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Prescribed (Lectures, Other)

Expressions researched:
"prescribe" |"prescribed" |"prescribes" |"prescribing"

Notes from the compiler: VedaBase query: prescribe or prescribed or prescribes or prescribing not "prescribed dut*

Lectures

Nectar of Devotion Lectures

The Nectar of Devotion -- Vrndavana, October 20, 1972:

First of all, he's trying to bring the devotee to the standard devotional service. Vidhi-mārga. Then gradually, when he becomes accustomed, then rāga-mārga will be revealed. Rāga-mārga is not artificial. It becomes, svayam eva sphuraty adhaḥ. Sevonmukhe hi jihvādau... (Brs. 1.2.234). Everything, devotional relationship with Kṛṣṇa, you cannot establish artificially. Everyone has got a particular relationship with Kṛṣṇa in his original constitutional position. That will be revealed gradually as you advance in devotional service in the prescribed rules and regulations as they are directed in the śāstras and by spiritual master. When you are trained up properly, you come to the platform of rāga-mārga, then your devotional si... That is called svarūpa-siddhi. Svarūpa-siddhi. So svarūpa-siddhi is attained at a certain stage. Just like svarūpa-siddhi... The desire for sex life is there in every human being, but when the boy and the girl come to the mature stage, it become manifest. It is, is not learned artificially. Similarly, the rāga-mārga, svarūpa-siddhi, becomes revealed or manifest. Śravaṇādi-śuddha-citte karaye udaya. Udaya. This very word, udaya, is used. Just like sun. Sun becomes visible when the sun rises automatically. You cannot force the sun to rise at dead of night. That is not possible. Sun will rise. You just wait. When the time will be right, morning, six o'clock, you'll find the sun.

The Nectar of Devotion -- Vrndavana, October 24, 1972:

There are stages, or steps, one after another, if we practice. Sādhu-saṅge, sato vṛtteḥ ṣaḍbhir bhaktiḥ prasidhyati. Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī says that potent love for Kṛṣṇa can be reinstated again, invoked again, by the prescribed method. Sādhu-saṅge sato vṛtteḥ ṣaḍbhir bhaktiḥ prasidhyati. Utsāhān dhairyāt niścayāt. When you get little taste of love of Kṛṣṇa... Just like we are sitting here. We have got little taste for loving Kṛṣṇa. Otherwise, why we should waste our time in this way? This is called śraddhā. So this śraddhā is also invoked by association with sādhu, devotees. Then, if we little become enthusiastic... Just like you have become. Utsāhān. You have left your country, everything, and you are going everywhere, coming with me. Not for any material profit, but for increasing your Kṛṣṇa consciousness. This is called utsāhān, enthusiasm. Our whole Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is depending on this enthusiasm. Just like I went to your country. At the age of seventy years, nobody goes out of home. But there was enthusiasm, "Yes, I must go." And because I went, there is something. You have got the information. Similarly, enthusiasm is the basic principle, ādau.

The Nectar of Devotion -- Vrndavana, November 5, 1972:

This is the injunction in the śāstra, that this form of the Lord, who is accompanied by His associate... Sāṅgopāṅgāstra-pārṣadam. So Caitanya Mahāprabhu is always associated with Śrī Advaita Prabhu, Śrī Nityānanda Prabhu, Śrī Gadādhara Prabhu, Śrī Śrīvāsa Prabhu. Therefore the process of worship is śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu-nityānanda śrī-advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda. That is perfect process. Not to cut short. No. As it is indicated. This is indication in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Kṛṣṇa-varṇaṁ tvisakṛṣṇaṁ sangopangastra... (SB 11.5.32). So when we have to worship Lord Caitanya, we worship with His associates. Śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu-nityānanda śrī-advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda. No cut-short method. So that is sastric injunction. So in order to get rid of the sinful activities of this age, it is already prescribed in the śāstras and confirmed by the greatest authority, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanaṁ bhava-mahā-dāvāgni-nirvāpaṇam (CC Antya 20.12).

The Nectar of Devotion -- Calcutta, January 25, 1973:

Devotee: "There are certain prescribed methods for employing our senses and mind in such a way that our dormant consciousness for loving Kṛṣṇa will be invoked as much as the child, with a little practice, can begin to walk. One who has no basic walking capacity cannot walk by practice. Similarly, Kṛṣṇa consciousness cannot be aroused simply by practice. Actually there is no such practice. When we wish to develop our innate capacity for devotional service, there are certain processes which by our accepting and executing them will cause that dormant capacity to be invoked. Such practice is called sādhana-bhakti."

Prabhupāda: Sādhana-bhakti, rāga-bhakti, prema-bhakti—these three divisions. So first of all we have to accept sādhana-bhakti. Means practicing.

The Nectar of Devotion -- Vrndavana, November 13, 1972:

Pradyumna: "There are certain prescribed methods for employing our senses and mind in such a way that our dormant consciousness for loving Kṛṣṇa will be invoked, as much as the child, with a little practice, can begin to walk."

Prabhupāda: The Gosvāmīs, or in the Pañcarātra system, in the śāstras, the regulative principles are so made that, if we practice it, gradually our dormant Kṛṣṇa consciousness will be awakened. Therefore these prescribed rules and regulations, as it is given in the śāstras and confirmed by the ācāryas... Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura says, tāṅdera caraṇa-sevi. We have to follow the footprints of the ācāryas. Ācārya means paramparā. One ācārya is following the previous ācārya. An ācārya does not manufacture anything, something novel. He follows the previous ācārya. And therefore he, he's ācārya. And one who follows... Ācāryavān puruṣo veda. Ācārya upāsanam. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is said. So we have to accept the principles laid down by the ācāryas. Tāṅdera caraṇa-sevi-bhakta-sane vāsa.

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures

Lecture on CC Adi-lila 1.16 -- Mayapur, April 9, 1975:

So if you want to enter into Kṛṣṇa's family, then you have to become also completely pure. Otherwise, there is no chance. Completely pure of all material contamination. That can be done when we give up our designations. That can be done. If I think, "I am American," "I am Indian," "I am brāhmaṇa," "I am kṣatriya," "I am vaiśya," "I am white," "I am black," these are upādhi, designations. And if we think like Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, that "I am not this, I am not a brāhmaṇa, I am not a kṣatriya, I am not a vaiśya, I am not a śūdra, I am not a brahmacārī, I am not a..., not, not this, not this..." Then what you are? Gopī-bhartuḥ pada-kamalayor' dāsa-dāsa-dāsānudāsaḥ: (CC Madhya 13.80) "I am simply servant of the servant of Kṛṣṇa." That is sarvopādhi-vinirmuktam (CC Madhya 19.170). Then you'll remain pure. And as soon as you will think in the bodily concept of life, then you will remain impure. This is the process how to give up this bodily concept of life. That is called sarvopādhi-vinirmuktam.

So in this way, in one life we may practice how to become free from this material contamination and execute devotional service as it is prescribed in the śāstra and by the instruction of spiritual master. If we keep ourself pure without material contamination, then we become fit to enter into the family of Kṛṣṇa. This is the process.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 6.154 -- Gorakhpur, February 16, 1971:

So one has to transcend these guṇas; then God realization, or understanding of Kṛṣṇa, can be achieved. But the devotional service, vidhi-bhakti, the process of rendering devotional service to the Lord according to the prescribed regulative principles in the śāstra, helps us to transcend all these qualities. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā: sa guṇān samatītyaitān brahma-bhūyāya kalpate (BG 14.26). Who? Māṁ ca vyabhicāriṇi bhakti-yogena yaḥ sevate. Anyone who is engaged in pure devotional service to the Lord, he is immediately on the transcendental position, I mean to..., surpassing the three guṇas. Sa guṇān... Guṇān, bāhu-vacanam, plural number. Immediately. Therefore, we are preaching Kṛṣṇa consciousness. If somehow or other one takes to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he immediately becomes liberated. Immediately becomes liberated. Because Kṛṣṇa says that sa guṇān samatītyaitān brahma-bhūyāya kalpate (BG 14.26). And that is a practical application we are now experiencing while preaching in the Western world. The Western world, as you know, ninety-nine percent, they are in the tamo-guṇa and rajo-guṇa.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 6.154 -- Gorakhpur, February 16, 1971:

So this is the mercy, causeless mercy, of Lord Caitanya. And He simply prescribes that you chant this mantra. As you see, these boys, when they're chanting, how they are in ecstasy. Immediately on the transcendental platform. Immediately. Not only here, everywhere where they are chanting. In every temple, if you see... The advantage of these boys and girls is that they have no other hodgepodge in their head. They directly accept Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, they directly accept the instruction of Lord Caitanya, and they are making advance. Their fortune is that their brain is not congested with hodgepodge ideas. That is the idea. They actually... Sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekam (BG 18.66). They have given up all other occupation and have accepted Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. So India also, we can do that.

