, he was a kṣatriya and he fought bravely. So he did not like the Kuru dynasty should be finished. He did not like it. But when he understood that the five sons of Pāṇḍavas were also killed, he became very much disappointed because the Kuru dynasty is finished. So he could not satisfy his master. Bhartuś ca vipriyam. So whatever he had done, all abominable. Not to the rules and regulations-neither as a brāhmaṇa or as a kṣatriya. Nor even a brave soldier. "He has done things like a śūdra, or less than a śūdra, without any religious principle. So he should be killed. There is no excuse. And it is for his good."

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

One who gives birth. And the prajā... Prajā is the product of the body of the father. A son or daughter, they may be different persons, but they belong to the body of the father. Yathā yoni yathā bījam. Father is the bījam. Just like bījam, the seed. The seed is the tree later on. Similarly, the bījam, the seed, is put by the father in the womb of the mother, and as the seed implanted in the earth and taken care of with watering, sprinkling, it grows to a big tree, similarly, the seed is sown in the womb of the mother, and the mother takes care of the seed, and it comes to a big body later on and comes out. This is the process of birth. So in one sense, between the seed and the tree there is no difference. Similarly, the seed of the father and the father, there is no difference. Here it is, prajā-rūpeṇa vartate.

Lecture on SB 1.8.23 -- Mayapura, October 3, 1974:

I do not know how it is being turned into blood and other secretions, and it is being transferred through the veins, through the pipes, here and there, and so many mechanical machine. It is machine. It is going on. But this machine is not my creation. This machine is created by this material nature. This machine is manufactured in the womb of mother. According to my karma, I enter into a particular type of mother's womb, and this machine is made by the prakṛti, by the nature. Just like this flower. There is machine. The seed will fructify, and a particular type of flower from the seed will come because the machine is like that. Just like typewriter machine you can type, but typewriter machine, you cannot go. That you have to accept the motorcar machine. This is also machine. That... Similarly, there are different types of machine, and from that machine, this body is coming out. Bhrāmayan sarva-bhūtāni yantrārūḍhāni māyayā (BG 18.61).

Lecture on SB 1.8.24 -- Los Angeles, April 16, 1973:

So, being insulted, he threw atom bomb, brahmāstra. The brahmāstra is something like atomic weapon, nuclear weapon. It can go to the enemy wherever the enemy is. It doesn't matter. It will go and kill him. That is called brahmāstra. So the brahmāstra was... He knew that "The rest of the Kuru family is Parīkṣit, the son of Abhimanyu. He is in the womb of Uttarā. So let me kill him also. Then everything finished."

So drauṇy-astra. So when that weapon was let loose, Parīkṣit Mahārāja mother, Uttarā, felt that she is going to discharge the womb. And she approached Kṛṣṇa, "Save me." And Kṛṣṇa entered the womb of Uttarā and saved the child, the posthumous child. So in this way the Pāṇḍava family was saved. Simply Parīkṣit Mahārāja remained. That also within the womb of his mother. And in mature time, when Parīkṣit Mahārāja came out, the grandfathers only (were) there.

Lecture on SB 1.8.24 -- Mayapura, October 4, 1974:

Next moment, they shake hands, sit together, dine together. It is like that.

So in this way Kṛṣṇa saved. Therefore mahāratha astrataḥ. And at last, Drauṇi, the son of Droṇācārya, Aśvatthāmā. He was so crooked that he killed the five sons of the five Pāṇḍavas, and at last, Mahārāja Parīkṣit was in the womb of his mother. He wanted to kill him also. Brahmāstra. Brahmāstra, atomic bomb nowadays. It is almost similar, but it is still dangerous because atom bomb, you release—it has no aim. It will kill with..., aimlessly. But the brahmāstra is so accurate that if you want to kill somebody, it will go there, wherever he is, and it will kill. So Parīkṣit Mahārāja was in the womb of the mother. The brahmāstra entered the womb of the mother and was trying to kill this Parīkṣit Mahārāja in the womb, and Kṛṣṇa saved. He entered also within the womb and saved the child. Therefore it is said that drauṇy-astrataś cāsma hare 'bhirakṣitāḥ. Kṛṣṇa saved them in so many ways, so many ways.

Lecture on SB 1.8.32 -- Los Angeles, April 24, 1973:

That we should know. It is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā: janma karma ca me divyaṁ yo jānāti tattvataḥ (BG 4.9). Kṛṣṇa is taking birth as the son of Devakī or Mother Yaśodā, but He's not taking birth exactly like us. That is described in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. When Kṛṣṇa appeared, He did not come out or did not come out from the womb of Devakī. He first of all appeared. You have seen the picture. And then He became a small child on the lap.

Therefore Kṛṣṇa's birth is transcendental. Our birth is by force, by the laws of nature. He's not under the laws of nature. The laws of nature works under Him. Mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram (BG 9.10). Prakṛti, nature is working under the order of Kṛṣṇa, and we are working under the order of nature. That is the difference. See... Kṛṣṇa is the master of nature, and we are servant of nature. That is the difference. Mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate.

Lecture on SB 1.8.32 -- Mayapura, October 12, 1974:

Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, janma karma me divyam (BG 4.9). It is all transcendental. It is not this ordinary birth. Ordinary birth means male and female union, then there is pregnancy, then the child comes out of the womb. It is not like that. It is... We can take this example. Just like the sunrise in the morning: udilo aruṇa pūraba-bhāge. Before the sunrise, the sky becomes reddish, and then the sun comes out. So if somebody says that "The eastern side is the birthplace of sun," is it a fact? No. The sun is always there in the sky, but with your limited eyes you are seeing that now sun comes, sunrise. Sun does not rise nor set. Sun is already there. Your imperfect eyes—you see there is sunrise, there is sunset. Is it not a fact? Similarly, Kṛṣṇa is always there, but because we do not know Kṛṣṇa, therefore we understand that Kṛṣṇa is taking birth from Devakī, or Kṛṣṇa has taken birth in the family of the Yadus. Yes, He appears like that, that He has taken birth in the Yadu family.

Lecture on SB 1.8.33 -- Mayapura, October 13, 1974:

So the highest devotees, they..., Kṛṣṇa, they, Kṛṣṇa accepts because He is playing the part of human being. Avajānanti māṁ mūḍhāḥ (BG 9.11). Those who are mūḍhas, they cannot understand, but those who are intelligent, they know that Kṛṣṇa is perfectly playing as a human being. As a human being takes birth in the womb of his father and mother by the father and mother, similarly, Kṛṣṇa also appeared, accepting Vasudeva as His father, Devakī as mother. But actually Kṛṣṇa is not born. That is being repeatedly explained by Kuntīdevī, that apare, apare vasudevasya devakyām: "They say like that." What is that? Devakī-nandana... There is a verse, that "It is a saying only. Nobody can become Kṛṣṇa's father or mother, but they get the reputation as father and mother. That is a concession to the devotee." Therefore, Kuntīdevī says, apare: "Others say like that." Somebody says like this; somebody says like that; somebody says like this. This is going on.

Lecture on SB 1.8.33 -- Mayapura, October 13, 1974:

So such Govinda has become the son of Vasudeva and Devakī. So how it is possible? And therefore the devotee is so great that although Kṛṣṇa, or God, is so great that by His one portion He can create the innumerable universes, He enters into the womb of Devakī and comes out as her son. This is Kṛṣṇa's grace. You see. He can make His devotee so great that the greater than the greatest is coming out of the womb of Devakī. So apare vasudevasya devakyām. And why He agreed? Yācitaḥ, yācitaḥ: "requested." Requested as Sutapā and Pṛśni. Vasudeva was Pṛśni in his former life, and Devakī was Sutapā. Sutapā. Sutapā means one who can perform austerities and penance very nicely. Su means nicely, and tapaḥ. So they underwent austerities and penance to get a son like Kṛṣṇa.

Lecture on SB 1.8.34 -- Los Angeles, April 26, 1973:

So such thing happens because this is material world. And the demons and the demigods, they are always there, existing. But when the demonic power becomes increased, then the world becomes overburdened. Sīdantyā bhūri-bhāreṇa jāto hy ātma-bhuvārthitaḥ (SB 1.8.34), ātma-bhū. Ātmabhū is Brahmā's name. He's directly born of the Supreme Soul, Viṣṇu. He's not born as usually we do from the womb of mother. So Brahmā was born from the navel of Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu. Therefore his another name is Ātmabhū. Svayambhū, Svayambhū. These are different names of Brahmā. Svayambhūr nāradaḥ śambhuḥ (SB 6.3.20). These are the... Brahmā is one, one of the authorities. He's also mentioned in the list of authorities, dvādaśa-mahājana. Twelve authorities.

Lecture on SB 1.8.34 -- Los Angeles, April 26, 1973:

At the present moment, the whole world is going on on this Buddhist theory. That under certain condition the matter develops living force. No, that is not. Actually the fact is: upon the living force, matter increases.

That we can understand very easily. Apart from our knowledge within the womb of the mother, how the body develops, we can see if a child is born, he grows, his body develops. But if the child is born dead, no spirit soul, it will not develop. Everyone knows that. Therefore the spirit is the basis of development of matter. Not that by development of matter spirit grows. No. That's not a fact. This is... Everyone knows. Why a dead child does not grow? Because the spirit is not there. A tree grows so long there is life in it. A small seed of banyan tree, you sow in the soil and pour water favorably, then it grows. Because the spirit soul is there. But if somehow or other... Take for example you take one grain and fry it in the fire.

Lecture on SB 1.8.40 -- Los Angeles, May 2, 1973:

The living entities, they are accepting a type of body from material nature. Not that actually coming. Just like a child is coming... A child is coming, taking the body from the mother. It takes ten months to prepare the body from the blood and secretion of the mother. But the child is not matter. The child is a living entity. That living entity takes shelter into the womb of the mother, and the mother supplies from the body. By nature's way, it is going on. The mother does not know how she's supplying, but from her body, another body is created, and when it is fit, it comes out to work. This is birth. Not that the living entity is taking birth. Because that is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā: na jāyate na mriyate vā. The living entity does not take birth, neither he dies. Anything which does not take birth does not die also. Death is for such thing which is created. Which is not created, it has no death. Na jāyate na mriyate vā kadācit. Kadācit, at any time. Kṛṣṇa says kadācit. It is not that now it is not taking birth; formerly it took birth. No. Na kadācit.

Lecture on SB 1.8.44 -- Mayapura, October 24, 1974:

Then again struggle. So our life in this material world is like that. We are struggling from the beginning, very beginning of our life. We are simply struggling. We learn from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam that after the sex between the man and the woman, the man injects the semina within the womb of the mother, of the woman, and it is emulsified first night, and immediately forms a pealike form. That pealike form develops. So as soon as it is developed... Of course, in the process of development, there is no consciousness, just like deep sleeping. It is like that. But as soon as the body is little developed, the... There are nine holes: two nostrils, two ears, two eyes, one navel, one genital, one rectum. These nine holes develop. Then the consciousness comes back. And when the consciousness comes back, then he feels pains and pleasure, because when the body is developed... The body is very delicate.

Lecture on SB 1.8.44 -- Mayapura, October 24, 1974:

So the baby, packed up, cannot move, cannot say anything but feels pain, therefore moves. And the pregnant woman therefore feels that the child is moving at the age of seven months in the womb. So therefore the struggle begins from the womb. And when the child comes out, again struggle. And he is lying on the bed; some bug is biting. He cannot express. He is crying, and the mother thinks that he's hungry. In this way, wrongly understands, cannot give relief him. And he is going on, crying, crying, crying. We have seen it. We have... Everyone has got experience. Then as soon as he is grown up, he is given responsibility for learning ABCD, or going to school. He doesn't like. No child likes. At least I did not like to go to school. So this is also another struggle. Then, when he is grown up, he is given more and more responsibility, examination, and then married life, then family maintenance.

Lecture on SB 1.8.44 -- Mayapura, October 24, 1974:

He doesn't like. No child likes. At least I did not like to go to school. So this is also another struggle. Then, when he is grown up, he is given more and more responsibility, examination, and then married life, then family maintenance. In this way, struggling, struggling, struggling—again death. Again enter into the womb of mother. Again the same struggle. So where is happiness? Therefore when Kṛṣṇa says, duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam: (BG 8.15) "This whole material world is a place for suffering only," that is a fact. But mūḍho 'yam, being enamored by māyā, he does not know. He forgets. This life is of forgetfulness, ignorance.

So struggle is going on. So therefore this word is used, that you are struggling in this material world so much, even beginning from your life. Prahlāda Mahārāja says, sadā samudvigna-dhiyām asad-grahāt (SB 7.5.5). Asat. The spiritual world is called sat. Oṁ tat sat. So we should transfer ourself to the spiritual world. Asato mā gama, sad gama. Asato mā sad gama. This is the Vedic injunction.

Lecture on SB 1.8.47 -- Los Angeles, May 9, 1973:

So at that time Pārvatī, Dākṣāyaṇī, after death she has taken another body as daughter of King of Himalaya, Pārvatī. Therefore her name was at that time Pārvatī. Pārvatī means "the daughter of Parvata." Parvata means mountain. So the plan was that within the womb of Pārvatī and by the semina of Lord Śiva, one son must take birth, and later on he took and his name was Kārttikeya. Kārttikeya was born. So, but they were... Lord Śiva was in meditation, and Pārvatī was not married at that time with Lord Śiva, although she was destined to marry Lord Śiva, because in the transcendental world, the husband and wife, they are also eternal. Even the wife or husband changes body, again they become husband and wife. This is in the higher sense. They do not separate. So but Lord Śiva was in meditation. And it is very difficult to break his meditation. So he was naked, and Pārvatī was engaged to worship śiva-liṅga, the genital of Lord Śiva. Still in the Vedic culture, there is worshiping of śiva-liṅga, the genital of Lord Śiva. So Pārvatī was engaged to worship the genital of Lord Śiva.

Lecture on SB 1.10.7 -- Mayapura, June 22, 1973:

So Arjuna said, "No, how can I marry? She is my disciple. She is my student. She is just like my daughter. How can I marry?" Then he promised that "I shall get her married with my son, although he is not very grown up."

So Abhimanyu was Kṛṣṇa's (Arjuna's) son from the womb of Subhadrā. So he was married. Only sixteen years. Almost the same age. Fortunately Uttarā became pregnant. So Abhimanyu went to fight in the Battlefield of Kurukṣetra and never returned. So Parīkṣit Mahārāja was posthumous child. He took his birth after the death of his father. He did not see. Not only father, many. Because it was after the battle. He was the only survivor of the whole Kuru dynasty. So he was also attempted to be killed by Aśvatthāmā by brahmāstra. Kṛṣṇa saved. So Parīkṣit Mahārāja was born after the death of his father.

Lecture on SB 1.13.15 -- Geneva, June 4, 1974:

So Maṇḍūka Muni also chastised Yamarāja, that "In my childhood, without any knowledge I did something and for which you have given me so great punishment. So you are not fit for becoming a brāhmaṇa or kṣatriya. You become śūdra." So he was cursed to become śūdra. Therefore Yamarāja took his birth as Vidura and was born in the womb of a śūdra mother. This is the history of Vidura's birth.

