Ceremony (SB Lectures)

Expressions researched:
"ceremonial" |"ceremonially" |"ceremonials" |"ceremonies" |"ceremoniously" |"ceremony"

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Lecture on SB 1.1.5-6 -- London, August 23, 1971:

So as we observe fire ceremony during initiation, (break) performing functions, this ceremony was held daily in the morning. That is Vedic system. There is a section of Hindus, they are called Ārya-samājis. They do it regularly in the morning. Not exactly in the same way, but they also... (break) ...fire ceremony daily in the morning. So not only the sages... (break) ...we are also holding that ceremony. Agnir nirvāpaṇād vā.

Lecture on SB 1.2.2 -- London, August 10, 1971:

Pradyumna: Translation: "Śrīla Sūta Gosvāmī said: Let me offer my respectful obeisances unto that great sage, Śukadeva Gosvāmī, who can enter the hearts of all. When he went away to take up the renounced order of life (sannyāsa), leaving home without undergoing the sacred thread ceremony, his father, Vyāsadeva, cried out to him, 'Oh my son!' Indeed, only the trees echoed in response to the begrieved father." (SB 1.2.2)

Prabhupāda: So the question raised by the sages and saintly persons in Naimiṣāraṇya was, "After departure of Kṛṣṇa, unto whom the charge of religious principle depended?" So Sūta Gosvāmī, who is a disciple of Śukadeva Gosvāmī... Śukadeva Gosvāmī is his spiritual master. Therefore it is the etiquette, before speaking anything, the disciple should first of all offer respect to the spiritual master.

So offering respect to the spiritual master means to remember some of his activities. Some of his activities. Just like you offer respect to your spiritual master,

Lecture on SB 1.2.2 -- Rome, May 26, 1974:

Nitāi: (leads chanting, etc.)

sūta uvāca

yaṁ pravrajantam anupetam apeta-kṛtyaṁ

dvaipāyano viraha-kātara ājuhāva

putreti tan-mayatayā taravo 'bhinedus

taṁ sarva-bhūta-hṛdayaṁ munim ānato 'smi

(SB 1.2.2)

"Śrīla Sūta Gosvāmī said: Let me offer my respectful obeisances unto that great sage, Śukadeva Gosvāmī, who can enter the hearts of all. When he went away to take up the renounced order of life, sannyāsa, leaving aside home without undergoing the sacred thread ceremony, his father, Vyāsadeva, cried out to him, 'O my son!' Indeed, only the trees echoed in response to the begrieved father."

Prabhupāda: Yaṁ pravrajantam. Pravrajantam means to leave home in renounced order of life. That is called pravrajantam. Therefore a sannyāsī is called parivrājakācārya. A sannyāsī is supposed to be wandering without any shelter. That is called pravrajya. So Śukadeva Gosvāmī, he remained sixteen years within the womb of his mother. He did not come out. He was hearing his father within the womb. So this is called paramahaṁsa. So a paramahaṁsa does not require any reformatory process, because they are already reformed. Yaṁ pravrajantam anupetam (SB 1.2.2). Anu. Ana means without. Upeta. Upeta means taking shelter of guru or being offered the sacred... Upanayanam. The sacred thread ceremony is called upanayanam.

Lecture on SB 1.2.2 -- Rome, May 26, 1974:

This is the etiquette, that one should offer his obeisances to the spiritual master. (reading:) "The institution of varṇa and āśrama describes many regulative duties to be observed by the father." There are, daśa-vidhā-saṁskāra, reformatory. How it is scientific, just to bring the born child to the standard of civilization. The cats and dogs, they also beget children on the street. A human being also does like that, like cats and dogs. Then how they can expect very intelligent children, advanced children? Therefore there is method, how to beget children. So before begetting children, there is ceremony, garbhādhāna-saṁskāra, how to impregnate the wife. Garbhādhāna. It is not sex enjoyment. Therefore in the Bhagavad-gītā you will find this word dharma aviruddha-kāmaḥ aham asmi. Where is that Bhagavad-gītā? Find out dharmāviruddhaḥ kāmo 'smi.

Lecture on SB 1.2.6 -- Delhi, November 11, 1973:

This is God's teaching, that "You simply think of God." Man-manāḥ. Mad-bhaktaḥ, "Become devotee of God, worship God." Man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru (BG 18.65). You are coming here. Here is God. You are offering obeisances. It will go to your credit. Yes. This is called ajñāta-sukṛti. Those who are coming here, taking part in this ārātrika ceremony, dancing or offering some respect, everything goes to your credit. Everything will go to your credit. In this way... Just like if you make bank balance, one rupee, one rupee, one rupee, sometimes you will see, "It is now 100,000 rupees." Similarly, we are giving chance all over the world, opening this Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa temple, giving them chance to chant the glories of the Lord. That means it is going to their credit. If they take it immediately, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66), that is very nice. But if he cannot, this chance will never go in vain. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. Sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmo yato bhaktir adhokṣaje, ahaitukī (SB 1.2.6). And anyone can join.

Lecture on SB 1.2.6 -- Delhi, November 12, 1973:

As soon as there is the name of God, "Oh, you go to Calcutera.(?) Not here." This is the position. People are so much averse. And our śāstra says that when you forget God or when you are not religious... Religious means to become devotee of God. That is religion, very simple thing. Religion does not mean the ritualistic ceremonies, that "My religion, the ritualistic is this. In your religion the ritualistic is this." That may be different according to time, according to the men, according to the country, climate. That may be little different. Just like we are eating. Somebody is eating, somebody, somebody is eating something, somebody is eating. But the eating process and to derive the benefit by eating is the same everywhere. There is no difference. So you may profess any religion. That doesn't matter. You may become Christian, you may become Hindu, you may become Buddhist, you may become Sikh or anyone. There are hundreds and thousands of types of religion. It doesn't matter. But the test is whether you have learned to love God. That is all right. Then it is all right.

Lecture on SB 1.2.8 -- New Vrindaban, September 6, 1972:

That is real religion. But we have manufactured so many religions. Different societies, different circumstances, different country. Therefore it is advised herewith that you may execute any kind of religious faith or (break) ...principle, but the result should be (break) ...perfect. You can say, "I am very perfectly executing the ritualistic ceremonies, and the tenets described in my scripture, Bible or Veda or Koran." That's very good. But what is the result? The result is that you must develop or increase your tendency to hear about God. But if your ultimate truth is impersonal Mostly they consider God has no form. Then if God has no form then what he'll hear about Him. Simply formless, formless, formless. How can you, how long you can go thinking like this, "God is formless"? If God is formless, then your idea of hearing about Him is finished, because formless, there is nothing, activities.

Lecture on SB 1.2.8 -- Bombay, December 26, 1972:

These are described in the śāstras.

Besides that, the higher castes, the brāhmaṇas, kṣatriyas especially, and the vaiśyas also, they must observe the dāsa-veda saṁskāra, ten kinds of reformatory methods. The first method is garbādhāna-saṁskāra. Before giving birth to a child. There is a ceremony which is called garbādhāna-saṁskāra, and it is stated in the śāstras that if the higher castes do not perform the garbādhāna-saṁskāra and beget children like cats and dog, then he immediately comes to the position of śūdra. These are the sastric injunction. There are twenty kinds of dharma śāstra, so they have to be followed. That is human society. Not that to live like animal. That is human society. According to Vedic system, unless the human society comes to the institution of varṇāśrama-dharma, they are not to be accepted as human society. The system, the whole system was to gradually educate people to be elevated to the spiritual platform for understanding Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Lecture on SB 1.2.9 -- Hyderabad, April 23, 1974:

Because real purpose is to make him detached from this material attraction and make him promoted āpavargyasya, how to get out of this material miserable condition of life. This is called dharmasya hy āpavargyasya, not that "We have got this ceremony today, Kālī-pūjā ceremony. Let us sacrifice thousands of goats and eat and drink and enjoy." That is not the purpose. Na arthāya upakalpate. Some men... Artha means material. Paramārtha means spiritual.

So execution of dharma, religion—never mind, Hindu religion or Christian religion or—the purpose is not for any material gain. Na upakalpate. Dharmasya hy āpavargyasya na arthāya upakalpate. Then what about our sense gratification? We must have. We have got this body. We must have some facility. So that is also described here, na arthasya dharma ekāntasya. Arthasya, one who is actually a student of dharma, ekāntasya. Na arthasya dharma ekāntasya kāmo lābhāya hi smṛtaḥ. Not for sense gratification. You require some money.

Lecture on SB 1.2.13 -- Vrndavana, October 24, 1972:

Twice born, the brahmanas the kṣatriya and the vaiśyas. They are supposed to be twice-born. One birth by the father and mother, and the other birth is by the guru and Vedic knowledge. The guru is the father and Vedic knowledge is the mother. This is in Aryan civilization, this varṇāśrama, varṇa: brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra. Śūdras are once-born. They have no ceremony for twice-born. Or one who is not twice-born, he's a śūdra. If the twice-born ceremony is not observed, is not observed, then it is śūdra. Or act..., practically at the present moment, even in India, these ceremonies are not accepted or they do not care for it. And what to speak of other countries. Therefore the conclusion of the śāstra is kalau śūdra-sambhavaḥ. In this age of Kali, there are only śūdras. Practically there is no brāhmaṇa, no kṣatriya, no vaiśyas. Maybe some vaiśyas. But this is the position.

But here it is said, varṇāśrama-vibhāgaśaḥ. Unless one, unless the society comes to the institution for accepting these four varṇas and āśrama, it is not human society. And in the human society there is understanding of God, not in the animal society.

Lecture on SB 1.2.14-16 -- San Francisco, March 24, 1967:

What is the benefit of this process? The benefit of this process is karma-granthi-nibandhanam. Karma-granthi-nibandhanaṁ chindanti. Chindanti means cut off. What is that, cut off? There is a knot of our activities. Without performing this ceremony, or without following these instructions, to hear, chant, think and worship, we cannot be out of the great knot of our material activities. So long we are engaged in material activities, we are just acting one after another just like filmspool. We have seen film—one picture after another, one picture, one picture one... There are hundreds and thousand and millions of pictures. Similarly, for my past activities I am now in this picture. So my present activity is making another picture forward. Just like in my past activities I created this body. Similarly, by my present activity also I am creating my next body. So this transmigration of soul is going on. But if you adopt this process of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then karma-granthi-nibandhanaṁ chindanti.

Lecture on SB 1.2.19 -- Vrndavana, October 30, 1972:

When the yājñika-brāhmaṇas were engaged in sacrifice, Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma were requested by their friends, cowherd boys, "My dear Kṛṣṇa, Balarāma, we are hungry. Please give us some food." They knew Kṛṣṇa. That's all. Kṛṣṇa said that "There is a sacrifice, a great ceremony is going on. The brāhmaṇas, the yājñika-brāhmaṇas, are engaged. Go there and ask some food." So they approached. You'll find this description in the Kṛṣṇa book. So the brāhmaṇas refused, because they could not understand Kṛṣṇa. They thought that "Unless the sacrifice is finished, how the foodstuff can be distributed?" But they were so ignorant, that they could not understand that the person for whom the sacrifice was being performed, He's asking personally. That is ignorance.

So Kṛṣṇa says therefore in the Bhagavad-gītā, nāhaṁ prakāśaḥ sarvasya yogamāyā-samāvṛtaḥ (BG 7.25). Simply by becoming brāhmaṇa, one cannot understand Kṛṣṇa. He must become a devotee.

Lecture on SB 1.2.24 -- Los Angeles, August 27, 1972:

In this way, gradually, evolution, we come to the platform of human life. And the Vedic knowledge is meant for the human beings, not for these other animals. Therefore it is said, dhūmas tasmād agnis trayīmayaḥ. By Vedic injunction, the human society, civilized human society, they require to perform sacrifices, fire sacrifices. Just like we do in all auspicious ceremonies... It is said that through the fire, God eats. We give to the fire the grains and the fruits and other thing. That is, means, God is eating, through fire. So sacrifice means you sacrifice for God, and God is accepting. God is accepting also when we offer prasādam to the Lord, He's accepting, but we want to see. That is our disease. We want to see everything. Therefore, the fire sacrifice, you can see that whatever is offering, it is being eaten up. God can eat in many ways. Because a third-class man, they want to see that God is eating, therefore this is required, sacrifice. God, as it is stated in the Brahma-saṁhitā: aṅgāni yasya sakalendriya-vṛttimanti. His every limb of the body is as good as the other part of the body. Just like we have got our eyes.

Lecture on SB 1.2.27 -- Vrndavana, November 7, 1972:

In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam the same thing is confirmed, that the brāhmaṇas are the face of the Supreme Lord. Therefore, according to our Vedic civilization, whenever, whenever there is any ceremony, the brāhmaṇas are..., are sumptuously fed. Because brāhmaṇas are considered to be the mouth of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The mouth, the business of mouth is to speak and to eat. So brāhmaṇa's business is to speak Vedic knowledge, distribute Vedic knowledge. Veda-vādī. That is their speaking. Just like Ambarīṣa Mahārāja used to do.

sa vai manaḥ kṛṣṇa-padāravindayor

vacāṁsi vaikuṇṭha-guṇānuvarṇane...

(SB 9.4.18)

The brāhmaṇa's business is to speak about the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Just like Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is speaking about Himself... Because the purpose of Vedas is to understand Kṛṣṇa. Vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyaḥ (BG 15.15). That is the purpose of Veda. If you become a very great scholar in Vedas, but you do not know what is Kṛṣṇa, it is useless. Because Vedas means... Veda means knowledge. And Vedānta means the ultimate end of knowledge.

Lecture on SB 1.2.28-29 -- Vrndavana, November 8, 1972:

So yajña is the name of Viṣṇu. Another name of Viṣṇu is Yajña. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is said, yajñārthe karma. Karma-kāṇḍīya, rituals, religious rituals, this is meant for yajñārthe, sacrifice, or Viṣṇu. In every sacrifice there must be Viṣṇu. Those who are Hindus, following the Vedic principles, any yajña, any sacrifice, any religious ceremony you perform, there must be yajñe vara(?), śālagrāma-śilā. Without śālagrāma-śilā, no yajña sacrifice can be performed.

Here it is said, vāsudeva-parā makhāḥ. In the Viṣṇu Purāṇa it is said,

varṇāśramācāravatā

puruṣeṇa paraḥ pumān

viṣṇur ārādhyate panthā

nānyat tat-toṣa-kāraṇam

(CC Madhya 8.58)

The whole aim of varṇāśrama-dharma... Cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭaṁ guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ (BG 4.13). The brāhmaṇas, the kṣatriyas, the vaiśyas, the śūdras, the brahmacārī, the gṛhastha, the vānaprastha, and the sannyāsī—this is called varṇāśrama. This is the form of human civilization. Unless one comes to this point of executing the varṇāśrama-dharma, he's animal. Dharmeṇa hīnāḥ paśubhiḥ samānāḥ. This is dharma, to execute varṇāśrama-dharma. That is dharma. So if anyone is not executing this varṇāśrama-dharma, he's animal. Paśubhiḥ samānāḥ. That is not accepted as human civilization.

Lecture on SB 1.3.28 -- Los Angeles, October 3, 1972:

So this is going on. This is called demonic. Demon means for their own sense satisfaction, they are prepared to do anything wrong. Just like this Kaṁsa. Kaṁsa, the elder brother of Kṛṣṇa's mother, and as soon as he heard an omen from the sky that "You rascal Kaṁsa, you are taking your brother and sis..., brother-in-law and sister in your chariot to their home in their marriage ceremony, but you rascal do not know this sister's son will kill you." "Oh, my sister's son will kill me?" Immediately caught up sister: "Finish my sister." Vasudeva saw. "What nonsense you are doing? You are such a big king. And your sister, younger sister, and she is married in this auspicious moment. Why you are killing?" "No, she is the cause of my death." Then, "Your sister is not the cause of your death. Her son. That's all right. But I promise, all the sons will be delivered to you." Because it is the husband's duty to give protection. So someway or other, he saved the situation.

