In the Vedic literature it is said that the Absolute Truth, the Personality of Godhead, is the chief among all living personalities. All living beings, from the first created being, Brahmā, down to the smallest ant, are individual living entities. And above Brahmā there are many other living beings with individual capacities. The Personality of Godhead Himself is also a living being, as much an individual as other living beings. But the Supreme Lord is the supreme living being, with the greatest mind and the supermost inconceivable energies in great variety. If a man's mind can produce a sputnik, we can very easily imagine that a mind higher than man's can produce wonderful things far superior to man-made sputniks. A reasonable person will accept this argument, but stubborn, obstinate people will not.
Stubborn
Bhagavad-gita As It Is
BG Chapters 13 - 18
There are many philosophical speculations about the constitutional position of the living entities and the Supreme Absolute Truth. Now in this verse the Supreme Personality of Godhead clearly explains that anyone who knows Lord Kṛṣṇa to be the Supreme Person is actually the knower of everything. The imperfect knower goes on simply speculating about the Absolute Truth, but the perfect knower, without wasting his valuable time, engages directly in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, the devotional service of the Supreme Lord. Throughout the whole of Bhagavad-gītā, this fact is being stressed at every step. And still there are so many stubborn commentators on Bhagavad-gītā who consider the Supreme Absolute Truth and the living entities to be one and the same.
Srimad-Bhagavatam
SB Canto 1
But the Supreme Lord, or the supreme living being, has the greatest intelligence, and He possesses supermost inconceivable energies of all different varieties. If a man's brain can produce a space satellite, one can very easily imagine how brains higher than man can produce similarly wonderful things which are far superior. The reasonable person will easily accept this argument, but there are stubborn atheists who would never agree. Śrīla Vyāsadeva, however, at once accepts the supreme intelligence as the parameśvara. He offers his respectful obeisances unto the supreme intelligence addressed as the para or the parameśvara or the Supreme Personality of Godhead. And that parameśvara is Śrī Kṛṣṇa, as admitted in Bhagavad-gītā and other scriptures delivered by Śrī Vyāsadeva and specifically in this Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. In Bhagavad-gītā, the Lord says that there is no other para-tattva (summum bonum) than Himself. Therefore, Śrī Vyāsadeva at once worships the para-tattva, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, whose transcendental activities are described in the Tenth Canto.
He has shown marvelous capacities as a hero, as a householder, as a teacher and as a renouncer. He is accepted as the Supreme Personality of Godhead by such authoritative personalities as Vyāsa, Devala, Asita, Nārada, Madhva, Śaṅkara, Rāmānuja, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, Jīva Gosvāmī, Viśvanātha Cakravartī, Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī and all other authorities of the line. He Himself has declared as much in many places of the authentic literatures. And yet there is a class of men with demoniac mentality who are always reluctant to accept the Lord as the Supreme Absolute Truth. This is partially due to their poor fund of knowledge and partially due to their stubborn obstinacy, which results from various misdeeds in the past and present. Such persons could not recognize Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa even when He was present before them. Another difficulty is that those who depend more on their imperfect senses cannot realize Him as the Supreme Lord. Such persons are like the modern scientist.
SB Canto 2
Because the so-called great leaders of human society are ignorant of this great knowledge of bhakti-yoga and are always engaged in ignoble acts of sense gratification, bewildered by the external energy of the Lord, they are stubborn rebels against the supremacy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and they never agree to surrender unto Him because they are fools, miscreants and the lowest type of human beings. Such faithless nonbelievers may be highly educated in the material sense of the term, but factually they are the greatest fools of the world because by the influence of the external, material nature all their so-called acquisition of knowledge has been made null and void. Therefore all advancement of knowledge in the present context of things is being misused by cats and dogs fighting with one another for sense gratification, and all acquisition of knowledge in science, philosophy, fine arts, nationalism, economic development, religion and great activities are being spoiled by being used as dresses for dead men. There is no utility in the dresses used for covering a coffin of a dead body save getting false applause from the ignorant public. The Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam therefore says again and again that without attainment of the status of bhakti-yoga, all the activities of human society are to be considered absolute failures only.
SB Canto 3
The miracles of meditating on the lotus feet of the Lord with eagerness and devotion are so great that no other process can compare to it. The minds of materialistic persons are so disturbed that it is almost impossible for them to search after the Supreme Truth by personal regulative endeavors. But even such materialistic men, with a little eagerness for hearing about the transcendental name, fame, qualities, etc., can surpass all other methods of attaining knowledge and detachment. The conditioned soul is attached to the bodily conception of the self, and therefore he is in ignorance. Culture of self-knowledge can bring about detachment from material affection, and without such detachment there is no meaning to knowledge. The most stubborn attachment for material enjoyment is sex life. One who is attached to sex life is to be understood as devoid of knowledge. Knowledge must be followed by detachment. That is the way of self-realization. These two essentials for self-realization—knowledge and detachment—become manifest very quickly if one performs devotional service to the lotus feet of the Lord. The word dhīra is very significant in this connection. A person who is not disturbed even in the presence of cause of disturbance is called dhīra. Śrī Yāmunācārya says, "Since my heart has been overwhelmed by the devotional service of Lord Kṛṣṇa, I cannot even think of sex life, and if thoughts of sex come upon me I at once feel disgust." A devotee of the Lord becomes an elevated dhīra by the simple process of meditating in eagerness on the lotus feet of the Lord.
Now a question arises: If the Lord is sitting in the hearts of nondevotees, why are they not moved to become devotees? It may be answered that the stubborn nondevotees are like the barren land or alkaline field, where no agricultural activities can be successful. As part and parcel of the Lord, every individual living entity has a minute quantity of independence, and by misuse of this minute independence, the nondevotees commit offense after offense, to both the Lord and His pure devotees engaged in missionary work. As a result of such acts, they become as barren as an alkaline field, where there is no strength to produce.
Brahmā is teaching us the beginning of arcanā regulations from morning (four o'clock) to night (ten o'clock). Early in the morning, the devotee has to rise from his bed and pray to the Lord, and there are other regulative principles for offering maṅgala-ārati early in the morning. Foolish nondevotees, not understanding the importance of arcanā, criticize the regulative principles, but they have no eyes to see that the Lord also sleeps, by His own will. The impersonal conception of the Supreme is so detrimental to the path of devotional service that it is very difficult to associate with the stubborn nondevotees, who always think in terms of material conceptions.
SB Cantos 10.14 to 12 (Translations Only)
My dear King, Kāliya had 101 prominent heads, and when one of them would not bow down, Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, who inflicts punishment on cruel wrong-doers, would smash that stubborn head by striking it with His feet. Then, as Kāliya entered his death throes, he began wheeling his heads around and vomiting ghastly blood from his mouths and nostrils. The serpent thus experienced extreme pain and misery.
The beautiful gopīs said: O all-powerful one, You should not speak in this cruel way. Do not reject us, who have renounced all material enjoyment to render devotional service to Your lotus feet. Reciprocate with us, O stubborn one, just as the primeval Lord, Śrī Nārāyaṇa, reciprocates with His devotees in their endeavors for liberation.
People in this world are always engaged in sinful activities and are thus bewildered about their real duty, which is to worship You according to Your commandments. This activity would truly bring them good fortune. Let us offer our obeisances unto the all-powerful Lord, who appears as time and suddenly cuts down one's stubborn hope for a long life in this world.
Although I most stubbornly hoped to enjoy the material world, somehow or other detachment has arisen in my heart, and it is making me very happy. Therefore the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Viṣṇu, must be pleased with me. Without even knowing it, I must have performed some activity satisfying to Him.
Other Books by Srila Prabhupada
Teachings of Lord Caitanya
Nectar of Devotion
Once Lord Baladeva began to talk in His sleep as follows:"O lotus-eyed Kṛṣṇa, Your childhood adventures are manifest simply according to Your own will. Therefore, please immediately dispose of the stubborn pride of this Kāliya serpent." By saying this, Lord Baladeva astonished the assembly of the Yadus and made them laugh for some time. Then, yawning so hard as to make ripples on His abdomen, Lord Baladeva, the bearer of the plow, returned to His deep sleep. This is an instance of sleepiness in ecstatic love.
