Prabhupāda: They are working hard because they are hogs and dogs. There is no need of working hard. Nature's arrangement is so perfect that if you live natural life, there is no need of hard work. This tree is standing in one place; it is not at all working. How it is standing and living? It is also living entity. The birds and beasts, they have no scientific laboratory. How they are living happily? So your advanced brain means you are spoiling, you do not know how to utilize the brain. The brain wants to be utilized for searching out Kṛṣṇa, but instead of Kṛṣṇa, you are searching out ashes, that's all. Brain is being misused.
Ashes (Conversations and Letters)
Conversations and Morning Walks
1972 Conversations and Morning Walks
1973 Conversations and Morning Walks
Devotee: I had one question about the nature of transcendental knowledge. And it said in Bhagavad-gītā that transcendental knowledge is of a nature that it is like fire. It burns to ashes the reactions to sinful activity. But... It may be sort of a nonsense question. But I couldn't understand how it is, what, how it, how, what is the nature of knowledge that it can do this? How does transcendental knowledge burn to ashes the reactions of sinful...
Prabhupāda: Yes. If you always engage your mind in transcendental topics, naturally all other nonsense topics will be stopped. Or you'll have no interest in such topics. That is burned down. Bhaktiḥ pareśānubhavo viraktir anya... (SB 11.2.42). That is the test. If you increase your devotion, then you'll be not interested in ordinary things. Just like our devotees, they are no more interested in the worldly topics. They do not like to go to the cinema. That is no more interest. We can see the film of Ratha-yātrā, but we are no more interested to see ordinary film.
1974 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: But where they will get fossils of old intelligent men?
Satsvarūpa: Well, they say that they've found just skulls of very primitive men...
Prabhupāda: No, no, you cannot find because according to Vedic culture, the body's burned into ashes. Where you'll get the bones and fossils?
Bali Mardana: You only come up with the primitive ones who are not civilized.
Prabhupāda: We understand from the writings, not from the fossils and bones. The bones and fossils are already finished, but they kept their writing.
Bali Mardana: Only the uncivilized people were buried.
Prabhupāda: Suppose I am writing books. In future if you could not find my bones and fossils, but the books will prove what I was. So we have got the books. That is the real bones and fossils.
Bali Mardana: They try to disprove...
Prabhupāda: They cannot find out bones and fossils of Kṛṣṇa. Now, why they accept?
Satsvarūpa: Nobody agreed... (tape garbled)
Prabhupāda: You have to accept authority... (break) ...authority of yourself, we have got authority also. We have got authority.
Prabhupāda: Yes. The Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra means Kṛṣṇa, the Lord, and Hare, or Harā, means Kṛṣṇa's energy. Just like you are there, the heater is there and the heating energy is there, similarly, Kṛṣṇa is there and Kṛṣṇa's energies are there. Just like the sun is there, and the sun's energy is there, the sunshine, heat and light. Is it not? There is heat and light. That is from the sun. But still, the heat and light is different from the sun. Suppose you are in the sunshine. In one sense you are in the sun, and in other sense you are not in the sun because sun's temperature is so high, had you been in the sun, you would have been immediately blown up, burned into ashes. But you are in the sunshine, the energy of sun. So, Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Lord, is situated as the supreme fire, and whatever we are experiencing, that is His energy. Although sun is... The example, sun is 93,000,000 miles away, but (on) account of the sun's energy spread, we are feeling the presence of sun. Similarly, we have to associate with God, Kṛṣṇa, by chanting His holy name because Kṛṣṇa, being Absolute, He is not different from His name, and therefore, if you chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra without any offense, then you directly associate with Kṛṣṇa.
