Commit (Lectures, SB)

Expressions researched:
"commit" |"commits" |"committed" |"committer" |"committing"

Notes from the compiler: VedaBase query: commit or commits or committed or committing or committer not "commit* mistake*" not "commit* offense*" not "commit* sin*" not "commit* * mistake*" not "commit* * * mistak*" not "commit* * offense*" not "commit* * * offense*" not "commit* * sin*" not "commit* * * sin*"

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Lecture on SB 1.2.5 -- Melbourne, April 3, 1972, Lecture at Christian Monastery:

So many things we have forgotten, but that does not mean the trouble was not there. Just like in our childhood so many things happened. We might have forgotten, but that does not mean the trouble was not there. The trouble was there. Similarly, at the time of death, the trouble, or the miserable condition, is so acute that we have to give up this body. Sometimes when man becomes very much upset, he commits suicide. He cuts his own throat. Why? He cannot live in this body. Similarly, I, you, every one of us, we have the trouble at the time of death, at the time of birth. Birth and death. We are living entities, we are living soul. Birth and death takes place of this body. The body takes birth and the body is vanquished. Death means sleeping for seven months. That's all. That is death. The soul is... When this body is unfit for living, the soul gives up this body. And by superior arrangement the soul is put again into the womb of a particular type of mother, and the soul develops that particular type of body. Up to seven months the soul remains unconscious. And when the body is developed, again consciousness comes and the child wants to come out of the womb and he moves. Every mother has experienced how the child moves at the age of seven months within the womb.

So it is a great science, how the soul, living soul, is in contact with this material body and how he is transmigrating from one body to another. The example is given just like vāsāṁsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya (BG 2.22).

Lecture on SB 1.2.6 -- Calcutta, February 26, 1974:

If you want really peace of mind, then you search out Kṛṣṇa and surrender unto Him. Where is the difficulty? Kṛṣṇa personally canvassing you, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇam (BG 18.66). Still, you are not... You are so fool. Ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi. He is giving assurance that "I shall give you protection from all sinful reaction." We are suffering in this material world because we are continually making our life in sinful activities. Sinful activities means gratifying the senses. That is also warned by Mahārāja Ṛṣabhadeva to His sons Nūnaṁ pramattaḥ kurute vikarma yad indriya-prītaya āpṛṇoti: (SB 5.5.4) "These rascals, they, simply for sense gratification, committing all types of sinful activities." Just like Kṛṣṇa has given us so many things to eat, but still, we shall kill animals. Still for this satisfaction of the tongue, we shall kill so many..., slaughterhouse, regular slaughterhouse. And you want to be happy. Your whole life is full of sinful activities, and you want to be happy? That is not possible.

Therefore it is said that if you develop love for Kṛṣṇa... That development cannot be possible if you are sinful.

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

What is the use. There is no use. It is simply sense gratification. Therefore Sūta Goswāmī recommends that you have got some demand for keeping the health properly, not..., but not, don't try to do it for indriya prītiḥ, indriya prītiḥ.

We have invented so many nonsense things for simply satisfaction of the tongue. A vaiṣṇava kavi, Vaiṣṇava poet, ācārya, Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, he has wrote a song. That song we chant or sing during the time of taking prasādam. In that song he writes, śarīra abidyā-jāl joḍendriya tāhe kāl: "This body is an emblem of ignorance." Actually we get this material body due to our ignorance. By ignorance we commit so many wrong things, and you have obliged to accept a certain type of body. Therefore it is a network of ignorance. Śarīra abidyā-jāl joḍendriya tāhe kāl. In that network of ignorance there are different senses, joḍendriya tāhe kāl, gross material senses. They are just like our death. Sometimes these senses are described as kāla sarpa. Kāla sarpa means the black cobra. As soon as the cobra touches—immediately dead. Similarly, if we allow this kāla sarpa to act in their own way, that means we are inviting death at every moment. Therefore those who are too much bodily attached, for them this yoga system is controlling the senses, yoga indriya saṁyamaḥ. Yoga does not mean to increase the power of sense gratification.

Lecture on SB 1.2.10 -- Vrndavana, October 21, 1972:

So we cannot understand Brahman or God or Para-brahman, Supersoul, without understanding the nature of myself. This is called tattva-jijñāsā. So jīvasya tattva-jijñāsā. We should work. Everyone is working, but they are working for sense gratification. Especially in the Western countries. Not only Western countries, Eastern, everywhere. Their aim is how to satisfy or gratify the senses more and more. This is their aim. But that is not the li..., aim of life. The aim of life, especially in the human form of life... We are coming to this human form of life through the evolutionary process, gradual evolutionary process of 8,400,000 species of life, and this is the opportunity to understand "What I am, what is God, and what is our relationship with Him?" If we miss this opportunity, then we are committing suicide. Again I..., we're going back in the cycle of birth and death, and we do not know when again we shall come to this form of human body. So we should not misuse this human form of body. Therefore Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura sings,

hari hari biphale janama goṅāinu

manuṣya-janama pāiyā

rādhā-kṛṣṇa nā bhajiyā

jāniyā śuniyā biṣa khāinu

"Knowingly, I am drinking poison. I have heard that this life is meant for understanding for Absolute Truth, but I am spoiling my life in the business of sense gratification. So therefore I am drinking poison knowingly." Just like somebody takes poison knowingly, that "I, I must die." But he wants to end. So that is not our aim of life. We should properly utilize the opportunity given by nature, given by God. That is required.

Lecture on SB 1.2.32 -- Vrndavana, November 11, 1972:

Even as animal, as hogs and dogs, he's making progress, because he's in Vṛndāvana. So Vṛndāvana is so important, because here anyone can get the opportunity of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Therefore it is so important. Vṛndāvana-dhāma. Dhāma means where Kṛṣṇa resides. That is called dhāma. Vṛndāvana-dhāma. Ārādhyo bhagavān vrajeśa-tanayas tad-dhāma. Dhāma means residence. Tad-dhāma vṛndāvanam. So Vṛndāvana is not polluted. Vṛndāvana is always helping us. Anyone who comes to Vṛndāvana, he's helped immediately, even though he is criminal number one. But if we remain in criminal mentality in Vṛndāvana, then we have to accept another birth to suffer. Then it will be all right, and then again he will be elevated. Due to Vṛndāvana... The Vṛndāvana influence will act, but if we commit something against the Vṛndāvana principle, then we have to accept...

Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa (SB 3.31.1). Karmāṇi nirdahati... It is said in the śāstra, the karma is reduced for the devotees. That much facility's there. Karma is reduced means in other place, if you commit some sinful activities, then you have to accept a body, and then evolution will take place gradually. Then you again come to human form of body. Then again, if you are intelligent enough, you can utilize. But in Vṛndāvana the karmāṇi nirdahati... Suppose for your sinful, criminal acts you become hogs and dog; next life you are elevated. That is karmāṇi nirdahati. The karma, the cycle of fruitive activities is reduced. But you have to accept. You have to accept. But nirdahati. But why should we waste our time accepting another body of dogs and hog? That we should be very much careful. Although it is nirdahati, it is reduced, why should we accept even that reduced punishment? That should be our principle. But we do not know. We commit ignorance. Therefore Rūpa Gosvāmī has described: sinful activities are done due to ignorance, ajñāna. Just like a child touches the fire. Everyone knows if you touch fire, it will burn, but the child, out of ignorance, touches. Therefore the child is under the protection of the parents so that the child may not do something wrong and suffer.

Lecture on SB 1.3.17 -- Los Angeles, September 22, 1972:

Because the son inherits the money of the father, similarly, the law is that if the father dies a debtor, the son becomes responsible to pay the debts. That is the law, Manu-saṁhitā. I do not know what is the law here. I don't think the son is responsible for paying the debts of father, but in India that is the law. One big barrister, Mr. C. R. Das, his father died insolvent, making debts. So when he became very rich, he called all the creditors and paid five to five, that "My father was debtor. You take this money." That is obligation. Therefore Cāṇakya Paṇḍita says, "The father who dies a debtor, he is an enemy." Ṛṇa-kartā pitā śatruḥ. Ṛṇa means debts. Kartā means one who has committed so many debts and dies. A father... Instead of enjoying father's property, he has to pay the father's debts. So therefore that father is called enemy. Ṛṇa-kartā pitā śatrur mātā śatrur vyabhicāriṇī. "And mother, if she marries for the second time, she is enemy." Ṛṇa-kartā pitā śatrur mātā śatrur vyabhicāriṇī, rūpavatī bhāryāḥ śatruḥ. "And very beautiful wife, she is enemy." And putraḥ śatrur apaṇḍitaḥ. "And if the son is a fool, rascal, he is enemy." Four kinds of enemy in the family.

Lecture on SB 1.3.22 -- Los Angeles, September 27, 1972:

"I am working with my brain. That's nice. I have got a very good brain." Su-medhasaḥ. "But who has manufactured this brain?" You manufacture this brain. That you cannot. So the brain is important or the manufacturer of the brain is important? Who is important? This is intelligence. So we are not after the so-called big brain. We give them all respect. But we are after the manufacturer of the brain. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. He can manufacture thousands and millions of brains like that, like Professor Einstein or anyone. That is God.

So God is great. We have to understand how great He is. Not that simply sophistically, "God is great, and I do everything. God cannot see. Let me commit all kinds of sin." But God is great; He will see. "No, no, God cannot see. I can cheat God, although He is great." That is our philosophy. "God is great, but I am so great that I can cheat God." That is Hiraṇyakaśipu's philosophy. But He proved, God proved, "Yes, you have cheated Brahmā in so many ways with the idea that you will live forever. Now see. I am here. How great I am." So that is the appreciation of the greatness of God. If we read śāstras and see scrutinizingly, we can understand, "Yes, God is great." Not theoretically. Practically we can see how God is great. Read the purport.

Lecture on SB 1.3.23 -- Los Angeles, September 28, 1972:

We feel that "I am bound up under certain circumstances, so I must get out." This is called ātyantika-duḥkha-nivṛtti.

Duḥkha-nivṛtti means avoiding painful situation. So everyone is trying to avoid painful situation. That's a fact. We are struggling. I have got income, say two hundred dollars, so that is not sufficient for me. So I am struggling hard to get five hundred dollars, to avoid this painful situation. Again when in five hundred dollars I feel another pain, so I try for one thousand dollar. In this way go on increasing, and the painful situation will never be mitigated. That will continue. Otherwise, why millionaires are committing suicide? He has got money. But they do not know that any amount of material comforts will not make them happy. That is not possible. So we have repeatedly discussed this fact that other countries... Like India is advertised very poor country. But still, majority of the people in India, they are happy. People do not know. Although materially they haven't got possession... They have got only two cloth or even one cloth. In the village you will find, they are so poverty-stricken. But still, they are following the Vedic principles, taking bath early in the morning, going to their business, whatever they get, eating, husband, wife, children. They are happy. People say "Primitive." But you want, after all, happiness. Primitive or advanced, what is that? In advanced civilization, if you commit suicide, why not primitive?

Lecture on SB 1.5.1-8 -- New Vrindaban, May 23, 1969:

Whatever we have done, no more." That should be the... Confess, God can excuse, and that is not difficult job. God can excuse any amount of sinful activity, but after confessing, after being free, if I again commit sinful activities, oh, that is the greatest sin. That is the greatest sin. One should be ashamed of, that "I... God has excused me. Again I shall? So I am so shameless." But this business is going on. No. That should not be. Nāmno balād yasya hi pāpa-buddhiḥ.

So we should not think that because we are chanting we can act all kinds of sinful activities. No. The chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa will give you protection, but you should not take advantage of. But if by accident or by unintentionally if you commit some, by habit, that is also excused. That is also stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. Api cet su-durācāro bhajate mām ananya-bhāk, sādhur eva sa mantavyaḥ (BG 9.30). That is accidental. Not that willful sinful activities should be done and it should be neutralized by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. No. Then you are spoiling your time. That should not be done. So yeṣām anta-gataṁ pāpam. So without being freed from sinful activities nobody can take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. The method is easy. You can get out of sinful activities. But don't commit again. If you think that "I shall ignite fire and pour water again," then what is the use of? Simply waste of time. So that should not be done.

Lecture on SB 1.5.9-11 -- New Vrindaban, June 6, 1969:

Vaiṣṇava means ānukūlyena kṛṣṇānuśīlanam (CC Madhya 19.167). Anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyam (Brs. 1.1.11). There is no other desire, material desire. Desire means material desire, this contaminated desire. It does not mean that we shall not desire to become Kṛṣṇa conscious. That desire is real desire. And any other desire, anyābhilāṣitā, for some material benefit, that is not required. But if we can keep ourself without any material desire, without any propensity for enjoying fruitive result... "I am doing something, I must enjoy this result. I must be enjoyer." This is called jñāna-karma. "Oh, I must try to understand Kṛṣṇa by my speculative method." Why? Kṛṣṇa is explaining Himself. Why don't you try to understand Him in that way? Nonsense. (chuckling) What speculative power you have got? Simply you'll commit blunder. Why? Kṛṣṇa says, "I am this, I am this, I am that, I am that." In the Bhagavad-gītā, explains. God says. Why don't you understand Him as He says? If I say that "I am from India. My birthplace is in Calcutta. I have got five children. I was formerly a businessman," then why do you understand to speculate about me? What is the use of this speculation? If you actually want to know what Swamiji is, Swamiji says that "I was householder, and I was doing medical business. I have got five children. And this and that." So that is sufficient. Why do you want to know Swamiji by speculation? Similarly, these rascals will try to understand Kṛṣṇa by speculation. No. There is no need. Paramahaṁsa. That is paramahaṁsa stage.

Lecture on SB 1.5.11 -- New Vrindaban, June 10, 1969:

Who will not take interest in the matter of understanding Kṛṣṇa consciousness, vinā paśughnāt, except persons who are animal killer, or committing suicide? Therefore this verse said that even though there is no any poetic, I mean to say, rhetorical arrangement or grammatical arrangement, or nice words arrangement, if simply there is glorification of the Lord, Hare Kṛṣṇa... So Hare Kṛṣṇa, these two words or sixteen words or three words, it will be appealed. It will appeal to the devotees, to the great souls. But if you organize a great political meeting, they'll not go there. Just like in our country we have seen the Mahatma Gandhi was given the title mahātmā. You can give your, any title. Nobody objects. Just like in Bengali we say kānā-locana nyāya padma-locana(?). Padma-locana means very beautiful, lotus-eyed. But one mother has got a child who is born blind. Out of her love she has given the name Padma-locana, "lotus-eyed." You see? So that she can give because she loves the child. Even he is blind, that's her whim. "My boy, my child is padma-locana." Similarly, this "mahātmā," this title you can give to any person you like, but it has a meaning, "mahātmā."

So that meaning, "mahātmā," is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā. Mahātmānas tu māṁ pārtha daivīṁ prakṛtim āśritāḥ (BG 9.13). Mahātmā means who is not under the material energy, but he is under the spiritual energy. And what is the symptom that one is under the spiritual energy? That he has no other business except executing Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That's all. That is the symptom.

Lecture on SB 1.5.12-13 -- New Vrindaban, June 11, 1969:

It is not that some sentimental people have gathered here and dancing and chanting. No. There is background. There is philosophical background. There is theological understanding. It is not blind or sentimental. So therefore Nārada advises Vyāsadeva that "You are not only fortunate, but you are amogha-dṛk. Your vision is perfect because you are liberated." Amogha. Our vision—we are not perfect. Therefore you'll find in Vedic version, anuśṛṇuyet, anuvarṇayet. Anu. Anu means following. Following. We have to follow the ācāryas. Just like Vyāsadeva. Amogha-dṛk: his vision is without any impediment. There are four kinds of impediments for the conditioned soul. What are those? That we are subjected to commit error. Any man will commit error because he's conditioned, he'll be illusioned, and he will try to cheat, and his senses are imperfect. These four imperfectness of a conditioned soul. Anywhere, you take any great man, any big man, he has got these four imperfections. Therefore without liberated man, you cannot get real knowledge. Therefore you'll find even the so-called scientists, astrologer, and the astronomer, or... They're studying this nature, "Perhaps," "It might be," because they have no clear vision. And another scientist comes. They changes. But you'll find in the Vedic literature, everything clear understanding. Just like the Vedic literature says the division of the living entities. Jalajā nava-lakṣāṇi. Accurate number is that "There are 900,000 species of life in the water." Accurate. So they might have said ten, one million, or 800,000. No. Nine hundred thousand. Nine hundred thousand. Because accurate, amogha-dṛk, they have been placed. How it has been acquired? The..., the same process: paramparā, amogha-dṛk. If you receive knowledge from the person who is liberated, then it is all right.

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

So long he is in contact with this material world, he has got a natural propensity for sex life and intoxication. Vyavāya means sex life, and āmiṣa means meat-eating. Āmiṣa, meat-eating. Sex life, meat-eating, and madya-sevā. Madhya-sevā means intoxication, drinking liquor. It is not unnatural. To drink wine or liquor or to eat meat and to have free sex life, that is the desire of all conditioned souls. Therefore, sva-bhāva-raktasya, "by nature." Nobody is taught in the educational institution how to drink, or how to eat meat or how to enjoy sex life. Natural. That is natural. Sva-bhāva-raktasya. "And if these things you describe as dharma, as religious principles, then they are doomed."

Just like a man is addicted to commit theft. He has got a habit of stealing. And if I say, "Stealing is very nice art. 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.

Lecture on SB 1.7.6 -- Vrndavana, September 5, 1976:

So compulsory, the government is trying to make compulsory, but that cannot. You cannot make a person honest simply by legislation. He must be vimarśanam. Prāyaścittaṁ vimarśanam. One must be fully conscious, "Now what I am doing, it is wrong." Then anartha-nivṛttiḥ syāt. Just like a person who is a thief, he knows that "I am stealing, and if I am arrested, I'll be punished." He knows that. And he has seen that one thief is arrested. So we get two kinds of experiences. One kind of experience by hearing: "If you do this, then the result will be this." That is hearing. And one kind of experience by directly seeing. So the thief has both. He has seen that a thief has been punished, and he knows by hearing from the lawbooks or from religious books that stealing is not good. But still he commits repeatedly, again and again stealing. Why? Because he has no knowledge. Therefore knowledge is essential. That knowledge can be revived. This is kṛṣṇa-kīrtana. Caitanya Mahāprabhu has recommended, ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanaṁ bhava-mahā-dāvāgni-nirvāpaṇaṁ śreyaḥ-kairava-candrikā-vitaraṇaṁ vidyā-vadhū-jīvanam, ānandāmbudhi-vardhanam (CC Antya 20.12). You want ānanda, ānandamayo 'bhyāsāt (Vedānta-sūtra 1.1.12). Everyone is seeking after ānanda. So pūrṇānanda. Paraṁ vijayate śrī-kṛṣṇa-saṅkīrtanam. This is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's recommendation.

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

So long we keep ourself in this misunderstanding that "I know everything. I am very great person," then whatever he is doing, it is his defeat. Abodha-jataḥ. Parābhavaḥ. That is going on. The so-called leaders, they do not know what is their spiritual identification, and becoming unnecessarily proud, they are doing anything and everything. Abodha-jataḥ. They do not know they'll have to suffer for this ignorance. We have repeatedly said that if you keep yourself in the ignorance and if you do... Because wrong thing is done by rascals and ignorant. No intelligent man will do any wrong thing. That's a fact. Violation of the law is done, either a criminal willfully doing or a person, one who does not know the law, he commits. But you know or not know, if you have violated the law, then you have to be punished.

prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni

guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ

ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā

kartāham iti manyate

(BG 3.27)

You are not independent.

So Vyāsadeva, he is giving us this knowledge. Vidvān lokasyājānataḥ. The whole population, the total number of the living entities—either he is Brahmā or a small—proportionately, they are all in ignorance. Otherwise why Brahmā required Vedic knowledge? It is said, tene brahma hṛdā ādi-kavaye (SB 1.1.1). Ādi-kavaye, Brahmā, he is svayambhū. He's so great that he's directly born from Nārāyaṇa, svayambhū, not through any material mother. Just imagine how he is great. And Brahmā is great, everyone knows. So he had to take knowledge also.

Lecture on SB 1.7.11 -- Vrndavana, September 10, 1976:

So Kṛṣṇa is very kind. Tat te 'nukampāṁ su-samīkṣa..., bhuñjāna evātma-kṛtaṁ vipākam. If we act impiously, we have to suffer. But for a devotee, karmāṇi nirdahati kintu ca bhakti-bhājām (Bs. 5.54). Karmāṇi nirdahati. Others, for sinful activities, they will have to continue, but if a devotee is in sinful activities, in one life it is finished. But don't take this concession. We should be very much careful not to commit. So we shall have to increase our madness for harer guṇākṣipta-matir bhagavān bādarāyaṇiḥ. And bādarāyaṇi, Śukadeva Gosvāmī, is also addressed as Bhagavān. If one is mad after Bhagavān, he's as good as Bhagavān. Harer ākṣipta. One who is mad after Bhagavān, he's as good as Bhagavān. Therefore bādarāyaṇi is addressed here as Bhagavān. In the spiritual world, Bhagavān and His paraphernalia, there is no difference. Don't think that the calf or the cows in Vṛndāvana is less than Kṛṣṇa. No. They're as good as Kṛṣṇa. Ānanda-cinmaya-rasa-pratibhāvitābhiḥ (Bs. 5.37). They are expansion of Kṛṣṇa's ānanda-cinmaya-rasa. Kṛṣṇa wants to play with the cows and calves. So He's ānanda-cinmaya. His spiritual potency appears as cows and calves. Therefore we see Kṛṣṇa is embracing the calves and cows. He's not embracing a material cow. He has nothing to do with material. Ānanda-cinmaya-rasa-pratibhāvitābhiḥ.

