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Ultimately (Lectures, Other)

Lectures

Sri Brahma-samhita Lectures

Lecture on Brahma-samhita, Lecture -- Bombay, January 3, 1973:

This is Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is not manufactured, as nowadays it has become a fashion to manufacture God by votes. No. God is never manufactured. God is God. Not by mystic power one becomes God or by so-called meditation or magical arts. No. God is God. Nobody can become God. Asamaurdhva. In the Bhagavad-gītā, Kṛṣṇa is described as asama urdhva prapitāmaha ca (BG 11.39). In the Eleventh Chapter, you'll find these words. Because Brahmā is considered... He's called pitāmaha, because the father of the father. If you search out the genealogical table of this universe, especially of the human society, then you go on searching. I am begotten by my father; my father is begotten by his father, his father, his father, his father—you go on. Then ultimately, if you have so much patience to make research, the, you can get from the śāstras, you can get. So the original father of this universe is Lord Brahmā; therefore he is addressed as Pitāmaha. But the father of Brahmā also, Brahmā, is also there: Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu. The Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu is expansion of Kāraṇodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, the original Viṣṇu, and Kāraṇodakaśāyī Viṣṇu is expansion of Saṅkarṣaṇa. Saṅkarṣaṇa is expansion of Nārāyaṇa. Nārāyaṇa is expansion of another Saṅkarṣaṇa, and that Saṅkarṣaṇa is expansion of Baladeva. And Baladeva is expansion of Kṛṣṇa. You'll find in the śāstras. Therefore Kṛṣṇa is the original person. Govindam ādi-puruṣam tam ahaṁ bhajāmi **. It is not that some artist has manufactured a fashionable Kṛṣṇa, and we worship that. No. Kṛṣṇa's the original person. We find it, description, in the Saṁhitās, in the Vedas, in the Ṛg Veda: oṁ tad viṣṇoḥ paramaṁ padaṁ sadā paśyanti sūrayaḥ. And the explanation of Vedānta-sūtra, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, there it is explained: janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). Because Vedānta-sūtra begins with this aphorism: janmādy asya yataḥ.

Festival Lectures

Ratha-yatra -- San Francisco, July 5, 1970:

My dear boys and girls, those who have come here, I welcome you on behalf of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu appeared five hundred years ago, and He introduced this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. This Ratha-yātrā is one of the item of this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. Jagannātha, just try to understand Jagannātha. Jagat means the moving world. Gacchati iti jagat, Sanskrit word, gacchati means which is moving. So all these planets, this universe, even the sun, everything is moving, as we are moving... We are, of course, animate. Even inanimate things are moving. Your motorcar moving, your machine is moving, but they are moving under the control of some animate object. But animate objects moving, some of the animate objects are standstill, just like trees, but ultimately they are also moving in this sense: that one species of life is being transmigrated to another species of life. Therefore it is called jagat. Jagat means moving. And Jagat-nātha, nātha means the proprietor, master, proprietor. So Jagannātha means the proprietor or the master of all these movements, He is Jagannātha. And Balabhadra, Balarāma, bala means strength and rāma means enjoyment. So Balarāma means who gives you spiritual strength for enjoying eternal blissful life, He is Balarāma. And Subhadrā, su means auspicious and bhadra means well-being. Subhadrā, Jagannātha and Balarāma combined together are present before you to reclaim you all from your miserable condition of life. That is the purport of this Ratha-yātrā Festival. (break) If anyone sees on the cart Jagannātha, Subhadrā, and Baladeva, then he does not take birth again in this material world.

Janmastami Lord Sri Krsna's Appearance Day -- Montreal, August 16, 1968:

Man has tried so hard to establish law and order. Law and order is already there in this existence which he's now facing. I think that we don't need to consider any more on these points just now. The main point or the main information which we're considering now is that by understanding Kṛṣṇa's existence, understanding Kṛṣṇa's appearance before the perception of ourselves, that we can terminate this material existence which we now face. This life we're now conscious of through these bodies which were born... Now these bodies were very small. They develop into impressive size. The bodies will dwindle and the bodies will be gone ultimately, lost. But all these living entities here in the room will go on existing. This process of birth and death we should understand. And we should especially understand how Kṛṣṇa appears before us who are trapped by birth and death. If we understand that Kṛṣṇa's appearance is not like ours, because He's perfect and because He's appearing for our benefit, then we may be able to reach out and grab hold of the lifeline that can... (break) ...of our own suicidal bogs.

So anyway, everybody has been coming here knows that we're recommending, simply associate with us, chant with us and listen to the teachings of our spiritual master. Put questions to us. Any question. And at this point I'd also like to invite questions. Is there any question?

Janmastami Lord Sri Krsna's Appearance Day Lecture -- London, August 21, 1973:

Cause of all causes. Just like try to understand. I am caused by my father. My father is caused by his father. He is caused by his father, his father... Go on searching, then you'll ultimately come to somebody who is the cause. But He has no cause. Anādir ādir govindaḥ (Bs. 5.1). I may be cause of my son, but I am also result of the cause, my father. But the śāstra says that anādir ādir, He is the original person, but He has no cause. That is Kṛṣṇa. Therefore, Kṛṣṇa says that janma karma ca me divyaṁ yo jānāti tattvataḥ (BG 4.9). The advent of Kṛṣṇa, it is very important thing. We should try to understand Kṛṣṇa, why He advents, why He comes on this material world, what is His business, what are His activities. If we simply try to understand Kṛṣṇa, then what is the result? The result is tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti kaunteya (BG 4.9). You get that immortality. The aim of life is to achieve immortality. Amṛtatvāya kalpate.

So in the advent of Kṛṣṇa, we shall try to understand the philosophy of Kṛṣṇa. His Excellency was speaking of peace. The peace formula is there, spoken by Kṛṣṇa. What is that?

Radhastami, Srimati Radharani's Appearance Day -- Bhagavad-gita 18.5 -- London, September 5, 1973:

Our Nārāyaṇa—that is real Nārāyaṇa, exalted—we cannot even compare with that supreme Nārāyaṇa with such demigods like Lord Brahmā, Lord Śiva, what to speak of these rascals. Yas tu nārāyaṇaṁ devaṁ brahma-rudrādi-daivataiḥ, samatvena vīkṣeta. Any person, rascal, if he thinks that Nārāyaṇa is equal to Lord Brahmā or Lord Śiva... There are Māyāvādīs. They say "Any demigod is as good as Viṣṇu. You can worship any demigod. It doesn't matter. You..." Because their ultimate understanding is that the Absolute Truth is impersonal, and you can imagine any form. It doesn't matter. You ultimately reach that impersonal, merge into the impersonal.

This is their philosophy. But that is not the fact. The ultimate issue of the Absolute Truth is Kṛṣṇa, Bhagavān. Brahmeti paramātmeti bhagavān iti śabdyate (SB 1.2.11). Absolute Truth is realized in three phases: first of all impersonal Brahman, then localized Paramātmā, and then the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam (SB 1.3.28). The Absolute Truth is described as Bhagavān, and there are many expansions of Bhagavān. Advaitam acyutam anādim ananta-rūpam (Bs. 5.33). Ananta-rūpam. Kṛṣṇa has expansion, millions and trillions. Just like as Paramātmā. Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe 'rjuna tiṣṭhati (BG 18.61). Not only He resides in everyone's heart, but in every atom also.

His Divine Grace Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Gosvami Prabhupada's Disappearance Day, Lecture -- Hyderabad, December 10, 1976:

Forty-three years. So it is better late than never. Yes. So he desired me. I thought, "Now I am a family man. Let me adjust things." I would have accepted immediately, but I was not so intelligent at that time. I thought "My responsibility to family is there. Let me wait." But still, Guru Mahārāja was so kind to me that when I was gṛhastha, I was seeing him in dreaming and I was... He asked me, "You come with me." So I was going, and after that, I was thinking, "Oh, I will have to take sannyāsa and go with him?" So it appeared to me very horrible. I was not very much inclined to take sannyāsa, but Guru Mahārāja is so kind that he ultimately forced me to take sannyāsa and do this work. So it is all his kindness. So this is the memory of his kindness.

So forty years ago I remember the same thing as it is in 1922, and still the same thing is going on. There is nothing new. We have nothing to do, new. Simply let us present as it is; it will be successful. There is no... You see. The spirit of my writing is the same. "Misled we are, all going astray." This soul-killing civilization is misleading us. We must know this, this very misleading civilization. Our real aim of life is to understand our spiritual identification and search out our relationship with God, Kṛṣṇa. That is our real business. But this modern civilization is misleading us in different ways. So I wrote this, that "Misled we are, all going astray. Save us, lord, our fervent pray. Wonder thy ways to turn our face, adore they feet, Your Divine Grace." So this portion he very much appreciated.

His Divine Grace Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Gosvami Prabhupada's Appearance Day, SB 6.3.24 -- Gorakhpur, February 15, 1971:

The beginning of real human civilization is observance of the institute of four varṇas and four āśramas. That is the beginning of civilized life. Otherwise, it is not civilized life; it is crude, uncivilized life, where there is no varṇāśrama, where there (is) no division of society according to work and quality and āśrama, spiritual life division. So Rāmānanda Rāya recommended this verse, that this is the process to satisfy the Supreme Lord Viṣṇu. But Caitanya Mahāprabhu said that eho bāhya āge kaha āra, "This is external. If you know something more, better than this, you say." Why He said? There is the version, viṣṇur ārādhyate. Does it mean that He is rejecting Viṣṇu worship? No, He's not rejecting. Because generally, they, these impersonalists, Māyāvādīs, they also worship sometimes Viṣṇu, these five demigods and God. But their idea is that ultimately impersonal. The impersonal takes the form by the help of this material world. The formation takes place simply in the material. That is their opinion. Therefore they say, call, saguṇa. Saguṇa-upāsanā.

Arrival Addresses and Talks

Arrival -- Chicago, July 3, 1975:

Prabhupāda: Oh, then that's all right. There is oil.

Harikeśa: Upendra's getting ready for your massage.

Prabhupāda: Read it.

Nitāi: "In such civilization, in all spheres of life, the ultimate end is sense gratification. In politics, social service, altruism, philanthropy and ultimately in religion or even in salvation, the very same tint of sense gratification is every-increasingly predominant. In the political field the leaders of men fight with one another to fulfill their personal sense gratification."

Prabhupāda: In India, these are all foreseen. I have already discussed all this. Then?

Nitāi: "The voters adore the so-called leaders only when they promise sense gratification. As soon as the voters are dissatisfied in their own sense gratification, they dethrone the leaders. The leaders almost always disappoint the voters by not satisfying their senses."

Prabhupāda: Then the protest meeting, procession. But nobody will be able to satisfy them because they do not know how to keep the mass of people satisfied. They do not know. Lokasya ajānataḥ vidvān cakre sātvata-saṁhitām. These rascals, they do not know. All set of rascals, the so-called philosophers, scientists. I have always said they are rascals. Now they are coming, "What to do?" They will face so many problems, "What to do?" This is the beginning. The whole world will be in chaos if they do not take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So many "What to do?" will come. Just tell them, "And here is the remedy." Now it is the time for preaching. They are thinking. They were sleeping. Now they are thinking, "What to do?" They were blindly following sense gratification. Now it has come to the stage, "What to do?" "What to do?" This is athāto brahma jijñāsā: "Now enquire about Brahman." This is the statement. Hm, then?

Initiation Lectures

Initiation of Bali-mardana Dasa -- Montreal, July 29, 1968:

What is that faith? Faith means firm conviction that "If I become transcendentally engaged in the service of the Lord, then my life becomes successful." This is called faith. And that conviction must be firm, not tottering faith. So when this faith is created, then actually the initiation begins. Otherwise initiation is not accepted. Kṛṣṇe bhakti kaile sarva-karma kṛta haya. When one is firmly convinced that "If I be engaged in the transcendental loving service of Kṛṣṇa..." When we speak of Kṛṣṇa, we should know, speak of God, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

So this firm conviction is the beginning of initiation. The Bhagavad-gītā teaches this firm conviction gradually. And ultimately the Lord says, Kṛṣṇa says to Arjuna, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja: (BG 18.66) "My dear Arjuna, you give up all other engagement. Just be engaged in My service or be engaged in executing My order." "Then what about other things?" Kṛṣṇa assures, ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi. If somebody thinks that "If I give up all other engagements and simply be engaged in Your service, to carry out Your order, then what about my other engagements? I have got so many other duties. I am engaged in my family affairs, I am engaged in my social affairs, I am engaged in my country's affairs, community affairs, so many things, my... Then what about those things?" Kṛṣṇa says that "That I will see, how you can do it properly." Just like Arjuna. Arjuna was a military man. So Kṛṣṇa said that "You give up all your engagements." That did not mean that Kṛṣṇa..., Arjuna gave up his engagement as a military man. To give up all other engagements means to give up the engagements of your sense gratification. Instead of... At the present moment, with all our activities we are trying to gratify our senses. That's all. And surrender to Kṛṣṇa means the beginning of satisfying the senses of Kṛṣṇa.

Initiation Lecture -- Hamburg, August 27, 1969:

This mantra also which we uttered just now, it is said, yaḥ smaret puṇḍarīkākṣam: "Anyone who remembers puṇḍarīkākṣam, Hari, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, immediately he becomes purified." Śuci. Śuci. Śuci means purified. Śrī viṣṇu śrī viṣṇu śrī viṣṇu. Three times. So the Kṛṣṇa and Viṣṇu is the same thing. Kṛṣṇa is the original person of all viṣṇu-tattva. So anyone who is keeping himself always in touch with the vibration of Kṛṣṇa consciousness—Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare—that is the only, I mean to say, guaranteed platform where you can keep yourself purified without any material contamination. And in this purified state, if we can leave this body ultimately, then there is no doubt we enter into the supreme abode of the Personality of Godhead. These things are very nicely explained in the Bhagavad-gītā, and you read carefully. This initiation does not mean... Of course, this chanting will save you, only chanting. But if you read some literatures also, and the philosophy also, then it will be more and more convincing that you are making progress. And in the Ninth Chapter of the Bhagavad-gītā you will find that this is the process by which you can understand practically whether you are making actually progress in spiritual life. Pratyakṣam avagamaṁ dharmyam. This bhakti-yoga system is so nice that one can directly understand how he is making progress, and very quickly. That's a fact. All of our students who have taken to this process, within very short time, they are realizing that actually they are making some progress. Therefore they are sticking to the principles and going on.

Initiation Lecture Excerpt -- Los Angeles, July 5, 1971:

That was the Rāmacandra's business, to kill Rāvaṇa. Rāvaṇa was a very powerful atheist, and he was working with the ten heads. Just like materialistic karmīs, they work very hard, and they have got good brain also for wording hard. So Rāvaṇa had ten heads. But the plan was to cheat Rāma. With all intelligence, with all brain, his only plan was how to cheat Rāma. That was his... He became a sannyāsī and he went to take some alms from Sītā. The purpose was to cheat, to enter. Because according to Vedic civilization, a sannyāsī has open door. He can even go inside. But that... He was the only sannyāsī at that time who tried to cheat. But this kind of sannyāsī or this kind of intelligent persons are killed by Rāma. They may make plan very nice to cheat Rāmacandra, but ultimately they become vanquished with all their planning commission.

So you have to please Rāmacandra in that way, to kill all these cheaters, Rāvaṇas—those in the form of sannyāsī, in the form of priest, or religionist, (who) are trying to cheat the Lord. Their only business is, "There is no God. God is impersonal. God is void"—some way or other to say there is no God. All these propositions, "God is void," "God is impersonal," means indirectly to say there is no God. So this is Rāvaṇa's policy. And in order to please Rāmacandra, oh, we have to kill this atheist class of men who try to cheat Rāmacandra and take away His Lakṣmī, Sītā, the goddess of fortune... The materialistic persons, they are trying simply to accumulate wealth, and so they come to Rāmacandra. They want money. That is Sītā.

Initiation Lecture -- London, August 22, 1971:

Or if there is any means to avoid death?" The śāstra says, "Yes, there is." Bhagavad-gītā says, Kṛṣṇa says that... Kṛṣṇa says, yad gatvā na nivartante tad dhāma paramaṁ mama (BG 15.6), that if you... Mad-dhāma gatvā punar janma na vidyate. "If you come to my planet, dhāma," dhāma means planet, place, "then you'll never come back to take birth again in this material world."

So any intelligent man, if he's actually has got sense, he should try for this. And especially in this human form of life, it is possible to achieve this benediction, that I can become immortal, I can become blissful, I can become full of knowledge-sac-cid-ānanda. Kṛṣṇa is sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha (Bs. 5.1), and if you become Kṛṣṇa conscious, then ultimately you also become exactly like Him, sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha. Vigraha means form, body, and sat means eternal, and cit means knowledge. Sat, cit, ānanda. Ānanda means blissfulness. So this body, however you may be... You may be American, you may be Englishman, you may be very rich man, you may be very poor man, you may be white man, you may be black man, whatever you may be, but this body is not sac-cid-ānanda. It is not eternal; it will end. It is full of ignorance. We do not know what will happen if I go just out of this door. Full of ignorance. We do not know what is happening beyond this wall. So... And always full of anxieties. Where is ānanda? There is no ānanda. So this body is not sac-cid-ānanda vigraha. But if you become Kṛṣṇa conscious and act accordingly, then you will, at the end, you'll get sac-cid-ānanda form. Your form is sac-cid-ānanda because you are part and parcel of sac-cid-ānanda, Kṛṣṇa. Mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūta (BG 15.7). "All living entities are My parts and parcels," Kṛṣṇa says.

Cornerstone Ceremonies

Cornerstone Laying -- Bombay, January 23, 1975:

Because in other countries beyond India they are almost āsuri-janā and ugra-karma. The industries and other ugra-karma has come from the Western countries. But by this way people will never be happy. That is very elaborately explained in the Sixteenth Chapter of the Bhagavad-gītā. Duṣpūra akaṅkṣa. Their desire will never be satisfied by this material advancement. They do not know. They are forgetting. So we selected this Bombay. Bombay city is the best city, most advanced city in India, the best city in India. And people are also very nice. They are religiously inclined. They are opulent. They can take up better things very nicely. Therefore I wanted to start this center, Bombay, for spreading this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. Although there have been many impediments in my endeavor, still, ultimately it is Kṛṣṇa's business. It will come successful. So today... The foundation and cornerstone establishment was done two years before, but there were many, many impediments from the asuric janā. Now, some way or other, we have got little relief from such impediments. So we are putting this cornerstone this auspicious day, and I am very glad that you have joined us.

