Wounds - injury

Expressions researched:
"wound" |"wounded" |"wounding" |"wounds"

SB Canto 1

SB 1.9.31, Translation:

By pure meditation, looking at Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, he at once was freed from all material inauspiciousness and was relieved of all bodily pains caused by the arrow wounds. Thus all the external activities of his senses at once stopped, and he prayed transcendentally to the controller of all living beings while quitting his material body.

SB 1.9.34, Translation:

On the battlefield (where Śrī Kṛṣṇa attended Arjuna out of friendship), the flowing hair of Lord Kṛṣṇa turned ashen due to the dust raised by the hoofs of the horses. And because of His labor, beads of sweat wetted His face. All these decorations, intensified by the wounds dealt by my sharp arrows, were enjoyed by Him. Let my mind thus go unto Śrī Kṛṣṇa.

SB 1.9.34, Purport:

Śrī Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura, a great ācārya and devotee in the humor of conjugal love with the Lord, remarks very saliently in this regard. He says that the wounds created on the body of the Lord by the sharpened arrows of Bhīṣmadeva were as pleasing to the Lord as the biting of a fiancee who bites the body of the Lord directed by a strong sense of sex desire. Such biting by the opposite sex is never taken as a sign of enmity, even if there is a wound on the body. Therefore, the fighting as an exchange of transcendental pleasure between the Lord and His pure devotee, Śrī Bhīṣmadeva, was not at all mundane.

SB 1.9.34, Purport:

Such biting by the opposite sex is never taken as a sign of enmity, even if there is a wound on the body. Therefore, the fighting as an exchange of transcendental pleasure between the Lord and His pure devotee, Śrī Bhīṣmadeva, was not at all mundane. Besides that, since the Lord's body and the Lord are identical, there was no possibility of wounds in the absolute body. The apparent wounds caused by the sharpened arrows are misleading to the common man, but one who has a little absolute knowledge can understand the transcendental exchange in the chivalrous relation. The Lord was perfectly happy with the wounds caused by the sharpened arrows of Bhīṣmadeva. The word vibhidyamāna is significant because the Lord's skin is not different from the Lord. Because our skin is different from our soul, in our case the word vibhidyamāna, or being bruised and cut, would have been quite suitable.

SB 1.9.34, Purport:

Transcendental bliss is of different varieties, and the variety of activities in the mundane world is but a perverted reflection of transcendental bliss. Because everything in the mundane world is qualitatively mundane, it is full of inebrieties, whereas in the absolute realm, because everything is of the same absolute nature, there are varieties of enjoyment without inebriety. The Lord enjoyed the wounds created by His great devotee Bhīṣmadeva, and because Bhīṣmadeva is a devotee in the chivalrous relation, he fixes up his mind on Kṛṣṇa in that wounded condition.

SB 1.9.38, Translation:

May He, Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the Personality of Godhead, who awards salvation, be my ultimate destination. On the battlefield He charged me, as if angry because of the wounds dealt by my sharp arrows. His shield was scattered, and His body was smeared with blood due to the wounds.

SB 1.9.38, Purport:

And those who have no information of pure devotional service cannot penetrate into the mystery of such dealings. Bhīṣmadeva played the part of a valiant warrior, and he purposely pierced the body of the Lord so that to the common eyes it appeared that the Lord was wounded, but factually all this was to bewilder the nondevotees. The all-spiritual body cannot be wounded, and a devotee cannot become the enemy of the Lord. Had it been so, Bhīṣmadeva would not have desired to have the very same Lord as the ultimate destination of his life. Had Bhīṣmadeva been an enemy of the Lord, Lord Kṛṣṇa could have annihilated him without even moving. There was no need to come before Bhīṣmadeva with blood and wounds. But He did so because the warrior devotee wanted to see the transcendental beauty of the Lord decorated with wounds created by a pure devotee. This is the way of exchanging transcendental rasa, or relations between the Lord and the servitor.

SB 1.15.17, Purport:

In the warfield, scarcity of water is a well-known fact. Water is very rare there, and both the animals and men, working strenuously on the warfield, constantly require water to quench their thirst. Especially wounded soldiers and generals feel very thirsty at the time of death, and it sometimes so happens that simply for want of water one has to die unavoidably. But such scarcity of water was solved in the Battle of Kurukṣetra by means of boring the ground. By God's grace, water can be easily obtained from any place if there is facility for boring the ground. The modern system works on the same principle of boring the ground, but modern engineers are still unable to dig immediately wherever necessary. It appears, however, from the history as far back as the days of the Pāṇḍavas, that big generals like Arjuna could at once supply water even to the horses, and what to speak of men, by drawing water from underneath the hard ground simply by penetrating the stratum with a sharp arrow, a method still unknown to the modern scientists.

