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Ultimate (Lectures, SB cantos 3 - 12)

Expressions researched:
"ultimate"

Notes from the compiler: VedaBase query: ultimate not "ultimate goal" not "ultimate truth" not "ultimate knowledge" not "ultimate source" not "ultimate realization" not "ultimate cause" not "ultimate end" not "ultimate destination" not "ultimate issue" not "ultimate liberation"

Lectures

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Lecture on SB 3.12.19 -- Dallas, March 3, 1975:

We can see other material elements, wood. So Kṛṣṇa has appeared as we can see Him. Because we cannot see more than stone, wood, metal, therefore Kṛṣṇa has appeared as stone statue. But He is not stone statue. That we have to understand. He is Kṛṣṇa, but He is so kind that He has appeared before us as we can see Him. This is the philosophy, not that stone is Kṛṣṇa. Stone is also Kṛṣṇa in the ultimate sense because stone is the expansion of energy of Kṛṣṇa, material energy. Bhūmir āpo 'nalo vāyuḥ khaṁ mano buddhir eva..., bhinnā me prakṛtir aṣṭadhā (BG 7.4). This is called philosophy of inconceivable one and different. The same example can be given: just like the sunshine. In the sunshine there is heat and temperature. (break) ...say the sunshine has come... (aside:) Why you are standing? If you stand... This side. "If the sunshine has entered my room, therefore sun has entered my room." This is Māyāvādī philosophy. No. By the entrance of sunshine within your room, the sun has entered and has not entered. This is right philosophy. Acintya-bhedābheda. Acintya, simultaneously one and different. This is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's philosophy, acintya-bhedābheda. We cannot think, adjust, that how one thing can be the other thing. That we cannot experience due to our little fund of knowledge, poor fund of knowledge. But in case of Kṛṣṇa, God, that is possible, simultaneously one and different. So here, if you think... To the atheist this form is made of stone, and they are thinking that "These crazy fellow, they are worshiping a stone."

Lecture on SB 3.25.9 -- Bombay, November 9, 1974:

The Absolute Truth, tattva... Tattva means the truth, original. Tat tvam asi. That tattva is Bhagavān. In the... The Absolute Truth is understood in three features, three angles of vision. The first is Brahman, impersonal Brahman. The second is localized Paramātmā. And the ultimate is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. So Brahman realization is not complete realization of the Absolute Truth. Neither Paramātmā realization is absolute, or the complete understanding of the Absolute Truth. When you realize Bhagavān, then you understand what is Paramātmā, what is Brahman, and what is Absolute Truth. Yaj jñātvā... No. Yasmin vijñāte sarvam idaṁ vijñātaṁ bhavati. That is the Vedic instruction. If you understand Bhagavān, then you understand Paramātmā, you can understand Brahman also. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā:

Lecture on SB 3.25.9 -- Bombay, November 9, 1974:

We require sometimes to fight; there is Dhanur Veda. And... So that is also required. Because the body is there. But real requirement is to know the Absolute Truth, Absolute Person. Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇum (SB 7.5.31). That is our self-interest. That is our self-interest. If we want to become perfect, then we must see what is the ultimate Absolute Truth. Athāto brahma jijñāsā. This is the instruction of Vedānta.

This life is meant for simply how to understand the Absolute Truth. Jīvasya tattva-jijñāsā. Jīvasya... But that is missing now. Nobody is inquiring, neither there is any institution throughout the whole world where there is tattva-jijñāsā, what is the Absolute Truth. Simply technical knowledge—how to become this, how to become that, to fill up this belly. But we cannot see even that the birds, beasts, they do not become technologists. How they are getting food? There are 8,400,000 forms of body.

Lecture on SB 3.25.11 -- Bombay, November 11, 1974:

We are seeking shelter, everyone, because we are servant constitutionally. Originally, we are servant of God. So that is our nature, to take shelter. Everyone is seeking a nice shelter. Somebody's seeking some occupation, service of some big man. Somebody's seeking oc..., servitorship of the government, government servant. But the ultimate shelter is Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Here Kṛṣṇa's incarnation, Kapiladeva... Kapiladeva is also Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa's incarnation and Kṛṣṇa, they are all the same. Svāṁśa, vibhinnāṁśa. Advaitam acyutam anādim ananta-rūpam (Bs. 5.33). Kṛṣṇa has got ananta, unlimited forms, unlimited incarnations. It is said in the Bhāgavatam the incarnations are expanding or going on exactly like the waves in the sea or in the river. You cannot count. So many incarnations, and all of them are Kṛṣṇa. Therefore in the Brahma-saṁhitā it is said, advaitam acyutam anādim ananta-rūpam (Bs. 5.33). Just like Kṛṣṇa as arcā-vigraha, Deity worship in the temple... Now, in India there are many thousands of temples.

Lecture on SB 3.25.13 -- Los Angeles, November 10, 1968:

Sāṅkhya philosophy is very much well-known, especially in the Western world. The propounder of Sāṅkhya philosophy, Kapiladeva, son of Devahūti, is the incarnation of Kṛṣṇa. He says that yoga ādhyātmikaḥ puṁsāṁ mato niḥśreyasāya me (SB 3.25.13). Niḥśreyasāya: ultimate benediction.

Śreyaḥ and preyaḥ, there are two things. One is called preyaḥ. Preyaḥ means immediately pleasing. And śreyaḥ means ultimately benefit, benediction. Generally, conditioned souls, they are attracted with immediate pleasing things. Just like children. They are attracted by playthings more than education. They do not like to go to school. They like to play the whole day. In my childhood also, I was very naughty boy, and I was not going to school. And my mother kept a special man to drag me to the school. At that time, there was no system like in your country, school buses. One had to go to school on foot. So my father was very lenient. I was not going to school. Preyaḥ, pleasing. Children like to play. Similarly, there are two paths, śreyaḥ and preyaḥ.

Lecture on SB 3.25.13 -- Los Angeles, November 10, 1968:

That is śreyaḥ. The boy, the child, does not like it, but the parents, they are anxious, "Oh, my child is not going to school; he is being spoiled." So dragging him.

Similarly, the scriptures, the sages, the saintly persons, the devotees, the representative of Kṛṣṇa, God, they're very much anxious to take us back to Godhead, back to home. That is niḥśreyasāya. That is the ultimate benediction. To be repaired(?), enamored by the temporary society, friendship and love. And it has become a thankless task for the saintly persons, devotees of God, to drag them: "Oh, please come here. Please chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Please be Kṛṣṇa conscious. Please be God conscious." Nobody likes it. They think it botheration, "Why Swamiji comes here and bothers us?" But it has become the business. Therefore the qualification of a saintly person is titikṣava, very tolerant, very tolerant. Just like Lord Jesus Christ, he was crucified. Still, he was so tolerant he, at the time of crucification, he's praying to God, "My Lord, these people do not know what they are doing. Please forgive them." Just see how much tolerant. Titikṣava. This is the first qualification of saintly person or God's servant or God's son. Very tolerant. They have to push on their Kṛṣṇa conscious movement or God conscious movement through so many odds.

Lecture on SB 3.25.13 -- Los Angeles, November 10, 1968:

Very tolerant. They have to push on their Kṛṣṇa conscious movement or God conscious movement through so many odds. Through so many odds. Because they are just like the child; he's attracted with playthings.

So yoga means, here it is stated, yoga ādhyātmikaḥ puṁsāṁ mato niḥśreyasāya. Yoga system means to lead one to the ultimate benediction. And ādhyātmikaḥ. Ādhyātmikaḥ means "pertaining to the soul." Yoga, practice of yoga, does not mean to gain some material profit. Actually, those who have attained to perfection to some extent in the yoga process... The yoga process which is very much advertised in your country, that is more or less bodily exercise. Yoga process is very difficult for the modern age. I have several times discussed this point. The preliminary process-yama, niyama, āsana, prāṇāyāma, dhyāna, dhāraṇā, samādhi—the eight processes... To control the senses, to control the mind, to practice sitting postures... Under certain physical posture the mind become concentrated. So there are different āsanas. Then meditation, then contemplation, then absorption. These things are preliminary process. But actually, the yoga means to attain ultimate benediction, niḥśreyasāya. What is that niḥśreyasāya? Now, spiritual realization. That is niḥśreyasāya.

Lecture on SB 3.25.13 -- Los Angeles, November 10, 1968:

One is conscious, "I am Hindu." One is conscious, "I am Christian." So similarly, when one is fully conscious that "I am spirit. Ahaṁ brahmāsmi, I am Brahman," that is the first spiritual realization, that knowledge. Knowledge means consciousness. So this consciousness has also a development of consciousness. There are different stages. And when one comes to the ultimate stages, niḥśreyasāya, that is called Kṛṣṇa consciousness, or God consciousness. And how that consciousness acts? That "I am a servant of God. I am servant of Kṛṣṇa." When this consciousness is firmly fixed up, this is called Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Just like Caitanya Mahāprabhu, He presented Himself, nāhaṁ vipro na ca nara-patiḥ, no vanastho yatir vā. He presented Himself... Because He was Hindu and Vedic, followers of Vedic... But actually, He was not Hindu, because He's describing Himself, nāham. Nāham means "I am not, I am not." He's declining. What He's declining? "I am not brāhmaṇa, I am not kṣatriya, I am not vaiśya, I am not śūdra, I am not brahmacārī, I am not gṛhastha, I am not vānaprastha, I am not sannyāsī." The Vedic system of human life is divided into eight departmental activities, and that is going on under the name of Hinduism. It is now broken and degraded and so many things have happened. But actually, what is called Vedic system, that Vedic system is not meant for a particular class of men, but it is meant for the human society.

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

Nitāi: Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. (etc.)

Prabhupāda: (Hindi)

Nitāi: (leads chanting, etc.) "The Personality of Godhead answered: The yoga system which relates to the Lord and the individual soul, which is meant for the ultimate benefit of the living entity, and which causes detachment from all happiness and distress in the material world, is the highest yoga system."

