Tread

Expressions researched:
"tread" |"treading" |"treads"

SB Canto 1

SB 1.15.44, Translation:

He then started towards the north, treading the path accepted by his forefathers and great men, to devote himself completely to the thought of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. And he lived in that way wherever he went.

SB Canto 4

SB 4.9.20-21, Translation:

The Supreme Personality of Godhead continued: My dear Dhruva, I shall award you the glowing planet known as the polestar, which will continue to exist even after the dissolution at the end of the millennium. No one has ever ruled this planet, which is surrounded by all the solar systems, planets and stars. All the luminaries in the sky circumambulate this planet, just as bulls tread around a central pole for the purpose of crushing grains. Keeping the polestar to their right, all the stars inhabited by the great sages like Dharma, Agni, Kaśyapa and Śukra circumambulate this planet, which continues to exist even after the dissolution of all others.

SB Canto 5

SB 5.23.3, Translation:

When bulls are yoked together and tied to a central post to thresh rice, they tread around that pivot without deviating from their proper positions—one bull being closest to the post, another in the middle, and a third on the outside. Similarly, all the planets and all the hundreds and thousands of stars revolve around the polestar, the planet of Mahārāja Dhruva, in their respective orbits, some higher and some lower. Fastened by the Supreme Personality of Godhead to the machine of material nature according to the results of their fruitive acts, they are driven around the polestar by the wind and will continue to be so until the end of creation. These planets float in the air within the vast sky, just as clouds with hundreds of tons of water float in the air or as the great śyena eagles, due to the results of past activities, fly high in the sky and have no chance of falling to the ground.

Philosophy Discussions

Philosophy Discussion on Thomas Henry Huxley:

Hayagrīva: Huxley, although an evolutionist, and although he was called Darwin's bulldog, he differed with Darwin, especially on the theory of the survival of the fittest. He believed in the survival of those who are ethically the best.

Prabhupāda: That is..., that can be said fittest. "Best" and "fittest," where is the difference?

Hayagrīva: He says the strongest, the most self-assertive, tend to tread down the weaker.

Prabhupāda: First thing is what do they mean by survival?

Hayagrīva: Well, the continuance of a culture.

Prabhupāda: That is going on. Every culture is continued. The Vedic culture is there and other cultures are also there. It is continuing.

Hayagrīva: He says the influence of the cosmic process on the evolution of society is greater the more rudimentary its civilization. Social progress means a checking of the cosmic process at every step, and the substitution for it of another, which may be called the ethical process.

Prabhupāda: So the difference...

Hayagrīva: The cosmic process is the process of creation, maintenance and ultimate annihilation. He says this can be checked by a..., an ethical culture.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Conversation with Sridhara Maharaja -- June 27, 1973, Navadvipa:

Prabhupāda: Only the mango tree I remember...

Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Others have grown. At night in the forest pastimes, holding a principal part of the Kṛṣṇa-līlā. And when pasturing the cows, then also, forest is necessary. So it will arouse in your mind the memory of Vṛndāvana and the Gauravana. They have got their part to play. And what Uddhava says? (Sanskrit) "I aspire after the birth of a shrub or creeper or a grass in this land because I may have chance of being, having been tread by Your, those divine damsels. Then their feet dust will be on me." So that is a necessary and important part, this vegetable kingdom.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ...of Vṛndāvana and Gauravana. They will arouse in your mind the first real memory of Kṛṣṇa and His pastimes.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Śrīdhara Mahārāja: And help you, help you. Green. (Sanskrit) But real sabuja is there in Vṛndāvana, the source of all sabuja. This sabuja will die, will be dried out.

Prabhupāda: Wither away.

Śrīdhara Mahārāja: The source of real sabuja, kiśora sabuja, constant sabuja, constant greenness, is only there, kiśora. Nitya kaisore sthiti. Eh?

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- April 18, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: He came to Gujarati. No. He came to Baroda.

Dr. Patel: Then he studied Gujarati, but he did not know Bengali at all. And then he came... (break) What is that? (break)

Prabhupāda: (Sanskrit) From our childhood, if there was a rice grain on the floor, my father, er, my mother would ask me, "Take it and touch it on your head."

Dr. Patel: We were advised not to tread on the grains. (break)

Prabhupāda: Because by chance, if the grain is struck with the leg, she asked, "Take it and you touch it on the head."

Dr. Patel: That is the culture. That is real culture.

Prabhupāda: Means from the very beginning he understands anna-brahma.

Dr. Patel: Even it is not spoken, you practice it.

Prabhupāda: Yes, practice it. According to Vedic culture, the higher class, in every home there is nārāyaṇa-śilā for worship, especially of the brāhmaṇas.

Dr. Patel: In our homes we have all these small such temples, small chapels. All of us, our homes have got one room specially for Kṛṣṇa-mūrti and (indistinct) For pūjā only. (break) We say ṭhākura-ghara.

