Worm (Conversations and Letters)

Expressions researched:
"earthworm" |"earthworms" |"glowworm" |"glowworm's" |"glowworms" |"worm" |"worms"

1970 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- November 7, 1970, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: What is the difficulty? Kṛṣṇa says, "I am everything." Why don't you accept Him? That means you want to understand Kṛṣṇa in your own way. Why you are becoming intentionally unable?

Guest (9): No, believe Him as a you are a servant and serve Him. Or you believe that you are mother to Him.

Prabhupāda: No, that is second. First of all surrender. Then what way you shall surrender, that is different thing, another stage, more confidential. First of all there is surrender. First of all you enter this house or this room. Then you ask, "How can I serve you?" That is different. First of all there is no surrender, or without surrender, full surrender, there is no entrance in Kṛṣṇa. No entry. Because those who revolted against Kṛṣṇa, those who wanted to become Kṛṣṇa by imitating Him, they are here in this material world. Icchā-dveṣa-samutthena sarge yānti parantapa (BG 7.27). (Hindi) Bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19), creation, that all the living entities who have come into this created world, they have revolted. They wanted to become Kṛṣṇa, to imitate Kṛṣṇa. Therefore they have given the chance, "All right, you become Kṛṣṇa. You do whatever you like. I will give you facilities. You want to become Brahmā? All right, you become Brahmā. And you want to become the worm of stool? I will give you the facility." So these living entities are rotating. Sometimes he is becoming Brahmā, sometimes becoming the worm of stool, sometimes this, sometimes that. In this way he is changing body. This is material world. Or when he comes back again, back to Godhead, yad gatvā na nivartante tad dhāma paramaṁ mama (BG 15.6). Then you'll haven't got to come back. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti kaunteya (BG 4.9). So we have to prepare for that position, how to go back to home, how to go back to Kṛṣṇa and engage ourself in His service.

Room Conversation -- December 13, 1970, Indore:

Prabhupāda: They became tiger, and they are so much badly trained up that they have to become again a mouse. That is the way. That is the way of nature. If you don't improve yourself in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then you again become stool worms. The human form of life is an opportunity to come out of the cycle of birth and death, but if one does not take—these are the statements in Padma Purāṇa—then he loses the chance.

Room Conversation -- December 13, 1970, Indore:

They are completely under the laws of nature. Daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā duratyayā (BG 7.14), stringent laws of nature, and still, they are claiming, "I am God. I am this. I am that. I am free. I am..." And they do not mind, even they are degraded to the position of the worm of stool. But there is possibility. What is this worm of stool? It is also living entity. It is not a different thing. Paṇḍitāḥ sama-darśinaḥ (BG 5.18). One who knows, he knows that the worm of stool and Brahmā are the same living entity. Simply under different reaction of karma one has become Brahmā and another has become the stool worm.

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Talk with Bob Cohen -- February 27-29, 1972, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Actually, that is a different stage. So even the best devotee... Without (being) best devotee, he cannot preach actually, ācārya, but he comes to the second stage. Īśvare tad-adhīneṣu bāliśeṣu dviṣatsu ca. He has the vision of dviṣat, somebody envious of God. But it is not the vision of the best devotee. Best devotee sees, "Nobody is envious to God. Everyone is better than me." Just like Caitanya-caritāmṛta author, Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja. He says that "I am lowest than the worm in the stool."

Room Conversation Vaisnava Calendar Description -- March 11, 1972, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So this father and uncle of Raghunātha Dāsa Gosvāmī used to call him as elder brother. Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu took this opportunity that "Your father and uncle is in brotherly relation with my grandfather. Therefore, your father and uncle happens to be my grandfather. Generally, the grandfather and the grandson, they treat themselves joking, so I can joke your father and uncle, you do not be sorry." Raghunātha Dāsa Gosvāmī did not reply anything, he was very submissive. So in that connection He said that "Your father and uncle is a worms of the stool. They are very much fond of material enjoyment, and Kṛṣṇa has saved you from that hole of stool." So in this way he criticized his father and uncle.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- April 19, 1973, Los Angeles:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: But in the same living body, Śrīla Prabhupāda, there are innumerable small living entities. Like the cells themselves. They are living also.

Prabhupāda: Yes. In my body, there are millions of living entities. In my intestines, there are so many worms. If they, if they become stronger, then whatever you eat, they eat it. You don't take any benefit out of it. Therefore those who are full with these hookworms, they eat very much, but they do not grow. They become lean and thin.

