Krsna Book Chapter 87 - Prayers by the Personified Vedas: Difference between revisions
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Pages in category "Krsna Book Chapter 87 - Prayers by the Personified Vedas"
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A
- A clear explanation is given in the beginning of the Isopanisad, in which it is stated that the Supreme Lord is so complete that although unlimited energies, their transformations emanate from Him, Krsna's personality is not in the least bit transformed
- A devotee is never afraid of death or of changing his body; his consciousness is transformed into Krsna consciousness, and even if he does not go back to Godhead, even if he transmigrates to another material body, he has nothing to fear
- A devotee is sometimes greatly praised because of his transcendental activities, and sometimes he is criticized, even though there is no reason for adverse criticism
- A devotee should not be affected by the results of karma and jnana. One has to simply understand Krsna and carry out His desires. That is the pure devotional stage
- A devotee takes even an unfavorable condition to be the special favor of the Personality of Godhead. Actually, there are no unfavorable conditions for a devotee
- A devotee's attempt to engage his energies in such activities as constructing a Visnu temple, however, is never wasted
- A devotee's transcendental position within this material world is maintained in the association of pure devotees, simply by hearing the glorious activities enacted by the Lord in different ages and in different incarnations
- A Krsna conscious person is fully aware of this fact, and thus he does not take this material world to be false but acts in the reality of transcendental service
- A Krsna conscious person is fully electrified spiritually, and therefore anyone who touches or takes shelter of such a pure devotee becomes similarly electrified with spiritual potencies. Such devotees are never puffed up with material opulences
- A liberated person engaged in devotional service to the Lord may be seen by others to be engaged in the household duties of the material world, but since his consciousness is fixed in Krsna, he does not live within this world
- A living entity utilizes his senses, intelligence, mind and so on in a specific way of his own choosing and thus develops a particular type of body, within which he becomes encaged
- A living entity's entrapment in different species of life is due to the misapplication of his mind
- A materialist sticks to the world for sense gratification, but a Vaisnava sannyasi, although not accepting anything for his personal sense gratification, knows the art of utilizing everything for the service of the Lord
- A person who cannot overcome the jurisdiction of stereotyped religious principles is compared to an animal chained up by his master
- A person who is actually learned and sane does not claim to be God but tries to understand God, making distinctions between spirit and matter
- A person who knows the intrinsic value of this material world for the service of the Lord, who is not attached to the material world, and who renounces the material world by not accepting it for sense gratification is situated in real renunciation
- A person who tries to understand Krsna with full knowledge and devotion by following in the footsteps of previous acaryas conversant with scientific knowledge of the Supreme Lord is praiseworthy
- A pious man who is simply eager to know the science of Krsna also approaches the Supreme Lord. Out of these four classes of men, the last is praised by Krsna Himself in the Bhagavad-gita
- A spiritual master's qualification is that he is brahma-nistha, which means that he has given up all other activities and has dedicated his life to working only for the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krsna
- A vivid example is Bharata Maharaja. Although in his next life he became a deer, in the life after that he became completely free from all material contamination and was elevated to the kingdom of God
- A woman is first impregnated by a man, and then a child is produced. As such, the child produced by the woman is part and parcel of the man. Similarly, the living entities are apparently produced by the material nature, but not independently
- Above all other living entities is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krsna, or Purusottama, who is always liberated from all material conditions
- Acceptance of the spiritual body of the Lord as material is dictated by the tendency to equate the Supreme Personality of Godhead with the conditioned soul. The conditioned soul has a material body
- According to Mayavada philosophy, this manifested world, or material world, is mithya or maya, false. The Mayavadi preaching principle is brahma satyam jagan mithya: "Only the Brahman effulgence is true, and the cosmic manifestation is illusory, or false"
- According to the prayers of the personified Vedas, however, none of them (Mayavadis' opinion) is valid because their process of knowledge is created within the temporary material world
- According to the Vedic literature, living entities have knowledge, and thus they are called cetana, which means "in knowledge." Their situation in different conditions of life, therefore, is not accidental
- According to the Vedic version, before the creation this world had no existence, and after dissolution the world will no longer be manifested. Voidists also take advantage of this Vedic version and conclude that the cause of this material world is void
- According to them (the impersonalists), the Supersoul and the individual soul are on the same level; they are one, without any difference between them
- According to this view, the Absolute Truth, Brahman, should therefore be accepted as truth, whereas the cosmic manifestation, although a product of the Absolute Truth, cannot be taken as truth
- According to Vaisnava philosophy, when a living entity desires to gratify his senses and forgets the service of the Lord, he is given a place in the material world to act freely according to his desire
- According to Vaisnava, philosophy this cosmic manifestation is true because it is caused by the Supreme Personality of Godhead
- Actual Brahman realization means Krsna consciousness and engagement in devotional service. The devotees are therefore real brahmacaris because their activities are always in Krsna consciousness, devotional service
- Actually, ecstatic samadhi, or absorption in the Supreme Personality of Godhead, can be achieved by constant engagement in His service
- Actually, the living entities are infinitesimal parts and parcels of Brahman, and as such they are prone to be covered by the illusory energy
- Actually, there are no unfavorable conditions for a devotee. Knowing that everything is coming by the will of the Lord, he sees every condition as favorable, and in any condition of life he is simply enthusiastic to discharge his devotional service
- After all, both the impersonal and the personal feature of the Supreme Lord are beyond our material conception
- After assuming a material form, he (the individual soul) is subjected to the three material modes of nature and acts accordingly to continue his existence in the material world
- After much deliberation and consideration, when one has attained the perfection of knowledge, one comes to the conclusion that Krsna, or God, is the original cause of all causes
- After the creation of Brahma, the two kinds of demigods were born: demigods like the four brothers Sanaka, Sanatana, Sanandana and Sanat-kumara, who are representatives of renunciation of the world
- After this stage (prana-maya), when one is situated on the mental platform, his consciousness is called mano-maya
- After understanding the prayers offered by the personified Vedas, one should surrender unto the lotus feet of Lord Krsna
- Again, when there is cosmic manifestation, they (living entities) come out to fulfill the same desires, and therefore they appear in different species of life
- All living entities are part and parcel of the Supreme Lord and are qualitatively one, but they are now differently shaped in 8,400,000 species of life, just like many different ornaments manufactured from the same source of gold
- All of them (movable and immovable objects) act as His tributaries, just like subordinate kings who offer their annual taxes to the emperor
- All of them (voidists and impersonalists) again fall down because they neglect the lotus feet of the Lord
- All of these take charge of the three modes of material nature, but the ultimate direction is in the hand of Lord Visnu
- All such expansions, both svamsas and vibhinnamsas, are emanations from the original Personality of Godhead. Svamsa expansions are called visnu-tattva, whereas the vibhinnamsa expansions are called jiva-tattva. The different demigods are jiva-tattva
- All the bodies of the 8,400,000 species are created according to the mental condition of the individual living entities
- All the srutis, or personified Vedas, offered glories to the Lord again and again, singing, "Jaya! Jaya!" This indicates that the Lord is the most glorious
- All the Vedic scriptures, including the Puranas, the Vedas, the Upanisads and the Vedanta-sutra, teach the living entities how to attain the stage of rasa
- All these philosophers are impersonalists and are known as Mayavadis. Every one of them has tried to establish his own opinion
- All these Vedic injunctions indicate that the cosmic manifestation is due to the Supreme Absolute Personality of Godhead and that when it is dissolved it merges into Him
- Although a philanthropist's opening an educational institution may be pious activity, it comes under the laws of karma, whereas constructing a temple for Visnu is devotional service
- Although a pure devotee is by nature inclined to perform pious activities, no one can attain the favor of the Supreme Personality of Godhead by pious activities alone
- Although fire is always fire, it is exhibited in a size proportionate to the size of the wood. Similarly, although the individual soul is qualitatively one with the Supreme Lord, he exhibits himself according to the limitations of his present body
- Although in all the stages both the Supreme Lord and the living entities exist, the Supreme Personality of Godhead is always transcendental to our concept of life, whether we are in bondage or in liberation
- Although Krsna was a great-grandfather when He appeared on the Battlefield of Kuruksetra, He did not appear like an old man
- Although Lord Nrsimhadeva appears as death for an atheist like Hiranyakasipu, He is always kind and is the reservoir of all pleasure for the devotees like Prahlada. A pure devotee is not, therefore, afraid of birth, death, old age and disease
- Although such ceremonies (Vedic ritualistic ceremonies) are certainly mentioned in the Vedas, they are not meant for the intelligent class of men
- Although the Mayavadis believe that prior to its manifestation the cosmos was in Brahman, after creation it remains in Brahman, and after destruction it merges into Brahman, they do not know what Brahman is
- Although the sky, the water and the land are all part of the material world, when one stands on the solid land his position is more secure than when he stands in the sky or the water
- Although the Vedas have recommended worship of different demigods as different parts and parcels of Krsna, it is to be understood that such instructions are meant for less intelligent men who are still attracted by material sense enjoyment
- Although the water of the Ganges and the water of the Yamuna mix with the water of the sea, the river Ganges and river Yamuna still continue to exist independently
- Although they (Mayavadis) all have later compromised and stated that all opinions lead to the same goal and that every opinion is therefore valid
- Although they have a long duration of existence, all the manifestations of the material world - namely the time element, the living entities, the Vedas and the gross and subtle material elements - are created at some point
- Although this material world may be false, just like the paper, it has its proper beneficial utilization. Because the currency notes, although paper, are issued by the government, they have full value
- Although undergoing the threefold miseries of material existence, the illusioned living entity falsely thinks himself the master of all he surveys
- An earthen water jug, after being broken, may be transformed into a bowl or dish, but either as a dish, bowl or water jug, the earth itself continues to exist
- An intelligent person does not stand under the protection of different demigods, although they are part and parcel of Krsna. Rather, he stands on the solid ground of Krsna consciousness. That makes his position sound and secure
- An intelligent person gives up all stereotyped ideas and joins the Krsna consciousness movement for factual liberation
- An intelligent person possessing one million dollars in currency notes does not hold the money without using it, even though he knows perfectly well that the currency notes in themselves are nothing but paper
- Ananda-maya is the blissful life of knowledge and eternity. As it is said in the Vedanta-sutra, ananda-mayo 'bhyasat
- And the Taittiriya Upanisad says that worship of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the essence of all Vedic ritualistic performances
- Anna means "food." After this one lives in the consciousness of being alive. If one can continue his life without being attacked or destroyed, one thinks himself happy
- Another example is that although different rivers ultimately mix with the water of the sea, this does not mean that the individual identities of the rivers are thereby lost
- Another interpretation put forward by the Mayavadis is that in every millennium different types of bodies are manifest, and when the millennium is closed all the different bodies or expansions of Brahman automatically become one
- Another point clearly stated in the answer of Sukadeva Gosvami is that it is the mind, senses and intelligence of the individual living entity that the Lord created. It is not stated that the living entities themselves were ever created
- Any process of self-realization or God realization other than bhakti-yoga, or devotional service, is extremely difficult
- Anyone who attains the supreme perfection, being engaged in My personal devotional service in the eternal abode, reaches the highest perfection of human life and does not have to come back to the miserable material world
- Anyone who follows in the footsteps of recognized devotees, such as Brahma, Siva, the Kumaras, Manu, Kapila, King Prahlada, King Janaka, Sukadeva Gosvami, Yamaraja & their followers in disciplic succession, very easily finds the door of liberation open
- As a spark's falling onto the ground from a fire has a beginning, so a living entity's coming to this material world has a beginning, but no one can say when
- As a Vaisnava, then, one has ample opportunity to serve the Supreme Personality of Godhead simply by reclaiming these conditioned, misled living entities, training them in Krsna consciousness and leading them back home, back to Godhead
- As bubbles in the water appear in different shapes, the living entities also appear in the material world in different shapes and conditions, influenced by the modes of material nature
- As declared in the Vedas, these two birds, although sitting as friends, are not equal. One is simply a witness. This bird is Paramatma, or the Supersoul. And the other bird is eating the fruit of the tree
- As explained before, the particles of Brahman are like sparks blissfully dancing within a fire, but there is a chance of their falling from the fire to smoke, although smoke is another condition of fire
- As far as fruitive activities are concerned, they are mainly based on the platform of sense gratification. Therefore an advanced Krsna conscious person does not take to them
- As for the material creation, Brahma is the first created person. Before Brahma there was no living creature within this material world; it was void & dark until Brahma was born on the lotus flower that sprouted from the abdomen of Garbhodakasayi Visnu
- As His energies & activities increase, He also increases His knowledge to understand them. Both are increasing unlimitedly, & there is no end to it. In that sense it can be said that even God Himself does not know the limit of His energies and qualities
- As it is said in the Bhagavad-gita, foolish persons, after exhausting the results of their pious activities in the heavenly kingdom, come back again to this lower planetary system and then again try to go to the higher planetary system
- As Krsna says in the Bhagavad-gita, "After many, many births, the wise philosopher surrenders unto Me"
- As long as the living entities are situated in the lower four stages of life - anna-maya, prana-maya, mano-maya and vijnana-maya - they are considered to be in the material condition of life
- As Lord Krsna advised Arjuna, one has to go beyond the jurisdiction of the duties prescribed in the Vedas and take to Krsna consciousness, devotional service
- As mentioned above, the word mayat is also used in the sense of "transformation"; sometimes it is also used to mean "by-product"
- As one who is interested in gold accepts all the differently shaped gold ornaments, a Vaisnava, knowing well that all living entities are of the same quality as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, accepts all living entities as eternal servants of God
- As part of devotional service, Vaisnavas protect the body for the service of the Lord, but those who are gross materialists accept the body as the self
- As soon as one's accumulation of pious activities is used up, one has to leave the enjoyment of a higher standard of material prosperity in the heavenly planets, immediately come down again to these lower planets, where the duration of life is very short
- As soon as the individual living entity leaves the material body, the body is immediately annihilated, and similarly as soon as Lord Visnu leaves the cosmic manifestation, everything is annihilated
- As soon as there is creation by the Lord's glancing over the material nature, immediately the living entities spring up in their different living conditions, just as different types of vegetation grow after a rainfall
- As stated in the Bhagavad-gita, anyone who reaches the highest planet, the abode of Krsna, or even the Vaikuntha planets, never has to come down again to this miserable material condition of life
- As stated in the Bhagavad-gita, His (The Lord's) hands and legs are everywhere, for He is all-pervasive. The hands, legs, ears & eyes of all living entities are acting and moving by the direction of the Supersoul sitting within the living entity's heart
- As stated in the Bhagavad-gita, one has to think of Krsna always, one has to render loving service to Krsna always, and one always has to worship and bow down before Krsna. By this process only can one enter into the kingdom of God, without any doubt
- As stated in the Bhagavad-gita, to regulate those who are very much addicted to different kinds of sense gratification, the worship of demigods is sometimes recommended
- As such, He (the Supreme Lord) is everyone's master. He is sometimes manifest on the surface of the globe, but He is simultaneously within all matter
- As such, it is not improper to conclude that the living entities appearing within this material world in different shapes, such as human beings, demigods, animals, birds and beasts, all get their respective bodies due to different desires
- As such, the argument of the Mayavadi philosophers that this world is false is not accepted by the Vaisnava philosophers
- As such, the Supreme Lord is the supreme existence, the cause of all causes. Therefore the conclusion is that without development of Krsna consciousness one's life is simply a waste of time
- As the individual living entity maintains his particular body, the Supreme Personality of Godhead maintains the whole cosmic creation, entering within it
- As the Lord advises in the Bhagavad-gita, "Whatever you do, do it for Me; whatever you eat, first offer it to Me; whatever charity you want to give, first give it to Me; and whatever austerities and penances you want to perform, perform them for Me"
- As the salty taste of seawater and the sweet taste of Ganges water are different and this difference continuously exists
- At present the materialistic scientists follow in the footsteps of Gautama and Kanada, who propounded this theory, called Paramanuvada
- At the same time, the living entities are born from the transcendental body of the Lord
- Atoms may form the basic combinations of material existence, but these atoms are generated from the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Thus the philosophy of Gautama and Kanada cannot be supported
B
- Badarikasrama is situated in the northernmost part of the Himalayan Mountains and is always covered with snow. Religious Indians still go to visit this place during the summer season, when the snowfall is not very severe
- Because a material body can be neither omnipotent nor omniscient, the Lord's body is surely not material. The Mayavada theory that the Personality of Godhead comes within this material world with a material body cannot be supported by any means
- Because a pure devotee follows in the footsteps of the acaryas, any action he performs to discharge devotional service should be understood to be on the transcendental platform
