# April 15 ## Spoken on April 15 *Lectures from this day: 10 recordings* --- **[1966: Bhagavad-gītā 2.58–59](spoken/1966/660415bg.ny.md)** > So here the Lord says, *viṣayā vinivartante nirāhārasya dehinaḥ.* Just like a person is diseased. He is advised by the doctor that "You shall not take such-and-such things." So he is starving or he is fasting. Suppose in the typhoid fever the doctor has advised him not to take any solid food. So under the instruction of the doctor, he is not taking any solid food. But suppose his brother is eating some bread. Oh, he likes that "If I could eat." But that means within himself... He is, by force, by the instruction of the physician, he is forced not to eat. But within himself he has got the tendency for eating. But out of fear that "If I eat, there will be very bad reaction of taking solid food," therefore, by force, he is not eating. > So we have to gradually find out that stage of life. Here the Lord says that by force we cannot stop anyone's material activities. That is not possible. By force, it is not possible. So any other system of spiritual realization, either by the process of philosophical speculation or by this process of artificial, I mean to say, gymnastic of this body, you see, or meditation, forceful meditation... Whole day I am working in a material atmosphere. Suppose for two hours I meditate. Of course, it will make some progress. Anything, spiritual action, that will not go in vain. That is a fact. But that progress is very slow. Very slow. --- **[1967: Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā 7.108–109](spoken/1967/670415cc.ny)** > So similarly, knowledge means to—athāto brahma-jijñāsā—to understand Brahman. Kṛṣṇa says, *ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavo mattaḥ sarvaṁ pravartate*: "I am the origin of everything, and everything emanates from Me." *Iti matvā bhajante mām, budhā. Budhā* means one who is in the topmost platform of knowledge. That is called *budhā.* Therefore Lord Buddha is called Buddha. *Budhā* means one who is in the topmost platform of knowledge. He's called *budhā. Budh-dhātu. Budh-dhātu* means to know, to understand, or to have knowledge. So *budhā. Budhā* means one who is actually *buddha,* or *budhā,* he worships Kṛṣṇa, because he knows perfectly well that He is the origin of everything. *Sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam.* > There are so many *īśvaras,* controller, but Parameśvara, or the Supreme Lord, supreme controller, is Kṛṣṇa. *Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ.* People may misunderstand, "Oh, Kṛṣṇa, we have seen Him. He's a historical person. How He can be the supreme controller? He's just like a man. He's a man like us." No. He's *sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ.* He's not like a man like you. His form is spiritual, blissful, eternal. "How it is eternal? We have known that He is born." That Kṛṣṇa says, *janma karma me divyaṁ yo jānāti tattvataḥ* : "How I am born, what are My activities, if anyone knows..." Then what he becomes? Oh, *tyaktvā dehaṁ punar:* "He becomes immediately liberated." --- **[1972: Bhagavad-gītā 7.1 [Public Lecture](spoken/1972/720415bg.auc)** > No. Kṛṣṇa says, *sambhavāmy ātma-māyayā*: "I come out of My good will." *Yadā yadā hi dharmasya glānir bhavati bhārata, tadātmānaṁ sṛjāmy aham*: "At that time I appear." Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, *janma karma me divyaṁ yo jānāti tattvataḥ*. We have to understand Him in truth, not by imagination, not by malinterpretation, but by fact. The fact is being explained by Kṛṣṇa Himself. Why we should go to understand Kṛṣṇa by the commentary of some less intelligent, some poor fund of knowledge? Why we should? > So your prayer, *nirākāra,* or *gagana-sadṛśa,* that is one feature of Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is person. The *nirākāra,* Brahman feature, is His effulgence of the body. That is expressed in the *Bhagavad-gītā, brahmaṇaḥ ahaṁ pratiṣṭhā.