So this is the demon. He did not consider that "Here is my poor, younger sister. She's just now married. In jubilation she's going at her husband's home. How auspicious ceremony." And he was personally driving the chariot. But as soon as he heard that "Oh, there is danger from my sister," he did not care anything, no relationship, no ceremony, no auspicity, nothing.

Lecture on SB 1.3.28 -- Los Angeles, October 3, 1972:

Whether I shall fight and kill them? Kṛṣṇa, I don't wish to kill them. Let them enjoy." This is demigod, In spite of the other party, aggressor in so many ways, he was thinking. And here you see Kaṁsa, simply for the news that in future his sister's son will kill him, immediately he was prepared to kill his sister. And in the marriage ceremony. This is the distinction between demigod and demon. Just try to understand. A demon has no consideration.

So in this age, Kali-yuga especially, demoniac, everything, demons, godless. Demon means godless. Indrāri. Demons means Indra, or indrasya ari. Ari means enemy. Indra is demigod. And his enemy, that is demon. Indrāri. Just like you are, when you go to preach Kṛṣṇa consciousness, you have got so many enemies. They do not act directly, but they are very much envious: "What these nonsense are chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa?" You see? They want to disturb. Just like we have to close this door because the demons will disturb. You see? So demons means enemy of the demigods, enemy of the devotees. Those who are God conscious, those who are abiding by the orders of God, they're demigods. God.

Lecture on SB 1.5.8-9 -- New Vrindaban, May 24, 1969:

If he has got little Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he'll deny, that "What is this merging? This is hellish. We want to dance with Kṛṣṇa. Why shall I merge and lose my existence, individuality?" And karmīs, they are trying to be elevated in the higher planets. Just like they are trying to go to the higher planets by sputniks, similarly, there are ritualistic ceremonies. Yānti deva-vratā devān (BG 9.25). By performing all the ritualistic ceremonies, sacrifices, you can elevate yourself to the higher planets: yānti deva-vratā devān. That is another method. And this method also, another method, they want to go direct by machine. But that tendency is there everywhere, that "We may go to this sun planet, moon planet, this planet."

But Prabodhānanda Sarasvatī, he says, (chuckling) "Oh, you are trying to go to other higher planets by your karma, by his work? Oh, this is just like horse egg. Huh? Why should you bother yourself?" Horse egg means it has no substance. As, like there is no existence of horse egg, similarly, even if you attain that higher planetary system, what do you gain by that? You don't gain anything, because the four principles of material existence will continue there also. Birth, death, old age, and disease, you cannot stop. You may live for a greater period—that is possible in higher planets.

Lecture on SB 1.5.8-9 -- New Vrindaban, May 24, 1969:

"As you have described in all the Vedas and Upaniṣads about religiosity or economic development or the procedure of sense gratification or merging into the Supreme, in that way you have not described the glories of the Lord. You have given more importance to the material activities."

Just like in the Vedas there are ritualistic ceremony of performing great sacrifices. What is the meaning of that sacrifice? That means you get a very opulent position in your next life or in this life. So people are attached to such thing. Veda-vāda-ratāḥ pārtha nānyad astīti vādinaḥ. Bhagavad-gītā, you'll find. People are very much attracted by these ritualistic ceremonies. Not only the followers of the Vedas; in every religion, if you perform some ritualistic ceremony, oh, they are very much attracted. And if you simply say, "Let us chant Hare Kṛṣṇa," they will not be very much attracted. So veda-vāda-ratāḥ pārtha nānyad astīti vādinaḥ. So we should not be like that. Our business is how to glorify the Supreme Lord, how to glorify Kṛṣṇa. Then all success is there.

Lecture on SB 1.5.14 -- New Vrindaban, June 18, 1969:

You can go on with you, with it," then where is the reformation? There is no question of... He, he's already addicted. So it is encouragement. So similarly, in the dharma-śāstra... Just like in Mahābhārata there is... (aside:) Where is that "cut cut" noise? Don't make that sound. Just like in marriage ceremony. Marriage ceremony... Of course, in your country, the marriage ceremony is different. In India still, the people spend as much as possible in the marriage ceremony, millions of dollars. If one man is rich, he'll spend for his son's marriage or daughter's marriage. That is a great credit. "Oh, this man is very rich man. He's spending so much money." So there are so many religious performances, ritualistic performances. You have to spend money. So you must find out so many performances. So they have all these in the śāstras.

So Nārada Muni says that "What is this, marriage ceremony? The marriage ceremony is to allow the boy and the girl for legitimate sex life. That's all. So that propensity he has already got."

Lecture on SB 1.5.14 -- New Vrindaban, June 18, 1969:

And what is the use of making such propaganda and spending so much money?" Very practical proposition. But in the śāstras there are. Similarly, drinking or meat-eating. According to Vedic śāstra, meat-eating is not allowed by purchasing from the slaughterhouse. No. They... There is motive. The marriage ceremony or the meat-eating, the so much ritualistic performances, there is motive. What is that motive? Motive is restriction. Just like the same example, marriage: the real idea is to restrict the boy and the girl to one woman and one man. That is the idea, main idea. If he's not married, then he will be just like cats and dogs. So idea is very good. But Nārada Muni says, "After all, you're coming to the point of sex life. So why so much propaganda?" Similarly, for meat-eating, there is also sanction in the śāstras, tāmasika-śāstra, not sāttvika. There are three divisions of śāstra-sāttvika, rājasika and tāmasika. Those who are meat-eaters, cannot give up meat-eating, for them, the prescription is, "All right, you can eat meat, but you have to sacrifice one goat, but not cow."

Lecture on SB 1.5.14 -- New Vrindaban, June 18, 1969:

You do, act something, and you want to enjoy the fruit. That is called kāma karma. Karma, akarma, vikarma. There are three kinds of activities. First karma is prescribed duties. And akarma means to do act, but the result is not enjoyable by you. And there is vikarma. Vikarma means doing against. So this kāma karma. People are engaged in ritualistic ceremony for receiving some result for sense gratification. That is nindam. That is abominable. Nindam.

Sva-bhavata eva raktasya ragina puruṣasya dharma-kṛte, dharmārtham anuśāsas tataḥ mahān vyatikramaḥ(?): "So this is not good for you. It is most abominable." Kutaḥ iti utaḥ yasyeti vākyataḥ ayaṁ mukhya dharma: "Because they will accept it as authority, and they will think this is religion." They will not make further progress. They will stick to that principle. So therefore it is abominable. Yatasya kāma karmādi anyayena tattva-jñānena kriyamānāya(?). Tattva-jñānena.

Lecture on SB 1.5.15 -- New Vrindaban, June 19, 1969:

One is going punctually to the church or to the temple and executing all ritualistic ceremonies very rigidly, following the rules and regulations. But at the end if he has not developed love for God, then, Bhāgavata says, śrama eva hi kevalam: "This is simply laboring, formalities." Caste priest, caste gosvāmī, caste spiritual master—simply a formality. But the objective is not Kṛṣṇa. Objective is material happiness. That sort of religiosity or following the regulative principle will not help.

So Vyāsadeva says, jugupsitam: "This is abominable, because if you simply stick to that principle... You are authority. People will understand that this is religion, nothing more." Na manyate tasya nivāraṇam janaḥ, yad-vākyataḥ. Nanu yad pravṛtti-mārga nindate 'tha nivṛtti-mārge sarva-kriyā-tyāgena parameśvara-sukhasya rūpe anubhuteḥ kiṁ tad yaśaḥ-kathānenāpi tatrāha vicakṣaṇaiti, vicakṣaṇa ati-nipunaḥ kaścid eva nivṛttitaḥ sarva-kriyā-nivṛttya, asya bibhaḥ sukhaṁ nirvikalpaka-sukhātmākaṁ svarūpaṁ vedituṁ jñātum arhati.(?) One may be very expert in the matter of executing religious performances, but that does not mean he can be elevated to the spiritual platform."

Lecture on SB 1.5.15 -- New Vrindaban, June 19, 1969:

So this picture was given in our Back to Godhead. Perhaps you all remember that a bridegroom party was to go to the bride's home. In India the marriage party, bridegroom party, the bride, his father, his relatives, go with the bride, bridegroom, to the bride's home, and the marriage ceremony takes place there in the presence of all kinds of relatives. That is the system. So the marriage was to take place in a different village some miles away, and in Bengal the land is full of rivers. The rivers are considered to be high roads. So it was settled that the bridegroom's party will start in the evening before the marriage day and reach there in the morning and rest whole day, and in the evening the marriage will take place.

So they got up in a boat, and the boat was started and the, all the members of the bridegroom's party, the, they fell asleep. It was on the river. The breeze was very pleasing. And next morning when they arose, they saw they were standing on the same place. Then they were surprised, "How is that?" The boatman was asked, "How is that, we are in the same place? We have not proceeded even a few yards. How is that?" The boatman said that "We were plying the whole night.

Lecture on SB 1.5.15 -- New Vrindaban, June 19, 1969:

That is real brahminical qualification. Truthful, clean, wise, God consciousness—these are brahminical qualifications. We are giving thread ceremony to our disciples to recognize him that he has got the brahminical qualifications. He has given up this meat-eating, illicit sex life, gambling and intoxication. He is chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. He is being purified gradually. He's trying to understand Kṛṣṇa. Therefore he's always pure. This is the recognition. This thread ceremony is recognition. But if we simply make it a show, that "Now I have got thread. I have become liberated. I may not do anything," and then again I fall down... The same principle is always going on, māyā and Kṛṣṇa.

Just like in India, those who are born in brāhmaṇa family, they are falsely proud that "We are born in brāhmaṇa family. Now we are perfect. Now we can do any nonsense thing. Still I am brāhmaṇa." And it is actually being done. They are doing work less than a śūdra, and still, they are passing on as brāhmaṇa. That is the cause of India's spiritual falldown. Some people, they have exploited simply being born in high family. But actually that is not the position. Actual position is by quality. If one has got the quality of a brāhmaṇa, then he should be recognized as brāhmaṇa, as we are doing here. Here nobody is born in a brāhmaṇa family, but how we are offering him sacred thread? By the quality.

Lecture on SB 1.5.17-18 -- New Vrindaban, June 21, 1969:

Now, those who are karma-kāṇḍīya, karmīs... Karmīs means those who follow strictly the ritualistic ceremonies, as it is indicated in the Vedas. They are karmīs. Karma, akarma and vikarma. There are three divisions of our activities. Generally we say karmīs, ordinary men, who are working hard to earn some money and enjoy. Actually, they are not karmīs. They are vikarmīs. Real karmīs... Just like a thief. A thief is stealing. That is also certain kind of activity. It is not inactivity. So we cannot say that this is bona fide activity. He's also planning. He's also making plan, how to steal, how to go upstairs of the house and then come down. So there is activity. But such kind of activity is not bona fide activity. Therefore, according to śāstra, it is called vikarma. Vikarma means it is counteractivity. Activity means you have to work legally. That is activity. If you say that "I am very much active in stealing," then that is not excused. Then you'll... Government will say, "Please stop your activity. You come into the prison." Yes.

Lecture on SB 1.5.17-18 -- New Vrindaban, June 21, 1969:

Therefore, generally, Vedic, those who are following the Vedic principles, they become active in the ritualistic ceremony. The idea is they'll be promoted to higher planets and will be able to enjoy better sense gratification. Suppose a man is very rich and he has got ten thousands of years' living condition. Then he thinks, "Oh, how happy I am. For ten thousands of years I shall be able to gratify my senses." So the karmīs are like that. They want actually sense gratification, but they want higher standard of sense gratification. Yes. That is their... We are... Economic development, in this planet. What is this economic development? That means if we get go more money, then we shall be able to gratify our senses more perfectly and more satisfactorily. That is the idea. Actually, either you become karmī or vikarmī, they are all on the platform of sense gratification.

So one is going down, and one is going up. So Nārada Muni says that tasyaiva hetoḥ prayateta kovido na labhyate yad bhramatām upary adhaḥ: (SB 1.5.18) "You should try."

Lecture on SB 1.5.17-18 -- New Vrindaban, June 21, 1969:

To remain a little poor is better condition for developing Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Therefore our duty should be not to become a very great man in the consideration of these materialistic men. If he wants thousands and millions of dollars, become like a Rockefeller or Ford, that will be great a estimation of these common materialistic man, but from spiritual point of view, such things have no value—unless such opulence is engaged in the service of the Lord. Otherwise, it is the cause of falldown.

So Nārada Muni says that "Just try to save people to take to this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, and other things will automatically... Whatever is destined by the laws of nature, they will get it. So there is no need of performing ritualistic ceremonies for being promoted to the heavenly planets or this or that. It is useless. What does he gain by that? He'll come down again. So don't teach them like that. Simply teach them to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. That will make their life successful."

Lecture on SB 1.5.18 -- New Vrindaban, June 22, 1969:

So Bilvamaṅgala Ṭhākura was very rich man. He was born in a very rich brāhmaṇa family. And he was addicted to prostitute. By some way or other, he had some inclination like that. So he could not finish Kṛṣṇa consciousness. He fallen down. But at a opportune moment he got again the Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

How is that? The incidence is that he was performing the śrāddha ceremony of his father, but he had a girlfriend, prostitute. So he wanted to go there very quickly. So somehow or other he finished. And he wanted to go there. But on the road he found that it was very heavily raining and he had to cross the river. So he did everything. And he... The prostitute was... She thought that "Bilvamaṅgala is not coming today. It is very..., so much raining." So when she saw that Bilvamaṅgala is at the door, she was astonished. She said, "Bilvamaṅgala, how did you come here in this rainy, torrents of rainy...?" So he disclosed everything that how he catched one dead body in the river, then he crossed the river, then he jumped over the wall. So she was astonished, and she simply said, "Oh, this much affection if you would have with Kṛṣṇa, how you would have been... Your life would have been nice."

Lecture on SB 1.5.24 -- Vrndavana, August 5, 1975:

Then when the sambandha is established by marriage, when the boy or girl is married, then the sambandha is done. "Now... Now the boy and the girl may remain separately in their respective homes." No. That is abhidheya. Abhidheya. When they are united by the marriage there must be dealings between them. That is called abhidheya. Abhidheya. Abhidheya means not that "Our now marriage ceremony, relationship is established. Now you Mr. such and such, you go home, I go home." No. There must be actual activities. The wife should take care of serving the husband, and the husband should take care of the wife. Then the relationship... Why this relationship? Why these are activities? Now, there is prayojana.

What is that prayojana? To get son. Marriage means to get son. That is prayojana. Putrāyate kriyate bhāryāḥ. Bhāryā means wife. One has to accept a bhāryā, a wife, why? Putrāyate. For the matter of getting a son. Why? Why there is necessity of getting a son? Putra-piṇḍa-prayojanam.

Lecture on SB 1.5.24 -- Vrndavana, August 5, 1975:

There is a hell which is called put. So from that hellish condition, one who delivers, trāyate iti tra, therefore he is called putra. This is... Every Sanskrit word has got meaning, root meaning. Putra. Putra-piṇḍa-prayojanam. Putra is required. Why? After death, if by chance the father does not get ordinary life or goes to the hellish condition of life, the son will deliver. Therefore śrāddha ceremony. There is śrāddha... What is that śrāddha ceremony? Śrāddha ceremony means to offer foodstuff to Viṣṇu, and with the prasādam, to the forefathers or father it is offered so that by eating prasādam, if he is in ghost life or in hellish life, he'll be delivered. This is called śrāddha.

