Go to Vanipedia | Go to Vanisource | Go to Vanimedia


Vaniquotes - the compiled essence of Vedic knowledge


Power of... (Lectures)

Expressions researched:
"power of" |"powers of"

Notes from the compiler: VedaBase query: "power of" or "powers of" not "power of attorney" not "power of Krsna" not "power of Lord Krsna" not "power of God" not "power of the Purusa" not "power of the Supreme Godhead" not "power of the Supreme Personality of Godhead" not "power of the Lord" not "power of Visnu"

Lectures

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Lecture on BG 1.6-7 -- London, July 11, 1973:

Somebody was criticizing me that "Swamiji, you are introducing this Hare Kṛṣṇa movement. People are becoming coward. They simply chant Hare Kṛṣṇa." So I replied that "You will see the power of Hare Kṛṣṇa movement in due course of time." He required... Because there were two battles in India: the battle between Rāvaṇa and Rāma, Rāma-Rāvaṇa, the battle of Rāmāyaṇa; and another battle was Battle of Kurukṣetra. And in these two battles the hero was Vaiṣṇava and Viṣṇu. In the Rāma-Rāvaṇa battle Lord Rāmacandra was there and His devotee Hanumān, Vajrāṅgajī. Similarly, in the Battlefield of Kurukṣetra, Kṛṣṇa was there and His devotee Arjuna was there. So Vaiṣṇavas, they do not simply chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. If there is need, they can fight under the guidance of Viṣṇu and become victorious. A Vaiṣṇava's one qualification is... Out of the twenty-six qualifications, one qualification is dakṣa, expert. If there is need of fighting, they can fight like very expert.

Lecture on BG 1.15 -- London, July 15, 1973:

"My dear Dhanañjaya, there is no more superior personality than Me." And He proved it. So God cannot be manufactured. God is God. Kṛṣṇa, when He was three months old on the lap of His mother, still, He was God. He could kill the Pūtanā. So God cannot be manufactured by so-called meditation and mystic power. You can get some of the insignificant powers of God, but simply, but you do not know how much powerful is God. That you do not know. Therefore when a person gets little power, he thinks that he has become God. He does not know how much powerful God is.

Lecture on BG 1.15 -- London, July 15, 1973:

Actually, He is the master of the senses. In the Bhagavad-gītā you will find. In the Eleventh Chapter it is said, sarvataḥ pāṇi-pādaṁ tat, "God has His hands and legs all over the universe." What is that? This, our hand, our legs, this is God's hands, God's leg. He is the master. I am claiming, "This is my hand," but as soon as God withdraws the power of your hand, it is paralyzed, you cannot repair. Therefore the real proprietor is Kṛṣṇa. You are not proprietor. You have been given the facility to use it, for..., use it not for your sense gratification, but for the satisfaction of the Lord. Then your life is perfect. Because the things belongs to Kṛṣṇa. He is Hṛṣīkeśa. He is the master. Just like we are sitting in this house. Somebody has given us. Similarly, everything belongs to God.

Lecture on BG 2.1-11 -- Johannesburg, October 17, 1975:

The hand is created by God, or by Kṛṣṇa, through the agency of this material nature, and I am given the hand to use it for my purpose, for my eating, for my collecting. But actually it is not my hand. Otherwise, when this hand becomes paralyzed, I am claiming, "my hand"—I cannot use it because the power of the hand is withdrawn by the proprietor. Just like in a house, rented house, you are living. If the proprietor of the house, landlord, eject you, you cannot live there. You cannot use it. Similarly, we can use this body as long as the real proprietor of the body, Hṛṣīkeśa, allows me to stay here. Therefore Kṛṣṇa's name is Hṛṣīkeśa. And this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement means that we have accepted the senses from Kṛṣṇa.

Lecture on BG 2.7-11 -- New York, March 2, 1966:

You see? Similarly, this is also just like room, this, our body. This body is given to us by God under certain condition, and as soon as God likes that "You should vacate from this body," I have to vacate. Nobody can allow us to stay here. And besides that... Just like my hand, my hand, this hand... Now, suppose if this hand is paralyzed... the power of this hand is so long, so long there is power from the Supreme. Otherwise, if my hand is paralyzed, there is no remedy. There is no remedy. You see? So we are not the owner of this body, not the owner of the senses. The senses are just like hired, hired from the Supreme Lord. This is a very subtle understanding. One should know. So therefore actually the proprietor of the senses is God. Now, if I am the proprietor of this tape recorder, then it should be utilized for my purpose.

Lecture on BG 2.11 -- Edinburgh, July 16, 1972:

Yes, part of controller, part of God means you have got little power of controlling. But that you are not absolute controller. (man speaks—too faint) But first of all you have to ascertain whether you are an absolute controller or you are controlled. First of all you answer this question. Are you absolutely controller?

Lecture on BG 2.12 -- Hyderabad, November 17, 1972:

That was his not mistake. That was his inquiry to clear the mistake of our. We mistake Kṛṣṇa as one of us. Because Kṛṣṇa comes down as human being, we, due to our lack of knowledge, poor fund of knowledge, we think Kṛṣṇa is as good as we are. But actually it is not. Kṛṣṇa is God. We are ordinary living entities. His knowledge, His power of remembrance, His power of knowing everything perfectly is different from our knowing. But unfortunately we think, "God may be little greater than me." That is that Dr. Frog philosophy. We have explained several times. Kūpa-maṇḍūka-nyāya. The frog within the well, he is calculating the dimension of Pacific Ocean. So by this dog, frog philosophical way, we can, we cannot understand what is God.

Lecture on BG 2.13 -- New York, March 11, 1966:

Therefore the all the senses, they should be spiritualized. If we want to see the spirit whole... The Lord is spirit whole. We cannot see even the spirit part. Our, our... We are very much proud of our senses, but our senses are so imperfect that... Now I see with my eyes, but I cannot see my eyelid. You see? The eyelid is always attached with my eye, but I cannot see. So our power of using the senses, that is very limited. So we should not depend only on the senses. Pratyakṣa. It is called pratyakṣa-anumāna. There are three kinds of evidences, pratyakṣa, anumāna, and aitihya. Pratyakṣa means that you can directly perceive.

Lecture on BG 2.14 -- Germany, June 21, 1974:

Why you are taking the post of a teacher? "In future we shall understand." And what is this future? Would you accept a post-dated check? "In future I shall discover, and therefore I am scientist." What is this scientist? And, above all, our imperfectness of senses. Just like we are seeing one another because there is light. If there is no light, then what is the power of my seeing? But these rascals they do not understand that they are always defective, and still, they are writing books of knowledge. What is your knowledge? We must take knowledge from the perfect person.

Lecture on BG 2.14 -- Mexico, February 14, 1975:

Every one of us, we know that this material body will be finished. And it is full of ignorance. We cannot say anything, what is beyond this wall. We have got senses, but they are all limited, imperfect. Sometimes we are very much proud of seeing and challenge, "Can you show me God?" but we forget to remember that as soon as the light is gone, the power of my seeing is gone. Therefore the whole body is imperfect and full of ignorance. The spiritual body means full of knowledge, just opposite. So we can get that body next life, and we have to cultivate how to get that type of body. We can cultivate to get the next body in the higher planetary system or we can cultivate the next body like cats and dog, and we can cultivate such body as eternal, blissful knowledge.

Lecture on BG 2.18 -- London, August 24, 1973:

Now, this soul, as in the previous verse we have understood, avināśi tu tad viddhi yena sarvam idaṁ tatam. This is not measurement of the soul, but the power of the soul you can measure. But not the soul. It is not possible. Soul is so small that it is not possible. You have no measuring means, and because now our material senses, it is not possible. You can simply understand by consciousness. Just like when Caitanya Mahāprabhu fainted in the Jagannātha temple, Sarvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya examined that there was no consciousness. Even the abdomen was not moving. When you actually you have consciousness and you breathe, the abdomen moves. But Caitanya Mahāprabhu's abdomen was tested by Sarvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya. It was also not moving.

Lecture on BG 2.23 -- Hyderabad, November 27, 1972:

How the person, the Supreme Person, Kṛṣṇa, can be within māyā? Therefore Kṛṣṇa said, avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam, paraṁ bhāvam ajānantaḥ (BG 9.11). They do not know how much potential the Lord is, how much powerful He is. They are comparing the power of the Supreme Lord with his own power. A frog philosophy. The Dr. Frog. Frog is considering, "Atlantic Ocean may be a little bigger than the well." Because he is living always. Kūpa-maṇḍūka-nyāya It is, Sanskrit it is called kūpa-maṇḍūka-nyāya. Kūpa means well, and maṇḍūka means the frog.

Lecture on BG 2.23-24 -- London, August 27, 1973:

Sometimes a small pot can be filled up with the water produced from my body like this, put. Of course, one must be healthy man. Then he'll perspire and water will come out from the body. So I am limited. I am only a small particle of Kṛṣṇa's body, part and parcel. If I have got this power of producing water, maybe one grain or two grain or one ounce; Kṛṣṇa has got unlimited power, why not a sea? Where is the difficulty to understand? He can produce unlimited quantity of water which may be known as ocean and sea. Yato vā imāni bhūtāni jāyante. Therefore, Vedas say that "From whom all these five elements have come into being?"

Lecture on BG 2.48-49 -- New York, April 1, 1966:

The economists also say that we cannot manufacture anything; we can simply transform from one form to another. That's all. We can give our labor only. And that labor also, given the strength... Now, suppose I work with my hand. Now, I am claiming, "This is my hand," but if God withdraws the power of your hand, paralyzed, oh, your pride is at once vanished. Not your hand. You see? So in everything, nothing is yours. I am also... As spirit soul, I am also part and parcel of God. And we are thinking independently that "I have no connection with God." This is very horrible condition. The whole world is suffering because this misconception of life, misconception of life, that he has forgotten his eternal relationship with God. So we have to revive it. We have to revive it, this process.

Lecture on BG 3.18-30 -- Los Angeles, December 30, 1968:

It is best, therefore, that one not try to imitate the powerful, but simply endeavor to follow their instructions. Nor should one try to occupy the posts of the powerful without qualification. There are so many 'incarnations' of God without the powers of the Supreme Godhead."

