It was after this that some of the jealous and low-minded brāhmaṇas of Kulia picked a quarrel with Mahāprabhu and collected a party to oppose him. Nimāi Paṇḍita was naturally a soft-hearted person, though strong in his principles. He declared that party feelings and sectarianism were the two great enemies of progress and that as long as he should continue to be an inhabitant of Nadia belonging to a certain family, his mission would not meet with complete success. He then resolved to be a citizen of the world by cutting his connection with his particular family, caste and creed, and with this resolution he embraced the position of a sannyāsī at Katwa, under the guidance of Keśava Bhāratī of that town, on the 24th year of his age. His mother and wife wept bitterly for his separation, but our hero, though soft in heart, was a strong person in principle. He left his little world in his house for the unlimited spiritual world of Kṛṣṇa with man in general.
Bitter
Bhagavad-gita As It Is
BG Chapters 1 - 6
It is not possible for an ordinary man to leave home and go to a secluded place in the mountains or jungles to practice yoga in this Age of Kali. The present age is characterized by a bitter struggle for a life of short duration. People are not serious about self-realization even by simple, practical means, and what to speak of this difficult yoga system, which regulates the mode of living, the manner of sitting, selection of place, and detachment of the mind from material engagements.
BG Chapters 13 - 18
Foods that are too bitter, too sour, salty, hot, pungent, dry and burning are dear to those in the mode of passion. Such foods cause distress, misery and disease.
Foods in the mode of passion, which are bitter, too salty, or too hot or overly mixed with red pepper, cause misery by reducing the mucus in the stomach, leading to disease. Foods in the mode of ignorance or darkness are essentially those that are not fresh. Any food cooked more than three hours before it is eaten (except prasādam, food offered to the Lord) is considered to be in the mode of darkness. Because they are decomposing, such foods give a bad odor, which often attracts people in this mode but repulses those in the mode of goodness.
In the pursuit of self-realization, one has to follow many rules and regulations to control the mind and the senses and to concentrate the mind on the self. All these procedures are very difficult, bitter like poison, but if one is successful in following the regulations and comes to the transcendental position, he begins to drink real nectar, and he enjoys life.
Srimad-Bhagavatam
SB Canto 1
Prahlāda Mahārāja, while praying to Lord Nṛsiṁha, said, "O my Lord, I am very much afraid of the materialistic way of life, and I am not the least afraid of Your present ghastly ferocious feature as Nṛsiṁhadeva. This materialistic way of life is something like a grinding stone, and we are being crushed by it. We have fallen into this horrible whirlpool of the tossing waves of life, and thus, my Lord, I pray at Your lotus feet to call me back to Your eternal abode as one of Your servitors. This is the summit liberation of this materialistic way of life. I have very bitter experience of the materialistic way of life. In whichever species of life I have taken birth, compelled by the force of my own activities, I have very painfully experienced two things, namely separation from my beloved and meeting with what is not wanted. And to counteract them, the remedies which I undertook were more dangerous than the disease itself. So I drift from one point to another birth after birth, and I pray to You therefore to give me a shelter at Your lotus feet."
The Pāṇḍava kings, who are more than many saints of the world, knew the bitter results of the materialistic way of life. They were never captivated by the glare of the imperial throne they occupied, and they sought always the opportunity of being called by the Lord to associate with Him eternally. Mahārāja Parīkṣit was the worthy grandson of Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira. Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira gave up the imperial throne to his grandson, and similarly Mahārāja Parīkṣit, the grandson of Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira, gave up the imperial throne to his son Janamejaya. That is the way of all the kings in the dynasty because they are all strictly in the line of Lord Kṛṣṇa. Thus the devotees of the Lord are never enchanted by the glare of materialistic life, and they live impartially, unattached to the objects of the false, illusory materialistic way of life.
SB Canto 3
The message of Godhead is always like nectar to the devotees, but it is just the opposite to the nondevotees. Sugar candy is always sweet to a healthy man, but it tastes very bitter to persons suffering from jaundice.
The great sage Kṛṣṇa-dvaipāyana Vyāsa is the author of all Vedic literature, of which his works Vedānta-sūtra, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and Mahābhārata are very popular readings. As stated in Bhāgavatam (1.4.25), Śrīla Vyāsadeva compiled the Mahābhārata for the less intelligent class of men, who take more interest in mundane topics than in the philosophy of life. The Vedānta-sūtra was compiled for persons already above the mundane topics, who might already have tasted the bitterness of the so-called happiness of mundane affairs. The first aphorism of Vedānta-sūtra is athāto brahma jijñāsā, i.e., only when one has finished the business of mundane inquiries in the marketplace of sense gratification can one make relevant inquiries regarding Brahman, the Transcendence.
The Lord is equal to every living entity, just like the flowing Ganges. The Ganges water is meant for the purification of everyone, yet the trees on the banks of the Ganges have different values. A mango tree on the bank of the Ganges drinks the water, and the nimba tree also drinks the same water. But the fruits of both trees are different. One is celestially sweet, and the other is hellishly bitter. The condemned bitterness of the nimba is due to its own past work, just as the sweetness of the mango is also due to its own karma.
Although originally one, taste becomes manifold as astringent, sweet, bitter, pungent, sour and salty due to contact with other substances.
Owing to the mother's eating bitter, pungent foodstuffs, or food which is too salty or too sour, the body of the child incessantly suffers pains which are almost intolerable.
Within the abdomen of the mother, the nourishment of the child was being carried on by nature's own arrangement. The atmosphere within the abdomen was not at all pleasing, but as far as the child's feeding was concerned, it was being properly done by the laws of nature. But upon coming out of the abdomen the child falls into a different atmosphere. He wants to eat one thing, but something else is given to him because no one knows his actual demand, and he cannot refuse the undesirables given to him. Sometimes the child cries for the mother's breast, but because the nurse thinks that it is due to pain within his stomach that he is crying, she supplies him some bitter medicine. The child does not want it, but he cannot refuse it. He is put in very awkward circumstances, and the suffering continues.
In his helpless condition, gnats, mosquitoes, bugs and other germs bite the baby, whose skin is tender, just as smaller worms bite a big worm. The child, deprived of his wisdom, cries bitterly.
SB Canto 4
My dear Maitreya, to part with one's life is very difficult. Would you kindly explain to me how such a son-in-law and father-in-law could quarrel so bitterly that the great goddess Satī could give up her life?
SB Canto 10.1 to 10.13
Although Kṛṣṇa is always as soft as a lotus, within the throat of Bakāsura He created a burning sensation of being hotter than fire. Although Kṛṣṇa's whole body is sweeter than sugar candy, Bakāsura tasted bitterness and therefore immediately vomited Kṛṣṇa up. As stated in Bhagavad-gītā (4.11), ye yathā māṁ prapadyante tāṁs tathaiva bhajāmy aham. When Kṛṣṇa is accepted as an enemy, He becomes the most intolerable object for the nondevotee, who cannot tolerate Kṛṣṇa within or without. Here this is shown by the example of Bakāsura.
Sri Caitanya-caritamrta
CC Adi-lila
Paramānanda Purī established a small monastery behind the western side of the Jagannātha temple, where he had a well dug to supply water. The water, however, was bitter, and therefore Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu prayed to Lord Jagannātha to allow Ganges water to come into the well to make it sweet. When Lord Jagannātha granted the request, Lord Caitanya told all the devotees that from that day hence, the water of Paramānanda Purī’s well should be celebrated as Ganges water, for any devotee who would drink it or bathe in it would certainly get the same benefit as that derived from drinking or bathing in the waters of the Ganges.
