Go to Vanipedia | Go to Vanisource | Go to Vanimedia


Vaniquotes - the compiled essence of Vedic knowledge


Jnana means knowledge. Knowledge means one must know that "I am spirit soul, part and parcel of God. Somehow or other, I have been entangled in this material body"

Expressions researched:
"I am spirit soul, part and parcel of God. Somehow or other, I have been entangled in this material body"

Lectures

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

One has to be detached from this coming and going, miserable condition of material existence. And how it is possible? That is also said, man-mayā mām upāśritāḥ. "One has to be absorbed in My thought and has to take My shelter." The jñāna means knowledge. Knowledge means one must know that "I am spirit soul, part and parcel of God. Somehow or other, I have been entangled in this material body."
Lecture on BG 4.10 Festival at Maison de Faubourg -- Geneva, May 31, 1974:

The idea is that we should not be disturbed by these material miseries, which come and go like this change of season. It is not permanent. At the present moment, the whole human civilization is simply disturbed by the change of this cold and heat. Our all activities are there—how to stop this miserable condition of the body, which is impossible to stop. So if we simply become affected by the miserable condition... The miserable condition in the material world must be there. You cannot stop this miserable condition of material existence. It will come and go away. It will simply disturb you. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, vīta-rāga-bhaya-krodhāḥ (BG 2.56). One has to be detached from this coming and going, miserable condition of material existence. And how it is possible? That is also said, man-mayā mām upāśritāḥ. "One has to be absorbed in My thought and has to take My shelter." The jñāna means knowledge. Knowledge means one must know that "I am spirit soul, part and parcel of God. Somehow or other, I have been entangled in this material body."

So we have to cure this disease, material disease, accepting this material body. Our real problem, which is described in the Bhagavad-gītā, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam... (BG 13.9). Our real problem is that we are accepting a material body, and after some days, we are giving up the present material body, and we are accepting another material body. How we are accepting different bodies? That you have got experience. Just like you, I, both of us, had a small child body. That is now gone. The boy's body is now gone. The youthful body is now gone. Now I have got a different body. But I know that I had such and such body. Similarly, when this body will be useless, I cannot use it, I will have to accept another body. That we have got experience daily, in day and night. When we sleep at night, although we have got this body lying on my bed, I accept another body, subtle body, and I go to another place and dream. Similarly, at night, when I give up that subtle body, which took me far away from my bed, again I come and accept this material body and wake up.

Death means to leave this body and carried by the subtle body to another gross body. That is called death. We are carried by the mind, intelligence and ego, subtle body. Just like we can experience a good scent of rose flower is carried by the air. We cannot see, but we know that the flavor is being carried by the air. Similarly, although we do not see how the spirit soul is being carried by the subtle body, but it is being carried, and it is being put into the womb of another mother to develop another gross body. So this body is offered by nature. This body is given by the material nature. Similarly, we, or I, the spirit soul, being carried by the subtle body, and the nature is giving me another gross body. In this way we are transmigrating from one body to another. This is called evolution. And there are 8,400,000's of bodies, and we are going through one after another.

So this human form of body is the only chance that we can stop this transmigration of transferring ourself from one body to another and come to our spiritual body. This process is described here as pūtā, purification, existentional purification. That is called pūtā. Just like when you are infected by some disease, you have to purify yourself after the infection, and you come to your normal health, similarly, by knowledge and purificatory method, if you come to your spiritual knowledge and spiritual platform, then your life is successful.

So the purificatory process, we are taking the essence of all Vedic literatures, that four principles, namely: no illicit sex, no intoxication, no meat-eating and no gambling. This is called tapasya. Tapasya means voluntarily accepting some inconvenience. That is called tapasya. Suppose I am accustomed to smoke or to drink. If I give it up, there will be certainly little inconvenience. But for the better cause, I have to suffer voluntarily. That is called tapasya. Nobody will die if he does not get facility for illicit sex or enjoying intoxicants and meat-eating. Nobody will die. All the members of Kṛṣṇa conscious society, they have given up. But for that reason we are not dying. It is not difficult. Simply we have to accept in the beginning there may be little inconvenience, but when you come to the platform, there is no inconvenience. So if we actually want to be cured from this diseased condition of repetition of birth, death, old age and disease, we have to abstain from this sinful life. So it is not difficult. It requires little knowledge. As it is said, jñāna-tapasā, little knowledge and little austerities. Then you become purified, and mad-bhāvam āgatāḥ, you can go to the spiritual nature, the kingdom of God. I think this process is not at all difficult, and all the ladies and gentlemen who have come here will accept this process and make his life perfect.

Page Title:Jnana means knowledge. Knowledge means one must know that "I am spirit soul, part and parcel of God. Somehow or other, I have been entangled in this material body"
Compiler:Krsnadas
Created:17 of Nov, 2012
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=1, Con=0, Let=0
No. of Quotes:1