Prabhupāda: The significance..., there is no significance. These professional Bhāgavata readers, they make money from the public because public wants to hear all these things. Just like we read a novel-a woman is embracing a man, or kissing or having sex. They like it. Therefore they go the Bhāgavata Tenth Canto immediately. Their Bhāgavata reading is professional, not understanding of Kṛṣṇa. If you want to understand Kṛṣṇa, then go step by step, one by one. First of all read Bhagavad-gītā, try to understand, and you surrender to Kṛṣṇa as Kṛṣṇa says, then you enter. Just like after passing entrance examination you enter into the college. Similarly, when you are qualified in accepting Kṛṣṇa as all in all, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇam (BG 18.66), then you enter into Bhāgavata. Bhāgavata is the graduate study, not ordinary study. But these professionals, they take advantage of the weakness of the people, and they make profession and earn some money. That's all. When we speak of Bhāgavata we speak from First Canto, Second Canto, Third Canto..., the nine cantos to understand Kṛṣṇa. Just like in First Canto the beginning, janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1), oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya, janmādy asya yataḥ. This is Vedānta-sūtra verse. Paraṁ satyaṁ dhīmahi. (Hindi) Kṛṣṇa for perfect knowledge, then you'll understand what is kṛṣṇa-līlā. (end)
All in all (Conversations)
Conversations and Morning Walks
1971 Conversations and Morning Walks
1974 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: So destiny is that we should devote our life for awakening Kṛṣṇa consciousness. This human life is meant for that purpose. By nature's way, prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27), nature is bringing us. As soon as we become sinful, we are dropped down to suffer the sequence of sinful life in different varieties. Again, just like a man, criminal, is put into the jail, but when his time is finished, again he is made free. Similarly, the cycle of birth and death, dehāntara-prāptiḥ, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13), one after another, is going on. So the animal life means reaction of sinful life, and upper class of life, demigods, means result of pious life. Two kinds of things are there, sinful and pious, through the cycle of birth is going on. But this human form of life or above human form of life, it is a chance for understanding the real value of life, and therefore for human beings there are guidances, these Vedas, Purāṇas, Vedānta-sūtra. It is meant for the human beings, not for the cats and dogs. Anādi-bahirmukha jīva kṛṣṇa bhuli gela ataeva kṛṣṇa veda-purāṇa kaila (CC Madhya 20.117). So it is recommended in the human form of life, first of all training as a brahmacārī, then he may remain as gṛhastha for sometime. The life is divided into four parts, twenty-five years. Suppose I live a hundred years: twenty-five years to become brahmacārī, remain as brahmacārī, and twenty-five years to remain as gṛhastha, family man, and twenty-five years as vānaprastha and twenty-five years as sannyāsa. This is system, Vedic system. Sannyāsa means vānaprastha is the prepāration for sannyāsa, and sannyāsa means completely dedicated to the service of Kṛṣṇa. This is our system. Just like you are spirit soul. Our business is not here. Our business in the spiritual world. Here, by circumstances you have fallen into the material condition, but if you take "This is all-in-all our duty," that is not advised in the śāstra. It is circumstances. We have fallen into, under certain circumstances, so we have to take care of. The real duty is to how to save myself from this material entanglement.
Chandobhai: Ekāṁśena His only one part of...
Prabhupāda: Only, only a part. That is Kṛṣṇa. And these rascals thinking, "Oh, Kṛṣṇa is as good as I am." Just see. The Māyāvādī rascals, they think like that, that "I am as good as Kṛṣṇa." "Kṛṣṇa played rāsa-līlā. Therefore I shall do."
Dr. Patel: These Māyāvādīs... Māyāvādī is one who thinks himself to be all in all.
Prabhupāda: Means rascal number one. "All in all, I am one," that is, means rascal number one.
Dr. Patel: How do you explain ahaṁ brahmāsmi?
Prabhupāda: You are by quality Brahman, spirit.
Dr. Patel: But not quantity.
Prabhupāda: No. Quantity. Just like if you take a drop of water of this... If the drop says, "I am the ocean," what is this nonsense? You are drop of water. Mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūtaḥ (BG 15.7). That's right. That is nice.
Dr. Patel: Mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūte, mamaivāṁśo jīva-loke, jīva-loke...
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Dr. Patel: Jīva-bhūtaḥ sanātanaḥ (BG 15.7).
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Dr. Patel: Manaḥ ṣaṣṭhāni indriyāṇi...
Prabhupāda: No, no, it is not stories. We are hearing from Bhāgavata. It is authority. We are not hearing the stories of a third-class man. We are hearing from Vyāsadeva. Vyāsadeva...
Indian man (1): But you see, up till now, in my long life of eighty years...
