Roundabout way

Expressions researched:
"Why do you go round about" |"round about fashion" |"round about it" |"round about way" |"round-about way" |"roundabout method" |"roundabout way"

Notes from the compiler: No reference for: Bhagavad-gétä 9.15-18 -- December 2, 1966, New York

SB Canto 2

SB 2.7.14, Purport:

The history of Hiraṇyakaśipu and his great devotee-son Prahlāda Mahārāja is narrated in the Seventh Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Hiraṇyakaśipu became very powerful by material achievements and thought himself to be immortal by the grace of Brahmājī. Brahmājī declined to award him the benediction of immortality because he himself is not an immortal being. But Hiraṇyakaśipu derived Brahmājī's benediction in a roundabout way, almost equal to becoming an immortal being. Hiraṇyakaśipu was sure that he would not be killed by any man or demigod or by any kind of known weapon, nor would he die in day or night. The Lord, however, assumed the incarnation of half-man and half-lion, which was beyond the imagination of a materialistic demon like Hiraṇyakaśipu, and thus, keeping pace with the benediction of Brahmājī, the Lord killed him. He killed him on His lap, so that he was killed neither on the land nor on the water nor in the sky. The demon was pierced by Nṛsiṁha's nails, which were beyond the human weapons imaginable by Hiraṇyakaśipu. The literal meaning of Hiraṇyakaśipu is one who is after gold and soft bedding, the ultimate aim of all materialistic men.

SB Canto 10.1 to 10.13

SB 10.5.15-16, Purport:

The ultimate goal of life is to please Lord Viṣṇu, the Supreme Lord. The uncivilized man or materialistic person, however, does not know this aim of life. Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇum (SB 7.5.31). One's real self-interest lies in satisfying Lord Viṣṇu. Not satisfying Lord Viṣṇu but instead attempting to become happy through material adjustments (bahir-artha-māninaḥ) is the wrong way for happiness. Because Viṣṇu is the root of everything, if Viṣṇu is pleased, everyone is pleased; in particular, one's children and family members become happy in all respects. Nanda Mahārāja wanted to see his newborn child happy. That was his purpose. Therefore he wanted to satisfy Lord Viṣṇu, and to satisfy Lord Viṣṇu it was necessary to satisfy His devotees, such as the learned brāhmaṇas, māgadhas and sūtas. Thus, in a roundabout way, ultimately it was Lord Viṣṇu who was to be satisfied.

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Lecture on BG 2.2-6 -- Ahmedabad, December 11, 1972:

So Kṛṣṇa assumed the nara-hari, nṛsiṁha-rūpa, half-man, half-lion. So these are description in the śāstras.

rāmādi-mūrtiṣu kalā-niyamena tiṣṭhan

nānāvatāram akarod bhuvaneṣu kintu

kṛṣṇaḥ svayaṁ samabhavat paramaḥ pumān yo

govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam...

(Bs. 5.39)

So there is no significance. This Hiraṇyakaśipu wanted to become immortal. Then, when he was refused by Lord Brahmā that "You cannot become immortal, that is not possible," then, in a roundabout way, he took benediction from Lord Brahmā that he would not die on land, on water, on the sky, no weapon can kill him, no demigod can kill him. In this way, roundabout way, he thought now he has become immortal. So to keep the words of Brahmā as it is, the Lord assumed a form which is not within his description. And instead of killing him with a weapon He killed him by the nails. Nail is not considered as a weapon. So He killed him between day and night, because he also took benediction that "I shall not die during daytime or nighttime." So God, Kṛṣṇa, is so intelligent that we may try to become immortal by so many scientific brain, but there will be some flaw and he wants, must be killed. This is God's intelligence

Lecture on BG 2.8-12 -- Los Angeles, November 27, 1968:

Caitanya Mahāprabhu, even not accepting Him as incarnation of Kṛṣṇa, if simply you accept Him as ordinary scholar or man, there was no comparison of His scholarship. But He said that "My spiritual master found Me a great fool." What is that meaning? That "A person, even in My position, always remains a fool before his spiritual master. That is good for him." Nobody should impose that "What do you know? I know better than you." This position is not, denied. And other point is, from the disciple's point of view, why he should remain always a fool before a person? Unless he's actually authorized, actually so great that he can teach me as a fool. One should select a spiritual master in that way and as soon as the spiritual master is selected, one should remain always a fool, although he may not be a fool, but the better position is like that. So Arjuna, instead of remaining on the same level as friend and friend, voluntarily accepting to remain a fool before Kṛṣṇa. And Kṛṣṇa is accepting that "You are a fool. You're talking just like a learned man, but you are a fool because you are lamenting on a matter which no learned man laments." That means "A fool laments," that "You are a fool. Therefore you are a fool." It is in a round about way... Just like, what is called in logic? Parenthesis? Or something like that, called. Yes. That if I say that "You look like that person who stole my watch," that means "You look like a thief." Similarly, (chuckles) Kṛṣṇa, in a round about way, says that "My dear Arjuna, you are talking just like learned man, but you are lamenting on a subject matter which no learned man laments."

