BG 13.22 purusah prakrti-stho hi... cited

Expressions researched:
"The living entity in material nature thus follows the ways of life" |"bhunkte prakrti-jan gunan" |"due to his association with that material nature" |"enjoying the three modes of nature" |"he meets with good and evil among various species" |"karanam guna-sanga" |"karanam guna-sango 'sya" |"purusah prakrti-stho hi" |"sad-asad-yoni-janmasu"

Notes from the compiler: VedaBase query: "13.22" or "The living entity in material nature thus follows the ways of life" or "bhunkte prakrti-jan gunan" or "due to his association with that material nature" or "enjoying the three modes of nature" or "he meets with good and evil among various species" or "karanam guna-sango 'sya" or "purusah prakrti-stho hi" or "sad-asad-yoni-janmasu"

BG Chapters 13 - 18

BG 13.22, Translation and Purport:

The living entity in material nature thus follows the ways of life, enjoying the three modes of nature. This is due to his association with that material nature. Thus he meets with good and evil among various species.

This verse is very important for an understanding of how the living entities transmigrate from one body to another. It is explained in the Second Chapter that the living entity is transmigrating from one body to another just as one changes dress. This change of dress is due to his attachment to material existence. As long as he is captivated by this false manifestation, he has to continue transmigrating from one body to another. Due to his desire to lord it over material nature, he is put into such undesirable circumstances. Under the influence of material desire, the entity is born sometimes as a demigod, sometimes as a man, sometimes as a beast, as a bird, as a worm, as an aquatic, as a saintly man, as a bug. This is going on. And in all cases the living entity thinks himself to be the master of his circumstances, yet he is under the influence of material nature.

How he is put into such different bodies is explained here. It is due to association with the different modes of nature. One has to rise, therefore, above the three material modes and become situated in the transcendental position. That is called Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Unless one is situated in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, his material consciousness will oblige him to transfer from one body to another because he has material desires since time immemorial. But he has to change that conception. That change can be effected only by hearing from authoritative sources. The best example is here: Arjuna is hearing the science of God from Kṛṣṇa. The living entity, if he submits to this hearing process, will lose his long-cherished desire to dominate material nature, and gradually and proportionately, as he reduces his long desire to dominate, he comes to enjoy spiritual happiness. In a Vedic mantra it is said that as he becomes learned in association with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he proportionately relishes his eternal blissful life.

SB Canto 4

SB 4.29.26-27, Translation and Purport:

The living entity by nature has minute independence to choose his own good or bad fortune, but when he forgets his supreme master, the Personality of Godhead, he gives himself up unto the modes of material nature. Being influenced by the modes of material nature, he identifies himself with the body and, for the interest of the body, becomes attached to various activities. Sometimes he is under the influence of the mode of ignorance, sometimes the mode of passion and sometimes the mode of goodness. The living entity thus gets different types of bodies under the modes of material nature.

These different types of bodies are explained in Bhagavad-gītā (13.22):

puruṣaḥ prakṛti-stho hi

bhuṅkte prakṛti-jān guṇān

kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya

sad-asad-yoni-janmasu

"The living entity in material nature follows the ways of life, enjoying the three modes of nature. This is due to his association with that material nature. Thus he meets with good and evil among various species.

Because of associating with the modes of nature, the living entity gets a variety of bodies from the 8,400,000 forms. It is clearly explained herein that the living entity has a little independence, indicated by the word sva-dṛk, meaning "one who can see his own welfare." The living entity's constitutional position is very minute, and he can be misled in his choice. He may choose to imitate the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

SB 4.29.76-77, Purport:

As confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā (8.6):

yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran bhāvaṁ

tyajaty ante kalevaram

taṁ tam evaiti kaunteya

sadā tad-bhāva-bhāvitaḥ

"Whatever state of being one remembers when he quits his body, that state he will attain without fail." Within one's body and mind, one can think as either a dog or a god, and the next life is offered to him accordingly. This is explained in Bhagavad-gītā (13.22):

puruṣaḥ prakṛti-stho hi

bhuṅkte prakṛtijān guṇān

kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya

sad-asad-yoni-janmasu

"The living entity in material nature thus follows the ways of life, enjoying the three modes of nature. This is due to his association with that material nature. Thus he meets with good and evil among various species." The living entity may transmigrate to either a superior or inferior body according to his association with the modes of material nature. If he associates with the mode of ignorance, he gets the body of an animal or an inferior man, but if he associates with the mode of goodness or passion, he gets a body accordingly.

SB Canto 5

SB 5.9.3, Purport:

Every living entity is bound by different activities due to association with the modes of nature. As stated in Bhagavad-gītā, kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-yoni-janmasu: "This is due to his association with that material nature. Thus he meets with good and evil among various species." (BG 13.22)

We get different types of bodies among 8,400,000 species according to our karma. Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa: (SB 3.31.1) we work under the influence of material nature contaminated by the three modes, and thus we get a certain type of body according to superior order. This is called karma-bandha. To get out of this karma-bandha, one must engage himself in devotional service. Then one will not be affected by the modes of material nature.

SB Canto 6

SB 6.5.15, Purport:

Although one follows the dictations of material nature, he happily thinks himself the master or husband of material nature. Scientists, for example, try to be the masters of material nature, life after life, not caring to understand the Supreme Person, under whose direction everything within this material world is moving. Trying to be the masters of material nature, they are imitation gods who declare to the public that scientific advancement will one day be able to avoid the so-called control of God. In fact, however, the living being, unable to control the rulings of God, is forced to associate with the prostitute of polluted intelligence and accept various material bodies. As stated in Bhagavad-gītā (13.22):

puruṣaḥ prakṛti-stho hi

bhuṅkte prakṛti-jān guṇān

kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya

sad-asad-yoni-janmasu

"The living entity in material nature thus follows the ways of life, enjoying the three modes of nature. This is due to his association with that material nature. Thus he meets with good and evil amongst various species." If one fully engages in temporary fruitive activities and does not solve this real problem, what profit will he gain?

SB Canto 7

SB 7.2.22, Purport:

Hiraṇyakaśipu very intelligently described the position of the soul. The soul is never the body, but is always completely different from the body. Being eternal and inexhaustible, the soul has no death, but when the same pure soul desires to enjoy the material world independently, he is placed under the conditions of material nature and must therefore accept a certain type of body and suffer the pains and pleasures thereof. This is also described by Kṛṣṇa in Bhagavad-gītā (13.22). Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-yoni janmasu: the living entity is born in different families or species of life because of being infected by the modes of material nature. When conditioned by material nature, the living entity must accept a certain type of body, which is offered by nature under the direction of the Supreme Lord.

SB 7.13.25, Purport:

Our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is therefore the highest movement for the benediction of human society because this movement is teaching people how to go back home, back to Godhead. In Bhagavad-gītā (13.22) it is clearly stated that different forms of life are obtained by association with the three modes of material nature (kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-yoni janmasu). According to one's association with the material qualities of goodness, passion and ignorance in this life, in one's next life one receives an appropriate body. Modern civilization does not know that because of varied association in material nature, the living entity, although eternal, is placed in different diseased conditions known as the many species of life. Modern civilization is unaware of the laws of nature.

SB Canto 8

SB 8.17.23, Purport:

As fully described in Bhagavad-gītā, the living entity is not subject to any material reactions. He can neither be burnt by fire, cut by sharp weapons, moistened by water, nor dried by the air. He is completely different from the physical elements, but by a superior arrangement he is put into these material elements. He is always aloof from material contact (asaṅgo hy ayaṁ puruṣaḥ) but because he is placed in a material condition, he suffers the reactions of the material modes of nature.

puruṣaḥ prakṛti-stho hi

bhuṅkte prakṛtijān guṇān

kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya

sad-asad-yoni-janmasu

"The living entity in material nature thus follows the ways of life, enjoying the three modes of nature. This is due to his association with that material nature. Thus he meets with good and evil amongst various species." (BG 13.22) Although the living entity is aloof from the material elements, he is put into material conditions, and thus he must suffer the reactions of material activities.

SB 8.22.25, Purport:

The Supreme Personality of Godhead is fully independent. Thus it is not always a fact that a living being's loss of all opulence is a sign of the Supreme Lord's mercy upon him. The Lord can act any way He likes. He may take away one's opulence, or He may not. There are varieties of forms of life, and the Lord treats them according to the circumstances, as He chooses. Generally it is to be understood that the human form of life is one of great responsibility.

puruṣaḥ prakṛti-stho hi

bhuṅkte prakṛtijān guṇān

kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya

sad-asad-yoni-janmasu

"The living entity in material nature follows the ways of life, enjoying the three modes of nature. This is due to his association with that material nature. Thus he meets with good and evil amongst various species." (BG 13.22) After thus rotating through many, many forms of life in the cycle of birth and death, the living being gets a chance for a human form. Therefore every human being, especially one belonging to a civilized nation or culture, must be extremely responsible in his activities. He should not risk degradation in the next life.

SB 8.24.6, Purport:

Although the air sometimes carries the odor of a filthy place, the air has nothing to do with such a place. Similarly, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, being all-good and all-auspicious, is never affected by the material qualities like an ordinary living entity. puruṣaḥ prakṛti-stho hi bhuṅkte prakṛtijān guṇān (BG 13.22). When the living entity is in the material nature, he is affected by its qualities. The Supreme Personality of Godhead, however, is not affected. Disrespectfully, one who does not know this considers the Supreme Personality of Godhead an ordinary living being (avajānanti māṁ mūḍhāḥ (BG 9.11)). Paraṁ bhāvam ajānantaḥ: such a conclusion is reached by the unintelligent because they are unaware of the transcendental qualities of the Lord.

SB 8.24.48, Purport:

In human life one is meant to undergo austerity to purify one's existence. Tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena sattvaṁ śuddhyet (SB 5.5.1). Because of contamination by the modes of material nature, one continues in the cycle of birth and death (kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-yoni janmasu (BG 13.22)). Therefore the purpose of human life is to purify oneself of this contamination so that one can regain his spiritual form and not undergo this cycle of birth and death. The recommended process of decontamination is devotional service to the Lord.

SB Canto 9

SB 9.19.25, Purport:

The word vidhuta, meaning "cleansed," is very significant. Everyone in this material world is contaminated (kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya (BG 13.22)). Because we are in a material condition, we are contaminated either by sattva-guṇa, by rajo-guṇa or by tamo-guṇa. Even if one becomes a qualified brāhmaṇa in the mode of goodness (sattva-guṇa), he is still materially contaminated. One must come to the platform of śuddha-sattva, transcending the sattva-guṇa. Then one is vidhuta-triliṅga, cleansed of the contamination caused by the three modes of material nature. This is possible by the mercy of Kṛṣṇa.

SB Canto 10.1 to 10.13

SB 10.1.39, Purport:

One who commits sinful activities because of ignorance, tamo-guṇa, obtains a lower body. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-yoni janmasu (BG 13.22). There are hundreds and thousands of different species of life. Why are there higher and lower bodies? One receives these bodies according to the contaminations of material nature. If in this life one is contaminated by the mode of ignorance and sinful activities (duṣkṛtī), in the next life, by the laws of nature, one will certainly get a body full of suffering. The laws of nature are not subservient to the whimsical desires of the conditioned soul. Our endeavor, therefore, should be to associate always with sattva-guṇa and not indulge in rajo-guṇa or tamo-guṇa (rajas-tamo-bhāvāḥ (SB 1.2.19)). Lusty desires and greed keep the living entity perpetually in ignorance and prevent him from being elevated to the platform of sattva-guṇa or śuddha-sattva-guṇa.

SB 10.1.42, Purport:

Rascals (vimūḍhān), being controlled by mental speculation, make huge arrangements by which to enjoy life temporarily, but they must give up the body at the time of death, when everything is taken away by Kṛṣṇa's external energy (mṛtyuḥ sarva-haraś cāham (BG 10.34)). At that time, whatever one has created in this life is lost, and one must automatically accept a new body by the force of material nature. In this life one may have constructed a very tall skyscraper, but in the next life, because of one's mentality, one may have to accept a body like that of a cat, a dog, a tree or perhaps a demigod. Thus the body is offered by the laws of material nature. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-yoni janmasu (BG 13.22). The spirit soul takes birth in higher and lower species of life only because of his association with the three qualities of material nature.

SB 10.13.53, Purport:

Kāla, or the time factor, has many assistants, such as svabhāva, saṁskāra, kāma, karma and guṇa. Svabhāva, or one's own nature, is formed according to the association of the material qualities. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-yoni janmasu (BG 13.22). Sat and asat-svabhāva—one's higher or lower nature—is formed by association with the different qualities, namely sattva-guṇa, rajo-guṇa and tamo-guṇa. We should gradually come to the sattva-guṇa, so that we may avoid the two lower guṇas. This can be done if we regularly discuss Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and hear about Kṛṣṇa's activities. Naṣṭa-prāyeṣv abhadreṣu nityaṁ bhāgavata-sevayā (SB 1.2.18). All the activities of Kṛṣṇa described in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, beginning even with the pastimes concerning Pūtanā, are transcendental. Therefore, by hearing and discussing Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, the rajo-guṇa and tamo-guṇa are subdued, so that only sattva-guṇa remains. Then rajo-guṇa and tamo-guṇa cannot do us any harm.

SB 10.13.53, Purport:

As for kāma and karma—desires and activities—if one engages in devotional service, one develops a different nature than if one engages in activities of sense gratification, and of course the result is also different. According to the association of different natures, one receives a particular type of body. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-yoni janmasu (BG 13.22). Therefore we should always seek good association, the association of devotees. Then our life will be successful. A man is known by his company. If one has the chance to live in the good association of devotees, one is able to cultivate knowledge, and naturally one's character or nature will change for one's eternal benefit.

CC Adi-lila

CC Adi 6.14-15, Purport:

Under superior superintendence, various souls, according to their past activities, are given the chance to take a particular type of body, such as that of a tree, animal, bird or beast, and thus their different tendencies develop under these circumstances. The Bhagavad-gītā (13.22) also further affirms:

puruṣaḥ prakṛti-stho hi

bhuṅkte prakṛti-jān guṇān

kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo ’sya

sad-asad-yoni-janmasu

"The living entity in material nature thus follows the ways of life, enjoying the three modes of nature. This is due to his association with that material nature. Thus he meets with good and evil among various species." The soul is given different types of bodies. For example, were souls not given varieties of tree bodies, the different varieties of fruits and flowers could not be produced. Each class of tree produces a particular kind of fruit and flower; it is not that there is no distinction between the different classes. An individual tree does not produce flowers of different colors or fruits of different tastes.

CC Madhya-lila

CC Madhya 22.88-90, Purport:

When one becomes attached to women or to those who are attached to women, one falls down into the lower species.

puruṣaḥ prakṛti-stho hi bhuṅkte prakṛti-jān guṇān

kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo ‘sya sad-asad-yoni-janmasu

"The living entity in material nature thus follows the ways of life, enjoying the three modes of nature. This is due to his association with that material nature. Thus he meets with good and evil among various species." (Bhagavad-gītā 13.22)

According to Vedic civilization, one's association with women should be very much restricted. In spiritual life there are four āśramas—brahmacarya, gṛhastha, vānaprastha and sannyāsa. The brahmacārī, vānaprastha and sannyāsī are completely forbidden to associate with women. Only gṛhasthas are allowed to associate with women under certain very much restricted conditions—that is, one associates with women to propagate nice children. Other reasons for association are condemned.

CC Madhya 22.142, Purport:

The varṇāśrama institution is planned in such a way that one will not commit sinful activities. Material existence continues due to sinful activity. When one acts sinfully in this life, he gets a suitable body for the next life. When one again acts sinfully, he takes on another material body. In this way one is continuously under the influence of material nature.

puruṣaḥ prakṛti-stho hi bhuṅkte prakṛti-jān guṇān

kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo ‘sya sad-asad-yoni-janmasu

"The living entity in material nature thus follows the ways of life, enjoying the three modes of material nature. This is due to his association with that material nature. Thus he meets with good and evil among various species." (BG 13.22)

Due to our association with the modes of material nature, we get different types of bodies, good and bad. One cannot be liberated from the cycle of birth and death, known as transmigration of the soul, unless one is completely freed from all sinful activities.

CC Antya-lila

CC Antya 1.92, Purport:

One's bodily luster and beauty, one's constitution, one's activities and one's qualities all depend on the law of cause and effect. There are three qualities in material nature, and as stated in the Bhagavad-gītā (13.22), kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo ‘sya sad-asad-yoni-janmasu: one takes birth in a good or bad family according to his previous association with the qualities of material nature. Therefore one seriously eager to achieve transcendental perfection, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, must eat kṛṣṇa-prasādam. Such food is sāttvika, or in the material quality of goodness, but when offered to Kṛṣṇa it becomes transcendental.

CC Antya 3.80, Purport:

While we are preaching, opposing elements sometimes argue, "If all living entities were delivered by the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, what would happen then? The universe would be devoid of living entities." In answer to this, we may say that in a prison there are many prisoners, but if one thinks that the prison would be empty if all the prisoners adopted good behavior, he is incorrect. Even if all the prisoners within a jail are freed, other criminals will fill it again. A prison will never be vacant, for there are many prospective criminals who will fill the prison cells, even if the present criminals are freed by the government. As confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā (13.22), kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo ‘sya sad-asad-yoni-janmasu: "Because of the living entity's association with material nature, he meets with good and evil among various species." There are many unmanifested living entities covered by the mode of ignorance who will gradually come to the mode of passion. Most of them will become criminals because of their fruitive activities and again fill the prisons.

