Religion conveys the idea of faith. Faith may change. One may have faith in a particular process, and he may change the faith afterwards and adopt another faith. But sanātana-dharma means which cannot be changed, which cannot be changed. Just like water and liquidity. Liquidity cannot be changed from water. Heat and fire. Heat cannot be changed from fire. Similarly, the eternal function of the eternal living entity, which is known as sanātana-dharma, cannot be changed. It is not possible to change. We have to find out what is that eternal function of the eternal living entity. When we speak of sanātana-dharma therefore, we must take it for granted on the authority of Śrīpāda Rāmānujācārya that it has no beginning nor any end. The thing which has no end, no beginning, must not be any sectarian thing or limited by any boundary. When we hold on the conference on the sanātana-dharma, people belonging to some of the noneternal religious faiths may wrongly consider it that we are dealing in some sectarian thing. But if we go deep into the matter and take everything in the light of modern science, it will be possible for us to see sanātana-dharma as the business of all the people of the world, nay, all the living entities of the universe. Non-sanātana religious faith may have some beginning in the annals of the human society, but there cannot be any history of the sanātana-dharma because it continues to remain with the history of the living entities.
Wrongly (Lectures)
Lectures
Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures
If they have got very nice apartment, a nice wife and good bank balance and a very nice dress, oh, there is perfection. That's all. That is karmī. And jñānī means that when they are confused. Just like there are a section of people in your country, they have seen enough of this material affair, happiness, or they are searching after something wrongly. But actually those who are intelligent, they don't remain confused. Actually they want to see "What is my actual position." They are called jñānī, man of knowledge.
So Kṛṣṇa, now He has taken the position of teacher. Now no more friendly talking because Arjuna has accepted Him as the teacher. So He's the teacher. It is the duty of the teacher to punish or to chastise the disciple when he is wrongly going on. That is the duty. So first teaching of Kṛṣṇa, because Arjuna has accepted His leadership, His teachership, His instruction, accepted that he will follow His instruction, so first instruction is aśocyān anvaśocas tvaṁ prajñā-vādāṁś ca bhāṣase: (BG 2.11) "You rascal, you are rascal. You are talking like a very learned man that 'How shall I kill my, this grandfather? How shall I kill my brother, this and so on?' This is all bodily concept of life. You are talking on the bodily platform." So what is this body? It is to be neglected? "Yes." Aśocyān anvaśocas tvam: "It is not to be lamented."
Kṛṣṇa is advising, "Yes, he must be killed because he has gone to the other side. He has forgotten his duty. He should have joined you. Therefore he is no more in the position of guru. You must kill him. He has wrongly joined the other party. Therefore there is no harm, killing him. Similarly Droṇācārya. Similarly Droṇācārya. I know they are great personalities, they have got great affection. But only on material consideration they have gone there." What is that material consideration? Bhīṣma thought that "I am maintained by the money of Duryodhana. Duryodhana is maintaining me. Now he is in danger. If I go to the other side, then I should be ungrateful. He has maintained me so long. And if I, in the time of danger, when there is fighting, if I go to the other side, that will be..." He thought like this. He did not think that "Duryodhana may be maintaining, but he has usurped the property of the Pāṇḍavas." But it is his greatness. He knew that Arjuna will never be killed because Kṛṣṇa is there. "So from material point of view, I must be grateful to Duryodhana." The same position was for Droṇācārya. They were maintained.
Here, accepting Kṛṣṇa as the spiritual master means whatever Kṛṣṇa will decide, he has to accept. One cannot deny the order of a spiritual master. Therefore one has to select a spiritual master whose order, carrying, you'll not commit a mistake. You see? Now, suppose if you accept a wrong person as spiritual master, and if you, if he guides you wrongly, then your whole life is spoiled. So one has to accept a spiritual master whose guidance will make his life perfect. That is the relation between spiritual master and disciple. It is not a formality. It is a great responsibility both for the disciple and for the spiritual master.
The kṣatriyas were fighting severely one another, but still they are not in bodily concept of life. So Arjuna being kṣatriya, is so much embarrassed with the bodily concept of life; therefore Kṛṣṇa chastised him, that "You are not a very learned man. You are talking just like a learned man, but you are not learned man." So this conclusion is to be taken by us. That anyone within this world, if he has got bodily concept of life, he's not a learned man. He's a fool. So this world at the present moment at least, it is a fool's paradise. Nobody is learned. Because everyone is working under the bodily concept of life. This is chastise. This is the first chastisement. Just like before giving lesson, if the student is writing or reading wrongly, then the teacher immediately says, "You fool, it is not like this. It should be like this."
