Srimad-Bhagavatam, Canto 01 Chapter 02 Purports - Divinity and Divine Service: Difference between revisions
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Pages in category "Srimad-Bhagavatam, Canto 01 Chapter 02 Purports - Divinity and Divine Service"
The following 425 pages are in this category, out of 425 total.
A
- A brahmana is the symbol of sattva-guna, or the mode of goodness. And others, who are not in the mode of goodness, are either ksatriyas, vaisyas, sudras or less than the sudras
- A devotee Bhagavata is as good as the book Bhagavata because the devotee Bhagavata leads his life in terms of the book Bhagavata and the book Bhagavata is full of information about the Personality of Godhead and His pure devotees, who are also Bhagavatas
- A devotee is always in the mode of unalloyed goodness; therefore he harms no one
- A devotee is always qualified with all the good qualities of God. Quantitatively such qualifications may be different, but qualitatively both the Lord and His devotee are one and the same
- A living being in his normal constitutional position is fully satisfied in spiritual bliss. This state of existence is called brahma-bhuta or atmananda, or the state of self-satisfaction
- A living being's sustenance of existence is to coordinate his activities with his eternal relation with the Supreme Lord Krsna
- A neophyte devotee has very little taste for hearing from the authorities. Such a neophyte devotee makes a show of hearing from the professional man to satisfy his senses
- A pure Vaisnava is a liberated soul and is transcendental even to the position of a brahmana
- A sincere devotee must be prepared to hear the Vedic literature like the Upanisads, Vedanta and other literatures left by the previous authorities or Gosvamis, for the benefit of his progress
- A third-class devotee has to receive the instructions of devotional service from the authoritative sources of Bhagavata. The number one Bhagavata is the established personality of devotee, and the other Bhagavatam is the message of Godhead
- Above the body and mind is the dormant spirit soul whose absence from the body makes the whole range of bodily and mental selfishness completely null and void
- Above these gross materialists are the mental speculators who hover aloft in the mental spheres, and their occupational duties involve making poetry and philosophy or propagating some ism with the same aim of selfishness limited to the body and the mind
- According to Bhagavad-gita there are eighteen items in culturing knowledge. By such culture of knowledge one becomes gradually prideless, devoid of vanity, nonviolent, forbearing, simple, devoted to the great spiritual master, and self-controlled
- According to them, bhakti, or the devotional service of the Lord, is meant for those who cannot perform the high-grade activities
- Activities of the living being involve engagements in these four different principles of life. Especially in modern society, all activities are more or less dependent on hearing and glorifying
- Actual life is spiritual existence, or brahma-bhuta existence, where life is eternal, blissful and full of knowledge
- Adoption of devotional service for material gain is certainly an obstruction to the progressive path of renunciation
- After qualifying as a dvija one may study the Vedas, and after becoming well versed one becomes a vipra. A vipra, or a qualified brahmana, thus realizes the Absolute and makes further progress in spiritual life until he reaches the Vaisnava stage
- All culture of knowledge, austerities, sacrifice and activities should be aimed at changing the quality of the influence that is acting upon us
- All demigods who are empowered by the Supreme Lord are also separated parts and parcels. They do not belong to the categories of visnu-tattva
- All the revealed scriptures are prepared by the Lord through His incarnation in the body of Srila Vyasadeva just to remind the fallen souls, conditioned by material nature, of Sri Krsna, the Personality of Godhead
- All the Vedic literatures and the Puranas are meant for conquering the darkest region of material existence
- All things - but Krsna - give temporary satisfaction only, so if we are to have complete satisfaction we must take to the questions and answers about Krsna
- Although they (human beings) go on making such questions and answers for their whole lives, they are not at all satisfied. Satisfaction of the soul can only be obtained by questions and answers on the subject of Krsna
- An unauthorized devotee should never be recognized as a pure devotee. By assimilation of such messages from the Vedic literatures, one can see the all-pervading localized aspect of the SPG within his own self constantly. This is called samadhi
- Another name of Vasudeva is Yajna (sacrifice), and in the Bhagavad-gita it is clearly stated that all sacrifices and all activities are to be conducted for the satisfaction of Yajna, or Visnu, the SPG. This is the case also with the yoga systems
- Any lowborn person - be he a Kirata, Huna, Andhra, Pulinda, Pulkasa, Abhira, Sumbha, Yavana, Khasa or even lower - can be delivered to the highest transcendental position by the mercy of Vaisnavas
- Any man from any social status becomes a well-known man in human society within a very short time if he is simply glorified truly or falsely in the daily newspapers
- Any occupational activity which does not help one to achieve attachment for hearing and chanting the transcendental message of Godhead is said herein to be simply a waste of time
- Any sensible man who is above the average man with a poor fund of knowledge must constantly remember the Personality of Godhead by hearing about Him, by glorifying Him, by remembering Him and by worshiping Him always, without cessation
- Anyone who wishes to get out of this prison house of material existence, which is full of miseries like repetition of birth, death, disease and old age, must please Lord Visnu for such liberation
- As Brahman and Paramatma realization are imperfect realizations of the Absolute Truth, so the means of realizing Brahman and Paramatma, i.e., the paths of jnana and yoga, are also imperfect means of realizing the Absolute Truth
- As explained above, one can get release from the conditioned life of material existence by devotional service to the Personality of Godhead
- As far as maintenance of the prison house is concerned, it is done by Visnu, as much as the state prison house is maintained by the state
- As fire is kindled from wood by another fire, the divine consciousness of man can similarly be kindled by another divine grace
- As from wood, fire can be manifested, or as butter can be churned out of milk, so also the presence of the Lord as Paramatma can be felt by the process of legitimate hearing and chanting of the transcendental subjects
- As it is explained in the first sloka of the First Chapter of the Bhagavatam, the Supreme Truth is self-sufficient, cognizant and free from the illusion of relativity
- As Paramatma and eternal friend of the living entities, the Lord, by one of His plenary portions, accompanies the living entities to guide them in their material enjoyment and to become witness to all activities
- As soon as he (the living being) engages himself in the loving service of the Lord, he at once becomes free from the chain of karma. His actions no longer create any reaction
- As soon as one understands that he has nothing to do with matter, he at once ceases his material hankerings and becomes enlivened as a spiritual being
- As soon as the Krsna sun is arisen within one's heart, the darkness of materialistic speculations about the Absolute Truth and the living beings is at once cleared off
- As soon as this knot is loosened, therefore, all the clouds of doubt are at once cleared off. One sees his master and fully engages himself in the transcendental loving service of the Lord, making a full termination of the chain of fruitive action
- As stated in the Bhagavad-gita and other Vedic literatures, the Supreme Person is realized by devotional service, which is backed by full knowledge and detachment from material association
- Asuras are gradually rectified to God consciousness by the mercy of the Lord's liberated servitors in different countries according to the supreme will. Such devotees of God are very confidential associates of the Lord
- Attaining scientific knowledge of the Personality of Godhead means seeing one's own self simultaneously. As far as the identity of the living being as spirit self is concerned, there are a number of speculations and misgivings
- Attainment of spiritual knowledge is not sufficient to insure liberation. Such knowledge must be overcoated with devotional service so that ultimately the devotional service alone predominates
B
- Because of the Personality of Godhead's taking charge of illuminating the heart of His devotee, certainly a devotee, engaged in His service in transcendental love, cannot remain in darkness
- Becoming detached from material things does not mean becoming inert altogether, as men with a poor fund of knowledge think. Naiskarma means not undertaking activities that will produce good or bad effects
- Bhagavan, or the Personality of Godhead, is the last word of the Absolute Truth
- Bhagavata book and person are identical
- Brahma is the deity of rajas (passion), and Siva of ignorance. They are the three departmental heads of the three qualities of this material world