- Because both of them (Lord's energies and knowledge) are unlimited, there is no end to the energies and no end to the knowledge with which to understand the energies
- Because both the material nature and the Supreme Lord are unborn, it is not possible that they can beget the living entities
- Because Narada was a naisthika-brahmacari he could remember whatever he heard from his spiritual master and would never forget it
- Because of His all-pervasiveness, He (The Supreme Lord) is able to enter not only into the hearts of the living entities, but even into the atoms also. As the Supersoul, He is the controller of all activities of the living entities
- Because of their poor fund of knowledge, the Mayavadi philosophers forget the fact that Krsna is always full with six opulences, eight transcendental qualities and eight kinds of perfection
- Because such great sages can remember everything, they are thoughtful, self-realized and completely fixed in the service of the Lord
- Because such varieties of energies have emanated from the Supreme Lord, they cannot be false. The Lord is ever-existing, and the energies are ever-existing
- Because the living entity is part and parcel of the Supreme, he exists eternally. Therefore, for him there cannot be any question of birth or death. So-called birth and death occur because of the material body
- Because the Lord possesses in full the six opulences of wealth, strength, fame, beauty, knowledge and renunciation, He alone is beyond the spell of material nature
- Because the minute living entity is prone to be subjected to the influence of material qualities, he is called jiva, and sometimes the Supreme Personality of Godhead is also known as Siva, the all-auspicious one
- Because the Paramatma (the localized aspect of the Supreme Personality of Godhead) and the individual living entity are both within the body, a misunderstanding sometimes takes place that there is no difference between the two
- Because the Supreme Personality of Godhead has entered this cosmic manifestation in the form of His plenary expansion and caused the creation, the Vaisnava philosophers see everything in this material world in relationship with the Supreme Lord
- Being properly received by Vyasadeva in his asrama and seated very comfortably, Narada Muni narrated the entire story of what he had heard from Narayana Rsi
- Being transcendentally situated, such personalities as the Kumaras are above all material considerations and are always neutral in respect to material dualities
- Beyond this inferior, material energy is a spiritual energy, known as the living entities. The living entities are accepted as the superior energy of the Lord
- Bhagavad-Gita says, "Devotees of the Personality of Godhead transcend all the reactions of the three modes of material nature and are situated on the transcendental platform of Brahman realization"
- Both the impersonalists and the personalists enter the spiritual realm, the spiritual sky, but the impersonalists are given their place in the impersonal Brahman effulgence, whereas the personalists are given a position in the Vaikuntha planet
- Both the Supreme Lord and the living entities enter into the material nature. The Supreme Lord, Krsna, by one of His plenary expansions, manifests as Karanodakasayi, Maha-Visnu, the gigantic Visnu form lying in the Causal Ocean
- By evolution in spiritual life, he comes to the understanding of the Supreme Lord, or the Supreme Soul. When one develops his relationship with Him and executes devotional service, that stage of life is called Krsna consciousness, the ananda-maya stage
- By His (Krsna's) energy He is present everywhere, but as the energetic He is not present everywhere. This simultaneous presence and nonpresence is inconceivable to our present senses
- By one's personal attempts, therefore, one cannot get free from the clutches of material nature. One has to accept a bona fide spiritual master and work according to his direction
- By such association, people can develop more and more in Krsna consciousness. Such advancement is not possible in ordinary household life, which is devoid of Krsna consciousness
- By such careful discrimination, one can clearly understand that the Supreme Soul is transcendental to both the superior and inferior energies, although He has a direct connection with both
- By superior arrangement a living entity is put into the womb of a certain type of material body, and then he develops a similar body
- By the example of the earthen pots and dishes the Vedic version is presented: although the existence of the particular by-products of the Absolute Truth is temporary, the energy of the Supreme Lord is permanent
- By the process of self-realization or God realization through fruitive activities, philosophical speculation or mystic yoga, one cannot actually approach the supreme source of everything
C
- Certainly He (Lord) is indirectly responsible for the creation and maintenance of this material world, but He is never responsible for the different conditions of the living entities
- Certainly the cosmic manifestation comes to a close and becomes void when the living entities merge into the body of Narayana to rest until another creation, and this may be called an impersonal condition, but these conditions are never eternal
D
- Demigods like Marici and their descendants, who are meant to enjoy this material world. From these two kinds of demigods were gradually manifested all other living entities, including the human beings
- Demons like Kamsa, Sisupala and Dantavakra attain the Brahman effulgence because they constantly meditate upon the Supreme Personality of Godhead out of enmity
- Desiring to expand Himself (Krsna) in multiforms, He glanced over the material energy, and thus innumerable living entities became manifest
- Devotees who are always situated in that position become electrified by the inconceivable potencies of the Lord, and thus they themselves become the source of liberation for their followers and devotees
- Devotional service is never within the jurisdiction of the law of karma
- Devotional service, however, is eternally going on in the eternal spiritual world
- Dissipation of ignorance takes place in the gradual progress of civilization from the barbarian stage to civilized life, and when one comes to the stage of civilized life he is said to be in the mode of passion
- Due to his long forgetfulness of real existence, he (individual soul) identifies himself with a particular form awarded to him by the laws of material nature
E
- Each and every universe is very securely packed, and there are numberless universes. All these universes float within the innumerable pores of the transcendental body of Maha-Visnu
- Each child can take advantage of the father's property & instruction, but even though the inheritance and instruction may be the same for all the children, out of their different desires each child creates a different life and thereby suffers or enjoys
- Eating is not in itself the cause of the vital energy of life. For digestion of eatables we have to take shelter of another, superior energy, which is mentioned in the Bhagavad-gita as vaisvanara
- Eko narayana asit: "Only Narayana existed before the creation." Srimad-Bhagavatam and the Vedanta-sutra also say that the original cause is sentient and both indirectly and directly cognizant of everything within this creation
- Employing this analogy of Brahman with earth, the impersonalists especially stress the Vedic statement sarvam khalv idam brahma, "Everything is Brahman"
- Even though a devotee slips in one birth, the continuation of his Krsna consciousness elevates him further and further, until he goes back to Godhead
- Even though during the time of dissolution all the conditioned living entities remain merged within the spiritual existence of the Lord, as if in deep sleep, their original desires to lord it over the material nature do not subside
- Everyone is seeing God according to his capacity; the only difference is that the theist sees God as the Supreme Personality, the most beloved, Krsna, and the atheist sees the Absolute Truth as ultimate death
- Everyone should understand that Lord Krsna is the supreme well-wisher of everyone and should take shelter of Him
- Everything about the Lord's activities and personal features is revealed to the devotee only through his loving service attitude
- Everything in the material world is already spiritual, but due to our lack of knowledge we see things as material
- Everything is created by His (The Supreme Lord's) superior energy, and everything in His creation appears to be perfectly done, without deficiency
- Everything is sufficiently provided by the Supreme Personality of Godhead. A real brahmana, therefore, does not endeavor for material perfection; rather, he approaches a bona fide spiritual master to accept orders from him
- Everything rests on Brahman, but Brahman itself rests on Krsna. Therefore Krsna is the ultimate Brahman, or Parabrahman
- Except for Him (The Supreme Lord), all living entities, from Brahma down to the ant, are conquered by the contact of material nature
F
- Factually, when the Supreme Personality of Godhead comes He exhibits a nonmaterial body, and thus there is no difference between His childish body when He is lying on the lap of His mother Yasoda and His so-called grown-up body fighting with the demons
- For creation, maintenance and annihilation, the Supreme Lord incarnates into three - Lord Brahma, Lord Visnu and Lord Siva - after manifesting the material cosmos
- For example, for persons very much addicted to meat-eating, the Vedic injunction recommends that after worshiping the form of goddess Kali, sacrificing a goat (not any other animal) under karma-kanda regulation, the worshipers may be allowed to eat meat
- For example, from earth a tree grows, and from the wood of the tree, fire is ignited. In that igniting process we first of all find smoke, and the next stage is heat, and then fire
- For example, one can observe the personal artistic work in a painting of a flower, and one can understand that the color adjustment, the shape and so on have demanded the minute attention of an artist
- For example, the different parts of the body cannot be taken as equal to the whole; rather, the whole body is the controller of the different limbs
- For example, there are many things made of clay, such as earthen pots, dishes and bowls. After their annihilation, these things may be transformed into many other material objects, but in all cases their existence as clay continues
- For instance, the eggs of a horse or the horn of a rabbit or the flower in the sky are phenomena which exist only in name
- For this reason, the Vedas say that God is beyond the grasp of our knowledge. Avan-manasa-gocara: to understand the length and breadth of God is beyond the jurisdiction of our mental speculation
- For those who are very materialistic and cannot understand the situation of the spiritual world, the abode of Krsna, great sages have recommended the yogic process whereby one gradually rises from meditation on the abdomen
- From Lord Brahma down to the ant, all living entities are jivas, whereas the Lord is the supreme four-handed Visnu, or Janardana
- From the authoritative sources of Vedic literature we have to understand both Him who is greater than the greatest and him who is smaller than the smallest
- From the Bhagavad-gita we understand that because Krsna has a sac-cid-ananda body, He did not forget instructing the sun-god about the Bhagavad-gita millions of years ago
- From the Bhagavad-gita we understand that even a person who is not up to the standard of pious activities but who is absolutely engaged in devotional service is to be considered well situated on the path of spiritual perfection
- From the Seventh Chapter of the Bhagavad-gita we understand that the five gross elements - earth, water, fire, air and sky - plus the subtle elements - mind, intelligence and false ego - are the eight separated energies of the Supreme Lord
- From the subject matter under discussion, we can gain a clear understanding of the difference between the impersonalists and the personalists
- From the Vedanta-sutra also it is understood that everything has emanated from the Supreme Brahman. As such, the Vaisnavas do not take this cosmic manifestation to be false
- From the Vedanta-sutra we understand that Brahman is by nature joyful. He cannot, therefore, change Himself into a body which is subject to so many painful conditions
- From the Vedas also we can understand that this asat, or temporary cosmic manifestation, is an emanation from the supreme sat, or fact
G
- Garbhodakasayi Visnu is an expansion of Karanodakasayi Visnu, Karanodakasayi Visnu is an expansion of Sankarsana, and Sankarsana is an expansion of Balarama, who is an immediate expansion of Lord Krsna
- Generally, the material opulences are good parentage, education, beauty and riches, but although a devotee of the Lord may possess all four of these material opulences, he is never carried away by the pride of possessing such distinctions
- Great devotees of the Lord travel all over the world from one place of pilgrimage to another, and on their way they meet many conditioned souls and deliver them by their association and distribution of transcendental knowledge
- Great personalities understand that a living entity entangled in this material world cannot be freed by his own efforts
- Great sages have therefore concluded that the process of meditation is designed so that the individual living entity may concentrate his attention on the lotus feet of the Supersoul form
- Grossly materialistic persons think that economic development is of foremost importance because they are under the impression that a living entity exists only by eating
H
- He (a devotee) is already situated on the Brahman platform and is in the transcendental realm, although he appears to be living within the body or within the material world
- He (Krsna) has all the opulences or facilities of mystic powers, such as anima-siddhi, the power to become smaller than the smallest
- He (Krsna) is called the supreme controller, Paramesvara. In addition, Krsna can bring anyone under His influence. This is called vasita
- He (Krsna) is therefore the original cause, or the cause of all causes, as confirmed in the Brahma-samhita
- He (living entity) creates a condition of life in which he either enjoys or suffers. We should definitely know that both the Lord and the living entities are eternally cognizant
- He (Lord Caitanya) has said that anyone who accepts the transcendental body of the Personality of Godhead to be made of material nature commits the greatest offense at the lotus feet of Visnu
- He (Lord) is just like the unlimited sky; as the sparks of a fire dance in the fire, similarly, all living entities are like birds flying in the unlimited sky of the Supreme Lord
- He (Narada Muni) became established in the truth, and he became so happy that he offered prayers to Narayana Rsi
- He (pure devotee) is not interested in the praise or condemnation of people engaged in material activities
- He (Sridhara Swami) says, "O all-merciful spiritual master, representative of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, when my mind will be completely surrendered unto your lotus feet"
- He (the Lord) is dictating or giving intelligence to the individual soul from within. It is clearly stated in the Gita that the Lord gives intelligence to the individual soul & that both memory and forgetfulness are due to the influence of the Supersoul
- He (the person whose only desire is to serve the S P of Godhead) is to be considered liberated while living within the body or the material world. The conclusion, therefore, is that a person fully engaged in Krsna consciousness is a liberated person
- He (The S P God) is the living force of all things, but He is transcendental to the material qualities. He is omnipotent; He is expert in manufacturing everything, & on account of His superior, natural knowledge, He can bring everyone under His control
- He (the Supersoul) lives within all of them (the living entities) and witnesses their actions, allowing them to act according to their desires and also giving them the results of their different activities
- He (The Supreme Lord) is just like the total mass of earth, from which varieties of earthly pots are manufactured: the pots are made of earthly clay, they rest on the earth, the original cause of all varieties of manifestation
- He (the Supreme personality of Godhead) acts just like the supreme emperor, and many thousands of kings and chiefs work under Him
- He (the Supreme Personality of Godhead) can enjoy anything through any part of His body, and therefore He is omnipotent. The limbs of a material body can perform only a particular function; for example, the hands can hold but cannot see or hear
- He (the Supreme Personality of Godhead) maintains all opulences and perfections in full while keeping Himself apart from all the tribulations of this material world
- He (Vaisnava) first marks a tilaka temple on the abdomen, then on the chest, then between the collarbones, then on the forehead, and gradually he marks the top of the head, the brahma-randhra
- His (devotees') engagements are different, exactly as the sleeping man's engagements are different from his bodily engagements
- His (Krsnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami's) statement is confirmed in the prayers by the personified Vedas
- His (Pariksit's) question was, "Since Vedic knowledge deals with the subject matter of the three qualities of the material world, how then can it approach the subject matter of transcendence, which is beyond the approach of the three material modes"
- His (The Supreme Lord's) position of eka-rasa does not change in the slightest when He becomes a witness and advisor to the individual soul in each individual body
- His austerities and penances are exemplary practices for the human being. The incarnation of God Narayana Rsi was sitting amongst many devotees in the village known as Kalapa-grama
- How a yogi can transfer himself to another planet is vividly described in the Second Canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam
- How can persons who are within this clouded portion, called the material world, conceive of the Absolute Truth by the speculative method
- How God is unlimited in His expansion of energies and activities can be roughly calculated by any sane and sober living entity
- How the living entity becomes liberated from the modes of material nature after surrendering unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead is illustrated by the example of a sleeping man within a room
- Human society is between the demigods and the animals, and thus some are more or less Krsna conscious, and some are completely forgetful of Krsna consciousness
I
- If a conditioned soul does not take advantage of this opportunity, after the dissolution of this material world he enters into the body of Narayana and remains there in deep sleep until the time of another creation
- If a living entity takes to Krsna consciousness, he is reinstated in his original position
- If a pious man is in need of material help, he prays to the Lord for such help. If a pious man is actually inquisitive about the science of God, he approaches the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krsna
- If all of them (all species of life) were plenary expansions of the Supreme Absolute Truth, then there would be no question of liberation, because Brahman would already be liberated.
- If by the evolutionary process of philosophical life one happens to reach the platform of intellectual life and understands that he is not this material body but a spiritual soul, he is situated in the vijnana-maya stage
- If God also has a material body, then the impersonalistic theory that the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the living entities are one and the same can be very easily propagated
- If he is the Supreme God, then how is it that he has been overtaken by impious activities and thereby subjected to the tribulations of the law of karma? When the Mayavadis are asked about this, they cannot properly answer
- If homogeneous oneness is accepted, then by the liberation of one individual soul, all other individual souls would have been liberated immediately. But the fact is that every individual soul is differently enjoying and suffering in the material world
- If one of them becomes intelligent enough, by the mercy of the spiritual master and the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krsna, then he begins his devotional life in Krsna consciousness
- If one simply sticks to the religious formulas and formalities but does not become elevated to the position of love of God, he is considered to be a chained animal
- If such conditioned souls take advantage of this opportunity and develop Krsna consciousness under the direct instruction of the Lord, then they are transferred to the spiritual world and do not have to come back to the material creation
- If the devotee can thus maintain his transcendental position, his liberation in this life and the next is guaranteed by the Supreme Personality of Godhead
- If the human body and the material creation are used for the service of the Supreme Lord, their activities are never false
- If the individual soul were not controlled by the Supersoul, then how could one explain the Vedic version that a living entity transmigrates from one body to another and enjoys or suffers the effects of his past deeds?
