Category:Foolish Men
Theme Analysis
In the teachings of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, the concept of foolish men refers to those who possess human intelligence but drastically misuse it by prioritizing temporary bodily comforts over eternal spiritual truth. Such individuals are characterized by their deep attachment to family life, economic development, and mundane sense gratification. Because they lack standard Vedic knowledge, they fail to understand that the pleasures they pursue so desperately are equally available to animals like dogs and hogs. This poor fund of knowledge causes them to falsely claim independence, invent their own philosophies, and mistakenly view the Supreme Personality of Godhead as an ordinary mortal being. The ultimate tragedy of this mentality is the complete waste of the rare human form of life, which is specifically designed for self-realization. True intelligence, therefore, begins when a person submissively recognizes their own foolishness, abandons the pursuit of material mirages, and accepts the authorized teachings of genuine spiritual masters.
- The Tragedy of Sense Enjoyment A human being who simply dedicates their life to family maintenance, eating, and sleeping is wasting a tremendous opportunity. By drinking the poison of material sense pleasure and putting aside the nectar of spiritual life, they reduce their existence to the level of animals.
- Misunderstanding the Supreme Lord Due to their insufficient knowledge, unintelligent persons frequently deride Kṛṣṇa when He appears in a human-like form. They interpret the Supreme Lord according to their own whims, falsely concluding that He is merely a powerful mortal man rather than the original cause of all causes.
- False Independence and Material Science Puffed up by the illusion of scientific advancement, materially attached individuals claim credit for the creations of nature and falsely believe that life comes from chemical combinations. They attempt to make permanent settlements in a perishable world, ignoring the supreme will of the Lord.
- The Path of True Intelligence Actual wisdom begins with genuine humility. Rather than surrendering to mundane leaders, an intelligent person surrenders to Kṛṣṇa. By presenting oneself as foolish and submissively hearing from authorized sources like the great sages, one is rescued from the cycle of birth and death.
- Explore the synthesized essence of this category in this Vanipedia article: Wasting the Human Form of Life - The Tragic Choices of Foolish Men.
Pages in category "Foolish Men"
The following 102 pages are in this category, out of 102 total.
A
- A devotee should not be a foolish man. It is said: krsna ye bhaje se bada catura. So a devotee knows his position, and he is intelligent enough to deal with others accordingly
- A foolish man does not understand the values of human life, nor does he understand how he is wasting his valuable life simply for the maintenance of his family members
- A foolish man in the bodily concept of life is like a cow
- A foolish man, if he is informed that there is better life in the spiritual world, to become servant of God, Krsna, they think, "I became servant of this material world. I have suffered so much. Again servant of Krsna? Oh..." They shudder
- A less intelligent person may first have to be arrested and punished for stealing to learn to stop stealing. However, a rascal, a foolish man, may have the experience of both hearing and seeing and may even be punished, but still he continues to steal
- A man who is simply attached to sensual enjoyment voluntarily accepts the miserable material existence and thus wanders after the will-o'-the-wisp of sense pleasure. He is certainly the most foolish man, for he drinks poison and puts aside the nectar
- And so far we are concerned, we don't talk anything, except what is mentioned in the books. That's all. We remain always foolish. And as foolish men, we do not talk. We simply talk what is mentioned by Vyasadeva, by Sukadeva Gosvami
- Arjuna worshiped the Lord by fighting with his so-called relatives, and in this way he became a pure devotee of the Lord. Such accomplishments are possible only when one worships the real Krsna and not some fabricated "Krsna" invented by foolish men
- As stated in Bhagavad-gita (BG 9.11), avajananti mam mudha manusim tanum asritam: foolish men with insufficient knowledge deride the Personality of Godhead because He appears just like a human being
- Ask my disciples. I have never shown any magic. Why? That is cheating business. That is not required. It is meant for the foolish men
C
- Canakya Pandita gives the example that a moment of life cannot be purchased in exchange for millions of dollars. A foolish person wastes such a valuable life without knowing how much he is losing, even according to monetary calculations
- Curiously enough there are many human leaders who are worshiped by foolish men under the misunderstanding of anthropomorphism or zoomorphism. Iha devatah denotes a powerful man or demigod of this material world
D
- Drinking water only, without solid food, is also considered fasting. This is necessary for advancement of spiritual knowledge. A foolish man wants to be a cheap yogi without observing the regulative principles
