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Fiery (Conversations)

Conversations and Morning Walks

1969 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Allen Ginsberg -- May 12, 1969, Columbus, Ohio:

Kīrtanānanda: Kṛṣṇa says that "Everything is depending on Me and still I am not in them."

Allen Ginsberg: Oh, oh. I guess that's where I... "Everything is depending on Me, yet I am not in them."

Prabhupāda: "Everything is resting on Me. But I am not there." Just like this is Kṛṣṇa. Without Kṛṣṇa it has no existence. But it is not Kṛṣṇa. The pantheist will say "I... Everything is Kṛṣṇa, then I worship this."

Allen Ginsberg: So who is Kṛṣṇa?

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa is Kṛṣṇa.

Allen Ginsberg: If He's not apprehensible by senses...

Prabhupāda: No. Why not senses? This is Kṛṣṇa. This is Kṛṣṇa. But at the same time... This is the philosophy of Lord Caitanya. Acintya-bhedābheda, simultaneously one and different. That is very easy... Suppose this is gold. But this gold is not the gold mine. There is a difference. It is gold. Similarly, everything is Kṛṣṇa, but still is different from Kṛṣṇa. That is explained in Viṣṇu Purāṇa. Parasya brahmaṇaḥ śaktiḥ sarvedam akhilaṁ jagat. Eka-sthānī sthitasyajñer jyotsnā vistāriṇī yathā, parasya brahmaṇaḥ śaktiḥ sarvedam akhilaṁ jagat. The same example, that the sun. The sun is, sun-god is situated one place, but it is fiery. Blazing fire. Its heat and light is expanded. You see practically, the heat and light. So whatever this material existence is the sunlight, sunshine. Everything existing on sunshine. It is scientific. Your electricity, your this, that, whatever you take it is all sunshine. All these planets are moving, rotating on the sunshine. Heat. If heat is taken away immediately whole thing spoiled. Therefore everything is resting on the energy of the sunshine, but if you say that "Then let me find out the sun-god in the sunshine," that you will have to go there.

Hayagrīva: The Christians, I think they say, God is more than His creation.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Certainly. This creation is only a part of manifestation of His energy. Insignificant. That is explained in Bhagavad-gītā.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- December 17, 1973, Los Angeles:

Rūpānuga: They say that "Life as we know it here does not exist." Human life.

Prabhupāda: No, how you can say so? The condition is the same. Every planet is made of earth, water, air, fire, the five elements. So if under these condition there are living entities in this planet, why not in that condition living entities in other planets? That is their ignorance. That is their bluff. The different condition of the planets is that some planet is fiery, some planet is gaseous, some planet is watery. That may be, but after all, they are made of these five elements. And each element, we find there is living entity. So it may be mixture or pure, there must be living entities. And in Bhagavad-gītā it is said sarva-ga. Even in the fire there is living entities. And why not? If living entities can stay in water, why not in fire?

Rūpānuga: On the sun planet.

Prabhupāda: Oh yes. There are also living entities. They are very glowing, fiery. Therefore the whole sun planet is glowing.

Rūpānuga: By their bodily light.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Here is only one sun planet, and in Vaikuṇṭha all the planets are like sun. Therefore in the Bhagavad-gītā it is stated, na tad bhāsayate sūryo na śaśāṅko na pāvakaḥ (BG 15.6). There is no necessity of electricity or moonlight or sunlight. Here it is necessity because here only glowing planet is the sun. But in the Vaikuṇṭha, each and every planet is glowing. Therefore there is no need of sun. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. Na tad bhāsayate sūryaḥ. There is no necessity of illumination of sun, moon or electricity.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- March 18, 1974, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Where is the moisture? It is clear shine. Where is the moisture? (break) (laughter) It is not fire. It is a brilliant body. It is not fire. (break)

Satsvarūpa: ...body of Vivasvān?

Prabhupāda: Whole planet, I mean the population, they're so bright.

Satsvarūpa: Sometimes in your lectures you explain the living entities can live there because they have bodies of fire.

Prabhupāda: Fiery. Not fire.

Guru dāsa: Fiery.

Prabhupāda: Because there is heat and brightness, therefore they can say fire. Just like, what is called, diamond. Diamond looks like, bright, like this beautiful. But that is not fire. Diamond, real diamond, you keep in dark room; it will be light. But that is not fire.

