Go to Vanipedia | Go to Vanisource | Go to Vanimedia


Vaniquotes - the compiled essence of Vedic knowledge


Material form (Conversations)

Conversations and Morning Walks

1969 Conversations and Morning Walks

No, the thing is that any of these material forms...
Room Conversation with Allen Ginsberg -- May 11, 1969, Columbus, Ohio:

Allen Ginsberg: So, as the Kali-yuga became more intense and as attachment became deeper and more confusing...

Prabhupāda: Attachment for?

Allen Ginsberg: ...that salvation would also have to become easier and easier in the Kali-yuga.

Prabhupāda: That is very nice statement that in the Kali-yuga salvation is very easier. That is the version of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam also, but that process is this kīrtana, not LSD.

Allen Ginsberg: Well, it was... The reasoning there, was that for those who would only accept salvation in purely material form, in chemical form finally, and completely material form...

Prabhupāda: Hmm. So where is the salvation when there is...

Allen Ginsberg: ...that Kṛṣṇa had the humor to emerge as a pill.

Prabhupāda: No, the thing is that any of these material forms...

No, the thing is that any of these material forms...
Room Conversation with Allen Ginsberg -- May 11, 1969, Columbus, Ohio:

Prabhupāda: No, the thing is that any of these material forms...

Allen Ginsberg: Yes?

Prabhupāda: ...then where it is salvation? It is illusion.

Allen Ginsberg: Well the subjective effect is to cut...

Prabhupāda: No.

Allen Ginsberg: ...attachment during the...

Prabhupāda: Well, if you have got attachments for something material, then where is the cut-off attachment. LSD is a material chemical.

Allen Ginsberg: Yeah.

Prabhupāda: So if you have to take shelter of LSD then you take, I mean to say, help from the matters, so that is... How you can... How you are free from matter?

Allen Ginsberg: Well, the subjective experience is, while in the state of intoxication of LSD, also realizing that LSD is a material pill, and that it does not really matter.

Prabhupāda: So that is risky. That is risky.

Allen Ginsberg: Yeah. Now so, if LSD is a material attachment, which it is I think, then is not the sound, śabda, also a material attachment?

Prabhupāda: No, śabda is spiritual. Originally just like in Bible there is, "Let there be creation." This sound, this spiritual sound. Creation. Creation was not there. The sound produced the creation. Therefore, sound is originally spiritual and through the sound; sound—from sound, sky develops; from sky, air develop; from air, fire develop; fire, water develop; from water, land develop.

Allen Ginsberg: Sound is the first element of creation?

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes.

Allen Ginsberg: What was the first sound, traditionally?

Prabhupāda: Vedic states, Oṁ.

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

The material form which you are seeing, it is coating only.
Room Conversation -- January 17, 1971, Allahabad:

Prabhupāda: Yes. So because originally you have got hand, your coat has got hand. Because originally you have got hand, your shirt has got hand. Therefore this form, the material form which you are seeing, it is coating only.

Guest (1): Material form of what?

Prabhupāda: You, me, everything.

Guest (1): No, "me" means what? A spirit?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Guest (1): That is what I say. Any spirit will have certain form.

Prabhupāda: Not certain form. He has got his original form.

Spirit has got no material form. Spirit has got spiritual form.
Room Conversation -- January 17, 1971, Allahabad:

Prabhupāda: Spirit has got no material form. Spirit has got spiritual form.

Guest (1): Spiritual form but yet also it has got a material form.

Prabhupāda: Because he has come... Just like you have accepted this kind of coat. I have got a different kind of coat. She has got a different kind of coat.

Guest (1): Yes. According to that there is...

Prabhupāda: Yes. So as I liked, so I have got shirt and coat. This is material. But originally, spiritual form is the same as you have got, I have got, she has got a form, everyone. That is original form.

The question of earning comes so long you have got this material form.
Room Conversation -- January 17, 1971, Allahabad:

Prabhupāda: The question of earning comes so long you have got this material form. But from the spiritual form there is no question of earning.

