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Untruth

Bhagavad-gita As It Is

BG Chapters 13 - 18

BG 18.32, Purport:

That understanding which considers irreligion to be religion and religion to be irreligion, under the spell of illusion and darkness, and strives always in the wrong direction, O Pārtha, is in the mode of ignorance.

Intelligence in the mode of ignorance is always working the opposite of the way it should. It accepts religions which are not actually religions and rejects actual religion. Men in ignorance understand a great soul to be a common man and accept a common man as a great soul. They think truth to be untruth and accept untruth as truth. In all activities they simply take the wrong path; therefore their intelligence is in the mode of ignorance.

Srimad-Bhagavatam

SB Canto 1

SB 1.17.25, Purport:

This peace of mind was complete in the Satya age because of the existence of the above-mentioned attributes of the human beings. Gradually these attributes have diminished in the Tretā-yuga to three fourths, in the Dvāpara to half, and in this age of Kali to one fourth, which is also gradually diminishing on account of prevailing untruthfulness. By pride, either artificial or real, the resultant action of austerity is spoiled; by too much affection for female association, cleanliness is spoiled; by too much addiction to intoxication, mercy is spoiled; and by too much lying propaganda, truthfulness is spoiled.

SB Canto 2

SB 2.6.34, Purport:

On the other hand, any amount of mental speculation on the strength of material science and knowledge without any bona fide touch with the Absolute Truth is sure to be a mundane untruth and failure, simply due to not being in touch with the Absolute Truth. Such godless, unfaithful words and actions, however materially enriched, are never to be trusted. That is the purport of this important verse. A grain of devotion is more valuable than tons of faithlessness.

SB Canto 7

SB 7.11.8-12, Purport:

Nowadays there is propaganda everywhere, all over the world, for a secular state, a state interested only in mundane activities. But if the citizens of the state are not educated in the above-mentioned good qualities, how can there be happiness? For example, if the total populace is untruthful, how can the state be happy? Therefore, without consideration of one's belonging to a sectarian religion, whether Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Buddhist or any other sect, everyone should be taught to become truthful.

SB Canto 8

SB 8.1.26, Translation:

Satyasena, along with His friend Satyajit, who was the King of heaven, Indra, killed all the untruthful, impious and misbehaved Yakṣas, Rākṣasas and ghostly living entities, who gave pains to other living beings.

SB 8.19.38, Translation:

One might argue that since you have already promised, how can you refuse? O best of the demons, just take from me the evidence of the Bahvṛca-śruti, which says that a promise is truthful preceded by the word oṁ and untruthful if not.

SB 8.19.39, Translation:

The Vedas enjoin that the factual result of the tree of the body is the good fruits and flowers derived from it. But if the bodily tree does not exist, there is no possibility of factual fruits and flowers. Even if the body is based on untruth, there cannot be factual fruits and flowers without the help of the bodily tree.

SB 8.19.39, Purport:

This śloka explains that in relation to the material body even the factual truth cannot exist without a touch of untruth. The Māyāvādīs say, brahma satyaṁ jagan mithyā: "The spirit soul is truth, and the external energy is untruth." The Vaiṣṇava philosophers, however, do not agree with the Māyāvāda philosophy. Even if for the sake of argument the material world is accepted as untruth, the living entity entangled in the illusory energy cannot come out of it without the help of the body.

SB 8.19.40, Translation:

When a tree is uprooted it immediately falls down and begins to dry up. Similarly, if one doesn't take care of the body, which is supposed to be untruth—in other words, if the untruth is uprooted—the body undoubtedly becomes dry.

SB 8.19.41, Purport:

Mahārāja Bali wanted to give everything to Vāmanadeva, who had appeared as a beggar, but Śukrācārya, being Mahārāja Bali's familial spiritual master in the line of seminal succession, could not appreciate Mahārāja Bali's promise. Śukrācārya gave Vedic evidence that one should not give everything to a poor man. Rather, when a poor man comes for charity one should untruthfully say, "Whatever I have I have given you. I have no more." It is not that one should give everything to him.

SB 8.20.4, Translation:

There is nothing more sinful than untruthfulness. Because of this, mother earth once said, "I can bear any heavy thing except a person who is a liar."

