View source for What is that Durga? Durga is the material nature, very powerful. Srsti-sthiti-pralaya-sadhana-saktih. She has got the power of creating, maintaining and dissolving. She is so powerful. You have seen Durga's picture. She has got ten hands

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{{terms|"What is that Durga? Durga is the material nature, very powerful. Srsti-sthiti-pralaya-sadhana-saktih. She has got the power of creating, maintaining and dissolving. She is so powerful. You have seen Durga's picture. She has got ten hands"}}
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[[Category:Questions Posed by Srila Prabhupada]]
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<div id="Lectures" class="section" sec_index="4" parent="compilation" text="Lectures"><h2>Lectures</h2>
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<div id="Initiation_Lectures" class="sub_section" sec_index="8" parent="Lectures" text="Initiation Lectures"><h3>Initiation Lectures</h3>
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<div id="LectureatInitiationFireSacrificeLosAngelesJuly161969_0" class="quote" parent="Initiation_Lectures" book="Lec" index="19" link="Lecture at Initiation Fire Sacrifice -- Los Angeles, July 16, 1969" link_text="Lecture at Initiation Fire Sacrifice -- Los Angeles, July 16, 1969">
<div class="heading">What is that Durgā? Durgā is the material nature, very powerful. Sṛṣṭi-sthiti-pralaya-sādhana-śaktiḥ. She has got the power of creating, maintaining and dissolving. She is so powerful. You have seen Durgā's picture. She has got ten hands. That's a long story, of course, Durgā, Caṇḍī. These are all described in the Vedic literatures. But she is not the absolute personality. Sṛṣṭi-sthiti-pralaya-sādhana-śaktir eka chāyeva. She is working simply just like shadow.
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<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Lecture at Initiation Fire Sacrifice -- Los Angeles, July 16, 1969|Lecture at Initiation Fire Sacrifice -- Los Angeles, July 16, 1969]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="text"><p style="display: inline;">This picture is the symbolic... Ānanda-cinmaya-rasa. There is a rasa, mellow—every ānanda. Just like if you take a nice fruit, mango, the taste is pleasing. That is called rasa, that taste. Anyway, anything enjoy, there is a rasa. Rasa. You love somebody, you kiss somebody, embrace somebody, there is a rasa. So this picture is ānanda-cinmaya-rasa. Here we have got that taste of rasa in a perverted manner. But cinmaya-rasa means it continues. This Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa with the gopīs, they are enjoying, dancing, chanting. That is eternally; that is never stopped. It is not that they become old and there is no more enjoyment or they are separated or somebody, Kṛṣṇa goes somewhere and the Rādhārāṇī goes to somewhere. No. Everything is eternal. They are enjoying. That is the difference between this rasa and that rasa. This rasa is temporary. Your youthful enjoyment will not exist; it will be finished. Your American life will be finished. Your this life, that life, everything will be finished—and finished forever. Not that you are going to have it again. Therefore this is flashing. It is coming and going. But that life is eternal. That is ānanda-cinmaya. Ānanda-cinmaya-rasa-pratibhāvitābhis tābhir ya eva nija-rūpatayā kalābhiḥ (Bs. 5.37). This ānanda-cinmaya-rasa is called hladini-śakti, Kṛṣṇa's pleasure potency. Parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate, na tasya karyaṁ karaṇaṁ ca vidyate (Cc. Madhya 13.65, purport). These are Vedic versions, that "The Supreme has nothing to do." Just like here if we enjoy in the hotel some dancing, and next morning I'll have to go into the garbage for bringing money for that dancing. I'll work, go underground to dig out garbage. It is not like that, that Kṛṣṇa has to go next morning to garbage. (laughter) You see? It is not that I'll have to acquire money by flattering somebody or working some in hell. No. Ānanda-cinmaya-rasa-pratibhāvitā... That is the expansion of His pleasure potency. Kṛṣṇa is Paraṁ Brahman. Paraṁ brahma paraṁ dhāma pavitraṁ paramaṁ bhavān ([[Vanisource:BG 10.12|BG 10.12]]). When Arjuna understood Kṛṣṇa, he says, confirms, "My dear Kṛṣṇa, You are Paraṁ Brahman, You are the Supreme Personality of Godhead." This is understanding of Gītā. And after reading I understand that I am God. What is this nonsense? Where do you get this idea? Where it is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā? Simply bluffing, all these rascals, scholars, and so-called commentators. They're all rascals. They do not know what is Bhagavad-gītā. Here is Bhagavad-gītā, understanding Kṛṣṇa, accepting, Arjuna, paraṁ brahma paraṁ dhāma pavitraṁ paramaṁ bhavān śāśvataṁ puruṣam ([[Vanisource:BG 10.12|BG 10.12]]). The Supreme is puruṣam. He is not female. Just like some rascal thinks that He's Kālī, He's Durgā. No! Kālī, Durgā are His potencies. Parāsya śaktir vividhaiva. The Supreme has many kinds of potencies. Goddess Kālī is also one of the potencies, Durgā is also one of the potencies. Not that Durgā is the Absolute Truth. This is nonsense. That is stated in the Brahma-saṁhitā, sṛṣṭi-sthiti-pralaya-sādhana-śaktir eka chāyeva yasya bhuvanāni bibharti durgā (Bs. 5.44). Durgā. What is that Durgā? Durgā is the material nature, very powerful. Sṛṣṭi-sthiti-pralaya-sādhana-śaktiḥ. She has got the power of creating, maintaining and dissolving. She is so powerful. You have seen Durgā's picture. She has got ten hands. That's a long story, of course, Durgā, Caṇḍī. These are all described in the Vedic literatures. But she is not the absolute personality. Sṛṣṭi-sthiti-pralaya-sādhana-śaktir eka chāyeva. She is working simply just like shadow. As the shadow moves when the original substance moves, similarly, she is only working under the direction of Kṛṣṇa. That's all. She is the external potency. Similarly, Rādhārāṇī is a pleasure potency, and these gopīs are expansion of Rādhārāṇī, pleasure potency. So they are not ordinary girls, neither Kṛṣṇa is enjoying like us, that in the hotel at dance and in the morning the garbage. No. It is not like that. Ānanda-cinmaya-rasa-pratibhāvitābhis (Bs. 5.37).</p>
<p>So when you enter into the Kṛṣṇa science you get so much volumes of transcendental knowledge, and we are trying to present before you this knowledge in so many ways, by cleansing your heart from this material contamination. And this initiation is the beginning of cleaning the contamination. Therefore this mantra suggests, apavitraḥ pavitraḥ vā: either you be contaminated or not contaminated. When one is not contaminated, he's relishing this Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra by associating with Kṛṣṇa. Just like Rūpa Gosvāmī, he's also chanting. Caitanya Mahāprabhu is also chanting, but His chanting and my chanting, there is little difference. That chanting is on the transcendental platform, actually relishing with Kṛṣṇa. My chanting... In the beginning there are three stages: offensive stages, liberated stage, and relishing stage. So you will be initiated for chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, there will be so many offenses. So we have to offend..., we have to defend ourself from the offenses. There are ten kinds of offenses. You'll get the list. So we shall try to avoid. Then our chanting will be purified. And when the chanting is purified, then immediately you are liberated. And after liberation? Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā: ([[Vanisource:BG 18.54|BG 18.54]]) your life of devotional service actually begins. Then you relish reciprocation of love with Kṛṣṇa.</p>
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