Great Throughts Treasury

"Material energy is a partial mixture of time [the time of expanding and contracting]. The Supreme Lord glancing this over from the ether, thus being contacted created the transformation of that touch in the form of air."

"Materialistic scientists think that although this planet earth is full of opulence, all others are vacant. Because they simply speculate, this is their scientific conclusion."

"May Kes'ava protect me with His club during the hours after sunrise, may Govinda holding His flute protect me early in the morning, may Nârâyana the Lord of all potencies, protect me late in the morning and may Lord Vishnu the ruler with the disc in His hand, protect me during the hours at noon. May Lord Madhusûdana with the fearful bow S'ârnga protect me early in the afternoon. May Mâdhava, the Lord of Brahmâ, Vishnu and S'iva, protect me in the late afternoon and may Lord Hrishîkes'a protect me during the hours at dusk. May Lord Padmanâbha [the Lord from whose navel the universe sprang] be the one protector during the entire evening early and late. May the Lord with the S'rîvatsa mark protect me during the hours after midnight, may Janârdana the Lord with the sword in His hand protect me late at night and may Lord Dâmodara protect me during the hours before dawn [during which there is the brâhmamuhûrta **]. May the Controller of the Universe, the Supreme Lord in the form of time protect me [as the kâla-mûrti, also the clock]. Please let the sharp rimmed [Sudars'ana] disc [His order of time, the cyclic of natural time] that wielded by the Lord destructively moves in all directions alike the fire at the end of time, burn to ashes the enemy forces, the same way a blazing fire with its friend the wind would burn dry grass in an instant."

"Mere sastra jnana, or knowledge in the Vedas, does not help anyone understand the personality of Godhead. Only one who is favored or shown mercy by the Lord can understand Him."

"More than two hundred thousand yojanas behind [the moon], there are [spinning] with Meru to the right, to the many stars that by the Supreme Controller were attached to the wheel of time, the twenty-eight lunar mansions including Abhijit."

"Natural time known as the divine cause of the different manifestations of the living entities, constitutes the reason why all living beings live in fear who motivated by cosmic intelligence and such matters consider themselves as separated."

"Next the heart of the Universal Being manifested in which Candra, the god of the moon took his position with the function of mental activity because of which one is lost in thoughts."

"No one but Visnu has any independence. If we develop consciousness of this fact, then we are in actual Krsna consciousness. We should always remember that Krsna is the only supreme master and that everyone else is His servant."

"No other cause of death than the almighty wheel of Time in the form of His disc weapon is capable of influencing them in any way."

"None of the local controllers there will be able to overrule you, not to mention the common man, as I with my cakra will take care of all the daityas transgressing your rule."

"None of these kings enjoying with You, nor the Vrishnis know You, covered by the curtain of mâyâ, as the Supreme Soul, the Time and the Controller."

"Nonetheless I do not lament or rejoice - not ever; knowing that the world is driven by time and fate combined."

"Not even the slightest activity properly performed [for Your sake] is in vain, because being dedicated to the Controller [who is the Time] You are realized as the Original Soul friendly and beneficial to all persons."

"Not knowing [the Lord, the time factor] one considers oneself - despite of being fully dependent - to be the one in control, but it is He who creates beings by other living beings and it is He who devours them through others. The blessings of longevity, opulence, fame and power arise when the time is ripe [His time], just as the opposite is found without having chosen for it."

"Not the fire, nor the sun, the moon or the firmament, not the earth, the water, the ether, the breath, the speech or the mind take, being worshiped, away the sins of the one setting things apart; they are wiped out by a few moments of service to men of wisdom."

"Nothing else but the attainment of Your feet, the very form of liberation, does benefit the person who has to fear from all sides o Lord; we know that Brahmâ, whose time takes two parârdhas, on account of this is most afraid, afraid because of the Time that You are - and what to speak of the worldly entities created by him?"

"Now, in the human life, if we prepare ourselves by beginning the activity of our spiritual life, we return to our real life and attain perfection. Otherwise, according to karma, svabhava, prakrti and so on, our varieties of life and activity continue, and so also do our birth and death."

