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Lectures

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Lecture on BG 1.16-19 -- London, July 16, 1973:

This kidnapping was allowed among the kṣatriyas, and fight. That is kṣatriya marriage. Unless there is fight, that marriage is not complete. The red vermillion which we apply, that is kṣatriya principle. After killing the opposite party, the blood will be smeared over the hair of the bride. That is conquer, victory. So in every marriage, Kṛṣṇa had 16,108 wives, and each wife was married by fighting, beginning from Rukmiṇī. Rukmiṇī also, the first wife of Kṛṣṇa, the first queen, when Kṛṣṇa became king of Dvārakā, she was the first queen. So Subhadra was kidnapped by Arjuna. Rukmiṇī was settled up to be married with Śiśupāla. Śiśupāla also happened to be Kṛṣṇa's cousin-brother, and Rukmiṇī did not like that she would be handed over to Śiśupāla. She wanted to marry Kṛṣṇa. So she sent one letter to Kṛṣṇa that this is the position. "My brother Rukma, he has decided to hand over to me to Śiśupāla, but I don't like. So please arrange for kidnapping." A brāhmaṇa was sent to Kṛṣṇa.

Lecture on BG 1.21-22 -- London, July 18, 1973:

Imperfect knowledge. Or making adjustment for their own benefit. Now they are making correction: "Thou shalt not kill," "Thou shalt not murder." That means it will come to human being. But the actual commandment is "Thou shalt not kill." But these Christian people, they are making some amendment, "Thou shalt not murder." Because murder will apply to the killing of human beings. But Lord Jesus Christ never said like that. "Thou shalt not kill." It is applicable both for human being and for animal or even for trees. Unnecessarily you cannot kill. That is sādhu. Suhṛdaṁ sarva-bhūtānām (BG 5.29). "Don't kill my brother, but you can kill my neighbors." Not like that. He is not sādhu. Sādhu is kind to all living entities.

Lecture on BG 1.23 -- London, July 19, 1973:

If you follow these principles, controlling the senses, truthful, clean, full of knowledge, believing in the śāstra and God, and vijñānam, practical application of knowledge in life. Vijñānam... Simply to know is useless. You must practically apply in life. That is called vijñānam. Practical examination. Those who are science students, in BAC, they have to give, pass theoretical knowledge and practical knowledge also.

Lecture on BG 2.1 -- Ahmedabad, December 6, 1972:

. Na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ prapadyante narādhamāḥ... (BG 7.15). Kṛṣṇa says in... that those who are too much sinful, sinful, simply their life is sinful, duṣkṛtinaḥ. Duṣkṛtinaḥ. Kṛti. Kṛti means one who has got good brain. But duṣkṛtinaḥ, but the brain is applied for mischievous activities. For mischievous activities, it also requires good brain. And similarly, for pious activities, that also requires brain. But those who are applying their brain for mischievous activities, they are called duṣkṛtinaḥ. So duṣkṛtinaḥ... Na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ. Why they do so? Because they are mūḍhāḥ, rascals. If one has got good brain, he should apply it for good work, but sometimes they are utilized... Just like a thief, he has got good brain. A rogue, he has got good brain, but he's applying for mischievous activities, for making people unhappy. That is not the right use. Jñāna-khala. They are called jñāna-khala. One who has got nice knowledge, it should be utilized for better purpose.

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

There is no sin; it is all right." This is going on. No. Brāhmaṇa is not meant for becoming a slaughterer, a killer. No. Brāhmaṇa should be truthful, brāhmaṇa should be cleansed, no sinful life. Brāhmaṇa should be controlling the senses, controlling the mind. Brāhmaṇa must be well-educated, jñāna, and he must apply the knowledge in practical life and believe in the Vedic injunctions.

Lecture on BG 2.3 -- London, August 4, 1973:

One has to discharge the duty ordered by the superior authority very strictly, without any consideration. So these are weakness of the heart, this kind of sympathy. But ordinary person will not understand. Therefore to understand Kṛṣṇa, one requires special senses, special senses, not ordinary senses. Special senses means you have to pluck your eyes and you have to put another eyes? No. You have to purify. Tat-paratvena nirmalam (CC Madhya 19.170). Just like if you have got some disease in the eyes, you apply medicine, and when it is clear, you can see clearly everything; similarly, with these blunt senses, we cannot understand what is Kṛṣṇa.

Lecture on BG 2.3 -- London, August 4, 1973:

A brāhmaṇa is not going to fight. Brāhmaṇa is satyaḥ śamo damaḥ, he is practicing how to become peaceful, how to become clean, how to control the senses, how to control the mind, how to become simple, how to become full cognizant of the Vedic literature, how to apply practically in life, how to become firmly fixed up in conviction. These are brāhmaṇas'. Similarly, kṣatriya's—fighting. That is necessary. Vaiśya-kṛṣi-go-rakṣya-vāṇījyam (BG 18.44). So all these strictly to be followed.

Lecture on BG 2.6 -- London, August 6, 1973:

So there are pratyayas, kti pratyaya, ti pratyaya, many pratyayas. So bhaj-dhātu kti, equal to bhakti. So bhakti means to satisfy Kṛṣṇa. Bhakti cannot be applied to anyone else. If somebody says that "I am a great devotee of Kālī, goddess Kālī," that is not bhakti; that is business. Because any demigod you worship, there is some purpose behind that. Generally, people take to become a devotee of goddess Kālī for eating meat.

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

Then if we don't believe Him, then where is the possibility of advancing in knowledge? There is no possibility of it. So there is no question of individuality. This is the statement of authority. Now, apart from statement of authority, you have to apply your reason and arguments. Can you say anywhere there is agreement between two parties? No. You go, study. In the state, in the family, in the community, in the nation, there is no agreement.

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

Otherwise why there are so many flags in the world? You cannot say anywhere impersonalism. Personality is predominating everywhere. Everywhere, the personality, individuality, is predominant. So we have to accept. We have to apply our reason, arguments, and accept the authority. Then the question is solved. Otherwise it is most difficult.

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

Now as soon as the pitcher is broken, the outside, the bigger sky, and the small sky within the pitcher mixes. That is Māyāvāda theory. But this analogy cannot be applied. Analogy means points of similarity. That is the law of analogy. The sky cannot be compared... The small sky within the pitcher cannot be compared with the living entity. It is material, matter.

Lecture on BG 2.9 -- Auckland, February 21, 1973:

Suppose a child is born. If the child is born dead, then this body will never grow. You can apply any chemicals or any science; the body will remain the same. But so long the soul is there within the body, the child from the babyhood will come to childhood, then childhood to boyhood, boyhood to youthhood. In this way the body will change.

Lecture on BG 2.12 -- New York, March 9, 1966:

Anyway, that's an abnormal condition. In abnormal condition sometimes we can see one thing into two, divided into two. So now that ignorance, you cannot apply to Kṛṣṇa because He's all-perfect. And if He is not all-perfect, then there is no value of His instruction. A man with defect in knowledge cannot impart instructions. His instructions... Therefore the whole Vedic process is paramparā system.

Lecture on BG 2.12 -- New York, March 9, 1966:

How can He commit any mistake? Then there is no meaning of full knowledge. If you are in full knowledge, then how you can commit mistake? So this ignorance of duality, because they say that "We see two because it is due to our ignorance. All, everything is one," but here you cannot apply that ignorance to Śrī Kṛṣṇa. Otherwise, His instruction of whole Bhagavad-gītā, which is so importantly taken by all authorities, all scholars, then it is at once rejected. If it is supposed that Śrī Kṛṣṇa was also to commit mistake, or He was in imperfect knowledge, then whole thing becomes rejected. So it is not, not like that.

Lecture on BG 2.13 -- Pittsburgh, September 8, 1972:

That is the system. So stool is impure. One, after touching stool, he must take bath. This is Vedic injunction. But in another place it is said that the stool of the cow is pure, and if cow dung is applied in some impure place, it will be pure. Now, by your argument, you can say that "The stool of an animal is impure. Why it is said in one place pure and in another place impure? This is contradiction." But this is not contradiction. You practically make experiment. You take cow dung and apply anywhere, you'll find it is pure. Immediately purified. So this is Vedic injunction. They are perfect knowledge. We... Instead of wasting time arguing and putting forward false prestige, if you simply accept the perfect knowledge, as they are stated in the Vedic literature, then we get perfect knowledge and our life is success.

Lecture on BG 2.13 -- Hyderabad, November 18, 1972:

Those who are duṣkṛtina, sinful, duṣkṛtina... Kṛti means meritorious, and duṣ means..., means miscreants, meritorious for mischief-making. We, everyone has got merit. The mischief-maker, he has also got merit, but one who uses his merit for mischief-making... Just like a great rogue, a thief. When he steals, he requires brain. So he's applying his brain, how to steal tactfully, how to become a great rogue tactfully. How to become a smuggler... They require also brain. So the brain is being misused for mischievous activities. They are called miscreants, duṣkṛtina. So those who are duṣkṛtina... Na māṁ prapadyante, na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ (BG 7.15).

Lecture on BG 2.14 -- Germany, June 21, 1974:

He has got some purpose; He has got some mission. So try to understand Kṛṣṇa and His mission and His activities. They are described in a historical form. So where is the difficulty? We read so many things, history or the activities of some leader, some politician. The same thing, same energy, you apply for understanding Kṛṣṇa. Where is the difficulty? Kṛṣṇa, therefore, He manifests Himself with so many activities because you can understand Kṛṣṇa's activities. And if you can understand Kṛṣṇa's ac...

Lecture on BG 2.15 -- London, August 21, 1973:

Therefore Kṛṣṇa has explained in the previous verse, here also: yaṁ hi na vyathayanty ete. Mātrā-sparśās tu kaunteya śītoṣṇa-sukha-duḥkha (BG 2.14). Here in this material world there is winter and the counterpart summer also. In the winter we aspire, "If it would have been warmer." That means you want summer. And again summer you'll require, you aspire had it been, I mean to say, cooler. You apply cooling machine. So this is our struggle. In the summer, we apply cooling machine, and in the winter, we apply heating machine. So undisturbed happiness, either in coolness or warmth, you cannot have. This is not possible. Therefore we have to become callous.

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

As, at the present moment, because the leaders are foolish, blind, they have no spiritual knowledge, all the population of the world becomes godless. Therefore our appeal is to the leading personalities to understand this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. Try to understand its philosophy, apply in life, and try to distribute this knowledge. Automatically others will accept. Sa yat pramāṇaṁ kurute lokas tad anuvartate. If Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is accepted by the leading personalities... Why they shall not accept unless they are ignorant and less intelligent? Everything is there. The Bhagavad-gītā is left for this purpose. It was instructed not to Arjuna, but to the whole world, in the midst of Battlefield of Kurukṣetra. So the whole world is a battlefield now.

Lecture on BG 2.18 -- London, August 24, 1973:

Antavanta ime dehā nityasyoktāḥ śarīriṇaḥ. Śarīriṇaḥ, This is plural number. Śarīriṇaḥ. So śarīrin or śarīrī means the proprietor of the śarīra, or body. Śarīra means this body, and śarīrin, one who possesses the body. So plural number is śarīriṇaḥ. In a varieties of ways, Kṛṣṇa is convincing Arjuna that the soul is different from this body. So this body, antavat, it will be finished. However you may try, so scientifically, applying cosmetic and other things, you cannot save the body. That is not possible. Antavat. Antavanta means, anta means end, and vat means possessing. So "You have got your duty to fight, and you are lamenting that the body of your grandfather or teacher or kinsmen, they'll be destroyed and you will be unhappy.

Lecture on BG 2.20-25 -- Seattle, October 14, 1968:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Because eternal, therefore how it can be slain? So soul is never slain. The body is slain. Then?

Viṣṇujana: 21: "O Pārtha, how can a person who knows that the soul is indestructible, unborn, eternal and immutable kill anyone or cause anyone to kill (BG 2.21)?" Purport: "Everything has its utility, and a man who is situated in complete knowledge knows how and where to apply a thing for its proper utility. Similarly violence also has its use, and how to apply violence rests with the person in knowledge. Although the justice of the peace awards capital punishment to a person condemned for murder, the justice of the peace cannot be blamed because he orders violence to another according to the codes of justice. In the Manu-saṁhitā,..."

Prabhupāda: Manu-saṁhitā, yes.

Lecture on BG 2.22 -- Hyderabad, November 26, 1972:

Everyone has prema, love. This propensity to love others. That is... There is, everywhere. But that prema, that love, is originally for Kṛṣṇa. Nitya-siddha kṛṣṇa-bhakti. That is the original prema. But because we are illusioned, that prema is being applied or used for so many māyā. Prema I have got. I have got my love. That is a fact. But I do not know where to repose that love. That is my misfortune. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says that sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). "You have got prema. You apply it to Me. Then you'll be benefited." Prema is already there. You are simply misusing it.

Lecture on BG 2.22 -- Hyderabad, November 26, 1972:

Simply we have to purify the senses. The senses must be there. Otherwise, I am not a living being. I am stone. But at the present moment, I am misguided. I am using my senses for other purposes than Kṛṣṇa's. Therefore I cannot control. And as soon as you apply your senses for satisfying Kṛṣṇa, then they are controlled, automatically.

Lecture on BG 2.24 -- Hyderabad, November 28, 1972:

Now, I have got now this body, Indian body, and then, next body may be cat's and dog's or demigod's, according to my karma. So the body changes. So sanātana-dharma cannot be applied to this body. Sanātana-dharma means the characteristic of the soul. That is sanātana-dharma, to understand the characteristic of the soul. Kṛṣṇa is describing here the characteristic of the soul: sanātana. And at the conclusion, He gives you information of the sanātana-dharma.

Lecture on BG 2.46-47 -- New York, March 28, 1966:

And that is a fact. Utsāhāt, first enthusiasm; second, patience; and then third, with confidence, niścayāt. Dhairyāt, utsāhād dhairyāt niścayāt tat-tat-karma-pravartanāt. Simply enthusiasm will not do. The formulas which are prescribed there we must follow. We must actually apply in our life. Utsāhād dhairyāt niścayāt tat-tat-karma-pravartanāt sato vṛtteḥ. And we must be, our vṛtti, our profession, occupation, must be very pure, must be very pure. Impure activities cannot lead me to spiritual emancipation. You will find in Bhagavad-gītā that the God is described, paraṁ brahma paraṁ dhāma pavitraṁ paramaṁ bhavān (BG 10.12). Pavitram means the purest.

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

They are preaching like that. So the condition is very precarious at the present moment. And we are preaching Bhagavad-gītā and the formula, but the formula is practically very difficult to apply in the present circumstances. You see? Yoga-sthaḥ kuru karmāṇi. People have gone so much ahead in material, I mean to say... Material civilization means only sense gratification.

Lecture on BG 2.55-56 -- New York, April 19, 1966:

So therefore we must know even the senses which we have got for which we are so much proud and by the enjoyment of the senses we are trying to be happy, those senses belong to the Supreme Lord. Therefore the best thing is we should apply the senses in the service of the proprietor. We should not apply the senses for our individual satisfaction. That is the difference between material plane and spiritual plane. That's all. You haven't got to stop your senses, stop your desires.

Lecture on BG 2.58-59 -- New York, April 27, 1966:

That is the formula given in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Vāsudeve bhagavati. Vāsudeve bhagavati, "in the Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa." Vāsudeva is Kṛṣṇa. Vāsudeve bhagavati bhakti-yogaḥ prayojitaḥ (SB 1.2.7). Bhakti-yoga means devotional service. If it is applied, if we apply our devotional service unto the Supreme Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, then the result will be that janayaty āśu vairāgyam, very soon you'll be detached from this material attraction. Very soon. And jñānaṁ ca yad ahaitukam. And you'll gain also knowledge. You do not know how you have received knowledge. That is the magic. That is the magic. Because how you'll get knowledge? That is also stated in the Bhagavad-gītā.

Lecture on BG 2.59-69 -- New York, April 29, 1966:

Yamunācārya said that "So since I have dovetailed my consciousness with the supreme consciousness of Kṛṣṇa..." Yad-avadhi mama cetaḥ kṛṣṇa-padāravinde. "So long my consciousness has been fixed up in the transcendental service of Kṛṣṇa," yad-avadhi, "since then, even if I think of sex life, oh, it becomes, my face becomes, I mean to say, turned, and I wish to spite on it." So why? One thing is... One process is applying that "You should restrict from this." Another process is that without even restriction, you do not like to do it. This process is so perfect. Kṛṣṇa says that raso 'pi, even if you have that desire, so you do not like to use it. Although you have got the privilege, but you are at liberty, but you do not like to do it. Raso 'py asya, rasa-varjaṁ raso 'py asya. Although he has all the full capacity... Not that he has become impotent or he has no capacity for sex life.

Lecture on BG 2.59-69 -- New York, April 29, 1966:

Just like the example... Bhagavad-gītā. Arjuna is very nice example, that he dovetailed, he dovetailed his consciousness with Kṛṣṇa. He did not want to fight, but after hearing Bhagavad-gītā he dovetailed his senses. One has to fight with senses. Non-sense cannot fight. The senses must be there. So he, what did he do? He applied his senses to the senses of the Supreme Lord. That's all.

Lecture on BG 2.59-69 -- New York, April 29, 1966:

Then offering foodstuff. Then... And so on, so on. There are so many programs that all the devotees, they are engaged fully. They see nicely decorated. If you want artistic decoration, just apply it to the Lord. See how artistically He's decorated. So that satisfies the demands of my eyes. In every temple nice musical sound is going on. If you there, you sit down for a time, and you hear, and you become satisfied. So the ear is satisfied. The eyes are satisfied.

Lecture on BG 2.59-69 -- New York, April 29, 1966:

If you want actually happiness, then you must apply your intelligence to this process of spiritual emancipation. Without this... Nāsti buddhir ayuktasya. One who cannot apply his intelligence to this process, then he has no other way. And without this, na ca abhāvayataḥ śāntiḥ, if you want peace, that is also not possible.

Lecture on BG 2.59-69 -- New York, April 29, 1966:

So therefore there are two kinds of intelligence. One kind of intelligence is: apply the senses for unrestricted enjoyment. And another kind of intelligence is to apply the senses in the transcendental loving service of the Lord. So people... Now, suppose one has given up all material enjoyment but he's engaged in the spiritual service, in the transcendental service of the Lord.

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

Similarly we are hankering after, running after the mirage. There is no peace, there is no happiness. Therefore we have to divert our attention back to Godhead. Don't run after this mirage. Just turn back to Godhead, back to Kṛṣṇa. That is our propaganda. Don't divert your... Don't engage your senses in the illusory material beauty. Just apply your senses to Kṛṣṇa, the real beautiful. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Go on.

Lecture on BG 3.13-16 -- New York, May 23, 1966:

Śrī Kṛṣṇa says that "Don't stop your work, but by the result of your work, you try to make sacrifice for the cause of the Supreme. Then your entanglement will be automatically loosened." The whole energy which you apply in your industry, if the result is offered to Kṛṣṇa, that means that energy is utilized for Kṛṣṇa, not for that industry, but for Kṛṣṇa. That is the thing.

Lecture on BG 3.13-16 -- New York, May 23, 1966:

In the Eleventh Chapter you will find that "My dear Arjuna, I have given you all kinds of instruction to induce you to fight in this battle. But know you perfectly well that either you fight or do not fight, I do not mind. All these men who have assembled here, they are not going back home. They will be killed here. It is already settled. It is already settled. Now if you want to take the credit, you can apply your hands for fighting. That's all."

Lecture on BG 3.21-25 -- New York, May 30, 1966:

Sixteen thousand... So somebody may be surprised that "How a person can marry 16,108 wives?" Yes. A ordinary person like us or a little more strong person, that is not possible. But when the word omnipotency is applied... God is called omnipotency, so for Him nothing is impossible. So if we have to believe the history, then Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa married 16,108 wives, and He built 16,108 palaces also, well-decorated, fully equipped, all-marble palaces.

Lecture on BG 3.21-25 -- New York, May 30, 1966:

But we have to follow the principles laid down in the Bhagavad-gītā. That will make our life successful. Practically we have to apply this, have to apply the principle. Otherwise the whole attempt will be failure.