SB Canto 2

SB 2.5.22, Purport:

By the omnipotency of the Supreme Lord, the whole material creation evolves by the process of transformation and reactions one after another, and by the same omnipotency, they are wound up again one after another and conserved in the body of the Supreme. Kāla, or time, is the synonym of nature and is the transformed manifestation of the principles of material creation. As such, kāla may be taken as the first cause of all creation, and by transformation of nature different activities of the material world become visible. These activities may be taken up as the natural instinct of each and every living being, or even of the inert objects, and after the manifestation of activities there are varieties of products and by-products of the same nature. Originally these are all due to the Supreme Lord. The Vedānta-sūtras and the Bhāgavatam thus begin with the Absolute Truth as the beginning of all creations (janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1)).

SB 2.9.29, Purport:

By a combination of such potential energies of the Lord there is the manifestation of creation, maintenance and annihilation in due course of time and by different agents like Brahmā, Viṣṇu and Maheśvara. Brahmā creates, Viṣṇu maintains, and Lord Śiva destroys. But all such agents and creative energies are emanations from the Lord, and as such there is nothing except the Lord, or the one supreme source of different diversities. The exact example is the spider and spider's web. The web is created by the spider, and it is maintained by the spider, and as soon as the spider likes, the whole thing is wound up within the spider. The spider is covered within the web. If an insignificant spider is so powerful as to act according to its will, why can't the Supreme Being act by His supreme will in the creation, maintenance and destruction of the cosmic manifestations? By the grace of the Lord, a devotee like Brahmā, or one in his chain of disciplic succession, can understand the almighty Personality of Godhead eternally engaged in His transcendental pastimes in the region of different energies.

SB Canto 3

SB 3.3.4, Translation:

By subduing seven bulls whose noses were not pierced, the Lord achieved the hand of Princess Nāgnajitī in the open competition to select her bridegroom. Although the Lord was victorious, His competitors asked the hand of the princess, and thus there was a fight. Well equipped with weapons, the Lord killed or wounded all of them, but He was not hurt Himself.

SB 3.8.11, Purport:

After the three worlds—the upper, lower and middle planetary systems—merged into the water of dissolution, the living entities of all the three worlds remained in their subtle bodies by dint of the energy called kāla. In this dissolution, the gross bodies became unmanifest, but the subtle bodies existed, just like the water of the material creation. Thus the material energy was not completely wound up, as is the case in the full dissolution of the material world.

SB Canto 4

SB 4.23.17, Purport:

The mind was attracted by the senses and the senses by the sense objects, and all of them were ultimately amalgamated in the sky. The creation is so arranged that cause and effect follow one after the other. The merging process involves amalgamating the effect with the original cause. Since the ultimate cause in the material world is mahat-tattva, everything was gradually wound up and amalgamated with the mahat-tattva. This may be compared to śūnya-vāda, or voidism, but this is the process for cleansing the real spiritual mind, or consciousness.

When the mind is completely washed of all material contamination, the pure consciousness acts. The sound vibration from the spiritual sky can automatically cleanse all material contaminations, as confirmed by Caitanya Mahāprabhu: ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12).

SB Canto 5

SB 5.8.20, Translation:

That deer is exactly like a prince. When will it return? When will it again display its personal activities, which are so pleasing? When will it again pacify a wounded heart like mine? I certainly must have no pious assets, otherwise the deer would have returned by now.

SB Cantos 10.14 to 12 (Translations Only)

SB 10.31.19, Translation:

O dearly beloved! Your lotus feet are so soft that we place them gently on our breasts, fearing that Your feet will be hurt. Our life rests only in You. Our minds, therefore, are filled with anxiety that Your tender feet might be wounded by pebbles as You roam about on the forest path.

SB 10.32.6, Translation:

One gopī, beside herself with loving anger, bit her lips and stared at Him with frowning eyebrows, as if to wound Him with her harsh glances.

SB 10.67.19-21, Translation:

Struck on the skull by the Lord's club, Dvivida became brilliantly decorated by the outpour of blood, like a mountain beautified by red oxide. Ignoring the wound, Dvivida uprooted another tree, stripped it of leaves by brute force and struck the Lord again. Now enraged, Lord Balarāma shattered the tree into hundreds of pieces, upon which Dvivida grabbed yet another tree and furiously hit the Lord again. This tree, too, the Lord smashed into hundreds of pieces.