We are servant of God, but if we deny that "No, I am not servant," so that means I become servant of māyā. Servant I'll have to remain. That is my constitutional position. So one must first of all understand what is his identity. So this is the beginning of a lesson given by Kṛṣṇa, that "You are lamenting for this body. This is not your identity. This is not your identity. You are wrongly thinking." Just like if your coat is some way or other destroyed, that does not mean that you are destroyed. If your car by accident is broken, that does not mean that you are finished. Sometimes we get accident, that is another thing. But I am not the car. I am not this body, I am not this coat. This is real knowledge. Although sometimes we become little sorry, but the identity is different. So Kṛṣṇa says that "You are talking like learned man, but you do not know your identity. You are not this body."
Our aim should be how to approach Viṣṇu. How to go back to home, back to Godhead. Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇuṁ durāśayā (SB 7.5.31). They're hoping, very durāśayā, means very badly, wrongly, that they want to be happy by adjustment of this material world. The yogic process is also another material gymnastic. We have not heard any yogi has become successful to get immortality. No, that is not possible. Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇuṁ durāśayā ye bahir-artha-māninaḥ (SB 7.5.31). Those who are trying to adjust this material world by science or yoga, without caring for Viṣṇu, what they are? Andha. They are blind.
That Mr. Brown, he is acting as attorney on behalf of the landlord. So he has no responsibility. He is acting in landlord capacity or landlord consciousness. He is trying to save the interest of the landlord as far as possible. But if there is any mistake, the landlord will suffer or gain. He has nothing to do. Similarly, if we work in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, if there is something wrong... Because we can act two ways, wrongly or rightly. That's all. If we do rightly, it is all right. Even if we don't do it rightly, wrongly, still, it is right because the cause is the Supreme. Yajñārthāt karmaṇo 'nyatra loko 'yaṁ karma-bandhanaḥ (BG 3.9). The best, safest way of acting is to act in Kṛṣṇa consciousness or under the order of Kṛṣṇa. Or if somebody says "Where is Kṛṣṇa?" No. Kṛṣṇa is there. Just like Bhagavad-gītā is there, and the explanation of Bhagavad-gītā by the representative of Kṛṣṇa is there. So Kṛṣṇa, being absolute, His representative, His words are nondifferent from Him.
The bird is eating the fruit of the tree, or the jīva soul, the living entity, he is making his fruitive action. Kṣetra-jña. These are all described. Kṣetra-jñaṁ cāpi māṁ viddhi sarva-kṣetreṣu bhārata (BG 13.3). The owner and the occupier. I am the occupier of this body, and the owner is Kṛṣṇa. Therefore, Kṛṣṇa's another name is Hṛṣīkeśa. Hṛṣīkeśa. So He is actually owner of my hand and leg and eyes, everything, all my senses. I am simply occupier. I'm not owner. That we have forgotten. Just like if you are in a rented apartment, you are occupier. You are given the license to occupy the room. You are not owner. But if you think that you are owner, that is, stena eva sa ucyate (BG 3.12), immediately he becomes wrongly guided.
Manuṣyāḥ. Now just see. Here it is said. Manuṣyāḥ means all men. All men. So Kṛṣṇa is not for a particular society or particular religious community or particular country or particular time. No. Kṛṣṇa is the leader of all men for all the time in all the countries in all the worlds and all the universes. So He is not a sectarian Personality of Godhead. We should know. Manuṣyāḥ. Manuṣyāḥ, it is plural number: "All men." All men. So He said, "If I do not set example by My practical work, then because I am the leader of all men, all living entities, they will be wrongly directed." Wrongly directed.
Therefore the brāhmaṇa of whose story I was telling, he, when, after going through this Vedic literature, he understood that "I am following the leadership wrongly of my lust. I am not following the leadership of anyone else. It is false... And although I am accepting somebody as my leader, but actually I accept somebody as my leader who corroborates with my lust. Therefore lust created by me is my leader," so he said, kāmādīnāṁ kati na katidhā pālitā durnideśāḥ: "Oh, I have followed the leadership of my lust, and in doing so, I am ashamed to, I mean to say, accept it. I agree to accept it, that I have done so many nonsense by the dictation of my lust." Kāmādīnāṁ kati na katidhā pālitā durnideśāḥ.
So kāma-saṅkalpa-varjitāḥ, jñānāgni-dagdha-karmāṇaṁ tam āhuḥ paṇḍitaṁ budhāḥ: "One who thinks like that, one who is situated in that consciousness," paṇḍitaṁ budhāḥ, "he is learned, and he is actually a man of knowledge." This is the whole process. Tam āhuḥ. Tam, he is known as the paṇḍita. Paṇḍita means one who knows things as it is, not to take a thing wrongly. So that consciousness has to be invoked, not only individually, but also community-wise, society-wise, nation-wise, all over the world. Then there will be peace. If you want real peace.
