# Awakening *On awakening from the slumber of material existence* --- ### Be Awakened! Get Up! > So the darkness is there, and the light is also there. Simply we have to be awakened. Therefore *Vedas,* they instruct us that "Don't sleep! Get up!" *Uttiṣṭhata prāpya varān nibodhata jāgrata*. Similarly, Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura also sings, *kota nidrā jāo māyā-piśācīra kole. Jīv jāgo, jīv jāgo, gauracānda bole.* Gauracānda means Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. He says, "O the living entities, you get up! Be awakened!" We may say, "Now we are awakened." This is not awakening. This is also slumber in darkness of ignorance. Real awakening is when we come to our spiritual consciousness. That is real awakened. — [[spoken/1974/741229sb.bom|Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.26.20, Bombay, December 29, 1974]] --- ### We Have That Potency > So this *uttiṣṭhata jāgrata* is... *Sva-tejasāpibat tīvram. Sva-tejasā:* we have got that potency to come to the light. Everyone, we have got that potency. Simply we must be willing. That independence is there. I may not like it. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, *sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja*: "You do it." Kṛṣṇa is all-powerful; He can force you to accept this principle. But that He will not do. He will not touch your independence. He will ask you to do it, but He will not force you to do it. If you do not take it, that is your choice. — [[spoken/1974/741229sb.bom|Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.26.20, Bombay, December 29, 1974]] --- ### Most Welfare Activities > But this is the assurance. To become illuminated, to become awakened to spiritual consciousness, we can do it at any moment if we want to accept it. *Sva-tejasā,* we have got that potency. So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is for giving enlightenment to the people that "If you like, you can take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and then your life is successful." *Ārādhito yadi haris tapasā tataḥ kim.* That is the most welfare activities. — [[spoken/1974/741229sb.bom|Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.26.20, Bombay, December 29, 1974]] --- ### Old Remembrances Come In > Similarly, at the time of annihilation, *prakṛtiṁ yānti māmikām. Kalpa-kṣaye.* When this millennium will be ended, at the end of Brahmā's life, at that time the living entities will stay in the body of the Mahā-Viṣṇu. And again, when we are let loose from the *deha,* and there is creation, our old remembrances all come in, and we begin our life. This is the process of going... *Bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate.* — [[spoken/1974/741229sb.bom|Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.26.20, Bombay, December 29, 1974]] --- ### Simply Repeat What Kṛṣṇa Has Said > "Every one of you become a *guru* and deliver these persons, these fallen conditioned souls." That is your business. Now you can say, or I can say that "How can I become *guru?* I have no education, I have no talent. How can I become *guru?*" The answer is, *yāre dekha tāre kaha 'kṛṣṇa'-upadeśa.* You simply repeat what Kṛṣṇa has said, you become a *guru.* So we are doing like that. We haven't got to manufacture. We haven't got to take so much trouble or create it by our fertile brain. We are simply repeating what Kṛṣṇa has said. That's all. And see how it is effective. — [[spoken/1976/761229r1.bom|Room Conversation, Bombay, December 29, 1976]] --- ### Fresh and Palatable, Not Rotten > So *Mahābhārata* is the history, and there was Battle of Kurukṣetra. And that Kurukṣetra is mentioned there in the *Bhagavad-gītā,* and it is *dharma-kṣetra* since Vedic age. So the word used, *dharma-kṣetre* and *kuru-kṣetre,* it is completely understood. Why should you interpret, unless you have got a motive? And why a sane man accepts that interpretation? If you have got a different philosophy, you can write your own book. Why should you cheat others, taking *Bhagavad-gītā* and interpreting in your own way? This has spoiled the whole thing. And Kṛṣṇa says that as soon as you deviate from the disciplic succession system, then it will be lost. So what is the use of reading something which is already lost? If I want to supply you something food, it must be fresh and palatable. Then you'll enjoy. But if it is rotten, decomposed, and if we supply you that foodstuff, what you will enjoy, and what you will get benefit out of it? — [[spoken/1976/761229r1.bom|Room Conversation, Bombay, December 29, 1976]] --- ### Human Life Is for Purifying > The human life is meant for purifying. They have lost this goal of life. Temporarily we are thinking if we make some comfortable arrangement for body, and that is sufficient. That is sufficient. Lost Vedic culture, ideal of life, goal of life. At least in India it should. In foreign countries they are... Therefore this movement's against them. Because we are preaching this philosophy just opposite to their views, they are taking it "brainwashed." — [[spoken/1976/761229mw.bom|Morning Walk, Bombay, December 29, 1976]] --- ### Not Genuine; Misleading > The only hope is if you go through the *śāstras,* Vedic literature; that is the way to understand. But at the present moment people are so engrossed with material affairs that they are not interested even to hear or to talk about Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is not a very good sign. It is the feverish condition of *durbhikṣa.* That is mentioned in the *Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam,* that people in general, when they come to the point of suffering from natural law, then they will revive their *nitya-siddha kṛṣṇa-bhakti.* So therefore, as I was speaking in this morning, we have to elevate the human civilization from a platform which is on equal level with hog civilization. We should very carefully study and try to know whether the advancement of civilization which we have accepted is genuine. No. It is not genuine; it is misleading. — [[spoken/1976/761229sb.bom|Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 5.6.11, Bombay, December 29, 1976]] --- *8 verified verbatim quotes from Śrīla Prabhupāda on awakening*