Great Throughts Treasury

"I consider You the personification of Eternal Time, the Lord without a beginning or an end, the All-pervasive One distributing Your mercy everywhere equally among the beings who live in dissent with each other."

"I do not want to live like this in the world. What is the use of this captivation from within and from without in being born as an elephant? I do not want the misery and destruction because of the time factor. I want to be liberated from that covering of my spiritual existence!"

"I explained to you the four divisions of identity [svarûpa] in devotional service [in combination with the modes and their transcendence *], as also the imperceptible action of time [the conditioning] that drives the living entities."

"I pity all those ignorant poor people who, in decay with the divinity of Time, in the sinfulness of their pitiable state of ignorance have turned away from the stories about the Lord and waste the length of their lives with useless philosophical exercises, imaginary purposes and a diversity of rituals."

"I surrender myself to Lord Kapila, who is the transcendental supreme personality, the origin of the world and full cognizance of the time and the three modes of nature; the maintainer of all the worlds, who in Himself after His own potency dissolved His manifestations and who is the power of independence."

"I, being only five years old, attended the school of the brahmins and lived, depending on her, without having a clue about the time, the direction and country in which we were living."

"If by accumulating pious activities one is raised to the platform of pure devotional service, Krsna is always visible in the core of one’s heart."

"If Lord Krsna does not mercifully punish His devotees when they act improperly, their foolishness will simply increase and gradually completely overwhelm their devotional sentiments. Therefore Lord Krsna kindly disciplines His devotees and maintains them on the progressive path back home, back to Godhead."

"If one gets even a little power of scientific knowledge, one tries to defy God, but actually no one is able to bewilder Krsna."

"If one methodically and intelligently studies the functioning of the material qualities, he will ultimately conclude that there is a Supreme Personality of Godhead and that He exhibits His illusory potency to bewilder those who do not surrender unto Him."

"If the countless embodied beings wouldn't be time-bound, would the omnipresent consequently not be such a sovereign rule, o Unchanging One. Because the substance cannot be independent from that from which it was generated [ - pradhâna, timespace, primeval ether -] must [You] the regulator [of Time] be known as being equally present everywhere and not as being somewhere else. For that reason is one mistaken supposing that one knows [the complete of You], since one is of the imperfect [local order] with what one is knowing."

"If we say that time would be the cause of happiness and distress, then what for the soul in that idea; the soul belongs to time, the way fire doesn't burn the flames or the snow is not [harmed by cold] - with whom to become angry when there is no duality with the supreme?"

"In case one entrusts the sacrificing in faith [the s'raddha ceremony] to a greater number of them and their [accompanying] relatives, things will not work out perfectly as for the most suitable time and place, the paraphernalia, the person to receive the honor and the method applied."

"In multifarious ways the Lord generates a variety of religious scriptures, which gradually bring the conditioned souls through the various phases of re-entry into the kingdom of God."

"In one birth, one should rectify everything and come to permanent life. This is Krsna consciousness."

"In order to fulfill the desires of the living enity manifested from My agitation of material nature [in the form of time, of Kâla], the modes themselves: tamas, rajas and sattva [the gunas]."

"In self-control fasting and reciting this collection of verses at [the holy places of] Pushkara, Mathurâ or Dvârakâ, one will be freed from the fear [of Time, or of a material life, In the control of the divinity of fire [Vais'vânara, or with regular sacrifice and meditation] one reaches through the gracious passage of [the sushumnâ, the channel of balancing the] breath, provided one follows the movements in the sky [the cakra order], the pure spirit [Brahmaloka, the place of the Creator] that enlightens and washes away the contaminations. Directed upwards one then reaches the circle [the cakra, the wheel] o King, called S'is'umâra [meaning: dolphin, to the form of the Milky Way, galactic time]."

"In the contaminated state called material consciousness, we conditioned souls become proud of our insignificant position and are thus reluctant to bow our heads before the Lord. Yet just as Lord Krsna forcibly pushed Kaliya’s heads down and thus defeated him, the Supreme Lord’s energy in the form of irresistible time kills all conditioned souls and thus forces them to bow down their arrogant heads."

"In the course of time eventually all people become each other's friends, family members, enemies, neutrals, well-wishers, indifferent or envious ones."

"In the material world, affection is contaminated by rajo-guna and tamo-guna, but in the suddha-sattva the affection that maintains the devotees is transcendental."

