Prabhupāda: So we must know our relationship with God. That is the first subject matter of this book, Bhagavad-gītā As It Is. Then if we understand our relationship, we can act accordingly. At the present moment we are, some of us declining God. "There is no God." Some of them have little conception of God, "God is great," but they do not try to understand what is actual relationship with God. They are not very serious. In this way, practically we are avoiding our eternal relationship with God, and therefore we cannot act properly, and that is the cause of all miseries. That is the cause of all problems. Just like if you do not know the state laws, then you do not act properly. You are always criminal. For example, if you do not know how to drive, "keep to the right," if you drive to the left, you may think, "Oh, it is after all driving. What does it matter, right or left?" But no. As soon as you drive left, you become criminal. Similarly, because we do not know our relationship with God, therefore we are acting wrongly, and therefore, under the laws of God, we are becoming more and more criminal and our problems are increasing. Therefore, in spite of advancement of education, science, civilization, a nice dress, car, and everything, nobody trusts nobody. You see? Everywhere you go, a gentleman's house, oh, "Beware of the dog," "No trespasser allowed." Always suspicious. An individual person is suspicious of another individual person. A nation is suspicious of another nation. A community is suspicious of another community. So how can you have peace and prosperity? Suspiciousness means animal, animalistic. A dog is suspicious of another dog.
Wrongly (Conversations)
Conversations and Morning Walks
1968 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: It doesn't matter what he is. Either he is Hindu or Christian or Mohammedan, it doesn't matter. And this Kṛṣṇa consciousness procedure is to raise or to develop love of Godhead. And as soon as he develops love of Godhead, then he becomes happy individually and collectively because there is love. He wants to love somebody else, but he is placing his love wrongly. He is placing his love... Even one has nobody to love, he is loving cats and dogs. So love is there, but he does not know where to place his love and be happy. This is the information, Kṛṣṇa.
1971 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: That's all... That we understand very nicely. It is not that I have to learn from you. We know it very well. But you should know that we are preaching Bhagavad-gītā. So this jyotir-liṅga, all these theories, they are not in the Bhagavad-gītā. It may be in other literature, but we are particularly interested in preaching Bhagavad-gītā. Because Bhagavad-gītā is wrongly preached all over the world by nonsense commentation, we want to rectify it. Therefore our society is specially named "Krishna conscious."
Guest (1): What is wrongly preached about Gītā?
Prabhupāda: Wrong... Just like yesterday I went that Gītā Samītī. There is a lamp. Why there is a lamp instead of Kṛṣṇa? Why there is a lamp? Kṛṣṇa is a lamp? And it is Bhagavad...
Guest (1): I don't know...
Prabhupāda: You do not know. Therefore I say this is wrongly preaching. Why in the place of Kṛṣṇa there is a lamp? Does Kṛṣṇa say?
Prabhupāda: This is misguided. That's all. Now, "Gītā Bhavan," and they have invited me because we are teaching Bhagavad-gītā, and that was Gītā's Jayantī—and the speaker of Gītā is not present? Therefore I say that there are so many places, here also. They are wrongly representing Bhagavad-gītā. So our position is to rectify that wrong propaganda of Bhagavad-gītā.
Guest (2): What is that wrong propaganda?
Prabhupāda: That is one of the instance. There are many instances, many instances, many instances. Just like Dr. Radhakrishnan. In the Ninth Chapter there is verse, man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru (BG 18.65). Radhakrishnan says, "It is not to the person Kṛṣṇa." Where he gets this nonsense idea?
Guest (1): No, that Vivekananda also has said.
Prabhupāda: The learned scholar, they have been described in Bhagavad-gītā, māyaya apahṛta-jñānā asurī-bhāvam āśritāḥ. Because they have taken this view that God is impersonal, He has no form, this is āsurī. Then māyaya apahṛta-jñānā. Therefore, however learned they may be, māyā takes away their knowledge. Māyaya apahṛta-jñānā asurī-bhāvam āśr... That is described in the Bhagavad-gītā. (Hindi) The Absolute Truth, that is subjected to be imagined by me. I am a tiny soul. And if a learned sannyāsī says like that, how many thousands of people will believe in that, will be wrongly impressed? This paper will be read by thousands and millions. (Hindi) ...hodge-podge.
Guest: Another one, Bala Yogi, has made a statement that "I will call myself anybody but not Hindu"
Prabhupāda: Huh?
Guest: "I will call myself anybody but not Hindu."
Prabhupāda: But people will read as Akhandananda's...
Guest: Yes, sir.
Guest (2): Why don't you read the whole matter? Śrīla Prabhupāda says, he says, and he says it very wrongly, that (indistinct). You read the whole matter,. The summary of the whole matter is the same. This is very wrong.
Prabhupāda: Vasudeva, you just, you can read the whole thing. It is imagination. Tattva... (break) ...imagine yourself, that "My lover will be like this, like this, like that." In this way he will reach to the reality. Do you think it is very nice argument?
Guest: (Hindi conversation with Prabhupāda) He is not a bhakta.
Prabhupāda: Huh? Huh?
Guest: He is not a bhakta, he is a scholar.
1972 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Yes. Because from God's side there is always an attempt to make the people right. As soon as they're wrongly directed, some messenger comes like Jesus Christ or Buddha or, before Him, Lord Kṛṣṇa. So what we are preaching that is not new. It is God consciousness. And all the great messiahs they came. But the thing is that people are changing in their different education mentalities. So we have to present things in such a way that intelligent person can accept the old teachings in the western countries. Like Lord Jesus Christ... Either they're not being followed or they're not properly understood because in London I saw hundreds of churches are vacant. That means that it's so practical that people have no more interest in Christianity or the Christian people could not convince them of the spiritual necessity of life. Many churches are for sale. That's not a good sign.
