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Enjoy life (Lectures, BG)

Expressions researched:
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Lectures

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Lecture on BG Introduction -- New York, February 19-20, 1966:

When Sanātana Gosvāmī asked Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu about the svarūpa—we have already discussed about the svarūpa of every living being—svarūpa or real constitution of the living being, the Lord replied that the constitutional position of the living being is to render service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. But if we analyze this part of the statement of Lord Caitanya, we can very well see that every living being is constantly engaged in the business of rendering service to another living being. A living being serves another living being in different capacities, and by doing so, the living entity enjoys life. A lower animal serves a human being, a servant serves his master, A serves B master, B serves C master, and C serves D master, and so on. Under the circumstances, we can see that a friend serves another friend, and the mother serves the son, or the wife serves the husband, or husband serves the wife.

Lecture on BG 1.23 -- London, July 19, 1973:

When you join with Kṛṣṇa in His rāsa dance as gopīs, or as cowherds boy, play with Him, or become His father and mother, Yaśodā, Nanda Mahārāja, Yaśodā-rāṇī, or become servant, or even become like water Yamunā, or land in Vṛndāvana and trees or fruits or flowers, any way, or cows and calves... Join with Kṛṣṇa. Then you get ānanda, real ānanda. Ānandamayo 'bhyāsāt (Vedānta-sūtra 1.1.12). Sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha (Bs. 5.1). That is the description in all Bhāgavatam, how the Kṛṣṇa's associates are enjoying life. Kṛta-puṇya-puñjāḥ (SB 10.12.11). Śukadeva Gosvāmī said, "These boys who are playing with Kṛṣṇa, oh, they are not ordinary boys." Kṛta-puṇya-puñjāḥ: "They have amassed the effects of pious activities for millions and trillions of births. Now they have come to play with Kṛṣṇa."

Lecture on BG 1.31 -- London, July 24, 1973:

So Arjuna is considering with reference to his future, that "If I kill my kinsmen, what benefit there will be? I want victory, I want kingdom, to become happy, but if my all kinsmen are killed, then what is the value of my victory? With whom I shall enjoy?" He is thinking like that. Society... The same thing: society, friendship and love. Everyone wants to enjoy life with society, friends. Nobody wants to enjoy life alone. That is not possible. This is not natural. So wherefrom we got this idea, that I cannot enjoy alone? Just like generally a person is alone, but he gets a wife with a hope for enjoying family life, children, wife, friends. Gṛha-kṣetra, ataḥ gṛha-kṣetra-sutāpta-vittaiḥ. Gṛha means apartment, and kṣetra means land. Gṛha-kṣetra-suta. Suta means children. Ataḥ gṛha-kṣetra-suta āpta. Āpta means friends, society. Ataḥ gṛha-kṣetra-sutāpta-vittaiḥ. Āpta means friends, society, and to support all these things—gṛha, kṣetra, suta, āpta—there is required money, vitta. Vitta means money.

Lecture on BG 1.44 -- London, July 31, 1973:

They think, "Now, Kṛṣṇa is engaging Arjuna to fight. Oh, it is immoral. Why Kṛṣṇa should engage Arjuna in the fighting business?" So therefore... Or "Why Kṛṣṇa is engaged in dancing with the gopīs? They are wives and sister of other men. It is sinful." If we enjoy with others' wife or others' daughter or others' sister, who is not bona fide my wife, if I want to enjoy life, that illicit sex... Kṛṣṇa is not doing that. But artificially, those who have nonsense, they see that "Kṛṣṇa is dancing at dead of night with others' daughters and girls. Therefore He is immoral." But that means he does not know what is Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa can do anything. Tejīyasaṁ na doṣāya. Tejīyasaṁ na doṣāya (SB 10.33.29). Just like the sun is very powerful. As you see in this material world, a sun, a material thing, and it is very powerful, but the sun is soaking water, taking water from the sea as well as from filthy place. So he is also evaporating water from urine also. In filthy place, sewer ditches, he is evaporating water, as well as from the sea.

Lecture on BG 2.9 -- London, August 15, 1973:

The other day in Paris one press reporter came to me, the Socialist Press. So I informed him that "Our philosophy is that everything belongs to God." Kṛṣṇa says bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasāṁ sarva-loka-maheśvaram (BG 5.29). "I am the enjoyer, bhoktā." Bhoktā means enjoyer. So bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasāṁ. Just like this body is working. The whole body is working, everyone's, to enjoy life, but wherefrom the enjoyment begins? The enjoyment begins from the stomach. You have to give sufficient nice foodstuffs to the stomach. If there is sufficient energy, we can digest. If sufficient energy, then all other senses become strong. Then you can enjoy sense gratification. Otherwise it is not possible. If you cannot digest.... Just like we are now old man. We cannot digest. So there is no question of sense enjoyment. So sense enjoyment begins from the stomach. The luxuriant growth of the tree begins from the root, if there is sufficient water. Therefore the trees are called pada-pa. They drink water from the legs, the roots, not from the heads. Just like we eat from the head. So there are different arrangements.

Lecture on BG 2.12 -- New York, March 9, 1966:

Sun is one. That is also a Vedic system, that we are all reflection like that. So anyway, these many, many forms of God, is from the desire of God. Now, out of these... Because God has got some desire, transcendental desire, to enjoy with many. He enjoys with His own energy because He is all-perfect. Just like if I want to enjoy life, I want family, I want a wife, I want children, I want friends, I want servants. So I have to think before having a wife. You see? Because I am limited, so I think twice, whether I am able to keep a wife, then whether I am able to maintain my children. These things are consideration. And actually, in the present society every young man is thinking like that. You see? Whenever the question of marrying is there, they think like that. But that thinking is due to our imperfectness. Because we are not all-powerful, therefore we think like that. But when we give the qualification to God that He is all-powerful, omnipotent, so He can maintain any number of children or any number of wives. Otherwise, there is no meaning of omnipotent.

Lecture on BG 2.12 -- London, August 18, 1973:

This is the end of the body. We are taking so much care of this body, but the ultimate end of this body is either stool, earth or ashes. So foolish persons who are in the bodily concept of life, they are thinking: "After all, this body will be finished. So so long the body is there, senses are there, let us enjoy. Why so much restrictions, no illicit sex, no gambling? No. These are all nonsense. Let us enjoy life." This is atheistic life. Foolish life. They do not know, so the body is not all.

This is the first lesson to understand, what is spiritual life, what is spiritual knowledge. But all rascals, they do not know. Therefore Kṛṣṇa first of all slapped Arjuna: aśocyān anvaśocas tvaṁ prajñā-vādāṁś ca bhāṣase (BG 2.11). "You do not know what is the fact, and talking like a very learned man. Just try to understand what is truth." Na tv evāhaṁ jātu nāsam. First thing is that nāsam, we have no nāsam. We never die, that will be explained later on more clearly, we do not die. Nāsam. At any time. It is not that sometimes we die and sometimes... No. Any time, jātu. At any time.

