Since the living entity is alive, he can understand the creation of this material world to some extent, but he cannot understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is beyond the conception of the body, mind, and intelligence. Nevertheless, great sages who are always in meditation can see the personal form of the Lord within their hearts.
Body, mind and intelligence
Expressions researched:
"body, mind and intelligence"
|"body, mind, and intelligence"
|"body, mind, intelligence"
|"body, the mind, and intelligence"
|"body, the mind, intelligence"
|"body: mind, intelligence"
|"body—mind, intelligence"
|"mind, intelligence and ego, they are subtle body, and the gross body"
|"the body, the mind and intelligence"
|"with the body, with the mind, or with the intelligence"
Bhagavad-gita As It Is
BG Chapters 1 - 6
BG 4.32, Purport:
Different types of sacrifice, as discussed above, are mentioned in the Vedas to suit the different types of worker. Because men are so deeply absorbed in the bodily concept, these sacrifices are so arranged that one can work either with the body, with the mind, or with the intelligence. But all of them are recommended for ultimately bringing about liberation from the body. This is confirmed by the Lord herewith from His own mouth.
BG 5.11, Translation and Purport:
The yogīs, abandoning attachment, act with body, mind, intelligence and even with the senses, only for the purpose of purification.
When one acts in Kṛṣṇa consciousness for the satisfaction of the senses of Kṛṣṇa, any action, whether of the body, mind, intelligence or even the senses, is purified of material contamination. There are no material reactions resulting from the activities of a Kṛṣṇa conscious person. Therefore purified activities, which are generally called sad-ācāra, can be easily performed by acting in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Śrī Rūpa Gosvāmī in his Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu (1.2.187) describes this as follows:
- īhā yasya harer dāsye
- karmaṇā manasā girā
- nikhilāsv apy avasthāsu
- jīvan-muktaḥ sa ucyate
"A person acting in Kṛṣṇa consciousness (or, in other words, in the service of Kṛṣṇa) with his body, mind, intelligence and words is a liberated person even within the material world, although he may be engaged in many so-called material activities." He has no false ego, for he does not believe that he is this material body, or that he possesses the body. He knows that he is not this body and that this body does not belong to him. He himself belongs to Kṛṣṇa, and the body too belongs to Kṛṣṇa. When he applies everything produced of the body, mind, intelligence, words, life, wealth, etc.—whatever he may have within his possession—to Kṛṣṇa's service, he is at once dovetailed with Kṛṣṇa. He is one with Kṛṣṇa and is devoid of the false ego that leads one to believe that he is the body, etc. This is the perfect stage of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
Srimad-Bhagavatam
SB Canto 4
SB 4.21.33, Purport:
Anyone can become successful in devotional service provided he displays no duplicity. It is explained here that one must be very frank and open-minded (amāyinaḥ). To be situated in a lower status of life is not a disqualification for success in devotional service. The only qualification is that whether one is a brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya or śūdra, he must be open, frank and free from reservations. Then, by performing his particular occupational duty under the guidance of a proper spiritual master, he can achieve the highest success in life. As confirmed by the Lord Himself, striyo vaiśyās tathā śūdrās te 'pi yānti parāṁ gatim (BG 9.32). It does not matter what one is, whether a brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra or a degraded woman. If one engages himself seriously in devotional service, working with body, mind, intelligence, he is sure to be successful in going back home, back to Godhead.
SB 4.28.17, Purport:
It is clear in this verse that at the time of death thoughts of material enjoyment do not go away. This indicates that the living entity, the soul, is carried by the subtle body, mind, intelligence and ego. Due to false ego, the living entity still wants to enjoy the material world, and for want of material enjoyment he becomes sorry or sad. He still makes intellectual plans to further his existence, and therefore, although he gives up the gross body, he is carried by the subtle body to another gross body.
SB 4.29.60, Purport:
The living entity enjoys through the subtle body, which is composed of mind, intelligence and ego. The gross body is the instrumental outer covering. When the gross body is lost, or when it dies, the root of the gross body, mind, intelligence and ego—continues and brings about another gross body.
SB 4.29.61, Purport:
The subtle body, mind, intelligence and ego—creates an atmosphere with desires and ambitions that the living entity enjoys in the subtle body. Actually the living entity is in the subtle body, even though the gross body apparently changes and even though he inhabits the gross body on various planets. All the activities performed by the living entity in the subtle body are called illusory because they are not permanent.
SB Canto 5
SB 5.14.44, Purport:
One's life is successful if he is absorbed in the attraction of Kṛṣṇa's strength, beauty and pastimes as described in the Tenth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. The Māyāvādīs are attracted to merging into the existence of the Lord, but Kṛṣṇa is more attractive than the desire to merge. The word abhavaḥ means "not to take birth again in this material world." A devotee doesn't care whether he is going to be reborn or not. He is simply satisfied with the Lord's service in any condition. That is real mukti.
- īhā yasya harer dāsye
- karmaṇā manasā girā
- nikhilāsv apy avasthāsu
- jīvan-muktaḥ sa ucyate
"One who acts to serve Kṛṣṇa with his body, mind, intelligence and words is a liberated person, even within this material world." (Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu 1.2.187) A person who always desires to serve Kṛṣṇa is interested in ways to convince people that there is a Supreme Personality of Godhead and that the Supreme Personality of Godhead is Kṛṣṇa. That is his ambition. It doesn't matter whether he is in heaven or in hell. This is called uttamaśloka-lālasa.
SB Canto 6
SB Canto 7
SB 7.5.23-24, Purport:
Kṛṣṇa wants everyone to surrender unto Him because everyone is constitutionally His servant. Therefore, as a sincere friend of Kṛṣṇa, one should preach this philosophy, requesting everyone to surrender unto Kṛṣṇa. Ātma-nivedanam means offering Kṛṣṇa everything, including one's body, mind, intelligence and whatever one may possess.
SB 7.10.14, Purport:
A devotee should not be aggrieved in an awkward position, nor should he feel extraordinarily happy in material opulence. This is the way of expert management of material life. Because a devotee knows how to manage expertly, he is called jévan-mukta. As Rūpa Gosvāmī explains in Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu:
- īhā yasya harer dāsye
- karmaṇā manasā girā
- nikhilāsv apy avasthāsu
- jīvan-muktaḥ sa ucyate
"A person acting in Kṛṣṇa consciousness (or, in other words, in the service of Kṛṣṇa) with his body, mind, intelligence and words is a liberated person even within this material world, although he may be engaged in many so-called material activities." Because of constantly engaging in devotional service, in any condition of life, a devotee is free from all material bondage.
SB Canto 9
SB 9.13.9, Purport:
If one has a strong desire to serve the Lord, even if he accepts a material body, there is no cause of anxiety, since a devotee, even in a material body, is a liberated soul. This is confirmed by Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī:
- īhā yasya harer dāsye
- karmaṇā manasā girā
- nikhilāsv apy avasthāsu
- jīvan-muktaḥ sa ucyate
"A person acting in Kṛṣṇa consciousness (or, in other words, in the service of Kṛṣṇa) with his body, mind, intelligence and words is a liberated person even within the material world, although he may be engaged in many so-called material activities." The desire to serve the Lord establishes one as liberated in any condition of life, whether in a spiritual body or a material body.
