Supreme Being (Lectures)

Expressions researched:
"Supreme Absolute Being" |"Supreme Divine Being" |"Supreme human being" |"supreme being" |"supreme conscious being" |"supreme eternal being" |"supreme living being" |"supreme rich being" |"supreme spiritual being"

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Lecture on BG Introduction -- New York, February 19-20, 1966:

Now, Arjuna says, after hearing Bhagavad-gītā from the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he accepts Kṛṣṇa as paraṁ brahma, the Supreme Brahman. Brahman. Every living being is Brahman, but the supreme living being or the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the Supreme Brahman or supreme living being. And paraṁ dhāma. Paraṁ dhāma means He is the supreme rest of everything. And pavitram. Pavitram means He is pure from material contamination. And He's addressed as puruṣam. Puruṣam means the supreme enjoyer; śāśvatam, śāśvata means from very beginning, He's the first person; divyam, transcendental; devam, the Supreme Personality of Godhead; ajam, never born; vibhum, the greatest.

Lecture on BG Introduction -- New York, February 19-20, 1966:

The hand is collecting, the hand is preparing foodstuff, and the teeth is chewing, and everything, all parts of body, are engaged in satisfying the stomach because the stomach is the principle fact within the organization of this body. And everything should be given to the stomach. Prāṇopahārāc ca yathendriyāṇām (SB 4.31.14). Just like you can see a tree green by pouring water in the root. Or you can become healthy... The parts of the body—the hands, the legs, the eyes, the ears, the fingers—everything keeps in healthy stage when the parts of the body cooperate with the stomach. Similarly, the supreme living being, the Lord, He is the enjoyer. He is the enjoyer and He is the creator. And we, I mean to say, subordinate living beings, the products of the energy of the Supreme Lord, we are just to cooperate with Him. That cooperation will help. Just for example, a good foodstuff taken by the fingers. If the fingers think that "Why should we give it to the stomach? Let us enjoy." That is a mistake.

Lecture on BG Introduction -- New York, February 19-20, 1966:

Anta-kāle, at the end of life, at the time of death. Anta-kāle ca mām eva, one who thinks of Kṛṣṇa, smaran, if he can remember. A dying person, at the time of death, if he remembers the form of Kṛṣṇa and while remembering in that way, if he quits the present body, then surely he approaches the spiritual kingdom, mad-bhāvam. Bhāvam means the spiritual nature. Yaḥ prayāti sa mad-bhāvaṁ yāti. Mad-bhāvam means just like the nature or the transcendental nature of the Supreme Being. As we have described above, that the Supreme Lord is sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha (Bs. 5.1). He has His form, but His form is eternal, sat; and full of knowledge, cit; and full of bliss, ānanda. Now just we can compare our present body, whether this body is sac-cid-ānanda. No. This body is asat. Instead of being sat it is asat. Antavanta ime dehā (BG 2.18), Bhagavad-gītā says that this body is antavat, perishable.

Lecture on BG Introduction -- New York, February 19-20, 1966:

These nine processes. So the easiest process is simply hearing. Hearing of this Bhagavad-gītā or Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam from the realized person, that will train up oneself, one, into the thoughts of the Supreme Being twenty-four hours, which will lead one ultimately, anta-kāle, to remember the Supreme Lord, and thus leaving this body, he will have a spiritual body, a spiritual body, just fit for association with the Lord. The Lord therefore says,

abhyāsa-yoga-yuktena

cetasā nānya-gāminā

paramaṁ puruṣaṁ divyaṁ

yāti pārthānucintayan

(BG 8.8)

Anucintayan, constantly thinking of Himself only. It is not very difficult process. One has to learn this process from the experienced person in this line. Tad vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet (MU 1.2.12). One should approach a person who is already in the practice. So abhyāsa-yoga-yuktena. This is called abhyāsa-yoga, practicing. Abhyāsa... How to remember the Supreme Lord always. Cetasā nānya-gāminā. The mind, the mind is always flying to this, to that.

Introduction to Bhagavad-gita As It Is -- Los Angeles, November 23, 1968 :

Devotee: "Now Arjuna was a devotee, and he was in touch with the Supreme Lord in friendship. Thus the Bhagavad-gītā was explained to him. How he accepted it should be noted. This is mentioned in the Tenth Chapter. After hearing the Bhagavad-gītā from the Lord, Arjuna accepted Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Brahman. Every living being is Brahman, or spirit, but the supreme living being is the Supreme Brahman."

Prabhupāda: Now here is another point, that everyone is reading Bhagavad-gītā. The..., it is clearly stated how Bhagavad-gītā should be accepted. Bhagavad-gītā was spoken to Arjuna, and Arjuna accepted it in his own understanding, whatever he understood. That is also stated. Therefore we have to place ourselves in the position of Arjuna and accept the truth as Arjuna directly received it. That is understanding of Bhagavad-gītā. That is stated in the Tenth Chapter, how Arjuna accepted Bhagavad-gītā and Kṛṣṇa. That is explained. Yes.

Lecture on BG 2.11 (with Spanish translator) -- Mexico, February 11, 1975:

Śrī bhagavān uvāca. Bhagavān means the Supreme Being. In the English dictionary when you consult the word God, it is stated there, "the Supreme Being." What is that Supreme Being? We are all living being, but amongst ourself there is comparative, superlative positions. I am here; you are here; he is there. So you may be better than me, he may be better than you, and somebody else may be better than him. In this way you go on searching after one better than the other. When you ultimately come to a point that nobody is better then him, that is Bhagavān.

Lecture on BG 2.11 -- Rotary Club Address -- Hotel Imperial, Delhi, March 25, 1976:

So actually we are eternal. In the Vedic language it is said, nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām eko yo bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13). Nitya. Nitya means eternal. And nityānām. Nityānām means plural number of nityas. So there are many nityas, means many living entities, but there is one nitya Supreme. That is God. He is also a living entity like us. Then where is the difference? The difference is, we learn from the Vedic line, eko bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān: "That singular number nitya, eternal, maintains the plural number nityas." We are within the plural number, nityānām. So conclusion is that God is the Supreme Being and we are living being. So our relation is very intimate. Qualitatively we are one because we are part and parcel. So God is eternal, full of knowledge, and blissful; therefore our position is also the same but in minute quantity. His knowledge is great. Therefore God is great.

Lecture on BG 2.11 -- Rotary Club Address -- Hotel Imperial, Delhi, March 25, 1976:

Prabhupāda: Friends and relatives.

Indian: ...relatives for temporary time. Our books of literature also projected the Supreme Being as the perfect one. How do you reconcile the two things? How do we accept that... Your teachings are based on the assumption that that person who lived for that period of time is the perfect person. But how do you fundamentally assure that what He has said is correct? How do you reconcile the two points?

Prabhupāda: That I have already explained, that one has to understand Kṛṣṇa. Janma karma me divyaṁ yo jānāti tattvataḥ (BG 4.9). Before your asking, I have already explained that if that person, Kṛṣṇa, whom you think that He lived for a certain period with friends and relatives just like ordinary man, if you simply study what is this person, then you'll be comforted (competent?). Janma karma ca me divyaṁ yo jānāti tattvataḥ (BG 4.9). To understand Him in fact, it is not so easily.

Lecture on BG 2.12 -- New York, March 7, 1966:

So here is the statement of the Supreme Person. We have to believe it. We cannot go out of it. If we don't believe it, then we are loser. If we don't believe it, then we are loser. He is the perfect being who is eternal and all-pervading. Just see, all-pervading. That means, although you can see Him as a person... Just like you are present before me as a person, but you are absent in your residence. Is it not? But God is not like that. God is, although He's present, Kṛṣṇa, although He's present just before Arjuna, instructing him, but He's all-pervading at the same time. A crude example. Just like at twelve o'clock in the midday, you see that the sun is above your head. And five thousand miles away, if you ask any friend, "Where is the sun?" he'll say, "It is on my head." Five thousand miles this way, that way, you inquire, and everyone will say, "The sun is on my head." So if a material thing... Sun is a material thing. If a material entity can be so all-pervading, at one and the same time, so is it not that the supreme spiritual being, He'll not be all-pervading? He is, certainly. He must be. He must be.

Lecture on BG 2.13-17 -- Los Angeles, November 29, 1968:

Madhudviṣa: "In the Viṣṇu Purāṇa also this truth has been established. It is stated there that Viṣṇu and His abodes all have self-illuminated spiritual existence. The words existent and nonexistent refer only to spirit and matter. That is the version of all seers of truth. This is the beginning of the instruction by the Lord to the living entities who are bewildered by the influence of ignorance. Removal of this ignorance means reestablishment of the eternal relationship between the worshiper and the worshipable and the consequent understanding of the difference between part-and-parcel living entities and the Supreme Personality of Godhead. One can understand the nature of the Supreme by thorough study of oneself, the difference between oneself and the Supreme being understood as the relationship between the part and the whole. In the Vedānta-sūtra as well as in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, the Supreme has been accepted as the origin of all emanations. Such emanations are experienced by superior and inferior natural sequences. The living entity belongs to the superior nature, as will be revealed in the Seventh Chapter. Although there is no difference between the energy and the energetic, the energetic is accepted as supreme and the energy, or nature, is accepted as the subordinate. The relationship of the living entities therefore is always to be subordinate to the Supreme Lord, as with master and the servant or the teacher and the taught. Such clear knowledge is impossible to grasp under the spell of ignorance. To drive away such ignorance, the Lord teaches the Bhagavad-gītā for enlightenment of all beings for all time." Seventeen: "That which pervades the body is indestructible. No one is able to destroy the imperishable soul."

Prabhupāda: Now, "pervades the body," that is consciousness. The soul is very small, but... Just like you take one grain of, what is called, poison? Snake poison? Arsenic? Poison called? What is called? Yes, venom poison.

Lecture on BG 2.15 -- Mexico, February 15, 1975:

So dhīra means that although there is cause of disturbance, one is not disturbed. Although there is cigarette, but I should promise, "I shall not smoke." Although there is facility for illicit sex, I'll not do it. That is called dhīra. Dhīra means the cause of agitation or disturbance is present there, but one is not disturbed. So in order to advance in spiritual life we have to become dhīra. And that is said here, sama-duḥkha-sukhaṁ dhīram. As soon as one become dhīra, sober, these so-called material pains and pleasure does not disturb me (him). Then he is fit for becoming immortal. Everyone is immortal, but he is fallen in such material condition that he thinks himself as mortal. Because I am spirit soul, therefore the Vedic injunction that feel:(?) ahaṁ brahmāsmi, so 'ham, means "I am as good as the Supreme Being," means "He is eternal; I am also eternal. He is also living being; I am also living being." That means qualitatively we are one, God and me. But quantitatively, He is great; we are small.

Lecture on BG 2.17 -- London, August 23, 1973:

yo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13). The Supreme Lord is the supreme cetana, conscious. Just like we were consulting dictionary yesterday, "supreme being." Therefore, His consciousness is also supreme. As we are living being—not supreme, subordinate—similarly, God is also being, but the supreme being. That is the difference. Very simple thing. You cannot say that "I am supreme." As these rascals say that "I am God." How you can be God? Are you supreme? As soon as we ask this question, "Are you supreme?" "No." Then how you have become God? The supreme means... That is also... We consulted dictionary. The Supreme means the "highest authority." So is any one of us the highest authority? No. Nobody is highest authority. Everyone is under the grip of material nature. How you can be highest authority? But they imagine, "Yes, I am high authority. I am..." Meditate: "I am the highest authority, I am moving the sun, I am moving the this," simply rascaldom. This is their meditation. Falsely think that "I am the supreme, I am controlling everything. The sun is moving under my direction, the everything, the water is, seas, I mean to say, there under my direction." Simply... This is their meditation.

Lecture on BG 2.26-27 -- London, August 29, 1973:

So how it will be standardized? Therefore Bhāgavata says dharmaṁ tu sākṣād bhagavat-praṇītam (SB 6.3.19). Real dharma, real religion, morality, honesty, they can be decided on the words of the Supreme Lord. That is the... When Kṛṣṇa says "This is all right," then it is all right. When Kṛṣṇa says it is not right, then it is not right. This is our decision. We Kṛṣṇa conscious men, we simply accept. And that is a fact. That is a fact in this way because Kṛṣṇa is the greatest authority, Supreme Being. Supreme means the greatest authority. Just like state says "Now it is wartime. If you kill a number of enemies then you will be awarded with gold medal." The same process of killing. But at another time, when there is no war, if you kill one person you'll be hanged. The killing process is the same, but the judgement is given by the greatest authority, the government. "This is all right, this is not right." Therefore, standard of morality means to abide by the orders of the greatest authority. That is standard of morality. This is the conclusion. You cannot make your own morality. No. If Kṛṣṇa says "This is all right," then it is all right. Otherwise, it is not.

Lecture on BG 2.30 -- London, August 31, 1973:

Within the first-class learned brāhmaṇa, there is the soul, the same quality soul. Vidyā-vinaya-sampanne brāhmaṇe gavi, in the cow, hastini, in the elephant, śuni—śuni means the dog—caṇḍāla, the lowest kind of human being, everywhere the soul is there. It is not that simply in human being there is soul, or in higher demigods there is soul, and poor animals have no soul. No. Everyone has got... dehe sarvasya bhārata. So whom we shall accept? The statement of Kṛṣṇa or some rascal philosopher or some so-called religionist? Whom we shall accept? We shall have to accept Kṛṣṇa, the supreme authority, the Supreme Being. He says sarvasya. Many places, Kṛṣṇa says. Therefore, those who are learned, they do not make such distinction, that it has no soul. Everyone has got soul. Tasmāt sarvāṇi bhūtāni. Again, He says, sarvāṇi bhūtāni. Na tvaṁ śocitum arhasi. It is your duty. Kṛṣṇa is simply stressing on the point that the soul is eternal, it cannot be killed. In so many ways. The body is perishable. "

Lecture on BG 2.39 -- London, September 12, 1973:

So far the body is concerned, that is now fully analyzed. Now buddhir yoge tv imām, another department of knowledge, buddhi-yoga. Buddhi-yoga means spiritual life. That is buddhi-yoga. Just like you'll find in the Tenth Chapter. Kṛṣṇa says to Arjuna, buddhi-yogaṁ dadāmi tam. When there is talk between the spirit, supreme spirit, Kṛṣṇa and the individual spirit, subordinate spirit, the living entity... Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Being, and we are subordinate being. So these people at the present moment, they do not know. But we have to take instruction from Vedas. Nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13). The Supreme Being, He is eko yo bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān. He is supplying the necessities of life, kāmān, whatever we require. There are so many things for birds, beasts, human being, different types of fruits, flowers, milk. Everything is being supplied by Kṛṣṇa. Therefore He's Supreme Being. How He can be supreme? Just like in a family the father is considered to be supreme. Why? Because he takes care of the whole family, he is supreme.