- Brahman is His transcendental bodily effulgence, and Paramatma is His partial representation. As such, Brahman or Paramatma realization of the Absolute Truth is but a partial realization
- Broadminded living beings are constantly engaged in the service of the Lord without deviation. That should be the aim of life. And that is the verdict of all the Vedic literatures
- By culture of knowledge one becomes unattached to hearth and home and becomes conscious of the miseries due to death, birth, old age and disease. And all culture of knowledge culminates in devotional service to the Personality of Godhead, Vasudeva
- By serving the servants of the Lord, one gradually gets the quality of such servants, and thus one becomes qualified to hear the glories of God
- By the grace of God such a devotee gets sufficient strength to defend himself from the state of disturbances, and gradually all disturbing elements are eliminated from his mind
- By the mercy of Srila Sukadeva, the Bhagavata-vedanta-sutra is available for all those sincere souls who want to get out of material existence
- By Visnu worship one can derive benefit in this life as well as in life after death
C
- Caitanya Mahaprabhu, in His Siksastaka, declares clearly that the holy name of the Lord has all the potencies of the Lord and that He has endowed His innumerable names with the same potency
- Castes are classified in terms of one's work and qualification and not by birth. Then again there are four orders of life, namely the student life, the householder's life, the retired and the devotional life
- Concentrated selfishness centers around the personal body - this is generally seen amongst the lower animals
- Contacting Krsna is open for all living beings, including the sudras, vaisyas, women and even those lower than the lowborn sudras, so what to speak of the high-class men like the qualified brahmanas and the great self-realized kings
- Creation is made possible by the goodness of Visnu, and when it requires to be destroyed, Lord Siva does it by the tandavanrtya
D
- Devotional service is established on the principles of sruti, smrti, purana or pancaratra authorities, the make-show of devotional service should at once be rejected
- Devotional service is not inactivity, but the unalloyed activity of the soul
- Devotional service is not, meant for the less intelligent class of transcendentalist. There are three classes of devotees, namely first, second, and third class
- Devotional service to the Lord must be pure in quality, without the least desire for material enjoyment
- Devotional service to the Supreme Lord, which leads one to eternal, blissful and all-cognizant life, is called the superior quality of occupation. This is sometimes polluted when mixed with the inferior quality
- Devotional service which is based on the foreground of full knowledge combined with detachment from material association, and which is fixed by dint of the aural reception of the Vedanta-sruti, is the only perfect method
E
- Each and every living being has his eternal form in the spiritual existence, and Krsna is the eternal attraction for all of them
- Empirical knowledge overcoated with devotional service is called jnana-yoga
- Enjoyment only aggravates the symptoms of disease and increases its duration
- Even if he (spirit soul) goes up to the Svargaloka, he will find no permanent abode for his hankering soul. The hankering soul must be satisfied by the perfect scientific process of perfect devotional service
- Even in the Vedic literatures, for all sorts of religious performances an allurement of material gain is offered, and most people are attracted by such allurements or blessings of religiosity
- Even Lord Siva & Lord Brahma are included in the list of demigods, but Lord Visnu, or Vasudeva, is always transcendentally situated. Even though He accepts the quality of goodness of the material world, He is still transcendental to all the material modes
- Even the activities of the salvationists are considered to be useless because of their failure to pick up the fountainhead of all liberties
- Even the reactionary work of the fruitive workers can lead one to liberation when it is overcoated with devotional service. Karma overcoated with devotional service is called karma-yoga
- Even those who are on the path of salvation desire to become one with the Absolute Truth and desire to commit spiritual suicide for sense gratification. But the Bhagavatam says that one should not live for sense gratification
- Even though the king sometimes comes in the prison, he is not bound by the laws of the prison house. The king is therefore always transcendental to the laws of the prison house, as the Lord is always transcendental to the laws of the material world
- Everyone should engage himself in that transcendental loving service of the Lord, even in the present conditional state of material existence; that will gradually give one the clue to actual life and please him to complete satisfaction
- Everyone tries to make a permanent plan for happiness, but everyone is baffled by the laws of material nature. Therefore the materialistic world is called the darkest region of God's creation
- Except Visnu, all separated forms are manifested under the conditions of material energy, and therefore the forms of material energy cannot help anyone to rise to the platform of sattva, which alone can liberate a person from material bondage
- Extended selfishness is manifested in human society and centers around the family, society, community, nation and world with a view to gross bodily comfort
F
- Foolish men, or men with a poor fund of knowledge, do not understand the Supreme Lord, and they interpret Krsna according to their respective whims
- Foolish people are not satisfied in the performance of their occupational duties because they have no information of the soul and how it is beyond the purview of the body and mind
- Foolish people say that the Puranas have no connection with the Vedas. However, the Puranas are supplementary explanations of the Vedas intended for different types of men
- Foolish people who are after more wealth, more wives and more children worship various demigods. The aim of life is to end the miseries of life and not to increase them
- For material enjoyment there is no need to approach the demigods. The demigods are but servants of the Lord. As such, they are duty-bound to supply necessities of life in the form of water, light, air, etc
- For the present, we are all being controlled by the external energy of the Lord, and just to change the quality of the influence, we must endeavor to cultivate spiritual energy
- From Baladeva is Sankarsana, from Sankarsana is Narayana, from Narayana there is the second Sankarsana, and from this Sankarsana the Visnu purusa-avataras
- From this introductory sloka, the beginning student should know that Srimad-Bhagavatam is the only transcendental literature meant for those who are paramahamsas and completely freed from the material disease called malice
H
- He (Caitanya) strongly protested against being called God, although undoubtedly He was God Himself. The Lord behaves so to warn us against unscrupulous men who take pleasure in being addressed as God
- He (God) is all-spiritual and has nothing to do with the qualities of the material world, which are qualitatively distinct from the spiritual qualities of the Lord
- He (God) is more attractive to the higher transcendentalists who participate in the eternal pastimes of the Lord
- He (God) is unaffected, therefore, by the qualities of the material modes. His existence, form, activities and paraphernalia all existed before the material creation
- He (God) manifests His transcendental pastimes amongst them just to create the desire to go back to Godhead
- He (God) reserves the right of not being exposed to such a challenging spirit of an insignificant spark of the whole, a spark subjected to the control of illusory energy
- He (Sankaracarya) wrote his Sariraka-bhasya, and his so-called followers deprecated the Bhagavatam as some "new" presentation. One should not be misled by such propaganda directed against the Bhagavatam by the Mayavada school
- He (spirit soul) wants to get out of the covered walls of the greater universe. He wants to see the free light and the spirit. That complete freedom is achieved when he meets the complete spirit, the Personality of Godhead
- Here is the remedy for eliminating all inauspicious things within the heart which are considered to be obstacles in the path of self-realization. The remedy is the association of the Bhagavatas
- Herein (SB 1.2.13) the statement of Bhagavatam is that the highest aim of life or the highest perfection of the institution of the varnasrama-dharma is to cooperate jointly for the satisfaction of the Supreme Lord
- Highly qualified brahmanas situated in the mode of goodness have no grudges against the mode of worship of others. They have all respect for other demigods, even though they may look ghastly, like Kala-bhairava or Mahakali
- Hiranyakasipu underwent a severe type of penance to become eternal in life, but his worshipful deity, Brahma, could not satisfy him with such blessings
- His (God's) pastimes are eternal and are manifested in due course once in a day of Brahmaji, as the sun rises on the eastern horizon at the end of every twenty-four hours