So in his absence, Aryamā, one of the demigods, he officiated Yamarāja. Therefore it is said, abibhrad aryamā daṇḍam. The office must go on, the magistrate post cannot be vacant. Somebody must come and act. So Aryamā was acting. Yathāvad agha-kāriṣu. Agha-kāriṣu. Agha-kāri means... Agha means sinful activities, and kāriṣu. Kāriṣu means those who commit sinful acts. And yathāvat. Yathāvat means exactly to the point, how he should be punished. Yathāvad agha-kāriṣu. Yāvad dadhāra śūdratvam.

Lecture on SB 1.13.15 -- Geneva, June 4, 1974:

And yathāvat. Yathāvat means exactly to the point, how he should be punished. Yathāvad agha-kāriṣu. Yāvad dadhāra śūdratvam. So long Yamarāja continued as a śūdra, Aryamā was officiating in his place as Yamarāja. This is the purport. (reads purport:) "Vidura, born in the womb of a śūdra mother, was forbidden even to be a party of royal heritage along with his brothers Dhṛtarāṣṭra and Pāṇḍu. Then how could he occupy the post of a preacher to instruct such learned...? Answer is that even though it is accepted that he was a śūdra by birth, because he renounced the world for spiritual enlightenment by the authority of Ṛṣi Maitreya and was thoroughly educated by him in transcendental knowledge, he was quite competent to occupy the post of an ācārya or spiritual preceptor." Vidura was a śūdra, born śūdra. Then how he became a preacher?

Lecture on SB 1.14.43 -- New York, April 7, 1973 :

So all the family. In the battlefield of Kurukṣetra everyone was killed except these five brothers: Yudhiṣṭhira, Bhīma, Arjuna, Nakula, Sahadeva. All male members were killed. So, only the remaining descendant was Mahārāja Parīkṣit. He was within the womb of his mother. And his father died, Arjuna's son, Abhimanyu. He was sixteen years old. Fortunately his wife was pregnant. Otherwise the Kuru dynasty was finished. So, he rebuked ,that "Still you are sitting here just for a morsel of food like dog. You have no shame, my dear brother."

So he took it very seriously, "Yes, yes my dear brother, you are saying all right. So what, what do you want me to do?"

"Be..., immediately come out. Immediately come out. And go to the forest." So he agreed, he went there.

Lecture on SB 1.14.43 -- New York, April 7, 1973 :

So, this Śrīmad Bhāgavatam is giving to the whole world real life, real, what is meant by life. So this..., these are the etiquette. To take care, especially, of brāhmaṇa, old men, children, women and cows. This is civilization. These living entities should be taken care of. Now these rascals they are killing cows and making women prostitutes, and killing the children even in the womb. And there is no question of brāhmaṇa respect, and neither there is the brāhmaṇa culture. Then how you can be happy? Huh? And if there is no brahminical culture in the society, then that society is less than animal society.

Lecture on SB 1.15.22-23 -- Los Angeles, December 2, 1973:

He is planning. He made this plan.

So what is that? One of them made a false pregnancy with a stone on the belly wrapped with cloth, and another boy or another man, he went to a ṛṣi that "Sir, can you tell what is child in the womb of this woman?" She is not woman, she is man. So the saintly person could understand that "These people have come to joke me." So he immediately cursed—vipra—that "Yes, what is there in the womb, that will be the cause of destroying your whole family." So when they were cursed, the came to their senses: "What you have done?" So actually, it was a stone. So they began to rub the stone so that there will be no existence of the stone. Rubbing, rubbing, rubbing, rubbing—that pulp and water, that was distributed, and all of them became sticks. So then, after that, they became intoxicated, and they could not understand amongst themselves who is friend, who is enemy, and took those sticks and began to beat one another. In this way they died. This is the story. You know It is stated in the Kṛṣṇa book.

Lecture on SB 1.15.24 -- Los Angeles, December 3, 1973:

That you should know. We forget. Now, somebody I kill in my last life. Just like here, if I kill somebody, then I shall be killed also, by the law, nature or law of God. Similarly, I forget that because I kill somebody, now that somebody is killing me. So forget. But Kṛṣṇa reminds, "Now this person killed you," or "This child killed you last life. Now you can kill in the womb. Now you kill." Viceṣṭitam. He reminds. Because Kṛṣṇa is described: anumantā. Anumantā upadraṣṭā. He is witness. Now this man has killed this man. Now he gets the opportunity to kill him again. And Kṛṣṇa reminds you, "Kill him. Here is opportunity." This is the position. Don't think when it is said that īśvarasya viceṣṭitam, it is by the will, that will, because He is equal to everyone, so everyone should get chance to retaliate. That is going on.

Lecture on SB 1.15.24 -- Los Angeles, December 3, 1973:

If in ordinary laws, in the state laws, that if you have killed somebody you must be hanged, so do you think you can simply bluff the Supreme Authority, Kṛṣṇa, that you are going, killing, killing, killing, and you will be saved? No. You will be killed in pestilence, in famine. Even within your mother's womb, you will be killed, where it is supposed to be good protection, there also you will be killed. The human nation being degenerated in such a way, the killing business is increasing daily, daily, daily. Īśvarasya viceṣṭitam.

So we therefore must submit to Kṛṣṇa. Sarva-dharmān parityajya... (BG 18.66). Because we cannot become free. We cannot go out of the laws of God. That is not possible. Therefore we must surrender that "Kṛṣṇa, God, I have acted freely so many births. I did not become happy. Neither I am happy at the present moment. So now I surrender unto You. You say that 'I give you protection.' So kindly give me protection." This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement.

Lecture on SB 1.15.28 -- Los Angeles, December 6, 1973:

Although I'm intelligent, very intelligent, so-called intelligent for eating or sleeping or for having sex life intelligence. Just like there the scientists are applying intelligence for abortion. What is this intelligence? To give facility for sex life, that's all. What is this intelligence? Killing the poor child within the womb. Is that very good intelligence? No. But that intelligence is for giving facility to sex life. That's all. They are so-called scientists, intelligence. What is that intelligence? Discover atomic bomb. What is the effect? To kill. But they are dying, what is the credit for you? They're already dying, naturally dying, dying out of want for food, dying in famine, in pestilence. Then what you have discovered? This is called intelligence. This intelligence is described in the Bhagavad-gītā, māyayāpahṛta-jñānāḥ (BG 7.15). They are advertising themselves as intelligent, but real intelligence is taken away. Real intelligence is that we are advancing in science, in education, in motorcars and motorcars everything. But where is our peace?

Lecture on SB 1.15.32 -- Los Angeles, December 10, 1973:

Where going, nobody returns. That is, actually, we want.

In another place Kṛṣṇa says, tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti kaunteya: (BG 4.9) "My dear Kaunteya, Arjuna," tyaktvā deham, "after giving up this body," punar janma naiti, "no more coming into the womb of material mother." Then where does he go? Mām eti. In his Bṛhad-bhāgavatāmṛta Sanātana Gosvāmī has stated that if you become perfect in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then immediately after death you will be sent where Kṛṣṇa is having His pastimes within this material world. In the material world, just like the sun rotates, similarly, Kṛṣṇa's pastimes is going on. That is another feature of His activities. Because He wants to reclaim the fallen souls, and there are millions and trillions, unlimited fallen souls within this material world, so He goes everywhere. Yadā yadā hi dharmasya glānir bhavati bhārata, tadātmānaṁ sṛjāmy aham (BG 4.7).

Lecture on SB 1.15.34 -- Los Angeles, December 12, 1973:

So children under the protection of father and mother... Just like this child is sitting on the lap of... He is comfortable. But if the father thinks, "He is under my protection; therefore I shall cut throat..." Now it is going on. The abortion means that. The child is taken shelter of the mother's womb for protection, but now she is being killed. The time is so bad. You see?

So the idea is that subordinate does not mean he is in difficulty. No. Similarly, we are subordinate to God. That is a fact. Nobody can deny. So remain under the protection of God. That is our natural state. That is our natural state. Eko yo bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān. What is God? God... Just like here is God, Kṛṣṇa. What is the difference? No difference. He has got two hands, you have got two hands. He has got two legs, you have got two legs. He has got head, you have got head. So from the bodily feature, "Man is made after God." There is no difference.

Lecture on SB 1.15.38 -- Los Angeles, December 16, 1973:

My grandson, Parīkṣit, he has got the equal qualification. Therefore he should be installed," not a vagabond. No. That cannot. When Mahārāja Parīkṣit was born, he was the only child in the whole Kuru family. All others were killed in the battle. No. He was also posthumous child. He was within the womb of his mother. His mother was simply pregnant. His father, sixteen years old only, Abhimanyu, Arjuna's son, he went to fight in the battle. He was so great warrior. So seven big men required to kill him: Bhīṣma, Droṇa, Karṇa, Duryodhana, like that, all combined together. So there is no mercy. This Abhimanyu was grandson, great-grandson of all the heroes who encircled him to kill. Very beloved grandson or great-grandson... Bhīṣma's great-grandson, Duryodhana's grandson. But it is fight, kṣatriya. When you have come to fight, you must kill the opposite party. It doesn't matter whether he is my beloved son or grandson or great-grandson. This is duty.

Lecture on SB 1.15.38 -- Los Angeles, December 16, 1973:

We are killing before the birth of the child. This is Kali-yuga. Such... It is so welcome, auspicious, a child is born in the family. There is ceremony, jāta-karma ceremony. Before the child is born there is ceremony, garbhādhāna ceremony, sarva-bhaksana(?) ceremony. Such a nice culture. Where it has gone now? Now child is killed within the womb of the mother by the mother. This is called Kali-yuga. And it is scientific advancement. The scientists, the priests, they give order. The doctor gives out, "Yes, do it." Just try to understand what is Kali-yuga. So anyway, this is the Vedic system, that when a child is born, immediately his horoscope is made. Astrological science is so perfect. The moment the child is born, immediately calculated, "What is the position of this moment?" Then they derive calculation, "This child will be like this, this will be this, will be this, this." I had also horoscope—the other day I was talking—and it was clearly written, that horoscope, that "This child, after seventy years, he will be great religious propagator and establish so many temples."

Lecture on SB 1.15.42 -- Los Angeles, December 20, 1973:

Qualitatively one, quantitatively different.

So as this body is created by my energy, my subtle energy and my gross energy... It is also... The whole energy... I am also emanation from God. The total energy is God. I am fragment, fragment energy, but still, I have got the same function. Just like I am put into the womb of the mother through the semina of the father. Now, according to my energy, I have placed into a suitable condition. If I have worked for becoming dog, then through the semina of the dog I am put into the womb of a dog mother. And if I have worked as a god, then through the semina of the father, I am put into the womb of a mother. So in this way, my conservation of energy worked there, the supply is there, and I form the body. This body is formed... This is creation. So as my body is formed, similarly, this whole universal body is formed. That is creation. They do not understand. They are so rascal that they do not understand that creation is a fact, and the original creator is God.

Lecture on SB 1.15.44 -- Los Angeles, December 22, 1973:

If we have no birth and death, how Kṛṣṇa has birth and death? That is not the...

Therefore it is said, ajo 'pi sann avyayātmā bhūtānām īśvaro 'pi san. Although He has no birth and death, still, He appears just like He has taken birth from Devakī's womb. It is just like the sun is rising from the eastern side. It does not mean that the eastern side has given birth to the sun. No. Sun is very big than the eastern side. But it appears like that. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, janma karma me divyam (BG 4.9). Because there are many theologists. They say, "Why God shall take birth?" That is their argument. So our answer is, "Why God shall not take birth? If He is omnipotent, so why you are minimizing His power that He cannot take birth? He must take birth if He likes." And īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānām hṛd-deśe 'rjuna tiṣṭhati (BG 18.61). Īśvara, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is staying within the heart of everyone. So within the heart for everyone, if He can come out, so what is the difficulty for Him, from within the womb of somebody He can come? What is the difference between heart and womb? And Kṛṣṇa entered within the womb of Mahārāja Parīkṣit's mother to save Mahārāja Parīkṣit. So Kṛṣṇa can do anything.

Lecture on SB 1.15.49 -- Los Angeles, December 26, 1973:

After all, you have to change this body. Change... This is... Bhagavad-gītā says, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). As we are changing this body from childhood, from babyhood to childhood, childhood to boyhood, boyhood to youthhood... This is practical. You are not the same body as you had your body in the womb of your mother. That body is gone. Now daily changing; every moment we are changing body. Advancing age means I am changing body, you are changing body. So it is very easy to understood that we are changing our body. But I know, you know, every one of us, that "I had such and such body." You remember that you had a child's body. You were playing like that. When you see another child, you say, "Oh, I was also a child like him, and I was doing like this." But where is that body? That is gone. Now you have got another body. This example is given in the Bhagavad-gītā.

Lecture on SB 1.16.1 -- Los Angeles, December 29, 1973:

After his fathers—means pañca-pāṇḍava, his father and uncles—retired and left kingdom, entrusting everything to the grandchild... Because their sons all died in the Battle of Kurukṣetra. Parīkṣit Mahārāja, only he was saved because he was a posthumous child. After the death of his father in the Battlefield of Kurukṣetra, he was in the womb of his mother. He took birth. And these grandfathers took care of him. This is Parīkṣit Mahārāja's life. He did not see his father from birth. So these grandfathers... So grandfathers, they retired and entrusted the whole kingdom, was entrusted to the grand-child, Mahārāja Parīkṣit. So he was trained up by the first-class brāhmaṇas. Tataḥ parīkṣid dvija-varya-śikṣayā mahīṁ mahā-bhāgavataḥ śaśāsa ha.

Mahīm. Mahīm means this earthly planet. Up to Mahārāja Parīkṣit, five thousand years ago, the whole world was being ruled over by one king, one emperor. There were no so many nations or no so many presidents or... No. Simply one king.

Lecture on SB 1.16.1 -- Los Angeles, December 29, 1973:

There are ten kinds of reformation. The first reformation is garbhādhāna-saṁskāra. Garbhādhāna-saṁskāra means when the father is going to give birth to a child, it is not a secret affair. It is open affair. "Now this is the good, auspicious day, and today the father will implant the seed of the son in the womb of the mother." There is great function. That is called garbhādhāna-saṁskāra. And there are witnesses, all the brāhmaṇas, that "This day, such and such time, this king or this person has begotten this child." Just like when the child is born, it is recorded in the government book, similarly, when one is going to give birth to a child, that is also recorded. That is called garbhādhāna-saṁskāra. Not that like cats and dogs in secrecy we have sexual intercourse, and if there is pregnancy, give some contraceptive pill or kill the child. Oh, how rascal and animals have been introduced in the human society. Just see.

Lecture on SB 1.16.2 -- Los Angeles, December 30, 1973:

And the son was Mahārāja Parīkṣit. Abhimanyu was just married and the war was declared.

