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Ascetic

Bhagavad-gita As It Is

BG Chapters 1 - 6

BG 6.46, Translation and Purport:

A yogī is greater than the ascetic, greater than the empiricist and greater than the fruitive worker. Therefore, O Arjuna, in all circumstances, be a yogī.

When we speak of yoga we refer to linking our consciousness with the Supreme Absolute Truth. Such a process is named differently by various practitioners in terms of the particular method adopted. When the linking process is predominantly in fruitive activities it is called karma-yoga, when it is predominantly empirical it is called jñāna-yoga, and when it is predominantly in a devotional relationship with the Supreme Lord it is called bhakti-yoga. Bhakti-yoga, or Kṛṣṇa consciousness, is the ultimate perfection of all yogas, as will be explained in the next verse. The Lord has confirmed herein the superiority of yoga, but He has not mentioned that it is better than bhakti-yoga. Bhakti-yoga is full spiritual knowledge, and therefore nothing can excel it. Asceticism without self-knowledge is imperfect. Empiric knowledge without surrender to the Supreme Lord is also imperfect. And fruitive work without Kṛṣṇa consciousness is a waste of time.

BG Chapters 7 - 12

BG 7.9, Translation:

I am the original fragrance of the earth, and I am the heat in fire. I am the life of all that lives, and I am the penances of all ascetics.

Srimad-Bhagavatam

SB Canto 1

SB 1.7.10, Purport:

The word munayaḥ refers to (1) those who are thoughtful, (2) those who are grave and silent, (3) ascetics, (4) the persistent, (5) mendicants, (6) sages and (7) saints.

SB 1.9.48, Translation:

Thereafter, Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira at once went to his capital, Hastināpura, accompanied by Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, and there he consoled his uncle and aunt Gāndhārī, who was an ascetic.

SB 1.9.48, Purport:

After the Battle of Kurukṣetra, the celebrated couple, having lost all their sons and grandsons, were under the care of Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira. They were passing their days in great agony over such a heavy loss of life and were practically living the life of ascetics. The death news of Bhīṣmadeva, uncle of Dhṛtarāṣṭra, was another great shock for the King and the Queen, and therefore they required solace from Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira.

SB 1.9.48, Purport:

Gāndhārī was a powerful ascetic, although she was living the life of a faithful wife and a kind mother. It is said that Gāndhārī also voluntarily closed her eyes because of the blindness of her husband. A wife's duty is to follow the husband cent percent. And Gāndhārī was so true to her husband that she followed him even in his perpetual blindness. Therefore in her actions she was a great ascetic. Besides that, the shock she suffered because of the wholesale killing of her one hundred sons and her grandsons also was certainly too much for a woman. But she suffered all this just like an ascetic. Gāndhārī, although a woman, is no less than Bhīṣmadeva in character. They are both remarkable personalities in the Mahābhārata.

SB 1.12.21, Purport:

The society girls of heaven are lusty, and Urvaśī was very eager to contact Arjuna, the strongest human being. She met him in his room and expressed her desires but Arjuna sustained his unimpeachable character by closing his eyes before Urvaśī, addressing her as mother of the Kuru dynasty and placing her in the category of his mothers Kuntī, Mādrī and Śacīdevī, wife of Indradeva. Disappointed, Urvaśī cursed Arjuna and left. In the heavenly planet he also met the great celebrated ascetic Lomasa and prayed to him for the protection of Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira.

SB 1.13.39, Translation:

Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira said: O godly personality, I do not know where my two uncles have gone. Nor can I find my ascetic aunt who is grief-stricken by the loss of all her sons.

SB 1.13.39, Purport:

Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira, as a good soul and devotee of the Lord, was always conscious of the great loss of his aunt and her sufferings as an ascetic. An ascetic is never disturbed by all kinds of sufferings, and that makes him strong and determined on the path of spiritual progress. Queen Gāndhārī is a typical example of an ascetic because of her marvelous character in many trying situations. She was an ideal woman as mother, wife and ascetic, and in the history of the world such character in a woman is rarely found.

SB Canto 2

SB 2.9.8, Translation:

Lord Brahmā underwent penances for one thousand years by the calculations of the demigods. He heard this transcendental vibration from the sky, and he accepted it as divine. Thus he controlled his mind and senses, and the penances he executed were a great lesson for the living entities. Thus he is known as the greatest of all ascetics.

