Organ

Expressions researched:
"organ"

SB Canto 2

SB 2.10.24, Translation and Purport:

Thereafter when the Supreme Person desired to perform varieties of work, the two hands and their controlling strength, and Indra, the demigod in heaven, became manifested, as also the acts dependent on both the hands and the demigod.

In every item we can note with profit that the sense organs of the living entity are never independent at any stage. The Lord is known as the Lord of the senses (Hṛṣīkeśa). Thus the sense organs of the living entities are manifested by the will of the Lord, and each organ is controlled by a certain type of demigod. No one, therefore, can claim any proprietorship of the senses.

SB 2.10.26, Translation:

Thereupon, for sexual pleasure, begetting offspring and tasting heavenly nectar, the Lord developed the genitals, and thus there is the genital organ and its controlling deity, the Prajāpati. The object of sexual pleasure and the controlling deity are under the control of the genitals of the Lord.

SB 2.10.27, Translation:

Thereafter, when He desired to evacuate the refuse of eatables, the evacuating hole, anus, and the sensory organ thereof developed along with the controlling deity Mitra. The sensory organ and the evacuating substance are both under the shelter of the controlling deity.

SB Canto 3

SB 3.6.2, Purport:

The ingredients of matter are counted as twenty-three: the total material energy, false ego, sound, touch, form, taste, smell, earth, water, fire, air, sky, eye, ear, nose, tongue, skin, hand, leg, evacuating organ, genitals, speech and mind. All are combined together by the influence of time and are again dissolved in the course of time. Time, therefore, is the energy of the Lord and acts in her own way by the direction of the Lord. This energy is called Kālī and is represented by the dark destructive goddess generally worshiped by persons influenced by the mode of darkness or ignorance in material existence. In the Vedic hymn this process is described as mūla-prakṛtir avikṛtir mahadādyāḥ prakṛti-vikṛtayaḥ sapta ṣoḍaśakas tu vikāro na prakṛtir na vikṛtiḥ puruṣaḥ. The energy which acts as material nature in a combination of twenty-three ingredients is not the final source of creation. The Lord enters into the elements and applies His energy, called Kālī. In all other Vedic scriptures the same principle is accepted. In Brahma-saṁhitā (5.35) it is stated:

eko 'py asau racayituṁ jagad-aṇḍa-koṭiṁ

yac-chaktir asti jagad-aṇḍa-cayā yad-antaḥ

aṇḍāntara-stha-paramāṇu-cayāntara-sthaṁ

govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi

"I worship the primeval Lord, Govinda, who is the original Personality of Godhead. By His partial plenary expansion (Mahā-Viṣṇu), He enters into material nature, and then into each and every universe (as Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu), and then (as Kṣīrodakaśāyī Viṣṇu) into all the elements, including every atom of matter. Such manifestations of cosmic creation are innumerable, both in the universes and in the individual atoms."

SB 3.26.13, Translation:

The senses for acquiring knowledge and the organs for action number ten, namely the auditory sense, the sense of taste, the tactile sense, the sense of sight, the sense of smell, the active organ for speaking, the active organs for working, and those for traveling, generating and evacuating.

SB 3.26.54, Translation:

First of all a mouth appeared in Him, and then came forth the organ of speech, and with it the god of fire, the deity who presides over that organ. Then a pair of nostrils appeared, and in them appeared the olfactory sense, as well as prāṇa, the vital air.

SB 3.26.63, Translation:

The god of fire entered His mouth with the organ of speech, but the virāṭ-puruṣa could not be aroused. Then the god of wind entered His nostrils with the sense of smell, but still the virāṭ-puruṣa refused to be awakened.

SB 3.26.65, Translation:

The predominating deities of the skin, herbs and seasoning plants entered the skin of the virāṭ-puruṣa with the hair of the body, but the Cosmic Being refused to get up even then. The god predominating over water entered His organ of generation with the faculty of procreation, but the virāṭ-puruṣa still would not rise.

SB 3.26.66, Translation:

The god of death entered His anus with the organ of defecation, but the virāṭ-puruṣa could not be spurred to activity. The god Indra entered the hands with their power of grasping and dropping things, but the virāṭ-puruṣa would not get up even then.