So it is the duty of the son, śrāddha ceremony. And Advaita, Advaitācārya, He was also performing the śrāddha ceremony, and He offered the prasādam, the remnants of foodstuff, to Haridāsa Ṭhākura. Haridāsa Ṭhākura. Haridāsa Ṭhākura was in Śāntipura, and he was chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra day and night, and when he was to take some prasādam he used to come to Advaitācārya's place and take prasādam there. So one day Haridāsa Ṭhākura asked Advaitācārya that "Why You are giving me prasādam?" Means he presented himself that "I am coming from Muhammadan family, but why You take so much care upon me?"

Lecture on SB 1.5.24 -- Vrndavana, August 5, 1975:

And still, we are also following Nārada Muni's path, Nārada Pañcarātra. Our method is Nārada Pañcarātra.

So Nārada Muni is the original spiritual master of Vyāsadeva, and from Vyāsadeva our disciplic succession is coming. Therefore guru is representative of Vyāsadeva. On his birthday the ceremony is offered as Vyāsa-pūjā. This is the disciplic succession. So we should try to follow Nārada Muni. Mahājano yena gataḥ sa panthāḥ (CC Madhya 17.186). There are twelve mahājanas, great authorities, of whom, out of the twelve, Nārada Muni is one of them. Svayambhūr nāradaḥ śambhuḥ (SB 6.3.20). Svayambhūr nāradaḥ śambhuḥ, yes. Is not that the verse? Svayambhūr nāradaḥ śambhuḥ kapilaḥ kumāro manuḥ. So Nārada's name is there, the, one of the mahājanas. So Nārada Muni is mahājana, and he became mahājana on account of his austerity and following the principles. So anyone who follows Nārada, he also becomes mahājana. This is the disciplic succession.

Lecture on SB 1.5.35 -- Vrndavana, August 16, 1974:

There are so many activities, factories, mills, and scientific research work, so many. This is laukikī. So Kṛṣṇa does not say... Yes. The Sūta Gosvāmī does not say that simply by vaidikī activities, big, big ritualistic ceremonies, you can be happy. You can be happy even by laukikī. Laukikī mean these material activities. Generally, people understand, big, big factories nowadays, or agriculture or anything, there are laukikī. Laukikī means for maintenance of the body. So Nārada Muni recommends that yad atra, anything you are doing, kriyate. Atra means in this material world, atra. Yad atra kriyate karma bhagavat-paritoṣaṇam. It doesn't matter that you do not understand these Vedic rituals, but you want to develop the economic position of your country by industrial enterprises. Yes, that is also good. That is also good. How? Bhagavat-paritoṣaṇam. If it is conducted for the satisfaction of Kṛṣṇa, then it is good.

So our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement does not say you stop anything. No.

Lecture on SB 1.7.5 -- Vrndavana, September 4, 1976:

You may be a very religious person, executing the ritualistic ceremonies very nicely, very expertly, but if you do not know Adhokṣaja, Viṣvaksena... Viṣvaksena is another name of Kṛṣṇa. If you do not become anxious to understand, athāto brahma jijñāsā, then all these ritualistic ceremony of religion, of different types of religion, śrama eva hi kevalam. Simply waste of time. The jñānīs, they are simply trying to understand. No. You can go on understanding, but if you do not come to the understanding abhidheya... No. Abhidheya is acting actually. Sambandha is understanding. So if you do not come to the platform of acting, abhidheya, then simply understanding will not help you. And acting also with the aim to achieve.

So that has been explained by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, what is that aim: premā pum-artho mahān. That is wanted. That is wanted. You have to develop your natural love for God, Kṛṣṇa. Then it is perfect. That, therefore, anarthopaśamam. As soon as we come to the stage how to love Kṛṣṇa, then our all anarthas, misgivings, are finished. Anarthopaśamaṁ sākṣād bhakti-yogam adhokṣaje (SB 1.7.6). So the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Bhagavad-gītā, lokasya. They are rascals, fools, ajānata.

Lecture on SB 1.7.6 -- Vrndavana, April 23, 1975:

Nowhere you will find bhāgavata-saptāha is recommended. No. Bhāgavata should be studied every day. Nityaṁ bhāgavata-sevayā. That is recommended. Naṣṭa-prāyeṣv abhadreṣu nityaṁ bhāgavata-sevayā (SB 1.2.18). Nityam. Nityam means always, at least daily. So these temples are meant for hearing Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam daily. That is wanted. Not that I make a ceremony, I hear for one week. Without understanding a word of Bhāgavata, I hear for one week, and the business is finished—no. You have to hear Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam daily, regularly. Then anartha upaśamaṁ sākṣāt. This sātvata-saṁhitā is given by Śrīla Vyāsadeva so that... We are fools, rascal, ajānataḥ, ajānataḥ. Lokasya ajānataḥ. All these fools and rascals, if they hear with great attention from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam about the activities and glories of Kṛṣṇa... Yasyāṁ vai śrūyamāṇāyāṁ kṛṣṇe parama-pūruṣe (SB 1.7.7). He is the parama-puruṣa. That is the verdict of all Vedic literature. Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ (Bs. 5.1). He is īśvara, parama-puruṣa, the Supreme Person. Īśvara means the Supreme Person. In the English dictionary also it is said "God means the Supreme Person."

Lecture on SB 1.7.7 -- Vrndavana, September 6, 1976:

And it is actually surprising. Why? Because the bhakti is there. It was not awakened by the so-called leaders and the priests. It was not awakened. Religion means to awaken that Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is religion. Sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmo yato bhaktir adhokṣaje (SB 1.2.6). That is religion. Religion is not formalities and ritualistic ceremonies. Religion means how to awaken the normal condition, to become lover of God. That is normal condition. Love is there, but because we have no objective, because we have no instruction where to place our love we are loving so many things—up to the dog. Instead of God we are loving dog. Love is there.

So bhakti means yato bhaktir adhokṣaje. That means..., bhakti means love. Unless you have bhakti... Just like you are giving me so many garlands. Why you are giving me? Because you love me. Otherwise there was no necessity. There was no necessity. A third person is not coming. But because you have got some love, therefore you are worshiping your spiritual master. So bhakti means love.

Lecture on SB 1.8.18 -- Mayapura, September 28, 1974:

"How to perform yajña? It requires so much money, so much ghee, so much food grains to offer as oblations." But Kṛṣṇa has made it very easy. Yajñaiḥ saṅkīrtana-prāyair yajanti hi sumedhasaḥ (SB 11.5.32). Yajñaiḥ saṅkīrtana-prāyaiḥ. I know, the śāstras know that in the Kali-yuga it will be very difficult to perform the ritualistic yajña ceremony because people will be poor, poverty-stricken. Where they will get ghee, and where they will get grains? No. This is yajña: kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva nāsty eva gatir anyathā. Harer nāma harer nāma harer nāmaiva kevalam (CC Adi 17.21). This is yajña.

So people are so rascal, they will not even chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. Kṛṣṇa, svayaṁ bhagavān... Caitanya Mahāprabhu, He introduced. Saṅkīrtanaika-pitarau. Gaura and Nityānanda is the father of the saṅkīrtana movement. Therefore Vṛndāvana dāsa Ṭhākura has offered his prayer, saṅkīrtanaika-pitarau ajanu-lambita-bhujau kanakavadhatau, saṅkīrtanaika-pitarau kamalayatakṣau vande mahā-puruṣa te caraṇāravindam(?). So Kṛṣṇa is teaching. Kṛṣṇa is so kind.

Lecture on SB 1.8.24 -- Mayapura, October 4, 1974:

So Karṇa also went to contest, and he had very much attraction for Draupadī, but Draupadī wanted to get Arjuna as her husband. So she pointed out... Because she knew that "If Karṇa takes the contest, he will be victorious. Karṇa is more expert than Arjuna"; therefore she played a trick that "This svayaṁvara ceremony is meant for the kṣatriyas, not for others. I cannot accept my husband, anyone else except the kṣatriya.

So Karṇa is not a kṣatriya." Karṇa's history is that Karṇa is the pre-marriage son of Kuntī. Before her being married, she was born of Kuntī from the ear. Therefore his name is Karṇa. But still, out of social fear, Kuntī did not kill the child. Nowadays they kill. But he floated the child on a boat, and the boat was let loose, go anywhere. So one carpenter collected Karṇa and raised him. But he was kṣatriya. He was Kuntī's son, born by sun, sun-god, Sūrya. So Kuntī had the power of calling. He got the benediction from Durvāsā. Durvāsā gave her the benediction that "You can call any demigod, and at once he will come by this mantra." So when Kuntī was young, not married, so Durvāsā became the guest of her father, and she served Durvāsā Muni very nicely, attending as maidservant.

Lecture on SB 1.8.29 -- Los Angeles, April 21, 1973:

So Nārada came to see. "Kṛṣṇa has married 16,000 wives. How He's dealing with them, let me see." So he, when he came here, he saw in 16,000 palaces, Kṛṣṇa is acting differently. And somewhere He's talking with His wife. Somewhere He's playing with His children. Somewhere He's getting marriage ceremony of His sons and daughters. So many, 16,000 ways He's engaged. That is Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa, although... Just like He was playing just like ordinary child. But when Mother Yaśodā wanted to see His mouth open, whether He has eaten earth, dirt, He showed within the mouth all the universes. So this is Kṛṣṇa. Although He is playing just like ordinary child, ordinary human being, but when there is need, He shows His Godly nature.

Just like Arjuna. He was driving the chariot, but when Arjuna wanted see His universal form, immediately He showed him. Thousands and millions of heads and weapons. This is Kṛṣṇa. So na yasya kaścit. Otherwise Kṛṣṇa has no enemy. Kṛṣṇa has no friend. He is completely independent. He does not depend on enemy.

Lecture on SB 1.8.40 -- Mayapura, October 20, 1974:

You can lie down here. And where is... What is the necessity of keeping a waterpot?" Because a sannyāsī, even giving up everything, he keeps one waterpot. So Śukadeva Gosvāmī criticizes, "What is the use of keeping waterpot? You have your palms. You can take water from the river and drink." Cirāṇi kiṁ san..., pathi na santi. And old cloth, thrown away... Formerly, gṛhasthas, in different ceremonies, after taking bath, they would throw away their garments, their..., so that poor people, they can take it and use it. And new. Every religious function... In our childhood also we have seen. As soon as there was a new function or pūjā, there was new cloth. Even household pūjā... That takes place practically every month. Lakṣmī-pūjā, Kārttika-pūjā... Bara mase tara upara bhan.(?) The... Actually there are twelve months, but the festivals are thirteen. It was very difficult to adjust where the another festival, in which month it should be observed. So we have got experience—in Lakṣmī-pūjā, all new cloth. The children, at least, at least the children and the housewife will have new cloth for every function.

Lecture on SB 1.8.47 -- Mayapura, October 27, 1974:

This is represented by the alphabet pu, and trāyate, tra. Combined together, putra. The putra's duty is to save the father from hellish condition of life. Therefore there is śrāddha ceremony. So here is a putra. Real putra, Prahlāda Mahārāja, that he saved his father from the hellish condition of life. Similarly, a father should be the protector of his child not only simply by feeding him, making him very fat in this life, but from death. Na mocayed yaḥ samupeta-mṛtyum, pitā na sa syāt. One should not become father, one should not become mother, one should not become guru, one should not become relative, husband, and so many. The list is there. Why? If he cannot save his subordinate from imminent death. That is father; that is mother; that is guru. And how one can be saved from imminent death or repeated death? Simply by Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Lecture on SB 1.8.51 -- Los Angeles, May 13, 1973:

Unless she has attained puberty, she is not... She lives with her parents. But she knows that "I have got my husband." This consciousness is a great pleasure for a women psychologically, that "I have got husband." A very nice system. And when the girl grows up, puberty, then again another ceremony is taken. That is almost like second marriage. The girl goes to her husband, to live with her husband. This was the system.

So women were taken so much care by the Vedic civilization. Still they are taken. It is the duty of the father... Until she is married, it is the duty of the father to give her all protection. Therefore the father wants to get her married, to get relief from the responsibility. He has a great responsibility. It is called kanyā-dāya. Actually the word is called kanyā-dāya. Putra-ṛṇa. Ṛṇa means debt. If you are debtor to somebody you may not pay it, saying, "Sir, I have no money. Whatever you like, you can do." But dāya means a great burden. It must be get relieved of.

Lecture on SB 1.8.51 -- Los Angeles, May 13, 1973:

It must be get relieved of. Dāya means a great responsibility. Dāya. Dāya-bhāk. Just like a son inherits the property of the father... It is called dāya-bhāk, law. Similarly, this is the, I mean to say, most obligatory duty of the father, to get the daughter married. And then it is the duty of the husband next. Just like we get... When we perform marriage ceremony in our society, we get the husband promise that he takes charge of the girl for life. And the girl agrees to serve the boy for life. There is no question of divorce.

So the father hands over the charge to a nice boy. Never mind he is rich or no. That doesn't matter. He must be a responsible boy, who knows his responsibility. Not that "Today I marry, and tomorrow I go away. That's all." Not like that. Still you will find in India, even the poorest man, living with husband and wife very happily. Still you will find. I have seen (in) Ahmedabad. One day I saw in the street one husband and wife pulling on a ṭhelā, hand-cart, with great load, and the small child is on the load. That means their child. They are laborer class.

Lecture on SB 1.9.49 -- Mayapura, June 15, 1973:

So these are the principles of the state, to see. Therefore it is called cakāra rājyaṁ dharmeṇa. Dharmeṇa, to establish dharma. Cakāra rājyaṁ dharmeṇa. How? Pitṛ-paitāmaham. The king, Yudhiṣṭhira, Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira, his father Pāṇḍu, his father, his father... This is the descendance. When Mahārāja Parīkṣit was born and the name-giving ceremony was going on, and all the learned brāhmaṇas, they predicted that this boy would be such, such-and-such powerful like such-and-such king, such-and-such munificent like such-and-such great... That description is there in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. So Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira inquired whether this boy will be loving his prajā like his forefathers. That is the first inquiry. Therefore to follow the tradition of the pitṛ-paitāmaham, forefathers... The kings... Formerly all the kings, they were following the footsteps of their forefathers. Just like Mahārāja Parīkṣit, grandson of Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira, when he saw that one black man was trying to kill one cow, he immediately took his sword, and he said, "Do you think that because there is no Arjuna, no Yudhiṣṭhira, you shall do anything you like?"

Lecture on SB 1.13.11 -- Geneva, June 2, 1974:

There is a very nice story. Nice story not, a fact. Sāvitrī-Satyavān. Sāvitrī-Satyavān. This, I mean to say, incidences are mentioned in the śāstras to give us lesson. Sāvitrī was a very chaste devoted woman. Sāvitrī. In India, to the woman, in order to become very chaste and devoted to husband, they observe the ritualistic ceremony to worship Sāvitrī Satyavān. So Sāvitrī was in love with a boy who was destined to die on the marriage date, but still, she married. She knew that "As soon as I will be married, on the same day, my husband will die." So she pleased the Yamarāja. After the death... The husband died, but she pleased the Yamarāja so much so that Yamarāja was ready to give her some benediction. So Yamarāja said, "What benediction you want?" "Now, as woman, I wish that may be a son of mine, from me." "All right, you will get a son." Then again she said that "If you are taking away my husband, how I will get my son?" So her husband was made alive. So indirectly... So kṛṣṇa-devatāḥ. If you actually want to be eternally blissful, take to kṛṣṇa-devatāḥ.

Lecture on SB 1.15.21 -- Los Angeles, December 1, 1973:

So we can create everything very wonderful, but we can take the example of Rāvaṇa. Rāvaṇa was very advanced materially, and he had Vedic knowledge sufficiently. He was son of a brāhmaṇa. Everything was there. But the only fault was that he did not care for Rāma. That is the only fault. "Oh, what is Rāma? I don't care for Him. There is no need of performing yajñas and ritualistic ceremony to be promoted to the heavenly kingdom." Rāvaṇa said, "I shall construct a staircase to go to the moon planet. Why you are trying in this way or that way? I will do that." Svargesari.(?) So these people are trying like Rāvaṇa, but they should take lesson from Rāvaṇa that his godlessness made him doomed. Everything he lost.

