"This material nature is working under My direction," mayādhyakṣeṇa, "under My superintendence." So we, we are mistaken. When we see wonderful things happening in the cosmic nature, we should know that behind these wonderful manifestations, there is a controller. Nothing can be manifested without being controlled. It is childish to, not to consider about the controller. Just like a very nice motor car with very good speed and very good engineering arrangement is running on the street. A child may think that "How this motor car is running without the help of any horse or any pulling agent?" But a sane man or an elderly person, he knows that in spite of all engineering arrangements in the motor car, without the driver it cannot move. That engineering arrangement of a motor car, or in electric powerhouse... Now at the present moment it is the day of machinery, but we should always know that behind the machinery, behind the wonderful working of the machinery, there is a driver. So the Supreme Lord is the driver, adhyakṣa. He is the Supreme Personality under whose direction everything is working.
Childish (Lectures)
Lectures
Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures
So Arjuna was so serious, and Kṛṣṇa was smiling. (laughs) "Just see the fool, what he is doing." Therefore there was necessity of instructing Bhagavad-gītā. The fool has to be instructed. Yes. This is the... He was smiling. This is childish. He was very serious, "Oh." Just like sometimes a child is very serious, and the father is smiling. Yes. So now Bhagavad-gītā will be spoken. He has accepted Kṛṣṇa as spiritual master. Now He'll teach.
Dharma means duty. Dharmaṁ tu sākṣād bhagavat-praṇītam (SB 6.3.19). Sammūḍha-cetāḥ. "So what I have to do?" Yac chreyaḥ. "What is actually my duty?" Śreyaḥ. Śreyaḥ and preyaḥ. Preyaḥ... They are two things. Preya means which I like immediately, very nice. And śreya means ultimate goal. They are two things. Just like a child wants to play all day. That is childish nature. That is śreya. And preya means he must take education so that in future his life will be settled up. That is preya, śreya. So Arjuna is asking not preya. He's asking instruction from Kṛṣṇa not for the purpose of confirming his śreya.
If the child is born dead, then this body will never grow. You can apply any chemicals or any science; the body will remain the same. But so long the soul is there within the body, the child from the babyhood will come to childhood, then childhood to boyhood, boyhood to youthhood. In this way the body will change. We have changed so many bodies, every one of us. I knew, I know that I had a childish body, I had a boyhood body, but those bodies are no more existing. But I am existing. Therefore the conclusion should be that I, you, as soul, we are eternal. The body is changing. This is our disease.
Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe 'rjuna tiṣṭhati. God, in His Supersoul feature, He is situated in everyone's heart and he is seeing all our activities, and he is awarding the different kind of bodies. You can... If you like, you can find out this verse,
- īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ
- hṛd-deśe 'rjuna tiṣṭhati
- bhrāmayan sarva-bhūtāni
- yantrārūḍhāni māyayā
- (BG 18.61)
You can explain this. Find out. (Hṛdayānanda reads translations in Spanish) Purport? (Hṛdayānanda reads purport in Spanish) So we have to accept that we are fully under control. If childishly we say that we are independent, that is foolishness.
Just like child does not look forward his future. He's very playful. He sees that "This playing will make me happy." Similarly, these rascals, they are simply enjoying senses, forgetting their future life. So this is a rascal civilization. This is not a good civilization. You see? Childish civilization. However they may be proud of their advancement of knowledge, it is childish civilization because they have no future. Everlasting. "How I am going to be everlasting," they do not think of it. You see? This one word can give so many volumes of thoughts to the real philosopher, to the real thinker. Here it is stated that the living entity is everlasting, and where is that living entity everlasting? Why it is not so? This is the problem.
We are breaking and building. In your country I have seen in several places. Nice building is dismantled, and again, in that very place, another building is raised. You see? Breaking and building. Breaking and... "Oh, this building is old. Break it." The same childish play. You see? Simply wasting engagement, valuable time of this human form. Breaking and building, breaking and building.
So unless one has got better engagement, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, surely they will be engaged in this breaking and building, breaking and building. Childish engagement. Paraṁ dṛṣṭvā nivartate (BG 9.59). And so far our students of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, they are trying to get two hours more than twenty-four hours. They have got so much, so many engagements.
If you want to purchase some valuable, if you want to purchase gold, then you have to pay for it. Similarly if you want perfection in yoga practice, then you have to pay for it like this. Don't make it childish affair. That is the instruction of Bhagavad-gītā. If you make it childish affair then you'll be cheated. And so many cheaters are waiting to cheat you and take your money and go away. That's all. Here is the statement, authoritative statement. Free from sex life. One should meditate upon Me. And ultimately, where is the meditation. Not in void. Just on Viṣṇu, this Viṣṇu form. That is sāṅkhya-yoga.