- If the intelligence is not properly utilized in controlling the senses and mind, the conditioned soul continues to transmigrate from one kind of body to another simply for sense gratification
- If the living entities take advantage of the Lord's instructions as given in the Bhagavad-gita and develop Krsna consciousness, then their lives become sublime, and they can go back to Godhead
- If the sparks somehow or other fall out of the fire, they lose their natural illumination; thus it is ascertained that the living entities come into this material world exactly as sparks fall from a great fire
- Impersonalists headed by Astavakra and later by Sankaracarya accept the impersonal Brahman effulgence as the cause of everything. According to their theory, the material manifestation is temporary and unreal
- Impersonalists sometimes give the example that if one stands on a stone or a piece of wood one certainly stands on the surface of the land, because the stone and wood both rest on the surface of the earth
- In a desert there is need of an ocean of water. But if only a drop of water is poured on the desert, what is the value of such water
- In all the Vedas the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the living entities are stated to be of the same quality - cetana, or spiritual
- In another part of the Vedas it is said, "You have nothing to do. You are so perfect in Your knowledge & potency that everything becomes manifest simply by Your will. There is no one equal to or greater than You, & everyone acts as Your eternal servant"
- In another place the Lord says that as the air is situated in the all-pervading sky, everyone is situated in Him, and everyone is acting under His direction
- In answering King Pariksit's question, Sukadeva Gosvami replied that the S P of Godhead has created the mind, senses and living force of the living entity for the purpose of sense gratification and transmigration from one kind of body to another
- In answering King Pariksit's question, Sukadeva Gosvami used the word atmane, which indicates the stage of brahminical qualification in which one is allowed to study the Vedic scriptures known as the Upanisads
- In different parts of the Upanisads, the Vedas declare, "The Supreme Brahman is eternal, full of all knowledge and all bliss. That one Supreme Personality of Godhead exists in the heart of every living entity"
- In great sacrifices the injunction is that Narayana should be present as the supreme predominating Deity of the sacrifice and that after the sacrifice is performed the remnants of food should be distributed amongst the demigods
- In His (Krsna's) childhood body He also fought with demons, such as Putana, Trnavarta and Aghasura, with strength equal to that with which He fought in His youth against demons like Dantavakra and Sisupala
- In material life, as soon as a conditioned soul changes his body he forgets everything of his past body
- In no circumstance, therefore, can the Supersoul and the individual living entity be taken as one, although both of them enter within the material body of a living entity
- In other words, a devotee does not much care whether or not he is liberated; he is eager only for devotional service. Devotional service means that one does not do anything independently of the sanction of the acaryas
- In other words, if one is not in Krsna consciousness, he is not eligible for liberation from the contamination of material existence
- In other words, if one practices yoga mysticism and does not accept a bona fide spiritual master, he will surely fail. He will simply waste his valuable time
- In other words, one can utilize the senses, mind and living force for sense gratification and transmigration from one body to another or for the matter of liberation
- In other words, only the liberated souls can worship the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Less intelligent Mayavadis take to the worship of the demigods, thinking that the demigods and the Supreme Personality of Godhead are on the same level
- In other words, only the Supreme Lord, the Personality of Godhead, can relieve the conditioned souls from the cycle of repeated birth and death
- In other words, taking shelter of Paramatma or taking shelter of impersonal Brahman is not as secure a course as taking direct shelter of Krsna in Krsna consciousness
- In other words, the supreme source of creation, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, cannot be understood by our own endeavor
- In our grossly materialistic way, we cannot conceive how the Supreme Person is above the impersonal activities of material nature
- In our practical life, we are attracted by the greatness of a person and not by the greatness of a big mountain
- In spite of the living entities' always being under the control of the Supreme Personality of Godhead in their different positions, spheres and species of life, He is never responsible for their different living conditions
- In Srimad-Bhagavatam, Third Canto, it is explained that under the control of superior authority a living entity is put within the semen of a male and injected into the womb of a particular female in order to develop a particular type of body
- In the barbarian stage, or in the mode of ignorance, the senses are gratified in a very crude way, whereas in the mode of passion, or in civilized life, the senses are gratified in a polished manner
- In the beginning of life, every living entity is food conscious. A child or an animal is satisfied only by getting nice food. This stage of consciousness, in which the goal is to eat sumptuously, is called anna-maya
- In the Bhagavad-gita it is also confirmed that simply by His transcendental glance over the material nature, He creates different varieties of entities, both movable and immovable, living and dead
- In the Bhagavad-gita it is clearly stated that the purpose of Vedic knowledge is to understand Krsna, and Krsna is understood by devotional service, beginning with the process of surrender
- In the Bhagavad-gita the Lord confirms that He awards different positions to different living entities in proportion to their surrender. This proportionate reward by the Personality of Godhead to the living entities is not partiality
- In the Bhagavad-gita the Lord says that a devotee who knows Him perfectly is very dear to Him. Four kinds of pious men take to devotional service. If a pious man is in distress, he approaches the Lord for mitigation of his distress
- In the Bhagavad-gita the Lord says that He enters within this material world by one of His plenary portions and thus the creation takes place
- In the Bhagavad-gita the Lord says, "Give up everything and just surrender unto Me." This process of realizing the S P of Godhead is open for everyone, but still it is the choice of the particular living entity whether to accept or reject this proposal
- In the Bhagavad-gita the Lord says, "I am the seed-giving father of all living entities." It is very simple to understand that the father gives birth to the children but the children act according to their own desires
- In the Bhagavad-gita, Krsna advises everyone always to think of Him, render devotional service to Him, worship Him and offer obeisances to Him
- In the Bhagavad-gita, Lord Krsna explains that although everything is resting on His energy, He is different or separate from the energy
- In the brahma-bhuta stage of life there is no anxiety and no hankering. This stage begins when one is equally disposed toward all living entities, and it then expands to the stage of Krsna consciousness
- In the Brahma-samhita, the body of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is described as ananda-cinmaya-rasa. The Supreme Personality of Godhead possesses a spiritual body, not a material body
- In the Caitanya-caritamrta it is confirmed by Lord Caitanya that the living entities are wandering within this universe in different species of life
- In the discussions held among the four brothers, one of them, namely Sanandana, was selected to speak, and the other brothers became the audience to hear him
- In the Eighth Chapter of the Bhagavad-gita it is clearly said that the Supreme Person, who lives eternally in the spiritual kingdom of God (sanatana-dhama), can be approached only by devotional service
- In the Fourth Chapter of the Bhagavad-gita the Lord says to Arjuna, "My dear Arjuna, because you are My devotee and because you are My intimate friend, I shall reveal to you the process of understanding Me"
- In the higher stages of devotional service, a devotee is not even concerned with the list of do's and do not's. Such a position can be maintained only by following in the footsteps of the acaryas
- In the last portion of the Bhagavad-gita, Lord Krsna very plainly says to Arjuna, "My dear Arjuna, now I have spoken everything to you. Now you may choose to accept it or not"
- In the material world, although the Lord is all-pervasive in His impersonal feature, the living entities have forgotten their Krsna consciousness to a greater or lesser degree, just as sparks sometimes fall from a blazing fire
- In the past Lord Narayana Rsi was an incarnation of Krsna who performed severe austerities in the Himalayan ranges
- In the spiritual world both the living entities and the Lord are manifest in their original status, like live sparks in a blazing fire
- In the Vedanta-sutra, the first sutra, or code, questions about the Absolute Truth. Athato brahma jijnasa: What is the nature of the Absolute Truth? The next sutra answers that the nature of the Absolute Truth is that He is the origin of everything
- In the Vedic literature, however, it is said that the Supreme Personality of Godhead impregnates the material nature with the living entities and then they come out
- In this age Lord Caitanya demonstrated the path of pure devotional service by putting Himself in the role of a pure devotee
- In this connection Narayana Rsi has used one particular word - rasa. In devotional service this rasa is the via medium or the basic principle for the exchange of dealings between the Lord and the living entity
- In this connection the example of the rainy season is very appropriate. Seasonal rainfall may be taken as the agent for creation because after the rainfall the wet fields are favorable for growing different types of vegetation
- In this regard, Srila Sridhara Svami has composed a verse which conveys the idea that the supreme source of everything, the S P of God, is so great & unlimited that it is not possible for the living entity to understand Him by any material acquisition
- In this regard, Sukadeva Gosvami has recommended that the beginners worship the virat-purusa, the gigantic universal form of the Lord
- In this way a devotee becomes fully Krsna-ized and, being always situated in Krsna consciousness, ultimately goes back to Krsna
- In this way one can become completely confident and satisfied, knowing that he has someone who is able to give him all protection
- In this way Sukadeva Gosvami informed Maharaja Pariksit of the answers to his questions regarding the essence of Vedic knowledge and what is considered to be the ultimate goal in the Vedas
- In this way the karmis are directed gradually to develop K C. Similarly, Krsna directs the philosophers to approach Him gradually by discriminating between Brahman and maya, for at last, when one is mature in knowledge, he surrenders unto Krsna
- In this way the living entity becomes situated in different species of life, either in a demigod, human or animal body, according to different situations and circumstances
- In this way the minds of great personalities are always engaged in Krsna. With their minds engaged in Krsna, naturally the captivated devotees simply talk of Krsna
- In this way, Krsna is endowed with all opulences, transcendental qualities and mystic powers. No ordinary living being can compare to Him
- Intelligent persons do not worship different demigods, who are simply infinitesimal representatives of Krsna manifest in conditioned bodies. The individual soul can exhibit his power only in proportion to the shape and constitution of the body
- Intelligent persons factually dip into the ocean of Your nectarean activities and very patiently hear about them
- It can be concluded that all the theories of the materialistic philosophers are generated from temporary illusory existence, like the conclusions in a dream. Such conclusions certainly cannot lead us to the Absolute Truth
- It is accepted in the Vedic literature that as water in contact with air sometimes presents innumerable bubbles, so a combination of the material nature and the Supreme Person causes the appearance of the living entities within this material world
- It is also possible for the living entity to be liberated again when by cultivation of real knowledge he becomes completely freed from the contamination of the material world
- It is also said in the Bhagavad-gita that a person who is engaged in devotional service with love and faith is guided from within by the Supreme Personality of Godhead
- It is clearly said therein that behind the cosmic activities is the direction of the Supreme Personality of Godhead
- It is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gita that a devotee engaged full time in the transcendental loving service of the Lord has already surpassed the influence of the three modes of material nature
- It is due to the impregnation of the material nature by the supreme father that the living entities are present. Therefore the argument that the individual living entities are not parts and parcels of the Supreme cannot stand
- It is explained in the Vedic literature that the living entities entrapped in different species of life are part and parcel of the Supreme Lord
- It is foolish and artificial to think oneself equal to the Supreme Lord, and it is still more foolish to think that one has not seen God. Everyone is seeing God according to his capacity
- It is only because He (Krsna) has qualities that the conditioned living entities can have qualities
- It is out of fear of Him that activities are rightly executed. Everyone's position is to be subordinate to the Supreme Lord, yet the Lord has no partiality in His view of the living entities
- It is recommended that we must follow the great personalities. Sukadeva Gosvami is also one of the great personalities, and his answer to the inquiry of Maharaja Pariksit is authorized
- It is said by Lord Ramacandra, "I always give confidence and security to anyone who surrenders unto Me and decides definitely that He is My eternal servant, for that is My natural inclination"
- It is said in the Bhagavad-gita that all material activity is going on under the direction of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krsna
- It is said in the Vedic literature that innumerable universes issue forth when Maha-Visnu exhales in His yoga-nidra and that innumerable universes enter His body when He inhales
- It is said that the demon Putana was elevated to the same position as that of Krsna’s mother. When Krsna kills a demon, the demon is supremely benefited, as much as a pure devotee is benefited by always being protected by the Lord
- It is said, harim vina na mrtim taranti: without the help of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, one cannot get out of the clutches of repeated birth and death
- It is said, therefore, that the voidists and the impersonalists are not very intelligent because they do not take shelter under the lotus feet of the Lord
- It is stated herein that such sages, including Narada Muni, hardly ever travel on land; they perpetually travel in space
- It is stated in several places that the living entities are like sparks of the fire and the Supreme Personality of Godhead is like the fire itself
- It is stated in the Bhagavad-gita that Lord Krsna descends in every millennium just to give protection to His devotees and to annihilate the nondevotees
- It is stated in the Bhagavad-gita that one who engages all his activities and senses in the devotional service of the Lord becomes completely peaceful because the Supersoul is satisfied with him
- It is stated in the Bhagavad-gita, Fourteenth Chapter, that in every species and form of life the spiritual part and parcel of the Supreme Lord is present
- It is stated that just as the atoms and particles of dust are floating within the air along with the birds and their number cannot be calculated, so innumerable universes are floating within the pores of the transcendental body of the Lord
- It is therefore confirmed in the Bhagavad-gita that even slightly using the body and the material world for the service of the Lord can deliver a person from the gravest danger
- It is to be understood that the parampara system begins with the Personality of Godhead Narayana Rsi. We should remember that this Veda-stuti is narrated by Kumara Sanandana, and the narration is repeated by Narayana Rsi in Badarikasrama
- It may be argued that because the living entities are born of the material nature they are all equal and independent
- It may be replied that if one stands directly on the surface of the earth he is more secure than if he stands on the wood or stone, which rest on the earth
- It may be temporary, but the earthen pot is taken into use for bringing water, and we continue to see it as an earthen pot. Therefore, although the earthen pot is temporary and different from the original earth, we cannot say that it is false
- It should be accepted that the acaryas are on the same platform as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and as such neither Krsna nor His representative acarya should be subjected to any adverse criticism by the neophyte devotees
- It should be concluded that whatever material facilities we are trying to enjoy are available only due to the mercy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead
- It simply appears false. The Mayavadi philosophers conclude that because the material nature has no existence in the beginning and is nonexistent after dissolution, it is false
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- Just as a person born in a particular family cannot understand the position of his great-grandfather, who lived before the birth of the recent generation, we are unable to understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Narayana, or Krsna
- Just as a person born recently in a family cannot understand the situation of his distant forefather, no one within this material world can understand the position of the Supreme Lord in the spiritual world
- Just as the shining particles of the sun's rays always exist with the sun, the living entities exist eternally as parts and parcels of the Supreme Personality of Godhead
- Just as the sun is never polluted by any contamination, the Supreme Lord is never polluted by any sinful activity. Although Krsna's actions may sometimes seem impious, He is never polluted by such actions
- Just as those who mistake a currency note for ordinary paper discard it and cannot utilize the money
K
- King Pariksit continued, "Brahman, or the Absolute Truth, has no material qualities, but our power of speaking does not go beyond the material qualities"
- King Pariksit continued, "Description of a subject matter necessitates describing its source of emanation, its qualities and its activities. Such description can be possible only by thinking with the material mind and by vibrating material words"
- King Pariksit continued, "How then can Brahman, the Absolute Truth, be described by your words? I do not see how it is possible to understand transcendence from such expressions of material sound"
- King Pariksit continued, "Since the mind is material and the vibration of words is a material sound, how can the Vedic knowledge, expressing by material sound the thoughts of the material mind, approach transcendence"
- King Pariksit inquired from Sukadeva Gosvami about a very important topic in understanding transcendental subject matter
- King Pariksit's question was, Which is the ultimate target of Vedic knowledge - this concentration on the impersonal feature of the Absolute Truth or concentration on the personal feature
- Krsna advises everyone just to surrender unto Him alone, and that is the way of Vedic instruction
- Krsna also has the perfection of laghima: He can become the lightest. It is stated in the Bhagavad-gita that it is because Krsna enters within this universe and within the atoms that all the planets are floating in the air
- Krsna also has the perfection of prapti: He can get whatever He likes. Similarly, He has the facility of isita, controlling power
- Krsna cannot be polluted by any sinful activity, Krsna never dies, Krsna never becomes old, Krsna is never subject to lamentation, Krsna is never hungry, and He is never thirsty
- Krsna consciousness is so sublime that anyone who takes to this process is elevated to the highest perfection of life - far, far beyond the concept of liberation
- Krsna Himself declares in the Bhagavad-gita that because He is transcendental to all sentient and insentient beings He is known as Purusottama, which means the Supreme Personality. (Purusa means "person," and uttama means "supreme" or "transcendental")
- Krsna Himself, His incarnations and His plenary expansions are all supreme well-wishers of the conditioned souls, but Krsna is the well-wisher even of the demons, for He gave salvation to all the demons who came to kill Him in Vrndavana
- Krsna is actually present everywhere. The Vaisnava, therefore, marks his body with temples of Visnu
- Krsna is always enjoying, either in the material world or in the spiritual world; because He is the supreme enjoyer, for Him there is no distinction between the material and spiritual worlds
- Krsna is not void. Whenever we speak of Krsna, He is present with His form, qualities, name, entourage and paraphernalia. Therefore, Krsna is not impersonal
- Krsna is the cause of all causes. He is the cause of both the material and the effective causes. Prakrti and purusa are not the ultimate cause
- Krsna is the Supreme Brahman because of His unlimited knowledge, unlimited potencies, unlimited strength, unlimited influence, unlimited beauty and unlimited renunciation
- Krsna's welfare activities are absolute, for whether He annihilates a demon or gives protection to a devotee, the result of His activities is one and the same
- Krsna, as Garbhodakasayi Visnu, is within the gigantic universe, and He is lying in the Causal Ocean as Maha-Visnu, in a body so gigantic that when He exhales, millions and trillions of universes emanate from His body
- Krsnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami, after studying all the Vedic literatures and hearing from all authorities, has given his opinion that Krsna is the only supreme master and that all living entities are His eternal servants
L
- Living just like a tree, eating just like a camel and having sex just like the dogs and hogs. Thus he (The living entity) has been frustrated in fulfilling the specific purpose of human life
- Lord Brahma says, "I worship Lord Govinda, the original personality, the cause of all causes"
- Lord Kapila the incarnation of Godhead appeared as the son of Kardama Muni long, long ago, during the time of Svayambhuva Manu; the modern age is the age of Vaivasvata Manu
- Lord Krsna advises that the worshipers of the demigods are not very intelligent persons because they derive only temporary, exhaustible results
- Lord Krsna says in the Bhagavad-gita that He helps the digestion in the form of vaisvanara. The Supreme Personality of Godhead is all-pervasive; therefore, His presence in the stomach as vaisvanara is not extraordinary