SB 2.9.36, Purport:

Śukadeva Gosvāmī said (SB 2.4.17) that neither the ascetic, nor one who is greatly munificent, nor one who is famous, nor the great philosopher, nor the great occultist, nor anyone else can achieve the desired result without being engaged in the service of the Lord.

SB Canto 4

SB 4.23.6, Purport:

One is enjoined to sit within a circle of fire, with flames blazing from four sides and the sun blazing directly overhead. This is one kind of pañca-tapāḥ recommended for austerity. Similarly, in the rainy season one is enjoined to expose himself to torrents of rain and in winter to sit in cold water up to the neck. As far as bedding is concerned, the ascetic should be content with simply lying on the floor.

SB 4.24.14, Purport:

Sometimes great sages and ascetics enter the Himalaya Mountains in order to find seclusion from the turmoil of the world. It appears, however, that all the Pracetās, the sons of Prācīnabarhi, entered the depths of the ocean to perform austerity in a secluded place. Since they performed austerities for ten thousand years, this incident took place in the Satya-yuga, when people used to live for a hundred thousand years.

SB Cantos 10.14 to 12 (Translations Only)

SB 11.4.19, Translation:

The Lord also delivered the tiny ascetic sages called the Vālakhilyas when they fell into the water in a cow's hoofprint and Indra was laughing at them. The Lord then saved Indra when Indra was covered by darkness due to the sinful reaction for killing Vṛtrāsura. When the wives of the demigods were trapped in the palace of the demons without any shelter, the Lord saved them. In His incarnation as Nṛsiṁha, the Lord killed Hiraṇyakaśipu, the king of demons, to free the saintly devotees from fear.

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta

CC Preface and Introduction

CC Foreword:

The author of this great classic, Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī, born around the beginning of the sixteenth century, was a disciple of Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī, a confidential follower of Caitanya Mahāprabhu's. Raghunātha dāsa, a renowned ascetic saint, heard and memorized all the activities of Caitanya Mahāprabhu told to him by Svarūpa Dāmodara Gosvāmī.

CC Adi-lila

CC Adi 7.27, Purport:

Śrīmat Prabodhānanda Sarasvatī writes in his Caitanya-candrāmṛta that when influenced by Lord Caitanya's Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, materialists become averse to talking about their wives and children, supposedly learned scholars give up their tedious studies of Vedic literature, yogīs give up their impractical practices of mystic yoga, ascetics give up their austere activities of penance and austerity, and sannyāsīs give up their study of Sāṅkhya philosophy. Thus they are all attracted by the bhakti-yoga practices of Lord Caitanya and cannot relish a mellow superior to that of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

CC Adi 12.72, Translation:

Be he a learned scholar, a great ascetic, a successful householder or a famous sannyāsī, one who is against the cult of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu is destined to suffer the punishment meted out by Yamarāja.

CC Adi 12.73, Purport:

It is further to be understood that not only the misguided descendants of Advaita Ācārya but anyone who has no connection with Caitanya Mahāprabhu—even if he is independently a great sannyāsī, learned scholar or ascetic—is like a dead branch of a tree.

CC Adi 12.73, Purport:
Although posing as great scholars, ascetics, householders and svāmīs, the so-called followers of the Hindu religion are all useless, dried-up branches of the Vedic religion. They are impotent; they cannot do anything to spread the Vedic culture for the benefit of human society. The essence of the Vedic culture is the message of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Lord Caitanya instructed:

yāre dekha, tāre kaha "kṛṣṇa"-upadeśa

āmāra ājñāya guru hañā tāra' ei deśa
(CC Madhya 7.128)

One should simply instruct everyone he meets regarding the principles of kṛṣṇa-kathā, as expressed in Bhagavad-gītā As It Is and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. One who has no interest in kṛṣṇa-kathā or the cult of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu is like dry, useless wood with no living force.

CC Madhya-lila

CC Madhya 20.113, Translation:

“"All the creative energies, which are inconceivable to a common man, exist in the Supreme Absolute Truth. These inconceivable energies act in the process of creation, maintenance and annihilation. O chief of the ascetics, just as there are two energies possessed by fire—namely heat and light—these inconceivable creative energies are the natural characteristics of the Absolute Truth.""

CC Madhya 24.15, Translation:

“The word "muni" refers to one who is thoughtful, one who is grave or silent, an ascetic, one who keeps great vows, one in the renounced order and a saint. These are the different meanings of the word ‘muni."

