Sense perception is the cause of feeling all sorts of happiness and distress. Form, taste, odor, sound, and touch are different sense perceptions, which render happiness or distress in cooperation with the mind. In winter, bathing in cold water gives us pain, but in summer, the same cold water gives us pleasure. In winter, fire gives us pleasure and warmth, but in summer, the same fire gives us distress. Thus, neither fire nor water has any intrinsic power to give us happiness or distress, but they appear to us as agents of happiness or distress, according to our mode of sense perception in various circumstances. Therefore, everything that exists in the world is neither an object of happiness nor an object of distress; everything is simply subjective—that is, subject to our sense perceptions as they relate to our processes of thinking, feeling, and willing.
Odor
Bhagavad-gita As It Is
BG Chapters 13 - 18
Foods in the mode of passion, which are bitter, too salty, or too hot or overly mixed with red pepper, cause misery by reducing the mucus in the stomach, leading to disease. Foods in the mode of ignorance or darkness are essentially those that are not fresh. Any food cooked more than three hours before it is eaten (except prasādam, food offered to the Lord) is considered to be in the mode of darkness. Because they are decomposing, such foods give a bad odor, which often attracts people in this mode but repulses those in the mode of goodness.
Srimad-Bhagavatam
SB Canto 1
The prime difference between the Lord and the living entities is that the Lord is the creator and the living entities are the created. Here He is called the amogha-līlaḥ, which indicates that there is nothing lamentable in His creation. Those who create disturbance in His creation are themselves disturbed. He is transcendental to all material afflictions because He is full with all six opulences, namely wealth, power, fame, beauty, knowledge and renunciation, and thus He is the master of the senses. He creates these manifested universes in order to reclaim the living beings who are within them suffering threefold miseries, maintains them, and in due course annihilates them without being the least affected by such actions. He is connected with this material creation very superficially, as one smells odor without being connected with the odorous article. Nongodly elements, therefore, can never approach Him, despite all endeavors.
SB Canto 2
Because the sky is transformed, the air is generated with the quality of touch, and by previous succession the air is also full of sound and the basic principles of duration of life: sense perception, mental power and bodily strength. When the air is transformed in course of time and nature's course, fire is generated, taking shape with the sense of touch and sound. Since fire is also transformed, there is a manifestation of water, full of juice and taste. As previously, it also has form and touch and is also full of sound. And water, being transformed from all variegatedness on earth, appears odorous and, as previously, becomes qualitatively full of juice, touch, sound and form respectively.
The whole process of creation is an act of gradual evolution and development from one element to another, reaching up to the variegatedness of the earth as so many trees, plants, mountains, rivers, reptiles, birds, animals and varieties of human beings. The quality of sense perception is also evolutionary, namely generated from sound, then touch, and from touch to form. Taste and odor are also generated along with the gradual development of sky, air, fire, water and earth. They are all mutually the cause and effect of one another, but the original cause is the Lord Himself in plenary portion, as Mahā-viṣṇu lying in the causal water of the mahat-tattva. As such, Lord Kṛṣṇa is described in the Brahma-saṁhitā as the cause of all causes, and this is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā (10.8) as follows:
- ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavo
- mattaḥ sarvaṁ pravartate
- iti matvā bhajante māṁ
- budhā bhāva-samanvitāḥ
The qualities of sense perception are fully represented in the earth, and they are manifested in other elements to a lesser extent. In the sky there is sound only, whereas in the air there are sound and touch. In the fire there are sound, touch and shape, and in the water there is taste also, along with the other perceptions, namely sound, touch and shape. In the earth, however, there are all the above-mentioned qualities with an extra development of odor also. Therefore on the earth there is a full display of variegatedness of life, which is originally started with the basic principle of air. Diseases of the body take place due to derangement of air within the earthly body of the living beings. Mental diseases result from special derangement of the air within the body, and as such, yogic exercise is especially beneficial to keep the air in order so that diseases of the body become almost nil by such exercises. When they are properly done the duration of life also increases, and one can have control over death also by such practices.