Twenty-five: "As the ignorant perform their duties with attachment to result... (BG 3.25)"

Lecture on BG 3.18-30 -- Los Angeles, December 30, 1968:

This morning, the press representative, he was astonished that "Swamiji, so many people are coming, they are declaring that 'I am God.' What is this?" So these rascals are like that. Therefore there are so many incarnations of God without the powers of. So people, why they should be cheated? If somebody comes and says that "I am God," why don't you test? For testing this... When Kṛṣṇa assumed the Supreme Personality of Godhead... Of course, Arjuna was convinced. He accepted, paraṁ brahma paraṁ dhāma (BG 10.12), but for future guidance, he requested Kṛṣṇa, "Please show me Your universal form." Otherwise, without showing universal (form), they're still claiming that "I am God." God is not so cheap thing. They're imitating, trying to imitate. This is very dangerous.

Lecture on BG 4.5 -- Montreal, June 10, 1968:

That's all. Kṛṣṇa is already there by His name. Nāma-rūpe kali-kāle kṛṣṇa-avatāra. Kṛṣṇa has descended by His name. Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu preached the chanting, that you can become... But the profit is that if you are in offense, even if you do not have the power of appreciation, because Kṛṣṇa is all-potential, simply by chanting in any condition of life you become purified. But the more you have got the power of appreciation the more you get benefit. But immediate benefit is in whatever condition you may be if you simply chant Hare Kṛṣṇa then the benefit begins immediately without any moment. You have got any question? Yes?

Lecture on BG 4.11 -- New York, July 27, 1966:

We are all spiritual atoms. That atomic, spiritual atomic force... Just like a material atomic force is so strong, so you can just imagine how strong is spiritual atom.

In the modern age, the atomic age, the scientists have discovered the force, the power of material atoms. But they have not yet known what is the force of spiritual atom. There is spiritual atom. We are spiritual atom. The atom is described in the Vedic literature, the form of the spirit which we are actually. Keśāgra-śata-bhāgasya śatadhā kalpitasya ca (CC Madhya 19.140).

Lecture on BG 4.11-12 -- New York, July 28, 1966:

When there is some specific qualification of a person, just like political leader or some spiritual leader... Leader there must be. So suppose a political leader or religious leader is there, and thousands of people are following him. So that is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā, that they are invested with certain power of Śrī Kṛṣṇa. Yad yad vibhūtimat sattvaṁ mama tejo 'ṁśa-sambhavam. So everyone is following directly or indirectly the supreme leadership of Kṛṣṇa. And the perfectional stage of accepting that leadership is when we accept Śrī Kṛṣṇa as our direct leader.

Lecture on BG 4.25 -- Bombay, April 14, 1974:

It is not automatically. Any machine you take. Nowadays wonderful machine, computer. That is also handled by an expert. Any machine you take, without an expert technologist, it cannot work.

So similarly, if you go on studying the power of material nature, you'll come ultimately to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. That is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā.

Lecture on BG 4.34-39 -- Los Angeles, January 12, 1969:

This is not dharma. This change of faith cannot be applied in dharma. Dharma cannot be changed.

Just like this candle. Candle has power, illuminating power. If you change this illuminating power of the candle, if you make it dark, then it is no more candle. And there are many examples. Just like sugar. Sugar is sweet. If you change the taste of the sugar into salty, then it is no more sugar. So dharma is like that. It cannot be changed. So dharmaṁ hi sākṣāt. What is that dharma? It cannot be changed.

Lecture on BG 6.2-5 -- Los Angeles, February 14, 1969:

Why? He's earning thousands of dollars daily. But they have been described, mūḍha, rascal, because they're working so hard but what he's enjoying? He's enjoying the same amount of eating, sleeping and mating. That's all. As a man who's earning millions of dollars daily. That does not mean he can enjoy mating millions of woman. No, that is not possible. His power of mating is same one who is earning ten dollars. His power of eating is the same with the man, one who is earning ten dollars. So he does not think that "My enjoyment of life is the same amount with the man who is earning ten dollars. Then why I am working so hard for earning millions of dollars daily? Why I am spoiling my energy in that way?" You see? They are called mūḍha.

Lecture on BG 7.1-3 -- Ahmedabad, December 14, 1972:

That is Vedic knowledge. Vedic knowledge, it is not dogma. The, the statement is there after sufficient experiment. So we, if we accept Vedic knowledge, we save so much time. We may go on experimenting with our limited power of senses, but that will always remain doubtful, that it is perfect. Asaṁśayaṁ samagram. This samagram, this word, is very significant. Samagram means "complete." To understand Kṛṣṇa means to understand the whole cosmic manifestation, God, the material nature, the time factor, the living entities, their respective relationship, everything.

Lecture on BG 7.3 -- Bombay, March 29, 1971:

They are called pāpāḥ. Pāpa means very sinful life. Yad-apāśrayāśrayāḥ. If such persons, such lower-grade persons even, they take shelter of a pure devotee, then they become purified. Śudhyanti, they become purified. How? Prabhaviṣṇave namaḥ. That is the special prerogative power of Lord Viṣṇu. He can deliver anyone in any condition of life. Prabhaviṣṇave namaḥ. That is extra, extraordinary, inconceivable power.

Lecture on BG 7.8-14 -- New York, October 2, 1966:

"Oh, it may be double than this well or it may be triple than this well, or a hundred times," in this way, calculating. But do you think by such calculation the frog will ever come to the conclusion how length and breadth is of Atlantic Ocean? So this is all frog philosophy. We are very tiny. Our knowledge, power of speculating, is limited always. So we cannot speculate about the Supreme. It is a useless waste of time. Therefore Bhāgavata says, "You give up this. You give up this process of speculating." Jñāne prayāsam udapāsy a: "Give it up." Then what is next? "Now, be submissive. Be submissive." Then? "All right, let me become submissive. Then next?" Jñāne prayāsam udapāsya namanta eva san-mukharitāṁ bhavadīya-vārtām: "You just try to understand, just try to hear the message of God."

Lecture on BG 7.28-8.6 -- New York, October 23, 1966:

"Oh, undoubtedly it is the exactly price. Oh, let me purchase at this price." The doubt is gone at once, because I see several persons, they're accepting at that price. So it is right price. That is the standard. Mahājano yena gataḥ sa panthāḥ (CC Madhya 17.186).

The śāstra says that knowledge... Because our receptive power of knowledge is very limited... We are not perfect. Our senses are not perfect. Therefore whatever we acquire by these blunt senses, they cannot be perfect. The direction is, therefore, tarkaḥ apratiṣṭhaḥ: "If you want to reach to the ultimate conclusion simply by arguments and speculation, that is not possible." Because argumentative power is a special gift.

Lecture on BG 8.22-27 -- New York, November 20, 1966:

The material sky is also a part of the transcendental sky or spiritual sky—it is covered only. This thing we have already explained. Just like the sky, some part of the sky is covered by cloud. The cloud cannot cover the whole sky. That is not possible. That is not in the power of the cloud. Only insignificant portion of the cloud, er, sky, is covered by cloud. Similarly, the unlimited sky, spiritual sky, and some portion of it, when it is covered by mahat-tattva or a spiritual cloud, the portion which is covered, it is called material sky.

Lecture on BG 9.1 -- Melbourne, April 19, 1976:

When he is free, if he thinks, ponders, that "Why I was put into this miserable condition of six month prison life? It was so botheration," then he becomes actually human being. So similarly, the human being has got advanced power of deliberation. If he thinks that "Why I am put into this miserable condition?" Everyone has to admit that he is in miserable condition. He is trying to become happy, but there is no happiness. So how that happiness can be achieved? That chance is in the human being. But if we receive, by the mercy of the material nature, a human being and we do not utilize it properly, if we misuse this benediction as cats and dogs or other animals, then we have to accept again the animal form, and when the term is finished... It takes long, long duration of time because there is evolutionary process.

Lecture on BG 9.2 -- New York, November 22, 1966:

So we should take advantage of these scriptures, especially the Bhagavad-gītā, which is accepted as the prime scripture in the modern world, and you'll find everything nicely. You can put your arguments, you can try to understand with your knowledge, with your intelligence. Everything will be clear. So we should take advantage of this Bhagavad-gītā and our power of intaking will be increased if we begin with this transcendental sound vibration, Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare, Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare. Thank you very much. Any questions?

Lecture on BG 9.11-14 -- New York, November 27, 1966:

Therefore an atheist or an unbeliever, he must be a first-class foolish man. There is no other reason that one can deny the existence of God. It is very simple reasoning, that who has given you the power to talk and who, if he withdraws the power from you, then what is your value? How can you boastly say that "I don't believe in God"? This very power of speaking is the proof that there is the greatest authority who gives you everything.

Lecture on BG 9.11-14 -- New York, November 27, 1966:

Therefore the Kṛṣṇa conscious person, he knows that "Everything, whatever I have got, it is not my, under my control. The controller is different. I am feeling... I am simply using it. I am talking. This is my hand. I am working, but if the power of working is immediately withdrawn—it is paralyzed—have you got any power to revive this working power of this hand? No. You have not. One hand will work; another hand will stop. Who stops?" These things are to be thought. How can I deny? There is something. If I don't believe in God, but I must believe some power beyond me which is controlling me every step. Either call it God or anything, nature, but there is a controlling power.

Lecture on BG 9.11-14 -- New York, November 27, 1966:

Simply, this bhakti-yoga is the process of purifying, purifying. As soon as you purify your power of seeing, power of hearing, power of tasting, power of touching, all these... We have got our senses to taste, to acquire knowledge. But if the senses are blunt, then we cannot understand what is God. But therefore you require regulative principles to understand what is God. That regulative principle must be undertaken. And the easiest regulative principle is this chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa. If you regularly chant with devotion, without any offense, then this very simple process will help you to purify your senses and you will appreciate presence of God, and God consciousness, Kṛṣṇa consciousness will develop in you.

Lecture on BG 9.15 -- New York, December 1, 1966:

Therefore hearing is the first item, śravaṇam. And the whole Vedic literature is called hearing, śruti, śruti-śāstra. Śruti means to receive hearing. If you want to know the Supreme, you do not require to qualify yourself materially. You can remain what you are, but if you simply hear... God has given you the power of hearing. If you hear from authoritative sources, then you become perfect, simply by hearing. Therefore the first principle, hearing, is recommended, śravaṇam.