Others, who are simply speculating, they cannot understand You. Therefore, people are bewildered how God is person. But they cannot understand, because they have not taken shelter of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, or His representative. It is impossible for him. Nāhaṁ prakāśaḥ sarvasya yoga-māyā-samā... (BG 7.25). Kṛṣṇa cannot be exposed to the nondevotees. Nāhaṁ prakāśaḥ sarvasya. Not anyone, ordinary common man, can understand. Therefore, we have to understand Kṛṣṇa, or the Supreme Personality of Godhead, from Kṛṣṇa, not from anyone who is simply speculating or wrongly interpreting Bhagavad-gītā. They cannot understand. That is the way.
You can attain this also, state of life, liberated life. We have heard so many times, "liberation," or "mukti." Mukti means one who has no defects as mentioned. That is mukti. Mukti does not mean one thinks himself that "I have become Bhagavān. I have become now..." Vimukta-māninaḥ. They have been called as rascals, wrongly thinking that they are vimukta. Vimukta-mānī. Ye 'nye 'ravindākṣa vimukta-māninaḥ. There are so many rascals, they are thinking that they have become mukta, liberated Nārāyaṇas. They're thinking like that. Ye 'nye 'ravindākṣa vimukta-māninaḥ.
When he forgets that he is servant of Kṛṣṇa, he becomes servant of so many māyā. But when he understands that "I am servant of Kṛṣṇa, and, becoming servant of Kṛṣṇa, I can become servant of others also," that is called Kṛṣṇa consciousness. This is the movement of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Everyone is a servant, but he is serving wrongly. His service is misplaced. We are simply educating people that "Your service being misplaced; therefore you are not satisfied, neither your master is satisfied. Nobody's satisfied." For example... I have repeated this example many times. Even Mahatma Gandhi, the great servant of India He served India so nicely. Still, the master was not satisfied, and the master killed him. He wanted to serve his country, but the result was that his countrymen killed him.
Everyone is unhappy in this material world. That's a fact. And because... Why we are unhappy? Because we have accepted, misaccepted, wrongly accepted, this body, "myself." This is the defect of modern civilization. So long you do not understand that you are not this body, you are different from this body, you are Brahman, you are part and parcel of God, then your activities become different. Because at the present moment we are acting on the bodily concept of life. "I am American," "I am Indian," "I am Australian," "I am white," "I am black," "I am brāhmaṇa," "I am śūdra," "I am this, that"—only this bodily concept of life. And the Kṛṣṇa consciousness begins when you are free from this bodily conception of life. That is called brahma-bhūtaḥ.
Every one of us, we love Kṛṣṇa, but we are missing Him. Therefore we are placing our loving propensity wrongly, here, there, here, there, here, there, and we are becoming frustrated. Kṛṣṇa says that "If you simply follow this process, man-manā bhava mad-bhaktaḥ, you come to Me, come to your original lover." So where is the difficulty? To attain the highest perfection of life, where is the difficulty? Anyone can say that "Here is the difficulty"?
Every one of us is rendering service. As a family man, he is rendering service, as a society man, as a national—everyone is, whatever... Or occupation. As a medical man, you are also offering your service. As engineer, you are offering your service, or any other, businessman, you are also. Sometimes businessmen, they hang the signboard, "Our first business is to offer you service." So everyone is engaged in giving service to somebody else. This is called dharma, basic principle of dharma. So what is our dharma, living entity? Our dharma is to render service. But we are rendering service? But no. We are rendering service not rightly, but wrongly. Therefore you are no satisfied. There are many examples.
Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures
The Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam was first discussed before Mahārāja Parīkṣit. King Parīkṣit, the emperor of this planet, he was cursed by a brāhmaṇa to die within seven days. He was very wrongly cursed, but still, Parīkṣit Mahārāja tolerated. He could counteract such curse, but he did not do it. He took this opportunity of retiring from active life and prepare for death. So he had only seven days to die. And because he was king, all the great sages and kings in all parts of the world, they came to see him, and the problem was what to do at the time of death.
Just like one who has discovered the atomic bomb. It has required very nice brain. Unless the scientist is very intelligent, kṛtī, how he could discover such dangerous weapon? So there is intelligence, undoubtedly. But the intelligence has been wrongly used. Duṣkṛtinaḥ. They have discovered something to kill man. But they could discover something which will save man. But that is not possible. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement—which will save man. You can discover something to kill man, but you cannot discover something which will save man. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. And it is very easy.
You don't try to overlap guru and get Kṛṣṇa's mercy immediately. That is not possible. That is not possible. You have to go through the proper channel. Anyone who is thinking that "I shall make spiritual advancement without guru," he is wrongly thinking. It is not possible. Just like if you want to see a big man, you have to go through the servant of that man. You have to take permission. The servant may say, "Sir, such and such man wants to see you. He is very nice man, appears to be a good man." "Oh," the master says, "he is good man? All right, bring him." By the recommendation of the servant.