Renunciation Through Wisdom
Unfortunately, the stubborn impersonalists cannot comprehend that the final spiritual destination, beyond even the four Vedic goals (religiosity, economic development, sense gratification, and liberation) is absolutely pure and transcendental love of Godhead. They mistake the devotees of the Lord for sentimentalists and consider them their philosophical opponents. Besides these out-and-out impersonalists, there is a certain group of devotees that has deviated from the path of pure devotion and fallen prey to pretension. These cheaters actually end up following the impersonalists' path of trying to merge with the Supreme Lord. Such materialistic sentimentalists are not counted among the devotees of the Lord. Like their impersonalist counterparts, they cannot understand the true position of the Supreme Lord's name, form, qualities, pastimes, associates, or paraphernalia, for they wrongly consider these transcendental subjects illusory. They act capriciously and confuse the mass of people.
Mukunda-mala-stotra (mantras 1 to 6 only)
The supreme "1" always wants to make our zero efforts valuable by His association, just as a loving father always wants an unhappy son to be in a prosperous position. A rebellious son, however, stubbornly refuses the cooperation of the loving father and thus suffers all sorts of miseries. The Lord, therefore, sends His bona fide representatives to all parts of the material creation, and sometimes He even comes Himself to reclaim His fallen sons. For this purpose He also exhibits the actual life in the transcendental world, which is characterized by relationships with Him in servitorship, friendship, parenthood, and consorthood. All relationships in the material world are but perverted reflections of these original relationships. In the mundane world we experience only the shadow of the reality, which exists in the spiritual world.
Lectures
Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures
Now, that agreement of fighting and in the beginning of Bhagavad-gītā, not to fight, that is the difference. In the beginning he was not in agreement with Kṛṣṇa. He made so many arguments with Kṛṣṇa against fighting. And at the end, he agreed. "Yes," he said. He became a yes man. So we have to become a yes man to the Supreme Lord. That's all. That is the perfection of our spiritual life. Now we are all "no men." God says this, I say "no." Stubborn. I say, "no." Now simply we have to say "yes". That's all. In everything we say, "no" at the present. Present formation of our existence is to say "no." Anything godly, we say "no." We shudder even by the name of God. We have come to a certain stage of our civilized life, that we want to banish God altogether. Not only saying "no," but we now prepare to agree to the point that there is no existence of God. So how much foolish we are becoming day by day in the name of advancement of civilization.
Sinful life means our fault, to remain in ignorance. You take knowledge. There is book of knowledge. There is spiritual master. They are canvassing. We are canvassing, "Come here. Try to understand God consciousness." Nobody is coming. Who is responsible? They are responsible. God is not responsible. For your sinful activities God is not responsible. You are responsible. God is canvassing you, "Please come to Me. I will give you all protection." Oh, I am stubborn: "No. I shall not go to You." Then you suffer. What can be done?
Therefore knowledge, when one understands by the grace of spiritual master—"Oh, I am part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. Why not go to Kṛṣṇa?" Therefore, "even if you are considered to be the most sinful, all sinners, when you are situated in the boat of transcendental knowledge..." This is transcendental knowledge, that "I am part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. So why I am rotting here? Let me see where is Kṛṣṇa." "You will be able to cross over the ocean of miseries." Go on.
So where is the difficulty to understand? Plain thing. Plain thing. But we are stubborn. We do not wish to understand. This is not a sectarian; this is a science. If a child becomes a boy, is that sectarian? The Hindu child becomes a boy, Hindu boy, and the Christian child becomes a Christian. That is outward, Hindu, Muslim, Christian. But within this body... I am Hindu or Christian because I have got this body from the Christian father-mother, Hindu father-mother. But that is body. I am not this body. Therefore we have to understand first that "I am not this body. Therefore I am not Hindu, not Muslim, not Christian, not black, not white. I am pure spirit soul." Ahaṁ brahmāsmi.
Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures
Kṛṣṇa is coming personally, but we are so stubborn, we shall not take to this. We shall not take to this. Avajānanti māṁ mūḍhāḥ (BG 9.11). Na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ prapadyante narādhamāḥ (BG 7.15). Kṛṣṇa says, "These are the classes of men who do not surrender unto Me." Who are they? Duṣkṛtinaḥ. Those who are engaged always in sinful activities. Duṣkṛtinaḥ. Mūḍhāḥ. Rascals without any knowledge. Asses. So duṣkṛtinaḥ mūḍhāḥ and narādhamāḥ, lowest of the mankind, lowest of the mankind. Means this human form of life is meant for understanding Kṛṣṇa and surrender unto Him, but they'll not do. They're busy in so many other rascaldom except Kṛṣṇa consciousness. This is their business, narādhamas. You can say, "Oh, there are so many educated persons, B.A., M.A., D.A.C.'s, and they do not take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness." (aside:) Vaikuṇṭha, you come here. You are in front of the... Agreti dalayam(?). Give him... Yes. You... So you can say that "So many educated persons, they're not taking to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Are they narādhamas, lowest of the mankind?" Yes? The immediate answer is "Yes." "Now, after passing so big, big examination, they have become narādhamas?" "Yes."
The service, the first service is śravaṇaṁ kīrtanam (SB 7.5.23). Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra and hear repeatedly and take prasāda. These are two business of the tongue. So you'll realize. Very simple method. Sevonmukhe hi jihvādau svayam... Kṛṣṇa will reveal, not that by your endeavor you can understand Kṛṣṇa, but your endeavor in the loving service, that will make you qualified. Kṛṣṇa will reveal. Svayam eva sphuraty adaḥ. Kṛṣṇa is very much anxious to take you back home, back to Godhead. But we are stubborn. We do not wish. So He's always finding out the opportunity how you can be taken back home, back to Godhead. Just like affectionate father. Rascal son left his father, loitering in the street and have no shelter, no food, suffering so much. The father is more anxious to take the boy home. Similarly, Kṛṣṇa is the supreme father. All these living entities within this material world, they're exactly like the misled child of a big, rich man, loitering in the street. Therefore the greatest benefit to the human society is to give him Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Greatest... You cannot give any benefit; any kind of material profit will not satisfy the living entity. If he's given this Kṛṣṇa consciousness... Just like the same process. A bewildered boy is loitering in the street. If he's reminded, "My dear boy, why you are suffering so much? You are the son of such and such very rich man. Your father has got so much property. Why you are loitering in the street?" And if he comes to his consciousness: "Yes, I am the son of such and such big man. Why shall I loiter in the street?" He goes back home. Yad gatvā na nivartante (BG 15.6).
So God comes here in His person. He leaves behind Him His instruction, just like Bhagavad-gītā. He leaves behind Him His devotees who can explain. But still we are so stubborn, we shall not accept God. This is the foolishness, mūḍha. They have been called mūḍhāḥ, rascals, fools. God is there; God's energy is there. If you cannot see God, you see God's energy. Just like if you cannot see the electric powerhouse and the engineer who is within the powerhouse generating the power, but you should understand you are using electricity in so many ways. You are using in kitchen, you are using floor cleansing, using your, I mean to say, cleansing and so many things you are using. Your tape recorder, everything. In your country, especially, everything electric, every... So one should inquire—that is intelligence—that wherefrom this electricity's coming?
Some way or other. So therefore, people are in trouble because so many rascals, they somehow or other manage to get some vote and become the president and minister and... So what they know? They do not know how to govern, how to bring peace in the country. But this monarchy, Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira, just see. Because for the sake of his personal interest so many have been killed, he was sorry. Just see. Not that some way or other, you divide India: "Let me become Prime Minister, that's all." We have got political information that in India when it was..., the proposal was for partition, Gandhi was completely against this partition. He said, "Better I will have no independence; still, I shall not allow the country to be divided." He was stubborn on this point. But he was absent, and in the meantime our, the big Prime Minister signed it, agreed, partition because he wanted to be prime minister anyway, some way or other. "Let the country go to hell." This is politician, going on.
We had our syllabus studying Kumāra-sambhava in our I.A. class in college. So there the example, Kālidāsa is giving example: the dhīra is Lord Śiva. Just see. The story is when Lord Śiva lost his wife in the dakṣa-yajña... Dākṣāyaṇī, daughter of Mahārāja Dakṣa, became the wife of Lord Śiva. And because Lord Śiva sometimes by chance did not show any good respect to Dakṣa, so there was misunderstanding between the son-in-law and father-in-law, and the episode ended that Dākṣāyaṇī, the wife of Lord Śiva, gave her life. His (her) father was very much angry upon the son-in-law. So she wanted to mitigate the misunderstanding, but her father was very stubborn. So at last she said, "My dear father, you are thinking of Lord Śiva, my husband, as ordinary man, and you have become so angry. So this is due... You are thinking that I am your daughter. So all right, I have got this body from you. I am returning you." So she immediately died.