* The Absolute Truth is realized in three angles of vision according to the capacity of the devotee. *Vadanti tat tattva-vidas tattvaṁ yaj jñānam advayam*. Tattva-vit. Tattva-vit* means one who has realized the Supreme Truth. He is called *tattva-vit. Tattva* means Supreme Truth, and *vit* means one who knows. --- **[1972: Rādhā-Giridhārī Installation](spoken/1972/720415di.auc)** > > vande ahaṁ śrī-guru śrī-yuta-padakamalaṁ śrī-gurūn vaiṣṇavāṁś ca > > śrī-rūpaṁ sāgrajātaṁ saha-gaṇa-raghunāthānvitaṁ taṁ sa-jīvam > > sa advaitaṁ sāvadhūtaṁ parijana-sahitaṁ kṛṣṇa-caitanya-devaṁ > > śrī-rādhā-kṛṣṇa-pādān saha-gaṇa-lalitā-śrī-viśākhānvitāṁś ca > > namo brahmaṇya-devāya go-brāhmaṇa-hitāya ca > > jagad-dhitāya kṛṣṇāya govindāya namo namaḥ > > namo brahmaṇya-devāya go-brāhmaṇa-hitāya ca > > jagad-dhitāya kṛṣṇāya govindāya namo namaḥ > > namo brahmaṇya-devāya go-brāhmaṇa-hitāya ca > > jagad-dhitāya kṛṣṇāya govindāya namo namaḥ --- **[1973: Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.8.23](spoken/1973/730415sb.la)** > Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, *mattaḥ smṛtir jñānam apohanaṁ ca*. He gives you the body, reminds you, "My dear living entity, you wanted to eat stool? Now you have got a proper body. Now utilize. Here is stool also." Similarly, if you want to become demigod, that also Kṛṣṇa gives you chance. Anything... There are 8,400[000] forms of life. If you want to engage your senses in any type of body, Kṛṣṇa is giving you: "Come on. Here is the body. You take." But we become exasperated by using our senses. Ultimately we become senseless. > Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, *sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja* : "Don't do like this. Your senses are meant for serving Me. So you are misusing it. By misusing, you are being entrapped in different types of body. Therefore to get relief from this tedious business of accepting one body and giving it up, again another body, again another..., to continue this material existence, if you give up this process of sense gratification and surrender unto Me, then you are saved." This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. --- **[1974: Bhagavad-gītā 4.26](spoken/1974/740415bg.bom)** > So this is our material disease. And how we are trying to be master or enjoyer of this material world? By the senses, by the mind. *Manaḥ ṣaṣṭhāni prakṛti-sthāni karṣati. Manaḥ... Mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūtaḥ*. "The living entities," Kṛṣṇa says, "they are My part and parcel." So instead of serving Kṛṣṇa, they are trying to..., utilizing, they are trying to utilize the material nature for their sense gratification. This is called struggle for existence, *prakṛti-sthāni karṣati. Karṣati* means hard struggle. *Manaḥ-ṣaṣṭhānīndriyāṇi prakṛti-sthāni karṣati*. This is going on. And this *karṣati* means struggling for existence. Because you cannot be happy. You cannot be happy by this artificial way of life. This is artificial way of life. Just like both of them have been described as *prakṛti. Bhinnā me prakṛtir aṣṭadhā.* And *apareyam itas tu viddhi me prakṛtiṁ parām.* The *parā,* it is *prakṛti.* Suppose there are two *prakṛtis,* two women. One has dressed as man and one has dressed as woman. But how they can enjoy? Because actually they are *prakṛtis.* Simply by changing the dress, there is no possibility of enjoyment. *Prakṛti.* Therefore, m*anaḥ-ṣaṣṭh...,* it is simply mental concoction. *Manaḥ-ṣaṣṭhānīndriyāṇi prakṛti-sthāni karṣati*. This is going on. > If you want to purify your *indriyas,* then you have to accept to be free from *upādhi.* At the present moment, because we are in bodily concept of life, I am thinking that "I belong to this family. So if I do not satisfy the family members..." I have to satisfy. This is my real position. *Jīvera 'svarūpa' haya—nitya-kṛṣṇa-dāsa*. My position is servant of Kṛṣṇa. That is my constitutional position. So "Kṛṣṇa" means to serve Kṛṣṇa's desire, what Kṛṣṇa says. As Kṛṣṇa says, *sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekam*. --- **[1975: Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 5.5.3](spoken/1975/750415sb.hyd)** > So this is going on. We are accepting leaders who has got all these defects, and still we accept somebody as leader. *Andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānās*. Such leadership is just like a blind man, he is leading other blind men. So then that will create disaster. Therefore our, I mean to say, verdict or decision is always defective. For example, sometime before in India there was Prohibition, and now there is encouragement of drinking. So unless we accept something standard which is correct in all circumstances, that will mislead us. Therefore our *Vedānta-sūtra* says that we should see through the *śāstra.* That is standard. > "It doesn't matter whether one is *sannyasi* or whether one is *brāhmaṇa* or *śūdra.