SB 3.28.25, Purport:

It is explained in the Brahma-saṁhitā that each limb of the Lord has the potency of every other limb; because everything is spiritual, His parts are not conditioned. The Lord can see with His ears. The material ear can hear but cannot see, but we understand from the Brahma-saṁhitā that the Lord can also see with His ears and hear with His eyes. Any organ of His transcendental body can function as any other organ. His abdomen is the foundation of all the planetary systems. Brahmā holds the post of the creator of all planetary systems, but his engineering energy is generated from the abdomen of the Lord. Any creative function in the universe always has a direct connecting link with the Lord. The necklace of pearls which decorates the upper portion of the Lord's body is also spiritual, and therefore the yogī is advised to gaze at the whitish luster of the pearls decorating His chest.

SB 3.29.20, Purport:

As a breeze carrying a pleasant fragrance from a garden of flowers at once captures the organ of smell, so one's consciousness, saturated with devotion, can at once capture the transcendental existence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who, in His Paramātmā feature, is present everywhere, even in the heart of every living being. It is stated in Bhagavad-gītā that the Supreme Personality of Godhead is kṣetra jña, present within this body, but He is also simultaneously present in every other body. Since the individual soul is present only in a particular body, he is altered when another individual soul does not cooperate with him. The Supersoul, however, is equally present everywhere. Individual souls may disagree, but the Supersoul, being equally present in every body, is called unchanging, or avikāri. The individual soul, when fully saturated with Kṛṣṇa consciousness, can understand the presence of the Supersoul. It is confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā that (bhaktyā mām abhijānāti (BG 18.55)) a person saturated with devotional service in full Kṛṣṇa consciousness can understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead, either as Supersoul or as the Supreme Person.

SB 3.31.3, Translation:

In the course of a month, a head is formed, and at the end of two months the hands, feet and other limbs take shape. By the end of three months, the nails, fingers, toes, body hair, bones and skin appear, as do the organ of generation and the other apertures in the body, namely the eyes, nostrils, ears, mouth and anus.

SB Canto 4

SB 4.25.22, Purport:

The body of intelligence enjoys the objects of sense gratification that cover it, such as smell, vision and hearing. The word sunāsām ("beautiful nose") indicates the organ for acquiring knowledge by smell. Similarly, the mouth is the instrument for acquiring knowledge by taste, for by chewing an object and touching it with the tongue we can understand its taste. The word sukapolām ("nice forehead") indicates a clear brain capable of understanding things as they are. By intelligence one can set things in order. The earrings set upon the two ears are placed there by the work of the intelligence. Thus the ways of acquiring knowledge are described metaphorically.

SB Cantos 10.14 to 12 (Translations Only)

SB 11.12.19, Translation:

The functions of the working senses—the organ of speech, the hands, the legs, the genital and the anus—and the functions of the knowledge-acquiring senses—the nose, tongue, eyes, skin and ears—along with the functions of the subtle senses of mind, intelligence, consciousness and false ego, as well as the function of the subtle pradhāna and the interaction of the three modes of material nature—all these should be understood as My materially manifest form.

CC Adi-lila

CC Adi 14.15, Purport:

The five large parts are the nose, arms, chin, eyes and knees. The five fine parts are the skin, fingertips, teeth, hair on the body and hair on the head. The seven reddish parts are the eyes, soles, palms, palate, nails and upper and lower lips. The six raised parts are the chest, shoulders, nails, nose, waist and mouth. The three small parts are the neck, thighs and male organ. The three broad parts are the waist, forehead and chest. The three grave parts are the navel, voice and existence. Altogether these are the thirty-two symptoms of a great personality. This is a quotation from the Sāmudrika.

CC Madhya-lila

CC Madhya 20.276, Purport:

The three types of egotism (ahaṅkāra) are technically known as vaikārika, taijasa and tāmasa. The mahat-tattva is situated within the heart, or citta, and the predominating Deity of the mahat-tattva is Lord Vāsudeva (SB 3.26.21). The mahat-tattva is transformed into three divisions: (1) vaikārika, egotism in goodness (sāttvika-ahaṅkāra), from which is manifested the eleventh sense organ, the mind, whose predominating Deity is Aniruddha (SB 3.26.27–28); (2) taijasa, or egotism in passion (rājasa-ahaṅkāra), from which are manifested the active and knowledge-acquiring senses, along with the intelligence, whose predominating Deity is Lord Pradyumna (SB 3.26.29–31); and (3) tāmasa, or egotism in ignorance, from which sound vibration (śabda-tanmātra) expands. From sound vibration, the sky (ākāśa) is manifested, and then the senses, beginning with the sense of hearing, are also manifested (SB 3.26.32). Of these three types of egotism, Lord Saṅkarṣaṇa is the predominating Deity.