Morning Walk -- March 18, 1974, Vrndavana:

Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: Prabhupāda, they see a little fire, and they see that it has heat and light, and so they see a huge thing having heat and light, and so they conclude that that's also a fire. So if that's their deductive method, then if they see that whenever there's intelligence, there must be a person, then why don't they conclude that behind the universe, there's so many wonderful things, that there must also be a person?

Prabhupāda: Yes, we say there are persons, combination of fiery persons. Therefore it looks so bright.

Akṣayānanda: Is the brightness of a diamond because of the presence of a jīva?

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Akṣayānanda: The brightness...? No.

Prabhupāda: Suppose you get a diamond body. Just like glowworm. Glowworm, it has a glowing body. That's all. But the glowing substance is different from the soul. Owner of the body is different.

Morning Walk -- March 29, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: No, you... My point was that because something is not meant for me, and it is in the law...

Dr. Patel: We don't want to proscribe it, we want to... That is what he meant. My followers, Vaiṣṇavas, will not partake into such things. Let others do what they do.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that's it.

Dr. Patel: But then you became fiery.

Prabhupāda: No, we can preach... No, my point was that because it is not applicable to me, I shall condemn.

Dr. Patel: That you don't eat, that's not condemning. Let them go and do their own... (break).

Prabhupāda: In the lower status, so they require.

Room Conversation with devotees about Twelfth Canto Kali-yuga, and Conversation with Guest -- June 15, 1974, Paris:

Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: Also in Revelation in the Bible it states that in the spiritual world there is no need for sun and moon...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: ...because the body of God is giving off light.

Prabhupāda: No, the residents also, they are bright.

Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: Yes, illuminating.

Prabhupāda: Just like in the sun planet, all the inhabitants, they are fiery body. (French)

Jyotirmayī: They said that they told me before they came that they could stay only one hour, so now they to take...

Prabhupāda: Ācchā? One hour we have passed? Thank you very much. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Thank you. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Distribute this flower. Come on.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- February 4, 1975, Hawaii:

Haṁsadūta: Prabhupāda, in Vṛndāvana you were explaining about the sun, that the sun is not fire, but the living entities there have glowing bodies. So how do they glow? You said it was not the glow of the soul, but it was...

Prabhupāda: How do you not glow? How? God has made you not glowing, and He has made them glowing. That's all. Sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam (Bs. 5.1).

Haṁsadūta: I mean to say is there a difference between...? Just like we have fire here, is it different from the glowing there? You said the sun is not fire.

Prabhupāda: Hm. No, no, without fire how there can be glow?

Haṁsadūta: So they have fiery bodies.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation with Kim Cornish -- May 8, 1975, Perth:

Kim: What can be said about God realization?

Prabhupāda: I have given the example. Just like this sunshine is coming from the sun globe. Within the sun globe there is the president of the planet. Just like here on this planet you have got some president. Here there are many presidents, because it is hodgepodge, chaotic. But there everything is systematic. There is one person, his name is Vivasvān. He's the predominating deity. Kṛṣṇa went to see him and talked with him about Bhagavad-gītā. He's a person, and there the people, they are also persons. Just like in this planet. But here the body is predominantly made of earth, and there the body is predominantly of fire. Therefore it is so glowing. The glowing temperature, heat and light, is coming from the person, their body is made of glowing heat or fire. There are five material elements: earth, water, fire, air, and ether. In some planet the earth is prominent, in some planet the water is prominent, in some planets the fire is prominent. So the sun planet is prominent with fire. There the bodies made of the inhabitants there are fire. So all the combination of the fiery effulgence is the heat of the sun globe and that is being distributed. It is in the (indistinct). You can see and realize. Everything is there. If you study nature you will get everything.

Morning Walk -- June 2, 1975, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: What is your definition? First of all let me hear.

Harikeśa: I'm still wondering myself.

Prabhupāda: We have got our definition.

Harikeśa: What do we call those planets that rotate around Jupiter and Saturn and... They will say those are also moons.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Different planets, different position. Just like this sun planet is fiery. There is fire. Similarly, in moon planet there is fire, but it is surrounded by cold atmosphere. Therefore it is cooling.

Harikeśa: So that's the specific characteristic of this moon?

Prabhupāda: Which moon? Yes, this is...

Harikeśa: Our moon.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Harikeśa: So the other moons that rotate around Saturn and Jupiter...

Prabhupāda: Other moon? There is no other moon.