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

And because we are missing God, we are loving this thing, that thing, that thing, that thing, that thing, and frustration. That very love which is reserved for God, we are applying it in this material world: "I love my country. I love my society. I love my family. I love my dog. I love my... I love." But I am missing whom to love. That is the point. I am placing my love in so many things, and I am becoming frustrated. So when we understand the love is meant for God, that is our perfection of life. And if you love God, then you love everyone. That is perfect love. Without loving God...

Lecture on BG 3.31-43 -- Los Angeles, January 1, 1969:

What is that precaution? You engage your senses in Kṛṣṇa conscious activities. The lust will have no more place to attack your senses or sit on your senses. You engage your mind in Kṛṣṇa. Immediately the lust from the mind will go away. Similarly, you apply your intelligence, how to work on Kṛṣṇa consciousness. These are the processes.

The Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is like that. Apply your intelligence, apply your mind, apply your senses only for Kṛṣṇa, and there is no more lust. You are free. There is no sitting place. Just like this glass. There is water. So how you can put in ink? Because there is no sitting place. Similarly, if you place Kṛṣṇa in your mind, so lust will automatically go away. Just like if you place light in this room, the darkness automatically will go away. There is no place for darkness.

Lecture on BG 3.31-43 -- Los Angeles, January 1, 1969:

Just like what is this water? Water is taken from the ocean, derived from the ocean. It goes to the sky, again turns into water, falls down, and in river goes down again to the ocean. Similarly, we have derived our energy from Kṛṣṇa. Now again if we glide down towards Kṛṣṇa, that is perfection. We haven't got separate energy. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness, to apply the whole energy towards Kṛṣṇa. That's all. That energy may be utilized in different ways—but to Kṛṣṇa. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa.

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

Generally, we understand, we acquire knowledge by direct perception, experimental knowledge, direct perception. But bhagavad-vijñāna, the science of God, is so extensive and so intricate that it is not possible to apply our imperfect senses to understand the science of God. Then we have to understand with our senses. Otherwise what is the meaning of understanding? Hear. Therefore these senses, when they will be purified, then we can understand. Just like a man cannot see due to some cataract complication, but if the cataract portion is surgically operated, he can see also.

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

So both can be applied in the understanding of the Absolute Truth. How? First thing, He has no quality. He has no quality means He has no material quality. He has no material quality. In the Vedic literature it is said that apāṇi pādo javano grahītā. The Absolute Truth has no hands or legs, but He accepts everything. Now this acceptance, suppose if you are giving me something, if I accept, then it is supposed that I have got hands or I have got senses.

Lecture on BG 4.7 -- Bombay, March 27, 1974:

And to teach this education, to teach the people, the rascals... Therefore Kṛṣṇa comes. Yadā yadā hi dharmasya glānir bhavati (BG 4.7). Tadātmānaṁ sṛjāmy aham. So Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa's instruction, identical. Don't think that Kṛṣṇa is no longer... He's existing by His words. Take His word. Apply it practically in life and you will be happy. That is called Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement.

Lecture on BG 4.7-9 -- New York, July 22, 1966:

So any other question? That, that, that, I mean to say, authority, is very simple. It is not very difficult. Just like you'll find in the Bhagavad-gītā that self-realization, as far Bhagavad-gītā, was taught to Arjuna. Now, how Arjuna understood it, that is also mentioned in the Bhagavad-gītā. Simply if you try to understand Bhagavad-gītā as Arjuna understood it, then you also become self-realized. So it is not a very difficult job. Unfortunately, people apply their own scholastic ideas in a different way and they murder the whole thing. You see? The simple thing is that if we understand it as it is, then it is as simple as anything. But if you want to...

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

Prabhupāda: That process is deductive process. That process is very nice. So Vedic process means, as it is stated in the Fourth Chapter, that evaṁ paramparā-prāptam (BG 4.2), by disciplic succession, if you try to understand the truth, then you get infallible knowledge. Your purpose is to get knowledge. As soon as you get the knowledge from authority, your knowledge is perfect. But if you want to get the knowledge by your own sense perception, you will never be able to come to the right conclusion; neither it is possible to get knowledge in that process. Go on.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "The Vedic version, tat tvam asi, is actually applied in this case. Anyone who understands Lord Kṛṣṇa to be the Supreme or who says unto the Lord, 'You are the same Supreme Brahman, the Personality of Godhead,' is certainly liberated instantly, and consequently his entrance into the transcendental association of the Lord is guaranteed. In other words, such a faithful devotee of the Lord attains perfection, and this is confirmed by the following Vedic assertion: tam eva viditvāti mṛtyum eti nānyaḥ panthā vidyate ayanāya.

Lecture on BG 4.11-12 -- New York, July 28, 1966:

Try to argue whether it is true or not. So you have to think over. Satāṁ prasaṅgān, taj-joṣaṇād āśv apavarga-vartmani. And if you do that... Suppose you hear something of the Bhagavad-gītā, and it appeals to you, or even does not appeal to you. Just try to think over: "What Bhagavad-gītā says? How Swamiji has discussed this matter?" Apply your arguments. Apply your logic. Don't take it as a sentiment or as a blind faith. You have got reason; you have got arguments; you have got sense. Apply it and try to understand it. Neither it is bogus. It is scientific. Then you will feel... Taj-joṣaṇād āśv apavarga-vartmani śraddhā ratir bhaktir anukramiṣyati. You will gradually develop your attachment for hearing it, and devotional service will be invoked in your heart, and then, gradually, you will make progress.

Lecture on BG 4.12 -- Bombay, April 1, 1974:

Those who are less intelligent, instead of worshiping the Supreme Personality of Godhead, they worship the demigods. Kāṅkṣantaḥ karmaṇāṁ siddhiṁ yajanta iha devatāḥ. Therefore people are more interested in worshiping demigods than Kṛṣṇa. The demigods.... In India especially we will find. There are many devotees of the demigods. Not devotees. Devotion is only applied in connection with the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The demigod worship, they are not devotee, but they are interested to get the reward from the demigod. Otherwise they are not interested.

Lecture on BG 4.13 -- Bombay, April 2, 1974:

Similarly, when the society is divided nicely in these four divisions, the brahminical culture, the kṣatriya culture, the vaiśya culture, and the śūdra culture... Brahminical culture means people should learn how to speak truth, satya, śama, how to control the mind, how to control the senses. Satya, śama, damaḥ, titikṣā, how to become tolerant, ārjavam, how to become simple in life, how to become cleansed, how to acquire knowledge and how to practically apply the knowledge in daily life.

Lecture on BG 4.14 -- Bombay, April 3, 1974:

Just like if you paint one nice rose flower, you have to apply your energy and the brush and the color very particularly, very carefully. Then still, it is not as good as the natural flower. But do you think that natural flower has come automatically? No. There is brain of Kṛṣṇa also. But the brain is so sharp, parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate svābhāvikī, it has come automatically. Don't think that there is no no brain.

Lecture on BG 4.14 -- Vrndavana, August 6, 1974:

So... Therefore Kṛṣṇa says. People may not be misled. Sometimes He's seen to be acting against the social laws. Therefore Kṛṣṇa warns, na māṁ karmāṇi limpanti: (BG 4.14) "These social, political or religious laws do not apply to Me." Na māṁ karmāṇi limpanti.

Lecture on BG 4.14-19 -- New York, August 3, 1966:

A poor man, he has to work very hard. His body is very sturdy. He can work very nicely. But a son of very aristocratic family or king, oh, his body is very delicate. He cannot work. He can apply his brain in something else. So so long we are... These bodies are made according to the different status of our work we have done in our past life. And next body is being prepared according to the work which we are doing now. But here Kṛṣṇa says that as soon as one can understand the transcendental nature of Kṛṣṇa's activities, he becomes free from the reaction of activities.

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

Kṛṣṇa consciousness is so nice, if you apply it in any field of activities you will see it is perfect. Either you apply in industry or in politics or in sociology or in philosophy or in science. Therefore Bhāgavata says that whatever capacity you may have, either you are a scientist or a lawyer or an engineer or a rich man, a capitalist, whatever you may be. Your duty is to utilize your talent for Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Lecture on BG 4.34-39 -- Los Angeles, January 12, 1969:

Dharma means religion. Actual translation of the word dharma is "religion." But actually "religion" is not the right translation of the word dharma. Dharma means your eternal occupation. That is called dharma, which you cannot avoid. Just like somebody is Christian. Next day he becomes a Hindu. Or somebody is Hindu; next day he becomes Christian. This is not dharma. This change of faith cannot be applied in dharma. Dharma cannot be changed.

Lecture on BG 4.34-39 -- Los Angeles, January 12, 1969:

So a faithful man who understands that "I am part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa," and he is always engaged in the service of Kṛṣṇa in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, who is absorbed in transcendental knowledge—this is samādhi, absorbed—and who subdues his senses quickly... Subdue means if you apply your senses in the service of Kṛṣṇa, then your senses are subdued automatically.

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

So if you are searching after God, so here is the definition of God. You just apply this definition, and when you find that here is the perfect application of these six things, then He is God. So entire opulence... There are many rich men in New York City, but nobody can say that "I am the proprietor, entire. I have got the... I am the proprietor of the entire bank balance." No. Nobody can say. Similarly, entire strength, entire fame, entire knowledge.

Lecture on BG 5.26-29 -- Los Angeles, February 12, 1969:

So by force you cannot control the senses. That is not... This is... There are many instances. Even great yogis they have failed. This is artificial way of controlling the senses. The real sense control is that you purify your sense in the activities of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is real sense control. Hṛṣīkeṇa hṛṣīkeśa-sevanaṁ bhaktir ucyate (CC Madhya 19.170). Hṛṣīka means senses and hṛṣīkeśa means Kṛṣṇa. When you apply your senses for satisfaction of Kṛṣṇa, then it is called bhakti. And when your senses are engaged in the service of Kṛṣṇa it cannot be engaged otherwise. Otherwise the sense will be engaged in the sense objects. Therefore there is failure.

Lecture on BG 6.30-34 -- Los Angeles, February 19, 1969:

Viṣṇujana: "At this stage, Lord Kṛṣṇa never disappears from the sight of the devotee, nor does the devotee ever lose sight of the Lord. In the case of a yogi who sees the Lord as Paramātmā within the heart, the same applies. Such a yogi turns into a pure devotee and cannot bear to live for a moment without seeing the Lord within himself."

Prabhupāda: That's all. This is the process of seeing God. (laughs) Otherwise, God is not my order supplier, "Please come and see." You have to qualify yourself how to see God every moment, everywhere. And this qualification is simple. That's not very difficult.

Lecture on BG 6.46-47 -- Los Angeles, February 21, 1969:

Devotee: "In this verse also, the word bhajanti is used. Bhajanti is applicable to the Supreme Lord only, whereas the word 'worship' can be applied to demigods or to any other common living entity. The word avajānanti..."

Prabhupāda: Avajānanti means neglecting. "What is God? I am God? What is God? Why shall I serve God? This is avajānanti. Just like criminal, "Ah, what is government? I can manage my own affairs. I don't care for government." This is called avajānanti. But you cannot. If I say "I don't care for government," all right, you can say that, but the police department is there. It will give you pains, it will punish you. The material nature will punish you with threefold miseries. Go on.

Lecture on BG 6.46-47 -- Los Angeles, February 21, 1969:

Prabhupāda: Without Kṛṣṇa, where is bhakti?

Devotee: Well, someone is worshiping Lord Buddha or Lord Jesus...

Prabhupāda: That is not bhakti-yoga. Bhakti-yoga is simply in connection with Kṛṣṇa. Bhakti-yoga cannot be applied to anyone, anything else. How Buddha philosophy can be dovetailed with bhakti-yoga? Bhakti-yoga means to understand God. Bhaktyā mām abhijānāti. You'll find in the Bhagavad-gītā, Eighteenth Chapter. By bhakti-yoga you can understand Lord, the Supreme Lord, God. But in Buddha philosophy there is no God? That you know? So where is bhakti-yoga?

Devotee: In the case of Christians, some of them worship Jesus Christ.

Lecture on BG 6.46-47 -- Los Angeles, February 21, 1969:

Prabhupāda: That is bhakti-yoga. Because they accept God. Unless you accept God there is no question of bhakti-yoga. So Christian religion is also Vaiṣṇavism because they accept God. Maybe in the, some stage different from this. There are different stages of God realization also. The Christian religion says "God is great." Accept! That is very good. But just how great God is, that you can understand from Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. But there is acceptance that God is great. That is therefore that is beginning of bhakti. You can apply that bhakti. Even the Mohammedan religion. That is also bhakti-yoga. Any religion where God is the target, that is applied in bhakti. But when there is no God or impersonalism, there is no question of bhakti-yoga. Bhakti-yoga means bhaja jayukti bhaja-sevayā(?). Service. Service means three things: the servitor, the served, and service. One must be present who will accept service. And one must be present to render service. And in the via media, the process of service. So bhakti-yoga means service. If there is nobody to accept the service, then where is the bhakti-yoga? So any philosophy or religious principle where there is no acceptance of God, the Supreme, there is no application of bhakti. Yes.

Lecture on BG 7.1 -- Los Angeles, December 2, 1968:

All right. Chant. (pause) The disease is that... Material disease is just like the tail of the dog. You see. The dog's tail is like this. And however oil it and try to make it straight, it comes like this. (laughter) You see. So these people, they want material enjoyment. "If Swamiji can offer us material enjoyment cheaply by some mantra," they'll come. You see. "When Swamiji says 'This is all rascaldom; come to Kṛṣṇa,' this is not good. This is not good." Because he wants to keep the tail like this. However apply ointment, it comes like this. (laughter) This is the disease. They want material things. That's all. "If by mantra, if by some tricks, we can enhance our material enjoyment, oh, it is very nice. Let us take some drug and become in the fools' paradise and think, 'Oh, I am in the spiritual world.' " They want like this. They want to remain in fools' paradise. But when we offer real paradise, they reject.

Lecture on BG 7.1-2 -- Bombay, March 28, 1971:

And the Gosvāmīs also, Rūpa Gosvāmī recommends, yena tena prakāreṇa manaḥ kṛṣṇe niveśayet: "Somehow or other, try to apply your mind in Kṛṣṇa." It is not very difficult. Here is Kṛṣṇa's form, arcā-mūrti. If you constantly see Kṛṣṇa's form, śyāmasundaram acintya-guṇa-svarūpam Acintya-guṇa-svarūpam. Kṛṣṇa is acintya-guṇa-svarūpam; therefore He is nirguṇa.

Lecture on BG 7.1-3 -- Ahmedabad, December 14, 1972:

This knowledge, with practical understanding, sa-vijñānam. Vijñānam means practical application. We understand Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme. He's the creator of this cosmic manifestation. He's the Supreme. We are all subordinate. This is jñānam. And sa-vijñānam, when it is practically applied, that means when you take to devotional service, then it is practically application, practicing.

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

They only theorize that water is combination of some chemical, hydrogen, oxygen. But wherefrom the chemical came, hydrogen, oxygen? That they cannot answer. So therefore this is called acintya-śakti. Acintya-śakti. If you do not apply, if you refuse, acintya-śakti, in God, acintya-śakti, inconceivable energy, then there is no God. Acintya-śakti-sampannaḥ.

Lecture on BG 7.5 -- Bombay, February 20, 1974:

So this service is frustration. If you go on serving the material world, you'll be frustrated, in this way or that way. But if you serve Kṛṣṇa, the same service applied to Kṛṣṇa, your life will be successful. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, that ser..., you cannot avoid service, but service other than Kṛṣṇa will be frustration. But you serve Kṛṣṇa, you'll be satisfied, the Supreme Lord will be satisfied, and your life will be successful.

Lecture on BG 7.8 -- Bombay, February 23, 1974:

Therefore it is said: sevonmukhe hi jihvādau svayam eva sphuraty adaḥ. If you apply your ear only... As it is stated in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam: śṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṇaḥ puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtanaḥ (SB 1.2.17). Puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtanaḥ. Chanting of the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra, or hearing of Kṛṣṇa's word... Just like you are hearing the words of Bhagavad-gītā. Śṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ. This is His own word.

Lecture on BG 7.8-14 -- New York, October 2, 1966:

They are all produced from Me." How is that? Na tv ahaṁ teṣu te mayi, that "Because they are produced from Me, therefore they are standing, their position is in Me, but I am not there. I am transcendental." So in another sense, even the bad things, evil things, which is produced out of ignorance, that is also Kṛṣṇa. But when? When it is applied by Kṛṣṇa.

Lecture on BG 7.9-10 -- Bombay, February 24, 1974:

Otherwise, how a rose, so nicely it is coming? Even from artistic point of view, if you want to paint one flower, you have to take so much labor, so many colors, reflection, and so many instruments, then hardly you can paint one nice rose flower. Still, it is not as good. And not at all good in comparison to the original flower. So if this third-class flower, you have to apply so much brain, and this first-class flower has no brain behind it? Is that very good logic? What is this logic? There must be brain. And that is stated here: puṇyo gandhaḥ pṛthivyāṁ ca tejaś cāsmi vibhāvasau, aham. "It is My, under My superintendence."

Lecture on BG 7.11-16 -- New York, October 7, 1966:

We are thinking that we are enjoying facilities, but actually they are not facilities. So instead of wasting our energy for so-called facilities, we should apply our energy: "What I am? Why I am suffering? I do not like to suffer. Why suffering is imposed upon me?" This is called knowledge. But by the illusory energy of māyā, the so-called knowledge, our real knowledge has been taken away, and some foolish knowledge has been imposed upon us that we are thinking, "Oh, we are advancing. Advancement of knowledge."

Lecture on BG 7.16 -- Bombay, April 7, 1971:

Of course, any sane man will think over this. That is recommended in the śāstra. Through good association, by hearing from the devotees, one becomes purified, one becomes thoughtful about Kṛṣṇa. But he practically applies in his life the instruction of Kṛṣṇa, then he makes progress in spiritual life or towards the ultimate goal of life, to go back to home, back to Godhead. It is not a function that there is no planet as Kṛṣṇaloka. No. There is. From Bhagavad-gītā you have understood.

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

Tanu-vāṅ-manobhir ye prāyaśaḥ ajita: "My dear Lord, You are unconquerable, but by this person, You become conquered, simply by hearing." It is such a nice process. God is not conquerable, but He becomes conquerable, He is conquered, by a devotee who gives up this nonsense process of understanding Him by his limited knowledge and becomes submissive. And just try to hear from the right source, and try to appear, apply in your life. Then you become a conqueror of the Supreme.

Lecture on BG 9.2-5 -- New York, November 23, 1966:

We glorify the Supreme Lord. But we enjoy. Therefore it is happy. Then again, śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ smaraṇam. Now, what you are hearing from Bhagavad-gītā, if you remember it at home, that "Swamiji was spoke, speaking like this, and how does it apply in my life?"... We should remember this. We should not forget just after leaving this place. And if there is any question, any doubt, we should place before this assembly. I am inquiring. I am inviting you for any question because we are trying to understand a very nice and great science.

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

A flower is coming out. It is not coming automatically. Exactly the same energy. Just like if we want to paint one flower, we have to apply our energy. We have to collect a color and the brush and apply our attention. Similarly, Kṛṣṇa is doing, but His energy is so perfect, it becomes quickly done, immediately. Immediately. Parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate (Cc. Madhya 13.65, purport). The same example: just like now in the electronic days. Formerly we have to connect so many things before doing telegraphic transfer, but by electronic: immediate, simply by pushing one button.

Lecture on BG 9.5 -- Melbourne, April 24, 1976:

In this way the whole life is suffering. But under the spell of māyā, we are thinking we are happy. Therefore it is said mṛtyu-saṁsāra-vartmani. If we want to get relief from this business of birth, death, old age and disease, let us take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, or God consciousness, and take His instruction directly and apply it in life. Your life will be successful. This is the subject matter of this chapter.

Lecture on BG 9.15 -- New York, December 1, 1966:

Do not be puffed up with false knowledge. Everyone, we should think that we are ignorant. We should have to receive knowledge. That should be the first step by me(?). And receive knowledge, and try to assimilate it, and try to apply it, apply it with your body, with your mind, with your intelligence. Then the, you'll understand God so nicely that although God is unconquerable, you'll conquer Him. You'll conquer Him, by this simple process.

Lecture on BG 9.18-19 -- New York, December 4, 1966:

So pralayaḥ sthānam. He is the shelter. Nidhānaṁ bījam. Bījam. Bījam means the seed. Avyayam. Now, what these living entities are doing? What are these living entities? They are also parts and parcel of the Supreme Lord. We are living entities. We are endeavoring our energy, applying our energy, to build up all these things, but these materials have no value if I am not there. Just like this America, this land, was lying vacant so long these civilized person from Europe, they did not come here. So by their energy, living entities, the matter has developed.