There are four ways suggested. If you want to go to the higher planetary system, not by force you can go to the moon planet. That is not possible. That is simply childish. You cannot go. You must have to be qualified how to go there. Just like if somebody comes to your country, Australia, he has to take the visa, permit, passport, so many things. Then you allow. So how you can be allowed to enter into the moon planet, which is the residential place of demigods? That is a very controversial point. They say that they have gone to moon planet and there is no life. This is simply nonsense. Every planet is full of living entities.
They do not think with the one planet we have already failed (laughter). They are called punaḥ punaś carvita-carvaṇānām (SB 7.5.30)—chewing the chewed. They are being baffled every step, and still they are trying to overcome the laws of nature. This is their foolishness. Narādhama. Māyayāpahṛta-jñāna. Māyā is so strong upon them that their so-called scientific knowledge is useless. In 1958, when I wrote that book Easy Journey to Other Planets, I write in that book, those who have read it, that this moon planet is simply childish and waste of time. And actually it has proved.
You cannot by force, that "I have come to America..." The immigration department will immediately check: "Where is your passport? Where is your visa? Where is your bona fide?" Similarly, if such rules and regulations are here, even in this planet, how you dare to go into the moon planet or other planet by force? This is all childish. Now they have stopped. The American government has stopped financing this foolish excursion. Going to the moon planet. They have stopped. They have now come to sense that simply these so-called scientists, they're experi, experimenting on public money and wasting.
Long, long ago, when I wrote my book, Easy Journey to Other Planets, I described: "This moon planet excursion, simply childish and foolishness." And about two, three years ago, in San Francisco the press reporters asked my opinion about the moon, moon planet. So I told them: "it is simply waste of time and money." Now, now it is happening. Long, long ago, I said this. This is not possible.
The such important life, human form of life. Nobody is interested to know about the philosophy of life, value of life. They have become so frivolous. In this evening, everyone is engaged in childish activities, but nobody is interested in the real problem of life. The real problem of life is stated, na bhūyaḥ abhijāyate. And big, big leaders... Ask them what is the real problem of life. They do not know. Andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānāḥ. Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇuṁ durāśayā ye bahir-artha-māninaḥ (SB 7.5.31). (aside:) Who is talking? This child...
He does not know what is good. He wants to do something, but he does not know what is good. The good is said by Kṛṣṇa, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇam (BG 18.66). That is good. Or everything bad. Whatever he does, everything bad. That's all. Just like this child, he wants to do so many things. He does not know what is good, what is bad. But the good thing is if he works according to the direction of his father, then it is good. And otherwise, whatever he'll do, that is childish, that's all. It is neither good nor bad, it is childish.
Even if we do not see, you have to conclude like that. Just like there is sound. The sound is of car, and the car, there must be one driver. You have not seen. So how do you conclude there is a driver? How do you conclude? And why do you give stress on your seeing power? What is the power of your seeing? You cannot see. Now you cannot see the car. It is beyond your seeing range or beyond the wall. Then how you conclude that there is a car? And if there is a car, there is a driver. If there is driver, there are passengers. So how do you conclude all this? Why do you give this... This is childish reason, "I cannot see." You cannot see; therefore there is no existence. That is not good logic.
This is childish reason, "by chance." It is not very good reason. A child will say, "(By) chance, it has come." That is childish. You must give solid reason. Chance, you can say anything as chance. Everybody can say like that. That is not reason. When you bring in chance, that is not logic. That is not knowledge. If somebody says, "By chance, I have come in this world," that is not logic. I must have my father. I must have my mother. And on account of father-mother being united, I am... This is scientific. "By chance I have dropped from the sky here," (laughter) this is not logic. This kind of logic is vague only.
Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures
We are meant for this planet. We are bound up by conditions. Artificially we are trying to go there. And making plans, so many plans: "There will be intermediate station, and the petrol will be carried from here," and this and that. So many things. Simply spending money. Just like childish. The child, they spoil their time and energy in certain playing. Similarly, this is going on. Because it is a sense gratification. That's all. Simply mere sense gratification: "Let us go, how it is, moon planet." You have no business there. You cannot do there anything. You cannot live there, but still, "Let us go, let us go. And spend all the money, taxpayers' money, spend like water." This is going on.
Now, this material creation is possible when the Supreme Spirit enters into it. This is a problem to the modern scientist, how creation was possible. They cannot understand that without spiritual touch, there cannot be any creation. That is their poor fund of knowledge. The Darwin's theory, development, process of evolution, they are childish. They are concentrating on the matter: matter is evolving. Matter does not evolve; matter is dead. It is due to the presence of the spirit soul it evolves. That they do not understand, although actually we are seeing. Just like a child born.