- Lord Krsna says in the Bhagavad-gita, "The influence of the material nature is insurmountable, but anyone who surrenders unto Me can verily overcome the influence of material nature"
- Lord Krsna states that the brahma-bhuta ananda-maya stage is complete only when there is an exchange of love between the Supreme and the subordinate living entities
- Lord Krsna therefore instructs us that an acarya is above criticism. A neophyte devotee should not consider himself to be on the same plane as the acarya
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- Materialistic persons generally worship the transient material body and forget the welfare of the spirit soul within the body. Some take shelter of materialistic science to improve bodily comforts
- Men who are too much attached to material enjoyment are captivated by the prospect of being elevated to the higher planetary system, and so they take to such ritualistic activities
- Merging into the spiritual existence is the living entity's realization of qualitative oneness with the Supreme Lord in His aspects of eternity and knowledge. But the actual ananda-maya stage is attained when one is engaged in devotional service
- Mistaking the rope for a snake does not mean that the rope or the snake is false, and therefore this example, used by the Mayavadis to illustrate the falsity of the material world, is not valid
- Muladhara and manipuraka are technical terms which refer to the intestines within the abdomen
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- Narada and the Kumaras travel throughout the universe to educate the conditioned souls that their business in the world is not that of sense gratification but of reinstating themselves in their original position of devotional service to the S P of God
- Narada Muni addressed Narayana Rsi as an incarnation of Krsna and specifically addressed Him as the supreme well-wisher of the conditioned souls
- Narada Muni, after offering respects to Narayana Rsi, went to the asrama of Vyasadeva, his disciple
- Narayana Rsi informed Narada Muni that the essence of all the Vedas and Vedic scriptures (namely, the four Vedas, the Upanisads, the Puranas and the Vedanta-sutra) is to render transcendental loving service to the Lord
- Narayana Rsi is the incarnation of Krsna for showing us the path of self-realization by undergoing severe austerities
- Narayana Rsi still resides in Badarikasrama and is accepted as an incarnation of Narayana
- Narayana Rsi told Naradaji that the same question Naradaji had raised had been discussed in that meeting on Janaloka. This is the way of understanding through the parampara, or disciplic succession
- Narayana Rsi, being an incarnation of Krsna, is also addressed as the well-wisher of the conditioned souls. As stated in the Bhagavad-gita, everyone should know that there is no well-wisher like Krsna
- Narottama Das Thakura continued, "I pray that You please be merciful upon me. Please do not kick me away, for I have no other shelter than You"
- Nature and the living entities are sometimes designated as prakrti and purusa respectively. The whole cosmic manifestation is an amalgamation of prakrti and purusa
- Nature is the ingredient cause, and the living entities are the effective cause. These two causes combine together, and the effect is this cosmic manifestation
- No one can accuse the Supreme Lord of partiality in giving one type of body to a certain type of living entity and another type of body to another living entity
- No one can act independently of the sanction of the Supersoul. The individual soul acts according to his past karma, reminded by the Lord
- No one can blame the Supreme Lord for creating this material world
- No one can say when such desires were awakened in them, and therefore it is said, anadi-karma: the cause of such material existence is untraceable
- No one knows when material life began, but it is a fact that it does have a point of beginning because originally every living entity is a spiritual spark
- No sane man, therefore, will accept the theory that the Supersoul and the individual soul are of the same category
- Nor is a devotee very much disturbed or pleased by praise or condemnation from people in general
- Not only does a pure devotee purify his own personal existence, but whoever becomes his disciple also becomes purified and is ultimately able to enter the kingdom of God without difficulty
O
- Of all His (Visnu's) glories, the most important is His causeless mercy upon the conditioned souls in reclaiming them from the clutches of maya
- Of course, these were not ordinary sages sitting with Him, and the great sage Narada also appeared there. After offering his respects to Narayana Rsi, Narada asked Him exactly the same question King Pariksit asked Sukadeva Gosvami
- Offering worship to the Supreme Lord by praying means
- On the contrary, others are dependent on Him for the activities of their different sense organs. Unless the living entity is inspired and directed by the Supersoul, he cannot act
- On the forehead is the temple of Lord Kesava, on the belly is the temple of Lord Narayana, on the chest is the temple of Lord Madhava, and on the throat, between the two collarbones, is the temple of Lord Govinda
- On the left side of the waist is the temple of Vamanadeva, on the left arm the temple of Sridhara, on the left side of the collarbone the temple of Hrsikesa, on the upper back the temple called Padmanabha, & on the lower back the temple called Damodara
- On the other hand, those who are not devotees but are engaged in uncertain processes of self-realization, such as jnana, yoga and karma, are understood to be still contaminated
- On the right side of the waist is the temple of Lord Visnu, on the right arm the temple of Lord Madhusudana, and on the right side of the collarbone the temple of Lord Trivikrama
- On the strength of this argument, Mayavadi philosophers try to establish that although this cosmic manifestation is certainly an emanation from the Absolute Truth, the cosmic manifestation does not necessarily have truth in it
- On the top of the head is the temple called Vasudeva. This is the process of meditation on the Lord's situation in the different parts of the body, but for those who are not Vaisnavas, great sages recommend meditation on the bodily concept of life
- Once when Narada, the great devotee and ascetic amongst the demigods, was traveling among different planets, he desired to meet the ascetic Narayana personally in Badarikasrama and offer Him respects
- One class of philosophers, known as Mimamsakas, represented by sages such as Jaimini, have concluded that everyone should engage in pious activities or prescribed duties and that such activities will lead one to the highest perfection
- One may argue that because this material world is created by the Lord, He is therefore responsible for its condition
- One should be unattached to the material world because material attachment is meaningless
- One should follow in the footsteps of Sukadeva Gosvami and all the other Vaisnavas in the disciplic succession and should pay respectful obeisances unto Lord Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Hari
- One should pray to the Lord to be engaged in His devotional service eternally, so that by the grace of the Lord one can understand the supreme source of creation
- One who can remember everything perpetually is called a sruti-dhara. A sruti-dhara brahmacari can repeat verbatim all that he has heard, without notes and without reference to books
- One who cannot believe that the Lord can be worshiped with equal success in the Deity, or arca form, or who cannot concentrate on this form is advised to worship the universal form of the Lord
- One who follows in the footsteps of such great personalities surely walks very easily on the path of liberation and ultimately goes back home, back to Godhead. That is the way of perfecting this human form of life
- One who has attained the perfect brahminical stage naturally becomes renounced; he does not strive for material gain because by spiritual knowledge he has come to the conclusion that in this world there is no insufficiency
- One who is enlightened in the mode of goodness by the process of devotional service is freed from the modes of ignorance and passion
- Only through devotional service can one understand how the Supreme Personality of Godhead, by His inconceivable potencies, simultaneously acts impersonally and as a person
- Only when the individual living entity surrenders unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead is his liberation from material existence possible
- Otherwise, how could He (Krsna) remember that He first taught the yoga system of the Bhagavad-gita to the sun-god, Vivasvan? Therefore, He never dies. Nor does He ever become an old man
- Our material hearts are full of multidesires, which cannot be fulfilled by materialistic society, friendship and love
- Out of these, the first three are upakurvana, which means that the brahmacari can marry later, after the brahmacari period is over. The naisthika-brahmacari, however, is completely reluctant to have any sex life
P
- Papa means "sinful." All our material desires are to be taken as papa-bija, or the seeds of sinful desires. The Bhagavad-gita explains that our sinful desire is that we do not surrender unto the Supreme Lord
- Pariksit questioned Sukadeva, and Sukadeva referred the matter to Narada, who had in the same way questioned Narayana Rsi, who had put the matter to still higher authorities on the planet of Janaloka, where it was discussed among the great Kumaras
- People in general have a natural inclination to read narrations in which ordinary jivas are glorified, but when they become attracted by the Vedic scriptures which delineate Your eternal pastimes, they actually dip into the ocean of transcendental bliss
- Persons who are intelligent, who have taken shelter of a bona fide spiritual master to see things as they are, do not take to fruitive activities but engage themselves in the transcendental loving service of the Lord
- Persons who are not devotees take to the Vedic ritualistic ceremonies for materialistic reasons, and then they are bewildered
- Persons who have taken to the path of self-realization must therefore be very careful to avoid contamination by the influence of maya. Srila Rupa Gosvami says that a devotee should be completely free from all sorts of material desires
- Pious activities may purify one of the contamination caused by ignorance and passion
R
- Rasa is also described in the Vedas: raso vai sah. "The Supreme Lord is the reservoir of all pleasure"
- Regarding persons attached to the impersonal Brahman, Srimad-Bhagavatam says, "My dear Lord, those who think of themselves as liberated by mental speculation are not yet purified of the contamination of material nature"
- Rupa Gosvami said, "Because the Mayavadis do not know that everything has a utilization for the service of the Lord, they take the world to be false and falsely think they are liberated from the contamination of the material world"
- Rupa Gosvami said, "The entire material world, the entire cosmic manifestation, belongs to God, Krsna. Therefore, everything should be utilized for Krsna, and the devotee should remain unattached to material things"
S
- Sanandana said, "After the dissolution of the whole cosmic manifestation, the entire energy and the whole creation in its nucleus form enter into the body of Garbhodakasayi Visnu"
- Sanandana said, "The Lord at that time remains asleep for a long, long time, and when there is again necessity of creation, the Vedas personified assemble around the Lord and begin to glorify Him"
- Sanandana said, "The personified Vedas sing, 'Actually, we, as personified Vedic knowledge, are always engaged in Your service by helping the conditioned souls understand You (Visnu)'"
- Sanandana said, "The personified Vedas sing, 'All glories unto You! All glories unto You (Visnu)! By Your own transcendental nature You fully possess all six opulences. As such, You are able to deliver all conditioned souls from the clutches of maya'"
- Sanandana said, "The personified Vedas sing, 'Due to their (the living entities) own faults they imitate You (Visnu) by trying to become the supreme enjoyer. Thus they disobey Your supremacy and become offenders'"
- Sanandana said, "The personified Vedas sing, 'O Lord, we fervently pray that You kindly do so. All the living entities, being Your parts and parcels, are naturally joyful, eternal and full of knowledge'"
- Sanandana said, "The personified Vedas sing, 'Since all engagements are based on knowledge supplied by You (Visnu), the conditioned souls can execute pious activities only when You mercifully inspire them to do so'"
- Sanandana said, "The personified Vedas sing, 'The conditioned souls are struggling very hard to escape from material bondage, and according to their different conditions of life they have been given different types of engagement'"
- Sanandana said, "The personified Vedas sing, 'This cosmic manifestation, made of the three material qualities, is just like a prison house for the conditioned souls'"
- Sanandana said, "The personified Vedas sing, 'Without taking shelter at Your (Visnu's) lotus feet one cannot surpass the influence of material energy'"
- Sanandana said, "The Vedas personified describing His (Lord's) wonderful transcendental pastimes, exactly like servants of a king"
- Sanandana said, "The Vedic reciters, or the personified Vedas, sing thus, 'O unconquerable Lord, You are the Supreme Personality. No one is equal to You or greater than You. No one can be more glorious in his activities'"
- Sanandana said, "When the king is asleep in the morning, the appointed reciters come around his bedroom and begin to sing of his chivalrous activities, and while hearing of his glorious activities, the king gradually awakens"
- Sanandana say, "The personified Vedas sing, 'Because of their offenses, Your material energy has taken charge of them. Thus their transcendental qualities of joyfulness, bliss and wisdom have been covered by the clouds of the three material qualities'"
- Sannyasis who do not take advantage of this life to realize Krsna simply waste their time and energy in activities outside the jurisdiction of the renounced order
- Sarvam khalv idam brahma means that everything is Lord Krsna in the sense that everything is His energy. That is the vision of the maha-bhagavatas. They see everything in relation to Krsna
- Similarly, the living entities who have come down to this material world have made their own choice to enjoy this material world. It is not that Krsna sent them into this world
- Similarly, the parts and parcels of the supreme whole are always dependent and are always controlled by the source of the parts and parcels. It is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gita that the living entities are parts and parcels of Krsna
- Similarly, the seeds of our desires are varied. Every living entity has a different type of desire, and that desire is the seed which causes his growth in a certain type of body. This is explained by Rupa Gosvami by the word papa-bija
- Similarly, there are Sankhya philosophers, metaphysicians or materialistic scientists who study this cosmic manifestation by their invented scientific method and do not recognize the supreme authority of God as the creator of the cosmic manifestation
- Simply by knowing the transcendental nature of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krsna, one becomes free from the chains of the repetition of birth and death, and after quitting his present body he goes back home, back to Godhead
- Since all living beings are sons of the Supreme Lord, everyone can enjoy the material facilities given by the Lord, but unfortunate living entities create unfavorable conditions of life by fighting among themselves
- Since everything is an expansion of the energy of the Supreme Lord, the expansions are as real as the Supreme Lord is
- Since Krsna is the cause of all causes, He is worshiped by all kinds of sages & saints through observance of the regulative principles. As far as meditation is concerned, great personalities meditate on the transcendental form of Krsna within the heart
- Since Krsna is the cause of all causes, intelligent persons should take shelter of His lotus feet
- Since the source of its manifestation is truth, the manifestation is also truth, but one must know how to utilize it
- Since the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the original cause of everything, the Vaisnava sees everything in relationship with Krsna, even in this material world. By such advanced knowledge, everything becomes spiritualized
- Sinful persons are already suffering tribulation in this life, and because they are not perfect in self-realization they will be plagued with further tribulation in the next life
- So that every living entity can take advantage of the association of Krsna conscious persons, such great devotees open temples and asramas where Krsna's devotees assemble
- So the difference between Siva and jiva is that the all-auspicious Personality of Godhead is never affected by the material qualities, whereas the minute portions of the S P of Godhead are prone to be affected by the qualities of material nature
- Some of the energy is temporary - sometimes manifested and sometimes unmanifested - but this does not mean that it is false
- Some of the sages in the disciplic succession from the great saint Aruna meditate on the heart, because the Supersoul stays within the heart along with the living entity
- Some of them (the sparks of a fire) are flying very high, some are flying at a lower altitude, and some are flying at a still lower altitude
- Some sparks fall onto water; they immediately lose their original brilliance and become extinct. They are comparable to the living entities who take their birth in the midst of gross materialists
- Some sparks fall to the ground and remain midway between the blazing and extinct conditions
- Sometimes people neglect to accept a spiritual master, and instead they endeavor for self-realization by mystic yoga practice, but there are many instances of failure, even by great yogis like Visvamitra
- Sometimes the Mayavadi philosophers push forward the argument that if this material world is truth, then why are householders advised to give up their connection with this material world and take sannyasa
- Sometimes the mind is compared to a maddened elephant. Without following the direction of a spiritual master one cannot control the mind and the senses
- Sri Narada Muni was hearing from Him. So in the statement given by Narayana Rsi to Narada Muni, as narrated by Kumara Sanandana in the form of the Veda-stuti, it is understood that God is the one supreme and that all others are His servants
- Sri Narottama dasa Thakura has sung that persons who do not take to the devotional service of the Lord but are attracted to the process of philosophical speculation and fruitive activities drink the poisonous results of such actions
- Sridhara Svami has composed a nice verse in this regard - My dear Lord, to be engaged always in thinking of Your lotus feet is very difficult
- Sridhara Svami has composed a nice verse in this regard, "I worship the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is always manifested as reality even within this material world, which is considered by some to be false"
- Sridhara Svami said, "As the cause of all causes, You (The Supreme Lord) have entered my body as the Supersoul, and I have the prerogative of enjoying the supreme blissful life of knowledge along with You"
- Sridhara Svami, the great commentator on Srimad-Bhagavatam, has composed a nice verse in this regard, the meaning of which is as follows
- Sridhara Swami continued, "I have been cracked to pieces by the smashing wheel of material existence, and because of my various sinful activities while existing in this material world, I am burning in the blazing fire of material reactions"
- Sridhara Swami continued, "Only by your (spiritual master's) mercy, I shall be able to get relief from all obstacles to spiritual life, and I shall be situated in blissful life"
- Sridhara Swami continued, "Somehow or other, my dear Lord, I have come to take shelter under Your lotus feet. Please accept me and give me protection"
- Sridhara Swami said in his verse "It is a fact that unless one is Krsna conscious, unless one is engaged in devotional service, and unless one has the mercy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he cannot cross over this material ocean"
- Sridhara Swami said in his verse, "As far as I am concerned, I wish to be liberated simply by chanting the holy names of the all-beautiful Supreme Personality of Godhead - Madhava, Vamana, Trinayana, Sankarsana, Sripati and Govinda"
- Sridhara Swami said in his verse, "He (the Supreme Lord) is the supreme potency of all material senses or sense organs. He is omnipotent, and He is the supreme performer of everything"
- Sridhara Swami said in his verse, "He (the Supreme Lord) is worshipable by everyone. Unto that Supreme Person do I offer my respectful obeisances"
- Sridhara Swami said in his verse, "It is possible for great devotees who have already achieved love for You and are engaged in transcendental loving service"
- Sridhara Swami said in his verse, "Let others travel to many holy places of pilgrimage for salvation, or let them engage in deep study of philosophy and Vedic literature"
- Sridhara Swami said in his verse, "Let the mystic yogis engage in their meditational service, and let the different sects engage in unnecessary arguing as to which is the best"
- Sridhara Swami said in his verse, "Let them loiter in the darkness of ignorance and illusion, falsely enjoying as if very learned scholars, although they are without knowledge of the Supreme Personality of Godhead"
- Sridhara Swami said in his verse, "My dear Lord, I wish that my mind may also be fixed somehow or other on Your lotus feet, at least for some time"
- Sridhara Swami said in his verse, "Simply by chanting Your transcendental names, O Lord Madhupati, let me become free from the contamination of this material existence"
- Sridhara Swami said, "My dear Lord, I am eternally a part of You, but I have been entrapped by the material potencies, which are also an emanation from You"
- Sridhara Swami said, "My dear Lord, please order me to render You loving service so that I can again be brought to my original position of transcendental bliss"
- Srila Narottama dasa Thakura, also, prays like this, "My dear Lord, O son of Nanda Maharaja, associated with the daughter of Vrsabhanu, I have come to take shelter under Your lotus feet after suffering greatly in the material condition of life"
- Srila Rupa Gosvami has given transcendentalists two formulas for dealing with this material world
- Srila Rupa Gosvami has therefore criticized the Mayavadi sannyasis with his second formula
- Srila Rupa Gosvami therefore declares that if one rejects this material world as false, not considering the importance of this material world as a means to serve the Supreme Personality of Godhead, such renunciation has very little value
- Srila Sridhara Svami has composed a nice verse in this regard - Let others engage in severe austerities, let others fall to the land from the tops of hills and give up their lives
- Srila Sridhara Svami has composed a nice verse in this regard, which states - My dear Lord, let others engage in false argument and dry speculation, theorizing upon great philosophical theses
- Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura remarks in this connection that if sannyasis (persons in the renounced order of life, who have left their homes for self-realization) do not engage themselves in the devotional service of the Lord