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Lecture on BG 2.7 -- London, August 7, 1973:

So in the animal life, it is not possible to change one's nature, which is given by the material energy, prakṛti. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni (BG 3.27). Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya, kāraṇaṁ guṇa-sangaḥ asya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22). Why? All living entities are part and parcel of God. Therefore originally the characteristic of the living entity is as good as God. Simply it is a question of quantity. Quality is the same. Quality is the same. Mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūtaḥ (BG 15.7). The same example. If you take a drop of sea water, the quality, the chemical composition is the same. But the quantity is different. It is a drop, and the sea is vast ocean. Similarly, we are exactly of the same quality as Kṛṣṇa.

Lecture on BG 2.7 -- London, August 7, 1973:

As soon as we fall down under the clutches of this prakṛti, material nature, which means... Prakṛti's composed of three qualities, goodness, passion and ignorance. So we capture one of the qualities. That is the cause, kāraṇaṁ guṇa-sanga (BG 13.22). Guṇa-saṅga. Means associating with different quality. Guna-saṅga asya jīvasya, of the living entity. That is the cause. One can ask: "If the living entity is as good as God, why one living entity has become dog, and one living entity has become god, demigod, Brahmā?" Now the answer is kāraṇam. The reason is guṇa-saṅga asya. Asya jīvasya guṇa-saṅga. Because he's associating with a particular guṇa. Sattva-guṇa, rajo-guṇa, tamo-guṇa.

Lecture on BG 2.12 -- Hyderabad, December 12, 1976:

Tāmasāḥ means very abominable activities. The other day I was speaking. I saw one gentleman, Indian gentleman. He was eating the intestines of hog in the airplane. That is very palatable, they say. Tamo-guṇa, most tamo-guṇa. Hog, the stool-eater, and its intestine, that is cooked, and he's eating. How much tamo-guṇa. Jaghanya. Jaghanya guṇa-vṛtti, very abominable. So next life he is going to be a hog. This is going on. We are in this material nature. Puruṣaḥ prakṛti-stho hi bhuṅkte prakṛti-jān guṇān (BG 13.22). We are in this material world according to our association with different modes of nature. We are making one type of mentality, and at the time of death, that mental position is responsible for carrying me in a different type of body. In this way we are changing body one after another.

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

Indian: No, the thievery is on account of bad...

Prabhupāda: That is, that is the... Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22). You are independent. You can associate with different qualities of nature, and then your character is spoiled. That is your independence. Here God's instruction is sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇam (BG 18.66). You do not abide by that. You create your own independence. Therefore you suffer. Father says, "My dear boy, do like this. You'll be happy." But he does in a different way. Who is responsible, the father or the son?

Lecture on BG 2.25 -- Hyderabad, November 29, 1972:

Now, kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22). So we are getting our birth in different types of body. The reason is I am associating with different types of the modes of nature. My mind is carrying me. It is not death. It is foolish to say that "This man is now dead. Everything is finished." That is rascaldom. Not finished. It is going on. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). The foolish rascals, they say, "Now this man is dead, finished." Big, big professors, they are saying, "Swamiji, after death everything is finished."

Lecture on BG 2.25 -- London, August 28, 1973:

Just try to understand the soul is important. You haven't got to lament for this body. This is already settled up. So much suffering, so much comforts, you'll get. Although the body, material body... Because the material body is also created according to the three qualities. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22). When the inquiry is that why one has got the king's body and why he has got, one has got the pig's body. There are so many other bodies, 8,400,000 different types of bodies. So why the difference is there? That difference is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā. Kāraṇam. Kāraṇam means cause.

Lecture on BG 3.14 -- Sanand, December 27, 1975:

Simply for satisfying Viṣṇu one should act. Any work one is habituated to do, it should be aimed to satisfy Viṣṇu. Otherwise we shall be implicated in the karma. Karma means we act in some way under the direction of material energy or illusionary energy, and we become implicated. It is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22). According to our work and association with particular type of the modes of nature, we get different types of body. If we give up viṣṇu-ārādhana, if we give up the aim of achieving the favor of Viṣṇu, then we are becoming implicated in the resultant action of our different activities.

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

So we are at the present moment rotting in this material world. Puruṣaḥ prakṛti-sthaḥ. That is also mentioned in the thirteenth chapter. It is said that puruṣaḥ prakṛti-sthaḥ. Where is that verse? (aside:) I told you to...

Puruṣaḥ prakṛti-sthaḥ? Puruṣaḥ prakṛti-stho hi. Yes.

puruṣaḥ prakṛti-stho hi

bhuṅkte prakṛti-jān guṇān

kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya

sad-asad-yoni-janmasu

(BG 13.22)

Puruṣa. Puruṣa means the enjoyer. Everyone of us sitting in this hall, we have got different mentality to enjoy differently, different dress, different mentality, different opinion, because everyone of us we are individual. So this individuality is both in spiritual world and the material world.

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

You will find in this practical experience. Suppose a boy is very rich man's son. But still, he thinks "Why shall I live under the rules and regulations of my father? Let me go out. I shall enjoy life freely." Freely, what freedom? You are already rich man's son. You can enjoy the property of your very, very rich powerful father, and what independence you will enjoy? This is criminality. This is criminality. We are sons of God, part and parcels of God, and God means almighty. So we have got almighty father, and leaving His place, I have come to this material world to enjoy independently. That is criminality. And we are suffering. That is explained here: prakṛti-stha, "being placed in this material world," puruṣa, bhuṅkte prakṛti-jān guṇān, "he is enjoying, but enjoying the quality of the modes of material nature."

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

Dehī, the proprietor of the body. Just like you are the proprietor of your shirt and coat. You are not shirt and coat. You are the proprietor of the shirt and coat. You are dressed with shirt and coat in different colors and different shape.

Similarly, the living entity—it does not matter whether he is a man or animal—he is part and parcel of God, but he desired certain dress or certain body, so prakṛti, nature, has given him. So this is going on. Puruṣaḥ prakṛti-stho hi (BG 13.22). Puruṣa means... He is not enjoyer, but he is thinking enjoyer. He is not enjoyer. At any moment his so-called enjoyment will be finished.

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

So actually we are suffering, but we are accepting it as enjoying. This is called illusion. So whatever we are doing in certain type of body in this material world, that is suffering. That is not enjoying. Because why you are placed? Because I wanted to enjoy life like that. So puruṣa prakṛti-stho hi bhuṅkte prakṛti-jān guṇān (BG 13.22). And this profit is nothing but acceptance of the quality of material nature. And that is very practical. We can understand. Just like we are getting... I get, say, fifty-thousand dollars in a check. So I think that "I have got fifty thousand dollars." But what is this fifty thousand dollars? It is a piece of paper. You see? This is called illusion. In this way you study your life, you will see. If you are sober, if you are actually thoughtful, you will find that "This is not my life. This is not my life. But I am falsely thinking that I am enjoying life." Therefore frustration. Next stage is frustration. Everyone, we are frustrated because we are in this material world.

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

Devotee (1): In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, it says that Kṛṣṇa did not want us to come to this material world. If Kṛṣṇa did not want us to come, why are we here?

Prabhupāda: Yes. You forced Kṛṣṇa to allow you to come. Just like sometimes a child forces his father. Father says, "My dear son, do not do this. Do not go there." But he insists, "Oh, I must go. I must go." "All right, you go at your risk. That's all. And you suffer. What can be done?" Because you are son of God—God has got independence, full independence, almighty—therefore you have acquired the quality of your father. You have got little independence. So God does not interfere with your little independence. If you persist that "I must go and enjoy independently," so God says, "All right, you can go." This is the position. You have to take sanction. That is a fact. But when you persist, God sanctions. And you come and enjoy. Beginning from Lord Brahmā down to the worms in the stool, gradually, according to your work, according to your desire, you manufacture your different types of body and enjoy and suffer. That's all. That is explained. Prakṛti-stho hi bhuṅkte prakṛti-jān guṇān. And as soon as you, entangled in different types of punishment, not enjoyment but punishment.

Lecture on BG 4.8 -- Bombay, March 28, 1974:

Adho gacchanti tāmasāḥ. And otherwise how we can explain so many abominable forms of life? Even up to the worm in the stool. This is also a life. And Brahmā is also a life. Why the differences? According to karma. Karmaṇā daiva... Infection. As you infect, as you associate. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya (BG 13.22). These are all explained. Why one is the stool worm, and why one is Lord Brahmā? Now, kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya. As we are associating with the laws of material nature, we are infecting and we are getting the next body. So this is our position.

Lecture on BG 4.13 -- New York, April 8, 1973:

This is the idea of spiritual communism. In Bhāgavata these things are stated, how to feel spiritual communism. In the spiritual communism... The present communists, they are thinking of the human being only. And the animals are being sent to the slaughterhouse. Although the human being and the animal is born in the same land... Actually, they are also nationals. National means one who's born in that particular land. So why not these animals, nationals? But because they have no Kṛṣṇa consciousness, they cannot think so broadly. They think nationalism means it is limited to the human being, not to the animals, not to the trees.

But when you become Kṛṣṇa conscious you understand that the trees, the plants the reptiles, the aquatics, the human beings, the beasts, everyone, each and everyone, part and parcel of God. According to their karma, they have got different bodies, the color, as I explained. According to kāraṇam guṇa-sango 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22). These things are described in the Bhagavad-gītā. One has got a different type of body according to his karma. Karmaṇā daiva netreṇa jantor deha upapattaye (SB 3.31.1). By karma we create next body.

Lecture on BG 4.16 -- Bombay, April 5, 1974:

The same example. If you infect some disease and the after result, you must suffer from that disease. This is nature's law. Similarly, kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22). That is explained in Bhagavad-gītā. Why one gets low grade life and why one gets high grade life? What is the reason? That is explained by Kṛṣṇa, that kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya. The reason is as he is being infected by the different qualities of material nature. Therefore we have to be very careful. There are three qualities and mixed qualities. Originally three qualities: sattva-guṇa, rajo-guṇa, tamo-guṇa. Then three multiplied by three, mixture, then it becomes nine. Then nine multiplied by nine it becomes eighty-one. Different, just like color mixture. So therefore there are 8,400,000 species of life, this mixture of qualities. Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa (SB 3.31.1). We are infecting different types of qualities of material nature, and we are becoming fit for the next life.

Lecture on BG 4.23 -- Bombay, April 12, 1974:

We are.... just at the present moment we are acting according to our past karma, and again we are creating another karma so that we have to enjoy or suffer in the next life. The transmigration of the soul takes place according to karma. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22). Sad-asat, good and inferior, janma. So one has to take his birth in a nice family or in nice nation, good education, good looking, nice opulence.... Janmaiśvarya-śruta-śrīḥ (SB 1.8.26). Janma means to take birth in good family, good nation, and aiśvarya, opulence, very rich. Janmaiśvarya-śruta. Śruta means knowledge, education. And śrī, and beauty.

Lecture on BG 4.23 -- Bombay, April 12, 1974:

By karma, the jantu, the living entity, jantu, he is getting particular type of body. In Bhagavad-gītā also it is stated that kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27). Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22). We are associating with a particular type of modes of nature, goodness, passion and ignorance or mixed. So on account of this, we are working differently and we are preparing our next life, kāraṇam. This is the kāraṇam.

Lecture on BG 4.23 -- Bombay, April 12, 1974:

You accept some type of body or some type of place. Suppose one has become American. So how long he will remain American? Say, for fifty years or utmost hundred years. Then again, next chapter. One does not know what is the next life. That will be decided, kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22). There is no guarantee that the next life again you become American or Indian or brāhmaṇa. You may become a cat and dog, because that is not in your hands. That is in the hand of material nature. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27). Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa (SB 3.31.1). That will be awarded to you by superior judgement, that "This man has done like this; he should get a body like this." That is not in your hand. That is not in your science.

Lecture on BG 4.23 -- Bombay, April 12, 1974:

Even very good man, goodness, brāhmaṇa, that is also conditioned life. To become brāhmaṇa, satyaṁ śamo damas titikṣā ārjava, jñānaṁ vijñānam āstikyaṁ brahma-karma svabhāva-jam (BG 18.42), very perfect way of life, but that is also risky. Not that.... Everything is risky because at any moment we can be associated with another quality. And kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya (BG 13.22). It is very difficult position, mixture.

Lecture on BG 7.1 -- Calcutta, January 27, 1973:

So we are transmigrating according to our karma, different forms of life. The reason is kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22). Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅga, as you are associating with the guṇas, with the material qualities. So one has to increase his attachment for Kṛṣṇa by becoming nirguṇa. Everything is going on under the modes of material nature. Traiguṇya-viṣayā vedā nistraiguṇyo bhavārjuna. That is the instruction. One has to become above the, transcendental to these guṇas. And what is that process? The process is mad-āśraya. When you take shelter of Kṛṣṇa or you take shelter of Kṛṣṇa's pure devotee, then you become transcendental.

Lecture on BG 7.1 -- Hyderabad, April 27, 1974:

Those who are associating with the sad-guṇa, they are also described. Sad-guṇa means satyaṁ śamo damas titikṣā ārjavaṁ kṣāntiḥ, jñānaṁ vijñānam āstikyaṁ brahma-karma... This is brahma-karma. So tapasya means come to the brahma-karma, not to the śūdra-karma. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya (BG 13.22). Don't associate with the śūdra qualifications. Now, what is the śūdra qualification? Paricaryātmakaṁ kāryaṁ śūdra-karma svabhāva-jam (BG 18.44). You are highly educated, but your desire is how to get a service. Paricarya... I am highly educated, but unless I render service to somebody else like a dog, I am not recognized. This is called śūdra-karma. Why a brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya should search after service?

Lecture on BG 9.1 -- Melbourne, April 19, 1976:

Guest (1): Yes, I wanted to know what processes happen to the spiritual soul between a beast and human life.

Prabhupāda: That will depend on his work. Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa jantur deha upapatti (SB 3.31.1). According to the association of the material nature, you get the next body. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22). We have got different types of bodies. That is due to our association, past association with the different modes of material nature. Therefore, in this life, if we associate with the modes of goodness, then there is possibility of being promoted to the higher planetary system, or if we become God conscious, then we go back to home, back to Godhead. This chance is there. Now it is up to us to utilize it properly.

Lecture on BG 13.3 -- Bombay, December 30, 1972:

Karma means prescribed duties. Prescribed duties. Janma-karma. Guṇa-karma. Cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭaṁ guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ (BG 4.13). Guṇa-karma. Cātur-varṇyam, According to Vedic civilization, there are four divisions of karma. Because there are three qualities of the material nature. Sattva-guṇa, rajo-guṇa, tamo-guṇa. So when we come to certain type of activities or accept certain type of body, Kṛṣṇa is giving us opportunity. I wanted certain type of body. Kṛṣṇa is giving. Kṛṣṇa is giving through the agency of material nature. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22).

Lecture on BG 13.4 -- Bombay, September 27, 1973:

So therefore Kṛṣṇa says, sa ca yo yat prabhāvaś ca. That prabhāva means according to the modes of material nature. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-sango 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22). Why one is born in the family of demigod? Why one is born in the family of a hog? Why one is born in the family of a tree or a serpent? There are so many species of life. The only reason is kāraṇaṁ guṇa-sango 'sya. The living entity, as he associates with the guṇas, there are three guṇas. Multiply three by three, it becomes nine, and multiply nine by nine, it becomes eighty-one. Therefore there are eighty-four. Eight million four hundred thousand. This is guṇa.

Lecture on BG 13.22 -- Bombay, October 20, 1973:

Prabhupāda:

puruṣaḥ prakṛti-stho hi

bhuṅkte prakṛti-jān guṇān

kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya

sad-asad-yoni-janmasu

(BG 13.22)

(reads synonyms responsively, and then the translation:)

"The living entity in material nature thus follows the ways of life, enjoying the three modes of nature. This is due to his association with that material nature. Thus he meets with good and evil amongst various species of life." Puruṣa. Puruṣa means enjoyer, the living entity. (aside in Hindi) Hare Kṛṣṇa. So that day I have already explained puruṣa. Puruṣa means the enjoyer. And prakṛti means enjoyed. So puruṣaḥ prakṛti-sthaḥ. The living entity, although... Prakṛti-sthaḥ means this material world. The living entity, although part and parcel of God, spiritual entity, but he has come to this material world to enjoy. Anyone who is in this material world, his original cause of coming down from the spiritual platform to this material platform means he wanted to enjoy.

Lecture on BG 13.22 -- Bombay, October 20, 1973:

So puruṣaḥ prakṛti-stho hi bhuṅkte (BG 13.22). Bhuṅkte means "enjoys." Prakṛti-jān guṇān. Prakṛti... He has come here to enjoy, but he is enjoying not the prakṛti, but prakṛti-jān guṇān, means the qualities of the prakṛti. There are three qualities of the prakṛti: goodness, passion and ignorance. Prakṛti-jān guṇān. These, these are products of material world. It is therefore described in another place, daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī (BG 7.14). Guṇamayī mama māyā duratyayā. This illusory energy is... There are three qualities, qualitative. Some of them... Therefore we find different types of species of life.

Lecture on BG 13.22 -- Bombay, October 20, 1973:

Everyone is trying to enjoy. But he is enjoying... He is not enjoying the prakṛti, but he is enjoying the association of the guṇa. Puruṣaḥ prakṛti-stho hi bhuṅkte prakṛti-jān guṇān, kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya (BG 13.22). So every living entity is suffering or enjoying. There is no enjoyment. Everyone is suffering, but he... That is called māyā. He is suffering but he takes it as enjoying. Even the hog, the pig, he is eating stool, but he is thinking that he is enjoying. He is enjoying. He enjoys a certain type of food according to his quality.

