Dark side

Expressions researched:
"dark side" |"darker side"

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Darker side also should be thought of. That is intelligence. Just like they are doing. After calculating the darker side—enemy means darker side—they can defeat me at any moment. That is darker side.

Lecture on BG 1.6-7 -- London, July 11, 1973:

A prajña, an intelligent man, not only think of the bright side on this business, or this fight, or this any..., so many things we have to deal with. Simply we should not calculate the brighter side. There is darker side also. We should always think, "If there is some thief, if there is some rogue, they cheat us, then what precaution I am going to take?" This is intelligence. If I simply calculate that "In this business I will make so much profit." In the meantime, somebody comes and cheats me and go away, then... Therefore upayan cintayet prajña apayan ca cintayet. Darker side also should be thought of. That is intelligence. Just like they are doing. After calculating the darker side—enemy means darker side—they can defeat me at any moment. That is darker side.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Kṛṣṇa takes only the bright side of your devotional service. He never takes the dark side because anyone in this material world, he has got only dark life.

Lecture on SB 1.2.6 -- Calcutta, February 26, 1974:

So Kṛṣṇa is so kind. So the devotees see like that, that a Pūtanā rākṣasī wanted to kill Kṛṣṇa, but she got the promotion just like His mother Yaśodā. Kṛṣṇa is so kind. Because Kṛṣṇa took it that "Although this rākṣasī came to kill Me with poison in her breast, but I have sucked her breast. She has become My mother." So Kṛṣṇa takes only the bright side of your devotional service. He never takes the dark side because anyone in this material world, he has got only dark life. So try to serve Kṛṣṇa. Svalpam apy asya dharmasya trāyate mahato bhayāt: "Even little service rendered to Kṛṣṇa can save you from the greatest dangerous life." These are the instructions.

We are called marginal energy. We may be dark side or in the light side. So Kṛṣṇa consciousness means to keep always in the light side.

Lecture on SB 1.2.18 -- Los Angeles, August 21, 1972:

So Kṛṣṇa and māyā are side by side. As soon as you forget Kṛṣṇa, or as soon as you want to utilize Kṛṣṇa for your sense gratification, it is immediately māyā, darkness. And as soon as you want to serve Kṛṣṇa, immediately it is light. So if we keep ourself on this side, light side, always serving Kṛṣṇa, then there is no possibility of our being in contact with māyā.

daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī

mama māyā duratyayā

mām eva ye prapadyante

māyām etāṁ taranti te

(BG 7.14)

This māyā is very strong. The same example yesterday we were giving. The sun, little deviation, the whole world, universe, becomes frozen, and little deviation, the whole universe becomes ablaze. This is the position, very... Therefore our position is marginal. We are called marginal energy. We may be dark side or in the light side. So Kṛṣṇa consciousness means to keep always in the light side. If we always think of Kṛṣṇa, by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, then we shall keep ourself on the light side. And as soon as we think of sense gratification, immediately we are on the dark side. So our... We should be very cautious that we may not fall down on the dark side. We can keep ourself in the light side by nityaṁ bhāgavata-sevayā (SB 1.2.18). Simply studying Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Bhagavad-gītā, try to understand, chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. Twenty-four hours be engaged in this way. You'll be on the light side.

Kṛṣṇa is very much anxious: "When this conditioned soul will look towards Me? He's now looking towards māyā, the other side, the dark side, and when he'll look towards the light?"

Lecture on SB 7.6.19 -- New Vrindaban, July 2, 1976:

So little endeavor is sufficient to begin our business with Him, little endeavor. And that endeavor begins by hearing about Him. We are holding classes in different parts of the world just to give people chance for little endeavor, not very much, very hard work. No. Little endeavor. What is that? "Please come here and hear about Kṛṣṇa." Then the business begins immediately. Śṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṇaḥ puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtana (SB 1.2.17). Because Kṛṣṇa is very much anxious: "When this conditioned soul will look towards Me? He's now looking towards māyā, the other side, the dark side, and when he'll look towards the light?" The Vedic injunction is, tamasi mā jyotir gama: "Do not look forward to the darkness, but look forward to the light." If you look forward to the light then there is no darkness. We have given our motto in the Back to Godhead that "Kṛṣṇa is the sun and māyā is nescience. Where there is Kṛṣṇa there is no māyā." If you look forward towards the sun there is no darkness. But if you keep sun back side, you'll find your shadow very long.