Durāśayā ye bahir-artha-māninaḥ. These rascals, they are thinking that "Without Kṛṣṇa, without Kṛṣṇa consciousness, without satisfying Kṛṣṇa, we shall adjust by this material advancement." That is durāśayā. Everything has been discussed. It will never be possible, sir. If you don't take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness... This is your wrong idea, that you will be able... Durāśayā. Therefore this very word is used, durāśayā. Āśā. Āśā means hope. So this is a wrong hope. You cannot. The exact, the same example: If the combined together, all the senses, they pass resolution—"Not to give any food to the stomach, and we shall be easier, not to work so hard"—but that is durāśayā. That is not possible. You are hoping wrongly. That is not possible.
So the baby, packed up, cannot move, cannot say anything but feels pain, therefore moves. And the pregnant woman therefore feels that the child is moving at the age of seven months in the womb. So therefore the struggle begins from the womb. And when the child comes out, again struggle. And he is lying on the bed; some bug is biting. He cannot express. He is crying, and the mother thinks that he's hungry. In this way, wrongly understands, cannot give relief him. And he is going on, crying, crying, crying. We have seen it. We have... Everyone has got experience. Then as soon as he is grown up, he is given responsibility for learning ABCD, or going to school. He doesn't like. No child likes. At least I did not like to go to school. So this is also another struggle.
We have to follow great personalities for advancement of knowledge. Actually we do. We accept authority, go to school, college, to learn something from the teacher, professor. But unfortunately, the teachers, professors, they are all rascals. Therefore we do not get proper education. Wrongly directed. They are changing. Changing is not knowledge. That is not knowledge. Just yesterday we were talking some theosophist. He is changing his view. Formerly it was right; now it is wrong. That is not knowledge. Knowledge means what you accept as right, it must be accepted perpetually right. That is knowledge.
So here Kṛṣṇa is addressed, he aravindākṣa. Ye 'nye 'ravindākṣa. Ye anye. Anye means neglectfully, others. Prominent men are especially mentioned, "Here is Mr. such and such and such," and there are others. So these others, he aravindākṣa, ye 'nye. Who are that others? Ye 'nye 'ravindākṣa vimukta-māninaḥ. The others means less intelligent class of men who are thinking that "I am now liberated. I have now become God by mystic yoga, by meditation." So therefore it is called māninaḥ. Māninaḥ means they are thinking wrongly like that. Actually, they are not liberated, not liberated. They are in darkness. Because he is foolishly thinking that he has become God. How you can become God? What is your power? What you have shown like God? We accept God, Kṛṣṇa, Lord Rāmacandra, and others, by seeing His activities. Kṛṣṇa, at the age of seven years old, He lifted Govardhana mountain. Govardhana-dhārī, Giridhārī. So what you are? You cannot raise even five kilos of load, and you are becoming God?
When I was in New Vrindaban, our Kīrtanānanda Mahārāja purchased one cow without calf. (someone says, "Children have to go out") Yes. So that cow was actually crying because the calf was taken away for slaughtering. It is not that they have no soul, they cannot understand, they have no feeling. But they are helpless. Everything is there. The butchers, the cow slaughterers, or their supporters, they say wrongly that the animal has no soul. This is a rascal philosophy. Why animal has no soul?
Just like Brahmā. Brahmā has created this universe, but he knows that he is not the creator. When Nārada Muni inquired from Brahmā that "We know that we are creator, you are the creator," Brahmā said, "My dear son, you are wrongly impressed. I am not creator. The creator is the Supreme Personality of Godhead." That is mentioned in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam (Bs. 5.1). And in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam it is said, tene brahma hṛdā ādi-kavaye. Brahmā was given inspiration or lesson from within the heart. Kṛṣṇa is therefore called caitya-guru, "the guru from the heart." So He gives intelligence for doing particular thing when He is satisfied with the service. Sarvasya cāhaṁ hṛdi sanniviṣṭaḥ (BG 15.15).
Just like a man does not know the law of the country... A civil instance:(?) just like here in London the car is driven from the left side, in America the car is driven by the right side. So suppose one comes from America, he's driving the car from the right side, the police arrest. "Why you arrest me, sir?" "Because you are driving on the right side." "That I know. I do not know that you have to drive left side." "That does not mean you are free from criminal charges. Come to the court." So this criminality is happened on account of ignorance. So any criminal person wrongly-guided means ignorance. Therefore we have to develop real knowledge. The real knowledge is that God is one, God is great, we are part and parcel of God, and therefore we have to serve God. This is knowledge.
The mukti definition is given in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam: mukti hitva anyathā rūpaṁ sva-rūpeṇa avasthiti. Mukti means when we give up our wrong ideas and we stay in our real identification. That is called mukti. So a bhakta who understands clearly that "I am eternal servant of God, and God is my eternal master," this very understanding means mukti. If I wrongly think that "I am something of this material world" or "I am God myself," these are misunderstanding. There is no question of mukti. Here the word is kecit kevalayā: "somebody." The purpose is that most people, they are either karmīs or jñānīs.
