In the future (Lectures)

Expressions researched:
"in the future"

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Lecture on BG 2.8-12 -- Los Angeles, November 27, 1968:

Devotee: "Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings. Nor in the future shall any of us cease to be (BG 2.12)." Purport: "In the Vedas, in the Kaṭha Upaniṣad, as well as in the Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad, it is said that..."

Prabhupāda: (correcting pronunciation) Śvetāśvatara. There are many Upaniṣads, they are called Vedas. Upaniṣads are the headlines of the Vedas. Just like in a chapter there is a headline, similarly these Upaniṣads are the headlines of the Vedas. There are 108 Upaniṣads, principal. Out of that, nine Upaniṣads are very important. So out of those nine Upaniṣads, Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad, Taittireya Upaniṣad, Aitareya Upaniṣad, Īśopaniṣad, Īśa Upaniṣad, Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad, Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad, Kaṭhopaniṣad, these Upaniṣads are very important. And whenever there is argument on some point, one has to give reference from these Upaniṣads. If one can give reference from the Upaniṣads, then his argument is very strong. Śabda-pramāṇa. Pramāṇa means evidence. Evidence... If you want to gain in your case... Just like you have to give very nice evidence in a court, similarly, according to Vedic culture, the evidence is pramāṇa. Pramāṇa means evidence. Śabda-pramāṇa.

Lecture on BG 2.8-12 -- Los Angeles, November 27, 1968:

Now, what is your answer, Dīnadayāla? Kṛṣṇa says never we were mixed up. We are all individuals. And He says, "Never we shall remain... Never there will be time when we shall not exist." That means in the past we existed as individuals, in the present there is no doubt we are existing as individual, and in the future also, we shall continue to remain as individuals. Then when the impersonal conception comes at all? In the past, present, future, there are three times. Huh? In all the times we are individuals. Then when God becomes impersonal or I become impersonal or you become impersonal? Where is the chance? Kṛṣṇa clearly says, "There was never time when I, you, and all these individual kings or soldiers... It was not that we did not exist in the past." So in the past we existed as individual, and in the present there is no doubt. We are existing as individual. You are my disciple, I am your spiritual master, but you have got your individuality, I have got my individuality. If you don't agree with me, you can leave me.

Lecture on BG 2.8-12 -- Los Angeles, November 27, 1968:

Devotee: "The Supreme Personality of Godhead is the Supreme Individual Person, and Arjuna, the Lord's eternal associate, and all the kings assembled there are individual eternal persons. It is not that they did not exist as individuals in the past, and it is not that they will not remain as eternal persons. Their individuality existed in the past and their individuality will continue in the future without interruption. Therefore there is no cause for lamentation for any one of the individual living entities. The Māyāvādī or impersonal theory that after liberation the individual soul, separate on account of māyā or illusion, will merge into the impersonal Brahman without individual existence..."

Prabhupāda: Now, the Māyāvādī says that this individuality is māyā. So their conception is that spirit, the whole spirit is a lump. Their theory is ghaṭākāśa poṭākāśa. Ghaṭākāśa poṭākāśa means... Just like sky. The sky is an expansion, impersonal expansion. So in a pot, in a waterpot, in a pitcher that is closed... Now, within the pitcher, there is also sky, a small sky. Now as soon as the pitcher is broken, the outside, the bigger sky, and the small sky within the pitcher mixes. That is Māyāvāda theory. But this analogy cannot be applied. Analogy means points of similarity. That is the law of analogy. The sky cannot be compared... The small sky within the pitcher cannot be compared with the living entity. It is material, matter.

Lecture on BG 2.8-12 -- Los Angeles, November 27, 1968:

Devotee: "Nor is the theory that we only think of individuality in the conditioned state supported herein. Kṛṣṇa clearly says that in the future also the individuality of the Lord and others as it is..."

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa never says that after liberation these individual souls will mix up with the Supreme Soul. Kṛṣṇa never says in the Bhagavad-gītā.

Devotee: "Kṛṣṇa clearly says that in the future also the individuality of the Lord and others, as it is confirmed in the Upaniṣads, will continue eternally. This statement of Kṛṣṇa is authoritative."

Prabhupāda: Yes, Upaniṣad says nityo nityānām. Now, nitya means eternal, and the Supreme Lord is the supreme eternal, and we individual souls, we are also many eternals. So He is the leader eternal. Eko bahūnām... How He is leader? Eko bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān. That one, singular number eternal, person, He is supplying all the needs of other eternals. These things are clearly said in the Vedas. And actually we are experiencing. Just like in Christian theology, the individual goes to the church and prays God, "Give us our daily bread." Why he's asking God? Of course, this atheist class of men are now teaching them, "Where is bread? You are going to church. You come to us; we shall supply you bread."

Lecture on BG 2.8-12 -- Los Angeles, November 27, 1968:

Yes. He says that there was no such time when we are not individual, and there will be no such time in the future when we shall not remain individual. And so far present is concerned, we are all individual. You know. So where is the possibility of losing individuality? Become imperson? No. There is no possibility. This voidism, impersonalism, they are artificial ways of negating the perplexing variegatedness of this material existence. That is the negative side only. That is not a positive side. A positive side is that, as Kṛṣṇa says, tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti kaunteya (BG 4.9). "After giving up this material tabernacle, one comes to Me." Just like after leaving this room, you have to enter another room. You cannot say that "After leaving this room, I shall live in the sky." Similarly, after leaving this body, if you go to Kṛṣṇa in the spiritual kingdom, your individuality will be there, but you'll have that spiritual body. When there is spiritual body there is no perplexities. Just like your body is different from the body of the aquatics. The aquatics, they have no disturbance in the water because their body is made like that. They can live there peacefully. You cannot live. Similarly, the fishes, if you take them out of the water, they cannot live.

Lecture on BG 2.8-12 -- Los Angeles, November 27, 1968:

Devotee: "Kṛṣṇa affirms His individuality in the past and confirms His individuality in the future also. He has confirmed His individuality in many ways, and impersonal Brahman has been declared as subordinate to Him. Kṛṣṇa has maintained spiritual individuality all along, and if He is accepted as an ordinary conditioned soul in individual consciousness, then His Bhagavad-gītā has no value as authoritative scripture. A common man with all the defects of human frailty is unable to teach that which is worth hearing. Bhagavad-gītā is above such literature. No mundane book compares with the Bhagavad-gītā. When one accepts Kṛṣṇa as an ordinary man, the Bhagavad-gītā loses all importance. The Māyāvādī argues that the plurality mentioned in this verse is conventional and that the plurality thus refers to the body. But previous to this verse such a bodily conception has already been condemned. After condemning the bodily conception of living entities, how was it possible for Kṛṣṇa to place a conventional proposition on the body again? Therefore, the plurality is on spiritual grounds as is confirmed by great teachers like Śrī Rāmānuja. It is clearly mentioned in many places in the Bhagavad-gītā that this spiritual plurality is understood by those who are devotees of the Lord. Those who are envious of Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Personality of Godhead have no bona fide access to the great literature. The nondevotee's approach to the teachings of the Bhagavad-gītā is something like a bee licking on a bottle of honey. One cannot have a taste of honey unless one can taste within the bottle. Similarly, the mysticism of the Bhagavad-gītā can be understood only by devotees. No one else can taste it, as is stated in the Fourth Chapter of the book. Nor can the Gītā be touched by persons who envy the very existence of the Lord. Therefore the Māyāvādī explanation of the Gītā is a most misleading presentation of the whole truth. Lord Caitanya has forbidden us to read commentaries made by the Māyāvādīs."

Prabhupāda: Yes. Lord Caitanya has clearly said, māyāvādi-bhāṣya śunile haya sarva-nāśa (CC Madhya 6.169). One meets disaster if he hears a Māyāvādī philosopher to understand Vedic literature. That is His injunction. Māyāvādi-bhāṣya śunile haya sarva-nāśa. Sarva-nāśa means disaster. It is actually disaster. A māyāvādi-bhāṣya, Māyāvādī commentary, they have simply tried, (that) the individual, tiny individual spiritual spark that "You are the Supreme." So he's just (like) Dr. Frog. You see. So puffed up, puffed up, when he... At one time, it will burst.

Lecture on BG 2.8-12 -- Los Angeles, November 27, 1968:

Prabhupāda: Yes. "All" means including all men of this room also. You also.

Vīrabhadra: I lived on?

Prabhupāda: Yes. You lived in the past, you are living at present, you will live in the future also. Is that all right?

Vīrabhadra: I understand that.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Devotee: I read somewhere in your writings that in order to understand the confidential affairs of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa one must serve the gopīs who are servants of the gopīs, and I assumed that you were a servant of the gopīs. Is that correct? Or... How do I serve the servants of the gopīs?

Lecture on BG 2.12 -- New York, March 7, 1966:

Kṛṣṇa is trying to convince Arjuna that death does not take place. He says clearly that "Myself—I am the Supreme God, Kṛṣṇa—yourself, you, and all the other kings and the soldiers, those who have assembled in this great battlefield, it is not that in the past, we were not existing. And in the present, we are now face to face. We are seeing that we are existing. And in the future, we shall also exist in the same way." "In the same way" means individually. Just like I am an individual person. You are an individual person. He is an individual person. So I, you, he, or they—first person, second person and the third person—so that individuality continues. Individuality of every living being is a fact. Therefore in the actual field also, we see that we have got difference of opinion. What I think, you may not agree with me because you have got your individuality. Similarly, your thinking may not be agreed by another gentleman. So everyone has got his individuality. That is a fact. Not that the...

Lecture on BG 2.12 -- New York, March 7, 1966:

Do you follow? In the past they were individuals, in the present they are individuals, and why not in future they'll remain individuals? It is naturally concluded that they will continue to be individuals. Even we do not have any sufficient knowledge in either of these two theories, mixing up or keeping individual, but by our own small reasoning we can understand that in the future history we have information that there were individual persons. At the present moment also, we are seeing that there are individual persons. So why not in the future? How it is that in the future they'll mix up and become one, homogeneous thing? It is quite reasonable. And this conclusion is like this: just like in two hundred years before, in the month of March, the climatic position was like this. And in 1966 we find in March the climatic position is exactly the same. And in future... Naturally I conclude that in future in March the same climatic condition will be there. In astronomy also, if you find that in March, in such and such date, the sun rising is like this, and actually in the present March, month of March, 1966, we see the same exact time... And the whole calculation of astronomy is made like that.

Lecture on BG 2.12 -- New York, March 7, 1966:

And they were individual persons in the past, and at the present moment, we see that they are individual persons, and they will continue. They will continue." I may not know what they will become in the future, but because He is God, because He is the Supreme Personality, His statement should be accepted. That makes my knowledge perfect. Just like I give you one very simple example. Now, if a little boy asks his mother that "Who is my father?" The mother says that "Here is your father." Now, if the child says, "I don't believe it, that he is my father," is it possible to convince him in any other way than the statement of the mother? Is it possible? No. That is the final. That is the final. And if he says, "I don't believe it," that is his foolishness. Similarly, a thing which is beyond our conception, beyond our limit of knowledge, that should be taken from the authority.

Lecture on BG 2.12 -- New York, March 7, 1966:

According to the yoga, God is the Supreme Person who is above all individual selves and is free from all defects. Now, the same thing, in the Bhagavad-gītā also, Lord Kṛṣṇa, He, He is telling. He is informing us about the future or of the past because He is perfect. He can see both past and future. Because we are not perfect, because we do not know... Now, accepting it that you existed in, in your, in the future... Say your age is thirty-four, thirty-five years. Can you say, thirty-six years before, where you were? You cannot say. Or suppose you live for hundred years. Can you say hundred years after where you shall be? You cannot say because you are imperfect, because you are imperfect. So God is not imperfect. God is perfect being. Here yoga system also accept like that. According to the yoga, God is the Supreme Person who is above all individual... Individual, now here you see the individual. The every, every living entity is individual. That, this particular word, that individual self and is free from all defects. And because He's free from all defects, His statement is defectless.

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

"We see two because it is due to our ignorance. All, everything is one," but here you cannot apply that ignorance to Śrī Kṛṣṇa. Otherwise, His instruction of whole Bhagavad-gītā, which is so importantly taken by all authorities, all scholars, then it is at once rejected. If it is supposed that Śrī Kṛṣṇa was also to commit mistake, or He was in imperfect knowledge, then whole thing becomes rejected. So it is not, not like that.

So Śrī Kṛṣṇa, He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, He's in full knowledge, and therefore as He says that "Either Myself or yourself or all these persons, kings and soldiers, who are assembled here, they're all individuals. In the past they were individuals, in the present we are individuals, and in the future they will continue to be individuals." Now, one thing... Suppose another argument is that due to ignorance... Just like an animal. It thinks that there is water in the desert, on the reflec...

