BG 02.69 ya nisa sarva-bhutanam... cited

Expressions researched:
"What is night for all beings is the time of awakening for the self-controlled" |"sa nisa pasyato muneh" |"tasyam jagarti samyami" |"the time of awakening for all beings is night for the introspective sage" |"ya nisa sarva-bhutanam" |"yasyam jagrati bhutani"

Notes from the compiler: VedaBase query: "2.69" or "What is night for all beings is the time of awakening for the self-controlled" or "sa nisa pasyato muneh" or "tasyam jagarti samyami" or "the time of awakening for all beings is night for the introspective sage" or "ya nisa sarva-bhutanam" or "yasyam jagrati bhutani"

BG Chapters 1 - 6

BG 2.69, Translation and Purport:

What is night for all beings is the time of awakening for the self-controlled; and the time of awakening for all beings is night for the introspective sage.

There are two classes of intelligent men. One is intelligent in material activities for sense gratification, and the other is introspective and awake to the cultivation of self-realization. Activities of the introspective sage, or thoughtful man, are night for persons materially absorbed. Materialistic persons remain asleep in such a night due to their ignorance of self-realization. The introspective sage remains alert in the "night" of the materialistic men. The sage feels transcendental pleasure in the gradual advancement of spiritual culture, whereas the man in materialistic activities, being asleep to self-realization, dreams of varieties of sense pleasure, feeling sometimes happy and sometimes distressed in his sleeping condition. The introspective man is always indifferent to materialistic happiness and distress. He goes on with his self-realization activities undisturbed by material reactions.

SB Canto 5

SB 5.13.9, Translation and Purport:

The conditioned soul in the material forest is sometimes swallowed by a python or crushed. At such a time he is left lying in the forest like a dead person, devoid of consciousness and knowledge. Sometimes other poisonous snakes bite him. Being blind to his consciousness, he falls down into a dark well of hellish life with no hope of being rescued.

When one becomes unconscious due to being bitten by a snake, one cannot understand what is taking place outside the body. This unconscious condition is the condition of deep sleep. Similarly, the conditioned soul is actually sleeping on the lap of the illusory energy. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura has sung, kota nidrā yāo māyā-piśācīra kole: "O living entity, how long will you sleep in this condition on the lap of the illusory energy?" People do not understand that they are actually sleeping in this material world, being devoid of knowledge of spiritual life. Caitanya Mahāprabhu therefore says:

enechi auṣadhi māyā nāśibāra lāgi'

hari-nāma-mahā-mantra lao tumi māgi'

"I have brought medicine to awaken every living being from perpetual sleep. Please receive the holy name of the Lord, the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra, and awaken." The Kaṭha Upaniṣad (1.3.14) also says, uttiṣṭhata jāgrata prāpya varān nibodhata: "O living entity, you are sleeping in this material world. Please get up and take advantage of your human form of life." The sleeping condition means loss of all knowledge. In Bhagavad-gītā (2.69) it is also said, yā niśā sarva-bhūtānāṁ tasyāṁ jāgarti saṁyamī: "What is night for all beings is the time of awakening for the self-controlled." Even in the higher planets, everyone is under the spell of the illusory energy. No one is really interested in the real values of life. The sleeping condition, called kāla-sarpa (the time factor), keeps the conditioned soul in a state of ignorance, and therefore pure consciousness is lost. In the forest there are many blind wells, and if one falls down in one there is no chance of being rescued. In a state of sleep, one remains perpetually bitten by some animals, especially snakes.

SB Canto 10.1 to 10.13

SB 10.2.15, Translation and Purport:

When the child of Devakī was attracted and transferred into the womb of Rohiṇī by Yogamāyā, Devakī seemed to have a miscarriage. Thus all the inhabitants of the palace loudly lamented, "Alas, Devakī has lost her child!"

"All the inhabitants of the palace" includes Kaṁsa. When everyone lamented, Kaṁsa joined in compassion, thinking that perhaps because of drugs or some other external means, Devakī had undergone this abortion. The real story of what happened after Yogamāyā attracted the child of Devakī into the womb of Rohiṇī in the seventh month of Rohiṇī's pregnancy is described as follows in the Hari-vaṁśa. At midnight, while Rohiṇī was deeply sleeping, she experienced, as if in a dream, that she had undergone a miscarriage. After some time, when she awoke, she saw that this had indeed happened, and she was in great anxiety. But Yogamāyā then informed her, "O auspicious lady, your child is now being replaced. I am attracting a child from the womb of Devakī, and therefore your child will be known as Saṅkarṣaṇa."