SB Canto 9

SB 9.18.36, Translation:

Śukrācārya was extremely angry. "You untruthful fool, lusting after women! You have done a great wrong," he said. "I therefore curse you to be attacked and disfigured by old age and invalidity."

SB Canto 10.1 to 10.13

SB 10.7.13-15, Translation:

When brāhmaṇas are free from envy, untruthfulness, unnecessary pride, grudges, disturbance by the opulence of others, and false prestige, their blessings never go in vain. Considering this, Nanda Mahārāja soberly took Kṛṣṇa on his lap and invited such truthful brāhmaṇas to perform a ritualistic ceremony according to the holy hymns of the Sāma Veda, Ṛg Veda and Yajur Veda. Then, while the hymns were being chanted, he bathed the child with water mixed with pure herbs, and after performing a fire ceremony, he sumptuously fed all the brāhmaṇas with first-class grains and other food.

SB 10.8.35, Purport:

Persons who have amassed the results of a vast amount of pious activities can attain the stage of associating with Kṛṣṇa and playing with Him like ordinary playmates. One should not consider these transactions of transcendental service to be untruthful accusations. One should never accuse such devotees of being ordinary boys speaking lies, for they attained this stage of associating with Kṛṣṇa by great austerities (tapasā brahmacaryeṇa śamena ca damena ca (SB 6.1.13)).

SB Cantos 10.14 to 12 (Translations Only)

SB 12.3.22, Translation:

In Dvāpara-yuga the religious qualities of austerity, truth, mercy and charity are reduced to one half by their irreligious counterparts—dissatisfaction, untruth, violence and enmity.

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta

CC Adi-lila

CC Adi 7.123, Purport:

The jīva, or living entity, is a spiritual spark who is part of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Unfortunately, he thinks the body to be the self, and that misunderstanding is called vivarta, or acceptance of untruth to be truth. The body is not the self, but animals and foolish people think that it is. Vivarta (illusion) does not, however, denote a change in the identity of the spirit soul; it is the misconception that the body is the self that is an illusion.

Other Books by Srila Prabhupada

Nectar of Devotion

Nectar of Devotion 14:

There are many supposed renouncers even at the present moment who officially become sannyāsīs, or renouncers, and outwardly claim that spiritual existence is truth and material existence untruth. In this way, artificially they make a show of renunciation of the material world. However, because they cannot reach the point of devotional service, they fail to achieve the goal, and they again come back to material activities, such as philanthropic work and political agitation. There are many examples of so-called sannyāsīs who gave up the world as untruth but again came to the material world, because they were not seeking their real repose at the lotus feet of the Lord.

Nectar of Devotion 23:

In the Viṣṇu-yāmala-tantra there is a statement that because the Personality of Godhead and His expanded bodies are always full of knowledge, bliss and eternity, they are always free from the eighteen kinds of material contaminations—illusion, fatigue, errors, roughness, material lust, restlessness, pride, envy, violence, disgrace, exhaustion, untruth, anger, hankering, dependence, desire to lord over the universe, seeing duality and cheating.

Krsna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead

Krsna Book 7:

The brāhmaṇas who were present at that time were all qualified because they were not envious, they never indulged in untruthfulness, they were never proud, they were nonviolent, and they never claimed any false prestige. They were all bona fide brāhmaṇas, and there was no reason to think that their blessings would be useless. With firm faith in the qualified brāhmaṇas, Nanda Mahārāja took his child on his lap and bathed Him with water mixed with various herbs while the brāhmaṇas chanted hymns from the Ṛg, Yajur and Sāma Vedas.

Krsna Book 87:

The view of the personalists, however, is that the material world, although very temporary, is nevertheless not false but factual. Such transcendentalists have different arguments to establish the validity of their philosophies. Factually, the material world is simultaneously both truth and untruth. It is truth because everything is an expansion of the Supreme Absolute Truth, and it is untruth because the existence of the material world is temporary: it is created, and it is annihilated.

