Hare Krishna (english) :: Remember, remember, the velvet November


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Hare Krishna! Toto forum bude urcene pre tych, ktori vedia po anglicky a zaujma ich Hare Krishna. Denne citam vela prispevkov v anglictine a rozhodol som sa, ze mozno by bolo dobre sa s nimi podelit. Napriklad take prednasky Srilu Prabhupadu su skutocny poklad. Toto forum bude spojene s oficialnym Hare Krishna forom------>
http://www.kyberia.sk/id/932951

Linky z ktorych budem cerpat:
http://www.prabhupadaconnect.com
http://www.krishna.org
http://prabhupadavani.org
http://www.prabhupada.cc
http://www.iskconirm.com/modules.php?name=Forums

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Hare Krishna!

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This is published by Macmillan. It is eleven hundred pages. They printed in July fifty thousand copies. That is finished. Now they are going to print second edition. Since 1968 they are publishing our Bhagavad-gétä As It Is, and every year they are getting one edition. From the beginning... I think this is the fifth or sixth edition and their business manager, trades manager’s report is that this Bhagavad-gétä is increasing sale, others’ dwindling, because it is presented as it is. We present Kåñëa as Kåñëa. Kåñëa says, “I am the Supreme Personality of Godhead.” We present Kåñëa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Kåñëa says, “You surrender unto Me.” We teach people, “You surrender to Kåñëa.” Kåñëa says, man-manä bhava mad-bhakto mad-yäjé mäà namaskuru [Bg. 18.65]. We say, “You become Kåñëa bhakta. You offer worship to Kåñëa.” We don’t change anything. And therefore people are accepting. Adulteration, how long it will go on? You know very well. You are from Delhi. There is a Punjabi halwai (?), in the Chowry Bazaar. You know that?
Guest (4): No, I have heard about it.
Prabhupäda: Because he sells, I mean to say, confectionery made of pure ghee you’ll find always hundreds of customers waiting. And there are many dalda ghee shop not so crowded. Some cheap men are going there. So anything you present pure, there will be automatic customer. And that is being proved. We are presenting Kåñëa as He is, and He is being accepted everywhere, all over the world. But as soon as you make adulteration Kåñëa, manufacture your concoction—“Kåñëa means this, Kurukñetra means this,” all nonsense talk—immediately lost. Why should we do that, adulteration? There is no business adulterating. So many scholars, so many swamis, they have simply presented adulterated. Just like even Mahatma Gandhi says, “The Kurukñetra means this body.” And where he got this meaning? Where is the dictionary meaning? You should speak something which must be authorized. Where is the dictionary where Kurukñetra is explained as this body? And Kurukñetra station is still existing. People are going to Kurukñetra for religious performances. Kuru-kñetre dharma-kñetre. Why should I interpret Kurukñetra, “the body”? This is going on. So that will not be effective. It may be effective, a few person, somebody’s admirer. But it will not go far above that. But if you present as it is, it will be accepted by any real inquirer.

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Prabhupäda: So far designation is concerned, the spiritual master authorizes every one of his disciple. But it is up to the disciple to carry out the order, able to carry out or not. It is not that spiritual master is partial, he designates one and rejects other. He may do that. If the other is not qualified, he can do that. But actually his intention is not like that. He wants that each and every one of his disciple become as powerful as he is or more than that. That is his desire. Just like father wants every son to be as qualified or more qualified than the father. But it is up to the student or to the son to raise himself to that standard.
Ätreya Åñi: Yes, I understand.
Prabhupäda: If you are incapable of raising yourself to the standard of becoming spiritual master, that is not your spiritual master's fault, that is your fault. He wants, just like Caitanya Mahäprabhu said, ämära äjïäya guru haïä, By My order, every one of you become a guru. If one cannot carry out the order of Caitanya Mahäprabhu, then how he can become a guru? The first qualification is that he must be able to carry out the order of Caitanya Mahäprabhu. Then he becomes guru. So that carrying out the order of Caitanya Mahäprabhu depends on one's personal capacity. Ämära äjïäya guru haïä. Acceptance of Caitanya Mahäprabhu as Kåñëa, that is there in the çästra, in the Upaniñads, in Mahäbhärata, in Bhägavata.

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http://kyberia.sk/id/2015810

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Prajapati: ...last hundred and fifty years, one of the major problems of western theologians has been the relationship between reason and faith. They've been seeking to understand faith through reason but they have not been able to come to any terms of the relationship between their reasoning abilities and faith. So there's been like a leap, almost a rejection of any kind of...

Prabhupada: No. Just like we are walking on this street, so there is relation. This path is made for my walking. This is the relation with this road and myself. This is not made for... For animals also. But at least, we can take it is made for man. So for walking of man this road is made. So this is my relation. So in this way, everything you search out, you'll find out some relation. Is it not? Try to understand this first. Everything you take... Just like here is a microphone. There is my relation: I talk and it is recorded. So where is the difficulty to find out relationship with everything. Is there any difficulty?

Prajapati: They see one, Srila Prabhupada. The theologians perceive when they see that reason and faith are in two realms...

Prabhupada: This is reason, that everything we are using, there is a relationship. How can you deny it? If I have got relationship with everything, then I have got some relationship with God also. Try to understand this fact. Hmm? Have you got relationship with God or not? If we have got relationship with everything of God's creation, then why not with God? Answer, any one of you. Why you are silent?

Hrdayananda: Because you're right, Prabhupada.

Prabhupada: (laughs) Hare Krsna. We must have some relationship with God.

Karandhara: Their point is that they can only have faith in God. Their reason tells them there is no God.

Prabhupada: There is no question of faith, it must be. Faith may be false. There must be. Because we have got relationship with everything, therefore ultimately everything is created by God.

Satsvarupa: That requires faith.

Prabhupada: It is not faith; it is fact. Faith may be wrong. Faith may be right or wrong, but fact is fact.

Karandhara: Well, when they say fact, they mean what they can perceive through their senses grossly.

Prabhupada: Yes, with senses, senses. That is... Our Krsna consciousness movement means that we have got relationship with God and senses, our senses. That is hrsikena hrsikesa-sevanam bhaktir ucyate [Cc. Madhya 19.170]. When the senses are engaged with the Supreme, in relationship, that is called bhakti. It is a question of senses. It is not vague. We apply everything, we go with our senses. Just like the leg, we go, take our legs to the temple. We use our tongue for glorifying, for eating the prasadam. Every senses. That is bhakti. It is not sensuous, but engaging the senses in the service of the proprietor of the senses.

Karandhara: But they say that's a faith.

Prabhupada: That's not faith, that's fact.

Karandhara: They say when we offer prasadam, it's just a faith that a God accepts it because you cannot see God eating.

Prabhupada: No, no, you cannot see, I see. I am not a fool like you. (laughter) I can see; therefore I offer. But you cannot see. So I have to open your eyes. You come to me. That is our propaganda. You are blind. You are suffering with cataract. I shall operate and you'll see also.

Yasomatinandana: Hare Krsna.

Hrdayananda: Jaya Srila Prabhupada.

Prabhupada: You don't see, that does not mean I don't see. Why do you accept like that? You may be fool rascal.

Karandhara: They want their team of scientists to see it.

Prabhupada: Scientist means another rascal. Big rascal. You are a rascal, and your bigger scientist, he's a big rascal. He's a big rascal. Samstutah purusah pasuh. That is explained in the Srimad-Bhagavatam. Sva-vid-varahostra-kharaih samstutah purusah pasuh [SB 2.3.19]. You know this verse? Explain.

Hrdayananda: People who are like hogs, dogs, camels and asses glorify nondevotees.

Prabhupada: Yes, the, anyone nondevotee, he's a big camel, or big dog or big swine, like that. So these people who are praising them, they are also cats and dogs and swines, and the leader is also big swine. That's all. That is the difference. The so-called scientist, philosopher, is a big animal. That's all. But he is animal.

Karandhara: They say we're just dreamers.

Prabhupada: Dreamer?

Karandhara: Dreamers. That we make up fantasies about God and heaven, but actually,

Prabhupada: Why fancies? You have no brain to understand; therefore you say, "fancy"

Karandhara: Well, their common ground of objectivity is what they can perceive with the senses.

Prabhupada: Yes, you can sense with the senses. You perceive with the senses the sand, but who has made the sand? You have not made. Why you are so fool that you don't understand this? This sand... Here is a perception, direct perception. This water, vast water-direct perception. Who has made it?

Karandhara: Well, they say, "If it was made by God, we'd be able to see him just like the sand."

Prabhupada: Yes, but you have to get the eyes. That I say. Because you are blind, you have cataract, I have to operate. You'll see. You'll see. You come to treatment. Therefore the sastra says, "Go to guru and be treated and try to understand." But how you can see with your blind eyes, cataract eyes?

Karandhara: Well, that vision, that seeing, is supramundane. They only consider the mundane vision.

Prabhupada: Yes, supramundane, everything is supramundane. Because... How do you know that there is nothing in the sky? Now you say it is vacant. So your eyes is deficient. It is not vacant. There are innumerable planets, but you cannot see. You cannot see. You are blind. Therefore, because it is not in your power to see, you have to hear from me. "Yes, there are millions of stars there." You have to accept it. You cannot see. But because you cannot see does not mean that it is vacant. It is deficiency of your senses.

Karandhara: Well, they will admit that, but they say, "Still, we cannot... Even though we are ignorant of some things, we still can't accept what we can't see."

Prabhupada: Why? If you are ignorant, you have to accept.

Karandhara: Because what we're told may be wrong.

Prabhupada: May be wrong, that is your misfortune. But the process is that where your senses cannot approach, you have to hear from authority. That is the process. But if you don't approach authority, if you approach a cheater, that is your misfortune. But the process is, where your senses cannot act, you have to approach authority. That is the process.

Svarupa Damodara: But they want experimental knowledge.

Prabhupada: Yes, this is experimental.

Svarupa Damodara: They say, "It cannot be proved."

Prabhupada: No, why not proved? Just like I gave you the... this water, this sand, it is practical. Now you must know somebody has made it.

Karandhara: Well, the difficulty is, in a group of atheists, you can't prove God no matter what you say.

Prabhupada: No, atheists, kick them on their face. Atheists, they are... Those who are reasonable, that everything see, that somebody has made. So this sand is also made by somebody, the water is also made by somebody, the sky is also made by somebody. Now you find out who is that somebody. That is knowledge.

Dr. Wolfe: They do not want to transcend the limits. They do not want to transcend the limits.

Prabhupada: There is no question of transcending, practical. Everything you see, it is made by somebody. The stick is made by somebody. The cloth is made by somebody. So this must be made by somebody.

Dr. Wolfe: But they would say, "Present me the somebody so that I..." They would say, "Present to me the somebody so that I can see him."

Prabhupada: Yes, I'll present you. So you have to take training from me. You have to make your eyes to see Him.

Dr. Wolfe: We want to.

Prabhupada: That is the... Yes. But if you refuse to be treated, if you don't go to the physician, then how you'll be? You are blind now. There is cataract. Now you have to treat in a surgical operation. Tad-vijnanartham sa gurum evabhigacchet [MU 1.2.12]. This is the injunction.

Karandhara: You see, that step requires faith.

Prabhupada: Not faith, practical.

Karandhara: Initially it must be, there must be faith in the guru.

Prabhupada: Practical. If you want to learn something, you must to go the expert. That is not faith; it is a fact. You cannot learn anything by yourself. That is not possible.

Bali Mardana: If someone is actually sincere, can he be cheated or will he always get a bona fide guru?

Prabhupada: No, if he is sincere he'll get. Yes. Guru-krsna-krpaya paya bhakti-lata-bija [Cc. Madhya 19.151]. Guru and Krsna. Krsna is within you. As soon as He sees that you are sincere, He'll give you the right person.

Bali Mardana: So if you are not completely sincere, you might get a Guru Maharaji.

Prabhupada: Huh?

Bali Mardana: If you're not completely sincere, you might get someone else.

Prabhupada: Yes. Because you want to be cheated, you go to the cheater. That's all. Ye yatha mam prapadyante tams tathaiva bhajamy aham [Bg. 4.11]. Krsna is intelligent, superintelligent. If you are a cheater, He'll cheat you. He'll cheat you. First-class cheat, Krsna. But if you're actually sincere, then He'll give you the right thing. That is stated in the Bhag..., mattah smrtir jnanam apohanam ca: [Bg. 15.15] "Everything is coming from Me: smrtih, remembrance, and forgetfulness." If you are a cheater, Krsna will give you such intelligence, you'll forget Krsna forever.

Dr. Wolfe: Srila Prabhupada, so it is so, "Birds of a feather flock together." The cheaters flock together.

Prabhupada: Yes. "Birds of the same feather flock together."

Karandhara: The thing is that our philosophy is as supportable as theirs, but because they are in control they have the dominance.

Prabhupada: Who has dominance?

Karandhara: The atheists.

Prabhupada: Atheists? (laughs) One kick of maya, he's finished. (laughter) All dominance. One this kick his dominance all finished, in one second. (laughter) No dominance. That is maya. They are under control, but thinking that "We are free." That is called maya, that is called maya. They are under full control but they are thinking, "We are free." That is maya. Mohini, mohinim sritah. What is that verse? Asurim mohinim?

Hrdayananda: Raksasim. Moghasa mogha,

Prabhupada: Prakrtim mohinim. Moghasa mogha-karmano mogha-jnana vicetasah [Bg. 9.12]. Because they are bewildered, all their hopes will be frustrated. Moghasah. Because they are rascals, asurim, atheists, all their hopes will be frustrated. This is stated. And that is being done. They are making so big, big plan; now it is going to be frustrated. Just see.

Svarupa Damodara: Still, they don't want to come to their senses.

Prabhupada: Therefore they are rascals. Rascal means that however kick him on his face, still, he'll insist. That is rascal. Rascal means that. They'll never take good lesson. That is rascal. And sensible means he takes good lesson. Na mam duskrtino mudhah [Bg. 7.15]. And why they remain rascal? Because they are duskrtinah, very, very sinful. Very, very sinful. Don't you see? They are maintaining slaughterhouse. They are maintaining brothel. They are ruining everyone's life by sense gratification. These are all sinful activities. Therefore they remain rascal forever. They cannot improve. Because they are so sinful, they have to suffer, go to the darkest region. They'll have to become worms of the stool. That is awaiting them. But they do not know how things are going on. They are thinking, "We are now safe. We are safe." That is foolishness. That is rascaldom. So you are now feeling all right?

Paramahamsa: Jaya Srila Prabhupada. Thank you very much.

Prabhupada: Thank you very much. Hare Krsna. Rascal means that... You know the story, that Kalidasa, a great poet, he was a great rascal. So... It is a long story. So he was sitting on the branch of a tree and cutting. So some gentleman: "Why you are cutting? You'll fall down." "No, no, I'll not fall down." But when he fell down, then he went to that gentleman, "How did you know, sir, that I shall fall down?" Then they concluded, "Here is a rascal number one." (laughter) "Here is a rascal number one." They do not know that they are going to hell. That is rascaldom. By their so-called scientific advancement, philosophy, education, they are going to hell. That they do not know. Therefore they are rascals. Therefore they are rascals. This is the definition of rascaldom: one who does not know where he is going. If somebody goes in this way straight, and you say "Don't go!" "No! Why shall I not go?" He's rascal. (laughter) He's rascal. And the another rascal, "Yes, yes, you can go, it is all right." Yata mata tata patha. "As many ways you manufacture, it is all right. You can go this way." He's another rascal. This is going on.