1975 Conversations and Morning Walks
Devotee: Hiraṇyākṣa was taking the gold from the earth. Now they are taking the oil. So the weight, the oil makes weight in some parts of the globe, no? So when they take it and they put it some place else or they convert it in the earth, the earth is losing weights in some parts. That is no going to cause... Prabhupāda: I think I have explained this. Instead of contemplating what will happen to this world, you have got a short duration of life, say fifty, sixty years. You chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and go back to home, back to Godhead. Don't consider what will happen to this world. The nature will take care of it. You don't puzzle your brain with these thoughts. You utilize whatever time you have got in your possession and go back to home, back to Godhead. (break) You cannot check it. Best thing is that you mold your life and go back to home, back to Godhead. "Oil in your own machine." Instead of thinking what will happen... They will happen. Because people will go on with their rascal civilization, natural consequences will be there. You better take advantage of whatever time you have got and become fully Kṛṣṇa conscious and go back to home. (break) ...and we are thinking, "You are crazy. You are losing the opportunity of life." Therefore I wrote that "Who is Crazy?" They have got this opportunity, human form of life, to make a solution of all problems, but they do not care for it. They are simply allured, the temporary happiness of this body, and the body will finish within some years. That they do not take care. They think it is all in all, body. Hṛdayānanda: So that's animal life.
Prabhupāda: Yes. And then, by culture, another fifty percent. But they have given up this culture. But the birthright fifty percent is already also there. Prayāga, severest cold, eh, I took bath in the Ganges. It is simply cutting. But still, they are taking bath and smearing over the body the ashes and sit down, chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. No care "Wherefrom food will come? Where...?" No. That's in India still. (break) ...it is also like this, cloudy?
Bhagavān: Just a few months out of the year, January, February.
Prabhupāda: Otherwise how we have gone there? (laughter) Africa was part of India.
Brahmānanda: The land was together?
Prabhupāda: No, there...
Indian man: Geological information it was. It was together. And Australia was fitting in the Bay of Bengal. This is the theory. I learned from my lecturer, Dr. Willinghurst. He told me in my class.
Prabhupāda: Because from Bhāgavata we understand that the black man who was born out of the body of King Vena, he was thief. So he was sent to the African jungle. Yes. And they are still thief. (laughter) They cannot give up their... Although they have got independence, they cannot give up this habit. (Dog barking) "Best friend."
Prabhupāda: Yes. And at the end there will be no rain. Then this whole planet will be ablaze with fire. That is the beginning of destruction. Everything will die—all trees, plants, animals, everything. It will be made into ashes by the fire. And then there will be rain, and the ashes will be melted, and the whole universe will be finished.
Devotee (2): I read too, Śrīla Prabhupāda, that in the time of Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira there was only rainfall in the nighttime. Is this true?
Prabhupāda: Night time?
Devotee (2): Rain would fall in the nighttime so that...
Prabhupāda: No. Who said that nighttime?
Śrutakīrti:: It mentions in Kṛṣṇa book that in the evening it would rain.
Devotee (2): So as not to disturb the activity of the inhabitants through the daytime.
Prabhupāda: Yes, that is the way. If nighttime it rains and daytime there is sunshine, then the land becomes very fertile to produce. Yes. There is a common saying in Bengal, dine jal rātr e tā rā sei janme sukha dhā rā.(?) If it rains heavily during daytime and at night you see the stars, then you should know there will be scarcity of rain. There will be scarcity of rain and scarcity of food grains. Best thing is at night there must be heavy rain, and daytime, there should be sunshine. Then the field will be very fertile.
Prabhupāda: So do it. (break) ...of the modern civilization, they are thinking that having such nice house, nice motorcar, nice road, nice machine, nice dress, nice woman, they will be happy. This is advancement of civilization. What is this? Don't drink, don't smoke, no meat, simply denying, denying? This is civilization. They think "This is practical. And after death who is going to take care?" Bhasmī-bhutasya dehasya kutaḥ punar-āgamano bhavet: "When the body is finished, burning into ashes, who is coming, and who is responsible?" This is atheistic civilization. (break) ...artha-maninaḥ. External energy, that is everything. Within the body there is the soul. They deny it. There is no soul, body is everything, and enjoy bodily enjoyment. That's all. And our philosophy immediately condemns that "Anyone who is in the bodily concept of life, he is sa eva go-kharaḥ (SB 10.84.13); he is animal." So this is a park?
Indian man: A small park.
Prabhupāda: Huh? Hare Kṛṣṇa. (break)
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: There's a lot of parks of this type.
Prabhupāda: ...India Gate?
Tejas: India Gate is this way, Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Prabhupāda: Oh. You have to go this side or this side?