The word yoga-nidrā is significant. When one is spiritually reconnected through self-realization, one regards his material life as having been like a dream. As stated in Bhagavad-gītā (2.69):

yā niśā sarva-bhūtānāṁ

tasyāṁ jāgarti saṁyamī

yasyāṁ jāgrati bhūtāni

sā niśā paśyato muneḥ

"What is night for all beings is the time of awakening for the self-controlled; and the time of awakening for all beings is night for the introspective sage." The stage of self-realization is called yoga-nidrā. All material activities appear to be a dream when one is spiritually awakened. Thus yoga-nidrā may be explained to be Yogamāyā.

CC Madhya-lila

CC Madhya 8.291, Translation and Purport:

Caitanya Mahāprabhu then said, "Indeed, I am a madman, and you are also a madman. Therefore we are on the same platform."

All these conversations between Rāmānanda Rāya and Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu appear ludicrous to a common man who is not a devotee. The entire world is filled with material conceptions, and people are unable to understand these conversations due to the conditioning of mundane philosophy. Those who are overly attached to mundane activities cannot understand the ecstatic conversations between Rāmānanda Rāya and Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Consequently the Lord requested that Rāmānanda Rāya keep all these conversations secret and not expose them to the general populace. If one is actually advanced in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he can understand these confidential talks; otherwise they appear crazy. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu therefore informed Rāmānanda Rāya that they both appeared like madmen and were therefore on the same platform. It is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā (2.69):

yā niśā sarva-bhūtānāṁ tasyāṁ jāgarti saṁyamī

yasyāṁ jāgrati bhūtāni sā niśā paśyato muneḥ

"What is night for all beings is the time of awakening for the self-controlled, and the time of awakening for all beings is night for the introspective sage."

Sometimes Kṛṣṇa consciousness appears like a type of madness to mundane people, just as the activities of mundaners are considered a form of madness by Kṛṣṇa conscious men.

Nectar of Instruction

Nectar of Instruction 3, Purport:

If one strictly follows the advice given in this verse by Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī—namely, being enthusiastic, being confident, being patient, giving up the association of unwanted persons, following the regulative principles and remaining in the association of devotees—one is sure to advance in devotional service. In this regard Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura remarks that the cultivation of knowledge by philosophical speculation, the collection of mundane opulence by the advancement of fruitive activities, and the desire for yoga-siddhis, material perfections, are all contrary to the principles of devotional service. One has to become thoroughly callous to such nonpermanent activities and turn his intention instead to the regulative principles of devotional service. According to Bhagavad-gītā (2.69):

yā niśā sarva-bhūtānāṁ

tasyāṁ jāgarti saṁyamī

yasyāṁ jāgrati bhūtāni

sā niśā paśyato muneḥ

"What is night for all beings is the time of awakening for the self-controlled; and the time of awakening for all beings is night for the introspective sage."

Engagement in the devotional service of the Lord is the life and soul of the living entity. It is the desired goal and supreme perfection of human life. One has to become confident about this, and one also has to be confident that all activities other than devotional service—such as mental speculation, fruitive work or mystic endeavor—will never yield any enduring benefit. Complete confidence in the path of devotional service will enable one to attain his desired goal, but attempting to follow other paths will only succeed in making one restless. In the Seventh Canto of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam it is stated: "One must be calmly convinced that those who have given up devotional service to engage in severe austerities for other purposes are not purified in their minds, despite their advanced austerities, because they have no information of the transcendental loving service of the Lord."

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

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

So a spiritually perfect man is he who? Tasmād yasya mahā-bāho nigṛhītāni sarvaśaḥ. Indriyāṇi. One who has controlled his senses perfectly in this way. Then he's to be understood that he's spiritually perfect. Tasmād yasya mahā-bāho nigṛhītāni sarvaśaḥ. Nigṛhītāni means completely restrained, not to use the senses for any other purpose except in the service of the Lord. That is called self really control, really purified senses. Tasmād yasya mahā-bāho nigṛhītāni sarvaśaḥ, indriyāṇi indriyārthebhyaḥ. Indriya, the senses, shall not be let loose to act freely. It should be restricted in such a way that my senses cannot work without in the service of the..., without being engaged in the service of the Lord. That is called sense control. Indriyāṇīndriyārthebhyas tasya prajñā pratiṣṭhitā.

yā niśā sarva-bhūtānāṁ

tasyāṁ jāgarti saṁyamī

yasyāṁ jāgrati bhūtāni

sā niśā paśyato muneḥ

(BG 2.69)

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.

