When a devotee... (Lectures)

Expressions researched:
"When a mature devotee" |"When a neophyte devotee" |"When such devotees" |"When the devotees" |"when His pure devotees" |"when a devotee" |"when a pure devotee" |"when an advanced devotee" |"when bhagavatas (devotees)" |"when devotees" |"when such a devotee" |"when the devotee"

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Lecture on BG 2.17 -- (with Spanish translator) -- Mexico, February 17, 1975:

Hṛdayānanda: (translating) When the devotees are chanting their rounds and when they think of their spiritual master they feel a type of ecstasy. So why are they feeling this ecstasy?

Prabhupāda: That means spiritual standard. That feeling of ecstasy is required. That is spiritual standard. If he does not feel ecstasy, then there is still time to come to the point. That is very good qualification. (break) Generally not, but there is chance. Therefore we have said marginal. Marginal, we have got independence. You can fall down, but generally not fall down. (break)

Hanumān: How is that, that this world is unreal? Why do we say that there is good thing and bad thing in the world?

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Lecture on SB 1.1.3 -- Caracas, February 24, 1975:

Prabhupāda: No, why not liberation? But the thing is they are not trained up. Just like take for example the Christians. They call themself Christians; they violate all the principles of Christianity. Just like in the Christian principle is "Thou shall not kill," and they are very expert in killing. So where is Christian religion? And who is Christian?

Man: (Hṛd.) How can the people in general recognize when a devotee is pure?

Prabhupāda: That is, I have already described. He has no material desire, except to serve Kṛṣṇa, or God. That is devotee. That is pure devotee. So that's all right, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. (end)

Lecture on SB 1.2.23 -- Vrndavana, November 3, 1972:

This māyā is very, very hard to pass over. Duratyayā. Only means is: mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti. This is the verse. Here it is also, the same thing confirmed: śreyāṁsi. If you want ultimate goal, ultimate goal means to get free from the conditional life, repetition of birth, death, old age—then you have to take shelter of Lord Viṣṇu. But people do not know that. Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇum (SB 7.5.31). For temporary benefit they go to worship other demigods. But that is not their ultimate goal. Antavat tu phalaṁ teṣāṁ tad bhavaty alpa-medhasām (BG 7.23). Antavat tu phalam. If you take any benediction from other demigods, that is antavat. That will be finished. That is temporary. Antavat tu phalam..., tad bhavaty alpa-medhasām. Just like Lord Śiva's name is Āśutoṣa. He's very quickly becomes pleased to offer benediction; therefore generally people go to Āśutoṣa, Lord Śiva. He does not consider. If you can please him, you can take any kind of benediction from him. He'll be ready: "All right. You take it." Because he wants to avoid botheration. So when the devotees come, bother him, so to..., just to get him out, he says: "All right, whatever you like, you take and go away." Therefore his name is Āśutoṣa. And people take the shelter of Āśutoṣa, Lord Śiva, for quick result.

Lecture on SB 1.3.28 -- Los Angeles, October 3, 1972:

People are harassed by these demons. Therefore, He comes to give protection. Paritrāṇāya sādhūnām (BG 4.8). He comes to give protection to the sādhu. They are very much anxious to be... When they are in danger, they pray for Kṛṣṇa. So just to satisfy them, Kṛṣṇa comes. Not even for killing the demons. But when He comes, He also executes this service also, to kill all these demons. Otherwise, for killing demons, He does not require to come. He, He has got many agents. So many demons can be killed within a second. For this purpose, killing purpose, Kṛṣṇa does not come. He comes especially for the devotee. Just like Prahlāda Mahārāja. For give darśana personally to Prahlāda Mahārāja—he has suffered in the hands of his father—He appeared. Otherwise, to kill Hiraṇyakaśipu, oh, it is not very big business. Indrāri-vyākulaṁ lokaṁ mṛḍayanti. When a devotee is very much harassed, so He comes in, as incarnation. So you stick to remain a pure devotee, and Kṛṣṇa will give you all protection.