CC Antya-lila

CC Antya 16.147, Translation:

“"Aside from the rivers, the trees standing on the banks like great ascetics and engaging in welfare activities for all living entities drink the nectar of Kṛṣṇa"s lips by drawing water from the river with their roots. We cannot understand why they drink like that.'"

Other Books by Srila Prabhupada

Teachings of Lord Caitanya

Teachings of Lord Caitanya, Chapter Prologue:

Now, after the tenth year of his age, Caitanya became a passable scholar in grammar, rhetoric, the smṛti and the nyāya. It was after this that his elder brother Viśvarūpa left his house and accepted the āśrama (status) of a sannyāsī (ascetic). Caitanya, though a very young boy, consoled his parents, saying that he would serve them with a view to please God. Just after that, his father left this world. His mother was exceedingly sorry, and Mahāprabhu, with his usual contented appearance, consoled his widowed mother.

Krsna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead

Krsna Book 51:

“My dear Lord, You are so merciful that in spite of my being reluctant to associate with Your pure devotees, You have shown Your extreme mercy upon me as a result of my slight contact with such a pure devotee as Garga Muni. By Your causeless mercy only have I lost all my material opulences, my kingdom and my family. I do not think I could have gotten rid of all these entanglements without Your causeless mercy. Kings and emperors sometimes accept the life of an ascetic to forget their royal life, but by Your special causeless mercy I have already been bereft of royalty. I do not need to become a mendicant or practice renunciation."

Krsna Book 78:

It would not have been possible for anyone but Kṛṣṇa to kill these great heroes, and therefore all the demigods from heaven and the human beings on the surface of the globe were glorifying Him. Great sages and ascetics, the denizens of the Siddha and Gandharva planets, the denizens known as Vidyādharas, Vāsuki and the Mahānāgas, the beautiful angels, the inhabitants of Pitṛloka, the Yakṣas, the Kinnaras and the Cāraṇas all showered flowers upon Him and sang songs of His victory in great jubilation.

Krsna Book 78:

When Lord Balarāma arrived, all the participants in the meeting—great sages, ascetics, brāhmaṇas and learned scholars—immediately arose from their seats and welcomed Him with great honor and respect. Some offered Him respects by standing up and then paying obeisances, and those who were elderly great sages and brāhmaṇas offered Him blessings after standing up. After this formality, Lord Balarāma was offered a suitable seat, and everyone present worshiped Him. Everyone in the assembly stood up in the presence of Balarāma because they knew Him to be the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Krsna Book 84:

While the women were engaged in conversations among themselves and the men were similarly engaged in conversation, there arrived from all directions almost all the important sages and ascetics, who had come for the purpose of seeing Lord Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma.

Krsna Book 84:

As soon as the sages and ascetics arrived, all the kings, including Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira and the other Pāṇḍavas and Lord Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma, immediately got up from their seats and offered respects by bowing down to the universally respected sages. After this, the sages were properly welcomed by being offered seats and water for washing their feet.

Krsna Book 84:

Lord Kṛṣṇa spoke thus: “All glories to the assembled sages and ascetics! Today we all feel that our lives have become successful. Today we have achieved the desired goal of life because we now see face to face all the exalted, liberated sages and ascetics, whom even the great demigods in the heavens desire to see. Persons who are neophytes in devotional service and who simply offer their respectful obeisances to the Deity in the temple but cannot realize that the Lord is situated in everyone's heart, and those who simply worship different demigods for fulfillment of their own lusty desires, are unable to understand the importance of these sages. They cannot take advantage of receiving these sages by seeing them with their eyes, by touching their lotus feet, by inquiring about their welfare or by diligently worshiping them.”

Krsna Book 84:

Neophyte devotees or religionists cannot understand the importance of great mahātmās. They go to the temple as a matter of formality and pay their respectful obeisances unto the Deity. But when one is promoted to the next platform of transcendental consciousness, one can understand the importance of mahātmās and devotees, and in that stage one tries to please them. Therefore, Lord Kṛṣṇa said that the neophyte cannot understand the importance of great sages, devotees or ascetics.

Krsna Book 84:

When the supreme authority, Lord Kṛṣṇa, was thus speaking with great gravity, all the sages and ascetics remained in dead silence. They were amazed upon hearing Him speak the absolute philosophy of life in such a concise way. Unless one is very much advanced in knowledge, one thinks his body to be his self, his family members to be his own, and the land of his birth to be worshipable.