Svarupa Damodara: How do we bring them to their senses?

Prabhupada: This is Krsna consciousness. Be Krsna conscious and everything will be solved. How we are speaking? Because we have taken shelter of Krsna. That's all. Mam eva ye prapadyante mayam etam taranti, as soon as you surrender to Krsna, all this maya, misconception, will go. You'll become right person, in knowledge. That is Krsna consciousness, to become perfect man. Because there is guidance, the perfect guidance, so he becomes perfect. Harer nama harer nama harer nama... [Cc. Adi 17.21]. [break] This is the statement in Bhagavata. Adanta-gobhir visatam tamisram: [SB 7.5.30] "Because they cannot control their senses, therefore they are making progress towards the darkest region of hell." Adanta-gobhir visatam tamisram punah punas carvita: "And repeatedly chewing the chewed." They make one plan. It is frustrated. Again make another plan. That is frustrated. Again make another plan. But they will never agree to accept that these plans are all useless. That is rascaldom. That is rascaldom. Repeatedly chewing the chewed, chewing the chewed. The same woman, same vagina, and that is their pleasure. Bas. At home, and in street or nightclub and theater -- the same vagina. That's all.

Dr. Wolfe: Srila Prabhupada, they would say that that is braveness. they are brave in trying again and again.

Prabhupada: Yes, they must say. That is their rascaldom. One who goes, braveness, go to the Pacific Ocean and die, and go to hell. That is their braveness. That is their braveness. They are bravely going to hell. That's all. There is a story, palavarne boi nate(?). One man is chasing another man. So the man who is chased, he's asked, "Why you are fleeing away, fleeing away?" So, "Am I afraid of you? Why shall I not flee? Why shall not go? Am I afraid of you." He's fleeing out of fear, but still, he says, "Am I afraid of you? Am I afraid of you? Why shall I not? Why shall I stop?" This is the position. "Bravely I am going to hell. Why shall I stop? I am brave." This is going on.

Hrdayananda: It's crazy.

Prabhupada: Yes, crazy. This is stated:

pisaci paile yena mati-cchanna haya

maya-grasta jivera haya se bhava udaya

"Just like when a man becomes crazy, ghostly haunted, he speaks all nonsense, similarly, anyone who is under the influence of this material energy, he's crazy." He's crazy, talks all nonsense. That's all. [break]

mayar bose jaccho bhese'

Khaccho habudubu bhai

This is Bhaktivinoda Thakura's... "Why you are being carried away by the waves of maya and you are becoming drowned and sometimes up, sometimes down? Why you are wasting your life in that way?"

jiva krsna das e biswas

korle to' ar duhkho nai

"If you simply accept Krsna as your guidance, there is no more maya." But they'll not accept. Bahunam janmanam ante jnanavan mam prapadyate [Bg. 7.19]. Therefore one who accepts and surrenders unto Krsna after many, many births of such struggle for existence, he is actually wise. He's actually wise.

Prajapati: Srila Prabhupada, why has it taken so long for a pure devotee to come to the West? Has the West been so sinful that no pure devotee has come before Your Divine Grace?

Prabhupada: (laughs) Don't be sorry. At that time you were so sinful that you could not receive a pure devotee.

Karandhara: Yes. Once in a lecture a lady asked you why hadn't you come sooner, and you just said, "Well, you weren't ready for me."

Prabhupada: Yes, "Because you were not ready." (laughs) Yes, I told, yes. Now the Western boys, the descendants of the Western people, they are fortunate; therefore they receive Krsna. Kona bhagyavan jiva. It is Krsna's desire that "These people are suffering so much; let some devotees come here." So you are all devotees. You have come to join together.

Svarupa Damodara: Srila Prabhupada, during the progress of evolutionary process, suppose if the individual soul falls down from the human platform, the individual soul falls down from the human platform to some other lower species, but in the course of again evolutionary process, at some stage along the path he'll come to Krsna consciousness. Is this...?

Prabhupada: Yes, yes, that is the process. Evolution means to come to that end, Krsna consciousness. That is real evolution. If one misses the chance, then again falls down. But the natural progress is that.

Svarupa Damodara: But ultimately he will come to Krsna consciousness.

Prabhupada: Yes, ultimately everyone will come to Krsna. Not Krsna consciousness, but Krsna. At the end of this world, devastation, they enter into the body of Krsna. They remain there.

Hrdayananda: That wouldn't be very good for a devotee.

Prabhupada: Huh? But they have no sense. These birds are feedies(?) or their bodily extension is so much. I think they're feedies(?).

Hrdayananda: They're what.

Svarupa Damodara: What? Very nice.

Prabhupada: Just see how they are experienced. They're not afraid of the ocean, although they are very small. They know how to save him. Mattah smrtir jnanam apohanam ca [Bg. 15.15]. Krsna is there within the heart. They are giving, "Now get off." They immediately get off.

Hrdayananda: Boy. That's Visnu within their heart?

Prabhupada: Yes. [break] ...nice, very broad and clean. [break] ...can overflood the whole area, but no. "Up to this, no more, sir." Under whose order they are working? There must be some control.

Prajapati: They would say it's under the control of the moon. The moon controls the tides.

Prabhupada: Yes, the moon is controlled by whom?

Svarupa Damodara: They'll say, "By nature."

Prabhupada: Nature is controlled by whom?

Bali Mardana: Who is controlling the moon?

Prabhupada: That is answered in the Bhagavad-gita, mayadhyaksena prakrtih suyate sa-caracaram: [Bg. 9.10] "Nature is controlled by Me." Therefore He is absolute controller. But He is not controlled by anyone. Therefore He is absolute controller. Just like a, what is called? Magnetic stone?

Hrdayananda: Magnet?

Prabhupada: Magnet, it attracts.

Svarupa Damodara: Iron filings.

Prabhupada: Iron filings. But who has given this power to this magnetic stone? You cannot give.

Karandhara: They say, "It's just there by nature's arrangement."

Prabhupada: That is answered: "Nature is controlled by God."

Karandhara: Well, they prefer to leave nature as nondescript. When they say or designate as "nature," they prefer to leave that nondescript, nonspecific.

Prabhupada: Why? That means insufficient knowledge. They do not wish to describe it because your foolishness will be discovered.

Svarupa Damodara: They will say that "I can do that. That is done by nature."

Prabhupada: Huh?

Svarupa Damodara: In the case of a magnet, suppose if I take a piece of iron and if I magnetize it by electrical current, it will act as a magnet. So they say...,

Prabhupada: Yes, but the iron is not manufactured by you. Neither the magnetic stone is manufactured by you. You take nature's product and utilize it. That is not your original creation. So what is credit to you? You can transform. That is in your hand. Yayedam dharyate jagat [Bg. 7.5]. There are two things: material and spiritual, inferior energy and superior energy. Jiva-bhutam maha-baho. The living entities, they are superior energy. Why superior? They can take the materials and handle. Yayedam dharyate jagat. That is your superior energy. You can take the matters and combine it and make something else. That is the world, going on, matter and spirit. You have created your own body by your desire. So that you can do, but the materials, the body, you cannot create. That is not in your power.

Svarupa Damodara: They are trying to make it.

Prabhupada: Again "trying." It is already there. What is the use of your trying? The same thing. Already dog is barking, but one is trying to imitate. That's all. But people will go to see the imitation barking by purchasing ticket, and the real barking they'll neglect.

Svarupa Damodara: That is called, "new discovery."

Prabhupada: What is that new discovery? Barking is already there. What is new discovery? You are simply imitating barking, that's all. Barking is already there. What is discovery?

Svarupa Damodara: But that imitation is just new.

Prabhupada: No. Imitation is flattery. That's all. Imitation is the best way of flattery. That's all.

Karandhara: Actually they are proving our point because as persons they can imitate the Supreme person, but He made the original. If they were not persons or living entities, they couldn't imitate God's creation.

Prabhupada: Now, in your laboratory, by mixing hydrogen, oxygen, if you produce one ounce of water, what is your credit? Here is vast water already.

Svarupa Damodara: They say it was not done before in the lab.

Prabhupada: It is done already; otherwise where the water came? You do not know who did it. That is your ignorance.

Hrdayananda: So it just enviousness. They're just envious.

Prabhupada: Foolishness. Enviousness means one must be able. But they are not able. Simply foolishness.

Bali Mardana: They have created artificial gems, like...

Prabhupada: Just like you are a powerful man. I am a powerful man. I become envious. That is allowed. But I'm not powerful, I'm trying to imitate you, it is foolishness.

Svarupa Damodara: But they're saying that God didn't give me all the knowledge to do, how to make this water.

Prabhupada: Because He wanted you to remain a fool. He wanted. Because you are atheist, He wanted that you shall remain ever fool. That is God's business. Tan aham dvisatah kruran ksipamy ajasram asubhan yonisu [Bg. 16.19]. These atheistic class, they remain always fools. Krsna gives him birth in such a family, in such a country, in such a posi..., that he remains fools. He remains always fool. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gita.

Yasomatinandana: Prabhupada, it's like the barber giving opinion on the science of medicine. It's like barber giving opinion on the science of medicine. Because the materialistic person, they claim to be expert of material science, and still, they want to give opinion on the spiritual science.

Prabhupada: No, no, they are not even expert of material science. They are expert in bluffing others things with jugglery of words. That's it.

Svarupa Damodara: No, they're saying that it was not done before, like telephones and these airplanes and these new discoveries.

Prabhupada: Well, there were better telephones. You do not know it. Just like Sanjaya is sitting with his master, Dhrtarastra, and he's relaying all the war affairs going on. He asked, kim akurvata sanjaya: [Bg. 1.1] "What did they do?" But he was sitting in the room. Where is your that telephone? It is television within the heart. He is seeing everything and relay. Bhagavad-gita, don't you see? Sanjaya uvaca, dhrtarastra uvaca. Dhrtarastra inquired, "Now, after meeting my sons and nephews, what they are doing?" And he's relaying, "Now Duryodhana is going to see Dronacarya. Dronacarya says like this. Bhismadeva says..." How does he say within the room? But you know that science?

Svarupa Damodara: But they will say that that was only possible...,

Prabhupada: He will say... They may say, but we are putting some fact. They may say all nonsense. We are not going to accept that.

Karandhara: Some of them say, "Well we've improved on nature. By making things like plastics and medicines, we've improved nature."

Prabhupada: All right. Very improvement. People were eating in silver plates, golden plates, and you have improved by plastic plates. (laughter) This rascaldom can be understood by another rascal. We are not going to do.

Hrdayananda: The plastic is a great problem because they can't get rid of it. Plastic has become a great problem because there is no way to dispose of it. So it just piles up and piles up, and they can't get rid of it.

Svarupa Damodara: In the future they are going to make plastic houses.

Prabhupada: Yes.

Svarupa Damodara: Transparent, you can see everything from the house.

Prabhupada: So what is the credit there?

Svarupa Damodara: They say that is an improvement.

Bali Mardana: But the plastic depends on oil.

Prabhupada: That is their foolishness. They are going to hell and still they are thinking, "improvement." This is their foolishness. Foolish means that, that he's going to hell, but he's thinking, "improving." This is their...

Dr. Wolfe: Srila Prabhupada, wouldn't it be more sincere if these people, these scientists said, "We don't want to be taken out of this dream, that with our senses and with all the machines built on senses we will be able to make it"? But they don't want to be taken out of that dream.

Prabhupada: But that is their foolishness.

Dr. Wolfe: They don't want to admit it even.

Prabhupada: Why not? They have to admit Just like I gave you the example that you cannot see how many stars are there, but there are. If you say, "I don't see it, I don't believe it," that is your foolishness. That is your foolishness. You have to admit that your senses are limited. They are not perfect. That is the four defects of the conditioned soul: he commits mistake, he is illusioned, he cheats, and his senses are imperfect.

Dr. Wolfe: But they say they try and try again.

Prabhupada: No, try, how? How can you? You are diseased person. Suppose you are suffering from cataract disease. So you can try, try, try, try. Will you be cured? You'll never be cured. You must go to a physician. He'll operate, surgical operation. Then there is chance of seeing. You cannot, trying, trying, trying, trying. Then you go on trying, but you'll never be cured.

Dr. Wolfe: But that is just what they do not want to accept.

Prabhupada: Yes. That is foolishness. That is foolishness. They do not take good advice. That is foolishness. Foolishness means murkhayopadeso hi prakipaya na santaye (?). Murkha, a rascal, if you give him good advice, he'll be angry. Just like a serpent, if you bring the serpent and if you tell the serpent, "My dear friend serpent, you live with me. I shall give you daily nice food, milk and banana. You'll be very pleased." So the result will be that his poison will increase. One day he'll say, "Phah! Phah!" (laughter) So these rascals are like that.

Svarupa Damodara: But they won't give up hopes. They are always hopeful.

Prabhupada: That is foolishness. Their hopes are being frustrated every moment; still, they are hoping. That is foolishness.

Prajapati: Srila Prabhupada, I once was distributing some of your literature to a library, and the librarian said, "If these are five thousand years old, where is the proof of this? Do we have the copies that were written down five thousand years ago?"

Prabhupada: This is the proof. This is the proof. You see. But if you close your eyes... Just like if somebody says, "Now there is sunrise, light." And if he is in darkness, he says, "Where is the proof there is light?" So, "You please come out and see." So you read it and there will be proof.

Karandhara: Even if you don't accept it's five thousand years old, that doesn't diminish the value of the books.

Prabhupada: Simply read it. There is no question of five thousand, ten thousand, old or new. Just see what is the knowledge there. Lokasyajanato vidvams cakre satvata-samhitam [SB 1.7.6]. Because they are fools, for them this literature is made. Lokasyajanato vidvams cakre satvata-samhitam. [break] ...accept Bhagavata, then their Darwin's theory is finished. Darwin's theory is finished.

Svarupa Damodara: No, if they accept that there is a spirit soul, then Darwin's theory is also finished.

Prabhupada: Yes.

Svarupa Damodara: Spirit soul, they don't like to accept it.

Prabhupada: Yes. [break]

Prajapati: The theologians are saying that if we say man is simply soul, he is not his body, we are not accepting the whole man. The whole man means soul and body together.

Prabhupada: Yes, we say, body, same...

Karandhara: Body, mind and soul.

Prabhupada: Yes, yes. Gross matter, subtle matter, and the spirit.

Prajapati: That is whole man.

Prabhupada: Yes. That is whole creation. Why man? Everything. [break] Nature is not under his control; he is under nature's control.

Dr. Wolfe: Srila Prabhupada, they are foolish enough to try it.

Prabhupada: Yes.

Svarupa Damodara: But they are going to make houses on the moon now. On the surface of the moon they'll make houses in a few years.

Prabhupada: What is the benefit?

Karandhara: There's plenty of space on the earth. Why do they have to go to the moon?

Prabhupada: Yes.

Svarupa Damodara: Because it was not done before, so they want to show it to the people. They want to show the power of science.

