Practical experience (Lectures)

Expressions researched:
"practical experience" |"practical experiences"

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

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

Cow dung is, according to Vedic injunction, is pure. In India it is actually used as antiseptic. In villages especially, there is large quantity of cow dung, and they're, all over the house they have smeared to make the house antiseptic. And actually after smearing cow dung in your room, when it is dried, you'll find refreshed, everything antiseptic. It is practical experience. And one Dr. Ghosh, a great chemist, he examined cow dung, that why cow dung is so much important in the Vedic literature? He found that cow dung contains all the antiseptic properties.

Lecture on BG 2.12 -- New York, March 7, 1966:

Now, my point is that when such a great personality, and when a..., we accept Him as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, then His version is right. What He says, that from our practical experience we can conclude that every individual persons who were in the past individuals, they are also individuals at the present, and they'll continue to be individuals, and this is by our common sense, but it is confirmed by Śrī Kṛṣṇa, whom we call the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and He is accepted as a great personality.

Lecture on BG 2.48-49 -- New York, April 1, 1966:

Now, here, suppose there are so many rich men in your country and so many foundations also. And I tell you my practical experience. I wrote some letters to some good foundation that "I want to start here in America an institution for God consciousness, international institution for God consciousness. You kindly help me." Now, they have flatly refused that "Our pledge is not anything for religion or God." Just see. That means, according to Bhagavad-gītā, they are all misers.

Lecture on BG 2.49-51 -- New York, April 5, 1966:

You'll find that on the material platform, on the bodily conception of life, if you work for eight hours only, you'll feel fatigued. But spiritual purpose, if you work more than twenty-four hours... Unfortunately, you haven't got more than twenty-four hours at your disposal. Still, you won't feel fatigued. I tell you. This is my practical experience. This is my practical experience. And I am here, always working, something reading or writing, something reading or writing, twenty-four hours. Simply when I feel hungry, I take some food. And simply when I feel asleep, I go to bed. Otherwise, always, I don't feel fatigued.

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

That is spiritual name. You cannot take any other name and chant and enjoy like that. So it is practical experience. I am touring all over the world, three times in a year, and because this chanting is Absolute, everyone is joining, Europe, America, Africa, Canada, Japan, China, everywhere. Nobody says that "This is a word from India. Why shall I chant the Indian name?" No. It is God's name. God is neither Indian nor American nor otherwise, neither Christian nor Hindu nor Muslim. God is God.

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

You will find in this practical experience. Suppose a boy is very rich man's son. But still, he thinks "Why shall I live under the rules and regulations of my father? Let me go out. I shall enjoy life freely." Freely, what freedom? You are already rich man's son. You can enjoy the property of your very, very rich powerful father, and what independence you will enjoy? This is criminality. This is criminality.

Lecture on BG 4.1 -- Montreal, August 24, 1968:

If that disciplic succession is something else than devotional service, then he cannot understand Bhagavad-gītā. There are many practical experiences, and so many scholars, books we have studied, and their commentary is all nonsense because they are not bhakta. They try to understand Bhagavad-gītā simply by their academic qualification. That is not possible. That is not possible.

Lecture on BG 4.5 -- Bombay, March 25, 1974:

Just like daytime and nighttime. Nighttime also, when we sleep, we forget all our business in daytime. We have got everyday experience. We are different person at night. We are dreaming something, dreamland, somewhere I have gone, and forget that I have got a body which is lying on the bed, I am the father of such and such sons, I am the husband of such and such... No, you forget everything. And again, in the daytime, you forget everything, what you dreamed. This is our practical experience.

Lecture on BG 4.7-10 -- Los Angeles, January 6, 1969:

From our practical experience we can say we got this chance. We got this chance. We got very nice parents. And I was born in a family, a very pure family. And, of course, in those days they were rich also. We had Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa mūrti-sevā. So from the childhood I was taught... Not taught. I asked my father, "Give me this Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa mūrti. I shall worship." And father encouraged me. I was performing this Ratha-yātrā festival. My father encouraged. So this means that I got this chance again.

Lecture on BG 4.8 -- Montreal, June 14, 1968:

But how you can deny the living force behind this gigantic, mechanical arrangement? Call it material world, material machine, or whatever you may call. How you can deny? At least from your practical experience you cannot deny. You may put some jugglery of words, but the actual fact is this.