General Lectures

Lecture Excerpt -- Montreal, July 20, 1968:

It is simply troublesome, kleśa. Kleśa means troublesome. Because they cannot concentrate. Avyaktā hi gatir duḥkhaṁ dehavadbhir avāpyate. Those who have accepted this body, for them, to think of something impersonal is simply artificial, is simply artificial. Therefore the impersonalists or the void philosophers, their process of so-called yoga is simply troublesome, and maybe some profit there, but the ultimate profit, they cannot have. It is not possible. Therefore in the Bhagavad-gītā it is clearly said that yoginām api sarveṣāṁ: (BG 6.47) "Of all the yogis, the one who is thinking of Kṛṣṇa or Viṣṇu..." Because that is the ultimate goal. One has to come to the point. That point, of course, one has to come ultimately, as it is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, bahūnāṁ janmanām ante (BG 7.19), after many, many births. It is simply obstinacy. One who does not take to the meditation of God, or they want to meditate in something other, void or impersonal—that is not possible; that is simply troublesome—so simply they are wasting time because ultimately they have come to this point of personal conception of the Supreme Lord. Bahūnāṁ janmanām, after many, many births, if they are fortunate enough to meet some real devotee, then he becomes enlightened. And vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti (BG 7.19). He then accepts Vasudeva, Kṛṣṇa, as everything. Sa mahātmā su-durlabhaḥ: "Such kind of great soul is very rare."

Lecture -- Seattle, October 4, 1968:

There are many students. They have come here to acquire knowledge. So one who has acquired the perfection of knowledge or the highest platform of knowledge, he is called budhā. So not only budhā but bhāva-samanvitāḥ. Bhāva means ecstasy. One must be very learned and wise, at the same time he must feel ecstasy spiritually. "Such person," Kṛṣṇa says, iti matvā bhajante mām. "Such persons worships Me or loves Me." One who is very intelligent and one who is transcendentally very full of ecstasy, such person loves Kṛṣṇa or worships Kṛṣṇa. Why? Because iti matvā, "by understanding this." What is this? Ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavo (BG 10.8), "I am the origin of everything, sarvasya." Anything you bring, that is, if you go on, search out, then you will find ultimately it is Kṛṣṇa.

The Vedānta also says the same thing. What is Brahman? Athāto brahma jijñāsā. This life, this human life... We have now... In other life we have enjoyed sense pleasure to the fullest extent. What we can enjoy in this human life? In other life... Of course, according to Darwin's theory, just prior to this human life there was monkey life. So the monkey... You have no experience. In India we have got experience. Each and every monkey has got at least hundred girls with him. Hundred, one hundred. So what we able to enjoy? Every, each, they have got party, and each party, one monkey has got a least fifty, sixty, not less than twenty-five. So a hog's life, they have got also dozens of... Dozens.

Lecture -- Seattle, October 7, 1968:

Sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). "You surrender unto Me," the Lord says. And the Lord teachings, Caitanya Mahāprabhu's teaching is how to make surrender. Because we have been accustomed in our present conditional life to revolt against surrender. There are so many parties, so many "isms," and the main principle is that "Why shall I surrender?" That is the main disease. Whatever political party is there... Just like the Communist party. Their revolt is against the superior authority they call capitalists. "Why shall we..." Everywhere, the same thing is, "Why shall I surrender?" But we have to surrender. That is our constitutional position. If I don't surrender to some particular person or particular government or particular community or society or something, but ultimately I am surrendered. I am surrendered to the laws of nature. There is no independence. I have to surrender. When there is call of the cruel hands of death, immediately I have to surrender. So many things. So we should understand... This is brahma-jijñāsā, that "Why there is the surrendering process?" If I don't like to surrender, then I am forced to surrender. In the state also, if I don't mean to abide by the laws of the state, the state obliges me to surrender by police force, by military force, by so many things. Similarly, I don't want to die, but death forces me to surrender. I don't want to become old man, but nature forces me to become old. I don't want any disease, but nature forces me to accept some sort of disease. So this surrendering process is there. Now we have to understand why this is so. That means my constitutional position is to surrender, but the present difficulty is that I'm surrendering to a wrong person. When we understand that I should surrender to the Supreme Lord, then my constitutional position is revived. That is my liberty.

Lecture -- Seattle, October 11, 1968:

Therefore even though the qualities of all entities, including the Lord, are equal, the Supersoul is different from the individual soul by quantity of expansion. The Lord or Supersoul can expand Himself into millions of different forms while the individual soul cannot do so. The Supersoul, being seated in everyone's heart, can witness everyone's activities—past, present and future. In the Upaniṣads the Supersoul is said to be sitting with the individual soul as a friend and witness. As a friend He is always anxious to get the individual soul back to home, back to Godhead. As a witness He is the endower of all benedictions that result from the individual's actions. The Supersoul gives all facility to the individual soul for achieving whatever he may desire, but He instructs his friend so that he may ultimately give up all other engagements and simply surrender unto God for perpetual bliss and eternal life full of knowledge. This is the last instruction of the Bhagavad-gītā, the most authorized and widely read book on all forms of yoga. The last word of the Bhagavad-gītā, as stated above, is the last word in the matter of perfecting the yoga system. It is further stated in the Bhagavad-gītā that a person who is always absorbed in Kṛṣṇa consciousness is the topmost yogi. What is this Kṛṣṇa consciousness? Just as the individual soul is present by his consciousness throughout the whole body, so the Supersoul or Paramātmā is present throughout the whole creation by His superconsciousness. This superconsciousness cannot be imitated by the individual soul."

Press Release -- Los Angeles, December 22, 1968:

The Absolute Truth is systematically experienced in the Vedānta-sūtra, generally known as the Vedānta philosophy, which is elaborately explained by a commentary by the same author of the Vedānta-sūtras known as the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. The Bhagavad-gītā is the preliminary study of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam to understand the constitutional position of the Supreme Lord, or the Absolute Truth. The Absolute Truth is realized in three phases of understanding, namely as Brahman, or the impersonal universal soul; Paramātmā, or the localized universal soul; and at the end as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. An individual soul is understood in three aspects, namely first in the consciousness pervading all over the body, then as the spirit soul within the heart, and ultimately exhibited as a person. Similarly, the Absolute Truth is first realized as impersonal Brahman, then as localized Supersoul, Paramātmā, and at the end as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa means all-inclusive, or, in other words, Kṛṣṇa is simultaneously Brahman, Paramātmā, and the Personality of Godhead. As such, as every one of us is simultaneously consciousness, soul, and person, this individual person and the Supreme Lord Person are qualitatively one but quantitatively different. Just like the drop of sea water and the vast mass of sea water—both are qualitatively one. The chemical composition of the drop of sea water and that of the mass of sea water are one and the same, but the quantity of salt and other minerals in the whole sea is many, many times greater than the quantity of salt and other minerals contained in the drop of sea water. The Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement maintains the (sic:) speciality of the individual soul and the Supreme Soul. From the Vedic Upaniṣads we can understand that both the Supreme Person, or God, and the individual person are eternal and living entities. The difference is that the supreme living entity, or Supreme Person, maintains all the innumerable living entities. In the Christian way of understanding, the same principle is admitted because in the Bible it is taught that the individual entities should pray to the supreme father for supplying means of maintenance and giving pardon for their sinful activities.

Lecture Excerpt -- Boston, May 5, 1969:

Otherwise it is not possible." So he went to the forest. He inquired from his mother, "Where is God? I shall go there." The mother said, "My dear boy, I think He is in the Himalaya or in the forest, because many sages go there and find out God." The five-years-old boy immediately went to the forest and began to search out where is God. He was so... That means (in)tense desire: "I shall find out God, where is God." So, many people went there. Even Nārada Muni came there: "My dear boy, you are prince. You are so delicate. You are so nice. You cannot undertake this austerity, this severity of penance, finding out God. You better go home. Go to your father, mother." "Oh, sir, oh, I don't want your advice. Can you give me any way to find out God?" Then Nārada Muni initiated him, and he began to meditate, and ultimately he found out God. But when he saw God, he says, "My dear Lord, I do not want anything. Now I am fully satisfied." Svāmin kṛtārtho 'smi varaṁ na yāce: (CC Madhya 22.42) "I came here for something which is just like broken pieces of glass, but I have got the diamond. So therefore I have nothing to ask for." Similarly, when one finds out his eternal relationship with God, loving spirit, then he becomes, say, "Oh, I do not..." Yaṁ labdhvā cāparaṁ lābhaṁ manyate nādhikaṁ tataḥ. In the Bhagavad-gītā you will find. If you, I mean to say, go that standard of life, then you will feel, "I have no more want. Finished. All want finished." That is the best gift, that is the best service, when a man will feel that "I have no more want. I am fully satisfied." That is the best service. What is this service, nonsense service? Suppose I am hungry; you give me some food. Does it mean that I shall not be hungry again? That food is already given also in this Kṛṣṇa consciousness move... That is not very difficult job.

Lecture at Engagement -- Columbus, may 19, 1969:

As you are changing your body even in this present life, you remember that you were a child, you were a boy... I remember I was a child... I was a baby. I still remember in my babyhood I was lying down on my elder sister's lap. She was knitting. I can still remember. So, we can remember our childhood, our boyhood, our youth, but I am the same, the body is changing. It is a fact. Similarly, when these bodies ultimately lapse or change, I am accepting another body. That is a fact. This is called transmigration of the soul. As we are changing our dress, similarly we are changing our body. And there are 8,400,000 of different kinds of bodies.

So our, at present moment, our business is simply to change bodies, change body. So we do not know what kind of body I am going to take next. There is a vast science about it, so one should know, one should prepare. Just like you are preparing yourself by education to be well situated in your future life, in this life; similarly, you should prepare yourself to get the best body in you next life. What is that next body? That is answered in the Bhagavad-gītā:

Conway Hall Lecture -- London, September 15, 1969:

Prabhupāda: No. That is not explained in the Bhagavad-gītā, and that is your wrong interpretation. Any way, no. The same way you have to go. Just like in the Bhagavad-gītā it is said, mama vartmānuvartante manuṣyāḥ pārtha sarvaśaḥ (BG 4.11): "Everyone is trying to come to Me," but someone has come a few steps, another has come to another few steps, another step. Ultimately... That was... I explained it. You have to reach that Vāsudeva. That comes to the..., or that is possible after many, many births. It is clearly said, "After many, many births," bahūnāṁ janmanām ante (BG 7.19), "one comes to this point." Another verse in the Bhagavad-gītā, it is said that kāmais tais tair hṛta-jñānāḥ prapadyante 'nya-devatāḥ (BG 7.20). Anya-devatāḥ. Those who are bewildered by lust, material lust, they go to worship other demigods. So these things are there. How can you deny it?

Guest (2): I'm sorry, I couldn't agree with you that Śiva is a demigod. I couldn't believe it.

Prabhupāda: That is stated in everywhere. You have to learn it.

Guest (3) (Indian man): (indistinct) ...consciousness, then what is that other Kṛṣṇa? Or, other than Kṛṣṇa, what (indistinct) And wherefrom (indistinct).

Prabhupāda: Yes. I quite follow you. Everywhere is sunshine, but still, the sun's situation is a particular place.

Guest (3) (Indian man): (indistinct)

Lecture (Day after Lord Rama's Appearance Day) -- Los Angeles, April 16, 1970:

Sometimes you feel headache. This is due to the body, gross body. And sometimes you feel morose. This is due to the mind; the mind is not in quite order. Similarly... This is called adhyātmika. Then adhibhautika-misery inflicted by others, other living entities, some of your enemies. Just like somebody murders somebody. This is misery inflicted by other living entity. The mosquito bite, the bug bite, or the tiger attacks you. So many living entities there are, they're always busy to inflict misery. This is called adhibhautika. And there is another misery, which is called adhidaivika, nature's disturbance. All of a sudden there is earthquake, there is famine, there is pestilence. So many, in which you have to control. In every misery, there is no control. Ultimately, all the miseries are summarized in four things: the misery of birth... We do not... We have forgotten how much miserable condition we passed during our stay in the womb of mother, in a suffocated condition. You just imagine. Some of you might have seen the picture how the child remains within the womb of the mother. It is air-tight packed. And there are many germs who are biting the delicate skin of the child. And when the child is little grown up, at seven months, it feels too much pain. Therefore the mother can feel that the child is moving. It wants to come out, and prays... One who is fortunate, he can pray to God, "Please give me relief from this condition. This time I shall try my best not to come again in this position of life." So there is severe pain of birth. Similarly, there is severe pain during death. And for disease and old age, everyone has got experience. When you are diseased, simple, if you have got some headache... So these miseries are there always. If we forget and if we think that we are living very comfortably, this is called illusion.

Pandal Lecture -- Bombay, April 7, 1971:

A devotee is not disturbed by the material condition. Tat te 'nukampāṁ su-samīkṣamāṇo (SB 10.14.8). If there is some reverse condition of life, a devotee thinks, "It is also grace of the Lord because I am minimizing. With minimum trouble, I am minimizing the effects of my past misdeeds." They think like that. So persons who are not devotees, they do not know that only Kṛṣṇa, or the Supreme Personality of Godhead, He can get me relieved from these material clutches. There is no other way. Hariṁ vinā na mṛtiṁ taranti. We cannot get relief from these clutches of material world unless we surrender unto Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa therefore says very clearly, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ (BG 18.66). That is the ultimate end of this Kṛṣṇa philosophy, Bhagavad-gītā. We have to ultimately surrender to Kṛṣṇa. Otherwise, there is no escape. But those who are miscreants, those who are mūḍhas or narādhamas, they do not do it.

Pandal Lecture -- Delhi, November 12, 1971:

He has particularly mentioned the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Viṣṇu. Kṛṣṇa is the original person of Viṣṇu-tattva. Ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavo mattaḥ sarvaṁ pravartate (BG 10.8). So He is the origin of the three demigods, Brahmā, Viṣṇu, Maheśvara. Mattaḥ sarvaṁ pravartate. Brahmā is born of Viṣṇu, and Śiva is born of Brahmā. Therefore... And Viṣṇu is born of Kṛṣṇa. Therefore He is the original person. Ātmeśvaraḥ, ātmeśvaraḥ viṣṇoḥ. Priya ātmeśvaraḥ suhṛt. Kṛṣṇa says that He is suhṛt. Suhṛdaṁ sarva-bhūtānāṁ jñātvā māṁ śāntim ṛcchati. Kṛṣṇa says. Bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasāṁ sarva-loka-maheśvaram, suhṛdaṁ sarva-bhūtānāṁ jñātvā (BG 5.29). One should know that our best friend is Kṛṣṇa. And ātmeśvaraḥ, and He is the Lord of me. I am ātmā and He is Paramātmā, ātmeśvaraḥ. Therefore, ultimately... Now when there is danger, when there is danger, now we take care of our protection immediately. Ātmānaṁ sarvato rakṣet. Everyone is busy to protect himself. Why do we eat? Just to keep our body fit. And why do we keep our body fit? Because I can think nicely or I can realize myself. That is the purpose of keeping the body fit, not for eating. Yuktāhāra-vihārasya yogo bhavati siddhi-dā. The real motive of life is to understand or self-realize. One has to understand what I am.

Pandal Lecture -- Delhi, November 12, 1971:

Why Viṣṇu? That is explained here, that yad eva sarva-bhūtānāṁ priya, sarveśvaraḥ ātmā. Everyone is very much attached. Now suppose there is some fire incidents at home. A man will forget all his wife and children; he will come out immediately to save himself, because we love ourself very much. It is a fact. Self-preservation is the first law of nature. We forget. Sometimes it does happen, one man has come out when there is fire in the house. And after coming out, he is crying, "Oh, my son is left. Son is left inside." Why? Why you left your son? Because you think, everyone thinks, that "My ātmā is very dear to me. "And why ātmā is dear to him? Because the ātmā is the part and parcel of the Supreme Lord. Therefore, ultimately comes to the Supreme Lord. He is our dear, but we have forgotten. We have forgotten. Prahlāda Mahārāja reminds. Priya ātmeśvaraḥ suhṛt. And He is actually suhṛt, the best friend. Don't consider that here in this material world some friend is helping you or somebody is helping you. No. They cannot be suhṛt. They have got some interest. Here in this material world it is business. If I become your friend, it means that I have got some ulterior motive to take some benefit out of your favor. Therefore you flatter. Kāmais tais tair hṛta-jñānāḥ (BG 7.20), the same process is to worship the demigods. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. Kāmais tais tair hṛta jñānāḥ yajante anya-devatāḥ.

Pandal Lecture -- Delhi, November 12, 1971:

So here in this material world, either you worship some demigod or worship some leader or worship some friend, the ulterior motive is that you want to get some benefit from him, that's all. Therefore he is priya. But Kṛṣṇa, when you speak of Kṛṣṇa, there is no such business. Just like you love your ātmā very dearly, your life. Similarly, Kṛṣṇa being the ātmeśvaraḥ, the sum total of all ātmā, therefore ultimately Kṛṣṇa or Viṣṇu is our dear. Not only that; He is suhṛt. Kṛṣṇa is always thinking. In the Upaniṣad also there is a verse that the Supersoul and the individual soul, they are sitting as friends on this tree, or body. The one is eating the fruits of that tree and the other is witnessing. So what business has God, Kṛṣṇa, to witness your activities? No, He has got business because He wants to take you back to home, back to Godhead. Therefore He is suhṛt. Ātmeśvaraḥ suhṛt. Nobody is better friend than Kṛṣṇa, He is always thinking how this bewildered individual soul can be brought back to home, back to Godhead. He personally comes, therefore, canvassing. Sarva-guhyatamam. "The most confidential part of knowledge I am giving you, Arjuna, that you surrender unto Me. That is better." Sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇam (BG 18.66). He is canvassing door to door. He is coming from Vaikuṇṭha, from Vṛndāvana, to teach us how you can become friend of Kṛṣṇa in Vṛndāvana, how you can become mother of Kṛṣṇa, how you can become father of Kṛṣṇa. Here the jñānīs, they try to be equal with Kṛṣṇa, but a devotee can become the father of Kṛṣṇa. What is the value of equality? It is greater than equality. Kṛṣṇa is so kind, He accepts His devotee as father and He accepts his punishment also. Just like Kṛṣṇa accepted the punishment of Mother Yaśodā very willfully. He wants that. He likes that.

