Go to Vanipedia | Go to Vanisource | Go to Vanimedia


Vaniquotes - the compiled essence of Vedic knowledge


Zero (Books)

Srimad-Bhagavatam

SB Canto 1

SB 1.16.25, Purport:

The principles of religion are laid down by the Lord Himself, and the executor of such laws is Dharmarāja, or Yamarāja. Such principles work fully in the age of Satya-yuga; in the Tretā-yuga they are reduced by a fraction of one fourth; in the Dvāpara-yuga they are reduced to one half, and in the Kali-yuga they are reduced to one fourth, gradually diminishing to the zero point, and then devastation takes place. Happiness in the world depends proportionately on the maintenance of the religious principles, individually or collectively. The best part of valor is to maintain the principles despite all kinds of odds. Thus one can be happy during the span of life and ultimately return to Godhead.

SB Canto 4

SB 4.3.17, Purport:

Kuntīdevī, while offering prayers to Kṛṣṇa, addressed Him as akiñcana-gocara, one who is easily approached by those who are bereft of all material acquisitions. Material exhaustion is an advantage for advancement in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, although if one is conscious of his eternal relationship with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, one can utilize one's material assets, such as great learning and beauty and exalted ancestry, for the service of the Lord; then such assets become glorious. In other words, unless one is Kṛṣṇa conscious, all his material possessions are zero, but when this zero is by the side of the Supreme One, it at once increases in value to ten. Unless situated by the side of the Supreme One, zero is always zero; one may add one hundred zeros, but the value will still remain zero. Unless one's material assets are used in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, they may play havoc and degrade the possessor.

SB 4.22.33, Purport:

Jñāna, or knowledge, means to understand one's constitutional position, and vijñāna refers to practical application of that knowledge in life. In the human form of life, one should come to the position of jñāna and vijñāna, but despite this great opportunity if one does not develop knowledge and practical application of knowledge through the help of a spiritual master and the śāstras—in other words, if one misuses this opportunity—then in the next life he is sure to be born in a species of nonmoving living entities. Nonmoving living entities include hills, mountains, trees, plants, etc. This stage of life is called puṇyatām or mukhyatām, namely, making all activities zero. Philosophers who support stopping all activities are called śūnyavādī. By nature's own way, our activities are to be gradually diverted to devotional service. But there are philosophers who, instead of purifying their activities, try to make everything zero, or void of all activities. This lack of activity is represented by the trees and the hills. This is a kind of punishment inflicted by the laws of nature.

SB 4.23.35, Purport:

If a person wants to return home, back to Godhead, or wants to become a pure devotee (akāma), or wants some material prosperity (sakāma or sarva-kāma), or wants to merge into the existence of the Supreme Brahman effulgence (mokṣa-kāma), he is recommended to take to the path of devotional service and hear and chant of Lord Viṣṇu or of His devotee. This is the sum and substance of all Vedic literatures. Vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyaḥ (BG 15.15). The purpose of Vedic knowledge is to understand Kṛṣṇa and His devotees. Whenever we speak of Kṛṣṇa, we refer to His devotees also, for He is not alone. He is never nirviśeṣa or śūnya, without variety, or zero. Kṛṣṇa is full of variety, and as soon as Kṛṣṇa is present, there cannot be any question of void.

SB 4.25.33, Purport:

Generally people are of the opinion that we are all here accidentally and that as soon as these bodies are finished all our dramatic activities will be finished and we will become zero. Such scientists and philosophers are impersonalists and voidists. In this verse the girl is expressing the actual position of the living entity. She cannot tell Purañjana her father's name because she does not know from where she has come. Nor does she know why she is present in that place. She frankly says that she does not know anything about all this. This is the position of the living entity in the material world. There are so many scientists, philosophers and big leaders, but they do not know wherefrom they have come, nor do they know why they are busy within this material world to obtain a position of so-called happiness. In this material world we have many nice facilities for living, but we are so foolish that we do not ask who has made this world habitable for us and has arranged it so nicely. Everything is functioning in order, but people foolishly think that they are produced by chance in this material world and that after death they will become zero. They think that this beautiful place of habitation will automatically remain.

SB Canto 7

SB 7.7.36, Purport:

When a devotee is completely purified, he becomes anyābhilāṣitā-śūnya. In other words, all of his material desires become zero, being burnt to ashes, and he exists either as the Lord's servant, friend, father, mother or conjugal lover. Because one thinks constantly in this way, one's present material body and mind are fully spiritualized, and the needs of one's material body completely vanish from one's existence. An iron rod put into a fire becomes warmer and warmer, and when it is red hot it is no longer an iron rod but fire. Similarly, when a devotee constantly engages in devotional service and thinks of the Lord in his original Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he no longer has any material activities, for his body is spiritualized. Advancement in Kṛṣṇa consciousness is very powerful, and therefore even during this life such a devotee has achieved the shelter of the lotus feet of the Lord. This transcendental ecstatic existence of a devotee was completely exhibited by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu.