- His (Krsna's) energies are also multifarious, and His internal energies are superior and external energies inferior in quality. They are explained in the Bhagavad-gita (7.4-6) as the para and the apara prakrtis
- His (Krsna's) expansions of various forms which take place via the internal energies are superior forms, whereas the expansions which take place via the external energies are inferior forms
- His Divine Grace the spiritual master can kindle the spiritual fire from the woodlike living entity by imparting proper spiritual messages injected through the receptive ear
- Human reason fails to understand how by serving the devotee Bhagavata or the book one gets gradual promotion on the path of devotion. But actually these are facts explained by Srila Naradadeva, who happened to be a maidservant's son in his previous life
- Human society all over the world is divided into four castes and four orders of life. The four castes are the intelligent caste, the martial caste, the productive caste and the laborer caste
I
- If one is engaged in hearing the glories of the Lord, gradually he realizes his real position
- If realization of the Absolute Truth is the ultimate aim of life, it must be carried out by all means
- If such fortunate brahmanas and sons of rich men properly utilize the chance, they can easily realize Vasudeva by good association with saintly persons. Unfortunately, such preferred persons are captivated again by material wealth and honor
- If there are impediments on the progressive path, anyone, even from the platform of tamas, can gradually rise to the sattva platform by the expert direction of the spiritual master
- Ill-fated yogis are given a chance in the next birth by being placed in the families of good learned brahmanas or in the families of rich merchants in order to execute the unfinished task of Vasudeva realization
- Impersonalists who have no information of the SPG minimize the omnipotency of the Supreme Lord and put Him on equal footing with all other living beings, and for this act such impersonalists get freedom from material bondage only with great difficulty
- In any one of the above-mentioned castes and orders of life, the four processes, namely glorifying, hearing, remembering and worshiping, are general occupations. Without these principles of life, no one can exist
- In Bhagavad-gita (BG 15.15) the Personality of Godhead says that in all the Vedas there is nothing but the urge for searching after Him, Lord Krsna. Thus the questions that pertain to Krsna are the sum and substance of all the Vedic inquiries
- In conclusion, one who is a pure devotee has all other good qualities, namely knowledge, detachment, etc., but one who has only knowledge or detachment is not necessarily well acquainted with the principles of the bhakti cult
- In each and every one of the abovementioned divisions of life, the aim must be to please the supreme authority of the Personality of Godhead
- In every sphere of life, the ultimate end must be seeking after the Absolute Truth, & that sort of engagement will make one happy because he will be less engaged in varieties of sense gratification. And what that Absolute Truth is is explained as follows
- In forms of the Personality of Godhead other than Sri Krsna and Baladeva, there is no facility for intimate personal contact as in the transcendental pastimes of the Lord at Vrajabhumi
- In material existence, a living being creates his own chain of fruitive work and enjoys the good and bad effects of those actions life after life
- In other words, there is a qualitative difference between the different kinds of worshiping methods as well as the respective results derived from the predominating deities, namely Brahma, Visnu and Hara
- In politics, social service, altruism, philanthropy and ultimately in religion or even in salvation, the very same tint of sense gratification is ever-increasingly predominant
- In the absence of voluntary restraint, there is propaganda for family planning, but foolish men do not know that family planning is automatically executed as soon as there is search after the Absolute Truth
- In the Absolute there is no such sense of difference between the knower and the known, and therefore everything there is absolute
- In the age of Kali many foolish persons commit such unlawful offenses and equalize the two categories (visnu-tattva and part and parcel)
- In the best interest of human society there must be such divisions of life, otherwise no social institution can grow in a healthy state
- In the Bhagavad-gita (BG 7.20-23) it is clearly said that those who are mad after material enjoyment approach the different demigods for temporary benefits, which are meant for men with a poor fund of knowledge
- In the Bhagavad-gita (BG 7.3) it is said that out of many thousands of ordinary men, one fortunate man endeavors for perfection in life
- In the Bhagavad-gita it is said that those who are mahatmas, or those whose minds have been so broadened as to be engaged in the service of Lord Krsna, are under the influence of the internal potency
- In the Bhagavad-gita the Lord says that in order to show special favor to His pure devotees, He personally eradicates the dense darkness of all misgivings by switching on the light of pure knowledge within the heart of a devotee
- In the Bhagavad-gita the same theory is confirmed by the Lord in His own words: the ultimate purpose of the Vedas is to know Him only
- In the Kali-yuga this artificial predominance is already current, but the saner section of the people know it well that the divisions of castes & orders of life are meant for smooth social intercourse & high-thinking self-realization & not other purpose
- In the material stage even a brahmana is also a conditioned soul because although in the brahminical stage the conception of Brahman or transcendence is realized, scientific knowledge of the Supreme Lord is lacking
- In the morning the birds in the nest become busy with questions and answers, and in the evening also the same birds come back and again become busy with questions and answers
- In the political field the leaders of men fight with one another to fulfill their personal sense gratification. The voters adore the so-called leaders only when they promise sense gratification
- In the presence of the sun, the darkness cannot stand, and the relative truths that were hidden within the dense darkness of ignorance become clearly manifested by the mercy of Krsna, who is residing in everyone's heart as the Supersoul
- In the relative world the knower is different from the known, but in the Absolute Truth both the knower and the known are one and the same thing
- In the relative world the knower is the living spirit or superior energy, whereas the known is inert matter or inferior energy. Therefore, there is a duality of inferior and superior energy
- In the revealed scriptures there is definite information of the incarnation of God. No one should be accepted as God or an incarnation of God unless he is confirmed by the revealed scriptures
- In the same Bhagavad-gita (BG 18.55) it is also said that scientific knowledge of Sri Krsna is understood only by the process of devotional service (bhakti-yoga)
- In the second-class position, the devotee can see four principles in the devotional line, namely the Personality of Godhead, His devotees, the ignorant and the envious
- In the Vedic literature there is the same objective: establishing one's relationship and ultimately reviving our lost loving service unto Him. That is the sum and substance of the Vedas
- In the Vedic literatures (sruti) it is said that there are two birds in one tree.* One of them is eating the fruit of the tree, while the other is witnessing the actions. The witness is the Lord, and the fruit-eater is the living entity
- In this prayer, Srila Suta Gosvami practically summarizes the complete introduction of Srimad-Bhagavatam
- In this statement, Sri Suta Gosvami answers the first question of the sages of Naimisaranya
- Incarnations or sons of God are not making propaganda for going back to Godhead only within the human society. Their work is also going on in all types of societies, amongst demigods and those other than human beings
- It is a mistake to consider that worship of any quality or any form of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is equally beneficial
- It is clearly said that this Bhagavatam is the original commentary on the Brahma-sutras
- It is for this reason only that candidates for liberation deliberately reject the worship of the demigods, although they have no disrespect for any one of them
- It is further comprehended herein (SB 1.2.24) that one has to rise to the platform of the mode of goodness (sattva) so that one can be eligible for the devotional service of the Lord
- It is said that the asuras are put into lower and lower states of ignorance life after life and so sink to the lower animal forms and have no information of the Absolute Truth, the Personality of Godhead
- It is said that the bhakti cult is meant for the sudras, vaisyas and the less intelligent woman class. But that is not the actual fact. The bhakti cult is the topmost of all transcendental activities, and therefore it is simultaneously sublime and easy
- It is the transcendental torchlight by which one can see perfectly the transcendental Absolute Truth realized as Brahman, Paramatma and Bhagavan
- It is transcendental and is completely distinct from our experience in material existence. This relation of servant and the served is the most congenial form of intimacy. One can realize it as devotional service progresses
