Dream (BG and SB Lectures)

Expressions researched:
"dream" |"dreamed" |"dreamer" |"dreamer's" |"dreamers" |"dreaming" |"dreamland" |"dreamless" |"dreamlike" |"dreamlover" |"dreams" |"dreamt" |"dreamy"

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Lecture on BG 2.1 -- Ahmedabad, December 7, 1972:

In this material world, we are so much attached to this bodily relationship that it is to be considered just like we are ghostly haunted. In a poetry, Prema-vivarta, it is said that piśācī pāile yena mati-cchanna haya, māyā-grasta jīvera haya se bhāva udaya. Māyā-grasta jīva. Māyā-grasta. Māyā means illusion, hallucination. So we are, in this material world, we are all illusioned. Illusioned means accepting something as fact which is not. Something... Just like in dream we see sometimes I am attacked with a tiger; my head is being cut off. So many things. So actually there is no tiger, my head is not being cut off, but still, I am crying: "Oh, here is a tiger, here is a tiger!" So our attachment for this world is like that. It is illusion.

Lecture on BG 2.1-10 and Talk -- Los Angeles, November 25, 1968:

Yes, Sleep means your gross senses are stopped, but your mind works. Therefore you dream. So if you practice your mind to be engaged in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, in dream also you'll see that you are preparing prasādam. "I am going to sell Back to Godhead." (chuckles) That's all. Sometimes some nights when I feel hungry, I dream that I'm eating Kṛṣṇa prasādam very sumptuous.

Lecture on BG 2.8 -- London, August 8, 1973:

This is the position of material existence. We are sometimes in difficulty. Not sometimes. Always, we are in difficulty, but we call it sometimes, because to get over the difficulty, we make some attempt, and that attempt—making is taken as happiness. Actually there is no happiness. But sometimes, with the hope that: "By this attempt, I shall become happy in future,"... As the so-called scientists are dreaming: In future, we shall become without death." So many, they are dreaming. But those who are sane persons, they say: "Trust no future, however pleasant."

Lecture on BG 2.8-12 -- Los Angeles, November 27, 1968:

So when we become very serious in a dangerous position, as if we are lost, but Kṛṣṇa smiles. You see? Sometimes we think... This is called illusion. The same example, just a man in dreaming, crying, "There is tiger, there is tiger. It is eating me," and the man who is awakened, he smiles, "Where is the tiger?" (chuckles) "Where is the tiger?" And this man is crying, "Tiger, tiger, tiger." Similarly, when we are very much perplexed... Just like the politicians, they are sometimes perplexed in political situation and claiming, "This is my land, my country," and other party also claiming, "It is my land, my country," and they are fighting very gravely. Kṛṣṇa smiles. "What these nonsense are claiming 'my country, my land'? It is My land, and they are claiming 'my land' and fighting." Actually, the land belongs to Kṛṣṇa, but these people, under illusion, claiming, "It is my land, it is my country," forgetting how long he shall belong to this country or this nation. That is called illusion.

Lecture on BG 2.11 -- New York, March 4, 1966:

Now, the whole living existence is a very subtle thing. Now, this body, this body made of earth, water, fire, air, sky, this gross body; and behind this, there is another subtle body. That is mind, intelligence and ego. So when we give up this gross body, that subtle body carries me to another gross body. So when this, this body is lifeless, that body, subtle body, is not lifeless. Just like at night, when this gross body is asleep, the subtle body works. Therefore we dream.

Lecture on BG 2.15 -- Hyderabad, November 21, 1972:

So here is the recommendation. Try to become Kṛṣṇa conscious. And then you'll not be disturbed with all these external, ephemeral changes of the material world. Not only of this body, practically..., practically one who is advanced in spiritual life, he's not agitated by the so-called political upheavals or social disturbances. No. He knows these are simply external, ephe... Just like in the dream. It is also a dream. The... Our present existence, it is also dream, Exactly like we dream at night. In dreaming, we create so many things. So this material world is also a gross dreaming. Gross dreaming. That is subtle dreaming. And this is gross dreaming. That is the action of the mind, body, intelligence, dreaming. And here, the action of five material elements: earth, water, air, fire... But all of them, these eight, they are simply material. So we are thinking that "I have now built a very nice house, skyscraper building." It is nothing but dream. Nothing but dream. Dream in this sense, that as soon as I give up this body, all my skyscraper building, business, factory—finished. Exactly the same dream. Dream is for few minutes, or few hours. And it is for few years. That's all. It is dream.

Lecture on BG 2.15 -- Hyderabad, November 21, 1972:

So one should not be disturbed by this dreaming condition. That is spiritual life. One should not be disturbed. Just like we are not disturbed. Suppose, in dream, I was put on the throne, and I was working like a king, and after the dream is over, I am not sorry. Similarly, in dream I was seeing that tiger has attacked me. I was actually crying "Here is tiger! Here is tiger! Save me." And the person who is lying behind me or beside me, he says, "Oh, why you are crying? Where is tiger?" So when he's awakened, he sees there is no tiger. So everything is like that. But this dream, these gross and subtle dreams, are simply reflections. Just like what is dream? The whole day, what I think, the dreaming is a reflection, reflection. My father was doing cloth business. So sometimes he, in dreaming he was quoting price: "This is the price." So similarly it is all dreaming. This material existence, made of these five gross elements and three subtle elements, they're exactly like dream. Smara nityam aniyatām.(?) Therefore Cāṇakya Paṇḍita says, smara nityam aniyatām. This anitya, temporary... Dreaming is always temporary.

So we must know that whatever we possess, whatever we are seeing, these are all dream, temporary. Therefore if we become engrossed with the temporary things, so-called socialism, nationalism, family-ism or this-ism, that-ism, and waste our time, without cultivating Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then that is called śrama eva hi kevalam (SB 1.2.8), simply wasting our time, creating another body. Our own business is that we should know that "I am not this dream.

Lecture on BG 2.15 -- Hyderabad, November 21, 1972:

So in this way, one should come to the spiritual understanding, and the symptom is he's not disturbed by the material upheavals. Yaṁ hi na vyathayanty ete puruṣaṁ puruṣarṣabha, sama-duḥkha-sukham. The symptom is sama-duḥkha... Because he knows this is dreaming. Suppose you are dreaming. So either you suffer in the presence of a tiger, or you become a king in dream, what is the value? It is the same thing. There is no difference. After all, it is dreaming. Therefore sama-sukha-duḥkha. If I become very happy because I have become a king or some big man, that is also dream.

Lecture on BG 2.17 -- Hyderabad, November 22, 1972:

So this is a great science. Unfortunately, the so-called scientist, he has no idea. He does not know. They simply say that "We do not know, but we are trying to know." That's all right. But here is the knowledge, perfect knowledge, in the Bhagavad-gītā. Why don't you take it? That they will not take. They'll go on speculating and promise falsely that "In future we shall be able to inject some matter within the body and the body will again become alive." That is their dream.

Lecture on BG 2.28 -- London, August 30, 1973:

Pradyumna: "Take for example a big skyscraper manifested from the earth. When it is dismantled, the manifestation becomes again unmanifested and remains as atoms in the ultimate stage. The law of conservation of energy remains, but in course of time things are manifested and unmanifested. That is the difference. Then what cause is there for lamentation either in the stage of manifestation or unmanifestation? Somehow or other, even in the unmanifested stage, things are not lost. Both in the beginning and at the end all elements remain unmanifested, and only in the middle are they manifested, and this does not make any real material difference. And if we accept the Vedic conclusion as stated in the Bhagavad-gītā (antavanta ime dehāḥ) that these material bodies are perishable in due course of time (nityasyoktāḥ śarīriṇaḥ) but that soul is eternal, then we must remember always that the body is like a dress. Therefore why lament the changing of a dress? The material body has no factual existence in relation to the eternal soul. It is something like a dream. In a dream we may think of flying in the sky or sitting on a chariot as a king, but when we wake up we can see that we are neither in the sky nor seated on the chariot. The Vedic wisdom encourages self-realization and the basis of the nonexistence of the material body. Therefore in either case, whether one believes in the existence of the soul or one does not believe in the existence of the soul, there is no cause for lamentation for loss of the body."

Prabhupāda: One point in this connection is that at night when I am dreaming I forget this body. This body, in dream, I am seeing that I have gone in a different place, talking with different men, and my position is different. But at that time I don't remember that actually my body is lying on the bed in the apartment where I have come. But we don't remember this body. It is everyone's experience. Similarly, when you come again, awakening stage in the morning after getting up from the bed, I forget all the bodies I created in my dream. So which one is correct? This is correct? This body's correct, or that body's correct? Because at night I forget this body, and in daytime I forget the other dreaming body. So both of them not correct.

Lecture on BG 2.28 -- London, August 30, 1973:

So spiritual body is existing, and spiritual advancement means first of all to know spiritual identification of myself. Just like Sanātana Gosvāmī went to Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu after retiring from his ministership. So he first of all said that, ke āmi, kene āmāya jāre tāpa-traya: "Actually, I do not know what I am, and why I am subjected to the miserable condition of life." Therefore the miserable condition of life is this body. Because I get... In dream also.

Lecture on BG 2.62-72 -- Los Angeles, December 19, 1968:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "Such sages feel transcendental pleasure in the gradual advancement of spiritual culture, whereas the man in materialistic activities, being asleep to self-realization, dreams of varieties of sense pleasure."

Prabhupāda: Yes. They are dreaming, "Now we shall do this. Next time, I shall have this. Next time, I shall have this. Next time, I shall kill that enemy. Next time, I shall do this." They are planning like that.

Lecture on BG 3.17-20 -- New York, May 27, 1966:

Sometimes a madman, he also, I mean to say, wanders the street naked. So he is also compact in some thought, but he is a madman. But similarly, a person who is completely compact in Kṛṣṇa thought, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he is also a madman according to the calculation of this world.