1973 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Eh? That is foolishness. That is foolishness. Just like if you go into the sea and if you want to be comfortable. This is foolishness. You cannot be. You are animal of land. If you are put into the water, however, expert swimmer you may be, you'll not be comfortable. That's not possible. So you are spirit soul. You cannot be comfortable in the material world. You can struggle, but that is not possible. And they are simply giving bluff, "In future, we shall, in future." This is rascaldom. They don't admit that it is not possible. They simply give bluff: "In future..." You see. "In future, it will be," we can also accept that, provided you have taken the proper means. But where is your future if you are wrongly directed? A child's future is bright when we see that he's being educated, he's going to school. But when he's playing on the street, where is his future? He has no future. He's wasting his time.
Prabhupāda: That is nonsense. We say it is nonsense. In future, it is all right. You say, "In future...", but where is your method for future prosperity? That I am talking... If a child is getting proper education, then we can say that he has got a good future. But if the child is wrongly directed, then where is his future? A patient who has gone to the physician and undergoing treatment, he can expect in future he will be cured. But if he's lying down on the bed, and does not know who is physician, then where is his future? He has no future. So all these leaders, they're rascals, and who are following these rascals, where is his future? He has no future. They're all rascals. Anyone accepting: "This rascal is a great scientist." So his future is doomed.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Idle brain is a devil's workshop. If they're not directed, then think like devil. We are thinking rightly because we are taking direction from Kṛṣṇa, the most perfect. Therefore our thinking has meaning. And what is the value of their thinking? It has no value. Now we are thinking... Just like, take the first instruction, that within this body there is the proprietor of the body. You can go on thinking: "Then am I this body?" So you can think on your finger. "I am this finger?" The answer from the within will come: "No, you are not finger. It is your finger. It is your finger. You are not finger." If I am finger, then if I cut my finger, why shall I not die? If I am finger? Therefore it is my finger. Just like I'll never think that I am this stick. It is my stick. That is thinking. That is thinking. If I wrongly think that I am this body, then your whole thinking process is wrong and they are thinking like that, that we are this body.
Prabhupāda: You are thinking wrongly that we are not responsible. Why you are thinking like that? You are thinking wrongly. Kṛṣṇa did not take in politics, part? Then why you are thinking?
Reporter: No, no, I'm not saying Kṛṣṇa did not take... I'm just saying that it seems that He sometimes, it seems, that people who emphasize the spiritual consciousness do not clarify enough..., it is not clear enough—and I'm not saying it's not there but it's not clear enough—the social political dimension, social action, political action, how we run our society in its practical terms. So it is not clear.
Prabhupāda: No, no. It is wrongly written.
Yogeśvara: Ah. It's everyone, everyone.
Prabhupāda: No, no.
Yogeśvara: Not just those people.
Prabhupāda: Identifies with the body. He's not kṣetrajña.
Yogeśvara: He does not know.
Prabhupāda: No. It is wrongly written.
Bhagavān: That was no my question. This was my question.
Prabhupāda: No. It is wrongly written.
Bhagavān: That was no my question. This was my question.
Prabhupāda: Ah. Oh, it is wrongly written.
Bhagavān: From the lecture, from lecture, when one can...
Prabhupāda: Who does not identify, it should be.
Yogeśvara: Who does not identify. Yes.
Prabhupāda: Oh, it is wrong.
Bhagavān: That's always questioned in Bhagavad-gītā.
Prabhupāda: It is not, has been mis-edited. If you identify with body, how you know it? Oh, it is a very great mistake.
Prabhupāda: Why not? All these Pāṇḍavas, they were government men. How they maintained Kṛṣṇa consciousness? Yudhiṣṭhira Mahārāja... They were fighting for political reasons. So they were Kṛṣṇa conscious, fully. (break) ...who identifies with this body, he's described as cow or ass. How he can be knower? It is wrongly edited. The word: "Not". It was edited by whom? Hayagrīva?
Haṁsadūta: Hayagrīva.
Bhagavān: Jayādvaita.
Prabhupāda: Eh? Eh?
Haṁsadūta: Hayagrīva also...
Bhagavān: Hayagrīva and Jayādvaita.
Prabhupāda: This should be corrected immediately.
Prabhupāda: Yes. He's associating with Kṛṣṇa. And unless one is confidential devotee of Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa does not speak with him. But when he becomes perfect, confidential servitor, Kṛṣṇa speaks with him, "Do like this, do like that," and he'll do that. And therefore in his action, you won't find any fault. (break) If somebody perfect instructs him, "Do like this," then my action is not imperfect. Kṛṣṇa says, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). If I say, "Yes, you give up everything. Just surrender to Kṛṣṇa," then I am perfect. And if I say, "So 'ham. I am Kṛṣṇa," then you are imperfect. Is that...? (break) "...the same. I am the Lord. I am the Supreme." They're all imperfect. Vimukta-māninaḥ. They have been described as rascals. They are strongly thinking that they are liberated. They're rascals. Ye 'nye 'ravindākṣa vimukta-māninas tvayy asta-bhāvād aviśuddha-buddhayaḥ (SB 10.2.32). They are talking like nonsense because their intelligence is not..., it is purified. He's therefore wrongly thinking that "I am the Supreme Lord. I am moving the sun."
Prabhupāda: First of all, we have to understand what is meant by transcendental.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: That word they use wrongly. That is transcendental. They use the word "transcendental meditation," but it is not actually transcendental.