Morning Walk -- May 9, 1973, Los Angeles:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: They will say, nature supplies the chemicals.

Prabhupāda: So therefore that nature's potency is acintya. That is beyond your calculation. That is our point. How nature is supplying, that you do not know. How there is very common thing. Just like from my body there are so many worms and germs will come out from the stool, there are so many worms. I am also producing life. I am not going to add some chemical. But the chemical is being supplied by me, by my potency. Otherwise, why so many worms are there in the stool? Hookworm and this worm and that worm? Sometimes from wood, what is called, termite? They come. And who is going to supply there chemical? And not from all wood. At a certain stage, it will come, without your adding chemicals.

Room Conversation with Lord Brockway -- July 23, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: Anyone does not want to take birth even. Now we have forgotten. Otherwise, in the womb of the mother, everyone knows that we are kept in such a way, in a packed, compact water bag, without any facility to move, not only for one day, two day, but ten months. Medical science knows, everyone knows. And at that time there are worms in the womb of the mother. They're taking the advantage, delicate skin. They also bite. And he cannot make any protest. He moves sometimes. The child moves. These are the sufferings.

Garden Conversation with Mahadeva's Mother and Jesuit Priest -- July 25, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: Because there are eight million, four hundred thousand forms of life. The trees are also life, the cats and dogs, they are also life. And there are higher, intelligent persons in the higher planetary systems. They are also life. The worm in the stool, that is also life. So, calculating all of them, there are 8,400,000 species of life. So if I am going to have next life... Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). We have to change this body to another body. So our concern should be "What kind of body I am going to get next?"

Morning Walk -- December 3, 1973, Los Angeles:

Karandhara: Even if they make a perfect microscope they still have to look at it through their defective eyes. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: Yes. That's it. This is going on. Therefore whatever they are saying, they are all defective. Yes. That is our conclusion.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: So it is just like playing with fire.

Prabhupāda: Mūḍha mūḍha mūḍha mūḍha. Defective means mūḍha.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: But they seem to be quite satisfied.

Prabhupāda: That, ass is also satisfied. By unnecessarily carrying the load of the washerman, he is satisfied. Everyone is satisfied. Even the worms of the stool, he is satisfied. (laughs) That is nature's law. He is satisfied.

Morning Walk -- December 7, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: They are maintaining slaughterhouse. They are maintaining brothel. They are ruining everyone's life by sense gratification. These are all sinful activities. Therefore they remain rascal forever. They cannot improve. Because they are so sinful, they have to suffer, go to the darkest region. They'll have to become worms of the stool. That is awaiting them.

Morning Walk -- December 13, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Then? He'll die. That is another thing. He'll die. Why he'll die? What is that condition? If you say, "chemical condition," now, as chemist, if you say, "The chemical condition has changed," we'll reply, "No chemical condition has changed." So produce life. No chemical condition has changed because life will come out immediately. So many germs and worms, they will come out. So where is the chemical condition of producing life is changed? How can you say? But that life is not coming. That Mr. John, his life is not coming. Therefore he is an individual soul. Otherwise the chemical condition is there. Otherwise how these germs and worms are coming out? But Mr. John is not coming. Therefore it is conclusion that "This is individual soul. He has gone, but he is not coming." But other living beings are coming out.

Morning Walk -- December 16, 1973, Los Angeles:

Karandhara: Just like there they build big buildings for them and let them...

Prabhupāda: But they do not go. In Bombay also, municipality has constructed big buildings, but they do not go. They hire it, yes, they get, to some gentleman. They get some fifty rupees and "All right, you take." And he lives in a hut. Yes. This is practical. They don't like. Just like a worm in the stool. You take it away. He will again, again go. (laughter) Again go there.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 18, 1974, Hawaii:

Prabhupāda: Just like some of the thieves. They go to jail. They think, "It is very nice. We haven't got to earn. We are getting food here, free of charge. Yes, it is very nice place. It is my father-in-law's house." (laughs) So unless they believe, how they can tolerate such tribulations? The worm in the stool, he believes, "This is enjoyment." You take it from the stool, put it here, no, it will go again. It thinks it is pleasurable. That is their position. Therefore they have been described as mūḍha.