Prabhupāda: No, no, you have not so many experiences. That does not mean these things does not exist. Your experience is not all in all. Don't think like that. So these are existing actually. That is the defect, that you do not accept the authorities. That is the defect. Here Vyāsadeva is describing, who is called Vedavyāsa, full of all knowledge, and Bhāgavata is a mature experience. We are hearing from him. Why you should not believe? I may not have experience. This ghost means the living entity is subtle life without any material body. That is ghost. When one is very sinful, he does not get the material body. He lives in the subtle body: mind, intelligence and ego. That is ghostly life. And they display. Because they have no body, one cannot see, but they display so many mischiefs. That is ghostly life. (break) Seeing or not seeing doesn't matter. Therefore it is enjoined in the Vedānta-sūtra, śāstra cakṣuṣā.
Indian man (1): But it should be proved.
Prabhupāda: It is true because it is spoken by Vyāsadeva. How you say it is false? You cannot say that. That is blasphemy.
Indian man (1): In olden days there used to be the ghosts and all these things, but now that is gradually...
Prabhupāda: But gradually... That does not mean you have improved very much. Because you do not believe in the ghost...
Indian man (1): Our mental condition has improved.
Prabhupāda: Yes. I say that we devotees, we are not afraid even of demons. Hare Kṛṣṇa. (break) Asad-grahāt. Hitvātma-pātaṁ gṛham andha-kūpaṁ vanaṁ gato yad dharim āśrayeta (SB 7.5.5). He asked the son, "What you have learned, the best thing, in school?" He said, "My dear asura-varya," not father, "My dear best of the demons, I think this is the best thing." "What is that?" "Now, these people," sadā samudvigna-dhiyām, "always anxious, full of anxiety..." Why? Asad-grahāt: "Because they accepted this material world as all in all." Sadā samudvigna-dhiyām asad-grahāt: "On account of their accepting this material world as everything, therefore they are full of anxiety. Now, to get out of this anxiety, so-hitvātma-pātaṁ gṛham andha-kūpam-ātma-pātaṁ, suicidal place, gṛha, household life, they should give up." Hitvātma-pātaṁ gṛham andha-kūpam. "And then what you will do?" "Oh." vanaṁ gato: "He should give up and go to the forest." "And then?" Vanaṁ gato yad dharim āśrayeta: (SB 7.5.5) "And take shelter of the lotus feet of Hari. I understand this is the best thing." And his father become more angry. "What this rascal is speaking?" like that. (laughing) (aside:) Hare Kṛṣṇa. Jaya. He's all right? Hare Kṛṣṇa. Thank you. (break)
Girirāja: "...all the cowherd men who went to Mathurā to pay tax returned home and were struck with wonder at seeing the gigantic dead body of Pūtanā." (break)
Prabhupāda: Here is description of Pūtanā, twelve miles. Big gigantic body. And nobody has seen such gigantic body. But it is described in the Bhāgavatam. (break) ...Mahārāja was so simple, village man, that he accepted Vasudeva, a great mystic. Hare Kṛṣṇa. A devotee says that "I prefer to become a dog in the house of a devotee."
Prabhupāda: ...the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
Yaduvara: "And he saved all honest men from the hands of the dishonest." (break)
Prabhupāda: ...Vṛndāvana inhabitants, they are always anxious how to save the cows, always. They are connected with cows.
Yaduvara: "Thus ends the Bhaktivedanta purport of the Twenty-sixth chapter of Kṛṣṇa, Wonderful Kṛṣṇa." (break)
Prabhupāda: ...only Indra, even an ordinary person, he thinks he is all in all.
Dr. Patel: When he does work, he says, ahaṁ kartā, ahaṁ kartā.
Prabhupāda: Ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā kartāham iti manyate (BG 3.27). They think like that, the mūḍhas. Ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā. Vimūḍha. Not only mūḍha, vimūḍha.
Dr. Patel: Viśeṣa-mūḍha.
Prabhupāda: Viśeṣa. But... you are right. "Specifically mūḍha." (break)
Dr. Patel: Janma karma me divyam (BG 4.9).
Prabhupāda: No. Yaṁ brahmā varuṇendra-rudra-marutaḥ stunvanti divyaiḥ stavair vedaiḥ sāṅga-pada-krama...
Dr. Patel: Dhyānāvasthita-tad-gatena manasā... (break)
Prabhupāda: ...asura also, they cannot understand, and these so-called scholars, they are interpreting Kṛṣṇa. Go on. Vimūḍha. Māyayāpahṛta-jñānāḥ (BG 7.15).
Prabhupāda: Old lady.
Nitāi: Very old. She was walking down the street. She was all bent over. And she asked me what I was doing, and I showed her our magazine and explained that we were teaching Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and she said, "Oh, is this yoga? I remember way back when Vivekananda came here. Have you ever heard of him?" So we began talking about Vivekananda. She said that she was there when he made his tour. She was in Denver when he made his tour of the United States, and that he stopped there for one week and lectured. And she went there to see that meeting, but she said that all in all she was disgusted with him because he was so much attracted to the women. She said that he was victimized by the women. They were all trying to get him, and she said so when he went back to India he was a broken man.
