Real vision

Expressions researched:
"real vision"

SB Canto 7

The Lord is within the universe and within the atom by His different energies. This is the real vision of the Supreme Lord for the intelligent man.

SB 7.9.35, Purport: The Supreme Lord is the original seed of everything (janmādy asya yataḥ [SB 1.1.1]. ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavo mattaḥ sarvaṁ pravartate [Bg. 10.8]). Thus the Supreme Lord extends everywhere, even throughout our bodies, because our bodies are made of material energy, which is the Lord's separated energy. One should realize that since the Supreme Lord spreads throughout one's body and since the individual soul is a part of the Supreme Lord, everything is Brahman (sarvaṁ khalv idaṁ brahma). This realization was achieved by Lord Brahmā after he was purified, and it is possible for everyone. When one is completely in knowledge of ahaṁ brahmāsmi, he thinks, "I am part of the Supreme Lord, my body is made of His material energy, and therefore I have no separate existence. Yet although the Supreme Lord is spread everywhere, He is different from me." This is the philosophy of acintya-bhedābheda-tattva. An example given in this regard is that of the aroma within the earth. In the earth there are aromas and colors, but one cannot see them. Actually we find that when flowers grow from the earth, they appear with different colors and aromas, which they have certainly gathered from the earth, although in the earth we cannot see them. Similarly, the Supreme Lord, by His different energies, spreads throughout one's body and soul, although we cannot see Him. An intelligent man, however, can see the Supreme Lord existing everywhere. Aṇḍāntara-stha-paramāṇu-cayāntara-stham: [Bs. 5.35] the Lord is within the universe and within the atom by His different energies. This is the real vision of the Supreme Lord for the intelligent man. Brahmā, the first created being, became the most intelligent person by his tapasya, austerity, and thus he came to this realization. We must therefore take all knowledge from Brahmā, who became perfect by his tapasya.

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Paṇḍitāḥ sama-darśinaḥ. That is the real vision. A paṇḍita means he sees.

Lecture on BG 12.13-14 -- Bombay, May 12, 1974: I am not this body, you are not this body, but you possess this body.

Just like you possess your shirt and coat, similarly, you possess this body also. The gross body made of material elements is your coat, and the subtle body made of finer material elements—mind, intelligence, ego—that is your shirt. And within that coat and shirt, the real living entity is there.

So one who has such vision, one who is learned in spiritual understanding, he is called paṇḍita.

vidyā-vinaya-sampanne

brāhmaṇe gavi hastini

śuni caiva śva-pāke ca

paṇḍitāḥ sama-darśinaḥ

[Bg. 5.18]

Paṇḍitāḥ sama-darśinaḥ. That is the real vision. A paṇḍita means he sees. There is... For a advanced spiritualist, advanced Kṛṣṇa consciousness person, there is no such distinctive, "Here is American; here is Indian; here is brāhmaṇa; here is śūdra; here is Hindu; here is Muslim." No. He has no such vision. He has the vision that within this body, the spirit soul is there. That is part and parcel of God, or Kṛṣṇa. He is suffering on account of different dresses, different conception of... Therefore he should be released from this misconception of life. That is called paṇḍita.

General Lectures

God is spirit, Supreme Spirit, and he is part and parcel, the living entities. That is real vision.

Lecture at St. Pascal's Franciscan Seminary -- Melbourne, June 28, 1974: Samaḥ means equal to all living entities, to see the spirit soul, anyone... It doesn't matter whether he is man or cat or dog or tree or ant or insect or big man. They are all parts and parcel of God. They are simply dressed differently. One has got the dress of tree; one has got the dress of king; one has got the, insect. That is also explained in the Bhagavad-gītā. Paṇḍitāḥ sama-darśinaḥ: [Bg. 5.18] "One who is paṇḍita, learned, his vision is equal." So if St. Francis was thinking like that, that is highest standard of spiritual understanding. Similar expression is there in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta, that sthāvara-jaṅgama dekhe nā dekhe tāra mūrti [Cc. Madhya 8.274]. A spiritually advanced devotee of the Lord, he sees the trees or the animals or the stone or the anything he sees—he sees that it is the energy of God. Nā dekhe tāra mūrti. Just like your mūrti or my mūrti—mūrti means form—may be little different, but we are made of the same ingredients. If your body surgically operated, the same blood, stone, or bone, or flesh, everything is there the same because same ingredients. Similarly, our outward covering is covered by these material elements, but inside, within this, there is the spirit soul. Therefore one who is advanced, he does not see that "This is cat, this is dog, this is man, this is elephant, and this is brāhmaṇa, this is this..." No. He sees the soul, that "Here is the soul, part and parcel of God." That is his vision. Paṇḍitāḥ sama-darśinaḥ [Bg. 5.18]. So that is God realization. God is spirit, Supreme Spirit, and he is part and parcel, the living entities. That is real vision. Paṇḍitāḥ. Paṇḍitāḥ means learned.

Philosophy Discussions

That is the real vision: everyone is person.

Philosophy Discussion on Jean-Paul Sartre:

Śyāmasundara: He says that if a man considers himself as an object, he is afraid to look inside himself, then he will also consider other people as objects. And that is the cause of the basic sickness of the world, that we treat each other as objects instead as persons.

Prabhupāda: That is a wrong conception. Everybody is a person.

Śyāmasundara: What is your remedy for seeing everyone as persons?

Prabhupāda: That is the real vision: everyone is person.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā na śocati na kāṅkṣati, samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu...That is real vision.

Morning Walk -- February 17, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Paṇḍitāḥ sama-darśinaḥ [Bg. 5.18]. If one is paṇḍita, he does not make any distinction between animal community and human community.

Dr. Patel: Śuni caiva śva-pāke ca

Prabhupāda: Ah, that is paṇḍita. As soon as you see, "This is animal community, this is human community," then you are not paṇḍita. You are still in, equal learning. Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā na śocati na kāṅkṣati, samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu [Bg. 18.54].

Dr. Patel: Mad-bhaktiṁ labhate parām.

Prabhupāda: That is real vision.

Still, although he saw aneka in Kṛṣṇa, still, he is seeing Kṛṣṇa there. That is real vision.

Morning Walk -- April 5, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Still, although he saw aneka in Kṛṣṇa, still, he is seeing Kṛṣṇa there. That is real vision.

Girirāja: "O Lord of the universe, I see in Your universal body many, many forms-bellies, mouths, eyes-expanded without limit. There is no end, there is no beginning, and there is no middle to all this."

Prabhupāda: A crude example can be given. Just like a man may be director of this company and trust of that company and so many when he is working. But his wife is feeling that he is her husband. That's all. She does not see anything, although he is working in aneka-rūpam. This is the, a crude example. He has his eyes to see, "Here is my beloved husband." That's all. Just like Yasodamayi. Yasodamayi saw that all the universes within the mouth... She asked, ordered Kṛṣṇa, "I want to see whether you have eaten dirt. Open your mouth." So Kṛṣṇa opened the mouth and not only dirt, but all the universes... So she saw, but she did not believe that Kṛṣṇa can have all these universes. So she said, "All right, that's all right. Don't do it again." She did not take care of the universes. Although Kṛṣṇa is showed him all the universes within the mouth, she was concerned with Kṛṣṇa. That's all.