Sri Caitanya-caritamrta
CC Madhya-lila
CC Madhya 11.89, Purport:
One who is intelligent understands that all the personal associates and devotees of Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu are ever liberated. This means that because they are always engaged in the devotional service of the Lord, they do not belong to this material world. One who is engaged in the Lord's devotional service twenty-four hours daily and never forgets the Lord is called nitya-siddha. Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī confirms this statement:
- īhā yasya harer dāsye karmaṇā manasā girā
- nikhilāsv apy avasthāsu jīvan-muktaḥ sa ucyate
"A person acting in the service of Kṛṣṇa with body, mind, intelligence and words is a liberated person even within the material world, although he may be engaged in many so-called material activities." (Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, 1.2.187)
A devotee is always thinking of how better to serve Lord Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and how to broadcast His name, fame and qualities throughout the world.
CC Madhya 15.108, Purport:
According to the Vaiṣṇava regulative principles, one must be initiated as a brāhmaṇa. The Hari-bhakti-vilāsa (2.6) quotes the following injunction from the Viṣṇu-yāmala:
- adīkṣitasya vāmoru kṛtaṁ sarvaṁ nirarthakam
- paśu-yonim avāpnoti dīkṣā-virahito janaḥ
"Unless one is initiated by a bona fide spiritual master, all his devotional activities are useless. A person who is not properly initiated can descend again into the animal species."
Hari-bhakti-vilāsa (2.10) further quotes:
- ato guruṁ praṇamyaivaṁ sarva-svaṁ vinivedya ca
- gṛhṇīyād vaiṣṇavaṁ mantraṁ dīkṣā-pūrvaṁ vidhānataḥ
"It is the duty of every human being to surrender to a bona fide spiritual master. Giving him everything body, mind, and intelligence—one must take Vaiṣṇava initiation from him."
Lectures
Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures
Lecture on BG 1.32-35 -- London, July 25, 1973:
The soul is covered by two bodies, the external and internal. External means these gross elements—earth, water, air, fire, sky. And internal means the mind, intelligence and ego. They are also material. Just like our body is covered by shirt and coat, similarly, the soul is encaged in two kinds of bodies. When this gross body is finished, the subtle body, mind, intelligence and ego, they are there. The soul is covered. The gross body is finished. That is called death. But people do not know that there is no death for the soul. The outward cover is finished, the inward cover is there, and the inward cover will carry the soul to another gross body. That is called transmigration. The mind is creating, as we are making our consciousness in this life, so we are making our next life also. Yānti deva-vratā devān pitṟn yānti pitṛ-vratāḥ
Lecture on BG 1.41-42 -- London, July 29, 1973:
Sometimes due to sinful activities, too much attachment, a man becomes ghost. Ghost, there is ghosts. Bhūta preta piśāca. Not only this life, demonic life, but after death also, there are ghostly lives. They do not get this gross body. They remain in the subtle body, mind, intelligence, and ego. Due to their gross sinful life, they are punished by not getting a gross life. Because without getting a gross life, we cannot enjoy. With mind, I cannot enjoy rasagullā. I must have the tongue, I must have the hand, fingers, I can pick up, then... In the mind, I may think of eating or collecting rasagullā, but actually I do not get the taste. So gross body is required, because every living entity in this material world, they have come to enjoy. Kṛṣṇa bhuliyā jīva bhoga vāñchā kare pāśāte māyā tāre jāpaṭiyā dhare. This is the beginning of our material life. When we forget to render service to Kṛṣṇa, immediately we get a material body offered by the material nature.
Lecture on BG 2.11 -- Rotary Club Address -- Hotel Imperial, Delhi, March 25, 1976:
Prabhupāda: According to Darwin's theory, the human form of body comes from monkey. But the evolution is accepted in the Vedic literature but not like Darwin's. The evolution, again according to Vedic scripture, is that the living entity is different from the body, and the living entity is passing through many forms of body. We shall read that. So the bodies are according to my desire. I am desiring something. Just like here we are sitting, so many ladies and gentlemen, but not one of them is similar to anyone else. They have got different bodies. That body is created according to one's desire. The mind, the subtle mind, is the creator of the next body. Yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran bhāvaṁ tyajaty ante kalevaram (BG 8.6). At the time of death whatever I am thinking, a similar body will be offered to me by the laws of nature. Subtle body. The mind, intelligence and ego, they are subtle body, and the gross body is made of earth, water, air, fire, ether. So when we give up this gross body, the subtle body carries me to another gross body. This is the way of transmigration of the soul. The prakṛti, nature, nature's law, is very strict and stringent. The nature will immediately offer you a similar body according to the thinking at the time of your death. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13).
Lecture on BG 2.13 -- Manila, October 12, 1972:
The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, is teaching that the soul transmigrates. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ. Dehāntara-prāptiḥ means transmigrating from one body to another. Dhīras tatra na muhyati (BG 2.13). Those who are dhīra, sober, full of knowledge, they are not bewildered, they are not perturbed. Because he knows that my father or brother, everything, is said to be dead, it is..., he is not dead. This gross body, this coat, coating of the body, has stopped. It is (indistinct), or by some reason it is torn, it is no longer usable. Therefore, the soul has left this gross body and, being carried by the subtle body, mind, intelligence, ego—he has gone to accept another gross body. This is transmigration of the soul.
Lecture on BG 2.13 -- Public Lecture With German Translation Throughout -- Hamburg, September 10, 1969:
When the body is annihilated, the soul and consciousness is not annihilated. Just like when we sleep, our consciousness works in a different body, subtle body, mind, intelligence and ego. That we have got experience every night. We sleep on our bed, but my consciousness goes to other country or other place, and work in a different way. Again, when at the end of the dream we come back to this body, gross body. So death mean s when the consciousness does not come back again to this gross body and enters another gross body.
Lecture on BG 4.10 Festival at Maison de Faubourg -- Geneva, May 31, 1974:
The Supreme Being, who is called Kṛṣṇa, or all-attractive, He has His body of eternity, full of knowledge and blissfulness. Now, compare your this body. This body is not eternal; it is temporary. It is born at a certain date and it will be finished at a certain date. Therefore it is not eternal. Neither this body is full of knowledge. It is full of ignorance. If I ask you how many hairs you have got on your head, you do not know. Similarly, we have got this body. I am claiming my body, but I am not in full knowledge of my own body. And what to speak of knowing your body or other's body? Not only body, the mind, intelligence, and ego. What is going on in your mind, I do not know. Neither you know what is going on in my mind. We are so ignorant. Therefore this body is temporary and full of ignorance. And what to speak of blissfulness? It is always miserable. Here, because we have got this body, we suffer the pains of cold and heat. This is only one example. It is given in the Bhagavad-gītā, mātrā-sparśās tu kaunteya śītoṣṇa-sukha-duḥkha-dāḥ. Śīta means cold. Just like in winter we suffer. In summer also, we suffer. Both seasons, we suffer. So why we suffer? Because we have got this temporary material body.