Thereafter, when the supreme puruṣa desired to smell odors, the nostrils and respiration were generated, the nasal instrument and odors came into existence, and the controlling deity of air, carrying smell, also became manifested.
The nasal instrument, odor, and the controlling deity air, smelling, etc., all became manifested simultaneously when the Lord desired to smell. The Vedic mantras confirm this statement in the Upaniṣads' statement that everything is first desired by the Supreme before the subordinate living entity can act upon it. The living entity can see only when the Lord sees, the living entity can smell when the Lord smells, and so on. The idea is that the living entity cannot do anything independently. He can simply think of doing something independently, but he cannot act independently. This independence in thinking is there by the grace of the Lord, but the thinking can be given shape by the grace of the Lord, and therefore the common saying is that man proposes and God disposes. The whole explanation is on the subject of the absolute dependence of the living entities and absolute independence of the Supreme Lord. Less intelligent persons claiming to be on an equal level with God must first prove themselves to be absolute and independent, and then they must substantiate their claim to being one with God.
SB Canto 3
Paralysis, nervous breakdowns, madness and many other diseases are actually due to an insufficient circulation of air. In the Āyur-vedic system these diseases are treated on the basis of air circulation. If from the beginning one takes care of the process of air circulation, such diseases cannot take place. From the Āyur-veda as well as from the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam it is clear that so many activities are going on internally and externally because of air alone, and as soon as there is some deficiency in the air circulation, these activities cannot take place. Here it is clearly stated, netṛtvaṁ dravya-śabdayoḥ. Our sense of proprietorship over action is also due to the activity of the air. If the air circulation is stifled, we cannot approach a place after hearing. If someone calls us, we hear the sound because of the air circulation, and we approach that sound or the place from which the sound comes. It is clearly said in this verse that these are all movements of the air. The ability to detect odors is also due to the action of the air.
Due to the interaction of water with the taste perception, the subtle element odor evolves under superior arrangement. Thence the earth and the olfactory sense, by which we can variously experience the aroma of the earth, become manifest.
Odor, although one, becomes many—as mixed, offensive, fragrant, mild, strong, acidic and so on—according to the proportions of associated substances.
Mixed smell is sometimes perceived in foodstuffs prepared from various ingredients, such as vegetables mixed with different kinds of spices and asafoetida. Bad odors are perceived in filthy places, good smells are perceived from camphor, menthol and similar other products, pungent smells are perceived from garlic and onions, and acidic smells are perceived from turmeric and similar sour substances. The original aroma is the odor emanating from the earth, and when it is mixed with different substances, this odor appears in different ways.
The sense whose object of perception is form, the distinctive characteristic of fire, is the sense of sight. The sense whose object of perception is taste, the distinctive characteristic of water, is known as the sense of taste. Finally, the sense whose object of perception is odor, the distinctive characteristic of earth, is called the sense of smell.
SB Canto 5
From this we can certainly assume that Lord Ṛṣabhadeva was transcendentally blissful. His stool and urine were so completely different from material stool and urine that they were aromatic. Even in the material world, cow dung is accepted as purified and antiseptic. A person can keep stacks of cow dung in one place, and it will not create a bad odor to disturb anyone. We can take it for granted that in the spiritual world, stool and urine are also pleasantly scented. Indeed, the entire atmosphere became very pleasant due to Lord Ṛṣabhadeva's stool and urine.
The residents of the material world who enjoy the products of these flowing rivers have no wrinkles on their bodies and no grey hair. They never feel fatigue, and perspiration does not give their bodies a bad odor. They are not afflicted by old age, disease or untimely death, they do not suffer from chilly cold or scorching heat, nor do their bodies lose their luster. They all live very happily, without anxieties, until death.
This verse hints at the perfection of human society even within this material world. The miserable conditions of this material world can be corrected by a sufficient supply of milk, yogurt, honey, ghee, molasses, food grains, ornaments, bedding, sitting places and so on. This is human civilization. Ample food grains can be produced through agricultural enterprises, and profuse supplies of milk, yogurt and ghee can be arranged through cow protection. Abundant honey can be obtained if the forests are protected. Unfortunately, in modern civilization, men are busy killing the cows that are the source of yogurt, milk and ghee, they are cutting down all the trees that supply honey, and they are opening factories to manufacture nuts, bolts, automobiles and wine instead of engaging in agriculture. How can the people be happy? They must suffer from all the misery of materialism. Their bodies become wrinkled and gradually deteriorate until they become almost like dwarves, and a bad odor emanates from their bodies because of unclean perspiration resulting from eating all kinds of nasty things.