Prabhupāda:

yoga ādhyātmikaḥ puṁsāṁ
mato niḥśreyasāya me
atyantoparatir yatra
duḥkhasya ca sukhasya ca
(SB 3.25.13)

Everyone in this material world trying to mitigate or trying to become free from the distress. Duḥkhasya. Ātyantika-duḥkha-nivṛtti. Ātyantika means supreme. The struggle for existence in this material world is everyone is trying to get some happiness and minimize the quantity of distress. This is called struggle for existence. Generally, yoga practice is executed for getting some material profit: aṇimā laghimā prāpti īśitā vaśitā mahimā. Aṇimā... The yogis, they have aṣṭa-siddhi-yoga, eight kinds of perfection. One can become smaller than the smallest or lighter than the lightest, bigger than the biggest, whatever he likes, he can get immediately, vaśita, he can control over, he can create a planet even.

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

Kṛṣṇa says the same thing, and Kṛṣṇa's representative or incarnation or guru says the same thing. That is the qualification of guru. Here Kapiladeva, although He is the incarnation of Kṛṣṇa, He's acting as the representative of Kṛṣṇa, as guru. He's saying the same thing. He does not say another thing. Yoga ādhyātmikaḥ. Yoga ādhyātmikaḥ puṁsāṁ mato niḥśreyasāya me. Niḥśreyasa means the ultimate benefit. Kṛṣṇa also says the same thing, that paraṁ guhyatamam: "I have instructed you so many things, but because you are My dear friend, I am just disclosing to you the most confidential thing." What is that? Sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). If you accept this principle, then you become actually transcendental to this so-called material happiness and distress. That is yoga.

We should not be captivated by the material distress, or we should not be very much aggrieved by the material distress, and we should not be very much happy for material happiness. These are bondage. Material happiness is not actually happiness.

Lecture on SB 3.25.16 -- Bombay, November 16, 1974:

Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). You should not be puffed-up because you have got some bank balance, you are happy. No. Your real unhappiness—these four things: janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi. That any intelligent man should always keep in front, that "These are my distresses." These temporary distresses and to relieve it, that is not very good. You must make ultimate finishing of all distresses. That is bhakti-yoga. That is bhakti-yoga. And that bhakti-yoga begins this, by hearing and chanting.

śṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṇaḥ
puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtanaḥ
hṛdy antaḥ-stho hy abhadrāṇi...
(SB 1.2.17)

If you continually hear, then gradually all the dirty things, kāma-lobhādibhiḥ, these things will be finished and you will be purified, and then that is the way of your liberation. Muktaye. Guṇeṣu saktaṁ bandhāya rataṁ vā puṁsi muktaye. The process is also given that you hear about Kṛṣṇa. Then you will be purified. Because this life is meant for sattva-śuddhi. Śuddha-sattva.

Lecture on SB 3.25.27 -- Bombay, November 27, 1974:

And by dancing, dancing, as soon as you become hungry, take prasādam, ready. So where is the trouble? Therefore it is ṛjubhir yoga-mārgaiḥ. Our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is so nice there is no trouble only. And another thing is that that is great hope. Everything you are doing under the spell of māyā we do not know where you are going, what is the ultimate aim. We do not know. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni. We are under the spell of māyā given by the guṇas. You must accept. If you don't take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness and give it ourselves on the waves of māyā, then we do not know where we are going. The Caitanya Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says māyār bośe, jāccho bhese', Khāccho hābuḍubu bhāi. Just like a straw in the waves of the ocean or the river. It is fully under the control of the waves. Sometimes diving, sometimes coming out, sometimes going this way, going that. Our position is like that. We do not know that, prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni (BG 3.27). Under the material nature we are being carried by the waves of material nature, and you do not know where you are going because you have no control.

Lecture on SB 3.25.28 -- Bombay, November 28, 1974:

That topmost miserable condition is the repetition of birth, death, and old age. Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam, anu-darśanam (BG 13.9). We should not be very much afflicted with these temporary things. We must have the sense how to solve the ultimate miserable condition of life. That, tad-vijñānārtham, in order to know that science sa gurum evābhigacchet.

If one is interested to know that science, then it is necessary to approach Just like Arjuna was busy, perturbed that he has to fight with his relatives, the other side, and they will be killed. And he was presenting so many problems that, If I kill my brothers, my sister-in-laws will become widow and they will be polluted, and there will be varṇa-saṅkara generation, then the whole world will be hell. In this way he was thinking, the immediate material problems, but when, after arguing with Kṛṣṇa, he could not find out any solution, then Arjuna submitted to Kṛṣṇa, śiṣyas te 'haṁ śādhi māṁ prapannam (BG 2.7). "My dear Kṛṣṇa, now I don't want to talk with you as friend, because friendly talk, the talking will be very much, but there will be no benefit." Generally we do so. We talk with some person, some friend, without any duty, just to waste time.

Lecture on SB 3.25.36 -- Bombay, December 5, 1974:

So Kṛṣṇa is... We are seeing the form of Kṛṣṇa. That is the ultimate understanding of the Absolute Truth. Brahmeti paramātmeti bhagavān iti śabdyate.

vadanti tat tattva-vidas
tattvaṁ yaj jñānam advayam
brahmeti paramātmeti
bhagavān iti śabdyate
(SB 1.2.11)

So sac-cid-ānanda. The Brahman realization is sat realization, Paramātmā realization is cit realization, and Bhagavān realization means ānanda realization. Sat, cit, ānanda. And in the Vedānta-sūtra it is said that the Absolute Truth is ānandamayo 'bhyāsāt (Vedānta-sūtra 1.1.12). Ānandamaya. He's always ānandamaya. You read Kṛṣṇa's līlā—He's always full of transcendental bliss, especially in Vṛndāvana. Vṛndāvana, that is His original residence. There, simply ānanda. Kṛṣṇa is playing with His cowherds boys friends. Kṛṣṇa is dancing with the gopīs. Kṛṣṇa is stealing Mother Yaśodā's butter. Kṛṣṇa is doing... All ānanda, transcendental bliss.

Lecture on SB 3.25.42 -- Bombay, December 10, 1974:

The ultimate, mṛtyuś carati mad-bhayāt . So bhaya, bhaya means fearfulness. Bhayaṁ dvitīyābhiniveśataḥ syāt. In the previous verse the Lord Kapiladeva said that "If anyone wants to get out of this fearful situation..." Bhayaṁ tīvraṁ nivartate. Ātmanaḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ bhayaṁ tīvraṁ nivartate. We are always fearful. Material life is not very happy life because we are always fearful. That's a fact. Nobody can say, "No, I am not afraid of anything." That is false. Everyone is afraid of something, everyone—bird, beast, human being, everyone, bhayaṁ dvitīyābhiniveśataḥ syāt—because we have got absorption in the second category of life. Second category means this bodily conception of life, dvitīya abhiniveśa. I am thinking at the present moment that "I am this body." Everyone is thinking. Therefore, when there is fear of destruction of this body, we become very much afraid, perplexed. We have seen in Los Angeles. There was earthquake, and all the neighborhood, women especially, began to scream, fearful, "Now death is coming."

Lecture on SB 3.25.44 -- Bombay, December 12, 1974:

And when we are dissatisfied, then we want mokṣa. Therefore, we are actually busy with four kinds of activities: Dharma-artha-kāma-mokṣa (SB 4.8.41, Cc. Ādi 1.90). And above these, when we go above these, then bhakti begins. That is the beginning of bhakti. That wanted.

Niḥśreyasa. Śreya. Śreya means ultimate good. There are two things: preya and śreya. Śreya means ultimate good. If you act in such a way that ultimately you actually become happy, that is called śreya. And if you want immediately some happiness—never mind what it will be in future—that is called preya. So less intelligent person or children, they want preya. They do not want śreya. A child is playing whole day. He likes it. That is preya. And if you want to send him to school to be educated, he doesn't like. That is śreya, ultimate good. So nobody is interested. Still, the śāstra gives us instruction that "You try for this śreya. Don't be captivated by the preya." Preya and śreya. And this śreya, the supreme śreya, is bhakti-yoga. Therefore it is said that etāvān eva loke 'smin puṁsāṁ niḥśreyasa udayaḥ. śreyasa and niḥśreyasa. Niḥśreyasa means ultimate. Niḥśreyasa udayaḥ. As soon as you take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then your ultimate good or ultimate perfection begins immediately.

Lecture on SB 3.26.2 -- Bombay, December 14, 1974:

Nitāi: "Knowledge is the ultimate perfection of self-realization. I shall explain that knowledge unto you by which the knots of attachment to the material world are cut."

Prabhupāda:

jñānaṁ niḥśreyasārthāya
puruṣasyātma-darśanam
yad āhur varṇaye tat te
hṛdaya-granthi-bhedanam
(SB 3.26.2)

What is jñāna, knowledge? We have got... Jñāna means consciousness or living symptoms. That is jñāna. Cetana. Cetana, ce..., nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13). Nitya and cetana. Cetana means consciousness. Two things we find, generally, conscious and unconscious. Just like this table is unconscious, but a small ant, it is conscious. That ant is coming this side, you try to stop it, it will struggle, it will resist. Because it is conscious. But the table, you take it and throw it away, it will not protest, because it is unconscious. So, this consciousness is the symptom of life, and that develops one after another.

Lecture on SB 3.26.2 -- Bombay, December 14, 1974:

And what to speak of other, higher grade living entities. That is jñānam, but that is not niḥśreyasāya. Śreya and preya, there are two things. Preya means to fulfill immediate necessities of life. That is called preya. And śreya means the knowledge, śreya means the goal of life. Niḥśreyasāya, niḥśreyasāya. Niḥśreyasāya means the ultimate benefit. That education is lacking. In the material world, the jñāna, especially in the present age, jñāna means technical knowledge. How to eat, how to sleep. Now they are Somebody was telling me that they have invented eating, eatables from petrol. (aside:) Who was speaking the other day?