Lecture on BG 10.2-3 -- New York, January 1, 1967:

And He is the proprietor. He is the master. He is the proprietor of all planets, either in this material world or in the spiritual world. Sarva-loka-maheśvaram. Asammūḍhaḥ. Not by... Not accepting blindly. Don't accept blindly. You have got... God has given you power of reasoning, power of arguments. But don't argue falsely.

The process is... That is also mentioned in the Bhagavad-gītā. Tad viddhi praṇipātena paripraśnena sevayā (BG 4.34). If you want to understand that transcendental science, then you have to follow this principle. What is that?

Lecture on BG 13.1-2 -- Bombay, September 25, 1973:

We are given for use.

Therefore we are using this hand, but if the hand is paralyzed for some reason or other, we cannot repair it. This is not possible. Because the proprietor has withdrawn the power of this hand for activity, therefore it is no more workable, although I am claiming, "This is my hand." This is not "I hand;" this is my hand. Actually, it is not my hand. It is Kṛṣṇa's hand. That is knowledge.

So long we are thinking that I am this body or my body, that is not perfect knowledge. When you understand that it is Kṛṣṇa's body, then it is perfect knowledge. Kṣetra-jñaṁ cāpi māṁ viddhi sarva-kṣetreṣu. Not that Kṛṣṇa is the proprietor or kṣetrajñam only of the human form of body. Sarva-kṣetreṣu.

Lecture on BG 13.17 -- Bombay, October 11, 1973:

Even God fully represented in every atom, still, He is pūrṇa. That is... One minus one equal to one. And one plus one equal to one. That is Absolute idea. But we calculate from materialistic point of view. As we with our tiny brain, we think like that.

Therefore Jīva Gosvāmī says, "Unless you accept inconceivable power of the Supreme Lord, you cannot understand God. That is not possible." If your compare with your conceivable power, that "God may be like this..." That Dr. Frog's calculation of the Atlantic Ocean. That story you know, frog, frog philosophy. Kūpa-maṇḍūka-nyāya. A frog lives within the well, and he's calculating the length and breadth of the Atlantic Ocean. How it is possible?

Lecture on BG 16.5 -- Calcutta, February 23, 1972:

Anyone can be born of lowborn, śūdra-born, or lower than śūdra born, but by this process, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, kirāta-hūṇāndhra-pulinda-pulkaśā ābhīra-śumbhā yavanāḥ khasādayaḥ ye 'nye ca pāpā (SB 2.4.18)—more than, still lower born—śudhyanti prabhaviṣṇave namaḥ. That is the wonderful, I mean to say, power of the Supreme Lord. So we are trying to bring everyone—Hindus, Muslims, or mlecchas, Yavanas, Kirāta, Āndhras—anyone come to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, there is no limitation. We don't say, "No. Because you are born in this family, you can not take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness." Everyone can. Just like in Africa, they are also taking. They are becoming Vaiṣṇava.

Lecture on BG 16.8 -- Tokyo, January 28, 1975:

Even if we do not see, you have to conclude like that. Just like there is sound. The sound is of car, and the car, there must be one driver. You have not seen. So how do you conclude there is a driver? How do you conclude? And why do you give stress on your seeing power? What is the power of your seeing? You cannot see. Now you cannot see the car. It is beyond your seeing range or beyond the wall. Then how you conclude that there is a car? And if there is a car, there is a driver. If there is driver, there are passengers. So how do you conclude all this? Why do you give this... This is childish reason, "I cannot see." You cannot see; therefore there is no existence. That is not good logic.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Lecture on SB 1.1.1 -- Caracas, February 21, 1975:

And as soon as the origin becomes a knower, he is life. So therefore dull matter cannot be the knower of everything.

Now it is said, yato 'nvayād itarataś ca artheṣu abhijñaḥ svarāṭ. He is abhijñaḥ. Abhijñaḥ means cognizant. The original and source of everything, He has His brain. He knows. He has the power of knowledge. Everything is there. That is the reason. Anything material we think... Just like this microphone. This microphone is combination of some metal and some wires or anything is metal or something plastic. But they have not combined together automatically. A person who knows the art, he has combined all of them together.

Lecture on SB 1.2.8 -- Bombay, December 26, 1972:

Similarly, if we allow this kāla sarpa to act in their own way, that means we are inviting death at every moment. Therefore those who are too much bodily attached, for them this yoga system is controlling the senses, yoga indriya saṁyamaḥ. Yoga does not mean to increase the power of sense gratification. Yoga means controlling the senses.

Lecture on SB 1.2.21 -- Vrndavana, November 1, 1972:

Pradyumna: "He comes to know everything of the absolute and the relative truths. The devotee cannot remain in darkness, and because a devotee is enlightened by the Personality of Godhead, his knowledge is certainly perfect. This is not the case for those who speculate on the Absolute Truth by dint of their own limited power of approach."

Prabhupāda: Yes. One can speculate about the Absolute Truth to certain extent. Therefore, generally, these speculators become impersonalists. Because they cannot go beyond that. But that impersonal knowledge is not complete. As we have several times stressed on this point, one has to go further, onward: realization of Paramātmā, realization of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. But they stop only in impersonal view. That's all. Go on.

Lecture on SB 1.2.23 -- Los Angeles, August 26, 1972:

So, he saw that "He is educated. He knows. All right. You come to my office. Just help me, in typing."

So this facility one can have. But not released from the prison house. That is not in the power of the superintendent. Similarly, all the demigods, they can give you a temporary facility, but they cannot give you relief from this prison house. Ābrahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ punar āvartino 'rjuna (BG 8.16). People are going to heavenly planets and our planets... Just like they are going to the moon planet. But they are again coming down, again coming down.

Lecture on SB 1.2.25 -- Los Angeles, August 28, 1972:

And instruction given by Kṛṣṇa is Bhagavad-gītā. He says, "I am like this, I am like this." So we haven't got to make any research. Whatever is already stocked there, let us distribute it. What capacity we have got to find out Kṛṣṇa by research work? That's not possible. That is akṣaja, akṣaja. Kṛṣṇa is adhokṣaja. Your paltry research work with limited power of sense, how you can find out Kṛṣṇa? That's not possible.

Lecture on SB 1.2.30 -- Vrndavana, November 9, 1972:

We have several times discussed this point, that the government, this word, appears to be impersonal, but actually, behind the government there is a person—the president or the king, like that. So this creation, cosmic manifestation, is possible through the creative power of the Supreme Person; therefore God cannot be impersonal. Impersonal feature is one of the manifestation of God. God must be a person. This is the conclusion. Sa eva idam: this cosmic manifestation was created. In another place it is stated, aham evāsam agre: before creation, there was God, Kṛṣṇa. And when this material creation will be finished, He will remain.

Lecture on SB 1.3.29 -- Los Angeles, October 4, 1972:

So first you light on one candle, then the second, the third, the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh—you go on increasing. So each candle is equal to another candle. So far candlepower light is concerned, there is no difference. The first candle and the second candle, although second candle is lit up from the first candle, but the power of light is the same, either in the first candle or in the second candle. Similarly, do not think that because Kṛṣṇa is the original candle and the next candle is Balarāma, or Rāma, that does not mean Balarāma, or Rāma, is less powerful than Kṛṣṇa. They are equally powerful. Dīpārcir eva hi daśāntaram abhyupetya dīpāyate vivṛta-hetu-samāna-dharmā (Bs. 5.46). There is no difference.

Lecture on SB 1.5.2 -- Los Angeles, January 10, 1968:

That is scientific fact. Scientists are researching the importance of sound, physical science. Sound, light, and transmission of sound and light. There are so many things, electronics. So this sound vibration, this is material sound. They have got so much wonderful power. And just try to understand what is the power of the spiritual sound. Real sound is coming from the spiritual world. It is simply just like gramophone. The sound is coming originally from the person; the gramophone is reproducing. That is not the original source of the sound. Similarly, whatever sound is there in this material world, the original sound is produced by God. Just like in your Bible it is said, "Let there be creation." It is, simply it was sound and there was creation. So spiritual sound is so powerful. And we are trying to catch you directly from that sound vibration, Hare Kṛṣṇa, and I am sure it is acting. Simply, śabdād anāvṛttiḥ.

Lecture on SB 1.5.14 -- New Vrindaban, June 18, 1969:

Now, we should know it that the animal sacrifice, according to the Vedic scripture, that is not killing. That is explained by Caitanya Mahāprabhu. He said that "In the previous time, this cow sacrifice was actually being done. That's all right. But that was not for killing. That—to give the cow, the old cow or bull, a new life. By the power of mantra, just to give evidence of the Vedic mantras, the brāhmaṇas would sacrifice a cow, old cow or old bull, in the fire and give, give him, again, new life. That was... Now, in this age, there is no such powerful brāhmaṇa who can chant the mantras rightly and give again rejuvenation, another new life. It is not possible. Therefore in the śāstras, these sort of sacrifices are forbidden."

Lecture on SB 1.5.22 -- Vrndavana, August 3, 1974:

Then we'll ask, "Then you say." That they cannot say. This is their position. They'll say, "In future..." Future, there is no question. You do not know now. Admit this. So this is their position. Therefore this experimental knowledge is always imperfect. Always imperfect. It cannot be perfect. Because our experience, our power of perception, advancement of knowledge, they are imperfect. They are deficiency.

Lecture on SB 1.7.20-21 -- Vrndavana, September 17, 1976:

So if we chant it properly, this chanting, daśa-vidha, ten offenses, without offenses... Nāma-aparādha-śūnyam. Without any nāma-aparādha, if we chant according to the principle, then the mantra will act. Mantra will act in so nicely that the mantra will keep you always in touch with the Supreme Personality of Godhead. That is the power of mantra. Don't think it is a hobby or it is something superfluous. No. Actually, this mantra, Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Himself.

Lecture on SB 1.7.28-29 -- Vrndavana, September 25, 1976:

Pradyumna: "O Arjuna, only another brahmāstra can counteract this weapon. Since you are expert in the military science, subdue this weapon's glare with the power of your own weapon.

"Śrī Sūta Gosvāmī said: Hearing this from the Personality of Godhead, Arjuna touched water for purification, and after circumambulating Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, he cast his brahmāstra weapon to counteract the other one."