- It should be noted that by such sincere association of the Bhagavatas one is sure to receive transcendental knowledge very easily, with the result that he becomes fixed in the devotional service of the Lord
J
- Jivas are sometimes subjected to the control of material energy, but the Visnu forms are always controllers of this energy
- Just to show his (Sukadeva Gosvami) boundless mercy upon bewildered materialistic men who want to cross completely over nescience, he recited for the first time this confidential knowledge
K
- Krsna is our most intimate master, friend, father or son and object of conjugal love. Forgetting Krsna, we have created so many objects of questions and answers, but none of them are able to give us complete satisfaction
- Krsna is the central pivot of living beings, and He is the all-attractive living entity or eternal form amongst all other living beings or eternal forms
- Krsna is the complete whole, and everything else is His part and parcel. The relation is one of the servant and the served
- Krsna is the father of all living beings. Therefore He is the original living being of all other living beings. He is the original eternal enjoyer amongst all other enjoyers. Therefore no one can be His begetting father, as the ignorant may think
L
- Laws of religion are directly enacted by the Personality of Godhead, and except for the mahajanas, or the authorized agents of the Lord, no one knows the purpose of religion
- Less intelligent people have no information of the needs of the spirit soul
- Less intelligent students of either of the above schools sometimes argue in favor of their own respective realization
- Liberation from material bondage is a by-product of devotional service
- Living beings under material energy appear in the material world with intentions of being lords, and thus they become entrapped by the three modes of nature
- Living entity's struggle for existence in the material world is perpetual & it is not possible for him to get out of it by making plans. If he at all wants to conquer this perpetual struggle for existence, he must reestablish his eternal relation with God
- Lord Sri Krsna agreed to become the son of Vasudeva and Devaki upon being pleased with their severe austerities. Therefore if any austerities have to be done, they must be done to achieve the end of knowledge, Vasudeva
- Lord Sri Krsna and all His plenary parts are visnu-tattva, or the Lordship of Godhead. From Sri Krsna, the next manifestation is Baladeva
- Lord Sri Krsna is the svayam-rupa Personality of Godhead, and all other forms of Godhead, beginning from Sri Baladeva, Sankarsana, Vasudeva, Aniruddha, Pradyumna and Narayana are Lord Sri Krsna's plenary portions and integrated parts
- Lord Sri Krsna is the svayam-rupa SPG, and all other forms of Godhead, extending to the purusa-avataras, guna-avataras, lila-avataras, yuga-avataras and many other thousands of manifestations of the SPG, are Krsna's plenary portions and integrated parts
- Lord Sri Krsna, by His plenary parts, should be rendered devotional service, as explained above, is confirmed by this statement
- Lord Sri Krsna, when He was personally present at Vrajadhama, stopped the worship of the demigod Indra and advised the residents of Vraja to worship by their business and to have faith in God
- Lord Visnu is worshiped by devotional service only, and if anyone has to continue prison life in the material world, he may ask for relative facilities for temporary relief from the different demigods like Siva, Brahma, Indra and Varuna
M
- Marriage or the combination of a man with a woman is necessary for progeny, but it is not meant for sense enjoyment
- Material devotees are more attached to material benefit than transcendental profit. Therefore, one has to make definite progress from the position of material devotional service to the second-class devotional position
- Material enjoyment should be accepted only up to the point of the bare necessities of life and not more or less than that
- Material existence is temporary, illusory and full of miseries. There is no happiness at all
- Materialists are compared to the camel who relishes thorny twigs because he likes the taste of the twigs mixed with blood. He does not realize that it is his own blood and that his tongue is being cut by the thorns
- Matter, antimatter, proton, neutron, etc., are all different effects of the Paramatma feature of the Lord
- Messages of the Personality of Godhead Sri Krsna are nondifferent from Him
- Mostly men are conducted by the modes of passion and ignorance, and thus they are engaged always in lust, desire, hankerings, ignorance and sleep
N
- Negation does not mean negation of the positive. Negation of the nonessentials does not mean negation of the essential. Similarly, detachment from material forms does not mean nullifying the positive form
- No demigod can award freedom from material bondage. That is the verdict of all the Vedic literatures
- No demigod, however, can release the imprisoned living being from the conditioned life of material existence. This can be done only by Visnu. Therefore, the ultimate benefit may be derived from Visnu, the Personality of Godhead
- No one should bother himself with fruitive activities or dry speculation about transcendental knowledge. Everyone should at once engage himself in the transcendental loving service of the Lord
- No one should worship different demigods who work as different hands of the Lord for creation, maintenance or destruction of the material world
- No ordinary man, or even one who has attained success in human life, can know scientifically or perfectly the Personality of Godhead
- None of them (devotees) falsely claim to be God themselves. This is a blasphemy declared by the asuras, and the demoniac followers of such asuras also accept pretenders as God or His incarnation
O
- One cannot enter into the kingdom of God unless one is perfectly cleared of all sins. The material sins are products of our desires to lord it over material nature
- One cannot understand the science of the Personality of Godhead unless one is freed from the contamination of the material modes, even up to the stage of a brahmana
- One has to raise himself at least to the stage of a second-class devotee and thus become eligible to know the Absolute Truth
- One has to surpass the brahminical stage and reach the vasudeva stage to understand the Personality of Godhead Krsna
- One is required to approach the proper spiritual master with receptive ears only, and thus divine existence is gradually realized
- One may argue that the Vedic activities are based on sacrificial ceremonies. That is true. But all such sacrifices are also meant for realizing the truth about Vasudeva
- One should accept the superior quality of occupation in the form of the devotional service of the Lord without any tinge of unnecessary desire, fruitive action and philosophical speculation. This alone can lead one to perpetual solace in His service
- One should accept voluntary bodily inconvenience for the sake of knowing Vasudeva because that is the way of real austerities. Otherwise all forms of austerities are classified as modes of passion and ignorance
- One should be careful to execute occupational service with faith in God in the proper way, and that will lead one gradually on the progressive march back to Godhead
- One should learn the Srimad-Bhagavatam and make an all-around solution to all problems pertaining to social, political or religious matters. Srimad-Bhagavatam and Krsna are the sum total of all things
- One should never classify the visnu-tattvas, or the plenary portions of Narayana, the Personality of Godhead, in the same categories with the parts and parcels. If anyone does so he becomes at once an offender
- One should not engage himself in any sort of occupational service for material gain only. Nor should material gain be utilized for sense gratification
- One should satisfy the senses only insomuch as required for self-preservation, and not for sense gratification
- One should work hard and worship the Supreme Lord by the fruits of one's hard labor for existence, and that should be the motto of life
- One who wants to adopt such remedial measures must take shelter of literatures such as the Vedas and the Puranas
- Only in this suddha-sattva state can one always see Krsna eye to eye by dint of pure affection for the Lord
- Other demigods, like Brahma, Siva, Surya, Ganesa and many similar deities, are worshiped by men in the mode of passion, urged on by the desire for material enjoyment
- Out of hundreds of thousands of karmis, only a few may feel tired of material engagement and desire to get out of the labyrinth. Such intelligent persons are called jnanis. The Vedanta-sutra is directed to such jnanis
- Out of many such manlike animals, there is actually a man who knows the responsibility of human life and thus tries to make life perfect by following the prescribed duties
- Out of many thousands of such persons who have thus attained success in human life, one may know scientifically about the Personality of Godhead Sri Krsna
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- Paramatma is the partial representation of the Personality of Godhead, and impersonal Brahman is the glowing effulgence of the Personality of Godhead, as the sun rays are to the sun-god