So the vedānta-vādīs initiated the boy even before he became self-controlled and was detached from the childish sporting, etc. But before the initiation, he (the boy) became more and more advanced in discipline, which is very essential for one who wishes to make progress in the line. In the system of varṇāśrama-dharma, which is the beginning of actual life, small boys, five years of age, are sent to become brahmacārī at the guru's āśrama just to learn discipline."
Here it is said, atha upaspṛśya salilam. Just like we do, oṁ apavitraḥ pavitro vā sarvāvasthāṁ gato 'pi. Then if we do it properly, then it has got immense potency. Immense potency. Don't think it is childish, it is formality. No. Just see here. Atha upaspṛśya salilaṁ sandadhe tat samāhitaḥ. This is wanted. Samāhita, completely in trance. This is the process. So these things are required, how to become samāhita, samādhi-stha, in trance. If we take it as childish play, formality, then it will act, but it will take long time. But if you do it properly, you'll be quickly successful. In one life you'll be successful. You don't require to wait. My Guru Mahārāja used to say that although this process is guaranteed, but don't wait for another life. Finish this business in this life.
So this is God's pastimes. Ajo 'pi sann avyayātmā. He is eko hi...bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān. He is supplying the necessities of life to all the living entities. Nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām eko yo bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13). But He is begging from mother Yaśodā, "Kindly allow Me to suck your breast." And when mother refuses, He becomes angry. He breaks the pot of butter and so on, so on. You know this. This is called transcendental pastimes. And at the same time when it is required, He immediately lifts the Govardhana Hill. Immediately. Although He is dependent on mother Yaśodā, Nanda Mahārāja. Nanda Mahārāja is seeing, "Oh, this little boy has lifted Govardhana Hill? Oh! How it is possible? Let me help." He's trying to help Him by sticking the stick on the Govardhana Hill that it may not fall down. You see? He has already lifted. Still, because father, affectionate, he's thinking, "The childish boy, he has lifted the Govardhana Hill. It may now fall down. Let me help Him." This is going on. This is called transcendental pastimes.
So one brāhmaṇa boy cursed him, influenced. The boy was influenced by Kali. His father repented, "Oh, you rascal boy, what you have done?" One side, that a boy, born of a brāhmaṇa, only twelve years old, he could curse even a big king like Mahārāja Parīkṣit, and that is invocable. It cannot be nullified. Of course, Mahārāja Parīkṣit could nullify, but he accepted. So even a brāhmaṇa boy could curse. But this was wrong. His father repented later on, "What you have done, childish? Such a king." So as soon as Mahārāja Parīkṣit was moved from the scene, the Kali-yuga began in full force. Therefore sometimes it is said that the brāhmaṇas are responsible for introducing Kali-yuga. So that is not actually fact. In due course of time, everything will happen.
So our so-called scientists, they also say like that: "In future we shall do this. In future. Now you go to hell. That's all." But in future they cannot do anything. Daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā duratyayā (BG 7.14). Nature's law is so strong. The so-called childish scientists, they cannot give any relief. That is not possible. That is not possible. It is simply false promise. And those who are fools and rascals, they believe that in future... Future, but what they have done in the past? They cannot do anything.
If somebody says, "Trust this man," so my next question, "I must first of all know this man; then I shall trust." Similarly, if you do not know what is God, what is the meaning of your trust? It is all childish, slogan. Therefore the condition is so deteriorated. Everywhere, not only here, they have no knowledge of God. We can challenge anyone, any so-called scientist, philosopher, politician, big, big men. They know only wine, women, meat-eating. That's all. This much their knowledge. But who knows God? Nobody. Ultimately, the rascal says, "I am God." Failing to know God, he become himself God.
So don't fall down. Don't be childish, that "Yes, I have promised before spiritual master, before Kṛṣṇa, before fire. All right, that's all right. Let me break." No, don't do that. Don't do that. Don't lose this opportunity. You are now on the point of deathlessness, but if you again commit... Bhajann apakvo 'tha patet tato yadi. There is chance. If your execution of devotional service is not going perfectly, so there is chance of falldown.
Just like I am developing my ideas, youthful ideas. I am getting youthful body. I am developing childish ideas, getting childhood body. So as you develop, Kṛṣṇa, or God, has given you full freedom. You have come to this material world to enjoy. Now you make your plan of your enjoyment. God will give you a particular type of body and you enjoy.
The Vedas, they give us information of the demigods, but they are not imagination. And neither Kṛṣṇa is imagination. The Bhāgavata is giving this direction; Bhāgavata means Vyāsadeva is giving direction that "If you want this profit, then worship this demigod." So he's playing childish, foolish things? He's giving some wrong information? Imagination? What business he has got to do that? But these Māyāvādī rascals will say that "the demigods are also māyā, Kṛṣṇa is also māyā, everything is māyā." Therefore we call them Māyāvādī, everything māyā. Kṛṣṇa-bhakti is māyā. They say it is good for raising oneself to the platform of impersonalism.