Prabhupāda: Yes, he took with him three women. One of them was Sister Nivedita.
Devotee: Also you told us in India about Aurobindo and Ramakrishna. Aurobindo went also. Aurobindo, when that French woman came, he also fell to her, but just to cover it up he has called her "Mother" because in India, when you call someone "Mother..."
Prabhupāda: No, everyone knows he is mother and he is father.
Devotee: Yeah, right. And they don't think... There is no question of sex. When they think of mother and father, they don't think of these things. Also with Ramakrishna. He also had his divine mother. You told us a story in Calcutta that he was very debauched. In a village he used to chase the young women. And his brother actually made him famous.
Prabhupāda: It is very difficult to, not to be victimized by woman. It is very difficult.
Yogeśvara: Unless you are victimized by Kṛṣṇa first.
Nitāi: (reading) "In the Gītā it is clearly mentioned that material energy works fully under the direction of the Supreme Lord. It has no independent authority. It works as the shadow moves in accordance with the movements of the object, but still, material energy is very powerful, and the atheist, due to his godless temperament, cannot know how it works, nor can he know the plan of the Supreme Lord. Under illusion and the modes of passion and ignorance, all his plans are baffled, as in the case of Hiraṇyakaśipu and Rāvaṇa, whose plans were smashed to dust although they were both materially learned as scientists, philosophers, administrators and educators. These duṣkṛtinas or miscreants are of four different patterns as outlined below. Number one. The mūḍhas: those who are grossly foolish like hard working beasts of burden. They want to enjoy the fruits of their labor by themselves and do not want to part with them for the Supreme. The typical example of the beast of burden is the ass. This humble beast is made to work very hard by his master. The ass does not really know for whom he works so hard day and night. He remains satisfied by filling his stomach with a bundle of grass, sleeping for a while under fear of being beaten by the master, and satisfying his sex appetite at the risk of being repeatedly kicked by the opposite party. The ass sings poetry and philosophy sometimes, but this braying only disturbs others. This is the position of the foolish fruitive worker who does not know for whom he should work. He does not know that karma, action, is meant for yajña, sacrifice. Most often, those who work very hard day and night to clear the burden of self-created duties say that they have no time to hear of the immortality of the living being. To such mūḍhas, material gains, which are destructible, are life's all in all, despite the fact that the mūḍhas enjoy only a very small fraction of the fruit of labor. Sometimes they spend sleepless days and nights for fruitive gain, and although they may have ulcers or indigestion, they are satisfied with practically no food. They are simply absorbed in working hard day and night for the benefit of illusory masters. Ignorant of their real master, the foolish workers waste their valuable time serving mammon. Unfortunately, they never surrender to the supreme master of all masters, not do they take time to hear of Him from the proper sources."
Prabhupāda: Generally, we see now, especially in the western countries, they are working so hard. The master is wine and woman. That's all. Is it not? They have made their master wine and women. In Paris we see everywhere. On the street they are drinking and talking. In Germany also, I have seen. You have been in Germany?
Prabhupāda: That is also stated in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam by... That is also statement of Prahlāda Mahārāja, this boy devotee. He says, na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇum: (SB 7.5.31) "These foolish people, they do not know, what is their actual self-interest." So he says, "They do not know the actual self-interest is approaching God. That is real self-interest. But they do not know it." Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇuṁ durāśayā (SB 7.5.31). "They have made their plan wrongly to become happy in this material world." Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇuṁ durāśayā ye bahir-artha-māninaḥ (SB 7.5.31). Bahir-artha-māninaḥ means external: "They have taken the external energy, the material world, as very important. And the leaders also, the so-called leaders... They are being led. The leaders, they are blind, and they are leading some other blind men without knowing that they cannot be happy in that way because he is under strict, stringent laws of nature, material nature." That Bhagavad-gītā therefore recommends,
- daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī
- mama māyā duratyayā
- mām eva ye prapadyante
- māyām etāṁ taranti te
- (BG 7.14)
This is illusion, that they are under the control of the material nature... Just like the so-called foolish scientists. They don't care for God. They think by so-called scientific advancement they will progress..., all the problems will be solved. That is not possible. One of my students, he is double M.A. in chemistry and Ph.D. I asked him to discuss these things. He has written a small, a little book. Find out this book. Scientific Basis of Kṛṣṇa Consciousness. Here, yes, this book. So he has very scientifically discussed. The scientists, so-called scientists, they are going to be as all in all... Hm...