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

Yes. I mean to say, any sane man who has got the knowledge that "This is only reflection of the sun; it is not water," he will never go there. He knows that it is useless to search water in the desert. Similarly, if Śrī Kṛṣṇa is in full knowledge, He cannot say that in future also we shall all remain individuals. He says that in the future also we shall continue to be individuals. Now, He cannot give us misdirection. Suppose we, in the future we shall not remain. After liberation, we shall not become, remain, individuals. Then that sort of misguidance cannot be given by Śrī Kṛṣṇa. Just like a sane man cannot direct you that "Just go there. There is water in the desert." A man with perfect knowledge cannot give you that direction. A animal may go there. That is a different thing. Similarly, when Śrī Kṛṣṇa says that "In future also, we, all these, yourself, Myself, and all these, they will keep their individuality," so that is not a misdirection. You want to say anything?

Lecture on BG 2.12 -- Hyderabad, November 17, 1972:

Kṛṣṇa is giving more enlightenment on the living entity, soul. "Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings; nor in the future shall any of us cease to be." Now, Kṛṣṇa says that "In the past I existed. So also you. And so also all these soldiers and the kings who have assembled in this fighting. They existed in the past. For the present, there is no question of asking... We are existing. And in the future also, it is not that we shall not exist." That means, "We shall exist." So what is "I," "you," and "others"? I am individual person. You are individual person, and all others, they're also, each and every one of them, individual persons. So in the past we were all individuals; at present we are all individuals; and in the future also, we shall remain individuals. So where there is question of merging, become one? Here Kṛṣṇa says that "In the past we are individual persons, in the present we are all individual persons, and in future also, we shall remain individuals."

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

Pradyumna (leads chanting, etc.):

na tv evāhaṁ jātu nāsaṁ

na tvaṁ neme janādhipāḥ

na caiva na bhaviṣyāmaḥ

sarve vayam ataḥ param

(BG 2.12)

"Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings; nor in the future shall any of us cease to be."

Prabhupāda: This is a very important verse. The modern scientists, philosophers, they say that after finishing this body, we no more exist, finished, everything finished. This is not new. In olden times also there were atheists like Cārvāka Muni, he also said like that: bhasmī-bhūtasya dehasya kutaḥ punar āgamano bhavet. Now why you are worrying about next life? As soon as this body is burned into ashes, everything is finished. According to Vedic funeral ritualistic ceremony, the body is burned. There are three ends of the body, either to become stool, or to become ashes, or to become earth. Those who are burying the body, just like the Christian, Mohammedans do, the body becomes earth. Everything, from the earth it has come up: "Dust thou were, dust thou beist." This beautiful body, nice body, will become earth. And those who are burning, so their body becomes ashes. And those who throw the body to be eaten by jackals and crows, they become stool.

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

We never die." "So it may be I am Your friend and You are Kṛṣṇa. Therefore the others will die." No. Neme janādhipāḥ: "Neither these, all these people, all these soldiers, (and) the kings who have assembled here, they'll also not die. There is no end. They'll never die." So, na caiva na bhaviṣyāmaḥ, it is not that we did not exist in the past, and we are existing at present. That is everyone knows. So in the future, don't think that we may not exist. Na bhaviṣyāmaḥ. It is not that we shall not exist in the future. Na bhaviṣyāmaḥ, not exist, and another not. Two nots make one yes. Two negatives make one positive. So therefore, we have two negatives. Na caiva na bhaviṣyāmaḥ. Na bhaviṣyāmaḥ means not to exist in the future; that is not. That means we shall exist. Na caiva na bhaviṣyāmaḥ sarve... all of us. All of us, you, not that "Because I am God, because you are My friend, God's friend, and all others..." No, everyone. This is knowledge. In the Kaṭha Upaniṣad there is the verse nityo nityānām. Nityo nityānām. Nityānām means ever existing. Nitya means ever, always.

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

Bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19). As we have got this body, we have got the chance, not to become Kṛṣṇa conscious, and if we miss, then I do not know where I am going next life. But I am not going to die, that's a fact. That will be explained in the next verse. I am not going to die. So we existed in the past, we are now existing at present, and we shall continue to exist in the future. This is the position. But how we shall exist? What kind of body, either demigod's body or dog's body or tree's body or fish's body, that will depend on my work. Or we go back to home, back to Godhead, Kṛṣṇa like... We get the spiritual body like Kṛṣṇa. Everything is possible.

So it is our business to see what kind of body we shall get next life. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti kaunteya (BG 4.9). Actually, if we become Kṛṣṇa conscious, then after giving up this body, we are no more going to accept any material body. Because spiritual body is already there. That is eternal.

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

Actually, if we become Kṛṣṇa conscious, then after giving up this body, we are no more going to accept any material body. Because spiritual body is already there. That is eternal. The spirit soul, the spiritual body, that is never vanquished. It was existing in the past, it is existing now, and it will continue to exist in the future. Because people may say, "How is that? How odd thing Kṛṣṇa is speaking, that na tv evāhaṁ jātu nāsaṁ na tvaṁ neme janādhipāḥ." Because actually, we died. Maybe we have taken birth again, but everyone dies. How that, that we do not die?" No. It is not the body, but Kṛṣṇa is speaking about the soul. Soul is ever-existing. It existed in the past, it is existing now, and it will exist. Maybe, different type of body, that is Kṛṣṇa's instruction. Another thing is that the Māyāvādī philosophers say that we are one. There is no "you" and "me." Everything one. So, then Kṛṣṇa is defective. If Kṛṣṇa says, "You, Me, all others," so it is not one. It is not homogeneous. We are all individuals. "You are individual, I am individual, and all the kings and soldiers, they are all individuals." So the Māyāvādī theory that after liberation everyone becomes one, one lump sum... What is called?

Lecture on BG 2.12 -- Hyderabad, December 12, 1976:

Mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūtaḥ jīva-loke sanātanaḥ (BG 15.7). So we are also individual, and God is also individual person. "And all the kings, all the soldiers assembled, they are also individual." So this individuality is never lost. Kṛṣṇa says that "At present we are individuals, and in the past we are individuals." Then one may say, "In the future we may become one, amalgamated," as the Māyāvādī philosopher says that as soon as we become liberated, we become one with the Absolute. No, that is not fact. Here it is said, na ca eva na bhaviṣyāmaḥ: "It is not that in future we shall not remain individual. We shall remain individual." Na bhaviṣyāmaḥ na. Two negatives makes one positive. That means "In the future also we shall exist as individual." Na caiva na bhaviṣyāmaḥ sarve, "all of us." "All" means Kṛṣṇa says, "I, you, and all the other peoples, kings, and soldiers, we shall remain as individual." Then where is oneness? This Māyāvādī theory that after liberation we shall all become one with God, that is not mentioned here. This is bogus theory.

Lecture on BG 2.13 -- Pittsburgh, September 8, 1972:

So we have to take this knowledge from authority. Here is Kṛṣṇa speaking. He's authority. We accept Kṛṣṇa: the Supreme Personality of Godhead. His knowledge is perfect. He knows past, present, and future. Therefore, He is teaching Arjuna, "My dear Arjuna, the spirit soul within this body is eternal." That's a fact. Just like I can understand, I was in the past, I am in present, so I must be in the future. These are three phases of time, past, present, and future. In another place, we read in this Bhagavad-gītā, na jāyate na mriyate vā kadācit. The living entity is never born; neither it dies. Na jāyate means he never takes birth. Na jāyate na mriyate, it never dies. Nityaṁ śāśvato 'yam, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). It is eternal, śāśvata, existing forever. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). By annihilation of this body, the soul does not die. Because... This is also confirmed in the Upaniṣads, Vedas: nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām eko bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān. The God is also eternal, and we are also eternal. We are part and parcels of God.

Lecture on BG 2.13 -- London, August 19, 1973:

Now I am old man." "I am" means my body. Dehinaḥ. Dehi and dehinaḥ. Dehi means the proprietor of the body, owner of the body, and deha means the body.

In the previous verse Kṛṣṇa said that "All of us—you, me, and all these soldiers and kings who are present here—we existed in the past, we are existing now, and we shall continue to exist in the future." This was the statement. But rascals would say that "How I was existing? I was born only in such and such year. Before that, I was not existing. At the present time I am existing. That's all right. But as soon as I will die, I will not exist. So how Kṛṣṇa says that I was... Both... All of us, we were existing, we are still existing, and we shall continue to exist?" Is that contradictory? No, that is not contradictory. It is fact. We were existing, maybe in different body. And we shall continue to exist in different body. Dehāntara-prāptiḥ. This is to be understood. Not that my existence...

Lecture on BG 2.13 -- London, August 19, 1973:

"Actually those who are in knowledge, they should see all these four problems, birth, death, old age and disease."

So tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ. Kṛṣṇa says, "We existed. We existed in a different body. Now we are existing in a different body, and in the future also, we shall all exist in a different body." Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ. In this way we are transmigrating from one body to another, but we are existing. This is the sum and substance of this verse.

Lecture on BG 2.13 -- London, August 19, 1973:

So become very serious to understand Kṛṣṇa and remain in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Then this problem, birth, death, old age and disease will be solved, automatically, very easily. There will be no problem.

That is the function of the human life, to understand that "I am eternal." Kṛṣṇa says that "In the past we existed, in the present we are existing, and in the future we shall continue to exist." Then why I have got this type of body by which I am actually, not actually, superficially I am not existing. So this is the problem. A dhīra means a sober man will think of this problem, that "I want to live. Why death takes place? I want to live very healthy life. Why disease comes? I don't want to become old man. Why old age comes?" Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi (BG 13.9). These are the problems. So solve this problem simply by taking to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, simply by understanding Kṛṣṇa. And for understand Kṛṣṇa, the Bhagavad-gītā is there, so nicely explained.

Lecture on BG 2.13 -- Germany, June 18, 1974:

This is called karma-kāṇḍa. According to your karma, or work, you get a body, either as a king's son or a cobbler's son or a dog's son or a cat's son or a tree's son or a plant's son. This is the nature. This is to be understood. Kṛṣṇa said in the last verse that "Don't think we did not exist in the past. We are existing at present, and we shall continue to exist in the future." Exactly like that, that we live in one apartment. Then, if I am able to pay more rent, I transfer to another apartment. Or if I cannot pay the present rent, then I'll have to move to another, less rented apartment. This is called: "I existed in one apartment, Now I am existing in one apartment, and I shall exist in another apartment." So I am eternal; I am simply changing my apartment or dress. This simple thing. Asmin dehe yathā. As kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā, in this life I am experiencing that I changed so many apartments—I was a child; that apartment I changed into boyhood; then again I changed that apartment into youthhood; then I am old man—so when this apartment will be vacated, I'll have to accept another apartment. Where is the difficulty to understand? I must possess one apartment or body. The body is the apartment.

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

Kṛṣṇa is explaining. When Kṛṣṇa says, "My dear Arjuna, you, Me, and all these kings and soldiers assembled here, it is not that we did not exist in the past," so what is that? That means we are not this body. This body was not existing in the past in my past life, or duration of life. But as I am soul, I am existing now, I did exist in the past, and I will exist in the future. That is sat. Therefore, spirit has no such change.

Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura has sung, sat-saṅga chāḍi' kainu asate vilāsa te kāraṇa lagilā mora karma-bandha-phāṅsa. Karma-bandha-phāṅsa means entangled. Sometimes we have got experience, that threads, they become entangled. It is very difficult to find out where the beginning is. Sometimes spoiled. So, on account of our attachment to this material body, we are becoming entangled. Sat-saṅga chāḍi' kainu asate vilāsa. This meeting, as we are holding, this is called sat-saṅga. Sat-saṅga because here there is no other business, talking all nonsense, some material things.

Lecture on BG 2.17 -- London, August 23, 1973:

That is consciousness. So Kṛṣṇa clearly says that that thing is avināśi, imperishable. Now Kṛṣṇa has said previously that we, I, you and all others, we existed in the past. So we existed in the past. That means we are all individuals. In the past also, we were individuals, and at the present, we are individuals, and we shall continue to be individuals in the future. There is no such thing as the Māyāvādī philosophers or rascals, they say that after liberation they all intermingle, becomes a homogeneous lump. No. Even after liberation, we remain individual, particles. It is not that we mix up, homogeneous mixing up. Even in matter, what to speak of spirit. It will be explained that spirit cannot be cut into pieces. That means we are all spirit soul. It is not we are lumped together at one time, now we have been cut into pieces, and therefore we are individual—this Māyāvādī philosophy. It is not that. We are individuals, sanātana, eternally. That will be explained. Mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhutaḥ jīva-loke sanātanaḥ (BG 15.7). Eternally, we are individuals.

