SPD01-04 The Ācārya Part 4
SPD01-04
The Acarya Part 4
The Acarya Part 4
[00:09] "Who is Srila Prabhupada?" people often ask.
[00:16] At various times he was known as a scholar, a philosopher, a cultural ambassador,
[00:23] a prolific author, a religious leader, a spiritual teacher, a social critic and a holy man.
[00:31] He was not one of those modern entrepreneurial gurus who come to the West
[00:36] with slickly packaged, watered-down versions of Eastern spirituality,
[00:40] promising instant well-being to anyone who could spare fifty dollars.
[00:45] Srila Prabhupada was, rather, a true holy man, one who could be called an acarya,
[00:50] which means a spiritual master who teaches by example.
[00:56] After arriving in the United States in 1965 at the age of sixty-nine,
[01:01] Srila Prabhupada formed the International Society for Krishna Consciousness,
[01:06] which developed into a worldwide spiritual community with hundreds of asramas, schools, temples
[01:13] and farms, and with thousands of dedicated disciples who made "Hare Krsna" a household word.
[01:20] To have achieved all this in only twelve years was remarkable.
[01:23] But before he passed away from this world in 1977, Srila Prabhupada had also written and published
[01:30] over eighty volumes of translation and commentary on the great spiritual classics of ancient India.
[01:36] His books were welcomed with great critical acclaim by the Western academic community,
[01:40] and by scholars from India as well,
[01:43] and they became standard texts in almost every university and library around the world.
[01:49] Srila Prabhupada had also succeeded in transmitting the profound wisdom of the ancient Vedic culture
[01:55] in a form and style that was clearly understandable to the average modern man.
[02:00] He could somehow explain even the most difficult philosophical concepts to people
[02:04] who were totally unfamiliar with the complex Indian religious tradition.
[02:10] Srila Prabhupada circled the globe eleven times between 1966 and 1977,
[02:16] and everywhere he went, he taught the same basic truths, the fundamental principles of religion
[02:22] that constitute the cornerstone of spiritual understanding for everyone,
[02:26] no matter what their nationality or religion.
[02:40] Srila Prabhupada was more than anything a teacher, a professor emeritus of the science of self-realization,
[02:47] and he was the best kind of teacher, because he always lived up to what he taught.
Morning Walk, June 25, 1975, Los Angeles
[02:56] [Bahulasva:] They also say that no one can ever be pure, that everyone is doomed to be a sinner.
[03:01] [Prabhupada:] Well, that is... Atmavat manyate jagat.
[03:07] That is the conditioned soul's qualification, that if he's a fool he thinks others fools.
[03:16] Everyone, he thinks, "He's like me." That is nature. Atmavat manyate jagat.
[03:32] Everyone thinks others like himself. If he's a fool, he thinks all are.
[03:43] So these things are no argument. Nobody has seen God. How do you take the statistics?
[03:54] Can you say like that, any statistics, that nobody has...
[03:59] Maybe you have not seen him, one who has seen God.
[04:04] That is quite possible, because you have not scrutinizingly studied all the men of the world.
[04:09] Then how you can say nobody has seen? You have not seen the man who has seen Him.
[04:17] He'll not admit his fault. He'll accuse others, "Nobody has seen God." Why?
[04:25] You may not have seen, but why you say nobody has seen?
[04:30] You have not seen that person who has seen God; therefore you say like that.
[04:40] [Prabhupada greets Deities and leads kirtana in Los Angeles]
Srimad-Bhagavatam Class, May 19, 1975, Melbourne
[09:28] [Prabhupada:] The child is changing his body to baby, the baby is changing his body to boy,
[09:40] and the boy is changing his body to youthhood. Then, in this way you are changing bodies.
[09:47] That you have got experience. You had a child's body, you remember.
[09:52] Or you had a boy's body, you remember. But the body is no longer existing, but you are existing.
[10:01] Therefore the conclusion is that when this body will be no more fit for existing,
[10:08] we shall have to accept another body. This is called tatha dehantara-praptiḥ.
[10:15] So we have to change. That is nature's law. The soul is immortal.
[10:29] The soul is not finished simply a particular type of body being finished. No. The people do not know it.
[10:41] And because they're simply engaged in sinful activities, their brain has become so dull
[10:50] that they cannot understand this simple truth, that as you are changing body in this life,
[10:56] therefore you'll change this body to another body. This is a very simple truth.
[11:03] But at the advancement of material civilization, we have become so dull and rascal
[11:09] that we cannot understand.
[11:12] Sarvopadhi-vinirmuktam tat-paratvena nirmalam, hrsikena hrsikesa-sevanam bhaktir ucyate [Brs. 1.1.12].