1975 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Sai Baba, he also says, "I am Bhagavān." Therefore he's bogus. How you can say yourself that you are Bhagavān, God? What is your power? What you have shown? And this is cheap. Now, supposing Sai Baba is God. So people accept him God, why? Because he shows some jugglery. He creates little gold. Is it not? So if, by creating gold, he is God, then there is bigger God who has created gold mine. Why shall I go to this tiny god? I must go to the big God who has created gold mine. This is common sense. But foolish people, they have no common sense even. Therefore it is called mūḍhā. Mūḍhā nābhijānāti mām ebhyaḥ param avyayam. Tribhir guṇamayair bhāvair mohita, mūḍhā nābhijānāti. Everything is there in the Bhagavad-gītā. Just like mostly people take: "The nature is all in all." The scientist, they take nature. But nature is matter. So where is our experience—the matter is working automatically? Where is our experience? Hm? Matter... Does matter work automatically? What is your opinion?
Hanumān: It's a chain of reaction.
Prabhupāda: Reaction. First of all there must be beginning of action, then reaction.
Hanumān: In the beginning there's Kṛṣṇa.
Prabhupāda: Yes. That is... I think Newton or some scientist also said that "Original motion is given by somebody; then other motions are given." Just like this, what is called? Railway wagons? So one engine pushes it. Then the wagon, another wagon, (makes sound) "cutcutcutcutcut," like that. Wherefrom the original?
Prabhupāda: I think I have explained this. Instead of contemplating what will happen to this world, you have got a short duration of life, say fifty, sixty years. You chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and go back to home, back to Godhead. Don't consider what will happen to this world. The nature will take care of it. You don't puzzle your brain with these thoughts. You utilize whatever time you have got in your possession and go back to home, back to Godhead. (break) You cannot check it. Best thing is that you mold your life and go back to home, back to Godhead. "Oil in your own machine." Instead of thinking what will happen... They will happen. Because people will go on with their rascal civilization, natural consequences will be there. You better take advantage of whatever time you have got and become fully Kṛṣṇa conscious and go back to home. (break) ...and we are thinking, "You are crazy. You are losing the opportunity of life." Therefore I wrote that "Who is Crazy?" They have got this opportunity, human form of life, to make a solution of all problems, but they do not care for it. They are simply allured, the temporary happiness of this body, and the body will finish within some years. That they do not take care. They think it is all in all, body.
Hṛdayānanda: So that's animal life.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Animal civilization. The animal is running without motor car. We are running on motor car. That is the difference. (break) ...smallpox. One who does not know the science, he will say accidental. It is not accidental. You contaminated the disease somewhere, and now it is visible, manifest. There is nothing like accident. Otherwise why it is Brahma-saṁhitā says, sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam (Bs. 5.1). Kāraṇa means cause. Everything has got cause. The ultimate cause is Kṛṣṇa. (break) The cause is petrol, oil, but what is the cause of this petrol, they do not know.
Prabhupāda: Yes. He is pulled by the ear by the nature, "You rascal, you have associated with this quality. You do this. You must accept this body." That he does not know. "Now you have acted like dog, you accept this body of a dog." This is nature's creation. You cannot say, "No, no, no, I don't want this body." No, you must. "You acted like dog, you take this body of a dog." That he does not know. He is thinking, "I am all in all; I am independent." That is foolishness. The whole world, big, big scientists and philosophers, all in ignorance, and they are being pulled by the ear by nature. That they do not know. What is the purport I have given?
Paramahaṁsa: Purport. "Two persons, one in Kṛṣṇa consciousness and the other in material consciousness, working on the same level, may appear to be working on the same platform, but there is a wide gulf of difference in their respective positions. The person in material consciousness is convinced by false ego that he is the doer of everything. He does not know that the mechanism of the body is produced by material nature, which works under the supervision of the Supreme Lord. The materialistic person has no knowledge that ultimately he is under the control of Kṛṣṇa. The person in false ego takes all credit for doing everything independently, and that is the symptom of his nescience. He does not know that this gross and subtle body is the creation of material nature, under the order of the Supreme Personality of Godhead,..." (end)
Ambarīṣa: The government doesn't want the people in general to know that the scientists are failures because they feel that the people will be put into a lot of anxiety because of this. So they...
Prabhupāda: No, they are already in anxiety. This material world means anxiety. So many problems there are. Sadā samudvigna-dhiyāṁ asad-grahāt (SB 7.5.5). Because they accepted this material world as all in all, samudvigna, they are full of anxiety. Just like if you are on a boat and if you know that after some hours the boat will be drowned, then can you remain without anxiety?
Paramahaṁsa: They have some relief, though, because they think that the scientists will be able to protect them.
Prabhupāda: This is their position. This is their position. Just like we are in this car, but we know it, that any moment there can be accident. So how we can be without anxiety? In the material world, on account of this material condition, we are not going to stay here. There must be anxiety. But if we close our eyes, that is different thing. Otherwise it is full of anxiety. (break) "... be free from anxiety, then surrender to Me. What I say, do it." That he will not do. They will manufacture their own way of life. They must be in anxiety. They will never hear what Kṛṣṇa says. And our propaganda is that "Just you become Kṛṣṇa conscious, and you will be happy." This is our... That they will not do.