Lecture on BG 2.13 -- New York, March 11, 1966:

They are called devatās, demigods, because their magnitude of pleasure is far, far greater than ours. But because they do everything in relation with the Supreme Lord, therefore they are called devatās, devatā. Devatā means demigods. And asura. Asura means just the opposite. They simply enjoy life for the matter of sense pleasure. That's all. So those who are interested in sense pleasure, they are called asuras, and those who are interested, unending spiritual pleasure, they are called devatās. Devatā and asura does not mean that asuras are very ugly and devatās are very beautiful. Even the ugly man can become a devatā, or even a beautiful man may become asura. That is due to his mentality. Because, after all, the soul is pure. When he is in unnatural condition of life, wants to enjoy simply the material senses, he becomes asura. So asura can be turned into devatā. There is no hindrance.

Lecture on BG 2.16 -- London, August 22, 1973:

So here we see big, big men, they sleep up to two o'clock. Early rising means two o'clock. That is also early, but not at day two o'clock. At night, two o'clock, if you rise, that is nice. But they are accustomed to get up, two o'clock. Because they think "The more we sleep, we enjoy life." Therefore, they are śūnyavādī. They want to become zero, sleeping always. Śūnyavādī. "Make everything zero." That is called śūnyavādī. No, that is not life. Śūnyavādī is not life. Activity is life. Kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ (CC Adi 17.31). Caitanya Mahāprabhu says: "Don't become zero, but be engaged always in chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra." That is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's cult. We are not going to be zero. We want to be very active, but active not for sense gratification but for Kṛṣṇa's service.

Now what is Kṛṣṇa's service? That we are teaching, how to worship Kṛṣṇa.

Lecture on BG 2.19 -- London, August 25, 1973:

This is the instruction of Ṛṣabhadeva to His sons. "My dear sons, don't be misled. These rascal fools, they have become mad after these things, meat-eating, intoxication and sex life." Na sādhu manye, "It is not good at all." Na sādhu manye. "I don't allow, I don't say it is very good. It is not at all good." Na sādhu manye. "Why it is not good? We are enjoying life." Yes, you are enjoying now, but yata ātmano 'yam asann api kleśada āsa dehaḥ (SB 5.5.4). So long you will continue with these things, you'll have to accept body, and when you accept body, there must be birth, there must be death, there must be disease, and there must be, what is called, old age. You'll suffer. You'll suffer. But your actual position is na jāyate. You do not take birth, but you have conditioned yourself to take birth. Actually, your position is no birth, eternal life. As Kṛṣṇa is eternal, similarly, every one of us we are eternal because we are part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa—the same quality.

Lecture on BG 2.21-22 -- London, August 26, 1973:

The father gives, "All right, take it." So all these bodies we are getting, although by the sanction of the Supreme Lord, but He is sanctioning with reluctance that "Why this rascal is wanting like this?" This is our position. Therefore, at last Kṛṣṇa says, sarva-dharmān parityajya, (BG 18.66) "Give up this rascaldom, 'I want this body, I want that body, I want to enjoy life in this way'—give up all this nonsense."

So here in the Vedic literatures we find that both the Lord and the living entity, they are situated in the heart. The living entity, jīva, is desiring, and the master is sanctioning, and the prakṛti or the material nature is giving the body. "Here is the body, ready, sir. Come here." Therefore the original cause of our entanglement or liberation is our desire. As we are desiring. If you want, if you desire to become free from this implication of birth, death, old age, and disease, it is ready. And if you want to continue this implication, change of body, vāsāṁsi jīrṇāni...

Lecture on BG 2.25 -- London, August 28, 1973:

Now so long I am not dying, let me enjoy. Ṛṇaṁ kṛtvā ghṛtaṁ pibet. Enjoyment means... According to our Indian system, their enjoyment is not meat-eating as in the Western countries. Their enjoyment is eating ghee more, become chubby, fatty. That is their enjoyment. So Cārvāka Muni recommended, "Now eat ghee and enjoy life." Kacuri, samosā, all made of ghee preparation. Then "I have no money, sir. Where shall I get ghee?" Ṛṇaṁ kṛtvā. "Beg, borrow, steal, get ghee." Somehow or other, black market, white market, any way. Bring money and ghee, that's all. Ṛṇaṁ kṛtvā ghṛtaṁ pibet. "Eat as much possible ghee." Ṛṇaṁ kṛtvā ghṛtaṁ pibet yāvād jīvet sukham. Jīvet. Sukhaṁ jīvet. "So long you live, live merrily, very nicely." That is the theory of all the European philosophers. Live merrily. But the philosopher at the end becomes paralyzed. His merriness is finished. Who is that philosopher has become paralyzed? So they make all these theories. Not only European philosophers, another philosopher in India, Dr. Radhakrishnan, he is now brain paralyzed.

Lecture on BG Lecture Excerpts 2.44-45, 2.58 -- New York, March 25, 1966:

The knowledge which you had in your previous lives is now forgotten. Therefore we are seeking eternal knowledge, but that eternity of knowledge is not possible with this temporary body. We have to understand that thing. Bhogaiśvarya. We are enjoying, we want to enjoy life, but the instrument of enjoyment is not proper. We are thinking of enjoying through this body. But bodily enjoyment is not my enjoyment. It is artificial. So if you want to stick up to this artificial enjoyment of life, then you cannot enjoy or you cannot be elevated to your real constitutional position of eternal enjoyment. Therefore Lord Kṛṣṇa says, bhogaiśvarya-prasaktānāṁ tayā apahṛta-cetasām. Apahṛta-cetasām, one whose mind and intelligence has been misled by this false enjoyment, false enjoyment, for him, the working on the pure consciousness platform, vyavasāyātmikā buddhiḥ, that "I am not this body"... We are talking of this, that "I am not this body. I am pure consciousness.

Lecture on BG Lecture Excerpts 2.44-45, 2.58 -- New York, March 25, 1966:

So we have to work in such a way that our bodily conception of life is completely rejected and we are situated in the engagement, occupation of pure consciousness. We are talking on this subject matter. So Lord Kṛṣṇa says, "Those who are captivated by this false enjoyment, bodily, bhoga..." Now, our bhoga enjoyment means through this body. But body is my diseased condition. As a diseased man cannot enjoy life... How it is possible? Take, for example, a man who is suffering from jaundice. It is practical. You can test practically. If a man... You find out a man who is suffering from jaundice. You give a piece of sugar candy and ask him to take. He will say, "It is bitter." He will say, "It is bitter." He won't taste its sweetness. Because his condition is diseased, therefore, he actually cannot enjoy the sweetness of sugar candy. But when he is cured, a man in healthy state, if you give him sugar candy, oh, he will say, he will appreciate, "Oh, it is very sweet, very nice." The same sugar candy, according to our condition of life, is tasted differently.

Lecture on BG 2.58-59 -- New York, April 27, 1966:

He was always ready to forgive him. Father is so kind to the son that he wants that "If my son comes back, I shall forgive all his misgiving, if he comes back just like a good boy." That is a natural instinct. You see? Similarly, whatever we have done, never mind. If we take the step that "From now we have got the opportunity of human life. Now this life... I have enjoyed material life in various lives, as cats and dogs and in so many lives, the āhāra-nidrā-bhaya-maithunaṁ ca, the same pleasure, eating, sleeping, and sexual intercourse and to take protection... So this is not the business of human life. The human life is just to understand my relationship with the Supreme and engage myself in that engagement." You see? That should be the mission of life. And as soon as we do it, all facilities are open and the little progress you make, you will find that you have no more attachment for material life and material enjoyment.

