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Equal vision means

Conversations and Morning Walks

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Equal vision means that I don't make any distinction between you and a dog.
Room Conversation with Jesuit -- May 19, 1975, Melbourne:

Devotee: "The humble sage, by virtue of true knowledge, sees with equal vision...

Prabhupāda: Equal vision.

Jesuit: Equal vision.

Prabhupāda: Equal vision.

Jesuit: What does that mean, equal vision?

Prabhupāda: Equal vision means that I don't make any distinction between you and a dog.

Jesuit: You make no distinction...

Prabhupāda: No, this is spiritual vision because a paṇḍita, paṇḍita means learned man, his equal vision means he does not make any difference between the souls. The dog has got also soul and the learned scholar has got also soul. But the soul is covered by the dog's body, and here the soul is covered by the learned scholar's body. Actually both of them are souls, part and parcel of God.

Jesuit: Would you think that their souls are of different value, the soul of the dog...?

Prabhupāda: No, soul is of the same value.

Jesuit: That I would find hard to accept.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Jesuit: 'Cause as I would understand it, the soul of the man, of any man, is what we would call a spiritual soul, an immortal soul, and the soul of the animal is a principle of life, what the Greeks would call savvy(?), Aristotle would call psyche. But it is not of an immortal soul, therefore the man has higher value than the animal, the dog, something like that.

Prabhupāda: No. What do you think? Just like a child, as a child's father, the child has got different soul and the father has got different soul?

Jesuit: They've got different souls but they're both immortal, spiritual souls.

Prabhupāda: Who is important, the child or the father?

Jesuit: Both are important, both very important, both more important than...

Prabhupāda: Which one? Which important?

Devotee: He says both are equally important, but they're both more important than the dog.

Prabhupāda: Important, so far important is concerned, both of them same.

Jesuit: Same, they're different people aren't they?

Prabhupāda: No, you say both of them equal. That means from the importance point of view, they're the same. You say both of them...

Jesuit: The father and son, they're both the same importance.

Guest: But they're different people, they're different souls...

Prabhupāda: That's all right, but you say both of them important, on which platform?

Jesuit: But when you say two things are important, you don't say they are they are of equal...

Prabhupāda: Yes, life. Both of them are life.

Jesuit: Both of them are life, a flower has life, a dog has life.

Prabhupāda: That's all right.

Jesuit: A man has life, for me that is a gradation of life, you've got to start...

Prabhupāda: That gradation so far, just like there are gradation of motor cars. This is made by Ford, this is made by (indistinct), but the petrol is the same.

Jesuit: The petrol is the same.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Jesuit: Hm, even that can vary, but still...

Prabhupāda: There is no still, petrol is the same. The machine

may be different.

Jesuit: They're all machines.

Prabhupāda: Yes, the body is machine.

Jesuit: All inferior (indistinct).

Prabhupāda: Yes, body is matter.

Jesuit: Body is matter.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Jesuit: But a person is more than just matter. I'm more than matter.

Prabhupāda: No, the person, just like... that is... If a man is sitting on a Rolls Royce car, he's thinking, "Very important." And a man sitting on some ordinary car, he's thinking, "I am poor." But as man, both of them (are) equal. Falsely, because he is sitting in a particular type of car, he is thinking, "I am bigger."

Jesuit: Yes, I can see I agree with all that.

Prabhupāda: So the soul is the same. So there is no difference, mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūtaḥ (BG 15.7), find out this verse. Soul is the part and parcel of the supreme soul, Supersoul, God.

Page Title:Equal vision means
Compiler:Rishab
Created:06 of Mar, 2012
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=1, Let=0
No. of Quotes:1