So duṣpārasya... Duṣpārasya, this material world is duṣpārasya, very, very difficult to cross over it. Therefore unless one understands what is God, what is Kṛṣṇa, what is His position, where does He live, why our relation should be revived, then he's in darkness. He's darkness. But one can be enlightened by the mercy of God. Because Kṛṣṇa comes Himself to inform. He sends His devotee door to door. He leaves behind Him Bhagavad-gītā, but we are so foolish, we do not take advantage of it. We do not take advantage of Bhagavad-gītā. We do not take advantage of His devotees who are hankering after giving this knowledge, sacrificing everything. But we are so stubborn, dogs' obstinacy, that we'll not take advantage of them.
I became revolting to the desires. Kṛṣṇa says... Every one of us revolting now also. Kṛṣṇa says, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66), but we are revolting, "Why? Why shall I surrender to You? This is too much You are demanding." This is going on. This is going on. This is the disease. And to cure the disease Kṛṣṇa Himself comes. Yadā yadā hi dharmasya glānir bhavati, tadātmānaṁ sṛjāmi (BG 4.7). But we are so stubborn that we won't, do not like to be cured.
So what Kṛṣṇa will do? How Kṛṣṇa will help? He is coming. He is sending His devotee. He is leaving behind Him the śāstras. Ataeva kṛṣṇa veda-purāṇa karila. The Vedic literature, Veda, Purāṇa... "So I elaborately explained the Vedic ideals in the Purāṇas." Purāṇa means supplementary. They are not to be neglected, the history. Then Mahābhārata, then Vedānta Purāṇa, er, Vedānta philosophy, then explanation of Vedānta philosophy, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. And Mahābhārata means which contains Bhagavad-gītā. So many literatures there are. And who has made it? Made it, Vyāsadeva. Vyāsadeva is Kṛṣṇa's incarnation.
So therefore this is the astra. To kill the miscreants this is astra, this hari-saṅkīrtana. If they'll simply chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, this is astra that will kill all their sinful reaction of life, then become devotee. This is astra. Now it is not required the bows and arrows or... Because they're already dead, because they have no conception of God. Simply fighting how to avoid God, this is their business. It is very difficult to convince them about the existence of... They're seeing every moment there is existence of God, but they're so stubborn, so much bewildered by māyā, they'll not. So, under the circumstances, Caitanya Mahāprabhu, He's therefore called namo mahā-vadānyāya, most munificent incarnation. Why? Kṛṣṇa-prema-pradāya te (CC Madhya 19.53). Even without understanding Kṛṣṇa, simply by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra they become ecstatic for love of Kṛṣṇa. This is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's benediction: no qualification, but if he simply chants Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra he'll be ecstatic. Kṛṣṇa-prema-pradāya te.
So the time is very, very, bad, and even there is attempt to deliver them, they are so rigid and so stubborn, dog obstinacy, they want to remain in the doggish condition of life. It is very, very difficult. But Caitanya Mahāprabhu is so kind. Kṛṣṇa said in the Bhagavad-gītā,
- manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu
- kaścid yatati siddhaye
- yatatām api siddhānāṁ
- kaścid vetti māṁ tattvataḥ
- (BG 7.3)
To understand Kṛṣṇa is not so easy thing. Manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu After many, many millions of persons, one tries to become siddha. Siddha means to understand what he is, jñāna. That is brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā (BG 18.54). And yatatām api siddhānām... (BG 7.3). Just like there are two classes of transcendentalists: the Māyāvādī and the Vaiṣṇava. That is all over the world. So Māyāvādī, they are supposed to be siddhas. They are not siddha, but they are trying to become siddha, to understand the spiritual position. Neti neti: "I am not this; I am not this; I am not this."
Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures
We have got hundreds of centers, but this is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's birthplace. You have come from very, very distant places all over the world. So here, you simply take prasādam, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa twenty-four hours, then your life is successful. It is not at all difficult. But we are so stubborn that we do not take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is our misfortune. But still, as we struggle against misfortune, to become fortunate in the material world, similarly, we have to struggle against misfortune. Māyā is very strong. But the way is also there, how to get out of the clutches of māyā. Pāsate māyā tāre jāpaṭīyā dhare. Māyā has captured by embracing, just like if you capture somebody very tightly, it is very difficult to go out. Hands and legs are all caught up. Similarly, we are under the clutches of māyā in that way. But māyā's business is just to punish, but as soon as we surrender to Kṛṣṇa, immediately māyā lets loose. Yes. Māyām etāṁ taranti te (BG 7.14). Very easy thing.
So three: God, devotee, and the innocent. And dviṣat, envious, atheist class. He has to see four things, and he has to deal with four persons differently. With God, īśvare prema: how to advance my love for God, these dealings. Prema-maitrī, and to the devotees, we have to make friendship with them. Prema-maitrī. And to the innocent, we have to preach, kṛpā: "Oh, here is an innocent person. He does not know; he's eager to learn." There teaching is required. Teaching, you cannot teach God or you cannot teach God's devotees. But you can teach the innocent. And those who are dviṣat, atheist, upekṣā, don't go there, save yourself. These are the four things. So when one is not open to hear, then don't bother yourself. That requires very strong preacher to convince the atheist class, provided he is reasonable also. If he's stubborn, obstinate, then it is also very difficult. But preaching is meant, innocent, that one who is actually sincere but he does not know what is God, what is my relationship with God, there is necessity of preaching. Not to the envious or those who are already advanced, or to God. This is the... Hmm. Bālīya.
Teṣāṁ satata-yuktānām. Those... The spiritual master's duty is to lead a person, a forgotten soul, to the right way in terms of the śāstra and scripture, and when he begins sincerely and with love and seriously, then the next stage is that God within, who is sitting within you, He'll dictate, "Yes, you do like this. You do like this." So in every respect the Lord is trying to help us. But we are so much stubborn, we don't like to take advantage of this position. Oh, he says, "Why shall I take all this? I am very happy." There is a story in the Bhāgavata that once Indra, the king of heaven, he was condemned by his spiritual master, Bṛhaspati, that "You are so foolish. You should have become a hog." So he became a hog. So after some days, when the throne of the heavenly kingdom was vacant, Brahmā went to reclaim this hog, Indra, that "Come to your place." So when the hog was requested that "You are Indra. Why you are suffering? Now you come. I have come to take you," so the hog says, "Oh! I do not know what I am, Indra. I have got my responsibility. I cannot leave this place." Just see. Even the hog—you can just imagine what is the standard of his living—he thinks also that "I am very happy. I am very happy." The stool-eating and this nasty place, and "Oh, I have got a very comfortable life." So this is the, I mean to say, prakṣepātmikā.
Therefore such persons who are simply wasting their time in that way, if they think that "I have become liberated." So Bhāgavata says that their intelligence is not purified. They are less intelligent still, because the result of his being qualified is not being utilized. He's not engaged in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. The whole thing is that you have to meditate. Then meditate, you have to practice the haṭha-yoga. Haṭha-yoga is the practice for the person who is too much addicted to this body. One who has got very stubborn conviction that "I am this body," for them, such foolish creatures are recommended that "You try to exercise and see what is there within you." Meditation. But one who knows that "I am not this body," he begins immediately that "I am not this body; I am pure soul, and I am part and parcel of the Supreme Lord. So my duty is to serve the Supreme." It is very simple truth. If I am part and parcel of the Supreme, then what is my duty? That you can understand from any example. As we have several times discussed, the part and parcel of my body, these hands, legs, oh they are engaged in service of the whole body. The part and parcel of this body, hand, what is it meant for? It is meant for serving the whole body. Similarly, if I am part and parcel of the Supreme Lord, then what is my duty? My duty is to abide by the orders of the Lord. That is the version of all Vedic scriptures. And Bhagavad-gītā is the essence of all Vedic scripture. It says, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja: (BG 18.66) "You give up all other engagement. Just be surrendered unto Me and be engaged in My service." This is perfection.