CC Madhya-lila
Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu spoke, “"My dear beautiful friend, if one develops love of Godhead, love of Kṛṣṇa, the son of Nanda Mahārāja, all the bitter and sweet influences of this love will manifest in one"s heart. Such love of Godhead acts in two ways. The poisonous effects of love of Godhead defeat the severe and fresh poison of the serpent. Yet there is simultaneously transcendental bliss, which pours down and defeats the pride of nectar and diminishes its value. In other words, love of Kṛṣṇa is so powerful that it simultaneously defeats the poisonous effects of a snake, as well as the happiness derived from pouring nectar on one's head. It is perceived as doubly effective, simultaneously poisonous and nectarean.’”
There was sukhta, bitter melon mixed with all kinds of vegetables, defying the taste of nectar. There were five types of bitter and pungent sukhtas.
Rāmānanda Rāya continued, "Those who are devoid of all transcendental mellows are like the crows that suck the juice from the bitter fruits of the nimba tree of knowledge, whereas those who enjoy mellows are like the cuckoos who eat the buds of the mango tree of love of Godhead."
The speculative process of empiric philosophy is as bitter as the fruit of the nimba tree. Tasting this fruit is the business of crows. In other words, the philosophical process of realizing the Absolute Truth is a process taken up by crowlike men. But the cuckoolike devotees have very sweet voices with which to chant the holy name of the Lord and taste the sweet fruit of the mango tree of love of Godhead. Such devotees relish sweet mellows with the Lord.
There were about ten kinds of spinach, a soup called sukhta, which was made with bitter nimba leaves, a pungent preparation made with black pepper, a mild cake made of fried curd, and buttermilk mixed with small fried pieces of dhal.
CC Antya-lila
“"My dear beautiful friend, if one develops love of Godhead, love of Kṛṣṇa, the son of Nanda Mahārāja, all the bitter and sweet influences of this love will manifest in one"s heart. Such love of Godhead acts in two ways. The poisonous effects of love of Godhead defeat the severe and fresh poison of the serpent. Yet there is simultaneously transcendental bliss, which pours down and defeats the poisonous effects of a snake, as well as the happiness derived from pouring nectar on one's head. It is perceived as doubly effective, simultaneously poisonous and nectarean.’”
“Sir, You are making Jagadānanda drink the nectar of affectionate relationships, whereas by offering me honorable prayers, You are making me drink the bitter juice of nimba and niśindā.
These are the names of some of the pickles and condiments in the bags of Rāghava Paṇḍita: āmra-kāśandi, ādā-kāśandi, jhāla-kāśandi, nembu-ādā, āmra-koli, āmsi, āma-khaṇḍa, tailāmra and āma-sattā. With great attention, Damayantī also made dried bitter vegetables into a powder.
Do not neglect sukutā because it is a bitter preparation. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu derived more happiness from eating this sukutā than from drinking pañcāmṛta (a preparation of milk, sugar, ghee, honey and yogurt).
Since Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, He extracts the purpose from everything. He accepted Damayantī’s affection for Him, and therefore He derived great pleasure even from the dried bitter leaves of sukutā and from kāśandi (a sour condiment).
They offered pungent preparations made with black pepper, sweet-and-sour preparations, ginger, salty preparations, limes, milk, yogurt, cheese, two or four kinds of spinach, soup made with bitter melon, eggplant mixed with nimba flowers, and fried paṭola.
Other Books by Srila Prabhupada
Teachings of Lord Caitanya
Rāmānanda Rāya went on to say that those who have no taste for Kṛṣṇa consciousness or spiritual life are just like crows who take pleasure in eating the bitter nimba fruit. It is the poetic cuckoo that eats the seeds of the mango. The unfortunate transcendentalists simply speculate on dry philosophy, whereas the transcendentalists who are in love with Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa enjoy fruit just like the cuckoo. Thus those who are devotees of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa are most fortunate. The bitter nimba fruit is not at all eatable; it is simply full of dry speculation and is only fit for crowlike philosophers. Mango seeds, however, are very relishable, and those in the devotional service of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa enjoy them.
Nectar of Instruction
The holy name of Lord Kṛṣṇa, His quality, pastimes and so forth are all of the nature of absolute truth, beauty and bliss. Naturally they are very sweet, like sugar candy, which appeals to everyone. Nescience, however, is compared to the disease called jaundice, which is caused by bilious secretions. Attacked by jaundice, the tongue of a diseased person cannot palatably relish sugar candy. Rather, a person with jaundice considers something sweet to taste very bitter. Avidyā (ignorance) similarly perverts the ability to relish the transcendentally palatable name, quality, form and pastimes of Kṛṣṇa. Despite this disease, if one with great care and attention takes to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, chanting the holy name and hearing Kṛṣṇa's transcendental pastimes, his ignorance will be destroyed and his tongue enabled to taste the sweetness of the transcendental nature of Kṛṣṇa and His paraphernalia. Such a recovery of spiritual health is possible only by the regular cultivation of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
Krsna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead
“Dear Lord, O Supreme Personality of Godhead, master of all demigods, You can immediately remove all Your devotees' pangs because Your devotees are fully surrendered unto You. O dear Lord Kṛṣṇa, O eternal Deity of transcendental bliss and knowledge, You are imperishable, and we offer our respectful obeisances unto Your lotus feet. It is by Your causeless mercy that we have been released from the imprisonment of Jarāsandha, but now we pray that You release us from imprisonment within material existence, Your illusory energy. Please stop our continuous cycle of birth and death. We now have sufficient experience of the miserable material life in which we are fully absorbed, and having tasted its bitterness, we have come to take shelter under Your lotus feet. Therefore please give us Your protection.
When a devotee is put into a situation of distress, his devotional activities are accelerated. Therefore, to show special favor to a devotee, the Lord sometimes puts him into distress. Besides that, it is stated that the sweetness of happiness is sweeter to those who have tasted bitterness. The Supreme Lord descends to this material world just to protect His devotees from distress.
Renunciation Through Wisdom
Generally the tendency of the jñānīs is to veer toward impersonal monistic thought. Their idea of monism is this: having experienced the transience and bitterness of material existence and recognized the futility of fruitive activity, they now realize that they are the Self, Brahman, the Absolute Truth. In fact, when realization of the transcendence is perfectly complete, one perceives the personal aspect of the Absolute Truth in the highest spiritual abode. And when the perception of the personal aspect of the Supreme Godhead deepens, one becomes naturally attracted to the absolute transcendental beauty of Lord Kṛṣṇa. As the Lord says in the Bhagavad-gītā (7.19),
- bahūnāṁ janmanām ante
- jñānavān māṁ prapadyate
- vāsudevaṁ sarvam iti
- sa mahātmā sudurlabhaḥ
After many births and deaths, he who is actually in knowledge surrenders unto Me, knowing Me to be the cause of all causes and all that is. Such a great soul is very rare.
One who fully understands Lord Kṛṣṇa never experiences any bitterness anywhere in the entire material existence.