I think there is a line in Shakespeare's literature, "The lunatic, mad, and the poet" or something like that, "all compact in thought." (The actual reference is A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act V, Scene I: "The lunatic, the lover, and the poet, are of imagination all compact."). So a madman and a ātma-rati person, self-satisfied man, outwardly, you will find there is no difference, but inwardly, oh, there is vast difference.

Lecture on BG 3.27 -- Melbourne, June 27, 1974:

When you sleep at night, then you dream, means subtle body. So these activities of this gross body stop. You again work in the subtle body. You dream that you have gone to somewhere or in the forest or somewhere, somewhere, somewhere. But you forget that "My real body is lying in this bed." You do not remember. This is practical. So I change this, myself. I am soul. I change from this gross body lying on bed in a very nice apartment, skyscraper building, but I have gone to the forest, and I am affronting a big tiger and I'm crying. In this bed I am crying. The friends say, "Why you are crying?" "Tiger, tiger, tiger." Where is tiger? This is called subtle body. So you are changing daily at night from this gross body to the subtle body. And again the dream is over, from the subtle body, again to the gross body.

Lecture on BG 4.1-6 -- Los Angeles, January 3, 1969:

Transcendental knowledge. There are two kinds of knowledges: mundane knowledge and transcendental knowledge. Mundane knowledge means how to maintain this body, āhāra-nidrā-bhaya-maithunam, to meet the demands of this body. What are the demands of this body? We require to eat something. Eating, sleeping. We require rest after working hard. After eating sumptuously, we require sleeping. Eating, sleeping, and during sleeping we sometimes dream, fearing, or without dream, fearing. So we take protection. While sleeping, we close our doors. So eating, sleeping, fearing, and mating—sense gratification. So to arrange for these necessities of life of the body, the knowledge that we require, that is called mundane knowledge.

Lecture on BG 4.3-6 -- New York, July 18, 1966:

Just like God is eternal, similarly, we are also eternal. But the difficulty is that we change our body. We change our body. Vāsāṁsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya (BG 2.22). Just like we change our dress, similarly, we change our body. And as soon as we change our body, now, we forget everything. Death means forgetfulness. That's all. Just like at night, when you sleep, you forget yourself. You forget yourself that "I am the father of such and such children, I am the husband of such and such..." You dream that you are in a different place.

Lecture on BG 4.6 -- Bombay, March 26, 1974:

That was explained that tejīyasāṁ na doṣāya (SB 10.33.29). Tejīyasāṁ na doṣāya. Kṛṣṇa danced with others' wife or sister or other girls. They were all girls. They came at mid of, midnight to dance with Him. But they were also not material. That is spiritual. It requires little brain to understand. So Parīkṣit Mahārāja... Śukadeva Gosvāmī explained that these things should not be considered by the conditioned souls. They should not even dream of this. It is a different thing. And if you think that Kṛṣṇa has a fault because He danced with others' wives, so he explained that tejīyasāṁ na doṣāya. Tejīyasām... The... A thing which is very, very powerful, he is not contaminated. That is the conclusion.

Lecture on BG 4.10 Public Meeting -- Rome, May 25, 1974:

Just like you give up your one dress, you accept another dress; similarly, when this body, dress, is no more useful, you accept another dress. That you have got experience at night. You leave this body, and you take another body, and you roam in dreamland. That is experienced, everyday experienced. You give up this body; you accept another body, subtle body. So when this gross body is destroyed, the subtle body carries you to another gross body. That is called death.

Lecture on BG 4.10 Festival at Maison de Faubourg -- Geneva, May 31, 1974:

The youthful body is now gone. Now I have got a different body. But I know that I had such and such body. Similarly, when this body will be useless, I cannot use it, I will have to accept another body. That we have got experience daily, in day and night. When we sleep at night, although we have got this body lying on my bed, I accept another body, subtle body, and I go to another place and dream. Similarly, at night, when I give up that subtle body, which took me far away from my bed, again I come and accept this material body and wake up.

Lecture on BG 4.11-18 -- Los Angeles, January 8, 1969:

Prabhupāda: Just explain, just try to explain what do you mean by "cosmic consciousness."

Guest: Being in a transcendental state simultaneously with the waking, dreaming, and deep sleep states, the relative states (indistinct) and having the transcendental state also. Being...

Prabhupāda: What is the distinction between transcendental stage and this stage?

Lecture on BG 4.17 -- Bombay, April 6, 1974:

Bhagavān says, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ. Dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā, tathā dehāntara (BG 2.13). Dehāntara-prāptiḥ is there. As we are getting dehāntara. We have got experience every day. Just like in daytime we have got this body. At night, when we dream, we have got a different body. We go elsewhere; we're working differently, forgetting this body, and again, daytime, we forget our body which was seen in the dream. That is also dream; this is also dream. This is daydream, and that is night dream. But the seer, the soul, is permanent. He is in the daytime and he is also nighttime. So this is our position. We are changing our body.

Lecture on BG 4.39-5.3 -- New York, August 24, 1966:

And if you question me that "Swamiji, why you have taken sannyāsa?" You may ask that question. Yes. So I may tell you frankly that I had no desire to accept this sannyāsa. I never dreamt in my householder... I was a householder. I never dreamt. But circumstantially I was forced to accept the sannyāsa dress just to become a preacher. You see? That is a long history. Sannyāsa, (chuckles) but I was forced some way or other to accept the sannyāsa. Of course, as far as possible, I am following the rules and regulations of a sannyāsī, as far as possible.

Lecture on BG 5.7-13 -- New York, August 27, 1966:

Whatever is sanctioned by Kṛṣṇa he does; otherwise not. So paśyañ śṛṇvan spṛśañ jighrann aśnan gacchan svapan śvasan. These are our activities. Paśyan, we act by seeing. We act by hearing. We act by touching. We act by smelling. We act by going. We act by dreaming. We act by breathing. So many our activities are... So in all these, going on. But a tattva-vit, one who is in the perfect knowledge and is Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he, although he is doing all these things he knows, "I'm not doing." This is tattva-vit. Although he's doing all these things he knows that "I am not doing. Kṛṣṇa is doing. I am simply instrumental. I am simply instrument." That is the perfection.

Lecture on BG 6.11-21 -- New York, September 7, 1966:

So nātyaśnatas tu yogo 'sti na caikāntam anaśnataḥ na cāti svapna-śīlasya. "If anyone dreams very much, he cannot also execute." Now, here Śrī Kṛṣṇa does not say that there is dreamless sleep. Dreamless sleep cannot be possible. It is not possible. If somebody says, "dreamless sleep," it is also another lunacy. No. Dream there must be, more or less. As soon as you go asleep, oh, dream there must be. That may be good dream, bad dream, or for long time or for little time. But dream there must be. Now, Kṛṣṇa says that na ca ati svapna-śīlasya. That means "One who dreams very much while sleeping, he cannot execute yoga." Na jāgrato naiva cārjuna. "And one who cannot sleep at night..." I have got a young friend, he cannot sleep. So for him, it is not yoga...yoga process is not possible. He may note down here. So sleep also required. You cannot remain without sleeping. That is also required. That means somehow or other, you should keep your body fit. You should not eat more, you sleeping. That is also required. That means somehow or other, you should keep your body fit. You should not eat more, you shall not voluntarily starve, you should not be voluntarily awake, and neither, and if you keep yourself peaceful, then you'll not sleep...you'll not dream also. When the bile is very much agitated, then we see so many dreams due to the air which is coming out of agitated bile. And if you keep yourself peaceful, cool mind, cool head, cool, I mean to say, stomach, then there will, there will be ordinary sleep.

Lecture on BG 6.11-21 -- New York, September 7, 1966:

. If you want to be a yogi at home, then your other engagement should be moderate. You cannot engage for earning your living very heavily and at the same time you can become a yogi. No, that is not possible. That is not possible. Yuktāhāra-vihārasya. You should eat very moderately, you should gratify your senses very moderately, your work should be anxietyless, you should not dream more, and you should not be awake. These are the rules. Then yoga process will be successful.

Lecture on BG 7.1 -- Gainesville, July 29, 1971 University of Florida:

Similarly sleeping. You may sleep in a very nice apartment, six story building or 102nd story building; a dog is lying on the street. But when he sleeps and when you sleep, there is no difference. You cannot know whether you are sleeping in a skyscraper building or on the ground, because you are dreaming something else which has taken you from your bed. You have forgotten that "My body is lying there on the bed, and now I am flying in the air," dreaming.

Lecture on BG 7.1 -- Bombay, January 13, 1973:

The spirit soul is injected by the semina of the father, and it is put within the womb of the mother. And then the two secretions develops into small body, like a pea, and that develops, gradually. When the development is complete, on the seventh month, the child moves. His sense, consciousness, comes. He's in the dreaming condition then. In the beginning, he's unconscious. Suṣupti. Then dreaming condition. He returns to his consciousness. And then he wants to come out. And then, in due course of time, at the end of ten months, the child comes out. This is the process of bodily construction, material bodily construction. Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa jantur deha upapattaye (SB 3.31.1). This is the beginning of body. So a dead child, coming out, does not grow because the soul is not there.

Lecture on BG 7.1 -- Bhuvanesvara, January 22, 1977:

Illusion means it is temporary. Just like you dream something. That is called illusion. But dream is actually not illusion. Because although in dream you see some tiger, he's attacking, that is illusion. And you are crying, "Save me! Save me! Here is a tiger!" But one who is awakened, he say, "Why you are crying?" "There is a tiger." "Where is tiger?" This is illusion. But when you are dreaming that there is a tiger, you are crying, that is not illusion. It is acting. Similarly, this material manifestation, it is not illusion, but for the time being it is illusion. We are attracted with this material world, society, friendship and love. But in a second we can be slapped by the material nature and get out of this illusion, just like dream. So in this sense it is illusion, but so long it is there, it is fact also. So chant Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Lecture on BG 7.28-8.6 -- New York, October 23, 1966:

This is the advantage of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Because at the time of death, whatever you practice now in your healthy life, that will be... Just like asleep we dream of the things of our activities, similarly, this death is also a kind of dream. Death is a dream, er, sleep, sleeping. Death is nothing but sleeping for seven months. That's all. Sleeping for seven months, that is called death. Just like, in the operation table, one becomes unconscious for one hour, half an hour. Then he comes to his consciousness.

