Category:Srimad-Bhagavatam, Canto 03 Chapter 05 Purports - Vidura's Talks with Maitreya
Pages in category "Srimad-Bhagavatam, Canto 03 Chapter 05 Purports - Vidura's Talks with Maitreya"
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A
- A civilized man is expected to give all protection to the bulls and cows
- A civilized man is expected to live on foodstuffs comprising fruits, vegetables, grains, sugar and milk
- A civilized man must be twice-born, otherwise he is no more than the lower animals
- A common man cannot understand the Lord. He must first know the real position of his life under the influence of the illusory energy
- A devotee of the Lord becomes an elevated dhira by the simple process of meditating in eagerness on the lotus feet of the Lord
- A devotee of the Lord is never controlled by such deputed demigods, who function as assistants of the Lord, but he shows them all respects on account of the responsible positions to which they have been appointed by the Lord
- A human being is born due to union of the father and mother, but a civilized human being has another birth by contact with a spiritual master, who becomes the actual father
- A human being is inclined to hear good narrations and stories, and therefore there are so many books, magazines and newspapers on the market to satisfy the interests of the developed soul
- A hunter in the forest, although a great sinner, was not an intentional offender. He was at once influenced by the presence of Narada, and he agreed to take the path of devotion, leaving aside his hearth and home
- 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
- A person who has no God consciousness may live in opulence for the time being due to his past virtuous acts, but if one forgets his relationship with the Lord, certainly he must await the stage of starvation by the law of the powerful material nature
- A pure living entity in his original spiritual existence is fully conscious of his constitutional position as an eternal servitor of the Lord
- Above them (those who are in the modes of ignorance and passion) are those who are in the mode of goodness
- According to his status of work, a living entity is placed in a particular father's semen, and because Vidura was not an ordinary living entity, he was given the chance to be born from the semen of Vyasa
- According to the modes of material nature, there are three kinds of relationships between human beings and the Supreme Personality of Godhead
- According to this class of men, who are situated in pure devotional service to the Lord, the highest goal of human life is purusartha, devotional service to the Lord, the real mission of life
- After the air is created, interaction of sky and air, touched by time and the external energy of the Lord, produces electricity
- After the interaction of electricity with air and sky, mixed with time, external energy and the Lord's glance over them, the water is produced
- All fruitive activity, empirical philosophy and mysticism are more or less against the sense of subordination to the Lord
- All gradations of living entities are manifested by Brahma and the external energy, but the Lord is the original father of everyone. The relationship of every living being with the Supreme Lord is certainly one of son and father and not one of equality
- All living entities are differentiated parts and parcels of the Personality of Godhead. Under the pressure of false ego, the conditioned souls, although parts and parcels of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, claim to be the enjoyers of material nature
- All material creations take place from subtle to gross. The entire universe has developed in that manner
- All other gross matter also developed from subtle to gross: sound developed into sky, touch developed into air, form developed into fire, taste developed into water, and smell developed into earth
- All recollections, knowledge, etc., as well as all forgetfulness, are engineered by the Lord, who is sitting within the heart of everyone
- All souls who are situated in such pure consciousness are liberated, and they eternally live in bliss and knowledge in the various Vaikuntha planets in the spiritual sky. When the material creation is manifested, it is not meant for them
- All such plans for living conditions are made by the Supreme Lord, and Vidura requested Maitreya to describe this for the sake of further enlightenment
- All the expansions - the visnu-tattvas, the jiva-tattvas and the sakti-tattvas (the Personalities of Godhead, the living entities and the different potential energies) - are different offshoots from the same one Supreme Lord
- All the potencies of God are there when one reads Bhagavad-gita, provided it is read in the way recommended in the Gita by the Lord Himself
- All these persons are given the chance to play with false egoistic ideas, at the same time God is kind enough to give them a chance to take help from scriptures like BG and SB so that they may understand the Krsna's science & make their lives successful
- All three of these deities (Visnu, Brahma, Siva) are incarnations of the Supreme Lord Krsna because He is the original Supreme Personality of Godhead. The demigods directly refer to the lotus feet of the Supreme Lord and not to the different incarnations
- All transcendentalists other than devotees make no distinction between the individual soul and the Supersoul because they miscalculate the Superconsciousness and the individual consciousness to be one and the same
- All Vedic knowledge is meant for understanding the Supreme Lord, as stated by the Lord in Bhagavad-gita (BG 15.15): vedais ca sarvair aham eva vedyah
- Although the creation of the internal potency was manifested, the other potency appeared to be sleeping, and the Lord wanted to awaken her to activity, just as a husband wants to awaken his wife from the sleeping state for enjoyment
- Although the spiritual existence was there with the Lord, the material existence was dormant in Him. By His will only is the material manifestation done and undone
- Although their (jnanis' and yogis') destination is not so important in comparison to the destination of the devotees, the labor of the nondevotees is far greater than that of the bhaktas
- Although they are different mixtures of different materials (sky, air, electricity, water and earth), such mixtures do not take place automatically, just as a mixture of colors does not take place automatically without the touch of the living painter
- Although they are incarnations of the Lord, Lord Brahma and Lord Siva worship Lord Visnu, and thus they are also counted amongst the demigods and not as the Supreme Personality of Godhead
- Although they have no access to the Srimad-Bhagavatam, the followers of the Mayavada (impersonalist) school sometimes screw out an imaginary explanation of the original four verses, but we must accept the actual explanation given herein by Maitreya Muni
- Any conditioned soul may also engage in the service of the Lord under the guidance of an expert spiritual master and thus gradually become freed from the entanglement of material existence
- Any living entity engaged in rebellious activity is more or less condemned by the laws of material nature, which work under the subordination of the Lord
- Any living entity who desires a position in the material world may desire so in the service of the Lord and may seek power and intelligence from the Lord, as exemplified by the demigods
- Anyone who misunderstands this perishable body to be the self and who works for it in the name of sociology, politics, philanthropy, altruism, nationalism or internationalism, under the false plea of the bodily conception of life, is certainly a fool
- Anyone who places the Lord and the demigods on the same level is called a pasandi, or atheist
- Anyone, who is absorbed in the devotional service of the Lord is a liberated soul and has all admirable qualities
- As a matter of gratitude, they (human beings) should feel obliged to the Lord for their supply of foodstuff, and they must first offer Him food in sacrifice and then partake of the remnants
- As already explained in the First Canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam, the Absolute Truth is realized in three different phases - although they are one and the same - in terms of the knower's capacity to understand
- As explained in Bhagavad-gita (BG 9.7), the material creation takes place at intervals by the will of the Lord, and in the periods between dissolution and creation, the living entities and the material energy remain dormant in Him
- As fire is never satisfied in its consumption of firewood, so a pure devotee of the Lord never hears enough about Krsna
- As in the individual body the consciousness is the source of all energies of the body, so the supreme consciousness of the Lord is the source of all energies in material nature
- As long as there is mundane activity and the mind is absorbed in such engagement, one has to undergo the repetition of birth and death in the current material nescience