Lecture on SB 1.7.18 -- Vrndavana, September 15, 1976:

There are many instances. Just like Prahlāda Mahārāja. He was attempted to be killed by his father so many times, but he was never afraid. Although he was five-years-old boy, but he was not afraid.

So that is the distinction between an advanced devotee and ordinary man. Dhīras tatra na muhyati (BG 2.13). Death means changing of the body. So there is nothing to be very much afraid of, but one is afraid of death because at the time of death the tribulation, the miserable condition of the body is very, very severe—so much severe that one cannot remain. He has to give up this body. Just like sometimes out of disappointment, too much suffering, one commits suicide—death. So death means very, very painful, as much as birth is also very, very painful. Therefore Kṛṣṇa presents, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyadhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). One who is intelligent enough, he should always keep before him the sufferings of birth, death, old age, and disease in front. (aside:) You can, side. Birth, death, old age and..., they are very suffering condition, but if one is advanced devotee, he's not afraid of. Nārāyaṇa-parāḥ sarve na kutaścana bibhyati (SB 6.17.28). Nārāyaṇa-parāḥ, he's never afraid of. Death is coming, that's all right. What is the wrong there? Provided he knows that "After giving up this body, I am going to Kṛṣṇa"? Dhīras tatra na muhyati. He's dhīra. One who is dhīra, he's not afraid of.

Lecture on SB 1.7.20-21 -- Vrndavana, September 17, 1976:

It is not material. Therefore I've already explained, golokera prema-dhana hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana. It is not ordinary sound vibration, material sound vibration, radio. No. Spiritual. Golokera prema-dhana. So if we actually chant this Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra properly, without any offense, then once chanting is sufficient to make you free from the reaction of all sinful life. Once chanted. There is no question of chanting thousand times. It is said, eka hari-nāme jato pāpa hare, pāpī haya tato pāpa karibāre nare(?). Once chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra can vanquish so many, so much accumulated reaction of sinful life that a first-class pāpī or a very expert pāpī, he cannot commit so many pāpa. You see. It is so powerful. So if we chant it properly, this chanting, daśa-vidha, ten offenses, without offenses... Nāma-aparādha-śūnyam. Without any nāma-aparādha, if we chant according to the principle, then the mantra will act. Mantra will act in so nicely that the mantra will keep you always in touch with the Supreme Personality of Godhead. That is the power of mantra. Don't think it is a hobby or it is something superfluous. No. Actually, this mantra, Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Himself.

Lecture on SB 1.7.38-39 -- Vrndavana, September 30, 1976:

Either hari-nāma or the Christian method of atonement should not be taken as profession. This is once or twice you can be excused, but not that you take it as a profession. That is great sinful. We have got also nāma-aparādha. Daśa-vidha-nāma-aparādha-ten kinds of offenses. If you chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra with offenses, then it will not be effective. You must avoid the offenses. You know ten kinds of offenses-guror avajñā śruti-śāstra-nindanam. There are so many offenses, and one of the offenses is nāmno balād yasya hi pāpa-buddhiḥ. He is greatest offender, one who thinks that "By chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, I become free from reaction of sinful life. So the whole day I shall go on committing all kinds of sinful activities, and at night or sometime I shall chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa—everything will be finished," this is the greatest sin. Nāmno balād yasya hi pāpa-buddhiḥ. He's never excused. He is condemned. Caitanya Mahāprabhu accepts a sinful man like Jagāi and Mādhāi on the condition that he does not commit any more any sinful activities. On this condition. Not that "I have become a Vaiṣṇava. I'm chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, so I can go on committing all kinds of sinful activities. There will be no reaction." This kind of conviction is the greatest offense. You should remember. Not like that, the Christian atonement.

Lecture on SB 1.7.47-48 -- Vrndavana, October 6, 1976:

The purpose is they want to be happy. But that is not possible. Therefore they are vimūḍhān. Rascals. They are going in the wrong way. How to divert their attention to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Then they will be happy.

These European, American boys, they are coming from rich family. They have, even nationally, they have got big, big skyscraper buildings, motor car, and why they have come to Kṛṣṇa consciousness? Because they were not happy. It is a fact. They were not happy. So a Vaiṣṇava can understand this, that outwardly, externally, they may have nice dress or nice building or nice motor car, but internally they are so unhappy that they rise up to the top of the skyscraper building and fall down to commit suicide. This is his position. The Vaiṣṇava can understand that bharam udvahato vimūḍhān. They are making skyscraper building, but there is no happiness. It is simply a, what is called? A Gorgeous arrangement only. Otherwise, there is not a drop of happiness. Śoce tato vimukha-cetasaḥ.

Lecture on SB 1.8.19 -- Chicago, July 5, 1974 :

So Kuntī Devī says that "You are within and outside." Kṛṣṇa is within, within your heart, and Kṛṣṇa is outside also. Otherwise how this big cosmic manifestation is going on? Huh? Not only that, He is everywhere, even within the atom, aṇḍāntara-stha-paramāṇu-cayān... Still we can not understand where is Kṛṣṇa. This is our misfortune. Duṣkṛtinaḥ, mūḍhāḥ, they can not understand. Why they cannot understand? That because they are duṣkṛtinaḥ, always engaged in sinful activities. Who can see Kṛṣṇa? Who is not sinful. Yeṣāṁ tv anta-gataṁ pāpam (BG 7.28), one who has finished his life of sinful activities, he can understand Kṛṣṇa. Therefore it is our request to everyone: Please do not commit these four kinds of sinful activities—illicit sex, meat-eating, gambling and intoxication. This is the preliminary qualification to understand God. Especially one must not kill animals. The Bible also. Therefore it is said, "Thou shalt not kill. You rascal, if you want to understand what is God, you must stop this killing art. Thou shalt not kill." But these rascals will not understand. This is the mis..., misfortune. And therefore God is always covered to their eyes. Kuntī Devī therefore said, māyā-javanikācchannam. Māyā-javanikācchannam ajñā. Ajñā means rascal, who has no knowledge, dull, dull-headed, mūḍhāḥ, ass. These words are used in the śāstra. Why mūḍhāḥ? The word is used as an, an ass. The ass, amongst the animals, is the most, I mean to say, what is called, foolish, most foolish. The ass works very hard, and bears burden, heavy burden, ton, but he does not know "Why I am carrying so big burden? Why I have taken so much responsibility?" That he does not know. So here you will find so many big, big politicians, leaders, they have accepted big, big burden like an ass, but they do not know why they are doing so. They do not know. Their only solace is a temporary satisfaction that "I have become president," "I have become this master," "I have become this," for few years. But he does not know what is his real business. So therefore the karmīs, they are working hard day and night, but he does not know why he is working so hard day and night.

Lecture on SB 1.8.19 -- Chicago, July 5, 1974 :

Kṛṣṇa says, "I am sitting in everyone's heart," sarvasya ca aham hṛdi sann... Again hṛdi, in the soul, in the heart. Mattaḥ smṛtir jñānam apohanaṁ ca, "I am giving particular direction to everyone." He is forgetting something, he is reminding..., he is reminded something. In this way Kṛṣṇa is doing. Sarvasya cāhaṁ hṛdi sanniviṣṭo mattaḥ smṛtir jñānam apohanam. How much busy is that? The thief wants to steal something, somebody's house, so he is also praying God, "Please give me some opportunity so that I can steal." So Kṛṣṇa is giving him direction, "All right, you steal in this way." And the same person in whose house the stealing wil be committed, he is also praying, "My dear Kṛṣṇa, please protect me from thieves." So he is also believing. That just see Kṛṣṇa's business: He is giving direction to the thief, and giving direction to the person in whose house the stealing will be committed. So if..., just try to understand how much Kṛṣṇa is busy. That is God. Although He is performing so many contradictory business, contradictory business, opposing business, still His full brain, His full brain, He does not forget to dance with the gopīs at the same time. This is Kṛṣṇa. This is Kṛṣṇa. If you are busy with so many transactions, you forget to see your wife and children and forget. But no. Kṛṣṇa, goloka eva nivasaty akhilātma-bhūto. Although He is busy dancing with the gopīs, although He is busy to play with His cowherd friends, goloka eva nivasaty, in this way He is living in the Goloka, and akhilātma-bhūto, still He is in everyone's heart and giving direction, all contradiction. This is Kṛṣṇa. Don't try to imitate Kṛṣṇa, rascal. Kṛṣṇa is not so easy. Kṛṣṇa is Kṛṣṇa. You are you are. That is real philosophy.

Lecture on SB 1.8.32 -- Los Angeles, April 24, 1973:

This is very logical and supported by the śāstra and spoken by the greatest authority, by Kṛṣṇa. And why should you not accept it? If you don't accept, that is foolishness. If you don't think that there is no life after death, that is foolishness. There is life after death. So because we are accepting one body after another since time immemorial, we cannot think of that there is life eternal. It is difficult for us.

Just like a diseased man. He's lying down on the bed and eating there, passing stool there, passing urine there, and he cannot move and very bitter medicine. So many inconvenience. He's lying down. So he's thinking of committing suicide. "Oh, this life is very intolerable. Let me commit suicide." So in desperate condition sometimes the philosophy of voidism, impersonalism is followed. To make the things zero. Because this life is so much troublesome, sometimes even one commits suicide to get out of this, I mean to say, troublesome life of material existence. So the philosophy of voidism, impersonalism is like that. Mean they cannot, shudder, to think of another life, again eating, again sleeping, again working. Because he thinks eating, sleeping, means on the bed. That's all. And suffering. He cannot think otherwise. So the negative way, to make it zero. That is void philosophy.

Lecture on SB 1.8.35 -- Mayapura, October 15, 1974:

Ah, he knows. Second Canto, Fourth Chapter. So asmin bhave. This is the problem. These rascals, they do not care to understand. They are so absorbed in ignorance. Just like some of the, what is called, smugglers. Smugglers, they go on with their work. They do not know... Some of them know also that "We'll be punished. We'll be arrested." Still, they go on. That is the difficulty. A thief knows that "If I am arrested for these criminal acts, I'll be punished." He knows it. And perhaps he has been punished several times. But still, he commits the same thing. Still, he steals. Punaḥ punaś carvita-carvaṇānām (SB 7.5.30).

So why? Ignorance. Ignorance. So therefore this very word is used, avidyā. He never thinks... He is so much absorbed in ignorance that he has no time to think that "Repeatedly I am stealing, and repeatedly I am arrested, and I am punished. I sent to jail. Why I am doing this?" Result is not very good. Just like a person too much sexually inclined. He suffers in so many venereal diseases, undergoes operation, and still, he goes to prostitute, again does the same thing. This is avaidha-strī-saṅga, illegitimate. And legitimate also. After sex, the woman is pregnant, and she has to suffer for ten months. And at the time of delivery it is very dangerous sometimes. And the man also, after he gets the child, he has to take care of the child. He has to work hard to give education. This is proper, proper sex. The proper sex there are so many difficulties. And what is the..., what to speak of the improper sex? You kill the child. You take contraceptive. You make this; you make that. Therefore śāstra says, bahu-duḥkha-bhājaḥ.

Lecture on SB 1.8.37 -- Los Angeles, April 29, 1973:

So anyway, we should take care of our health also. Sanātana Gosvāmī, he was suffering from itches, very much, and Caitanya Mahāprabhu was embracing him. So the, the itches were wet itches. There are two kinds of itches, wet and dry. Sometimes itching spot is dry, and sometimes it is wet. After itching, it becomes wet. So Sanātana Gosvāmī's body was all covered with wet itches, and Caitanya Mahāprabhu was embracing him. So the wetness, the moisture, was sticking to the body of Caitanya Mahāprabhu. So he felt it very much ashamed, that "I am suffering from itches, and Caitanya Mahāprabhu's embracing, and the wet thing is smearing over the body. How much unfortunate." So he decided that "Tomorrow I shall commit suicide instead of allowing me to be embraced by Caitanya Mahāprabhu." So next day Caitanya Mahāprabhu inquired that "You have decided to commit suicide. So do you think this body is yours?" So he was silent. Caitanya Mahāprabhu said that "You have already dedicated this body to Me. How you can kill it?" Similarly... Of course, from that day, his itches were all cured and... But this is the decision, that our body, those who are Kṛṣṇa conscious, those who are working for Kṛṣṇa, they should not think that the body belongs to him. It is already dedicated to Kṛṣṇa. So it must be kept very carefully, without any neglect. Just like you are taking care of the temple because it is Kṛṣṇa's place. Similarly... We should not take overcare, but some care we should take so that we may not fall diseased.

Lecture on SB 1.8.40 -- Los Angeles, May 2, 1973:

Now, if You like, You can kill me or You can give me protection." This is wanted. And Kṛṣṇa says in reply, "Yes." Sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). Ekam. He does not say, "Yes, you depend on Me and depend on your slaughterhouse and factory also." No. He says, "Simply depend on Me, one." Mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi. So "I will rescue you from the resultant action of your sinful activities." Because you have lived so many years without being Kṛṣṇa conscious, you have lived sinful life only. So Kṛṣṇa gives, gives assurance that, as soon as one surrenders to Kṛṣṇa, He immediately squares up all account. All your sinful activities finished now. Finished. Now you begin new life. That is called initiation. But don't commit anymore.

Therefore we take promise from our disciples that "Now the account is squared up. Whatever sinful life you led, that is closed now. Without any payment, I close. Now don't commit any more." That is nāma-aparādha. If you, if we think that kṛṣṇa-nāma, the holy name of Kṛṣṇa, can, I mean to say nullify so many sinful activities, so if I commit little sinful activity and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, it will be nullified. No, don't think like that. That is the greatest sin. Nāmno balād yasya hi pāpa-buddhiḥ. Anyone who is thinking like that, that "Let me commit some sinful activities, and in the evening I shall chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. It will be all right," no. No. no, that is the greatest offense. Out of ten kinds of offenses, that is the greatest offense. Nāmno balād yasya hi. Don't take to that process, confession. Just like the Christians do. They go to the church and confess. Suppose one confesses—"That's all right"—and again does the same sinful activities. Then what is the value? Accept... Why accept? It is fact. If you confess before the Lord, just as, "My Lord, out of my ignorance..." The sinful activities are done out of ignorance. Not that by planning that "I shall commit sinful activities, go to the church and confess. Then everything is nullified. Again begin, new chapter, sinful activities." That is not ignorance. That is by knowingly, knowingly taking advantage of chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra.

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

So our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is all-round. If people understand that this is a religious movement... No. Religious movement is different thing. Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement... Kṛṣṇa. It is not our manufactured ideas. Kṛṣṇa speaks in the Bhagavad-gītā to make people Kṛṣṇa conscious in every way. He's suggesting how to live, annād bhavanti bhūtāni; (BG 3.14) how the division of the society should be made, cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭaṁ guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ; (BG 4.13) everything, social, political and... Political also. He is enthusing Arjuna, "You must fight. They are... They have committed so much injustice upon you. So you must fight. Don't consider that he is your brother, he is your..." Even when Arjuna said, "Yes. This is all right. I'll fight with my enemies, but how can I kill Bhīṣmadeva? He is not my enemy. He's my maintainer, my grandfather. We lost our father at early age. He took care. How can I kill? How can I kill my teacher, Droṇācārya?" But Kṛṣṇa supported that "You must kill them." "Why?" "Because they have taken the wrong side. Because Bhīṣmadeva, in spite of his becoming so learned, still, he has gone to the side of the Duryodhana, and simply for matter of getting some money, maintenance."

Lecture on SB 1.8.41 -- Mayapura, October 21, 1974:

Therefore vānaprastha. Because the wife's..., affection with the wife, is very, very strong. So vānaprastha means the husband and wife, they give up the affection. Not give up, go away from home, and they travel in the holy places just to purify, and again, when the affection draws, they come to the family. Again remain for one or two months, then again go away. So the wife, there is no sex connection, but wife remains as assistant to the man to be accustomed how to remain aloof from the family. And then, when he is practiced to remain aloof from the..., then wife is also sent back to the family, to the care of elderly children, and the man takes sannyāsa, compulsory. It is called "civil suicide." My Guru Mahārāja used to say, "Commit civil suicide." Mean... If you commit suicide it is criminal. It is also suicide, no more connection with family. This is also suicide, but it is civil. There is no criminal action against... But it is also voluntarily committing suicide—no more connection with anyone.

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

If you perform sāttvika charity, then you get good result; rājasika charity, you get some profit; and tāmasika charity, you go to hell. So one must be very careful even for this sneha, or charity, or philanthropy.

There is another story—it may be fact—that a boy was raised by his aunt very liberally. Then, gradually, the boy became, in bad association, a thief. And the aunt was encouraging, "Oh, it is a very good business. You are bringing so many things without any labor." So... Or out of affection he (she) did not chastise the boy when he was stealing. Then he, at the end, became a murderer. So he committed a murder. Then when he was to be hanged, so the government men inquired, "What is your last wish?" "Now, I want to speak with my aunt through the ear." Then he was allowed. And the aunt was generally crying that "My nephew is going to be hanged." She was... So he caught up her ear with the teeth and cut it. So he said, "My dear aunt, if you would have chastised me in the beginning, then today, this position, that you are crying and I am going to be hanged, this would not have happened. But you did not do that. Therefore you are uselessly crying now, and this is your punishment: I cut off your ear with the teeth." A very good instruction.

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

This is marriage. Kanyā-dāna. According to Vedic system, kanyā, means daughter, is given in charity. To find out a suitable... Practically, I'll say, in our childhood age, my sisters were married between nine to twelve years. My eldest sister was married when she was nine years old, before my birth. She is the eldest. And my second sister was married at the age of twelve, twelve years. And my third sister was married at the age of 11 years. So by the (indistinct) 12 years, the marriage must be finished. That was the duty of the father. I remember, because my second sister was going twelve years, my mother said to my father that "I shall go to the river and commit suicide. The daughter is not married." (laughter) You see. The father was very sorry, "Yes, I am trying. What can I do?" (laughter) And then next generation, when my... I was also married man, you know. I was married when my wife was only eleven years old. And at the age of fourteen years she gave birth to first child. And next generation, when my eldest daughter was married at the age of sixteen years—it is little increased—but I was also very much upset that the daughter is sixteen years old.

Lecture on SB 1.8.52 -- Los Angeles, May 14, 1973:

So immediately there will be precipitation and all the muddy things will be collected, and the water will be clear, original. So we are discussing about the muddy atmosphere. Things are there, sinful, muddy. But there is process also, how to counteract it. The process is also prescribed there. So at the present moment the whole world is muddy, but you cannot clear this muddy situation by adding more mud. They are trying to do that. They are not trying. The, there is Vedic method also, like that, that if you have done something wrong, you do another wrong thing. That is called prāyaścitta. Prāyaścitta. But Bhāgavata does not accept this kind of prāyaścitta. Prāyaścittaṁ vimarśanam. By this kind of reformation... Suppose you have committed theft. This is sinful activities. And you are put into the jail for six months. That does not mean that you become an honest man. That does not mean. So it is something like that. To clear the muddy water, put another lump of mud on it. This will not help. Something effective must be brought in.

That effective thing is kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva gatir anyathā, only this chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. The whole world is muddy. It is impure, full of sinful activities. So if you want to clear the situation of the modern world, then this is the only remedy:

Lecture on SB 1.8.52 -- Los Angeles, May 14, 1973:

Therefore there is pañca-sūnā-yajña. You have to perform yajña every day to counteract the sinful reaction of your imperceptible killings of animals. That's it. This is Vedic life.

So Yudhiṣṭhira Mahārāja says that "It is not possible to counteract." But indirectly, Yudhiṣṭhira Mahārāja says, that if you... He says simply the negative side, but the positive side is, in this age, simply by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra, you become purified. That is the recommendation by Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12). There are two kinds of, what is called, atonement. One atonement, by the prescribed method. You have done... Just like I'll give you common example. Just like you have committed theft. One atonement is that you go to the jail and live there for some time. This is atonement. If you have committed a murder, then you also be hanged. These are the laws. When the king orders somebody to be hanged on account of his committing murder, the king is not sinful. King is helpful. King is helping that rascal to atone his murdering activities. Otherwise, if he is not hanged, then next life, next time, he will be put into difficulty. Next time he will have to become animal. He will be slaughtered. These laws they do not know. Why these animals are being slaughtered? There is some nature's law. They were murderer or slaughterer in their past life as human being. Now they have assumed, they have accepted a body to be slaughtered by the laws of nature. When an animal is slaughtered in sacrifice, there is mantra. The mantra is that... The animal slaughter in sacrifice is recommended for the animal-eaters, not for all. Those who are... To restrict.