The sugar is sweet, and the chili is pungent. If sugar is pungent and chili is sweet, then you throw it away. It is not real. It is not real. Similarly, what is the constitutional position of human being, dharma? To serve. This is the constitutional position. Every one of us, we are serving. Without service we have no other business. So this is our constitutional position. But we are serving wrongly; therefore we are not satisfied. This is the position. Caitanya Mahāprabhu therefore begins His philosophy from this point, that jīvera svarūpa haya nitya-kṛṣṇa-dāsa: (Cc. Madhya 20.108-109) "The real constitutional position of all living entities is to serve Kṛṣṇa." This is constitutional position.
Whatever life is suitable for you, you accept. But you change Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Cultivate Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is āśrama. Therefore it is called brahmacārī-āśrama, gṛhastha-āśrama, vānaprastha-āśrama, sannyāsa-āśrama. This is varṇāśrama, four varṇas and four āśramas. We are wrongly called Hindus. This is a wrong designation given by the Muhammadans. We don't find this word in any Vedic literature, "Hindu." It is a foreign word. Real word is varṇāśrama. Varnāśramācāravatā puruṣeṇa parā pumān. That is Vedic civilization, four varṇas and four āśramas. Four varṇas means brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra, and four āśrama means brahmacārī, gṛhastha, vānaprastha, and sannyāsa. One who follow this system of civilization, they are called varṇāśramī.
Sneha-pāśair. This sneha-pāśa, sneha is there. Sneha means affection. Everyone got affection. The cats and dogs they have got also affection. But the affection is wrongly placed. We are affectionate to the skin, to this body. So this is wrong affection. Real affection is to the soul. That we do not know, we have no information. We are loving our child, that is very good, but not the soul, but the body. If someway or other the child is dead or my father is dead, we cry, "Father has gone." Why father has gone away? The body which you loved, that is lying there. So we do not know whom to love. So if we love actually, let us love the soul.
As there are different ambitions, similarly, for your next life also you can maintain different ambitions. That is in your hands. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, yānti deva-vratā devān (BG 9.25), if you are ambitious to elevate yourself... Just like people are trying to go to the moon planet, that is an ambition. But they are trying to fulfill the ambition wrongly. That is not the way, that we manufacture some machine and by force we enter into the moon planet. That is not possible. You have to undergo certain rules and regulations so that after quitting this body you are allowed to get a particular type of body suitable for a particular type of planet.
Just like you dropped your atomic bomb on the other side, Japan, Hiroshima... They attacked your Pearl Harbor, and the retaliation was atom bomb on Hiroshima. So these are politics. So this invention of atomic bomb, certainly it requires good brain. But Bhagavad-gītā says that this genius, or this brain, intelligence, has been used... (aside:) Stop that. ...has been wrongly used. So the materialistic class of men are undoubtedly very, very intelligent, but their intelligence is being used wrongly. Duṣkṛtinaḥ. Duṣkṛtinaḥ mūḍhāḥ. Mūḍhāḥ. Mūḍha means rascal, ass. So by their discoveries, by their materialistic activities, atheistic activities, they're simply disturbing, simply disturbing. That's all.
Even the devotee or the servant of Kṛṣṇa says something, even it is wrong, Kṛṣṇa upholds this. Kaunteya pratijānīhi na me bhaktaḥ pranaśyati (BG 9.31). So even it is wrongly done, still, Kṛṣṇa fulfills because He thinks that "My servant has promised; it must be fulfilled." Therefore Prahlāda Mahārāja, in the previous verse he has said, tava bhṛtya-pārśva. So to serve the servant of Kṛṣṇa is better than to serve directly Kṛṣṇa, because if the servant of Kṛṣṇa promises something, if the servant of Kṛṣṇa says, "I'll take you to Kṛṣṇaloka," you must go there. Even Kṛṣṇa cannot do that. He can... I mean to say that He does not say very easily. But if a servant... Yasya prasādād bhagavat-prasādaḥ **. Therefore our philosophy is to please the servant of God, tad-bhṛtya, bhṛtyasya bhṛtya. Then it is very nice.
Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures
Because we are after happiness, every one of us. But we are seeking happiness in the perverted reflection. That is not possible. Therefore one has to give up this perverted happiness and come to the real fact. So our point is that "Because Kṛṣṇa is Paraṁ Brahman, so how He can take pleasure in this material world?" This is the argument. So those who are wrongly thinking, foolishly thinking, that "Kṛṣṇa enjoyed with the gopīs like we enjoy in the company of many girls," they are great fools. They have no knowledge. They are misled because it appears, perverted reflection, it appears like that. But the reflection is different from the reality. So we should not take in that way.
