Prabhupada 0657 - Temple Is The Only Secluded Place For This Age
Lecture on BG 6.6-12 -- Los Angeles, February 15, 1969
Devotee: "To practice yoga, one should go to a secluded place… (BG 6.11)."
Prabhupāda: This is the prescription, how to practice yoga. In your country, the yoga practice is very popular. There are many so-called yoga societies. But here is the prescription given by the Supreme Lord, how to practice yoga. Go on.
Tamal Krishna: "One should go to a secluded place and should lay kuśa grass on the ground and then cover it with a deerskin and a soft cloth. The seat should neither be too high nor too low and should be situated in a sacred place. The yogi should then sit on it very firmly and should practice yoga by controlling the mind and the senses, purifying the heart and fixing the mind on one point."
Prabhupāda: The first prescription is how to sit and where to sit. Sitting posture. You have to select a place where you shall sit down and practice yoga. That is the first prescription. Go on.
Tamal Krishna: "Purport: Sacred place refers to places of pilgrimage. In India, the yogis, the transcendentalists or the devotees all leave home, and reside in sacred places such as Prayāga, Mathurā, Vṛndāvana, Hṛṣīkeśa, Hardwar, and practice yoga there."
Prabhupāda: Now, suppose you have to find out a sacred place. In this age, how many people is prepared to find out a sacred place? For his livelihood he has to live in a congested city. Where is the question of sacred place? So if you don't find a sacred place, then how you can practice yoga? That is the first prescription. Therefore, this bhakti-yoga system, the sacred place is this temple. You live here, it is nirguṇa, it is transcendental. The Vedic injunction is that the city is the place of passion. And the forest is the place of goodness. And the temple is transcendental. If you live in a city or a town, that is a passionate place. And if you don't want to live in a passionate place, you go to a forest. That is place of goodness. But a temple, a God's temple, is above this passion and goodness. Therefore temple is the only secluded place for this age. You cannot go in a secluded place in a forest. It is impossible. And if you make a show of yoga practice in a so-called class, and indulge in all kinds of nonsense things, that is not yoga practice. Here is the prescription how to practice yoga. Go on.
Tamal Krishna: "Therefore, in the Bṛhan-Nāradīya Purāṇa it is said that in the Kali-yuga, the present yuga or age, when people in general are short-living, slow in spiritual realization, and always disturbed by various anxieties, the best means of spiritual realization is to chant the holy name of the Lord. In this age of quarrel and hypocrisy, the only means of deliverance is to chant the holy name of the Lord. There is no other way to success."
Prabhupāda: Yes. That is the prescription in the Bṛhan-Nāradīya Purāṇa.
- harer nāma harer nāma harer nāmaiva kevalam
- kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva nāsty eva gatir anyathā
- (CC Adi 17.21)
Harer nāma, simply chant the holy name of the Lord. That is the only process of self-realization or concentration or meditation. And there is no other alternative, no other alternative, no other alternative. Other practices will not be feasible. And it is so nice that even a child can take part in it. This is universal. (end)