[11:22] This bhakti means that we have to clear ourself from the designations.
[11:32] What is that designation?
[11:34] Everyone is thinking, "I am American," "I am Indian," "I am European,"
[11:39] "I am Australian," "I am cat," "I am dog," "I am this," "I am that." Bodily.
[11:46] We have to cleanse this bodily conception of life,
[11:50] that "I am not this body." Aham brahmasmi: "I am spirit soul." This you have to realize.
[12:01] Then there will be no distinction that "Here is an American," "Here is an Australian,"
[12:06] "Here is a Hindu," "Here is a Muslim," "Here is a tree." No. Panḍitaḥ sama-darsinaḥ.
[12:14] Panḍitaḥ means learned, one who knows things as they are. For them,
[12:21] vidya-vinaya-sampanne brahmane gavi hastini, suni caiva sva-pake ca panḍitaḥ sama-darsinaḥ [Bg. 5.18].
[12:30] A person, very learned, vidya, and very gentle. Vidya means... Educated means he is gentle, sober.
[12:40] He is not rogues and ruffian. That is vidya. That is the test of education.
[12:47] He must be very educated, sober and silent. That is called gentleman.
Srimad-Bhagavatam Class, May 22, 1975, Melbourne
[12:53] [Prabhupada:] Therefore this human form of life should be properly utilized,
[13:01] not simply engaged in sense gratification like cats and dogs. That is not very responsible life.
[13:12] Responsible life is that I have got this improved form of life
[13:19] than the cats and dogs, and I have got more intelligence than the cats and dogs.
[13:27] If I simply utilize it for four bodily necessities of life...
[13:34] Four bodily necessities of life means we require some eating.
[13:40] The cats, dogs, human being or high court judge or anyone, they require some eating.
[13:49] They require sleeping-apartment.
[13:53] So that is, the cats and dogs can sleep without apartment. But sleeping required.
[14:02] That is fact. Eating required. That is fact. And sex life. That is also fact.
[14:09] And defense. That is also fact.
[14:12] But these things are common to the cats and dogs and man, human being.
[14:21] So what is the special feature of the human being?
[14:25] The special feature of the human being is that a human being can consider
[14:33] that "I have got this nice American, or Australian, or Indian body.
[14:40] Then what am I going to get next? What kind of body?"
[14:45] That is utilized for human intelligence. A cat and dog cannot think like that.
[14:54] Therefore our business should be,
[14:57] "Now, by the nature's way, I have come to this form of life, by evolutionary process.
[15:05] Now I have got good intelligence. How I shall utilize it?"
[15:11] Vedais ca sarvair aham eva vedyam.
[15:15] The whole knowledge is meant for understanding God. That is the end of knowledge.
[15:24] By progressive knowledge you can make progress.
[15:29] But unless you do not come to the point to understand what is God, then your knowledge is imperfect.
[15:37] That is called Vedanta. Athato brahma jijnasa.
[15:41] Actually, designation has no value.
[15:45] The person is important, not the designation.
Srimad-Bhagavatam Class, May 22, 1975, Melbourne
[15:52] [Prabhupada:] Nature is a machine.
[15:56] So do you think a machine works without an operator?
[16:00] Do you think? Is there any evidence?
[16:04] Now this is a machine, photography.
[16:08] A wonderful machine, it is taking the picture, and it will move. But there is an operator.
[16:15] Where is the machine which is working without operator?
[16:20] Can you give any example, "Here is a machine which is working without operator"?
[16:27] So how do you think that the nature machine is working without the supreme operator,
[16:33] God's instruction? How do you think it? This is not very reasonable.
[16:40] We have to judge. There are different evidences. One of the evidence is hypothesis.
[16:51] That hypothesis is that because we see that no machine works without operator,
[17:00] therefore we should conclude it. Even though we do not know what is God, what is the nature,
[17:06] we must conclude it that the nature is working under some supreme operator. That is God.
[17:16] It is not necessary to see the operator, but we can guess that there must be operator.
[17:24] So human life is meant for finding out who is there to operate. That is human life.
[17:33] Otherwise it is cats' and dogs' life. They are eating, sleeping, mating and dancing, that's all.
[17:39] That is not human life. You must find out who is the operator. Athato brahma jijnasa.
[17:46] This is called, in Sanskrit word,
[17:48] "Now this human form of life is meant for enquiring about the supreme operator."
[17:57] Now that supreme operator, Krsna, is so kind. He is giving evidence in the Bhagavad-gita,
[18:05] mayadhyaksena prakrtiḥ sūyate sa-caracaram:
[18:10] "Now here I am. Under My direction the prakrti, the nature, material nature, is working."
[18:19] Thank you very much.