"Now, with our enemies having conquered, works the time in their favor and then shall we conquer when the time has turned to our side.'"

"O brahmin, how are the periodical offerings [of S'râddha] regulated to honor the deceased and to respect what the forefathers have created and how are the times settled in respect of the positions of luminaries like the planets and the stars?"

"O King, taking birth among the Yadus outshone He the site of pilgrimage of the river of heaven [the Ganges] washing from His feet; friends and foes attained to His embodiment [7.1: 46-47]; His is the undefeated and supremely perfect goddess of S'rî for whom others are struggling; His name heard or chanted is what destroys the inauspiciousness; by Him was the dharma settled for the lines of descent [of the sages]; with Lord Krishna, whose weapon is the wheel of Time, is this removal of the earth's burden, no thing of wonder."

"O member of the Kuru family, therefore also your life's duration that is limited to seven days, should inspire you to perform everything that traditionally belongs to the rituals for a next life."

"O mother, My devotees will never, by no [change of] time or weapon of destruction, lose Me [and My opulence] who was chosen by them as their dearest self, son, friend, preceptor, benefactor and deity."

"O original father of all, the conditioned souls in the grip of desire are all bound by the rope of the words of You as the Lord of the living beings. I, following their example also offer my oblations to You, o light of eternal time."

"O purest of the twice-born, what could be the beginning of time and what can you say about the way time, in the context of one's karma, is experienced as being short or long?"

"O Unborn One, direct us in making our offerings at the right time whereby we can share our meals and also all other living beings can have their sustenance so that we with our offerings of food can eat without disturbance."

"Observing closely how he like death personified came after Him with the trident in his hand thought He, the Knower of Time, Lord Vishnu, the Chief of the Mystics: 'Wheresoever I go will this one, like the death of all, go likewise; therefore will I enter his heart as he is only looking without.'"

"Observing that under the influence of kâla [the people became] lesser intelligent and short lived and that their strength was diminished, divided the chief sages, inspired by the Infallible Lord situated in their hearts, the Vedas."

"Of the Daityas [non-theist sons of Diti who churned the ocean] I am Prahlâda, of what rules I am the Time, of the animals the lion and of the birds I am Garuda [Vainateya]."

"Of the goodness, passion and ignorance as caused by maintenance, creation and destruction [see guna] was by the mode of passion [the moving around] this universe generated and is there from the dyadic the world its variety."

"Of the letters I am the first one [the A], of the compound words I am the dual one and certainly am I the eternal of Time and the Creator facing all directions [Brahmâ]."

"Oh king, a person should perform his duties according to his [varnâs'rama] position in society, engaging with the means, the place and the time that are not [scripturally] forbidden and he should not follow any other course unless there is an emergency"

"Oh ruler of man, the true cause that is the male principle, the original unmanifest foundation of matter [pradhâna], is the [primal, expanding] movement of time [as the fourth dimension] which forms the shelter of the Lord. Oh King, also being this [authentic notion of] Time, the Supreme Lord of name and fame increases in the mode of goodness the numbers of enlightened souls and is consequently, as the friend of the demigods, inimical to and destructive with the unenlightened ones [the materialists] who are ruled by passion and ignorance."

"Oh ruler of man, with the arrows joined on his bow Lord S'iva thus being the Master and Controller, at noon set the so difficult to pierce three cities afire."

"Oh what a great wonder the inescapable movement of Time is; now is that what is a shoe trying to climb on top of the head that is ornamented with a crown!"

"Oh, Vishnudatta ['protected by Vishnu'; Parîkchit], to those who are not perplexed this is not such a great miracle. They who without animosity are of goodness to all are by the Supreme Lord of the invincible Time who carries the best of all weapons [the Sudars'ana disc] personally fully liberated from the very strong and tight knot in the heart [that is the consequence] of a false physical concept of life. Even when threatened by decapitation [or other attacks on their lives], those liberated souls and devotees who full of surrender are protected at His lotus feet are never upset by these kinds of emotional states; they have nothing to fear.'"