Krsna Book 87:

Once when Nārada, the great devotee and ascetic amongst the demigods, was traveling among different planets, he desired to meet the ascetic Nārāyaṇa personally in Badarīkāśrama and offer Him respects. This great sage incarnation of Godhead, Nārāyaṇa Ṛṣi, has been undergoing great penances and austerities from the very beginning of the creation to teach the inhabitants of Bhārata-varṣa how to attain the highest perfectional stage of going back to Godhead.

Renunciation Through Wisdom

Renunciation Through Wisdom 1.9:

In the process of karma-kāṇḍa, it is recommended that one renounce physical pleasures for a time; so a karmī may sometimes be called an ascetic. Yet however much penance a karmī may perform, ultimately this penance is another form of sensual enjoyment, since that is its ultimate goal. The demons also perform penance to increase their powers, but it is all simply to enjoy their senses.

Renunciation Through Wisdom 5.1:

A yogī is greater than the ascetic, greater than the empiricist, and greater than the fruitive worker. Therefore, O Arjuna, in all circumstances be a yogī. And of all yogīs, the one who with great faith always abides in Me, thinks of Me within Himself, and renders transcendental loving service to Me-he is most intimately united with Me in yoga and is the highest of all. That is My opinion.

Lectures

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Lecture on SB 1.9.48 -- Mayapura, June 14, 1973:

Because he was elder uncle, Yudhiṣṭhira Mahārāja was coming in the morning to offer obeisances, and one morning, when he came, he saw there is no Dhṛtarāṣṭra and aunt. So became very much disappointed, because he was conscious that they were living in very aggrieved condition. "So might be I have offended them. So therefore they have left my home." That is also, you'll find. Then Nārada came, that "Don't bother. They have gone to the forest to live as ascetic. Don't try to bring them back."

Lecture on SB 1.9.48 -- Mayapura, June 14, 1973:

Ascetic means who voluntarily suffers all kinds of suffering. Titikṣavaḥ, the exact word.

titikṣavaḥ kāruṇikāḥ
suhṛdaḥ sarva-dehinām
ajāta-śatravaḥ śāntāḥ
sādhavaḥ sādhu-bhūṣaṇāḥ
(SB 3.25.21)

Sādhu means that he must be tolerant. Just like Haridāsa Ṭhākura. You know how much tolerant he was. So titikṣavaḥ. So titikṣavaḥ, titikṣavaḥ is the qualification of a brāhmaṇa. Śamo damas titikṣā. Tolerant. You cannot expect any peaceful life in this material world. That is not possible.

Lecture on SB 2.9.4-8 -- Tokyo, April 23, 1972:

So one has to become ascetic and therefore penance. Then these things will be learned. Not with imperfect senses, imperfect conclusion we can understand. No.

Lecture on SB 3.22.22 and Initiations -- Tehran, August 12, 1976:

So we can take instruction from the vivid, living examples of this Kardama Muni and Devahūti. Kardama Muni is an ascetic, very simple living, and Devahūti is the daughter of emperor. And she agreed to marry Kardama Muni, so, engage in the service of her husband. So just imagine a person, ascetic. What assets he has got? No home, no good food, nothing. Still she agreed gladly.

Lecture on SB 3.22.22 and Initiations -- Tehran, August 12, 1976:

She told that "There is Kardama Muni. I want to marry him, that Kardama Muni." She expressed her desire to her father, and the father and mother came to offer the daughter to Kardama Muni. The first consent was the daughter's. Now just see, she was emperor's daughter, how comfortably she was living, but she voluntarily accepted all the difficulties for becoming the wife of an ascetic. You cannot expect royal comforts when one becomes the wife of an ascetic. Of course, later on everything was given to her by the mystic power of Kardama Muni, but in the beginning she accepted in a very humble cottage to live with her husband and serve him.

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.354-358 -- New York, December 28, 1966:

"I shall briefly describe to that state which the knowers of the Vedas call the imperishable, which the ascetics, freed from passion, enter, and desiring which, they lead a life of self-control." Not... Brahmacarya is celibacy. Translation is not here. Celibacy means completely ceasing from sex life. Yad icchanto brahmacarya. Brahmacarya means celibacy. No sex life. Therefore the brahmacarya āśrama is recommended. The first basic principle of religious life, according to Vedic principle, the students are expected to go to the spiritual master's place and learn how to live without any sex life. For twenty-five years or at least for twenty years, the student is trained up in that way.