Sunday Feast Lecture -- Los Angeles, May 21, 1972:

There are so many atheists, they are also putting their arguments. So wherefrom the argument comes? It comes from God, that "You take this argument and forget God forever." Mattaḥ smṛtir jñānam apohanaṁ ca. Vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyam (BG 15.15). Vedic knowledge means to understand God. That's all. One who has understood God, he has studied all Vedas. Finished. And one who has not understood God, simply studying this literature, that literature, that scripture, then he's simply wasting his time. That's all. Because (the) ultimate knowledge is God. If one cannot understand what is God after so much education, then Bhāgavata says, śrama eva hi kevalam: (SB 1.2.8) "It is simply labor, labor, waste of time." Simply waste of time. There is no education. Education, knowledge, means ultimately to understand, to know what is God. Actually; not fictitiously, vaguely. So there are many classes of men who have no understanding of God. Some of them are saying, "God is dead," or "God is impersonal," "There is no God," "Zero," "I am God," "You are God," so many things. All these people do not know what is God; therefore there are different theories. Therefore, somehow or other, if you can understand God, then your life is successful. Somehow or other. Because this human life is especially meant for understanding God. Athāto brahma jijñāsā. The Vedānta-sūtra... You have heard the name of Vedānta. Vedānta means... Veda means knowledge, and anta means ultimate. The ultimate knowledge. Therefore, Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā, vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyam: (BG 15.15) "The ultimate purpose of reading Vedas is to know Me."

Sunday Feast Lecture -- Los Angeles, May 21, 1972:

"From whom," asya, viśvasya, "of this universe, cosmic manifestation." From where this cosmic manifestation has come, and where it rests, and where it will dissolve. Janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). In this way, Vedānta-sūtra means, gives you the whole purpose of Vedas, knowledge, in small code words. So to understand these code words, one must have very big brain, or very highly standard educational qualification. Then... All the ācāryas, those who are controlling Vedic civilization, like Śaṅkarācārya, Madhvācārya, Rāmānujācārya, they have all written their commentaries on the Vedānta-sūtra. Because unless one explains Vedānta-sūtra, he'll not be accepted as an authorized ācārya. He's not... Not that anyone can become ācārya. He must give explanation of the Vedānta-sūtra, prasthāna-traya. There is system. So ultimately, Vedānta-sūtra, as Kṛṣṇa says, vedaiś ca sarvaiḥ. Sarvaiḥ means including Vedānta-sūtra. Vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyam (BG 15.15). "I am to be understood." Why? Vedānta-kṛt vedānta-vit ca aham. Vedānta-kṛt, "I am the compiler of Vedānta-sūtra." Vedānta-sūtra was compiled by Vyāsadeva. He is incarnation of Kṛṣṇa, Dvaipāyana Vyāsa. So therefore, it is compiled by His incarnation, so it is compiled by Him. Because His incarnation, He is the same. So vedanta-kṛt means Veda..., compiler of the Vedānta, and the compiler of the compiler of the Vedānta is vedanta-vit, one who knows Vedānta. Because I have written some book, so I know what is the purpose of writing my book. You cannot know. My purpose you cannot know.

Rotary Club Lecture -- Hyderabad, November 29, 1972:

And He's the cause of all causes. Just like I am born; the cause is my father. And the cause of my father—his father, my grandfather. And go on searching—his father, his father, his father—and then you'll have to reach the original person, Brahmā. Then if you find, or try to find out who is the cause of Brahmā, then you'll find that this cause is the Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu. And what is the cause of Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu? Then you'll find Kāraṇa, Kāraṇodakaśāyī Viṣṇu. And Kāraṇodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, the cause is Saṅkarṣaṇa. In this way, you will find, ultimately, Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, cause of all causes. And Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā:

ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavaḥ
mattaḥ sarvaṁ pravartate
iti matvā bhajante māṁ
budhā bhāva-samanvitāḥ
(BG 10.8)

"I am the cause of all causes."

The Vedānta-sūtra says, "Who is the Absolute Truth?" Athāto brahma jijñāsā. The Vedānta-sūtra means to inquire about the Absolute Truth. This human form of life is meant for inquiring about the Absolute Truth. Jīvasya tattva-jijñāsā.

Rotary Club Lecture -- Hyderabad, November 29, 1972:

Kurukṣetra should be accepted as it is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā: dharma-kṣetre kuru-kṣetre (BG 1.1). Then you'll understand Bhagavad-gītā. Everything is there. Our request is—you are all respectable gentlemen, ladies, present here—that kindly try to read Bhagavad-gītā as it is. Then you will understand the problems of your life, the solution also there. The solution is there, and the ultimate end of Bhagavad-gītā speaking: sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). That is the ultimate solution, that we have to surrender unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead. That is our... Because every one of us, in this material condition, we are trying to become master, ultimately to become God. That is māyā. That is illusion. We cannot become master. We are servant by constitution. Every one of us sitting here is a servant to somebody. Nobody can deny it. Either he may be servant of his family or his community or his country or... So many things... If one has no master, then he keeps a dog to become his servant. That is the nature. We are all servants. The, our thinking that "I shall become master," that is māyā.

So our ultimate goal of life is to become in our original purpose, servant of God. That is our perfection of life. That is called mukti. In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam it is said that muktir hitvā anyathā rūpaṁ svarūpeṇa vyavasthitiḥ (SB 2.10.6). Mukti means when we give up our artificial way of life. The artificial way of life is that we are trying to become master. That is artificial. We are not master. Constitutionally we are servant. But that servitude is interlinked in the service of the Supreme Lord. Kṛṣṇa says that mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūtaḥ: (BG 15.7) "The, all the living entities, they are My part and parcel." Just like this finger is the part and parcel of your body, similarly, we are also part and parcel of the body of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. There are so many descriptions. It takes a long time. I don't wish to take much of your time.

Lecture at Indo-American Society 'East and West' -- Calcutta, January 31, 1973:

Then bird to beast. From beast to human being. Aśītiṁ caturaś caiva lakṣāṁs tāñ jīva-jātiṣu. They're all mentioned. The evolutionary theory, it is not new thing, as it is stated by Darwin. It is there in the Padma Purāṇa. But it is very perfectly explained there. Darwin has not very perfectly explained. There are so many defects. But real thing is that the living entity, soul, is transmigrating from one body to another and the chance of developed consciousness is human form of life. In this human form of life, if we do not understand "What I am, wherefrom I have come, where I am going next, why I have taken this body, subjected to so much miserable tribulations of life which I do not want?"

Ultimately, all our miserable conditions have been summarized into four, birth, death, old age and disease. Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). We are trying to have, become happy by our scientific knowledge, by advancement of knowledge, but Kṛṣṇa says that you cannot make any solution of these four problems. What is that? Birth, death, old age and disease. That is not possible. So we are happy by false happiness. This is called māyā. This is culture, this Indian culture. They agree, there is a māyā. This is Eastern culture. Māyā. Māyā means we are falsely happy. We are thinking that "Now I am well situated." But I am not thinking any moment, next moment, I may be kicked out of the situation and everything finished. Why I am being kicked out? I want to stay here permanently. Nobody wants to die. Why he dies? Where is the solution? This is lack of knowledge. But there is solution. There is solution. That is Eastern culture. The Eastern culture knows how to make the solution. Therefore, you'll find so many parties, the karmīs, the jñānīs, the yogis, the bhaktas, they are all trying to make solution of these four problems, birth, death, old age and disease. That is Eastern gift. So now it is very happy moment that Indo-American Society. I wish that the Indo-American society should give a special stress to know why these four miserable conditions of life cannot be solved. And there is a solution. We can give you the solution. In the Bhagavad-gītā there is solution:

Lecture What is a Guru? -- London, August 22, 1973:

So śāstra says, parābhavas tāvad abodha-jāto. Abodha-jāto. Everyone is born rascal, fool. He has to be enlightened, he has to be given knowledge, and he has to receive knowledge to make his life perfect. Therefore parābhavaḥ means one who does not make his life perfect, he's being defeated. What is the defeat? Struggle for existence. We are trying to get better life. Here also, in this life also, we are struggling hard for getting better position. So real better position we do not know. That is described in the Bhagavad-gītā: saḥ amṛtatvāya kalpate. Here in this material world there is no better position because there is death. You may possess a very good better position, but you'll have to give it up. Either the better position will give up you, or ultimately you have to give up that better position. You cannot stay. Suppose you have earned millions of dollars, millions of pounds: "Now we have got good bank balance." You think, "Now I am in the better position." A little dysentery, or cholera, dysentery—finished, better position. Or the bank fails—that better position gone. So there is no better position in this material world. It is a false. Therefore those who are trying to get better position in this material world, they are simply becoming defeated, because there is no better position. He's a rascal. He's thinking this is better position. What is better position? Then Bhagavad-gītā says the better position is amṛtatva. Saḥ amṛtatvāya kalpate: "Don't die. Keep your position firm." That is better position. So is there any science to give knowledge how one becomes immortal? Yes, there is. You can become immortal. Not in this material science; not in the so-called universities. But there is knowledge in the Vedic scripture by which you can become immortal. That is better position. No more death, no more birth, no more old age, no more disease. So guru's task is very great responsibility. He has to guide the disciple how to make him quite eligible candidate to get the perfect position, immortality, back to home, back to Godhead.

Lecture at Upsala University Faculty -- Stockholm, September 7, 1973:

Vedic knowledge means to understand God, the whole Vedic knowledge. Knowledge means we are getting... Veda means knowledge. Vetti veda vido jñāne. Veda means knowledge. So we want to know so many things. That is knowledge. So you get all information from the Vedas. There is called Āyur-veda, Dhanur-veda, Yajur-veda. Veda means knowledge, but actually the Veda means, ultimately, to know God. That is called Vedānta. Anta means ultimate, and veda means knowledge. So ultimate knowledge is your, when..., if... You know so many things. We have got so many subject matters for understanding. But ultimately, when you understand what is God, that is the end of knowledge. That is end of knowledge. So that is Vedānta. So Vedānta means to know the Absolute Truth, God. That is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā, vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyaṁ vedānta-kṛd veda-vid eva cāham (BG 15.15). Kṛṣṇa says that "By all Vedic knowledge, ultimately one must come to the point of knowing God." Therefore another name of God is Brahman, Para-brahman. So brāhmaṇa, brāhmaṇa means one who knows Brahman. That is called brāhmaṇa. A brāhmaṇa is not a class which is to be found in India only. No. Anyone who knows God, who knows the Para-brahman, he is brāhmaṇa. Brahma jānātīti brāhmaṇaḥ. So Vedic knowledge means ultimately to become a brāhmaṇa. That means to know God. That is Vedic knowledge. And the summary of Vedic knowledge is here in the Bhagavad-gītā, because here God directly is instructing about Himself. Therefore it is the essence of all Vedic knowledge. The ultimate goal of Vedic knowledge is to know God. But we cannot know God. We have blunt senses. Ataḥ śrī-kṛṣṇa-nāmādi na bhaved grāhyam indriyaiḥ (CC Madhya 17.136). With these material senses, blunt senses, imperfect senses, we cannot understand God. That is not possible. But if we can please God by your service, by our love, He reveals Himself, revelation. That is the process.

Lecture at Upsala University Faculty -- Stockholm, September 7, 1973:

No. It is not different. Brahman, Paramātmā, and Bhagavān. The Absolute Truth is one, but He is realized by different persons differently. Just like there is a big hill. So from very distant place you see that hill just like something like cloud. But if you go forward, then you see something green. And if you go actually to the hill, you see there are so many trees, so many houses, so many living entities. The object is the same, but realization from different angle of vision is different. That is the description of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. The Absolute Truth is called tattva. Vadanti tat tattva-vidas tattvaṁ yaj jñānam advayam (SB 1.2.11). When I see the hill as a cloud, it is the same hill. When I see the hill as something green, that is the same hill. And when I see the hill actually, it is functioning, there are so many trees, so many animals, so many men, so many houses, this same hill. Similarly, Brahman, Paramātmā and Bhagavān is the same thing, but it appears different according to persons' different realization. But ultimately, the Absolute Truth is Bhagavān, Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Lecture at Upsala University Faculty -- Stockholm, September 7, 1973:

He is person. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. In the Second Chapter He says, "My dear Arjuna, I, you, and all these persons who assembled, it is not that we were not existing in the past, it is not that that we shall not exist in the future." When He says "I, you and all these persons," they are all persons. God is also person, Arjuna is also person, and the all other who assembled in the battlefield, they are also persons. So Kṛṣṇa says, "All these persons, they were existing in the past, now they are existing, and in future they will exist." So there is past, present, future. In no time, God is impersonal, neither we are impersonal. We are also personal. And that is also confirmed, nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām eko yo bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān, Kaṭha Upaniṣad (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13), that He is the chief person amongst other persons. We living entities, we are many persons, and God is the chief person. And what is the difference between this person and that person, the singular number person, one, and the plural number person, many? That is explained: eko yo bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān. That one singular number person is supplying all the necessities of these different plural persons. That is the distinction. These things are expressed in Upaniṣad, Vedānta-sūtra. So ultimately, God is person.

Lecture at World Health Organization -- Geneva, June 6, 1974:

Guest (6): But I understand that your goal is to have everybody becoming self-supporting in regards to food. But if everyone who is engaged in food production, who will be providing other things?

Yogeśvara: He thinks that we have been saying that ultimately we'd like everyone to be engaged in food production. Is that our...?

Prabhupāda: No. We don't say that. According to the Bhagavad-gītā, the..., there is a section of men who will produce food, there is a section of men who will be spiritually elevated, and there will be section of men who will manage as the government or the king, and the balance men, they're all śūdras. They'll help these three men. This is Bhagavad-gītā. Not that everyone will be cultivator. No. There must be management, and there must be brain also, and there must be worker also. This should be... This is natural division. But all should combine together for spiritual cultivation. Just like we have got our brain, our arms, our belly, our legs. They're all required. We cannot reject the legs and keep only hands. That is not possible. But the hands, leg, brain and belly should combine together to keep the body healthy. That is the aim. So we shall now go?

Guru-gaurāṅga: So if there are no other question, I guess we can take leave of each other and thank you very much.

Yogeśvara: Kīrtana?

Prabhupāda: Yes, have saṅkīrtana.

Lecture at St. Pascal's Franciscan Seminary -- Melbourne, June 28, 1974:

And as soon as we revive this, our original consciousness, that is called spiritual platform. Therefore we are propagating Kṛṣṇa consciousness, or God consciousness, to come to the point to understand that we are eternal servant of God.

So here it is enunciated that "That is first-class religious system which teaches the followers how to become again servant of God." That is first-class religion. So how to become servant of... If one agrees... The Bhagavad-gītā, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, the last instruction is... Many types of instructions are there: karma-yoga, jñāna-yoga, dhyāna-yoga, bhakti-yoga. But Kṛṣṇa is ultimately instructing Arjuna that sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja: (BG 18.66) "Your only business is to surrender unto Me, because you are My eternal servant. You rebelled to serve Me. You wanted to live independently in this material world, to become the master, artificially trying to become master. You give up this propensity. You surrender unto Me. Then you will be happy." And Kṛṣṇa assures that ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi: "And when you have surrendered, I will excuse you from all reaction of sinful life." Why He has said, "sinful life"? Because in the material world every activity is sinful, because the main principle is how to become master. Therefore to become master everyone is prepared to do anything, never mind whether sinful or pious. Another meaning is that if we do anything against the order of God, that is sinful. Just like in Bible also there are so many commandments that "You shall not do this," because they are sinful. A sinful man cannot approach God. That is the verdict of Vedic literature.

Life Member House Lecture -- Hyderabad, April 14, 1975:

So we can accept Kṛṣṇa consciousness in any condition life. There is no impediment. That is spiritual. That is spiritual. Not that "Unless such and such conditions are fulfilled I cannot take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness." No. As I told in the beginning, that you can accept Kṛṣṇa consciousness within a second. As Kṛṣṇa says, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). So if you immediately take Kṛṣṇa, "Yes, Kṛṣṇa..." You have thoroughly read Bhagavad-gītā, then we understand that "We are part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa, and Kṛṣṇa is asking to surrender. Why not surrender?" That is intelligence. Kṛṣṇa says that is the way of life. Ultimately one has to surrender to Kṛṣṇa. That is the success, ultimate success. Bahūnāṁ janmanām ante (BG 7.19). One is accepting immediately and one is experimenting with truth, and it will take many, many births. Kleśa adhikataras teṣām avyakta āsakta cetasām. Kṛṣṇa is presently instructing in person, and foolish people are thinking that He's imperson. Why imperson? Kṛṣṇa is always speaking: mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti te. Aham ādir hi devānām (Bg 10.2). The first person is used everywhere. Ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavaḥ mattaḥ sarvaṁ pravartate (BG 10.8). Aham. Kṛṣṇa says aham, person. So why we should think of Kṛṣṇa being imperson? This is our misfortune. Therefore it takes many, many births. Even one is jñānavān it takes many, many births to surrender to Kṛṣṇa. Bahūnāṁ janmanām ante jñānavān (BG 7.19). Although he's jñānavān, superficially, still his jñāna has been taken away. Māyayā apahṛta-jñānā. Although he's proud of his knowledge, the māyā says, "No, no, no. Why you are accepting Kṛṣṇa as person? He's imperson." So māyā is dictating and taking away his knowledge. māyayā apahṛta-jñānā. Kṛṣṇa says aham, "I, Me." These are first person, person, first person. And still these people are thinking of Kṛṣṇa as imperson. Why? This is called māyayāpahṛta-jñānā. They have studied the Vedic literature but could not understand what is Kṛṣṇa.

Lecture with Translator -- Sanand, December 27, 1975:

This dharmasya glāni, deviation from the occupational duty... Dharma means occupational duty. Then Kṛṣṇa, out of His causeless mercy, He appears to teach us how to divert your attention and āsakti to Kṛṣṇa. So dharmasya glāni, deviation in the path of religious system, means to forget our eternal relationship with Kṛṣṇa. Therefore Kṛṣṇa ultimately, at the end of the Bhagavad-gītā, He says, as the Supreme Person, He orders, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). Therefore He did not come to establish the so-called Hindu dharma or Mussulman dharma or Christian dharma, this dharma or that. He came to establish the real dharma, that is, to surrender to Kṛṣṇa. So Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is establishing also in the beginning, dharmaḥ projjhita-kaitavo atra: (SB 1.1.2) In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam the so-called cheating ways and cheating type of dharmas are kicked out, projjhita, thrown away. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is explaining what is real dharma as it is established by Kṛṣṇa, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). So according to dharma-śāstra, material dharma-śāstra, it is said, dharma artha kāma mokṣa (SB 4.8.41, Cc. Ādi 1.90), up to mokṣa. In this connection Śrīdhara Swami, the great commentator of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, he says, atra mokṣa-vāñchā api nirasta: "In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam there is no chance or opportunity for thinking of so-called liberation." The purpose is that if one fully surrenders to Kṛṣṇa, he immediately becomes liberated. The Bilvamaṅgala Ṭhākura, he says, muktiḥ mukulitāñjali sevate asmān. Why... For a devotee, why he should be anxious for mukti, because mukti is always standing on his door to give him service, mukulitāñjali-sevā, with folded hands. So a devotee hasn't got to endeavor separately for mukti. As soon as he is engaged in devotional service, mukti is already there. Just like if a person becomes rich man, automatically his poverty is gone away.

