Srila Prabhupada - Vedic Teachings

Prabhupāda: Everyone has got his particular type of religion or occupation. That's all right. Dharma. Svanuṣṭhitaḥ puṁsām. The result will be... By executing your particular type of religion, the result must be there. The result is "How I shall go back to home, back to Godhead." If that desire is not developed, it is simply waste of time. You may profess this religion or that religion or this religion, or that religion. It doesn't matter. You are simply wasting time by following the dogmas and ritualistic this or that. That will not help you. Phalena paricīyate. Whether you have come to this consciousness, "What I am? I am not matter; I am spirit. I have to go back to my spiritual." That... That is wanted. So either you may be Hebrew or may be Hindu or Christian. We want to see whether that consciousness has arisen. If it is not, then you have simply wasted time. Either you be Hindu or brāhmaṇa or this or that, it doesn't matter. Śrama eva hi kevalam (...

  Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Sometimes people ask, Prabhupāda, that if one falls down into lower species of life like plants or animals, how then do they come again to the human form of life? Prabhupāda: Yes. That is nature's way. Give them again chance to develop. From trees they become flies. That is the beginning of movement. Then from flies to birds, birds to beast, and beast to animal, er, human being. This is great chastisement. You cannot move even. Suffer torrents of rain, cyclone, scorching heat, pinching cold. Stand up for hundreds and thousands of years. Then, when the punishment is finished, then he becomes moving. If there is scorching heat he can move to some shelter. But he cannot move. They do not study all this science, why there are so many varieties of life, of different grades. Wherefrom they are coming? Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: The living entity, then, in the tree is actually conscious of its condition of life. Prabhupāda: Eh? Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: The living entity inside the tree i...

  One therefore has to utilize his intelligence over the mind and the senses „In answering King Parīkṣit’s question, Śukadeva Gosvāmī replied that the Supreme Personality of Godhead has created the mind, senses and living force of the living entity for the purpose of sense gratification and transmigration from one kind of body to another, as well as for the purpose of allowing liberation from the material conditions. In other words, one can utilize the senses, mind and living force for sense gratification and transmigration from one body to another or for the matter of liberation. The Vedic injunctions are there just to give the conditioned souls the chance for sense gratification under regulative principles, and thereby also to give them the chance for promotion to higher conditions of life; ultimately, if the consciousness is purified, one comes to his original position and goes back home, back to Godhead. The living entity is intelligent. One therefore has to utilize his intel...

  Consciousness is above mind „Consciousness is above mind. Mind is there. Mind is above the senses. Indriyāṇi parāṇy āhur indriyebhyaḥ paraṁ manaḥ [Bg. 3.42]. Th e senses, our body means the senses. The senses are prominent. Therefore body is active. But the senses cannot work if the mind is absent. Therefore we call, "attentively, concentrating your mind." So mind is above the senses. And the how the mind is acting—thinking, feeling and willing—that is called intelligence. Everything finer. You can see your senses, my senses, but everyone knows that you have got mind, I have got mind, but we cannot see the mind. Can you say anyone that "Here is mind"? No, because it is finer. Then everyone has got some intelligence, but can you see intelligence? Go on. It is still finer.” (Lecture on BG 16.6 -- Hawaii, February 2, 1975)

  "If one thinks he is big devotee that is not good, thinking that he is first degree. We should not be puffed up, a devotee avoids it, remaining always in the second degree. A dog is a faithful servant. To become lowest dog is to become on the highest platform of service. Krsna has given everyone something extraordinary and to serve Krsna with one's extraordinary talent means successful life." (Srila Prabhupada’s letter to: Sukadeva—Calcutta 73-03-04)