Great Throughts Treasury

"The gross and subtle movements of time, the generation of the lotus and the killing of Hiranyâksha in connection with the deliverance of the earth from the ocean."

"The guru who is the light on the path must be considered the Supreme Lord in person and he who considers him and what he heard from him as mortal and time-bound is like an elephant that has bathed [and thereafter takes a dust bath]."

"The hamsa, or swan, accepts milk from a mixture of milk and water and rejects the water."

"The honorable king [Parîkchit] said: 'By what means, my Lord, do the people living in Kali-yuga eradicate the faults accumulated of the time, please explain that as-it-is to me. (17) [Explain to me] the yugas, the duties prescribed for them, and the time they last and find their end, and the Time itself that constitutes the movement of the Controller, of Lord Vishnu the Supreme Soul [see also timequotes page]'."

"The infinitesimal particles and their combinations, the planets, the heavenly bodies [like the moon] and the stars, all rotate in the universe, to return in a year in the Almighty [cyclic order] of eternal of time."

"The influence of the Original Personality of God is said to be the time factor that is feared by some who are being deluded by the ego of being in contact with the material nature of one's individual existence."

"The keepers of the wealth [the Yaksha's] said: 'We, serving You to Your pleasure belong to Your best followers. This son of Diti forced us to carry his palanquin but caused the sorrow [the poverty] of each and everyone. Thus we acknowledge You oh Lord Nrisimha, for You are the one who put him to death oh twenty-fifth principle."

"The life of a paramahamsa devotee is used entirely for Krsna, just as the life of a person attached to the material world is used simply for women and money. What is day for the materialistic person is night for the spiritualist. What is very sweet for the materialist - namely women and money - is regarded as poison by the spiritualist."

"The Lord does create innumerable worlds and expand Himself as innumerable living entities. But the Lord’s so-called reproduction is completely spiritual and does not take place at a certain phase of bodily existence; rather, it constitutes the Lord’s eternal proclivity to expand His spiritual bliss and glories."

"The Lord in terms of the material energy is thus, divided in nine, described as the time, the place, the endeavor, the performer, the instrument, the specific ritual, the scripture, the paraphernalia and the result, o Brahmin."

"The Lord of Eternal Time, the controller of the deluding potency of matter [mâyâ] thus took upon Himself, from His own potency spontaneously appearing in different obtained [guna] forms, the workload [karma] and specific nature [or svabhâva, of the living entity]."

"The Lord’s devotees achieve their exalted position by unalloyed devotion and love. One cannot achieve such spiritual opulence by any puffed-up material process of personal improvement."

"The masculine [of Mahâ-Vishnu] that from You [as father Time] acquires the potent seed of this creation, impregnates the greater of matter [mahat-tattva]. Therefrom generates He whose semen is never wasted, joined with that same nature from the Self - just as an ordinary fetus is produced - the golden primeval egg of the universe endowed with its [seven] outer layers [see kosha]."

"The modes of the goodness, the passion and the ignorance of a person are set in motion by the Time and are observed in different combinaties within the mind."

"The moment one [living] with the time and all its different elements, is joined with Me in the form of Eternal Time [or the pure Time Spirit], that illusory energy of the modes of nature [the goddess Durgâ in sum*] will no longer be able to bewilder you.'"

"The mood of loving service is anathema to belligerent conditioned souls determined to defy God and enjoy. When such stubborn conditioned souls attempt to bypass surrendering to God through proud attempts at philosophical speculation, austerity, and yoga, they are turned back to the material platform by the powerful laws of God and violently merged into the heaving ocean of insignificance called the material world."

"The more we try to defeat the arrangement of Krsna, the more we become implicated in Krsna’s maya. But one who has reached the point of surrendering to the instructions of Krsna is liberated, free from krsna-maya."