Ambarīṣa: ...'60, 1960. When did they start to go to the moon?
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Ambarīṣa: I think President Kennedy started the program in 1960.
Prabhupāda: Cerebrum, yes. So intelligence becomes more more who has got more cerebrum. So psychologically, it is... A very intelligent man has got sixty-four ounce cerebrum. And woman, even she is very intelligent, is not more than thirty-four ounce. Therefore we don't find, amongst women, any big scientist. It is impossible. Don't be angry. (laughter) And these rascals giving equal rights. Just see. And Vedic civilization: "No, they should be protected." The woman should be protected by the father, by the husband, and by elderly sons. No independence. (break) ...she is my sister. She is old, about three years less than me, but she has got sons. She is very happy moving, protected by the sons. Even Kuntī, such intelligent woman, such educated and..., she also kept herself under her sons, the Pāṇḍavas. The Pāṇḍavas lost the game. They were banished, but Kuntī was not banished. But she said, "Then how shall I...? I must go with my sons." Sītā, wife of Lord Rāmacandra. So Rāmacandra was ordered by His father, "My dear son, You have to go forest for fourteen years." Sītā was not ordered. But she voluntarily followed. "Where shall I go? You are my husband. You are going to the forest? I shall go to the forest." This is Vedic civilization. And because she went with her husband, the Rāma-Rāvaṇa fight was there. Pathe nari-vivarjitaḥ. It is said that "When you go to a, foreign country, you don't take woman with you." Pathe nari-vivarjitaḥ. But she said that "Where shall I remain for fourteen years? I must go with You." So Rāmacandra had to agree. And on account of taking this wife along with Him, there was so much trouble. And the husband is so responsible that... Lord Rāmacandra, He is God. He could create thousands and millions of Sītās, but not for one Sītā He killed the whole family. That is husband. That is the duty of the husband. If wife's a little hair is infringed, he should take steps immediately. That is husband, not that accept wife today and give it up tomorrow. That is not husband. Husband must be very responsible to take care of the wife, and wife must be very chaste to serve the husband. Then family life is all right. (break) ...do not understand that "I am a living entity. I am encaged in this material body, and this material body means subjected to so many miserable condition." That they cannot understand. So my first business is how to be free from this repetition of accepting a material body. That they are not... A temporary life for fifty years or sixty years, they are busy, making very, very, gorgeous arrangement. This is asuric civilization. He does not take it very seriously that "I am encaged in this material body. My first business is how to get out of it and remain in my spiritual body." They get one type of body, and, like cats and dogs, engage, how to keep that body in sense gratification. That's all. (break) ...spiritual education, that "I am spiritual, spirit soul. I am encaged in this body. I want freedom. That is my first business, how to become liberated." No, that question set aside. Now, for the time being, we are walking here, and if there is some misunderstanding, we fight, forgetting that we have come here for walking, say, for half an hour. And why we shall forget our real business? That intelligence is not there. (break) ...India the Indira Gandhi was made as all in all. Now there is a catastrophe. We do not know what is going to happen.
Prabhupāda: Yes, you cannot argue with dogs.
Harikeśa: Waste of time. They'll simply keep on barking.
Prabhupāda: But we can place our, what is called, facts, as we learn from Kṛṣṇa, and try to defend it. That is argument.
Harikeśa: Then if somebody has any intelligence left, he'll take it.
Prabhupāda: So you cannot begin with this sun. The beginning of educating is that put this thesis, as Kṛṣṇa is putting, that, that this body is not all in all. Within the body, there is soul.
Harikeśa: Unless that's understood, there's no question of knowledge.
Prabhupāda: If, in the beginning, or on the basic principles, he remains a rascal, then there is no knowledge. If he does not understand that there is soul within this body, then he remains animal. What is the value of animal's speculation? Sa eva go-kharaḥ (SB 10.84.13). So we shall treat them as animals. So what, what we have got to learn from the animals? They're not interested. Now let.... You can accuse: "Why you should say animals?" I may say, "You are animals." That's all right. Just come to discussion, whether you are animal or I am animal.
Harikeśa: Calmly come to discussion.
Prabhupāda: This the..., this theory is going on perpetually, whether there is soul or not. But these people, these Russians, they are so ignorant, they will not allow anybody to believe that there is soul. Atheistic, stubborn atheistic. Although they cannot answer this question that there must be something superior which is moving this body. And they cannot answer the, what is that superior element.
1976 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: He is addressing his friends, "born of demoniac families, my dear friends." (laughs) Give him one chair, Dr. Wolfe. Yes, that's nice. He used to address his father also as "the best of the demons." Once his father asked him, "My dear son, what nice lesson you have learned in the school? Please tell me." So he addressed his father, asura-vārya, "the best of the asuras."