Lecture on BG 13.22 -- Bombay, October 20, 1973:

So kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad... Sad-yoni (BG 13.22), high-class life, and asad-yoni, pāpa-yoni... So why one is born in lower grade family? Why one is born in high-grade family? Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya. The cause is as he has associated with different types of qualities. So unfortunately, this science, that there is birth after death, and there is, actually, we are experience, we are seeing, but they do not inquire. They think that one can improve. That is not possible. Unless he changes the quality, he cannot improve. That is not possible. They do not know it. They are falsely trying to improve the position. Nobody is trying to become poor. Everyone is trying to become rich. But it is not possible. Because he has got a particular type of body, and that body is already destined, and he has to achieve happiness or suffer distresses according to the body.

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

Prabhupāda: Where is Bhagavad-gītā? Bhagavad-gītā?

Hari-śauri: Karatālas, Śrīla Prabhupāda? Karatālas?

Prabhupāda: Bring Bhagavad-gītā.

puruṣaḥ prakṛti-stho hi

bhuṅkte prakṛti-jān guṇān

kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya

sad-asad-yoni-janmasu

(BG 13.22)

Puruṣa, puruṣa means enjoyer and prakṛti means enjoyed. So real puruṣa is Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the living entities, they are actually prakṛti. There are three kinds of prakṛtis or energies. God has got different energies. Parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate svābhāvikī jñāna-bala-kriyā ca (Cc. Madhya 13.65, purport). Svābhāvikī. Just like an intelligent person he has varieties of intelligence and energy. We see sometimes in human society a particular person has got special intelligence, special energy. So what to speak of the Supreme Lord. He has got varieties of energies and all of these energies taken together primarily divided into three, the material energy, the spiritual energy and the marginal energy.

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

There are three modes of material nature: goodness, sattva, rajas, tamas. So goodness, passion, and ignorance. So either of them, we have to accept either of them. So on account of accepting the association of a particular type of modes of material nature, kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-yoni-janmasu (BG 13.22).

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

Today I may be in good position, I may be millionaire, I may be prime minister, but when death will come it will take everything from you, and it will oblige you to go to a species form of life which you cannot you deny. Puruṣaḥ prakṛti-stho hi bhuṅkte prakṛti-jān guṇān (BG 13.22). If (indistinct) have infected some disease, you must suffer from it. There is no excuse. Even a child, if he touches the fire, the fire will not excuse. "Because it is a child, he does not know, therefore I shall not burn his finger." No. No excuse. Daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā duratyayā (BG 7.14). You cannot escape the stringent laws of nature. That is not possible. If you are foolishly thinking that "I shall escape the punishment or reward of the prakṛti."

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

Don't be satisfied with the present bodily situation, that you are very happily situated. That's not the fact. You have to change this position. You have to accept another body and you do not know what kind of body you have to accept. It will be given by prakṛti. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22). So don't be irresponsible to your life. Be responsible and be prepared for the next life and act accordingly, as the direction is there in the Bhagavad-gītā, and prove that you are human being. The animal cannot do. If you do not do it, then you remain an animal. The animal has no capacity to understand Vedic knowledge or the Bhagavad-gītā. And even though we have got the intelligence if do not utilize it to understand the instruction in the Bhagavad-gītā and Vedic knowledge, then purposefully we keep ourself within the category of animals.

Lecture on BG 13.22-24 -- Melbourne, June 25, 1974:

Prabhupāda:

puruṣaḥ prakṛti-stho hi

bhuṅkte prakṛti-jān guṇān

kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya

sad-asad-yoni-janmasu

(BG 13.22)

upadraṣṭānumantā ca

bhartā bhoktā maheśvaraḥ

paramātmeti cāpy ukto

dehe 'smin puruṣaḥ paraḥ

(BG 13.23)

ya evaṁ vetti puruṣaṁ

prakṛtiṁ ca guṇaiḥ saha

sarvathā vartamāno 'pi

na sa bhūyo 'bhijāyate

(BG 13.24)

Puruṣa. Puruṣa means the enjoyer. Puruṣa. And prakṛti means enjoyed. For enjoyment two things are required. One enjoyer and the other enjoyed. When we eat something, the eater is the enjoyer and the foodstuff is enjoyed. So here in this material world the living entity, although by nature it is to be enjoyed, but out of ignorance the enjoyed is claiming to be enjoyer. Just like from practical example the man and woman, the man is supposed to be the enjoyer and the woman is supposed to be the enjoyed. So enjoyed means prakṛti, or female, and enjoyer means the puruṣa, or the male.

Lecture on BG 13.22-24 -- Melbourne, June 25, 1974:

So Kṛṣṇa is bhoktā and we are bhogya. It is not our position that we become Kṛṣṇa and become bhoktā, no. That is wrong conception. You cannot become the enjoyer. You are enjoyed. But when you want to imitate Kṛṣṇa and want to become enjoyer, then you are sent in this material world. This is material world. Why we are in this material world? We are part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. We should remain with Kṛṣṇa in the spiritual world. But why we are put into this material world? That is explained. Puruṣaḥ prakṛti-stho hi bhuṅkte prakṛti-jān guṇān (BG 13.22). Because constitutionally a living entity is not enjoyer but enjoyed.

Lecture on BG 13.22-24 -- Melbourne, June 25, 1974:

So why there are different types of bodies? Because you wanted a particular type of enjoyment under the influence of material nature. As already explained, there are three material nature quality—sattva-guṇa, rajo-guṇa, tamo-guṇa. Now, we mix them. Three into three, it becomes nine. And nine multiplied by nine, it becomes eighty-one. Therefore there are eight million four hundred thousand species of life, according to the material quality. That is explained here. Puruṣaḥ prakṛti-stho hi bhuṅkte prakṛti-jān guṇān (BG 13.22). Prakṛti-jān guṇān. To possess different types of the modes of material nature. Full freedom.

Lecture on BG 13.22-24 -- Melbourne, June 25, 1974:

Don't associate with this material nature. If you associate with this material nature, then what will be the result? Now, kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-yoni-janmasu (BG 13.22). Yoni means the source of birth. Just like we take our birth. The source is the mother. From the mother's womb we come out. That is called yoni, the source. The source is the mother. From the mother's womb we come out. That is called yoni, the source. So there are mothers, human being mother, cat mother, dog mother, this mother, so many mothers. Without mother there is no birth. And without father also, there is no birth. Therefore it is said that janame āmi saba pitā mātā pāya.(?) In every birth you will get a father and mother. Because without father and mother there is no question of birth.

Lecture on BG 13.22-24 -- Melbourne, June 25, 1974:

So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is the topmost philanthropy, welfare activities to the human society. Those who are intelligent, they are understanding. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-yoni-janmasu (BG 13.22). Others they are associating with different qualities of the material nature, and nature is prepared, "Come on, sir, you take this body." You are not scientist, so-called scientist can save you. When this body is finished, then you are under the control of material nature. Whatever body she will offer you, you have to accept. You cannot say "No, no. I cannot accept this body." "No, no. You are nothing. You are under my grip."

Lecture on BG 13.23 -- Bombay, October 22, 1973:

So there are two puruṣas. One puruṣa is already explained. Puruṣaḥ prakṛti-stho hi... (aside:) You can go. Puruṣaḥ prakṛti-stho hi bhuṅkte prakṛti-jān guṇān (BG 13.22). So one puruṣa, the living entity, ātmā, and another puruṣa is Paramātmā. Sometimes the Māyāvādī philosophers, they do not distinguish between ātmā and Paramātmā. But here it is distinctly explained by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, that one puruṣa is enjoying the fruits of his activities, prakṛti-sthaḥ. Being influenced by the quality of the prakṛti, material nature, he is sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu, he is taking birth in different types and species of life. And another puruṣa is there who is upadraṣṭā. Upadraṣṭā means he is overseer. He is simply seeing how the other puruṣa is working. And according to his karma, work, he is giving the result. He is the witness.

Lecture on BG 13.23 -- Bombay, October 22, 1973:

So when we do something wrong, how Kṛṣṇa as antaryāmī, as Paramātmā, gives permission? This question may be raised. But He gives permission, when I do something wrong. Because I cannot do anything without His permission. But He gives me permission as a... Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya. That is already explained.

puruṣaḥ prakṛti-stho hi

bhuṅkte prakṛti-jān guṇān

kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya

sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu

(BG 13.22)

He can give you permission, but the enjoyment and suffering will have to be taken by you. You insist permission, "I want to do this." And without permission, you cannot do it. Therefore Kṛṣṇa gives you per..., "All right, you do it, but at your risk." Kṛṣṇa does not want that you should do it, but you want to do it. Therefore He gives permission.

Lecture on BG 13.35 -- Geneva, June 6, 1974:

Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya (BG 13.22). Guṇa means... According to the guṇa, you make your desire, That is contamination. And as there is contamination, as there is similar disease, similarly, as we desire similar body, we can get by the order of Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa gives order because we want it. Kṛṣṇa does not force you to enter into the dog's body or hog's body or demigod's body or human being's body, but as we create situation by desire, Kṛṣṇa gives us the facility to possess such body, and we work on, and we reap another result. This is called material existence. Thank you very much.

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

So first of all we must decide what we want. Whatever you want, you will have. Kṛṣṇa is very kind. If you want to remain bound up by the laws of material nature within this material world... Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya (BG 13.22). As we contaminate the different material modes of nature, we get different situation of life, different forms of body, different circumstances. Kṛṣṇa has arranged everything very accurately. His arrangement is very perfect. Parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate (Cc. Madhya 13.65, purport). When He does something, He desires only. By His desires, the energies are there. Immediately the energy works.

Lecture on BG 17.1-3 -- Honolulu, July 4, 1974:

We have discussed all these, this verse, that sad-asad-janma, yoni-janmasu. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya (BG 13.22). Everyone is getting a particular type of body. So one may say, "This body is very nice, this body is not so nice and this body is very good." So why it is so? Because according to the association of the material nature. After all, the living entity falls down from the spiritual world. Just like Jaya-Vijaya. There is possibility, if you do not stick to the spiritual principle, even if you are in Vaikuṇṭha, you will fall down, what to speak of this material world? Because in the Vaikuṇṭha or in the spiritual world, no contaminated soul can stay there. He will fall down.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

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

Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-yoni-janmasu (BG 13.22). Why one is born in high family, rich family, why other is poor family or one is born in lower animals, one is born as demigods? What is that reason, kāraṇa? The reason is kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya. He has associated with a particular type of the material qualities therefore he has to accept a particular type of body. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya. Therefore we are instructing our students, "Associate with the good qualities, good qualities." The best qualities of association is devotional service, a devotee.

Lecture on SB 1.2.3 -- Rome, May 27, 1974:

Prabhupāda: This is the position. These rascals, they have become godless, and suffering day and night threefold miseries-adhyātmika, adhidaivika, adhibhautika. Still, they are not coming to their senses. So blunt, so dull-headed, that "We are..." This is intelligence. When one comes to this understanding, that "I don't want all this sufferings. Why they are forced upon me?" then you can become a gentleman. Just like in the jail. Nobody wants to, I mean to say, what is called, breaking?

Nitāi: Break with stones.

Prabhupāda: Ah, breaking stone. He doesn't want. But there is jail superintendent—"All right, you must break so many." And there is stick. "If you don't break, then..." So it is going on. Māyā. Māyā is kicking always, "You must do it." Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi (BG 3.27). "You wanted to eat anything and everything. All right, you take this body of hog and eat stool." That's all. This is māyā, prakṛti. He has given you a body. You have to suffer according to the body. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22). Why there are different types of bodies, different types of enjoyment? Everyone is in the material world. Why one has become hog, one has become dog, and one has become very rich man, and demigod? Why? Who is making arrangement? Who wants to become cat and dog? Who does not want to become king? But why this is arrangement? Who is doing this? This rascal cannot understand.

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

The Supreme Lord is situated in everyone's heart so how you can hide yourself from the vigilance of the Supreme Lord? The Supreme Lord is witness. So according to your karma... And that is also explained in another place in Bhagavad-gītā. Why people are getting superior and inferior types of bodies? That is explained, kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-yoni-janmasu (BG 13.22). Sad-asad—good and bad, first-class and third-class. Sad-asad-janma-yonisu. Species of life, they are getting. The reason is, kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya. Because he's associating with different modes of nature. There are three modes of nature—goodness, passion, and ignorance. So if you associate with goodness, you get one type of body.

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

There are Janaloka, Maharloka, Tapoloka, Brahmaloka, Satyaloka, Siddhaloka. You'll go there. Ūrdhvaṁ gacchanti sattva-sthā madhye tiṣṭhanti rājasāḥ (BG 14.18). And if you want to remain in the middle planetary system, then that is rajo-guṇa. And jaghanya-guṇa-vṛtti-sthā adho gacchanti tāmasāḥ. And those who are working in tamo-guṇa, jaghanya, most abominable behavior, they will go to the animal kingdom or the lower planetary system. This is the process. As you are contaminating, kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22). Sat and asat-janma. Why there are so many varieties of life? Cats, dogs, trees, aquatics, birds, beasts, human beings, demigods, civilized, uncivilized, so many. Why there are so many varieties? kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya. As he is associating with different types of qualities, he is getting a different types of body. This is going on.

Lecture on SB 1.2.8 -- Hyderabad, April 22, 1974:

So why one has taken the body of the worm of stool and why one has taken the body of Lord Brahmā or Indra, Candra, Varuṇa or rich man, very nice man, beautiful man? Why? Why these differences of body? Because the kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya (BG 13.22). As you are associating with the modes of material nature, sattva-guṇa, rajo-guṇa, tamo-guṇa... There are three guṇas. Sattva-guṇa, if you associate with sattva-guṇa, then ūrdhvaṁ gacchanti sattva-sthāḥ (BG 14.18). If you remain in sattva-guṇa... Sattva-guṇa means brahminical qualification. Satyaṁ śamo damas titikṣā ārjavam, jñānaṁ vijñānam āstikyaṁ brahma-karma svabhāva-jam (BG 18.42). If you remain on the platform of brahminical qualification, that is called sattva-guṇa. And less than that śauryaṁ tejo balaṁ yuddhe cāpalāyanam, kṣatriya qualification—that is modes of passion. And others, remaining, they are in the modes of ignorance, do not know what is the value of life, what is next life, what is spiritual realization, why we are suffering. Nothing, no knowledge. That is tamo-guṇa.

Lecture on SB 1.2.9-10 -- Delhi, November 14, 1973:

This human form of life, deha-bhājām... The cats and dogs and hogs, they have also accepted a body. And the trees, the plants, the insects, the birds, beasts—everyone has got body, material body. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya (BG 13.22). I have explained it. According to the infection of the modes of material nature, one is getting a type of body, nature's way. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi. The same example: if you contaminate some disease, you'll have to suffer or you'll have to accept that disease. So similarly, this is the nature's way. If you are associating with a certain type of quality of the material nature, you are preparing your body for that purpose.

Lecture on SB 1.2.19 -- Calcutta, September 27, 1974:

You are under the complete subjugation of nature. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27). These guṇaiḥ. The prakṛti is forcing you to work because you have infected a kind of guṇa. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-yoni-janmasu (BG 13.22). Kāraṇam. Why one man is born, one living entity is born as a very rich man and one is born as a dog? Sad-asad-yoni. Yoni means mother, and bīja means father. Yathā yoni yathā bījaḥ. So the every living entity is born—bīja and yoni, father and mother. So why there are varieties? Nature is working. Why not one, one kind of living entities? No. Sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu. There are 8,400,000 of species. One has to take. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). You have to change. But why one is in the lower grade birth, why in the higher grade? Now, kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya. These guṇa. These guṇa, sattva-guṇa, rajo-guṇa.

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

In another place it is also clearly stated: yānti deva-vratā devān pitṟn yānti pitṛ-vratāḥ (BG 9.25). So kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya (BG 13.22). Therefore the first-class civilization is that which associates with the modes of goodness. That is, means, brahminical civilization. Truthful, satyaṁ śamo damas titikṣā ārjava..., jñānaṁ vijñānam āstikyaṁ brahma-karma svabhāva-jam (BG 18.42). This is first-class civilization. People must be truthful, they must be equipoised, not disturbed, not being disturbed by different situations. 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.

Lecture on SB 1.7.5-6 -- Johannesburg, October 15, 1975:

Yayā sammohito jīva ātmānam: the spirit soul, ātmānaṁ tri-guṇātmakam... This body is tri-guṇātmakam. The body is made according to the modes of material nature: kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya (BG 13.22). Everything is very clearly explained in the Bhagavad-gītā. This is further development. Bhagavad-gītā... If you understand Bhagavad-gītā, and if you actually surrender to Kṛṣṇa... The last word of Kṛṣṇa is sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). If you actually understand Bhagavad-gītā, this will be the result. And in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam it is said, tyaktvā sva-dharmaṁ caraṇāmbujaṁ hareḥ (SB 1.5.17). Sva-dharma. Kṛṣṇa says, sarva-dharmān parityajya. So that means every one of us... Dharma means occupational duty. That is dharma, characteristic. So Kṛṣṇa orders, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja. If we accept it, even by sentiment... That is confirmed in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

Lecture on SB 1.7.5-6 -- Johannesburg, October 15, 1975:

So this is very important thing. We do not gain anything. We gain only another body—again begin chapter, the same struggle for existence. And that also, there is no guarantee. According to our karma, we shall have to accept a body. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya (BG 13.22). As we associate... Just like we develop a certain type of disease as we contaminate the germ. If you contaminate the virus of smallpox, then you have to suffer from smallpox. Nature's law is so strict; you cannot avoid it. If you have been attacked by the mosquito carrying malaria germ, then you have to suffer from malaria. So kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya. As you take precaution that "I may not be attacked with malaria or smallpox or this or that"—so many, we take precaution—similarly we have to be very precautious for our next body. If we become precautious, then there is chance of being promoted.