Narada-bhakti-sutra (sutras 1 to 8 only)

Narada Bhakti Sutra 8, Purport:

One should try to get out of illusion and be engaged in the factual service of Kṛṣṇa. Service to Kṛṣṇa utilizes all the senses, and when the senses are engaged in the service of Kṛṣṇa, they become purified. There are ten senses—five active senses and five knowledge-acquiring senses. The active senses are the power of talking, the hands, the legs, the evacuating outlet, and the generating organ. The knowledge-acquiring senses are the eyes, the ears, the nose, the tongue, and the sense of touch. The mind, the center of all the senses, is sometimes considered the eleventh sense.

One cannot engage in the transcendental loving service of the Lord with these senses in their present materially covered state. Therefore one should take up the process of devotional service to purify them. There are sixty-four items of regulative devotional service for purifying the senses, and one should strenuously undergo such regulative service. Then one can enter into the transcendental loving service of the Lord.

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Lecture on BG 2.22 -- Hyderabad, November 26, 1972:

Prabhupāda: Senses, everyone knows. You see. How we are seeing? Through the sense of eyes. These are senses. Sense organs. You can touch with the hand. These are sense organs. You can hear about some knowledge. That is sense organ. You can taste one fruit. These are senses. Is it very difficult to understand? You have got these senses. By some senses, you are acquiring knowledge, and some senses you are working. There are five senses for acquiring knowledge, and five senses for working. These are senses.

Devotee (1): "How to control them? What are the things to be done?"

Prabhupāda: Yes. Control. It is very difficult. To control. But if you put it under the control of the Supreme, it will be controlled. You want to see very beautiful thing. But if you engage your seeing power on the most beautiful, Kṛṣṇa, then you forget, other things. This is sense control. You are going to restaurant to enjoy your tongue, but if you take kṛṣṇa-prasādam, then you'll forget going to restaurant. This is sense control. Sense control means to engage the senses in the service of Kṛṣṇa. Hṛṣīkeṇa hṛṣīkeśa-sevanaṁ bhaktir ucyate (CC Madhya 19.170). Simply we have to purify the senses. The senses must be there. Otherwise, I am not a living being. I am stone.

Lecture on BG 3.13-16 -- New York, May 23, 1966:

We have got the eyes, the ear, the nose, the tongue, the hand, the leg, and so many. We have got ten, ten senses, sensory organs and working organs. So these organs there are. Out of all the organs, the tongue is the most uncontrollable organ, tongue. When we eat... Perhaps those devotees who eat with us, we chant this, that śarīra abidyā-jāl joḍendriya tāhe kāl: "This body is the encagement of our nescience, of our ignorance. And in that body the senses are our greatest enemies. Out of that, the tongue is the most powerful enemy." Tā'ra madhye jihwā ati lobhamoy sudurmati. Lobhamoy sudurmati. Because tongue is always hankering after palatable things, and it is making me bound up in so many reactions of my life... That is the secret.

Therefore, in the Bhagavad-gītā, in the beginning, the karma-yoga begins with the tongue. Yajña-śiṣṭāśinaḥ santaḥ. We have to eat. Now, we have to control the tongue first. How we can control the tongue? By offering sacrifice. By offering, we have to take foodstuff for maintaining our body. Now, if we offer the foodstuff, preparing to the Lord, that is called yajña. Yajña is not very difficult thing. You are preparing foodstuff for eating at your home. You have simply to prepare that foodstuff in a nice way so that you can offer to Kṛṣṇa. That's all. Your process of eating or your process of securing ingredients for eating, or your cooking, nothing is stopped.