So this instruction by Arjuna... He said that so 'haṁ dhanus ta iṣavaḥ. He was defeated by the cowherdsmen. He could not protect the queens of Kṛṣṇa, and they were taken away by these cowherdsmen. So he is lamenting that "I have got this bow and arrow with which I fought in the Battlefield of Kurukṣetra, and I became victorious because Kṛṣṇa was sitting on my chariot.

Lecture on SB 1.15.38 -- Los Angeles, December 16, 1973:

It doesn't matter whether he is my beloved son or grandson or great-grandson. This is duty.

So this Abhimanyu, father of Mahārāja Parīkṣit, only sixteen years old... His mother Uttarā... So king of..., Mahārāja Virāṭa... So when he was born... There is Vedic ceremony, jāta-karma ceremony. After a child is born... Oh, what a horrible age we are now! We are killing before the birth of the child. This is Kali-yuga. Such... It is so welcome, auspicious, a child is born in the family. There is ceremony, jāta-karma ceremony. Before the child is born there is ceremony, garbhādhāna ceremony, sarva-bhaksana(?) ceremony. Such a nice culture. Where it has gone now? Now child is killed within the womb of the mother by the mother. This is called Kali-yuga. And it is scientific advancement. The scientists, the priests, they give order. The doctor gives out, "Yes, do it." Just try to understand what is Kali-yuga. So anyway, this is the Vedic system, that when a child is born, immediately his horoscope is made. Astrological science is so perfect.

Lecture on SB 1.15.38 -- Los Angeles, December 16, 1973:

In the Battlefield of Kurukṣetra, from all parts of the world, the subordinate kings they joined to cooperate with either of the parties, Pāṇḍavas and the Kurus. So bhūmer abhyaṣiñcat. Abhiṣeka. Abhyaṣiñcat. Just like we install Deity. We bathe the Deity with so many waters. Similarly, during installation of the king, the same ceremony takes place. Before the prince or the emperor sits on the throne, the same ceremony, abhiṣeka ceremony, is performed. Therefore it is said, abhyaṣiñcat, Gajāhvaye. Gajāhvaye means Hastināpura. Hasti means elephant. So because it is Hastināpura, therefore the name... And gaja means also elephant. It is named after elephant. There were many elephants. Just like Gokula. Kṛṣṇa's planet is known as Gokula. There are many cows, surabhī cows. Go means cow. Similarly, this capital of Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira, Hastināpura, may be taken that there were many elephants. Formerly the kings used to maintain. Otherwise who will maintain elephants? Suppose I bring one elephant, I present to you, will you accept?

Lecture on SB 1.15.38 -- Los Angeles, December 16, 1973:

Nobody can purchase horse. They have got this tin car. That also not everyone. So people have become poor. Nobody can maintain now horses or elephants or number of cows. No. That is not possible. So they are condemned now. Formerly they were maintaining. Instead of keeping a big car, they used to keep two, three elephants, number of horses, number of cows. This is domestic animals. They are domestic animals. They used to be maintained. But nowadays they cannot. But during Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira's time or before that, the city was so full of elephants that it is named after elephant, Hastināpura: "Many elephants." Still in India, in big procession, marriage ceremony, they bring some elephants. But that is in procession, elephants, horses, are demonstrated. And especially royal family. But those things have now gone. Now, instead of Hastināpura, it is now "Motorcarpura." (laughter) Just see.

Lecture on SB 1.16.1 -- Los Angeles, December 29, 1973:

Just see. Here the garbhādhāna-saṁskāra, a child has to be born. How it will be nice? When the mentality of the father and mother is completely Kṛṣṇa consciousness, so that when there will be sexual intercourse, the mentality of the child will be Kṛṣṇa conscious. This is the garbhādhāna-saṁskāra.

So as before giving birth there is a reformation ceremony, similarly, immediately child is born, there is another reformation ceremony that is called jāta-karma. Jāta-karma means immediately learned scholar, brāhmaṇas, astrologer, will come and they will make the horoscope of the child. So here it is said, yathā hi sūtyām abhijāta-kovidāḥ samādiśan. As they foretold, that "This child will be hero like this, he will be like this, like this..." That are described in the Bhāgavatam. And it was also said at that time that "This child will die, being cursed by a brāhmaṇa." That was also foretold. It is still, such kind of astrology there in India. They will speak what you were in your last birth and what you are now, and what you will be in your next birth. That is astrology. So still there are Bhṛgu-saṁhitā.

Lecture on SB 1.16.4 -- Los Angeles, January 1, 1974:

Because he has learned already the brāhmaṇa principle from the parent. So naturally little touch will make him... That is initiation. Even though one is born in a brāhmaṇa family, why does he required initiation and sacred thread ceremony? Because simply by taking birth in a brāhmaṇa family one does not become a brāhmaṇa. He has to be raised to the brāhmaṇa standard. Otherwise, there was no initiation, there was no necessity of initiation or offering the sacred thread. That is called saṁskāra. Otherwise, by birth everyone is śūdra. Janmanā jāyate śūdraḥ saṁskārād bhaved dvijaḥ. So it is very good that one has taken his birth in a brāhmaṇa family, but provided he has learned the brāhmaṇa's activities nicely from the parent, he is brāhmaṇa. Kiṁ punar brāhmaṇaḥ puṇyaḥ(?).

But if he deviates from the family principle... Just like in the śāstra it is said that in a higher class family, brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, especially brāhmaṇa, if the garbhādhāna-saṁskāra is not accepted, the whole family becomes śūdra. Garbhādhāna-saṁskāra. That means begetting the child, there is a ceremony which is called garbhādhāna-saṁskāra. So in the Kali-yuga practically no saṁskāra is performed. Therefore in the śāstra it is said kalau śūdra-sambhavaḥ. So Vedic process, Vedic principles of accepting. It is not possible in this Kali-yuga.

Lecture on SB 1.16.10 -- Los Angeles, January 7, 1974:

"Don't touch any other property." Tena tyaktena bhuñjīthāḥ: "Whatever is given by Kṛṣṇa, God, as His prasādam, you accept it. That you can enjoy. Don't touch anything." So similarly, a person should be so nicely trained up that the one wife with religious, by performing religious ceremony, is given to him, he should be satisfied with her, not to see other women, adulteration. This is Kali-yuga. This is Kali-yuga. Now this adulteration, prostitution, is common affair, common affair. Nobody sees other's wife as his mother, nobody. And neither the woman sees other's husband as father. No.

So Mahārāja Parīkṣit, when he saw that the principles of Kali-yuga, meaning adulteration, prostitution, animal-killing, drinking, intoxication, gambling, these things are coming gradually... Because the age Kali-yuga, this is Kali-yuga. Just like before winter there is some wind, very cold. One can understand, "Now winter is approaching."

Lecture on SB 1.16.19 -- Hawaii, January 15, 1974:

Now, this is śāstra. Five thousand years ago, what was written, that is now becoming true. Now there is no marriage as it was taking formerly, Vedic marriage. The father (and) mother will select the bride, bridegroom, and there will be gorgeous ceremony and marriage. The father will spend... Both parties, the girl's father and the boy's father, will spend. Still in India, there are cases like that. They'll spend their hard-earned money during the marriage ceremony of their son and daughter. But in this age, gradually, it is said, svīkāra eva codvāhe. Udvāha means marriage, taking the charge of the girl. The boy takes charge of the young girl from the custody of her father. This is marriage. Woman, according to Vedic civilization, they are not recommended freedom. They should be taken care just like children are taken care of. You cannot give independence to the children. That is not possible. Then it is not good for them. Similarly, woman also should be taken care of. They should not be given freedom. That is not good for them.

Lecture on SB 1.16.20 -- Los Angeles, July 10, 1974:

These are the symptoms of this Kali-yuga. The first thing is that "I have lost my three legs, now standing on one leg only." At the present moment in the Kali-yuga practically there is no religion. So the bull is the representative of religious ceremony, so he is saying that "Now I have lost my three legs. I am standing, only one leg."

So in the Satya-yuga people were very religious, full, four parts full. In the Dvāpara-yuga, then one part was missing, only three parts. Then Tretā-yuga. Satya, Tretā, then Dvāpara. But in the Kali-yuga the one part of religiosity, that is also diminishing. This is one of the symptoms. And another symptom: "Or are you in great anxiety because henceforward the unlawful meat-eaters will exploit you?" The unlawful meat-eaters, they will eat cows and bulls. This is predicted in this verse. The Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam was written five thousand years ago. So at that time the prediction is there that in the Kali-yuga the meat-eaters will be unlawful and they will especially eat cows and bulls.

Lecture on SB 1.16.20 -- Los Angeles, July 10, 1974:

So what is the unlawful and lawful? Lawful means so those who eat meat under the religious regulation. Just like lawful sex. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is said dharma aviruddhaḥ kāmo 'smi. Sex life, which is not illicit, according to the regulative principle of Vedic literature, that kind of sex life, Kṛṣṇa says, "I am that." That means that is pious, that is not sinful. Illicit sex life is sinful, but, I mean to say, marriage, that is also one of the function of religiosity. Just like we perform marriage ceremony under fire sacrifice, mantra. So that is legalized. Similarly, meat-eating also... First of all, the first-class men, second-class men and third-class men, means the brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya and vaiśya, they were not interested in meat-eating. Only the fourth-class men and fifth-class men, they were allowed or they were eating meat. Nobody is allowed. But the first-class, second-class men, they have got sense. They voluntarily give up. But the third-class fourth-class, fifth-class men, they do not. Up to fourth-class, they also abide.

Lecture on SB 1.16.35 -- Hawaii, January 28, 1974:

So you have to take care of yourself by the instruction. Not that, "Now I have got a spiritual master and I have got the initiation, my business is finished. Let me do all nonsense." No. This initiation process, we take promise from you that no illicit sex, no meat eating, no gambling, no intoxication-before the fire. The fire ceremony means, fire is also representation of yajña-puruṣa, and through fire, the yajña-puruṣa eats, puruṣottama. So there is fire, there is spiritual master, there is śāstra, there is Kṛṣṇa, before—they are all witness. Just like before the high-court judge you promise, "Yes I'll speak... Whatever I'll speak in this court, it is all truth." So this promise the judge knows, and he gives his judgment on that. Similarly, these promises must be kept; otherwise it will be useless. That is your business, the same thing, guru-kṛṣṇa..., that by the mercy of guru, by the mercy of Kṛṣṇa, you get the thing. Now to use the thing properly, that will depend on you. Guru-kṛṣṇa-kṛpāya bhakti-latā-bīja (CC Madhya 19.151). I can give you very nice thing, but you keep it locked up in your treasury and never use it, then what will you do? Mālī haya sei bīja kare āropaṇa. You have to sow it and pour water and see that it is nicely growing.

Lecture on SB 1.16.35 -- Hawaii, January 28, 1974:

So don't think that after the official ceremony of initiation your business and my business is finished. No. The business begins. It is not the finishing; it is the beginning. So if you don't go farther, ādau guru-āśrayaḥ... The beginning is to take shelter of guru. That is the beginning. And, adau guru-āśrayaḥ, then the student must be very inquisitive, sad-dharma-pṛcchā. Sādhu-mārga-anugamanam. You'll find all these things, instruction, in The Nectar of Devotion. They are there.

So today some of you are going to be initiated. This is the beginning of your spiritual life. But if you don't take care for farther development, then that is up to you. You may fall down. Because māyā is very strong. Māyā will place so many impediments. She does not like that so easily you go back to home, back to Godhead. That is māyā's business. Daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī (BG 7.14). Just like police. Police business is to see the criminal that is actually, he is in his original consciousness to become law-abiding citizen. Otherwise police will go on punishing him. That is police affair. Similarly, this māyā is the police agent. Her business is to chastise you. Every moment this is going on. Ei rūpe brahmāṇḍa brahmite kona bhāgyavān jīva.

Lecture on SB 2.1.1 -- Paris, June 9, 1974:

Or one who is elevated to the moon planet, he is living there for ten thousands of years. Ten... What kind of ten thousands of years? In the moon planet, one day equal to our six months. Such months' year, and ten thousands of years. That is the duration of life in the moon planet. Those who are karma-kāṇḍīya, perform ritualistic ceremonies very nicely, they are promoted to the moon planet. And there are other planets also. This is Svargaloka. There are seven planetary systems upwards, and seven planetary systems downwards. Now we are living in the Bhūrloka, middle. Then above this, there is Bhuvarloka. Above this, there is Svarloka. Above this is Janaloka, Maharloka, Tapoloka, Brahmaloka. So this āroha... You cannot go to the Brahmaloka, although there is śāstra... Or you cannot go to the sun planet also. You are seeing every day, but go there. But you have no right. You cannot go.

So therefore this process, that "I shall go by my strength. I shall know by dint of my own knowledge, research work," these are all rascaldom. It is not possible.

Lecture on SB 2.3.1 -- Los Angeles, May 19, 1972:

Therefore, before death, one... Manīṣiṇām, manuṣyeṣu manīṣiṇām. Not ordinary man. Manīṣī. Manīṣī means thoughtful. They question, "What is to be done now, before death comes? Shall I die like cats and dogs, or shall I die like human being?" This is the question. Cats and dogs dying, nobody cares. But a human being dying, there are so many ceremonies, mourning.

Because human life is important. So Parīkṣit Mahārāja, although he was on the threshold of death, he was allowed seven days time. He was cursed to death, but he was given seven days time. "You, king, you shall die within seven days—after seven days—being bitten by serpent." This is was the curse given to him. He accepted. He could counteract it. Parīkṣit Mahārāja was Vaiṣṇava. He was very powerful. But he thought that "Yes, I am offender. The brāhmaṇa boy has cursed me, I shall accept it." So, he prepared himself for death. For seven days he placed himself on the bank of the Ganges without drinking a drop of water, and for seven days continually, he heard Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam from Śukadeva Gosvāmī. That was decided.

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

"By the grace of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, we had the chance of being born in a Vaiṣṇava family, and in our childhood we imitated the worship of Lord Kṛṣṇa by imitating our father, and our father encouraged us in all respects to observe all functions such as Ratha-yātrā and Dola-yātrā ceremonies, and he used to spend money liberally for distributing prasāda to us children and our friends. Our spiritual master, who also took his birth in a Vaiṣṇava family, got all inspirations from his great Vaiṣṇava father Ṭhākura Bhaktivinoda. That is the way of all lucky Vaiṣṇava families. The celebrated Mira Bhai was a staunch devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa as the great lifter of Govardhana Hill. The life history of many such devotees is almost the same because there is always symmetry between the early lives of all great devotees of the Lord. According to Jīva Gosvāmī, Mahārāja Parīkṣit must have heard about the childhood pastimes of Lord Kṛṣṇa in Vṛndāvana, for he used to imitate the pastimes with his young playmates.

Lecture on SB 2.3.18-19 -- Bombay, March 23, 1977, At Cross Maidan Pandal:

Dharma-kṣetra everyone knows. Kurukṣetra is still dharma-kṣetra. Everyone goes there for religious performances. Where is the difficulty? Why you make it difficult? In candra-grahaṇa, in sūrya-grahaṇa, hundreds, thousands of people still go there. This is dharma-kṣetra. In the Vedic injunction it is said kurukṣetre dharmaṁ yajet: "When you want to perform religious ritualistic ceremonies, go to Kurukṣetra." So Kurukṣetra is still there, the place is there, the station is there, and it is mentioned in the Vedas, it is mentioned in the Bhagavad-gītā. Where is the difficulty? Why you create difficulty? It is your fault that creates difficulty. Otherwise Kurukṣetra is dharma-kṣetra since time immemorial. That's all. Now chant Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Lecture on SB 2.9.4 -- Japan, April 22, 1972:

"Simply you chant." Because in this age it is very difficult... Every process... The yoga system, that is also tapasya. The jñāna system, that is also tapasya. Karma system also, that is also great tapasya. Karma means not working hard in the factory like cats and dogs. No, that is not karma. Karma means to perform the ritualistic ceremonies, big, big yajñas, sacrifices. That is karma.