So Abhimanyu had to go to fight, so he went in fight in the Battlefield of Kurukṣetra on behalf of his father. But he never returned. He died there. So Uttarā was pregnant and Mahārāja Parīkṣit was within the womb. But the opposite party, they killed. Last killing was five sons of Pāṇḍavas. They were sleeping, and Aśvatthāmā, just to satisfy Duryodhana, he killed these sons while they were sleeping, most abominable, and brought the heads to Duryodhana: "Now I have finished the Kuru..." So Duryodhana could understand that "They are not the heads of the Pāṇḍavas, but their sons." So out of disappointment that "Our whole family is now finished," he died.

Lecture on SB 1.16.2 -- Los Angeles, December 30, 1973:

So only Mahārāja Parīkṣit was in the womb of his mother, and that was also attempted to be killed by brahmāstra. Brahmāstra is almost similar to the atomic weapon. And the brahmāstra, the specific function of brahmāstra is that when this weapon is released, it will kill the particular men wherever he is; it will go there and kill him. It doesn't matter whether he is in front or in somewhere. The weapon is so powerful that simply by mantra, you release it, and it will kill your enemy, wherever he is. So one brahmāstra was released to kill this child, baby within the womb, embryo, to kill. And at that time Uttarā felt that her pregnancy is going to be, what is called, discharged. So immediately she approached Kṛṣṇa, that "I am feeling like that, miscarrying. Please save me." So at that time Kṛṣṇa entered the womb of Uttarā and saved the child from the brahmāstra. So Mahārāja Parīkṣit is such a devotee that he was protected from the embryo by Kṛṣṇa. Therefore Śukadeva Gosvāmī addressed, mahā-paurika(?): "You are great personality."

Lecture on SB 1.16.2 -- Los Angeles, December 30, 1973:

So this system was current five thousand years ago also. So Mahārāja Parīkṣit married his uncle's daughter, uttarasya tanayām. Tanayā means daughter. Uttarasya tanayām upayema. And her name was Irāvatī, Irāvatī.

So in that, in the womb of Irāvatī, Mahārāja Parīkṣit begotten four sons. The first one's name is Janamejaya. Ādi. Ādi means "beginning with." He begotten four sons, beginning with Janamejaya. The history of Janamejaya is also very nice. (aside:) You can read the Janamejaya paragraph.

Lecture on SB 1.16.7 -- Los Angeles, January 4, 1974:

So he was Hiraṇyakaśipu's son. He did not appoint any teacher to teach him about Kṛṣṇa consciousness. But when he was in the womb of his mother, Nārada Muni advised the mother about Kṛṣṇa consciousness. She had to live for some time at the care of Nārada Muni when her husband was out being defeated by the demigods, the Hiraṇyakaśipu. So the woman's anxiety was when her husband will come back. And at that time the child was within the womb, and she begged a benediction from Nārada, "Sir, kindly arrange in that way, that as long as my husband does not come back, I may not give birth to this child." Nārada Muni said, "All right, it will be." So Nārada Muni was giving her advice about Kṛṣṇa consciousness. But her mind was absent, but the child within the womb, he was hearing. He was hearing. This is stated in the Bhāgavatam. You will find that when Prahlāda Mahārāja was asked this question by his friend, "My dear Prahlāda, we are also being taught by the same teacher. You are also being taught by the same teacher. You are a prince. You cannot go out.

Lecture on SB 1.16.7 -- Los Angeles, January 4, 1974:

Wherefrom you have learned all this nice instruction?" So he replied that "This instruction was given by Nārada. So it was given to my mother, but as woman she has forgotten, and I remember."

So that is the difference between a child in the womb and a grown-up woman. You see? That is by nature. They forget. Strī-śūdra-dvijabandhūnāṁ trayī na śruti-gocarā (SB 1.4.25). Therefore Mahābhārata was created by Vyāsadeva, Vedic instruction through history, to battle of Kurukṣetra. Because strī, śūdra, woman, śūdra and dvija-bandhu... Men born in high-class family, but behavior is different, they are called dvija-bandhu. So they cannot understand the Vedic lessons directly. It is not possible. They have no such intelligence. Strī, śūdra and dvija-bandhu. So Vedānta-sūtra says, janmādy asya yataḥ anvayād itarataś cārtheṣu (SB 1.1.1). They cannot understand. Therefore through Mahābhārata they are instructed. History. History they can hear. So Prahlāda Mahārāja says, "It is the duty of a human being, even from childhood, kaumāra..." Kaumāra means from the age of fifth year up to tenth year. This is called kaumāra. So people should be educated about this, that the problem is how to stop janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi (BG 13.9). This education. This is called Bhāgavata instruction. You are noting.

Lecture on SB 1.16.19 -- Hawaii, January 15, 1974:

Real mother, from whose womb we have come to this world, real mother, ātma-mātā. Then guroḥ patnī, wife of the teacher or spiritual master, guroḥ patnī. Brāhmaṇī, the wife of a brāhmaṇa. Ātma-mātā guroḥ patnī brāhmaṇī rāja-patnikā, and the wife of the king, or the queen. She's also mother. Dhenu, the cow. Cow is also mother. And dhātrī means nurse. Nurse is also mother. Tathā pṛthvī, and the earth, the earth is also our mother. That we say in country, in the country which we take birth, we say deśa-mātṛkā. In Sanskrit it is called deśa-mātṛkā. That is also mother. Mother land, mother language. So this... So many mothers we have got, out of which, cow is also mother. Therefore she's addressed as amba. Amba means mother. Still in Gujarat province, they call amba. And in U.P., United States, er, United Province, in India, they also call amba, or in a broken language they call amma. Still... That is from very long time, mother is... Amba-devī. There is a... From Amba-devī, there is a big temple of Mother Durgā, Kālī, in Bombay. So this Amba-devī was pronounced by the Englishmens as Bamba-devī, and from Bamba-devī it has come to "Bombay."

Lecture on SB 1.16.19 -- Hawaii, January 15, 1974:

Mother Durgā, she is the mother. And God is the father. Just like father and mother gives birth to a child, similarly, we spirit soul, the part and parcel of the supreme father, and the material elements, bhūmir āpo 'nalo vāyuḥ (BG 7.4), they're the recipient. Tasmin garbhaṁ dadāmy aham. Just like father gives the seed in the womb of the mother, then the child gets a body and it grows and come out, similarly this body is given by mother, material, material energy, but the father is the Supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa. Ahaṁ bīja-pradaḥ pitā (BG 14.4). This is the factual position. We are not this material body.

Lecture on SB 1.16.21 -- Hawaii, January 17, 1974:

God is the whole family. Eko yo bahūnāṁ vidadhāti. He's supplying food to the elephants. We are, we are so much advanced in civilization that because we cannot take care of a child, therefore we are killing child even within the womb of mother, abortion. We are so unfit. But God, you see, He's feeding millions of elephants in the Africa. Not only elephants, there are so many. Out of 8,400,000 species of life, there are 8,000,000 species of life nonhuman being, the majority—the birds, beasts, reptiles, trees, so many other living entities. But they have no business. They have no occupation, profession, to maintain themselves. So who is maintaining them? Who is there? Eko yo bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān. Even if within your room, there is a little hole, sometimes you'll find thousands of ants coming out. Have you got this experience? And who is feeding them? Who is supplying them food?

Lecture on SB 1.16.23 -- Los Angeles, July 13, 1974:

So one instruction is that the earth is addressed, "amba." Amba means mother. So the earth is also our mother. There are seven kinds of mother: ātma-mātā guroḥ patnī. Real mother, from whose womb we have taken birth, she is called ātma-mātā, first mother. Then second mother, the guroḥ patnī. Guru means teacher or spiritual master. His wife, she's also... Actually, according to strict moral instruction... Why strict? Ordinary. Any woman except his own wife is mother. Any woman. It doesn't matter whether she is elderly or young. No. That is the way. Still in India, any woman by unknown person, he can address any woman "Mother." The first relationship is mother. Now they have introduced "Sister," "Bahinajī." No, that is not Vedic etiquette. No bahinajī. Bahinajī means sister. Mother.

Lecture on SB 1.16.23 -- Los Angeles, July 13, 1974:

So these children, they are not ordinary children. Formerly, they were also devotees. Somehow or other, could not fulfill the whole program. Now Kṛṣṇa has given the chance to take birth in the womb of a devotee mother so that from the very beginning of life they're learning devotional service. So the mother, father also should be careful, that "They are Vaiṣṇavas, they have come under my care. So that he may not be spoiled. Let him become a perfect Vaiṣṇava, and his life become perfect." This is... This is very nice program.

So mother Dharitrī, Dharitrī is mother. So he's asking whether mother is lamenting because Kṛṣṇa... Bhūri-bharāvatāra-kṛtāvatārasya hareḥ. After the Battle of Kurukṣetra, Kṛṣṇa disappeared from this earth. Kṛṣṇa went back to His abode. So Kṛṣṇa comes here, as it is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṁ vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām (BG 4.8). So Kṛṣṇa appeared to kill so many demons.

Lecture on SB 2.1.1 -- Vrndavana, March 16, 1974:

And he studied thoroughly... Although, when he was born, he did not see Kṛṣṇa, but still, he knew that Kṛṣṇa saved the whole Pāṇḍava family.

Kṛṣṇa, when brahmāstra was released by Aśvatthāmā to kill the Mahārāja Parīkṣit while he was within the womb of his mother, Kṛṣṇa personally saved him. Because... He wanted because in the Battlefield of Kurukṣetra, everyone died, of the Kuru dynasty. Only the son, this Abhimanyu's son, Kṛṣṇa, uh, Arjuna's grandson, was within the womb of his mother. Therefore he was not killed in the battlefield. Still, Aśvatthāmā, the son of Droṇācārya wanted to kill him, and he released brahmāstra, and it was going to kill the child. At that time his mother, Uttarā, approached Kṛṣṇa, that "I am feeling that my womb will be..., abortion there may be." So Kṛṣṇa saved. This is the history. So after his birth, because he saw Kṛṣṇa within the womb, so after his birth, as soon as he came out of the womb of his mother, he was looking here and there, "Where is that personality?" Therefore his name is Parīkṣit. Parīkṣit means he was examining, "Who is that? Who is that man?"

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

And when he was in the battlefield, fortunately his wife was pregnant, and this Parīkṣit Mahārāja was the posthumous child. He was born after the death of his father. He could not see his father. His grandfathers raised him. All the boys died, of the whole family, in the battlefield. Only these five brothers remained alive, and this child was in the womb of his mother. Otherwise, the members of the whole Kuru family died in the battle. It was such a big fight. So this child was also hit by atomic energy, brahmāstra, but Kṛṣṇa saved him. Kṛṣṇa wanted that "The descendant of My devotees, they must prolong." They were very good family, Kṛṣṇa conscious family. Kṛṣṇa wants to give protection to the Kṛṣṇa conscious men, family. That you know from the Bhagavad-gītā. So this child was saved even in the womb of his mother by Kṛṣṇa. So Kṛṣṇa also could save him when the king was cursed by a brāhmaṇa boy, but Parīkṣit Mahārāja did not like the idea. He took it very seriously that "I have offended the brāhmaṇa, and he has cursed me. That's nice." You see?

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

"Whether I shall hear about Kṛṣṇa in this last point of my death?" So Śukadeva Gosvāmī was very glad that "This king is already anxious. I was just going to advise him to think of Kṛṣṇa, but I see that he is already anxious to think of Kṛṣṇa." He is always thinking because from the childhood he was playing. From the womb of his mother he saw Kṛṣṇa. So after his birth he was searching after "that figure who saved me." Therefore his name was Parīkṣit. He was examiner. So many... He was royal family child. So, so many people were present after his birth. So he was looking after, "Where is that form, Kṛṣṇa?" Therefore his name is Parīkṣit.

So when he inquired from Śukadeva Gosvāmī, "If I can hear about Kṛṣṇa?"

Lecture on SB 2.1.3 -- Vrndavana, March 18, 1974:

These rascals, they cannot see. Apaśyatām ātma-tattvam (SB 2.1.2). That is the defect. Nobody thinks that, that "I was embarrassed from the very beginning of my life. I was embarrassed even within the womb of my mother. I was packed-up. And when I came out from the womb of my mother, there also I was embarrassed. I could not express my pains and pleasure. I was crying. Some ant was biting me, but I was crying and my mother gave me more milk, (laughter) although I was fully fed." This is embarrassment. I wanted something; my mother gave me something else. Because mother cannot understand that what is the pain and..., neither he can express what is the pains and pleasure. So the embarrassment was at the beginning. Otherwise why the child cries? He's feeling some pain, but mother does not know how to relieve. But he's crying. This is going on.

Lecture on SB 2.1.3 -- Vrndavana, March 18, 1974:

Then childhood. I do not like to go to school. My parents force me to go to school. So embarrassment. Then all right. I became married, or I enjoyed sex life. Then children. Then embarrassment. Contraceptive. That is also embarrassment. So this embarrassment is going on. And then again death. Then again go to the womb of the mother, and be killed within the womb of the mother, abortion. So the whole life is full of embarrassment. Why? That "why" question does not arise, that "Why I am embarrassed?"

So therefore the Māyāvādīs, they think that "Make me zero, void. Then there will be no pains and pleasure, no embarrassment." Their philosophy is like that. Impersonal, that is also the same thing. Or void. Voidism, the same thing. "Make it zero." Just like the foolish man, when one is embarrassed, he commits suicide. He commits suicide. He thinks, "If I end this body, then my embarrassment will be finished." So these are the circumstances. Why?

Lecture on SB 2.1.3 -- Paris, June 12, 1974:

He's, at least, educated in that way, that "Actually, you have no interest with these material things. You are, you should be interested only for your spiritual advancement. This is the opportunity."

There(fore) Prahlāda Mahārāja said to his class friends... Prahlāda Mahārāja was a great devotee. He learned spiritual knowledge from Nārada from the womb of his mother. So he decided that "I shall live a spiritual life." So although he was king's son, a very powerful king's son, he was not interested anything with spiritual, er, material. He decided. So from the childhood, he was trying to preach Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Where he should get opportunity? He was a child of five years old, and king's son, locked up within the palace. So he was taking opportunity in the school. As soon as he go to the school, and the teachers are out, he'll stand up on the bench and speak of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. A five-year-... You have seen the picture.

Lecture on SB 2.1.4 -- Delhi, November 7, 1973:

There is rivalryism. Because when there will be shortage of food, shortage of everything, then there will be naturally fighting like cats and dogs, killing. People are indulging in killing even his own son, abortion. Because people are degrading, they are killing live thing. So that will be reacted. In the womb the man, the person, will be killed. Reaction. Why so many abortions are taking place nowadays? Because the child which has come into the womb of the mother, he is sinful. He has done previous life so many killings. Now he has to be killed so many times. He has to be killed so many times. As many times he has killed other poor animals. This is the law of nature. Just like in the state laws, if you kill somebody, the state law will kill him. Life for life. Similarly, God's law, how even if you kill one ant even, you will be responsible for this, and it will have to be punished. They do not know this. They do not know this. They think that "I am very well situated.

Lecture on SB 2.1.4 -- Delhi, November 7, 1973:

Svalpam apy asya dharmasya trāyate mahato bhayāt. Mahato bhayāt. This is bhaya. They do not know what is bhaya, fearfulness. They are very proud of becoming this and that, but they are not afraid of death, how much painful it is. And if you are sinful, then you will be allowed to enter in the womb of your mother and your mother will kill you. They are not afraid. They are so rascal. These risks are there. So make your life in such a way, tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti (BG 4.9)— don't enter into the mother's womb. Punar janma naiti. Then? Go directly to Kṛṣṇa. That is success of life.