- Paramatma realization is but partial realization of Vasudeva, and if one is successful in that attempt, one realizes Vasudeva in full. But by ill luck most yogis are stranded by the powers of mysticism achieved through the bodily process
- Passion and ignorance cannot end the miseries of life. Only the mode of goodness can mitigate the threefold miseries of life
- Perfect knowledge is called parampara, or deductive knowledge coming down from the authority to the submissive aural receiver who is bona fide by service and surrender. One cannot challenge the authority of the Supreme
- Perfection of human life is attained when one can understand that he is not the product of matter but is in fact spirit
- Physical knowledge in its various branches is condemned in the Bhagavad-gita as ajnana, or the opposite of real knowledge
- Propaganda by false glorification of an unqualified person cannot bring about any good, either for the particular man or for the society
- Pure bhakti-yoga is independent of such karma and jnana because it alone can not only endow one with liberation from conditional life but also award one the transcendental loving service of the Lord
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- Ravana and Hiranyakasipu underwent a severe type of bodily torture to achieve the end of sense gratification. Sometimes modern politicians also undergo severe types of austerities to achieve some political end. This is not actually tapasya
- Renunciation or abnegation for ultimate good is certainly a better occupation than enjoyment in the diseased condition of life
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- Seekers of the Absolute Truth are never allured by unnecessary engagements in sense gratification because the serious students seeking the Absolute Truth are always overwhelmed with the work of researching the Truth
- Sense gratification is the general way for all sorts of fully occupied men. But in the statement of Suta Gosvami, as per the verdict of the Srimad-Bhagavatam, this is nullified by the present sloka
- Simply by associating with them & accepting the remnants of foodstuff left by the sages, the son of the maidservant got the chance to become the great devotee & personality Naradadeva. These are the miraculous effects of the association of Bhagavatas
- Since it has been stated hereinbefore that in the Bhagavatam the Absolute Truth is to be known, the questions of the sages of Naimisaranya are proper and just, because they pertain to Krsna, who is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the Absolute Truth
- Sincere candidates must, therefore, approach an expert spiritual master for such a progressive march, and the bona fide, expert spiritual master is competent to direct a disciple from any stage of life: tamas, rajas or sattva
- Sometimes He incarnates Himself or empowers a suitable living being to act for Him, but in either case the purpose is the same: the Lord wants the suffering living being to go back home, back to Godhead
- Sometimes political leaders of a particular party are also advertised by newspaper propaganda, and by such a method of glorification an insignificant man becomes an important man - within no time
- Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu accepted this principle and recognized Srila Haridasa Thakura as the acarya of the holy name, although Thakura Haridasa appeared in a Mohammedan family
- Sri Caitanya was God Himself according to the indication of the revealed scriptures, but He played the part of a devotee. People who knew Him to be God addressed Him as God, but He used to block His ears with His hands and chant the name of Lord Visnu
- Sri Krsna is like the sun, and the materialistic speculations about the Absolute Truth are like the darkest midnight
- Sri Krsna, the Personality of Godhead, is the only object of worship is confirmed in these two slokas
- Srila Naradadeva happened to be a maidservant's son in his previous life. The maidservant was engaged in the menial service of the sages, and thus he also came into contact with them
- Srila Sukadeva Gosvami was a thoroughly realized master of the Vedanta-sutra, and consequently he also personally realized the commentary, Srimad-Bhagavatam
- Srila Sukadeva Gosvami was a Vaisnava from the beginning; therefore, there was no need for him to undergo all the processes of the varnasrama institution. Ultimately the aim of varnasrama-dharma is to turn a crude man into a pure devotee
- Srila Sukadeva Gosvami was born a Vaisnava, and, therefore, brahminism was included in him. He did not have to undergo any ceremonies
- Srila Sukadeva Gosvami was the spiritual master of Sri Suta Gosvami, who therefore offers his respectful obeisances unto Srila Sukadeva Gosvami before he begins his answers to the questions of the sages at Naimisaranya
- Srila Suta Gosvami shows the way of chanting the Puranas. This may be followed by persons who aspire to be preachers of the Vedic literatures and the Puranas
- Srila Vyasadeva also instructed the Bhagavatam to his own son, Srila Sukadeva Gosvami, who was already at the liberated stage of transcendence. Srila Sukadeva realized it personally and then explained it
- Srila Vyasadeva, being the incarnation of the Supreme Lord, could foresee the misuse of the Vedanta-sutra by unscrupulous men, and, therefore, he personally supplemented the Vedanta-sutra with the Bhagavata Purana
- Srimad-Bhagavatam is the bona fide explanation of these Vedic literatures. The Lord can be realized through the aural reception of the transcendental message, and that is the only way to experience the transcendental subject
- Srimad-Bhagavatam is the natural supplementary commentary on the Vedanta-sutras
- Srimad-Bhagavatam is the one unrivaled commentary on Vedanta-sutra. Sripada Sankaracarya intentionally did not touch it because he knew that the natural commentary would be difficult for him to surpass
- Srimad-Bhagavatam is the spotless Purana, and it is especially meant for those who desire to get out of the material entanglement permanently
- Such a devotee must be a representative of Sukadeva Gosvami, like Suta Gosvami, and must preach the cult of devotional service for the all-around benefit of all people
- Such a personality of devotee is not a professional man who earns his livelihood by the business of Bhagavatam
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- Tapasya means voluntary acceptance of bodily pains to achieve some higher end of life. Ravana and Hiranyakasipu underwent a severe type of bodily torture to achieve the end of sense gratification
- The absolute realm and the living entities are of the same superior energy, but the material world is inferior energy
- The Absolute Truth is both subject and object, and there is no qualitative difference there. Therefore, Brahman, Paramatma and Bhagavan are qualitatively one and the same
- The Absolute Truth is realized in full by the process of devotional service to the Lord, Vasudeva, or the Personality of Godhead, who is the full-fledged Absolute Truth
- The actual object of glorification is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who has created everything manifested before us. We have broadly discussed this fact from the beginning of the "janmady asya" (SB 1.1.1) sloka of this Bhagavatam
- The bhakti cult is meant for realization of the positive form. When the positive form is realized, the negative forms are automatically eliminated
- The bhakti cult is sublime for the pure devotees who are serious about getting in contact with the Supreme Lord, and it is easy for the neophytes who are just on the threshold of the house of bhakti
- The bhakti cult, being the supermost occupation of the living being, leads him out of material sense enjoyment. That is the sign of a pure devotee. He is not a fool, nor is he engaged in the inferior energies, nor does he have material values
- The brahminical stage is the highest stage of human life because of its good qualities. So one cannot be a devotee unless one at least qualifies as a brahmana
- The completely bewildered material civilization is wrongly directed towards the fulfillment of desires in sense gratification. In such civilization, in all spheres of life, the ultimate end is sense gratification
- The conditioned life of a living being is caused by his revolting against the Lord. There are men called deva, or godly living beings, and there are men called asuras, or demons, who are against the authority of the Supreme Lord
- The conditioned soul, the living entity, is controlled by the laws of nature, while the Paramatma, or the Supersoul, is the controller of the material energy
- The contact of the spiritual spark with material elements creates a knot which must be cut if one wants to be liberated from the actions and reactions of fruitive work. Liberation means freedom from the cycle of reactionary work
- The demigods can award the worshipers some temporary benefit only, and not the ultimate one
- The demigods, being like other living entities in the material world, are all liquidated at the time of the annihilation of the material structure. They are themselves unable to get liberation, and what to speak of giving liberation
- The demigods, even to the stage of Brahma, the supreme of all the demigods, cannot offer liberation to anyone
- The devotee Bhagavata is a direct representative of Bhagavan, the Personality of Godhead. So by pleasing the devotee Bhagavata one can receive the benefit of the book Bhagavata