Lecture on BG 7.4-5 -- Bombay, March 30, 1971:
So the material existence, external feature of the Lord, is the, are these eight elements, namely bhūmir āpo 'nalo vāyuḥ khaṁ mano buddhir eva ca (BG 7.4). They are subtle forms. Ahaṅkāra, egotism, mind and intelligence. They are also material. They are not spiritual. One who thinks that mental speculation is spiritual speculation, that is wrong. Here from Bhagavad-gītā we understand the mind is also subtle form of matter, and actually that is so. Because we get another body after death according to the mental situation at the time of death. The mind, intelligence, the subtle body... Just like at night our subtle body, mind, intelligence works, and we think that we have got a separate body and have gone somewhere else from our house, from our room. We forget this material body. Similarly, after death, my mind and intelligence carry me to another separate body according to my thinking at the time of death.
Lecture on BG 7.5 -- Nairobi, November 1, 1975:
The superior energy and the inferior energy, this is the material world, combination of two energies. Just like this body, your body, my body, everyone's body. What is this? The combination of these two energies, the superior energy and the inferior energy. The inferior energy—bhūmir āpo 'nalo vāyuḥ, the gross body, earth, water... This gross body means earth, water, air, and ether, and then the subtle body, mind, intelligence and ego, these eight combination, so this is not actually I. I am soul. Therefore this is aparā, inferior. But what I am, that is superior. That is explained here, jīva-bhūta. Beyond these two gross and subtle energies there is another, superior energy. Apareyam itas tu anyām. Anyām means another. Itas tu... Apareyam itas tu anyām prakṛtim. Another prakṛti, energy, is there. Viddhi me parām. That is superior. What is that? Jīva-bhūta, that living being which is within the gross and subtle body, that living being.
Lecture on BG 8.5 -- New York, October 26, 1966:
Prabhupāda: Because soul is now covered by the subtle body and the gross body. When the gross body stops to work... Just like at night the gross body is lying, but the subtle body mind is working. Therefore you are dreaming. The subtle body is working. So when you give up this body, your subtle body, mind, intelligence, that carries you very fine. Just like the flavor is carried by the air. If the air passes on some rose trees, the air becomes flavored like rose. There is no rose, but the flavor is there. Similarly, the flavor of your mentality, the flavor of your understanding, is carried. That is the subtle body. And you get a similar body. Therefore at the time of death the examination is tested, how one has advanced in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
Lecture on BG 9.5 -- Melbourne, April 24, 1976:
Everything is resting on Kṛṣṇa; still, everything is without Him. That is very easy to understand, that we cannot exist without God's mercy. Without the potency on which... This potency is life. Try to understand what is this life. We have got this material body. Material body means... This gross body is made of earth, water, air, fire, ether. This is the gross body, and the subtle body, mind, intelligence, and ego. We are situated in this body. Therefore what is this, these energies? It is Kṛṣṇa's energy. Therefore we are situated in the energy, material energy of the Supreme Lord. We are ourself also energy of the Supreme Lord, marginal energy. So although we are situated in God's energy, we are forgetful. Therefore Kṛṣṇa said, mat-sthāni sarva-bhūtāni: (BG 9.4) "Everyone is existing on My energy; still, I am not there." "I am not there" means the living entity has forgotten or cannot understand God, that he is within the God's energy, God's material power or energy. Still, he cannot understand.
Lecture on BG 9.15 -- New York, December 1, 1966:
In devotional service the first step is hearing, hearing submissively from the authoritative source and just to assimilate it and grasp it with our body, mind, and intelligence. In this way you shall be able to conquer the unconquerable.
Lecture on BG 13.3 -- Paris, August 11, 1973:
If we can understand what is kṣetra and what is kṣetrajñam. Kṣetra means field of activities. There are field of activities in so many ways. Not only of this body; body, mind, intelligence. They are all kṣetra. I am living entity, I am working with them. Similarly, I am working outside also. Not within, not outside. I am running my ca... That is also kṣetra. The world is kṣetra. The car is kṣetra. But the doer, the driver, is kṣetrajñam. That knowledge is lacking. A child may think that the airplane, big airplane, 747 is running. No, it is not running automatically. There is a pilot—kṣetrajñam. He knows the machine, how to work on it. Everywhere. You study. There is kṣetra and kṣetrajñam. So Kṛṣṇa says kṣetra-kṣetrajñayor jñānam. One who knows how this kṣetra and kṣetrajñam is working... Not only in individual body, in gigantic body, in everything.
Lecture on BG 13.14 -- Bombay, October 7, 1973:
Both the bodily platform and mental platform, they are material. Because the body is also matter and mind is also matter. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. Bhūmir āpo 'nalo vāyuḥ khaṁ mano buddhir eva ca, apareyam, prakṛtir me bhinnā aṣṭadhā (BG 7.4). This body is made of five elements: earth, water, fire, air, sky, and mind is there, subtle body, mind, intelligence and egotism. So both platform are material platform. Therefore it is said harāv abhaktasya. Those who are devotees of the Lord, they are not acting on the mental or the gross material platform. They are not working on that platform. They are working on the spiritual platform.
Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures
Lecture on SB 1.2.8 -- New Vrindaban, September 6, 1972:
The subtle body is mind, intelligence and ego. So if we think of Kṛṣṇa in the mind, always, and if we work intelligently for Kṛṣṇa, that is mind and intelligence. And if we change our false ego, ego means, "I am." So I am at the present moment thinking, "I am American," "I am Indian," "I am white," "I am black," like that. "I am human being," "I am animal," "I am cat or dog," so many things, "I am." This "I am" has to be changed. I am eternal servant of Kṛṣṇa. In this way, if you educate or transfer the activities of the subtle body, mind, intelligence, and ego, then, at the time of death, you give up this subtle body, material subtle body, mind, intelligence, and ego, and by your spiritual body you go back to home, back to Godhead.
Lecture on SB 1.7.22 -- Vrndavana, September 18, 1976:
This material world is called saṁsṛti, continuously suffering. That we cannot understand. This is called ignorance. Continuously suffering. They are thinking, "We are very happy," but this material world means continuously suffering. So one living entity is dying, and his gross body is left and the subtle body, mind, intelligence, ego, carrying him in another body through the semina of the father to the womb of the mother. Then it is placed, and the body again forms, and when the body is formed, then he comes out. And within the womb of the mother there is so much suffering, we know that. Many times we have discussed. And coming, from the very moment the child is crying, there is inconveniences. So many things he cannot express. In this way, within the womb there is suffering, out of the womb there is suffering. Then growing, child or baby or boy, there are so many sufferings. Then young man—suppose he becomes family man—then earn for the family. That is also suffering. Then old man, disease, inability, many, many thoughts, that is also suffering. And again death is suffering.