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

Now, suppose one has given up all material enjoyment but he's engaged in the spiritual service, in the transcendental service of the Lord. So materialists, they see what a nonsense he is, that he has given up all material enjoyment. He's now engaged in something which is vague or which is... There is no understanding whether he's right or wrong. He sees like that. So the materialist sees the spiritualist sleeping in the enjoyment of life. And the spiritualist sees the materialist that "What nonsense he is, that he has got this elevated, conscious life of human form of life, and he's spoiling in the material senses, in the material enjoyment. He's not taking interest in spiritual life. So he sees that he's sleeping, and he sees that he's sleeping. The materialist sees the spiritualist that he's nonsense; he's sleeping. And the spiritualist sees the materialist, nonsense that he's spoiling. Yā niśā sarva niśā, sarva-bhūtānāṁ tasyāṁ jāgarti saṁyamī, yasyāṁ jāgrati bhūtāni sā niśā paśyato muneḥ.

So this is going on. So without taking any account how the things are going on, if you are actually serious for spiritual emancipation of life, then the, the process recommended in the Bhagavad-gītā, as, and as practically demonstrated by Arjuna, if we follow this principle then we shall be proceeding towards the spiritual emancipation of life undoubtedly and without fail. So whole thing is that we have to make the best use of a bad bargain. The, that whole thing is the senses, senses are the cause of my material miseries. Now I cannot avoid the senses in my present status of life. The best thing is that senses may be engaged in the service of the Lord so that automatically they'll be restricted and purified, and my spiritual life will be revealed and the spiritual perfection will sure to come.

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

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: 69: "What is night for all beings is the time of awakening for the self-controlled, and the time of awakening for all beings is the night for the introspective sage." Purport: "There are two classes of intelligent men. The one is intelligent in material activities for sense gratification, and the other is introspective and awake to the cultivation of self-realization. Activities of the introspective sage or thoughtful man are night for persons materially absorbed. Materialistic persons remain asleep during such a night due to their ignorance of self-realization. The introspective sage, however, remains alert in that night of the materialistic man."

Prabhupāda: Night means when people sleep, and day means when they are awake. This is the understanding of day and night. So one, the materialistic persons, they are sleeping in the matter of spiritual understanding. So therefore the activities which we find in daytime of the materialistic person, actually that is night. For the spiritualistic person, they see that these people they got the facility of self-realization, this human form of life. How they are wasting by sleeping. And the materialistic persons, they are seeing, "Oh, these Kṛṣṇa conscious young boys, they have given up everything and they are chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. How nonsense. They are sleeping." So you see? So in the vision of the materialistic person, these activities are night, sleeping. And for the self-realized person, these activities are sleeping. You see? Just the opposite. They are seeing the Kṛṣṇa conscious person as wasting time and the Kṛṣṇa conscious person is seeing them as wasting time. This is the position. Go on.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Lecture on SB 3.26.4 -- Bombay, December 16, 1974:

One of the symptoms of guru is described by Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura, śrī-vigraha ārādhana: "He knows how to worship the Deity." Śrī-vigrahārādhana-nitya-nānā-śṛṅgāra-tan-mandira-mārjanādau **. Dressing the Deity and tan-mandira-mārjanādau, and cleansing the temple, keeping everything fit in the temple. So the guru knows it, how to do it, and he teaches his disciple.

śrī-vigrahārādhana-nitya-nānā-

śṛṅgāra-tan-mandira-mārjanādau

yuktasya bhaktāṁś ca niyuñjato 'pi... **

He is personally engaged, and he engages disciples. Not that you make a disciple and you keep him aside, "You cannot touch." This is going on. How? Then how he has become your disciple? If you have accepted him as disciple, how you can keep him aloof? No. "You are śūdra. You are mleccha." Therefore vaiṣṇave jāti-buddhiḥ. You cannot make Vaiṣṇava... As soon as he becomes Vaiṣṇava, no more jāti. He is transcendental. Sa guṇān sama...