Lecture on BG 2.59-69 -- New York, April 29, 1966:

Viṣayāḥ means four things: āhāra, nidrā, bhaya, maithuna—eating, sleeping and defending and mating. These are called viṣayāḥ. The materialistic way of life means these four things: eating, sleeping, defending and mating—sense gratification. But if we want to go to the spiritual platform, then these bodily demands, at least for the present, we have to regulate. We cannot enjoy material life without any restriction and at the same time, we can stand on the spiritual platform. That is the whole thing. The difficult problem is that: we want to be spiritualists by speculation only. That is the whole tendency. People are much interested in philosophical speculation without any practical life. In the modern world it is said, yaśo 'rthe dharma-yajanam. This is the symptom of this age. Yaśaḥ arthe. I want to associate with some organization, spiritual, just for the sake of name: "Oh, I am attached to that, such big organization." But, so far my life is concerned, it is as it is.

Lecture on BG 3.8-13 -- New York, May 20, 1966:

Prāyeṇālpāyuṣaḥ sabhya kalāv asmin yuge janāḥ mandāḥ. And they are very lazy and slow. Slow and lazy means that they do not know that this life is meant for spiritual realization. So they are very lazy—"All right, spiritual realization we shall see later on. Let us enjoy life. That's all." So this is a great disqualification of the human being, that they are not wake up for spiritual realization, lazy, mandāḥ. And manda-bhāgyāḥ. Mandāḥ sumanda-matayaḥ.

And if somebody is at all interested for some spiritual enlightenment, then, unfortunately, mandāḥ sumanda-matayaḥ, they adopt some spiritual method which is not recognized. Spiritual realization with relationship with God is no spiritual realization. The whole spiritual realization means one must understand his relationship with the Supreme Lord. But generally in this age they want to avoid the conception of God, and at the same time, they want to be spiritually advanced.

Lecture on BG 3.13-16 -- New York, May 23, 1966:

So karma and karma-yoga, there is gulf of difference. Karma means ordinary work. I work whole day; I get some remuneration and enjoy for my sense gratification. That is called karma, in this life or that life or next life. Somebody, they make charities and other pious acts so that in their next life they get good parentage, good education, opulence, so that they can also enjoy life. There are others also who make more advanced karma to get himself promoted in other planetary system. Just like moon planet, or Svargaloka, heavenly planet. There are many planets in which the standard of life is far, far comfortable than here. So these are not required.

Lecture on BG 3.13-16 -- New York, May 23, 1966:

What is the purpose? We have to understand. Now you can take the example. What is the purpose of father's expanding himself into children? A father takes the responsibility of maintaining the children. Why? Why he takes such, I mean, a grave responsibility, a family man. That "why" is answered—just to have happy and enjoyable life. That's all.

Similarly, God has expanded into so many living entities because He wants enjoyment. He wants enjoyment. Because you will find in the Vedic literature that the nature of God is sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha (Bs. 5.1). Ānandamayo 'bhyāsāt: (Vedānta-sūtra 1.1.12)"By nature He is enjoying." So we must understand that God has expanded Himself into so many living entities just for His enjoyment. Now, we are meant for... Just like sons, children are meant for satisfying the father, similarly this is a common sense affair, that we living entities, we are meant for satisfying the Supreme. That satisfaction of the Supreme can be done by performance of yajña.

Lecture on BG 3.13-16 -- New York, May 23, 1966:

You will find it. The highest yogi is he who is only Kṛṣṇa conscious. Simply his life is full of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. He is always trying to satisfy Kṛṣṇa. That's all. And to satisfy Kṛṣṇa is the easiest thing. Is the easiest thing of all yogic process. You haven't got to show your gymnastic power. No. Simply prepare your good foodstuff, offer to Kṛṣṇa, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and enjoy life. Yoginām api sarveṣām. He is the best yogi. Best yogi. That is, You will find it. So begin it. What is the difficulty there?

So far the techniques are required, we are present. The books are there. The literature are there. The authorities are there. Simply we have to agree. "Yes." Yes man. Simply you have to agree, "Yes," henceforward we shall become karma-yogī. Then, from that very point, your life begins. Karma-yoga. The yes man. Mind that, that instead of saying no to Kṛṣṇa... Just like Arjuna said no in the beginning: "No, sir. I am not going to fight. You don't try to induce me, my dear Kṛṣṇa." He argued so many things with Kṛṣṇa. Then, at the last moment, he said, "Yes. I shall fight."

Lecture on BG 3.17-20 -- New York, May 27, 1966:

So it is now almost finished. But as soon as finished, we shall enjoy. Very good. You sit down." So by chanting, chanting, chanting, it became morning. Now, that prostitute became restless. "I am very sorry. Because I could not finish my chanting, therefore we could not enjoy life. All right. You come this evening, this night. We shall enjoy." So next also night she came in the same way and the same business, chanting. And he said, "Let me finish. Then I shall do."

Then in the three days, after three days the prostitute became wonderful and she fell down on his feet. "Sir, this is my intention. I was instructed by this man. So please excuse me and please save me from this nonsense business." Then Ṭhākura Haridāsa replied, "Yes, I could understand your intention and who has sent you. I knew everything. But because you have come to my shelter, I stayed here for three days just to convert you. Otherwise I would have gone the very same night from this place.

Lecture on BG 3.17-20 -- New York, May 27, 1966:

So you haven't got to give up your work, your duty. Go on doing your duty, but make your point that "My life's main business is self-realization." You give more importance to that point of life. Not to the point of, that "I shall earn more and enjoy life." No. That should be given up. That is called nonattachment. So if we go on working in non-attachment and culture our self-realization, then gradually we shall come to the perfectional point. Thank you very much. Now if there is any question... (end)

Lecture on BG 3.27 -- Melbourne, June 27, 1974:

You will find in this practical experience. Suppose a boy is very rich man's son. But still, he thinks "Why shall I live under the rules and regulations of my father? Let me go out. I shall enjoy life freely." Freely, what freedom? You are already rich man's son. You can enjoy the property of your very, very rich powerful father, and what independence you will enjoy? This is criminality. This is criminality. We are sons of God, part and parcels of God, and God means almighty. So we have got almighty father, and leaving His place, I have come to this material world to enjoy independently. That is criminality. And we are suffering. That is explained here: prakṛti-stha, "being placed in this material world," puruṣa, bhuṅkte prakṛti-jān guṇān, "he is enjoying, but enjoying the quality of the modes of material nature."

Lecture on BG 3.27 -- Melbourne, June 27, 1974:

So this is going on. Puruṣaḥ prakṛti-stho hi (BG 13.22). Puruṣa means... He is not enjoyer, but he is thinking enjoyer. He is not enjoyer. At any moment his so-called enjoyment will be finished.

Just like in the Western world they are thinking that "We are enjoying life." Of course, enjoying life in his consideration. But how long, sir, you will enjoy this life? You have got very nice car or very nice building and you are enjoying as Australian, as American. That's all right. But how long you shall remain American and Australian? That question does not come to the dull brain because he does not know that he is eternal. And this is temporary dress. I... Somehow or other, I wanted this, and prakṛti, nature, has given me. But nature has not given me the right to remain as American, Australian, Indian, no. That is not possible. You wanted; you enjoyed this life for a certain time, and then again you create your desire."