Lecture on SB 1.7.6 -- Vrndavana, April 23, 1975:

Everything is food, but the human being has got an allotted foodstuff by the Supreme Lord. Eko yo bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān. That Supreme Personality of Godhead is supplying everyone foodstuff. But not that the dogs' and hogs' foodstuff is the same for the human kind, no. Tena tyaktena bhuñjīthā (ISO 1). You should enjoy as it is allotted by the Supreme Lord. So if we transgress this law... Our constitutional position, anatomical fittings, is to eat fruit, vegetable, rice, wheat, milk or milk product. This is our constitutional position. But if we imitate the cats and dog, without any discrimination, if we eat, then my next body is ready, the hog's body or the dog's body. This is natural law. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22). As you associate with different types of material modes of nature, then you get the next body accordingly. Therefore on the whole, the body, either human body or demigod's body or cat's body or dog's body or tree's body or plant's body, it is unnecessary. Unnecessarily we have accepted this material body. Because our position is not this body. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). We are losing every time a particular type of body. But I am eternal. But people are so foolish, so rascal, they do not understand that "If I am eternal, why I have to change my body?" This is intelligence.

Lecture on SB 1.7.11 -- Vrndavana, September 10, 1976:

The outward dress, man and woman, that is dress. Vāsāṁsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya (BG 2.22). We are changing this dress. So in this material world, because our mentality is to enjoy, therefore he is called puruṣa. Puruṣaḥ prakṛti-stho hi bhuṅkte prakṛti-jān guṇān (BG 13.22). Puruṣa, here puruṣa, the living entities... It is said puruṣa. Puruṣa means both men and women because everyone has got the spirit, "I shall enjoy." Therefore he is described as puruṣa. Puruṣaḥ prakṛti-stho hi. In this material world, bhuṅkte prakṛti-jān guṇān, kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-yoni-janmasu. We are getting different types of bodies on account of our different desires. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-yoni-janmasu. According to the desire, Kṛṣṇa is so kind, as we are desiring He is supplying some body.

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

Just like spiritual atmosphere, Kṛṣṇa's friends, cowherd boys, they're playing with Kṛṣṇa. That is also playing. And here in this material world the boys they also play football play. But these two plays are different. One is spiritual and another is material. The same example: the spark, when it is with the fire, it is illuminating and burning, but when the sparks fall down, they may fall down on the ground. There are three chances. One chance is the spark falls down on dry grass—then there is fire. As soon as the spark falls down on the dry grass there is fire for some time. And when the spark falls down on the ground, it is extinguished. And when the fire, spark, falls down on the water, then it is not only extinguished; it becomes no more inflammable. Very difficult to inflame. Similarly, when we fall down from the fire, spiritual world, we associate with three qualities. Puruṣaḥ prakṛti 'stho hi bhuṅkte prakṛti-jān guṇān (BG 13.22). This is the statement of Bhagavad-gītā. Prakṛti-jān guṇān. In the prakṛti, in this material world, there are three modes of material nature: sattva-guṇa, rajo-guṇa, tamo-guṇa. So there is chance... When you fall down, you can fall down anywhere. This example, the same example. A spark falls down from the original fire, so it can fall down on the dry grass, it can fall down on the water, it can fall down on the ground. There are three chances. Similarly, when the living entity, originally part and parcel of God, the same quality... Not the same quantity. Just like spark and fire, they are same quality but not same quantity. Fire is very big; therefore the big fire is acyuta. It is never degraded. But the small fire is degraded.

Lecture on SB 1.7.27 -- Vrndavana, September 24, 1976:

So in this way, if we do not take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness we'll be more and more implicated. You cannot avoid. That is not possible. The God's nature is working so nicely. I have given you several times the example that if you infect some disease, it must develop and you must have to suffer. There is no excuse. Similarly, if you are associating with the modes of ignorance and you are committing some sins, the effect you must have to suffer. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22). Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27). Prakṛteḥ, the nature, God's machine, is working so perfectly that it will act. You cannot avoid.

Lecture on SB 1.7.36-37 -- Vrndavana, September 29, 1976:

Another pramatta is that those who are mad after sense gratification. Nūnaṁ pramattaḥ kurute vikarma (SB 5.5.4). There is another verse, nūnaṁ pramattaḥ. Those who are pramatta, those who have no responsibility of life, sometimes unnecessarily stealing and doing some, so many wrong things... Vikarma. Why? Now pramatta, he is also crazy. Nūnaṁ pramattaḥ kurute vikarma (SB 5.5.4). And why he is taking risk of being punished? Suppose one man is stealing. He'll be punished. Either by the law of the state or by the laws of nature or God, he'll be punished. He can escape the laws of the state, but he cannot escape the laws of nature or God. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi (BG 3.27). It is not possible. Just like the laws of nature. If you infect some disease, so you'll have to be punished. You'll suffer from that disease. That is punishment. You cannot escape. Similarly, anything you do, kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya (BG 13.22). If you live like a cat and dog, that is infection, guṇa, the modes of ignorance. Then your next life you become a dog. You must be punished. This is law of nature.

Lecture on SB 1.15.35 -- Los Angeles, December 13, 1973:

So this is the position. You create a situation of your own. Just like when the surgical operation, you have got a boil, then you... You have created by contamination, and the surgeon is simply operating. He has not created that situation. Similarly your transference to another body is not God's creation, it is your creation. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22). Those who have read Bhagavad-gītā, you have seen. Why one is born in low-grade family, one is born high-grade family, one is born animal, one is born human being, one is born as demigod? Why? What is the cause? Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya. Kāraṇam. The cause is as he has infected the modes of material nature. The material nature is going on in three modes, sattva-guṇa, rajo-guṇa, tamo-guṇa. It is up to you if you associate with tamo-guṇa, then you become next life animal or tree or fish. There are so many degraded condition.

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

Actually those who are meat-eater, beef-eater, they are killing their father and mother and become implicated in sinful life. Therefore we say no meat-eating. No meat-eating. If you become implicated in sinful life, how you can be happy? There must be nature's punishment. Just like if you infect some disease, nature must punish you. You must suffer from the disease. You cannot get out. It is not possible. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya (BG 13.22). Why there are so many varieties of life? Why not one class of men, all President Nixon? (laughter) Why not? Why there is bum in the Bowery Street? In your country I am saying. Why there are arrangement of first-class, second-class, third-class, fourth-class, fifth-class men? Or animals, or trees? Everything is there. Why?

Lecture on SB 2.8.7 -- Los Angeles, February 10, 1975:

So this theory, that the world is going automatically or we have come into this material world without any reason, without any cause... Kim anyat kāma-haitukam. They say, the rascals say, that our coming to this material world is to the lusty desires of the father and mother. Therefore the child has no meaning. It is a by-product of the lusty desire. So if I don't want it, kill it. Destroy it. This is going on. But that is not the fact. The child has come into the womb of the mother, a particular type of mother—not the sa..., every mother is producing the same type of child. No. Why? There is cause. There is cause, hetunā. Without cause there cannot be anything. Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa (SB 3.31.1), the cause is his activities. According to the activities, he is producing the next body automatically. That is automatically. But there is cause, his activity.

That is also stated in the Bhagavad-gītā: kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22). Kāraṇam. Kāraṇam means cause. What is the cause? The cause is that as he's associating with a particular type of the modes of nature, sattva-guṇa, rajo-guṇa, tamo-guṇa... If he's associating with tamo-guṇa, then next life he's preparing in the lower animal kingdoms or most degraded family.

Lecture on SB 3.25.13 -- Bombay, November 13, 1974:

You cannot expect in the dog's body the same happiness as a king or a very rich man is enjoying. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-sa... He has got the dog's body, he has got the king's body. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya (BG 13.22). So this happiness or that happiness, this distress or that distress, they are all due to this material body. Therefore yoga means one has to transcend this happiness of body, distress or happiness. That is here said, that atyanta-uparatiḥ yatra. If you connect yourself again with the supreme yoga—that is called real yoga—then you get rid of this so-called material happiness and distress, which is due to this body.

Lecture on SB 3.25.18 -- Bombay, November 18, 1974:

The conditioned state of life means influence of material nature. When we are very much influenced by the material nature... We have already discussed: guṇa. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya (BG 13.22). Material nature means the three guṇas, three material qualities: ignorance, passion and goodness. Goodness is better than the other two qualities, ignorance and passion. But mostly, especially in this age, they are conducted or influenced by the modes of ignorance and passion. People do not know what is the aim of life. Just like they are called śūdras. Śūdras means they do not know what is the aim of life.

Lecture on SB 3.25.21 -- Bombay, November 21, 1974:

Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa (SB 3.31.1). This conditioned life, different forms of life, we have got daiva-netreṇa, by superior, superior administration. Netreṇa means netṛtva, leadership. So superior leadership. Just like Yamarāja. Karmaṇā, according to my karma, he offers me some body. Daiva-netreṇa. Jantur deha upapatti. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22). Karma... Guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ (BG 4.13). Guṇa and karma... Just like here, in the practical world, you can work as an engineer, karma, if you have got the qualification. If you have got the qualification of a shopkeeper, you cannot act as engineer. That is not possible. If you have got the qualification of a teacher, educationist, then you can become a teacher.

Lecture on SB 3.25.26 -- Bombay, November 26, 1974:

So nature will give you. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya.

puruṣaḥ prakṛti-stho hi

bhuṅkte prakṛti-jān guṇān

kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya

sad-asad-yoni-janmasu

(BG 13.22)

Why we are getting different bodies? Because we have got different tendency for sense gratification. Indriya, aindriyāt. This is the disease, material disease. Everyone has got tendency for sense gratification, but not all of them of the same type. They have got different types. So our material bondage means these different types of sense gratification. Therefore we have to stop this. We have to be detestful from this sense gratification. Then our spiritual life will begin. That is possible by bhakti.

Lecture on SB 3.25.41 -- Bombay, December 9, 1974:

So the atheist class, they try to forget, that "After death, there is no life." This is atheism. There is life, sir. Kṛṣṇa says, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). How you can say there is no life? There is life, but you do not know. Kṛṣṇa says that after this human life... He does not say that you get such and such life. He simply says, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ: "You will get another body." Now, He does not say what kind of body. The question should be, "All right, then what kind of body I am going to get?" That depends on your work. You can see in your front, there are so many dogs. They are barking day and night. They have no food. They have no shelter. And anyone sees, he beats him with a stick or some stone. There is no shelter, no food. You can get a life like that also. You can get a life like a tree, standing before you for five hundred years. Or you can get a life even like a demigod if you are pious.

So that will depend on your karma. Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa deho...jantur dehopapattaye (SB 3.31.1). That will depend. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27). Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-yoni-janmasu (BG 13.22). Everything is there is the śāstra. You can get a nice body or you can get a very bad body, not comfortable, cats' and dogs' body. But in every body the living entity thinks that he is very happy. This is called illusion.

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

So long you are in the subtle body and gross body, then you are suffering under the three modes of material nature. The body is created by the three modes of material nature according to... Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-yoni-janmasu (BG 13.22). We get different types of body on account of association with these material modes of nature, sattva-guṇa, rajo-guṇa, tamo-guṇa. But if you are situated in the devotional service of the Lord, you immediately become on the platform of brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā (BG 18.54), immediately. Ahaṁ brahmāsmi—this is simply theoretical. That is theoretical knowledge, that "I am brahma." But when you are actually in devotional service, then that is practical. You are no more in the material platform. You are on the Brahman platform.

Lecture on SB 3.26.5 -- Bombay, December 17, 1974:

So at the present moment our position is contaminated position by the contact of the three modes of material nature. Guṇair vicitrāḥ. Guṇair vicitrāḥ. You see so many varieties of life, different varieties of life. Uccāvaca. Some of them are higher, in higher position; some of them are lower position. But this vicitra, soul, is pure. That is one quality. But this vicitra quality, why? Vicitra means variety. Because guṇaiḥ. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya (BG 13.22). Why one has become dog and one has become god? God means demigod. They are also living entities within this material world, but they live in higher planetary system.

Lecture on SB 3.26.5 -- Bombay, December 17, 1974:

So because we are duṣkṛtinaḥ, mūḍhāḥ, narādhamāḥ, therefore there are so many varieties of life. Guṇair vicitrāḥ sṛjatīm. And that is being done by the material nature. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22). Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27). Prakṛti, nature's law, it does not... It is so perfect machine... One... We have several times said. Just like there is perfect machinery: if you have contaminated the germs of cholera or smallpox, venereal disease, then you must suffer from that disease. The machine is working. Machine is working. Similarly, the machine of the prakṛti is working very finely.

Lecture on SB 3.26.8 -- Bombay, December 20, 1974:

So everything is going on under the direction of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, but according to our position, we are enjoying different result. Not enjoying-suffering. Here there is no question of enjoyment. It is suffering. So this prakṛti, this material nature, is creating the situation—we have discussed already many times—according to our... Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya (BG 13.22). As we are associating with different modes of material nature or infecting different modes of material nature, so we are getting different situation, different body, different activities. The original cause is the material nature.

Lecture on SB 3.26.8 -- Bombay, December 20, 1974:

This should be our endeavor. Don't try to elevate yourself materially. That will not make you happy. Just try to get out of these material clutches and begin your spiritual life. That will make you happy. That is the only source of happiness. Otherwise it is not. The same example, that if you are put into the ocean, you may be very good swimmer—it will be great struggle. You can keep yourself floating, but that is not happiness. Happiness is different thing. If you want happiness, then you have to give up the association of prakṛti. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya (BG 13.22). Because as so long you will be in the material world, you will have to associate with some of the modes of material nature, sattva-guṇa, rajo-guṇa, tamo-guṇa.

Lecture on SB Questions & Answers -- Hyderabad, April 10, 1975:

It is already described in the Bhagavad-gītā that kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22). There are different forms of life, different species of life. What is the reason of these different gradations? A dog's life and a man's life is different. How it has so become? What is the scientist's reply? I don't think the scientists can reply this. Or they can reply, "Evolutionary process." How the evolutionary process is taking place? So that answer is also given in the Bhagavad-gītā,

mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ

sūyate sa-carācaram

hetunānena kaunteya

jagad viparivartate

(BG 9.10)

That... The developed human life is obtained by karma. Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa jantur dehopapattaye (SB 3.31.1).

We are working under the control of material nature, and we are infecting, contaminating different modes of material nature. Just like a person who has contaminated the smallpox infection, he must suffer from smallpox. That is medical science. Similarly, kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya (BG 13.22). There are three material modes of nature: goodness, passion, and ignorance. So if you associate with goodness, then your next body becomes manifest in the modes of goodness, just like highly intelligent class of men or the brāhmaṇa. If you infect the modes of passion, then you become passionate; you get passionate body. And ignorance also.

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

This father said that "God is enemy. Viṣṇu is my enemy. You do not take the name of Viṣṇu." And the child, boy, will take. That is the cause of enmity. So at the end he saw Hiraṇyakaśipu Hiraṇyakaṣipu saw Nṛsiṁha-deva. Immediately finished everything. So that is the case of everyone, that one has to meet death. And at the time of death, whatever arrangement he has made for so-called happiness will be taken away. Mṛtyuḥ sarva-haraś cāham. Then he will be offered another body. It may be a human body or he may be a dog's body or hog's body, and we have to accept it.

prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni

guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ

ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā

kartāham iti manyate

(BG 3.27)

Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22). The laws of nature is working, and he is infecting a particular type of the modes of material nature, he is preparing his next body. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu.

Lecture on SB 5.5.1 -- Bombay, December 25, 1976:

Karmanā daiva-netreṇa jantur dehopapattaye (SB 3.31.1). According to your karma you have to accept another body because you are under the laws of material nature.

puruṣaḥ prakṛti 'stho hi

bhuṅkte prakṛti-jān guṇān

kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya

sad-asad-janma-yonisu

(BG 13.22)

Puruṣaḥ. This living entity, he's puruṣaḥ.

Lecture on SB 5.5.1-2 -- Bombay, March 25, 1977:

There is the laws of nature. We are under the grip of laws of nature. You cannot violate. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27). If you have touched fire, it doesn't matter whether you are elderly person or a child, innocent or knowingly or unknowingly, the fire must burn. There is no excuse. Similarly, we are contaminating different types of modes of nature. There are three modes of material nature—sattva-guṇa, raja-guṇa and tamo-guṇa. Now mix it up, three into three equal to nine, nine into nine it becomes eighty-one. Again eighty-one... It increases. Those who are expert in mixing color, they know how to make different colors by mixing the original three colors: blue, yellow and red. Similarly, we are in this material world under the clutches of the modes of material nature, and according to different circumstances we are mixing with different modes of nature. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-yoni-yoniṣu (BG 13.22). Because we are mixing with different types of material nature, next life we are preparing. Tatha dehāntara praptir. We have to accept another body. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya. This is our position. Don't be very happy that "Today I am such and such big person. It will continue." No, sir, it will not continue. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). You have to change your body.

Lecture on SB 5.5.1-2 -- Bombay, March 25, 1977:

Guest (3): Karma is the cause of also the cycle of death and birth. So virtuous karma of action, liberation of man are inclined to the supreme (?). If it is so, that is called mukta. If it is so, what is the first cause that should denial(?) me from the supreme or the action?

Prabhupāda: Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya (BG 13.22). We have already mentioned. Kāraṇam, the first cause. Guṇa-saṅgo 'sya. As soon as you want to associate with the modes of material nature, then you are bound up, immediately, by the modes of material nature. Then your work begins. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya. That is natural. Actually, every living entity is constitutionally the servant of Kṛṣṇa, but when he wants to enjoy without Kṛṣṇa, without becoming servant of Kṛṣṇa, he wants to enjoy independently this material nature, then he has to associate with the modes of material nature and he becomes bound up. Yajñārthe karma anyatra loko 'yaṁ karma-bandhanaḥ (BG 3.9). So you have to know or study all these understanding. Then you will understand what is what. That's all.