- tat sādhu manye 'sura-vārya dehināṁ
- sadā samudvigna-dhiyam asad-grahāt
- hitvātma-pātaṁ gṛham andha-kūpaṁ
- vanaṁ gato yad dharim āśrayeta
- (SB 7.5.5)
So, "My dear father," not "father," "the best of the asuras," asurya-vārya, the chief asura, "in my opinion," tat sādhu manye, "I think, so far I have studied," tat sādhu manye, "I think that is very nice, very honest profession of occupation for persons who are always full of anxieties." In the material world everyone is full of anxiety. That's a fact. Even in your country, the President Nixon, he was full of anxiety while he was in office, and now, out of his office, he's also full of anxiety. So just see. This is the best man in your country, president, the foremost man. So if he is full of anxiety, the others naturally... Everyone. So what is the cause of the anxiety? Asad-grahāt. Sadā samudvigna-dhiyam asad-grahāt. Asat means that does not exist, "not eternal," it is just opposite. Eternal is called sat, om tat sat, and asat means just the opposite. So here in this material world everything is asat. Even this body is asat; it will not exist. And what to speak of other things with reference to the body. Everything is asat. Anything material is asat; it will not stay, either these trees or this land or this world or this country or this, anything, asat. So asad-grahāt, on account of accepting things which are asat, not permanent, they are always full of anxiety. Just see how nicely explained, why one is full of anxiety. The reason is, he has accepted something which will not stay, endure, and he has accepted: "This is all in all. My country is all in all. My family is all in all. This body, all in all." But it will not stay. That's a practical fact.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Purport, Śrīla Prabhupāda?
Prabhupāda: Hm.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: "Thinking themselves all in all, not caring for any authority or scripture, the demoniac sometimes perform so-called religious or sacrificial rites. And since they do not believe in authority, they are very impudent. This is due to illusion caused by accumulating some wealth and false prestige. Sometimes such demons take up the role of preacher, mislead the people, and become known as religious reformers or as incarnations of God. They make a show of performing sacrifices and they worship the demigods, or manufacture their own God. Common men advertise them as God and worship them, and by the foolish they are considered advanced in the principles of religion, or in the principles of spiritual knowledge. They take the dress of the renounced order of life and engage in all nonsense in that dress. Actually there are so many restrictions for one who has renounced this world. The demons, however, do not care for such restrictions. They think that whatever path one can create is one's own path; there is no such thing as a standard path one has to follow. The word avidhi-pūrvakam, meaning 'disregard for the rules and regulations,' is especially stressed here. These things are always due to ignorance and illusion." Next verse? Text 18.
Prabhupāda: To delude them. Read the purport.
Dhṛṣṭadyumna: "Lord Buddha, a powerful incarnation of the Personality of Godhead, appeared in the province of Gayā (Bihar) as the son of Añjanā, and he preached his own conception of nonviolence and deprecated even the animal sacrifices sanctioned in the Vedas. At the time when Lord Buddha appeared, the people in general were atheistic and preferred animal flesh to anything else. On the plea of Vedic sacrifice, every place was practically turned into a slaughterhouse, and animal killing was indulged in unrestrictedly. Lord Buddha preached nonviolence, taking pity on the poor animals. He preached that he did not believe in the tenets of the Vedas and stressed the adverse psychological effects incurred by animal killing. Less intelligent men of the age of Kali, who had no faith in God, followed his principle, and for the time being they were trained in moral discipline and nonviolence, the preliminary steps for proceeding further on the path of God realization. He deluded the atheists because such atheists who followed his principles did not believe in God, but they kept their absolute faith in Lord Buddha, who himself was the incarnation of God. Thus the faithless people were made to believe in God in the form of Lord Buddha. That was the mercy of Lord Buddha: he made the faithless faithful to him. Killing of animals before the advent of Lord Buddha was the most prominent feature of the society. They claimed that these were Vedic sacrifices. When the Vedas were not accepted through the authoritative disciplic succession, the casual readers of the Vedas are misled by the flowery language of that system of knowledge. In the Bhagavad-gītā a comment has been made on such foolish scholars. The foolish scholars of Vedic literature who do not care to receive the transcendental message through the transcendental realized sources of disciplic succession are sure to be bewildered. To them, the ritualistic ceremonies are considered to be all in all. They have no depth of knowledge. According to the Bhagavad-gītā, the whole system of the Vedas is to lead one gradually to the path of the Supreme Lord. The whole theme of Vedic literature is to know the Supreme Lord, the individual soul, the cosmic situation and the relations between all these items.
Prabhupāda: That's right, accepting increase, but it is not that death is stopped. Just like they have made so many medical improvements, but that does not mean that they have stopped disease.
Hari-śauri: Well, they don't claim they can stop death.
Prabhupāda: Therefore they are rascals. What is the improvement? If you stop disease, then it is improvement.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They say no one can do that.
Prabhupāda: Then you are subordinate. Do not claim all in all because you are scientist. Then you are controlled. You have to accept.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We accept that no one is perfect.