Lecture on SB 2.1.5 -- Los Angeles, August 13, 1972:

Śukadeva Gosvāmī is supposed to be liberated soul from the beginning of his life. That is a long story. He was sixteen years within his mother's womb. Anyway, he's accepted as a liberated soul. But still, he's attracted by the activities of the narration of the activities of the Lord, and he says that, idaṁ bhāgavataṁ nāma purāṇam, nairguṇya-sthā ramante sma guṇānukathane hareḥ. Idaṁ bhāgavataṁ nāma. This Bhāgavata, this Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, brahma-sammitam... Brahma-sammitam. So "I heard it from my father, Dvaipāyana." Vyāsadeva, he composed this Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and he found his son, Śukadeva Gosvāmī... He had many other sons, but this son, Śukadeva Gosvāmī, because he thought that "This body is liberated," so he taught him about the lessons of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and this is the first time... Because śravaṇaṁ kīrtanam. He heard it from his father, Dvaipayana, and he is now narrating, kīrtanam. He got the chance of narrating Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam at the time of death of Parīkṣit Mahārāja.

Lecture on SB 2.2.5 -- New York, March 5, 1975:

So Śukadeva Gosvāmī was in renounced order of life from the very beginning of his life. As soon as he came out of the womb of his mother he immediately left home. He was within the womb of his mother for sixteen years. So he was in favor of renounced order of life, Śukadeva Gosvāmī. There was no question of him following the other āśramas. Generally, for ordinary man, there are four āśramas..., eight āśramas. For social upkeep there are four āśramas, namely brahmacārī, gṛhastha, vānaprastha, sannyāsa. This is for spiritual. And called social, brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra. This is social division. And there is spiritual division also, because we are combination of matter and spirit. I am the soul. I am living within this material body. This is actual position. I am not this body. This is the beginning of spiritual education, that "I am not this body." One who understands fully well that he's not this body, then the spiritual education begins. And so long we are in the bodily concept of life, there's no question of spirituality.

Lecture on SB 2.3.2-3 -- Los Angeles, May 20, 1972:

Old means warning and, of the... Just like the, what is that, yellow light. "Now please prepare for the red light." So this is coming... You stop this. Technology. Where is your technology? But the information is there. Bhagavad-gītā. Tathā dehāntara-prāptir dhīras tatra na muhyati (BG 2.13). Then as you have changed so many bodies, from your mother's womb up to the point of death, so you are going to change another body. Therefore any sane man will say "Oh, then what is that body?

What kind of body I am going to get?" And that is intelligent. That is intelligence. And, if he does not know, he dies like cats and dogs, then he spoils his whole life, human form of life. This is going on. Have saṅkīrtana. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Lecture on SB 2.3.9 -- Los Angeles, May 26, 1972:

And grace of Kṛṣṇa. Combined together. One who sincerely wants to stop this business of repeated birth and death... But they do not understand that this is a suffering. They say, "Ah, let it happen." When they forget what is the suffering of birth. Birth, as I have many times explained... Nowadays, it is so much suffering that a child is born within the womb, and there is abortion, killed. "Kill him." But they do not understand the suffering, that one chance given that it will get a body and come out and maybe able to come to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, that opportunity... he's being killed within the womb. But these rascals, they do not know what is the suffering. Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi (BG 13.9).

Lecture on SB 2.3.9 -- Los Angeles, May 26, 1972:

Even if you are not killed, you have to remain compact in a vat, airtight. And the worms, they are biting. So many things. Suffocated. That is one thing. But if he can live at least for ten months, the mother does not kill, abortion, then it has got a chance to come out. Otherwise, there is no chance to come out ever. He dies within the womb, again transferred to another womb, and again it is killed. So those who are too much sinful, those who are causing these abortions, they will get this sort of life. They will never see light. One womb, killed; another womb, killed; another womb, killed; another womb, killed. This is so sinful, this abortion. And the modern civilization and the priestly order, they are passing: "If the mother selects... otherwise, there is no objection, abortion." Such foolish world is going on. You see? There are so many subtle laws of nature.

Lecture on SB 2.3.14-15 -- Los Angeles, May 31, 1972:

Arjuna's son died in the Battle of Kurukṣetra. He was also bhāgavata. He was Subhadrā's son. Arjuna... Kṛṣṇa's sister Subhadrā, who is sitting here with Jagannātha. So Subhadrā's son was Abhimanyu, but he died in the battlefield of Kurukṣetra. Sixteen years old. But fortunately, his wife Uttarā was pregnant. So Parīkṣit Mahārāja was within the womb of Uttarā, so he was saved. All others died. Pāṇḍaveyaḥ, coming in the dynasty of the Pāṇḍavas.

Therefore bhāgavataḥ. Mahā-rathaḥ. At the same time, he could fight thousands of warriors, mahā-ratha. A kṣatriya who alone can fight with another thousand kṣatriyas, he's called mahā-ratha. So it does not mean to become bhāgavata means, to become devotee, one has to stop all other activities. No. Here it is called, mahā-ratha. Mahā-ratha means a great commander. So a great commander can also become bhāgavata, a great merchant can also become bhāgavata, and a great brāhmaṇa, learned scholar, he can also become bhāgavata. There is no restriction.

Lecture on SB 2.3.24 -- Los Angeles, June 22, 1972:

"You become," bhava means. So "you become" means you die also. Because this is the world. To become does not mean that you stay forever. That is not possible. "You become" means you die also. So... But under wrong impression, as soon as I become, I think that this world is very nice. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura sings that "My dear Lord, when I was in the womb of my mother, at that time I saw You once, became visible." Those who are spiritually advanced, they can see God within the womb of the mother. When a child remains packed up and the consciousness is gained, he feels very uncomfortable. So at that time, one who is pious, spiritually advanced, he prays to God, "Please rescue me from this bondage. I am too much suffering. And this time I, after taking my birth, I shall simply be engaged in Kṛṣṇa consciousness," promises. But Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says, janama hoilo poṛi' māyā-jāle.

Lecture on SB 2.3.24 -- Los Angeles, June 22, 1972:

As soon as birth is taken, the māyā is there; we forget. Immediately, father, mother, other relatives, they take up the child and pats very nice. So in this way we forget that we were in such a precarious condition, almost suffocating. Almost, it is suffocating. After coming out from the womb of the mother, if you are packed up again in such airtight bag, within three seconds you will die. We live under the protection of the Supreme Lord; otherwise that is not a living condition. Just imagine within the womb. So this we forget, and being taken care of, affectionate father and mother, on the lap, we think life is very nice, this life. But this is māyā, this is illusion. Actually, this bhava, to take birth, is very, very unpleasant task. It is blazing fire, bhava-mahā-dāvāgni.

Lecture on SB 2.3.24 -- Los Angeles, June 22, 1972:

They don't talk of this important subject matter, how to get out of birth and death. They have no solution. Neither they can think of. But our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is giving us the knowledge that "You can get out of these clutches of birth and death, old age and disease." That is our desire.

Nobody wants to die, nobody wants to go again into the womb of the mother. Nobody wants disease, nobody wants old age. But the so-called scientists, they have no proposal to get out of these clutches. Here Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam gives you hint that hari-nāma-dheyaiḥ. By chanting hari-nāma, harer nāma harer nāma harer nāmaiva kevalam (CC Adi 17.21), you can get out of this. And when hari-nāma will be perfect, that symptoms are given here. Netre jalaṁ gātra-ruheṣu harṣaḥ. By chanting, when you will, not always ... Sometimes, out of ecstasy, when tears will come down and there will be shivering on the body, that means you are coming to perfection.

Lecture on SB 2.4.1 -- Los Angeles, June 24, 1972:

Here, one important matter is there, that Parīkṣit Mahārāja, while he was in the womb of his mother, there was brahmāstr a targeted on him by Aśvatthāmā. And he was to be killed. Practically he was killed. His mother felt a miscarriage and immediately approached Kṛṣṇa, that "I am feeling like this. The only son of the Pāṇḍava dynasty is going to be lost." So Kṛṣṇa immediately entered the womb of Uttarā and saved the baby. Now, Parīkṣit Mahārāja is recognized devotee; otherwise Kṛṣṇa would not have taken so much trouble. He wanted that Parīkṣit Mahārāja. Now, when he was cursed by a brāhmaṇa to die within seven days, why Kṛṣṇa did not save him, or why he did not seek Kṛṣṇa's protection? This question may be raised. He was young man. He was not old man. He could live. That question was made also: "The Parīkṣit Mahārāja, such a nice king, his life was dedicated for the welfare of his subjects. So actually, his body was meant for the benefit of others.

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

"To become a pure devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa, two things are very much essential, namely having a chance of being born in the family of a devotee and having the blessings of a bona fide spiritual master." So Parīkṣit Mahārāja had both blessings.

He, from the very childhood, from the womb of his mother, he was Kṛṣṇa conscious. And he had the opportunity of taking birth in a family where every member was Kṛṣṇa conscious, especially his grandfather Arjuna. So that chance was there. From the very beginning of his life, he was given the chance of worshiping Kṛṣṇa Deity. Not only that. He was king. Śucīnāṁ śrīmatāṁ gehe yoga-bhraṣṭo 'bhijāyate (BG 6.41). Yoga-bhraṣṭa means one who falls down from the path of spiritual advancement. For them, the facility is that they are given another chance to take birth in the human society. Not only in human society... Śucīnāṁ śrīmatāṁ gehe, in very rich family and very pure family. Śucīnām means pure, brāhmaṇa.

Lecture on SB 2.4.2 -- Los Angeles, June 26, 1972:

Ours also, the so-called freedom. But still, we have got some consciousness that we fight for freedom. And they fight for eating. That's all. So here, Parīkṣit Mahārāja... This emancipation... Kṛṣṇa consciousness means emancipation from this material attachment. So he became so much advanced... Because from his childhood, from his birth, from the womb of his mother, he was Kṛṣṇa conscious. So as soon as he understood that "Kṛṣṇa is my goal," immediately, virūḍhāṁ mamatāṁ jahau, immediately gave up. Jahau means "gave up." What kind of things he is giving up? The empire. Formerly the emperor in Hastināpura, they were ruling over the earth, the whole world, Parīkṣit Mahārāja, at least, 5,000 years ago when Parīkṣit Mahārāja was the king.

Lecture on SB 2.4.2 -- Los Angeles, June 26, 1972:

You are eternal. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). You'll not die after your destruction of this body. Death means sleeping for 7 months. That's all. Then again you get another body. As soon as I give up this body, I enter in the womb of another mother to get another body. The mother creates the body, and as soon as the body's fit, it comes out. So the period when I give up this body, enter into the womb of mother and manufacture another body and come out, it takes about seven months. So during that seven months, we do not know what is happening. That is death. Death means that. Otherwise, there is no death. The spirit soul is eternal. So we do not know what is our eternal need. We do not know. There is no such education, neither these rascals know that they're eternal. They think that "By chance, we have got this body, some way or other, and as soon as the body's finished, everything's finished.

Lecture on SB 2.8.7 -- Los Angeles, February 10, 1975:

Kim anyat kāma-haitukam. They say, the rascals say, that our coming to this material world is to the lusty desires of the father and mother. Therefore the child has no meaning. It is a by-product of the lusty desire. So if I don't want it, kill it. Destroy it. This is going on. But that is not the fact. The child has come into the womb of the mother, a particular type of mother—not the sa..., every mother is producing the same type of child. No. Why? There is cause. There is cause, hetunā. Without cause there cannot be anything. Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa (SB 3.31.1), the cause is his activities. According to the activities, he is producing the next body automatically. That is automatically. But there is cause, his activity.

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

Cintāmaṇi: ...can't we remember like when we were in the womb of our mother? We can remember things, like when we were children, but we have no memory. When we were...

Prabhupāda: Hm? What is that?

Karandhara: Why aren't we able to recall when we were in the womb?

Prabhupāda: Room?

Karandhara: The womb of the mother.

Prabhupāda: What is to be done in the mother's womb? What is to be done? What is the question? I cannot understand.

Karandhara: She wants to know why we can't remember that, why I can't remember when I was in the womb.

Prabhupāda: You cannot remember so many things.

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

Oh. Change bodies... Just like you have changed your body from the body of the womb, and at the present moment... But you don't remember all the incidences that have happened. So sometimes we remember; sometimes we do not remember, like that. But generally, if we... We remember during lifetime, but we forget also. Even if we forget, that does not mean I am dead. Forgetfulness is explained, māyā. We forget Kṛṣṇa. We forget that "I am part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa" by forgetfulness. That is explained. What is that? Ātma-māyām ṛte rājan. Ātma-māyā. It is a illusion. That forgetful... Actually there is no forgetfulness. I should not forget, but because I am illusioned, therefore I forget. Because... I forget means I am illusioned. Ātma-māyā. Influenced by the modes of material... The one who is most influenced by the modes of material nature, they forget. Just like you are worshiping Kṛṣṇa. But others, they are not worshiping. They are to be awakened to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. It does not mean they are actually separate from Kṛṣṇa.

Lecture on SB 2.9.16 -- Tokyo, April 30, 1972:

He is always ready to bless the servants, just like a father. Here you have got some little examples, father and mother. Without any service from the child, he is always ready to bless, always ready. He does not take any offense. Simply father-mother is ready. That is the natural... But nowadays father and mother is also killing, killing in the womb. Just see. Killing in the womb. A child has taken shelter in the womb of a mother, and mother is going to the doctor—how to kill it. Just see. This is the position of the world. And here the supreme father, prasanna-hāsāruṇa-locanānanam, always ready... So why not take this master? Why not accept this father? Why you are after all this nonsense? That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Take the right thing. Don't be misled by the nonsense and rascals.

So any question?

Lecture on SB 3.22.19 -- Tehran, August 8, 1976:

Great householders pray to God to send His representative so that there may be an auspicious movement in human society. This is one reason to beget a child. Another reason is that a highly enlightened parent can train a child in Kṛṣṇa consciousness so that the child will not have to come back again to this miserable world. Parents should see to it that the child born of them does not enter the womb of a mother again. Unless one can train a child for liberation in that life, there is no need to marry or produce children. If human society produces children like cats and dogs for the disturbance of social order, then the world becomes hellish, as it has in this age of Kali. In this age, neither parents nor their children are trained. Both are animalistic and simply eat, sleep, mate, defend and gratify their senses. This disorder in social life cannot bring peace to human society. Kardama Muni explains beforehand that he would not associate with the girl Devahūti for the whole duration of his life. He would simply associate with her until she had a child.