- Srimad-Bhagavatam says, "Although they (The impersonalists) rise to the transcendental situation of existence in impersonal Brahman, they certainly fall from that exalted position because they deride Your lotus feet"
- Sripada Sridhara Svami has composed a nice verse in this regard - Let me offer my respectful obeisances unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who has no material senses but through whose direction and will all the material senses are working
- Sripada Sridhara Svami has composed a nice verse in this regard, the meaning of which is as follows - My dear Lord, I am a living entity perpetually disturbed by the conditions of material existence
- Strictly speaking, the word atma can be applied only to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but because the living entities are His parts and parcels, sometimes the word atma is applied to them also
- Such a devotee can understand that all conditions of life, favorable and unfavorable, are created by the supreme will of the Lord
- Such a person actually has nothing to do with his material body or the material world. Those who are not in Krsna consciousness are called karmis and jnanis, and they hover on the bodily and mental platforms and thus are not liberated
- Such contaminated persons, although apparently advanced in self-realization, cannot even liberate themselves, what to speak of those who follow them
- Such devotees are not interested even in so-called liberation, and they certainly have no interest in material activities for elevation to the heavenly planets for sense gratification
- Such engagements (construction of Visnu's temple) are called krsnarthe akhila-cesta, variegated activities performed to please Krsna. A philanthropist's opening a school building and a devotee's constructing a temple are not on the same level
- Such grossly materialistic persons forget that although we may eat as much as we like, if the food is not digested it produces the troubles of indigestion and acidity
- Such nondevotees are compared to chained animals, for they are not able to go beyond the jurisdiction of the formalities of a certain type of faith. In the Bhagavad-gita they are condemned as veda-vada-rata
- Such persons are described in the Vedic literature as suicidal, because attachment for the material body, its comforts forces the living entity to wander through the process of birth & death perpetually & suffer the material pangs as a matter of course
- Such persons eat all kinds of obnoxious things, such as meat, and take pleasure in alcohol and other intoxicants, and after death they are forced to take birth in lower species of life
- Such philosophers (impersonalists) push forward the argument that although cow dung is dead matter, sometimes it is found that scorpions come out of cow dung. Similarly, dead matter like nails and hair comes out of the living body
- Such things may be called false. But the Vaisnava cannot take this material world to be false simply because of its temporary nature, its manifesting and again dissolving
- Sukadeva Gosvami continued to speak to Pariksit Maharaja. "My dear King," he said, "in this regard I shall narrate a nice story. This story is important because it is in connection with Narayana, the Supreme Personality of Godhead"
- Sukadeva Gosvami continued to speak, "This narration is a conversation between Narayana Rsi and the great sage Narada"
- Superficially it appears that a child is born due to the combination of the father and mother, but the ultimate cause of both the father and the mother is Krsna
- Surrendering unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and nothing else, is therefore the cause of liberation
T
- Taking shelter of devotional service to the Lord in full Krsna consciousness is therefore the only way to become free from the contamination of material, conditioned life, especially in this age
- That is the way of Vedic understanding. Great sages like the four Kumaras, headed by Sanaka, followed these principles of Vedic knowledge and came gradually from impersonal understanding to the platform of personal worship of the Supreme Lord
- That the cosmic world is only temporarily manifested does not mean that it is false or that the source of its manifestation is false
- The Absolute is personal, but He is independent. He does not require to personally take a brush and colors to paint the flowers, for His potencies act so wonderfully that it appears as if flowers have come into being without the aid of an artist
- The Absolute Truth can be realized only through devotional service
- The actions of the Krsna consciousness movement are directed by the previous acaryas, headed by Srila Rupa Gosvami; in the association of devotees following these principles, a devotee is able to perfectly maintain his transcendental position
- The appearance of the individual living entities is not factually due to material nature alone, just as a child produced by a woman is not her independent production
- The argument may be put forward, How can something the size of a thumb be accommodated within the heart of an ant? The answer is that this thumb measurement of the Supersoul is imagined in proportion to the body of the living entity
- The argument that the scorpion comes from cow dung, meaning that a living entity comes from matter, is also unsound
- The artist's work is clearly exhibited in a painting of different blooming flowers
- The atheistic Sankhyaite philosophers will of course offer their arguments that the material cosmic manifestation is due to prakrti and purusa - material nature and the living entity, or the material cause and the effective cause
- The attainment of spiritual perfection by different spiritualists is explained in the Bhagavad-gita, wherein the Lord says that He grants the perfection the devotee desires in proportion to the devotee's surrender unto Him
- The basic principle of the cosmic manifestation is always the same: Brahman, or the Absolute Truth; therefore, the Mayavadi philosophers' theory that it is false is certainly only a mental concoction
- The Bhagavad-gita affirms that a devotee is never vanquished. A devotee's path to the spiritual kingdom, back home, back to Godhead, is guaranteed
- The Bhagavad-gita confirms that the devotee always absorbed in Krsna consciousness has no anxieties for his maintenance or protection. Being constantly absorbed in Krsna consciousness, he ultimately achieves the highest perfection
- The Bhagavad-gita confirms the fact that this material world is created and annihilated perpetually and that conditioned souls without Krsna consciousness come back again and again, whenever the material creation is manifest
- The Bhagavad-gita says that material nature works under the direction of Krsna
- The Bhagavad-gita's instructions are equal for everyone: everyone should surrender unto the Supreme Lord, and He will take charge of one and protect one from sinful reactions
- The Bhagavatam also says that the statements in the Maha-Purana (Srimad-Bhagavatam) constitute the essence (rasa) of all Vedic literature
- The Bhagavatam is the essence of the ripened fruit of the tree of the Vedic literature
- The body of the living entity in different forms is supplied by material nature, but the living entity himself is supplied by the Supreme Lord. The father and mother give the body necessary for the living entity under certain conditions
- The bona fide spiritual master is he who knows the science of devotional service in disciplic succession. This disciplic succession is called srotriya
- The Brahma-samhita clearly describes Brahman, "It flourishes on the strength of Govinda and after annihilation enters into and is conserved in Govinda"
- The Brahma-samhita clearly describes Brahman, "The living entities, space, time and the material elements like fire, earth, sky, water and mind constitute the total cosmic manifestation, known as Bhuh, Bhuvah and Svah, which is manifested by Govinda"
- The Brahma-samhita says, "The Lord is within this universe and also within every atom"
- The brahmacari system of life is especially advantageous in that it increases the power of memory and determination
- The Brahman effulgence is the personal bodily rays of Krsna. As such, impersonal Brahman cannot be the original cause of the cosmic manifestation. The original cause is the all-perfect, sentient Personality of Godhead, Govinda
- The cessation of the variegatedness of the material world and the merging of the living entities into the body of the Supreme are not permanent, because the creation will take place again
- The cloud pours water on the surface of the earth, but it never touches the earth directly. Similarly, the Lord creates this material world simply by glancing over the material energy
- The complete activities of material nature under the three modes are conducted under the direction of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krsna
- The conception of a life of sense gratification is illusion, but the conception of service by the jivatma to the Paramatma, even in this material world, is not at all illusory
- The conception of the falsity of this material world is due to a lack of knowledge, but a person advanced in Krsna consciousness sees the Supreme Personality of Godhead in everything
- The conclusion is that a devotee, by the grace of the Lord, is liberated in both this life and the next, whereas karmis, jnanis and yogis are never liberated, either in this life or in the next
- The conclusion is that if a human being does not fulfill the mission of his life by worshiping the Supreme Lord and does not go back home, back to Godhead, it is to be understood that he is breathing just like a blacksmith's bellows
- The conclusion is that the demigods are not independently powerful: they are posted as different executives under the order of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and they eat prasadam, or the remnants of sacrifices
- The conclusion is, rather, that the senses, mind and intelligence in the gross stage of contamination cannot appreciate the nature of the Absolute Truth, but when purified, the senses, mind and intelligence can understand what the Absolute Truth is
- The conclusion is, therefore, that even when the living entities become free from all contamination of material conditions and merge into the spiritual kingdom, their individual tastes in relationship with the Supreme Lord continue to exist
- The conclusion is, therefore, that everyone is under the control of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, everyone is serving under the supreme direction of the Lord, and everyone is afraid of the Supreme Personality of Godhead
- The conclusion of all these is that one should know Sri Krsna as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He is the Parama-purusa, or the Supreme Personality of Godhead, under whose superintendence material nature works
- The conclusion of the atheistic Sankhya philosophy is that because the effects - the phenomena of this material world - are temporary, or illusory, the cause is therefore also illusory
- The conclusion of the Mimamsaka philosophers is not actually the truth which can lead one to real understanding
- The conclusion of the Mimamsaka philosophers that pious activities will lead one to the Absolute Truth is not valid
- The conclusion of the Sankhya philosophers is therefore invalid
- The conditioned soul becomes enwrapped in the material world, whereas the Supersoul, or the Supreme Personality of Godhead, leaves it without being affected, just as a snake sheds his skin
- The conditioned soul who is very much disgusted with material activities becomes refreshed and forgets all the fatigue of material activities simply by dipping into the transcendental ocean of Your pastimes
- The conditioned souls are generally put into the activities of the material world for sense gratification
- The conditioned souls, although eternally existing as parts of the Supreme Lord, are sometimes put within the cloud of the material concept of life, in the darkness of ignorance. The whole Vedic process is to alleviate that darkened condition
- The cosmic manifestation has been made possible because of the entrance of the Supreme Personality of Godhead as Maha-Visnu within this material world
- The cosmic manifestation is flickering and temporary does not mean that it is false. The definition of falsity is "that which never had any existence but which exists only in name"
- The cosmic manifestation, because of the flickering nature of its impermanent existence, appears to less intelligent men to be false
- The creation of the material world can therefore be taken as one of the pastimes of the Lord; it is called one of the Lord's pastimes because He creates this material world whenever He desires
- The demigods in the higher planets - Lord Brahma, Indra, Candra, the sun-god and various other demigods - are all Krsna conscious
- The devotee becomes transcendental to all dualities, such as heat and cold, honor and dishonor. Being freed from all dualities, he feels transcendental bliss, and he no longer suffers cares and anxieties due to material existence
- The devotee contemplates, "Persons unaware of the supreme reservoir of pleasure falsely engage in deriving pleasure from sense gratification, but this is transient and illusory"
- The devotee contemplates, "Since You (Lord) are present, what is the use of the transient pleasure derived from society, friendship and love"
- The devotee engaged by the direction of the spiritual master in the transcendental loving service of the Lord contemplates as follows, "My dear Lord, You are the reservoir of pleasure"
- The devotee sees everything in this material world as an opportunity to serve the Lord. He does not reject anything as material but dovetails everything in the service of the Lord
- The devotee who wants to elevate himself simply by the process of devotional activities, especially by hearing and chanting, very soon comes out of the clutches of the dualities of material existence
- The devotees are engaged in devotional service with love and affection from the very beginning, and therefore the Lord personally directs them so that they can approach Him without difficulty or deviation
- The devotees are liberated in both this life and the next. Any work done in this material world for Yajna (Visnu, or Krsna) is considered to be liberated work
- The devotees are not at all interested in arguing with the nondevotees to nullify their theories. Rather than wasting time, they always engage themselves in the transcendental loving service of the Lord in full Krsna consciousness
- The difference between the Supreme Lord and the living entities continuously exists, even though at the time of dissolution they appear to merge
- The difference is that the S P of Godhead always exists in the ananda-maya stage, whereas the subordinate living entities, because of their minute position as fragmental portions of the Supreme Lord, are prone to fall to the other stages of life
- The different birds are flying in different positions according to their respective abilities, but the sky has nothing to do with this ability
- The different stages described above are all in relationship with the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Although in all circumstances there exist both the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the living entities
- The distinction between the Supersoul and the conditioned individual soul is that the Supersoul, or the Supreme Personality of Godhead, maintains His natural opulences, known as sad-aisvarya, asta-siddhi and asta-guna
- The earthen pot or water jug may be broken or transformed into another shape, such as that of a dish or bowl, but the ingredient, or the material basis, namely the earth, continues to be the same
- The entrance of the Supreme Lord into everyone's heart as Paramatma sometimes bewilders the impersonalists into equating the living entities with the Supreme Lord
- The example given by the Mayavadi philosophers that inanimate matter like nails and hair comes from the living body is not a very sound argument. Nails and hair are undoubtedly inanimate, but they come not from the animate living being
- The example may be given that when a person is angry he does things which are different from his normal condition of life, but the fact that the mood of anger appears and disappears does not mean that the energy of anger is false
- The example of the earthen pot is very suitable: the form of the earthen pot may be temporary, but it has a specific purpose. The purpose of the earthen pot is to carry water from one place to another
- The example of the earthen pot may be cited again: the earthen pot produced from the whole earth is temporary, but when used for a proper purpose the earthen pot is not false
- The facilities of living in the creation of the Lord are equally offered to all living entities
- The fact is that the minds of the living entities are now agitated by the three material qualities, and the living entities are therefore transmigrating, as if in dreams, from one body to another
- The fact is that ultimately the Absolute Truth is the Supreme Person. But because He acts through His different potencies, which are impossible for the gross materialists to see, the materialists accept Him as impersonal
- The father is never responsible for the different futures of his children
- The first of Krsna's eight transcendental qualities is that He is always untouched by the contamination of material existence. This is mentioned in the Isopanisad: apapa-viddham
- The first-class yogi who has attained perfection in the practice of the yoga system ultimately passes through the brahma-randhra to any one of the planets in either the material or spiritual worlds
- The form of the unlimited eternal is sometimes conceived as the universal form, and in the Vedic literatures like the Upanisads the form of the limited eternal is vividly described
- The forms of a water jug, bowl or dish are false, but their existence as earth is real. This is the impersonalists' version. This cosmic manifestation is certainly produced from the Absolute Truth, but because its existence is temporary, it is false
- The four Kumaras and all other authorized sages know perfectly that devotional service in Krsna consciousness is the essence of all Vedic literature, and they preach this on different planets, traveling in outer space
- The four Kumaras were the first-born sons of Brahma; therefore they are known as purva-jata. It is stated in the Bhagavad-gita that the parampara system, or the disciplic succession, begins with Krsna Himself
- The four sects of Vaisnava disciplic succession, namely the Madhva-sampradaya, the Ramanuja-sampradaya, the Visnu-svami-sampradaya and the Nimbarka-sampradaya, in pursuance of all Vedic conclusions, agree that one should surrender unto the S P of God
- The great authority Bhismadeva has also given the opinion that this process of chanting and hearing about the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the highest religious process
- The great sage Narada has this qualification, and therefore, having taken instructions from Narayana Rsi, he is engaged in propagating the philosophy of devotional service all over the world
- The great sage Narayana began to speak. "My dear Narada," He said, "I shall tell you a story which took place long, long ago
- The great sage Narayana continued, "In this meeting, all the great sages and brahmacaris very elaborately discussed the point about which you have asked Me, and their discussion was very interesting"
- The great sage Narayana continued, "It was so delicate that even the Vedas were unable to answer the intricate questions raised"
- The great sage Narayana continued, "Their discussion was on the subject matter of understanding the Absolute Truth, Brahman. You were not present at that meeting because you had gone to see My expansion Aniruddha, who lives on the island of Svetadvipa"
- The great sage Narayana continued, "There was a great meeting of the denizens of the heavenly planets, and almost all the important brahmacaris, such as the four Kumaras - Sanandana, Sanaka, Sanatana and Sanat-kumara - attended"
- The gross materialist, without seeing the hand of God in such artistic manifestations as the actual flowers blooming in nature, concludes that the Absolute Truth is impersonal
- The highest platform of realization for the living entity is the attainment of devotional life. One cannot be engaged in devotional life, or Krsna consciousness, unless one is fully free from material contamination
- The human form of body is a special chance in which the developed form of consciousness can be utilized
- The human form of life is a chance for one to understand his position. Therefore the most intelligent person takes to devotional service just to engage his mind, senses and body in the service of the Lord without deviation
- The idea is not to encourage one to eat meat but to allow one who insists on eating meat to eat it under certain restricted conditions
- The idea is that because God and His knowledge are both unlimited, as soon as God is cognizant of some of His energies, He perceives that He has still more energies. In this way, both His energies and His knowledge increase
- The impersonal conception recommends merging into the existence of the Supreme, and the voidist philosophy recommends making all material varieties void. Both these philosophies are known as Mayavada
- The impersonal feature of the Absolute, the Brahman effulgence, is but the rays of the personal body of Krsna. These rays of the personal body of Krsna are cast all over the creation of the Lord
- The impersonalist theory is that Brahman Himself has accepted different types of bodies and that this is His lila, or pastime
- The impersonalists argue that Krsna Himself has been transformed into many and that therefore everything is Krsna and worship of anything is worship of Him
- The impersonalists argue that this is fallacious because it is sometimes found that matter is produced from spirit soul and sometimes that spirit soul is produced from matter
- The impersonalists do not take into account the varieties of manifestation emanating from the supreme cause, Brahman. They simply consider that everything emanates from Brahman and after destruction merges into Brahman
- The impersonalists' understanding is that the Absolute Truth, which is always present, is the only truth. In the opinion of other transcendentalists, however, this material world, being produced of the Absolute Truth, is also truth
- The impersonalists, yogis and enemies of the Lord enter into the Lord’s transcendental effulgence
- The individual living entities, who are eternally part and parcel of God, are smaller than the smallest
- The individual living entity never has sufficient knowledge; otherwise, how could he have come under the control of maya, or the material energy? The word "sufficient" can be accepted, therefore, only in proportion to the magnitude of the living entity
- The individual soul in the body of a baby cannot show the full power of a grown man, but the S P of Godhead, Krsna, even when lying on the lap of His mother as a baby, could exhibit His full power by killing Putana and other demons who attacked Him
- The individual soul, from Lord Brahma down to the ant, exhibits his spiritual potency according to his present body. The demigods are in the same category with the individual souls in the bodies of human beings or in the bodies of lower animals