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

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

Lecture on SB 1.9.40 -- New York, May 22, 1973:

Pradyumna: By intense ecstasy in loving service, the damsels of Vrajabhūmi attained qualitative oneness with the Lord by dancing with Him on an equal level, embracing Him in nuptial love, smiling at Him in joke, and looking at Him with a loving attitude. The relation of the Lord with Arjuna is undoubtedly praiseworthy for devotees like Bhīṣmadeva, but the relation of the gopīs with the Lord is still more praiseworthy because of their still more purified loving service. By the grace of the Lord, Arjuna was fortunate enough to have the fraternal service of the Lord as chariot driver, but the Lord did not award Arjuna with equal strength. The gopīs, however, practically became one with the Lord by attainment of equal footing with the Lord. Bhīṣma's aspiration to remember the gopīs is a prayer to have their mercy also at the last stage of his life. The Lord is satisfied more when His pure devotees are glorified, and therefore Bhīṣmadeva has not only glorified the acts of Arjuna, his immediate object of attraction, but has also remembered the gopīs, who were endowed with unrivalled opportunities by rendering loving service to the Lord. The gopīs' equality with the Lord should never be misunderstood to be like the sāyujya liberation of the impersonalist. The equality is one of perfect ecstasy where the differential conception is completely eradicated, for the interests of the lover and the beloved become identical.

Prabhupāda: So Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu said ramyā kācid upāsanā vrajavadhū-vargeṇa yā kalpitā, and there is no better method of worship than the system invented by the gopīs. So gopīs invention of worshiping Kṛṣṇa was to remain always Kṛṣṇa conscious without any material profit. That is the super excellence of (the) gopīs. They never expected any return from Kṛṣṇa. That was not their business. "Kṛṣṇa, we have done so much for You, You cannot give me this benediction?" No, they never asked like that. That is the first-class worship.

Lecture on SB 1.13.10 -- Geneva, June 1, 1974:

Just like in your, the Christian church, they go to the church weekly, and they, what is called, atone, atonement. So this kind of business is not very good. Once purified, you remain purified. So when the holy places of pilgrimage become piled up with all the sinful reaction of common man, a saintly person when he goes there, he makes the holy place clean. The holy place becomes unclean due to the common men's coming there and leaving their sinful reaction. So holy place becomes overburdened with the sinful results of other people. But in that holy place, when a devotee goes, then again the holy place becomes cleansed. This is the idea. Bhavad-vidhā bhāgavatāḥ.

So bhāgavatāḥ. Bhāgavata means one who has his relation with Bhagavān. From Bhagavān... Bhagavān comes from the word bhāgavata, and anything in relationship with Bhagavān, the Personality of Godhead, is called bhāgavata. Just like this book is called bhāgavata because it has nothing to do with any other thing except the activities of the Supreme Personality of... So Bhāgavata. So there are two kinds of bhāgavata: the book Bhāgavata and the person bhāgavata. So both of them are so pure that wherever Bhāgavata reading is going on... And Bhāgavata reading should be performed by the bhāgavata, person bhāgavata. Then it is very nice. Bhāgavatās tīrtha-bhūtaḥ. They are already purified, holy place of pilgrimage. Mahad-vicalanaṁ nṟṇāṁ gṛhiṇāṁ dīna-cetasām.

Lecture on SB 2.1.1-5 -- Melbourne, June 26, 1974:

These are very scientific. It is not sentiment. Everything Kṛṣṇa consciousness is scientific. Simply one requires the brain to understand. Then, when he understands, he will see Kṛṣṇa in everything. That is stated in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta: sthāvara-jaṅgama dekhe nā dekhe tāra mūrti (CC Madhya 8.274). When a devotee, advanced devotee, sees something, he does not see the formation of that thing. He sees the energy. A highly advanced devotee will not see the stone. He immediately will think of Kṛṣṇa, "Oh, Kṛṣṇa is so powerful that His energy is exhibited in stone." Therefore he does not see stone. He sees only Kṛṣṇa. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness, perfection of.

Lecture on SB 3.25.12 -- Bombay, November 12, 1974:

Naturally He's beautiful, and when He smiled, being very much pleased with the question of mother, He became very much beautiful. Śobhitānana.