Lecture on SB 3.22.22 and Initiations -- Tehran, August 12, 1976:

Kardama Muni, great yogi, what to speak about his qualities. Dadau tulyām, and Devahūti also equally qualified. So this kind of marriage is very happy marriage, and the result of such marriage is Kapiladeva. Because the marriage was very appealing, therefore Lord Kapiladeva, incarnation of Kṛṣṇa, He appeared in the womb of Devahūti. There are two Kapilas, original Kapila is the son of Devahūti and Kardama Muni. Therefore He is particularly known as Devahūti-putra Kapila. Sāṅkhya philosophy was enunciated by Him. He taught His mother also. You'll find all those instructions of Kapila Muni to His mother. So the system was very nice. Everything was there. There was no question of simply brahmacārīs. No. There are married couples. This Kardama Muni was a great yogi. Still, he married. There was no disturbance. Although he promised one son only to Devahūti, but I think he got another nine daughters. So very nice system, everything was there—but for the purpose of realization of the highest truth.

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

And I get another body and again begin another life. Maybe very good life, or maybe cats' and dogs' life, a tree's life. That we do not know. But dehāntara-prāptiḥ. But there is change of body. As soon as I die, give up this body—another body. Immediately. Immediately I'll have to enter the womb of certain mother through the grace of the father, and I'll have to develop another body, and when it is fit for working I come out, and again another chapter of my life begins. This is conditioned life.

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.

Lecture on SB 3.25.41 -- Bombay, December 9, 1974:

And we do not know, but he is going very fierceful test. He is dreaming so many things that sometimes he is crying. He cannot express. Especially those who are very sinful, they die in that way. So this is not finished. Then, after death, you have to enter in the womb of the mother. That is another fierceful stage. You become packed up in a bag, and the bag is filled up or surrounded by stool, urine, worms. And you have to remain there, airtight packed, for ten months.

This is actual fact. We have forgotten. Therefore we are not afraid of. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā that your real trouble is janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). You have to accept your birth within the womb of your mother in a packed-up condition, body developing. The germs, the worms within the urine, stool, biting very delicate skin. You cannot make any adjustment, simply moving.

Lecture on SB 3.25.41 -- Bombay, December 9, 1974:

The germs, the worms within the urine, stool, biting very delicate skin. You cannot make any adjustment, simply moving. And if one is little pious, he can pray to God, "Please get me relief from this condition. Now I shall worship You." This is stated in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, this consciousness. There is consciousness. After seven months, there is consciousness. Then, some way or other, you get out of the womb of your mother. Then there are so many troubles, crying. The child is crying, crying, almost dependent on mother's mercy. The mother sometime cannot understand what the child wants. Some ant is biting, and mother is thinking that she is hungry. But actually it is not hungry, but it cannot say that "One ant is biting on my back," and he is crying. There are worms, there are mosquitoes, and there are bugs, and lying in the stool, in urine, cannot say.

Lecture on SB 3.25.41 -- Bombay, December 9, 1974:

What you are accepting, spelled by māyā, as very position, good position... I have told you many times. It is published in now..., that therefore, the rascal class of men, they want to..., they do not want to accept that there is life after death. "Everything is finished." Therefore in Western countries there is killing even grown-up child within the womb. They are killing, abortion. They think there is no life. Unless it comes out of the womb, there is no life. It's all nonsense theory. All nonsense theory, simply committing sinful life one after another and becoming entangled. The result will be that he will have to enter again into the womb of mother and he will be killed. He will be killed not once. He will be killed again when he enters the womb of the mother; again he will be killed. For many, many years he will not be allowed to see the light of the sun.

Lecture on SB 3.26.6 -- Bombay, December 18, 1974:

That is a fact. Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā, sarva-yoniṣu kaunteya sambhavanti mūrtayo yāḥ: (BG 14.4) "All different types of bodies, they are born of the mother, material nature, and I am the seed-giving father." This is the fact. We living entities... Just like father gives the seed within the womb of the mother, and then the son develops a body from the ingredients supplied by mother's body, and when the body is completely developed, the child comes out with a particular type of body given by the mother, in the same way, we living entities, we are part and parcel of God.

So sa aikṣata. The Vedic information is... Sa asṛjata. We gives seeds with a particular part of the body, but Mahā-Viṣṇu, simply by glancing over the material nature, mahat-tattva, He impregnates the material nature with so many living entities. Sa asṛjata, sa aikṣata. These are the information. The Supreme Personality can give birth through His eyesight. He doesn't require to use it, genital.

Lecture on SB 3.26.19 -- Bombay, December 28, 1974:

That is the difference. So we should not imitate Kṛṣṇa, but we should understand that janmādy asya yataḥ: (SB 1.1.1) everything... Here it is said, bījam ādhatta. So just like father impregnates the child or the son within the womb of the mother, and he comes, "Like father, like son," generally, similarly, we are. We have got the same propensities, vīryam, but it is being misused in the material connection. Therefore we are not getting pleasure. Otherwise, ānandamayo 'bhyāsāt: (Vedānta-sūtra 1.1.12) All these propensities, varieties of qualities, will give us ānanda.

These varieties are for deriving pleasure, pleasure potency, hlādinī-śakti. The Rādhārāṇī is hlādinī-śakti. Rādhā kṛṣṇa-praṇaya-vikṛtir hlādinī-śaktir asmāt. This is the display of Kṛṣṇa's pleasure potency. So this pleasure potency is there. So how?

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

Vīryatā we can understand as semina discharged from the genital. It is not like that. Vīryatā, that vīrya or that energy, can be emanated from any part of the body, of the transcendental spiritual body, everywhere. That is called omnipotency. So just like Lord Brahmā was born not from the womb of Lakṣmī Nārāyaṇa... Nārāyaṇa was lying down, and Lakṣmī was present. To beget Lord Brahmā, there was no necessity of taking the help of Lakṣmījī. He sprouted a lotus flower from His navel, and there was Brahmā. So everything is possible from every part of the body, transcendental body. That is spiritual body, sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha (Bs. 5.1), omnipotent. That is explained in the Brahma-saṁhitā, aṅgāni yasya sakalendriya-vṛttimanti. The limbs and the parts of the body has got the potency of any other limb. Just like we can beget child, we can impregnate by the genital, but it is not required for the Supreme Personality of God. In the Vedas it is said, sa aikṣata: "Simply by glancing the same."

Lecture on SB 3.26.29 -- Bombay, January 6, 1975:

So these things are taking place daily within the womb of the mother—how the child is developing from the day of union of the father and the mother, and, on the first day, it is like a pealike form by the semina of father and mother, and then everything develops. Different types of body, different types of intelligence, different types of brain—how it takes place? If it is simply material, then all children would have come out of the same quality. But it does not so come. Every child, baby born, has got everything separate from the others. How subtle laws of nature is working, we can just imagine. It is not possible to understand by our these material senses even this material formation of the body, what to speak of spiritual understanding.

Lecture on SB 3.26.34 -- Bombay, January 11, 1975:

The soul works with his mind, intelligence and ego. So when this body becomes incapable of working further, then the mind, intelligence and ego carries me to another body, means another process of formation of the body into the womb of the mother, and when the body is formed and in working capacity, even as a child or baby, then the body comes out and the living entity's another chapter of life begins. This is the process of transmigration of the soul.

So mind is the basic principle of another form of body. Therefore our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is training the mind how to remain Kṛṣṇa conscious at the time of death, because Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā, yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran bhāvam (BG 8.6). Therefore in Bengali poetry there is a saying, bhajan kara sādhan kara mate janle haya,(?) means "You are doing everything in spiritual life, but everything will be examined at the time of death.

Lecture on SB 3.26.40 -- Bombay, January 15, 1975:

Bhava means you be and again you not be, not be for few months. Our death means a sleeping for seven months. That is the description we get from the śāstras. Just like you go on sleep every night, so death means to sleep for seven months, unconsciousness, very deep sleep, in the womb of the mother. Then, as soon as another body is grown up by the ingredients supplied by mother's body or nature, then we get back again consciousness. Just like when we sleep deeply, there is no consciousness. There is consciousness—this is called suṣupti, unconscious. So again, as soon as the body is complete, then we get back our consciousness. Then we become in sleepy condition. Then again, when we come out of the mother's abdomen, that is awakening state. There are three states of conditions: jāgara, suṣupti, and svapna-dreaming condition, awakening condition, and unconscious or deep... Actually, we do not die. Na jāyate na mriyate vā kadācit.

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

And the next life is there. Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). Therefore learned man, he sees always that "My happiness..., what is the value of this happiness? I will have to die, I will have to accept old age, I will have to suffer from disease. And as soon as I die, again I will have to enter into the womb of a particular mother to take birth again." So where is the happiness? In the womb of the mother to live for ten months in a very awkward position—we have forgotten—that is not very happiness.

So our point was that this Mādhavendra Purī, when he got that pot of condensed milk, kṣīra, and the priest praised him, "Oh, you are such a great devotee that Kṛṣṇa has stolen for you this earthen, I mean to say, the condensed milk. So you take it." And he bowed down before him, took his dust of the lotus feet. Then Mādhavendra thought that "Now I have got this pot of condensed milk, next morning it will be advertised, and people will come in throng to congratulate me.

Lecture on SB 5.5.1 -- Los Angeles, January 20, 1969:

He says, ahaṁ bīja-pradaḥ. The material nature is the mother. Just like in ordinary way, the father and mother requires to give a birth to a child. Similarly, this material nature is the mother. We have got this body from the mother, material nature. Just like we get the body from the mother's womb. Father gives the seed and mother gives the body. In the combination we get out. Similarly, ahaṁ bīja-pradaḥ pitā (BG 14.4), Kṛṣṇa impregnates this material nature with the living entities, and when there is creation they come out. This is the process.

So we are fallen in this material condition of life, and because we have disobeyed without the permission of father, we have misused our independence, therefore we are condemned within this material world. The īśāvāsya, the Īśopaniṣad teaches us, therefore reminds us, that "My dear human being..." The śāstras, the scriptures, the Vedas, they're meant for human being, not for the dogs, cats.

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

Rebirth, that is very painful. But because we are mūḍhas, we have forgotten what is the painful condition is rebirth. We do not remember it. We do not remember. We had to pass through. We can simply imagine how it is painful to remain in the womb of the mother, packed up in an airtight bag and hands and legs you cannot move even. So this is the tribulations of taking birth. And similarly the tribulations of death. Sometimes one remains in coma for months and he suffers so much. Sometimes he cries. Actually tears come out. We cannot see, but within the body of the dying man is so much painful. This is called janma-mṛtyu. And old man's, there are difficulties. And vyādhi. Everyone is subjected to some kind of disease. So we do not take account. So here Ṛṣabhadeva is stressing on this point. "My dear boys, do not spoil your life living like cats and dogs." Do not. This is not meant for this life. This human form of life is meant for different purposes.

Lecture on SB 5.5.1-2 -- Stockholm, September 7, 1973:

Whole day you have to work within this darkness. And you are considered to be very expert, and you are getting good salary, but your place is in the dark mine. Why don't you...?" Similarly, his wife, she's a qualified gynecologist. So what is her business? Her business is how to kill the child within the womb—abortion. Just see. Both are experts. One expert is engaged in the hellish condition of the mine, in darkness; another expert is engaged in killing small babies within the womb. You see? Therefore the result will be that they are going to hell. Adānta-gobhir viśatāṁ tamisram. Punaḥ punaś carvita-carvaṇānām (SB 7.5.30). Again doing the same thing, again going to the hellish condition of life. This is called tamo-dvāram, ignorance. Tamo-dvāraṁ yoṣitāṁ saṅgi-saṅgam.

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

And the subtle body is made of mind, intelligence and ego. When we sleep, the gross body does not work but the subtle body works. We dream therefore. So the... At the time of death this gross body is finished, but the subtle body—mind, intelligence and ego—will carry me to another gross body. It will enter into the womb of another mother, and she will create another similar body like the mother, and when it is complete, then it will come out.

So the spirit soul is in this way bound up by the material gross body and subtle body. This is our disease. This is... Material existence means we are suffering from this disease. So in the first verse it was suggested by Ṛṣabhadeva to His sons, "My dear sons," tapo putrakā. Tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena śuddhyet sattvaṁ yasmād brahma-saukhyam anantam (SB 5.5.1). Our position is... As I explained the other day, we are part and parcel of God. So God's existence is sac-cid-ānanda vigrahaḥ: (Bs. 5.1) eternal, blissful, knowledge. So we are part and parcel.

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

Or take your birth in Africa. There there is no such facilities, they are not very good-looking, not very learned scholars, not birth is very nice, not aristocratic, not riches, poor. So from spiritual point of view, both of these kinds of facilities or inconvenience are one, because when you take your birth, you have to enter within the womb of a mother and stay ten months in a packed-up condition. Not only ten months. Nowadays it is going on, killing the child within the womb. Even you cannot come out. Before your coming out from the womb of your mother, you might be killed by your very mother or father. Because that movement is going on, abortion. So either you are in a womb of a very rich mother or a poor mother or in the womb of a black mother or white mother or a learned mother or foolish mother, the pains of staying within the mother is the same. It is not that because you are in the womb of a rich mother, therefore there will be no pain of living within the womb. The same pain. So janma.

Lecture on SB 5.5.16 -- Vrndavana, November 4, 1976:

So many sufferings. Illegal—now they are giving opportunity, abortion, killing the child, and so on, go to the hospital. That is also. And behind that, the killing the child, a very sinful, he has to suffer. He does not know. Ananta-duḥkhaṁ ca na veda mūḍhaḥ. He's taking the risk of suffering life after life. Those who are killing the child within the womb, they will be punished. They will also enter within the womb of the mother, and somebody will kill, and again he will enter another mother's womb; again he'll be killed. So as many child he has killed, he has to go to the womb of the mother to another womb, another. He will never see the light of the world. He'll be killed. This is the punishment. This is the punishment. But he does not know. Ananta-duḥkhaṁ ca na veda mūḍhaḥ. He does not know how the laws of nature is working, life for life. You have no right to kill any life. Even an ant you cannot kill even. You cannot kill even. If you kill, then you have to suffer.

Lecture on SB 5.5.17 -- Vrndavana, November 5, 1976:

They cannot be called even brāhmaṇa family. That is the injunction of śāstra. Saṁskārād bhaved dvijaḥ. Daśa-vidhā-saṁskāra. That must be strictly observed; otherwise he is śūdra. Śūdra has no saṁskāra. Śūdra has only one saṁskāra—marriage. And the brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, they have got daśa-vidhā-saṁskāra. Before birth, when the child is in the womb, there is ceremony. Then when he is born there is ceremony. Then he's little more, little more... Just like Parīkṣit Mahārāja, when he was born, immediately all the brāhmaṇas came. Jāta-karma ceremony. A child is born. There will be some pūjā, pāṭha, and then there will be horoscope made immediately, in what moment this child is born, what will be his feature. All the brāhmaṇas made immediately horoscope. You'll find in this Bhāgavata. This is called saṁskāra. Not that like cats and dogs they are born without any saṁskāra, and because he is born in a certain family he becomes brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya. No.

Lecture on SB 5.5.17 -- Vrndavana, November 5, 1976:

This person who is born in the śva-paca family, caṇḍāla family, he is called pāpa-yoni. Yoni means mother, and bīja means father. Bīja may be nice, but if the yoni is not nice, that is called varṇa-saṅkara. These are the things. Yathā bījaṁ tathā yoni. Therefore they must be equally qualified. Anyway, so papa-yoni, born in the womb of a low-class yoni. But he can be trained. How? Māṁ hi pārtha vyapāśritya. If he takes to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then he can be trained. There is no harm. Māṁ hi... Kṛṣṇa says, māṁ hi pārtha vyapāśritya (BG 9.32).