Karandhara: They had this one machine. They put a tester on the...
Prabhupāda: Bring any student of transcendental meditation and talk with our student. He'll be kicked out immediately. That is the test.
Hṛdayānanda: You're right, Prabhupāda. They're cheaters. I talked to one of their leaders at a college, and I, I defeated all their points. Then they simply became embarrassed and said, "Well, I don't want to talk any more." And they went away.
Prabhupāda: That's good. (laughter)
Prabhupāda: Oh yes. Astrology means... That is also Vedic. Jyotir-veda. Jyotir-veda. That is also part of the Vedas. The brāhmaṇas, they learn these three things: astrology and medicine. These two things. A brāhmaṇa is supposed to go to every householder's place, and he will inform, "Today is such and such tithi. The such and such thing should be done." And if required, if somebody inquires about, "Now I am going to that place. What will happen? Just find out the auspicious moment," so they will give him. Still it is current. It may be wrongly done or rightly, but the system is still there. Astrologer. The king should be always accompanied by a first-class astrologer. (break) ...there is a whole street, both sides simply astrology. (break) ...good astrologers.
1974 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: (Hindi) I'll kick on their face!
Guest (2): (Hindi)
Dr. Patel: Because it has been wrongly explained, the whole...
Prabhupāda: Therefore these kind of things are done by the Māyāvādīs.
Dr. Patel: Kṛṣṇa-līlā is not explained properly by any...
Prabhupāda: Māyāvādīs!
Dr. Patel: ...other thing than the Vaiṣṇavas. All is wrongly understood by all other fellows excepting Vaiṣṇavas, true Vaiṣṇavas. That Kṛṣṇa, as he was Supersoul...
Prabhupāda: Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu has condemned these rascal Māyāvādīs: māyāvādī haya kṛṣṇe aparādhī. The greatest offender to Kṛṣṇa is these Māyāvādīs. Greatest offenders.
Prabhupāda: Yes. That's all right. No, that's all right. One must... Just like Arjuna. Arjuna was a fighter. His dharma was to fight.
Dr. Patel: (Hindi) Fighter... I am wrongly placed in the medical profession. (laughs)
Prabhupāda: No. Dharma means one's sva-kar... Just like varṇāśrama-dharma.
Dr. Patel: That is the real dharma.
Prabhupāda: Yes. According to varṇa and āśrama. That is called varṇāśrama-dharma.
Dr. Patel: The greatest gift to the humanity is varṇāśrama-dharma by the ancient culture of India.
Prabhupāda: No, it is given by God.
Dr. Patel: Whatever it is... But I mean, that is the greatest gift.
Prabhupāda: There are many things like that. So you should try to understand it fully. Why should you understand it haphazardly? You must try to understand fully. (break)
Harikeśa: ...position to criticize his Godbrothers, no matter what?
Prabhupāda: You can criticize, if you are right. You cannot criticize wrongly. (break)
Devotee: ...instructions rather than our sense gratification? (break)
Prabhupāda: It is not right that he says that. Sense gratification is wrong. You cannot gratify your senses. You have to enjoy your senses in the service of the Lord. That is perfection. Hṛṣīkeṇa hṛṣīkeśa-sevanaṁ bhaktir ucyate (CC Madhya 19.170). That is our only business. (break)
Devotee (lady): Thank you. I'm leaving. (break)
Prabhupāda: ...hot.
Prabhupāda: Well.
Dr. Patel: Well, yes. And those boys came and Kṛṣṇa saved him.
Prabhupāda: Daily thousands of cows he was distributing.
Dr. Patel: And one day brāhmaṇa's cow was wrongfully given.
Prabhupāda: Yes. So these material pious activity is like that. There is risk. There is risk.
Dr. Patel: Shall we go back?
Prabhupāda: Ācchā? We shall go a little more? Little more let us go. Kṛta-puṇya-puñjāḥ (SB 10.12.11).
Dr. Patel: (Hindi)
Prabhupāda: (Hindi) ...but you start when there is little light. Not in the darkness.
Prabhupāda: That is guru. Guru and God...
Dr. Patel: And you. You cannot have God without guru.
Prabhupāda: And, "Let God go away." Oh, that is not good. That is not good.
Dr. Patel: It is not so. I think somebody has wrongly informed you, sir. And I will get you some comparative literatures to... (break) There are no four-hand there. There are no... You have wrongly seen and I have wrongly seen. No. That is...
Prabhupāda: But you showed me the wrong thing.
Dr. Patel: It was not right thing, but we have not seen in the dark. It was right thing, it was Kṛṣṇa's own photograph, and there were no four hands.
Prabhupāda: But I saw the picture. The guru has four hands.
Prabhupāda: That conception is Vaiṣṇavism. And as soon as you simply say that "He is God," that is Māyāvāda.
Guest (2): Yes but we are not... But he has wrongly...
Guest (1): No, Swami Nārāyaṇa, what I told you the principle of Swami Nārāyaṇa is that...
Guest (2): Swami Nārāyaṇa...
Dr. Patel: You have no right to speak.
Guest (1): No, no. What I understand about this...