Lecture on BG 2.39 -- London, September 12, 1973:

You have fallen in this condition because you have forgotten Kṛṣṇa. Just like last night so many people came to discuss with us, but they are not interested in talking of Kṛṣṇa. They are interested how their sense gratification will be disturbed by starting this temple. That is their concern. Here we have come to preach about Kṛṣṇa. They did not ask anything about Kṛṣṇa, "What is this philosophy? What is this Kṛṣṇa's philosophy?" No. They are simply interested in their own sense gratification. That's all. How their sense gratification will be disturbed—they are concerned in that way. This is the position of the material world. Everyone is simply interested in sense gratification. That's all. There is no question of asking "What is God? What I am? What is this world?" Actually, these should be the questions of human life. Athāto brahma jijñāsā. They should be engaged always in inquiring about the Supreme Being, the Absolute Truth. That is their only business. But you see the whole world. They are simply busy how to satisfy their senses. This is the cause of fall down.

Lecture on BG Lecture Excerpts 2.44-45, 2.58 -- New York, March 25, 1966:

Is due to the body. Body under certain condition, mind under certain condition, feels happiness and feel distress. So therefore, We are actually hankering after happiness because the soul's constitution is happiness. Soul's constitution is happiness. Anyone who is brought up in a very nice family with all comfortable conditions, as he feels distress in a different condition, similarly, the soul is the part and parcel of the Supreme Being.

Supreme Being, His constitution is sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha (Bs. 5.1). The Supreme Being is the embodiment of eternity, bliss and knowledge. Eternity, bliss and knowledge. That is the constitution of the supreme entity. He is eternal, He is blissful, and always full of pleasure. Always full of pleasure. Kṛṣṇa, this word, Kṛṣṇa... Now, we have chanted, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare. This Kṛṣṇa is... Do not take it that we are presenting some sectarian conception of God or like that.

Lecture on BG 4.2 -- Bombay, March 22, 1974:

So the teachings of Bhagavad-gītā, how it has to be received, that is explained here. It is not to be understood by so-called scholarship. In the Vedic literature we find, nāyam ātmā pravacanena labhyo na medhayā na bahunā śrutena. If you're actually interested in ātma-jñāna, self-realization, then you cannot understand by your so-called academic education. No. Nāyam ātmā pravacanena... Or because you are a big speaker, you can speak very nicely, decorating language, therefore you have understood. That is also not possible. The spiritual knowledge has to be understood by the grace of the Supreme Spirit. Yam evaiṣa vṛṇute tena labhyaḥ-labhyaḥ Kaṭha Upaniṣad 1.2.23. One who is favored by the Supreme... Here Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Being, God, He's explaining about Himself. So you have to learn about God, or Kṛṣṇa, from Kṛṣṇa, or through the paramparā. As Kṛṣṇa says, evaṁ paramparā.

Lecture on BG 4.7 -- Bombay, March 27, 1974:

First of all you have to understand. Yadā yadā hi dharmasya glāniḥ (BG 4.7). What is dharma? First of all you have to understand. Dharma means occupational duty. Or natural characteristic. That is called dharma. Just like sugar. Sugar is sweet. The sweetness is dharma of sugar. Chili is very hot. The hotness is the dharma of chili. If the chili becomes sweet and sugar becomes hot, that is adharma. Try to understand this. So first of all, who can give us dharma? That is stated in the śāstras, dharmaṁ tu sākṣād bhagavat-praṇītam (SB 6.3.19). Dharma means the orders, given by the Supreme Lord, or Supreme Being, God. That is dharma. This is the shortest definition of dharma. Dharmaṁ tu sākṣād bhagavat-praṇītam (SB 6.3.19).

Lecture on BG 4.10 Festival at Maison de Faubourg -- Geneva, May 31, 1974:

When I speak Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa means the all-attractive Supreme Personality of Godhead. So man-mayā, when one becomes attached to God, giving up the attachment of this material sense pleasure, when one becomes... Attachment must be there, either this way or that way. If we do not become attached to the Supreme Being, then we must be attached to this material enjoyment. Therefore it is said vīta-rāga, "Giving up the attachment of this material world, when you transfer your attachment to Kṛṣṇa, or the Supreme Being," man-mayā mām upāśritāḥ... Upāśrita means "taking shelter of Me." Unless you take shelter of Kṛṣṇa or His representative, there is no possibility of being detached from this material enjoyment. Bahavaḥ. Bahavaḥ means many. Jñāna-tapasā: by knowledge and austerity. Bahavo jñāna-tapasā. (to translator:) Explain. Pūtā. Pūtā means purified. Jñāna-tapasā, purified. Pūtā mad-bhāvam āgatāḥ: "They come to My nature." Mad-bhāvam āgatāḥ.

Lecture on BG 4.10 Festival at Maison de Faubourg -- Geneva, May 31, 1974:

One is called material nature and the other is called spiritual nature. So this cosmic manifestation which we experience is combination of material nature and spiritual nature. The material nature is called inferior nature, and the spiritual nature is called the superior nature. The material nature is inferior because the superior nature living entity controls over it. We have got experience. Just like a big machine, computer, or any other machine, it is combination of matter, but it cannot work independently until and unless there is touch of the spiritual nature, a human being. The big airplane is floating in the... (break) ...I mean to say, mechanical arrangement. But unless there is the pilot, it cannot work. Similarly, you try to understand that this material nature, cosmic manifestation, however wonderful it may be, unless there is direction of the Supreme Being, it is useless. So if you have understood the difference between material nature and the spiritual nature, then try to understand that as you have got experience of this material nature, there is another nature, another sky, another planetary system, everything another. That is all made of spiritual nature.

Lecture on BG 4.10 Festival at Maison de Faubourg -- Geneva, May 31, 1974:

We should not miss this opportunity. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. God is personally giving you the information, what is the material nature, what is the spiritual nature, how you can transfer yourself to the spiritual nature, and then you come to your original, constitutional position.

Our original position is sac-cid-ānanda, means eternity, knowledge, and blissfulness. The Supreme Being, Kṛṣṇa, or God, is also sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha (Bs. 5.1). He has His transcendental form of eternity, knowledge and blissfulness. So the Supreme Lord or Supreme Being is also vigraha. Vigraha means form. As you are form, I am form, similarly, God is also form. He is not formless. So that is described in the Vedic literatures.

īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ

sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ

anādir ādir govindaḥ

sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam

(Bs. 5.1)

"The Supreme Being, who is called Kṛṣṇa, or all-attractive, He has His body of eternity, full of knowledge and blissfulness." Now, compare your this body. This body is not eternal; it is temporary. It is born at a certain date and it will be finished at a certain date. Therefore it is not eternal.

Lecture on BG 4.11 -- Geneva, June 1, 1974:

Here the second line of this verse is very important. It is said, mama vartmānuvartante manuṣyāḥ pārtha sarvaśaḥ: "All human being is searching after Me." As we have explained yesterday, Kṛṣṇa means sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha (Bs. 5.1), the transcendental form of eternity, knowledge and blissfulness. In the Vedānta-sūtra, the summarized philosophy of Vedic knowledge, it is said, ānandamayo 'bhyāsāt: "The spirit soul by nature is jubilant." So the Supreme Personality of Godhead, He is supreme living being, and we are also living being, but we are not the Supreme. Try to find out this difference. But both of us, we are of the same quality. That means jubilant. So our present position being materially contacted... Just like a man in his healthy condition, he is happy, but in his diseased condition he is not happy, similarly, we, being part and parcel of the Supreme, we are naturally jubilant, but on account of being contacted in material nature, we are morose.

Lecture on BG 4.14 -- Bombay, April 3, 1974:

Similarly, those who are Kṛṣṇa's devotees, they are also free. Yo mām. Yo mām abhijānāti. Abhijānāti means one who knows that "Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, He is not ordinary human being, He is nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13), He is the supreme living entity amongst all living entities, He is the Supreme Living Being amongst all living beings"—that is abhijānāti. Abhijānāti, know with complete experience, not superficially. Iti mām, yo mām abhijānāti. Abhijānāti means "Knows Me perfectly well, that 'Kṛṣṇa is transcendental.' " And that is also explained by Kṛṣṇa,

māṁ ca yo 'vyabhicāreṇa

bhakti-yogena sevate

sa guṇān samatītyaitān

brahma-bhūyāya kalpate

(BG 14.26)

So those who are engaged in the bhakti-yoga, unflinching bhakti-yoga, unalloyed bhakti-yoga, such person is above this material entanglement. Material entanglement is within the modes of material nature. That is brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra, or brahmacārī, gṛhastha, vānaprastha, sannyāsa, and gradually develop your spiritual constitutional position and be transferred to the transcendental position... Paras tasmāt tu bhāvo 'nyo 'vyakto 'vyaktāt sanātanaḥ (BG 8.20). That is the process.

Lecture on BG 4.20-24 -- New York, August 9, 1966:

Now, brahmārpaṇam. Sacrifice for whom? For the Brahman. And Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Brahman. Therefore sacrifice for Kṛṣṇa is brahmārpaṇam, means, sacrificing for the Brahman, Supreme Brahman. Because Kṛṣṇa is described in the Tenth Chapter as the Parambrahman, the Supreme Brahman. Brahman means, we are also all Brahman. Because we are all fragmental parts and parcels of the Supreme Being, Kṛṣṇa, therefore we are also Brahman. Just like particles of gold is also gold, similarly, we are fragmental portions of Kṛṣṇa. Do not understand that as material fragments... We are not material fragment. But just because we have no other conception at the present moment except material understanding, therefore I am just trying... This is translated into English as "fragment," but not like that material fragment.

Lecture on BG 7.1 -- San Francisco, September 10, 1968:

So God is so great. In the Vedic literatures it is found that eko bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān. That one great supreme living being, He is supplying all the necessities of all other small living beings. We are all small living beings, and Kṛṣṇa, or the Supreme Lord, is the greatest living being. He is also a living being, just like us. The other day I explained that man is made after God, not that God is made after man. Don't think that because I have got two hands, two legs, one head, therefore I have created a Kṛṣṇa who has got two hands, two legs, two... No. That is not the fact. Actually, because Kṛṣṇa has got two legs, two hands, one head, therefore you have also got.

Lecture on BG 7.1 -- Sydney, February 16, 1973:

So this is not very difficult; anyone can practice. How it is difficult? These European, American boys, they were never practiced to it, not in their family or by culture. But because Kṛṣṇa consciousness is there in everyone's heart, simply by little practice it comes, it develops. So we request that to make your life successful, this human form of life, you practice this Kṛṣṇa consciousness, or God consciousness. That is the success of life, not to live like animals, simply eating, sleeping, sex intercourse and defense. They are the business of the animals also. If we develop simply in these four principles of animal life, that is not advancement of civilization. The advancement of civilization is tested when a nation or person is interested to inquire about God. That is advancement. Athāto brahma jijñāsā. This is advancement—how a nation or person is advanced to inquire about God or about himself. God and we, we are of the same quality, because it is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. That's a fact. God is the supreme living being and we are also living being, but He is the head, supreme.

Lecture on BG 7.1 -- Upsala University Stockholm, September 8, 1973:

Śrī bhagavān uvāca. Bhagavān means the Supreme Being. That is also dictionary word. In the... I consulted the Oxford Dictionary, "God." God means "the Supreme Being." And the Supreme means... That is also stated in the dictionary, "The greatest authority." So God means the greatest authority, supreme, Supreme Being. We have got little idea of supreme. Suppose when you go to work in our office, the proprietor of the establishment or the managing director of the establishment, he's called the supreme. We have got experience of the Supreme Court. In India, we have got Supreme Court. If there is any judgment which is not accepted by the litigant, he can go to the Supreme Court. And in the judgment given in the Supreme is final. No more any appeal. That is final. Supreme means that, final.

Lecture on BG 7.1 -- Upsala University Stockholm, September 8, 1973:

So bhagavān uvāca. Bhagavān means the Supreme Being. We are all beings. We are also living entities. Similarly, Bhagavān, or God, He's also a living entity. As living entity, we are the same. But He's the supreme living entity. No more greater than Him. Here, we can distinguish. I am here. You may be greater than me. Another person may be greater than you. Another person may be greater than him. In this way, you go on searching, greater, greater, greater, greater, and when you come to a person, nobody is greater than him, that is God. Nowadays, it has become a fashions, so many gods. Especially, they come to your country, Western country. But God cannot be plural number. God is always singular number, one. If God is plural number, then that is not God. That plural-number God may be the living entities. We are living entities, and God is also living entity, but the supreme living entity. That is the difference. It is Vedic statement.

Lecture on BG 7.1 -- Durban, October 9, 1975:

Indian man (4): Swamiji, most of our Hindus accept Lord Kṛṣṇa as our Supreme Being, as God. Yet in the Bhagavad-gītā, Arjuna won't fight his brothers, but Lord Kṛṣṇa encouraged this, to fight his own brothers, to kill his own brothers, to shed blood. Isn't this condoning violence? Yet Hinduism doesn't condone violence. Can you explain why Lord Kṛṣṇa encourages Arjuna to fight his own blood?

Prabhupāda: If you can question the high-court judge why he is ordering somebody to be hanged, then what will be the answer? The high-court judge orders somebody to be hanged and somebody to take degree for one lakh of rupees. Is there injustice? It is the law. The Supreme Lord has to execute the law. So there is no mistake. As there is no mistake in the judgment of the high-court, similarly, what to speak of Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Lord. There is necessity. The government, in order to keep law and order, there is violence also. The police sometimes commit violence, the military force. So in order to keep whole thing in balance, sometimes violence is required, and that is not to our whims but at the decision of the Supreme Lord.

Lecture on BG 7.1 -- Hyderabad, August 22, 1976:

So to understand Bhagavān, Para-brahman, that is the mission of human life. The cats and dogs cannot understand Bhagavān. That is not possible. A human being can understand. This Bhagavad-gītā is for the human being, not for the cats and dogs. So Kṛṣṇa says that "If you want to know Me..." It is not easy to understand Bhagavān, or God. God is not the exact word of Bhagavān; therefore we use the word "Godhead." "Back to Godhead." Bhagavān means the Supreme Lord, the Supreme Being. God means the ruler, the controller. But when we come to the supreme controller, He is Bhagavān. You are controller, I am controller. I am controller of my disciples within the Kṛṣṇa conscious society, but I cannot control the whole world. I have got some... You are controller in your home, of your wife, children, servants. But you are also controlled. You are not absolute controller. Therefore Bhagavān means the absolute controller.