Lecture on BG 3.27 -- Melbourne, June 27, 1974:

So actually we are suffering, but we are accepting it as enjoying. This is called illusion. So whatever we are doing in certain type of body in this material world, that is suffering. That is not enjoying. Because why you are placed? Because I wanted to enjoy life like that. So puruṣa prakṛti-stho hi bhuṅkte prakṛti-jān guṇān (BG 13.22). And this profit is nothing but acceptance of the quality of material nature. And that is very practical. We can understand. Just like we are getting... I get, say, fifty-thousand dollars in a check. So I think that "I have got fifty thousand dollars." But what is this fifty thousand dollars? It is a piece of paper. You see? This is called illusion. In this way you study your life, you will see. If you are sober, if you are actually thoughtful, you will find that "This is not my life. This is not my life. But I am falsely thinking that I am enjoying life." Therefore frustration. Next stage is frustration. Everyone, we are frustrated because we are in this material world.

Lecture on BG 4.1 -- Montreal, August 24, 1968:

She was induced by some of Haridāsa's opponent's party and she came, very beautifully dressed, at night, and Haridāsa Ṭhākura said, "How you have come here?" "Oh, you are so nice, so beautiful, so young. So I have come to embrace you." Like that, whatever. "All right. Please sit down. I shall fulfill your desire. Let me finish my chanting. Then we shall enjoy life." (laughter) So he was chanting, the morning came. So the prostitute became disturbed. "It is now..." "All right. I could not finish my chanting. So come this night, I shall fulfill." In this way, second night, third night, when she came, she surrendered: "Sir, I came with this purpose. Please save me. This is my business." So Ṭhākura Haridāsa told, "Yes, I know that. But because you came to me, therefore I stayed for three days..., three days to purify you. Now I'm glad that you are purified. You sit down here, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. I am going from this place." (break) ...Viśvāmitra failed, but this bhakti-yogī, he conquered.

Lecture on BG 4.1 -- Delhi, November 10, 1971:

Prabhupāda: That is your question? Why He created you?

Devotee: And why he is suffering?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Suppose a father creates some children. So the purpose is that he wants to enjoy family life. This is the purpose of creation. But the father wants that each and every one of his children become nicely educated, obedient, but if the child, the boy is not nicely, properly taking the instruction of the father and spoils himself, and he is in suffering, so is that the fault of the father or the child? Whose fault it is?

Guest (3): If he reads everything, if he is...

Prabhupāda: Yes father gave, directs everything, but if the child does not want to follow the father's instruction, and he suffers, then whose fault it is? The child's fault or the father's fault?

Lecture on BG 4.1 -- Delhi, November 10, 1971:

So similarly, when he finds that he is suffering on account of his being disobedient to the father, and he rectifies himself, he becomes happy. So you, first of all try to understand why you are suffering, and in human form of life you can rectify, why you are suffering. And then you become again happy. God has not made you unhappy. You became disobedient. You wanted to enjoy life in a certain way. God has given you the chance, all right, you do it. But you are not happy. Huh? God does not want you to become happy, therefore He comes, He instructs you again and again. But you do not hear. You neglect the instruction of God. There are your suffering. You come to your consciousness, become obedient to God, you will be happy. That is our propaganda, Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Lecture on BG 4.3-6 -- New York, July 18, 1966:

The sons may forget the father, but the father cannot forget. So Kṛṣṇa comes here out of His love for us to deliver us, to give us the right path. Sarva-dharmān parityajya: (BG 18.66) "My dear sons, why you are rotting in this miserable world? You come to Me. I'll give you all protection. You are the son of the Supreme. So you can enjoy life very supremely, very magnificently, without any death. Why you are rotting?" That is Kṛṣṇa's mercy. Ajo 'pi sann avyayātmā bhūtānām īśvaro 'pi san. Don't think that Kṛṣṇa comes just like we are come here, being obliged, prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni (BG 3.27), forced by the laws of nature according to our karma. He does not come like that. That is the difference between Kṛṣṇa and myself.

Lecture on BG 4.7 -- Bombay, March 27, 1974:

So when Kṛṣṇa says, yadā yadā hi dharmasya glānir bhavati... (BG 4.7). When people become averse to God or Kṛṣṇa, they become Godless, they think themselves as God or something like that, that is dharmasya glāniḥ. So naturally, here in this material world, every one of us, we have come to enjoy. Material life means enjoyment. Enjoyment is not real enjoyment. Real enjoyment is spiritual enjoyment. Spiritual enjoyment, that is with Kṛṣṇa. That is not in the material world. So the dharmasya glāniḥ means when there is discrepancy in the understanding of spiritual identity, that is dharmasya glāniḥ.

Then ahaṁ brahmāsmi. This is spiritual understanding. When one understands that "I am not this body, I am spirit soul," and when he begins... Devotional service begins there. That will be explained in the Bhagavad-gītā. Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā (BG 18.54). Because we are in darkness, we are not prasannātmā.

Lecture on BG 4.9-11 -- New York, July 25, 1966:

Those who are focusing all their concentration on the Supreme Personality of Godhead Kṛṣṇa. So these three are classes of... They are all transcendentalists.

They are not materialists. Materialists, they are concerned with this matter only. They are very much attached to lord it over this material nature and enjoy life. That's all. That is the short description of the materialist. But the transcendentalists, they are above these attached people. They are detached, but they have got three conception of transcendental idea.

Lecture on BG 4.10 -- Vrndavana, August 2, 1974:

In this way Kṛṣṇa is always enjoying. He has no other business than enjoyment. Ānandamayo 'bhyāsāt (Vedānta-sūtra 1.1.12). He's by nature simply enjoying. Enjoying. That is Kṛṣṇa.

So we are also Kṛṣṇa's part and parcel. Therefore in minute quantity we have got the same propensities, how to enjoy life. This is... Because we are Kṛṣṇa's part and parcel. The same... Just like the drop of sea water has the same chemical composition. Analyze. The same percentage of salt, proportionately. Just like two upon fifty, proportion, what is called, ratio. The ratio is the same, only in small quantity. Otherwise the percentage is the same. Only in small quantity.

So we are ānandamaya. Our nature is to remain always jubilant in pleasure. But because we are in this material contact, we are not jubilant. This is our problem. That Kṛṣṇa is suggesting here, how to solve your problem. He says, vīta-rāga. "Give up this attachment, sense attachment." Rāga. Rāga means attachment. Vīta-rāga-bhaya.

Lecture on BG 4.10 -- Calcutta, September 23, 1974:

This is a simple poetry given by a Vaiṣṇava. As soon as we want to enjoy life independently, immediately māyā captures. So this is simple presentation.

From śāstra it is understood that Kṛṣṇa, who is sitting within your heart, He knows what you are willing. You cannot conceal anything from Kṛṣṇa. Anumantā upadraṣṭā. The Paramātmā is described as upadraṣṭā, seeing everything. So because we have come to this material world for sense enjoyment, Kṛṣṇa is giving us chance. "All right." Sarvasya cāhaṁ hṛdi sanniviṣṭo mattaḥ smṛtir jñānam apohanaṁ ca (BG 15.15). Kṛṣṇa says, "I am sitting in everyone's heart." And because the living entity wanted to do something for his sense enjoyment, He gives the chance, "All right, here is the chance. You can do it." But actually, Kṛṣṇa does not want it. But we want it. We want it. Just like a father says, "My dear boy, you do not do this. You do this." But the son insists, "No, I'll do this." So therefore father also says, "All right, do it at your risk."