- The devotee cannot remain in darkness, & because a devotee is enlightened by the Personality of Godhead, his knowledge is certainly perfect. This is not the case for those who speculate on the Absolute Truth by dint of their own limited power of approach
- The devotee is already a brahmana by action. But that is not the end of it. As referred to above, such a brahmana has to become a Vaisnava in fact to be actually in the transcendental stage
- The devotee is fixed at once in the mode of goodness, and he makes further progress to rise to the position of Vasudeva, or the state of unmixed sattva, or suddha-sattva
- The devotees are submissive, and therefore the transcendental knowledge descends from the Personality of Godhead to Brahma and from Brahma to his sons and disciples in succession. This process is helped by the Supersoul within such devotees
- The difference between animality and humanity lies in this process only. A human being can hear properly, whereas an animal cannot
- The eagerness to hear about God is the first qualification of a devotee eligible for entering the kingdom of God
- The effect of devotional service becomes manifest by complete elimination of these effects of passion and ignorance
- The envious Mayavadi cannot have access to the Bhagavatam, but those who are really anxious to get out of this material existence may take shelter of this Bhagavatam because it is uttered by the liberated Srila Sukadeva Gosvami
- The eternal happiness which the living being wants is obtainable in the kingdom of God, but the forgetful living beings under the influence of the material modes have no information of the kingdom of God
- The first-class transcendentalists are the devotees who have realized the Supreme Person. The second-class transcendentalists are those who have partially realized the plenary portion of the absolute person
- The following example will clear that matter more explicitly. In the prison house there are the prisoners and the managers of the prison house. Both the managers and the prisoners are bound by the laws of the king
- The fruit-eater (living entity) has forgotten his real identity and is overwhelmed in the fruitive activities of the material conditions, but the Lord (Paramatma) is always full in transcendental knowledge
- The general tendency of any ordinary man in any part of the world is to gain some material profit in exchange for religious or any other occupational service
- The Gosvamis of Vrndavana, who were authorized by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu to preach the bhakti cult, rigidly followed this rule and made immense literatures of transcendental science for our benefit
- The gross material body is based on the conditions of the subtle mind, and the senses are created according to the desire of the living being
- The gross materialist can practically see that his material gain is limited only to time and space, either in this world or in the other
- The happiness which the living beings are hankering for is not to be found within any corner of the innumerable universes and material planets
- The holy messages of Godhead, as inculcated in the Bhagavad-gita or in the Srimad-Bhagavatam, are undoubtedly transcendental subjects
- The human being, unless he is fast asleep at night, is busy with questions and answers. The businessmen in the market are busy with questions and answers, and so also the lawyers in the court and the students in the schools and colleges
- The inactive fool is in the state of foolish ignorance, whereas the self-satisfied atmanandi is transcendental to the material state of existence. This stage of perfection is attained as soon as one is fixed in irrevocable devotional service
- The institution of varna and asrama prescribes many regulative duties to be observed by its followers. Such duties enjoin that a candidate willing to study the Vedas must approach a bona fide spiritual master and request acceptance as his disciple
- The legislators in the parliament are also busy with questions and answers, and the politicians and the press representatives are all busy with questions and answers
- The living being in contact with the inferior energy is illusioned, thinking he belongs to the inferior energy. Therefore there is the sense of relativity in the material world
- The living being is in the state of forgetfulness of his relation with God due to his being overly attracted to material sense gratification from time immemorial
- The living beings are parts and parcels of the Lord. They are therefore one with the Lord. In the Bhagavad-gita the living beings in all varieties of bodies have been claimed by the Lord as His sons
- The living entities are separated parts and parcels of the Lord, and the conditioned living entities, who are unfit for the spiritual kingdom, are strewn within the material world to enjoy matter to the fullest extent
- The living entities are separated parts and parcels of the Personality of Godhead. Therefore Lord Sri Krsna is the original form of Godhead, and He is the last word in the Transcendence
- The living entities have to change their material coverings for undergoing different terms of imprisonment
- The living entities who are expanded by His internal potency are eternally liberated persons, whereas those who are expanded in terms of the material energies are eternally conditioned souls
- The Lord (Visnu) incarnates Himself in each and every one of them and in each and every type of living society
- The Lord as Paramatma helps the living being to get material happiness because the living being is helpless in all respects in obtaining what he desires. He proposes, and the Lord dispose
- The Lord comes to propagate the message of the kingdom of God, either personally as an incarnation or through His bona fide representative as the good son of God
- The Lord declares in the Bhagavad-gita (BG 18.69) that no one is dearer to Him than one who risks everything to preach His glory
- The Lord does not change His original transcendental position, but He appears to be differently manifested according to the particular time, circumstances and society
- The Lord is more anxious to take us back into His kingdom than we can desire. Most of us do not desire at all to go back to Godhead. Only a very few men want to go back to Godhead. But anyone who desires to go back to Godhead, Krsna helps in all respects
- The Lord is more pleased when He sees that His servants are properly respected because such servants risk everything for the service of the Lord and so are very dear to the Lord
- The Lord is reciprocally respondent to His devotees. When He sees that a devotee is completely sincere in getting admittance to the transcendental service of the Lord and has thus become eager to hear about Him, the Lord acts from within
- The Lord is so kind that He constantly remains with the living being as Paramatma and always tries to convert the living being towards the real happiness
- The materialist does not believe in the existence of the spirit self, and empiric philosophers believe in the impersonal feature of the whole spirit without individuality of the living beings
- The materialistic world is called the darkest region of God's creation. Yet the unhappy materialists can get out of it simply by desiring to get out. Unfortunately they are so foolish that they do not want to escape
- The materialists and the foolish human beings worship Brahma and Siva respectively. But the pure transcendentalists worship the form of goodness, Visnu, in His various forms
- The Mayavadis are envious of the Personality of Godhead despite Sripada Sankaracarya's admission that Narayana, the Personality of Godhead, is above the material creation
- The messages of the book Bhagavata, therefore, have to be received from the devotee Bhagavata, and the combination of these two Bhagavatas will help the neophyte devotee to make progress on and on
- The mode of sattva is a still higher stage of material quality, which actually helps one in realizing the Absolute Truth
- The more progress is made in devotional service under the guidance of the Bhagavatas, the more one becomes fixed in the transcendental loving service of the Lord
- The need of the spirit soul is that he wants to get out of the limited sphere of material bondage and fulfill his desire for complete freedom
- The nondevotee, however educated he may be, is always harmful. A devotee is neither foolish nor passionate. The harmful, foolish and passionate cannot be devotees of the Lord, however they may advertise themselves as devotees by outward dress
- The other high-grade activities designated as sacrifice, charity, austerity, etc., are all corollary factors following the pure and scientific bhakti cult
- The path of enjoyment is inferior, and the path of sacrifice for the supreme cause is superior. The material existence of the living being is a diseased condition of actual life
- The position of the Lord is always transcendental because the causal and effectual energies required for the creation of the material world were also created by Him
- The principles of knowledge and detachment are two important factors on the path of transcendental realization
- The prison house of the material world is created by Brahma under instruction of the Personality of Godhead, and at the conclusion of a kalpa the whole thing is destroyed by Siva