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

He is called siddha. So out of many millions of people, one may be interested how to become free from this material entanglement. And yatatām api siddhānām (BG 7.3), and out of many such siddhas, one may understand Kṛṣṇa. Kaścid vetti māṁ tattvataḥ. So it is not so easy to understand Kṛṣṇa, but when Kṛṣṇa comes personally as a devotee and shows us the ways and means how to approach Kṛṣṇa, then it becomes easier. That is Caitanya Mahāprabhu. So if we follow the methods, the method prescribed by Kṛṣṇa is very easy, but still, because we misunderstand Kṛṣṇa... Therefore, if we go through the mercy of Caitanya Mahāprabhu, then we can easily understand Kṛṣṇa. That is recognized by Rūpa Gosvāmī, the younger brother of Sanātana Gosvāmī. Two of them were ministers. So Rūpa Gosvāmī has described,

namo mahā-vadānyāya
kṛṣṇa-prema-pradāya te
kṛṣṇāya kṛṣṇa-caitanya-
nāmne gaura-tviṣe namaḥ
(CC Madhya 19.53)

He said, "Caitanya Mahāprabhu, You are Kṛṣṇa. Now, this time, You have appeared as Kṛṣṇa Caitanya in order to give everyone Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa made some condition, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66), but here now, as devotee of Kṛṣṇa, You are distributing Kṛṣṇa without any condition.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.330-335 -- New York, December 23, 1966:

So in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam there is quotation when Kṛṣṇa was born. It is the system of Vedic system. There are ten kinds of saṁskāras, reformation. And how much careful this Vedic civilization is, that a child will be born and he is taken care of since the day of the, I mean to say, joining, conjugation of the father and mother. Garbhādhāna-saṁskāra. How much they were expecting that a good son will come, and he will be so good that the society will be happy, the country will be happy, the world will be happy. Never they prescribed unwanted children like cats and dogs. No. So therefore there was garbhādhāna-saṁskāra. Before the father and mother conjugate there is ceremony, garbhādhāna, for the higher caste. The higher caste were made not artificially. They had to follow nine great principles, then they are higher caste, not by rubber stamp, just like Gandhi wanted to do, taking the banghis, the sweepers, and rubber-stamping "harijana." No. This is a process. Everyone is open to become a harijana, but not by rubber stamp but by training. That training is required. People are avoiding the training and simply speculating in the mind, foolishness. How the world can improve? There must be training. Without training, simply by mental speculation, one can make any... Manasā mathurāṁ gacchasi. Oh, you have to work. If you want to go California, you have to go there. Simply I am thinking, "I am going to California, California," will that...? No.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.354-358 -- New York, December 28, 1966:

There may be difference. Just like Buddha. Buddha's activities and Kṛṣṇa's activities, there is difference. Buddha's activity was different because, according to the place, according to the time, according to the audience, the activities are... Avatāra, incarnation, comes when there is necessity. Yadā yadā hi dharmasya glānir bhavati (BG 4.7). When there is discrepancies in the discharge of dharma... Dharma means the prescribed rules by which one elevates himself to the transcendental life. That is dharma, religion. Why in human society there is religion? The purpose is to elevate himself to the transcendental position. That is religion. Where there is no such aim to raise one from the fallen condition to the liberated state, that is not religion. That is sentiment. Religion means that one should be raised from the fallen condition to the highest elevated condition. Therefore there are so many rules and regulations. In the Bhagavad-gītā the Lord says, yad icchantam, yad icchantam brahmacaryaṁ caranti. Yad icchantam.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.354-358 -- New York, December 28, 1966:

So to understand, to elevate oneself from the fallen condition to the highest liberated condition, one has to be trained up, one has to follow the rules and regulations as they are prescribed. Otherwise, simply some recreation, spiritual recreation, talking something—"This is that; this is that," "Neti neti"—and I lead my life like anything... That will not help us. Therefore the taṭastha lakṣaṇa. Therefore we accept anyone and everyone as incarnation, because we are not trained up who is incarnation, to see. And, because we want to be cheated, there are so many cheaters who comes as incarnation and this and that, and the society's going on like that. Not only here—in everywhere, every part of the world. They are not very serious, what is the ultimate aim of spiritual life. Spiritual life and material life is that when you want to enjoy, when we want to be lord of these material resources, that is material life. And when you want to become servant of God, that is spiritual life. They..., there is not much difference between the activities of material life and spiritual life.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 21.13-49 -- New York, January 4, 1967:

Similarly, the kṛṣṇa-kathā, the Lord's name, fame, quality, entourage, all these things are very sweet. To whom? Those who are liberated from this jaundice of materialism. For them it is very sweet. So as you feel sweetness of this Kṛṣṇa-kathā, you should know that you are becoming liberated from this material entanglement. The same thing: sugar candy is the only medicine for jaundice. Those who are suffering from jaundice, they are prescribed by physician to take sugar candy water in the morning. And by drinking that sugar candy water, gradually he feels the sweetness of sugar candy. That is the test that he is getting free from the disease. So similarly, Bhagavad-gītā or Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam or anything where the topics of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is discussed, if you feel it is interesting, that means you are getting out of the jaundice of this material disease. Yes. This is the test. If you don't feel interested, then you must know that the jaundice of material disease is there. So this is the test. The more you feel kṛṣṇa-kathā, the topics of Kṛṣṇa, tasteful, the more you'll know that you are getting free from the jaundice of material disease.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 22.5 -- New York, January 7, 1967:

There are many animal eaters, but the dog-eaters, they are condemned, śvapaca, in the society, in the human society. But the Bhāgavata says, "Oh, a dog-eater, but if he vibrates the transcendental sound of God's name, oh, he is glorified. Never mind that he previously was a dog-eating man. That doesn't matter." The Bhāgavata confirms it. Aho bata śvapaca 'to 'pi gāriyān: "Even the dog-eater becomes glorified." How? Yaj-jihvāgre nāma tubhyam: "In whose tongue is chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa." Never mind what you are. That chanting has made him all purified. You see. Aho bata śvapaca 'to 'pi gāriyān yaj-jihvāgre nāma tubhyam, tepus tapas te (SB 3.33.7). "Oh, how is that? He was... Just a few days before he was eating dog. And because he is chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, he has become purified?" At least Hindu society, they are hesitant. Oh, the reply is, "You do not know." Tepus tapas te: (SB 3.33.7) "In their previous life they had already undergone many severe penances prescribed in your Vedas." Sasnur āryā: "Oh, he is not dog-eater. He belongs to the āryā, the advancing Aryan society." These are the injunctions.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 22.14-20 -- New York, January 10, 1967:

Now, there are different process of self-realization. Just like fruitive activities, karma-yoga, jñāna-yoga, dhyāna-yoga, haṭha-yoga. So many, there are different... But they are simply steps. They are not themselves final. One who is unable to engage himself in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, for them these different steps are prescribed, not for the person who is engaged in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Because if he... If one does not engage himself in the service of Kṛṣṇa in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then he may not like for so many reasons: for social reason, for political reason, for religious reason, for many other reasons. Although we find that it is very nice process, but still, there are some impediments which restrict us not to follow this principle. Now, one who cannot follow this principle, for them these different process are prescribed so that some day in the future he can have this opportunity of becoming a servant of Kṛṣṇa. Because that is the final goal.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 25.29 -- San Francisco, January 21, 1967:

So I saw that many patients are, I mean to..., surrounding him. So when I saw him I congratulated, "Doctor, you have got very good patients. Your practice is very nice." So his name was Suvahi (?). He's Muhammadan. So, "Sir, it is not my credit. If you want my practical experience, I'll say you that with confidence I prescribe somebody some medicine, it fails. And without any confidence, just to take a chance, I prescribe some medicine, 'Oh, let me see if it...' Oh, it works nicely. So actually, I have no credit."

So that sir, he was honest man to admit, "It is God's grace that so many patients are being cured in my hand, but I say I have no credit." This is really. So we should not take any credit. Everything is under the laws of the Supreme Lord, through the agency of this material external energy. Just like a government is working under different departments, similarly, God is working under His different energies. That's all. He's sitting with you, He's seeing everything, He knows everything. Vedāhaṁ samatītāni (BG 7.26). He knows your past, present, and He knows your mind. As you wanted to do something, He will remind you, "My dear boy, you wanted to do this.

Sri Isopanisad Lectures

Sri Isopanisad, Mantra 10 -- Los Angeles, May 15, 1970:

You haven't got to hear from such nonsense, but you have to hear from the dhīrāṇām, those who have controlled their senses. That is the gosvāmī, or svāmī. One who has six kinds of control: control of the mind, control of the tongue, control of anger, control of speaking, control of the genital, and control of the belly. Six kinds of agitating agents: the mind, the tongue, the belly, the genital, the speaking... So one who has control over these six things, he is called dhīrāṇām. Dhīra. Hara eva (?) dhīra. Just like in Kumāra-sambhava. There is a nice poetry made by a great poet, Kālidāsa. It is called Kumāra-sambhava. This Kumāra-sambhava, we had our prescribed books in our intermediate I.A. class, Kumāra-sambhava. Kumāra-sambhava, the fact of the Kumāra-sambhava is that when Pārvatī suicided herself in the Dakṣa-yajña, then Lord Śiva was very angry. He left this world. That's a Dakṣa-yajña story. You might have heard from Bhāgavatam.

Sri Brahma-samhita Lectures

Lecture on Brahma-samhita, Lecture -- Bombay, January 3, 1973:

Your question is meant for persons who are too much bodily conscious. One who is thinking that "I am this body," for him, this yoga system is prescribed, so that he can control the senses. Yoga indriya-saṁyamaḥ. By controlling the senses... Because we are disturbed by our senses. So there is process, how to come to the platform of prāṇāyāma. You have to find out a secluded place, and you should sit down there alone in perpendicular stature, you cannot close your eyes fully, half, then you'll have to see the tip of the nose. In this way, you have to concentrate your mind on Viṣṇu or Kṛṣṇa. This is prāṇāyāma. So... But actually when one becomes already attracted to Kṛṣṇa by devotional service, then the prāṇāyāma process is already there.

Lecture on Brahma-samhita, Lecture -- Bombay, January 3, 1973:

We have nothing to do with cakra. These cakras are concerned who are in the bodily concept of life. The bhaktas, they do not accept that "I am body." The śata cakra is concerned with this body, not with the soul. Yes. So these, the yoga process is prescribed for them who are too much in con..., bodily concept of life. Otherwise, those who are spiritually advanced, they're, they do not have to practice this yoga. This, simply name, if we follow... Actually, practically, you see... You practically see that all over the world, these boys, how they're advancing simply by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. So this is fact. It is not imagination. How they're advancing, how they're becoming... Now, sarvopādhi-vinirmuktam, to make zero (CC Madhya 19.170). They've made everything zero. They don't consider that Americans. Yes. They don't consider that "I am this body. I have to eat flesh, meat and wine; therefore my body will be maintained." They never think like that. This is mukti. Simply talking will not do practically. "I practice yoga and immediately my throat has become dry. Please give me cigarette. Please give me cigarette." There are so many. I have seen.

