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Nighttime

Srimad-Bhagavatam

SB Canto 3

SB 3.1.45, Purport:

The purpose of going to a place of pilgrimage is to get the chance to glorify the Lord. Even today, although times have changed, there are still pilgrimage sites in India. For example, in Mathurā and Vṛndāvana, where we had a chance to stay, people are awake from early in the morning at 4 A.M. up until nighttime and are constantly engaged, some way or other, in chanting the holy glories of the Lord. The beauty of such a pilgrimage site is that automatically one remembers the holy glories of the Lord. His name, fame, quality, form, pastimes and entourage are all identical to the Lord, and therefore chanting the glories of the Lord invokes the personal presence of the Lord. Any time or anywhere pure devotees meet and chant the glories of the Lord, the Lord is present without any doubt. It is said by the Lord Himself that He always stays where His pure devotees chant His glories.

SB 3.11.22, Purport:

When Brahmā goes to sleep in his nighttime, the three planetary systems below Brahmaloka are all submerged in the water of devastation. In his sleeping condition, Brahmā dreams about the Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu and takes instruction from the Lord for the rehabilitation of the devastated area of space.

SB Canto 8

SB 8.22.12, Translation:

Śukadeva Gosvāmī said: O best of the Kurus, while Bali Mahārāja was describing his fortunate position in this way, the most dear devotee of the Lord, Prahlāda Mahārāja, appeared there, like the moon rising in the nighttime.

Lectures

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Lecture on BG 2.2-6 -- Ahmedabad, December 11, 1972:

This Hiraṇyakaśipu wanted to become immortal. Then, when he was refused by Lord Brahmā that "You cannot become immortal, that is not possible," then, in a roundabout way, he took benediction from Lord Brahmā that he would not die on land, on water, on the sky, no weapon can kill him, no demigod can kill him. In this way, roundabout way, he thought now he has become immortal. So to keep the words of Brahmā as it is, the Lord assumed a form which is not within his description. And instead of killing him with a weapon He killed him by the nails. Nail is not considered as a weapon. So He killed him between day and night, because he also took benediction that "I shall not die during daytime or nighttime." So God, Kṛṣṇa, is so intelligent that we may try to become immortal by so many scientific brain, but there will be some flaw and he wants, must be killed. This is God's intelligence

Lecture on BG 2.13 -- Public Lecture With German Translation Throughout -- Hamburg, September 10, 1969:

In your Western countries, your standard of life is, at least, it is to be understood more comfortable than other standard of life. In this way, if you promote yourself to the topmost planetary system, which is called Brahmaloka, then you get your duration of life many millions of years. It is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā that sahasra-yuga-paryantam ahar yad brahmaṇo viduḥ (BG 8.17). In the Brahmaloka planet, the residents, they have got their one day. One day means daytime. Not nighttime. Twelve hours, say. That is equal to..., their twelve hours is equal to our millions of years. Sahasra-yuga. Sahasra-yuga means 4,300,000's of years multiplied by 1,000. That is called sahasra-yuga. Such is the, such duration of time is equal to twelve hours in the Brahmaloka planet. So even if you go to the Brahmaloka planet... (to Satsvarūpa:) You read that. Ābrahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ punar āvartino 'rjuna. Read it.

Lecture on BG 4.5 -- Bombay, March 25, 1974:

That is the difference. Tāny ahaṁ veda sarvāṇi na tvaṁ vettha parantapa. You cannot remember. Actually, we do not remember. What I was in my last birth, I do not know. Death means forgetfulness. Death means to forget everything.

Just like daytime and nighttime. Nighttime also, when we sleep, we forget all our business in daytime. We have got everyday experience. We are different person at night. We are dreaming something, dreamland, somewhere I have gone, and forget that I have got a body which is lying on the bed, I am the father of such and such sons, I am the husband of such and such... No, you forget everything. And again, in the daytime, you forget everything, what you dreamed. This is our practical experience.

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

We go elsewhere; we're working differently, forgetting this body, and again, daytime, we forget our body which was seen in the dream. That is also dream; this is also dream. This is daydream, and that is night dream. But the seer, the soul, is permanent. 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.