- The Puranas are so divided that any class of men can take advantage of them and gradually regain their lost position and get out of the hard struggle for existence
- The purpose of performing religion is neither to profit by material gain nor to get the simple knowledge of discerning matter from spirit
- The qualified brahmanas worship the visnu-tattvas represented by the salagrama-sila, and some of the higher castes like the ksatriyas and vaisyas also generally worship the visnu-tattvas
- The question of the satisfaction of the self is raised herein (SB 1.2.8). The self is beyond the gross body and subtle mind. He is the potent active principle of the body and mind
- The rajas stage of life gives a slight clue to the realization of the Absolute Truth in the forms of fine sentiments in philosophy, art and culture with moral and ethical principles
- The sacred thread is the sign of those who are competent to study the Vedas from the acarya, or the bona fide spiritual master. Sri Sukadeva Gosvami did not undergo such purificatory ceremonies because he was a liberated soul from his very birth
- The sages asked him (Suta Gosvami) to summarize the whole range of revealed scriptures and present the most essential part so that fallen people or the people in general might easily take it up
- The sages of Naimisaranya asked Suta Gosvami six questions, and so he is answering them one by one
- The same is applicable in all other fields; no one is serious about the problems of life
- The same physical knowledge leading to the way of spiritual understanding helps one to end the miserable life of physical existence and to begin the life of spiritual existence on the plane of Vasudeva
- The same substance is realized as impersonal Brahman by the students of the Upanisads, as localized Paramatma by the Hiranyagarbhas or the yogis, and as Bhagavan by the devotees
- The science of the Personality of Godhead is the subject matter for study by the postgraduate students in the spiritual line
- The separated parts and parcels are powerful by limitation. They do not have unlimited power like the visnu-tattvas
- The separated parts and parcels are the servitors, and the integrated plenary portions of visnu-tattvas are the worshipful objects of service
- The separated parts and parcels have different positions in the estimation of material powers, and some of them are like Kala-bhairava, Smasana-bhairava, Sani, Mahakali and Candika
- The servants of God are to be respected as God by the devotees who actually want to go back to Godhead. Such servants of God are called mahatmas, or tirthas, and they preach according to particular time and place
- The servants of God come to propagate God consciousness, and intelligent people should cooperate with them in every respect. By serving the servant of God, one can please God more than by directly serving the Lord
- The servants of God urge people to become devotees of the Lord. They never tolerate being called God
- The soul's activity becomes adulterated in contact with matter, and as such the diseased activities are expressed in the form of lust, desire, hankering, inactivity, foolishness and sleep
- The speciality of devotional service unto the Personality of Godhead Lord Sri Krsna is specifically mentioned herein
- The spirit soul's needs must be fulfilled. Simply by cleansing the cage of the bird, one does not satisfy the bird. One must actually know the needs of the bird himself
- The spiritual master accepts only the sincere inquirer as his disciple and gives him the sacred thread. In this way a man becomes twice-born, or a dvija. After qualifying as a dvija one may study the Vedas
- The sufferings and enjoyments of the sons are indirectly the sufferings and enjoyments of the father. Still the father is not in any way affected directly by the suffering and enjoyment of the sons
- The Supreme Personality of Godhead Sri Krsna, who is the original person of the Visnu categories, expands Himself in two different categories, namely integrated plenary portions and separated parts and parcels
- The Supreme Personality of Godhead, by one of His plenary parts expands Himself all over the material world, and His existence can be perceived even within the atomic energy
- The tendency to glorify others or hear others must be turned to the real object of glorification-the Supreme Being. And that will bring happiness
- The third-class devotee therefore has to go to the (number one Bhagavata) personality of devotee in order to learn the instructions of devotional service
- The third-class devotees, or the neophytes, who have no knowledge and are not detached from material association, but who are simply attracted by the preliminary process of worshiping the Deity in the temple, are called material devotees
- The third-class transcendentalists are those who have barely realized the spiritual focus of the absolute person
- The transcendental pastimes of Lord Sri Krsna are not newly accepted, as argued by some less intelligent persons
- The transcendentalists affirm that the soul and the Supersoul are two different identities, qualitatively one but quantitatively different
- The ultimate aim of physical knowledge is to satisfy the senses, which means prolongation of the term of material existence and thereby continuance of the threefold miseries. So prolonging the miserable life of material existence is nescienc
- The ultimate aim of religious performances is to release oneself from material bondage and regain the life of freedom in the transcendental world, where the Personality of Godhead is the Supreme Person
- The uncivilized state of life, or the life of the lower animals, is controlled by the mode of tamas. The civilized life of man, with a passion for various types of material benefits, is the stage of rajas
- The Vaisnava stage is the postgraduate status of a brahmana
- The varnasrama institution is constructed to enable one to realize the Absolute Truth. It is not for artificial domination of one division over another
- The Vedanta-sutras, or the Brahma-sutras, were compiled by Vyasadeva with a view to presenting just the cream of Vedic knowledge. Srimad-Bhagavatam is the natural commentary on this cream
- The Vedas prescribe two different types of occupation for the human being. One is called the pravrtti-marga, or the path of sense enjoyment, and the other is called the nivrtti-marga, or the path of renunciation
- The Visnu or the Deity of the quality of goodness in the material world is the purusa-avatara known as Ksirodakasayi Visnu or Paramatma
- The visnu-tattvas are living beings equally as powerful as the original form of the Personality of Godhead, and They display different categories of power in consideration of different times and circumstances
- The whole spiritual process leads to perfect knowledge of everything material and spiritual, and the results of such perfect knowledge are that one becomes detached from material affection and becomes attached to spiritual activities
- The whole world is full of questions and answers. The birds, beasts and men are all busy in the matter of perpetual questions and answers
- There are 8,400,000 species of living beings beginning from the highest intellectual being, Brahma, down to the insignificant ant, and all of them are enjoying the material world according to the desires of the subtle mind and gross material body
- There are different occupational activities in terms of man's different conceptions of life
- There are four different types of human beings - the karmis, the jnanis, the yogis and the devotees. The karmis are materialistic, whereas the other three are transcendental
- There are innumerable material universes, and in each and every universe there are innumerable planets inhabited by different grades of living entities in different modes of nature
- There are innumerable powerful demigods who look over the external management of the material world. They are all different assisting hands of Lord Vasudeva
- There are many other theories, but all these different speculations are at once cleared off as soon as Sri Krsna is realized in truth by the process of bhakti-yoga
- There are men who are conducted by the mode of goodness, others who are under the mode of passion and others who are under the mode of ignorance
- There are others who consider that all kinds of different occupational engagements, including those of religion, are meant for material gain
- There are regulative directions for satisfaction of such senses because the body is made of senses, which also require a certain amount of satisfaction. But the senses are not meant for unrestricted enjoyment
- There are three kinds of energies of the supreme energetic. There is no difference between the energy and energetic, but there is a difference of quality of energies
- There are twelve particular agents of the Lord who know the purpose of religion, and all of them render transcendental service unto Him. Persons who desire their own good may follow these mahajanas and thus attain the supreme benefit
- There are two types of Bhagavatas, namely the book Bhagavata and the devotee Bhagavata. Both the Bhagavatas are competent remedies, and both of them or either of them can be good enough to eliminate the obstacles
- There is a dormant affection for God within everyone; spiritual existence is manifested through the gross body and mind in the form of perverted affection for gross and subtle matter