Morning Walk -- March 18, 1974, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Suppose you get a diamond body. Just like glowworm. Glowworm, it has a glowing body. That's all. But the glowing substance is different from the soul. Owner of the body is different.

Morning Walk -- April 7, 1974, Bombay:

Yaśomatīnandana: What about hell? How does the jīva soul go to hell?

Prabhupāda: Yes. They go. Those who are going to hell, that is fixed up very quickly. It doesn't take much time. Hell means he is getting the next body, hellish body. That's all. Suppose he is going to get the hellish body to become the worm of stool, so in that way he enters the worm, mother worm, to get the body and enjoy the hell. That's all.

Morning Walk -- April 16, 1974, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: Otherwise these modern researches would not have been brought into existence if there was no difference.

Prabhupāda: No, that is their nature, to differ. That is the nature. Nāsau munir yasya mataṁ na bhinnam: "He is not a muni if he does not differ with other muni."

Dr. Patel: Yes, that's it. Muni does not speak. Maunam. (break)

Prabhupāda: Why there is difference? (break) ...and Kṛṣṇa's power is compared. Brahmā's power is just like glowworm, and Kṛṣṇa's power is just like day sunlight. (break) The power displayed, they are of different degrees. That is the difference.

Morning Walk -- April 20, 1974, Hyderabad:

Pañcadraviḍa: When the soul is entering, they are all complete?

Prabhupāda: No, no, no. If you keep... A man is dead, and keep his body. So it will decompose, but the life will come. So many worms will come. So these are... If you say that chemicals, these material, then the chemicals are there, and life is coming. Now you take this chemical and prepare.

Morning Walk Excerpts -- May 2, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Ah. So this is our one of the items, to vanquish all these rascals, so-called swamis. They say that "Why you criticize others also?" Because we have to vanquish them. Now these people cannot rise. When there is sunrise, there is no use of these glowworms. So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is Kṛṣṇa Himself. Therefore they must be finished, all over the world. So-called religionists, so-called philosophers, so-called avatāras, swamis, yogis—finished. Our program should be like that.

Morning Walk -- May 29, 1974, Rome:

Dhanañjaya: They are thinking their success is in building huge skyscrapers that stand for thousands of years.

Prabhupāda: Yes. And within that thousands of years, he personally might have gone to the species of some worms and germs. That they do not believe. If they believe that, then they cannot do it.

Room Conversation with Robert Gouiran, Nuclear Physicist from European Center for Nuclear Research -- June 5, 1974, Geneva:

Prabhupāda: There is another example. Just like the glowworm. When there is darkness... You know the glowworm. When there is darkness... You know the glowworms?

Guru-gaurāṅga: Glowworms.

Prabhupāda: Yes. They give some light.

Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: At night.

Prabhupāda: But when there is sunrise, what is the value of this?

Guru-gaurāṅga: (French)

Prabhupāda: So your all this physical scientific advancement will be like glowworms in the presence of the scientific arrangement of God.

Morning Walk -- June 14, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa comes to save you. Ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi: "I shall save you from all sinful reaction of life. You have done so many lives simple sinful activities. Now you stop it. You surrender to Me, and I give you assurance that I'll save you." This is Kṛṣṇa's mission. And if you think that you don't want to be saved, all right, you can go to hell, again. You become again the worms of stool. That's your choice.

Morning Walk at Marina del Rey -- July 14, 1974, Los Angeles:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: He's benefited from the consciousness of the master.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So... If the master is devotee, then he's benefited. Kīṭa janma hau yathā tuwā dāsa. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura sings that "Let me become a worm in the house of a devotee. If I have to take birth, I don't want a life, nondevotional life, even it is like Brahmā. I'll prefer to become a worm in the house of a devotee." This is the prayer of Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- May 23, 1975, Melbourne:

Hari-śauri: But if they're committing so many sinful activities, murdering their father and like this, then how will they get to that stage of being able to approach Kṛṣṇa consciousness?

Prabhupāda: No, it will be checked. It will be checked. Just like if there is some worm in the bud, then the growing will be checked.

Morning Walk -- May 29, 1975, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: Light is light so long the sun is not there. Similarly, all these scientists are scientists so long God is not there. And as soon as God is there... Just like our men. They do not care for all this shining, shining light of scientists. The glowworm, they are light so long it is darkness. When it is sunshine, there is no use of these glowworms. Yasmin vijñāte sarvam evaṁ vijñātaṁ bhavanti. This is the Vedic instruction. If you understand God, then you understand everything. Then you will not be allured by the so-called rascal scientist.