Lecture on SB 3.26.2 -- Bombay, December 14, 1974:

Bhāgavata Dāsa. So they might be very advanced in scientific knowledge but the ultimate aim is how to eat. That's all, nothing more. How to eat, how to sleep, that's all. Tranquilizer pills, in USA, a large selling line. That means how to sleep. This is the advancement, scientific advancement. There is no sleeping? Without scientific knowledge, he was sleeping very nice. But with advancement, advancement of scientific knowledge he has lost his sleep, insomnia. So they are taking the advancement of knowledge in this way, but the Vedic scripture says that, jñānaṁ niḥśreyasārthāya, to achieve the highest perfection. That we are discussing in so many ways. And what is that highest perfection? Highest perfection is there, mentioned in the Bhagavad-gītā, nāpnuvanti mahātmānaḥ saṁsiddhiṁ paramāṁ gataḥ. Highest perfection, saṁsiddhiṁ paramām. Param means the supreme, and saṁsiddhim means perfection.

Lecture on SB 3.26.22 -- Bombay, December 31, 1974:

This way we are wandering all over the universes, ei rūpe brahmāṇḍa bhramite (CC Madhya 19.151). We are sometimes rich man, sometimes poor man, sometimes demigod, sometimes dog, sometimes this, sometimes that. This is going on. That is called māyā-sukhāya bharam udvahato vimūḍhān (SB 7.9.43). They do not know the ultimate happiness is Kṛṣṇa consciousness, but wandering in this way.

So therefore this is the best welfare activity to the human society, to awaken them to Kṛṣṇa consciousness so that they will again revive their original svaccha consciousness, and they will be śānta. Svāmin kṛtārtho 'smi varaṁ na yāce (CC Madhya 22.42). Just like Dhruva Mahārāja, he was pious, born in a very pious family, and by family quarrel he went to worship the Supreme Lord Viṣṇu in the forest, aspiring material opulence. He was a child. He thought that "My stepmother has insulted. I shall go to God and take from Him such opulence which is many, many millions times better than my father's." That was his ambition. But when he actually saw Lord Viṣṇu standing... He was meditating Viṣṇu. All of a sudden he saw the Viṣṇu is missing within the heart. Then his meditation broke, and he saw Lord Viṣṇu is present before him. So this is not very difficult for Lord Viṣṇu. He is always within your heart, and if He likes, He can come outside and become visible by you. That is not very difficult.

Lecture on SB 3.26.26 -- Bombay, January 3, 1975:

That is stated in this verse. Tadvan na rikta-matayo yatayo 'pi ruddha-sroto-gaṇās tam araṇam. Sroto-gaṇās tam, stop functioning, they cannot do so nicely.

Therefore araṇaṁ bhaja vāsudevam. Vāsudeva is the ultimate araṇam, ultimate shelter. Bhaja vāsudevam. In other place also, it is said,

vāsudeve bhagavati
bhakti-yogaḥ prayojitaḥ
janayaty āśu vairāgyaṁ
jñānaṁ ca yad ahaitukam
(SB 1.2.7)

Janayaty āśu vairāgyaṁ jñānaṁ ca yad ahaitukam. One cannot understand what is the cause of a vāsudeva-bhakta to become so much renounced. Just like in India these young men from America and Europe... They are surprised, "How they have become so much aloof from material activities?" It is surprising. That is... It is not surprising, because bhaja vāsudevam: they have taken to the shelter of Vāsudeva. If you do also, you shall become. But we are not inclined. In India, "Oh, Vāsudeva, we have... We know everything of Vāsudeva. Hare Kṛṣṇa, oh, this is... What you can teach? We know everything." This is the Indian disease.

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

The sky is spiritual wherefrom the śabda is resounded. Because there is sky, therefore there is sound. Because there is sound, therefore the instrument of hearing sound, the ear, is there.

So our material position and spiritual position—the ultimate point is sound. And this sound is presented in its original spiritual form. That is called Veda, śabda-brahma. Tene brahma hṛdā ādi-kavaye. This brahma means śabda-brahma. The śabda-brahma was imparted or vibrated by Kṛṣṇa in the heart of Brahmā. Tene brahma hṛdā ādi-kavaye. And then he could realize what is his position. Then, after hearing the sound, he compiled this Brahma-saṁhitā. That Brahma-saṁhitā we have recited many times. The Brahmā, Lord Brahmā, by personal realization through the mercy of Kṛṣṇa on account of this sound, transcendental, being injected within heart, he could see the whole spiritual world as it is. And that is described in the Brahma-saṁhitā:

Lecture on SB 3.26.40 -- Bombay, January 15, 1975:

Then surrender. That is the ultimate state of loving affairs, surrender. Why one should surrender to another person unless there is love? Just like wife surrenders to husband and husband protects the wife. This is general duty. So why one man is interested with one woman for giving her all protection, and why one man is surrendered to..., one woman is surrendered to one man? What is the basic principle? The basic principle is love. So similarly, our full surrender, full Kṛṣṇa consciousness, can be achieved when we develop our love for Kṛṣṇa little by little, little by little, and then come to the perfection. When we come to the perfection, then we cannot live without Kṛṣṇa. Just like Caitanya Mahāprabhu taught us. In the last stage of His life He exhibited such manifestation of love that He was dying without Kṛṣṇa. Śūnyāyitaṁ jagat sarvaṁ govinda-viraheṇa me. Śūnyāyitam. Śūnyāyitam, everything is vacant. Śūnyāyitaṁ jagat sarvaṁ govinda-viraheṇa me. "Without Govinda, I see everything vacant." Sometimes we have got experience. If we lose a friend, a son, at that time, everything becomes vacant without my son, without my lover.

Lecture on SB 3.26.40 -- Bombay, January 15, 1975:

When we come to the perfection, then we cannot live without Kṛṣṇa. Just like Caitanya Mahāprabhu taught us. In the last stage of His life He exhibited such manifestation of love that He was dying without Kṛṣṇa. Śūnyāyitaṁ jagat sarvaṁ govinda-viraheṇa me. Śūnyāyitam. Śūnyāyitam, everything is vacant. Śūnyāyitaṁ jagat sarvaṁ govinda-viraheṇa me. "Without Govinda, I see everything vacant." Sometimes we have got experience. If we lose a friend, a son, at that time, everything becomes vacant without my son, without my lover. That is practical. So Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu was exhibiting that type of love for Kṛṣṇa, that He was feeling that "Without Kṛṣṇa, everything is void." Śūnyāyitaṁ jagat sarvaṁ govinda-viraheṇa me. This He taught personally, how to raise oneself to the topmost stage of love for Kṛṣṇa. That is the ultimate aim and object of life. Premāñ... (break) ...yaṁ śyāma-sundaram acintya-guṇa-svarūpaṁ govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi. To see Kṛṣṇa within the heart always, how... (end)

Lecture on SB 3.26.43 -- Bombay, January 18, 1975:

And if he says, "Let us go to this meeting in Hare Kṛṣṇa Land," that is not very palatable. This is the distinction between śreyas and preyas. Niḥśreyasāya. Niḥśreyasāya means ultimate goal of life, ultimate profit of life.

So ultimate profit of life is to go back to home, back to Godhead. Because we are suffering on account of separation from God. This is our cause of suffering. Instead of becoming servant of God we have become the servant of senses. That is the cause of our suffering. Therefore three things, if we can understand thoroughly, that Kṛṣṇa, or God, is the proprietor and enjoyer of the whole universe or creation and... Bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasāṁ sarva-loka-maheśvaram (BG 5.29). He is the proprietor of all universal planets, and suhṛdaṁ sarva-bhūtānām, and He is the real friend of everyone. Jñātvā, "One who knows," Kṛṣṇa says, mām, "Me, then he gets śānti." Otherwise, there cannot be any śānti.

Lecture on SB 3.26.45 -- Bombay, January 20, 1975:

So he was very much threatened, or frightened, and he requested, "This form is very much unbearable to see. Please come to Your original form." So Kṛṣṇa first of all came to His form, four-handed Viṣṇu form; then again He came into His two-handed Kṛṣṇa form, and that is the ultimate, real form of Kṛṣṇa.

Kṛṣṇa has got many forms. Every form is Kṛṣṇa's form. That's a fact. Advaitam acyutam anādim ananta-rūpam (Bs. 5.33). Some of the forms are personal, some of the forms are of His potencies, śakti, but all forms belong to Kṛṣṇa. So some of them are material forms, and whatever differentiation of forms we see in the material world, they are all Kṛṣṇa's form. But in the spiritual world there are also many forms—just like Kṛṣṇa, Balarāma, then Vāsudeva, Saṅkarṣaṇa, Aniruddha, Pradyumna, Nārāyaṇa, and the puruṣa-avatāra. There are many. And there are innumerable planets also. In each and every planet there is one form. And when incarnation comes, one of the forms from Vaikuṇṭha, They come as incarnation. So many forms are called svāṁśa. In the Varāha Purāṇa you will find the description of the forms: svāṁśa and vibhinnāṁśa. The forms exhibited in this material world as living being, they are vibhinnāṁśa. Bhinnā prakṛtir me aṣṭadhā. As there are separated energies, bhūmir āpo 'nalo vāyuḥ (BG 7.4), the five elements, material elements, mahā-bhūta, they are also forms of Kṛṣṇa. This big mountain, Himalayan mountain, that is also form of Kṛṣṇa. The big Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, that is also form of Kṛṣṇa. He says bhūmir āpaḥ. Āpaḥ. Āpaḥ means water. So not only water in this planet, but there are millions and trillions of Pacific Ocean bigger than that in other planets.