One should become free. That should be the aim of our life. So we are trying to be happy by changing the cell, by this "ism" to that "ism," by capitalism to communism, from communism to this "ism," that "ism." That will not make us happy. You'll have to completely change from this "ism," this materialism. That's all. Then you'll be happy. So that is our program, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. We are not childish-ism. We are taking advice from the Supreme Person.
Varāka means fools or childish. We are thinking that "I am this body." Such fools cannot understand how to surrender to Kṛṣṇa. Therefore, tad apy abhalatāṁ jātaḥ teṣām ātmābhimāninām, varākāṇām anāśritya, without taking shelter, govinda-caraṇa-dvayam, the lotus feet of Govinda. So bahūnāṁ janmanām ante (BG 7.19). We get this chance, and if we are not educated by our teachers, by our fathers, by our leaders, by our government men, by our gurus, by our relatives, how to accept the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, who is canvassing.
So chanting, bhakti-yoga means to chant Viṣṇu. Śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ (SB 7.5.23). And Viṣṇu has got so many forms. So either you chant Hare Rāma or you chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, it is the same. There is no difference. Sometimes they first of all place "Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare." And sometimes they place "Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa..." There is no difference. Sometimes they say, "No, it should be Hare Rāma first." Sometimes they..., "No, Hare Kṛṣṇa." But that is not very important, childish. Any, either you say Hare Rāma or Hare Kṛṣṇa, the same. So this is to be done. Tīvreṇa bhakti-yogena.
In medical science they also admit change of, what is called, blood corpuscle. It is changing every moment. But how it is changing and coming into different body, that we cannot understand. But it is changing. Actually, it is changing from one body to another. That boy, the same boy, when he is grown up, he speaks differently than childish way because the body has changed. The body has changed. That is understood. But because we have no very nice brain, we cannot understand that the body is changing. We say, "It is growing." You can say it is growing, but growing is also changing. The original form is changed. That is called growing.
So children should be instructed from the very beginning of their life this bhāgavata-dharma. We are attempting to do that in our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. We have got an institution, Gurukula, at Dallas, Texas, and they are learning very nicely. Just like this child. From the very beginning he is learning bhāgavata-dharma. He is offering obeisances, he is chanting, he is dancing, he is offering a flower to the spiritual master, and he is offering to the Vaiṣṇavas. In his childish way, while playing, he is becoming accustomed to dharmān bhāgavatān. This is really, really human civilization, from the very beginning of life. Because if we want, we can learn like cats and dog, jumping and eating and sleeping and mating. No. That is not the business of the human life.
Jaraṭhaḥ vṛddhaḥ. So although he was very old, still he was enjoying the child's play, pastimes, the same thing. Just like Mahārāja Nanda and Yaśodā were enjoying the childish pastimes of Lord Kṛṣṇa, the same thing is pervertedly reflected in this material world. Father's affection, child's activities. Because we are part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa, the same thing you'll find in the transcendental world. The Māyāvādī philosophers, they cannot adjust.
Suppose a man, a boy, is sixteen years old, just like Śukadeva Gosvāmī. He was teaching Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam when he was only sixteen years old, but he was so learned that when he entered the assembly, all the great sages, including his father, stood up to receive him. So he was oldest. So he was older than his father even. Why? Because he was so learned. So our childishness or experience, old age, means according to the acquirement of knowledge. If one is advanced in knowledge, he is to be understood older. And if one is not advanced in knowledge, he is a child. That's all.
Prahlāda Mahārāja is mahā-bhāgavata, not ordinary devotee. Arbhakaḥ. Arbhakaḥ means innocent child, five-years-old small boy. But mahā-bhāgavata. Not that because he is boy... Ahaituky apratihatā. A small child can become mahā-bhāgavata, and a very learned scholar may become a demon. Bhakti is so exalted that these are contradictory. Arbhakaḥ, arbha means foolish or childish, but at the same time mahā-bhāgavata. It is possible. Mahā-bhāgavata means... We must distinguish between different types of devotees. Kaniṣṭha adhikārī, madhyama-adhikārī and mahā-bhāgavata, uttama adhikārī. Uttama-adhikārī.
It is not childish. Rather the so-called meditation is childish. You cannot, if you do not know what is God, how you can meditate upon Him? Meditation means, dhyānāvasthita-tad-gatena manasā paśyanti yaṁ yogino. The yogis perform meditation. Why? To concentrate their mind on the Viṣṇu form. You'll find some picture that everyone is depicted with the Viṣṇu form in the core of the heart. That is real yoga. Indriya-samyamaḥ. Real yoga means indriya-samyamaḥ. Our senses are so much disturbed, agitated always. So if you can control your sensory organs to your, employ them in the matter of understanding God, yoga indriya-samyamaḥ.