Individual material cravings are less harmful to the world than mass movements for sense gratification. If the material desires of an individual are unfulfilled, he certainly becomes depressed, but when the mass of people remain dissatisfied, the distress is much greater and gives rise to social conflict. In any case, mundane yearnings bring suffering, both individual or collective. Even if a person starts out not intending enjoy the fruits of his actions, once those fruits come he is forced to enjoy them because he thinks of himself as the doer, influenced as he is by the three modes nature—goodness, passion, and ignorance. These fruits are not without the bitter seeds of anxiety, entanglement, frustration, and disruption. Therefore, neither the execution of social responsibilities nor philanthropic work is ultimately good action. Devotional service to the Supreme Lord, which is beyond the three modes, must be accepted as the only good action.
Mukunda-mala-stotra (mantras 1 to 6 only)
Persons who are infected with the disease of material attachment and who suffer from the pangs of repeated birth and death cannot relish such recitation of the Lord's glories, just as a person suffering from jaundice cannot relish the taste of sugar candy. By nature sugar candy is as sweet as anything, but to a patient suffering from jaundice it tastes as bitter as anything. Still, sugar candy is the best medicine for jaundice. By regular treatment with doses of sugar candy, one can gradually get relief from the infection of jaundice, and when the patient is perfectly cured, the same sugar candy that tasted bitter to him regains its natural sweetness.
In the same way, glorification of the transcendental name, fame, attributes, pastimes, and entourage of the Personality of Godhead tastes bitter to those who are suffering from the infection of material consciousness, but it is very sweet to those who have recovered from this infection.
Lectures
Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures
The Māyāvādīs, there are two kinds of Māyāvādīs: the impersonalists and the voidists. They are all Māyāvādī. So their philosophy is good so far, because a foolish man cannot understand more than this. A foolish man, if he is informed that there is better life in the spiritual world, to become servant of God, Kṛṣṇa, they think, "I became servant of this material world. I have suffered so much. Again servant of Kṛṣṇa? Oh..." They shudder, "Oh, no, no. This is not good. This is not good." As soon as they hear of service, they think of this service, this nonsense service. They cannot think of that there is service, but there is simply ānanda. One is still more eager to serve Him, Kṛṣṇa. That is spiritual world. That they cannot understand. So these nirviśeṣavādī, impersonalists, they think like that. Just like a diseased man lying on the bed, and if he is informed that "When you will be cured, you will be able to eat nicely, you will be able to walk," he thinks that "Again walking? Again eating?" Because he is accustomed to eat bitter medicine and sāgudānā, not very palatable, and so many things, passing stool and urine, activities on the bed. So as soon as they inform that "After being cured there is also passing of stool and urine and eating, but that is very palatable," he cannot understand. He says, "It is something like this."
So we have to work in such a way that our bodily conception of life is completely rejected and we are situated in the engagement, occupation of pure consciousness. We are talking on this subject matter. So Lord Kṛṣṇa says, "Those who are captivated by this false enjoyment, bodily, bhoga..." Now, our bhoga enjoyment means through this body. But body is my diseased condition. As a diseased man cannot enjoy life... How it is possible? Take, for example, a man who is suffering from jaundice. It is practical. You can test practically. If a man... You find out a man who is suffering from jaundice. You give a piece of sugar candy and ask him to take. He will say, "It is bitter." He will say, "It is bitter." He won't taste its sweetness. Because his condition is diseased, therefore, he actually cannot enjoy the sweetness of sugar candy. But when he is cured, a man in healthy state, if you give him sugar candy, oh, he will say, he will appreciate, "Oh, it is very sweet, very nice." The same sugar candy, according to our condition of life, is tasted differently. So unless we cure from this disease of wrong conception of life, we cannot have any taste. Anything, anything, we cannot taste, have any taste for it. The bitter taste. We will have bitter taste.
Kṛṣṇa says, vīta-rāga. Vīta-rāga. Vīta means one who has been able to give up this attachment. Rāga means the attachment of this material world. And bhaya, one who has developed this transcendental sense... The impersonalists, their philosophy is that they want to merge into the impersonal existence of the Absolute Truth. They are afraid of the life of variegatedness. Because they have got a very bitter experience of this life of variegatedness, therefore they want to make a negation of this variegatedness and they want to turn themselves into the impersonal feature. So these things are there. So vīta-rāga. So one has to give up this attachment and detachment also. Vīta-rāga-bhaya and krodha.
So kṣipraṁ hi mānuṣe loke siddhir bhavati karma-jā. So karma-kāṇḍīya, those who are on the platform of fruitive activities, generally they are attracted by the demigod worship. But vīta-rāga-bhaya-krodhāḥ (BG 2.56), those who are detached from material happiness, they becomes attached to Kṛṣṇa. Man-mayā mām upāśritāḥ. That is already explained. Now we have to make our choice whether for temporary benefit we shall worship demigods or for permanent benefit we shall worship Kṛṣṇa. That is our choice. But people generally make their choice: kṣipraṁ hi mānuṣe loke siddhir bhavati, immediate result. Immediate result. That will be explained that immediate result, it may be very palatable in the beginning, but it is.... It will produce bitter result at the end. But that we do not consider. We want immediate.
Just like when you are diseased, your senses are under certain symptoms of the disease. Just like I am feeling the tongue. Whatever I am eating, the tongue is tasting bitter. Bitter. That is the symptom of my disease. So we haven't got to cut the tongue altogether, but we have to make treatment so that we can taste properly. There is practical example. One who is suffering from jaundice, if you give him something sweet, sugar candy, he'll taste it bitter. Although sugar candy is not bitter, but due to his illness, due to his jaundice disease... You'll... You can make a practical test of it. But at the same time, that sugar candy is the medicine for jaundice. If a man is suffering from jaundice, if you simply give him water and sugar candy... You just moisten sugar candy at night, and just early in the morning you get a glass of sweet sugar candy water. Oh, within very short time you'll be cured from jaundice disease.
Similarly, this restriction, do-not... When we make spiritual life progressive, there are certain restriction, and they may seem at the present stage very bitter. Very bitter. But that is the way. We have to accept. Therefore it is called saṁyatendriyaḥ. And if we can make progress in that way, restrained sense gratification and following the rules and regulations, then we are sure to acquire the knowledge.
The impersonalists, they have got one demand, that to become one with the supreme impersonal being. But a devotee has no demand. He simply engages himself to serve Kṛṣṇa for the satisfaction of Kṛṣṇa. They do not want anything in return. That is pure devotion. Just like Lord Caitanya said, na dhanaṁ na janaṁ na sundarīṁ kavitāṁ vā jagadīśa kāmaye: (Cc. Antya 20.29, Śikṣāṣṭaka 4) "I do not want any wealth, I do not want any number of followers, I do not want any nice wife. Simply let me be engaged in Your service." That's all. That is the bhakti-yoga system. When Prahlāda Mahārāja was asked by Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva, "My dear boy, you have suffered for me so much, so whatever you want, you ask for it." So he refused. "My dear master, I am not doing mercantile business with you, that I will take some remuneration from you for my service." This is pure devotion. So yogis or the jñānīs, they are demanding that they should become one with the Supreme. Why one with the Supreme? Because they have got bitter experience by the separation of material pangs. But a devotee has no such thing. The devotee remains, although separate from the Lord, he is fully enjoying in the service of the Lord.
Viṣṇujana: "...out of a feeling of inability. It is not possible for an ordinary man to leave home and go to a secluded place in the mountains or jungles to practice yoga in this age of Kali. The present age is characterized by a bitter struggle for a life of short duration."
Prabhupāda: Yes. First of all our duration life is very short. If you study the statistics you can see your forefathers who lived for hundred years or eighty years, ninety years. Now sixty years, seventy years people are dying. Gradually it will decrease. In this age the memory, the duration of life, mercifulness, so many things will decrease. That is the symptom of this age.