Lecture on SB 1.9.40 -- New York, May 22, 1973:

So generally, at the time of death, kapha-vāta-pittaiḥ, the whole system becomes disarranged. There are coughing, there are headache, there is some pain, this is general system. Sometimes they are so intolerable that the man who is going to die, he cries. The system within the body is so complicated that at any time it can be disarranged, and it becomes a great source of pain. So, at the time of death means, the arrangement becomes so dangerously painful, that one leaves this body, "No more." This is death. This bodily arrangement becomes so painful. Just like one commits suicide. When the situation is too much painful he wants a rescue by committing suicide. Similarly, when the bodily pains are too severe, then the living entity can not live in this body. Tyaktvā deham, he gives up this body. So we have to give up this body, that we forget.

People have become so misguided, they are memorizing. In our country some astrologer has said that one big politician, he has become one of the two dogs in Scandinavia! Now here for this material body, they have erected museum, and statues, and being worshiped by so many methods, but the spirit soul—which was the politician actually, not this body—he has taken birth as a dog. This is the understanding. Where the politician has gone and how what he is doing, they do not know. But they are concerned with the body. My Guru Mahārāja used to say, (aside:) yes? "That one man is drowned, and another brave man comes—I'll save him." As he jumps over the water and brings the coat and shirt, "Now this man is saved." So what people will say, what a nonsense he is, he has brought his coat and shirt and the man is saved? Similarly, these rascals, they are dealing with the coat and shirt of the living entity but they have no knowledge in the university or anywhere where the soul has gone.

Lecture on SB 1.10.6 -- Mayapura, June 21, 1973:

Yes. The technical name is weeping. Dry and weeping. So it was weeping itches. And whenever he would go to Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, immediately Caitanya Mahāprabhu embrace him, and the weeping secretion will touch the body of Caitanya Mahāprabhu. So he thought that "I am suffering from this disease. Caitanya Mahāprabhu (is) embracing me. I shall kill myself. I shall commit suicide." So he consulted, not for suicide, but leaving the place. So when he was advised, "Yes, you can leave the place," so Caitanya Mahāprabhu, when He heard this news that Jagadānanda has advised Sanātana Gosvāmī to leave the place, He became very angry, that "You have the audacity to advise Sanātana Gosvāmī? Nonsense." He was so respectful to Sanātana Gosvāmī. The same Sanātana Gosvāmī approached Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, asking Him the question: "What I am? Why I am put into these threefold miserable condition of life?"

So this is our position. We may be very great man in the estimation of our friends and countrymen, but everyone is subjected to the miserable condition of life. They cannot make any solution. That is not possible. They have made a solution, big, big learned scholars, just that Mr. Kotovsky said, "Swamiji, after death, there is no life. Everything is finished." Unless they think like that, then life becomes more horrible, full of anxieties. If they think of that there is another life and there is punishment and reward, according to our karma, then their life is very horrible. So just like the animals, poor animal, sometimes facing enemy, close the eyes, as if there is no enemy, so they do like that, close the eyes. Children, when there is danger, they close the eyes. They have no other means to escape. So these people, they close the eyes. "There is no life after death." Otherwise they cannot accommodate.

Lecture on SB 1.10.11-12 -- Mayapura, June 25, 1973:

"Oh, I left my wife. If I would have possessed, I would have been happy," he's immediately fallen. Because within the mind, he's associating with yoṣit. Suppose we go to see some rich man. I see that he has got money, nice motor car, nice building. If I think, "Oh, I have taken sannyāsa. If I would have possessed all these things, I would have been...," then immediately fall down. Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu strictly prohibits that if you have become niṣkiñcana, renounced order, with a idea of going forward, bhava-sāgarasya, on the other side of the ocean, then aspiring after money and women is lower than dying, committing suicide. Hā hanta hanta viṣa-bhakṣaṇato 'py asādhu. If you take poison, that is criminal. Similarly, He says, "A man in renounced order of life, if he's thinking of woman and money, then he's committing suicide more than ordinary suicide." Viṣa-bhakṣaṇato 'py asādhu. Viṣa-bhakṣaṇa. If you drink poison, then you are criminal. If you survive, by law you'll be punished. Perhaps you know it. Anyone attempting to commit suicide, if he survives, by law he'll be punished: "Why you attempted suicide? This is criminal." Similarly, to see, to aspire after women and money, by the renounced order people, is lower than committing suicide. This is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's version.

Lecture on SB 1.15.44 -- Los Angeles, December 22, 1973:

By material opulence, one does not become rich. He is animal. By material opulence, one may be polished animal, but he is animal. One who is spiritually advanced, he is actually in knowledge. Because basic principle is spirit. Without spiritual knowledge, anything, any so-called knowledge, advancement of knowledge, is simply mistake, mistake. Just like if you, in calculating one mathematical sum, if you commit mistake anywhere, the whole thing is spoiled. Whole thing is spoiled. You go on. You are making progress. But real mistake was there. It will never carry. The balance, it will not come into being.

So the real mistake they are committing: dehātma-buddhi, this body as self. That is the basic mistake of all education. Yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke (SB 10.84.13). Anyone who has accepted this body as self, yasya ātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke... This is a bag of three elements: kapha, pitta, vāyu. And on this basis, sva-dhīḥ kalatrādiṣu... Sva-dhīḥ. Sva-dhīḥ means thinking, "my own men." Kalatrādiṣu. Kalatra means wife, and through wife, children, then other relationship. Sva-dhīḥ kalatrādiṣu bhauma ijya-dhīḥ. And the land in which one is born, that is worshipable. Nowadays nationalism. Nationalism means the land. In so many ways the whole basic principle of education is wrong. Therefore such persons who are making so-called progress on the basic principle of mistake, so parābhavas tāvat, they are simply being defeated, because the basic principle is wrong. Parābhavas tāvad abodha-jāto yāvan na jijñāsata ātma-tattvam. Ātma-tattvam, spirit, spiritual knowledge, one who hasn't got, so whatever they are doing in the name of progress, they are all being defeated. That's all. It will never be successful. They will never be happy. There will be no peace and prosperity in the world, because the basic principle is wrong.

Lecture on SB 1.15.45 -- Los Angeles, December 23, 1973:

Suppose you are being harassed by the police. You are put into the prisonhouse. And in so many ways you are being harassed by the criminal department. How you can get out? You simply file a petition, "Sir I am now experienced. I will never commit this criminal act. Kindly excuse me and get me released." That is the only way. Similarly, you can be very proud that "I don't care for God. There is no God. I am God. You are God." You can go on talking nonsense like that, but the māyā will give you so much trouble. But if you are sane man, then you will admit that "This was a wrong thing. Please excuse me." And then it will be possible. But that is not possible. Especially in this age, in Kali-yuga, the age is very strong and deteriorated that in spite of our daily class, daily instruction, the Kali is so strong that capturing, "Please come under my control and be killed. Please come under my... Be killed." "Yes, I will go." This is going on.

So Yudhiṣṭhira Mahārāja and his brothers, they say, "Now the Kali yuga has begun." Dṛṣṭvā and spṛṣṭāḥ prajāḥ, "All the citizens and all the land. Now... We have done our duty. Now let us retire. The next king, Mahārāja..." He's their grandchild, Mahārāja Parīkṣit. "He will do his duty." So it is the duty of the king to see, to give protection from this onslaught of nature, to make the life successful. That is the duty of the king. That is the duty of the father. That is the duty of the spiritual master. That is the duty of friends and relatives. Then one should cooperate, one should give protection. Just like these children are there. If the father, mother and the teacher, they do not give these children protection, then what is their future hope?

Lecture on SB 1.16.8 -- Los Angeles, January 5, 1974:

And in some other country, drinking is bad. In your country, meat-eating is no offense. But in the Vedic civilization, meat-eating is one of the foremost sinful activities. So here the so-called "good" and "bad," they are all mental creation. Otherwise, everything is bad, nothing good. Here, only goodness is to become Kṛṣṇa conscious. Otherwise, everything is bad. So-called ethics, morality and law, good and bad, they are all rascaldom. It has no meaning. Because they are punishable. They can avoid the punishment of the law of the state. Just like in the government in every state, there is some punishment if one kills another living entity. Another man, not living entity. There is punishment. The law punishes. If you kill someone, if you commit murder, then you will be punished. This is punishable. But because it is man-made law, therefore it is defective. A man is a living entity, and a cow is also a living entity. Why this discrimination, that if a man is murdered or killed, that murderer must be punished? But that law is not permissible in God's law. In God's law, either you kill a man or you kill an ant, you are punishable. You are punishable. You cannot avoid this. Because in the eyes of God, the Brahmā, Lord Brahmā, and a small ant, they are all sons of God.

Lecture on SB 1.16.8 -- Los Angeles, January 5, 1974:

This is the fact. So don't fall down. Don't be childish, that "Yes, I have promised before spiritual master, before Kṛṣṇa, before fire. All right, that's all right. Let me break." No, don't do that. Don't do that. Don't lose this opportunity. You are now on the point of deathlessness, but if you again commit... Bhajann apakvo 'tha patet tato yadi. There is chance. If your execution of devotional service is not going perfectly, so there is chance of falldown.

So devotional service so nice, that even if you fall down, there is not very great loss. Great loss means you get human body, not an animal body. That is stated in the Bhag... Yoga-bhraṣṭo 'bhijāyate. Śucīnāṁ śrīmatāṁ gehe yoga-bhraṣṭaḥ (BG 6.41). One who has fallen down from the bhakti-yoga, where does he go? Śucīnāṁ śrīmatāṁ gehe: in the house of very rich man and in the house of nice, Vaiṣṇava brāhmaṇa. This is the opportunity. This is first-class opportunity. If you take your birth in the house of Vaiṣṇava brāhmaṇa, just like these children are taking birth, father and mother Vaiṣṇava... They are very fortunate. They are not ordinary children. Otherwise they would not have gotten this chance of chanting and dancing before Deity and Vaiṣṇava. They are not ordinary children. The parent must take care, very good care, that they may not fall down. They have got the chance. Now train them to complete this Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is the duty of father and mother. "Now this child has come under my care." If both the father and mother think like that... Not contraceptive. Oh, rascaldom. "Oh, here is a child who has taken shelter of me as mother, who has taken shelter of me as father. Oh, it is my duty to train him in such a way that no more birth, no more death."

Lecture on SB 1.16.20 -- Hawaii, January 16, 1974:

That is called dhīraḥ. Dhīras tatra na muhyati. Unless you become dhīraḥ, you cannot understand what is spiritual life. That is not possible. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā, tathā dehāntara-prāptir dhīras tatra na muhyati (BG 2.13). Dhīras tatra na muhyati.

So you cannot understand even. Unless you become a dhīraḥ, you cannot understand what is spiritual life, what is spirit. It is not a bogus thing that I manufacture something, concoct something, and do something, and I become a leader, I become a spiritual master. This is all nonsense. Dhīras tatra na muhyati. The word is dhīraḥ, and dhīraḥ is explained in the Kumāra-sambhava, that dhīraḥ, just like Lord Śiva... Lord Śiva lost his wife; she committed suicide before her father. That's in Dakṣa-yajña, was learned about Dakṣa-yajña. So Lord Śiva was performing yoga practice meditation, and in the meantime, his wife Devī, she took birth as daughter of Himalaya, King of Himalaya, Pārvatī. So the..., there was fight between the demigods and the demons. So there was a plan that "If by the semina of Lord Śiva, one son is born, Kārttikeya, then he'll be able to kill these demons; otherwise, it is very difficult." So Lord Śiva was engaged in meditation after the death of his wife. In the meantime, his wife took birth in the Himalaya. So now he, he has to be induced to unite with this Pārvatī. So there was plan made. The plan made that Pārvatī, young age, beautiful girl, and Lord Śiva is meditating naked, and she was offering worshipable flowers on the genital. Still, he was not disturbed. Young girl touching the genital of a person, but he is not disturbed. That is dhīraḥ, that is the example of perfection of dhīraḥ. Even in the presence of being agitated, one who is not agitated, that is called dhīraḥ. Otherwise, everyone becomes agitated. That is natural. A young boy sees another young man or a young man sees another young girl. Natural sex appetite, natural. But one who can control that, that is dhīraḥ. That is dhīraḥ. Dhīras tatra na muhyati. That is yoga practice. That is yoga practice, controlling. "When there will be need, I shall use it."

Lecture on SB 1.16.26-30 -- Hawaii, January 23, 1974:

The most offensive is that "Kṛṣṇa... By chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, I become sinless. So in the morning let me do, or in the, at night, let me do all sinful activities; in the morning I shall chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, and it will, everything will be nullified." This is the greatest offense. Nāmno balād yasya hi pāpa-buddhiḥ. "Because I am chanting, therefore I can do anything sinful. It will be counteracted." This is the greatest rascaldom, sinful activities. Yes. Nāmno balād yasya hi pāpa-buddhiḥ. Pāpa-buddhiḥ. Nāma... By chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra we become immediately sinless. That's a fact. But why shall we commit again? Just like the Christian people, they go to the church, confession: "Sir, I did this, all these sinful activities last week." "All right, pay me something." Again, from Monday, beginning sinful activities; come on Sunday. These are not allowed. You can be excused, but don't do again. If you continue to do it, that is not very... Then you have to suffer. Once or twice, you may be excused. But if you continue to do that, you must be punished. Nāmno balād yasya hi pāpa-buddhiḥ. (indistinct question by devotee) Yes, everything under the direction of the spiritual master. Why you are asking? (indistinct) You do not know these things? Why do you ask this question? It must be, according to the direction of the spiritual master. Why do you ask that question? Therefore, ādau gurvāśrayam. Whatever... (break) (end)

Lecture on SB 1.16.36 -- Tokyo, January 30, 1974:

Yes. But her business is to cut off the heads of the demons. She is carrying one head in this hand, and in this hand she's carrying a chopper, and her business is to cut the heads of the demons. But she's also the agent of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. How she's agent? Because God has got two business: paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṁ vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām (BG 4.8). Duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ, narādhamāḥ, māyayāpahṛta-jñānā āsuraṁ bhāvam āśritāḥ (BG 7.15). For them the goddess Kālī is engaged to cut their heads, kill them. That is also Kṛṣṇa's agent. Vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām, they have to be finished. But, by finishing them, they are also elevated. Finishing means finishing their sinful activities, finishing their sinful activ... Just like... It is very easy to understand. Just like a person who has committed murder, the state law is, "Finish him, otherwise he will commit another murder." If he's encouraged... Therefore, by finishing him, there are two purposes. One purpose is served that because he has done something very grievous sinful activity, by sacrificing his own life, he becomes relieved from the sinful reaction. That is the law in the Manu-saṁhitā. I have not manufactured. The murderer is condemned to death just to save him from many following resultant actions of sinful activities. If in this life, he gives his life, "Life for life," then he's safe. In the next life, he takes his birth clean, not suffering any more on account of the sinful activities. This is the statement in Manu-saṁhitā. Another instruction is that if this murderer is killed, then he will be saved from committing again murder.

Lecture on SB 2.1.3 -- Vrndavana, March 18, 1974:

Then all right. I became married, or I enjoyed sex life. Then children. Then embarrassment. Contraceptive. That is also embarrassment. So this embarrassment is going on. And then again death. Then again go to the womb of the mother, and be killed within the womb of the mother, abortion. So the whole life is full of embarrassment. Why? That "why" question does not arise, that "Why I am embarrassed?"

So therefore the Māyāvādīs, they think that "Make me zero, void. Then there will be no pains and pleasure, no embarrassment." Their philosophy is like that. Impersonal, that is also the same thing. Or void. Voidism, the same thing. "Make it zero." Just like the foolish man, when one is embarrassed, he commits suicide. He commits suicide. He thinks, "If I end this body, then my embarrassment will be finished." So these are the circumstances. Why? Now, apaśyatām ātma-tattvam (SB 2.1.2). He does not know "What is the necessity of me, soul, how to get me relieved from that." That he does not know. So therefore this word is used: apaśyatām ātma-tattvam (SB 2.1.2). He does not see that "I am spirit soul. My necessity is different from the bodily necessity." (break) "Then I'll become comfortable." Even one knows that "I am not this body," but the body is home... Or I know that "I am not this room," but I am engaged always how to keep this room very neat and clean. That is my business. I do not know that there is another business. Apaśyatām ātma-tattvam (SB 2.1.2). That is the defect.

Lecture on SB 2.1.7 -- Paris, June 15, 1974:

Don't imitate. Unless you come to that stage, positive stage... It is not that simply negative. Negative means you must stand on a positive platform. Therefore those who are Śūnyavādī, simply negative... The other day, some Zen Buddhist came. He said that "to become desireless." These nonsense people, they do not know it is impossible to become desireless. They are thinking... Therefore they are disturbed always. It is not possible to become desireless. You... That is negative post, nirvāṇa. That is Buddha philosophy, nirvāṇa. "Stop these material nonsense activities." But unless he has got positive activities, how he can give up this nonsense? Paraṁ dṛṣṭvā nivartate (BG 2.59). You must give good engagement. Otherwise, he'll go on committing all nonsense. Just like you, you have been given good engagement, Deity worship and so many other things. You are engaged. Therefore you have no time to divert your attention for nonsense things. Simply artificially, if you want to stop, no. The U.S. government, they tried to stop this intoxication habit, LSD, millions of dollars. Not a single man was stopped. Not a single man. And here in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, as soon as they come, immediately... Why? Paraṁ dṛṣṭvā nivartate. When he understands that he is better intoxication, "Why shall I go to LSD?" That is required.

Lecture on SB 2.3.17 -- Los Angeles, July 12, 1969:

This boy, this brāhmaṇa boy, was playing with his playmates. That means he was a child, not more than ten to twelve years old. And he was informed that "Mahārāja Parīkṣit has insulted your father by garlanding him with a dead snake." The fact was that Mahārāja Parīkṣit was in hunting. One after another, so many things comes, but let me explain to you. This hunting business was allowed only for the kings, kṣatriyas, not for ordinary man. Killing in sports. Because the king had to administer so strongly that sometimes he had to kill an evil person immediately with sword. The kingdom was very strong. Not many days before, say, about hundred years ago in Kashmir, if a thief was caught, burglar was caught, and he was proved that he has committed theft, the king would personally cut off, chop off his hand. The punishment was so severe. And the result was that even you miss something on your way, nobody will touch it. Everyone was afraid: "Let the things remain there. One who has lost his thing, he will come and take away. We don't require to take it." So the kings were very severe to punish unwanted social elements. So the kings were therefore allowed sometimes to hunt in the jungle to practice killing. Just like doctors are allowed to practice surgical operation on dead body; otherwise, how they'll practice, how they'll become surgeon, if they do not practice? Similarly, only the kings were allowed to kill some animal in the jungle sometimes.

Lecture on SB 2.3.20 -- Los Angeles, June 16, 1972:

So if he is informed that "After your cure, you shall be able to eat nice rasagullā, sandeśa," he cannot believe it. He says, "Again eating? Oh, it is horrible." Because he has got bad experience of eating in sick condition, he thinks that eating in healthy condition is also the same. This is Māyāvāda. He has no experience what is healthy eating.

Therefore his bad experience of this diseased condition, he wants to make it zero. He is thinking that "When my, this drinking of medicine and lying down will be zero, oh, that will be my real healthy condition." This is their philosophy. Because bad experience ... Just like foolish persons sometimes commit suicide or they talk of suicide. The whole thing is zero, wants to make the life zero. That is their happiness. Śūnyavādi. Because they have no experience that there is another life, going back to home, back to Godhead. There also, Kṛṣṇa is eating; Kṛṣṇa is dancing; Kṛṣṇa is playing; Kṛṣṇa is killing; Everything is there. They are all transcendental. Everything is there. Here, only perverted reflection, false reflection only. There are five principal rasas: śānta, dāsya, sākhya, vātsalya, mādhurya. Here also, the same rasas are here, śānta, dāsya. Just like I am sitting in this comfortable seat. This is śānta, śānta-rasa. The throne is giving me service in silence.

Lecture on SB 2.4.2 -- Los Angeles, June 25, 1972:

Negation of material, negation. Because they are very much frustrated. Just like in your country, the hippies. The hippies means negation of a positive materialistic life. That's all. Negation. They are simply denying that "I, we don't want the way of life as our father and grandfathers are going on."

That's a negation, but there is no positive gain. So negation is no good. You must have some positive gain. So our, this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is negation of the materialistic way of life and regain the blissful eternal life of spiritual understanding. So simply negation is no gain. With something, if you are disgusted, "I don't want it," but... Just like sometimes a man commits suicide, "I don't want this life." So what is the gain? And that is ignorance. He does not know that committing suicide... He's eternal. He's eternal. Living entity is eternal. He thinks that "By killing this body, I am free from this bodily miserable condition of life." No. He's immediately..., either he has to accept a next abominable body or he'll have to become a ghost. One who commits suicide. Ghost means no material gross life, but the mental, material subtle life is there. A ghost is carried by the subtle body: mind, intelligence and false ego. And one who gets a body, gross body...

Lecture on SB 2.9.13 -- Melbourne, April 12, 1972:

Then there is no more... You become zero. Then there is no more pains and pleasure." This is Buddha's theory. The same principle, that you have got some pain on your head, so the theory is that break your head. Sometime I suggested to our Sarasvatī, that "You break your head and there will be no pain." So this theory is like that. Instead of mending... This is the lack of knowledge. Mūḍha. Mūḍha. The pains and pleasure... One man in the prison life, he is simply suffering so many pains and pleasure. There is no pleasure, simply pain. So he is trying to commit suicide.

