Great Throughts Treasury

"Learn to look with an equal eye upon all beings, seeing the one Self in all."

"A brahmin is by birth the best of all living beings, and what more would he be unto Me, by his austerity, his learning and his contentment being endowed with a grip on the time [of this age of Kali]!"

"A fool may beat an empty husk, not knowing that the grain has already been removed. Similarly foolish is the person who throws his mind again and again into the pursuit of knowledge without surrendering to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, for it is the Supreme Personality of Godhead who is the very substance and goal of knowledge, just as grain is the substance and goal of the entire agricultural effort. Vedic knowledge or, indeed, material science without the Personality of Godhead is exactly like an empty and useless husk of wheat."

"A man is known by his company. If one has the chance to live in the good association of devotees, one is able to cultivate knowledge, and naturally one’s character or nature will change for one’s eternal benefit."

"A patriot sees himself as a great servitor of a great nation, and thus he sacrifices his life to gratify his sense of egotism. Similarly, it is common knowledge that a man feels great pleasure by thinking that he is sacrificing everything to please his dear wife and children. A man derives great egotistic pleasure by seeing himself as a selfless well-wisher of his so-called family and community. Thus, to gratify his proud sense of false ego, a man is prepared even to lay down his life."

"According the Vedas there are these two ways of light and darkness in passing from this world by which one either does not return or does return again. Of knowing any of these different path's, o son of Prithâ, the yogi is never bewildered; therefore always get unified in yoga, o Arjuna."

"According to the time of their prevalence one with the mode of sattva [goodness] finds the devas and the rishis [the gods and sages], with the mode of rajas [passion] one encounters Asuras [the unenlightened ones] and with the mode of tamas [inertia] one is faced with Yakshas and Râkshasas [ghosts and demons]."

"'Acyuta for sure deserves the supreme position, He is the Supreme Lord, the leader of the Sâtvatas, He doubtlessly covers all the demigods as well as the place, time and necessities and such."

"Ah, who out here recently born and soon to die indeed knows who came first, from whom arose the seer [Brahmâ] and from whom followed the two groups of demigods [to the senses and the principles] When He lies down to withdraw is there at that time neither the gross, nor the subtle, nor that [the bodies] comprising both; nor is there the flow of Time or are the s'âstras there."

"'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 accordingly act without regrets."

"All [the divinity of] the sun, the fire, the sky, the air, the gods, the moon, the evening, the day and the night, the directions, the water and the land bears witness to [or structures] the personal dharma [the very nature] of the embodied living entity."

"All living entities are serving Krsna in different ways, but when they are Krsna conscious, their service is fully manifest. As a flower in the bud gradually fructifies and yields its desired aroma and beauty, so when a living entity comes to the platform of Krsna consciousness, the beauty of his real form comes into full blossom. That is the ultimate beauty and the ultimate fulfillment of desire."

"All of the world that I created was created by the effulgence [the brahmajyoti] of His existence, just as the fire, the sun, the moon, the planets and the stars [radiate after His effulgence]."

"All of you united in His quality be therefore engaged in the devotional service of directly the Supreme Lord who is the actual cause [pradhâna] of Time, the original Person and the One Supreme Soul of the unlimited number of individual souls *, He who by His spiritual power is aloof from all emanations of the self."

"All respects unto you, the auspicious center of spin, the measure of the complete nature, who indeed art like a bad omen to the unenlightened bereft of the religion; the maintainer of the three worlds you are, the supreme goodness whose effulgence so wonderfully active is as speedy as the mind I try to voice."

"All the unpleasant that happened I think, is the inescapable effect of Time; you, just like the rest of the world with its ruling demigods, fall under that control just like the clouds that are carried by the wind."

"All these [personalities] constitute the glories of Vishnu, the Supreme Personality of Godhead assuming the form of the sun-god; they take away the sinful reactions of those people who at the junctures of each day remember them."

"All these so very intelligent descendants of Angirâ are today performing a sacrifice but every sixth day after having such a day, o learned one, will they fall in ignorance on their karma."

"Although the Lord is bhuman, the supremely great one, He is still Bhagavan, the supremely beautiful personality exhibiting pastimes of love in His own abode. At the same time He is Paramatma, the all-pervading Supersoul, who witnesses and sanctions all the activities of conditioned souls. The Lord’s multiple identity is explained by the term yogesvara. The Absolute Truth is the master of all mystic potencies, and although He is one and supreme, He manifests His greatness and opulence in many different ways."

"Among all the transcendental forms of the Lord, the two-armed form of Govinda - Krsna - is original and supreme. Thus Lord Govinda’s pastimes of stealing butter, drinking the gopis’ breast-milk, tending the calves, playing His flute and playing childhood sports are extraordinary even in comparison with the activities of the Lord’s Visnu expansions."

"And having fallen at the base of the feet will the Almighty place upon my head His very own lotuslike hand that makes one unafraid of the serpent of time of whose swift force the people greatly disturbed search for shelter."

"And thus the material substance, the place, the fruit of action, the time, the knowledge, the activity, the performer, the faith, the state of consciousness and the species and destinations of life all belong to the three gunas."

"And thus time, my best one, can be measured by the motion of the minutest and largest forms of combinations of particles, of which the Supreme, unmanifest Lord is the great force that controls all physical action."

"And what about a day of Brahmâ [a kalpa] and the periods between them [vikalpas]? What can you say about the time measures we call the past, the future and the present? And how about the lifespan allotted to embodied beings?"

"And yes, what can You say about Eternal Time that represents the eternal and original form of the Supreme Ruler ruling over all the other rulers and under the influence of which the common people in act piously?"