Initiation Lectures

So this Hare Kṛṣṇa is the bright side, and the other things, material activities and sinful activities, meat-eating, intoxication, gambling, illicit sex, the dark side.

Initiation Ceremony -- Los Angeles, December 25, 1973:

I was explaining sat and asat. These two things are side by side. Just like there is darkness and there is light, you can see merging in the sunlight. You'll see, one side is light, and one side is dark. Similarly, sat and asat, they are existing side by side. If you don't remain this side, then you come to this side. So it is my choice. So this Hare Kṛṣṇa is the bright side, and the other things, material activities and sinful activities, meat-eating, intoxication, gambling, illicit sex, the dark side. So it is your choice. If you remain the bright side, then your progress is certain, and if you fall down again on the dark side, that is your misfortune. So you should always remember that.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

They would not explain that. Simply the dark side, they would explain.

Morning Walk -- April 21, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Satī dharma. Yes. Formerly, even Arjuna's stepmother, Mādrī, he also, she also died with her husband. That was the system. The wife voluntarily used to die along with the husband.

Brahmānanda: Gāndhārī.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Brahmānanda: Gāndhārī, wife of Dhṛtarāṣṭra.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So later on such devoted wife was lacking. So the system was, some cases, they were forced to die. So these things have been elaborately explained in the, that book, and Britishers stopped it. So the Indians were uncivilized. Britishers made them civilized. Everything was misinterpreted. Yes.

Brahmānanda: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: But they do not know the inner meaning...

Prabhupāda: No, inner meaning is there. But they would not explain that. Simply the dark side, they would explain. And prove that the Indian civilization was very crude and primitive. It has no enlightenment. That was British propaganda. Even during national movement, they bribed one American woman, and she wrote a book: "Mother India." Do you know that?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: No, I, no...

Prabhupāda: Ah. "Mother India." She described all the blackmailing of Indian social activities, and Gandhi remarked it: "Drain Inspector's report."

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

When they go to the moon planet, they go to the dark side.

Morning Walk -- March 21, 1976, Mayapura:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: What shadow is that? The moon casts its own shadow.

Haṁsadūta: That's what they say.

Prabhupāda: They, their explanation is...

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Half the moon is in darkness.

Trivikrama: Yeah, the back side.

Prabhupāda: The back side.

Trivikrama: The back side of the moon. That's what we're seeing now. The sun's here, hitting...

Prabhupāda: I can understand now. That means moon. Moon is.... A portion is bright.

Devotees: Yes.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Half of it is always bright.

Devotee: Yes. The part that's facing the sun.

Pṛthu-putra: But this is less than half.

Prabhupāda: And when they go to the moon planet, they go to the dark side. Is it not?

Haṁsadūta: No.

Pañca-draviḍa: No, they say they go to the light side, too.

Haṁsadūta: No, they say the dark side is so cold that no one can.... Because there's no sunlight, it is so cold.

Prabhupāda: That means they have no experience of all the sides of the moon.

So far the world is, where is the dark side and the bright side?

Room Conversation -- July 2, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Hari-śauri: They put their scientific reasoning to explain the different things.

Prabhupāda: What is their scientific reasoning? Talking like fools and rascals? If something is illuminating, why extra illumination required to illuminate.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Their theory is that there's a dark side of the moon that we've never seen.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Their theory is that there's a dark..., that actually the moon is reflecting the sun's light. So there's a dark side of the moon.

Prabhupāda: So far the world is, where is the dark side and the bright side? If you compare like that, then so far this globe is concerned, which one is dark side, which one is bright side?

Hari-śauri: No, they say the earth is spinning on its own axis, so all parts of the earth at one time or another receive sunlight.

Prabhupāda: The moon does not do that?

Hari-śauri: The moon does not revolve on its own axis.

Prabhupāda: Another foolishness.