Unflinching (Conversations)

Expressions researched:
"unflinching" |"unflinchingly"

1969 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- April 11, 1969, New York:

Prabhupāda: Anyone who has unflinching devotional faith in God, he has all the good qualities. I've several times narrated the story of that hunter. He was animal killer and he used to enjoy by killing the animal half. But when he became a devotee, he was not prepared to kill even an ant. Who taught him? Nobody taught him but he was simply chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. That's all. So if you actually making progress in devotional service, you are constantly in touch with the purest. Kṛṣṇa is the purest.

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- December 11, 1971, New Delhi:

Prabhupāda: If you practice bhakti-yoga, yasya deve parā bhaktir yathā deve tathā gurau (ŚU 6.23), if one is, one has unflinching faith in the Supreme Personality of Godhead and his spiritual master, yathā-deve... Deve means the Supreme Lord, and guru, and guru also, the spiritual master. A person who has got unflinching faith in these two personalities-guru and Kṛṣṇa—then the facility will be that all the revealed scriptures will be manifest automatically, even though he is not, not very learned. The purport of the whole knowledge will be revealed from within, because Kṛṣṇa is within, and the spiritual master is without, so both of them will help. Our students are going so many places—in the schools, colleges, universities. They're surprised how they're speaking so nicely, because they have got unflinching faith in Kṛṣṇa and the spiritual master.

Room Conversation -- December 12, 1971, Delhi:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Plus here in India we see that the sādhus are taking gañjā.

Prabhupāda: Gañjā, yes. Not sādhus, rogues. Sādhu's description is there—bhajate mām ananya-bhāk. Fully surrendered to Kṛṣṇa, he is sādhu. Sādhur eva sa mantavyaḥ (BG 9.30). He is sādhu. Api cet sudurācāro. Even one is found that his habits are not to the standard, but if he has unflinching faith in Kṛṣṇa and engaged in His service, then he is sādhu. These sādhus with long hairs and gañjā smoking, they have no idea what is the ultimate goal. And those who come from Western countries, naturally they find out these are the sādhus and they imitate. Hippies, they do like that, imitation. They do not know what is the philosophy, what is religion, what is sādhu.

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation Including Discussion on SB 1.5.11 -- January 19, 1972, Jaipur:

Prabhupāda: Another place Kṛṣṇa says, api cet su-durācāro bhajate mām ananya-bhāk. Even sudurācāraḥ, even not well behaved but unflinching faith in Kṛṣṇa, sādhur eva sa mantavyaḥ (BG 9.30), he is sādhu. Don't consider about his misbehaviors. That is not consideration. That will be corrected. Because he has taken to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, gradually those things, those defects will be corrected. kṣipraṁ bhavati dharmātmā śaśvac-chāntiṁ nigacchati, he will become very soon a great religious soul because he has taken to Kṛṣṇa. So in the beginning if there is some defect, we should not consider that. We have to see how much his love for Kṛṣṇa has increased, that is the test. Not the formalities.

Room Conversation -- April 18, 1972, Hong Kong:

Prabhupāda: The only consideration is how to please Kṛṣṇa and his representative. Guru-kṛṣṇa-kṛpāya-pāya bhakti-latā-bīja (CC Madhya 19.151). Bhakti-latā-bīja. Bhakti is just like a creeper, and the seed of that creeper can be obtained by the mercy of guru and Kṛṣṇa. That is Vedic injunction.

yasya deve parā bhaktir

yathā deve tathā gurau

tasyaite kathitā hy arthāḥ

prakāśante mahātmanaḥ

(ŚU 6.23)

The Vedic knowledge, Vedic knowledge, becomes revealed to a person who has got unflinching faith in Kṛṣṇa and guru. This is the system. So what you have next?

Room Conversation -- April 2, 1972, Sydney:

Prabhupāda: Train, yes. They follow. So if bhakti follows, then all other things follows. Bilvamaṅgala Ṭhākura also says that muktiḥ mukulitāṅjali sevate asmān, bhaktis tvayi sthiratarā yadi bhagavan syād. "If there is pure devotion for You, then muktiḥ mukulitāṅjali, mukti is standing, 'My dear sir, what can I do for you?' Folded hands." Dharmārtha-kāma-mokṣa samaya-pratīkṣāḥ (SB 4.8.41). "And the material happiness, they are simply waiting." The servant waits, "Yes, sir, what do you want?" Simply one has to develop.