Lecture -- Nellore, January 4, 1976:

They again come to taste. So therefore śāstra says, āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padam (SB 10.2.32). One can rise up to the paraṁ pada, brahma pada, but patanty tataḥ. Āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ patanty adho. Adho means this material world. Why? Anādṛta-yuṣmad-aṅghrayaḥ. They could not take shelter at the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme. Brahmaṇo 'haṁ pratiṣṭhā. Yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-aṇḍa-koṭi (Bs. 5.40). This Brahman is the rays of the body of Kṛṣṇa, just like the sunshine is the rays of the sun-god, the sun planet.

So unless we come to the point of taking shelter at the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, our life is imperfect. Therefore Kṛṣṇa comes. He says ultimately that "My dear Arjuna, because you are My very dear friend, I am giving you the most confidential knowledge." What is that? Sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). This is most confidential. So Caitanya Mahāprabhu's mission is the same because Caitanya Mahāprabhu is Kṛṣṇa Himself. Kṛṣṇa reminded that sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja, but the duṣkṛtina mūḍha narādhama, they could not understand it. Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu came again as a devotee of Kṛṣṇa to teach how to take shelter of Kṛṣṇa's lotus feet. This is Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu says that—His mission is especially to the Indians, those who are born in India—that āmāra ājñāya guru hañā tāra ei deśa (CC Madhya 7.128). This instruction was given in South India when Caitanya Mahāprabhu was traveling in South India. So many people... He was attractive, and... "Sir, take me with You. Sir, take me with You." He traveled in the villages, villages, very extensively.

Speech Excerpt -- Mayapur, January 15, 1976:

So you have come from all parts of the world and living together in this temple. So train these small boys. I am very glad, especially to see that the small children from all other countries and Indian, Bengalis, all together, forgetting their bodily consciousness. That is the greatest achievement in this movement, that everyone forgets the bodily conception of life. Nobody thinks here as "European," "American," "Indian," "Hindu," "Muslim," "Christian." They forget all these designation, and simply they are ecstatic in chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. So kindly what you have begun, do not break it. Continue it very jubilantly. And Caitanya Mahāprabhu, the master of Māyāpur, He will be very much pleased upon you and ultimately you will go back to home, back to Godhead.

Address to Rotary Club -- Chandigarh, October 17, 1976:

This is the question by Dhṛtarāṣṭra. Dhṛtarāṣṭra was the father of the Kurus, and the Pāṇḍavas were the five brothers, the sons of the younger brother of Dhṛtarāṣṭra, Mahārāja Pāṇḍu. So Dhṛtarāṣṭra was blind, born blind. Actually he was to inherit—the eldest son of the family. But on account of his blindness the throne was given to his younger brother, Pāṇḍu. So the sons of Pāṇḍu is known as Pāṇḍavas, and the sons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra are known as Kurus or Dhṛtarāṣṭra. So after all, politics, it is always very intriguing in all times. So Dhṛtarāṣṭra was very sorry that he could not become the emperor. At least his son should be. Because he was blind, that's all, but his sons were not blind. So naturally father wants... So this is the whole history of Mahābhārata, intriguing, politics, and ultimately there was fight between the two parties, Kurus and the Pāṇḍavas, to decide. By logic, by morality and other things, everything failed. Then there was declaration of war. The Bhagavad-gītā is spoken in that warfield.

Kṛṣṇa was engaged as the chariot driver of the chariot of Arjuna. And while the chariot was brought in the battlefield between the two groups of soldiers... Senayor ubhayor madhye rathaṁ sthāpaya me 'cyuta (BG 1.21). Arjuna requested, "My dear Kṛṣṇa..." Kṛṣṇa was his friend and Kṛṣṇa was familywise related both with the Kurus and Pāṇḍavas.

Morning Lecture -- Allahabad, January 15, 1977:

The symptom is that he's fully engaged in serving Kṛṣṇa. Mām. Kṛṣṇa is original, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. So we have to catch up the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa. Bahūnāṁ janmanām ante (BG 7.19). It is not very easy, but it can be done if we have got intelligence. Intelligence is... That Kṛṣṇa says. (aside:) Who is that making sound? Kṛṣṇa says, mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti te. If you take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, immediately... Of course, we must take sincerely, not a show. Everything is seriously. Then immediately we become on the path of mahat-sevāṁ dvāram āhur vimukteḥ (SB 5.5.2).

So... And this line of devotional service is sevā, service. Ultimately we are all servants, but in the absence of being mahātmā, we are serving māyā. Service is there. We cannot become master. That is not possible. Jīvera svarūpa haya nitya kṛṣṇa dāsa (Cc. Madhya 20.108-109). So there are two things: Kṛṣṇa and māyā, light and shadow. If you don't serve Kṛṣṇa, then you have to serve māyā. And those who are serving māyā in the name of Kṛṣṇa, they are called Māyāvādī. Actually, they are serving māyā, but they say that they have become liberated. Vimukta-māninaḥ. They are described as vimukta-māninaḥ. Māninaḥ means one who is not actually the thing, but falsely one is thinking that "I am liberated. I have become equal with Nārāyaṇa." They are called vimukta-māninaḥ. Actually that is not the fact. So we shall be very careful to avoid this kind of mahātmās who are thinking themselves as Nārāyaṇa, equal to Nārāyaṇa, or sometimes they claim greater than Nārāyaṇa. So we shall be very careful. This Melā, there are so many so-called mahātmās. But the symptom of mahātmā is described in the Bhagavad-gītā: bhajanty ananya-manaso. That is the qualification. And to become devotee of Kṛṣṇa, it is not at all difficulty. There is no difficulty. Anyone can become. Māṁ hi pārtha vyapāśritya ye 'pi syuḥ pāpa-yonayaḥ (BG 9.32). Even lowborn, they can also take shelter of Kṛṣṇa, and what to speak of... Kiṁ punar brāhmaṇāḥ puṇyā bhaktā rājarṣayas tathā (BG 9.33). If actually qualified brāhmaṇas, they take shelter, what to speak of... Their progress is very quick. Punyā. Without puṇyā background, sukṛti, nobody can take birth in the family or society of brāhmaṇas.

Morning Lecture -- Allahabad, January 15, 1977:

So māyāvādī-bhāṣya śunile haya sarva... (CC Madhya 6.169). For kaniṣṭha-adhikārī, to avoid this Māyāvādī philosophy that "Everyone is God. I am God. You are God..." This is atheism. It is cheating atheism. One class of atheism is Śūnyavādī: "There is no God." That we can understand, that he is atheist. "There is no God." He publicly declares, "We don't believe in God." But the Māyāvādīs are dangerous because they say that there is God, but without any form—no head, no leg. If you make "no, no, no," then where is...? It becomes zero ultimately. Go on making "no, no"—"No head, no tail, no hand, no..." So what remains? So this is another trick for saying there is no God. Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu has said that this class, who gives the negative definition of God—"Not this, not this, not this, not this"—the Māyāvādī, Māyā... They say, "Not this. This is māyā." So this Māyāvādī, they are greater atheist.

veda nā māniyā bauddha haya ta nāstika
vedāśraya nāstikya-vāda bauddhake adhika

So it is very dangerous to associate with Māyāvādīs. Of course, those who are kaniṣṭha... Who are fixed up in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, they can mix with anyone. Nobody can influence. They are protected. If one has become pure devotee, for preaching work he can go anywhere. (break) (end)

Departure Talks

Departure Lecture -- London, March 12, 1975:

These things are explained in the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu by Rūpa Gosvāmī. So don't be misled by this Māyāvāda philosophy, that you fall into the water. Tohe janame punaḥ tohe visarata (?). They say that "Enter into the Supreme." You can enter, but what is the benefit? You will be again evaporated. Āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ patanty adhaḥ (SB 10.2.32). Because living entity by nature is ānandamayo 'bhyāsāt (Vedānta-sūtra 1.1.12), by nature they want pleasure, every one of us. Every one of us, we are struggling so hard. Why? To get some pleasure. Nobody is trying so hard to making suicide. Is anybody there in this material world who is working so hard for ultimately making suicide? No. Everyone is trying to become happy. Ānandamayo 'bhyāsāt (Vedānta-sūtra 1.1.12). Because he wants. That is his nature, sat-cit-ānanda: eternal life, full of knowledge and full of bliss. This is real life. So if we simply accept eternity like the Māyāvādīs, then what about the other two items? Or if we simply live in knowledge... Suppose theoretically I know so many things to prepare-rasagullā, sandeśa, halavā, kachorī—but if I do not practically taste what is halavā, what is kachorī, then what is the use of simply having knowledge? So the Māyāvādī philosophy like that, jñāna, simply knowledge. That knowledge is there in the Bhagavad-gītā in the beginning, the first lesson: dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanam (BG 2.13). "Within the body there is the soul. That soul is eternal." Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). Na jāyate na mriya... This is the first lesson, that "I am Brahman. I am spirit soul. I am eternal. I do not die even after the annihilation..." This is the first lesson. It doesn't require much time, that we have to devote our whole life to understand that "I am Brahman." It can be understood even by a child. It is not very difficult. But how to engage myself as Brahman, that requires education.

Departure Lecture -- London, March 12, 1975:

This is material world. Just like so many envious persons are there in this quarter, simply lodging complaint against us. We have got good experience of this. So the Bhāgavata-dharma is meant for paramo nirmatsarāṇām. Matsarata means one who cannot endure or can tolerate others' advancement. That is called matsarata. That is the nature of everyone. Everyone is trying to advance more. The neighbor is envious: "Oh, this man is going ahead. I could not." This is... Even if he is brother, even if he is son, this is the nature of the... So therefore this Bhāgavata-dharma is not meant for such persons, who are envious. It is meant for the paramo nirmatsarāṇām, who has given up this envy or envious attitude ultimately. Now, how it is possible? It is possible only when you have learned how to love Kṛṣṇa. Then it is possible. Then you will see that "Everyone is Kṛṣṇa's part and parcel. So he is suffering for want of his Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Let me speak something about Him, about Kṛṣṇa. Let me give some literature to him about Kṛṣṇa so that one day he will come to Kṛṣṇa consciousness and become happy." This is śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ smaraṇam process. We should ourself also continuously hear from authoritative literature, person, and continuously go on chanting the same thing, repetition. That's all. Then everything will be happy atmosphere. Otherwise the crows assembly in the garbage will continue, and nobody will be happy.

Conversation -- Hawaii, June 20, 1975:

Prabhupāda: (break) Therefore the good intelligence is kāmādīnāṁ kati na katidhā pālitā durnideśān teṣāṁ mayi na karuṇā jātā na trapā nopaśāntiḥ: "I have served. I have served the so-called master. Actually I have served my senses." As they come to the hotel for sense gratification and do all nonsense and I have to serve him, so why I am serving? Oh, that is also for serving my senses. Without money I cannot serve my senses.

Siddha-svarūpa: Yes. So that's ultimately the problem.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) Ultimately the problem, that we have to serve, and ultimately we have to serve our senses. Senses means lusty desires, kāmādīnām. Kāma means lust.

Siddha-svarūpa: Addicted.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Kāma, krodha, lobha, moha, mātsarya. Kāma means lusty. Krodha means anger. If my lusty desire is not fulfilled, then I become angry. Then I have to serve anger. Kāma, krodha. Then I become more greedy. Kāma krodha lobha. Then I become illusioned, moha. Then I become envious. In this way I have become implicated. So this service of this material world means I become more and more implicated. Therefore a devotee says, "My Lord, now I have got sense." What is that sense? "Now I am meant for service, I have rendered service, but nobody has become happy, either the master or myself. Therefore now I have got intelligence: why not serve You? You are the supreme master. So I have come to You. Please engage me in Your service." This is full surrender. Kāmādīnāṁ kati na katidhā pālitā durnideśāḥ. By serving this material objective, there is no peace. Everyone is unhappy although they are rendering service and taking service. This is going on, but nobody is happy because this is artificial. Real service... Unless the thing comes to the real point, there is no peace. Here everyone is trying to become master, and everyone wants to avoid service. But by the nature's law, one has to become servant and render service. Going on. Conglomeration. Kāmādīnāṁ kati na katidhā pālitā durnideśās teṣāṁ mayi na karuṇā jātā na trapā nopaśāntiḥ. (break) (end)

Philosophy Discussions

Philosophy Discussion on Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibnitz:

Prabhupāda: Very nice. I see that he's first-class. Yes. Actually the aim is to reach God. That is the Bhāgavata version: na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇum (SB 7.5.31). These rascals, fools, they do not know that the goal is to reach God. This version, na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇuṁ durāśayā ye bahir-artha-māninaḥ (SB 7.5.31). Durāśayā means they are hoping something which is never to be realized. All these people... (break) Actually this is the point: surrender. But they are so rascal they will not do it; therefore māyā is giving them trouble in every way, ultimately. Just like my Guru Mahārāja's plan was that I should come and preach. That was his first instruction. But I wanted that I will not take sannyāsa and remain as a gṛhastha, and then I shall do it. That is special favor. Kṛṣṇa says, yasya anugṛhnī harisye... "Especially if I am very much anxious to get one reformed, by My mercy, the first thing is that I take away all his money."

Śyāmasundara: Where is this stated?

Prabhupāda: It is in Bhāgavata. This question was raised by Yudhiṣṭhira Mahārāja. So sometimes that is special favor. By force the whole plan is like that, but everyone wants to delay. By special favor he draws by force, "Come on. This time." Because that is explained in Caitanya-caritāmṛta that a rascal, he wants Kṛṣṇa, or he wants God, but at the same time he wants to enjoy this material world, because to want God means finish with material world. But sometimes he is both ways. When Kṛṣṇa sees the other way is hampering, He breaks his profit by force, so that in helpless condition. Everything is explained in the Bhāgavata. "I take away his all money. He may try to get money—again I take. So in this way, when he becomes hopeless and there is no money, then he surrenders to Me." And as soon as he has no money, his so-called relatives, friends, wife, children, they neglect, "Oh, what is this man? He is useless." So he is bereft of money, he is bereft of friends, bereft of any love from wife and children, then hopelessly he surrenders to Kṛṣṇa.

Philosophy Discussion on Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibnitz:

Prabhupāda: Yes. We don't see the cause and effect; we see that ultimate cause is Kṛṣṇa. "By Kṛṣṇa's desire we have got this nice thing. Offer it to Kṛṣṇa and eat it," that's all.

Śyāmasundara: So whether the water's parting allowed the rock to fall in, or whether the rock caused the water to part, it doesn't really matter.

Prabhupāda: It is ultimately depending on God's will. That is the explanation.

Śyāmasundara: He says that these monads are spiritual in nature; therefore they are immortal.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That we admit, because Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa's will, both of them are spiritual.

Śyāmasundara: So even the particle of matter is eternal?

Philosophy Discussion on Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibnitz:

Prabhupāda: Ultimately everything is spiritual, because the matter is Kṛṣṇa's energy and spirit is also Kṛṣṇa's energy. If Kṛṣṇa is the original cause, therefore the matter can be changed into spirit, spirit can be changed into matter. Just as it is the same electric energy acting as heater and as cooler, but the electrician, he can change the cooler to heater and the heater to cooler, because the original cause is electricity. Similarly, the original cause is Kṛṣṇa. So Kṛṣṇa can change matter into spirit, spirit into matter. That is in His power. The rascals and fools, when Kṛṣṇa appears in His own body, ātmamāyā, they think it is just like material body, but they do not know that to Kṛṣṇa there is no such distinction of material and spiritual. Even accepting that He had got a material body, there is no hampering—He has changed into spiritual body. Otherwise how is it possible, Kṛṣṇa, He has got material body, now He was seven-years' boy, Kṛṣṇa is lifting the whole Govardhana Hill? And as much as Kṛṣṇa desires, "Let this big planet sun float in the air," so is it difficult for Him to lift the whole hill? There is no difficulty at all. That is omnipotency. And those who cannot understand Kṛṣṇa, avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā (BG 9.11), deride Him, "He is a man, therefore these are all stories," they have no idea of Kṛṣṇa. But we don't take Him as ordinary human being. Therefore He can change anything into anything, matter into spirit, spirit into matter, as He likes. That is His omnipotency. Otherwise what is the meaning of omnipotency?

Philosophy Discussion on David Hume:

Śyāmasundara: He says that the moral sentiments which are approved by society enhance the social good, whereas immoral attitudes are egoistic and antisocial. So that a society will always approve of a certain set of moral values, and then the individual living in the society must either accept or reject them. And if he rejects them, then he must act through politics, through the social body, to try to change their attitude, their opinion.

Prabhupāda: Therefore it depends on that social body, which is authority. So ultimately we have to depend on the authority for all sanctions. So our proposition is that the supreme authority is Kṛṣṇa. So whatever He sanctions, that is morality; whatever He does not sanction, that is immorality. Just like Arjuna was thinking to become nonviolent, not to fight, is good. But Kṛṣṇa said, "Now you fight." So fight became good. So ultimately it depends on Kṛṣṇa's will, what is morality, what is immorality, what is good, what is bad. Therefore our duty is, instead of depending on social body or political... (break) ...are so many, one is different from the other—we depend on the supreme will of the supreme authority.

Śyāmasundara: He says that there is no absolute morality, that everything is relative.

Philosophy Discussion on David Hume:

Śyāmasundara: As far as his philosophy of religion, he rejected the idea of absolute matter and the concept of a soul as substance. He rejected the utility of scientific laws, and he rejected moral principles as objective realities. He says all religious ideas are relative. There is no certainty and anything religious may be merely probable but never certain.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That also he says. Therefore religion means love of God. The means may be different in different processes of religion, but ultimately if one develops love of Godhead, that is the prima facie factor, love of God. So if any religious principle love of God is absent, that is simply show, it is not factual religion.

Śyāmasundara: He says that even the idea of God is merely probable but not certain.

Prabhupāda: That he cannot say. As soon as he speaks of authority, there must be a supreme authority. That is God.

Śyāmasundara: For him, the authority is the senses. His authority is the senses.

Prabhupāda: Then why does he say public opinion? Your senses may not be approved by the public opinion. Then where do your senses stand?

Śyāmasundara: That's as far as morality goes, public opinion. But for my understanding of God, I can only rely upon my own senses.

Prabhupāda: Morality, morality means what is sanctioned by... (break)

Śyāmasundara: ...imperfection or finiteness.

Philosophy Discussion on David Hume:

Hayagrīva: This is the conclusion of Hume. He felt that one must first be a philosophical skeptic before accepting the revealed truths of religion. Ultimately Hume maintains that these truths can only be accepted on faith, not experience or reason.