Lecture on BG 9.27-29 -- New York, December 19, 1966:

Premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena santaḥ sadaiva hṛdayeṣu vilokayanti (Bs. 5.38). Premāñjana. When you have got your developed love of God... This is quite natural. Just like you somebody, loves somebody. You love some person or... You always think of him. That is quite natural. Anyone. That is the objective of love. But because we are..., our love in this material world is a perverted reflection of the love of God, love can be applied only to God. In this material world there is no love. It is all lust. There cannot be any love. The word love can be applied only to God. So these are only perverted reflection, what is going on in the name of love. There is no love. So the nature of love is this, that the lover wants every moment to see without any remuneration, without any return. That is real love.

Lecture on BG 10.2-3 -- New York, January 1, 1967:

So by this process you'll be asammūḍhaḥ. Nobody can cheat you. But if you want to be cheated there are so many cheaters. So don't make a cheater and cheated society. Just follow the paramparā system as it is prescribed in the Vedic literature, as it is recommended by Kṛṣṇa. Try to understand it from the authoritative source and try to apply it in your life.

Lecture on BG 10.3 -- New York, January 2, 1967:

So sattva-saṅgī. And this inquiry, this association is made to give facility to the people that they may come and inquire about Kṛṣṇa. You see? And learn the science and apply it in our life and be happy. This is a process to make people actually happy. It is not a thing to exploit people. The exploitation is going on, but this society, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, it is... The aim of this society is to enlighten people about the science of Kṛṣṇa, or science of God, so that they can understand it rightly and apply it in the life and become happy.

Lecture on BG 13.6-7 -- Bombay, September 29, 1973:

If we associate with saintly persons and hear from them Bhagavad-gītā and other Vedic literatures, then hṛt-karṇa-rasāyanaḥ kathāḥ, it becomes appealing to the heart, hṛt, and pleasing to the ear. Hṛt-karṇa-rasāyanaḥ kathāḥ taj-joṣaṇād. And if you bring them into practical purposes, apply in your life, then śraddhā bhaktir ratir anukramiṣyati. Then gradually you'll become faithful to the Supreme. Śraddhā bhaktir. You'll develop your natural instincts of devotional service. Śraddhā bhaktir ratir, attachment. Anukramiṣyati, one after another. This is the process.

Lecture on BG 13.16 -- Bombay, October 10, 1973:

Kṛti means meritorious. But these rascals are meritorious in doing all sinful activities. Sinful activities also require merit. Even if you become a very expert thief, this stealing is sinful activity, but it requires some brain. It requires some brain. Therefore the word is used, kṛtina. Kṛtina means meritorious. But duṣkṛtina. Their merit is being applied for sinful activity. Similarly, there is another word, sukṛtina. You can employ your merit for pious activities. The merit is the same.

Lecture on BG 1322 -- Hyderabad, August 17, 1976:

According to our Vedic principles one who has full faith in the Vedic knowledge, he's āstika. And who has no faith in the Vedic knowledge, he's nāstika. So be āstika, don't be nāstika. There is no useful purpose becoming a nāstika. Be āstika. And the essence of Vedic knowledge is Bhagavad-gītā because the Supreme Personality of Godhead is speaking personally. Take advantage of it. Apply it practically life and be happy not only in this life, but the next life.

Lecture on BG 1322 -- Hyderabad, August 17, 1976:

We have to accept authority who is accepted by authorities. Vyāsadeva, Nārada, Devala, Asita, Rāmānujācārya, Madhvācārya, Caitanya, even Śaṅkarācārya—they have accepted Kṛṣṇa as the supreme authority. You take the authorities statement. Don't go elsewhere. Then you'll be misled. When the supreme authority is speaking, take it and apply it in life. You'll be happy. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Lecture on BG 16.4 -- Hawaii, January 30, 1975:

Cāṇakya Paṇḍita says, sarpaḥ krūraḥ khalaḥ krūraḥ sarpāt krūrataraḥ khalaḥ, that "Two kinds of krūraḥ, envious animals, are there. One is the snake, and the other is envious man." So Cāṇakya Paṇḍita said that "Both of them envious, but the envious man is more dangerous than the envious snake." Why? "Now, because the snake can be brought into submission..." (tapping noise) (Aside:) What is that? "...by herbs and mantra." There are snake charmer. They chant mantras, and they apply some herb, and the snake come under subjugation. But khalaḥ kena nivāryate: "But the snake-like man, he cannot be subdued at any cost."

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Lecture on SB 1.1.2 -- Caracas, February 23, 1975:

This is the law given by the state. So you may believe it or not believe it; you have to carry out. So it cannot be changed in any circumstance. Therefore dharma does not mean a faith. It is compulsory. So the compulsory law is that God is great, and we are subordinate or servant of God. You may believe or not believe; the God's law will apply upon you forcibly. Exactly like the state law, you may have faith or no faith; you must accept it.

Lecture on SB 1.1.9 -- Auckland, February 20, 1973:

Therefore the ācārya knows how to adjust things, at the same time keep pace with the spiritual interest(?). That is ācārya. It is not that the same thing to be applied everywhere. He is eager to engage actually the people in the real benefit of life, but the means may be different. Just like my Guru Mahārāja. He is the first time that he allowed the sannyāsīs to drive in a motorcar.

Lecture on SB 1.2.6 -- Delhi, November 11, 1973:

So as soon as you have got senses, as soon as you have got sense organs, as soon as you have got brain, as soon as you have got activities, you are a person. This is the conclusion of the śāstra. Therefore the absolute controller cannot be impersonal. By our practical life we see, government. "Government" is an impersonal word, but at the end of the government, there is a governor or president, a person. A person is required, who will apply his brain. So how is that that without brain the whole cosmic manifestation it is controlled? That is not very reasonable. And that is not according to śāstra.

Lecture on SB 1.2.6 -- Delhi, November 11, 1973:

I love my society. I love my country. The loving propensity is there. There is no doubt. Everyone, even cats and dogs, because he is living entity, he has got that loving propensity. A tiger also loves its cubs. But this love, when it will be applied to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, that is the perfection of life. Sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmo yato bhaktir adhokṣaje (SB 1.2.6). What kind of love? Ahaitukī.

Lecture on SB 1.2.6 -- Montreal, August 3, 1968:

Similarly, "Govinda." That also has meaning. Go means cow, go means senses, and go means land. So in these three features Kṛṣṇa can be applied. He gives pleasure to the senses; therefore He's Govinda. He's very kind to the cows; therefore He's Govinda. He is the proprietor of all land; therefore He's Govinda. So in this way "Govinda" means the Supreme Personality of Godhead, "Kṛṣṇa" means the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Similarly, if you have got any word which means the Supreme Personality of Godhead, you can chant.

Lecture on SB 1.2.6 -- Hyderabad, November 26, 1972:

We cannot understand God by mental speculation, that is not possible. Realization God means when God reveals unto you. Ataḥ śrī-kṛṣṇa-nāmādi na bhaved grāhyam indriyaiḥ (CC Madhya 17.136). By our these blunt senses, speculating, we cannot understand what is God. Therefore His name is Adhokṣaja, beyond material speculation. And still you have to apply your bhakti, devotion. Just try to understand. He is beyond our sense perception, but still we have to search Him out and employ our feelings of devotion, love. Therefore, yato bhaktir adhokṣaje. One side is beyond the perception of senses and another side you have to love Him.

Lecture on SB 1.2.6 -- Hyderabad, November 26, 1972:

Hṛṣīka means senses, upādhi. Just like my hand is now covered by this shirt. So when there is no more shirt, that is naked. So when you come without any designation, without any understanding, false understanding, that "I am American," "I am Englishman," "I am Indian," "I am brāhmaṇa," "I am kṣatriya." In that stage the senses, the senses remain. Suppose if I take my dress out of my body, my real senses are there. So similarly, when we become free from the designation of this material body and we come to the pure stage of original, spiritual senses, that senses when applied to the service of the supreme master of senses, God, that is called bhakti. Yato bhaktir adhokṣaje. So, if we actually want peace or happiness, yayātmā suprasīdati, without any designation, then that peace and happiness can be achieved. Otherwise it is not possible. So long we remain designated, it is not possible to come to that stage of pure, unalloyed devotion to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Thank you very much. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Any question?

Lecture on SB 1.2.7 -- New Vrindaban, September 5, 1972:

If we apply we apply our vāsu..., bhakti-yoga unto Vāsudeva, Kṛṣṇa-Vāsudeva means Kṛṣṇa. Vāsudeve bhagavati. So Vāsudeva is not ordinary person, He is Bhagavān, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. To show us mercy, He descends. That is His mercy. Vāsudeve bhagavati bhakti-yogaḥ prayojitaḥ (SB 1.2.7), if you take to devotional service... What is that devotional service? It is also very easy.

Lecture on SB 1.2.7 -- Delhi, November 13, 1973:

So here in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Sūta Gosvāmī is explaining in the meeting of Naimiṣāraṇya. He says, vāsudeve bhagavati bhakti-yogaḥ prayojitaḥ (SB 1.2.7). If you begin your bhakti-yoga, vāsudeve bhagavati... Bhakti-yoga can be applied only to vāsudeve bhagavati. Bhakti-yoga is not applied anywhere. The śāstra does not say. Bhakti means "to serve," and yoga, "the process." That is described in the Bhagavad-gītā also. Bhagavad-gītā is bhakti-yoga. Mayy āsakta-manāḥ pārtha yogaṁ yuñjan mad-āśrayaḥ. Mad-āśrayaḥ. After taking shelter of Kṛṣṇa or representative of Kṛṣṇa... Kṛṣṇa, or representative of Kṛṣṇa, you have to take shelter. Mad-āśrayaḥ.

Lecture on SB 1.2.7 -- Delhi, November 13, 1973:

So without bhakti, without bhakti-yoga, there is no possibility of understanding what is God. Take it for certain. Therefore the Bhāgavata says, vāsudeve bhagavati bhakti-yogaḥ prayojitaḥ (SB 1.2.7). If you apply bhakti-yoga in the Supreme Personality of Godhead, vāsudeve bhagavati, then what will be the result? The result is janayaty āśu vairāgyaṁ jñānaṁ ca yad ahaitukam. Two things required for perfection of life: jñāna and vairāgya. Jñāna means perfect knowledge. What is that perfect knowledge? Ahaṁ brahmāsmi: "I am not this, American, Indian, or this and that. I am brahma-vastu. I am part and parcel of God.

Lecture on SB 1.2.7 -- Delhi, November 13, 1973:

So vāsudeve bhagavati bhakti-yogaḥ prayojitaḥ (SB 1.2.7). If you apply bhakti-yoga to Vāsudeva, Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality, then very soon, janayaty āśu... Āśu means very soon. Janayaty āśu vairāgyam. Just see. These boys and girls of America and Europe, they were too much addicted, because their father, mother, their civilization is to be attached to material enjoyment. Actually, they were. Now see their vairāgyam. Practical.

Lecture on SB 1.2.7 -- Hyderabad, April 21, 1974:

Therefore our request is that you take this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement very serious and try to apply yourself in the service of Vāsudeva. The very simple thing... If you cannot do anything, you follow the instruction of Kṛṣṇa. As Kṛṣṇa says, raso 'ham apsu kaunteya. You are drinking water. While drinking water, as soon as you taste, the sweet taste, you simply remember, "This is Kṛṣṇa." Is it very difficult task? Not at all. Simply you have to agree. Raso 'ham apsu kaunteya prabhāsmi śaśi-sūryayoḥ (BG 7.8). And as soon as in the morning you see the sunshine, "Oh, here is Kṛṣṇa."

Lecture on SB 1.2.9 -- New Vrindaban, September 7, 1972:

That is not actually giving up the, renouncement, giving..., or renunciation. Renunciation means you should give up your process of sense gratification and apply yourself very seriously in the service of the Lord. That is called renunciation.

Lecture on SB 1.2.9 -- New Vrindaban, September 7, 1972:

So dharmasya hi, arthasya, nārthasya dharmaikāntasya. One who is actually religious, he does not earn money for sense gratification. Na kāmo lābhāya hi smṛtaḥ. But at the present moment, the more we earn money, more we make prescription or program how to enjoy senses. Nārthasya dharmaikāntasya kāmo lābhāya hi smṛtaḥ. Kāmasya nendriya-prītiḥ "But we have got some desires, fulfill the sense desires." Yes that also you fulfill. Kāmasya nendriya-prītiḥ. But not for sense gratification. You apply your senses... Just like sex life, there is no forbidding. But you can enjoy sex life for begetting nice children, that's all; not for sense gratification. This verse should be discussed later on.

Lecture on SB 1.2.9 -- Vrndavana, October 20, 1972:

Actually, devotion cannot be applied except to Viṣṇu. Therefore Bhagavad-gītā says, kāmais tais tair hṛta-jñānāḥ yajante anya-devatāḥ (BG 7.20). These rascals, who have lost of their intelligence, they go to other demigods to pray for some temporary benefit. Antavat tu phalaṁ teṣāṁ tad bhavaty alpa-medhasām (BG 7.23). Now suppose if I go to Goddess Kālī to get facility of eating flesh. Then the antavat.

Lecture on SB 1.2.10 -- Delhi, November 16, 1973:

Satyaṁ paraṁ dhīmahi. Here everything is perverted. Reflection, shadow. The example is given. Just like in the desert, sometimes we find water. The reflection of the sunshine makes a false replica of water, exactly. But there is no water. There is no water, and the reflection of water. Similarly, in this material world there is only reflection of that love. Actually, there is no love. It is the mirage on the desert. Therefore, if we want really love, this word can be applied only to Kṛṣṇa, all-attractive.

Lecture on SB 1.2.12 -- Vrndavana, October 23, 1972:

If there is any solution of the problems of life, it is actually this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. Those who are intelligent, they should study the purpose of Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement and try to apply in all fields of activities—political, social, religious, anything, economical. Everything can be solved. Jīva, jīvasya tattva-jijñāsā. This is called inquiry, inquisitiveness about the Absolute Truth.

Lecture on SB 1.2.24 -- Vrndavana, November 4, 1972:

They must learn how to control the senses. They must learn how to control the mind. Śamo damas ti... They must be tolerant, titikṣā. Ārjava: they must be very simple, no duplicity. Ārjava. Jñānam: they must know everything in full knowledge. Vijñānam: apply the knowledge in practical life. Āstikyam: they must believe in the Vedic injunctions. Āstikya. That is called āstikya. The atheist and, and theist.

Lecture on SB 1.3.7 -- Los Angeles, September 13, 1972:

So when we speak of "God is great," we cannot imagine how great He is. We apply frog philosophy, Dr. Frog's philosophy. Dr. Frog thinks, because he is in the well of three feet, if he is given the information, "Oh, there is a big mass of water, Atlantic Ocean," he cannot believe it. He will think in terms of the well. The well is three feet. So he may think, "All right, Atlantic Ocean may be four feet.

Lecture on SB 1.5.13 -- New Vrindaban, June 16, 1969:

God has become daridra, poor, and He has come to my door to beg. God is suffering. God is..." Like that. Lakṣmī-sahasra-śata-sambhrama-sevyamānam (Bs. 5.29). We read from Vedic literature that "God is being served by millions of goddesses of fortune"—and He has become daridra, poor. Wherefrom he got this language, where, how he applied, I do not know.

Lecture on SB 1.5.13 -- New Vrindaban, June 16, 1969:

Of course, Kṛṣṇa is physician in other way. But he has tried to explain the medical science through the Bhagavad-gītā-anatomy, physiology, medicine, like that. Just like Gandhi, he wanted to prove Bhagavad-gītā as nonviolence. In this way, everyone is trying. But actually who is understanding Kṛṣṇa? That is being explained by Nārada, that "In this way, people will misunderstand. You simply apply, simply write and explain the science of Kṛṣṇa."

Lecture on SB 1.7.2-4 -- Durban, October 14, 1975:

So here also, Vyāsadeva, he applied meditation in bhakti-yoga. Yoga means bhakti-yoga. There are different yogas—haṭha-yoga, jñāna-yoga, tapa-yoga, many—but the ultimate goal of these yo... Yoga means connect, connection, connection with the Lord. So ultimately you have to come to the stage of bhakti-yoga. So here Vyāsadeva, bhakti-yogena manasi samyak praṇihite 'male (SB 1.7.4).

Lecture on SB 1.7.12 -- Vrndavana, September 11, 1976:

And don't think, as the rascal says, "By nature it has come automatically." No. The same energy as you are taking, you are applying your energy to paint a flower on the wall with your paints and brushes... But Kṛṣṇa is also doing that, but His energy is so inconceivable that we cannot see how He's working.

Lecture on SB 1.7.16 -- Vrndavana, September 14, 1976:

Then titikṣā, tolerant; ārjavam, very simple. No duplicity. Simple. Ārjavam. Jñānam, full knowledge; vijñānam, knowledge applied in practical life. This is vijñānam. Just like we call science. Science means to know the thing correctly, and by practical experiment to understand the things correctly, that is vijñānam. Jñānam means theoretical knowledge, and vijñānam means practical application of the knowledge. Simply if I know "This is the qualification of brāhmaṇa," but there is no practical application, that will not do.

Lecture on SB 1.7.34-35 -- Vrndavana, September 28, 1976:

Even by cursing he could kill this Tāḍakā rākṣasī in the forest, but he did not do so. For killing the rākṣasī he approached Mahārāja Daśaratha. Because he is kṣatriya, he is the king. His business is to give protection to the disturbed citizens. Just like we apply to the magistrate, similarly the king is responsible. So he did not kill. Viśvāmitra formerly was kṣatriya, but since he became brāhmaṇa... By his endeavor in lifetime, he became a brāhmaṇa, a great sage, ṛṣi. So since he became brāhmaṇa, he was not interested in killing anyone. That is not brāhmaṇa's business. Brāhmaṇa's business is śamo damas titikṣā. Even if he is disturbed by somebody, titikṣā, he tolerates.

Lecture on SB 1.8.18 -- New York, April 10, 1973:

When one is situated in the goodness, that is brahminical qualification. Satyaṁ śamo damas titikṣā (BG 18.42). He is truthful, he is controlling the mind, controlling the senses, śama, dama; titikṣā, he is tolerant; titikṣā, ārjavam, he is simple, simplicity. Śamo damas titikṣā śuci, he is clean; jñānam, he knows things what it is; vijñānam, he can apply the knowledge in practical life, jñānaṁ vijñānam āstikyam. Āstikyam means to have firm faith in God. He knows that God is there. God is there and he knows that God is within, God is without. These are the symptoms of a person who is in goodness.

Lecture on SB 1.8.18 -- New York, April 10, 1973:

Santaḥ, those who are saintly persons, those who have developed love for God, prema, that añjana, that ointment, who have smear the ointment of love on the eyes... So then... Just like we apply sometimes ointment and cūrṇa... What is called in English, cūrṇa? Powder, something? Anyway... So when our eyes are cleansed we thinks clearly; similarly, if we apply the ointment of love of God on the eyes, then we can see God. Just like Arjuna, Kṛṣṇa. Kuntī is seeing. Others, they do not understand that Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but the Pāṇḍavas, and the Pāṇḍavas' mother, they know that "Here is Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead." Alakṣyam. Just like Kṛṣṇa was exhibiting His virāḍ-rūpa in the battlefield of Kurukṣetra. Only Arjuna was seeing, nobody else.

Lecture on SB 1.8.18 -- Chicago, July 4, 1974 :

If we accept this transcendental process, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, regulative principles, and try to become free from sinful life. Because you cannot see Kṛṣṇa or understand Kṛṣṇa while you are practicing all sinful activities. Then it is not possible. Na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ prapadyante narādhamāḥ. Those who are duṣkṛtinaḥ... Kṛti means merited, meritorious; but duṣkṛti, but merit is applied for sinful activities. So, we therefore request our... We shall not request; this is our, I mean to say, rules and regulation, that one must be free from the sinful activities.

Lecture on SB 1.8.19 -- Chicago, July 5, 1974 :

Premāñjana, love, the ointment of love, when it is smeared in your eyes, then you can see. Just like there is medicine, eye ointment, or surma, in India it is called surma. Sometimes you apply, your vision becomes very cleansed, and you can see things very nicely. So we have to cleanse our eyes to see Kṛṣṇa, by the ointment of love of Kṛṣṇa.