Festival Lectures

Govardhana Puja Lecture -- New York, November 4, 1966:

According to Vedic system, there are different types of sacrifices to offer respect and obeisances to the demigods. Just like the sun is supplying light, the moon is supplying moonshine. Similarly, Indra is supplying the cloud. Similarly, there are different demigods. And in the Bhagavad-gītā, devan ya yajayantī deva-bhavan—these things are described. In the Vedic literature it is prescribed that "You should satisfy these demigods by sacrifice, deva-yajan." So in the village of that Vṛndāvana, the father of Kṛṣṇa, foster father of Kṛṣṇa, Nanda Mahārāja and his associates, they were yearly performing the Indra-yajña. Because they were agriculturists, they depended on rain, sufficient rains. And he had many cows. Nanda Mahārāja was a farm man. He is agriculture and cows. The mercantile people, the vaiśya community, they are recommended three things: kṛṣi-go-raksya-vāṇijyam (BG 18.44). Kṛṣi means agriculture, and go-rakṣya means cow protection, and vāṇijyam means trade. So Nanda Mahārāja belonged to the vaiśya community.

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

So there is a huge plan and huge scheme. Therefore we have to follow the footsteps of the mahājanas. As it is stated here, that dvādaśaite vijānīmo dharmaṁ bhāgavataṁ bhaṭāḥ. He said that "We, the selected mahājanas, representatives of Kṛṣṇa, we know what is bhāgavata-dharma, what is Kṛṣṇa dharma." Dvādaśa. Dvādaśa. The dvādaśa means twelve names, already mentioned: svayambhūr nāradaḥ śambhuḥ... (SB 6.3.20). I have explained. So Yamarāja said, "Only we, these twelve men, representatives of Kṛṣṇa, we know what is bhāgavata-dharma." Dvādaśaite vijānīmaḥ. Vijānīmaḥ means "we know." Dharmaṁ bhāgavataṁ bhaṭāḥ, guhyaṁ viśuddhaṁ durbodhaṁ yaṁ jñātvāmṛtam aśnute. "We know." Therefore it is advised, mahājano yena gataḥ sa panthāḥ (CC Madhya 17.186). These mahājanas, as they have prescribed, that is the real way for understanding Kṛṣṇa, or spiritual salvation (service?).

Six Gosvamis Lecture, Sri Sri Sad-govamy-astaka -- Los Angeles, November 18, 1968:

When Caitanya Mahāprabhu was introducing this kīrtana system, so many brāhmaṇas of Navadvīpa, they complained to the Muhammadan magistrate—at that time the government was Muhammadan government, Pathan—to the Kazi that "This boy..." Caitanya Mahāprabhu was that time seventeen years, eighteen-years-old boy, but He was very popular by introducing this saṅkīrtana, Hare Kṛṣṇa chanting and dancing. And He said that simply by chanting and dancing, as we are saying, one will achieve the highest perfectional stage. So the brāhmaṇas were working as priest, they thought that their business will not go on. They prescribed so many ritualistic performances, and Caitanya Mahāprabhu was saying simply by chanting one can achieve the highest perfection. So they were disturbed, and they lodged complaint to the then magistrate, Kazi. Maulana Chand Kazi, his name was Maulana Chand Kazi. You know, when a Muhammadan is learned and religious he gets the title Maulana. So that magistrate, Chand Kazi, was very learned scholar, not only in Muhammadan scriptures, but he was a great scholar Hindu scripture also. Just like in British period in India, there were many responsible English officers, just like high-court judge, civil service. They were very vastly learned in Sanskrit. One Mr. Woodruff, Justice Woodruff, Englishman in Calcutta high-court, oh, he was a very great scholar, Sanskrit scholar, and he translated all the tantric śāstras. So scholarly people are always there. It doesn't matter. They do not belong to any class of men. Scholars are scholars, saintly persons are saintly persons.

Initiation Lectures

Initiation Lecture -- Los Angeles, December 19, 1968:

So many sportings they have invented-sporting balls, this ball, that ball. You see? Human life is very short. We do not know when we shall die. Before that, we must prepare ourself for the next life. Next life means directly going back to Kṛṣṇa, highest perfection. As you'll find in the Bhagavad-gītā, yānti deva-vratā devān pitṟn yānti pitṛ-vratāḥ (BG 9.25). There are innumerable varieties of planet. The higher planetary system, they are resided by demigods, very powerful. They are also human beings, but they are very beautiful; they are very powerful. So you can go there. The moon planet, sun planet—that is clearly stated—if you act accordingly, as they are prescribed, that "If you want to go to the moon planet, you have to do like this," then after leaving this body, you can go there. Similarly, you can go any planet. Similarly, you can go to the planet of Kṛṣṇa. So those who are intelligent, they are not concerned with..., any more with any planet within this material world. Because wherever you go, the four principles of material miseries, namely birth, death, old age, and disease, will follow.

Gayatri Mantra Initiation -- Boston, May 9, 1968:

He's brāhmaṇa. Otherwise, still in India, a person born in a brāhmaṇa family, the most wretched condition and most abominable habits, and he claims to be a brāhmaṇa. And a person who is highly elevated in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he's not accepted. So in order to save one from the injustice, this ceremony is required that it is bona fide. He's a bona fide brāhmaṇa. As it is prescribed and ordered in the Nārada Pañcarātra or Vaiṣṇava smṛti. So my Guru Mahārāja, His Holiness Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Mahārāja, he introduced this, and we are following. So there is no question. Mahājano yena gataḥ sa panthāḥ (CC Madhya 17.186). Follow the principles of a spiritual master who has come down in disciplic succession. That is very nice thing. If you have got a bona fide spiritual master and if you simply follow the instruction, the perfection is guaranteed. Just like a perfect engineer and a neophyte working under his instruction, however foolish he may be, all his work is perfect. Because following the instruction of the qualified man.

Initiation Lecture -- London, August 22, 1971:

So our principle is very simple. We avoid these four principles of restrictions and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, sixteen rounds, and take Kṛṣṇa prasādam. Very happy life. So there is no difficulty, but if we simply follow the rules and regulation with faith and confidence... Utsāhān dhairyāt niścayād tat-tat-karma-pravartanāt. Tat-tat-karma means you have to follow the prescribed rules and regulation. Tat-tat-karma-pravar... Sato vṛtteḥ, and you must be honest, not dishonest. You accept before the spiritual master that "I shall do it," and if you do not do it, that's not good. You must do it. So sato vṛtteḥ sādhu-saṅge, and the association of devotees. Asādhu-sange, those who are not devotees, if you mix with them, then whatever you learned, you'll forget. Their influence is so bad. Because we are not very strong; therefore there is every possibility that whatever we learn in bad association we may forget. Sato vṛtteḥ sādhu-saṅge ṣaḍbhiḥ. Ṣaḍbhiḥ, by following these six principles, bhaktiḥ prasidhyati, your devotional life will be developed, you'll be enlightened.

Initiations -- Sydney, April 2, 1972:

So your name is Yajñeśvara dāsa. Yajñeśvara means... This is yajña, so sacrifice, sacrificing or satisfying the Supreme Personality of Godhead. So yajña means sacrifice, and one who enjoys the resultant action of sacrifice... All our sacrifices should go to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. His name is Yajñeśvara. (break) Whatever we shall do, as it is prescribed in the Bhagavad-gītā, yajñārthe karma anyatra lokaḥ ayam... (break) ...you do, act only for the satisfaction of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Then you are not entangled in the resultant action. Otherwise you'll be entangled. Entangled means for one resultant action we are now, we have got this body. Again we are going to take another material body. So this is a chain of birth and death. But if you dedicate your life for the satisfaction of the Yajñeśvara, then no more you are going to accept any material body. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti (BG 4.9). After quitting this body, he does not accept any more material body. The spiritual body is already there within this material body.

Initiation Lecture -- Toronto, June 17, 1976:

So human life is meant for tapasya. Tapo-divyaṁ putrakā yena śuddhyed sattvam (SB 5.5.1). Don't be carried away by the general, menial, abominable tendencies. Therefore tapasya required. Tapa, we prescribe for tapasya no illicit sex, no meat-eating, no intoxication and no gambling. This is tapasya. This is tapasya. We have to accept if we want superior position of life. Tapo divyam. Tapasya, the aim of tapasya is to be situated on the transcendental platform of knowledge. Tapo divyam. So this life, this human form of life, is meant for tapasya and transcendental knowledge. This is the purport. Not to waste this life, this human form of life, ayaṁ deha. The cats and dogs also have deha, body. The... Analyze the body of a dog and analyze your body, what is the difference? No difference. There is blood, there is flesh, there is vein, there is so many things, all common things. Then what is the difference between the cat's body and dog's body and your body? The advancement of knowledge and consciousness.

Wedding Ceremonies

Paramananda & Satyabhama's Wedding -- Montreal, July 22, 1968:

Unless one is free from these four principal activities, one cannot make progress in spiritual life. Because God is pure, pavitraṁ paramaṁ bhavān, so no impure soul can approach Him. This body is the sign of impurity because soul has no material body. So anyone in this material world who has this material body is to be considered as sinful. But how to get out of this? To get out of it, everything, dovetailing with spiritual life. Nirbandhe kṛṣṇa-sambandhe yukta-vairāgyam ucyate. The example is just like milk. If you take too much milk, then there will be disorders in the bowels. You'll have to pass so many stools. But when you approach to a physician... Of course, I am speaking of the Āyur-Vedic Indian physician. If one has got diarrhea or loose bowels, then the physician prescribes curd or yogurt with some medicine. Now, this yogurt or curd is also mixed with medicine. So the man who has got the disease by drinking milk is also cured by the same milk preparation under the direction of the physician. Nobody can argue. The patient cannot argue to the physician that "I have become diseased by drinking milk, and you are prescribing another preparation of the milk?" Yes, because it is treated. Similarly, this lust propensity between man and woman, if it is properly treated, then it can turn into love of Godhead.