Renunciation Through Wisdom

Renunciation Through Wisdom 1.2:

Similarly, to transform the demoniac mentality, people have to be clean, disciplined, and truthful. This end is not served by advocating the theory of yata mat, tata path—that "there are as many ways to salvation as there are opinions"—for in this way one confuses and deceives the populace. By bringing the clean and the unclean, the disciplined and undisciplined, the truthful and the untruthful onto the same level, one will find it impossible to cure or even treat any patient.

Renunciation Through Wisdom 3.3:

The contrast between the Personal and the Impersonal is a truth of the overmind; there is no separate truth of them in the supermind: they are inseparably one. But one who has not mastered the lower planes cannot reach the supramental truth. The incompetent pride of man's mind makes a sharp distinction and wants to call all else untruth and leap at once to the highest truth, whatever it may be. But that is an ambitious and arrogant error. One has to climb the stairs and rest ones feet firmly on each step in order to reach the summit.

Renunciation Through Wisdom 4.2:

When the Supreme Lord Himself is present in everyone's heart as the omniscient Supersoul, then who else can sit in His heart? In the Gītā, Lord Kṛṣṇa Himself speaks about His transcendental qualities, making statements that Dr. Radhakrishnan, armed with his material erudition, has made but a feeble attempt to contradict. Through such foolishness Dr. Radhakrishnan has made a show of spreading education, but in fact he has preached untruth.

Lectures

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Lecture on BG 2.16 -- London, August 22, 1973:

In the rainy season we get some products. So we cannot say it is false, but we can say it is temporary. Similarly, material world, matter, is not false. But it is nonpermanent. Bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19). You'll find it in the Bhagavad-gītā. The Māyāvādī philosopher says brahma satyaṁ jagan mithyā. The spirit is truth, and jagat, this material world, is untruth, mithyā, false. We say that everything is emanating from the Supreme. Yato vā imāni bhūtāni jāyante. Everything is emanating from Brahman, the Supreme Absolute Truth. So that cannot be false. Because Absolute Truth, how from truth, false will come? This is our philosophy.

Lecture on BG 16.9 -- Hawaii, February 5, 1975:

These demons, further description... Yesterday we discussed that "The world is untruth, this material world is untruth," asatyam apratiṣṭham, "and there is no background." This is the conclusion of the atheist demons. We have explained that this world is not untrue. That is our Vaiṣṇava philosophy. Untruth... If it is coming from the truth, it is true. How you can say untrue? The example: if cotton is truth, then thread is true. So if you say that thread is untruth, then cotton is also untruth, the cause. But they do not accept... (aside:) This child... Some sound is coming.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Lecture on SB 1.5.13 -- New Vrindaban, June 16, 1969:

We do not know anything except Kṛṣṇa. The Māyāvādīs, they say they are monists, but they're dualists. They say, brahma satyaṁ jagan mithyā. Why? Wherefrom the jagat come? If Brahman is satya, if the Absolute Truth is truth, then janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1), this world has emanated from the Absolute Truth. Then how it can be untruth? Does it mean that truth produces untruth? This is the defect of Māyāvāda philosophy. They are not actually monists. They are dualists. They are distinguishing Brahman and māyā. But we say that only Kṛṣṇa.

Lecture on SB 1.5.22 -- Vrndavana, August 3, 1974:

Just like the other day, in the Customs examination in Bombay, so our Brahmānanda Mahārāja was asked, "What is the value?" "No, I have purchased it." "What is the value?" "Two hundred dollars." He did not say that "I am using it for long time." No. "It is new. I have purchased." That's all right. Yes. But Kali-yuga is so implicated that sometimes we have to speak the untruth. But it is the business of the brāhmaṇa to speak the truth. No untruth.

Lecture on SB 1.7.32-33 -- Vrndavana, September 27, 1976:

We Vaiṣṇavas, we don't say mithyā, because mithyā it cannot be. If the Absolute Truth is true, how mithyā can come from the paraṁ satyam? Brahma satyam. If Brahman is truth, how... Janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1), everything is born from Brahman. How something can be untruth? No. That is not. Truth is there, but when we misunderstand the truth or misuse the truth, then we are in trouble. That is Vaiṣṇava philosophy. We have to find out what is the truth in everything.