- Due to his defective senses, a foolish man cannot see that this (falling down again into the evolutionary cycle) is happening
F
- Foolish men are not interested in Krsna consciousness for the permanent solution to the hardships of material existence. BG 1972 purports
- Foolish men consider the infinitesimal & infinite features of the Lord because they themselves are unable to become either the infinitesimal or infinite, but one should know that the infinite & infinitesimal sizes of the Lord are not His highest glories
- Foolish men forget that temporary so-called happiness derived from sense pleasures is also enjoyed by the dogs and hogs. No animal, bird or beast is bereft of this sense pleasure
- Foolish men forget this sure fact of death and neglect the duty of preparing themselves for going back to Godhead. They spoil their lives in animal propensities to eat, drink, be merry and enjoy
- Foolish men have no information of the reality, and they take it for granted that the false material manifestation is the all in all
- Foolish men of materialistic temperament do not take advantage of successive authorized knowledge
- Foolish men seek after material sense pleasure as a substitute for real happiness, but such foolish men forget that temporary so-called happiness derived from sense pleasures is also enjoyed by the dogs and hogs
- Foolish men should take lessons from the drying pools of water and should know, in their own interests, that life is eternal, continuing even after death. Only the body changes, whether spiritually or materially
- Foolish men want to make a permanent settlement of the perishable body and think that their estate, children, society, country, etc., will give them protection
- Foolish men want to take credit for all creations made by them, but intelligent persons know very well that not a blade of grass can move without the will of the Lord; thus all the credit for wonderful creations must go to Him
- Foolish men, or men with a poor fund of knowledge, do not understand the Supreme Lord, and they interpret Krsna according to their respective whims
- Foolish men, puffed up by a false sense of scientific advancement, have concentrated their energy in the pursuit of so-called economic development on this planet, not knowing of the variegated economic facilities available on other planets
- Foolish men, they cannot understand that beyond this body there is another force, which is helping the movement of the body. They cannot understand the Bhagavad-gita statement, tatha dehantara-praptih (BG 2.13). That moving force is perpetual, eternal
- For less intelligent men, beginning of spiritual life is essential, and only foolish men decry the establishment of such places of worship, which are required to raise the standard of spiritual attributes for the mass of people
- Forgetting the duty of human life, the foolish man simply remains in the company of his wife and enjoys her in a secluded place. Such a condition is called apakrsta-cetana, or degraded consciousness
- Further, he (Narada Muni) saw that a boar was also suffering, and, in another place, he saw a rabbit twitching in pain. All this made him very compassionate, and he began to think, Who is the foolish man who has committed such sins
H
- He (a foolish man) is expert in calculating the loss of pounds, shillings and pence, but he is so foolish that he does not know how much money he is losing, even according to material considerations
- He (Krsna) says in Bhagavad-gita that the foolish deride Him, considering Him a mortal being. He is not a mortal being, nor does He come before us with a body produced of material nature
- He (Lord Buddha) knew that, "These foolish men will come and give me evidence that 'Here in the Vedas animal sacrifice is recommended. Why you are preaching? Why you are preaching stoppage of animal killing?' " Therefore he completely rejected Vedas
- He (Sri Purusottama Yati) initiated Ananda Tirtha and converted many foolish men to accept sannyasa and punished them with his rod
- He (the foolish man who had no experience with sugar cane, & asked his friend & got imperfectly informed that sugar cane resembles the shape of a bamboo stick) began trying to extract juice from bamboo sticks, but naturally he was baffled in his attempts
I
- I say I am foolish man. I have no idea. Whatever Krsna says, that is idea. Just like a child
- If a foolish man does not talk, it is good for him and good for others. Because he'll talk foolish. Better not to talk. That is good
- If I have to surrender, why not to Krsna? Why surrender to some foolish man? If my business is to surrender, I cannot do without surrender, then let me surrender to Krsna. That is intelligence
- If I say I'm God and somebody accepts me as God, then he's a foolish man. They do not know what is meaning of God
- If somebody imitates barking of the dog, if he says, "This is new frontier of knowledge," so a foolish man can believe that "How you have learned to bark like dog! Oh, great advancement." But an intelligent man says "What is the use of this?"