Dr. Patel: There are three schools of Vaiṣṇavism. But that... In that school, the preaching and everything in the worship is the same, more or less.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Wrong civilization, rascal civilization. And this is due to this rascaldom, nationalism, "This is my land." And at any moment he will be kicked out. Still, he claims, "It is my land." Ahaṁ mameti, janasya moho 'yam ahaṁ mameti (SB 5.5.8). This is the illusion. Nothing belongs to him; still he is fighting, "This is mine. This is mine." "I" and "mine." Identifying himself with this body, "I", and wrongly conceiving that "This is mine." This is the basic principle of wrong civilization. Both things are... Nothing belongs to him. Suppose I have come here in Switzerland. If I remain here for one month and I claim, "Oh, this is mine," what is this? So similarly, I come as guest. Everyone comes as guest in the womb of his mother and lives here for fifty years. He is claiming, "It is mine." When, when, when it became yours? The land was long, long time before your birth. How it became yours? But they have no sense. "It is mine." "Fight." "My land, my nation, my family, my society." In this way, wasting time. These things have been introduced by these western mlecchas.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Even you are fearless, you should not be fool. Because, if you know that "There is danger, I must be very careful," that is intelligence. That is not fearfulness. Besides that, a devotee like Prahlāda, he's fearless, but he's fearful for others. That is stated. Just like the mother. She knows that she'll not catch fire, she'll not fall down in the water, but she is always anxious to see her child that the child may not fall into the water, may not catch fire. She's working in her own way, but always fearful of the child. Similarly, a Vaiṣṇava, he's not fearless for himself, but because he's sympathetic, because he knows that all these rascals, they are wrongly wasting their time, therefore he's anxious, fearful. Para-duḥkha-duḥkhī. They are unhappy by seeing others unhappy. For themselves, there is no unhappiness. That is their grace. And Vaiṣṇava is fearless, even if he's sent to hell, he's not unhappy. Because wherever he goes, he'll chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. So actually he has no fear, fearfulness.
Prabhupāda: That is also stated in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam by... That is also statement of Prahlāda Mahārāja, this boy devotee. He says, na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇum: (SB 7.5.31) "These foolish people, they do not know, what is their actual self-interest." So he says, "They do not know the actual self-interest is approaching God. That is real self-interest. But they do not know it." Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇuṁ durāśayā (SB 7.5.31). "They have made their plan wrongly to become happy in this material world." Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇuṁ durāśayā ye bahir-artha-māninaḥ (SB 7.5.31). Bahir-artha-māninaḥ means external: "They have taken the external energy, the material world, as very important. And the leaders also, the so-called leaders... They are being led. The leaders, they are blind, and they are leading some other blind men without knowing that they cannot be happy in that way because he is under strict, stringent laws of nature, material nature."
1975 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Yes, because they are wrongly directed. You are inquiring me, "Sir I want to such and such place." If that place is this way, if I say you go this way. You go this way. Then you'll be baffled, and you'll be unhappy. Wrong direction.
Paramahaṁsa: But we are taking some direction from...
Prabhupāda: That's alright, but if you take wrong direction you'll be unhappy. Your destination will not be (reached).
Gaṇeśa: So how can the scientists arrive at vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti (BG 7.19)?
Prabhupāda: For that he has to take direction from Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa says the destination Himself. He comes and says, "Here is, I am the destination, come here." But if you don't take, that is your misfortune. The direction is here. The perfect director is there, but he's unfortunate—he does not accept this. Therefore he is baffled.
Prabhupāda: That is another thing. He was a good gentleman. He was very humble, meek. Because you have got some fault, that does not mean you have no qualities. That is another thing. But if you deal wrongly with something, then you must be called a foolish man. You may have very good qualities, but if you do not know how to deal with business, then you are foolish. He was mainly engaged in politics, but he did not know how to deal with politics. He was reading Bhagavad-gītā and he was misleading people that in the Bhagavad-gītā there is nonviolence. Just see. Because Arjuna wanted to become nonviolent the whole Bhagavad-gītā was taught to him, how to become violent, and this rascal said that in the Bhagavad-gītā there is nonviolence. It is not false? So a man preaching falsehood, is he a gentleman? Or he is a right man?
Prabhupāda: We are wrongly directed. (break) ...described as mūḍha, asses, who does not take instruction from God and thinks that things will happen accidentally.
Devotee (1): Prabhupāda, is this philosophy like karma-mīmāṁsā which is described in the Kṛṣṇa book? Is this the same principle, where they feel that simply by their endeavor things will come, without the sanction of God? Is this karma-mīmāṁsā?
Prabhupāda: Yes, yes, karma-mīmāṁsā. (break) Now, if you do good, good result will come. So sometimes it so happens that a person doing very good, still, good result will not come. Is it not?
Devotee (1): That's true.
Prabhupāda: That information we are giving. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti (BG 4.9). A Kṛṣṇa conscious person, after giving up this material, he is not coming any more with this material body. This is our philosophy. And if you again die and again come another material body, so what is the use of this education? You cannot dictate that "My mother nature, don't make me a dog next life." She is not subjected to your dictation. She is subjected by Kṛṣṇa's dictation. Mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram (BG 9.10). She is not your servant, you are servant of the nature. So you are declaring independence, but you are servant of the material nature. That they are not thinking. Unnecessarily they are thinking independence. What is the nonsense independence? You are dependent on the laws of nature, and you are thinking independence. How much foolishness it is. This is psychology. They are wrongly thinking how to correct them. Is it not? Are they not wrongly thinking? Everyone is thinking, "I am independent. I can do whatever I like." How much foolish he is.
Prabhupāda: Explain.
Devotee: There are even brāhmaṇas in our temple who have left the temple and they are acting just like karmīs.
Prabhupāda: So they were wrongly initiated. We want recommendation from the authority, whether one should be initiated, but they gave wrong information. That is the defect of the informer. (break)
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: ...Hari-nāma initiation can be a little more liberal.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But brāhmaṇa initiation should be strict.
Prabhupāda: Very strict. Very strict means he must be observed that he is actually chanting sixteen rounds, following the regulative principles. That's all.