Lecture on BG 7.2 -- London, March 10, 1975:

To become God is not easy thing. There are some qualification, yesterday we discussed, that He must be the richest, He must be the most powerful, He must be the most famous, He must be the most learned, He must be the most beautiful, and He must be the most renounced. This is the definition of God. A poor man, begging from door to door, he cannot become God, as it is misconceived, daridra-nārāyaṇa. Why Nārāyaṇa can be daridra? What is this nonsense? He is the richest. He is the richest. And why He can, He will be daridra? The argument is forwarded that "God is in everyone's heart; therefore everyone is God." What is this argument? Everyone's heart, God is there. God said, īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe 'rjuna tiṣṭhati (BG 18.61). Where God says that because īśvara, the Supreme Being, is situated in everyone's heart, therefore everyone is God? What is this argument? Where Kṛṣṇa says that because īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe 'rjuna tiṣṭhati (BG 18.61), therefore everyone is God? Is that very sound argument?

Lecture on BG 7.4 -- Nairobi, October 31, 1975:

So because we are learning knowledge from śruti, from the perfect person, we will never be convinced. We shall challenge, "You create, rascal, create first of all. Then talk. Otherwise I shall kick." (laughter) This is our challenge because I know. We know very well that it will not be possible to create living being by combination of chemicals. He is talking nonsense. That is not possible. So we have to study from śruti. Then we become learned. Then we can know what is our constitutional position. Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā na śocati (BG 18.54). Then he does not lament and neither he aspires everything, because he knows everything is complete there, conducted by the Supreme Being. And the Supreme Being said, mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram (BG 9.10).

Lecture on BG 7.7 -- Bombay, February 22, 1974:

Arjuna said, in the Tenth Chapter, sarvam etad ṛtaṁ manye yad vadasi keśava: (BG 10.14) "My dear Kṛṣṇa, whatever You are saying, I accept in toto." This is understanding of Bhagavad-gītā. Try to understand Bhagavad-gītā as it is. Kṛṣṇa says, mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat: (BG 7.7) "There is no more superior being or superior authority than Me." If you accept that "There is no more superior authority or supreme being than Kṛṣṇa," then you study Bhagavad-gītā. And if you cut the head and the tail and accept something and reject something, that is not Bhagavad-gītā. Take it as it is. Therefore we are presenting Bhagavad-gītā as it is, not curtailing this or that: "This meaning is that; that meaning is that." No such nonsense. We accept... This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. Kṛṣṇa says that He is the supreme authority. We are preaching "Kṛṣṇa is the supreme authority." Where is the difficulty? We don't manufacture anything. We don't say, "I am the supreme authority." No. I am rascal. I am fool. I am imperfect. But Kṛṣṇa is Supreme, Kṛṣṇa is perfect. That is our preaching. As servant of Kṛṣṇa.

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

So Lord Kṛṣṇa says that tribhir guṇamayair bhāvaiḥ: "By these three qualities, everywhere, all over the universe..." You must know whenever Kṛṣṇa says something, it is nothing limited. Universally true, He says. When He says sarva-yoniṣu kaunteya (BG 14.4), He claims to be father of all living entities. Even the animals, even the aquatics, even the trees, plants, worms, birds, beasts, this human being, that human being—all He claims. He's the father of everyone. So similarly, tribhir guṇamayair bhāvaiḥ, mohitaṁ sarva-jagat: "The whole world is," I mean to say, "illusioned or covered by these reactions of these three qualities." And we are under the spell of that illusion; therefore we cannot understand what is God, what is God. Tribhir guṇamayair bhāvair ebhiḥ sarvam idaṁ jagat, mohitaṁ nābhijānāti: "Because they are now illusioned, under the spell of the intermixture of these three qualities, they cannot understand Me, Kṛṣṇa." Mām ebhyaḥ param avyayam: "I am the supreme eternal being. Oh, they cannot understand."

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

That's all right? Yes. The Ninth Chapter is the most confidential knowledge. Śrī bhagavān uvāca, (devotees repeat)... All right, you repeat. Idaṁ (devotees repeat) tu te guhyatamaṁ pravakṣyāmy anasūyave. Idaṁ tu te guhyatamaṁ pravakṣyāmy anasūyave, jñānaṁ vijñāna-sahitam, jñānaṁ vijñāna-sahitaṁ yaj jñātvā mokṣyase aśubhāt, yaj jñātvā mokṣyase 'śubhāt. (Recites verse responsively with devotees). Śrī bhagavān uvāca. Bhagavān, the Supreme Being, Bhagavān. In your English dictionary the word God is explained as "the Supreme Being." "Supreme Being" means who is great, greater, or the greatest, of all other beings. We are beings. We are individual persons. It is not very difficult to understand. Every one of us, individual. We think individually. We dress individually. We have got our egotism, individual. Everything... I don't agree with you; you don't agree with me. Voluntarily sometimes we agree. That means every one of us has individuality. This is called being, "I am."

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

Similarly, God is also being like us, but He is Supreme Being. That is the difference between God and me. I am also being, you are also being, but we are not Supreme Being. We are under some control. But God is not under control. He is the controller, but He is never controlled. (aside:) Make it louder. That is explained in the Vedic literature, the definition of God. The definition of God is given there, īśvaraḥ paramaḥ. The Supreme Being is Kṛṣṇa. Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ (Bs. 5.1). And He is... Vigraha means He has form. He is person, sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha. But His person, His form, is different from our form, our present form. Our present form, as we have got the material tabernacle, that is temporary. Your form, my form, this is changing. We are not existing in the same form.

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

If you are envious of God—"Why? Who is God? I am God. Why shall I hear from God? I know better than Him..." These are enviousness. But Arjuna is not envious. We are envious. This material world is enviousness. I am envious of you; you are envious of me. I cannot see you very opulent; you cannot see me very opulent. That is the reason there is rivalry, competition, in this world, man to man, friend to friend, even father and son. The competition is there because we are envious. Suppose I am your neighbor, and I become rich. So although there is no enmity, still my neighbors will be envious: "Oh, this man has become so rich? I could not become." This is the nature. So if we try to understand Bhagavān, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the Supreme Being, the our first qualification should be: we should not envious.

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

This has been decided. Nṛpa-nirṇītam. It is already considered and decided. So any part... Suppose Bhagavān means the supreme rich. Supreme Being means everything supreme. In richness He is supreme. In bodily strength He is supreme. His knowledge is supreme. In beauty He is supreme. In renunciation He is supreme. That is the description, definition of God, that He must be supreme in every respect. Therefore He is called Supreme Being in the dictionary. Nobody can be rival to Him. Asamaurdhva. Asama means equal. Nobody is equal to Him. If I become equal to Him, how He can become Supreme? If there is rivalry between the Supreme, then there is not meaning of Supreme. Supreme means there is no rivalry. He is the Supreme, means nobody is greater than Him; nobody is equal to Him; everyone is under Him. That is called Supreme. Asamaurdhva. Nobody can be sama. Sama means equal. If I am God, and another competitor God, you are also God, then neither I am God nor I am God. There cannot be any competition. That is called Supreme. So Arjuna is to that position. He does not challenge Kṛṣṇa that "There is another Supreme Being than Yourself." There cannot be. But sometimes we foolishly challenge. That is our foolishness. But God is always Supreme. So therefore this is the qualification of understanding confidential knowledge about God. Anasūyave. Pravakṣyāmy anasūyave.

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

Prabhupāda: No, no suggestion. God names cannot be suggested. Then He is not God. God's name cannot be suggested. Then He's not God. You cannot suggest God's name.

Guest (3): Well, then you make God into a person called Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: God is person. I have already said. It is described in the dictionary, "the Supreme Being." You are being, I am being, but He is the Supreme Being. You are not Supreme; I am not Supreme.

Guest (3): One Supreme Being, just one.

Prabhupāda: Yes, one. Supreme means one. Otherwise there is no meaning of Supreme.

Guest (6) (young man): Is that Jack in the...(?) (laughter)

Prabhupāda: If there is equal, then that is not... That's all right. Now chant.

Devotees: Hare Kṛṣṇa! (end)

Lecture on BG 9.4 -- Melbourne, April 23, 1976:

The same example: The sunshine is not different from the sun, and because the sunshine has entered within your room it does not mean the sun has entered in your room. If you try to understand, then you'll understand that God is everywhere; still, He is not everywhere. This is His inconceivable power. Therefore, if we want to worship God, then we have to worship His form, His name, name, form, quality, pastime. Then we shall realize that God is person, Supreme Being, and He has got all the propensities as we have got. Because we are part and parcel of God, we can study God's personality from our personality, just like we can study the father by the symptoms of the son—this is crude example—similarly, whatever propensities we have got, wherefrom the propensity is coming? It is coming from God.

Lecture on BG 9.5 -- Melbourne, April 24, 1976:

So last verse we have discussed. Kṛṣṇa said... When we speak, "Kṛṣṇa," you should understand "Kṛṣṇa" means God, the Supreme Being. "Kṛṣṇa," the etymological meaning is "the all-attractive." Without being all-attractive there is no meaning of God. It is not that God is attractive only to certain class of men. No. God is attractive for all classes of men, unless he is animal. Animal does not know what is God and what is the attraction of God. He does not know. But human being, in the human society, at least in the civilized human society there is a certain idea of God. Either you follow Christianity or Vedic principle of Mohammedan religion or even Buddha religion, there is conception of God. There is an attempt to understand God. That is human society. Therefore, according to the capability or country and the people, the conception of God may be a little different from one another. But the attraction for God is there. There is no doubt about it. So God appears in three fundamental features: brahmeti paramātmeti bhagavān iti śabdyate.

Lecture on BG 13.5 -- Paris, August 13, 1973:

Yasyaika-niśvasita-kālam athāvalambya jīvanti loma-bilajā jagad-aṇḍa-nāthāḥ (Bs. 5.48). Jagad-aṇḍa...Brahma. Brahmā is the supreme living being within this universe. But it is plural number, jagad-aṇḍa-nāthāḥ. So there are innumerable universes. So if we discuss all these things from the śāstra, then we get really knowledge, and then we can actually act what is the perfection of life. Therefore Kṛṣṇa suggests, brahma-sūtra-padaiś caiva hetumadbhir viniścitaṁ.

Try to understand Brahma-sūtra, Vedānta philosophy. Vedānta philosophy is explained—Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. That is the real commentary of Vedānta-sūtra. You cannot understand Vedānta-sūtra as it is because it is mentioned in codes. Just like we have got business, Bentley's code. One small word but they take It has got a big sentence. Just like in business they write, Bentley's, CIF. So CIF means it is the... Just like we say, ISKCON. ISKCON means... "I" means international, S means society, and K means Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and so..., Kṛṣṇa, and CON means consciousness. As we have simplified, similarly there are many things, codes. So in the Vedānta-sūtra means they are codes, but in each code there is ample meaning. So that is commentary.

Lecture on BG 13.15 -- Bombay, October 9, 1973:

So Kṛṣṇa is supreme spiritual being. He has got his spiritual hands and legs and eyes. Why you accuse that He has no form? It is nonsense. It is less intelligent. He has got form. But the different things which you cannot, your poor intelligence cannot accommodate... Therefore Kṛṣṇa says... This is jñāna. One has to learn this. Sarvendriya-guṇābhāsaṁ sarvendriya-vivarjitam. Sarvendriya-vivarjitam means He has no spiritual senses or spiritual hands and legs, er, material hands and legs. So we have also spiritual hands and legs, but now it is covered by these material things. Therefore we cannot understand our own position also. That we cannot... Ahaṁ brahmāsmi: "I am also spirit soul." Therefore because it is materially covered... But Kṛṣṇa's body is not materially covered.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Lecture on SB 1.2.11 -- Vrndavana, October 22, 1972:

So therefore if you understand Kṛṣṇa, tattvataḥ, yo māṁ vetti tattvataḥ... Tattva is that Kṛṣṇa, the Absolute Truth, is originally a person. Nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13). He's the supreme eternal nitya. He's the supreme living being. As we are living beings, living entities, Kṛṣṇa is also living entity. He's not a dead stone. He's living entity. And as we have got all the propensities of living entity, He has got all the propensities of living entity. Here we are pervertedly... A young boy likes to love a young girl. A young girl likes to love a young boy. But wherefrom these natural propensities come? Because it is there in Kṛṣṇa. Ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavaḥ (BG 10.8). So there cannot be any question of impersonalism. Because by studying the sample living entity, you can understand the chief living entity. Kṛṣṇa is the chief living entity, supreme living entity. So we are samples. Whatever propensities we have got, Kṛṣṇa has also got. But we have got in a limited proportion. Kṛṣṇa has got unlimited proportion. The... Take the same example. The loving propensity, yupat..., yupatidvan yatha yuna,(?) this is natural. But we may finish... Because it is perverted, we may finish these loving propensities within time and space. But Kṛṣṇa's loving propensity is not finished within time and space. It is eternal. That is the difference between Kṛṣṇa and ourself.

Lecture on SB 1.2.25 -- Vrndavana, November 5, 1972:

Now suppose we are also conscious. So what is the nature of our consciousness? Our consciousness is that I know directly everything of my body, or of my self. But I do not know indirectly about yourself. I cannot say what is going on in your mind, in your body, what pains and pleasure you are feeling. But I can speak about myself that "I am feeling like this. I am thinking like this. I am willing like this." That I can say. So my consciousness is not perfect. It is perfect so far I am concerned. But I, my consciousness does not spread upon you. But here it is said, anvayāt itarataḥ abhijñaḥ artheṣu abhijñaḥ. "The Absolute Truth knows everything, directly and indirectly." My knowledge is imperfect in this sense that I am eating something, it is being digested in the stomach. So many secretions are coming out. How they are forming into blood, and so many things are going on within the body, I am not directly concerned. Neither I know directly. But the Absolute Truth, the Supreme Being, He knows everything, in any corner of the cosmic manifestation. Therefore His consciousness and my consciousness is... As, so far possessing consciousness, the Absolute Truth and myself are one, but His consciousness is all-pervading. My consciousness is limited. So the Absolute Truth cannot be limited, but we are limited.

Lecture on SB 1.7.26 -- Vrndavana, September 2, 1976:

But in the ordinary way, karma... According to karma... Just like you are working to earn some money, businessman, karma. So ordinary way you have to work very hard day and night to get some money. Suppose if you want one lakh of rupees or one crore of rupees, you have to work for it. But there is another way. Suppose one rich man gives you, that "You haven't got to work. Take this one lakh of rupees or one crore of rupees. You take it." That is another way. Ordinary way to accumulate crores of rupees, it may not be possible in your life. But if some friend or some rich man becomes kind upon you and delivers you, "Take it," you can get it immediately, without any hard labor. Similarly, Kṛṣṇa, the supreme rich man, supreme rich being, is offering you, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām... (BG 18.66). "You haven't got to do anything. Come on. You surrender unto Me, and I give you immediately liberation." Ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ. There is no anxiety.