Lecture on SB 5.5.1-2 -- Bombay, March 25, 1977:

Guest (3): Why did we left Śrī Kṛṣṇa and came to this world? What was the cause? There was no action at all.

Prabhupāda: There is cause: kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya (BG 13.22). There is master and servant. The servant sometimes desires, "Why not become a master?" That is natural. So...

Guest (3): No. When I was with Kṛṣṇa, I was, matter was (indistinct) that my master is served.

Prabhupāda: You are master? You are kicked by the material nature and you are master? Why you are so falsely proud? You are not master.

Lecture on SB 5.5.2 -- Hyderabad, April 11, 1975:

It is very great shackle, repetition of birth and death, bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19). One should understand this implication, how we are implicated. We are thinking, "Now I am very happy." No, next moment you can become a low-graded body because karmaṇā daiva... If we are acting in a different way, the nature's way is to give you... Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22). Guṇa-saṅga. As we are associating, infecting the different types of material modes of nature, the body is ready immediately. Everything is explained. Yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran bhāvaṁ tyajaty ante kalevaram (BG 8.6). At the time of death everything will be, I mean to say, the atmosphere of our death.

Lecture on SB 5.5.15 -- Vrndavana, November 3, 1976:

We are getting different types of bodies, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). Each body is for a short period. It will not last forever. But so long it will last, it will be cause of suffering. That we do not understand. This is the ignorance, mūḍha. And this suffering can be ended only by surrendering to Kṛṣṇa. Mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti te (BG 7.14). The suffering is inflicted by māyā. Bhuṇkte prakṛti-jān guṇān. But there is no education, the people are so dull, rascal, they cannot understand that they are suffering, and the suffering they are accepting as enjoyment. In this way they are rotting in this material world.

Lecture on SB 5.5.27 -- Vrndavana, November 14, 1976:

Bhakti means hṛṣīka. Hṛṣīka means the senses, karaṇa. Mano-vaca. Mind is the king of the senses. So mind is also one of the senses. Manaḥ ṣaṣṭhānīndriyāṇi prakṛti-sthāni karṣati (BG 15.7). Mind and the indriyas combined together, we are trying to be happy in this material world, but there is no happiness, simply struggling. Prakṛti-sthāni karṣati. Puruṣaḥ prakṛti-stho bhuṇkte prakṛti-jān guṇān. He is put into this prakṛti, bhūmir āpo 'nalo vāyuḥ khaṁ buddhi, bhinnā me prakṛtir aṣṭadhā (BG 7.4). So we are put into this prakṛti. Bhūmir āpo 'nalo vāyuḥ khaṁ buddhi mano. These are material. There is also mana. Mind is subtle matter; it is not spirit. So in this way, separated energy and the jīva, the living entity, although he is part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa, he wanted to enjoy life separately or independently without Kṛṣṇa, and that is called material world, struggle for existence. Without Kṛṣṇa. Therefore he has to come to Kṛṣṇa if he wants to stop his struggle for existence with mind and senses, then he must come to Kṛṣṇa. That is the natural position.

Lecture on SB 5.6.1 -- Vrndavana, November 23, 1976:

At the modern days they do not believe that there is next life and it is conducted by the laws of nature. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ sarvaśaḥ... (BG 3.27). Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad janma yoniṣu (BG 13.22). Why there are difference of birth? One is king, another is dog; one is tree, another is worm. They are all living entities, part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. Sarva-yoniṣu kaunteya sambhavanti mūrtayoyaḥ (BG 14.4). They are all part and parcel. Mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūtaḥ: (BG 15.7) "They are all My part and parcel." Manaḥ ṣaṣṭhānīndriyāṇi prakṛti-sthāni karṣati. They're struggling in this material nature because conducted by this mind and indriyas.

Lecture on SB 5.6.10 -- Bombay, December 28, 1976:

That is the law of nature. Karmānu bandhaḥ. Yāvan prīti mayi deve... tavat karmānu bandhanaḥ. The karmānu-bandha will continue. Therefore in the śāstra it is recommended, yajñārthe karma anyatra karma-bandhanaḥ. Don't act anything except for the satisfaction of Kṛṣṇa. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. If you do anything for your sense gratification, that means you are being bound up by the laws of karma. Laws of karma, it is very strict according to the modes of activities. Puruṣaḥ prakṛti-stho hi bhuṅkte karma-jān guṇān (BG 13.22).

Lecture on SB 6.1.1 -- Honolulu, May 5, 1976:

If you remain in sattva-guṇa, then you get higher form of life. Nature's law is so perfect that it hasn't got to create. It is automatically. Just like if you infect some disease, germs, you will automatically suffer from that disease. Similarly, if we are in contamination, sattva-guṇa, rajo-guṇa... Sattva-guṇa... Here sattva-guṇa is also a contamination. And what to speak of rajo-guṇa, tamo-guṇa? So this is called pravṛtti-mārga. According to our inclination we are contacting a certain type of the modes of material nature and we are getting different types of body. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa saṅgo 'sya sad-asad janma yoniṣu (BG 13.22). Kāraṇam. Why one is getting better position, and why one is not getting? Why one is dog, and why one is millionaire? So it is due to our association with different modes of material nature.

Lecture on SB 6.1.7 -- Honolulu, May 8, 1976:

Prabhupāda: You have read Bhagavad-gītā. Sarva-yoniṣu: in all sorts of body. Sarva-yoniṣu sambhavanti mūrtayo yaḥ. There are different forms of life, 8,400,000. They are all living entities, but according to karma, they have got different bodies. This is the difference. Just like we have got different dresses according to my choice, similarly, we get different bodies according to my choice. This morning we were talking about the sufferers, what is called? The sea suffers?

Devotees: Surfers.

Prabhupāda: Surfer, yes. (devotees laugh) Surfer. I call "sufferer." "Sea-sufferer." (laughter) Sea-surfer, it is practical because we are creating a situation by which we shall become a fish. Yes. Contamination. Just like if you purposely contaminate some disease you must suffer from that disease. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22), in the Bhagavad-gītā. Why there are different varieties of life? What is the reason? That reason means kāraṇam. Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad..., kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad janma-yoniṣu. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni prakṛti-stho 'pi puruṣaḥ bhuñjante tad-guṇān. So the reason is as we are infecting. The nature's law is so perfect that you infect something, some disease, some contamination, then you must suffer. This is nature's law, automatically going on. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya.

Lecture on SB 6.1.7 -- Honolulu, May 8, 1976:

We have to associate either with the modes of goodness or with the modes of passion or with the modes of ignorance. Now, three into three, it becomes nine, and nine into nine, it becomes eighty-one. So mixture. Just like color. There are three colors: blue, red and yellow. Now, those who are expert in manufacturing color, artists, they mix these three colors in different way and they display. Similarly, according to the guṇas or mixture, association—kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya—we get different types of bodies. Therefore we see so many varieties of bodies. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya (BG 13.22). So the person who is taking very much pleasure, dancing in the sea like fish, so he is contaminating that modes of nature so that in next life he will become a fish. He'll be very free to dance with the ocean. (laughter)

Lecture on SB 6.1.24 -- Honolulu, May 24, 1976:

So he was engaged in maintaining the family. Everyone is engaged like that. Cats and dogs also do that. It is not very extraordinary thing. Sometimes they say, "It is my duty." Yes, it is duty, but the prime duty is to solve the real problems: how to stop mṛtyu, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi (BG 13.9). That we forget. Minor duties we take priority. That is the present situation. They do not know that there is life after death, and according to our karma, we are getting the next life. This morning we were discussing, Kṛṣṇa is always ready. Automatically it is going on. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa saṅgo 'sya (BG 13.22). As you desire according to the contamination of different modes of material nature, immediately the body's ready. Immediately after death.

Lecture on SB 6.1.25 -- Honolulu, May 25, 1976:

Nature's law is so strong that if you kill the child in the womb then you'll be also killed. You'll be also killed. Tit for tat. There is no escape. "Life for life," just like in the law. You cannot do that. So this is very important things to understand. You are thinking very free but no, there is: prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27). Exactly. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa saṅgo 'sya (BG 13.22). Just like if you contaminate some disease, you must suffer from it. That is natural law. You cannot avoid. There is no escape. So similarly, this spiritual life, this human life is a chance that you learn how to purify yourself. That is human life. And if you don't purify yourself, you remain impure without any endeavor, then what is the difference between you and cats and dogs? There's no difference.

Lecture on SB 6.1.44 -- Los Angeles, June 10, 1976:

This guṇa-saṅga... Why one is in the lowest grade, and why... There are three grades generally, and if you mix it, it becomes eighty-one. Three into three equal to nine; nine into nine, eighty-one. Therefore we have got so many species of life, 8,400,000. So how it is possible? Now, guṇa-saṅgo 'sti. In the Bhagavad-gītā also it is... Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22). Why there are different varieties of life, so many, 8,400,000? Now, what is the reason? Kāraṇam... Kāraṇam means reason, the cause. Guṇa-saṅga. Guṇa-saṅga. Now, here is temple, and a few yards after this temple there may be a brothel, there may be liquor house. So somebody is coming here, and somebody is going there. So what is the reason? Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṇgo 'sti. One is attached to sattva-guṇa; one is attached to rajo-guṇa; one is attached... But everyone is working, and that working must be under the influence of one of these three qualities: sattva-guṇa, rajo-guṇa, tamo-guṇa.

Lecture on SB 6.1.44 -- Los Angeles, June 10, 1976:

There is a scientific story that one doctor friend, perhaps you know, the Dr. Ghosh who came. When he was student, he read in a medical magazine that one girl..., her name was Mary. So there was a Mary contamination. What is that? Typhoid, yes. Wherever she used to go, there was typhoid fever, so many people suffering, but she was not suffering. So by analysis of the blood, it was found that this girl, the blood was full of typhoid germs, but she was so strong that she could resist. She was not suffering, but wherever she used to go, everyone was infected with typhoid. So that is the explained. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya (BG 13.22). If you are strong enough, then the lower qualities will not affect you. And if you are not strong, if you are weak yourself, then where you are going to convert, they will induce their infectious quality, and you will be victimized. So kāraṇaṁ guṇa saṇgo 'sya. So in the Western countries, everywhere, all over the world at the present moment, Kali-yuga, the guṇa, the rajo-guṇa and tamo-guṇa, is very prominent.

Lecture on SB 6.1.52 -- Detroit, August 5, 1975:

We entangle ourself in a different activities and create another result, and according to the result... Because it is infection... Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgaḥ asya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu. We are getting different types of body. Why? The cause, kāraṇaṁ, guṇa-saṅgo 'sya (BG 13.22). In ignorance... Just like we are infecting different types of disease—we have to suffer—similarly, we, under ignorance we are infecting the modes of material nature and different types of bodies. Today I am Indian or American, and tomorrow I may be a cat, a dog. That these people, they do not know. Ajñaḥ. These rascals, they do not know. At least one should know that "I am going to die." That's a fact, inevitable. You may be very intelligent, but Kṛṣṇa says, "You don't like Me. All right, I shall come to you as death. Then you will understand. And at that time I shall take away whatever you have accumulated."

Lecture on SB 6.1.63 -- Vrndavana, August 30, 1975:

So the nature's law is so nice or so perfect that by seeing only, you will be infected, by seeing only. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27). We are put into such a position that every moment we are being affected by the three modes of material nature. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni. The prakṛti, the nature, is working so expertly. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni. And kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-yoni-janmasu (BG 13.22). In this way our transmigration from one body to another, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13), it is due to this infection of contacting different material modes of nature. The whole world is going on. So therefore our business of human life is how to protect ourself from this infection of material nature.

Lecture on SB 6.1.66 -- Vrndavana, September 2, 1975:

A sinful man cannot earn money honestly. Just like a thief: because he has adopted the means of earning money by sinful activities, he cannot take to honest work. He can work, but he is accustomed to steal. He knows that "This work is not good." If he is arrested, he will be punished. He has seen that one thief arrested and punished, and he has heard also that if one steals, he will be punished. And he has heard also from the śāstra, either law book or Vedic literature, that "Stealing is not good. It is punishable." But still, he does it. That means a sinful man cannot restrain himself from sinful activity. He has to do it. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo asya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22). Unless you give up the particular situation with the modes of nature, it is not possible for him to restrain himself from committing sinful activities.

Lecture on SB 7.5.31 -- Mauritius, October 4, 1975:

This morning some medical officer came to inject me about the yellow fever. So why this injection, vaccine, against the disease? That means if I infect this yellow fever, I will have to suffer. Similarly, the modes of material nature are three: sattva-guṇa, rajo-guṇa, tamo-guṇa. And as we are infecting ourself with the three kinds of modes of material nature, we are getting different types of bodies. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22). I am put into these laws of material nature, and as I am acting under the influence of different modes of material nature, I am getting a type of body. That is my material position. Bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19). Tathā dehāntara prāptir dhīras tatra na muhyati (BG 2.13). We have to change this body. Death means changing body. We are changing body every moment, every second, and getting a new body imperceptibly.

Lecture on SB 7.6.1 -- Vrndavana, December 2, 1975:

These rascals, they are thinking, "I am free. I can do anything and whatever I like." No. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni. You have to... Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22). As you are infecting the different types of modes of nature, you are making your next life like that. So we should be very careful. Therefore the others accept... Because without this varṇāśrama system of religious principles, we can declare, there is no scientific understanding of the modes of material nature, how we are contacting, how we are becoming infected and where is our next life. But if we... Śāstra-caksusat. If you see through the śāstra, then you can understand.

Lecture on SB 7.6.3 -- Toronto, June 19, 1976:

So we have to understand this, that the sense gratification... In English it is called "One man's poison is another man's food." Why this difference? A particular type of body. Although we are all human being, but every one of us is under the control of the laws of nature. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-yoni-janmasu (BG 13.22). Sad-asad-yoni-janmasu. We are born in a particular family, particular circumstances, particular taste. Everything. That is kāraṇam. What is the..., why there are differences? Kāraṇaṁ guṇa saṅgo 'sya. The kāraṇa, the reason is because we are associated with a particular type of modes of nature. Just like a person, at this time he'll be pleased to come here to understand this Bhāgavata-dharma. At the same time, another person will be pleased to go to a brothel or to a liquor shop. Why? The kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya. The reason is that he's interested with the particular modes of nature. So Bhāgavata-dharma means, even one is in the most lower stage of association, he can be raised to the highest stage. That is called bhāgavata-dharma.

Lecture on SB 7.9.8 -- Mayapur, February 15, 1976:

You may falsely be proud. You say, "No, no, I shall not become old man. I shall remain young." But nature will not allow you. Nature will force you to take the old man's body. But these foolish people, they are thinking, "independent." You are not independent. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi (BG 3.27). Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22). Sad-asad, good birth or low-class birth, sad-asad, that is... How it is done? Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya. As you make association with the guṇas: sattva-guṇa, rajo-guṇa, tamo-guṇa. If you associate with sattva-guṇa, then you get sad-janma next life.

Lecture on SB 7.9.12 -- Mayapur, February 19, 1976:

We are very much proud of possessing, but what we have got? We have got this body and the mind. And with the mind we have created so many things—"This is my house. This is my wife. This is my children." Nobody is your. You have come according to your karma, and they have come according to their karma, and it is a play only that one is father, one is mother, one is son. It is by arrangement of the material nature. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya (BG 13.22). Everything will be finished in the twinkling of an eye. So actually it has no fact, but we think this is our possession. Therefore Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura said that "My possession means some mental concoction and this lump of body." Mānasa deha geha. "So therefore, whatever possession I have got, I surrender unto You." Mānasa deha geha, yo kichu mora. This is surrender. Arpilun tuwā pade, nanda-kiśora.

Lecture on SB 7.9.16 -- Mayapur, February 23, 1976:

Tathā dehāntara-prāptir dhīras tatra na muhyati (BG 2.13). You have to accept another body by the laws of nature. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27). Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22). As you associate, so you get your next body. There are 8,400,000 different forms of body. Kṛṣṇa says, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ: "You'll get another body." He doesn't say that "You will get this body after..." Just like this Darwin's theory. They say, "After this body, this body. After this body, this body." That is when the evolution takes place in the lower species of life, nature's law. But when you come to the human form of life you have got your responsibility. Wherever you want, you can go.

Lecture on SB 7.9.26 -- Mayapur, March 4, 1976:

When different qualities, there is reaction, chemical reaction, acid and alkaline. Acid and acid, you mix; there is no reaction. But acid and alkaline, if you mix, there will be effervescence immediately. So kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo asya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22). If one is developing tamo-guṇa, then, if he becomes, he becomes a pig next life, there is no reaction. He'll be very glad that "I am pig," "I am dog." There is no reaction. But if one is sattva-guṇa, then he cannot tolerate. Immediately obnoxious: "Oh, such a nasty condition." So I am very sorry there was no reaction in such nasty toilet room. And you are getting sacred thread, the quality of brāhmaṇa, sattva-guṇa. It is very regrettable. Nobody reacted.

Lecture on SB 7.9.26 -- Mayapur, March 4, 1976:

Adhika 'smin jātaḥ sure... "Otherwise why I am born in this family?" That is the test. Now they are... By force they are trying to be equal. Of course, in this age everyone is śūdra. That is an... Otherwise lowborn means this differentiation of different low qualities. By nature it will give. I have several times explained that as you infect a certain type of contaminous disease, you get that, you suffer from that. So the brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra, then antaja, (?) caṇḍāla, mean, so many, kirāta, hūṇa, pulinda, pulkaśā, abhīra, śumbha—so many, low-grade, low-grade, low-grade, low-grade, low-grade. Then why this low-grade birth? That is due to this kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya (BG 13.22). In the Bhagavad-gītā it says. It is due to our association with low-grade qualities.