Lecture on SB 1.7.32-33 -- Vrndavana, September 27, 1976:

So what is that truth? The truth is that īśāvāsyam idaṁ sarvam (ISO 1), everything is God's creation. And Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Lord, God says, bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasāṁ sarva-loka-maheśvaram (BG 5.29). He is the proprietor, but we do not understand that, that truth, that He is the proprietor. We are creating our proprietorship. That is untruth. That is untruth. That is mithyā. Jagan mithyā. Jagat is not mithyā, but our behavior with the jagat, or the world, is mithyā. Jagat is not mithyā. How it can be mithyā? Janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). It is coming, emanating from the Absolute Truth. It is truth. Therefore we have to find out the truth, what is that truth.

Lecture on SB 1.8.44 -- Los Angeles, May 6, 1973:

So this was a mistake by Yudhiṣṭhira Mahārāja, because the so-called truthfulness or untruthfulness of this relative world is not applicable to Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa has got a plan. If we execute the plan of Kṛṣṇa, that is the highest truth. But we should not imitate unless we are actually ordered to do such thing. Just like Kṛṣṇa was personally asking. So unless we are ordered by Kṛṣṇa or Kṛṣṇa's representative, we cannot violate the morality of this world. That is not possible. It is a great philosophy. It requires little brain to understand.

Lecture on SB 1.15.37 -- Los Angeles, December 15, 1973:

So Kali-yuga is also another phase of this material world. So he saw that things have deteriorated... Pure ca rāṣṭre ca gṛhe tathātmani. "Things have deteriorated. They are now full of these sinful activities." What is that? Lobha anṛta jihma and hiṁsa. "People are becoming too much," I mean to say, "jealous, too much diplomatic, too much untruthfulness, and so things are deteriorated, not only state-wise, family-wise, personal-wise. Everything is deteriorating." So after all, one has to retire. One has to re... So he concluded that now he should retire.

Lecture on SB 1.16.1 -- Los Angeles, December 29, 1973:

Not a third-class rascal becomes a teacher and professor. He has no idea how to speak truth. He is speaking all lies, theories, and getting Nobel Prize. Such a śūdra is honored at the present moment. You see? Who has no knowledge. So many so-called philosophers and scientists, simply speaking lies and untruth. They have no knowledge. As soon as you challenge them, they will say, "Yes, we are trying. In future we shall do it."

Lecture on SB 1.16.25 -- Hawaii, January 21, 1974:

Suppose you go to a store. The storekeeper says, "Oh, you are my dear friend. I will not take any profit from you. I will give you at cost price. You take." So you believe, But actually, how it is possible to give at cost price? How he'll maintain the business establishment? I know that he's speaking untruth, still, I accept, "Oh, he is very truthful." So there are so many things.

Lecture on SB 3.25.3 -- Bombay, November 3, 1974:

We Vaiṣṇavas, we do not say mithyā, because God, or the Supreme Brahman, is truth, so there can be anything untruth from the truth. That is not possible. Just like if you prepare something from gold, an earring, that earring is also gold. You cannot say it is something else. So yato vā imāni bhūtāni jāyante. That is the Vedic instruction. Janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). So Supreme Absolute Truth is that from whom, or from which, everything has emanated. So if everything has emanated from the Absolute Truth, it cannot be untruth. How it can be untruth? It may be temporary.

Lecture on SB 3.25.43 -- Bombay, December 11, 1974:

People have taken something which is asat. The Vedic instruction is asato mā sad gama: "Don't remain in the asat, in the untruth. Come to the Truth." So at the material world we have forgotten Kṛṣṇa, and we are situated in the asat, which is not truth. Therefore there is bhaya, fearfulness. Just like a child, if he is forlorn by the father and mother, then he is always in fearful condition, crying on the street, "Where is my father? Where is my mother?" This is our position.