Guest (1): In what way we will live in that spiritual form?

Prabhupāda: That you have to know. That you have to know. Ānanda-cinmaya-rasa-pratibhāvitābhiḥ (Bs. 5.37). That spiritual form means complete blissfulness, complete knowledge, and eternity.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Simply by understanding Kṛṣṇa, one stops his rebirth in this material form. He goes back to Kṛṣṇa.
Room Conversation with Indian Guests -- July 11, 1973, London:

So Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is trying to save them, that "Don't go again to the cats and dogs category; go back to home, back to Kṛṣṇa." There is... Here is the possibility. Kṛṣṇa says. Why don't you take advantage of this? Kṛṣṇa says: janma karma ca me divyaṁ yo jānāti tattvataḥ: (BG 4.9) "Anyone who tries to understand Me, Kṛṣṇa, what I am..." Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti (BG 4.9). Simply by understanding Kṛṣṇa, one stops his rebirth in this material form. He goes back to Kṛṣṇa. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Material forms. Just like in the water, the fish is there. That is also material form. But you cannot live within the water.
Morning Walk -- June 22, 1974, Germany:

Prabhupāda: No. Material forms. Just like in the water, the fish is there. That is also material form. But you cannot live within the water. Neither the fish cannot live on the land. So in different planets there are different types of atmosphere and different types of body also. You cannot go to the sun planet. You cannot go to the moon planet because that is a different atmosphere. But there are living entities. They have got their suitable body.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

As soon as they think of form, they think of this material form, beautiful face of woman. That is degradation.
Room Conversation with Yoga Student -- March 14, 1975, Iran:

Prabhupāda: Therefore in Islam religion the form is rejected because it will come to that. As soon as they think of form, they think of this material form, beautiful face of woman. That is degradation. Therefore we are strict not to conceive material form. That is Vedic conception. Apāni-pādaḥ javano grahītā: "He has no legs and no hands." This is... means denying the form. And next he says, the Vedas say, javano grahītā: "He can accept whatever you offer to Him." That means God has no material form, but He has form; otherwise how He can accept? How He can understand my love? So therefore in the original Islamism the form is not accepted. So that is Vedic description, form and formless. Formless means no material form, and form means spiritual form, simultaneous. Just like I am, you are. I am within the body, but I am not this body. This form not I am. But wherefrom the form of the body came into existence? Because I have got form. The sweater has got hand because I have got hand. The sweater is the covering. If I haven't got form, then how the sweater has got hand, the pant has got leg? So the pant practically is not the leg. The real leg is within the pant. Similarly, this is not my form; this is like pant, leg of the pant or hand of the coat. Real form is within, asmin dehe. That is not material form. If the real form I could see, you could see, then there was no controversy, the spirit. But they cannot see. Therefore they say "formless." If it is formless, then how the outer form comes out? How it can be? The tailor makes the coat because the man has got form. As the coat has got hands, so it is concluded that the man for whom the coat is made, he has got form. How you can say without form? The difficulty is that we can see the form of the coat, but we cannot see the form of the man. That is my defect with the eyes, not that the God is formless. God is not formless.

No, no, I don't say material form, spiritual form.
Room Conversation with Jesuit -- May 19, 1975, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: No, no, I don't say material form, spiritual form.

Jesuit: Well, I haven't understood you then. God, you say, has a form.

Prabhupāda: Spiritual form.

Jesuit: Aḥ well, matter of words, I can understand that. He has a...

Prabhupāda: Not this form.

Jesuit: No, not material. He's not matter, He's pure...

Prabhupāda: No, no.

Jesuit: We would say He's pure spirit...

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes, yes, that is stated in the...

Jesuit: There's no form of passivity in God, there's no form of change in God, there's no, no limitations of any sort. Matter has limitations. The soul is immortal because it has no principle of corruption in it. Aristotle would say that matter has parts, outside parts, and so it can, it has in itself the power of dissolving and it would break up, corrupts. The soul never does.