Lecture on SB 1.7.40 -- Vrndavana, October 1, 1976:

Caitanya Mahāprabhu says... Caitanya Mahāprabhu's philosophy, it is said by Viśvanātha Cakravartī, ārādhyo bhagavān vrajeśa-tanaya tad-dhāma vṛndāvanam. Vrajeśa-tanaya, Vrajendra-nandana Hari, Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is very much pleased when He is addressed as Vrajendra-nandana, Yaśodānandana, Pārtha-sārathi. Added with the, with His devotee's name. Just to establish that He's not nirviśeṣa. He's always saviśeṣa. So this addition... Kṛṣṇa is everyone's father. Ahaṁ bīja-pradaḥ pitā (BG 14.4). Who can be His father? Nobody can become His father. Still, He accepts a father, and He likes that He should be called by His father's name. Who is that father? His devotee. Vrajendra-nandana Hari. Ārādhyo bhagavān vrajeśa... Bhagavān. He is addressed as Bhagavān. Bhagavān means the Supreme Person, Supreme Being. Who can be His father? Still, it is said, ārādhyo bhagavān vrajeśa-tanayaḥ. Vrajeśa-tanaya. He's son of Mahārāja Nanda, ārādhyo bhagavān, Yaśomatī-nandana.

Lecture on SB 1.7.51-52 -- Vrndavana, October 8, 1976:

So in order to confirm Kṛṣṇa's position, here it is not Devakī-suta. Because one may doubt, that "Devakī-suta is ordinary human being or living being." No. Here it is said, catur-bhuja. Here it is said, bhagavān. Here it is said, catur-bhuja. So we should always remember that Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Being. And Kṛṣṇa says, mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat (BG 7.7). Don't think that above Kṛṣṇa there is any other higher authority, either Brahman or Paramātmā or Viṣṇu. So many... Absolute Truth is manifested in so many features. But Kṛṣṇa is the original. Kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam. Ete cāṁśa-kalāḥ puṁsaḥ kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam (SB 1.3.28).

Lecture on SB 1.7.51-52 -- Vrndavana, October 8, 1976:

Although you can say, "This is first candle, this is second candle, this is third candle..." Similarly, viṣṇu-tattva, everyone is equally powerful. Although Kṛṣṇa is first, Balarāma is second, Saṅkarṣaṇa is third, like that. But do not think They are less powerful. No. Viṣṇu-tattva means They are equally powerful. Svāṁśa. Rāmādi-mūrtiṣu kalā-niyamena tiṣṭhan (Bs. 5.39). Kalā. Rāma is expansion of Viṣṇu, but it is not that Rāma is less powerful than Kṛṣṇa. Nobody is less powerful. Rāmādi-mūrtiṣu kalā-niyamena tiṣṭhan nānāvatāram akarod bhuvaneṣu kintu (Bs. 5.39). There are so many avatāras. Kṛṣṇaḥ svayaṁ samabhavat paramaḥ pumān yaḥ. But Kṛṣṇa is the paramaḥ pumān, the Supreme Being, the Supreme Person. Kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam (SB 1.3.28). Everywhere. Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ (Bs. 5.1). Mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat (BG 7.7). This is the conclusion of the śāstras.

Lecture on SB 1.8.23 -- Mayapura, October 3, 1974:

Vedic instruction. He is the singular number eternal, and we are plural number eternal. Nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām. He is singular number living entity, and we are plural number living entity. Therefore in the dictionary you'll find, this Oxford Dictionary, "the Supreme Being." God means "the Supreme Being." He's a being. He's not a stone. He's a living being. Even the dictionary accepts. He's not a stone, dead stone. That is explained in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavata, janmādy asya yataḥ: (SB 1.1.1) "The Supreme Absolute Truth is the original source of all creation." Janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). Everything that we see, matter and life, everything comes from Him. But whether He is matter or life? That is explained: yes, He is life. Janmādy asya yataḥ anvayād itarataś ca artheṣu abhijñaḥ (SB 1.1.1). He is life because He knows. So who knows? A dead stone cannot know. Unless one is a living being, he cannot know.

Therefore it is said that anvayād itarataś ca abhijñaḥ. How does He know? Now, svarāṭ. Because to know means we require some master, some teacher... But because He is the Supreme Being, He does not require any teacher. Svarāṭ. Svarāṭ means independent. Vedāhaṁ samatītāni (BG 7.26).

Lecture on SB 1.8.28 -- Los Angeles, April 20, 1973:

Suppose you are engaged in worshiping the Deity, in cleansing the room, in decorating the Deity, in making foodstuff for Deity, everything nicely... So your senses are already engaged. Where is the chance of your senses being diverted? The senses are already controlled. Because my senses, hṛṣīkeṇa hṛṣīkeśa-sevanaṁ bhaktir ucyate (CC Madhya 19.170). Bhakti means simply to engage the senses in the service of the master of the senses. Hṛṣīkeśa means master of the senses, and hṛṣīka means senses. So now our senses are engaged for sense gratification. Sarvopādhi, upādhi yuktaḥ. So I am this body. So I must satisfy my senses. This is the contaminated stage of life. But when one comes to the understanding that I am not this body, I am spirit soul, part and parcel of God, so my senses, spiritual senses, should be engaged in the service of the Supreme Spiritual Being. That is wanted.

Lecture on SB 1.8.31 -- Mayapura, October 11, 1974:

So Kuntīdevī is remembering that scene, and she became astonished. Why? Now, bhīr api yad bibheti (SB 1.8.31). The... There is one thing, bhaya. Everyone is afraid of something. That is called bhaya. So there is the personified bhaya, bhīḥ. So he's also afraid of Kṛṣṇa. Because Kṛṣṇa is the supreme being, controller, īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ (Bs. 5.1), so He can control... Just like the superintendent of police. So everyone is afraid of the superintendent of police. Especially those criminals, they are very much afraid. But why the governor should be afraid of the police superintendent? As that is not possible, that is unnatural, similarly, if there is any director of the fear department in the kingdom of Kṛṣṇa, so he's afraid of Kṛṣṇa because everyone is servant. Ekale īśvara kṛṣṇa āra saba bhṛtya (CC Adi 5.142). Whoever may be... Just like Goddess Kālī. She is personified fear. Just see, just imagine the bodily feature of Goddess Kālī. She is killing all the asuras. So many asuras has been killed that all their heads have been made into a garland, and she is putting on the shoulder. And one asura killed, and she has taken the head in the left hand.

Lecture on SB 1.8.32 -- Mayapura, October 12, 1974:

So to understand kṛṣṇa-līlā... So therefore we have to understand Kṛṣṇa-līlā, Kṛṣṇa, from these books, Bhāgavata, Bhagavad-gītā, but not directly. Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu recommends, bhāgavata giyā paro bhāgavata sthāne. Just try to understand Bhāgavata or Bhagavān from the realized soul, not from the professional man. So here: kecid āhur ajaṁ jātam (SB 1.8.32). Āhuḥ ajaṁ jātam. Contradiction. Now Kṛṣṇa says, ajo 'pi: "Although I am birthless, I do not take birth," ajo 'pi sann avyayātmā bhūtānām īśvaro 'pi san... He is the Supreme Being, He's the master of everyone, and He never takes birth. Still, He takes birth—contradiction. He never takes birth, aja; at the same time... Ajo 'pi... Here it is said, kecid āhur ajam. God, or Kṛṣṇa, is aja. He never takes birth. But again he (she) says, jātam: "He has taken birth." This contradiction should be understood. The Vedas, there are many such contradictions like that. Paśyaty acakṣuḥ: "Kṛṣṇa, or God, sees, but He has no eyes." Similarly, God, Kṛṣṇa, takes His birth although He never takes birth. These are contradictions. Paśyaty acakṣuḥ. Apāṇi-pādo javano grahītā: "He has no leg, but He goes so fast, nobody can compete Him." These are Vedic statements. You'll find in the Upaniṣads, apāṇi-pāda: "He has no leg, He has no hand," but javano grahītā, "but if you offer Him something, He takes." Kṛṣṇa says... It is not my word.

Lecture on SB 1.8.33 -- Mayapura, October 13, 1974:

If you take... Veda means knowledge, scripture. Veda does not mean any particular scripture. Any scripture which gives knowledge of God, you can call it as Veda. Vedaiś ca sarvaiḥ. If any book or any scripture or any book of knowledge does not give the information of God, that is not scripture because it cannot be called scripture, or Veda, because it does not search after the Supreme Being. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyaḥ (BG 15.15). Bahūnāṁ janmanām ante jñānavān māṁ prapadyate, vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti (BG 7.19). This is the ultimate goal of knowledge.

So you can call the Supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa or something else. Just like Muhammadans, they say "Allah." Allah means "the Supreme Being." Allah akbar. And the Christian says "God is great." And we say paraṁ brahma paraṁ dhāma (BG 10.12), or Kṛṣṇa, all-attractive. But the aim is to understand Kṛṣṇa, that Kṛṣṇa personally appears so that your misgivings, misunderstandings may be mitigated immediately—"Here I am." The Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is for this purpose, that "You religionists, you philosophers, you scientists, you speculators, you are all... theosophists, so many, you are searching after God, and here is God, Kṛṣṇa." But they are so unfortunate, they'll not accept it. "No, why shall I accept Kṛṣṇa as God?" Then why you shall not? That is our question. If you do not accept Kṛṣṇa as God, then you must know what is God. That, if I ask him, "Do you know what is God?" "That I do not know."

Lecture on SB 1.8.33 -- Mayapura, October 13, 1974:

So when Kṛṣṇa was pleased with their tapasya, they wanted: "My Lord, we want a, a son like You." "So where is like Me?" Kṛṣṇa is asamordhva. There is nobody equal to Kṛṣṇa; nobody is greater than... Otherwise, how He can be great? If somebody is greater than Him, then how He can be great? Nobody can be greater than Him. That is greatness, either you say in English language or Muhammadan language. Allah akbar: "Allah, the Supreme Being, is the great." We also say, paraṁ brahma. So nobody can be greater than Him or equal. Asamordhva. So they wanted "a son like You." That means somebody must be equal to Him. "Like You" means equal to Him. So who can be equal to Kṛṣṇa? But He can expand Himself with many equals. Advaitam acyutam anādim ananta-rūpam (Bs. 5.33). Kṛṣṇa can expand Himself in millions' and millions' forms. Goloka eva nivasaty akhilātma-bhūtaḥ (Bs. 5.37). Everything is there. Although He is living in Goloka, still, by His omnipotency, omnipresence, He can be everywhere. Aṇḍāntara-stha-paramāṇu-ca... So that Paramātmā, or the Supersoul, is equal with Kṛṣṇa. Not anything else equal with Kṛṣṇa, but the Paramātmā is equal with Kṛṣṇa. Therefore by His expansion, He agreed to become son of Devakī, and there may be hundreds and thousands of Devakī, devotees. He is unlimited. His devotees are unlimited. Their demands are unlimited.

Lecture on SB 1.8.43 -- Los Angeles, May 5, 1973:

A spiritual master is honored. Not only honored—in the śāstra it is said, nāvamanyeta karhicit. Ācāryaṁ māṁ vijānīyān nāvamanyeta karhicit (SB 11.17.27). The spiritual master should not be, I mean to say, taken as ordinary human being. And the king also, practically we see, that we do not treat a king or a president like ordinary human being. What is the reason? What is the reason? The reason is that the king... King's another name is naradeva, "God in human form." Naradeva. So king is honored because a king is supposed to be representative of God. Therefore he's honored. His business is... Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa is maintainer, eko yo bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān. Nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13). God means the supreme living being. Nityo nityānām. We are also living beings. We all living beings in different forms, 8,400,000 forms. We are all living beings. And Kṛṣṇa is also a living being. Kṛṣṇa is not impersonal. God is not impersonal. Just like we are persons, you are person, every one of us sitting here, we have got person, personality. We have got individuality.

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

Kṛṣṇa, although ready for going, still, Yudhiṣṭhira Mahārāja stopped. And because Yudhiṣṭhira Mahārāja is the elder cousin of Kṛṣṇa and very exalted, pious king, could not..., Kṛṣṇa could not refuse the order. (reading:) "The almighty God is thus conquered only by loving service, and nothing else." Prāyaśa, prāyaśo 'jita jito 'py asi. Kṛṣṇa is Ajita. Nobody can conquer Kṛṣṇa. Nobody can order Kṛṣṇa. Nobody can supersede Kṛṣṇa. Nobody is greater than Kṛṣṇa. Nobody is equal to Kṛṣṇa. Nobody is (more) powerful than Kṛṣṇa. Nobody is richer. Everything... Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Being. Therefore His another name is Ajita. Ajita means... Jita means conquered. Ajita means who is never conquered. Kṛṣṇa had so many fights with the demons. Even in His childhood, the demons could not conquer over Kṛṣṇa. Beginning from Pūtanā, when He was only three months old, and up to the killing of so many other demons, Kṛṣṇa was never defeated. That is the history. He was never defeated. Ajita. Therefore His name is Ajita. But Ajita becomes conquered. Ajita jito 'py asi. Although Kṛṣṇa is never conquered, still, you can conquer Him. How? Simply by becoming His beloved devotee.

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

So any devotee can attain that stage, controlling Kṛṣṇa by love and affection. There is no question... A devotee never likes to control over... They want to serve Kṛṣṇa. This is also service. When a devotee conquers over Kṛṣṇa or controls over Kṛṣṇa, that is also service. That is not actually controlling, because Kṛṣṇa wants to be controlled, just like a father sometimes says to his children, small children, to rise over the body, and they kick the father. And they... The father feels some relief. It is a kind of massaging. So similarly, everyone worships Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Being, and therefore Kṛṣṇa wants sometimes to be, I mean to say, thought as insignificant subordinate. That is stated in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta, that "Everyone worships Me, but without worshiping, if somebody, I mean, controls over Me, I am very much happy."

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

So to understand God, the Supreme Being, who is controlling the whole universe, it is very, very difficult to understand Him. But if we become devotee, then Kṛṣṇa reveals Himself. That is the... Then not only the devotee understands what is Kṛṣṇa, but he attains the position that he can order over Kṛṣṇa, he can control Kṛṣṇa. This is devotee's position. So why a devotee should aspire for merging into the effulgence of Kṛṣṇa's rays? They have got a different position. So we should try to become a devotee simply by service. You can become a perfect devotee simply by service. There is no other method. Bhaktyā mām abhijānāti (BG 18.55). Bhakti means service, simply. That is bhakti. Sevonmukhe hi jihvādau (Brs. 1.2.234). Simply the spirit, bhakti... Bhaktir uttamā. Ānukūlyena kṛṣṇānuśīlanaṁ bhaktir uttamā (CC Madhya 19.167). Ānukūlyena. Whatever Kṛṣṇa orders, if you discharge that, that is bhakti, simply favorable to Kṛṣṇa.

