700622 - Lecture Initiation - Los Angeles

Lectures by Date, 1970

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

 Listen to a 'Nectar Drop' created from this lecture

700622IN-LOS ANGELES - June 22, 1970 - 53:17 Minutes

Prabhupāda: (japa)

What is your name? Huh?

Lucy: Lucy.

Prabhupāda: Lucy. So your spiritual name, Lakṣmī-priyā. Lakṣmī-priyā. Lord Caitanya's first wife's name was Lakṣmī-priyā. Yes. So always think of Lord Caitanya and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Come on, next. (japa)

Your name is Mṛga-netrī. Mṛga-netrī. Mṛga-netrī means staring eyes like she-deer. When Kṛṣṇa and Rādhārāṇī used to pass through the forest of Vṛndāvana, these deers and stags, they were looking with staring eyes: "When Kṛṣṇa will pass this way?" These animals were also attracted to Kṛṣṇa. The birds, everyone, the flowers, the fruits, everyone engage . . . Vṛndāvana means everything engaged in Kṛṣṇa. So if all of you similarly engage yourself always in Kṛṣṇa's service, this is Vṛndāvana.

Vṛndāvana is not that . . . as Kṛṣṇa is not located . . . He is located, but by His inconceivable potency, He can simultaneously become located and distributed. Akhilātma-bhūtaḥ. Goloka eva nivasaty akhilātma-bhūtaḥ (Bs. 5.37). He is always in Goloka Vṛndāvana, but still, He is everywhere. That is God's omnipotence. We say that God is omnipotent, but we do not know what does it mean. The omnipotency means simultaneously to do or to act or to remain everywhere. That is Kṛṣṇa.

Kṛṣṇa . . . you may not think that, "Kṛṣṇa is (in) Goloka Vṛndāvana. Here is an idol of Kṛṣṇa." No. He is Kṛṣṇa. Just like the electricity is distributed, but in the plug there is also electricity, similarly, Kṛṣṇa . . . that is Kṛṣṇa's inconceivable potency. He can remain in everyone's heart, He can remain everywhere. Just imagine. Everywhere He is. Goloka eva . . . but His location is Goloka Vṛndāvana, but still, He is everywhere.

So try to see Kṛṣṇa with that staring eyes—"Where is Kṛṣṇa?" Here is . . . Kṛṣṇa is within your heart. Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānām (BG 18.61). He is within the atom. He is everywhere. So by service, we can realize. Ataḥ śrī-kṛṣṇa-nāmādi na bhaved grāhyam indriyaiḥ (CC Madhya 17.136). If we want to see Kṛṣṇa, touch Kṛṣṇa, with our these material senses, it is not possible. These senses are to be purified. How it is purified? Sevonmukhe hi jihvādau: the service. And where from the service begins? The service begins jihvādau, from the tongue. The service begins from the tongue. You chant. Therefore we are giving you the beads to chant. That is the beginning of service: chant.

If you chant, then svayam eva sphuraty adaḥ. By hearing Kṛṣṇa's name, you will understand Kṛṣṇa's form, you will understand Kṛṣṇa's quality, you'll understand Kṛṣṇa's pastimes, His omnipotency. Everything will be revealed. Svayam eva sphuraty adaḥ. Svayam means the Kṛṣṇa science becomes revealed. You cannot make research to understand Kṛṣṇa science with these material senses. You have to purify your senses, sevonmukhe, by service. Tat-paratvena nirmalam (CC Madhya 19.170). When you engage your senses in Kṛṣṇa's service, then it becomes purified. Hṛṣīkeṇa.

That purified . . . your senses not to be abolished like the impersonalists: "No more sense, finished." No. We . . . our senses are . . . because we are eternal, our senses are eternal. But at the present moment our senses are being used, contaminated; therefore you are not satisfied. The senses are not to be cut off. No. Liberation does not mean I become impersonal, all my senses are gone. No. Liberation means purification of the senses. And the symptom how the senses are purified, that will be manifested that when one's senses are simply engaged in the service of the Lord. Hands, legs, eyes, ears, mouth—we have got so many senses—everything.

Hṛṣīkeṇa-hṛṣīkeśa-sevanam (CC Madhya 19.170). Actually the proprietor of the senses is Kṛṣṇa. We have got this hand, but it is given to us. Actually it is the hand of Kṛṣṇa. He is all-pervading. Sarvato 'pāṇi pādas tat: "Everywhere, His hands and legs are there." You'll find in the Bhagavad-gītā (Bg 13.14). So therefore these hands and legs which we have got, this is Kṛṣṇa's hands and legs. So when these Kṛṣṇa's hands and legs will be engaged in the service of Kṛṣṇa, that is the perfection. That is . . . the perfection. If our, our senses . . . just like we used to . . . we like to use our senses for own satisfaction, similarly . . . but actually the senses are not ours, it is Kṛṣṇa's. Hṛṣīkeṇa-hṛṣīkeśa (CC Madhya 19.170).