General Lectures

Lecture -- Montreal, October 26, 1968:

So Śukadeva Gosvāmī's question is that suppose a man commits some sinful activities and he executes some atonement. In atone... This atonement is prescribed in every religion... (child sounds in background) (aside:) This is disturbing. Attention is diverted. Yes. So just like in the Christian church, they have the atonement process, confession. So suppose if you go weekly in the church and confess your sinful activities and it is excused, but again, next week you again commit the same sinful activities. Then what is the use of that confession and atonement? If you make it a business that "The whole week I shall commit sinful activities, and on Sunday I shall go to church and confess it, then everything will be balanced, squared-off account," that is all right. Then again from Monday you begin the sinful activities. So is that very good business? So Parīkṣit Mahārāja's question is that, that the atonement is there. But if one commits atonement and again commits sinful activities, then what is the use of such atonement? It is just like... He gave the example, kuñjara-snānavat.

Lecture -- Los Angeles, December 4, 1968:

Śuciḥ means cleansed. Therefore we prescribe so many things just to keep you cleansed—cleansed within, cleansed outside. Then there is no affection of māyā. Otherwise, you will be harassed by three kinds of miserable condition: adhyātmika, adhibhautika... I have seen many persons in India, within two or three days, by perspiration, within their coat, they germinate so many germs. Do not take bath, unclean. You see? So cleanliness is the protection from infection. And water is very disinfectant, natural disinfectant. This is the medical opinion, water. Therefore God has supplied unlimited quantity of water. You can spend it as much as you like.

Press Release -- Los Angeles, December 22, 1968:

The eternal activities can be practiced even when we are materially encaged. It requires simply direction. But it is possible, under the prescribed rules and regulations, to act spiritually. The Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement teaches these spiritual activities, and if one is trained up in such spiritual activities, one is transferred to the spiritual world, of which we get ample evidence from Vedic literatures and also from the Bhagavad-gītā. And the spiritually trained person can be transferred to the spiritual world easily by change of consciousness. The consciousness is always there because it is the symptom of the living spirit soul. But at the present moment the consciousness is materially contaminated. Just like pouring water, water pouring, down from the cloud is pure, distilled water, but as soon as the water comes in touch with the earth it becomes muddy immediately. Again, by filtering the same water, the original clearness can be regained. Similarly, Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is the process of clearing the consciousness, and as soon as the consciousness clear and pure it is transferred to the spiritual world for eternal life of knowledge and bliss, which we are hankering for in this material world, and being frustrated in every step on account of material contamination. Therefore this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement should be taken very seriously by the leaders of the human society.

Lecture Engagement and Prasada Distribution -- Boston, April 26, 1969:

So this yoga system, Bhagavad-gītā yoga system, is very popular book and widely circulated. I have seen many English translation of this Bhagavad-gītā in your country. Some of them are translated by American scholars, and some of them are translated by other countries, scholars. But there are many. But unfortunately, none of them have presented Bhagavad-gītā as it is. They have tried to exploit the popularity of Bhagavad-gītā and put something of their own idea. This is the defect. But Bhagavad-gītā, if we want to understand, then we have to accept it by the formula as described in the Bhagavad-gītā. Just like if you have got the medicinal bottle, the direction and dose is on the label, that "Two tablets thrice in a day, after meals," like that. But if you take the tablets according to your own whim or somebody who does not know how to use that medicine, without consulting the physician, then you may be in dangerous position. You will not get the result. That is sure and certain. But you may meet some dangerous position. Similarly, so far Bhagavad-gītā is concerned, the prime standard book of yoga system, if you want to learn something from Bhagavad-gītā about the peace and prosperity and anxietylessness of your life, then you have to take this medicine of Bhagavad-gītā according to the dose prescribed in the Bhagavad-gītā, not outside.

Lecture Engagement and Prasada Distribution -- Boston, April 26, 1969:

So yoga system is described in the Bhagavad-gītā in the Sixth Chapter. Of course, I do not know how much time you can spare. I could explain. How much time? It is now 8:15. Anyway, I shall try to explain some of the verses. The haṭha-yoga system, as mentioned in the Bhagavad-gītā, that is also prescribed, the haṭha-yoga system, that... (break) Now, He is prescribing the preliminary process of practicing yoga. What is that?

śucau deśe pratiṣṭhāpya
sthiram āsanam ātmanaḥ
nāty-ucchritaṁ nāti-nīcaṁ
cailājina-kuśottaram

First of all, to practice yoga, you have to find out a very secret and sacred place. Yogī yuñjīta satatam ātmānaṁ rahasi sthitaḥ. Rahasi means in a secluded place. Yoga practice cannot be done, haṭha-yoga system, as it is prescribed, aṣṭāṅga-yoga, the eight divisional yoga system, that cannot be practiced in assembly or in a crowded place or in a class. But Bhagavad-gītā says that yogī yuñjīta satatam ātmānaṁ rahasi sthitaḥ. Rahasi sthitaḥ means in a secluded place. Ekākī. Ekākī means alone. Ekākī yata-cittātmā, "controlling the senses and mind." Nirāśīḥ, "without any material desire," aparigrahaḥ, "or taking some help from others." Not that "I shall teach you yoga system by some monetary exchange." This is not yoga system.

Lecture Engagement and Prasada Distribution -- Boston, April 26, 1969:

I cannot practice it. It is impossible for me." Why? "Oh, I am a military man. How can I find out a secluded place? How can I sit in such a way? My mind is always restless. I have to do so many political affairs. So it is not possible for me." So how it is possible for the present-day people, which was refused by Arjuna five thousand years ago? It is not possible. The yoga system is accepted in the Vedic literature, that is a standard practice for self-realization. But the diagnosis of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, that kṛte yad dhyāyato viṣṇum (SB 12.3.52), "The yoga system of meditation was possible to be practiced in the Golden Age, or in the Satya-yuga," but not in this age. Then how self-realization is possible? That is said, kalau tad dhari-kīrtanāt: "Simply by chanting this Hare Kṛṣṇa." It doesn't require a secluded place, a sanctified place, or so many rules and regulations. Anywhere you can chant. While you are walking on the street, you can chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. You are in meditation. While you are working, you can chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Nobody is going to tax you; nobody is going to bother you. You have no loss, but the gain is immense. So this Hare Kṛṣṇa movement is started, and it is easy, it is prescribed. If you at all want to get some spiritual benefit, you try to follow this prescribed method. Just like if you want at all to be cured, you must take the prescription of an experienced physician. Don't take any prescription who is a quack. If you take proper treatment, if you follow the instruction, then you be sure that you get the result out of it.

Lecture Engagement and Prasada Distribution -- Boston, April 26, 1969:

No. First you have to execute devotion; then awareness comes. If you do not read or labor for passing your examination, how you can pass examination? So therefore devotion is the prescribed rules and regulation. That is not very difficult. The primary rule is that you chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Just see. It is not difficult. Yes.

Lecture -- London, September 14, 1969:

So we are, I mean to say, becoming free from the sinful reactions of our past activities. But if we think that "Because I am now..., I have got a machine of chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, so I shall commit as much sin as possible and it will be counteracted by this process," oh, that is the greatest sin. You cannot do that. You cannot make Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra as agent of nullifying your sinful activities. Similarly, you cannot make God or His agent or His representative as a machine for counteracting your sinful activities. You should stop. Therefore niḥśeṣa-mano-rathāntaraḥ. Niḥśeṣa. You must cease all kinds of sinful activities. We prescribe to our students that "You should not do this, you should not do this, you should not do this." That is a warning that these are the different gates of sinful activity. If you indulge in illicit sex life, then you open the gate of sinful activities, and you go deeper and deeper. Similarly, if you take meat-eating, that is also opening the gate of sinful activities.

Lecture 'Nobody Wants to Die' -- Boston, May 7, 1968:

So we have to follow the prescribed process. There are different processes mentioned in the Vedic literature that kṛte yad dhyāyato viṣṇu (SB 12.3.52). Kṛte means in the Satya-yuga. There is no English translation, what is called Satya-yuga, but people have got imagination, "Golden Age," or something like that. Satya-yuga. Satya-yuga means cent percent people are pure. And Tretā-yuga means seventy-five percent people are pure and twenty-five percent impure. And Dvāpara-yuga means half and half-half pure, half impure. And Kali-yuga means almost impure. Impure. Ninety-nine percent impure. This is Kali-yuga. So, for spiritual salvation, for transcendental realization, it is said when... Kṛte yad dhyāyato viṣṇu. When people were cent percent pure, at that time, the process of meditation was successful, because this meditation requires fully purification of the body.

Lecture 'Nobody Wants to Die' -- Boston, May 7, 1968:

This is hari-kīrtana. This is the process. So we have to... There are many, many things in the drug shop, but you have to accept a medicine out of thousands of medicines which is described by the physician. Your physician gives you note that "You get this medicine from the drug shop and you'll be cured." Similarly, there may be different processes for self-realization, but at the present, this is the only prescribed method for self-realization. If you do not accept it, then you'll be misled. Just like if you say to a drug shop, "The doctor has asked me to take some medicine. So give me any medicine," oh, the drug shop owner will say, "No, I cannot give you any medicine. You give me... Bring the prescription of the doctor. Then I shall give you." That is real treatment. If you actually want spiritual understanding, then you must follow the prescribed method. And you can practically feel also. In other method, you have to do so many things which are practically impossible.