Lecture on BG 6.21-27 -- New York, September 9, 1966:

Because that enjoying spark is moved now. That requires intelligence. Who is enjoying? Who is enjoying? The enjoying, the enjoying spirit. The spirit is enjoying, not this body. That requires intelligence. Then again... Now, if that spirit is enjoying, then the spirit must have enjoying senses also. Otherwise how it can enjoy? If you have no enjoying sense organ, then how you can enjoy? A blunt cannot enjoy. Therefore it is accepted that the spirit soul, although it is very small, atomic, we cannot measure... Several times I have repeated here that the measurement of the small, infinitesimal spirit spark is just one ten-thousandth part of the upper portion of your hair. It is so small. But that does not mean... Just like we are incapable to measure something. We define that "Point has no length, no breadth," but actually it is not a fact. If you see a point with microscope, you'll find the point has increased to one inch round, and it has got length and breadth. Similarly, we have no capacity to make a measurement of the soul, but there is measurement.

Lecture on BG 6.25-29 -- Los Angeles, February 18, 1969:

The material life means one is controlled by the mind or by the senses. Mind is the center of all senses. So to be controlled by the mind means to be controlled by the senses. Senses are subordinate assistants to the master mind. Master mind dictates, "Go and see that." My eyes sees. Therefore my eyes, the sense eye is under the direction of the mind. My legs go. Therefore my sense organ the leg is under the direction of the mind. So to become under the direction of the mind means to become under the direction of the senses. So if you can control the mind then you'll not be under the control of the senses.

So one who is under the control of the senses, he is go-dāsa. Go means senses and dāsa means servant. And one who is master of the senses, he's gosvāmī. Svāmī means master and go means senses. You have seen the gosvāmī title. Gosvāmī title means one who is the master of the sense.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Lecture on SB 3.26.11-14 -- Bombay, December 23, 1974:

Nitāi: (reading) "There are five gross elements, namely earth, water, fire, air and ether. There are also five subtle elements: smell, taste, color, touch and sound. The senses for acquiring knowledge and the organs for action number ten, namely the auditory sense, the sense of taste, the tactile sense, the sense of sight, the sense of smell, the active organ for speaking, the active organs for working, those for traveling, generating and evacuating. The internal, subtle senses are experienced as having four aspects, in the shape of the mind, intelligence, ego and contaminated consciousness. Distinctions between them can be made only by different functions, since they represent different characteristics."

Prabhupāda: So this is the analysis of the whole bodily construction. And beyond this bodily construction there is the soul. And when you study the characteristic of the soul, that is called spiritual knowledge. So long you are engaged with the characteristics of the bodily different elements, that is material study. So generally, people they are interested the medical science. Medical science is also interested with this body. The physical science... The physical science interest will be bhūmir āpaḥ analo vāyuḥ, mahā-bhūtāni. And psychology, they are interested with the internal senses, mind: thinking, feeling, and willing.

Lecture on SB 6.1.7 -- San Francisco, March 1, 1967:

Here it is stated. What is that? Mana-ukta-pāṇibhiḥ. Mana-ukta-pāṇibhiḥ: by mind, by activities of the mind, and by activities of our words, and by activities of our senses. And if I hurt you by harsh word, then that is also a sin. And when actually commit violence or do something with my hands or legs or something, that is certainly sinful. So we can commit sins in three ways: mind and words and karma, by action. Thinking, feeling and willing and acting. Therefore a svāmī or gosvāmī means who has control over the function of the mind, of the words, and of the activities of the senses. There is definition. "One who can control the tongue, one who can control the mind, one who can control the words, one who can control the belly, one who can control the generative organ, he is svāmī." And pṛthiviṁ sa śiṣyāt: "He is allowed to create disciples all over the world."

Lecture on SB 6.1.7 -- San Francisco, March 1, 1967:

Your tongue wants to eat very nice things. All right, you get it Kṛṣṇa-prasādam. Kṛṣṇa is offered the nicest cooked foodstuff. So you satisfy your tongue; at the same time, you become Kṛṣṇa conscious. So, Kṛṣṇa conscious movement is so nice, that there is no forceful prohibition of the senses. Even the sense organ, generative organ, that can be used also for Kṛṣṇa. How? If you can beget children who will be Kṛṣṇa conscious, then produce hundred, one hundred children. Otherwise stop producing cats and dogs.

