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Mindblowing details on the development of a human embryo in the womb revealed in a 5,000 years old scripture! Can´t make this up...

A class by Purujit Dasa on the perfect Vedic society and how it differs from the society today and how we can make a difference.

Often students contact us because they want to write about the Hare Krishna movement for their school projects. Ryan from Dawson college in Montreal approached us and the following is the conversation that took place. Purujit: What attracts you to Hare Krishna? Ryan: Well, I just find it very interesting. Purujit: Is there anything that interests you specifically? Or If I may ask you what is your understanding of our philosophy? Ryan: I don’t actually know what your philosophy is. That's precisely why I would like to interview you, to understand more about your philosophy. Purujit: So what is your attraction? Ryan: I wouldn't say I have a specific attraction. I'm just fascinated by the whole idea of renouncing your possessions… Purujit: All your possessions...Well, you see that's actually not our philosophy. Ryan: No? Purujit: That's not at all philosophy. We don't say that. That's a misunderstanding. We say that everything belongs to Krsna. Krsna is God. God is the supreme possessor. Krsna is the supreme possessor. He possesses everything. So if you think that: “I possess something.” That is illusion. But if you think: “I can renounce it”. That’s also illusion because you were never the owner in the first place. You see? So our philosophy is that whatever we have, it does not matter whether you’re rich or poor, you use whatever you have in service to Krsna. For example we do a feast. Whatever we eat, we don’t eat ourselves, we offer it to Krsna. We cook nice delicious preparations and we offer it to Krsna and we distribute to everyone. So in this way, we are satisfied, we eat nice delicious foodstuffs, but the consciousness is purified. Instead of thinking I am the enjoyer, I am the center of the universe,  I transform that into Krsna is the enjoyer, Krsna is the center of the universe and because everyone whether it’s a human, or an animal, or plants, anything living is part of Krsna, that is the true universal brotherhood. That’s a real platform of unity for everyone. Just like if you water a root of a tree, automatically all the branches and leaves are nourished. You don’t have to go separately water every single branch and leaf. If you cover the root, automatically all the branches and leaves are included without separate endeavor. So similarly, if you understand Krsna, if you serve  Krsna, if you love  Krsna, then you love everyone regardless of race, gender, religion, and all these things. These things are keeping us apart. Ryan: So everyone pretty much can be a Hare Krsna… Purujit: Not that everyone can be… Everyone is a Hare Krsna. This is called Krsna consciousness. Krsna consciousness is our original consciousness. We’re all looking for eternity. See? No one wants to die. No one wants to die. Why? If we’re simply a bunch of chemicals, if we’re simply a matter as the materialistic scientists they try to say, that consciousness is simply some by-product of chemical processes, why are we hankering for eternity? That doesn’t make any sense. Where is that desire for eternity coming from if everything is just matter, temporary? Ryan: I do not necessarily hanker for eternity. Purujit: You do. Ryan: No, I don’t think so. Purujit: You do. Well, if I pulled out a gun, you would say: please don’t kill me. Why? Ryan: I wouldn’t call it a hankering for eternity. Purujit: Whatever you’re doing in your life, for example you go to school, but why you’re going to school? Ryan: To better myself. To learn… Purujit: To learn, to get knowledge, that is another thing. But ultimately if you don’t get a diploma…would you be still going to Dawson college? Ryan: I guess no. Purujit: No… so, the diploma is there, because you need work. You need a job. The whole system is based on that. Ryan: Well, you see I have a problem with that whole system… Purujit: Ok. That’s ok. But what I’m saying is that whether you have a problem or not, you have to..you have to submit. This is the problem. You can’t say: No, I’m free. You have to follow the system. And why? Because you need a job, to get money, the feed your body, right? You need to eat, you need to sleep, you need all these things. But if you don’t desire eternity, why don’t you just forget about all these things and just die? See? So it’s a contradiction. If you don’t desire eternity, then you should not eat, you should not sleep, you should not do any of these things. All these things are meant to preserve the body, right? Ryan: You see, for me, I accept death. When it comes I will accept it. Purujit: That is another thing, but you’re trying to preserve the body. That’s a proof that you want eternity. You want to preserve the body for eternity. Just like old people. If you tell old people: Well, you’re old, you know you’re body is useless, so we’re going to kill you, are they going to agree? Ryan: I guess no… Purujit: They’re not going to agree. Even if they had cancer, even if they had such an intense pain, no one is going to agree that yes, I want to die, because we’re eternal. So we’re all looking for eternity. Another thing you have mentioned is knowledge. We want to know, we want to better ourselves, like you said. Ryan: We want to expand and grow.. Purujit: That’s right. That’s right. Even people who don’t go to university, they read newspaper, they watch TV, there’s an eternal thirst for information or in other words knowledge. So that’s another aspect, the knowledge and we want pleasure. Everyone wants pleasure. No one wants suffering. So these things, these three are called sat cit ananda. These are the characteristics of the spirit soul. So all these are fulfilled when we connect ourselves to Krsna. Krsna, the word Krsna means, the reservoir of all pleasure. The word Krsna is not a sectarian word, the translation of the word Krsna means the reservoir of all pleasure. So everyone is looking for Krsna ultimately and that’s why everyone is a Hare Krsna or a Krsna conscious person. That’s our philosophy. This is not a religion, it’s not a faith, it’s not something sectarian. This is actually a science, which is applicable to everyone. Not everyone is accepting it as a science, but that’s not our problem. Ryan: So the mantra helps in this? Purujit: Yes the mahamantra revives this original consciousness. Right now, we’re trying to satisfy these three needs of the soul, eternity, knowledge and blissfulness in a wrong atmosphere. Everything here in the material world is asat, acit, nirananda, in other words noneternal, full of ignorance and full of suffering. Even the most wonderful thing in the material world, sex life, sex pleasure, it doesn’t last. It lasts for a few seconds and then it’s over and because it’s over it turns into suffering. Why is it suffering? Because we lament: Oh it’s over. So it’s not really pleasure, it’s misery, but we think it’s pleasure. Ryan: So the mantra brings you into another type of consciousness? Purujit: So the mahamantra brings you not into another consciousness, but it brings you into your real consciousness and takes you from the other consciousness. When we’re trying to reach eternity, knowledge and blissfulness in the material world, it is our adulterated or brainwashed consciousness. Everything here is temporary, whatever you see is going to be deteriorated and it’s going to be finished. Everything is full of ignorance, even your own body. You don’t know what’s going on in that body, right? You don’t know how your organs are working. So everything is full of ignorance and as I explained even the pleasure here where everything is temporary and full of ignorance is not real pleasure, it’s suffering, so because the soul is looking for eternity..is looking for Krsna and can’t find him in the material world it’s called fanaticism, or dogmatism, or blind faith. So this movement, this Krsna consciousness movement is to get people out of this fanaticism and bring them to real scientific understanding of the self, of God and of the real pleasure. Ryan: So how did you life change, since you’ve started to practice this type of consciousness? Purujit: It’s not a question of… It is not something subjective. This is an universal science. You can also understand this. Just like mathematics 2+2 is 4, it’s the same truth for you, for me, for everyone, it’s just a question of learning it. It doesn’t mean that for you, because of your type of conditioning you’ve learned that 2+2 is 4, and because I have a different type of conditioning, I’m going to learn 2+2 is 5. Right? So this is what I’m trying to explain that this is not a faith, this is not a religion, it’s a universal science. Ok? Ryan: I see. It’s something everyone can have an access to.. Purujit: Just like if I ask you, what is the evidence that what you perceive is reality? Ryan: I don’t follow. Purujit: Can you give me any evidence that what you perceive right now is the actual truth? Ryan: Well, I would give you something empirically proven. Purujit: Hm? Ryan: I would give you something empirical. Purujit: What does it mean? Ryan: Something tangible, something I can perceive with my eyes, with my senses.. Purujit: Ok…but there might be many things you see, but  they might not be necessarily true, like for example in a dream you see many things, you hear many things, but that does not necessarily mean that it’s true. Ryan: Because I know. Purujit: So I’m asking you, ok, you know, but if you want to prove to someone else for example myself, if I ask you ok, you know it, but how do I know that what you know is the truth? What would you say? Ryan: I would try to give you some universally accepted evidence… Purujit: No, but let’s say you perceive something, right now you perceive my voice, so what is the evidence that it’s not illusion? That it’s not your dream? Ryan: Because I know. I’m conscious Purujit: How do you know? How do you know that you’re conscious? Ryan: Because I know. Purujit: How can you empirically prove it to me? Ryan: Because I just know. Purujit: Well you know! But how do I know?! Ryan: Well, I guess it’s not possible to give you an evidence. Purujit: Yes. So that means that whatever you perceive is a belief. It’s not actually a fact, it’s a belief.  It’s a faith, so you’re going on in your life and you percieve things, but the bottom line is that you simply believe. You might even go through the empirical evidence, the science and this and that, you might be reading books, but ultimately it’s just your faith, right? Ryan: Right. Purujit: So this is not science. This is not scientific. As long as we don’t have anything concrete, at any time I can just say to you that it might be just delusion and I can totally smash whatever your science is. So in order to come to real science, the real understanding, we have to come to the Vedas. You see, our movement is based on the Vedic literature, the Vedas… Ryan: Yes the Vedas, I have heard of it before Purujit: Ok, so the Vedas they give a very nice definition of how to get out of this belief and come to science. I’m going to read you a small portion here. This is coming from the Sri Isopanisad. There are 108 Upanisads this is one of them, so the first verse says: oḿ pūrṇam adaḥ pūrṇam idaḿ pūrṇāt pūrṇam udacyate pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya pūrṇam evāvaśiṣyate The Personality of Godhead is perfect and complete. And because He is completely perfect, all emanations from Him, such as this phenomenal world, are perfectly equipped -as a complete whole. Whatever is produced of the complete whole is also complete by itself. And because He is the Complete Whole, even though so many complete units emanate from Him, He remains the complete balance. You see? So this is the real science. Ryan: How can you prove it to me though ? Purujit: Well, I’m just explaining, I’m not finished yet. Our spiritual master has given us the purport for this verse and explanation and he gives the perfect definition of God. You see the word “God” is rather abstract. It’s very vague, no one really know what it means. We’re using it for all kinds of nonsensical motivations. So here, I’m just going to read you a portion. It’s a long purport, but I’m just going to pick up the important portion. Alright. “The Complete Whole, or the Supreme Absolute Truth, is the complete Personality of Godhead. Impersonal Brahman forms an incomplete realization of the Absolute Complete, and so also does the conception of Paramātman, the Supersoul. The Supreme Personality of Godhead is sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha: impersonal Brahman realization is the realization of His sat, or eternity aspect, and Paramātman, Supersoul realization, is the realization of His sat and cit, eternity and knowledge aspects. But realization of the Personality of Godhead is realization of all the transcendental features, sat, cit, and ānanda, bliss. In the Personal concept, this is realized in complete, form (vigraha). And so the Complete Whole is not formless. If He is formless, or if He is less than His creation in any other thing, He cannot be complete. The Complete Whole must have everything, both within our experience and beyond our experience. Otherwise He cannot be complete. (Sri Isopanisad Invocaton) You see? This is very important. The Complete Whole must have both everything within our experience and everything beyond our experience, so when we speak of God, He’s the Complete Whole, right?  