The Bliss Of Krishna Consciousness

Therefore these rascals have been described as apaśyatām ātma-tattvam [SB 2.1.2]. These rascal, they do not see what is the future. They do not believe in future. Big, big professors, big, big politicians, they do not believe even that there is life after death. And why there is no life after death? We are experiencing that life after life... Just like this child's activities at the present moment will not be the same when she will get another body as young woman. That will be different activity. So according to our change of body we have got different engagements. A child talks all foolish things; nobody cares for it. But the same child, when he gets another body, if he talks foolish, then he will be called, "Oh, you are so fool, you are talking like this." Because the body has changed. So body is changing, that's a fact. Lecture given by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedant Swami Prabhupada Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 2.1.5 Nov 8-1973

"A spirit soul, being part and parcel of the Supreme Lord, he is by nature very powerful. We do not know how much spiritual power we have got, but that is being suppressed by the material covering. Just like this fire. This fire, if there are too many ashes, the heat of the fire is not properly felt. But you move the ashes and just fan it, and when it is blazing, then you get the proper heat and you can utilize it for so many purposes. Similarly, we, as spirit soul, we have immense power. And God is the supreme spirit soul, so we cannot imagine how much power God has got. But even we, who are a simply minute particle... Just like... Comparison is just like the fire and the sparks. The fire and the sparks, both of them are fire. The spark even, wherever the spark will fall, immediately it will burn.Similarly, we have got all the qualities in minute quantity of God." Lecture given by His Divine Grace A.C.Bhaktivedant Swami Prabhupada Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 5.5.2 Sep17-1969

"There may be a cloud overcast in the sky for hundred miles, but even hundred miles, is it possible to cover the sun, hundred miles' cloud? The sun is itself so many hundreds of thousand times more than this earth. So māyā cannot cover the Supreme Brahman. Māyā can cover the small particles Brahman. So we may become covered by māyā, or cloud, but the Supreme Brahman is never covered by māyā. That is the difference of opinion between Māyāvāda philosophy and Vaiṣṇava philosophy. The Māyāvāda philosophy says that the Supreme is covered. The Supreme cannot be covered. Then how He becomes supreme? The covering becomes supreme. Oh, there are so many arguments and so many... But we follow that the cloud covers the small particles of sunshine. But sun remains as it is. And we practically see also when we go by jet plane, we are over the cloud. There is no cloud upside. Sun is clear. In the lower status there is some cloud." ~Lecture Excerpt - His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedant Swami Prabhupada Montreal,July 18-1968

yas tu nārāyaṇaṁ devaṁ brahma-rudrādi-daivataiḥ samatvena vīkṣeta sa pāsaṇḍī bhaved dhruvam [Cc. Madhya 18.116] "Anyone who thinks that the Supreme Personality of Godhead Nārāyaṇa is as good as the demigods, he's a rascal, he's a fool." Sa pāsaṇḍī bhaved dhruvam. And in the Bhagavad-gītā also it is said, kāmais tais tair hṛta-jñānāḥ yajante anya-devatāḥ [Bg. 7.20]: "Those who are worshiping other demigods, they are hṛta-jñānāḥ. Their knowledge is lost." That requires a very big explanation. So one thing is that you should never place or put the demigods on equal footing with the Supreme Personality of Godhead. That is a great offense. Lecture given by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedant Swami Prabhupada Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 7.5.22–30 Sep8-1971

"Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe 'rjuna tiṣṭhati (BG 18.61). He is situated in everyone's heart. Aṇḍāntara-stha-paramāṇu cayāntara-stham (Bs. 5.35). He is within this universe, and He is also within the atom. That is Paramātmā realization. Everywhere, all-pervading. Akhilātma-bhūto. Goloka eva nivasaty (Bs. 5.37). Although He is situated in His Goloka Vṛndāvana-dhāma, He is everywhere. That everywhere aspect is Paramātmā. And that Goloka Vṛndāvana-sthiti is Bhagavān." ~Lecture by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedant Swami Prabhupada SB 06.01.14 - Bombay Nov10-1970

That is described in the Bhagavad-gītā. It is a place for distress. So long you remain here... But we are so fool, we cannot realize. We accept, "This life is very pleasant. Let me enjoy it." It is not pleasant at all. Seasonal changes, always. This distress or that distress; this disease or that disease; this uncomfortable, this anxiety. There are three kinds of distresses = adhyātmika, adhibhautika, adhidaivika. Adhyātmika means distresses pertaining to this body and the mind. And adhidaivika means distresses offered by material nature. Nature. All of a sudden there is earthquake. All of a sudden there is famine, there is scarcity of food, there is over-rain, no rain, extreme heat, extreme winter, extreme cold. We have to go under these distresses, threefold. At least one, two must be there. Still, we do not realize that "This place is full of distress because I have got this material body." Lecture given by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedant Swami Prabhupada Bhagavad-gītā 2.14 June23-1974