Lecture on SB 3.26.3 -- Bombay, December 15, 1974:

Here, in this planet, you are full of anxiety. And if you are transferred to the Vaikuṇṭhaloka, there is no anxiety. Ānandamayo 'bhyāsāt: (Vedānta-sūtra 1.1.12) simply ānanda, no anxiety. Here you must suffer anxiety, asad-grahāt, on account of accepting this asat. Asat means untruth or temporary, which will not exist. Tat sādhu manye 'sura-varya dehināṁ sadā samudvigna-dhiyām asad-grahāt (SB 7.5.5). This is Prahlāda Mahārāja's instruction, that this materialistic individuality, on account of accepting this asad-grahāt, asat, not permanent, not true, sadā samudvigna-dhiyām. Always full of anxiety.

Lecture on SB 5.5.2 -- Hyderabad, April 11, 1975:

So if Kṛṣṇa is fact, Brahman, then He says, ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavaḥ, "I am the origin of everything," how other things can be false? No. We do not accept this philosophy. If Kṛṣṇa is truth, then this world is also truth. It may be temporary—bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19)—but it is not untruth. So Caitanya Mahāprabhu therefore has criticized Śaṅkarācārya, māyāvādi-bhāṣya śunile haya sarva-nāśa: (CC Madhya 6.169) "If you accept Māyāvāda philosophy, then your progress is doomed, finished."

Lecture on SB 6.1.31 -- Honolulu, May 30, 1976:

Whatever God has created, that is not false, everything. So our Kṛṣṇa consciousness view is that everything created by God is not mithyā. It is fact. Everything is fact. We don't say unnecessarily, "This is mithyā. This is false." Why it is false? God is truth. If He has created anything, that is also truth. Why it should be false? That is Vaiṣṇava view. Truth does not come out of untruth. Truth comes from truth. Something comes from something; something does not come from nothing. This is voidism.

Lecture on SB 6.1.56-57 -- Bombay, August 14, 1975:

So about Ajāmila, the Yamadūtas, they said, "We know that this man Ajāmila was fully qualified before." Dhṛta-vrato mṛdur dāntaḥ satya-vāṅ: truthful, never speaks untruth. Satya śama dama, satya. Or satya-vāṅ means paraṁ satyaṁ dhīmahi. Paraṁ satyam is Kṛṣṇa, Vāsudeva. Who is only speaking about Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Truth, he is called satya-vāṅ. He does not speak anything... Kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ (CC Adi 17.31). He is simply glorifying. If one's life is dedicated to preach about Kṛṣṇa, then he is also satya-vāṅ. He does not speak anything else.

Lecture on SB 7.9.17 -- Mayapur, February 24, 1976:

Duḥkhauṣadhaṁ tad api duḥkham atad-dhiyāham. Atat. Atat means untruth, flickering, not... Atad-dhiyāham. We do not know what is our identification. Misunderstanding. Dehātma-buddhi. Asad-grahāt. Atat, asat, the same thing. We have accepted this body, identifying this body, on account of this. If you are on the spiritual platform, then there is no trouble, there is no misunderstanding. If we understand properly by education or knowledge that "You are also part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. I am also part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. Our real position is to serve the Lord," so if we serve that, then there is no misunderstanding.

Nectar of Devotion Lectures

The Nectar of Devotion -- Bombay, January 7, 1973:

Now, if it is brahma satyaṁ jagan mithyā, if jagat is mithyā, then why you are coming again to open hospitals? It is mithyā. But brahma satya. If you have realized Brahman, you are truth. Then why truth is coming to untruth? Because they could not get any pleasure. They want pleasure. Simply sitting down, that "I am now Brahman, Brahman," that will not help. You must act as Brahman. You must get pleasure acting as Brahman. Then there will be ānanda.

Philosophy Discussions

Philosophy Discussion on Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibnitz:

Prabhupāda: This is innate truth: as three angles of a triangle are equal to 180 degrees, similarly snow is white. Snow is white, water is liquid, stone is hard, chili is hot, sugar is sweet. These are eternal truths, fundamental truths. Similarly, a living entity is eternal servant of God. This is eternal truth. It cannot be changed. Water is liquid. That is the natural position, but when water becomes hard, it is due to temperature, under certain conditions, but as soon as the temperature reduces, the water becomes liquid. So liquidity of water is truth. Similarly, whiteness of snow is truth. Similarly, servitude of the living entity is truth. But he is serving māyā. That is untruth. If we take that there are two types of truth, there cannot be two kinds of truth. Truth is one. What we take as truth, that is māyā.