Lecture on BG 8.15-20 -- New York, November 17, 1966:

That is the law of creation. So avyaktād vyaktayaḥ sarvāḥ prabhavanty ahar-āgame. Ahaḥ. Ahaḥ means in the daytime. When there is daytime, daytime, twelve hours, then this material manifestation, what you see, all these planets, they are manifested, seen. But when there is nighttime, all these planetary system becomes merged into devastation of water. So rātry-āgame pralīyante tatraiva avyakta-saṁjñake. Rātry-āgame means when the night is there, then again all these planets become invisible. They are devastated within the water. This is the nature of this material world. Bhūta-grāmaḥ sa evāyaṁ bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19). So because the whole planetary system becomes, I mean to say, merged into devastation of water, therefore all living entities, they, at that time, pralaya, devastation, they all die. Bhūta-grāmaḥ sa evāyaṁ bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19).

Lecture on BG 8.15-20 -- New York, November 17, 1966:

So this nature is going on. When it is a daytime they are again coming out, and when there is nighttime they again all becomes merged into this water. Rātry-āgame avaśaḥ pārtha, prabhavaty ahar-āgame. Avaśaḥ. Avaśaḥ means, although they do not like devastation, the devastation will come and, I mean to say, overflood all this. And again, when the day also comes, again gradually the waters will disappear. Just like in this planet the three-fourth is covered with water, and gradually land is coming out. It takes times. And one day it will come when there will be no water, simply land. There will be no water. That is the process of nature. Paras tasmāt tu bhāvo 'nyaḥ. Paras tasmāt tu bhāvaḥ anyaḥ avyakto 'vyaktāt sanātanaḥ: (BG 8.20)

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Lecture on SB 1.2.9-10 -- Delhi, November 14, 1973:

And in the daytime we forget the night dream body and accept this body. We have got daily experience. So death means forgetting the past life. Otherwise, there was past life. That's a fact. But as we forget daily night body in the daytime and day body at nighttime, so similarly, we are changing our body according to the infection of the quality or material nature, and we are entangled in this material world. Although we are part an parcel of Kṛṣṇa, God, or we ar sons of God, but unfortunately, we have come in contact of this material modes of nature. This is going on.

Therefore Kṛṣṇa comes. Kṛṣṇa is the father of everyone. He canvasses, "My dear children, why you are rotting in this material world? Come back."

Lecture on SB 1.3.18 -- Los Angeles, September 23, 1972:

So Brahmā said that "I am not immortal. How can I make you immortal? You can ask something else?" So he thought, "Let me become immortal indirectly. I shall not die in daytime, nighttime," because he has no idea that beyond day and night there is also another time. That he forgot.

This is Kṛṣṇa's māyā. We are very intelligent to surpass the law of the Lord, but Kṛṣṇa is so much more intelligent that you cannot surpass. You can conceive in different ways, that "I shall get out of the laws in this way or that way." But you cannot do so; you will forget something.

Lecture on SB 1.10.3 -- Mayapura, June 18, 1973:

Hiraṇyakaśipu was a great devotee of Lord Brahmā. Still, he is described as rākṣasa, demon.

So if you are devotee of the demigods, you can become powerful for some time. Just like Hiraṇyakaśipu became. He took benediction from Lord Brahmā that "I shall not die at daytime, at nighttime, on land, on sea, on the sky. I shall not be killed by any animal, by any demigod, by any man, by any..." So many ways, definition by negation. "Not this, not this, not this." First of all he wanted, "Make me immortal." Brahmā said, "I am not immortal. How can I make you immortal? That is not possible." Then he thought, "I am intelligent enough. I shall indirectly become mortal. I shall not be killed in this way, I shall not be killed in this way.

Lecture on SB 5.5.1-8 -- Stockholm, September 6, 1973:

What is that sound? Nāyaṁ deho deha-bhājāṁ nṛloke kaṣṭān kāmān arhate viḍ-bhujāṁ ye (SB 5.5.1). This daytime, or nighttime, we work so hard, but what is the aim. Aim is to satisfy senses. Ask these people all over the world, especially in the western country. They are making so many plans. Yesterday, when we were coming by the plane, the whole two hours one man was working, making some calculation. So everybody is busy, very, very busy, but if you ask him, "Why you are working so hard? What is the aim?" The aim, he has nothing to say except sense gratification, that's all. He has no more aim. He may think that "I have got a big family, I have to maintain them," or "I have got so much responsibility."