Lecture on SB 7.9.41 -- Mayapura, March 19, 1976:

So we are so foolish that we do not believe in the next life. That is simply foolishness. There is next life, especially when Kṛṣṇa says. You can say, "We don't believe." You believe or not believe, it doesn't matter. You are under the laws of nature. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27). Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22). Kṛṣṇa said. Why one has become nicely situated? Why one is situated, one man is, one living entity is eating very nicely very nice foodstuff, and another animal is eating stool? This is not accidental. This is not accidental. Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa (SB 3.31.1). Because one has acted in such a way that he has to eat stool, he must eat.

Lecture on SB 7.9.54 -- Vrndavana, April 9, 1976:

They are traveling, wandering. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27). Kāraṇaṁ guṇa saṅgo 'sya sad-asad janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22). These rascals who are not dhīra, they are thinking independent, rascals. Not a single moment you are independent. You are controlled. Even if we are dropping our eyelids, there is regulative principles. Some demigod is controlling. Breathing. Breathing, there is control. You can breathe for so many years, that's all, and live. And when the breathing is finished, then you are not controller. The great scientists, they are begin oxygen gas, injection. Can you increase the period breathing for a moment? No. Controlled. Controlled.

Lecture on SB 7.9.54 -- Vrndavana, April 9, 1976:

Suppose you have got immense wealth, immense men under you, or very beautiful wife. How long you shall enjoy? Immediately, mṛtyuḥ sarva-haraś cāham: (BG 10.34) "You do not like Me. You like these things. All right. At the time of death I shall take away everything—finish." This is fact. After death where is your beautiful wife? Where is your wealth? Where is your followers? Everything finished. Now according to your karma, you have to accept the body of a dog. Nature's way. Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa (SB 3.31.1). "You have infected doggish mentality. Now you become a dog." This is nature's way. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-sango 'sya (BG 13.22). You have simply associated with the tamo-guṇa, rajo-guṇa, no sattva-guṇa, so you have to accept a body, rajas-tamo-guṇa. Tamo-guṇa means animal, and rajo-guṇa means the karmis, and sattva-guṇa means jñānīs. So if one is struggling in this life how to accumulate money, that means rajo-guṇa. Rajas-tamo-bhāvā kāma-lobhādayaś ca ye.

Lecture on SB 7.12.2 -- Bombay, April 13, 1976:

Nature's way of working is automatic. Just like you have got so many automatic machine, similarly, this is, this machine is made by the Supreme Lord. It is perfect machine, one after another, one after another. So just like if you infect some disease, nature's way, you will develop that disease. That is the way. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa saṅgo 'sya sad-asad janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22). This is stated. Now we have got this nice human form of body, but if we associate with the low-grade qualities of this material world—means tamo-guṇa—then again we are going to become animal automatically. They do not know it. They are thinking, "I am enjoying life by eating meat and drinking wine and having illicit sex and gambling. It is very joyful life." But he does not know that he is associating with tamo-guṇa, and he is going to be an animal, cats and dogs and monkey. This is a fact.

Nectar of Devotion Lectures

The Nectar of Devotion -- Bombay, January 10, 1973:

These Māyāvādī philosophers they have no information that cit potency. That is ahlādinī śakti, that is Rādhārāṇī. They have got experience of this material potency. External energy. Durgā. But they have no information of the cit potency. Therefore, they think that Kṛṣṇa appears in the form of māyā. Just like we have got this body, material body, this is gift by the māyā.

prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni

guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ

ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā

kartāham iti manyate

(BG 3.27)

kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya

sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu

(BG 13.22)

Kāraṇam. We are getting this body according to our association with the different modes of material nature. But Kṛṣṇa has nothing to do with this material nature. Material nature is controlled by Him, and we are controlled by the material nature. That is the difference. He is controller, and you are controlled. They do not understand. They think that if I make null and void these conditions of controlling, then I become uncontrolled.

The Nectar of Devotion -- Vrndavana, November 4, 1972:

Because our suffering is due to association of the three guṇas. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22). We are getting different types of body, either as a king or as a dog. Sat, asat. We think, "The king's body is very nice. Dog's body is not good." But whatever body we get, material body, that is not very good. Na sādhu manye yata ātmano 'yam asann api kleśada āsa dehaḥ (SB 5.5.4). Any body, any type of body you get, you must suffer. It doesn't matter, European body, American body or Indian body or this body or that body. If we think, "Now we are Americans. We are very happy. You are Indians. You are poor..." No. Either poor or happy, it is all unhappiness. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa saṅgo 'sya sad-asad. That is, means association with the modes of material nature. But if you engage yourself twenty-four hours in Kṛṣṇa consciousness business, in devotional service, then sa guṇān samatītyaitān brahma-bhūyāya kalpate (BG 14.26), immediately you are on the brahma-bhūtaḥ position, liberated position.

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.104 -- New York, July 10, 1976:

According to your payment you'll get a certain type of apartment. Everyone cannot live in a first-class apartment, because he cannot pay. Similarly, this body is also like apartment. According to your capacity of paying the rent or the price you get a certain type of... Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-yoni-janmasu (BG 13.22). This is going on. We are not this apartment, we are the occupier of the apartment. That is real knowledge. There are two persons: one is the occupier and one is the proprietor. We have got practical knowledge.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.108-109 -- New York, July 15, 1976:

Tathā dehāntara-prāptir dhīras tatra na muhyati (BG 2.13). These will be dehāntara, change of this body. The body will be finished, everyone knows, but body being finished, you are not finished; nobody is finished. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). Then he has to accept another body. So if we do not work according to the rules and regulation of nature, then we have to accept another body, and we do not know what kind of body you are going to accept. But it will be a gift by nature. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni (BG 3.27). Eh? Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22). So they do not know these things, the rascal civilization. Just like dancing like dog, that's all. This is rascal civilization. They have no responsibility of life, and dancing like dog. No. The Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is very scientific movement. Everyone should try to understand. If he wants to understand through science, through philosophy, through logic—in any way—through religion, through culture—anyway he wants to understand, we have got volumes of books. Try to understand. It is not a bluff. It is all scientific.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.112 -- Bombay, November 24, 1975:

Karma, according to my karma. Karmana daiva-netrena, supervised, decided by the higher authorities: "You have done like this; you must get this body." Automatically. Automatically. Karanam guṇa-sango 'sya sad-asad-janma-yonisu (BG 13.22). Everything is going on. Prakṛteḥ kriyamanani guṇaiḥ karmani (BG 3.27). If you don't like or like, it doesn't matter. If you have infected some disease which you don't like, that will not save you because you don't like. You must have to suffer from that disease. That is the law of nature. But that we do not know. We are acting independently. That is not possible. So therefore it is called avidya. Avidya means rascals.

Arrival Addresses and Talks

Arrival Address -- Mauritius, October 1, 1975:

Indian man: When the body dies, the body is finished, but what about the soul? The soul, about the soul?

Prabhupāda: Soul enters another body. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). That is the misunderstanding of the modern civilization. They do not know that soul is eternal, it is changing body, different bodies, and there are 8,400,000 different forms of body. According to his desire, he is entering another body. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22). As he is associating or he is being infected by the different modes of material nature, he is getting, next life, another body. (break) ...big king or big minister or the body of an ant, as soon as you accept this material body it is suffering is there. So if you want to be happy, then this is the opportunity. This human form of body is the opportunity. Don't waste this human form of body like cats and dogs. The cats and dogs, they cannot understand that he is not this body, he is spirit soul, but a human being can understand.

Arrival Address -- New York, July 9, 1976:

We have got big, big buildings and big, big roads and cars. Never mind it is duḥkhālayam, I shall remain here." No, sir, you cannot remain." Aśāśvatam: you have to leave this place. Even if you make compromise that "Never mind. I am happy now to my estimation," the answer is duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam (BG 8.15). You cannot make permanent settlement. That is not possible. Then what? Bhuñjate... What is that? Puruṣaḥ prakṛti-stho hi bhuṅkte prakṛti-jān guṇān (BG 13.22). We are placed in this material condition and we are obliged to contact the three types of material modes of nature, and according to the infection we suffer. Actually we suffer, but sometimes there is a little so-called happiness. In this way we are loitering within this universe—sometimes in the upper planetary system, sometimes lower planetary system, sometimes as human being, sometimes as demigod, or sometimes as cats, dog, trees. This is our position. And we are manufacturing our position. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-yoni janmasu (BG 13.22). So we are completely under the clutches of material nature, and this is going on.

Arrival Talk -- Aligarh, October 9, 1976:

Everyone is abodha-jāto. So anyone born in this material world in different platform... One may take birth as demigod in the heavenly planets or one may take birth as a human being in the lower planets. And lower than that, animal, plants. There are 8,400,000 different species of life. So any form of life, we are bound up by the laws of nature, and bhuṅkte prakṛti-jān guṇān. The puruṣaḥ... Puruṣaḥ means the living entity. Puruṣaḥ... Actually, nobody is puruṣaḥ. Everyone is prakṛti. Apareyam itas tv viddhi me prakṛtim parām. Parā prakṛtim. The material, matter, is the aparā-prakṛti, and spirit soul is parā-prakṛti.

Arrival Talk -- Aligarh, October 9, 1976:

This is... Bhinnā me prakṛtir aṣṭadhā. This is separated. This is also nature, but inferior. Apareyam itas tv viddhi me prakṛtiṁ parām. There is another prakṛti. What is that? Jīva-bhūto. This living entity. So living entity is also prakṛti, but because he has the tendency to enjoy this material world, he is sometimes described as puruṣaḥ. Puruṣaḥ means enjoyer and prakṛti means enjoyed. So the prakṛti forgets her position and artificially he wants to become puruṣaḥ. So this puruṣaḥ, prakṛti 'stho. Puruṣaḥ prakṛti 'stho bhuṅkte prakṛti-jān guṇān. So long he's in this material world, he has to associate with the modes of material nature, sattva-guṇa, rajo-guṇa, tamo-guṇa. Bhuṅkte prakṛti-jān guṇān. And on account of the influence of the prakṛti-jān guṇa, he has to take different types of bodies. Puruṣaḥ prakṛti 'stho bhuṅkte prakṛti-jān guṇān kāraṇaṁ guṇa saṅgo 'sya (BG 13.22). This is the kāraṇa. He's associating with a particular type of the modes of prakṛti-jān guṇān—sattva-guṇa, rajo-guṇa, tamo-guṇa—and on account of this he gets different types of body. You have to change your body. Dehāntaram. Tathā dehāntaram-prāptir. But different grades of body is awarded by the laws of nature according to our karma.

General Lectures

Lecture -- Bombay, March 19, 1972:

So this movement is very important movement, that we are attempting to revive one's original consciousness. The original consciousness is clean. Just like the water. Originally, when it drops from the clouds, it is distilled water, clean, but as soon as it comes in touch with the muddy earth, it becomes unclean. Similarly, originally our consciousness was Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Now, in touch with the material modes of nature, we have formed different types of consciousness. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-yoni-janmaṣu (BG 13.22). This is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. Kāraṇam—the cause, the cause of our tribulation. What is that tribulation? Sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu. We are taking repeatedly birth, one after another, sometimes very good birth and sometimes very bad, sad asad.

Lecture at World Health Organization -- Geneva, June 6, 1974:

The material laws are very stringent. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22). So our only request is: Those who are working in the United Nations in so many different departmental situations, if they will take advantage of this great cultural book, Bhagavad-gītā, and try to study and, if possible, to implement in social life—everything is there—then people will be happy, and there will be no problem, and the chaotic condition will not exist.

Lecture at World Health Organization -- Geneva, June 6, 1974:

Suppose I, this time, this life, I am very busy for constructing a big skyscraper building, and next time, next life, if I get the body of a cat or dog, so I'll have to live in that house because I have got attraction as a cat and dog, and who will care for me? So these are the facts. Because nobody can change the nature's law. Nature's law is exactly like infectious disease. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-sango 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22). They do not even believe that there is life after death. I talked, in Moscow, a big professor, Kotovsky. He said, "Swamijī, after death there is nothing." You... He's a big professor. He has no knowledge of the soul. And he's a big professor. Just see. This is going on.

Sunday Feast Lecture -- Atlanta, March 2, 1975:

So now life is, my, perfect." This is not perfection, because we are under the grip of the laws of material nature. Material nature is controlling. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27). How the material nature is controlling? She has got machine, three modes of material nature. So kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22). They are contacting either of these three modes of material nature and thus being infected. We know that if we infect some disease knowingly or unknowingly-generally we infect unknowingly-later on that disease becomes developed. This is law of nature. Not that you do not know when you infected that particular disease... That is no excuse.

Life Member House Lecture -- Hyderabad, April 14, 1975:

This is the philosophy, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. You are... We are not independent. We are completely under the control of material nature, and we get different types of bodies on account of associating with different modes of material nature. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa saṅga asya sad-asad janma yoniṣu (BG 13.22). Sat, asat, there are two kinds of status quo, sat and asat. Sat means nice, or eternal, and asat means not very nice. So either you can get the body of the human society or you can get a body in the hog society, dog society. But the activities of the hogs and dogs and human being, if it is carried on in ignorance, eating, sleeping, mating... Then there is no difference. There is no difference. There is no difference to become a hog or to become a man. A man is also eating; hog is also eating according to one's taste.

Sunday Feast Lecture -- London, July 25, 1976:

You may believe or not believe or you may know or not know. It doesn't matter. Nature's way is like that. Similarly, we are contaminating within this material world different infection of the modes of material nature—sattva-guṇa, rajo-guṇa, tamo-guṇa. So that is also described in the Bhagavad-gītā: kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgaḥ asya sad-asad yoni janmasu. One is getting higher type of birth, one is getting lower type of birth, why? Kāraṇaṁ guṇa saṅgo 'sya: (BG 13.22) the cause is different contamination of the material modes of nature. Therefore in human form of life we should not be irresponsible animals. The animals, they do not know what he is contaminating, what he is going to take birth next. That is nature's way. But when you come to the human form of life, you have got your discrimination. You have to make your choice whether you are going to hell or you are going back to home, back to Godhead. That you have to make your choice.

Lecture -- Bhuvanesvara, January 29, 1977, (with Oriyan translator):

Īśvara, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Paramātmā, is sitting in everyone's core of the heart, and He is witness, witnessing everything. So according to our karma, we are getting a body or a machine for movement given by māyā. So therefore we are getting different types of body. The reason is kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22). The different types of body we are getting on account of association with the material qualities. So if we want to stop this business of repetition of birth and death in this cycle, we must understand. Mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti te. We must understand. It is compulsory. We must understand "What is God, what is my relations with Him." Then we can get release from this repetition of birth and death. That process is being described by Bhagavān Himself, that mayy āsakta-manāḥ pārtha. You have to increase your attachment for Bhagavān.

Philosophy Discussions

Philosophy Discussion on Carl Gustav Jung:

Prabhupāda: Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa (SB 3.31.1). You have worked in a certain way. Now, by superior, super, superior dictation you will accept a type of body naturally. If you have infected some disease, when you are attacked by the disease you cannot protest because you have got already infected. Similarly, we are creating our next body, kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya (BG 13.22). We are keeping ourself in touch with a certain type of modes of material nature. That means we are creating our next body. How we..., can you stop it? That is nature's way. The same, if you have infected some disease you must get that disease. Similarly, there are three modes of material nature, tamo-guṇa, rajo-guṇa, sattva-guṇa, and transcendental.

Philosophy Discussion on Carl Gustav Jung:

Hayagrīva: Well, according to the first theory of rebirth, that's not guaranteed. Now the second theory of rebirth...

Prabhupāda: No. That they do not know. The same soul is, is passing through another gross body with his mental, intellectual identification. He is..., that is nature's gift. That is said in the Bhagavad-gītā: kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya (BG 13.22). As we have infected a certain type of modes of nature, he is getting a similar body, but the person is the same.

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Talk with Bob Cohen -- February 27-29, 1972, Mayapura:

Bob: Determines your karma.

Prabhupāda: According to the association of the modes of nature your activities are being contaminated. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-yoni-janmasu (BG 13.22). A man gets higher birth or lower birth according to the association of the guṇa, or the modes of nature.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- May 14, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Hmm. Because he has no knowledge who is the best friend. According to the quality, friend is selected.

Karandhara: And one is known by the company he keeps.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Kāranaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya (BG 13.22). The best friend will lead him to take birth in that family. He'll help him next birth because he'll always think of dog, so next birth, dog. Yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran bhāvam (BG 8.6). At the time of death, if you are attached to something then you'll think of it, and next birth is that.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- March 30, 1974, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: And here policeman is jīva, no? That is what my difficulty is.

Prabhupāda: No. The prakṛti... What is that?

Dr. Patel: Puruṣaḥ prakṛti-stho hi bhuṅkte prakṛti-jān guṇān... (BG 13.22).

Prabhupāda: Ah, that puruṣa means jīvātmā, jīvātmā.

Dr. Patel: Jivātmā, not Paramātmā. That's right.

Prabhupāda: Jivātmā is within this body, prakṛti. This is prakṛti, material nature, jīvātmā. So as you infect the quality of the prakṛti, you become, what is called, entangled.

Morning Walk -- March 30, 1974, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: Puruṣaḥ prakṛti-stho hi bhuṅkte prakṛti-jān guṇān... (BG 13.22).