* Anyone, it doesn't matter, if he knows the science of Kṛṣṇa, he can take the place of *guru*." This is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's direction. *Yei kṛṣṇa-tattva-vettā. Kṛṣṇa-tattva-vettā* means one who knows what is Kṛṣṇa. Such person can become *guru*. There are other statements like that, who can become *guru*. The sum and substance is that if one knows what is God fully, he can become God, er, *guru*. Otherwise not. Not that because one is *brāhmaṇa* or a *sannyāsī,* therefore he can become *guru*. No. One must know the science of Kṛṣṇa, *kṛṣṇa-tattva-vettā.* So that is not very easy thing. Kṛṣṇa says, --- **[1976: Morning Walk](spoken/1976/760415mw.bom)** > Go to the person who has seen actually and take information. Simply by reading you will be misleaded. Even persons like Gandhi or Dr. Radhakrishnan, Aurobindo, they were misled because they wanted to manufacture their own meaning. They did not like to act as Kṛṣṇa says. > If you simply understand Kṛṣṇa, then you become scientist, philosopher. And I was never a scientist, so we challenge the scientists, and I have produced this scientist to challenge them. But I was never a scientist. That book is actually revolutionary amongst the scientists. *Scientific Basis,* you have read that? --- **[1976: Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 7.12.4](spoken/1976/760415sb.bom)** > So description of *brahmacārī* is going on here, the dress. The dress should be as simple as possible. So the *ajina* means the deerskin. That is very essential, because formerly the *brahmacārīs* used to go to *guru-gṛha.* In those days the *guru-gṛha* was not palatial building. Now if you haven't got palatial building, nobody will come. The different stage. But actually *brahmacārī,* the *guru* also, they were living in the forest, and *brahmacārī* used to go that *guru-gṛha.* So the deerskin in the forest is very essential. Just like we take some blankets, we can spread anywhere and sit down. Deerskin, it is said that if you have got deerskin, you can sleep in the jungle; the snake will not touch you. That is the *dravya-guṇa,* the special effect of deerskin. Either tigerskin or deerskin, if you sit down, if you sleep, the snakes will not come. This is also very scientific. Therefore, because the *brahmacārīs* used to live in the jungle, it was essential. But on the whole the shortcut recommended, not that gorgeous dress, very nice bedstead or... As far as possible, *yāv*ad-artha, whatever is absolutely necessary... That is Vedic civilization. Vedic civilization does not recommend that artificially you increase your necessities, life, and there is so much trouble. Just like nowadays in your country the machine is there in every respect. Even for shaving your cheek you require a machine. So this increasing the artificial necessities of life is possible when there is no higher thought. After all, we are thoughtful. We have got better consciousness in the human form of life than the animals. Our consciousness is developed. But because in this age, material world, we have no spiritual idea, so whatever power we have got in thinking, we are trying to increase artificially material way of life. "The idle brain is a devil's workshop." > Fearing, we have got... We are afraid because we are thinking, "I am this body." *Bhayaṁ dvitīyābhiniveśataḥ syāt*. The question of fear comes... Just like this body. If there is some danger, why we are fearful? Because I am thinking, "I am this body." *Dvitīyābhiniveśataḥ.* I am soul. Every one of us spirit soul. Kṛṣṇa is spirit soul. So even after the destruction of body, I do not die. *Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre*. But this realization we are lacking. Therefore, when there is some danger about my body, I become fearful. This is *dvitīya...* But that does not mean unnecessarily we expose to danger. No. But we must have this consciousness, that "This body is temporary. Even it is destroyed, I am not going to die. But if Kṛṣṇa likes to be destroyed, let it be done so. Where is the question of fear?" But that does not mean I'll not take any precaution. I must take precaution. But I shall not be overwhelmed. *Yasyātma-buddhiḥ.* If I think... Just like in car, there was some little accident the other day. So although there was accident, we did not care. We began to walk. Because we know that "Because there is some accident, then we are lost"—no. So the more we become spiritually advanced, these things come in. *Nidrāhāra vihārakādi.