SB 10.76.26, Translation:

Śālva's minister Dyumān, previously wounded by Śrī Pradyumna, now ran up to Him and, roaring loudly, struck Him with his club of black steel.

SB 10.77.33, Translation:

While Śālva continued to hurl torrents of weapons at Him with great force, Lord Kṛṣṇa, whose prowess never fails, shot His arrows at Śālva, wounding him and shattering his armor, bow and crest jewel. Then with His club the Lord smashed His enemy's Saubha airship.

CC Adi-lila

CC Adi 4.173, Translation:

"O dearly beloved! Your lotus feet are so soft that we place them gently on our breasts, fearing that Your feet will be hurt. Our life rests only in You. Our minds, therefore, are filled with anxiety that Your tender feet might be wounded by pebbles as You roam about on the forest path."

CC Madhya-lila

CC Madhya 18.65, Translation:

""O dearly beloved! Your lotus feet are so soft that we place them gently on our breasts, fearing that Your feet will be hurt. Our life rests only in You. Our minds, therefore, are filled with anxiety that Your tender feet might be wounded by pebbles as You roam about on the forest path.""

CC Antya-lila

CC Antya 7.40, Translation:

“"O dearly beloved! Your lotus feet are so soft that we place them gently on our breasts, fearing that Your feet will be hurt. Our lives rest only in You. Our minds, therefore, are filled with anxiety that Your tender feet might be wounded by pebbles as You roam about on the forest path."

Krsna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead

Krsna Book 14:

First of all I saw You alone; thereafter You expanded Yourself as Your cowherd boyfriends, the calves and the whole existence of Vṛndāvana; then I saw You and all the boys and calves as four-handed Viṣṇus, and They were being worshiped by all elements and all demigods, including myself. Again They were all wound up, and You remained alone, as You were before. Does this not mean that You are the Supreme Lord Nārāyaṇa, the origin of everything, that everything emanates from You and again enters into You, leaving You the same as before?

“Persons who are unaware of Your inconceivable energy cannot understand that You alone expand Yourself as the creator (Brahmā), the maintainer (Viṣṇu) and the annihilator (Śiva). Persons who are not in awareness of things as they are contemplate that I, Brahmā, am the creator, Viṣṇu is the maintainer, and Lord Śiva is the annihilator.

Krsna Book 29:

They were shedding heavy tears, and their cosmetic decorations were being washed from their faces. The water from their eyes mixed with the kuṅkuma on their breasts and fell to the ground. They could not say anything to Kṛṣṇa but simply stood there silently. By their silence they expressed that their hearts were grievously wounded.

The gopīs were not ordinary women. In essence they were on an equal level with Kṛṣṇa. They are His eternal associates. As it is confirmed in the Brahma-saṁhitā, they are expansions of the pleasure potency of Kṛṣṇa, and as His potency they are nondifferent from Him. Although they were depressed by the words of Kṛṣṇa, they did not like to use harsh words against Him. Yet they wanted to rebuke Kṛṣṇa for His unkind words, and therefore they began to speak in faltering voices. They did not like to use harsh words against Kṛṣṇa because He was their dearmost, their heart and soul. The gopīs had only Kṛṣṇa within their hearts.

Krsna Book 52:

Rukmiṇī told Kṛṣṇa not to be concerned that the fighting would take place within the palace and that many of her family members, including other women, might thus be wounded or even killed. As the king of a country thinks of diplomatic ways to achieve his object, Rukmiṇī, being the daughter of a king, was diplomatic in suggesting how this unnecessary and undesirable killing could be avoided. She explained that it was the custom of her family to visit the temple of Goddess Durgā, their family deity, before a marriage. (The kṣatriya kings were mostly staunch Vaiṣṇavas, worshiping Lord Viṣṇu in either the Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa or Lakṣmī-Nārāyaṇa form; still, for their material welfare they used to worship Goddess Durgā. They never made the mistake, however, of accepting the demigods as the Supreme Lord on the level of viṣṇu-tattva, as do some less intelligent men.

Krsna Book 57:

The question is generally raised, Why did a great devotee like Akrūra join this conspiracy? And why did Kṛtavarmā, although a devotee of the Lord, join the conspiracy also? The answer given by great authorities like Jīva Gosvāmī is that although Akrūra was a great devotee, he was cursed by the inhabitants of Vṛndāvana because of his taking Kṛṣṇa away from their midst. Because of wounding their feelings, Akrūra was forced to join the conspiracy declared by sinful men. Similarly, Kṛtavarmā was a devotee, but because of his intimate association with Kaṁsa, he was contaminated by sinful reactions, and he also joined the conspiracy.