Lecture on SB 1.8.21 -- Mayapura, October 1, 1974:

So why should you not understand Kṛṣṇa? Everything is given there. Why you should...? At least, the intelligent class, the Americans and Europeans, they are very intelligent materially. They have proved their intelligence. Why not spiritually? If they are materially intelligent, brain is there, you can utilize it either for material purpose or... Now, so far, you have done for material purposes. You have done enough, so many machineries and so many things. But there is no happiness. You take to..., apply your brain and intelligence to understand Kṛṣṇa. Then your life is successful. That I have said many times, that you American boys or American people, you are fortunate, so many ways. How? Now, because you have got the result of pious activities.

Lecture on SB 1.8.25 -- Vrndavana, October 5, 1974:

Just like you have got a dangerous boil. You are applying so many medicines, but it is not curable. The doctor says, "You have to go, surgical operation. So that will be very troublesome, vipada. But a intelligent person will say, "Yes, you do it so that this trouble may be finished." So Kuntī wants that "Again and again, all these dangers may be repeated so that we can think of You, we can see You, so that no more this life of repetition..." But these people, they do not know. This is the real unhappiness.

Lecture on SB 1.8.32 -- Los Angeles, April 24, 1973:

So there are two Malayas. One Malaya hill and one, this Malaya... Malaysia, now it is known as. Formerly, in this part of the world, Malaysia, they were growing sandalwood in great, large scale. Because 5,000 years ago, there was good demand for sandalwood. Every person should use the sandal pulp. Because in India, it is tropical country. So this is a good cosmetic. Still, those who can afford during very warm day of summer season, if you apply pulp of sandalwood on your body, you feel no warm. It is cool. Yes.

Lecture on SB 1.8.34 -- Mayapur, October 14, 1974:

Friction, yes. So there are so, so big, big arrangement in the kingdom of God. So it is not very difficult for Him to give birth to Brahmā or to float this whole universe or the planets in the air. We shall have to apply our intelligence by comparative study. So if it is possible to float a big body... There are many big bodies. The whale fish, it is as big as a ship. Still, it is floating. Why? That small particle of spiritual entity is there. Therefore it is floating. Then, if the Supreme Person enters into a big lump of matter, why it will not float? What is the reason? At least I try to understand in this way. Am I wrong or right? What is your opinion? Eh? No, it is...

Lecture on SB 1.8.39 -- Los Angeles, May 1, 1973:

So how you can expect to see God in your own way? Is it not rascaldom? I cannot see even an ordinary man in big position in my own way. I have to apply, I have to take the sanction of the secretary, appoint some time, and so on, so on, and I am expecting to see God in my own way. And these rascals are supporting this view that "You can see God in your own way. As many ways you invent, they're all bona fide." This is rascaldom.

Lecture on SB 1.8.39 -- Los Angeles, May 1, 1973:

So the world is full of rascals and fools. Therefore God consciousness, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, has become a vague idea. Otherwise, if one wants to see God as Kuntīdevī is requesting, that "You remain always...," one can keep God always within his heart. He's always there. Therefore we have to apply as it was done by Mahārāja Ambarīṣa: sa vai manaḥ kṛṣṇa-padāravindayor vacāṁsi vaikuṇṭha-guṇānuvarṇane (SB 9.4.18). We can use our senses in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Lecture on SB 1.8.44 -- Los Angeles, May 6, 1973:

So these words, what we think "This is good word; this is bad word," so for Kṛṣṇa there is nothing like that. Kṛṣṇa is absolute. Rather, what you think bad, that becomes good when it is applied to Kṛṣṇa. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Just like Kṛṣṇa advised Yudhiṣṭhira Mahārāja that "You go to Droṇācārya and speak him, to tell him that 'Your son is dead.' " Because Droṇācārya will not die unless he hears, he gets a shock of his son's death. So his son was living.

Lecture on SB 1.8.45 -- Los Angeles, May 7, 1973:

You cut, it is again growing. You do not know how it is growing, but it is growing. That is a fact. That's a fact. How it is growing, that you do not know. That is mystic power. That is mystic power. So many things, there are. So if there is any cut on your body, an injury, even if you don't apply medicine, automatically it becomes cured. How it is being cured? Even if you don't go to the doctor, physician, automatically it will be cured. We are experiencing daily. That is mystic power. We are creating so much chemicals, even by passing stool, what to speak of other things. The stool is analyzed by scientists. It contains the greatest amount of... What is...? Hypo...?

Lecture on SB 1.15.28 -- Los Angeles, December 6, 1973:

We are now separated from Kṛṣṇa. We have forgotten Kṛṣṇa. This is our position. Although I'm intelligent, very intelligent, so-called intelligent for eating or sleeping or for having sex life intelligence. Just like there the scientists are applying intelligence for abortion. What is this intelligence? To give facility for sex life, that's all. What is this intelligence? Killing the poor child within the womb.

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

That is the difference. He wants to do everything for his personal satisfaction, and we want to do everything for Kṛṣṇa's satisfaction. That is the difference. The same propensities are there, but when it is applied for Kṛṣṇa, then it is purified, and when it is applied for personal self, it is impure. This is the difference.

Lecture on SB 1.15.50 -- Los Angeles, December 27, 1973:

This is the benefit of becoming Kṛṣṇa conscious. Vāsudeve bhagavati. Vāsudeva, Kṛṣṇa, is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. So vāsudeve bhagavati bhakti-yogaḥ. One who takes shelter of the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa by bhakti-yoga process... Vāsudeve bhagavati bhakti-yogaḥ prayojitaḥ... (SB 1.2.7). When applied... Janayaty āśu vairāgyam. Because in the human form of life, two things are required. That is perfection: jñānaṁ vairāgyam. Jñānam means knowledge, and vairāgyam means detachment. When one has full knowledge, then he becomes detached from this material world. We are suffering in this material world because we have got attachment.

Lecture on SB 1.16.3 -- Los Angeles, December 31, 1973:

Kṛṣṇa says. So we have learned from Kṛṣṇa. So we test. What is the test? Na māṁ prapadyante. He does not surrender to Kṛṣṇa. So such person, what he is? Now, duṣkṛtina, sinful. Meritorious sinful, that when merit is applied for sinful activities, you can do it very nicely than the ordinary man. A scientist discovers some method of stealing, how to break the treasury of the bank. So that does not mean... Because he is doing scientifically, stealing, that does not mean he is not a thief.

Lecture on SB 1.16.20 -- Hawaii, January 16, 1974:

Full knowledge means "What I am, what is God, what is this material world, what is our relationship." That is called knowledge. And that knowledge, when practically applied in life, that is called vijñānam. Jñānaṁ vijñānam āstikyam, āstikyam, full faith in the śāstras and in God. That is called āstikyam. If you have full faith in the revealed scriptures, then you are āstikya. Because you cannot manufacture your God, so-called incarnation God.

Lecture on SB 1.16.21 -- Los Angeles, July 11, 1974:

"I shall get you released." This is one side. And... From spiritual angle of vision. But from material angle of vision ṛṇa, debts, you can become insolvent. "I cannot pay." If you apply to the court... I do not know whether this act is there in your country. In India there is insolvency act. If one is debtor, then his assets, then he submits to the court that "I have got so much asset and I have got so much debt.

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

Prabhupāda: Yes?

Bali-mardana: Prabhupāda, you were speaking of the quality dayā, mercifulness, and you were saying that actually we could not apply this to the Supreme Lord. But I'm thinking perhaps that the cowherd boys, sometimes were they merciful to Kṛṣṇa by not being too rough with Him?

Prabhupāda: They were equal with Kṛṣṇa, therefore they could show mercy. You are not equal with...

Bali-mardana: Yes.

Lecture on SB 2.1.2 -- Paris, June 11, 1974:

If you get freedom from these four things—no more death, no more birth, no more old age, old age, and no more disease—that is freedom. But where is that freedom? The so-called scientists, big, big scientists, they have very scientifically advanced, but they had no freedom from death. They had to die on a fixed-up date. Professor Einstein or any other big, big scientist, they could not manufacture any scientific instrument and keep it in the custody of his student, that "As soon as I die, you just apply this machine. I shall come alive again." Where is that freedom? So this so-called scientific improvement, advancement in civilization, it is just like jumping like the dog. That's all. It has no value. Real value is to understand ātma-tattvam, "What I am? Why death is imposed upon me? I do not wish to die.

Lecture on SB 2.2.5 -- Los Angeles, December 2, 1968:

This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. The same thing. The same love affair, the same anger or anything, that is to be purified. Then it is godly. That's all. So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is to purify. Sarvopādhi-vinirmuktaṁ tat-paratvena nirmalam (CC Madhya 19.170). Nirmalam means purification, completely purified. When this... Suppose this anger. If this anger is applied in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, it is purified. It is purified. Just like Arjuna. Arjuna was not becoming angry to his enemy. He was a very good man. "No, I'm not going to fight." And Kṛṣṇa was, I mean to say, encouraging him to be angry. Otherwise how could he fight? So when he fought for Kṛṣṇa, that became service. Of course, these are very intricate questions.

Lecture on SB 2.2.5 -- Los Angeles, December 2, 1968:

Hṛṣīka. Hṛṣīka means senses. So when the senses are applied for Hṛṣīkeśa—means Kṛṣṇa—then it is purified. And when the senses are applied in our designated position, that is impure. That is contaminated.

Lecture on SB 2.3.1-3 -- Los Angeles, May 22, 1972:

The love is there. It is reserved for Kṛṣṇa, but due to our foolishness, we are distributing that love in so many ways, up to the dog. This is called illusion. We do not know where to apply love. If you see, all these words is touched with the word kāma, kāma. Kāma means lust. There is no question of love.

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

On the road there is light arrangement. Everything is all right. But if it is less Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then it is... What is that? Aprāṇasyeva dehasya maṇḍanaṁ loka-rañjanam. Just like a dead body, if you decorate. A body, dead body, and you apply pomade and nice dress and scent. What is the meaning? Loka-rañjanam. Loka-rañjanam means you may please some of the people, "Oh, how you are decorating a dead body." But it has no meaning. It is useless waste of time. Similarly very nice arrangement, big nation, politics, everything, minus Kṛṣṇa consciousness is like that.

Lecture on SB 2.3.19 -- Los Angeles, June 15, 1972:

So bāghinī. Nobody keeps a tigress to suck one's blood, but Tulasī dāsa says, duniyā sab bhora hoye. The whole world, being mad, they keep one tigress. Palak palak rahe cuṣe. In every moment, sucking blood. This criticism is for the materialistic person. Those who are spiritually advancing, this criticism does not apply. For materialistic person, this agent of sucking blood is their happiness, is their happiness.

Lecture on SB 2.9.3 -- Melbourne, April 5, 1972:

Similarly, the GBC member means they will see that in every temple these books are very thoroughly being read and discussed and understood and applied in practical life. That is wanted, not to see the vouchers only, "How many books you have sold, and how many books are in the stock?" That is secondary.

Lecture on SB 2.9.3 -- Melbourne, April 5, 1972:

Sudāmā: Well, if there is no understanding, but still, the question, there is a question presented, then...

Prabhupāda: Then without understanding... or understanding... What is the difficulty? Everything is explained there. So what is the difficulty of disagreement? Everything, word to word meaning is there. Translation is there. Purport is there. Where is the difficulty?

Sudāmā: The point is, then, to practically apply. Then you will understand.

Prabhupāda: Practical application means that this "I" and "mine," it is all misconception. Everything belongs to Kṛṣṇa. I am His servant. When I say "I," "I" means "I am servant of Kṛṣṇa." And if I say "my, mine, Kṛṣṇa is mine. I am Kṛṣṇa's, Kṛṣṇa is mine." That is perfect "I" and "mine." "I am Brahman, I am God, I am the Supreme, I am moving the stars"—just like these rascals, they think like that—that is rascaldom.

Lecture on SB 2.9.4 -- Japan, April 22, 1972:

So we have to learn how to purify our senses. Then we can see God everywhere. Premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena (Bs. 5.38). Brahma-saṁhitā. Premāñjana-cchurita. When we develop love of God, prema añjana, that ointment... Just like we apply some ointment to the eyes to make it clear—our vision becomes clearer—similarly, there is ointment which is called love of Godhead.

Lecture on SB 2.9.7 -- Tokyo, April 24, 1972:

So Kṛṣṇa is... Outside He is helping, spiritual master. Spiritual master is external manifestation of the Supreme Lord. Just like if somebody is going somewhere in this Tokyo city. I have to say something. So I apply him, "Will you kindly carry this message to him?" Similarly, Kṛṣṇa deputes some of His confidential devotees to help the people to become Kṛṣṇa conscious: "Please go and tell him this." The spiritual master is, therefore, external manifestation of the Supreme Lord.

Lecture on SB 2.9.13 -- Melbourne, April 12, 1972:

Just like here the matter is there, and the living entity is there, but the living entity is controlling the matter, controlling the matter, not the matter is independent. The matter independently cannot become this here tape recorder. When the superior energy, living entity, collects them, applies his intelligence and converts into a tape recorder, it works. It is nothing but a lump of matter, only tin and some metal and some paper and something like that.

Lecture on SB 3.25.9 -- Bombay, November 9, 1974:

So we are eternal, and God is also eternal. In that way we are the same quality. God is eternal; we are also eternal. God is cognizant, cetana, abhijña; we are also cetana. We are not dull matter. So what is the difference between God and me? The difference: He is great, we are small. He is vibhu, we are aṇu. He's all-pervading, we are very small. He is infinite, we are infinitesimal. That is the difference. So nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13). That is the Vedic information. So you apply your reason, arguments. As you find here, you are more intelligent than me, somebody else more intelligent than you, other is more intelligent than he... In this way, if you analyze, there is not, all of us not on the same level. One is more intelligent, one is less intelligent.

Lecture on SB 3.25.9 -- Bombay, November 9, 1974:

He comes. He's very anxious. People are ignorant, so therefore Kapiladeva has come. And the mother says, lokasya tamasā andhasya cakṣuḥ: "My dear son, Kapila, You are just the real eyes of these blind men, who cannot see You, or who cannot see God." Cakṣuḥ. So how cakṣuḥ? Because by knowledge. Premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena (Bs. 5.38). By knowledge, when we shall develop or awaken our dormant love for God, then we can see God—with these eyes. Simply it has to be treated. Premāñjana-cchurita. You have to apply the ointment, eye ointment, of loving God. Then you'll see God everywhere. How? Premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena santaḥ sadaiva hṛdayeṣu vilokayanti (Bs. 5.38). He sees twenty-four hours God and nothing but God.

Lecture on SB 3.25.10 -- Bombay, November 10, 1974:

Kṛṣṇa's name is another, Hṛṣīkeśa. Senayor ubhayor madhye hṛṣīkeśa sthāpaya me acyuta. The Hṛṣīkeśa name is there. Hṛṣīkeśa means actually Kṛṣṇa is the master of the senses. We are not proprietor of the senses. Kṛṣṇa is the proprietor of the senses. So when our senses are purified and we apply them... After all, our senses are employed for satisfaction of somebody, myself or somebody else. Actually, somebody else. That is kāma, krodha, lobha, moha, mātsarya. That is illusion.

Lecture on SB 3.25.11 -- Bombay, November 11, 1974:

You formerly came to teach people this vairāgya." Sarva-dharmān parityajya (BG 18.66). This parityajya means vairāgya. "Don't care for all this material world. Surrender unto Me." This is vairāgya. Jñāna and vairāgya. Vāsudeve bhagavati bhakti-yogaḥ prayojitaḥ (SB 1.2.7). Bhakti-yogaḥ prayojitaḥ. If you apply bhakti-yoga to Vāsudeva-vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti (BG 7.19)—on this platform, then janayaty āśu vairāgyam. Āśu, "very soon." This is the sign of bhakti-yoga. Janayaty āśu. If a person is advancing in bhakti-yoga, the result will be that he is detached from material attraction. That is the sign.

Lecture on SB 3.25.19 -- Bombay, November 19, 1974:

To be less influenced by the material modes of life, one has to come to this platform of jñāna, vairāgya and bhakti. Otherwise it is not possible. And that, the same process is being stressed again: na yujyamānayā bhaktyā bhagavati... Bhakti, where it is to be applied? Somebody says, "I have got bhakti." Where you have got bhakti? "Now, I have got very much bhakti to my wife. I love her very much. I take care of her. If I do not see her, I become mad." So this kind of bhakti is not explained here. "I have got bhakti for my family. I have got bhakti my, for country.

Lecture on SB 3.25.20 -- Bombay, November 20, 1974:

Nitāi: "Every learned man knows very well that attachment for the material is the greatest entanglement of the spirit soul. But that same attachment, when applied to the self-realized devotees, opens the door of liberation."

Prabhupāda:

prasaṅgam ajaraṁ pāśam
ātmanaḥ kavayo viduḥ
sa eva sādhuṣu kṛto
mokṣa-dvāram apāvṛtam
(SB 3.25.20)

This is the definition of our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. Consciousness is there. Living being means there must be consciousness. The consciousness... (sound of baby in background) (pause)

Devotee: Take away the girl.

Lecture on SB 3.25.32 -- Bombay, December 2, 1974:

Therefore Bhāgavata says, dharmaḥ projjhita-kaitavo 'tra: (SB 1.1.2) "All cheating types of dharma is rejected and kicked out from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam." Dharmaḥ projjhita. Projjhita, prakṛṣṭa-rūpeṇa ujjhita, just like you collect all dust and throw it. Similarly, this Bhāgavata-dharma is not a cheating dharma. Bhāgavata-dharma means in relation with the Supreme Lord. Bhāgavatī bhaktiḥ. Bhakti can be applied only to Bhagavān. Bhakti means the business between Bhagavān and bhakta. That is bhakti. If there is no Bhagavān then where is bhakti? And where is bhakta? If Bhagavān is zero, then where is bhakti? Bhakti means the transaction between Bhagavān and bhakta.

Lecture on SB 3.25.43 -- Bombay, December 11, 1974:

If you engage yourself in the devotional service of Vāsudeva, Kṛṣṇa, Vāsudeva, oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya, if you enter, then vāsudeve bhagavati. Vāsudeva means the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Bhakti-yogaḥ prayojitaḥ (SB 1.2.7). If you apply yourself, engage yourself in bhakti-yoga, then janayaty āśu vairāgyam, cause and effect. As soon as you engage yourself in devotional service of Vāsudeva under the direction of śāstra and spiritual master, then janayaty āśu vairāgyam.

Lecture on SB 3.26.6 -- Bombay, December 18, 1974:

Nitāi: (leads chanting)

Prabhupāda: (corrects pronunciation) Kartṛtvam, kartṛtvam.

Nitāi: (leads chanting, etc.) "Due to his forgetfulness, the transcendental living entity accepts the influence of material energy as his field of activities, and thus actuated, he wrongly applies the activities to himself."

Prabhupāda: (aside:) He'll fall down.

evaṁ parābhidhyānena
kartṛtvaṁ prakṛteḥ pumān
karmasu kriyamāṇeṣu
guṇair ātmani manyate
(SB 3.26.6)
Lecture on SB 3.26.30 -- Bombay, January 7, 1975:

That everyone, we know. This body... I am concerned with this body, and the body is to be finished. But the soul is not finished. Therefore our bhakti-mārga... How one can make progress in bhakti-mārga? If we have got faith in the words of Kṛṣṇa, that Kṛṣṇa says, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66), if we apply our intelligence, niścayātmikā, then our spiritual life begins. Ādau śraddhā tataḥ sādhu-saṅgaḥ (Cc. Madhya 23.14-15). These are the different methods to make advance in spiritual life, especially in bhakti-yoga, devotional life.

Lecture on SB 3.26.30 -- Bombay, January 7, 1975:

Therefore our bhakti-mārga... How one can make progress in bhakti-mārga? If we have got faith in the words of Kṛṣṇa, that Kṛṣṇa says, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66), if we apply our intelligence, niścayātmikā, then our spiritual life begins. Ādau śraddhā tataḥ sādhu-saṅgaḥ (Cc. Madhya 23.14-15). These are the different methods to make advance in spiritual life, especially in bhakti-yoga, devotional life.

