The Bliss Of Krishna Consciousness

The material life is just like fire. It has been compared with the forest fire. As the forest fire automatically takes place—nobody goes to set fire—similarly, in this material world, even if you try to live very peacefully and without quarreling with any other man, the place is such nuisance that you'll not be able to live in peace anywhere, anywhere within this universe. That is the process. But one who is transcendentally situated, either by the yogic process or by the process of empiric knowledge or by bhakti-yoga, either of these processes... There may be a little difference of the ultimate end, but all these three processes, they are meant for transcendental life. So any process, if you make it perfect, then really you get peace. Peace. The only difference is that this yogic process as described in the Bhagavad-gītā, it is not possible to be executed in this age. Lecture given by His Divine Grace A.C.Bhaktivedant Swami Prabhupada Bhagavad-gītā 6.11–21 Sept7-1966 New York

So this Bhagavad-gītā is real religion, because it is directly spoken by the Supreme Personality of Godhead for the benefit of the whole human society. And Kṛṣṇa says also that "If you have got any other faith, religion, you give it up." Sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekam [Bg. 18.66] = only one. God is one; religion is one. The process of religion is one, and the activity, who is in God-relationship, his activity's also one. That is oneness. There cannot be any different activities. Therefore Kṛṣṇa is teaching mayy āsakta-manāḥ. So how to increase your attachment? We have got attachment in so many other things. We have got attachment for the body, we have got attachment for the family, we have got attachment for the society, country, or... So many things. But Kṛṣṇa says, mayy āsakta-manāḥ. That is yoga. That is perfect yoga.  Lecture given by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedant Swami Prabhupada Bhagavad-gītā 7.1 Jan13-1973 Bombay

If, by advancement of civilization, we forget God and forget the mission of our life, that is nothing but to become like an ass. Unnecessary working. The ass... The example is given, the ass, because ass has no sense. He works very hard. The... You have got experience, the washerman's ass = it is loaded with three tons of cloth and takes it to the ghāṭa and again brings it. And what is the result? He gets little grass. That's all. But he has no sense that "This grass, I can get anywhere. Why I am so working hard for this washerman?" Therefore it is ass. I'll take four cāpāṭis, but I am working so hard that there is no limit of my working. And one day Kṛṣṇa comes = "Please get out." Finished. So we are all asses. [chuckles] Therefore Kavirāja Gosvāmī says = kṛṣṇa yei bhaje se baḍa catura. Only intelligent man is he who is Kṛṣṇa conscious. Otherwise all asses. Kṛṣṇa yei bhaje se baḍa catura. Lecture given by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedant Swami Prabhupada Bhagavad-gītā 6.47 Dec12,1972 Ahmedabad

For a common man, both modern science and Vedic wisdom are simply to be accepted because none of the statements either of modern science or of Vedic literature can be verified by him. The alternative for a common man is to believe either of them or both of them. The Vedic way of understanding, however, is more authentic because it has been accepted by the ācāryas, who are not only faithful and learned men, but are also liberated souls without any of the flaws of conditioned souls. The modern scientists, however, are conditioned souls liable to so many errors and mistakes; therefore the safe side is to accept the authentic version of Vedic literatures, like Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, which is accepted unanimously by the great ācāryas. SB 2.2.26 Purport By His Divine Grace A.C.Bhaktivedant Swami Prabhupada

We have to learn how to act only for Kṛṣṇa, how to love only Kṛṣṇa. Then our life is successful. And the human life... Because we have also come down from Vaikuṇṭha some millions and millions of years ago. Anādi karama-phale. Anādi means before the creation. We living entities, we are eternal. Even the creation is annihilated after millions and trillions of years, the living entities, they are not annihilated. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre [Bg. 2.20]. They remain. So when this whole cosmic manifestation will be annihilated, the living entities will remain in the body of Viṣṇu. Then when again another creation will take place, they will come out again to fulfill their desires. The real desire is how to go to home, back to Godhead. So this chance is given. So if this chance is misused... This life, human form of life, it is very, very risky. Again we will have to accept the cycle of birth and death. Lecture given by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedant Swami Prabhupada Bhagavad-gītā 2.6 Aug6,1973 London