Prabhupāda:

na hy asyānyatamaṁ kiñcid
astraṁ pratyavakarśanam
jahy astra-teja unnaddham
astra-jño hy astra-tejasā
(SB 1.7.28)
sūta uvāca
śrutvā bhagavatā proktaṁ
phālgunaḥ para-vīra-hā
spṛṣṭvāpas taṁ parikramya
brāhmaṁ brāhmāstraṁ sandadhe
(SB 1.7.29)

So counteraction. This is military science. Sāma Veda, Yajur Veda, Atharva Veda. And military science also, one of the part of the Vedas, Dhanur Veda. It is called Dhanur Veda—how to utilize dhanuḥ. Dhanuḥ means bow and arrows. Similarly Āyur Veda. Āyur Veda means medical science, how to protect the āyuḥ. Because the body is perishable, so in the Vedic knowledge, everything is there to guide the human society.

Lecture on SB 1.8.23 -- Los Angeles, April 15, 1973:

So Hṛṣīkeśa. Kṛṣṇa is the supreme controller. Hṛṣīka. Hṛṣīka means senses. So we are enjoying our senses, but ultimately the controller is Kṛṣṇa. Suppose this is my hand. I'm claiming it is my hand: "I shall give you a good fist on your..." I'm very much proud. But I am not controller. The controller is Kṛṣṇa. If you, if He withdraws the power of the activity of your arm, you become paralyzed. Although you are claiming, "It is my hand. I shall use it," but when it is paralyzed, you cannot do anything. Therefore I may have possessed this hand by the grace of Kṛṣṇa, but I am not the controller. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Therefore a sane man will think that ultimately if this hand is to be controlled by Kṛṣṇa, then it is meant for Kṛṣṇa.

Lecture on SB 1.8.24 -- Mayapura, October 4, 1974:

Therefore his name is Karṇa. But still, out of social fear, Kuntī did not kill the child. Nowadays they kill. But he floated the child on a boat, and the boat was let loose, go anywhere. So one carpenter collected Karṇa and raised him. But he was kṣatriya. He was Kuntī's son, born by sun, sun-god, Sūrya. So Kuntī had the power of calling. He got the benediction from Durvāsā. Durvāsā gave her the benediction that "You can call any demigod, and at once he will come by this mantra." So when Kuntī was young, not married, so Durvāsā became the guest of her father, and she served Durvāsā Muni very nicely, attending as maidservant.

Lecture on SB 1.8.41 -- Los Angeles, May 3, 1973:

You see. So it is possible. If Caitanya Mahāprabhu is pleased, then He can give kṛṣṇa-prema, love of Kṛṣṇa, to anyone, doesn't matter what is his qualification. He gives. If a person who is giving in charity, he can select any man: "You take." That is power of Śrī Caitanya Mahā... Otherwise, kṛṣṇa-prema, to understand Kṛṣṇa is very, very difficult job. Manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu kaścid yatati siddhaye (BG 7.3). Out of many millions of people, they are trying to make life successful... Nobody knows. They are simply working like animals. They do not know how to make the human life successful. The human life is successful when he understands Kṛṣṇa. Otherwise he remains an animal. That's all. Anyone who is not Kṛṣṇa conscious, one who does not know what is Kṛṣṇa, he's no better than animal.

Lecture on SB 1.8.45 -- Mayapura, October 25, 1974:

"No one could make Lord Kṛṣṇa stay at Hastināpura when He decided to start for Dvārakā, but the simple request of King Yudhiṣṭhira that the Lord remain there for a few days more was immediately effective. This signifies that the power of the King was loving affection, which the Lord could not deny. The almighty God (is) thus conquered only by loving service..." Kṛṣṇa, although ready for going, still, Yudhiṣṭhira Mahārāja stopped. And because Yudhiṣṭhira Mahārāja is the elder cousin of Kṛṣṇa and very exalted, pious king, could not..., Kṛṣṇa could not refuse the order. (reading:) "The almighty God is thus conquered only by loving service, and nothing else."

Lecture on SB 1.8.46 -- Los Angeles, May 8, 1973:

Ferocious, very ferocious animals, That was the kṣatriya's business. Not that a rabbit (laughter) or an innocent bird, sports. This kind of sporting was not allowed. If you want to kill, you must kill one rhinoceros. Then one can understand that you have power of killing. That kṣatriya used to do. Even, say, twenty-five years ago, Mahārāja of Jaipur, he used to go into the forest every year and he would fight with a tiger, simply with a sword, simply with a sword. He would fight with a tiger in the jungle, and he was so expert, he would kill. And then the tiger would be brought in procession, in royal procession. Because the king used to say, "This tiger is the king of forest, or the lion is the king of the forest.

Lecture on SB 1.16.7 -- Los Angeles, January 4, 1974:

So at the time of death this Ajāmila saw fierceful creatures, very odd-looking. So he was very much afraid, "Who are they?" So he thought, because he was very much affectionate to his youngest child... So his name was Nārāyaṇa. He called him, "Nārāyaṇa, please come here. I am very much afraid." But just see the power of chanting the name of Nārāyaṇa. He immediately become eligible to go to Vaikuṇṭha. He did not mean Nārāyaṇa also isn't said. But Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura, he gives his commentation that he remembered real Nārāyaṇa after reference to the context. When he called for his child Nārāyaṇa, he remembered real Nārāyaṇa.

Lecture on SB 1.16.20 -- Hawaii, January 16, 1974:

Pradyumna: "With the progress of the age of Kali, four things particularly, namely the duration of life, mercy, the power of recollection, and moral or religious principles will gradually diminish. Since dharma, or the principles of religion, would be lost in the proportion of three out of four, the symbolic bull was standing on one leg only. When three-fourths of the population of the whole world become irreligious, the situation is converted into hell for the animals. In the age of Kali, godless civilizations will create so many so-called religious societies in which the Personality of Godhead will be directly or indirectly defied. And thus faithless societies of men will make the world uninhabitable for the saner section of people. There are gradations of human beings in terms of proportionate faith in the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The first-class..."

Prabhupāda: Yes. Go on.

Lecture on SB 1.16.20 -- Los Angeles, July 10, 1974:

Nitāi: "With the progress of the age of Kali, four things particularly, namely, the duration of life, mercy, the power of recollection, and moral or religious principles will gradually diminish."

Prabhupāda: This is the symptom of Kali-yuga. We have got our practical experience. When I first came in New York, one boy, Nelson, he told me that "Here, even in your front, somebody is being killed. Nobody will take care." I was surprised, how is that? Is that a fact? You say yes?

Lecture on SB 1.16.20 -- Los Angeles, July 10, 1974:

And the memory, memory also reduced. Formerly, people were so sharp in memory that once heard from the spiritual master, he will remember. He will not forget. There was no need of books. Book is required because our memory is now, the power of recollection, is very poor. Just like one who cannot memorize, he has to take note down. Formerly, five thousand years ago, there was no need of books. The students will go to the spiritual master or teacher and... Therefore it is called śruti. The Vedic language is called śruti. Śruti means hearing. It is not reading. Simply, pious students will hear from the right source. Evaṁ paramparā prāptam imaṁ rājarṣayo viduḥ (BG 4.2).

Lecture on SB 1.16.20 -- Los Angeles, July 10, 1974:

Simply by hearing, they will understand everything. They will never forget. But in the Kali-yuga it is not possible. Therefore Vyāsadeva, the whole Vedic understanding, knowledge, he recorded into books. Otherwise before that there was no need of books. The power of recollection will diminish. And mercy. Mercy will reduce. Even in your, in somebody's, in our front, somebody is killed. Nobody will try to help him. What to speak of others, when there is difficulty. Or there are so many. People should cooperate.

Lecture on SB 2.9.1 -- Tokyo, April 20, 1972:

"What is this rasagullā, two rasagullā? I can purchase from the market for four annas. So he is becoming God by four annas?" But they have no sense. "Oh, he is God. He can produce rasagullā." Rasagullā I can produce in our kitchen. But they are so rascal. "Oh, wonderful." So the yogic siddhis... So Kṛṣṇa gives him some power of yogic siddhi and he thinks that "I have become God," and some flatterers, they also think, "Oh, you are God." The same dream. And as soon as death comes, everything finished, your Godhood and everything finished. Now becomes doghood, come to the stage of doghood. Again, another dream: "I am dog." First of all "I am God," then next stage, "I am dog." This is going on.

Lecture on SB 3.22.22 and Initiations -- Tehran, August 12, 1976:

The first consent was the daughter's. Now just see, she was emperor's daughter, how comfortably she was living, but she voluntarily accepted all the difficulties for becoming the wife of an ascetic. You cannot expect royal comforts when one becomes the wife of an ascetic. Of course, later on everything was given to her by the mystic power of Kardama Muni, but in the beginning she accepted in a very humble cottage to live with her husband and serve him.

Lecture on SB 3.26.19 -- Bombay, December 28, 1974:

This is the process, going on. Bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19). The dissolution takes place.

So varieties are already there, not that in this creation it begins. Otherwise how Brahmā is created first? Brahmā is the most intelligent creature, so intelligent that he is given the power of creating this universe. So not that in the beginning there was no intelligence. The first-class intelligence is there in the beginning of the creation. Read.

Lecture on SB 3.26.23-4 -- Bombay, January 1, 1975:

Nitāi: "The material energy springs up from the mahat-tattva, which evolved from the Lord's own energy. The material ego is endowed predominantly with active power of three kinds—good, passionate and ignorant. From these three types of material ego the mind, the senses of perception, and the organs of action, and the gross elements evolve."

Prabhupāda:

mahat-tattvād vikurvāṇād
bhagavad-vīrya-sambhavāt
kriyā-śaktir ahaṅkāras
tri-vidhaḥ samapadyata
vaikārikas taijasaś ca
tāmasaś ca yato bhavaḥ
manasaś cendriyāṇāṁ ca
bhūtānāṁ mahatām api
(SB 3.26.23-24)

So the process of creation, how, one after another, it takes place, that is described here. So the total energy, mahat-tattva, by interaction, the begins... The moving, the pushing, begins from the bhagavad-vīryatā. Bhagavad-vīrya-sambhavāt. Vīrya means energy.

