It is very simple to understand. As I have changed so many bodies, not only childhood, babyhood, boyhood, youthhood. According to medical science we are changing body every second imperceptibly. So this process, that the soul is permanent... Just like I remember my babyhood body or childhood body. I am the same person, soul, but I have changed so many bodies. Similarly, when ultimately I shall change this body, I shall have to accept another body. This simple formula is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. Everyone can think on it. And there must be some scientific research. Recently I got one letter from a doctor in Toronto. He suggested there is body..., there is soul. I had some correspondence with him. Actually this is a fact. The soul is there. There are so many proofs. Not only in the Vedic literature, but even ordinary experience. The soul is there, and the soul is transmigrating from one body to another. This is going on, but unfortunately there is no serious study on the subject matter or department of knowledge in the universities. This is not very good.
Correspond (Lectures)
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Lectures
Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures
Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures
Śyāmasundara: The seven planetary systems, do they correspond to the seven colors and the seven jewels of the yogi?
Prabhupāda: No. There is seven planetary systems over us and seven planetary systems down also. Therefore this universe is called caturdaśa-bhuvana: "Fourteen planetary systems." This is called Bhūrloka. Above this, there is Bhuvarloka. Above that, there is Janaloka. Above that, there is Maharloka. Above that, there is Satyaloka. Above that, there is Brahmaloka, the highest planetary system. Similarly, down also, we have got Tala, Atala, Talātala, Vitala, Pātāla, Rasātala. This information we get from Vedic literature, fourteen worlds. Each and every universe is consisting of these fourteen planetary systems, and there are innumerable universes.
Kalkir nāmnā, nāmnā kalkiḥ. "His name will be Kalki. But He is not ordinary person." Nāmnā kalkir jagat-patiḥ. "He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He is not ordinary man. And His father's name is..." Janitā viṣṇu-yaśasaḥ. "His father's name will be Viṣṇu Yaśā." The Yaśā title are there in India still. One Mr. Yaśi (Joshi) corresponds with us. So the Josha, or Joshi, this title is already there. So they are brāhmaṇas. Here, all the descriptions are not there, but in other place, all the descriptions are there. Not only his father's name, name, His village or the place, Sambhal. There is still a place Sambhalpur in India. So everything is there. We should not be misled that "Here is another avatāra, here is another avatāra, here is... So many avatāras." No. So this is called śāstra: what will happen after 400,000's of years, that is mentioned. Future. Just like Lord Buddha's name was there. Bhaviṣyati yuga-sandhyāyām. Bhaviṣyati. Bhaviṣyati means "He will come." He was not visible. This is śāstra. Śāstra means tri-kāla-jña. The writer of śāstra should be a full cognizant of past, present, and future.
There was great assembly. And Parīkṣit Mahārāja inquired from everyone that "Now it is settled that I am going to die. The time is fixed already. Within a week, I shall be dying. Now what is my duty?" The thing is that before death we must prepare ourself. The present nonsense civilization, they don't prepare. They simply accept the flash life as all in all. The other day I was corresponding with one gentleman in London, Mr. Webb(?). He is little atheistic. He said that "There is no life, next. Just like a flower. A flower is bloomed and finished." So I have replied that "No, it is not finished. How it can be finished? The seed of the flower remains." Seed of the flower remains. So, so long the seed of the flower will remain, there will be many thousands and millions of manifestation of the flower. Similarly, this body may be finished, but the seed of the body, the soul, that is eternal. It will develop another body. That is a fact. Just like in this very life every one of us experiencing that because I, I am the seed of this body.
Prabhupāda: Hm?
Brahmānanda: When we chant japa in front of the Deity, does that correspond to this verse of meditating on the Lord limb by limb?
Prabhupāda: Yes. You can see. The Lord is everywhere. You can... Anyone can think. All right. Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa.
Devotees: All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda.
No, I am speaking not of you. I know what you are doing. But we should corroborate. But as a preacher we should simply speak the real truth. There is no question of corresponding with your ideas and another idea, no. We... Whatever we know, whatever we have heard from our authorities we'll speak. That's all. It may be somebody may know better than me. That is another thing. But I have to present what I have learned from the authority. That's all. And our authority is Kṛṣṇa, mainly. Yāre dekha tāre kaha 'kṛṣṇa'-upa... That is the spiritual master. Who does not add or subtract from the talks of Kṛṣṇa, he is spiritual master. One who adds and subtracts according to his whims, he is not spiritual master. He is not bona fide spiritual master. "I, my opinion..." "I give this interpretation..." He is not authorized. You are lawyer, you know better than me. In your law court you cannot change the law by your opinion. That is not possible.
