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If you admit (that we are all moving in the darkness, ignorance), then you will get knowledge. But that is not the position. You are falsely proud that you are very advanced in knowledge

Expressions researched:
"if you admit, then you will get knowledge. But that is not the position. You are falsely proud that you are very advanced in knowledge"

Conversations and Morning Walks

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Guest (1): So we are all moving in the darkness, ignorance, to begin with.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that if you admit, then you will get knowledge. But that is not the position. You are falsely proud that you are very advanced in knowledge.

Prabhupāda: Asatyere satya kori māni, accepting the untruth as truth. Asatyere nitāi-pada pāsariyā. Ahaṅkāre matta hoiyā nitāi-pada pāsariyā, asatyere satya kori māni. By forgetting our relationship with God and being proud of their so-called. . . (break) Therefore Bhāgavata says, satyaṁ paraṁ dhīmahi (SB 1.1.1): the real truth, not this relative truth. Satyam param dhīmahi.

Guest (1): Certainly I recognize that happiness does not come out of material prosperity, but the material prosperity is also equally important for a good existence.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Just like you repair the motorcar, but motorcar is not your life. That is being misguided. Everyone is thinking that this body, motorcar, is everything. But within, the driver, he's starving. So how long he'll carry on this motorcar? So first of all take care of the driver, who will protect this motorcar nicely. And if the driver is a nonsense, he's starving, then how can I expect the car will go very nicely? It will create disaster. Disaster means. . . Suppose you have got very nice car, Cadillac or. . . many good cars there are, Rolls-Royce, and he smashes. Then he'll get ordinary car. This human body is smashed. . .

(break) . . .hāntara-prāptiḥ, you enter into the dog's body—finished. That is not in your control; that is God's control, nature's control. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13), it is not under your control or so-called science. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27), kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22), these things are there.

Guest (3): Do you think, Swāmījī, the scientists would be able to create life as they. . .

Prabhupāda: That I was discussing, that is foolishness. That is—I was discussing—life is never created; life is already there. The body is created. So they are going on on a wrong theory.

Guest (1): I think our definition of life is a little different.

Prabhupāda: You may define differently; that is your concern.

Guest (1): We are talking about a protoplasm, something that moves. It may not have the soul, it may not have any. . .

Prabhupāda: "May not have," that means you have no real knowledge, "may not have." "May not have," that is not knowledge. I say "may have," then what is the difference between you and me? "May not have," that is not knowledge. That is simply suggestion, speculation.

Guest (1): Want me to give examples. . .

Prabhupāda: Therefore we have to take knowledge from the perfect. Kṛṣṇa says, "Yes, dehino 'smin yathā dehe (BG 2.13)." You have to take that knowledge. You cannot say you are perfect and you'll say "may not have." And what is this knowledge, "may not have"? Say definitely and prove it, scientifically. That is knowledge. "Perhaps," "may not," "may be," these are not knowledge.

Guest (1): Just to give one example, these days the science experiments have conclusively done that a particular egg can be—in the body of the womb—can be manipulated into either a male or a female.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. We say the soul is within the body, so you can make it male or female, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. We are not concerned with male and female; we are concerned with the soul.

Guest (1): Science does manipulate life.

Prabhupāda: Maybe. Even if you manipulate, then what you have done? You cannot create the soul. That is not possible. If you manipulate life, then give the dead body again energy to rise up. Then we shall admit that you can manipulate. Otherwise it is false. If you are so expert in manipulation, then give the dead body life again. That is my request. If depend on others and you manipulating, this false knowledge will not help.

Guest (1): Swāmījī, what actually I was coming to, most humbly, cannot spread to the . . . (indistinct) . . . science go together. It's not. . .

Prabhupāda: No, if science is really science, that is helpful. If science is based on wrong theory, then what is the use of that? Everything is wrong. So many mathematical calculation, if there is any item wrong, then whole thing is wrong.

Guest (1): So we are all moving in the darkness, ignorance, to begin with.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that if you admit, then you will get knowledge. But that is not the position. You are falsely proud that you are very advanced in knowledge.

Guest (1): No, Swāmījī, no. . .

Prabhupāda: Then you are qualified.

Guest (1): Even for a small experiment, I don't pretend that we know anything, whatever it is.

Prabhupāda: Actually that is the position. Therefore our business is to surrender to Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa demands that: sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). Then Kṛṣṇa will give you intelligence how to become perfect.

teṣāṁ satata-yuktānāṁ
bhajatāṁ prīti-pūrvakam
dadāmi buddhi-yogaṁ tam. . .
(BG 10.10)

This is the process. You take instruction from Kṛṣṇa, the perfect. Don't be proud of your paltry knowledge. That is our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, that Kṛṣṇa is perfect, and take knowledge from Him, you'll be perfect. That is our propaganda.

Guest (1): That we believe in.

Prabhupāda: Yes. We are not perfect. We can speculate only, and that is not perfection. "Maybe," "perhaps," like that. No definite knowledge. The definite knowledge you can get from Kṛṣṇa, the perfect. Therefore all the ācāryas accept Kṛṣṇa. We have to follow the ācāryas, ācāryopāsanam. So in India all these ācāryas—Śaṅkarācārya, Rāmānujācārya, Madhvācārya, Viṣṇu Svāmī, Lord Caitanya—they accept Kṛṣṇa the Supreme Absolute. Why you should not? Are you more than these ācāryas? Then? That is the defect of modern education: they manufacture education although they're imperfect. They have no the common sense that "I am imperfect. How I am manufacturing education and becoming teacher?" My becoming teacher is cheating, because I have no perfect knowledge. Knowledge means it must be perfect, not "maybe," "perhaps." This is not knowledge. Definite knowledge.

Page Title:If you admit (that we are all moving in the darkness, ignorance), then you will get knowledge. But that is not the position. You are falsely proud that you are very advanced in knowledge
Compiler:SharmisthaK
Created:2022-12-07, 15:16:34
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=1, Let=0
No. of Quotes:1