Lecture on BG 8.5 -- New York, October 26, 1966:

Because soul is now covered by the subtle body and the gross body. When the gross body stops to work... Just like at night the gross body is lying, but the subtle body mind is working. Therefore you are dreaming. The subtle body is working. So when you give up this body, your subtle body, mind, intelligence, that carries you very fine. Just like the flavor is carried by the air. If the air passes on some rose trees, the air becomes flavored like rose. There is no rose, but the flavor is there. Similarly, the flavor of your mentality, the flavor of your understanding, is carried. That is the subtle body. And you get a similar body. Therefore at the time of death the examination is tested, how one has advanced in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. The best thing is... It is said in the next verse, tasmāt sarveṣu kāleṣu (BG 8.7). Kṛṣṇa says, tasmāt sarveṣu... (break) ...of death you are transferred to a body like Kṛṣṇa in the abode of Kṛṣṇa.

Lecture on BG 8.21-22 -- New York, November 19, 1966:

We are thinking that if we can transfer ourself to the moon planet, we shall be happy. Oh, it is useless. Bhagavad-gītā has already informed you that even if you go to the highest planet, ābrahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ punar āvartino 'rjuna (BG 8.16), even if you go by some way or other... You cannot go. That is a dream only. But still, if you go by your sputnik or by aeronautic means, but still, the four principles of material miseries, namely birth, death, old age and disease, you cannot avoid. So it is not our business to have our place anywhere within this material world. Either this country or that country or this planet or that planet, you'll never be happy. Here is information. Avyaktaḥ akṣara ity uktas tam āhuḥ paramāṁ gatim. If you can reach that highest perfectional stage of life, then only you'll no longer be required to come back again to this nonsense material world. Yes. This is the information you get.

Lecture on BG 9.4 -- Calcutta, March 9, 1972:

That is, that will be, that is explained, mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti. This is māyā. Māyā means actually I am not under this mṛtyu-saṁsāra-vartmani. Ātma māyām ṛte rājan. It is māyā. Just like in dream, I enter some kind of body. At night, every night we can experience, that when you sleep we dream that "I have taken another body. I have gone to another place. I am working in a different way, forgetting this body." This is daily experience. And when that dream is over, then again I come to this body. I remember, "Oh, I have to go there, I have to do this," another action, other activity. This is going on. I am accepting this gross dream and this subtle dream, but what is my actual position? That I do not know.

Lecture on BG 9.4 -- Melbourne, April 22, 1976:

Just like you dream. What do you dream? Whatever you think always, you dream like that. It is mental activities. So those who are trying to become fishlike, nature offers him a actual body of fish. That is transmigration of the soul. We are desiring different types of desires and we are getting a body. This is nature's law. Just like you infect some type of contagious disease. You suffer from that disease. Nature's way. It will be automatically manufactured. That is the disease. Similarly, the body will be automatically manufactured. This is the nature's law. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27). You are under the control of the material nature and if you are manufacturing different ideas, nature will give you the facility to have such body. That is called transmigration of the soul. Therefore we find so many varieties of forms of life within the water, on the land, so many plants, so many varieties of trees, so many varieties of insect, so many varieties of birds, beast, and then human life, then civilized life.

Lecture on BG 9.4 -- Melbourne, April 22, 1976:

Guest (2): What can you do to still two voices inside yourself? One voice tells me that the mystics' view on the world is correct and it has its own logic and it's consistent. And this, when I'm in a meditative mood I can comprehend. But when I walk in the daylight and the illusions are around one, then the other voice talks and says, my so-called logical voice, my daily, logical voice, says, "That a fantasy, a dream you're chasing. You're only putting your logic to it. Maybe it doesn't exist." How can one get over this doubt?

Prabhupāda: That means you are surrendering to different people. That is your position.

Lecture on BG 13.1-2 -- Bombay, December 29, 1972:

That I have already explained several times. At night, we forget all this body. Although in daytime I identify myself that "I am American," "I am Indian," "I am brāhmaṇa," at night, when I sleep, I forget whether I am American, Indian, or brāhmaṇa, and kṣatriya. This is our daily experience. I am in different atmosphere. I am dreaming something. But again at daytime I forget what I dreamt at night. So sometimes we go very unknown place, very nice place, nice building, nice atmosphere. And at, as soon as the dream is over, then again I am on my bed. You see. And when I dream, I forget. I'm not in my bed, but I'm in the surrounding of palaces, of gardens. So this is our daily experience.

Lecture on BG 13.20 -- Bombay, October 14, 1973:

The so-called scientists, they do not know that the consciousness is eternal and it carries me to another body. "I see that this body is destroyed; therefore finish, all finished." No. You have got practical experience. When you sleep, the body does not work but the consciousness works. You therefore dream in a different atmosphere. You get a different body and enjoy differently. Every day we have got experience. At night I forget this body, and daytime, I forget the dreaming body. So this is also dreaming, at daytime, because I forget. At night I saw that I was a king, I was ruling over somebody, or I was lecturing as a political leader, and daytime I see that I am a clerk, neither politician nor king. So I forget the night's body, and at night I forget the day's body.

Lecture on BG 16.8 -- Tokyo, January 28, 1975:

Prabhupāda: Therefore they say chemical evolution. They cannot think of spirit. Go on.

Nitāi: "According to them, everything is void, and whatever manifestation exists is due to our ignorance in perception. They take it for granted that all manifestation of diversity is a display of ignorance. Just as in a dream we may create so many things which actually have no existence, so when we are awake we shall see that everything is simply a dream. But factually, although the demons say that life is a dream, they are very expert in enjoying this dream. And so, instead of acquiring knowledge, they become more and more implicated in their dreamland. They conclude that as a child is simply the result of sexual intercourse between man and woman, this world is born without any soul. For them it is only a combination of matter that has produced the living entities, and there is no question of the existence of the soul. As many living creatures come out from the perspiration and from a dead body without any cause, similarly, the whole living world has come out from the material combinations of the cosmic manifestation. Therefore material nature is the cause of this manifestation, and there is no other cause. They do not believe in the words of Kṛṣṇa in the Bhagavad-gītā, mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram: (BG 9.10) 'Under My direction the whole material world is moving.' In other words, amongst the demons there is no perfect knowledge of the creation of this world; every one of them has a particular theory of his own. According to them, one interpretation of the scriptures is as good as another, for they do not believe in a standard understanding of the scriptural injunctions."

Prabhupāda: This is demonic. Now any question? (pause) This demonic conclusion will not help us. Then we shall remain in ignorance; there is no knowledge. Any question? Can you put any question on behalf of the demons?

Lecture on BG 16.13-15 -- Hawaii, February 8, 1975:

This is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's statement. "If I had any drop of love for Kṛṣṇa, how I could live so long without Kṛṣṇa?" Śūnyāyitaṁ jagat sarvaṁ govinda-viraheṇa me. So this is love of Kṛṣṇa, that "How can I live?"—separation from Kṛṣṇa. This is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's philosophy. And the Gosvāmīs followed them. They never said that "Now I have seen Kṛṣṇa." Never said. The Gosvāmīs... Caitanya Mahāprabhu also said that "I was dreaming Kṛṣṇa. Why you got Me awakened? I lost the chance." But the Gosvāmīs, they said that

he rādhe vraja-devike ca lalite he nanda-sūno kutaḥ

śrī-govardhana-kalpa-pādapa-tale kālindī-vane kutaḥ

ghoṣantāv iti sarvato vraja-pure khedair mahā-vihvalau

vande rūpa-sanātanau raghu-yugau śrī-jīva-gopālakau

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

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

We living entities, we are eternal. And our relationship and exchange of loving service with Kṛṣṇa is also eternal. Kṛṣṇa is eternal, we are eternal, and our dealings with Kṛṣṇa is also eternal. But sometimes it becomes interrupted by the māyā, which is called svapna. Svapna means dreamlike. As dream has no fact, it is all hallucination, similarly our detachment from Kṛṣṇa is also a hallucination. Actually, there is no detachment. And when we are covered by this hallucination... Just like in dream we cry, "Oh, here is a tiger! Here is a tiger!" Tiger. Where is tiger? Similarly, this forgetfulness of Kṛṣṇa is like that. So if we simply follow the rules and regulations given by the great ācāryas, then immediately we can revive our Kṛṣṇa consciousness. It doesn't take even second. The method...(?) Just like you are dreaming, crying, "There is tiger, tiger." And if somebody pushes you, "Why you are doing that?" And if you immediately become awake "Oh! All tiger finished." (laughter) "All tiger finished." So one has to give the push that "There is no tiger." Then immediately the whole hallucination will go.

So this pushing method is given by Caitanya Mahāprabhu personally, Kṛṣṇa personally. Jīv jāgo jīv jāgo gauracānda bole. Gauracandra, Caitanya Mahāprabhu, is asking everyone, "Wake up!" The same dreaming. "Wake up."

Lecture on SB 1.2.5 -- Edinburgh, July 17, 1972:

Therefore, materialism means forgetfulness of Kṛṣṇa. Otherwise, there is no other existence as material. Just like in dream. In dream, some way or other, we create an atmosphere. But actually, there is no different atmosphere. But by our brain, hallucination, we create something. So created in dream, we have got experience, everyone, "I am the worker. I am doing this. I am flying. I am going there. I am riding the path(?). I am working. I..." "I" is there. This "I" false ego is there. Ahaṁ mameti (SB 5.5.8). So forgetting Kṛṣṇa, when we concentrate only "I" and "mine," that is material world. That is material world. Material means separated. When I create, when we forget Kṛṣṇa, when I create "I" and "mine," that is material. Make it clear.

