Vedic sastras (Conversations and Letters)
Conversations and Morning Walks
1967 Conversations and Morning Walks
1971 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: No, no, I don't mean you. Anyone. Anyone. If for ordinary things we have to call for an expert, to understand God is it not necessary to approach an expert? What do you think, Manuel?
Manuel: Yes, yes.
Prabhupāda: That is... Therefore the Vedas says, tad-vijñānārthaṁ: "In order to know that transcendental science," sa gurum evābhigacchet, "he must go to a guru. He must approach." A guru means not bogus guru. One who knows expert. But one has to do that. There is no other alternative. That is the injunction of every Vedic śāstra. And this order is from the Kathopaniṣad. Then, on the Bhagavad-gītā the same thing is said, tad viddhi praṇipātena [Bg. 4.34]. Praṇipāta means surrender. Surrender where? Where to surrender? To a coolie? No, to a superior person, guru.1972 Conversations and Morning Walks
1973 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: In Vṛndāvana, there is a place called Nidhuvana.
Devotee: Nidhuvana?
Prabhupāda: Nidhuvana. So that was a place... Still people go to visit. So one Bhagavān dāsa Bābājī, he was chanting, and in the middle of his chanting he made (makes sound with hands like clapping) like this. So his disciples... (pause) Yes. His disciples asked him: "Sir, why did you (makes clapping sound) do like this?" "So there was a goat entered Nidhuvana. So I drove it away." So where is that machine by which you can see...? It is not the time, but see the activities of everywhere? But that is possible. Yes.
Brahmānanda: Oh, even though he did not see the goat, he knew it was there.
Prabhupāda: No, he's seeing. Otherwise, how does he (makes sound) "Hut, hut, hut." He's seeing. Where is that machine? So this Darwin's theory says that there was no intelligent man or brain but how these books were written, thousands and thousands of years ago? These Vedic śāstras. If there were no intelligent brain? Vyāsadeva, like Vyāsadeva. Before Vyāsadeva also, other great sages, they compiled...
Brahmānanda: They have no explanation.1974 Conversations and Morning Walks
Bahulāśva: But Prabhupāda, there are still such things as dead matter?
Prabhupāda: Not dead matter. The soul is there.
Bahulāśva: Suppose something, well, something like this shoe that I'm wearing...,
Prabhupāda: It is now dead matter. But when you go, the higher understanding, it is a composition of atoms. So we learn from Vedic śāstra that within the atom there is life. Aṇḍāntara-stha-paramāṇu-cayāntara-sthaṁ govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi [Bs. 5.35]. There is, there. If within the atom there is life, then what to speak of anything else.
Bahulāśva: That's a jīvātmā?
Prabhupāda: No, no. Govinda is there.
Bahulāśva: Kṛṣṇa.
Prabhupāda: When Kṛṣṇa is there, then Kṛṣṇa is there with everything. Kṛṣṇa cannot be alone.
Bahulāśva: This is the real science, Śrīla Prabhupāda.Prabhupāda: Yes. He was a pākā Māyāvādī. Just like... Just see that he said that he is a worshiper of goddess Kālī. Is it not?
Dr. Patel: (Hindi)
Prabhupāda: Eh? And he became God. By worshiping Kālī. Just see how much Māyāvādī he is. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is said that kāmais tais tair hṛta-jñānāḥ yajante anya-devatāḥ: [Bg. 7.20] "Anyone who is worshiping other demigods, his intelligence is lost." Kāmais tais tair hṛta-jñānāḥ. And this man says that worshiping a demigod, goddess Kālī, he became God. Just see. How much great Māyāvādī he is! Where is the śāstra, where is in the śāstra, Vedic śāstra, that one becomes God by worshiping goddess Kālī?Professor Durckheim: May I put one question to this? How do we know that the plant, the flowers and so on do not suffer when we take them away?
Prabhupāda: No, they have also sensation. They have sensation when you pluck it. That is proved by scientists, Dr. Jagadisha Candra Bose. The trees have got sensation.
Professor Durckheim: So that's what I mean. So if we kill plant or tree...
Prabhupāda: No, we don't kill. You take the fruits.
Professor Durckheim: We cut it.
Prabhupāda: Yes, cutting is not allowed unless it is absolutely necessary.
Professor Durckheim: For eating vegetables, for instance, you need it.
Prabhupāda: Yes. No, that is the law of nature, that every living being is eating another living being. That is stated in the Vedic śāstra.