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

Self-realization means I am not this body, I am ahaṁ brahmāsmi, I am spirit soul. That is self-realization.

So na jāyate na mriyate vā kadācit. Kadācit means at anytime, past, present, and future, kadācit. In the past, it is already explained, in the past we existed, maybe in a different body. At present, we are existing, and in the future also, we shall exist, continue to exist, maybe in a different body. Maybe, not. Actually. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13), because after giving us this body, we have to accept another body. So this is going on. And ignorance, without knowledge of self, we are being kept in ignorance. The so-called educational system, all over the world, there is no such education. They are kept in darkness and ignorance and still so much money is being spent, especially in the Western countries. They have got money, big, big high schools, but what is the production? All fools and rascals. That's all. Because they do not know.

Lecture on BG 2.20-25 -- Seattle, October 14, 1968:

The Māyāvādī theory that it has broken parts by māyā. No. Unbreakable. That means eternally we are individual, separated. Just like we are sitting, all individual. This is our eternal position. Kṛṣṇa is confirming that "Arjuna, yourself, Myself, and all these people who are assembled here, they're all individuals. They existed in the past, and they'll continue to exist in the future." So this is a confirmed truth, that every living entity is individual and Kṛṣṇa is also individual. And that is also stated in the Vedas. Nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13). He is the chief of all these individual living entities. That is the difference. He is the chief. Just like you have accept me the chief of your group. But that does not mean in all other respects we are all one. You have got the same feeling; I have got the same feeling. You have selected me, or I have got some extraordinary qualification, I am controlling you. Similarly Kṛṣṇa has got the extraordinary quality by which He can control the whole situation. Otherwise, He is as individual as we are. That's all.

Lecture on BG 2.51-55 -- New York, April 12, 1966:

You have, you are transcendental to that, all these paraphernalia." Yadā te moha-kalilaṁ buddhir vyatitariṣyati: "When your consciousness is dovetailed in cooperation with the supreme consciousness, then you are transcendental to the position of this illusory stage." Yadā te moha-kalilaṁ buddhir vyatitariṣyati, tadā gantāsi nirvedam: "At that time you become callous to all these rituals because your position and your activities are fixed up." Śrotavyasya śrutasya ca: "Whatever you have heard and whatever you have to hear in the future, all finishes."

Therefore the whole thing depends how to adjust ourself to that supreme consciousness. And if we cannot...

Lecture on BG 3.11-19 -- Los Angeles, December 27, 1968:

Revatīnandana: So when... When they say they have a surplus of grains now, they are burning these great mounds of grains, this means that in the future there will be no grains for this country to eat?

Prabhupāda: Yes. As soon as you make misuse, the supply will be stopped. After all, the supply is not in your control. You cannot manufacture all these things. You can kill thousands of cows daily, but you cannot generate even one ant. And you are very much proud of your science. You see. Just produce one ant in the laboratory, moving, with independence. And you are killing so many animals? Why? So how long this will go on? Everything will be stopped.

Just like a child. Mother is giving good, nice foodstuff, and he's spoiling. So what the mother will do? "All right. From tomorrow you'll not get." That is natural.

Jaya Gopāla: Is it true that Kṛṣṇa has all these things in each planet simply because of the presence of a pure devotee?

Lecture on BG 4.5 -- Montreal, June 10, 1968:

My appearance and disappearances, I remember everything, past, present, future, everything. Na tvaṁ vettha parantapa, but you do not." Now, we cannot remember what was, what I was in my past life. Neither I know what I am going to be in the next life. But there is. I was in the past, I am in the present, and I shall remain in the future. That is my position.

In the Second Chapter, it is said by Kṛṣṇa, "My dear Arjuna, both you and Me and all these kings and soldiers who are assembled here, do not think that they did not exist in the past, or they will cease to exist in the future. They existed in the past as individuals, and they are existing at present as individuals, and they will exist in the future also as individuals." This is clearly stated in the Bhagavad-gītā in the Second Chapter. The difference between God and living entity is this, that God knows past, present, future, and I or you do not know past, present and future. That is the difference.

Lecture on BG 4.17 -- Bombay, April 6, 1974:

He is in the daytime and he is also nighttime. So this is our position. We are changing our body.

Just like I was a child, you were a child, but that we have forgotten. But that does not mean I did not have. Similarly, in the past I had a body, in the present I have got a body, so why not in the future? This is common sense. In future you must have a body. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). Kṛṣṇa says, authority. I may say, "There is no body," but Kṛṣṇa says, "There is body." And how this body is manufactured? Karmaṇā, by your work. If you work foolishly in the tamo-guṇa, then you get the body of ignorance, ugly body, abominable body, poor body, without any education, without any knowledge. These things are there. And if you work sattva-guṇa, then you get better body. And rajo-guṇa, then in the middle-class body. These are stated in the śāstra. You have to accept it.

Lecture on BG 4.39-5.3 -- New York, August 24, 1966:

Now, people are taking advantage of this and they misusing the position. Therefore Kṛṣṇa, I mean to say, foresaw that this will happen in future because He was speaking this Bhagavad-gītā five thousand years before. So, as He is full knowledge, entire knowledge, because He is God, He knows what will happen in the future. Therefore he gave preference to working order than this sannyāsa order. Lord Caitanya also, He also said that in this age sannyāsa is not recommended.

And if you question me that "Swamiji, why you have taken sannyāsa?" You may ask that question. Yes. So I may tell you frankly that I had no desire to accept this sannyāsa. I never dreamt in my householder... I was a householder. I never dreamt. But circumstantially I was forced to accept the sannyāsa dress just to become a preacher. You see? That is a long history. Sannyāsa, (chuckles) but I was forced some way or other to accept the sannyāsa. Of course, as far as possible, I am following the rules and regulations of a sannyāsī, as far as possible.

Lecture on BG 7.1-3 -- Stockholm, September 10, 1973:

He explained that "I, you, and all these persons, the kings and the soldiers who have assembled here, it is not that they were not existing previously. They were existing as individual souls. Or as I am also individual God, and you all people, individual souls, we were existing in the past; we are now existing. I am existing, you are existing. The soldiers and other kings, they are also... And in the future also, we shall exist. The body may change. Just like in the past we were existing. The body has changed now. Similarly, at present also, when this body will be changed, we will exist in another body. So what is the cause of lamentation?" This is the translation. "Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you." That means "You existed, I existed, and all of them existed." Because we are eternal. This is the point. We are soul: we are not this body. Just like in childhood I existed. In my boyhood I existed. In my youthhood I existed. And now I am existing. Therefore the right conclusion is "When this body will not exist, I will exist in another body." So one should not lament for the lump of matter.

Lecture on BG 7.1-3 -- Stockholm, September 10, 1973:

Prabhupāda: Yes, you are already feeling. So next life also you will feel, and the past also you felt. That is described. You are always individual. That is described, that "In the past we were existing in the past, your feeling was also there. As you are existing now, your feeling is already there, and in the future also, you will exist. The feeling will be there."

Swedish woman (5): You say that our souls are..., we will always go on. But you are getting more and more people.

Prabhupāda: That is your misunderstanding.

Swedish woman (5): No, we are getting more people, aren't we?

Prabhupāda: (laughs) You are getting more people. That is also another illusion. I shall give you one example, that in a village there is a marketplace. So thousands of men gather there, and one village woman, old lady, she began to cry that "Where shall I accommodate so many people?" So his (her) son came, "Mother, you don't worry. In the evening I shall show you." So in the evening, the mother came. There was nobody. So you are thinking just like village lady, "Where we shall accommodate so many men?" They come and go. This conception of increasing, that is your misconception. There is no question of increasing and decreasing.

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

So they are not one. They are different. And Kṛṣṇa has described in the Second Chapter that "All these soldiers or kings who are assembled there and you and Me, all of us..." Now see. He describes all of them differently: "You, me and they." First person, second person and the third person. So Kṛṣṇa said, "It is not that they did not exist in the past, and it is not that, that they will not exist in the future." So always, in the past, in the present and in future, the living entities, individual soul, is always different from the Supreme. They are never homogeneous or mixed up. That is not possible. Mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūtaḥ sanātanaḥ (BG 15.7). It is not that now we have become separated. Means sanātana, eternally we are different. And besides that, how we can be separated?

Lecture on BG 7.7 -- Bombay, April 1, 1971:

Buddho nāmnāñjana-sutaḥ kīkaṭeṣu bhaviṣyati. In Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam the Lord Buddha's name is mentioned as future incarnation. Bhaviṣyati, "will appear." Kīkaṭeṣu, "in the province of Gayā."So this is called śāstra. Because Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam was composed five thousand years ago and Lord Buddha appeared 2,600 years ago... Therefore five thousand years ago Lord Buddha's case was in the future. Therefore it is said bhaviṣyati, "He will appear." This is called śāstra. Trikāla-jña. Śāstra writers, they are not ordinary men. Just like Kṛṣṇa is speaking. He is not ordinary man. Nobody will be interested so much if Bhagavad-gītā was written by ordinary man. It was spoken by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and it was recorded by His incarnation, Vyāsadeva. So it is transcendental literature. Ordinary literatures, they cannot be perfect because there are four defect: bhrama-pramāda-karaṇāpāṭava-vipralipsā. Bhrama means "to commit mistake." Pramāda means "illusion," and vipralipsā means "cheating," and karaṇāpāṭava, "inefficiency of the senses." So śāstra means above these defects.

Lecture on BG 9.34 -- New York, December 26, 1966, 'Who is Crazy?':

There is neither voidness, nor impersonalism. The Bhagavad-gītā does not agree to that. In the Second Chapter you have read it, that Kṛṣṇa, Lord Kṛṣṇa says that, "Arjuna, Myself, yourself, and all these persons who have come here to fight with one another, they were individual selves before, they are individual selves now, and they will continue to be individual selves in the future. So don't be mad that you shall not fight. Their, I mean to say, identity, spiritual identity, will continue." And, to make him understand, a very simple example was set before Arjuna that,

dehino 'smin yathā dehe

kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā

tathā dehāntara-prāptir

dhīras tatra na muhyati

(BG 2.13)

"My dear Arjuna, just like the living spark, the living self, is within this body from the womb of the mother, it is developing when, after the father's-mother combination, there is a form of body just like a pea, and then that pea-like form develops within the womb of the mother and, after ten months, there is no more space in the womb of the mother. So the child comes out and again grows.

Lecture on BG 13.8-12 -- Bombay, October 2, 1973:

I talked with Professor Kotovsky in Moscow. He said, "Swamiji, after annihilation of this body, everything is finished." They have no idea that there is soul. And in India even the poorest man, he knows that, "There is next life. I existed in the past, and I will exist in the future." This Vedic conclusion is known even to the poorest man, illiterate man. That is, of course, the difference between East and West.

So anyway, our position is that we should not identify this body as self. Kṛṣṇa says here that

adhyātma-jñāna-nityatvaṁ

tattva-jñānārtha-darśanam

etaj jñānam iti proktam

ajñānaṁ yad ataḥ anyathā

Adhyātmā-jñānam, to understand oneself as the spirit soul, that jñānam. Adhyātmā-jñānam, tattva-jnanārtha-darśanam. Philosophy should be utilized. Logic and philosophy should be utilized for self-realization, not for simply mental speculation.

Lecture on BG 13.8-12 -- Bombay, October 2, 1973:

Time is there already. You cannot manufacture time like this or like that. It will go on. It is eternal. It is eternal.

Just like Kṛṣṇa has said in the second chapter of Bhagavad-gītā that "Arjuna, you and me and all the soldiers and kings who have assembled here, it is not that we did not exist in the past. We are existing now, and we shall continue to exist in the future." So this eternity of the soul we do not know. We are simply identifying ourself with this body, and we are simply interested for the bodily comforts of life. This is the civilization, going on.

So although we have got this Bhagavad-gītā, at least in India the education should have been on the line of Bhagavad-gītā for the benefit of the people of India. Unfortunately nobody is taking care. Even though there are some propaganda of understanding Bhagavad-gītā, they are interpreting in their own way to fulfill their own ambition. This is going on. So here Kṛṣṇa says, amānitvam, amānitvam. What is that amānitvam? Read the purport.