Lecture on SB 3.28.19 -- Nairobi, October 29, 1975:

So, "Hearing includes applying the mind. In this age of Kali-yuga, Lord Caitanya has recommended that one should always engage in chanting and hearing Bhagavad-gītā." Yāre dekha, tāre kaha 'kṛṣṇa-upadeśa (CC Madhya 7.128).' Kṛṣṇa also said... Somebody questioned me, that "Where is chanting is recommended in the Bhagavad-gītā?" That is there: satataṁ kīrtayanto māṁ yatantaś ca dṛḍha-vratāḥ (BG 9.14). And they say, "Where is chanting in the word?" Here is chanting. Mām. Satataṁ kīrtayanto mām (BG 9.14). Mām-Kṛṣṇa-kīrtana, not this kīrtana, that kīrtana.

Lecture on SB 5.5.1 -- Tittenhurst, London, September 12, 1969:

The whole devotional line of service is also sense gratification. Hṛṣīkeṇa hṛṣīkeśa-sevanam (CC Madhya 19.170). Hṛṣīka means senses, and Hṛṣīkeśa means the master of the senses. The master of the senses is Kṛṣṇa. So when your senses will be applied for the sense gratification of Kṛṣṇa, that is your transcendental position. And when your senses will be employed for your sense gratification, that is material. This is the difference.

Lecture on SB 5.5.1 -- London, August 30, 1971:

In America I have heard that people, they have got money. They spend fifty thousand dollars weekly for seeing naked dance. You see? So money is being misused in this way. Everyone wants sense gratification. And for sense gratification, they want money. And they are earning money somehow or other and applying that in sense gratification. But the result is confusion and frustration. That's all. Result is confusion and frustration. Therefore this is not new thing.

Lecture on SB 5.5.1 -- London, August 30, 1971:

So that is not denied. But He says that kaṣṭān kāmān na arhate: "For sense gratification, there is no need of working very hard." Nāyaṁ deho deha-bhājāṁ nṛloke kaṣṭān kāmān arhate viḍ-bhujāṁ ye (SB 5.5.1). This kind of labor, hard labor, day and night, and get some money, and then apply it for sense gratification, kaṣṭān kāmān... Kāma means sense gratification. So this is not very good. Nāyaṁ deho deha-bhājāṁ nṛloke. Human form of life is not meant for this purpose.

Lecture on SB 5.5.1 -- Delhi, November 28, 1975:

The estimation is there in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam: 1,600,000 miles above the sun the moon is situated. Now, if we take consideration of the sun planet situated 93,000,000 miles from earth, then add 1,600,000 miles again, it comes to 15,000,000..., 95,000,000's miles away from the earthly planet. And how you can reach there in four days, 95,000,000 miles away? If we apply our common sense, then it appears they have never gone to the moon planet. It is all bogus propaganda. It is not possible.

Lecture on SB 5.5.2 -- Boston, April 28, 1969:

By four things you can attain greatness, almost greatness like God. How? By engaging your life, your wealth, prāṇair arthair dhiyā, your intelligence... If you have no money, then you can apply your intelligence. If you have no intelligence, you can simply carry the words of God. In that way you can achieve the greatest perfection of life. If somebody has money, all right, he can spend for spreading this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement.

Lecture on SB 5.5.19 -- Vrndavana, November 7, 1976:

So it requires eyes to see God. That eyes you have to prepare. What is that eyes? Premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena (Bs. 5.38). You have to apply eyes' ointment. Just like there is some medicine, eye ointment, which you apply—you can see very distinctly—similarly, that ointment is premāñjana. If you develop love for God Just like Caitanya Mahāprabhu. He is in ecstasy, always in love. He can see. Similarly, if you develop your love for God, then you can see.

Lecture on SB 6.1.1-4 -- Melbourne, May 20, 1975:

So we believe. We blindly believe, blindly or knowingly. It is not possible knowingly, but if we accept Kṛṣṇa's argument, then we have to believe. Kṛṣṇa does not say anything without any reason. Nobody says. No authority says like that. So what to speak of Kṛṣṇa? Kṛṣṇa is the greatest authority. If we blindly accept His statement, that is also good, and if we apply our reason and argument, that also you can do.

Lecture on SB 6.1.6 -- Los Angeles, January 3, 1970:

Simply you have to employ your energy for Kṛṣṇa. That is expected by Kṛṣṇa. And what will be the result? The result will be, at least individually you shall be peaceful, you shall be happy. If everyone becomes like that, in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, or everyone tries to apply his energy for the service of the Lord, then this world becomes kingdom of God actually.

Lecture on SB 6.1.11 -- New York, July 25, 1971:

This is very easy. If you apply your senses for the service of Kṛṣṇa, then your senses cannot act independently. That is controlling. Just like if you absorb your mind in something you forget everything. Similarly, if you practice how to make yourself Kṛṣṇa conscious, then automatically the senses and mind become controlled. It is not very difficult. Therefore we say that for solution of all problems you come and join with us. Here is a big temple. You live here. You learn how to do it. All right, thank you.

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

So this is the profit of Kṛṣṇa conscious person. Kṛṣṇa is so attractive that if anyone only once has fully applied his mind in thinking of Kṛṣṇa and surrendering, then he becomes immediately saved from all miserable condition of this material life. So that is our perfection of life. Somehow or other, we surrender to the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa. So here it is stressed, sakṛt. Sakṛt means "only once."

Lecture on SB 6.1.50 -- Detroit, August 3, 1975:

We may be very proud in India: "Now we are manufacturing cycle and sewing machine or some motor parts, advanced." This is not advanced. Education means how to make one brāhmaṇa, how to teach him how he become sense controlled, śama, dama, mind control, how to become truthful, how to become clean, how to become simple, how to become full of knowledge, how to apply knowledge in practical life, how to know God. This is education. This is education.

Lecture on SB 6.1.50 -- Detroit, June 16, 1976:

So therefore when we come to the full-fledged human form of life, developed consciousness, we must utilize it, as it is advised by Kṛṣṇa Himself, man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru (BG 18.65). "Always think of Me, man-manā," And who can think of Kṛṣṇa unless he's devotee? Man-manā bhava mad-bhakto. Who is nondevotee, he'll think of something else. "Why I think of Kṛṣṇa?" Therefore to stick to this principle, to apply the mind always in Kṛṣṇa, that means he's devotee. This is devotee. Devotee means not with four hands or four legs, no. The hands, legs are the same. But his mode of thinking different. That's all. That is devotee. Devotee does not depend on the country, color or religion or circumstance.

Lecture on SB 6.1.56-62 -- Surat, January 3, 1971, at Adubhai Patel's House:

So he was actually brāhmaṇa, śruta-sampannaḥ. And after... Simply reading of Vedas as a scholar is useless. Just like foreign Western scholar... (aside:) Now stop. One must practically apply the knowledge, not like armchair politician or armchair Vedantist, smoking cigarette and reading Vedānta. This kind of study of Vedas is useless. Now, we have seen so many sannyāsīs, so-called sannyāsīs, talking on Vedānta and smoking at the same time.

Lecture on SB 6.3.20-23 -- Gorakhpur, February 14, 1971:

Similarly, bhakti means, when this word used, bhakti-yoga, that is only in relationship with the bhakta, or devotee, and Bhagavān. That is called bhakti-yoga. Nāma, harer nāma, not that any name. Harer nāma harer nāma (CC Adi 17.21). Any name can be applied to Kṛṣṇa indirectly, but directly... We are concerned directly. Ānukūlyena kṛṣṇānuśīlanam (CC Madhya 19.167). We have to cultivate Kṛṣṇa not indirectly. Indirectly, everything is worshiping Kṛṣṇa, because there is nothing but Kṛṣṇa everywhere. Just like Kaṁsa. Kaṁsa, he was thinking of Kṛṣṇa indirectly as enemy. Therefore, that is not bhakti. Bhakti means Kṛṣṇa consciousness favorably, directly.

Lecture on SB 7.6.1 -- San Francisco, March 3, 1967:

There are so many so-called swamis. They are coming, and they are preaching that "You are God. I am God." Then who is God? Everyone is God? No. Therefore you will find in the Vedic literature definition of God. Here is definition of... Just apply this definition. If you find somebody, that he is corroborating with this definition of God, then he is God. Otherwise he is a nonsense. God is not so cheap thing. You find out a person that nobody can be found richer than him, nobody can be found stronger than him, nobody can be found more famous than him, or beautiful than him, or wiser than him, or renouncer than him.

Lecture on SB 7.6.1 -- Montreal, June 12, 1968:

So bhakta-yogi, which we are teaching in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, they are the topmost yogis because they are being trained to draw the engagement of the senses from anything outside Kṛṣṇa consciousness. They are trying to draw the senses from everything and applying it in Kṛṣṇa. Just like we are trying to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. When we chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, that means we withdraw our mind from all other engagement and try to engage my mind and ear on the sound vibration of Kṛṣṇa.

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

If you waste our time which is... Everyone of us should always be conscious that this human form of life, although the body is material and there are so many material demands, so we have to adjust things in such a way that my major portion of my attention or energy may be applied for advancing spiritual consciousness or Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That should be the motto of our life. Because we have got limited energy, limited life. Suppose you have to live for hundred years. I think nobody is going to live for hundred years, but supposing if you live for hundred years, so your energy is limited, your duration of life is limited. Suppose I am old man.

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

So anyway, Prahlāda Mahārāja says, na tathā vindate kṣemaṁ: "Instead of wasting your time for increasing the standard of sense gratification, the best thing will be to apply your energy for reviving your original Kṛṣṇa consciousness." Na tathā vindate kṣemaṁ mukunda-caraṇāmbujam. Na tathā vindate kṣemaṁ mukunda-caraṇāmbujam. Tat-prayāso kartavyo: "That endeavor should be done by which your time is not wasted, but you can revive, you can purify your consciousness, you can revive yourself to your original position, and that is your highest gain."

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

This is one stage. And another stage, at night when you go to sleep, and you sleep with dream, that is another stage. And another stage is suṣupti, so deeply, just like when a man is intoxicated or chloroform during surgical operation, he does not understand that "Surgical instruments are being applied on my body." He remains silent. This is another stage. So these three stages are there for polluting our intelligence.

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

And another stage, at night when you go to sleep, and you sleep with dream, that is another stage. And another stage is suṣupti, so deeply, just like when a man is intoxicated or chloroform during surgical operation, he does not understand that "Surgical instruments are being applied on my body." He remains silent. This is another stage. So these three stages are there for polluting our intelligence.

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

So... (pause) So we have discussed this aṣṭau prakṛtayaḥ..., eight different, differential elements, material elements. What is that? Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intelligence and false ego. And these eight elements are described in the Bhagavad-gītā as separated energy. Separated energy you'll understand: just like I am speaking, and my speech is being recorded in the tape recorder. So even I am not here, if you apply the machine, it will exactly speak like me. That is my energy, but now it is separated. It cannot be changed. Suppose I am personally sitting here. If I want to speak something and I can change into another, but that machine cannot change.

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

ometimes we are active, sometimes we are sleeping, and sometimes we are deeply sleeping. But within these three stages of our existence, I am there." When I am active, I am there. When I am sleeping, I am dreaming, I am there. And when I am in deep sleep, I am there. And when again, I am awakened, I am there. In no case I am not there. I am there always. So buddher jāgaraṇam. So one has to apply his good intelligence. Then this "I am," which is existing in all the stages, that is "I am spirit soul." Tā yenaivānubhūyante. I am... I am perceiving that "Oh, yesterday I was sleeping." That sleeping condition is passed, but I am here. I am thinking, "Oh, I was sleeping yesterday like this. I was dreaming like this."

Lecture on SB 7.7.29-31 -- San Francisco, March 15, 1967, (incomplete lecture):

And so many things, everything. What is this Kṛṣṇa?" Because it is simply being done on account of Kṛṣṇa. The consciousness is the same. Your consciousness, my consciousness is the same. If you apply to certain objective, that is called "that-consciousness." Similarly, if you apply your consciousness simply for Kṛṣṇa, ānukūlyena kṛṣṇānu-śīlanam (CC Madhya 19.167), just favorably, you, I mean..., engage your senses for the purpose of Kṛṣṇa. As Kṛṣṇa advises in the Bhagavad-gītā, yudhyasva mām anusmara: (BG 8.7) "You fight. At the same time, think of Me."

Lecture on SB 7.9.6 -- Mayapur, February 26, 1977:

You cannot speculate how it is happening, how in the lotus flower there is so hard nail that immediately, within a second, it could kill a great demon like Hiranyakasipu. Therefore it is acintya. We cannot conceive. Acintya. And therefore Vedic instruction is acintyā khalu ye bhāvā na taṁś tarkeṇa yo jayet: "Do not apply your poor logic in the matters which is inconceivable by you." There is no logic that how lotus flower can grow nails. They say, "Mythology." Because they cannot conceive within their poor brain, they cannot accommodate how things happen like that, they say, "Mythology." Not mythology. It is fact, but it is inconceivable by you or us. It is not possible.

Lecture on SB 7.9.8 -- Calcutta, March 5, 1972:

Mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat (BG 7.7). So Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme God. If we say God, it remains a vague thing. It is not clearly understood. Everyone can be God. God, this word can be applied to everyone. God means controller. So everyone can be controller. Therefore, we have distinctly mentioned Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So in our society, anyone who joins, that means he is interested in Kṛṣṇa, little. May not be very much. At least they come here out of inquisitiveness to hear what they speak about Kṛṣṇa, what do they do about Kṛṣṇa. But our everything is open.

Lecture on SB 7.9.9 -- Montreal, July 4, 1968:

The Brahma-saṁhitā says that those who have developed love of God and smeared the eyes with the ointment of love, but by that ointment the sight of your eyes, the material eyesight, will be clear. Just like you sometimes apply medicine on your eyes to see clear, similarly, there is a process to make your eyesight clear to see God. That's all. Not that stop seeing, but clear the eyesight. Purify your senses. That is called bhakti. Bhakti means the process of purifying the senses. That's all. And as soon as your senses are purified, transcendentalized, you see God face to face.

Lecture on SB 7.9.10 -- Montreal, July 10, 1968:

A vipra, because he is studying... Vipra means one who is engaged in the studies of Vedas. That is... Veda-pathād bhaved vipraḥ. So if he is studying Vedas, then must be qualified with all the good qualities. Because just like Bhagavad-gītā, it is said that "These are the good qualities." So study means to accept the instruction. Study does not mean simply to become a book... No. Study means to apply practically in life what you learn from the Vedas. So if anyone is seriously studying, then naturally he is qualified with all the good qualities. Yes. No. You can say.

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

Prahlāda Mahārāja, Bhisma Mahārāja, and Yudhiṣṭhira Mahārāja, and many, many great kings, they were very rich, but they engaged their money for the service of Kṛṣṇa. Similarly a devotee, if he is educated, he tries to apply his educational qualification in describing Kṛṣṇa by so many literatures, so many publications. That is the proper use. And Bhāgavata says, as I have several times explained before you, that svanuṣṭhitasya dharmasya saṁsiddhir hari-toṣaṇam (SB 1.2.13). If you want to see the perfection of your acquisition, if you want to take...

Lecture on SB 7.9.11 -- Montreal, August 17, 1968:

So mind is also one of the senses. There are eleven senses. Five senses gathering knowledge and five senses working, and mind is the center. So mind is also accepted as sense. So hṛṣīkena hṛṣīkeśa-sevanam (CC Madhya 19.170). When your purified senses are applied in the service of the master of the senses, Hṛṣīkeśa, that is called bhakti. This is the definition of bhakti. So mind required there. You are thinking that "I shall decorate Kṛṣṇa in such a way." That is a function of mind. And as soon as you think that "I shall decorate my such and such person in this way," that is māyā. So mind is there. Sometimes it is acting for māyā, and when it is acting for Kṛṣṇa then it is purified. So in the Kṛṣṇa consciousness nothing has to be eradicated. Everything has to be purified. This is the Kṛṣṇa consciousness process. Yes?

Lecture on SB 7.12.4 -- Bombay, April 15, 1976:

So brahmacārī is taught. From the very beginning he is taught to shortcut the necessities of life. Shortcut. Yes. Mekhalājina-vāsāṁsi jatā-daṇḍa-kamaṇḍalūn. Jaṭā. Jaṭā means the bunch of hair. Means you should not take care of the hair. Then automatically it will become jaṭā. If you apply very nice coconut oil and with comb you dress very nicely, then there will be no jaṭā. The jaṭā means don't (take) care of your hair. If you want to keep hair at all... First of all, there is no question of caretaking if you become clean-shaved. There are two processes. A brahmacārī, either he is clean-shaved or he keeps his hair without any taking care.

Nectar of Devotion Lectures

The Nectar of Devotion -- Bombay, December 26, 1972:

So the proṣita bhartṛkā. She does not dress herself, she lies down on the floor, does not change her clothes very nicely, does not dress the, comb the hair, proṣita bhartṛkā. And the same woman, when her husband is at home, she take twice bath and dresses herself, applies oil and very nice dress, ornaments, and so many things. Women know how to decorate themselves. But the... There is no difference. Her not dressing herself nicely and dressing herself nicely, it may be considered that bhoga and tyāga. But either of these positions is for center is husband. Center is husband. Therefore bhoga-tyāga is not consideration.

The Nectar of Devotion -- Vrndavana, October 17, 1972:

So especially those who are born in India as human beings, they should take advantage of this knowledge. They should not manufacture knowledge. The knowledge is already there. Simply one has to take it. Just like Bhagavad-gītā. Everything is there already. We have to take it, accept it, and apply it practically in life, and distribute the knowledge throughout the whole world. This is the mission of India.

The Nectar of Devotion -- Vrndavana, October 26, 1972:

Premāñjana-cchurita. You have to collect the ointment of love for Kṛṣṇa. And if you apply that ointment on your eyes, then... Just like we use surma (?) for clear vision, similarly, when the love of Kṛṣṇa surma is applied on the eyes, these eyes, you'll see Kṛṣṇa. This is the process.

The Nectar of Devotion -- Vrndavana, October 27, 1972:

A brāhmaṇa kṣatriya, vaiśya. So these are the Vedic process. So in the Kali-yuga, because it is to be understood that everyone is a śūdra, therefore Vaidika-vidhāna cannot be applied. Vaidika-vidhāna requires that one must be born by a brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya. Then he's eligible for being initiated. But in the Kali-yuga, that is not possible. Therefore the Pāñcarātriki-vidhi is accepted. Nārada-Pañcarātra. Tathā dīkṣā-vidhānena.

The Nectar of Devotion -- Bombay, January 8, 1973:

They were practicing to teach us, āpani ācari' prabhu jīvere śikhāya. Simply teaching will not do unless we practice. That is very important thing, practice, practical life. Simply quoting verses, like parrot, will not be very much beneficial. One must apply, jñānam vijñāna-sahitam. Jñāna means to know the thing, and vijñāna means to apply the things in practical life. Jñānaṁ vijñāna-sahitam. So we must know the vijñāna, how practically. That is taught by the Gosvāmīs, kṛṣṇot-kīrtana-gāna-nartana, always chanting the glories of Kṛṣṇa. Kīrtana, gāna, nartana, nartana means dancing.

The Nectar of Devotion -- Vrndavana, November 7, 1972:

Do not..., we do not want to stop the activities of the senses, but it is, they are used for the purpose of the sense proprietor, Hṛṣīkeśa. That is called bhakti. Hṛṣīkeṇa hṛṣīkeśa-sevanaṁ bhaktir ucyate (CC Madhya 19.170). Bhakti means don't use the senses for sense gratification. Apply the senses for the satisfaction of the proprietor of the senses. Hṛṣīkeṇa hṛṣīkeśa-sevanaṁ bhaktir ucyate (CC Madhya 19.170). Go on.

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures

Lecture on CC Adi-lila 7.3 -- Mayapur, March 3, 1974:

That is the Vedic injunction. Tad vijñānārtham. Tad means tattva. In order to understand the tattva, the Absolute Truth, vijñāna... Vijñāna means practical science, not theoretical. Theoretical is jñāna. When that is practically applied in life, that is called vijñānam. In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, therefore, the statement is there: jñānaṁ me paramaṁ guhyaṁ yad vijñāna-samanvitam. Jñāna and vijñāna.