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta

CC Madhya-lila

CC Madhya 8.138, Purport:

In reference to the words aprākṛta navīna madana, aprākṛta refers to that which is the very opposite of the material conception. The Māyāvādīs consider this to be zero or impersonal, but that is not the case. Everything in the material world is dull, but in the spiritual world everything is alive. The desire for enjoyment is present both in Kṛṣṇa and in His parts and parcels, the living entities. In the spiritual world, such desires are also spiritual. No one should mistakenly consider such desires to be material. In the material world, if one is sexually inclined and enjoys sex life, he enjoys something temporary. His enjoyment vanishes after a few minutes. However, in the spiritual world the same enjoyment may be there, but it never vanishes. It is continuously enjoyed. In the spiritual world such sex pleasure appears to the enjoyer to be more and more relishable with each new feature. In the material world, however, sex enjoyment becomes distasteful after a few minutes only, and it is never permanent. Because Kṛṣṇa appears very much sexually inclined, He is called the new Cupid in the spiritual world. There is no material inebriety in such desire, however.

CC Madhya 9.49, Purport:

The Buddhists maintain that annihilation, or dissolution, is the highest truth. If the creation eternally exists, there is no question of dissolution or annihilation. This argument is not very strong because by practical experience we see that material things have a beginning, a middle and an end. The ultimate aim of the Buddhist philosophy is to dissolve the body. This is proposed because the body has a beginning. Similarly, the entire cosmic manifestation is a gigantic body, but if we accept that it always exists, there can be no question of annihilation. Therefore the attempt to annihilate everything in order to attain zero is an absurdity. By our own practical experience we have to accept the beginning of creation, and when we accept the beginning, we must accept a creator.

CC Madhya 9.49, Purport:

As soon as we accept a material body, we must accept the fact that that body will be annihilated and that we will have to accept another body. If all material bodies are doomed to annihilation, we must obtain a nonmaterial body, or a spiritual body, if we wish the next birth to be anything but false. How the spiritual body is attained is explained by Lord Kṛṣṇa in the Bhagavad-gītā (4.9):

janma karma ca me divyam evaṁ yo vetti tattvataḥ
tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti so ’rjuna

"One who knows the transcendental nature of My appearance and activities does not, upon leaving the body, take his birth again in this material world, but attains My eternal abode, O Arjuna."

This is the highest perfection—to give up one's material body and not accept another but to return home, back to Godhead. It is not that perfection means one's existence becomes void or zero. Existence continues, but if we positively want to annihilate the material body, we have to accept a spiritual body; otherwise there can be no eternality for the soul.

Other Books by Srila Prabhupada

Renunciation Through Wisdom

Renunciation Through Wisdom 2.8:

Demonic persons fail to understand the real purpose of human life. Instead, they are always quick to try to diminish the supreme position of Lord Kṛṣṇa. Such atheists may have very high ambitions and may perform great, noble deeds, but because their ambitions and deeds are cut off from a loving relationship to Lord Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Godhead, they are all useless. The demon Rāvaṇa wanted to reach heaven by constructing a stairway, but he failed. And all atheists' ambitions are like that. A zero placed next to the number one gives ten, a second zero makes one hundred, and so on. As long as the number one is there, the value keeps rising as the zeroes increase. But without the number one, any number of zeroes are valueless. Similarly, if a person spends his whole life simply increasing the "zeroes" of material wealth, fame, and learning, without any relationship to the "one"—Lord Kṛṣṇa—then his whole life is valueless.

Mukunda-mala-stotra (mantras 1 to 6 only)

Mukunda-mala-stotra mantra 1, Purport:

King Kulaśekhara next addresses the Lord as Dayāpara, "He who is causelessly merciful," because there is no one but the Lord who can be a causelessly merciful friend to us. He is therefore also called Dīna-bandhu, "the friend of the needy." Unfortunately, at times of need we seek our friends in the mundane world, not knowing that one needy man cannot help another. No mundane man is full in every respect; even a man possessing the greatest riches is himself needy if he is devoid of a relationship with the Lord. Everything is zero without the Lord, who is the digit that transforms zero into ten, two zeros into one hundred, three zeros into one thousand, and so on. Thus a "zero man" cannot become happy without the association of the Lord, the supreme "1."

The supreme "1" always wants to make our zero efforts valuable by His association, just as a loving father always wants an unhappy son to be in a prosperous position. A rebellious son, however, stubbornly refuses the cooperation of the loving father and thus suffers all sorts of miseries. The Lord, therefore, sends His bona fide representatives to all parts of the material creation, and sometimes He even comes Himself to reclaim His fallen sons. For this purpose He also exhibits the actual life in the transcendental world, which is characterized by relationships with Him in servitorship, friendship, parenthood, and consorthood. All relationships in the material world are but perverted reflections of these original relationships. In the mundane world we experience only the shadow of the reality, which exists in the spiritual world.

Page Title:Zero (Books)
Compiler:Visnu Murti
Created:20 of May, 2011
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=6, CC=3, OB=2, Lec=0, Con=0, Let=0
No. of Quotes:11