Go to Vanipedia | Go to Vanisource | Go to Vanimedia


Vaniquotes - the compiled essence of Vedic knowledge


Transcendental body (Lectures, Conv. and Letters)

Lectures

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Lecture on BG 2.15 -- London, August 21, 1973:

We are part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is sac-cid-ānanda vigraha (Bs. 5.1). His transcendental body is eternal, blissful and complete knowledge, His body. Therefore He's speaking Bhagavad-gītā. If He's an ordinary man, what is the use of hearing Him? Ordinary man will commit mistake, will cheat, will be illusioned. His senses are imperfect; how he can give complete knowledge? That is not possible. Therefore we are not concerned to hear any rascal. We want to hear Kṛṣṇa.

Lecture on BG 4.6 -- Bombay, March 26, 1974:

Translation: "Although I am unborn and My transcendental body never deteriorates, and although I am the Lord of all sentient beings, I still appear in every millennium in My original, transcendental form."

Prabhupāda: So Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, explaining the method of His appearance and disappearance. People do not know it. Just like the sun. Because we do not see at night, formerly some people used to think "The sun is now dead, or gone." But later on, by scientific method, they have come to know the sun is always in the sky. Due to our different position, we do not see the sun at night. Otherwise, the sun is there. This is... If this is possible for an ordinary material thing, how much it is greatly possible for the Supreme Spirit.

Lecture on BG 4.6 -- Bombay, March 26, 1974:

Pradyumna: "In the material world a living entity has no fixed body, but transmigrates from one body to another. The Lord, however, does not do so. Whenever He appears, He does so in the same original body by His internal potency. In other words, Kṛṣṇa appears in this material world in His original eternal form with two hands holding a flute. He appears exactly in His eternal body, uncontaminated by this material world. Although He appears in the same transcendental body and is Lord of the universe, it still appears that..."

Prabhupāda: How He can be contaminated by the modes of material nature? Because Kṛṣṇa says that

daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī
mama māyā duratyayā
mām eva ye prapadyante
māyām etāṁ taranti te
(BG 7.14)

If somebody surrenders to Kṛṣṇa, He becomes free from the touch of māyā. Simply by surrendering to Kṛṣṇa, if one becomes liberated from the clutches of māyā, how Kṛṣṇa can be under the clutches of māyā? This is foolishness. Those who say that "Kṛṣṇa also accepts this material body," that, that is not the fact.

Lecture on BG 4.6 -- Bombay, March 26, 1974:

Pradyumna: "Therefore it is clear that in spite of His being in this material world, He is the same unborn eternal form of bliss and knowledge, changeless in His transcendental body and intelligence. Factually, His appearance and disappearance are like the sun's rising, moving before us and then disappearing from our eyesight. When the sun is out of sight, we think that the sun has set, and when the sun is before our eyes, we think that the sun is on the horizon."

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa does not appear or disappear. Our eyesight changes. Just like we are looking through the window. One horse race is going on. When the horse comes before the window, we can see. And when it passes through, from our eyesight, we think that horse is no longer existing. But the horse is running. This example should be taken. Kṛṣṇa is called nitya-līlā. He is taking His birth, He is fighting in the battle of Kurukṣetra, He's dancing with the gopīs. That is going on eternally in either of the so many, innumerable universes.

Lecture on BG 4.7-10 -- Los Angeles, January 6, 1969:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "Generally, people who are attached to the bodily concept of life are so absorbed in materialism that it is almost impossible for them to understand how the Supreme can be a person. Such materialists cannot even imagine that there is a transcendental body which is nonperishable, full of knowledge, and eternally blissful. In the materialistic concept, the body is perishable, full of ignorance and completely miserable. Therefore people in general keep this same bodily idea in mind when they are informed of the personal form of the Lord."