SB Canto 6
Indra saw personified sinful reaction chasing him, appearing like a caṇḍāla woman, a woman of the lowest class. She seemed very old, and all the limbs of her body trembled. Because she was afflicted with tuberculosis, her body and garments were covered with blood. Breathing an unbearable fishy odor that polluted the entire street, she called to Indra, "Wait! Wait!"
SB Canto 8
Even in the material world, there are many grades of living entities. The human beings on earth generally cover themselves with external fragrances to stop their bad bodily odors, but here we find that because of the bodily fragrance of the demigod damsels, the rivers, the lakes, the breeze and the entire atmosphere of Trikūṭa Mountain also become fragrant. Since the bodies of the damsels in the upper planetary systems are so beautiful, we can just imagine how beautifully formed are the bodies of the Vaikuṇṭha damsels or the damsels in Vṛndāvana, the gopīs.
The Supreme Personality of Godhead is the master of the material nature (mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sacarācaram (BG 9.10)). Therefore, being the supreme controller of the laws of nature, the Lord cannot be under their influence. An example given in this regard is that although the wind blows through many places, the air is not affected by the qualities of these places. Although the air sometimes carries the odor of a filthy place, the air has nothing to do with such a place. Similarly, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, being all-good and all-auspicious, is never affected by the material qualities like an ordinary living entity. puruṣaḥ prakṛti-stho hi bhuṅkte prakṛtijān guṇān (BG 13.22). When the living entity is in the material nature, he is affected by its qualities. The Supreme Personality of Godhead, however, is not affected.
SB Cantos 10.14 to 12 (Translations Only)
A particular purifying agent is considered appropriate when its application removes the bad odor or dirty covering of some contaminated object and makes it resume its original nature.
What is this polluted body anyway—so filthy and full of bad odors? I was attracted by the fragrance and beauty of a woman's body, but what are those so-called attractive features? They are simply a false covering created by illusion.
Sri Caitanya-caritamrta
CC Madhya-lila
The brāhmaṇa Vāsudeva continued, "O my merciful Lord, such mercy is not possible for ordinary living entities. Such mercy can be found only in You. Upon seeing me, even a sinful person goes away due to my bad bodily odor. Yet You have touched me. Such is the independent behavior of the Supreme Personality of Godhead."
CC Antya-lila
"Sanātana Gosvāmī is one of the associates of Kṛṣṇa. There could not be any bad odor from his body. On the first day I embraced him, I smelled the aroma of catuḥsama (a mixture of sandalwood pulp, camphor, aguru and musk)."
All the decomposed food is thrown before the cows from Tailaṅga at the Siṁha-dvāra gate. Because of its rotten odor, even the cows cannot eat it.
Other Books by Srila Prabhupada
Message of Godhead
Lectures
Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures
Prabhupāda: Where? Authority. Here is authority. Why we are putting our money in the bank? Because we have got faith. We have confidence that "This bank will not fail." Similarly, if we can keep our faith in an ordinary bank or a traveling agent, can we cannot keep our faith Kṛṣṇa, who is accepted as the Supreme Personality of Godhead by all other big authorities, even by Śaṅkarācārya, Rāmānujācārya, Lord Caitanya and all these. So we have to follow the footprints of great authorities. Mahājano yena gataḥ sa panthāḥ (CC Madhya 17.186). He'll be situat... Just like we also follow others. Just like if I put some money in a bank, I see, "So many people are keeping their money. So I may also keep." So if Kṛṣṇa has been accepted as the supreme authority by so many big, big men, why should we not keep our faith in Kṛṣṇa? Or Jesus Christ? That's all right.