So if we take shelter of Kṛṣṇa's lotus feet, then we can become first-class men. There is no doubt about it. Otherwise Kṛṣṇa says, te 'pi yānti parāṁ gatim. So do you think parāṁ gatim is available for the third-class, fourth-class, last class men? No. Kṛṣṇa says in another place. These things are to be studied very minutely.

Lecture on SB 5.5.28 -- Vrndavana, November 15, 1976:

And there is a class, dviṣat, sura-dviṣat, simply atheist. As soon as they hear the name of God, Kṛṣṇa, they become angry. Just like Hiraṇyakaśipu. Innocent child, five years old, Prahlāda Mahārāja, because he learned from Nārada Muni even from the womb of his mother how to become a devotee and from the birth he was a devotee and his father did not like, Hiraṇyakaśipu. Not only he did not like, he was prepared to kill his child in so many ways. That is atheism. Atheists are so much averse, sura-dviṣat. They are envious. So to such person the madhyama-adhikārī cannot preach because it is useless waste of time. If one is innocent but not envious we can preach there. That will be, I mean to say, fruitful. If we go to atheist and you go on speaking, he will never accept it. So don't waste your time in that way. That is nāma-aparādha.

Lecture on SB 6.1.1-4 -- Melbourne, May 20, 1975:

He is giving very practical example that because the soul is within this body, therefore bodily changes are taking place. Now, suppose if a child is born dead. That... You can keep it by some method, preservative method, but it will not grow. One can understand very easily. Because the soul is there, therefore the child from the womb of his mother grows gradually. Grows means changing body. Everything, information, is there in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. The man and woman, father and mother, after sex the two secretion is emulsified and it takes a form like a pea. And the small living entity, the measurement is also given. Keśāgra-śata-bhāgasya śatadhā kalpitaḥ: (CC Madhya 19.140) "One ten-thousandth part of the upper portion point of hair." You know the point of hair. Now divided into ten thousand part and take one part. That is the form of the soul. That little spark takes shelter into that emulsified pea, and because the soul is there within, it develops from the mother's womb. The child does not develop all of a sudden.

Lecture on SB 6.1.1 -- Melbourne, May 21, 1975:

Your subtle body is lying is some apartment, and you have gone to the seaside by the mental body. So, so long this gross body is able, you again come and enter into this gross body, but when it is not workable, then you have to find out another gross body in the womb of a certain type of mother. This is the law of transmigration of the soul. That subtle body will be carried by the laws of nature. According to the work you have done to your whims, then a certain type of body will be offered to you. You will be forced to enter into the womb of a certain type of mother, and the mother will give you the body. That we have got, everyone, experience. In the mother's body, after pregnancy, the body grows. Everyone knows it. So body grows why? Because the soul has entered, and according to his karma, either good mother or bad mother...

Lecture on SB 6.1.6 -- Los Angeles, January 3, 1970:

The history of creation, as we learn from the Vedic literature, that after creation of this material world, the living entities are impregnated... Just like a man constructs a nice house or takes a very nice apartment and begets children in the womb of his wife, similarly, the material nature is the mother, and the father is God, and we are all children. These are the Vedic literature description. So who are these children? These children are all criminals. All criminals. Beginning from Brahma, the highest living creature, down to the ant, a small insignificant ant, more or less, we are criminals, and we are suffering the consequences. We cannot deny. If we are sincere, if we actually believe in the śāstras, in the Vedic literature, then our sufferings are due to our mischievous activities.

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

Why I am suffering?" Ke āmi, kene jāre tāpa-traya. "I do not want to die. Why there is death? I do not want to suffer from disease. Why there is disease? I do not want to take birth. Why I am put into the womb of mother again and again? Janma-mṛtyu jarā-vyādhi (BG 13.9). And I do not want to become old. Why I am forced to become old?" When a person comes to this standard, to inquire "Why these things are there?" this is real intelligence. Intelligence does not mean you gather, like asses, all the stones and iron and put them together and be satisfied that "Oh, I am very happy." That is asses' business. Ass is very expert to overload his body with heavy tons of... You know that? Maybe you do not know, but in India there is washerman, he puts tons of cloth over the back of the ass, and it carries. It cannot move, still it carries it.

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

If anyone is intelligent enough, he should always keep before him that there are, these are my distresses: janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi. I don't want to die, so what I have done for stopping my death? What have I done to stop my birth? Huh? Because as soon as I die, again I enter into the womb of a particular type of mother. Hm? Again I have to live there, packed up. That is the... Everyone knows. I cannot move even. No independence. The insects biting my delicate body, I cannot protest. I'm simply suffering. So many things. After coming out of the womb, still there is suffering. Suffering, suffering, suffering—the whole life is suffering—but I do not know how to compensate the suffering. That I do not know. That is ignorance. Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam. Just like the ass cannot understand that he's suffering, loading so much cloth upon his back. That is ass, one who cannot understand the suffering. And we are taking it, "This is now pleasure.

Lecture on SB 6.1.6-15 -- San Francisco, September 12, 1968:

We are not only living very unhappy while we are in life; after death there are so many miserable conditions, hellish conditions, transmigration of the soul from one body to another. That is also very miserable condition. And to remain in the body of a dog or hog, that sort of degradation is also there. And again to come even in the human body, in the womb of the mother, that is also very miserable condition. Now this child, the small child, he's protesting that "I'm not in comfortable condition. Mother, take me in this way." So mother is trying to satisfy him. So always, always. That thing has to be understood, that so long we are in this material world, the miseries will continue. So a very intelligent question, that "How one can get out of this miserable life?"

Lecture on SB 6.1.8 -- New York, July 22, 1971:

So this is going on, but people do not know what is this science, how the spirit soul is transmigrating from one body to another, not only in one duration of life. In one duration of life, there are so many changes of body. The body first manufactured within the womb of the mother is very small, just like chick pea, small. And it develops. And there are holes. The holes develop into nine holes: two eyes, two ears, two nostrils, one mouth, one genital, one rectum. In this way the body develops. And so long it requires to develop within the embryo, within the mother's womb, it remains there. And when it is sufficiently developed to grow outside, it comes out. Then it grows, the body grows. Grows means changing the body. Growing, we..., we are imperceptibly, cannot understand, but it is actually changing the body. Just like in your childhood you had a small body. That is no longer existing. That means you have changed your body. Similarly, you'll have to change this body.

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

The trees, the plants, the water, the land—have you produced it? Then how do you claim that it is your land, it is your country, it is your water, it is your tree? That is the wrong position. And similarly, tyāga, renouncement... What can you renounce? What you had? What is the meaning of renouncement? You had nothing. You came here in this world from the womb of your mother empty-handed, a child. Then you falsely claim: "This is my country, this is my home, this is my wife, this is my children, this is my property, this is my bank balance, this is my skyscraper building..." All these false. Because you did not brought this. You came empty-handed, and when you go, you go empty-handed. The things are there. The bank balance is there. The building is there. You cannot take anything. So what is the meaning of bhoga and tyāga? There is no meaning. Either now, neither able to enjoy, because it is not your property. If you want to enjoy other's property, then you'll be implicated in criminal offenses.

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

Just like I was discussing, they have increased the problems so much so that even in the womb of mother they are being killed. Just imagine how much we have increased the problem. Even there is no security... In India they say, security position, that one is sleeping on the lap of his mother. That is best security. Because the child, when he is sleeping on the lap of his mother, if there is some danger, mother will first of all come forward to save the child. That is natural. But the problems of life has so become complicated that even mother is killing child. Just imagine. The present position of the civilization, that there is no question of security, even on the lap of the mother, and what to speak of otherwise. But the business of human life is to solve the problems of life, but we have increased the problems of life. This is the civilization. Why? Because we are not taking to the process of human life. The process of human life is mentioned here: tapasya, austerity. Tapasā brahmacaryeṇa śamena damena ca (SB 6.1.13). This is the process to make solution of the problems of life.

Lecture on SB 6.1.18 -- Honolulu, May 18, 1976:

"It is all right. Let me remain here and suffer the punishment," jail life is not for happiness. That is, everyone knows. Jail life is for punishment. Similarly, in this material world everything is punishment, but by the illusory energy you are thinking, "This is all right." Every step there is punishment. Just study your life or my life. What is that? That beginning from the womb of my mother, when the body is formed, the soul, spirit soul, is injected in the womb of the woman, and then the formation of the body takes place. So the body grows. And now imagine when we are in the womb of the mother, how much difficult position packed up in a bag, airtight bag. If we, at the present moment, if I put into some airtight condition, within three minutes I shall die. Within three minutes. But similarly, just like packed the child remains within the womb of the mother. It is very, very painful. But by the grace of God he lives. He lives.

Lecture on SB 6.1.18 -- Honolulu, May 18, 1976:

Just imagine if you are put in a airtight box, tied up, hands and legs. How long you can live? So we remain in that condition, unconscious stage. Then, when the body is formed, we get our consciousness. Therefore at the age when the child is seven years, er, seven months old, it moves because he feels the pains.

So in this way we have to remain within the womb of the mother. And when the body is formed, time is right, then by nature's way the child comes out. But he forgets that "I was in such condition. Now I am relieved." But he forgets. The mother or the father or the relative takes him. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura has sung these different conditions. So we forget. That is spell of māyā. Then, even in this childhood, there are so many pains. Just like our... Here are children. They are crying. There is some pain. But we cannot understand what is the pain. Suppose some bug is biting. He's crying and mother is thinking that "He is hungry, so he's not stopping. So just..." Our point is: just try to study this life, how much painful it is.

Lecture on SB 6.1.18 -- Honolulu, May 18, 1976:

There is some pain. But we cannot understand what is the pain. Suppose some bug is biting. He's crying and mother is thinking that "He is hungry, so he's not stopping. So just..." Our point is: just try to study this life, how much painful it is. This is the human body and what to speak of the dog's body, cat's body? You study very minutely. You'll find, from the beginning of my life in the womb of my mother up to the death point, simply miseries. Simply miseries. Simply. Duḥkhalayam aśāśvatam (BG 8.15). Kṛṣṇa said that this material life is duḥkhālayam, simply full of miseries. But under the spell of māyā we are thinking that we are very happy. That's not the fact. Therefore human life is a chance to get out of this miserable condition. That should be the aim of life, how to get out of this miserable condition of life. That requires knowledge how we are suffering, how it can be mitigated. The sufferings will be ended... The same thing: unless you become law-abiding to the laws given by God, you'll suffer. That is nature's way.

Lecture on SB 6.1.19 -- Los Angeles, January 15, 1970:

Suppose we are put into some narrow space and I am just going to be suffocated, or I am in the face of some dangerous animal, or deep into the ocean. Sometimes we dream like that. A similar punishment is given after death, and when the living being or the living entity becomes accustomed to such habit, then he is put into the womb of a certain type of animal or man where that suffering will continue. He is made into practice.

Māyā has got two things: āvaraṇātmika and prakṣepātmika. Āvaraṇātmika means just like a dog or a hog, he is in a, encaged in a body, eating stool, living in a very filthy place, but still, the hog is feeling himself that he is happy, he's happy. This is called āvaraṇātmika-śakti. Any abominable condition we may live, but māyā will cover our intelligence and we will think that we are living very nice. This is called āvaraṇātmika-śakti. Otherwise he cannot live.

Lecture on SB 6.1.20 -- Honolulu, May 20, 1976:

Madmen. Kṛṣṇa points out, "No, it is not place of happiness." Why it is not place of happiness? Now, janma-mṛtyu-jarā vyādhi-duḥkha-dośānudarśanam (BG 13.9). Why don't you see the real unhappiness? This is real duḥkha, or unhappiness. What is that? Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi. You have to die. You have to take birth within the womb with so much risk that even your mother can kill you. Is it very happiness? At the present moment the mother... When the child sleeps very peacefully, that "I am on the lap of my mother," now the time has come when the mother is killing the child. So is it very happiness place? That you cannot trust even your mother, what to speak of others. The time has come, degraded, that... Naturally a child, he thinks, "I am safe now with my mother." But the Kali-yuga is so cruel that even with mother you are not safe. And still you say it is a place of happiness? This is called illusion. It is not place.

Lecture on SB 6.1.20 -- Honolulu, May 20, 1976:

Unless the subtle body is working, how do you dream? The dreaming means subtle body is working. So transmigration of the soul means the soul is twice covered—subtle body and gross body—just like shirt and coat. So when this gross body is finished, the subtle body is there. It takes you to another body. The subtle body with the semina of the father, it is injected in the mother's womb, and then again you will develop another body. This is the process of transmigration. So this body, how you'll be transferred to another body, that will be judged by the Yamarāja. Daiva-netreṇa. Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa (SB 3.31.1). By our activities we shall be judged. Those who are criminal, they will be judged, not that everyone will be judged. So, and because those who are devotees, they are... Mad-yajino 'pi yānti mām (BG 9.25). Those who have devoted their life, dedicated their life only in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, they are sure. Kṛṣṇa says, tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti (BG 4.9). That is sure. They are going back to home, back to Godhead.

Lecture on SB 6.1.22 -- Indore, December 13, 1970:

"The Absolute Truth must be the original source of everything." There is no question of interpretation. This is the clear meaning. Janmādi. Janma means birth and... Janma, sthiti and laya. There are three words in this material world. The things come out, just like this body has come out from the womb of my mother. It stays for some time, it grows, it gives some by-products, then it becomes old and again vanishes. So therefore janmādy asya: (SB 1.1.1) "Beginning from birth up to the annihilation, everything is emanation from the Absolute Truth." So is not that very clear? Absolute Truth must be that which is the source of everything and reservoir of everything and who is maintaining everything. That is the meaning of... Now, Bhāgavata, because it is interpretation of the Vedānta-sūtra, it begins from that sutra, janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). Now, how that janmādy asya yataḥ? It is explained, janmādy asya yataḥ anvayād itarataś ca artheṣu abhijñaḥ. If the original source...

Lecture on SB 6.1.22 -- Indore, December 13, 1970:

The original Absolute Truth should be cognizant, abhijñaḥ. If He is the source of everything, then He must be cognizant of everything, either directly or indirectly. Just like for example this body is my product. I am spiritual spark. This spiritual spark, as soon as takes shelter into the womb of a woman, it develops this body. The spiritual spark has that power, develops body. So I am a spirit soul, I have developed this body. That means I am a spiritual spark, which is source of this body, all mechanisms. And similarly, the whole creation, it is..., there is supreme spirit. The whole creation, janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). So He knows everything because He is perfect. But I do not know. Although it is by my energy this body is produced. I do not know how these veins are created, how these bones are created. I do not know. Therefore I am not God. I do not know... I say "my body," but actually this body has developed, me, as spirit soul, but I do not know how many hairs are there on my head and how it is growing.