So no sense is stopped, but you have to utilize it for Kṛṣṇa. You can walk to Kṛṣṇa's temple, you can dance to the tune of Kṛṣṇa's song, you can eat nice foodstuff, you can see very beautiful Deities, you can hear very beautiful sound, you can talk on Kṛṣṇa philosophically from Bhāgavata and Bhagavad-gītā. So everything in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. There is no stoppage. And devotional service means that purifying the senses and engage them in the service of Kṛṣṇa. Tat-paratvena nirmalam.

Lecture on SB 7.6.9-17 -- San Francisco, March 31, 1969:

Now, you know the silkworm, the silkworm entangles itself in cobweb, and it cannot get out. Perhaps most of you know. And those who are industrialists in silk industry, they collect those cobwebs of silkworms and boil in the water, and the worm dies, and then silk comes out. So similarly, we are manufacturing the cobweb of silk in this so-called society, family, and being attracted in it. It is very good example. And the attraction is aupasthya-jaihvaṁ bahu-manyamānaḥ. Aupasthya means sex, sex, the organ for progenating. That is called aupasthya. And the other important sense is this tongue. So we are attached to this paraphernalia on account of this tongue and on account of that sex genital. That's all.

Lecture on SB 7.9.11 -- Montreal, August 17, 1968:

Haṁsadūta: Swamijī, in one of Professor Sanyal's books he says that the mind is an organ of the soul. Is that correct? I always thought the mind was part of the material, the subtle body, the subtle material body.

Prabhupāda: No. Organ of the self. It is covered by the material energy. Originally, you have got everything. You have got mind, ego, and everything. Just like when I think, ahaṁ brahmāsmi, "I am servant of Kṛṣṇa," that is also ego, "I am." But that is pure. But as soon as I think "I am American," "I am Indian," "I am this body," that is impure. This is impure egoism, and that is pure egoism. So ego is there. Similarly, mind is also there, intelligence is also there, but when it is covered by this material contamination it is called māyā, and when it is out of material contamination, ahaṁ brahmāsmi, "I am servant of Kṛṣṇa. I shall act for Kṛṣṇa, I shall live for Kṛṣṇa, I shall eat for Kṛṣṇa, I shall prepare foodstuff for Kṛṣṇa, I shall sing for Kṛṣṇa—everything Kṛṣṇa," that is liberated stage.

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures

Lecture on CC Adi-lila 7.113-17 -- San Francisco, February 22, 1967:

And it is confirmed in the Brahma-saṁhitā, aṅgāni yasya sakalendriya-vṛttimanti paśyanti pānti kalayanti ciraṁ jaganti (Bs. 5.32). The Supreme Lord, Kṛṣṇa, Govinda, His bodily, different, I mean to say, limbs of His body, or different senses, they are so perfect that every sense organ can act the, I mean to say, work of the other senses. Just like we can see with our eyes. Simply we can see. But if I close my eyes, I cannot see. But my... I can hear only by my ears, but I cannot see. If I close my eyes, I cannot see with my ears. But about the Supreme Personality of Godhead it is said that He can see with His ears, He can see with His hand, and He can hear with His hand. He can do anything from any part of His body. That is spiritual. He can do any part of His body. Just like, this is the philosophy. Now, we offer something to Kṛṣṇa. That Kṛṣṇa, I mean to say, Deity is not different from original Kṛṣṇa because absolute. Everything is Kṛṣṇa. Why this Deity should not be Kṛṣṇa? This is quite reasonable. If Kṛṣṇa is everything, why not this Deity Kṛṣṇa? This is also Kṛṣṇa. He can do. He has, His power is just like... If you take my photograph and if you put it in my seat, and I am not here, that photograph cannot act because it is material. But for Kṛṣṇa, His photograph, His statue, His everything can act because He is spiritual. So we should always know that as soon as we chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa is immediately there. Immediately. Kṛṣṇa is already there.

Philosophy Discussions

Philosophy Discussion on William James:

Hayagrīva: James writes about religion and total surrender and involvement. He says, "In the religious life surrender and sacrifice are positively espoused. Even unnecessary givings-up are added in order that the happiness may increase. Religion thus makes easy and felicitous what in any case is necessary. It becomes an essential organ of our life, performing a function which no other portion of our life can so successfully fulfill."