- As some of the old prisoners in government jails are entrusted with some responsible work of prison management, so the demigods are improved conditioned souls acting as representatives of the Lord in the material creation
- As the appointed controller after death, Yamaraja once tried Mandavya Muni for his childhood profligacy and ordered him to be pierced with a lance. Mandavya, being angry at Yamaraja for awarding him undue punishment, cursed him to become a sudra
- At the same time, a devotee of the Lord does not foolishly mistake them (the demigods) to be the Supreme Lord. Only foolish persons accept the demigods as being on the same level as Visnu; actually they are all appointed as servants of Visnu
B
- Because of their poor fund of knowledge, the materialists are disturbed when there is an apparent increase of population on the earth. Whenever there is a living being on the earth, however, his subsistence is immediately arranged by the Lord
- Because there were insufficient topics directly concerning Krsna in the Puranas, Mahabharata, etc., he (Vidura) was not satisfied and wanted to know more about Krsna
- Before the creation there were no Karanarnavasayi or Garbhodakasayi or Ksirodakasayi Visnus, or was there Brahma nor Sankara. The Visnu plenary expansion and the living entities beginning from Brahma are separated parts and parcels
- Before the creation, there was only the Personality of Godhead; there were no purusa incarnations and certainly no living entities, nor was there the material energy, by which the manifested creation is effected
- Beginning from the sky, the first material manifestation to the gross vision, down to the earth, everything is called Brahman. Sarvam khalv idam brahma: "There is nothing but the Lord, and He is one without a second
- Bhagavad-gita, being spoken by the Lord, is as good as the Lord Himself. When a sincere devotee reads Bhagavad-gita, this is as good as seeing the Lord face to face in his personal presence, but this is not so for the mundane wrangler
- Bhagavad-gita, which is direct krsna-katha, gives humanity the elementary lesson that the body is perishable and that the consciousness which is spread throughout the body is imperishable
- Birth, maintenance and death are three conditional states of the living entities who are within the material world
- By devotional service only does one's heart become completely purified from all material coverings like karma, jnana and yoga
- By such an attempt (by hearing about God in all submission and love from a bona fide authority) only can one conquer the illusory energy of the Lord, although for others she is unsurpassable, as confirmed in Bhagavad-gita
D
- Demigods are always ready to render service to the Supreme Lord because they are perfectly aware of the fact that every living entity is constitutionally an eternal subordinate servitor of the Lord
- Demigods are devotees of the Lord in the material world, and when completely free from all material desire to lord it over the material energy they become pure devotees and have no desire but to serve the Lord
- Demigods like Yamaraja and other controllers are there for the unwanted conditioned souls who always engage in threatening the tranquillity of the kingdom of God
- Developed consciousness begins from the human form of life and further increases in the forms of the demigods living in higher planets
- Devotees worship the Supreme Lord to attain unalloyed devotion to the Lord. The Lord is not worshiped by others, who have no program for attaining love of God, which is the essential aim of human life
- Devotional service entails being initiated by a bona fide spiritual master and following his instruction in regard to hearing about the Lord. Such a bona fide spiritual master is accepted by regularly hearing from him about the Lord
- Different creatures are also under the same influence, and therefore they cannot act concertedly in satisfying the Lord. Because of this diverse activity, there cannot be any harmony in the material world
- Due to misuse of this independence some of the living entities have become implicated in the conditions of cosmic creation and are therefore called nitya-baddhas, or eternally conditioned souls
E
- Each and every part of His transcendental body can perform each and every function of the other parts
- Empiric philosophical speculation cannot give one relief from the threefold miseries of material existence. Simply to endeavor for knowledge without devoting oneself to the Lord is a waste of valuable time
- Empowered representatives (of God) are called saktyavesa-avataras, or incarnations invested with transcendental power of attorney
- Engaged in external activities, they (offenders) kill the internal vision
- Even a person perpetually condemned to the miseries of material existence can get relief from bondage if he simply agrees to hear only krsna-katha
- Even Sripada Sankaracarya recommends that a little knowledge in Bhagavad-gita and the drinking of a little quantity of Ganges water can save one from the punishment of Yamaraja
- Every living being is under the plan of his natural inclinations in terms of the modes of material nature
- Every living entity, however great he may be, even up to demigods like Brahma and Indra, is an eternally subordinate servitor of the supreme father
- Everyone tries to become happy by planning in the material world, but the law of nature is so cruel that it sets fire to one's schemes; the fruitive worker is not happy in his schemes, nor is there any satiation of his continuous hankering for happiness
F
- False ego interacting with the different modes of material nature is the source of all materials in the phenomenal world
- False ego is the binding force of material existence. The Lord again and again gives a chance to the bewildered conditioned souls to get free from this false ego, and that is why the material creation takes place at intervals
- Family affection is an illusory manifestation of the external energy, and it is the only impetus for all mundane activities
- Famine is not due to an increase in population, as less intelligent economists think. When human society is grateful to the Lord for all His gifts for the maintenance of the living entities, then there is certainly no scarcity or want in society
- For such a devotee (a pure devotee) there is no such thing as material existence, and the much advertised bliss of brahmananda is like a fig for the devotee who is in the midst of the transcendental ocean of bliss
- For the creation, maintenance and dissolution of the cosmic manifestations there are three incarnations: Brahma Visnu and Mahesvara (Siva). They are the controllers or masters of the three modes of material nature which cause the phenomenal manifestation
- For the pure devotees like Vidura, the topics of both the mundaners and the mental speculators are useless in all respects. Thus Vidura requested Maitreya to talk of the essence only, the talks of Krsna, and nothing else
- For them (pure devotees of God), hearing of the topics of Krsna is equal to meeting with Him face to face
- From the descriptions of the physical elements in the above verses (SB 3.5.36) it is clear that in all stages the glance of the Supreme is needed with the other additions and alterations
- From the sky developed the touch sensation, which is a mixture of eternal time, the external energy and the glance of the Personality of Godhead. The touch sensation developed into the air in the sky
G
- God incarnates in different forms, such as those of a fish, a tortoise, a hog, a combined lion and man, just to give protection to civilized man, the cow & the demigods, who are directly responsible for the regulative life of progressive self-realization
- God offers the conditioned soul a material body for his so-called enjoyment, but if one does not come to his senses and enter into spiritual consciousness, God again puts him in the unmanifested condition as it existed in the beginning of the creation
- Great unalloyed devotees of the Lord are compassionate towards the fallen, and therefore they travel all over the world with the mission of bringing souls back to Godhead, back to home
H
- He (a person) attempts to act fruitively for personal gain or sense gratification, after attempting fruitive activities for a considerable time, when he is frustrated he becomes a philosophical speculator and thinks himself to be on the same level as God
- He (God) can so exist because He is all-perfect and omnipotent. Everything other than Him, including His plenary expansions, the visnu-tattvas, is His part and parcel
- He (God) gives the conditioned souls all facilities for rectifying the activities of the false ego, but He does not interfere with their small independence as parts and parcels of the Lord
- He (God) is also the companion of every living entity as the Supersoul, but He is unchanged
- He (God) is ever infallible, whereas the living entities are prone to fall under the illusory energy
- He (Maitreya Muni), along with Uddhava, personally heard it (Srimad-Bhagavatam) directly from the Lord
- He (Maitreya) appreciated the valuable inquiries of Vidura and thus thanked him with great honor