Jāti—brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra—that is within this material world, not in the spiritual world. Spiritual world, everyone is eternal servant of Kṛṣṇa. There is no more jāti, no more distinction. Everything serving. That one. The master is also spiritual, and the servant is also spiritual, and there is no other relationship. Here in the material world we artificially want to become..., we want to become God. But in the spiritual world there is no such conception. In the spiritual world there are also living entities. They are called nitya-siddha. Nitya-siddha means eternally perfect. There are two kinds of living entities: nitya-siddha and nitya-baddha, eternally conditioned. Yesterday we were reading that nitya-supta-buddhiḥ. Here in this material world, however we may be acting, we are sleeping. Yā niśā sarva-bhūtānām. They are sleeping. We may show very good activities everywhere, but a saintly person will see that "All these rascals are sleeping." And these rascals will see the devotee is sleeping. Because they will see that "These rascals, they have taken to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, doing nothing for their bodily comfort and sense gratification. They are sleeping. They are misusing this life." And the devotees are seeing that "These rascal, those who are not Kṛṣṇa conscious, they are sleeping." So yā niśā sarva-bhūtānāṁ tasyāṁ jāgarti saṁyamī.

Lecture on SB 3.26.20 -- Bombay, December 29, 1974:

So the darkness is there, and the light is also there. Simply we have to be awakened. Therefore Vedas, they instruct us that "Don't sleep! Get up!" Uttiṣṭhata prāpya varān nibodhata jāgrata. Similarly, Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura also sings, kota nidrā jāo māyā-piśācīra kole. Jīv jāgo, jīv jāgo, gauracānda bole. Gauracānda means Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. He says, "O the living entities, you get up! Be awakened!" We may say, "Now we are awakened." This is not awakened. This is also slumber in darkness of ignorance. Real awakening is when we come to our spiritual consciousness. That is real awakened. Yā niśā sarva-bhūtānāṁ tasyāṁ jāgarti saṁyamī. This is not, this awakening stage, this is not real awakening. Real awakening comes when we understand, ahaṁ brahmāsmi. At the present moment we are not awakened, still sleeping, because we are thinking, every one of us, "I am this body," "I am American," "I am Indian," "I am Hindu," "I am Muslim." In this way we are conscious of the designation. So we have to get out of the designation, and when we shall understand our real identity, not this bodily identity but spiritual soul identity, that is called brahma-bhūtaḥ. Otherwise we are jīva-bhūtaḥ. So long we are identifying with this body, we are still sleeping. Kota nidrā jāo māyā-piśācīra kole. Just like a child sleeps on the lap of the mother, similarly, we are sleeping on the lap of mother material nature. This is our position.

Sri Isopanisad Lectures

Sri Isopanisad, Mantra 9-10 -- Los Angeles, May 14, 1970:

Those who are in ignorance, they are cultivating a different type of advancement of knowledge, and those who are actually in knowledge, they are cultivating in a different way. Ordinary people, they do not like our activities, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. They are surprised. Gargamuni was telling me yesterday evening that people ask, "Where do you get so much money? You are purchasing so many cars and big church property and maintaining fifty, sixty men daily and enjoying. What is this?" (laughter) So they are surprised. And we are surprised why these rascals are working so hard simply for filling the belly. So Bhagavad-gītā says, yā niśā sarva-bhūtānāṁ tasyāṁ jāgrati saṁyamī. We are seeing that these people are sleeping, and they are seeing we are wasting our time. This is opposite view. Why? Because their line of action is different, our line of action are different. Now, it is to be decided by an intelligent man whose actions are actually right.

Philosophy Discussions

Philosophy Discussion on St. Augustine:

Prabhupāda: Then if he accepts another body, then he has to accept transmigration.

Hayagrīva: No, he doesn't. Now here's, here's the point. Augustine believed that God elected some men to everlasting happiness and others to everlasting suffering. With the fall of Adam, or the first man, man was subjected to death. For Augustine, however, death is of two types: physical death—the soul leaves the body—and soul death—the death experienced by the soul when God abandons it. The damned face not only physical death but spiritual, soul death as well.