- The instructions of a pure devotee to his disciple are also very simple. No one feels any difficulty in following in the footsteps of a pure devotee of the Lord
- The K C movement is based on this principle. Srila Narottama dasa Thakura has sung, "My dear Lord, let me be engaged in Your transcendental loving service, as indicated by the previous acaryas, and let me live in the association of pure devotees"
- The Krsna consciousness movement issues a supreme call to all kinds of religionists, asking them with great authority to join this movement, by which one can learn how to love God and thus surpass all formulas and formalities of scriptural injunction
- The Kumaras and Narada are known as naisthika-brahmacaris. Such brahmacaris are called vira-vrata because their vow of celibacy is as heroic as the vows of the ksatriyas
- The living entities are of two kinds: one class is called nitya-mukta, ever liberated, and the other is called nitya-baddha, ever conditioned. The nitya-mukta living entities are in the spiritual kingdom, and the nitya-baddhas are in the material world
- The living entities are therefore called jivatma, and the Supreme Lord is called Paramatma. Both the Paramatma and the jivatma are within this material world, and therefore this material world has a purpose other than sense gratification
- The living entities merged into the Supreme at the time of dissolution are compared to honey. In the honeycomb, the tastes of different flowers are conserved
- The living entities who merged into the body of the Supreme without having developed their Krsna consciousness will again appear in this material world when there is another creation
- The living entities, along with their different tastes, remain individually submerged in Brahman until another manifestation of the material world
- The living entity cannot be liberated from material entanglement by his own effort. He must therefore take to the devotional service of the lotus feet of the Supreme Lord, or the Supersoul within himself
- The living entity cannot conquer the influence of the material modes of nature by his own endeavor, but because material nature is working under the control of the Supreme Lord, the Lord is beyond its jurisdiction
- The living entity has a small material body taken in various species and forms, and similarly the whole universe is but the material body of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This body is described in the sastras as virat-rupa
- The living entity is intelligent. One therefore has to utilize his intelligence over the mind and the senses. When the mind and senses are purified by the proper use of intelligence, then the conditioned soul is liberated
- The living entity never possesses anything exactly in the same proportion as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore, this mayat affix cannot be used to mean that the individual living entity is quantitatively equal with the Lord
- The living entity transmigrates from one body to another according to his different desires, which in the subtle form of intelligence, mind and false ego accompany him from body to body
- The living entity wants to imitate Krsna and tries to lord it over material nature in order to enjoy sense gratification; thus he forgets his original position, and his illuminating power, his spiritual identity, is extinguished
- The Lord confirms in the Bhagavad-gita, "My supreme abode is a transcendental place from which, having gone, one never returns to this material world"
- The Lord creates the material world to give the conditioned souls a chance to elevate themselves to the higher platform of Krsna consciousness
- The Lord explains in the Bhagavad-gita that there is nothing superior to Him and that the impersonal Brahman is subordinately situated as a manifestation of His personal rays
- The Lord Himself as Paramatma, or the spiritual master sitting within one's heart, gives the devotee exact directions by which he can gradually go back to Godhead
- The Lord Himself claims in the Gita that He is the seed-giving father of all forms and species, who therefore must all be considered sons of the Lord
- The Lord Himself confirms that the view that there is no supreme cause of this material manifestation, that there is no God, and that everything is only the creation of the interaction of matter is a view of the asuras
- The Lord is known as Purusottama because He is transcendental to both material and spiritual existence. That He is the cause of all causes means that He is the cause of the spiritual world and of the material world as well
- The Lord says in the Bhagavad-gita, "I shall give you protection from the reactions of sinful desires." These sinful desires are manifested in different types of bodies
- The Lord says in the Bhagavad-gita, "The asuras' view of this cosmic manifestation is that the whole creation is false. The asuras think that the mere interaction of matter is the source of the creation and that there is no controller or God"
- The Lord says in the Bhagavad-gita, nistrai-gunyo bhavarjuna - My dear Arjuna, just try to become transcendental to the Vedic rituals
- The Lord's creation of this material world is compared to a cloud's creation of vegetation. In the rainy season the cloud creates different varieties of vegetation
- The Lord's pastimes and qualities are unlimited. It is not possible for us to remember all the qualities of the Lord. Therefore, the personified Vedas worshiped to the best of their ability, and at the end they spoke as follows
- The lower part of the universe is considered the feet and legs of the Lord's universal form, the middle part of the universe is considered the navel or abdomen of the Lord
- The material elements are accepted as the inferior energy of Krsna. By their interaction the cosmic manifestation takes place, rests on Krsna, and after dissolution again enters into the body of Krsna as His subtle energy
- The material elements cannot be the cause of the material creation. Although the material elements are accepted as immediate causes, the ultimate cause is the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself
- The material nature produces all kinds of movable and immovable objects within the material world, but none of them can independently act or create without the direction of the Supreme Lord
- The material pangs are inevitable as long as we exist within the material world, but a devotee does not divert his attention to such actions and reactions, which are the results of pious and impious activities
- The material world is an impediment for the ordinary living entities because they are under its control, but Krsna, being the controller of the material world, has nothing to do with the impediments it offers
- The material world was created for the enjoyment of living entities who wanted to give up the eternal service of the Lord to become the supreme enjoyer themselves
- The materialistic civilization is primarily situated in these three stages, anna-maya, prana-maya and mano-maya
- The Mayavadi philosopher claims to be equal to God, but he cannot reply to the question of why he has fallen into material entanglement
- The Mayavadi philosopher sometimes puts forward the argument of the snake and the rope. In the dark of evening, a curled-up rope is sometimes, due to ignorance, taken for a snake
- The Mayavadi philosophers consider ananda-maya to be the state of being merged in the Supreme. To them, ananda-maya means that the Supersoul and the individual soul become one
- The Mayavadi philosophers interpret that the word yan-maya, or cin-maya, indicates that the living entity is always equal to the Supreme. But one has to consider whether this affix, mayat, is used for "sufficiency" or for "transformation"
- The Mayavadi philosophers mistake the living entity for the Paramatma, who is actually sitting with the living entity as a friend
- The Mayavadi philosophers take advantage of the flickering nature of this cosmic manifestation to try to prove their thesis that this world is false
- The Mayavadi philosophers' thesis that God and the individual soul are one and the same cannot be accepted because the individual soul has to develop his power according to the development of different types of bodies
- The Mayavadis' theory that the Supersoul and the individual soul are equal is only a misconception. The conclusion is, therefore, that Krsna is worshipable and that all other living entities are simply His servants
- The merging of different living entities into Brahman at the time of dissolution involves the dissolution of different types of bodies
- The most dangerous theory of the impersonalists is that when God comes as an incarnation He accepts a material body created by the three modes of material nature. This Mayavada theory has been condemned by Lord Caitanya as most offensive
- The most intelligent devotees do not take to any means of self-realization except devotional service and constant engagement in the nine different processes of devotional life, especially hearing and chanting
- The Narada Pancaratra states that the living entities, who are the marginal potency of the Supreme Lord, are undoubtedly of the same quality of spiritual existence as the Lord Himself, but they are prone to be tinged with the material qualities
- The nature of the individual soul is forgetfulness, but the presence of the Lord within the heart reminds him of what he wanted to do in his past life. The intelligence of the individual soul is exhibited like fire in wood
- The next prayer of the personified Vedas to the Lord concerns His entering into different species of life
- The only factual process of self-realization or God realization is devotional service, and one who takes to this process takes to the real process of God realization
- The opulences of the Supersoul, or the Supreme Personality of Godhead, however, are not diminished, although He appears within this material world
- The original cause of everything is neither void nor impersonal but is the Supreme Person. Demons may say that this material creation is anisvara, without a controller or God, but such arguments ultimately cannot stand
- The original, spiritual form of the living entity is one ten-thousandth the size of the tip of a hair. It is also stated that spirit is greater than the greatest and smaller than the smallest
- The person who actually wants perfect fulfillment of the mission of human life should simply worship Lord Krsna, and that will simplify the matter and completely guarantee the success of his human life
- The person whose only desire is to serve the Supreme Personality of Godhead may be situated in any condition in the material world, but he is to be understood as jivan-mukta
- The personalists who follow in the footsteps of the inhabitants of Vrndavana or strictly follow the path of devotional service are elevated to the personal abode of Krsna
- The personified Vedas ccontinued, "It is created, and it is annihilated. Because of its different conditions of existence, the cosmic manifestation has no fixed position"
- The personified Vedas condemn the impersonal conception as a gross misrepresentation
- The personified Vedas continue, "Because a living entity desires and deserves a particular kind of body, it is given to him by the material nature, under the order of the Supreme Lord"
- The personified Vedas continued by saying that the Supersoul and the individual soul, or Paramatma and jivatma, cannot be equal in any circumstance, although both of them sit within the same body, like two birds sitting in the same tree
- The personified Vedas continued their prayers, "Dear Lord, Your impersonal feature is explained in the Vedas. You have no hands, but You can accept all sacrifices offered to You. You have no legs, but You can walk more swiftly than anyone else"
- The personified Vedas continued to pray, "Because this process (of hearing and chanting the Lord's pastimes) has the specific potency of nullifying the accumulated results of sinful life"
- The personified Vedas continued to pray, "Because You are the ultimate controller of creation, maintenance and dissolution. You are the controller of the three worlds, Bhuh, Bhuvah and Svah; You are the controller of the fourteen upper and lower worlds"
- The personified Vedas continued to pray, "Dear Lord, considering all points of view, if a person has to worship someone superior to himself, then just out of good behavior he should stick to the worship of Your lotus feet"
- The personified Vedas continued to pray, "Thus Krsna consciousness becomes fixed in the heart of a devotee"
- The personified Vedas continued to pray, "Thus they (Intelligent persons) are immediately freed from the contamination of the material qualities; they do not have to undergo severe penances and austerities for advancement in spiritual life"
- The personified Vedas continued to pray. "Dear Lord," they said, "from all Vedic information it is understood that You are the supreme controller and all living entities are controlled"
- The personified Vedas continued, " Your Lordship is the supporter and maintainer of all living entities - demigods, human beings and animals. Everyone is supported by You, and You are also situated in everyone's heart"
- The personified Vedas continued, "A Krsna conscious being becomes uninterested in family life, where there is some concession for sense enjoyment. In other words, he is no longer interested in sense gratification"
- The personified Vedas continued, "A nondevotee's long duration of life is compared to the long existence of a tree, his voracious eating capacity is compared to the eating of dogs & hogs, & his enjoyment in sex life is compared to that of hogs & goats"
- The personified Vedas continued, "Actually there is no chance of becoming purified from material contamination or of stopping the repeated cycle of birth and death unless one is a thoroughly pure devotee"
- The personified Vedas continued, "All these different persons, although concentrating their minds in different ways, achieve spiritual perfection according to their different perspectives because You, O Lord, are equal to all Your devotees"
- The personified Vedas continued, "Although it is not befitting to say that You do not know Yourself, it is practical to understand that because You have unlimited qualities and energies"
- The personified Vedas continued, "Although You have no eyes, You can see whatever happens in the past, present and future. Although You have no ears, You can hear everything that is said"
- The personified Vedas continued, "Because a devotee understands the all-pervasive feature of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he is the most practical philanthropist and altruist"
- The personified Vedas continued, "Because of ignorance, these living entities misidentify themselves in different species of life"
- The personified Vedas continued, "Because they (Krsna conscious persons) always carry You in full consciousness within their hearts"
- The personified Vedas continued, "Because Your (Lord's) knowledge is also unlimited, there is unlimited competition between Your knowledge and Your expansion of energies"
- The personified Vedas continued, "Both the Lord and the living entities are called nitya, eternal, and so are qualitatively one, yet the singular nitya, or the Supreme Lord, is the controller, whereas the plural nityas are controlled"
- The personified Vedas continued, "By attempting to worship a demigod or by taking to any other process of self-realization, the living entity becomes a victim of the cycle of birth and death"
- The personified Vedas continued, "By devotional service one satisfies not only the Personality of Godhead but also all others, because everyone is maintained and supported by Him"
- The personified Vedas continued, "By this simple process of penance and austerity, the Supersoul within the devotee's heart is very much pleased and gives the devotee directions so that he may go back home, back to Godhead"
- The personified Vedas continued, "Concentrating the mind upon the form of Visnu and controlling the senses very rigidly, they (mystic yogis) practice the yoga system"
- The personified Vedas continued, "Dear Lord, although great mystic yogis may have full control over the elephant of the mind and the hurricane of the senses"
- The personified Vedas continued, "Dear Lord, anyone who by Your grace has understood the glories of Your lotus feet is callous to material happiness and distress"
- The personified Vedas continued, "Dear Lord, everything rests on Your different potencies, and everyone is supported by You, as stated in the Vedas: eko bahunam yo vidadhati kaman"
- The personified Vedas continued, "Dear Lord, if saintly persons do not take care to eradicate completely the roots of sinful desires, they cannot experience the Supersoul, although He is sitting side by side with the individual soul"
- The personified Vedas continued, "Dear Lord, it is imperative that the living entities be engaged in Krsna consciousness, always rendering devotional service by such prescribed methods as hearing and chanting and executing Your orders"
- The personified Vedas continued, "Dear Lord, it is therefore our conclusion that all living entities are attracted by Your material energy"
- The personified Vedas continued, "Dear Lord, it is very difficult to achieve perfect knowledge of the Absolute Truth. Your Lordship is so kind to the fallen souls that You appear in different incarnations and execute different activities"
- The personified Vedas continued, "Dear Lord, less intelligent men take to other ways of self-realization"
- The personified Vedas continued, "Dear Lord, there are many mystic yogis who are very learned and deliberate in achieving the highest perfection of life. They engage themselves in the yogic process of controlling the life-air within the body"
- The personified Vedas continued, "Dear Lord, there are two classes of transcendentalists, the impersonalists and the personalists"
- The personified Vedas continued, "Dear Lord, when a person is able to purify his mind, senses and intelligence by engaging himself in devotional service in full Krsna consciousness, his mind becomes his friend. Otherwise, his mind is always his enemy"
- The personified Vedas continued, "Despite all endeavors to attain perfection, such yogis, contaminated by desires for sense gratification, will continue to suffer in this life and the next"
- The personified Vedas continued, "Due to this faulty conception of life, they (living entities) are undergoing repeated birth and death"
- The personified Vedas continued, "Even after much laborious austerity, penance and regulation, they (mystic yogis) achieve the same destination as persons inimical toward You (the Lord)"
- The personified Vedas continued, "For such persons (the so-called yogis and jnanis), both this life and the next life are sources of tribulation"
- The personified Vedas continued, "For this purpose the pure devotees are prepared to sacrifice all comforts of life, even giving up the material comforts of family life and so-called society, friendship and love"
- The personified Vedas continued, "Generally if a person is breathing he is accepted to be alive. But a person without Krsna consciousness may be compared to a bellows in a blacksmith's shop"
- The personified Vedas continued, "If a person has a jeweled locket in his necklace but forgets the jewel, it is almost as though he does not possess it"
- The personified Vedas continued, "If a person is not engaged in Krsna consciousness and devotional service, it is useless for him to exhibit the symptoms of life"
- The personified Vedas continued, "If an individual soul meditates but does not actually perceive the presence of the Supersoul within himself, his meditation is useless"
- The personified Vedas continued, "If the individual souls were all-pervasive, there would be no question of their being controlled"
- The personified Vedas continued, "In other words, both the yogis and the great, wise philosophical speculators ultimately attain the impersonal Brahman effulgence, which is automatically attained by the demons who are regular enemies of the Lord"
- The personified Vedas continued, "In other words, You are the root of the whole creation. Therefore those who engage in Your devotional service without deviation, who always worship You, actually pour water on the root of the universal tree"
- The personified Vedas continued, "In this material world, anyone who has developed such Krsna consciousness is no longer interested in the materialistic way of life"
- The personified Vedas continued, "It is due to their own material desires that all living entities enjoy or suffer in different conditions of life. As Your parts and parcels, they are just like the sparks of a fire"
- The personified Vedas continued, "Just as sparks dance in a blazing fire, all living entities are dancing on Your support. You are providing them with everything they desire, and yet You are not responsible for their position of enjoyment or suffering"
- The personified Vedas continued, "Krsna conscious persons therefore take shelter of the association of devotees or sanctified places of pilgrimage"
- The personified Vedas continued, "Mystic yogis who still have contaminated desires for sense gratification are never successful in their attempt, nor can they realize the Supersoul within the individual self"
- The personified Vedas continued, "No one can estimate how much the living entity is degraded by entering abominable species of life such as cats and dogs"
- The personified Vedas continued, "No one, not even the mental speculators and the demigods in higher planetary systems, is actually able to estimate the length and breadth of Your form and characteristics"
- The personified Vedas continued, "One should try to understand the distinctions between the supreme eternal and the subordinate eternals"
- The personified Vedas continued, "Only due to their mistakenly identifying themselves as products of the material nature are they transmigrating from one kind of body to another in forgetfulness of their eternal relationship with You"
- The personified Vedas continued, "Out of many millions of them, if one becomes intelligent enough by associating with pure devotees, he comes to the understanding of Krsna consciousness and comes out of the jurisdiction of the material misconception"
- The personified Vedas continued, "Pure devotees seek only the association of paramahamsas, or great liberated devotees, so that they can continuously hear and chant about Your glories"
- The personified Vedas continued, "Samadhi, or meditation, means that one has to find the Supersoul within himself. One who is not free from sinful reactions cannot see the Supersoul"
- The personified Vedas continued, "Such persons (Krsna conscious persons) are aware of the relationship between the Supersoul and the individual living entities, and they are never in the bodily concept of life"
- The personified Vedas continued, "Such pure devotees, thoroughly engaged in Krsna consciousness, very easily overcome the cycle of birth and death, and they as much as jump over the head of death"
- The personified Vedas continued, "Such unguided persons are compared to merchants going to sea on a ship without a captain"
- The personified Vedas continued, "The individual controlled living entity resides within the body, and the supreme controller, as Supersoul, is also present there, but the Supersoul controls the individual soul"
- The personified Vedas continued, "The influence of time - past, present and future - and the material miseries, such as excessive heat, excessive cold, birth, death, old age and disease, are all simply the movements of Your eyebrows"