Prabhupāda: No, controlled. That is their defect. They are being controlled in every step, still, they think they are free. That is their defect. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27). They are fully controlled by the laws of nature, still the great rascal, he's thinking that he's free.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But gradually, they say, we will learn to control nature.
Prabhupāda: That gradual, that will never come, and that is their another foolishness.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Sometimes they are seeing, though, that by their endeavors they are successful. Just like they may try to cure some disease, and then sometimes they are seeing that they are baffled. This leads them to think they are independent. This is leading them to think that they are independent, that sometimes they are successful.
Prabhupāda: Vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti (BG 7.19). That is intelligence. But that intelligence is not possible for ordinary persons. Sa mahātmā sudurlabhaḥ. One who gets this intelligence, such kind of mahātmā, is very, very rarely found. To take it immediately, ah, kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam (SB 1.3.28). Vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti (BG 7.19). That is very difficult.
- manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu
- kaścid yatati siddhaye
- yatatām api siddhānāṁ
- kaścin māṁ vetti tattvataḥ
- (BG 7.3)
It is not so easy to understand Kṛṣṇa or to accept Kṛṣṇa as all in all. Vāsudevaḥ sarvam. But if you take it, you are fortunate.
Doctor: And the only way to attain is reciting the name.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Kṛṣṇa says man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru (BG 18.65). Do that. Therefore the temple is there. Everyone may come and see Kṛṣṇa and think of Him. What is the difficulty? But he'll not come. He has concluded Kṛṣṇa is nirākāra. God is nirākāra.
Doctor: Then Kṛṣṇa will not come.
Prabhupāda: Well now, Kṛṣṇa... You... Whatever you think, that is your business, but Kṛṣṇa is there everywhere.
Doctor: He is nirākāra and sākāra.
1977 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Mm. So whatever you sanction, it will not be good.
Girirāja: Well, we had a confrontation that they want to break the condition that we have to hand over these ten feet. So I said that this is a separate issue and one thing had nothing to do with the other. So, actually they have accepted all of our arguments, what is boils down is that Mantrey is pressing them and they must, you know, why they are letting this slide by. So they say they want something to reply to him so we have to write a letter explaining our case. And...
Prabhupāda: Mantrey is an all-in-all.
Girirāja: He's not all-in-all, but he can make their life miserable. Because what he does is, if they don't satisfy him so he raises the issue of the corporation. He says this man is not doing his work properly, he should be transferred. So...
Prabhupāda: What he is for them?
Girirāja: He is their municipal councillor. He is the representative for this area in the municipal corporation, elected. So actually this came up before and at that time we met the municipal commissioner that they are trying to put this condition. So he agreed that this should be a, you know, decided by the court or by some third party and not, he will not do anything to change the status quo by forcing us. So we have to put that in the letter. And (break) ...hitch. Not a hitch exactly but there's this urban land ceiling that anyone who has more than 500 square yards property, that comes under the ceiling. So we are exempt because we are a charitable trust and apart from that, in the final plan, most of the land will be built up, it won't be vacant. But in order to get the sanction, we have to get either an N.O.C. (No Objection Certificate) that we are exempt from the ceiling or an exemption to get the N.O.C. So we have to meet some higher official. So I have to finalise it but I'm supposed to contact the architect and we have to go and see about this. Actually the management is so bad there that they have made this requirement that any new building, you have to get N.O.C. regarding the land ceiling. But so far they have not given one N.O.C. for land ceiling because they are not yet decided what is the policy to give the N.O.C. So they simply are piling up the applications until they decide their policy. So first we will try to get exemption that we don't require this N.O.C. Then if we fail in that then I suppose we have to meet the minister and ask him to give us the N.O.C.
Satsvarūpa: They say that theirs can be shown not just to a disciple but to the whole world in general, not just...
Prabhupāda: Nobody believes in Lenin. Then there would have been everyone Communist. You believe, a section. Then why there are two parties? You are not all in all. That is going on everywhere. How you can say that you are correct, I am not correct? The process is the same. Therefore Vivekananda has compromised, "Everyone is correct." Yato mata tato patha. There is no quarrel.
Gurukṛpā: Then they accuse us of being fanatical.
Prabhupāda: You are also fanatical. Why do you believe Lenin? You are fanatical in our eyes. You are worse than fanatical because we have got great other authorities—they believe Kṛṣṇa is God. You have created a section recently, but we have got evidences from thousands and thousands of years ago, authorities believing Kṛṣṇa. Our literatures are very old. Your literature recently made.
Gargamuni: Sometimes, though, they may agree philosophically about Kṛṣṇa, but then they will bring in Kṛṣṇa's controversial personal life. They always do this.
Prabhupāda: Personal life?
Gargamuni: They bring in about, always about the gopīs and Kṛṣṇa.
Gurukṛpā: They just did that recently in Honolulu.