Lecture on SB 1.8.49 -- Mayapura, October 29, 1974:

Dvija, dvija, especially meant the brāhmaṇas, although dvija means brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, because all of them are twice-born—once born by father and mother, and the next birth is by the spiritual master and spiritual knowledge. So therefore to specify especially the brāhmaṇas, they are called dvija-śreṣṭha. Amongst the dvija, the most important dvija, the brāhmaṇa. Of course, others, they are as good, provided they take instruction from the dvija-śreṣṭha. Dvija-śreṣṭha. Śreṣṭha means the best. Best of the dvijas.

ataḥ pumbhir dvija-śreṣṭhā

varṇāśrama-vibhāgaśaḥ

svanuṣṭhitasya dharmasya

saṁsiddhir hari-toṣaṇam

(SB 1.2.13)

So their welfare is first considered. Go-brāhmaṇa-hitāya ca. Before that, go, cows, cows' protection. In the modern society they do not know even the preliminary knowledge of worshiping the Supreme Being by giving protection to the cows and the brāhmaṇas.

Lecture on SB 1.15.30 -- Los Angeles, December 8, 1973:

So in Bhagavad-gītā Arjuna says, after understanding Bhagavad-gītā from Kṛṣṇa, he said, "You are Parabrahma." Paraṁ brahma paraṁ dhāma pavitraṁ paramaṁ bhavān (BG 10.12). Bhavān. Bhavān means "Your Lordship." "You are Parabrahma, the Supreme Brahma." He's the Supreme Brahma. Brahma means spirit and brahma means the greatest. So he has explicitly explained that spirit soul, we are all spirit soul, every one of us. But He is the supreme spirit soul, param. Param means the supreme. He's not ordinary. So He comes as ordinary, not ordinary, as human being, but He is the supreme human being. That is the difference. Supreme human being. But one who cannot understand, one who thinks, "Oh, Kṛṣṇa is like us. He has got also two hands, two legs, one head. We have got also. He is like me," he is a mūḍha, rascal. Therefore it is said in the Bhagavad-gītā, avajānanti māṁ mūḍhāḥ: (BG 9.11) "These rascal fools, they deride." Mānuṣīṁ tanum āś... Paraṁ bhāvam ajānantaḥ, "They have no knowledge of the paraṁ bhāvam." So the paraṁ bhāvam, that is understood by the devotees. That is the difference. Budhā bhāva-samanvitāḥ, Kṛṣṇa has said. Budhā bhāva-samanvitāḥ (BG 10.8). Paraṁ bhāvam, this bhāva... Bhāva means assimilation—"Oh, Kṛṣṇa is so great." This is called bhāva. That is real understanding, when you understand really this bhāva stage. Bhāva-bhakti. Bhāva-bhakti. Simply engaged in Kṛṣṇa's service. Paraṁ bhāvam. Person who has not come to this stage of bhāva, he cannot understand Kṛṣṇa. Paraṁ bhāvam ajānantaḥ. The bhāva stage comes.

Lecture on SB 1.15.39 -- Los Angeles, December 17, 1973:

But we are trying to give the contribution, what is God. Not only God—His form, His name, His address, everything we are giving. Here is the form of God, Kṛṣṇa. If you do not believe, that He is not God, then you must say what is your idea of God. If you do not know what is the idea of God, then you must accept from me. And how can you deny that Kṛṣṇa is not God? First of all you have to know what is God. God means the Supreme. That is the dictionary word, "Supreme Being." So Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Being. Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Being. Here we see a rich man, he enjoys, and his assistants, his managers, his secretaries, they work. They bring money from business, from factory, and the proprietor enjoys. This is a crude example. Similarly, here is God. He is in the enjoying spirit. He is not going to the office to manage his factory. No. He doesn't go. He simply enjoys.

Lecture on SB 1.16.19 -- Los Angeles, July 9, 1974:

Paṇḍita, one who is learned, he knows that all of them, animals, trees, plants or human being or demigods, everyone is the spirit soul. Now they are simply encaged in different bodies according to different karma. The soul, part and parcel of God, wanted to imitate God's supremacy, and they wanted to enjoy. But in the spiritual world there cannot be second enjoyer. The only enjoyer is Kṛṣṇa. Bhoktāraṁ sarva-loka, bhoktāraṁ sarva-yajñānāṁ sarva-loka... He is the supreme proprietor, supreme being. In the dictionary you will find, "the supreme being." "Supreme being" means nobody can be equal to Him, nobody can be greater than Him. That is, means supreme. So how one can become an imitator of Kṛṣṇa? That is not possible. That imitation is possible here in this material world, because they are all rascals. So one rascal may claim that "I am God," imitation, but as soon as he claims like that, any intelligent man knows that he is a rascal. That's all. That very assertion will establish that he is a rascal.

Lecture on SB 2.3.11-12 -- Los Angeles, May 29, 1972:

Akāmaḥ is one who has no material desire. A living being, naturally being the part and parcel of the supreme whole puruṣaṁ pūrṇam, has as his natural function to serve the Supreme Being, just as the parts and parcels of the body, or the limbs of the body, are naturally meant to serve the complete body. Desireless means, therefore, not to be inert like the stone, but to be conscious of one's actual position and thus desire satisfaction only from the Supreme Lord. Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī has explained this desirelessness as bhajanīya parama-puruṣa-sukha-mātra-sva-sukhatvam in his Sandarbha. This means that one should feel happy only by experiencing the happiness of the Supreme Lord. This intuition of the living being is sometimes manifested even during the conditioned stage of a living being in the material world, and such intuition is expressed in the manner of altruism, philanthropy, socialism, communism, etc., by the undeveloped minds of less intelligent persons.

Lecture on SB 2.8.7 -- Los Angeles, February 10, 1975:

So the science of Kṛṣṇa is not speculation. It is exactly science. Tad-vijñānam. Tad-vijñānam. Tad-vijñānārtham. Vijñāna means science, not speculation. So one should understand God scientifically. That is required, not imagination. The Māyāvādī philosophers, they say, "You can imagine your God." This is rascaldom. How you can imagine your God? God is God. God means the supreme controller, the Supreme Being. In the dictionary you'll find this word: "God means the Supreme Being." He is also a being like us, individual. Just like we are here face to face. You are one individual; I am one individual. We are talking or hearing. Similarly, God is also individual.

Lecture on SB 3.25.1 -- Bombay, November 1, 1974:

So this is... Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is for this purpose, that we... We are not preaching any particular sectarian religious system. No. We are preaching the real what is meant by religion. Religion means dharmaṁ tu sākṣād bhagavat-praṇītam (SB 6.3.19). Nobody knows what is dharma. This is the position. Because dharma means the order of the Supreme Being. That is dharma. Just like law means the order of the government, similarly, dharma means the order of the Supreme Being. That is dharma. This is the simple definition of dharma. So God is one; His order is one. How there can be different dharmas? It is not possible. That is ignorance. When we create different dharma, that is due to ignorance: Hindu dharma, Muslim dharma, Christian dharma or this dharma, that dharma... No. Gold is gold. Does it mean that if a Christian possesses some gold, it becomes Christian gold? Or Hindu possesses some gold, it becomes Hindu gold? No. Gold is gold. Either it is in possession of Hindu or Muslim or Christian, it doesn't matter. Gold is gold. So we are preaching that, that "Here is dharma, to surrender unto the Supreme Being." That is dharma. Sarva-dharmān parityajya (BG 18.66). This is bhāgavata-dharma. Everyone should be taught how to surrender to God.

Lecture on SB 3.25.7 -- Bombay, November 7, 1974:

Then that is māyā. When we are in ignorance that we are the part and parcel of the Supreme Being and our duty is to satisfy Him... Hṛṣīkeṇa hṛṣīkeśa-sevanam (CC Madhya 19.170). This is called bhakti. When we forget it, then we are fallen in this material world, and we are busy in our personal sense gratification and implication. Implication means so long we'll have, we'll continue to have this desire to satisfy our senses, we have to accept another body, according to our desire. Kṛṣṇa is so kind. If we want to become a tiger, Kṛṣṇa will give our next life a tiger's body. And if you want to be a devotee, He will give you the same body. If you want to eat stool, then He'll give you the body of a pig. And if you want to... That requires our own qualification. Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa (SB 3.31.1). Yānti deva-vratā devān pitṟn yānti pitṛ-vra... (BG 9.25). It is a preparation for the next life, as you want to enjoy your senses. So why not prepare yourself to go back to home, back to Godhead, and prepare your senses like that? That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement.

Lecture on SB 3.25.13 -- Bombay, November 13, 1974:

So that is the perfection of yoga. Yoga ādhyātmikaḥ. Ādhyātmā, ātmika, ātmā, the soul, the happiness of the soul, that is real yoga. The happiness of the soul can be possible when the soul, individual soul, is with the Supersoul, or the Supreme Soul. Nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13). There is the Supreme Soul, or Supreme Being. Amongst... There are many living beings. We are many. We living beings, or living entities, we are many. But the principal living being is Kṛṣṇa. The fire and the sparks: the sparks are illuminated when it is with the original fire. If the sparks fall down from the association of the original fire, it is extinguished, no more light. Similarly, our real happiness is when we enjoy with the Supreme Being. Supreme Being.

Just like Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is not alone. Kṛṣṇa is always with His friends, either gopīs or the cowherd boys, or with His father, with His mother. You'll never find Kṛṣṇa alone. Just like here is Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is not alone. Kṛṣṇa is with His Rādhārāṇī and with His devotees. Just like a king. When we say that "The king is coming here," or "The president is coming here," so it means that president is not coming alone, but he's coming with his secretaries, with his ministers, with so many others. In England, the Queen has bodyguards. So similarly, when we... Yoga ādhyātmikaḥ. Yoga means connection, and ātmā, ātmā means this soul, actually, but sometimes ātmā means the mind, ātmā means the body also. So body has nothing to do with the Supreme Being, because Supreme Being is complete spirit. He has no material covering. One who thinks that Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Being, has got a material covering, covered by māyā, as we are, covered by māyā, this material energy... Kṛṣṇa is not like that. Kṛṣṇa says, sambhavāmy ātma-māyayā (BG 4.6). Kṛṣṇa does not say that "I come here as ordinary living being." Janma karma me divyaṁ yo jānāti tattvataḥ (BG 4.9). One has to learn how Kṛṣṇa takes birth.

Lecture on SB 3.25.13 -- Bombay, November 13, 1974:

So actually Kṛṣṇa is the original Supreme Being, original spirit soul. We are simply minute part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. Exactly the same example: just like the fire and the small sparks. You can see. This fireworks is going on. The fire is there, and there are small sparks. So long the fire and the small sparks are together, they are illumination. Similarly, if we connect with Kṛṣṇa, then we are illuminated. As Kṛṣṇa is illuminated, we are also illuminated, although we are small. But if we fall down from Kṛṣṇa, the original fire, we become extinguished. Our spiritual power, our spiritual illumination, becomes extinguished. Therefore yoga system means again connecting the link. That is called yoga. Yoga, the Sanskrit word, means connect, and viyoga means disconnect.

Lecture on SB 3.25.19 -- Bombay, November 19, 1974:

So if we can develop that Kṛṣṇa consciousness, bhakti, then our life, successful life, brahma-siddhaye, complete self-realization, will be possible. Therefore it is said, sadṛśaḥ asti śivaḥ panthā: "No. There is no other alternative." If you... Brahma-siddhaye. Brahman, Para-brahman is Kṛṣṇa. Brahma-siddhaye means to understand what is the relationship... "I am Brahman." That's all right. Pratijāne. But what is your relation with the Para-brahman? That is brahma-siddhi. Brahman and Para-brahman, there are two Brahmans. Why there is...? Ātmā and paramātmā, īśvara and parameśvara. So living being and the Supreme Being. Nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13). These are the Vedic information. There are two, always two. Ātmā, paramātmā, brahman, parabrahman. So... And brahma-siddhaye means not only to understand that "I am Brahman," but I must understand what is my relationship with Para-brahman. That is brahma-siddhi.

That means we must know what is Para-brahman. That Para-brahman is Kṛṣṇa.

Lecture on SB 3.25.26 -- Bombay, November 26, 1974:

So the whole process of understanding the Absolute Truth... Absolute Truth means the Supreme Person, the Supreme Being, Absolute. There is no contradictory. Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa's name, Kṛṣṇa's form, Kṛṣṇa's activities, Kṛṣṇa's paraphernalia, Kṛṣṇa's attributes—everything Kṛṣṇa. That is called Absolute Truth. There is no difference. Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa's form is not different. Kṛṣṇa's hand and Kṛṣṇa's leg not different. Just like we have got difference: this left hand is different from the right hand; the nose is different from the ear. We have got. Because this is called sagata-vigata-vibheda(?). Kṛṣṇa hasn't got that thing. That is called Absolute. It is stated in the Brahma-saṁhitā, aṅgāni yasya sakalendriya-vṛttimanti. Aṅgāni, we have got different parts of the body, limbs, for different purposes. But Kṛṣṇa can serve any purpose from any limbs of His body. Kṛṣṇa can eat by seeing only. Kṛṣṇa can go by thinking only. There are so many description that Kṛṣṇa is Absolute. So these contradictory things, how one can understand of the Absolute? He is absolute, advaya-jñāna. Absolute means no duality; everything is one.

Lecture on SB 3.25.29 -- Bombay, November 29, 1974:

Tattva avabodhanam. Tattva means truth. So the idea is how to understand the Supreme Person, Supreme Being, in tattvataḥ, in truth.

manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu

kaścid yatati siddhaye

yatatām api siddhānāṁ

kaścin māṁ vetti tattvataḥ

(BG 7.3)

This tattva word has been used in the Bhagavad-gītā, that everyone has got some idea of God. Not everyone; but out of many many millions of person: manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu. Not ordinary men. There are millions and millions of person who don't care, just like animal. They don't care to know what is God, what is our relationship with God, how to act in that relationship. The Vedic instruction, the whole Vedic instruction is for this purpose. Vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyaḥ (BG 15.15). That is the purpose of Veda.

Lecture on SB 3.25.29 -- Bombay, November 29, 1974:

So first of all we have to know what is our relationship with God. That you do not know. Neither you try for it. This child... Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, Kṛṣṇa says, not we say, that out of many many thousands and millions of persons, manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu (BG 7.3), so kaścid, somebody becomes interested what is the purpose of life. That is actually awakening of human life. Otherwise like cats and dogs: eating, sleeping, having sex intercourse, and after some time finished, that is the life of cats and dogs. That is not human life. Human life as it is stated in the Vedas, athāto brahma jijñāsā. This life is meant for inquiring about the Supreme Being, Brahman, Para-brahman. That is human life. The whole Vedic civilization is based on this basic principle that to understand the Absolute Truth.