Actually the land is neither Bhārata-varṣa nor Asia nor America nor India, but we give this name, according with the change of time, with the change of influence. They are all designations. Fifty years before, when some of you... Of course, not all of you are fifty years old. Say, forty years before, or thirty-five years before, when you were..., or twenty-five years before, when you were not born, can you say what was your designation? Were you American or Indian or Chinese or Russian, can you say? Say, after getting out of this body, do you think that you'll continue as American or Indian or Chinese or Russian? Suppose you are now in America, in the land of America. So next life you may be in China. Who can say? Because we are changing our body. You cannot say that we are not changing our bodies. Can you say that you are not changing your body? Yes, we are changing. Lecture given by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedant Swami Prabhupada Bhagavad-gītā 9.34 Dec26,1966 New York

The child in the womb of the mother sleeps, unconscious, and when the body is made up, he has got his hands, legs, eyes, everything manufactured; then consciousness comes back, and that time the child moves and desires to come out, prays. One who is advanced in his previous life, he understands, “Oh, I am again put into this condition. I did not utilize my life for Kṛṣṇa consciousness; therefore I am again put into this condition.” It is very risky. Don't try to go again into the womb of the mother. It is very, I mean to say, distressful, packed-up. We all forget this. Sometimes the child is killed by the modern civilization. The most sinful child does not see the light. It is being killed from one womb to another womb. You see? This is going on. Those who are killing this, using these pills, they will be put into that womb, and they will never see light. Lecture given by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedant Swami Prabhupada Śrī Īśopaniṣad mantra 11 May 17,1970 Los Angeles

Somehow or other we have fallen in this material world. There are many causes, but as we are in this material world, it is to be taken that somehow or other we have come here. Light, the sparks of fire... There is fire, and there are sparks. Everyone has got this experience. So the sparks are coming and dancing within the fire. It is also brilliant and it is also fire. If a small spark of fire falls on your cloth, immediately it will burn. It will immediately make a black spot. We have got this experience. Because although it is small, but it is fire; therefore it burns. Similarly, we are a small particle, part and parcel of God. Just like the spark, it falls down from the fire. There may be three conditions = the spark may fall down on the ground, the spark may fall down on the water and the spark may fall down on some dry grass. Lecture by His Divine Grace A.C.Bhaktivedant Swami Prabhupada Bhagavad-gītā 9.3 June 20,1976 Toronto

Birth, death, old age and disease, you cannot stop. You may live for a greater period—that is possible in higher planets. But if you are simply satisfied only by living a bigger span of life, is that very success? Just stop death. That is success. To become very strong in body, that is not success. But either you become strong and weak, you have to die. There is no, I mean to say, excuse, because you are a strong man you will not die. Or because you are rich man you will not die. Because you are... No. Therefore Prabodhānanda Sarasvatī says it is just like ākāśa-puṣpa, phantasmagoria. Lecture given by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedant Swami Prabhupada Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.5.8–9 May 24,1969 New Vrindavan

Īśvaraḥ means controller. Every one of us are more or less controller. Just like I am controlling my disciples, the family man is controlling his family, the big office manager is controlling his office. Managing director, some big businessman like Birla or others, they are controlling their big, big factories. So more or less every one of us is a controller, small or big; so in that sense everyone is īśvara. But Kṛṣṇa is not that type of īśvara. īśvaraḥ paramaḥ---that is Kṛṣṇa. It is not very difficult to understand what is God if you have got little sense. This is very nice explanation of God in the Brahma-saṁhitā = īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ [Bs 5.1]. īśvaraḥ we can understand, "controller"; that is not very difficult. But here a controller is controlled by another controller. Lecture given by His Divine Grace A.C.Bhaktivedant Swami Prabhupada Bhagavad-gītā 4.4 Feb12-1974 Vrindavan

brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā na śocati na kāṅkṣati samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu mad-bhaktiṁ labhate parām [Bg. 18.54] When actually one is liberated from the bodily concept of life and he sees spiritual identity everywhere, samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu, paṇḍitāḥ sama-darśinaḥ [Bg. 5.18], then he can be situated in the activities of Brahman. The bhakti-yoga is the activities of Brahman. The Māyāvādī philosopher, they are thinking that after Brahman realization there is no more activity. But that is not the fact. Real activity begins after Brahman realization. That is Brahman activity. That is bhakti-yoga. Kṛṣṇa is Paraṁ Brahman, and we are Kṛṣṇa's part and parcel. Naturally we are also Brahman, because part and parcel of gold must be gold. There is no doubt about it. But it does not mean that the small particle of gold is equal to the gold mine. That is not possible. Part is never equal to the whole. Lecture given by His Divine Grace A.C.Bhaktivedant Swami Prabhupada Bhagavad-gītā 15.1 Oct 28,1973 Vrindavan

Then again another statement from the Upaniṣad, that "The Supreme has multi-energies." Svābhāvikī jñāna-bala-kriyā ca. He has got so much energies that it appears that it is being automatically done. Just like a, I mean to say, very important man you see. You go there and you... Suppose you ask him for some help, and suppose you want one million dollar, and if he gives you a slip, oh, you take it from there. If you get immediately, then you will understand, "Oh, how much powerful he is. Simply by a pencil, like this, I got millions of dollars!" So God is so powerful. It appears..., everything is wonderfully, this material nature is working. But it is due to God's energy. His energies are so multifarious, He's so expert, that it appears automatically being done. Not automatically. Not automatically. No. Lecture Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā 7.108 By His Divine Grace A.C.Bhaktivedant Swami Prabhupada Feb18-1967,San Francisco

"So in this way Kṛṣṇa consciousness means always thinking of Kṛṣṇa. And make Kṛṣṇa the friend. Kṛṣṇa says that suhṛdaṁ sarva-bhūtānām [Bg. 5.29]. Actually, Kṛṣṇa is the only friend, and He is sitting in everyone's heart. He is so nice friend that He is simply trying to induce us to turn our face towards Kṛṣṇa. He is coming as avatāra, incarnation. He is giving us advice from within. Sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja [Bg. 18.66]. He's such a nice friend. Although we have left Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa has not left us. Here He is living with me within my heart to give me advice, "Please come back." Sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekam." Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.13.11 lecture By His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedant Swami Prabhupada June 2, 1974 Geneva

"A fish that is taken out of the water cannot be happy by any arrangement on land. He must be supplied with water. In the same way, the minute sac-cid-ānanda living entity cannot be really happy through any amount of planning conceived by his illusioned brain in this material universe. He must therefore be given a different type of happiness which is spiritual in essence. Our ambition should be aimed at enjoying spiritual bliss and not this temporary happiness." ~Book-Elevation To Kṛṣṇa Consciousness ʙy ʜɪꜱ ᴅɪᴠɪɴᴇ ɢʀᴀᴄᴇ ᴀ.ᴄ.ʙʜᴀᴋᴛɪᴠᴇᴅᴀɴᴛ ꜱᴡᴀᴍɪ ᴩʀᴀʙʜᴜᴩᴀᴅᴀ

"Every living being desires the topmost level of enjoyment in this material world, and yet everyone is unhappy here. This unhappiness is present on all the higher planets, despite a longer life span, higher standards of enjoyment and comfort. That is due to the law of material nature. We can increase the duration of life and standard to the highest capacity, and yet by the law of material nature we will be unhappy. The reason for this is that the quality of happiness which is suitable for our constitution is different from the happiness which is derived from material activities. The living entity is a minute particle of the superior spiritual energy of the Lord, which is sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha [Bs. 5.1], and therefore he has the necessary propensity for joy which is spiritual in quality. Unfortunately for him, he is trying vainly to attain his enjoyment from the foreign atmosphere of material nature." ~Book-Elevation To Kṛṣṇa Consciousness ʙy ʜɪꜱ ᴅɪᴠɪɴᴇ ɢʀᴀᴄᴇ ᴀ.ᴄ.ʙʜᴀᴋᴛɪᴠᴇᴅᴀɴᴛ ꜱᴡᴀᴍɪ ᴩʀᴀʙʜᴜᴩᴀᴅᴀ