1976 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda, how he is doing so many things but yet he does not appear like these others yogis who are..., like Satya Sai Baba who is making magic and..."
Prabhupāda: But why? Because they have no eyes. Has Satya Sai Baba so many properties all over the world? He is creating gold but has he got so many properties? One property like this? Huh? I started this business with forty rupees; now it is forty crores. Has this rascal has any property like this? (laughter)
Jayapatākā: He is producing ashes. (laughter)
Bhavānanda: Just like Yogi Bhajan came, remember Śrīla Prabhupāda, in Berkeley, and he said, "I am simply here to try and understand how you are doing so greatly, how you are opening so many temples." He said, "I have simply come to try and understand that point, to learn your secret."
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But his idea is that he will then sit and enjoy all of those things.
Prabhupāda: (laughs) Nowadays all these yogis and swamis are going. Even that blind saintly person...
Hari-śauri: Gange...
Prabhupāda: Gangesvarananda. He also went. But coming back, he is disappointed. Nobody took care of him. Although in India he is known as a great saintly person. They have no asset. They have no Kṛṣṇa; therefore they are beggars. Yaṁ labdhvā cāparaṁ lābhaṁ manyate nādhikaṁ tataḥ. If one gets Kṛṣṇa, then he gets everything.
Nalinīkaṇṭha: Some people would say, "If everything is a creation of God, then why do you have such a..., why do you present this body as such a horrible thing?" Prabhupāda: You wanted this body. Therefore you have got this body. You wanted. Just like a child asks the father, "Give me this dress." Father gives him, "All right, take this dress." You wanted a certain type of body. Just like the surfers. They want a body like fish. Therefore they are so much anxious to swim. So father will give him next body a fish.
Prabhupāda: So we thought that we shall use it as temple. That they disagreed. "No, you cannot keep it, you have to break it, then we can sell to you." Then why shall I break it? We shall pay for it and break it? No. Then the negotiation failed. But a huge land, and we are prepared to purchase. In England, in London, I was..., one, two churches I was negotiating, and one church, that man, he said, "I'll burn into ashes. I'll not sell it to Bhaktivedanta." (laughs) Recently we wanted to purchase in St. James Park one nice house. So they did not give us. They..., we offered better price; still they did not give us.
Stansky: Your Grace, the thing that impressed me the very most at the temple in Los Angeles.... Now you must bear in mind that I am very, very steeped in Catholicism, I'm very steeped in the New Testament. So when I observed what was happening at the temple in Los Angeles, I was seeing the Book of Acts coming to life. Something that died three hundred years ago in the Roman church. In 300 A.D. it died. Since then there's been no such example. And I was just amazed wandering around because there I saw the exact, the Book of Acts. And I was impressed.
Prabhupāda: You keep this. We shall have to show to the Indian government authorities.
Sadāpūta: There was one thing I was wondering a little bit. Is the possibility of..., is it possible of making some experiments which would tend to indicate that life is not material? And this might be appealing to some of the people with scientific education, because they are used to such things, experiments.
Prabhupāda: No, experiment is there. Just like in... Hindus, we burn the body into ashes. How the soul is transmigrating? This is scientific experiment. The Bhagavad-gītā says nainaṁ dahati pāvakaḥ. Everyone is seeing the body is burned into ashes, but still, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). He's going to another body. How it is going? So the soul is not burned.
Rūpānuga: We were having a meeting with the other scientists, and they were challenging you. They were saying, "Show us one experiment. Show us one experiment!" That's the way they are.
Prabhupāda: There are so many experiments.
Sadāpūta: We were wondering... We knew that, for example, Jagadisha Chandra Bose did some experiments indicating plants having consciousness. We were wondering if some things of that kind might be of some use.
Prabhupāda: So in the Calcutta there is Bose Institute, you can go and see. They have got all machine, how the plants are feeling. Everything is there.
Jagadīśa: That's what the Christians say. The Christians say. Prabhupāda: So what is the symptom? Hari-śauri: Well, they... 'Cause he, man, has reason and logic. Prabhupāda: That means reason and logic is soul. That is their idea. That is not soul. Intelligence, when I say, "You have got intelligence," it does not mean you are intelligence. "You have got intelligence," we say like that. We never say, "You are intelligence." So intelligence is not soul. The rascals, they do not know. Mistake. Nobody says, "You are intelligence." They say, "You are intelligent."