Prabhupāda: No, and why not reason? If we think that everything has some proprietor, owner, so it is quite reasonable to think that this vast land, vast sky, vast water, nature, they must have some proprietor. What is the fault in this logic? Why they conclude that there was a chunk, there was some gas, there was something like that? So why they think like that? Is that very reasonable? Wherefrom the chunk came? Wherefrom the gas came? Wherefrom the fire came? So this is reasonable. So there is a proprietor, as it is described in this Bhagavad-gītā, mayādhyakṣeṇa (BG 9.10), aham ādir hi sarveṣām. So there must be some proprietor. That is logical. That is, that is philosophy. How one can..., one thing can exist without the owner or proprietor? So this is not like, that there is no proprietor. This is illogical, or without any philosophy. But think that there is a proprietor, this is completely logical.

Hayagrīva: As far as we can ascertain, Hume personally had no religion, no faith in the Christian or any other God. He also rejected that argument or reason could justify a faith. Thus Hume is a complete skeptic who denies the possibility of ascertaining certainty outside of a mere sequence of perceptions or ideas.

Philosophy Discussion on Immanuel Kant:

Hayagrīva: In his last work Kant seems to shift his position. He says, "Morality thus leads ineluctably to religion, through which it extends itself to the idea of a powerful moral law-giver outside of mankind for whose will that is the final end of creation, which at the same time can and ought to be man's final end. Make the highest good possible in the world your own final end." So he seems to point to an absolute law-giver or an absolute morality, which is God, but he believes that this knowledge of God is ultimately uncertain.

Prabhupāda: Uncertain—for the man who does not possess the perfect knowledge. But if we believe in God, if we know God, we can get perfect knowledge from Him. Then we become perfect.

Hayagrīva: He says, "An ethical commonwealth can be followed only as a people under divine commands, that is, as a people of God, and indeed under laws of virtue. We might indeed conceive of a people of God under statutory laws. Under such laws, that obedience to them would concern not the morality but merely the legality of acts."

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hayagrīva: "This would be a commonwealth of which indeed God would be the law-giver."

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is the best quality of state. If we abide by the orders of God, or the king or the government abides by the order of God, that is ideal state.

Philosophy Discussion on Charles Darwin:

Prabhupāda: Basic principle is uncertainty, and they're building on big, big buildings.

Śyāmasundara: Darwin calls it the missing link.

Prabhupāda: That missing link, let them learn from us. We can give him the missing link.

Karandhara: But ultimately they'll say it'll come down to we propose that Kṛṣṇa is the creator or that God is the creator, then they'll say "That must be proved to me." In other words, they want to fit God within their own empiric gaze. That will be their only satisfaction when they actually become able to circumvent God's existence and create a power by their own intelligence.

Prabhupāda: He has to admit that the theory of uncertainty is bogus, but everything is there, and that masking behind all these things there must be big brain. That one has to accept. Simply uncertainty, that is not a science. The certainty is that behind all these things there is a big brain. I do not know Him—that is a different thing—but there is a big brain.

Śyāmasundara: Darwin, he was not so much interested in those questions of origin and those things, but he was a botanist and a biologist, and he simply wanted to investigate how things evolved from one simple form to a more complex form...

Prabhupāda: That he cannot say, how the evolved. He captured something out of his imagination, but he cannot explain scientifically.

Śyāmasundara: From simple forms to more complex forms.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Philosophy Discussion on Charles Darwin:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: They never think about that. That's why they are trying to find out so many things, because they think that when somebody tries to make something medicine or some compound, they try so many ways and means, and sometimes, when they are at a loss, they say, "O God, please give me (indistinct)." They do not know where it comes from, how this can be made. They try so many ways in making a compound. Sometimes they have to take a hundred or two hundred mistakes, and sometimes they will never get the compound. Ultimately when they are all disappointed, they say, "O God, please help me." So ordinarily the final conclusion is everybody (indistinct) supreme being.

Prabhupāda: And that is natural because, after all, God gives him his intelligence. It is stated in Bhagavad-gītā: mattaḥ smṛtir jñānam apohanaṁ ca: (BG 15.15) "It is from Me." Apohanaṁ ca. He was forgetting. That was also..., God was not giving the chance, and he prays to God, then God is kind: "All right, do it like that." That is the statement in Bhagavad-gītā.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: But as soon as they get a compound, then they forget God.

Śyāmasundara: Darwin did that. He made the appearance and disappearance of animals' bodies seem so mechanically arranged that God was removed from the picture, and it appeared as if combinations of ingredients created animals and they evolved from each other.

Prabhupāda: That is another foolishness. Combination means God. He is combining. Combination does not take automatically. Suppose I am cooking. There are so many ingredients for cooking—they are not combined together. I am the cooker; I am cooking, first of all oil, and the spices, then the rice, then the dahl, then the water. In this way nice foodstuff is coming out. So this combination means God. Otherwise where is the instant the combination is taking place? I place all the ingredients in the kitchen room, and after one hour if I go, "Oh, where is my food?" (laughing) You nonsense, who is cooking your food? You starve. Just take help of a living being, then he'll cook and then you can eat. This is our experience. So why does he say combination? Wherefrom the combination comes? He is such a fool he does not know how combination takes place.

Philosophy Discussion on Charles Darwin:

Karandhara: They say the empiric mind just, you cannot accept revelation, that revelation isn't experimental to our limited knowledge, or to our knowledge. The hard-core scientist doesn't want to listen to revelation or what he considers theoretical spiritual knowledge, because he can't examine it or experiment with it himself; therefore he considers it a waste of time. If he can't see it or understand it with his mind, he doesn't think that it has any bearing or importance.

Prabhupāda: So scientific brain means ultimately becoming a fool. He'll talk all nonsense. Once he is recognized scientist, then he can talk all nonsense, and the people accept it as scientific truth.

Śyāmasundara: They say that our planet, along with all of the other stars and bodies in this universe, is about five billion years old. They have calculated in several ways. One of the ways they have calculated the age of our oceans to be five billion, and the age of our oldest rocks, along with the way that the stars are distributing themselves, that they must be five billion years old. (break) Could you repeat that, Śrīla Prabhupāda? I want to record it.

Prabhupāda: The Western philosophers and historians, in order to support Darwin's theory of anthropology, has never agreed to accept that the Vedic literatures written long, long years ago, but these less intelligent philosophers and theologists, their theory has been also dismantled by the discovery of this Ajanta Cave. From that cave it was very, very intelligent; as they are excavating other part, simply studying the bones. But there is other side also, this is also excavation; and it can be proved that very intelligent persons were there.

Śyāmasundara: I read about a column near Delhi that they found, made of some metal, that has been there for many, many thousands of years.

Philosophy Discussion on Charles Darwin:

Prabhupāda: They'll never come.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Mostly scientists are digging up, trying to find out something when they get some very basic preliminary ideas, they speculate so much (indistinct) this, so on. In such and such time I'll be able to make such and such things. Every scientist does like that. Ultimately it is all, it is always...

Prabhupāda: Failure.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Something on the way, something comes up.

Prabhupāda: Then there, it has changed. It has changed. The circumstances have changed.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: (indistinct) very, very delicate, the substances that they are handling, the cells of the the microorganisms. They are also subjected to different changes, without knowing anything. So, but they're taking that things are thus perfect, (indistinct) based on their perfect thinking, what they have learned is infallible. (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: Therefore our śāstra says these classes of men, no better than cows and asses. Sa eva go-kharaḥ (SB 10.84.13). Go means cows and asses. We take them like go-kharaḥ, cows and asses. They may speculate, but we take them, "You are no better than asses and cows."

Śyāmasundara: They work very hard for a little morsel of grass.

Philosophy Discussion on Charles Darwin:

Prabhupāda: No, no. Even if it can act, still it has to be worked. Unless I push the buttons, you cannot work. That they are missing. Just like you say that computer machine is the same, or so many things, but as soon as you say that "I want this," immediately. But you have to push the button. This machine is working when I push this plug into the electricity.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Just like a computer cannot correct a mistake. They'll just give a message that it's wrong. That's all.

Śyāmasundara: No. They have correction. They have correction.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. Even they... But ultimately the mechanic (is) able to work on the computer machine.

Śyāmasundara: But what about this artificially changing bodies before they are born, before they are growing?

Prabhupāda: That is also same thing. Just like I change your shirt, what is that?

Śyāmasundara: But I mean, isn't that a demonic act?

Prabhupāda: That we shall consider later. Demonic it must be, but this change, this change can be possible.

Śyāmasundara: If by our karma we desire a certain type of body but they create all the bodies to be the same, how is that? But men are tampering with the bodies.

Prabhupāda: Let them create first, then say. Where is the man they are creating? It is simply theory.

Līlāvatī: That living entity would still have the same desire, that previous desire for that previous body, won't he? If some scientist can change the genes so that the jīva can have a different kind of body, he still would have the previous desires?

Prabhupāda: No, no. That is not possible. If his body... The word is daiva netreṇa: by superior arrangement. So how these rascals can be superior? They are not.

Philosophy Discussion on Henri Bergson:

Śyāmasundara: And he sees also in the same way two types of religion. He sees the static religion and calls this... Static religion: myths devised by human intelligence as a means of defense against the depressing experiences of life. He says that being fearful of the future, man attempts to combat his fate by constructing religious myths. (break) ...mythology...

Prabhupāda: Well, that I have already answered. Anything manufactured by man, that is not religion. That is not religion. That I have already answered. Religion is not manufactured, but it is given by God. That is our point, that God is giving religion, "Here is religion: surrender unto Me." So any religious system may be different in method, but ultimately if it comes to this point, (surrendering to God), then it is religion. Otherwise it is not religion; reject it.

Śyāmasundara: He says that prompted by this vital impulse, the human will identifies with the divine will in a mystical union...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Śyāmasundara: ... and that this is real religion.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is our Kṛṣṇa consciousness. We are teaching people that you agree with the divine will. The divine will is that you surrender. So you agree to surrender. That we are teaching. That is real religion.

Śyāmasundara: He says that real religion is a mystic oneness with God.

Philosophy Discussion on Jeremy Bentham:

Prabhupāda: Physical. But physical senses cannot actually cannot give you the greatest happiness. Just like a man is sensuous. So he can enjoy one woman, two women, but he cannot enjoy unlimitedly. But our standard of happiness means "which is increasingly unlimited." That is happiness. Therefore it is said, ramante yogino 'nante satyānande cid-ātmani. Those who are yogis, they enjoy. So enjoyment... Without enjoyment, nothing is relished. Just like you are taking to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, there is some enjoyment, transcendental bliss. Otherwise how you can stick to it? So real happiness means "which is increasingly unlimited." That is happiness. Temporary happiness... Vidyāpati sings, tātala saikate vāri-bindu-sama suta-mita-ramaṇī-samāje, that we are trying to enjoy in this material world, happiness in the society, friendship and love. Suta-mita-ramaṇī-samāje, friends, children, wife, like that. That is in the society. But Vidyāpati says, "Yes, there is happiness undoubtedly, but that happiness is just like a drop of water in the desert. Desert means it is hankering after water. Dry desert, he requires water, but if you go there and put a drop of water, "Now here is water." So our, we are, who are hankering after so great happiness that these rascals' sense gratification happiness is not giving us. It is just like a drop in the desert. Therefore we are changing, changing simply. The same thing, punaḥ punaś carvita-car... The same thing, we do not know what is real happiness so simply changing the posture. Now woman should be mini-skirted. Why they should be fully dressed? (laughter) Now they're also trying. Ultimately they're coming to the position of (indistinct) (laughter). Just see. Here, here in the (indistinct). They are attracting tourists by showing the vagina(?). That's all. This is happiness. They have no other information. "Come on, here is vagina, open. This is their standard of happiness. Yan maithunādi-gṛhamedhi-sukhaṁ hi tuccham (SB 7.9.45), most abominable thing they have taken as happiness. So what do they know about happiness? These so-called philosophers, they do not know what is happiness. And why they are philosophizing about happiness? Happiness is also our aim, but that happiness is different from this happiness. Just like a hog is enjoying happiness eating stool. No man will be happy by eating stool neither he will agree to enjoy such happiness. It is the standard of happiness according to the body.

Philosophy Discussion on John Stuart Mill:

Prabhupāda: Any phenomenon that has natural law, so that is the cause. And if we go on, so what is the cause of that natural law? Then ultimately we find Kṛṣṇa. Everything, janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1), everything has got a cause, original source. So if you make actually research work what is the cause of this, what is the cause of this, that is called darśana. Darśana means seeing, finding out the cause. Therefore philosophy is called darśana-śāstra, to see the cause of the cause, cause of the cause, cause of the cause. So ultimately they have found Kṛṣṇa is the cause, original cause of everything.

Śyāmasundara: He is more interested, I think, in the immediate cause of something that is caused immediately by something else. Ultimately Kṛṣṇa is the cause, but what about the immediate cause?

Prabhupāda: Yes, immediate cause, we take, immediate cause. Immediate cause also we accept. So what is the conclusion? There is cause, immediate and remote. That we agree. But what is his proposition?

Śyāmasundara: His proposition is that we can study any instance of a phenomenon and find out the cause by applying these five methods: the method of agreement, then the second one is the method of difference. They're rather complicated.

Prabhupāda: That means five causes.

Śyāmasundara: No. Five methods of studying something to find out the cause. Five tests to find out the circumstances behind the phenomenon, the instance of the phenomenon, to find out the cause.

Philosophy Discussion on John Stuart Mill:

Prabhupāda: Gravity, but when you say law of gravity, then the question is that somebody has made that law. One—we should give, of course—these materialistic philosophers... Just like when Rāmacandra threw stones on the sea, the gravity did not work. It was floating. The rocks were floating. Therefore the law of gravity ultimately is made by the Supreme Lord. So he can change it. So my study of gravity is not final.

Śyāmasundara: One of the other methods of testing is called the method of concomitant variation.

Prabhupāda: This method of studying the cause, so we take the ultimate cause of everything, with His full independence. The ultimate cause can do anything and everything beyond our calculation. There is cause, but the cause is so powerful that it is beyond our calculation how it is being done. Our knowledge is limited; therefore our calculation may be, may be or almost always, is not perfect.

Śyāmasundara: For instance, he observes if a ball being hit by a bat, it always moves. So he concludes that whenever there is circumstance of a bat hitting a ball, that the ball will always move.

Prabhupāda: But the bat is hitting, it is caused by a living being. The bat is not hitting automatically. And not each hitting is of the same force. Therefore the hitting of the ball by the bat, it depends on the other cause, the man who is handling the bat.

Philosophy Discussion on John Stuart Mill:

Prabhupāda: Because then we know that God is the ultimate pusher, the pushing begins from there. So it may come through various agents. Just like one railway wagon is pushed by the engines, and it strikes another wagon and that is also pushed; another wagon, and that is pushed, that is also pushed. Similarly, the original pusher is the engine. Our study is like that, that the original, sa aikṣata, sa aikṣata... These are the Vedic... He glanced over, He desired; immediately there was creation. Therefore the original pusher is God, Kṛṣṇa. Now, how it is happening, that we cannot see. Just like same example, the wagon is already pushed, it is coming automatically. A child sees, "Oh, this wagon is coming automatically, and it caught another wagon, and it is now moved." He sees the (effect). But he did not see that ultimately there was a big engine that has pushed it.

Śyāmasundara: If we see a phenomenon like the rain falling or anything, and we want to apply the test that will prove that God is the cause of that phenomenon, what test do we apply?

Prabhupāda: The śāstras, the Vedic literature is there, the Upaniṣads are there, books are there, śāstra cakṣuṣa. You have to see it through the śāstras. That is the injunction. You cannot see directly. You have to see śāstra cakṣuṣa. Your eyes, they are defective. Just like if you read astrology, astronomy, then you can understand what is the actual volume or the bulk of the sun, but by your eyes you are seeing just a disc. So all your senses are defective. So directly seeing or perceiving or tasting has no value, because these are all defective. So we have to, it is said, you should see through śāstras, through authoritative instruction.

Philosophy Discussion on John Stuart Mill:

Prabhupāda: God has made the law so perfect that one after—one cause affects something, and that affects another thing, another thing, one after another, so many things, ultimately. So we do not know so many things. We see the fruit, but how the fruit is growing, under which law, we simply explain nature. But it is not nature. There is a law. It is not only growing, the apples are having this nice color outside the skin, they have been painted; everything is perfectly being done by the laws, by the energy of Kṛṣṇa. Just like if you want to make a beautiful fruit, you paint it yellow or red, you take so much time. You apply your energy. The same energy is being applied there. Otherwise why, wherefrom you get the idea that a nice fruit can be painted like this? God is dictating that "You want to make a fruit, paint, you do like this, do like that." So similarly He is doing. But my doing takes so much time, because my energy is so blunt and limited. But His energy is so perfect that immediately (indistinct). The same example, just like Telex. There are so many methods, now this is latest. Immediately type here, immediately there. So before that, one could not believe that how is it I type here and five thousand miles away the type striking. So there is a law. It is not that it is magic.

Śyāmasundara: Oh, I see. Before the Telex there was law, but we didn't know it.

Prabhupāda: Yes. We didn't know it. Similarly, everything is being done under some systematic law, but we do not know it.

Philosophy Discussion on John Stuart Mill:

Prabhupāda: Morality means to abide by the orders of God. That is real morality. Other things which we manufacture, that you will find different in different countries. But religion and morality both of them are the same principle because religion means to carry out the orders of God, and morality means only the, I mean the principle to fulfill the desires of God. Just like in the battle of Kurukṣetra, Arjuna was considering, "Killing is immorality." But when he understood by the instruction of Kṛṣṇa that this fight is necessary as it is designed by Kṛṣṇa, so this is morality. Ultimately, morality means to carry out the desire of Kṛṣṇa or God. He knows what is morality. This, another example can be given, that in the warfield the soldier is there and the commander is there. The commander is asking, kill the enemy, and if he considers that "Killing is bad, why shall I kill the enemy?" That is immorality. He should be immediately killed by martial law. He is disobeying the order of commander. So similarly, what you get, orders from the Supreme Personality of Godhead, if you carry it that is morality. Any other things manufactured by you, that (is) immorality.

Hayagrīva: He believed that there is no intrinsic value in the belief of the immortality of the soul, because he said, "What..."

Prabhupāda: That is foolishness. That is not philosophical neither rational. If he cannot understand immortality of the soul, then he keeps himself in the animal kingdom. He is not even human being, what to speak of his education and philosophy.

Hayagrīva: He concludes this because he says, "Those who believe in the immortality of the soul generally quit life with fully as much, if not more reluctance, as those who have no such expectation." But we have examples, so many classic examples of Socrates quitting, meeting his death courageously, and how could this be possible if he didn't believe in the immortality of the soul or the...

Philosophy Discussion on William James:

Prabhupāda: The flower has got experience?

Śyāmasundara: Don't all living things have experience?

