Fantasy (Lectures)

Expressions researched:
"fancied" |"fancies" |"fanciful" |"fancy" |"fancying" |"fantasies" |"fantastic" |"fantastical" |"fantastically" |"fantastics" |"fantasy"

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

A fantasy, a dream you're chasing. You're only putting your logic to it. Maybe it doesn't exist." How can one get over this doubt?

Lecture on BG 9.4 -- Melbourne, April 22, 1976:

Guest (2): What can you do to still two voices inside yourself? One voice tells me that the mystics' view on the world is correct and it has its own logic and it's consistent. And this, when I'm in a meditative mood I can comprehend. But when I walk in the daylight and the illusions are around one, then the other voice talks and says, my so-called logical voice, my daily, logical voice, says, "That a fantasy, a dream you're chasing. You're only putting your logic to it. Maybe it doesn't exist." How can one get over this doubt?

Prabhupāda: That means you are surrendering to different people. That is your position.

Guest (2): Sorry, I didn't hear you. Sorry.

Prabhupāda: You are surrendering to this boy or that boy, hearing. This is correct or that is correct. But you do not know what is correct. So under the circumstances, you surrender to Kṛṣṇa; you'll get the correct answer.

Guest (2): Be patient and wait.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Because He is the Supreme, there is no cheating; there is no imperfection. Therefore you get the correct answer. You surrender to Kṛṣṇa.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Sometimes the so-called scholars and research students, they say it is fancy or something imagination. No. They're all history.

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

So the itihāsa... Itihāsa means history, and purāṇāni, purāṇāni means old itihāsa. All the statements or narrations described in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, they're all historical evidence, they're not imagination. Sometimes the so-called scholars and research students, they say it is fancy or something imagination. No. They're all history. It is said here, itihāsam. Itihāsa means history.

A horse, never gives eggs. It is fantastics.

Lecture on SB 1.8.31 -- Mayapura, October 11, 1974:

And tri-daśa-pūra ākāśa-puṣpāyate. Tri-daśa-pūra means where thirty-three millions of demigods live, heavenly planets. It is something like phantasmagoria, ākāśa-puṣpa, which has... Just like in Bengal they say, jokingly, ghoṛā ḍim. Ghoṛā ḍim means a ghoṛā, a horse, never gives eggs. It is fantastics. It is not possible. Similarly, these heavenly planets, for a Vaiṣṇava, is ghoṛā ḍim. They don't care for it. It is no fact.

If you decorate a dead body, it may be very fanciful to the people.

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

Cobbler is taken as the low..., those who prepare, expert in skin. So they are generally very poor man. Now they have advanced, because now the Kali-yuga is the age of the śūdras. So they decorate the dead body. If a cobbler's father dies, he brings, he spends money. He brings nice covering cloth, and with flower and everything... So śāstra says that,

bhagavad-bhakti-hīnasya

jātiḥ śāstraṁ japas tapaḥ

aprāṇasyeva dehasya

maṇḍanaṁ loka-rañjanam

If you decorate a dead body, it may be very fanciful to the people, that "This dead body is decorated with costly garments and flowers and all things." So, but the dead body is dead. It is not enjoying. You can be complacent that "My father, the body of my father or my relative, is decorated so nicely." But factually, if you study scrutinizingly, what is the benefit out of this? What is the benefit? Dead body decoration? But people do that. They are accustomed to do that.

"So many mass of people are suffering without Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So we have to do something for them." Therefore they gave up. Not a fancy, "I become naked, that's all."

Lecture on SB 1.15.33 -- Los Angeles, December 11, 1973:

So Caitanya Mahāprabhu and His followers taught us that if you feel separation... How you will feel separation unless you love? And you simply worship the Supreme in a feeling of separation, then that is perfection. Then that is perfection. Therefore the Gosvāmīs, their prayer, their method of worshiping the Lord at Vṛndāvana... They left their ministerial post and went to Vṛndāvana by the order of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. So what was their process? The process was tyaktvā tūrṇam aśeṣa-maṇḍala-pati-śreṇīṁ sadā tuccha-vat. They gave up their materialistic way of life as very insignificant. They were ministers. They were ministers. Their associates were very big, big men. But tyaktvā tūrṇam aśeṣa-maṇḍala-pati. Maṇḍala-pati means leaders, leaders of the society, poli..., big, big politician, businessmen, important men. Because they were minister, everyone used to come to see, and they were associated with. But they gave up. Tyaktvā tūrṇam aśeṣa-maṇḍala-pati-śreṇīm. How it was given up? Sadā tuccha-vat: "Oh, it insignificant. What is this? There is no need of..." And bhūtvā dīna-gaṇeśakau karu... Why? Why they gave it up? Because they thought... Under the instruction of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, they understood that "So many mass of people are suffering without Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So we have to do something for them." Therefore they gave up. Not a fancy, "I become naked, that's all." What is the use of your becoming naked? You must do something. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Not that "I have become mendicant. I have given up all material things." You cannot give material things. Instead of coat, pant, you may have a shabby cloth. That's all. You cannot give up. That is not possible. You have to accept something. But they are thinking that "Because I have given up this coat, pant, and I am now a shabby dress, I have become advanced." Not that. You must some positive engagement.