Lecture on SB 3.25.29 -- Bombay, November 29, 1974:

So in this Kali-yuga nobody is interested even. We are spreading Kṛṣṇa consciousness, very few people are interested to know about Kṛṣṇa or the Supreme Being. So that is not human life. Human life means when we inquire about the Absolute Truth. That is human life. So there are so many societies, so many religious institutions. But nobody is interested to know Kṛṣṇa, or the Supreme Being. Kṛṣṇa means the Supreme Being, all-attractive. No educational system, no university. Therefore Kṛṣṇa said, manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu kaścid yatati siddhaye (BG 7.3), that is siddhi of... Siddhi means perfection of life, to understand God. Because in the human life if one tries he can understand God, he can understand himself, he can understand what is his relationship with God, he can understand how to act in that relationship and thus make his life perfect. That is human life. So manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu kaścid yatati siddhaye. Siddhi. Siddhi means self-realization. And yatatām api siddhānām (BG 7.3). And even though one is siddha, or self-realized, he also does not understand what is Kṛṣṇa. Even one is siddha. That siddha has still to be progressed. Then he will come to jñānavān. Jñānavān means one who is siddha, one who has understood himself. That siddhi means to understand oneself that "I am not this body." That is siddhi.

Lecture on SB 3.25.29 -- Bombay, November 29, 1974:

So understanding of Bhagavān means understand of Brahman and Paramātmā. But understanding of Brahman or Paramātmā is not understanding Bhagavān. Therefore the Brahmavādīs, the Paramātmavādīs, they are impersonalists. They cannot understand the Supreme Being Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa. They cannot understand. That is the defect. Therefore some yoga system, jñāna-yoga system, or dhyāna-yoga system, and there is bhakti-yoga system. That bhakti-yoga system is the perfect. And jñāna-yoga system or dhyāna-yoga system, that is partial understanding, Paramātmā feature. Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe 'rjuna tiṣṭhati (BG 18.61). In that way you can understand, you can come to the platform of understanding samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu. But that is not perfection. Still you have to go.

Lecture on SB 3.25.32 -- Bombay, December 2, 1974:

So how this can be possible? This suhṛdaḥ sarva-dehinām is possible when one has surrendered himself to the Supreme Being. On His account, because he has surrendered to the Supreme Being, he is friend to all living being. Artificially you cannot. Artificially you select some section, the poorer section, and worship him like Nārāyaṇa, and you call him daridra-nārāyaṇa. But a devotee, if he has got vision of Nārāyaṇa, he will see the daridra-nārāyaṇa, the rich Nārāyaṇa, the chāga-nārāyaṇa, and the every Nārāyaṇa, paṇḍitāḥ sama-darśinaḥ (BG 5.18). Why a section should be called Nārāyaṇa? If you have got such broader vision, that you are seeing Nārāyaṇa in everything, then what the rich man has done? He is also Nārāyaṇa. And the goat has... He is also Nārāyaṇa. The cow, he is also Nārāyaṇa. Then you should... If you have such broader vision, that you see everywhere Nārāyaṇa, then why should you specify a section, daridra-nārāyaṇa?

Lecture on SB 3.26.29 -- Bombay, January 6, 1975:

This body, material body, is asat. Everyone knows. It will not stay: temporary. Avināśi tu tad viddhi yena sarvam idaṁ tatam. This body is vināśi, and the dehino 'smin yathā dehe (BG 2.13), the dehinaḥ, the proprietor of the body, he is avināśi. He is sat, but this body is asat. Asad-grahāt. The śāstra says that sadā samudvigna-dhiyām asad-grahāt (SB 7.5.5). This living entity, although part and parcel of the Supreme Being, Kṛṣṇa, sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha, so why, instead of ānanda, we have got anxieties? Instead of ānanda... Actually, we should have been in ānanda. Ānandamayo 'bhyāsāt (Vedānta-sūtra 1.1.12). Just like Kṛṣṇa is before us. He is ānanda, He is enjoying, He is playing on His flute, and Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī is serving Him, and all the gopīs serving Him. And those who are devotees, they are also trying to assist Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī and the gopīs to give Kṛṣṇa pleasure. Ānanda-cinmaya-rasa-pratibhāvitābhiḥ. All the expansion, Kṛṣṇa—Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī and the gopīs—they are expansion of ānanda-cinmaya-rasa; they are not material. They are all ānanda-cinmaya-rasa-pratibhāvitābhis tābhir ya eva nija-rūpatayā kalābhiḥ (Bs. 5.37). They are also Kṛṣṇa's. Everything is Kṛṣṇa, separated and personal. So these are personal expansion. We are also Kṛṣṇa's. We are separated now in this material... Therefore we have forgotten Kṛṣṇa.

Lecture on SB 3.26.32 -- Bombay, January 9, 1975:

That is Kṛṣṇa. Janma, this janma or the creation of this material cosmic manifestation, phenomenal world, who is the cause of janma? The cause is Kṛṣṇa. Aham ādir hi devānām (Bg 10.2). Then He is the cause of Brahmā, devānām, Śiva. Padma-palāśa-locana, padma, padma-nābha. Therefore Viṣṇu's another name is Padmanābha. Padmanābha, He causes the lotus flower from His navel, and there is Brahmā. And then Brahmā creates whole universe. The original creator is bhagavad-vīrya-coditāt, not this material. The material, there was no existence of the material. The materials are created by the Supreme Living Being. Nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13). That is to be understood. So the modern theory that the phenomenal world or this cosmic manifestation is due to chemical combination... They have written books, Chemical Evolution. The same example, that a solution of soda bicarb and solution of citric acid, mixed together, there is effervescence. But who is mixing? The mixture is bhagavad-vīrya-coditāt. This is to be understood.

Lecture on SB 5.5.6 -- Vrndavana, October 28, 1976:

Pradyumna: "When the living entity is covered by the mode of ignorance, he does not understand the individual living being and the supreme living being, and his mind is subjugated to fruitive activity. Therefore, until one has love for Lord Vāsudeva, who is none other than Myself, he is certainly not delivered from having to accept a material body again and again."

Prabhupāda:

evaṁ manaḥ karma-vaśaṁ prayuṅkte

avidyayātmany upadhīyamāne

prītir na yāvan mayi vāsudeve

na mucyate deha-yogena tāvat

(SB 5.5.6)

This is another important verse. The problem is presented, deha-yogena. Deha-yogena, this body, contact with this material body, this is the problem. But nobody knows it. Especially in these days they cannot understand that "This material body is a foreign element, and somehow or other I am victimized, I am entrapped within this body." This problem is real problem. But they do not know. And this is called avidyā, ignorance.

Lecture on SB 6.1.25 -- Chicago, July 9, 1975:

These jñānīs, they are thinking that "Now we have become liberated because we have learned to distinguish between the shadow and reality." So... But they cannot enjoy reality because they are śūnyavādī, nirviśeṣa. They cannot believe that here there is ball dance and there is Kṛṣṇa dancing with the gopīs—it is the same thing. So how it is reality? This is their misfortune. They cannot judge that unless in Kṛṣṇa there is ball dance, how this ball dance can be shadow? The variety is there. But unless there is reality, how the shadow... We are after shadow. Shadow is not reality. But there must be reality. And if in the shadow there are so many varieties, so why not reality also full of varieties? The poor fund of knowledge of the Māyāvādī... They cannot understand even that unless in the shadow there are so much varieties, unless there is reality... And in the Vedānta-sūtra it is said, ānandamayo 'bhyāsāt: (Vedānta-sūtra 1.1.12) "The living entities and the Supreme Being, they are full of enjoyment." Why we are seeking enjoyment here in this mater...? Everyone is seeking after enjoyment. But they are seeking after false enjoyment.

Lecture on SB 7.6.1 -- Madras, January 2, 1976:

God is one. Ekaṁ brahma dvitīyaṁ nāsti. But He expands in different way. That is explained in the Varāha Purāṇa, svāṁśa vibhinnāṁśa. He expands as Viṣṇu-tattva. That is svāṁśa. And he expands as jīva-tattva. That is vibhinnāṁśa. So we are also expansions of God, vibhinnāṁśa, a small fragmental portion. The qualities are there, very, very small quantity. But the whole potency is there in Kṛṣṇa. Nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13). So there is one supreme living being, a supreme eternal, and that is Kṛṣṇa. This is... And to cultivate this knowledge is called bhāgavata-dharma. So Prahlāda Mahārāja, he learned this bhāgavata-dharma when he was a baby within the womb of his mother he learned this bhāgavata-dharma. So the devotees—śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ—they are engaged with these nine different phases of bhakti.

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

If you cannot do, then why you are speaking like nonsense, that "The combination of matter or chemicals gives the life"? You take the chemicals. Our Doctor Svarūpa Dāmodara in the California University... One big professor came to lecture on chemical evolution, and he challenged immediately, that "If I give you the chemicals, can you produce life?" He said, "That I cannot say." So this is their position. They cannot prove it. They cannot do it. Science means not only observation but experiment also. That is complete. Otherwise theory. It is not science. So they have got different theories. That anyone can put forward. That is not But real fact is that Kṛṣṇa is spiritual and He's the Supreme. Nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13). This is the Vedic injunction. God is the supreme nitya, eternal, and the Supreme Living Being. In the dictionary also it is said, "God means the Supreme Being." They could not understand Supreme Living Being. But in the Vedas it is said not only Supreme Being, but Supreme Living Being. Nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetānām eko yo bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān. That is the description of God.

Lecture on SB 7.9.28 -- Mayapur, March 6, 1976:

That is the way. And people, they try to understand Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa love affairs, jumping all of a sudden. This is not the way. One should be very much eager to understand. Rādhā-kṛṣṇa-praṇaya-vikṛtir āhlādini śaktir asmād ekātmānāv api deha-bhedaṁ gatau tau, śrī caitanya-prakaṭam adhunā tad-dvayaṁ caikyam āptaṁ rādhā-kṛṣṇa-bhāva-dyuti. There is a... This is the verse by Jīva Gosvāmī that "Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa is one. Rādhārāṇī is the pleasure potency of Kṛṣṇa." Parasya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate sva-bhāvikī jñāna-bala-kriyā ca (Cc. Madhya 13.65, purport). Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Being. When He wants to enjoy pleasure, no material things can supply that. That is not possible. He expands His own energy, and by His own energy He gets the pleasure. So Rādhārāṇī is not ordinary, as the sahajiyās, those who take Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa love affair very easily... No. Then you'll misunderstand. Rādhā-kṛṣṇa-praṇaya-vikṛtir āhlādini śaktiḥ. It is the expansion of pleasure potency of Kṛṣṇa.

Lecture on SB 7.9.32 -- Mayapur, March 10, 1976:

If a ordinary man can take pleasure lying down on the water, closing and lying for hours—we have seen it—so what is the difficulty for the Supreme Lord? You have got this tendency to lie down on water, half on the water, and close your eyes. So where your tendency has come? Your tendency has come because the same tendency is there in the Supreme Lord. This is the explanation. Yato vā imāni bhūtāni jayante. Janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). This is the Vedic... Everything, whatever you see, that is there in the Supreme Being. Why we make love affairs with young girls or young boys? Because the same propensity is there. Lakṣmī-sahasra-śata-sambhrama sevyamānam (Bs. 5.29). Kṛṣṇa is enjoying in Goloka Vṛndāvana with so many young girls. That tendency to enjoy the company of young girls or young boys is there. Otherwise wherefrom it has come? That is the explanation. Everything, whatever you see, everything—janmādy asya yataḥ—that is there.

Lecture on SB 7.9.37 -- Mayapur, March 15, 1976:

So human life is meant for understanding the Supreme, our connection with the Supreme Being. That is real human life. Therefore the Vedas are there. So as soon as Brahmā was born... Because he is in charge of this universe... There are innumerable universes and innumerable Brahmās also. Yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-aṇḍa koṭi (Bs. 5.40). Yasyaika-niśvasita-kālam athāvalambya jīvanti loma-vilajā jagad-aṇḍa-nāthāḥ (Bs. 5.48). So Brahmā is jagad-aṇḍa-nātha. He's the chief person within this material world, in this universe. So he is in charge; therefore he was given the Vedic knowledge. And he got the Vedic knowledge, but at the same time, two demons known as Madhu-Kaiṭabha, they wanted to snatch away, take away the Vedic mantras from Brahmā. This is the attempt from the very beginning.

Nectar of Devotion Lectures

The Nectar of Devotion -- Vrndavana, November 1, 1972:

It doesn't matter whether it is Hinduism, Christianism, or Buddhism, or Muhammadanism, but there must be a religious system. Without this system, that human society is not considered as human society. That is animal society. In the... Even I understand that in America the Red Indians, who are supposed to be not civilized, they had also a religious system. So maybe a perverted form of religious system. Similarly, in India also there are primitive races in the jungles, they have also... Religious system means approving the authority of some Supreme Being. That is religious system. So in the animal society there is no such conception that "There is God. We have got some relationship with God," what is that relationship. This type of discussion cannot be present in the animal society. So dharma artha kāma mokṣa. Generally religious system is taken for improving social and economic condition. Artha. Artha means economy. Artha is required for sense gratification. We require economic development for our sense gratification. And when one is completely satisfied, then he can cultivate about spiritual realization, mokṣa, āpavarga.

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures

Lecture on CC Adi-lila 1.9 -- Mayapur, April 2, 1975:

They do not see who is behind this explosion. That is their ignorance or poor fund of knowledge. We have got practical experience that no explosion takes place without the touch of a human being. Similarly, even there was explosion going on, but there is a touch of the Supreme Being. That is the statement in the Bhagavad... Mayādhyakṣeṇa (BG 9.10). We are seeing the explosion. Just like child sees the explosion. He does not know that there, behind the explosion, there is a management of a superior being. This is childish observation. Because in śāstra we see that behind everything the hand of the Supreme Being is there, and by our practical experience also, we see that matter does not act automatically without being touched by a living being, so how we can accept this argument, that the explosion is going on automatically? What is the evidence? There is no evidence.

Lecture on CC Adi-lila 1.15 -- Dallas, March 4, 1975:

Similarly, Kavirāja Gosvāmī also took shelter of Vṛndāvana under the lotus feet of Madana-mohana. Therefore he says, mat-sarvasva-padāmbhojau: "The lotus feet of Madana-mohana is my everything. I have taken shelter of Madana-mohanajī. That is my everything." That is Vaiṣṇava feeling. They think the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa as their only possession. But that is the greatest possession. What this material possession will do? One who has taken possession, at least one who is allowed to take possession of the lotus feet of Madana-mohana, is not very easy thing. If Kṛṣṇa gives him the facility... Kṛṣṇa is prepared. How? Simply by service, one can easily become in possession of the lotus feet of the Lord. Sevonmukhe hi jihvādau svayam eva sphuraty adaḥ (Brs. 1.2.234). We cannot bring in possession the lotus feet of the Supreme Being. That is not possible. But if we render service, He gives the allowance, "Yes, you can be under My shelter of feet."

