Hare Krsna-over a 5 year period, back in the mid 1970’s, I built 3 different size Ratha carts for Vancouver temple. The first one seen below was a converted farm cart from our first “farm” up in Bridesville BC
This is another view as we took Lord Jagannatha around the seawall promenade-it was so tight you couldn’t really safely walk alongside it at places along the route. Anyway, we all had a great time.
Hare Krsna-below we have entered many different conversations and quotes all relating to one topic-How only a madman thinks he or she is independent in this world to do as they please.
July 5 1976 Wash DC conversationsVṛṣākapi: I was thinking that they are talking of independence, but they cannot even become independent of old age and disease. Their body, they try to control things, but their own body is out of control.
Prabhupāda: So many things.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: One may say that if there’s no independence, then where is the question of initiative in the material world, taking initiative?Prabhupāda: Initiative? What is that question? Initiative I understand, but do you think that by taking initiative of independence you become independent, like this, by dancing and fireworks, you become independent? This is initiative, dancing like dogs, (sings) “We are independent, we are independent.” (laughter) Does it have any meaning? Dance like a dog, that’s all.
Hari-śauri: It’s a big show, that’s all.
Yadubara: They will say that they can do so many things.
Prabhupāda: What they can do? They cannot do anything. At any moment, you can be kicked out, “Get out.”
Yadubara: But they have choice within māyā. Isn’t that a fact?Prabhupāda: Choice?
Yadubara: Choice what to do in the material world, many different fields. They will say that they can do this or that.
Prabhupāda: Many fields, that is also conditioned. That is conditioned, that is not independence.
Hari-śauri: One has choice to become a dog or a cat, or…
Prabhupāda: Everything is conditioned. Therefore it is called conditioned life. There is no question of independence. That is foolishness. That is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā, that they are not independent, completely under the control of laws of material nature, and still they are thinking independent.
Rūpānuga: It is like a prisoner in the prison house thinking he has some freedom.
Prabhupāda: That freedom is danda jane raja jana nadi secu bhau.(?) Drowning the man in the water and, “Now you have independence, so breathe.” (laughter) So he breathes in, “Ah! Ah!” “All right, you are now a little relieved, all right, again. Again become drown.” “Oh! Save me, save me, save me, save me.” “All right,” take out, “now breathe, independently.“ This is independence. Danda jane raj jana nadi secu bhai.(?) The rascal does not know “I am breathing independent, but at any moment I can be drowned again.” Very correct example, danda jane raja jana nadi secu bhai.(?) No independence. Independence is only there when you fully surrender to Kṛṣṇa. You surrender your all independence to Kṛṣṇa. Then there is. “Kṛṣṇa, I have foolishly acted as independent, so many lives. Now I surrender all my independence at Your lotus feet. If You like, You can kill me; if You like, You can…,” that is independence. Otherwise, there is no independence. All foolishness. Ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā. By false egotism, he’s thinking that “I am independent.”
Spiritual Vibrations to cleanse ourselves of all material contaminations
In the cleaning industry, they clean your window blinds with some sort of a machine which vibrates the dirt off the blinds. No water, just vibrations cleanses the dirt off. Similarly the Hare Krsna maha mantra is a seed sound vibration which cleanses all the dirt from our hearts, so that eventually we can see ourselves and also God, Krsna as Supersoul within our hearts.
June 23 1975 LA conversations
Here in the material world, except the spirit soul, everything is material. And he is encumbered with this material atmosphere by twenty-seven stratas, layers. The five elements, gross elements, then ten senses, and then three guṇas… In this way there are twenty-seven layers. He is within, and he has to be taken out. That is called liberation. Just like if you are covered with twenty-seven layers of dirty things, so it is very difficult position. But there is process to clear the garbage and take him out. That is Kṛṣṇa conscious movement, to take the soul out of the covering of twenty-seven layers of material atmosphere
So 27 layers of dirt, both gross and subtle, accumulated for lifetimes has to be removed, in order to see ourselves, and God within the heart. This is our problem, our only real problem
Aug 21 1973 london Just like electricity is everywhere, electrons. One who can tackle the electrons, they can talk without any direct connection by electronic method, thousand thousand miles away. Just like radio message, television message. So similarly, Kṛṣṇa is also everywhere. Just like the waves of sound wave is going on. As soon as you produce, I produce one sound, immediately within a second the sound goes round the earth seven times. So if a material thing has got so much power, just think how much power God has got.
1.) June 23 1975 LA
Jayatīrtha: Philosophers generally try to use their mind to speculate about the nature of the soul. But with the mind they can never understand…
Prabhupāda: Just like the madman is speculating. He is thinking, “I am president. Bas, finished.” He is lying down on the street, “Oh, I am completely independent. Why shall I go on the foot path?”
John Mize: When the soul was in the spiritual sky, it also had a mind and an intelligence like here?
Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Yes. Unless he has got mind, how he misuses intelligence?John Mize: But he misused that intelligence in his freedom, his independence.Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes. Mind is there also. That is spiritual mind. Everything is spiritual. There is nothing material. Body spiritual, mind spiritual, intelligence spiritual, he is spiritual, the land spiritual, water spiritual—everything is spiritual. That is spiritual world. Here in the material world, except the spirit soul, everything is material.And he is encumbered with this material atmosphere by twenty-seven stratas, layers. The five elements, gross elements, then ten senses, and then three guṇas… In this way there are twenty-seven layers. He is within, and he has to be taken out. That is called liberation.Just like if you are covered with twenty-seven layers of dirty things, so it is very difficult position. But there is process to clear the garbage and take him out. That is Kṛṣṇa conscious movement, to take the soul out of the covering of twenty-seven layers of material atmosphere. That śloka is naṣṭa-prāyeṣu abhadreṣu: “almost cleansed.” Abhadra, abhadra means dirty things. So this clearing process going on. When it is almost cleansed the man feels, “Oh…” And that process: nityaṁ bhāgavata-sevayā [SB 1.2.18], constantly being engaged in the service of Bhāgavata, grantha-Bhāgavata and the person Bhāgavata. Then it will be cleansed. And then, when he comes out, that is brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā [Bg. 18.54], “Oh, I am now free.” Na śocati na…, no more lamentation, no more greediness. Everything finished. Then he begins his real business as part and parcel of God. That is perfection.
Bahulāśva: Prabhupāda, in the Thirteenth Chapter of Bhagavad-gītā, “Nature, Enjoyer, and Consciousness,” in verse number six and seven you mention those twenty-seven coverings: “The five great elements, false ego, intelligence, the unmanifest, the ten senses, the mind, the five sense objects, desire, hate, happiness, and distress, the aggregate, the life symptoms and convictions—all these are considered, in summary, to be the field of activities and their interaction.” And…
Prabhupāda: By the material life, these are our field of activities. The body is a combination of all these things. Just like a huge computer machine. It is made of these material things, but the mechanical parts are very minute, different. All these are matter. But within this matter, because the soul is there, therefore the finest machine is working. Just like your composition machine, (imitates machine:) “Kut, kut, kut, kut, kut, kut.” But one has to push the button; otherwise useless. However very nicely made the machine, without a living being’s touch, it is useless. So all this big machine, body, is wonderful so long the soul is there. And as soon as the soul is out it is lump of matter, useless, not worth a penny. Throw it away.So we are giving importance to the machine, not to the person who is dealing with the machine. This is the folly of modern civilization. We are thinking like child, “The machine is working independently.” But that is not the fact. The big airship, 747, is flying because the pilot is there, and the pilot is a soul, covered by another bodily machine. And that, that is missing point in the modern civilization, that who is working with the machine. That they do not know. That is ignorance. It is said—you see Bhagavad-gītā,īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe ‘rjuna tiṣṭhati bhrāmayan sarva-bhūtāniyantrārūḍhāni māyayā [Bg. 18.61]Yantra means machine. So the modern education is missing the pilot. They are simply wandering with the machine. Read it.
Srila Prabhupada’s 1972 Bhagavad Gita As It Is Lecture notes: Part 1.3
Hare Krsna, pranams and all glories to His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada..
Part 1.3: Lecture notes on some verses of Chapter 1 of the Macmillan Bhagavad Gita As It Is 1972 Edition
1. BG 1.8-10-LONDON – July 12, 1973Srila Prabhupada explains Duryodhana’s pride in his strength
Translation: “Our strength is immeasurable, and we are perfectly protected by Grandfather Bhīṣma, whereas the strength of the Pāṇḍavas, carefully protected by Bhīma, is limited.”
Srila Gopal Bhatta Goswami.. Appearance 2nd Feb 2021.
Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu came to Ranga Kshetra in the Christian year 1511. Vyenkata Bhatta had two brothers, Tirumalla Bhatta and Prabodhananda Sarasvati. They all belonged to the Ramanuja sampradaya and Prabodhananda Sarasvati was a tridandi sannyasi of that order. Vyenkata Bhatta had a son named Gopal, who was then just a child. When the boy came to offer his obeisances at the lotusfeet of Mahaprabhu picked him up and very affectionately seated him in His lap. Mahaprabhu would call Gopal after He had finished His meal and offer His remnants to the boy. In this way He prepared him for the positon of Acarya.
Continue readingTuesday, February 2, 2021 [Mayapura, West Bengal, Bharata Bhumi time]
Sri Gopala Bhatta Goswami avirbhava tithi [appearance day of Sri Gopala Bhatta Goswami]
Sri Ramacandra Kaviraja tirobhava tithi [disappearance day of Sri Ramacandra Kaviraja]
Srila Prabhupada describes the glories of Sri Gopala Bhatta Goswami and Sri Ramacandra Kavirajacompiled by Damaghosa dasa and Yasoda nandan dasa
Srila Prabhupada Speaks Out – “As you say that “by reading Bible,” when you read Bible that means you are following
the spiritual master represented by some priest or some clergyman in the line of Lord Jesus Christ.
So any case, you have to follow a spiritual master. There cannot be the question without spiritual master. Is that clear?”