Lecture on SB 6.1.23 -- Chicago, July 7, 1975:

Just like one person—especially this Ajāmila upākhyāna—his ways of life was not ordinary; most abominable. So abominable, good, or bad, in this life we are creating some situation so that we will get next life another body. Therefore there is death. That is material world. And as soon as there is death, there is birth. Death means we enter into the womb of a mother for, say, ten months. That ten months is considered as death. Not ten months, because the child within the womb of the mother returns his consciousness when the child is seven months old. This is human body. At that time he feels inconvenience within the womb of mother. Before that, he is unconscious, sleeping. Now, when the body grows within the mother womb and it is seven months, then he returns consciousness. He feels inconvenient. And he is very eager to come out. Those who are advanced, they pray to God, "My Lord, somehow or other get me release from this condition. This life I shall devote for rendering You service so that I may be free from this condition."

Lecture on SB 6.1.23 -- Chicago, July 7, 1975:

"I promised I shall become Kṛṣṇa conscious this time." But on account of illusory energy, he thought that "I am very comfortably situated. My father is taking care. My mother is taking care. My relatives are taking care. So very happy life." This is called forgetfulness.

So Śukadeva Gosvāmī, therefore, he remained within the womb of his mother for sixteen years. And as soon as he got out from the mother's womb, immediately he left home. You will read in Bhāgavatam. So father was going after. After all, father, that "This boy, going out. My dear son, come back. Where you are going? Where you are going?" He didn't care. He didn't care. He went away. There are persons like that. They don't want to be attached to this material affection. Māyāra vaibhava. These are expansion of the illusory energy. That is sense. That is first-class understanding. Actually, there is no need of this material world. Just like somebody says that "If all the prisoners become free, how the prisonhouse will go on?"

Lecture on SB 6.1.25 -- Honolulu, May 25, 1976:

They cannot think of. How it can be stopped? They cannot think of. They're trying the different way—contraceptive method of killing the child. That is not how to stop this. No. Nature's law is so strong that if you kill the child in the womb then you'll be also killed. You'll be also killed. Tit for tat. There is no escape. "Life for life," just like in the law. You cannot do that. So this is very important things to understand. You are thinking very free but no, there is: prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27). Exactly. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa saṅgo 'sya (BG 13.22). Just like if you contaminate some disease, you must suffer from it. That is natural law. You cannot avoid. There is no escape. So similarly, this spiritual life, this human life is a chance that you learn how to purify yourself. That is human life.

Lecture on SB 6.1.39 -- Los Angeles, June 5, 1976:

This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. If you want to become a dog next life, that is must. Yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran bhāvaṁ tyajaty ante kalevaram (BG 8.6). At the time of death, if you are affectionate to the dog, naturally you'll think of dog, and your soul will be transferred in the womb of a dog. This is nature's way. And, similarly, if you practice to love God in this life, at the time of death, naturally you'll think of God. Then next life, tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti kaunteya (BG 4.9). It is explained in the... Tyaktvā deham, everyone has to give up this body, but if, at the time of quitting this body, you think of Kṛṣṇa, immediately you go back to home, back to Godhead, Kṛṣṇa. This is opportunity. If you ask, of course, anyone who is desirous of going back to home, back to Godhead, he knows everything about Kṛṣṇa. Otherwise, why he should be eager?

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

And Aja, Aja is Brahmā. Aja means who does not take birth. So Brahmā also did not take birth like ordinary human being. He sprouted like the lotus flower from the abdomen of Mahā Viṣṇu..., Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu. Therefore he is called Aja or Svāyambhu, Svāyambhu: "personally born, not through the womb of the mother." Brahmā was not born through the womb of mother; therefore he is called bhagavān ajaḥ.

So the mind of Yamarāja, he can see. In the previous verse it is said, vartamanaḥ anyayoḥ kālaḥ guṇābhijñāpako yathā. Within this material world we are passing through many evolutionary process and getting different types of body according to the guṇa, quality, modes of nature, we are associating. So Yamaraja can see. When a living being, criminal, sinful living being is brought before him, he can understand through his mind. Just see that everyone's mind is not of the same category. There are difference of mind also, according to the position. That we have got experience.

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

You'll get, by nature's way, you'll get another body according to the desire. According to the mentality you create at the time of death, nature will supply you another body. And as soon as you get another body, your suffering begins. Your suffering immediately begins, even from the womb of the mother. As soon as the body is developed, the suffering is there. To remain in that compact bag and for so many months, hands and legs all tied up, cannot move. And nowadays there is risk of being killed also. There is so much suffering from the beginning of my body in the mother's womb. And then I come out, again suffering, again suffering.

So one should have the sense that so long we shall go on accepting this material body, the sufferings will go on. We simply forget. So this awakening of consciousness is possible simply by chanting this Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra. It is so simple thing.

Lecture on SB 6.2.5-6 -- Vrndavana, September 9, 1975:

What is the duty of the government? Duty of the guru? Now how to save him from this repetition of birth and death. And that is the duty. Otherwise to give some food... That also, people cannot give now. Rather, killing their children in the womb. This is Kali-yuga. Whereas it is the duty of the parents how to save the child or the son from the clutches of death, they are now killing. This is advanced civilization. This is going on all over the world. They are going to the medical man and taking help and killing the child within the womb. This is Kali-yuga.

So here it is, the same thing said, that yasyāṅke śira ādhāya lokaḥ svapiti nirvṛtaḥ. The child is sleeping in the womb of the mother, and the mother is killing. Then where to take shelter? Similarly, this example is that "This Ajāmila, he might have committed some sins without knowledge.

Lecture on SB 7.5.1, Pandal Lecture -- Bombay, January 12, 1973:

At that time the wife of Hiraṇyakaśipu was pregnant, and Prahlāda Mahārāja was there. So because the woman was pregnant, the demigods were taking her away. On the way, Nārada Mahāmuni met the demigods, Indra. So he inquired, "What you are doing? You are dragging a woman? Oh, this is not good." So they explained that "We have nothing to do with this woman. Because within the womb of this woman there is a son of Hiraṇyakaśipu—he is also demon—therefore, as soon as she gives birth to the child, we shall kill him. This is our program." Nārada Muni said, "No. This child is not demon. This child is a great devotee, mahā-bhāgavata. So you cannot do that." So they accepted the word of Nārada Muni and they offered obeisances, "Oh, here is a Vaiṣṇava." This is demigod. Although they were carrying out, thinking of the child as a demon, but when they heard from Nārada Muni that "This child is not a demon: he is a great devotee," immediately they offered respect and they circumambulated the mother of Prahlāda Mahārāja and they went away.

Lecture on SB 7.5.1, Pandal Lecture -- Bombay, January 12, 1973:

So this child, Prahlāda Mahārāja, from, in the womb of his mother he learned spiritual instruction and he became Kṛṣṇa conscious. Therefore from his birth he was chanting this Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, and his father was very, very much unhappy: "What kind of child is born? He is Kṛṣṇa conscious." Because he is, he was very much against Viṣṇu. Because Lord Viṣṇu killed his brother Hiraṇyākṣa, so Hiraṇyakaśipu always considered Viṣṇu as the enemy. So he did not like that his son Prahlāda Mahārāja should become a Vaiṣṇava. Vaiṣṇava means viṣṇur asya devatā iti vaiṣṇava. One who has taken, accepted Lord Viṣṇu... That is the Vedic instruction, to take shelter of Lord Viṣṇu. Oṁ tad viṣṇoḥ paramaṁ padaṁ sadā paśyanti sūrayaḥ. This is Ṛg mantra, Ṛg-veda mantra. Viṣṇoḥ paramaṁ padam. Those who are sūraya, sūri or devatā, they are always aiming at the lotus feet of Viṣṇu. Tad viṣṇoḥ paramaṁ padam. That is the highest perfection of life. Other demigods, they are not our goal of life.

Lecture on SB 7.5.30 -- Mauritius, October 2, 1975:

God-made laws, any living being, if you kill, the same punishment. But that we do not know on account of our uncontrolled senses. Adānta-gobhir viśatāṁ tamisram. We do not know that by killing innocent animals we are going to the darkest region of hellish life. Actually that is happening now, hellish life. The child is in the womb of the mother; it is hellish condition, with stool, urine, it is floating. And there also the life is not safe because at the modern advanced civilization the child is being killed even by the mother. This is going on.

So we do not know subtle laws of nature, subtle laws of God, how things are happening, how things are going on. And without knowing these facts, our human life is spoiled. So the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is trying to convince, educate people the value of life, how the process of living conditions are going on. Not we have manufactured all this. It is received from the Vedas. Vedas means the book of knowledge. Veda means knowledge. Vetti veda vido jñāne. Jñāna means knowledge.

Lecture on SB 7.6.1 -- San Francisco, March 3, 1967:

This Prahlāda Mahārāja learned this bhāgavata-dharma from Nārada Muni from the womb of his mother. When he was living within the womb of his mother like this... Perhaps you have seen the child in the womb. At least, you have seen in the photograph. So he was lying there within the womb of his mother. And Nārada Muni instructed his mother about this bhāgavata-dharma, and the child... This bhāgavata-dharma is, therefore, without any impediment. Just like one child, four years old, he is associating with us, so he is also getting the same benefit as his father. It is so nice thing. It is not that because he is child he is not getting any benefit. Simply by associating with the devotees, he is getting so much profit, incalculable. Incalculable.

Lecture on SB 7.6.1 -- San Francisco, March 3, 1967:

This we have explained several times.

Just we were experiencing. This child who is playing, he is now, he has got a small body. Similarly, when he will get a body like his father, he has to change so many bodies, so many bodies. So the body will change but he, the soul, will remain the same. And now, at the childhood, or in the womb of his mother, or when the body is just like his father, or when the body is just like his grandfather—the same thing, soul, will continue. So therefore soul is permanent and the body is changing. This is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā. Antavanta ime dehā nityasyoktāḥ śarīriṇaḥ (BG 2.18). This body is temporary. Temporary. Either this childhood body or boyhood body or youthhood body or mature body or old body, they are all temporary. Every moment, every second, we are changing. But the soul within the body, that is permanent. So this body, Prahlāda Mahārāja says, durlabhaṁ mānuṣaṁ janma: "Now, after many many births..."

Lecture on SB 7.6.1 -- Montreal, June 10, 1968:

That is birth and death. That is birth and death. Death means you give up this body. "You" means the soul. And you carry yourself with your subtle body, mind, intelligence and ego. According to your mental situation you enter into the womb of a mother injected by the semina of your father, you get an opportunity to grow another body. It takes about seven months to grow that body. So during this period, I mean to say, quitting this body, entering into another body and to develop that body, come to the consciousness point of view, it takes seven months. So death means sleeping for seven months.

So this sleeping, our daily sleeping is also a sample of death. We are experiencing for 12 hours only or 10 hours only, but this death means you'll have to sleep for seven months, then when you wake up you'll see that you have got another body.

Lecture on SB 7.6.1 -- Montreal, June 10, 1968:

Haṁsadūta: After that seven months of unconsciousness in the body, in the womb, what does that spirit soul experience from that time till it comes out?

Prabhupāda: He remains unconscious.

Haṁsadūta: After seven months...

Prabhupāda: After seven months he gets consciousness.

Haṁsadūta: And from that time to that ninth month when he leaves the body, what's his experience? Or what's his understanding, spirit soul.

Prabhupāda: So many understanding, experience. Just like we have got so many experiences in different types of body.

Haṁsadūta: He doesn't know his position.

Lecture on SB 7.6.1 -- Montreal, June 10, 1968:

Then you become perfect. Otherwise, you have to change this body one after another. Bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19). You have one body, you remain for some time, then it is destroyed, you get immediately another body, again enter into the womb of mother, again form your body from little, a pulse-like body to this body and grow to your higher status in your younger age. Then again become dwindled, become old man, and again vanish. So bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19). Everything material will have to change like this. And there are 8,400,000's of different kinds of bodies, and you have to evolve in the cycle of such body. So if you want to get out of this circulation, continually, then here is the formula: tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti kaunteya (BG 4.9). Simply try to understand what is God or Viṣṇu, then you get that opportunity.

Lecture on SB 7.6.1 -- New York, April 9, 1969:

Prabhupāda: Oh, Prahlāda Mahārāja was five years old only.

Devotee: Then how (indistinct) hear from Vyāsadeva?

Prabhupāda: He learned this bhāgavata-dharma from the womb of his mother. His mother was instructed... His mother, when she was pregnant, she was arrested by the enemies of her husband, and Nārada Ṛṣi saved her and he took the girl, pregnant girl, at his āśrama and kept her. And as it is the practice of saintly persons to instruct about God, so he was instructing and Prahlāda Mahārāja was hearing from the womb of mother. Yes?

Devotee: (indistinct) Manu was on this planet. Now he's not?

Lecture on SB 7.6.1 -- New York, April 9, 1969:

Devotee: You said Prahlāda Mahārāja, he heard Nārada Muni speaking in the womb. (indistinct) hear you speaking?

Prabhupāda: Certainly.

Devotees: (loud exclamations and laughter)

Prabhupāda: Why not Haimāvatī's child? Even a lizard is here in this room, he is also hearing. This is transcendental sound. Just like there was a sound, everyone's attention was diverted there. So sound is so penetrating. Sound is the origin of creation. So this is transcendental sound. It penetrates everyone's heart. Because everyone is spiritual being. That is the specific significance of sound vibration. It is said in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, ahaituky apratihatā. This spiritual cultivation cannot be checked by any material impediment. Because the child is packed within the womb, within the belly, under the shackles (circles?) of intestines and so miserable condition... In the belly or the abdomen of the mother, the child remains in a very miserable condition. Because the consciousness is not developed. But as soon as the consciousness is developed at the age of seven months, the child wants to come out.

Lecture on SB 7.6.1 -- Madras, January 2, 1976:

And he expands as jīva-tattva. That is vibhinnāṁśa. So we are also expansions of God, vibhinnāṁśa, a small fragmental portion. The qualities are there, very, very small quantity. But the whole potency is there in Kṛṣṇa. Nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13). So there is one supreme living being, a supreme eternal, and that is Kṛṣṇa. This is... And to cultivate this knowledge is called bhāgavata-dharma. So Prahlāda Mahārāja, he learned this bhāgavata-dharma when he was a baby within the womb of his mother he learned this bhāgavata-dharma. So the devotees—śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ—they are engaged with these nine different phases of bhakti.

Lecture on SB 7.6.1 Excerpt -- Toronto, June 17, 1976:

So he instructed her. And later on, as women usually forget, she could not utilize the instruction of Nārada Muni, but the child was within the womb of his mother, he heard it from Nārada Muni and became a great devotee. This is the history of Prahlāda Mahārāja's birth. There are many other things. If you read this Seventh Canto, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam... So anyway, somehow or other, he became a great devotee of the Lord. But he was born in a family of atheists. His father, Hiraṇyakaśipu, was atheist number one, but the child was a devotee. Such thing happens. The father is devotee and the child is a demon. And sometimes the father is a demon but the child is a devotee. Everyone comes with his own karma. It doesn't mean that because the father is atheist, therefore the child has to become an atheist. Or the father is a devotee, therefore the child has to become a devotee, no. Everyone is responsible for his past deeds. So Prahlāda Mahārāja was a devotee, but his father did not like that the child should be trained up as a devotee.