Prabhupāda: Ṭhākura-ghara must be there, not only simply a lavatory. There must be one ṭhākura-ghara. (end)

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- February 6, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: No, it is not criticizing. It is opening your eyes. You are blind, you are thinking yourself as very big, so we are opening eyes. You are not big. You are not even pig or fig. That is... ajñāna-timirāndhasya jñānāñjana-śalākayā. You are blind with ignorance, so we are trying to open your eyes. See things as they are. It is favoring you. It is not criticizing you. (break)...words, vibhu, the great, and aṇu, the small. So these rascals, they do not understand these two important words, "God is great; I am small." They think, "I am as good as God." This is the folly. (break) ...English proverb? "Where angels dare not, the fools rush in." Eh?

Hṛdayānanda: "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread."

Prabhupāda: So the angels, Lord Brahmā, Lord Śiva, they are offering their obeisances, and these rascals are claiming, "I am God." How great rascals they are. Śiva-viriñci-nutam (SB 11.5.33). Śiva-viriñci-nutam. Lord Śiva, Lord Brahmā, they are offering their respects, and these things are: "I am equal with God." This Māyāvāda philosophy. Mūḍhas.

Dayānanda: Śrīla Prabhupāda, that tendency to be puffed up seems to be so strong, as soon as they get just a little bit of so-called qualification, then they... Everyone is becoming puffed up, even great personalities like Lord Indra and Lord Brahmā.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Dayānanda: What to speak of all the...

Prabhupāda: Lord Brahmā is also one of the living entities.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Evening Darsana -- February 15, 1977, Mayapura:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Canada, Australia. The problem is that... Actually it's a fact that many of these groups are bad. They're cheating. Of course, ours is not, but because they're not very intelligent, they cannot see the distinction. Probably as a result of this court case, we will make them aware that now the other groups are bogus but we are not. That they'll have to admit. That will be the effect. But at least up until now we are being lumped in with these other bad groups. Cults, they call them. But it's a very dangerous thing. Therefore the lawyers and all of the scholars and intelligentsia of the United States is very alarmed that this is a great treading on human rights. This is a great danger to human rights because the Fifth Amendment of the... The First Amendment of the United States Constitution guarantees the freedom of religion. But according to these laws that they want to pass, a parent can say, "It is not a question of religion. My son has become abnormal." So who is to say what is religion and what is abnormal? They are saying, "This is not religion." So we have to prove, "No, this is... Hare Kṛṣṇa is a religion." Otherwise they are saying this is abnormal. Now, just... Our lawyer has pointed out that if you say that the devotees' preaching is brainwash, then you must say that every single Christian priest who preaches, he is also brainwashing.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Morning Conversation -- April 11, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Abnormal. (laughs)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "Upset in Fiji. The Fijian government formed by the National Federation Party, which draws its support mainly from the people of Indian origin, will have to tread warily if it is to avert racial tension in the islands. It was by no means easy, even for the multiracial alliance party which hitherto ruled the South Pacific republic, to maintain harmony between the people of Indian origin who form fifty-one percent of the population, and the indigenous Melanesians. Its leader and the former Prime Minister Ratu Sir Pamish Nara had to strain every nerve to keep the extremist Melanesians in check."

Prabhupāda: The Prime Minister is lightie?

Upendra: Yes. He is very educated. He is half. All the ministers are, those natives are light-skinned. They are from a particular island group, mixed. They are very intelligent and polite. The other natives are darker and more extremists. But this extremist agitation is, they say, is instigated by the Europeans, who keep the Indians and natives apart, because the natives have all the land, and this is what the Europeans are interested in. So they instigate it.

Prabhupāda: These rascals, wherever they go, they create trouble.

1972 Correspondence

Letter to Ranadhira -- Bombay 17 January, 1972:

By fixing your attention in this way, worrying how He will be pleased with me, you will naturally very soon reach the supreme highest perfection of life which is pure Krishna Consciousness. You should be very serious for trying for it, as I think that you are one of my senior disciples and I am very much relying on you now to carry on this mission with full responsibility. We must become so responsible for seriously practicing this art of of Krishna Consciousness, because this world is so full of degrading elements of life for dragging everyone down and down, and if just a few men can perfect the art, they can save the rest of all the people from the greatest dangers. So I count you and your godbrothers among those few men who are treading seriously on the path back to Home, back to Godhead, and now we must maintain such exalted position and not fall back by neglecting our highest standards of devotional practices. In this way, what I have introduced into your Western countries, the pure love for Godhead process of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, will go on increasing more and more to have effect by saving others; otherwise, it will gradually become mechanical and fade away like every other so-called religious movement. So you can understand that I am very much depending on you to become very much convinced yourself of our Krishna philosophy and to take full responsibility for teaching others purely.

If you like you may join Kirtanananda's roving party for some time as manager, I have no objection. But if Hayagriva is requiring you to help manage New Vrindaban, and if you want to return there, you may also return there. In this matter you may consult Karandhara and the other GBC men.