Lecture on SB 5.5.33 -- Vrndavana, November 20, 1976:

"You are in trouble, brāhmaṇa, so whatever I have got, asset, whatever I have done austerity, penance, and..., you take immediately and be excused." This is Vaiṣṇava: "You take all my asset." So there was very friendly. Then both of them took prasādam, and then Durvāsā Muni could understand what is the power of devotee. Yaṁ labdhvā cāparaṁ lābhaṁ manyate nādhikaṁ tataḥ. So be very much careful to remain a spotless devotee. Then all success is there. There is no doubt about it. There are so many instances.

So this is transcendental body. It has nothing to compare with the material body. Paraṁ bhāvam ajānantaḥ. Kṛṣṇa also says, janma karma ca me divyaṁ yo jānāti tattvataḥ (BG 4.9). So one has to know Kṛṣṇa. But that tattvataḥ, in truth to understand Kṛṣṇa, is very difficult job.

Lecture on SB 5.6.1 -- Vrndavana, November 23, 1976:

Pradyumna: (leads chanting, etc.) "Translation: King Parīkṣit asked Śukadeva Gosvāmī: My dear Lord, for those who are completely pure in heart, knowledge is attained by the practice of bhakti-yoga, and attachment for fruitive activity is completely burned to ashes. For such people, the powers of mystic yoga automatically arise. They do not cause distress. Why, then, did Ṛṣabhadeva neglect them?"

Prabhupāda:

na nūnaṁ bhagava ātmārāmāṇāṁ yoga-samīrita-jñānāvabharjita-karma-bījānām aiśvaryāṇi punaḥ kleśadāni bhavitum arhanti yadṛc-chayopagatāni

(SB 5.6.1)

So ātmārāmāṇām, ātmārāmāṇām, self-satisfied. There are two kinds of men: ātmārāma and apaśyatām atmā-tattvam (SB 2.1.2)—one who does not know what is the soul and what is the business of the soul. Apaśyatām atmā-tattvam (SB 2.1.2). Ātma-tattvam... First of all, one has to understand that "I am not this body. I am ātmā, soul. Ahaṁ brahmāsmi."

Lecture on SB 6.1.6 -- Honolulu, May 7, 1976:

It was done by the machine manipulated by Kṛṣṇa. That is Kṛṣṇa understanding. It is confirmed in the śāstra, parasya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate (Cc. Madhya 13.65, purport). Para, the Supreme, His energies are multi-energies. They are acting the same way the machine is working. You can see potency or the power of a person. Just like you see airplane: the pilot is sitting there, pushing one button. Immediately the turning, such a huge machine is turning, simply by putting button. So this is an arrangement of energy. Similarly, the whole material world is working by putting the button, pushing the button. Don't think it is going on automatically or accidentally. These are all rascaldom. There is hand in everywhere.

Lecture on SB 6.1.14 -- Bombay, November 10, 1970:

When Veda says "God is formless," that means He is not under the conception of form which you can conceive. Sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha (Bs. 5.1). His form, His form is described in the Brahma-saṁhitā, that aṅgāni yasya sakalendriya-vṛtti-manti (Bs. 5.32). He has got form, but every part of His limb has got the power of other limbs. Just like I can see with the eyes only, but Bhagavān, Kṛṣṇa, can see with His fingers. I can eat with my tongue, with my mouth, but Kṛṣṇa can eat by seeing, by eyes. Therefore His form is not exactly like your form.

Lecture on SB 6.1.15 -- New York, August 1, 1971:

Just like there are many examples. There are Dhruva, Viśvāmitra Muni. He underwent all this tapasya. He was a kṣatriya. He wanted to become a brāhmaṇa. There was a quarrel between him and a ṛṣi. So he saw the extraordinary power of the ṛṣi, and he wanted to become a brāhmaṇa. So he began austerity. But he became also a victim of Menakā, the society girl of heavenly planet. And being entangled, he begot a child. In this way he became implicated, because he was not pure.

Lecture on SB 6.1.31 -- Honolulu, May 30, 1976:

The Vedas say that you have to see through the śāstra, through the authoritative śāstra. With these blunt eyes what can you see? You're so much anxious. Everyone says, "Can you show me God?" What you can see? What is the power of your eyes? You cannot see even your eyelid. The eyelid is attached to the eye. Can you see? So how you can see God? You're so imperfect. Just like if there is some particle within the eyelid, we become embarrassed. But the eye is attached. Why not see and take it away? This is practical. So what is the power of your eyes?

Lecture on SB 6.1.31 -- Honolulu, May 30, 1976:

That is yogi's business. Dhyānāvasthita tad gatena manasā paśyanti yaṁ yogina. This is yoga system. Dhyānāvasthita tad gatena manasā paśyanti. Not that manufacturing something nonsense, just so that you'll be stout and strong to enjoy sex, or your power of business brain will expand. This is not yoga. These all bluff. Real yoga system is to find out within the heart where is God. My business is that I've forgotten God. The karmīs, they..., karmīs, real karmīs, they do not forget. The upstarts, the rascals, they forget. Karmīs also... Just like they go to church or to go to temple, they ask some favor from God. Ārto arthārthī jñānī jijñāsuḥ. Catur-vidhā bhajante mām.

Lecture on SB 6.1.48 -- Dallas, July 30, 1975:

There are difference of mind also, according to the position. That we have got experience. A high-court judge's mind and ordinary person's mind—far different. The judges can immediately understand what is the position. So this is also God's gift. Different people have got different power of the mind. That is also through Kṛṣṇa. Sarvasya cāhaṁ hṛdi sanniviṣṭaḥ mattaḥ smṛtiḥ jñānam apohanaṁ ca (BG 15.15). So mind means whose memory is very sharp, he is called great-minded. So this greatness of mind and smallness of mind are different according to the dictation of the Supersoul. Mattaḥ smṛtir jñānam... One man can remember small things for many years; another man forgets. Immediately he hears and immediately forgets. Why this difference of mental position? It is due to Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa helps one to memorize or to forget.

Lecture on SB 6.2.14 -- Vrndavana, September 17, 1975:

Everyone should know, viduḥ. Generally we do not know what is the power of vaikuṇṭha-nāma.

nāmnām akāri bahudhā nija-sarva-śaktis
tatrārpitā niyamitaḥ smaraṇe na kālaḥ
etādṛśī tava kṛpā bhagavan mamāpi
durdaivam īdṛśam ihājani nānurāgaḥ

Caitanya Mahāprabhu regretted that the holy name of Kṛṣṇa is so powerful that all the potencies or all the energies in the Absolute Person, the same thing you'll find in His name, in His form. But these things are not understood by less intelligent class of men. To understand these things means to know Kṛṣṇa in truth.

Lecture on SB 7.6.1 -- San Francisco, March 3, 1967:

If I see that my name is stamped in the history, I think, "Oh, I am My life is successful." But what is the history? Your name means your body, your photo of this body. But as soon as you leave this body, what you will do with this name? You are going to another body, another name. So aiśvaryasya samāgrasya vīryasya. Vīryasya means strength. So one should have the complete power of riches, complete power of strength, complete fame. Aiśvaryasya samāgrasya vīryasya yaśasaḥ śriyaḥ (Viṣṇu Purāṇa 6.5.47), and complete beauty. And jñāna, complete knowledge, and vairāgya, complete renouncement. If you can find out somebody that nobody is richer than him, nobody is more famous than him, nobody is stronger than him, nobody is wiser than him, nobody is more beautiful than him, and nobody is more renouncer than him, when these six opulences you will find, without any competition, that is God. This is the definition of God.

Lecture on SB 7.6.1 -- New York, April 9, 1969:

Then "I see that he is dying." Oh, that is dying not, that is his finishing his this present body. The example is given, vāsāṁsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya (BG 2.22). Just like one person changes his dress, similarly, when this dress, the present body, is unworkable... Just like one man cannot see. What do you mean by "cannot see"? When the power of vision is no longer working or the spectacle is broken, therefore he cannot see. Similarly, when the all the senses will be broken or cannot work... Just like eye cannot, the eyes cannot work, therefore it is blind, similarly, the hand cannot work, the leg cannot work, the tongue cannot work because at the last stage when this mechanical arrangement of this body will stop to function, that is called death.

Lecture on SB 7.9.6 -- Mayapur, February 26, 1977:

It is not possible to grow some ferocious nails, piercing nails, in the lotus flower. This is contradictory. Therefore Jayadeva says, adbhuta: "It is wonderful. It is astonishing." This... Therefore Lord's power, exhibition of power and sharp nails, they're all inconceivable. Śrīla Jīva Goswami has explained, "Unless you accept inconceivable power of the Supreme Lord, there is no understanding." Acintya. Acintya-śakti. Acintya means inconceivable. You cannot speculate how it is happening, how in the lotus flower there is so hard nail that immediately, within a second, it could kill a great demon like Hiranyakasipu. Therefore it is acintya. We cannot conceive. Acintya. And therefore Vedic instruction is acintyā khalu ye bhāvā na taṁś tarkeṇa yo jayet: "Do not apply your poor logic in the matters which is inconceivable by you." There is no logic that how lotus flower can grow nails.

Lecture on SB 7.9.9 -- Montreal, July 6, 1968:

Dhana means wealth. Abhijana. Abhijana means to take birth. Śrīdhara Swami says abhijana means sat-kule janma, to take birth in high family, in brāhmaṇa family, in rich family. And rūpam, sundarya, śrutam, saundarya. Rūpa means beauty, and śrutam means education. Ojaḥ, indriya-naipuṇyam. Ojaḥ means power of sense. A man who can use his senses very nicely, he is called ojaḥ. Just like the vultures. The vulture, he can go three, four miles up, but he can see... From that four miles away, he can see whether there is a carcass. So simply by sense power one does not become very great. The example is this: although this creature, vulture, has gone very high... We are human being. We cannot see three, four miles away anything.

Lecture on SB 7.9.9 -- Montreal, July 6, 1968:

So sense power... There are different animals who have got different kinds of sense power. Just like dogs. They can smell..., from distant place they can smell whether somebody, outsider, is coming, and he will at once begin barking. Similarly, there are fishes. They have got power of touch. The small fishes can understand that a big fish is coming from miles of distance simply by touch, by connection with water. So the sense power or living power... Suppose if somebody thinks that "I am living for a hundred years," you are living for hundred years, but you go in the forest. You will find one tree is living for seven thousand years. So these powers, by sense power, by your strength of money or by education...