- He (Vidura) wanted to hear about Him (Krnsa) in His purusa incarnations, which He manifests with full potencies for the creation and maintenance of the cosmic world. The activities of the purusa incarnations are but an extension of the activities of God
- He (Yamaraja) is surely among the most confidential representatives of the Lord. Such confidential posts are offered to great devotees of the Lord who are as good as His eternal associates in the spiritual sky
- Here (SB 3.5.23) aham is explained as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, not the individual living entities
- His (Narayana's) work is manifested in terms of the nature of the three modes, his form and bodily features are designed according to his work, and his name is designated according to his bodily features
- His (one's who is conditioned by material existence) happiness is nothing but a hard struggle to get free from the miseries of conditional life
- Historical events and other narrations concerning social and political incidents all become transcendental as soon as they are in relationship with Krsna. That is the way to transform mundane things into spiritual identity
- Human beings are provided with food grains, vegetables, fruits and milk by the grace of the Lord, but it is the duty of human beings to acknowledge the mercy of the Lord
- Human beings, animals, birds, etc., are also parts and parcels of the Lord and have different material bodies, but they are not the controlling deities of material affairs
I
- I am the master, and I am God. Who else is there but me?" All these ideas reflect the philosophy of aham mama, the conception that "I am everything
- If there is any scarcity in the world, it is the scarcity of God consciousness, otherwise, by the grace of the Lord, there is no scarcity of anything
- If they (the devotees or the demigods) want to eat like ordinary animals, who have no God consciousness, then they must live in starvation, poverty and want, like the jungle animals in the forest
- Impious acts lead one to become poor by parentage, to be always in want, to become a fool or illiterate and to acquire ugly bodily features
- In Bhagavad-gita we find it said by the Lord that the living entities are sarva-gata, or present in every sphere of life
- In both cases there is nothing for them to say of God. Both the nonbelievers and the impersonalists deny the essence of all topics; they engage in topics of relativity in various ways, either in sense gratification or in mental speculation
- In due course of time, the impregnated material energy was manifested first as the total material ingredients. Everything takes its own time to fructify, and the word kala-coditat, "influenced by time," is used herein - in SB 3.5.27
- In every transformation, the last finishing touch is the glance of the Lord, who acts as a painter does when he mixes different colors to transform them into a particular color. When one element mixes with another, the number of its qualities increases
- In illusion one thinks that he can be happy only by fruitive activities, but what actually happens is that one becomes more and more entangled in the network of action and reaction and does not find any solution to the problem of life
- In India there are five sacred rivers, but the Ganges is the most sacred. The River Ganges and Bhagavad-gita are chief sources of transcendental happiness for mankind, and intelligent persons can take shelter of them to go back home, back to Godhead
- In spite of his strenuous efforts to attain perfect knowledge, the impersonalist attains merging into the impersonal oneness of the brahmajyoti of the Lord, which is also attained by the enemies of the Lord simply because of their being killed by Him
- In spite of Vidura's birth from the womb of a kept wife, because he had otherwise high parentage and great connection he inherited the highest talent of becoming a great devotee of the Lord
- In terms of a labor of love and its returns, the bhaktas, or devotees of the Lord, always have priority over persons who are addicted to the association of jnanis, or impersonalists, and yogis, or mystics
- In the course of such mundane happiness can (less intelligent class of men reading Mahabharata) also take advantage of Bhagavad-gita, the preliminary study of Srimad-Bhagavatam or the Vedanta-sutra
- In the family combination of a man and a woman there is much labor and responsibility for both of them, yet when they are single they feel more trouble for want of their united activities
- In the final stage of sky there is one quality, namely sound; in the air two qualities, sound and touch; in the electricity three qualities, namely sound, touch and form; in the water four qualities, sound, touch, form and taste
- In the last stage of physical development the result is earth, which has all five qualities - sound, touch, form, taste and smell
- In the Vedic hymns it is said, etasmad atmanah akasah sambhutah. The sky is the symbolic representation of the Supreme Soul
- In this age of Kali, the process of hearing krsna-katha is the most effective means to gain release from unwanted family affection and thus find permanent freedom in life
- Intelligent persons, who are like swans, take shelter of the Lord by all means and do not hover on the mental plane by fruitlessly speculating on different philosophies
- It is (false ego) manifested in three modes of material nature, and it exists in mental speculation only
- It is learned from various scriptures that the demigods approach Lord Visnu in the ocean of milk and submit their grievances whenever there is some difficulty in the administration of universal affairs
- It is only human society that is disturbed about the food situation and, to cover up the real fact of administrative mismanagement, takes shelter in the plea that the population is excessively increasing
- It is the compassion of the Lord for the sleeping energy that He wants to see her awaken for enjoyment like the other wives who are awake
K
- Knowledge must be followed by detachment. That is the way of self-realization. These two essentials for self-realization - knowledge and detachment - become manifest very quickly if one performs devotional service to the lotus feet of the Lord
- Krsna-katha is so powerful that simply by entering into a person's ear it can at once give deliverance from the bondage of family affection
- Krsna-katha is the only remedy for all people of the world because it can situate one in pure consciousness of the self and liberate one from material bondage
- Krsna-katha, or topics regarding Krsna, are transcendental, and there is no satiation in hearing such topics. Bhagavad-gita is important on account of its being krsna-katha, or speeches delivered by Lord Krsna
L
- Less intelligent men cannot understand the purpose of Vedanta-sutra, although they may make a show of studying the sutras in a perverted way
- Lord Caitanya advised all His disciples to preach krsna-katha all over the world without discrimination because the transcendental value of krsna-katha can purify one and all from material contamination
- Lord Krsna is the chief King of all kings, and He has created different planets for all kinds of living entities. Even on this planet there are different places for inhabitation by different types of men
- Lord Krsna is the original Personality of Godhead from whom the three creative incarnations, namely the purusa-avataras - Karanarnavasayi Visnu, Garbhodakasayi Visnu and Ksirodakasayi Visnu - expand
- Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu strongly recommended this process of hearing from a bona fide devotee, and by following this process one can achieve the highest result, conquering all other methods
M
- Mahabharata is the history of the Battle of Kuruksetra, and common people read it because it is full of topics regarding the social, political and economic problems of human society
- Maitreya Muni, who was experienced in the science of Transcendence, could understand that Vidura's mind was fully absorbed in Transcendence. Adhoksaja means that which transcends the limits of sense perception or sensuous experience
- Mandavya Muni was a great sage and Vidura was formerly the controller Yamaraja, who takes charge of the living entities after death
- Materialistic men with a little eagerness for hearing about the transcendental name, fame, qualities, etc., can surpass all other methods of attaining knowledge and detachment
- Miscalculation by the nondevotees makes them unfit to receive any direction from within, and therefore they are bereft of the direct cooperation of the Lord
- Misguided persons, who are interested in the mundane affairs of philanthropic and altruistic work under the misconception of the body as the self, could better take advantage of the Mahabharata
- Mixed consciousness puts a conditioned soul in the position of managing the affairs of this creation. The demigods are entrusted leaders of the conditioned souls
- Mother material nature cannot produce any living entity from her material elements unless and until she is impregnated with living entities by the Lord Himself. That is the mystery of the generation of the living entities