Being inspired by all the members of the conspiracy, Śatadhanvā one night entered the house of Satrājit and killed him while he was sleeping. Śatadhanvā was a sinful man of abominable character, and although due to his sinful activities he was not to live for many days, he decided to kill Satrājit while Satrājit was sleeping at home.

Krsna Book 63:

Kṛṣṇa was now able to turn His attention from the attack of Lord Śiva to the efforts of Bāṇāsura, and He began to kill Bāṇāsura's personal soldiers with swords and clubs. Meanwhile, Lord Kṛṣṇa's son Pradyumna was fighting fiercely with Kārttikeya, the commander in chief of the demigods. Kārttikeya was wounded, and his body was bleeding profusely. In this condition, he left the battlefield and, without fighting anymore, rode away on the back of his peacock carrier. Similarly, Lord Balarāma smashed Bāṇāsura's commander in chief, Kumbhāṇḍa, with the strokes of His club. Kūpakarṇa was also wounded in this way, and both he and Kumbhāṇḍa fell on the battlefield, Kumbhāṇḍa being fatally wounded. Without guidance, all of Bāṇāsura's soldiers scattered here and there.

When Bāṇāsura saw that his soldiers and commanders had been defeated, his anger only increased. He thought it wise to stop fighting with Sātyaki, Kṛṣṇa's commander in chief, and instead directly attack Lord Kṛṣṇa.

Renunciation Through Wisdom

Renunciation Through Wisdom 2.3:

For this reason alone, pure devotees never feel offended. When Jesus Christ was being crucified, he did not blame anyone for it. Haridāsa Ṭhākura was severely lashed in twenty-two marketplaces by the Muslim Kazi's sentries. Still he prayed to the Lord not to punish his tormentors. Lord Nityānanda was wounded by the two rascals Jagāi and Mādhāi, yet the Lord stood His ground, bleeding profusely. He delivered the two notorious brothers and thus brilliantly exemplified the title patita-pāvana. Such is the profound compassion of the pure devotees.

Therefore the reprobates' only means of attaining any piety is through the association of devotees. We are looking forward to that time when the stalwart disciples of that illustrious crest jewel of all Vaiṣṇavas, His Divine Grace Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda, having received the blessings of their spiritual master, will come together again for the benediction of the whole world and, without wasting any more time, preach the message of Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī and Śrīla Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī. Śrīla Gaurakiśora dāsa Bābājī always tried to dissuade his disciple, Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, from going to Calcutta, which he considered a bastion of Kali-yuga. Yet though some might think Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura disobeyed his guru's order, he preached not only in Calcutta but in other capitals of Kali-yuga, such as London, Berlin, Bombay, Madras, and Delhi. He vehemently opposed the idea of constructing a temple in some quiet spot and leading a passive and uneventful life in the monastery.

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Lecture on BG 2.27-38 -- Los Angeles, December 11, 1968:

Prabhupāda: A kṣatriya... It is the custom of the kṣatriya that if they are wounded on the back side, he is considered a coward, but if he is wounded on the chest, he is accepted as real kṣatriya. That means he has fought face to face. That is the injunction of military art in Vedic injunction.

Devotee: "Your enemies will describe you in many unkind words and scorn your ability. What could be more painful for you (BG 2.36)?" 37: "O son of Kuntī, either you will be killed on the battlefield and attain the heavenly planets or you will conquer and enjoy the earthly kingdom. Therefore get up and fight with determination (BG 2.37)." 38: "Do thou fight for the sake of fighting without considering happiness or distress, loss or gain (BG 2.38)."

Prabhupāda: This is duty. One has to execute duty without any consideration of loss and gain. That is duty, observing duty. Just see. "You are kṣatriya. There is necessity of this fighting. So you should not consider whether you are gaining or losing. It is your duty to fight."

Lecture on BG 2.55-58 -- New York, April 15, 1966:

The tortoise, as whenever he likes that "Now I shall manifest my senses," yes, he manifests his... And whenever he likes, according to his own... The very example. Nature, nature... This is called nature study. We have to study from so many things from lower animals. So here the very good example is set herewith that yadā saṁharate cāyaṁ kūrmaḥ aṅgānīva sarvaśaḥ. Just like the tortoise is practiced to wound up his senses within his body according to his will, similarly, indriyāṇi indriyārthebhyaḥ, similarly, when we should use the senses and what purpose, when, when one comes to understand this, then he is situated in spiritual consciousness.