So sometimes people do that, suicide. They think that "If I kill, if I commit suicide, then all these pains and pleasures will be finished," because he has no information that a body is an instrument to feel pains and pleasure. Actually, I, as the spirit soul, I am unattached to it. Ātma-māyām ṛte rājan. Ātma-māyā. It is a creation of, temporary creation. So if I get out of this temporary creation and be situated in my own position, then there is no more pains and pleasure. It is simply pleasure. Therefore Kṛṣṇa consciousness means to change the consciousness. Now I am conscious of this material combination, this body, mind Therefore I am feeling pains and pleasure. And as soon as I am situated in my original consciousness, that "I am Kṛṣṇa's; Kṛṣṇa's eternal servant I am, so let me engage in Kṛṣṇa's service," and then there is no more material pains and pleasure. It is not that A neophyte, when he is engaged in Kṛṣṇa's service, he is feeling the same pains and pleasure, but that is due to our past habit, consciousness.

Lecture on SB 2.9.13 -- Melbourne, April 12, 1972:

Momentum. It appears as if running. So a devotee, although sometimes it appears that he is in pains and pleasures, committing something nonsense, that is momentum. In the next verse in the Bhagavad-gītā it is said,

þsipraṁ bhavati dharmātmā

śāṣvac chāntiṁ nigacchati

kaunteya pratijānīhi

na me bhaktaḥ praṇaśyati

(BG 9.31)

Although we find in the neophyte devotee some bad behavior due to his past experience, so we should not take him as nondevotee. Sādhur eva sa mantavyaḥ (BG 9.30). He is sādhu—if he sticks to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. And the bad habits which are visible now, it will disappear. It will disappear. So we have to give chance because we see some bad habits of a devotee, we should not reject. We should give another chance. We should give another chance because he has taken the right thing, but to past behavior he appears to be again going to the māyā's clutches. So we should not reject, but we should give chance. One may take little more time to come to the standard, but we should give him chance. If he sticks to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, very soon all these defects will be disappearing. Kṣipraṁ bhavati dharmātmā. He will be completely a dharmātmā, a mahātmā. Why? Kaunteya pratijānīhi na me bhaktaḥ praṇaśyati: (BG 9.31) "Anyone who has taken seriously My lotus feet, seriously surrendered to Me, he will never be anxious. He will never be anxious, although sometimes it appears that he is coming down." So this should be our principle. We stick to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then everything will be all right in due course of time. So the varieties of life there is. That variety is actual variety.

Lecture on SB 3.25.14 -- Bombay, November 14, 1974:

Especially anāvṛṣṭi, durbhikṣa and kara-pīḍita. The people of the Kali-yuga will be very much, I mean to say, harassed by these three things. There will be no rainfall, and... There will be no rainfall, and there, food scarcity and taxation by government, income tax. Income tax is to plunder. If you have got some money, this is the means. So this is all stated in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. People will be so much harassed that ācchinna-dāra-draviṇā gacchanti giri-kānanam. They'll be disgusted so much, they will give up their family all of a sudden... Dāra-draviṇāḥ. Dāra means wife, children and bank balance, everything, "Let them go to..." Recently we have seen one big industrialist, he has committed suicide. So people will do that. They'll be so much harassed. This is Kali-yuga.

So in this position of harassment, how the peaceful varṇāśrama can be revived? It is very difficult. It is almost impossible. Therefore this system should be taken. What is this system? Saṅkīrtanair yajñair yajanti hi su-medhasaḥ. Those who have got brain, they will worship Viṣṇu. Yajña means to satisfy Viṣṇu. Yajñaiḥ saṅkīrtana-prāyaiḥ. Viṣṇur ārādhyate panthā nānyat tat-toṣa... The whole aim is to satisfy Viṣṇu. Therefore Viṣṇu comes Himself, Kṛṣṇa. Viṣṇu comes Himself as Caitanya Mahāprabhu and teaches. There is no difference between Viṣṇu's teachings... Other bogus teachers, they can teach something else, but Viṣṇu's teachings... Just like Kṛṣṇa. Whatever Kṛṣṇa... Of course, Kṛṣṇa incarnation was after Kapila's incarnation. Before that, there were other Viṣṇu incarnations. So here it is said, tam imaṁ te pravakṣyāmi yam avocaṁ purā anaghe. Purā, "Formerly. I am not manufacturing." Nowadays it has become a fashion to manufacture a new system of religion. It is not that. It is not new.

Lecture on SB 3.25.14 -- Bombay, November 14, 1974:

He expands His energy, potency. That is Rādhārāṇī. Hlādinī śaktir asmād ekātmānāv api bhuvi purā deha-bhedaṁ gatau tau. So these are the... So if we want... That is the... Human life is meant for that. As Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura says, manuṣya-janama pāiyā rādhā-kṛṣṇa nā bhajiyā jāniyā śuniyā viṣa khāinu: "My dear Lord, I have simply wasted my time, although I got the opportunity of this human form of life." Why you have wasted? "Now, I have done everything without worshiping Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa." That's all.

So what is this...? Now... Jāniyā śuniyā viṣa khāinu. It is just like taking poison knowingly. Somebody takes poison unknowingly and somebody takes poison to commit suicide, knowingly. So it is something like that. If we do not understand Kṛṣṇa in this life, then we are taking poison knowingly. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, yadā yadā hi... Because they are taking poison... They got the chance of eternal life, but they are taking poison. Viṣaya-viṣānale, dibā-niśi hiyā jvale. This material life is just like blazing fire of poison. Viṣaya-viṣānale. Viṣaya means material. Āhāra-nidrā-bhaya-maithuna. Eating, sleeping and sex life and defense—these are the material activities. So we are engaged with these things. So viṣaya-viṣānale, dibā-niśi hiyā jvale. And if we become engaged with these four things, viṣaya, it is like poison. Then our heart will be always burning. Gastric ulcer. So it has to be cured. How it can be cured? Now, golokera prema-dhana, hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana, rati nā janmilo kene tāy: "My dear Lord, You have given the medicine, hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana, the chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, but I have no attraction for this." So this is the realization of the Vaiṣṇava. Brajendra-nandana jei, śaci-suta hailo sei: "Vrajendra-nandana, Kṛṣṇa, He has now come as Caitanya Mahāprabhu, Śacī-suta, the son of mother Śacī." Balarāma hailo nitāi: "And Balarāma has become Nitāi." So what is their business now? Now, pāpī tāpī jata chilo, hari-nāme uddhārilo: "All kinds of varieties of sinful men, simply by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, they are delivered." Tāra sākṣī jagāi mādhāi. What is the evidence? Evidence is Jagāi-Mādhāi.

Lecture on SB 3.25.25 -- Bombay, November 25, 1974:

Why should you take another chance of getting birth in a very rich family or a brāhmaṇa family? That is also risky because it is not guarantee. Because generally, those who are rich, they don't care for Kṛṣṇa consciousness. "Oh, this Kṛṣṇa consciousness is meant for the poor fellow." Or if somebody is born in a brāhmaṇa family, he is also puffed up. He is thinking, "Oh, these are mlecchas, yavanas, Americans. Oh, I am brāhmaṇa. I am born in a very high family." That is a cause of falldown, yes, proud, pride, unnecessary pride. A Vaiṣṇava is very humble. Tṛṇād api sunīcena taror api sahiṣṇunā amāninā mānadena. We have already discussed. Titikṣavaḥ kāruṇikāḥ suhṛdaḥ sarva-dehinām (SB 3.25.21).

So these are the chance, human being, and there is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, there is Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa is advising personally—so many opportunities offered by this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. Why don't you take it? If you don't take it, then you are committing suicide.

Lecture on SB 3.26.17 -- Bombay, December 26, 1974:

So this human life, civilized human life, followers of the Vedic principle... That is the civilized life, Aryans. Ārya. Therefore the followers of Vedic principles, they are called ārya, advanced. Because those who are follower... Just like Manu-saṁhitā. It is Aryan literature, Vedic literature. So Aryan means advanced. Advanced means civilized. So if we civilized people, we give up this Aryan literature or Vedic literature and take to Jasoushi(?) literature to waste our time, sex literature, then we are committing suicide. The Caitanya-caritāmṛta says, anādi-bahirmukha jīva kṛṣṇa bhuli' gelā. That Kṛṣṇa is the original father, we have forgotten. Anādi. Anādi means before the creation. Ādi means the creation. So this is a chance. This creation is there to give us chance to come to our original position, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So there is aim. It is not without aim. There is aim. And when there is creation, when there is civilized human being, and still they are not taking to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then Kṛṣṇa comes personally to teach them.

yadā yadā hi dharmasya

glānir bhavati bhārata...

tadātmānaṁ sṛjāmy aham

(BG 4.7)

So this civilized nation should take advantage of this Vedic literature. The Kardama Muni is teaching Sāṅkhya philosophy, Kṛṣṇa is teaching Bhagavad-gītā, and if we do not take advantage of these thing, then again we are in the oblivion. Again this cosmic manifestation will be annihilated, and we will remain in slumbering state for many millions and millions of years. Again there will be creation: bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19).

Lecture on SB 3.26.27 -- Bombay, January 4, 1975:

Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā that "Myself, My dear Arjuna, yourself, and all the soldiers and kings who have assembled in this battlefield, they were the same individual in the past, and they are individual now, and they will continue to remain individual." So where there is oneness? In the past, present, future the individuality is there.

So it is a concoction, to finish the individuality. It is called spiritual suicide. Just like if a man becomes disappointed and he cuts his own throat or hangs him, some way or other, eats some poison, to finish, does it mean that he is finished? Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). He is rascal. He does not know. By finishing this body he is finished—no, that is not possible. The result is, because he violated the rules of nature, he becomes a ghost. That is his life. One who commits suicide, he becomes a ghost. Ghost means he does not get this material body. He remains in the subtle body, mind, intelligence. Therefore ghost can go because he is in the mind. Mind speed is very strong. If you have got this material body, you cannot go immediately hundred miles off. But if you are in the mental body, you can go immediately, thousand miles immediately, within a second. So the ghost, they can play something wonderful because... But they are not happy because they have no gross body. They want to enjoy. He's materialist. He has committed suicide for some material want. So he is want of material..., fulfilling material desire. He could not fulfill in this body; therefore commits suicide, but the desire is there. The desire is there, and he cannot fulfill it. He becomes perplexed. Therefore the ghost create disturbance sometimes.

Lecture on SB 3.26.30 -- Bombay, January 7, 1975:

So why if they have gone to the spiritual world and stays in the Brahman effulgence and still they are māninaḥ, not certain? Yes. Why? Because they cannot stay there. This is very logical argument and statement of the Vedic literature. Āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ patanty adhaḥ (SB 10.2.32). They fall down because they do not get ānanda. Spiritual effulgence is simply eternity. So suppose if you live eternally without any ānanda, how long you will like to live like that? Is it possible? That you cannot do. Suppose somebody lives eternally in the sky without any death. Rather, he will try to commit suicide. It is not possible. It is not possible. Just like we have got experience. If you remain for very long time—I have got experience—in the sea or in the air, you feel very uncomfortable. You want to land down, land down, another air station, another port, and feel very uncomfortable. The airplane men, they come down and they take rest on the ground. It is not our nature because it is impersonal. In the air there is no variety, simply air. Similarly, in the sea there is no variety, simply water. So it becomes suffocating. Similarly, those who are aspiring to go to the Brahman effulgence... Brahman effulgence is spiritual world, certainly, but there is no variety. There is no Kṛṣṇa's enjoying with the cowherds boys or Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī. You cannot find there. You simply remain in the Brahman effulgence.

But because we are part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa, as Kṛṣṇa wants enjoyment, ānandamayo 'bhyāsāt (Vedānta-sūtra 1.1.12), ānandamaya, so we part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa, we also want ānanda.

Lecture on SB 5.5.1 -- London, August 30, 1971:

Your exis... First of all, purify your existence; then talk of happiness. Happiness, if you want to enter happiness with this covered material covering, you'll never find happiness. And that is actually experience of everyone. If you say that "Yes, I am enjoying this. I am enjoying this life very nicely. I don't require to give up this material body," no. It is foolishness. You are not enjoying. You may think so, but the real problem is there. What is that? Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). You may enjoy very nicely because you are Englishman or American, you have got money, but what about the question of death? Do you enjoy death? If a body is... Of course, one who is frustrated, one who wants to commit suicide, that is a different thing. For a sane man, does he enjoy birth, death, old age and disease? Therefore Bhagavad-gītā points out that you may feel very happy with your so-called material senses, but you should see to the real problem of life, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi: birth, death, old age and disease.

So therefore, actual happiness is there when we surpass this process of repetition of birth and death, old age and disease. Because we are spirit soul. As God is spirit soul, we are also spirit soul. About God it is stated that advaitam acyutam anādim ananta-rūpam ādyaṁ purāṇa-puruṣaṁ nava-yauvanaṁ ca (Bs. 5.33).

Lecture on SB 5.5.1 -- Johannesburg, October 20, 1975:

That is stated here by Ṛṣabhadeva: tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena sattvam śuddhyet (SB 5.5.1). Sattvam, our existence, is now polluted. Therefore we are getting this material body and changing this material body. And as soon as we get a material body, then our miserable condition begins. In this material body nobody can say that there is no miserable condition. It is full of miserable condition. There are three kinds of miserable conditions: adhyātmika, adhibhautika, adhidaivika. Adhyātmika means pertaining to the body and pertaining to the mind. There are so many miseries. Otherwise... The other day Swami Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa was telling that in this country there is maximum number of suicide. Is it not? So, why one commits suicide unless he feels bodily position very uncomfortable, mental condition very disturbing? So this is called adhyātmika, pertaining to the body and mind. There are many troubles. Every one of us, we have got that experience, that there are troubles. I may be very rich, I may have immense wealth, but if my body and mind is not in order, I am in trouble. So simply material opulence, material wealth will not satisfy us. We require bodily comforts. And if I have got millions of dollars and if I am diseased man, I cannot enjoy; I cannot be in happiness. So these are one type of miserable condition. Similarly, there are other types of miserable condition as adhibhautika. I do not wish to create any misunderstanding with a friend, but automatically there is some misunderstanding between friends, neighbors, nation, man to man, business friend. There are troubles. So this is called... And not only... If not human being, human being, but other, lower animals. Just like there are insects, there are cockroaches, there are so many other living bodies—they are giving us trouble. That is called adhibhautika. And adhidaivika. Adhidaivika is nature's disturbance.

Lecture on SB 5.5.1-2 -- Stockholm, September 7, 1973:

Not only you directly make all these thing then you are condemned to go to the hellish condition; if you associate with such person, then also you'll be liable. If you associate. Just like some rascals they say, "Yes, we are eating meat, but we are not directly killing. We purchase." They think that "Let me enjoy meat-eating. Those who are killing in the slaughterhouse, they will be responsible. I am free." No. Because you are associating with such persons, according to Manu-saṁhitā when an animal is killed, eight persons become condemned with murdering charges. Eight persons. One who kills, one who orders, one who purchases, one who cooks, one who eats—so many. That is the law. Just like one man is murdered. That murdering is committed by one man, but if has got many associates who has induced him, who has supplied him the weapon, or giving, so many assisted—all of them are arrested. This is the law. As we have got law here, here we can escape man-made laws, but you cannot escape God-made laws. That is not possible. Man-made laws sometimes we escape because everything made by man, that is insufficient, imperfect. So you can escape sometimes. That is not escaping. But you cannot escape God's law. Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe 'rjuna tiṣṭhati (BG 18.61). God is situated within your heart. He's seeing everything and recording. Anumantā upadraṣṭā, you cannot escape.

So these things are very important thing if we're actually serious about becoming disentangled with this material world and go back to home, back to..., then this instruction of Ṛṣabhadeva is very important. We shall discuss again.

Lecture on SB 5.5.1-8 -- Stockholm, September 8, 1973:

Who can protest? I promise." So the young man said, "Now, it is up to you, but you are promising before the Deity. Mind that."

So in this way, when they returned home, one day the old man, before his wife and son, said, "My dear son, my dear wife, this girl should be offered to that young man." He was same village. "What is this? How this daughter can be offered to such poor man? He's not very educated." The old man said: "No, it doesn't matter. I have promised." The boy, his eldest son, said, "No, no, it cannot be." And the wife said that "If you give my daughter to that boy, then I shall commit suicide." He was perplexed. Now what to do? So he was thinking and praying to Kṛṣṇa, "Sir, I have promised before You. You kindly help me so that they may not commit suicide and I may also offer my daughter to that boy. You have to arrange for that." And Kṛṣṇa has got such contradictory duties. He has to protect the thief, as well as the man where theft is being done. You see. Because everyone is praying, "Sir, my things may not be stolen." And the thief is also praying, "Please give me some opportunity so that I can steal." And Kṛṣṇa has to satisfy both.

So in this way, the young man, he saw that this old man promised before Lord Kṛṣṇa, Gopālajī, and he's now silent. So one day he came, and the son of the old man, he was very politician, atheist class. So when the father said, "I have promised. How can I deny?" "No, when there will be some talk about this you simply say, 'I don't remember what I said,' that's all. Then I shall manage. I shall manage." So what can be done? Although he did not like to say like that, but he has to see both sides. So one day the young man came, "Sir, you promised, now you are silent, you do not do anything. What is in your mind?" So when he was talking with the old man like that, his son came out, "You rascal, you want to marry my sister? Are you fit for that?" So all ill names. And he brought a stick: "Get out; otherwise I shall beat you like that."

Lecture on SB 5.5.2 -- London, September 17, 1969:

Prabhupāda: Yes, gambling means betting. That is gambling. People are betting. You put one dollar, and if you gain, you get ten dollars. Otherwise, you lose this one dollar. This is gambling. They're gambling in Christian churches also, in the Western countries. So gambling is considered sinful activity. I do not know... One Mr. Bhattacarya, a barrister, he was educated in England. So he told there is some island, Monte Christo? There is gambling?

Devotee: Monte Carlo.

Prabhupāda: Monte Carlo, yes. He said that there are gamblers, and one gambler loses everything, he commits suicide, immediately, and he'll go on. That's all. Nobody cares for him. He told me. It is a fact? So just see the gambling. They bring all their fortunes to stake and they lose everything. And then, out of frustration, takes revolver and shots himself, dies, and it is thrown on the street or in somewhere. Nobody cares. Just like cats and dogs. So there is free gambling in Monte Carlo?

Devotee: Very, very wealthy people, they (indistinct) there.

Devotee: There is free gambling in London.

Lecture on SB 5.5.2 -- Hyderabad, April 11, 1975:

So this human form of life is very valuable, especially those who are born in India. Those who are born in India, it is automatically Kṛṣṇa conscious. Unfortunately, we are killing that consciousness. This is our advancement of civilization. So our only request is that "Don't kill yourself. Don't commit suicide. Take this Kṛṣṇa consciousness." It is explained very nicely in the Bhagavad-gītā. Kṛṣṇa is explaining Himself. Why should we not understand Kṛṣṇa? Why? Why we are spoiling our life? Of course, Bhagavad-gītā is very popular book. Practically everyone reads. But unfortunately they do not... Most of them, they do not take Bhagavad-gītā as it is. That is the difficulty. If you take Bhagavad-gītā as it is, you become self-realized liberated soul. But the misfortune is that we become more than Kṛṣṇa, and we want to comment Bhagavad-gītā in our own way. That is our misfortune. (applause) That is our misfortune.

So don't be misfortunate. Be fortunate. Everything is there. Try to understand Bhagavad-gītā. And here, in the Fifth Chapter, Fifth Canto, of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, the same thing is recommended by Ṛṣabhadeva to his sons. The first paragraph we have discussed last night. The second paragraph, the Ṛṣabhadeva says, mahat-sevāṁ dvāram āhur vimukteḥ (SB 5.5.2). If you want to be liberated from this entanglement of bodily concept of life and mental concept of life and become more and more entangled in the process of transmigration of the soul from one body to another... That is entanglement. And to come out of this entanglement is called mukti.

Lecture on SB 5.5.3 -- Stockholm, September 9, 1973:

Don't claim yourself as civilized man and eating like tigers and dogs and cats. Is that civilization? But they are doing. That is stated here. It is not new. Always, there is a certain class of men, demons, who are not civilized, but declaring themselves as civilized. Otherwise, how it has come into Bhāgavata? There were also in that time. Now the number has increased on account of this age. But these two classes of men are always there.

Therefore, those who are actually civilized, they are called Aryans, ārya, Aryans, advanced. Advanced in knowledge how to live, what is the purpose of life, what is goal of life, how to live, how to become peaceful, how to become, everything. That is civilization. And nūnaṁ pramattaḥ kurute vikarma (SB 5.5.4), and blindly go on committing criminal activities under a nice dress, and nice motorcar, that is not civilization. Adānta-gobhir viśatāṁ tamisram. They are going to hell under the good dress and good road. They are going to hell. Because they could not control the senses. So don't become victims of this civilization. Try to understand. Nūnaṁ pramattaḥ kurute vikarma (SB 5.5.4). And what is the purpose? Yad indriya-prītaye. The same thing. Indriya-prītaye means satisfying the senses. So that already explained, that sense gratification process is already there in the animals. The hogs and dogs, they are also busy in sense gratification. Then why, why you are calling yourself civilized than these cats and dogs? They are also eating meat, just like tiger. And because you can cook it very nicely with spices, you become civilized? But they have taken, "No, we can cook very nicely." Because in the flesh, there is no taste. So it has to be added with garlic, it has to be added with onion, and somehow or other... Then it becomes little palatable. Otherwise, what is the taste of this dead flesh? Suppose if you... But those who are after this blood, they find taste. So that is tigers' and dogs' and cats' civilization; that is not human civilization; that is not human civilization.

