Category:Teachings of Lord Kapila Chapter 16 - The Pure Devotees' Spiritual Opulences
Pages in category "Teachings of Lord Kapila Chapter 16 - The Pure Devotees' Spiritual Opulences"
The following 113 pages are in this category, out of 113 total.
A
- A devotee is not interested in any of these (dharma, artha, kama and moksa). In the Christian religion, people pray, "Give us this day our daily bread," but a pure bhakta does not even ask for his daily bread
- A devotee is simply interested in the supreme eternal, Sri Krsna. The Supreme Lord is the supreme leader of the nityas, the eternal living entities. We are all nityas, eternal, and Krsna guides and plays with us
- A guru may have hundreds of disciples, hundreds of servants, but he doesn't have to pay them. They are serving out of spiritual love, and the guru is teaching without receiving a salary. This is a spiritual relationship
- A mad son may no longer be interested in his home, in his father or mother, yet the father never loses interest in his son. He is anxious because his boy has left home and is suffering
- A pure devotee is kept in the hand of Krsna just like a very precious jewel. When you hold something precious in your hand, you are very careful, and similarly, Krsna holds the devotee and takes care of him
- According to Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Rupa Gosvami in his Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu, Narada Muni in the Narada Pancaratra and Bhagavan Sri Krsna in Bhagavad-gita, a pure devotee never wants anything from the Lord
- After death, they (theists) render the same service; thus there is no difference between Vaikuntha and a temple, for a devotee. In either case, his business is the same. Why, then, should he aspire to go to Vaikuntha?
- Although the proprietor of all opulence says, "Just surrender unto Me, & I will take care," people do not do it. Instead, they say, - I will take care of my own business. I will maintain myself. I will take care of myself, my family, friends & country
- Although we are seeing only one universe, there are millions of universes, and Krsna is supporting all these millions of universes with a single fragment of Himself
- Arjuna was very intelligent because he simply chose Krsna, whereas Duryodhana took Krsna's soldiers. It is not possible to conquer Krsna, but the devotee can capture Krsna with bhakti, love
- At any rate, when Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu returned from South India with a copy of Brahma-samhita, He gave it to His disciples and told them that it was a summary of the Vedanta and the Srimad-Bhagavatam
B
- Because we have forgotten Krsna, Krsna has given us all these Vedas and puranas. Krsna also comes into this material world in order to remind us of Himself
- Brahma & other lords of the mundane worlds, appear from the pores of hair of Maha-Visnu, remain alive as long as the duration of His one exhalation. I adore the primeval Lord Govinda, of whose subjective personality Maha-Visnu is the portion of a portion
- Brahma may live millions of years, but he ultimately has to die. Whether we go to the highest planet or the lowest planet, whether we are in the body of a Brahma or a cat, we ultimately have to die
E
- Even if we are promoted to the highest planet, Brahmaloka, the planet where Lord Brahma lives, our situation there is still not eternal. So why should a devotee be interested in such a place
- Even though Krsna has distributed Himself in many millions of parts, He is still present in the same strength. Krsna is sarvaisvarya-purna. He is never diminished
- Everyone can accept Krsna in so many ways. We can love Krsna as Arjuna did, or as Mother Yasoda did. Similarly, Pariksit Maharaja simply heard about Krsna and developed love
F
G
- Generally people are interested in going to the higher planetary systems in order to become more opulent. This is the process of karma-kandiya, and people perform yajnas and pious activities in order to be elevated to higher planets
- Generally the brahmanas were teachers, and they could not charge anything. Thus some students brought the teacher rice, and some students brought other crops
- Generally, people want dharma, artha, kama and moksa, in that order. First of all, people want to become religious (dharma) in order to attain material opulence - artha
- God cannot be subjected to our imagination. Our imagination is limited, and our senses are imperfect
I
- If we have the same relationship with Krsna, we will never be cheated or disappointed. Our enthusiasm will increase more and more. Therefore Krsna encourages us to accept Him as our son, as our friend and as our master. Then we will be happy
- If we tear up a piece of paper into small pieces and throw it away, the paper no longer has an existence. However, Krsna is not like that