Now, just, just take the same example of Arjuna. Now, Arjuna says that "I'll not fight. I'll not fight with my relatives and brothers for the sake of achieving some kingdom. No, no, no." Now, for the ordinary man it appears to be: "Oh, Arjuna is very nice man, nonviolent. He's giving up everything for the sake of his relatives. Oh, what a nice man he is." This is ordinary calculation.

Lecture on BG 9.4-7 -- New York, November 24, 1966:

It is within Me." Sarva-bhūtāni kaunteya prakṛtiṁ yānti māmikām. And when this manifestation, material manifestation, is dissolved, then where does it take place? Where does it go? He says, sarva-bhūtāni kaunteya prakṛtiṁ yānti māmikām: "My prakṛti, My nature, My nature, is manifested and when the time is finished, that nature is wound up." And kalpa-kṣaye punas tāni kalpa, kalpādau visṛjāmy aham: "In this way, at a certain interval, this material manifestation is exhibited, and again it is wound up."

This material manifestation is... Sometimes it is created, and sometimes it goes into the nature of the Lord. But spiritual creation is not like that. Spiritual creation is permanent. In the material creation everything is temporary, nonpermanent. Just like this body. This body is created. And take for example. In our personal self, we are spiritual spark, fragmental. We have several times discussed this point, that we are all spiritual spark, fragmental part of the Supreme Lord.

Lecture on BG 9.4-7 -- New York, November 24, 1966:

Otherwise there is no such existence. So sometimes He manifests, and sometimes He does not. This is going on. Sarva-bhūtāni kaunteya prakṛtiṁ yānti māmikām: "Similarly, I wound up. It goes to Me again." Kalpa-kṣaye punas tāni kalpādau visṛjāmy aham. Then, after certain intervals, when there is again kalpa... Each creation is called a kalpa. Kalpānta-sthāyinaḥ-guṇaḥ.(?) Each creation is called a kalpa. So there are many kalpas. We can, cannot calculate what is the age of one kalpa. One hint is there in the Bhagavad-gītā that in each kalpa the one day of Brahmā..., that sahasra-yuga-paryantam ahar yad brahmaṇo viduḥ... (BG 8.17). Four hundred thousand, four hundred forty-three, forty-three hundred thousands of years into one thousand, that makes one day of Brahmā. Similarly, he lives for hundred years and, after each hundred years, the kalpa is finished and again another kalpa begins.

Lecture on BG 9.7-10 -- New York, November 25, 1966:

Kalpa-kṣaye punas tāni kalpādau visṛjāmy aham. Now, this verse we have been discussing the last meeting that this whole cosmic manifestation, it is not permanent. It is created, and it is again annihilated, and the whole energy is wound up into the body of the Supreme Lord. It comes out, and again it is winded. Now, jagad avyakta-mūrtinā... Sarva-bhūtāni kaunteya prakṛtiṁ yānti māmikām. The prakṛti... Prakṛti is not independent. Prakṛti means nature. It is dependent on the Supreme Lord. When He desires or when the time is, He gives us chance. This prakṛti, this material cosmic manifestation, is meant for the conditioned souls. We are all conditioned souls. So this manifestation is given, a chance, so that we can return back to the eternal prakṛti or eternal nature. Otherwise this prakṛti, bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19), as you have studied in the Eighth Chapter, it is created, it is maintained and it is annihilated. Kalpa-kṣaye punas tāni kalpādau visṛjāmy aham.

Lecture on BG 13.1-2 -- Miami, February 25, 1975:

And as Arjuna is trying to understand what is prakṛti, what is puruṣa, what is kṣetra, what is kṣetra-jña, what is knowledge, what is knowable, these question are posed. Gradually we shall discuss.

That is wanted. In ignorance if we fight, there is no solution. In darkness if we fight, we may wound, I may wound you, you may wound me, but there will be no solution. So the whole world is in darkness. Therefore there is struggle. One is capitalist, one is communist, one is this, one is that, and there is struggle because everyone is in ignorance, māyā andhakāra, in darkness of ignorance. And Kṛṣṇa is light. Ignorance fighting will not make any solution of the problem. We must come to the light and take knowledge from the most enlightened, Kṛṣṇa, Bhagavān.

Bhagavān means He is endowed with six kind of opulence. He is the supreme rich. He is the supreme famous. He is supreme beauty and supreme wise. We have to take knowledge from the supreme wise. That knowledge is perfect.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

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

Try to understand. Why there is creation? This creation is a chance given to the conditioned soul, how to come to his senses, that living entity, that he is eternally servant of Kṛṣṇa, part and parcel. His only business is to satisfy Kṛṣṇa. So here is a chance. If we don't take this chance, then again the creation will be wound up, it will be destroyed. Again there will be creation, again another chance will be given. This is going on. Bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19). In the Bhagavad-gītā it is said, bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate. It is manifested sometimes and maintained for some time and again destroyed.