There is a story. In a cowshed there was fire. So after that incidence, the cow, as soon as the cow sees something red, oh, they began to disturb, "Oh, there is fire." Similarly, here, tasting the bitterness of so-called rascaldom, they think that Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa is also similar rascaldom.
Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures
Dharma, generally it is understood "religion." Religion means a kind of faith. So that is not the proper meaning of dharma, "faith." Faith one may have, one may not have. But actually dharma means compulsory. It must be. Just like sugar. Sugar must be sweet. There is no question of sometimes becoming sweet and sometimes becoming bitter. That is not sugar. Sugar must be sweet. Similarly, dharma is also a "must be." It cannot be option or a kind of faith which you can change at your whims.
Vāsudeva-kathā-ruciḥ. So as soon as he gets a ruci... Ruci. Ruci means taste. "Ah, here is Kṛṣṇa talks, very nice. Let me hear." This very much you get the sword, immediately. The sword is in your hand. Vāsudeva-kathā-ruciḥ. But the ruci comes to whom? This taste? Because, as I have several times explained, the taste, just like the sugar candy. Everyone knows it is very sweet, but if you give to a man who is suffering from jaundice, he'll taste it's bitter. Everyone knows sugar candy is sweet, but the particular man who is suffering from disease, jaundice, he will taste the sugar candy as very bitter. Everyone knows it. That's a fact.
Suppose you are diseased, suffering from some disease. You are lying on the bed. And you are eating in that stage, you are passing your nature's call in that way, and taking bitter medicines, and always you have to keep by the nurses clean. Otherwise, there is some obnoxious smell. In such a condition you are lying, and some friends come to you and ask you, "My dear such and such, how are you today feeling?" "Yes, I am today feeling well." What is this "well"? He's lying on the bed. He's passing his nature's calls in that way. He's eating bitter medicine, and he, he cannot move. All these inconveniences, and he says that "I am well." Similarly, in our material conception of life, if we think, "I am happy," that is foolishness. That is foolishness. There is no happiness in material life. It is impossible to get happiness. Then we do not know meaning of happiness. Therefore this very word is used, manīṣiṇaḥ. We want to happy, to become by some extraneous, artificial means. And how long it will stand? It will not stand. You'll again come back.
Just like Viśvanātha Cakravartī has given that the mango in the ripe stage and unripe stage. Unripe stage, it is bitter, but the same mango, when it is fully ripe, it is sweet, the sweetness. We shall have to wait for this stage, and we shall have to be careful that we may not commit offenses. Then we, surely, we shall come. Just like a diseased patient, if he follows the regulations given by the physician and takes the medicine, then surely he'll be cured.
Just like a diseased man. He's lying down on the bed and eating there, passing stool there, passing urine there, and he cannot move and very bitter medicine. So many inconvenience. He's lying down. So he's thinking of committing suicide. "Oh, this life is very intolerable. Let me commit suicide." So in desperate condition sometimes the philosophy of voidism, impersonalism is followed. To make the things zero. Because this life is so much troublesome, sometimes even one commits suicide to get out of this, I mean to say, troublesome life of material existence.
Just like in jaundice disease that, if you... Because the doctors, the medical practitioners, they give sugar candy. The physician gives sugar candy. The sugar candy, to the person suffering from jaundice, tastes bitter: "Oh, it is bitter." But actually sugar candy is not bitter. Similarly, to the sinful man the kṛṣṇa-kathā, discussion about Kṛṣṇa, does not appear to be very palatable. They do not like to hear. They think it is waste of time. But that, as the sugar candy is the only medicine for jaundice disease, similarly, the hari-kathā, or kṛṣṇa-kathā, is the only medicine for our material disease. If we take it... Just like the jaundiced patient. If he takes sugar candy, then gradually he becomes free from the diseased condition, and at that time, the same sugar candy which he tasted in the beginning as bitter, it appears to be very, very sweet. Then he cannot live without. This is the process.
Not only it is medicine ... Medicine is always bitter. But it is not bitter. Mano 'bhirāmāt. It is very pleasing to the mind, to the senses. Otherwise, how we become ecstatic in chanting unless it is pleasing? It is medicine, but pleasing medicine. Other medicines, they are very bitter.
If you practice yoga, oh, you have to take so much labor. And that, you do not know whether you'll be successful or not, haṭha-yoga. And if you take to jñāna, that also requires much education, much understanding of philosophy. So they actually, although they are medicine, but they are bitter medicine.
All bitter medicine, injections, always suffering. So if he is informed that "After your cure, you shall be able to eat nice rasagullā, sandeśa," he cannot believe it. He says, "Again eating? Oh, it is horrible." Because he has got bad experience of eating in sick condition, he thinks that eating in healthy condition is also the same. This is Māyāvāda. He has no experience what is healthy eating.
So if you want to have real... The Māyāvādī philosophers, they are afraid of having such relationship again. Because they have got bitter experience of this material world, they want to make it zero—no more relationship, no more son, no more daughter, no more lover, no more master. "Because we have got very bitter experience of these things, I am disgusted with these things. I will make it zero." But that is not the fact.
The taste will be created. How it will be created? Just like a person suffering from jaundice, if you give him sugar candy, it will be tasted by him as bitter. This is very practical example. He will say, the patient suffering from jaundice, he will say it is bitter. But sugar candy is not bitter. And at the same time, for jaundice-diseased man the sugar candy is the only medicine. If you give him sugar candy, water, sugarcane, then it will..., he will be cured very soon. And papaya. These things are recommended for jaundice patient.
Sometimes to cure our disease, say, for example, fever, we have to swallow very bitter quinine pills. But Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, considering the people in general of this age, Kali-yuga, He knew that people will not be able to even tolerate such little pain for advancing in spiritual life.
A man, jaundice, suffering from jaundice, if you give him something just like candy, sugar candy, he'll taste it as bitter because he is suffering from jaundice. But sugar candy is not bitter. Similarly, in our diseased condition, this material body, actually you cannot taste real happiness. That is not possible. Therefore we have to cure the disease.
So it may not be exactly the same mṛta-sañjīvanī, but it is very well known. So Śrīdhara Svāmī says... Just like one, a person, is suffering from fever, so according to Ayurvedic medicine, tri-kaṭu... Tri means three, and kaṭu means bitter. Tri-kaṭu, just like nim, nim fruits, kālamegha and ciratā. They are prescribed, very bitter to eat. So Śrīdhara Svāmī gives this example: "Without knowing that there is a very nice medicine, mṛta-sañjīvanī, they takes so many troublesome medicines. Similarly, the great stalwart leaders of religious principles, without knowing this Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra, they take to so many troublesome, multiritualistic ceremonies."
They do not know that there is such a medicine. The example is given, mṛta-sañjīvanī. But they take to bitter medical drugs like nim, ciratā and kālamegha. That is explained by Śrīdhara Svāmī.
Nectar of Devotion Lectures
As soon as they think of activities, they think, "Oh, the activities, they, the..." The same patient who is suffering, for, suppose from birth, he cannot understand that there is activities after being cured of this disease. He cannot understand. He thinks activity means lying down on the bed and drinking all bitter medicine and pass stool and urine by using, what is called, that...?