Lecture 'Nobody Wants to Die' -- Boston, May 7, 1968:

If one, one, anyone goes there, he doesn't come back again. So to go to that platform, or that plat..., planet, you don't require any sputnik or any airplane. Simply you have to become Kṛṣṇa conscious. That's all. But unfortunately, we have no taste for this simple thing. We want to do something wonderful. Very simple thing. Kṛṣṇa does not prescribe anything which is impractical. Satataṁ kīrtayanto māṁ yatantaś ca dṛḍha-vratāḥ (BG 9.14). The process is described in the Bhagavad-gītā. Satataṁ kīrtayanto mām: (BG 9.14) "Always chanting about Me." This "Me" means..., does not mean Kṛṣṇa. I mean to say, Kṛṣṇa means God; you can chant that also. But it must be bona fide. But this is approved, "Kṛṣṇa." Therefore if our aim is to make our, I mean to say, if we want to revive our relationship with Kṛṣṇa, or God, this is the simplest method. You can do it.

Lecture at Harvard University -- Boston, December 24, 1969:

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, I thank you very much for joining us in this evening of chanting together Hare Kṛṣṇa. The saṅkīrtana movement is a prescribed performance in this age. In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Eleventh Canto, Ninth Chapter, 6th verse, there is a statement that,

kṛṣṇa-varṇaṁ tviṣā-kṛṣṇaṁ
sāṅgopāṅgāstra-pārṣadam
yajñair saṅkīrtana-prāyair
yajanti hi su-medhasaḥ
(SB 11.5.32)

Su-medhasaḥ, this Sanskrit word, means intelligent persons. Medhas. Medhas means brain substance, one who has got very good brain substance. The brain substance... According to psychology, there is difference of brain substance. Not the brain substance equally, of equal weight, in every man's brain. You know, you are all educated students, psychology students. In our boyhood when we were a student in psychology class, Dr. Urquhart explained this brain substance.

Lecture at Harvard University -- Boston, December 24, 1969:

Oh, that is a very important thing. If you read Dr. George Bernard Shaw's book, You Are What You Eat, you see. So if you eat like human being, then you can increase your qualities of human being. If you eat like cats and dogs, you increase the quality of cats and dogs. That's all. So we must have discrimination what to eat. That is there in the human world. Eating is there, but everything eatable. Even stool is eatable by a certain kind of animal, but that does not mean that stool has to be eaten by human being. Human being must have discretion what kind of food will be just suitable for my health, for my intelligence, for my brain. So these things are prescribed. If we eat things which are in goodness... They are prescribed in the Vedic literature that wheat, rice, sugar, milk product, vegetables, fruits, these things are in goodness. So if you want to increase your quality of goodness, that is required for God realization. Unless you are situated in the quality of goodness, you cannot be promoted to the higher platform. So your eating should be arranged within this group: rice, wheat, sugar, milk product, vegetables, and fruits. In your country you have got enough nice grains, nice fruits, enough supply of milk, butter. So there is no question of accepting any other food. You can accept foodstuff within this group and become healthy and good brain, good conscience. You can engage yourself in God consciousness. That is possible. So therefore "Discrimination is the best part of valor." We should discriminate what kind of food we should eat. We cannot eat anything and everything. That discrimination must be there.

Lecture Excerpt -- Bombay, November 10, 1970:

So these are Vedic injunction. But this is fact, God created. So we have to open our eyes to see. That is ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12). That is the process of cleansing your heart. If you cleanse your heart, then you will understand what Bible says, what Veda says. It requires to be purified. Just like a man suffering from jaundice, if you give him a piece of candy sugar, "Just taste it," he will say, "Oh, it is very bitter." But candy sugar is bitter? No. It is very sweet. And the medicine for jaundice disease is that sugar, that candy sugar. Modern science also prescribes, and it is prescribed in the Ayur Vedic medicine also. If he takes much quantity of this candy sugar water, then he becomes relieved from jaundice. And when he is relieved, then he says, "Oh, it is very sweet." The same thing. Same thing. So the modern disease of godless civilization, jaundice, can be cured by this chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa. (end)

Pandal Lecture -- Bombay, March 31, 1971:

Unfortunately, we do not understand or do not try to understand or do not like to understand Bhagavad-gītā as it is. If we try to understand Bhagavad-gītā as it is, then we have to accept a certain prescribed process. Not that because one is very erudite scholar academically, because one has got some degrees of the university he will be able to understand Bhagavad-gītā. It is not like that. Even a very layman, illiterate man, without any understanding of the Vedas, if he is a devotee, he can understand Bhagavad-gītā, whereas a person, very erudite scholar, with reputation, he cannot understand Bhagavad-gītā. I shall cite one example when Lord Caitanya was traveling in the South India. When He was in the Raṅganātha temple of South India, one brāhmaṇa was reading Bhagavad-gītā, and his friends and neighbors knew that the brāhmaṇa was illiterate.

Pandal Lecture -- Bombay, March 31, 1971:

So I feel that how Kṛṣṇa is kind that He has accepted a menial service of His devotee. He is driving the chariot and Arjuna is ordering Him, senayor ubhayor madhye rathaṁ sthāpaya me 'cyuta: (BG 1.21) 'My dear Kṛṣṇa, Acyuta, please put up my chariot between the two soldiers.' And He is carrying out the order. So when I see that Kṛṣṇa is so kind that He can become an order carrier of His devotee, that is giving me feeling, and I am therefore crying." Caitanya Mahāprabhu immediately embraced him and said, "My dear brāhmaṇa, you are actually reading Bhagavad-gītā." That is the fact. If after reading Bhagavad-gītā we do not realize what is Kṛṣṇa, what is our relationship with Kṛṣṇa, what is our duty towards Kṛṣṇa, and what is the ultimate goal of life, then it is useless study. It has no meaning. Therefore Lord Kṛṣṇa prescribed it, how to read Bhagavad-gītā. Don't try to read Bhagavad-gītā made by some commentator who has no knowledge of Kṛṣṇa. One who is not a devotee of Kṛṣṇa, he has no business to comment on the Bhagavad-gītā.

Pandal Lecture -- Bombay, April 6, 1971:

So yoga, yoga means to control the senses. Those who are too much in the bodily concept of life, for them, this haṭha-yoga is prescribed just to control the sense by some mechanical way. You sit down, āsana, prāṇāyāma, dhyāna, dhāraṇā, pratyāhāra. There are eight different stages of fulfilling the yoga practice and then coming to the position of samādhi. Samādhi means fully situated in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is real samādhi. Dhyānāvasthita-tad-gata-manasā. Dhyānāvasthita-tad-gata-manasā paśyanti yaṁ yoginaḥ. This is the definition of yogi. They are in meditation, and the mind, being absorbed in the thought of Viṣṇu, and yaṁ paśyanti yoginaḥ. The yoginaḥ, by controlling the senses, concentrating the mind upon Viṣṇu, they become yogi. Dhyānāvasthita-tad-gata-manasā: mind is absorbed in the thought of Viṣṇu. That is perfection of yoga. So that is one method. Those who are too much, I mean to say, thinking of this body, for them, this haṭha-yoga system is prescribed. But the aim of that haṭha-yoga system is to see or search out the Supreme Personality of Godhead, or Paramātmā. Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe arjuna tiṣṭhati (BG 18.61). The Supreme Lord is situated in everyone's heart, and by this yoga practice, by samādhi, one is situated constantly seeing the Supreme Personality of Godhead Viṣṇu. That is samādhi.

Pandal Lecture -- Bombay, April 6, 1971:

Therefore, however we may become advanced, it is not possible for us to understand the unlimited. That's a fact. But still, we can understand to some extent by the mercy of Kṛṣṇa, not otherwise. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, mayy āsakta-manāḥ. One has to develop his mind being always attached to Kṛṣṇa. Āsakta. Āsakta means attachment. This āsakti is also not attained very easily, but there is a process. If we follow the process, as recommended by the authorities, then there is way. And one who is serious to understand God, or Kṛṣṇa, they must follow the methods prescribed by the mahājanas. Mahājano yena gataḥ sa panthāḥ (CC Madhya 17.186). If you follow the footsteps of great personalities, great ācāryas, then that is the way. You don't manufacture your own way. Then you will be frustrated. Mahājano yena gataḥ sa panthāḥ. So who can be greater mahājana than Kṛṣṇa? All mahājanas, they are great devotees of Kṛṣṇa; therefore they have become mahājanas. Just like Svayambhū, Lord Brahmā, Nārada Muni... Svayambhūr nāradaḥ śambhuḥ (SB 6.3.20). Śambhu, Lord Śiva. Svayambhūr nāradaḥ śambhuḥ kapilaḥ kaumāraḥ, kapilo manuḥ. Kaumāra, the four Kumāras, Sanat Kumāra, Sunanda, these four Kumāras, and kumāraḥ kapila, Kapiladeva, the original propounder of Sāṅkhya philosophy, Kapiladeva; and Manu, you know, Manu-saṁhitā, the law-giver to the mankind, Svayambhuva Manu, Manu. And Prahlāda Mahārāja, whose instructions we were discussing in the morning.

Pandal Lecture -- Bombay, April 7, 1971:

So the idea is that... Just like one man is suffering from some disease. The doctor is giving, physician is giving, some medicine and some diet. So if we follow the directions of the physician and eat the diet prescribed by him, there is hope of curing the disease. This is one way. And another person who is suffering from disease but does not care for the physician's instruction or any medicine, he is going on. He is certainly destined to die. As you can understand, similarly, in this material world, both the devotees and nondevotees are there. The devotees, they are trying to be cured from this material disease, and the nondevotees, they do not care for it. They are therefore continuing suffering. We should understand in this way, that... Baladeva Vidyābhūṣana questions that "If by surrendering unto Kṛṣṇa we can become out of the clutches of māyā, why the paṇḍitas, why the learned scholars, scientists, and philosophers do not do that?" So he says that tatrāha na mām iti, duṣṭaś ca te kṛtinaḥ, śāstrārtha-kuśalāś ceti duṣkṛtinaḥ ku-paṇḍitās te māṁ na prapadyante śrutiś caivam āha. He is giving evidence from the Vedas how these rascals, they think of themselves as very learned.