Lecture on SB 7.9.41 -- Mayapura, March 19, 1976:

He was very, very sinful. He committed so many sinful activities. But at the last moment he simply chanted Nārāyaṇa. Immediately he became free. Immediately Viṣṇudūta came to rescue him from the hands of the Yamadūta. Just see what is the power of chanting the holy name of... So this is fact, that if we chant Hare Kṛṣṇa we immediately become free from all contamination of this material world, provided we don't commit it again. That is required, that... We finish all the resultant action of contamination of this material life, provided we remain without being fallen again. Therefore there is daśa-vidha-nāmāparādha. You know ten kinds of offenses. So if you chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra being careful not to commit the ten kinds of offenses, then you are immediately liberated.

Nectar of Devotion Lectures

The Nectar of Devotion -- Bombay, January 8, 1973:

Kṛṣṇa is the paramaḥ pumān, although there is no difference between Rāma and Viṣṇu and Nārāyaṇa and Kṛṣṇa. They are the same, same potency. Just like the candle, first candle. And lit up another candle, it is second candle, but the second candle is not less in power of lighting, the same. But still this is first, this is second. Similarly, kṛṣṇaḥ svayaṁ samabhavat paramaḥ pumān yo (Bs. 5.39). Kṛṣṇa is the original, kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam. Ete cāṁśa kalāḥ puṁsaḥ kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam (SB 1.3.28). All others, they're incarnation or kalāḥ, but Kṛṣṇa is the avatārī, the source of all incarnations. So, bhakta-sane vāsa, satāṁ prasaṅgān mama vīrya-saṁvido (SB 3.25.25).

The Nectar of Devotion -- Vrndavana, November 12, 1972:

Still more low-born than these people, śudhyanti, they can be purified if they actually take shelter of a pure devotee. They can be purified. That is the injunction of the śāstras, Śukadeva Gosvāmī. Śudhyanti. People may argue how such low-born people can be purified. That reply is: prabhaviṣṇave namaḥ. It is the supreme power of Lord Viṣṇu. It is possible.

Kṛṣṇa says... Now, Kṛṣṇa says that everyone can be delivered simply by the process of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So whose duty is to enlighten them to Kṛṣṇa consciousness? I was just talking with Gosvāmījī, Harijana Gosvāmījī. Whose duty it is to enliven people to Kṛṣṇa consciousness? It is the duty of guru. We came to this conclusion. And who is guru? Śrotriyaṁ brahma-niṣṭham (MU 1.2.12). That means perfectly learned in Vedic literature and firmly convinced in Brahman realization. That means first-class brāhmaṇa.

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures

Lecture on CC Adi-lila 3.87-88 -- New York, December 27, 1966:

So it is the force of love. It is the force of ecstasy that will help you in understanding the science of Kṛṣṇa, not other way. Not other. You cannot make a speculation; you cannot... Because what is your power of speculating power? Your senses are limited. In conditioned stage our power of, I mean to say, acquiring knowledge through the senses, that is limited. So by limited senses you cannot go. Therefore acintya. Acintyāḥ khalu ye bhāvā na tāṁs tarkeṇa yojayet. Acintya. It is beyond our jurisdiction of thinking, understanding. So there is no other alternative than to follow this principle, follow this principle, to follow the opinion of ācārya. Ācāryopāsanam. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is stated, "If if you want to make progress in knowledge, then you have to follow."

Lecture on CC Adi-lila 7.3 -- Mayapur, March 3, 1974:

When that is practically applied in life, that is called vijñānam. In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, therefore, the statement is there: jñānaṁ me paramaṁ guhyaṁ yad vijñāna-samanvitam. Jñāna and vijñāna.

So we are very much proud of seeing things. Somebody says, "Can you show me God?" But just try to understand what is the power of our eyes. Now there is no light, so our seeing power is vanished. In this way, all the powers of our senses are conditional. Under certain condition we can see, under certain condition we can hear. Therefore at the present moment our life is conditional. We act, we see, we walk, we hear, we smell, we touch—under certain condition.

Lecture on CC Adi-lila 7.3 -- Mayapur, March 3, 1974:

Because my sight power is less, so I take the condition of a glass and try to see. Similarly, this material condition is like that. Spiritually, we have got the power of seeing, the power of hearing, the power of speaking, the power of touching, power of smelling, but because we are covered by this material body, all these powers have become conditional, not absolute. So those who are inquisitive to understand the absolute life or spiritual life, he must accept a guru. Therefore Caitanya-caritāmṛta says pūrve, in the beginning. Ācāryavān puruṣo veda. If we actually are serious to understand the Absolute Truth, then one must have the shelter of ācārya. Ācāryavān. This vān word is used when one possesses. Asthate bato prata (?). So when one possesses the shelter of ācārya, then his knowledge is perfect.

Lecture on CC Adi-lila 7.119 -- Gorakhpur, February 17, 1971:

Impersonal Brahman and localized Paramātmā and Personality of Godhead, They're one and the same. It is the process of realization only, that somebody is realizing the Absolute Truth as imperson and somebody is realizing the Absolute Truth as all-pervading Paramātmā, Antaryami, and some persons are realizing the Absolute Truth as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa. But they are advaya-jñāna, identical, the same thing. It is our power of perception only that makes the difference. The object is the same. That is stated in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam:

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 6.154-155 -- Gorakhpur, February 19, 1971 (Krsna Niketan):

Therefore, when it is said paśyaty acakṣuḥ... Paśyaty acakṣuḥ. Kṛṣṇa, or the Supreme Personality of Godhead, has got such nice eyes that He can see your activities anywhere. He sees. But His that seeing, that eye or His eyes, are not exactly... Because we cannot see. As soon as I am closing my eyelids I cannot see you. So what is the power of this seeing? But He can see from within your heart what you are thinking, what you are feeling, what you are acting. And He is giving also sanction. You cannot act anything without His sanction because everything is property of Kṛṣṇa. Sarva-loka-maheśvaram (BG 5.29). So if you want to enjoy something, you have to take sanction from the proprietor. Otherwise you cannot take, unless He sanctions.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.98-99 -- Washington, D.C., July 4, 1976:

This body is matter, and the moving force which is moving this body, that is spirit soul. So we are manda. We are so dull that the highest learned man and the so-called scientist and philosopher, they cannot understand this distinction. They think this body is everything. But that is not the fact. Body is not everything. The moving power of the body is the spirit soul. We are repeatedly trying to convince people this simple truth, but they are so dull-headed they cannot understand. Yes.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.111 -- New York, July 19, 1976:

That intelligence is coming, but the intelligence, why you'll find different? So just like the bulb. There are fifteen-candle-power, there is fifty-candle-power, hundred-candle-power—according to the bulb, the energy is exhibited. Similarly, according to our power of reception, we can exhibit our intelligence, merit. But actually it is coming from God. Anything... The same principle. Janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1), the Vedānta philosophy, "Absolute Truth means the original source of everything." Everything may be of different varieties, but the original source is Kṛṣṇa.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.154-157 -- New York, December 7, 1966:

There is no sun. But here it is, sun present. Similarly, in your country also, if you go more farther eastern, western side, somewhere the sun is already there somewhere, somewhere the sun is not there. So similarly, the sun is there, but it is the particular time and place where people can see and cannot see. So Kṛṣṇa is there always, everywhere, but it is the power of seeing where Kṛṣṇa is or Kṛṣṇa is not.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.298 -- New York, December 20, 1966:

The example is very nice, valuable stone, just like diamond. Diamond has got power to illuminate. And what is this diamond? The diamond is made by the interaction of sunshine. All these valuable stones, they are products of sunshine. So as the diamond has got power of shining power, it is derived from the sun, or diamond, the moon also, it derives power from the sun, similarly, Brahmā, although he is very powerful, he is known as creator of this universe, but he is just like diamond. He inherits power from the Supreme Lord, so he becomes powerful. Bhāsvān yathāśma-sakaleṣu nijeṣu tejaḥ. That is simply a bit of power. Just like a diamond, diamond also illuminating, but it is not original luminous.

Sri Brahma-samhita Lectures

Lecture on Brahma-samhita, Verse 32 -- New York, July 26, 1971:

That is God's property. The earth, also, the bricks also, which you have made you have simply given your labor. That labor is also God's property, because you work with your hand, but it is not your hand; it is God's hand. If it is your hand, then when it is paralyzed, you cannot use it. When the power of using your energy of the hand is withdrawn by God, you cannot work.

Lecture on Brahma-samhita, Verse 35 -- New York, July 31, 1971:

Similarly, there are millions and trillions of universes. Jagad-aṇḍa-koṭi. So in each universe, Govinda enters, then it becomes developed. Just like the matter created by the male and female, the jīva soul enters and then the body develops. Similarly, this material... Matter has no power of developing. Govinda enters into the matter, and therefore the universe develops. It is very easy to understand. Simply matter, combination of matter, cannot produce any development. Govinda. Eko 'py asau racayituṁ jagad-aṇḍa-koṭi koṭiṣ... Aṇḍāntara-stha-paramāṇu-cayāntara-stham, so Govinda is, the atomic theory that combination of atom, paramāṇu vāda is this material world, but we say that within the atom there is Govinda. Aṇor aṇīyan mahato mahīyān. Govinda is greater than the greatest and smaller than the smallest. That is Govinda. Aṇḍānta...

Lecture on Brahma-samhita, Verse 35 -- New York, July 31, 1971:

Try to see Me everywhere. How? Now, first of all He says, raso 'ham apsu kaunteya, I am the taste of the water. So when you are thirsty, you require a glass of water, drink it, and when you feel happy you understand that this quenching power of this water is Kṛṣṇa. That is Kṛṣṇa realization. Raso 'ham apsu kaunteya prabhāsmi śaśi-sūryayoḥ (BG 7.8). So as soon as there is sunrise, you see Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa says "I am the sunshine, I am the moonshine." So why don't you try to see Kṛṣṇa? In the Bhagavad-gītā, it is said, there is a big list. Just like Kṛṣṇa says "I am the Lion amongst the animals." Because He took the shape of a lion, Hiraṇyakaśipu, eternal shape. I am the banyan Tree, so many thing.