We must keep our faith, and faithfully we shall discharge our duties. And if you follow the principle the result is guaranteed. Thank you very much. Any questions? You can ask.
Why the door is closed? Come here. Eh?
Guest: I have (haven't?) got to know the different books before I come here. When I come in here there was sound and movement and odor. ...why is this allowed?(?)
Prabhupāda: Yes. This transcendental sound is a process of cleansing our mind. This is also transcendental sound. This is not ordinary sound. Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12). The whole thing is due to our unclean mind. So this transcendental sound is the process of cleaning the mind, and in clean, in clean mind, we can accept transcendental subject. Otherwise it is sometimes disturbing. So this...
Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures
Nitāi: "Due to the interaction of water with the taste perception, the subtle element odor evolves under superior arrangement. Thence the earth and the olfactory sense, by which we can variously experience the aroma of the earth, become manifest."
Prabhupāda:
- rasa-mātrād vikurvāṇād
- ambhaso daiva-coditāt
- gandha-mātram abhūt tasmāt
- pṛthvī ghrāṇas tu gandhagaḥ
- (SB 3.26.44)
So further analytical study of water is mentioned here by Kapiladeva. So the rasa, taste. Taste changes into gandha, smell. So the taste is created by daiva-coditāt. Taste of everything... Everything is being done, daiva-coditāt, the beginning. But the taste creates the different kinds of fragrance, gandha, smell, within the earth. There is water, there is taste, and taste and formation—either you say chemical or physical changes—it becomes smell. So different kinds of smell there are already within the earth. Simply it brings out by different methods. The scientist does not know. That we have already explained several times, that the different gandha, or smell, or fragrance, or aroma, whatever you call, there are already within the earth. Puṇyo gandhaḥ pṛthivyāṁ ca. Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā, puṇyo gandhaḥ and pāpo gandhaḥ. In the material world, everywhere, there are two things: pious and impious. So the pāpo gandhaḥ, bad smell, when it passes, so you close your nose, nostrils, not to accept it. But when there is puṇyo gandhaḥ, you feel fresh: "Oh, it is very nice."
Nitāi: "Odor, although one, becomes many—as mixed, offensive, fragrant, mild, strong, acidic and so on—according to the proportions of associated substances."
Prabhupāda:
- karambha-pūti-saurabhya-
- śāntogrāmlādibhiḥ pṛthak
- dravyāvayava-vai...
- (SB 3.26.45)
What is that? Vaiṣamyād gandha eko vibhidyate. In the previous verse the gandha, from gandha, from smell, fragrance or smell, ghrāṇas tu gandhagaḥ. So in the smelling power, nostril, they perceive different varieties. Variety is there. Although the thing is one, one Kṛṣṇa, but even in His material energy, He is perceived in varieties of things. That is the purpose of this Sāṅkhya philosophy, how one has become many. Ekaṁ bahu syām.
Nitāi: (leads chanting, etc.) "The mind is the sixteenth item, and above the mind, the soul is the seventeenth item. He is the living being; therefore he is one only. In cooperation with the other fifteen items along with the mind, the living entity is enjoying the material world alone. The instruments are the five sense organs, the five working organs, and the five objects of the senses. Thus the mind is sixteen and the living entity himself is seventeen. In this way the living entity is enjoying different situations of three types, namely happiness, distress, or a mixture of both."
Prabhupāda:
- pañcabhiḥ kurute svārthān
- pañca vedātha pañcabhiḥ
- ekas tu ṣoḍaśena trīn
- svayaṁ saptadaśo 'śnute
- (SB 6.1.50)
So we are fallen into great ocean of nescience, covered. First of all the five senses, knowledge-acquiring senses, jñānendriya and karmendriya, working senses, ten, and sense object... We have got eyes; therefore eyes are engaged for seeing something beautiful, rūpa. Rasa. Rasa means taste. That is the business of the tongue. And to see beautiful thing, that is the business of the eyes. Rūpa, rasa, śabda. Śabda means sound. The ear, we have got ear. We want to hear nice songs, music, radio, television. So ear is there; the objects are there. Rūpa, rasa, śabda, gandha, smelling. There is good odor also, bad odor also. Rūpa, rasa, gandha, śabda, sparśā. In this way we are entangled, completely under the laws of material nature. I am the spirit soul. Saptadaśaḥ.