- The personified Vedas continued, "The material world is simultaneously both truth and untruth. It is truth because everything is an expansion of the Supreme Absolute Truth, and it is untruth because the existence of the material world is temporary"
- The personified Vedas continued, "The opinion of the impersonalists is that this material manifestation is false and that only the Absolute Truth is factual"
- The personified vedas continued, "The perfection of human life is based on knowledge and renunciation, but it is very difficult to attempt to reach the stage of knowledge and renunciation while in family life"
- The personified Vedas continued, "The theory that the Supersoul and the individual soul are equal is therefore a polluted conclusion, and no sensible person accepts it"
- The personified Vedas continued, "The view of the personalists is that the material world, although very temporary, is nevertheless not false but factual. Such transcendentalists have different arguments to establish the validity of their philosophies"
- The personified Vedas continued, "There are different types of living entities - demigods, human beings, animals, trees, birds, beasts, germs, worms, insects and aquatics - and all enjoy or suffer in life while resting on You"
- The personified Vedas continued, "They (Krsna conscious persons) are so purified that any place they go becomes a holy place of pilgrimage, and the water which washes their feet is able to deliver many sinful persons loitering within this material world"
- The personified Vedas continued, "They (the gopis) wanted to be embraced by the arms of Krsna, which resemble the beautiful round shape of a snake. Similarly, we, the Vedic hymns, simply concentrate our minds on the lotus feet of Your Lordship"
- The personified vedas continued, "This relationship of the living entities with the Supreme Lord as the controlled & the controller definitely proves that although the Supersoul is all-pervasive, the individual living entities are never all-pervasive"
- The personified Vedas continued, "Thus the conditioned souls are not only under the control of the Supreme Lord but are also conditioned by the control of the material nature"
- The personified vedas continued, "Unless they (great mystic yogis) take shelter of a bona fide spiritual master they fall victim to the material influence and are never successful in their attempts at self-realization"
- The personified Vedas continued, "Various kinds of bodies are awarded as the result of a living entity's actions, and they are created by the material nature according to the living entity's desire"
- The personified Vedas continued, "We think that even Your Lordship does not have complete knowledge of Your transcendental qualities. The reason is that You are unlimited"
- The personified Vedas continued, "When elevated to the human form of life, they identify with a particular class of men, or a particular nation or race or so-called religion, forgetting their real identity as eternal servants of Your Lordship"
- The personified Vedas continued, "When one's mind is thus fixed on the lotus feet of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, one does not take to any kind of inferior worship or inferior process of self-realization"
- The personified Vedas continued, "When the mind is engaged in the devotional service of the Lord, it becomes the intimate friend of the living entity because the mind can then think of the Supreme Lord always"
- The personified Vedas continued, "Women like the gopis concentrate upon You (the Supreme lord) under the dictation of lust, and we concentrate upon Your lotus feet to go back home, back to Godhead"
- The personified Vedas continued, "Your (the Lord's) enemies also concentrate upon You, thinking always of how to kill You, and yogis undertake great penances and austerities just to attain Your impersonal effulgence"
- The personified Vedas continued, "Your Lordship is eternally dear to the living entity, so when the mind is engaged in thought of You one immediately feels the great satisfaction for which he has been hankering life after life"
- The personified Vedas praying, "This chanting and hearing of Your transcendental pastimes is the easiest process for self-realization. Simply by submissive aural reception of the transcendental message, one's heart is cleansed of all dirty things"
- The personified Vedas praying, "You (Visnu) are the controller of the three material qualities. Demigods and persons advanced in spiritual knowledge always hear and chant about Your transcendental pastimes"
- The personified Vedas presented the example that those seeking gold do not reject gold earrings, gold bangles or anything else made of gold simply because they are shaped differently from the original gold
- The personified Vedas said that if the yogis and the jnanis do not free themselves from sinful desires, then their particular process of self-realization will never be successful
- The personified Vedas said, "Although You have no mind, You know everyone and everyone's activities, past, present & future, and yet no one knows who You are. You know everyone, but no one knows You; therefore, You are the oldest & supreme personality"
- The personified Vedas said, "Dear Lord, although Brahma, Indra, the predominating demigod of the heavenly planets, as well as the predominating deities of such planets as the sun and the moon, are all very confidential directors of this material world"
- The personified Vedas said, "The big bellows is a bag of skin which exhales & inhales air, & a human being who simply lives within the bag of skin and bones without taking to Krsna consciousness & loving devotional service is no better than the bellows"
- The personified Vedas said, "You (the Supreme Lord) appear even as a historical personality of this material world, & Your pastimes are very nicely described in the Vedic literature. Such pastimes are as attractive as the ocean of transcendental bliss"
- The personified Vedas stated that persons born after the creation of this material world cannot understand the existence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead by manipulating their material knowledge
- The personified Vedas therefore concluded, "O Lord, You are the unlimited eternal (dhruva), and the living entities are the limited eternals"
- The personified Vedas thus worshiped the Supreme Personality of Godhead in different ways
- The position of the jnanis and yogis is therefore not as secure as the position of the devotees of Krsna. Lord Krsna has therefore advised in the Bhagavad-gita that only a person who has lost his sense takes to the worship of demigods
- The power of devotional service is so great that a pure devotee can electrify another person by his transcendental instruction on crossing over the ocean of nescience
- The prime symptom of one who has become a spiritual master in disciplic succession is that he is one hundred percent fixed in bhakti-yoga
- The pure devotee ignites Krsna consciousness in the hearts of the conditioned souls, and thus the blazing fire of the spiritual world becomes manifest even within this material world
- The pure devotee, however, is always callous to praise or condemnation by ordinary people. Actually, the devotee's activities are on the transcendental plane
- The purifying process is called devotional service, or Krsna consciousness
- The purpose of all religion is to understand God and develop one's dormant love of Godhead
- The purpose of King Pariksit's inquiry was to ascertain from Sukadeva Gosvami whether the Vedas ultimately describe the Absolute Truth as impersonal or as personal
- The purpose of studying the Upanisads is to understand the transcendental qualities of the Absolute Truth, as opposed to the material qualities of ignorance, passion and goodness
- The question may be raised as to why the living entities have fallen by chance into different conditions of life
- The rainfall is one, but the creation of the different plants is varied. The rain falls equally on the whole field, but the different plants sprout up in different shapes and forms according to the seeds planted
- The real fact is that oneness does not mean merging into the Supreme and losing one's own individual existence
- The real point is to concentrate the mind on the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Women such as the gopis were attached to Krsna, being captivated by His beauty, and their mental concentration on Krsna was provoked by lust
- The responsibility for this fighting (amongst each other) and creating favorable and unfavorable situations lies with the living entities, not with the Supreme Personality of Godhead
- The result of fruitive activities can elevate one to the higher planetary system
- The Rsi (Narayana Rsi) answered by following in the footsteps of His predecessors. He narrated a story of how the same question had been discussed on the planet known as Janaloka, which is above the Svargaloka planets, such as the moon and Venus
- The same principle is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gita, "The cosmic manifestation comes into existence and again dissolves, and after dissolution it merges into the existence of the Supreme Lord"
- The Sankhya philosophers are in favor of voidism, but the actual fact is that the original cause is the Supreme Personality of Godhead and that this cosmic manifestation is the temporary manifestation of His material energy
- The scorpion which comes out of the cow dung is certainly a living entity, but the living entity does not come out of the cow dung
- The second transcendental quality is that Krsna never dies. In the BG, Fourth Chapter, He (Krsna) informs Arjuna that both He & Arjuna had many appearances in this material world, but that He alone remembers all such activities - past, present & future
- The significant word used in this connection is yan-maya, or cin-maya. In Sanskrit grammar, the word mayat is used in the sense of "transformation," and also in the sense of "sufficiency"
- The six opulences are wealth, strength, beauty, fame, knowledge and renunciation. No one is greater than or equal to Krsna in these six opulences
- The sparks fall into different conditions and retain more or less of their original brilliance. Some sparks fall onto dry grass and thus ignite another big fire
- The speculation that one is equal to the Supreme Personality of Godhead is another symptom of sinful life. One cannot take to Krsna consciousness unless one is completely freed from all sinful activities
- The spirit soul (the living entity) and matter are different energies of the Supreme Lord, and since both the energies are products of the Supreme Eternal, or the Supreme Truth, they are factual, not false
- The spirit soul is not produced from matter; it takes on a particular type of body under superior arrangement. According to our present experience, this material world is a combination of matter and spirit. The spirit is moving the matter
- The spiritual oneness of the Supreme Lord and the living entities is never to be accepted as homogeneity. Each and every living entity is individual
- The statements of the personified Vedas give clear evidence that the Vedic literature is presented only for understanding Krsna. The Bhagavad-gita confirms that through all the Vedas it is Krsna alone who has to be understood
- The student submissively prays to the spiritual master, "Train me in such a way that I will be able to give up all other processes of self-realization and simply engage in Krsna consciousness, devotional service"
- The Supersoul lives within the heart to direct or control the individual living entity. Although both are dhruva, or eternal, the living entity is always under the direction of the Supreme
- The Supersoul within the body of a particular living entity, being a plenary portion of the Lord, is worshipable by the individual living entity
- The Supreme Brahman and the subordinate Brahman, or the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the living entities, are both joyful by nature
- The supreme goal of life is to achieve the transcendental blessings of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and thus become engaged in the loving service of the Lord
- The Supreme Lord has two kinds of parts and parcels: the living entity is called vibhinnamsa, and the Paramatma, or the plenary expansion of the Supreme Lord, is called svamsa
- The Supreme Lord is known as aja, or unborn. Similarly, the material nature is called aja. Both these terms, aja and aja, mean "unborn"
- The Supreme Lord, as He desires, is engaging all the living entities in different activities, and thus they exhibit their different talents and tendencies
- The Supreme Lord, or the Supersoul, is unlimited. He is said to be eka-rasa. Eka means "one," and rasa means "mellow." The transcendental position of the Supreme Lord is that of eternity, bliss and full knowledge
- The Supreme Personality of Godhead can exhibit His full potencies in any shape or form without any change
- The Supreme Personality of Godhead has many different types of energies
- The Supreme Personality of Godhead has many parts and parcels; some are called svamsas, or His personal expansions, and some are called vibhinnamsas, the living entities
- The Supreme Personality of Godhead is ever-existing with His varied energies. Because the material creation is an emanation from Him, we cannot say that this cosmic manifestation is a product of something void
- The Supreme Personality of Godhead is the only worshipable object, and this is perfectly known to persons who are uncontaminated by the modes of material nature
- The Supreme Personality of Godhead is the supreme independent controlling person, and all the demigods, including Lord Brahma, Lord Siva, Indra (the King of heaven), the king of the moon planet and the king of the sun planet, work under His direction
- The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Purusottama, only gives them a chance to act according to their desires. Therefore, the living entities act by taking advantage of the facility given by the Lord
- The supreme source of creation, the Supreme Lord, reveals Himself only to the devotees
- The svamsa plenary expansion of the Supreme Personality is as powerful as the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself
- The term "Brahman" actually applies to Krsna only; therefore in the Bhagavad-gita Arjuna admitted that Lord Krsna is the Parabrahman, or the supreme resting place of everything
- The theory of the asuras is that the living entities are born of material nature, or prakrti, in touch with the purusa
- The third-grade living entities, namely the animals, beasts, plants, trees and aquatics, have completely forgotten Krsna consciousness
- The thirteen temples of tilaka marked on the body of a Vaisnava are known as follows
- The total material energy is agitated by the glance of Maha-Visnu, and only then does the interaction of the three material qualities begin
- The twenty-eight verses of the Veda-stuti are to be considered the essence of all Vedic knowledge
- The Upanisads describe in different ways the transcendental qualities of the Supreme Lord. The Absolute Truth, the Supreme Lord, is called nirguna. That does not mean He has no qualities
- The upper planetary systems such as Janaloka and Maharloka are the heart of the Lord, and the topmost planetary system, Brahmaloka, is considered the top of the Lord's head
- The Vaisnava accepts this material world according to the regulative principles of the Vedic injunctions and works without attachment
- The Vaisnava philosopher acknowledges the full value of this material world and knows how to utilize it properly, whereas the Mayavadi philosopher fails to do so
- The Vaisnava philosopher's view of sannyasa is not that because the world is false one must therefore give up material activities. The purpose of Vaisnava sannyasa is to utilize things as they are intended to be utilized
- The Vaisnava philosophers know how to utilize the temporary construction of this material world, just as a sane man knows how to utilize the temporary construction of the earthen pot
- The Vaisnava philosophers use a very appropriate example, comparing this material world to an earthen pot. When we see an earthen pot, it does not at once disappear and turn into something else
- The Vaisnavas are free of attachment to this world because although the material world is generally accepted as an object of sense gratification, the Vaisnavas are not in favor of sense gratification and are therefore not attached to material activities
- The Vedas confirm that it is out of fear of the Supreme Personality of Godhead that the sun is shining, the wind is blowing, and fire is distributing heat
- The Vedas continued, "All the conditions of material existence are opposing elements for persons who are not surrendered unto You. But for those who are surrendered souls and are in full Krsna consciousness, these things cannot be a source of fear"
- The Vedas continued, "As already explained, since the mind, intelligence and senses have been given to us by God, when these instruments are actually purified there is no alternative but to engage them all in the devotional service of the Lord"
- The Vedas deal with three departments of activities. Jnana-kanda, the process of understanding the Absolute Truth by speculative methods
- The Vedas deal with three departments of activities. One is called karma-kanda, or activities under Vedic injunction, which gradually purify one to understand his real position
- The Vedas deal with three departments of activities. Upasana-kanda, or worship of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and sometimes of the demigods also
- The Vedas personified continued. "Dear Lord," they prayed, "You are equal to all, with no partiality toward a particular type of living entity"
- The Vedas said, "As such, the so-called yogis and jnanis who are simply wasting their time in different types of sense gratification, either by mental speculation or by exhibition of limited mystic powers, will never be liberated from conditioned life"
- The Vedas therefore instruct that in order to know the science of devotional service one has to submit himself unto the bona fide spiritual master
- The Vedic histories like the Puranas and Mahabharata are called the fifth Veda
- The Vedic injunction is that no one can have full knowledge without being under the guidance of an acarya. Acaryavan puruso veda: one who has accepted an acarya knows what is what
- The Vedic injunctions are there just to give the conditioned souls the chance for sense gratification under regulative principles, and thereby also to give them the chance for promotion to higher conditions of life
- The Vedic injunctions define the source of creation and dissolution as yato va imani bhutani jayante, "He from whom this cosmic manifestation has emanated and in whom, after annihilation, everything will merge"
- The Vedic injunctions state that every living entity lives by eating the remnants of food offered to the Personality of Godhead
- The Vedic literature is divided into two parts: the srutis and the smrtis. The srutis are the four Vedas - Rg, Sama, Atharva and Yajur - and the Upanisads, and the smrtis are the Puranas and the Itihasas like the Mahabharata
- The Vedic literature states that the Supersoul is sitting within the heart of every living entity’s body and is as big as a thumb
- The Vedic process is to promote the conditioned soul gradually from the mode of ignorance to the mode of passion, and from the mode of passion to the mode of goodness. In the mode of goodness there is sufficient light for understanding things as they are
- The Vedic recommendation is that one make the lotus feet of Visnu the target of all one's efforts. Tad visnoh paramam padam: the Visnu planets, or Visnuloka, are situated above all the material planets
- The Vedic version sarvam khalv idam brahma means that since both the energies have emanated from the Supreme Brahman, everything we experience is nondifferent from Brahman
- The very fact that the Mayavadi claims to be one with the Supreme Lord means
- The very word created means that He has transcendental intelligence. For example, when a father begets a child, the child has senses because the father also has senses
- The view of the Mayavadi philosopher, however, is stated in the Bhagavad-gita to be the view of the asuras, or demons
- The whole cosmic manifestation becomes possible by the grace of the Supreme Lord, it exists by the grace of the Supreme Lord, and when annihilated it merges into the existence of the Supreme Lord
- The whole cosmic manifestation is a combination of the inferior and superior energies, and the source of the energies is the Supreme Personality of Godhead
- The whole Vedic process is to alleviate that darkened condition. Ultimately, when the senses and mind of the conditioned being are fully purified, he comes to his original position, called Krsna consciousness, and that is liberation
- The word "Brahman" indicates the greatest of all and the maintainer of everything. The impersonalists are attracted by the greatness of the sky, but because of their poor fund of knowledge they are not attracted by the greatness of Krsna
- The worship of the demigods recommended in the Vedas is ordered with the understanding of the demigods' relationship to the Personality of Godhead
- The worshipers of the demigods are not very intelligent persons because they derive only temporary, exhaustible results. Their endeavors are those of less intelligent men. On the other hand, the Lord assures that His devotee has no fear of falling
- The yogis are also directed to concentrate their meditation upon Krsna within the heart, and by such a continued process of Krsna consciousness they can also become free from the clutches of the material energy
- Their (foolish persons) only profit is to take the trouble of going and coming back, just as at present many material scientists are spoiling their time by trying to go to the moon planet and again coming back
- Their (living entities) situation in different conditions of life, therefore, is not accidental. It is by their choice, because they have knowledge
- Their (the materialists') goal in life is to make the material body comfortable, but they forget the interest of the spirit soul
- Their aim (Narada and the Kumaras) is that all the conditioned souls may be educated to revive their original consciousness, or Krsna consciousness, and thus gain relief from the miserable conditions of material life
- Then again the Lord says, sarva-loka-mahesvaram, "I am the proprietor of all planets." So that is the position of the Supreme Personality of Godhead
- Then from that gigantic form of Maha-Visnu, Garbhodakasayi Visnu expands and enters into every universe. From Him, Brahma, Visnu and Siva expand
- Then in the next millennium, according to this theory, Brahman again expands in different bodily forms. If we accept this theory, then Brahman becomes subject to change. But this cannot be accepted
- Then there are the philosophers headed by Gautama and Kanada. They have minutely studied the cause and effect of the material elements and have ultimately come to the conclusion that atomic combination is the original cause of creation
- There are actually two Kapilas: one Kapila, the son of Kardama Muni, is an incarnation of God, and the other is an atheist of the modern age. The atheistic Kapila is often misrepresented to be the Supreme Personality of Godhead
- There are different kinds of philosophers who have tried to understand the supreme source by their mental speculation. There are generally six kinds of mental speculators...