- If we want a son, Krsna is prepared to be our son. If we want a lover, He is prepared to be our lover. If we want a friend, He is prepared to be our friend. Whatever relationship we want in the material world, we can have with Krsna
- If we want to attain a body like Brahma's, we can get it. If we want a body like a worm in stool, we can get it. Or, if we want a body like Krsna's, we can get that also. That is our real body of sac-cid-ananda
- If we want to love Krsna as a son, Krsna is prepared to be our son. Arjuna accepted Krsna as his friend, and Krsna was his best friend
- If we want to understand God, we have to try to understand from God Himself
- In our lives we think we are enjoying some rasa, some relationship. Our children are calling us father, and we are enjoying our relationship with our wife, but all of these relationships are like shadows, although people have no information of this
- In the material world, a servant serves the master as long as the servant is pleased and as long as the master is pleased. The servant is pleased as long as the master pays, and the master is pleased as long as the servant renders good service
- In the sastras it is said that the forest is characterized by sattva-guna, goodness, and the city is characterized by rajo-guna, passion, because in the city there is a great deal of illicit sex, intoxication, gambling and meat-eating
- In the spiritual world, if the servant cannot serve under certain conditions, the master is still pleased. And if the master does not pay, the servant is also pleased. That is called oneness, absolute
- In the spiritual world, Krsna and His devotees are friends, and they play together as cowherd boys. They are not interested in Brahmaloka or Candraloka, for these planets will ultimately be annihilated
- In the Vaikuntha planets one attains opulence like Krsna or Narayana. There are five kinds of mukti, liberation, and one is sarsti. This kind of liberation brings one opulence equal to the Lord
- In the Vaikuntha planets, everyone is four-handed like Narayana, and everyone is equally opulent. In Goloka Vrndavana, Krsna and the cowherd boys are equally opulent
- In these verses (SB 3.25.39-40), Kapiladeva is describing the devotee's acceptance of Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, as the most dear to us
- In this Kali-yuga, people are forgetting Krsna more and more. They are not even interested in Him, but Krsna is interested because we are His sons
- In this material world we aspire for a nice house, good property, children, friends and riches, but ultimately all of these will be destroyed, including ourselves
- In Vrndavana, the cowherd boys do not know that Krsna is God. They look on Krsna as an equal. This is the opulence of their devotional position
- It is impossible for people to understand the great opulence of Sri Krsna. Therefore Caitanya Mahaprabhu tells us to abandon speculating about God
- It is materialistic to think that Krsna has no individual existence if He has entered into so many millions of hearts
- It is stated that from the skin pores of the Maha-Visnu, all the universes are emanating. In each universe there is a Brahma, a supervisor, who is the supreme creature and manager. These managers live only as long as the Maha-Visnu exhales
K
- Krsna comes before such atheists as death and takes everything away - all power, opulence, money - everything. The theists worship God while they are living, and their only business in this life is serving God
- Krsna has many millions of expansions, and He is also situated in everyone's heart. He is not only within human beings but within animals, trees, plants, aquatics and so forth
- Krsna presents Himself to atheists as death. He appeared in this way before Hiranyakasipu, who said, - I am God. All the demigods are afraid of me. I am very powerful
- Krsna therefore comes in person to teach us that we can enjoy the same relationship with Him. We can enjoy Him as our master, our friend, our son, our father or our lover
- Krsna's son leaves the spiritual sky and takes up one material body after another and in this way travels from one planet to another in different species of life. Therefore Krsna comes to rescue him
- Krsna, the Supreme Lord, is the proprietor of all opulence. There is no one more opulent than Krsna; therefore if Krsna says that He will take care of His devotee, there is no question of poverty
M
- Mayavadi philosophers are afraid of having such relationships because they have bitter experience with these relationships in the material world
- Mayavadis think that in the spiritual world there are no relationships. However, in the sastras it is stated that in the spiritual world there is real life
- Most people want material opulence, but they do not know that Krsna is the proprietor of all opulence. That is their misfortune
N
- Nor are the devotees interested in attaining the mystic yoga siddhis. They do not need to be able to create a planet, for they can create Vaikuntha by worshiping Krsna in the temple. The temple is nirguna, transcendental to the gunas