The sugar candy is sweet, but a jaundiced patient, if he's given sugar candy, he'll taste it is bitter. Similarly, our senses being covered with material consciousness, we cannot at the present moment taste what is Kṛṣṇa's form, what is Kṛṣṇa's name, what is Kṛṣṇa's quality, what is Kṛṣṇa's pastime, what is Kṛṣṇa's paraphernalia, so many things. It is not possible.
They have got bitter experience of this vigraha, of this form, therefore they want to make God impersonal. Must be opposite. They have got this bitter knowledge that getting this body, we are suffering so much. Therefore, the God must be without body. Just opposite. This is also material thinking. Thinking in a negative way. But they have no knowledge, that if God has body, but that is completely spiritual.
"It is something." Just like in homeopathic medicine, because it has no taste, there is no trouble to drink, people do not believe in it. But if you give them some very bitter, pungent medicine, "Oh, it is something." Similarly, if you give the simple process, as Caitanya Mahāprabhu has given us, harer nāma harer nāma harer nāma eva kevalam, kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva nāsty eva gatir anyathā (CC Adi 17.21), they'll not take it very seriously.
Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures
Unless the loving propensity is there in the Supreme, how it can be reflected? Because this is perverted reflection only, so there must be the origin. So the Māyāvādī philosophers, they cannot understand this. Because they have got bitter experience of this material world, they try to make zero or without any varieties the ultimate goal. Śūnyavādi. Nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi. The nirviśeṣavāda, impersonalism and voidism, they are of the same nature. The Buddhist philosopher, they say, "Ultimately, everything is zero."
He is always drinking bitter medicine, lying on the bed and passing stool in the bed. Very miserable condition. So he wants to commit suicide. So he cannot understand that after being cured from the disease, he will eat very nicely, he will lie down on the bed very nicely, he will no..., have no miserable condition of life.
So we have renounced our family life after thinking something. Now, if somebody comes, "Swamijī, you take thousand millions of dollars and marry again and become a family man," I'll never become, because I have got my bad experience. I'll never become. So if one is intelligent enough, if he has got actually the bitter taste of this material world, he'll never agree. He'll never agree. But those who have not advanced to such knowledge, oh, they think, "Oh, this material enjoyment is very nice. Let me taste it and let me do business in my sannyāsī life, and stealthily and privately, let me enjoy." These things are going on.
We are not yet satisfied. The subject matter is so nice that we want to more and more..." Svādu svādu pade pade. As you go on hearing and as you become purified... There is a very practical example: the sugar candy. Sugar candy is, by nature it is very sweet. But if you give it to a patient who is jaundiced, if you give, he will taste it, that he'll say that it is bitter. It is bitter. You will have practical exam... If you ask him what is the taste, he'll say bitter. Everyone knows that sugar candy is very sweet, but if you give to a patient suffering from jaundice, he'll say it is bitter. Similarly, the kṛṣṇa-kathā, the Lord's name, fame, quality, entourage, all these things are very sweet. To whom? Those who are liberated from this jaundice of materialism.
Sri Brahma-samhita Lectures
If you want to taste something, then the hand will bring that food to your mouth and will touch your tongue. Then you can know that it is bitter or sweet. But simply by touching the hand it is not possible to understand what is the nature of that particular... Therefore God's body is described here that aṅgāni yasya sakalendriya-vṛtti-manti. Each and every part of the body has got the capacity for other parts of the body.
Initiation Lectures
You don't require, while eating nicely, you don't require to take certificate: "Am I eating nicely?" You'll know yourself. (japa) Another example is given: the candy. Candy, when a man is suffering from jaundice disease, if you give him candy, he'll taste it bitter. That means more one is materially suffering, he'll not be interested to Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
General Lectures
They are thinking of me. So that is Kṛṣṇa's favor. In the beginning, it appears to be very bitter. When I took sannyāsa, when I was living alone, I was feeling very bitter. I, sometimes I was thinking, "Whether I have done wrong by accepting?" So when I was publishing this Back to Godhead from Delhi, one day one bull thrashed me, and I fell down on the footpath and I got severe injury. I was alone.
Just like a man suffering from jaundice, if you give him a piece of candy sugar, "Just taste it," he will say, "Oh, it is very bitter." But candy sugar is bitter? No. It is very sweet. And the medicine for jaundice disease is that sugar, that candy sugar. Modern science also prescribes, and it is prescribed in the Ayur Vedic medicine also.
We have to purify our existence. Just like if you become feverish, you have to purify yourself from the feverish condition, come to the healthy condition, then you can enjoy life. You cannot enjoy life in diseased condition. That is not possible. Suppose you are feverish, you are given a nice foodstuff, rasagullā, but you will taste it bitter. You cannot enjoy it because on account of your fever the tongue is saturated with bile, and you taste sweet things as bitter. Similarly, we have got our senses, that is all right, but we cannot enjoy our senses in the diseased condition of material life.
Philosophy Discussions
Śyāmasundara: Just like if you are sick, the medicine the doctor may prescribe may be bitter, not desirable at all, but it will cure you. Still you don't want it. It's not desirable.
Prabhupāda: He says?
Śyāmasundara: No. I mean that seems like he..., there's a fallacy in his reasoning, because if the medicine were undesirable, still it will cure you.
Prabhupāda: Yes, yes. Just like I was not desiring to take my medicine. When I was a child it was very difficult to give me medicine. Three men required. (laughter) Yes. One will capture me, another (laughing) will take my legs, and then my mother will by force, I will do like this. (gestures locking of teeth, trying to force spoon into mouth, much laughter all around) This was my position. I won't agree to take any medicine. I was so obstinate.
Prabhupāda: These rascals, they have established this United Nations for the last twenty-five years, and they never inquire that "We have tried so much, but still, why you could not stop war?" The establishment of U.N. was that there should be no war, because they had very bitter experience of the World..., Second World War. So they established this United Nations, but the (indistinct), just like the Americans, they thought that "We are very rich.
Conversations and Morning Walks
1973 Conversations and Morning Walks
Paramahaṁsa: No, Prabhupāda. They're very bitter still.
Prabhupāda: Eh?
Paramahaṁsa: They're somewhat bitter.
Śyāmasundara: Ours are still green. Not yet ripened. In September they'll be ready.
Prabhupāda: Oh, I see.
Paramahaṁsa: If you want, I can clean it and cut it.
Lord Brockway: Oh well, our discussions are better than the discussions in the House of Commons because we're not so bitter, we're not so partisan. And many of them speak with great knowledge.
Śyāmasundara: Yes. That's what impressed us. In one sense, this House of Lords preserves your cultural advantages.
Lord Brockway: Yes, a little. I would make it into a political British association, just as the British Association is gathering of all the scientists. I would have the House of Lords gathering of people who are representative of creative thought in all spheres, from all spheres.
Śyāmasundara: Yes, great thinkers from all different parts of society.
Lord Brockway: Yes. Then I think it could be a real gathering.
Śyāmasundara: Yes. We noticed that day in the House of Lords that great, such great thinkers were discussing topics.
Prabhupāda: Yes, selected persons.
1974 Conversations and Morning Walks
Bali Mardana: Yeah, this is rocky. (break)
Prabhupāda: There are two millions types of vegetables and trees. Two million. What these rascals know? The botanists might have seen thousands, but two millions there are. (japa) So they are getting bitter melon?
Bali Mardana: They have got already.
Prabhupāda: Oh, that's nice. Bitter melon, eggplant, maybe this mankachu (?). They prepare. They will be very nice combination, yes. Buy one vegetable, you can eat whole thing. Yes.