bhaktis tvayi sthiratarā bhagavan yadi syād

daivena naḥ phalati divya-kiśora-mūrtiḥ

muktiḥ (svayaṁ) mukulitāñjali sevate 'smān

dharmārtha-kāma-(gatayaḥ) samaya-pratīkṣāḥ

There is definition given, bhaktis sthiratarā, "Unflinching devotional service, if there is, then by Your will, anyone can see," divya-kiśora mūrtiḥ, "can see Me." And so far other things are concerned, mukti and bhukti, they are simply waiting.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Malcolm -- July 18, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: Sādhu means he must be a devotee. Sādhu does not mean having saffron color and long beard and doing all nonsense. No. Sādhu means... First test is that he is unflinching, without any deviation. Api cet sudurā..., bhajate mām ananya-bhāk. Ananya-bhāk means he does not know anything except the service of the Lord. That is the qualification of sādhu. So similarly, in other places also, the definition of sādhu is there. Sādhu means titikṣavaḥ: he's very tolerant because a sādhu has to face so many opposing elements and sometimes very offensive, but he has to tolerate. Titikṣavaḥ. At the same time, kāruṇikāḥ, very merciful. The same man who is torturing him, torturing him, he is trying to convince him about Kṛṣṇa. That means very merciful. He's not rejecting. Although he's torturing him, but he's trying to convince him, Kṛṣṇa. Therefore kāruṇikāḥ. And he is not friend of any particular society or man. Suhṛdaḥ sarva-dehinām. He is well-wisher of all living entities.

Room Conversation with Reporter from Researchers Magazine -- July 24, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: Dharmārtha-kāma, this is karmī's position. And mokṣa is mukti's position. So he says that "If I've got unflinching devotional attitude upon You, My Lord, then mukti is at my door, with folded hands. And this this dharmārtha-kāma, they're at my command." Simply by bhakti. The people are after dharma, artha, kāma, mokṣa (SB 4.8.41, Cc. Ādi 1.90), but these four things become at the order of a bhakta. Muktiḥ svayaṁ mukulitāñjali sevate 'smān dharmārtha-kāma-gatayaḥ samaya-pratīkṣāḥ.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- June 20, 1974, Germany:

Prabhupāda: Yes, they make wine. Uncivilized men, they know how to make wine. In India they do so by rice boiling and keep it for some days. It becomes wine, fermented. Hare Kṛṣṇa. (break) ...used to say that "I was drinking beer in barrels." He said. Forty years ago he said me like that. Here I don't see them, but Hamburg I have seen, yes, passing urine on the roadside. There are so many urine coming from the wall. 'Cause the more you drink beer, you will pass urine more. The German language is trinken, trinking. Drinking means trinking. Yes, I have seen it. Trinking or trinken?

Haṁsadūta: Trinken.

Prabhupāda: Yes. (break) ...students, they are advancing for the unflinching faith on guru and Kṛṣṇa. This is the secret. (break) ...these devotees, how nice they are. They do not appreciate?

Room Conversation with Pater Emmanuel (A Benedictine Monk) -- June 22, 1974, Germany:

Prabhupāda: So nowadays the rascal philosophy has spread that everyone is God, and therefore nobody is humble and meek. If everyone thinks that he is God, then why he should be humble and meek? So they are being educated how to become humble and meek. In the temple, to God, or to the spiritual master, the God's representative, they offer always respect by offering obeisances. That is humble and meek. They are doing very easily progress, you see, only on account of this humbleness and meekness. Even on the road, if they see me, they immediately fall down flat. Never mind there is dust. This very qualification is pushing them towards spiritual realization. In the Vedic scripture it is said,

yasya deve parā bhaktir

yathā deve tathā gurau

tasyaite kathitā hy arthāḥ

prakāśante mahātmanaḥ

(ŚU 6.23)

Yasya... "Anyone who has got unflinching faith in God and His representative, the spiritual master, to him only, the purport of the scriptures become revealed." (German)

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- September 30, 1975, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: Those thirty characteristics of a sādhu that are depicted in the, in Bhāgavata....

Prabhupāda: That is not possible in one day.

Dr. Patel: Thirty cannot come, but a few should come.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Few that... They are... Yasyāsti bhaktir bhagavaty akiñcanā sarvair guṇais tatra samāsate (SB 5.18.12). If they have got unflinching faith in Kṛṣṇa and guru, that is all qualification.

Dr. Patel: That is a fact.