Prabhupāda: Yes, that is our logic.
Gurudāsa: But also you said once that we feel it. That is our proof.
Prabhupāda: No, feel, you may wrongly feel because you are imperfect. That is not good argument. Our argument is that the message is coming from the most authorized personality; therefore it is perfect. And we receive guru-paramparā. That is our process. Evam paramparā-prāptam imaṁ rājarṣayo viduḥ (BG 4.2). The rājarṣis, means very, very, big, big, stalwart persons, they accept it. Just like Arjuna gives evidence that "I accept You. You are Parabrahma." So he, next line, he says, "It is not that I am saying. But big, big personalities like Vyāsadeva, he has said. Nārada has said. Asita has said. And You are personally saying, so I have no doubt." This is our process. (break) ...Upendra, Upendra has not come? (break) ...knowledge is always imperfect.
Prabhupāda: But that you do not know, how to do good to the people. Just like a diseased man. The doctor has ordered that he should starve. But if you go in the hospital and you take sympathy with the starving patient, "Oh, you are starving for the last three days," if you give to him some food without the permission of the physician, then you will be punished. So he may think that "Oh, here is a starving man. I must give him some food." But you are liable to be punished. So first of all learn how to do good to others. So that is described here. Tasyaiva hetoḥ prayateta kovido (SB 1.5.18). To bring him to the knowledge of self-realization, that is good. If you can distribute knowledge to bring him back to his consciousness, original consciousness, that is real welfare activity. Otherwise, if you manufacture something that "This man is starving: let me give him some food," it may be wrongly done, and you are liable to be punished. So first of all, you must learn what is actually good to the human society. Then, if we do that, that is good. In ignorance, if we do it, then we may be liable to be punished.
Prabhupāda: But you cannot see them. Your philosophy is unless you see, you don't believe. That is your philosophy. But you do not consider what you can see. That is the defect of this imperfect world, that people do not think that they are imperfect. With all imperfectness, they think they are perfect. That is the defect. Therefore it is said, andha. One is blind, and he is becoming the leader of other blind men. Andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānās te 'pīśa-tantryām uru-dāmni baddhāḥ (SB 7.5.31). Īśa-tantrya, by the laws of nature he is bound up very tight, hands and legs, and he is thinking he is free to think, free to see, free to... That is the defect. He is not at all free, completely under the clutches of material laws, and he is thinking that he is free. That is the defect. And when this sense comes, that "I am not free; everything is forced upon me," then he becomes human being. Otherwise he's a dog. Just like, you see, if a dog thinks he is free. He is jumping here, there. He is thinking, "I am independent," barking, attacking somebody. Oh, he is thinking he is free to do everything. When one comes to this sense, that he is not free, that is beginning of human life. Athāto brahma jijñāsā. Then the question will be that "Why I am not free? What is the reason?" Then that is... Real human life begins. Otherwise he's a dog. Is it correct or not? What do you think? If one is not free and wrongly thinks that he is free, then what is that mentality?
Prabhupāda: No, Mohammed also has got... Caitanya Mahāprabhu argued in Koran. He proved there is kṛṣṇa-bhakti. He proved with the Pathans. Yes.
Dr. Patel: Otherwise the Christianity is just our way, I mean, absolutely Vaisnavism. It has been wrongly preached and wrongly initiated in India. That is why it has fallen to disrepute. Otherwise Christianity is just Vaiṣṇava-dharma. Nothing else, to my mind, the way I have studied, I mean the New Testament and all the Christian, all the things. Now, the sermon of Christ is nothing but the preaching of Bhagavad-gītā.
Prabhupāda: I never criticized. I simply said that positive side, God consciousness.
Dr. Patel: Christ himself was drunk with God consciousness totally.
Prabhupāda: Eh?
Prabhupāda: A three-feet well, and a frog is there and he is thinking, "This is everything." And some friend comes and informs, "Oh, I have seen very big water, Atlantic." He simply imagines, "Oh? It's big? How much big? One feet more? All right, two feet. All right, three feet," like that. So the frogs in the well, they cannot understand. You should be not a frog in the well; you should be liberal to hear from the authorities, Vedas. Then you will understand. And if you remain a frog in the well... All these rascal scientists, they are all frog in the well. They have got little calculation of this planet, and they have no information of... There are so many millions of planets. What do they know? They cannot, could not study even this moon planet. Wrongly study. The moon planet is above the sun planet, 1,000,600,000 miles above. What do they know? They are thinking the moon planet is in between the earth and the... So the all wrong calculation.
Prabhupāda: No, no. Avidhi, avidhi...
Dr. Patel: But they are going to the same place.
Prabhupāda: You are a medical man. If somebody is doing wrongly, you must say it is a rascaldom. Yes. You cannot accept, "Oh, you are all right. You are all right. You are doing in your own way." (laughter) He's another rascal.
Dr. Patel: Yes, that's right, sir.
Prabhupāda: That's right? You are a medical man and you'll, you'll...?
Dr. Patel: Still I say... You'll hear.
Prabhupāda: No, no, no, I cannot hear this.
1976 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Yes, that is everywhere.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Wrongfully, you know. That man who is our life member from Madras who was in charge of Indian Express? Girirāja and I made him a member.
Madhudviṣa: Goenka?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Goenka. He was taking the money and they caught him. He's one of the trustees, and he was embe..., you know, embezzling the money, using it for individual business projects he had. The government caught him.
Prabhupāda: (break) ...from distant place.