So similarly, Kṛṣṇa also becomes very... Kṛṣṇa and Kapiladeva, no difference. So Kṛṣṇa also becomes very beautiful. He's already beautiful. But when a devotee serves Him, a devotee comes to Him, He also becomes very beautiful. A devotee, when with his heart and soul, serves Kṛṣṇa in dressing Him, in feeding Him, in giving Him flower, He becomes smiling. And if you can get Kṛṣṇa, once smiling upon you, your life is fulfilled.

Lecture on SB 3.25.23 -- Bombay, November 23, 1974:

So You are going away to Dvārakā? No, no, no, this is not good. Better we may again go to that suffering so that we can remember You always." So the devotee sometimes welcomes suffering because that is an opportunity of remembering Kṛṣṇa very constantly. Tat te 'nukampāṁ su-samīkṣamāṇo bhuñjāna evātma-kṛtaṁ vipākam (SB 10.14.8). So when a devotee suffers, he thinks that "It is due to my past misdeeds. So I am suffering not very much, a very little, on account of Kṛṣṇa's grace. So it doesn't matter." So after all, it is, everything, in the mind, suffering and enjoying. So a devotee's mind is trained up in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Therefore he does not care for suffering. That is the difference between a devotee and nondevotee.

Therefore it is said that tapanti vividhās tāpā na etān mad-gata-cetasaḥ. Just like Prahlāda Mahārāja. So how much suffering he had to undergo, the five-years-old boy, and his father was putting in dangers, sometimes under the feet, leg of the elephant, sometimes throwing from the mountain, sometimes on burning oil, sometimes amongst the snakes, so many ways. But he was silent.

Lecture on SB 3.25.38 -- Bombay, December 7, 1974:

He is dīna-bandhu, the friend of the poor. So if He gives something to you, you can promise." "Oh, where is Kṛṣṇa? What is His name?" "Now, His name is Dīnabandhu, friend of the poor." "Where He is?" "I understand that He is in the forest." So he went to the forest and called, "Dīnabandhu brother, Dīnabandhu brother, where You?" He began to cry. So Kṛṣṇa came. When a devotee is very much eager to see Him, Kṛṣṇa comes. He very is kind. So "Why you are asking?" "My mother... You are Dīnabandhu?" "Yes." "So this is my condition, sir. What can I promise?" So He said that "You promise that you will supply yogurt, dahi. You will supply dahi." So he was very much satisfied. And he came to the teacher that "My Dīnabandhu brother, dādā, He will supply dahi, or yogurt, for whatever you require." "Oh, that's nice. Very good."

So on the day of ceremony, so he went to the forest again and called Dīnabandhu dādā, and He gave him a small pot of dahi, yogurt, a small pot.

Lecture on SB 3.26.6 -- Bombay, December 18, 1974:

There is no question of accepting any authority of God. These are primitive thoughts. We are self-sufficient." That means he is speaking all nonsense under the influence of prakṛti. He is a rascal number one. Just like a madman speaks so many things full of rascaldom—nobody cares for—similarly, when a devotee sees that a nondevotee atheist is claiming so many things for himself without giving credit... Even big, big swamis, they are teaching that "Why you are giving credit to God?" The communists also. There are big swamis, they also say like that, that "You are working hard. You have got some good result. Why you are giving credit to God?" These things are being taught. And the atheist also says, "I have worked hard. I have achieved this nice result. It is due to my labor." And..., but when he is in loss, then the credit goes to God. Bhagavān ki chaya chalagiya(?) (laughter) When he gets something, that is his credit. And he loses something—that goes to the responsibility of God: "Why God has created so much trouble? Why God has...," so many things.

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

Karmāśayaṁ grathitam.

But devotees, being attracted to the flavor of the lotus flower of Kṛṣṇa's feet, lotus flower... Kṛṣṇa, His face is called also lotus-eyed, His navel is called padma-nābha, His feet is called lotus feet, pāda-padma, and His garland is also padma. He is very much fond of padma. So when a devotee is attached to the lotus flower of Kṛṣṇa's feet, automatically they forget the all such material activities. They haven't got to endeavor separately. The jñānīs and the yogis, they are trying to, by their endeavor, by their different endeavors, they are trying to get out of this entanglement, but the devotees, simply by engaging himself in the vāsudeva-bhakti, vāsudeva-parāyaṇa, simply by bhakti, they come out of the entanglement without any difficulty. 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.