Prabhupāda: Yes. When we try to impress people about the personal nature or the personal body of God, generally, we think, "God is a person like me." Therefore they cannot imagine how God... Actually God is not a person like me, but He is a person. That is to be understood. Sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ (Bs. 5.1). He has got body, but He hasn't got body like me.

Just like in the Vedas it is stated, apāni-pādo javano gṛhītaḥ. In the Upaniṣads it is said that "God has no leg, but He can run faster than any one of us." Now, this is superficially contradiction. If He has no leg, then how He can run faster than me? So the adjustment is that He has got leg because He runs. Just like in another place, "God has no hands, but He can accept whatever we offer." There are many such Vedic version. Now, we have to understand in this way, that He has got His hands, He has got His leg, but not this limited hand or limited leg.

Lecture on BG 4.9-11 -- New York, July 25, 1966:

Just like Lord Kṛṣṇa says here, tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti kaunteya (BG 4.9), that anyone who understands Kṛṣṇa's appearance, disappearance and activities, all these transcendental things, he goes back to the kingdom of Godhead after leaving this body. Now this fact should be clearly understood. So I am trying to make you understand it clearly, how it can be possible. This is possible in this way, that you have to think of Kṛṣṇa always, "How is that that Kṛṣṇa appears in His transcendental body and how He disappears?" So everything, scrutinizingly we have to understand.

Lecture on BG 4.11 -- Vrndavana, August 3, 1974:

Ye yathā māṁ prapadyante tāṁs tathaiva bhajāmy aham (BG 4.11). Here it is said, "People who are attached to the bodily conception of life are so absorbed in materialism that it is almost impossible for them to understand that there is a transcendental body which is imperishable, full of knowledge and eternally blissful." So we have now surrendered to the bodily concept of life. We have to understand, therefore, what is our spiritual life. The Bhagavad-gītā teaches in the beginning that "You, you have surrendered to the bodily con..., but it is wrong. You'll never be happy. You try to understand your spiritual identification." And surrender to the spiritual energy. That is required. Sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). Otherwise, you cannot avoid Kṛṣṇa.

Lecture on BG 4.12-13 -- New York, July 29, 1966:

Bhagavad-gītā is giving a chance to everyone to become brāhmaṇa or be qualified person who knows Brahman and who is preparing himself for the next birth in the spiritual kingdom. He is called brāhmaṇa. Cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭam (BG 4.13). Now, the Lord says, tasya kartāram api māṁ viddhy akartāram avyayam: "Although I have created this system, still, I am not there. I am not there." Why? Because Kṛṣṇa is neither brāhmaṇa nor śūdra nor kṣatriya or anything, anything of the material world. He is transcendental. When we go to Kṛṣṇa with spiritual body, we also become like Kṛṣṇa in transcendental body. That chance is given here. So just it is our duty, everyone.

Lecture on BG 4.19-25 -- Los Angeles, January 9, 1969:

Devotee: This process is generally known as yajña or activities simply meant for the satisfaction of Viṣṇu or Kṛṣṇa. Therefore the more the activities of the material world are performed in Kṛṣṇa consciousness or for Viṣṇu only, the more the atmosphere becomes spiritualized by complete absorption. Brahman means spiritual. The Lord is spiritual and the rays of His transcendental body are called brahmajyoti, His spiritual effulgence. Everything that exists is situated in that brahmajyoti. And when the jyoti is covered by the illusion of māyā or sense gratification it is called material."

Prabhupāda: Now, this is the difference between material and spiritual. Try to understand. Just like in the sunshine there is cloud. That cloudy atmosphere is not very good. But when there is bright sunshine you say, congratulate your friend, "Oh, today is very nice day." The sunshine is always there. The cloud also is an interaction of the sunshine. The cloud is nothing but due to excessive heat it absorbs water from the sea or anywhere else and it becomes gas and it stands in the sunshine. But it does not cover all the sunshine.