Prabhupāda: Yes. Without religion the human society is animal society. So religion must be there, and religion means to understand God, to learn how to love God, how to obey His orders, and actually real religion means to accept the order of the Supreme Lord, God. Therefore in the Bhagavad-gītā this fact is taught. God is personally teaching that "You become My devotee, always think of Me," man-manā bhava mad-bhakto, "worship Me," mad-yājī, "and if you cannot do anything more, you simply offer your obeisances unto Me." Man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru (BG 18.65). Without any big, I mean to say, attempt for religious system, if one has got the idea that there is God, and even without seeing Him if he follows His instruction, always think of Him... Either you think of Him as personal God or as localized or all-pervading, but God has got form. One has to think of the form of the God. That is easier. And if God is accepted as impersonal, that is very troublesome. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, kleśaḥ adhikataras teṣām avyakta āsakta cetasām. Those who are impersonalist, for them to think of God becomes very difficult job.

Philosophy Discussion on B. F. Skinner:

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?

Śyāmasundara: Yes.

Devotee: He also says that we have the capacity to take matters into our own hands. We don't have to ruin it by some controller far away who we have no control over.

Prabhupāda: But that you cannot do. You cannot take the question of birth, death, old age in your hands. How he says that you shall be able to take matters into your own hands?

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

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.

Prabhupāda: That is the process of body. I have explained several times that after the secretion of the male and the female, they together emulsify and forms a pealike body. And that develops into this body. Gradually, there are holes. The holes become eyes, ears, nose, rectum, like that. So when the body, creation of body is complete, then the child comes out.

Philosophy Discussion on Plato:

Hayagrīva: Concerning education, he says, "We must conclude that education is not what it is said to be by some who profess to put knowledge into a soul which does not possess it, as if they can put sight into blind eyes. On the contrary, our own account signifies that the soul of every man does possess the power of learning the truth and the organ to see it with, and that just as one might have to turn the whole body around in order that the eye should see light instead of darkness, so the entire soul must be turned away from this changing world until its eye can bear to contemplate reality and that supreme splendor which we have called good. Hence there may well be an art whose aim would be to effect this very thing, the conversion of the soul, in the readiest way, not to put the power of sight into the soul's eye, which already has it, but to insure that instead of looking in the wrong direction, it is turned the way it ought to be.

Prabhupāda: That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement.

Hayagrīva: That.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hayagrīva: Yes. It's that art, he says.

Prabhupāda: It is an art, that our aim of life by these sensually affected senses... At the present moment we are sensually affected. I want to eat something which is very palatable, I eat it. I do not care whether this palatable eating will mislead me or lead me to the proper way. Therefore we are making this propaganda. So your eating process is not stopped. You eat, but don't eat meat, you eat Kṛṣṇa prasādam. So if we agree to this process, then gradually we become purified by Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Our aim, objective, is attained. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Don't stop eating. No sensual activities are stopped. The eyes, in the material way, the eyes want to see very beautiful objective. We say, "Yes, you see the beautiful Kṛṣṇa. You taste Kṛṣṇa prasādam." Everything is there; simply we purify.

Philosophy Discussion on Rene Descartes:

Hayagrīva: "The brain because it is within..., because it is with that the organ of sense are connected, and the heart because it is apparently in it that we experience the passions." We... He thought that the soul was in the pineal gland at the base of the brain, because we think with the brain, but that he wasn't certain. He thought, "Well, our passions are in the heart, so maybe it's in the heart."

Prabhupāda: No.

Hayagrīva: "Maybe it's in the brain."

Prabhupāda: Therefore we have to accept God's instruction. He definitely gives the information, īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe arjuna tiṣṭhati (BG 18.61). Īśvaraḥ means the controller. So the soul is the controller of this body. So He is within the heart; it is already there. Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe arjuna tiṣṭhati (BG 18.61). There are two kinds of īśvaraḥ, controller. One is the ordinary controller, that means the individual living being, and the other is the supreme living being. We get from Vedic information both of them sitting together on this body tree. So both cases, the Supersoul and the individual soul, they are living within the heart. That is the right conclusion.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- July 18, 1975, San Francisco:

Yadubara: They have an organ here, Śrīla Prabhupāda, that you play the organ and the bells chime out a melody from that tower.

Prabhupāda: Which tower?

Yadubara: That big tower here. They have bells up on top, and they can play different melodies.