Just to keep balance of the demonic activities and to favor the devotees, both of them are benefited. Paritrāṇāya sādhūnām, those who are devotees, they are also benefited, and the demons who are killed by Kṛṣṇa, they are also benefited. That is Kṛṣṇa. That is all good. "God is good" means when He's favoring somebody and when He's killing somebody, both of them are benefited. Therefore God is always good, both ways. Nija-lābha. He has no business to kill anybody as His enemy. Nobody can become His enemy. It is simply childish—just to knock one's head on the mountain to break the mountain. If one thinks that "I shall knock my head to the mountain, and the mountain will break," that is foolishness. Your head will be broken. That's all.
A modern scientist has manufactured one what is called sputnik, and we are advertising in the paper, "So nice sputnik. It is flying in the air and it's going..." And the Supreme Personality has created not only a childish sputnik, but millions and trillions of planets, they are flying in the air. So is not it glorious? But the rascals will say, jagan mithyā: "This world is false." Why it is false? There are so much brain in manufacturing this world, and is it false? Suppose if you decorate this temple and invite some friend, if he says, "Oh, this is all false," is it not decrying or insulting you? You decorate this temple so nicely, you prepare very nice foodstuff, and he says, "Oh, this is all false." Why? That means he has no appreciation. He's prosaic, he's dull, he's a rascal.
It is by nature's arrangement, by Kṛṣṇa's arrangement, that these living entities who have come here in this material world for false happiness, material happiness, and they are entrapped in this birth and death problem, transmigrating from one type of life to another type of life... Here is a chance for the human being. And Kṛṣṇa comes to the human being, and here is a chance, Bhagavad-gītā. Kṛṣṇa gives them. So if after reading Bhagavad-gītā... Anāśritya govinda-caraṇa-dvayam. Who is neglecting? His neglect means that teṣām ātmābhimānināṁ varākhānām. Varākha means fools or childish. We are thinking that "I am this body." Such fools cannot understand how to surrender to Kṛṣṇa. Therefore tad apy aphelatam jata tesam ātmābhimānināṁ varākhānām anāśritya, without taking shelter, govinda-caraṇa-dvayam, the lotus feet of Govinda.
Nectar of Devotion Lectures
Because if Moon planet is heavenly planet, they're more intelligent than you. If you have got some machine to reach there, they have got some machine to divert you. Why not think like that? That "These rascals are coming here without any immigration license. Let them be diverted to the deserted portion and disappointed they'll go back." So many things are there. Therefore they are not successful. Neither they'll be ever successful. Take it. I may die. But you take it rightly. They'll never be successful. I have already written these things in my Easy Journey to Other Planets. This is childish. It is not possible.
Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures
We have got practical experience that no explosion takes place without the touch of a human being. Similarly, even there was explosion going on, but there is a touch of the Supreme Being. That is the statement in the Bhagavad... Mayādhyakṣeṇa (BG 9.10). We are seeing the explosion. Just like child sees the explosion. He does not know that there, behind the explosion, there is a management of a superior being. This is childish observation. Because in śāstra we see that behind everything the hand of the Supreme Being is there, and by our practical experience also, we see that matter does not act automatically without being touched by a living being, so how we can accept this argument, that the explosion is going on automatically? What is the evidence? There is no evidence.
Just like we sometimes challenge the big, big scientists, philosophers, psychologists, but we are not psychologist or scientist. Ten years before, in my Easy Journey to Other Planet, I have written that "This moon-going attempt is childish and waste of time." And still we are challenging that "Mars-going, so-called, it will also fail." Write it: It will fail. Not that process. So how we are saying? How we are challenging these big, big scientists? Because we know from the Vedic literature that it is not possible to go to the moon planet or Mars in that way. It is not possible. You have to qualify yourself. Just like to come to America one has to qualify himself for the proper visa, passport, and so many other things, bank balance, this, that. How you can go to the other? They are higher planetary system. So this is all childish. But if you want to go at all, then it is possible if you follow the proper process.
Just like electric energy. We see there is electric energy, but there is source of electricity, the powerhouse. How can you deny it? Those who are foolish persons, they think that a childish, that this bulb is giving light automatically. No. That is not fact. The fact is, the electric energy is coming from the background, the powerhouse, then about the bulb is giving light.
Sri Brahma-samhita Lectures
When we stress upon some important point, we say three times, "Do it, do it, do it!" It is like that. Kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva nāsty eva gatir anyathā. So yoga practice is approved process, but it requires long, long period, time, and the time is not at all suitable in this age. And persons are differently cultured. They are eating everything, they are drinking everything, smoking. And it is not possible. It is not possible. Simply childish. It is not possible. And you can see practically. Just like I have given the example. Bring any so-called yogi, mystic practitioner.
