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Bitter medicine

Srimad-Bhagavatam

SB Canto 3

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.
SB 3.31.25, Purport:

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.

Lectures

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

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."
Lecture on BG 1.30 -- London, July 23, 1973:

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."

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

He's eating bitter medicine, and he, he cannot move. All these inconveniences, and he says that "I am well.
Lecture on SB 1.2.17 -- San Francisco, March 25, 1967:

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.

He cannot move and very bitter medicine. So many inconvenience. He's lying down. So he's thinking of committing suicide.
Lecture on SB 1.8.32 -- Los Angeles, April 24, 1973:

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. So the philosophy of voidism, impersonalism is like that. Mean they cannot, shudder, to think of another life, again eating, again sleeping, again working. Because he thinks eating, sleeping, means on the bed. That's all. And suffering. He cannot think otherwise. So the negative way, to make it zero. That is void philosophy.

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.
Lecture on SB 2.3.15 -- Los Angeles, June 1, 1972:

Therefore it is recommended that everyone should chant. Never mind. Nama oṁ apavitraḥ pavitro vā yaḥ smaret puṇḍarīkākṣam. Anyone who remembers the Puṇḍarīkākṣa. By chanting, you'll remember. So nivṛtta-tarṣair upagīyamānād bhavauṣadhāt (SB 10.1.4). It is the medicine for our, this bhava-roga, repeated birth and ... Such a nice thing. Nivṛtta-tarṣair upagīyamānād bhavauṣadhāc chrotra-mano-'bhirāmāt. 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.

This is Māyāvāda symptom. The example can be given like this: Just like a patient, since his birth, he is sick, and he is lying in the hospital, cannot walk freely or cannot eat nice things. 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."
Lecture on SB 2.3.20 -- Los Angeles, June 16, 1972:

The Māyāvāda philosophy means, impersonalist means, the same material condition. The material condition means everyone is busy in sense gratification. And ... therefore they cannot understand. And when there is a question of sense gratification ... Just like, "We are dancing here, ball dance. So this is material māyā. Therefore Kṛṣṇa's dance with the gopīs, that is also māyā." This is Māyāvāda symptom. The example can be given like this: Just like a patient, since his birth, he is sick, and he is lying in the hospital, cannot walk freely or cannot eat nice things. 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.

Therefore his bad experience of this diseased condition, he wants to make it zero. He is thinking that "When my, this drinking of medicine and lying down will be zero, oh, that will be my real healthy condition." This is their philosophy. Because bad experience ...

Nectar of Devotion Lectures

A diseased fellow thinks activity means lying down on the bed and drinking all bitter medicine and pass stool and urine.
The Nectar of Devotion -- Bombay, December 27, 1972:

Prabhupāda: These activities of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, it is, it appears to be ordinary activities, but that is liberated activity. Those who cannot understand the activities in liberation, nirviśeṣavādi, they think that in the conditioned state of life, there are activities; when one becomes liberated, he has no more activities, he becomes dumb. No. Actual activities begins in liberated... Just like a man, a diseased fellow, diseased fellow, lying on the bed, he's also eating. He's also sleeping. He's also passing stool, urine. But that is not real activity. When he becomes cured of the disease, come to his healthy life, and then again he walks, he eats, he sleeps, that is another, mean, a position of eating, sleeping. But one who cannot understand the liberated activities, they are shuddered. 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...?

Devotees: Bed pan. Bed pan.

Prabhupāda: Bed pan. He's thinking like that. He has no idea there is better activities, better sleeping, better eating. That he cannot understand. Therefore śūnyavādi. They want to make zero. "These activities are giving me so much trouble. Make it zero." Just like sometimes one cannot tolerate the pains of diseased condition. Sometimes they commit suicide—stop these activities. So the śūnyavādi, they are like that—committing suicide; stop these activities. But they do not know that there is activities. There are... After being cured of this material disease, when one is healthy... That healthy activities are the devotional activities.

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures

Just like a diseased man. 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.
Lecture on CC Adi-lila 7.8 -- Vrndavana, March 15, 1974:

But the Māyāvādīs, because they have poor fund of knowledge, they think that "If again there is līlā, there is sporting, there is dancing, so that is here. Then it is māyā." In their poor fund of knowledge, brain cannot accommodate that Kṛṣṇa's līlā and this līlā are not the same. Not the same. They think when there is līlā, then it must be māyā; therefore they are called Māyāvādī. Their idea is that liberation means minus this līlā, no more līlā, simply stop everything. Or voidism.

But that is not the fact.... The fact... Just like a diseased man. 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. He cannot understand. He says, "Again lying down on the bed and again eating? Oh, this is māyā." They do not know that. Therefore they are called poor fund of knowledge. They think that by avoiding this līlā, making minus, making void, making zero, we become liberated. No, that is not liberated. That is a disgusted negation only. And as soon as I am disgusted with something, I want to make it "No." Just like sometimes a man commits suicide. He thinks that "This life is simply disgusting. So finish this life." So Māyāvādī philosophy is like that. They want to finish this. But finishing, then what you are accepting? That they do not know. Therefore they are Śūnyavādī, Nirviśeṣavādī.

Conversations and Morning Walks

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

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. You haven't got to, haven't got to pass stool..." Then he shudders: "Again I have to pass stool after becoming cured? Again I have to eat? No, no, this is not good. Make it zero."
Morning Walk -- April 2, 1975, Mayapur:

Pañcadraviḍa: One devotee was talking with a Māyāvādī sannyāsī, famous sannyāsī. So he said that "Your desire to attain mukti, that is a material desire."

Prabhupāda: No, we don't want mukti.

Pañcadraviḍa: Yes. So...

Prabhupāda: Mukti flatters me: "Please accept me." We don't want mukti.

Pañcadraviḍa: So the devotee went on, "To want to become one with the Lord, that is material desire." So the Māyāvādī, he answered, he said, "No, to want to remain separate from the Lord and enjoy rasa, or exchange, with Him, that is also material desire. Because you want to stay two, God and you, so you can be separate just so you can enjoy an exchange. That is also a desire."

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. You haven't got to, haven't got to pass stool..." Then he shudders: "Again I have to pass stool after becoming cured? Again I have to eat? No, no, this is not good. Make it zero." He has no idea what is the meaning of passing stool in healthy stage. It refreshes the body. We get good energy. That he cannot conceive. He thinks that "If there is passing of stool again, then it must be the same suffering as I am undergoing now in this condition." So the Māyāvādī's idea of spiritual life means negation of these material activities. But they have no idea that similar activities are there in spiritual life, but that is not material. That is their poor fund of knowledge.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

We take bitter medicine just to cure our existence.
Conversation with Prof. Saligram and Dr. Sukla -- July 5, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Devotee (4): Should we always endeavor in spite of pain to push ourselves in Kṛṣṇa consciousness?

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. Similarly, at the present moment, our existence is impure. Therefore we have to accept birth, death, old age and disease on account of impure existence. Otherwise, we are spirit soul, we are eternal, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20).

Page Title:Bitter medicine
Compiler:Ramananda, Visnu Murti, Vraja-kumara
Created:27 of Mar, 2010
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=1, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=7, Con=2, Let=0
No. of Quotes:10