Prabhupada: Power of science means imitating the barking of the dog. That's all. Dog is already barking, but they imitate and they become scientists. That's all. This is their power. How to imitate. That's all.

Svarupa Damodara: But they will say, "We are more advanced." So they can imitate.

Prabhupada: Yes. That's all right. But we are not so fools that we shall waste our time for imitation. We have got already real thing. Why shall I go to the imitation.

Karandhara: Their imitations are cheap. Like a sputnik, how does it compare with a planet?

Prabhupada: Not cheap! Their imitation... They are going to the... They're spending millions and millions. It is very dear, costly. First thing is imitation, and that imitation is very, very costly. Very expensive. So that is their foolishness. They'll be satisfied with the imitation which is very costly.

Svarupa Damodara: They work so hard. Srila Prabhupada, there is a nice incident. There is a scientist from France, Pasteur. When he was about to be married, the same day, he forgot his own marriage day because he was working in his laboratory, doing experiments. So one of his friends reminded him, "Oh, Pasteur, your marriage day is today so you come out from the lab and you have to go there." Then he went out and got married,

Prabhupada: There is a Bengali proverb, yanra loke bie naya, para lokera ghumnaya: (?) "The man who is to be married, he has forgotten, and the neighbors, they are not sleeping, 'Oh, that man will be married. That man will be married.' " But he has forgotten.

Svarupa Damodara: So people are saying that "See how sincerely he's working. Take his example."

Prabhupada: Yes. So who is not sincerely working? He's working for some money. That's all. So everyone is working for money. What is the difference? If he's not paid for that, he'll not work. Just like a dog is working for the master, for the bread. That's all. So he's working not for himself, not for others, but for his money. Or some ambition. Prestige. That's right. [break] ...where? On the beach you are seeing?

Svarupa Damodara: About ten miles from here.

Prabhupada: In Bombay also, therefore it is two miles, three miles from Juhu. [break]

Prajapati: ...Srila Prabhupada, that's a best seller called, "I'm OK, You're OK," and the purport of this book is that if we simply pat each other on the back and tell each other how nice each other are, everything will be all right.

Prabhupada: Yes, mutual praising society, mutual praising society.

Karandhara: Mutual admiration society.

Prabhupada: Yes.

Dr. Wolfe: Srila Prabhupada, in the twenties there was a doctor in Switzerland, Couet(?), who had the same method. "I'm better and better every day," and he had thousands of people who came there and nothing was heard of him ten years later.

Bali Mardana: Till he died.

Prabhupada: "Better, better, better, I am going to die better very soon." (laughter) Therefore Krsna has shown that "Why you are thinking, 'better,' the death is before you." Janma-mrtyu-jara-vyadhi-duhkha-dosanu... [Bg. 13.9], that is real knowledge. Real knowledge means, "How I am better?" The death is there. [break] That is real knowledge. I am going to die, I cannot stop it. You see. That is real knowledge. And if somebody thinks that I am better, although I am going to die, then he's a foolish. Better means you stop your death. [break] (end)

>>> Ref. VedaBase => Morning Walk -- December 7, 1973, Los Angeles

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Mohsin Hassan: Yeah, the tenth. After you, is it any decision has been made who will take over?
Prabhupäda: Yes. All of them will take over. These students, who are initiated from me, all of them will act as I am doing. Just like I have got many Godbrothers, they are all acting. Similarly, all these disciples which I am making, initiating, they are being trained to become future spiritual masters.
Mohsin Hassan: How many swamis do you initiated, American? I’m speaking just on...
Prabhupäda: About ten.
Mohsin Hassan: You have ten swamis. And outside of swamis, what’s the lower...
Prabhupäda: Now, they’re competent. They can, not only the swamis, even the gåhasthas, they are called däsa adhikäré, and brahmacärés, everyone can, whoever is initiated, he is competent to make disciples. But as a matter of etiquette they do not do so in the presence of their spiritual master. This is the etiquette. Otherwise, they are competent. They can make disciples and spread. They can recruit more members in this. They do, but they are being trained up. Just like here in this meeting, one of my disciples, he is acting as priest. It is not myself; he is acting. So some of my students, they are acting as priests, some of them are swamis, so they are competent to make disciples.

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Universal Religion Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.16.19 Los Angeles, July 9, 1974

"Dharma [in the form of bull] asked: Madam, are you not hail and hearty? Why are you covered with the shadow of grief? It appears by your face that you have become black. Are you suffering from some internal disease, or are you thinking of some relative who is away in a distant place?"

Actually the cows... When I was in New Vrindaban, our Kirtanananda Maharaja purchased one cow without calf. (someone says, "Children have to go out") Yes. So that cow was actually crying because the calf was taken away for slaughtering. It is not that they have no soul, they cannot understand, they have no feeling. But they are helpless. Everything is there. The butchers, the cow slaughterers, or their supporters, they say wrongly that the animal has no soul. This is a rascal philosophy. Why animal has no soul? The question should be...

Here Yamaraja is addressing the cow as amba, mother. "Why you are so unhappy? From your face it appears." So Yamaraja was foolish man, that he is addressing a cow as mother? This is civilization. It doesn't matter one is appearing as a cow or a man or a dog or a demigod or a civilized man, uncivilized man. One who knows that the soul is there... Unless there is soul, how Yamaraja is asking the cow, "It appears that you are very much bereaved, so what is the cause, mother, of your bereavement?"

So this culture, that Yamaraja, is asking an animal, mother... Without any soul? No. Everyone has soul. The rascals, they do not know it. One has to become pandita. Panditah sama-darsinah, in the Bhagavad-gita it is said. So those who are actually learned, they know. They know that one may be a living entity, one may be a tree, one may be an animal, one may be a cow, one may be an elephant, one may be a learned brahmana scholar, one may be a candala, untouchable. Everyone is a soul. Panditah sama-darsinah.

vidya-vinaya-sampanne
brahmane gavi hastini
suni caiva sva-pake ca
panditah sama-darsinah

Pandita, one who is learned, he knows that all of them, animals, trees, plants or human being or demigods, everyone is the spirit soul. Now they are simply encaged in different bodies according to different karma. The soul, part and parcel of God, wanted to imitate God's supremacy, and they wanted to enjoy. But in the spiritual world there cannot be second enjoyer. The only enjoyer is Krsna. Bhoktaram sarva-loka, bhoktaram sarva-yajnanam sarva-loka... He is the supreme proprietor, supreme being. In the dictionary you will find, "the supreme being." "Supreme being" means nobody can be equal to Him, nobody can be greater than Him. That is, means supreme. So how one can become an imitator of Krsna? That is not possible. That imitation is possible here in this material world, because they are all rascals. So one rascal may claim that "I am God," imitation, but as soon as he claims like that, any intelligent man knows that he is a rascal. That's all. That very assertion will establish that he is a rascal.

Nobody can be God. God is one. And religion is also one. If God is one, then how religion can be different? Just like state laws. If the state is one, the law is also, everyone. Now the ordinary law, just like "Keep to the right," if somebody says, "No, this is Christian law. Hindu law, 'Keep to the left,' " will it be accepted? If I say, "I am Hindu, I am coming from India. My law is 'Keep to the left.' " In India, the same thing, "Keep to the left." And many other countries also. So here, because all these laws are made by rascals, in some country you keep to the left, some country you keep to the right. And which is correct, that is unknown. That is unknown. Therefore for the foolish person, "This is Hindu religion,' " "This is Christian religion," and "This is Muhammadan religion." Religion is one. How it can be Hindu religion, Christian religion? No. Religion is one. God is one. Therefore religion is one. Because religion means the law or the order given by God. That is religion. Simple definition.

Therefore Krsna says, sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekam saranam vraja. That mam ekam saranam vraja, "Surrender unto Me," that is religion. So one has to surrender. Either he is a Hindu or a Christian or Muhammadan, he has to surrender. That is religion. One cannot say that because we are professing Christian religion, we haven't got to surrender to God. Will anybody say? Will any Christian will say like that? Or any Hindu will say like that? Or any Muhammadan will say like that? No. Everyone has to surrender to God. That is religion. Therefore in the Bhagavata you will find the verse: sa vai pumsam paro dharmo yato bhaktir adhoksaje. That is first-class religion which is teaching the followers to understand the Supreme.

Now, "Supreme I cannot see." You cannot see. Therefore Supreme's name, another name is Adhoksaja, "beyond the perception of your experimental knowledge." That is called adhoksaja. Adhah-krta aksaja jnanam yatra. By your experimental knowledge you cannot understand. The same thing, that if you say, "I do not see the President of the United States. Therefore I do not believe this law, 'Keep to the left.' " No, no. If you don't believe, that is your business. But as soon as you violate this law, immediately you are under prison. You have seen the President or not seen, it doesn't matter. The law will act. Similarly, you believe in God or do not believe in God. It doesn't matter. The God's order, the God's law, will work on. And for this purpose the material energy is there.

So here it is said... Yamaraja is inquiring the cow because she is very much threatened by the butcher. The butcher was ready to kill, and she was trembling. So Yamaraja is asking, kaccid bhadre anamayam atmanas te. Just like we would ask some friend or relative that "I think you are all right?" The same thing is being inquired. "Why you are appearing so much bereaved? What is the cause?" Alaksaye. "It appears that you are within very sorry." Alaksaye bhavatim antaradhim. "Some distress within yourself." Dure bandhum socasi. Because in this material world we are always distressed. It is not that we are happy. That is an illusion. That is not fact. We are always distressed. So there are three kinds of distresses: Adhyatmika, adhibhautika, and adhidaivika. Here it is inquired that bhavatim antaradhim. Adhi. And antara means within the body or within the mind.

So, "Are you suffering some pains on account of your body or mind?" This is called adhyatmika. Adhyatmika means the body. The body and the mind. That's called adhyatmika. Adhibhautika, sufferings offered by other living entities. And adhidaivika. Adhidaivika means sufferings offered by the demigods. Just like famine, pestilence, earthquake. You have no hand. You may be a very big, big scientist, but when this trembling of the earth, "Oh, God save us, God save us, God save us." (laughter) Yes. Even that sputnik... Our scientist... Where is scientist? What is that, sputnik? They were asking, "God shall...?"

Svarupa Damodara: Just as they were trying to go to the moon.

Prabhupada: What is the story? You can little explain.

Svarupa Damodara: That there was an explosion in the (indistinct), and they could not go to the moon. So they were in danger in outer space. So they were requesting all the people so to "Pray to God so that I can come back safe and sound to this planet." (laughter)

Prabhupada: When they are in danger they pray to God for safe and sound, but when they go to the moon planet: "We are scientist." (laughter) Just see how much foolish they are! When they go to the moon planet, at that time, "God give us permission, we may go"? No. "We are scientists. (laughter) We don't care for God." But when they are in danger, "God save us." (laughter) Just see what kind of scientists they are. This is practical. I am very glad that our Doctor Svarupa Damodara has mentioned this in his book, Scientific Basis of Krsna Consciousness.

So that is the fact. And there is a version of Tulasi Dasa in Hindi. It is said sukse sabe hari bhaje, duhkhse saha hari bhaje, sukse bhaje khoya.(?) Or sukhase ara hari bhaje, tu duhkha hase hoya(?). It is very nice instruction. The instruction is that when one is distressed, everyone remembers God. Yes. Duhkhse saba hari bhaje. Saba means "all." At that time... Just like in the last war, Second..., last war, when everything was in danger, Mr. Churchill started this movement B(?), and they were all going to churches--when the situation was very grave. And in Germany especially, because war was very, going on very seriously, so there was no men, so all the women, they went to the church and pray God, somebody... Woman means husband, son or father... Prayed, "Let my father come back" or "Let my husband come back" or "my son." But nobody came back. So they became atheist. This is the version of my one German Godbrother friend. So he said that all of them became atheists. Why? They prayed so much to get back their husband or son or father: nobody came back. "Then there is no God." This is their conclusion. That means, "God is our order supplier. God is our servant." Just like I ask my servant or my disciple, "You do this," and he must do it. We cannot accept God like that. God is neither going to be your servant.

So those who are going to religious life, making God as their servant, they will be failure. You must approach God as master. You should become servant. The so-called religionist, they accept God as their order-supplier servant: "I must pray to God." Whenever there is some inconvenience, "I must pray," or "I must... " Not "must." "At that time I shall pray, and then I shall finish that prayer, and God must supply. If God does not supply, then there is no God." This is the general attitude. But that should not be done. The real religion is, as Krsna says in the Bhagavad-gita, is sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekam. First of all surrender. Then talk of mercy and this or that. Also, although God is very merciful, even those who are simply asking from God, not prepared to give anything, God is merciful, even though he...

Therefore He has given this field. "All right, you want to become another God or competitor of Me? You live in this material world and begin your life as Brahma. I give you first-class chance. And then gradually, you become the worm of the stool." (laughter) This is called karma-kandiya-vicara. First of all we get our very opportunity. Just like you Americans, you have got good opportunity. I have several time mentioned that you have wealth, you have got education, you have got beauty, janmaisvarya, and heritage also. People outside your country, they know, "Oh, he is American. He is very advanced." You have got respect. So this is, this is due to pious life. If one is pious, he gets all those opportunities. Janmaisvarya-sruta-sri. This is... Janma means to get birth in high family, aristocratic family, or to become the members of a big nation. This is called janma. Janma means birth. And aisvarya, opulence, money. Janma aisvarya sruta, aisvarya, and sruta. Sruta means education. And sri means beauty. These four things are outcome of previous pious life. So you have got this opportunity. You have got. Now you utilize these assets of life--nice birth, opulence, beauty, education--for Krsna consciousness. Otherwise, you take the chance of Brahma, and then go to become the worm of the stool. The law of karma is like that.

So one who is opulent in this life, they should be very much careful that "By the grace of God, I have got this opportunity. Now the opportunity should be utilized to advance in Krsna consciousness," means to understand Krsna. That is advancement. If anyone understands Krsna, that "Krsna, You are the greatest..." God is great, we have heard so many times from so many people. But what is God? We did not know. Now we understand that Krsna. So if you engage yourself simply to Krsna consciousness, simply by thinking of Krsna, then your life is successful. That is Krsna consciousness movement.

Thank you very much. (end)

His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

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We have got so many fields of activity. But, in each and every field, we have got a party feeling. You cannot avoid that. In political field, oh, we have got so many parties. Even in your own country, even there are democratic party or conservative party and this party, that party. Worldwide is also the capitalistic party, the communistic party. In our country also there is congress party. So party's already there. Socially also, oh, we are Christian, I am Jew, I am Hindu. Of course, this is religiously. And socially also. In India, there is very social party. So you cannot avoid this partyism. All ladies and gentlemen who are present here, I ask you, do you not belong to any party? Can you deny that "I don't belong to any party"? Oh, everyone belongs to some party.