Prabhupāda: Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya. You are suffering because you have associated with a particular type of material quality. Just like you have associated with some infectious disease. Now you are suffering. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo' sya. Why you affect...? Therefore one should remain always in sattva-guṇa. Sattva-guṇa.

Morning Walk -- May 30, 1974, Rome:

Prabhupāda: Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa (SB 3.31.1). By your work it will be ascertained what kind of apartment you will get. It is not upon your decision. There are so many, many rascals. They think that after getting human body, he is never degraded. The theosophists think like that. That is very palatable. (laughing) But nature will force him to accept the body of a cat and dog. That is not your decision. Daiva-netreṇa, the superior decision. Just in office, you get promotion or degradation. That is not your decision. That is the decision of the higher directors. You cannot say that "No, no, I am not going to accept this post." No. You have to accept. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-yoni-janmasu (BG 13.22). These different types of birth are due to your association with different types of the modes of material nature. Otherwise, why there are so many varieties. One has become crow, one has become sparrow, one has become human being, one has become dog, one has become cat, one has become tree, one has become grass.

Morning Walk -- June 13, 1974, Paris:

Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: He must suffer.

Prabhupāda: Does it mean that because he has created this park, therefore contamination will not act upon him? Is it a fact? It must act. So after creating all these things, if you contaminate some infectious modes of material nature, then you have to accept the body of cats and dogs. Then what is your benefit? Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-sango 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22). Kāraṇam, the reason for high and low grade birth is due to contamination with the modes of material nature. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Room Conversation -- June 20, 1974, Germany:

Prabhupāda: Therefore in the Bhagavad-gītā it is said, yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran loke tyajaty ante kalevaram (BG 8.6). At the time of death if I die with designation, then I will have to accept again the body. The mind if it contains contamination, he gets different types of bodies on account of mind being contaminated.

Guest: Contaminated?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Just like if you contaminate some disease, then you must develop that disease. Similarly, if your mind is contaminated with some material designation, then you have to.... By nature's law. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya (BG 13.22). Because mind associated with a particular type of the modes of material nature, (indistinct). There are three qualities—sattva-guṇa, rajo-guṇa, tamo-guṇa and mixed up. At first mixing it becomes nine and again mixing up it becomes 81.

Room Conversation with Scientists -- July 2, 1974, Melbourne:

Cāru: Ahaṅkāra vimūḍhā.

Prabhupāda: Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya (BG 13.22). Find out this verse.

Cāru:

prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni

guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ

ahaṅkāra vimūḍhātmā

kartāham iti manyate

(BG 3.27)

"The bewildered spirit soul, under the influence of the three modes of material nature, thinks himself to be the doer of activities which are in actuality carried out by nature."

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- March 2, 1975, Atlanta:

Prabhupāda: That motor car is not your life. That is being misguided. Everyone is thinking that this body, motor car, is everything. But within, the driver, he's starving. So how long he'll carry on this motor car. So first of all take care of the driver who will protect this motor car nicely. And if the driver is a nonsense, he's starving, then how can I expect the car will go very nicely. It will create disaster. Disaster means... Suppose you have got very nice car, Cadillac or, many good cars there are, Rolls-Royce, and he smashes. Then he'll get ordinary car. This human body is smashed... (break) ...hāntara-prāptiḥ, you enter into the dog's body, finished. That is not in your control, that is God's control, nature's control. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13), it is not under your control or so-called science. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27), kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22), these things are there.

Room Conversation with Reporter -- March 9, 1975, London:

Reporter: The quality of my life.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Just like if you infect a certain type of disease, you must suffer from that disease. Similarly, there are three qualities of the material nature. So as you associate with that quality, you get a similar body. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22). How one is getting better life, one is getting worse life, the reason is associating, infecting the different types of modes of nature. That education we have no... There is no such education, what kind of association we should make so that we can better life or we can go back to home, back to God. There is no such education. They are living like cats and dogs and going to be cats and dogs.

Morning Walk -- April 3, 1975, Mayapur:

Rāmeśvara: They're too busy making money to grow their own food.

Prabhupāda: "So then pay more money. Come on. You have earned money and give me. I shall give you food. And whatever I shall ask, you have to pay." This simple thing, more demand-price is more. Then why do you gripe, "Oh, everything is price growing, price growing." Why it will not? If I have got food, and you have to purchase, and I have got so many customers, I must increase. That is economic theory: more demand—the price is increased. And then you say, "There are so many problems. We have to solve first." But you have created this problem, rascal. And you shall must suffer. You have infected some disease. Now you must suffer. It is like say, kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya (BG 13.22). The reason is that you have infected some quality of the modes of nature and you must suffer for that. How you can deny it? If you have infected some disease like cholera, smallpox, and when you are suffering, how you can blaim? You have infected. You must suffer.

Room Conversation with Jesuit -- May 19, 1975, Melbourne:

Devotee:

puruṣaḥ prakṛti-stho hi

bhuṅkte prakṛti-jān guṇān

kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya

sad-asad-yoni-janmasu

(BG 13.22)

"The living entity in material nature thus follows the ways of life, enjoying the three modes of nature. This is due to his association with that material nature. Thus he meets with good and evil amongst various species."

Prabhupāda: Now the material nature has gone, three modes goodness, passion and ignorance, and mixture. So we are association with the modes of material nature and according to that nature we are manufacturing our next body. This is the... So in the material world we are infecting several types of quality of the nature. Not everyone is on the same quality.

Garden Conversation with Dr. Gerson and devotees -- June 22, 1975, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: That's... But can he do anything as he likes?

Dr. Gerson: That's right.

Prabhupāda: If he... As he likes, if he infects some disease, he must suffer from the disease. Where is his independence? If you infect some disease, infectious disease, then you must suffer from the disease. That is nature's law. So where is your independence? Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya (BG 13.22). It is all described. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu. Why there are so many varieties of life? Because he has associated with a particular type of modes of nature and he has got the body. Without any human sense he has learned to eat anything and everything, without any discrimination.

Garden Conversation with Dr. Gerson and devotees -- June 22, 1975, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Human life is meant for civilization, and they are trying to be naked. So next life will be: "All right, you remain naked standing as tree for five thousand years." How can you stop it? Wherefrom these varieties of life are coming? Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22). This is kāraṇam, that he is associating with different modes of material nature and he is getting a suitable body. So where is that science to understand this subtle work of nature? Where is that science? Where is that education in the universities? You are not free. You cannot say "that I shall live life like this." You can live, but take the risk of next life. Therefore they avoid this question: "There is no next life." That is very horrible. But that does not mean... Just like the, what is that animal? Closes the eyes?

Jayatīrtha: Ostrich.

Prabhupāda: Ostrich. When there is danger, it closes eyes: "No danger." But that does not mean no danger. The danger is there. You may close your eyes. This is going on. The whole education system is foolish. Because they are thinking independent.

Room Conversation with Mr. & Mrs. Wax, Writer and Editing Manager of Playboy Magazine -- July 5, 1975, Chicago:

Prabhupāda: Yes. That means... That child is killed means it must take another birth. Again in the womb it will be killed. Again another womb. This is going on. Mūḍha janmani janmani (BG 16.20). It is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, "Birth after birth they will be put into the darkness of life."

Nitāi:

puruṣaḥ prakṛti-stho hi

bhunkte prakṛti-jān guṇān

kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo'sya

sad-asad-yoni-janmasu

(BG 13.22)

"The living entity in material nature thus follows the ways of life, enjoying the three modes of nature. This is due to his association with that material nature. Thus he meets with good and evil amongst various species."

Prabhupāda: Purport.

Morning Walk -- November 1, 1975, Nairobi:

Prabhupāda: Surviving... So he is surviving, but the cause and effect is going on.

Jñāna: The scientists are saying the evolution of the body is purely by chance.

Prabhupāda: That is nonsense. Therefore we call them stupid, rascals. There is no chance. Kāranaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya, Kṛṣṇa says, kāraṇam (BG 13.22). There is no question of chance. Kāranaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya. Because you do not know how you are infecting... Just like you become all of a sudden attacked with cholera. You are thinking that it is by chance. It is not chance. Eh? What this medical man will... "It is chance." No. You infected somewhere. You do not know. And because you are foolish, you are taking it as chance. There is no question of chance.

Morning Walk -- November 21, 1975, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: Prakṛtir me aṣṭadhā. It is God's prakṛti.

Prabhupāda: Yes. The matter, material nature, is forced upon him. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22). He is accepting different bodies according to the contamination of material nature. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya. That he does not know. Ahāṅkara-vimūḍhātmā kartāham iti manyate (BG 3.27). He does not know that there is a superior karta, daiva netreṇa. Karmaṇā daiva netreṇa jantu deha upapattaye (SB 3.31.1). So he is forced to accept a certain kind of body by the material nature. That he does not know. This is non-Aryan. Like dog. He does not know that why he has got this dog's body. He simply has learned how to bark, that's all.

Morning Walk -- December 12, 1975, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So when he is too much fatigued, Kṛṣṇa comes and gives you good counsel. "You rascal give up these all desires. Surrender to Me, I give you protection." But he'll not do that. And if he agrees then anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyam (Brs. 1.1.11), all material desires, zero. Then bhakti begins. And if you have got a little pinch of material desires, then you have to accept different types of body. It will create, naturally. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya (BG 13.22). He is desiring under the influence of particular modes of nature, and he's getting body.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- February 4, 1976, Mayapura:

Hṛdayānanda: And also among human beings, different human bodies are made differently.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. According to... Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-yoni-janmasu (BG 13.22). So according to the guṇa he's infecting, the body is made. If you infect some disease, smallpox, then you must get the disease. There is no excuse.

Morning Walk -- April 21, 1976, Melbourne:

Guru-kṛpā: Kṛṣṇa is a better cheater, though. He will cheat them in the end.

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa is not cheater. The Kṛṣṇa's energy is so powerful that anyone who is a cheater, he will be cheated, that's all, automatically. (break) If you infect some disease, you'll have to suffer, automatically. It is not that the disease has to be injected. No. Because you have infected, you'll suffer. The same law is there. You have done this sinful. You'll suffer that. That is the cycle of birth and death. You have created mentality. You'll become the same animal, and you suffer. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya (BG 13.22). (break) ...we have. We have seen this cloud, extraordinary.

Morning Walk -- June 8, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Explain.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: There's many living entities within the body. Just like there's tiny germs, worms, all kinds of living beings. Because of our attachment, our particular modes of material nature, kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-yoni-janmasu (BG 13.22), we are identifying with this material body.

Arcita: Is it the same in the spiritual body? Is it the same in the spiritual body? Is the spiritual body actually composed of many living entities, but there's one living entity...

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: The spiritual body is identical with the soul. Here in the material world there is duality, inferior and superior. In the spiritual world everything is of a superior nature. There is no duality. There's no material.

Prabhupāda: Petrol smelling everywhere.

Garden Conversation -- June 22, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Does that mean to some extent that the soul is dependent on a material condition?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Puruṣaḥ prakṛti-stho hi (BG 13.22). Find out this verse, puruṣaḥ prakṛti-stho hi.

Hari-śauri: Just like when the body is no good, the soul has to leave.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is the proof there is soul.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa:

puruṣaḥ prakṛti-stho hi

bhuṅkte prakṛti-jān guṇān

kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo-sya

sad-asad-yoni-janmasu

(BG 13.22)

"The living entity in material nature thus follows the ways of life, enjoying the three modes of nature. This is due to his association with that material nature. Thus he meets with good and evil amongst various species."

Prabhupāda: Purport.

Garden Conversation -- June 28, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: So these rascals say they do not know it. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu. Find out this verse. This low-grade birth, high-grade birth, why it is happening? Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa:

puruṣaḥ prakṛti-stho hi

bhuṅkte prakṛti-jān guṇān

kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya

sad-asad-yoni-janmasu

(BG 13.22)

"The living entity in material nature thus follows the ways of life, enjoying the three modes of nature. This is due to his association with that material nature. Thus he meets with good and evil amongst various species."

Prabhupāda: We are practically seeing it, that material nature... Some infection, this is also material nature, and if you are infected with some contaminous disease, you must suffer. They practically see it. The nature will work. Puruṣaḥ prakṛti-sthaḥ. As soon as we are in this material world... I am living entity, spirit soul, and because I am in this material world, I have accepted this material body under the regulation of the material laws.

Garden Conversation -- June 28, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: We are human beings; we are also here. But when there is cold blast, scorching heat, we can go into the room, but he has to be standing here for thousands of years. Why this distinction? It cannot move even an inch. It is also living entity. Why he is punished in that way? And when there will be snowfall, pinching cold, he cannot go. But a small ant, it can go from here to there. Moving and not moving, the two kinds of living entities... Some of them can move; some of them cannot move, sthāvara. Just like grass. We are trampling over with our legs. It cannot protest. Why these differences of grades of life? This is described here. Puruṣaḥ prakṛti-stho hi bhuṅkte (BG 13.22). What is that?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Enjoys. Bhuṅkte prakṛti-jān guṇān.

Prabhupāda: Hm. Because this prakṛti, nature, is made of three modes of material nature, sattva-guṇa, rajo-guṇa, tamo-guṇa. Just like we are trying to associate with sattva-guṇa—no illicit sex, no meat-eating, no gambling. So others, they are not anxious for these thing. They will say, "What is the wrong there? You can do that." But because you are infecting that tamo-guṇa, you'll have to suffer.

'Life Comes From Life' Slideshow Discussions -- July 3, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: The mother gives the body. And the superior's order is there, "Now you must go to the dog's womb. He must go to the queen's womb." Otherwise, how it is from the birth one is prince, another is dog, if there is no superior? Who likes to become a dog? No. But according to his karma, by superior arrangement, he has to take. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-yoni-janmasu (BG 13.22). He has infected the contamination of material modes of nature, and he must develop a type of body according to that consciousness. Just like if you contaminate some disease, germ, then you must suffer from that disease. This is the mystery of birth. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-yoni-janmasu. Otherwise, why there are difference of varieties of life? Sat, asat, something good, something bad. That he does not know. He works independently, defies the laws of nature, and becomes implicated. And on account of dull brain, he is punished, "Stand up here for ten thousands of years. Become a tree," that's all. That is the result of his dullness. "Remain here for ten thousand years, a dull brain. Even one cuts, you cannot protest. You suffer all kinds of natural disturbances." This is very sinful when you become a tree.

'Life Comes From Life' Slideshow Discussions -- July 3, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: Even one cuts, you cannot protest. You suffer all kinds of natural disturbances." This is very sinful when you become a tree. And they do not make any distinction between life and matter. These things are going on. There is no knowledge, and they are passing as scientist, as philosopher. Why varieties of life? What is the scientific explanation? One life, he is prince; one life, he is tree. Why this difference? Is there any explanation? There must be some explanation. It is also life, it is also life. Why one life has got this prince body, another this tree body? Kāraṇam..., Bhagavad-gītā, kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya (BG 13.22). The cause is association of different types of material modes of nature. If you keep yourself dull as the tree, without associating with the modes of goodness, without becoming a brāhmaṇa, then you become a tree. That's all. And if you become a brāhmaṇa, then develop your association with goodness and go back to home, back to Godhead.

Room Conversation -- July 6, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: That is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā. Find out, puruṣaḥ prakṛti-stho hi...

Svarūpa Dāmodara:

puruṣaḥ prakṛti-stho hi

bhuṅkte prakṛti-jān guṇān

kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya

sad-asad-yoni-janmasu

(BG 13.22)

"The living entity in material nature thus follows the ways of life, enjoying the three modes of nature. This is due to his association with that material nature. Thus he meets with good and evil amongst various species." How does the contaminated ego or contaminated consciousness differ from false ego?

Prabhupāda: Hmm? That is contaminated ego, false ego.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: But we have a subdivision in the Third Canto for internal subtle senses. It is said mind, intelligence, ego and the contaminated consciousness and this ego is false ego, and another division is contaminated consciousness.

Prabhupāda: This is false ego, "I am this matter, I am this body." This is false ego.

Room Conversation -- July 6, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: Bhuṅkte prakṛti-jān guṇān. The same thing. Puruṣaḥ prakṛti-sthaḥ bhuṅkte prakṛti-jān guṇān.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Is—this ego mentioned here—is it a false ego? That's what I understand.

Prabhupāda: Not real. Real ego is "I am servant of Kṛṣṇa." Ahaṁ brahmāsmi.

Rūpānuga: Is there false ego in different modes? Like false ego in the mode of ignorance, false in the mode of passion or goodness?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- July 6, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Rūpānuga: So the spirit soul is in the seed, and the seed interacts with the other chemicals to make growth. So if the chemicals are not there in the earth, then that seed cannot make those chemicals.

Prabhupāda: No, chemical is there in the earth. According to the seed it is exacted. Just like a chemist will analyze or they separate the ingredient, so much this percentage, so much that percentage, so much that. Everything is there. Similarly within the earth, everything is there. The seed is the instrument and the living entity is the exactor—what is that? Exactor?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes. He's executor.

Rūpānuga: He takes, utilizes.

Prabhupāda: Utilizer. Bhuṅkte prakṛti-jān guṇān

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Extracts.

Rūpānuga: Extracts from.

Prabhupāda: Extracts.

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

Bill Sauer: You believe you can transmit that to other planets?

Prabhupāda: Yes. We have to transfer, because we are giving up this body. So you must accept another body. So either in this planet or in other planets or as human being or less than human being... There are 8,400,000 types of body. You have to accept one of them according to your karma. Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa jantur dehopapattaye (SB 3.31.1). How the next body is developed, that is depending on our work. If we work like demigod, then we go and get the body of demigod. And if we work like dog, then we get the body of a dog. Nature's. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-yoni-janmasu (BG 13.22). According to activity and association of the modes of material nature, we get, up and down, different varieties of body. Some of them are low grade, some of them are high grade. That depends on our association with the modes of nature. Nature's work is going on.

