Expressions researched:
"blind faith"
|"blind or unquestioning faith"
|"blind, sentimental religious faith"
|"blind, so-called religious faith"
|"faith is blind"
|"faith is not blind"
|"faith is sometimes blind"
|"faith may be blind"
|"faith or some blind belief"
|"faith should not be blind"
|"faith, it is blind"
Prabhupāda: It is not religious belief. It is not religious belief. It is fact.
Reporter: Well, I mean not...
Prabhupāda: Knowledge received from Vedic sources. You are talking on the source of knowledge from the modern scientific books, similarly, we are talking also on the source of knowledge received from Vedas. It is not a religious belief or faith, blind faith. We are not inventing anything. We are talking on the basis of authoritative knowledge contained in the Vedas.
Krishna Tiwari: Well Newton was wrong in many places, although nobody is authority. Things change. I don't...
Prabhupāda: That means you don't accept any authority.
Krishna Tiwari: No, I don't, because once you accept an authority, you are just blindly following something which may be right, which may be absolutely wrong. But you will never find it out, whether it was right or wrong. So blind faith in authority is the most mistaken path a person can ever take.
Prabhupāda: Not blind faith. We don't say authority blind faith. Authority, that's not blind faith.
Prabhupāda: "Simply by becoming devotee of Kṛṣṇa, my life will be perfect." This faith is the basic principle. So unless one comes to this basic principle of faith, there is no question of progress. So little faith, even. Not full faith. It develops by sādhu-saṅga (CC Madhya 22.83), by association with the devotees. Ādau śraddhā tataḥ sādhu-saṅgaḥ (Cc. Madhya 23.14-15). Everything is there. If we adopt, then everyone can make his life successful. There is no doubt about it. Just like if you enter into a school, if you follow the regulative principles of the school and study, you, one day, you become M.A. Where is the difficulty? Where is the difficulty? But if from the beginning, if you have no faith, then what progress you'll make? If you, from the very beginning, if you think, "What will be, this school will do me? They're learning ABCD. What...?" (laughter) There is no faith. You may call it blind faith. But that is required.
Prabhupāda: So we are simply trying to revive people's dormant Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So every sane man, every good government, everyone should come forward to help this movement. It is not a personal affair. We are not presenting that "I am avatāra, I am God." We are presenting science, philosophy. You see? Why we are taking so much trouble to write so many books? If we... We want to convince people through science, philosophy, logic, religious principle, by practical behavior. All these boys are being trained up not to have any illicit sex, not to eat meat, and not to take any intoxication up to tea, coffee, cigarette and not to indulge in gambling. They're doing that. So we are making men of character, men of religion, men of philosophy. Why people should not cooperate with us? We are not presenting any blind, so-called religious faith. No. That is not our business. Our business is śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya-dayā karaha vicāra.
Prabhupāda: No, you are not allowed interpretation. As soon as you interpret, you become imperfect. Therefore we are presenting Bhagavad-gītā As It Is. Don't interpret. Before this, all these rascals were simply interpreting and spoiling the whole thing. So this is the fact.
Professor: So what you really are asking for is blind faith.
Prabhupāda: Not blind faith. Perfect man is perfect. Unless you understand that he is perfect, don't hear from him. That is blind. Without knowing that he is perfect, if you hear, that is your imperfectness. Why should you try to hear from a person whom you do not know perfectly well that he is perfect?
Prabhupāda: No, no. That is the difficulty. We do not know the meaning of religion. At the present moment the human society does not know what is the meaning of religion. The meaning of religion is to abide by the laws of God, just like a good citizen means who abides by the laws of the state, of the government. Because we have no understanding of God, therefore we do not know what is the laws of God, and therefore we do not know what is religion. That is the present status of the human society. They are forgetting religion. They take religion as a kind of faith. Faith may be blind faith. Faith is not the real description of religion. Religion means the laws which is given by God, and anyone who follows the laws, he is religious. It doesn't matter whether he is a Christian or a Hindu or Muslim. If he follows the laws of God, then he is religious.
Prabhupāda: Yes, that's fact. Therefore for the neophytes, less intelligent, they should believe. That is the only way, viśvāsa. So generally mass of people they are not so educated. They should believe.
Devotee (6): It says in the Bhāgavatam...
Prabhupāda: Therefore in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta it is said that viśvāsa śabde śudṛdha niścaya. Śudṛdha niścaya, kṛṣṇe bhakti kaile sarva-karma kṛta haya. Śraddhā, śraddhā. Śraddhā means faith. So in Christian science also, there is state, faithful. So this faith may be blind, but that is required.