Lecture on SB 1.2.6 -- London, August 27, 1971:

So mukti and conditioned, there is no difference. Simply due to our ignorance we become conditioned. If we change the ignorance, immediately we are mukta. Immediately liberated. Just like... The same example: you're dreaming that "I am being attacked by a tiger." So the mukti means some way or other if somebody pushes you and you are awakened, no more tiger. Finished.

Lecture on SB 1.2.6 -- London, August 27, 1971:

So just try to understand. Actually, there is no condition. It is a dream. By conditioned stage we are differentiating. Bheda-buddhi. Bheda-buddhi, that "Kṛṣṇa is different from me. Who is Kṛṣṇa? I am Kṛṣṇa." The bheda-buddhi. So... What is that?

Pradyumna: "And the other is called the nivṛtti-mārga."

Lecture on SB 1.2.8 -- New Vrindaban, September 6, 1972:

Just like every night we die. The gross body remains inactive on the bed, and the subtle body takes me away. I dream, I go in the dreamland. I have gone to some friend, I am talking with somebody, I am working in a different way. That is our daily experience. This means that we have got two kinds of body. One body is this gross body, and the other body is subtle body, made of mind, intelligence, and ego.

Lecture on SB 1.2.9-10 -- Delhi, November 14, 1973:

So this is the position. Everyone is very happy. This is called māyā's influence. Unless a hog feels happy, how he can live in this abominable life? This is called prakṣepātmika-śakti, covering. If one man knows or..., that "I was king in my previous life. Now I have become a poor cobbler" or something like..., then he will become mad. So therefore he forgets. Death means forget. Because the living entity does not die. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). There is no death. Death means forgetting everything of my past life. That's all. Just like we forget. At night, when we dream, we accept another body, and we forget this body. And in the daytime we forget the night dream body and accept this body.

Lecture on SB 1.2.10 -- Vrndavana, October 21, 1972:

So the fact is that we do not require to, I mean to say, endeavor for finding out food. The food is already there. Jīvasya tattva-jijñāsā. We should sit down tightly, depending on Kṛṣṇa... That we have already explained, that this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is going on. We have got heavy expenditure, but Kṛṣṇa is supplying. This is a fact. None of our boys and girls, they go to office or to factory or they earn. The... In Los Angeles, our neighborhood men, they're very envious. They say, "How you maintain such huge establishment and you do not work?" They cannot dream that without working one can eat. Yes. So here the fact, jīvasya tattva-jijñāsā nārtho yaś ceha karmabhiḥ. It is not that you have to work very hard.

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

So we do not forget things so long the form continues. But when the form changes, we forget. Every night we have got this experience. Our form is lying on the bed, but I am dreaming in a different form. I am flying in the sky and forgetting that my real form is lying on the bed. You forget. We forget that "I am American" or "I am the son of such and such gentleman," or... Everything forgotten. Every night we have got this experience. So as soon as the form is forgotten, then everything is forgotten. With reference to the context.

Lecture on SB 1.5.23 -- Vrndavana, August 4, 1974:

So here, how he became Nārada Muni will be described. But here it is said... One thing is that when you are liberated... Just like in the Bhagavad-gītā it is said that tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti (BG 4.9). You become an associate of Nārāyaṇa, Kṛṣṇa, Viṣṇu. Then you can remember your past lives. Remember your past lives. Just like you can remember your dreams, "I was dreaming like that." So this is all dream. Our, this life, at the present moment, because this body is false, so whatever we are acting, it is just like dream. Just like in dream at night we also work. So this is gross dream and that is subtle dream. But real life is spiritual life. But we foolish people, we are taking this life as permanent life, permanent settlement. It is not permanent settlement. Here is..., Nārada Muni's saying, ahaṁ purā atīta-bhave abhavam. Atīta-bhave. This nature... Just like everything material... Bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19). It appears for some time like bubbles in the ocean, few seconds. Again finished. The whole cosmic manifestation in which we are millions and millions of years, it is just like a bubble in the ocean. It is just like a bubble. Bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19). It is said in the Bhagavad-gītā.

Lecture on SB 1.7.32-33 -- Vrndavana, September 27, 1976:

So these things are there, and it is the duty of the government to see how things are going on. But it is simply now dream. People are also not interested what is the aim of life, what is the mission of this human form of life; neither there is guidance. There are so many upadravas. That is Kali-yuga. Kali-yuga means that people will be more and more unhappy. Prāyeṇa alpāyuṣaḥ kalāv asmin yuge janāḥ. The first thing is that the duration of life will decrease, alpa-āyuṣa. And manda, all bad men. Hardly we'll find any good men.

Lecture on SB 1.8.26 -- Los Angeles, April 18, 1973:

Suppose you are American. You are rich, you are beautiful. You are advanced in knowledge, and you are, you can be proud of become American. But how long this intoxication will exist? As soon as this body's finished, everything is finished. All, all intoxication. Just like... Same thing. You drink something, become intoxicated. But as soon as that intoxication is over, all your intoxicated dreams are over, finished.

Lecture on SB 1.8.26 -- Mayapura, October 6, 1974:

This is materialism. And spiritualism means just the opposite. Therefore people are not attracted to spiritualism. I have told you that I was thinking when I was dreaming that "Guru Mahārāja is asking me to come out, and I was going..." Did I say this story? Yes. So I was afraid: "Oh, I have to give up my family. And I become... I have to become sannyāsī? And I have to go behind my Guru Mahārāja? No, no, it is horrible." I was thinking. But he forced me to it. He is so kind that he forced me, somehow or other. That is mercy. I can understand now that how much merciful was my Guru Mahārāja that he forced me to take this life.

Lecture on SB 1.15.29 -- Los Angeles, December 7, 1973:

The whole day is spent, so many motorcars going this way and that way. What is the business? "Where is money? Where is food? Where is shelter?" And as soon as you get shelter, money, and food, kuṭumba-bharaṇena vā. Then "How to feed my children, how to feed my wife, how to feed my country, how to..., society?" That's all. This is anxiety. This is anxiety. They... Nidrayā hriyate naktam. At night they want to become anxiety-less by sleeping or by sex life. They want to forget anxiety. This is their business. Nidrayā hriyate naktam. They think that "If I sleep, then I shall be... Let me drink so at night there will be very deep sleep." That is not possible. You dream very ferocious dream, you are dreaming. So... And sex life, that is also temporary free.

Lecture on SB 1.15.35 -- Los Angeles, December 13, 1973:

After your death you are unconscious. Just like when you are on a surgical operational table you are completely under the surgeon. He puts you on the table, you unconscious, and he is operating as he likes. You don't protest. Similarly, we have got three condition. This is awakened stage we are talking, but at night we dream. That is called svapna stage, dreaming stage. And there is another stage, when you don't dream, you are simply unconsciousness. If somebody has gone surgical operation he might have experienced that completely unconscious. So then dream comes. When you come to consciousness from unconsciousness, you come to dreaming condition. From dreaming condition you come to this awakened stage. Similarly, you go from this awakened stage to dreaming condition and from dreaming condition to unconsciousness.

Lecture on SB 1.16.25 -- Hawaii, January 21, 1974:

Now, truthfulness is a, nowadays, is a matter of dream only. There is no truthfulness. Everyone is... Beginning from the president and down to the ordinary man in the street, nobody is truthful. Now the president in your country is being questioned so many ways because he has proved himself not truthful. So this is a forgotten story, truthfulness. That is brahminical qualification. All these qualifications are mentioned. It is not possible to acquire all the qualities by one man. That is not possible.

Lecture on SB 2.1.2 -- Mombassa, September 13, 1971:

You are trying to go the nearest planet, Candra, moon planet, still you are unsuccessful. What to speak of other. There is sun planet. I think they cannot dream of going to the sun planet. It is not possible. But there is a planet in your front. If you are scientist, if you are advanced, go. But you can go actually. Actually you go. People formerly, they used to go. Just like in Bhagavad-gītā you will see this is described. Kṛṣṇa says, imaṁ vivasvate yogaṁ proktavān aham avyayam (BG 4.1), "I first of all instructed this system of bhakti-yoga, Bhagavad-gītā, to the sun-god." That means Kṛṣṇa went there. Otherwise, how He could instruct the sun-god? Not only that, He says, vivasvān manave prāha manur ikṣvākave 'bravīt.

Lecture on SB 2.1.2-5 -- Montreal, October 23, 1968:

So our present condition is diseased. Why you are dying? Because you are diseased. Why you are becoming old? Because you are diseased. That is due to this body. But actually I am spirit soul. I am neither old nor diseased, but I have fallen into the condition of material contamination. Therefore I am thinking that I am diseased. This is called māyā. Just like in the dream I am feeling that a tiger is eating me, and I am crying, "Here is a tiger eating me, eating me. Save me." But there is no tiger. This is called illusion, or māyā. But so long we'll have this body just like so long we shall dream, we shall have to suffer the effect, even it is illusion.

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

We may sleep in a very nice apartment, skyscraper building, and the dog may sleep on the street, but the pleasure of sleeping is the same. It does not mean that because you are sleeping in a very nice apartment, a skyscraper building, your sleep is better than the dog's sleeping? How it is sleep... Sometimes you may dream something very ferocious, and the dog may sleep without any agitation, sound sleep. Sometimes you have to take tranquilizer pill for sleeping.

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

So sometimes when we used to go there, so in the evening after taking their meals, by eight o'clock, they would go to a place, assemble, and hear about Rāmāyaṇa, Mahābhārata, Bhāgavata. And they should discuss while coming home, and they should go, they would go to bed thinking that memory. So they'll sleep also Rāmāyaṇa and Mahābhārata. Yes, and dream also Rāmāyaṇa and Mahābhārata. You see? This was the system.

