Doll (Lectures)

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Lecture on BG 2.2-6 -- Ahmedabad, December 11, 1972:

Just like we should not consider this Deity before us as made of some metal or wood. No. Arcye śilā-dhīḥ. No. Here is the Supreme Personality of Godhead standing. We should take it like that. Otherwise, does it mean that we are offering our obeisances to a metal doll? We have become so fool? No. We take it, "Here is Kṛṣṇa personally standing." That is the, that, if one cannot feel like that... The śāstra says you should feel like that.

Lecture on BG 2.14 -- London, August 20, 1973:

Just like you make one doll, combination of matter, earth, water, fire... Or no fire. Yes, still there is fire. Because you dry it in the sunshine, therefore there is fire. Earth, water, fire, and there is air, there is sky—but there is no soul. That is the difference. You can prepare a doll with earth, water, air, fire, all these things, material elements. But you cannot give the soul. That is not possible. That is possible only by Kṛṣṇa.

Lecture on BG 4.2 -- Bombay, March 22, 1974:

Why we are giving so much importance to the words of Kṛṣṇa? Because this language is absolute. Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa's words, Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa's language, or Kṛṣṇa's words, they are the same. Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa's forms... We are worshiping Kṛṣṇa's form. That is also Kṛṣṇa. Otherwise, are we wasting our time by decorating a doll, a statue, and we are struggling so hard to establish a temple of Kṛṣṇa? No.

Lecture on BG 6.40-42 -- New York, September 16, 1966:

So children, they generally imitate, imitate the parents' habits or activities. So fortunately we had the opportunity of getting such a father. So we are imitating our father. In my childhood I imitated my father. He was worshiping Deity of Kṛṣṇa. So I asked him, "My dear father, I shall worship. Give me the Deity of Kṛṣṇa." So he gave me a little Deity of Kṛṣṇa and Rādhā and I was imitating. So beginning of life... So these are actually facts. Mahārāja Parīkṣit also, he was playing with Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa dolls. Just like Mirabhai. She was playing with Kṛṣṇa doll and later on she became a very high-grade devotee. So these chances are there.

Lecture on BG 7.18 -- New York, October 12, 1966:

And if we love God, then we love everything. And without loving God, if you want to love something else, that is nonsense. You cannot love. Therefore we find practically there is so much love between a boy and girl. And just after two years, oh, divorce: "Go to hell." Because there is no love. It is simply lust. We do not know what is love. Simply you are playing with lust, and lust, as soon as you do not satisfy my senses to my satisfaction, then there is anger, krodha, or wrath. And out... Then illusion. Then out of wrath, you give..., you separate with me, I separate with you. So basically there is no love. So these people who are, who have become the play dolls of this lust, they are called "lost all senses." Kāmais tais tair hṛta-jñānāḥ (BG 7.20). Hṛta-jñānaḥ means "one who has lost his good sense."

Lecture on BG 8.14-15 -- New York, November 16, 1966:

A human being is called rational animal. They are animal, but at the same time, they have got the rationality. But that rationality is being used in the purpose of animal propensities. That rationality is not being used how to get liberated from this miserable condition. That is a misuse of rationality. So here is the solution. Kṛṣṇa says that "If anyone remains in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, twenty-four hours, without any deviation, the result is that he comes to Me. And if he once comes to Me," mām upetya punar janma duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam, nāpnuvanti (BG 8.15), "he does not get again rebirth of this miserable life." Why? Now, mahātmānaḥ saṁsiddhiṁ paramāṁ gatāḥ: "They are great souls, and they have achieved the highest goal of life."

So this is the highest goal of life. We should know our self-interest to achieve this highest goal of life, not temporary dolls. You see? Children are captivated by temporary dolls, but not a sane man...

Lecture on BG 8.20-22 -- New York, November 18, 1966:

This material world is a combination of matter. Just like you have seen a nice girl's doll in the showcase of the shopkeeper's exactly just like a nice, beautiful girl. But that is imitation. Imitation. Every sane man knows, "Oh, this is imitation." So whatever we are seeing here, beautiful, they are all imitation of the real. As the doll is imitation of a beautiful girl, similarly, yasya satyatayā nityāpi satyam eva abhipadyate. Śrīdhara Svāmī says, "Because the spiritual world is real and this unreal manifestation appears to be real, appears to be real, but it is not real, we can understand reality will exist; reality will not vanquish." That is... Reality means eternal. Therefore real pleasure, that is Kṛṣṇa. The material pleasure is temporary, not actual.