Prabhupāda: No. All the living things are experienced, but ultimately they are put into certain condition by the experience of the Supreme. And the flavor of the flower is stated in Bhagavad-gītā: puṇyo gandhaḥ pṛthivyāṁ ca. There are many flowers, but all of them have no flavor. It must be the arrangement of somebody else who has given flavor to some flowers. He has given somebody beauty and somebody not. Otherwise who will deny beauty? If it had been done by his own experience, then everyone would have been beautiful or every flower would have given flavor. Where is that experience? That means either you say flower's experience or your experience, it is conducted by another, superior experience. What is that?

Devānanda: Would another conception be that Kṛṣṇa is not only the experienced since time immemorial but He is also the experiencer now? He, being the prime enjoyer, enjoyment means experience. He knows nothing but enjoying, so all His experience is enjoying. All His enjoying is His experience. That experience...

Prabhupāda: That means that the sum and substance, that is supremely experienced, past, present and future. Unless He is supremely experienced, how He can know future? Past and present..., past, present and future for us, because of the time, eternal time... I am a fragmental production of this time; therefore there is a beginning of my appearance, date. And when I disappear, there is a date of my disappearance. And within this date of appearance and disappearance, there is past, present and future. So my past, present and future and an ant's past, present and future and Brahmā's past, present... They are all different.

Philosophy Discussion on William James:

Śyāmasundara: Unless I have the experience, inner experience of that...

Prabhupāda: This is inner experience. It is very simple. Because my father is, therefore I am born of him. He is born of his father, he is born of his father. Go on, that's it. That is, our śāstra says, ultimately you will come to Brahmā, the father of this universe. The Brahmā is also born of Nārāyaṇa, how you say, Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, and the Garbhodakaśāyī, wherefrom He comes? Mahā-Viṣṇu, Kāraṇodakaśāyī Viṣṇu. Wherefrom Mahā-Viṣṇu comes? From Saṅkarṣaṇa. Wherefrom Saṅkarṣaṇa comes? From Nārāyaṇa. Wherefrom Nārāyaṇa comes? He comes from Baladeva. Wherefrom does Baladeva comes? Kṛṣṇa. Therefore the Brahma-saṁhitā says,

īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ
sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ
anādir ādir govindaḥ
sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam
(Bs. 5.1)
He is the original cause of all causes.

Śyāmasundara: He makes a few comments about religion. He says that "The religious experience is unique, and it enables the individual to realize that the world he perceives is part of a spiritual universe which alone gives the sensory world value, and that man's proper goal is to unite himself with that higher universe. That prayer or inner communion with the universal spirit or God is the means whereby spiritual energy flows in and produces effects, psychological or material, occurring in the phenomenal world. And that religious faith imparts a new zest to life, taking the form either of lyrical enchantment or of appeal to earnestness and heroism, and that religion contributes some assurance of safety and peace and teaches love in human relationships."

Philosophy Discussion on William James:

Prabhupāda: So disease, when you are in diseased condition, it means increasing suffering. Disease increases. Without treatment disease increases, as fire, without being extinguished, without attempt of extinguishing the fire, it increases. Debt, compound interest, increases. So therefore the instruction is that disease, fire, and debt should not be kept as it is without any attention. The attention must be there to see that it is not increasing, it is being completely extinguished. That is intelligence. So therefore we must know our suffering is on account of disobedience to the orders of God, or on account of becoming irreligious. So we must find out the real system of religion, and we, there is already, but on account of our ignorance it is now covered by material contamination. Otherwise our relationship with God is a fact. We are thinking independently. That is foolishness. The demons, or the atheist class, they falsely think independent of the orders of God; therefore they are forced to accept which they do not want. Ultimately they are forced to accept the punishment—birth, death, old age, and disease—but still, atheist class, they deny existence of God. That is their foolishness. Actually God is there, His order is there, and if we are deficient in carrying out the order, we should take the instruction of bona fide spiritual master, the representative of God, and we should execute it, and then we become happy.

Hayagrīva: He sees two basic types of religions. One he calls sort of a naive optimism that says "Hurrah for the universe. God's in His heaven, all is right with the world." He calls this "the sky-blue optimistic gospel." And another type of religion, which he calls pessimistic in the sense that these religions recognize the inevitable futility of materialistic life, and they offer deliverance, or mukti, from the fourfold miseries of material existence. He says, "Man must die to an unreal life before he can be born into the real life." So he felt that the comple test religions take a pessimistic view of life on this..., life in this world, materialistic life.

Philosophy Discussion on William James:

Prabhupāda: Yes, unless one is pessimistic of this material world, he is animal. A man knows what are the sufferings of this material world: ādhyātmic, ādhibautic, ādhidaivic. There are so many suffering pertaining to the mind, to the mind, sufferings offered by other living beings, and sufferings imposed forcibly by the laws of nature. So the world is full of suffering, but under the spell of māyā, illusion, we accept this suffering condition as progress. But ultimately whatever we do, the death is there. All the resultant action of our activities, they are taken away and we are put to death. So under these circumstances there is no happiness within this material world. I have fully arranged for my happiness, and any moment, just after arrangement, we are kicked out; we have to accept death. So where is happiness here? The intelligent man is always pessimistic, that "First of all let us become secure," that we are trying to adjust this material position to become happy. But who is going to allow us to become happy here? This is pessimistic view. And then further advancement of knowledge is there, and when he understands the orders the orders of Kṛṣṇa, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66), to surrender to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and after surrendering and understanding Him fully, then we go to the world which is full of bliss, knowledge and eternal life, tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti kaunteya. That is perfection of life. So unless we take a pessimistic view of this material world, we shall remain attached to it, and there will be repetition of birth and death—sometimes high-grade life, sometimes low-grade life, but this business is very, very disturbing. We make some arrangement to live here permanently, but nature will not allow us. Duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam (BG 8.15). We work very hard; there is unhappiness. And sometimes we may get good results, sometimes bad results, sometimes frustration, so where is happiness? Happiness is only to understand God and act according to His advice, and then go back to home, back to Godhead. That is happiness.

Philosophy Discussion on John Dewey:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Real moral law means the law of the Supreme. Just like Kṛṣṇa has preached dhyāna-yoga, jñāna-yoga, haṭha-yoga, so many yoga systems. Then He says, sarva-dharmān parityajya (BG 18.66). These principles have not less moral, dhyāna-yoga, jñāna-yoga, aṣṭāṅga-yoga, but ultimately He says, "Give up all of them." Then what is moral? His word is moral. Whatever He says, that is moral. Not this dhyāna-yoga, jñāna-yoga. No. Whatever He says, that is morality. So it is changed. Nobody can argue: "Sir, you have prescribed so many kinds of yogas. Now You say to give up all these things. It is contradictory." No. It is not contradictory. Whatever He says, that is morality. That is Vaiṣṇava principle. We don't consider anything moral or immoral. Whatever is ordered by Kṛṣṇa or His representative, that is moral. That is our position.

Śyāmasundara: He says, "It is the function of intelligence to serve action, and action benefits man when it obeys the dictates of intelligence."

Prabhupāda: Yes. So who can be more intelligent than Kṛṣṇa?

Śyāmasundara: Then he says that "Values must be regarded as goods of practical significance which result from intelligently directed activities." So something we place value on must be acted...

Prabhupāda: Yes. Arjuna followed the decision of Kṛṣṇa, so there is value. He became victorious, he enjoyed the kingdom, and he became a famous devotee.

Śyāmasundara: As a practical result of his activities?

Philosophy Discussion on Soren Aabye Kierkegaard:

Śyāmasundara: His idea ultimately is that that point should be God, that energy is used towards reaching God, through Christ. And he says the in-between stage...

Prabhupāda: Then he is right. If the ultimate goal is God and God should be known through Jesus Christ, that is a good proposal.

Śyāmasundara: And he says the in-between stage, this stage is (indistinct), in-between stage is...

Prabhupāda: Why if you know that through Jesus Christ, God can be reached...

Śyāmasundara: That is a higher stage he talks about. He is talking about three levels of existence. In the lower stage, there are... Anyway. The second stage is that they fix one point, no matter whether that point is the highest or not, at least there is a point fixed, and they'll act towards that point, like the piety...

Prabhupāda: That means the other two stages simply spoiling time.

Śyāmasundara: Yes. They advance slowly toward that stage of God realization.

Prabhupāda: So why not take immediately, directly?

Śyāmasundara: Yes. That is what he is recommending.

Philosophy Discussion on Soren Aabye Kierkegaard:

Prabhupāda: Our process is already guided (?). (indistinct). Just like in university if you want to be a doctorate in philosophy, three other big philosophers are appointed to guide you, and then you present your thesis. But these people are thinking without any guidance, (indistinct).

Śyāmasundara: He says that the (indistinct) must come from Christ ultimately...

Prabhupāda: Then they're accepting some (indistinct).

Śyāmasundara: Yes. But his emphasis is on the acting part, not the...

Prabhupāda: Guidance is (indistinct), then where is different thought? What is that? If the guidance is one, then thought must be on the same relation as different thought.

Śyāmasundara: But he makes this statement that "The difference between God and man can be discerned in that God does not think; He creates. God does not exist; He is eternal. Man thinks..."

Prabhupāda: But He's eternal, He does not exist? What is this? What is that nonsense? He's eternal, He does not exist.

Śyāmasundara: He's thinking that the word "existence" as meaning something that becomes something else-developing, growing, that is existence. And in that sense God is eternal because He does not become anything else, He's always...

Prabhupāda: Then He's perfect. Your existence means you are trying to be perfect. You are making progress from one state to another.

Philosophy Discussion on Soren Aabye Kierkegaard:

Hayagrīva: And he says, "Ultimately, love of God is the decisive thing. From it stems love to the neighbor. If you love God above else, then you also love your neighbor, and in your neighbor every man. To help another man to love God is to love the other man. To be helped by another man to love God is to be loved."

Prabhupāda: That is our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. We are learning how to love God, and we are teaching the same principle to the whole world, without any discrimination, that "God is one." Not that there are different Gods of different faiths. God cannot be two. Eko brahma dvitīyaṁ nāsti. God is one. There cannot be any competitor. His name is Asamaurdhva; nobody is equal to Him, nobody is greater than Him. Therefore God is great. Nobody is equal. So in any form of religion, if love of God is instructed, that is first-class religion. It doesn't matter whether it is Christian religion or Hindu religion or Muslim religion. The test is how the followers have learned to love God. And now God being the center of love and everything being God's expansion, so a lover of God is lover of everyone. He does not discriminate that "Only man should be loved, and man should be given service." No. He is interested with all living entities, never mind in which form he is existing. So he is interested in..., lover of God loves everyone, and the love reaches everyone. The example is given in this connection. Just to water the root of the tree means to expand nourishment for all other parts of the tree, namely the trunk, branches, leaves, twigs, everything. Or to supply food in the stomach means satisfying the necessities of all parts of the body. This is the fact. God being everything, mayā tatam idaṁ sarvam (BG 9.4), as it is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, nothing can exist without God, and everything is expansion. Another word is there in the Viṣṇu Purāṇa.

Philosophy Discussion on Soren Aabye Kierkegaard:

Prabhupāda: Purport.

Hari-śauri: The group of transcendentalists who follow the path of the inconceivable, unmanifested, impersonal feature of the Supreme Lord are called jñāna-yogīs, and persons who are in full Kṛṣṇa consciousness, engaged in devotional service to the Lord, are called bhakti-yogīs. Now, here the difference between jñāna-yoga and bhakti-yoga is definitely expressed. The process of jñāna-yoga, although ultimately bringing one to the same goal, is very troublesome, whereas the path of bhakti-yoga, the process of being in direct service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is easier and is natural for the embodied soul. The individual soul is embodied since time immemorial. It is very difficult for him to simply theoretically understand that he is not the body. Therefore, the bhakti-yogī accepts the Deity of Kṛṣṇa as worshipable because there is some bodily conception fixed in the mind, which can thus be applied. Of course, worship of the Supreme Personality of Godhead in His form within the temple is not idol worship. There is evidence in the Vedic literature that worship may be saguṇa and nirguṇa—of the Supreme possessing or not possessing attributes. Worship of the Deity in the temple is saguṇa worship, for the Lord is represented by material qualities. But the form of the Lord, though represented by material qualities such as stone, wood, or oil paint, is not actually material. That is the absolute nature of the Supreme Lord.

Philosophy Discussion on Arthur Schopenhauer:

Śyāmasundara: He says that this will does not care for the individual's satisfaction, but only for the perpetuation of the species. For instance I have sex life; it is not satisfying to me personally, it simply perpetuates the species.

Prabhupāda: In all species there is sex life, so why...

Śyāmasundara: But it isn't satisfying ultimately. The satisfaction dwindles immediately afterward. So he says that this is a trick by the will just to perpetuate the species.

Prabhupāda: So why there is a trick?

Śyāmasundara: I think that by this sex life I will be satisfied. That is a trick of the will. I find I am not satisfied by it.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Śyāmasundara: And simply the race goes on, the species goes on.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that's nice; that's all right. He must be given a point, or a goal, that here he will be satisfied. Where is that goal?

Śyāmasundara: That goal, he says, it doesn't exist.

Prabhupāda: He does not know. That is his goal.

Philosophy Discussion on Arthur Schopenhauer:

Hayagrīva: He sees the pleasure of the world as ultimately frustrating. Eternal becoming endless flux characterizes the revelation of the inner nature of will. Finally, the same thing shows itself in human endeavors and desires, which always delude us by presenting their satisfaction as the final end of will. As soon as we attain to them, they no longer appear the same. Therefore they soon grow stale or forgotten, and though not ultimately disowned, are yet always thrown aside as vanished illusions.

Prabhupāda: So this is going on. He is getting, therefore, different types of body.

Hayagrīva: He says we go..., there's a constant transition from desire to satisfaction and from satisfaction to a new desire, a rapid course of which is called happiness, and the slow course sorrow, and does not sink into that stagnation that shows itself in fearful boredom that paralyzes life. So it's this flux from desire to satisfaction that characterizes the will's activities in the phenomenal world. But for Schopenhauer, outside of all of this flux there is only..., the only solution is nirvāṇa or extinction.

Prabhupāda: No, that is not the fact. One has to study that willing and satisfaction of the willing. So behind this willing and satisfaction of willing there is the person who is willing. He does not take that person into consideration.

Hayagrīva: No.

Philosophy Discussion on Ludwig Wittgenstein:

Śyāmasundara: This would also, it seems, satisfy his second requirement for verification, that sense observation or information ultimately derived by means of sense observation is necessary for verification.

Prabhupāda: This is sense observation. It not nonsensical; it is complete sense, sensible, that now this soul has passed and quit this body—death. So the body is not the man; the soul is the man. This is quite sensible. It is not nonsensical. Otherwise how do you explain? You explain what is that distinction between dead body and living body. What is your sensible explanation, according to this philosopher?

Śyāmasundara: He isn't quibbling with that. His only philosophy was that he was putting forward ways of determining what is true and what is false.

Prabhupāda: So that is evidence that this body is false, the soul is true. That is our statement. Body is false. Just like this, this (indistinct), this sweater, this is false. It has got a hand but it is false hand. The real hand is within, within the shirt, that is real hand. Similarly, this body also. It is compared with dress. The dress is false. The man who puts on the dress, he is true. Similarly, the soul is the truth and the body is false. If you want to make distinction between false and true, then this is the distinction: the soul is the truth, the body is false.

Philosophy Discussion on Ludwig Wittgenstein:

Prabhupāda: Clarification... It is supported by the greatest authority, Kṛṣṇa. Dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). He says that, the greatest authority, God Himself, He says that as the body's changing in different phases of my life, similarly, ultimately, at the end, this body is left and another body is accepted. That is scientific. It is not our bogus proposition. It is supported by the whole Vedic knowledge and especially by Kṛṣṇa, and who can be greater authority than Kṛṣṇa? That will be scientific. Just like modern science: if somebody proves some theory and it is accepted by the scientific world, then it is accepted as scientific; similarly, our proposition is accepted by Kṛṣṇa, the greatest scientist; therefore it is fact. But you have no support by the scientists, what you say; therefore your proposition is nonsense. My proposition is accepted by the greatest scientist. He has created this whole world.

Śyāmasundara: He says that philosophers present old facts in new light, but philosophers do not discover any new facts.

Prabhupāda: Because they're all rascals and fools, what they can discover? (laughter) They simply theorize on their rascaldom, that's all. That is their business. (indistinct) There is no fact. And those who are rascals, they believe them. That's all. So we are not such rascals, because our knowledge is received from the greatest scientist, Kṛṣṇa. I personally may be rascal, but because I follow the greatest scientist, therefore my proposition is scientific. I do not know how this dictaphone is working, but somebody has said "This is dictaphone," I accept. And it is working. That is my scientific knowledge. I may not be the mechanic, but I am working.

Philosophy Discussion on Ludwig Wittgenstein:

Śyāmasundara: Ultimately there is nothing to measure, when the body dies, to determine where that soul went.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That you can measure by knowledge. Just like Bhagavad-gītā has said, ūrdhvaṁ gacchanti sattva-sthā (BG 14.18). Just like a man has committed murder, killed somebody. He is arrested, he is taken away from your sight, but you can know that he has committed murder, he will be hanged. That's all. You do not require to go there and see that he is hanged. It doesn't require. That is foolishness. If somebody says that "I did not see that the man was arrested," that's all right, but "I did not see that he was hanged. I cannot believe it," no. You believe or not believe, it is a fact.

Śyāmasundara: So what he is saying is that because you can't see the soul after it leaves the body, therefore we cannot say if the soul exists or does not exist.

Prabhupāda: But why does he believe of his eyes so much? Why does he not accept that his eyes are so imperfect that he cannot see the soul?

Śyāmasundara: Either directly or indirectly he says that we have to be able to prove...

Philosophy Discussion on Ludwig Wittgenstein:

Śyāmasundara: He says that the totality of true thoughts is the picture of the world. So that picture does not change. The true thoughts do not change. So the world is not actually...

Prabhupāda: Yes. Conservation of energy. Everything rests ultimately in energy, and the energy ultimately rests in Kṛṣṇa. Therefore we say that everything ultimately rests in Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is the ultimate cause, ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavaḥ mattaḥ sarvaṁ pravartate: (BG 10.8) "I am the cause of everything."

Śyāmasundara: He says that language is a picture of reality-language, words, a picture of reality. Just like we are speaking now. We are making pictures of reality as we speak with our language, with our words. Do these words have more content in themselves, or are they simply pictures of reality?

Prabhupāda: Language is a sort of expression to understand reality. Language is not reality.

Śyāmasundara: Yes. He says that propositions or statements of ideas provide merely the form, telling us not what things are but how they are, but only how they are.

Prabhupāda: As well as what they are. If they are how they are, then what they are can also be explained.

Śyāmasundara: Just like if I describe this picture, I cannot really say what it is, but only how it is, what it is like, how it is.