Lecture on BG 4.20 -- Bombay, April 9, 1974:

Similarly, the same thing is there in God's kingdom, that we have been given freedom, we have got little freedom because we are part and parcel of God. Mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūtaḥ (BG 15.7). Kṛṣṇa says, "All these living entities, they are My minute particles, minute part of My body." Just like father is the part of the body, er, son is the part of body of father, similarly, we are also part and parcel of the transcendental body of Kṛṣṇa. That is our real identity, spiritual identity.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Lecture on SB 1.8.34 -- Los Angeles, April 26, 1973:

Pradyumna: "Nārāyaṇa is not an ordinary living being. He is the Personality of Godhead Himself, and He has all the potencies of all the senses in all parts of His transcendental body. An ordinary living being begets a child by the intercourse of sex, and he has no other means to beget a child other than the one designed for him."

Prabhupāda: Yes. Generally take birth from the vagina. But Nārāyaṇa is all-powerful. He begets a child from the navel. This is all-powerful, omnipotency. Why? Why it is so happened? That is Nārāyaṇa. Every part of the body has got every potency. That is explained in the Brahma-saṁhitā: aṅgāni yasya sakalendriya-vṛttimanti. Aṅgāni, the different parts of the... That is spiritual body. The different parts of the body of Kṛṣṇa or Nārāyaṇa has got all the potencies. Just like I can see with my eyes, but Kṛṣṇa can eat also with His eyes. So the foolish rascal people will say that: "You are offering Kṛṣṇa foodstuff, but where He has eaten? It is lying there. He has not eaten." He does not know, the rascal, that Kṛṣṇa by seeing can eat also. Aṅgāni yasya sakalendriya-vṛttimanti paśyanti pānti kalayanti.

Lecture on SB 1.8.42 -- Los Angeles, May 4, 1973:

Just like in kṛṣṇa-līlā, Kṛṣṇa was stealing butter. So the neighboring friends of Yaśodā-mātā, was complaining... It is not complain; it was just to see the fun of Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa was sitting, and they were complaining. They were seeing the bodily feature, how Kṛṣṇa is feeling. So other ladies complaining, "Mother Yaśodā, your son comes to our house and steals butter. You see. We try to conceal them in a darkness so that this boy cannot see. But still He finds out. So better you take away all His ornaments because the jewel, light of the jewel, helps Him to find out the butter pot." So Yaśodā said, "Yes, I'll do that. I'll take away all these ornaments. Yes." Then they say, "No, no, it is useless. Oh, this boy has got some effulgence of Himself. Without ornaments He can, He can also find out."

So this is the position. The transcendental body is effulgent. On account of effulgence of the transcendental body of Kṛṣṇa, the whole light is there. Whatever light you are seeing, it is all borrowing light from Kṛṣṇa's effulgence. That is stated in the Brahma-saṁhitā: yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-aṇḍa-koṭi-koṭiṣv aśeṣa-vasudhādi-vibhūti-bhinnam (Bs. 5.40). In the light, bodily effulgence light of Kṛṣṇa, generating millions of universes. Yasya prabhā... (Bs. 5.40). Just like this sunshine. Everything is there. You have to study. The sunshine is producing these planets, other planets. That is scientifically true. And due to sunshine, the planets becoming warm. Then the seasons are changing and there are trees, there are green foliage, there are fruits, flowers. It is all due to sunshine. Similarly, whatever creation we see, it is due to Kṛṣṇa's bodily effulgence. Kṛṣṇa's bodily effulgence.