Lecture on SB 6.2.1 -- Vrndavana, September 5, 1975:

Why punishment? No, to make him purified, it is said. Punishment required. This is nature's law. Just like if you have infected some disease, the punishment is you must suffer for it. The punishment is good. If you have infected some disease, and when you suffer, that means you become purified from the disease. Suffering is not bad, to become purified. Therefore when a devotee suffers, he does not take it illy. He thinks that "I am being purified. I am being purified."

tat te 'nukampāṁ su-samīkṣamāṇo

bhuñjāna evātma-kṛtaṁ vipākam

hṛd-vāg-vapurbhir vidadhan namas te

jīveta yo mukti-pade sa dāya-bhāk

(SB 10.14.8)

A devotee, when he is in troubled condition, he thinks, "My Lord is so kind that He is purifying me. I am suffering from my past misdeeds. So Kṛṣṇa is so kind that He is purifying me, giving me little suffering. That's all right. Therefore I must be obliged to Him." And he offers more respectful obeisances to the Lord: "My Lord, You are purifying me." If one lives like this, mukti-pade sa dāya-bhāk, his liberation is guaranteed.

Nectar of Devotion Lectures

The Nectar of Devotion -- Vrndavana, October 23, 1972:

We should offer our respect in... You'll find in Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, it is stated somewhere, that if, if a devotee is coming, then another devotee who is engaged in worship of the Deity may stop Deity worship for the time being and should go immediately to receive the devotee. So Kṛṣṇa also says, mad-bhakta-pūjā abhyadhika. Kṛṣṇa is satisfied more when a devotee worships His devotee. Kṛṣṇa says, "If one is worshiping Me and one is worshiping My devotee, then the person who is worshiping the devotee, he's more important than the person who is worshiping Kṛṣṇa."

Therefore in, in the Gurvaṣṭaka by Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura, it is said there: yasya prasādād bhagavat-prasādo. Yasya prasādād bhagavat-prasādo yasya aprasādād na gatiḥ kuto 'pi **. The best devotee is the spiritual master. Unless one is devotee, pure devotee, how he can be spiritual master? Spiritual master means representative of God. So who can become representative of God. Unless he is twenty-four hours engaged in the service of God, Kṛṣṇa, how he can be spiritual master? This is also explained by Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura sākṣād-dharitvena samasta-śāstraiḥ. The spiritual master is described as good as Hari, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.330-335 -- New York, December 23, 1966:

So this Vālmīki Muni... And what this Vālmīki Muni was? This Vālmīki Muni was a dacoit, a plunderer. He used to plunder, I mean to say, innocent men on the road, kill him and take everything. That was his business. But by chance, he was associated with Nārada Muni, and he rectified him. This is the process. When a devotee meets even a dacoit like Vālmīki Muni, he becomes... Nārada Muni elevated so many fallen souls. This Vālmīki Muni was also. So he was given this mantra, "Rāma." He could not chant it. Then he was advised to just the opposite, māra. Māra means dead body. So māra māra māra. Three māra means one "Rāma" is there. So in this way he was initiated and he became a great sage. For sixty thousands of years he meditated simply on "Rāma, Rāma, Rāma, Rāma, Rāma, Rāma." And when he was liberated, he wrote this Rāmāyaṇa.

Initiation Lectures

Initiations -- San Diego, June 30, 1972:

Kṛṣṇa says that "My devotee, when he brings something within the categories of vegetables, grains and fruits, because he has brought with devotion and love, I eat them." So when the devotee offers with devotion and love, "Kṛṣṇa, You have given us so many nice things. So I have cooked it. Kindly You take first," oh, how it is nice. Just like your father has given you so many things and you are obliged, "Oh, our father is maintaining us." And if you cook something and give it to the father first, "My dear father, I have cooked this. It is very nice. You first of all..." "Oh, it is very nice? All right, give me." The father will be so much pleased. "Oh, here is my dear son." It is father's property. You cannot give anything to the father. Similarly, you have nothing to offer to Kṛṣṇa. Simply you have to become little intelligent. That's all. Not rascal. If you remain rascal, then your human life is spoiled. If you become little intelligent, then your human life is successful. This is intelligence, that "God is giving us... God is giving us daily bread. Why not offer to God first?" That is intelligence. And simply, "God is giving me bread. I shall eat. That's all..." I am meant for eating only? And why not offering? God will not eat. Simply you feel gratitude: "Oh, God has given me this bread. Let me offer it to God first of all.