- Mundane goodness can enlighten one that the body and the self are different, and one in goodness is concerned with the self and not the body. Due to being contaminated, those in mundane goodness cannot understand the real nature of the self as a person
N
- Newspapers are read for less than an hour and then thrown in the dustbins as rubbish. The case is similar with all other mundane literatures
- No one has anything to do but render devotional service to the Supreme Lord, Sri Krsna. Therefore any activity other than transcendental loving service to the Lord is more or less a rebellious action against the supreme will
O
- Offenders cannot actually see the lotus feet of the Lord within themselves, nor are they even able to see the devotees of the Lord
- Offenders have to wait until they receive the mercy of devotees, and then they can become eligible to see the lotus feet of the Lord within themselves. But due to their offenses and their extreme materialism, they cannot see even the devotees of the Lord
- On behalf of many neophyte devotees, Vidura, at the very first instance, inquired from Maitreya about the path of devotional service, by which the Lord, who is seated within the heart, can be pleased
- One cannot do anything unless he is enlightened and empowered by the Lord. The Lord says in Bhagavad-gita mattah smrtir jnanam apohanam ca
- One cannot escape the vigilance of the powerful material nature unless he leads a God conscious or devotional life
- One cannot foolishly manufacture an interpretation of Bhagavad-gita and still bring about transcendental benefit. Anyone who tries to squeeze some artificial meaning for an ulterior motive is not one engaged anxiously in bona fide hearing of krsna-katha
- One conditioned by material existence, whether he be a man, beast, demigod or bird must suffer from adhyatmika - bodily or mental pains, adhibhautika pains - those offered by living creatures, & adhidaivika pains - those due to supernatural disturbances
- One is sure to fall again to material existence from false liberation, even though one may have undergone severe penances and austerities
- One may be angry with Yamaraja for his thankless task of punishing sinful souls, but Yamaraja is one of the authorized devotees of the Lord, and so are all the other demigods
- One may suggest that there is sufficient labor for the devotees also in the matter of discharging devotional service. But that labor is compensated by the enhancement of transcendental pleasure
- One should know definitely that the Absolute Truth is never realized by the philosophical speculations of the imperfect egoistic person
- One who is attached to sex life is to be understood as devoid of knowledge
- One who takes advantage of such an arrangement is called a demigod or civilized man. The cow is meant to help maintain such a high standard of living
- One who takes foodstuff after a performance of sacrifice eats real food for proper maintenance of the body and soul, but one who cooks for himself and does not perform any sacrifice eats only lumps of sin in the shape of foodstuffs
- Only in such a purified stage does the Lord, who is seated in everyone's heart with the individual soul, give instruction so that the devotee can reach the ultimate destination of going back home, back to Godhead
- Only the devotee, by his factual experience, can understand the import of this verse (SB 3.5.13) spoken by Vidura. The pure devotee of the Lord enjoys life by constantly remembering the lotus feet of the Lord by hearing krsna-katha
- 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
- Only when the Lord is satisfied with the devotional service of the devotee does He impart knowledge, as He did for Arjuna and Uddhava
P
- People are most influenced by the mode of ignorance, and some are influenced by the passionate mode of material nature, and under the spell of these two modes a living being is actuated by the material conception of life
- People are very much interested in hearing social and historical presentations, Srila Vyasadeva has compiled many books such as the Puranas and Mahabharata
- People should be trained to hear only krsna-katha - by all means - in order to get relief from all miseries
- Persons averse to a loving relationship with God are more or less condemned by their own actions
- Persons conducted by such a conception of life (the conception that "I am everything") can never get liberation from material bondage
- Persons in the mode of goodness worship Lord Visnu, those in the mode of passion worship Lord Brahma, and those in the mode of ignorance worship Lord Siva
- Persons who worship Lord Visnu are called demigods, and persons who do not do so are called asuras, or demons
- Pious acts lead one to take birth in a good and highly placed family, to become rich, to become learned, and to acquire beautiful bodily features
- Pure devotees of the Lord carry the message of Godhead in order to deliver the fallen souls, and the common man who is bewildered by the influence of the external energy of the Lord should avail himself of their association
R
- Realization of consciousness is taught by Bhagavad-gita within only a few minutes, whereas the so-called yogis take continuous years to realize it because of their offenses at the lotus feet of the Lord
- Regarding when and why such propensities (to want to lord it over material nature) overcame the pure living entities, it can only be explained that the jiva-tattvas have infinitesimal independence
S
- Since all the demigods are confidential devotee-servitors of the Lord, they are never to be condemned
- Since God is sac-cid-ananda-vigraha He likes every part & parcel of His different potencies to take part in the blissful rasa: participation with God in His eternal rasa-lila is the highest living condition perfect in spiritual bliss & eternal knowledge
- Since He is the Lord, He is always independent in choosing who will become His father
- Since the Lord is the original source of all emanations, intelligent persons, enlightened by Vedic knowledge, seek the shelter of the Lord, just as birds who leave the nest again search out the nest to take complete rest
- Sinful eating can never make one happy or free from scarcity
- Some of the jivas wanted to lord it over material nature in imitation of the lordship of the Personality of Godhead
- Some of them (people who misunderstands this perishable body to be the self) are above the modes of ignorance and passion and are situated in the mode of goodness, but mundane goodness is always contaminated by tinges of ignorance and passion
- Sometimes in love the son is more than the father, but the relationship of father and son is one of the superior and the subordinate
- Sometimes they (eternal associates of the Lord) come by the order of the Lord - not to hold any administrative post, but to associate with the Lord in person or to propagate the message of God in human society
- Sri Yamunacarya says, "Since my heart has been overwhelmed by the devotional service of Lord Krsna, I cannot even think of sex life, and if thoughts of sex come upon me I at once feel disgust
- Srila Vyasadeva compiled the Mahabharata for the less intelligent class of men, who take more interest in mundane topics than in the philosophy of life
- Srila Vyasadeva had no interest in writing a history of mundane activities other than to give less intelligent persons a chance for transcendental realization through Bhagavad-gita
- Such a person (anyone who tries to interpret Bhagavad-Gita) cannot derive any benefit from reading Bhagavad-gita, however great a scholar he may be in the estimation of a layman
- Such men (in the mode of passion) accept the standard ways of mundane altruism, but their plans are made on the basis of false ego. This false ego extends to the limit of becoming one with the Lord
- Such persons (the pure devotees of God) are decidedly convinced that the name, form, fame, qualities, etc., of the Personality of Godhead are nondifferent from one another on the absolute plane
- Such reciprocation of feelings (between God and Hid devotees) takes place in the transcendental Vaikuntha planets, and therefore the liberation sought by the impersonalists is already achieved in devotional service
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- That is the whole mystery of the material creation - the living entities come from God, they are not products of the material nature
- The activities of the purusa incarnations are but an extension of the activities of the Lord. This hint was given by Vidura to Maitreya because Maitreya could not decide which part of the activities of Lord Krsna should he chanted
- The age of Kali is full of sinful reactions, and people are more and more addicted to the qualities of this age, but simply by hearing and chanting of krsna-katha one is sure to go back to Godhead
- The all-inclusive welfare service for the entire human society is devotional service to the Lord, and, as requested by Vidura, the sage (Maitreya) described the same very appropriately
- The argument that unless one has proper knowledge one cannot be freed from material miseries is undoubtedly true. But because the lotus feet of the Lord are full of transcendental knowledge, acceptance of His lotus feet completes that necessity