Lecture on SB 2.9.1 -- Tokyo, April 20, 1972:

The very exact example is given, svapna-draṣṭuḥ. Just like a man seeing dream: "Oh, there is tiger, tiger, tiger, tiger! Save me!" He is crying. Another man is, "Where is tiger? Why you are crying? Where is tiger?" But he, in the dream, he is actually feeling: "The tiger has attacked me." Therefore this example is given, na ghaṭetārtha-sambandhaḥ. There cannot be any meaning of this relationship except like a man dreaming and he is creating a situation. He is dreaming there is a tiger and he is creating a situation, fearful situation. Actually there is no cause of fear. There is no tiger. That situation is created by dream. Actually there is no tiger. Similarly we have created this material world and activity. People are running, "Oh..., sonh, sonh, sonh, sonh, sonh, sonh, sonh," identifying that "Oh, I am the manager. I am the factory owner. I am this, I am that. We have got his politics. We have to defeat such competitors." All these things are created exactly like that, svapna-draṣṭur ivāñjasā, just like a man is creating his particular situation simply by dream. That's all.

Lecture on SB 2.9.1 -- Tokyo, April 20, 1972:

So the answer is, when somebody asks you that "When one has become in contact with this material nature?" He has not become in contact. He is thinking by the influence of the external energy. Just like the same example: A man is dreaming; there is no contact with tiger. Actually he has no contact with that. Similarly, actually we are not fallen. We cannot be fallen. But we have created a situation that we are, become... Try to understand understand. It is very important point. We have simply created a situation. We have not created a situation, Kṛṣṇa has given us a situation. Because we wanted to imitate Kṛṣṇa, so Kṛṣṇa has given an opportunity: "All right. Imitate. You want to be imitation king in the stage. So feel like this. Play like this. Do like this. People will applaud. 'Oh, a very nice king, very nice.' " That is the... So everyone in this material world, they are playing some part. They wanted, "I want to be prime minister." "All right." "I want to become very big business magnate." "I want to be leader." "I want to be a philosopher." "I want to be a scientist." So all this nonsense, they are trying to play—Kṛṣṇa is giving him the opportunity: "All right." But it is a nonsense, all nonsense. Simple dreaming. Just like you are dreaming. Next moment when the dream is gone, everything is finished. No more tiger, no more jungle, no more... Everything is finished. Similarly, so long this body is continuing, I am thinking, "I am a responsible leader, I am this, I am that." But as soon as this body is finished, oh, these are (indistinct) gone.

Lecture on SB 2.9.1 -- Tokyo, April 20, 1972:

So it may be. But actually I have no remembrance that I was a physician. So what do we know? I might have been a very big physician, influential physician, having a good practice, but where is all...? All gone. So this situation, our contact with matter, is just like dream. Actually we are not fallen. Therefore, because we are not fallen, at any moment we can revive our Kṛṣṇa consciousness. As soon as we understand that, "I have nothing to do with. I am simply Kṛṣṇa's servant. Eternal servant. That's all," immediately he becomes liberated. Exactly like that: as soon as you... Sometimes we do that. When the fearful dreaming becomes too much intolerable, we break the dream. We break the dream when it becomes intolerable. Similarly, we can break this material connection at any moment as soon as we come to the point of Kṛṣṇa conscious. "Oh, Kṛṣṇa is my eternal master. I am His servant." That's all. This is the way. Actually we are not fallen. There cannot be any fallen. The same example: Actually there is no tiger; it is dreaming. Similarly, our fallen condition is also dreaming. We are not fallen. We can simply give up that illusory condition at any moment. At any moment. So if you study all these verses very nicely, you get all this knowledge quickly.

Lecture on SB 2.9.1 -- Tokyo, April 20, 1972:

So people are conditioned, encaged. So many big, big words The Māyāvādīs, they are undergoing austerities or penances just to become liberated. Yogis, they are also trying to become one. So many endeavors are going on. But the simple process is, as soon as you surrender, that you are not fallen, "It was illusion. I was dreaming. I am Kṛṣṇa's," finished. All gone. "I am Kṛṣṇa's. I am Kṛṣṇa's eternal servant. These are all nonsense"—he immediately becomes liberated. Just try to understand. Immediately, within a second. Liberation can be attained within a second, provided we abide by the order of Kṛṣṇa. Sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). This is the position.

Lecture on SB 2.9.1 -- Tokyo, April 20, 1972:

So the yogic siddhis... So Kṛṣṇa gives him some power of yogic siddhi and he thinks that "I have become God," and some flatterers, they also think, "Oh, you are God." The same dream. And as soon as death comes, everything finished, your Godhood and everything finished. Now becomes doghood, come to the stage of doghood. Again, another dream: "I am dog." First of all "I am God," then next stage, "I am dog." This is going on. Therefore Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura said, keno māyār bośe jāccho bhese': "Why you are being washed away by the waves of māyā? Just fix up. Stand up." Jīv kṛṣṇa-dās ei viśwās korle to ār duḥkho nāi. You simply remain fixed up on this standpoint, that, "I am eternal servant of Kṛṣṇa."

Lecture on SB 2.9.1 -- Tokyo, April 20, 1972:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Karandhara: "As a person thinks of becoming a king without possessing the necessary qualifications, similarly, when the living entity desires to become the Lord Himself, he is put in a condition of dreaming that he is a king. Therefore the first sinful will of the living entity is to become the Lord, and the consequent will of the Lord is that the living entity forgets his actual life and thus dreams of the land of utopia where he may become one like the Lord. The child cries to have the moon from the mother and the mother gives the child a mirror to satisfy the crying and disturbing child with the shadow of the moon. Similarly the crying child of the Lord is given over to the shadow of the material world to lord it over as a karmī and to give this up in frustration to become one with the Lord. Both these stages are dreaming illusions only. There is no necessity of tracing out the history when the living entity desired this, but the fact is that as soon as he desired such, he was put under the control of ātma-māyā by the direction of the Lord. Therefore the living entity in his material condition is dreaming falsely that this is 'mine' and this is 'I.' The dream is that the conditioned soul thinks of his material body as 'I' or falsely thinks that he is the lord and that everything in connection with the material body is 'mine.' Thus in dream only the misconception of 'I and mine' persist life after life. This continues life after life as long as the living entity is not purely conscious of his identity as the subordinate part and parcel of the Lord. In his pure consciousness, however, there is no such misconceived dream. And in that pure conscious state the living entity does not forget that he is never the Lord, but he is eternally the servitor of the Lord in transcendental love."

Prabhupāda: That's all.

Lecture on SB 2.9.1 -- Tokyo, April 20, 1972:

The same example. In dream I am not attacked by the tiger, but I am thinking, "Oh, tiger is there." It is simply dreaming condition.

Lecture on SB 2.9.1 -- Tokyo, April 20, 1972:

So as soon as you understand that "This is not... I am not in contact with tiger. It is all a dream," then you are delivered. Similarly, as soon as you understand, "All this material condition of life we are simply dreaming; I am actually servant of Kṛṣṇa," then you are liberated. That is Kṛṣṇa conscious. If you keep in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, that "I am eternal servant of Kṛṣṇa," then you are liberated. Sa guṇān samatītyaitān brahma-bhūyaa kalpate (BG 14.26), Kṛṣṇa says. Immediately brahma-bhūtaḥ. Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā na śocati na kāṅkṣati (BG 18.54). He has no more lamentation, no more hankering. Samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu. He can see everyone on equal vision. Because he knows, "Here is also another living entity." He is not a Chinaman. He is a part and parcel of God. He is not a Christian. He is not a Hindu. He is simply thinking like that. So give him Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is real benefit, to bring him to the original position.

Lecture on SB 3.25.13 -- Los Angeles, November 10, 1968:

So we like society, friendship. Oh, I do not know how many intimate friendship I had, but those are now just like dream, everything finished. Now I am making new friendships with your countrymen, with you younger boys of this country, and I have forgotten the friendship which I made the whole life in India. So this friendship, this love, this society, this country—everything illusion. Just like dream. At night we dream, "Oh, I have been made a king," and in the morning I see everything finished. So we should not be attached to these temporary attractions. We admit these are temporary attractions, but we are still... Just like children.

Lecture on SB 3.25.30 -- Bombay, November 30, 1974:

So they were mad after Kṛṣṇa: "Where is Kṛṣṇa?" They never said, "We have seen Kṛṣṇa." And Caitanya Mahāprabhu also, He said, "I was dreaming of Kṛṣṇa, and why you wake Me? I have lost the chance." In this way they were making bhajana. This is called viraha-bhajana, viraha-bhajana, separation. That is very recommended process. So we should be awakened, awaken our consciousness, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, in such a way that being separated from Kṛṣṇa, we shall become mad after Him. This is called kṛṣṇa-prema. That prema was being distributed by Caitanya Mahāprabhu. And He is still distributing.

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

Sometimes a person is dying, he is attacked with coma, and he is lying unconscious. Big, big politicians, "Mr. such and such," prime minister, and this and that, but he is lying unconscious in coma for seven days. And we do not know, but he is going very fierceful test. He is dreaming so many things that sometimes he is crying. He cannot express. Especially those who are very sinful, they die in that way. So this is not finished. Then, after death, you have to enter in the womb of the mother. That is another fierceful stage. You become packed up in a bag, and the bag is filled up or surrounded by stool, urine, worms. And you have to remain there, airtight packed, for ten months.

Lecture on SB 3.26.4 -- Bombay, December 16, 1974:

So this is going on, opposite of... Actually, the conditioned soul in this material world, they are sleeping. Therefore Vedas says, uttiṣṭhata jāgrata prāpya varān nibodhata, that "You rascal, you are why sleeping?" They are not sleeping. They are thinking, "I'm so busy." But that busy-ness is also dream, just like a man sleeping and dreaming that he is very busy. So this kind of life is condemned. Therefore the Veda says, "Get up! Get up! Now you have got this..." Prāpya varān nibodhata: "You have got this human form of life. You try to understand Kṛṣṇa. You try to understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Try to understand your relationship and act accordingly. Then your life will be successful. Otherwise you are wasting your time."