Bali Mardana: Only thing I did not like was the bitter melon.
Prabhupāda: Eh?
Bali Mardana: I did not like the bitter melon.
Prabhupāda: You did not like?
Bali Mardana: It is too bitter.
Prabhupāda: Oh, it was so nice. Eh?
Sudāmā: Do you like it, Prabhupāda?
Prabhupāda: Yes, yes. It is very beneficial for the stomach and kidney.
Jayapatākā: They would put this bitter sauce on it. Then only they would take.
Prabhupāda: And in Burma, my Guru Mahārāja opened a branch. So when they were frying puri, the, nice ghee, all the tenants, "Oh! What you are...!?" (laughter) They cannot tolerate. But in Burma, there is a preparation which is called nafi. The nafi means that a, a big jar will be kept on the door, and whatever animals, insect, cockroaches will die, they'll put in that. And during rainy season, it will be filled with water. And it will be kept for years.
Paramahaṁsa: A little bitter.
Prabhupāda: Yes, very bitter. So the cuckoo, they try to eat the mango fruit flower when small, and the crow they eat that nim tree fruit. So amongst the birds also, there is discrimination according to the quality. Cuckoo sings very nicely. He is fond of mango fruit. And the crow is fond of this nim tree fruit. The white swan, they live in a very nice garden. There is lake, flower. And the crows, they live in the city. Of course, here in your country the garbage is not open.
Bahulāśva: Now they're making artificial milk also, Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Prabhupāda: Hm?
Bahulāśva: :They're advertising. "It's just like milk without the sour taste, without the bitter taste."
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: They are propagating that milk is not good for the (indistinct) natural milk.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Some scientist came to see me in Melbourne. He was speaking like that.
1975 Conversations and Morning Walks
Indian man: You have to use the material, all the potential...
Prabhupāda: No. Atīndriya. You haven't got to use this material (break) ...enjoy the spiritual senses, one has to not only stop, but undergo tapasya, tapo divyam. Just like a man is diseased, he wants to eat, but due to the disease he cannot eat. So first of all, you have to cure the disease, then your eating will be a pleasure. And if you want to eat in the diseased condition, then the taste will not be proper; you cannot eat. A man suffering from jaundice, if you give him sugar candy, he will taste it bitter. The same man, when he is cured, he will taste the sugar candy as very sweet. Tapo divyaṁ yena putrakā śuddhyed sattvam (SB 5.5.1). You have to purify your existence by tapasya.
Prabhupāda: Therefore, because you have no brain, therefore you cannot understand the rasas with Kṛṣṇa. That is spiritual; that is not material. Ānanda-rasa. Ananda-cinmaya-rasa-pratibhāvitābhiḥ (Bs. 5.37). That is the Vedic statement. There is cinmaya. In the spiritual world there is ananda. You... You have no knowledge. You, due to your poor fund of knowledge, you think that in the spiritual world there is no rasa; it is simply void, negation of this rasa. Just like a diseased man. He is practiced to drink bitter medicine and pass stool on the bed and so many inconveniences, so if some of his friends says, "When you'll be cured, you'll be able to pass stool in the lavatory.
Prabhupāda: Just like the tongue is the same, but when you are suffering from jaundice, you are tasting sugar as bitter, and when you will be cured, then the same tongue will taste it is sweet. So it depends on the purification of the body. Whole this bhakti-yoga or any yoga, the whole system is purification. Tapo divyaṁ yena śuddhyet sattvam (SB 5.5.1). Our existence is now impure. Therefore we have to accept birth, death, old age, and disease. And when it is purified, without any contamination, then there is no birth, death, old age.
Devotee (1): They call it java plum. It's a very... It's bitter fruit? Is it very bitter?
Prabhupāda: Not bitter. It is sour, little sour.
Siddha-svarūpa: They makes a blue stain?
Prabhupāda: Yes. You have got?
Siddha-svarūpa: Many here, yes.
Prabhupāda: That's very good. That is very good for diabetic patient.
Prabhupāda: That is compared with the jaundice disease. Jaundice disease, for jaundice, sugarcane is the medicine. But they taste sugarcane as bitter. Sugarcane... One who is suffering in jaundice will taste sugarcane as bitter. That is the test. So that is the medicine. So he has to take the sugarcane. And by taking, when he is cured he will find, "Oh, it is very sweet."
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: So then he has to recognize there is some problem living in this material world.
Prabhupāda: No. He does not find any happiness on account of his too much materialistic mind.
Brahmānanda: That is the disease.
Prabhupāda: That is the disease. So it has to be cured by this bhakti-yoga. So in the bhakti-yoga, in the beginning, it will taste bitter. Therefore they do not come. But if they take to bhakti-yoga, then the material disease will be cured and they will find it is very sweet.
1976 Conversations and Morning Walks
Acyutānanda: They have scientists have analyzed. All smells come in seven or eight basic smells: burnt, sweet, bitter... So they said, "A rose is seven sweet, two burnt and one bitter." So they take the chemicals, and it doesn't smell like a rose. They put the seven sweet and the one burnt, and... And it doesn't smell rose. But just the statement that they are no longer chemicals...
Guru-kṛpā: But we can artificially create with our chemicals the smell of the rose.
Sudāmā: Just like now they have created flowers, plastic flowers that give scent.
Guru-kṛpā: Yeah, sure.
Acyutānanda: But they have taken material from the already created, and here's without factory it's made.
Prabhupāda: If you ask for an artist to...
Dhṛṣṭadyumna: China has achieved great material strides in the last twenty years. There is no prostitution. They have wiped out flies, no more flies causing disease. There is.... And they look to a very bitter past of exploitation at the hand of foreigners and internal civil war and great suffering and starvation. So when they look back over twenty years they see, "Oh, we have advanced greatly." So they are very satisfied.
Prabhupāda: No, if they actually progressing, they will have to come to that point—that is natural—where, placing your service, you can serve everyone. That is the right conclusion. But we have got that right conclusion. If you take from us you can make immediately. But if you want to wait by your research work, then you can waste your time.
Prabhupāda: Big, big lawyers, through this real estatement. I have got bitter experience. People go to real estate man, he has got, say, five thousand dollars, and he wants to purchase one hundred thousand worth property. And they'll say, "Yes. We shall arrange." He will, in such a way, implicate, that he will take this five thousand dollars, and it will be divided amongst them. He will not give anything.
Hari-śauri: The general public, they are becoming very bitter, very frustrated, because they can't turn to anyone for protection anymore. The government is the biggest thief.
Prabhupāda: Dasyu-dharmabhiḥ. It is stated that all government men will be rogues and thieves. Rājanyair dasyu-dharmabhiḥ. Rājanyaiḥ means government men, and dasyu-dharma means practiced to roguery, thieves.
Prabhupāda: Difference is it is Kṛṣṇa's desire. He wants that "Don't remain like cats and dogs. Be intelligent and come back to Me." Kṛṣṇa says sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekam śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). So it is the duty of a devotee of Kṛṣṇa to spread this knowledge so that they may take to Kṛṣṇa. The cats and dogs, they cannot understand, but those who are two-legged cats and dogs, (laughs) they can understand. That is the advantage, because they have got two legs. So long they had four legs (laughing) they could not understand. So here is a chance, two-legged, so give them some opportunity. That's all. (long pause) You grow bitter melon also here?