Festival Lectures

Sri Vyasa-puja -- New Vrindaban, September 2, 1972:

Formerly, before Vyāsadeva, say, five thousand years ago, before that time there was no need of written literature. People were so sharp in their memory that whatever they would hear from the spiritual master they would remember for life. The memory was so sharp. But in this age—it is called Kali-yuga—we are reducing our bodily strength, our memory, power of memorizing, our feelings of sympathy for others, compassion, age, duration of life, religious propensities. In this way, in this age we are reducing everything. Every one of you can understand very easily. Formerly if somebody is attacked by another man, many persons will come to help him: "Why this man is attacked?" But at the present moment if one man is attacked, the passersby will not care for it because they have lost their sympathy or mercifulness for others.

Sri Vyasa-puja -- New Vrindaban, September 2, 1972:

So cheating propensity is... First that we commit mistake, we are illusioned, we cheat, and at the end, all our senses are imperfect. Just like we are very much proud of seeing. Everyone says, "Can you show me? I want to see." And what can you see? What is the power of seeing? At night, if there is no sunshine, you cannot see, so what is the use of your seeing? If there is wall, you cannot see what is beyond the wall. You are seeing every day the sun, but we are seeing just like a small disc. But actually it is fourteen hundred thousand times bigger than this earth. Similarly, we cannot see which is situated a very long distance. We cannot see even the eyelid which is actually with the eyes. But we cannot see it. In this way, if you study, every one of your senses you will find imperfect.

His Divine Grace Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Gosvami Prabhupada's Appearance Day, SB 6.3.24 -- Gorakhpur, February 15, 1971:

They go on searching after what is the ultimate power, but they cannot find it out. That is not possible. But they accept that there is some power, nature's power. So that is the stage of śakta stage, Durgā worship. Then... Power... Just like modern scientists, they also have gone to the power of the sun. That power, another power. That power is sun, and that is called saura, worshiping the sun. Just like there is a Parsi community in India. Fire worship is recommended in the Vedas. So that powerful sun, sun-god, they worship the sun. That is the stage of saura, saura stage. And then, next is the power vox populi, the power of the votes. That is the stage of Gaṇapati. Gaṇa... Gaṇa means the number of people.

Initiation Lectures

Initiation of Rukmini Dasi -- Montreal, August 15, 1968:

These Hindus, they're against any Muhammadans entering the temple. Why shall I go and disturb them? I shall chant here." So Jagannātha Himself was coming daily to him. This is the power of devotee. He hasn't got to go to Jagannātha, but Jagannātha comes to see him. Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu used to come daily to Haridāsa Ṭhākura. When He was going to take bath in the sea, so He would first of all enter Haridāsa's cottage: "Haridāsa, what you are doing?" "Yes, my Lord, please come." So this is the position of devotee. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, mad-bhakta-pūjyābhyadhikaḥ. If somebody worships a devotee, that worshipment is more valuable than worshiping Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa says like that.

Lecture at Initiation Fire Sacrifice -- Los Angeles, July 16, 1969:

Not that Durgā is the Absolute Truth. This is nonsense. That is stated in the Brahma-saṁhitā, sṛṣṭi-sthiti-pralaya-sādhana-śaktir eka chāyeva yasya bhuvanāni bibharti durgā (Bs. 5.44). Durgā. What is that Durgā? Durgā is the material nature, very powerful. Sṛṣṭi-sthiti-pralaya-sādhana-śaktiḥ. She has got the power of creating, maintaining and dissolving. She is so powerful. You have seen Durgā's picture. She has got ten hands. That's a long story, of course, Durgā, Caṇḍī. These are all described in the Vedic literatures. But she is not the absolute personality. Sṛṣṭi-sthiti-pralaya-sādhana-śaktir eka chāyeva. She is working simply just like shadow. As the shadow moves when the original substance moves, similarly, she is only working under the direction of Kṛṣṇa. That's all.

General Lectures

Lecture -- Montreal, June 26, 1968:

So actually, although we have got independence, we have got consciousness, we have got power of thinking, of understanding, but it is limited. Therefore we don't agree with one another. However I may be big philosopher, I may be very big philosopher, very logician, but as soon as another big logician, another big philosopher comes, he defeats me. That is the way. And every philosopher, every logician is trying to defeat your theory, as you are trying to defeat others' theories. This is going on. So as Śrīman Janārdana said, the knowledge which you are searching in different ways, that is impossible to come to the conclusion. Because we are searching with...

Lecture -- Montreal, June 26, 1968:

And he has no other alternative to know who is his father except the source of a sincere mother. Similarly, the Bhāgavat says, acintyāḥ khalu ye bhāvā na tāṁs tarkeṇa yojayet. Things which are beyond your power of realization, don't try to understand by your so-called logic and argument. All nonsense. All nonsense.

Tarkaḥ apratiṣṭhaḥ. This process of argument and logic, gymnasium, is imperfect always. You cannot realize what is the ultimate goal of life. Tarkaḥ apratiṣṭhaḥ śrutayo vibhinnā. Śruta means Vedas or books of knowledge. There are different kinds of theories and doctrines.

Lecture -- Seattle, October 2, 1968:

Why not? I am individual... Although I am small, but I am individual. I have got all the power of thinking, feeling, willing. We are doing that. We are individual. You have come here by your individual will. Nobody has forced you. If you like, you can go. Somebody comes here, somebody never comes, somebody comes daily. Why? Even you are small, you have got individuality. Even in this conditioned state, you are so free, so much free. And when you are unconditioned, purely spirit, you do not know how much freedom you have got. It doesn't matter you are small, but you are a spiritual spark. Don't you see that a small spiritual spark which no physician, no medical science has still discovered, where is the soul, but the soul is there.

Lecture -- Seattle, October 2, 1968:

And as soon as it is gone, immediately it becomes to decompose. Just see. Just like a drug, injection. A little, one grain, it keeps fit. It is something like that, it is so powerful. You do not know what is the power of that soul. That you have to learn. Then that is self-realization. This meditation process, sitting in a silent place, is recommended in the grossest stage of bodily concept of life. Let one thing, meditate, "Am I this body?" then make analysis. You'll see, "No. I am not this body. I am different from this body." Then further meditation: "If I am not this body, then the bodily actions, how it is being done?" It is being done for that presence of that small particle, myself. How the body is growing? Because on account of presence.

Lecture -- Seattle, October 9, 1968:

This savitā, the sun, is considered to be the eyes, one of the eyes of the Lord. In His universal form the sun is considered to be one of the eyes of the Lord, and the moon is also another eye. Take it figuratively or universal form of the Lord, but you cannot escape the seeing power of Govinda. He is seeing always. There are so many witnesses according to Vedic literature. So we cannot do anything hiding from the eyes of the Lord. He is seeing. He is witness. And that is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā: upadraṣṭā anumantā. Upadraṣṭā. Upadraṣṭā means overseer. Overseer.

Lecture -- London, September 14, 1969:

The tortoise, as soon as he likes, he opens his different limbs from the body, and as soon as he does not like, immediately winds within the body. So we should be like that. That is real control.

So vimanyavaḥ means that devotee does not generally become angry. But that does not mean that he has lost his power of becoming angry. No. He can become angry at any time, when it is required. And he should be angry? He is angry, krodha bhakta-dveṣi janam. He'll be angry when there is somebody who's against God and God's devotee. He'll be angry. As soon as one says, blasphemes, that "I am God. There is no God," immediately he should be very angry because he is preaching false things. He's blaspheming against the Supreme Lord, that he is making God as very cheap.

Pandal Lecture -- Bombay, April 6, 1971:

And of all the deficiencies, most important deficiency is that our senses are imperfect. We say, "I want to see God," but we forget that our eyes are so imperfect that I cannot see in the nearest eyelid. As soon as I close my eyes, I do not see the eyelid. This is the power of my seeing. Therefore we should not be so much proud of our seeing power that we'll say that "I want to see God. Can you show me God?" This is not possible.

So these four deficiencies of conditioned soul are there; therefore we cannot have perfect knowledge by our mental speculation. That is not possible.

Lecture at Boys' School -- Sydney, May 12, 1971:

Prabhupāda: Self-realization. Explain it. What is self-realization?

Boy: Tapping the powers of the unconscious mind and seeing yourself...

Prabhupāda: Do you think mind is unconscious?

Boy: The mind is unconscious.

Prabhupāda: You say "unconscious mind." You just now told me "unconscious mind." Is mind unconscious?

Boy: Most of it is.

Prabhupāda: What did he say?

Speech at Olympia Theater -- Paris, June 26, 1971, (with translator):

That is recommended in the Vedas. You can chant... "If you know any other name of God, you can chant also, because there is no difference between the different names of God. And each name, holy name, is invested with all powers of God." Lord Caitanya says that each and every name, holy name of God, is nondifferent from the Supreme Lord. Therefore all the powers, all the energies that God has, it is also there in His holy name. In the absolute platform there is no such difference, as in this relative world there is difference between the name and the person whose name we are chanting. As such, there is no difference between the holy name of God and God. And Caitanya Mahāprabhu says there is no hard and fast rules and regulations for this chanting.

Lecture -- Delhi, December 13, 1971:

That is the answer. Do you think that your eyes are perfect? There are many types of seeing. Not that simply with glaring eyesight you can see. You can see what is Sarasvatī , you are seeing the body. What is Sarasvatī, do you know? So what you are seeing? You are seeing the body. So what is the power of your seeing? There is another body, sukavādī (?), subtle body. Can you see the mind? But everyone has got mind. Can you see intelligence? But everyone has got intelligence. So what is the power of your seeing? Why you are so much proud of your seeing, nonsense seeing?

Lecture -- Delhi, December 13, 1971:

You cannot see anything. Your power of seeing is so limited that you cannot see anything. Therefore you have to see through Kṛṣṇa, through Bhagavad-gītā. You are seeing the sun, it is like a disc. But when you see through astronomy, then you will understand it is fourteen hundred thousand times bigger than this earth. So what is the power of your seeing? Why you are so much proud of seeing? This is nonsense. Why do you go to school? To learn how to see. Why you can sit down, anyone who hasn't got, never has gone to school and never taken an education, his seeing and a perfect MA, Ph. D. person's seeing, is that all right, the same thing?