* Those who are accustomed to material habit, at the time of drinking tea, if he does not get a cup of tea he becomes mad after it, because too much materially inclined. But you have given up. You know that "Without drinking tea, I am not going to die. Why shall I be..., unnecessarily take all these things?" This is spiritual life. Spiritual life does not mean go on increasing your material necessity and you become spiritual. No. Minimize. Minimize. *Yāvad artha-prayojana.* As much as required. We shall talk very measured thing. That is spiritual life. So *brahmacārī* is taught. From the very beginning he is taught to shortcut the necessities of life. Shortcut. Yes. --- **[1977: Room Conversation with Ratansinh Rajda M.P. "Nationalism and Cheating"](spoken/1977/770415r1.bom)** > It is not so easy job. But still, some ideal institution should be there who are actually serious to understand. They may be given the chance. That must be there. In the university, when we were student, there were some postgraduate classes that no student was coming. But still, the university maintained that class, paying, in those days, 1,200, 1,500, salaries to the professors. They maintained that. So here there is no question of salary. Here the institution must be maintained, strictly following the principles of *Bhagavad-gītā.* It is open. It is not difficult at all. Just like Kṛṣṇa says the perfect life, how one can become perfect, *man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru*: >personally going from door to door, selling the books and sending money. We are pushing on our mission in that way. I am not getting any help either from the government, from the public. And the record is there in the Bank of America, how much foreign exchange I am bringing. Even in this feeble health also, I am working four hours at least, at night. And they are also helping me. So this is our individual attempt. Why not come here? If you are actually very serious student of *Bhagavad-gītā,* why don't you come, cooperate? And *harāv abhaktasya kuto mahad-guṇā manorathenāsati dhāvato...*. You cannot make public honest simply by legislation. That is not possible. Forget it. --- ## Letters on April 15 *Letters from this day: 8* --- **[1961: Letter to Mr. Genxo Abe](letters/1947-1965/610415_mr._genxo_abe)** > I beg to inform you that I have very kindly been invited by the noble Japanese organizers of the International Congress for Cultivating Human Spirit, to be held in your different important cities. --- **[1967: Letter to Sri Krishna Panditji](letters/1967/670415_sri_krishna_panditji)** > Regarding printing work, I am prepared to guarantee for payment to the press if the printing is first class just suitable to the American taste. If Joshiji appears to be not interested why not yourself do the work and I am prepared to pay you as stated in my previous letter. --- **[1970: Letter to Syamasundara](letters/1970/700415_syamasundara)** > Regarding your further statement in the matter of George's introduction, I think as he is not settled up in his conclusion, he wants to change it, either we should wait for his final decision or it may not be added. For the time being I am holding its publication. In the meantime, I hope you have received my yesterday's letter. --- **[1972: Letter to Bali-Mardana](letters/1972/720415_bali-mardana)** > I think you are doing very nicely there in ISKCON Press, so you should stick there and manage everything as you are already doing. --- **[1972: Letter to Citsukhananda](letters/1972/720415_citsukhananda)** > I am very much pleased to hear that Mexico City center is developing very nicely under your expert supervision, and I also note that you say that Latin America is very much ready for Krishna Consciousness movement. --- **[1972: Letter to Jadurani](letters/1972/720415_jadurani)** > I have received your undated note, along with sketch for cover of *Srimad-Bhagavatam,* 4th Canto, Vol. So far Lord Brahma paint him just like you have painted already in the poster where he is flying on the swan for stealing Krishna's cowherds friends and cows. --- **[1972: Letter to Ujjal](letters/1972/720415_ujjal)** > Upon the recommendation of Citsukhananda, I am very glad to consent to accept you as my duly initiated disciple, and I am sending your beads, duly chanted by me, under separate post. --- **[1975: Letter to Joy Deb Mullick](letters/1975/750415_joy_deb_mullick)** > I have duly received your card sent through my devotees and I am so glad to hear from you after so long a time. ---