- The automatic system is factually activated by the glancing touch of the Lord. Living consciousness is the final word in all physical changes. This fact is mentioned in Bhagavad-gita
- The beauty of transcendental literatures like Bhagavad-gita and Srimad-Bhagavatam is that they never become old. They have been read in the world by civilized man for the last five thousand years, and they have never become old
- The best among the fools who are thus deluded are those who engage in altruistic activities under the spell of the material mode of passion
- The best means of liberation from the clutches of false ego is to give up the habit of philosophical speculation regarding the Absolute Truth
- The best policy is to act for the sake of the Lord. That will bring about the desired harmony
- The bhakti process, as performed under the regulative principles of vaidhi-bhakti, or devotional service following the prescribed rules and regulations, is defined by the revealed scriptures and confirmed by great acaryas
- The birth of a human being is a great science, and therefore reformation of the act of impregnation according to the Vedic ritual called Garbhadhana-samskara is very important for generating good population
- The body can be maintained by any kind of foodstuff, but cow's milk is particularly essential for developing the finer tissues of the human brain so that one can understand the intricacies of transcendental knowledge
- The body is a gift of material nature, but the soul is originally part and parcel of the Supreme Lord
- The bona fide spiritual master, as the representative of the Lord, is the eternal father because the spiritual master has the responsibility to lead the disciple to spiritual salvation, or the ultimate goal of life
- The bull helps in the agricultural process of producing grain, etc., and thus in one sense the bull is the father of humankind, whereas the cow is the mother, for she supplies milk to human society
- The chief function of the false ego is godlessness
- The conception of various controlling demigods who inhabit the higher planetary systems for the management of universal affairs is not imaginary, as proposed by persons with a poor fund of knowledge
- 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
- The conditioned soul is attached to the bodily conception of the self, and he is in ignorance
- The conscious being, the imperishable self, is eternally existent and cannot be killed under any circumstances, even after the dissolution of the body
- The cosmic creation is working under the influence of the three modes of the external potency of the Lord
- The cosmic manifestation gives the conditioned souls a chance to go back home, back to Godhead, and that is its main purpose. The Lord is so kind that in the absence of such a manifestation He feels something wanting, and thus the creation takes place
- The cow is the most important animal for developing the human body to perfection
- The culture of a human being begins when the father invests his semen in the womb of the mother
- The demigods are amongst the conditioned souls who have developed this pure consciousness of service to the Lord but who at the same time continue to desire to lord it over the material energy
- The demigods are entrusted by the Lord to create different species of living entities according to their past deeds. They are herein (in SB 3.5.51) asking the favor of the Lord for the intelligence and power to carry out their task
- The demigods are expanded parts and parcels of the Supreme Lord Visnu, and they are embodied by time, external energy and partial consciousness of the Supreme
- The demigods are worshiped by persons who are more or less adherents of the processes of jnana, yoga and karma, i.e., the impersonalists, meditators and fruitive workers
- The demigods should not be despised by the controlled living beings. They are all great devotees of the Lord entrusted to execute certain functions of universal affairs
- The demigods, or the living entities who live in the higher planets, are far superior to human beings. Since they have better arrangements for living conditions, they live far more luxuriously than human beings, yet they are all devotees of the Lord
- The destination of the devotees is Vaikuntha, or akuntha-dhisnya, the place where anxieties are completely eradicated. One should not mistake the destination of the devotees and that of the impersonalists to be one and the same
- The destinations (of the devotees and that of the impersonalists) are distinctly different, and the transcendental pleasure derived by the devotee is also distinct from cin-matra, or spiritual feelings alone
- The devotees attain mukti automatically, while continuing the transcendental pleasure of maintaining individuality
- The devotees attain to the highest stage of knowledge and renunciation and achieve the Vaikunthalokas, the planets in the spiritual sky
- The devotees derive more transcendental pleasure while engaged continuously in the service of the Lord than when they have no such engagement
- The devotees enter into the kingdom of all pleasures even from the beginning of their attempt. The devotee has only to hear about devotional activities, which are as simple as anything in ordinary life, and he also acts very simply
- The devotees keep their individuality to exchange feelings in relationship with the supreme individual Lord
- The devotees of the Lord are so kind that they roam to all places to enlighten people in God consciousness
- The devotees or demigods are fully aware that the Lord can maintain any number of living entities, provided they are conscious of how to eat
- The devotees worship only the Supreme Lord Visnu. This worship is not for any material benefit, as desired by all the materialists, even up to the salvationists, mystics and fruitive workers
- The difference between the impersonalistic mental speculators and the pure devotees of the Lord is that the former pass through a miserable understanding of the Absolute Truth at every stage
- The diversity of the Vaikunthaloka is one with the Lord, just as the diversity of soldiers is one with and the same as the king
- The earth is situated almost in the middle of the universe, and the human form of life is the via medium between the life of the demigods and that of the demons
- The entire material creation is meant for the falsely egoistic living entities hovering on the mental plane under different illusions in the modes of material nature
- The eternally liberated souls are called nitya-muktas, and they have nothing to do with the material creation
- The expansions of Vedic wisdom also give the nitya-baddhas, the conditioned living entities, a chance to improve
- The father and mother of the material body are so only in one birth, and in the next birth the father and mother may be a different couple
- The first line of the original four verses runs, aham evasam evagre. The word aham is misinterpreted by the Mayavada school into meanings which no one but the interpreter can understand
- The gigantic sky is the material body of the Lord, called the virat-rupa, and all material creations are resting on the sky, or the heart of the Lord
- The great author (Vyasadeva) has compiled the Mahabharata in such a way that the less intelligent class of men, who are more interested in mundane topics, may read the Mahabharata with great relish
- The great sage (Maitreya Rsi) here (SB 3.5.23) begins to explain the purpose of the four original verses of the Srimad-Bhagavatam
- The great sage Krsna-dvaipayana Vyasa is the author of all Vedic literature, of which his works Vedanta-sutra, Srimad-Bhagavatam and Mahabharata are very popular readings
- The great sage Maitreya Muni is described here (SB 3.5.17) as bhagavan because he surpassed all ordinary human beings in learning and experience. Thus his selection of the greatest welfare service for the world is considered authoritative
- The greatest offense is to deny the existence of the Lord as separate from the individual souls or to accept the Lord and the individual soul as one and the same
- The higher classes of men are white (sukla), and the lower classes of men are black. This division of white and black is in terms of one's white and black duties of life
- The impersonalist attains only the sky, and does not achieve any tangible transcendental bliss, whereas the devotee attains to the planets where real spiritual life prevails
- The impersonalists misinterpret the theory of reflection, and thus they wrongly accept the individual consciousness as the supreme consciousness
- The impersonalists, because they engage in mental speculation and have no faith in the Personality of Godhead, have no business hearing the topics of Krsna. Such persons are pitiable for the first-class pure devotees of the Lord
- The impetus for lording it over material nature is the sense of "mine" and "I". "I am the lord of all that I survey. So many things I possess, and I shall possess more and more. Who can be richer than I in wealth and education?"