Room Conversation with Dr. John Mize -- June 23, 1975, Los Angeles:

Bahulāśva: Śrīla Prabhupāda, in our material contaminated state when we act in a foolishly or mad, then we call that tamas, or our ignorance, but in the spiritual sky when the living entity is in his pure state of consciousness, what acts..., Does something act upon him to make him illusioned at that point also?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Just like Jaya-Vijaya. They committed offense. They did not allow the four Kumāras to enter. That was their fault. And the Kumāras became very sorry. Then they cursed him that "You are not fit to remain in this place." So we sometimes commit mistake. That is also misuse of independence. Or we are prone to fall down because we are small. Just like small fragment of fire. Although it is fire, it is prone to be extinguished. The big fire does not extinguish. So Kṛṣṇa is the big fire, and we are part and parcel, sparks, very small. So within the fire there are sparks, "Fut, Fut!" There are so many. But if the sparks fall down, then it is extinguished. It is like that. The fall down means material world, there are three different grades: the tamo-guṇa, rajo-guṇa, and sattva-guṇa. If the... Just like the spark falls down. If it falls down on dry grass, the grass becomes ablazed. So the fiery quality is still maintained, although it is fall down. On account of the atmosphere of the dry grass, it again makes another fire, and the fiery quality maintains. That is sattva-guṇa. And if the spark falls down on the green grass, then it is extinguished. And the dry grass, if, when the green grass becomes dry, there is chance of again coming to the blazing, but if the spark falls down in water, then it is very difficult. Similarly, the soul, when comes in the material world, there are three guṇas. So if he contacts with tamo-guṇa then he is in the most abominable condition. If it falls down with rajo-guṇa then there is little activity. Just like they are working. And if he falls down in the sattva-guṇa, then he at least keeps himself in the knowledge that "I am fire. I do not belong to this dull material." So therefore we have to bring him again to the sattva-guṇa, brahminical qualification, so that he can understand ahaṁ brahmāsmi, "I am spirit soul. I am not this matter." So then his spiritual activity begins. Therefore we are trying to bring him to the platform of sattva-guṇa, means to give up the business of rajo-guṇa, tamo-guṇa: no meat-eating, no illicit sex, no intoxication, no gambling, so many no's, to deny him the influence of material qualities.

Morning Walk -- December 12, 1975, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So who says that without Bhagavad-gītā you cannot ignite fire?

Akṣayānanda: So why should we accept that the living entity will not die.

Prabhupāda: Oh, that is authority. If you do not accept, then this is the example, argument. That the factory surrounded by fire, it does not mean there is no life. From distance, you are seeing the sun from a very, very, 95 or 93 million miles away. Fiery it is undoubtedly, but it is exactly like that: that you see from a distant place, the iron factory, it is simply fiery. Your experience is from distance. You have not gone there. So the distance experience is like this, that you see there is fire, big fire, but still there are life. You have to accept this argument.

Harikeśa: Actually it is perfectly reasonable.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Harikeśa: In the fire there's fiery bodies.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 2, 1976, Madras:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We can accept that the soul is not burned, but what about the body?

Prabhupāda: Body is burned.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So how can any body live in the sun?

Prabhupāda: So they are.... No, if.... They have got fiery body. As your body is made of earth, the fish body is made of water, and the so many others, different elements, so similarly, there the body is made of earth..., er, fire, fiery body. The so-called scientist, educationist, they.... Everything they conclude according to his own position. Therefore avajānanti māṁ mūḍhāḥ (BG 9.11). They think Kṛṣṇa also "like me."

Acyutānanda: The fish is in the water, but the fish is not water.

Prabhupāda: No, fish is not water, but he has got a body suitable for the water.

Acyutānanda: So the people on the sun have earthly bodies...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Morning Walk -- March 18, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: But moon is far away from the sun. That is from Bhāgavatam.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Prabhupāda, there's another question I have. I remember on a walk.... I have read in your books that the moon's glowing is due to reflecting the sun. Then I remember on a walk in Vṛndāvana you said that the moon is fiery just like the sun, but there's a cooling atmosphere around it. So is it actually fiery glow, or is it simply a reflecting glow?

Prabhupāda: That is stated in Bhāgavatam.

Gurudāsa: It says reflection in the Bhāgavata.

Prabhupāda: No, it is also a fiery place. But it is because it is far away from the sun, it is not so glowing.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So it's not a question of reflection only.

Prabhupāda: The reflection theory is the modern theory.