Prabhupāda: Cheating propensity is so strong. There is cheating propensity in different way. From Brahmā it goes. That is a bad qualification. That should be finished. But they are trying to increase it. I have got some bad qualification; my business is to finish it. So what is the use of increasing it? I am a thief. I have got some habit, to steal. So shall I try to stop it or increase it? Which one is human?
Śatadhanya: To stop.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Because they think this life is all in all, they think better somehow or other...
Prabhupāda: That means they are rascals. They are going all wrong.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Mahātmā Gandhi.
Prabhupāda: No. Nothing. Simply false life, that's all.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And these are the people that we are preaching to.
Prabhupāda: That is our duty.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You preach to us.
Prabhupāda: In the distinction between two civilizations, they, they want to increase the bad qualification; we want to decrease them.
Śatadhanya: And yet they say we are bad.
Prabhupāda: They'll say. That is natural.
Śatadhanya: They say good is bad, and bad is good-completely opposite.
Prabhupāda: You can send one copy to Dr. Kapoor by post.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I'll tell Gargamuni. It will be more impressive coming from Bombay.
Prabhupāda: Yes. And one to Bon Mahārāja at Vaṁśī-vaṭa(?).
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: (laughs) Yes, Śrīla Prabhupāda. "Śrīla Prabhupāda has taken on the monumental task of translating the essence of all Vedic..." I want to get to the... Here it comes. "All in all, the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust library Encyclopedia of Vedic Knowledge includes at least one hundred published volumes. Scholars from all over the world have described Śrīla Prabhupāda as a literary genius after reading his treasure chest of Vedic knowledge. And now for the first time this treasure chest of transcendental knowledge is unlocked for everyone to dive deep into the ocean of transcendental bliss upon reading these classics." These words are nectar.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "It is no wonder that this transcendental treasure chest of spiritual texts have been described by many scholars as the first presentation of full encyclopedia of Vedic knowledge. This encyclopedia touches various subject matters relating to philosophy, religion, sociology and anthropology, literature and classics, political science, history and psychology. On the back side of this pamphlet an order blank to apply for a full encyclopedia published by the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust is given. Please fill in and return." (chuckles) Here's what he says, "The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust Library of Vedic Knowledge can make a worthwhile gift to a friend of relative or may be kept in one's own home. Or one may contribute a set to a school, college, hospital library, reading room, temple, or for any other charitable purpose. The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust is offering this encyclopedia on an easy installment basis by which one may receive published volumes every month without any extra cost." Sounds like they're getting a lot for free. (chuckles)
Prabhupāda: That's all right. It is same.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Same principle. If you get on the wrong spot, you have to go to jail. That's what they have. They put you in jail. Different culture. Demoniac culture.
Prabhupāda: Just see practically. Indira Gandhi, she came to a point, and then falls again. Is it not? The same golo dhana(?). She was all-in-all powerful, and once again finished.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Finished.
Prabhupāda: Indira Gandhi, finished. President Nixon, finished. They do not see, these big, big stalwart men of the world. They can be finished in one second. Prahlāda Mahārāja said that "I have seen my father, such a powerful man, finished. What benediction I shall ask, this material world? Don't allure me. Better engage me as the servant of Your servant." Anything, any opulence. Now nobody utters the name of Indira Gandhi. Every... Every day the people or newspaper filled up with Indira Gandhi. That the Russian minister, Krushchev? Nobody knows where he is.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He's unknown now.
Prabhupāda: They said he is living privately.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Why did they depose him?
Prabhupāda: The cause may be many, but we have to see the result. The main cause was that he was appointing his own men in big, big office.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Same thing as Indira.
Prabhupāda: So not all the doctors who...
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No. In other words, there's a big enough program so that... They pick which conference they want to come to. They don't come to every lecture. They may only come to one or two in a day. Today I think there's three. Right? Three lectures? So probably they might attend one or two of them. Of course, some people might attend all of them.
Bhavānanda: Also many more are coming on Sunday. They're coming through the whole conference. Tomorrow more are coming, and Sunday is the biggest day.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: All in all, though, it's still very impressive and very much encouraging. It's just like everything—it takes practice. This is the first of its kind. So for being the first, it's very nice. And it certainly is well organized. That's a fact. Everything is there—good guesthouse, nice prasādam and qualified speakers. You can see our men are very... They must be presenting thousands of facts. I mean every sentence they are backing up with some quotation or some substantial reference. They are very well prepared for these lectures.
Prabhupāda: But other parties, they are not taking interest.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Other parties mean?
Prabhupāda: Opposition.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, well, I haven't heard very much opposition.
Gurukṛpā: He asked, "Is there any questions?" but no one really...
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's got to be set up in a different way, in my opinion. There has to be from the beginning an opportunity for an opposing speaker to speak.
Harikeśa: Yes. This man isn't going to speak until Sunday, the opposition.
| Page Title: | All in all (Conversations) |
| Compiler: | Visnu Murti, RupaManjari |
| Created: | 16 of Apr, 2013 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=26, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 26 |