Pandal Lecture -- Bombay, April 7, 1971:

So this process should be adopted, how to become sukṛtina. Sukṛti means yajña-dāna-tapa-kriyā. One must perform sacrifices as prescribed in the śāstras, and they must give in charity their hard-earned money for Kṛṣṇa's cause. That is called dāna. Yajña, dāna, and tapasya. Tapasya. Just like tomorrow is Śrī Rāma-navami. The tapasya will be that all the devotees will observe fasting from morning till evening. This is called tapasya. Just like Ekādaśī day—there is no eating sumptuously. Simply you take little fruits and flowers. Try to avoid that also. You don't take even water. That is really ekādaśī. But because we cannot do it—in the Kali-yuga the time is different—therefore we are allowed to take little fruit and milk, which is called anukalpa. These are different methods of tapasya. And yajña. This yajña, saṅkīrtanaiḥ prāyair yajñaiḥ, yajanti hi su-medhasaḥ. In this age you cannot perform that big aśvamedha yajña, gomedha yajña, rājasūya yajña, so many other yajñas. It is not possible. First of all, you have no means to perform such yajñas, hundreds and hundreds of tons ghee required for putting into the sacrificial fire.

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

Our presentation is authoritative because we are guided by the principles of the old knowledge, the ancient knowledge of India, the Vedas. And the process of understanding this science of Kṛṣṇa is also made very easy in this age. The process, as you have already known, the process is chanting the holy name of God: Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare. Now this is recommended in the Vedas, that "In this age people are so much fallen that they cannot realize God by the prescribed method; therefore the best chance for them is to chant this holy name of God." 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 Excerpt -- Los Angeles, July 5, 1971:

So the śāstra says that if you have learned how to love Kṛṣṇa, then what is the use of these books? There is no use. You can avoid anything, all this reading. But if you have actually developed your love for Kṛṣṇa... And after reading all these books, philosophy, science, if you cannot love Kṛṣṇa, then what is the use of it? Both ways. Useless. If you do not love, do not develop your love for God or Kṛṣṇa, then what is the use of your philosophizing and scientific knowledge? This is all useless. And if you actually have learned how to love Kṛṣṇa, or God, then there is (no) need of philosophy or science or books. So therefore the main point is how to develop. Caitanya Mahāprabhu recommends this. Premā pumartho mahān. Our greatest success of life is how to love God, Kṛṣṇa. That is greatest success. Now you can do it. But there is prescribed method, given by great ācāryas. Just like in this temple we are doing. We are timely giving. The atheist will say, "Oh, these are so foolish that they are taking so much labor for preparing food and offering and wasting time. Best thing would have been to go to some club and enjoy wine and playing cards." They'll waste time in that way, but when... We are not wasting, but they say we are wasting time. They will criticize. You see? They are prepared to waste time in a brothel, but if people are sitting nicely in a temple and talking of Kṛṣṇa, serving Kṛṣṇa, they will laugh. That is our position. So we have to become callous to all these criticisms. We have to go with our business, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That's all.

Lecture -- Los Angeles, July 20, 1971:

Be married man and have one wife, one husband, and be satisfied. So unless we regulate, unless we undergo austerity... We cannot under go such severe type of austerity as Dhruva Mahārāja went, that every three days a little fruit or vegetable, then every six days a little water. That is not possible in these days. If you want to imitate Dhruva Mahārāja, it will be impossible. So we don't prescribe any impossible method, but possible method. But if you take to these principles, then you make advance in spiritual consciousness, in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and as you make advancement in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then you become perfect in knowledge. Otherwise, what is the use of becoming scientist or philosopher who cannot say what is next life? But these students, they can very easily say what is next life, what is God, what I am, what is our relationship. This knowledge, you'll find perfectly, because they are reading perfect book of knowledge, Bhagavad-gītā, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

Hare Krishna Festival Address -- San Diego, July 1, 1972, At Balboa Park Bowl:

Because here in the material world, everyone is a criminal. Just like in the prison house, when a criminal is there, in every state there is law. He cannot violate the laws of the prison house. Similarly, here also, in this material world, who have come here to enjoy... There is no enjoyment. There is simply suffering. But we take sufferings as enjoyment. That is called illusion. Anyway, the Vedic principle has allowed everything. Because here we have come to enjoy so-called sense gratification. That is illusion. So there is regulated principle. You can have sex life once in a month. That is prescribed. Because the woman has once in a month menstrual period. So sex life is meant for simply begetting nice children, not for sense gratification. Therefore, because the woman is, gets the menstrual period once in a month, therefore the man can have sex life just after the menstrual period, over, after five days, he can sex life, have sex life with his wife under garbhādhāna-saṁskāra, responsibility. Otherwise he becomes implicated in sinful activities. That is Vedic injunction.

Rotary Club Lecture -- Ahmedabad, December 8, 1972 'The Present Need of Human Society':

Our time is short. The king, the government, that is also stated. Government will be simply taxing. And people, being harassed in famine and taxation, they'll give up their hearth and home, will go to the forest and hills. And gradually, time will come when the ages will be reduced so much that a person twenty to thirty years old will be considered as great, grand old man. These are the symptoms of Kali-yuga.

So how to get out of this entanglement? There are so many things prescribed. But in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam it is said that kalau doṣa-nidhe rājan asti hy eko mahān-guṇaḥ. Doṣa-nidhi. Nidhi means ocean. This Kali-yuga is a ocean of doṣa, so many faults. But still, there is some hope.

Lecture at Bharata Chamber of Commerce 'Culture and Business' -- Calcutta, January 30, 1973:

So one has to do something for his livelihood, but, at the same time, he has to cultivate knowledge for his perfection of life. So this is perfection of life, simple thing. Simple thing we are prescribing all over the world. You try to understand Kṛṣṇa. Simple. And it is not very difficult. You read Bhagavad-gītā as it is. You understand Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is explaining everything. If the neophytes, one who cannot, cannot understand Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa is prescribing like this: raso 'ham apsu kaunteya, prabhāsmi śaśi-sūryayoḥ: (BG 7.8) "My dear Kaunteya, I am the taste of the water." So there is no need of saying that "I cannot see God. I have not seen God." Here is God. The taste of water is God. Everyone is drinking water. And who is not tasting it? He's seeing God. Why do you say that "I do not see God"? You see, as it is directed by God.

Lecture at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan -- Bombay, October 18, 1973:

So I was very much encouraged. Otherwise I was very much discouraged that there is no human being in India, because they have forgotten Kṛṣṇa, forgotten God. Now I see there are still. So I shall request Nandajī that take the standard method as prescribed in the Bhagavad-gītā. Then you will be successful. Not only Nandajī—anyone. The example is already there. I am preaching all over the world Bhagavad-gītā as it is. There is no fashionable interpretation. No. As it is. And how they are being accepted. So why not in this country? And in this country Kṛṣṇa consciousness is natural. It is not artificial. From the birth of a man, (he) is Kṛṣṇa conscious. Artificially he is being cut down, "Forget Kṛṣṇa." This nonsense dharma should be stopped. Take Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He is being accepted all over the world. Why not in India? Why you present competitors of Kṛṣṇa? Don't do this. Take this instruction of Bhagavad-gītā, that sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). You will be successful. If you manufacture something, you will never be successful.

Sunday Feast Lecture -- Atlanta, March 2, 1975:

And Kṛṣṇa said, God says, "One who is completely freed from sinful life, he can take to devotional service." So therefore we have prescribed four principles, regulative principles: No illicit sex. We don't say "No sex." No illicit sex. No meat-eating. There are so many things, nice things, especially in your country, America, so many nice fruits, so many nice grains, milk. Why should you kill? We are not. We have got hundreds of centers. We are strictly following. And you have taken our prasādam feast. How delicious they are. So why they should kill? The argument is sometimes offered: "The vegetable has got life." Yes, we admit also. But our process is to take the prasādam. Prasādam means we offer foodstuff to Kṛṣṇa and after eating, whatever He left, we take that. This is our principle. We don't take directly.

Subha Vilasa Home Engagement -- Toronto, June 19, 1976:

So the four types of men who surrender to Kṛṣṇa, they're doing so with some selfish interest. All of the conditioned souls are acting for their own selfish interest. They do not know otherwise. But somehow or other, if one of the conditioned souls will surrender to Kṛṣṇa by the grace of a pure devotee, then that immediately puts him into a situation of becoming purified. The greatest purification is to come in touch with a pure devotee of the Lord. There are many many ritualistic activities prescribed in the Vedic literatures for gradual purification. But, as Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī points out in his Upadeśāmṛta, what is the good of undergoing so much atonement and pious activity if the heart remains contaminated and the living entity remains sinful, ready to..., just acting for his own benefit? Therefore the greatest opportunity for the conditioned soul is when he gets the chance to associate with a pure devotee of the Lord.

Tenth Anniversary Address -- Washington, D.C., July 6, 1976:

So people are gradually losing interest in temple worship even, what to speak of yoga or offering sacrifices. Everything is now finished. Therefore kalau tad dhari-kīrtanāt. This is prescribed in the śāstra. That system was introduced by Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Because other system will not be successful in this age. May be successful in one or two cases, but not for the general mass of people. Therefore śāstra recommends... There are different incarnation of God, but one incarnation is there, it is mentioned in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and other places also, in Upaniṣad and Mahābhārata. These are approved Vedic scriptures. So the Vedic knowledge is summarized in the Vedānta system, Brahma-sūtra, everything done by Vyāsadeva.