Lecture on SB 3.28.1 -- Honolulu, June 1, 1975:

Because we are part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa, but because we have got this material body, we have got this bodily concept of life. Therefore the Vedic injunction is divided that one class should be brāhmaṇa, one class should be kṣatriya, one class should be vaiśya, another should be śūdra. In this way they should cooperate for the ultimate benefit of life, just like in our body there is the head, there is the arm, there is the belly, and there is the leg. So we are all cooperating for upkeep of the body. Similarly, if either as a brāhmaṇa or as a kṣatriya or as a śūdra we keep up in mind that we have to serve Kṛṣṇa, then in either position we can become perfect. That is confirmed in many places.

Lecture on SB 5.5.1 -- Tittenhurst, London, September 12, 1969:

The Vedic system is, the aim is, how to elevate oneself to the perfection of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is Vedic system. You have read Bhagavad-gītā. In the Fifteenth Chapter, fifteenth verse, you'll find, vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyaḥ (BG 15.15). The whole Vedic system is designed or planned how to know Kṛṣṇa. So if you follow Vedic system, then the ultimate objective should be to know Kṛṣṇa. That is the Vedic version and corroborated by Lord Kṛṣṇa Himself. He is the original compiler of Vedas; therefore His version should be accepted, that the objective of studying Vedas means to know Kṛṣṇa. That's all. Vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyaḥ (BG 15.15).

Therefore the king, Ṛṣabhadeva, is advising, instructing His sons... He was retiring. Why He was retiring? He could enjoy His kingdom. Just like at the present moment, either a king or a family man does not retire. Even a poor man living in with family with great difficulties, but if you ask him to retire, he'll not be agreeable. We have asked many old men. He's suffering, he's not happy within his family members, but if I say, "Why you are taking so much trouble with the family? Why not come and live with us in Kṛṣṇa consciousness society?" he'll not agree. Because he has no Vedic training. Up to the end of this life he'll stick to the family life.

Lecture on SB 5.5.1-2 -- London (Tittenhurst), September 13, 1969:

There are different Sanskrit names of different planets. Everywhere in this material world is, the ultimate point is sense gratification. That's all.

So Ṛṣabhadeva is pointing out that this sense gratification problem or desire or propensity is there even in the hogs and dogs. Therefore He says, distinguishing the human form of life from the life of lowest class of animals, that He says ayaṁ deha, "this body." Na ayaṁ deho deha-bhājāṁ nṛloke. Nṛloke means in the human society. Everyone has got body. The dog has body, the cat has body, the tiger has body, the bird has body. Everyone has got body. Similarly we have also got body. Therefore He is warning, "My dear sons, in this body the aim of life should not be sense gratification after so much trouble." If the point is sense gratification, then why so much, I mean to say, manifestation of economic development? Do you think that those who are not fortunate to have these flyways or motorcars or a skyscraper building... Take for example the most aborigines, the most uncivilized nation somewhere in Africa or any other part of the world. Are they not sense gratifying? The dogs and hogs, they are not sense gratifying? So if the ultimate aim of life is simply sense gratification, then why should we take so much trouble?

Lecture on SB 5.5.1-2 -- London (Tittenhurst), September 13, 1969:

There is no difference of taste, so why you are after a woman by paying this one hundred thousands of jewels?" The idea is... This story is very instructive, and it is mentioned in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. The idea is the same thing... (break) ...sense gratification is the ultimate aim of life, then why so much hard trouble for decorating the process of sense gratification? Why wasting so much time for decorating?

So Ṛṣabhadeva is asking that sense gratification there is necessity, because we have got senses. But not with too much trouble, accepting too much trouble in the name of economic development. Because our time is very valuable. If we want to utilize our short duration of life which we have got at our disposal, we must utilize it for self-realization, not for unnecessarily increasing the necessities of bodily wants. This is not a good type of civilization, simply wasting time for sense gratification. Time should be utilized for greater advantage. Cāṇakya Paṇḍita says that āyuṣaḥ kṣaṇa eko 'pi na labhyaḥ svarṇa-koṭibhiḥ. You know... In your country I have seen many tabloids, "Time is money." Yes, actually time is very valuable, but we do not know how to utilize this time. That is the mistake of this present civilization.

Lecture on SB 5.5.2 -- Boston, April 28, 1969:

The test is bhajanti, uh, vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti (BG 7.19). No. Bahūnāṁ janmanām a..., after many, many births, bahūnāṁ janmanām ante jñānavān (BG 7.19). Who? One who has attained perfect knowledge. Jñānavān means perfect knowledge. Bahūnāṁ janmanām ante jñānavān māṁ prapadyate: "He surrenders unto Me." That is the ultimate standard of knowledge, when one has fully surrendered unto Kṛṣṇa, or God. That means he has attained perfection. You have got very good instance like Lord Jesus Christ. He was fully surrendered unto God. Therefore he is so much worshiped. He is great. God is great. He is also great because he has fully surrendered. So this greatness means when you fully surrender unto the... (break)

...from austerity. What is that austerity? The physician says, "My dear such and such, you are suffering from fever. You should not take this food, that food, that food," or "You should not do like this, you should not go to such and such..."

Lecture on SB 5.5.2 -- Hyderabad, April 13, 1975:

To have a guru is not a fashion. Now it has become a fashion. If somebody shows some jugglery, people become very much anxious to accept such guru. No. Guru means, tasmād guruṁ prapadyeta. Who requires a guru? Jijñāsu śreya uttamam, one who is very much anxious to know about the ultimate benefit of life. For him guru is required. Not a fashion. Just like we keep a dog as a fashion. Nowadays it is a fashion to keep a dog. So don't keep a guru like a dog. And who will hear you? "Come on. Come on." Yes. Not like that. Guru require then where you can surrender. Not like a dog, but master, where you can surrender. Tasmād guruṁ prapadyeta, prapadyeta means you must surrender.

And why you should surrender? Jijñāsu. If you are actually inquisitive, inquirer, what about? Śreya uttamam. Śreya means the ultimate benefit of life. And preya means immediate benefit of life. There are two things: śreya and preya. The human life is meant for sreya. And animal life is meant for preya, immediate benefit.

Lecture on SB 5.5.2 -- Hyderabad, April 13, 1975:

Kṛṣṇa is so powerful. Ye yathā māṁ prapadyante tāṁs tathaiva bhajāmy aham (BG 4.11). If you want from Kṛṣṇa the result of your karma, good result, Kṛṣṇa will give you. Kṛṣṇa is not unable to award you this. So better you simply worship Kṛṣṇa. You get all your desires fulfilled. And the ultimate result will be that you will no more desire, because so long you'll desire, you'll never get peace. But by worshiping Kṛṣṇa for some material motive, you'll get that, (but) at the end you will not ask anything more. You'll be śāntā, praśāntā. This is the result. Just like Dhruva Mahārāja. He went to worship Kṛṣṇa for achieving greater kingdom than his father. That was his motive. But when he actually got perfection, he said, svāmin kṛtārtho 'smi varaṁ na yāce (CC Madhya 22.42). Yaṁ labdhvā cāparaṁ lābhaṁ manyate nādhikaṁ tataḥ, when you get Kṛṣṇa, then you'll understand that there is no more anything more obtainable than Kṛṣṇa, fully satisfied. That is wanted. That's all? So many? All right. Go on.

Lecture on SB 5.5.2 -- Johannesburg, October 22, 1975:

This is for the common person. But when he is advanced, then he goes above, that there is God above father, above king, above teacher. So according to the stages, there are different literatures in the Vedic knowledge. Sometimes demigods are also accepted. So they have also got power, but... Controller, they are also controller, but the ultimate controller is fixed up—īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ (Bs. 5.1). "The supreme controller is Kṛṣṇa." That is the verdict of the Vedas. Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ (Bs. 5.1). In the Bhagavad-gītā it is said, mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat: (BG 7.7) "There is no more superior controller or person than Me." So that is Absolute. Everywhere you will find. Suppose if you accept me God, but I am controlled by somebody else. So I am not absolute God. But if you can find out somebody—he is not only controller, but he is not controlled by anyone—then he is absolute. That is Kṛṣṇa. Yes. Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. (end)

Lecture on SB 5.5.5 -- Vrndavana, October 27, 1976:

All right: bahūnāṁ janmanām ante jñānavān māṁ prapadyante (BG 7.19). "They're coming to Me." Yoginām api sarveṣāṁ mad-gatenāntarātmanā (BG 6.47). Yat karoṣi yaj juhoṣi kuruṣva tat mad arpaṇam. The ultimate is Kṛṣṇa. That is real plan. And if you do not know this plan, śrama eva hi kevalam—simply waste of time.

dharmaḥ svanuṣṭhitaḥ puṁsāṁ
viṣvakṣena-kathāsu yaḥ
notpādayed yadi ratiṁ
śrama eva hi kevalam
(SB 1.2.8)

If you do not know ultimately that Kṛṣṇa is required, then all your jñāna, karma, yoga, tapasya, everything is simply waste of time. Simply waste of time.

Therefore it is said parābhava. Whatever you are doing, simply defeat. Because you do not know ātma-tattva. Apaśyatām ātma-tattvaṁ gṛheṣu gṛha-medhinām (SB 2.1.2).

Lecture on SB 5.5.14 -- Vrndavana, November 2, 1976:

There are thirty-three millions of devas. But Kṛṣṇa especially, He says, mad-deva, one who has taken Kṛṣṇa as the only worshipable deity. Sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekam (BG 18.66), that is it. One who has taken such vow, that kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam (SB 1.3.28), I shall take to the shelter of Kṛṣṇa, that is not very easy thing. But, that is the ultimate point.