Prabhupāda: That is the Vedic injunction: You keep yourself connected with Kṛṣṇa, then you will develop the taste. Just like a jaundice patient does not taste sugar as sweet, but if he continues to take sugar candy, then he will have the real taste for sugar candy, sweet, not bitter. So he has to continue to eat sugar candy continually. Śravaṇam, kīrtanam. Then he'll have the taste.
Prabhupāda: There is no pain. It is painful in the beginning, but... Everything. If you take some medicine, it is bitter, it is painful, but if it helps to cure disease, we must take it. "Because the medicine is bitter, I'll not take it." That is not sense. If you want to be cured from the disease, even the medicine is bitter, you must take. That is tapasya. Tapasya means things we are going to accept may be not very pleasing, but still we have to do it. That is tapasya. Tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena śuddhyed sattvam (SB 5.5.1). We take bitter medicine just to cure our existence.
Prabhupāda: Simply that because we're presently in diseased condition, it may appear to be displeasing. Prabhupāda gives the example of someone who has jaundice. In the jaundice state, when you take sugar it appears very bitter. The perception is very bitter. But everyone knows that sugar is sweet. So in the same way, the regulative principles are naturally painful for someone who is irregular. For.... Engaged in bodily identification of life. But gradually it becomes more and more pleasing.
Rūpānuga: Actually, Śrīla Prabhupāda, you are the great physician. Everyone should come under your treatment. They're taking this hari-nāma as a bitter pill. But we are tasting it now, and after chanting and chanting, we're tasting, it's becoming sweeter and sweeter.
Prabhupāda: Hmm. This is all of us?
Kṣīrodakaśāyī: (Hindi) ...that "The next issue is in the press, and I'll soon send." And Gopāla dāsa I also written. Because there are many Gujaratis here, and they are becoming life members... They are helping very much. Anybody comes here, we send out to the Manor. I say, "Here Kṛṣṇa is... Here we are. Here we have got everything by Kṛṣṇa's grace, and all the help should go to this center."
Prabhupāda: You are preparing something of bitter melon?
Kṣīrodakaśāyī: Bitter? You mean the...
Prabhupāda: Karelās, yes.
Bhagavān: One hour ahead, 12:20. We have bitter melon and all fruits and vegetables, everything.
Prabhupāda: Who will cook?
Bhagavān: We have Mandakini?
Prabhupāda: Mandakini has not cooked very nice last...
Bhagavān: There is Aditi, there is... The wife of Hari-vilāsa, she cooked for you before.
Prabhupāda: All right, she can cook.
Bhagavān: What is bitter melon?
Prabhupāda: Bitter melon, you teach them how to do it.
Bhagavān: Samosa?
Prabhupāda: Not necessarily, simple prepare nice dahl, nice rice, vegetables, some bitter melon, and two, three capatis, that's all. Not cumbrous. Must be well cooked, rice. That's all.
Hari-śauri: Well, it was there at ten o'clock this morning. Did they pick it up?
Prabhupāda: That don't mind labor. You try to grow portal here. You have got greenhouse.
Devotee: Some bitter melons. Some karelā melons.
Prabhupāda: Everything. Bījaṁ māṁ sarva-bhūtānām (BG 7.10). The pitā is there. Properly put it into the womb of mother earth. That is the process. Bījaṁ māṁ sarva-bhūtānām. Ahaṁ bīja-pradaḥ pitā. Harer nāma (CC Adi 17.21).
Hari-śauri: Someone can come in whilst we're gone.
Prabhupāda: The cucumber cutting, there is a process. I'll show you. Sometimes cucumber is bitter. By that process it can be avoided.
Harikeśa: You mean chop the top and you go...
Prabhupāda: Ah, yes. That's all right.
Devotee (1): This is bitter?
Prabhupāda: We tasted one piece. Yes, little bitter.
Pradyumna: I ate them one time. Remember in Bombay I thought I had worms? You told me to eat nim?
Prabhupāda: Effective? What happened?
Pradyumna: Well, I didn't notice anything happened, but it was very, very bitter, so bitter.
Prabhupāda: So that worms cured or not?
Pradyumna: I don't know. Sometimes I think I have worms.
Prabhupāda: You should not eat sweet.
Prabhupāda: All of us who have come to this material world, it is like that. Reluctantly. Therefore God comes again to inform these rascals that "Now you have tried so much, better give up this, come to Me again." Sarva-dharmān parityajya (BG 18.66). Sanction was given, certainly, and he has experience, very bitter, but still he won't... This is obstinacy. Dog's mentality. The father has come personally. Now we have experimented everything—karma, jñāna, yoga, this, that, all nonsense. "Now I say..." It is said most confidential. Sarva-guhyatamam. "Better give up this job. Surrender to Me, come back to Me." So sanction was there, certainly.
Caraṇāravindam: I have some bitter gourd. I'm going to dry it and we can plant the seeds, karelā.
Prabhupāda: Karelā it is also...
Caraṇāravindam: Wonderful sabji.
Hari-śauri: Paṭola?
Prabhupāda: Paṭola also.
Indian man: Yes, it is in my house, it is in my garden. So my wife will prepare for your breakfast. Small cāpāṭi. You will find it very tasty and delicious. That's called Gwaraka-pata. (Hindi) Gwaraka-pata. Gwaraka. I will show you.
Prabhupāda: Ācchā. That's nice. It is little bitter?
Indian man: No. It is tasteless. And it is...
Prabhupāda: You know?
Hari-śauri: Probably still upstairs.
Prabhupāda: Ask her to make that bitter melon separately in little quantity.
Hari-śauri: Just fried or...
Prabhupāda: No, boil and then fried. Make it soft. So any letter? All right. (break) Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. That's... (break)
Antardhyāna: What, Śrīla Prabhupāda?
Prabhupāda: Everyone is going to die. Who is going to live? Who is here? Can you show me anyone who is going to live? Can you show me?
1977 Conversations and Morning Walks
Guest (5): No, but you are taking that medicine or...?
Prabhupāda: I stopped that medicine.
Guest (5): Too much bitter, I think.
Prabhupāda: Not only bitter. I got some trouble in the teeth. Pap(?) means suspended.
Hari-śauri: Too bitter. Hm. I'll get some dried. I can dry some on the roof tomorrow.
Prabhupāda: Not dry. You have to take fresh leaf. But you have to make...
Hari-śauri: Just mash it. I can just mash it and make it. That would be all right.
Prabhupāda: Or if you make two or three baras with nim, that is easy to take, and palatable. With chick pea flour, fresh nim leaf paste and equal quantity of chick pea flour. Just fry it.
Dr. Patel: All these boys take cold water, required from them.
Prabhupāda: I never used hot water. In India the Delhi is the coldest part. In my business life, in the hotel I was taking cold water. Everyone was surprised. "How you can?" In Saharanpur, in bitter cold, I was taking cold water early in the morning.
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Vijeta and his wife, they can both go right now...
Prabhupāda: Very bitter.
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: This medicine?
Prabhupāda: So? You had been there?
Jagadīśa: We're going... All three of us are going.
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: At one o'clock.
Prabhupāda: So what other news?
Prabhupāda: So they have gained. You have not gained. Gandhi wanted Hindu-Muslim unity. They made so bitter relationship that they will perpetually fight. That is Gandhi's qualification. They are so great diplomats that "This man wants Hindu-Muslim unity, so make such arrangement that this... They fight will continuous. And give all the food to the Pakistani, so they will starve. Let them eat coal." The Hindustan has got coal mine.