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

In the Brahma-saṁhitā it is said, aṅgāni yasya sakalendriya-vṛttimanti. Vīryatā we can understand as semina discharged from the genital. It is not like that. Vīryatā, that vīrya or that energy, can be emanated from any part of the body, of the transcendental spiritual body, everywhere. That is called omnipotency. So just like Lord Brahmā was born not from the womb of Lakṣmī Nārāyaṇa... Nārāyaṇa was lying down, and Lakṣmī was present. To beget Lord Brahmā, there was no necessity of taking the help of Lakṣmījī. He sprouted a lotus flower from His navel, and there was Brahmā. So everything is possible from every part of the body, transcendental body. That is spiritual body, sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha (Bs. 5.1), omnipotent. That is explained in the Brahma-saṁhitā, aṅgāni yasya sakalendriya-vṛttimanti. The limbs and the parts of the body has got the potency of any other limb. Just like we can beget child, we can impregnate by the genital, but it is not required for the Supreme Personality of God. In the Vedas it is said, sa aikṣata: "Simply by glancing the same." The same. "He glanced over the total material energy, and the material energy, total mahat-tattva, became agitated." Then, one after another, the creation was there.

Lecture on SB 5.5.19 -- Vrndavana, November 7, 1976:

Pradyumna: "My transcendental body, sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha (Bs. 5.1), looks exactly like a human form, but it is not a material human body. It is inconceivable. I am not forced by nature to accept a particular type of body; I take on a body by My own sweet will. My heart is also spiritual, and I always think of the welfare of My devotees. Therefore within My heart can be found the process of devotional service, which is meant for the devotees. Far from My heart have I abandoned irreligion, or adharma, and nondevotional activities. They do not appeal to Me. Due to all these transcendental qualities, people generally pray to Me as Ṛṣabhādeva, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the best of all living entities."

Prabhupāda:

idaṁ śarīraṁ mama durvibhāvyaṁ
sattvaṁ hi me hṛdayaṁ yatra dharmaḥ
pṛṣṭhe kṛto me yad adharma ārād
ato hi māṁ ṛṣabhaṁ prāhur āryāḥ
(SB 5.5.19)

So, God, whether impersonal or personal, that we cannot conclude by our speculation. It is not possible. Durvibhāvyam. Durvibhāvyam means beyond your conception, beyond your speculation. But He says that idaṁ śarīram. He has got His body;He is not impersonal. He comes sometimes as incarnation. We can see Kṛṣṇa with two hands, two legs, one head. Veṇuṁ kvaṇantam aravinda dalāyatākṣaṁ barhāvataṁsam asitāmbuda-sundarāṅgam (Bs. 5.30). This is described in the Vedic literature. He has two hands and He is playing on flute. He has got the peacock feather on His head. It is not imagination. The Kṛṣṇa arcā-mūrti, it is not imagination, as rascals think, that they have imaginated an idol. This is not idol worship.

Lecture on SB 5.5.31 -- Vrndavana, November 18, 1976:

Brahmā is called Pitā-mahā, and Kṛṣṇa is described, Prapitāmahā (BG 11.39). So He is the father of Brahma; still, advaitam acyutam anādim ananta-rūpam ādyaṁ purāṇa-puruṣam (Bs. 5.33)—the oldest. Because Brahmā is the first living being within this material world... First Brahmā was created in the lotus flower from Garbhodakaśayī Viṣṇu, so Brahmā is the first creature, living creature, but he also is born of Viṣṇu. Therefore Kṛṣṇa said, aham ādir hi devānām (Bg 10.2). Then Brahma, Lord Śiva was born, Rudra. In this way, Viṣṇu or Viṣṇu-tattva, that is original. Sarva-yoniṣu kaunteya sambhavanti mūrti..., ahaṁ bīja-pradaḥ pitā (BG 14.4). Still, he is nava-yauvanaṁ ca. Nava-yauvanam means it begins from the sixteenth year. He looked like that, a boy of sixteen to twenty years old, and... This is only description of His transcendental body, sac-cid-ānanda vigrahaḥ (Bs. 5.1).

This is the difference between material body and spiritual body. It doesn't matter. The Māyāvādīs, they cannot think of, that material body can be so beautiful, neither they can think of, that the Supreme to possess a body... But He possesses body. The description of the body is there. But it is not like our body. Therefore nirākāra means His body, ākāra, or form, is not like ours. That is to be understood. He is sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ. Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ sac-cid-ānanda vigrahaḥ (Bs. 5.1). Vigraha means body. He has got body, but not a body like ours. That is misunderstanding.

