Adult

Expressions researched:
"adult" |"adults"

SB Canto 1

SB 1.19.39, Purport:

Saints and sages in the renounced order of life go to the houses of the householders at the time they milk the cows, early in the morning, and ask some quantity of milk for subsistence. A pound of milk fresh from the milk bag of a cow is sufficient to feed an adult with all vitamin values, and therefore saints and sages live only on milk. Even the poorest of the householders keep at least ten cows, each delivering twelve to twenty quarts of milk, and therefore no one hesitates to spare a few pounds of milk for the mendicants. It is the duty of householders to maintain the saints and sages, like the children. So a saint like Śukadeva Gosvāmī would hardly stay at the house of a householder for more than five minutes in the morning. In other words, such saints are very rarely seen in the houses of householders, and Mahārāja Parīkṣit therefore prayed to him to instruct him as soon as possible. The householders also should be intelligent enough to get some transcendental information from visiting sages. The householder should not foolishly ask a saint to deliver what is available in the market. That should be the reciprocal relation between the saints and the householders.

CC Adi-lila

CC Adi 14.48, Purport:

According to the Vedic system, when small girls ten or twelve years old would go to the bank of the Ganges to take their bath, they would especially worship Lord Śiva with prayers to get good husbands in the future. They especially wanted to get a husband like Lord Śiva because Lord Śiva is very peaceful and at the same time most powerful. Formerly, therefore, small girls in Hindu families would worship Lord Śiva, especially in the month of Vaiśākha (April-May). To take a bath in the Ganges is a great pleasure for everyone, not only for adults but for children also.

Easy Journey to Other Planets

Easy Journey to Other Planets 1:

Similarly, a living being (as a spiritual spark, a part of the Supreme Being) takes its organic form in the womb of a mother just after sexual intercourse. It grows little by little within the womb, is born, then continues growing, becomes a child, boy, youth, adult, old man, then finally dwindles and meets death, despite all the good wishes and hopeful pipe dreams of fiction writers. By comparison, there is no difference between man and the fruit. Like the fruit, the man may leave behind him his seeds of numerous children, but he cannot exist eternally within his material body due to the law of material nature.

Easy Journey to Other Planets 1:

When a satellite is thrown into outer space, a child may not understand that there are scientific brains behind it, but an intelligent adult realizes that scientific brains on earth are controlling the satellite. Similarly, less intelligent persons do not have information of the creator and His eternal abode in the spiritual world, which is far beyond our range of visibility, but in actuality there is a spiritual sky, and spiritual planets which are more spacious and greater in number than planets in the material sky. From the Bhagavad-gītā we receive information that the material universe only constitutes a fraction (one fourth) of the creation. Such information is extensively available in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and in other Vedic literatures.

Krsna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead

Krsna Book 28:

Kṛṣṇa therefore revealed the actual features of the Vaikuṇṭha planets so that the inhabitants of Vṛndāvana could know their destination. Thus Kṛṣṇa showed them the eternal, ever-existing spiritual sky, which is unlimited and full of knowledge. Within this material world there are different grades of forms, and according to the grade, knowledge is proportionately manifested. For example, the knowledge in the body of a child is not as perfect as the knowledge in the body of an adult man.

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Lecture on BG 4.10 -- Bombay, March 30, 1974:

I have several times explained. When there is law on the street, "Keep to the left," it is meant for the human being, not for the cats and dogs and cows. Say, if the cat, dog, goes to the left or right against the police direction, he's not punished. Because he's animal. Or a child. If he trespasses. But if an adult person transgresses the law, he'll be punished. So the human life has got responsibility. What is that responsibility? Tapasya. Here it is said, jñāna-tapasā pūtāḥ, purified. Jñāna, knowledge, and tapasya. Then he's purified. Not that "You can do whatever you like. It has nothing to do with the religion." There are so many rascals" program. "You can eat anything. You can do anything, and still you become a Vedantist." This kind of rascal Vedantists are going on.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Lecture on SB 1.8.37 -- Los Angeles, April 29, 1973:

People die for overeating, not for undereating. This should be the principle. Here... Medical science always forbids not to eat more than you require. Voracious eating is the cause of diabetes, and undernourishment is the cause of tuberculosis. This is the medical science. So we should not take under, neither more. In children case, they can commit the mistake of taking more, but adults, they cannot commit. This mistake, taking more. Children, they can digest. All day they are playing.

Lecture on SB 5.5.17 -- Vrndavana, November 5, 1976:

Without this division of classes, society, who will guide them? At the present moment, without any class the government has made adult vote. Anyone who is above certain age, say eighteen years or twenty years, he can vote. But there is no class, that "This class can vote; this class cannot vote." There is no such thing. Anyone who is above eighteen years old, he is competent to cast his vote. And people are not educated in this division, brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra. They are all classless.

Lecture on SB 7.5.22-30 -- London, September 8, 1971:

When you read, you remember God's activities, Kṛṣṇa's activities, His devotee's activities. Therefore it is smaraṇam. This is also one of the prescribed methods. But if anyone cannot read even... Suppose if he is not educated, illiterate. Does it mean that he will not get Kṛṣṇa consciousness? He will get, simply by hearing. The process is so perfect and nice, there is no need of education even. Illiterate person, simply if he gives aural reception submissively, he will get the benefit. Therefore it is universal. It is good for everyone—educated, noneducated, learned, fool, rich, poor, everyone. Man, woman, child, adult—everyone can take part and take benefit out of it. It is so nice.