So where is your money? You cannot provide your food even for two meals. That is the position. For two meals only, people are going... (break) ...twenty miles. You see? Fifty miles, sixty miles, forty miles—that is common thing. Or they are sometimes coming from 120 miles in train. And I have seen in Canada. They are going by plane from Vancouver to Montreal or something like that, their daily business. Similarly, in your country also, there are many men coming daily Los Angeles, five hundred miles by plane. This is your civilization. For two meals only, you have to make so much tapasya-fifty miles, hundred miles, five hundred miles, go and come back.

Lecture on SB 2.9.9 -- Tokyo, April 25, 1972, Informal Class in Room:

Sudāmā: Japan also. After the war...In Japan during the war the Japanese government supported a certain religious sect, Shinto religion. And they would spend thousands of dollars for ceremony for soldiers and to have good omen for the war. When they lost the war, the entire government wrote in the Constitution, now it is in the Constitution, that the government of Japan will not support any religious organization. So the people then, after losing the war, they lost faith in anything religious and they became distraught.

Prabhupāda: That is the effect of the last... The general, people in general, they expect dharma for artha. dharma for artha. The Bhāgavata therefore explains that dharmasya... Dharmasya ca... What is that?

Pradyumna: Dharmasya hy āpavargyasya?

Prabhupāda: Dharmasya hy āpavargyasya nārtho 'rthāyopakalpate. Nārthasya dharmaikāntasya kāmo lābhāya hi smṛtaḥ. Yes. Dharmasya hy āpavargyasya nārtho 'rthāyopakalpate. One should not execute religious principles for getting better financial or material facility. That is not the purpose. But they have taken it purpose. "We have supported this religious community—we must become victorious of our whimsical declaration of war."

Lecture on SB 2.9.11 -- Tokyo, April 27, 1972:

In the Twelfth Canto you will find this description, svīkāra eva ca udvāhe—all these predictions are there. "Marriage will be done simply by agreement." Now it is... Just see. It is being done. Svīkāra eva. Svīkāra means agreement: "I accept you." No actual marriage ceremony is performed. Practically marriage is going out of date. So these symptoms are there. Dāmpatye ratim eva hi. Husband and wife's relations will be stronger if there is sex power. That's all. Otherwise divorce. Just see the symptoms. Dāmpatye ratim... Sūtratam... Sūtrate... Vipra. Vipratve sūtra-dhāraṇam: "A brāhmaṇa means having a piece of thread, that's all." Vipratve sūtra-dhāraṇam. And only two-paisa worth sūtra will... Just like in India: "Oh, I am brāhmaṇa because I have got this thread." That's all. Vipratve sūtra-dhāraṇam. Avṛttyā nyāya-rahitam(?): "If you have no money, then you cannot get justice." If you are poor man, then you will never get justice. You see? First of all, if you want to get some money... Somebody, he is not paying. You have to go to court.

Lecture on SB 3.25.13 -- Bombay, November 13, 1974:

One has to learn how Kṛṣṇa takes birth. It is not ordinary birth. Had it been ordinary birth, then why we should observe the Janmāṣṭamī ceremony? It is divyam, divine, transcendental. Everything of Kṛṣṇa is divine. And if we think Kṛṣṇa as like us, then according to the statement of the Bhagavad-gītā, immediately we become a mūḍha. Avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam (BG 9.11).

So actually Kṛṣṇa is the original Supreme Being, original spirit soul. We are simply minute part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. Exactly the same example: just like the fire and the small sparks. You can see. This fireworks is going on. The fire is there, and there are small sparks. So long the fire and the small sparks are together, they are illumination. Similarly, if we connect with Kṛṣṇa, then we are illuminated. As Kṛṣṇa is illuminated, we are also illuminated, although we are small. But if we fall down from Kṛṣṇa, the original fire, we become extinguished. Our spiritual power, our spiritual illumination, becomes extinguished. Therefore yoga system means again connecting the link. That is called yoga. Yoga, the Sanskrit word, means connect, and viyoga means disconnect.

Lecture on SB 3.25.33-34 -- Bombay, December 3, 1974:

This is the purpose of putrotpāda. Pu means pun-nāmno narakāt. Pun-nāmno narakāt. Tra means trāyate, "delivers." Pun-nāmno narakāt trāyate iti putraḥ. This is the meaning of putra. But if the putra is going himself to the pun-nāmno narakāt, then who will deliver me? That is the position now. Nobody is offering śrāddha ceremony. Nobody believes in that. So anyway, if a man taking the responsibility of maintaining wife and children, why? Because he thinking that "I will enjoy life. I will enjoy good atmosphere." Everyone is trying to that. Any family you go in this evening, they are trying to enjoy life with wife and children and friends. Therefore they are taking the responsibility.

So this is ānanda, but because in this material world the ānanda is being converted into distress... But you can get the ānanda when you are with the supreme father, Kṛṣṇa. We are all children of the supreme father.

Lecture on SB 3.25.38 -- Bombay, December 7, 1974:

There is a little story, very interesting. So one poor boy, he was student in a school, and the teacher's annual ceremony of father's death would be held. So he requested all his student, "What you will give me, contribution?" Formerly the teacher was not taking any salary. But whatever he wanted, the students will bring either from parents' house or by begging. That was the system. The teacher would not charge anything. A brāhmaṇa cannot be..., charge anything. Generally, the brāhmaṇas were teachers. That is one of the profession of the brāhmaṇa. Everyone must have livelihood. So brāhmaṇa livelihood is paṭhana pāṭhana. He must become a learned scholar, and he will make others also learned scholar. That is brāhmaṇa's business. Paṭhana pāṭhana yajana yājana dāna pratigrahaḥ. Ṣaṭ-karma. Six kinds of profession for the brāhmaṇas. And kṣatriya's profession is to give protection to the citizen and levy some tax, twenty-five percent, not more than that. Whatever is income your, give twenty-five percent to the kṣatriya king. That's all. That includes sales tax, this tax, that tax, so many tax, income tax. All finished.

Lecture on SB 3.25.38 -- Bombay, December 7, 1974:

So He said that "You promise that you will supply yogurt, dahi. You will supply dahi." So he was very much satisfied. And he came to the teacher that "My Dīnabandhu brother, dādā, He will supply dahi, or yogurt, for whatever you require." "Oh, that's nice. Very good."

So on the day of ceremony, so he went to the forest again and called Dīnabandhu dādā, and He gave him a small pot of dahi, yogurt, a small pot. Oh, he was a child. He did not know. And the..., he brought it to the teacher, "Now, this is my contribution. My Dīnabandhu brother has given. So you take." "The hundreds and thousands of people will be given foodstuff and this much dahi?" He became very angry. He became angry, he did not care, and the pot fell down, and the yogurt also fell down. But after some time, when he came, he saw that although the yogurt has fallen down, the pot is full. Then he again dropped it; again it is full. He dropped it; again it is full. Then he could understand it is spiritual. Pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya pūrṇam eva avaśiṣyate (Īśo Invocation).

Lecture on SB 3.26.2 -- Bombay, December 14, 1974:

"Don't be knotted with this material world." But still, if he cannot do that, then with the permission of the spiritual master, he accepts a wife. That is gṛhastha life. But that also not for many years. Say for 25 years. After 25 years he will remain a student brahmacārī, then you accept one wife according to religious ritualistic ceremony, but no illicit sex. That is not allowed. Bachelor daddy is not allowed. That is very dangerous.

So kāmām, dharma-viruddho kāmām aham asmi, Kṛṣṇa says. Even without wife and everything. Then you take sannyāsa. That is the stage of hṛdaya-granthi-bhedanam. Hṛdaya-granthi-bhedanam. Not that up to the last point of death you are attached to a family and wife and children. That is animal life. That is not human life. Human life, you must try to unknot this hṛdaya-granthi, man and woman. Hṛdaya-granthi-bhedanam. That is self-realization. So this Sāṅkhya philosophy described by Kapiladeva is very scientifically described and if we try to assimilate it then our life will be successful.

Lecture on SB 3.26.20 -- Bombay, December 29, 1974:

If this determination is there, then everything is possible.

There is a verse, ārādhito yadi haris tapasā tataḥ kim: (Nārada Pañcarātra) "If you take the shelter of the lotus feet of Hari, Kṛṣṇa," ārādhitaḥ, "and worship it," ārādhito yadi haris tapasā tataḥ kim, "then there is no more necessity of austerities, penances, and so many other things. Simply this is required." Ārādhito yadi haris tapasā tataḥ kim... Nārādhito yadi haris tapasā tataḥ kim: "And after undergoing your religious principles and ritualistic ceremonies and austerities, penances, fully executing the occupational duty, everything done," but nārādhito hariḥ, "but you could not understand how to worship Hari," so tapasā tataḥ kim, "then what is the use of your this tapasya?" There is no use. It is simply waste of time. Śrama eva hi kevalam. This is confirmed everywhere. Śrama eva hi kevalam.

Lecture on SB 5.5.1-2 -- London (Tittenhurst), September 13, 1969:

Prabhupāda: Oh, that is ceremonial. Yes. When you offer something to Kṛṣṇa in the temple, the system is that you offer with bell. That bell offering worship, even in Christian world there is bell, church bell. So that is system everywhere. Only in Muhammadan religion they don't allow any sound. Yes. But in Hindu religion or in other religion there is sound. Sound vibration. Our whole process is sound vibration. The Muhammadans, they offer silent prayer. That is also prescribed in devotional service.

Devotee (3): Did Kṛṣṇa invent Rādhā for His own pleasure?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Not invent. Kṛṣṇa has nothing to invent. Everything is there. Invent means what was not in Him.

Devotee (3): ...created?

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes. No. It is not like that. It is always there(?), and when manifested. His energy manifested. It is for our understanding. Rādhā is always manifest constantly, but because we want to say that Kṛṣṇa is the source of everything, so He is also source of Rādhā. Janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). And another meaning is... That is explained by Gosvāmī, that Rādhā is not an ordinary woman. If somebody thinks, "Oh, Kṛṣṇa and Rādhā, They're side by side just like a boy and girl." No. If Kṛṣṇa is transcendental whole spirit, similarly the Rādhā or His expansion, Her expansion.

Lecture on SB 5.5.1-2 -- London (Tittenhurst), September 13, 1969:

Prabhupāda: Yes. In Vṛndāvana you'll find just early in the morning before... Exactly one and a half hours before sunrise all temples will ding-dong, ding-dong, like this. And people will automatically rise up and go to see the first ceremony. It is very nice. So that you'll be forced to rise early in the morning. If you practice you'll be practiced to... "Early to rise, early to..." "Early to bed, early to rise"?

Devotee (2): "...makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise."

Prabhupāda: Yes. You become automatically healthy, wealthy and wise. Yes. But here you are accustomed to sleep up to twelve o'clock. (laughs) No. That is not good. Yes?

Devotee (2): Can we chant a little while "Kṛṣṇa"?

Prabhupāda: Yes, certainly. This chanting is nice program. Now chant. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Lecture on SB 5.5.2 -- Boston, April 28, 1969:

So according to Vedic rites, marriage is a very big program. But we are finishing, according to Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, simply by acceptance. Svīkāra eva ca udvāhe. In this age it is recommended that if a girl accepts somebody as husband or if a man accepts somebody as wife, that is final. That's all. They may not change it. There is no need of making a very gorgeous ceremony of marriage. There is no need of making... That is, of course, social function. Actually, thing is that one boy should accept one girl as his permanent friend in life. And one girl should accept one boy as her permanent friend in her life. The girl should be agreed to serve the boy for her comforts, and the boy should agree to accept the girl to maintain her throughout life. That's all. Finished. Simply we must have that good will. Then this process of opening the path of liberation will be very, I mean to say, favorable. You can open your path of liberation even without marriage, remaining brahmacārī, but for girls brahmacārī system is not recommended. Therefore girls are advised to get a husband.

Lecture on SB 5.5.2 -- Hyderabad, April 13, 1975:

This is sāṅgopāṅgāstra-pārṣadam. This form of the Lord, yajñaiḥ saṅkīrtanaiḥ, He's worshiped not by ritualistic ceremony, which is very expensive or performance of yajña. That is not possible in this age because there is no yajnic brāhmaṇa at the present moment.

So this baivik-yajña (?) is permitted in the..., prohibited in this Kali-yuga because they are not properly performed. It is not possible. Just like our Śrīman Pittieji was searching after a brāhmaṇa to recite the Rāmāyaṇa, Sundarakanda. He's not getting a proper brāhmaṇa. That is the difficulty. How you can perform yajña? There is no yajnic brāhmaṇa at the present moment. Therefore the yajña to be performed at this moment in this Kali-yuga is yajñaiḥ saṅkīrtana-prāyaiḥ yajanti hi su-medhasaḥ. Su-medhasaḥ means with good brain substance. Those who have no brain substance, they are called alpa-medhasaḥ. That is also stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, tad bhavati alpa-medhasaḥ. Alpa-medhasaḥ means there is no brain substance—filled up with cow dung. So one should be su-medhasaḥ. Su-medhasaḥ, nice brain substance.

Lecture on SB 5.5.5 -- Stockholm, September 10, 1973:

Everyone has got different types of mentality. So karmātmakam means... That is general mentality, that "I shall work very nice and I shall get money and I shall enjoy life." This is called karmātmakam. Not only in this life, next life also, they are trying, those who are followers of Vedic ritualistic ceremony, by puṇya-karma. Puṇya-karma means pious activities. Pious activities, that is also activity. So according to our philosophy, we are not impressed even in pious activity. We are not interested in impious activities. We are not interested even in pious activities. This is our position.

Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura has sung, karma-kāṇḍa jñāna-kāṇḍa, kevala viṣera bhāṇḍa, amṛta baliyā jebā khāya, nānā joni sadā phire, kadarya bhakṣaṇa kare. By pious activities, you can get very nice birth. Janmaiśvarya-śruta-śrīḥ (SB 1.8.26), four kinds of material gain: to get birth in a very aristocratic family or rich family, janma, aiśvarya, to become very learned scholar, śruta, and śrī, very beautiful.

Lecture on SB 5.5.17 -- Vrndavana, November 5, 1976:

They cannot be called even brāhmaṇa family. That is the injunction of śāstra. Saṁskārād bhaved dvijaḥ. Daśa-vidhā-saṁskāra. That must be strictly observed; otherwise he is śūdra. Śūdra has no saṁskāra. Śūdra has only one saṁskāra—marriage. And the brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, they have got daśa-vidhā-saṁskāra. Before birth, when the child is in the womb, there is ceremony. Then when he is born there is ceremony. Then he's little more, little more... Just like Parīkṣit Mahārāja, when he was born, immediately all the brāhmaṇas came. Jāta-karma ceremony. A child is born. There will be some pūjā, pāṭha, and then there will be horoscope made immediately, in what moment this child is born, what will be his feature. All the brāhmaṇas made immediately horoscope. You'll find in this Bhāgavata. This is called saṁskāra. Not that like cats and dogs they are born without any saṁskāra, and because he is born in a certain family he becomes brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya. No.

Lecture on SB 5.5.23 -- Vrndavana, November 10, 1976:

In Bengal it is said, dusta gorute sunya goaloa(?): "If there is troublesome cows, better keep the cowshed zero, without cow. Don't allow." So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is meant for elevating the animal class of men to the platform of brāhmaṇa. Therefore the sacred thread ceremony is given as second initiation, that "He has practiced now śamo damo titikṣa ārjava, and he has learned what is Kṛṣṇa, what he is, what is his relationship with Kṛṣṇa, now how to act for satisfaction of Kṛṣṇa." These are brahminical qualification. If one is elevated to this platform This platform is called sattva-guṇa. Sattva-guṇa.