Now the original person is Kṛṣṇa. Now, to maintain this creation, He expands Himself into three: hari, viriñci, hara. Hari means Viṣṇu, viriñci means Brahmā, and hara means Lord Śiva. Hari-viriñci-hareti saṁjñāḥ. But, just like the Māyāvādī philosopher says that "Then, if Kṛṣṇa has become Hari, Viriñci and Hara, three, so I can worship anyone."

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

So here is very nicely explained, how from that one... Prakṛtiṁ yānti māmikām. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is said that "This prakṛti," means nature, "will be wound up, again come to Me within." Just like the spider. The spider makes a cobweb. From the saliva from him, he can work—he knows how to work on it—and again he can wound it up. That is practical example. Similarly, the material nature... Here is the point of creation. The energy is conserved. Energy is never lost, avyaya. But this prakṛti, this material nature, is not eternal. It is temporary. The same example, the spider. The spider, suppose it is eternal, but the cobweb made by the spider, that is not eternal. Bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19). It is created and again wound up. Similarly, the point of creation comes from God. God is not created.

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

In this way everything in this material world, nothing is permanent. But the soul within the body, that permanent. That is the conservation of energy. That they do not know. Where the energy is reserved and wherefrom the energy is manifested, again wound up... A living entity... As God and we living entities, we have got the same quality... As God is the reservation, conversation of all energy, material energy, similarly, I, you, we being small particle of God's fraction... Just like spark, spark of fire, big fire, and the small spark. That small spark has all the qualities of fire. All the chemicals composition of fire is there in the small spark, but in very, very small quantity. A drop of seawater has got the all chemical composition of the ocean. That is equality. Qualitatively. And quantitatively, where is the comparison between the drop of ocean water and the ocean? There is no comparison. That is difference.

Sri Isopanisad Lectures

Sri Isopanisad, Mantra 1 -- Los Angeles, April 30, 1970:

Just like this child, he wants to learn. As I say, "Oh, offer your obeisances," he does it. Oh, he should be taken care, very much developed. But that is also one of the offenses, out of the ten offenses. One who is disinclined to understand what is this chanting, you should not bother yourself to convince him. That's all. Just like in hospital, especially in, in the warfield, there are many wounded soldiers are coming. But the doctors see that the soldier which has got the chance of living, take care more for them. And the soldier which is immediately going to die, they do not take care much. Because it is useless; he'll not live. Similarly the atheist, the atheist will have to suffer. They'll have to meet God in the form of death in so many ways. So by suffering, suffering, suffering, suffering, suffering, when a day will come that he'll understand God, at that time, preaching to him is better. So you do not expect that our preaching will be appeal to everyone. It will be useful for the devotees, for the innocent. Not for the atheist.

General Lectures

Speech at Gaudiya Math Center -- Visakhapatnam, February 19, 1972:

.His Holiness Śrīpāda Puri Mahārāja, we are very much thankful to the authorities of this temple for giving us shelter and associating with this holy function. You will translate? (Indian devotee translates throughout but tape is wound fast forward over these translations) Today's function is installing a different important incarnation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In the Brahma-saṁhitā about the incarnation of the Supreme Lord, Govinda is mentioned primarily beginning with Rāma.

rāmādi-mūrtiṣu kalā-niyamena tiṣṭhan

nānāvatāram akarod bhuvaneṣu kintu

kṛṣṇaḥ svayaṁ samabhavad paramaḥ pumān yo

govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi

(Bs. 5.39)

Kṛṣṇa is the original Personality of Godhead, as it is said in the Bhagavad-gītā and other Vedic literature. Kṛṣṇa says Himself, mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat kiñcid asti dhanañjaya (BG 7.7), "There is no more superior authority than Me." There is no difference between Lord Rāma, Lord Kṛṣṇa, Lord Nrsiṁha, Varāha, They are all the Supreme Personality of Godhead. That is the explanation that a candle, the original candle, and you can lit up another candle, you can lit up another candle.

Philosophy Discussions

Philosophy Discussion on David Hume:

Śyāmasundara: He postulates three laws whereby perceptions are associated or connected with one another. He says first of all, there is the principle of resemblance. For example, I see a picture and it impels me to think of the original of that picture. The second principle is the principle of contiguity. If I mention a room in a building, this impels me to think of other rooms in other buildings. And the third principle is the principle of cause and effect, just like if I think about a wound I automatically think of pain. So in these three ways he thinks that our whole being is made up of this stream of ideas, association of ideas, one idea follows another, perpetually.