"There is no God, there is no Yamarāja, there is no punishment. Let me do." That is your fancy. But it is not the fact.

Lecture on SB 6.1.32 -- Honolulu, May 31, 1976:

That is the law in Manu-saṁhitā, that a murderer is killed, then his all sinful activities, reaction of life, finishes by that killing, by that hanging. Otherwise next life he has to suffer so many things. So when the king orders a murderer to be killed, it is his mercy. It is his mercy. Because he saves him from so many other entanglement. Better kill him so that his sinful reaction is finished. Similarly, Yamarāja, the sinful man taken to the Yamarāja, he is put into suffering, the same principle as a prisoner. He has to suffer for a time, six months or one year or sometimes more than that, just to atone for his sinful activities. So nobody can check. You can imagine that "There is no God, there is no Yamarāja, there is no punishment. Let me do." That is your fancy. But it is not the fact. Fact is, if we commit some sin we must suffer from it, and there is nobody in the world who can check it.

He'll press his beads, and there milk will come. So there are so many yogic fantasies. But that does not mean that he knows God.

Lecture on SB 6.3.16-17 -- Gorakhpur, February 10, 1971:

So, but they become captivated: "Oh, here is a yogi. He can manufacture immediately." In Calcutta I was passing in a street, Cornwallis Street, and there was some crowd, and I entered that crowd, long ago, when I was young man. So I saw that he was a Muhammadan (indistinct). He was giving everyone some pieces of grass, straw. So he gave me one. So I saw it is raisin, kismis. You see? So I immediate threw it away and went away. So some yogi can show. He'll press his beads, and there milk will come. So there are so many yogic fantasies. But that does not mean that he knows God. Or a great philosopher like Dr. Radhakrishnan, that does not mean he knows God.

Simply trust in God is not sufficient. We must know what is God. Trusting something oblivion, something fantasy, that is no trust. You must know where to put your trust.

Lecture on SB 7.6.6-9 -- Montreal, June 23, 1968:

In your country I was reading a little history that in 1813 or some year the government introduced that "We trust in God," "Trust in God," and that was declared by the secretary to be published on the coins or on the paper currency, and we see sometimes. But simply trust in God is not sufficient. We must know what is God. Trusting something oblivion, something fantasy, that is no trust. You must know where to put your trust. That is Bhagavad-gītā. You have to know this, what is God. You simply believe in God... Faith in God is very nice. That is said then the... Very nice. It is better than godless person, that one who believes in God. That is all right. So this writing, that "We trust in God," it is very good. It is better than the communist countries, who say, "We do not trust in God." It is better. But simply official writing or trust will not do. We have to understand. And if you want to understand God, then this is the movement, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. There is no other alternative. You cannot place any other scripture collected from the world where the science of God is so elaborately stated, which you can test with all reason and argument. That is Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. So we have to learn the science. As you are learning so many department of knowledge, similarly, this is also another department of knowledge, to learn the science of God. The government should come forward to popularize this movement and to educate people in the science of God.

General Lectures

Simply your concoction that "I have become liberated" will not do. Not fanciful imagination. One has to take actual process for becoming liberated.

Lecture -- Gorakhpur, February 17, 1971:

Simply imagining that "I have become liberated," that will not help. Māyā is so strong that simply your concoction that "I have become liberated" will not do. Not fanciful imagination. One has to take actual process for becoming liberated. That is done, here Śrīdhara Swami says, samyak kīrtanād eva mucyate. Simply by perfection of saṅkīrtana, one can become liberated. Not otherwise.

Philosophy Discussions

They don't know what that inconceivable energy is. They just put a fancy word on it, they say it is gravity. And then they claim to have discovered it.

Philosophy Discussion on Bertrand Russell:

Prabhupāda: Therefore they are called muni. (indistinct) Nasau munir yasya mataṁ na bhinnam. You cannot become a muni unless you differ from the previous system. That is muni. Muni means mental concoction.

Dr. Rao: Mental concoction.

Prabhupāda: That's all. May be thoughtful, but mental concoction. There is no basic truth.

Acyutānanda: When science comes to something which is inconceivable, like gravity, they say it's an inconceivable energy which is pulling everything down. But they don't know what that inconceivable energy is. They just put a fancy word on it, they say it is gravity. And then they claim to have discovered it.