Evening Conversation -- August 8, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: That is an attempt to become designationless. But one has to become free from designation. The same example. If the rod is put in the fire, it is becoming warm, warmer, warmer, and when it is red hot it is no more rod, it is fire. So beginning of life, neophyte stage is the beginning. When he actually becomes advanced in devotional service, that is designationless.

Pradyumna: But we still call that, when a person first comes and he still has that designation stage, but we still call that bhakti?

Prabhupāda: No, he's on the platform. Just like the same example. The iron rod is put in the fire. So it is fiery condition. Similarly, one who has given to devotional service, he is in the designationless condition, but it requires time to make the iron rod exactly fire.

Pradyumna: Same thing as that pulling the plug out of the fan.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Pradyumna: Same example, pulling the plug out and fan keeps going for some...

Prabhupāda: There are so many examples. There are so many examples. The beginning stage and the perfect stage. Perfect stage, designationless. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, in the beginning api cet su-durācāro bhajate mām ananya-bhāk, sādhur eva sa mantavyaḥ: (BG 9.30) even he's not completely a devotee, still, sādhur eva sa mantavyaḥ. You must accept him as a devotee. Why? Bhajate mām ananya-bhāk. He has taken to the process completely. So there may be some designations always on account of past habit, but because he has taken to the process of becoming designationless, he is sādhu. If he sticks to the principles, kṣipraṁ bhavati dharmātmā śaśvac-chāntiṁ nigacchati, very soon he'll become a perfect devotee and he'll get peace-śaśvac-chānti-kaunteya pratijānīhi na me bhaktaḥ praṇaśyati (BG 9.31). These things are there. So one has to take the line of Kṛṣṇa consciousness seriously, then everything automatically will appear.

Morning Walk and Room Conversation -- August 9, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: Yes, then there must have been vegetables. As soon as there is liquid there is vegetation.

Hari-śauri: Their argument is that because there's no atmosphere then there's no vegetation.

Prabhupāda: Oh, that is... That is another bogus. The atmosphere is the same everywhere. Little more. Just like... (break)... say in the sun planet there is living entity, there is fire. So what do you mean by atmosphere if even in fire there is life? Dahati pāvakaḥ. Bhagavad-gītā. Nainaṁ dahati pāvakaḥ. Pāvakaḥ means fire. Does not burn the soul. So where there is fire only, he develops fiery body. Not that by the fire it is finished. Nainaṁ dahati pāvakaḥ. Where there is gas, air, nainam... Find out this verse. Acchedyo' yam adāhyo' yam.

Hari-śauri: Gītā?

Prabhupāda: Bhagavad-gītā, yes. You do not read even. You should have reference immediately.

Parivrājakācārya: Even here on the earth, even ice in the South Pole of the earth, they find much life inside the ice.

Prabhupāda: Just see. Here inside the ice there are life.

Morning Walk and Room Conversation -- December 7, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Yes. They have never gone to the moon planet. Simply bluff. (break)

Devotee (3): ...this a reflection of the sun or is it his own light?

Prabhupāda: Own light.

Devotee (3): It comes also from the living entities on the moon?

Prabhupāda: No, there are fire, just like there is fire in the sun, but it is covered with ice. Therefore it is cooling.

Devotee (2): You mean ice is covering the fire?

Prabhupāda: Yes, surrounding, cold atmosphere. Something like... But it is fiery. And how they say that sun reflects some dust? Eh? How people believe it? (break) ...to be given in charge some plot of land to develop it.

Mahāṁśa: One problem that could arise by giving them a fixed place, especially giving these labor people, if we give them a fixed place, then tomorrow they may... If they break the principles we may want to remove them.

Prabhupāda: No, you should change every month.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation With Son (Vrindavan De) -- July 5, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes. I calculated sixteen thousand miles per second, so far I remember.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. I think that's right.

Prabhupāda: And it is Sūryaloka. It has population.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: All of the personalities there have very dazzling bodies.

Prabhupāda: Fiery body.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: With the help of this planetarium, people will actually be able to go to the moon for the first time, at least by their minds. There was such a hoax that I heard they were even selling tickets to go to the moon.

Prabhupāda: Hm. (pause)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: If you're feeling tired, maybe you'd like to take a little rest, Śrīla Prabhupāda. It's still early now.

Prabhupāda: Hm. I have been taking rest in...

Page Title:Fiery (Conversations)
Compiler:Visnu Murti, Serene
Created:18 of Mar, 2012
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=17, Let=0
No. of Quotes:17