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Pleasure means

Lectures

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Here, pleasure means a little absence of pain. Just like you have got a boil here. What is called? Boil? Phoṛā? So it is always painful. And by some medical application, when the pain is little relieved, you think that "Now it is happiness."
Lecture on BG 2.25 -- London, August 28, 1973:

So our actual business is to become brahma-bhūtaḥ. So who can become? That is explained already. Kṛṣṇa has already explained that, what is that verse? Yaṁ hi na vyathayanty ete. Vyathayanti, does not give pain. Material, material burden, that is always troublesome. Even this body. This is also another burden. We have to carry it. So when one is not disturbed by this bodily pain and pleasure... There is no pleasure, simply pain. Here, pleasure means a little absence of pain. Just like you have got a boil here. What is called? Boil? Phoṛā? So it is always painful. And by some medical application, when the pain is little relieved, you think that "Now it is happiness." But the boil is there. How you can be happy? So here, actually there is no happiness, but we think we have discovered so many counteraction. Just like there is disease. We have discovered medicine. We have discovered medical college. Manufacturing, big, big physician, M.D., a pharmacist(?) But that does not you'll live. No, you'll have to die, sir. So the boil is there. A little application of temporary medicine, it may... Therefore there is no happiness at all in this material world. Therefore Kṛṣṇa said that, "Why you are feeling happy? You have to die, after all, which is not your business. You are eternal, but still you have to accept death."

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Pleasure means because there is no loss.
Lecture on SB 1.10.7 -- Mayapura, June 22, 1973:

Therefore we have to get free from obstacles. Sattva-guṇa, we have to go above the sattva-guṇa, śuddha-sattva. Then again we revive our original position of joyfulness. Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā na śocati na kāṅkṣati (BG 18.54). This is the joyfulness: no lamentation, no hankering. We hanker after something which we want, and we lament for something which we lose. Here there are two business: something gaining and something losing. Just like businessmen. They have got two businesses: either to make profit or to lose. At the end of the year they calculate, "Whether we are loser or gainer?" But in the spiritual world there is no such thing as to gain or as to lose. There is nothing... Absolute. That is Absolute. That idea we haven't got just now. But that is the nature of the spiritual world. There is no question of loss, nor there is any question of gain. Simply ānanda, ānanda, pleasure. Pleasure means because there is no loss. Ānandāmbudhi-vardhanam. There is ānanda, and ānanda ambudhi. Ambudhi means the ocean. Here the ocean does not increase. If the ocean increases, then whatever small land we have got, it would have been finished. No. Ocean does not increase. We have seen that Los Angeles on the beach, the big Pacific Ocean, but just about three yards or four yards off from the ocean we are walking. We are confident that "Although the Pacific Ocean is so big, powerful, it cannot come here." Only a few yards off we are walking, confident.

We are suffering pains and pleasure... Pains. There is no pleasure. Pleasure means accepting another type of pain.
Lecture on SB 3.25.19 -- Bombay, November 19, 1974:

Bhakti means spiritual activities. There is activity... It is not... The Māyāvādī philosophers, they think that "Stop material activities." Brahma satyaṁ jagan mithyā. "Why you are engaged..." The Buddhist philosophy also, they say nirvāṇa, "Stop this material life." The Buddhist philosophers, they do not give more information. "We are suffering on account of this material combination." That is their philosophy. Because this body is nothing but combination of earth, water, fire, air, mind, intelligence and ego, so if you separate it, let the earth go to the earth, let water go to the water, let fire go to the fire, then you become zero. If you dismantle just like we dismantle some house, so there are so many things coming out. So let the doors be taken, somebody windows, somebody the bricks, somebody and..., rubbish somebody. Then there is no house, zero. This is called nirvāṇa theory. No more existence. We are suffering pains and pleasure... Pains. There is no pleasure. Pleasure means accepting another type of pain. I am suffering... Just like there is boil on your body. This is suffering. And to cure it, another suffering, surgical operation. So it is going on like that. Actually, there is no pleasure. There is only pain.

So if one is serious to conquer over these four principles of life and desiring eternal nonstoppage happiness and pleasure—the same thing, pleasure means there is... The same... Just like the pleasure in a hotel dancing, that is also pleasure. And here also, Hare Kṛṣṇa dancing, there is also pleasure. But the standard of pleasure is different.
Lecture on SB 5.5.2 -- Boston, April 28, 1969:

Therefore all our sufferings are due to this body. And this human body is the junction, the crossing point, whether I want to cure myself completely from this disease of birth, death, old age and disease or I want to continue. That we must make a decision. If we think, "Oh, it is very nice. Let us have this body. Never mind. Sometimes we suffer from disease, suffer from old age, or birth, death. Never mind." But that is the general impression of the general public: "Oh, we don't care what is going to happen." That is irresponsible life. But if a human being is responsible, if he actually wants healthy life—healthy life means without birth, death, old age and disease... That is healthy life. Our conception of healthy life is not to become too much fatty, or robust body. Robust body or fatty body or any body, this body, everything will finish. Our proposition is that how to conquer death, birth, old age and disease. That is our proposition. So if one is serious to conquer over these four principles of life and desiring eternal nonstoppage happiness and pleasure—the same thing, pleasure means there is... The same... Just like the pleasure in a hotel dancing, that is also pleasure. And here also, Hare Kṛṣṇa dancing, there is also pleasure. But the standard of pleasure is different. Standard of pleasure is different.

So this whole Kṛṣṇa conscious movement is nothing to stop, but to change the standard of pleasure, from the standard of temporary, flickering pleasure to the permanent, eternal pleasure. That is the program of Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. So anyone who's interested to be, to accept the standard of pleasure which is eternal and continual, for them this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is very nice.

Conversations and Morning Walks

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Ānanda, ānanda, pleasure means varieties. Variety is the mother of enjoyment. Without varieties, just like we prepare from grains, sugar, ghee, hundreds of varieties. If you simply give grain, ghee and sugar, it will not be enjoyable.
Room Conversation -- September 1, 1973, London:

Guest: And in Goloka Vṛndāvana, are there still varieties? Are there still varieties in Vṛndāvana?

Prabhupāda: Vṛndāvana?

Śrutakīrti: Goloka Vṛndāvana, are there still varieties he said.

Prabhupāda: Oh yes. There are varieties. Ānanda, ānanda, pleasure means varieties. Variety is the mother of enjoyment. Without varieties, just like we prepare from grains, sugar, ghee, hundreds of varieties. If you simply give grain, ghee and sugar, it will not be enjoyable. But the same thing, you prepare in varieties and give you a plate, oh, you'll say, "Oh, so nice thing." The ingredients are the same. Grains, ghee and sugar, that's all. Similarly, this material world, the ingredients are the same. Namely five gross elements and three subtle elements, finer. Earth, water, air, fire, sky. These are gross elements. And mind, intelligence, ego these are finer elements. Combined together this material world has come. The brain behind is a living entity. Just like we are using these ingredients, these five elements: earth, water, air, fire, sky, making this building, making this table, making this chair, vase, so many things, harmonium, pictures, book. So the ingredients are the same, but my brain is working in different varieties. My brain or your brain. Human brain. Similarly this material cosmic manifestation is full of varieties. The brain behind it is Kṛṣṇa.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

So pleasure means absence of pain. So in your spiritual identity there is no pain, therefore it is simply pleasure.
Room Conversation with Metaphysics Society -- February 21, 1975, Caracas:

Guest (Hṛdayānanda): You have mentioned pain within the body. What is the origin of pain and the origin of imperfection?

Prabhupāda: Origin of pain means as soon as you come to the material world, is the origin of pain. Just like the... It can be appreciated very nicely. Just like water. Water is sometimes painful, and sometimes pleasing. Is it not? Do you agree or not? No, I just try to... Water is the same thing, but sometimes it is painful and sometimes it is pleasing, is it not? So how the same thing becomes pleasing and painful? This is circumstantial. The same thing is pleasing and the same thing is painful under different circumstances. Similarly, fire. Fire is sometimes pleasing and sometimes painful. The fire is the same, but circumstantially, it becomes painful and pleasing. Just like in winter season the fire is pleasing. And in summer season the same fire is painful. Now, these feelings of pains and pleasure is due to this material body. Therefore the material body is the cause of pains and pleasure. So if you do not get this material body—you remain in your spiritual body—then there is no more pains and pleasure. So that means the origin of pains and pleasure is to our attachment to this material body. If we can somehow or other get out of this material body, then there is no more pains and pleasure or it is simply pleasure. Therefore in the Vedānta-sūtra it is said, ānandamāyaḥ abhyāsāt. "By nature the spirit soul is joyful." In the Bhagavad-gītā it is also said, brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā na śocati na kāṅkṣati: (BG 18.54) "As soon as you become spiritually self-realized, then there is no more pains and pleasure." So pleasure means absence of pain. So in your spiritual identity there is no pain, therefore it is simply pleasure. Therefore our endeavor should be how to get our again original spiritual body. Spiritual body is there already. It is covered by the material body, but some way or other, if we stop the covering of the material body, then we are simply in pleasure. Therefore our only attempt in this human body should be how to revive our spiritual body. And that process is Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Page Title:Pleasure means
Compiler:Rishab
Created:22 of Feb, 2012
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=4, Con=2, Let=0
No. of Quotes:6