Lecture on SB 5.5.10-13 -- Vrndavana, November 1, 1976:

Not that it is vacant. Bhinnam. Vasudhādi-bhinnam. Just as moon planet, that atmosphere is different. Otherwise how it is possible that the moon planet, it is so nice, soothing rays is coming? And why not from the sun? The sun is differently constructed, different rays. It is God's arrangement. In daytime you require sunshine, and you become tired, so at nighttime there is very soothing moonshine. You becomes pacified, cleansed, soothing. Why the sun and the moon, if they are vacant or something, like that...? They do not know vasudhādi-bhinnam. Each and every planet is differently constructed. They do not know. These rascals, they are passing as scientists and simply giving this conclusion, that "Every planet is full of dust and rocks." If dust and rocks, then why from the sunshine so much heat is coming, and why from the moonshine so soothing and pleasing shine is coming?

Lecture on SB 6.1.62 -- Vrndavana, August 29, 1975:

You cannot You may run in the morning three miles and then take very stimulative foodstuff, and Everyone is trying to become very strong. That is good, but however strong we may be, even Hiraṇyakaśipu, it is not possible to stay here. Hiraṇyakaśipu became very, very strong. He insured that he would not die in daytime, at nighttime, and in the water, in the land, on the sky, not by any human being, not by any demigods, not by any animal, not by any weapon. Everything he insured there. That's all right. But God's policy is so nice that, all his insurance keeping aside, He killed him not by weapon—by the nails. He forgot this, that "I may be killed by the nails." Then he thought, "I shall not be killed by any animal or man."

Lecture on SB 6.1.62 -- Vrndavana, August 29, 1975:

And he thought that he would not die in daytime or nighttime, but he was killed in the evening. It is neither day nor night. So he would not be killed in the sky, in the water or in the land, so he was killed on the threshold. Therefore we should always remember that we cannot cheat God. He is always at least little more intelligent.

Nectar of Devotion Lectures

The Nectar of Devotion -- Bombay, December 27, 1972:

Everything is finished. Again, this, when the dream is finished, we come to another dream: "Oh, this is my house. This is my family. This is my bank balance." This is going on. Dream. One dream at night, one dream at daytime. But who is dreaming? That is the living entity. So his business is different. Not dreaming, daytime dreaming and nighttime dreaming. He has to come to the actual platform. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. If he takes to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, that is his actual life. Otherwise, he's in the dreamland. Daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā duratyayā (BG 7.14). This is called māyā, illusion. Nighttime dreaming and daytime dreaming. The nighttime dream... In this way, we are dreaming life after life. As human being, as animal, as tree, as aquatics. Jalajā nava-lakṣāṇi sthāvarā lakṣa-viṁśati. This evolutionary process is going on.

The Nectar of Devotion -- Bombay, January 4, 1973:

Kṛṣṇa does not appear or disappear. Kṛṣṇa is always present, but we see at a certain period. Just like the sun. Sun is always in the sky, but when it is daytime, we see, and at nighttime, we cannot see. At nighttime, because we cannot see, it does not mean there is no sun. It is our imperfectness of eyes, we cannot see. Similarly, Kṛṣṇa is always present. One who has got eyes, he can see. When all the circumstances favorable, he can see. Kṛṣṇa is always... Premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena santaḥ sadaiva hṛdayeṣu vilokayanti (Bs. 5.38). Dhyānāvasthita-tad-gatena manasā paśyanti 'yaṁ yoginaḥ (SB 12.13.1). So Kṛṣṇa can be seen always, if we have got eyes to see. That eyes, how you can be transferred?

The Nectar of Devotion -- Bombay, January 11, 1973:

Then what I am?" This is the question. Athāto brahma jijñāsā This is the beginning of Vedānta-sūtra. One should be inquisitive. Unless one comes to this point of inquiring about himself, then what I am? Why I am dreaming this daytime and nighttime? What is my actual position? This is human life. When one comes to this point of inquiring, "What I am?" that is the beginning of human life. Otherwise animal life. The animals, they do not know what I am, neither this question comes to them, "What I am?" He's thinking, "I am dog," "I am cat," "I am ass," "I am tiger," "I am this and that." Similarly, if we simply think like that, that "I am American," "I am Indian," "I am brāhmaṇa," "I am this," "I am that," that is animal life. That is animal life.

General Lectures

Public Speech -- Bad Homburg, Germany, June 22, 1974:

In the Brahmaloka planet, the residents, they have got their one day. One day means daytime, not nighttime, twelve hours, say. That is equal to... Their twelve hours is equal to our millions of years, sahasra-yuga. Sahasra-yuga means forty-three hundred thousands of years multiplied by one thousand. That is called sahasra-yuga. Such is the, the such duration of time is equal to twelve hours in the Brahmaloka planet. So even if you go to the Brahmaloka planet... You read that, ā-brahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ punar āvartino 'rjuna. Read it.