- ahastāni sahastānām
- apadāni catuṣ-padām
- phalgūni tatra mahatāṁ
- jīvo jīvasya jīvanam
1975 Conversations and Morning Walks
Madhudviṣa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, this concept that everything belongs to God, it can't work unless everybody believes that everything belongs to God.
Prabhupāda: Then everybody may be mad. That does not change the fact. If some madman comes in this room and he fights, "I am the proprietor. You get out," so that is not the fact.
Guest 1: I understand, you know you were talking about the sea and so on. But it's for people to use.
Prabhupāda: Use, you can use. Tena tyaktena bhuñjīthāḥ [Īśo mantra 1]. That is the Vedic injunction. What is given to you, you use it. Just like one gentleman has got five sons. He gives one son, "This is your property. This is your property. This you can use." But the sons must acknowledge that "This is father's property. He has given us." Similarly, in the Vedic śāstra it is said that "Everything belongs to God, and whatever He has given to you, you can use. Don't encroach upon others."Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Our position is very weak against these arguments.
Prabhupāda: Yes. I have got some evidences—Kṛṣṇa is speaking, the Vedic śāstra... And what you have got? Simply your speaking? What you are, nonsense? Your speaking should be accepted? And Kṛṣṇa's speaking will be rejected? I have got some support, but what support you have got except your statement? Then everyone can give a statement and he becomes an authority.1976 Conversations and Morning Walks
Guest: Yes, but who is decided what exactly the meaning...
Prabhupāda: Exactly the meaning is there.
Guest: Literal, literally.
Prabhupāda: Literally, yes. The thing is the interpretation is required when you cannot understand. If, if I say, "This is a stick," everyone knows it is a stick. So I say, "Here is a stick." So if you say, "No, I do not accept it is stick." So what is that interpretation? Everyone knows it is stick. Similarly, Kurukṣetra means that the place, still existing. And in the Vedic śāstra it is ordered, kurukṣetre dharma yajayet. You go... From time immemorial it is a place of pilgrimage. Even Kṛṣṇa, during solar eclipse, Kṛṣṇa with His family, He came there, Jagannātha. The ceremony is there, Ratha-yātrā. Because Kṛṣṇa, Balarāma and Subhadra came in the same chariot. That is being performed. So Kurukṣetra, dharmakṣetra, at least five thousand years ago the system was that people used to come to Kurukṣetra as a place of pilgrimage, dharmakṣetra. And Kurukṣetra, the place is there. And the the two family members, the Kurus and the Pāṇḍavas, they fought. The Battle of Kurukṣetra took place. These things are evident. Then why there is need of interpreting? That is the first point.
Guest: Those points are very clear.
Prabhupāda: Every point is very clear. In the Bhagavad-gītā, every point is very clear, unless you interpret it in the wrong way.Indian man: What about so many saints who are preaching yoga and religion all over the world?
Prabhupāda: Anyone who does not know the science, they are not saint. They are cheaters. If they do not know the science, what is spiritual life, what is material life. So their speaking is simply cheating. Therefore we should state the standard, Bhagavad-gītā, the ācāryas. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is said ācāryopāsanam. Take the ācāryas, Rāmānujācārya, Madhvācārya, even Śaṅkarācārya. So there must be standard. It is... Some of them are manufacturing some spiritual life. Just like Vivekananda did, daridra-nārāyaṇa-sevā. Is there any such word in our Vedic śāstras? Daridra-nārāyaṇa? Nārāyaṇa has become daridra? One has to worship daridra-nārāyaṇa.
Indian man: You don't agree with what has been preached...
Prabhupāda: Why shall I agree? Because there is no such thing in the śāstra. Is there word, any word, in the whole Bhagavad-gītā, daridra-nārāyaṇa-sevā?
Indian man: No, but what Ramakrishna Paramahaṁsa...
Prabhupāda: Ramakrishna, how he become paramahaṁsa if he does not know the śāstra? That is the difficulty. Everyone becoming self-made guru, self-made avatāra, self-made saint. That is the difficulty. Without any reference to the authentic śāstra.1977 Conversations and Morning Walks
Religion means, according to Vedic śāstra, dharmaṁ tu sākṣād bhagavat-praṇītam [SB 6.3.19]. "Religion means the law given by God."
Correspondence
1974 Correspondence
1975 Correspondence
Page Title: | Vedic sastras (Conversations and Letters) |
Compiler: | Labangalatika |
Created: | 12 of Feb, 2009 |
Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=17, Let=2 |
No. of Quotes: | 19 |