Philosophy Discussions

Philosophy Discussion on Plotinus:

Prabhupāda: Yes, He is the cause of all living entities. That is Vedic conception. Nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13). He is the chief amongst the eternals, chief amongst the sentients, but unless He has got unlimited transcendental qualities, how He can be omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent, all-powerful? That is not perfection. A perfect conception of the Supreme One: He is unlimited, we are limited. That is sense. How the Supreme One, who is the cause of everything, He can be limited? I do not know what do they mean by "limit." He cannot be limited by anything. Even the impersonal Brahman, that Brahman, sarvaṁ khalv idaṁ brahma: everything is Brahman, unlimited. Why He should be limited? Mat-sthāni sarva-bhūtāni: (BG 9.4) everything is emanation from Him and resting in Him. That is His impersonal conception. Everywhere He is there. And personal is localized, and..., but from the person, the impersonal effulgence come out. That we understand from the Bhagavad-gītā: brahmaṇaḥ ahaṁ pratiṣṭhā. As the big sunshine comes from the localized sun globe—the sun globe is situated in one place, but this, the rays of the sun is distributed all over the universe—similarly, impersonal conception of the Absolute Truth is that by His transcendental rays, prabhā, yasya prabhā prabhavata (Bs. 5.40), illumination. Just like the fire has got heat and light. It expands. So the impersonal feature of the Lord expands unlimitedly, and the Personality, it appears that He is limited, but He is unlimited by His energy. That is the perfect conception. Brahmeti paramātmeti bhagavān iti śabdyate (SB 1.2.11). By His impersonal feature He is all-pervading. By His localized aspect He is living everywhere, omnipresent, within the heart of all living entities, within the atom even. And by His personal feature He is worshiped by the devotee. Wherever the devotee is there, He is present personally. Tatra dṛṣṭami dhanataḥ yatra nayanti mad-bhaktaḥ (?). That is His omnipresent, although He is in Goloka Vṛndāvana. So nobody can calculate how many miles away that planet is, still, when a devotee like Prahlāda is in danger, He is immediately present there. That is the meaning of omnipresence. Not that because He is millions and trillions of miles away He cannot give protection to His devotee millions and trillions of miles away from His abode. That is the meaning of omnipresent.

Purports to Songs

Purport to Jaya Radha-Madhava -- New York, July 20, 1971:

Although He was a child, He was playing like a child, He was dealing like a child, but when there was need, He was manifesting as God. That is Kṛṣṇa. That is Kṛṣṇa, not that He has to go and practice some yoga system. Then He becomes God. No. He's not that type of God, not manufactured God. He's God.

So gopī-jana-vallabha giri-vara-dhārī. And as a child, as beloved child of Yaśodā, Yaśodā-nandana,... Kṛṣṇa likes to be a child of a devotee. He wants to be chastised from His devotee father and mother. Because everyone worships Him, nobody goes to chastise Him, so He takes pleasure when a devotee chastises Him. That is Kṛṣṇa's service. If Kṛṣṇa takes pleasure being chastised, so the responsibility is taken by a devotee: "All right, I shall become Your father and chastise You." When Kṛṣṇa wants to fight, one of His devotees becomes Hiraṇyakaśipu and fights with Him. So all activities of Kṛṣṇa is with His devotees. He is... Therefore, to become associate of Kṛṣṇa, to develop Kṛṣṇa consciousness... Yaśodā-nandana vraja-jana-vallabha, vraja-jana-rañjana. His only business is how to satisfy... As braja-jana's business is how to satisfy Kṛṣṇa, similarly, Kṛṣṇa's business is how to satisfy braja-jana. This is reciprocation of love. Yamunā-tīra-vana-cārī. Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is wandering on the banks of Yamunā to please the gopīs, the cowherd boys, the birds, beasts, calves. They are not ordinary birds, beasts, calves or men. They are on the top of self-realization. Kṛta-puṇya-puñjāḥ (SB 10.12.11)