Prabhupāda: We have got this material body and spiritual soul. That is in this material condition there is distinction between the spirit and matter. As soon as the spirit goes from this material body, it has no value.

Therefore He has appeared in material form so that you can see.
Room Conversation with writer, Sandy Nixon -- July 13, 1975, Philadelphia:

Prabhupāda: Therefore you cannot see the spirit, and God is Supreme Spirit. Therefore, to show kindness upon you, He has appeared just like wood and stone so that you can see.

Woman: Oh, I see.

Prabhupāda: He is everything. He is spirit and matter, everything. But you cannot see Him as spiritual identity. Therefore He has appeared in material form so that you can see. This is Deity. He is God, but you cannot see Him in His original spiritual form at the present moment. Therefore, out of His unbounded mercy, He has appeared before you just like made of wood and stone so that you can see.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

But if the owner of the body has no form, how the material form has come into existence.
Evening Darsana -- May 15, 1977, Hrishikesh:

Prabhupāda: Just like in the Upaniṣads it is said, paśyaty acakṣuḥ: "He sees, but He has no eyes." So what is that? How we can think of, one is seeing without eye? Aiye. There are so many. Śṛṇoty akarṇaḥ: "He has no ears..." So both things are there. When it is said, paśyaty acakṣuḥ... Mean cakṣuḥ, eyes, as soon we think of eyes, we think of our eyes, own eyes, and therefore it is forbidden, "Not like your eyes." Paśyati. He can see everywhere. Therefore we have to discuss śāstra. In the Brahma-saṁhitā it is said, aṅgāni yasya sakalendriya-vṛttimanti paśyanti pānti kalayanti ciraṁ jaganti (Bs. 5.32). The aṅga, the different parts of the body of Kṛṣṇa, has got all the qualities of other aṅga. Just like we can see with eyes, but Kṛṣṇa can speak also with eyes. He can eat also with eyes. That is difference. Aṅgāni yasya sakalendriya-vṛttimanti. So paśyaty acakṣuḥ means He has different type of eyes, not like our eyes. When there is nirākāra... Nirākāra means He hasn't got a ākāra, a form, like ours. That is nirākāra. But He has his form. And Kṛṣṇa says... So dehino 'smin yathā dehe: (BG 2.13) "Within this body the owner of the body is there." But if the owner of the body has no form, how the material form has come into existence? Just like this shirt has got hand. Because I am the owner of the shirt—I have got hand-therefore the shirt has got also hand. I have got my leg; therefore the pant has got leg. If you say, "The pant has got leg, the shirt has got hand, but the owner of the shirt has no leg, no...," is it possible? And this external body described as dress... Vāsāṁsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya (BG 2.22). Vāsa, dress. Dress cannot show any hand and leg unless the man who is dressed, he has got his hand and leg.

His vigraha, His form, is not material form.
Evening Darsana -- May 15, 1977, Hrishikesh:

Prabhupāda: If the dress has got hand and leg, then the person who is putting on the dress, he must have hand and... So this is the conclusion. When in the śāstra it is said that "God has no leg, no hand," that... In the Upaniṣad it said that "He has no leg, but He can walk swifter than anyone." So that means He has got a different type of leg. And that is summarized, īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ (Bs. 5.1). His vigraha, His form, is not material form. Avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā mānuṣīṁ tanum āśri... (BG 9.11). Because Kṛṣṇa comes as a human being, the foolish mūḍha-mūḍha means rascal-rascal thinks that "He is also one of us." But Kṛṣṇa says, "No, no," sambhavāmy ātma-māyayā (BG 4.6), "I come here in My original, spiritual form." Sambhavāmy ātma-māyayā. So these are to be understood. So manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu (BG 7.3). Because they cannot understand—they cannot make distinction what is spiritual, what is material-therefore they cannot understand Kṛṣṇa.

Page Title:Material form (Conversations)
Compiler:Visnu Murti, Sureshwardas, Nitai Charan
Created:18 of Mar, 2010
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=12, Let=0
No. of Quotes:12