Lecture on BG 16.13-15 -- Hawaii, February 8, 1975:

Nitāi: "The demoniac person thinks: 'So much wealth do I have today, and I will gain more according to my schemes. So much is mine now, and it will increase in the future more and more. He is my enemy and I have killed him and my other enemy will also be killed. I am the lord of everything, I am the enjoyer. I am perfect, powerful and happy. I am the richest man, surrounded by aristocratic relatives. There is none so powerful and happy as I am. I shall perform sacrifices, I shall give charity and thus I shall I rejoice.' In this way such persons are deluded by ignorance."

Prabhupāda:

idam adya mayā labdham

imaṁ prāpsye manoratham

idam astīdam api me

bhaviṣyati punar dhanam

asau mayā hataḥ śatrur

haniṣye cāparān api

īśvaro 'ham ahaṁ bhogī

siddho 'haṁ balavān sukhī

āḍhyo 'bhijanavān asmi

ko 'nyo 'sti sadṛśo mayā

yakṣye dāsyāmi modiṣya

ity ajñāna-vimohitāḥ

So last night we discussed about the demons' thinking. Āśā-pāśa-śatair baddhāḥ. He does not know "So long I shall be aspiring more and more, I am getting entangled more and more within this material world. Because Kṛṣṇa is so kind, he has given me freedom to enjoy this material world, but according to my work, I am becoming implicated. So long I'll have a pinch of desire for enjoying this material world, I'll have to accept a typical body." This is the law of nature. When you'll actually be free from all material desires, then it is called mukti, mukti, liberation. That is liberation. So that standard of mukti, mukti standard or mukti platform, is bhakti-yoga.

Lecture on BG Lecture -- Ahmedabad, December 8, 1972:

That is the difference. God does not forget past, present, future. God knows future. God knows past. And present, what to speak of? In the Second Chapter you'll find also. Kṛṣṇa says that "It is not that you, Me and all these kings and soldiers were not existing in the past. And we are existing at present. And it is not that we shall not existed in the future." These are the things.

So if you try to understand Bhagavad-gītā as it is, then we get some benefit. Not some benefit: the ultimate benefit. What is the purpose of Bhagavad-gītā? Kṛṣṇa has come. Kṛṣṇa's instructing Arjuna. Aiming at Arjuna, He's instructing the whole world. What is the position of the living entities, what is our constitutional position? We are all living entities, and Kṛṣṇa is God. What is Kṛṣṇa's position? What is our position? What is this material nature? What is the time factor? What is our activities? These things are very nicely explained. Prakṛti, puruṣa, jīva, and time, and karma. These five things are very nicely described. So prakṛti is also eternal. Prakṛti means the energy, energy of the Supreme.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Lecture on SB 1.2.1 -- New Vrindaban, September 1, 1972:

Our experience is whatever form we can think of, even Brahma's form, that is liable to be annihilated. But God's form is not like that. So when in the Vedic language it is said, nirākāra—means nir, nir means "not," and ākāra means "form"—that means "God's form is not like ours." It is not that He has no form. He has form, but His form is different from ours.

And knowledge Now, knowledge, so far our knowledge is concerned, it is very limited. We do not know We can have some experience of our present knowledge, but we do not know what was in the past and what is going to happen in the future. Present also, our knowledge is imperfect. Just like we are seeing the sun daily, but what is our experience? The sun is bigger than this planet, fourteen hundred thousand times bigger. Fourteen hundred thousand pieces of this earthly planet can be thrown into the sun planet, it is so big. Unless it is so big, how it is possible the sun planet is distributing heat and light for millions and millions of years, and although it is situated ninety millions miles?

Lecture on SB 1.2.6 -- Vrndavana, October 17, 1972:

Nobody can induce Him. But naturally, He is very soft-hearted. So Mukunda was standing outside in every day's meeting, and he was asking other devotees, "I'll not be able to see Lord Caitanya anymore?" So they asked Caitanya Mahāprabhu that "You have forbidden Mukunda to come before You, but he's asking only if there will be any opportunity in the future to see You." Caitanya Mahāprabhu said: "Yes, after three hundred millions of years, he can see Me." So the devotees informed Mukunda, "Caitanya Mahāprabhu said that after three hundred millions of years, He'll be able to see you." He began to dance: "Oh, that's nice. That's nice."

Āśā-bandhaḥ samutkaṇṭhā nāma-gāne sadā ruciḥ. This is the sign of pure, advanced devotee. He's never disappointed. Ahaitukī. There is no motive. "My Lord is there. My duty is to serve." That's all. "Whether I shall be benefited, whether my senses will be satisfied, gratified..." These are conditions. Unconditional.

Lecture on SB 1.2.8 -- New Vrindaban, September 6, 1972:

Hiraṇyakaśipu tried to live forever. He underwent severe penances to become immortal. It was not possible. That is not. Of course, the lunatic scientist says that "By scientific advancement we shall become immortal." They are lunatic. It is not possible. Because in the past there is no such incident, so in the present there is no such incident, how you can expect in the future such incident? That is not possible.

Therefore, intelligent persons, they should try to get the ultimate transmigration. Ultimate transmigration means go back to home, back to Godhead. That should be the actual aim of life. That is first class intelligent. But they do not know. Therefore we are trying to render our humble service to the human society, to give this information, that "You are trying for so many things for becoming happy, but instead of being happy, you are becoming hippie. So please take this Kṛṣṇa consciousness and actually you will be happy." That is our mission. That is our mission.

Lecture on SB 1.2.31 -- Vrndavana, November 10, 1972:

"I know everything," Kṛṣṇa says, "past, present, future." Just like Kṛṣṇa said to Arjuna, imaṁ vivasvate yogaṁ proktavān aham avyayam, aham avyayam: (BG 4.1) "Formerly I spoke to the sun-god." So because He does not forget past, present, future... Vijñānena vijṛmbhitaḥ. He's always conscious, fully conscious. Whatever was done in the past, what will happen in the future, and what is happening, everything is known to Kṛṣṇa. Vijñānena vijṛmbhitaḥ. But we have lost our consciousness. We have lost our memory that we have past, that we are parts and parcels of Kṛṣṇa, and we are identifying with this material world in different capacities. Somebody's identifying with this body; somebody's identifying with the society or community or nation or country. But Kṛṣṇa does not become such materially affected. Vijñānena vijṛmbhitaḥ. He's always conscious.

Lecture on SB 1.3.9 -- Los Angeles, September 15, 1972:

They are thinking, which will never be successful, that by advancement of material comforts they will be happy. Therefore the śāstra says impossible or very difficult or by a kind of hope which will never to be fulfilled. It was never successful in the past, it is not successful in the present, therefore in the future also it will never be successful. But they have taken up this philosophy of sense gratification materially.

Because we have got this propensity that we shall be able to become happy by sense gratification, therefore God comes to teach them. Just like Bhagavad-gītā, Lord Kṛṣṇa says,

yadā yadā hi dharmasya

glānir bhavati bhārata

abhyutthānam adharmasya

tadātmānaṁ sṛjāmy aham

(BG 4.7)

"As soon as people are misled in their occupational duty, I will take my incarnation." So Nara-nārāyaṇa, They are incarnation of God, but They underwent severe penances. The Nara-nārāyaṇa temple is there in Badarikāśrama in the Himalayas. People still go there to show their respects to Nara-nārāyaṇa Ṛṣi. So God or His representative comes always to help us, to deliver us from the wrong path of sense gratification. They executed very difficult...

Lecture on SB 1.7.30-31 -- Vrndavana, September 26, 1976:

Where there is no relativity. Everyone is as good as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. That is oneness. Not that one has become as powerful as the Supreme Lord. No. Maybe as powerful. Still, they're individual. They're not amalgamation. That is wrong theory. Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā that in the past we were all individuals. He says that "It is not that in the past we did not exist, and it is not that in the future we shall not exist. We shall exist." Nityaḥ śāśvato yaṁ na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). So we are eternal. We existed in the past, we are existing now, and we shall continue to exist. And individual. Kṛṣṇa says, "You, Me, and all these soldiers and kings, they are all individual, and they existed as individual in the past, and we are existing now as individuals, and we shall continue to exist as individuals." So there are three phases of time: past, present, and future. So there is no question of being amalgamated at any time. They remain always individuals. And this is in the material..., either material world or spiritual world, the individuality is there. It never ceases.

Lecture on SB 1.8.22 -- Los Angeles, April 14, 1973:

If one simply reads this Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, his education is the topmost. Vidyā bhāgavatāvadhiḥ. There is something topmost, ultimate. So for education, vidyā, this Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. If one studies Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, he is well versed in every subject matter.

So we want to create a new generation in your country so that in the future there'll be fluent speaker in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and preach all over the country, and your country will be saved. This is our program. We have come here not to exploit your country, but to give you something substantial. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. So read Bhāgavatam, pronounce the verses very nicely. Therefore we're repeating. You hear the records and try to repeat. Simply by chanting the mantra, you'll be purified. Simply by chant... Even you do not understand a single word of it, simply if you chant, this vibration has got such power. Śṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṇaḥ puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtanaḥ (SB 1.2.17).

Lecture on SB 1.8.25 -- Vrndavana, October 5, 1974:

Because they do not take the instruction of the jagad-guru... He is describing, na jāyate na mriyate vā kadācit. Kadācit, at any time. Not that in the past he was dying. Kṛṣṇa says again in the Second Chapter that "All these soldiers and kings who have assembled there, so also you and Me, we existed in the past, we are existing now, and we shall continue to exist in the future." Therefore kadācit. Kadācit means "at any time." "Any time" means past, present and future. Time has got three factors. So at any time. Kadācit means at any time the living entity is never born, never dies. The... If this is the fact, why you do not think, "Then why I am dying? I must have to die. Death is as sure as anything."

Lecture on SB 1.8.27 -- Los Angeles, April 19, 1973:

That is not possible. Because we are created, not created, from the very beginning... We are separated part and parcel. We are separated parts and parcels. therefore Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā: "My dear Arjuna, you, Me, and all these persons who have assembled in this battlefield, we were in the past individuals. We are, at present, individuals, and in the future, we shall continue to remain as individuals. We are all individual." Nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13). He's the Supreme nitya, Supreme Living Force amongst many, innumerable living forces. We are jīva, innumerable, ananta. There is no counting how many we are. Sa anantyāya kalpate. So this ananta, innumerable living entities, and Kṛṣṇa is also a living entity, but He's the chief. That is the difference. Nityo nityānā...

Lecture on SB 2.1.1 -- New York, April 10, 1969:

At that time, wherever you go, wherever you touch, he'll be spiritualized. Similarly, the iron... Without being spiritualized, without being red hot, if you touch, it will not act.

So every one of us, those who have come to this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, expected to preach in the future and to become a spiritual master also in the future. But first of all you must spiritualize yourself; otherwise it is useless. So kṛṣṇa-śakti vinā nahe. Without... Just like without being red hot, you cannot burn any other thing. Similarly, without being fully spiritualized, you cannot make others spiritualized. Therefore we have to follow the paramparā system. The disciplic succession, as we get the knowledge, as we get the power, as we get the instruction, so we have to follow. That will help me to spiritualize myself. And when you are spiritualized... You'll have to wait for that time. Then, wherever you will preach, the result will be there.

So by the grace of Lord Kṛṣṇa, Śukadeva Gosvāmī has reached Parīkṣit Mahārāja.

Lecture on SB 2.3.15 -- Los Angeles, June 1, 1972:

Children's nature is to imitate, because they have to learn. So nature has given them the propensity to imitate. So the first imitation begins from the parents. So if the parent is nice Kṛṣṇa devotee, naturally the children become devotees. That is the opportunity of taking birth in a Vaiṣṇava family. So you are all Vaiṣṇavas. If your children do not become Vaiṣṇava in the future, then it is a great, I meant to say, fault on your part. So you should be very cautious, careful, that children are not going astray, they are becoming actually Kṛṣṇa conscious. That means you have to imitate, er, you have to be devotee, and they will imitate. By imitation, imitation, imitation, they will come to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Then they will never give it up. Go on.

Lecture on SB 3.25.33-34 -- Bombay, December 3, 1974:

Even physically they are different. Similarly, although we are very small particle, we are different identity, not one.

In the Bhagavad-gītā Kṛṣṇa has explained that "All these soldiers and kings who have assembled here, you and Me, all of us we existed in the past, and we are now present, and in the future also, we shall exist." But Kṛṣṇa never said that "Arjuna, you and Me and all these soldiers or kings, we shall become one." He never said. He never said. "We shall keep our individuality." This is knowledge. And in another place Kṛṣṇa says, mamaivāṁśo jīva-loke jīva-bhūtaḥ sanātanaḥ (BG 15.7). We are part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa or God sanātana, eternally, not that at the present moment I have become separated from the spirit soul, and when I shall be uncovered by this gross and subtle body, we shall become one. Their theory is like that. Ghaṭākāśa, poṭākāśa. Just like ghaṭa, a pot. In the pot there is also sky, and outside the pot there is also sky. Outside the pot there is big sky, and within the sky, within the pot, a small sky.

