Great Throughts Treasury

"Creation is the only projection into form of that which already exists."

"Like the bee gathering honey from different flowers, the wise man accepts the essence of different Scriptures and sees only the good in all religions."

"A fire devours all that is fed into it but the fire does not change its nature. Similarly, a great personality does not fall from his position by an irregularity in behavior."

"Being conscious of the eternal self, one should give up association with women and those intimately associated with women. Sitting fearlessly in a solitary place, one should concentrate the mind on Me with great attention."

"As one understands the nature and will of God and makes the personal sacrifice required to achieve excellence in spiritual life, one becomes empowered by the Supreme Lord to represent His will, which one has intelligently recognized and accepted."

"Be it desire or fear or anger or affection or friendship or even the desire for union, when directed towards the Lord, it brings the greatest blessing to the devotee. These bring about his union with the Lord."

"Death is certain, and the ultimate fate of the body is never sublime."

"By chanting the holy name of the Supreme Lord, one comes to the stage of love of Godhead. Then the devotee is fixed in his vow as an eternal servant of the Lord, and he gradually becomes very much attached to a particular name and form of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. As his heart melts with ecstatic love, he laughs very loudly or cries or shouts. Sometimes he sings and dances like a madman, for he is indifferent to public opinion."

"Demons arrange many kinds of performances to see the glaring beauty of a beautiful woman. Here it is stated that they saw the girl playing with a ball. Sometimes the demoniac arrange for so-called sports, like tennis, with the opposite sex. The purpose of such sporting is to see the bodily construction of the beautiful…"

"God says: One should worship thus in thought, word, and deed till one comes to look upon all beings as Myself."

"God says: Herein lies the wisdom of the wise and the acumen of the intelligent, that in this very life they attain Me, the Real and Immortal, by means of that which is unreal and mortal."

"Even though not yet master of his senses, my devotee is never completely overcome by them ; his devotion to me is his particular saving grace."

"He who sees the divine Self in all beings and all beings in the divine Self is the best devotee of God. He who bears love to God, friendship to His devotees, kindness to the ignorant, indifference to his foes, is of the second best type, and who faithfully worships God only in the image, and not His devotees or others, is a novice."

"It is a dangerous policy to claim that we are acting improperly because of destiny or fate."

"It is out of the causeless mercy of the Lord that He gives the conditioned souls a taste of their own medicine and thus helps them become more sensitive to the laws of nature and the existence of a Supreme Godhead."

"Living beings who are entangled in the complicated meshes of birth and death can be freed immediately by even unconsciously chanting the holy name of Kåñëa, which is feared by fear personified."

"Like the bee, gathering honey from different flowers, the wise man accepts the essence of different scriptures and sees only the good in all religions."

"Kr?s?n?a is our most intimate master, friend, father or son and object of conjugal love. Forgetting Kr?s?n?a, we have created so many objects of questions and answers, but none of them are able to give us complete satisfaction. All things—but Kr?s?n?a—give temporary satisfaction only, so if we are to have complete satisfaction we must take to the questions and answers about Kr?s?n?a."

"Lord Krishna says: Drawing the mind which is concentrated on that, one should fix it on the Supreme Cause [the Lord as projecting the universe]. Then leaving this too one should rest on Me [Brahman as all-pervading Consciousness] and think of nothing whatsoever. With one's mind thus absorbed one sees God alone in one's self and sees oneself united Him, the Self of all --- the Light united to Light (state of samadhi)."

"Life's desires should never be directed toward sense gratification. One should desire only a healthy life, or self-preservation, since a human being is meant for inquiry about the Absolute Truth. Nothing else should be the goal of one's works."

"Materialists are generally very attached to their present bodily comforts and to the bodily comforts they expect in the future. Therefore they are always absorbed in thoughts of their wives, children and wealth and are afraid of giving up their bodies, which are full of stool and urine."

"One should meditate on the form of God concentrating the mind on all the features. The person of self-control should withdraw the organs from the sense-objects with the help of the mind, and with the intellect [the determinative faculty] as guide, direct the mind to the entire form. Then he should concentrate the mind --- distributed all over the form --- on one part and think of the smiling countenance alone and nothing else."

"O great soul, he who, taking his stand on pure knowledge, thus regards and honours all beings as myself, who has the same attitude towards a low born one as to a Brahmana, towards a thief as to a supporter of the Brahmanas, towards a spark of fire as to the sun, and towards a ruffian as to a kind man; he is considered sage."

"One who chants the holy name of the Lord is immediately freed from the reactions of unlimited sins, even if he chants indirectly to indicate something else (sanketya), jokingly (parihasya), for musical entertainment (stobha), or even neglectfully (helana). This is accepted by all the learned scholars of the scriptures."

"O sage, persons who because of their sinful activities are averse to the topics of Transcendence and thus ignorant of the purpose of the Bhagavad-g?t? are pitied by the pitiable. I also pity them because I see how their duration of life is spoiled by eternal time while they involve themselves in presentations of philosophical speculation, theoretical ultimate goals of life, and different modes of ritual."