There are things which are in your experience, like you said : “ I know, because of my empirical, my eyes, and this and that.., but that’s not complete, there are things beyond your experience, right? For example… Ryan: Yeah but how can you prove it? Purujit: Well, it’s a fact by experience. Is there anything else besides things which are within your experience and things which are beyond your experience? Is there anything beyond that? Ryan: I can’t think of anything right now… Purujit: So? What is the objection then? If there’s nothing beyond that, how can you say that it’s not true? You first of all bring something… Ryan: I don’t think I can accept that. Purujit: Why not? Why not? Ryan: Because I don’t know it for sure. Purujit: Well, just because you don’t know doesn’t mean that it’s not true. That’s not a valid argument. For example if you’re blind it does not mean that everyone else is blind. That’s not a very good argument. Because I don’t know that means it’s not true. It’s not a very good argument. Ryan: Well how can you prove that what you experience is the truth? Purujit: No I don’t say that. You misunderstood. I don’t say that what I experience is the truth. Ryan: No? Purujit: No, no, no what I say is that first of all we have to come to reality. What you are experiencing by your senses, what I experience by my senses, by my speculation, by my limited faith(because that’s what it is… It’s a faith. Our limited experience is a faith) then we cannot really discuss anything. You believe in something, I believe in something, he believes in something and there’s a fight. Right? Ryan: Unfortunately… Purujit: …unfortunately, so we have to come to some universal understanding, so this is a universal understanding, the Complete Whole is everything within our experience and everything beyond our experience. Imagine everything..everything.. everything within your experience whatever you have experienced since the beginning of you life until now everything everything alright? Take that.. and then take everything that is beyond your experience, everything, everything, everything. Alright? Ryan: Right. Purujit: So that’s God. Within your experience, beyond your experience the two together that’s God according to the Vedas. Is there anything else beyond that? Can you come up with anything else beyond that conception? I don’t think so. No, there cannot be anything, it’s impossible. If there’s anything, then ok we can discuss, but if there’s nothing, we can go on. So because the Complete Whole or God must have everything within our experience, beyond our experience, He must be a person, because we have an experience of a personality. That means He must be also a personality. You see? Because if He’s not a personality, as our spiritual master Swami Prabhupada he says: “If He is formless, or if He is less than His creation in any other thing, He cannot be complete.” (Iso, Invocation purport) So if we deny anything : No, God cannot be this, God cannot be that. Then we don’t really understand the meaning of unlimited-ness. We’re trying to bring God into our limited conception, our faith conception. Ryan: Ok. May ask you about your name? That’s a name that was given to you.. Purujit: Yes. Ryan: Is there any meaning to it? What does it mean? Purujit: It’s a name of Krsna’s servant. Krsna’s son. It’s in the Bhagavad-gita. You ever heard of the Bhagavadgita? Ryan: No. Purujit: That’s one of our major scriptures. It’s called “ The Song of God” That’s where Krsna explains about His nature. You see, we cannot understand God by our speculation, but when God Himself comes and He explains I’m like this, I’m like this, this and that, then we can have the access to the unlimited knowledge, or the knowledge which is beyond our experience. That is the only way how to understand God Ryan: Through worshipping Krsna? Purujit: No, no, no. I’m saying we have to take the information from Krsna directly. We cannot speculate. Worshipping that’s another thing. First why worship?  First, we have to know… We should not be like a nonsense, fanatics, worship but you don’t know what you’re worshipping, right? So we have to know first of all and I’m explaining the process of how we can know that which is beyond our experience. It’s by hearing, not by seeing. For example, you were never here, in the temple, see?  You don’t have time to come, but if I tell you we have an altar here, we have a nice offering here, I’m just cooking something for Krsna, some nice offering, this and that, the candles, this and that, although you can’t see, you are not here present you can see through your ear, provided I’m not lying. Right? So this is a superior process. This is called descending method of acquiring knowledge. The materialistic science is based on the ascending method, the research, that is always imperfect, that is actually a faith. Ryan: Sorry? Purujit: It’s faith. A belief. That’s why they change the conclusions, the scientists they change the conclusions, like in Dawson, you have a new book every year, right? A new edition, they update the information, that means that it’s faith, it’s not knowledge. They believe in something. Ryan: Well, they have new discoveries. Purujit: Yes, that’s called faith. You never discover knowledge. Knowledge is knowledge forever. Just like 2+2 is 4. Whether you discover it or not doesn’t make any difference, alright? So Krsna explains the Bhagavad-gita, He comes down to the Earth, He came 5000 years ago and He has spoken this science of Bhagavad-gita, where He explains about His nature, about we’re not the body and so on and so on. The first understanding of this  transcendental science is that just like you had a body of a small child in the past, then later on you had a body of a teenager, now you’re a grown up man, similarly, when you’re going to be an old man, you’re going to change your body. You see? This is logic- the childhood body is no longer here. All the cells everything is finished, gone, but you’re still here… you… Ryan: But it’s the same body. Purujit: No, it’s not the same. How can you say it’s the same? It’s changing, the form is completely different. All the cells are gone, they are finished…flushed down the toilet, right? The body consists of five elements: earth, water, fire, air and ether and then there’s a subtle body: the mind, intelligence and ego, right? So the gross elements, the earth goes to earth, you see? You’re passing stool so the earth goes to earth, you’re sweating, the water goes to water and so on and so on, the air, you know?  So your body is changing constantly but you, the observer, the spirit soul, you don’t change. You are still the same. Ryan: So there’s the soul. Purujit: Yes, you are the soul, you’re the observer, or the active principle. If we were just chemicals and nothing else, then it would be possible to inject the chemicals when the body is dead, you just inject the missing chemical and you make him alive again, but that’s not possible, why? Ryan: Well, it’s happening all the time, they are saving people like that. Purujit: No, that’s not true. Ryan: They prolong life. Purujit: Well, you can’t prolong the life forever. Ryan: They do! Purujit: You can’t make the body alive forever. Ryan: Not forever, but they can extend the life-span Purujit: Well, that’s ok. As long as you can’t bring it to life when by the laws of karma it is destined to die, you can’t change it. You can bring so many scientific methods, so many medicines or whatever, but you can’t bring it to life, so that’s the proof. Ryan: So as soon as by the law of karma it is decided… Purujit: Yes, life comes from life. You can’t see a living child coming from a dead stone, from something dead, but you see there are living parents, the living mum, the living dad, they have a child. If the mum is dead, if the dad is dead, they won’t have any child. So life comes from life. Life doesn’t come from matter. This is empirical science, because you can see it. Nowhere in the nature you can see that life is coming from matter, you can’ see that anywhere. Ryan: So the Hare Krishnas believe in immortal life… Purujit: That’s not a belief! That’s a fact. Quite the opposite, what I’m saying is that what the materialistic scientists they say that life is coming from matter, that’s a belief, because you can’t see it. You can’t empirically prove it. It’s the opposite, try to understand. We’re saying that the materialistic science is a belief and the Vedas that’s a real science. That’s our teaching. It’s a very complicated concept, because you see I can understand even from your questions that you already have some preconceived ideas that this is a religion, so…but if you understand this, that we’re actually saying, our teaching is the science and we say that the materialistic science is a belief, then you can understand better. Ryan: I see. So this is what distinguishes you from other religions Purujit: Yes. Ryan: One thing I want to ask, how do you deal with people who call you a cult, a religion… Purujit: Well, you don’t have enemies? Ryan: Let me think.., no I don’t think so. Purujit: You don’t have any people that harass you sometimes? Ryan: Not that I would know of, at least from the beginning of my life I don’t think I had any enemies. There are people who might not like me, but.. Purujit: That’s it! That’s it! Similarly, we have people who like us and there are people who don’t like us. You can’t avoid this. This is the word of duality. Ryan: But isn’t that frustrating to deal with… Purujit: Well, it’s always frustrating if you have enemies, people who don’t like you, it’s always frustrating.  This is not specific about us. Just like everyone if you have friends, you’ll have enemies. If you have enemies, you’ll have friends. Ryan: Do you consider people who don’t like you your “enemies”? Purujit: You can call it whichever way, but the point is this is the world of duality. There is good and there is bad. You can’t avoid it. You can’t have good without bad and you can’t have bad without good. Ryan: Ok I think that would be it. I really thank you.. I really appreciate this… Purujit: Oh that’s it? You can ask more if you want. Ryan: Well, if you don’t mind I have here some questions for school which are more about the superficial. Purujit: Ok. Ryan: For example about the robes… Purujit: Well, you like your dress, you like to dress in a certain way and we also like to dress in a certain way. It’s a question of desire. How can you say: “No, you can’t wear this, because I don’t like it. You might not like it, but I like it. You might like something else, that’s ok, we don’t say that you change your dress. We don’t say to anyone. Ryan: No, what I’m trying to get is… Purujit: I know I know, but I’m saying. I’m trying to explain this thing. Why even this question? Why even this question? Ryan: You seem to be getting defensive, don’t get defensive, I don’t mean it in that way Purujit: No, I understand. I understand that you are a nice boy, but I’m trying to explain a higher point. Why even this question is there? I know that you mean well, but I’m trying to make you understand, why this question… for example there are people who dress in a really really weird way, but you don’t go and ask them why are you dressed like this? Ryan: I guess what I’m trying to get at is there any significance… Purujit: It’s like a uniform. It’s like a uniform. Like the police they have a uniform, so everyone knows this is the police so similarly we have a uniform so everyone knows these are the Hare Krishnas, so when someone is interested we can immediately explain about our philosophy and we can immediately preach to him, you know? It’s like a commercial. We’re like a walking commercial. When I go shopping here or if I walk down the street, people they chant: HARE KRSNA! HARE KRSNA! So you’re like a superstar. You put on Hare Krishna dress and you’re like a superstar. Ryan: So people are appreciating… Purujit: Yes everyone knows and people are greeting : Hare Krsna! Hey Hare Krishna, how are you? Like that… Ryan: So they also say the mantra in a way… Purujit: And that’s exactly what we’re trying to do. We’re trying to make people chant this Hare Krsna mantra, because this goes even beyond intellectualism, this Hare Krishna mantra it penetrates  right into the soul and it awakens the soul, so it doesn’t matter even if people don’t understand the philosophy, if they simply chant, they begin the process of deprogramming from the brainwash. Ryan: So you’re trying to engage with the public… Purujit: Oh yes, definitely. Definitely. Because we see that everyone is suffering on account of this ignorance. Everyone is miserable, you know, so if you see that someone is miserable, someone is going to commit suicide, if you’re a human you have to help him, so we have to help our fellow citizens, because we take them as our brothers and sisters. Ryan: So that is considered like a great help? Is it considered like a “good deed” in the Hare Krsna? Purujit: So isn’t that the greatest help in the world? If you tell someone look you are eternal and I’m gonna connect you with the greatest pleasure Krsna, isn’t that the greatest help in the world? Ryan: Sure it is. I‘m sure many people would appreciate it Purujit: Everyone. Simply they are miseducated. They have all these misconceptions and that’s why they can’t understand our philosophy. That’s the only problem, otherwise anyone who reads our literature, he will accept, any intelligent man he will accept: ”Yes, this is nice. Ryan: So your literature is I guess playing a significant role… Purujit: Our literature is the most essential. If you don’t read our literature, you cant understand this movement. Our spiritual master has translated over 80 volumes of Vedic literature, it’s for the first time that the most ancient knowledge of mankind, the Vedic knowledge is available to the Western world in English language.  So we very much try to distribute this literature and propagate it so people can understand. It’s read all over the world actually and big scholars from Harvard and Cambridge and this and that they appreciated the translations of our spiritual master because he’s presenting the Vedic culture, the original Indian culture as it is without any interpretation.  