Room Conversations -- July 26, 1975, Laguna Beach:

Ṛṣi-kumāra: What about those who are just possessing enough to maintain their bodies?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Body is maintained by the birds and beasts. The worms, ants, they also maintaining body, but they do not possess anything. So therefore, natural law is that without possessing, you can maintain yourself.

Press Conference -- October 2, 1975, Mauritius:

Guest (4): By this, you mean that those who adopt the teachings coming from the Koran or from the Bible is lesser light than from the Gītā?

Prabhupāda: That is your business. That is your business. But we give you the idea that light comes from everywhere. There is one glowworm. That light also light, and the sunlight is also light. You cannot think that the glowworm's light and the sunlight is the same. Now it is your business to see which is glowworm light and which is sunlight. That is your business.

Morning Walk -- October 3, 1975, Mauritius:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: ...this movement and that movement. You said, "This is Kṛṣṇa's movement." So this should be our line of argument, because especially amongst the Indian community, when they question us about this swami and that swami...

Prabhupāda: They replied that in everything there is light. And yes, the light of, what is called, glowworm and the light of sun is not the same. Everything is light; that doesn't... We haven't got to accept so-called lights. Even there is light, when there is sunlight, why you should aspire after glow of light?

Room Conversation with Bill Faill (reporter) -- October 8, 1975, Durban:

Prabhupāda: And there are different types of vehicle, in the aquatic animals, then, I mean to say, plants. When the water is dried up, then vegetation comes. Then vegetation..., from vegetation, we... Trees and plants, they cannot move. Then we get little improvement; we can move, just like flies, insects, microbes, reptiles, and so many. So there are nine lakhs' forms of body within the water. Then two million types of bodies in vegetable, and then 1,100,000 species of life like microbes, germs, worms, insects. Then you come to the birds' life, three million different forms of. Then we come to beast life. That is also... Birds, I am sorry. Birds' life, one million, and then the beast life, three millions... Then we come to human form of body, and especially, gradually, we become civilized. So when we are civilized, then it is a chance to understand "what is God, what I am, what is our relationship."

Morning Walk -- October 21, 1975, Johannesburg:

Prabhupāda: Sometimes they say a man is dead because the color of the blood has changed. From red to..., it has become white. So where is the difficulty to make it red again? Do it. Change the color again. Make it red. And if you say, "No, that natural redness is required," so there are so many flowers, natural red. Why there is no life? If redness, natural redness, is the cause of life, so there are so many flowers, red flowers. Why they do not walk? If you say that the... "Besides that, the life substance is missing," that is also not correct. Life substance is there in the dead body; otherwise how worms are coming out? Life is coming out. Not one, but hundreds are coming out. How you can say the life substance is missing? The worms are coming automatically, but you take the portion of the dead body and produce worm. That you cannot do.

Morning Walk -- October 26, 1975, Mauritius:

Prabhupāda: So the news was there that Jesus Christ, after crucification, he was alive, and he went to... (aside:) Not so near. And he went to Kashmir. So by the yogic process, in samādhi one can remain alive although superficially he is seen that he is killed. That is possible. Hiraṇyakaśipu did that. He was undergoing tapasya for one hundred years of the demigods. Their duration of time is: our six months, their one day. So such a long time he was undergoing austerity, penance, and thus he became perfect. So his body was practically finished by the earthworm, what is called, moths and ants.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 20, 1976, Mayapura:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And when we tell them, "We will also teach you how to do nothing also and live in a palace," they say, "Oh, no, thank you. That I do not want. I want to work hard."

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is called worms of the stool. You see? If you take this worm from the stool, "Why you are living in stool? Come here," "No, no. I go back there." You'll see. The pig eating stool, ask him, "Take halavā. Why you are eating?" "No, no. I like it very much." This is māyā.

Morning Walk -- February 26, 1976, Mayapura:

Jayapatākā: Service and reading are nondifferent?

Prabhupāda: Yes, if one is actually reading. Just like Rūpa Gosvāmī. He was reading. Nānā-śāstra-vicāraṇaika-nipuṇau. But he must be expertly reading, not as a book worm, expert.