- Impersonalists generally pose themselves as incarnations of God to foolish persons who have no knowledge of Vedic wisdom. If such foolish men have any knowledge at all, it is more dangerous in their hands than ignorance itself
- In the absence of voluntary restraint, there is propaganda for family planning, but foolish men do not know that family planning is automatically executed as soon as there is search after the Absolute Truth
- In the present day there are many foolish followers of such rascals. Similarly, in Paundraka's day, many foolish men accepted Paundraka as the Supreme Personality of Godhead
- In the tract of land known as Ilavrta-varsa, the only male person is Lord Siva, the most powerful demigod. Goddess Durga does not like any man to enter that land. If any foolish man dares to do so, she immediately turns him into a woman
- Instead of offering respect to self-realized persons, foolish men who cannot approach the highest standard of self-realization are always envious, although there is no reason
K
- King Rsabha propagated this mission, and at the last stage He became completely aloof from the material bodily needs, which is a rare stage not to be imitated by foolish men, but to be worshiped by all
- Krsna does not say that "I am for the Hindu living entities or the Indian living entities." Where it is in Bhagavad-gita? Why the foolish men take it that Krsna Hindu, Krsna Indian? Krsna says that "I am friend of all living entities"
- Krsna does not want that you should enjoy this material world. Sometimes the foolish men, they say that - Krsna has given us this facility for sense enjoyment. Why we shall not take it up?
L
- Life is definitely not generated simply by a material reaction like a chemical combination, as many foolish men claim
- Lord Krsna incarnated Himself as He is and played very wonderful parts as the Lord Himself, and the Bhagavad-gita concerns such wonderful actions and knowledge. Yet foolish men will not accept Lord Krsna as the Supreme Lord
O
- One has to be somewhat intelligent to understand this (Krsna's rasa-lila with the cowherd girls in Vrndavana), for a foolish man, who cannot understand what real happiness is, seeks happiness in this material world
- One has to use his intelligence to understand what is real happiness. Foolish man cannot understand what is real happiness
- One is not allowed to kill animals unnecessarily or without restrictions. The Vedas regulate animal-killing to stop the extravagance of foolish men influenced by the modes of passion and ignorance
- One of our foolish Godbrothers criticized our sannyasi Brahmananda Svami, saying that this was a Mayavadi name. The foolish man did not know that Brahmananda does not always refer to the impersonal Brahman
- One who does not know (everything belongs to Krsna) is ignorant; he is foolish. And a foolish man commits criminality. All criminals are foolish men. Out of ignorance one commits lawbreaking
- Only the foolish man says that there is no God. Maharaja Yudhisthira was being convinced of this naked truth because he was greatly overwhelmed by the sudden departure of his old uncles and aunt
- Our point is that they are accepting foolish men as scientists
S
- Sanatana Gosvami was coming of a very brahmana, aristocratic family. He was very learned scholar in Sanskrit and Urdu; still, he presented himself before Caitanya Mahaprabhu as a foolish man
- Some less intelligent men say that Bhagavad-gita is not meant for householders, but such foolish men forget that Bhagavad-gita was explained to Arjuna, a grhastha (family man), and spoken by the Lord in His role as a grhastha
- Sri Sukadeva Gosvami has described how the foolish materially attached men are wasting their valuable time 2) by developing economic conditions and maintaining a band of relatives who are to be vanquished in the air of oblivion
- Sri Sukadeva Gosvami has described how the foolish materially attached men are wasting their valuable time in the improvement of the material conditions of life 1) by sleeping, indulging in sex life
- Srimati Vindhyavali said: O my Lord, You have created the entire universe for the enjoyment of Your personal pastimes, but foolish, unintelligent men have claimed proprietorship for material enjoyment. Certainly they are shameless agnostics
- Such foolish men (irresponsible kings or state executives) do not even believe in the existence of a next life
- Such foolish men cannot be attracted towards the activities of the Supreme Powerful, who is actually the neutralizing measure for their foolish activities, unless and until they have the good sense to be guided by the great souls
T
- The atheist class of men foolishly inquire "Where is God?" And we present them Krsna - here is God, and if you have got sense and intelligence just try to understand Krsna, whether He is not God
- The foolish man does not know that a particular term of bodily existence is awarded to him to undergo a term of imprisonment & the human body is awarded, after many, many births and deaths as a chance for self-realization to go back home back to Godhead
- The foolish man thinks of the transcendental body of the Lord as something like his own, and therefore he cannot think of the unlimited controlling power of the Lord, who is not visible in the acting of the physical laws
- The general worship of Sanideva, the lord of distressful condition, and Sitaladevi, the goddess of smallpox, is also common to the mass of people, and there are many foolish men who worship the mass of people or the poor class of men