There are three guṇas—sattva-guṇa, rajo-guṇa, tamo-guṇa. If you remain in the lower platforms, tamo-guṇa, rajo-guṇa... Tamo-guṇa, rajo-guṇa means, as I have already explained, greediness and lust, desires. That is tamo-guṇa, rajo-guṇa. Tato rājas-tamo-bhava kāma-lobhādayaś ca ye. What is that rajo-guṇa, tamo-guṇa? Now, kama, lusty desires, and greediness, not satisfied with the minimum necessities of life, want to increase more and more, more and more.

Lecture on SB 5.6.4 -- Vrndavana, November 26, 1976:

Then jaṅgama. The jaṅgama means moving. So there are many varieties of moving animals. The insects, the birds, the beast, then human form. So how out of the human moving forms, the civilized form... Out of the civilized form, those who are in Vedic culture... Out of the Vedic culture, many are addicted to the fruitive activities, ritualistic ceremony, how to go to the heavenly planet, how to become members of rich family. They are working very hard, karmi. So out of many millions of karmīs, one jñānī... Jñānī means who understands, "What is the use of this karma, fruitive activities?" So out of many jñānīs, one is mukta, liberated. And out of many millions of mukta-koṭiṣv api mahā-mune—one is a bhakta. This is the gradual development.

So we should be very careful. We have got this opportunity of understanding Kṛṣṇa consciousness. We should not waste a single moment without Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Avyartha-kālatvam (Cc. Madhya 23.18-19). That is advised by Rūpa Gosvāmī. Every moment we shall count, "Whether I have wasted it or utilized it?"

Lecture on SB 5.6.8 -- Vrndavana, November 30, 1976:

Don't talk nonsense." Arjuna was talking so many nonsense things. So Kṛṣṇa ultimately said, "My dear Arjuna, you are My confidential friend. Therefore I am asking you. You do this. Don't waste your time. It will not help." It will help—bahūnāṁ janmanām ante (BG 7.19). You can go on with your learning, with your study of Vedas, with your practice of yoga or ritualistic ceremonies, karma-kāṇḍa, jñāna-kāṇḍa, but unless you come to this point—sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66)—there is no happiness. That is not possible. This is the confidential...

So if this confidential knowledge, one who preaches without any compromise, he is the confidential servant of Kṛṣṇa. There is no compromise. This is real religion. The Kṛṣṇa says, na ca tasmān manuṣyeṣu kaścid me priya-kṛttamaḥ. So this is the person who has received the authority to draw mercy water from the ocean of mercy of Kṛṣṇa. Sākṣād-dharitvena samasta-śāstraiḥ. And what Kṛṣṇa said five thousand years ago, the same thing Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, same thing.

Lecture on SB 6.1.1-4 -- Melbourne, May 20, 1975:

If you want to go to the higher planetary system where the demigods live, you can go there. Therefore the karmīs, by performing Vedic ritualistic ceremonies, they want elevation to the higher planetary system where the life, prolongation of life is very, very big. As we have got day and night, in the higher planetary system the waxing and waning moon, then when the moon is present there and the sky is in light, that is the day of the higher planetary system. And when the moon is dark, that is the night. That means our fifteen days, in the higher planetary system—twelve hours. Just imagine their year. And such ten thousands of years you can live if you can go to the moon planet. The day and night, fifteen days, your fifteen days, is equal to their one day. No, twelve hours. That means your one month is their one day. Now calculate one day, then thirty days, one month. Then twelve months equal to one year. Such ten thousands of years. Just imagine. You can go there and live like that, yānti deva-vratā devān (BG 9.25), if you like. But that is not eternal life.

Lecture on SB 6.1.6 -- Bombay, November 6, 1970:

So rice is in Pakistan and wheat is in Pakistan. Even cows, they were maintained by the Punjabis, big, big cows, milk-producing. They are now in the Punjab. So there is no milk, there is no rice, there is no wheat. And they have no sugar. The sugar is produced this side. In this way, always. And the Kashmir question... That is British policy. Due to this partition only, India's position is now very crippled. And these rascal leaders, they accepted partition for becoming prime minister. This policy. Gandhi never agreed. So the Jawaharlal Nehru, in order to become prime minister, he committed such a blunder. Therefore India is given... Still, if they keep to their original culture, they will not be unhappy. And you find in every city some such institution as this Gītā Bhavan, in every city you'll find. People are contributing. They are coming. They are holding ceremony, calling saintly persons, every city still. Just like we have gone to Punjab?

Lecture on SB 6.1.6 -- Nellore, January 5, 1976:

We say generally, "As sure as death." For our next life. Śukadeva Gosvāmī advises according to our Vedic principle, before death there is a ceremony which is called prāyaścitta or atonement. He advises that when a diseased man goes to a physician, the physician, after diagnosing the disease, he gives the suitable medicine. If the disease is very serious, sometimes very expensive medicine is recommended. There is some example in the Caitanya Mahāprabhu's time. One gentleman, he was a big zamindar, landholder. He was converted into a Muslim. In those days, five hundred years ago, it was not very difficult to convert a person into Muslim religion. If a Muslim would take some water from his water pot and sprinkle on the body of a Hindu, he would become Muslim. In this way, so many people were converted into Muslims. So I am quoting these instances in this respect because when in those days people would go to the brāhmaṇa to take advice for atonement they would give so severe type of atonement that it was impossible to perform.

Lecture on SB 6.1.7 -- San Francisco, March 1, 1967:

Now, if you read all these scriptures, you will find something contradictory. Just like animal killing. Animal killing, more or less, there are in every scripture, restricted or nonrestricted. There is none nonrestricted. Restricted. Even in the Koran, the animal killing is restricted. Animal is to be killed in the, in certain Bakri Eid ceremony and in the Masjid. Similarly, animal killing amongst the Hindus, they are to be done in the temple of Goddess Kālī. But no slaughterhouse is recommended. Anyway...

So if you read different scripture, you will be bewildered. In one scripture it is said... But there is adjustment. If you go to the authorized person, he can adjust. But you cannot see. You see, you'll see contradiction. So śrutayo vibhinnāḥ. Therefore they are considered different, but actually, they are not different. Śrutayo vibhinnāḥ. Tarko 'pratiṣṭhaḥ śrutayo vibhinnā nāsau munir yasya mataṁ na bhinnam. And there are speculators, so-called philosophers, putting theories and doctrines. So one doctrine is different from another doctrine.

Lecture on SB 6.1.9 -- Nellore, January 7, 1976:

So by other processes temporarily it can be ceased, but actually from the root of the cause it is not possible to get it out.

In the previous verse Śukadeva Gosvāmī gave the example that "The dried leaves of creepers beneath a bamboo tree may be completely burned to ashes by a fire, although the creepers may sprout again because the root is still in the ground." You have seen practically. On the field the grass is dried up, and sometimes fire is set and it becomes all burned into ashes. But as soon as there is rainy season, again they sprout and become green. The idea is that you may perform the religious, ritualistic ceremonies, but if your heart is not cleansed, simply by performing these ritualistic ceremonies you'll not be purified. So we have got two desires: pious desire or impious desires. So either you become desirous of doing pious thing or you desirous of doing impious things, the sufferings of this material world will continue.

Lecture on SB 6.1.18 -- Denver, July 1, 1975:

So there are different varieties of religious system, but if you execute your particular type of religious system very perfectly but the result, if you do not become attached to Kṛṣṇa, your love for Kṛṣṇa is not awakened, then simply by performing such ritualistic ceremony or rules and regulation of your religious system, if you do not become develop yourself to love God, then it is all useless waste of time. It has no meaning. That is the test, how to become, how to advance in loving service of the Lord. That is the... Then you are religious, you are philosopher, you are great man, you are everything. Otherwise, if you do not awaken your dormant love for Kṛṣṇa, or God, then all such labor is useless. Śrama eva hi kevalam. Dharmaḥ svanuṣṭhitaḥ puṁsāṁ viṣvaksena-kathāsu yaḥ, notpādayed yadi (SB 1.2.8). By performing religious ceremonies or following the religious principle, the test is how one has become advanced in the loving service of the Lord. This is required. And his example is very strong, that surā-kumbham ivāpagāḥ. Surā-kumbha, the pot which contained liquor, it cannot be purified. Therefore it is so strictly prohibited about liquor.

Lecture on SB 6.1.18 -- Denver, July 1, 1975:

Everyone likes the taste of the prasādam. I used to go in my household life to take prasādam in the temples and pay them. I used to do that. And I used to go... Especially in Śrī Rāmapur, there are two temples, one of Jagannātha and one of Rādhā-Vallabhajī. So it was very nice. On Sunday I used to go to take prasādam. So you should be habituated to prasādam as far as possible unless you are very sick, you cannot take. That is different. Otherwise you should take it. Sevonmukhe hi jihvādau (Brs. 1.2.234). Then we will remember Kṛṣṇa, and that will keep us fit and immune from all infection of material miserable condition.

So prāyaścittāni, because one, if he, one is not nārāyaṇa-parāṅmukha... Nārāyaṇa-parāṅmukha and nārāyaṇa-parāyaṇa—just the opposite. One is Nārāyaṇa..., attached to Nārāyaṇa, and one is detached to Nārāyaṇa. So Nārāyaṇa detached cannot be purified simply by performing or executing the ritualistic ceremony. That is the verdict of this verse.

Lecture on SB 6.1.19 -- Los Angeles, January 15, 1970:

Just try to understand. Here it is said that in a Kānyakubja city... There is a city, now it is called, by the British period, it is now known as Kanauj, a city in the northern India near Kanpur city... So that is very old city, because it is mentioned in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavata, and Bhāgavata was written five thousand years ago. So it means that city is famous since five thousand years ago, and it was inhabited by learned brāhmaṇas. So here it is said, kānyakubje dvijaḥ kaścid. Dvijaḥ, dvijaḥ means brāhmaṇas, kṣatriyas and vaiśyas. Especially it is meant the brāhmaṇas and the Vaiṣṇavas. Just like in this morning we had ceremony, initiation. The second ceremony will be for offering sacred thread. So one who has got this sacred thread, he is called dvijaḥ, twice-born. Twice-born. Once born by the father and mother, and the next birth is given by the spiritual master and Vedic literature. Vedic literature is the mother and the spiritual master is the father. As in every birth the necessity of father and mother is there, similarly, in this birth also, spiritual rebirth, there is necessity of mother and father.

Lecture on SB 6.1.20 -- Chicago, July 4, 1975:

And this Kurukṣetra is dharma-kṣetra. Not because the fight was there and Kṛṣṇa was on the battlefield, therefore it is called dharma-kṣetra. Sometimes it is interpreted like that. But actually Kurukṣetra was dharma-kṣetra since very, very long time. In the Vedas it is stated, kuru-kṣetre dharmam ācaret: "If one wants to execute ritualistic ceremony, he should go to Kurukṣetra." And it is the system still now in India, if there is some disagreement or quarrel between two parties, so still they would go to the temple—temple is dharma-kṣetra—so that one may not dare to speak lie in front of the Deity. This was still going on. Even one is very low in mentality, still, if he is challenged that "You are talking this false. Now speak before the Deity," he will hesitate, "No." This is India still. You cannot speak lies before the Deity. That is offense. Don't consider that Deity is a marble statue. No. Svayaṁ bhagavān. Just like Caitanya Mahāprabhu. As soon as He saw Jagannātha Deity, He immediately fainted. "Oh, here is My Lord." Not like us: "Oh, here is some statue." No. It is the question of appreciation.

Lecture on SB 6.1.21 -- Honolulu, May 21, 1976:

He has become humble, meek, well-versed in śāstra. When these all qualifications are there, then guru says, "Now I recognize you." Upanayana. Upa means near, and nayana means bringing. So gradually the spiritual master brings him nearer. Then, when he's actually trained up, then it is called... The sacred ceremony, upanayana, means he has now come nearer to understand Vedic knowledge. Then he studies Vedas, dvija. When he is initiated, then his studying of the Vedas... Veda-paṭhād bhaved vipraḥ. So after this dvija, second birth, he studies Vedas. And when he's well versed in Vedas he is called vipra. Then, by studying Vedas, when he understands Kṛṣṇa... Vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyam (BG 15.15). In the Bhagavad-gītā it is said what is Vedic study. Vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyam (BG 15.15). Vedic study means to understand Kṛṣṇa. That is Vedic study. If he does not understand what is Kṛṣṇa, then he's useless. Śrama eva hi kevalam.

Lecture on SB 6.1.39 -- Los Angeles, June 5, 1976:

"Oh, Kṛṣṇa." Then there is love. There are different stage.

So this... Real religion is love, how to love God. That is real religion Dharma, what is that? Yato bhaktir... Sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmo (SB 1.2.6). There are different kinds of dharma, or religious system. But real religious system means how we have learned to love God. That's all. Nothing more. No ritualistic ceremony, no formula, nothing. If your heart is always crying for God, that is perfect religion. That is perfect religion. Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu says, śūnyāyitaṁ jagat sarvam: "Oh, without Kṛṣṇa, I am feeling the whole world is vacant." Vacant, yes. So we have to come to that stage. Of course, it is not possible for all of us, but Caitanya Mahāprabhu showed us how to become highest religious person. That is to feel always, "Oh, without Kṛṣṇa, everything is vacant." Śūnyāyitaṁ jagat sarvaṁ govinda viraheṇa me. That is dharma, that is dharma. So the Viṣṇudūta is testing these Yamadūtas, whether he understands what is the meaning of dharma. Dharma, we cannot create.

Lecture on SB 6.1.44 -- Los Angeles, June 10, 1976:

Everyone is engaged in executing a particular type of faith or religious system, ritualistic. That's all right. Dharmaḥ svanuṣṭhitaḥ. You are Hindu; you are doing your Hindu ritualistic ceremony or religious rules and regulations. Or a Christian is doing nicely, or a Muhammadan is doing... That's all right, but we are interested—those who are followers of real Vedānta—to see the result. Phalena paricīyate. Phalena means "by the result." So what is the result? The result is by executing one's particular type of religious system, he must develop Kṛṣṇa consciousness or God consciousness. That is the test. If you are unaware of what is God, what do you mean by God, and you are very, very religious, that is useless. One must know God. So therefore, those who are in the lowest grade of human life, they cannot understand. Na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ prapadyante narādhamāḥ (BG 7.15). Narādhama ... Nara means human being, and adhamāḥ means the lowest. So one who is in the lowest grade of human society, they are called the śvapaca. Śvapaca. Śvapaca means those who are the dog-eaters. So in this way there is description. There are others also.

Lecture on SB 6.1.66 -- Vrndavana, September 2, 1975:

That is also written the śāstra, that "There will be no more marriage. One man and woman should live together by agreement." That is going on now in Kali-yuga. Svikāram eva hy udvāhe, it is stated. Simply agree: "Yes, you become my bedfellow; I become your bedfellow." That's all. Finished. Svikāram eva hy udvāhe. That is marriage. No more that ceremonial marriage. That is being forgotten. This is Kali-yuga now. Dāmpatyam eva hi... Ratim eva hi dāmpatye: "And their so-called unity, man and woman, means sex." There is no other meaning. Dāmpatye, union of man and woman, means sex. There is no other religious system, that husband, wife, live together; they should cooperate for advancing in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. These things are being forgotten.

So Kali-yuga, these things are very common, but in the previous yuga, Satya-yuga, they were not very common, but rare. This combination of the brāhmaṇa and the śūdrāṇī, this is accidental. It is not common. So anyway, accidental or organized, it doesn't matter.