Lecture on SB 1.7.26 -- Vrndavana, September 2, 1976:
The soul is being carried by the subtle body." The example is given just like when the air passes through the rose garden and you smell very nice fragrance. You cannot see what is that fragrance, but you experience that there is some fragrance. Wherefrom? Sometimes we inquire "Wherefrom this fragrance coming?" You cannot see. Similarly, the soul is very, very small, a small particle of the same ingredient as Kṛṣṇa. Mamaivāṁśa. Mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūtaḥ (BG 15.7). Jīva is very small particle of the same ingredient as Kṛṣṇa's body. Sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ. Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ (Bs. 5.1). So we have got our vigraha, very small. That is also stated in the śāstra. Keśāgra-śata-bhāgasya śatadhā kalpitasya ca: (CC Madhya 19.140) one ten-thousandth part of the tip of the hair. We cannot even imagine what is the length and breadth of the hair, but the soul is one ten-thousandth part. So how you can see the soul? That small particle is being carried by the subtle body, mind, intelligence, and ego. And it is pushed through the semina of the father into the womb of the mother, and another body is manufactured in due course of time, and it comes out and works. This is called transmigration of the soul—from one body to another.
Lecture on SB 1.8.35 -- Mayapura, October 15, 1974:
So after finishing this body, then I am not finished; I am there. I am, this gross body, finished, but I am within this subtle body, mind, intelligence and ego. The subtle body carries me to another gross body. These so-called scientists, medical men, they cannot see the subtle body, although one has to accept. Just like I have got mind, you have got mind—but I cannot see your mind; you cannot see my mind. I have got intelligence; you have got intelligence. Everyone knows. But you cannot see my intelligence; I cannot see your intelligence. They are very subtle. So, and beyond that, the spirit soul is still subtle, so minute quantity.
Lecture on SB 1.8.48 -- Mayapura, October 28, 1974:
Actually our body belongs to Kṛṣṇa, and I also belong to Kṛṣṇa. Pārakya. In both senses it belongs to other. Other means Kṛṣṇa. So, logically both the body, mind, intelligence, and myself—everything should be engaged for Kṛṣṇa's interest. That is real knowledge. That is real knowledge.
Lecture on SB 2.1.1 -- Vrndavana, March 16, 1974:
At the time of death, whatever thought is there, you get next birth a similar body. The mind, mind creates the body, gross body. As we have got this gross body, so within this gross body there is the subtle body: mind, intelligence and ego. These rascals, they do not know that when the gross body is annihilated, it does not mean that the soul is finished. No. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). This is the verdict. Don't think because the gross body is now finished, therefore the person is finished. No. The person is there within the subtle body. And the subtle body will carry him. Just like the fragrance is carried by the air. You cannot see what is this fragrance, but you can smell. A very good smell, wherefrom it came? That is subtle carrying. Similarly, the soul is carried after annihilation of this body, gross body, material subtel body, Mind, intelligence, ego—that is also material, but subtle. You cannot see. Everyone knows that I have got mind. I have got soul, but you cannot see. Neither I can see. But there is. But one who does not know what is soul, what is subtle body, they become perplexed.
Lecture on SB 2.4.2 -- Los Angeles, June 25, 1972:
So negation is no good. You must have some positive gain. So our, this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is negation of the materialistic way of life and regain the blissful eternal life of spiritual understanding. So simply negation is no gain. With something, if you are disgusted, "I don't want it," but... Just like sometimes a man commits suicide, "I don't want this life." So what is the gain? And that is ignorance. He does not know that committing suicide... He's eternal. He's eternal. Living entity is eternal. He thinks that "By killing this body, I am free from this bodily miserable condition of life." No. He's immediately..., either he has to accept a next abominable body or he'll have to become a ghost. One who commits suicide. Ghost means no material gross life, but the mental, material subtle life is there. A ghost is carried by the subtle body, mind, intelligence and false ego. And one who gets a body, gross body... Upon this mind, intelligence and ego, one develops a gross body of five elements: earth, water, air, fire. This is the two kinds of body, a condition. And when he's actually Kṛṣṇa conscious, he's transcendental to this gross and subtle body. He attains a spiritual body which is never to be finished, eternal, blissful life.
Lecture on SB 3.25.28 -- Bombay, November 28, 1974:
Kṛṣṇa advises that consciousness is eternal. Therefore we have to purify our consciousness, then our life is successful. Consciousness will go with us. At the time of death the consciousness carries me to another body. Sūkṣma, the fine, or the subtle body, the mind, intelligence, and ego, but we do not see that mind, intelligence, ego. And the soul, it is still finer. Mind is, we know you have got mind, you know I have got mind but you do not see. I know you have got intelligence, you know I have got intelligence but you can not see. But how the mind, intelligence carry the soul to another body, how you can see? We see that this gross body is stopped, we say it is everything finished, because we have got gross intelligence, we have no sūkṣma, in Therefore we have to approach guru, just like Arjuna approached guru. And Arjuna, Kṛṣṇa teaching that you are thinking of this body like a rascal. Nānuśocanti paṇḍitāḥ. He said in a very gentlemanly language, no learned man thinks like that, that means you are a fool. Nānuśocanti paṇḍitāḥ, that you are not a paṇḍita, you are a fool. Just try to understand, that real life is for the soul, therefore you should take care of the soul.
Lecture on SB 3.25.43 -- Bombay, December 11, 1974:
When one understand what is Kṛṣṇa in truth, that is called knowledge. Jñāna-vairāgya-yuktena (SB 3.25.18). Tato māṁ tattvato jñātvā viśate tad-anantaram. He is allowed to enter into the spiritual kingdom, not before that. Not before that, without bhakti. And bhakti, by bhakti, you will automatically attain the stage of jñāna-vairāgya. Just like if you take one very nice digestive pill, so whatever you have eaten, even stone, it will be digested. It will be digested. Similarly, as soon as you take to bhakti immediately your gross and subtle body is digested. You will live in the spiritual body. Sa guṇān samatītyaitān brahma-bhūyāya kalpate (BG 14.26). Brahma-bhūyāya means that spiritual body. We are already Brahman—ahaṁ brahmāsmi—but it is covered by the material body, the gross body, kṣitir āpaṁ tejo marud vyoma: fire, water, earth, air, like that, and mano buddhiḥ ahaṅkāra, the subtle body, mind, intelligence, and ego. So we are covered by this subtle body and gross body. This is our impediment. But the... By karma-yoga you try to get out of this gross body. By jñāna-yoga you try to get out of this subtle body. But bhakti-yoga—you directly you cross over this subtle body and gross body. You are immediately situated in the spiritual body.
Lecture on SB 3.26.27 -- Bombay, January 4, 1975:
it is a concoction, to finish the individuality. It is called spiritual suicide. Just like if a man becomes disappointed and he cuts his own throat or hangs him, some way or other, eats some poison, to finish, does it mean that he is finished? Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). He is rascal. He does not know. By finishing this body he is finished—no, that is not possible. The result is, because he violated the rules of nature, he becomes a ghost. That is his life. One who commits suicide, he becomes a ghost. Ghost means he does not get this material body. He remains in the subtle body, mind, intelligence. Therefore ghost can go because he is in the mind. Mind speed is very strong. If you have got this material body, you cannot go immediately hundred miles off. But if you are in the mental body, you can go immediately, thousand miles immediately, within a second. So the ghost, they can play something wonderful because... But they are not happy because they have no gross body. They want to enjoy. He's materialist. He has committed suicide for some material want. So he is want of material..., fulfilling material desire. He could not fulfill in this body; therefore commits suicide, but the desire is there. The desire is there, and he cannot fulfill it. He becomes perplexed. Therefore the ghost create disturbance sometimes.