Lecture on CC Adi-lila 1.15 -- Dallas, March 4, 1975:

This should be the prayer to the lotus feet of the Lord, not for any material benefit. That is not very good idea. We should not approach the Supreme Being some material benefit. Material benefit is already there. Everything is arranged by the Supreme Lord for everyone's necessities of life. There is no question about that. Just like if a person is in the prison house, that prisoner has no problem for his material necessities. The government has arranged already for his eating, sleeping and, if he is sick, medical help. That is not problem. The problem is that he has become criminal by transgressing the laws of the state. Now he should become a very good citizen and come out of the prison house. Then he is happy. Similarly, in this material world, so far our material necessities are concerned, it is already arranged. There is no question of becoming anxious for getting our material necessities. It is already arranged by God.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.101-104 -- Bombay, November 3, 1975:

Prabhupāda: ...from Caitanya-caritāmṛta. Caitanya means "the supreme living being." In the Vedas it is said, nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām eko yo bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13). This is description of the Supreme Lord, that the Supreme Lord... (yelling outside) Huh?

Indian man: They removed a tree from there. Digging.

Prabhupāda: Oh. Hare Kṛṣṇa. So, what is God, that is simplified, that nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām. He is the supreme eternal being amongst many other eternal beings. We are all eternal beings. We living entities, we are... Our position is eternity. As it is described in the Bhagavad-gītā, na jāyate na mriyate vā kadācit: "These living entities, they do not take birth or die at any time." Not "Nowadays they are taking more birth and population is increasing." This is all nonsense. Population is neither increasing nor decreasing. It may be... The living entities, they are transmigrating in this material world, not in the spiritual world. In the spiritual world they have got their eternal form. But in the material world, because the living entities have come to enjoy the material resources, therefore, according to the desire, the living entity is getting different forms of body, 8,400,000. But he is not dying. The body is changed. Tathā dehāntara-prāptir dhīras tatra na muhyati (BG 2.13).

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.101-104 -- Bombay, November 3, 1975:

So He is the supreme conscious person amongst ourself and He is the supreme eternal amongst ourself. That is Caitanya. Caitanya means the Supreme Being, the supreme eternal being, the supreme conscious being. And He is caitanya-caritra. Caritra means character, activities. So Caitanya-caritāmṛta. Amṛta, amṛta means also eternal or nectarine, which does not die. That Caitanya-caritāmṛta is there. It was written by Kavirāja Gosvāmī some four hundred years ago, and it was in Bengali, er, not Bengali-Sanskrit and Bengali. So now we have translated with elaborate explanation. This is the book. It is now Caitanya-caritāmṛta in English. So we have finished this in seventeen volumes like this. So we request you to take these volumes and read that what is the position of Caitanya, or the supreme living entity, and ourself; what is the relationship and what is His characteristics, what is our characteristics, and how we can make our activities as good as the Supreme Caitanya's. That is called Caitanya-caritāmṛta.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.101-104 -- Bombay, November 3, 1975:

He is animal, that's all. Similarly, our position is that we do not go... We may not go to the big animal, but we may go to like Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Then we will be benefited. Caitanya Mahāprabhu, if we approach Caitanya Mahāprabhu... That is caitanya, living, supreme living being.

Therefore our request is that for your enlightenment of life you do not approach a big animal. You approach Kṛṣṇa, the supreme being. Then you will be benefited. There is no use. And who is animal? Even if he is two-legged, but still, if he remains an animal... Who? Yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke (SB 10.84.13). One who is thinking of this body as identified with the self, he is animal. Anyone, it doesn't matter. We do not speak of any particular man, but any person who does not know his real identification... As Sanātana Gosvāmī inquired, ke āmi. He was the prime minister, but still, he did not know what he is. That will be explained. Grāmya-vyavahāre kahaye paṇḍita satya kare māni āpanāra hitāhita kichui nā jāni. "Some foolish person, they say that I am very learned scholar." Because he was brāhmaṇa. Brāhmaṇa is always supposed to be very learned; therefore he is called paṇḍita, paṇḍitajī.

Sri Isopanisad Lectures

Sri Isopanisad, Mantra 1 -- Los Angeles, May 2, 1970:

"...proprietary right of the Supreme Being." So here, in the Īśopaniṣad also, the same thing is explained, that īśāvāsyam idaṁ sarvam (ISO 1). Whatever we are seeing, animate or inanimate, there is control of the Supreme Lord. The same thing is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā, that His energies are working. In the Viṣṇu Purāṇa it is said, just like fire staying in one place distributes its heat and light... Eka-deśa-sthitasyāgner jyotsnā vistāriṇī yathā. Agni, agni means fire. Fire is... Just like the sun. Sun is also fire, very high temperature fire. So it is staying in one place, but it is distributing its light and heat all over the universe. Eka-deśa-sthitasyāgner jyotsnā yathā vistāriṇī tathaiva parasya brahmaṇaḥ śaktiḥ. Similarly, two energies from the Supreme Lord is being distributed all over the creation. One kind of energy is called material energy, and the other kind of energy is called the spiritual energy.

Festival Lectures

Sri Gaura-Purnima Srimad-Bhagavatam 7.9.38 -- Mayapur, March 16, 1976:

He is appearing as a devotee. Why? Now, this is the most magnanimous avatāra. People are so foolish, they could not understand Kṛṣṇa. When Kṛṣṇa said, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ (BG 18.66), they took it: "Who is this person ordering like that, Sarva-dharmān parityajya? What right?" That is our material disease. If somebody is ordered to do something, he protests, "Who are you to order me?" This is the position. God Himself, Kṛṣṇa, what can He say? He orders, the Supreme Person, Supreme Being. He must order. He's the supreme controller. He must order. That is God. But we are so foolish that when God orders that "You do this," we take it otherwise: "Oh, who is this man? He's ordering like that. And sarva-dharmān parityajya, 'giving up everything'? Why shall I give Him?" Sarva-dharmān: "I have created so many dharmas, 'isms.' I shall give it up? Why shall I give it up?" Therefore the same Lord came again as Caitanya Mahāprabhu.

Janmastami Lord Sri Krsna's Appearance Day -- Bhagavad-gita 7.5 Lecture -- Vrndavana, August 11, 1974:

So there are so many theories, but Kṛṣṇa, the supreme life, the supreme being, is the source of everything. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavo mattaḥ sarvaṁ pravartate (BG 10.8). The, this fact is known to the devotees. Vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti sa mahātmā sudurlabhaḥ (BG 7.19). Kṛṣṇa is the source. Absolute Truth is Kṛṣṇa. In the Vedānta-sūtra the inquiry is athāto brahma jijñāsā. What is that Absolute Truth, the supreme source of everything? That supreme source is Kṛṣṇa. That is explained in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in the beginning: janmādy asya yataḥ anvayād itarataś ca artheṣu abhijñaḥ svarāṭ (SB 1.1.1). Abhijñaḥ. Kṛṣṇa is the supreme creator, and He knows everything. Anvaya-vyatirekābhyām, directly and indirectly, both ways. He knows everything. He says also in Bhagavad-gītā, vedāhaṁ samatītāni (BG 7.26). He knows everything. Kṛṣṇa, when He was asked by Arjuna that "You say that this philosophy of Bhagavad-gītā was taught by You to the sun-god. How can I believe it?" the answer was that "The thing is that both of us, we were present, but you have forgotten. I have not forgotten."

His Divine Grace Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Gosvami Prabhupada's Disappearance Day, Lecture -- Bombay, December 22, 1975:

So, Kṛṣṇa has described everything, in the Bhagavad-gītā, and today, this night, we are trying to explain the mission of Kṛṣṇa, because the same mission is being carried out by us beginning from Brahmā, and today is a special day, the disappearance day of my Guru Mahārāja, Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Goswami. So these ācāryas, they come and they go, that is not like ordinary birth and death. It is called prakaṭa, aprakaṭa, āvirbhāva, tirobhāva. So even ordinarily nobody takes birth and nobody dies, na jāyate na mrīyate vā kadācit, so what to speak of the ācāryas, or Bhagavān. Nobody, a living entity, a living being... God is the supreme living being, and we are subordinate living beings. Both of us, we are living beings, so what is the difference between the two kinds of living beings? The difference is that the one, God, or Kṛṣṇa, He maintains all the other living beings. And we are being maintained. This is the difference. Eko yo bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān. The plural number living entities, we are plural number, in different species of life, but we are maintained by the Supreme Being.

So this is our relationship. If we understand this relationship, eko bahūnāṁ yo vidadhāti kāmān, that is our real understanding. Just like in your office or in a factory, there is a proprietor, he is maintaining so many workers, so many clerks. And what is your duty? To serve him. So similarly, if the Supreme Being, the supreme proprietor, as Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā,

bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasaṁ

sarva-loka-maheśvaram

suhṛdaṁ sarva-bhūtānāṁ

jñātvā māṁ śāntim ṛcchati

(BG 5.29)

If the factory man knows that he is not the proprietor, he is not the enjoyer of the profit—the enjoyer of the profit is the proprietor of the factory, and we are worker—then there is peace. And if the workers fight amongst themselves, that "I am the proprietor," falsely, then there is chaos.

His Divine Grace Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Gosvami Prabhupada's Appearance Day, Lecture -- Atlanta, March 2, 1975:

If you don't keep in touch with the original link, then it will be lost. And if you keep touch with the original link, then you are directly hearing Kṛṣṇa. Similarly, Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa's representative, spiritual master, if you keep always intact, in link with the words and instruction of the superior authorities, then you are always fresh. This is spiritual understanding. Na jāyate na mrīyate vā kadācit nityaḥ śāśvato 'yaṁ purāṇo (BG 2.20). Purāṇaḥ means very old. Just like Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Being. He must be very old because He is the original person. But the Brahma-saṁhitā says, advaita acyuta anādi ananta-rūpam ādyaṁ purāṇa-puruṣa nava-yauvanaṁ ca (Bs. 5.33). Purāṇa-puruṣa, the oldest person, but you will find Him nava-yauvanaṁ ca, always a fresh youth. That is God. God is not a material, that it gets old. The body gets old.

Jagannatha Deities Installation Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.2.13-14 -- San Francisco, March 23, 1967:

Guest (3): You mentioned about how you should fulfill the supreme law, and you should be what your..., what the spirit tells you or what this Supreme Being, whatever, this tells you? I mean, like, if you, like, if you meditate a lot and you really, well, you feel something, that you should do something...

Prabhupāda: It is not something. It must be actual fact. There is no question of "something." "Something" is vague. You must speak what is that something.

Guest (3): Well, let's say it'd be to...

Prabhupāda: Oh, that you cannot express. That means you have no idea. So you have to learn. This is the process. I am speaking of the process. So if you want to have knowledge of Absolute Truth, the first thing is, basic principle is, faith. Then you must be thoughtful. Then you must be devoted, and you must hear from authentic sources. In this way, these are the different methods. And when you come to the ultimate knowledge, from Brahman platform to Paramātmā platform, then Paramātmā to the Supreme Absolute Personality of Godhead, then your duty shall be to satisfy the Supreme Personality of Godhead. That is the perfection of your active life. These are the process. These are the process, and it is concluded that therefore, everyone—never mind what he is—his duty is to satisfy the Supreme Personality of Godhead. And how we can satisfy? We have to hear about Him, we have to speak about Him, we have to think about Him, we have to worship Him, and that is regularly. That will make, help you. If you have no worship, if you have no thought, if you have no hearing, if you have no speaking, and you are simply thinking of something, something, something, that "something, something," it is not God.

Arrival Addresses and Talks

Arrival Lecture -- Dallas, March 3, 1975:

He has got His father. He has got His mother, Mother Yaśodā, Nanda Mahārāja. He has got so many friends, hundreds and thousands-boyfriends, girlfriends. The trees, the plants, the flowers, the fruits, the land, the water, the cows, the calves—He is surrounded by a great family. He is not a single person. Suppose if we say, "Now the president is coming." So president means he is not only coming alone; he is coming with secretaries, his ministers, his military secretary and so many other people, some soldiers and bodyguards. He is not alone. So if a material president, insignificant, is always surrounded by his associates, so the Supreme Being, how He is associated with His surroundings, you can just imagine. He cannot be alone. That is Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is not zero, śūnyavādi, as they say that "Everything zero after this," or nirviśeṣa, "Everything like sky." No. He is individual, person. And He says in the Bhagavad-gītā in the Second Chapter, "My dear Arjuna, you, you are a person. Me, I am also a person, and all these soldiers and kings who are assembled here, they are also person. So don't think that we were not person in the past, and we are not person at present, and in future also we shall not become person. We are all person, eternally person." And whenever there is person, there is associates, there is family, there is exchange of love. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Initiation Lectures

Sannyasa Initiation -- Mayapur, March 16, 1976:

The difference is that eka, that singular number living being, vidadhāti kāmān bahūnām, He maintains everyone, and we are maintained. That is the difference. We plural number living entities, we are maintained, and He, the Supreme Lord, being Supreme Being...

In the dictionary, English dictionary, God means Supreme Being. So Supreme Being, He's also living being. He's not a dead stone. The difference is that He is the maintainer, and we are maintained. He is the ruler; we are ruled. This difference we have to understand. And He is the proprietor; we are servants. Caitanya Mahāprabhu's philosophy is this. That is a fact. Jīvera svarūpa haya nitya kṛṣṇa dāsa (Cc. Madhya 20.108-109). So this consciousness, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, is being spread all over the world for the peace of the world, for the peace of the mind, for the peace of the society. So take it very seriously. It is very authorized. It is not a concocted speculation, it is fact. And it is happening so. Now these American boys and girls who have come, spending thousands of rupees here... And they have no such distinction that "Here is Indian. He is African. He is brāhmaṇa. He's kṣatriya." Why? Because they have taken to Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Philosophy Discussions

Philosophy Discussion on Immanuel Kant:

Śyāmasundara: He says that this pure reason has a regulative value, that is, by attempting to grasp the totality of conditions by connecting a particular phenomenon with the whole experience. In other words, for example, the idea of a supreme being is a regulative principle of reason because it tells us to view everything in the world in connection, as if it proceeded from the necessary cause, or the Supreme Being.

Prabhupāda: The Supreme Being is the cause of all causes.