Lecture on SB 6.2.5-8 -- Calcutta, January 10, 1971:

There is another quotation, that yasya smṛtya ca moktva tapo-yajña-kriyādiṣu. These are pious activities: austerity and sacrifice, tapas, yajña, and kriyā, pious activities. Everything is done simply by chanting this Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. There is no need of doing anything. Simply by chanting, one can achieve the result of japa, yajña, and other ritualistic performances prescribed in the Vedas. And this is specially advised to the karma-kāṇḍīyas, those who are very much fond of performing ritualistic ceremony. For them this instruction is specially meant, that if you chant simply Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra without any offense, then you'll get all the results of japa, yajña, and other ritualistic performances.

Lecture on SB 6.2.11 -- Allahabad, January 16, 1971:

Therefore he is not purified. He is not purified. Here it is said, na viśuddhyaty aghavān vratādibhiḥ. It is not only in Christian religion. In every religion there are some prescribed method that... Accepting as a matter of fact that every man is sinful, therefore in religious scriptures there are certain methods to purify them. But here the Viṣṇudūta says that these prescribed methods, although they are authorized and fact, but they cannot purify the heart of the follower of that religion. And you can see that as our Hindu-Muslim religion, even they perform the ritualistic ceremonies, they do not cease from committing the sins. Just like a rascal patient. He goes to the physician. The physician gives some medicine and gives some direction that "You take this medicine. Do not do this. You do not eat so many things. You eat like this." But he takes the medicine. For the time being he follows and again he commits the same mistake and again he goes to the physician and "Doctor, please give me medicine." This is going on.

Lecture on SB 6.2.11 -- Allahabad, January 16, 1971:

So this is the superexcellence of chanting the holy name of Kṛṣṇa or God. Here it is said that "Such description or prescription for performing ritualistic ceremony, they are not sufficient to purify a man." But if one chants the holy name of God, Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, yathā harer nāma-padair udāhṛtaiḥ, padaiḥ, once, once only, Kṛṣṇa, Rāma, Nārāyaṇa... So harer nāma, not other name, only harer nāma. Yathā harer nāma-padair udāhṛtaiḥ. Simply once chanting. Uttamaśloka-guṇopalambhakam. The purification of chanting harer nāma (CC Adi 17.21) means as soon as you chant the holy name of Kṛṣṇa immediately you will see the form of Kṛṣṇa, you will realize the qualities of Kṛṣṇa, you will immediately remember the pastimes of Kṛṣṇa. That is pure chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. That is the commented by Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī, that a pure devotee who chants Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, immediately all these—nāma, rūpa, guṇa, līlā, parikara, vasiṣṭha... Simply by chanting name you will feel the form of Kṛṣṇa: "Here is Kṛṣṇa." Nāma, rūpa, guṇa. "Here are the qualities. Oh, Kṛṣṇa is so qualified. He is so kind. He is so magnanimous."

Lecture on SB 6.2.11 -- Allahabad, January 16, 1971:

Because whatever he has done, that remains his credit. Whereas a person who is following the ritualistic principles but does not develop devotional service, what will be benefit? He may get a promotion to the heavenly planet. What is that gain?

The performance of ritualistic ceremonies according to Vedic injunction may... Just like here they are doing. They may get promotion to the heavenly planet. That much. They are not devotees. They are not eligible for entering into the kingdom of God. Therefore Nārada says, "What is the benefit?" Suppose if one performs a ritualistic ceremony and is elevated to the heavenly planet, Satyaloka, Maharloka, Janaloka, Tapoloka. There are so many higher planets, up to Brahmaloka. But Kṛṣṇa says, ā-brahma-bhuvanāl lokān punar āvartino. He has to come back again. But once you understand Kṛṣṇa in fact—janma karma me divyam (BG 4.9)—once you remember Kṛṣṇa's pastimes, Kṛṣṇa's form, in pure devotion, he immediately becomes liberated. The karma-kāṇḍīya, they cannot understand this.

Lecture on SB 6.2.11 -- Vrndavana, September 13, 1975:

This is Kṛṣṇa's principle. Bhakti can be awarded to a person who is fully surrendering, one who does not know anything but Kṛṣṇa. This is the way. Therefore, it is said, na niṣkṛtair uditair brahma-vādibhis tathā viśuddhyaty aghavān vratādibhiḥ.

In the śāstras there are different varieties of ritualistic ceremony, vratas, to counteract our sinful activities within this material world. The material world is so situated that if you do not want to become a sinful man, unless you are devotee, you will be forced to commit sinful activities. You'll be forced. Just like you are very good man, but when walking on the street you are killing so many ants. We have got experience while morning walk. You cannot avoid it. It is not possible. And you are responsible for killing the ant. Then? How you can save yourself from the sinful activities? Therefore in the śāstra it is said, padaṁ padaṁ yad vipadam (SB 10.14.58). Padaṁ padaṁ yad vipadam. If you want to stay within this material world, then padaṁ padam—"in every step there is danger." Padaṁ padaṁ yad vipadaṁ na teṣām.

Lecture on SB 6.2.11 -- Vrndavana, September 13, 1975:

I simply surrender unto You. Now whatever You do, accepted. If you like to kill me, kill me. If you want to give me protection, that's all right. Anyway, I am surrendered." This is called full surrender.

So the bhakti-mārga, it is clearly said, it is, that you cannot be purified simply by performing the Vedic ritualistic ceremony. Na niskrtaiḥ. Na niṣkṛtair uditair brahma-vādibhiḥ. Brahma-vādī means... Brahma means śabda-brahma, Vedic injunction. So there are many brahmavādīs. Just like Manu-saṁhitā. Parāśara, he has made viṁśati dharma-śāstras. So they are authorized things. But still, if you follow the ritualistic ceremonies, if you make atonement according to the Vedic direction, you cannot be fully purified, fully purified, because unless you are detestful of this material existence, unless you are determined to go back to home, back to Godhead. If you want to adjust in this material world to be happy, then you have to commit sinful activities. There is no doubt about it.

Lecture on SB 6.2.11 -- Vrndavana, September 13, 1975:

If you don't accept the injunction in the śāstras, especially when Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Lord, is instructing you in the Bhagavad-gītā... That is the essence of all śāstra. You take that. Then you will be happy. Otherwise not. So here it is said that aghavān, the sinful man, cannot be purified by simply these ritualistic ceremonies, atonement, or keeping some vow, vrataḥ. Then how it is possible? Because everyone... Yathā harer nāma. Therefore it is recommended, harer nāma harer nāma harer nāmaiva kevalam, kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva nāsty eva (CC Adi 17.21), the same thing. You will never find the injunction of the śāstra contradictory. In the Agni Purāṇa it is said and in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavata also the same thing. Agni Purāṇa says, harer nāma harer nāma harer nāmaiva kevalam, and here in the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam it is said, yathā harer nāma-padair udāhṛtaiḥ tad uttamaśloka-guṇopalambhakam. Harer nāma means chanting of the holy name. That is simple. But when you chant harer nāma then you gradually understand what is Hari, what is His form, what is His quality, what is His activities.

Lecture on SB 6.2.12-14 -- Allahabad, January 17, 1971, at Kumbha-mela:

That will purify you." Khalu sattva-bhāvanaḥ. Sattva-bhāvanaḥ. Śrīdhara Svāmī says, sattva-bhāvanaḥ citta-śodhakaḥ. Sattva-bhāvana means citta-śodhaka. Citta means the heart, and śodhaka, the purifying process. So instead of taking yourself to these prescribed ritualistic ceremonies, if you simply engage your mind in describing or glorifying the Supreme Personality of Godhead... That is our process. Our only objective is how to glorify the Supreme Personality of Godhead. We are writing books, we are publishing magazines, we are preaching, we are going everywhere—just to glorify the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa. That is our only business. This process is recommended here, citta-śodhaka. If you sit down and write some article on Kṛṣṇa, that means you have to concentrate on Kṛṣṇa's activities or Kṛṣṇa's devotees' activities, and that very process will purify your heart. Therefore we always recommend to our students that you write articles, read our magazine, read our book. In this way if we keep ourself... Work for Kṛṣṇa.

Lecture on SB 6.2.14 -- Vrndavana, September 17, 1975:

Still in India, as there is very, very good propaganda to make the people godless atheist, still, you see, find, in Vṛndāvana thousands and lakhs of people are coming. It is their birthright. Not only in Vṛndāvana, we have seen wherever we held that Hare Kṛṣṇa festival, thousands of men were coming. Even the so-called educated. When we held that ceremony in Delhi, L.I.C. Ground, many, many secretaries, officers, they came and they were dancing with their hat-coat-pant. So it is so nice.

So some way or other, if you be in touch with this Hare Kṛṣṇa movement, then your life is successful.

Sāṅketyam. You keep your children's name just like he kept, Nārāyaṇa. He actually became delivered because he kept his son's name Nārāyaṇa. Sāṅketyaṁ pārihāsyam. Joking. Sometimes they joke: "Oh, these people are chanting 'Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa,' " and they joke also, "Hare Kṛṣṇa!" sometimes seriously, sometimes joking. So joking, they are chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa—that is taken to their credit, although he is joking; he is not serious. Sāṅketyaṁ pārihāsyaṁ stobham. Sometimes we make fun. To complete one sentence sometimes we, "Hari," "Kṛṣṇa," we add it. So that is also accepted.

Lecture on SB 6.2.17 -- Vrndavana, September 20, 1975:

So there is prescription in the śāstra that "If you are sinful, you do this prāyaścitta, atonement." Tapo-dāna-vratādibhiḥ. Tapo, tapasya, dāna, and observing some vratās, vows, ritualistic ceremonies, recommended. But here the Viṣṇudutas says that actually, by these processes, tapasya, dāna... Na tyājyaṁ kāryam eva tat. Kṛṣṇa also says that... What is that verse? I just forget. That tapasya, dāna, vrata... Just like one has taken sannyāsa. Sannyāsa means he has given up all these obligatory ceremonies. But Kṛṣṇa says that "Even if you have taken sannyāsa, you cannot give up these processes." What is that? "Tapasya, dāna, and vrata." It is pāvanāni manīṣiṇām. Even if you have become manīṣi, very exalted great sage, still, you should continue this tapasya. And tapasya means voluntarily accepting some miserable condition. That is called tapasya. Just like they used to perform austerity in winter season, to go deep into the water. When one tries to avoid water, tapasya means one goes You have seen many persons, they are standing within the water and chanting Gāyatrī mantra. This is tapasya. And in summer season they ignite fire all around and sit down.

Lecture on SB 6.2.24-25 -- Gorakhpur, February 13, 1971:

Simply by surrendering to the holy name. So this is applicable in all ages, but especially in this age because nobody can perform the ritualistic ceremonies of any religious principle. The people are so fallen that they cannot. So this hari-nāmānukīrtanam, it is not that it is manufactured for this age. No. This is potent in all other ages also, but especially it is potent because people in this age, they are unable to execute any religious principles very nicely. Bhagavato guṇānāṁ karmāṇāṁ nāmnāṁ ca samyak kīrtanaṁ iti yat etāvatā puṁsām agha-nirṇayāya pāpa-kṣaya-mātrāya alam upayogo nāsti alam-śabdena atra varaṇe. So Śrīdhāra Swami especially stresses on the point, alam, means "It is forbidden. There is no necessity. Simply..." That is the version of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu. He said, ihā haite sarva-siddhi haibe tomāra. He also stresses that "Simply by chanting, you will get all perfection." Yata amara-śṛṅgāḥ, alaṁ bhūṣaṇa-paryāpi śakti-varaṇa-vaśakam ity upayoga-bhavam eva ajāmilo mahā-pāpa-kṛd api nārāyaṇeti vikṛśya na tu samyak kīrtayitaḥ. You can hear now.

Lecture on SB 6.2.24-25 -- Gorakhpur, February 13, 1971:

Śrīdhāra Swami is explaining the next verse. Prāyeṇa veda tad idaṁ na mahājano 'yaṁ divya-vimohita-matir bata māyayālam trayyaṁ jaḍi-kṛta-matir madhu-puṣpitāyāṁ vaitānike mahati karmāṇi yujyamānāḥ (?). People, if they are advised, as it, as he is actually advised... The question is why there are so many ritualistic ceremonial scriptures. Why? So the conclusion is that people are very much attached to any gorgeous method. If you perform here in this temple a great sacrifice with hundreds of brāhmaṇas and chanting Veda mantras, people will be very much attracted immediately. They'll think, "Oh, something very gorgeous is going on." You see? Why they are so? Vimohita-matir bata māyayālam. Because they are captivated by māyā, they cannot understand what is the potency of the holy name. They cannot understand. Therefore sometimes something, very gorgeous ceremony, is advised just to attract them. Trayyaṁ jaḍi-kṛta-matir madhu-puṣpitāyām. Trayyam. Trayyam means Vedas. Veda is called trayi because there are three kinds of different processes: karma-kāṇḍa, jñāna-kāṇḍa, and upāsana-kāṇḍa. So jaḍi-kṛta. Just like in India there is a section called Ārya-samājīs.

Lecture on SB 6.2.24-25 -- Gorakhpur, February 13, 1971:

These people, at the present moment, they are neither Parīkṣit Mahārāja nor Śukadeva Gosvāmī. So how it is possible to finish Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam within seven days? That is not possible. It has become a profession, that gorgeousness. They will make a mañcha(?), they will perform some ceremonies and there is some charitable. The result is that the professional reciter will gather some money and some goods and he will maintain his family. That's all. And these people will say that "I have heard for seven days Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam." Of course, there is some effect, but this is not recommended anywhere in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, that one has to hear Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam within seven days. No. So far we see in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, it is said, nityam bhāgavata-sevayā (SB 1.2.18). People should hear daily, regularly Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Why seven days? Regularly. Naṣṭa-prāyeṣu abhadreṣu nityaṁ bhāgavata-sevayā. Nityam, daily, regularly, if one hears and chants Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, then naṣṭa-prāyeṣu abhadreṣu, then the dirty things within his heart becomes almost cleansed.

Lecture on SB 6.2.24-25 -- Gorakhpur, February 13, 1971:

Not that he has completely become free, but naṣṭa prāyeṣu. Prāya means almost. Almost he has finished the contamination. Therefore he is fixed up. The first test is whether he is fixed up. As soon as he is fixed up, that means he is fixed up in the brahminical stage.

My Guru Mahārāja introduced the sacred ceremony because foolish people, they used to... Vaiṣṇave jāti-buddhiḥ. They used to consider Vaiṣṇava as belonging to some jāta, some particular caste. No. Vaiṣṇava is not in the particular caste. As soon as he is fixed up... He may be coming from the pāpa-yoni, from the most abominable family, but as soon as he is fixed up, immediately he is fixed up in the position of a brāhmaṇa because sattva-guṇa... Naṣṭa-prāyeṣu abhadreṣu. Naṣṭa. Tato rajas-tamo-bhāvāḥ (SB 1.2.19). He has no more inclination to be attracted by the activities of tamo-guṇa and rajo-guṇa. They have no more attraction for drinking, no more attraction for meat-eating, therefore no more attraction for smoking, drinking tea. This means that the rajas-tamo-bhāvāḥ, kāma-lobha, greediness.

Lecture on SB 6.3.25-26 -- Gorakhpur, February 18, 1971:

They are prescribed, very bitter to eat. So Śrīdhara Svāmī gives this example: "Without knowing that there is a very nice medicine, mṛta-sañjīvanī, they takes so many troublesome medicines. Similarly, the great stalwart leaders of religious principles, without knowing this Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra, they take to so many troublesome, multiritualistic ceremonies."

Viṁśati-prakāra-dharma-śāstrāḥ. There are twenty kinds of dharma-śāstra composed by Manu, Parāśara and others. They are very difficult. All of them are meant for counteracting our sinful life. This, as we have explained, material life is so arranged that even you do not like to commit some sin, in course of your life there will be sinful reaction. Just like we sing the prayers of Viśvanātha Cakravartī, saṁsāra-dāvānala-līḍha-loka **. This world is so situated that there is a blazing fire always in this material world. Even if you do not want, still, that fire is there. Nobody wants blazing fire, dāvānala. Dāvānala means forest fire. Nobody goes to set fire in the forest, but it takes place. Similarly, this material world is also like that. Nobody wants, but still, miserable condition of life come in. Just like in Calcutta, nobody wanted the Naxalite disturbance, but it has come.