Lecture on SB 5.5.2 -- Hyderabad, April 12, 1975:

"My dear Arjuna, you, Me, and all these kings and soldiers who have assembled here, they were in the past like this," that means they have forms, "and they're existing like this. And they'll continue to exist." Where is formless? You see the (indistinct) Bhagavad-gītā. He says in the past all of them existed like this, and we're existing now like this, past present, and in the future they'll continue. So where is formlessness? There is no question of formlessness. Nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13). When there is such question, formlessness means that is not material form. But there is form. Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ (Bs. 5.1), vigraha means form. But that is sat-cid-ānanda, eternal, full of bliss, and full of knowledge. This is not this form. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritaḥ, paraṁ bhāvam ajānanto: (BG 9.11) "These rascals, they do not know what I am. Therefore he's thinking that My form and his form is the same." Avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā, unless one is mūḍha, he cannot say that God is formless. God has form.

Lecture on SB 5.5.3 -- Boston, May 4, 1968:

Guest (4): Will the Swami give another service in the Arlington Street Church any time in the future?

Prabhupāda: Arlington?

Jadurāṇī: Are you going to be there again, he wants to know.

Prabhupāda: Arlington Church? Yes, I was there.

Guest (4): Will you be there again some time in the future?

Prabhupāda: That, if you arrange, I can go. I am at your service. I have dedicated my life for this. Whenever you call me, whenever you invite me, I can go anywhere. Why Arlington Church? I can go to any place. Because it is my duty to give you, to deliver you this message of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and Bhagavad-gītā. That is my duty.

Guest (5): Swami, what is om?

Prabhupāda: Om is the concentrated name of God.

Lecture on SB 5.5.18 -- Vrndavana, November 6, 1976:

They are just like the sunshine. The sunshine, it is not one homogeneous substance. There are millions and trillions of shining particles. Combination is called sunshine. It is not that they are merged. Similarly, every individual soul is individual. Kṛṣṇa says, "Arjuna, you, Me, and all these soldiers and kings, they were existing before, they are now existing now, and they will continue to exist in the future." So where is mixture? You, me, and all of you, we are different individuals, and Kṛṣṇa says—not ordinary person—that "They were individuals in the past, they are individual now, and they will continue to become individual." So where is this question of merging? There is no question of merging. Mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūtaḥ jīva-loka sanātanaḥ (BG 15.7), eternally they are individuals, and eternally they will keep individual.

Lecture on SB 5.5.35 -- Vrndavana, November 22, 1976:

The fact is that the bird, green bird, existing with the green tree, but due to my defect in the eyes I am seeing it has become one.

Actually it is not so. Every individual living entity is always individual. That is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā. The Kṛṣṇa said to Arjuna, "My dear Arjuna, we are individuals. In the past we were individuals, at the present we are individuals, and in the future we shall continue to be individuals." There is no question of oneness. Oneness means to agree to serve Kṛṣṇa. That is oneness. There is no disobedience, "Whatever You say, I accept"—that is oneness. Ānukūlyena kṛṣṇānuśīlanam (CC Madhya 19.167). That is oneness. At the present moment we differ. We make differences. "Here is the opinion of the American. Here is the opinion of Indian. Here is the opinion of the German. Here is the opinion of the śūdra, and so on, so on. So here means disagreement, always disagreement. Because I am envious of you, you are envious of me, so how there can be agreement?

Lecture on SB 5.6.10 -- Bombay, December 28, 1976:

Maybe some power; no clear idea. Neither they are interested to know. But so far we are concerned, we have got full description of the Lord and His pastimes, His activities. Everything is recorded in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and other Vedic literatures. And God says in the Bhagavad-gītā personally that "I was existing in the past and I shall continue to exist in the future." Similarly, the living entities, they also existed in the past and they will continue to exist in the future individually. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā in the Second Chapter. It is not that we shall be finished in future or there was no existence in the past. No. We are, both of us, we are eternal. God, Kṛṣṇa, and we, living entities, we are eternal. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). Our destruction of this material body does not mean we, as spirit soul, we are destroyed. No.

Lecture on SB 5.6.10 -- Bombay, December 28, 1976:

To understand this truth, the varṇāśrama system required. Without this varṇāśrama system nobody can understand that we are individual person, we existed in the past, and we shall exist in the future, and we are existing at present. Anyone can understand. There was no change in the past, neither there will be change in the future. Simply we change the dress: tathā dehāntara-praptir dhīras tatra na muhyati (BG 2.13). This is our self-realization. This is called ātma-tattva-jñāna. But people in the present day, they are not interested. Apaśyatām ātma-tattvam (SB 2.1.2). Yāvan na jijñāsata krūraḥ ātma-tattvam. Parābhavas tāvad abodha-jāto yāvan na jijñāsata ātma-tattvam. Our activities, they are all defeat. The difference... Just like you are constructing this huge, gorgeous building and another person also constructing another huge skyscraper building. So what is the difference? The difference is here we are doing on the ātma-tattva, and they are doing for being defeated in the material world. That is the difference. You'll find the same activities, dealing with stones and bricks and workers, engineers. But one is based on ātma-tattva and the other is based on without any ātma-tattva. That is the difference.

Lecture on SB 6.1.6 -- Nellore, January 5, 1976:

So Parīkṣit Mahārāja became very anxious how this suffering humanity can be saved. Here it is said, nānā ugra yātanāt neyāt tan me vyākhyātum arhasi: "Kindly give me some enlightenment how these people can be saved from this severe type of suffering." So at the present moment in this age of Kali people are so fallen low that they do not know what is going to happen in the future. They are dismissing the whole problem by saying that there is no next life. This is very precarious condition of the modern civilization. So as there are comfortable life, we can see there are discomfortable life also. So there is understanding of pāpa and puṇya. Especially in the human form of life one should know what is pāpa and what is puṇya. The human life is responsible life.

Lecture on SB 6.1.11 -- Honolulu, May 12, 1976:

So this is the instruction of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. If we take seriously, then there is no problem. Otherwise the problems will go on, and the so-called rascal scientists will give up bluff that "We are making solution of all problem." It is never solved. It will never be solved in the future also, unless we take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is a fact. If you like, you can take it; otherwise suffer.

Lecture on SB 6.1.13-14 -- Los Angeles, June 26, 1975:

That means we are all individuals, because when Kṛṣṇa was speaking in the battlefield, He is person, and He was teaching Arjuna—he is also person. And the soldiers and other kings, they are also all persons. So Kṛṣṇa says that "It is not that we are imperson in the past or we shall become imperson in the future." No. Just like, take another example, that before our birth, accepting this body, I was a person, you were a person. And according to our personal different activities, pious or impious, we have got this body. So I was person before the beginning of my this body, and after my death, I shall remain a person, and I shall accept another body. Dhīras tatra na muhyati (BG 2.13). Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ. So when I become imperson? Past, present, future, there are three different phases of time. So in the past I was a person, at present I am a person, and in future I shall remain a person. So where is the question of imperson?

Lecture on SB 6.1.22 -- Indore, December 13, 1970:

Therefore I am not God. I do not know... I say "my body," but actually this body has developed, me, as spirit soul, but I do not know how many hairs are there on my head and how it is growing. But He knows. That is a characteristic of the Absolute Truth. He must be knowing everything, and that is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā. Vedahaṁ samatītāni: (BG 7.26) "I know everything in the past. I know what will happen in the future. I know everything." That is God.

When Arjuna was asked to Kṛṣṇa that "How can I accept that You taught this philosophy to sun-god? Because You are my contemporary. We are born practically on the same date." So He replied, "Yes. Both you and Me, we took many, many births. But you have forgotten. I know everything." And that is God. That is God. Abhijñaḥ. God must be cognizant of everything. And I do not know everything, and still, I claim I am God and people accept. How rascal. The Bhāgavata explains that the Absolute Truth is cognizant of everything, abhijñaḥ.

Lecture on SB 6.1.47 -- Dallas, July 29, 1975:

Guṇa-jñāpakaḥ. It is not that every different types of body and living entities have come by chance. This is nonsense. There is no question of chance. Everything is being carried or being conducted by the three modes of material nature. Guṇa-jñāpakaḥ. Evaṁ janma anyayoḥ. As I have got this body according to guṇa, similarly, anyayoḥ, in the future we shall get different types of body according to guṇa. Evaṁ janmānyayor etad. But all these—based on dharma and adharma. The principle is dharma and adharma, our occupational duty according to modes of material nature.

Just like a pig. It is very much fond of eating stool. So if you want to ask, "Why this animal is fond of eating stool?"... So dharma adharma jñāpaka, because in the past life this living entity practiced tamo-guṇa, no discrimination of eating... Tamo-guṇa means no discrimination. Eating... We have got four businesses in this life, so long we have got this material body: āhāra-nidrā-bhaya-maithunaṁ ca, eating, sleeping and sex and defense. These are primary business of the body.

Lecture on SB 6.1.47 -- Detroit, June 13, 1976:

Similarly, Gopal Bhaṭṭa Gosvāmī, he also coming from a very aristocratic brāhmaṇa family in South India. And Śrī Jīva Gosvāmī, the nephew of Rūpa Gosvāmī, in the learned circle, still, in Bengal, they say such a big scholar and philosophy, there was none, and nobody expects a similar philosopher and learned scholar in the future. He was such a big personality, Jīva Gosvāmī. Big, big Māyāvādīs, they were afraid of Jīva Gosvāmī's logic and argument to establish the Vaiṣṇava philosophy.

So it is not... This Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is for very intelligent, high-class, fortunate persons. Because they are going to guide the destiny of the human society. Nānā-śāstra-vicāraṇaika-nipuṇau sad-dharma-saṁsthāpakau lokānāṁ hita-kāriṇau. Their only endeavor is how people will be happy. This is their real mission. Just like Caitanya Mahāprabhu therefore asked to "Take this mission and go village to village, town to town, and spread My mission."

Lecture on SB 6.1.49 -- New Orleans Farm, August 1, 1975:

Pramattaḥ, just like madman. He does not know why he has become mad. He forgets. And by his activities, what is going to happen next, he does not know. Madman.

So this civilization, modern civilization, is just like madman civilization. They have no knowledge of past life, neither they are interested in the future life. Nūnaṁ pramattaḥ kurute vikarma (SB 5.5.4). And fully engaged in sinful activities because they have no knowledge of the past life. Just like a dog. Why he has become dog, that he does not know and what he is going to have next? So a dog might have been in his past life the prime minister, but when he gets the dog's life, he forgets. That is also another influence of māyā. Prakṣepātmikā-śakti, āvaraṇātmikā-śakti. Māyā has got two potencies. If somebody for his past sinful activities has become a dog, and if he remembers that "I was prime minister; now I have become dog," it will be impossible for him to live. Therefore māyā covers his knowledge. Mṛtyu. Mṛtyu means forgetting everything. That is called mṛtyu. So that we have got experience every day and night. When at night we dream in a separate atmosphere, separate life, we forget about this body, that "I am lying down. My body is lying down in a very nice apartment, very nice bedding." No. Suppose he is loitering on the street or he is on the hill.

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

God has got individuality and His devotees or the living entities, even though not devotees, nondevotees, everyone has got individuality. That is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā. Kṛṣṇa says that "I, you, and all these persons who have assembled here in the Battle of Kurukṣetra, they existed in the past, they are existing at the present moment, and they will continue to exist in the future." Now, where is the question of mixing together? They existed as they are existing now, and at the present moment they are existing as individuals, and in the past, they also existed as individuals, and the future, they will continue to exist as individuals. So there is no question of losing the individuality. That's a theory only. No living entity loses his individuality even after liberation. They try to keep mixed up with others. Just like the sunshine is a combination of molecular parts, something shining. Is it not? Similarly, brahmajyoti is combination of the individual parts and parcels of God. But without individual activity they cannot stay in the brahmajyoti for long.

Lecture on SB 7.6.1 -- New York, April 9, 1969:

We don't say born and died, no. (laughter) Appear and disappear. This is the actual explanation. None of us, either Kṛṣṇa or we or all living entities, they appear and disappear. It is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, Lord Kṛṣṇa says in the battlefield, "My dear Arjuna, either you or Me or all the kings and soldiers who have assembled in this battlefield, don't think that they did not exist in the past and they'll not exist in the future." That means they existed in the past and they're existing at present and they would exist also in the future. That means eternal. Eternal, we are all eternal.