Festival Lectures
Madhudviṣa: Recently it said in the newspaper where the scientists were sending a sputnik around the moon. I have read in your Easy Journey to Other Planets that no matter how many endeavors they make, they will never reach these other planets. Is this...?
Prabhupāda: Yes. This is not the process of reaching. This is childish. That also I have made statement, this is childish. You cannot go to the moon planet in that way. It is not possible. They'll simply create story, but they'll never be successful.
General Lectures
Just like a child. Because he cannot see the sun at night, he may say, "Oh, sun is gone, dead and gone." But no scientist, no intelligent man will say. "My dear child, the sun is not gone. The sun is there. I cannot see now." That is the fact. Similarly, these foolish persons, because they cannot see the soul and because the body is left there and it is destroyed, he says that there is no soul. Just see how childish and how much darkness is there. It is commonsense affair.
This past and present and future is due to the change of body. Is it not a fact? I am the same, feeling; I am feelng same. The old man, an old man, he also remembers his enjoyments during his youthful time, and sometimes he wants to go back to those youthful days. An old man, when he meets his old friends, he talks about his youthful days. That means as spirit soul I am always youthful, but due to this condition of this body, I am feeling sometimes childish, sometimes old man, sometimes this or that.
Just like Dhruva Mahārāja. He underwent severe austerities, penances, meditation. His purpose was that "When I shall see God, Nārāyaṇa, I shall take benediction that I must have a kingdom better than my father or my grandfather achieved." That was his determination. Because he was a child, so his stepmother refused to allow him to sit on the lap of his father. He became insulted, so he decided that "I shall take from Kṛṣṇa such a kingdom which even my father or grandfather could not imagine." It is childish determination, but it was a determination. He was a kṣatriya. His determination... And Kṛṣṇa fulfilled it. But from his part, when he saw Kṛṣṇa, Nārāyaṇa, he said, svāmin kṛtārtho 'smi varaṁ na yāce: "My dear Lord, I don't want anything. I have got You now." Svāmin kṛtārtho 'smi varaṁ na yāce (CC Madhya 22.42).
So everywhere this is going on; therefore there is necessity of awakening this God consciousness of the people. It is not a childish thing or sentimental fanaticism. It is real science. Because this human life is meant for understanding "What I am," ahaṁ brahmāsmi. "I am not this body; I am spirit soul." Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā na śocati na kāṅkṣati (BG 18.54). If you can educate people to become brahma-bhūta (SB 4.30.20), then prasannātmā, he becomes happy, jolly. Just like these American boys, American girls, they were many, many times in better condition of life. Now they are wandering with me.
Philosophy Discussions
Śyāmasundara: There's another page. This whole idea is so vague, that the water parting and the rock falling are individual.
Prabhupāda: It is childish.
Śyāmasundara: He says that each monad is given a characteristic nature by the central monad, who is God.
Prabhupāda: That's all right. Then why don't you take to the central monad?
Prabhupāda: Who made this mechanical? As soon as you bring the question of mechanical, there must be a brain who set up the machine. Mechanical means, just like your, what is that, telex is working. That is mechanical. That's all right. But behind this machine. there is a big brain who has made this possible. Now you are seeing at the present moment that by pushing one button you get your business done, mechanically, but who made this machine. That is important. This machine has not come out itself. There is iron and there is some, it is made of iron. So iron has not molded itself to that machine; there was a brain who has made the machine possible. Now when you are using, because you have no, if you have no knowledge... Just like in our childhood we used to think that there is a man within the gramophone box. This is childish. It is not mechanical. Everything has got a plan, design, and behind that plan and design there is a brain, big brain.
Karandhara: Scientists often take the shelter of this premise, that it's not..., we don't..., we're not trying to find out. Whenever they're asked what is the original source, they say, "We're not concerned with that. We're concerned with just examining the phenomenon of that source."
Prabhupāda: Yes. That is childish. That is childish. Just like I have seen the phenomena, without man there cannot be singing. In the box there must be one man there. This is childish calculation, that's all. Phenomenal study means childish. A fan, in our childhood we will think that a fan is running, there must be some ghost who is running it. So this sort of phenomenal study is not scientific study. It is not scientific. (If) we don't find the original cause, that is not scientific.
Prabhupāda: The same example. Just like computer machine. They do not find that the machine is made by a brain which is different from this material. But he's trying to find out a brain from this. This is their childish... The brain is different from machine. The machine is lump of iron. And the one who is working with the machine is a different from the machine. That they do not know. That they do not know. That is their defect. Now what is this computer machine will do unless there is a worker in the computer room, highly salaried man?