Lecture on BG 4.11 -- New York, July 27, 1966:

Of course, in India we have got many sages. They are living in the jungle, aloof from human society, without any fear, without any caring the animal or for life or fooding. How? Because he is seeing always Kṛṣṇa there, so he has no fear. He has no fear. He is enjoying life there. There are many instances.

In our line one Rūpa Gosvāmī... Rūpa Gosvāmī, he was the prime minister of the then government. Five hundred years before, India was under the Pathan rule, Bengal, and there was a king whose name was Nawab Hussain Shah. Nawab Hussain Shah's prime minister was Sakara Mallika. That Sakara Mallika later on became a great devotee of Lord Caitanya and his name was transformed into Rūpa Gosvāmī. So they were coming from very aristocratic family, but they gave up everything and lived at Vṛndāvana, eating only dry bread and whatever nonsense they...

Lecture on BG 4.11 -- Geneva, June 1, 1974:

So risk of impersonal realization is that because in the impersonal feature you cannot enjoy that blissfulness eternally, therefore sometimes—not sometimes, mostly—they come back again into the material world. Because by nature we are jubilant, in the impersonal feature of brahma-jyotir, we cannot enjoy life. Therefore again we come back to this material enjoyment. Just like by an airplane, you want to go higher and higher, but if you don't get the shelter, a shelter in another planet, you will have to come back again to this planet. It is stated in the Vedic literature... (baby starts crying very loudly and Prabhupāda stops speaking for a few moments)

Āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ patanty adhaḥ anādṛta-yuṣmad-aṅghrayaḥ: (SB 10.2.32) "Unless you become elevated to the position of serving the Supreme Personality of Godhead face to face, simply by impersonal Brahman realization you cannot become happy. Therefore for enjoyment..."

Lecture on BG 4.12 -- Vrndavana, August 4, 1974:

Education, departmental knowledge. Try to glorify the Supreme Lord. Then it is perfect.

And if you spoil it or simply sense gratification, the Bhāgavata, Ṛṣabhadeva says, na sādhu manye: "Oh, this is not good. This is not good." "Why it is not good? I am enjoying life. Why it is not good?" No, he says, na sādhu manye yata ātmanaḥ ayam asann api kleśada āsa dehaḥ: (SB 5.5.4) "If you be engaged in these fruitive activities to enjoy this material world, then you'll have to accept another material body." Karmaṇāṁ siddhim. Another material body. And if you accept another material body, then you'll have to accept again death, again old age, again disease. So what is the benefit? That is not benefit.

Therefore Bhāgavatam says that even if you have got desire to enjoy this material world, still, you take shelter of Kṛṣṇa.

Lecture on BG 4.13 -- Johannesburg, October 19, 1975:

If this question does not arise, then we are as good as cats and dogs. That's all. The cats and dogs never inquire. Cat will never inquire that "Why I am starving? Why I am dying? Why everybody chases me? I have to go out." The dog also. So if in the human form of life we remain blind without seeing the problems of life and still we say we are very much joyful, enjoying life, where is your enjoyment? There is no enjoyment.

We are foolishly thinking that enjoying life. That enjoyment, life, means a little sex enjoyment. That's all. That is also very abominable, yan maithunādi-gṛhamedhi-sukhaṁ hi tuccham (SB 7.9.45), very abominable happiness. We don't want to discuss that. But the effect of sense enjoyment is suffering. Tṛpyanti neha kṛpaṇā bahu-duḥkha-bhājaḥ. Illicit sex or legal sex, it is followed by so many miserable conditions. That, everyone, we can understand. Simply we have to become sober. Then we'll understand this material existence is not at all good, not at all.

Lecture on BG 4.13-14 -- New York, August 1, 1966:

And He says, na me karma-phale spṛhā, "I have no desire for any fruitive activities."

Just like we want to do something. Suppose I want to do some business. And what is the idea? Because I want to make some profit out of the business, and if there is sufficient profit, I shall be gainer, I shall be rich man, I shall be able to enjoy life and so on, so on, so many things, I have got background. So I have my desires whenever I do something. We conditioned souls, whenever we do something, there is some desire behind it. And what is that desire? For enjoyment. That's all.

But Kṛṣṇa says, na me karma-phale spṛhā. Because He has nothing to desire. He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He is full with everything. Now, sometimes Kṛṣṇa is misunderstood that Kṛṣṇa, in His boyhood, He had so many girlfriends. Perhaps you may know, who has written, gone through Kṛṣṇa's life. Or in His youthhood, He married sixteen thousand wives.

Lecture on BG 4.13-14 -- New York, August 1, 1966:

So the Śukadeva Gosvāmī describes that attitude: itthaṁ satāṁ brahma-sukhānubhūtyā dāsyaṁ gatānāṁ para-daivatena (SB 10.12.11). The purport is that, that "Here is a thing, these boys, these boys who are playing with Kṛṣṇa, that for many, many lives they undergone penances to have Kṛṣṇa as their playmate. Now they are enjoying life." So the playmates of Kṛṣṇa, they are not ordinary persons. They underwent many, many births' tapasya, or penances. Just like one has to seek the favor of the Supreme Lord by penances, by tapasya, so they desired like that, and Kṛṣṇa has accepted, "All right. Come on. Let us play." And what is that play? Kṛṣṇa is playing with the boys just like boys play. They say, sometimes make some one body's defeated. So when the, he became, he has to carry the other boy on his shoulder, so many manufactured playing things.

Lecture on BG 4.37-40 -- New York, August 21, 1966:

Now, jñānāgniḥ, knowledge, fire of knowledge. That fire of knowledge does not burn in our mind. You see? Therefore we accept this miserable life as happiness because there is want of that knowledge. Just like a dog or a hog cannot understand what sort of miserable life he's passing on. He thinks that "I am all right. I am enjoying life very nicely." That is the... That is called covering influence of material energy. A person who is suffering...

Just like you'll find in the Bowery Street there are so many drunkards lying on the street. Oh, they're also thinking, "Oh, we are enjoying life, enjoying life." But others, who are passing on cars, they are taking sympathy on him, "Oh, how miserably they are living." But that is the way of covering, covering influence of material nature. I am in miserable life, but I accept it, "Oh, I am very happy. I am very happy." This is called ignorance.

Lecture on BG 6.4-12 -- New York, September 4, 1966:

One should have not only theoretical knowledge, but practical knowledge. Practical knowledge. Simply understanding that "I am not this body, I am not body," then I am doing all nonsense of this body. I am discussing... There are so many societies. They are very seriously discussing Vedānta philosophy and smoking, with wine glass, and very enjoying life. You see. So that sort of jñāna, that sort of knowledge, is not necessary. You see? So jñāna-vijñāna. One should have knowledge perfectly, and it must be demonstrated. Demonstrated in practical field. Yes. But that means one who has actually felt himself that "I am not this body," then naturally his bodily necessities will be reduced to the minimum. Will be reduced to the minimum. That is practical. If I am going to increase the demands of my body and I am simply theoretically thinking that "I am not this body," oh, that is not required. Jñāna-vijñāna-tṛptātmā.