Lecture -- London, August 23, 1973:

Similarly, those who have declared independence, so-called independence—nobody can be independent—that "I do not believe in God, I do not want any type of religion or serving God," such persons will be under the guidance or under the influence or power of the material nature, māyā. Māyā-mohita. Tribhir guṇa-māyāir bhāvair. We are now illusioned by the influence of māyā, material energy, in three ways: by goodness, by passion, and by ignorance. But instead of serving God, we are now serving māyā. And so long we shall be going on serving māyā, or serving in the prison house, we cannot be happy.

La Trobe University Lecture -- Melbourne, July 1, 1974:

Prabhupāda: I don't say I am Jesus.

Young man (2): Do you have the powers of Jesus? Can you say to a person, "Rise up and walk," when they're paralyzed?

Prabhupāda: What is that?

Madhudviṣa: He wants to know if you have the powers of Jesus.

Prabhupāda: Eh? No, I have no power of Jesus.

Man: Well, I've got the power of Jesus. (laughter) Cause I'm a Christian.

City Hall Lecture -- Durban, October 7, 1975:

"Kṛṣṇa, I am not going to fight," evam uktvā hṛṣīkeśam, "unto Kṛṣṇa..." Kṛṣṇa's another name is Hṛṣīkeśa. Hṛṣīkeśa means... Hṛṣīka means the senses, and īśa means the master. So we have got our senses. Everyone has got senses. The master is Kṛṣṇa. We are not the master. That we have to understand. I am speaking that "This is my hand," but if the power of the hand is withdrawn by Kṛṣṇa, we cannot act. We should understand this way, that none of our senses belong to us. It is given to us for proper use. Therefore, because it is given to us by the Supreme Lord, Kṛṣṇa, the master of the senses, it should be utilized for Kṛṣṇa. This is bhakti-yoga. We should know that "Although we have got all these senses, it has been given to us for use, but the senses do not belong to me." Therefore Kṛṣṇa's name is Hṛṣīkeśa.

Philosophy Discussions

Philosophy Discussion on John Stuart Mill:

Prabhupāda: Trainer, yes. So the raw tiger is kept in the cage and the trainer comes for several days, he simply whips. Then for several days whips and gives some food, and then he comes with the whip and food. So he does not whip, he gives some food. In this way tiger becomes tamed by him. So he plays before the trainer only. He has got that whip. Because he is animal, he has got that impression, "He will kill me." Therefore he plays. As soon as this man goes away, he will immediately attack, anyone comes. Just like dog, he fears the (master); for others he jumps over. So it is a question of training. So he has got the conscience. My point is that he has got the conscience, "Oh, here is my trainer. He will kill me." He has got this conscience. This is good. "If I attack, oh, he will kill me. But here is an ordinary man, I can kill him." So he has difference of conscience. Even the tiger, even the cats, and the dogs. This discrimination, power of discrimination, is there in the animals also. But that is not consciousness. Real consciousness is to accept Kṛṣṇa. That is real consciousness.

Philosophy Discussion on John Stuart Mill:

Hayagrīva: In his Utility of Religion, Mill writes about the power of authority.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hayagrīva: And the enormous, what he calls the enormous influence of authority on the human mind. "Authority is the evidence on which the mass of mankind believe everything which they are said to know except facts of which their own senses have taken cognizance. It is the evidence on which even the wisest receive all those truths of science or facts in history or in life of which they have not personally examined the proofs. Whatever is thus certified to them by authority, they believe with a fullness of assurance which they do not accord even to the evidence of their senses when the general opinion of mankind stands in opposition to it."

Philosophy Discussion on Ludwig Wittgenstein:

Prabhupāda: You cannot see so many things. That does not mean that it does not exist. Your power of seeing is limited. Why you are depending on seeing?

Śyāmasundara: No. I want to take something that we all know, like "Two plus two equals four," that principle. There's no waterpot or anything visible involved, just a purely abstract principle, "Two plus two equals four."

Prabhupāda: Abstract or concrete, it doesn't matter. What is abstract for you is concrete for other. (break) ...Kṛṣṇa is concrete. Paraṁ satya, actually that is the only truth. So this idea, abstract and concrete, that is relative.

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

Prabhupāda: This is not striving. By nature's way the lower animals, they come to the platform of man. Jīva-jātiṣu paryayaḥ, it is called. Paryayaḥ means one after another. There is nature's help. Up to the human being, that law works. And human being, being developed conscious, so he has got the power of discrimination. Because originally the soul is given independence. Just like Kṛṣṇa is asking Arjuna, yathecchasi tathā kuru (BG 18.63). "Whatever you like, you do." That is the original connection. God is the Supersoul; we are soul, under Him, subordinate. So we are called taṭastha, means marginal. Marginal means we can remain either way. Either on God's side or māyā's side. That is my choice. So when we don't want to serve God, then we are sent to the māyā, to serve māyā. Māyā means his position as servant remains the same, but he thinks "I am master."

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

Prabhupāda: That is a different thing. But in India all the authorities, all personalities, unless you accept Vedas, you are called nāstika. Therefore Buddha philosophy was driven away, Caitanya Mahāprabhu veda nā māniyā bauddha haila nāstika. Simply Lord Buddha says, "I don't care for your Vedas." Lord Buddha wanted to preach nonviolence, but in the Vedic literature there is violence. There is violence. Just like Gandhi wanted to prove from Bhagavad-gītā nonviolence. Where is nonviolence there? Where is that nonviolence? Kṛṣṇa is inducing Arjuna to fight, to become violent. So how can you prove there is nonviolence? These are all nonsense. So similarly, in the Vedas there is recommendation that animals can be sacrificed in the Vedas with mantra. That... Therefore the process, to test the power of the mantra, that animal is put into the fire and the animal again comes out with a new life.

Philosophy Discussion on Socrates:

Hayagrīva: The good that Socrates speaks of is not the same as sattva-guṇa. This is a quotation from The Republic. Socrates says, "This, then, which gives to the objects of knowledge their truth and to him who knows them his power of knowing is the form or essential nature of goodness."

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hayagrīva: "It is the cause of knowledge and truth, and so while he may think of it as an object of knowledge, he would do well to regard it as something beyond truth and knowledge, and precious as these both are, of still higher worth. And just as in our analogy light and vision were to be thought of like the sun, but not identical with it, so here both knowledge and truth are to be regarded as like the good, but to identify either with the good is wrong.

Philosophy Discussion on Socrates:

Hayagrīva: "It is the cause of knowledge and truth, and so while he may think of it as an object of knowledge, he would do well to regard it as something beyond truth and knowledge, and precious as these both are, of still higher worth. And just as in our analogy light and vision were to be thought of like the sun, but not identical with it, so here both knowledge and truth are to be regarded as like the good, but to identify either with the good is wrong. The good must hold a yet higher place of honor. The objects of knowledge derive from the good not only their power of being known, but their very being and reality, and goodness is not the same thing as being, but even beyond being, surpassing it in dignity and power."

Prabhupāda: Yes. So goodness is the position where you can get knowledge. And passion and ignorance is not the platform of knowledge. Therefore the endeavor should be how to bring persons in the basic or base platform, ignorance and passion. So this is very easily done by our, this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement.

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.

Philosophy Discussion on Aristotle:

Prabhupāda: That is nonsense. You cannot... God is unlimited. You have got limited power to see or to smell or to touch. You have got all limited, and God is unlimited. So you cannot understand God by your limited power of sensual activities. Therefore God is revelation. We say that ataḥ śrī-kṛṣṇa-nāmādi na bhaved grāhyam indriyaiḥ (CC Madhya 17.136). You cannot understand by speculating your senses. That is not possible. When you engage yourself in His service, then He reveals. Nāhaṁ prakāśaḥ sarvasya yoga-māyā-samāvṛtaḥ (BG 7.25). God says that "I am not exposed to everyone. I am covered by the yoga-māyā." That is fact. So unless God reveals Himself... So God not only reveals, He appears, and great authorities, they are searching.

Philosophy Discussion on St. Augustine:

Hayagrīva: He conceived of the spiritual world as a place where the bodies are very beautiful, are very happy, they move with, with grace. The... God is the source of every satisfaction and is the consummation of all desires. The people in the spiritual sky never cease praising God, never tire of praising Him. There is no envy, and bliss is all-pervasive. Sin has no power of temptation.

Prabhupāda: Yes. When he, we remain in contact with God, the sin cannot touch. That is the explanation given in the Bhagavad-gītā: daivī hy eṣā guṇa-mayī mama māyā duratyayā (BG 7.14). According to our desires we are associating with the different qualities of material nature, and we are getting different types of body. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgaḥ asya. Nature is the agent of Kṛṣṇa, God, so as we desire, Kṛṣṇa gives us the facility by giving us a body which is a machine. Just like father and the son. The son insists, "Father, give me a cycle." So the affectionate father gives him a cycle.

Philosophy Discussion on Rene Descartes:

Hayagrīva: Descartes, Rene Descartes, the French... Descartes writes, "The power of forming a good judgment and of distinguishing the true from the false, which is, properly speaking, what is called good sense or reason, is by nature equal in all men. God has given to each of us some light with which to distinguish truth from error." Now in the West this has been called conscience, and Descartes uses the term "reason." Now is this simply a form of mental speculation, or is the...

Prabhupāda: No. Mental speculation should be there. It is not actually speculation but it is reasoning. Just like if we study our own body, whether I am this lump of matter, namely this skin, bone and stool, urine and muscle and blood... If we analyze this body we find practically these things. So the reasoning is that whether combination of these things can give life.

Philosophy Discussion on Auguste Comte:

Hayagrīva: Comte conceives the worship of woman as preparatory for the worship of mankind at large. He says, "The worship of woman begun in private and afterwards publicly celebrated is necessary in man's case to prepare him for any effectual worship of humanity," and that "Only man is the supreme being. It must not, however, be supposes that the new supreme being is like the old, merely a subjective result of our powers of abstraction. Existence in the true sense can only be predicated of humanity."

Prabhupāda: What is the idea?

Hayagrīva: That man is all there is.

Prabhupāda: Huh? Can you explain what is the idea expressed in this sentence?

Page Title:Power of... (Lectures)
Compiler:Visnu Murti, RupaManjari
Created:12 of Dec, 2011
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=124, Con=0, Let=0
No. of Quotes:124