Prabhupāda: So this is change of position. But I am the same man. So whatever comfort or discomfort is there in that you France palace, the same comfort and discomfort is in this cottage. But if I think, "Now I am in the France palace, or Bhaktivedanta Manor palace. I am happy," that is foolishness. They are doing that. You are eating something bitter. So it is in the iron pot. You are thinking, "If I put it in the golden pot, it will be nice." That is your foolishness. The taste, either you put in the golden pot or iron pot or in the floor, the taste is the same.
Prabhupāda: Laws of karma is simply change of body, deha upapatti, the same process, to put the same eatable from iron pot to golden pot or from golden pot to another pot. This is law of karma. But the taste is not changed. The bitter taste is there, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi. That these rascals, they do not understand. The Einstein, he gave so many improvement of life, but he is dying. He's tasting the same bitterness as a dog is tasting. Therefore we do not give any position better than the dog. Why you are dying? Why you cannot change this taste? Stop this. Then you are scientist.
Devotee: Tangerine is good.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Especially if you can give with this medicine, then it will take away the bitter taste.
Prabhupāda: ...pāṇḍu-ratha, Lord Viṣṇu is there. (break) And we are speaking, duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam (BG 8.15), completely opposite. So let them prove that this portion who have improved, it is an happy position.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They cannot prove. But they say, "You also cannot prove anything."
Prabhupāda: No, we say that this place is suffering. Therefore we have to leave this, our total exi... We don't say "This place is for suffering, and by material advancement of science we shall improve." We don't say. We totally reject it, that "It is a place of suffering. Why shall I remain here?"
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: One way I have seen it is in suktā.
Prabhupāda: Hm. By cooking?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes.
Prabhupāda: Hm. Yes. That is possible.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's really Kṛṣṇa's mercy how such a bitter thing is yet palatable. (pause)
Prabhupāda: Take one.
Mr. Dwivedi: Hm?
Prabhupāda: Whether they'll be able to digest?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Bitter. Bitter medicine.
Prabhupāda: Bitter pill.
Mr. Dwivedi: I think there is greater room for digestion of unadulterated Gītā than for adulterated.
Prabhupāda: Hm?
Mr. Dwivedi: And automatically, I do not know why, but I think they will believe it.
Prabhupāda: No, they will not take it.
Prabhupāda: Europeans also, Indo-European. Gradually they declined. Caitanya Mahāprabhu's mission is to make them civilized. Paścimera loka saba mūḍha anācāra. They are all fools and misbehaved. Teach them this Kṛṣṇa consciousness. They'll be happy. This is Caitanya Mahāprabhu. That is our next step, how to make one civilization, Kṛṣṇa conscious. (break) It is very palatable. Not this ordinary medicine, some of them very bitter, some pungent. It is always palatable. So kindly administer this medicine. It doesn't matter whether I survive or die. It doesn't matter. Both ways it is beneficial.
Bhavānanda: Śrīla Prabhupāda, in the Gītā, in one purport you say in the beginning when you undergo treatment, even when you're jaundiced the sugar candy is very bitter. These slight side effects are bitter for you, but if you keep taking the treatment, we know that that will eventually clear up.
Prabhupāda: This light massage he is doing...
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What, Śrīla Prabhupāda?
Prabhupāda: ...it is giving me comfort.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's bitter.
Upendra: That's because they mixed it with honey.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They made it with honey, Śrīla Prabhupāda, instead of miśri-jala. What kind would you like to have?
Prabhupāda: That other fruit?
Bhakti-caru: But then it is very bitter or... Because medicine will be a little bad tasting. Very much bitter, no, Śrīla Prabhupāda?
Prabhupāda: Bitter.
Bhakti-caru: Yes. So should I mix it with some sweet? Like... I normally give the powder with glucose so that the glucose will give you some sweet taste. But distilled medicine, the water thin, watery medicine, that is tasteless. It tastes like water.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Let us follow this medicine until its prescribed time, Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Prabhupāda: Give me.
Correspondence
1947 to 1965 Correspondence
That makes a real classless society. The above four-fold Gandhi movements, if done in an organized, scientific way supported by all the authentic scriptures of all religiosities, will bring in that tranquillity of peace respite of all harshness and bitterness of the present world, which we have longed for till now.
The Congress which is going to be held at Japan is on the matter of How One Should Cultivate Human Spirit. While the Indian leaders are giving more importance on the material construction of the human body, enlightened people of other countries are thinking of the Human Spirit. People of other countries who have already tested the bitterness of materialism, are now seeking something else other than matter.
1968 Correspondence
He is suffering from disease, and when given sugar-candy, which is the cure, he finds it very bitter and distasteful. But that does not mean the sugar-candy is not very sweet and delicious; it is simply due to his diseased condition that it seems bitter. In order to be cured from his disease, he must take the medicine of sugar-candy, despite the apparently bitter taste, and as he becomes cured, the real sweet taste of the candy is gradually revealed.
1970 Correspondence
The general public of Berkeley had a bitter experience that whenever there was a large gathering like this, inevitably there was political upheaval, protest, and window-breaking, and a general havoc. But this unique procession has convinced them that our men are very nice and they can organize a great crowd without any violence. That is a fact: if people actually want peace and tranquillity, they must support this movement wholeheartedly, and we shall execute our prescribed duties very seriously and sincerely. In this way if we are given chance, I am sure we will enact a new chapter in the history of the Western world. Please therefore always pray to Krsna to give you strength and protection, and go on with your duty straight forward.
1972 Correspondence
Now some of our men have met with the Maharaja of Bharatapur here in Bombay, he sent his men to fetch us, and in a bitter mood he requested us immediately to return his idols of silver Radha and Krsna. So let us return them to him, we do not want any ill feeling to be against us. So you may return those deities to him at earliest opportunity, either at Delhi or at Govardhana. He also has requested his book. I do not know which book that is, but he said that Acyutananda has it and he wants it back without delay, so return him.
1973 Correspondence
Please accept my blessings. I may request you to send me some of that bitter melon that you are growing there. You take some of that bitter and cut into pieces and dry it, then send. The day after tomorrow I am starting for Los Angeles, so send to me there.
1974 Correspondence
Yes, I agree the construction of a temple in Calcutta should wait until we finish our present projects which we have undertaken. We should not accept projects which will strain us. Bombay was a great strain, but Krsna has now given it to us. Henceforth we should not accept too much strain. It was a very bitter experience for me in Bombay. As Nair's party was determined not to let us have the land I was more determined to take it at any cost. Krsna has helped us, but we should not strain Krsna by such action.
The whole world is Krsna's property. The material world is a field of activities for the corrupt conditioned souls who desire to enjoy in imitation of the Supreme. For them, Krsna gives facilities for material enjoyment, but He wants the conditioned souls—after finishing their material enjoyment—to come back to Him with bitter experience of material existence.
1975 Correspondence
Regarding the Gaura Nitai deities, I think 100 dollars is too much to pay for one pair of deities. Better you carve them from wood. In India the carvers have always used a wood bitter in taste, this keeps the worms from eating it, best is nim wood if such wood (bitter in taste) is available there then why not make Gaura Nitai from wood.
| Page Title: | Bitter |
| Compiler: | MadhuGopaldas, Gopinath, Matea |
| Created: | 02 of Jul, 2010 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=4, SB=11, CC=11, OB=8, Lec=38, Con=44, Let=9 |
| No. of Quotes: | 125 |