Lecture on BG 6.11-21 -- New York, September 7, 1966:

Kṛṣṇa is also pleasure. Rāma is also pleasure. Because we are all hunting after pleasure. But we do not know where to find out the pleasure. The pleasure is in spiritual life. That is real pleasure. We haven't got to sacrifice pleasure, but we have to enjoy it properly. Just like diseased man, he cannot enjoy life. His enjoyment of life is a false enjoyment. When he's cured, when he's in healthy life, then his enjoyment is bona fide. Similarly, so long we are in the material conception of life, we do not expect that we are enjoying. We are simply entangling. That means diseased man, if he enjoys, if he takes nice food. He cannot eat, but if he likes and takes stealthily, without the information of the medical physician, then he prolongs his diseases. That's all. He is killing himself, the process. Similarly, the more we increase our material enjoyment we are more making ourself entangled in this material world, without being freed from these material clutches.

Lecture on BG 6.16-24 -- Los Angeles, February 17, 1969:

Eating, sleeping, mating and defending. The defect is that modern civilization that they are thinking that this eating process, sleeping process if we can increase, that is very nice. If we can sleep the whole day and night on Saturday and Sunday, oh it is great profit, enjoyment. That is the civilization. They think it is an opportunity to enjoy life by sleeping thirty hours a day. You see? No. Don't do that. Reduce it. Try to reduce it but not artificially. Go on.

Lecture on BG 6.21-27 -- New York, September 9, 1966:

He is happy. He is thinking that "I am happy." Next moment it will be slaughtered, but he does not know. So these are all different grades of happiness. But the highest standard of happiness is described here, sukham ātyantikaṁ yat tad buddhi-grāhyam atīndriyam (BG 6.21). Buddhi-grāhyam atīndriyam. Buddhi means intelligence. One has to be intelligent. If you want to enjoy life, then you must be intelligent also. Just like the animals, they are not intelligent enough. Therefore they cannot enjoy life as a human being can, standard. So here, in the Bhagavad-gītā also, it is said that buddhi-grāhyam atīndriyam.

Atīndriyam. Now, just take the example of a dead man. The senses, the hands, the nose, the sense organs, and everything is there, but now he cannot enjoy. The dead body, it cannot enjoy. Why? This requires intelligence. Why the dead body cannot enjoy? What is the difference? The body is lying there. The hands and the nose and the legs and the eyes and all other sense organs are there.

Lecture on BG 6.40-42 -- New York, September 16, 1966:

By such calculation of one day you live there for ten thousand years. Ten thousand years. That one day our six months. Now imagine. Similarly Brahmā, other higher planetary... Brahmā's life. That is also described.

So Kṛṣṇa said that these transcendentally advanced persons, they're transferred to the higher planetary system and live there for many, many years to enjoy life there. Then again they are transferred again here. This is called karma-kṣetra. And one may ask question that when he's transferred again to this planet what does he become? Does he become any animal? Or man? No. He still becomes a man. And what sort of man? Śucīnāṁ śrīmatāṁ gehe yoga-bhraṣṭo 'bhijāyate. Śucīnām means very pious family, righteous family. Just like in India we have got the brāhmaṇa family, kṣatriya family. High family. Very... Their mode of life is very high standard, clean and righteous, pious, so many things. So śucīnām and śrīmatām. Śucīnām, such pious family you'll find many in India. And śrīmatām. Śrīmatām means rich.

Lecture on BG 7.1 -- Upsala University Stockholm, September 8, 1973:

Everyone, either he's doing business or he's a professional man or he's a worker or anything he is, he's working very hard, day and night, to enjoy something. So... But we cannot claim that we can enjoy everything in this world. Although we have got the desire, but limited power to enjoy. The unlimited enjoyer is Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Just like we want to enjoy life, family life. We marry one wife. Or, in some countries, more than one wife—two, three, four. But when Kṛṣṇa married, He married 16,108. So... And sixteen thousand wives were given sixteen thousand palaces. And each wife got ten children. And Kṛṣṇa also expanded Himself into 16,108. That is God. For us, it is very difficult to maintain even one wife at the present moment. This is the difference. Just try to understand what is the meaning of this word bhagavān. Bhaga means opulence. This is one of the opulences, richness.

Lecture on BG 7.1 -- Hyderabad, April 27, 1974:

So that natural instinct, spiritual natural instinct, can be attained by tapasya. Tapo divyam (SB 5.5.1). That is the instruction of Ṛṣabhadeva. Now, people may say that "Why we should undergo this tapasya, austerities? If we want to enjoy life, why we shall voluntarily give up this and undergo austerities?" No, there is reason. Tapo divyaṁ yena śuddhyet sattvaṁ yasmād brahma-saukhyaṁ tv anantam (SB 5.5.1). It is very reasonable. You have to undergo tapasya, voluntarily restraint. That is called tapasya. So why? Yena śuddhyet sattvam. Your existence will be purified. "What is the wrong in my existence?" That we cannot understand; that is called illusion. There are so many wrong things. Always we are in miserable condition. The summary miserable condition is, as described in the Bhagavad-gītā, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9).

Lecture on BG 7.1-3 -- London, August 4, 1971:

Bīja means seed. As from the seed a big tree come out, similarly, if one is injected with this Kṛṣṇa consciousness understanding, then, gradually, it will grow into a big tree. And when the fruits will be there, he'll enjoy life.

So although this Kṛṣṇa consciousness, God consciousness, yoga system is very easy, still, Kṛṣṇa says that

manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu
kaścid yatati siddhaye
yatatām api siddhānām...
(BG 7.3)

Not only perfect... Perfection of human consciousness is there when one understands that "I am not this body. I am spirit soul." Ahaṁ brahmāsmi. That is perfection. But if you study scrutinizingly so many men, every one is bodily conscious. In Moscow I was speaking with a great professor, Kotovsky. He's in charge of Indology department of the government. He said... Although I defeated him in argument, he said that "After finishing this body, everything is finished."

Lecture on BG 7.1-3 -- London, August 4, 1971:

Doesn't require to become very highly, scientist, philosopher and something like that. Simply accept Kṛṣṇa's words and see the result. And the result is happening also. Those who are accepting Kṛṣṇa in that way and trying their best to please Kṛṣṇa with this human form of life, how much they are happy, how they are enjoying life.

So this is practical. So our request is that everyone should try to understand the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement and be happy. Thank you very much. (break) Yes. Yes. What is that?

Lecture on BG 7.1-3 -- Paris, June 13, 1974:

All the yogis, the jñāna-yogī, they remain in the impersonal feature of the Absolute Truth. The dhyāna-yogī is practicing the localized aspect, but the bhakti-yogī, he is promoted directly in the planet which is called Goloka Vṛndāvana, and there he associates with the Supreme Personality of Godhead and enjoys life blissfully, eternally.

So there are different planetary systems within this material world. Just like we are situated, it is called Bhūrloka. Above this, there is Bhuvarloka. Above that, there is Svarloka, there is Janaloka, there is Maharloka, Satyaloka. In this way, there are seven steps of planetary systems up, and similarly, seven planetary systems down. So by jñāna-yoga, by bhakti-yoga, dhyāna-yoga, means mystic yoga system, we can be promoted to the higher system, but if you practice the bhakti-yoga, then you go to the transcendental world directly and associate with the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Lecture on BG 7.3 -- Vrndavana, October 31, 1973:

Just like our parts and parcel of the body, the finger, the leg, the toes, the eyes and ears, they cannot enjoy separately. When the enjoyable things or the foodstuff is given to the stomach, every part enjoys. Similarly, we being part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa, we can enjoy life in cooperation with Kṛṣṇa, not separately.