"The mortal frame [at the time of annihilation] merges with the food, the food with the grains, the grains with the earth and the earth with the fragrance. The fragrance is merged with the water, the water with its quality, that taste with the fire and the fire with the form. Form is being merged with the touch, the touch then with the ether, ether with the subtle object of sound and the senses [of sound etc.] with their sources [the gods of the sun and moon etc.]. The sources [as the ahankâra ego of passion] are merged with the emotions [the ego of goodness], My dearest, and they merge with the mind, the controller of the sound, which dissolves in the original of the elements [ego of slowness], and that all powerful primal elementary nature merges with the cosmic intelligence [mahat]. That greater nature merges in its own modes and they on their turn merge with their ultimate abode of the unmanifest which merges with the infallible Time. Time merges with the individuality [the jîva] of the Supreme in command of the illusory potency and that individuality merges with Me, the Supreme Self Unborn [âtmâ], who, characterized by creation and annihilation, perfectly being established in Himself remains alone."

"The movement of material nature without its interaction of the modes and its specific qualities, o daughter of Manu, is the time from which we here know Him, the Supreme Lord."

"The One [Lord of Time] who differing from all that was created moves by the name of Eternal Time, who by means of His energy in different ways brings to life the seeds of creation and who during the day dissipates the darkness of the living entities, should be offered respect with attention for all His five different types of years, so that one thus with one's offerings brings about quality in one's material existence.'"

"The one Self, the one Supreme Controller without a second, who became the Foundation and Reservoir of All, is Nârâyana, the Godhead who in the beginning by His own potency created the universe and by His potency of Time at the end of the kalpa withdraws His creation in Himself. When by His potency of the time factor the material powers of sattva and so on have been balanced, exists the Original Personality, the purusha of the primary nature [pradhâna], who is the worshipable Controller of the gods and normal souls, in the purest experience of revelation that one describes as kaivalya [beautitude], the fulness of the blissful state free from material association. By means of the pure potency of His Self, His own energy composed of the three modes, manifests He the plan of matter [constitutes He the sûtra, the thread, provides He the rule or direction of the mahat-tattva]. He achieves that [in the form of Time] by agitation at the onset of creation."

"The people gradually were acquiring godless habits as wantonness and such. The king facing these serious matters and bad omens, spoke with his younger brother about it."

"The philosophically inclined should for that reason endeavor only for that which is not so much found wandering from high to low. In the course of time, the time that is so impetuous and subtle, one will automatically everywhere find the enjoyment - as good as the miseries - as a result of one's work."

"The question may arise as to why Krsna and Balarama allowed Their loving devotees to suffer such great anguish during Krsna’s temporary imprisonment within the coils of Kaliya. It must be remembered that because the inhabitants of Vrndavana were completely liberated souls, they did not experience material emotions. When they saw their beloved Krsna in apparent danger, their love for Him intensified to the highest degree, and thus they merged completely into the ecstasy of love for Him. The whole situation has to be seen from the spiritual point of view, or it will not be seen at all."

"The residents of Vrndavana perform all activities in pure Krsna consciousness and thus exist on the most exalted platform of liberated life."

"The roads out of use faded away grown over by grass just like written texts that, not studied by the brahmins, wither away under the influence of time."

"The same way as the realm of the ether is not touched by the winds that blow the clouds, is a person [in his real self] not affected by the physical bodies consisting of fire, water and earth that according the modes of nature are moved by Time."

"The so very sharp, revolving wheel of Time governs all the world according to its own rule and measure; of what use is it to endeavor in desire for results in this world when one doesn't know about this [this order of time]?"

"The Supreme Lord said: 'This message consisting of the Vedas that by the influence of time was lost at the time of annihilation, was at the time of creation by Me spoken to Brahmâ. It contains the dharma of acting according to My will."

"The Supreme Lord very well knowing the meaning of all that happened, didn't want to undo what had passed though and accepted, exhibiting His form of Time, the curse of the brahmins.'"

"The Supreme Lord who is there for the protection of both [these divinities] operates by the supreme presence of the wheel of Time [the Sudars'ana Cakra]. This disc is deemed the most dear, most devoted and favorite weapon that by its power and unbearable heat makes Râhu, with a mind full of fear and a bewildered heart, flee far away from that position wherein he resides for almost an hour and which by the people is called an eclipse."