Ordinary man, he thinks only of himself, or expanded himself, for family, for community, for society, for nation. These are all expanded selfishness. Expanded. When I am alone, I am thinking of my benefit only. When I am little grown up, I think of my brothers and sisters. And when I am little advanced, I think of my family. Little advanced, I think of my community. Little advanced, I think of my country, my nation. Or I can think of the whole human society, internationally. But Kṛṣṇa is so big that Kṛṣṇa includes everyone. Not only human society, animal society, bird society, beast society, tree society---everything. Kṛṣṇa says, ahaṁ bīja-pradaḥ pitā [Bg. 14.4] = "I am the seed-giving father of all these forms." There are 8,400,000 different kinds of forms. Kṛṣṇa claims, "They, all of them, are My part and parcel living entities, but they are now covered by different dress only." Lecture given by His Divine Grace A.C.Bhaktivedant Swami Prabhupada Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 2.1.1–2 April 6,1973.

So if you want to be not fearfulness, no more fear, abhayaṁ sattva-saṁśuddhiḥ [Bg. 16.1], if you become out of fearfulness, then you have to take shelter of the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa. Therefore Kṛṣṇa is begging. Because we are Kṛṣṇa's sons or we have got very intimate relationship with Kṛṣṇa and we have given Him up and we have forgotten Him, therefore we are suffering. So Kṛṣṇa, being father, Kṛṣṇa, being friend of everyone, He comes, and He canvasses, and at last He says, "You rascal," sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇam, ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyaḥ [Bg. 18.66]. "You are rotting here by repeatedly committing sinful life. Therefore you are changing from one body to another, and this is your material condition." Lecture given by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedant Swami Prabhupada Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.25.43 Dec 11-1974

"So Kṛṣṇa, or the Supreme Lord, is living in everyone's hearts. So there are cats, dogs and hogs—they are also living beings, living entities—so Kṛṣṇa is living in their heart also. But that does not mean He is living with the hog in the abominable condition. He has His own Vaikuṇṭha. Wherever He goes is Vaikuṇṭha. Similarly, when one chants, that chanting... There is no difference between the holy name and Kṛṣṇa. And Kṛṣṇa says that "I live there where My pure devotees chant." So when Kṛṣṇa comes, when Kṛṣṇa is on your tongue, how you can live in this material world? It is already Vaikuṇṭha, provided your chanting is offenseless." ~Lecture by His Divine Grace A.C Bhaktivedant Swami Prabhupada SB 06.02.48 - Allahabad Jan 31-1971

So śāstra says, "This is not good." Here also, Devahūti says that bhūmann asad-indriya-tarṣaṇāt. Asad-indriya-tarṣ... Actually, these senses are not real senses. It is covered, just like my this body, covered with this shirt or this cloth. It is not my real body. Although you see the shirt has got a hand, that hand is not real hand. The real hand is within the shirt. Similarly, our real body is within this body. Dehino 'smin yathā dehe [Bg. 2.13]. Dehe. Dehinaḥ. Dehinaḥ means the real body, or the spiritual body of the soul, is within this body. Dehino 'smin yathā dehe. And the body is changing. Kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā. It is sometimes child, sometimes youth, sometimes a young man, sometimes old man. And then vanishes. It is... There are six changes. So this is not real body. But... And we are engaged in this unreal body, sense gratification. Lecture given by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedant Swami Prabhupada Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.25.7 Nov7-1974.

"So God is always anxious of your love, not your material things. Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī has described that as somebody offers you very nice, palatable dishes, varieties of foodstuff, but unfortunately, if you have no appetite, these are all useless, because you cannot eat, there is no appetite. Similarly, you can make a show of offering so many things to God, but if you have no devotional love, that is not accepted. That is not accepted, because God is not poor. He is not begging from you." ~Lecture given by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedant Swami Prabhupada SB 07.09.09 - Montreal July 4-1968

Everyone is enjoying or suffering the sequence of his karma. Yas tu gopam. Indra-gopa, a small insect. Its name is indra-gopa. Beginning from this indra up to that Indra, the king of heaven, everyone is enjoying and suffering about his karma. Yas tv indra-gopam athavendram aho sva-karma. Sva-karma, one's own activities, we are creating. We are creating our next body in this life. As we have got this life as the resultant action of my past karma, similarly, I am creating another body after death, on account of my present karma. This is going on. So we should work in such a way that we may not get another body next life. That is wanted. That is wanted. Lecture given by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedant Swami Prabhupada on Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.25.2 Nov 2-1974

"Kṛṣṇa is saying that all the men who come to Him – whether they be distressed, in need of money, curious, etc. – are welcomed, but out of them the person who is in knowledge is very dear to Him. The others are welcomed because it is understood that in course of time, if they continue on the path to God, they will become as good as the man of knowledge." ~Book:On The Way To Kṛṣṇa By His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedant Swami Prabhupada