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

But paraṁ bhāvam ajānantaḥ. They do not know it, what is transcendental body, aprakṛta, sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha (Bs. 5.1), and what is the difference between this body and that body. Muḍḥa, they do not know. Avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam (BG 9.11). Therefore they consider that "The Kṛṣṇa's body and my body is the same. If He has become God, so why shall not I become God?" But that is not possible. His body is transcendental; your body is not transcendental. Your body is this rotten earth, water, fire, pañnca-bhautika. You cannot compare with that. In this way, as it is stated in the Brahma-saṁhitā, His body is completely different from our body. Aṅgāni yasya sakalendriya-vṛttimanti, we sing every day in the morning. His body is so made that He can do everything and anything by any part of the body. There are many instances. Just like generally we find a person is born from the yoni. Therefore we call sarva-yoni. But Mahā-Viṣṇu or Garbhodakaśayī Viṣṇu, He did not take any help from his wife to give birth to a son, Lord Brahmā. He generated from His navel. This is called aṅgāni yasya sakalendriya-vṛttimanti. We have to see that. Where is that instance ordinarily that a child is born from the navel? But He can do that. A child is born from female. That is from the yoni. But here is, a living creature is born from the navel, and that is also puruṣa. So these things are there. And Kṛṣṇa, He exhibited, manifested, His virāṭa-rūpa. So He can do everything and anything because His body is not this body. Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ (Bs. 5.1). That is sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ.

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

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

Lecture on SB 7.9.30 -- Mayapur, March 8, 1976:

We have got many informations that this brahmāṇḍa, the Garbhodakaśayī Viṣṇu enters. Then, from His abdomen, the lotus flower stem is there. Then Brahmā comes, and then Brahmā creates. So the original creation or the beginning of the activities of this universe was first the entrance of Garbhodakaśayī Viṣṇu. The Mahā-Viṣṇu... Yasyaika-niśvasita-kālam athāvalambya jīvanti loma-vilajā jagad-aṇḍa-nāthāḥ (Bs. 5.48). First of all this universe is one of the millions of universes who is coming out from the pores of the transcendental body of Mahā-Viṣṇu, and then Mahā-Viṣṇu, in the form of Garbhodakaśayī Viṣṇu, enters each and every universe, and then things takes place. Then Brahmā is created. This is the process of creation. Anupraviṣṭaḥ. The first entrance is of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. So actually, ekas tvam eva: "Whatever we are seeing, that is... You are." Ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavaḥ (BG 10.8), the Bhagavad-gītā says. Aham, that is one, Kṛṣṇa. Mām ekam. That is one.

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures

Lecture on CC Adi-lila 7.109-114 -- San Francisco, February 20, 1967:

There are Vedic statements that "The Supreme has no hands, but He can accept whatever you offer." Now, this is contradictory. If He has no hands, how He can accept? What for He's accepting. Therefore it is to be understood that He has His hand, but not this hand. My hand is, er, can stretch, say, one yard only, but because He's unlimited, His hand can be stretched... Just like we are offering foodstuff, so how He is eating? That is His... He's eating by His transcendental body. We cannot see at the present moment, but He is eating. How He's eating? Because we have got the information, "Yes, I eat." Tad ahaṁ bhakty-upahṛtam aśnāmi prayatātmanaḥ: "Anyone who is My devotee and offers in love, I take them." So that cannot be... There is no mistake. But how He is taking, how He is eating, because we are in this material body, we do not see it, but He is taking. Therefore cid-vibhūti ācchādi' tāṅre kahe 'nirākāra'.