"The Supreme Master resides in the heart of all living entities, o Arjuna, directing each creature subject to the mechanical of time and matter."

"The supreme oneness of that particle being present within material bodies keeps its original form till the end of time, it is of a continual, unrivaled uniformity."

"The time had taken an inauspicious turn: he observed seasonal irregularities and saw that the people in their human sinfulness turned to anger, greed and falsehood in heartening their means of livelihood."

"The twenty-four elements mentioned are the five working senses, the five senses for obtaining knowledge, the five gross material elements, the five sense objects, the mind, the false ego, the mahat-tattva, and material nature. All twenty-four of these elements are employed for the manifestation of this material world. The mahat-tattva is divided into different subtle categories, but originally it is called the mahat-tattva."

"The universe after countless millenia having been submerged in the [causal] waters, was by the individual soul [the jîva or the Lord] who animates the inanimate awakened to its own time of living."

"The unseen mover [viz. Time] of the seas and oceans of the living beings that are involved with evolution and extinction is, as seen from His belly [the middle worlds, S'iva], by the intelligent known as the [beating] heart that is located in the subtle body."

"The various conditions [stages of existence] of the things subject to change are swiftly overtaken by the force of the mighty current of Time; they constitute the proof of their constantly being born and annihilated [called nityah pralaya]."

"The Vedic knowledge expands from Lord Brahma, who is described in the first verse of Srimad-Bhagavatam as adi-kavi, the primeval Vedic scholar. Yet Brahma could not understand the transcendental body of Lord Krsna, because it is beyond the reach of ordinary Vedic knowledge."

"The vedic word of truth that Time is the unavoidable controller, has been proven true since even the intelligence of the elders could be diverted by the words of a boy!"

"The very moment he [the witness, the soul], in his glory of transcending the time of the material energy, enjoys to be free from illusion, he in that fulness will forsake the two [of that 'I' and 'mine']."

"The way it [Eternal Time] is there in the present, it was there in the beginning and will be there hereafter."

"The way the power of fire is hidden in wood He resided there in the water keeping all that existed in the subtle of His transcendental body from where He gives life in the form of Time [kâla]."

"The wheel of the universe that with a tremendous speed spins around the axle of the imperishable [nature] of You [Brahman] with three naves [sun, moon and stars], [twelve to] thirteen spokes [as lunar months], three hundred and sixty joints [as days in a demigod year], six rims [as seasons], and innumerable leaves [moments], cuts short the life-span of the universe but not the lives of the devotees."

"The whole world prone to doing it wrong is bewildered about the duties out here that are beneficial in the worship of You to Your command that, in so far one is doing one's own of this, are the power of existence serving longevity and hope; may there be the obeisances to Him, the Ever Vigilant ['unblinking of Time'] who all of a sudden cuts this all off [at the time of ones death]."

"The wives of Kaliya were actually serious devotees of Lord Krsna, and according to the acaryas they had often tried to convince their husband to surrender to Him."

"The year symbolizing [the passage of] time was called Candavega to which the threehundred and sixty men and women from heaven are to be understood as the days and nights that by their footsteps reduce the lifespan that one has on this earth [see 4.27: 13]. The daughter of Time who was welcomed by no one and as the sister-in-law was accepted by the king of the Yavanas in favor of death and destruction, stood for jarâ, old age."

"The year symbolizing [the passage of] time was called Candavega to which the three hundred and sixty men and women from heaven are to be understood as the days and nights that by their footsteps reduce the lifespan that one has on this earth The daughter of Time who was welcomed by no one and as the sister-in-law was accepted by the king of the Yavanas in favor of death and destruction, stood for jarâ, old age."

"There is unity in variety. Thus yogamaya and mahamaya are among the varied individual parts of the same one potency, and all of these individual potencies work in their own varied ways."

"There one assuredly is of no concern about the divisions of time relative to the changes of night and day [as observed with sundials and lunar phases]."