Lecture on SB 5.5.3 -- Stockholm, September 9, 1973:

So simply for sense gratification, you are prepared to commit so many criminal activities, and you are passing on as civilization. Therefore it is said, nūnaṁ pramattaḥ kurute vikarma yad indriya-prītaya āpṛṇoti (SB 5.5.4). Āpṛṇoti. Na sādhu manye, Ṛṣabhadeva says: "O My dear boys, it is not very good." Na sādhu manye. Sādhu means honest work, nice sādhu means saintly person or good. It is not good. Why it is not good? I am enjoying, enjoying. Enjoying means palate, very nice. Na sādhu manye yata ātmano 'yam asann api kleśada āsa dehaḥ (SB 5.5.4). You do not know that you have got this material body. And what is this material body? Material body means full of miserable condition. That's all. Who has got a material body, they do not understand what is spiritual body. So suppose material or spiritual, anyone who has got this body, can anyone here say, "I have no trouble, I am free from all trouble"? Is there anyone? Is it possible to say? What do you think? Can anyone say that "Yes, I've got this body, but I have no miserable condition, I'm always very happy"? Is there anyone? That rascal civilization, they cannot understand. They are trying to stop miserable condition, but he does not know that miserable condition is his body. Just see how much foolish (it) is. He does not know that this very body is the cause of your miserable condition. They do not know. They are trying to improve the condition. How you'll improve the condition? Just like in our Bengal there is a word, jadi jau bange kapala jabe sange (?).

Lecture on SB 5.5.3 -- Vrndavana, October 25, 1976:

So the recommendation is that if you want to go back home, back to Godhead, divyam, so you have to practice austerities, penance. That austerity and penance is according to the age, deśa, kāla, patra. Not that... Just like in the common law also, if a grown-up man commits some theft, he is punished more. And if a child or a boy commits theft, he is not so much punished. So there is consideration of deśa kāla patra. In the Kali-yuga people cannot undergo very severe austerities. That is impossible for them, because mandāḥ sumanda-matayo manda-bhāgyā hy upadrutāḥ (SB 1.1.10). They are already very much suppressed and suffering because they are all unfortunate, manda-bhāgyā. Mostly people, they have no provision for eating either today or tomorrow. Manda-bhāgyā. There is no sufficient grains. Formerly even in the villages you would see that a common man has very good stock of foodgrains and cows, dhanvena dhanavan, gavaya dhanavan. Formerly the standard of richness was considered how many morai, the bank, what is called? Where grain is stocked? Silo. So in India it is called morai, grain stock. And how many cows one has got in stock. Then he is rich man. Nowadays how much paper money he has got. Actually it has no value. Suppose you have got some papers. Each paper it is written there "one thousand dollars." But if there is no grain, what will this one-thousand-dollars paper will do? It actually so happened in the last war in Germany. Their money was thrown in the street. Nobody cared to take it, because it has no exchange. So long the paper money you can exchange, there is value. Otherwise it is paper only. But if you have got actual commodity—grains and cows—then you can eat in any circumstances. Never mind war is going on; you don't care. You get sufficient food. What you will do with the paper money? So this paper currency is useless. If the things are going on nicely it has value, but in times of crisis it has no value.

Lecture on SB 5.6.6 -- Vrndavana, November 28, 1976:

This is the Vedic process. If we have got firm faith in guru and firm faith in Kṛṣṇa—guru-kṛṣṇa-kṛpayā pāya bhakti-latā-bīja (CC Madhya 19.151)—then you get the seedling of bhakti-latā. Some way or other, we have to come to this bhakti-latā, increasing or nourishing the bhakti creeper. That will be effective.

So those who are jñānīs, very learned scholar, they cannot understand Kṛṣṇa. Vedeṣu durlabhaṁ. It is not by academic education one can understand Kṛṣṇa. Yatatām api siddhānāṁ kaścid vetti māṁ tattvataḥ (BG 7.3). So many mistakes they commit. They say it is kalpana(?), so many things. But here Kṛṣṇa as Caitanya Mahāprabhu, Kṛṣṇa as Ṛṣabhadeva, Kṛṣṇa as Kṛṣṇa Himself, They are teaching us how to become pure devotee, because sva kalevaraṁ jihāsur ātmanaḥ. Before leaving your, this body, you must be self-realized. That is the aim of life. Bahūnāṁ janmanām ante (BG 7.19). We have got this life, human form of life, and how to utilize this human form of life? How to achieve the vairāgya-vidyā? This is vairāgya-vidyā, no more interest in material things. That is vairāgya-vidyā. Even to the body. That is... Ṛṣabhadeva is teaching us. This is vairāgya-vidyā. Bhakti-yoga means vairāgya. Caitanya Mahāprabhu also has spoken the same thing, niṣkiñcanasya bhagavad bhajanonmukhasya. Niṣkiñcanasya. If you actually want to become a pure devotee, then you have to make this material way of life completely zero. Anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyam (Brs. 1.1.11). Then it will be possible. If you have still a pinch of attraction for material life, then it will be stopped, your promotion to the other, spiritual world. Simply attachment to Kṛṣṇa, that will make you advanced. Janma karma ca me divyaṁ yo jānāti tattvataḥ, tyaktvā deham (BG 4.9). He can, after giving up this body... Mām eti. He does not accept any more the material body. He is immediately promoted to the spiritual world and Goloka Vṛndāvana, Vaikuṇṭha. There are many millions of Vaikuṇṭha planets in the spiritual world.

Lecture on SB 6.1.1 -- Honolulu, May 5, 1976:

The best type of āhāra-nidra. Even in the human form of life they are also trying for the same thing, as cats and dogs are trying. The cats and dogs, they are also trying to find out where it is, food, where sleeping comfort, where sex life, and where defense. If the human form of life is also utilized for this purpose, pravṛtti-mārga, then it is, as I was talking in the park, it is just like using sandalwood for burning fuel. There is distinction even in wood. There are so many jungle wood, we can use it for cooking. But if the sandalwood, which is so valuable, if we do not know what is the value of sandalwood, if we use it for cooking and burning... Similarly, if we use this human form of life exactly like the cats and dogs, simply for sense gratification, then we are committing suicide.

The whole Vedic civilization means how to utilize this human form of life for better purposes. Even modern scientific point of view. Not scientific, but they say. Accepting their version... Just like Darwin's theory: by evolution you come to the human form of life. Accepting that from monkey one becomes a human being, so what is after this form? Then they have no information. What is the next life? If the evolution is... That is also accepted in the Padma Purāṇa, 8,400,000 species, forms of life, and then we come to this human form of life. What is next? That is the question. But they have no knowledge. They have no sense. They cannot explain what is next. And there is next life. If by evolutionary process through the channel of so many species of life, 900,000 aquatics. Jalajā nava-lakṣāni sthāvarā lakṣa... Two millions trees and plants, then 1100,000 insects, and one million species of birds, and then 33,000,000 species of animals, four-legged animals, paśu. And then we get this human form of life, especially civilized form of life. Then what is next? That question nobody inquires, neither there is answer by the so-called modern scientist, that what is next.

Lecture on SB 6.1.3 -- Melbourne, May 22, 1975:

I have constructed a skyscraper building on account of my attachment. I may be allowed by the nature's law to stay in that building, but if by my activities I become a rat or cat in that building, then what is the profit? We are under the nature's law. You cannot say that you are independent. Nature's law is very strict. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27). Nature's law... Just like fire. If you touch fire, it will burn. And even a child who is innocent, if the child touches the fire, it will burn. There is no excuse. You cannot say that "The child is innocent. It does not know the effect of touching fire, so he should be excused." No. Ignorance is no excuse. Especially... That is the state laws. You cannot say... Suppose you have committed some criminal act. If you plead, "My lord, I did not know that the, after doing this act, I had to suffer imprisonment. So you excuse me," no, that will be no excuse. You know or not know the law, if you have acted like that, you must suffer. This is going on.

So we don't believe in the next life just to avoid this consequence. But that will not excuse us. We have to accept a type of body. Otherwise how there are so many different types of bodies? What is the explanation? Why different forms of body, different stages of body, different standard of body? That is nature's law. Therefore this human form of life should be properly utilized, not simply engaged in sense gratification like cats and dogs. That is not very responsible life. Responsible life is that "I have got this improved form of life than the cats and dogs, and I have got more intelligence than the cats and dogs. If I simply utilize it for four bodily necessities of life..." Four bodily necessities of life means we require some eating. The cats, dogs, human being, or high-court judge, or anyone—they require some eating.

Lecture on SB 6.1.6 -- Los Angeles, January 3, 1970:

Just like I am in distressed condition, puzzled, I take some intoxication. This is called happiness. I remain in the same condition. After my intoxication is over, I come back again into the same condition, but I am thinking (I am) happy. This is called māyā. Māyā means... Ma means "not," yā means "this." "You are thinking like this, but it is not this." This is called māyā. You are thinking that you are happy, but you are not happy. So we are seeing that a criminal is arrested by the police and he is put into the prisonhouse. We know that he is put into trouble, but still, in spite of seeing that "This kind of criminality will put me also into such kind of distress," but still, I commit that thing. This is the influence of māyā. This is the influence of māyā.

So these all description of hellish description has been given in the previous chapter. Now, Parīkṣit Mahārāja, he is a Vaiṣṇava. A Vaiṣṇava, Vaiṣṇava feeling... Vaiṣṇava means he is always feeling for the distress of the others. Just like Lord Jesus Christ. What is the necessity of being crucified? Because he was a Vaiṣṇava. Vaiṣṇava means the servant of God or the devotee of God, Vaiṣṇava. Viṣṇu means Lord, and Vaiṣṇava means one who is devotee of Viṣṇu, he is called Vaiṣṇava. Godly. Godly person. Vaiṣṇava means godly person. So every godly person, he thinks for others. "Oh, people are suffering for want of knowledge, for want of God consciousness, for want of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Oh, let me do some service. Let me enlighten them so that they may be happy." Therefore we offer our obeisances to the Vaiṣṇavas: vāñchā-kalpa-tarubhyaś ca kṛpā-sindhubhya eva ca. Vāñchā-kalpa-taru means that "My dear devotee, you are just like a desire tree. Whatever I desire from you, you fulfill." Vāñchā-kalpa-tarubhyaś ca kṛpā-sindhubhya eva ca. Kṛpā means mercy. "You are the ocean of mercy." And patitānāṁ pāvanebhyo, "And you are deliverer of the fallen souls.

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

So according to the nature of the disease, you have to pay for its medicine. One who is suffering from malarial disease, tuberculosis disease, asthmatic tendency, these disease are considered very severe type of disease. Coughing or having some little fever, they are not very severe. But there are many severe diseases. So as you pay to the specialist doctor or you pay for the medicine according to the severity of disease, similarly—yasmād evaṁ tasmād pāpasya niṣkṛtau prayaścitte yateta—you have to make treatment. And according to the symptoms of the disease, you have to undergo treatment. That is called prāyaścitta.

Just like if a man who has committed murder... His prāyaścitta is that he should be hanged. This is prāyaścitta, life for life. That is Manu-saṁhitā. This hanging a condemned person, a murderer, is a mercy to him. That is stated in the Manu-saṁhitā. People are becoming now sympathetic that "Whatever is done is done. Let this man be saved." This kind of sympathy is no good. People are taking sympathy. A man suffering from certain disease or certain miserable condition. They want to ameliorate it. This kind of sympathy is not sanctioned. He should suffer so that the reaction of his sinful activities in the past life should be diminished. If he does not suffer, then he will have to suffer more, continue, because he is condemned to suffer so much. If you minimize it now, that does not mean he will not suffer. He will suffer next life. Just like a man is imprisoned, and if your friend or relative is imprisoned, by somehow or other you get him released by hook and crook, so when you are again captured you are again severely punished, both the men. Is it not the law? So how can you give relief to the suffering person who is condemned? If in your state law a man suffering in the prison and if you feel sympathy or you may try to give him release and get him out by some hook and crook means, then both of you will be punished. Is it not? So how can you avoid the punishment by God's law?

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

One sees that he is arrested or he is punished, he is put into the prison, and still, he commits stealing. He knows. So similarly, we are hearing from the śāstra that "If you commit this sin..." Just like māṁsa. Māṁsa, this very thing, means, māṁ sa khadati. Therefore flesh is called māṁsa. "The animal which I am killing, he will have the right to kill me and eat me." That is going on, repetition: "I kill you this life. Next life you kill me. In this life you have become a cow or goat. Next time I'll become a cow or goat. You have the right to kill me." This is called karma-bandhana.

So we hear from the śāstras. You may not believe, but we can see practically that a man who has committed murder, he is also hanged. There is no doubt about it. "Life for life." So how these foolish persons very, I mean to say, boldly killing animal? If it is a fact even in your state law that "life for life," how I can dare to commit murder or kill another animal? You see? And this is conclusion. The śāstra says that you have to pay that particular individual soul by your life. That is the meaning of māṁsa, the Sanskrit word māṁsa. Māṁsa khadati. I am taking the risk. When I kill one animal for eating, I am taking the risk that "This animal sometimes will kill me." Exactly in the same way, life for life, murder, murderer is hanged—that is the law of the state—so why not that law in the state of the Supreme? Is that very unreasonable? But they do not see. Parīkṣit Mahārāja says that dṛṣṭa-śruta. In the scriptures or in the religious lawbooks I have heard it that this kind of sin will be reacted in this way. And dṛṣṭa, and I have seen also that a man committing murder is hanged.

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

Their purpose was that. The Punjab side, they are producing wheat in very large quantity. In Bengal, that is the, perhaps the biggest rice producing country in the world, Bengal. 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 -- Sydney, February 17, 1973:

So why don't you see? People have become so rascal that they do not think of sinful activities. By nature's law it is so strict that you have to follow the laws given by God. If you don't follow, then you'll be punished. Dharmaṁ tu sākṣād bhagavat-praṇītam (SB 6.3.19). Dharma means the laws given by God. That is the simple description of dharma. If you do not know what are the laws of God, then that does not mean you'll not be punished. Innocence of law is no cause for excuse. If you go... Suppose if you have done something criminal without your knowledge, and if in the court you say, "My lord, I did not know this law, that committing something criminal like this I would have been punished." So that is no excuse. Ignorance of law is no excuse. Nature's law is so strict. Just like a small child, if a child puts his finger on the fire, the fire will not excuse the child: "Oh, he is an innocent child. He does not know." No. It must burn, never mind it is child. So there is description of different types of punishment in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam for different kinds of sinful activities. Therefore, after hearing the description... Parīkṣit Mahārāja is a Vaiṣṇava. Vaiṣṇava is very sympathetic. If actually there is any welfare worker, that is Vaiṣṇava. This Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is going on. The Vaiṣṇavas are taking so much, I mean to say, trouble. Just like in Melbourne our, these preachers are being punished regularly. They are taken to the jail, and still they are doing their duty. Still they are going for saṅkīrtana. Just like one side they are violating the so-called laws of the state, they are being punished. Similarly, important laws of God, if one violates, how you cannot be punished? This is an instance. Must be punished.

Lecture on SB 6.1.6 -- Sydney, February 17, 1973:

Thousands and millions automatically growing. As soon as the body is dead, then no more growing, because energy is gone. So similarly, as in your body so much subtle energies are working, just imagine this universal body of Kṛṣṇa, virāṭ-rūpa, how much subtle energies are working. So that we do not know. That is our ignorance.

So any slight deviation from the law and we are put into undesirable condition. That is a fact. Just like here, according to Vedic principle, the laws are given by Manu, Manu. From Manu, the word manuṣya has come, or "man." And there is Manu-saṁhitā. In the Manu-saṁhitā it is stated that if a man commits murder then he should be hanged. He should be hanged. That is followed by every human society. Why? Because the sinful activities which he has enacted, if he is punished in this life, then he'll not so suffer again in the next life. His punishment will be finished. So that is a favor. If a murderer is hanged, then that is a favor shown by the government, because the next life you'll not have to suffer. So when Parīkṣit Mahārāja inquired,

adhuneha mahā-bhāga

yathaiva narakān naraḥ

nānogra-yātanān neyāt

tan me vyākhyātum arhasi

"Kindly describe how these sinful men who are suffering, how they can be rescued from this sinful reaction?"

Lecture on SB 6.1.6 -- Sydney, February 17, 1973:

So here Śukadeva Goswāmī says that unless one atones his sinful activities done in this life, then he has to accept severe punishment in the next life. There is no excuse. This is the conclusion. Dhruvaṁ sa vai pretya narakān upaiti. Dhruvam, dhruvam means sure. Surely he must suffer the hellish condition of life, next life, if he does not atone in this life. That is called prāyaścitta, confession, so many things. Ye kīrtitā me: "And I've already described them in the Fifth Chapter, that if you commit this kind of sin, you suffer like this. If you commit this kind of sin, you suffer like this." And he's giving a nice example:

tasmāt puraivāśv iha pāpa-niṣkṛtau

yate ta mṛtyor avipadyatātmanā

doṣasya dṛṣṭvā guru-lāghavaṁ yathā

bhiṣak cikitseta rujāṁ nidāna-vit

(SB 6.1.8)

"Therefore, my dear King, according to the gravity of sinful activities, one has to atone similarly." The example is, according to the gravity of the disease, the physician prescribes different types of medicine. If your disease is very severe then the physician says, "You have to take this medicine. This is very costly. You have to live like this." You know, you know everyone. Ordinary disease, that can be cured by giving some tablet, but if the disease is very severe, then you have to undergo severe medical treatment and suffering and so on.

Lecture on SB 6.1.6 -- Sydney, February 17, 1973:

"Yes, my dear King, you are right. Your question is very intelligent. Actually, by committing something wrong and reacting it by something else, that is not very beneficial. The real prāyaścitta is knowledge." Real prāyaścitta is knowledge. A thief is committing theft and going to the prison, suffers for six months, again he comes out, and again he commits theft, and within four days again he is put into the prison. We have seen many such cases. He..., the thief comes out of the jail, and exactly after four days he's again put into the jail. So this action and reaction... One has committed theft, and the reaction is that he is put into the jail. This is not exactly beneficial. Real is that thief must be given knowledge. Knowledge... For want of knowledge, the whole world is suffering for want of knowledge. Therefore Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is giving actual knowledge of the living entity, mīmāṁsā. Mīmāṁsā means that think over the matter, that "Why I am doing this?" This is called brahma-jijñāsā, this is called brahma-jijñāsā. Means when a person becomes inquisitive about this "Why?" "Why I am suffering?" then he becomes intelligent. The he comes to the standard of human life. And there is Upaniṣad, Kena Upaniṣad. Kena means "why." Just like Sanātana Gosvāmī, when he approached Caitanya Mahāprabhu, he placed this question, "Why? Why I am suffering?" Ke āmi, kene jāre tāpa-traya. "I do not want to die. Why there is death? I do not want to suffer from disease. Why there is disease? I do not want to take birth. Why I am put into the womb of mother again and again? Janma-mṛtyu jarā-vyādhi (BG 13.9). And I do not want to become old. Why I am forced to become old?" When a person comes to this standard, to inquire "Why these things are there?" this is real intelligence. Intelligence does not mean you gather, like asses, all the stones and iron and put them together and be satisfied that "Oh, I am very happy." That is asses' business.

Lecture on SB 6.1.6 -- Sydney, February 17, 1973:

He's prescribing first thing. Just like if you live regularly, if you take foodstuff not more than what you require, if take nice foodstuff, healthy foodstuff, if you follow the hygienic principles, then you will never be attacked with disease. Very reasonable (indistinct). Similarly, we have to live very regulated life; then we shall not be affected or infected by sinful activities. That is the prescription. This is required. If we do not live regulated life, if we do not follow the regulative principles as they are given in the śāstra, then in spite of being put into jail, in spite of my suffering, as soon as I come back, I again commit the same thing and again go to jail. This is... The example is given very nicely here that if anyone does not know how to live hygienically, healthfully, he must fall diseased. That's a fact. Similarly, one must have knowledge what is the value of this life, how I shall live, then he will be not subjected to the sinful activities. This is the conclusion. And if he lives like ass and cow, without any knowledge, without knowing the values of human life, then he must be subjected to sinful activities and will be punished one after another, accepting different types of bodies.

The different types of bodies means that is our punishment. We may think it as happiness, but as soon as you accept a material body, you are subjected to the four principles of material distresses. What is that? Janma, mṛtyu, jarā, vyādhi. You may think that you are very scientifically advanced—"There is no more distress in my life"—but Kṛṣṇa says, "No. If you are intelligent, then you should think of these four principles as distresses." What is that? Birth, death, old age and disease. But the modern so-called scientists, they cannot make any solution to birth, death, old age and disease; therefore they have left them aside: "Oh, don't care for them." That is ignorance. Our real problem is not this temporary problem that we are in such and such distressed condition. That is temporary. But real problem is, as Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9).

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

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.