The answer is durlabham. Durlabham means the intelligence that you have got now in this form of body, it is very rare. The intelligence, how it is rare? How it is important? Now here we are discussing about science of God, maybe very small number of men we are sitting, but we are all, because we are human being we are able to discuss. But we cannot call a cat or dog and sit down here and understand the science of God. That is not possible. So except human body, in any other form of life there is no possibility. You can become a tiger or a lion, very powerful, but it is a useless life. Useless life. I had correspondence with one gentleman in England. He says that "We want to be tiger." So I answered "What is the use of tiger?" Tigers, to become tiger... Tiger is very important animal? It is, rather, enemy of the human society. So actually, the present society is producing tigers or hogs or dogs or camels, like that. In the form of human body. The real human body, the intelligence should be utilized to understand God consciousness, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Tad api janma.
Festival Lectures
Nitāi-pada-kamala, koṭi-candra-suśītala, je chāyāy jagata jurāy. This is a song by Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura, a great ācārya of the Gauḍīya-vaiṣṇava-sampradāya. He has written many songs about the Vaiṣṇava philosophy, and they are approved as completely corresponding with Vedic instructions. So here Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura is singing that "The whole world is suffering under the blazing fire of material existence. Therefore, if one takes the shelter of the lotus feet of Lord Nityānanda...," whose birthday is today, 31st, January, 1969. So we should relish this instruction of Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura that in order to get relief from the pangs of blazing fire of this material existence, one should take shelter of the lotus feet of Lord Nityānanda because it is as cooling as the moon rays combined together of millions of moons. That means one will immediately find peaceful atmosphere. Just like a man works whole day and if he comes under the moonshine he feels relief.
Arrival Addresses and Talks
So this movement is very important movement. It is not of course possible to give you all details within a few minutes, but if you are interested you can kindly contact with us either by correspondence or by reading our literature or by personal contact. Any way, your life will be sublime. We have not such distinction that "This is India," "This is England," "This is France," "This is Africa." We think every living entity, not only human being, even animals, birds, beasts, trees, aquatics, insects, reptiles—all are part and parcel of God. But the lower animals, the aquatics, birds, beasts, trees, plants, insect—they are unable to receive this knowledge. The human being has developed consciousness. He can receive this knowledge of spirit soul. So our only request is that do not take this movement as a religious movement. It is the movement of the soul. It is very scientific, based on authority.
General Lectures
Another thing I may inform you in this connection, that when I first came to New York, one big man in India, mean rich man, Sir Padampat Singhania of Kanpur, I had correspondence that "Singhaniajī, if you give me some money, I can construct a temple here of Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa." So he was ready. He said that "Swamijī, whatever amount you want, I can give, provided the government gives sanction." So I had many correspondence with the government, but they did not give me sanction. But here the embassy, they have given me sanction that "You can raise funds from the residents in America and construct temple." So you are so many Indians. If you help me, I can construct temples everywhere. We have got many assistants. Of course, the American rich men, they are not coming. The boys and girls who have joined me, they are very not rich but very sincere.
So I had some correspondence with him, and he admitted: "Swamijī, your people know much about these things than we know." So there is no question of you and me. It is simply education. Just like these boys. Four or fives year, ago, they did not know anything about this Kṛṣṇa consciousness. But because they have been educated with this Bhagavad-gītā, they are also following me. And they are very sound in their conviction in this Western, Eastern culture, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Of course from my part of view, I do not think there is any East and West. Any knowledge is meant for the whole world. Any scientific knowledge. Just like Professor Einstein, if he discovered the law of relativity, it is not for the Western people. It is for the Eastern people also. So there is no such question.
Philosophy Discussions
Śyāmasundara: His belief for..., the criterion for truth is called the correspondence theory, that a belief is true if it agrees with the facts with which it is supposed to correspond.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Just like this example, we see the snow as white, but it is..., does not correspond with the fact. Therefore it is not knowledge.
Dr. Rao: There is another example. They see water can (indistinct) in several (indistinct). One is the seawater, one is the (indistinct rest of comment)
Śyāmasundara: He also says that besides the correspondence, that fact must correspond with..., that a belief must correspond with the fact if it is to be true. Also he says...