[18.40] [kirtana]
Roof Conversation, March 27, 1974, Bombay
[19:14] [Prabhupada:] But unfortunately I am thinking, "This is American pains and pleasure," "This is Indian pains and..."
[19:24] Pains and pleasure is the same. It is neither American nor African.
[19:32] Pains and pleasure is the same.
[19:35] So as soon as this consciousness that "I am feeling American pains, American pleasure,"
[19:46] as soon as this is over, then we come to the original consciousness.
[19:52] Because consciousness cannot be American or African.
[19:57] If I pinch you, the pain felt by you is the same when I pinch the African.
[20:07] So therefore the consciousness is the same.
[20:10] Artificially, we are thinking that American consciousness, African consciousness.
[20:17] Actually, that is not the position. Simply this misunderstanding has to be cleared out.
[20:26] That is called ceto-darpana-marjanam. Is it not a fact?
[20:32] [Bhagavata:] Oh, yes, Srila Prabhupada. It's a fact.
[20:35] [Prabhupada:] The consciousness of feeling pains and pleasure, can it be American or Indian?
[20:41] [Bhagavata:] No.
[20:42] [Prabhupada:] It is the same. Artificially we are thinking it is American pain or it is Indian pain.
[20:50] That is artificial. This artificial covering has to be removed.
[20:57] Then we come to Krsna consciousness.
[21:06] Feelings..., consciousness is not American, African or Indian. Consciousness is the same.
[21:13] When you feel hungry, is that Americans feel a different way hungry?
[21:21] The African feels in a different way? So hungry, appetite, is the same.
[21:32] Now if you say, "This is American appetite" and "This is Indian appetite," that is artificial.
[21:42] So when you do not go to the artificial platform, that is Krsna consciousness.
[21:54] That is explained in Narada Pancaratra:
[21:58] sarvopadhi-vinirmuktam tat-paratvena nirmalam, hrsikena hrsikesa-sevanam bhaktir ucyate [Brs. 1.1.12].
[22:10] When we become free from these artificial designations, "American consciousness,"
[22:17] "Indian consciousness," "African consciousness..." There is no such thing. This is artificial.
[22:23] Even bird and beast, they also feel consciousness, pains and pleasure.
[22:34] Just like when there is scorching heat, you feel some pain.
[22:40] Is that American, Indian or African? Scorching heat is everywhere, [laughs] feeling.
[22:48] If you say that "I am feeling scorching heat American way...,"
[22:54] [Indian:] [Hindi exchange]
[22:59] [Prabhupada:] Simply these are artificial. Everything is depending on consciousness.
[23:08] Everything is depending on consciousness.
[23:10] Therefore Krsna consciousness is the original standard of consciousness.
Room Conversation, June 23, 1975, Los Angeles
[23:19] [Prabhupada:] The big airship, 747, is flying because the pilot is there.
[23:29] And the pilot is a soul, covered by another bodily machine.
[23:39] That, that is missing point in modern civilization.
[23:43] That is who is working with the machine, that they do not know. That is ignorance.
[23:57] It is said... [aside:] You see in Bhagavad-gita:
[24:00] isvaraḥ sarva-bhūtanam hrd-dese 'rjuna tisthati, bhramayan sarva-bhūtani yantrarūḍhani mayaya [Bg. 18.61].
[24:09] Yantra means machine.
[24:15] Actually, they're finding that a big, nice machine, computer, without an operator it does not work.
[24:26] And this huge machine is working without any spiritual touch.
[24:31] Just see how foolishness. They think automatically it works.
[24:38] Nature is working automatically. Do they not think?
[24:41] [Dr. Mize:] They think there's a mind, but not a soul.
[24:45] [Prabhupada:] That's all right. Something is there which is working.
[24:49] Now that may be a mistake, to call it soul or mind; that is next understanding.
[24:56] But the machine is not working independently. That should be understood first.
[25:04] Then how the machine is working, that will be next chapter.
[25:10] So they have no understanding even how the machine is working.
[25:21] Mūḍha nabhijanati mam ebhyaḥ param avyayam. Mayadhyaksena prakrtiḥ sūyate sa-caracaram [Bg. 9.10].
[25:28] That they do not know, mūḍhas.
[25:34] So if you do not know how the machine is working, then what is the value of your education?
[25:43] Education means enlightenment. You do not know what is the final cause,
[25:52] that huge body is working as nature, so many planets, so many big, big planets
[26:02] like sun, moon, they are floating in the air. Who has made this arrangement?
[26:10] They are..., we see every day.
[26:25] And everyone is speculating, "It is being done like this."
[26:30] Another philosopher comes, he says, "It is like this." Another says, "It is like this."
[26:38] Nasau nidya sammatam na bhinnam.