There are many people who comment on the Bhagavad-gita for example there are 800 different translations of the Bhagavad-gita, but none of them actually present the message of  Krsna as it is, they always put  their own interpretations, their own opinion into the translation. Ryan: I didn’t know it was so elaborate! Purujit: Yes. Because this, as we’re discussing, it’s a very new concept especially for the Westerners, it’s a very new concept, we have a completely different way of thinking, so it’s not easy for the general mass to understand our movement. So we’re struggling, we’re very much struggling to make people understand our movement. Ryan: How do you make them understand? Purujit: Yes, we follow our teachings. The Vedas describe for this particular age, there is a description of this particular age in the Vedas like a prediction and it’s mentioned that in this age the only way of self-realization to attain self-realization is to chant the name o f Hari, to chant the name of God. harer nāma harer nāma harer nāmaiva kevalam kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva nāsty eva gatir anyathā "In this age of quarrel and hypocrisy the only means of deliverance is chanting the holy name of the Lord. There is no other way. There is no other way. There is no other way." This is mentioned in the Brhad Naradiya Purana, one of the Puranas, the ancient Vedic literatures. So we chant Hare Krishna, we try to engage everyone: please, please, come and chant with us, let’s just chant and we distribute what is called Krsna prasadam, food which is offered to Krsna, as I mentioned before we offer nice preparations, vegetarian, we offer it to Krsna and we distribute it to the public. Everyone likes nice chanting, everyone likes nice music and everyone likes eating. So we try to distribute this, in this way please come and chant and eat and if you’re interested, please try to hear this philosophy. Those who are intelligent, those who are intellectual, intellectually based they hear the philosophy and discuss with us. We’re not converting people, we’re not forcing them, we’re not pushing them, we don’t do a guilt trip on them, we simply ask them you please come and hear and try to understand the philosophy. It’s an educational movement Ryan: So people have to decide for themselves. Purujit: Always, because unless you decide for yourselves… You see this is the difference between faith and knowledge. You have to go to school, you’re forced by somehow or other, by circumstances you’re forced to go school and you have to learn sometimes it’s not very interesting, but you have to learn it because you have to pass the test whatever whatever, but the real knowledge starts with inquiry. The Vedas they mention the beginning of knowledge is the athato brahma jijnasa, the inquiry. Like now, you’re calling me, there’s some inquiry, so I can tell you. If you were on the street, if you were having fun with your friends and I would say please please, I want to tell you about the Krsna consciousness philosophy, can you stop for a while, you’d be distracted, but because you’re asking me, I can tell you so much information, like that.  So this chanting Hare Krsna and taking prasadam, it spiritualizes the person and the natural inquiry comes on the surface. Who am I? What am I doing here?  Why am I going to die? Who is God? Is there a God? What is the connection between me and other people and other living beings like that… Questions like that they are very important. Unless people ask these questions, they are not better than the animals. #reality #knowledge #perception #vedas #philosophy #doubt

There is a revolution going on. It's called "the 4th industrial revolution". The 1st industrial revolution, beginning at the end of the 18th century, was about the mechanization of production and harnessing the power of steam to move the new, big machines, shackling the earth with railways. The 2nd industrial revolution, a hundred years later, was about discovering and engaging new sources of energy like electricity, gas and oil. The combustion engine and steel set in motion heavy industry. The process of chemical synthesis brought forward new materials like synthetic fibre, dyes or fertilizers. Telegraph and telephone revolutionized the way people communicated. Inventions of the automobile and planes allowed the man to enter the 20th century with enhanced mobility. The 3rd industrial revolution, beginning in the late 60s brought the dawn and rise of transistors, electronics and microprocessors. Nuclear energy, more powerful than anything known to man before (as they say), commenced a new era of expansion accompanied by existential anxiety over the future of mankind. Automats and sophisticated robots started to take over human labour. Now we find ourselves in the time of the 4th industrial revolution. Unlike the revolutions preceding it, this one doesn't stem from discovering a new source of energy or manufacturing revolutionary materials like steel and plastics. It is far more subtle. It rests on information, it rests on the "bit". The carrier of this revolution is the Internet, the Wi-Fi, the GPS - the ones and the zeroes of the binary code. Everything is being wirelessly connected with everything else as "the Internet of things" through sophisticated technology, up to the point of the borders between mechanical, electronic, biological and mental becoming blurry and indistinct. One facet of this ongoing phenomenon is the creation of instruments which facilitate a so-called augmented reality*. To describe it shortly, in the augmented reality (AR) our senses (predominantly vision) are enhanced through a device that digitally superposes additional information on the surroundings we perceive. It's an interesting occurrence and observed from the spiritual point of view it inspires thought on our position as embodied living entities. What is the process of perception? How do we acquire knowledge and what is its purpose? The soul is not senseless and it is not formless. The soul is the person who resides within the body, just like we're now people dressed in our clothes. The gross material body made of elements such as earth, water, fire, air and ether and the subtle body made of mind, intelligence and false ego - the psychological personality - is not the real person, just like our clothes are not a person, although they seem to have personal features like hands, legs, chest or a head. The cloth on its own is formless, but it assumes a form when the tailor sews it according to the bodily proportions of the customer. Similarly, the matter which creates our body is formless on its own, but it assumes a form when it covers the living entity and is shaped up according to the jiva's mental state. We have assumed our gross and subtle bodies trying to "augment" the reality of which we are eternally parts and parcels. That reality is the one of an eternal life of full cognizance and bliss in the spiritual world in association with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krsna. To augment something means to expand, to enhance or to better it. By separating ourselves from the eternal transcendental loving service unto the Supreme Lord Sri Krsna we have tried to enhance, to augment our pleasure; not as servants but as masters, not as the dominated but as the dominators. The fact is, however, that we didn't augment our reality in this way. We've crippled it. From the position of ever liberated souls free from birth, death, old age, disease, hunger, thirst, fatigue, anxiety, hankering, lamentation, lust, anger, illusion etc. we have descended to a platform of the exact opposite. Our original, pure spiritual senses became covered by matter and conditioned to function only under particular circumstances, thus becoming instruments of our limitation and delusion instead of clear perception. Our eyes can perceive only a particular frequency of light. The same goes for our ears, perceiving only a particular range of sound frequency. Similarly, our other senses work only under a particular, favourable condition. Our minds are shaped up in the process of family or institutional upbringing, education, cultural context and experiences which are themselves conceived in the light of such conditioning. Our present consciousness is a closed bubble of relativity and thus even people's scarce attempts to break through the membrane of this bubble are of the same nature. As our friend, professor Albert Einstein said: "We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them." Similarly, we cannot understand the complete truth about the world, ascending from our position of relative existence, where one "truth" depends on and changes according to another "truth". With this apparatus of conditioned perception, limited mind, misconceptions of all kinds in regards to what and where we are, and with agendas motivated by material sense gratification, our contact with the actual reality is severely slackened. Without understanding the nature of consciousness, its cause and effect, we are trying to augment man's perception by utilizing mechanical gadgets, thus covering his already covered senses and mind with another layer of (mis)interpretation. The ancient Srimad-Bhagavatam, the ripened fruit of Vedic knowledge, describes in detail the process through which the living entity becomes covered by gross and subtle material elements. The elements (i.e. fire) are manifested along with the objects of sense-perception which they carry (i.e. form) and with the respective organs for their perception (i.e. eye). Thus triads of an element, sense object and sense organs manifest as: ether - sound - ear, air - touch - skin, fire - form - eye, water - taste - tongue, earth - fragrance - nose. All the senses are conducted by the materialistic mind, which is attached to sense objects and to the pleasure derived from contacting them through those senses. The mind has three functions: thinking, feeling and willing. The materialistic mind thinks about the sense-objects, develops emotional charge towards them and ultimately wills to obtain them for sense enjoyment. Subsequent to the willing stage is action aiming towards obtaining them. Intelligence is another layer of subtle material covering over the spirit soul. The function of pure intelligence is to understand things in their proper perspective, culminating in clear recognition of the distinction between reality and illusion. In the mode of living entity's consciousness separated from Krsna consciousness, his intelligence is also contaminated and doesn't serve its function properly. This is why people make the wrong decisions and get into difficulties. Over and above all these presides the ahankara - the false ego of "this is me" and "this is mine". Our false ego, our mistaken identification with the material senses and mind is the point of contact of the eternal and pure spiritual living entity with the non-permanent manifestation of inert matter. Oil and water never mix, although they are, for the time being, poured in the same glass. Similarly, the soul and the body never mix, but through the agency of ahankara, we consider them to be one and the same in this world. Our gross and subtle material body is the gadget we have taken upon ourselves to exercise our propensity to control and to enjoy separately from God, Krsna, to foolishly try to augment an already perfect reality. At the present moment, the 4th industrial revolution is bringing a new, digital imposition on consciousness. The soul, of which consciousness is a symptom, is sat-cit-ananda - eternal, full of knowledge and bliss. This innate nature of eternity, cognizance and pleasure leaks through the coverings of gross and subtle matter and manifests in our never-ending pursuit of youth, knowledge and happiness. But, as said before, without proper information about the nature of the self which is already eternal, fully cognizant and ecstatic, we try to find eternity, knowledge and bliss within the realm of inert matter. The development of augmented reality idea and devices is, after all, just another attempt to maximize the amount of information one can extract from his surroundings, aiming to maximize sense gratification, with hyper-reality** as its possible outcome. Back to the question of acquiring knowledge, its process and its purpose. The AR systems are supposed to enhance our cognizance, make our decision-making faster and more efficient. They offer instant access to a supposedly unlimited stock of data superposed over an observed object or person in real-time or an interactive, 3D, real-time learning experience enacted in our actual environment. This way or that way, the root of AR is acquiring information through a device connected to a database. Your AR headset becomes your guru. Your AR device will tell you what is what. You don't have to think too much and waste time with speculation, all the info you need is ready and authorized. You don't have to make a mistake by using your puny brain and insufficient senses to determine where, how and what is going on. Here is a solution: the augmented reality device. It is amusing to realize how many of the people of this post-modern and post-factual era, who campaign against blind following, dogmatism, brainwash or "religion" become themselves such surrendered souls. The principle of the teacher and the taught, the guru and disciple, cannot be avoided at any stage of life. There is always something we don't know and there is always someone who offers us that knowledge. Whether it is bona-fide or not, that is a different question. We mostly learn from a source outside of ourselves. Even an autodidact uses external sources and even our inner realizations are conditioned by what we have already experienced before and how we processed that experience. The concept of augmented reality is not a new one, though. In the Vedas, this concept is called sastra-caksu, the eye of the scripture. We have our naked eyes, which are all defective and then there is a device, which enhances our vision. The new way of augmenting our vision of reality is represented by AR headsets, but the ancient and timeless way is to hear from the sastra (scripture) and from the guru. We are truth-seekers and there are two types of truth: relative truth and absolute truth. Relative truth depends on some other truth to be true, but the Absolute Truth doesn't depend on anything, rather, everything depends on Him. And that is the vision we get from the Bhagavad-gita, the Srimad-Bhagavatam and other Vedic literature. Without funny gadgets attached to our heads and bodies, supplied by relative information coming from another conditioned soul, we can have a clear vision of the cause and effect within and outside of this world. The supremely expanded consciousness is God-consciousness or Krsna consciousness because there is nothing beyond God or Krsna. The ultimate phase of augmented reality is the vision of the primal cause and appreciation of its effects with adequate discrimination between the substance and its shadow. The actual augmentation of our reality is to see God in everything and everything in God, nothing outside of God and God outside of everything. The following is an inspiration to develop this vision from the pages of Bhagavad-gita where Lord Krsna gives Arjuna a hint oh how to perceive Him in every-day things surrounding us and how to see His glory manifested in natural phenomena: "I shall now declare unto you in full this knowledge, both phenomenal and numinous. This being known, nothing further shall remain for you to know. Out of many thousands among men, one may endeavour for perfection, and of those who have achieved perfection, hardly one knows Me in truth. Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intelligence and false ego – all together these eight constitute My separated material energies. Besides these, O mighty-armed Arjuna, there is another, superior energy of Mine, which comprises the living entities who are exploiting the resources of this material, inferior nature. All created beings have their source in these two natures. Of all that is material and all that is spiritual in this world, know for certain that I am both the origin and the dissolution. O conqueror of wealth, there is no truth superior to Me. Everything rests upon Me, as pearls are strung on a thread. O son of Kunti, I am the taste of water, the light of the sun and the moon, the syllable om in the Vedic mantras; I am the sound in ether and ability in man. I am the original fragrance of the earth, and I am the heat in fire. I am the life of all that lives, and I am the penances of all ascetics. O son of Prtha, know that I am the original seed of all existences, the intelligence of the intelligent, and the prowess of all powerful men. I am the strength of the strong, devoid of passion and desire. I am sex life which is not contrary to religious principles, O lord of the Bharatas [Arjuna]. Know that all states of being – be they of goodness, passion or ignorance – are manifested by My energy. I am, in one sense, everything, but I am independent. I am not under the modes of material nature, for they, on the contrary, are within Me. (Bg.7.2-12) "The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: Yes, I will tell you of My splendorous manifestations, but only of those which are prominent, O Arjuna, for My opulence is limitless. I am the Supersoul, O Arjuna, seated in the hearts of all living entities. I am the beginning, the middle and the end of all beings. Of the Adityas I am Visnu, of lights I am the radiant sun, of the Maruts I am Marici, and among the stars I am the moon. Of the Vedas I am the Sama Veda; of the demigods I am Indra, the king of heaven; of the senses I am the mind; and in living beings I am the living force [consciousness]. Of all the Rudras I am Lord Siva, of the Yaksas and Raksasas I am the Lord of wealth [Kuvera], of the Vasus I am fire [Agni], and of mountains I am Meru. Of priests, O Arjuna, know Me to be the chief, Brhaspati. Of generals I am Karttikeya, and of bodies of water I am the ocean. Of the great sages I am Bhrgu; of vibrations I am the transcendental om. Of sacrifices I am the chanting of the holy names [japa], and of immovable things I am the Himalayas. Of all trees I am the banyan tree, and of the sages among the demigods I am Narada. Of the Gandharvas I am Citraratha, and among perfected beings I am the sage Kapila. Of horses know Me to be Uccaihsrava, produced during the churning of the ocean for nectar. Of lordly elephants I am Airavata, and among men I am the monarch. Of weapons I am the thunderbolt; among cows I am the surabhi. Of causes for procreation I am Kandarpa, the god of love, and of serpents I am Vasuki. Of the many-hooded Nagas I am Ananta, and among the aquatics I am the demigod Varuna. Of departed ancestors I am Aryama, and among the dispensers of law I am Yama, the lord of death. Among the Daitya demons I am the devoted Prahlada, among subduers I am time, among beasts I am the lion, and among birds I am Garuda. Of purifiers I am the wind, of the wielders of weapons I am Rama, of fishes I am the shark, and of flowing rivers I am the Ganges. Of all creations I am the beginning and the end and also the middle, O Arjuna. Of all sciences I am the spiritual science of the self, and among logicians I am the conclusive truth. Of letters I am the letter A, and among compound words I am the dual compound. I am also inexhaustible time, and of creators I am Brahma. I am all-devouring death, and I am the generating principle of all that is yet to be. Among women I am fame, fortune, fine speech, memory, intelligence, steadfastness and patience. Of the hymns in the Sama Veda I am the Brhat-sama, and of poetry I am the Gayatri. Of months I am Margasirsa [November-December], and of seasons I am flower-bearing spring. I am also the gambling of cheats, and of the splendid I am the splendor. I am victory, I am adventure, and I am the strength of the strong. Of the descendants of Vrsni I am Vasudeva, and of the Pandavas I am Arjuna. Of the sages I am Vyasa, and among great thinkers I am Usana. Among all means of suppressing lawlessness I am punishment, and of those who seek victory I am morality. Of secret things I am silence, and of the wise I am the wisdom. Furthermore, O Arjuna, I am the generating seed of all existences. There is no being – moving or nonmoving – that can exist without Me. O mighty conqueror of enemies, there is no end to My divine manifestations. What I have spoken to you is but a mere indication of My infinite opulences. Know that all opulent, beautiful and glorious creations spring from but a spark of My splendor. But what need is there, Arjuna, for all this detailed knowledge? With a single fragment of Myself I pervade and support this entire universe. (Bg. 10.19-42) There was an experiment*** done, and I believe there were many others like this one. Their conclusion is that we see what we pay attention to and things we don't care about are hidden from us. Nevertheless, things which we do not care about still exist and happen on their own as parts of the Absolute Truth. If no one observed a tree falling down in a forest, it doesn't mean that the tree didn't fall down. And what to speak of God? The Truth doesn't depend on our care or neglect, like or dislike. It exists on its own and God is the Ultimate Truth. The only question for us is how much we care to know the Truth and what instruments we take up in its pursuit. One way of seeing the world is to use naked eyes and create our own theories and mental speculations based on conditional experience, which will always remain limited. Another way is to be (mis)guided by Google, Microsoft, Apple and whatnot, put on the AR gadgets, get micro-chipped or "enhanced" and see the world through the eyes of those who set up their algorithms and who manage the database. And then, we can see through our ears. Just like you can wake up a sleeping friend by calling on him in the time of danger: "Wake up! Wake up!". Seeing through the ears is powerful. You can see a foreign country by hearing about it from a friend who came from that place. We see the unseen by hearing about it from a proper source. We don't see God now, but we can hear about Him and we can hear from Him. The source of our hearing must be bona-fide and our interest must also be genuine. If so, then, our ears will hear, our hands will touch, our nose will smell, our tongue will taste and our eyes will see things in their real perspective, conducted by a sane mind. Our intelligence will be able to distinguish reality from illusion and we as spirit souls will re-connect ourselves with the ultimate source of all that be, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krsna. That is the supremely augmented reality. external links: * augmented reality ** hyper-reality *** "can you see the penguin?" experiment #augmentedreality #reality #digital #bhakti #yoga #spiritual #spiritualvision #hare #krishna #harekrishna #scripture #vedas #krishna #prabhupada #bliss #iskcon #philosophy #bhagavadgita #bhagavatam #bhaktiyoga #mantra #meditation

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THE BLISS PODCAST EPISODE 1

"The highest truth is reality distinguished from illusion for the welfare of all." (Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.1.2) What is reality? This fundamental question of existence is so profound and in our face that it often just goes over everyone's head. Philosophers would occupy themselves for hundreds of years, contemplating this question, but some people try to convince us now that it is obsolete. It isn't. It's very acute and so much more nowadays, when, especially in the West, the techno-economical and social advancement of civilization has reached its highest peak, at least according to what we are told about human history. Despite all this economic development, various forms of religion on one side and secularism on the other, arts, psychology, freedom and facility to move around, freedom of expression and seemingly boundless possibility to gratify the senses, people seem to carry within themselves anxiety and confusion that that reaches its peak simultaneously with such advancement, as its concomitant factors. The reason for that is our negligence of spiritual knowledge, the understanding of our own selves. We identify with that which flashes around for just few moments and we build our lives on a basis which will never remain stable - the material body. In the ancient but timeless Srimad-Bhagavatam, a great saint, Prahlada Maharaja says: sada samudvigna-dhiyam asad-grahat (SB 7.5.5). "Any person who has accepted a temporary body and temporary household life is certainly embarrassed by anxiety..." The root cause of all anxiety and confusion is our misidentification with the temporary, in essence, the non-existent. Lord Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, resolves the question about the nature of reality in His sacred song, the Bhagavad-gita. In four simple lines He distinguishes reality from illusion for the welfare of all. He says: nasato vidyate bhavo nabhavo vidyate satah ubhayor api drsṭo 'ntas tv anayos tattva-darsibhih "Those who are seers of the truth have concluded that of the nonexistent there is no endurance, and of the existent there is no cessation. This seers have concluded by studying the nature of both." (Bg.2.16)) We live in the world of atoms. Particles. Miniscule strings of energy and force which binds it all together and manifests forms. Energy is eternal, the scientists admit that and postulate this law of nature in the laws of thermodynamics. But the forms which energy takes are obviously temporary. Energy doesn't cease to be, but forms have no endurance. Just like your body. The form of a child that you once had is now gone. It doesn't exist, it became nonexistent. If you are now an adult, your teenage body is also gone. The body, the form you have now, was nonexistent yesterday, it exists now for a fraction of time and again it becomes nonexistent tomorrow, as a number of particles join this form from the outside environment (food, air, photons of sunlight etc.) and another group of particles leaves this form by detaching themselves from it (urine, stool, falling hair, bits of skin flying off etc.). A random atom which is now hovering in Earth's stratosphere as particle of cosmic dust will tomorrow be in your salad, then it will stay in your system for a while, building up a blood corpuscle or a muscle cell or whatever and then again leave your system to become a part of another system, organic or inorganic. In this way countless particles, atoms and molecules comprised from and held together by eternal energy are simply moving around in countless universes, creating forms of temporary manifestation. So, what about you? The "I"? You were there as a "child". Now the "child" is gone, but you are still here. The "teenager", which you once were is gone, but you are still here. And the "you" which is now here, which you see in the mirror, that will also be gone before long. But you always, constantly, changelessly, in fact eternally remain as consciousness observing all these passing forms of body. It is not only the body which changes its forms from one to another. The mind also constantly changes. We sometimes say; "I changed my mind". Today you think differently than ten years ago. On top of that, the very idea of who "you" are; "I am gay", "I am straight", "I'm a Christian.", "I'm a Muslim", "I'm black.", "I'm white.", "I'm this, I'm that". All this is ever changing, but the very "I", the concept of your own existence, that is transcendental. You always know that you exist. The body is changing. All its forms; the embryo, the child, the teenager, the adult and the old man come from nonexistence into existence and back. The mind is changing, a thought comes from nonexistence into existence and back. My idea of "who I am and how I am" changes as well. We regularly accept and reject different positions of "ourselves" in the world. But the pure notion of "I exist" is changeless and that is the energy of the actual self, the spirit soul. By mistaken identification of the eternal, real self with the temporary, in fact unreal body, mind and false ego, the living entity tries to set his anchor in the realm of the ephemeral, where nothing stays. The body comes and goes, people around us; family, friends, enemies come and go, money comes and goes, governments that oppress or reward you come and go, scientific paradigms that tell you what to think of the world you live in come and go. Everything comes and goes. Only the observer remains. Only you remain. Now, don't get this wrong. This is not to say that everything here is illusion. As was said before, energy is eternal. It's the forms that always change. And whatever has a beginning and an end, although existing in the moment or for a while, has no substance from the point of view of eternal time. Just like an infinitesimal bubble has no substance in the vast ocean. If I pinch you, you feel pain. But hey, pain comes and goes. The feeler remains. So how do we reconcile this situation, where the eternal soul is embedded in temporary manifestation of the body and the world? Whatever we do or achieve here is also temporary. The effect of any action or achievement is, from this fundamental point of view, nonexistent. What to do? "Nothing" is represented by the number zero. Let us analyze. Our body is temporary, it comes and goes. In the frame of eternal time its flash-like appearance has no substance. It is zero and everything connected with it is of the same nature, which is called "asat" - that which will not exist. Our bodily beauty; smooth skin or well shaped breasts, six-pack or sharp masculine cheekbones, all are zero. Our education, titles, honorary degrees - zero. Our bank account, may it be hundreds of thousands, it is zero. Our land of birth, our proud, prosperous and beautiful country - zero. Why do I say like that? Why this nihilism? It's not nihilism. It's a fact. It's all zero, because at the time of death we have to leave everything behind. "Oh, I´m gonna leave something here for my kids, for the others." Well, first of all, "the others" don't care at all about what you left here for them (just like you have no idea what was the name and life-story of your great-great-great-great-grand-mother, unless you are a royal with a nicely preserved genealogy tree, which ultimately doesn't mean anything to you anyway), and second of all, all the "others" will also be kicked out from the position of enjoying what you left here for them by the very same process of death. Whatever you do or achieve, at the end of the day only consciousness remains, just as it remained existent after your leaving the childhood body and entering the adulthood. Then again it leaves the adult body and enters into an old body. The ultimate transfer of consciousness from one body to another is called death itself. So what is the welfare for the consciousness there? What is the benefit? What is the purpose of our activities and pursuits? Is there any sense in them at all? There is no sense to anything we do or achieve in this world unless we come to the soul platform and orient our actions and pursuits towards spiritual realization. The process is very simple. Just as you may pile up millions of zeroes one after another and they will forever remain a zero, if you put the one in front of them, then you can actually start counting: 10, 100, 1000. 