- There is just the futile attempt to get rid of the miseries, and temporary cessation of misery is falsely called happiness. Therefore, the path of progressive material enjoyment, which is temporary, miserable and illusory, is inferior
- There is no need to worship demigods of whatsoever category if one is serious about going back to Godhead
- There is no point in arguing that a materialistic man can be happy. No materialistic creature - be he the great Brahma or an insignificant ant - can be happy
- There is no rigid fixture of time, and anyone can chant the holy name with attention and reverence at his convenience. The Lord is so kind to us that He can be present before us personally in the form of transcendental sound
- There is only one religion in the world to be followed by one and all, and that is the Bhagavata-dharma, or the religion which teaches one to worship the Supreme Personality of Godhead and no one else
- There may be some temporary reactions to such propaganda, but there are no permanent effects. Therefore such activities are a waste of time
- These demigods (Kala-bhairava, Smasana-bhairava, Sani, Mahakali and Candika) are worshiped mostly by those who are in the lowest categories of the mode of darkness or ignorance
- They (highly qualified brahmanas) concentrate only on the forms of Visnu because they are serious about liberation from the material conditions
- They (highly qualified brahmanas) know very well that those horrible features of the Supreme Lord are all different servitors of the Lord under different conditions, yet they reject the worship of both horrible and attractive features of the demigods
- They (impersonalists) can surrender unto Him only after many, many births in the culture of transcendental knowledge
- They (six Gosvamis) have chalked out ways for all classes of men in terms of the different castes and orders of life in pursuance of the teachings of Srimad-Bhagavatam and similar other authoritative scriptures
- They are all-attractive spiritual activities, and therefore constant association with the spiritual activities of the Supreme Lord gradually spiritualizes the conditioned soul and ultimately severs the knot of material bondage
- This attainment of success (becoming enlivened as a spiritual being) is possible when one is above the modes of passion and ignorance, or, in other words, when one is actually a brahmana by qualification
- This cycle of occupational engagements includes so-called religiosity followed by material gain and material gain followed by fulfillment of desires
- This enlightenment perfectly enables the devotee to distinguish spirit from matter because the knot of spirit and matter is untied by the Lord
- This institutional function of human society is known as the system of varnasrama-dharma, which is quite natural for the civilized life
- This knot is called ahankara, and it falsely obliges a living being to become identified with matter. As soon as this knot is loosened, therefore, all the clouds of doubt are at once cleared off
- This liberation automatically follows for one who constantly remembers the transcendental pastimes of the Personality of Godhead. This is because all the activities of the Supreme Lord (His lila) are transcendental to the modes of the material energy
- This sort of hearing and chanting (for show) has spoiled the whole thing, so one should be very careful about the faulty process
- Those who are actually situated in the mode of goodness (sattva-guna) of material nature worship only visnu-tattvas
- Those who are perfect seers of the Absolute Truth know well that the above three features of the one Absolute Truth are different perspective views seen from different angles of vision
- Those who consider DS to Sri Krsna to be something like material emotional affairs may argue that in the revealed scriptures, sacrifice, charity, austerity, knowledge, mystic powers and similar other processes of transcendental realization are recommended
- To accept more material enjoyment means to bind oneself more and more to the miseries of material existence. More wealth, more women and false aristocracy are some of the demands of the materially disposed man
- To achieve the contact of the Supreme Personality of Godhead Sri Krsna is a great science
- To become restless in the contact of women and wealth is not an astonishment, because every living being is associated with such things from remote time, practically immemorial, and it takes time to recover from this foreign nature
- To the gross materialist who cannot see anything beyond the gross material body, there is nothing beyond the senses. Therefore his occupational activities are limited to concentrated and extended selfishness
- To the materialist his own blood is as sweet as honey, and although he is always harassed by his own material creations, he does not wish to escape. Such materialists are called karmis
V
- Vasudeva and Devaki, the so-called father and mother of Lord Krsna, underwent penances to get Vasudeva as their son
- Vasudeva is the original Personality of Godhead Lord Sri Krsna. As explained before, the original Personality of Godhead expands Himself by innumerable forms. Such expansion of forms is made possible by His various energies
- Vasudeva is the ultimate aim in culturing all different branches of knowledge. Culture of knowledge leading one to the transcendental plane of meeting Vasudeva is real knowledge
- Visnu is manifested by His millions and billions of integrated forms & separated forms. The integrated forms are called Godhead & the separated forms are called the living entities or the jivas. Both the jivas & Godhead have their original spiritual forms
- Visnu, and none else, is called mukti-pada, or the Personality of Godhead who can bestow upon us mukti, liberation
- Visnu-tattvas are represented by various names and forms, such as Narayana, Damodara, Vamana, Govinda and Adhoksaja
W
- We cannot live for a moment without being questioned or without giving answers. Because the SB deals with questions and answers that are related to Krsna, we can derive the highest satisfaction only by reading and hearing this transcendental literature
- We have already discussed developing a taste for hearing and chanting the holy sound. It is done through the medium of service to the pure devotee of the Lord
- We have already discussed that pure devotional service to the Lord is automatically followed by perfect knowledge and detachment from material existence
- We have already discussed the point that devotional service is followed by knowledge and detachment from material association
- We have purposely denoted dharma as occupation because the root meaning of the word dharma is "that which sustains one's existence"
- We have to engage ourselves in occupational engagements that will evoke our divine consciousness. This is possible only by hearing and chanting the divine activities of the Supreme Lord
- We should never desire to increase the depth of material enjoyment
- When a qualified brahmana factually becomes a Vaisnava, in the enlivened state of liberation he can know what is actually the Personality of Godhead
- When one is helped by the Lord Himself, the whole process becomes as easy as anything by the divine grace of the Lord
- When the aim of life, i.e., realization of the Absolute Truth, is missed by too much attachment for indriya-priti, the institution of the varnasrama is utilized by selfish men to pose an artificial predominance over the weaker section
- When they (devotees) come to save human society from the dangers of godlessness, they are known as the powerful incarnations of the Lord, as sons of the Lord, as servants of the Lord or as associates of the Lord
- When Visnu, the Personality of Godhead, appears in the material world, He comes to deliver the conditioned living beings who are under the material energy
- Whenever offenseless hearing and glorification of God are undertaken, it is to be understood that Lord Krsna is present there in the form of transcendental sound, which is as powerful as the Lord personally
- While the living entities enjoy the material conditions, the Lord maintains His transcendental position without being affected by the material atmosphere
- Why are such so-called men of religion allured by material gain? Because material gain can enable one to fulfill desires, which in turn satisfy sense gratification
- With the development of the bhakti cult, with the application of positive service to the positive form, one naturally becomes detached from inferior things, and he becomes attached to superior things
- Without hearing such literatures, one cannot make actual progress. And without hearing and following the instructions, the show of devotional service becomes worthless and therefore a sort of disturbance in the path of devotional service
- Without knowing the need of the dormant soul, one cannot be happy simply with emolument of the body and mind. The body and the mind are but superfluous outer coverings of the spirit soul
- Women and wealth are very difficult problems for the devotee making progress on the path back to Godhead. Many stalwarts in the devotional line fell victim to these allurements and thus retreated from the path of liberation
- Worshiping the multidemigods for material gain is practically a perversity of religion. This sort of religious activity has been condemned in the very beginning of the Bhagavatam as kaitava-dharma