Festival Lectures
Similarly, there are two kinds of living entities: nitya-baddha, nitya-mukta, eternally liberated and eternally conditioned. You see? So for the conditioned... They will never agree to abide by God. Therefore, for them, this material world, the external energy: "All right, you do whatever you like. You do according to..." But still, there is canvassing work. Oh, God sends His son to canvass, "Oh, this is not your right engagement. Please come back to home, back to Godhead." Kṛṣṇa comes. God Himself comes. He sends His devotees. He comes as a devotee just to again reclaim, but they are so stubborn, they will not give up this habit. Even in their so-called spiritual cultivation they are thinking that "I am God. I am the mover of the sun. I am the mover of the moon. I am the supreme," in this way. That is the disease. You see? So as for the diseased person, there is a hospital. There is operation is going on. So many severe things are going on. Similarly, for the criminal there is prison department. So it is not the government's desire that there should be hospital or prisonhouse. They can save so much money. But the people want it. A class of men, third-class men, they want this. They want to be diseased. They want to be criminals. So there must be some department for them. Just like Monte Carlo. So this is a facility for the living entities, for the slight independence which has been given by God to them. That's all.
So you all present, you sign this. I shall send it tomorrow. The verse I have composed, it is in Sanskrit. Vairāgya-vidyā-nija-bhakti-yogam (CC Madhya 6.254). This Kṛṣṇa consciousness is vairāgya-vidyā. Vairāgya-vidyā means to become detestful to this material world. That is called vairāgya-vidya. And that is possible simply by this bhakti-yoga. Vairāgya-vidyā-nija-bhakti-yogam apāyayan mām. So this... Just like medicine. The child is afraid of taking medicine. That also I have experienced. In my childhood, when I became ill, I was very stubborn. I won't accept any medicine. So my mother used to force medicine within my mouth with a spoon. I was so obstinate. So anyway, similarly, I did not want to accept this sannyāsa order, but this Godbrother forced me. "You must." Apāyayan mām, he forcefully made me to drink this medicine. Anabhīpsu andham. Why I was unwilling? Anabhīpsu means unwilling. Andham, andham means one who is blind, who cannot see his future. The spiritual life is the brightest future, but the materialists cannot see to it. You see? But the Vaiṣṇavas, the spiritual master, they forcefully, "You drink this medicine." You see.
General Lectures
So from the conclusion of various Vedic literatures, there is no need of studying even the dharma-śāstras. Otherwise, why Kṛṣṇa says that sarva-dharmān parityajya (BG 18.66)? Sarva-dharmān means the dharma-śāstra also. Simply surrender. But people are so rigid and so, I mean to say, doggish, that they do not like to surrender to Kṛṣṇa. For them only, so many different ways of convincing. Otherwise, the whole purpose is to induce him to surrender to Kṛṣṇa. Vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vidyam. Kṛṣṇa says. All these Vedic literatures, they are meant for bending the stubborn atheist to come to this point. Therefore there are so many ways of... Otherwise, the ultimate goal is to surrender to Kṛṣṇa and chant His holy name.
So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is practically Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu's movement. And Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu is Kṛṣṇa Himself. So Kṛṣṇa is very kind upon the conditioned soul. He is trying to elevate them to the real platform of Kṛṣṇa consciousness again and again. But we are so stubborn, we are trying to forget Kṛṣṇa again and again. This is going on. So Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu's mission is... Especially He is instructing to the Indian people. He is saying to the Indian people, bhārata-bhūmite manuṣya-janma haila yāra (CC Adi 9.41). Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu appeared in Bengal, you know, in the district of Navadvīpa, about sixty-four miles from Calcutta, northern side. So His life and precepts are there. We have translated many books. You'll find Teachings of Lord Caitanya and Caitanya-caritāmṛta, almost seventeen volumes, Caitanya-caritāmṛta. And we have summarized the teaching in one volume. So you can learn about the teachings of Caitanya Mahāprabhu. But the summary of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu's teaching is like this. He says to every Indian, not only Bengalis... It is not that because He appeared in Bengal, therefore He advised to the Bengalis. He is especially speaking to the Indians.
Conversations and Morning Walks
1967 Conversations and Morning Walks
1969 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Not indefinitely. If you become Kṛṣṇa conscious, then you haven't got to change this material body. You are transferred to the spiritual world. There is eternal body.
Student (4): Oh. Does everyone go there or only some?
Prabhupāda: It is accepted that everyone goes. But if somehow you are stubborn to remain here, how one can help? (laughter) Just like the university is open for everyone. But somebody is stubborn to go to the prison department. So how the government can help? Government does not say that "Some selected people come to the university, and others go to the prison department." It is open for everyone, but it is the particular mentality—one is going to the university; one is going to the prison house. That is your individual independence. That is your choice. Just like so many students, they have come here. Others have not come here. So everyone has got little independence. So everyone can go to the spiritual world if he likes. But if he does not like, he will remain here. That is his choice.
1973 Conversations and Morning Walks
Paramahaṁsa: They don't want to admit their failure.
Prabhupāda: That is another foolishness. If you are a fool and if you want to pose yourself as intelligent, that is another foolishness. You cannot make progress. Stubborn dogs. If you are seeking after knowledge, you must take the right knowledge. That is intelligence. And if you want to remain in ignorance and advertise yourself that "I am man of knowledge," how much cheater you are! You are cheating yourself and cheating others. That is going on. We want to stop this.
Paramahaṁsa: Just like many of our devotees, we experienced when we tried to preach to our parents, because they are much older, to admit that Kṛṣṇa consciousness is the right path in life, means to also admit that they have wasted their entire life.
Prabhupāda: Real knowledge is to be given to the younger section. Older section, it is not possible. They will have to forget first of all, what they have learned. That they cannot. Therefore it is impossible. Therefore knowledge begins from the school children, not from the man who is going to die. (laughing) That is not... Impractical. Therefore Prahlāda Mahārāja said kaumāra ācaret prājño dharmān bhāgavatān: (SB 7.6.1) "Kṛṣṇa consciousness should be taught from the very childhood." Not that at the time of death. That is not possible. Therefore our students, they are all young generation, they capture. These rascals, they cannot. Old fools, they cannot. There was a practical examination. One father and one daughter, both appeared for BA examination in India. The daughter passed and the father failed. It was in the newspaper. In old age they cannot take any lessons. They forget.
Bhagavān: The trouble with these philosophies is these philosophers are simply stubborn.
Prabhupāda: Eh?
Bhagavān: The problem with these different discussions is these philosophers are simply stubborn. When they hear a better philosophy, they still will not change.
Prabhupāda: That, that is independence. That is also independence. You accept: "Yes, what you say, it is right. But I'll not accept." That is also independence, misuse of independence.
Yogeśvara: Like Dhṛtarāṣṭra, when he heard the arguments from Vidura.
Prabhupāda: Yes. So God's creation is perfect. There is no imperfect.
1974 Conversations and Morning Walks
Bali Mardana: Yeah.
Prabhupāda: So much fighting was there. Immediately I went and purchase and everything stopped. (devotees laugh) They are surprised. This man, they... You know there are two very stubborn parties who have cheated. Chaganlal, he advanced fifty-one thousand as advance, and when there was question of settlement, so he came, he wanted that "If you give me three lakhs, then I'll compromise." So I was prepared to pay him three lakhs. So that Mr. Ganotra, Mayor, I induced him just to make settlement. Then down he came-two lakhs twenty-five thousand. Then asked Mrs. Nair, "Now you'll pay this..." Where I have got... If he takes all money, then what shall I get? Then I had to settle with her how much he will pay. So she came from one lakh to one lakh, forty thousand. So what is the balance?
Bali Mardana: Sixty. Sixty... Eighty-five thousand.
Prabhupāda: Ah? Eighty-five. So I said, "Yes, I'll pay it. Settle up. The balance I'll pay." Eighty-five thousand. The other man, what is called? Ratna Parik?
Karandhara: Chaganlal.
Pradyumna: Mām evaiṣyasi yuktvaivam ātmānaṁ mat-parāyaṇaḥ.
Prabhupāda: In another place it is said asaṁśaya, that is in the Eighteenth Chapter. So to go back to home, back to Godhead, is very easy, but people will not take to it. They are stubborn; they will stick here, the miserable life, material life. This is the difficulty. Otherwise, God can be achieved very easily. Man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru (BG 18.65). Four things.
