Decay
Bhagavad-gita As It Is
BG Chapters 7 - 12
In Vedic literature, the king is considered to be the representative of God. In this age, however, with the corruption of the principles of religion, monarchy decayed and is now finally abolished. It is to be understood that in the past, however, people were more happy under righteous kings.
BG Chapters 13 - 18
One who desires to know the twenty-four elements in detail along with their interactions should study the philosophy in more detail. In Bhagavad-gītā, a summary only is given.
The body is the representation of all these factors, and there are changes of the body, which are six in number: the body is born, it grows, it stays, it produces by-products, then it begins to decay, and at the last stage it vanishes. Therefore the field is a nonpermanent material thing. However, the kṣetra-jña, the knower of the field, its proprietor, is different.
Srimad-Bhagavatam
SB Cantos 10.14 to 12 (Translations Only)
Within the material world, one's material body is always subject to birth and decay. Similarly, the life air (prāṇa) is harassed by hunger and thirst, the mind is always anxious, the intelligence hankers for that which cannot be obtained, and all of the senses are ultimately exhausted by constant struggle in the material nature. A person who is not bewildered by the inevitable miseries of material existence, and who remains aloof from them simply by remembering the lotus feet of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is to be considered bhāgavata-pradhāna, the foremost devotee of the Lord.
Brahman, the eternal soul, was never born and will never die, nor does it grow or decay. That spiritual soul is actually the knower of the youth, middle age and death of the material body. Thus the soul can be understood to be pure consciousness, existing everywhere at all times and never being destroyed. Just as the life air within the body, although one, becomes manifest as many in contact with the various material senses, the one soul appears to assume various material designations in contact with the material body.
That material happiness of which we hear, such as promotion to heavenly planets for celestial enjoyment, is just like that material happiness we have already experienced. Both are polluted by jealousy, envy, decay and death. Therefore, just as an attempt to raise crops becomes fruitless if there are many problems like crop disease, insect plague or drought, similarly, the attempt to attain material happiness, either on earth or on the heavenly planets, is always fruitless because of innumerable obstacles.
A human being who concentrates on Me as the upholder of religious principles, the personification of purity and the Lord of Śvetadvīpa obtains the pure existence in which he is freed from the six waves of material disturbance, namely hunger, thirst, decay, death, grief and illusion.
Sri Caitanya-caritamrta
CC Adi-lila
In the Laghu-bhāgavatāmṛta (Pūrva 5.86–100), there is a lucid explanation of the inconceivable potencies of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Negating Śaṅkarācārya's statements, the Mahā-varāha Purāṇa declares:
- sarve nityāḥ śāśvatāś ca dehās tasya parātmanaḥ
- hānopādāna-rahitā naiva prakṛti-jāḥ kvacit
"All the varied expansions of the Personality of Godhead are transcendental and eternal, and all of them repeatedly descend to all the different universes of the material creation. Their bodies, composed of eternity, bliss and knowledge, are everlasting; there is no chance of their decaying, for they are not creations of the material world. Their forms are concentrated spiritual existence, always complete with all spiritual qualities and devoid of material contamination."
Other Books by Srila Prabhupada
Easy Journey to Other Planets
Renunciation Through Wisdom
Those who meditate constantly on Lord Kṛṣṇa's lotus feet can easily attain Him. As Lord Brahmā states in the Brahma-saṁhitā (5.33),
- advaitam acyutam anādim ananta-rūpam
- ādyaṁ purāṇa-puruṣaṁ nava-yauvanaṁ ca
- vedeṣu durlabham adurlabham ātma-bhaktau
- govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi
I worship Govinda, the Primeval Lord, who is inaccessible to the Vedas, but who is obtainable by pure unalloyed devotion of the soul, who is without a second, who is not subject to decay, is without a beginning, whose form is endless, who is the beginning, and the eternal puruṣa, yet He is a person possessing the beauty of blooming youth.
Lectures
Sri Isopanisad Lectures
You cannot relieve this body from repeated birth and death, and while manifested, disease and old age. So people are very much busy for culturing knowledge of this body, although they are seeing every moment that this body is decaying. The death of the body was registered when it was born. That's a fact. So you cannot stop the natural course of this body. You must meet the process of the body, namely, birth, death, old age, and disease.
Conversations and Morning Walks
1973 Conversations and Morning Walks
Hṛdayānanda: That's a fact. In American history, whenever there was economic prosperity, always increase in sense gratification. Historically speaking, in America, whenever there was increase in prosperity, there was a trend towards irreligion and sense gratification.
Prabhupāda: That is everywhere. Luxury leads to poverty. (break) ...a living man, but if you are actually interested, why don't you do it, organized way. Sentiment, it is good, but if you do not understand the science, sentiment may be for the time being. Sentiment is sentiment. That will not act. They are admitting sinful activities?
Prajāpati: Yes, they are admitting that... They are an abyss of moral decay.
Prabhupāda: So let them know what are the sinful activities. These are the sinful activities. Close all the slaughterhouses. Close all these illicit sex brothel houses, and close the liquor houses.
Prajāpati: The gambling also.
Prabhupāda: Certainly. Then their business will be finished. Then they will say, "Where we stand? It is all finished." Now you stand on a different platform.
1975 Conversations and Morning Walks
Ravīndra-svarūpa: When the jīva in the heart dies, then all the other cells in the body also have to die.
Prabhupāda: No.
Ravīndra-svarūpa: No, they don't. But when the body decays, doesn't everything...
Prabhupāda: No. Dead body so many germs come out.
Ravīndra-svarūpa: Oh.
Prabhupāda: How it comes?
Svarūpa Dāmodara: But that is different, though. When a body dies, then there are many germs from outside that...
Prabhupāda: Living entities within the body, they come out, hundreds and thousands. They have not died. Suppose in this jungle there are so many living entities. If I die, what has got to do with them?
Page Title: | Decay |
Compiler: | Sahadeva |
Created: | 12 of Jan, 2011 |
Totals by Section: | BG=2, SB=4, CC=1, OB=2, Lec=1, Con=2, Let=0 |
No. of Quotes: | 12 |