[26:41] A philosopher is not a great philosopher if he does not defy the other philosopher.
[26:48] Is it not? So this process is going on. I defy you, you defy me. That's all.
[26:55] But what is the real fact? Neither you know, neither I know.
[27:01] But we write big, big articles. That is going on.
[27:13] Just like this finger is part and parcel of my body.
[27:19] Whatever I am ordering, it is immediately carrying out.
[27:23] I say, "Make it like this," he will..., it will do. So... But this is dead matter. It is acting mechanically.
[27:37] The brain directs immediately the finger, and it acts like machine.
[27:45] This whole body is just like a machine.
[27:49] But soul is not machine, mechanical part. It is spiritual part.
[28:00] So therefore as I am directing the finger, being machine, it is working.
[28:09] But if somebody else, a friend or servant,
[28:14] I may direct him to do something, he may not do it.
[28:22] So when the soul misuses the independence, then he falls down.
[28:28] That is material life.
[28:30] Material life means misusing the independence of soul.
[28:40] Just like a son. A son's duty is to obey the father.
[28:45] But he may not obey. That is his madness.
[28:53] So when the soul, misusing the independence, becomes mad,
[29:01] he is sent in this material world.
[29:07] [Dr. Mize:] It is puzzling to me that one would be so foolish.
[29:10] [Prabhupada:] Because by independence you can become foolish.
[29:15] Otherwise there is no meaning of independence.
[29:19] Independence means you can do whatever you like.
[29:25] That is stated in the Bhagavad-gita, that yathecchasi tatha kuru.
[29:34] [aside:] Find out this verse in the Eighteenth Chapter.
[29:41] That independence is there.
[29:43] After instructing the whole Bhagavad-gita to Arjuna, Krsna gave him the independence:
[29:52] "Now whatever you like, you can do."
[29:58] Krsna never forced him to accept the teachings of Bhagavad-gita.
[30:04] He gave him the independence: "Now whatever you like, you can do."
[30:10] And he agreed, "Yes. Now my illusion is over. I shall act as You say."
[30:23] The same independence. Yes?
[30:25] [Dharmadhyaksa:] [reads verse in Sanskrit, then translation:] "Thus I have explained to you the most confidential of all knowledge.
[30:51] Deliberate on this fully and then do what you wish to do."
[30:54] [Prabhupada:] Yes. Now, if you say, "Why the soul should become become so foolish?"
[31:06] so that is misuse of independence.
[31:12] Intelligent father has got intelligent son.
[31:18] But sometimes he becomes a fool. So what is the reason?
[31:29] That the... He is the part and parcel of the father. He should have become exactly like the father.
[31:38] But he does not become like the father.
[31:42] I have seen in Allahabad, a big lawyer, barrister, Mr. Banerjee.
[31:51] His eldest son was also a barrister, and his youngest son,
[31:57] on account of bad association, he became a ekala-walla.
[32:01] Ekala means... In India there is a carriage drawn by one horse.
[32:10] So he liked to be an ekala.
[32:16] That means he fell in love a low class of woman, and by her association he became an ekala.
[32:24] There are many instances. Therefore, it is the duty of the human being how to control the mind.
[32:36] Not act like cats and dogs. That is human being. He should be inquisitive:
[32:45] "Why this happening? Why this happening?" and he should take education.
[32:52] That is human life. And if he does not enquire, if he does not take education,
[32:58] then what is the difference between him and the dog?
[33:03] He remains a dog. He has got this opportunity of human life.
[33:10] He should take advantage of understanding what is what,
[33:16] not to keep himself in the dog status,
[33:21] simply eating, sleeping, sex life and defending.
[33:26] That is the distinction between dog and human being.
[33:33] If he does not become inquisitive how to control the mind, he's not even human being.
[33:43] A dog never enquires. A dog knows that "When I bark, people become disturbed."
[33:54] He will never ask, "How to control this barking habit?"
[34:00] Because he's dog. He cannot do that.
[34:07] A human being can do that.
[34:09] "People hates me. I do something wrong. How to control my mind?"
[34:15] that is human being.
[34:22] That is the difference between human being and dog.
[34:36] Therefore Vedic injunction is: "Go and enquire.
[34:41] You have got this human form of life." Athato brahma jijnasa:
[34:46] "Now this is the time for enquiring about the soul."
[34:52] Tad vijnanartham sa gurum eva abhigacchet.
[34:55] If you want to understand this science, then go to a proper guru and take lessons from him.
[35:07] The same thing as we instruct our children:
[35:11] "If you want to be educated in the higher status of life, go to school, go to college.
[35:16] Take lesson." That is human society.
[35:24] The dog's father will never ask the dog, "Child, go to school."
[35:29] No. They are dogs.
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