Bahūnāṁ janmanām ante jñānavān māṁ prapadyate (BG 7.19). That mad-deva, that Kṛṣṇa, is my worshipable deity only. This conclusion comes after many, many births of culturing knowledge, jñāna, yoga, karma, it is not so easy. Therefore we have to take shelter of such person who has taken Kṛṣṇa as the only shelter, vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti sa mahātmā (BG 7.19). We have to take shelter of such mahātmā. Not others. Mad-deva these are the different items, mad-deva-saṅgād guṇa-kīrtanān me. Not that now they have invented that, why Hare Kṛṣṇa, we can chant śivo 'ham, śivo 'ham, om, om, kālī, kālī, durgā. They (are) all nonsense. They are all nonsense. Here bhakti-yoga means, here it is, guṇa-kīrtanān me. Not others. You cannot (indistinct), "This is also good, that is also good." No compromise, kṛṣṇa-kīrtana. Just like Gosvāmīs, they said, kṛṣṇotkīrtana-gāna-nartana-parau. Not others. Utkīrtana, Hare Kṛṣṇa. Kīrtanād eva kṛṣṇasya mukta-saṅgaḥ paraṁ vrajet (SB 12.3.51). These are the instructions. Śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ (SB 7.5.23), not of Śiva, not of Durgā, not of any other demigod.

Lecture on SB 5.5.32 -- Vrndavana, November 19, 1976:

They have sometimes been, I mean to say, beaten in the airport. But still, they are so straightforward, suffering from the police, from the public. And Ṛṣabhadeva was sometimes bitten on his body, urine, pass urine on his body, so much. He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead Ṛṣabhadeva. So He is teaching us that for the ultimate benefit of life you prepare yourself to suffer all kinds of tribulations. Caitanya Mahāprabhu has given this instruction:

tṛṇād api sunīcena
taror api sahiṣṇunā
amāninā mānadena
kīrtanīyaḥ sadā...

You should not give up your preaching work. Kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ (CC Adi 17.31). If there are tribulations, as Ṛṣabhadeva He is Supreme Personality of Godhead, Vaikuṇṭha, and He has no suffering.

Lecture on SB 6.1.2 -- Honolulu, May 6, 1976:

Sometimes this morning we were talking about vegetarian and nonvegetarian. Our mission is not to make a nonvegetarian a vegetarian. No. Our mission is that "Either you are vegetarian or nonvegetarian, it doesn't matter. You become Kṛṣṇa conscious." That is our mission. To become vegetarian is not very good qualification. It is better than the nonvegetarian, but that is not the ultimate solution. The ultimate solution is when you become a lover of God. That is ultimate solution.

So we are not preaching this vegetarianism. Just like there are Jains or many other religious system, Buddhism. They are after making people vegetarian. But the law of nature is that one living entity is the food for another living entity. That is the law of nature. You will find even in the lower animals, they are eating one another. That is the law of nature. Ahastāni sahastānām apadāni catuṣ-padām. This is the law of nature. Ahastāni, one who has no hands, he is the food... They are all animals. The animal which has no hands... Just like goats and others: they have only legs. So they are food for the animals with hands. Ahastāni sahastānām. That is the law of nature.

Lecture on SB 6.1.3 -- Melbourne, May 22, 1975:

Now I have got good intelligence. How I shall utilize it?" That proper utilization is indicated in the Vedānta philosophy. Vedānta philosophy, perhaps you have heard the name. Veda means knowledge, and anta means last stage or end. Everything has got some end. So you are being educated, you are taking education. Where you shall end? That is called Vedānta. Where the ultimate point.

So Vedānta philosophy says I... That is Vedānta philosophy, ultimate knowledge. The ultimate knowledge, that is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā, what is that ultimate knowledge. Vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyam (BG 15.15). You are cultivating knowledge. "The ultimate goal of knowledge," Kṛṣṇa says, "is to know Me." Vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyam (BG 15.15). The whole knowledge is meant for understanding God. That is the end of knowledge. By progressive knowledge you can make progress, but unless you do come to the point to understand what is God, then your knowledge is imperfect. That is called Vedānta. Athāto brahma jijñāsā.

Lecture on SB 6.1.7 -- Honolulu, June 15, 1975, Sunday Feast Lecture:

These are all public sympathetic activities. But they are not... They are, of course, good to some extent. If a man is suffering from the bodily ailments, if he is given some relief in the hospital, or if the society is not educated, give him education, this is all good work undoubtedly. But the ultimate good work is not known to them. They are taking care of the external symptoms. Why a person, a living entity, is put into that condition? And if that condition is ended, that is real sympathy. A person is suffering from some disease. He goes to the doctor, physician. He gives some medicine—immediate some relief from the pain. This is one sympathy. And there is another sympathy, that "Why the man is getting such disease and suffering? Why not stop the cause of the disease?" That is real sympathy.

Lecture on SB 6.1.8 -- New York, July 22, 1971:

This human life is meant for victorious, to become victorious over the laws of material nature. Actually we are trying for that purpose. The whole struggle is how to counteract the onslaught of material nature. The whole activities are going on. But what is the ultimate victory? The ultimate victory is how to conquer over birth, death, disease and old age. That is the outcome, victory.

But we have set aside, neglected this important point, and our education system is for how to eat, how to sleep, how to defend. What is... God is giving us to eat so many things. What your education system will improve? We are eating fruits, grains, or whatever we eat. That is given by God. Food is supplied to the animals. The four-legged animals... Ahastāni sahastānām. Sahastānām ahastāni. In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavata, everything is... The food is there. Jīvo jīvasya jīvanam: "One living entity is the food for another living entity." Ahastāni sahastānām. Just like animals, they have got no hands. So they are food for the animals which has..., who has got hands. We are animals with hands, and there are animals without hands.

Lecture on SB 6.1.11 -- New York, July 25, 1971:

So the answer is given by Śukadeva Gosvāmī. But that one kind of war causes some disturbances and another kind of war stops it for some time, for the time being, that is not ultimate solution of the problem. Any intelligent man can understand it. Therefore Śukadeva Gosvāmī recommends that these things happen on account of foolishness, avidvad-adhikāritvāt. Avidvad means without sufficient education, or without sufficient knowledge, lack of knowledge. Avidvad adhikāritvāt prāyaścittaṁ vimarśanam. Real prāyaścitta, atonement, is knowledge. Why we are fighting? This knowledge required. Why you are fighting? Why there is miseries? This "why" question, this "why" question is in the Vedas. It is called Kena Upaniṣad, asking "Why?" Unless this question arises in a human mind, "Why?" "Why I am suffering?" that is not human life. This question must arise. "Wherefrom I have come? What is my constitutional position? Where I shall go after death? Why I am put into this miserable condition of life? Why there is birth, death, old age, disease? I do not want all of them." So that, this is called vimarśanam, jñānam, thoughtful, how to solve these questions.

Lecture on SB 6.1.18 -- Honolulu, May 18, 1976:

Besides that, extra miserable condition due to the age, due to the climate, due to the condition of life. So we have to study these things. Why... The human life begins when he begins to say "Why?" Kenopaniṣad. "Why I am suffering?"

So there are different methods how to get out of the suffering condition, karmī, jñānī, yogi. But ultimate, very easy process is, if you become a devotee, if you become engaged in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then it is very easy. Kṣemaḥ akuto-bhayaḥ. Then your prosperity, your auspicity, is guaranteed. Kṣemaḥ akuto-bhayaḥ. Akuto-bhayaḥ means "without any fear." You can keep yourself in Kṛṣṇa consciousness as it is prescribed. Then your life is secure, akuto-bhayaḥ. Therefore no more fear. Because why? Kṛṣṇa says, ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi: (BG 18.66) "If you become surrendered unto Me and if you keep yourself under My instruction, then I'll give you protection." Therefore it is said, akuto-bhayam. Then your character will be formed, you'll become... You'll manifest your all good qualities simply by becoming nārāyaṇa-parāyaṇa. And so far atonement... We began this atonement.

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

Avyakto 'vyaktāt sanātanaḥ. Yasmin sarveṣu naśyatsu means when in the material world everything will be dissolved, annihilated, then it is said that the other nature... We have tried to describe in our Easy Journey to Other Planets, anti-material, material and anti-material. So that world, the spiritual world, there is if you go beyond this covering of the sky. You cannot touch even the ultimate covering even, Brahmaloka. We can see there is a covering round, what is called? Horizon. That is covering. This covering is covered by seven layers, same earth, water, fire, ether. One layer is ten times bigger than the other layer. If you can penetrate and go through, then there is the other world, spiritual world. So this is the position. We should be clever enough to understand the constitution of this material world, this material body, and the spirit soul, how the spirit soul can be liberated, how the spirit soul can go to the spiritual world and live there eternally. Everything is very nicely described in the Bhagavad-gītā. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti kaunteya (BG 4.9). Everyone can go. Mad-yājino 'pi yānti mām (BG 9.25).

Lecture on SB 6.1.32 -- Surat, December 16, 1970:

Prabhupāda: (aside:) Sit down.

Revatīnandana: That "I am the source of impersonal Brahman, which is eternal, and the constitutional position of ultimate happiness." Does that mean that because everything in the spiritual sky is situated in the brahma-jyotir, that therefore it is the position of ultimate happiness?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Revatīnandana: Or is it because Kṛṣṇa is situated in the spiritual sky, therefore the spiritual sky is the position where there is ultimate happiness to be found?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Revatīnandana: That is the understanding?

Prabhupāda: Yes. In the spiritual sky you will find happiness, real happiness. In the material sky there is no happiness. How it can be happiness, because the four things are there, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi (BG 13.9)? If you think it is happiness in spite of your death, then you are a fool. You do not want to be a dead man, but you are forced to accept death. You do not want to become old man, but you are forced to accept. And these things, if you accept—happiness—that is your foolishness. Vyādhi.

Lecture on SB 6.1.34-39 -- Surat, December 19, 1970:

Mālatī: Prabhupāda? Can you explain more about preyaḥ and śreyaḥ?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Śreyaḥ means ultimate benefit, and preyaḥ means immediate sense gratification. That is called... That is the difference between śreyaḥ and preyaḥ. That's all right.