Now spiritualism, spiritualism means that we should identify ourself as God's party. That's all. That is spiritualism. They ask so many things, that, why the materialists are called crazy by the spiritualists? Oh, that is also partyism. These materialists also call, say to the spiritualists, they are crazy. Just like we are, we have formed some Society of Krsna Consciousness, and, and those who do not like it, they say we are crazy fellows. We are assembly of crazy fellows. And, similarly, we call others who do not associate with us, they are crazy fellows. So there is, we have written pamphlet, booklet, "Who is Crazy?". Now how to decide? You are thinking the Swamiji and the party, they are crazy. And we are thinking those who are materially engaged, they're crazy. Now how to decide it? Can you suggest any way how to decide it, how, who is crazy? Who will decide it? Everyone, two parties, when there is something disagreement, the two parties will say that, "You are in wrong," the other party will say, "You are..." Now who will decide it? That who is wrong? Can you suggest any one of you who'll decide? The world is going on in partyism and each opposite party is thinking that the other party is crazy. Now who will decide who is actually crazy? The actual... Then you have come to the point of reason, who is crazy?

Now just see. Take any common man. Not yourself, not myself. Any common man. If you ask him that, "What you are?", he'll say... His conception is that I am this body. Everyone will say. He'll give you some description that, "I am Christian." "I am Hindu." "I am Mr. Such and Such." "I am Mrs. Such and Such." Everything, whatever he or she will say, that is all due to this body. All due to this body. Everyone. When you say, "You are American," that means this is the body. Because by accident, by something, by some reason, you were born in this land of America. That is also another artificial name. The land is neither America nor India. The land is land. But we give some designation, "This is America." We make some boundary. This is United States of America. This is Canada. This is Europe, and this is Asia. This is India. So this is our name, but actually was there any history that the land is American, or the land...? Say, four hundred years before, or five hundred years before, was this land was known as America? You have named it, America. Say, some thousands of years before was this, this, the continent which is known as, I mean, Europe, can you trace out history, that it was known as Europe? They are all designations.

Just like we can say from historical point of view of Vedic literature, this whole world was known as Ilavrta-varsa. Ilavrta-varsa. And, later on, since the reign of one great king, emperor, his name was Bharata. He changed the name into his own name, Bharata-varsa. So this whole planet was now Bharata-varsa. Then, as the days go on, the some part of this world was, I mean to say, separated from the original Bharata-varsa, and it was called Europe or some other place. Just like you have got practical experience even in this age, that India, say about twenty years before, the area of India was including Burma, Ceylon and the modern Pakistan and everything. Now it is separated. Now they are calling this is Pakistan. Somebody's calling there is Ceylon. So this process is going on. Actually the land is neither Bharata-varsa, nor Asia, nor America, nor India, but we give this name. With the change of time, with the change of influence, they are all designations.

Fifty years before when some of you, of course, not all of you are fifty years old. Say, forty years before, or thirty-five years before, when you were, or twenty-five years before, when you were not born, can you say what was your designation? Were you American or Indian or Chinese or Russian, can you say? Say, after getting out of this body, do you think that you'll continue as American or Indian or Chinese or Russian? Suppose you are now in America, in the land of America. So next life you may be in China. Who can say? Because we are changing our bodies, you cannot say that we are not changing our bodies. Can you say that you are not changing your body? Yes, we are changing. When I was born, from the mother's womb, my body was so little. Now how I have changed my...? Where is that body? Where is that body when I was a child? Where is that body when I was a boy? Where is that body when I was a young man? I have got my photograph, my studentship. Oh, Swamiji, you were like this? Where is that body? Where it has gone? So we are changing, but I am the same man. I am thinking, "Oh, in my childhood, I was doing like this. Oh, in my youthhood, I was thinking like this. In my boyhood, I did so many things." Now where those days gone? If my body, everything has gone away? It is simply remembrance.

But still we are sticking to this body, and, when I ask you or when you ask me, "What you are?", I say something in relationship with this body. Are you not crazy? Can you tell, any of you, that you are not crazy? If you, I mean to say, so far your identification, if you identify with something which you are not, then are you not crazy? Are you not crazy? So everyone who identifies with this body, he's a crazy man. He's a crazy man. It is a challenge to the world. Anyone who claims God's property, God's land, God's earth, as own property, he's a crazy man. This is a challenge. Let anyone establish that this is his property, this is his body. You are simply, by nature, you are, by the fix of nature, you are put into some place. You are put under some body. You are put under some consciousness, and you are dictated by the laws of nature. And you are mad after that. So everyone,

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Prabhupada: Not only Christians, the whole world is now like that. Religion has become a subject matter of laughing. If one is God conscious, religious, he is considered fool number one, not very much advanced. Especially the scientists, the rascal scientists. And they'll bluff you in so many ways, that life is produced from chemicals. When we challenge them that "You make a little egg with chemicals and put it in the incubator and let life come," what will be the answer? The so-called scientist who says that life is made by combination of chemicals? Anyone can see the composition of egg, a little white and yellow substance. There are many chemicals, they are all white, and there are many chemicals yellow also. Combine together and put it in the incubator and see whether chicken is coming or not. And still they will assert, write big, big books, that life is coming out of chemicals. And people are accepting this bluff. So it is very precarious condition of present world. People want to be bluffed and there are many bluffers. And they are satisfied that "I am bluffed by a big bluffer." That's all. This is going on.

Darby: These scientists think about making life with chemicals, yet none of them have even been able to begin their experiments.

Prabhupada: I have therefore said, "Make a small egg, then talk of big, big things."

Darby: They can make one chemical which leaves the life.

Prabhupada: Not only that: if you are a sane man, you analyze your body. Now find out where is life. Beginning analysis is the breathing. You take... Now a man is dead. Somebody says, "Now, because his breathing is stopped, therefore he is dead." So what is this breathing? It is simply a little air. So put some machine, and the air may come and go and give him life. Take anything, breathing, then you take blood, then you take skin, then you take muscle, then you take bone, then take your stool, urine, find out life. Is it possible? Then why do you say that life is combination of chemicals? You take this blood, urine and stool, what is called, bone and muscle and air, what is combination, and produce another man. So they are talking this nonsense, and nonsense people are accepting. And they are being paid for, high salary, for talking this nonsense at the cost of the taxpayer.

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taq teda nech všetci vedia čo sa stalo so žiarivým chodníkom ich Majstra:

(zdroy:pedromicho)
Hare Krishna!
Takze idem Ti napisat nieco o ritvik a o ISCKONe.
9-teho Jula 1977 tesne pred jeho odchodom z tela Srila Prabhupada napisal list, ktory bol rozposlany do chramov po celom svete. V nom Prabhupada vymenoval 11 predstavitelov, ktori mali zasvacovat v jeho mene novych oddanych po Prabhupadovom odchode. Tento system sa vola ritvik. Avsak hned ako Prabhupada odisiel, tito 11-ti sa vyhlasili za guruov a zacali vysvecovat svojich vlastnych ucednikov nominujuc sa za novych "Prabhupadov". Tito darebaci zacali vyzadovat od ostatnych oddanych uctievanie ake prinalezalo Prabhupadovi. Totizto guru je povazovany za predstavitela Boha na Zemi. Avsak na to musi byt cisty oddany bez akejkolvek materialnej kontaminacie a musi byt povereny jeho predchodcom. Tito 11-ti vobec nesplnali definiciu gurua a Prabhupada nikdy nespominal, ze by po nom mal prist nejaky dalsi acaryia(guru). ISCKON radi pletu siksa a diksa guru definiciu. Siksa je asistujuci guru a Prabhupada hovoril, ze kazdy moze byt siksa guru. Avsak diksa guru je nieco uplne ine. Diksa guru prichadza zo spiritualneho sveta s jedinou ulohou a to oslobodit ludi a priviest ich ku Krsnovi. Nema ziadne materialne tuzby a je od narodenia cisty oddany. Toto je evidentne zo zivota Srilu Prabhupadu.
Ako dosledok tohto tazkeho precinu a podvodu sa cele hnutie ISCKON zdegenerovalo. 90% povodnych clenov opustilo hnutie ked videli ako tito 11 darebaci vlastne toto hnutie uniesli a premenili ho na obycajnu sektu, kde filozofia, ktoru priniesol Prabhupada, chramy, obrady sluzi len ako navnada na ludi, ktori potom robia na tichto falosnych guruov, ktori ich peniaze zneuzivaju. Takisto sa objavil skandal so zneuzivanim deti v gurukulach(skolach), financene problemy, vrazdy (Kirtananda swami-jeden z 11-tich bol odsudeny a stravil niekolko rokov vo vazeni) a v sucasnosti prebieha sudny proces o tom, ze bol Prabhupada otraveny arzenom. (o tomto mozem blizsie neskor, kedze je to tema sama o sebe (!))
Vsetko toto bolo len preto, ze tito ludia neuposluchli Prabhupadov prikaz a ich chtivost po moci im zaslepila oci. V sucasnej dobe ISCKON uznal ze tito 11 neboli dostatocne kvalifikovani, ale namiesto toho aby sa vratili k Prabhupadovi, ktory by mal ostat jedinym spiritualnym majstrom (guruom ) ISCKONu, este viac zhorsili situaciu, ked zacali guruov volit. Jednoducho to funguje tak, ze akonahle mas dostatok priaznivcov a znamosti v GBC mozes sa nim stat, co je uplny vysmech vsetkeho, co Prabhupada ucil.
Preto teraz existuje niekolko skupin, ktore sa odclenili od ISCKON a uznavaju Prabhupadu ako svojho gurua. Avsak tato kontaminacia z ISCKONu je taka silna, ze je velmi tazke sa zbavit mentaity, ktoru ISCKON zivil. Preto by som ti odporucil citat Prabhupadove knihy* a chantovat osamote. Je to tazka doba, ale ISCKON je len atrapa a ludia, co v nom ostavaju len podporuju tychto darebackych guruov. Treba sa radsej uskromnit a cisto nadviazat vztah s Prabhupadov bez akychkolvek "sprostredkovatelov".

Tuto ti posielam zopar liniek na tuto temu:
FINAL ORDER -zakladna kniha, ktora rozobera Prabhupadov July 9th letter
http://www.iskconirm.com/tfo.htm
Srila Prabhupada Sidhanta -subor citatov Prabhupadov, co sa tykaju tejto temy
http://www.krishnaconsciousnessmovement.com/HKSMS_11_.html

*pozor! lebo tie boli taktiez pomenene(!). Pochybujem, ze mozes najst v slov., alebo cestine originaly. Tu je linka na Prabhupadove originalne knihy:

http://www.harekrishnatemple.com/downloadbooks.php

---------
takze, najskor sa ich opytajte, kto je ich guru a ak povedia Prabhupada, tak mi dajte vediet a vypytajte na nich kontakt, ak povedia nejake ine meno, podakujte sa a utekajte. co vam sily stacia.
Je to kruta doba a je lepsie sa informovat predtym nez sa upisete nejakym podvodnikom.

Hare Krishna!!!!!

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čafte,
neviete mi náhodou da? nejaké bližšie infos o tej hare krišna komunite čo je na východe SR? kde presne je?ako sa tam ide?či sa tam dá len tak medzi nich prís? a ži? s nimi?
lebo jeden kamoš by tam aj rád išiel...

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Who is Srila Prabhupada.

His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada was born in 1896 in Calcutta, India. He first met his spiritual master, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Gosvami, in Calcutta in 1922. Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati, a prominent devotional scholar and the founder of sixty-four branches of Gaudiya Mathas (Vedic institutes), liked this educated young man and convinced him to dedicate his life to teaching Vedic knowledge in the Western world. Srila Prabhupada became his student, and eleven years later (1933) at Allahabad, he became his formally initiated disciple.
At their first meeting, in 1922, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura requested Srila Prabhupada to broadcast Vedic knowledge through the English language. In the years that followed, Srila Prabhupada wrote a commentary on the Bhagavad-gita and in 1944, without assistance, started an English fortnightly magazine.

Recognizing Srila Prabhupada's philosophical learning and devotion, the Gaudiya Vaisnava Society honored him in 1947 with the title "Bhaktivedanta." In 1950, at the age of fifty-four, Srila Prabhupada retired from married life, and four years later he adopted the vanaprastha (retired) order to devote more time to his studies and writing. Srila Prabhupada traveled to the holy city of Vrndavana, where he lived in very humble circumstances in the historic medieval temple of Radha-Damodara. There he engaged for several years in deep study and writing. He accepted the renounced order of life (sannyasa) in 1959. At Radha-Damodara, Srila Prabhupada began work on his life's masterpiece: a multivolume translation and commentary on the 18,000-verse Srimad-Bhagavatam (Bhagavata Purana). He also wrote Easy Journey to Other Planets.

After publishing three volumes of Bhagavatam, Srila Prabhupada came to the United States, in 1965, to fulfill the mission of his spiritual master. Since that time, His Divine Grace has written over sixty volumes of authoritative translations, commentaries and summary studies of the philosophical and religious classics of India. In 1965, when he first arrived by freighter in New York City, Srila Prabhupada was practically penniless. It was after almost a year of great difficulty that he established the International Society for Krishna Consciousness in July of 1966. Under his careful guidance, the Society has grew within a decade to a worldwide confederation of almost one hundred asramas, schools, temples, institutes and farm communities.

In 1968, Srila Prabhupada created New Vrndavana, an experimental Vedic community in the hills of West Virginia. Inspired by the success of New Vrndavana, then a thriving farm community of more than one thousand acres, his students founded several similar communities in the United States and abroad.

In 1972, His Divine Grace introduced the Vedic system of primary and secondary education in the West by founding the Gurukula school in Dallas, Texas. The school began with three children in 1972, and by the beginning of 1975 the enrollment had grown to one hundred fifty.

Srila Prabhupada also inspired the construction of a large international center at Sridhama Mayapur in West Bengal, India, which is also the site for a planned Institute of Vedic Studies. A similar project is the magnificent Krsna-Balarama Temple and International Guest House in Vrndavana, India. These are centers where Westerners can live to gain firsthand experience of Vedic culture.

Srila Prabhupada's most significant contribution, however, is his books. Highly respected by the academic community for their authoritativeness, depth and clarity, they are used as standard textbooks in numerous college courses. His writings have been translated into eleven languages. The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, established in 1972 exclusively to publish the works of His Divine Grace, has thus become the world's largest publisher of books in the field of Indian religion and philosophy.

In the last ten years of his life, in spite of his advanced age, Srila Prabhupada circled the globe twelve times on lecture tours that have took him to six continents. In spite of such a vigorous schedule, Srila Prabhupada continued to write prolifically. His writings constitute a veritable library of Vedic philosophy, religion, literature and culture

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Transcendental means beyond senses. So unless a person is not controlling his senses, he cannot really understand this knowledge. The simple process of purification of our senses is to chant this mahamantra: Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. -the Holy Names of God. Basically this mantra means: Oh God engage me in your service. We cannot control our senses artificially. The work of senses is natural. But we can spiritualize our senses by service to God. How does it work? We simply satisfy God's senses. God is a person like us and He also has senses. Of course the difference between us and God is that
God is within everybody. We are not. Therefore if we satisfy God we automatically satisfy ourselves. So far we are in illusion. We think that we are our bodies. We try to satisfy our bodies, but in this way we become frustrated.
Actually we are spirit souls, which are eternal. We want to satisfy our hunger for eternal, but we look for it in wrong places. People buy so many things still they are not satisfied and still they buy more and more. this is due to the soul within. They are trying to satisfy the soul, but this material enjoyment will never satisfy them, because all material is temporal. That's why they are doomed to be frustrated lifetime after lifetime until they start serving God. Actually service is a natural activity for every person. Even a president serves his voters. But unless he serves God he will be serving this maya (that which is not). It's as though chasing a shadow. We enojy for a small period and then when the enjoyment is up we must look for another source. Service to God is simply returning this material energy back to Him. In this way an eternal circle of exchange is created and we can enjoy the real enjoyment, which is eternal.