- The householders are allowed a pension from service so that they can live for a higher cultural life. But foolish men, reluctant even to accept this pension, want to artificially increase the duration of their life
- The materialistic way of life is described herein (SB 2.1.1) in a nutshell, and how foolishly men waste the boon of human life is described as follows
- The Mayavadis, there are two kinds of Mayavadis: the impersonalists and the voidists. They are all Mayavadi. So their philosophy is good so far, because a foolish man cannot understand more than this
- The mudhas, or foolish men, who are lower than the animals, deride Him. Any person who doesn't believe in God must either be a madman or fool number one
- The purpose of all Vedic literature is to awaken this God consciousness in the forgetful living being, and this same purpose is presented in various ways in the different scriptures of the world for the understanding of a foolish mankind
- The virat-rupa was particularly exhibited by the Lord just to give lessons to such foolish men, so that one can accept a person as the incarnation of Godhead only if such a person is able to exhibit such a virat-rupa as Lord Krsna did
- There are many foolish men who consider Krsna to be merely a powerful man and nothing more. Actually, He is the original Supreme Personality, as is confirmed in the Brahma-samhita (isvarah paramah krsnah); He is the Supreme Lord. BG 1972 purports
- There are many so-called scholars who contend that the Lord descends in a body made of matter, just like an ordinary living being. Not knowing His inconceivable power, such foolish men place the Lord on an equal level with ordinary men
- There is the story of the foolish man who had no experience with sugar cane. When he asked his friend about the characteristics of sugar cane, he was imperfectly informed that sugar cane resembles the shape of a bamboo stick
- There will be certain class of men foolish, and there will be certain class of men who are intelligent. So the foolish man has to take intelligence from the intelligent man. This is perpetually truth in this material world
- They (foolish men) are all after sense enjoyment, and to get a little facility for sense enjoyment they are attracted to worship empowered living entities known as demigods. BG 1972 purports
- They (foolish men) cannot understand that Krsna spoke this Bhagavad-gita millions of years ago to the sun-god. We immediately say: "Oh, these are all story." But it is not story. It is fact
- They (foolish men) cannot understand that the Lord Sri Krsna, although in the form of a human being by His own potency, is still the Supreme Lord with full potency as the supreme controller
- They (foolish men) take sadhus and saints as parasites of society, and almost all of them refuse to hear the words of such sadhus and saints, although they welcome show-bottle sadhus and so-called saints who can satisfy their senses
- They (the little creatures playing in small pools) are like foolish men who, not caring for the nearing day of their death, become absorbed in the so-called enjoyment of family life
- They are foolish, all bad men. Manda sumanda-matayah (SB 1.1.10). And if he is supposed to be a good man, he will manufacture some mata, manda-mata, not approved by the sastras. This is going on
- They forget their permanent identity and become foolishly active for impermanent occupations, forgetting altogether their prime duty. Saints and sages like Vidura approach such foolish men to awaken them to the real situation
- They usually plunge into the subject matter of the rasa dance, which is misunderstood by the foolish class of men. Some of them take this to be immoral, while others try to cover it up by their own stupid interpretations
- This planet earth is but an insignificant spot in the cosmic structure. Yet foolish men, puffed up by a false sense of scientific advancement, have concentrated their energy in the pursuit of so-called economic development on this planet
W
- We are independent," "There is no life after death." These are all foolish man's theory. We are eternal, there is life after death, and that life also has got different gradation
- When a foolish man is instructed in something very nice, he generally cannot accept it. Indeed, he actually becomes angry. Such anger is compared to the poison of a serpent, for when a serpent is fed milk and bananas, its poison actually increases
- With foolish ideas, they (fools) become overtaken by temporary engagements and forget altogether that they must give up this temporary body and take a new one, again to arrange for another term of society, friendship and love, again to perish ultimately
Y
- Yamaraja was foolish man, that he is addressing a cow as mother? This is civilization. It doesn't matter one is appearing as a cow or a man or a dog or a demigod or a civilized man, uncivilized man
- Yet curiously enough there are many human leaders who are worshiped by foolish men under the misunderstanding of anthropomorphism or zoomorphism. Iha devatah denotes a powerful man or demigod of this material world. BG 1972 purports
- You may be a medical practitioner. You may be engineer. You may be any other man, mercantile man. Whatever you may be, it doesn't . . . you may be a learned man. You may be a foolish man. It doesn't matter. But you hear
- You say what it is. Don't say "They say." You use your intelligence. If the foolish man says something, shall I have to accept it? You use your own intelligence