Revatīnandana: So the transcendentalists are śreyaḥ? And the karmīs and others are...

Prabhupāda: Yes, they are after preyaḥ. Those who are after śreyaḥ, they should follow the catur-āśrama, varṇāśrama. The varṇāśrama, according to Vedic system, the four kinds of varṇas or social caste, and four kinds of spiritual order, āśramas. That is the beginning of preyaḥ. Without this acceptance of these principles, according to Vedic principles, one is not considered as human being or civilized man. Because that is a system, if we follow that system, gradually we rise to the platform of śreyaḥ. If anyone does not follow regulative principles, it is very hard for him to come to the standard of śreyaḥ. But in this age, in Kali-yuga, every man is so fallen that he cannot follow any regulative principles according to the Vedic scriptures. As such, they have been accepted as śūdras. Kalau śūdra-sambhavaḥ: "In this age everyone should be accepted as śūdra." But then how to elevate them? For elevating them, this..., not the Vedic system is to be followed but Pañcarātriki. Pañcarātriki... Just like we are trying to elevate these Europeans and Americans according to Pañcarātriki-vidhi. Everyone should be followed. It is not that Indians should not follow; only the others will. No. It is for everyone, Pañcarātriki-vidhi.

Lecture on SB 6.1.41-42 -- Surat, December 23, 1970:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Devotee (5): What if the person knows what he is doing is wrong, and he knows what the ultimate result of his doings is also wrong, but he still commits? Is that still ignorance?

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is ignorance-rooted, ignorance, heart, rooted in the heart. That can be... Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu recommends ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12). You have to cleanse your heart. Then, when your heart is cleansed, then you will say, "No, no. No more I am going to do this. I have suffered so much. No. No." That is real knowledge. Unless your heart is cleansed, then, even though you know that "By committing theft I will be punished," you will commit, because the heart is not clear. Even though one knows that "By doing this, I will suffer," still, he will do that. That distinction is always there. Therefore the only method is this cleansing process in this age, Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra.

Revatīnandana: In the Fourteenth Chapter in the Gītā, you describe that the mode of goodness, people who are in the mode of goodness become conditioned by that mode, and they come back repeatedly as philosophers, educators, like that.

Lecture on SB 6.1.55 -- London, August 13, 1975:

Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sar... (BG 3.27). Everyone is going on under the stringent laws of material nature. We cannot help. The same example: If a man is diseased, you can try to bring to him nice physician, nice medicine, but that is not guarantee that he will be cured. That depends on Kṛṣṇa. Therefore Kṛṣṇa is the ultimate, I mean to say, beneficiary, or benevolent. Kṛṣṇa is the ultimate bene... If He likes, He can. So take Kṛṣṇa's shelter, and whatever He likes, accept that. This is full surrender. Just like Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura—

mānasa deha geha, yo kichu mora,
arpilūn tuwā pade nanda-kiśora

"Nanda-kiśora, what I have got? I have got this body, and I have got some mental speculation, and maybe I have got some house and family. So everything I surrender unto You." This is called full surrender.

Lecture on SB 6.2.7 -- Vrndavana, September 10, 1975:

That we'll not take. "Oh, Kṛṣṇa is claiming too much." But that is the ultimate goal, that you have to surrender to Kṛṣṇa. That is the highest perfection.

So this conclusion, that "Let me surrender... Kṛṣṇa is asking me. Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the ultimate Absolute Truth, He is asking me to surrender. Why shall I delay? Let me surrender," this is intelligence. Jñānavān. So those who are intelligent, they will take immediately. It is explained in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta,

'śraddhā'-śabde viśvāsa sudṛḍha niścaya
kṛṣṇe bhakti kaile sarva karma kṛta haya

This is the real śraddhā, faith. What is that faith? Śraddhā śabde viśvāsa. Faith means strong faith, not flickering faith, viśvāsa, "to believe." What is that viśvāsa? Śraddhā śabde viśvāsa sudṛḍha niścaya: very firm faith and with surety. Surety must be because Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, says that "You surrender unto Me, and I shall give you protection from all sinful reaction." He is assuring. Then why we shall doubt? Because we are doubting Kṛṣṇa, that is the defect, that Kṛṣṇa says; "It may be or may not be," doubt.

Lecture on SB 6.2.17 -- Vrndavana, September 20, 1975:

So he, actually, within six months he saw Nārāyaṇa. But when he saw Nārāyaṇa, then his all material desires finished. He said, svāmin kṛtārtho 'smi varaṁ na yāce: (CC Madhya 22.42) "I came to ask You for some benefit, material benefit. Now, by seeing You I am so satisfied that I have no more any desire to ask for." This is the ultimate stage, no more desire. We may begin with desire, but perfection is that, when there is no more desire. That is the beginning of bhakti.

anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ
jñāna-karmādy-anāvṛtam
ānukūlyena kṛṣṇānuśīlanaṁ
bhaktir uttama
(Brs. 1.1.11)

That is bhakti, no more desire.

So here, na adharmajaṁ tad-dhṛdayam. Adharmajam. So long our heart is compact with material desires, we have to take birth after birth to fulfill that desire. It is automatic. So how to become desireless? Not desireless but no material desires. There is desire to go back to home, back to Godhead. That is natural. To become a devotee, to desire like that, that is wanted. We cannot stop our desires. But desires have to be purified. Sarvopādhi-vinirmuktaṁ tat-paratvena nirmalam (CC Madhya 19.170).

Lecture on SB 6.3.12-15 -- Gorakhpur, February 9, 1971:

That annihilation is one of the business of Kṛṣṇa, or God, for this material world. Not in the spiritual world. There is no annihilation. Here it is required. Sometimes, because everyone has come here to lord it over the material nature, so there must be an ultimate situation when it becomes intolerable, and therefore Kṛṣṇa has to annihilate, finish. That is kalki-avatāra.

mleccha-nivaha-nidhane kalayasi karavālaṁ
dhūmaketum iva kim api karālam
keśava dhṛta-kalki-śarīra jaya jagadīśa hare

Mleccha. When people become mlecchas... Mleccha means not following the Vedic principles. Those who are following the Vedic principles, they are classified guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ (BG 4.13), in four divisions. And beyond these four divisions, who are less than śūdras, they are called mlecchas and yavanas and caṇḍālas. Their behavior is so abominable that they cannot be accepted as civilized man. Civilized man, not by so-called material advancement. Civilized man is this four division of society—brāhmaṇas, kṣatriyas, vaiśyas, and śūdras. That is civilized society.

Lecture on SB 6.3.12-15 -- Gorakhpur, February 9, 1971:

"Why shall I surrender?" But it is the most confidential instruction. Those who cannot understand Bhagavad-gītā, they will put forward, "Why should we surrender? Kṛṣṇa has said about jñāna, about karma, about yoga. Why not these processes?" But he does not know that is the ultimate process. The jñāna, yoga, may help one to come to that point, bahūnāṁ janmanām ante jñānavān (BG 7.19), after many many births, but that is not the direct process. The direct process is sarva-guhyatamaṁ bhūyaḥ śṛṇu me paramaṁ vacaḥ iṣṭo 'si: "I am disclosing this most confidential part of My instruction unto you," iṣṭo 'si, "because I love you." Iṣṭo 'si me dṛḍham iti. "Because I am confident that you are My confidential friend." Dṛḍham iti tato vakṣyāmi te hitam: "Therefore I am disclosing this to you."

Kṛṣṇa does not say everyone that sarva-dharmān parityajya (BG 18.66), only to a selected devotee. Because unless one is very highly elevated devotee, he cannot accept this proposition. He is puffed up with his material, contaminated life. That's all. "I am this. I am that. I am this. I am that. Why shall I surrender?"

Lecture on SB 6.3.12-15 -- Gorakhpur, February 9, 1971:

These three verses are the ultimate instruction of Bhagavad-gītā, sarva-guhyatamam.

So people do not understand, and they read Bhagavad-gītā daily. And they are very much proud: "I am reading Bhagavad-gītā daily." If anyone actually reads Bhagavad-gītā, then he will be Kṛṣṇa conscious. It is meant for that purpose. But they do not read actually. They simply make a show. Neither do they understand what is Bhagavad-gītā. Therefore we are presenting Bhagavad-gītā as it is. Is that all right? So we have to preach in that spirit.

Lecture on SB 7.6.1 -- New York, April 9, 1969:

If one is intelligent, he can understand that "There is no certainty whether this is my childhood or old age." Because generally we think that when we are old we die. But who can say that I'm not old enough to die in the next moment? If I have to gain something supernatural which will give me the ultimate benefit of my life, then why shall I wait for old age? Immediately let us begin. If Kṛṣṇa consciousness is very nice thing and if it will give us the highest benediction of my life, then if I am intelligent, then I must begin it immediately. Without any delay. Because generally people think that childhood or youthhood should be enjoyed.

The Śaṅkarācārya he was passing on the road and he's singing. He was lamenting, what is that? Balas tavad krida sakta. Oh, all these boys are playing. Generally, when you pass a road you see the boys are playing, very much busy, and they're very jolly in playing. Bālas tāvad krīḍāsaktas taruṇas tāvad taruṇī raktaḥ. And young boys, they're after young girls. You see? Taruṇas tāvad taruṇī-rakto vṛddhas tāvad anta-magnaḥ. And the old man they are very much morose, what is to be done next. Parame brahmaṇi ko 'pi na lagnaḥ. Oh, everyone is busy. Nobody's interested in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, spiritual life. Everyone is busy. How they are spoiling their life! That is the version of Śaṅkarācārya. He's lamenting, that the boys, the youths, the old man, they are very happy in their materialistic way of life, but a spiritualistic man like Śaṅkarācārya or Lord Jesus Christ, they are unhappy, "Oh, what foolish things they are doing." That is the thankless task of persons who are spiritually enlightened. They can see it plain that how they are spoiling their valuable life. Simply for sense gratification.