Evening Lecture -- Bhuvanesvara, January 23, 1977:

There is no devotion unless you go to a guru. Forget it. Ādau gurvāśrayam. First thing is, first business, is to accept a bona fide guru. Otherwise there is no devotion. It is simply false imitation. This is the injunction of Rūpa Gosvāmī in Bhakti-rasāmṛta sindhu. Ādau gurvāśrayam: "Your first business is to approach bona fide guru and take his āśraya." Otherwise there is no devotion. That has been the defect in the modern society. They imagine. This business should be given up. He must follow. Sādhu-mārgānugāmanam, which is prescribed by the sādhu, guru, you have to accept that. You cannot manufacture your own way.

Philosophy Discussions

Philosophy Discussion on Immanuel Kant:

Śyāmasundara: He says that duty is one's individual obligation to obey the categorical imperative by choosing the morally right action. In other words, duty means it is my duty to choose the morally right action, free from emotion.

Prabhupāda: Therefore, as soon as you say duty, duty should be prescribed by some higher authority. In that sense, this system is very scientific: brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra. It is very scientific. For brāhmaṇa, these are the duties; a kṣatriya, these are the duties. Every duty may appear different, but because it is a command of the Supreme, by discharging these duties on different platform, he is serving the Supreme. If Kṛṣṇa says, "All right, I see you are a brāhmaṇa. Your duties are like this," "I see you are a kṣatriya. Your duties are like this," "I see you are a vaiśya. Your duties are like this..." But Kṛṣṇa says cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭam (BG 4.13). I have divided, so Kṛṣṇa gives duty, that "Your duty is this, your duty is this, and your duty is this." And if he faithfully serves the duty, that means he is serving Kṛṣṇa.

Philosophy Discussion on Hegel:

Śyāmasundara: His idea was that the truth is in the sum of all moments, he called the organic theory of truth. The truth is not static or composed of isolated segments or parts, but it is the sum total of everything and it is constantly changing. So he says that these phenomena or facts of nature or these moments, they are progressing in an evolutionary process according to a course which is prescribed by a universal reason or the world spirit, weltgeist. That the world spirit is unfolding itself through phenomenal events.

Prabhupāda: That means... This is another nonsense proposition. According to the universal reason. So wherefrom the reason comes unless there is a person? That he does not know.

Śyāmasundara: He called it weltgeist, which means world spirit, world mind.

Prabhupāda: World spirit? That is a person. Unless you accept a person where there is question of reason? That he does not know. He's trying to explain (how could God be) but he has not clear knowledge. But as soon as speaks of reason there must be some person. That reason is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā, mayādhyakṣeṇa (BG 9.10), under my superintendence, under my guidance, direction. So direction means reason. So as soon as we speak of reason, you must accept the person, the supreme person who is giving this reason, who is directing all these things.

Philosophy Discussion on John Stuart Mill:

Śyāmasundara: Yes. There would seem to be a fallacy in what he says, because...

Prabhupāda: He does not know anything. For the fools he is hero, that's all.

Śyāmasundara: Just like if you are sick, the medicine the doctor may prescribe may be bitter, not desirable at all, but it will cure you. Still you don't want it. It's not desirable.

Prabhupāda: He says?

Śyāmasundara: No. I mean that seems like he..., there's a fallacy in his reasoning, because if the medicine were undesirable, still it will cure you.

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes. Just like I was not desiring to take my medicine. When I was a child it was very difficult to give me medicine. Three men required. (laughter) Yes. One will capture me, another (laughing) will take my legs, and then my mother will by force, I will do like this. (gestures locking of teeth, trying to force spoon into mouth, much laughter all around) This was my position. I won't agree to take any medicine. I was so obstinate.

Philosophy Discussion on John Dewey:

Śyāmasundara: How does worship of Viṣṇu solve social problems? Just like in Calcutta there are more social problems than practically anywhere.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Viṣṇu... In the Viṣṇu Purāṇa, it is said that varṇāśrama-dharma. Varnāśramācāravatā puruṣeṇa paraḥ pumān (CC Madhya 8.58). Any man who executes this varṇāśrama-dharma, he satisfies Viṣṇu. The varṇāśrama-dharma is there, and the brāhmaṇas, kṣatriyas, the vaiśyas, and the śūdras. So according as they are prescribed, how the brāhmaṇas should live, how the kṣatriyas should live, how the..., then there is no trouble. The whole problem is solved. But they have killed the varṇāśrama-dharma. They are now all śūdras. The śūdras, how they can make solutions? Śūdras means nonintelligent persons. So what they can do? They are running on democratic government voted by the śūdras. So what these rascal śūdras will do? They require... Śūdras are meant for serving the higher sections—brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya. And if the śūdras are given government... Just like we are seeing, in Africa they have been given independence, but they have not improved. The Englishman is still controlling, the Indians are still controlling. And what is the meaning of their so-called self-ruling? We have seen it, still they are poor, because they are śūdras. Śūdras have no brain. In America also, the whole America once belonged to the Red Indians. Why they could not improve? The land was there. Why these foreigners, the Europeans, came and improved? So śūdras cannot do this. They cannot make any correction. Now people are becoming śūdras by so-called education. So they cannot make any solution of the problems. If that daiva varṇāśrama again established, then the whole problem will be solved.

Philosophy Discussion on John Dewey:

Śyāmasundara: So the choice between a good and a bad action should be practiced to reduce evil, not just theoretical. That's his idea. That's his point.

Prabhupāda: Yes. No theory. This is practical. Now, as a big machine, the screw is a part, so if every part works nicely, the machine goes nicely. So if we understand... Just like I think last night I was explaining mukha baho rūpa divya: the gigantic body, the brāhmaṇa class, they are the mouth. So one must do the duty of the mouth. The mouth speaks, vibrates and eats. So our proposition is to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra and eat Kṛṣṇa prasādam. Then the mouth duty, the brāhmaṇa's duty, is performed. Similarly, the kṣatriya's duty—again we come to that varṇāśrama-dharma. So everyone is factually part and parcel of God and executes his prescribed duty, then it is perfect.

varṇāśramācāravatā
puruṣeṇa paraḥ pumān
viṣṇur ārādhyate puṁsāṁ
nānyat tat-toṣa-kāraṇam
(CC Madhya 8.58)

If you want to satisfy the Supreme Lord, then you must execute the functions as they are prescribed in the varṇāśrama system. Then everything is all right. The same example: If all the parts of a machine is in order, working, it will make no trouble. If one of the screws, I mean, is slack, or it has fallen down, then another part is dislocated, that whole work is stopped. So we should consider in that way, that we are all part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. So according to part and parcel, you must execute your duty—as brāhmaṇa, as kṣatriya, as vaiśya, as śūdra. And the brāhmaṇa being head, he should give the direction. Therefore he is considered the guru of other varṇas. But he... Because if there is no head, no brāhmaṇa, then the whole thing is disturbed. And that is the position at the present moment. Actually there is no brāhmaṇa, or scarcity of brāhmaṇa. So others are not guided properly. Therefore there is chaos in the whole society. So we require to create some brāhmaṇas, and others should understand to abide by the direction of the brāhmaṇas. Then the whole society will be in order.

Philosophy Discussion on John Dewey:

Śyāmasundara: He says that moral laws are comparable to physical laws. In other words, they are guidelines to elicit certain responses under given conditions. Just like if I throw a ball up, I know it is going to come down. So a moral law will guide me in the same way. If I act in a certain way, there will automatically be a certain result, a response.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Just like we prescribe, ādau śraddhā tato sādhu saṅgasya. If you follow one after another, you get the result. If you have got faith, you make association with devotees. Then the next step, you will be eager to execute devotional service. Ādau śraddhā tataḥ sādhu-sango 'thya bhajana-kriyā 'nartha-nivṛttiḥ syāt (Cc. Madhya 23.14-15). Then all misgivings are eradicated. Then you become firm faith, niṣṭhā, then attachment, one after another. Unless you experience the next result, how can you make progress?

Śyāmasundara: Are there any moral guidelines to Kṛṣṇa consciousness?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Moral guidelines are there. That is given by Rūpa Gosvāmī, sato vṛtteḥ, sadho saṅge, utsāhān niścayād dhairyāt (Upadeśāmṛta 3). With patience and conviction, enthusiasm, becoming very fair in your dealings, and in association of saintly persons, devotees, you will advance.

Philosophy Discussion on John Dewey:

Śyāmasundara: He says that moral laws are not absolute rules which never permit exceptions. He says that moral laws are flexible; that they're not absolute.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Real moral law means the law of the Supreme. Just like Kṛṣṇa has preached dhyāna-yoga, jñāna-yoga, haṭha-yoga, so many yoga systems. Then He says, sarva-dharmān parityajya (BG 18.66). These principles have not less moral, dhyāna-yoga, jñāna-yoga, aṣṭāṅga-yoga, but ultimately He says, "Give up all of them." Then what is moral? His word is moral. Whatever He says, that is moral. Not this dhyāna-yoga, jñāna-yoga. No. Whatever He says, that is morality. So it is changed. Nobody can argue: "Sir, you have prescribed so many kinds of yogas. Now You say to give up all these things. It is contradictory." No. It is not contradictory. Whatever He says, that is morality. That is Vaiṣṇava principle. We don't consider anything moral or immoral. Whatever is ordered by Kṛṣṇa or His representative, that is moral. That is our position.

Philosophy Discussion on Soren Aabye Kierkegaard:

Śyāmasundara: The decision is...

