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Grand (Books)

Srimad-Bhagavatam

SB Canto 1

SB 1.4.23, Translation:

All these learned scholars, in their turn, rendered their entrusted Vedas unto their many disciples, grand-disciples and great grand-disciples, and thus the respective branches of the followers of the Vedas came into being.

SB 1.18.28, Purport:

When Lord Kṛṣṇa, accompanied by Arjuna and Bhīma, approached Jarāsandha in Magadha, the respectable enemies were given a royal reception by King Jarāsandha. The guest enemy, namely Bhīma, was to fight with Jarāsandha, and yet they were given a grand reception. At night they used to sit down together as friends and guests, and in the day they used to fight, risking life and death. That was the law of reception. The reception law enjoins that a poor man, who has nothing to offer his guest, should be good enough to offer a straw mat for sitting, a glass of water for drinking and some sweet words. Therefore, to receive a guest, either friend or foe, there is no expense. It is only a question of good manners.

SB Canto 2

SB 2.4.3-4, Purport:

"O Lord of the poor, do what you like with me, give me either mercy or punishment, but in this world I have none to look to except Your Lordship. The cātaka bird always prays for the cloud, regardless of whether it showers rains or throws a thunderbolt."

Śrīla Mādhavendra Purī, the grand-spiritual master of Lord Caitanya, took leave of all karma-kāṇḍīya obligations in the following words:

sandhyā-vandana bhadram astu bhavato bhoḥ snāna tubhyaṁ namo
bho devāḥ pitaraś ca tarpaṇa-vidhau nāhaṁ kṣamaḥ kṣamyatām
yatra kvāpi niṣadya yādava-kulottaṁsasya kaṁsa-dviṣaḥ
smāraṁ smāram aghaṁ harāmi tad alaṁ manye kim anyena me

"O my evening prayer, all good unto you. O my morning bath, I bid you good-bye. O demigods and forefathers, please excuse me. I am unable to perform any more offerings for your pleasure. Now I have decided to free myself from all reactions to sins simply by remembering anywhere and everywhere the great descendant of Yadu and the great enemy of Kaṁsa (Lord Kṛṣṇa). I think that this is sufficient for me. So what is the use of further endeavors?"

SB Canto 3

SB 3.29.17, Purport:

In Bhagavad-gītā, Thirteenth Chapter, it is clearly stated that one should execute devotional service and advance on the path of spiritual knowledge by accepting the ācārya. Ācāryopāsanam: one should worship an ācārya, a spiritual master who knows things as they are. The spiritual master must be in the disciplic succession from Kṛṣṇa. The predecessors of the spiritual master are his spiritual master, his grand spiritual master, his great-grand spiritual master and so on, who form the disciplic succession of ācāryas.

It is recommended herewith that all the ācāryas be given the highest respect. It is stated, guruṣu nara-matiḥ. Guruṣu means "unto the ācāryas," and nara-matiḥ means "thinking like a common man." To think of the Vaiṣṇavas, the devotees, as belonging to a particular caste or community, to think of the ācāryas as ordinary men or to think of the Deity in the temple as being made of stone, wood or metal, is condemned.

SB Canto 4

SB 4.7.21, Purport:

The smiling face of Lord Viṣṇu is pleasing to the whole world. Not only devotees but even nondevotees are attracted by such a smile. This verse nicely describes how the sun, moon, eight-petalled lotus flower and humming black bees were represented by the fans of hair, the overhead canopy, the moving earrings on both sides of His face, and His blackish hair. All together, accompanied by the conchshell, wheel, club, lotus flower, bow, arrows, shield and sword in His hands, these presented a grand and beautiful audience for Lord Viṣṇu which captivated all the demigods there, including Dakṣa and Lord Brahmā.

SB Canto 5

SB 5.13.3, Purport:

The material household is actually a hole of fruitive activity. To earn a livelihood one engages in different industries and trades, and sometimes one performs great sacrifices to go to higher planetary systems. Apart from this, at least everyone is engaged in earning a livelihood in some profession or occupation. In these dealings, one has to meet many undesirable people, and their behavior is compared to the biting of mosquitoes. This creates very undesirable conditions. Even in the midst of these disturbances, one imagines that he is going to construct a grand house and live there permanently, although he knows that he cannot. Gold is compared to a quickly fleeting fiend, which appears like a meteor in the sky. It displays itself for a moment and is then gone. Generally karmīs are attracted to gold or money, but these are compared herein to ghosts and witches.

SB Canto 6

SB 6.5.18, Purport:

The leaders of the Western world, the Americans and Europeans, have become the idols of modern civilization because the Western people are very sophisticated in temporary activities for the advancement of material civilization. A sane man, however, can see that all such grand activities, although perhaps very important for temporary life, have nothing to do with eternal life. The entire world is imitating the materialistic civilization of the West, and therefore the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is very much interested in giving the Western people knowledge by translating the original Sanskrit Vedic literatures into Western languages.

The word vivikta-padam refers to the path of logical discourses concerning the aim of life. If one does not discuss that which is important in life, one is put into darkness and must struggle for existence.

SB 6.16.42, Purport:

"Self-complacent and always impudent, deluded by wealth and false prestige, they sometimes perform sacrifices in name only without following any rules or regulations." Sometimes animal sacrifices are performed very gorgeously with grand arrangements for worshiping the goddess Kālī, but such festivals, although performed in the name of yajña, are not actually yajña, for yajña means to satisfy the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore it is recommended that in this age specifically, yajñaiḥ saṅkīrtana-prāyair yajanti hi sumedhasaḥ: (SB 11.5.32) those who have good intelligence satisfy the yajña-puruṣa, Viṣṇu, by chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. Envious persons, however, are condemned by the Supreme Personality of Godhead as follows:

SB Canto 9

SB 9.7.21, Translation:

Thereafter, the famous King Hariścandra, one of the exalted persons in history, performed grand sacrifices by sacrificing a man and pleased all the demigods. In this way his dropsy created by Varuṇa was cured.