Lecture on CC Adi-lila 7.106-107 -- San Francisco, February 13, 1967:

He knows everything. And Bhāgavata says abhijñaḥ. Abhijñaḥ means He knows. How He knows? Yac-cakṣur eṣa savitā sakala-grahāṇām. His knowing process is different. And we simply apply our nonsense, I mean to say, ideas to God. Now here, Vedas, Vedas says now this sun is the eye of God. Yac-cakṣur eṣa savitā sakalā-grahāṇāṁ rājā samasta-sura-mūrtir aśeṣa-tejāḥ.

Lecture on CC Adi-lila 7.107-109 -- San Francisco, February 15, 1967:

Similarly, Kṛṣṇa is never born. Kṛṣṇa is just like sun. So as they are, if we want to understand... Acintyāḥ khalu ye bhāvā na tāṁs tarkeṇa yojayet: "Things which are beyond your conception," avāṅ manasā gocaraḥ, "beyond your expression, beyond your knowledge, don't apply your so-called argument and reason." That is Vedānta study. If, if you do not understand, put question to your spiritual master, try to understand, but as a matter of fact, you should know, "What is stated here, that is all right. It is due to my imperfectness of knowledge I cannot just now understand it. Let me ask my spiritual master and let me understand it properly."

Lecture on CC Adi-lila 7.109-114 -- San Francisco, February 20, 1967:

Not thinking is not there. Thinking of Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa means thinking of Kṛṣṇa and His energy. There is no question of destruction. It is purification. The psychic power—thinking, feeling and willing—is purified. Tat-paratvena nirmalam. Nirmalam means purified. But it is not lost. It is not lost. Purified. And when it is purified, hṛṣīkena hṛṣīkeśa-sevanaṁ bhaktir ucyate (CC Madhya 19.170), with that purified sense, purified mind, when you apply it for Kṛṣṇa, that is called bhakti, Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.100-108 -- New York, November 22, 1966:

In this way this disciplic succession is coming from Lord Caitanya. So as ācārya... Ācārya means one who knows the principles of scripture, properly being initiated by authority who knows things as they are, and they apply those things in their own life. They are called ācārya. Acinoti śāstrāṇi: he must know all the principles from authorities, and he should apply in his life those principles. Not that he knows but does not apply. He cannot be ācārya. Āpani ācari prabhu jīva disa (?). Lord Caitanya, He, although He is accepted as the, I mean to say, the personal, He's Kṛṣṇa Himself, still, He behaved in such a way that others can follow. He also accepted Īśvara Purī. Īśvara, Īśvara Purī was His spiritual master, Lord Caitanya's. This is the disciplic succession.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.105 -- New York, July 11, 1976:

Actually it is so. Then yogi? The yogi's main business is to control the senses. That is real yoga. Yoga indriya-saṁyamaḥ. Controlling the senses so that mind can be in a peaceful condition... Without controlling your senses, mind cannot be. Then you can apply this mind for meditation. If the mind is agitated, what is this nonsense meditation? First of all control the mind; then think of meditation. Dhyānāvasthita-tad-gatena manasā. We have to meditate with the mind. But if the mind is agitated, where is the question of meditation? It is all bogus.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.110-111 -- Bombay, November 17, 1975:

We do not see how Kṛṣṇa's energies are working, but it is working. Don't think that "It is automatically... There was a chunk and there was..." No. Not like that. Everything. But His energy is so perfect. Just like if you want to paint one nice flower, you have to arrange so many things—color, and the brush, and the painting cloth—and you have to apply your energies and... But still, it will not come so perfect. But Kṛṣṇa's energies are so perfect that we see automatically, but there is supervision of Kṛṣṇa. There is no question of accident. Everything is supervised.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.142 -- New York, November 30, 1966:

Simply change of consciousness, that's all. So Kṛṣṇa consciousness means change of your consciousness. I am thinking, "I am this matter. I have got so many duties with this material world." So when you change this consciousness—"No, I belong to Kṛṣṇa. I am part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa; therefore whole energy should be for Kṛṣṇa," this is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Now I am applying all my energy to this material conception of life. When you apply your energy, your transcendental energy, to Kṛṣṇa, then you are liberated.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 22.14-20 -- New York, January 10, 1967:

This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. You simply change the consciousness. Now your consciousness is absorbed in varieties of sense gratification. You stop this. You just apply your senses unto the service of the Supreme Lord. This is called devotional service, bhakti, or Kṛṣṇa consciousness. It is simple process. Just we have to change. The activities are the same.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 25.31-38 -- San Francisco, January 22, 1967:

...Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu the disciple of Prakāśānanda Sarasvatī is quoting one verse from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in which it is said that simply for understanding, if you waste your time, but if you do not practically apply yourself, then it is simply a waste of time. There is a very nice story. In our college days in logic class of Professor Purnachandra Sen, he cited a very nice example, that a student approached his teacher and the contract was that he wanted to become a law student, lawyer, and the contracts were that when the student will appear in the court after being duly qualified as lawyer, then he will pay the remuneration of the student.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 25.31-38 -- San Francisco, January 22, 1967:

So far, we are trying to be practically employed in Kṛṣṇa's service. That is our business. We may not be haṭha-yogi or dhyāna-yogi or this yogi or that yogi or a very learned scholar, that we can distinguish and interpret that "Not to Kṛṣṇa but to myself." In this way I can waste my time. But if I do not apply myself (to) the purpose, then what is the use of?

Sri Isopanisad Lectures

Sri Isopanisad, Mantra 1 -- Los Angeles, April 30, 1970:

We are doing it for Kṛṣṇa, and they are doing their for their... So our superiority is that either I am trying for decorating my personal apartment, I am trying to decorate this temple—my superiority is there because I am utilizing matter for my purpose. But when it is utilized, his intelligence is applied to utilized this matter for Kṛṣṇa, then his life is successful. The superior intelligence should be utilized for the benefit of Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇārthe akhila-ceṣṭā. Then your life is successful. Then the same superior energy, if you apply it for your sense gratification, you'll be entangled and anxiety. And then you'll have to change your body, one after another. That is going on.

Sri Isopanisad, Mantra 13-15 -- Los Angeles, May 18, 1970:

Just like sometimes... In India it is very... They have got some... What is called? Surma? Ungent, surma. Yes. If you apply that surma your sight becomes bright immediately. So if you smear your eyes with love of Godhead, then you will see God always. Santaḥ sadaiva hṛdayeṣu vilokayanti. Yes. So devotion. So this is the way of understanding God. By service, by enhancing love... This love can be increased only by service. Otherwise there is no possibility.

Sri Brahma-samhita Lectures

Lecture on Brahma-samhita, Lecture -- New York, July 28, 1971:

If you apply your devotional service to Vasudeva, vāsudeve bhagavati... Vasudeva is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Bhagavati. Vāsudeve bhagavati bhakti-yogaḥ prayojitaḥ (SB 1.2.7). If you apply, if you engage yourself in devotional service to Vasudeva, then the result will be janayaty āśu. Āśu means very soon, without delay; janayaty, generated. Janayaty āśu vairāgyam. Vairāgyam means knowledge by which one becomes detached from this material allurement. That is called vairāgya.

Festival Lectures

Lecture-Day after Sri Gaura-Purnima -- Hawaii, March 5, 1969:

So here, in the Kṛṣṇa's order, because He is Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Lord, there is no force. That voluntary. He says that "This is life. You surrender unto Me." But He could force Arjuna to surrender, or anybody, because He is Supreme Lord. But that force He does not apply because He has given us little independence. Therefore, if He forces, then His gift of independence is misused from His side. We are misusing our, that gift of independence, but for that reason, Kṛṣṇa cannot withdraw your independence.

Sri Rama-Navami, Lord Ramacandra's Appearance Day -- Hawaii, March 27, 1969:

You must be practicing also. Similarly, to become a brāhmaṇa means first of all, he must know what is Brahman and he must be actually situated in the activities of Brahman. So devotional service are activities of Brahman. Activities in Kṛṣṇa consciousness means activities in Brahman. Brāhme carati iti brahmā brahmacārī. Carati means acts. Actually, he acts in life, applies the principles of brāhmaṇa in his life, he is called brahmacārī. So these were the trainings.

Sri Rama-Navami, Lord Ramacandra's Appearance Day -- Hawaii, March 27, 1969:

There are so many instances in the life of Rāmacandra. One brāhmaṇa... Not brāhmaṇa exactly. Somebody came to Rāmacandra. Because at that time there was no court like this, that you have to go to a court and apply with stamp fee. Then your judgment will be delivered after six years. It is not like that. Anyone who has got some complaint, he should... The king used to sit in the open audience, and the citizens were allowed to approach the king and place their complaints. Because there was no complaint practically.

Nrsimha-caturdasi Lord Nrsimhadeva's Appearance Day -- Boston, May 1, 1969:

Anyway, the ointment which is applied to the eyes for clear vision. So when the ointment of love of Godhead will be applied in our eyes, then with these eyes we shall be able to see God. God is not invisible. Simply just like a man with cataract or any other eye disease, he cannot see. That does not mean the things are not existing. He cannot see. God is there, but because my eyes are not competent to see God, therefore I deny God. God is there everywhere.

Sri Vyasa-puja -- London, August 22, 1973:

Our system is gopī-bhārtur pāda-kamalayor dāsa-dāsānudāsaḥ (CC Madhya 13.80). It is sometimes called bureaucracy. If you apply something, at least in India, to the President, you'll have to submit to the local collector. The collector will submit to somebody else, somebody else, then secretary, you go.

Radhastami, Srimati Radharani's Appearance Day -- Montreal, August 30, 1968:

We are accepting this form not by our own potency. I have accepted this body, you have accepted this body, not by your own will. You have been forced to accept a particular type of body according to your work. You cannot make choice. Otherwise, everyone would have made his choice to take birth in America or some place like that, or heavenly planets. Oh, that is not choice. Just like if the foreigners, they apply for immigration, there is, the choice depends on the highest authority.

Govardhana Puja Lecture -- New York, November 4, 1966:

Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, āpani ācārī prabhu jīverī śikṣāya: a teacher must demonstrate in his practical life what he is teaching. That is the meaning of ācārya. Ācārya means the teacher must demonstrate things by applying the same thing in his own life. That is called ācārya. Therefore Kṛṣṇa said that "You cannot disclose anything. You cannot keep anything private. Please disclose."

Arrival Addresses and Talks

Arrival -- Chicago, July 3, 1975:

Otherwise it is doomed. It is a fact. This is the opportunity for preaching. You can take that paper and heading. There are so many headings. Each heading reply. We are the only persons who can give solution. There is no other group or any man in the world. We are only. So let them take advantage of our knowledge and apply in the society to the ben... That's all right. Now all the sannyāsīs have got the good opportunity to preach. So where is the key? Keep it.

Initiation Lectures

Initiation Ceremony of Visnujana -- San Francisco, March 24, 1968:

Now we are publishing other books also, Teachings of Lord Caitanya. So read them. These three or four books, if you read, you become fully qualified with knowledge. And vijñānam, and apply them in your practical life. And āstikyam, in full faith of the procedures and in Kṛṣṇa. That will make you successful. All right. Get up. (japa) (break) Come forward. Now you keep your mālikā, mālā, down. You have to offer it.(?) (knocking noises) Take little, this. Nama.

Brahmana Initiation Lecture -- New Vrindaban, May 25, 1969:

So in this age nobody is observing garbhādhāna ceremony; therefore it is to be understood that everyone is born a śūdra. Therefore pāñcarātriki-vidhi. Vedic system cannot be applied because nobody is born of a brāhmaṇa. Who knows? Who knows how he is born? There is no ceremony. That is witness, that "Oh, he will go." Just like marriage is a ceremony, there are so many witnesses, similarly, garbhādhāna ceremony, there is ceremony. It is no hide and seek.

Initiations -- San Diego, June 30, 1972:

These are simple yoga. And it is said... As it is said in the Vedic literature, premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena santaḥ sadaiva hṛdayeṣu vilokayanti (Bs. 5.38). We have to create our eyes or purify our eyes to see God. And that purification is possible when you apply the ointment of love of God, daily. How to love Kṛṣṇa? Take it as ointment. As we apply some ointment to increase the sight of our eyes... Doctor gives some prescription. We use it also.

Initiation Lecture and Ceremony -- New Vrindaban, September 4, 1972:

There are men who are very expert, but some of them employing their expertness in sinful activities, and some of them employing there expertness in pious activities. That is the difference. You can apply your brain in two way—this way or that. But those who are applying their brains for pious activities, they can be devotees. And those who are applying their brains for impious activities they cannot—that is not possible. So, this Deity worship is open for everyone so that, knowingly or unknowingly, anyone who's coming here, he's becoming pious.

Cornerstone Ceremonies

Cornerstone Laying -- Bombay, January 23, 1975:

So I require the cooperation of the Indian, especially young men, educated men. Come forward. Stay with us. Study Bhagavad-gītā. We haven't got anything to manufacture. Nothing to manufacture. And what we can manufacture? We are all imperfect. Whatever is there, let us study it and practically apply in life and spread the message all over the world. That is our mission.

Wedding Ceremonies

Wedding Ceremony and Lecture -- Boston, May 6, 1969:

Prabhupāda: You say you shall "take charge of Jāhnavā, my wife, (Nanda Kiśora repeating) and I shall look after her comforts throughout her life, and I shall supply her all necessities of life." And you say that "I accept you as my husband. (Jāhnavā repeating) I shall see to your comfort throughout my life. Without any separation we shall live peacefully, in happiness and distress, without any separation, for executing Kṛṣṇa consciousness." Change your garland and place. Jaya. Now you cover her head like that. Yes. Not in that way. From this part. All right. Change your seat. Yes.

Devotee: Should he apply it?

Prabhupāda: Yes. You apply it. That's all right. Now you come, You, sit down here. Sit down here. First of all, sit down. Your father is present?

Rukmiṇī: Yes.

Prabhupāda: You may come sit here. You can say that "My daughter was in charge of me so long, now I give in charge to this boy."

General Lectures

Lecture -- Montreal, June 26, 1968:

You can go 25,000 miles, again come back. Punar mūṣiko bhava. So this is going on. Because we are imperfect in every respect, so therefore we have to receive knowledge from the perfect. That is the process, real process. If your knowledge... Just like Janārdana suggested three processes, one by applying our senses, another by accepting knowledge from others, and another, rejection. Two ways. Or skepticism, make void. So this is out of frustration. So make the mind void, no more thinking.

Lecture Excerpt -- Montreal, July 18, 1968:

Prabhupāda: That doesn't matter. The police exists, but if you are not criminal it has nothing to do with you. You are not afraid of the police. Mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti te. Police has nothing to do with law-abiding persons. Let the māyā remain there. You have nothing to do with her. Yes?

Guest: Swamijī, we always think of the pictures of Viṣṇu and Kṛṣṇa. There are, full of pictures, here, and also the usual pictures which you... When you think of the word "consciousness" and "life," as applied to the image of God, it seems to make sense. But how do you apply the concept of consciousness and life to a God conceived of in the terms like this image here?

Prabhupāda: Image... The image, we are not worshiping image.

Lecture -- Seattle, September 27, 1968:

Jaya-gopāla: When we engage inferior energy, internal energy, in the service of Kṛṣṇa, it becomes spiritualized, doesn't it?

Prabhupāda: No. When you apply your energy, it is no more material; it is spiritual. Just like when the copper wire is in touch with electricity, it is no more copper; it is electric. So service to Kṛṣṇa means as soon as you dovetail yourself in the service of Kṛṣṇa, you are not different from Kṛṣṇa. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā: māṁ ca 'vyabhicāreṇa bhakti-yogena yaḥ sevate. This very word, sevate. Sa guṇān samatītyaitān brahma-bhūyāya kalpate (BG 14.26). "Anyone who seriously engages himself in My service, immediately he becomes transcendental to the material qualities and he's on the platform of Brahman." Brahma-bhūyāya kalpate. So when you apply your energy in the service of Kṛṣṇa, you do not think that your material energy is there. No. Just like these fruits. These fruits, one may think, "What is this prasāda? This fruit has been purchased, we also eat fruit at home, and this is prasāda?" No. Because it is offered to Kṛṣṇa, immediately it is no more material. The result? You eat Kṛṣṇa prasāda and see how you are making progress in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Lecture -- Seattle, October 2, 1968:

That Supreme Personality of Godhead, He is Śyāmasundara. Śyāmasundara. Śyāma means blackish but very, very beautiful. That beautiful person, Supreme Person, Kṛṣṇa, is being observed and seen by saintly persons always. Premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena. Why they are seeing? Because their eyes have been cleared by the ointment of love of God. Just like if your eyes are defective, you apply some ointment, some lotion from the physician, and your eyesight becomes clear and bright, you can see things very nicely. Similarly, when your, these material eyes will be ointmented with love of God, then you'll see God, "Here is God." You will not say God is dead. And that covering has to be moved, and to move that covering you have to take this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement.

Lecture -- Seattle, October 9, 1968:

Young man (5): You said that everybody who has laws should live under them. Does an individual have a right to choose his own laws?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Just like when you go pass "Keep to the right," you have got the right also to go to the left. But as soon as you go to the left, you are criminal. That's all.

Young man (5): But taking one of the commandments of the Christian Bible, "Thou shall not kill," and applying that to a federal law or our American scriptures, there you have two laws that are not stemming from the same law, with different interpretations...

Prabhupāda: What is that?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The law in the Bible says, "Thou shalt not kill." But the federal law of the United States says you must go into the Army and kill. So which to follow? There is a difference. They both say opposite things.

Lecture -- Seattle, October 9, 1968:

Prabhupāda: That Kṛṣṇa.

Young man (6): Well, but don't you think that perhaps bhakti-yoga isn't the way for everyone?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Young man (6): That for some people other yogas would apply more to their...

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is in the preliminary stage. Just like the same example, that you have to go... In New York that Empire State Building, 102 story. So everyone is going to the top, but somebody has passed ten steps, somebody has passed twelve steps, somebody has passed twenty. But there may be thousands of steps. So one who has gone to the top, he has passed all the steps. Similarly, there are different process of yogas—karma-yoga or jñāna-yoga... They are divided into three.

Lecture to College Students -- Seattle, October 20, 1968, Introduction by Tamala Krsna:

Suppose today you are Christian, tomorrow you become Hindu. That service mood, that loving spirit, goes with you, either you become Hindu or Muslim or Christian. Therefore that service spirit and love, the tendency to love and service spirit, is your characteristic, and that is your religion. That is the universal form of religion. You have to apply your natural characteristic in a certain place, where you will be satisfied. Your service spirit is (indistinct). You have to apply your natural characteristic in a certain place, where you will be satisfied. Your service spirit is there, your loving spirit is there, but because it is misplaced, you are not happy, you are frustrated, you are confused.

Lecture -- Los Angeles, November 13, 1968:

That is called devotional service. Hṛṣīkeṇa hṛṣīkeśa-sevanaṁ bhaktir ucyate (CC Madhya 19.170). Bhakti, this devotional service, means when you engage your senses for the satisfaction of the master of the senses. The supreme master of the senses is Kṛṣṇa. So we are trying to apply the senses for our personal service. This is called māyā; this is called illusion. The same senses purified, when they'll be engaged in the service of Kṛṣṇa, that is perfection. So we are not going to stop the activities of the senses, but senses are being purified for being engaged in the service of the Lord. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Lecture -- Los Angeles, November 13, 1968:

Don't reject anything. This tape recorder we don't reject. We don't say, "Oh, it is material. We shall not touch." Bring any scientific invention, we shall engage in the service of Kṛṣṇa. That's all. (laughter) We don't say it is false. Why? You have applied your brain, you applied your energy to invent such nice machine. Let it be engaged in Kṛṣṇa's service. Your life will be successful. That's all. The flower from... The tree from which this flower is grown, if this flower is offered to Kṛṣṇa, his life is successful. So it is so nice program, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. All round successful. There is no comparison with this program, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. There cannot be any comparison, neither any rivalry with this conception of philosophy, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So try to understand, preach it nicely, and be happy, and let them become happy. So you want to chant something or no?

Engagement Lecture -- Buffalo, April 23, 1969:

Therefore Ṛṣabhadeva says to His sons, "My dear sons, now you have got this opportunity. Out of 8,400,000's of lives, take..." Forget Ṛṣabhadeva's sons. I will speak to the American boys and girls. Now you have got very nice body, very beautiful body, very nice country. You have no poverty. So many ways, you have an advantage than other nations. So if you apply this instruction of Ṛṣabhadeva to His sons... Ṛṣabhadeva spoke to His sons does not mean only it was meant for His sons. It is meant for the whole human race. So he said that "My dear sons, this body, this nice body, beautiful body, this own flesh(?) body, is not meant for sense gratification like the cats and dogs and hogs."