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Lecture on SB 2.3.20 -- Los Angeles, June 16, 1972:

As soon as there is some activity of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, they will say, "It is māyā." That is called Māyāvāda. "These are ... our activities, māyā, and therefore God's activities are also māyā." A poor fund of knowledge or rascaldom. "Because I cannot do this, therefore God cannot do this. I am pleased in this way; therefore God can be ... Permanent, they are identical." Big, big sannyāsī explained like that. "When I am pleased, God is pleased. When I am dissatisfied, God is dissatisfied." So round about way, their philosophy is to satisfy one's own sense gratification. That's all. The Māyāvāda philosophy means, impersonalist means, the same material condition. The material condition means everyone is busy in sense gratification. And ... therefore they cannot understand. And when there is a question of sense gratification ... Just like, "We are dancing here, ball dance. So this is material māyā. Therefore Kṛṣṇa's dance with the gopīs, that is also māyā." This is Māyāvāda symptom. The example can be given like this: Just like a patient, since his birth, he is sick, and he is lying in the hospital, cannot walk freely or cannot eat nice things. All bitter medicine, injections, always suffering. So if he is informed that "After your cure, you shall be able to eat nice rasagullā, sandeśa," he cannot believe it. He says, "Again eating? Oh, it is horrible." Because he has got bad experience of eating in sick condition, he thinks that eating in healthy condition is also the same. This is Māyāvāda.

Festival Lectures

Varaha-dvadasi, Lord Varaha's Appearance Day Lecture Dasavatara-stotra Purport -- Los Angeles, February 18, 1970:

This Hiraṇyakaśipu wanted to cheat Brahmā by indirect definition. First of all he wanted to become immortal. Brahmā said, "That is not possible because even I am not immortal. Nobody in this material world is immortal. That is not possible." So Hiraṇyakaśipu, the demon... The demons are very intelligent. He thought that "Round about way I shall become immortal." He prayed to Brahmā that "Please give me the benediction that I shall not be killed by any man or any animal." Brahmā said, "Yes, that is all right." "I shall not be killed in the sky, on the water or on land." Brahmā said, "Oh yes." "I shall not be killed by any man-made weapons." "That's all right." In this way he utilized his intelligence in so many ways just to come to the conclusion of being immortal. But the Lord is so cunning that He kept intact all the benediction given by Brahmā, still he was killed. He said that "I'll not be killed either during daytime or night." Brahmā said "Yes." So he was killed just in the evening, just in the junction of day and night. You cannot say it is day or night. He took the benediction that "I shall not be killed in the sky, on the water, on the land." So he was killed on His lap. He took the benediction that "I shall not be killed by any man-made or any God-made weapons." That was given, "All right." So he was killed by the nails. In this way, all the benedictions were kept intact, still he was killed. Similarly, we may make plan, we may make very advancement in scientific knowledge, but the killing process of nature will be there. Nobody can escape. By our intelligence we cannot escape.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Christian Priest -- June 9, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: You say God is beyond your experience, you say.

Priest: Yeah, and I have that experience that God is beyond experience, because I found out that all my experience does not mean God.

Prabhupāda: But if you say God is beyond your experience, that you have no experience of God. This is clear meaning. Why do you go round about?

Priest: No, you don't..., you see...

Prabhupāda: Then it is a bit difficult.

Priest: I have always told that the duty of the swami is to listen and to understand, and you don't seem to listen and to understand. You misunderstand.

Prabhupāda: No, no, I use... First of all let us... Why misunderstand? You say that you have no experience of God.

Priest: No, I never said that.

Prabhupāda: Then tell me your experience. That I want to know.

Morning Walk -- June 14, 1974, Paris:

Paramahaṁsa: They argue that all paths lead to Kṛṣṇa. So why is one better than another?

Prabhupāda: If you know that all paths leads to Kṛṣṇa, then why don't you take this path? Why you are going round about way? If somebody asks you, "Where is your nose?" What is the use of showing like this. (laughter) Show like this. If you know really nose. But you do not know. Therefore you are going like this.

Guru-gaurāṅga: They say one man's food is another man's poison. So perhaps this process isn't practical for everyone.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So you take the poison and die. Because you do not understand easily, better you take poison and die.

Paramahaṁsa: What does it mean when they say that failure is the pillar of success?