"In this material world there is no help of anyone or anything to escape from this fear, because that fear concerns the Supreme Lord who approaches us all in the form of eternal Time."

"In this world that has originated from you and at the time of her destruction is burned to ashes by you with the sparks of the fire emanating from your eyes, you have out of your mercy for the living beings annihilated Tripura [7.10: 53] as also put an end to the sacrifices out of desire [see e.g. 4.5], the poison of [false] time [in this story] and many other forms of misery. But these matters are not part of your praises, since you ban this world from your mind."

"In Vrndavana, the abode of the Lord, the lions and tigers are not violent, and thus there is no reason to fear them."

"Inevitably overtaken by the pull of time a person must, just like that, give up this life as dear as it is to everyone, not to mention the wealth and such he has acquired."

"Innumerable living entities are engaged in different types of worship of the Supreme, according to their abilities and karma, but everyone is engaged; there is no one who is not serving. Therefore the maha-bhagavata, the topmost devotee, sees everyone as being engaged in the service of Krsna; only himself does he see as not engaged."

"Intimately making fun she embraced him as he held her in his arms. Thus being captivated by the woman he lost his keenness and wasn't quite aware of how day and night the insurmountable time was passing."

"Is it so, as Nârada instructed, that the Supreme Personality has decided it is time to leave this manifest world?"

"It describes the character of the devotion, spiritual knowledge and renunciation of that most exalted devotee Prahlâda. Try to understand each of these stories and thus discover what belongs to the Lord, the Master of maintenance, creation and destruction, what His qualities and activities are, the wisdom handed down [in disciplic succession] and how He, by the time factor, stands for the finality of all the higher and lower living beings and their cultures, however great they might be."

"It is by these auspicious times [of being regular to natural occurrences] that the fate of human beings is improved. For the human being during all seasons to have auspiciousness, success and longevity, one therefore on those days must perform all kinds of ceremonies. At all these natural times taking a holy bath, doing japa [the Vedic rosary], performing fire sacrifices and keeping to vows, constitutes with whatever that is given in respect of the Supreme Lord, the twice-born ones managing the deities, the forefathers, the godly ones, the human beings in general and all other living beings, a permanent benefit. Oh King, the purification rituals that serve the interest of [having days with] the wife, the children and oneself as also the interest of having funerals, memorial days and days for doing fruitive labor must be performed at the [natural] times [relative to sun and moon] meant for them."

"It is now common practice all over the world for a mother to kill her own child within the womb if the birth of that child represents any inconvenience for her. Similarly, grown children eagerly place their elderly parents in lonely institutions rather than be inconvenienced by their presence at home. These and innumerable other examples prove that people in general are more attached to their own body and self, which represent “I-ness,” than to their family and other possessions, which represent “my-ness.” Although conditioned souls are very proud of their so-called love for society, family and so forth, in reality every conditioned soul is acting on the platform of gross or subtle selfishness."

"It is practically always out of fear for the Lord His cakra order [the compelling natural order of time] that the wives of the godless ones lose their fetuses in miscarriages."

"It so happens that because of the cakra of the Controller, the Supreme Lord Vishnu His cakra or disc of Time, the influence of which stretches from the first expansion of atoms to the duration of the complete life of Brahmâ, one has to suffer the symptoms of its rotating, with which in due course, swiftly before one's eyes, without a blink, all lives of the entities, from Brahmâ to the simplest blade of grass, are spent. Directly for Him, the Controller whose personal weapon is the disc of Time, one is afraid at heart. Not caring about the Supreme Lord, the Original Person of Sacrifice, one accepts as worshipable that what misses any foundation, preoccupied as one is with one's self-made gods who are like buzzards, vultures, herons and crows and who are denied by the scriptures of our civilization."

"Just as the present time carries the characteristics of what was and what will become, someone's present birth likewise is indicative of the dharma and adharma of what one did and will be doing."

"Just like grains of sand wash ashore and drift apart by the force of the waves, the embodied souls are united and separated by time."

"Kapila said: 'Just like a mass of clouds has no knowledge of the powerful wind, a person has no knowledge of this time factor, even though he is being conditioned by it."

"Knowing what and what not relates to the divine of the transcendental position, they who wish to avoid the godless completely give up the perplexities [of arguing to time and place], and place thereto in the absolute of goodwill every moment the worshipable lotus feet in their heart."

"Krsna and Balarama would glance lovingly and mercifully at all the rivers, hills and creatures in Vrndavana. But the blessing received by the gopis - being embraced directly between the Lord’s arms - was the supreme benediction, desired even by the goddess of fortune herself."