Śyāmasundara: Yes. So he says to suppose, or to use my pure reason, to come to the conclusion that there is a Supreme Being is a regulative function, because it makes everything regular. By coming to the conclusion that there is a Supreme Being, the rest of everything, all phenomena, become regulated in relationship with the Supreme Being. This is the natural impulse.

Prabhupāda: That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram: (BG 9.10) "Under My direction the whole material nature is working, and everything is going on," hetunānena kaunteya, jagat viparivartate. On this account, everything in this cosmic manifestation is going on regularly. All Vedic śāstras describe like that, that behind these phenomena there is a direction of a person, and He is the Supreme Person.

Philosophy Discussion on Immanuel Kant:

Śyāmasundara: So he says that this is a natural impulse, that it is the nature of reason itself to find regularity, a total regularity, for everything. So that it must suppose that there is a Supreme Being in order to find that total synthesis.

Prabhupāda: So in your preaching you can use this Kant's statement, how he is confirming the statement of Bhagavad-gītā. Bhagavad-gītā directly says and he as a philosopher has found out that this is a fact. So this may help in our preaching work.

Śyāmasundara: He says that phenomena are so endless that it is impossible to arrive at ultimate reality by the reason alone, because there are certain what he calls transcendental illusions.

Prabhupāda: Therefore you have to take Kṛṣṇa's assertion. I am puzzled with these varieties of phenomenal changes, and you cannot understand how these things are being done. But as soon as you come to Kṛṣṇa, He says that "I am behind this. I am doing it." Then your conclusion is perfect.

Philosophy Discussion on Charles Darwin:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: They never think about that. That's why they are trying to find out so many things, because they think that when somebody tries to make something medicine or some compound, they try so many ways and means, and sometimes, when they are at a loss, they say, "O God, please give me (indistinct)." They do not know where it comes from, how this can be made. They try so many ways in making a compound. Sometimes they have to take a hundred or two hundred mistakes, and sometimes they will never get the compound. Ultimately when they are all disappointed, they say, "O God, please help me." So ordinarily the final conclusion is everybody (indistinct) supreme being.

Prabhupāda: And that is natural because, after all, God gives him his intelligence. It is stated in Bhagavad-gītā: mattaḥ smṛtir jñānam apohanaṁ ca: (BG 15.15) "It is from Me." Apohanaṁ ca. He was forgetting. That was also..., God was not giving the chance, and he prays to God, then God is kind: "All right, do it like that." That is the statement in Bhagavad-gītā.

Philosophy Discussion on John Dewey:

Hayagrīva: He writes, "According to the religious and philosophic tradition of Europe, the valid status of all the highest values, the good, true and beautiful, was bound up with their being properties of ultimate and supreme being, namely God. All went well as long as what passed for natural science gave no offense to this conception. Trouble began when science ceased to disclose in the objects of knowledge the possession of any such properties. Then some roundabout method had to be devised for substantiating them." In other words, science began to investigate the phenomenal universe without admitting the proprietorship of anyone, of God, and this brings a breakdown in morality and value. So Dewey attempts to reassemble these shattered values in a philosophical way, but he, like science, attempts to do so without recognizing the proprietorship of an ultimate and supreme being.

Prabhupāda: That is another lunacy, because everything has a proprietor. So why this big cosmic manifestation will not have a proprietor? To accept the proprietor is natural, and that is logical. And not to accept a proprietor, that is lunacy. How it can be possible? Just like we give this example: We are standing on the land. We know that there is government, there is proprietor. And a few yards after, when this ocean begins, how we can think of that the ocean has no proprietor, no government? How any philosopher and man having logic can believe it? What is the answer?

Hayagrīva: Well, he felt that science dealt a death blow to the religions as we know them, to the orthodox religions.

Prabhupāda: No, religion we have repeatedly explained. Religion means to accept the laws of God. That is religion.

Philosophy Discussion on Soren Aabye Kierkegaard:

Hayagrīva: Concerning individuality, Kierkegaard writes, "God is the origin and wellspring of all individuality. To have individuality is to believe in the individuality of everyone else, for the individuality in not mine. It is the gift of God through which He permits me to be, and through which He permits everyone to be."

Prabhupāda: That's the fact. He explains..., this fact is explained in the Vedic literature, nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13), Kaṭha Upaniṣad, that He is also living being and we are also living being. So He is also eternal; we are also eternal. So qualitatively we are one, but quantitatively we are different, because eko yo bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān: that one, singular number, eternal living being, Kṛṣṇa, or God, He is maintaining everyone. So that is the difference. The one living being, the Supreme Living Being, the great living being, is maintaining other living beings who are part and parcel of the Supreme. So both of us, we are the living beings, individual, eternal, but God is Supreme; we are subordinate. That is difference. So our natural position should be to love God, being part and parcel of God.

Philosophy Discussion on Sigmund Freud:

Hayagrīva: Concerning early religious training, he writes, "So long as a man's early years are influenced by the religious thought inhibition, and by the lore one derived from it, as well as by the sexual one, we cannot really say what he," that is man, "is actually like." So he feels that early religious education actually warps a man's development, that you can't say what man can truly be like if you educate him to believe in a transcendental being.

Prabhupāda: That's a fact. If a child is given lesson that there is a supreme being controlling the whole cosmic situation, what is the wrong there? He should learn it.

Hayagrīva: But Freud felt that this inhibited man's natural development, that you can't know what man is naturally like as long as you inculcate him with these religious ideas.

Prabhupāda: Then why do you send your son to a school for education?

Hayagrīva: Well he felt that...

Prabhupāda: Naturally...

Hayagrīva: Some education, there has to be education.

Prabhupāda: That's all. This is also the most important education.

Philosophy Discussion on Carl Gustav Jung:

Hayagrīva: Now the following quotes are taken from a, a much later book, one of the last books he wrote, called The Undiscovered Self. And it's very popular, and in it he discusses religion, in certain ways almost anticipates the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. At the beginning he defines the purpose of religion. He says, "The meaning and purpose of religion lie in the relationship of the individual to God, or to the path of salvation and liberation." And of the first instance he gives Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and the last instance he gives Buddhism. He says, "From this basic fact, that is the relationship of the individual to God, all ethics is derived, which, without the individual's responsibility before God, can be called nothing more than conventional morality."

Prabhupāda: Yes. Morality, as we understand from Bhagavad-gītā, that nobody can approach God without being purified of all sinful reaction. Yeṣām anta-gataṁ pāpaṁ janānāṁ puṇya-karmaṇām. A person who has finished all sinful activities, and simply standing on the platform of pious activities, they can understand what is God and be engaged in God's service. And another place it is said by Arjuna, paraṁ brahma paraṁ dhāma pavitraṁ paramaṁ bhavān: (BG 10.12) "You are the Supreme Personality of Godhead, param brahma." Every living being is Brahman, spiritual, but Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Being; therefore He is paraṁ brahma, and the paraṁ dhāma, and the resort of everything, ultimate resort of everything, and pavitra, purified, there is no material contamination. So, what is this? What does he say in this?

Hayagrīva: That, that same point?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Philosophy Discussion on Carl Gustav Jung:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Naturally that is the position. What we can decide? That there is already controller over me, so how I can be Absolute? No. Therefore everyone should depend on the supreme controller. That is called, technical language, it is called śaraṇāgati, full surrender. Full surrender. That is called śaraṇāgati.

Hayagrīva: He feels that the only thing that keeps modern man..., that will keep modern man from simply dissolving into the crowd is, he says, "We must ask, 'Have I any religious experience, an immediate relation to God and hence that certainty which will keep me as an individual from dissolving in the crowd of humanity?' " So one's relation with God assures one of one's individuality.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Everyone is individual. God is also individual. So one individual is subordinate to the chief individual. That is the Vedic version. Nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13), God is also individual being, but He is the Supreme Being, and we are individual being, innumerable. So the difference is that the supreme living being is maintaining us, and we are being maintained. That we should understand. The same example as I gave, the father and the children in the family. The father is maintainer and the children are maintained. This is the real conception of philosophy. The mother is the material nature and father is God, and we are all children. We have got rights to enjoy the father's property, but not encroaching upon others', but as it is allotted by the father. "You sit down here, you take this, that's all," that, that much right I have got. I do not transgress the order of the father; then it is peaceful situation.

Hayagrīva: So that's the end of Jung. (end)

Philosophy Discussion on Jean-Paul Sartre:

Hayagrīva: Yes. Emphasis is on man.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is nonsense. If you believe in your existence, you should believe in others' existence also. Actually there is. Human being is not only existing, but there are so many, 8,400,000 different forms of living being. They are existing. So God is also one of them. According to Vedic understanding of God, that God is also one of the living being, but He is the chief, supreme living being. That is the difference. So, in the ordinary understanding a man is better than the animal, and another intelligent man is better than the nonintelligent man. So similarly, you go on with comparative study, one after another, when you come to the final living being, He is the Supreme. As it is said in the Bhagavad-gītā, mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat: (BG 7.7) there is no more superior living being, and that is God. That we have got practical experience. You may be more intelligent than me, he may be more intelligent than you, go on, go on searching. So when you find somebody that He is the final intelligent, that is God. So what is the difficulty to understand? Why God shall not exist? If one person better intelligent than me he can exist, so why a person who exceeds all others in intelligence, He cannot exist? So there is no meaning of atheism. That is ignorance.

Philosophy Discussion on Jean-Paul Sartre:

Hayagrīva: So from this he concludes that without God, everything is possible. He says, "Indeed, everything is permissible if God does not exist. If God did not exist, everything would be possible. That is the very starting point of existentialism."

Prabhupāda: But he does not know what, what is the meaning of God. We have several times repeated this. God is the Supreme, Supreme Being. So we have defined in so many ways. Another thing that God is the Supreme, Supreme means He is supreme father. The Supreme everything means He is supreme father also. The conception of father is there. So as we are standing, we are talking with that gentleman priest, that mother nature, nature is giving, producing so many living entities. So she is supposed to be the mother. And as soon as we accept mother, there must be father. Mother cannot, alone cannot give birth to any offspring, so there must be the conception of father. And that is, practically we are seeing that mother nature... We say "mother nature" because she gives birth to so many forms of life, and if we accept mother, then you must to accept father, and that God is supreme father. How he can deny it? Father's duty is to maintain the children. So all living beings are being maintained, so there must be father. How he can deny that?

Philosophy Discussion on Johann Gottlieb Fichte:

Śyāmasundara: That being, being doesn't strive for what is, being is always striving for what ought to be. He always has a sense of duty. There should be something other than this that I must...

Prabhupāda: That Supreme Being, He can be (indistinct) up to. You, you cannot do such. You commit mistake. Therefore you do not know what is ought to be or not to be.

Śyāmasundara: Just like this propensity is there in men not simply to be satisfied with what is but always to strive for something improving, what ought to be.

Prabhupāda: So we, we give that ultimate ought to be that you will become surrendered soul to Kṛṣṇa. That is ultimate ought to be.

Śyāmasundara: And he says that everything should be seen in relation to that what ought to be (indistinct).

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is our philosophy. If it is approved and Rūpa Gosvāmī says, ānukūlyena kṛṣṇānu-śīlanaṁ (CC Madhya 19.167), our ought to be is what is Kṛṣṇa approves or His representative approves. That is ought to be. Our standard. Otherwise it is not, not ought to be. Therefore we accept our guidance (indistint). Tad vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum eva abhigacchet (MU 1.2.12). Therefore Vedas say that one must approach a bona fide spiritual master, in order to be fully in knowledge. Ācāryavān puruṣo veda. These are Vedic injunctions. One who has accepted a bona fide spiritual master, he knows everything. Ācāryavān puruṣo veda. Veda means in knowledge. So ācāryavān, one who has accepted ācārya. Therefore our principle is to follow the ācārya. In Bhagavad-gītā also it is said, ācārya upāsanam, one must worship ācārya, to go to the right knowledge. So that is our philosophy.

Philosophy Discussion on St. Augustine:

Hayagrīva: Augustine believed that all men came from Adam, that is the first man or one man, and that this one man God created—this one man—and this one man is the root of all mankind. He writes, "God knew how good it would be for this community often to recall that the human race had its roots in one man, precisely to show how pleasing it is to God that men, though many, should be one."

Prabhupāda: They... It is, our Vedic conception is also like that, that the mankind has come from Manu. From Manu, human being, or manuṣya... The Sanskrit word is manuṣya, "coming from Manu." So Manu is also coming from Brahmā. In this way, as the conception of a first creature, Adam, similarly, a first living being is Lord Brahmā. Therefore our proposition is that a living being coming from the living being. Brahmā is living being, or Adam is living being. Then the living being does not come from matter. Brahmā is also coming from the Supreme Lord as raja-guṇa avatāra, incarnation of raja-guṇa. So all living being, they are coming from the Supreme Living Being. So Brahmā is also the first creature within this universe.

Philosophy Discussion on Rene Descartes:

Hayagrīva: "Maybe it's in the brain."

Prabhupāda: Therefore we have to accept God's instruction. He definitely gives the information, īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe arjuna tiṣṭhati (BG 18.61). Īśvaraḥ means the controller. So the soul is the controller of this body. So He is within the heart; it is already there. Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe arjuna tiṣṭhati (BG 18.61). There are two kinds of īśvaraḥ, controller. One is the ordinary controller, that means the individual living being, and the other is the supreme living being. We get from Vedic information both of them sitting together on this body tree. So both cases, the Supersoul and the individual soul, they are living within the heart. That is the right conclusion.

Philosophy Discussion on Auguste Comte:

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

Prabhupāda: What is the idea?

Hayagrīva: That man is all there is.

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

Hayagrīva: He wants to do away with the Catholic religion and institute the worship of humanity, or the worship of man. He says that everything else is abstraction, is speculation, and that only man is the..., man is the only existence in the true sense. Atheism.

Prabhupāda: Man is existence?

Hayagrīva: Man is the only existence.

Prabhupāda: Then? There is nobody else? What about the animals? Man is the only existence, and what about the animals? They are also...

Philosophy Discussion on Auguste Comte:

Prabhupāda: Therefore...

Hayagrīva: Man is the..., if humanity is the supreme being...

Prabhupāda: We cannot understand what does he mean, "supreme being" and "humanity." The supreme being is God. The human being is also God? Or what does he mean, "humanity"? What is the clear meaning of humanity?

Hayagrīva: Mankind, all mankind.

Prabhupāda: All mankind? There are millions and millions of mankind. So instead of worshiping God you can worship millions of millions of men. Is it possible?

Hayagrīva: He must mean mankind in a generalized sense.

Prabhupāda: That's all right, but how you can serve the mankind? Suppose if I serve one man, does it..., is it worshiping the mankind? If not, then how you can worship millions of men at a time, or in your life? How it is possible?