General Lectures

Lecture -- London, August 11, 1971:

Most erudite scholar also can take part, and an innocent child who has no education, no literary sense, he can also take part equally. And equally, both of them take the same advantage. A small child who comes before the Deity and dances and claps, he is getting the result. Don't think that it is in vain. He is also getting the same... Just like fire. Either a child touches or an adult touches, fire's action will be there, equal. Similarly, anyone who is coming in this temple, offering obeisances, taking little prasāda, joining with the chanting, hearing some talks, everyone will be benefited spiritually. That is our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement.

Philosophy Discussions

Philosophy Discussion on Immanuel Kant:

Prabhupāda: Why in your mind? That is the law. When the temperature is reduced to a certain point, the water becomes frozen and becomes solid. That is the law. How can you say without law?

Śyāmasundara: But the concept of law is a mode of thought.

Prabhupāda: Well, that is imperfect human society. But nature's law, God's law, is not like that. Nature's law: just like fire burns; it burns everywhere. It is fact, perpetually. It is not that in certain cases it burns and in certain cases it does not. It burns. Even a child touches the fire, it will burn. No consideration. Just like in human law, a child steals and an adult steals. Court excuses, "He is a child. Let him be." But nature's law is not like that. The fire, whether adult touches or a child touches, it must burn. That is nature's law.

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- June 14, 1972, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Just like children, they do not know what is government. They are satisfied with their eating, sleeping, playing, that's all. They have no other concern. But when one is grown up, he knows what is government. He has to abide by the state laws. Now you are grown up, if you violate the law "Keep to the right," you'll be criminal. But a child, if he violates the law, animal violates the law, he has no... But if a adult person violates the law, he'll be criminal. You cannot say, "I'm free." No. Law will not excuse. But if a children commits something... Suppose you, if you take something from my table, it is for you criminal. But if a child takes something from my table, it is not criminal.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- September 2, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: No, not abstract. These are material. You have no eyes to see.

Guest (1): Well, at present, we can, we have got three different methods of studying intelligence starting from six months onward up to the adult.

Prabhupāda: Anyway, you accept. That is my point. Now you are studying, you accept. That means you accept there is intelligence. So besides this material body, gross material body, there is a subtle body. Subtle body. Just like besides your coat, there is a shirt, or there is a ganjee (?). Similarly, the soul is covered by the subtle body and the gross body.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Conversation in car -- May 23, 1975, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: And therefore let us try. And success, no success, depend on Kṛṣṇa.

Devotee (1): Already I have noticed a difference with the new temple which has opened in Melbourne, with the group of adults that are coming around to become interested now because we have a permanent place here.

Prabhupāda: On the whole, we have got very nice house. (Prabhupāda gets out of car and is greeted by devotees) Thank you.

Morning Walk -- August 27, 1975, Vrndavana:

Brahmānanda: No, he says that if they become Kṛṣṇa conscious, then they will stop going to the cinema.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is the test. (aside:) Hare Kṛṣṇa. Jaya. This is the test. Bhaktiḥ pareśānubhavo viraktir anyatra (SB 11.2.42). Advancement of Kṛṣṇa consciousness means he's no more interested with anything material. That is Kṛṣṇa conscious. There is a Bengali proverb, ami dugdha khaya eta mako khaya: "The children, they take milk, and adults, they smoke." So one is speaking that "I take milk and smoke also."

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- April 14, 1976, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: Sir, I may tell you, the adults.... That change is meant for the educated, cultured, and...

Prabhupāda: No, no, you don't name that educated, cultured. You simply say that "You vote for this person."

Dr. Patel: People vote for five-rupee notes. They don't vote anything else.

Prabhupāda: Then they will suffer. Then don't, don't complain. Don't complain.

Garden Conversation -- June 10, 1976, Los Angeles:

Dr. Wolfe: Prabhupāda, I always thought, I always thought: "Later, later, I will. Later, later." But now I'm sixty-eight.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) No, education, everywhere, all over the world, education is given when one is young. That is the time. I think here in America there is adult education?

Hṛdayānanda: But not so much. Some. That's usually for making more money. Someone has a job and he wants further training to get a higher-paying job, but not so much for knowledge.

Morning Walk -- August 12, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: Arrangement is not accidental.

Nava-yauvana: They say yin and yang.

Prabhupāda: I am coming here. This child can say the arrangement was there. She can say like that. But I'm adult, I know the arrangement was there. It was made by somebody.

1969 Correspondence

Letter to Vibhavati -- Los Angeles 15 July, 1969:

From the ages six to ten they should tighten the discipline of their child, and from the ages of ten till the sixteenth year the parents should be as strict as a tiger with their child so that he will be afraid to be disobedient at all. Then after the sixteenth year the parents shall treat their child as a friend, and the child is allowed to gradually develop his adult responsibility and independence. Regarding your other questions, yes, you may wear any clothing that you find comfortable; no, it is not very good to use yeast in preparing prasadam.

1973 Correspondence

Letter to Gurudasa -- Los Angeles 11 December, 1973:

I have written two letters one to Dr. Kapoor and the other Hari Goswami for starting an adult school for learning Hindi & Sanskrit. Please see them in this connection. We want this school in Vrindaban.