Indian man: (Bengali)
Prabhupāda: It is not my—everyone's. You are in ignorance; you do not know; therefore we are trying to educate you. It is yours also. It is not a personal thing. It is meant for the living entities. That you people, you do not know, that we are all living entities. There is slight description of the evolution by Darwin. But he's also not in perfect knowledge. The real fact is the..., I am not this body, you are not this body. I am living entity within this body. Just like you are within your coat and shirt. The coat and shirt you are not. Similarly, we living entities, we are within this gross and subtle body. The gross body is made of earth, water, air, fire, and the subtle body is made of mind, intelligence, and egotism. So we are within this. So nobody knows; there is no educational system, what is our real constitutional position. We are wrongly accepting this body. And that kind of acceptance is there in the animals.
Prabhupāda: Therefore he is not to be preached. Caitanya Mahāprabhu says, janma sārthaka kari' kara para-upakāra: (CC Adi 9.41) "Go to do good to others. First of all you do good to yourself." First of all you become really preacher. Then go to preach. Caitanya Mahāprabhu never sent neophyte to go to preach. For neophyte the preaching is not their business. For neophyte, one should stick to the worship of Deity in the temple. And those who have understood the philosophy, applied the philosophy in his life, he should go for preaching. Otherwise he'll preach wrongly, like.... What is that? Charan das Babaji. And it will stop. He wanted to preach, but he did not know how to preach, and therefore, after his life, it is finished. So Caitanya Mahāprabhu does not say like that, that "You remain a rascal and go to preach." No. Janma sārthaka kari. "Your first business is that you make your life perfect.
Prabhupāda: "You remain a rascal and go to preach." No. Janma sārthaka kari. "Your first business is that you make your life perfect. Then go to preach. Perfect means you learn how to obey My orders." That is perfection. Āmāra ājñāya. So if you are actually, perfectly carrying out the orders of Caitanya Mahāprabhu, then you are preaching. Otherwise you will do wrongly, mislead. Don't do that. Andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānāḥ (SB 7.5.31). If you remain blind, don't try to lead other blind men. That is misleading. First of all open your eyes. Everything is there. Nobody can do anything whimsically. If you do whimsically, concoctedly, that will be failure. It will not be effective.
Prabhupāda: That is not their invention. That is already there. (pause) (walking) We shall go further? No? (japa)
Hari-śauri: One thing is, Śrīla Prabhupāda, if they've wrongly calculated the distance of the moon, then how is it that they're able to calculate these eclipses and whatever?
Prabhupāda: That I do not know. First of all, answer this. Yes. Yes. They say the moon planet first. I say, no, sun planet. First of all...
Trivikrama:(?) But they can see the moon comes in front of the sun.
Candanācārya: This is some other planet.
Prabhupāda: Huh?
Candanācārya: That must be some other planet.
Prabhupāda: The physical life is struggle for existence.
Richard: Is a struggle for existence. Why is...? Why, if a man who is an alcoholic, if that's the best that he can make of life, why is that bad?
Prabhupāda: That is not.... He's wrongly, he's going in the wrong path.
Richard: Well, if that's the best that he can do.
Prabhupāda: He can think.
Richard: He can change?
Prabhupāda: Yes, he can change. Change is possible, but if he sticks, that is his selection.
Prabhupāda: So here is definitive knowledge, in our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. There's no question of "I believe" or "You believe." No. What you are, your belief? You may believe wrongly. You are not perfect. They do not accept this, that every one of the conditioned souls is imperfect with four defects: illusion, committing mistake, cheating, and imperfectness of senses. Who will say it is not? It is. If you have got imperfect senses, then what is the use of your belief? If the child says "Oh, there is no father. I have never seen my father," does it mean there is no father? Because you are child, because you have got mother, there must be father, you believe or not believe. So these rascals say "I don't believe in God." Why? As it is inevitable—the mother is there, the child is there—there must be father. You may not know him, but you can know him through your mother. But must be father.
Prabhupāda: Tomorrow I may be American dog body. So immediately my duty changes. So that is not my real business. My real business is how to elevate myself as spirit soul to the spiritual world, back to home, back to Godhead." Then he changes his... Ceto... Bhava... Then this materialistic activity is stopped. He is no more interested, that "This is simply waste of time." That is knowledge, that "I am simply acting for the benefit and comfort of the body. This is simply waste of time. I must act spiritually." That is called ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12), cleansing the heart. He is wrongly working on the basis of bodily concept of life. That illusion is over simply by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra. This is the first installment, ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam, and bhava-mahā-dāvāgni-nirvāpaṇam. Then he is in the process to stop the blazing fire of material existence. Then vidyā-vadhū-jīvanam ānandāmbudhi-vardhanam. Then the ocean of transcendental bliss increases.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Dvaita and advaita. This is the process of Caitanya Mahāprabhu, to bring all the dvaitas and advaitas in one platform. To understand that he is essentially servant of God. The Advaitas, they are wrongly thinking that he is God himself. That is wrong, or not the proper way of thinking. How you can become God? God is ṣaḍ-aiśvarya-pūrṇam, full with six opulences, all-powerful, all-strength, all-beauty, all opulent. So this is artificial, to think to become God. And... This is Advaita. And Dvaitas, they think that one is different from God, God is separate from the living entity. But actually, from the Bhagavad-gītā we understand that God is always the Supreme and the living entities, they are subordinate. And in the Vedas also it is said, nityo nityānaṁ cetanaś cetanānām (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13). Both of them are living entities, but God is the chief. The difference between the two, that God maintains other living entities. Eko yo bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān.