- The improvement in knowledge and detachment can be perceived by devotees as an actual experience
- The incarnation of Visnu in the material world is directly worshiped by the demigods
- The intelligent man seeks the help of the Lord, and the Lord helps the sincere devotees engaged in His multifarious services
- The jiva-tattvas are separated expansions of the visnu-tattvas, and although there are potential differences between them, they are all meant for the transcendental sense gratification of the Supreme Lord
- The jnanis, yogis and karmis cannot expect this direct cooperation of the Lord. They are not able to satisfy the Lord by transcendental loving service, nor do they believe in such service to the Lord
- The jungle animals are also maintained by the Lord with their respective foodstuffs, but they are not advanced in God consciousness
- The last class of egoistic conditioned souls - those in the mode of ignorance - are misguided by identification of the gross body with the self. Thus, all their activities are centered around the body only
- The learned sage Maitreya was sitting in a solitary place on the bank of the Ganges at Hardwar, and Vidura, who was a perfect devotee of the Lord and possessed all good transcendental qualities, approached him for inquiry
- The living entities are foreign to matter, and thus they cannot be happy unless they are situated in the same spiritual life as the Lord
- The living entities are the superior energies, whereas matter is the inferior energy, and the combination of these energies brings about the manifestation of this material world, which is in the heart of the Lord
- The living entity can attain the transcendental happiness of being freed from the three kinds of material miseries - miseries arising from the body and mind, from other living entities and from natural disturbances
- The living entity changes his body in the material world, but even when the Lord is in the material world, He is ever unchanged. That is His prerogative
- The Lord appears in this universe in different incarnations like Matsya, Kurma, Varaha and Nrsimha, and He manifests His different transcendental activities for the welfare of the twice-born, the cows and the demigods
- The Lord came out of a pillar in His incarnation as Nrsimhadeva, and by the Lord's causeless mercy, Ahalya came out of a stone by the touch of the lotus feet of His incarnation as Lord Sri Rama
- The Lord creates this material world and impregnates the material energy with the living entities who will act in the material world. All these actions have a divine plan behind them
- The Lord felt somewhat insufficient, like a husband feeling lonely in the absence of his wife. This is a poetic simile. He wanted to create the cosmic manifestation to give another chance to the conditioned souls who were dormant in forgetfulness
- The Lord impregnates the external or material energy, and thus the total living entities later come out in different gradations, beginning from Brahma, the first demigod, down to the insignificant ant
- The Lord is described here (in SB 3.5.26) as viryavan, or the greatest potent being, because He impregnates material nature with innumerable living entities who are conditioned from time immemorial
- The Lord is directly concerned with the twice-born or civilized men. A civilized man is one who has taken his birth twice. A living entity takes birth in this mundane world due to the union of male and female
- 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
- The Lord is independent and desireless. He does not create the material world for His own satisfaction as we create our household affairs to fulfill our material desires
- The Lord is situated in everyone's heart. It is natural that one should be able to see the Lord at least within himself. But that is not possible for those whose internal vision has been covered by external activities
- The Lord is so kind that He has spread the River Ganges throughout the universe so that by taking bath in that holy river everyone can get release from the reactions of sins, which occur at every step
- The Lord is the supreme seer because only by His glance did the material energy become active for cosmic manifestation. At that time the seer was there, but the external energy, over which the glance of the Lord is cast, was not present
- The Lord is transcendental to our sense experience, but He reveals Himself to the sincere devotee. Because Vidura was always absorbed in thought of the Lord, Maitreya could estimate Vidura's transcendental value
- The Lord's devotees do not mind the offenses of the foolish in their many gross and subtle bodily endeavors. The Lord's devotees continue to bestow the blessings of devotion upon all such offenders without hesitation. That is the nature of devotees
- The Lord's pastimes for the protection of the twice-born civilized men, the cows and the demigods are all transcendental
- The Lord, the Original Person, is the father of all other living entities, beginning from Brahma, the personality from whom all other living entities in different gradations of species are generated
- The mahat-tattva is the total consciousness because a portion of it is represented in everyone as the intellect. The mahat-tattva is directly connected with the supreme consciousness of the Supreme Being, but still it appears as matter
- The mahat-tattva is the via medium between pure spirit and material existence. It is the junction of matter and spirit wherefrom the false ego of the living entity is generated
- The mahat-tattva principle is the generating source of all the modes of material nature, and the living entities take birth in the material world in bodies supplied by the mother, material nature, in terms of their previous work
- The mahat-tattva, or shadow of pure consciousness, is the germinating place of all creation. It is pure goodness with the slight addition of the material mode of passion, and therefore activity is generated from this point
- The material creation is meant for rebellious souls who are not prepared to accept subordination under the Supreme Lord. This spirit of false lordship is called false ego
- The material nature, known as maya, is both the material and efficient cause of the cosmos, but in the background the Lord is the consciousness for all activities
- The material universes are full in themselves. There is no scarcity for maintenance in the material world
- The mental speculator has to pass through a jugglery of words, which are partially facts and partially a make-show for the maintenance of an artificial impersonal status
- The minds of materialistic persons are so disturbed that it is almost impossible for them to search after the Supreme Truth by personal regulative endeavors
- The miracles of meditating on the lotus feet of the Lord with eagerness and devotion are so great that no other process can compare to it
- The mistaken living being, out of forgetfulness of this original condition of life, unnecessarily wastes time trying to become happy in the material world. The whole Vedic process is to remind one of this essential feature of life
- The modern theory that starvation is due to an increase in population is not accepted by the demigods or the devotees of the Lord
- The most beautiful thing in the world is the Vedas, or Bhagavad-gita, because therein knowledge is imparted by the Personality of Godhead Himself
- The most capable transcendentalist is the pure devotee of the Lord, who is without any tinge of fruitive actions or philosophical speculation
- The most important part of Mahabharata is Bhagavad-gita, which is automatically taught to readers along with the historical narrations of the Battle of Kuruksetra
- The mundane qualities do not allow a living entity to understand his real position. The qualities of both ignorance and passion strongly bind one to the illusory bodily conception of the self
- The offenders (of God) lose the chance to receive the Lord's devotees, although the offenseless common man is at once influenced by the devotees' presence
- The offenders Nalakuvara and Manigriva, even though living amongst the demigods, had to undergo the punishment of becoming trees in their next lives, although by the grace of a devotee they were later delivered by the Lord
- The offspring of any living being is born after the father impregnates the mother with semen, and the living entity floating in the semen of the father takes the shape of the mother's form
- The omnipotent Lord, by His different energies, can perform anything and everything He likes. The creation of the cosmic world is done by His yogamaya energy
- The opinions of the demigods are valuable because the demigods are authorized to hold positions in the affairs of universal management. They are appointed by the Lord as His confidential servants
- The other species of living entities, who far outnumber human society, are never disturbed for maintenance; they are never seen dying of starvation
- The paramahamsa makes his nest in the lotuslike face of the Lord and always seeks shelter at His lotus feet, which are reached by the wings of Vedic wisdom
- The paramahamsas are compared to royal swans who make their nests on the petals of the lotus flower. The Lord's transcendental bodily parts are always compared to the lotus flower because in the material world the lotus flower is the last word in beauty
- The Personality of Godhead is described herein (SB 3.5.23) as the master of all other living entities. He is like the sun disc, and the living entities are like the molecules of the sun's rays