Evening Darsana -- July 8, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: If you infect some disease, you may be prime minister or you may be a common man, if you have infected that disease, you must suffer from that disease. That is nature's law. There is no consideration that "Here is prime minister. He has infected the malaria germs. He should not suffer." Nature's law if not like that. Just like you say that in India there is malaria. So your daughter was not excused, that "Here is a girl coming of very respectable, good family. She should be excused." No excuse. You have infected malaria germ, you must suffer. So similarly, kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-yoni-janmasu (BG 13.22). We are associating with different modes of material nature, and according to our association, sat, asat, good birth or low-class birth is there—either as demigods in the higher planetary system or human being in the middle planetary system or as animals, low class. There are three classes of birth.

Interview with Trans-India Magazine -- July 17, 1976, New York:

Interviewer: One last question then. What you are saying, the thrust of your movement is that true religion is not something that you just believe, it is what you are.

Prabhupāda: You believe or not believe. A fool man's, fool's belief is different from a learned man's understanding. So if he says that "I believe in it," nature's law is different. Nature will not care whether you believe or not believe. It will work. Just like if you have infected some disease, so you are getting fever. Now if I say "My dear Mr. such and such, now you infected smallpox. Therefore symptoms are there." And if you say, "No, no, I don't believe in it." So will you be protected from the laws of nature? So this is rascal's proposal, "I believe," "I don't believe." You believe or not believe, who cares for you? If you have infected, kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22). Find out. After death you are going to get another body. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). So how you can know what kind of body you are going to get? First of all generally they don't believe transmigration.

Room Conversation -- July 31, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Harikeśa: It's his nature.

Prabhupāda: No, he has to live in that way. That is his destiny. You cannot change it by artificial ways. Even if he has got all the facilities, he will have to live like that. That is nature. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa saṅgo 'sya sad-asad janma yoniṣu (BG 13.22). This is... So therefore there is no use of so-called improvement. And you cannot do it. This is a fact. Tasyaiva hetoḥ prayeteta kovido. Find out this verse. Na labhyate yad bhramatām upary. Your standard of happiness and distress must be there because you are destined by the laws of nature. You have to suffer although you are born in America. In New York you can get very comfortable life there; still, you have lie down on the bench, lie down. Although you are born of a rich man's family, you have to become hippies, lie down here.

Room Conversation -- August 8, 1976, Tehran:

Parivrājakācārya: It is madness, how they can enjoy a city like that.

Prabhupāda: But we do not deprecate. We simply say that do whatever you like, but do not forget your real business, self-realization, ātma-tattvam. Self-realization, that is required. And if we live like cats and dogs and again become cats and dogs and pigs, that is not success. But there is chance if one does not know ātma-tattva. Nature's law will work. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-yoni-janmasu (BG 13.22). Hare Kṛṣṇa. So, your son is sleeping?

Evening Darsana -- August 12, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: Simply our false ahaṅkāra, egotism: "Ah, I don't care." You may do that, but prakṛti will take action. Because you are under the control of the nature's law. Uru-dāmni baddhāḥ. Uru means very hard, tight. Or uru means the thigh. And dāmni (means) by ropes, baddha. We cannot transgress the laws of nature. If we willfully transgress, we can do that, but we will have to suffer. If you touch fire, it will burn. It will not excuse that "Here is a child, he did not know." No excuse. Either a child or elderly, you have touched fire, then you must be burned. This is nature's law. Very strict. Daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā duratyayā (BG 7.14). Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-yoni-janmasu (BG 13.22). Why you have got different bodies? Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya. As we have associated with the modes of material nature, we have got different types of bodies. Otherwise, why there are so many varieties of forms? The forms are different, but within the form, the soul is one.

Room Conversation -- August 14, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: So the time is very bad, but nature's law is very strict. We may defy it, "There is no God, there is no next birth, there is no nothing." We may say like that, but when death will come, you cannot say anything. Mṛtyuḥ sarva-haraś cāham (BG 10.34). Bas, all your talkings, all your intelligence taken away. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). Immediately transferred to another body. Daiva-netreṇa. Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa jantur dehopapattaye (SB 3.31.1). Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22). "No, no, I am Prime Minister!" "No, you must become a dog." Immediately. How can you protest? You cannot protest. You have acted like dog, just become a dog. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya. Just like your medical science, you have infected the disease, you must suffer disease. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgaḥ, guṇa-saṅgaḥ. There's infection.

Room Conversation -- August 14, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Anyone. Take Mahatma Gandhi. He was so great student of Bhagavad-gītā. Did he preach kṛṣṇa-bhakti? Bhagavad-gītā minus Kṛṣṇa, this is going on. Yes. Kaṁsa. Kill Kṛṣṇa. This is going on. What is the meaning of Bhagavad-gītā without Kṛṣṇa? And everyone is preaching like this. Very worse condition of the world. Godlessness, and they'll suffer, there is no doubt. Prakṛti is very strong. You can do whatever you like, but kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya, that will act. You may be very proud of your so-called prestigious position, but the kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya... Puruṣaḥ prakṛti-stho hi... (BG 13.22). Find out.

Guest: Bhuṅkte prakṛti-jān guṇān.

Prabhupāda: Bhuṅkte prakṛti-jān guṇān. He has to, he has to. Bhuṅkte prakṛti-jān guṇān. So we are now put into the material prakṛti, and prakṛti-jān guṇān, we have to accept another body.

Room Conversation -- August 17, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Ānanda-cinmaya-rasa, our rasa, it can be tasted by the topmost intellectual man and it can be tasted by the lowest...

Guest: No intellect at all. I know that.

Prabhupāda: But why? Because this intellect, highest or lowest, that is in relationship with the body. But it is beyond the body. It is not... sa guṇān samatītyaitān brahma-bhūyāya kalpate (BG 14.26). It is beyond the three guṇas. The body is of the material guṇas—sattva, rajas, tamas. One man is good man, one man is passionate, one is foolish. Guṇa. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo'sya. Puruṣaḥ prakṛti-stho hi bhuṅkte prakṛti-jān guṇān (BG 13.22)? Find out this. Puruṣaḥ prakṛti-stho hi. Everything is explained. Bhagavad-gītā.

Room Conversation -- August 17, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Puruṣaḥ prakṛti-stho hi (BG 13.22). Puruṣaḥ. Why you cannot find this verse? What you are...

Mahāṁśa: Puruṣaḥ prakṛti, bhuñjante...

Prabhupāda: Tad guṇān. Puruṣaḥ prakṛti-stho hi. You did not find?

Guest: (Bengali) Bhāgavatam series twenty volume.

Prabhupāda: Caitanya-caritāmṛta. Seventeen volumes. Seventeen.

Room Conversation -- August 17, 1976, Hyderabad:

Mahāṁśa:

puruṣaḥ prakṛti-stho hi

bhuṅkte prakṛti-jān guṇān

kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya

sad-asad-yoni-janmasu

(BG 13.22)

Prabhupāda: Puruṣa, the living entity, he is now within the material energy. Prakṛti-sthaḥ. Puruṣaḥ prakṛti...

Mahāṁśa: Puruṣaḥ prakṛti-stho hi.

Prabhupāda: Stho hi.

Mahāṁśa: Bhuṅkte prakṛti-jān guṇān.

Prabhupāda: On account of his being in touch with the material energy, he has to suffer or enjoy the modes of material nature. Modes of material nature. And because, just like in your medical science one is suffering from a certain type of disease on account of his being infected by the similar verus or..., what is called?

Mahāṁśa: Virus.

Prabhupāda: Virus.

Room Conversation -- August 17, 1976, Hyderabad:

Guest: I know. (laughs) And I have accepted long ago. Because I felt, as a sincere worker, medicine doesn't interest me. What interests me is the cure. My profession is to cure, not to study the medicines. That is the cure.

Prabhupāda: Here it is very clearly stated that kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya (BG 13.22). The biology, infection. Kāraṇam, that is the kāraṇam. Kāraṇam guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu. Why there are varieties of life? One is very intelligent...

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Here is the disease, material disease. They are being carried away by the three modes of material nature. Hm? It is explained further that puruṣaḥ prakṛti-stho hi bhuṅkte... (BG 13.22). Hm.

Devotee (2): Bhuṅkte prakṛti-jān guṇān.

Prabhupāda: Ah. Guṇān. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya.

Devotee (3): Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya, sad-asad-yoni...

Prabhupāda: Sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu. Hm? Puruṣaḥ prakṛti-stho hi (BG 13.22). So, this is a big purport about this? How big...?

Morning Walk -- December 5, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: One Indian gentleman, he was eating the intestine of the hog. So it was horrible for me, but he was eating very nice. So in this way the world is going on. "One man's food is another man's poison." So similarly, we are creating our next birth according to our desire. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22). According to the infection of the different modes of material nature, we are creating good or bad body next life. The laws of nature is unknown to the foolish society. They are thinking, "This life is everything. Misled, they do not know the aim of life. That is going on. Andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānāḥ (SB 7.5.31). One blind leader is leading other blind men. This is going on. And when we present the real solution, they say it is brainwash. Now against our movement there is propaganda in USA, charging that "He has brainwashed them." (aside:) You can come here. (Hindi) "It is folly to be wise where ignorance is bliss." This is our position. When we speak all these things, they say it is brainwashing movement.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: Even the state says "Religion is your private..."

Prabhupāda: Whatever... The rascal says. A rascal says. It is not private. No private-public. It is laws of nature. You have to abide by that. The nature's law is "Now winter. You have to cover your body." There is no second law. So that is wanting, that we are... The present defect is that every one of us under the laws of God or nature, whatever you say. And still, we are declaring independence. This is the defect. Prakrti-stho 'pi.

puruṣaḥ prakṛti-stho 'hi

bhuṅkte prakṛti-jān guṇān

kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya

sad-asad janma-yoniṣu

(BG 13.22)

Sad-asad-janma. Why? Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya. He's associating with the different modes of material of nature, infecting, and that is the cause one is born as demigod, one is born as dog, one is born as tree, one is born as human being. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya. Therefore we should associate with sat-saṅga. Sat-saṅga chāḍi kāinu, asate vilāsa, te karaṇe lāgi more, karma bandha phāṇsa. Because we have given up sat-saṅga-oṁ tat sat-Kṛṣṇa's saṅga, we are entangled in this asat-saṅga. And that is the cause of my karma-bandha phāṇsa. Sat-saṅga chāḍi kāinu, asate vilāsa: "I wanted to enjoy with asat." Asato mā sad gamaya. Therefore I'm entangled.

Room Conversation -- January 27, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Pradyumna:

puruṣaḥ prakṛti-stho hi

bhuṅkte prakṛti-jān guṇān

kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya

sad-asad-yoni-janmasu

(BG 13.22)

Prabhupāda: Why one is taking birth as a brāhmaṇa and why one is taking birth as a dog? So kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya. There are three qualities: sattva-guṇa, rajo-guṇa, tamo-guṇa. So ūrdhvaṁ gacchanti sattva-sthāḥ (BG 14.18). If you become, associate with sattva-guṇa, then you are elevated more and more. Madhye tiṣṭhanti rājasāḥ. You remain where you are if you associate rajo-guṇa. And jaghanya-guṇa-vṛtti-sthā adho gacchanti tāmasāḥ. And if you practice jaghanya, most abominable practices of tamo-guṇa, then go down. You cannot check it.

Room Conversation -- March 26, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: My problem is how to stop this business, how to get my real life. So one who is interested in real life, why he should join the dog race? It is all dog race. And they are taking it as advancement of knowledge. That is not advancement. They do not know how to stop. Nature will not excuse you. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22). If you associate with certain type of modes of material nature, then you will have to accept the next body accordingly. The nature will not excuse you. The business is that I have got this human form of life. I must fully utilize it how to get out of these problems. That is life.

Room Conversation with Ratan Singh Rajda (Member of Parliament) -- March 27, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Everyone is being washed away by the waves of this material energy. And their attempt to save themselves... That's... Everything is described in the Bhagavad-gītā. Just like in light, during the rainy season, so many worms and flies, they come and fall in the fire, phat-phat-phat. They do not know. This is the very description, in the Eleventh Chapter. So we do not condemn material life, but without spiritual understanding, this dog race for material comforts, it may be temporary, very nice, but ultimately it is being carried away by the waves of material nature. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22). Let them study Bhagavad-gītā seriously. Let there be serious student to understand, to explain, and everything will be... There must be sadācāra.

Room Conversation -- April 5, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: That's all. And then go to hell. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). So after jumping, when this body is finished, he is going to accept another body offered by nature. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22). Rascals, they do not know how nature is working. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi (BG 3.27). Making plan and wasting time, wasting their valuable life. At least, this institution which we have started to give this enlightenment, they must be maintained in India in a first-class standard, that at least some intelligent persons can take advantage. They are all fools, rascals. They cannot take. All the duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ prapadyante narādhamāḥ. That is already described. Narādhamas will not take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Room Conversation about Harijanas -- April 10, 1977, Bombay:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But these men are... I mean their position... Everyone is getting what he deserves. So if they are in a downtrodden...

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi (BG 3.27). Sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya (BG 13.22). This is the science.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. If they are in a downtrodden condition, it's due to their past activities.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Now you can rectify it.

Room Conversation about Harijanas -- April 10, 1977, Bombay:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: If he cooks here, it will be hot. All of these things were cooked there and brought here, so they become a little cold.

Prabhupāda: No, it was already prepared... You bring little salt. (break)

Prabhupāda: They do not know why I am in downtrodden condition. The answer is there. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya (BG 13.22).

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Says, "They desire freedom from the age-old shackles of superstition..."

Prabhupāda: Where is the shackle? Age-old shackles. Where is the shackle?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: There is nothing keeping them down but their own inability.

Prabhupāda: You are keeping yourself in shackle. If you want to be educated, there was... Dr. Ambedekhar, he belonged to the harijana. How he became a law member? Where is the shackle?

Second Meeting with Mr. Dwivedi -- April 24, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: The nature's law will go on. You cannot make a poor man a rich man, unhappy man an happy man. That is not possible. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22). Can you make a hog eat halavā instead of stool? Can you make? By nature's way it is going on. Ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā kartāham iti manyate (BG 3.27). These are foolish person who concoct ideas. It is not possible. If you can do anything to the human society, induce him to become a Kṛṣṇa devotee.

Evening Darsana -- May 9, 1977, Hrishikesh:

Prabhupāda: This life, this human form of life, is meant for understanding the real problem of life and to solve it. This is the opportunity. And Kṛṣṇa personally coming to instruct you, "You solve in this way." But we are so doggish, we will not take. What can be done? Then become a dog. Nature's law, you work. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22). If you remain doggish—you do not become human being—then, all right, you become a dog next life. Tathā dehāntara-prā... Then take life of the street and "Gow! Gow! Gow!" Mṛtyu-saṁsāra-vartmani. This... For this purpose we request every one of you that you study Bhagavad-gītā very seriously as it is, apply it in your practical life, and teach it to others. That is perfection. That is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's... He says that "You become guru, everyone."

Room Conversation -- October 30, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes. He should not have come in touch, in the material qualities. And in Prema-vivarta it is said,

kṛṣṇa-bahirmukha hañā bhoga vāñchā kare

nikaṭa-stha māyā tāre jāpaṭiyā dhare

So as soon as he forgets Kṛṣṇa and wants to enjoy life independently, that is guṇa-saṅga and falls down. It is falldown, this guṇa-saṅga. Puruṣaḥ prakṛti-stho hi bhuṅkte... (BG 13.22). What is that verse?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: You know the verse?

Śatadhanya: Which one?

Prabhupāda: You can find out.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: It's from the Gītā?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Guṇa, guṇa.

Prabhupāda: Puruṣaḥ prakṛti-stho hi bhuṅkte tad-guṇān (BG 13.22). You? find out?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes, he's bringing.

Prabhupāda: (Bengali)

Svarūpa Dāmodara: (Bengali)

Śatadhanya:

puruṣaḥ prakṛti-stho hi

bhuṅkte prakṛti-jān guṇān

kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya

sad-asad-yoni-janmasu

(BG 13.22)

"The living entity in material nature thus follows the ways of life, enjoying the three modes of nature. This is due to his association with that material nature. Thus he meets with good and evil amongst various species."

Prabhupāda: Is it clear?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda. So in that sense, matter is also life, but covered.

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: So the philosophy of acintya-bhedābheda-tattvam...

Prabhupāda: Matter is also energy. It is also energy. As energy, they are one. But have... They have differentiated in different... Is it clear?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes.

1975 Correspondence

Letter to Dr. W.H. Wolf-Rottkay -- Honolulu 18 June, 1975:

Biological evolution is taking place on account of the soul's desire. It takes place because of infection. If a man has smallpox virus, then he is subjected to smallpox. It is not that everyone is infected and everyone is attacked with smallpox disease. Only the person who is infected, he is attacked.

In this connection Krishna says in the Bhagavad-gita, purusah prakrti-stho hi bhunkte prakrti-jan gunan karanam guna sango'sya sad-asad-yoni-janmasu (BG 13.22). Purusa means the living entity, or the soul. He is subjected to be infected by the modes of material nature. There are 3 modes of material nature, sattva-guna, raja-guna, tama-guna. And when they are mixed up, they become 3 x 3 = 9, and 9 x 9 = 81, and in each quality, there are millions of forms. Therefore the total number of forms is 8,400,000.

So, the diseases are there and the forms of disease are also there. Material form means diseased form. Therefore, one has to change this form—death. And he carries with him the infection and he develops another disease. In this way, the soul although part and parcel of God in diseased condition, they are forced to change body. That is transmigration of the soul from one body to another.