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

So we are making different plans but it will not be successful. That much I explained last night, that we are thinking independent and we are planning so many things independently to become happy. It is not possible. That is not possible. That is māyā's illusory play. Daivī hy eṣā guṇa-mayī mama māyā duratyayā. You cannot surpass. Then what is the ultimate solution? Mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti te (BG 7.14). If we surrender to Kṛṣṇa, then we revive our original position. That is... Kṛṣṇa consciousness means instead of keeping so many things in consciousness... They are all polluted consciousness. The real... We have got consciousness, that is a fact, but our consciousness is polluted. So we have to purify the consciousness. To purify consciousness means bhakti.

Lecture on SB 7.6.3 -- Montreal, June 16, 1968:

And when one is frustrated to this very nice arrangement, then he goes to the mind: poetry, mental speculation, LSD, marijuana, drinking, and so many things. These are all mental. Actually, happiness is not there in the body, nor in the mind. Read happiness is in the spirit. Therefore Bhagavad-gītā says, sukham ātyantikaṁ yat tad atīndriya-grāhyam (BG 6.21). The real, the ultimate happiness is that which is beyond this material senses. Ātyantikaṁ yat tad atīndriya. Atīndriya means—indriya means the senses—transcendental to the senses. That means that spiritual. There are many instructions and practical also.

So unless we go to the spiritual platform, we cannot have actual happiness. That is the instruction Prahlāda Mahārāja is giving, that sukham aindriyakaṁ daityā deha-yogena dehinām. The happiness perceived by contact of senses or contact of body, sukham aindriyakam... Our present appreciation of happiness is due to the senses, and these particular senses are according to the particular body.

Lecture on SB 7.6.3 -- Montreal, June 16, 1968:

"My dear boys, this form, human form of life, although it is a body, but this body is in human society." Nāyaṁ deho deha-bhājāṁ nṛloke. Nṛloke means Nṛ means man. "So when the body is obtained in the human society, not in the dog society, not in the cat society, that body is not meant for simply working very hard and ultimate sense gratification." That's all.

People are being taught in this way, that "Work very hard day and night, earn money, and enjoy senses, nothing more." So this sort of civilization is condemned. The real civilization is that one has to control. Control. What is the difference between a man and an animal? Now, suppose there is very nice foodstuff. In your country it is not seen. In our India, the foodstuff, I mean to say, confectioners, they very nicely decorate in the street for selling. So one cow is... Here, of course, in the street, cow is also not visible. In India, in the street, there are many cows. They are allowed to move free. And sometimes the foodstuff is there, and the cow immediately grabs the foodstuff and eats half of it. You see? (laughter) Now, there are human beings also. Suppose a man is here. He is poor man, he is hungry, and he wants to eat that foodstuff. But because he is human being, he has got the control.

Lecture on SB 7.6.3 -- Montreal, June 16, 1968:

"Get yourself married. So by grace of Kṛṣṇa the wife or the husband which you have, just live peacefully. But don't try to encroach upon other's wife or other's husband." That should be restrained. That is humanity. So we have to live very peacefully so that we may not be disturbed in our material existence. But our ultimate aim should be spiritual realization. Sukham aindriyakaṁ daityā deha-yogena dehinām, sarvatra labhyate. If you are after sense enjoyment... Sarvatra means in all species of life. Suppose you happen to get a body, next body, as a hog, as a dog, or even lower than that. That sense enjoyment will be there. But this opportunity will not be there. This opportunity, to make yourself Kṛṣṇa conscious and just to leave this condemned place and go back to Godhead, that opportunity will not be there. That opportunity is for the human being. Therefore Prahlāda Mahārāja said, tat-prayāso na kartavyo yata āyur-vyayaḥ param: "Therefore we should not simply waste our time for improving the paraphernalia of sense enjoyment."

Lecture on SB 7.6.3 -- Toronto, June 19, 1976:

This kind of happiness, dehi yogena-dehinam, the particular body and the happiness with reference to the body... And another meaning, dehi yogena-dehinām means sex. One, dehī, another dehī, they're embracing, they're kissing, they have, that is also. That is the ultimate happiness in the material world. So Prahlāda Mahārāja says that this kind of happiness, deha yogena-dehinām, sarvatra labhyate. You'll get everywhere. Everywhere means either you are in human form of life or in a dog's form of life or hog's form of life. Everywhere you'll get. Don't think that the sex happiness is less in dog's life than the sex happiness in the life of human being. No. The pleasure of sex life, either in the hog's body or in the dog's body or in the man's body, it is the same. We have several times informed that if you put something eatable in a golden pot or in an iron pot, the taste will not change.

Lecture on SB 7.6.5 -- Vrndavana, December 7, 1975:

Just to take shelter of Mukunda. Mukunda means who can deliver you from this conditional life. He is called Mukunda. That is the whole thing. Kṛṣṇa comes... The whole Bhagavad-gītā teaching ultimately ends with this order, mukunda-caraṇāmbujam. Sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). This is the ultimate. But because people have become deviated, fallen, they do not know what is the aim of life, what is the goal of life. They are simply wasting time. Vimara-cetaḥ (?). Prahlāda Mahārāja said, "My Lord, I am not very much anxious for me because I have no trouble. As I have learned to chant Your glories, so anywhere I am happy simply by glorifying Your activities. But I am unhappy for this reason: when I see that these rascals simply for little material happiness, they are working so hard." Tato vimukha-cetasa māyā-sukhāya bharam udvahato vimūḍhān (SB 7.9.43). "They have forgotten You." Vimukha cetasam. They think that "What is the use of this Kṛṣṇa consciousness?" Vimukha. And what is required? Māyā-sukhāya. For few years to live in material comforts, bharam udvahato vimūḍhān, they are manufacturing so many big, big skyscraper building, nice road, nice car.

Lecture on SB 7.6.5 -- Vrndavana, December 7, 1975:

Similarly, we cannot check our old age, cannot check our birth, death. Therefore here it is said, kuśalaḥ. Kuśalaḥ means if you actually want benefit, because this kind of struggling has not given you any benefit, but if you want actually benefit, kuśalaḥ, tato yateta, then you should endeavor for this. What is that? Ksemāya, for your ultimate benefit. And how long? Śarīraṁ puruṣaṁ yāvan na vipadyeta puṣkalam. So long you are stout and strong, you should try how to become free from this bondage of birth, death, old age and disease, not that you keep yourself, this business set aside: "When we shall get old then we shall chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and become Kṛṣṇa conscious." That is not the meaning. Immediately. Prahlāda Mahārāja said that kaumāra ācaret prājño dharmān bhāgavatān iha (SB 7.6.1). From the very beginning of life, when kaumāra, a small child, boy, from that age one should begin this bhāgavata life, or Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is called brahmacārī, to teach brahmacarya from the very beginning of life. And when you are young, then you should work with more vigor and intelligence. At that time brain is very nice. Young man has got all the facilities. The machine is strong. This is a machine. So old machine cannot so work. So it is a great fortune for the young boys and girls of Europe and America that in this young life they are cultivating Kṛṣṇa consciousness. It is a very good fortune.

Here it is recommended by Prahlāda Mahārāja, śarīraṁ pauruṣaṁ yāvan na vipadyeta puṣkalam.

Lecture on SB 7.6.6-9 -- Montreal, June 23, 1968:

Unless there is law-maker, how there can be law? Take for example your state laws. As soon as you say that this is law, "Keep to the right," you have to accept there is a law-maker under whose direction this law is being carried out nicely. If you don't carry out, then you are punished. Similarly, nature's law is not ultimate. There is law-maker, and that law-maker is God. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram: (BG 9.10) "Prakṛti," means nature, "is working under My superintendence, under My superintendence." How you can deny? If there is nature's law, who made this law? You see that the clock is running very nicely, the machine is going on, but that is not the ultimate. There is a maker of the clock or watch. Without understanding the maker, simply if you understand the clock only, that is not sufficient knowledge.

Lecture on SB 7.7.30-31 -- Mombassa, September 12, 1971:

Sādhur eva sa mantavyaḥ (BG 9.30). Api cet su-durācāro bhajate mām ananya-bhāk. Ananya-bhāk, without any deviation. Those who are engaged in the service of Kṛṣṇa, he is sādhu. It is not simply by changing dress. Sādhu means sādhavaḥ sādhu-bhūṣaṇām. Sādhu means honest, sadācārī, good character. But the ultimate aim(?) is, as Kṛṣṇa recommends, that api cet sudurācāro bhajate mām ananya..., not that one has to adopt all these sadācāra. That is secondary. But if one is staunchly devoted to Kṛṣṇa, he is sādhu. Not exactly that he has to observe all the rules and regulations because by practice... Just like these European and American students, sometimes they cannot adopt to the principles of sadācāra, as it is recommended. But that doesn't matter. Because they have devoted, they have sacrificed their life for Kṛṣṇa, they are sādhu. One has to (indistinct). They should be given the respect of a sādhu because they have no other business than Kṛṣṇa. That is recommended from Kṛṣṇa.

Lecture on SB 7.7.40-44 -- San Francisco, March 20, 1967:

What are those desirables? The desirables are simply for making this body perfect. Not perfect—comfortable. Perfect it cannot be, but as far as possible... We are manufacturing nice cushions for sitting comfortably, nice bedroom, buy nice motorcars, and... Everything for this body. The ultimate aim is to make this body comfortable. That's all. But Prahlāda Mahārāja says that the body itself, dehaḥ, sa vai dehas tu pārakyo bhaṅguro. Either you make your position secure and comfortable in this life or next life... Next life means there are many religious rituals which assures in your next life very comfortable life, very, I mean to say, long duration of life in other planets. So either you make arrangement in this life or in the next life, in the material world, if you make your next life in the spiritual world, then that is a different question. But so far we are materially concerned, either we make comfortable life in this life or in the next. But the body itself is kṣaṇa-bhaṅguraḥ, it is perishable. It is perishable. Sa vai dehas tu pārakyo bhaṅguro yāty upaiti.