But this misunderstanding is... Just like we are... Because the passing phase is this body, and the body is changing, and the final change, when you transmigrate from one body to another, it is called death. Actually, there is no death. Na jāyate na mriyate kadācit. In the Bhagavad-gītā you'll find that the living entity never is born, neither never dies. Na hanyamāne hanyate, hanyamāne śarīre. Then "I see that he is dying." Oh, that is dying not, that is his finishing his this present body.

Lecture on SB 7.7.30-31 -- Mombassa, September 12, 1971:

Devotee (2): Kṛṣṇa knows everything in the past and everything in the future, so can we say it is predestined?

Prabhupāda: Yes, so long within these material laws, it is predestined, but according to karma. Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa (SB 3.31.1). You are doing work, you are acting, and that is being supervised by the superior authorities. And you get a type of body that this living entity has worked in this way, he should get this type of body. Therefore, it is predestined. Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27). That is being automatically done because a materialistic person is associating with different types of the modes of material nature. So he is forming a certain type of body, sattvic, rajasic, tamasic. Therefore, it is predestined. But karmāṇi nirdahati kintu ca bhakti-bhājām (Bs. 5.54), those who are engaged in devotional service, they are not under karma. Their destiny is being prepared by Kṛṣṇa. Even though they are supposed to be doing ordinary work, but because he has surrendered to Kṛṣṇa, his destiny is being manufactured by Kṛṣṇa Himself, not by this material nature. He is not under these material laws. Therefore, he is called mukta, liberated.

Lecture on SB 12.2.1 -- San Francisco, March 18, 1968:

Tri-kāla-jñā. Tri means three, and kāla means time. Time is experienced by three ways: past, present and future. Time limitation, past, present and... Whenever you speak of time, it is past, present or future. So the sages in those days were tri-kāla-jñā. Tri-kāla-jñā means they could understand, they could know what was in the past, what there shall be in the future, and what is at present. Just like in the Bhagavad-gītā Kṛṣṇa says, "My Dear Arjuna, you, Me, I, and all these kings and soldiers who have assembled in this battlefield, they were all individuals, and we are still individual. And in this past, in the future, we shall all remain individuals." That past, present, and future, he explained. Another place Kṛṣṇa says, vedāhaṁ samatītāni (BG 7.26). Atītāni, atītāni means past. Vartamānāni ca, "and present." So that is yogic power. One can know past, present, and future.

Nectar of Devotion Lectures

The Nectar of Devotion -- Vrndavana, October 27, 1972:

Kṛṣṇa also says in the Bhagavad-gītā, "My dear Arjuna, do not think that I, you, or all these soldiers and kings who have assembled in this battlefield, they were not existing in the past. They were. And they are existing at present. And similarly they will exist in the future." That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. So where is the question of merging? And loss of individuality? The individuality remains. It remained in the past. It is, at the present moment, it is continuing. And in the future also, they will remain, the same way. This is clearly explained in the second chapter of Bhagavad-gītā. So merging does not mean, always, that losing one's individuality. The individuality's there. Therefore the theory of merging into the existence of impersonal Brahman is to stay there for some time, again fall down. Just like the same example that the water of the rivers, they merge into the ocean, but again it is evaporated, in the sky, and it falls. Again goes through the river, merges. Bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19). This is going on. One mani..., once manifested, and again merging. This is going on.

The Nectar of Devotion -- Vrndavana, November 5, 1972:

Pradyumna: (reading:) "...committed criminal acts but is not yet arrested for them. Now, as soon as he is detected, arrest is awaiting for him. Is awaiting him. Similarly, for some of our sinful activities we are awaiting distresses in the future, and for others, which are mature, we are suffering at the present moment. In this way..."

Prabhupāda: Yes. This is the chain of accepting different types of bodies, one after another. According to the sinful activities. On the total, without being sinful, nobody accepts this material body. Because in the Bhagavad-gītā we understand: yeṣām anta-gataṁ pāpam, "One who has finished the reaction of his sinful activities," te dvandva-moha-nirmukta... (BG 7.28). Yeṣāṁ anta-gataṁ pāpaṁ janānāṁ puṇya-karmaṇām... Puṇya-karma. Puṇya-karma means the sublime puṇya-karma is devotional service. Śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ smaraṇaṁ pāda-sevanam (SB 7.5.23). This is the topmost puṇya-karma. Because, as it is stated in the Bhāgavata, śṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṇaḥ puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtanaḥ (SB 1.2.17).

The Nectar of Devotion -- Vrndavana, November 5, 1972:

Pradyumna: "There are many results of past sinful activities for which we are suffering at the present moment, and we may be suffering in the future due to our present sinful activities, but all of these reactions to sinful deeds can immediately be stopped if we take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness."

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Pradyumna: "As evidence for this..."

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa consciousness, if we take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, automatically we become immune from sinful activities. The devotional service... The mind, being engaged on the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, as Ambarīṣa Mahārāja did: sa vai manaḥ kṛṣṇa-padāravindayor vacāṁsi vaikuṇṭha-guṇānuvarṇane... (SB 9.4.18).

The Nectar of Devotion -- Calcutta, January 29, 1973:

Not that I mix up, I lose my individuality. I have got individuality. I must go on with individuality. And even individuality's never stopped. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is said that "All these kings, you and Me, all of us, we existed in the past, we are now existing, and in the future also we shall exist." There is no question of intermingling the individuality. The individuality's there, but individuality sacrificed, full agreement. Full agreement. That is oneness. Just like in our Society, I am the head. So everyone is in agreement with me. That is oneness. Not that my disciples, my students, have lost their individuality. They're using their individuality to improve the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement—but sanctioned by me. That is oneness. That is oneness. Similarly, our devotional service is like that. We, varieties of work we are doing, but we must see whether Kṛṣṇa is satisfied. That's all. Svanuṣṭhitasya dharmasya saṁsiddhir hari-toṣaṇam (SB 1.2.13). This is our philosophy. Svanuṣṭhitasya dharmasya.

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures

Lecture on CC Adi-lila 1.10 -- Mayapur, April 3, 1975:

That is the distinction. God is person; you are also person; I am also person. We exist eternally, as it is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. Kṛṣṇa said to Arjuna that "You, Me, all these soldiers and kings who have assembled there, it is not that they did not exist in the past. They are existing in the present, and they will continue to exist in that way in the future." That is called nityānāṁ cetanānām.

So this is the process of creation, that the Garbhodakaśāyī, here, Kāraṇodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, from His breathing, He created from the breathing, from the pores of the body, He created innumerable universes, and in each and every universe He entered again. And entering there, He produced a lotus flower. Within the stem of that lotus flower there are so many planets. Just see the gigantic lotus stem. These are to be known from the śāstra. You cannot imagine how the creation takes place, huge creation. That sort of explanation—"There was a chunk, and it exploded"—no, these are not explanation. Here is the explanation, in the śāstra. Śāstra cakṣuṣāt.

Lecture on CC Adi-lila 7.119 -- Gorakhpur, February 17, 1971:

This is temporary form. The real form is spiritual form. Therefore nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13). And Kṛṣṇa also says in the Second Chapter that "Both you and Me and all these soldiers and kings who have assembled before us, they were existing in the past, they are existing now, at present, and they will continue to exist in the future." So they... From our present experience we can see that all the living entities are in form. Therefore, if they existed in the past, they existed in the past as forms, and they'll continue to exist in the future as forms, there is no question of formlessness. There is no question of form... But because we cannot see the form in these material eyes... Just like there is a form in the body, but when that spirit is passing from this body, we cannot see. A medical man cannot see because he hasn't the eyes to see. But it is not that a jīvātmā is formless. No. He hasn't got the eyes to see. Ataḥ śrī-kṛṣṇa-nāmādi na bhaved grāhyam indriyaiḥ (CC Madhya 17.136). Just like I am seeing you, you are seeing me. But what I am seeing? I am seeing your body, shirt and coat. You are seeing my shirt and coat. But when I pass away from this body or you pass away from this body, neither I can see you, neither you can see me.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.100 -- Washington, D.C., July 5, 1976:

No, sometimes talks. (laughter) So we should have common sense, that where is the question of... And Kṛṣṇa says in the Second Chapter that "My dear Arjuna, both you, Me and all these soldiers and kings who are assembled here, we existed in the past, we are now existing, and we shall continue to exist in the future." So three things: first person, second person and third person. I am first person, you are second person and all others third person. So they existed individually in the past, they are existing now, and they will continue to exist like that. Then where is imperson? There are three things, three different phases, past, present and future. In all the times, if they are individual, where is imperson? Rather, Kṛṣṇa has condemned, avyaktaṁ vyaktim āpannam manyante mām abuddhayaḥ (BG 7.24). Those who are rascals, they think avyaktam, impersonal. Now He has become person. Avyaktaṁ vyaktim āpannaṁ manyante mām. Mām means individual person. Abuddhayaḥ: he has no intelligence. So how He can be imperson?

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.358-359 -- New York, December 29, 1966:

"I know everything about atītāni, what is past, everything what is past, and I know what is present, I know what is future." And, on this understanding, Kṛṣṇa says in the Second Chapter, you may remember, that "You, Me, and all these persons who have assembled here, they were individual person in the past, they are individual persons now, and they will continue to be individual person in the future." This is consciousness, anvayāt itarataś ca. Now again, what sort of consciousness? Wherefrom He has got this consciousness? Just like we have got our consciousness from the Supreme Lord, the Supreme Source, and wherefrom the Supreme, or God, He has got His consciousness?

So Bhāgavatam says svarāṭ. Svarāṭ. Svarāṭ means He is independent. His consciousness is not dependent on others' consciousness. Svarāṭ. God, He has got all the knowledge. Yesterday we have been discussing Bhagavān. Bhagavān is full of all knowledge.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 22.14-20 -- New York, January 10, 1967:

Although we find that it is very nice process, but still, there are some impediments which restrict us not to follow this principle. Now, one who cannot follow this principle, for them these different process are prescribed so that some day in the future he can have this opportunity of becoming a servant of Kṛṣṇa. Because that is the final goal.

So here Lord Caitanya says that kṛṣṇa-bhakti haya abhidheya-pradhāna. For self-realization, if you want to realize yourself or if you want to get out of these material clutches, then the main function is to become in Kṛṣṇa consciousness and be engaged in the service of the Lord directly. And bhakti-mukha-nirīkṣaka karma-yoga-jñāna. And other processes, they're also admitted, but they are dependent on this process. That means if by karma-yoga, when you acquire knowledge, then that is another step forward. Then by jñāna-yoga, when you are able to meditate, by jñāna-yoga you can understand the Supersoul and your soul. And when you understand also that by the individual soul the Supersoul has to be seen by meditation or focus, that is called dhyāna-yoga. Then when you understand Supersoul, then go further.

Arrival Addresses and Talks

Arrival Lecture -- Dallas, March 3, 1975:

There was two teachers-one for teaching me A-B-C-D, and one for teaching me mṛdaṅga. So the one teacher was waiting and the other teacher was teaching me how to play on mṛdaṅga. So my mother would be angry that "What is this nonsense? You are teaching mṛdaṅga? What he will do with this mṛdaṅga?" (chuckles) But perhaps my father wanted that I should be a great mṛdaṅga player in the future. (laughter) Therefore I am very much indebted to my father, and I have dedicated my book, Kṛṣṇa book, to him. He wanted this. He wanted me to be preacher of Bhāgavata, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and player of mṛdaṅga and to become servant of Rādhārāṇī. So every parent should think like that; otherwise one should not become father and mother. That is the injunction in the śāstra. That is stated in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Fifth Canto, pitā na sa syāj jananī na sa syād gurur na sa syāt sva-jano na sa syāt. In this way, the conclusion is, na mocayed yaḥ samupeta-mṛtyum. If one is unable to rescue his disciple from the imminent danger of death, he should not become a guru.

Arrival Conversation -- Los Angeles, June 20, 1975:

Prabhupāda: Well, it is not my book; it is Kṛṣṇa's book. I am trying my best to present it as it is. That's all. That much you can say my, but there is nothing mine.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The effect of these books is hard to perceive immediately because we can't imagine how... So many millions of books have gone out. In the future they will all fructify as devotees, the people who have read them.

Prabhupāda: Yes. When they will read, then they will get. Nowadays in the Sixth Canto, Fourth Chapter, the soul and how the soul is covered, that is being described wonderfully. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam amalaṁ purāṇam. Vidvāṁś cakre sātvata-saṁhitām. It is written by the most learned Vyāsadeva, vidvāṁs, and sātvata-saṁhitām. How merciful he was. He is still living, Vyāsadeva. He is still existing.