Simply by discussing and hearing and reciting Bhagavad-gītā purely, not by interpreting wrongly... As it is. As Kṛṣṇa says, man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī mām (BG 18.65), you have to accept that. You cannot change that. You cannot say, "It is not to Kṛṣṇa; it is the Kṛṣṇa's self and this and that." So śṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṇaḥ. One who hears Bhagavad-gītā as it is or Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam from devotees... Śṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṇaḥ puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtanaḥ. Because simply by hearing he achieves the result of pious activities... And Kṛṣṇa says also in the Bhagavad-gītā that "One can be engaged in My service, in devotional service, who is freed from all contamination of sinful life."
So the process is, as it is recommended in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, śṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ: simply you sit down and hear what Kṛṣṇa says. Don't comment wrongly, whimsically. Don't gratify your senses. Submissively, namanta... As Caitanya Mahāprabhu also recommends from Bhāgavata, jñāne prayāsam udapāsya namanta eva. Just be submissive, bhavadīya-vārtām, and try to hear Kṛṣṇa submissively. Then you'll benefit. If you make your own commentation, then you will be wrongly directed.
So according to the Vedic system, the difference between atheist and theist is that the atheist means who do not believe in the version of the śāstra. Yaḥ śāstra-vidhim utsṛjya vartate kāma-kārataḥ na sa siddhim avāpnoti (BG 16.23). So our, this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is not blind. Don't think wrongly. We are confident. We sometimes challenge big, big scientists. On what ground? Not whimsically, but on the ground of śāstra. So we may not please everyone, but we cannot go out of this scope. We know that in the moon planet, in the Mars planet and all other planets, Jupiter and others, there are living entities, there is a predominating deity in each and every planet.
Don't think that I am particularly criticizing some country or community. This is the age, Kali. It is called Kali. Hypocrisy, simply hypocrisy. Kali means full of hypocrisy. So we have to be very careful. We have to... Daivī hy eṣā guṇa-mayī mama māyā (BG 7.14). And the illusory energy is very strong. At any moment, little slackness... (aside:) Oh, you have wrongly put. (break) So this is... Actually, we should understand. So Lord Caitanya says that sambandha means we have to revive, we have to reestablish our lost relationship with Kṛṣṇa, or God. That is civilization.
Sri Isopanisad Lectures
So education, education required, but if education is wrongly diverted, it is very, very dangerous. That is the purport of this verse.
- andhaṁ tamaḥ praviśanti
- ye vidyām upāsate
- tato bhūya iva te tamo
- ya u vidyāyāṁ ratāḥ
- So-called education has no value.
Sri Brahma-samhita Lectures
So this life is meant for brahma-jijñāsā, inquiring, "What is Brahman?" Instead of inquiring Brahman, they are trying to kill Brahman. "There is no soul. There is no Supersoul. It is nature automatically becoming this." These nonsense things are being pushed within the, this rubbish brain of the human society. They cannot explain. They cannot give right understanding. Still, they will say, "I am scientist. I am philosopher. I am this. I am that." But your business... What is your business? Now, direct people wrongly, to go to hell. So this is not life. Life is athāto brahma jijñāsā: "This human form of life is meant for inquiring Brahman." And if you engage yourself in this Brahman business, for Kṛṣṇa consciousness business, rest assured, Kṛṣṇa will take care of you. Teṣāṁ satata-yuktānāṁ yoga-kṣemaṁ vahāmy aham: (BG 10.10)
Festival Lectures
In this country especially, in all other countries also, the younger generation are not very satisfied. In your country, they say that the frustrated community, the confused community, the hippies. But I have got all sympathy for these frustrated community, everywhere. They should be frustrated. In the Vedānta-sūtra it is said that athāto brahma jijñāsā. This human form of life should feel frustration. If he does not feel frustration, then it is animal life. The symptom of human life is that he should be very much pessimistic, not optimistic, of this material world. Then there is path of liberation. And if we think that we are very much happy here, that is called illusion, māyā. Nobody is actually happy here. But if anyone wrongly thinks that he is happy, that is called māyā, illusion.
General Lectures
Prabhupāda: Just try to understand. Who is here... That means biological force. You are subordinate to biology. Then why do you say that you are independent?
Young man: Well, I feel that I'm...
Prabhupāda: You are feeling wrongly. That is my point. That is your disease.
Young man: I'm feeling lonely?
Prabhupāda: Yes, wrongly.
Young man: Wrongly?
Prabhupāda: Yes. You are subordinate. You must have to bow down. When death is there, you cannot say, "Oh, I don't obey you." Therefore you are subordinate.
If your father says, "My dear boy, you obey me," and if your oldest brother says, "My dear brother, you obey father," is it not service to the father? So we are doing the same business. Kṛṣṇa says, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja: (BG 18.66) "You give up all other engagements, just surrender unto Me. I shall give you protection." And we are saying the same thing, that you surrender to Kṛṣṇa and you'll be happy. So we are voluntarily giving service to Kṛṣṇa; therefore it is service. Preaching work is the best service, if you preach rightly. If you preach wrongly, that is disservice. You have to simply say the same thing as Kṛṣṇa has said. Kṛṣṇa has said that sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja: "You simply surrender unto Me." So we have to say the same thing, that "You simply surrender unto Kṛṣṇa." Then it is all right. If I add something by my concoction, then it is not service.