Śyāmasundara: Unless it's plugged into the wall it doesn't work.
Prabhupāda: Lump of matter, iron, that's all. But that they do not know. They are so foolish and rascal. Then they're trying to find out... This is same childishness, that "I'm trying to find out the singer within the box, within the box." It is like that.
Hayagrīva: But they have sent rockets off into space and by...
Prabhupāda: That is childish. I have already explained.
Hayagrīva: Yes.
Prabhupāda: That is childish.
Hayagrīva: But...
Prabhupāda: They cannot go.
Prabhupāda: So one should know what is the cause of this activity. They think that it is automatically coming, by nature, nature. They cannot explain. That is not philosophy. But we have to see wherefrom this activity comes. We get answer from Bhagavad-gītā that behind all these material activities there is a brain, there is a... That is God. Just like this machine is working, acting. It is talking. As soon as you press one button it's talking. But a child will say, "Oh, how wonderful this machine is talking." This is childish. One who has got sense, he'll know this talking is not coming automatically. Somebody has talked, and it is simply a record. That is intelligence. So wherefrom the activity is coming?
Śyāmasundara: They say that at this level of existence that we can't say where it is coming from. We simply find...
Prabhupāda: Then you can't say, then you learn. Then you are not in the perfect stage.
Prabhupāda: So the middle stage, so then you have to learn. You are not perfect, so you do not know. So one who does not know, his speculation, what is the value? Just like a child, if he does not know how the machine is working, how, then his speculation on this machine, what is the value of it? Without perfect knowledge, simply speculation, that is going on. The modern civilization, they prefer simply speculation without any basic truth. That is the defect. Andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānās (SB 7.5.31). And they have become leaders, philosophers, scientists. Bhāgavata condemns them: andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānās. They are blind themselves and they are trying to lead other blind men. So their leading, their science, their philosophy are practically useless. They cannot give any benefit to the human society. Childish.
Prabhupāda: But you cannot decide without your aim. What is the aim of life?
Śyāmasundara: Well, he says that because we cannot know the aim or...
Prabhupāda: Then how we can make decision?
Śyāmasundara: Then we must make a choice, either this or that.
Prabhupāda: That is childish. That is childish. Just like a child, he does not know. He sometimes plays with these things, sometimes plays with these things, sometimes plays with that. That's all. That is child.
Prabhupāda: So why not study why sometimes it is leafless and why there is leaf? Why during winter season there is no leaf, and the springtime the leaves come out? Why? That is also phenomenon, changes. So therefore the next step will be that how the changes take place, and why the changes take place. That is real philosophy. Simply if you are satisfied that leaves are there, green leaves, that's all right; and there is no leaves, that's all right—that is not very intelligent. This is phenomenon. There is no leaf and there is leaf. So this is childish. Childish satisfies... Child does not enquire, "My dear father, why sometimes there is leaf and sometimes no leaf?" He is satisfied there is no leaf, that's all right; there is leaf, that's all right.
Śyāmasundara: No this..., I've just outlined the process, and as you say, if we stop at that point it may seem childish. But the idea is that it is a process and that you do inquire next.
Prabhupāda: Therefore I say it is childish. Only the foolish child knows that he doesn't require any father, "My mother is everything." Just like these foolish scientists, they are thinking the nature is everything. Nature is mother. Just like a small child on the lap of the mother, he knows simply, "My mother is everything." But when he is grown up, he understands that "I have a father."
Prabhupāda: That little child, how he can give up the idea of father? And how Mr. Freud can give up the idea? Was he not born by a father?
Hayagrīva: He feels that...
Prabhupāda: He dropped from the sky? Huh? Did, did he?
Hayagrīva: He feels that this is childish.
Prabhupāda: That childish, what is that childish? He had no father?
Hayagrīva: He had a father, but he believed in ultimate emancipation.
Hayagrīva: He says, "After all, is not the destiny of childishness to be overcome? Man cannot remain a child forever."
Prabhupāda: No. What is his definition of childish? Whether he is childish, or he is condemning others?
Hayagrīva: One who needs...
Prabhupāda: Unless you can deny that you have born, you are born without father, then you are a child. You do not have conception how you are in existence without father.
Hayagrīva: He felt that the father God is an infantile wish. He says, "The whole thing is so patently infantile, so incongruous with reality, that one whose attitudes..."
Prabhupāda: So what is his reality? Infantile conception of God, but what he is, except the child? Huh? He is also planning something. That is also childish. So how he becomes more than a child? He cannot give us any definite program by which everyone will be hopeful.
Hayagrīva: Well, he felt psychoanalysis was the answer.