Prabhupāda: Yes. That purity is said, ādau śraddhā: "Beginning is faith." Now tato sādhu-saṅgaḥ: "You mix with faithful men." Then it will develop. Otherwise, if you take simply initiation and then sleep, then faith will be lost. That is happening. Therefore it is said, adau śraddhā tato sādhu-saṅgaḥ. You accept faith, maybe blindly. Now you make further progress by mixing with advanced devotees. Then it will remain fixed. Otherwise you will loss.
Bahulāśva: Faith is fixed by knowledge?
Prabhupāda: No, faith may be blind, but it increases. If you stick to faith and follow the principles, then it will increase. Svayam eva sphuraty adaḥ. Just like... Yasya deve parā bhaktiḥ yathā deve tathā gurau. So if you have got faith in spiritual master then you will advance. If you have no faith, then it will be lost.
Paramahaṁsa: Blind faith is the belief that little...
Prabhupāda: Blind faith, without... That I have already explained. Immediately, why do you forget? He shows me, "Prabhupāda, come this way." So I have no faith. Why shall I go? Then I have stop here, finished, movement finished. So you have to keep faith blindly. And if the man who is giving direction, he is perfect, then your faith will make you advanced. But if you go to a rascal cheater and if you have faith, blind faith, then you are lost.
Paramahaṁsa: Just like that little rock that I saw, that it's from the moon. Now that is blind faith.
Prabhupāda: Yes, blind faith.
Prabhupāda: Sevonmukhe hi jihvādau (Brs. 1.2.234). By service only. You can understand God simply by service. There is no other way. And the faith begins from the tongue. You see? Therefore it is advised that you chant and take prasāda. Then faith will come. Sevonmukhe hi jihvādau. It begins... The faith begins from the tongue. "Why?" People will be surprised. "Faith must begin from the mind, from the eyes, and why it is said tongue?" They do not know. That is also faith, that "Simply engaging tongue in the service of the Lord, I shall understand." So this is also blind faith. But actually it is happening. Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and take{īūl prasādam. That's all.
Prabhupāda: Theory is not faith? Theory is not faith?
Jayādvaita: They say that the theory, it's simply an idea of how it could happen.
Prabhupāda: That is faith.
Jayādvaita: But they don't believe the theory until they think they have sufficient facts.
Prabhupāda: That is faith, I dare say, blind faith.
Prabhupāda: Without faith you cannot begin to work. The same example: You have gone to a barber shop. He is shaving, and people blindly, closing eyes, and he has got a razor. He can immediately cut. But why do you do this? Because you have faith that "These people are professional barbers. They are shaving so many other people. They will not kill me. All right. Go on." This is faith. And if you have no faith, then you will never have clean shaven. You go away. So beginning is faith, but faith should not be blind. Mahājano yena gataḥ sa panthāḥ (CC Madhya 17.186). You have to take faith from great personalities. That is faith. Just like you American boys and girls. You began with faith. Without faith nothing can be.... Ādau śraddhā. Just like people come, and they get some faith that "So many people are following Swamiji." So he associates for some time. Then he offers himself for initiation. This is the way.
Guru-kṛpā: This faith in the mundane religions, that cannot be called real faith.
Prabhupāda: No, that is faith, but because one is not intelligent, he takes irreligion as religion. He does not.... He should be also very intelligent, faithful and intelligent. Not blind faith. He must be faithful, and intelligence.... He must know what is actually religion. So therefore sādhu-saṅga (CC Madhya 22.83). Associate with sādhus means those who are actually on the platform. So if he associates with the sādhu—the sādhus accept Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Personality of Godhead—he will get the understanding that Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Lord. Then his faith becomes fixed up in Kṛṣṇa. This is the way.
Prabhupāda: Simply faith, blind faith we do not endure. And therefore they are becoming godless. And gradually, if we do not understand factually what is God, then the whole human civilization will be godless. To become godless means again animal. That is the difference between animal and man. In the animal society there is no question of religion, faith, God. These things are not there. The human civilization, if it becomes like that, without any faith in God, without any understanding of God, then where is the difference between cats and dogs and human beings? They must know God scientifically. That is the actual aim of human life.
Mr. Sahani: It is also said that you have a blind faith.
Prabhupāda: Blind faith?
Mr. Sahani: You should have a faith in your God. But when you are inquisitive and you keep asking more and more and more, and...