"Oh, Vishnudatta ['protected by Vishnu'; Parîkchit], to those who are not perplexed this is not such a great miracle. They who without animosity are of goodness to all are by the Supreme Lord of the invincible Time who carries the best of all weapons [the Sudars'ana disc] personally fully liberated from the very strong and tight knot in the heart [that is the consequence] of a false physical concept of life. Even when threatened by decapitation [or other attacks on their lives], those liberated souls and devotees who full of surrender are protected at His lotus feet are never upset by these kinds of emotional conditions; they have nothing to fear.'"

"On the day when Lord Brahma had first come, Baladeva could not go with Krsna and the cowherd boys, for it was His birthday, and His mother had kept Him back for the proper ceremonial bath, called santika-snana. Therefore Lord Baladeva was not taken by Brahma at that time. Now, one year later, Brahma returned, and because he returned on exactly the same day, Baladeva was again kept at home for His birthday."

"On the threefold path [of dharma, artha and kâma] not being too zealous [not engaging in ugra-karma] a person, notwithstanding his concerns about his household, should obtain only as much as the grace of God would provide according to time and circumstance."

"One has wasted one's time when all the prescribed activities and observances, designed for the definite subjugation of the six departments [of the five senses and the mind], have not lead to the ultimate goal: the connectedness in yoga [of the individual consciousness with Him]."

"One may argue that by practicing yoga or cultivating impersonal knowledge one can acquire prestige, wealth, mystic powers or even impersonal liberation. But these so-called gains are actually useless, because they do not situate the living being in his constitutional position of loving service to the Supreme Lord. Therefore such results, being superfluous to the living being’s essential nature, are impermanent."

"One may ask how Bhagavan, the Supreme Lord, can be defeated by His boyfriends. The answer is that in His original form, God has a most playful nature and occasionally enjoys submitting to the strength or desire of His loving friends. A father may sometimes playfully fall down on the ground when struck by his beloved little child. These acts of love give pleasure to all parties."

"One may guess about [the authority and order of] Your reality [of TIme]. [All] we see is how You, just like the wind scattering the clouds, with Your so very great force [of Time] in the long run destroy all the planetary systems and how all living being find their end therewith because of others."

"One receives a form according to the way one worships the Lord. In the material world, the body one receives is guided by the demigods."

"One who accepts the kingdom of God as home, the Lord Himself as the object of love, and the material universe as paraphernalia for being engaged in the Lord’s service dwells within eternal reality wherever he may go within the material and spiritual worlds."

"One who is intelligent should renounce the desire for wealth by sacrifices and charity, the desire for a wife and kids by engaging in household affairs and the desire for a world for oneself [or another life], o Vasudeva, by means of the Time [in studying its effects, see also 9.5 and B.G. 3: 16]; all the ones sober renounced their desires for a household life and went for penance into the forest."

"Our personal bodies, self, family, friends, nation, planet, universe and so on are all manifestations of the Supreme Lord, who expands Himself through His personal potencies. Lord Krsna is certainly the supreme object of our love and attraction, and other objects, such as body, family and home, should be secondary objects of our affection."

"Passing beyond that navel of the universe, the pivot, the center of spin of the Maintainer [Vishnu], by the individual living being that was purified by the realization of his smallness, the place is reached that is worshipable for those who are transcendentally situated. There the self-realized souls enjoy for the time of a kalpa [a day of Brahmâ]."

"People generally argue, but our process is not to argue but to accept the Vedic knowledge as it is. When Krsna says, “This is superior, and this is inferior,” we accept what He says. It is not that we argue, “Why is this superior and that inferior?” If one argues, for him the knowledge is lost."

"Please inform me, o reservoir of all riches, about the reason of your sadness that reduced you to such a weakness. Or has o mother, powerful Time stolen away from you the good fortune that was even extolled by the enlightened souls?'"

"Please protect us, Your people, Your friends, against that insurmountable fire of Time [of death], o Master, we impossibly can think of abandoning Your feet that drive away all fear."