Lecture with Allen Ginsberg at Ohio State University -- Columbus, May 12, 1969:

People are hooked on matter and on their own identity in matter, taking their own identity from their faces, nose, bodies, and immediate physical city-complex around them, and not realizing another, sweeter, deeper but wilder or "transcendental" identity than the identity of the one-dimensional man that Marcuse has talked out. So what we are proposing here is a modern-minded view, or some indications of a modern Western, i.e., gnostic, Marcuse view of Kali-yuga, as applying to our own situation, rather than being an oriental fairy tale. As it stands, I read in the paper today, the prognosis for our... According to U Thant in today's paper, according to the head of the U.N., mankind has only ten years to reverse the political, social, moral, emotional, bhakti course of the planet, and alter our technology, alter our consciousness radically enough to preserve human existence on the planet. (applause) So this is not only the official U.N.

Lecture -- New Vrindaban, June 7, 1969:

Titikṣa means tolerance. Suppose any one of my students was practiced to all these habits and by my word, if they have given up, they may be feeling some inconvenience. Still, they are tolerating. That should be done, tolerating. Titikṣa, ārjava, simplicity. They have taken my words by simple faith, simplicity, ārjava, sad-lata (?). Then jñānam, then their understanding what is Kṛṣṇa consciousness; vijñānam, they are applying in practical life. Āstikyam, they are believing in the śāstras, in the Vedic literature. Brahma-karma svabhāva-jam: (BG 18.42) "This is the nature of a brāhmaṇa." Therefore, as soon as I see, I give him the sacred thread: "Yes. You are now recognized brāhmaṇa."

Lecture 'Nobody Wants to Die' -- Boston, May 7, 1968:

Oh, if you do not work I cannot eat even. The whole function is stopped. But the definition is na tasya kāryaṁ kāraṇaṁ ca vidyate. Now, take for example this beautiful flower. This beautiful flower, you have to accept there is a great brain behind this beauty. Because here we have got so many artists. When they draw picture, oh, how nicely they apply their brain, their painting, everything, then... But that beauty is not as beautiful as this flower. If ordinary beauty painted by a, an artist, it takes so much time and labor, do you think that this beauty is done automatically? What is the explanation? This is nonsense, that there is no brain behind it. There is. That is the brain of God.

Lecture 'Nobody Wants to Die' -- Boston, May 7, 1968:

So nobody can claim that "I am the richest." No. Nobody can claim that "I am the most famous." No. Nobody can claim that "I am the most beautiful." Nobody can claim that "I am the absolute knower." In this way, you apply the definition in yourself, you'll find that you partly and partially represent all the qualities of God. That you can claim, that you are partial God, or part and parcel of... That is the exact word, part and... Mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūta (BG 15.7). These living entities, jīva-bhūta... There are two definitions of the living entities.

Lecture to International Student Society -- Boston, December 28, 1969:

You have heard the word mahātmā. That is a Sanskrit word, or Indian word, which is applied to a person whose mind is expanded, whose feelings, the circle of his feelings, is very expanded. He is called mahātmā. Mahā means big or great, and ātmā, ātmā means soul. Who has expanded his soul very wide, he is called mahātmā. So this Bhagavad-gītā gives the definition of the person who has expanded his feeling very wide. Who is that? It is said there, bahūnāṁ janmanām ante (BG 7.19).

Lecture at Christian Monastery -- Melbourne, April 6, 1972:

Now, it is a question of believe or not believe. That is a different thing. We believe. We take it. Because it is said by Kṛṣṇa, we take it, accept it. And we apply our reason also, not blindly take it, that if I see that in every planet, in our this planet there is a president... Formerly, in this planet also, there was only one king, and he was ruling over all the planets. Gradually, people have divided their interests and become different nations.

Town Hall Lecture -- Auckland, April 14, 1972:

So in one place of the Vedic injunction you will find that "Any stool of animal is impure." That's a fact. Everyone knows. Even your own stool, what to speak of other animals'—impure. But in another place says, "Exception is given to the cow's stool, cow dung. That is pure." It is so pure that if you apply on some impure place, it becomes pure. That's a fact. In India still, especially in villages, they mop the floor with cow dung, and it is so nice and so fresh. You can try. Here also there are cows. You take cow dung and you can see how it is antiseptic.

Rotary Club Lecture -- Hyderabad, November 29, 1972:

So if we try to follow the already perfect statements in the śāstras, and if we apply in the, our practical life, then the whole human society will be perfect. Otherwise, if we do not follow the instruction which is perfect, already there in the śāstras—we manufacture or concoction—the social order will never be perfect and there will be always a confusion. And that is going on. I have seen.

Rotary Club Lecture -- Ahmedabad, December 5, 1972:

Just like we are trying to learn from the Bhagavad-gītā as it is. It is being taught by Kṛṣṇa. So things which are beyond your perception, you have to know it from authority. Just like the example: Who is my father? We cannot make any experiment. We cannot apply experimental knowledge to find out who is my father. That is not possible. But how we can know? The know it, I can know from the authority of the mother. The mother says, "This gentleman is your father," we have to accept. There is no other experimental... Similarly, the soul, which is beyond the perception of your material senses, you cannot make an experiment. You have no means.

Lecture -- London, August 26, 1973:

Devotee: The gentleman asks, "How do we apply that internationally?"

Prabhupāda: It is a international society. We are picking up men of this mentality, not that the whole world will be followers. That we do not expect. But there are men all over the world who like this movement; therefore we say international society. And actually it is happening. We are picking up our devotees from all parts of the world, so therefore it is international.

Lecture at Upsala University Faculty -- Stockholm, September 7, 1973:

If you have to see God, then you have to apply the ointment of love of God in your eyes, and then your eyes will be cleansed and you'll see God. This is the process. Premāñjana. Prema means love of God, and añjana means ointment. Just like sometimes we do not see correctly. In India, there is a kind of powder called surma. They apply it and they see clearly. Or some, any other.

Lecture at Upsala University Faculty -- Stockholm, September 7, 1973:

The human life is meant for understanding God, for seeing God, for talking with God, for behaving with God. That is possible. But you require little training. From the animalistic life, the animal cannot talk of God, cannot understand of God, cannot see God. But if we remain in the animalistic way of life, then it is not possible to see God and talk with Him. But if we purify ourself, if we apply the ointment of love of God on the eye, then premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena santaḥ, those who are saints... I think this "saint" word has come from the Sanskrit world santaḥ. Santaḥ is Sanskrit word. Santaḥ sadaiva hṛdayeṣu vilokayanti. Those who are saintly persons, those who have trained themselves in the affairs of love of Godhead, they can see God constantly within their heart. That is possible.

Lecture at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan -- Bombay, October 18, 1973:

Service is there. Nobody can say that "I don't serve anyone." Is there anybody who can say boldly that "I do not serve anyone?" You must serve. That is your dharma. Either you become a Christian or a Muslim or a Hindu or this or that, your real characteristic is that you have to serve. That service attitude, when it is misunderstood, it is applied to māyā, and we are not happy. When it is applied to Kṛṣṇa, then we are happy. Service you must render. That is your position. You cannot become master. Even the politicians, they promise, "I shall give you such and such service. Please give me vote." So the service is promised, because we have to serve.

Philosophy Discussions

Philosophy Discussion on David Hume:

Prabhupāda: So that he can go on talking whatever he likes. (laughter) All nonsense. All he wants that license: you can go on talking all nonsense, I can go on talking all nonsense. You are right, I am right, everything is all right. Yata mata tata patha. Yata mata—as many opinions there are, so many (indistinct) are there also. So it does not apply in legal sense. Just like the same example that I give always, "Keep to the right." Then if somebody says, "My opinion is, 'Keep to the left,' " but as soon as he does it, he is arrested.

Philosophy Discussion on Immanuel Kant:

Prabhupāda: Intelligence. The source of knowledge is intelligence. Intelligence acts through mind, and then some conclusion comes. Man is mortal, so here is a man, intelligence; he must be mortal. This a priori idea means "I know man is mortal; therefore here is a man, he must be mortal." A priori means before. And what is the other?

Śyāmasundara: A posteriori means after; sense impressions. So he developed this process for attaining knowledge in three steps. The first step he calls he transcendental aesthetic, and this is the basic stage which synthesizes sense experience through concepts of time and space. In other words, the mind acts upon sensory perceptions and applies time and space relations to them. So he says that this knowing of time and space is a priori; it's an internal creation of the mind. Before we sense anything, we have an idea of time and space. So as soon as we sense something, we can apply time and space ideas.

Prabhupāda: He said something transcendental?

Philosophy Discussion on Immanuel Kant:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Sense experience. Sense experience means purified sense experience. That is seva. Just like I am seeing here Kṛṣṇa, but others will see a stone. So he is also seeing with his eyes; I am also seeing with the eyes, but my eyes are different from his eyes. Premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena (Bs. 5.38). When the eyes are anointed with love of God, ointment of love of God, then he can see. Just like if one's eyes are diseased, if he applies some eye ointment, or lotion, then he sees. So the same senses, the same eyes, unless they are treated and purified, he cannot understand or he cannot see or he cannot know.

Philosophy Discussion on Immanuel Kant:

Prabhupāda: That thought comes from transcendental knowledge. Thought comes from higher authorities. That is called parokṣa. Then with your senses, when you try to understand, that is called aparokṣa. Then adhokṣaja. As I told you, there are five stages of acquiring knowledge: direct perception, pratyakṣa; parokṣa, receiving knowledge from higher authorities; then apply your senses, come to some conclusion, that is aparokṣa; then transcendental knowledge, adhokṣaja; then aprakṛta, spiritual knowledge.

Śyāmasundara: In other words, the thought content comes from higher authorities, then you apply your senses and the two combine.

Prabhupāda: To come to some conclusion. That is the source of knowledge which is beyond my senses.

Śyāmasundara: But I use my senses to come to some conclusion.

Philosophy Discussion on Immanuel Kant:

Prabhupāda: Just like a higher authority says that there is a spiritual world. Now, how do you come to this conclusion, "Yes, there is a spiritual world"? How, unless you apply your senses? Sense application is like this, that "I am combination of spirit and matter, that is a fact. So I cannot see the spirit at the present moment, but there is spirit. So I am a combination of spirit and matter. So if there is material world, why is there no spiritual world?" This is conclusion: by applying your senses and reason that there are two things, material and spiritual, so if there is possibility of material world, why is there not possibility of spiritual world?

Śyāmasundara: And if I see a dead body, I can understand that there is no life in that body, so there must be some source of life.

Philosophy Discussion on Immanuel Kant:

Prabhupāda: Consciousness is going on with my existence. I am existing. Despite different changes of body, I am existing. Therefore consciousness exists. This kind of, you have to apply your senses. But the basic principle of the knowledge is received from higher authorities. Just like in mathematics, teacher says two plus two is equal to four. So you take four things, make two and two, and you find four. Similarly, by applying your senses, reason—God has given you reason, consciousness—you can come to the conclusion. Yes.

Philosophy Discussion on Immanuel Kant:

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa is everything, outside and inside. Inside He is Paramātmā, outside He is spiritual master. So Kṛṣṇa is trying to help the conditioned soul both ways-outside and inside. Therefore spiritual master is representative of Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa comes outside as spiritual master, and inside He is personally there.

Śyāmasundara: So according to Kant, the first or basic stage is that one perceives objects and gives them concepts of time and space. Then the second step is called transcendental analytic. In other words, human understanding changes these perceptions into conceptions or ideas, which possess analytical unity. In other words, the mind applies categories to whatever it perceives. And there are four categories that he describes: quantity, quality, relationship and modality.

Prabhupāda: What is modality?

Philosophy Discussion on Immanuel Kant:

Prabhupāda: That's all right.

Śyāmasundara: So this is the process of material reasoning, that when we see something, we can understand it by applying our reason, that it is such-and-such weight, it is measured with the mind. This is called the categorical imperative. The next, third step, is called the transcendental dialectic. In this stage, beyond reasoning, the mind seeks to understand everything, but the sense information is inadequate, so it tries to go beyond sense experience.

Prabhupāda: How?

Philosophy Discussion on Immanuel Kant:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Ideal construction... Here we are frustrated because everything is temporary; therefore ideal is eternal. That much we can understand. Temporary. Just like I want to live; that is my tendency. Nobody wants to die. But I am hopeless, because this body is not eternal. Therefore ideal life is eternal body.

Śyāmasundara: He says but the mind makes a mistake to apply these categories of reason to achieve transcendental knowledge. Because it realizes the futility of this...

Prabhupāda: This must be. One who goes with mental speculation, he must fail. Therefore our process is not mental speculation—to receive knowledge from the perfect.

Philosophy Discussion on Immanuel Kant:

Prabhupāda: Father tree. Now Kṛṣṇa says, bījaṁ māṁ sarva-bhūtānām (BG 7.10). Therefore Kṛṣṇa is the cause of everything.

Śyāmasundara: Well, his point is that these contradictions-saying that "There is a God," "There is no God"—these contradictions only arise because the reason attempts to apply its categories to the transcendent of the absolute, whereas these categories are only applicable to empirical experience. In other words, by reason alone I cannot...

Prabhupāda: This is by reason only. I see everything is growing; therefore the whole cosmic manifestation must have grown from a source. This is reason.

Śyāmasundara: This is transcendental reason.

Philosophy Discussion on Immanuel Kant:

Prabhupāda: From a source. Therefore the perfect reason is that this cosmic manifestation. Also we get from authoritative books, Vedic literature, how it has grown.

Śyāmasundara: How is it that someone else could apply their material reason and come to a different conclusion?

Prabhupāda: What is that reason? How can he prove? He must have proved by his experience. Thus his experience proving that things are... The man who is talking of this nonsense can he prove that he is born without his father? How is that? How his existing is there? How his material body came into existence? It was caused by his father. Then how can he deny the cause? His very existence is depending upon some cause.

Philosophy Discussion on Immanuel Kant:

Prabhupāda: Yes. So contradiction mean imperfect knowledge. Perfect knowledge means who sticks to his principles. That is perfect knowledge. One who does not stick to his original proposal, his knowledge is imperfect.

Śyāmasundara: He says that by trying to apply their reason to the transcendental, that they naturally will run into trouble, that there will be contradictions in their thought. By trying to apply these empirical categories to the transcendental, naturally there will be these contradictions. They will not be able to discover the real nature of things because there is always some contradiction by using the reason.

Philosophy Discussion on Immanuel Kant:

Prabhupāda: Mind is creative, that's a fact. Creative. He is creating and again rejecting. That is the mind's business, saṅkalpa-vikalpa.

Śyāmasundara: So he says that to apply those four categories of reason onto objects in order to understand them, he says this creates certain knowledge, and so that further judgment beyond these categories would be guesswork or unprovable dogma. But, he says, still the mind is not satisfied with these partial explanations. Even though knowledge that transcends these categories is guesswork, still the mind desires to know something beyond them.

Philosophy Discussion on Immanuel Kant:

Śyāmasundara: Yesterday we were discussing Kant's Critique of Pure Reason, wherein he tried simply through exercising his reason to understand the totality of things. Today we will discuss the conclusions of that particular attempt at pure reason. He says that man, after the futility of applying this categorical analysis to transcendental knowledge, then he attempts to create ideas about the universe which transcend his experience. He finds his efforts fail when he tries to understand more than material nature, so he tries to create ideals about that which transcends his experience.

Prabhupāda: So he fails in the material knowledge, and then he attains transcendental knowledge. What is this?

Śyāmasundara: He fails to understand transcendental knowledge by applying the techniques of material knowledge.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That means with material senses you cannot go to the transcendental knowledge. Then how can he form ideas of transcendence?

Philosophy Discussion on Immanuel Kant:

Śyāmasundara: After Kant finished this analysis of the pure reason, then he began his Critique of Practical Reason, of reason applied to practical living, to try to find out what were the limits of that study. This is his idea: moral laws are necessary and universal objects of the human will, which must be accepted as valid for everyone. He calls this his categorical imperative. That means that there are certain moral commandments which are universal, and which must be applied to everyone, and which everyone must obey without exception. Now, he says that we know these moral laws a priori, by intuition, and that the individual fact and the situations have no bearing, and there is no consideration of what I want or what I desire, but what I must do, what I ought to do.

Prabhupāda: No. Morality varies according to the development of the particular society. There are so many immoral things going on in the particular type of society which are very, very immoral, but they do not care for it; they do it.

Philosophy Discussion on Hegel:

Śyāmasundara: Does someone who has been in prison and then he becomes free, does he appreciate his freedom more than someone who has always been free?

Prabhupāda: So, that's very easy to understand. You can apply the same thing in your life. That is not very difficult. Everyone can understand.

Śyāmasundara: So to enhance the understanding of freedom is it, if someone...

Prabhupāda: You come to the platform of freedom.

Śyāmasundara: But say one has always been free. His understanding...

Philosophy Discussion on Hegel:

Śyāmasundara: He says it is the purpose of the state and king to apply the moral law.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is the duty of the king, that is the king but the modern democracy state, they're simply concerned with the tax. That's all. But in the śāstra it is said that if you keep the citizens blind in the matter of morality and immorality and levy tax only, you will be satisfied with tax, then you will also go to ruin and they also go to ruin.

Śyāmasundara: Ruin.

Philosophy Discussion on Hegel:

Prabhupāda: That is another thing. If you all, my disciples, you are working under my instruction, so there is cooperation but not that other's order is obligatory to me. Similarly, one state is representative of God, another (is) representative of God, so they are not independent, dependent. That can be applied any field. Citizen, everyone is independent but everyone is dependent on the state laws. Similarly every state may be independent in their individual capacity, but he is dependent on God's order. That is the position. That is the perfection.

Philosophy Discussion on Hegel:

Śyāmasundara: He says that philosophy is higher than religion.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Then you apply your philosophy. Then why... Just like Kṛṣṇa says, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). You just surrender unto Me. This is religion. Now try to understand why Kṛṣṇa says that you surrender unto Me, and why we are obliged to surrender. That is philosophy, that is philosophy. And when your philosophy supports, "Yes, we have to surrender to Kṛṣṇa," then it is perfect, it is not sentiment.

Philosophy Discussion on Hegel:

Śyāmasundara: So somewhere must be the square root of minus one, even though...

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is, spiritual world is like that. But here in this material world, we have got experience, one plus one equal to two, and one minus one equal to zero. In the spiritual world this does not apply. There one plus one equals one and one minus one equals one. Pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya pūrṇam evāvaśiṣyate (Iso Invocation), Vedic wisdom. Pūrṇam, that from the complete, you take the complete, still it is complete. So where you have got this idea? So therefore you have to know from the Vedic.

Śyāmasundara: So it must exist if I can...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Philosophy Discussion on John Stuart Mill:

Prabhupāda: Yes, immediate cause, we take, immediate cause. Immediate cause also we accept. So what is the conclusion? There is cause, immediate and remote. That we agree. But what is his proposition?

Śyāmasundara: His proposition is that we can study any instance of a phenomenon and find out the cause by applying these five methods: the method of agreement, then the second one is the method of difference. They're rather complicated.

Prabhupāda: That means five causes.

Śyāmasundara: No. Five methods of studying something to find out the cause. Five tests to find out the circumstances behind the phenomenon, the instance of the phenomenon, to find out the cause.

Philosophy Discussion on John Stuart Mill:

Prabhupāda: No. That is his imperfect vision. We say that God is everywhere. God is everywhere. Aṇḍāntara-sthaṁ paramāṇu cayāntara-stham. God is present everywhere, even within the atom. Now the modern atomic theory, they will explain from atomic theory about the falldown of the apples. But we say that within the atom there is God; therefore God is the ultimate cause.

Śyāmasundara: What kind of test do we apply to phenomena to see what is the cause?

Prabhupāda: For every phenomenon there is a cause.

Śyāmasundara: But how do we determine that God is the cause behind everything?