Therefore Arjuna addressed Kṛṣṇa in the battlefield, "Hṛṣīkeśa." Hṛṣīkeśa. The significance of this word is, "My dear Kṛṣṇa, You are Hṛṣīkeśa. You are sitting in my heart, and You are the master of my senses. So I personally cannot understand what is the benefit of this fighting, but You give me direction and use my senses as You like. That's all." He was not inclined to fight, but he surrendered his senses and mind, everything. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

So sevonmukhe jihvādau. Jihvā. Jihvā means the tongue. The tongue has got two business: to articulate, vibrate; and to taste. Taste Kṛṣṇa-prasādam, and articulate, chant, vibrate Hare Kṛṣṇa. Then as soon as your tongue is controlled, become purified, all other senses becomes automatically purified. Tongue is the greatest enemy. If you cannot control your tongue, then you cannot control your other senses. And therefore we prohibit, "Not these . . ." They are all concerned to the tongue: intoxication-tongue and meat-eating-tongue. So, intoxicant. . . tongue dictates, "Oh, my tongue is becoming dry. Let me drink something or smoke something."

So if you can control, if you become controller of your tongue, "No", then you become svāmī, or gosvāmī. That means the senses do not become your master. You become the master of your senses. Then perfection, gosvāmī. That is . . . go means senses; svāmī means master. So svāmī or gosvāmī, the same thing. So we have to become the master of our senses. That we can become only . . . ourself, we cannot control our senses. If we engage our senses in the service of the Lord, Kṛṣṇa, then automatically it becomes controlled and purified. Then our life is successful.

Thank you very much. Now . . .

Pradyumna: Śrīla Prabhupāda? Could there be a name for their child?

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes.

Pradyumna: That little girl, Angie.

Prabhupāda: Oh, where is your daughter? She is not here?

Pradyumna: No, she is not feeling well.

Prabhupāda: All right. She may be named as Anaṅga, Anaṅga-mañjarī. That's a name of one of the assistant gopīs. Yes. So your daughter is fortunate. She is getting association of these devotees from childhood. So give her protection and raise her nicely. He is becoming . . . she is becoming attracted to the Vaiṣṇavas, to Kṛṣṇa. This is the opportunity, to get nice father and mother and become Kṛṣṇa conscious. Yes.

So that is the duty of the father and mother, parents, to raise the children to complete Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Then she will no more have to come back in the womb of any other mother. This is the . . . this finishes. That is the duty of father and mother. Father and mother should think that, "This child will no more come in any other womb. I shall train him or her in such a way." That is the duty. That is the duty of spiritual master, that is the duty of parents, that is the duty of state. But it is Kali-yuga; everything is different. So somehow or other, so she should be taken care. And as you train, so she becomes trained. That's all. Mmm.

(chuckles) Oh. (chuckles) Thank you.

Pradyumna: I have the list.

Prabhupāda: Yes. You can explain the offenses.

Pradyumna: Oh, yes.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is essential. Don't keep in the paper, but try to follow. All right. Go on. Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare.

(devotees chant japa)

Formerly, the brahmins used to ignite fire by mantra. Yes. They did not use another fire. The mantra will ignite fire. In the Vedic age, this was being done. Aruṇi. The sacrifice means to sacrifice one animal in the fire end give it again a new life. That was a test for the Vedic mantra, how one has chanted. It is not sacrifice, means killing. The animal sacrifice mentioned in the Vedas were not for killing. It was experiment of the Vedic mantra.

They would sacrifice an animal and again it will be given new life, rejuvenation. And Caitanya Mahāprabhu said to Chand Kazi that "Because in this age the brahmins are not so powerful, therefore sacrifice is prohibited. Only this sacrifice: harer nāma harer nāma harer nāma eva kevalam (CC Adi 17.21), this is. . ."

(japa) That's all right. Don't put any more. Yes. Put little ghee. Little ghee. That's all. (japa) Let it burn. Then, later on . . . you can chant mantra.

Dayānanda:

vande 'haṁ śrī-guroḥ śrī-yuta-pada-kamalaṁ śrī-gurūn vaiṣṇavāṁś ca

śrī-rūpaṁ sāgrajātaṁ saha-gaṇa-raghunāthānvitaṁ taṁ sa-jīvam

sādvaitaṁ sāvadhūtaṁ parijana-sahitaṁ kṛṣṇa-caitanya-devaṁ

śrī-rādhā-kṛṣṇa-pādān saha-gaṇa-lalitā-śrī-viśākhānvitāṁś ca

Prabhupāda: With the right hand. Right hand will (indistinct). That's alright, offer obediences and chant, that's all . . . I can go? Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, Viṣṇujana you can chant . . .

(kīrtana) (break) (end)