Mr. Malhotra: Why this trying to understand Kṛṣṇa? Why not try to understand one's self? Kṛṣṇa passed 5000 years ago. Now ashes are there in our hands. Why not...
Prabhupāda: That means you do not know what is Kṛṣṇa. Therefore you do not know what is Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is... Why Kṛṣṇa? You are part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. You are nitya, nityaḥ śāśvato 'yaṁ na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). So you are part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa, you are nitya. Why do you say Kṛṣṇa existed 5000 years ago? He is existing always.
Mr. Malhotra: Always existing there. (indistinct) Within you, within oneself.
Prabhupāda: No no. You are also nitya, but you are part and parcel of that nitya. Nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13). God is nitya, you are also nitya, God is also living, you are also living. What is the difference between the two? That one person He is maintaining all of us. Eko yo bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān. So this is knowledge of Kṛṣṇa. God is one. I am also individual. But we are many because we are all living entities. But God is one. We are controlled by God or God's nature. We are not one.
Mr. Malhotra: Aren't we the images of God?
Prabhupāda: Apart from images... That is another thing. That we shall describe later on. First of all you cannot claim that you are God because you are under the control of material nature.
1977 Conversations and Morning Walks
Gargamuni: Well, we have the beach. No, we have two rooms. Until seven o'clock in the morning we can use these two rooms. So our men can stay. Some will sleep in the van. I will sleep in the van. Prabhupāda: In some car? In the car? In the car? In my car? Gargamuni: No, no. No one is sleeping there. Prabhupāda: No, no. Then why not sleep, someone, some two?
Prabhupāda: Just like you cannot see the flavor, but still, you are smelling, some flavor is nice. In the air, it is rose flavor, it is passing. You cannot see what is that flavor and how it is being carried, but you can smell. Similarly, the soul is being carried by the mind, ego and intelligence. You cannot see it, but you have to understand by hearing from the authorities like Kṛṣṇa. Itas tu viddhi me prakṛtiṁ parām, jīva-bhūtāṁ mahā-bāho (BG 7.5). Beyond this material things, there is another prakṛti. That is the... That does not die. Na jāyate na mriyate. And that is being carried by mind, intelligence and ego. By our gross eyes, we see the body is burnt into ashes, finished. Soul and everything is finished. The atheist will say like that. Bhasmi bhūtasya dehasya tataḥ punar āgamano bhavet.(?) "If the body is already burnt into ashes, who is coming and who are going?" The atheists. Kṛṣṇa does not say. No. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). So will you accept the atheists or Kṛṣṇa? That is our process. The atheist will say "It is burnt into ashes. Where, where is soul?" Kṛṣṇa says, "No," na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). "He is not dead. He has gone to another body." Dhīras tatra na muhyati (BG 2.13). Those who are sober, they are not disturbed. So we have to become sober. These restless rascals, how they will become sober? Suppose a child is restless child, how can you convince him about philosophy? Sober man, cool-headed man, he can be convinced. So this is a childish civilization. This is not sober civilization. There is no full-brain man. All restless dogs and hogs. And they have taken it is first class, dogs and hogs.
Prabhupāda: It is luxurious. (break) ...the āṭā dough. So after it is cooked... They have got ghee. That ball soaked in ghee and the ḍāl, it is so nice when taken. That is called baṭī. Very quickly made. And after eating, with that ash the two or three utensils, mean the loṭā and the plate, they'll cleanse it very nice and walk away. And that food is sufficient for twenty-four hours. Within twenty-four hours he will not be hungry and feel very strong. The two things. And you can cook anywhere without any difficulty. In India, especially in village, you can get so many dried cow dung. So fuel is ready. The āṭā is packed up. And ghee in a pot. That's all. How simple life. Simply they'll sit down where there is water, and they'll take water. Then everything is arranged. No hotel. Or even there is no āṭā, they keep their own ghee, homemade, pure. Āṭā can be purchased anywhere in the village. There is no need of carrying āṭā. So this preparation for tourists... Tourists, Indian tourists, means going to some holy place. They have no other sightseeing, no program. All villagers, they are still... The pilgrimage in holy places, now no educated man goes. Very rarely. All these villagers by thousands... They... You see this Tirupati, Tirumala. All the contribution by the villagers. By their hard-earned money they keep something for going. You have seen Tirupati, Tirumal...? Standing for hours to contribute in a line. Hundreds of people. They'll come, contribute something. Then they'll shave their head, see the Deity, have some bath in the adjoining lake. Then they'll take prasādam. That is very big tank.