10000... That one is Krsna, the Supreme Lord a.k.a. God and the process of adding Him before all our zeroes is called "devotional service". Devotional service is the pure and eternal activity of the soul, the eternal occupation of the living entity, the essence and function of the self which cannot be separated from it, just like sweetness cannot be separated from sugar. We all want and tend to serve, to give pleasure to our beloved ones. But those ones will not exist, just like your first love doesn't exist anymore or your childhood friendships. By spending our energy and service propensity in these mundane relationships which never last, while forgetting our eternal relationship with Krsna, we simply waste our valuable time and become frustrated. By engaging ourselves in our constitutional activity of pleasing Krsna, the reservoir of all pleasure, we become satisfied and pleased in the self. Our activity aimed at pleasing the senses of the Supreme Enjoyer, Krsna, becomes spiritual activity and its results are eternal, because they pertain to the soul. There is no loss in engaging in devotional service, neither it is a foreign concept: We all cook. So, just cook for Krsna, unlimited varieties of preparations made of fruits, vegetables, grains, flowers, milk, sugar and spices. We all eat. So, take Krsna prasadam - remnants of food prepared for, and offered with love to, Krsna. We all want to have relationships. So, make friends with devotees of the Lord, marry if you want and have a Krsna conscious family. We all work. Work for Krsna, offer your results for spreading of this wonderful spiritual movement of Krsna Consciousness. The list goes on, devotional service is all-inclusive and everything can be dovetailed in giving pleasure to the Lord. Everything starts with hearing about Krsna from His pure devotees and chanting His holy names: Hare Krsna Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna Hare Hare / Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama Hare Hare. This is the topmost welfare activity - to educate everyone willing to advance in the understanding of about the nature of reality and the nature of illusion. Thus the living entity gains an opportunity to utilize his limited time in the human form of life for the ultimate benefit in the form of liberating himself from the influence of material energy and escaping the ever-revolving cycle of birth and death, accompanied with old age and disease. Prabhupada: You are requesting something... Veda says, "Come to the light." Tamaso ma jyotir gamaya: "Don't remain in darkness. Come to the light." Indian reporter (2): We want more light. Prabhupada: Yes. Indian reporter (2): Tamaso ma jyotir gamaya. Prabhupada: Yes, that is desirable in human. Otherwise the animals are in darkness. They do not know what is God. But a human being, because he has got this human form of body, he can come to the light. So all the sastras are for the human being, not for the cats and dogs. So if you do not take advantage of the sastras, then you remain in the darkness. This is our position. The light is here. Just like apart from all other sastras, if you take Bhagavad-gita, it is the very brilliant light. It is not that changing. Five thousand years ago Krsna said, what, that is still the same thing. Just like light. Millions of years ago, what was sun, the same sun is there. In the light there is no change. In the darkness there is change. If we do not accept the standard knowledge of Bhagavad-gita, then we shall continue to remain in darkness, and there will be no solution of the problems of life. This is our propaganda. Krsna consciousness movement means that we are asking everywhere, all over the world, "You come to this light and be happy." That's it. (Press Conference -- December 16, 1976, Hyderabad)

Recently, while distributing Srila Prabhupada´s books in Gibraltar, I met one young gentleman, Mr. Gianni. We got into a talk and at the very beginning he told me "I'm not interested in Hare Krsna..." Naturally, I asked why. The answer was, that he was an atheist. Naturally, I asked why. He told me that things happened in his life and also in lives of others around him, which would not happen if there was a God, who is all-loving, just, all-powerful etc. He told me that he cannot see a reason for unfortunate and unfavourable happenings in his life as he is not aware of doing anything bad for which he would be eligible for punishment. Because he couldn't find any connection with his good and honest behavior (I must confirm that he looks like a straight man, very polite and educated) and reverse occurrences in his life, he lost his faith in which he was brought up and concluded that there is no higher justice, what to speak of a supreme just personality who rewards everyone according to his character and deeds. We went deeper and I asked him what is his religious background. I shall not disclose his answer, but I feel you know what it is. Just the regular, nothing unexpected. I said "Oh, I see... the YOLO philosophy." He said "Yes". YOLO is an acronym for "you only live once". Some people use this idea to justify their lifestyle of unbridled hedonism and aimless sense gratification."You only live once, so you better enjoy to the max, cuz after you're done, there is nothing." The Carvaka philosophy. Long ago there was a "philosopher" in India, his name was Carvaka Muni. He preached that "Beg, borrow or steal, someway or other, get ghi and enjoy life." In India, ghi - clarified butter - is the symbol of enjoyment and sense pleasure. If something is not fried in ghi but only boiled in water, it is not even considered to be cooked food. And how does Carvaka justify his good advice? "When you're dead, that's it. There is no debt, there is no punishment. You will not be held responsible. As soon as your body is burned to ashes after death, everything is finished." Many people nowadays follows this philosophy very devotedly, propelled by atheistic world-views. Another group of rascals who like to use the YOLO concept are the power-hungry fear-mongers, the so called religionists of kali-yuga, the present age of hypocrisy and quarrel. We know that fear is one of the most powerful tools to control others. What is better for manipulating others than convincing them that they only have one chance to make it in life? "If you don't accept such and such as your lord and master, you will go to hell and burn there FOREVER!" Oh boy! Just by writing this my intestines shiver! You don't want to lose your chance for eternal salvation, right? No worries, just do as I tell you and most importantly, pay me. In this case the idea is that you, the soul, are created, put into this world of pandemonium because someone, somewhere, sometime ate something which he was not supposed to eat. You are therefore sinful from the very beginning of your existence without actually doing anything wrong yet. Then you go on with your life and at one point get a chance to know the only one truth, the only way and if you misunderstand it, space out, neglect or reject it, then you go to the lake of fire to fry there for eternity. We see around us that different people are born and exist in different conditions. Someone is born in a rich family in a prosperous nation. His bodily features are all beautiful, his health is strong, his mind is in place, his education is first class and all the success is laid down on his path. Another person´s position is completely different. There are children starving in obscure places ridden by war, which is fought by other children high on nasty drugs or brainwashed by religious, tribal or other propaganda. We see children somewhere else slaving it off in factories or mines, digging minerals for the above mentioned fortunate guy's smartphone. Children without hair, which fell off due to chemotherapy they take as cancer devours their marrow. There are people whose bodies are crooked, incomplete, malformed, whose minds are seriously disturbed, who have debilitated intelligence and resources meant to facilitate a life of higher quality are far beyond their reach. We see one group of people shamelessly dominating and exploiting another group. We see people killing helpless animals by billions. We see injustice, inequity and imbalance. We see rich getting richer and poor getting poorer. We see people suffering for apparently no reason while the bad guys are getting away with it. We saw the holocaust, we saw colonization of the Americas, we saw people being traded for tobacco and sugar. And you nonsense, you're telling me that there is God? Some supreme dude on a cloud who sees all this? And? Isn't he supposed to set things straight? The supreme judge, the caring father? How do different people get in their respective positions in life? What is the cause of someone's being rich, beautiful, healthy, successful, famous, intelligent and another's being ugly, retarded, sick, poor, tortured and wholly unfortunate? Is it by chance? Voila! Let's all become atheists as there's no one in charge! Or is it God who puts people in these nasty situations by freaks of his own power without any other good reason? Well then that God must be a monster and a perv. There is no love in him, no compassion. How does he choose whom to put where? Why did He put someone in Vienna and someone else to Karachi? How does he put a guy into the jungle so he becomes a cannibal by his family tradition? Is it very nice to kill, chop up and eat your grandpa? When a missionary comes to tell him about the Truth, he also ends up served steaming hot on a banana leaf. Is the grandpa-missionary-eater going to heaven or what? How and why does the only true, compassionate and just God place someone in India so the unfortunate guy becomes, by his family tradition, a worshiper of an elephant-headed eight-armed rat-riding sweet-munching false god idol instead of the real Truth, never to be converted to the right path? An intelligent person will naturally inquire about these. I myself have asked these to those believers, who wanted to preach the YOLO idea to me in the street. Not that I am very intelligent. But I suppose I still have at least a half-brain. The answer often is: "God knows why he does that, we will never know. But you should accept, otherwise, you're going to a bad place." I'm sorry, this does not satisfy me. If you go to something like Facebook and check out some atheist vs. religious people debate groups, this is very often the atheist's main argument against the existence of God: that He is either incapable of doing things properly or that He is a tyrant by giving you only one chance which is very easy to miss and then sends you to hell forever. A bogus guy, indeed. But there is a different concept. One that actually makes sense. It's the Vedic concept of karma and reincarnation. The concept of one's own responsibility for his fortune and misfortune in this world which manifests in myriads of lifetimes and myriads of forms. In this concept God is aloof, He is not involved and He simply fulfils one's desires for a particular type of enjoyment. The living entity enjoys in a particular way, but also has to bear the consequences, good or bad. Let's start from the beginning. First of all, the soul is eternal. It is not created, it exists eternally in past, it exists in the present moment and will eternally continue to exist in future. Every soul is originally and eternally existent in the spiritual world where he eternally enjoys with Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. When we speak of God, Krsna, we speak of the supreme controller and the supreme enjoyer. The soul, according to the Vedas, is qualitatively identical with God. That quality is sat-cit-ananda-vigraha, which means that the soul and God are both eternal, full of consciousness, blissful and individual. The difference between them is quantitative. God, Krsna, is infinite, we, the living entities, souls, are infinitesimal, very minute. Krsna is the supreme controller, the supreme enjoyer and the supremely independent. That´s why we also have controlship, enjoyment and independence as our innate qualities. Our quality is identical with God's but our position is different. We are not controllers, but we are controlled. We are not enjoyers, but we are enjoyed. And our freedom is to decide what kind of mentality we shall manifest. In the spiritual world everyone agrees to be controlled and enjoyed by Krsna. That is the source of pleasure for the living entities. When the living entity, by his free will, decides to manifest a mentality of controlling and enjoying separately from Krsna, he is then sent to the material world to exercise this propensity and try to fulfill his false desire. Thus the living entity enters the material world, not because God put him there out of the blue, but because he decided to separate himself from his natural position as an ever blissful servant of Krsna, and to become the controller and enjoyer of material energy. That is the original "falldown". Once in the material world, the jiva - spirit soul - takes upon himself a material body made of earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intelligence and false ego which serves him as a vehicle to enjoy the material senses of smell, taste, sight, touch and hearing. Different types of body facilitate different pleasures, for example: cats sleep up to 20 hours a day, pigs are able to eat any damn nonsense and mice can have sex 20 times