Lecture on SB 3.26.34 -- Bombay, January 11, 1975:
The gross material scientists, scholars, because they cannot see with the eyes, they do not believe in, that there is soul and soul transmigrates from one body to another. Big, big scientists, big, big scholars, they do not believe. They think that life is nothing but a mixture of these material elements and at a time the vitality is finished; therefore everything is finished. But that is not the fact. The fact is the gross body is finished, but the subtle body, mind, intelligence, and ego—that remains with the soul. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). The... Just like in dream we do not work with this gross body, but we work in dream with mind, intelligence and ego. We create another atmosphere, and in dream we see or we place ourself in a different atmosphere, although the gross body is resting on the bed.
Lecture on SB 5.5.1 -- London, August 30, 1971:
The body may be destroyed, but the soul will continue to exist. This is the Vedic principle of knowledge. This is called spiritual knowledge. Spiritual knowledge does not mean anything else. To understand the spiritual, constitutional position of the living entity, that is called spiritual. And at the present moment, by constitution, my position is that I never die or I never take birth. But because I have accepted this material body, therefore I have to change. Vāsāṁsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya (BG 2.22). Just like we change our garments. I am putting on this garment. When it is old or not usable, I give it up. I accept another coat or shirt. Similarly, we have got coat and shirt over our position as soul. The shirt is the subtle body, mind, intelligence, and ego. And the gross coat is made of five elements: earth, water, fire, air, sky. In these two coverings, I, the soul, I am existing.
Lecture on SB 5.5.2 -- Johannesburg, October 22, 1975:
When this body is no more useful to continue, then by nature another body is offered. At the time of death, as it is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran loke tyajaty ante kalevaram, sadā tad-bhāva-bhāvitaḥ (BG 8.6)—we create a mental situation. We have got two kinds of bodies—subtle body and gross body. This gross body is made of five gross material elements: earth, water, fire, air, ether. And the subtle body is made of mind, intelligence and ego. When we sleep, the gross body does not work but the subtle body works. We dream therefore. So the... At the time of death this gross body is finished, but the subtle body, mind, intelligence and ego—will carry me to another gross body. It will enter into the womb of another mother, and she will create another similar body like the mother, and when it is complete, then it will come out.
Lecture on SB 6.1.1 -- Melbourne, May 21, 1975:
So we have to understand from authoritative literature. The subtle body is working, just like when you sleep your gross body is not working, but the subtle body, the mind, intelligence and ego is working; therefore you dream. Your subtle body is lying is some apartment, and you have gone to the seaside by the mental body. So, so long this gross body is able, you again come and enter into this gross body, but when it is not workable, then you have to find out another gross body in the womb of a certain type of mother. This is the law of transmigration of the soul.
Lecture on SB 6.1.17 -- Honolulu, May 17, 1976:
The summarization of our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, that the path followed by pure devotees. Pure devotees means who has no material desire. That is pure devotee. Anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyam (Brs. 1.1.11). Śūnya means zero, one who has made all material desires zero. That is the way. In the Buddha philosophy it is called nirvāṇa. Nirvāṇa means make zero, śūnyavādi. But we cannot remain in the śūnya. That is not possible. Śūnyavādī-nirvāṇa means to give up material desires. It is not possible to give up desires. That is not possible. To give up desires means I am dead body, a stone. If I have got life, if I am not a stone, there must be desires. Where is the living entity who has no desires? That is not possible. If we kill somebody to make him desireless, that "If you are killed, then there will be no more desire," no, the desire will continue in the subtle body. Even one is finished, this material body... Sometimes they commit suicide out of frustration, that "This desire is not fulfilled. Let me commit suicide." No. That is ignorance. Desires continue in the subtle body, mind, intelligence, and ego. And to fulfill the desire, Kṛṣṇa will give you another body. If we make a desire, it must be fulfilled and Kṛṣṇa will give you facilities. Bhrāmayan sarva-bhūtāni yantrārūḍhāni māyayā (BG 18.61). Desire is so strong. So how to make it zero? That is not possible. To make it zero means no more material desire. That is to make zero material desires.
Lecture on SB 6.1.20 -- Honolulu, May 20, 1976:
If we misuse this human form of life only like animals, eating, sleeping, sex and fearing, then we are spoiling our life. We must prepare next life. If we don't, then after death we have to go to the Yamarāja, and he will decide what kind of next body... Body will change. Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad... Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). After death you have to change the body. As you are changing from childhood to boyhood, boyhood to youthhood, similarly this old body, when it is no more usable, that means death. But the subtle body, mind, intelligence, that is... We have got proof. At night this body is silent, but your mind, intelligence and ego takes you somewhere. You dream that "I have come to here." Sometimes we dream, "I am flying in the sky," or gone to some forest or some friend's house or so many things. "I am talking with a beautiful girl or beautiful man." So this dream we every day see. So that means when this body stops, the gross body, the subtle body is there. Why don't you believe it? Unless the subtle body is working, how do you dream? The dreaming means subtle body is working.
Lecture on SB 7.6.1 -- Montreal, June 10, 1968:
Our duration of life may be for one hundred years. Out of that, fifty years we spoil by sleeping, because at night we sleep ten hours, twelve hours. There is 24 hours duration of day and night. So supposing that I sleep for 12 hours, day and night, then actually I live fifty years, because sleeping is death. That is also daily death. The sleeping... What is the different between death and sleeping? There is no difference. Just like at the present moment we are sleeping, say, for 12 hours or 8 hours or 10 hours and getting up in the next morning, and death means we shall sleep for seven months continually, and when we get up I see another body. That is birth and death. That is birth and death. Death means you give up this body. "You" means the soul. And you carry yourself with your subtle body, mind, intelligence and ego. According to your mental situation you enter into the womb of a mother injected by the semina of your father, you get an opportunity to grow another body.
Lecture on SB 7.9.6 -- Mayapur, February 26, 1977:
These materialistic persons, scientists, physicists and other speculator, they're dealing with these elements, material—earth, water, fire, air, ether, up to mind, psychology, or, little advanced, intelligence, but no more. They are dealing in their university, colleges, educational institution. They are concerned with these elements, material. They have no spiritual knowledge. Kṛṣṇa said... We get information from the Bhagavad-gītā, apareyam: "These eight elements, they are inferior." Therefore, because they are dealing with this inferior nature only, their knowledge is inferior. This is a fact. It is not that I am accusing. No. This is the... They have no information. Big, big professor, they say that this body finished... "Body finished" means pañcatva (?) prāpta. They do not know that there is another body, subtle body, mind, intelligence, ego. They do not know. They are thinking this earth, water, air, fire, ether, that much..., "This is finished, I see, either you burn the body or bury the body, finished, everything finished. And where is other thing?" So they have no knowledge. So they have no knowledge even of the subtle body, earth, water, which carries the soul, and what they'll know about the soul?