Conversations and Morning Walks

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Dr. Christian Hauser, Psychiatrist -- September 10, 1973, Stockholm:

Prabhupāda: I am his husband." And so on, so on. At night, when dream, are in a different situation. And we forget everything. And again, in daytime, we forget everything of the night dream. We come another dream. So this is also dream. That is also dream. I am simply observing. In daytime I am seeing some dream, gross dream, and at nighttime I'm seeing some subtle dream. But seer, I am. Under different condition, I am seeing different things. I think you treats this madness. He's sees things in different way, in different positions.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- June 19, 1974, Germany:

Prabhupāda: So how do you say there is no perception? So this transmigration of soul takes place that... Just like in daytime we are in this body, nighttime we leave this body and work with the subtle body, so transmigration soul takes place—with that subtle body he enters the womb of suitable mother, and this body is left. And there he grows again this gross body and then comes out. Is it difficult to understand? That is not illusion. That's fact. And death means that you left this gross body and the period you do not come out in another gross body, that period is called death. That period is called death.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Ganesa dasa's Mother and Sister -- May 14, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: Any city which has river and sunshine is considered to be first class.

Mother: You don't feel the cold in the nighttime here?

Prabhupāda: I am going on.

Gaṇeśa: She asked if you feel the cold in the nighttime.

Prabhupāda: Oh, a little, not very much. Yes.

Sister: Is this your first visit to Perth?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Morning Walk -- May 20, 1975, Melbourne:

Devotee (2): I read too, Śrīla Prabhupāda, that in the time of Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira there was only rainfall in the nighttime. Is this true?

Prabhupāda: Night time?

Devotee (2): Rain would fall in the nighttime so that...

Prabhupāda: No. Who said that nighttime?

Śrutakīrti:: It mentions in Kṛṣṇa book that in the evening it would rain.

Devotee (2): So as not to disturb the activity of the inhabitants through the daytime.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is the way. If nighttime it rains and daytime there is sunshine, then the land becomes very fertile to produce. Yes. There is a common saying in Bengal, dine jal rātr e tā rā sei janme sukha dhā rā.(?) If it rains heavily during daytime and at night you see the stars, then you should know there will be scarcity of rain. There will be scarcity of rain and scarcity of food grains.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 16, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: "What is that?" "I'll not die in the land." "All right." "Not in the water." "Yes." "Not in the air." "No, yes." So he thought that "The three things finished. Then where shall I die? There are three things only, land, water, sky. So he has given me benediction I shall not die anywhere of these three. So I have cheated now." And then "I shall not die in daytime." "Yes." "I shall not die in nighttime." But māyā dictated that there is another space or another place between day and night. (laughs) That he forgot. That is called sandhyā. That is accepted. But he forgot that. And Kṛṣṇa is more intelligent. He.... Hiraṇyakaśipu was not killed in daytime or nighttime. He was killed in the sandhyā. And so far land, sky, and water is concerned, that also was played with tricks, that He killed him on the lap. You cannot say it is land; you cannot say it is sky, you cannot say it is water.

Morning Walk -- March 21, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: What is that shadow?

Devotee (1): Night. Like nighttime on the earth.

Haṁsadūta: Shadow. Like a ball. If I have a ball and shine a light on it, then...

Prabhupāda: No. No, no. Shadow.

Haṁsadūta: ...this side will be in shadow.

Prabhupāda: Shadow.... "Shadow" means earthly shadow? No.

Arrival Room Conversation -- July 2, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: Tulasī dāsa has said that. Din kā dakinī rāt kā bāghinī pālak pālak rahu cuse, duniya sab barakhobe gara gara bhagilipu sei.(?) That there is an animal who is at daytime a witch and at nighttime she's tigress. So her only business is to suck the blood. But people are so mad that everyone keeping that tigress. Duniya sab bo rakhe gara gara bhagini.(?) Every home, there is a tigress like that.

Hari-śauri: That's their wife.

Rūpānuga: Their best friend.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) At daytime, witch, and nighttime, tigress. This is her picture. But people know it, and still, they keep one tigress at home.