- Nothing here is permanent; therefore everything is called illusory. Actually we do not understand this; we take all this as permanent. The fact is, however, that only Krsna is permanent. Krsna's material energy is not permanent
- Now, of course, the printing press has changed all this, but nonetheless we should always understand that the granthas, the scriptures, should be worshiped as God because they are the sound incarnation of God
O
- Oh, where is Krsna? - the little boy asked. "Well, I understand that He is in the forest," the mother said. Therefore the little boy went to the forest and called for Krsna. He then began to cry, and finally Krsna came
- On the day of the ceremony, the boy again went to the forest and called for Krsna. Krsna appeared and gave him a quart of yogurt. The little boy took this yogurt to his teacher and said, - This is my contribution, sir
- One can just imagine his position if a very rich man says, - Don't worry. I will take care of everything for you
- One should not consider Bhagavad-gita or Srimad-Bhagavatam to be ordinary books, and one should take care of them just as carefully as one takes care of the Deity
- Our position is that we never take birth and never die, but why have we been put into this position of accepting these machines? This is our real problem
S
- Sometimes sailors at sea think they see land, but actually this is a mirage in the water. This material world is like that
- Spiritual life is eternal; it cannot be destroyed. Whatever we have here in the material world is subject to destruction
- Superior to living in the forest is living in the temple because the temple is nirguna, above all the gunas, even sattva-guna.
T
- The Atlantic Ocean, - the friend replies. "Oh, the Atlantic Ocean! Is it bigger than this well? Is it four feet? Ten feet?" Our attempt to speculate about God is very much like this
- The body is a machine given by Krsna. In the material world, a father may give his son a car. Similarly, Krsna gives the living entities bodies, 8,400,000 different types of bodies
- The devotees do not aspire for all this opulence. Their only aspiration is to engage in the service of the Lord. In this way, they get everything
- The durations of these breaths, which constitute a life of a Brahma, are described in BG as many trillions of earth years. One may say that this is all fictitious and imaginary, but unless one believes it, one has no right to touch BG
- The first-class yogi takes Krsna as everything - priya, suta, sakha, guru, everything. This is real bhakti
- The idea is that one will be able to enjoy himself more, have a longer life span, more opulence, more beautiful women, nice gardens and so on. Actually this is the case, but a devotee is not at all interested in these things because he accepts Krsna
- The inhabitants of the temple are actually in Vaikuntha. Lord Kapiladeva next explains the nature of the special opulences of the devotees
- The little boy was very satisfied with this, and the next day he went to his teacher and said, "I will supply you as much yogurt as you need." The teacher felt that this was very nice, and he was pleased with the boy
- The living entity gets into the body just as a person gets into a car, and he goes this way and that
- The Mayavadi philosophers say that if Krsna has become everything, there is no question of Krsna as an entity or a person. This is a materialistic idea
- The Mayavadis say that Brahman has no rupa, no form, and they suggest that we imagine some form. This is not the case with Krsna. Krsna is present in His original form, and He is described in Vedic literatures. We have recounted these descriptions before
- The mother replied, - My dear son, we are so poor that we cannot give anything. However, Krsna is the friend of the poor. If He gives you something, you can promise it to your teacher
- The process of bhakti-marga is the process of submission. There is no question of subjecting God to our imagination
- The teacher looked at the quart and said, "What is this? Hundreds of people will be coming, and you have only given this much yogurt?" The teacher became so angry that he spilled the yogurt out of the container
- The true enjoyment derived from these relationships can be attained in the spiritual world with Krsna
- The word vana means "forest." Before taking sannyasa, a man would leave his family and go to the forest to begin practicing austerities. Vanam gato yad dharim asrayeta - SB 7.5.5
- There are no cheaters and cheated in such a relationship. If we accept Krsna as our son, friend or lover, we will never be cheated
- There are some living entities that live only a few seconds, or, at most, a night. By the morning, they are all dead. Any life in the material world is comparable to that
- There is a story of a frog in a well being approached by a friend who says, "My dear frog, I have just seen a huge body of water." "What is that water?" the frog asks