General Lectures

Lecture -- Seattle, October 7, 1968:

That means we living entities, we are also eternals, but He is the chief eternal. So if we are persons, then He is also person. In the Bhagavad-gītā also, the Lord says that "Myself, yourself, My dear Arjuna, and all these kings and soldiers who have come here, assembled here, they are all persons. They were all persons in the past, they are persons at present, and they will continue as persons in the future." These things are there. So individual soul or God, every one of us is person. Each and every one of us—person. Imperson is another feature of the person. Just like the same example. In sun planet there is person, the predominating deity, and his personal effulgence is the sunshine. The sunshine is imperson, but the planet is localized, and the predominating deity is person. The Bhagavata confirms it, brahmeti paramātmeti bhagavān iti śabdyate (SB 1.2.11). The Absolute Truth is one. Just like the sun, the sunshine, and the deity within the sun, that is one unit. But some portion is called sunshine, some portion is called sun planet, some portion is called the deity.

Lecture -- Seattle, October 11, 1968:

The Bhagavad-gītā, most of you might have seen Bhagavad-gītā. It is clearly stated in the Second Chapter when Kṛṣṇa, or the Supreme Personality of Godhead, was explaining Arjuna, He said that "Yourself, Myself, and all these people, or the soldiers or the kings who have assembled here, they were individuals in the past, they are individuals at present, and they'll continue individuals in the future." So individuality cannot be cancelled. That is not possible. The only difference is, my individuality or Kṛṣṇa's individuality, is that my individuality is limited, but Kṛṣṇa's individuality is unlimited. That is the... Just like you select one person leader because his intelligence is greater than you, something greater than you. Therefore you select somebody as your leader. So in the Vedic literature the definition of God is also there, who is God. Now everyone is claiming, "I am God," but they do not know what is God. They are falsely claiming. But if you find out Parasara-sūtra, there is definition of God. What is that?

Lecture 'Nobody Wants to Die' -- Boston, May 7, 1968:

It may be in the future, the spaceships are perfect and you can go to the moon planet. But even if you go to the moon planet, that is not your highest perfection, because within this material world, if you go to any planet, moon or the highest planet, Brahmaloka... Moon planet is very near to us. It is only few hundreds thousands miles away. But there are many planets very, very high. The Brahmaloka, they are also described. Even in the Bhagavad-gītā there is description. So ā-brahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ punar āvartino 'rjuna (BG 8.16). You can go there. Just like I came to your country—very nice, comfortable apartment, all things are available; everything all right. But now my visa period is finished. I'll have to go to Canada. You see? Similarly, if you have got so much restriction in, in a ordinary state that people from other parts of the world may come but they can stay here for six months or one year, or as limited by the visa, then go back, similarly, anywhere you go within this material world, you have to come back. Ā-brahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ punar āvartino 'rjuna (BG 8.16). You have to come back. And besides that, any planet you go within this material world, the four principles of material sufferings are there. What are those?

Lecture at Caitanya Matha -- Visakhapatnam, February 19, 1972:

Kṛṣṇa answered this point, "My dear Arjuna, you are My eternal friend. You are always with Me. When I instructed the Sun-god, you were also present, but you have forgotten. I do not forget." That is the difference between Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna. Vedāhaṁ samatītāni (BG 7.26). Kṛṣṇa knows everything. Whatever has happened in the past, whatever will happen in the future, and what is happening at the present, vedāhaṁ samatītāni, but we do not know. First of all this is, we should understand this is the difference between God and the living entity. (break)

The jīva are explained in the Bhagavad-gītā as part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. The example is given, just like the fire, big fire, and the sparks. The sparks are small, but, but in quality they are fire. They are not different from fire. If a spark of fire falls on your cloth, it will immediately burn. So the burning quality is there, either in the big fire or the small fire. Therefore, qualitatively we are one with God. The quality of burning.

Rotary Club Lecture -- Hyderabad, November 29, 1972:

So therefore... In the Bhagavad-gītā also, it is said that, when Kṛṣṇa was advising Arjuna in the Battlefield, He said, "My dear Arjuna, all these persons, you and Me, and all these persons, it is not that we did not exist in the past. Neither it is so that we shall not exist in the future." This is... So these three things are pointed out: "You, Me and all these soldiers and kings." So all of them are individual. All of them are individual persons. And Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Person, He's also individual person. But what is the difference between Kṛṣṇa and ourself? That Kṛṣṇa, as it is stated in the Vedas, eka, that one singular number person. Vidadhāti kāmān. Eko bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān. He's supplying the necessities of life to all these plural number living entities. So therefore He's the supreme controller.

Lecture at Indo-American Society 'East and West' -- Calcutta, January 31, 1973:

That is the difference. That is the distinction between East and West. In India, go to a village and you ask him that "What you are?" He will say: "Sir, I am suffering or enjoying according to my past karma." Means: "I was living in the past. So according to my action, I am suffering or enjoying the reaction in this life." He believes in the transmigration of the soul. He believes in the future life also. He is very cautious to commit sin because he knows that "If I commit sin in this life, I'll have to suffer next life." This is Eastern life. And in the Western country, I talked with so many big, big professors, especially in Moscow. I talked with Professor Kotovsky. He said: "Swamijī, after death, then everything finished. After death, everything finished." This is the difference, East and West. In the Eastern country, especially in India, a common man will understand the existence of soul. And in the Western countries, a topmost man, professor, he does not know what is soul. That is the difference.

Lecture -- Jakarta, February 26, 1973:

This is the defect of the modern civilization. But actually what Kṛṣṇa is trying to instruct Arjuna... Arjuna means everyone. He's not simply talking with Arjuna. Arjuna is simply via media. He's talking to the whole human society, intelligent class of men, that "We existed, we are existing now, and we shall exist also in the future." This is called sanātana, eternity. So na caiva na bhaviṣyāmaḥ: "In the future we also shall exist." Now we should consider what is the problem now: I was present in the past, I am now present in the present, and I shall exist in the future. Then what is my problem? The problem is why I am changing this position of eternity? I am sanātana. I am eternal. Ahaṁ brahmāsmi. That is the real existence, that I am Brahman. Brahman means eternal. But Kṛṣṇa is Parabrahman. Param means the supreme, the chief. Therefore there are two terms in the Vedic language: ātmā, paramātmā; brahman, parabrahman; īśvara, parameśvara. There are two terms. We are not parameśvara, not paramātmā, not parabrahman. We are ātmā, īśvara... We can say, "I am īśvara." What does it mean, īśvara? Īśvara means controller.

Lecture -- Jakarta, February 28, 1973:

Kṛṣṇa says that "Both Arjuna, you, Me and all these persons, the soldiers and the kings who are assembled in this Battlefield of Kurukṣetra, don't think that they did not exist in the past nor they will not exist in the future." That means present, you can see. Just like we are sitting together. Present we can see that you are there, I am here. Similarly, in the past also we are existing, and in the future also we shall exist in the same way. As you are individual souls, we are assembled together for understanding something. Similarly, every individual soul is different from one another. We can understand by our present experiment. You are individual soul, I am individual soul. I do not agree with you in every respect, neither you agree with me in every respect. All of us, we have got our individuality. That is our characteristic. That we cannot change. We have got our individuality. We cannot change it. This is our characteristic. And that individuality also meant for giving service. Just like you are all sitting here. Every one of us, we are giving service. Nobody can say... I challenge anybody in this meeting if he can say that he's not serving anybody. No. Everyone is serving.

Lecture What is a Guru? -- London, August 22, 1973:

Therefore guru's business is first to rescue his disciple from ignorance, ignorance. Ajñāna-timirāndhasya. Everyone is suffering out of ignorance; therefore guru's business is to... Just like we go to a school. We go to a school, we send our children to a school. Why? To save him from suffering; to get education. "If my son does not get education, he'll suffer in the future." The same process: to get him out of ignorance, to get him relieved from the suffering. Therefore, guru's business is ajñāna-timirāndhasya jñānāñjana-śalākaya. So sufferings is due to ignorance. Ignorance is compared with darkness. So in the darkness how you can save one? By some light. So guru's business is to take the torchlight of knowledge and present before the ignorant or the disciple in darkness and that gives him, relieves him from the sufferings of darkness or ignorance. This is guru's business.

Lecture at Upsala University Faculty -- Stockholm, September 7, 1973:

He is person. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. In the Second Chapter He says, "My dear Arjuna, I, you, and all these persons who assembled, it is not that we were not existing in the past, it is not that that we shall not exist in the future." When He says "I, you and all these persons," they are all persons. God is also person, Arjuna is also person, and the all other who assembled in the battlefield, they are also persons. So Kṛṣṇa says, "All these persons, they were existing in the past, now they are existing, and in future they will exist." So there is past, present, future. In no time, God is impersonal, neither we are impersonal. We are also personal. And that is also confirmed, nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām eko yo bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān, Kaṭha Upaniṣad (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13), that He is the chief person amongst other persons. We living entities, we are many persons, and God is the chief person. And what is the difference between this person and that person, the singular number person, one, and the plural number person, many? That is explained: eko yo bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān. That one singular number person is supplying all the necessities of these different plural persons.

Philosophy Discussions

Philosophy Discussion on Charles Darwin:

Śyāmasundara: No. It does mean something if you accept that forms are evolving from simple to complex. That means that we can expect in the future that mankind will even be of a more superior nature than they are now.

Prabhupāda: Forms are... One form is superior than the other form. (indistinct) you said.

Karandhara: That possibility is also there. We know that by performances of certain types of sacrifices you can become, and go to the demigod planet...

Prabhupāda: That difference is that one apartment is better than the other apartment. Material.

Śyāmasundara: They would say that from the lowest apartments we are evolving to the better apartments.

Philosophy Discussion on Charles Darwin:

Śyāmasundara: I didn't know we were going to have a class today, but for the next class I wanted to read that article about heredity, genetics, how they think that they might be able to reproduce life in the future.

Prabhupāda: Again "in future."

Śyāmasundara: I have that article, I want to read it and study it first. I wasn't prepared for today.

Prabhupāda: The future... Any fool can say "In future I shall prove." Then what is the difference between scientists and the fool? "Trust no future, however pleasant."

Śyāmasundara: But Darwin is the one who introduced this whole concept that we are evolving towards something better.

Philosophy Discussion on Henri Bergson:

Śyāmasundara: So someone can understand, someone can know what the life force is going to do in the future, how it will manifest itself in the future?

Prabhupāda: The future, because he is eternally servant of God, so now he has forgotten. He wants to become master, and the material nature is kicking him, life after life. So one day he'll come to his senses and become again, renovate himself to become servant of God.

Śyāmasundara: So we can predict that everyone will...

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Everyone will be. Somebody sooner, somebody later.

Śyāmasundara: So that the purpose of the life force then is to eventually go back...

Prabhupāda: Just like when a man becomes a prisoner, he will be freed, he'll be a free man at the end of his term, and within this term he is simply kicked by the police, so that he may not come back again to prison house.

Philosophy Discussion on Henri Bergson:

Śyāmasundara: He enjoys it. He enjoys being flattered. His followers are a bunch of shaggy hippies, so who respects their judgment? (break) So Bergson wants to search out what is the pattern of evolution, how it will go in the future, and he says that because men have progressed from the (indistinct).

Prabhupāda: (indistinct)

Śyāmasundara: Since you know beforehand everything before (indistinct).

Prabhupāda: You can change your mind. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says (indistinct). That is explained in the Bhāgavatam... (break) ...progress, why do you talk of these things? What do you think, eh? That is explained in the Bhāgavatam: andhā yathāndair upanīyamānās. Andhā. One blind man is trying to lead another blind man. So what is the use of such leading? You must have eyes, then you can ask other hundreds of blind men, "Please come behind me, I shall get you across." But if you have no eyes, then why you are asking others, philosophizing?

Philosophy Discussion on John Dewey:

Prabhupāda: That will never happen. The so-called unity of man by the imaginative process of so-called intelligent philosopher, it has never become possible, neither it will become possible, because every man has got little independence. So unless they are controlled, they will assert their independence, and by this imaginative process they cannot be united. That is another insanity. History has never proved this in the past, and it is not going on in the present, so naturally in the future it will not be possible. That is sane man's conclusion.

Hayagrīva: You..., when you discussed Dewey with Śyāmasundara Prabhu, you said that Dewey wants to make God his scapegoat—why does he mention the word God, and he uses the word God to serve his own ends. His philosophic conception is the working union of the ideal and the actual. This is rather vague, but this is his definition of God: Man striving for perfection.