So there was the king in Bengal at that time. He was known as Nawab Hussein Shah. Formerly he was a Mohammedan servant to a big Hindu landlord. So this boy servant committed some theft so the master punished him by striking with a cane. So the striking mark of the cane was there on his backside. So one day the Nawab's wife, Begam, saw the mark and inquired from her husband, "What is this mark?" So the Nawab described that in his childhood, when he was a servant of that Hindu gentleman, Buddhimanta Khan, he beat him with that cane and that mark is there. So the wife of the Nawab, Begum Sair(?), she requested that "You kill this man. Otherwise people will blaspheme you." The Nawab, however, declined. "No, no, this cannot... This is not possible. He was my master, just like my father. He chastised me. There was no fault." So the wife then requested, "At least make him a Mohammedan." So the Nawab, to satisfy his wife, he agreed, "Well, that is not very difficult task." So one day he called Buddhimanta Khan and sprinkled the water on his body.

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

They are coming from Western countries, Europe, America, or even in India, Parsis and other, Mohammedans, they are coming. But they are now pure, cleansed of all dirty things. In this movement throughout the whole world there are at least ten to twelve thousand devotees like that. And before this life they were addicted to all kinds of sinful life. We have summarized all sinful activities into four groups, namely, illicit sex, meat-eating, intoxication, and gambling. So all these ten to twelve thousand men who are now attached with this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, they are not committing these four pillars of sinful life.

Therefore our request is that you take to this chanting method. It is very easy, Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare, Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare, and gradually you shall become free from all sinful reaction of life. But one thing we must be very careful, that we should not commit again sinful life. If you chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, you become free immediately from all sinful reaction. But if you commit again sinful life, that is your responsibility. This is warned very... Amongst the ten kinds of offenses, one offense is very grievous offense—nāmnād balād yasya hi pāpa-buddhiḥ—if one thinks that "I am chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa; therefore whatever sinful acts I am doing, it is becoming counteracted." If you keep yourself on the platform of chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra and do not commit willfully again sinful life, then you are liberated. So not only mukti-mārga, if you keep yourself always pure, do not commit any sinful activity and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, then your life is successful. Don't commit the mistake of the elephant that take bath thoroughly and again come and throw dust on your body. I think I shall end tonight this here. Thank you very much. (end)

Lecture on SB 6.1.6 -- Honolulu, May 7, 1976:

There is no comparison. Nobody can write such verses even up to date. It was written by Vyāsadeva, Veda-vyasa.

So mahā-bhāga yathā eva narakāt naraḥ. So this is Sixth Canto. In the Fifth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam there is description of the hellish condition of life. According to the... Just like there is punishment according to criminality, similarly, there is punishment by nature's law. According to impious life, there is punishment. So people do not care for impious life. That is misfortune. No knowledge. Impious or vicious activities are done out of ignorance. Just like a person commits some criminality without knowing the laws, government laws. Ordinarily, just like in your country, "Keep to the right." If you drive your car on the left side, immediately you become a criminal. So in our country the car is driven on the left side. In this country the car is driven on the right side. So if some Indian gentleman says that "I am accustomed to drive on the left side. So what is wrong there?" "No, this country's law is 'right side.' You know or do not know, whatever may be in your country, because you have driven your car on the left side, you are criminal." So ignorance is no excuse. In the law court if you say, "Sir, it was not known to me," so that does not mean that you will be excused. Similarly, knowingly or unknowingly, if you do something, sinful act, then you are immediately criminal. You'll be punishable. It doesn't matter whether you know or not know. Just like fire. This child, if he touches the fire, the fire will not excuse. There is no consideration, "Sir, here is a little child. He does not know this fire is burning." But as soon as he touches, it will burn. This is nature's law. You infect some disease knowingly or unknowingly, it doesn't matter, but the disease will be manifest. Suppose you have infected smallpox infection, contamination. Then it will be manifest.

So this education is lacking now. They are... Everyone is thinking that he's independent, he can do whatever he likes. That is not possible. Then you'll be punished. Nature's law is so strict, stringent.

Lecture on SB 6.1.7 -- Honolulu, June 15, 1975, Sunday Feast Lecture:

Similarly, in this age things are being deteriorated. So even you go to a learned brāhmaṇa, he does not give you the proper instruction. He wants to exact some money from you. Therefore things have gone, everything, very bad. Even in Caitanya Mahāprabhu's time, when Caitanya Mahāprabhu was there, one gentleman, he was made into a Muhammadan. This is a long story. The shortcut is he was very rich man, and the Nawab of Bengal, Hussain Shah, when he was a boy, he was his servant. Later on he became the Nawab, the king. So one day the Nawab was being massaged, and his wife saw that there is a stripe on the back. So (s)he asked the Nawab, "What is this?" So he stated that "When I was a poor boy, I was servant of Buddhimanta Khan, and I committed some wrong, so he whipped me with a cane." "Oh? Then it is a sign that you were a servant of Buddhimanta Khan sometimes before. If people will see and you will explain, that is an insult for you." "Oh, what is that? He was just like my father. He chastised me. I don't mind." "No, no, no, no. You should kill him so that he may not say to anyone that you were sometime his servant." So Nawab disagreed. Nawab said, "No, no. He treated me just like my son, and I accepted him as my father. It is not possible to kill him." Then the queen suggested that "At least you make him a Muhammadan. Then that will be the punishment." So the king, or the Nawab, said, "All right, I shall make him." Because in those days, to make a Hindu a Muhammadan, it was very easy. The Muhammadans they have got a pot, it is called badna. So if the Mohammedan takes little water from the badna and sprinkles upon a Hindu, then Hindu community will immediately reject him, "Oh, he has become Muhammadan." This was the Hindu community. Therefore so many Muhammadans were there in India, and ultimately, by the British policy, they divided. They were not actually Muhammadans coming from Turkey or from West. They were lower-class Hindus. But the Hindus were so foolish that if a Muhammadan sprinkled some water in this way, so he becomes Muhammadan and he is rejected, in this way the Muhammadan population was there.

Lecture on SB 6.1.7 -- Honolulu, May 8, 1976:

So Śukadeva Gosvāmī said, "My dear King, if before one's next death whatever impious acts one has performed in this life with the mind, words and body are not counteracted through the proper atonement according to the description of the Manu-saṁhitā and other dharma-śāstras, one will certainly enter the hellish planets after death and undergo terrible suffering, as I have previously described to you."

So atonement is prescribed in every scripture. Even in Christian Bible there is atonement. So in other scriptures also there is atonement. Just like a man who has committed murder, he must die. "Life for life." This is atonement. When the government punishes a murderer with capital punishment, death, that is a mercy upon him. That punishment is accepted practically all over the world from time immemorial. So there must be atonement. So if a person who has committed murder, killed somebody else, then if he is punished by death, then the sinful activities which he has committed, that is counteracted. Otherwise he will have to suffer next life very severely, four times. So people do not believe even in the next life, and what to speak of atonement and punishment. They are kept in darkness. Otherwise they would have been... If they would have followed actually the injunction of the śāstras... First of all one should not be killing anyone. In the Bible also it is said, "Thou shall not kill." Why it is forbidden? Because if he kills, he'll have to suffer. But they do not care for it. Therefore they suffer.

Lecture on SB 6.1.8 -- New York, July 22, 1971:

You cannot count. Bahūnām. This is our relationship. So, as part and parcel, we have to serve Kṛṣṇa, and we are subordinate. He is supplying our necessities. He is the Supreme Father. This life is normal life and liberated life. Any other life, beyond this conception of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, that is sinful life.

So in this subject matter, topics between Śukadeva Gosvāmī and Mahārāja Parīkṣit, there is... Parīkṣit Mahārāja is anxious to know how these conditioned souls who are rotting in the hellish condition of life, they can be delivered. So Śukadeva Gosvāmī is first of all prescribing that they have to make atonement. Just like I gave you the example: If one man has committed criminal activities, he has to atone for the sinful activity. He must be arrested. He must be put into the jail and given some trouble for a certain period of time. And then he may be given freedom. So this atonement is there, by nature's law. You cannot avoid it. If you think that "God cannot see. I am doing this nonsense without His vision," that is wrong. Anything we do, that is recorded just like the service record. And the judgment... Just like in other literatures, there is the day of judgment. That's fact. We have to accept the judgment of the superior superintendent of all our activities.

Lecture on SB 6.1.8 -- Los Angeles, June 21, 1975:

Disease increases. Similarly fire. If there is fire, you have extinguished everything and little fire there is, if you think that "Oh, little fire, it will automatically...," no, that also you must extinguish. Otherwise it may take into big fire again. Similarly debts. If you don't clear your debts, if you think, "All right, there is some debts. It will...," no, interest, compound interest So similarly, the disease. We are already in the material disease. This birth, death, old age, and disease. This is our material miserable condition. And again, if we act sinfully, then it will increase. Therefore Śukadeva Gosvāmī is advising that "Before your death, you should atone for the sinful activities, what you have done." Just like in the Manu-saṁhitā, if a man has committed some murder, it is advised that King should order him to be hanged. Otherwise next life he will have to suffer so much. So this order of hanging a murderer is a kind of kindness to the criminal.

So here it is advised that doṣasya dṛṣṭvā guru-lāghavaṁ yathā (SB 6.1.8). There are different kinds of sinful activities, and there are different kinds of suffering also. A little infection of bronchitis, the suffering is not so acute, but infection of smallpox is fatal. We should always remember that. We are infecting. On account of this material world, we are infecting different modes of material nature. I have explained several times. There are three modes of material nature, and when you mix up, then it becomes three into three equal to nine, and again mix up, nine into nine, eighty-one, and again mix up Every minute particles, there is account. You cannot avoid. Material nature's punishment you cannot avoid. Even little, whatever you have done, it will be punished. Automatically the rules and regulations are there. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-sangaḥ asya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu.

Lecture on SB 6.1.8 -- Los Angeles, June 21, 1975:

There must be. Otherwise everyone should have been of the same bodily feature, same standard of life, same opulence. No. So many grades, because the modes of material nature are different, different mixture.

So here it is said that doṣasya dṛṣṭvā guru-lāghavaṁ yathā (SB 6.1.8). Doṣa. Still people in India, they go to a bhaṭṭācārya, that "Sir, I have done this sinful activity. What is my atonement?" Amongst the Christian also, they go to the church. So guru-lāghavaṁ dṛṣṭvā. Guru means heavy. We use this word guru. Guru means heavy. So according to the criminal activities Just like a man has stolen some fruit from a fruit shop, his criminality is not equal to the man who has committed murder—one he has killed one man. This is guru-lāghavam. So there is punishment according to the heaviness and lightness of criminal activities. The example is given here: bhiṣak cikitseta rujāṁ nidānavit. Just like you go to a physician for treatment of your disease, he gives different types of medicine. Not that one medicine for everyone. No. If one has got little headache, he gives one that tablet, aspirin tablet, but if it is pneumonia, then the treatment is different. That is being advised, that "One has to see what kind of sinful activity he has done and what is the atonement for that purpose." This is advised. Parīkṣit Mahārāja was advised that "These people, they are suffering in different grades of suffering on account of different grades of sinful activities. So best thing is: before death, if they seek atonement for different grades of sinful activities, then it is good for him so that after death he may not suffer very severely." But people do not accept even that "There is life after death, we are eternal, and the infection which you are committing, that will react." There is no such knowledge. The modern civilization is so foolish. Simply like cats and dogs, they are eating and sleeping and sex life and little defense, that's all. They have no knowledge.

Lecture on SB 6.1.9 -- Los Angeles, June 22, 1975:

That is first-class bhakti, ānukūlyena kṛṣṇānu-śīlana, just to satisfy Kṛṣṇa. Just like Arjuna. He was not willing to fight or to kill the other party. That is very good. He is a Vaiṣṇava. Naturally he does not like to fight or pick up quarrel with others or do some harm to others. Vaiṣṇava is para-duḥkha-duḥkhī. He knows very well that "If something harmful is done to me, I am unhappy, so why should I commit the same thing to others?" So But in spite of his conviction that he should not fight, still, when Kṛṣṇa insisted up to the point that "Your this mercy upon them will not act because it is already My plan that they will have to die. So you have become very kind, but you cannot surpass My plan. That is not possible. I have come here..." Paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṁ vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām (BG 4.8). "That is My true mission: to save the devotees and to annihilate the nondevotees. So here I have brought them all together in this battlefield, and it will be finished."

Whenever there is some crash, either railway or the airplane, it should be noted that all those passengers are destined to die by the will of God, and they come together and destroy.(?) Because without the sanction, will, of God, nothing can take place. (break) ...some reason. Father is not unkind, but when father denies the same facility he is giving to the other child, that does not mean he is unkind. (break) ...the devotee is suffering from some reverse condition, then he is feeling very much obliged to Kṛṣṇa, "Oh, my dear Lord, it is Your great mercy that I am suffering." This is devotee. He is suffering and he is taking it as great mercy of God. Tat te anukampām. Anukampā. Anukampā means mercy. So it is Your mercy. Tat te 'nukampāṁ susamīkṣamāṇo bhuñjāna evātma-kṛtaṁ vipākam (SB 10.14.8).

Lecture on SB 6.1.9 -- Los Angeles, June 22, 1975:

"Oh, my dear Lord, it is Your great mercy that I am suffering." This is devotee. He is suffering and he is taking it as great mercy of God. Tat te anukampām. Anukampā. Anukampā means mercy. So it is Your mercy. Tat te 'nukampāṁ susamīkṣamāṇo bhuñjāna evātma-kṛtaṁ vipākam (SB 10.14.8). He knows the same thing, that a man suffers on account of his past sinful activities or present sinful activities. The past or present doesn't matter. If one is sinful, then he must be punished.

Just like here it is said, dṛṣṭa. Dṛṣṭa means by direct experience. Direct experience everyone has seen, that a thief, he is arrested. This is our direct experience. He has committed theft, and therefore he is arrested by the police. It is our direct experience. And śrutābhyām, by hearing from the lawbook or scripture, whatever you take... In the lawbook it is stated that "You commit a theft, then you will be punished, imprisoned, for six months. Or if you commit murder, then you will be hanged." This is called śrutābhyām, by hearing. We have got two senses: one, by the knowledge-acquiring senses, and practical working senses. So dṛṣṭa means our eyes are working, and we see that a criminal is arrested and he is punished. And śruta means knowledge-gathering. Just like you gather knowledge from book. So we have got two senses—not two senses, but ten senses: five senses, knowledge gathering, and five senses, directing, knowledge, working senses. So dṛṣṭa-śrutābhyām means by two senses, two kinds of senses: knowledge-gathering senses and working senses. We have experience by two kinds of senses. So Parīkṣit Mahārāja says that a person, means a sinful person, he is getting experience from the both kinds of senses, dṛṣṭa-śrutābhyām, and by that experience he knows that "This is not good. This is a sinful act." Just like in your country, in each cigarette packet, what is written there?

Lecture on SB 6.1.9 -- Los Angeles, June 22, 1975:

No. They have full knowledge. So if one does, cannot resist himself from sinful activity, then what is the meaning of this atonement? He rejects, "This is useless." You commit some sinful activities and go to the church and pay some fine, and again you commit sinful acts. So it is useless. That is questioned by Parīkṣit Mahārāja. Prāyaścittam atho katham: "What is this?"That is intelligence. He is devotee. He knows that this kind of atonement is useless. It has no meaning.

So the problem is that within the heart we have got so many dirty things. So unless those dirty things are removed or cleansed, this kind of prāyaścitta or medicine or fine or going to the jail—he is not saved. He will commit the same thing. Again will suffer. Again he will suffer. Bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19). Real problem is that we should stop our suffering. But the karmīs, they are interested in the temporary cure, and they do not know how to cure completely. There will be no more suffering. That they do not know. But a Vaiṣṇava, because he is Kṛṣṇa conscious, he knows what is real suffering—because he understands from Kṛṣṇa. So Kṛṣṇa says that "Your real suffering is these four things, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi: (BG 13.9) repetition of birth, death, old age, and disease. Actually this is your problem." So without devotees, without hearing from Kṛṣṇa, these rascals, they do not know actually what is the problem nor what is suffering. They are simply concerned with temporary suffering and temporary cure. Therefore they have been explained, they have been described in the Bhagavad-gītā, as mūḍhas. Mūḍha means ass.

Lecture on SB 6.1.9 -- Los Angeles, June 22, 1975:

So the whole world is going on like that, full of asses. Not only asses, but like other animal... That past sinful activities or present sinful activities. The past or present doesn't matter. If one is sinful, then he must be punished.

Just like here it is said, dṛṣṭa. Dṛṣṭa means by direct experience. Direct experience everyone has seen, that a thief, he is arrested. This is our direct experience. He has committed theft, and therefore he is arrested by the police. It is our direct experience. And śrutābhyām, by hearing from the lawbook or scripture, whatever you take... "O my dear lion, O king..." Lion is considered as the king of the animals, paśu rāja. Actually, he is the king in the jungle. Everyone is afraid of him, he is so powerful. Even the elephant is afraid of the lion. So if the lion is praised by some small animals, does it mean the lion is not animal? Has it any value like the human being? No. Still he is animal. Even though the small animals are praising, giving votes, "You become president," (laughter) but who is these voters? Another animal. This is democracy. The small animals are voting the big animal. So how you can expect peace? That much I have already explained. So this is not civilization, that the small animals giving vote to the big animals to occupy the government. That is going on. This will not help.

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

Sometimes one who is very alert so as not to commit sinful acts is victimized by sinful life again. I therefore consider this process of repeated sinning and atoning to be useless. It is like the bathing of an elephant, for an elephant cleanses itself by taking a full bath but then throws dust over its head and body as soon as it returns to the land."

In every religious system there is a process of atonement. In Christian religion there is a process of atonement called confession. The Parīkṣit Mahārāja is practical politician. He said that... He had also experience that a criminal is punished and again he commits the criminal act. Nowadays we practically see also that government has enacted so many laws against criminality, but criminality is going on without any stoppage. We have got practical experience, as we have explained last night, that in the airport the security checking is going on for everyone, which means that after so much education, every one of us, we are dishonest. This answer is there in the śāstra: yasyāsti bhaktir bhagavaty akiñcanā sarvair guṇais tatra samāsate surāḥ. This means that if one is turned to be a pure devotee, then all the good qualities automatically become manifest in him. Harāv abhaktasya kuto mahad-guṇā manorathenāsato dhāvato bahiḥ (SB 5.18.12). Whereas a nondevotee, he has no good qualification because he is acting on the mental platform, as such, he will be always attracted by material things.

Lecture on SB 6.1.9 -- Honolulu, May 10, 1976:

"Sir, I have done it." "All right, give some fine." And again, next week, again, the same thing going on. So this is very intelligent question. The atonement is there in every religion. In the Vedic process there is atonement, but what is the use of this atonement if he does not cease committing the same sinful activity? Just like practically we see a thief. So he knows that "I am committing theft. I shall be punished if I am arrested." He knows it; otherwise why he goes silently at night and break? He knows it well that "If I am arrested I will be punished."

So śrutābhyām. Śruta means... Just like we are hearing the śāstra, so he has heard it from the lawbooks that if one commits theft he'll be punished. And he has seen also that a person who has committed theft, he is arrested by the police, so he was being taken to the prison house. So knowledge is acquired from two sources, by direct perception and by hearing. Just like we are hearing Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. This is knowledge also. And when you see there are three kinds of receiving knowledge... One is śruti. Śruti means hearing. So our Vedic process is that we hear the Vedic information, and we become perfect, śruti. And somebody challenges that "Why shall I believe in the Vedas? I must see." But everything is not possible to see. For example somebody, the mother said to the son, "Here is your father." So you have to believe your mother; otherwise how you can see your father? It is not possible. If you want to see to take the proof, "Whether this gentleman is my father," that is not possible. Because he became your father before your birth, how you can see? This is the way. You have to accept authority. So things which are beyond our perception we have to accept authority. Therefore the Vedic process is, if the world perfect order is there in the Vedas... Not if; anything which is in the Vedas, that is perfect. We have to accept. Accept. This is the way, Vedic, śruti.

Lecture on SB 6.1.9 -- Honolulu, May 10, 1976:

So dṛṣṭa-śrutābhyām. Śruta means hearing, knowledge... The same thing... The person, the thief, he has seen and he has heard. Dṛṣṭa-śrutābhyām yat pāpam (SB 6.1.9). He knows what is sinful activities. Jānann apy. He knows this is... Jānann apy ātmano 'hitam. "This kind of activity is injurious to my person." Karoti bhūyo vivaśaḥ: "Again he commits the same thing." He knows. Karoti vivaśaḥ prāyaścittam atho katham: "Then what is the value of that? If he cannot stop his sinful activity, then what is the meaning of this prāyaścittam?" So a professional thief, he has gone to the prison several times. He has been punished. Still, he commits the same thing, again goes to the jail. A patient, he has suffered from the disease on account of certain bad habits and he has gone to the doctor. He has paid much money and suffered injection, operation, and still he is doing that. Therefore Parīkṣit Mahārāja said, "What is the value of this prāyaścitta?" Prāyaścitta, kind of punishment.

So this is very important question. The world, whole world nowadays... I say sometimes that in the airport it is proved that... (break) ...punishment the practice of committing criminal activities is going on. This is very intelligent question, and Parīkṣit Mahārāja will reply... Śukadeva Gosvāmī will reply. But this is student. Just see how intelligent question is put. The Śukadeva Gosvāmī said that for any sinful action one has to atone. So immediately catches the word, this is intelligent disciple, that "What is the value of this atonement? If he cannot correct himself to commit the sinful activity, then what is the value of atonement?" This is very nice question. We shall discuss tomorrow.