Nectar of Devotion Lectures
The Nectar of Devotion -- Bombay, December 28, 1972:
These bodies are five elements. Earth, air, water, air, fire, ether. The subtle body, mind, intelligence and ego. So in some planet the earthly portion may be major, the fire portion may be major. In some planet the ether portion may be major. But they're all material bodies. They're material bodies. They're not spiritual bodies. Spiritual body is within. Within the universe, anywhere you go, you get the material body, and according to the body, the duration of life is different. Just like a germ's body. That is also material body. And a human body. That is also material body. But a germ takes birth and dies within second or minute. We live for a hundred years. Both of them material bodies. Similarly Brahmā has got also material body. Those who are living in the moon planet, they are also material body. In the sun planet, they have got material... But different varieties.
General Lectures
Lecture at Christian Monastery -- Melbourne, April 6, 1972:
You can remember that you had a body of a child, you had a body of a boy, but that body of the child, body of the boy is no longer existing. You are in a different body, but you know that you are existing. That is the proof that after this body, you will have another body. This is the proof. There is no difficulty to understand. As I am still living in spite of my changing childhood body, babyhood body, boyhood body, youthhood body, so naturally it should be concluded when I give up this body... Actually, I don't give up. The body... There are two kinds of bodies. This is gross body made of the five elements: earth, water, fire air and... And there is subtle body, mind, intelligence and ego. Just like we have got shirt and coat. So when we give up this gross body, we are carried by the subtle body to another gross body. So I am not giving up. Actually, I am not giving up this body. I am giving up this... Just like sometimes you give up the coat, but your underwear remains, and you take another coat or..., similarly, my, the subtle body will remain with me so long I am not emancipated or liberated from material condition.
Rotary Club Lecture -- Hyderabad, November 29, 1972:
Just like we have got different types of body in this life. I was a child, I was a boy, I was a young man, I..., I was a something else. Now I have got this old body. So as I am existing after changing so many different phases of body, therefore the conclusion should be that after annihilation of this body, I shall exist, and, which is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā: na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). Nityaḥ śāśvato 'yaṁ na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre. After destruction of this body, actually we are not going to die. Our subtle body, mind, intelligence and ego—that is, that is working. As it, the subtle body, works during my sleeping position, similarly, this body may be, gross body may be annihilated, but my subtle body carries me to another gross body as I desire. Kṛṣṇa, or the Supreme Lord, is very kind. As we desire, He gives us opportunity. Any kind of body, any kind of enjoyment we want, He gives us the opportunity.
Lecture at Upsala University Faculty -- Stockholm, September 7, 1973:
He has got form; He's a person. He's not imperson. Because as soon as you speak of controller, it cannot be impersonal. Controller must be a person. He must have brain, He must have desire, He must have capacity to give orders. So many things. So therefore the Vedic information is the Supreme Absolute Truth is a person. He's not impersonal. The impersonal realization of God is realization of His different potencies. Just like this material world, this is the manifestation of one of the potencies of God. He has got many potencies. So all the many potencies have been grouped into three: the material potency, the spiritual potency, then the marginal potency, between the material and spiritual. The spiritual potency we can understand. Just like I am speaking. I am speaking means I am spiritual being. I am speaking. This material body is my covering, just like shirt and coat. So the... Now I'm existing. Somehow or other, I've been encaged in this material body, but I am spirit soul. That is spiritual potency. And as this material world is made of material ingredients, similarly, there is another world. That information you can get from Bhagavad-gītā. Paras tasmāt tu bhāvo 'nyo 'vyakto 'vyaktāt sanātanaḥ (BG 8.20). There is another nature, another manifestation of nature. That is spiritual. What is the distinction? The distinction is when this material world will be annihilated, that will remain. Just like I am spirit soul. When this body is annihilated, I am not annihilated. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). After the destruction of this body, the soul is not destroyed. Soul remains there in the subtle body, mind, intelligence and ego. So that mind, intelligence, ego, that carries him to another gross body. That is called transmigration of the soul.
Lecture at the Hare Krsna Festival at La Salle Pleyel -- Paris, June 14, 1974:
In the Bhagavad-gītā it is said, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre: (BG 2.20) "After the destruction of this body, I, the soul, I am not destroyed. I continue to live." The soul is eternal. That is described in the Bhagavad-gītā: nityaḥ śāśvato 'yaṁ na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). Eternal, very old, still, after the destruction of the body, the soul is never destroyed. Death means destruction of this outer, gross material body. Every day, every night we have got experience: the body lies down on the bed, but with my subtle body, mind, intelligence and ego—I dream and I go somewhere else from my bedroom. So this is going on daily in our experience, that I leave this gross body, I take my subtle body, and I do something else, although my body is here. The conclusion is therefore that I, the soul, am changing my body from the gross to the subtle, from the subtle to the gross.
Public Speech -- Bad Homburg, Germany, June 22, 1974:
When the body is annihilated, the soul and consciousness is not annihilated. Just like when we sleep our consciousness works in a different body, subtle body, mind, intelligence and ego. That we have got experience every night. We sleep on our bed, but my consciousness goes to other country or other place and work in a different way. Again when at the end of the dream, we come back to this body, gross body. So death means when the consciousness does not come back again to this gross body and enters another gross body. This period is called death.
Philosophy Discussions
Philosophy Discussion on William James:
Śyāmasundara: He says that the mind is not dependent upon the existence of the body; therefore the mind may survive the body...
Prabhupāda: That is fact. That, that we say. The gross body, when it is finished, the subtle body—mind, intelligence, ego-remains. That carries me to another gross body. Just like the example is, there is a flavor. You cannot see, but it is carried by the air. If it is coming from the rose garden, you say, "Oh, very nice flavor." You cannot see it, but it is carried by the subtle air. Similarly, I, the spirit soul, when I give up this gross body, then I am carried. I have got body still. That is subtle body—mind, intelligence, and ego. And according to my desire, that subtle body grows into another gross body.
Śyāmasundara: So the mind and the intelligence, they are not material? That means...
Prabhupāda: Material. Subtle.
Śyāmasundara: But they don't die? They die also? The mind...
Prabhupāda: No. Dies and it disappears. Disappear... When you are liberated, then you have no more material mind.
Philosophy Discussion on Arthur Schopenhauer:
Prabhupāda: You desire or you not desire, that is because you, foolishly, you do not know that you have to live, desire or not desire, because you are eternal. You have to live. But if you don't live in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then you will have to live in abominable condition like cats, hogs, dogs, trees, like that. We have to live. The modern civilization, they do not know that. The tree is also living, I am also living. So why these two different conditions are there? I am living, we are living, every one of us is living eternally, but according to our karma, according to our work, fruitive activities, we are getting different bodies. But we have to live. There is no question of not living.
Śyāmasundara: No, but there's a will...
Prabhupāda: Just like rascal, one who does not know, he commits suicide. He thinks that "If I commit suicide, then everything is finished." That is his ignorance. He is going to get another abominable body. Ghost. He becomes a ghost, so that he suffers more. A ghost means he has got subtle body, mental body, mind, intelligence and everything is there. Mind is there, intelligence, ego is there, but no gross body, so he cannot enjoy. That is ghostly life.