Prabhupāda: What is the difference, "how it is" and "what it is"? What is the difference? It is simply jugglery of words. If I can say how it is, I can say what it is.

Philosophy Discussion on Ludwig Wittgenstein:

Śyāmasundara: He says what it is can only be experienced by the other senses—by seeing it, touching it.

Prabhupāda: In this sense, how it is, of course it can be explained like that. Ultimately, what it is means just like this gold, I said that how it is—a combination of other metals is gold, that is how it is. But what it is, that we have to research further. Just like how it is—a combination of copper, tin and mercury. Now, then what it is, we will have to make inquiry wherefrom this mercury comes, wherefrom this tin comes, wherefrom the copper comes. That is what it is. Therefore Vedic language it is sarvaṁ khalv idaṁ brahma: "Everything is Brahman." That is what it is.

Śyāmasundara: (laughing) So we can explain how it is molded into different ways.

Prabhupāda: That is how it is, how it has become gold. But ultimately it is Brahman, sarvaṁ khalv idaṁ brahma. Everything is Brahman.

Śyāmasundara: He says that therefore most philosophical propositions are not false, but they are devoid of sensory facts, of sense content; therefore they are nonsensical.

Prabhupāda: Therefore he is also nonsensical.

Śyāmasundara: He comes to that. (laughter) When a genuine proposition...

Prabhupāda: Then why is he after so much nonsensical things? Just to show he's...

Philosophy Discussion on Ludwig Wittgenstein:

Śyāmasundara: But how does that give us sense content? What does that mean to my sense observations?

Devānanda: Isn't there a way... There is a way of perceiving that everything is Brahman. It can be perceived. We cannot perceive it now, but it can be perceived.

Prabhupāda: But the true knowledge, that ultimately Brahman is the ultimate cause. So Brahman has got different energies, and the multiple energies, they are combined together, and they manifest in different phases. Therefore Brahman is the cause of all causes. That is the Vedānta-sūtra, janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). Brahman means wherefrom everything is emanating.

Śyāmasundara: But this statement, "Everything is Brahman," that seems to me devoid of sensory fact, of sense content. Therefore he says it is nonsensical, because I cannot experience it as a sensory experience. How does that have sense content, that statement?

Prabhupāda: That means whatever does not come through his senses, that is not true.

Śyāmasundara: No. But whatever cannot be experienced is not true.

Prabhupāda: Experience means by sense experience. That means whatever is not under direct perception, sense experience, that is false.

Śyāmasundara: Either direct or indirect. But how can I experience that statement that "Everything is Brahman"?

Philosophy Discussion on Jacques Maritain:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Without person how there can be love? There is no question of love. You cannot love air or sky; you must find out a man or woman in the, under the sky. So therefore if you want to love God then you must accept God is a person; otherwise there is no question of love. Therefore for the Māyāvādī philosopher there is no question of love. They merge. They want sāyujya-mukti, to become one. They have no other conception, because they cannot conceive personal God. So there is no love. Therefore they manufacture an idea that in the material condition of life, you just imagine any form of God and love Him, and ultimately you become one. That is their philosophy. Ultimately you throw away this... The example is given that you want to rise on some top floor you take a ladder and go to the top and throw away the ladder: there is no need of this ladder, now you have come to the position. So their theory is that because you cannot love or worship something impersonal, because it is difficult, it is troublesome... It is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, kleśa adhikataras teṣām avyaktāsakta-cetasām: those who are attached to impersonal deities, their progress in spiritual life is very troublesome because they never fix up. So in order to give them some facility, they say that "You imagine some form of the Absolute Truth, and when you are perfect, then throw away that form. You become one." This is their philosophy. But if God is God, then how I can throw Him? That means while they are thinking of God, that is not God. And they say it is imagination. Then what is the value of imagination if it is not reality? So how by imagination, by kalpana, by taking something false, you can reach the reality? That is the defect of their philosophy. If you take it something wrong, how you can reach the reality? Your process is wrong, because you are accepting something wrong: imagination, imagination.

Philosophy Discussion on Edmund Husserl:

Prabhupāda: Just like one can analyze in this way: I am sitting on this comfortable, I mean, seat, cushion. Why I am sitting here? Because it is giving comfort to my body. Then I come to the study of body: Why I am maintaining this body? Because I am the soul, I am living in this body. Then ultimately I love my self, my soul. I love this seat because it gives shelter to my body. I love this body because it gives shelter to my soul. I love this soul because it is part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. Therefore ultimately I love Kṛṣṇa. Is it not? That is pure consciousness.

Śyāmasundara: They say that the phenomena, or the things, are the ways or the manifestations in which objects present themselves through their appearances.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Śyāmasundara: This object...

Prabhupāda: This phenomenon... Phenomenon means it comes and it goes. (indistinct)

Śyāmasundara: According to their way of thinking, the appearance of the phenomenon comes and goes, but the phenomenon itself is changeless.

Prabhupāda: That is not phenomenon. That is called noumena in philosophical language. Noumena. You can see the difference from noumena. Noumena. Phenomenon is (indistinct).

Philosophy Discussion on Edmund Husserl:

Śyāmasundara: Well, he gets into noumena later, but he says... Just like this is a picture. It appears as this picture like this now, but in some time it may not appear like this, but still "picture," the idea "picture" or the essence "picture" exists independently of its appearance in this form.

Prabhupāda: That picture is also phenomenon ultimately, that idea of picture.

Śyāmasundara: That phenomenon. Yes. But if... It's a permanent type of changeless idea, picture. Even it may have many appearances which come and go, but the idea of "picture" is permanent, or changeless. Is it not?

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is confirming our theory of spiritual world as permanent. Just like here, the picture of a tree, that is phenomenon. But the picture, is that now original? Just like sometimes there are dolls, show dolls; that is phenomena. But the idea behind the dolls, that is permanent. Beautiful girl standing on the showcase, that is a doll. That is phenomenon. But a beautiful girl is not phenomenon; that is fact. This is a crude example. Similarly, this material world is phenomenon. That is explained by Śrīdhara Swami, that because the spiritual is true, fact, therefore the phenomenal expression of the spiritual world amidst matter appears to be true. This material world, phenomenal world, is not fact, but because it is representation of a fact, therefore it appears as fact. That is phenomenology.

Philosophy Discussion on Sigmund Freud:

Śyāmasundara: Yes. Death instinct.

Devotee: Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura writes that "Vaiṣṇavas die to live," so when we die to live, that is another instinct.

Prabhupāda: The Bhagavad-gītā says, (indistinct), by giving up this body, that is death, (indistinct).

Śyāmasundara: Do you attribute accidents and disease to a desire for self-destruction?

Prabhupāda: No. Ultimately we say there is no such thing as accident. Nothing can take place without God's sanction. So there is no question of accidents.

Devotee: If they would have some information of the three kinds of miseries, ādhyātmika, ādibhautika, ādi-daivika, they should stop circulating all these kinds of instincts, because they understand all these different things are categorizing...

Śyāmasundara: I thought I heard you say before that some sicknesses and accidents are caused by the person's desire—the person desires to be sick; the person desires to have accident.

Prabhupāda: (indistinct) person desires to be sick.

Devotee: Suppose somebody says, "Well, I want to be happy." So we say, "You just chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and join us, then you will be happy." So he is saying, "No. I want to keep my job. I want to do this or that." So when we can say that actually he is not serious about becoming happy. If he really were serious about becoming happy, he would join us. So in a sense he actually doesn't want to be happy. That's what he would say.

Philosophy Discussion on Sigmund Freud:

Hayagrīva: Now this theory... Freud's principal disciple was the famous psychologist Carl Jung. They had an argument, and Freud once fainted, and when he came to, his words were, Freud's words were, "How sweet it must be to die." And in Beyond the Pleasure Principle, he writes, "The most universal endeavor of all living substance, namely, to return to the quiescence of the inorganic world. We have all experienced how the greatest pleasure attainable by us, that of the sexual act, is associated with the momentary extinction of a highly intensified excitation. Thus the pleasure principle, the sex act itself, is preliminary to the most highly desired nirvāṇa, the extinction of desires, and ultimately the extinction of the life functions themselves. Thus the pleasure principle seems actually to serve the death instincts."

Prabhupāda: So where is the pleasure when he is dead? What is that pleasure?

Hayagrīva: Well there is pleasure, and then when pleasure is cultivated, culminated...

Prabhupāda: That pleasure is in the stone. So why you are...

Hayagrīva: That's inorganic. He spoke of the return, the quiescence of the inorganic world.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So...

Hayagrīva: To become like...

Philosophy Discussion on Sigmund Freud:

Prabhupāda: So everything we see is controlled. The government is controller, but the supreme controller there must be. That's a fact. Now, if you want to know it clearly, then be educated. That is Vedānta. That is very reasonably said, that "What is that Brahman, God?" Immediately answer is, janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). God means, the Absolute Truth means, Brahman means from whom everything has emanated. We see everything is emanating. Just like we see the trees are emanating from the earth, and by eating the fruits, flowers, grains, the animal, human being, they are also emanating. So ultimate cause is this earth. We are emanating. We can say that "I am emanating from my mother." So the mother does not eat, then how he, his, her body can continue and how she can give another body within the womb? So ultimately we can see that the earth or the water is the source of emanation of everything. Then we can inquire wherefrom the water comes and wherefrom the earth comes, wherefrom the air comes, wherefrom the fire comes. This is philosophy. Then ultimately when we come, come to the supreme point of emanation, janmādy asya yataḥ: (SB 1.1.1) "Here is the person, here is the source of everything." So that we must know. Simply in the middle struggling for understanding without any perfect knowledge, what is the value of this philosophy and knowledge? There is no value. You must come to the ultimate goal, the ultimate source of everything. "By accident," "perhaps," that, that is not knowledge. Definite knowledge. Just like in the Bhagavad-gītā you'll learn, Kṛṣṇa says,

ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavo
mattaḥ sarvaṁ pravartate
iti matvā bhajante māṁ
budhā bhāva-samanvitāḥ
(BG 10.8)

Why one should become a devotee of Kṛṣṇa? When he understands perfectly that "Here is the ultimate source."

Philosophy Discussion on Jean-Paul Sartre:

Prabhupāda: As soon as we speak of responsibility, there is no question of chance. We cannot say sometimes by chance, sometimes by responsi... Where is the question of chance, if there is responsibility?

Śyāmasundara: He says that by making decisions and choosing this or that, that one becomes responsible for his actions. But ultimately it doesn't really matter what he chooses. The choosing is the important thing.

Prabhupāda: That is whimsical. And still he is responsible.

Śyāmasundara: Yes. Whatever I choose, I must be responsible for it. But it doesn't matter so much what...

Prabhupāda: But if the beginning is irresponsibility, then where is the question of responsibility? This is nonsense philosophy. If the beginning is irresponsibility... Just like there is a story, some thieves stolen some gold, and there were many, four, five thieves, so they were dividing the stolen property, and one them said, "Now let us divide it honestly." (laughter) The whole thing is stolen property, and they are speaking of honesty. Just like you Americans, you came from Europe and other countries, and you have stolen the property. Now you make immigration, "You cannot come, you cannot come." It is like this philosophy. The whole thing is stolen property, and they are talking of honesty; they are citing scripture. So where is the responsibility, if the beginning is irresponsibility, chance?

Śyāmasundara: One of his examples, I remember, is there is a war, so I have to choose whether to fight in the war for my country or resist the war as unethical. His idea is it doesn't matter. Whatever you choose, you must be a hero or do it very responsibly, either resist war or fight in war. But it doesn't matter ultimately which side you choose.

Philosophy Discussion on Jean-Paul Sartre:

Devotee: What is...

Śyāmasundara: Ultimately yes. Even Prabhupāda stated this, too.

Prabhupāda: It is rat philosophy. He has something to do-cut everything into pieces.

Devotee: What is that?

Prabhupāda: Something to do. I have to do something. He is cutting a book into pieces.

Śyāmasundara: Jean-Paul Genet was one of his heroes—a sadist, a homosexual, a criminal. He thought very highly of him, because he said at least he has chosen something he is doing very courageously. So he got him released from jail. Now he has chosen to become a Communist, Sartre. So... (break) He is very much trouble with the government. They want to arrest him, but he is too famous. His life is (indistinct).

Devotee: Śrīla Prabhupāda, what is the actual cause of shame?

Prabhupāda: Higher consciousness.

Śyāmasundara: If I am ashamed to take my clothes off in public, why is that?

Prabhupāda: Higher consciousness. The dog has no such thing; therefore this consciousness is not developed.

Philosophy Discussion on Mao Tse Tung:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Conflict is always there. But you cannot come to the conclusion unless you take the right decision from the authority. Two litigants, there is conflict. I say that "You do this." You say, "No, why can I do it? Our agreement is different." So there is conflict. So you go to the court and take the right decision from the judge.

Śyāmasundara: He attacks speculators and especially empiricists, or those who draw conclusions of reality through their fragmentary sense perception.

Prabhupāda: He is also doing that. He is also one of them. Because he says that ultimately the barrel... What is that?

Śyāmasundara: That all political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.

Prabhupāda: That's all. He is one of them.

Śyāmasundara: Speculator.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That's all.

Śyāmasundara: Well, he says that the criterion for truth is man's social practice, that it has proven over...

Prabhupāda: But what is that social practice? What is the standard of social practice? You manufacture...

Śyāmasundara: Whatever is practical for the most people's happiness, that is truth.

Philosophy Discussion on Mao Tse Tung:

Prabhupāda: If your theory is perfect, why there should be foreign intervention?

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: Now they are making friends with the capitalist materialists. The capitalist materialists were flown to Peking recently to save Mao Tse Tung's life because he was dying of a major heart attack. So they called a major scientist from America to help save his life. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: Just see.

Revatīnandana: Now they have invited the American president to come there for talks. The imperfect one, they are inviting to talk with him now for some compromise.

Prabhupāda: This is described in Bhāgavata: punah punaś carvita-carvaṇānām (SB 7.5.30), "chewing the chewed." Once it is chewed, it is thrown away, and then again, "Let me see if there is any juice." (laughter) Chewing the chewed. Or in plain words, mental concoction. The mind's business is acceptance and rejection. First of all, reject American capitalists; then again accept for consulting. That means they are hovering on the mental plane. They have no intelligence. In big scale, accepting and rejecting. That's all. It is the business of the mind. As in your personal mind you see, you accept something immediately and again reject, "No, no, it is not good." The same thing is going on in a bigger scale. That's all. They are not... Just like a pickpocket and a big scientific thief. Huh?

Philosophy Discussion on The Evolutionists Thomas Huxley, Henri Bergson, and Samuel Alexander:

Prabhupāda: Just that... Anything created by human being, that is not acceptable. We do not follow that principle. Because a human being is always imperfect. So we cannot take anything manufactured, myth, by any human being. We take directly from God. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, dharmaṁ tu sākṣād bhagavat-praṇītam (SB 6.3.19). The religious principles, they are given directly by God. Just like Kṛṣṇa says, "This is religion: surrender unto Me." This is religion. It is not man-manufactured. Man is manufacturing, "Oh, this is my type of religion. It is Muhammadanism." "This is Hinduism." "This is Christianism." All these isms, they are imperfect, man-made. But this is perfect. This is perfect because it is given by God Himself. Dharmaṁ tu sākṣād bhagavat... (SB 6.3.19). Very simple thing. "You surrender unto Me." That's all. So any religious system which leads the follower to this point, surrendering to God, that is religion. Otherwise bogus. Real religion is this, surrender to God. So any system of religion, it doesn't matter whether Hinduism, Christianism, Muhammadanism, if it teaches ultimately surrender to God, then that is perfect religion. Otherwise it is not religion.

Śyāmasundara: He says that the opposite of static religion is dynamic religion. He says that this type of religion...

Prabhupāda: Dynamic because he has no idea of God and God consciousness. He thinks it is dea..., static. But they can see practically. We are Kṛṣṇa conscious, how much activities we have got. Deny it. So he does not know what is God, what is religion, and he is philosopher. You see?

Śyāmasundara: He says that... He would probably call our type of religion dynamic religion.

Prabhupāda: Dynamic, yes.

Śyāmasundara: But there is also a type that is static religion.

Philosophy Discussion on The Evolutionists Thomas Huxley, Henri Bergson, and Samuel Alexander:

Prabhupāda: Well, that I have already answered. Anything manufactured by man, that is not religion. That is not religion. That I have already explained. Religion is not manufactured, but it is given by God. That is our point. God is giving religion, "Here is religion. Surrender unto Me." So any religious system may be different in method, but ultimately, if it comes to this point, surrendering to God, then it is religion. Otherwise, it is not religion. Reject it.

Śyāmasundara: He says that prompted by this vital impulse, the human will identifies with the divine will in a mystical union...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Śyāmasundara: ...and that this is real religion.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is our Kṛṣṇa consciousness. We are teaching people that you agree with the divine will. The divine will is that you surrender. So you agree. You surrender. That we are teaching. That is real religion.

Śyāmasundara: He says that real religion is a mystic oneness with God.

Philosophy Discussion on The Evolutionists Thomas Huxley, Henri Bergson, and Samuel Alexander:

Prabhupāda: Of these five elements. Especially earth, water and fire. Just like this brick What is this brick? Earth, water, mix and put it into fire. It is brick.

Śyāmasundara: (aside:) Should I turn it off? (?)

Prabhupāda: And you crush this brick, it becomes mortar. And mix with lime and water. Then it becomes cementing plaster, and put the bricks after bricks with that cement and it becomes house. So ultimately earth, water, and fire. Tejo-vāri-mṛdāṁ vinimayam, exchange of earth, water, and fire.

Śyāmasundara: And he says that nothing remains at rest, that everything is in perpetual transition.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is accepted. That is called jagat. Gacchati. Everything is going on, forward. That is called jagat.

Śyāmasundara: Even the activities of the spiritual world are like that?

Prabhupāda: No. Spiritual world is different. We are speaking of material world. In spiritual world the activity is eternal. In material world activity is not eternal.

Śyāmasundara: But motion, the motion is eternal because everything is moving.

Prabhupāda: Motion is interaction of the three qualities. Just like you put soda and alkali, alkali and acid together, there is a reaction, effervescence. So both of them are material, but in due course of time it reacts, and then creation takes place.

Śyāmasundara: What about activities in the spiritual sky, beyond...?

Prabhupāda: Activities of the spiritual sky, that is eternal. Everything is eternal there.

Philosophy Discussion on Socrates:

Hayagrīva: According to Socrates, the pursuit of man is the seeking of this absolute good. Basically Socrates is an impersonalist because he does not ultimately define this absolute good as a person, nor does he give the absolute good a personal name. He just calls it "the good."