a day and procreate profusely every couple of weeks. You want to enjoy nice sleeping and forget about the world? Here is a suitable body for you. You don't care what you eat? Here is one for you. You want to enjoy your genital without any limitation? One for you as well. Once in a while, by process of gradual evolution of consciousness from lower to higher grades of body, the living entity enters the human form in which the jīva's quality of free will can actually manifest. Animals have no free will, they go on by instinct. They don't make moral decisions. The human form of life is the crossroad where the jīva decides his future destiny. That's where a man can elevate or degrade himself. That's where one can decide whether he will gratify his immediate whims and get immediate benefits without consideration of consequences, or whether he will work for the ultimate benefit, which may seem to be in the remote future. Animals have no such capacity of discrimination. It's easy to understand. The child wants to play the whole day, but the father knows that he also needs to go to school, so he can get a good job and comfortable life when he grows up. To cut a long story short, the living entity in the human form has a chance to understand the laws of nature, specifically the law of cause and effect or action and reaction. In the Sanskrit language, this law is expressed by the familiar word "karma". You reap what you have sown. You plant a seed in the beginning and at the end, you get the fruit. The seed you plant determines the fruit you'll get - sweet or bitter. Similarly, the actions you perform, the mentality and desires you cultivate, the way you treat others, whether men, animals or even plants, this all determines your future state of existence. Do you lament over a hungry child in Africa? It is definitely lamentable, but there is a cause of this suffering. And it's not God who put him there. Just go on Youtube and check out those "people" who "cook" for fun, to get hits and likes. If you are wasteful, then you'll have to suffer scarcity. It's as simple as that. In India, more specifically in the Vedic tradition, those who want to eat meat are obliged to sacrifice a goat in front of the goddess Kālī. While performing the ritual, the one who cuts the goat's throat, has to whisper a mantra into its ear, saying that "now I'm killing and eating you, next time you'll kill and eat me." For killing a cow, it is said, one has to take birth as a cow and be slaughtered as many times as there are hairs on the cow's body. One who aborts a child will have to be aborted himself in the womb of his next mother, who will have to go through abortion again. On the other hand, one who gives charity in a proper manner will be rewarded with a good income in the future. Bodily beauty, good education, aristocratic birth etc. are all signs of past piety. Anyone who performs acts beneficial to others will be elevated to positions of enjoyment. This is the very simple natural law of action and reaction, the cause and its effect which again becomes a cause to another effect in the chain. This goes on eternally, until... Now, where is God in this whole picture? Well, He's not there, really. He's aloof. He has nothing to do with your actions and reactions apart from setting this whole machinery of karma up as the principle of universal justice which infallibly and precisely applies to everyone at all times. Our only difficulty is that we see it in action only partially because one lifetime is not enough to understand which action caused which reaction. Some reactions may take millions of years to manifest, some are instant. Everyone is karmically entangled with everyone else in this world. It is a very subtle law and the overall knot of actions and reactions is beyond our comprehension. Kṛṣṇa explains about the law of karma in His Bhagavad-gītā (4.17): karmano hy api boddhavyam boddhavyam ca vikarmanah akarmanas ca boddhavyam gahana karmano gatih "The intricacies of action are very hard to understand. Therefore one should know properly what action is, what forbidden action is, and what inaction is." Karma in this sense is action sanctioned in the scriptures, in other words pious activity. That will bring one "good" reactions. Vikarma, or forbidden action is sinful act against the principle of the scripture which leads to harming others and ultimately one's own self by incurring "bad" reactions. The third type of action is called akarma and it is the non-reactionary work, action that doesn't produce reaction. This akarma is devotional service, when one acts simply for the pleasure of the Lord and thus exits the loop of cause and effect. Akarma is the way of liberation from the cycle of samsara - birth and death - and reestablishing oneself in his eternal position as transcendental servant of Krsna. Everyone is responsible for his own state of existence in this world. Krsna, God, doesn't involve Himself in anyone's pleasure or pain. He says: nadatte kasyacit papam na caiva sukrtam vibhuh ajsanenavrtam jsanam tena muhyanti jantavah (Bg.5.15) "Nor does the Supreme Lord assume anyone's sinful or pious activities. Embodied beings, however, are bewildered because of the ignorance which covers their real knowledge." Srila Prabhupada explains in his purport: The Sanskrit word vibhu means the Supreme Lord who is full of unlimited knowledge, riches, strength, fame, beauty and renunciation. He is always satisfied in Himself, undisturbed by sinful or pious activities. He does not create a particular situation for any living entity, but the living entity, bewildered by ignorance, desires to be put into certain conditions of life, and thereby his chain of action and reaction begins. A living entity is, by superior nature, full of knowledge. Nevertheless, he is prone to be influenced by ignorance due to his limited power. The Lord is omnipotent, but the living entity is not. The Lord is vibhu, or omniscient, but the living entity is anu, or atomic. Because he is a living soul, he has the capacity to desire by his free will. Such desire is fulfilled only by the omnipotent Lord. And so, when the living entity is bewildered in his desires, the Lord allows him to fulfill those desires, but the Lord is never responsible for the actions and reactions of the particular situation which may be desired. Being in a bewildered condition, therefore, the embodied soul identifies himself with the circumstantial material body and becomes subjected to the temporary misery and happiness of life. The Lord is the constant companion of the living entity as Paramatma, or the Supersoul, and therefore He can understand the desires of the individual soul, as one can smell the flavor of a flower by being near it. Desire is a subtle form of conditioning for the living entity. The Lord fulfills his desire as he deserves: Man proposes and God disposes. The individual is not, therefore, omnipotent in fulfilling his desires. The Lord, however, can fulfill all desires, and the Lord, being neutral to everyone, does not interfere with the desires of the minute independent living entities. However, when one desires Krsna, the Lord takes special care and encourages one to desire in such a way that one can attain to Him and be eternally happy. The Vedic hymns therefore declare, esa u hy eva sadhu karma karayati tam yam ebhyo lokebhya unninisate. esa u evasadhu karma karayati yam adho ninisate: "The Lord engages the living entity in pious activities so that he may be elevated. The Lord engages him in impious activities so that he may go to hell." (Kausitaki Upanisad 3.8) Similarly, the Mahabharata (Vana-parva 31.27) states: ajso jantur aniso 'yam atmanah sukha-duhkhayoh isvara-prerito gacchet svargam vasv abhram eva ca "The living entity is completely dependent in his distress and happiness. By the will of the Supreme he can go to heaven or hell, as a cloud is driven by the air." Therefore the embodied soul, by his immemorial desire to avoid Krsna consciousness, causes his own bewilderment. Consequently, although he is constitutionally eternal, blissful and cognizant, due to the littleness of his existence he forgets his constitutional position of service to the Lord and is thus entrapped by nescience. And, under the spell of ignorance, the living entity claims that the Lord is responsible for his conditional existence. The Vedanta-sūtras (2.1.34) also confirm this. Vaisamya-nairghrnye na sapeksatvat tatha hi darsayati: "The Lord neither hates nor likes anyone, though He appears to." This is the answer to those who want to blame God for their misfortune or the misfortune of others. He has nothing to do with what goes on in our lives. Only if one again surrenders to the lotus feet of the Lord does He take charge and arrange the happenings in a devotee´s life. The conclusion of the Bhagavad-gita is that one should abandon all varieties of religion and simply surrender to God, Krsna. He then promises to neutralize all the reactions, whether good or bad and liberate the soul from this perpetual chain of cause and effect. The path of surrender is devotional service and that is the purpose of human life.

The guru must be situated on the topmost platform of devotional service. There are three classes of devotees, and the guru must be accepted from the topmost class. Traditionally, acarya must comment on the Vedanta sutra otherwise he is not recognized. In the past all the Vaisnava acaryas were vastly learned scholars who understood Vedanta philosophy fully, for unless one knows Vedanta philosophy he cannot be an acarya. To be accepted as an acarya among Indian transcendentalists who follow the Vedic principles, one must become a vastly learned scholar in Vedanta philosophy, either by studying it or hearing it. For example, Srila Prabhupada has shown his vast knowledge of the Vedanta by giving a commentary on the Srimad Bhagavatam, which is the essence of the Vedanta sutra written by the author of the Vedanta Sutra itself Srila Vyasadeva. But this is not enough. He must be also conversant with all the other systems of philosophy. Srila Prabhupada writes: Theism in complete is explained in the Vedanta Sutra whereas in other system of philosophical speculations, practically no importance has been awarded to the ultimate cause of all causes. One is there expected to sit on Vyasa Asana after being conversant with all the systems of philosophy so that one can present fully the theistic views of Bhagwat in defiance of all other system. 1.1.7 The duty of a successor acarya is to highlight from the scriptures what is to be followed for a particular time period. Srila Srinivasa Acarya has sung: nana-sastra-vicaranaika-nipunau sad-dharma-samsthapakau lokanam hita-karinau tri-bhuvane manyau saranyakarau radha-krsna-padaravinda-bhajananandena mattalikau vande rupa-sanatanau raghu-yugau sri-jiva-gopalakau Srila Prabhupada explains: The six Gosvamis, under the direction of Srila Rupa Gosvami and Srila Sanatana Gosvami, studied various Vedic literatures and picked up the essence of them, the devotional service of the Lord. This means that all the Gosvamis wrote many scriptures on devotional service with the support of the Vedic literature. (Madhya 1.33 purport) The Vedic literature is also called sruti and smrti are the supplementary scriptures that explain the srutis. The smrtis cannot be changed, but different instructions are given for different times. In Kali-yuga for example, the smrti order is kirtanad eva krsnasya mukta-sangah param vrajet "Simply by chanting the Hare Krsna mantra, or Lord Krsna's name, one is liberated and goes back home, back to Godhead."[SB 12.3.51]. So we have to do that. A physician gives a medicine and says "In the morning you take this medicine and in the evening you take this medicine." Similarly, the smrti instructions are given according to the time. The medicine is prescribed according to different times. The qualified physician does not recommend a change of treatment. Neither do we take medicine according to our whims. Simialrly, the sruti-smrti cannot be changed, but they recommend different processes for different times. Srila Prabhupada explains this co-relation between srutis and smrtis in the following conversation. Pusta Krsna: Can anyone change... Prabhupada: No! Pusta Krsna: ...the rules of conduct as regarded in the smrtis? Prabhupada: Nobody can change. Nobody can change. But rules and regulation for different times, different circumstances are there in the sruti-smrti. We have to take it. You cannot change. Pusta Krsna: And who will sanction that application? Prabhupada: Yes. Just like Caitanya Mahaprabhu. He said. He's authority. He's acarya. Pusta Krsna: The acarya must sanction for the particular time and place. Prabhupada: Yes. We are following the footprints of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. It is not whimsical. You have to follow the authority in all circumstances. You cannot avoid. That is illegal. It will have no power. Answers to a Questionnaire from Bhavan's Journal -- June 28, 1976, Vrndavana Such a task is therefore exclusively reserved for an uttama adhikari, a devotee on the top most platform of spiritual advancement. In his book Nectar of Devotion, Chapter Eligibility of the Candidate for Accepting Devotional Service, Srila Prabhupada explains that a first class devotee can very nicely present conclusions with perfect discretion and can consider the ways of devotional service in a decisive way. This is significant. For example, in the Bhagavad-gita, Arjuna at one point requests Krsna: vyamisreneva vakyena buddhim mohayasiva me tad ekam vada niscitya yena sreyo 'ham apnuyam My intelligence is bewildered by Your equivocal instructions. Therefore, please tell me definitely which instruction is most beneficial for me. (Bg.3.2) In a prelude to the Bhagavad-gita, many different items were explained by Krsna unsystematically. A more definite ascertainment of the path was needed for action and understanding. Arjuna wanted to clear up these apparently confusing matters so that any common man could accept such path and not make any mistake. Although Krsna had no intention of confusing Arjuna by any jugglery of words, Arjuna could not follow the process of Krsna consciousness—either by inertia or by active service. Therefore, by his questions he was clearing the path of Krsna consciousness for all students who seriously want to understand the mystery of the Bhagavad-gita. The Bhagavad-gita was meant for the saintly kings (raja-rsis) because they were to execute its purpose in ruling over the citizens. This is where dry academics fail because theirs is only superficial understanding and altough they quote it, they do not know the actual meaning of the Bhagavad-gita. They cannot afford any particular solution on how to act in devotional service. Therefore a sincere disciple should always try to ascertain how to act practically in devotional service. He should not be satisfied by mere theoretical understanding of things. In this particular instance, Arjuna tries to understand definitely what course of action he should undergo after hearing instructions that appear to be contradictory to him. Srila Prabhupada writes: A Krsna conscious person has realized knowledge, by the grace of Krsna, because he is satisfied with pure devotional service. By realized knowledge, one becomes perfect. By perfect knowledge one can remain steady in his convictions, whereas by mere academic knowledge one is easily deluded and confused by apparent contradictions. Bg. 6.8 When apparent contradictions arise, the general people's determination to act in devotional service becomes hackneyed. The first class devotee therefore gives conclusive knowledge and resolves these contradictions on the basis of sastra. He does not exclude one statement of the sastra in favor of other(ardha-kukkuti-nyaya), but explains both of them in the proper context and establishes a harmonious siddhanta, or a conclusion. A description of such a first class devotee, who is able to point out the direction for the general mass is given in the Srimad Bhagavatam. It is said there: yah svanubhavam akhila-sruti-saram ekam adhyatma-dipam atititirsatam tamo 'ndham samsarinam karunayaha purana-guhyam tam vyasa-sunum upayami gurum muninam Let me offer my respectful obeisances unto him who is the spiritual master of all sages and the son of Vyasadeva, who, out of his great compassion for the gross materialists desiring to cross over the darkest region of material existence, said the most confidential supplement of the cream of Vedic knowledge after having personally assimilated the same by experience. 