Philosophy Discussion on Carl Gustav Jung:
Prabhupāda: Just as Bhārata Mahārāja, he changed so many bodies but the consciousness continued. He remained in full understanding of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So this is clear, but on account of, I mean to say, dull brain they cannot understand. Here is the reason, that you do not see mind. You have not seen. So Mr. John you see daily, but we don't see Mr. John's intelligence. We can perceive that this man is intelligent, but you have not seen what is intelligent. When he talks, you understand, you perceive, that he has got intelligence. So this gross body, when it is no more talking, so why that intelligence will be finished? This is common sense. When a man talks we say he is intelligent man, but we do not see what is intelligent. So the talking instrument is this body. So this body is finished, gross body is finished, does it mean that his consciousness, intelligence finished? No. That continues. Just like you dream. This body is not working—this is practical—but his consciousness is working, his mind is working. So similarly, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). After the destruction of this gross body, the mind, intelligence continues, and because to work the mind and intelligence he requires a body, so he develops body. That is transmigration of the soul. It is very clear to understand.
Philosophy Discussion on Plato:
Hayagrīva: Plato believes that at death there is an end of the sensory life of the individual—his thoughts, his perceptions and experiences—and the individual then returns to the ideal world from which he came.
Prabhupāda: That means he believes in eternity. This loss of senses, that is we also accept that there are three stages: jāgrati, awakening, and sleeping and deep sleeping. So deep sleeping means unconsciousness. So when a man dies from awakening state, he enters into the dreaming state and then enters into the deep sleeping state. So transmigration of the soul means he gives up this gross body, and the subtle body, mind, intelligence carries him to the another body, and in another body, unless the body is prepared properly, he lives in deep sleep. And when the body is prepared at seven months for human being, then he comes to consciousness. He feels, "Oh, why I am put into this packed-up status." If he is pious he feels very uncomfortable. He prays to God—these things are described—that "Kindly excuse me from this awkward position. Now this time I shall become a devotee." This is position. The soul is immortal, but still he enters into different stages of life.
Philosophy Discussion on St. Augustine:
Hayagrīva: This, this is the last point. It's actually very crucial. For Augustine, the mind, reason and soul are one and the same, and he writes...
Prabhupāda: Mind, reason?
Hayagrīva: Mind, reason and the soul are all wrapped up together.
Prabhupāda: Wrapped up. But there are different identities. Intelligence... Everyone has got mind, but the mind acts under intelligence. But the intelligence of different living entities are different. Similarly mind is also different. A dog's intelligence is not equal to the intelligence of the human being. A dog's mind is not equal to the human being's mind. So actually the soul, being put under different types of body using different types of intelligence, and different some mental, psychic action, thinking, feeling, willing. So according to the body, the mind and intelligence are different.
Conversations and Morning Walks
1971 Conversations and Morning Walks
Room Conversation with Dr. Weir of the Mensa Society -- September 5, 1971, London:
Dr. Weir: Indeed, I think that would be very... and also it would be very interesting if you would care to take our test.
Śyāmasundara: Test?
Dr. Weir: Yes. The entrance qualification.
Śyāmasundara: (laughs) What kind of questions? Is it scientific?
Dr. Weir: No. Just simple intelligence, that's all.
Mensa Member: (indistinct) an I.Q. test.
Dr. Weir: ...that's all. Call it test, but it's something, we've got nothing better at the moment.
Prabhupāda: We think our activities above intelligence. Spiritual. Spiritual.
Dr. Weir: That's quite different.
Prabhupāda: Because above the mind, above the body there is mind; above the mind there is intelligence; and above the intelligence there is soul; and above the soul there is God. So we are talking of relationship between God and the soul. It is above body, mind and intelligence.
Room Conversation with Dr. Weir of the Mensa Society -- September 5, 1971, London:
Prabhupāda: Because we take from God there is no mistake. There's no mistake. Otherwise He cannot be God.
Dr. Weir: I mean this is just unnecessary. It is just tautological. This is in your definition of God. You don't have to go any farther.
Prabhupāda: But God means He's above mistake,
Dr. Weir: Yes.
Prabhupāda: ...above the illusion, above cheating, above imperfection. This is God.
Śyāmasundara: There's a central premise that everything is simultaneously one and different. Just like flowers—there are many flowers, roses, but within the flowers there is variety.
Mensa Member: But still it raises the danger of another (indistinct), it really does. This is a very (indistinct) you're trying to make but it's impossible to talk about physics in the language of chemistry. It's impossible, so when...
Śyāmasundara: So when he says there's a gradation, that we see gradation, that the soul is higher than the body, this is also (indistinct)
Prabhupāda: Soul is higher than the body, mind, and intelligence.
1972 Conversations and Morning Walks
Interview -- July 5, 1972, New York:
Prabhupāda: It is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, sarva-yoniṣu kaunteya sambhavanti mūrtayaḥ: (BG 14.4) in every species of life, whatever forms are there. And besides that, we take this body as dress. Just like your white shirt is not you. You are different from the white shirt. Similarly, one may have a body white or black, but he, as spirit soul, is different from the body. We are taking account of the person who is possessing the dress—not the dress, but the person. Just like I am talking with you, I am not talking with your shirt. I don't look to your shirt, whether you have put on a white shirt or black shirt. That is not my concern. I am concerned with you as a living being. This is our philosophy. We don't take account of the outward shirt and coat. This body, this gross body is just like coat, and within this gross body there is subtle body—mind, intelligence and ego. Within the subtle body, the spirit soul is there, and we are trying to deliver the spirit soul from these two kinds of entanglement, subtle and gross. That is our aim. The national movement or religious movement, that is more or less on the basis of the outward dress. One is Christian because he is born by a Christian father. Is it not? One is American because he is born on the land of America. We say that you are neither Christian nor American, Hindu, Muslim or Indian. You are servant of God eternally. Try to understand this fact, and make your life in that way. Then your life is successful. This is all. Simple. Now what is your comment on this statement?
1973 Conversations and Morning Walks
Room Conversation with Lord Brockway -- July 23, 1973, London:
Prabhupāda: We become separated from the physical body, but we remain in the astral body, or subtle body, mind, intelligence... mind, intelligence and ego. That mind, material mind, material intelligence, you give up when you actually remain in your spiritual body.
1974 Conversations and Morning Walks
Morning Walk -- April 12, 1974, Bombay:
Indian man (1): I have heard lots of ghost stories, but...
Prabhupāda: No, no, it is not stories. We are hearing from Bhāgavata. It is authority. We are not hearing the stories of a third-class man. We are hearing from Vyāsadeva. Vyāsadeva...
Indian man (1): But you see, up till now, in my long life of eighty years...