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

The doctors, the medical men, the scientists, advise, "If you like, you can kill your child." And to kill a child means how much sinful activities, they do not know, but they are inducing. He has to become a child and he will be killed by somebody else. And again as many times he has killed children he will have to live within the womb and be killed. Bahu-duḥkha-bhājaḥ. It will be followed by so many miserable condition of life. But now they are advertising, "One, two, three—no more children." But "one, two, three" means balance children, you kill. This is going on. Then why not stop sex life? Oh, that is not possible. Bahu-duḥkha-bhājaḥ. Not only in this life but in the next life, next life, because there is no... Mūḍhā nābhijānāti mām ebhyaḥ param avyayam. These rascals... This rascal civilization is so dangerous, mūḍhā, full of rascals.

Lecture on SB 7.9.4 -- Mayapur, February 11, 1976:

Still, he is addressed here by Narada Muni—Narada Muni was his guru—and still, he is describing Prahlāda Mahārāja as mahā-bhāgavata. That means even one is mahā-bhāgavata, he has to accept a guru. Narada Muni, his guru, he knows that "Prahlāda is my disciple, but he is mahā-bhāgavata." Not only that, before his birth, when he was within the womb of his mother...

His mother was attacked by the demigods, headed by Indra, and they were dragging her to their palace. Narada Muni met, said "What are you doing this? You are harassing one woman?" "No sir, we are not harassing, only we are taking her in our place to wait for the deliverance of the child. Then we shall kill him. Because he is born of atheist father, so he is another demon." Narada Muni said, "No, no, no, you are mistaken. He is not demon, he is mahā-bhāgavata." So in the beginning he was mahā-bhāgavata, since he was in within the womb of his mother.

Lecture on SB 7.9.4 -- Mayapur, February 18, 1977:

So this Prahlāda Mahārāja is mahā-bhāgavata, mahā-bhāgavata, not because he is now five years old. No. He was mahā-bhāgavata from the womb of his mother. When his mother was attacked by the demigods arresting and was being dragged by the devatas, Nārada Muni was passing there: "What you are doing?" And "She is the wife of Hiraṇyakaśipu, and she has got a child in the womb. So we want to kill that child also." Nārada Muni immediately asked them, "No, no, no, no. He's not ordinary child. He's mahā-bhāgavata. So don't touch." So they agreed. Nārada Muni... This is devatā. Although did some mistake, as soon as Nārada Muni ordered them that "Don't try to harm. He is mahā-bhāgavata," immediately gave up. So Nārada Muni said, "My dear daughter, you come with me until your husband comes back."

Lecture on SB 7.9.8 -- Hawaii, March 21, 1969:

This is a prayer by Prahlāda Mahārāja. You know the history of Prahlāda Mahārāja. He was devotee from childhood. When he was only five years old... He was devotee from the womb of his mother. His mother was under the shelter of... (break) When her husband was defeated and he was exiled, rather, from his kingdom by the demigods, so he left his kingdom, wife, and children, and was exiled, and in that condition of exile, he made severe penances, austerities, to gain over the demigods, and he was empowered by Lord Brahmā that he would not be killed, indirectly. This story you know. In our Los Angeles temple they have made very nice puppet show, and people are appreciating very much. Even they are selling ticket at the rate of one dollar fifty cent, still, people are coming.

Lecture on SB 7.9.11 -- Montreal, August 17, 1968:

So the real fact is that we have lost our devotion, faith, in God. So He is begging therefore that love and faith. Not your money. Because He is already opulent. What you can give Him? And what belongs to you? Nothing belongs to you. You come from the womb of your mother openhanded, and when you die you go openhanded. So what does it belong to you? Nothing belongs to you. That's a fact. Simply by illusion, you come here for some days and you think, "This is mine." That's all. This is called māyā. Actually, nothing belongs to you. Everything belongs to God, or Kṛṣṇa. But you claim that it belongs to you. That is your māyā. Therefore here it is said, mānaṁ janād aviduṣaḥ karuṇo vṛṇīte. Out of His causeless mercy He begs sometimes, "Give Me this." Just like sometimes father asks his child, "My dear boy, will you kindly give me a little cake from your portion?" And if the child is very fond of her (him), immediately gives.

Lecture on SB 7.9.12 -- Montreal, August 18, 1968:

Because the Vedic definition says, na tasya kāryaṁ kāraṇaṁ ca vidyate. Why God has to do something to become God? If you manufacture something gold, that is chemical gold, that is not gold. Gold is natural. Similarly, God is natural. In the womb of His mother He is God, in the lap of His mother He is God, while He's playing with His boyfriends as cowherds boy He's God, while He's dancing with His girlfriends He's God, while He's fighting in Kurukṣetra He's God, while He's marrying He's God, while He's speaking He's God. That is God. To understand God there is no difficulty. If you try to understand Kṛṣṇa, then God is there.

Therefore Brahmā recommends, īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ (Bs. 5.1). The Supreme Lord, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is Kṛṣṇa. And Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā Himself that mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat asti kiñcid dhanañjaya: (BG 7.7) "My dear Arjuna, Dhanañjaya, oh, there is no better object than Me." Kiñcid asti.

Lecture on SB 7.9.13 -- Montreal, August 21, 1968:

No. Simply you have to change. And actually that is the fact. When I think it is God's... Say, for my country. I am claiming now, "My country," but actually it is not my country. Everything God's. Who has created this country, this vast land, the sky, the sea, the ocean? I have not created. So how can I claim that this is mine? I have come empty-handed from the womb of my mother, and I shall go empty-handed. So why do I claim it is mine? So this is ignorance. Actually, I am claiming others' property as mine. This is atheistic. Just like thieves. Bhagavad-gītā it is said, stena eva sa ucyate (BG 3.12). Stena eva sa ucyate. One who thinks that "The world belongs to me or to my nation or to my family or to my community," he is thief. Īśāvāsyam idaṁ sarvam (ISO 1). The Vedic literature informs us that everything belongs to Īśa, God. Īśāvāsyam idaṁ sarvaṁ yad kiñcit jagatyāṁ jagat. And by Him it is going on: the Supreme Spirit. In the Bhagavad-gītā also it is said, yayedam dhāryate jagat (BG 7.5).

Lecture on SB 7.9.16 -- Mayapur, February 23, 1976:

So why one should bother here in this material world, changing body, one after another? This is called saṁsāra-cakra-kada...

So the ordinary person, they cannot understand what is the difficulty. As soon as I die I enter into the womb of a mother according to my karma. The mother may be a lady dog or lady pig or lady such and such, because the body will be manufactured within the womb of the mother. Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa jantor dehopapatti (SB 3.31.1). Upapatti means getting one type of body. So that type of body is given by the mother, and the seed is given by the father. Yathā bījaṁ yathā yoni. So we take a form. This is going on. So a devotee should be very very much afraid of this repetition of birth and death. Saṁsāra... This is Prahlāda Mahārāja... To follow the footprints of Prahlāda Mahārāja, one should be very, very afraid.

Lecture on SB 7.9.17 -- Mayapur, February 24, 1976:

Prahlāda Mahārāja, previous verse, he said, "I am very much afraid of this material existential condition, duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam (BG 8.15). Now he's describing what is the different phases of such suffering yasmāt, on account of this material existence. When we come to this material world there are connection with so many persons. Bhūtāpta-pitṛṇām, nṛṇām. As soon as we come down from the womb of the mother, there are so many relatives, friends, bhūta-āpta, pitṛ, bhūtāpta bhūtāpta, ṛṣi, pitṛṇām nṛṇām. We become connected. But some of them are dear and some of them are not very friendly—enemies. This is the condition in the material world. Nobody can say that "I am situated in a very nice condition. Everyone is my friend. No enemy." It is not possible. That is the nature of this material world, that you come in contact with so many persons, animals, and suppose your forefathers... It is described, bhūtāpta-nṛṇām pitṛṇām. So we get connections. This is the way of nature.

Lecture on SB 7.9.19 -- Hamburg, September 7, 1969, (with German Translator):

The soul is there in the body; therefore the body is changing or developing. From a small body in the womb of mother, we have developed so big. So it is developing on account of the presence of the soul. This change of body is within the experience of everyone. You can very easily remember that you had a childhood body, very small, and now you have got a bigger body. Therefore, although the body is changing, you are the same. Therefore Bhagavad-gītā says, when ultimately we change this body and accept another body, so there is no question of being, how to say, struck with wonder.

So if you study yourself, that "I am spirit soul and this body is external expansion only," then you can understand that within this external expansion of cosmic manifestation there is the Supersoul. This is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā: viṣṭabhyāham idaṁ kṛtsnam ekāṁśena sthito jagat (BG 10.42).

Lecture on SB 7.9.30 -- Mayapur, March 8, 1976:

"Because You have entered, therefore things have developed." Aṇḍāntara-sthaṁ paramāṇu-cayāntara... Without spiritual touch, nothing can develop. We have got practical experience that without the spirit soul, the body cannot develop. If a dead child comes out, the body does not develop. Because the spirit soul is there... So this nonsense theory that "Within the womb of the mother, unless the body is developed to seven months, there is no life," what is this nonsense? The body has developed to that seven months' condition because there is a spirit soul. Otherwise how it becomes seven months' developed? You'll find this description in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Therefore the knowledge received from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is perfect. Any knowledge which does not corroborate with the knowledge in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, that is useless knowledge. Therefore, in the beginning of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam it is said, dharmaḥ projjhita-kaitavo 'tra paramo nirmatsarāṇāṁ satāṁ vāstava-vastu vedyam atra (SB 1.1.2).

Lecture on SB 7.9.34 -- Mayapur, March 12, 1976:

Therefore Brahmā's another name is Aja. He's not born like ordinary human being. Svayambhū. He's also known as Svayambhū. Everyone is born by father and mother, but he was born... Of course, father was there, Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, but he did not come through the womb of mother. This is omnipotency. Lord Viṣṇu is lying on the Śeṣa bed, and Lakṣmīji is engaged in the service of massaging the lotus feet of Viṣṇu, but Viṣṇu did not take the help of Lakṣmīji to beget Brahmā. He personally begot from the navel. Therefore we should understand that the Supreme Personality of Godhead can perform anything he likes from any part of His body. That we chant always, aṅgāni yasya sakalendriya-vṛttimanti. We have got knowledge, experience, that when a child is born it has got a different source of being born, but Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu wanted the child be born from the navel and not from the mother of the navel—there was no mother—but the father Himself.

Lecture on SB 7.9.35 -- Mayapur, March 13, 1976:

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.

So those who are ordinarily sinful, they can at least see the light once, but those who are very severely sinful, they're killed within the womb. They cannot see even the light coming out. There are so many cases now, it is very (indistinct) that so many children, before coming out of the womb of the mother and before seeing the light of the sun, they are killed. And after killing, after being killed, the body is finished. Then he has to be put another body. Then enters another mother's body.

Lecture on SB 7.9.35 -- Mayapur, March 13, 1976:

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

Lecture on SB 7.9.35 -- Mayapur, March 13, 1976:

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...?"

So we have to analyze, analyze that this body is made of the material elements: earth, water, fire, ether, like that. The... We are breathing. What is this breathing? We are very much proud of breathing. Eh? The breathing is simply ventilation, air. But you cannot set up this breathing to a dead man. That is not possible, although it is simply air, nothing but air. But as soon as it is gone out of it...

Lecture on SB 7.9.43 -- Visakhapatnam, February 22, 1972:

Here is a verse spoken by Prahlāda Mahārāja. Prahlāda Mahārāja you know, a great devotee of Kṛṣṇa. From the very beginning of his life he was a great devotee. From the womb of his mother, he was a great devotee. It is possible. When his mother was pregnant, the demigods... There was fighting between the demigods and the demons. And while his mother was pregnant, she was being dragged, taken by Indra under custody, and on the way Indra was met by Nārada Muni. Nārada Muni objected, "What is this that you are dragging a pregnant woman? What is this?" Indra explained that "Because she is the wife of Hiraṇyakaśipu, a demon with whom we have just finished our fighting, she (he?) has gone away. So we are taking this lady under our custody so that as soon as she gives birth to a child, we will immediately kill so that the demonic descendants will be no more." Nārada replied that "This child is not a demon. He is a great devotee mahā-bhāgavata. So do not do this. Better give this lady under my custody. I shall take care of her, and you can go."

Lecture on SB 7.9.43 -- Visakhapatnam, February 22, 1972:

He is a great devotee mahā-bhāgavata. So do not do this. Better give this lady under my custody. I shall take care of her, and you can go." So Nārada Muni is the spiritual master of all demigods, so he immediately accepted the words of the great sage Nārada. Not only accepted, but they offered their respects by bowing down to the child who was in the womb of his mother. A Vaiṣṇava, it doesn't matter whether he is a child or in the womb of his mother, he's respectful. Just like Kṛṣṇa, when He was in the womb of His mother, Devakī, the demigods also offered their prayers and obeisances you know, garbha-stuti, that is mentioned in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

So the Vaiṣṇava and the Lord are equally respected, even by the demigods. A Vaiṣṇava is not different from the Supreme Personality of Godhead, advaya-jñāna. In the material world, there is difference between the master and the servant. But in the spiritual world, the servant is as much respectful as the master.

Lecture on SB 12.2.1 -- San Francisco, March 18, 1968:

Of course, nowadays there is protection for children, of course, from the state. But that is also artificial. There is killing process also. So many children in the womb are killed. But according to Vedic civilization, they are greatest offense. So dayā. Dayā means you should show your mercifulness those who are weak. So this will reduce, dayā. And āyuḥ, duration of life. Duration of life. In the Satya-yuga the duration of life was 100,000's years. A man used to live for 100,000's of years. Then in the Tretā-yuga it reduced ten times. They used to live for 10,000 years. Then in Dvāpara-yuga it reduced again ten times. They used to live for 1,000 years. And now, in the Kali-yuga, the duration of life is prescribed as 100 years. But you see that it is reducing. Everyone may note it. Perhaps your grandfather lived for 100 years. Your father lived for 80 years. And nowadays, 60 or 70 years.

Lecture on SB Lecture -- Melbourne, May 19, 1975:

Just like we are changing our body. In mother's womb we had a small body. It grows, and we come out. Again it grows. Grows... It is not actually growing, it is changing. The child is changing his body to baby, the baby is changing his body to boy, and the boy is changing his body to youthhood. Then... in this way you are changing body. That you have got experience. You had a child's body—you remember. Or you had a boy's body—you remember. But the body is no longer existing. But you are existing. Therefore the conclusion is that when this body will be no more fit for existing we shall have to accept another body. This is called tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ. So we have to change. That is nature's law. The soul is immortal. Na jāyate na mriyate vā kadācit na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). The soul is not finished, simply a particular type of body being finished, no. The people do not know it. And because they are simply engaged in sinful activities, their brain has become so dull that they cannot understand this simple truth that as you are changing body in this life therefore you will change this body to another life. This is very simple truth. But at the advancement of material civilization, we have become so dull and rascal that we cannot understand it.

Page Title:Womb (Lectures, SB)
Compiler:Visnu Murti, RupaManjari
Created:29 of Sep, 2012
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=184, Con=0, Let=0
No. of Quotes:184