Prabhupāda: And who says that you keep blind faith? Who says?
Mr. Sahani: You should have faith, in God, should have faith.
Prabhupāda: No, no. God, it is not blind faith. God is there, you have to accept. It is not blind.
Prabhupāda: So there is no question of blind faith. Here it is said that "I have explained to you the knowledge, confidential and most confidential. Now you consider about it, and after due consideration, then do whatever you like." But if you actually appreciate that there is God, here is Kṛṣṇa, so whatever He is saying, it is all right. Sarvam etad 'ṛtaṁ manye (BG 10.14). There is no harm even if you accept His word blindly, there is no harm. Otherwise, if you don't like to follow blindly, then consider what is instructed. And then whatever you like, you can do. Both ways are there. But if you have faith in God, "God is saying this, I must do it," that blind faith is as good. Although it is blind faith, it is the fact. Actually it is not blind faith. It is full faith in God. "God is speaking this; I'll accept it." Sa mahātmā sudurlabhaḥ. That is the position of mahātmā. Although such mahātmās are very rare, but one who accepts this fact that "God is speaking, so let me accept it without any consideration," that is as good as you accept. If gold is real, something real gold is offered to you, you accept it blindly or by checking it, the result is the same.
Prabhupāda: No, no. Inquisitive means one who does not accept that "Here is a person giving me gold. He's very good man, he'll not cheat me." Then you accept. But if you have no such faith, then you check it. But real gold, either you take in blind faith or by checking, the result is the same. Now it is up to you. If you believe Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead as He says... He is the Supreme Person. Mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat kiñcid asti dhanañjaya (BG 7.7). That's a fact. But if you don't believe it, then check and consider of our statement, and then accept. Two ways are there. Why people are misled? They do not accept Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. They are taking Bhagavad-gītā in their own way. So why they should take Bhagavad-gītā in their own way? That is not good.
Prabhupāda: Our preaching process is that you take Bhagavad-gītā's instruction, that is perfect, and you'll be happy. This is our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. Don't try to interpret it. Don't try to exact some meaning of your choice. No, that is not good. You take it as it is, you'll be benefited. Now if you take it, that it is spoken by Bhagavān svayam, then it is blind faith. It may be blind faith, but it is right. If you don't want, then Kṛṣṇa says, iti te jñānam ākhyātaṁ guhyād guhyataraṁ mayā. Then you check it by your knowledge. Yathecchasi tathā kuru (BG 18.63). Both ways you can accept. Therefore we have to follow mahājana. Our knowledge is always scanty. So mahājano yena gataḥ sa panthāḥ (CC Madhya 17.186). That is the way. Tarkaḥ apratiṣṭha. Tarka, by argument you'll never come to the conclusion. Śrutayor vibhinnam. There are śāstras for different persons, in different way they are presented. So they appear to be contradictory from one another. Not contradictory; at least, different from one another.
Prabhupāda: Just like Prahlāda Mahārāja, he's mahājana; Bali Mahārāja, mahājana; Brahmā, mahājana; Nārada, mahājana; Lord Śiva, mahājana. Balir vaiyāsakir vayam. Janaka Mahārāja. So we have to follow them. Mahājano yena gataḥ sa panthāḥ (CC Madhya 17.186). That is recommended in the Bhagavad-gītā: evaṁ paramparā prāptam imaṁ rājarṣayo viduḥ (BG 4.2). So there is no question of blind faith. If we follow the mahājana, example of the authorities, then our life is success. And guru means he is mahājana or follower of mahājana. So we have to select the mahājana process. According to our process, we follow the Brahma-sampradāya. And Brahmā is one of the mahājanas. So Brahmā has his disciplic succession, paramparā. Brahmā's disciple is Nārada, Nārada's disciple is Vyāsadeva, and Vyāsadeva's disciple is Śukadeva Gosvāmī. In this way, we come to Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Then Caitanya Mahāprabhu's disciples, the six Gosvāmīs. Then others, then our Guru Mahārāja. But the same thing we are speaking. Mahājano yena gataḥ sa panthāḥ (CC Madhya 17.186). We are not manufacturing anything. That is the guru-paramparā system. And if we follow strictly the line of mahājana, then there is no question of mistake. It is not blind faith. The superiors are following, and we are also following. Of course, there are books, there are everything. Śruti-smṛti-purāṇādi-pañcarātra-vidhi (Brs. 1.2.101). Everything is there. So there is no question of being mistaken. The guide is there, the spiritual master is there. So there is no difficulty. Hare Kṛṣṇa.