"Ordinary people feel they cannot live without their wealth, although their possession of it is circumstantial and temporary."

"One who falsely identifies himself as the material body or mind automatically feels entitled to exploit the material world. But when we realize our eternal spiritual nature and Lord Krsna’s supreme proprietorship over all that be, we renounce our false enjoying propensity by the strength of spiritual knowledge."

"Sons ought to render service to their father exactly to this extent. One should obey the command of his father or spiritual master with due deference, saying, Yes, sir."

"Our passionate and ignorant activities cause great suffering, illusion and fear for us and others; therefore they should be given up. One should become firmly situated in the mode of goodness and live peacefully on the spiritual platform. The essence of goodness is to renounce selfish interest in all one’s activities and thus dedicate one’s entire being to the Supreme Being, Lord Krsna, who is the source of our existence."

"Reality is ultimately personal and divine, and therefore it is not surprising that, as the Vedic literature reveals to us, our universe and other universes are managed by great personalities, just as our city, state and country are managed by empowered personalities."

"Sometimes the conditioned soul is attracted by illusion personified (his wife or girl friend) and becomes eager to be embraced by a woman. Thus he loses his intelligence as well as knowledge of life’s goal. At that time, no longer attempting spiritual cultivation, he becomes overly attached to his wife or girlfriend…"

"That complete freedom is achieved when he meets the complete spirit, the Personality of Godhead. There is a dormant affection for God within everyone; spiritual existence is manifested through the gross body and mind in the form of perverted affection for gross and subtle matter."

"The body and the mind are but superfluous outer coverings of the spirit soul. The spirit soul’s needs must be fulfilled. Simply by cleansing the cage of the bird, one does not satisfy the bird. One must actually know the needs of the bird himself."

"The need of the spirit soul is that he wants to get out of the limited sphere of material bondage and fulfill his desire for complete freedom. He wants to get out of the covered walls of the greater universe. He wants to see the free light and the spirit."

"The individual soul is one, Pure, nonmaterial and self-effulgent. He is the reservoir of all good qualities, and He is all-pervading. He is without material covering, and He is the witness of all activities. He is completely distinguished from other living entities, and He is transcendental to all embodied souls."

"The process of meditation should begin from the lotus feet of the Lord and progress to His smiling face. The meditation should be concentrated upon the lotus feet, then the calves, then the thighs, and in this way higher and higher. The more the mind becomes fixed upon the different parts of the limbs, one after another, the more the intelligence becomes purified."

"The person who is not disturbed by happiness or distress and steady in both is certainly eligible for liberation."

"Therefore we have to engage ourselves in occupational engagements that will evoke our divine consciousness. This is possible only by hearing and chanting the divine activities of the Supreme Lord…"

"Therefore, steadfastly devoted to me, gain control over speech, mind, and Pr4a. To him who is endowed with love for me, 0 Uddhava, belongs the fullness of We."

"To become restless in the contact of women and wealth is not an astonishment, because every living being is associated with such things from remote time, practically immemorial, and it takes time to recover from this foreign nature."

"Those who are in full knowledge of the bodily conception of life, who know that this body is composed of nescience, desires and activities resulting from illusion, do not become addicted to the body."

"When the mind is allowed to think of sense gratification continuously, it becomes the cause of our material bondage. If our mind is simply filled with sense gratification, even though we want Krsna consciousness, by continuous practice we cannot forget the subject matter of sense gratification."

"To turn your home into Vaikuntha, the spiritual world, is not difficult. You simply have to adopt the right method. Lord Krishna provides everything we need to bring the spiritual world into our lives."

"Wherever there is power, beauty, fame prosperity, modesty, sacrifice, concord, fortune, strength, fortitude, or knowledge-there am I manifested."

"A person becomes purified simply by hearing the holy name of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, whose lotus feet create the holy places of pilgrimage. Therefore, what remains to be attained by those who have become His servants?"

"A person who is not bewildered by the inevitable miseries of material existence, and who remains aloof from them by remembering the lotus feet of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is to be considered a bhagavata-pradhaana, the foremost devotee of the Lord."

"A pure devotee of the Lord will not give up his shelter at the lotus feet of the Lord for a single moment, indeed not even for half a moment, even in exchange for the benediction of ruling and enjoying the opulence of the entire universe."

"A pure devotee has no demand from the Lord. His only concern is to serve the Lord sincerely and seriously and he is not at all concerned about what will happen in the future."

"All heads of state should themselves be bona fide representatives of God and should cut down all irreligious systems. Unfortunately they are cowards who declare a secular state. Such a mentality is a way of compromising religious and irreligious systems, but because of this citizens are generally becoming uninterested in spiritual advancement. Thus the situation deteriorates to such an extent that human society becomes hellish."

"Alas! [he thought to himself], by the Controller turning the wheel of time this creature was deprived of its family, friends and relatives. Finding me for its shelter, it has only me as its father, mother, brother and member of the herd. Surely having no one else it puts great faith in me as the support to rely upon and thus fully depends on me for its learning, sustenance, love and protection. I have got to admit that it is wrong to neglect someone who has taken shelter and must acccordingly act without regrets."