Philosophy Discussion on Soren Aabye Kierkegaard:

Prabhupāda: So therefore, considering as he says past, present and future, we have to act in such a way what is beneficial for past, present and future, and then the next question is that if I existed in the past, am existing now, and I shall exist in future, then what is this body? The body, this body was not in the past. This body, it will exist for some years, and in the future it will not exist. Then you immediately understand that this body is external. Then my decision should be not on the basis of body, but on the basis of my real position, the soul. These things (indistinct). That is right decision.

Śyāmasundara: Yes. He says whereas the condition of modern man—that he is disintegrated and he doesn't have connection with the past; he's lost his memory; he has no connection with the future, then he becomes hopeless—that the opposite of this is the integrated personality: that he has memory and that he has hope, these two qualities. In other words, his present position is connected with the past and future. This is the integrated personality.

Philosophy Discussion on Martin Heidegger:

Prabhupāda: Mm.

Śyāmasundara: The possibilities of becoming this or that are his. He can choose. He can elect what he wants to be in the future.

Prabhupāda: That is also not proof. As soon as he gets a body, his thing is settled up. Just like you have got this body—white body. You cannot become black body. Or a man who has got black body, he cannot become white man. This is wrong philosophy. How you can settle up? Because he is considering the of body, he is considering the existence means the manufacture of the body from the womb of mother up to the destruction of the body. So this body, as it is made, there are different types of body. So that cannot be changed.

Philosophy Discussion on Martin Heidegger:

Prabhupāda: No. If you do not know whether he exist in the future or not... Just like a child, if he knows that "I shall exist as an old man," then there is question of what I shall become. If he does not know whether he'll exist or not, then what is the idea of becoming a teacher, or I can become (indistinct). First of all you should know that I exist only for this duration of life or I exist forever. That is real philosophy. Real philosophy is, "I exist forever." That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. Just like I existed as a small baby, I existed as a boy, I existed as a young man. I remember all those existences, although the body is finished. Therefore the conclusion is that I shall exist when this body is finished. That is real knowledge. And it is common sense. If I existed as this child, I existed as a baby, I existed as a boy, I existed as a young man, and I am existing as old man, so why not I shall exist when this body is finished? In this life I experience so many bodies, they have left, they are no longer existing, but I see that I am existing; therefore why shall I not see that I will exist after the death. What do you think?

Philosophy Discussion on Carl Gustav Jung:

Prabhupāda: He is person. That is the Vedic description. He is person exactly like us, but His personality is unlimited. The same example I was giving, that I am a person so far I am concerned with this particular body, but He is a person living in every body, Super Person. And in the Bhagavad-gītā it is also said that that personality, either of God or of the individual soul, eternally existing. In the Bhagavad-gītā Kṛṣṇa says that in the past we are existing, at present we are existing, and in the future we shall continue to exist. So past, present, future. That means all the time, eternally, both of them are person. One person is unlimited, and the other person is limited. Finite and infinite. So God is person, but the unlimited qualities, unlimited characteristics, unlimited power, unlimited strength, unlimited influence, unlimited knowledge. That is God. And we are also the same—person—with little power, little influence, little knowledge, everything limited. That is the difference between two personalities. One is limited, another is unlimited, but the qualities are the same.

Philosophy Discussion on Carl Gustav Jung:

Hayagrīva: In the atheistic Communism he says, "The goals of religion, deliverance from evil, reconciliation with God, rewards in the hereafter, and so on, turns into worldly promises about freedom from care for one's daily bread, the just distribution of material goods, universal prosperity in the future, and shorter working hours." In other words, material, worldly promises are given.

Prabhupāda: In the Communism?

Hayagrīva: In, in atheistic Com..., in Communism.

Prabhupāda: Yes. But they have no idea of spiritual life, neither they can understand that there is spirit with the soul, within the body. Dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā (BG 2.13). That they cannot understand.

Hayagrīva: But he feels that socialism or Marxism, Communism, cannot possibly replace religion in the proper traditional sense.

Prabhupāda: No, it is not religion. It is simply mental speculation—how to adjust material things. It will never be able to adjust it. That is their simply imagination. It will all fail at the ultimate end.

Philosophy Discussion on B. F. Skinner:

Devotee: But Skinner has no idea that there is an actual representative of God on earth that could set up such a perfect society. Therefore he is dreaming about setting one up in the future while the real representative is actually present with us now. He is thinking of the future.

Prabhupāda: When was he thinking?

Devotee: He is thinking that someday... He is thinking that it can be done. He is living now.

Śyāmasundara: That is his picture. (shows book to Prabhupāda) That is Skinner playing the organ, and it quotes him, saying...

Prabhupāda: So inform him that "Your theory is that God's representative..." He is expecting God's representative?

Devotee: No, no. I'll tell you what he says about God. He says that the belief in God arose due to man's inability to understand his world, but that man no longer needs such a fiction.

Prabhupāda: Then one has to believe him?

Philosophy Discussion on B. F. Skinner:

Prabhupāda: She has to push some button to take out Kṛṣṇa.

Śyāmasundara: Just like the answer has three choices: Kṛṣṇa, Durgā, Kālī. Which one is the Supreme Personality? So if she chooses Kṛṣṇa and then he gets rewarded. So in the future he will always think Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Prabhupāda: Why must think? Why not take a live master?

Devotee: Yes. He says that that can be done also, but he is saying that they should be rewarded when they say the right answer.

Śyāmasundara: He says that this will solve the problem of not enough teachers in our schools, public schools, not enough teachers for our children. A huge class, and the children have only one teacher. So there's not enough individual time given to each student.

Philosophy Discussion on Karl Marx:

Prabhupāda: That's right.

Śyāmasundara: In the future it will be better.

Prabhupāda: So, he is doing (indistinct) more than the (indistinct).

Śyāmasundara: Yes, exactly. So his is a religion also. His philosophy is like a religion.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Śyāmasundara: (indistinct) he condemns.

Prabhupāda: Religion means (indistinct) he cannot give up, that is religion.

Śyāmasundara: He thinks everything can be changed, that nothing is permanent.

Prabhupāda: (indistinct) our proposition, religion means dharma, the (indistinct) which you cannot give up. (indistinct) Just like I am standing on this floor. It is not possible to stand without this floor. I cannot say that I can stand without floor.

Śyāmasundara: (indistinct)

Philosophy Discussion on The Evolutionists Thomas Huxley, Henri Bergson, and Samuel Alexander:

Śyāmasundara: He wants to search out what is the pattern of evolution, how it will go in the future, and he says that because man has progressed from the instinctive stage to the intelligent stage, and then to the intuitive stage, that he will obtain eventually the immortal stage, that he will become...

Prabhupāda: That is nice. That immortal stage is described in the Bhāgavatam, or the Bhagavad-gītā. Yad gatvā na nivartante (BG 15.6). Progress means you go, go. Gamati iti gatiḥ, or progress. You go, go, go. So when you come to this śloka... (?) Therefore in the Vedas it is said, oṁ tad viṣṇoḥ paramaṁ padaṁ sadā paśyanti sūrayaḥ. Sūrayaḥ, means those who are learned, those who are advanced in knowledge. They are called sūrayaḥ. So they are always looking forward to the lotus feet of Viṣṇu. Just like modern scientists are going, trying to go to the moon planet, so when they start, they are looking forward (to) the moon planet. Similarly, those who are learned, they are simply looking forward to the lotus feet of Viṣṇu: "When I shall reach there?" That goal is there. They are not missing the goal. Oṁ tad viṣṇoḥ paramaṁ padaṁ sadā paśyanti sūrayaḥ. This is the Ṛg Veda mantra. They know their goal. But they have to reach still, yet to go there. Just like our Kṛṣṇa conscious people, they know what is the goal, Kṛṣṇa, Goloka Vṛndāvana. So this is the attempt, how to reach there, how to reach there. That's all. We are not blind, but these people are blind.

Philosophy Discussion on The Evolutionists Thomas Huxley, Henri Bergson, and Samuel Alexander:

Prabhupāda: What is the conclusion?

Śyāmasundara: The conclusion is that everything is evolving into ever newer and newer forms, and in the future that...

Prabhupāda: Old order changes, yielding place to new. This law?

Śyāmasundara: Yes. But this new form which may appear in the future, we may have no idea about it now. We may not be able to say what it is, what it will be like.

Prabhupāda: No. We don't think like that. We know that the days are going on. As we have experienced past, summer season and winter season, then forward also, we can say in such and such month there will be summer season. In such and such month there will be winter season. Either you take it from book or take it from our past experience, the things are there.

Philosophy Discussion on The Evolutionists Thomas Huxley, Henri Bergson, and Samuel Alexander:

Śyāmasundara: So in the future there may be nothing unpredictable appearing, such as an entire new form of existence or something like this.

Prabhupāda: No. Why? In future... Just like seasonal changes. There will be winter season. So what is the wonder there? I have got past experience of winter, so I am saying that "In such and such month there will be winter."

Bhavānanda: Of course, it could come about that there was no winter. A point could be reached, he's saying, that where there would be no winter.

Śyāmasundara: Where winter may disappear.

Bhavānanda: Disappear or, they say the experience on this planet is that one time summer stopped and that everything became covered with ice. I have no experience with that.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Philosophy Discussion on The Evolutionists Thomas Huxley, Henri Bergson, and Samuel Alexander:

Śyāmasundara: Just like in the past they say there was an ice age when there was no summer, no heat, and everything became ice, so in the future..., I cannot predict... Evolution may carry the events into some entirely strange new way, novel combination. Like winter may disappear or summer may disappear or...

Prabhupāda: No.

Bhavānanda: Or a new species may come out.

Śyāmasundara: A new type of man.

Prabhupāda: No. No. That is not possible. Everything is there. That is the Vedic version. They say that so many species in the water, so many species on land, so many moving... It is all fixed up. There is no question of increasing or decreasing.

Philosophy Discussion on The Evolutionists Thomas Huxley, Henri Bergson, and Samuel Alexander:

Bhavānanda: But they have predicted a species of man, a type of man in the future who would have no hair on his body and whose head would be very, very big because of an increased brain capacity, but whose body would be atrophied. The arms and legs of the man they predict in the future is going to become more and more secondary.

Prabhupāda: Who predicted? Who is that fool? (laughter)

Śyāmasundara: They say that man will lose some of his toes because he will cease activities, his activity will become...

Prabhupāda: This is another foolishness. It has never become, neither it will be.

Bhavānanda: Man has always had five toes.

Prabhupāda: That's right.

Bhavānanda: And he always will. However, is there, if there is a species of a type of men that have eight toes on each foot, he's always had eight toes on each foot. He might not be on this planet.

Philosophy Discussion on The Evolutionists Thomas Huxley, Henri Bergson, and Samuel Alexander:

Prabhupāda: We don't care any such things.

Śyāmasundara: His idea is that man may evolve to a demigod platform in the future.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Śyāmasundara: That he will have super consciousness, this and that.

Prabhupāda: That is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā. Yānti deva-vratā devaṇ (BG 9.25). If you become fond of the demigods, you go to the demigods. Pitṟn yānti pitṛ-vratāḥ. You can go to the Pitṛloka. Or bhūtejyā, you can remain in this material world.

Śyāmasundara: His idea is that evolution is passed through five stages. In the beginning there was merely space and time and the categories, this object. Then there was a development of primary qualities through multiple sense perception. In other words, living entities began to perceive objects through different sense perceptions. Then there was the secondary qualities were developed through perception by one organ. In other words, out of a multiple sense quality, an eye developed, a nose developed, a mouth developed.

Philosophy Discussion on Plato:

Prabhupāda: That is from Vedic same. As soon as there is instruction there is form. As Kṛṣṇa is giving instruction, He is always saying "I," "you," like that, it is personal. He says Arjuna, "You," and He says Himself, "I." So Arjuna is also form and Kṛṣṇa is also form, and Kṛṣṇa also says that "Both you, Me, and all these living entities, kings and soldiers who are assembled here, they existed in the past, they are existing now, and they will continue to exist." So you can understand that "In the present I am in form, so I existed in the past in form and I shall continue to exist in the future as form. So where is formless?" From my present position I can understand my past and future. So Kṛṣṇa says that we existed in the past. So we existing now, now I mean to say, continuing. He never said that "In the past we were formless; now we have got form." This is not stated there. Rather, He condemns, that avyaktaṁ vyaktim āpannam manyante mām abuddhayaḥ (BG 7.24): "In the past I was formless, impersonal, and now I am a person," that is Māyāvādī thought, that when God takes the form, He takes the form of māyā. So they have been condemned as abuddhayaḥ, no intelligence. Avyaktaṁ vyaktiṁ āpannaṁ manyante mām abuddhayaḥ (BG 7.24).