Lecture on SB 6.3.25-26 -- Gorakhpur, February 18, 1971:

So the great compiler of religious scripture, headed by Manu and others, without knowing the simple method, they prescribe gorgeous ritualistic ceremonies. Kim ca māyayā divyalam vimohitam matir ayam jana madhu, madhunam yatha bhavati evam puspitayam puṣpa-sthaniya ratavadi mano-harayam trayyam jadi-kṛta abhinivista-matir yasya ata eva mahaty eva karmany agni-stomadau śraddhayā yujyamānaḥ.(?) So being bewildered by the material or external energy, they take to these gorgeous ceremonies or sacrificial performances. Actually there is no need. The whole thing is that Śrīdhara Svāmī is giving stress very strongly that you can simply chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra without undergoing any ritualistic ceremonies. Actually it is very difficult to understand. Mādhavendra Purī, our predecessor ācārya, he also has composed a nice verse. He says, "My dear gāyatrī-mantra, I offer you my respect, but no more I can chant gāyatrī-mantra." In this way... Taking bath early in the morning, that's a good recommendation for spiritual advancement. But Mādhavendra Purī said, "Now I am unable to execute this order. Please excuse me."

Lecture on SB 6.3.25-26 -- Gorakhpur, February 18, 1971:

That is not possible. But actually, if anyone can chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra offenselessly and in devotion and love... There the first thing is love—not force—love, what is called automatically, spontaneous. Spontaneous. Just like Rūpa Gosvāmī, he said that "How I shall chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra in one tongue? If I had hundreds and thousands of tongues, then I could chant and relish what is Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra." That is a different stage. We should not imitate. But actually this is a fact, that simply by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, you can get relief from all kinds of performances, ritualistic ceremonies. That is the point stressed by Śrīdhara Svāmī.

evaṁ vimṛśya sudhiyo bhagavaty anante

sarvātmanā vidadhate khalu bhāva-yogam

te me na daṇḍam arhanty atha yady amīṣāṁ

syāt pātakaṁ tad api hanty urugāya-vādaḥ

(SB 6.3.26)

Now Yamarāja is saying that evaṁ vimṛśya sudhiyo bhagavaty anante. One who is so much attached unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead that he constantly associates with Him simply by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, or by performing the devotional service... Yamarāja does not, I mean to say, give only stress on the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. He is giving stress on different process of devotional service.

Lecture on SB 7.9.7 -- Mayapur, February 14, 1976:

You, you are very religious, performing the ritualistic ceremony very nicely, going to the Ganges and taking your bath, and dharmaḥ svanuṣṭhitaḥ puṁsāṁ. Very rightly you are executing your religious principle and coming at home, you are reading Bhagavad-gītā, but you have no faith in Kṛṣṇa. That is useless time, useless waste of time. The Bhāgavata, (says) śrama eva hi kevalam. So this, why this happens? Because these people do not approach the right person, guru. Ādau gurv-āśrayam.

Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu was visited by many learned brāhmaṇas when He was at Purī, Jagannātha Purī. So one learned brāhmaṇa, he wrote some poems about Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. There were many brāhmaṇas, they were coming, but all such reading matter, first it was to be tested by His secretary, Svarūpa Dāmodara. If Svarūpa Dāmodara would pass, then Caitanya Mahāprabhu will hear. Otherwise why should He waste His time (with) some hodge-podge writing? So one brāhmaṇa, he wrote something about Caitanya Mahāprabhu and came to read, recite before Caitanya Mahāprabhu, and Svarūpa Dāmodara found many mistakes in that poem, so he did not allow him, that "You do not know how to present theistic literature.

Lecture on SB 7.9.9 -- Mayapur, March 1, 1977:

Similarly, we have to fight. Those who are opposing Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, we have to fight with them to our best capacity. Never mind if we are defeated. That is also service. Kṛṣṇa sees the service. Defeated or victorious, depend on Kṛṣṇa. But fighting must be there. Karmaṇy evādhikāras te mā phaleṣu kadācana. That is the meaning. You have to work for Kṛṣṇa sincerely, intelligently, and victory or defeat, it doesn't matter. Just like Jaṭāyu was defeated fighting with Rāvaṇa. His wings were cut off. Rāvaṇa was very strong. And Lord Rāmacandra, He did his last funeral ceremonies because he was a devotee. This is the process, not that we have to learn something extra. Whatever capacity we have got, let us decide to render service to the Lord. It doesn't require that you must be very rich or very beautiful, very bodily strong. Nothing of the sort. Sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmo yato bhaktir adhokṣaje ahaituky apratihatā (SB 1.2.6). In any condition, your devotional service should not be stopped. That should be the principle, that we are not going to stop, any circumstance.

Lecture on SB 7.9.11-13 -- Hawaii, March 24, 1969:

Purification is there simply by remembering Kṛṣṇa. Yaḥ smaret puṇḍarīkākṣaṁ sa bāhyābhyantaraḥ śuciḥ. There is another verse. The purport of that verse is that simply by pronouncing this transcendental vibration, one becomes so purified that immediately he becomes eligible to operate sacrificial, ritualistic ceremonies. Now, sacrificial, ritualistic ceremonies, in the Vedas, priestly, that is, that work is, I mean to say, allotted to the brāhmaṇa class. Now, Jīva Gosvāmī has discussed this verse in this way, that "Even a caṇḍāla, a person born in the family of dog-eaters, if he chants the holy name of the Lord, he becomes so purified that immediately he becomes eligible to operate sacrificial, ritualistic ceremony." So Jīva Gosvāmī has commented in this connection that a boy, a child born in the brāhmaṇa family, in order to accept him as real brāhmaṇa... He's born in a pure family. That's all right. But there are other ceremonies, reformatory ceremonies, and this thread ceremony is also one of the ceremonies. So even taking birth in the brāhmaṇa family, he has to undergo the ceremonies to come to the stage of a pure brāhmaṇa. But here chanting of holy name is so powerful that he does not require even dependence on those ceremonies. Immediately he becomes. Unless a person... A boy is born in a brāhmaṇa family, but unless he's educated, unless he's purified, he cannot be allowed to perform the sacrificial rites. That means he's dependent on these other processes. So..., but here a devotee who is chanting without any offense, he becomes immediately purified without depending on the other purificatory process. These things are discussed.

Lecture on SB 7.9.24 -- Mayapur, March 2, 1976:

It is natural between woman and woman, they talk about their husband. That is natural. So Draupadī was inquiring from each and every wife of Kṛṣṇa. Not all of them. It is impossible, sixteen thousand. At least the principal queens, beginning from... What is the end called?(?) Rukmiṇī, yes. So every one of them were describing their marriage ceremony, that "My..." Rukmiṇī explained that "My father wanted to hand over me to Kṛṣṇa, but my elder brother, he did not agree. He wanted to get me married with Śiśupala. So I did not like this idea. I wrote Kṛṣṇa a private letter, that 'I have dedicated my life to You, but this is the situation. Please come and kidnap me.' So in this way Kṛṣṇa kidnapped me and made me His maidservant." The queen's daughter, king's daughter... Everyone of them were king's daughter. They were not ordinary person daughter. But they wanted to become maidservant of Kṛṣṇa. This is the idea, to become servant and to become maidservant. This is ideal of human civilization.

Lecture on SB 7.9.37 -- Mayapur, March 15, 1976:

We get it. Brahmā was born. He was to establish the kingdom of God or, as Brahmā was born, the other living entities also were in the body of Garbhodakaśayī Viṣṇu. They were also to take birth later on. And before their birth, Brahmā was instructed Vedic knowledge. Vedic knowledge means these bewildered living entities struggling for existence may get Vedic knowledge so that they can revive their old, original Kṛṣṇa consciousness. This is the purpose of Vedic knowledge. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is said, vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyam (BG 15.15). The Vedic... What is Vedic knowledge? Vedic knowledge means to revive our Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is Vedic knowledge. If you revive your Kṛṣṇa consciousness, that is the perfection of Vedic knowledge. But if you read only Vedas and perform formalities, ritualistic ceremonies, but you do not awaken your Kṛṣṇa consciousness, that is useless waste of time.

Lecture on SB 7.9.37 -- Mayapur, March 15, 1976:

You may be a very religious person—never mind you are Hindu, Muslim or Christian or anyone—or according to your religious principles, ritualistic ceremonies, you execute very nicely. Svanuṣṭhitaḥ puṁsām. But after doing all these things, if you do not become God consciousness, God conscious, or you do not understand what is God, then the Bhāgavata says that it is simply waste of time. Śrama eva hi kevalam.

So human life is meant for understanding the Supreme, our connection with the Supreme Being. That is real human life. Therefore the Vedas are there. So as soon as Brahmā was born... Because he is in charge of this universe... There are innumerable universes and innumerable Brahmās also. Yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-aṇḍa koṭi (Bs. 5.40). Yasyaika-niśvasita-kālam athāvalambya jīvanti loma-vilajā jagad-aṇḍa-nāthāḥ (Bs. 5.48). So Brahmā is jagad-aṇḍa-nātha. He's the chief person within this material world, in this universe. So he is in charge; therefore he was given the Vedic knowledge. And he got the Vedic knowledge, but at the same time, two demons known as Madhu-Kaiṭabha, they wanted to snatch away, take away the Vedic mantras from Brahmā. This is the attempt from the very beginning. The devotees following the disciplic succession of Brahmā... Just like we are.

Lecture on SB 7.9.55 -- Vrndavana, April 10, 1976:

So just after a few minutes one very nice young girl came with so much presentation, rice, dahl, ghee, and so many other things. So She came and offered to the gosvāmī. The saintly persons are addressed as "bābā." "Bābā, please take this presentation. We have got some ceremony at our home, so my mother has sent. You take it." So he was very glad: "Oh, I was thinking if I could get some nice things, I could prepare and invite Sanātana Gosvāmī." So he was very glad to receive those articles and invited Sanātana Gosvāmī and prepared so many nice foodstuff and offered to the Deity, and Sanātana Gosvāmī was given the prasādam. So Sanātana Gosvāmī was very pleased, and he inquired, "Rūpa Gosvāmī, where you got these nice things? You are living in this... How you could receive all these things?" "Yes, my dear brother, I was just thinking in the morning. In the meantime a very nice young girl came and offered so many things, so I could..." "So what is that? Who is that young girl in this forest? So how She was looking?" "Oh, she was very, very beautiful."

Lecture on SB 12.2.1 -- San Francisco, March 18, 1968:

The formula of Cāṇakya Paṇḍita is given like this: Aja-yuddhe. When the goats are fighting, as it is very insignificant... If you understand that in the door two goats are fighting, you don't care for it. You see, a goat fight. So aja-yuddhe muni-śraddhe. And some sages are performing śraddhā ceremony. Śraddhā ceremony means after the death of one's father and mother there is great ceremony and the son spends lots of money. The father spends lots of money during the marriage ceremony of the boy and the girl, and the boy spends lots of money after the death of the father and mother. That is the system, Hindu system. So aja-yuddhe muni-śraddhe. Muni-śraddhe means the muni is performing the śraddhā ceremony after the death of his father. Muni means he lives in the forest. They are mendicants. And what is the expenditure? Some flowers and fruits, that's all. So that is not very expensive. So... And in the forest you haven't got to pay anything for flowers and fruits. You can get from the trees.

Lecture on SB 12.2.1 -- San Francisco, March 18, 1968:

In the morning if there is thundering sound in the cloud, you should know it will not rain. It will never rain. That thundering may be very loud, but there will be no rain. That means you can neglect. As you can neglect the fight between two goats, as you can take not seriously the śraddhā ceremony of muni, as you do not take very seriously the thundering sound of the cloud in the morning, similarly, dāmpatye kālahe caiva, similarly, whenever there is fight between husband and wife, you should take like that. Don't take it seriously. But at the modern civilization, the husband and wife quarrel is taken so seriously that immediately they go to the court and there is filing of divorce, and the combination, the married life, dissolved, and both are unhappy. And this psychology is, as it is stated... I do not know, but probably it is right, that disagreement between husband and wife is due to sex difficulty. That's all. It is clearly stated here. Either the husband or the wife, if there is not complete sex satisfaction, one of them must be very unhappy, and disagreement and dissolution.

Lecture on SB 12.2.1 -- San Francisco, March 18, 1968:

Just this morning I was explaining vipra, who is vipra. Vipra means one who has studied Vedas nicely, or one who has passed in the studies of Vedas, he is called vipra. And before becoming a vipra, there is sacred thread ceremony. Janmanā jāyate śūdraḥ. There are stages: śūdra, dvija, vipra, and brāhmaṇa. These four steps. One is born a śūdra. Śūdra means the lowest class, almost animal. So anyone who is born of father and mother, he is accepted as śūdra. And Janmanā jāyate śūdraḥ. By birth, everyone is born a śūdra, the lower class. And saṁskārād bhaved dvijaḥ. And if that man, the boy, or the child, is reformed by education gradually, then he is, saṁskārad bhaved dvijaḥ, his second birth is there. So amongst the higher class, the brāhmaṇas, the kṣatriyas, and the vaiśyas, especially amongst the brāhmaṇas and kṣatriya, the boys were trained very nicely. Very nicely. So by reformation, when the boy is, I mean to say, mature, at the age of twelve years or thirteen years, he goes automatically to a spiritual master. He automatically goes to a spiritual master for becoming initiated. Just like sometimes some students come to me also: "Swamiji, get me..." That is the process. When one understands the importance of spiritual life, that is reformation.

Lecture on SB 12.2.1 -- San Francisco, March 18, 1968:

Without any education, without any acceptance of spiritual master and without anything, simply by showing the thread, that "I have got this thread," he becomes a brāhmaṇa or vipra, or twice-born or... Nonsense. But this will be done in Kali-yuga. Actually, these things are being done in India especially. Because here, in your country, there is no sacred thread ceremony, but in India there is this division of brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, and still the sacred thread ceremony is there. So in order to pose oneself as born of high family, one can simply purchase two-cent-worth thread and put on the breast and he can introduce himself, "Oh, I am brāhmaṇa." And nobody is going to inquire whether he is actually a brāhmaṇa. As soon as one sees that sacred thread: "Oh, he's a brāhmaṇa." That's all. So this is the, another symptom of Kali-yuga, that simply by two-cent-worth sacred thread one becomes a brāhmaṇa.

Liṅgam evāśrama-khyātāv anyonyāpatti-kāraṇam. Liṅgam. Liṅgam means symptom. According to Vedic literature, there are different dress. A girl unmarried, her dress is different. A girl married, her dress is different. A girl widow, her dress is different. A girl prostitute, her dress is different. A men sannyāsī, his dress is different. A brahmacārī, his dress is different.

Lecture on SB 12.2.1 -- San Francisco, March 18, 1968:

A girl prostitute, her dress is different. A men sannyāsī, his dress is different. A brahmacārī, his dress is different. So by the dress one can understand that who is who. That is the system. So that dress is offered by the spiritual master after qualified. Just like if a girl is married, then his (her) dress is offered during the marriage ceremony. One of the symptoms of married girl is some red powder between the two divisions of the hair. So one can understand that "This girl is not..." So similarly, there are different dresses according to qualification, according to the situation. But in the Kali-yuga, that, anyone can take any dress without any regulation, without any formality. Simply by dress. Suppose... Just like sannyāsī. Because a sannyāsī has to dress himself in these saffron-color garments, so sannyāsī has the privilege, if he goes to a householder's house, he is very respectfully received, and if he wants something, the householder gives him. That is the system. Now, if somebody sees that "It is a very cheap process of earning money, so let me dress in this saffron color and beg from door to door.