Prabhupāda: That is called relative world. That is the meaning of relative world. You cannot understand what is father without a son; you cannot understand son without a father. You cannot understand husband without a wife. This world is like that. It is called relative world.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- December 17, 1973, Los Angeles:

Karandhara: We have brought devotees there sometimes with serious wounds or injuries, and they just say, "First you give us money or else go away. We don't care."

Prabhupāda: Everywhere. (break)

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Śrīla Prabhupāda, I think the Indian government has set up one oil factory now. I saw in the news, that in Mathurā now, the government of India has set up one oil refinery. There will be a factory there.

Prabhupāda: In Mathurā?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: In Mathurā, yes. They have laid the foundation, Indira Gandhi. I think a few months ago I saw in the paper. So there will be one refinery there. So it will be industrial town now.

Prabhupāda: Yes. They want to spoil the spiritual value of Mathurā, Vṛndāvana. They are not giving any more sanction for temples.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Professor Durckheim German Spiritual Writer -- June 19, 1974, Germany:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes.

Professor Durckheim: And I was one of the two officers who were not wounded in my regiment. And there I met death again and again. And I saw people just killed next to me. Suddenly it was out. It was just only as you say, the body without soul. But I realized also in myself, that when death was near and you had accepted death, accepted to die, then you realized something which has nothing to do whatsoever with death.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is self-realization.

Professor Durckheim: So this marked me very much. It's the very beginning of my inner way, these four years of World War.

Prabhupāda: There is a verse. Nārāyaṇa-parāḥ sarve na kutaścana bibhyati (SB 6.17.28). If one is God realized soul, he is not afraid of anything. Svargāpavarga-narakeṣv api tulyārtha-darśinaḥ. So actually, if one is self-realized, he is no more fearful or concerned with the bodily necessities of life. That is liberation. Just like as you mentioned sleeping. Sleeping also, a bodily necessity. When you are tired, you sleep. That is bodily necessity. But it is not spiritually necessary. About the Gosvāmīs it is said, nidrāhāra-vihārakādi-vijitau: ** "Conquered over sleeping, eating, mating." That is also one of the symptoms of self-realization. These things are necessities of the body. So the more one is advanced in self-realization, these things will be minimized: eating, sleeping, mating and defending.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- July 24, 1975, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Kite line? How it is?

Paramahaṁsa: How it is? It's a line for a kite, and it's wound upon on a stick, and to make the kite go higher you unleash...

Prabhupāda: Yes. So it is going on. Sometimes the kite is going on, it is also rounding. And when the kite is coming down, that is also rounding. But you see one thing. But one thing is coming down; one is going up.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So it's defective vision which...

Prabhupāda: Yes. Just like a cat catching a rat in the mouth, his position, and catching the cub, kit, what is called?

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 6, 1976, Nellore:

Acyutānanda: A man in Calcutta, he was a devotee, rich also. He had some kidney thing. He wanted to go to the Calcutta hospital. They said, "All the beds are full of Naxalites with bomb wounds and stab wounds and fighting wounds."

Prabhupāda: Just see.

Acyutānanda: He could not get a bed in the hospital because it was full of guṇḍās. Hospitals were all full of guṇḍās.

Yaśodānandana: In America they have the highest quality of hospitals and schools and everything, but yet the young people are turning to be hippies. You have mentioned that in the introduction to your Nectar of Devotion.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes. What is the use of such education?

Conversation with Clergymen -- June 15, 1976, Detroit:

Kern: I saw a film of a leader of ours, Jean Vanye(?) from Canada and France. He took five thousand retarded.... In Spanish, we say (indistinct), to Rome just for the experience. And they were all in wheelchairs, old and young and small ones—not understanding very much, but a wonderful experience for them, the weak and the wounded.

Jayādvaita: (explaining to Prabhupāda) One priest took many handicapped people, who...

Prabhupāda: No, why you are speaking of handicapped? Who has taken the handicapped? Handicapped is handicapped.

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: Our program for them is also like this, to give them spiritual...

Prabhupāda: No, no. Apart from that, we shall deal with the handicapped later on.

Kern: That's my, that's my...

Prabhupāda: First of all, we take the general people.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Ram Jethmalani (Parliament Member) -- April 16, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: It is not possible to kill him. Such a great personality, representative of God, he is not killed. That is not possible.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Simply by putting some wounds.