Prabhupāda: That is preliminary stage of understanding the Absolute. Because the..., the beginning, Brahman realization, impersonal, and then further advanced Paramātmā realization, localized, God is everywhere. And God is everywhere, that's a fact. That is God. But He has got His place, abode. That is God, that goloka eva nivasaty akhilātma-bhuto (Bs. 5.37), that God is Person, He has His own abode, He has his own associates and everything. Difference is that although He is in His abode, He is present everywhere, even within the atom. Aṇḍāntara-stha-paramāṇu-cayāntara-stham (Bs. 5.35). So Socrates or any other philosopher, they cannot understand the potency of God, how He can remain in His own place, simultaneously in every atom. That is the conception of God. So everywhere He is staying. Everything is His expansion, His energy, the bhūmir āpo 'nalo vāyuḥ khaṁ mano buddhir eva ca (BG 7.4). The material world is bhūmir āpo 'nalo vāyuḥ-land, water, earth, air. So these are different expansion of God's energy. So He can be present everywhere because His energy is expanded everywhere. So energy and the energetic, they are not different, but at the same time energy is not the energetic. This simultaneously one and different, acintya-bhedābheda-tattva, this is perfect philosophy.

Philosophy Discussion on Origen:

Prabhupāda: (aside:) You go and wash your face with water, running.

Hayagrīva: At the same time Origen differed from the later Church tradition in his belief in the transmigration of the soul. Although he believed that the soul was originally created, he believed that it transmigrated, and it transmigrated because the soul, the individual soul, could always refuse to give itself to God, although he believed that ultimately the time will come when everyone will return, and God's rule will be restored to its original integrity. This differed from later Christian tradition, which said that the choice one made in this one lifetime was decisive for all eternity. Origen doesn't believe this. He believes that you can be reincarnated at the end of this lifetime if you don't attain the ultimate goal. You'd be reincarnated in some other form.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is our version of the Vedas. Unless he is liberated or goes to the kingdom of God, he is, repeats, transforms, or transmigrates from one material body to another, because material body is not eternal. You can enter one material body; the material body grows or it remains for sometime; then it becomes old, and then it is useless for any purpose; you have to give up this material body and enter again into a new material body. Then you continue or fulfill your desire in that body, again it becomes old, again you have to give up, and again you have to accept another new body. Because everything material deteriorates, and the soul, being eternal, it cannot remain in the deteriorated body to function materially; therefore transmigration of the soul is essential. As the example is given that when you have got a material shirt and coat, when it is old enough, it cannot be used, you have to throw it out and accept another new shirt and coat. The material conditional life is like that. That is called transmigration.

Philosophy Discussion on Thomas Hobbes:

Hayagrīva: Hobbes compares man to a machine ultimately made by God, but he does not see this machine as controlled directly by God but by the Leviathan, by the, by the king, the ruler.

Prabhupāda: No. God is situated in everyone's heart, and He is seeing every minute action of the soul—what he is desiring, how he is manipulating the machine. This is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā: īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe arjuna tiṣṭhati (BG 18.61). Specifically it is indicated that God is situated in the heart of the living being and He is observing what he desires. So according to his desire, God is so kind He is supplying a machine. If he wants to enjoy this material world as a human being, God gives him opportunity to become a human being, and if he wants to enjoy this material world as a dog, He gives him the body of a dog. If he wants to enjoy as a hog, He gives the body of a hog. If he wants to enjoy as demigod, He gives him the body. So this is God's mercy. So long the individual living being wants to enjoy this material world, so according to his eagerness to enjoy in that way, He gives the facility, and that facility is the particular body. This body is material. It is supplied by the material nature, bhrāmayan sarva-bhūtāni yantrārūḍhāni māyayā (BG 18.61). The machine is made by the material ingredients, upon the order of Kṛṣṇa, or God, for the enjoyment of the living entity. So he sits in that machine and travels. Just like we have got a car, we can travel, similarly we get particular machine and we travel in some species of life in some planet. There are innumerable planets, and 8,000,000 species of life. So according to the contact with material nature, the living entity is desiring something, and God is so merciful that He is giving him facility. But actually, because God is friend, when he is prepared to understand from God how he will be happy, He says that "You give up all this nonsense plan. You just surrender unto Me." Then he is perfect.

Philosophy Discussion on Blaise Pascal:

Hayagrīva: This is a section, a continuation of Pascal, Blaise Pascal. P-A-S-C-A-L. Pascal saw man situated in the universe between two extremes-between the abyss of infinity and the abyss of nothingness. Man has a body like the animals and an intellect like the angels or demigods. As such, he is neither a demigod nor an animal but somewhere between the two. Due to this situation, man is intelligent enough to know that he is in a miserable situation. Nonetheless, he has a great desire to be happy and to rid himself of his misery. Pascal saw that all men complain and suffer regardless of the situation. According to him, man engages in all kinds of hobbies and games and diversions in order to divert himself from his misery. But ultimately nothing really helps. What man once possessed and now has lost is perfect happiness. Pascal believes that the emptiness felt by man can only be filled by God. Isn't..., is this the same as...

Prabhupāda: Bhagavad-gītā.

Hayagrīva: Bhagavad-gītā (laughs).

Prabhupāda: Mūḍhā janmani janmani mām aprāpyaiva (BG 16.20). Because he does not get under the shelter of Kṛṣṇa, so life after life he is trying to be happy and he is becoming baffled. He is manufacturing new way of sporting—sometimes diving in the water, sometimes flying in the air. So this sporting, as soon as, according to his desire, God is supplying, "All right, you want to fly, you become a bird. You want to dive in the water, all right, you become a fish, big fish." So God is giving you and trying to see whether giving up all this nonsense plan he comes to God and surrenders unto Him: "Sir, I have, I have tried all my plan; I could not become happy. Now, my Lord, you say that 'You give up all this nonsense business, you surrender unto Me, I will make you happy.' " Then he becomes happy. For this message, God comes. Because this rascal will not do according to the desire of God; therefore God comes personally and teaches him—as Lord Rāmacandra, as Lord Kṛṣṇa, as Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, and He, They, He gives the same instruction, that "You surrender unto Me and act according to My instruction; you will be happy." But he will not do that.

Philosophy Discussion on Thomas Henry Huxley:

Prabhupāda: The cosmic process cannot be checked, but the cosmic process is continuing in different modes. That is called tri-guṇa. One process is the process of goodness, another process is the process of passion, another process is process of ignorance. So in the process of goodness, real advancement goes on, and ultimately one has to transcend the process of goodness also and come to the platform which is all-good. In the material world, whichever process you accept, it is mixed, both goodness, passion and ignorance. It is very difficult in the material way of life to keep the process pure. Therefore the real process is gradually bring the being or the soul to the platform of goodness and then transcend also goodness and keep him or let him remain in the actual platform of pure goodness. That is wanted. That is really progress. That pure goodness is bhakti. When the transaction is only with God—there is no other transaction—that is pure goodness. That is survival of the fittest. When one comes to that platform of pure goodness, he survives. Otherwise nobody survives. When... Everyone has to change the body—this body to that body, that, tathā dehāntara-prāp... But one who comes to the pure goodness platform, he understands God, then he hasn't got to change. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti (BG 4.9). That is survival; otherwise there is no meaning of survival. They do not know what is this survival. Survival means that when the soul remains pure, in his original position, does not change body, that is survival. In the spiritual world there is no more change, so that is survival. And in the material world there is change. That is not survival. So they do not know what is the meaning of survival. If there is change, there is no survival. Everyone has to change the body.

Philosophy Discussion on Samuel Alexander:

Prabhupāda: That I explained this morning partially, that actually we are seeking love of God beginning with the body. That I have explained in this morning, that we love this body because I live within this body. As soon as I give up this body, the body is neglected, it has no value, throw it. So, so long the living soul is there, the body has value. So why the living soul is valuable? Because he is the part and parcel of God. So God is there also within this body. This is explained is the Bhagavad-gītā. There are two living entities. One is..., they all..., both of them are known as kṣetra-jña. One kṣetra-jña only knows about his body, and the other kṣetra-jña knows all other bodies. That is God and the living entity. So the body is important because the living entities are there. The subordinate living entity is the part of the supreme living entity. So ultimately the conclusion is, because a supreme living entity is in the body or within the universe, therefore we have manufactured so many activities of love and society, friendship, nationality, community. Ultimately, when it culminates with love of God, then it is perfect. So the conclusion is that we are searching after the platform where God is love, but it is going on, I mean to say, by degrees, one after another, in different names.

Hayagrīva: Alexander despairs of the speculative method as a means for connecting with God, and he also feels that proofs of God's existence in nature are nonexistence, are nonexistent. If such a God is to be identified with the object of worship, that is to say we shouldn't worship God in nature. But how can God be known? For him God can be known by experience. Nor can we prove the existence of God, whether worshipable or not, except on the basis of experience.

Philosophy Discussion on Samuel Alexander:

Prabhupāda: Then his philosophy is right, that an ant's god is a bird; bird's god..., like that. So when he finds, comes to a person who has no more god, then He is Supreme God.

Hayagrīva: But he feels that ultimately God is beyond description. He says...

Prabhupāda: No. Why? We have, this, this is description.

Hayagrīva: Yes, but he's giving a description, or attempting to give a philosophical definition.

Prabhupāda: Whatever it may be, this is right description, that you find deity in different stages, but when you come to a person that He has no more deity, then He is God.

Hayagrīva: He says even the description...

Prabhupāda: You don't find in the life of Kṛṣṇa that He is worshiping any other God.

Hayagrīva: He worships no-one.

Prabhupāda: No-one. There is... Therefore He is God.

Hayagrīva: Nor does He meditate.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Philosophy Discussion on Auguste Comte:

Prabhupāda: So he is..., he does not believe..., there is no belief in God is there? There is no question of? No. But our point of view is different: that God is the ultimate decider of everything. That is called daiva-netreṇa. He may be acting through different agents, but ultimate decision is given by Him. And He is sitting in everyone's heart. He is observing the activities of the individual soul as witness, giving permission. Without God's permission, nobody can act. So He is giving intelligence also, and He is the cause of forgetting. Two things are there, remembering and forgetting. Both these things are coming from God. If He keeps him in forgetfulness, then he cannot remember, and if He gives him the power to remember, he can remember for long, long past activities. So ultimately God is the final director. That is our conception. Man cannot remain independent. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27). Everything is being done, impelled by the three material modes of nature, and the ultimate dictator is the Supersoul, or the Personality of Godhead in His localized aspect, situated everywhere in the heart of the living entity, or even within the atom He is there, and His is the supreme director.

Hayagrīva: He says, "The universe is to be studied not for its own sake but for the sake of man, or rather of humanity. To study in any other spirit would not only be immoral but also highly irrational." This is the old Greek Sophist position, that man is the measure of all things.

Prabhupāda: So the man should be inquisitive to understand the Absolute Truth, athāto brahma jijñāsā. Human intelligence is meant for that purpose, that he should find out what is the ultimate source of everything. That is intelligence. What is the other point he said?

Philosophy Discussion on B. F. Skinner and Henry David Thoreau:

Prabhupāda: That means he is also of the same category. No, that will not help. Just like, the example is given in this connection, that when there is fire, if you think that putting more and more ghee the fire will extinguish, that is not possible. To keep the society in order they must be educated according to his capacity, and they should be engaged for common benefit. That is required. Not that to encourage them in their bad habits things will be done nicely. No. That is not possible.

Hayagrīva: He ultimately believes in bringing people under control. He says, "If there is any purpose or direction in the evolution of a culture, it has to do with bringing people under the control of more and more of the consequences of their behavior."

Prabhupāda: Yes. Human life is meant for control. That is the Vedic process, tapasya, because the aim is spiritual perfection. If we allow material activities according to the desire of the people, then they forget spiritual identity altogether. So that aim of life in the human form of body is missing, that Vedic civilization is how to raise one to the spiritual platform. Otherwise he remains an animal. First of all we must know what is the aim of life, and then the question of organization. If you do not know what is the aim of life, material adjustment will not make the condition of the society very good. (break ?)

Philosophy Discussion on B. F. Skinner and Henry David Thoreau:

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Hayagrīva: ...and then you can control yourself. That's his theory.

Prabhupāda: If he..., if one cannot control himself, how he will control the world? How it is possible?

Devotee: Backwards.

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.

Hayagrīva: He, he believed...

Prabhupāda: He has got imagination. He believes in his own imagination. So others can believe in his own imagination. So who is going to follow him? He, he has to remain satisfied with his imagination. I mean, everyone has got imagination. Why he should, one should follow him?

Hayagrīva: Like, like Aldous Huxley, he feels that if happiness isn't possible through not doing anything, in the not too few dis..., in the not too distant future, the motivational and emotional conditions of normal daily life will probably be maintained in any desired state through...

Prabhupāda: He can probably, perhaps...

Purports to Songs

Purport to Bhajahu Re Mana -- New York, March 30, 1966:

He says that "I am working hard, day and night. And there is no question of winter or summer or rainy season. I have to work hard, day and night. If there is night duty in the winter season, I have to join my office at twelve o'clock at night. So I must go. There is snowfall. If I don't go, then I'll be absent. So I am working so hard, very hard." Śīta ātapa bāta bariṣaṇa, jāminī jāgi re. "And what for I am working?" Now, biphale sevinu kṛpaṇa durajana: "Just to serve persons who cannot protect me, who cannot protect me." We think that my wife, or my husband, or my children, or my relatives, or my friends, and, oh, so many we have got, relationship with this material world And everyone is working to satisfy his relatives. A family man is working so hard because he has to satisfy his wife, children, friends and so many other persons. But one should be conscious that "These friends and relatives, they cannot protect me ultimately. They are Neither I can protect them, nor they can protect me." You see? Everyone responsible. Everyone is responsible for his own activities. Besides that Now, suppose if I am constructing a high building, skyscrapers, just like you have got very good experience in this country, if somebody asks me that "Why you are building so high building? What is the reason?" And if I answer, "Just to set fire it it." Then the, the man will laugh, "You, simply for setting fire, you are spending so much money and building this high building for setting fire?" "Yes." So this sort of answer is just like in our present activities. Now, of course, you take the dead bodies to the crematorium and, I mean to say, put into the grave. But India In India, of course, there is graveyard for the Muhammadans and the Christians. But the Hindus, they burn the dead body. They burn the dead body. You see? In the Bhāgavata also, these three system are recorded, that the ultimate transformation of this body will be either ashes, stool or earth.

Purport to Bhajahu Re Mana -- New York, March 30, 1966:

Stool, or ashes. How it is? Now, because after death, persons who burn the dead body, that is turned into ashes. This body, this beautiful body, will be turned into ashes. And those who bury in the graveyard, that will turn into... Oh, that is air. Don't disturb yourself. That is the air. If we bury in the ground, gradually the body will turn into earth. And according to Iranian system, the body is thrown to the vultures. They eat it. So that will be turned into animal stool. You see? So that is the last stage of this body. So everyone knows that everyone will die. Still, we are working so hard. We are making our bank balance, we are just making will and papers just to give protection to our family or to our children, and there is no time. Everyone is very busy, very busy. But he does not see that "All these, what I am doing, all these body ultimately become either ash or animal stool or turn into earth. So why I am taking so much trouble?" Therefore the revealed scripture advises that "You have to maintain your body. That's all right. But for simply material comforts, you should not devote time more than it is absolutely required." That means don't increase your bodily necessities. Don't increase your bodily necessities. That was the standard of Indian civilization. They did not, the sages and saints, they did not advise to increase the necessities of the body. They, I mean to say, planned the social system in such a way that people should be satisfied only for, by the bare necessities of life. We require some eating, we require some sleeping, or shelter place, and we require some sense gratification, and we require some protection from enemies. Yes? Come. Ah hah! Ah ah haha, ah hah! Come in. Come in. (end)

Purport to Bhajahu Re Mana -- San Francisco, March 16, 1967:

And hearing and chanting about whom? About Viṣṇu, not for any nonsense. Śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ (SB 7.5.23). These things are stated in the śāstra. The ordinary people, they are also engaged in hearing and chanting. They are hearing in the newspaper of some politician, and the whole day they are discussing and chanting, "Oh, this man is going to be elected. This man is going to be elected." So hearing and chanting is there everywhere. But if you want spiritual salvation, then you have to hear and chant about Viṣṇu, nobody else. Śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ. So the poet sings, Śravaṇa, kīrtana, smaraṇa, vandana, pāda-sevana, dāsya re. So there are different processes: hearing, chanting, remembering, worshiping in the temple, engaging oneself in the service. So he is desiring all nine kinds of devotional service. Ultimately, pūjana sakhī-jana. Sakhī-jana means those who are confidential devotees of the Lord, to please them. And ātma-nivedana. Ātmā means self, and nivedana means surrender. Govinda-dāsa-abhilāṣa. The poet's name is Govinda dāsa, and he expresses that his desires are only this. He wants to utilize the opportunity of his human form of life in this way. This is the sum and substance of this song. (end)

Purport to Parama Koruna -- Atlanta, February 28, 1975:

"Why I am attached to this body?" Suppose if there is some danger, immediately warning, just this roof is going to fall down, we shall immediately take care of our own body, not of our Godbrothers. Because we are very much attached to this body. This is the first business, how to save this body. Now, the next question is "Why you are so much anxious to save this body?" What will be the answer? Can anyone say? Why one is so much attached with this body? The answer is that because I, the real I, I am within this body, therefore I am anxious to save it. Then why you are anxious to save the soul, individual soul? The answer will be that because I am part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. So ultimately we want to love Kṛṣṇa, but because we are in a forgetful platform, then someone is trying to save his body, someone is trying to save his bodily relationship. Therefore in so many ways we are implicated with this material atmosphere.

So Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu came to teach us how to become detached to this material. That is vairāgya-vidyā. Vidyā means vairāgya-vidyā. Vidyā does not mean to become more and more attached to this material world. That is not... That is avidyā, illusion, because I will not be able to save this body. This body will change. I will be annihilated. But still, I am very much anxious for this body. This is called illusion or ignorance or avidyā. So Caitanya Mahāprabhu came to teach us vairāgya-vidyā, how to become detached. He personally showed by His life example that... He was very learned scholar in Navadvīpa. His name was Nimāi Paṇḍita, and He was very influential also. He was so influential that simply by His calling, 100,000 people joined Him to show a civil disobedience movement, disobeying the order of the magistrate that "You cannot perform kīrtana." So Caitanya Mahāprabhu organized immediately about one lakh of people and went to perform at the house of the magistrate. The civil disobedience movement, perhaps you know that it was inaugurated by Gandhi, Mahatma Gandhi, in India against the British government.

Page Title:Ultimately (Lectures, Other)
Compiler:Visnu Murti, RupaManjari
Created:22 of Nov, 2012
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=110, Con=0, Let=0
No. of Quotes:110