So this is the actual siddhi to understand, that "I am eternally part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. I can enjoy eternally blissful life in knowledge with cooperation or in the association of Kṛṣṇa and His devotees." That is real life. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, yatatām api siddhānām (BG 7.3). Some of them are thinking that by merging into the existence of the Supreme, that is siddhi. That is not siddhi. That is partial siddhi, and it will not exist. That is explained in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ patanty adhaḥ anādṛta-yuṣmad-aṅghrayaḥ (SB 10.2.32).

Lecture on BG 7.3 -- Bombay, February 18, 1974:

"Out of many millions of human beings," kaścid yatati siddhaye. Siddhaye. Siddhaye means to get the spiritual power, or spiritual rejuvenation. That is called siddhi.

Bhukti-mukti-siddhi. There are three kinds of activities going on in the human society. Some people are karmīs. They enjoy life, or they want to enjoy life by working hard. Enjoyment means āhāra-nidrā-bhaya-maithunam. To eat very nicely and to sleep very nicely, to enjoy sex life very nicely and to make defense force, this is called enjoyment, material enjoyment. If I am secure by defense force and if I have got good bank balance, if I have got a very nice, beautiful wife and if I eat sumptuously to the satisfaction of my tongue, I think I am very much successful. But that is not success. Success is different thing. This is called bhukti, material enjoyment.

Lecture on BG 7.6 -- Hyderabad, December 11, 1976:

Every one of us, we are living being. But according to our karma we have got different bodies. Just like we have got different dresses. We are all human being, but we have got different dresses. Similarly, sarvāṇi bhūtāni, all living entities, they are all Kṛṣṇa's part and parcel, but they have refused to cooperate with Kṛṣṇa. They wanted to enjoy material life independently.

Therefore different forms of bodies are there, but Kṛṣṇa is the cause. Kṛṣṇa... Just like father. Father is the cause of the sons, but the sons may be different. Not exactly all the sons are on the equal pattern. Similarly, we are originally all part and parcel or sons of God. Therefore God's qualities are there in us, very minute quantity, because we are very small. So the quality is there. Just like drop of water from the ocean. The taste is there. The taste of the ocean, salty, is there in the drop of ocean water. There is no difference. Only the difference is quantity... In quality they one one.

Lecture on BG 7.11-16 -- New York, October 7, 1966:

"Why you are suffering in this way? You have got your father's riches. You go home and enjoy your father's property. Your father is very much anxious to have you. Why you are rotting in this condition?" And if he comes to his senses that "Oh, I have suffered so much. Now I shall go back to my father and enjoy life..."

This is our condition. We are under threefold miseries here in this material world. Always we are suffering by these threefold miseries: adhyātmika, adhibhautika, and adhidaivika, threefold miseries. Some miseries are pertaining to this body and mind. Just like one of our students—all of a sudden, he has got some aches and he has to undergo surgical operation. So this is going on. Something misery are due to the body, something miserable due to the mind, something miserable due to the nature. All of a sudden, it becomes very cold. All of a sudden, it becomes very hot, warm. Nature. All of a sudden, there is great snowfall. All of sudden, there is earthquake.

Lecture on BG 7.18 -- New York, October 12, 1966:

That's all. That is... Well, for keeping your health, why do you take the shelter of yoga? Oh, you can keep your by ordinary exercise, by regulated diet and by following some health rules. There is no need of practicing yoga. But people are... Because kāmais tais tair hṛta-jñānāḥ (BG 7.20). That material desires, "I want to keep myself fit to enjoy life. Oh, let me take this yoga," or "Let me go to the church," "Let me have a swami as my spiritual master, order-supplier." So these things are going on all over the world.

So such class of men, they worship different kinds of gods with a desire, with a material desire. They have no idea how to get out of this matter. They want to use this material world to the best capacity. That is their idea. Just like in..., in the Vedic literature there are different recommendations. "Oh, if you want to cure your disease, then you worship sun." So that is fact. Suppose if you are diseased, you simply keep yourself in the sunshine. You'll be cured. You'll be cured. That's a fact.

Lecture on BG 9.1 -- Vrndavana, April 17, 1975:

Others, they are envious, Karmī, jñānī, yogi.

The karmīs will say that "You work hard, and get the result and enjoy. Why you are going to the temple to pray?" This is the philosophy of the Communists. "Why should you go to the church? Why should you go to the temple? Forget all these things. Work hard, earn money and enjoy life." But that is demonic. Because there is envy against God, they are demons. So the science of God or science of Kṛṣṇa, kṛṣṇa-tattva, is never disclosed or revealed amongst the nondevotees demons. It can be revealed, it can be understood by a person like Arjuna. Therefore it is said anasūyave, jñānaṁ te 'haṁ pravakṣyāmi. Anasūyave, this very word. We should never be envious to Kṛṣṇa and his devotee. If you think that "I will become... I am envious to the devotees, but I am not envious to Kṛṣṇa," no, no, Kṛṣṇa does not accept that kind of business. You... First of all, you should be nonenvious to the devotee. Mad-bhaktaḥ pūjyābhyadhikaḥ. "If you are envious to My devotee and if you become a devotee, that is not."

Lecture on BG 9.2 -- Calcutta, March 8, 1972:

And according to the dharma, one who is acting, that is called dharma karma. That is dharma-karma. Not that doing anything becomes karma. Karma means just doing. The Vedas are so arranged that we have come here to enjoy material things. So therefore there is prescribed duties. The prescribed duty is that you act, you enjoy life. For example, just like in the Vedas there, everything is there. The propensity of sense enjoyment is sex life, eating meat and drinking. This is the propensity. Material life, these are the propensities. Loke vyavāyāmiṣa-madya-sevā nityā hi jantor na hi tatra codanā. Everyone has got natural, natural instinct for sex life, for meat-eating and for drinking. This is natural instinct. But they are restrained. They are co-ordinated by the Vedic injunctions: "Yes, you'll have sex life, but you get yourself married." So there are so many paraphernalia for marry. The subject matter is sex life, everyone knows. Therefore in Western countries they say "legalized prostitution." But actually it is not prostitution. It is regulating their sex life.

Lecture on BG 9.2 -- Melbourne, April 20, 1976:

We are simply busy in taking care of the body. So this is not very good condition. This is material condition. And it is very risky if we simply... Simply to take care of the body means creating different desires. "I shall be happy in this way. I shall be happy in this way." So nature's mercy is that as soon as you think that you will enjoy life like this, she will give you good opportunity. That means changing a body wherein you can enjoy the material facilities very easily.

I have several times given example. There are different types of bodies: animals, birds, beasts, demigods, human being, many varieties of life, 8,400,000, higher life, lower life. So those who are associating with the base qualities of material nature, they get lower life. That is natural. Just like you contaminate a kind of disease. It will become manifest in due course of time. So this is going on. But if we understand this knowledge as Kṛṣṇa is speaking, rāja-vidyā rāja-guhyaṁ pavitram idam uttamam, then pratyakṣāvagamaṁ dharmyam. Dharma.