Prabhupāda: So it may..., it can be taken figuratively, that when one forgets his position, that is a kind of death also. One forgets himself. But actually soul is eternal, and what Augustine says as spiritual death, that is his forgetfulness. Just like in unconsciousness one forgets his identity, but if he is dead then he cannot revive consciousness. Similarly, it is little difficult for the bodily concept of life persons, but there are many proofs and understanding that soul is eternal. He, of course, until he gets his freedom from this material existence, he is spiritually dead. Even though he is working in this material form, because he has forgotten his real identity, that is also a kind of death. Yā niśā sarva-bhūtānāṁ tasyāṁ jāgarti saṁyamī. This śloka explains how one is dead and how one is alive. When one is forgetful of his spiritual consciousness, God consciousness, he is supposed to be dead, and when he, one is alive to the spiritual consciousness or God consciousness, he is alive. In this sense, it is a question of two stages, awakening stage and forgetful stage, but actually a soul is eternal. He never dies, even after the annihilation of this body.

1968 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- October 27, 1968, Montreal, With First Devotees Going to London On Evening of Their Departure:

Prabhupāda: It is very important. "I thought in that way. When my mother died, as the devotees of the Lord think, I also thought in that way. What is that? 'Oh, it is a grace of the Lord. My mother is now dead.' Because she is the, I mean to say, real cause of my nonfreedom. So she is now dead. Then I am free." It is very contradiction from the materialistic point of view. It is said that, bhaktanam śam abhīpsataḥ. "As the devotees think, so I also in that way thought." What is that? Anugrahaṁ manyamānaḥ. "I thought it a special grace of the Supreme Personality of Godhead." Anugrahaṁ manyamānaḥ pratiṣṭhāṁ disam uttaram: "And I at once took leave of my so-called home and went away." So that is the difference between the devotees of the Lord and materialistic persons. When their materialistic relationship, comforts, are taken away, they think "Oh, it is all grace." And the materialistic person, when their materialistic comforts are increased, they think, "It is grace." Yā niśā sarva-bhūtānāṁ tasmin jāgrati saṁ... That is also stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. Just like... There is a crude example. I think I have cited this example many times, that a foolish patient thinks that increase of fever is very nice. Fever, so what should be the ideal? Fever should decrease. But those who are less intelligent, they think, "Yes, it must increase." (chuckles)

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- February 27, 1973, Jakarta:

Prabhupāda: Yaḥ śāstra-vidhim utsṛjya.

Devotee: Yaḥ tasya...

Prabhupāda: Yes. Y-a-... Yaḥ śāstra.

Devotee: I've got y-... (pause) I don't think...

Prabhupāda: There is no yaḥ?

Devotee: There's yā niśā sarva-bhūtānām.

Prabhupāda: That is yā, yā. That is y-ā, yā niśā, y-ā. Y-a-ḥ,

yaḥ.

Devotee: Y-a-ḥ, yaḥ.

Prabhupāda: Then śāstra.

Devotee: Yaḥ śāstra vidhim...

Prabhupāda: Ha!

Devotee: Sixteen, verse 23.

Prabhupāda: Utsṛjya, vidhim utsṛjya, yes. Find out that.

Devotee: Chapter Sixteen, verse twenty-three. Yaḥ śāstra vidhim utsṛjya vartate kāma-kārataḥ, na sa siddhim avāpnoti na sukhaṁ na parāṁ gatim (BG 16.23).

Prabhupāda: Translation. Translation, read.

Room Conversation -- September 18, 1973, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Anyone who's under the clutches of māyā, or madness, what is the value of his duty? Śrama eva hi kevalam. He's simply spoiling his time. That is stated in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

dharmaḥ svanuṣṭhitaḥ puṁsāṁ

viṣvaksena kathāsu yaḥ

notpādayed yadi ratiṁ

śrama eva hi kevalam

(SB 1.2.8)

Just like you have come here, a little tendency for hearing about Kṛṣṇa. Your life is succ..., on the path of success. And there are other, millions, they're not interested. So, for them, the śāstra says, "They're simply working like cats and dogs." Just like dogs sometimes goes very fast this way, that way, that way, they're passing with motor car, this way, (makes barking sound) "Onh, onh, onh, onh, onh, onh." They're simply spoiling time. In America, I have seen, always, (makes automobile noise:) "sonh, sonh, sonh, sonh, sonh, sonh, sonh, sonh, sonh, sonh." Here also. But we see these rascals spoiling time. But that will not appeal to the rascals. They'll say, "They are spoiling time. What these rascals are dancing Hare Kṛṣṇa on the Fifth Avenue?" They think, "Oh, they are crazy fellows." Yā niśā sarva-bhūtānāṁ tasyāṁ jāgarti saṁyamī. They are thinking us as in darkness. I am thinking, we are thinking, "They are in darkness." This is going on. But who is in darkness, that is to be decided by the supreme judgement of Kṛṣṇa. Therefore I have written one, that book, Who is Crazy?