Lecture on SB 6.1.8-13 -- New York, July 24, 1971:

Anyway, everyone is responsible for his sinful activities. That's a fact. Therefore Śukadeva Gosvāmī recommends that tasmāt, "Therefore," puraiva āśu iha pāpa-niṣkṛtau, "so long you are in this body, in order to get yourself free from all the reaction of sinful activities, you should atone." Yateta mṛtyor avipadyata, avipadyatātmanā, doṣasya dṛṣṭvā guru-lāghavaṁ yathā bhiṣak cikitseta rujāṁ nidānavit (SB 6.1.8). According to the sinful activities, one should accept the prescription and program of atonement exactly like a..., a physician prescribes different type of medicines according to the gravity of the disease. The other day I was explaining. Just like the state law is that if you commit a murder, if you kill your fellow man, then you have to atone that sinful activity by being killed, by offering your life. That's a fact. Everyone knows it. You cannot escape. If you have killed one man... Of course, not man; if you kill even an ant, you are responsible for that, what to speak of man. Because that distinction is imperfect because this is man-made law. Man-made law, they're taking consideration of the man being killed. Another, the killer, must be killed. Why not an animal? The animal also a living entity. The man is also living entity. So if you have law that if a man kills one man he must be killed, why not if a man kills an animal he should be killed also? What is the reason? This is man-made law, defective. But there cannot be defect in God-made laws. God-made law, if you kill an animal, you are equally punishable as you kill a man. That is God's law. There is no excuse that he..., when you kill a man you are punishable, but when you kill an animal you are not punishable. This is concoction. This is not perfect law. Perfect law. Therefore Lord Jesus Christ prescribes in the Ten Commandments: "Thou shalt not kill." That is perfect law. Not that you shall discriminate that "I shall not kill man, but I shall kill animals." This is cheating one's self. The God laws will not excuse.

Lecture on SB 6.1.8-13 -- New York, July 24, 1971:

Because this body is conditional. Every one of us who are sitting in this meeting has got a different body. Because everyone is under different condition, varieties, varieties of condition. Therefore I'm responsible. If I do not atone for the sinful activities I'm doing within this body, then I have to suffer in my next body because I'll get another body according to my karma. Yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran bhāvaṁ tyajaty ante kalevaram (BG 8.6). Kalevaram means this body. That is a nature's law. So Śukadeva Gosvāmī recommended that considering the gravity of your sinful life, you should undergo a type of atonement. They are prescribed in the śāstras. You have to do that. Otherwise, there is no rescue. Exactly like that, if you have committed murder, if you become killed here, then your sinful activities is neutralized. Otherwise, you'll have to suffer next life. So when a king orders a subject, or the state orders that "This man should be hanged," it is not cruelty to him. It is mercy. They do not know. It is a mercy. Otherwise why... Every state, anywhere you go, the law is there, "Life for life."

Lecture on SB 6.1.8-13 -- New York, July 24, 1971:

So atonement must be done. But King Parīkṣit Mahārāja, he's very intelligent. He says, "All right, Sir, there is atonement. By performing some type of atonement I become free from the sinful activities." Suppose a man, he has committed murder and he's killed. So the sinful reaction of his committing a murder is neutralized. But it does not mean that next time, next life he'll not again kill another man. That is not guaranteed. Exactly like that, you are diseased, the physician gives you medicine, you are cured. But it is not guarantee that you'll not be attacked again by that type of disease. That is not guarantee. One man is suffering from venereal disease, and it is painful. Doctor gives some painful injection. Some way or other, he's cured, but again he's attacked with venereal disease, again comes to the doctor. There are many instances like that. A man has committed theft and he was punished. He was taken to the government custody and he was punished for six months or one year. And comes back. Again he commits the theft. Why? This is intelligent question. So, so Parīkṣit Mahārāja inquires from Śukadeva that 'Atonement, that's all right. You are prescribing atonement. That is all right, to counteract the sinful activities. But why a man commits again the same sinful activities? What is the remedy for that?"

Lecture on SB 6.1.11 -- Honolulu, May 12, 1976:

So to keep oneself in darkness and makes rules and regulation will not help. Just like your government has admitted that they have spent millions of dollars, they could not stop the intoxication habit of LSD. That's a fact. But in our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement one who joins, he gives up immediately. That's a fact. What is the difference? The difference is that to stop one kind of karma by karma will not help. Therefore it is said, karmaṇā karma-nirhāra. One kind of activity is criminality, and one kind of activity just to punish him, this will not stop criminality. This is the real fact. He must be in knowledge. Cultivation of knowledge required. He must come to the senses, that "I am suffering. Every time I commit some criminality, I am punished. This is not very palatable. So why I cannot stop it?"

This is the beginning of human life, that unless you come to this knowledge... athāto brahma jijñāsā. This is called brahma-jijñāsā. So that is possible in the human form of life. A dog cannot. A dog comes within your room, and you drive him away, you punish him, and still, with some plea he will come. So therefore Parīkṣit... Śukadeva Gosvāmī suggests that we have to make him free from the avidyā, ignorance. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. Everyone is under the spell of māyā. Punaḥ punaḥ. Bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19). It is going on, but we do not inquire that "Why I am repeatedly accepting the cycle of birth and death?" That is avidyā. They are, rather, supporting, "Suppose if I become dog, what is the wrong there?" They say like that: "What is the wrong there?" So this means avidyā, ignorance.

Lecture on SB 6.1.12 -- Los Angeles, June 25, 1975:

This is the life junction. If you like, you can go to the higher planetary system, you can go to the pitṛ-lokas, or lower down in the hellish lokas, or you can go to Kṛṣṇa also. That information we have got from the śāstra. So the human life means responsible life, not extravagance, "Whatever I like, I do like cats and dogs." That is not good. And in another place Ṛṣabhadeva has said also..., several times we have repeated, na sādhu manye yata ātmano 'yam, kleśada āsa dehaḥ. This world is going on not now. So long the material world is there, the living entities are after sense enjoyment like a madman. This is the position. Nūnaṁ pramattaḥ kurute vikarma (SB 5.5.4). They are acting very irresponsibly, and all kinds of sinful activities they are committing like a madman, without any responsibility of life. Nūnaṁ pramattaḥ kurute vikarma (SB 5.5.4). And what for they are doing? Yad indriya-prītaye, simply for sense gratification, that's all. So Ṛṣabhadeva says, na sādhu manye: "This is not good." "Why it is not good? I am enjoying life." No, you are not enjoying. Because you have got this material body, there is no question of enjoyment. It is simply suffering. And you are thinking it is enjoyment. That is illusion. That is māyā. You are accepting something which is not.

Lecture on SB 6.1.15 -- London, August 3, 1971:

This is a discussion between Śukadeva Gosvāmī and Mahārāja Parīkṣit. The question was that "Why people are suffering in different types of hellish condition of life, and how they can be delivered?" Parīkṣit Mahārāja heard from Śukadeva Gosvāmī that there (are) different kinds of hellish condition of life according to different types of sinful activities. So in this material world everyone is implicated or involved in some sort of sinful life. Just like in the prison house. One may be a first-class prisoner, just like sometimes big politicians, they are put into first-class prison arrangement. A second-class prisoner, a third-class prisoner, there are. But as soon as we understand this man is in the prison or prisoner, it should be understood that he's criminal. He has committed some criminal activity; therefore he is in prison. Now, you can compare between the first-class prisoner or third-class prisoner, that is another thing. But they're all prisoners. They're undergoing the duration of prison life. (break)

Lecture on SB 6.1.15 -- London, August 3, 1971:

So in order to become free from this criminality, there are so many prescriptions in the śāstras. They're called tapasya. The beginning is the tapasya. Tapasya means just like a thief wants to steal others' property, but if he thinks at the same time, "No, no, it will be criminal. Father has said it is criminal. I shall not steal others' property," this is tapasya. Because I have got the inclination to steal, to usurp other things, but if I restrain myself by the order of father or the śāstras, the laws... Just like a thief. He knows that if he steals, if he takes others' property, he'll be arrested and he will be punished. But he has got that bad inclination. That is called pāpa-bīja. The śāstras, they prescribe different types of atonement for person who has committed criminal activity. The criminal activities is that if you encroach upon others' property, others' right, that is criminal. Tena tyaktena... You should be satisfied whatever Kṛṣṇa has allotted to you. Therefore we are training our devotees to take Kṛṣṇa-prasādam. Whatever Kṛṣṇa has willfully left after His eating, we take it. But Kṛṣṇa is so kind that He keeps the prasādam as it is. Because He's pūrṇa. He's not hungry. He's feeding millions of living entities. Eko bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān. So He's not hungry. Neither whatever you are offering to Kṛṣṇa, it is your property. It is Kṛṣṇa's property. You cannot manufacture fruits, flowers, grains, or milk, or anything else. Anything eatable you cannot manufacture in your factory. That is Kṛṣṇa's manufacture. Therefore, actually, it is Kṛṣṇa's property. Simply you have to acknowledge: "Kṛṣṇa, You are so kind. You have given so many things for our eating. First of all, You taste. Then we shall take it." What is the difficulty? This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Lecture on SB 6.1.15 -- Los Angeles, June 27, 1975:

Then it was suggested that people, because they are in darkness, āsuras, they do not know how to become immune from all diseases, therefore prāyaścittaṁ vimarśanam. He suggested, Śukadeva. Vimarśanam: he must be sober, that "I am suffering from some disease, and I am heavily paying the penalty to the doctor, and still, I am doing the same thing?" So therefore Śukadeva Gosvāmī suggested, prāyaścittaṁ vimarśanam. Vimarśanam means to become sober and think that "Why I cannot check my desire to do sinful activities?" Then he suggested, to come to that understanding he requires good brain. Ordinary brain, they cannot understand that "Why I am forced to act sinfully although after doing that I suffer? I have committed theft. I am suffer..., I go to jail. Again I come out." So therefore it is called vimarśanam.

So for vimarśanam—means to become sober—you require practicing the tapasya. That is also, we have discussed.

tapasā brahmacaryeṇa

śamena ca damena ca

tyāgena satya-śauchyṁ yamena niyamena vā

(SB 6.1.13)

A series of practice. Then the brain will be clear. So this process also—not very safe. The example has been given that kṣipanty aghaṁ mahad api veṇu-gulmam ivānalaḥ. It is something like burning, setting fire into the dry grass. And superficially it appears that all the grasses are now burned into ashes; there is no possibility of coming out. No. Therefore this very word is there, iva analaḥ. Although superficially, outside, it appears that everything is burned, but the root remains there. The root remains there, and as soon as there will be facility or there will be rainy season, the same grasses and twigs and other things will come out again, new growth.

Lecture on SB 6.1.17 -- Honolulu, May 17, 1976:

That is pure devotee. Anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyam (Brs. 1.1.11). Śūnya means zero, one who has made all material desires zero. That is the way. In the Buddha philosophy it is called nirvāṇa. Nirvāṇa means make zero, śūnyavādi. But we cannot remain in the śūnya. That is not possible. Śūnyavādī-nirvāṇa means to give up material desires. It is not possible to give up desires. That is not possible. To give up desires means I am dead body, a stone. If I have got life, if I am not a stone, there must be desires. Where is the living entity who has no desires? That is not possible. If we kill somebody to make him desireless, that "If you are killed, then there will be no more desire," no, the desire will continue in the subtle body. Even one is finished, this material body... Sometimes they commit suicide out of frustration, that "This desire is not fulfilled. Let me commit suicide." No. That is ignorance. Desires continue in the subtle body, mind, intelligence, and ego. And to fulfill the desire, Kṛṣṇa will give you another body. If we make a desire, it must be fulfilled and Kṛṣṇa will give you facilities. Bhrāmayan sarva-bhūtāni yantrārūḍhāni māyayā (BG 18.61). Desire is so strong. So how to make it zero? That is not possible. To make it zero means no more material desire. That is to make zero material desires. Sarvopādhi-vinirmuktam (CC Madhya 19.170).

Lecture on SB 6.1.22 -- Indore, December 13, 1970:

The only attraction is family, kuṭumba. So for the sake of maintaining family, he was committing all kinds of sinful activities.

So there was one Ajāmila at that time, but you will find many Ajāmilas like that at the present moment because it is the age of Kali. There was one Rāvaṇa. In the dress of a sannyāsī he kidnapped Lord Rāmacandra's wife, and nowadays you will find many Rāvaṇas like that. You see? The so-called sannyāsīs, their business is to... This tendency is always there, but according to the age, sometimes it is very prominent and sometimes not so prominent. But this material world is so contaminated. In the days of Rāmacandra people were hankering after the kingdom of Rāma, even there was Rāvaṇa in the days of Rāmacandra. And what to speak of all these nonsense debauchees? Rāmacandra was so strict, and God Himself was ruling, and still, there was Rāvaṇa. But because Rāmacandra was there he was also killed. Paritrāṇāya sādhūnām (BG 4.8). God's business is to protect the faithful and kill the demons. That is always. Therefore we find Lord Viṣṇu, the four symbolic representation: for killing, the club and the cakra; and for protecting, the lotus flower and conchshell.

Lecture on SB 6.1.23 -- Honolulu, May 23, 1976:

Then by inquiry it was found that he lustfully saw on young woman. So just... Caitanya Mahāprabhu is so strict that He rejected him from His associates. Then other big, big devotees requested him that "He has committed some mistake, and please excuse him. He is your servant." So Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, "All right, then you bring him back. You live with him. I am leaving this place. I am leaving this place." They said, "No, sir, we shall not raise this question anymore."

So when this Choṭa Haridāsa found it impossible to again go into the assembly of Caitanya Mahāprabhu, he found it hopelessness. Then he went to Triveṇī and committed suicide. So Caitanya Mahāprabhu knows everything. Then, sometimes after, He inquired, "What about Choṭa Haridāsa?" Somebody said, "Sir, You rejected him. Out of disappointment, he has committed suicide in the..." "Oh, that's nice." Just see how strict. "That's nice." He never expect (expressed?) any, any sympathy: "Oh, I rejected this person and he has committed suicide?" Oh. No, He said, "That's nice. That's all right." He said like that. This is one thing.

Lecture on SB 6.1.25 -- Chicago, July 9, 1975:

Everyone is disgusted. The same child, when he grows up, he becomes disobedient to the father and breaks. He goes away. The father is broken-hearted, "Oh, I loved this child and he became so unfaithful? He has done so much harm and he has gone away?" Broken-hearted. Broken-heart... That you will have to experience in the material world.

So the śūnyavādī and the nirviśeṣavādī, they want to make these varieties of enjoyment zero. That is called nirvāṇa philosophy, Buddha philosophy, that "These varieties of enjoyment is followed by painful condition, so you should make this variety zero." Just like sometimes one commits suicide. When these varieties become intolerable, social condition unbearable, then he commits suicide. So this śūnyavādī, māyāvādī, means it is spiritual suicide, because they have no information of the spiritual varieties. Anādṛta-yuṣmad-aṅghrayaḥ. They do not know that these varieties of enjoyment can be executed with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and that will endure eternally, and we shall enjoy eternally. That they cannot understand. That is the difference between Vaiṣṇava and others. They, being disgusted... Brahma satyaṁ jagan mithyā, Śaṅkara's philosophy, impersonalist, that "Take to Brahman. The so-called varieties of enjoyment in this material world is mithyā, false. So take to Brahman, merge into the Brahman, and remain there perpetually. Don't seek after these varieties of enjoyment."

Lecture on SB 6.1.27-34 -- Surat, December 17, 1970:

At the time of death, especially those who are full of sinful activities, they become too much agitated how to save himself, how to enter into another body. It is a very painful situation. The painful situation becomes so acute that no more the living entity can live in this body. Just like sometimes it happens: when a person becomes too much painful, he commits suicide. He does not want to live within this body. But he does not know that is another sinful activity. You cannot commit suicide. That is another criminal action.

So at the time of death... Of course, those who are devotees, their position is different. People may say, "The devotee is also dying, and the nondevotee, sinful man, is also dying. What is the difference?" So there is much difference. The example is given: just like a cat catching a rat in his mouth and at the same time carrying his cubs in the mouth. Superficially, we can see that the same mouth is being used, but one is feeling comfortable being carried by the mother, and another is feeling the death knell. Similarly, at the time of death, the devotee's feeling that they are being transferred to Vaikuṇṭha, whereas the ordinary sinful man is feeling that the Yamarāja, the dūtas, the constables of Yamarāja are dragging him to the hellish condition of life. So one should not conclude simply by seeing that he is dying. No. The process is different. Janma karma ca me divyam (BG 4.9). As Lord Kṛṣṇa's appearance and disappearance are all spiritual, transcendental, they are not ordinary things, similarly, Lord Kṛṣṇa's devotee, His representative, who is sent to this material world for preaching the glories of Lord Kṛṣṇa, their appearance and disappearance is also like Kṛṣṇa's. Therefore, according to Vaiṣṇava principles, the appearance and disappearance of Vaiṣṇava is considered all-auspicious. Therefore we hold festivals.

Lecture on SB 6.1.30 -- Philadelphia, July 14, 1975:

Similarly, we are in this material ocean. Life after life we are struggling. So now we have got a nice boat, this human body. Sulabhaṁ sudurlabham. And it is specially advantageous because the breeze is very favorable. When you ply your boat, if the breeze is favorable, pushing on, that is another advantage, good boat and good breeze. And guru-karṇadhāram: "And the captain, steering man, is guru." He is giving instruction, "Row like this. Turn this way, that way." He is turning everything. So we have got this opportunity. If the boat is very nice, the captain is very nice, the breeze is very favorable, and even accepting or getting this nice boat, favorable, if we do not cross over the sea of ignorance, of material existence, then we are committing suicide. Sa ātma-hā. You get all the opportunities, and still you remain in this material world, repetition of birth, death, old age and disease? Is that very good intelligence? No. That is not good.

So we are misled. We are engaged in studying the machine, that's all. Instead of using the machine to cross over the ocean, take the advantage, they are very busy in studying the machine. Is that very good intelligence? Machine is already given to you. You cannot study even. You do not know. Even if you study, you cannot say... I claim, "It is my body," and if somebody asks me, "How many hairs you have got in your body?" I cannot say. How I am eating something, how it is being turned into some secretion, it is going to the heart, it is becoming red and it is again distributed through the nerves and veins—I do not know anything. I can simply theorize. But the machine is not under your control. The machine is made by God or by nature. It is very subtle machine. If you are very expert, the first thing is that what is the use of simply studying the machine? You got it. You utilize it for going to the destination. That is your intelligent. No, they forgot to use the machine for going to the destination; they are simply studying the machine. And that is going on in the name of science. What is this nonsense science? Simply busy in studying the machine.

Lecture on SB 6.1.30 -- Honolulu, May 29, 1976:

What is that? Sarvopādhi-vinirmuktaṁ tat paratvena nirmalam (CC Madhya 19.170). So this kind of philosophy has no meaning, because how a dog can become philosopher? That is not possible. A human being can become philosopher. So long I'm on the bodily concept of life, I'm in the line of cats and dogs. So how we can become philosopher? There is no question of. But they're philosophizing, means bluffing, and similar men, he's thinking, "I believe." You believe or not believe, the law will go on.

So everyone is proposing "I believe." That's why the government law is there, that "If you do this, you'll be punished like this." That is government law. Suppose you have stolen something, committed theft, you must be punished for six months' imprisonment. So you believe or not believe, the law will act. If you say in the court, "I believe," what is the meaning of your belief? There's no question of belief. Law is law. Ignorance is no excuse. If you go in the court and if you're punished, so if you say, "My lordship, I believe like this. I'll not be punished. So you're punishing me," so that is no excuse. You believe or not believe, the law is law. So, similarly, these philosophers theorizing so many "I believe." So these things will not go. These things will not go. That is useless, simply waste of time. You must know there is God. How we can deny it? There is supreme power. I am being controlled every moment. Who wants to die? And who is forcing me to die? How he can deny the superior power? I do not want to become old man, and superior power forces me, "You must become old man." So, so long there is force behind you, you have to act according to that. Where is your so-called belief or independence? That is foolishness. That is foolishness. But they have no brain that "I am being kicked. I'm being enforced to do something, and still I'm thinking 'independent,' 'I believe.' " What is this meaning of his belief? There is no question of. This is foolishness.

Lecture on SB 6.1.33 -- Honolulu, June 1, 1976:

In the material world, gṛha-medhi... Gṛha-medhi means those who are entrapped within this universe or within this body, same thing. This is also entrapment, I am within this body. Or even in any part of the universe, either you go to the moon planet or sun planet or any other planet. You see the sky is just like egglike, within that. They are called baddha-jīva. Baddha-jīva means entrapped. So entrapped living entities, they are in different grades of life, 8,400,000 different forms of life. Now, how they are entrapped? This sex. Yan maithunādi-gṛhamedhi-sukhaṁ hi tuccham. This is their pleasure. And in the spiritual world there is no sex. So one may question, "How they are living? Life is finished if there is no sex.' So somebody committed suicide, who was telling? Because doctor asked him not to have any more sex. Who told me the other day? Somebody told me, some big man. He was famous man. So he was forbidden. Especially when one is attacked with tuberculosis, the medical man advises, "No more sex. Then you will die soon." So this was ordered and he committed suicide.