- yoginām api sarveṣāṁ
- mad-gatenāntarātmanā
- śraddhāvān bhajate yo māṁ
- sa me yukta(tamo mataḥ)
- (BG 6.47)
The first-class yogis. Actually no education required. Simply God has given us the tongue and the ear. So it's Hare Kṛṣṇa, tongue, and hear with the ear. Śruti-gatāṁ tanu-vāṅ-manobhir: by hearing, the sound enters into the heart. In this way you become purified, mind is cleansed, ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12). It is very scientific and very easy. And we are recommending—"we" means Caitanya Mahāprabhu—He says that "You chant the name of God." Now, if somebody thinks "Kṛṣṇa is Hindu God, why shall I chant?" it doesn't matter. You chant your conception of God. What is the name of God in Christianity? Is there any name?
Prabhupāda: That everyone says. All rascals says like that. Humanitarian. He does not know what is humanitarian. And then killing one capitalist or communist and this and that. Sophistry. Fascist and communist. This is their humanitarian work.
Devotee: He's like one of these rascals who translates the Bhagavad-gītā in a certain way like saying the five Pāṇḍavas are the five senses, and the battlefield is the body?
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Devotee: And here we're having a fight with the body, but he doesn't accept that Kṛṣṇa is...
Prabhupāda: Their only business is to escape Kṛṣṇa.
Devotee: They're trying to interpret that Kṛṣṇa is just our own intelligence or...
Bhagavān: The point is even when they see the practical proof, they don't accept it. They're so stubborn.
Prabhupāda: You be strong. Don't be... They cannot conquer us. But you be more strong. (end)
1975 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: (break) ...if people do not like, that is another thing. What is the wrong if I say, "Please chant Hare Kṛṣṇa."? If you don't chant, that is your choice. There is no difficulty. If you agree that "Swamiji asking me. We'll chant," you can chant. But if you don't do it, that is your business. The task it not difficult. Task is very easy. Even a child can do it. But if you are stubborn, "No, no, I will not do it," then what can be done? (?) Enechi auṣadhi māyā nāśibāro... You know this song, huh? Caitanya Mahāprabhu says... You have got this cassette? Jīv jāgo, jīv jāgo, gauracānda bole.
Devotee (1): I may have it in my briefcase. Yes.
Prabhupāda: So He is canvassing, "Now get up. How you are remaining in ignorance still? You have got this human form of body; still, you remain as cats and dogs. Why is that? This is spell of māyā. You get up." "No, I am very much... I cannot break out of this. Too much I am afflicted." Then he says, "I have got medicine." Enechi auṣadhi. "I have got the medicine. You take it." Enechi auṣadhi māyā nāśibāro lāgi', hari-nāma mahā-mantra lao tumi māgi'. "You take it from Me, hari-nāma mahā-mantra." So this is our mission. We have got the medicine to awake the people from this ignorance. He doesn't know anything. He is busy only with his fifty years. Nowadays less still, we live, such rascaldom we are. "We have got the medicine. Now you take it." This is our canvassing, Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra. If you don't agree, that is your business. That is your misfortune. The disease is there, and the remedy is also there. So we offer you the remedy free of charges, and if you don't take it, then it should be understood that you are so misfortunate, unfortunate.
Prabhupāda: Hm?
Dhṛṣṭaketu: That frustration or that...
Prabhupāda: Well... Kṛṣṇa failed to give mercy, and what devotee will do? They are stubborn to stick to their principle. Kṛṣṇa said personally, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām (BG 18.66), but who is going to do that? And what the devotees will do?
Vāsughoṣa: If we just engage them in devotional service will they ultimately become purified?
Prabhupāda: Yes. That is our mission. Somehow or other go on repeatedly saying.
Vāsughoṣa: Because even that atheist hippie, when he was... after he was talking to me about the cigarettes, then the next morning I sold him a book, so he gave twenty rupees.
Prabhupāda: Yes, that is the way. Some way or other, induce. (break) Obstinacy. What is that, "dog obstinacy"?
Dhṛṣṭaketu: They say, "Stubborn as an ass."
Prabhupāda: Hm. (break) ...selling different types of religious system so that one may not have to surrender to Kṛṣṇa. This is going on.
Prabhupāda: So many rascals. One scientist came to talk with me in California. And he: "God? What is God? We have now solved everything." And you are rascal, demon.
Dr. Patel: He should be asked to "Make a single living cell yourself. We'll give you all the ingredients, all the chemicals, and make us a living cell. If you can make it?" That should be the answer to that.
Prabhupāda: They are so foolish. I very strongly talk with them. Still, stubborn, doggish. That scientist, I told him in his..., that "You are a demon." I told him, "You are a demon." So he tolerated. (laughs)
Dr. Patel: They are serving the Mammon and not God.
Prabhupāda: So, so many psychologists, psychiatrists, scientists, they come there in Los Angeles.
Dr. Patel: I mean, the psychologists are the real science which can lead a man to the higher understanding of life, psychologists. The abstract sciences of biology and psychics, chemistry, are little lower sciences. The psychology is much higher.
Prabhupāda: No science is perfect. Asato dhavato bahiḥ.
Dr. Patel: In imperfection also there can be gradations.
Prabhupāda: Gradations, that I give the example: stool, this side and that side, the dry side and the moist side. Somebody says, "Oh, this side is very good. It is dry stool." (laughter)
Harikeśa: Calmly come to discussion.
Prabhupāda: This the..., this theory is going on perpetually, whether there is soul or not. But these people, these Russians, they are so ignorant, they will not allow anybody to believe that there is soul. Atheistic, stubborn atheistic. Although they cannot answer this question that there must be something superior which is moving this body. And they cannot answer the, what is that superior element.
Harikeśa: The unknown chemical.
Prabhupāda: Not unknown. It is unknown to you. But known to us. If it is unknown to you, you take, you know it from me. That is real knowledge. Why you persist that "It is unknown"? It should remain ever unknown? Why shall I take from anyone else? That's a fact. Either you answer what is that element which is missing so that the body is now dead. Simply your denial is obstinacy. That is dog's obstinacy. Then you are like a dog. You answer that: "This is the reason." Make experiment; prove it. Then you are right. So long you cannot do it, simply denying, that is dog's obstinacy. If you, as you say, there is no soul, it is chemical combination, so bring the chemicals and put him into life. Then your statement is right. You cannot do it and simply persist. This is doggish. You are calling a lump of matter your father, your child, your relative, and when the soul is gone, you say, "Oh, my father is gone." Why your father is gone? He's lying there on the bed. The same coat, pant, face, ear, eyes. Why do you say, "My father has gone"? What is this nonsense? So that chemical combination is your father? Bring your father again, chemical combination. Hmm? What is the answer? Some foolish, rubbish thing, presentation, will it be accepted as knowledge?
1976 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Just see.
Yaśodānandana: This has been recorded...
Prabhupāda: This is the punishment, yes. Punishment there is always. But they are so stubborn fools still.
Dharmādhyakṣa: Prabhupāda, the one great brain researcher, he spent nineteen years searching for the memory in the brain.
Prabhupāda: There is a story that two friends talking that, on the point that "How this was cut, separated?" So one friend said, "It is by knife." And the other friend said, "No, it was by scissor." So they went on.... One said, "No! It is knife." He said, "No! It is scissor." So the knife man was very strong. So he took him to the water, that "You say it is knife. Otherwise I shall drown you." (laughter) So he said, "I'll never say." Then he said.... When he was drowning, he was doing like this, (Prabhupāda gesticulates) (laughter) "Scissor, scissor." When he was actually drowned and he had no other means to say, then he was doing like this: "It is scissor. It is scissor." This is their argument. However punished they may be, they'll do this. (laughter)
Prabhupāda: Again the same.
Madhudviṣa: But you must give us some time because we are working hard...
Prabhupāda: I shall. I shall give you kick. (laughter) I shall give you kick. And no time. I shall give you kick.
Madhudviṣa: Well that's not very scientific.
Prabhupāda: No. It is scientific. You are a stubborn.... "Scissor philosophy."
Dharmādhyakṣa: Most brain researchers admit they could never create a brain.
Prabhupāda: Eh?
Dharmādhyakṣa: Most brain scientists will admit they could never make a brain. Too difficult.
Hṛdayānanda: Scissor philosophy.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Scissor philosophy.