Devotee: Who is Crazy?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Devotee: That's a new book?

Prabhupāda: No, old book.

Indian Woman: But, Guru Mahārāja, one has to do her duty as advised.

Prabhupāda: You do not know what is your duty, first of all. A madman, he does not know his duty.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Answers to a Questionnaire from Bhavan's Journal -- June 28, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: At the Kumbhamela millions of people are coming to take bathing in the Ganges because they are interested how to become liberated. They're not lazy. They're going thousands miles, two thousand miles away, to take bathing in the Prayāgaa. So they are not lazy. But they are not busy in the dog's race. Yā niśā sarva-bhūtānāṁ tasyāṁ jāgarti saṁyamī. Saṁyamī. He keeps night, he does not sleep. Others are sleeping. So similarly, the dogs and asses, they think that "They are not working." And they are working. The different platforms. So the Vedic civilization which is practiced in India... Now it is distorted, but actually, they are not lazy. They are very, very busy. Not only very, very busy, but from, they are trying to become self-realized from the very beginning of life. Kaumāraṁ...

Devotee: Kaumāraṁ acaret prajñā?

Prabhupāda: Prajño dharmaṁ bhāgavatan iha. That is recommended. They are not lazy. They are so busy that want to begin the business from the very childhood. So it is a wrong conception that they are lazy.

Evening Darsana -- July 7, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: That is the defect of modern civilization, that they do not care to know what is God and what is our duty. That is lacking.

Dr. Sharma:

yā niśā sarva-bhūtānāṁ

tasyāṁ jāgarti saṁyamī

yasyāṁ jāgrati bhūtāni

sā niśā paśyato muneḥ

Prabhupāda: So we are trying to enlighten...

Evening Darsana -- July 7, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Dr. Sharma: Prabhupāda, perhaps you can make commentary on this śloka,

yā niśā sarva-bhūtānāṁ

tasyāṁ jāgarti saṁyamī

yasyāṁ jāgrati bhūtāni

sā niśā paśyato muneḥ

Prabhupāda: The material civilization is the jāgrati for the materialistic person. But those who are spiritually enlightened, they think that these persons are sleeping. They got the opportunity of understanding God, and without understanding God, they are simply busy with the material body and its comfort and working hard day and night, and missing the point. And whereas the materialistic persons, they see these Kṛṣṇa conscious people, Hare Kṛṣṇa people, they are wasting their time by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa and they are doing nothing. Just the opposite business. These people are seeing the materialistic persons, they are sleeping, not enlightened to the spiritual life; and these materialistic persons, they are seeing that these people, under some fictitious idea, they are spoiling their life without enjoying material facilities. Just the opposite.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: So we go not for our maintenance. We want to engage his hard-earned money to this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. That is our mission. Not for this belly. For belly we refuse to go anywhere. You'll find in Kumbhamela, still there are sādhus, they are not going anywhere. And they are starving? We go-gṛhināṁ dina-cetasām—"This rascal is absorbed in the thought of comfortable life, and he has taken only these wife and children, everything. Give him some other..." This is our mission. Yāre dekha tāre kaha 'kṛṣṇa.' Let him go there and sit down and talk with him and give some instruction of Kṛṣṇa. This is our... We are not going for this belly. (Hindi) They are criticizing that "This man is empty stomach, and he has come to me." What does he care for empty stomach? No. Even they insult that, "They are empty stomach," it doesn't matter. It is my duty to give him some enlightenment about Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Never mind. Let him insult. Nityānanda Prabhu, He was injured. Still, He said, "All right. You have injured. I don't mind. Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa." This is Kṛṣṇa... "I don't mind you have injured, but I request you that you chant." This should be missionary... But they are thinking, "These people, empty stomach, they have come to us. We are... We don't require any God. We have got industry." This is going on. Yā niśā sarva-bhūtānāṁ tasyāṁ jāgarti saṁyamī. Find out this verse, Bhagavad-gītā.