"There is no more superior factor than Me." Then how we can think of Kṛṣṇa as ordinary human being? What is your answer? How do you form such idea? These are the challenges by Kṛṣṇa. And I cannot understand how Kṛṣṇa is accepted as ordinary person. Then either you don't believe in Bhagavad-gītā... That is a different thing. But don't try to malinterpret, wrongly interpret Bhagavad-gītā in your own way. That will not help you. You can propound your own philosophy as you like. Everyone has got the right. Nāsau munir yasya mataṁ na bhinnam: "One cannot be a philosopher, muni, thoughtful man, unless he has got a different philosophy." That's a fact.
If we like, we can keep on this material side of the nature, and if we like, we can transfer ourself to the spiritual side of nature. And what we are? We are also spiritual sparks. Therefore we cannot adjust with this material nature. Our real hankering is how to go to the spiritual nature. But due to our long association with this material nature, we are thinking wrongly that "I am a product of this material nature. I will have to adjust with the elements here, and... But because there is no other way, so as long is possible, let me live comfortably and satisfactorily." This is our nature. But we get information from Bhagavad-gītā, by simply doing one thing you can make your life permanent, eternal, and never to die again, or never to take birth again.
When people understood Kṛṣṇa wrongly... Sometimes big scholars say "Sophistry," that "Kṛṣṇa wants full surrender." Others, they say, "Why you should fully surrender to Kṛṣṇa? We have got our own gods." Therefore Kṛṣṇa again came. As Gosvāmī Prabhupāda said: rādhā kṛṣṇa-praṇaya vikṛtir, śrī caitanyākhyaṁ prakaṭam avyayam. Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa, combined together, advented as Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Mahāprabhu to distribute Kṛṣṇa-prema. Because the mission of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu is to teach people how to develop love for Kṛṣṇa.
When people are become like cats and dogs, the bodily concept of life, and working whole day and night without any spiritual understanding, without the aim of life... So this human life is not meant for that purpose. This is the mistake. It is not that the dogs and cats are eating in a different way. Now we eat in a nice table, in nice plate, and very nicely dressed, and you are eating... But eating process is there. Either you nicely eat or wrongly eat, but you have to fulfill your bell(y) and satisfy your hunger. That is not advancement of civilization. To eat nicely, to sleep nicely, to defend nicely and to have sexual life nicely, that is not advancement of civilization. Āhāra-nidrā-bhaya-maithunaṁ ca sāmānyam etat paśubhiḥ narāṇām. Sexual intercourse with beautiful woman and sexual intercourse with the female dog, the pleasure is the same. That is not advancement of civilization. Advancement of civilization is ātma-tattvam. Ātma-tattva. That is explained in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
Our only request is that you read Bhagavad-gītā as it is; don't try to interpret. That is useless. Otherwise why people have lost in India their own culture? Because they have interpreted wrongly. Every śāstra has been interpreted wrongly and therefore people are misguided. They could not take advantage of the instruction of Bhagavad-gītā because all through, the Bhagavad-gītā has been misinterpreted. So many so-called politicians, scholars, but it is maybe for the first time—not first time; it is there—but to make it broad propaganda wide, that try to understand Bhagavad-gītā as it is, without any interpretation. That is our mission. That is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's mission.
At the present moment this danger is there in a very large quantity. People are thinking wrongly that they are also God, as good as God. In the Bhagavad-gītā the statement is, Kṛṣṇa says, mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūtaḥ (BG 15.7). Jīva-bhūta is the living entities. "They are My part and parcel." So it is an axiomatic truth: part is never equal to the whole. Āṁśi. So just like this finger is the part of my body, but it does not mean the finger is the whole body. Therefore there is distinction between Brahman and Parambrahman, īśvara and Parameśvara, ātmā and Paramātmā. So īśvara means controller, one who controls, but Parameśvara means the controller of the controller. That is explained in the Brahma-saṁhitā, īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ (Bs. 5.1).
Philosophy Discussions
Prabhupāda: This living soul, he is never born. That body is changed, that is called birth. But the soul is immortal. So he never takes birth, he never dies. "No, I see that he has died." No, that is the annihilation of his body. Take it from me that by the annihilation of the body, the soul is not dead. This, this is authority and this is, we have to accept this authority. If you don't accept authority, if you have no reason to understand how the soul is immortal, then what we are, except like the animals? So one who does not believe or cannot understand, he is no better than animal. He has no knowledge. This is the beginning of knowledge. Then other (indistinct). First of all one must understand what he is. If he does not know what he is, he is wrongly directed. He is taking care of the body. Just like he, the cage and bird. If you simply take care of the cage without taking care of the bird, is that very good knowledge? That is foolishness.