Lecture on BG 9.20-22 -- New York, December 6, 1966:

So those who are so materially attached, their business is that they qualify themselves to be promoted in higher planets, undoubtedly. And there... Te taṁ bhuktvā svarga-lokaṁ viśālam. And they enjoy life for a very, very long duration of life and godly facilities. That's all right. But kṣīṇe puṇye martya-lokaṁ viśanti (BG 9.21). Then, when their pious, I mean to say, asset of pious activities finished, then they are again driven out from that planet; they come to here, this material, I mean say, earthly planet. And again they try here. Again they try here by sacrifices, by other means, to go there. So Lord Kṛṣṇa says these materialists, they, gatāgataṁ kāma-kāmā labhante, sometimes up, sometimes down. This is going on, sometimes up, sometimes down. Just like... What is called, that wheel? Sometimes go up, the boys enjoy in this way. What is the name of that wheel?

Lecture on BG 13.1-2 -- Bombay, December 29, 1972:

This is called māyā. We should understand that we are not this body. We are not this body. Our bodily enjoyment, sense gratification, that is illusion. In another place in the Bhagavad-gītā you'll find, it is said: sukham ātyantikaṁ yat tat atīndriyaṁ grāhyam. Find out that verse. Sukham ātyantikaṁ yat tad atīndriyaṁ grāhyam. We are trying to enjoy life with these material senses, but that is illusion, that is temporary. Temporary and illusion. Real enjoyment is with our spiritual senses. What is it...? Have you got?

Lecture on BG 13.1-2 -- Bombay, September 24, 1973:

So people, they want to enjoy life within this material world, but actually there is no enjoyment in the material world. Because, Kṛṣṇa says, there is birth, there is death, there is old age, and there is disease. So where is your happiness? After all, you have to die. Suppose I make very good arrangement, very nice house, very nice bank balance, very nice wife, children, everything, but death can come at any moment. Then where is your perfection? If after so much hard labor everything is ready for enjoyment, but I am called by Yamarāja... Mṛtyuḥ sarva-haraś cāham (BG 10.34). Death takes away everything. Therefore you cannot say the arrangement you made for happy life is perfect. That is not perfect. But foolish people, they do not know what is perfection. They simply want superficial, temporary happiness, never mind what will happen next life or few years after.

Lecture on BG 13.5 -- Paris, August 13, 1973:

People are trying to do that, that... When a man get some money, bank balance, he no more works. But that is the tendency, that "Without working, I shall maintain myself happily." That is our tendency. Ānanda-mayo 'bhyāsāt. Vedānta-sūtra says. Because our tendency is to enjoy life, but we do not know where to enjoy, how to enjoy. And that is called illusion. We are trying to enjoy life in this material world, where there is no enjoyment. There is no enjoyment. Repeatedly śāstra says. Kṛṣṇa says, duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam: (BG 8.15) "This place is simply for miserable condition of life." Duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam: (BG 8.15) "And still, it is temporary."

Even if you think, "All right, there are so many miserable conditions. Never mind. Let me adjust and live here permanently," oh, no, that will also not be allowed. Temporary. You may decorate your Paris city. Napoleon tried and other tried. But you cannot live here, sir. You have to go out. But these rascals, they do not understand.

Lecture on BG 13.21 -- Bombay, October 15, 1973:

Nānā joni sadā phire. We are wandering in different species of life. There are cockroaches in the commode. They are also thinking, "I am enjoying." A tree is standing for seven thousands of years, and he's also thinking, "I am enjoying life." So this is going on.

And we are not very much serious about this thing, that "I am part and parcel of God, sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ (Bs. 5.1). My, I am... Na jāyate na mriyate. "My position is that I never take my birth and never die." Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). "I do not die even after the destruction of this body." These things are my privileges, but I do not wish to take care of them. This is called māyā. We are satisfied in this abominable condition of life by a body given by the nature. We suffer or enjoy... No enjoyment.

Lecture on BG 1322 -- Hyderabad, August 17, 1976:

We are thinking that after annihilation of this body everything is finished. No, that is not the fact. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ. If a young man thinks that "I have got now this body for enjoyment. I am young man. I shall not become an old man." That is not the fact. Young man has to become old man. That is prakṛti-jān guṇān. cannot say that "I shall remain young man forever and enjoy life." That is not possible. Similarly you have to change your body. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ. Unfortunately there is no discussion, there is no education, there is no institute for this important factors of life and people are kept in darkness. This is Kali-yuga. They do not care to know neither there is arrangement in the educational institution to know this fact although the fact is there it is explained by Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa personally explaining tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ. Antavanta ime dehā nityasyoktāḥ śarīriṇaḥ (BG 2.18).

Lecture on BG 16.2-7 -- Bombay, April 8, 1971:

Just like these boys and girls have become liberated from all bad habits. Daivī sampad vimokṣāya. Daivī sampad vimokṣāya nibandhāyāsurī matā. And if you develop demonic qualities, then you become more and more entangled in this material existence. It is very risky. We are thinking that "Let me enjoy this life to my best capacity," as the atheist class of people think, but they do not know how much risk they are taking. If I develop my characteristics like cats and dogs, then my next life is becoming bound up in the body of cats and dogs. But they do not know the science. How the transmigration of the soul is evolving in 8,400,000 species of life, the modern science they do not know. They do not know, but there is, there is law.

Lecture on BG 16.6 -- South Africa, October 18, 1975:

We want to stay here and enjoy. This is material life. Everyone who is attracted to the material world, they are sinful or fallen. Kṛṣṇa-bahirmukha hañā bhoga vāñchā kare. The, our material life begins... We are spirit soul. When our material life...? When we try to deny, try to not serve Kṛṣṇa but independently we want to enjoy life, that is called material life. Independently we want to enjoy without Kṛṣṇa, without God. That is called material life. So such persons are called demons.

So the symptoms of demon... Kṛṣṇa says, daivo vistaraśaḥ proktaḥ: "I have already spoken elaborately about the persons who are daiva, who are on the platform of demigods. Now..." Prokta āsuraṁ pārtha me śṛṇu: "Now I am describing who are the asuras. Just try to understand."

Lecture on BG 18.67-69 -- Ahmedabad, December 9, 1972:

To become bhakta, devotee. Bahūnāṁ janmanām ante jñānavān māṁ prapadyate (BG 7.19). One who has actually undergone austerities, penances, then the result will be that he will surrender to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. That is bhakta. So after tapasya, one becomes bhakta. And as soon as one becomes bhakta, he enjoys life. He enjoys life. Natural stage. That is mukti. Hitvā anyathā-rūpam. Muktir hitvā anyathā-rūpam. Anyathā-rūpam means defying the authority of God. That is anyathā-rūpam. Because we are a part and parcel of God, therefore our business is to abide by the orders of God. But as soon as we defy God, that is anyathā-rūpam. So mukti means hitvā anyathā-rūpam. That is mukti. Mukti means hitvā anyathā-rūpam, giving up this nonsense practice, defying God. Anyathā-rūpam. Sva-rūpeṇa vyavasthitiḥ, to be situated in his own constitutional position. What is the constitutional position? The constitutional position is to serve. Just like part and parcel of my body, this finger, is to serve the body. This is constitutional position.

Page Title:Enjoy life (Lectures, BG)
Compiler:Visnu Murti, RupaManjari
Created:25 of Jun, 2012
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=67, Con=0, Let=0
No. of Quotes:67