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Prabhupada: Nothing happens accidentally. According to Vedic literature, there is no such word as "accident." The word is adrsta: There is cause; I cannot see it. Adrsta. It is not in my vision, but there is cause. There is no question of accident.
Harikesa: What about when somebody is born with three arms or eight toes?
Prabhupada: There is karma, cause, but I cannot ascertain. To me the cause is invisible. Therefore, we take adrsta. But there is cause.
Harikesa: They always reason that because somebody is born like that, that sometimes somebody could be born from an ape like a man.
Prabhupada: Huh?
Harikesa: Over a very long period of time... Let's say in one ape somebody was born without hair, and then after a long period of time in the same line from that person who was born without hair...
Prabhupada: But why the ape does not give birth now?
Harikesa: But we have not seen all the apes.
Prabhupada: But how do you suggest?
Harikesa: It's just a theory.
Prabhupada: Then you'll... Then what you have not seen, how you can suggest? What is not in your experience, how you can suggest? Then anyone will suggest any nonsense, and we will have to accept?
Pusta Krsna: So that is the rascaldom.
Prabhupada: That is rascaldom. How you can suggest?
Harikesa: Even he says it was just a theory.
Pusta Krsna: But now, Prabhupada, they say that they have been to the moon, and we're saying that the moon is so far away. And they have their pictures also to prove it.
Prabhupada: Picture you can manufacture here.
Harikesa: And they have earth dust as if it came from the moon.
Prabhupada: And the other scientist says this kind dust can be had here. So what is the proof they went there? It can be collected here.
Harikesa: And their dust does not reflect. They say the moon is reflective, but the dust and the pictures, it was all dark gray. No reflection.
Prabhupada: So therefore if I say that they did not go to the moon, how they can support?
Harikesa: They cannot prove. They are so clever and sophisticated with their nonsense, they can even make the astronauts believe...
Prabhupada: Therefore I asked you to ask them, "Why Sunday first and Monday next?"
Pusta Krsna: It's very conceivable that they could have tricked everyone. They simply have a video. They go up in a space ship around. They simply show a film from the space ship back to the earth, how they were practicing in the Arizona desert and they collected some rocks and took it with them. It's very easy.
Harikesa: Sanka dasa, you know, in Bombay? He was in the CIA. And they..., when he was in Vietnam, they knocked him out one day and they brought him to a dentist and they took out three of his teeth, and they put in these little transistors. And these little transistors were connected to his brain. And they would talk to him and make him do things by speaking into these transistors into his brain. And if he ever said anything wrong..., like he was not supposed to reveal secrets. And if he ever revealed a secret, they would try to kill him by making a signal go to his brain, and they can explode his brain. So conceivably they can trick the astronauts completely like that by putting things and making them think like they went to the moon.
Prabhupada: Sankara dasa?
Harikesa: Yes. He was saying... And when he got out of the Army he had so much pain in his teeth he went to a dentist, and he took out all of his teeth. That's why he has no teeth, because all of his teeth had these little things inside them. And one...
Prabhupada: He is in Bombay now?
Harikesa: Yes, he's the gardener, you know, the one who gives you the flower every morning.
Prabhupada: So he was troubled.
Harikesa: Oh, yes. He had very much trouble because of it.
Prabhupada: So he has got artificial teeth? No.
Harikesa: No. Now he has no teeth. He's getting some teeth. They're making some. The dentist is working free in Bombay.
Pusta Krsna: The CIA, they're going to build a television set in his mouth. (laughing)
Harikesa: They do that with all their men, he said. They put things in the mouth so that they can control the people. And they listen to what they say because they can also hear anything he says. So somebody is listening all the time to all their special agents under the ground. They never come out of the ground. They stay under the ground all the time, and they listen to all the secret agents and all the conversations. And they control them. They speak things to them, tell them what to eat.
Pusta Krsna: Demoniac.
Harikesa: He says they even control the president that way. They can even make the president go crazy or kill him if he ever becomes a traitor or something like that.
Prabhupada: Dangerous, huh? That is CIA? The CIA is maintained by government?
Harikesa: Oh, yes. That's why everybody is very afraid.
Pusta Krsna: Sometimes they think that the government is maintained by the CIA. (laughing)
Harikesa: The CIA even has laser beam guns where they can shoot somebody with this laser beam gun and they disintegrate completely, like they never existed. They shoot light out of a gun and it just goes-tssh-completely finished. [break]
Pusta Krsna: Photo?
Prabhupada: Gram.
Pusta Krsna: Photogram. Photogram.
Harikesa: That's out here?
Prabhupada: We saw one advertisement. So we are remaining these three, four only?
Pusta Krsna: There's three of us. We're flying, and then Rupa and Gokulendra will drive the gray car back to Johannesburg. One devotee will drive to the airport, Vapu.
Harikesa: I'm almost finished.
Prabhupada: They are making so many wonderful things, but they cannot stop death.
Pusta Krsna: They just make it quicker.
Prabhupada: After all, they are going to die. In Bengal it is said the topmost ill-naming, what is that? Ill-naming?
Harikesa: Defamy?
Prabhupada: Defamy. Gali. Just like I say, "You rascal fool, you...," so many things. I rebuke. What is that?
Pusta Krsna: Defamy.
Prabhupada: Defamy. So the last defamy is that you die. I say, "You are rascal. You are fool. You are this, and that." This is all not so dangerous. But if I say that "You die," that is the last defamy. So in spite of all their clever invention, they are going to die. Then what is the value? That you cannot check. "I have done wonderful things" -- that's all right, invention, so many things. That's all right. "But what about my death?" Have you done anything that you can save yourself? You, Mr. Darwin, you have so experience. Millions of millions of years you have got. Why don't you stop your death? You cannot live more than a hundred years, and you are talking of millions of years. What is this nonsense? You stop your death, live for millions of years and see things. So where is that power? Then what is your value? You live for fifty years, sixty years, or utmost, hundred years, and you talk of millions of years?
Pusta Krsna: Actually our theory, even taken as a theory, that the soul is there and enters the body, and when the soul leaves, the body is finished, it's very palatable, very palatable. Very few people argue with it. It's simply that they've been miseducated. Therefore they are cheated. They accept.
Prabhupada: Yes. That is the difficulty, that, wholesale people have been miseducated. That is our protest. And this miseducated is ruling the whole world, all rascals [break]
Pusta Krsna: ...cheated in some business transaction, they become very mad, angry, so much so sometimes they want to kill the opposing party. But when they are cheated in this way they don't mind so much, because their sense gratification, either way, is there. So only people who are serious about understanding the truth will accept these things.
Prabhupada: We therefore submit our statement as it is stated in Bhagavad-gita. You cannot say that we are cheating, because we are presenting something authorized, which is accepted. That's all. So we are not cheater. You may accept or not accept; that is your business. But we are presenting something standard. That's all.
Harikesa: And it works.
Prabhupada: Works or not works... Suppose it does not work, but still, it is standard. You cannot deny it. Bhagavad-gita is read all over the world.
Pusta Krsna: Even the scientists are not in agreement over Darwin's theory.
Harikesa: Actually that's why they say we are dogmatic, because it never changes. It doesn't develop.
Prabhupada: How it can change? If it is correct, how it can be changed?
Harikesa: They have no experience of anything...
Pusta Krsna: They have no experience of any truth which lasts.
Prabhupada: Yes, that's it.
Harikesa: So they say we are dogmatic.
Prabhupada: It is not dogmatic. When I say, "Next February will be very nice season," it is not dogmatic. It is by experience. Last February or many other Februarys I have experienced. Therefore I say, "Next February will be like this." That is not cheating, neither dogmatic. That is experience. That example I gave many times, that a child asks from the father, "Father, what is this?" The father says, "My dear son, it is microphone. If you speak, it will be recorded." So I take it from my father this is microphone. So I may be child, but when I say, "It is microphone," that is correct because I have taken from the authority. If a child is asked, "What is this? Do you know?" if I say, "Yes, it is microphone," that is correct. And if he, the man, says, "How do you know it is microphone?" "My father said." Then he is correct. I may be disqualified as a child, but because I have taken the words from my qualified father, it is correct. That is our process. I don't claim that I am very big man, but we repeat only what we have heard from Krsna. That's all. You may accept it, not accept. That is your business. Therefore I named it Krsna consciousness. We are speaking simply what Krsna has said, and we are presenting Bhagavad-gita as it is. This is our business. Now, in the market so many things are being sold, not that everything has got all customers. Our Krsna consciousness may not be accepted by all. That is the case in everything. But what we are presenting, that is standard. We are not cheating.
Pusta Krsna: Na danam na janam na sundarim. We are not simply looking for followers.
Prabhupada: Neither we are after false followers. If you agree, then you come. If you agree -- "No illicit sex, no... Yes..." Why? There is no "Why?" You have to accept it. Then you come to me. That's all. If you like, you come; if you don't like, go away. I don't care for you. This is our policy. There is no "why?" You may say, "dogmatic," but it is not dogmatic but it is standard from Bhagavad-gita, from Vedic literatures. Striya-suna-pana-dyuta yatra papas catur-vidhah: [SB 1.17.38] "Wherever there are these four kinds of sinful activities, oh, that is very dangerous place." So we have taken it. [break] Now everyone, when there are so many cars... I saw one advertisement, Ford car, that "Bring all '79 cars and compare. Ours is the best." You cannot condemn him. It is advertisement. "Bring all '79 cars, others, and compare with our car." You can have your consent. That is not cheating. So we say like that, that "Bring all knowledge and compare with Bhagavad-gita's knowledge." Now it is up to you if you accept this or don't accept it. That is not cheating. But these rascals, they are simply placing some bogus theory without any authorized statement: "All of a sudden monkey once gave birth." And where is that authority?
Harikesa: Monkey?
Prabhupada: "Monkey gave birth to man, all of a sudden, millions of years..." Now, what is the support of your statement? Then anyone can say anything and it becomes science. You have no support. You are the first man. You are saying like this, nonsense. Where is your support? You are support of your statement? Then everyone will say, "I have got some statement, and I support. I am the support."
Harikesa: That's what they do.
Prabhupada: That is...
Harikesa: That's how you become a big scientist. (end)

>>> Ref. VedaBase => Room Conversation -- October 14, 1975, Johannesburg

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Guest (3): So, Srila Prabhupada, have you realized God?

Srila Prabhupada: What do you think? What is your opinion?

Guest (3): I can't say.

Srila Prabhupada: Then if I say, "yes," then what you will understand? If you are not yourself expert, then even if I say, "Yes, I am God realized," how you will take it as truth? If you do not know what is God realization, then how you can ask this question and how you will be satisfied by the answer? You do not know.

Guest (3): Well, what is God realization?

Srila Prabhupada: Then... Then you were asking, "Are you God realized?" If I say, "Yes," then how you'll believe it? You do not know what is God realization. Then why do you put this question? You do not know yourself. If I say, "Yes," how you'll understand that I am right? Therefore you should not put all these questions. It has no value. You do not know yourself what is God realization. Now, just like a medical man, if he asks another man, medical man, so if he says, "Yes," then medical man will understand him by technical terms whether he is medical man. So unless one is medical man, what is the use of asking another man, "Are you medical man?" Unless you are prepared to take the answer whatever I give. Are you prepared?

Guest (3): Yes.

Srila Prabhupada: Then it is all right. I am. I am seeing God every moment. So unless we are prepared to take the answer, we should not put ourself...

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Hare Krishna!

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Krishna and Jesus

by Prithu das Adhikary

Introduction

Before you react to any of this material, it is important that you update your knowledge of the New Testament scriptures. As an aid along these lines we'll show the state of scholarly research done over the last 150 years or so.

As for Jesus, here is what some eminent scholars tell us.

Rudolf Bultmann: "The character of Jesus, the clear picture of his personality and life, has faded beyond recognition. I do indeed think that we can now know almost nothing concerning his life and personality, since the early Christian sources show no interest in either, are moreover fragmentary and often legendary..."

Ernst Käsemann: "One is overwhelmed by how little [of the accounts of Jesus in the New Testament] can be called authentic...the historical figure of Jesus is traceable only in a few words of the Sermon on the Mount, the conflict with the Pharisees, a number of parables and some further narratives."

Günther Bornekamm: "The attempt to reconstruct an original draft of the Gospel according to Mark is a hopeless undertaking..."

While more recent New Testament research sounds less depressing--especially with recent developments in New Testament scholarship in the United States-modern experts in general have gradually come to believe that no more than fifteen percent of the words attributed to Jesus in the New Testament are his actual words. The rest have been attributed to him by generations of theologians and scribes.

In other words, the New Testament was not written by eyewitnesses. Rather, the four gospels gradually evolved, reflecting views of various Christian communities that existed from the time when the Gospel of Mark was written, around 70 AD.

The last gospel, the Gospel of John (125 AD), is now regarded as the least authentic because of its exaggerated Christological and Gnostic tendencies. Bultmann considers the Gospel of John a Tendenz Roman (i.e., tendentious literature).

As for the gospels of Matthew and Luke, written shortly after Mark's (c. 80-85 AD), it is widely agreed upon that both drew on Mark for their plots.

Regarding the virtually identical instructional material in Matthew and Luke that is not in Mark, scholars have assumed that the authors of both similar gospels drew upon a common source, logia, labeled 'Q' (from the German word Quelle meaning "source"). Q is said to comprise written or oral sayings of Jesus that might have been in circulation around the time of the composition of the Synoptic Gospels (i.e., those of Matthew, Mark, and Luke).

This assumption in its most basic form is called the Two Sources Theory. It has gained considerable support with the emergence of the Gospel of Thomas (Nag Hammadi Codex, discovered in Egypt, 1945), which indeed turned out to be a Gospel of Jesus' sayings--the existence of the genre of a gospel of sayings thus being demonstrated.

None of the Gospels were written in Israel. All of them reflect the understanding of the evolving Christian communities in the various geographical locations they represent.

Hence at the heart of the argument is the idea that the Gospel stories that we have all known, loved, eagerly recited and reposed our faith in--from the manger in Bethlehem to the crucifixion at Golgotha and beyond, to the resurrection and ascent to heaven--rather than representing the Jesus of history are actually proclamations of the Jesus of faith: What Christian communities outside Israel had come to believe about Jesus after 70 AD.

Along these lines, it is quite certain that neither Jesus nor his disciples had any idea of him being the awaited Messiah, the Christ, God incarnate, the second person of the Trinity, or the savior bringing mankind salvation through his self-sacrifice at Calvary.

Even the Last Supper--first recorded in Paul's letters ("For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night when he was betrayed, took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, 'This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me...'" (1 Corinthians 11:23-27)-even this might very well not be what those who actually physically associated with Jesus received (i.e., Peter, John and the rest of his disciples. John Dominic Crossan says the Didache, a second century document of the Jewish-Christian community--discovered in 1873 by Philotheos Bryennios--says nothing about such an event. In other words, the immediate followers of Jesus were not Christians. Nor was Jesus one.