Correspondence
1970 Correspondence
There are two verses in the Canakya Sloka how a family or an institution can be glorified or burned into ashes by one person. The Canakya Pandit says that if there is one tree in the forest producing nice aromatic flower, that one tree can glorify the whole forest by the flavor of its flower. Similarly if there is one tree in whose cavity there is a little fire, that one tree can burn into ashes the whole forest. So this simile is applicable anywhere. In a family if there is one good boy, he can glorify the whole family and similarly if there is bad boy he can turn the whole family into ashes. Similarly in this institution if there is a bad disciple he can burn the whole institution into ashes. The Governing Body Commission's duty is therefore to see that every member is following the rules and regulations and chanting sixteen round regularly on the beads. I hope the GBC in cooperation with the Sannyasis in their touring program will be able to keep vigilance systematically in order to keep the Society as pure as possible.
1972 Correspondence
On Ash lane near Meadows Street, Fort area, there is a wholesale dealer of books and magazines. They can be interested in distributing our literatures, especially magazines. And you can approach A. H. Wheeler in Allahabad for also distributing our books widely throughout his railway station book stalls all over India.
1974 Correspondence
So you have done you duty at the last moments of your wife's life so that she could hear them chanting. As to where she has gone, that depends on what she was thinking of at the time of her passing away. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gita: anta-kale ca mam eva/ smaran muktva kalevaram/ yah prayati sa mad bhavam/ yati nasty atra samsayah (BG 8.5). "And whoever, at the time of death, quits his body, remembering Me alone, at once attains My nature. Of this there is no doubt." To remember Krishna requires practice, and this is most easily done by chanting Hare Krishna mantra. I have told Nitai to spread the ashes here in the sea. The maha mantra is the only mantra that need be chanted. Do not neglect this.
1975 Correspondence
Learned scholars like you are now needed to represent the cause of Krishna consciousness because without this consciousness the human society is doomed. So I require the help of respectable, learned scholars like you for spreading this movement more and more. According to the Vedic system this body is perishable and the ultimate form of this body is to become ash, stool, or earth. Therefore it is advised by the great pandita Canakya that the body should be sacrificed for a better cause. That is the idea inherent everywhere, especially in India. Everyone is advised to achieve the result of pious activities by engaging this body for such purposes. That is the greatest gain. According to the Vedic varna asrama it is compulsory that one retire from his family life and engage this body for Krishna's service at the end of his life. As it is stated in the Srimad-Bhagavatam:
- tat sadhu manye 'suravarya dehinam
- sada samudvigna dhiyam asad grahat
- hitvartma patam grham andha-kupam
- vannad gato yad harim asrayet
- (SB 7.5.5)
I hope you will try to understand my point of view and join this movement to make it more appreciable by the people in general all over the world.
1976 Correspondence
Please accept my greetings. After a long time I have received a letter from you with mixed information. I am sorry to learn that one of your sons is in mental disorder, so do your best for treatment and depend on Krsna for the ultimate result. The chequered history of family life is the same for everyone. According to our philosophy we call it samsara dava nada lida loka the blazing forest fire of material life. In the forest fire takes place without any human effort and it burns into ashes all the trees and animals without any relief. The relief comes from the cloud above the head.
Similarly the relief from this material world comes from above as we have got instructions in the Bhagavad-gita. So if you like you can retire from family life—you are old enough—and it may be possible for us to give you some shelter. I am in Vrndavana at present and shall remain here at least for one month. If you so desire you can come here and meet me.
Page Title: | Ashes (Conversations and Letters) |
Compiler: | Rishab, RupaManjari |
Created: | 24 of May, 2011 |
Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=21, Let=5 |
No. of Quotes: | 26 |