"As an object of enjoyment or a permanent residence for the conditioned souls, the material universe is certainly illusion, nothing more than a dream."

"As arranged by Me, the Supporter, the Self of Time, one rises up from or drowns in the mighty stream of the modes of this world in which one is bound to profit-minded labor."

"As described in the Second Canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam, Lord Brahma took birth on the seat of a giant lotus whose stem emanated from the navel of Narayana. Brahma was bewildered as to his whereabouts, function and identity, and therefore he tried to trace out the source of the lotus stem, searching for clear information. Unable to find the Personality of Godhead, he returned to his seat and engaged in severe austerities, having been ordered to do so by the transcendental voice of the Lord, who could be heard but not seen. After long meditation, Brahma saw the Lord but then again lost sight of Him."

"As long as one is not free from the dependence will there be fear of the Controller [the Time]. They who devote themselves to this [dependence] will, being bewildered, always be full of sorrow. With the agitation by the modes of nature, does one call Me variously the Time, the Self, the Vedic Knowledge, the World, Nature, as also Dharma."

"As long as the people of the world are engaged in unwanted activities and in the activities of their self-interest despise the by You as beneficial pronounced devotional activities, the struggle for existence of these people will be very tough and under Your Vigilant Rule [of Time] lead straight to a shambles. Let there be my obeisances unto You."

"As oxen bound [by the rope] through the nose do Brahmâ and all the other embodied beings have their existence, in which they being controlled by the Time struggle with each other. May the lotus feet of You, the Supreme Personality in the beyond of both the material nature ànd the individual person, for us spread the transcendental fortune."

"As the founding fathers [the prajâpatis] He creates offspring; to annihilate the miscreants He takes the form of kings and in the form of time is He there to put an end to everything that grew different to the modes of nature."

"At the right time to eat one should eat what's either prepared on a fire or what's grinded with a mortar, pulverized with a stone or grinded with one's teeth."

"Atomic time is the time taken by an infinitesimal particle in occupying [or vibrating in] a certain atomic space. The greatest of time is the time taken by the existence of the complete of all atoms."

"Bali retorted: 'All present here on this battlefield are subjected to the rule of time and successively acquire with what they do a reputation, achieve a victory, suffer defeat and find their death. (8) Because the entire world is moved by time, an enlightened soul who sees this will not rejoice or complain. In that sense you all have pretty much lost your way!"

"Bearing in mind the words spoken by Govinda, I remember how attractive they are, and how they, imbued with importance and appropriate to the time and circumstance, put an end to the pain in the heart.' ""

"Because of the superintendence of the original person the creation of the mahat-tattva [the 'greater reality'] took place, from eternal time there was the transformation of the modes and from these specific natures the different activities found their existence."

"Because we misunderstand the material body to be the self, we are experiencing many emotions in relation to the body. Upon discovering, however, that the body is simply a bag of material chemicals, we carefully note how this illusion was created and then lose interest in the body."

"Both the covert and the overt enemies of the Lord constitute an unholy burden for the earth, and Lord Krsna descends to expertly remove this burden."

"Brahma is referred to as iresa. Ira means Sarasvati, the goddess of learning, and Iresa is her husband, Lord Brahma."

"Brahma wanted to bewilder Krsna, who bewilders the entire universe. The whole universe is under Krsna’s mystic power, but Brahma wanted to mystify Him. The result was that Brahma himself was mystified, just as one who wants to kill another may himself be killed. In other words, Brahma was defeated by his own attempt."

"Brahma was completely mystified. He could not understand what he was seeing, and then he was not even able to see."

"Brought here I'll have them killed by the elephant as mighty as the time itself, and if they escape that, then will my wrestlers as strong as lightning put an end to them."

"But enough of that, even for a fallen soul like me it certainly may happen to have the audience of Acyuta; sometimes does someone pulled along by the river of time reach the other shore!"

"But Time, insurmountable and imperceptible in its being, surpasses inimitably those who are inattentive and engrossed in the mind of attachment to family affairs."

"By focusing our passionate attachment on our family and society, we are completely deviated from the progressive path of Krsna consciousness. Conversely, if we engage our family in the loving service of the Lord, our endeavors to maintain our family become part and parcel of our progressive spiritual duties."

"By relishing [your retirement in] exhausting your merit, by means of pious actions forsaking your impiety, by forsaking the body with the rapid progress of time and after spreading your reputation throughout even the worlds of the gods, you will, freed from all attachment, turn back to Me."

"By the Time imperceptible in its ground of being are there, as with the moon, beginning with being born and ending with the cremation, the states of the body in its different phases; but none of these are of the soul . Time urging, speeding as a flood, with its constant birth and demise of the created that like the flames are to a fire, is, from the perspective of the soul, not to be seen though [*]. A yogi accepting the material objects to his senses at the right time [to the cakra] gives them up; he doesn't get entangled in them just as the sun doesn't with its rays entering the waters [evaporating it and returning it again with the rains]."

"By transformation of the ether the air found its existence which is characterized by the quality of touch. Along with it sound also appeared as a characteristic that was remembered from the ether. Thus air acquired a life of diversity as well with energy and force. Air on its turn again transformed under the influence of time and generated from its nature the element of fire in response to what preceded. With its form there was likewise touch and sound [as the hereditary burden or the karma of the previous elements]. Fire transformed [or condensated from oxygen and hydrogen] into water. Thus the element of taste came about which consequently was accompanied by touch, sound and form. But because of the variegatedness of that transformation of water next followed the smell of the juice which assumed form [as the earth element] together with the qualities of touch and sound."

"Do not fear the kâlakûtha ['false time'] poison that will appear from the ocean of milk, and take care not to be led by greed, lust or anger with the result of the churning.'"