With much of Christianity's most essential theological concepts being called into question--Soteriology (Jesus as the suffering savior) as much as Christology (Jesus as the divine second person of the Trinity)--Christianity is facing a major doctrinal crisis.

And, oddly enough, an incredible opportunity for revival...

Provided it could free itself from its superficial theological constructs that since the days of Paul have been superimposed and grafted onto the simple and perfect teachings of the Jesus of history.

Christianity has yet to discover the transcendental dimensions of God consciousness (or Krishna consciousness) possessed by Jesus, its founder, who declared: "The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, 'It is here,' or 'It is there.' The kingdom of God is within you" (Luke 17:21).

yo mam pasyati sarvatra
sarvam ca mayi pasyati
tasyaham na pranasyami
sa ca me na pranasyati

"For one who sees Me everywhere and sees everything in Me, I am never lost, nor is he ever lost to Me" (Bhagavad-gita 6.30).

Christianity has not begun its transcendental task.

The energetic and serious work done by modern New Testament scholars in a quest to discover the historical Jesus reaches back to Hermann Samuel Reimarus (1694-1768).

Comparing their work favorably with our own conclusion, we have arrived at their position from a very different angle: the ancient bhakti tradition of India. And with a very different set of tools: guru, shastra [scripture] and sangha [saintly association].

Guru - what has been received via disciplic succession, in our case from His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami, a master and self-realized soul in the Gaudiya Vaishnava-sampradaya, a line of realized teachers descending from Brahma via Madhava and Sri Krishna Caitanya into our present time; Shastra - evidence gathered from the body of Vedic scripture and literature; And Sangha - what we learn by practical application of knowledge in the association of saintly devotees.

Associating with devotees on a daily basis, experiencing the glories and frailties of human life, and facing problems and opposition similar to what Jesus faced, in the context of a similar, unenlightened outer environment, have certainly enhanced our understanding of what it must have been like living within a revolutionary spiritual movement two thousand years ago.

Practicing spiritual life under the guidance of a pure devotee of Krishna has further helped us understand that Jesus loves Krishna, and that Krishna loves Jesus too.

om ajnana-timirandhasya
jnananjana-salakaya
caksur unmilitam yena
tasmai sri-gurave namah

"I was born in the darkest ignorance, and my spiritual master opened my eyes with the torch of knowledge. I offer my respectful obeisances unto him."

Sri Krishna explains in the Bhagavad-gita (4.7):

yada yada hi dharmasya
glanir bhavati bharata
abhyutthanam adharmasya
tadatmanam srjamy aham

"O descendant of Bharata, whenever and wherever there is a decline in religious practice and a predominant rise of irreligion--at that time I descend Myself" (Bhagavad-gita 4.7).

Either Krishna comes Himself or He sends His empowered representative: a shaktyavesa avatara, a perfect being, empowered to preach sanatana dharma: eternal religion, the universal religion of the soul.

Krsna-sakti vina nahe tara pravartana:

Unless one is empowered by Krishna, one cannot preach effectively. (Caitanya Caritamrita Antya Lila 7.11).

We can understand Jesus to be such a shaktyavesa avatara, a perfect soul, a messenger of the Supreme Being.

Such great souls have no business descending to lower planets such as ours, save and except in complete selflessness, to save the conditioned souls - "kara para-upakara." (Cc. Adi 9.41)

They descend to this level of consciousness as

tiksavah karunikah -
suhrdah sarva-dehinam
ajata-satravah santah -
sadhavah sadhu-bhusanah.

"The symptoms of a sadhu [saint] are that he is tolerant, merciful and friendly to all living entities. He has no enemies, he is peaceful, he abides by the scriptures, and all his characteristics are sublime" (Srimad Bhagavatam 3.25.21).

Srila Prabhupada explains this verse:

"The Srimad Bhagavatam states that any bona fide preacher of God consciousness must have the qualities of titiksa (tolerance) and karuna (compassion). In the character of Lord Jesus Christ we find both these qualities. He was so tolerant that even while he was being crucified he didn't condemn anyone. And he was so compassionate that he prayed to God to forgive the very persons who were trying to kill him. As Christ was being crucified he prayed, "Father, forgive them. They know not what they are doing."

Srila Prabhupada said,

"Jesus Christ was such a great personality--the son of God, the representative of God. He had no fault. Still, he was being crucified. He wanted to deliver God consciousness, but in return they crucified him. They were so ungrateful. They could not appreciate his preaching. But we appreciate him and give him all honors as the representative of God" (The Science of Self-Realization, chap. 4).

Great souls are never disturbed under any circumstances:

narayana-parah sarve
na kutascana bibhyati
svargapavarga-narakesv
api tulyartha-darsinah

"Devotees solely engaged in the devotional service of the Supreme Lord never fear any condition of life. For them the heavenly planets, liberation and the hellish planets are all the same, for such devotees are interested only in the service of the Lord"
(Srimad Bhagavatam 6.17.28).

Even when facing tribulations, when being led to crucifixion, a perfect being on the highest level of intimacy with God, absorbed in God, is not afraid under any circumstances:

"Daughters of Jerusalem, don't cry for me. Cry for yourselves and for your children" (Luke 23:28).

brahma-bhutah prasannatma
na socati na kanksati
samah sarvesu bhutesu
mad-bhaktim labhate param

"One who is thus transcendentally situated at once realizes the Supreme Brahman and becomes fully joyful. He never laments or desires to have anything. He is equally disposed toward every living entity, absorbed in pure devotion to Me" (Bhagavad-gita 18.54).

Being absorbed in carrying out the will of the Lord, great souls return to the spiritual world after accomplishing their mission.

Are Jesus and Krishna One?

This idea, often suggested to us, is based on the statement taken from John: "I and my Father are one" (John 10:30).

This latest of Gospels, John's, was written around AD 125, and is--short of a few sentences--widely questioned by scholars because of its exaggerated claims and Christological tendencies. The idea of Jesus being God incarnate appears much earlier, beginning with Paul's letter to the Romans (written around AD 55): "Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen" (Romans 9:5).

From this the idea begins to spread and is carried throughout the centuries, even into modern times.

It is remarkable that Plinius Caecilius Secundus (AD 61-114), the Proconsul of the province of Bithynia in AD 111, in his letters to the Emperor Trajan on the Christians noticed that "it was their habit on a fixed day to assemble before daylight and recite a hymn to Christ as a God ("Carmen Christo qasi deo decere secum invincem").

This is evidence that in time the Pauline concept of Jesus as God gained enthusiastic support among the Gentile Christians, heavily opposed by Ebionite Christians and other early Christian groups, who were consequently branded as heretics.

This God-concept was further greatly elaborated by Gregory of Nyassa (AD 335), who formulated the Trinitarian doctrine of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, which then emerged as a clear, cogent answer to the Arian questioning. Finally, it found its ultimate dogmatic formulation in the so-called Athanasian Creed (c. AD 500), una substantia-tres personae ("one substance-three persons") which settled the Arian controversy once and for all.

However if we look into the Gospels themselves--at least into the synoptic Gospels of Mark, Matthew and Luke--we find no notion of Jesus as God incarnate. Rather, Mark 10:8 and Luke 18:19 say: "Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone."

Contemporary scholars generally agree that Jesus himself never considered himself divine, God incarnate, or the second person of the Trinity. Even the Gospel of John, for all its Christological pronouncements, says: "My Father is greater than I" (John 14:28). Considering the statement: "I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and have revealed them unto babes" (Luke 10:21); babes don't have the Trinity in mind when reading the Bible.

Rather, the concept of Jesus being God evolved over time. It has nothing to do with the Jesus of history, but rather with what Christians, beginning with Paul, in time came to believe about Jesus.

Burton L. Mack suggests that rather than being the view of the Jesus movement or the people of Q, this idea reflects the mindset of a North Syrian Christ cult, an assumed departure from the Jesus movement--Paul being it's notable exponent.

From Vedic evidence it is clear that Jesus is not Krishna. One only needs to contemplate Krishna's opulence as described in the Vedic version to come to this conclusion. Here are some examples:

Nowhere in the New Testament does Jesus claim that he is omnipresent, as Krishna does:

sarvasya caham hrdi sannivisto "I am in the heart of all beings" (Bhagavad-gita 15.15),

and can be seen as such by one with perfect vision:

yo mam pasyati sarvatra sarvam ca mayi pasyati
"For one who sees Me everywhere and sees everything in Me, I am never lost, nor is he ever lost to Me" (Bhagavad-gita 6.30).

Nor does Jesus claim that he is omnipotent.

mattah parataram nanyat
kincid asti dhananjaya
mayi sarvam idam protam
sutre mani-gana iva

Here Krishna says: "There is no truth beyond Me. Everything rests upon Me, as pearls are strung on a thread" (Bhagavad-gita 7.7),

He is the strength of the strong: balam balavatam caham (Bhagavad-gita 7.11), The intelligence of the intelligent: buddhir buddhimatam asmi (Bhagavad-gita 7.10), And the ability in man: tejas tejasvinam aham (Bhagavad-gita 7.10).

Nor does Jesus says he is omniscient.

vedaham samatitani
vartamanani carjuna
bhavisyani ca bhutani
mam tu veda na kascana

"O Arjuna, I know everything that has happened in the past, all that is happening in the present, and all things that are yet to come. I also know all living entities; but Me no one knows" (Bhagavad-gita 7.26).

bahuni me vyatitani
janmani tava carjuna
tany aham veda sarvani
na tvam vettha parantapa

"Many, many births both you and I have passed. I can remember all of them, but you cannot!" (Bhagavad-gita 4.5).

Further, Jesus does not proclaim himself the source of all beings.

bijam mam sarva bhutanam (Bhagavad-gita 7.10) Krishna says that He is "the original seed". And "the father of all": aham bija-pradah pita (Bhagavad-gita 14.4).

Nor did Jesus teach that the creation rests on him, as Krishna teaches:

aham sarvasya prabhavo
mattah sarvam pravartate
iti matva bhajante mam
budha bhava-samanvitah

"I am the source of all spiritual and material worlds. Everything emanates from Me. The wise who perfectly know this engage in My devotional service and worship Me with all their hearts" (Bhagavad-gita 10.8).

etad-yonini bhutani
sarvanity upadharaya
aham krtsnasya jagatah
prabhavah pralayas tatha

"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" (Bhagavad-gita 7.6).

Jesus does not claim to be the supreme controller, but Krishna does.

tapamy aham aham varsam nigrhnamy utsrjami ca "I give heat, and I withhold and send forth the rain" (Bhagavad-gita 9.19),

or Krishna is described as being the supreme controller -

krishnas tu bhagavan svayam - Lord Krishna is the original supreme controller (S.B. 1.3.28)
isvarah paramah krsnah (Brahma Samhita 5.1), The cause of all physical phenomena
"He is the cause of all causes, material and spiritual" sarva karana karanam (Brahma Samhita 5.1).

Nor does Jesus claim to be "immortality and death personified," but Krishna did: amrtam caiva mrtyus ca sad asac caham arjuna - Krishna says, "Both spirit and matter are in Me": sad asac caham arjuna (Bhagavad-gita 9.19).

Jesus does not say that material nature is under his control; mayadhyaksena prakrtih suyate sa-caracaram (Bhagavad-gita 9.1), That all innumerable living entities are his parts and parcels; yena bhutany asesani draksyasy atmany atho mayi (Bhagavad-gita 4.35), That he is the cause of all creation; yad yad vibhutimat sattvam srimad urjitam eva va, or tat tad evavagaccha tvam mama tejo-'msa-sambhavam "Know that all opulent, beautiful and glorious creations spring from but a spark of My splendor" (Bhagavad-gita 10.41).

Nor does Jesus proclaim: "What need is there, Arjuna, for all this detailed knowledge? With a single fragment of Myself I pervade and support this entire universe."- atha va bahunaitena kim jnatena tavarjuna vistabhyaham idam krtsnam ekamsena sthito jagat (Bhagavad-gita 10.42).

However, all this does not mean that Jesus is an ordinary being who ascended to perfection. It is quite clear from what scholars tell us that neither Jesus nor his original followers in Galilee or later Jerusalem, i.e. the members of the Jesus movement, considered Jesus "the Word made flesh living among us," God incarnate, the second person of the Trinity, the son of man who will be coming to us in the future on the clouds -"For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man" (Matthew 24:27).

Jesus as a perfect being, an empowered shaktyavesa avatara, an eternally perfect soul , descended, endowed with divine power, to save the fallen souls in this material world.

Such a body is not subject to the same laws governing us poor fellows. A person on that level is endowed with eight mystic opulences, some of them demonstrated in the Gospels:

anima siddhi-one can go through walls or closed doors (John 20:19,26), laghima siddhi-one can walk on water (Matthew 14.25), prapti siddhi-one can bring into three dimensional space and from a higher plane, things, like food, as when Jesus fed thousands (Matt.15:38, 16:10; Mark 8:9, 8:20), isitva siddhi-to appear and disappear at will: "then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight" (Luke 4:29:30, 24:31).

As for a liberated soul like Jesus (jivan mukta), free from the inebriety of the material laws, it is stated:

iha yasya harer dasye karmana manasa gira nikhilasv apy avasthasu jivan-muktah sa ucyate (Bhakti-rasamita-sindhu 1.2.187).

"A person acting in Krishna consciousness (or, in other words, in the service of Krishna) with his body, mind, intelligence and words is a liberated person even within the material world, even if engaged in so-called material activities."

Srila Prabhupada explains:

"[such a devotee] has no false ego, for he does not believe that he is this material body, or that he possesses the body. He knows that he is not this body and that this body does not belong to him. He himself belongs to Krishna, and the body too belongs to Krishna. When he applies everything produced of the body, mind, intelligence, words, life, wealth, etc.--whatever he may have within his possession--to Krishna's service, he is at once dovetailed with Krishna. He is one with Krishna and is devoid of the false ego that leads one to believe that he is the body, etc. This is the perfect stage of Krishna consciousness" (Bhagavad-gita 5.11 purport).

"Such a devotee of the Lord can withstand all onslaughts of material nature, and therefore he is known as gosvami. Only such gosvamis can penetrate the mysteries of the Lord's transcendental loving relationships" (Srimad Bhagavatam 3.4.31 purport).

Such a person is on the platform called vasudeva or suddha sattva, beyond material nature, one with Krishna, not in personality but in interest, in service and love, "in this world, but not of it."

mam ca yo 'vyabhicarena
bhakti-yogena sevate
sa gunan samatityaitan
brahma-bhuyaya kalpate

"One who always engages in the spiritual activities of unalloyed devotional service at once transcends the modes of material nature and reaches the platform of Brahman (the transcendental platform)" (Bhagavad-gita 14.26).

The inconceivable state of consciousness of a liberated soul, jivan muktah, a person on the vasudeva platform, absorbed in God is described as such in Bhagavad-gita:

naiva kincit karomiti
yukto manyeta tattva-vit
pasyan srnvan sprsan jighrann
asnan gacchan svapan svasan
pralapan visrjan grhnann
unmisan nimisann api
indriyanindriyarthesu
vartanta iti dharayan

"A person in the divine consciousness, although engaged in seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, moving about, sleeping and breathing, always knows within himself that he actually does nothing at all. Because while speaking, evacuating, receiving, or opening or closing his eyes, he always knows that only the material senses are engaged with their objects and that he is aloof from them" (Bhagavad-gita 5.8-9).