Hṛdayānanda: Scissor philosophy and the frog philosophy.
Dharmādhyakṣa: (break) ...something else.
Prabhupāda: Just see. They.... At last, they'll accept: "Yes, I foolish. Yes."
Prabhupāda: Hm.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Okay, you want to read it, Dhṛṣṭadyumna? 'Cause it is actually very useful, if not now, in the future, because this report is based on a lot of research. Read. (break)
Prabhupāda: ...that if they are rascals, then don't try. You see? Reject them. But there is good potency in your country. You do peacefully here. If they are rascals, means stubborn rascals...
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You cannot imagine how rascal they are. That's why we wrote this report.
Prabhupāda: Then don't try. Don't waste time.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's a.... The Christians, they have a boat two hundred miles off the China coast, and they put little Bibles in cellophane bags and let the Bibles float into China.
Dhṛṣṭadyumna: Balloons.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Balloons. That's how hard it is to preach there.
Prabhupāda: That is also nonsense.
Prabhupāda: That means the little children's policy. Children, just like imagining so many things, "I shall do that. I shall do." The potter's imagination. You know that? Potter's imagination? You do not know the story? One potter is selling earthen pots, and he is saying that "Now, these two paisā, it has cost me one paisā. I shall make one paisā profit. Then I can make such profit. I shall invest again. I shall make another profit, another profit. In this way I shall become millionaire. Then I shall marry, and my wife shall be very obedient. And if (s)he does not become obedient, I shall give him a kick like this." And he, what was.... One pot was there. He kicked that pot and broke. (laughter) It broke. "Oh, again I am poor man." So this is going on, imagination. Imagination.... "I shall become so great that I shall kick Kṛṣṇa's law," and whatever pot he had-broken. That's all. Rascals, simply rascals. If anyone thinks like that, that "I shall surpass the laws of nature," then he's madman. He's madman. So what is the use of dealing with madmen? And as soon as you challenge them that "Show us that you have surpassed the laws of nature," "Yes, we are trying. In future we shall do." That's all. This is their reply. So it is better to avoid such men. But if you peacefully you can introduce, "All right, you will do. You are wonderful men, so kindly if you read some pages of this, it is not very costly. You can keep. At leisure hour you can read," in this way, imploring, then they will be benefited. That much we can do to any rascal. He sādhavaḥ sakalam eva vihāya dūrāt caitanya-candra-caraṇe: "Oh, you are so nice. Therefore I am flattering you. I humbly obeisance. Kindly hear one thing. Keep some books. It is not very costly." Bas. This much you can do. And let them become puffed up by their false notions. But if they keep some books, sometimes they will read or their sons will read. That's all. Therefore I am stressing so much on books, that if the puffed-up rascals take some book and sometimes, if they read, he'll be benefited, perfectly benefited. So distribute these books anywhere possible. It doesn't matter where it is. The same process. Dante nidhāya tṛṇakaṁ padayor nipatya. The books will sell, that "You rascal number one, you set aside whatever learned. Read this." He sādhavaḥ sakalam eva vihāya: "You are very learned, but forget what you have learned, all rascaldom. Try to read this book." Tāvac ca śobhate mūrkho yāvat kiñcin na bhāṣate: "A rascal fool is very beautifully dressed, very nice sitting. But his rascaldom will be disclosed as soon as he will speak." So these rascals, as soon as they speak, "We shall surpass the laws of nature," then we can understand what kind of rascals. Tāvac ca śobhate mūrkhaḥ. By their, these words we can take, "Oh, rascaldom," at once. "I shall break the wall. I shall push the mountain with my head." It is like that. If somebody is thinking that "I shall push the Himalayan mountains by knocking with my head," then we can understand. So where it is? A rascal, the innocent, he is also rascal. But innocent is eager to become intelligent, so there we shall deal. And the stubborn atheists, they are dviṣat. They cannot be corrected immediately, unless they become ruined. (break) ...their standard of life. Try for that. Concentrate in your country. There is no need of going.... I was written, asking you that, that "If it is very hard job, don't try for that, useless waste of time." Incorrigible. So what is the use of going to a person...?
Hari-śauri: Because he doesn't allow them to speculate.
Prabhupāda: He is very strict. He is a stubborn enemy of Śaṅkarācārya. All the Vaiṣṇava ācāryas. Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, declare it: māyāvādi-bhāṣya śunile haya sarva-nāśa (CC Madhya 6.169). If you hear the interpretation of Māyāvādīs, then you are doomed. You have no hope for spiritual advancement. This is the statement. Māyāvādi-bhāṣya śunile haya sarva-nāśa. Finished, your spiritual life is finished. You can write this also, that Caitanya Mahāprabhu's instruction is strictly to avoid the so-called Vedantists.
Hari-śauri: All these impersonalists, they always represent themselves as being big Vedantists. They don't know anything.
Prabhupāda: And people, leaders of India, they are thinking, "Where is this Vedantist?" In foreign countries, what is their position?
Hari-śauri: Somehow or other, they seem to think that the Vedānta is something better than any of the other śāstra. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam doesn't seem to be so popular in India as Vedānta or something like that.
Prabhupāda: It is very popular amongst the Māyāvāda people. You speak also... Now the so-called Vedantists they are speaking on Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, distorting. Akhoyananda, Akandananda, Karpatri, the rascals. Because they have no subject matter to speak, they are distorting the meaning of Bhāgavata. This boy appears to be nice, this fat boy.
Ātreya Ṛṣi: That's the business of the representative.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Because God is equal to everyone. He sees that these rascal asuras are misguided, so He sends His representative, He comes Himself, there is śāstras, guidance, and everything. The whole propaganda is how these rascal asuras can be turned into devatā. This is equality in the eyes of God. Very simple thing. Just like government puts a person into prison house. The idea is to correct him. Not that government is enemy of a class of men, they are put into the prison house. Government is equal. But there is department of punishing this... (aside:) (indistinct) Government is equal to everyone, but there is this department of reformation which is called jail department. He's punished so that he may come to his senses that "I have done wrong." But unfortunately there are stubborn criminals, they are not corrected. They go and again come, go and again come. One term finished, another term. One term finished... That is transmigration. One term finished, punishment, and another term begins. He creates another term. So that is daiva netreṇa. That is superior arrangement. Now this rascal has finished his human form of life, now again he has committed so many sins, let him become a dog.
Dr. Kneupper: We have many of them in our library...
Prabhupāda: Yes. So there is knowledge. If people kindly take it everything will be solved. But they have stubbornly denied, "No God." And I am stubbornly fighting, "Yes, there is God." That is the... Now the whole America is combining to fight against me, opposition, that "This man is brainwashing, controlling the mind, and our children are kidnapped." They are bringing these charges against us. Just like you have come. Have I kidnapped you?
Dr. Kneupper: Oh, no.
Prabhupāda: But these rascals say that I have kidnapped their children.
Indian man (2): But judgment has been taken.
Prabhupāda: There must be judgment, but people have become so rascal. So I am trying to convince, although single-handed, that "There is God," and they are bringing opposition.
1977 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: ...Darjeeling we were hiring these ho.... (break)
Gurudāsa: (whispers) Tape always runs out on places like that. (Hari-śauri laughs)
Prabhupāda: Mules, I have seen, if they stop, you can beat like anything; still, it will not move.
Gurudāsa: Yes. "Stubborn as a mule" is a proverb in the West.
Prabhupāda: I have seen. The soldiers are beating with the butts of the gun—still (laughter) not going. So many varieties of life we had to pass through, and with great fortune we get this human form of body. And that also we waste in the same business—punaḥ punaś carvita-carvaṇānām (SB 7.5.30), misguided. Labdhvā sudurlabham idam bahu-sambhavānte (SB 11.9.29). After many, many births this human form—people do not understand. Sudurlabham. Durlabham means rare, and sudurlabham means still...
Dr. Patel: More rare.
Prabhupāda: But the rascals, they do not take it very seriously. They think...
Dr. Patel: Such mules,(?) like me. Aneka-janma saṁsiddha sayati paramaṁ gatim.
Prabhupāda: Sudurlabham. Sudurlabha: it is not very easily obtainable. Labdhvā manuṣyam. Kaumāra ācaret prājño dharmān bhāgavatān... (SB 7.6.1), durlabhaṁ manuṣya... Prahlāda Mahārāja says. Somewhere sudurlabham, somewhere durlabham. Durlabhaṁ manuṣyam. There is no education about the importance of manuṣya janma. They have taken it that we shall die once. Who says that once born, once we get the..., this and then finished? "Once life got."