Philosophy Discussion on Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibnitz:

Prabhupāda: Yes. There can't be two truths.

Śyāmasundara: But due to our imperfect senses...

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is what is called māyā. Māyā has no existence, but it appears like truth. The same example: the shadow has no existence, but it also looks like my finger, and everything exactly. In the mirror you see your face exactly the same, but it is untruth. The truth is one. Truth cannot be two types of truth. What is taken as truth for the present moment, and by experience he comes to the right truth, that is called māyā.

Philosophy Discussion on Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibnitz:

Prabhupāda: Why? You say that redness of snow is possible under certain circumstances?

Śyāmasundara: Yes.

Prabhupāda: So that is possible in every case. Therefore the real feature of snow is not red. It appears to be red under certain conditions, but that is not truth; that is untruth.

Philosophy Discussion on Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibnitz:

Śyāmasundara: What about two plus two equals four?

Prabhupāda: That is true.

Śyāmasundara: It's impossible to conceive of the opposite of that truth. So that is what he would call logically necessary proof, proved by the law of contradiction.

Prabhupāda: My point is that he says that there are two types of truth. No. There cannot be two types of truth. That is my protest. I say there is only one truth. When you think two types of truth, then you are mistaken. Then same thing: when you think that two plus two equals five, then you are mistaken. Two plus two is always four. That is truth. Similarly, snow is white always. That is truth. When you think it is red, it is untruth. But you cannot say it is another type of truth. Mistake cannot be accepted as another type of truth. Mistake is mistake.

Philosophy Discussion on Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibnitz:

Śyāmasundara: I think he says the same things, but the language is different.

Prabhupāda: There are two types of truth—what is that language? One truth is real truth, another truth is shadow truth. It is not truth, it is shadow. That is the exact language. The same example we can give: you see your face in the mirror as exactly the same, but it is shadow; therefore it is untruth. You cannot say that this reflection of your face on the mirror is another type of truth. Can you say like that? You cannot say that.

Philosophy Discussion on Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibnitz:

Śyāmasundara: Well, he would say that if I saw the shadow of myself in the mirror...

Prabhupāda: No. Whatever he may say, we cannot accept that there are two types of truth. That is not possible.

Śyāmasundara: He calls this type of truth conditional truth.

Prabhupāda: The conditional truth is the untruth.

Śyāmasundara: Just like if I saw by my senses some snow that was red.

Prabhupāda: That is due to your defect of seeing a condition and not knowing the condition.

Philosophy Discussion on Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibnitz:

Śyāmasundara: But I can explain by sufficient reasons why that snow is red.

Prabhupāda: Just like a living entity is trying to become master—"I am the monarch of all I survey." That is untruth. The truth is that he is eternal servant. You cannot say that because one is trying to be imitation God, that that is another truth. You cannot say that. That is māyā. There cannot be a second God. God is one. That is truth, absolute truth. Our point is that we do not accept this proposition, that there are two types of truth. That is not at all acceptable. Truth is one.

Philosophy Discussion on Ludwig Wittgenstein:

Prabhupāda: So the modern world's proposition is that "I am this body." So that is untruth. What does he say about this?

Śyāmasundara: Well, if I claim that I am this body, that means I have to know all of the conditions which make it true that I am this body. Then if all these conditions are true...

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

Śyāmasundara: So he searched around for those values that are most accepted by the most people and he found they are truth, beauty, and goodness are the three main values. Truth, beauty, and goodness.

Prabhupāda: Well, it is a false proposition. In the material world nobody likes truth. They always want to place untruth, at least in this age. The majority of people are not truthful. As soon as one becomes truthful, he's a brāhmaṇa.

Philosophy Discussion on Blaise Pascal:

Hayagrīva: Although he was considered a great philosopher, he concluded that philosophy in itself only leads to skepticism, that faith is needed, and he always added here, "God."

Prabhupāda: Philosophy means, real philosophy means to understand the truth. That is philosophy. So without understanding about the truth, if he encourages untruth... Just like some philosophers are philosophizing on sex life. So the people are becoming degraded. So what is philosophy in sex life, that is an (indistinct). It is there in animal and man also. So sex life is not actual life; it is a symptom of life only.