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

Tapasvinaḥ. There are many ascetics taking severe penance for perfection, tapasvinaḥ. Tapasvino dāna-parā. Dāna-parā means there are many persons who are munificent, making charity, dāna-parā. And yaśasvinaḥ: there are many persons who are very famous. Tapasvino dāna-parā yaśa..., manasvinaḥ. Manasvinaḥ means mental speculators, philosophers, thinking, high thinkers, great thinkers. So these are worldly, great men. Who? One who performs great penance, one who is very charitably disposed, one who is very famous, one who is very mentally advanced, he can think nice things, writes philosophical thesis, write nice poetry. Manasvinaḥ.

Philosophy Discussions

Philosophy Discussion on Soren Aabye Kierkegaard:

Śyāmasundara: I think that's the difference between the Christian emphasis and Kṛṣṇa consciousness...

Prabhupāda: Because it's simply mental speculation. There is no basis.

Śyāmasundara: The Christian monks, ascetics, they always thought that the life they were giving up, they were suffering, always that feeling...

Prabhupāda: Poor fund of knowledge, that's all.

Philosophy Discussion on Arthur Schopenhauer:

Śyāmasundara: He says..., he mentions a third type of salvation, called religious salvation. He says that this is the highest. But his idea of religious salvation is ascetism. That by denying the will then we can quiet the will.

Prabhupāda: Yes that is in one sense, that you don't will anything which is not favorable to Kṛṣṇa's service. That is our prescription. Ānukūlyasya saṅkalpaḥ prātikūlyaṁ vivarjanam. This is, out of the six items of surrender, these are the two items, that you should give up things which are not favorable in execution of devotional service. You should give up. That sort of willing, you should give up.

Philosophy Discussion on Thomas Henry Huxley:

Hayagrīva: He says, "By the Ganges ethical man admits that the cosmos is too strong for him..."

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hayagrīva: "...and destroying every bond which ties him to it by ascetic discipline he seeks salvation in absolute renunciation."

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Conversations and Morning Walks

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Lord Brockway -- July 23, 1973, London:

Lord Brockway: Yes, I became a vegetarian, oh, seventy years ago.

Prabhupāda: Oh, I see.

Lord Brockway: All from ascetic ideas, humanitarian ideas. And I've proved one can be just as healthy.

Prabhupāda: Yes, you look very healthy.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Conversation with Professor Hopkins -- July 13, 1975, Philadelphia:

Prof. Hopkins: There is a passage in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, I forget where, where Viṣṇu is asked "Why is it that the followers of the ascetic Śiva are all wealthy and prosperous people and the followers of You who are the Lord of the universe are all poor?" Is that the way you would see it then, that those that follow Śiva are after more material gain?

Prabhupāda: More material gain means you become more implicated.

Prof. Hopkins: More what?

Prabhupāda: Implicated. Our problem is birth and death, old age and disease. (break) ...this birth, death, old age and disease. For them, liberation, the ultimate liberation is to transfer oneself to the spiritual world.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Conversation with Clergymen -- June 15, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: No, they should be trained up. The foolish man.... Just like a foolish child can be trained up to be very nicely educated to pass M.A. examination. Child is..., all children are foolish. That is accepted. But by training him, we can make him the first-class intelligent man.

Scheverman: Training and discipline is a very important aspect of your asceticism.

Prabhupāda: But that training is wanted at the present moment.

Conversation with Clergymen -- June 15, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: No, these boys and girls are not imported from India, recruited. They are recruited here. I came alone. They are all recruited. I have got so many centers all over the world. They are simply recruited.

Scheverman: Your asceticism, your way of life, your training program, having its Eastern origins, has a great appeal, I think, for many young people.

Prabhupāda: It is not Eastern, Western. It is the life. Just like to become peaceful, is it Eastern or Western? Peaceful is peaceful. Why do you bring Eastern?

Correspondence

1974 Correspondence

Letter to Sadajeewatlalji -- Bombay 20 November, 1974:

So we should not be confused in the matter of violating the orders given by Lord Krishna. bhagavad-bhakti-hinasya/ jatih sastram janas tanah/ apranasyaiva dehasya/ mandanam loka-ranjanam. A big nation, a big worker, a big ascetic, and all similar big attempts, if they are devoid of bhagavad-bhakti, or devotional service, then such high qualities are exactly like the decoration of the dead body.

Page Title:Ascetic
Compiler:Rishab, Serene
Created:10 of Feb, 2011
Totals by Section:BG=2, SB=12, CC=8, OB=12, Lec=10, Con=4, Let=1
No. of Quotes:49