- There is an interesting story of a poor boy who was a student in school. During an annual Father's Day ceremony, the teacher requested the students to give some kind of a contribution
- There is no duality in the spiritual world. One plus one equals one, and one minus one equals one. If we love Krsna, that love will not be destroyed as love is in the material world
- These literatures were not very cheap, and only highly qualified brahmanas were able to keep them. They were worshiped in the temple as the sastra Deity. It is not that they were available everywhere
- They (mayavadi philosophers) therefore want to negate all relationships, and therefore they say no more son, daughter, lover, master or whatever. Being disgusted with these things, they try to make everything void
- This Brahma-samhita was accepted by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, who copied it when He toured South India. Formerly there were no presses to print these literatures, and these important Vedic writings were written by hand
- This is the nature of Krsna. One can take everything, and yet the same will remain. In the material world, one minus one equals zero, but in the spiritual world, one minus one equals one. That is called advaya jnana
- This one student was so poor that he could think of nothing to bring; therefore he told his teacher that he would speak to his mother first. After school, the student told his mother, - My dear mother, all my class contribute
W
- We all have some loving propensity, and Krsna is prepared to fulfill this propensity. Krsna is not a person like ourselves. We occupy one body, but Krsna is the owner of all bodies
- We are given full freedom through our activities. By pious activities, we go to the heavenly planets, and by Krsna conscious activities, we go to Vaikunthaloka
- We are part and parcel of Krsna, but somehow or other we have forgotten this
- We can also get a body like a demigod's and go to the heavenly planets. Or we can remain here in the middle planetary system. Our destination is our own choice
- We can drive this machine called the body for so many years; then it becomes old, and we have to change it for another machine. This is the process of birth and death
- We can hardly understand or comprehend the innumerable universes. The word jagat refers to this universe, but there is more than one universe
- We cannot say, "Milk is better than water. I think I will bring Him milk." This is not favorable service. Some so-called bhaktas say, "I can worship the Lord in my own way." This is simply imagination
- We drive one car for a while, and the car is finally broken, or it is smashed. We may have an accident or not, but eventually the car has to go to the junk yard. Then we have to get another car
- We have to become very humble & submissive & pray to Krsna sincerely, "Krsna, it is not possible for me to know You. Kindly explain how it is I can know You, & then it will be possible." This is the way Arjuna approached Krsna in Eleventh Chapter of BG
- We have to give up all this (wealth and possessions) and take shelter of Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and worship Him. Nor can we worship Him whimsically, but as He desires. If Krsna says, "I want a glass of water," we must bring Him water
- We have to give up the false, illusory servant, son, father or lover, for they will surely cheat us. We may love our son with our heart and soul, but that very son may some day be our enemy
- We may have a neighbor who is very wealthy, influential, wise, strong and beautiful, and we may speculate about his opulence, but if we make friends with him, we can understand his position by listening to him speak about himself
- We may love our wife very much, but some day that wife may be such an enemy that she will kill us for her own interests. There are many instances of this in history
- We therefore accept Brahma-samhita as authorized scripture, for it was authorized by the Supreme Person, Caitanya Mahaprabhu
- What is the cause of this (accepting machines)? We want to enjoy this material world with its wealth and possessions. As long as we are after material possessions, we cannot transcend the cycle of birth and death
- When a devotee is very eager to see Krsna, Krsna is so kind that He comes. "So, what are you asking?" Krsna said to the little boy
- When he bent down to pick it (yogurt) up, he saw that the container was again full. He dropped it again, and it was again full. He could then understand that it was spiritual
- When He exhales, all the universes are created, and when He inhales, they all return into His body. In this way so many universes and Brahmas are coming and going
- When we stand beside a reservoir of water, we see the tree reflected upside down. We also have the experience of a mirage in the material world. We think that there is water, but actually there is none