Prabhupāda: He made a show that "I am killed." That is resurrection. And when you finished your business, then he will go (indistinct).

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, they say that when he got down they rubbed his body with oils.

Prabhupāda: He was a great yogi and so on.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You remember in that book you were reading, The Aquarian Gospel. It mentioned how he learned yoga when he came to India.

Prabhupāda: We admit. Guru Mahārāja said śaktyāveśa-avatāra, powerful incarnation. Therefore whenever there was question of Jesus, I never disrespected Jesus. Never criticized him, because I know that he is powerful representative of God. We took it from Guru Mahārāja.

Conversation with Svarupa Damodara -- June 21, 1977, Vrndavana:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: There's a very interesting remark by one of the Nobel Prize-winning chemists. His name is St. Georgi(?). He got Nobel Prize for discovering Vitamin C. And he said he was looking for life for last twenty years or so, but, he said, he wound up with the electrons and protons, which don't have any life. He said, somehow life has escaped through his fingers.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) Yes.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yeah, he says that.

Prabhupāda: That life has escaped and life is required.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes, that means they couldn't find life.

Prabhupāda: (Bengali) Life comes from life, and the supreme life, Supreme Being, is God. That is Kṛṣṇa.

Room Conversation -- October 22, 1977, Vrndavana:

Ādi-keśava: Sometimes they make the operations, and they leave the knife in, and they sew the knife up inside after they make an operation. Or the scissors. They take some clamps and they sew them inside the wound. And then the man says, "Oh, I have a pain in my side." And they say, "Oh, new disease," and they make another operation and take out the clamps or the knife.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Sometimes they only depend on machines, these medical doctors. That's why he's mentioning about x-ray. Through these machines you cannot tell the correct diagnosis.

Prabhupāda: I have got many experiences in my family life. One servant, Kashiram.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Kashiram.

Prabhupāda: Yes his name was Kashiram. So he was howling, howling. So we took him to the hospital, and so many student doctors surrounded. They diagnosed something, strangulation or something like that.

1947 to 1965 Correspondence

Letter to Ved Prakash -- Bombay 7 July, 1958:

"Paropakara" or humanity is meant for all the 84 lacs varieties of living beings. Lord Caitanya said "Praminam Upakaraya" i.e. to say for the benefit of all living being concerned. Then there is the question of opportunity also. While rendering first aid service in the battlefield the Red cross men although equally disposed to all the wounded soldiers—they give first preference to the hopeful ones. The hopeless ones are sometimes neglected. This is a crude example only.

In India, even after the attainment of Swaraj, the mentality is predominant by "Made in London" ideas. It is a long story. But in nutshell the Leaders of India in the name of secular Government they have engaged themselves in everything foreign. They have carefully set aside the treasure house of India's spiritual asset and they are imitating the westernised material way of life constantly engaged in the acts of error of judgement, misgivings, imperfectness and duplicity.

1968 Correspondence

Letter to Sacisuta -- Montreal 17 June, 1968:

Bhismadeva was endowed with the power of leaving his material body at his will and his lying down on a bed of arrows was his own choice.' Did Bhismadeva get wounded by arrows at the battle of Kuruksetra, or did he simply chose to leave his mortal body and thus lay down for passing on a bed of arrows") Bhismadeva was surely wounded by the arrows of Arjuna. But wounding is not always the cause of death. In our own practical experience we know that many soldiers become wounded in battlefield, sometimes very severely, but still one is not dead—he recovers in the hospital. So Bhismadeva was certainly such severely wounded, but that was not the cause of his death. He preferred to lie down on the bed of arrows and all Pandavas and Krishna arrived there to see his passing away. So his passing away was just on his own will—that was the benediction given by his father. In the battlefield Bhismadeva also wounded very severely Krishna. He was a great devotee of Krishna. And Lord Krishna accepted those arrows piercing His body as if somebody is worshiping with soft rose flowers.

Letter to Sacisuta -- Montreal 17 June, 1968:

He was a great devotee of Krishna. And Lord Krishna accepted those arrows piercing His body as if somebody is worshiping with soft rose flowers. That is Krishna's transcendental body. But those who are materialists, they are cheated by Krishna that He is wounded. The materialists will think that Krishna was wounded, but one who knows what is Krishna, knows also that He is worshiped by the arrows. So in the battlefield, neither Krishna was wounded, neither Bhismadeva died due to the injuries out of the wounds. He decided to pass away at that time, therefore he died. These things will be more and more clear when you understand Krishna by revelation. I think if you make progress in your present attitude, you shall soon know all these intricacies of spiritual and material living conditions.