Philosophy Discussions
Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa's experience. Parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate svābhāvikī jñāna-bala-kriyā ca (Cc. Madhya 13.65, purport). This is the Vedic version. The Supreme is so much equipped with different kinds of energies. That energy means experience. You can apply your energy if you have got experience. You can apply your energy of drawing a figure, providing you have got experience.
Śyāmasundara: Yes.
Prabhupāda: Similarly, all this display of this universe or anything creation, cosmic manifestations, this is designed by the Supreme, parāsya śaktir vividhaiva. Multi-energies. Just like this flower. We have got experience that if you paint a flower, it requires so much experience to handle the brush and the colors. So similarly, this is certainly proof of experience, but His energy is acting so nicely, we see that the flower is coming automatically. And the same example I have given so many times, that nowadays in electronics, just like this, so many mechanical arrangement is within there. But I say "putt,"—I push on this one button. One who does not know, he sees, "Oh, this is moving so wonderfully." No. There is experience.
Śyāmasundara: The Darwinists, for instance, would say that this flower through time had the experience that if it produced a nice odor, more bees would come to pollinate it and continue the species. So that the experience is passed on in the gene or the seed of the flower, so...
Conversations and Morning Walks
1975 Conversations and Morning Walks
Harikeśa: I noticed the devotees would wait for prasādam with great...
Prabhupāda: Yes, that is nice. It requires good leader, that's all. (break) ...Kṛṣṇa we must prepare very first-class foodstuff, and where is the complaint if it is first class?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's all a concoction. Certain devotees have concocted. They have taken advice from other masters, food masters, what to eat, what not to eat, all concoction. It's clearly written in Bhagavad-gītā, those foods which are sattvic-juicy, fatty. Everything is mentioned there.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Guide them. (break) ...here the main business is slaughterhouse.
Brahmānanda: In this state.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Cow country, it's called. They call it that. On the highway you see that, "Cow country."
Prabhupāda: Chicago is also this...
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, very bad. That is very bad.
Brahmānanda: There's one area of the town that there's a bad odor.
1976 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: No, this is for spiritual realization. If you chant, then, gradually, you realize yourself that you are a spiritual being; you are not this body. Then his spiritual life begins. Actually human life is meant for spiritual realization, and if one does not spiritually realize his identity, then he remains an animal. That is the difference between animal and man. Man is supposed to be spiritually realized.
Interviewer: How is that spiritual dimension realized?
Prabhupāda: One has to realize that he's not this body, he's spirit soul, and the spirit soul is within the body, and after annihilation of this body, the spirit soul is transferred to another body. So there are 8,400,000 different forms of life. And we have to transmigrate to any one of these forms. So today I am in American body or Indian body, very comfortably situated, but at the time of death my particular mentality will transfer me to a particular type of body. Exactly like if a man infects some contagious disease he has to develop that disease. It is very subtle material laws. So similarly, we are composed of gross body and subtle body. The gross body is made of this earth, water, air, fire, ether, like this. And the subtle body is made of mind, intelligence and ego. And the spirit soul is within that outward gross and subtle bodies. When the gross body is annihilated, the subtle body, mind, carries the soul to a similar body as he was thinking at the time of death. It is, example is given... Just like the flavor of a rose garden is carried by the air or the bad odor of a filthy place is also carried by the air, similarly, mind, intelligence carries me to a particular type of body as I was absorbed in thought at the time of death.
Correspondence
1968 Correspondence
Please locate and send to New York, the following medicines: Triphala-(brownish powder, appears like earth, and with faint sweet odor.) Baraillaich-(ground up nuts, very pungent odor—you ground up such nuts in S.F., after they were sent from Acyutananda in India.)*
| Page Title: | Odor |
| Compiler: | Rishab, GauraHari, Labangalatika |
| Created: | 03 of Feb, 2011 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=1, SB=18, CC=3, OB=1, Lec=5, Con=2, Let=1 |
| No. of Quotes: | 31 |