Lecture on SB 7.9.4 -- Mayapur, February 11, 1976:

That stage, how? So he is also nitya-siddha. Nitya-siddha kṛṣṇa-bhakti. Kṛṣṇa-bhakti, as soon as one becomes Kṛṣṇa conscious fully, he becomes nitya-siddha again. So either you come by sādhana-bhakti or naturally, the, when you come to the ultimate stage, everyone is nitya-siddha. So nitya-siddha, those who come from Vaikuntha, they are never fallen, never forgets Kṛṣṇa, that is nitya-siddha, and by the teachings of nitya-siddha mahā-bhāgavata, if one follows and then becomes by sādhana-siddha, by regulative principle, they also become nitya-siddha later on. And when one becomes nitya-siddha again, there is no difference between this living entity and that living entity, samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu.

Lecture on SB 7.9.8 -- Mayapur, February 28, 1977:

Sattva-guṇa means prakāṣa. Everything is clear, full knowledge. And rajo-guṇa is not clear. The example is given: just like the wood. There is fire, but the first symptom of fire, wood, you'll find smoke. When you set fire in the wood, first of all smoke comes. So smoke... First of all wood, then smoke, then fire. And from fire, when you engage the fire for fire sacrifice, that is the ultimate. Everything coming from the same source, from earth... The wood is coming from wood, the smoke is coming from smoke, the fire is coming... And fire, when engaged in fire sacrifice—svāhā—then it is proper use of fire. If one stays in the wood platform, that is completely forgetfulness. When one stays in the smoke platform, there is little light. When one is staying in fire platform, then full light. And when the light is engaged in Kṛṣṇa's service, that is perfect. We have to understand like that.

Lecture on SB 7.9.9 -- Montreal, July 4, 1968:

Just like a patient is suffering in very bad type of disease. The physician cannot kill, then..., cannot cure him, then he thinks, "Let me die. Let me commit suicide." So this voidism or impersonalism is a symptom of frustration, not being able to cure the disease. But actually, the living entity is eternal. Just like a rascal or foolish man thinks that "I am suffering so much. Let me commit suicide, and it will be a great relief." It is foolishness. He will be put into further torture after this life. He will become a ghost. So because they do not know that living creature is eternal, therefore they want to make the ultimate solution as void, zero. But it cannot be zero. It is not possible, because you are eternal. Therefore you have to cure. And that curing process is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. (aside:) Ṛṣi Kumar? Why you are there? Come here. (chuckles) All right. Any other questions? Yes, try to understand nicely. Yes.

Lecture on SB 7.9.12 -- Montreal, August 18, 1968:

So why the living creatures shall not say "my God"? Do you follow? Kṛṣṇa says "You are Mine." Why shall you not say, "Kṛṣṇa, You are mine." Your husband says, "You are mine." Why shall you not say, "You are mine"? But don't take it in the material sense. In material sense, as soon as I say it is mine, it is nobody else's. It is my property. Law of identity or something like that. So Kṛṣṇa is not like that. So you can say Kṛṣṇa, "my," there is no harm. Rather, if anyone wants to possess something as his, then that should be, that possession should be Kṛṣṇa. That is the ultimate conception of "mine." That is the perfection of the word "mine." So it is quite nice, quite fit to... Teṣu te mayi, in the Bhagavad-gītā. "He is Mine and I am his," Kṛṣṇa says. So this is not wrong. And what is your idea, that because everything belongs to Kṛṣṇa, therefore I shall not say "my"? That's your idea?

Lecture on SB 7.9.13 -- Montreal, August 21, 1968:

This is the statement of Śrīmad-Bhagavatam. Harāv abhaktasya kuto mahad-guṇa mano-rathenāsati dhāvato bahiḥ (SB 5.18.12). So take for example that, our, in our country, Mahatma Gandhi, he was considered to be a very good man... (break) They may be good, but they are not ultimate good. The ultimate good is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is good for you and good for all. Anyone who is in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he is good in this sense, because he is in transcendental position, and whatever he speaks, because he speaks about God, therefore speaking is not adulterated. So this position, as soon as you take it a principle of your life, that "I shall simply be engaged in Kṛṣṇa's service, or God's service. I shall talk about Kṛṣṇa, I shall work for Kṛṣṇa, I shall write for Kṛṣṇa, I shall read for Kṛṣṇa. Everything for Kṛṣṇa," that is the transcendental position beyond goodness, better than goodness. So one can be situated in this position immediately by surrendering to Kṛṣṇa. It is not very difficult. Yes, what is your...?

Lecture on SB 7.9.13 -- Mayapur, February 20, 1976:

Every devotee, every pure soul, duty is how to extinguish the blazing fire. And that can be done only by pushing on this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. Otherwise it is not possible. Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam-bhava-mahā-dāvāgni-nirvāpaṇam śreyaḥ-kairava-candrikā-vitaraṇam... Śreyaḥ-kairava-candrikā. The ultimate benefit of life is compared with the moon. So spreading Kṛṣṇa consciousness means spreading the moonlight. Therefore we have named this temple Śrī Māyāpur-candrodaya. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu is Gaura Hari, Māyāpur-cand... Caitanya-candra. Caitanya-candra anurāga. The Prabodhānanda Sarasvatī, this, kurutānurāga. Caitanya-candra-caraṇe kurutānurāga. Caitanya-candra-caraṇe kurutānurāga. Sādhava sakalam eva vihāya durāt caitanya-candra-caraṇe kurutānurāgam. This is the instruction of Prabodhānanda Sarasvatī, one of the great devotees of Lord Caitanya. So they are of the same opinion. There is no difference, opinion, between the modern devotee and the old devotee. A devotee is devotee, as there is no difference between modern gold or old gold. Gold is gold. So we should take the path of devotional service, following Prahlāda Mahārāja, and his prayers, his instructions are so valuable that even simply by reciting this Prahlāda Mahārāja's stotra, this stotra...

Lecture on SB 7.9.19 -- Mayapur, February 26, 1976:

There are many rich men, they are taking care of their children. Rich men, they are taking care of the diseased person, good physician, good medicine. Why the diseased person is dying? Why the children suffering? So, these are to be observed. Why these things happen? That means the ultimate control is in the hand of Kṛṣṇa. If Kṛṣṇa sanctions, then everything will be possible. So why not take shelter of Kṛṣṇa? This is the idea. You take shelter of Kṛṣṇa, and if Kṛṣṇa likes, He will give you all protection. And He promises that "I'll give protection."

Lecture on SB 7.9.47 -- Vrndavana, April 2, 1976:

Then you'll realize Kṛṣṇa. Then the cause and effect, sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam... (Bs. 5.1). Everything will be realized and every moment you will see Kṛṣṇa. Premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena santaḥ sadaiva hṛdayeṣu vilokayanti (Bs. 5.38). So unless we get that stage, we should not imitate personalities like Haridāsa Ṭhākura and others. We should wait for. That is the ultimate stage. But we should practice and work actively for understanding Kṛṣṇa. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement.

Lecture on SB 7.9.53 -- Vrndavana, April 8, 1976:

Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Mahāprabhu, practical example, He is showing how to become anxious, mad: "Where is God? Where is Kṛṣṇa?" Yugāyitaṁ nimeṣeṇa cakṣuṣa prāvi... This is the ultimate hankering how to..., yugāyitaṁ nimeṣeṇa. One should be mad after Kṛṣṇa. Then he'll see Kṛṣṇa. Sometimes they say, "Can you show me God?" Have you become mad after God? Then you can see. Otherwise God is not so cheap thing. You become mad after God and you'll see immediately. Premāñ... Who can become mad after somebody unless there is love? To love somebody, if you cannot see, you become mad, "How can I see? How can I see?" This madness, sometimes we can see example. Suppose a man's son has died, so he becomes mad. So that anxiety is required, as... We are now... At the present moment we are hankering after material sense enjoyment, "Where is sense enjoyment? Where is sense enjoyment?"

So similarly, the example is given by Rūpa Gosvāmī, the hankering. He has given very nice example. Just like a young man is hankering after young woman. Natural. That is not artificial. Or a young woman is hankering after a young man.

Lecture on SB 11.3.21 -- New York, April 13, 1969:

The spiritual master should be approached by a person who is inquisitive to understand śreya uttamam, what is the highest benefit, spiritual benefit, beyond this material existence. For that purpose. Śreya. Śreya means the benefit, highest benefit. Preya and śreya. Preya means immediately I want some benefit, and śreya means the ultimate benefit. One who is inquisitive about the ultimate benefit, he should be inquisitive or inquire from a bona fide spiritual master. Jijñāsuḥ śreya uttamam.

Now, the next question is, "Who is spiritual master, where I have to go and inquire?" Otherwise I'll be misled. I may approach a person who is not actually bona fide spiritual master. That should also be known. And what is that? That is stated in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, in the Vedas and Bhagavad-gītā—everywhere the same thing is. Here also it is said that you should approach a bona fide spiritual master. Jijñāsuḥ śreya uttamam, to whom? Śābde pare ca niṣṇātam: (SB 11.3.21) one who has actually taken full bath in the ocean of transcendental knowledge. Śābde pare ca niṣṇātam. Śābde means the transcendental sound. The Vedic words, hymns, are called transcendental sound, and the gist of all such sound is om, or Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma... So one has to take bath in the ocean of this transcendental sound, then he is bona fide spiritual master.

Page Title:Ultimate (Lectures, SB cantos 3 - 12)
Compiler:Visnu Murti, RupaManjari
Created:23 of Nov, 2012
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=74, Con=0, Let=0
No. of Quotes:74