Lecture on SB 3.26.20 -- Bombay, December 29, 1974:

It is called suptotthita-nyāya. Suptotthita-nyāya means just like one man is sleeping, and in the morning, when he is awakened... In the sleeping stage he forgot himself. He is wandering in dream, some other part of the world. He forgot this body and the bodily circumstances, everything. But as soon as he is awakened, he remembers everything. That darkness of ignorance, covering, is immediately gone, and he remembers that "I will have to do this. I will have to do that. I will have to go to my office or my business place." But when sleeping, he forgot everything. Similarly, in the dormant stage after annihilation, we living entities, we forget everything. Just like at night we are forgetting everything of this bodily activities, and again, during daytime, we are forgetting everything of the night dream.

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

Just like in dream we do not work with this gross body, but we work in dream with mind, intelligence and ego. We create another atmosphere, and in dream we see or we place ourself in a different atmosphere, although the gross body is resting on the bed. So this we experience every night, that because the gross body stops working, it does not mean the soul stops working. The soul works with his mind, intelligence and ego. So when this body becomes incapable of working further, then the mind, intelligence and ego carries me to another body, means another process of formation of the body into the womb of the mother, and when the body is formed and in working capacity, even as a child or baby, then the body comes out and the living entity's another chapter of life begins. This is the process of transmigration of the soul.

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

So again, as soon as the body is complete, then we get back our consciousness. Then we become in sleepy condition. Then again, when we come out of the mother's abdomen, that is awakening state. There are three states of conditions: jāgara, suṣupti, and svapna-dreaming condition, awakening condition, and unconscious or deep... Actually, we do not die. Na jāyate na mriyate vā kadācit. There is no question of death. It is simply sleeping or deep sleeping, like that.

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

When Mādhavendra Purī was in Vṛndāvana, the Gopāla in dream expressed Himself, "Mādhavendra Purī, I am very much suffocated. I am covered by this dirt and jungles. Please re-excavate Me from this condition and install Me in the temple." So Mādhavendra Purī, with the help of villagers, he excavated the earth and found this Gopāla mūrti. And this Gopāla mūrti was installed by the help of the villagers very luxuriantly. For so many days there was festival. That is the way of installing Deity. At least for seven days there must be festival. So after some days, Mādhavendra Purī was informed in dream that "Since I was long within the earth, My body is very much heated. So you kindly bring some sandalwood from Jagannātha Purī and smear all over the body the pulp of sandalwood, then I shall be happy."

Lecture on SB 5.5.1-8 -- Stockholm, September 6, 1973:

So he's instructing nāyaṁ dehaḥ, this body, deha-bhājāṁ nṛloke. Deha-bhājām means one who has accepted this material body. Actually this body has no existence. It is simply a covering, therefore it is called māyā. Everyone, we have got experience, that at night we forget this body. We act in a different body in dream. At night we feel there is no existence of this body, and at night, dreaming, we get another body, walking in a different place, creating in a different situation, acting in a different body. It is a fact, every day, every night, we see it like this. And during the daytime we forget that night body. So actually we are possessing the gross body and the subtle body. When we act on the subtle body, the gross body is no longer existing, and when we work in the gross body, the subtle body is not existing. But I am existing. I am existing both in the subtle body and gross body. This day's body is also a dream, but we are so foolish that we do not understand it. Mad, we are mad after. Therefore this subtle body and gross body, and their vanishing at daytime and night's time, the cats and dogs cannot understand. But a man, if he has got cool brain, he can understand.

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

When this body is no more useful to continue, then by nature another body is offered. At the time of death, as it is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran loke tyajaty ante kalevaram, sadā tad-bhāva-bhāvitaḥ (BG 8.6)—we create a mental situation. We have got two kinds of bodies—subtle body and gross body. This gross body is made of five gross material elements: earth, water, fire, air, ether. And the subtle body is made of mind, intelligence and ego. When we sleep, the gross body does not work but the subtle body works. We dream therefore. So the... At the time of death this gross body is finished, but the subtle body—mind, intelligence and ego—will carry me to another gross body. It will enter into the womb of another mother, and she will create another similar body like the mother, and when it is complete, then it will come out.

Lecture on SB 5.5.4 -- Vrndavana, October 26, 1976:

So therefore we are implicating and we are preparing for the next life. Yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran bhāvaṁ tyajaty ante kalevaram: (BG 8.6) at the time of death these desires become prominent. Even without desire we get so many ideas and dream at night. So at the time of death, on account of our vikarma, we shall create a situation, and the next life we get a similar body. That's all. Nūnaṁ pramattaḥ kurute. Na sādhu manye yata ātmano 'yam.

Lecture on SB 5.5.15 -- Vrndavana, November 3, 1976:

The story of the potter The potter is planning. He has got few pots and he is planning, "Now I have got these four pots and I will sell. I will make some profit. Then there will be ten pots. Then I'll sell ten pots, I'll make some profit. I'll get twenty pots and then thirty pots, forty pots. In this way I shall become millionaire. And at that time I shall marry, and I shall control my wife in this way and that way. And if she is disobedient, then I shall kick her like this." So when he kicked, he kicked the pots and all the pots broke. (laughter) So then his dream is gone. You see? Similarly, we are simply dreaming. With few pots we are simply dreaming that "These pots will be increased into so many pots, so many pots, so many pots," then finished.

Lecture on SB 5.5.24 -- Vrndavana, November 11, 1976:

The bhakti-yoga we are teaching in this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement twenty-four hours' engagement. Superficially we engage from four o'clock in the morning till ten o'clock at night, and that is resting time. But when one is advanced in devotional service, while sleeping he also serves Kṛṣṇa. That means twenty-four hours, satatam. That depends on Because in sleeping you also dream, so what we do during daytime we dream at night. So if one is cent percent engaged in Kṛṣṇa's service, naturally he'll dream also at night. I have seen one of our intimate relative. He was a businessman, selling cloth. So in dream also he was quoting price of cloth. So that is natural. That is not unnatural. Therefore we have to practice.

Lecture on SB 5.6.8 -- Vrndavana, November 30, 1976:

This is according to, strictly according to the version of the Ve... Sākṣād-dhari... You'll see. This is... Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura is singing, vede gāya yāhāra carita, and Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura, he is also singing, sākṣād-dharitvena samasta-śāstraiḥ. So there is no difference. Not that one ācārya will say, "I have seen"—so-called ācārya, not real ācārya—"I have seen in dream." The other day the letter came? He has seen, realized in dream, nitāi-gaura rādhe-śyāma. This is not the process. Process is the śāstra, authority. That is... We have to... Not that jugglery: "I have seen in dream. I have to become guru." No. Whether you are actually in terms of the śāstra? Whether actually you are dear to Kṛṣṇa, you are most confidential servant? That we have to test.

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

So we have to understand from authoritative literature. The subtle body is working, just like when you sleep your gross body is not working, but the subtle body, the mind, intelligence and ego is working; therefore you dream. Your subtle body is lying is some apartment, and you have gone to the seaside by the mental body. So, so long this gross body is able, you again come and enter into this gross body, but when it is not workable, then you have to find out another gross body in the womb of a certain type of mother. This is the law of transmigration of the soul.

Lecture on SB 6.1.6 -- Honolulu, June 8, 1975:

So these things will be discussed, that "Such person is no meant for going to the hell." No. They are not meant. It is stated that such devotees, they will not in dream also see what is hellish condition of life. They are so, mean, guaranteed. So this hellish condition of life is meant for the persons who are rotting in these material modes of nature, and if you remain above the influence of material nature, always being engaged in devotional service... We have got varieties of service, and we have got such program. So if, some way or other, if we remain engaged always in devotional service, then there is no question of downfall or going to the hellish condition of life.

Lecture on SB 6.1.7 -- Honolulu, June 15, 1975, Sunday Feast Lecture:

You are dreaming that you have gone to the jungle. You are meeting some animals. The tiger is there coming to attack you, and you are crying, "Here is tiger! Tiger! Tiger!" And the man who is not dreaming, he says, "Where is tiger? Why you are crying?" But he's actually... The result is there. Don't think that the result is not there. In dream you are thinking your lover is there, you are embracing, and you get discharge, not that that you are not working and it is not, there is no result. There is result. I cannot see what is the result, what you are dreaming. I am fool. I do not know. But the man who is dreaming, he is experiencing. Similarly, change of body means we are carried by the subtle body to another gross body. This is the process, nature's way. You cannot say that "I will not change body." No, you will be forced.

Lecture on SB 6.1.14 -- Bombay, November 10, 1970:

Still he should be accepted as sādhu because very soon he'll be completely reformed. The same thing Śukadeva Gosvāmī says: sakṛn manaḥ kṛṣṇa-padāravindayor niveśitaṁ tad-guṇa-rāgi yair iha. Anyone who has taken the shelter of Kṛṣṇa, sakṛn, manaḥ kṛṣṇa, and has dedicated his mind unto Kṛṣṇa, and one who is attracted by the transcendental qualities, na te yamaṁ pāśa bhṛtaś ca tad-bhaṭān. You are assured that they will never be touched by Yamaraja or his assistants, tad-bhaṭān. Na te yamaṁ pāśa bhṛtaś ca tad-bhaṭān svapne 'pi paśyanti. Not even dream they can see that "The Yamaraja's assistants are coming to take me." It is so much assured. All right. So have little kīrtana, Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Lecture on SB 6.1.15 -- London, August 3, 1971:

Prabhupāda: Well, sleep, when you sleep and dream, you take it all false. It is not very good omen.

Śyāmasundara: She said...

Woman: Like(?) you do anything about the movement in sleep, and I was... (?)

Prabhupāda: Sleep... Sleep is sleep. But in advanced stages in sleep also... Dream means whatever you act in awakened state, that comes as something, phantasmagoria. But actually, you have to do according to the rules and regulations, not under some dream or phantasmagoria. So Kṛṣṇa consciousness has to be executed according to the rules and regulations. Then it will be successful.