Prabhupāda: Because then we know that God is the ultimate pusher, the pushing begins from there. So it may come through various agents. Just like one railway wagon is pushed by the engines, and it strikes another wagon and that is also pushed; another wagon, and that is pushed, that is also pushed. Similarly, the original pusher is the engine. Our study is like that, that the original, sa aikṣata, sa aikṣata... These are the Vedic... He glanced over, He desired; immediately there was creation. Therefore the original pusher is God, Kṛṣṇa. Now, how it is happening, that we cannot see. Just like same example, the wagon is already pushed, it is coming automatically. A child sees, "Oh, this wagon is coming automatically, and it caught another wagon, and it is now moved." He sees the (effect). But he did not see that ultimately there was a big engine that has pushed it.

Philosophy Discussion on John Stuart Mill:

Śyāmasundara: If we see a phenomenon like the rain falling or anything, and we want to apply the test that will prove that God is the cause of that phenomenon, what test do we apply?

Prabhupāda: The śāstras, the Vedic literature is there, the Upaniṣads are there, books are there, śāstra cakṣuṣa. You have to see it through the śāstras. That is the injunction. You cannot see directly. You have to see śāstra cakṣuṣa. Your eyes, they are defective. Just like if you read astrology, astronomy, then you can understand what is the actual volume or the bulk of the sun, but by your eyes you are seeing just a disc. So all your senses are defective. So directly seeing or perceiving or tasting has no value, because these are all defective. So we have to, it is said, you should see through śāstras, through authoritative instruction.

Philosophy Discussion on John Stuart Mill:

Śyāmasundara: So if we see the apple fall from the tree, the test that we apply is the sastric test. In order to see God in that act of falling, we have to see it through the eyes of the śāstras.

Prabhupāda: Now what do the scientists say—the law of gravity.

Śyāmasundara: Yes. The fruit became ripe, the stem...

Prabhupāda: The law of gravity, why was it not applying..., why did it not fall before?

Śyāmasundara: Now the fruit has become ripe so the stem has rotted...

Prabhupāda: Therefore the law of gravity is not all. There is another condition. So that he does not know.

Philosophy Discussion on John Stuart Mill:

Prabhupāda: God has made the law so perfect that one after—one cause affects something, and that affects another thing, another thing, one after another, so many things, ultimately. So we do not know so many things. We see the fruit, but how the fruit is growing, under which law, we simply explain nature. But it is not nature. There is a law. It is not only growing, the apples are having this nice color outside the skin, they have been painted; everything is perfectly being done by the laws, by the energy of Kṛṣṇa. Just like if you want to make a beautiful fruit, you paint it yellow or red, you take so much time. You apply your energy. The same energy is being applied there. Otherwise why, wherefrom you get the idea that a nice fruit can be painted like this? God is dictating that "You want to make a fruit, paint, you do like this, do like that." So similarly He is doing. But my doing takes so much time, because my energy is so blunt and limited. But His energy is so perfect that immediately (indistinct). The same example, just like Telex. There are so many methods, now this is latest. Immediately type here, immediately there. So before that, one could not believe that how is it I type here and five thousand miles away the type striking. So there is a law. It is not that it is magic.

Philosophy Discussion on John Stuart Mill:

Prabhupāda: That is not for mass of men, not for the greatest number of men. That is the minimum. That philosophy is understood by minimum number.

Śyāmasundara: But he says that this standard should be applied to all men, that all men should be trained to find pleasure in this standard.

Prabhupāda: That is another thing. That means quality pleasure should be introduced to the... What, at the beginning you said maximum pleasure?

Philosophy Discussion on John Stuart Mill:

Śyāmasundara: So that which is really desirable...

Prabhupāda: But because it is desirable, the force was applied.

Śyāmasundara: So we cannot judge what is desirable. Only...

Philosophy Discussion on John Stuart Mill:

Hayagrīva: One last quote from Mill: "I will call no being good who is not what I mean when I apply that epithet," that is good, "to my fellow creatures, and if such a being can sentence me to hell for not so calling him, to hell I will go."

Prabhupāda: I could not follow.

Philosophy Discussion on William James:

Śyāmasundara: Today we are discussing American philosopher William James. His philosophy is called pragmatism, or that which can be practically applied. The central thesis of his philosophy is that the whole function of thought is to produce habits of action. In other words, he was tired of theoretical philosophy, and he wanted to see that philosophy had practical application.

Prabhupāda: So philosophy without practical application is called mental speculation. It has no value. We agree to that. Philosophy must be practically applied in life. That is real philosophy.

Philosophy Discussion on William James:

Prabhupāda: Not created. Truth is there. Truth is revealed. As you make progress, so the truth becomes revealed. Ye yathā māṁ prapadyante tāṁs tathaiva bhajāmy aham (BG 4.11). Just like in Bhagavad-gītā it is said that "As one makes his surrendering process complete, I become revealed to him accordingly."

Śyāmasundara: But if an idea works when it is applied to concrete facts of experience, then it becomes a true idea, and we accept it as a true idea. So as we develop our experience, our life progresses, then we develop truth because we see that this idea works in my experience, so then it becomes true. Is this not the process?

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is our process. Just like one enters to Kṛṣṇa consciousness in the beginning by faith. He has on practical experience. But suppose somebody sees that "These people, Kṛṣṇa conscious people, appear to be very bright-faced," just like in your country they may have been known, the bright-faced. So he gets a little interest. So that interest increases. First of all he comes with little faith and interest, but as he associates with us, the interest increases. That is true. Otherwise why are they sticking?

Philosophy Discussion on William James:

Śyāmasundara: They will have different philosophies.

Prabhupāda: Yes. But that does not prove the fact. Different men have got different ideas of peace, that does not mean that is peace. Peace is a different thing. Peace is that which applies to everyone. That is peace. Not that because I think by drinking I shall be peaceful, therefore drinking is peace. No. And somebody thinks, "By doing this thing, I'll feel peaceful." No. There must be a standard of peace which will be applicable to everyone. That is real peace. We are talking of that peace.

Philosophy Discussion on William James:

Śyāmasundara: Whose experience.

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa's experience. Parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate svābhāvikī jñāna-bala-kriyā ca (Cc. Madhya 13.65, purport). This is the Vedic version. The Supreme is so much equipped with different kinds of energies. That energy means experience. You can apply your energy if you have got experience. You can apply your energy of drawing a figure, providing you have got experience.

Śyāmasundara: Yes.

Philosophy Discussion on William James:

Prabhupāda: ...supreme consciousness.

Śyāmasundara: Yes. Something like that. He says that experience and not philosophy or theology should form the basis of religious life; that experience should be our religious life and not just philosophy, but actual applied practice.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Philosophy will give us the idea of the goal, and our practical application is to give us the right path.

Philosophy Discussion on Soren Aabye Kierkegaard:

Śyāmasundara: One of the examples that this man's successor has used, which probably would apply here, is that in the case, for instance, of having to fight... (break)

Prabhupāda: ...not working?

Śyāmasundara: It ended. I had to turn it over.

Philosophy Discussion on Soren Aabye Kierkegaard:

Prabhupāda: No, no. No suffering. Those who are advanced in knowledge, there is no suffering. Actually those who are spiritually advanced, if there is some bodily pain, he knows that "I am not this body. Why should I suffer? Let me do my duty. Hare Kṛṣṇa." That is advancement.

Śyāmasundara: Well, by this inwardness of suffering, he applies... The same principle, the same idea is there, that one goes on, and he risks...

Prabhupāda: Actually, suffering is due to ignorance, that's all.

Śyāmasundara: Yes. That he risks serving God on his faith of...

Prabhupāda: There is no reason.

Philosophy Discussion on Arthur Schopenhauer:

Śyāmasundara: So even aesthetically, one can have permanent salvation.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Aesthetic with a—I mean to say—solid program. Because Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is all goodness. You find whatever the so-called philosophers will describe, we have got already there. Already there. If you say aesthetic salvation, this is aesthetic salvation. Śrī-vigrahārādhana-nitya-nānā-śṛṅgāra-tan-mandira-mārjanādau **. To worship the Deity. And you cannot derive benefit unless the aesthetic sense is applied to the higher authority, with reverence and respect. That is wanted.

Śyāmasundara: So he sees the second type of salvation from this basically evil existence...

Prabhupāda: That salvation he prescribes in the beginning, that is temporary salvation.

Philosophy Discussion on Edmund Husserl:

Prabhupāda: That's all right.

Śyāmasundara: That's the first step. Then the second step is to make a universal reduction, to find out which things are common to all leaves, what things initially, this single appearance has the same thing in common with all appearances of leaves. Then... He calls these the ideas which underlie the pure phenomenon, like greenness and growth, things like that, basic principles, he calls these the changeless forms, changeless forms. Just like when this leaf is gone, it has disappeared, the color green will still exist somewhere; it is always existing. And the idea of growth will always exist somewhere. So that's the second step. He says that these changeless ideas, like greenness and growth, must be applied to phenomenon to give them stability or a basis, and thus rescue them from a state of constant change and unreality. So he is seeking to find out something permanent inside the temporary appearances of things. So he says that the essence of something is unlike the phenomenon by virtue of its universality. In other words, the experience that this leaf is green can be shared by all persons alike. Everyone will see that the leaf is green, not that one person will see it as yellow or another person will see it as grey. But that greenness that everyone sees, that is its self-evident nature, or essence of that leaf. So as an example, he gives the example of... We see a green object, for example, and green color is imminent in our consciousness, but when we postulate the transcendent color, it is not immediately sensed but merely described scientifically as existing in light waves measuring 550 millimicrons in length. In other words, the knowledge that that greenness is caused by certain light waves as measured by scientists is not important to him. The real idea is that that immediate greenness is shared by everyone, that is the nature of that leaf. Then the third...

Prabhupāda: Direct perception.

Philosophy Discussion on Carl Gustav Jung:

Prabhupāda: That we are teaching. That we have shown. But he remains unconscious state. That is (indistinct). That we are teaching. We are simply, loudly stating, "Please wake up. Please wake up. We are not this body. We are not this body." So these are the (indistinct) dream. You cannot raise him to the consciousness. He is fully packed up in matter. That is not possible. But he is also conscious. That is proved by (indistinct). He applied machine: in the remote part he is feeling the pain when you cut. But it is not very manifest. Just like children, they are not so conscious, you operate. I have got a (indistinct), my eldest daughter, she (indistinct). So she was about less than one year... No, no. About six months. The doctor was operating, (indistinct). She was not frightened. (indistinct) Minor operation. So the human form of life is the developed consciousness of the living entity. In other forms of life they're more or less in dreaming state or unconscious state. But as living entity, the consciousness is there, in different stages.

Philosophy Discussion on Carl Gustav Jung:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Everything is depending on the personality, and he is surrounded by so many conceptions. When the en..., what is called, (indistinct), we see different types of dreams, but when we are purified, then, just like Caitanya Mahāprabhu was dreaming Kṛṣṇa's pastime. So similarly, when we are completely purified we dream also about Kṛṣṇa, His activities, His preaching, so many in connection with reference to Kṛṣṇa. So persona is permanent, but when we apply this persona in the material activities, that is temporary, false, false ego, and when the same persona is engaged as servant of Kṛṣṇa, that is self-realization.

Philosophy Discussion on Carl Gustav Jung:

Hayagrīva: The fourth form of rebirth is called renovacio and applies to the transformation of a mortal into an immortal being, of a corporeal into a spiritual being, and of a human into a divine being. Well-known prototypes of this change are the transfiguration and ascension of Christ and the assumption of the mother of God into heaven after her death together with her body. In other words, the body is somehow..., it doesn't die, the gross body doesn't die, but it's transformed.

Prabhupāda: Spiritual, spiritual body continues. Spiritual body never dies. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). So hanyamāne, destruction, is of the material body. The spiritual body is never destroyed. Na jāyate na mriyate vā. The spiritual body, neither it is generated, neither it is dead. Nityaḥ śāśvataḥ: it is eternal. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre: (BG 2.20) it, it is not destroyed even after the destruction of the material body. That is spiritual body.

Philosophy Discussion on Jean-Paul Sartre:

Prabhupāda: Changing is the mind, not the person. Changing positions is of the mind. So he is identifying the person with the mind; therefore he is not a perfect philosopher.

Śyāmasundara: He says that this objective being, like these objects, he calls it "being in itself," and only these concrete phenomena are real. But he says these concrete phenomena are more than their phenomenal appearances. Just like this thing is more than what it appears to be, but it is no more than the sum total of all its appearances. In other words, this thing may appear like this, but it is more than this; it is all of its possible appearances, from the time it was clay, to the time the paint was applied, different things, in all its appearances, that is the reality of this thing. It is not just this thing; it is all of its appearances. But that is all. There is nothing more than that. It doesn't have any reality beyond its phenomenal appearances.

Prabhupāda: From where the material came, first of all? Beyond the material, the source of material?

Philosophy Discussion on Karl Marx:

Śyāmasundara: So they say the well-being for the most people. If something has to be sacrificed for that then it is all right.

Prabhupāda: So that everyone thinks. Everyone says, but these are also incorrect propositions. So far Russia is concerned, we have seen practically, these things are not being applied. Like, at least we have seen, that in Moscow, all big, big buildings, they are not recent buildings, they are old, damaged buildings, and (indistinct). So that means their economic condition is not so sound. The old buildings are not very nicely renovated. So what is that building we we are going inside, getting out from the National Hotel? There was a big building, some historical building?

Śyāmasundara: Kremlin?

Philosophy Discussion on Karl Marx:

Prabhupāda: That's all right. Physical... Even physical, you do not know. Even this physical manifestation of this universe, what do you know about this? You do not know. There are so many planets. You cannot go even in the moon planet.

Śyāmasundara: He says it's only necessary to know what applies to us, what...

Prabhupāda: Then don't talk of reality. Don't talk of reality.

Śyāmasundara: I only need to know that which is useful to me.

Philosophy Discussion on Mao Tse Tung:

Śyāmasundara: Some Christians say that in the mind there is a struggle between God and the devil, and this conflict is always continually going on.

Prabhupāda: No, no. That is wrong thing. God does not come down to your mind, God and devil. That is mind's action. Sometimes he accepts, sometimes he rejects. So either you can say God and devil or whatever. That is mind's business. But that is not final conclusion. When you apply your intelligence with reference to the sādhu and śāstra and make a conclusion, that is right.

Śyāmasundara: So on this level progress is made through conflict.

Philosophy Discussion on Mao Tse Tung:

Śyāmasundara: Well, I'm not concerned with questions about my origin or about the nature of matter except that...

Prabhupāda: Then you are interested in the superficial things.

Śyāmasundara: Yes. Only as it applies to society.

Prabhupāda: That superficial means it is changing. It will never be perfect. If you take superficial thing, then it is changing always. That is nature's law.

Śyāmasundara: My only interest is in the dictatorship of the proletariat, that everyone should have an equal opportunity, equal pay, equal property, everything.

Philosophy Discussion on Mao Tse Tung:

Śyāmasundara: So these governments, meaning American government or Chinese government, they live on slogans, on ideas, mental concoctions.

Prabhupāda: That's all. Mental concoction. They are not perfect. Perfection is this Kṛṣṇa consciousness. If they are intelligent, they should consider this movement very seriously and apply it for practical life all over the world. That will make people happy.

Śyāmasundara: So that's all.

Prabhupāda: That's all.

Philosophy Discussion on The Evolutionists Thomas Huxley, Henri Bergson, and Samuel Alexander:

Prabhupāda: That we see... He's going... He's going... Veda is accept by everyone. All learned scholar. Who can decry Vedas? Only the rascals will decry Vedas. Otherwise... Just like in our country, India, all the big ācāryas, they accept Vedas as the basic principle. So who can decry? Veda says that the stool of cow is pure, and it is accepted. Everyone. All Hindus, brāhmaṇas, kṣatriyas, vaiśyas, and the ācāryas, they accept that cow dung is pure. Why? Veda says. In another place, Veda says that "Stool of any animal is impure," but this stool is pure. So we haven't got discrimination. We accept that. Other animal stool is impure. But the cow dung, the stool of cow, we immediately accept as pure, and we apply it in our Deity room and make is purified. That is Veda. You cannot contradict . You cannot argue Vedas. That is also...

Philosophy Discussion on Johann Gottlieb Fichte:

Śyāmasundara: He says that the reason is subordinate to the will.

Prabhupāda: Yes, thinking, feeling, willing, so willing, I want to do something, I apply my reason, that is intelligence. If we do it intelligently then it is good, and if I do it foolishly then it is bad. Will is there.

Śyāmasundara: Will is (indistinct) will is primary reason.

Prabhupāda: No. After reasoning, then you will. After reasoning.

Philosophy Discussion on Johann Gottlieb Fichte:

Hayagrīva: But again he feels, like the others, that if you apply personality to God or if you look on God as a person you necessarily refer to someone who is limited and finite.

Prabhupāda: No. That is his mistake. He, he is thinking God is like himself, as he is finite. That is Dr. Frog.

Hayagrīva: Yes, he says...

Philosophy Discussion on Socrates:

Hayagrīva: The way, the way to...

Prabhupāda: Ethics, yes.

Hayagrīva: The way of action in the world. And the jñāna, or knowledge, in itself is not sufficient, but it must be applied and must serve as a basis for action in the world.

Prabhupāda: Yes, ethics is the basic principle of purification. Unless one does..., knows what is moral and what is immoral... Of course, in this material world everything is immoral, but still we have to distinguish good and bad. That is called regulative principle. Simply by following the regulative principle, if he does not reach the ultimate goal of spiritual life, so that is also not wanted.

Philosophy Discussion on St. Augustine:

Prabhupāda: Wrapped up. But there are different identities. Intelligence... Everyone has got mind, but the mind acts under intelligence. But the intelligence of different living entities are different. Similarly mind is also different. A dog's intelligence is not equal to the intelligence of the human being. A dog's mind is not equal to the human being's mind. So actually the soul, being put under different types of body using different types of intelligence, and different some mental, psychic action, thinking, feeling, willing. So according to the body, the mind and intelligence are different.

Hayagrīva: Well, this..., thinking in this way Augustine writes, he says, "We do not apply 'Thou shalt not kill' to plants, because they have no sensation, or to irrational animals that fly, swim, walk or creep, because they are linked to us by no association or common bond. By the creator's wise ordinance they are meant for our use, dead or alive. It only remains for us to apply the commandment 'Thou shalt not kill' to man alone, oneself and others." So...

Prabhupāda: So that is imagination of Augustine. But Jesus Christ does not say such qualitative killing. He says frankly, "Thou shalt not kill." When he says that, he means, "You should not kill." But when there is absolute necessity, just like he says that "One life is food for the another life..." Does he not say it like that?

Philosophy Discussion on Blaise Pascal:

Prabhupāda: Yes. That just like the father and the child. The father says, "You do this." So that is all-comprehensive. The father's idea is complete; it is good for the son. But the son says, "No. I want to act in this way." That is his folly. Similarly, what God says, that is religion, and... So there is no question of blind following. If you know, "Here is God. He is all-perfect, and whatever He is saying, that is all-perfect. Let me accept it," then you are gainer. And if apply your reasoning and change it according to your whims, then you suffer.

Philosophy Discussion on John Locke:

Hayagrīva: And John Locke, Locke is the..., is most famous for his conception of tabula rasa, or blank slate, that a child is born with no innate ideas. He states that "If there are innate or inborn ideas, all men would have them." That is to say, there would be universal consent. He writes, "This argument of universal consent, which is made use of to prove innate principles, seems to me a demonstration that there are none such because there are none to which all mankind give a universal consent." So it cannot be argued that all people have an innate or inborn idea of God since there is no universal consent on this subject. Well, do innate ideas have to be universal? Might not some living entities have some innate ideas and other living entities have others? Why does an innate idea have to be universal and apply to everyone?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Innate idea is that there is somebody. That is developed consciousness. The animals, they cannot think, on account of nondeveloped consciousness, but even in human society, uncivilized society, they have got the innate idea of some superior form. When there is lightning, they offer obeisances. When they see big ocean, they offer obeisances, something big. So that innate idea is universal, to offer obeisances to something wonderful. But this innate idea of accepting something supreme and offering respect is not developed in the animal. So this innate idea is there. When it is not developed, it is animal, and when it is developed, then it is human being. And a perfect human being is he, when he has developed this innate idea to the fullest stage. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Page Title:Apply (Lectures)
Compiler:SunitaS, JayaNitaiGaura
Created:24 of Jul, 2011
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=292, Con=0, Let=0
No. of Quotes:292