cid-ānanda-teṅho, tāṅra sthāna, parivāra
tāṅre kahe-prākṛta-sattvera vikāra

Now, the Lord's body is eternal, blissful and full of knowledge, and Śaṅkarācārya says that prākṛta-sattvera vikāra. "This body of Kṛṣṇa or Lord Rāma, when They come," according to Māyāvāda philosophy, that "actually, the Brahman, the Supreme Absolute Truth, has no form, but when They assume form, They take help of this material nature." That is not a fact. They come in Their own spiritual form. That is confirmed by Caitanya Mahāprabhu.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 25.36-40 -- San Francisco, January 23, 1967:

In the transcendental body of Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, it is simply ānandam, blissful. We should note it that this body, our material body, is nirānandam, is without ānanda. We are trying to adjust to have ānanda, or pleasure, by the limited resources of our senses, but actually, there is no ānanda, bliss. It is all miserable. This miserable body is condemned in every, I mean to say, practically, chapter and every śloka, every verse.

Initiation Lectures

Initiation Ceremony -- Melbourne, July 1, 1974 :

The holy name of the Lord and the Lord, identical. By association with the Supreme Lord directly, by chanting the holy name, we become purified. Oṁ apavitraḥ pavitro vā sarvāvasthāṁ gato 'pi vā, yaḥ smaret puṇḍarīkākṣam. Kṛṣṇa, His name is puṇḍarīkākṣaṁ. Puṇḍarīka means lotus flower; akṣam means eyes—whose eyes are just like the lotus flower. Lord Visnu, or Kṛṣṇa, is identified with lotus flower in so many places. His navel is like lotus flower, His eyes are like lotus flower, His feet, lotus feet. So, lotus is the comparison to the beauty of different limbs or parts of the body, transcendental body of Kṛṣṇa.

Conversations and Morning Walks

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Sir Alistair Hardy -- July 21, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: Therefore the Vedic scripture says, īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ (Bs. 5.1). His person is different. Sac-cid-ānanda. That is not exactly with our personality. This is material. This is temporary personality. Now I am man. Next time I may become dog, Next time become demigod. It is changing. It is not eternal, sat. So God is not like that. Just like Kṛṣṇa says, sambhavāmy ātma-māyayā (BG 4.6). He does not come here being forced by the material energy. He comes by His spiritual energy. Sambhavāmy ātma-māyayā. Find out this. Yadā yadā hi dharmasya glānir bhavati bhārata (BG 4.7). Therefore, as soon as He's accepted as ordinary man, avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam, paraṁ bhāvam ajānantaḥ (BG 9.11). He does not know what is the power behind that. Read it.

Pradyumna: Ajo 'pi sann avyayātmā bhūtānām īśvaro 'pi san, prakṛtiṁ svām adhiṣṭhāya...

Prabhupāda: Prakṛtiṁ svām adhiṣṭhāya.

Pradyumna: Sambhavāmy ātma-māyayā (BG 4.6). "Although I am unborn and My transcendental body never deteriorates, and although I am the Lord of all sentient beings, I still appear in every millennium in My original, transcendental form."

Room Conversation with Sir Alistair Hardy -- July 21, 1973, London:

Pradyumna: Although He appears in the same transcendental body and is the Lord of the universe, it still appears that He takes His birth like an ordinary living entity. Despite the fact Lord Kṛṣṇa grows from childhood to boyhood and from boyhood to youth, astonishingly enough, He never ages beyond youth. At the time of the Battle of Kurukṣetra, He had many grandchildren at home, or in other words, He had sufficiently aged by material calculations. Still, He looked just like a young man, twenty or twenty-five years old. We never see a picture of Kṛṣṇa in old age because He never grows old like us, although He is the oldest person in the..."