Car Ride -- July 20, 1976, New York:

Gurudāsa: ...who stay up all night. And they were there, hundreds of people following the car back in the nighttime.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It took about seven hours to bring the carts back. All night they worked. Jayānanda was slaving out there, and Ādi-keśava Swami. Ādi-keśava finally got back at five in the morning, collapsed on the carts, he was exhausted.

Prabhupāda: They should be given some recommendations(?) in writing.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Materialist person...

Mr. Asnani: He sleeps in the nighttime, and there's trouble in his thoughts. Whereas a spiritual man, he's awoke in the nighttime and sleep in the daytime.

Prabhupāda: First of all let us understand what is sleeping and awakening. This is the real understanding. The materialistic man, he's sleeping about self-realization. He has no information.

Mr. Asnani: He has no?

Prabhupāda: Information. But the spiritualistic man, he's awakened in that, that this life is meant for self-realization. So the materialistic man, he does not know. He's kept in darkness of night, and the spiritualistic man is awakened. That is the difference.

Room Conversation -- April 13, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: No, no. No, give them prasādam. Make at noon sumptuous prasādam.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: At nighttime they would take?

Girirāja: Well, they take at 8:30 at night.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Girirāja: They never take before...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So, I mean, you would see them in the evening?

Prabhupāda: No, no, I'll see them according to their...

Room Conversation about Mayapura Attack Talk with Vrindavan De -- July 8, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: There's a description in the Bhāgavatam about the setting of the sun. It's described that when the day..., that the water is darker by day. The ocean water is darker by day than by night. And the reason given is that the daytime, the daylight goes into the ocean at night. The ocean absorbs the light of the day, and therefore when you look at the water at night, it's lighter than it is during the day. That's a fact. The Bhāgavatam explains why, that there's some power within the ocean to attract the daytime. And in the daytime, the nighttime goes...

Prabhupāda: It is absorbed.

Room Conversation With Svarupa Damodara -- October 15, 1977, Vrndavana:

Hari-śauri: Of sweet lime. And then in the nighttime he had orange juice. And then the next morning he passed the blood in his urine. And then again the next morning he took the sweet lime again. But he hasn't had any orange juice since then, so there's been no blood, but his urine is still cloudy. He's still taking the sweet lime juice. But it wasn't there before when he was taking it. So Prabhupāda hadn't had any orange juice for a long time. Parivrājakācārya said that citrus fruits are much too strong for the kidneys, 'cause the kidneys are weak.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh.

Prabhupāda: Maybe will take...

Room Conversation -- November 8, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So you come at four, have kīrtana (?). (break) I wish that you GBC manage very nicely and consider I am dead and let me try to travel all the tīrthasthāna. Without any responsibility. If I become recovered from this malady I shall come back and then I shall die in, what is it when the dead body is there, let them bring to Māyāpur and Vṛndāvana. I am thinking in this way. Bring little medicine and no medicine, little milk, and travel one place to another and if there is death, what is the lamentation? My age is ripe. In the open air and bullock cart or during daytime, eh? Or you can say semi-suicide, although living what consider me dead for the time. You manage and nowadays there is in India ample sunshine. So during daytime I shall travel and nighttime you make a camp under a tree. In this way let me travel all the tīrthas. I am thinking in this way. What is your opinion?

Room Conversation -- November 10, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's helpful for the devotees to know, just so they can bring something to wrap around when it gets to be nighttime. It's not the middle of the summer, you know. It is...

Lokanātha: We have two, three vehicles here.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I'm saying it's something that should be considered now, and not when we get there. You said when we get there we'll see.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: We should make all the plans complete.

Prabhupāda: That you consider.

Bhavānanda: We should go with plans for staying overnight.

Prabhupāda: Why you are asking me?

Correspondence

1970 Correspondence

Letter to Gurudasa -- Los Angeles 16 May, 1970:

Your first question about the jiva's form with particular reference to Bhagavad-gita 8/18 purport "during the nighttime they have no form." "During the nightime they have no form" means there is no material form. The simple understanding is as we are transmigrating from one material form to another, so actually in this material world we have no fixed form. Similarly when we are spiritually perfect we develop the spiritual form to live eternally in the spiritual world. In the spiritual world there are exactly the same things as we see here; namely the land, water, trees, birds, beasts, human beings, etc., and all of them are spiritual as all the varieties here are material.

Page Title:Nighttime
Compiler:Sahadeva, RupaManjari
Created:21 of Sep, 2011
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=3, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=17, Con=14, Let=1
No. of Quotes:35