- The physical elements may work very wonderfully to the laymen's eyes, but their workings actually take place under the supervision of the Lord
- The plan is to give the conditioned souls who so desire a chance to enjoy sense gratification
- The planetary systems above the earth are especially meant for the higher intellectuals, called demigods
- The planets below the earth down to the Patala planet are full of various kinds of living beings; no planet is vacant, as wrongly imagined by the modern so-called scientist
- The pleasure in such literature (mundane literature), after it is read once, becomes stale, and people do not take any interest in reading such literature repeatedly
- The problem is not to check the growth of the population, but to generate good population on the level of Vidura, Vyasa and Maitreya
- The process of understanding the Absolute Truth adopted by the misguided nondualist is very difficult, whereas the devotee's way of understanding the Absolute Truth comes directly from the Lord, who is pleased by devotional service
- The pure soul, which is symptomized by consciousness, can be easily perceived even by a common man because consciousness is spread all over the body
- The purusa incarnations and all the different energies of the Supreme Lord were merged in Him only
- The questions regarding creation, maintenance & destruction, which are mentioned in many parts of the SB, are in relation to different millenniums (kalpas), and they are differently described by different authorities when questioned by different students
- The real purpose of such literatures (Srila Vyasadeva's books) is not so much to present topics of historical references, but to revive the people's sense of God consciousness
- The real purpose of Vedanta-sutra is explained by the author himself in the Srimad-Bhagavatam, and anyone trying to understand Vedanta-sutra without reference to Srimad-Bhagavatam is certainly misguided
- The sky is the cause of air. The sky has only one quality, namely sound, but by the interaction of the sky with the glance of the Lord, mixed with eternal time and external nature, the air is produced, which has two qualities - sound and touch
- The spiritual master is the manifested representative of the Lord, and anyone who puts himself under the guidance of a spiritual master and acts accordingly is said to be acting in terms of buddhi-yoga
- The sraddadhana, or faithful devotee, can actually derive all the benefits of Bhagavad-gita because by the omnipotency of the Lord he achieves the transcendental bliss which vanquishes attachment and nullifies all concomitant material miseries
- The stars are parts of the sky, and therefore they cannot be equal to the whole. The sky is the whole, and the stars are parts. They cannot be one and the same
- The story of the Battle of Kuruksetra may be interesting for the mass of people, but to a person like Vidura, who is highly advanced in devotional service, only krsna-katha and that which is dovetailed with krsna-katha is interesting
- The supreme father has no other father. Every one of the living entities of all grades, up to Brahma, the original creature of the universe, is begotten by a father, but He, the Lord, has no father
- The theory of the reflection of the Supreme can be clearly understood without difficulty by any sincere common man
- The union of the impersonalists and the union of the devotees are not on a par. The impersonalists try to fully stop their individuality by attaining sayujya-mukti, or unification by merging into oneness
- The value of great parentage and noble birth is evaluated here in connection with the birth of Vidura
- The Vedanta-sutra 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 Vedic hymns, eko bahunam yo vidadhati kaman, ta enam abruvann ayatanam nah prajanihi yasmin pratisthita annam adame, etc., confirm this truth. In Bhagavad-gita also, the Lord is mentioned as bhuta-bhrt, or the maintainer of all living creatures
- The way of devotional service is neither sentimental nor mundane. It is the path of reality by which the living entity can attain the transcendental happiness of being freed from the three kinds of material miseries
- The whole material creation is conducted by the three purusas in successive stages under the external energy of the Lord, and thus material nature is controlled by Him
- The whole process is to enliven the sleeping conditioned souls to the real life of spiritual consciousness so that they may thus become as perfect as the ever-liberated souls in the Vaikunthalokas
- The whole system of the material creation is planned so that the conditioned souls may have the opportunity for self-realization
- The whole Vedic philosophy of life is that one should get rid of the material encagement of gross and subtle bodies, which only cause one to continue in a condemned life of miseries
- The whole world can be transformed into Vaikuntha if all worldly activities are dovetailed with krsna-katha
- The word apare (others) is very significant in this connection. "Others" refers to the jnanis and the yogis, whose only hope is to merge into the existence of the impersonal brahmajyoti
- The word dhira is very significant in this connection. A person who is not disturbed even in the presence of cause of disturbance is called dhira
- The yoga system as recommended in Bhagavad-gita is to concentrate the mental activities internally and thus see the lotus feet of the Lord within oneself
- Their (those in mundane goodness) impersonal conception of the self as distinct from the body keeps them in goodness within material nature, and unless they are attracted by krsna-katha, they will never be liberated from the bondage of material existence
- There are also planets where no sunlight reaches, and there are living entities who must live there due to their past deeds
- There are many rivers in the world which are able to evoke one's sense of God consciousness simply by one's bathing in them, and the River Ganges is chief amongst them
- There are many sages and saints who engage in trying to conquer rebirth and all other material miseries
- There are many so-called yogis who have no concern with the Lord but are only concerned with consciousness, which they accept as the final realization
- There are many topics for different persons in different modes of material nature, but the essential topics are those in relationship with the Supreme Lord
- There are people in the Arabian deserts and in the valleys of the Himalayan Mountains, and the inhabitants of these two places differ from one another, just as the inhabitants of the ice lands also differ from them. There are also different planets
- There are places like deserts, ice lands, and valleys in mountainous countries, and in each of them there are different kinds of men born of different modes of nature according to their past deeds
- There are two important krsna-kathas current in the world - Bhagavad-gita and Srimad-Bhagavatam. Bhagavad-gita is krsna-katha because it is spoken by Krsna , whereas Srimad-Bhagavatam is krsna-katha because it narrates about Krsna
- There is a nice song in this connection: "Because of a great desire to have all happiness in life, I built this house. But unfortunately the whole scheme has turned to ashes because the house was unexpectedly set on fire." The law of nature is like that
- There is an interesting story of a hunter and Devarsi Narada
- There is another plan behind the creation: to help the living entities realize that they are created for the transcendental sense gratification of the Lord and not for their individual sense gratification
- There is no difference regarding the creative principles and the Lord's control over them, yet there are some differences in the minute details because of different kalpas
- There is no doubt that on other planets there are also inhabitants like us, sometimes with greater intelligence and greater opulence. The living conditions for those of greater intelligence are more luxurious than on this earth
- There is no need to check the growth of population if the children are born as human beings with all precautions regarding their birth. So-called birth control is not only vicious but also useless
- There is no want of knowledge in the devotional service of Vasudeva, the Personality of Godhead. He, the Lord, personally takes charge of dissipating the darkness of ignorance from the heart of a devotee
- There is only one way he (one who is conditioned by material existence) can be rescued, and that is by accepting the shelter of the lotus feet of the Supreme Personality of Godhead
- These books (Srila Vyasadeva's) are reading matter for the mass of people, and they were compiled with a view to reviving their God consciousness, now forgotten in the conditional life of material existence
- They (demigods) also know that it is the Lord only who can maintain all living entities with all the necessities of life
- They (the pure devotees of God) are situated in the transcendental stage above the mode of material goodness
- They (those engaged in transcendental activities in different ways) may artificially think of becoming liberated without accepting the shelter of the lotus feet of the Lord, but that is not possible
- They are (human beings, animals, birds), rather, controlled by demigods. Such control is not superfluous; it is as necessary as the controlling departments in the affairs of a modern state