Prabhupāda: Advaitam acyutam anādim ananta-rūpam ādyaṁ purāṇa-puruṣaṁ nava-yauvanaṁ ca (Bs. 5.33). Purāṇa-puruṣa, the oldest man, oldest living entity, but nava-yauvana, just like young man. Nava-yauvanaṁ ca. Advaitam acyutam anādim ananta-rūpam ādyaṁ purāṇa-puruṣam (Bs. 5.33). Purāṇa means oldest, because He's the origin of all living entities. But nava-yauvanaṁ ca, just a fresh, young man.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 21, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Rāmeśvara: That's a question I meant to ask, because that question will start coming up in America. They will say, "Kṛṣṇa is an ordinary man. He was killed by some hunter."

Prabhupāda: So what do you answer?

Rāmeśvara: We haven't been asked yet. The answer is very difficult to explain to them.

Prabhupāda: Yesterday I was answering. You were not present?

Rāmeśvara: No. (aside:) Were you here?

Hari-śauri: No. It was during darśana.

Prabhupāda: Hm. What did I answer?

Hari-śauri: I wasn't here.

Prabhupāda: How do you answer?

Gargamuni: Well, first we have to explain that Kṛṣṇa has a transcendental body. If they don't understand that, then how can we explain Kṛṣṇa's disappearance?

Prabhupāda: Therefore I am asking how would you explain. The answer is that we living entities, we are part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. We do not die, na jāyate na mriyate vā, kadācit, at any time. We do not take birth; we do not die. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). Even by destruction of this body, we do not die. You know this? So we are part and parcel. If we are eternal, how Kṛṣṇa can be...? Hm? If my finger is eternal, how the body is not eternal? How the body can be dead? So why did He die like that, appearing as dead? That is His līlā. That He has, so many līlās. So why this līlā? Just to cheat you. You are atheist, and to keep you atheist forever, so that in your life after life you'll not understand Kṛṣṇa, therefore He is doing, just to cheat you. Because you are atheist, you cannot think of Kṛṣṇa properly. To keep you in darkness forever He manifests this līlā.

Correspondence

1967 Correspondence

Letter to Madhusudana -- San Francisco 30 December, 1967:

Regarding smearing on the Body of Lord Jagannatha: You should always know that the Body of Lord Jagannatha is spiritual. We are given the chance of serving the Spiritual Body and according to Revealed Scriptures, we should serve the Transcendental Body of the Deity just as we try to serve our worshipable personalities. To continue a sense of devotion, it is better to wash the Body of Lord Jagannatha with hot water so that we may have the feeling that Lord Jagannatha is more comfortable. We should offer foodstuffs to the Deity and allow enough time to eat them. These are all transcendental sentiments. At Vrindaban, the Deities are offered foodstuffs and time is allowed as in the case of others. Yes, before offering anything to the Deity you must be satisfied that it is a first class offering and there is no objection if you taste it by smelling. But you should not smell for other purposes. The whole idea is that devotional service should always be immune from sense gratification.

1968 Correspondence

Letter to Sacisuta -- Montreal 17 June, 1968:

In the battlefield Bhismadeva.. also wounded very severely Krishna. He was a great devotee of Krishna. And Lord Krishna accepted those arrows piercing His body as if somebody is worshiping with soft rose flowers. That is Krishna's transcendental body. But those who are materialists, they are cheated by Krishna that He is wounded. The materialists will think that Krishna was wounded, but one who knows what is Krishna, knows also that He is worshiped by the arrows. So in the battlefield, neither Krishna was wounded, neither Bhismadeva.. died due to the injuries out of the wounds. He decided to pass away at that time, therefore he died. These things will be more and more clear when you understand Krishna by revelation.

1969 Correspondence

Letter to Satyabhama -- Hawaii 30 March, 1969:

Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated Feb. 22, along with the Deities dress, and it was received by me just yesterday. I think due to my change of address it was delayed. Anyway, everyone here has very much appreciated the beautiful dresses you have sent for the Deity and today we are changing the dress by putting on your dress on the transcendental Body of the Deity.

Page Title:Transcendental body (Lectures, Conv. and Letters)
Compiler:Labangalatika
Created:10 of May, 2011
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=21, Con=3, Let=3
No. of Quotes:27