Hari-śauri: What was that?

Prabhupāda: Yā niśā. Yā. Y.

Hari-śauri: Y. Yā niśā sarva-bhūtānām?

Prabhupāda: Hm. (Hindi) But they are kept in darkness. This civilization is like that.

Hari-śauri:

yā niśā sarva-bhūtānāṁ

tasyāṁ jāgarti saṁyamī

yasyāṁ jāgrati bhūtāni

sā niśā paśyato muneḥ

"What is night for all beings is the time of awakening for the self-controlled, and the time of awakening for all beings is night for the introspective sage." Purport?

Room Conversation -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: First of all let us understand what is sleeping and awakening. This is the real understanding. The materialistic man, he's sleeping about self-realization. He has no information.

Mr. Asnani: He has no?

Prabhupāda: Information. But the spiritualistic man, he's awakened in that, that this life is meant for self-realization. So the materialistic man, he does not know. He's kept in darkness of night, and the spiritualistic man is awakened. That is the difference.

Mr. Asnani: Why the night...?

Prabhupāda: Night means ignorance, when one sleeps. Yes. And day is awakening. So what is day for the materialistic person, so that is night for the spiritualistic person. And what is day for the spiritualistic person, that is night for the... Just like a spiritualist person, he has sacrificed everything and he is after God, and they are thinking, "These rascals, unnecessarily, empty stomach, wasting, 'Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa,' chant." They are deriding. And he is thinking that "This rascal got this human form of body. Instead of spiritual culture, he's spoiling his life, cats and dogs." That means in the subject matter where the spiritualists were not interested, he is interested. And in the subject matter, the spiritual person, interested, he is not interested. This is day and night.

Mr. Asnani: Oh, I was taking sometime in literary sense. So it was sometimes confusing me.

Prabhupāda: No, it is literally, that yā niśā sarva-bhūtānāṁ tasyāṁ jāgarti saṁyamī. He, spiritualist person, he knows, that "What is the use of the sense gratification? The sense gratification is there in the cats and dogs. Why I am wasting in this way?" That is awakened. What is the difference? A man is having sex life in a very nice apartment, very decorated and nice cot. He is enjoying sex life, that "I am advanced civili..." And the dog is enjoying sex life on the street in presence of everyone. But the enjoyment of sex life is the same. There is no difference either for the dog or the man. So the spiritualistic man, he says that "Why shall I waste my time in sex enjoyment? This is enjoyed by the dogs and cats. I have got this human form of life for spiritual advancement." So saṁyamī: "Stop this nonsense. Let me cultivate spiritual life." Saṁyamī. Saṁyamī means sense gratification stopped. That is saṁyamī. And he is not saṁyamī. Adānta-gobhir viśatāṁ tamisram. Because he's not saṁyamī, his sense are uncontrolled, so he's opening the path of hellish condition of life. The business is the same—āhāra-nidrā-bhaya-maithunam—based on this maithuna, sex life. So you'll find the fly is doing the same thing, and the dog is doing the same thing, and the human being is also doing the same thing, and the king of heaven, he is doing the same thing. The business is the same. Punaḥ punaś carvita-carvaṇānām (SB 7.5.30).

Discussion about Bhu-mandala -- July 5, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Everyone is prejudiced. But who is rightly prejudiced who is wrongly prejudiced. That is everywhere. Just like materialistic person will think, "Brainwash. These rascals, they have given all up material enjoyment, and after some phantasmagoria they sacrifice everything. Brainwash." And we are thinking, "Oh, these rascals, got this human form of body, he did not understand what is spiritual life." Both of them—he is rascal and he is rascal. This is going on. Yā niśā sarva-bhūtānāṁ tasyāṁ jāgarti saṁyamī. Is it not? They say, "Brainwash. Unnecessarily they've sacrificed everything." And we say that he got the human form and unnecessarily he is working like cats and...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Both are saying the same thing. Obvious.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Now who is correct? Who will decide? I accuse you, you accuse me. But who is correct? Who will decide? That is śāstra. There is no question of argument. That is called pratiṣṭhā. You will never come to any conclusion by arguing. I think you are wrong, you think I am wrong. Somebody must decide. Judge. And that is śāstra.