Prabhupāda: We have come here, not that that room developed. This room is here, that room is there, but I am transferring. Because they have no idea of soul, they are thinking that this nice room, now transform into this room or this room, transform... This is foolishness. A civil man transferred into jail—not that his civil house becomes jail. They are thinking wrongly like that, Darwin's theory. Body becoming changed. No. The different types of bodies are already there. The living entity is being transferred from one body to another. Just try to explain. So evolution you take that this apartment is better than that apartment, that apartment better than, and a living entity's going from one after another. So this is evolution. That you are now getting salary, one thousand dollar, now you get fifteen hundred dollars. So according to your qualification, you are getting.
Prabhupāda: So even in the Vaikuṇṭha, if I desire that "Why shall I serve Kṛṣṇa? Why not become Kṛṣṇa?" I immediately fall down. That is natural. A servant is serving the master, sometimes he may think that "If I could become the master." They are thinking like that, they are trying to become God. That is delusion. You cannot become God. That is not possible. But he's wrongly thinking.
Vipina: Why doesn't Kṛṣṇa protect us from that desire?
Prabhupāda: He's protecting. He says, "You rascal, don't desire, surrender unto Me." But you are rascal, you do not do this.
Vipina: Why doesn't He save me from thinking like that?
Prabhupāda: That means you lose your independence.
Vipina: And no love.
Prabhupāda: That is force. (indistinct) prema. In Bengali it is said "If you catch one girl or boy, 'You love me, you love me, you love me.' " Is it love? (laughter) "You love me, otherwise I will kill you." (laughter) Is that love?
Prabhupāda: Wrongly, wrongly. Kṛṣṇa says, cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭaṁ guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ (BG 4.13). So according to quality and work... That is fact. If you have got engineering qualification and if you can work as engineer, people will call you engineer-sāheb. Is it not? So there may be a class of engineer, but that depends on quality and work. But if you have no quality, no work, how you become engineer? If you have no qualification of becoming an engineer, and you do not work, you work as a clerk, and if somebody addresses you "Engineer-sāheb," he is a fool, you are a fool. (laughter) So if he's not a brāhmaṇa, if you call him a brāhmaṇa, then you are fool and he is also fool. So that is going on, fools' paradise. A rascal who is not in qualification a brāhmaṇa, if he's addressed and given honor of a brāhmaṇa, he's sees, "Oh, for nothing I am getting this honor, that's right, very nice."
Prabhupāda: The sum and substance is that if a person thinks that he is the car, the driver, if he thinks wrongly that he is the car, then his life is spoiled.
Bali-mardana: So if someone identifies too closely with the body, then his life is spoiled.
Interviewer: You think, if he identifies with the body too much his life is...
Prabhupāda: Not too much.
Interviewer: At all.
Prabhupāda: He should know that he is different from the car. That is real knowledge. And if he identifies himself with the car, then he's a fool.
Prabhupāda: That is the goal. When the soul lives without this material body, that is his liberated life. Just like the criminal, he can live within the jail and without the jail. But he's thinking wrongly that without jail he cannot live. But his life without jail is real life.
Interviewer: That reflects the old, the Hindu view that...
Prabhupāda: Why you again bring Hindu view?
Interviewer: Or, the, at least the Eastern religious view, that to leave this life...
Prabhupāda: Why we are bringing Hindu and Muslim view?
Interviewer: Well, O.K., I take that back then. I take that back. Anyway, what you're saying is that this life is a jail and that really the goal is another life.
Prabhupāda: That is the... Otherwise there is no difficulty, mahājano yena gataḥ sa panthāḥ. We are therefore requesting people that don't be misled. Here is the greatest mahājana, Kṛṣṇa Himself. You follow His instruction. It is very easy, there is no complication. This is our propaganda. But we don't make any compromise. Why shall I make compromise? If we are presenting the right thing, why shall I make compromise with something wrong? (Hindi) Baliye(?). If we are confident that we are presenting the right thing, why shall I make compromise with the wrong thing? (Hindi) No, you are intelligent. You can say if I am saying something wrong. Our culture has been spoiled by interpreting wrongly Kṛṣṇa's words. Bhārata-bhūmi, puṇya-bhūmi... still, thousands and millions are there. If there is Kumbhamelā, millions of men are coming. Whenever we hold some Kṛṣṇa consciousness meeting, daily, twenty thousand, fifteen thousand, thirty thousand men come.
Prabhupāda: It is not a question of politician or economics. It is general education, that you must know your identity, what you are. Then knowledge...
Interviewer (4): I am living under the system, and that system is...
Prabhupāda: But if the system is wrong, then you are living wrongly. You are misled.
Interviewer (4): That means the movement should make an attack on the politicians, people who make the decisions.
Prabhupāda: No. Politician, of course, it is, in the Bhagavad-gītā it is stated imaṁ rājarṣayo viduḥ (BG 4.2). This system, this science, was understood by the rājarṣi, kings who were as good as ṛṣis, rājarṣis. So where is that politician, politician as good as a ṛṣi? That is the difficulty. It is meant for rājarṣi. Rāja and ṛṣi.
1977 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Yes. Intelligence is developed by association, by hearing, by experiencing. Otherwise very big intelligence, he's also dull. Don't you see the big, big leaders, Gandhi and Radhakrishnan, they have no intelligence? They are misinterpreting the whole..., although they're passing as very big men, intelligent. And if you say to them that "You are not intelligent; you are wrongly interpreting Bhagavad-gītā," they will be offended. So intelligence is so dull even to such big, big men, what to speak of ordinary men? Big, big demigods, their intelligence also lacking. Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, kona: "Somebody very fortunate, he can understand." Kona bhāgyavān. And another place, brahmāra durlabha prema: "Even Brahmā cannot understand what is Kṛṣṇa consciousness." Manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu (BG 7.3). These things are... So this intelligence is not so easy. Na janma-koṭibhiḥ sukṛtair labhyate. Bahūnāṁ janmanām ante (BG 7.19). There are so many places that "To come to Kṛṣṇa consciousness is not so easy." It requires very, very great intelligence.