Prabhupāda: That is all qualification. Yasyāsti bhaktir bhagavaty akiñcan sarvair guṇaiḥ. All these qualities are already there.

Morning Walk -- December 23, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Anyone who worships Kṛṣṇa, avyabhicāreṇa, without any change, he becomes nirguṇa.

Indian man (3): So saguṇa is necessary for going to nirguṇa?

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Indian man (3): Saguṇa is...

Prabhupāda: No, not necessary. But if you don't worship unflinchingly Kṛṣṇa, then you remain in the saguṇa platform.

Morning Walk -- December 24, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: There are some animals, they do not actually touch the egg-birds. Or the, I think, what is called, tortoise. They simply concentrate, and the egg comes into being.

Lokanātha: If you hear the truth, there is no need to make an experiment at all. Isn't it?

Prabhupāda: Hm. That is perfect experiment.

Lokanātha: That is, that happens with full śraddhā. When there is unflinching faith, he will not go for making the experiment.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Ambarisa and Catholic Priest -- June 14, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: Yasya deve parā bhaktir yathā deve tathā gurau (ŚU 6.23). That is the secret of success. If one has got unflinching faith in his spiritual master and Kṛṣṇa, then he's successful. Two things. Guru-kṛṣṇa-kṛpā-pāya bhakti-latā-bīja. So if the guru is false, then how they can keep their faith? That will be broken. Our process is very simple. There is no difficulty. You have seen our Los Angeles temple? When we purchased, it was a church, perhaps you know. Nobody was coming, so that they were obliged to sell. They started this Sunday class, this, that, so many things. In Melbourne also we have seen a big.... What was that?

Hari-śauri: It used to be what they call a Christian Brothers school.

Prabhupāda: That we wanted to purchase?

Hari-śauri: Oh, that nunnery.

Prabhupāda: Nunnery. So they wanted to maintain themselves by becoming washermen. Still, they could not maintain. They eventually became washerwoman to maintain. Huge establishment. So I wanted, negotiation was there. They persisted that the church should not be broken. No? To be broken.

Answers to a Questionnaire from Bhavan's Journal -- June 28, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: He's a big Sanskrit scholar. But what is his position? He got big, big position also, but he could not stay. If one's mind is not fixed up, you learn Sanskrit or no Sanskrit, it will.... (break) To make a good man, it is not necessary that one has to learn Sanskrit. He can be made good provided he fully surrenders to Kṛṣṇa. Sarvair guṇais tatra samāsate surāḥ. Yasyāsti bhaktir bhagavaty akiñcana. If one has got unflinching faith and devotion to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, then sarvair guṇais tatra samāsate surāḥ. All good qualities will develop automatically. Harāv abhaktasya kuto mahad guṇā. If he's not a devotee, he will hover over the mental concoction. Manorathenāsati dhāvato bahiḥ (SB 5.18.12). Then he'll remain in the material platform. Never mind he's a Sanskrit scholar or this or that.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Would you like to hear another question, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: It is said that while the śrutis embody the eternal truths of Hinduism, the smṛtis, which embody the rules of conduct need to be revised according to the dictates of the changing times.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Answers to a Questionnaire from Bhavan's Journal -- June 28, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: These boys are playing with Kṛṣṇa. Who is Kṛṣṇa? He is the essence of Brahma-sukha, Param Brahman. So these boys are playing with Param Brahman. Itthaṁ brahma-sukhānubhūtyā dāsyaṁ gatānāṁ para-daivatena. And for the devotees He's the supreme master, and for the ordinary man He is ordinary child. But these other children who are playing, they have got this position kṛta-puṇya-puñjāḥ. "After many, many births' pious activities, now I have got this position, playing with Kṛṣṇa on equal terms." So this is the conception of devotional service, that when you go to the Goloka Vṛndāvana you cannot distinguish.... But they have got unflinching love for Kṛṣṇa. That is Vṛndāvana life. The cows, the calves, the trees, the flowers, the water, the elderly men, Nanda Mahārāja and Yaśodāmayī, everyone is attached, central point is Kṛṣṇa. Everyone is loving Kṛṣṇa.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- February 16, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Mayi ca. Simply this qualification will not help. Mayi ca bhaktir avyabhicāriṇī. When it is added with bhakti, then it is perfect. Mayi ca avyabhicāriṇī. That ca. Ca means "Without this, these are useless." Ca. You must add bhakti also, avyabhicāriṇī-bhakti, unflinching faith in devotional service. Mayi ca avyabhicāriṇī-bhakti...