- There are different processes recommended by great sages according to the position of the worshiper, but the ultimate aim of all meditational yogic processes is to go back home, back to Godhead
- There are four types of brahmacaris. The first is called savitra, which refers to a brahmacari who, after initiation and the sacred thread ceremony, must observe at least three days of celibacy
- There are four types of brahmacaris. The next is called brahma-brahmacari, which refers to a brahmacari who observes celibacy from the time of initiation up to the time of the completion of his study of the Vedic literature
- There are four types of brahmacaris. The next is called prajapatya, which refers to a brahmacari who strictly observes celibacy for at least one year after initiation
- There are four types of brahmacaris. The next stage is called naisthika, which refers to a brahmacari who is celibate throughout his whole life
- There are many arguments about the existence of this material world, but the Vaisnava philosophical conclusion is the best
- There are no horse's eggs, there is no rabbit's horn, and there are no flowers growing in the sky. There are many things which exist in name or imagination but actually have no factual manifestation
- There are unlimited numbers of living entities in different varieties of bodies, some moving, some standing in one place, the conditioned life of these living entities is due only to their forgetfulness of their eternal relationship with the S P of God
- There are, however, many hundreds and thousands of species of life in different standards of living conditions, such as human beings, demigods, animals, birds and beasts
- There is a definite difference between the individual soul and the Supersoul, and it is explained in the Varaha Purana as follows
- There is a difference between the Supersoul and the individual soul, and this is explained in the Bhagavad-gita, Fifteenth Chapter, wherein the Lord says that although He is situated with the living entity in the same body, He is superior
- There is no birth and death for either the Lord or the living entities. When creation takes place, this does not mean that the living entities are created
- There is not even the slightest difference between the potency of the Supreme Person and that of His plenary expansion as Paramatma. But the vibhinnamsa parts and parcels possess only a minute portion of the potencies of the Lord
- There it is said that in the brahma-bhuta stage of life there is no anxiety and no hankering
- These four brahmacaris, the Kumaras, are recognized scholars in the Vedas and other sastras. Their unlimited volumes of knowledge, backed by austerities and penances, are exhibited by their sublime, ideal character
- These rays of the personal body of Krsna are cast all over the creation of the Lord, and the portion of the effulgence which is covered by the material cloud is called the created cosmos of the three material qualities - sattva, rajas and tamas
- These Vaikuntha planets are known as sanatana-dhama, and they are eternal. They are never annihilated, not even by the annihilation of this material world
- These voidists and impersonalists take to different types of austerities, either to attain the stage of nirvana, which means finishing the material conditions of life, or to attain oneness by merging into the body of the Lord
- They (contaminated persons) cannot understand that the Vedas deal with activities of the material modes of nature - goodness, passion and ignorance
- They (demigods) execute the order of the Supreme Lord exactly according to His plan. The Supreme Personality of Godhead is in the background, and because His orders are carried out by others, it appears that He is impersonal
- They (four kumaras) are very amiable and gentle in behavior, and for them there is no distinction between friends, well-wishers and enemies
- They (great devotees) generally reside in places like Vrndavana, Mathura, Dvaraka, Jagannatha Puri and Navadvipa because only devotees assemble in such places. In this way they give saintly association to one another and thus advance
- They (Mayavadis) have all missed the real point: the Supreme Personality of Godhead, or the Absolute Truth, can be understood only by devotional service
- They (pure devotees) always think of the Supreme Lord and His lotus feet, and thus they automatically become liberated
- They (Sankhya philosophers, metaphysicians or materialistic scientists) wrongly conclude that the reactions of the material elements are the original cause of creation. The Bhagavad-gita, however, does not accept this theory
- They (The impersonalists) think, "Both the Supreme Lord and the individual soul enter into the various bodies; so where is the distinction? Why should individual souls worship the Paramatma, or Supersoul"
- They (the Supersoul and the individual soul) are equal in quality, but quantitatively the Supersoul is always the Supreme, and the individual soul is always subordinate to the Supersoul. That is the conclusion of the Vedas
- They (Vaisnavas) worship the body by the yogic process of meditation on the different bodily parts, such as manipuraka, dahara and hrdaya, gradually rising to the brahma-randhra, on the top of the head
- Things produced of a certain thing are not always of the same quality as that thing
- This conception of the material world is very nicely explained by Rupa Gosvami, who says that when persons renounce the material world as illusory or false without knowing that it is a manifestation of the Supreme Lord, their renunciation is of no value
- This constant engagement in devotional service can be performed only when one works under the direction of a bona fide spiritual master
- This desire of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is also extreme mercy on His part because it gives the conditioned souls another chance to develop their original consciousness and thus go back to Godhead
- This devotional attitude is explained in the Bhagavad-gita: a devotee is never distressed in reverse conditions of life, nor is he overjoyed in favorable conditions
- This example stated in the Vedas regarding the sparks of a blazing fire is very appropriate for understanding the condition of different types of living entities
- This fact is corroborated by the Vedic injunction sad va saumyedam agra asit, which means that the origin of the creation existed before the cosmic manifestation
- This false argument is answered by Krsna in the Bhagavad-gita: although everything is a transformation of the energy of Krsna, He is not present everywhere. He is simultaneously present and not present
- This great sage incarnation of Godhead, Narayana Rsi, has been undergoing great penances, austerities from the very beginning of the creation to teach the inhabitants of Bharata-varsa how to attain the highest perfectional stage of going back to God
- This hankering for advancement in devotional service is not the same as hankering for sense gratification in material existence. In other words, hankering remains in spiritual life, but it becomes purified
- This indirect acceptance is described in the Bhagavad-gita as avidhi. Avidhi means “not bona fide.” Since demigod worship is not bona fide, the impersonalists stress concentration on the impersonal feature of the Absolute Truth
- This is a reference to the pure devotees who take compassion on the poor and innocent living entities
- This is a reference to the speculative theories of Gautama, Kanada, Patanjali and Kapila
- This is actual realization of the Vedic aphorism sarvam khalv idam brahma, "Everything is Brahman"
- This is called yajna-bhaga. Every demigod has an allotment of yajna-bhaga, which he accepts as prasadam
- This is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gita and Srimad-Bhagavatam, as well as in the Vedas, wherein it is stated, eko narayana asit, "Only Narayana existed before the creation"
- This is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gita, Fifteenth Chapter, wherein the Lord states, "I am situated in everyone's heart"
- This is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gita, wherein the Lord says that after many, many births, a great soul, or mahatma, surrenders unto the Lord, knowing well that Vasudeva, Krsna, is the cause of all causes
- This is confirmed in the Padma Purana, wherein it is said that there are two kinds of spiritual entities: one is called the jiva, and the other is called the Supreme Lord
- This is confirmed in the Vedas, "He threw His glance over the material nature, and thus there was creation"
- This is contradicted in the Ninth Chapter of the Bhagavad-gita, where Lord Krsna says that by pious activities one may be elevated to the heavenly planets
- This is stated in the Bhagavad-gita. Only by the grace of the Lord can the living entity understand the exact position of Brahman, Paramatma and Bhagavan
- This material body, although temporary, has a special use. The living entity is given a chance from the beginning of the creation to evolve different kinds of material bodies according to the reserve desires he has accumulated from time immemorial
- This material world is an expansion of the material energy of the Lord. Therefore it is real. It is not false, as sometimes concluded from the example of the snake and the rope
- This material world is just like smoke, and the spiritual world is like a blazing fire. The innumerable living entities are prone to fall down to the material world from the spiritual world when influenced by the illusory energy
- This material world may be false or temporary, but because it is an emanation from the Supreme Lord, it has its full value
- This means that He never dies. Forgetfulness is due to death. As we die, we change our bodies and forget. Krsna, however, is never forgetful. He can remember everything that has happened in the past
- This means that the Absolute Truth is not without mind, intelligence and senses. In other words, He is not impersonal
- This prayer of the Vedas personified illustrates that the Vedas are meant for helping the conditioned souls to understand Krsna
- This purification (purification from ignorance and passion) is automatically attained by a devotee constantly engaged in hearing the transcendental message of Godhead in the form of the Bhagavad-gita, Srimad-Bhagavatam or similar scriptures
- This relationship between the Lord and the living entities is explained in the Vedic literature, wherein it is said that the Supreme Lord maintains all His children, giving them whatever they want
- This situation is called kaivalya-nirasta-yoni. But a person situated on the transcendental platform is freed from the repetition of birth and death
- This statement definitely confirms that the particular energy known as bahir-anga-maya, or the external energy, although of flickering nature, is the energy of the Supreme Lord, and as such it cannot be false
- This theory also cannot be accepted, because both the material nature and the Supreme Personality of Godhead are eternally existing. Neither the material nature nor the Supreme Personality of Godhead can be born
- This theory cannot be supported either, because the Lord Himself says in the Bhagavad-gita that the Brahman effulgence rests on His personality
- This theory cannot be supported, for the original cause of everything is not inert atoms
- This transcendental position beyond the Vedic ritualistic performances is devotional service. In the Bhagavad-gita the Lord clearly says that persons who are engaged in His devotional service without adulteration are situated in Brahman
- This understanding is called self-realization. Any other realization of one's self beyond this relationship of eternal servitorship to Krsna is impelled by maya
- This Veda-stuti is thus the original instruction regarding the relationship existing between the living entity and the Supreme Personality of Godhead
- Those who advocate acceptance of this material world as false are generally known by the maxim brahma satyam jagan mithya. They put forward the argument that everything in the material world is prepared from matter
- Those who are actually pure devotees are celebrated as mahatmas, or great sages, personalities perfect in knowledge
- Those who are engaged in fruitive activities are described by the Vedas personified as andha-parampara, or blind followers of the Vedic ritualistic ceremonies
- Those who are not in Krsna consciousness are simply wasting their time, and they have no tangible proof of spiritual life
- Those who aspire for liberation from this material world must therefore worship the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the ultimate cause of all causes
- Those who have tasted the nectar of devotion by relishing the transcendental vibration of chanting Your (Lord`s) glories do not care for any other spiritual bliss or for material comforts
- Thus a devotee is always in the transcendental position, and everything he uses becomes spiritually purified by being used in the Lord's service
- Thus all living creatures within this material world, including Brahma, all the demigods and all the Raksasas, are to be considered modern. This means that they were all born recently
- Thus any process manufactured within this created situation as a means for understanding the original source of creation is to be considered modern
- Thus some living entities are without Krsna consciousness, some are between having and not having Krsna consciousness, and some are actually situated in Krsna consciousness
- Thus the great sage Narada, after hearing from his spiritual master Narayana Rsi, became completely realized
- Thus the spiritual potency of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is said to be eka-rasa, or without change
- Thus the Vedic statements describe that the Absolute has no legs, no hands, no eyes, no ears and no mind, and yet He can act through His potencies and fulfill the needs of all living entities
- To answer this question, we first have to understand that there cannot be any influence of chance for the living entities; chance is for nonliving entities
- To preach this process of devotional service, sages and saints like Narada and the Kumaras travel all over the universe educating people and increasing their disciples
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- Ultimately the word "Brahman" can be applied to Krsna only. Arjuna affirms that because the impersonal Brahman is the effulgence emanating as rays of Krsna's transcendental body, Krsna is the Parabrahman
- Ultimately, if the consciousness is purified, one comes to his original position and goes back home, back to Godhead
- Under the spell of the material energy, represented by the threefold material qualities, the living entity is so entangled that he is not at all able to become free unless he is graced by the Supreme Lord
- Understanding of the Absolute Truth progresses in three features - impersonal Brahman, Paramatma localized in everyone's heart, and, at last, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krsna
- Undoubtedly the eternal living entity cannot be annihilated at any point
- Unless one comes to this ananda-maya stage, his breathing is like the breathing of a bellows in a blacksmith's shop, his duration of life is like that of a tree, and he is no better than the lower animals like the camels, hogs and dogs
- Unless the living entity is situated in Krsna consciousness, he cannot approach the Supreme Personality of Godhead
- Unless the Supersoul is present, it is not possible for the hands and legs to be active. The S P of Godhead is so great, independent and perfect that even without having any eyes, legs and ears, He is not dependent on others for His activities
V
- Vidyapati, a great Vaisnava devotee and poet, says, "My dear Lord, undoubtedly there is some pleasure in the midst of society, friendship and love, although it is materially conceived, but such pleasure cannot satisfy my heart, which is like a desert"
- Visnu as Ksirodakasayi enters into the hearts of all living entities, as well as into all material elements, including the atom
- Visvanatha said, "Sannyasis become attracted by philanthropic work, such as opening educational institutions, hospitals or monasteries, churches or temples of demigods, they find only trouble from such engagements, not only in this life but in the next"
W
- We have to imagine that these universes, which according to our limited knowledge are expanded unlimitedly, are so great that the gross and subtle ingredients are not only within the universe but cover the universe in seven layers
- We have to please Him (the Supreme Lord) with devotional service, and then He will reveal Himself to us. Then we can understand Him to some extent
- We should therefore conclude that the earthen pot and the entire earth are both truths because one is the product of the other
- We understand from the Bhagavad-gita that after the dissolution of this cosmic manifestation, the material energy enters into the Supreme Personality of Godhead
- We understand that with the breathing of the Supreme Personality of Godhead there issued forth the four Vedas, namely the Rg Veda, the Yajur Veda, the Sama Veda and the Atharva Veda, and also the histories like the Mahabharata and all the Puranas
- What can ordinary human beings and mental speculators know of You (Lord Krsna)? It is not possible for anyone to enumerate the unlimited transcendental qualities of Your Lordship
- Whatever He (Krsna) desires is perfectly lawful, and whatever He decides cannot be changed by anyone. These are the eight transcendental qualities of Krsna. Besides that, Krsna is known as Yogesvara
- Whatever there is, either on the land, in the water or in the sky, is equally given to all living entities
- Whatever we experience, even in this material condition of life, is but an emanation from Him. The Absolute Truth created the mind, senses and intelligence
- When a bona fide student approaches a bona fide spiritual master, he submissively prays to the spiritual master, "My dear lord, kindly accept me as your student"
- When a living entity, by Your (Lord Krsna) grace only, comes to the right conclusion about Your exalted transcendental position, he no longer bothers with the different theories manufactured by the mental speculators or so-called philosophers
- When a man is sleeping, everyone sees that he is present within the room, but actually the man himself is not within that body, for while sleeping a man forgets his bodily existence, although others may see that his body is present
- When a thing is taken as fact but actually has no existence at all, it is called false. But if something is mistaken for something else that exists, that does not mean it is false
- When a Vaisnava renounces the materialistic way of life and takes to sannyasa, it is not on the conception of the falsity of the material world but to devote himself fully to engaging everything in the service of the Lord
- When all the living entities are in the nonmanifested stage, resting within Narayana - then all these manufactured processes become null and void and cannot act
- When an actual fact is unknown to a certain person, this is called ignorance or lack of knowledge. This is not applicable to God, however, because He knows Himself perfectly
- When he has fully surrendered unto the lotus feet of the Supreme Lord, he does not care whether his condition of life is favorable or unfavorable
- When hearing and chanting about Your (The Lord) transcendental pastimes, Your devotees do not care even for the transcendental bliss derived from liberation or from merging into the existence of the Supreme
- When Lord Nrsimhadeva appeared, Prahlada Maharaja was never afraid of Him, whereas his atheist father was immediately faced with death personified and was killed
- When one drinks honey, one cannot distinguish what sort of honey has been collected from what sort of flower, but the palatable taste of the honey presupposes that the honey is not homogeneous but is a combination of different tastes
- When one has one million dollars in currency notes, he is actually holding only a huge bunch of papers, but if he utilizes it for a purpose, then he benefits
- When one is fortunate enough to come to the right conclusion about this cosmic manifestation and everything going on within it, he knows it to be caused directly and indirectly by the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself
- When one is promoted to the mode of goodness, one can understand that the senses and the mind are engaged in material activities only due to being covered by perverted consciousness
- When one's mind, intelligence and senses are purified of material contamination, one can understand the original feature of the Absolute Truth as a person
- When our hearts begin to derive pleasure from the supreme reservoir of pleasure, then we can be satisfied. That transcendental satisfaction is possible only in devotional service, in full Krsna consciousness
- When our senses are purified, they are freed from all material stages, namely anna-maya, prana-maya, mano-maya and vijnana-maya, and they become situated in the highest stage - ananda-maya, or blissful life in Krsna consciousness
- When Prahlada Maharaja was asked by his atheistic father to describe something very good which he had learned, he replied to his father, "For a materialistic person who is always full of anxieties due to being engaged in temporary and relative truths"
- When Prahlada was asked by his atheistic father to describe something very good which he had learned, he replied to his father, "The best course is to give up the blind well of family life and go to the forest to take shelter of the Supreme Lord"
- When properly utilized, neither the superior nor inferior energies emanating from the Supreme Personality of Godhead are false
- When the creation is completely terminated - when there is no existence of the Vedas, no existence of material time, and no existence of the gross and subtle material elements
- When the earthen pot is used for a wrong purpose, that is false. Similarly, the human body or the material world, when used for sense gratification, is false
- When the living entity wants to lord it over the material energy by imitating the position of Krsna, he is immediately captured by the material energy
- When the Personality of Godhead descends in a human form, only fools and rascals deride Him. This actually occurred when Lord Krsna, Lord Rama and Lord Caitanya moved within human society as human beings
- When their (living entity's) consciousness is changed into Krsna consciousness, however, they immediately fix Krsna within their hearts, and thus their path for liberation becomes clear
- When there is actually fire, we can utilize it for various purposes; therefore, fire is the ultimate goal. Similarly, in the gross material stage of life the quality of ignorance is very prominent
- When there is cosmic manifestation, the jivatma, or the individual soul, appears in the creation in different forms, according to his previous fruitive activities
- When this perverted consciousness is gradually transformed into Krsna consciousness, then the path of liberation is opened. So it is not that one is unable to approach the Absolute Truth by the senses and the mind
- When this temporary manifestation is annihilated, its cause, the eternal existence of the spiritual world, continues as it is, and therefore the spiritual world is called sanatana-dhama, the eternal abode
- While he (individual soul) is enwrapped in such ignorance, his natural opulences become almost extinct
- While He (krsna) is present in Goloka enjoying transcendental pleasure in the company of His eternal associates - the gopis, the cowherd boys - all over the creation His potencies are acting under His direction, without disturbing His eternal pastimes
- While in material existence, he (the devotee) lives very peacefully and blissfully, without cares and anxieties, and after quitting this body he goes back home, back to Godhead
- With firm faith and devotion, such great personalities engage themselves in rendering transcendental loving service to the Lord. That is the verdict of the personified Vedas
- With our material senses we can perceive neither the Supreme, who is greater than the greatest, nor the individual soul, who is smaller than the smallest
- Within the body there are five different departments of existence, known as anna-maya, prana-maya, mano-maya, vijnana-maya and, at last, ananda-maya
- Without connection with Acyuta, the infallible Supreme Personality of Godhead, there is no possibility of stopping the resultant actions of the law of karma. The life of Krsna consciousness is the life of liberation
- Worship of the demigods is not worship of the Absolute Truth, but by worshiping the demigods one gradually comes to accept the Supreme Personality of Godhead in an indirect way