Prabhupāda: There are two sides. There are two kinds of people are going. The same man, he is giving charity for feeding poor man or giving relief to the distressed man, but at the same time he's encouraging animal-killing. So what is the ethics? What is the ethical law in these two contradictory activities? One side... Just like our Vivekananda. He is advocating daridra-nārāyaṇa sevā, "Feed the poor," but feed the poor with mother Kālī's prasāda, where poor goats are killed. Just like, another, one side feeding the poor, another side killing the poor goat. So what is the ethic? What is the ethical law in this connection? Just like people open hospitals, and the doctor prescribes, "Give this man," what it is called," (Hindi), ox blood, or chicken juice." So what is this ethic? And they're supporting that "Here is chicken juice." Just because animal has no soul, so they can be killed. This is another theory. So why the animal has no soul? So imperfect knowledge. So on the basis of imperfect knowledge this ethic or this humanitarian, what is the value? We do not give any value to all this understanding. Where is the ethics? If you protect the human life by giving him something by killing—there are so many medicines, but the killing is very prominent—then next point should be that if you say that the human life is important, so nonimportant animal-killing can be supported to save the important. Then the question will be, "Why it is important? Why consider the human life is important and the animal life is not important?" These are the questions of ethical law. Where are these discussions on the ethical laws?

Philosophy Discussion on Arthur Schopenhauer:

Śyāmasundara: So he sees the second type of salvation from this basically evil existence...

Prabhupāda: That salvation he prescribes in the beginning, that is temporary salvation.

Śyāmasundara: Yes. So this type of salvation called ethical salvation is permanent.

Prabhupāda: It is not salvation. It is for the time being. It is called sasana(?)-vairāgya. Sasana-vairāgya means just like a man dies, somebody dies, so his relative takes him to the crematorium or the burning place. So at that time he gets little renouncement, "Oh, this is the end of life. Why you are struggling?" And again, as soon as he comes from the crematorium, he begins again, the same thing. He forgets that he has to die. You see? So this kind of sasana-vairāgya will not help. Actually this is not salvation.

Śyāmasundara: He says it's only momentary.

Prabhupāda: Momentary. So no, we want to give actual salvation, perpetually aesthetic ideas about Kṛṣṇa.

Śyāmasundara: He is describing three types of salvation. That was the first type, momentary. The second type he calls ethical salvation. He says that because the aim of our life is the final satisfaction of the will, after which no more desires will arise, this being our aim of life...

Prabhupāda: That means the supreme will. He does not know that. Satisfy the supreme will. Just like father wants to do something, his son, his spiritual master or the teacher want. So yasya prasādād bhagavat-prasādo **. Our philosophy is to please the supreme, the spiritual master, the representative of God or God. That means supreme will. Not my will, but the supreme will. That is highest perfection. That is salvation. Just like a person who is working under the guidance of a superior man, actually they do so. Just like in factories there is a foreman. So ordinary workers, they are working, but the foreman is giving direction. Similarly, that means he is fulfilling the desires of the superior. He is not doing whimsically. He is doing according to the direction of the superior man present there. So this is the philosophy, that if you can satisfy the supreme will, then you are liberated. Just like Kṛṣṇa says sarva-dharmān parityajya, mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). This is supreme will, order. If you can fulfill this, then your salvation.

Philosophy Discussion on Sigmund Freud:

Śyāmasundara: So he says that the present state of the personality has grown about because of childhood or incomplete uses of this libido or sexual energy, and if it has been misused then there is a disorder in the personality. But by healing that original shock in childhood, then the future will all be healed. There will be not more fluctuation in the personality. Because by healing this original shock, there won't be any more fluctuations or neuroses.

Prabhupāda: That we have prescribed. We are trying to make boys brahmacārīs. So of course there is tendency, but by practicing the brahmācārya system, by diverting one's attention to Kṛṣṇa consciousness for Kṛṣṇa's service, there will be very little chance for this shock.

Śyāmasundara: He says that our sexual instincts are often thwarted by social constraints, so in a society which does not have a brahmācārya system, this would be...

Prabhupāda: Therefore this Vedic system is so scientific, varṇāśrama-dharma. When these things are automatically adjusted and checked, our life becomes very peaceful and we make progress in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Then these things will not come.

Philosophy Discussion on Sigmund Freud:

Devotee: As a result of Freud's philosophy he prescribed, and many of his students prescribed, certain activities. This is one thing we forget to mention—that they prescribed certain activities to help relieve the patient of the trauma, and that is called therapy. Actually there is a higher therapy. Actually one of Freud's students would say that we are all involved in therapy in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, which we are, and that therapy is chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. Therapy is a certain kind of activity which will relieve the anxieties and stresses of the mind.

Prabhupāda: That is recommended by Freud?

Śyāmasundara: No. He wasn't a therapeutical psychologist.

Devotee: No, but as a result of his...

Śyāmasundara: Later on they devised that theory of therapy.

Prabhupāda: (indistinct) in support of our movement.

Devotee: According to our philosophy, everyone in this material world is under the spell of the material nature, māyā, "that which is not." So Freud observed that not only in crazy people, but in so-called normal people, everybody's lives are based on some types of illusion. So his psychoanalytic therapy is to trace out how I have come to this illusion or that illusion, that due to some childhood experience with my mother and father or my mouth or my genitals, something like that, all of these experiences are contributing to my unreal perception of the world. But the point which you made is that although he may have worked out what is one particular illusion, who is to prevent that there will not be another illusion? So our process is not to bother tracing out each and every illusion that we have, but to become free from the whole process of being controlled by illusory energy.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is our position: not to be affected by any more illusion.

Philosophy Discussion on Carl Gustav Jung:

Hayagrīva: All ethics are derived.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So to become completely pure, then he is the necessity of morality and ethics. Just like we prescribe, "No illicit sex, no meat-eating, no intoxication, no gambling." These are the four pillars of sinful life. If we avoid these thing, then we can stay on the platform of purity. And God consciousness, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, is based on this morality. One who cannot follow the principles, he falls down from the spiritual platform, and he cannot make any progress. So purity is the basic principle of God consciousness.

Hayagrīva: Jung sees atheistic Communism as the greatest threat in the world today. He writes that "The Communist revolution has debased man, because it robs him of his freedom, not only in the social but in the moral and spiritual sense. The state has taken the place of God. That is why, seen from this angle, the socialist dictatorships are religions, and state slavery is a form of worship."

Prabhupāda: Yes, I agree with him. That is the degradation of human civilization. But the philosophy of the Communist, that everyone has equal right or everyone must take share of the state equally, that is little, basic principle of real communism. According to our understanding, God is the father, material nature is the mother, and we, all living entities, are sons of the father and mother. So as sons everyone has right to live at the cost of father's property. The whole universe is the property of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and all living entities, they are being supported by the father. But one should be satisfied with the supplies allotted to him. That is, Īśopaniṣad says, tena tyaktena bhuñjīthā (ISO 1). There is no need of encroaching on others' property.

Philosophy Discussion on Johann Gottlieb Fichte:

Prabhupāda: And what is the duty? Unless there is superior order, you ask me to do something, then where is your duty?

Śyāmasundara: Well, to do our duty is to do what ought to be.

Prabhupāda: Who has prescribed that this is ought to be?

Śyāmasundara: Well, the world order prescribes what ought to be.

Prabhupāda: World order, what is that world order? Is it blind?

Śyāmasundara: Harmony, whatever causes harmony...

Prabhupāda: What is harmony, who will define? You say this is harmony, I say this is harmony. Therefore our philosophy is perfect. We are taking our duty from the Supreme. Sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66), that is authority, only to surrender to Kṛṣṇa and abide by His order.

Śyāmasundara: Actually his philosophy has that loophole, that there's no

Prabhupāda: Every philosophy will be loophole. Everybody, that we shall find out, others cannot find out, what is that loophole.

Philosophy Discussion on B. F. Skinner and Henry David Thoreau:

Hayagrīva: Well, uh, he mentions, oh, working together, types of work, all, all types of work are shared equally. Family ties are discouraged. Children are generally held in common. People can live the good life, and he defines, "The good life means the chance to exercise talents and abilities. And we have let it be so. We have time for sports, hobbies, arts and crafts, and, most important of all, the expression of that interest in the world which is science in the deepest sense, an exploration of nature. Last of all, the good life means relaxation and rest." So the, the woman would be able to participate in the good life when she's finished bearing children at the age of twenty-three or whatever.

Prabhupāda: They are, difficulty, that is missing, that what is their ideal life, what is the aim of life. So he is prescribing so many things. That will not help the human society. And women, about women, this idea that (s)he should be married at sixteen years old, that is good, but it is not that women stops child breeding by the twenty-two years age. No. There are many women and they can beget children in, in advanced age. I, so far personally I know, my mother was the youngest daughter, and she was born when my grandmother was fifty years old. So it is not that the woman stops child begetting at the age of twenty-two years age. Nowadays up to thirty years, twenty-five years, woman, woman is married, so how he, she can stop?

Philosophy Discussion on B. F. Skinner and Henry David Thoreau:

Prabhupāda: So why he is anxious to philosophize? If everyone is going to be finished, then why he is philosophizing? What did he..., why he is taking so much trouble? That is the difficulty—this class of men accepted as philosopher.

Hayagrīva: Oh, he became very popular through this book. I don't know how.

Prabhupāda: Oh, if you prescribe such nonsense book, everyone will like it. (laughs) (break)

Hayagrīva: This is the conclusion of B. F. Skinner. He felt that the goal is to improve the world and then man. He believes that "Now, as never before, man can lift himself up by his own bootstraps, and achieving control of the world of which he is a part, he may learn at last to control himself."

Prabhupāda: That man attempted first of all to control the world?

Hayagrīva: First control the world...

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Hayagrīva: ...and then you can control yourself. That's his theory.

Prabhupāda: If he..., if one cannot control himself, how he will control the world? How it is possible?

Devotee: Backwards.

Page Title:Prescribed (Lectures, Other)
Compiler:Visnu Murti, Mayapur
Created:06 of Mar, 2012
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=74, Con=0, Let=0
No. of Quotes:74