Prabhupāda: So when you have got this knowledge, that this knowledge, jñāna, that how this knowledge comes? By researching for many, many life. Then, bahūnāṁ janmanām ante (BG 7.19), in this way researching, researching, researching, after many, many births, when he actually becomes in full awareness that "Here is the source," then He says, vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti sa mahātmā su-durlabhaḥ: (BG 7.19) "Oh, here is..., Vasudeva is everything." Sa mahātmā su-durlabhaḥ. Then he begins his bhajana. Mahātmānas tu māṁ pārtha daivīṁ prakṛtim āśritāḥ bhajanty ananya-manaso (BG 9.13). That is life. Simply speculation, coming to know definite knowledge, "perhaps," "maybe," and this and that—what is the value of this knowledge? That is childish. That is childish. He is, he is saying others, for giving him God, that is childish, but he is himself a child. He cannot give us any definite knowledge. "By chance," "by accident," "perhaps." What is the value of that knowledge?
Hayagrīva: Freud's..., this is Freud's final conclusion on this point: "True, without religion man will then find himself in a difficult situation. He will have to confess his utter helplessness and his insignificant part in the working of the universe. He will have to confess that he is no longer the center of creation, no longer the object of the tender care of a benevolent providence. He will be in the same position as the child who has left the home where he was so warm and comfortable. But, after all, is it not the destiny of childishness to be overcome? Man cannot remain a child forever. He must venture at last into the hostile world. This may be called education to reality. Need I tell you that it is the sole aim of my book to draw attention to the necessity for this advance?"
Prabhupāda: Just like one man was fighting with another man, and he could not fight, he was going away, going away. The other man challenged, "Why are you going away?" So, "Why not shall I go away? Am I afraid of you? Why should I not go away? Am I afraid of you?" He is going away, he is defeated, still he said that "Why shall I not go? Am I afraid of you?" So this is childish philosophy.
Śyāmasundara: If you'll remember, some of the philosophers we have discussed, they believe that unless the world is perceived, it does not exist. But Bertrand Russell thought that the world was real in itself. Even though we do not perceive it, it still exists.
Prabhupāda: That, that (indistinct). World exists, whether we perceive or not perceive. It doesn't matter. So many things we do not perceive. Just like the child, he sees the electric fan is moving, but he does not perceive where is electricity power, or the powerhouse. So because the child does not perceive the powerhouse and electricity, it does not mean that there is no electricity or no powerhouse. It is the childish fault that one must think like that, that without electricity, without powerhouse, the fan is moving. That is childish. The so-called perception or no perception is simply childish.
Prabhupāda: How matter can take shape? That is not philosophy, that is childish. That is the defect of the modern civilization. A man has got childish knowledge and he is becoming philosopher.
Śyāmasundara: He says that the cause-effect relationship between things has very little effect on genuine events which can cause reality.
Prabhupāda: No. There must be cause and effect.
Prabhupāda: Here the thing is that these are all childish suppositions. The real thing is that he should be educated. He should be educated. This should be done. He should be educated from the very beginning that "You are not this body." This is the beginning of real religion. He is talking this way and that. Education is required. Without education these things cannot be taught—by rewarding, by this way, by that way, by machine... It is all nonsense, everything. The first education is that every children should be taught from the very beginning that "You are not this body," and he should be taught the nature of the soul. Then he will come to the Supreme Soul. Then he will gradually come to the relationship between the Supreme Soul and the individual soul. And when he develops love for the Supreme Soul he will not violate the order of the Supreme. So that is our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement.
Revatīnandana: How foreign intervention will be dangerous to you if you are perfect?
Śyāmasundara: Well, because the capitalists are...
Prabhupāda: That is bias. Your people also become capitalist. Why Kruschev was driven away? Because he was becoming... So because you are all imperfect, you think in a different way, but ultimately you will find that it is useless. Childish. That's all.
Śyāmasundara: It's not that accidentally nature will evolve a race of demigods on this planet.
Prabhupāda: No, no. There is nothing accidental. It is not that accidental, one becomes high-court judge. (laughter) This is nonsense. Accidental(ly) one becomes a very high grade medical man. This is all childish proposal. They have no sense even. It is all childish. Where is the, in our practical life, where is the evidence that accidentally one has become like this? Is there any evidence of how they propose these childish things? I do not know. And they are passing as philosophers.
Hayagrīva: Ultimately he feels that man has no duty. "It is reasonable to look forward to a time when man will seldom have anything to do, although he may show interest, imagination and productivity."
Prabhupāda: Imagination, if he thinks like that, that our society will be perfect on imagination, then what he can say? This is childish. That is going on practically. Everyone is coming, a leader like him, and he is trying to make some followers of his own imagination. That is going on.
| Page Title: | Childish (Lectures) |
| Compiler: | Vrindi, Serene |
| Created: | 20 of Dec, 2008 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=72, Con=0, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 72 |