Hari-śauri: You can go, and they have sideshows, men and women having sex on the stage at regular intervals, and they exhibit all kinds of contraptions that you can use to pervert your sex life even more.
Prabhupāda: What they will understand about this Kṛṣṇa consciousness?
Hari-śauri: There's not very much hope for them.
Prabhupāda: Help is for everyone, but if they remain stubborn to their own way of life, then it is not possible. They have to wash the brain. Otherwise it is possible.
Hari-śauri: You explain in the Bhāgavatam that everything actually is just an extension of the sex desire.
Prabhupāda: That's it.
Hari-śauri: Their whole big cities and so much industry...
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Hari-śauri: ...and work is just simply...
Prabhupāda: For the central point-vagina. Yan maithunādi-gṛhamedhi-sukhaṁ hi tuccham (SB 7.9.45). The other day... Maithunyam agāram ajñaḥ vindati tāpān.
Hari-śauri: They are just stubborn.
Prabhupāda: Stupidity. The father is there. Not only ordinary father, but the ablest, most powerful father. And we shall not take care? We shall not take care of the property of the father? It is my right to inherit the property of the father. That is natural. And I shall deny and loiter in the street? And the greatest benefit to the human society... Because the mad son is loitering in the street without any information of the father, to bring him back before the father. That is the best. He will be happy. This is our position.
Prabhupāda: All rascals, they...
Dr. Sharma: This is a perfect example of what Prabhupāda is saying, because this is not justified on any account-moral, ethical, medical...
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Or financial.
Dr. Sharma: Or financial. They only waste their time, and this is, you know, an example of how stubborn man can be, especially the scientists. The real transplant that was done was done by the Lord Śiva when he did transplant of the head of Lord Gaṇeśa. That was the only successful transplant I know of.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: So we will come back about four or five hours. (speaks to Dr. Sharma about setting up preaching engagements)
Dr. Sharma: (replying to Svarūpa Dāmodara) ...to some of the basic scientists. Some of them have a spiritual background, you know. Just they probably are waiting to meet a person like your background or Mādhava's background. Normally it has come out like this. People talk half-heartedly here, and they don't pursue it, they don't have the conviction to pursue it in this country. Very quickly give up. If I get this idea, then next morning I forget about it, and then whatever... I don't even, you know, I am afraid to talk about it. So you have very boldly come out with this, and so many centuries of tradition is there to back you up. So I think you should pursue it with all your enthusiasm, and with Prabhupāda's blessing you will really go a long way, as I say about it.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Only by Prabhupāda's blessings.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So you can... Śrīla Prabhupāda, you wanted to ask Dr. Sharma about altitude?
Prabhupāda: Seven thousand feet high altitude, it is good for a person to go there?
Dr. Sharma: I think it will be better if you go with an oxygen cylinder and by helicopter, not by the routine journey. Not by, you know..., gradual. Because suddenly you can get air hunger, you know, when you...
Prabhupāda: It is risky.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What is the reason for that, Śrīla Prabhupāda?
Prabhupāda: He's preaching His glory. He is everything, and these rascals are denying. And He comes: "No, no, no, no. It is wrong." Sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekam (BG 18.66). And a preacher means he is doing that, training people how to surrender to Kṛṣṇa. Will he not be...? He is... A preacher is giving real sense. To awaken this sense, Kṛṣṇa had to come personally. And he is doing the same work: "Surrender to Kṛṣṇa." How much great service it is. Prahlāda Mahārāja... He is asking, his father, that "Why you are training them to Kṛṣṇa?" "Better surrender. He has given you so much strength, so much power." That was... Prahlāda Mahārāja has given him. In spite of so much trouble given to him, he was speaking the same thing repeatedly: "Father, don't do this. Become a devotee." Stubborn. He was giving advice. This is the struggle between devotee and nondevotee. Therefore devotees are so dear to Kṛṣṇa. Despite all opposition, meeting all difficulties, they will say, "No, there is God. We must surrender." So he'll not be very dear? Just like soldiers for the country. They are meeting danger.
Indian man (3): No, Swamiji, we know Swamiji's tremendous work going on around the world.
Prabhupāda: So if I can teach them, who did not know what is Kṛṣṇa, I cannot teach you? I can teach you. But you won't take the teaching. That is the difficulty. Stubborn. That is difficulty.
Indian man (1): Swamiji, we have thrown ourself on his lap, Swamiji. There is... (indistinct) We have thrown ourselves, performed everything. We have left our home, everything.
Prabhupāda: But what for?
Indian man (1): And he's our bread, and he's our... He'll look after us. That's all.
Prabhupāda: What for? Śrama eva hi kevalam.
Indian man (1): Everything...
Prabhupāda: It is śrama eva hi kevalam.
Prabhupāda: Bhakta means he must be a servant, sakha or father or conjugal lover. They are bhaktas. There are five rasas. So a bhakta is situated in one of them: śānta, dāsya, sākhya, vātsalya... That is Vṛndāvana atmosphere. So bhakta means either of them. Arjuna sākhye. By friendship Arjuna became perfect, by making Kṛṣṇa as friend. Hanumān dāsye. Vajrāṅgajī, Hanumān, he, by serving Lord Rāmacandra, the order... He was not even human being, animal, (indistinct), not very intelligent, but by giving service constantly, he worshiped with love. So as soon as you become a bhakta, you must be related with Kṛṣṇa with some rasa, in some particular position. That is bhakta. So the point is that without becoming a bhakta, nobody can understand bhakta. A politician cannot understand. They simply make their artificial attempt to understand. They'll never understand. It is locked. Just like a bottle of honey. I give you, "Here is a bottle of honey," and if you, "Oh, it is honey. Let me lick up the bottle," so will you get the taste? So similarly, they are licking up the bottle, not inside. Rahasyam uttamam. They have no information. They are licking up bottle: "I am reading Bhagavad-gītā." This is the position. For this reason our country has fallen so much. But it can be revived again. The things are already there. Bhagavad-gītā is there. Kṛṣṇa is there. The instruction is there. If you take it, then it will immediately change the face of the whole world, immediately, without difficulty. But we are so stubborn, doggish, that we don't. We manufacture. This is the... (Hindi) ...yesterday. We are standing against the stubborn, doggish mentality. We have got no difficulty, at the same time, very, very difficult task. No difficulty—if you accept Bhagavad-gītā as it is, no difficulty. But you don't accept—there is great difficulty. In the foreign countries they are not stubborn, doggish. They accept what we say in the Bhagavad-gītā. Therefore these young men, they have very easily become devotees.
Indian man (5): So I think we are passing through a greater hell than what was...
Prabhupāda: No, no, the disease is there; the remedy is there. If you take the remedy, so there is no question of suffering from the disease. But you refuse to take the remedy. Just like this verse from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Twelfth Canto. This Kali-yuga is the ocean of faults. Why should we lament for that? The remedy is there. Kīrtanād eva kṛṣṇasya mukta... (SB 12.3.51). You chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. You'll become relieved immediately. So why don't you take the remedy? Mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti. Why you are so much disturbed by māyā? Just surrender to Kṛṣṇa. So it is our choice. We do not do that, and we suffer. Mām aprāpya nivartante mṛtyu-saṁsāra... Kṛṣṇa is giving personally. He has taken you, and we are not accepting. What can be done? The knowledge is there, the process is there, the authority is there, all the ācāryas, they have accepted, but we are so stubborn, we'll not accept. That is the difficulty. We'll manufacture our own ways. Yato mata tato patha. That is the difficulty. So it is past six. Have some kīrtana. (kīrtana begins) (end)
Indian man (1): Mat-para people are very seldom available.