Devotee: As they fall off. (break)

Yadubara: ...problem of suicide here, but in all schools all over the country.

Prabhupāda: Yes. They are publicly suiciding, and others are silently suiciding. The suiciding policy is going on. Somebody manifests; somebody does not manifest. That's all. If the human life is wasted for sense gratification, that is suicidal. Because you got the opportunity of enlightenment and you live like dogs and cats, this is suicide.

Morning Walk -- November 19, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: There are separate arrangement, although they are one.

Dr. Patel: They are the different facets of the same internal organ as a whole.

Prabhupāda: (aside:) Hare Kṛṣṇa. Jaya. (break) ...set is there, but beyond that mental stage there is intellect. Beyond intellect there is soul.

Dr. Patel: To go beyond intellect for a body conscious ego, the ego must dissolve and find itself to be a jīva, and then he travels further up to find his own identity and his own relation with God. Before, I mean, mind is one, you cannot go beyond it. That is what my conjecture. I may be wrong for all that.

Prabhupāda: No, no. One has to go beyond the mind, but one, those who are stuck up with the mind, they are useless. So the Western philosophers, they are stuck up with the mind. That is the defect. (break) ...bhaktasya kuto mahad-guṇā mano-rathenāsati dhāvato bahiḥ. Manorathena, mental concoction, asataḥ. Western philosophers, they take the mind as the soul. (aside:) Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Morning Walk -- December 12, 1975, Vrndavana:

Harikeśa: Oh, and in the Bhāgavatam it also says that because the universal form desired to hear, that sound was created and then the organ for hearing. Like that.

Prabhupāda: That is also created.

Harikeśa: So...

Prabhupāda: Just like from ether, sound is created. Śabda, sparśa. Śabda, sparśa, rūpa, rasa, gandhaḥ, these are the five parmatra (?), object of sense perception. Budh, pañca parmatra, ten senses, the mind, and three modes, the material nature. This is the ingredient of the whole creation.

Harikeśa: So the basic element is the soul's...

Prabhupāda: Basic element is Kṛṣṇa.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- April 20, 1976, Melbourne:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Generally at least, though, we associate the heart with an organ that simply pumps blood and oxygen throughout the body, but the biologists contend that certain bodies and certain species of life have no such circulatory system, pumping blood or even oxygen.

Prabhupāda: Why not?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Well, that's the contention at present.

Prabhupāda: Hm. But we can take that...

Guru-kṛpā: Like a worm. If you cut a worm in half, both parts of the worm will go on living.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Guru-kṛpā: You take one worm, you cut it, and both parts will go on living. You cut it in three places, and it will all live.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So what is the wrong there?

'Life Comes From Life' Slideshow Discussions -- July 3, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa:

māsena tu śiro dvābhyāṁ

bāhv-aṅghry-ādy-aṅga-vigrahaḥ

nakha-lomāsthi-carmāṇi

liṅga-cchidrodbhavas tribhiḥ

(SB 3.31.3)

Translation. "In the course of a month, a head is formed, and at the end of two months, hands, feet and other limbs take shape. By the end of three months, the nails, fingers, toes, body hair, bone and skin appear, as do the organ of generation and the other apertures in the body, namely the eyes, nostrils, ears, mouth and anus."

Prabhupāda: The same thing. Fermentation is going on, and the living entity takes a form. Then flies. And they say, from the water it is coming, flies, mosquito. The same process for development. That's all. Everything is explained in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Scientists, Svarupa Damodara, and Dr. Sharma -- March 31, 1977, Bombay:

Dr. Sharma: Sarvasya cāhaṁ hṛdi sanniviṣṭaḥ (BG 15.15). And the (Sanskrit) says that the heart is the most important organ because it is concerned with ātmā and...

Prabhupāda: Santaḥ sadaiva hṛdayeṣu. Premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena santaḥ sadaiva hṛdayeṣu (Bs. 5.38). Dhyānāvasthita-tad-gatena manasā paśyanti yaṁ yoginaḥ (SB 12.13.1).

Dr. Sharma: Yasyāntaṁ na viduḥ surāsura-gaṇā devāya tasmai namaḥ.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: What about these..., the artificial hearts that they are making?

Prabhupāda: Artificial heart and this real heart the same thing—it is material. Where is the difference? There is no difference.