Prabhupāda: So that fact does not correspond by direct perception, (indistinct) that we are seeing the snowball white, but scientifically it is not white; it is a combination of seven colors.
Hayagrīva: In his Politics, Plato changes his mind later in life. In the beginning he believed that in an ideal state the leaders should possess nothing of their own, neither property nor family. He felt that they must live together in a community where wives and children are held in common to guard against corruption, bribery and nepotism in government. He felt that the elite philosophers should mate with women of high qualities in order to produce the best children for positions of responsibility. Now, how does this view of common wives and children correspond to the Vedic version?
Prabhupāda: Yes, Vedic civilization is that, that putrārthe kriyate bhāryā. A man should accept a wife for putra, for son. Why son? Putra-piṇḍa-prayojanam: a putra should be responsible for offering piṇḍa, so that after death, even by mistake or somehow or other I am in a wrong position, by the piṇḍa I am elevated. This is idea. So marriage is for having good son, that's a fact, who will deliver me even if I am in the hell.
Hayagrīva: In his Ethics, Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle writes, "Moral excellence is concerned with pleasure and pain. It is pleasure that makes us do base or ignoble action, and pain that prevents us from doing noble actions. For that reason," as Plato says, "men must be brought up from childhood to feel pleasure and pain at the proper things, for this is correct education." So how does this correspond to the Vedic view of education?
Prabhupāda: Vedic view of education is, actually there is no pleasure in this material world, because we may arrange for all pleasure artificially in the material world, but all of sudden one has to die. So where is the pleasure? If you make arrangement of all pleasure and all of a sudden death comes upon you, then where is pleasure? So first of all they must, if they are intelligent, they must make arrangement that they will be able to enjoy the pleasures they have created. Otherwise, where is pleasure? It is disappointment. That is going on. They are trying to become pleased by inventing so many things, but because they are controlled by some superior element, so at any moment they will be kicked out of the pleasure platform.
Hayagrīva: There's no correspondence there. That is to say, a beautiful body does not necessarily house a beautiful soul. There's no correspondence.
Prabhupāda: No, there is correspondence, because we say this material world is perverted reflection. So originally the soul is beauty, but here the beauty is covered. But we can simply have a glimpse of the real beauty from the material covering, but we have to wait to see the beauty of the soul. That is real point.
Hayagrīva: I read that Socrates was a very ugly man but that he had a very beautiful soul, and people were attracted to his soul. That was the, supposedly...
Prabhupāda: Yes. The example can be given that the quail, it is called kokil, it is very black, just like crow. But when you vibrates the voice, it is so beautiful that people are attracted. So the beauty of the body is secondary. The beauty of the soul is primary. So just like a mūḍha, a illiterate man, nicely dressed—he is beautiful so long he does not speak. And as soon as he speaks, we can understand what is his position. So dhavaca so vate mūḍha yavad kiñcid na vasa (?). A ugly, illiterate rascal, fool, is beautiful so long he does not speak, and as soon as he speaks we can understand what is his position.
Hayagrīva: This is the continuation of Origen. Origen believed that all the elements that are found in the material body are also found in the spiritual body, which he called the interior man. He says, "God created man not taking the dust of the earth like the second time, but He created him after the image of God," that is initially, "this being after the likeness of God was immaterial, superior to any corporeal hypothesis. There are thus two men in each one of us, as every exterior man has for homonym the interior man. So it is for all His members, and one can say that every member of the exterior man can be found under this name in the interior man." So that for every corresponding sense that we have in the exterior body, there's a corresponding sense in the interior or the spiritual body which exists within.
Prabhupāda: The spirit soul is within this material body, but the spirit soul has no material body originally. There is a spiritual body of the spirit soul eternally existing, and the material body is simply coating of the spiritual body. This material body is considered as coating, shirt-coat. It is cut according to the bodily shape. Just ordinarily we can see the tailor makes the shirt and coat according to the shape of the body. Similarly, these material elements, earth, water, fire, etc., mixed together, becomes like a clay, and it is coated over the spiritual body. The spiritual body has no connection with the material body. So because the spiritual body has got shape, the material body also takes a shape. That is understanding. But material body has nothing to do with the spiritual body. It is simply external coating, or it is a kind of contamination for suffering of the spirit soul.
| Page Title: | Correspond (Lectures) |
| Compiler: | Rishab, RupaManjari |
| Created: | 19 of Jun, 2011 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=16, Con=0, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 16 |