Prabhupāda: No, no, you have not so many experiences. That does not mean these things does not exist. Your experience is not all in all. Don't think like that. So these are existing actually. That is the defect, that you do not accept the authorities. That is the defect. Here Vyāsadeva is describing, who is called Vedavyāsa, full of all knowledge, and Bhāgavata is a mature experience. We are hearing from him. Why you should not believe? I may not have experience. This ghost means the living entity is subtle life without any material body. That is ghost. When one is very sinful, he does not get the material body. He lives in the subtle body: mind, intelligence and ego. That is ghostly life. And they display. Because they have no body, one cannot see, but they display so many mischiefs. That is ghostly life. (break) Seeing or not seeing doesn't matter. Therefore it is enjoined in the Vedānta-sūtra, śāstra cakṣuṣā.
1975 Conversations and Morning Walks
Room Conversation -- February 15, 1975, Mexico:
Prabhupāda: First of all, this, this gross body made of five material elements—earth, water, air, fire, like that. This we can see with our eyes, but we cannot see the mind, intelligence and ego. Although everyone knows there is mind, there is intelligence. So when this body is annihilated, the subtle body, mind, intelligence, ego-carries the soul to another gross body. This is the process of transmigration of the soul.
Room Coversation with Psychiatrist and Indian Boy -- May 12, 1975, Perth:
Devotee: Śrīla Prabhupāda, does the soul, the ghost, enter into the other man's body? The soul is occupying one body, and the ghost, as another soul, does he enter that body? There's two souls in the one body?
Prabhupāda: Not exactly enters, but he catches the body. But because the ghost has no gross body—he has got his subtle body, mind, intelligence, and ego—you cannot see him, how he has attacked that body. You cannot see the body of mind, intelligence. You know I have got my mind; I know you have got your mind. But you do not see my mind; I do not see your mind. So ghost is within the subtle body: mind, intelligence, and ego. So with that subtle body, he attacks the man, but you cannot see. He does not enter into him. The enter is the soul within the body. Therefore sometimes ghost is walking in the room. We cannot see. But he takes away something. We see that the thing is going away. (laughter) Because you cannot see his gross body. And because he hasn't got gross body, he can move very swiftly. Now he is here; he can go ten miles away immediately. But there is ghost. And they attack specially woman.
Paramahaṁsa: Is that because the women are weaker?
Prabhupāda: No. Woman is attractive for any man, even in ghostly life. The other day, who was telling that a big poet of India, he said that "God's most wonderful creation is woman's body"?
Room Conversation with Two Lawyers and Guest -- May 22, 1975, Melbourne:
Prabhupāda: Anyone who is God conscious, a devotee, he has got all the good qualities. What we consider as good qualities, he has got. And similarly, one who is not a devotee of God, he has no good qualities because he will hover on the mental platform. There are different platform: bodily concept of life, general, "I am this body. Therefore my business is to satisfy the senses." This is bodily concept of life. And others, they are thinking, "I am not this body. I am mind." So they are going on mental speculation like philosophers, thoughtful men. And above that, there is intelligent class of men, practicing some yoga. And spiritual platform means above that. First bodily concept, gross, then mental, then intellectual, then spiritual. So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is on the spiritual platform, above body, mind and intelligence. But actually, we should come to that platform. Because we are spirit soul, we are neither this body nor this mind nor this intelligence.
1976 Conversations and Morning Walks
Radio Interview -- July 27, 1976, London:
Prabhupāda: The process is that the spirit soul is invisible in our material eyes, very small. So after the destruction of this gross body, there is another body, subtle body—mind, intelligence and ego. So at the time of death, when finishing this body, mind works. So, according to that process, the mind carries the small spirit soul to another body. Just like the air carries the flavor. Nobody can see wherefrom this rose flavor is coming, but it is being carried by the air, very subtle. You cannot see, but it is being done. Similarly, the soul is very subtle. It is being carried by the mind. According to the mind, he enters into the womb of another mother through the semina of the father, and then he develops a particular type of body given by the mother. It may be human being, it may be cat, dog or anything.
1977 Conversations and Morning Walks
Room Conversation with Adi-kesava Swami -- February 19, 1977, Mayapura:
Prabhupāda: Why shall I die? The rascals, they agree to die. We do not agree to die. We want to come to our original position, no more death. This is our motto, because we get information from the Bhagavad-gītā, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). I do not die on account of my material body mixed up... "Dust thou art; dust thou beist." This body is made of five elements: earth, water, air, fire, ether. And this is my gross body. The gross body is finished, but my mental, subtle body—mind, intelligence—that is not yet finished. That is carrying me to another body. Just like we have got practical experience. I am sitting here, you are sitting here. Mind carries me to New York, and I am now dreaming or thinking I am sitting in that room and talking with somebody. I have forgotten this, but... It is practical. Although I am sitting here, I have forgotten it, and I am working, thinking myself that I am in New York. Similarly, in dream my body is on the bed. I am thinking I am on the Himalayan top. So as it is possible even in this body, similarly, I get another body, gross body. Then I forget this body. This is transmigration.
Correspondence
1968 Correspondence
Letter to Cidananda -- Montreal 12 July, 1968:
Regarding some of your questions: Your question was, "I understand that we are not this body, mind, intelligence or ego, but are pure consciousness or pure spirit soul. This consciousness has been polluted by association with matter. By association with Krishna this consciousness will be purified. This consciousness is all throughout our body giving us the power to think, will, and feel, but how is consciousness interrelated with matter? Is consciousness like mist that hangs around a mountain? How do matter and spirit connect and how do they work together? I hope you understand my question. And what exactly takes place when consciousness becomes purified?" A living entity has constitutionally mind, intelligence, and ego, but they are contaminated in contact with matter. At the present moment, our ego is working under some designation. Somebody is thinking that he is an American or Indian, and other is thinking that he is Brahmacari or Householder. This sort of ego is material but when one is firmly convinced that he does not belong to any material designation, but, his pure identification is eternal servitorship of Krishna—in Vedic language it is called, aham brahmasmi. That means I am spirit soul. The Mayavada philosophers on account of their negligence to serve Krishna, may sometimes come to this understanding of Aham Brahma asmi, but they again fall down to the material platform on account of such negligence. Therefore, this chanting process is being constantly in Krishna Consciousness, there is no such fear of falling down of the devotees.
1969 Correspondence
Letter to Vrndavanesvari -- New Vrindaban 25 May, 1969:
We are working neither on the sensual platform, nor on the mental platform, nor on the intellectual platform. We are working completely on the spiritual platform. The concept of European, American, or Indian is based on the bodily platform. So long one is under the impression that he is this body, he cannot make much progress in this movement. Lord Caitanya says that factually all living entities are the servants of Krishna. This servitorship cannot be rendered from the material platform, because Krishna is not matter. He is Sat-Cit-Ananda Vigraha. Anyone trying to serve Krishna from the material platform of body, mind and intelligence cannot appreciate this fact. One has to become free from the contamination of matter, represented in gross and subtle forms as body, mind, intelligence and ego. Until then, one is not a pure devotee.
| Page Title: | Body, mind and intelligence |
| Compiler: | Madhavananda, Labangalatika, MadhuGopaldas |
| Created: | 31 of Oct, 2008 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=2, SB=9, CC=2, OB=0, Lec=42, Con=11, Let=2 |
| No. of Quotes: | 68 |