Hayagrīva: What dies will be born again.
Prabhupāda: So what is the solution?
Hayagrīva: The solution is the annihilation of the will to live.
Prabhupāda: How it is possible? So long the living entity is alive, he, he will will, some sort of willing. So that means the willing party, the living being, he is eternal, and the willing, this activity, has to be purified. Then his life will be happy. Willing cannot be stopped, because he is eternal. But he is wrongly willing; therefore he is unhappy. When he will come to the position of willing rightly, then he will be happy.
Devotee (2): They have studied subsequently primitive tribes and they have found that these neuroses were not there. They only existed in the social structure of Victorian Europe.
Prabhupāda: Therefore this is the conclusion—that if you put children in right association, they will go rightly, and if you put them in wrong association, they will go wrongly. They have no independent psychology.
Prabhupāda: The, in the capitalist country they are asking people that "You work in the factory and work for me, and whatever I say, you do," and the same thing is being dictated by the Communist leaders. Where is the difference? There is no difference, but it is only difference of nonsensical idea. Therefore a mass of people, they have to render service, either to Mr. Lenin or Mr. Roosevelt, it doesn't matter. He has to render service. But both the services are not being profitable to the mass of people. Therefore we suggest following the footprints of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, that you serve Kṛṣṇa. Service is your essential duty, but because your service is wrongly being executed, you are not happy. But if you render your service to Kṛṣṇa, that is natural and you will be happy. So our Kṛṣṇa conscious men, they are happy when rendering service to Kṛṣṇa, or God. So individually or collectively, if every state, every individual person renders service to Kṛṣṇa, then that is perfect stage of life. He has to render service to somebody, but because it is misplaced, he is never happy, but when the service is rendered to Kṛṣṇa, then he will be happy.
Hayagrīva: He feels that a materialistic Western capitalism cannot possibly defeat a pseudoreligion like Marxism. He says that the only way to combat atheistic Communism is for the individual to adopt, to adopt a nonmaterialistic religion.
Prabhupāda: That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. It has nothing to do with materialistic "isms." It is directly connect, connected with the Supreme Personality of Godhead. God demands that sarva-dharmān parityajya mām (BG 18.66). So we are teaching that "You, you are servant, but your service is wrongly placed; therefore you are not happy. You place or render the service to Kṛṣṇa, you will be happy." This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. We are neither for capitalism nor for so-called Communism, or not for so-called religion also. We are only for Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
Śyāmasundara: His idea is that because we have freedom, this makes us tend to be irresponsible, to shy away from taking responsibility.
Prabhupāda: No. Responsibility is there, and still freedom is there. Just like ordinarily, in our dealing, out of responsibility the direction is "Stick to the right." Or there is a red light, "Stop." So if I do not care about the red light, then I become criminal. That is responsibility. You have responsibility, but at the same time you have got the discrimination. Without discrimination there cannot be any responsibility. So responsibility is not blind. That means you should discriminate. You should know what is right and wrong. That is responsibility. If we do wrongly, then we will have to suffer. That is responsibility.
Śyāmasundara: But if everything was telling me from the moment of my birth, my parents, slogans on the walls, everything was saying...
Prabhupāda: No. Even if you have not heard... But you cannot change that opinion. Suppose my parents have taught me that "There is God and we are controlled," so you cannot change this. You say that you are not controlled. You prove that you are not controlled. Then you can say, "My parents have taught me wrongly." You are becoming old. You are becoming diseased. You will have to die. You have taken birth under certain system. So you are controlled. My parents have taught me that "There is God, who is supreme controller, and we are all controlled." Now you change this first of all. You are talking so nice thing, but you first of all say that you are not controlled. That is our proposition. If you say that you are not controlled, then you are mad.
Śyāmasundara: Everyone wants to become godly...
Prabhupāda: No, no. The desire, desire means that he has lost his real happiness. His real happiness is with God, dancing with God. Just like gopīs, they are dancing with God. That is real happiness. That is his nature. Ānandamayaḥ abhyāsāt. Vedānta-sūtra says that "By nature he wants ānanda, ānanda." But because he is seeking ānanda in a perverted way, he is being confused and frustrated. Therefore he is thinking "Not this stage, that stage will give me happiness." So when he goes to that stage, he again finds unhappiness. Because he is wrongly selecting, that "This is the stage of my happiness."
Prabhupāda: Free will means...
Hayagrīva: ...infallible judgment?
Prabhupāda: Free will means that you can act wrongly. That is free will. Unless there is chance of doing wrong or right, there is no question of free will. Where is free will then? If I act only one sided, that means I have no free will. Because we act sometimes wrongly, that means free will.
Hayagrīva: A man may know better but still act wrongly.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
| Page Title: | Wrongly (Lectures) |
| Compiler: | Visnu Murti, Serene, Mayapur |
| Created: | 12 of Sep, 2011 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=61, Con=0, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 61 |