Prabhupāda: Yes. For whom? Who is actually searching after success? Not for the fool. Anyone who is trying for attaining success, for him, failure is also success because he's making progress. Harer nāma harer nāma... (CC Adi 17.21). God says, "Many ways." That's all right. But why does He says that "If you want to know Me perfectly, and without any doubt, then this is the process, bhakti"? Other processes are there but by those processes you cannot understand. Just like practically, call anyone, so-called yogis, so-called jñānīs, they'll not understand Kṛṣṇa. They'll not understand Kṛṣṇa. So all other paths that are recommended, by those paths you cannot understand God perfectly and without any doubt. Therefore God says clearly, bhaktyā mām abhijānāti yāvān yaś cāsmi tattvataḥ: (BG 18.55) "Actually, what I am, that can be understood by bhakti-yoga." Other systems, you'll... I explained that last night. That is partial understanding. That is not full understanding.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Garden Conversation -- September 7, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Abudho guru. So andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānāḥ (SB 7.5.31). They are gurus. They are blind, and they are guru for blind men. Abudho guru. These have been described in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. If we are to accept guru, so the original guru is Kṛṣṇa because He instructed Lord Brahmā, the first living creature within this universe. Tene brahma hṛdā ya ādi-kavaye (SB 1.1.1). He instructed the ādi-kavi. He is the guru, Kṛṣṇa. And in the Bhagavad-gītā He also says, imaṁ vivasvate yogaṁ proktavān aham avyayam (BG 4.1). So He is ādi-guru. In Bhagavad-gītā also He is instructing Arjuna. He is ādi-guru. So instead of this tricky, jugglery guru, why not people approach Kṛṣṇa? Therefore acakṣur andha. (Hindi) Read this verse again.

Pradyumna: Acakṣur andhasya yathāgraṇīḥ kṛtas tathā janasyāviduṣo 'budho guruḥ.

Prabhupāda: Ah. Aviduṣaḥ abudho guruḥ. (Hindi conversation) You can bring something...

Pradyumna: Drink?

Prabhupāda: (Hindi) If things are very easy, why they go roundabout way? Bhagavān svayam (Hindi), man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru mām evaiṣyasi asaṁśayaḥ (BG 18.68). (Hindi conversation) I went to see the Ramakrishna Mission head, Prabodhananda Swami. So just by seeing me, he immediately said that Thakur was formerly Gaura Hari.

Room Conversation -- December 31, 1976, Bombay:

Hari-śauri: Last time it was an hour when we went. Almost three-quarters of an hour when we traveled from Vṛndāvana to go to that program.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Vṛndāvana to Mathurā is not more than fifteen minutes.

Prabhupāda: Fifteen to twenty minutes.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. It's not more than that.

Hari-śauri: We were at least... We were...

Prabhupāda: That we went round-about way.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- February 1, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Somehow they have developed this false understanding that everything can be reduced to atoms and molecules.

Prabhupāda: That is still less intelligence, still less intelligence. Kartāham iti manyate (BG 3.27).

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Because life is something which is beyond experimental knowledge...

Prabhupāda: That means they do not know. Say that: "beyond experimental knowledge" or "beyond your capacity."

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Still, they are hesitant to say that.

Prabhupāda: That is their poor fund of knowledge. A gentleman will accept, "Yes, we do not know." But they, in roundabout way, in order to keep their position, they'll bluff. That is most dangerous, bluffing.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: That's the difficulty.

1970 Correspondence

Letter to Sriman Bankaji -- Los Angeles 13 March, 1970:

The preaching of Bhagavad-gita has been going on both in India and abroad, but almost all of them on the speculative background without any knowledge of devotional service to the Lord. Many Swamis before me came in the Western countries, and they say that nobody could act so wonderfully as I am doing. Perhaps it is right. But I do not know how such things are happening. The only reason that can be adduced is that I am presenting Bhagavad-gita as it is.

In the Bhagavad-gita, Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The living entities are His eternal parts and parcels. The duty of the part and parcel is to render service to the whole; as much as different limbs of the body are engaged to render service to the whole body. These things are very simple to understand, but when they are presented in a round about way, simply by jugglery of words, it becomes cumbersome, and the desired result is not achieved.

Lord Caitanya advised that everyone of the Indians should go outside and, carrying His order or following His footsteps, one should preach Krsnakatha. The Krsnakatha is Bhagavad-gita as well as Srimad-Bhagavatam. If you split the word Krsnakatha, then it becomes Krishna's words or words spoken about Krishna. So Krishna's words are directly Bhagavad-gita, and words spoken about Krishna is the Srimad-Bhagavatam. I think the Society to which you have referred in your letter under reply, namely Vishva Hindu Parishad, should take up this message of Lord Caitanya if they are actually serious about doing something for the Vedic culture which is known as Hindu culture.

1973 Correspondence

Letter to Sir Alistair Hardy -- Bhaktivedanta Manor 28 July, 1973:

Now so far as ideology of religion is concerned: Religion means to abide by the orders of God, that's all. God is great, we are his sons, he is supplying all our necessities these are the right understandings. Why should there be any difference in religious practices. If you come to God consciousness then we can understand the birds the beasts the plants everyone is son of God, we have no right to kill. But the so called man made religious systems say the animals are our food and another religion says, "No, no, there should be no animal killing," this difference in practice of religious systems is due to want of God consciousness. If we actually come to the point of God consciousness then all these differences will be perfectly resolved, but unless there is actual God consciousness you will not be able to change the Ideologies. I have asked many Christian Gentle men "Why are you killing when in the Bible it is clearly said, Thou shalt not kill?" they cannot give me any satisfactory reply. In a round about way they try to avoid this question. So all these are due to a lack of God consciousness.