Lecture on SB 6.1.41-42 -- Surat, December 23, 1970:

Devotee (5): Prabhupāda, you mentioned a person who commits sins because he is in ignorance.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Devotee (5): What if the person knows what he is doing is wrong, and he knows what the ultimate result of his doings is also wrong, but he still commits? Is that still ignorance?

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is ignorance-rooted, ignorance, heart, rooted in the heart. That can be... Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu recommends ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12). You have to cleanse your heart. Then, when your heart is cleansed, then you will say, "No, no. No more I am going to do this. I have suffered so much. No. No." That is real knowledge. Unless your heart is cleansed, then, even though you know that "By committing theft I will be punished," you will commit, because the heart is not clear. Even though one knows that "By doing this, I will suffer," still, he will do that. That distinction is always there. Therefore the only method is this cleansing process in this age, Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra.

Revatīnandana: In the Fourteenth Chapter in the Gītā, you describe that the mode of goodness, people who are in the mode of goodness become conditioned by that mode, and they come back repeatedly as philosophers, educators, like that.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Lecture on SB 6.1.43 -- Los Angeles, July 24, 1975:

Similarly, you take the animal, slaughterhouse, it cannot protest. These are the symptoms of ignorance. And as soon as there is awakening of Kṛṣṇa consciousness or advanced consciousness, then if I pinch you, immediately you protest, "Why you have pinched me?" That is the difference between the lower-grade life and higher-grade life. So if in the higher-grade life we do not understand Kṛṣṇa, then we are making suicide, cutting our own throat. That is sinful. So here is a chance, the human form of body. Death will come to the dog and to me also. Then where is the difference? The difference is so long I am living, I can try to understand Kṛṣṇa; others cannot. If we miss this opportunity, then we are committing suicide. This is the verdict of the śāstra.

So nāyaṁ deha deho-bhājāṁ nṛloke. Everybody has got material body. The ant has got also material body, and Lord Brahmā has got also material body. Anyone who is in the material world, he has got this material body. Therefore it is called ayaṁ deha: "this deha, this body." I am not deha. That is the tenth-class ignorance if I think, "I am this body." Nāyaṁ deho deha-bhājāṁ nṛloke. Everyone has got body, but nrloke, in the human society, the body which you have got, or the person who has got this human form of body, kaṣṭān kāmān na arhate, for such animal, having this material body, human body, it is not meant for working so hard. That is first-class civilization when people are not working very hard, living very peacefully, and getting their necessities of life. That is first-class civilization, not that to work day and night like hogs and dog, and get a cup of tea and little morsel of bread. That is not civilization. Therefore śāstra says, nāyaṁ deho deha-bhājāṁ nṛloke kaṣṭān kāmān arhate viḍ-bhu... (SB 5.5.1).

Lecture on SB 6.1.47 -- Dallas, July 29, 1975:

Who? Māṁ ca vyabhicāriṇi bhakti-yogena ya sevate. Anyone who is engaged in pure devotional service avyabhicāriṇi, not mixed up, whimsical, regularly, as they are ordained, as they are prescribed. So if anyone is engaged in such transcendental loving service of the Lord, then his position is: he is above the three guṇas. He is not...

So these Yamadūta superficially saw that "This man, Ajāmila, is a first-class sinful man, and he has to be taken to Yamarāja. He has simply committed adharma." But the Viṣṇudūta has come because he is now freed from all material contamination, because at the end of his life he chanted the holy name of Nārāyaṇa. So that is... If it is possible, so much advantage of chanting the holy name of the Lord, if you constantly keep yourself engaged in chanting the holy name of the Lord, there is no possibility of your being touched by māyā. This is the position. Vartamānaḥ anyayoḥ kālaḥ guṇābhijñāpakaḥ. Guṇābhijñāpakaḥ. Anyone who is intelligent, who can understand what this man is, which quality he belongs to... This is education. This is learning, to understand what is the position of this particular... The general definition is given, ūrdhvaṁ gacchanti sattva-sthā madhye tiṣṭhanti rājasāḥ, jaghanya-guṇa-vṛtti-sthā adho gac... (BG 14.18). You can... Any person who has studied śāstra, and he is in the sattva-guṇa, to him it is..., everything is there. He can understand what is this man, what he is going to be and what he was, past, present, future, everything. Why? How one can understand past, present, future? Through the śāstra. Śāstra-cakṣuśaḥ. There are still astrological calculation in India called Bṛghu-saṁhitā. If you consult Bṛghu-saṁhitā, immediately they will give you your past, present and future. Immediately they will give. The astrology science is so perfect. What you were in the past life, what you are at the present and what you are going to be, these three things they can be known.

Lecture on SB 6.1.50 -- Detroit, August 3, 1975:

That is required. The human life is meant for tapasya, to come to the life platform. Tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena śuddhyet sattva (SB 5.5.1). Tamasic or tamas, or darkness, means just like a person is attacked with tuberculosis, but he doesn't care for it. But intelligent man goes to the physician, asks that "Why I am suffering? What is the medicine?" That is intelligence. So human life begins when one is inquisitive to know, "Why I am suffering?" That is human life. And if he keeps himself in darkness—"Oh, this is... Suffering is suffering. Let me enjoy..." Sometimes they want to forget the suffering by another suffering, drinking or LSD, to forget suffering. That is another suffering, another suffering so much so that one becomes crazy and commits suicide. This is going on, a very precarious life. And human life is the only opportunity to rectify these mistakes and come to his original position, constitutional position, means the spiritual platform.

Lecture on SB 6.1.52 -- Detroit, August 5, 1975:

Because our qualification is, not only in this age, any living being who has accepted this material body, he is ajñaḥ; he is a rascal. He is a rascal, in ignorance, and he cannot control the senses. This is his qualification. Dehy ajño ajita-ṣaḍ-vargo. And on account of this ignorance and being unable to control the senses, then he unwillingly, he is being forced by nature to act sinful activities, unwillingly. Necchan. Necchan means unwilling. He doesn't like it. Just like even a thief: he is practiced to steal, so he knows that "I will be arrested again." He has had experience. He knows that "I will be again arrested, and I will go again to the jail, and will suffer there." But he is still forced to commit stealing again. A man suffering from venereal disease, he goes to the doctor, injection, so much painful. Still, he acts the same way. Necchan. Practice. "Habit is the..." What is called? "Second nature." So practice.

So necchan karmāṇi kāryate. And as soon as you act, immediately the reaction is there. That you cannot avoid. If you have touched fire, it must burn. The action is touching fire, and the result is burning. So necchan. We do not know. We are ignorance. We are committing so many abominable things, and we are becoming entangled like that silkworm. He is making a bag without knowledge, and gradually he becomes entangled within this and dies. That is our position. Bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19). We entangle ourself in a different activities and create another result, and according to the result... Because it is infection... Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgaḥ asya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu.

Lecture on SB 7.5.31 -- Mauritius, October 4, 1975:

Why? We are Both of us, we are living entities. Why he has got this body, I have got this body, and one may have better body than me? Why there are so many, 8,400,000 species of life and different position? Why this is? There is no such inquiry. There is no such knowledge. Therefore they have been described here as andhā, blind. They do not know the goal of life that we are part and parcel of God. Mamaivāṁśo jīva bhūtaḥ (BG 15.7). Some way or other, we have come in material contact. Now it is our duty to get out of these laws of material Īśa-tantryā. Īśa-tantryā, under certain condition Just like under certain condition a criminal is put into the prisonhouse. So it is his duty to know that "I have committed this criminal activity; therefore I have been put into this jail or prison life. Some way or other, complete it, and let me decide not to commit again any criminal acts so that I may be put again into prison life." This is intelligent. Similarly, we should be educated how we have been put into this material conditional life and how we can get out of it and then again in our spiritual life we can go back to home, back to Godhead. That should be the aim of life. But na te viduḥ: "They do not know." Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatim. The progress should be towards Viṣṇu, Lord Viṣṇu, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, back to home, back to Godhead. They do not know. Why? Because durāśayā. They are thinking that "We shall make adjustment in this material life, and we shall be happy."

Lecture on SB 7.6.8 -- Vrndavana, December 10, 1975:

The whole world is going on on this basis, women and money, So dāra-draviṇā, he'll be forced to give up. Ācchinna-dāra-draviṇā gacchanti.

So on the whole this age is very, very difficult to live peacefully. It is not possible. It is, material life is always full of difficulties, especially in this age, so people should be given instruction and training how to give up this materialistic way of life. The pramattaḥ word is used in Ṛṣabhadeva's instruction also: nūnaṁ pramattaḥ kurute vikarma (SB 5.5.4). Pramattaḥ: everyone is madman. That's a fact. Some years ago one man was condemned to death, and he pleaded that "While I committed this murder I was mad." So he was examined. He was to be examined by the civil servant, and the civil servant, when he came to the court, he said, "My lord, so far my experience goes, everyone is mad. So why do you ask me to examine this man? If to become madman and be excused for being hanged, then you can do so, but my opinion is everyone is mad, more or less." So this statement is also confirmed by the Bhāgavatam and all the śāstras. In the Caitanya-caritāmṛta also it is said,

piśāci pāile yena mati-cchanna haya

māyā-grasta jīveri sei dāsa upajaya

Māyā-grasta ye, those who are in this material world and absorbed in materialistic way of thought, they are just like a man haunted by the ghost, piśāci pāile yena mati-cchanna haya.

So all this materialistic way of life based on money and lusty desire is madness, nūnaṁ pramattaḥ kurute vikarma (SB 5.5.4). And on account of madness... Just like madman doesn't know what he's doing, similarly any materialistic person without Kṛṣṇa consciousness is a madman. That is also said in Bhagavad-gītā:

Lecture on SB 7.6.10 -- Vrndavana, December 12, 1975:

So on account of this deep affection for maintaining family, everyone is risking life. The example is given here that taskaraḥ. There are many professional thieves, any country, India also. They are family men—not they are loafers—but their business is to steal. Their business is to steal. Why? They steal, they know it is risky,. He has heard it that "If you steal you'll be arrested, you'll be put into jail." Knowledge is gathered by hearing and by seeing. Hm? In Hindi it is called 'dekha śuna'-dekhavyair śunavyair, that "Have you seen or heard it?" That is experience. So thief knows he has heard it from lawbooks that stealing is not good, and from religious scripture also, that "It is sinful. Do not commit theft. Do not become criminal." But still he does, at the risk of ad At night he goes in the house of rich man and risk his life. Especially in Western countries, there is fire gun, and trespassers, even without permission, if anyone enters anyone's house, he can kill him. Is it not the law in your country? Trespassing? So there is risk of life, but he has entered the house for stealing. And why stealing? The family affection. That is the impetus for economic development. The Professor Marshall, the economist, he has given the definition, that "Wherefrom the economic development begins? By family affection." Or by sex attraction. So this earning money, there are so many smugglers, so many illicit businessmen, black market, they are risking their lives to get money. The purpose is when one becomes too much attached to family life and too much devoted to maintain it, he doesn't care. He has to earn money, some how or other, even risking life. Even risking life.

Lecture on SB 7.9.8 -- Mayapur, February 28, 1977:

"Now Nṛsiṁha-deva has touched my head. Ah. Who is like me? I am the greatest personality." This is not Vaiṣṇava. Sanātana Gosvāmī when he approached Caitanya Mahāprabhu, he presented himself, nīca jāti nīca karma nīca saṅgī: "I am born of very low grade family, and my duties are also very low grade, and my association are also very low grade." So Sanātana Gosvāmī was born in a very respectable brāhmaṇa family, but because he accepted the service of Muhammadan king, actually he lost his all brahminical culture. He did not lose, but superficially it appeared because he was mixing with the Muhammadans, eating with them, sitting with them, talking with them. But he gave up. Tyaktvā tūrṇam aśeṣa-maṇḍala-pati-śreṇīṁ sadā tuccha. He understood, "What I am doing? I am committing suicide." Jāniyā śuniyā viṣa khāinu. Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura says that "I am taking poison knowingly." Unknowingly one may take poison, but if knowingly one takes poison, that is very regrettable. So Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura said,

hari hari biphale janama goṅāinu

manuṣya-janama pāiyā, rādhā-kṛṣṇa nā bhajiyā,

jāniyā śuniyā viṣa khāinu

So we are trying to preach this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement all over the world, but still, if people do not take to this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, then he is drinking poison knowingly. This is the position. He is drinking poison. That's a fact. It is not that we are imagining something, eulogizing.(?) They are charging us, "Brainwash." Yes, it is brainwash. It is... All the dirty things, stools, are there in the brain, and we are trying to wash them. That is our...

Lecture on SB 7.9.9 -- Montreal, July 4, 1968:

Yes. Just like in a diseased condition of your eyes you cannot see. In diseased condition of your hands you cannot touch. In diseased condition of your legs you cannot walk. All your senses, in diseased condition, cannot work. Similarly, in material diseased condition you cannot understand what is God. You have to cure yourself from this diseased condition. Then you will see, you will touch, you will perceive, you will know, you will feel—everything. Those who are unable to cure the disease, they want to kill. Just like a patient is suffering in very bad type of disease. The physician cannot kill, then..., cannot cure him, then he thinks, "Let me die. Let me commit suicide." So this voidism or impersonalism is a symptom of frustration, not being able to cure the disease. But actually, the living entity is eternal. Just like a rascal or foolish man thinks that "I am suffering so much. Let me commit suicide, and it will be a great relief." It is foolishness. He will be put into further torture after this life. He will become a ghost. So because they do not know that living creature is eternal, therefore they want to make the ultimate solution as void, zero. But it cannot be zero. It is not possible, because you are eternal. Therefore you have to cure. And that curing process is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. (aside:) Ṛṣi Kumar? Why you are there? Come here. (chuckles) All right. Any other questions? Yes, try to understand nicely. Yes.

Lecture on SB 7.9.9 -- Montreal, July 6, 1968:

Kāmādīnāṁ kati na katidhā pālitā durnideśās. We are serving actually, but instead of serving God, we are serving kamādi, our lust, our greediness, our senses. In one word we are serving our senses. So the position is there, but when you turn that service spirit to God, that is your success of life. Otherwise it is simply waste of time. Kāmādīnāṁ kati na katidhā pālitā durnideśās. Dictated by the lust, by kāma, by serving kāma, we sometimes do something which is very, very, abominable. Just don't you see the fight? The Pope says that "You cannot use contraceptive method. It is sinful." But actually people are doing that because dictated by kāma, lust. It is actually very sinful, it is brūṇ-hatyā, murder. So how you can be that happy by continually committing murders? It is not possible. Therefore every religion, the contraceptive method will never be supported. It is brūṇ-hatyā mahā-pāpa, according to Vedic literature. So they are now proposing that you cannot use contraceptive devices, but people have become mad after lust. They must use. They are putting the population theory, but I don't believe in it. The population theory, that "Population is increasing; therefore it should be stopped by contraceptive method," Malthus's theory, in economics, they are following that. But actually there is no such problem, because if we understand from Vedic literature, from Upaniṣad, it is said, nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām eko bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān: (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13) "That Supreme Personality of Godhead is one, and the living creatures are many, many, without any number."

Lecture on SB 7.9.9 -- Montreal, July 6, 1968:

Guest (2): You questioned about contraception method, not the birth. The world is not composed not entirely of brāhmaṇas. There are śūdras, too, who are oriented exclusively towards kāma. Now they are śūdras because they are śūdras, because they are not anything else. Well, but they receive medical care as if they were brāhmaṇas.

Prabhupāda: But do you mean to say śūdras should be allowed to kill? Law, the state law, does allow that "He is a śūdra. He is a lower class of man. Let him commit murder, and the law will not be applicable to him"? Does it mean? This contraceptive method is equivalent to commit murder. So either you are śūdra or a brāhmaṇa or kṣatriya, but it doesn't matter. If you commit murder, then you are putting yourself in difficulties.

Guest (2): Is it true that in India śūdras are kept more leniently than brāhmaṇas are?

Prabhupāda: No. No. Why?

Guest (2): I just wondered.

Prabhupāda: No. The law does not ask, "Are you brāhmaṇa or are you śūdra?" But according to Vedic system, rather, brāhmaṇas are treated very leniently because they are not so sinful. Just like Aśvatthāmā. He happened to be a brāhmaṇa, and he committed a great sin, killing the five innocent... (end)

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

You have seen the Jains, they are after nonviolence. You'll find they keep a cloth like this so that the small insects may not enter the mouth. But these are artificial. You cannot check. In the air there are so many living entities. In the water there are so many living entities. We drink water. You cannot check it. It is not possible. But if you keep yourself fixed up in devotional service, then you are not bound.

Yajñārthe karmaṇo 'nyatra loko 'yaṁ karma-bandhanaḥ (BG 3.9). If your life is dedicated for yajña, for serving Kṛṣṇa, then the inevitable sinful activities which we commit without any knowledge, we are not responsible. Manye mithe kṛtaṁ pāpaṁ puṇyaya eva kalpate (?). So our life should be dedicated simply for Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Then we are safe. Otherwise we must be entangled with so many reaction of our activities and bound up in the repetition of birth and death. Mām aprāpya nivartante mṛtyu-saṁsāra-vartmani (BG 9.3).

nūnaṁ pramattaḥ kurute vikarma

yad indriya-prītaya āpṛṇoti

na sādhu manye yato ātmano 'yam

asann api kleśada āsa dehaḥ

(SB 5.5.4)

The safest position is let us always be engaged in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Then we make spiritually advance and safe from the reaction of sinful life.

Lecture on SB 7.9.10 -- Mayapur, February 17, 1976:

This is the mistake committed by the Māyāvādīs, that "If everything is Brahman, then whatever I worship, that is all right." That is nonsense. Kṛṣṇa says, nāhaṁ teṣu avasthitaḥ. Just like this microphone: it is Kṛṣṇa. But if I worship this microphone instead of the Deity, then I am a fool. Then I am fool. This is the mistake the Māyāvādīs commit. They put the argument, "If everything is Kṛṣṇa, everything is Brahman, so whatever I worship, that is Brahman." Kṛṣṇa says, "No. That is not. Everything is Myself." This is called simultaneously one and different, acintya-bhedābheda-tattva. Goloka eva nivasaty akhilātma-bhūtaḥ (Bs. 5.37). This is there in the Brahma-saṁhitā. Kṛṣṇa is always in Goloka. Just like here is Kṛṣṇa. He's in Goloka, but He's so powerful, omnipotent... This is called omnipotency. In spite of His becoming in Goloka, He's everywhere. That is Kṛṣṇa. That is the difference between Kṛṣṇa and you or me. I am here; I'm not in upstairs. I'm here only. But Kṛṣṇa simultaneously can be everywhere. Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe 'rjuna tiṣṭhati (BG 18.61). So many pretenders, they claim that they are God: "I am God." But are you present everywhere? Can you say what I am thinking now? No, that he cannot. Still, he claims, "God." Nonsense. How he can become God? If you cannot say what I am thinking now, then how you can become God? God is situated everywhere. Aṇḍāntara-sthaṁ paramāṇu-cayāntara-stham. Everywhere. Paramāṇu-cayāntara-stham. Even within the atom there is God. So how you can claim God? Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe 'rjuna tiṣṭhati (BG 18.61). Then they will answer, "I'm not in God now I am God, but māyā... Therefore I cannot say now." That... "Why you have become under the control of māyā? Then māyā is greater than God. Then how you can become God? Māyā is greater than God." So they cannot answer this. Because their theory is foolish, they cannot answer all these things. Actually, unless one is a devotee, he'll have all these bad qualification.

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

Old men. Yes. These five items, according to Manu-saṁhitā, or Hindu law, they have no offense. They have no offense. They cannot be criminally prosecuted. Excused. If a brāhmaṇa has committed some fault or a woman has committed some fault or a child has committed some fault or a cow has transgressed the law, oh, there is no punishment for them. Dayā. They should be shown always mercy. They require protection, especially. These five items have been especially enjoined that they should be given protection. That is required in human civilization. Cow protection is very important. Woman's protection is very important. Brāhmaṇa's protection is very important. Children's protection is very important. Of course, nowadays there is protection for children, of course, from the state. But that is also artificial. There is killing process also. So many children in the womb are killed. But according to Vedic civilization, they are greatest offense. So dayā. Dayā means you should show your mercifulness those who are weak. So this will reduce, dayā. And āyuḥ, duration of life. Duration of life. In the Satya-yuga the duration of life was 100,000's years. A man used to live for 100,000's of years. Then in the Tretā-yuga it reduced ten times. They used to live for 10,000 years. Then in Dvāpara-yuga it reduced again ten times. They used to live for 1,000 years. And now, in the Kali-yuga, the duration of life is prescribed as 100 years. But you see that it is reducing. Everyone may note it. Perhaps your grandfather lived for 100 years. Your father lived for 80 years. And nowadays, 60 or 70 years. Gradually, it will so reduce, we shall come to that statement, that if a man lives for 20 to 30 years he will be considered a very grand old man. If he lives for 20 to 30 years he'll be considered, "Oh, you have got very good life." That will come, gradually. This is the progressive age. Progressive age for material civilization. We are proud of making advancement of our civilization, but these nice thing are being reduced. That means... We are advancing means reducing the nice things. This is advanced. Āyuḥ and smṛtiḥ. Smṛtiḥ means memory. So these eight items will reduce gradually. You can keep it noted, and you'll see how they are being reduced. And we have already experienced. Smṛtiḥ.