- They are (transcendental literatures) ever fresh to the learned scholars and devotees, and even by daily repetition of the verses of Bhagavad-gita and Srimad-Bhagavatam, there is no satiation for devotees like Vidura
- They are called demigods because although their standard of life is far more advanced in culture, enjoyment, luxury, beauty, education and duration of life, they are always fully God conscious
- Thinking material nature to be independent is like seeking milk from the nipplelike bags on the neck of a goat
- This existence of the Lord before the creation is confirmed by the srutis. Because everything that be is an emanation from the Personality of Godhead, He always exists alone without a second
- This false idea of becoming one with the Lord is the last snare of the illusory energy, which traps a living entity into the bondage of forgetfulness under the spell of false ego
- This impregnating process is performed by the first purusa incarnation, Karanarnavasayi Visnu. Simply by His glance over material nature, the whole matter is accomplished
- This is the constitutional position of the living entities. The Lord is one without a second, and He expands Himself into many for His transcendental pleasure
- This is the opinion of the demigods (one who does not accept the shelter of the lotus feet of the Lord will fall again to material existence) who are not only well versed in Vedic knowledge but are also seers of the past, present and future
- This material body continues as long as one is not detached from the false conception of lording it over material nature
- This mysterious history of Vidura (he is Vyasadeva's son) was known to Maitreya Muni because he happened to be a contemporary friend of Vyasadeva's
- This practice (regulative principles of vaidhi-bhakti) can help the neophyte devotee to rise to the stage of raga-bhakti, in which the Lord responds from within as the caitya-guru, or the spiritual master as Superconsciousness
- This second class of men believe the Supreme Brahman to be impersonal. They accept the cult of bhakti, in which hearing of krsna-katha is the first item, as a means and not the end. Above them are those who are pure devotees
- This stage of life (to be absorbed in devotional service of God) is called acyuta-bhava-siddha, or perfection by dint of devotional service
- Those persons who are busy with the mundane inquiries which fill the newspapers and other such literatures are classified as stri-sudra-dvija-bandhus, or women, the laborer class and unworthy sons of the higher classes - brahmana, ksatriya and vaisya
- Those who are egoistic in passion and ignorance cannot conceive of the Personality of Godhead. For them the sky is the symbolic representation of the Supreme Soul
- Those who are in the mode of goodness think that each and every person is God, and thus they laugh at the pure devotees, who try to engage in the transcendental loving service of the Lord
- Those who are in the modes of ignorance and passion are averse to the existence of God, or else they formally accept the existence of God in the capacity of an order supplier
- Those who are puffed up by the mode of passion try to lord it over material nature in various ways. Some of them engage in altruistic activities as if they were agents appointed to do good to others by their mental speculative plans
- Those who can mark only the changes of the physical elements and cannot perceive the hidden hands of the Lord behind them are certainly less intelligent persons, although they may be advertised as great material scientists
- Those who take advantage of transcendental knowledge gradually regain their lost consciousness of rendering transcendental loving service to the Lord
- Those who take shelter under the lotus feet of the Lord can completely throw off all such miseries without difficulty. Others, who are engaged in transcendental activities in different ways, cannot do so. For them it is very difficult
- To be obedient to the wishes of the Supreme Lord is the natural position of every living entity. But due only to past misdeeds, a living being becomes averse to the sense of subordination to the Lord and suffers all the miseries of material existence
- To preach krsna-katha all over the world, as recommended by Lord Caitanya, is the greatest missionary activity, and all sensible men and women of the world may join in this great movement started by Lord Caitanya
- To take birth in such a great family is understood to be an advantage for attaining devotional life. Vidura was given this chance due to his previous greatness
- Transcendentalists who do not accept the supreme consciousness as separate from the individual consciousness are as offensive as the materialists who deny even the existence of the Lord
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- Vidura asked Maitreya some common questions, which was not originally his intention. Uddhava asked Vidura to approach Maitreya Muni and inquire into all the truths concerning the Lord, His name, fame, quality, form, pastimes, entourage, etc
- Vidura explained to Maitreya his position of being fully satiated with the knowledge of mundane social and political topics and having no more interest in them. He was anxious to hear transcendental topics regarding Lord Sri Krsna
- Vidura had already surpassed the fallible nature of the living entity in conditional life due to his being acyuta-bhava, or legitimately absorbed in the devotional service of the Lord
- Vidura happened to be among them (great devotees of the Lord), the Lord, while returning to Vaikuntha, left instructions for Vidura with Maitreya Muni. Generally the eternal associates of the Lord in the spiritual sky do not come to the material world
- Vidura might have heard the pastimes of God many, many times before he met Maitreya, but still he wanted the same narrations to be repeated because he was never satiated by hearing them. That is the transcendental nature of the Lord's glorious pastimes
- Vidura requested Maitreya to explain these differences between all the living creatures made by Narayana, the Supreme Personality of Godhead
- Vidura wanted to hear of everything from Maitreya, and so he inquired from him, but he desired that all the topics be in relationship with Krsna
- Vidura was already perfect due to his unalloyed devotion to the infallible Lord. The Lord and the living entities are all qualitatively the same by nature, but the Lord is quantitatively much greater than any individual living entity
- Vidura was undoubtedly very eager to hear about Lord Krsna in particular, but he was overwhelmed because Lord Krsna had just passed away from the visible world
- Vidura's reference to the Mahabharata indicates that he had heard of the Mahabharata from Vyasadeva, his real father, while he was away from home and was touring the places of pilgrimage
- Visnu always takes the part of the demigods, but Brahma and Siva sometimes take the side of the demons; it is not that they become one in interest with them, but sometimes they do something in order to gain control over the demons
- Visnu is the master of the mode of goodness, Brahma is the master of the mode of passion, and Mahesvara is the master of the mode of ignorance. There are different kinds of devotees according to the modes of nature
W
- We must certainly know that on the absolute plane krsna-katha and Krsna are one and the same. The Lord is the Absolute Truth, and therefore His name, form, quality, etc., which are all understood to be krsna-katha, are nondifferent from Him
- We should not understand the process of impregnation by the Personality of Godhead in terms of our conception of sex. The omnipotent Lord can impregnate just by His eyes, and therefore He is called all-potent
- When a nondualist comes to sense that the Lord is worshipable and that the devotee is simultaneously one with and different from the Lord, then only can he surrender unto the Lord, Vasudeva. Pure devotional service begins from that point
- When a person forgets his constitutional position as an eternally subordinate part and parcel of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and wants to be happy independently, he functions mainly in two ways
- When He (God) descends on the material plane, out of Mis causeless mercy He accepts one of His great devotees as His father to keep pace with the rules of the material world
- When men are unaware of the intrinsic value of such gifts (gifts for the maintenance of the living entities) from the Lord, surely they are in want
- When the cosmic creation is manifested, the living entities are directly supplied from the Lord; they are never products of material nature. Thus, no scientific advancement of material science can ever produce a living being
- When there is a reflection of the sky on the water, both the sky and the stars are seen within the water, but it is understood that the sky and the stars are not to be accepted on the same level
- When Vidura approached Maitreya, he should have asked only about the Lord. But out of natural humility he did not immediately ask about the Lord, but inquired into a subject which would be of great importance to the common man
- With a serious attitude, the devotee throws away all achievements like so much dust, and he accepts only devotional service, the transcendental culmination
Y
- Yamaraja took birth in the womb of the kept wife of Vicitravirya (as Vidura) from the semen of Vicitravirya's brother, Vyasadeva. Vyasadeva is the son of Satyavati by the great King Santanu, the father of Bhismadeva
- Yamaraja, the great controller of life after death, decides the living entities' destinies in their next lives