Such devotees see in their heart of hearts in ecstatic vision--premanjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena santah sadaiva hrdayesu vilokayanti-with eyes tinged with the salve of love-syamasundaram acintya-guna-svarupam--the inconceivable transcendental form of Syamasundara, Krishna, at every moment.

Such a person on the platform of prasannatma-ecstasy--sees God everywhere: yo mam pasyati sarvatra sarvam ca mayi pasyati tasyaham na pranasyami sa ca me na pranasyati -"For one who sees Me everywhere and sees everything in Me, I am never lost, nor is he ever lost to Me" (Bhagavad-gita 6.30).

He is on the brahma bhuta platform, a liberated soul: brahma-bhutah prasannatma na socati na kanksati samah sarvesu bhutesu mad-bhaktim labhate param, Free from lamentation-- na socati--even when facing intense tribulations like crucifixion: "Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children" (Luke 23:28).

He has nothing left to desire-- na kanksati.
He the friend of all beings-- samah sarvesu bhutesu.
And his absorption in his pure devotional service to God is complete and perfect-- mad-bhaktim labhate param (Bhagavad-gita 18.54).

Being with Krishna (in Krishna consciousness), he is not afraid under any conditions:

narayana-parah sarve
na kutascana bibhyati
svargapavarga-narakesv
api tulyartha-darsinah

"Devotees solely engaged in the devotional service of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Narayana, never fear any condition of life. For them the heavenly planets, liberation and the hellish planets are all the same, for such devotees are interested only in the service of the Lord" (Srimad Bhagavatam 6.17.28).

Nor are they subject to the law of karma or the laws of nature like ordinary human beings:

mahatmanas tu mam partha
daivim prakrtim asritah
bhajanty ananya-manaso
jnatva bhutadim avyayam

"O son of Prtha, those who are not deluded, the great souls, are under the protection of the divine nature. They are fully engaged in devotional service because they know Me as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, original and inexhaustible" (Bhagavad-gita 9.13).

Nor can they be killed, under ordinary circumstances:

kaunteya pratijanihi na me bhaktah pranasyati -"O son of Kunti, declare it boldly that My devotee never perishes" (Bhagavad-gita 9.31).

There is ample evidence from scriptures that perfect souls like Prahlada Maharaja survived all kinds of tortures and atrocities by his demonic father, such as being thrown into the dens of lions, into pits of snakes and thrown from the tops of mountains.

Even Bhisma, being pierced by a thousand arrows, was beyond the laws of nature and could not be killed, but left his body out of his own will, only after Sri Krishna arrived.

Similarly in the fifteenth century, neither Mira Bhai was killed after being administered poison, nor was Haridas Thakur killed when he was beaten in twenty-one marketplaces and thrown into the Ganges. He walked around freely, as Jesus did after the crucifixion.

In the Old Testament we find the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who preferred to be thrown into a furnace rather than eat the meat of King Nebuchadnezzar, and they chanted in the fire and survived (Daniel 3:19-26). Mare krsna rakhe ke, rakhe krsna mare ke--if Krishna protects you, no one can kill you, and if Krishna wants to kill you, no one can save you.

While the circumstances of Jesus' disappearance are by no means clear, they are for His devotees less important, even irrelevant. As Srila Prabhupada pointed out: "Preaching is the essence." The teachings of Jesus are the most essential part of his mission and incarnation, rather than what happened to him thereafter.

By becoming preoccupied with the death of Jesus, the empty grave and thereafter--curiously called by theologians the 'after-Easter perspective'--the whole emphasis of Jesus' teachings--to leave things behind and to turn to God with heart, soul and mind--becomes clouded and ultimately lost.

Consequently, Srila Prabhupada, speaking on Vedic evidence, discounted the concept of Jesus dying for our sins as an unauthorized shift of paradigm: from the pure and perfect teachings of Jesus to salvation from the cross (Bombay, April 2, 1977).
Tamala Krishna: He says, “Did Jesus die on the cross to redeem all the sins of the world?”
Prabhupada: This is another sinful thought—Jesus has taken contract for ridding your sinful activities. That’s a plea, what is called plea for the sinners, that they will continue acting sinfully, and Christ will take contract to counteract. This is most sinful conviction. Instead of stopping sinful activities, we have given contract to Jesus Christ to counteract it.
Tamala Krishna: So these people are not actually getting free of their sins unless they stop sinning.
Prabhupada: Then what is the use of his preaching? They will continue sinful activities, and Jesus Christ will take contract for saving them. How nonsense idea this is!

The teachings of Jesus are universal, complete in themselves and perfectly salvific-they are sanatana dharma, the eternal religion of the soul in its loving relationship to the Supreme Being, unadulterated by the falsity of bodily designations, or upadhis, designations such as Indian, American, Hindu, Muslim, Christian and so on. Sarvopadhi-vinirmuktam tat-paratvena nirmalam hrsikena hrsikesa-sevanam bhaktir ucyate (Narada-pancaratra, quoted in Bhakti-rasamrita-sindhu 1.1.2.)-Service to God with one's purified senses is the actual purpose of life.

Simply by surrendering to the will of God one lives with Krishna, and all karma is destroyed.

sarva-dharman parityajya
mam ekam saranam vraja
aham tvam sarva-papebhyo
moksayisyami ma sucah

"Abandon all varieties of dharma and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reactions. Do not fear" (Bhagavad-gita 18.66).

No one has to die for our sins.

Jesus taught by his personal life how to surrender to God under all conditions: "Thy will be done" (Matthew 26:42), "on earth as it is in heaven" (Matthew 6:10).

To preach this message of love Jesus was so surrendered that he tolerated crucifixion.

Is worshipping Jesus compatible with worshipping Krishna?

Why not?

There is no divine disagreement between father and son.

However, some of the teachings of the New Testament are not standard teachings of spiritual knowledge. They were superficially imposed on the teachings of Jesus by later sources. It appears that there was a rift between two parties, both with no clue as to how to perceive the transcendental nature of the message of Jesus.

Paul tried to make sense out of Jesus, probably to the best of his abilities. So did the group around James, Peter and the rest. Paul made no qualms about it that he preached a different concept of Jesus:

"For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough. But I do not think I am in the least inferior to those 'super-apostles' (i.e., James, Peter and the rest)" (2 Cor. 11:5).

Hence Christianity as we know it might well be a spin off of the original Jesus movement, described by the well-established contemporary scholar Burton L. Mack as a "Christ Cult of Northern Syria and Asia Minor"--Paul possibly being its most eloquent exponent.

It appears that James and his party gradually regressed to some extent back toward Judaism, with James praying daily in the temple ("He was in the habit of entering alone into the temple, and was frequently found upon his knees begging forgiveness for the people, so that his knees became hard like those of a camel in consequence of constantly bending them on his worship of God" (Eusebius, Church History II. Ch XXIII, 5-7). Meanwhile Paul's party-- with its theology of redemption from the cross, the concept of the dying God (drawn largely from concepts in the pagan mystery cults of the Mediterranean basin)--went its own way.

Especially interesting in this regard is the cult of the savior God Mithra, who similarly dies for the sins of his followers.

It's hard to overlook certain similarities to the Last Supper if one considers that those who partook in the meal in memory of Mithra were also to participate in his death and resurrection.

Further remarkable is that Mithra's birthday happens to be December 25, Christmas day. Even the sacred day of the week for the followers of Mithra, him being the sun-god, is Sunday and not the Sabbath (which was undoubtedly observed by Jesus and his followers).

After Jerusalem's mother church was routed by the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD, some of the followers apparently retreated to Trans Jordania (the famous flight to Pella), later to become known as Ebionites. Paul's construct survived by default. It is remarkable that the Ebionites described by Epiphanius of Constantia (AD 315-403) in his Panarion (Ch. 30) perceived Jesus as a perfect human rather than God. They believed that one couldn't follow Jesus unless one renounces eating meat. They did not believe that Jesus was born from a virgin. And they declared the teachings of Paul to be heresy--Paul, being the first apostate (the first to fall from the faith).

Some scholars such as Klausner postulate that the teachings of the Ebionite Christians could well be closer to the teachings of the Jesus of history. "However, the influence of Jewish Christianity, despite its decade of unchallenged supremacy, was not absolute, and the author of this innovating document that we know now as the Gospel of Mark, was clearly inspired by the theology of Paul."

S.G.F. Brandon says: "The death of Jesus, moreover, is set forth not as an accident, to be explained apologetically by means of Old Testament quotation, but as an event of universal soteriological significance, which could not be understood by the celebrated representatives of the Jewish Apostles."

And that's where the whole thing split, and the section which based its theology on a person who never met Jesus in person, namely Paul, took off in a different direction: the Christianity we have known of for two thousand years.

We ask you to discover the historical Jesus. And modern scholarship will help you in the quest to develop a more enlightened understanding of Jesus and his teachings.

Srila Prabhupada, the spiritual master of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness said: "If one loves Krishna, he must love Lord Jesus also. And if one perfectly loves Jesus he must love Krishna too. If he says, 'Why shall I love Krishna? I shall love Jesus,' then he has no knowledge. And if one says, 'Why shall I love Jesus? I shall love Krishna,' then he has no knowledge either. If one understands Krishna, then he will understand Jesus. If you understand Jesus, you'll understand Krishna too" (Room conversation with Allen Ginsberg, May 12, 1969 / Columbus - Ohio).

What is the difference between Jesus and Krishna?

Answer: Essentially there is no difference in the message of Krishna and the message of Jesus. Like father, like son.

If you find a conflict, then that is because a whole superficial theological structure was superimposed on the original teachings of Jesus. So you have to distinguish between the Christ of creed and dogma and the Jesus of history.

Jesus was preaching perfectly, and his universal message is nondifferent from the teachings of Krishna: Man has to change his heart, give up sense gratification and turn to God with complete determination--"Thou shalt love The Lord Thy God with all Thy heart, with all Thy soul, and with all Thy might."

This is the very essence of Jesus' teachings, and such bhakti, or pure devotion to the Supreme Being, was at the heart of his life. It is at the heart of any genuine spirituality.

man-mana bhava mad-bhakto
mad-yaji mam namaskuru
mam evaisyasi satyam te
pratijane priyo 'si me

"Always think of Me, become My devotee, worship Me and offer your homage unto Me. Thus you will come to Me without fail. I promise you this because you are My very dear friend" (Bhagavad-gita 18.65).

tesam satata-yuktanam
bhajatam priti-purvakam
dadami buddhi-yogam tam
yena mam upayanti te

"To those who are constantly devoted to serving Me with love, I give the understanding by which they can come to Me" (Bhagavad-gita 10.10).

tesam evanukampartham
aham ajnana-jam tamah
nasayamy atma-bhava-stho
jnana-dipena bhasvata

"To show them special mercy, I, dwelling in their hearts, destroy with the shining lamp of knowledge the darkness born of ignorance" (Bhagavad-gita 10.11).

The great Spiritual master Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur teaches: manasa deho geho jo kichu mor arpilun tuwa pade nanda-kisor - "My mind, my body, my home, whatever I have in my possession, I offer unto You, my Lord."

Srila Rupa Gosvami, the direct disciple of Sri Krishna Caitanya, says:

sarvopadhi-vinirmuktam
tat-paratvena nirmalam
hrsikena hrsikesa-sevanam
bhaktir ucyate

"When all one's senses are engaged in the service of the Supreme Lord, the master of all the senses, and the soul renders pure service unto the Supreme, he is freed from all material designations, and one's senses are purified" (Narada-pancaratra qtd. in Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu 1.1.12).

Such service to the Lord encompasses all of one's life, and it simply does not matter whether such truth is spoken by Jesus or by Sri Krishna. God the father and his son are one in spirit and one in love. The message is the same: Jesus was preaching intense spiritual life; to forsake, home, relatives and the rest and turn to God radically in pure devotion.

"…and if you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have a treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me" (Matthew 19:21).

"…Do not worry about anything: look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than them?"

"…And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What will we eat?' or 'What will we drink?' or 'What will we wear?' But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well (Matthew 6:26-33).

"Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for bread, will give a stone? Or if the child asks for a fish, will give a snake? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him." (Matthew 7:7-11).

One disciple said to him: "Lord, first let me go and bury my father." Jesus said: "Follow me. Let the dead bury their own dead" (Matthew 8:20-22). We cannot even conceive how radical a statement this was in an oriental society where the duty of the son to bury his father was peremptory. This is the 'Wanderradikalismus" (Gert Theissen) of the original Jesus movement. It is the voice of Jesus, and the message the Jesus movement of history stood for.

These words are music to our ears. Here we hear the same old voice that is speaking at the heart and root of any genuine tradition:

sarva-dharman parityajya
mam ekam saranam vraja
aham tvam sarva-papebhyo
moksayisyami ma sucah

"Abandon all varieties of mundane religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reactions. Do not fear." (Bhagavad-gita 18:66).

Such transcendental knowledge is universal, never changing, and not subject to the speculation of theologians and philosophers. It is raja-vidya raja-guhyam, "the king of education, the most secret of all secrets"; pavitram idam uttamam, "the purest knowledge and the most perfect"; pratyashavagamam dharmyam, "it provides direct perception of the self by realization, and is the perfection of religion"; su-sukham kartum avyayam, "it is everlasting and joyfully performed" (Bhagavad-gita 9.2).

All it depends upon is the surrender of the soul and complete abandonment to the will of the Supreme Lord: "Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done…" (Matthew 26:42); "Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." (Matthew 6:10).

And as the result of such surrender, Sri Krishna reveals Himself to His devotee:

ye yatha mam prapadyante tams tathaiva bhajamy aham - "As they surrender unto Me, I reveal myself" (Bhagavad-gita 4.11). Never mind religion, race or nation: samo 'ham sarva-bhutesu na me dvesyo 'sti na priyah - "I am not partial to anyone. I am equal to all" (Bhagavad-gita 9.29).

Spiritual life is a practical, verifiable experience. Performed under the guidance of great souls, its results can be experienced by anyone, everywhere, and at all times.

Unfortunately, most Christians are conditioned by the theological constructions that they have been taught. It's hard for them to open their minds to allow the original concept to enter. We must be understanding, and help those understand who want to.

We appreciate the sincere attempts and enormous courage of New Testament scholars in their 150 years of their quest for Jesus - from H.S. Raimarus to F. Strauss, from Albert Schweitzer to R. Bultmann and in recent times from J. Bornekamm to J. D. Crossan, John S. Cloppenborg, Burton L. Mack to Marcus J. Borg, just to name a few. These men have rendered tremendous contributions to freeing our minds from previous impositions, only to return to us the Jesus of History.

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[A talk by Hansadutta dasa]
In the Bhagavatam, Prahlada gives a summary of a human life if a person lives for 100 years. In this age of Kali Yuga, the maximum length of a human life is 100 years. Out of 100 years, half of the time a person sleeps, so there is 50 years gone. Then the first ten years we are children so we are playing. Then in youth, we are busy sporting, chasing after a boyfriend or a girlfriend. Then the last 20 years, a person is invalid in old age. I’m sure you have old parents, so you know what it means.