Conversations and Morning Walks

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Conversation with the GBC -- May 25, 1972, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Watchtower. They have complained(?). So we have nothing to (indistinct) them. The world is degrading to the lowest status, even less than animal. The animal also do not support homosex. They have never sex life between male to male. They are less than animal. People are becoming less than animal. This is all due to godlessness. Harāv abhaktasya kuto mahad-guṇā (SB 5.18.12), godless civilization cannot have any good qualities. Harāv abhaktasya kuto mahad-guṇā mano rathena asato dhāvato... They simply go to the untruth by mental speculation.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- May 4, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: We have to teach life from life, not from matter. Just against. And if you come out... Not if. You must. Because we are standing on truth. They are standing on untruth.

Morning Walk -- May 14, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: (laughing) Then how much depressed you'll be. Let's say I brought this friend and this rascal is saying, "This is mithyā."

Karandhara: Sour grapes.

Prabhupāda: That is explained that asatyam apratiṣṭhaṁ te, jagad āhur anīśvaram (BG 16.8). These rascals, these demons they say like that, that this is asatya, this is untruth. There is no cause. There is no īśvara. This is the demoniac declaration. If Kṛṣṇa is fact, His creation is fact. His energy is fact. Why shall I say false? We don't say it is false. The Māyāvādīs say it is false.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- February 20, 1974, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: No, this is very wrong. Untruth is as good as a daitya. Truth is God. Truth is Kṛṣṇa. Truthfulness. So how it may be? What do you say, sir?

Prabhupāda: No, no. When we say gañjā was started from here, it is God or not?

Guest (1): That's all...

Dr. Patel: Gañjā is God. What is that? In gañjā also you'll get that, that, that state of samādhi those who get it, they get it. I mean, that is all right. But you said like that, that LSD is invented in India.

Morning Walk -- June 9, 1974, Paris:

This is Buddha philosophy. "Make it zero. There will be no more pains and pleasure." "You have got some trouble in the eyes? Pluck it out." He does not know how to cure it. He simply knows, "Pluck it out." This is their philosophy. Asatyere satya kari māni. Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura's song.

ahaṅkāre matta hoiyā, nitāi-pada pāsariyā,

asatyere satya kari māni

"Being puffed up by false ego, I am, I have taken untruth as truth. And when somebody speaks about truth, I take it as untruth." Asatyere satya kare māni. Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa... (aside:) You should cover it. Why cover?

Room Conversation with German Women Philosophers -- June 17, 1974, Germany:

Prabhupāda: Now, once she said that those things cannot be taken now literally.

Pṛthu: Yeah.

Prabhupāda: Then what is the use of taking Bible? (German) (break)

Pṛthu: ...that one always has to take the truth from the untruth, also in Bible.

Prabhupāda: This is nonsense. From untruth, how there can be truth?

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- March 2, 1975, Atlanta:

Prabhupāda: No, they, what they are saying, "real world," that is unreal.

Dr. Wolf: They don't realize that.

Prabhupāda: No, their knowledge is so imperfect, they're taking asatyere satya kori māni. Asatyere, you understand Bengali? Asatyere satya kori māni, accepting the untruth as truth. Asatyere nitāi-pada pāsariyā, ahaṅkāre matta hoiyā nitāi-pada pāsariyā, asatyere satya kori māni, by forgetting our relationship with God and being proud of their so-called... (break) That motor car is not your life. That is being misguided. Everyone is thinking that this body, motor car, is everything. But within, the driver, he's starving. So how long he'll carry on this motor car. So first of all take care of the driver who will protect this motor car nicely.

Morning Walk -- July 8, 1975, Chicago:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Eating, sleeping, mating and defending.

Prabhupāda: That's all. (break) ...condemn running by car, but utilize it for Kṛṣṇa. That we want. If the purpose is same, like dog, then what is the use of running by car? (break) ...by car to preach Kṛṣṇa consciousness. (break) ...not after that philosophy, that jagan mithyā brahma satya, no. We say jagat is also satya because brahma satya, the jagat is also satya. It is mithyā because it is improperly utilized. Let it be utilized properly, it is also truth. It is truth actually. You cannot say, "This is a false tree." This is the ignorance. How it is false? But it is being misused. That is false. You cannot misuse anything which is given by God. You should properly utilize it. Then it is truth. And as soon as you misuse it, it is untruth.