SB 9.20.24-26, Translation:

Mahārāja Bharata, the son of Duṣmanta, had the mark of Lord Kṛṣṇa's disc on the palm of his right hand, and he had the mark of a lotus whorl on the soles of his feet. By worshiping the Supreme Personality of Godhead with a grand ritualistic ceremony, he became the emperor and master of the entire world. Then, under the priesthood of Māmateya, Bhṛgu Muni, he performed fifty-five horse sacrifices on the bank of the Ganges, beginning from its mouth and ending at its source, and seventy-eight horse sacrifices on the bank of the Yamunā, beginning from the confluence at Prayāga and ending at the source. He established the sacrificial fire on an excellent site, and he distributed great wealth to the brāhmaṇas. Indeed, he distributed so many cows that each of thousands of brāhmaṇas had one badva (13,084) as his share.

SB Cantos 10.14 to 12 (Translations Only)

SB 10.42.32, Translation:

When the night had finally passed and the sun rose up again from the water, Kaṁsa set about arranging for the grand wrestling festival.

SB 10.52.42, Translation:

Since I will be staying within the inner chambers of the palace, You may wonder, "How can I carry you away without killing some of your relatives?" But I shall tell You a way: On the day before the marriage there is a grand procession to honor the royal family's deity, and in this procession the new bride goes outside the city to visit Goddess Girijā.

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta

CC Adi-lila

CC Adi 3.11, Purport:

Dāsya, sakhya, vātsalya and śṛṅgāra are the transcendental modes of loving service to the Lord. Śānta-rasa, or the neutral stage, is not mentioned in this verse because although in śānta-rasa one considers the Absolute Truth the sublime great, one does not go beyond that conception. Śānta-rasa is a very grand idea for materialistic philosophers, but such idealistic appreciation is only the beginning; it is the lowest among the relationships in the spiritual world. Śānta-rasa is not given much importance because as soon as there is a slight understanding between the knower and the known, active loving transcendental reciprocations and exchanges begin. Dāsya-rasa is the basic relationship between Kṛṣṇa and His devotees; therefore this verse considers dāsya the first stage of transcendental devotional service.

CC Adi 7.73, Purport:

Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu presented Himself as a grand fool, yet He maintained that all the words that He had heard from His spiritual master strictly followed the principles stated by Vyāsadeva in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (1.7.6).

anarthopaśamaṁ sākṣād bhakti-yogam adhokṣaje
lokasyājānato vidvāṁś cakre sātvata-saṁhitām

"The material miseries of a living entity, which are superfluous to him, can be directly mitigated by the linking process of devotional service. But the mass of people do not know this, and therefore the learned Vyāsadeva compiled this Vedic literature (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam), which is in relation to the Supreme Truth." One can overcome all misconceptions and entanglement in the material world by practicing bhakti-yoga, and therefore Vyāsadeva, acting on the instruction of Śrī Nārada, has very kindly introduced Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam to relieve the conditioned souls from the clutches of māyā. Lord Caitanya's spiritual master instructed Him, therefore, that one must read Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam regularly and with scrutiny to gradually become attached to the chanting of the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra.

Other Books by Srila Prabhupada

Nectar of Devotion

Nectar of Devotion 10:

At one such meeting, while he was very faithfully hearing about Vaiṣṇava activities, he was informed that these activities can be performed even by meditation. In other words, if a person is unable to actually perform Vaiṣṇava activities physically, he can meditate upon the Vaiṣṇava activities and thereby acquire all of the same results. Because the brāhmaṇa was not very well-to-do financially, he decided that he would simply meditate on grand, royal devotional activities, and he began this business thus:

Sometimes he would take his bath in the River Godāvarī. After taking his bath he would sit in a secluded place on the bank of the river, and by practicing the yoga exercises of prāṇāyāma, the usual breathing exercises, he would concentrate his mind. These breathing exercises are meant to mechanically fix the mind upon a particular subject. That is the result of the breathing exercises and also of the different sitting postures of yoga. Formerly, even quite ordinary persons used to know how to fix the mind upon the remembrance of the Lord, and so the brāhmaṇa was doing this.

Krsna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead

Krsna Book 51:

To revive my energy, I was taking rest in this solitary cave, but I have been awakened by some unknown man who has forced me to wake up although I was not willing to do so. For such an offensive act, I have burned this person to ashes simply by glancing over him. Fortunately, now I can see You in this grand and beautiful feature. I think, therefore, that You are the cause of my killing my enemy. My dear Lord, I must admit that due to Your bodily effulgence, unbearable to my eyes, I cannot see You properly. I can fully realize that the influence of Your effulgence has diminished my power. I can understand that You are quite fit for being worshiped by all living entities.”

Message of Godhead

Message of Godhead 2:

The problem can be solved only by a determined program of karma-yoga. If karma-yoga, or work with transcendental results, is systematically performed, we shall transcend and more than fulfill all fragmented endeavors—whether by the socialists toward equality, by the Bolsheviks toward a grand social order of fraternity, or by the laborites toward a mundane heaven wherein laborers surpass capitalists in the acquisition of wealth.

Fraternity in human society develops gradually—from love for self to love for family; from love for family to love for community; from love for community to love for nation; and from love for nation to love for the international community. And in this gradual process, there is always a center of attraction that helps our love progress and develop from one stage to another.

Page Title:Grand (Books)
Compiler:Visnu Murti, RupaManjari
Created:09 of Nov, 2012
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=12, CC=2, OB=3, Lec=0, Con=0, Let=0
No. of Quotes:17