Prabhupāda: And therefore they are rascals. Therefore they are rascals. They're thinking wrongly. It is not possible for you. Actual suffering, I am. You are scientist. But can you give me relief from my old age?
Yogeśvara: No, that's what they want. They want to make it less painful. They want to make old age less painful, less debilitating, so that old people can be more productive and engage in more activity.
Prabhupāda: No, no, no. That is another side. I mean to say so far the body is concerned, I am suffering due to old age. You are scientist. You are European. You are American. Can you give me any relief? You have the idea, "To keep our spiritual master in perfect comfort," but you cannot do it because due to my old age. You may try your best, but it is impossible for you.
Prabhupāda: It is wrongly said by...? So you should be convinced that the Western people, they have no brain. Now this is brain-giving movement, para-upakāra. They have no brain, and we have to educate them. Brain there is. The human brain is meant for that purpose. Even one is an ass, dull, he can be educated. That is their facility. Animals cannot be educated, but human being, even he is born like animal... Just like these children. If you don't educate them, they will remain like that, fools and rascals. If you educate, they'll be nice. So they require to cleanse their brain. Why they are...? That we have to prove. This is the opportunity. They should admit honestly that they have no brain. Now this movement is brain-giving movement. Hm? You are Tripurāri. Tripura was the place for the demon, and ari, ari means enemy.
Prabhupāda: And therefore I say that education has been so wrongly given that they are restless like animals due to the modern civilization. The beginning of spiritual education they cannot accept. What they will make, further progress of spiritual life? Beginning, ABCD, they are so restless, they cannot take. This is the position. Therefore I'm speaking that it is meant for the dhīra, for the rājarṣi. Not for the men who are like animals. Sa eva go-kharaḥ (SB 10.84.13). Their bodily conception is so strong that they cannot hear even what is said. They are so dull. Mandāḥ sumanda-matayo manda-bhāgyāḥ (SB 1.1.10).
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They should learn the real meaning of Bhaktivedanta. They take it wrongly, but we should teach them what is the real meaning, that it is scientific. You always point out that sometimes people say that bhakti is sentimental, but where is there more scientific person than Jīva Gosvāmī, more philosophical?
Prabhupāda: Mad-bhaktiṁ labhate param. It is the last stage of knowledge. Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā (BG 18.54). When you surpass all the stages... Mad-bhaktiṁ labhate param. It is the last word of knowledge. Yasmin vijñāte sarvam evaṁ vijñātaṁ bhavanti. So unless you understand the supreme cause, Kṛṣṇa, there is no knowledge. And if you understand Kṛṣṇa, then you understand everything. Yasmin vijñāte sarvam evaṁ vijñātaṁ bhavanti. Kṛṣṇa also says, aham ādir hi devānām (Bg 10.2), ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavo mattaḥ sarvaṁ pravartate (BG 10.8). If you understand Kṛṣṇa, then everything.... And how Kṛṣṇa can be understood? Bhaktyā mām abhijānāti (BG 18.55). No other way. You cannot understand by any other way. Therefore bhakti-vedanta is last knowledge. There is.... Argument there is.
Prabhupāda: Then there will be question, "If the life is eternal, then whatever we have wrongly taken as life, temporary, that is only waste of thought(?)."
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes. That is a corollary. The whole educational system has to be changed.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Everything they thought, this chemistry and physics, it's going to be all wrong.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: So they have no alternative.
Prabhupāda: That's all right. And therefore the civilization should be athāto brahma jijñāsā, simply to enquire about the Absolute Truth. And that is civilization. Now you can... Whatever little we have discussed, you can discuss now and close our book. How wrongly the whole civilization is carried on, how risky it is, that they do not know. Now, what the materialist has to say in this connection?
Śatadhanya: They say everything is getting better.
Prabhupāda: What is that better?
Yaśodā-nandana: Well, a few hundred years ago there was no airplanes, no cars, no facilities...
Prabhupāda: Everyone is prejudiced. But who is rightly prejudiced who is wrongly prejudiced. That is everywhere. Just like materialistic person will think, "Brainwash. These rascals, they have given all up material enjoyment, and after some phantasmagoria they sacrifice everything. Brainwash." And we are thinking, "Oh, these rascals, got this human form of body, he did not understand what is spiritual life." Both of them—he is rascal and he is rascal. This is going on. Yā niśā sarva-bhūtānāṁ tasyāṁ jāgarti saṁyamī. Is it not? They say, "Brainwash. Unnecessarily they've sacrificed everything." And we say that he got the human form and unnecessarily he is working like cats and...
Prabhupāda: (laughing) Not one tolā.
Śatadhanya: They were saying some large...
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, one tolā, not per day.
Prabhupāda: (laughing) That was wrongly inter... Nobody can... Anyway, let us see for some days, one.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Okay.
Bhavānanda: Bhakti-caru, Prabhupāda only wants to take the makara-dhvaja once a day, in the morning. How do you feel about that?
Bhakti-caru: Whatever Śrīla Prabhupāda says, that's... (break)
Prabhupāda: Huh?
| Page Title: | Wrongly (Conversations) |
| Compiler: | Visnu Murti, RupaManjari, Mayapur |
| Created: | 12 of Sep, 2011 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=62, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 62 |