1.2.3 This sloka refers to Sukadeva Goswami, who is the speaker of the Srimad Bhagavatam. Sukadeva has heard the Bhagavatam from Srila Vyasadeva and elaborated on it after he thoroughly assimiliated it. Thorough assimiliation means that by realizing the essence of the scripture, the bona fide acarya is able to explain it to varieties of different people in various circumstances. It is not that the acarya changes the meaning of the sastra to present something new just for the sake of it, in order to attract attention. Srila Prabhupada explains: Personal realisation does not mean that one should attempt to show the vanity of one's own learning trying to surpass the previous Acharya. He must have full confidence in the previous Acharya and at the same time he must realise the subject matter so nicely that he may be able to present the matter just for the particular circumstances in a suitable manner. The original purpose of the text must be maintained. No interesting meaning shall be screwed out of it and yet it may be presented in an appreciable manner for the understanding of the audience. SB 1.4.1 Sometimes the commentaries of the acaryas are themselves scriptures. They give practical advice on how to act in devotional service to the Lord. This is very difficult to determine at times. Lord Krsna says: kim karma kim akarmeti kavayo 'py atra mohitah tat te karma pravaksyami yaj jnatva moksyase 'subhat Even the intelligent are bewildered in determining what is action and what is inaction. Now I shall explain to you what action is, knowing which you shall be liberated from all misfortune. Bg 4.16 One cannot ascertain the ways of religion simply by imperfect experimental knowledge. Actually, the principles of religion can only be laid down by the Lord Himself. Dharmam tu saksad bhagavat-pranitam (SB 6.3.19). No one can manufacture a religious principle by imperfect speculation. Srila Prabhupada notes: The authors of these scriptures are not ordinary human being with four disqualifications of conditioned life. And as such there is no possibility on the part of such liberated authors to commit mistakes, inconsistencies, cheating the public or imperfection. BTGPY16c: Anomalies of "Geeta Press" Gorakhpur In the conditioned state, our knowledge is subjected to many deficiencies. The difference between a conditioned soul and a liberated soul is that the conditioned soul has the above mentioned four kinds of defects. Due to these defects the neophytes are struggling to remain in the practice of Krsna consciousness and they sometimes fall down. In the Nectar of devotion, Srila Prabhupada defines the neophyte devotee as follows: The neophyte or third-class devotee is one whose faith is not strong and, at the same time, does not recognize the decision of the revealed scripture. The neophyte's faith can be changed by someone else with strong arguments or by an opposite decision. NoD 3-1970: Eligibility of the Candidate for Accepting Devotional Service The first class devotee however does not fall down due to his thorough assimiliation of transcendental knowledge. How do we know whether we have fully assimiliated the knowledge given to us by the spiritual master? That is explained in the SB 1.1.2: Sadyo hridy avarudhyate tra kritivih shushruvis tatkshanat. As soon as a person applies culture of knowledge, namely, attentive and submissive aural reception to the messages of the Bhagvatam, the Supreme Lord is thus established within his heart. In other words, the assimilation of the Bhagavatam brings us to a stage where we can see Krsna not figuratively, but directly face to face. Srila Prabhupada explains: ...an intelligent person, by thoughtful discretion, can believe in the assurance of the great sage Vyasdeva and give a patient hearing to the message of Srimad Bhagwatam in order to realise directly the Supreme Personality of Godhead. SB 1.1.2 purport One must be anxious to hear about the transcendental message. And this qualification of hearing with interest is the prime qualfication for assimilating transcendental knowledge. Therefore if one becomes very eager to hear the Srimad Bhagavatam from the bona fide source of the spiritual master, he can be immediately lifted to the position of a paramahamsa (uttama-adhikari) and see the Lord face to face. Srila Prabhupada however states that such eagerness is hardly present in the neophyte devotee: A neophyte devotee has very little taste for hearing from the authorities. SB 1.2.12 How can a neophyte devotee then see Krsna face to face and what to speak of commenting on the scriptures? That is not possible. Only a first class devotee can take up the post of the initiating acarya. This is confirmed by Srila Prabhupada also: The guru must be situated on the topmost platform of devotional service. There are three classes of devotees, and the guru must be accepted from the topmost class. Madhya 24.330 One should not become a spiritual master unless he has attained the platform of uttama-adhikari. NoI: verse 5 Unless one is a resident of Krishna Loka, one cannot be a Spiritual Master. That is the first proposition. A layman cannot be a Spiritual Master, and if he becomes so then he will simply create disturbance. Letter to: Mukunda -- New Vrindaban 10 June, 1969 ...he is not a liberated person, and therefore, he cannot initiate any person to Krishna Consciousness. Letter to: Janardana -- New York 26 April, 1968 There is further evidence of this conclusion in the following sloka of the Srimad Bhagavatam in connection with the Lord being impregnated into the womb of Devaki by the process of diksa. It is said there: tato jagan-mangalam acyutamsam samahitam sura-sutena devi dadhara sarvatmakam atma-bhutam kastha yathananda-karam manastah Thereafter, accompanied by plenary expansions, the fully opulent Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is all-auspicious for the entire universe, was transferred from the mind of Vasudeva to the mind of Devaki. Devaki, having thus been initiated by Vasudeva, became beautiful by carrying Lord Krsna, the original consciousness for everyone, the cause of all causes, within the core of her heart, just as the east becomes beautiful by carrying the rising moon. SB 10.2.18 In his commentary on this verse Srila Prabhupada notes: We should note carefully that the Lord was transferred to Devaki not by the ordinary way for a human being, but by diksa, initiation. Thus the importance of initiation is mentioned here. Unless one is initiated by the right person, who always carries within his heart the Supreme Personality of Godhead, one cannot acquire the power to carry the Supreme Godhead within the core of one's own heart. SB 10.2.18 We should especially take note of the words " carry the Supreme Godhead within the core of one's own heart". The Lord is already in the heart of everyone, but the Vaisnavas and the brahmanas actually perceive and see Him always in ecstasy. A description of such a devotee is given in the following sloka. Bhavat vida bhagwatas teertha bhutah swayam bibho Teerthi kurvanti teerthani swantasthena gadabhrita. My Lord! devotees like your goodself are themselves holy places in person. Because you carry with you, within your heart, the Personality of Godhead and as such you render all places into a pilgrimage. 1.13.10 This was spoken by Maharaja Yudhistira in connection with Vidura Mahatma. Vidura was always feeling the presence of the Lord everywhere, he was seeing everything in the potency of the Lord and the Lord in everything and he had no desire in life save and except to serve the Personality of Godhead. The Personality of Godhead is always with such pure devotees because of their unalloyed service, which is without any tinge of fruitive action or utopian speculation. Such devotees are able to rectify a polluted atmosphere of any place. All these descriptions indicate that mentioning of a devotee discussed in this particular sloka refers to a first class devotee. Srila Prabhupada confirms this in a class on the same sloka: So human society, there must be some religious process; otherwise, it is animal society. And in every religion there is recommendation to go to the place, holy places of pilgrimage. This is one set up. Another set up is that bhagavatas tirtha-bhutah. Those who are devotees, they are themselves maha-bhagavata. They are first-class devotee. Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.13.10 -- Geneva, June 1, 1974 Srila Prabhupada in the purport to this verse also mentions that such "pure devotees hear from the authorities and chant, sing and write of the glories of the Lord". Another consideration is that since the disciplic succession becomes lost due to the influence of the time factor(sa kaleneha mahata yogo nastah [Bg 4.2]), the spiritual master must be tri-kala-jna (seer of the past, present and future). He must be situated beyond the purview of material time in order to rectify the deviation of the line caused by the very same time factor. Srila Prabhupada notes: Those who have reached the highest perfectional stage of mystic power and can see everything in the past, present and future are called tri-kala-jnas. Similarly, the devotees of the Lord can see everything clearly that is in the revealed scriptures. SB 3.11.17 purport The position of such a pure soul is described in connection with Yamaraja: manasaiva pure devah purva-rupam vipasyati anumimamsate 'purvam manasa bhagavan ajah The omnipotent Yamaraja is as good as Lord Brahma, for while situated in his own abode or in everyone's heart like the Paramatma, he mentally observes the past activities of a living entity and thus understands how the living entity will act in future lives.Srila Prabhupada comments: One should not consider Yamaraja an ordinary living being. He is as good as Lord Brahma. He has the complete cooperation of the Supreme Lord, who is situated in everyone's heart, and therefore, by the grace of the Supersoul, he can see the past, present and future of a living being from within. The word anumimamsate means that he can decide in consultation with the Supersoul. SB 6.1.48 Similarly, by seeing past, present and future, an uttama adhikari is fully competent to find the best means to propagate Krsna consciousness and guide numerous souls. As already mentioned the acarya is in direct relationship with Krsna. He sees Him directly, not figuratively, but face to face This is confirmed in the sloka of the Bhagavad-gita where Krsna says to Arjuna: I explain you the science because you are my devotee and my friend. One must be a devotee to comment on the Bhagavad-gita. At the same time he must be a devotee in direct relationship. Srila Prabhupada explains this in his introduction to the Bhagavad-gita As It Is: ...Bhagavad-gita is especially instructed to Arjuna, the devotee of the Lord, the direct student of Krsna. And not only that, he is intimately in touch with Krsna as friend. Therefore Bhagavad-gita is understood by a person who has similar qualities like Krsna. That means he must be a devotee, he must be in relation, direct relationship with the Lord...Everyone has got a particular relationship with the Lord and that particular relationship is evoked by the perfection of devotional service. At the present status of our life we have not only forgotten the Supreme Lord, but also we have forgotten our eternal relationship with the Lord. Every living being, out of many, many millions and billions of living beings, each and every living being has got a particular relationship with the Lord eternally. That is called svarupa. Svarupa. And by the process of devotional service one can revive that svarupa of oneself. And that stage is called svarupa-siddhi, perfection of one's constitutional position. Bhagavad-gita Introduction -- February 19-20, 1966, New York Here Srila Prabhupada explains that svarupa-siddhi is the perfection of one's constitutional position. It is not the neophyte stage of Krsna consciousness but the top most platform. When you are liberated, you will understand in which way you are related with Krsna. That is called svarupa-siddhi. But that is attained when you are actually perfect in devotional service. Srimad-Bhagavatam 6.3.16-17 -- Gorakhpur, February 10, 1971 It is thus a completely faulty idea to say that a neophyte devotee can comment on the Bhagavad-gita or other Vedic scriptures or give diksa. Krsna wanted Arjuna to become an authority on the science of the Bhagavad-gita, because Arjuna was a top most devotee, in a direct relationship with Krsna. This is the position of the successor acarya. When the acarya writes, the Lord directly dictates to the devotee the contents of the transcendental literature. It is not the acarya's speculation! There are several statements in this regards: The secret in a devotee's writing is that when he writes about the pastimes of the Lord, the Lord helps him; he does not write himself. As stated in the Bhagavad-gita (10.10), dadami buddhi-yogam tam yena mam upayanti te. Since a devotee writes in service to the Lord, the Lord from within gives him so much intelligence that he sits down near the Lord and goes on writing books. Adi 8.39 The Personality of Godhead, being situated in everyone’s heart, specifically gives a devotee intelligence to describe Him. It is therefore understood that when a devotee writes or speaks about the Supreme Personality of Godhead, it is dictated by the Lord from within. This is confirmed in Bhagavad-gita, Tenth Chapter: to those who constantly engage in the transcendental loving service of the Lord, the Lord, from within, dictates what to do next in order to serve Him. sb 4.9.4 Because mother Saci was feeling separation from Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, she thought she was dreaming that her son had come to her. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, however, wanted to inform her that actually it was not a dream. He actually came there and ate whatever His mother offered Him. Such are the dealings of advanced devotees with the Supreme personality of Godhead. As stated in the Brahma-samhita: premanjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena santah sadaiva hrdayesu vilokayanti yam syamasundaram acintya-guna-svarupam govindam adi-purusam tam aham bhajami "I worship the primeval Lord, Govinda, who is always seen by the devotee whose eyes are anointed with the pulp of love. He is seen in His eternal form of Syamasundara, situated within the heart of the devotee." (Brahma-samhita 5.38) pure devotees realize dealings with the Lord on the transcendental plane, but because the devotees are still in the material world, they think that these are dreams. The Lord, however, talks with the advanced devotee, and the advanced devotee also sees Him. It is all factual; it is not a dream. Antya 3.31 Srila Krsnadasa Kaviraja Goswami explains: ei grantha lekhaya more 'madana-mohana' amara likhana yena sukera pathana Actually Sri Caitanya-caritamrta is not my writing but the dictation of Sri Madana-mohana. My writing is like the repetition of a parrot. Adi 8.78 sri-rupa-hrdaye prabhu sakti sancarila sarva-tattva-nirupane 'pravina' karila By entering the heart of Rupa Gosvami, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu empowered him to ascertain properly the conclusions of all truths. He made him an experienced devotee whose decisions correctly agreed with the verdicts of the disciplic succession. Thus Sri Rupa Gosvami was personally empowered by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. The principles of devotional service are only apparently under the jurisdiction of material activity. To be rightly guided, one must be personally guided by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. This was the case with Srila Rupa Gosvami, Sanatana Gosvami and other acaryas. Madhya 19.117 Srila Prabhupada explains the difference of communication with Krsna between a minor devotee and a highly elevated devotee here: Interviewer: ...I'm curious with respect to the way Krsna communicates with you, whether it's in a similar kind of way that He gives you your necessities. Bali-mardana: In other words, when you decide that someone is to be in charge of a particular temple does Krsna tell you that this person should be in charge. Interviewer: Or do you by judging him say this person is qualified. Prabhupada: Yes, because a devotee always consults Krsna and He gives order. Interviewer: It's a more direct communication. Prabhupada: Yes. And He gives order. Ramesvara: Because intelligence, our philosophy is that intelligence comes from Krsna. So if I have some... Interviewer: And your philosophy is that your daily necessities come from Krsna as well. Ramesvara: Yes, try to understand. Suppose my intelligence sees that this person is qualified, that means Krsna has told me. Prabhupada: No, not necessarily, Krsna will tell directly. A devotee always consults Krsna and Krsna tells him, "Do like this." Not figuratively. Interviewer: Does that apply then to other kinds of decisions and other kinds of activities as well? Prabhupada: Everything. Because a devotee does not do anything without consulting Krsna. Bali-mardana: But that applies to a very greatly elevated soul, that is not an ordinary person. Prabhupada: That is, therefore the minor devotees, they consult the spiritual master. Interview with Newsday Newspaper -- July 14, 1976, New York The minor devotees, who have not yet realized their svarupa siddhi, nor are in direct communication with the Lord must therefore consult the spiritual master. How can one then understand various statements by Srila Prabhupada, where he states that devotees situated on lower stage of advancement can also accept disciples? Aren't they also initiating spiritual masters? We submit two particular statements in this connection: The second-class devotee accepts disciples from the section of third-class devotees or nondevotees. SB 2.3.21 A neophyte Vaisnava or a Vaisnava situated on the intermediate platform can also accept disciples, but such disciples must be on the same platform, and it should be understood that they cannot advance very well toward the ultimate goal of life under his insufficient guidance. NoI: verse 5 To understand this apparent contradiction in Srila Prabhupada's statements, we should further examine the position of a siksa guru (instructing spiritual master). There are two types of siksa guru: one who is liberated and one who is not yet liberated but who can give relevant instructions being guided by a liberated spiritual master. Presently people are so fallen that they cannot distinguish between a liberated soul and a conditioned soul. A conditioned soul is hampered by four defects: he is sure to commit mistakes, he is sure to become illusioned, he has a tendency to cheat others, and his senses are imperfect. Consequently we have to take direction from liberated persons. This Krsna consciousness movement directly receives instructions from the Supreme Personality of Godhead via persons who are strictly following His instructions. Although a follower may not be a liberated person, if he follows the supreme, liberated Personality of Godhead, his actions are naturally liberated from the contamination of the material nature. SB 4.18.5 A person who is liberated acharya and guru cannot commit any mistake, but there are persons who are less qualified or not liberated, but still can act as guru and acharya by strictly following the disciplic succession. Letter to: Janardana -- New York 26 April, 1968 Srila Prabhupada refered to his disciples on numerous occassions as siksa gurus, although they might not have been necessarily liberated perfected devotees: If Kirtanananda Maharaja speaks what I speak, then he can be taken a siksa guru. Guru sastra sadhu. The spiritual master is one, that is a fact. Kirtanananda Swami may be taken a sadhu not spiritual master, or as instructor guru. Letter to: Satyabhama, Paramananda — New Vrindaban 20 July, 1974 Regarding your question about the husband becoming the Spiritual Master of the wife, anyone who can give instructing in spiritual life is treated as Spiritual Master. There are two kinds of Spiritual Master, initiator and instructor. So the husband can help the wife as instructor. Letter to: Himavati -- Los Angeles 24 January, 1969 Devotee: So what is our position towards Sai? This is where, brings great confusion in the minds of the devotees. Immediately they ask. Devotee (2): Because they used to accept him as spiritual master, so now, now that's all finished... Prabhupada: No. Devotee (2): ...so, what is their relationship...? Prabhupada: Let, let Sai accept me as spiritual master, and you remain Sai's disciple, but be initiated properly. Or it is Sai's duty to deliver all his followers to me. That will be very nice. As he has surrendered all his money, similarly, he can surrender all his followers. Devotee (3): It's like in the army. Prabhupada: Huh? Yes. And then it is very good -- for him and for his followers. Devotee: He wrote this fall about that to the devotees. "Shaved heads. Now we are all disciples of Prabhupada. I can no longer treat you externally as my disciples, because of the negative reaction I will incur [indistinct]. If you are internally attached, that is fine. Please me by serving Prabhupada and his devotees. Prabhupada must first okay my taking on disciples. He may or he may not. I will follow his orders. He tells me to kill you all, I will kill you." Prabhupada: [laughs] That's nice. Very, very good letter. That's very good. So I shall write to him. Devotee: [indistinct] Prabhupada: Siksa-guru or diksa-guru. Initiated..., initiator master and instructor master. So you can treat him as your instructor master. That is allowed. Room Conversation about Siddhasvarupa -- March 21, 1971, Bombay This conversation is of particular significance. Here Srila Prabhupada says: "...let Sai accept me as spiritual master, and you remain Sai's disciple, but be initiated properly." and later on: " That is allowed." Just a little history: Sai was a self-styled yoga guru from Hawaii who already had a group of disciples already when he became attracted to the principles of Krsna consciousness as taught by Srila Prabhupada. Srila Prabhupada did not see a "discipleship" of his former students as an obstacle, which he also expressed in a letter to Sai two months earlier: The problem that your followers want to accept you as guide in spiritual matters is not objectionable if they are sincere. If they have sincere faith in you, it may not be disturbed, rather it can be fully utilized. My main purpose is to propagate the teachings of Lord Caitanya or Krishna Consciousness. I am not after recruiting some disciples; but for preaching work we want some assistants and if somebody offers voluntarily his service it is welcome. So the best thing will be that you become a regular disciple of me and you can teach your followers in the same principles. Letter to: Sai -- Allahabad 8 January, 1971 But such relationship of non-liberated siksa disciples and non-liberated siksa gurus however is not to be taken on the same level as the relationship one has with his ever-liberated diksa guru. In his book Easy Journey to Other planets Srila Prabhupada describes such a guru as a "monitor". Sometimes in school, a teacher leaves the classroom due to some urgent buisness and he selects one student to supervise the other students in the teacher's absence. Similarly, a kanistha adhikari may become a preliminary guide to other devotees if he strictly follows the principles of the diksa-guru. A devotee who believes that the holy name of the Lord is identical with the Lord is a pure devotee, even though he may be in the neophyte stage. By his association, others may also become Vaisnavas. Madhya 15.106 Such a relationship often changes. Progress in devotional service is not stereotyped. It depends solely on the individual devotee's degree of sincerity. If one is very sincere he can advance very swiftly in a short time and if one is not serious he cannot advance even after many lifetimes of regulated practise. It is then quite possible that such Vaisnavas who associate with the sincere neophyte devotee may also sometimes surpass him. For example, Druva Maharaja's mother who instructed her son to search out Visnu in the forest was considered to be his siksa-guru. However, in the forest Druva Maharaja took shelter of a fully realized spiritual master Narada Muni and by his mercy advanced to the top most perfectional platform surpassing his mother to the extent of finally delivering her back home back to Godhead. This is more elaborately described in the 4th Canto. Therefore, whether one has the good fortune of having guidance of more advanced devotees or not, one must be always guided by an uttama adhikari devotee. A neophyte and intermediate devotee should always be anxious to hear the maha-bhagavata and serve him in every respect. Madhya 16.74 The second-class devotee, even though he cannot support his position with sastric reference, can gradually become a first-class devotee by studying the sastras and associating with a first-class devotee. However, if the second-class devotee does not advance himself by associating with a first-class devotee, he makes no progress. Madhya 22.71 One can get guidance from various kanistha adhikari or madhyama adhikari devotees, learning from one or the other at various times, but if one does not hear sufficiently from an uttama adhikari and is not ready to surrender to him, he cannot reach to the perfection of life. Diksa means divya-jnanam ksapayati iti diksa.(?) Which explains the divya-jnana, transcendental, that is diksa. Di, divya, diksanam. Diksa. So divya-jnana, transcendental knowledge... If you don't accept a spiritual master, how you'll get transcen... You'll be taught here and there, here and there, and waste time. Waste time for the teacher and waste your valuable time. Therefore you have to be guided by an expert spiritual master. Room Conversation -- January 27, 1977, Bhuvanesvara Although one may have various siksa relationships with devotees of various degrees of advancement and these relationship might break in due course, the relationship with one's initiating spiritual master does not change. Srila Prabhupada states: A devotee must have only one initiating spiritual master because in the scriptures acceptance of more than one is always forbidden. Ādi 1.35 The initiating spiritual master is one because he is always situated on the top most platform of devotional service and he never deviates. Only such spiritual master we should fully surrender to. Indeed, the advanced uttama-adhikari Vaisnava devotee should be accepted as a spiritual master. Everything one possesses should be offered to him, for it is enjoined that one should deliver whatever he has to the spiritual master. The brahmacari in particular is supposed to beg alms from others and offer them to the spiritual master. However, one should not imitate the behavior of an advanced devotee or maha-bhagavata without being self-realized, for by such imitation one will eventually become degraded. NoI: verse 5