Lecture on BG 4.19-25 -- Los Angeles, January 9, 1969:

Just like a child. When there is something fearful the child, it is nature, closes the eyes. I have practical experience. When I was young man I went to the zoo with my little son and as soon as there was a tiger cage, oh, the child closed the eyes. Yes. He could not bear the vicious sight. This is natural.

Lecture on BG 4.27 -- Bombay, April 16, 1974:

First of all I do not want to be relieve also. That is also another disease. You see? You will be surprised. It is my practical experience. This Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, before starting, I wrote one letter to Mahatma Gandhi: "Mahatma Gandhi, you have got position. People accept you as a very pious man. Now you have got your sva-rājya, and you are very fond of Bhagavad-gītā. Let us preach Bhagavad-gītā." I wrote this letter. Unfortunately, a few days after, he was killed. So this is the position. All big, big leaders, they do not want to take relief from this sense gratification business.

Lecture on BG 4.37-40 -- New York, August 21, 1966:

We can sustain when there is spiritual engagement. Otherwise, it is not possible. Otherwise, I may continue for some time, but there is chance of falling down because we have got this information and a practical experience also: great, great, I mean to say, yogis and jñānīs, they again come. We have some practical experience. Sometimes we find a person leaves all worldly engagements, leaves his family, gives up his family connection, becomes a renounced order, sannyāsī, and highest order, and then, after some time, he becomes engaged in opening hospitals and philanthropic work and in politics.

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

If you ask him, "When you are going?" He'll say that "I do not know when I shall go, but when Kṛṣṇa will ask me or allow me to go, I shall go." I am saying this from my practical experience from my Guru Mahārāja, from my spiritual master. He would never say that "I am going," "I am doing," no. "If Kṛṣṇa desires, then I shall do it." "If Kṛṣṇa desires, then I shall go." Like that. Always depending on Kṛṣṇa. This is called viśuddhātmā.

Lecture on BG 7.1 -- San Francisco, March 17, 1968:

I have got experience, practical experience, that the drafting board of your country, calling some boy that "You join military," but he is not willing. Why? Because he is not trained as a kṣatriya. He is trained as a śūdra. Therefore the caste system is very scientific.

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

Bhaga means opulence, and vān means one who possesses opulence. Just like we have our practical experience. Anyone who is very rich, he's attractive. He becomes attractive. Many men go to him for some favor. One who is very influential, he becomes very attractive. One who is very famous, he becomes attractive. One who is very learned, wise, he becomes attractive. One who is very wise, he becomes attractive. And one who is in the renounced order of life Renounced order of life means one who possesses everything but renounces, does not use it for his personal benefit. Just like a person who is very charitably disposed, he gives everything to the public. He's also very attractive.

Lecture on BG 7.1 -- London, March 9, 1975:

Now they are chanting, they are having maṅgala-ārati, they are decorating the Deity, and so many things. Everyone who will associate, you will see. And then he will be inclined to be initiated. This is our practical experience. They will submit, "Please let me be initiated." This is called bhajana-kriyā.

Lecture on BG 7.1-3 -- London, August 4, 1971:

In another place Kṛṣṇa says, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). As we are changing body from babyhood to childhood, childhood to boyhood, boyhood to youth-hood, youth-hood to grown-up and old age—this is our practical experience, I have several times explained—similarly, this old body, when I give it up, I shall accept another body.

Lecture on BG 7.1-3 -- Stockholm, September 10, 1973:

So here also, it is said, jñānaṁ te 'haṁ sa-vijñānam: "I am speaking to you this knowledge which you can practically experience." Not theoretical simply. Jñānaṁ te 'haṁ sa-vijñānam idaṁ vakṣyāmy aśeṣataḥ (BG 7.2). Aśeṣataḥ means "without any reservation, as far as possible." "As far as you can understand, I am explaining." Yaj jñātvā, "If you understand this," na iha bhūyaḥ anyaj jñātavayam avaśiṣyate... "If you can understand this knowledge with practical experience, then there will be nothing to know anymore." That means your knowledge is complete, perfect.

Lecture on BG 7.4 -- Nairobi, October 31, 1975:

So what is beyond your perception, sense perception, that you have to hear. There are two kinds of knowledges: by practical experience, direct perception, and by hearing from authority, aitihya.