"Krsna is always complete, and although He can create millions of universes, all of them full in all opulences, He remains as opulent as ever, without any change."

"Krsna usually stayed in the forest and pasturing ground, taking care of the calves and cows with His associates the cowherd boys."

"Let us offer our obeisances to the truth of Him, whom one considers the axle of Lord Brahmâ's lightning fast revolving, sacred wheel of Time with its fifteen spokes [the knowing and working senses and the five airs], three naves [the modes] and eight segments [the five elements, mind, false ego and intelligence] that feed one's thought process."

"Let me tell you that the hairs on the head of the Supreme Controller are the clouds o best of the Kurus, and that the intelligence of the Almighty is the prime cause of the material creation, so one says. His mind, the reservoir of all changes, is known as the moon."

"Like birds caught in a net, all worlds and their rulers sigh powerlessly under the time factor that is the cause out here. People not aware of that [time factor, Him, de Lord of Time, the] strength of our senses, mind, body, life force, death and immortality, consider their indifferent body the cause. Oh sir [dear Indra], please understand that all things thus o generous one, just like a wooden doll [a 'woman made of wood'] or a cuddly animal [of 'straw and leaves'], depend on Îs'a [the Power, the Lord and master of Time constituting their life and coherence]."

"Living for me, o Mighty One, they expressed great possessiveness but, by the force of Time being subjected to death, they failed to accomplish their goals, all that remained of them are the historical accounts."

"Lord Brahmâ said: 'With a flick of His eyebrows will the place where I am, my residence, along with this whole universe at the end of the Supreme Lord His pastimes, upon the desire of Him in the form of time to burn it after one day of my life [a dvi-parârdha, see 3.11: 33], be vanquished indeed. I, Lord S'iva, Daksha, Bhrigu and others under their lead, the rulers of man, the living beings and the demigods - we and all lead by us, who are bowing our heads for the good of all living beings surrendered to the principles regulating, do carry out His orders.'Turned down by Lord Brahmâ went Durvâsa, scorched by the cakra, for his shelter to him who always resides on Kailasa [Lord S'iva]. S'rî S'ankara said: 'We relative to the Supreme One lack in power, my dear - with us rotating in Him, the Transcendence, can [I and] the other living beings up to the Unborn One, Lord Brahmâ, and the universes also not, by time become [that power]; indeed can we and all of the thousands and millions of our worlds not grow alike this. I, Sanat and the other Kumâras, Nârada, the great Lord Unborn, Kapila, Vyâsadeva, Devala [the great sage], Yamarâja, Âsuri [the saint] and Marîci, and the others all-perfect in knowledge headed by them have met with the limits of all knowing, but none of us can fully comprehend His illusory energy and that which is covered by it. The Controller of the Universe His weapon [the cakra] is indeed even for us difficult to handle and therefore should you seek your refuge with the Lord who will not fail you in His auspiciousness.'"

"Lord Krishna together with the munis there pacified the shocked and affected family who had lost their friends and members, by showing how each is subjected to the Time that cannot be avoided."

"Lord Krsna blessed the earth by walking on her surface with His lotus feet. The Lord wore no shoes or other footgear but walked barefoot in the forest, giving great anxiety to the girls of Vrndavana, who feared that His soft lotus feet would be injured."

"Lord Krsna is gunatma because He descends to the material world and reestablishes religious principles by exhibiting all godly qualities Himself and inspiring them in others. A living entity who develops the transcendental qualities found in the Lord receives immeasurable benefit and eventually goes with the Lord back to His own abode, where all living beings are liberated and fully endowed with the transcendental nature."

"Lord Krsna’s lotus feet are described as pallava, flower buds, because they are most tender and of a pinkish hue."

"Madhava normally indicates Krsna to be “the Lord, who is the consort of the goddess of fortune, Laksmi.” This name also implies that Lord Krsna descended in the dynasty of Madhu. Since the spring season is also known as Madhava, it is understood that as soon as Lord Krsna entered the Vrndavana forest, it automatically exhibited all the opulences of spring, becoming filled with flowers, breezes and a celestial atmosphere. Another reason Lord Krsna is known as Madhava is that He enjoys His pastimes in madhu, the taste of conjugal love."

"Man and woman [by the impelling force of time] evolved from the five elements of matter and by their sexual behavior even more men and women came about in this world."