Morning Walk -- March 25, 1976, Delhi:

Hari-śauri: Śrīla Prabhupāda, if one serves the higher devotees and shows compassion to less advanced devotees, then where is the question, say, for a position of an advanced devotee who is feeling himself to be the lowest? So is that distinction still there of higher and lower? If he is feeling himself to be the lowest?

Prabhupāda: He does not feel lowest. He takes sympathy that "Here is a person. He can be a devotee. So let me raise him to the standard." He does not think that he is lowest. Devotee always thinks that he is lower than the worm. But it is the duty. It is the duty. It does not mean that he is thinking, "I am higher." No.

Morning Walk -- March 25, 1976, Delhi:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: In other words, he doesn't consider that he's advanced and that therefore he is showing mercy to lower.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes. He is always thinking, "I am lower than the worm, but Lord Kṛṣṇa wants, so let me do some service. That's all."

Guru dāsa: That is our occupation, to show mercy to others.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Morning Walk -- June 8, 1976, Los Angeles:

Rāmeśvara: Śrīla Prabhupāda, what is the value for the living entity to automatically pass through all these different species? Does he get any knowledge?

Prabhupāda: To, to finish his life of imprisonment.

Rāmeśvara: How is it benefiting him?

Prabhupāda: He's corrected. Benefit is he's corrected. After undergoing so many species of life, he is corrected and again he is brought to the human form of life, civilized form of life. Let him make his choice. If he again makes his choice, go down to become a stool worm. Go! That is nature's.... Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi-guṇa, according to qualities he has taken. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā: (BG 3.27) the rascal, being proud, "Now I have got this life, civilized life. I can do whatever I like to. Ah, there is no God." Then God comes as death and puts you again to become a worm in stool. That's all.

Garden Conversation -- June 9, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Daivāt means "by the superior arrangement." Superior arrangement... One has become human being, one has become cat, one has become dog, one has become demigod, one has become worm of the stool-daiva-yogena, by the arrangement of the supreme controller. But the material happiness is the same everywhere. Either one is worm in the stool or he is king in the heaven, the standard happiness is the same.

Garden Conversation -- June 22, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: "Under the influence of material desire the entity is born sometimes as a demigod, sometimes as a man, sometimes as a beast, as a bird, as a worm, as an aquatic, as a saintly man, as a bug. This is going on. And in all circumstances the living entity thinks himself to be the master of his circumstances, yet he is under the..."

Prabhupāda: Even in the stool, the worms in the stool, he's also thinking "I have got so much stool to eat." This same mastership. "I am the monarch of all I survey. I have got so much stool." And you just take the worm from the stool, put it here: "No, no, no, here is my enjoyment." This mastership mentality is there in Brahma, and the mastership mentality is there in the worm of the stool. This mentality you have to give up. Then you become liberated.

Morning Walk -- July 5, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: But Śrīla Prabhupāda blessed yesterday around the Capitol. There were so many people, and they seemed like they liked...

Prabhupāda: So many people, there are so many earthworms also. Ants also, gathered together. Does it mean they are independent? Hare Kṛṣṇa. You know the earthworms? They heap up earth and disappear. So you are, if you take it in that way, that big, big buildings, just like earthworms gathering up earth and then disappears. Actually that is the... Like the worms, we gather together and become a nation and apply all our energy, heaps of buildings, then finished. We go somewhere, you go somewhere. And who knows what he's going to be next life? Everything is going like that, family, community, national.

Evening Darsana -- July 8, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Vipina: Instead of under His protection, you enjoy at your risk.

Prabhupāda: Therefore He advises, "Rascal, you give up all this enjoying spirit. You just surrender to Me, you'll be happy." But we don't accept it. Therefore sometimes we are in the heavenly kingdom, sometimes as a worm in the stool. That is going on. That is your risk.

Interview with Religion Editor of The Observer -- July 23, 1976, London:

Prabhupāda: From the material nature, material elements, everything is coming. From the water the fishes are coming, from the land the grass, the worms, and then human being, they are coming. From the air also living entities are coming. So therefore material nature is the mother, and we have come out of the material nature, therefore we are children. Then there must be father, because without father, simply mother cannot give birth. This is science.

Garden Conversation -- September 3, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Whatever we cannot conceive we take it as mythology. Nothing is mythology. Everything is possible. That is inconceivable. But they cannot understand what is inconceivable. Unless it is conceivable by them, they do not accept. That is their foolishness. We can see at night worms or flies so small Just like if you divide one grain of rice into one hundred divisions one division—such a small fly. They are independently walking, flying. Freedom.