Morning Walk -- July 8, 1975, Chicago:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So material consciousness is false.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Everything can be utilized for Kṛṣṇa. That is our preaching. That is truth. There is a nice car. Why shall I condemn it? Utilize it for Kṛṣṇa. Then it is truth. And the Māyāvādī philosophers, they will say, "It is untruth. Give it up." No. When you have produced something by your good intelligence, it is truth, but when you use it for other purpose than Kṛṣṇa, then it is false. (break) ...Deity nicely decorated, if I say, "It is all false," is that very good sense? They have created such a nice thing.

Room Conversation -- July 31, 1975, New Orleans:

Guest: What does Kṛṣṇa say about truth?

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa is truth. Without Kṛṣṇa, everything is untruth. Truth is one. Just like zero is zero. And it is added with one, then it is ten. It is truth. So zero is zero always. Hundred million times zero—it is zero. But when there is one, immediately value increases. So without Kṛṣṇa, all this material advancement, they are all zeros. But if you bring Kṛṣṇa, then it... that increases value-ten, hundred, thousand, tens of thousands, like that, million, billions. Because the one is there. So bring Kṛṣṇa, and then everything will be value.

Morning Walk -- October 21, 1975, Johannesburg:

Prabhupāda: Then? What is the value of your vote? You are madmen. Just like Gandhi made civil disobedience here, and government did not accept it. What could he do? (break) ...truth. If the majority says, "No, it is truth," it will be truth?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: No.

Prabhupāda: Then untruth is untruth.

Morning Walk -- November 17, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: No, no. You cannot explain truth in your own way.

Dr. Patel: The whole truth nobody knows and sees. Even our śāstra says.

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. Things which one does not know, he should not try to cheat others by placing some untruth.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation and Reading from Srimad-Bhagavatam Canto 1 and 12 -- June 25, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: Dharmaḥ. People will gradually decrease in their sense of religiosity, dharmaḥ. Then?

Pradyumna: Satyam.

Prabhupāda: They will be untruthful. Partly because there is no training of brahminical culture how to become truthful. People think that "What is the wrong there, I shall speak something untruth?" So that means the value of truthfulness will decrease. And the importance of religion will decrease. This is the symptoms of Kali-yuga. Then?

Room Conversation and Reading from Srimad-Bhagavatam Canto 1 and 12 -- June 25, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Pradyumna: I think it is māyaiva vyāvahārike.

Prabhupāda: Ah, māyaiva vyāvahārike. In ordinary dealings there is cheating. This is Kali-yuga. Ordinarily even when gentleman-gentleman, so-called gentlemen talking, he's trying to cheat him, he's trying to cheat him. By talking. And ordinarily. Māyaiva vyāvahārike. To talk with gentleman-gentleman, it is ordinary thing, but still there will be so many untruthfulness. Māyaiva vyāvahārike. Then?

Meeting with Italian Printer -- August 5, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Translator: For the truth, since each one finds the truth in himself, does that mean that the truth is different for each person? Each person has his truth.

Prabhupāda: Yes, he's truth, he's soul, but he thinks as untruth, he thinks he's body.

Translator: He says that the truth is one, but as individuals we all realize that truth at different levels.

Prabhupāda: That is rascaldom. Truth is one.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Mr. Myer -- July 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: We are therefore presenting three books. So if we follow, our life is successful. But you don't follow. Daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā duratyayā (BG 7.14). Māyā is so strong that untruthful things, we take it as truthful. Just like the modern scientists. These rascals, he could not, they cannot, they will never be able to produce life. Still, they are busy: "Yes, we will do. We shall do." The whole world is full of rascals.

Page Title:Untruth
Compiler:Kanupriya, Parthasarathi, Alakananda
Created:20 of Dec, 2008
Totals by Section:BG=1, SB=14, CC=1, OB=7, Lec=28, Con=16, Let=0
No. of Quotes:67