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

The spirit soul is taken in that planet where the Yamarāja is there, and in the subtle form... Subtle form means the spirit covered in the subtle form of mind, intelligence and false ego, he is put into various trouble. Sometimes, just like we are also, even in this life, we are put into such troublesome position in dream. That is our experience. Suppose we are put into some narrow space and I am just going to be suffocated, or I am in the face of some dangerous animal, or deep into the ocean. Sometimes we dream like that. A similar punishment is given after death, and when the living being or the living entity becomes accustomed to such habit, then he is put into the womb of a certain type of animal or man where that suffering will continue. He is made into practice.

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

But here it is said that a person, for a short period, if he becomes Kṛṣṇa conscious, sakṛt, manaḥ, if his mind is somehow or other placed on the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, then, even in dream he'll never see what is the punishment in the planet of Yamarāja. That means a Kṛṣṇa conscious person is guaranteed not to be touched by the Yamarāja or his attendants or his police force or constables. They... A living entity is taken away. After his death, if he's sinful man, then his soul is taken away by force. He doesn't want to... Through a desert. These things are described. You may believe or not believe, but we believe, because we believe in Vedic literature. So these descriptions are there, and practically we experience also in our this life, sometimes in dream we are put into great troublesome position and we suffer. Although when we wake up we do not see anything like that, but still, the consequence of the dream we suffer. So here, Śukadeva Gosvāmī gives guarantee that a Kṛṣṇa conscious person is never to be troubled by the Yamarāja or his agents.

Lecture on SB 6.1.19 and Room Conversation -- Bombay, November 15, 1970:

Now he again says that "Those who are attracted to devotional service of Kṛṣṇa even to a very little extent, for them," na te yamaṁ pāśa-bhṛtaś ca tad-bhaṭān svapne 'pi paśyanti hi cīrṇa-niṣkṛtāḥ, "they do not even dream the Yamarāja or his constables." Because at the time of death those who are very sinful, they are taken away to Yamarāja's place... That's a fact. Not only that, he even in dream does not see them because that little service to Kṛṣṇa has made him freed from all sinful contamination.

Lecture on SB 6.1.19 -- Denver, July 2, 1975:

Nitāi: "Those who have given up all varieties of religiosity and who have surrendered to Kṛṣṇa alone by fixing their minds on His lotus feet may not have fully realized Him. But due to their simply surrendering unto Him they have become attached to His name, fame, quality, and pastimes. By such surrender they have become completely purified of all sinful reactions, although they may not have accepted the principles of atonement. Even in dreams such a surrendered soul does not see Yamarāja or his order carriers equipped with ropes for binding sinful men."

Prabhupāda:

sakṛn manaḥ kṛṣṇa-padāravindayor

niveśitaṁ tad-guṇa-rāgi yair iha

na te yamaṁ pāśa-bhṛtaś ca tad-bhaṭān

svapne 'pi paśyanti hi cīrṇa-niṣkṛtāḥ

(SB 6.1.19)

So this is the profit of Kṛṣṇa conscious person. Kṛṣṇa is so attractive that if anyone only once has fully applied his mind in thinking of Kṛṣṇa and surrendering, then he becomes immediately saved from all miserable condition of this material life. So that is our perfection of life. Somehow or other, we surrender to the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa. So here it is stressed, sakṛt. Sakṛt means "only once." So if so much profit is there simply once thinking of Kṛṣṇa, then we can imagine, those who are always engaged in thinking of Kṛṣṇa by chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, what is their position. They are very safe. So much so that it is said, na te yamaṁ pāśa-bhṛtaś ca tad-bhaṭān svapne 'pi paśyanti. Svapna means dreaming. Dreaming is false.

Lecture on SB 6.1.19 -- Denver, July 2, 1975:

That is the miserable condition of material life. Duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam (BG 8.15). So we have to leave this place. And when we leave, then, according to our proportion of sinful or pious activities, we get next body. So those who are very, very sinful, they go to the hellish condition of life, the planets. They are down this universe. There is the kingdom of Pluto, or Yamarāja. And he comes at the time of death, and the sinful man... Is very, very fierceful, odd looking, and they come to take. So here it is said that one who has once surrendered to Kṛṣṇa, for them there is no such fear. Even in dream they will not see the order-carriers of Yamarāja.

Lecture on SB 6.1.19 -- Honolulu, May 19, 1976:

After death one goes to Yamarāja. Not the devotees, but the nondevotees. Na te yamaṁ pāśa-bhṛtaś ca tad-bhaṭān svapne: "Even in dream they do not see Yamaraja." Svapne 'pi paśyanti cīrṇa-niṣkṛtāḥ. And completely freed from all reaction of sinful activities simply by once thinking of Kṛṣṇa. We are chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra, but if we become at least once in life in ecstasy in chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, then all our sinful reaction of life is finished. Unfortunately, we again commit sinful life. Otherwise, by chanting once Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, one becomes immediately free from the reaction.

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

At night this body is silent, but your mind, intelligence and ego takes you somewhere. You dream that "I have come to here." Sometimes we dream, "I am flying in the sky," or gone to some forest or some friend's house or so many things. "I am talking with a beautiful girl or beautiful man." So this dream we every day see. So that means when this body stops, the gross body, the subtle body is there. Why don't you believe it? Unless the subtle body is working, how do you dream? The dreaming means subtle body is working.

Lecture on SB 6.1.28-29 -- Honolulu, May 28, 1976:

So I am praying to You, let death come immediately so that I can soundly remember Your name. Otherwise natural death, it may be that on account of dissolution of the..., arrangement, physiological arrangement of the body..." Just like in sleep we forget everything. In sleep we forget everything. The subtle mind, intelligence work. I am sleeping in a nice bed, but mind and intelligence have taken me far away near the desert. And I'm seeing I'm in the desert. That is happening daily. Dream means the stock in the mind of our experience past, may be many, many years past, but the stock is there. Sometimes they come. That is dreaming.

Lecture on SB 6.1.28-29 -- Honolulu, May 28, 1976:

They're thinking this is the final. So far I've studied only Socrates. He has reached up to the point of soul. Otherwise, all Western philosophers, they're on the mental platform. So anyway, we have to go farther, farther. So the dreaming is the function of the subtle body, namely mind, intelligence and false ego. You're not free, the subtle body. So those who have no knowledge how material things are acting, covering the soul, they utmost they can think of the mind, the activities of the mind—thinking, feeling, willing, psychology, or writing some books, some mental speculation philosophy. They think this is final. That is not final. You have to go farther to the intellectual platform, then egoism, then soul.

Lecture on SB 6.1.49 -- New Orleans Farm, August 1, 1975:

So that we have got experience every day and night. When at night we dream in a separate atmosphere, separate life, we forget about this body, that "I am lying down. My body is lying down in a very nice apartment, very nice bedding." No. Suppose he is loitering on the street or he is on the hill. So he is taking, in dream, he is taking... Everyone, we take interest of that body. We forget the past body. So this is ignorance. So ignorance, the more we become elevated from ignorance to knowledge, that is success of life. And if we keep ourself in ignorance, that is no success. That is spoiling the life.

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

Devotee: (leads chanting, etc.) Translation: "As a sleeping person acts according to the body manifested in his dreams and accepts it to be himself, so one identifies with his present body, which he acquired because of his past religious or irreligious actions, and is unable to know his past or future lives."

Prabhupāda:

yathājñas tamasā yukta

upāste vyaktam eva hi

na veda pūrvam aparaṁ

naṣṭa-janma-smṛtis tathā

(SB 6.1.49)

So ignorance, a very good example is given here, that in dream we forget everything, that I am Mr. such and such, I am inhabitant of such and such place—everything forgotten. And again when we are awakened, we forget about the dream. This is our daily experience. But in my awakening stage or dreaming stage, I am seeing both the activities. In the dream, I am the seer, and so-called awake, I am the seer. So I, the spirit soul, experiencing, I remain the same, but circumstances change. Similarly, in our previous birth, what I was, what you were, we cannot remember. Similarly, you do not know what you are going to become next. But it is a fact that I am, as spirit soul, I am eternal, present. I was present in the past, I am present in the present time, and I'll continue to be present in future.

Lecture on SB 6.1.51 -- Detroit, August 4, 1975:

So the basic principle... We are under these laws of material nature only for our desire. That is the basic principle. So the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement means we have to change the desire. Anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyam (Brs. 1.1.11). Śūnyam means zero. As soon as we make all other desires... Other means there are two things: Kṛṣṇa and māyā. So this material world means māyā. Māyā means which is not fact. It is an illusion. Just like we dream at night.

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

So here, yasyāṅke śira ādhāya. Suppose I am sleeping very comfortably, feeling secure by keeping my head on your lap, yasyāṅke śira ādhāya lokaḥ svapiti, and dreaming very happily. Svaya dharmam adharmaṁ vā na he veda yathā paśuḥ. You cannot expect all men to understand what is religion and what is not religion, general mass of people.

Lecture on SB 7.6.3 -- Montreal, June 16, 1968:

Guest (2): What about dreaming?

Prabhupāda: Dreaming is still waste of time. (laughter)

Guest (2): Is it possible to have Kṛṣṇa consciousness when you are asleep?

Prabhupāda: Dreaming is practically interaction of the activities, mental interaction of the activities in which you are engaged. You dream in different way; I dream in different way. So when the body is tired, it cannot work. It stops functioning. The mind works. So dreaming is the function of the mind. That's all. So... Huh?

Guest (2): (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: No. It is not from the spiritual platform. It is from the mental platform. In the spiritual platform, that is called suṣupti. There is no gross or material function of this contamination. So those who are advanced, they also dream Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Of course, that requires time to make little advancement. But after all, dream is the activities of the mind. Just like we work, that is the activities of the gross senses. Similarly, we work also on mental platform. That is called dream.

Guest (2): Are we to take Kṛṣṇa conscious dreams seriously or some illusion?

Prabhupāda: Well, that depends on your particular position, you see. Sometimes a Kṛṣṇa conscious persons dreams very seriously. Sometimes communication is there by dreams.