Garden Conversation -- September 7, 1976, Vrndavana:

Caraṇāravindam: He eats bugs and those nasty flies.

Prabhupāda: Oh, they eat bugs?

Caraṇāravindam: Yes. They do very good service in gardens. Gardener's friend, the toad. Grass snakes, earthworm and the toad and frog. Gardener's friends. He'll sit there and he'll wait for a fly to come.

Prabhupāda: Jīvo jīvasya jīvanam. One life is food for the another life. Kṛṣṇa has made such an arrangement that every living entity has got some service. So he's allowed to do the service, then he's finished by another living entity.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- March 22, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: If my next life I become a worm, then it will take millions of years to evolve, again come to the human standard. How I am lost. That they do not know. It is clearly said. Mām aprāpya: "By not getting Me." "So what is loss if I don't get Kṛṣṇa?" No, mṛtyu-saṁsāra-vartmani. That you cannot check. You have to die. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). You have to accept another body. Then you go on.

Room Conversation with Ratan Singh Rajda (Member of Parliament) -- March 27, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Everyone is being washed away by the waves of this material energy. And their attempt to save themselves... That's... Everything is described in the Bhagavad-gītā. Just like in light, during the rainy season, so many worms and flies, they come and fall in the fire, phat-phat-phat. They do not know. This is the very description, in the Eleventh Chapter. So we do not condemn material life, but without spiritual understanding, this dog race for material comforts, it may be temporary, very nice, but ultimately it is being carried away by the waves of material nature.

Morning Talk -- June 27, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Everyone is getting opportunity. According to his karma, he's getting a suitable body. You want to become Brahmā? All right. And you become, want to become a hog? All right. If you want to become worm in the stool, all right. This is going on. And devotion begins when one does not want to become anything. Anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyam (Brs. 1.1.11). Then he likes. So when you desire, either you desire like a Brahmā or the worm in the stool, that is material. And when you give up this desire, then spiritual life begins.

1968 Correspondence

Letter to Kirtanananda -- Montreal 30 June, 1968:

They may be of different forms—some of them are aquatics, some of them are vegetables, plants, some of them are worms, some of them are birds, some of them are beasts, some of them are human beings. Krishna claims that all of them are His begotten sons. Neither Krishna claims Himself that He is an Indian or a Ksatriya, or a Brahmin, or white or black; He claims that He is the Enjoyer of everything that be, He is the Proprietor of all the planets and the creation, and He is the intimate friend of all living entities. He never claims that one should offer Him very valuable things to satisfy Him; or very delicious foodstuffs should be offered to Him—but He says that even a little bit of leaf, a little bit of fruit, and water, you offer to Him with devotion and love, and He accepts and eats such things. So it is a fact that Krishna is universal.

1972 Correspondence

Letter to Tamala Krsna -- New Vrindaban 7 September, 1972:

As it is our motto on the head of Back to Godhead, "Godhead is light, nescience is darkness. Where there is Godhead there is no darkness." The whole world is full of darkness. The so-called yogis, swamis, mayavadis, scientists, philosophers, political leaders, all are different types of glowworms, so in the darkness of cloudy night during the rainy season, the croaking of the frogs and glitterings of the glowworms are supposed to be very prominent. But as soon as there is clear sunlight or moonlight, all these insignificant glowing and croaking disappear. So our movement is Krishna. The Krishna Consciousness Movement is nondifferent from Krishna. If we therefore present the Krishna Consciousness in right earnestness, then certainly all these insignificant glowworms and frogs will have no more importance.

1975 Correspondence

Letter to Brsni Prabhu -- New Delhi 27 November, 1975:

Regarding the Gaura Nitai deities, I think 100 dollars is too much to pay for one pair of deities. Better you carve them from wood. In India the carvers have always used a wood bitter in taste, this keeps the worms from eating it, best is nim wood if such wood (bitter in taste) is available there then why not make Gaura Nitai from wood.

1976 Correspondence

Letter to S. N. Sharma -- Vrindaban 9 November, 1976:

We have no business with Tagore's Gitanjali. We are simply interested in spreading Krishna's Gita. When the greatest author, Krishna, is there, there is no need of bringing smaller author. When there is brightest sunshine, there is no need of bringing small lamp. When there is brightest moonshine, there is no need of bringing glowworm. This is our principle.