Prabhupāda: No. How do you know? If you do not know what is the meaning of mat-para, how you can say "seldom"? Do you know what is mat-para? Unless you know who is mat-para, how you can say like that? You have no knowledge. Mat-para means a simple thing, one who has fully surrendered to Kṛṣṇa. That's all. This is very seldom? There are so many. But you have decided, "seldom." Why seldom? Here you see so many young men, our association. They are fully surrendered to Kṛṣṇa. They do not know anything else than Kṛṣṇa. So why it is seldom? You won't take. That is your fault. Rather, they are coming to you. They are canvassing. But you are so stubborn, you'll not take it. That is your fault. They are canvassing door to door. Why do you say, "It is seldom"? It is very easily available. But you won't take. That is your fault. Caitanya Mahāprabhu personally came, and He canvassed door to door. He sent His men door to door. We are sending all over the world. But you do not come. Mat-para is not seldom. At least at the present moment, it has become very easily available. But you take. That is your fault. (break) Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12). That is... Caitanya Mahāprabhu say. Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanaṁ bhava-mahā-dāvāgni..., śreyaḥ-kairava-candrikā-vitaraṇaṁ vidyā-vadhū-jīvanam, ānandāmbudhi-vardhanam. Ānandāmbudhi. Ambudhi means sea. You do not find that the sea is increasing. But this transcendental sea of blissful life increases. Ānandāmbudhi-vardhanaṁ sarvātma-snapanaṁ paraṁ vijayate śrī-kṛṣṇa-saṅkīrtanam. Very simple thing. You take to śrī-kṛṣṇa-saṅkīrtanam and see the result. Why you say it is seldom? It is very easy, but you won't take. Seldom we find the followers.
Prabhupāda: ...ashes. This is going on. Hm? (Bengali)
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Oh, this will be for everybody because just starting here. But especially I like to attack the Japan and the United States, 'cause Japan and the United States, they are pretty much the leading bars, very...
Prabhupāda: Stubborn.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes. And I'd like to specially make a strong show in Japan and the United States. So I'd like to attack them as my last point. Getting momentum from the smaller areas and having confidence and also some support from some leading scientists, then I'd like to put my full force in Japan and United States.
Prabhupāda: Japan and... Make... (Bengali)
Svarūpa Dāmodara: I have many friends in Japan because when I studied in California, there were many students from Japan, because California is...
Prabhupāda: (Bengali) Ask best... (Bengali)
Svarūpa Dāmodara: We have to be serious because this is a threat to the existing scientific theory. So they cannot just remain silent. They have to do something, 'cause otherwise we are going to propagate it, it's all wrong. So they have to do something. They cannot just remain silent because... We are not just speaking. There will be books, proving that these are all nonsense.
Prabhupāda: (aside:) You have got increased snuff boxes?
Upendra: Er, one little one and that big one there. I'll check to see if there's any more.
Prabhupāda: Life is a different material.
Prabhupāda: So he has met many scientists.
Dr. Kapoor: It is a consciousness, you see. The life after all comes from life. There should be great attack.
Prabhupāda: (Hindi) We are inviting.
Dr. Kapoor: Such enthusiasm because you are giving them transcendental injections.
Prabhupāda: This boy was stubborn atheist.
Dr. Kapoor: Svarūpa Dāmodara.
Prabhupāda: And he was walking with me on the seaside, and I was chastising him, kicking him, and refuting. (laughs) Now he has organized this Bhaktivedanta Institute.
Dr. Kapoor: He came to see me last time in connection with some journal, some new journal that he was going to bring out. What about that journal now?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Sa-vijñānam.
Prabhupāda: Sa-vijñānam.
Prabhupāda: Hm. (break)
Brahmānanda: Well they were very stubborn. They simply insisted that there were two paths, and they were quoting Bhagavad-gītā. I said, "Well, that may be so, but of the two paths, your path is the most difficult, and you've called the conference to spread Bhagavad-gītā, so why are you spreading the most difficult path of Bhagavad-gītā? Why not spread the most easiest?"
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What did they reply to that?
Brahmānanda: At that point Mr. Bajaj interrupted and said that we shouldn't discuss Bhagavad-gītā but just how to promote Bhagavad-gītā and how to cooperate.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: While they are busy discussing, we are busy doing it. We have not had any trouble distributing the Bhagavad-gītās. Even though we have not attended their meetings, the distribution is going on very well.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Practical application is more important than theoretical knowledge.
Bhakti-caru: That also they don't have.
Brahmānanda: Mr. Nārāyaṇa recognized that about our Society, that we are applying Bhagavad-gītā. He said, "I see from very early morning hours you are applying Bhagavad-gītā," because he attended the maṅgala-ārati.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He was very impressed. He is naturally a devotee, Gujarati. He's naturally a Kṛṣṇa devotee. He can appreciate the importance of ārati and Deities.
Brahmānanda: That man from that āśrama...
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Aurobindo.
Brahmānanda: Auroville. He was poisonous, very poisonous. Mr. Bajaj wanted to conduct the proceedings in English just so that I would be able to understand, because I was sitting as your representative, but that man refused.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What did he say?
Brahmānanda: Well, he just spoke in Hindi, and he said something in Hindi to Mr. Bajaj that "I want to speak in Hindi," and he continued speaking in Hindi.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: All artificial platform, surface. "Hindu, Indian, Hindi."
Brahmānanda: He was very envious, that Auroville, of what is going on.
Jayādvaita: They're nothing.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They are nothing. No one ever heard of them outside of India.
Prabhupāda: Aurobindo never preached in Hindi.
Correspondence
1969 Correspondence
This is because they are not fully purified, and the least trace of contaminated desire can cause havoc to one's progress. Just like one lit cigarette can cause a whole house to burn down, so incomplete knowledge of the whole Absolute Truth may not be able to save one from going to the darkest regions of ignorance. Isopanisad says that such persons who accept Brahman or Paramatma as the final word of God-realization will be "still more" condemned. This is because they are offenders of God and are very stubborn to accept the Supreme Personality. If one refuses to progress to understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead, then he is sure to fall down again into darkness. The worshippers of the demigods at least have fear of some higher personality, and that may eventually develop into fear of the Supreme Personality. But the impersonalists think that everything is Brahma, everyone is God, therefore they can do whatever they want; and that is a still more dangerous position. I think this will clear up the matter for you.
1970 Correspondence
So in both the cases how one can say that he has not seen God? Death is Krishna—mrtyuh sarvaharas ca aham (B.G. 10:34). "(Also) I am Death who takes away everything." The atheist is liar that he does not see God. God is there for him as Death. But the atheist is so stubborn and obstinate that although he is very fearful of Death who will take away all his arrangements for sense gratification he lies that he does not see Him, and in the end he even attempts to resist Death, but he is killed as easily as anything and there is no doubt about it.
1972 Correspondence
Follow this simple formula of chanting regularly with full attention, reading at least one hour, and balance time preaching and speaking and managing one center, and then everything will be all right. For my part, there is no question of dissatisfaction, I am very much pleased with your sincere service and humble attitude of Krishna Consciousness devotee. And I am also aware that sometimes Hamsaduta will be very stubborn, but he is also doing something there, so why not let him go on, and you take charge of opening branches in those northern European countries like Sweden, and that will be very much appreciated by me. If you require some more help in any way, just inform and I shall do the needful, do not worry. Also, Syamasundara is writing to Dayananda to send you books, whatever they can, from London, and they can send some men to help also if you require.
1974 Correspondence
Without this division there cannot be any systematic peaceful running of human activities. There must be a very intelligent class to guide the whole population with brahminical qualifications. There must be a class of people to give protection to the people at the time of danger and ordinarily to maintain peace and order, the ksatriyas. There must be a section to produce food and grains sumptuously for feeding both animals and humans without discrimination. Especially cows must be protected by this class. The meat eater class may not be encouraged but if they are stubbornly attached they can eat hogs and dogs or goats or lambs under certain conditions only, but not by maintaining slaughterhouses. Then human society will be very peaceful and everyone engaged in employment without producing any idle brains which only are devils workshops. If England and America as well as France and Germany can understand this philosophy there will be great theistic revolution which will counteract the atheistic philosophy of Marxism. The present communistic philosophy must be countered by revival of the principles of catur varnyam.
1976 Correspondence
Your Zone's book distribution is most commendable. It is to your credit as a good manager that there are now no longer any debts to the Book Fund from the Western USA Temples. Now you will have to meet a very stubborn competitor, Madhudvisa Swami, who I have sent to New York to organize the new building and preaching activities.
| Page Title: | Stubborn |
| Compiler: | Visnu Murti, Mayapur |
| Created: | 16 of Feb, 2012 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=1, SB=10, CC=0, OB=4, Lec=20, Con=30, Let=5 |
| No. of Quotes: | 70 |