Lecture on SB 7.6.3 -- Vrndavana, December 4, 1975:

Even we are eating, we can remember Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa baḍa dayā-maya, karibāre jihvā jaya, svaprasāda-anna dilā bhāi. So we want. While sleeping, if we think of Kṛṣṇa, it may be that we may dream of Kṛṣṇa also. That is possible. Eating, sleeping, mating... Even in sex if we can remember Kṛṣṇa... How? That is... Kṛṣṇa says, dharmāviruddha-kāmo 'smi. Sex life which is given permission in the śāstra, that is Kṛṣṇa. The śāstra gives you permission for sex life only for begetting nice children. Not for enjoyment.

Lecture on SB 7.6.8 -- Vrndavana, December 10, 1975:

The example is given just like in dream, somebody is cutting my head and I'm crying. Actually there is no man cutting my head—my head is there—still, I am suffering by such thoughts. This is called moha. Actually there is no fact, but on account of being entangled in three stages of pollution... The pollution is that intelligence. The intelligence is polluted in three ways: jāgriti, svapna, and suṣupti. Jāgriti means just like we are now awakened; we are not sleeping. This is one stage. And another stage, at night when you go to sleep, and you sleep with dream, that is another stage. And another stage is suṣupti, so deeply, just like when a man is intoxicated or chloroform during surgical operation, he does not understand that "Surgical instruments are being applied on my body." He remains silent. This is another stage. So these three stages are there for polluting our intelligence.

Lecture on SB 7.6.9-17 -- San Francisco, March 31, 1969:

What we call māyā... Māyā means Mā means "not," and yā means "this." What you are accepting as fact, it is not a fact. This is called māyā. Ma-ya. Māyā means "Don't accept it as truth." It is simply flickering flash only. Just like in the dream we see so many things, and in the morning we forget everything. This is subtle dream. And this existence, this bodily existence and relationship to this body, society, friendship, and love and so many things, they are also gross dream. It will finish. It will stay Just like dream stays for a few minutes or few hours when you are asleep, similarly, this gross dream also will remain, say, for few years. That's all. It is also dream. But actually we are concerned with the person who is dreaming or who is acting. So we have to take him out from this dream, gross and subtle. That is the proposition. So that can be done very easily by this process of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and that is being explained by Prahlāda Mahārāja.

Lecture on SB 7.7.22-26 -- San Francisco, March 10, 1967:

Some tiger is eating me," and so many things, you sleeping, you dreaming. This is another stage, active stage. Then sleeping stage. And then another stage is which is called deep sleep, deep sleep. Just like you are under chloroform or LSD. That is a kind of sleep only. It is not, does not mean that you have become free from this material bondage. You are simply under some mental condition, sleeping condition. Suṣuptiḥ. Just like our death. What is this death? Death means a sound sleep for seven months. That's all. A sound sleep for seven months. As soon as I give up this body, I enter into another body in sound sleep. And sound sleep, just like you are sleeping sound, somebody is taking you away to another place. You do not know. I have got experience. I have got, underwent some, some surgical operation. So I was under chloroform. So I did not know when I was operated, when I was in the operation table, then who brought me again to my bed. And in this way I did not... But when gradually I got my consciousness, I remember still, that I am sleeping, and then I am dreaming.

Lecture on SB 7.7.22-26 -- San Francisco, March 10, 1967:

Now, our point is: never mind what kind of body we are getting next, but I am existing. Whether I am intelligently working during the time when I am awake, or whether I am working under dreams, or whether I am being transferred to another body—I am having sound sleep under chloroform—I am the same. I am the same. I am that eternal soul. This is self-realization. So under all circumstances, either this body or that body, either sleeping or working or under sound sleep, any condition, I am there. This is my identification.

Lecture on SB 7.7.25-28 -- San Francisco, March 13, 1967:

This verse we have been discussing in our last meeting, that it is very easy to understand what I am. Take the... The description is that buddher jāgaraṇam. When we are, I mean to say, awakened, and we are acting with our intelligence, this is one stage. Then the another stage, that we are sleeping, dreaming. Another stage is that we are in deep sleep, forgetting everything. That is suṣuptiḥ, or deep sleep. Sometimes we want to forget ourself by transferring ourself into that deep sleep, forgetting everything. Actually, that is our natural tendency. When we are too much afflicted with these material activities, anxieties... Because material life means full of anxieties. That is material life.

Lecture on SB 7.7.25-28 -- San Francisco, March 13, 1967:

When I am sleeping, I am dreaming, I am there. And when I am in deep sleep, I am there. And when again, I am awakened, I am there. In no case I am not there. I am there always. So buddher jāgaraṇam. So one has to apply his good intelligence. Then this "I am," which is existing in all the stages, that is "I am spirit soul." Tā yenaivānubhūyante. I am... I am perceiving that "Oh, yesterday I was sleeping." That sleeping condition is passed, but I am here. I am thinking, "Oh, I was sleeping yesterday like this. I was dreaming like this." Therefore, I am the chief, adhyakṣaḥ. I am the chief controller. So I am... This "I am," it is very easy to understand. Any intelligent man can understand. So there are so many yogis. They are trying to understand, "What I am?" This is "I am." It can be understood in a few seconds if you are intelligent enough. There is no question of prolonging simply to understand "What I am?" You are this. So only to understand that if I am not this body, which is dreaming, which is awakened, which is sleeping, so many conditions... It is changing from boyhood to childhood, childhood to boyhood, boyhood to youthhood.

Lecture on SB 7.7.25-28 -- San Francisco, March 13, 1967:

Although it is just like dream, say, ten years before or twenty years before, oh, I was in India. I was a family man. I was sitting with my wife and children and doing something else. Now that thing is now dream. So we are passing... Just like at night we dream something, so this is also another kind of dream, because this is concrete dream, and at night we see abstract dream. The quality is dream. Sometimes we are in abstract dream, and sometimes we are in concrete dream. This is also dream. We do not know how many lives we have passed before this, hundreds and thousands and millions. "Oh, sometimes I have been a cat." Oh, that is now dream. Sometimes I might have been a dog. Not might have been, because the evolution is there. We are coming by evolutionary process from aquatics to vegetable life, from vegetable to, I mean to say, reptile life, then, from bird's life, then beast's life, then uncivilized life. Then we have come to the civilized form of life under the grip of nature. So we have passed so many status of life. So they have become now dream. If somebody says, "Oh, forty millions of years before, you were a tree," so will you believe it? It is dream. But actually I was, by nature's law.

So we have got this opportunity, this human form of life with sense so that we can understand the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Bhagavad-gītā, or Bible or Koran. These are meant for civilized human society. So if we don't take care of these things and simply pass on in this dreaming... Just like animals.

Lecture on SB 7.7.25-28 -- San Francisco, March 13, 1967:

Yes, when you become tired, you, or by intoxication, you sleep deep. This is material existence. Either this material activity or material dreaming or material deep sleep, they're all material. In spiritual life, oh, there is no sleep. There is no deep sleep or slight sleep or dream. That is everything actual.

Lecture on SB 7.9.1 -- Mayapur, February 10, 1977:

You'll find that the rascals who have no idea about Kṛṣṇa, they are very much fond of painting Kṛṣṇa's picture dealings with the gopīs, because they take it that it is just like we deal with young men or woman, it is something like that. So that is a great mistake. They should not. Then they will become sahajiyā. Very strictly prohibited. In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam Śukadeva Gosvāmī has warned that one should not even dream like that, that "Kṛṣṇa's dealing with gopīs is just like our dealing with woman." No. It ms completely different. Therefore we have to understand Kṛṣṇa. Vyāsadeva has devoted nine cantos to understand Kṛṣṇa, and then, in the Tenth Canto, he has put the gopīs' dealings with Kṛṣṇa. That is also beginning from twenty-ninth chapter.

Lecture on SB 7.9.8 -- Mayapur, February 15, 1976:

So if there is chance, we shall present these lokas, how they are situated, where they are situated, how they are moving, how the sun is moving around them. The sun is not fixed up; sun is moving. So all these things, we have got such dream to show. If there is opportunity, we shall do, the Siddhas, and the sura-gaṇās and the munayas. But because they are on the planetary system, higher planetary system... There are three planetary systems. One is called higher, ūrdhvaloka, and middle, madhyaloka, bhūr, bhuvaḥ, sva, up to Svargaloka... We are chanting Gāyatrī, om bhūr bhuvaḥ sva tat savitur vareṇyaṁ bhargo devasya dhīmahi. These are praising the lokas, different planetary system, of which the sunlight is the chief. Savitur sakala-grahāṇām. He is the chief of all planets.

Lecture on SB 7.9.10 -- Montreal, July 12, 1968:

Just like when you, at night you are in dream. You forget your body. You are dreaming that you have got a body of a bird. You are flying in the sky and you have forgotten completely that you are Mr. and Mrs. such and such, lying in a room. You have forgotten. So in daily experience we can understand that due to change of body we forget. Death means change of body and forgetfulness. That is death. So Kṛṣṇa said that "You forget, you have forgotten, but I have not forgotten." That means indirectly Kṛṣṇa says that "I do not change My body, but you change your body." So we are all changing our body.

Lecture on SB 7.9.11 -- Mayapur, February 18, 1976:

We are offering Kṛṣṇa nice foodstuff, so we are eating this nice prasādam which we never conceived or dreamed, dreamt in our life. Because we are offering to Kṛṣṇa, we become so fortunate to taste this nice prasādam. Kṛṣṇa, nija-lābha-pūrṇaḥ. It is not that if you give a nice plate of foodstuff, Kṛṣṇa eats everything, and you simply see the empty dish. No. Kṛṣṇa eats and again keeps it as it is for... That is Kṛṣṇa. Pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya pūrṇam evāvaśiṣyate (Īśo Invocation). The atheist class of men, they think, "We offered so many things. Kṛṣṇa did not eat." No. He has eaten, but He is nija-lābha-pūrṇaḥ. He is not hungry, but whatever you have offered, He has eaten.