Doctor: So with faith accept the...
Prabhupāda: No faith—it is fact! Faith is blind.
Doctor: Faith is blind.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Faith with good knowledge, that is nice. If you have good knowledge of Kṛṣṇa and you have faith, that is very good. But if you... Just like Māyāvādīs, they say, "Imagine Kṛṣṇa as God." They say, "Imagine."
Doctor: That is no good.
Prabhupāda: They are no good. Kalpana. They say, kalpana. Sādhakānāṁ gitarthaya(?) brahma-rūpa-kalpana. Rūpa-kalpana. But Kṛṣṇa's rūpa is not kalpana. It is fact. So kalpana is not faith, it is blind. Let me imagine some form of Kṛṣṇa. And therefore gradually, they come down to the position that any form you imagine as God, that is all right. They have come to this degradation.
Prabhupāda: So this is difficulty. If I say, "Here is a person who knows mathematics," why there should be... Any person who is interested in mathematics will welcome him. So similarly, here is Vedic knowledge. Vedic knowledge means real knowledge. Here is Bhagavad-gītā, the knowledge of God, but they misunderstand. They think, "Oh, we have got another God." How God can be another? So people should be sober, that we are giving books. They should understand. And it is accepted by the educated class, big, big professors, big, big philosophers. It is not blind faith. Just like this version of Bhagavad-gītā, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ: (BG 2.13) "As we are changing body even in this duration of life, similarly, when this body is finished, then another body," so where is the difficulty to understand? But they will say, "It is Hindu idea." Fact we are presenting, that "You are changing your body. When you came out of the womb of your mother, the body was so small. And then little bigger body, little bigger body, little bigger body. Now you are full grown young man." So the body is changing, everyone can understand, but I can understand also that "I had so big..., small body and this body." Then body is changing; I am existing. Then where is the difficulty of the transmigration of the soul?
Prabhupāda: If you kindly try to understand the whole philosophy—the first thing is, andhā yathāndair upanīyamānā, the whole world is now being conducted by blind leaders. And they're keeping people in darkness because they are themselves in darkness. They do not know what is light. So they do not know what is the object of life, what is the destination of life. Simply in blind faith they have created so many isms. It is simply misleading. It is little difficult to understand that we are simply leading others... That's a fact, that's a fact. If you impersonally try to understand this philosophy that every man is kept in the darkness of a different stamp, different ism. That is the first instruction of Bhagavad-gītā, tathā dehāntara-prāptir, after death you have to change your body. Then where is your ism? Whole ism changed. That they do not understand.
Satsvarūpa: And in the beginning, when science began, modern science, the scientists would say something against the Bible that was different than the Bible. Then they would torture him. The church would torture him, this Galileo, big scien... So they point these things out, that the church is not tolerant.
Prabhupāda: That is not our point. We want to understand God through philosophy. "Through philosophy" means logic. Blind faith is not our business. (break) "...such date I have posted. You have got the literature. If you permit me, then I can show some of the books." Then our local representatives advise, "You go and see this gentleman." In this way contact him and leave some book with him, that "You first of all see. Then decide." Very honest business.
The wonderful temples, the mosques and the cathedrals of past centuries were built up to give them the real food and were not built up by blind or unquestioning faith. The were built up on full faith and reasoning which were based on the deductive process. The Vedas, the Bible or the Koran would ask the human being to make proper use of his conserved energy in the transcendental service of God and unsophisticated men in the old days would follow such instruction unhesitatingly for realizing the Absolute Truth. Such temples, mosques were therefore centres of high culture to provide real food to human consciousness.
Thus if we want to approach the Absolute Truth by new ways in harmony with present environment we should try to be true to one another in the qualified way of Brahminical culture. Only a dozen of real qualified Brahmins from all parts of the world should combine to guide the principles of the Ksatriyas, the Vaisya and the Sudras all over the world. The Socratesian way of reasoning should be fully utilized because that makes the only difference between a human being and a beast. There is ample scope for this new way of approaching the Absolute Truth and that will only solve the acute distressing world problem. If there is scarcity of such qualified Brahmins which I honestly think there is, we should combine to evolve such Brahminical culture not by blind faith but by sound reasoning and questioning. But all the same we must be sincere and thorough in our attempt.
| Page Title: | Blind faith (Conv and Letters) |
| Compiler: | Labangalatika, Serene |
| Created: | 23 of Mar, 2010 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=23, Let=2 |
| No. of Quotes: | 25 |