In those last 20 years, nothing is enjoyable; everything is miserable. So that leaves 10 years, but of those 10 years, we are busy with family affairs; husband, children, and relatives, making money and so forth.

So in this way, the calculation is that the whole life is spoiled. For what? For maintaining this body.

Our business or our focus is always maintaining this body, and then extended bodies; my children, my wife, my relatives, my friends, my countrymen. Everyone is busy like this, and that business means that I have to get money. Why do I need money?

Because I have to protect my body and my extended bodies; my sons and daughters and husband and friends. This also means a house, either buy a house or pay rent, pay mortgage, etc. I have to buy clothing too, so I can interact with love, friendship and society. We all have some love, we have some friends, and we social obligations and relations. But, because I’m not this body, which is the basis of all this concern, because love, friendship and society has to do with this body and other bodies. But I’m not this body, I am within the body as an operator is within a machine or a car, or an airplane.

So, even if I am very successful at love, friendship and society, even if I manage to keep my love happy, manage to keep friends adoring me, and manage to have a place within the social structure, like America is very opulent compared to the rest of the world. We have enough food, we have enough of everything. Others, if they get a bowl of rice then that made their day. You know, you’ve been around a little bit. But in most places, if they get a bowl of rice, or manage to stay alive another day, not to be killed like in Iraq, right? Then, that was a good day. But America, unlike other countries, we have everything in abundance. In fact, we are trying to figure out how to get rid of it, by having garage sales, donating to the Salvation Army, throwing it out, or whatever. Our problem is “How to eat less” or how to get the weight off because I’ve eaten too much, this is our side of the situation.

But the point is, I’m not this body- either comfortable or uncomfortable- I am the soul, or the life force that animates the body and keeps it at 98.6 degrees. If there is a drop in temperature or an increase, then I feel miserable, just one degree, and blood moving through the veins, if there is an aneurysm, “Boom”, all of a sudden I can’t move. I had a friend who had an aneurysm, and what happened was that he lost his sense of direction. He couldn’t from here to the store; it would take him an hour to figure out which direction to go. It took a year or so to clear up, and that was a minor one. Some people who suffer a stroke lose feeling on an entire side of their body.

So anyway, the point is, that everyone is very busy, very capable how to take care of this body in different ways: how to bathe it and dress it and perfume it, keep the hair nice and find some other nice body to mix with and create more bodies. But I’m not the body, and therefore my whole life is always full of frustration and disappointment. When that frustration and disappointment becomes acute, then it turns into other things like alcoholism, drug addiction, criminality or whatever. It is all due to one cause, that I’m trying to be happy on the basis of something false. I think that by acting, or tending to the demands of this body I will be happy. That is the premise.

The whole premise is that by bodily comfort, by bodily indulgence; eating, sleeping, defending and sex, there will be some satisfaction, there must be, that is our determination. But the whole Vedic culture began with, “there is no happiness whatsoever on the bodily platform”. Even Krishna goes so far as to say, “From the highest planet in this material universe to the lowest, all of them are places of misery wherein repeated birth and death takes place”.

We go as tourists sometimes to places like Fiji and Hawaii because we think, “Oh certainly there will be some happiness there. Here, I’m bored because I know about all of this, so let me go to Fiji, let me go to Thailand, let me go somewhere, or let me get a new house, let me get another husband, or girlfriend or a new car…everyone is dissatisfied in their present arrangement, although it is satisfactory in every respect, especially for Americans, they have enough of everything. But still they’re not happy, so they’re looking to go somewhere, and therefore the tourist industry is huge.

So Krishna says even if you go to the highest planet, which you can’t do, we can’t even go to the moon, but if you could, anywhere you go, they are all places of misery, because repeated birth and death take place there, and this is really the subject matter for human beings. They have to deal with this problem; that I will become old, I will become diseased, and I will die.

But instead of dealing with this issue, or training children in the school to recognize first of all what the problem is, (birth, old age, disease and death) they simply put it aside, ignore it, and encourage the children to busy with economic development, sense gratification, working hard, earning money, getting a wife, getting a husband, the children, the house, or become a soldier, go to war, etc. Therefore the whole society is going crazy, they are actually all crazy people, because they are working for something that you can never attain, it’s not possible. There IS happiness, but it’s not on the bodily platform.

This is the whole message of the Bhagavad-gita. There are bodily needs. I need to eat, I need to sleep, I need to defend myself, and sex is also a bodily need, it’s not that we should not have sex, no sex is a need like eating and sleeping. But is should be understood that these needs have nothing to do with the soul; they only have to do with the body.

Just like you service your car, you get an oil change, you get new tires, you get it tuned up, you wash the car, you buff it, and vacuum etc. But that has nothing to do with the driver of the car, his needs are not satisfied by that.

So unless we understand that, unless we come to this very matter-of-factly and realistically, we’re just wasting time like cats and dogs, because they cannot sit here and discuss philosophy and culture, it’s not possible. But human beings can, and if they don’t continue to ignore the actual purpose of human life, human life has got a purpose, and the purpose is to solve these four problems: birth, old age, disease and death.

Someone will say, “They can’t be solved”, no they can be solved, and that IS the sum and substance of Vedic culture or Vedic wisdom, how to solve these four problems. You have to wake up to your actual spiritual identity, to your actual self, that is not this body but the soul within this body. That is the whole purpose of Vedic culture, they had no other business, although the eating, sleeping, mating and defending they also did, but those were secondary considerations.

Just as you wash and service and put gas in your car, but that’s not the end of it. The car is for taking you to some destination, some goal. So this body also has a purpose, there is a goal; there is a destination that is to be reached by maintaining this body, what is that?

Simply to understand Krishna and your relationship with Krishna. Everything else in life you can dismiss, but not this, and if you don’t then you’re just cats and dogs, animal life. That is what distinguishes a human being from an animal. If you don’t do this, then no matter what you attain, it’s all useless. Even John Lennon he was so wealthy, so big, so loved, but he died like an animal. President Kennedy, nice wife, famous, popular handsome guy, finished.

So either way, either someone shoots you, or you just wither away, like a flower in the vase. In the beginning a flower looks very pretty, smells nice, good color, but after some days, you throw it out. So we’re also like that, all of us, we start out young and beautiful, now we are getting old and wrinkled and worn-out, we have different ailments, and our organs are giving out, etc.

But instead, especially western people they think that by cosmetics, liposuction, and botox…by some material adjustment they can keep up the facade, but it’s not possible. Now we can see in the check out counter magazines Elizabeth Taylor, she’s just an old lady…there are so many instances. So we also are headed in this direction. When you are old, nobody wants you. Our whole life is simply a frantic struggle to stave off these undesirable, unhappy circumstances that are being pushed upon us, it’s like we are being pushed off a cliff by a gigantic bulldozer that won’t stop.

So Krishna Consciousness means to see things as they are, and prepare yourself to give up this body, because you’ll have to give it up. We say death, but there is no death, we simply change bodies, and the whole science of how this takes place and what the principles are, that is in this Bhagavatam and the Bhagavad Gita. Do you have a Bhagavad Gita Trish? “Jackie has one”. So you also should have, and just read it. Everyday, read one or two pages or a chapter, and chant Hare Krishna. And tell your friends and your family people…as far as possible. Because other than this, there are no problems; there is enough food, there is enough clothing, there is enough housing, there is enough of everything. The only thing there is not enough of is Krishna consciousness, or God consciousness, or if you want to call it common sense. People have no sense; they are just going along.

Who was that, President Reagan? He was rotting away with Alzheimer’s, as far as he knew, he could have been a potato. So that is this Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama Hare Hare, you just chant. That one simple thing, it sounds simple, almost foolishly simple, childishly simple, but it is the most powerful activity a human being can do. Just like, what is the most essential activity that you do? (Trish and Jackie respond) “Breathe”. Breathing, right.

But we never think about breathing, we take it for granted, we are simply going on busy with other things. But that one simple thing- inhaling and exhaling- that maintains us. If you don’t breathe for 3 minutes, you’re finished. You can go several days without eating, 20 or more even, you’ll live, but if you don’t breathe for just a few minutes, you’re finished.

So this chanting Krishna’s name is exactly as breathing is to maintaining this gross physical body. Hearing and chanting this vibration, hearing and chanting, very simple thing, you can do it by yourself or do it with others, that is your spiritual life. That is the sum and substance of spiritual life, exactly as breathing air in and out is the whole aim of our physical life. When the baby comes out, if he’s not inhaling and exhaling, it’s all over, he’s in the trash. Anyway, Krishna! Alright Trish, how long are you going to be here?

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prepac pedromincho, ale v zaujme prehladnosti v [last] a poriadku v kyberii by bolo dobre, keby si taketo slonie texty daval ako clanky, alebo datanodes.. dik

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aha ok. pardon, neuvedomil som si to. idem sa naucit ako sa to robi.

00000101077637570006357500990348014455740144559201446770

ajaj, vobec netusim ako sa to robi. :(

0000010107763757000635750099034801445574014455920144677001451785

no, tam kde je pri zlacidle add taka roletka, kde je defalutne submission, tak tam das data, ked budes pridavat ten prispevok.

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ok diky! :)

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76-09-01.Jag Letter: Jagajivana
Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated July 27, 1976 and have noted the contents with care. I am very pleased that you have taken up this mission of spreading the Krsna consciousness movement all over the world. This is the wish of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu that, yare dakho tare kaho krsna upadesa, everyone you see or meet, tell him about krsna; amara ajnaya guru haya tara ei desa, and by My command you become a guru and save this land. This was also the mission of my guru maharaj and it is my mission. You will perfect your life if you make it also your mission.
770415rc.bom Conversations
Prabhupada: "Like father, like son." You should be. Gaurangera bhakta..., jane. Everyone. Therefore Caitanya Mahaprabhu said, amara ajnaya guru hana tara' ei desa. He asked everyone, "Just become guru." Follow His instruction. You become guru. Amara ajnaya. Don't manufacture ideas. Amara ajnaya. "What I say, you do. You become a guru." Where is the difficulty? "And what is Your ajna?" Yare dekha tare kaha krsna-upadesa. Bas. Everything is there in the Bhagavad- gita. You simply repeat. That's all. You become guru. To become a guru is not difficult job. Follow Caitanya Mahaprabhu and speak what Krsna has said. Bas. You become guru.

68-12-03.Ham Letter: Hamsaduta
Next January there will be an examination on this Bhagavad-gita. Papers will be sent by me to all centers, and those securing the minimum passing grade will be given the title as Bhakti-sastri. Similarly, another examination will be held on Lord Caitanya's Appearance Day in February, 1970 and it will be upon Srimad- Bhagavatam and Bhagavad-gita. Those passing will get the title of Bhakti-vaibhava. Another examination will be held sometimes in 1971 on the four books, Bhagavad-gita, Srimad-Bhagavatam, Teachings of Lord Caitanya, and Nectar of Devotion. One who will pass this examination will be awarded with the title of Bhaktivedanta. I want that all of my spiritual sons and daughters will inherit this title of Bhaktivedanta, so that the family transcendental diploma will continue through the generations. Those possessing the title of Bhaktivedanta will be allowed to initiate disciples. Maybe by 1975, all of my disciples will be allowed to initiate and increase the numbers of the generations. That is my program. So we should not simply publish these books for reading by outsiders, but our students must be well versed in all of our books so that we can be prepared to defeat all opposing parties in the matter of self- realization.

750715AR.SF Lectures
So sometimes people give me very much credit that I have done wonderful throughout the whole world. But I do not know that I am wonderful man. But I know one thing, that I am speaking what Krsna has spoken. That's all. I am not making any addition, alteration. Therefore I am presenting Bhagavad-gita as it is. This credit I can take, that I don't making any nonsense addition or alteration. And I see practically it has become successful. I have not bribed so many Europeans and Americans. I am poor Indian. I came to America with forty rupees with me, and now I possess forty crores. So there is no magic. So this is the secret, that if you want to become guru honestly... If you want to cheat, that is another thing. There are so many cheaters. People also want to be cheated. As soon as we say that "If you want to become my disciple, you will have to give up four things: no illicit sex, no intoxication up to drinking tea and smoking cigarette, no meat-eating and no gambling," and they criticize me, "Swamiji is very conservative." And if I say that "You can do all nonsense, whatever you like. You simply take this mantra and give me $125," they will like. Because in America, $125 is nothing. Any man can pay immediately. So I would have collected millions of dollars if I would have cheated like that. But I do not want that. I want one student who follows my instruction. I don't want millions. Ekas candras tamo hanti na ca tara-sahasrasah. If there is one moon in the sky, that is sufficient for illumination. There is no need of millions of stars. So my position is that I want to see that at least one disciple has become pure devotee. Of course, I have got many sincere and pure devotees. That is my good luck. But I would have been satisfied if I could find out one only. There is no need of so-called millions of stars.

761210DB.HYD Lectures
So this knowledge means to understand the original source. That is philosophy, find out the original source. That is knowledge. So the vedais ca sarvair aham eva vedyo. Actually the knowledge terminates when you understand Krsna. He is the source of everything. So there is a "struggle for existence, a human race, the only hope, His Divine Grace." So we got this information from His Divine Grace Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, and that knowledge is still going on. You are receiving through his servant. And in future the same knowledge will go to your students. This is called parampara system. Evam parampara prap... It is not that you have become a student and you'll remain student. No. One day you shall become also guru and make more students, more students, more. That is Caitanya Mahaprabhu's mission, not that perpetually... Yes, one should remain perpetually a student, but he has to act as guru. That is the mission of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. It is not that because I am acting as guru, I am no longer student. No, I am still student. Caitanya Mahaprabhu taught us this instruction that we shall always remain a foolish student before our Guru Maharaja. That is the Vedic culture. I may be very big man, but still, I should remain a foolish student to my guru. That is the qualification. Guru more murkha dekhi' karila sasana. We should be always prepared to be controlled by the guru. That is very good qualification. Yasya prasadad bhagavat-prasadah. Ara na kariha mane asa. So we should become always a very obedient student to our guru. That is the qualification. That is the spiritual qualification.

750302BA.ATL Lectures
So you are hearing this philosophy daily. Try to understand more and more. We have got so many books. And this is the mission of Caitanya Mahaprabhu and, by disciplic succession, Bhaktivinoda Thakura, then my spiritual master. Then we are trying our level best. Similarly, you will also try your level best on the same principle. Then it will go on. Same principle. It doesn't matter whether one is born in India or outside India. No. When Caitanya Mahaprabhu said, prthivite ache yata nagaradi-grama, "As many towns and cities and villages are there," He did not say it to make a farce. He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. So sometimes I am very much criticized that I am making foreigners a brahmana. The caste brahmanas in India, they are very much against me. But this is not fact. When Caitanya Mahaprabhu said that all over the world His message will be broadcast, does it mean that it will be simply a cinema show? No. He wanted that everyone should become perfect Vaisnava. That is His purpose. It is not to make a farce, some lecturing and..., or some mutual praising society. No. It is Krishna Society. Everyone who will join this Krishna Society movement, he is more than a brahmana. Brahmana, what is brahmana? Brahmana is also material. A devotee is more than brahmana. The brahminical culture is included already. Brahma janatiti brahmanah: "Brahmana means one who knows the Absolute Truth, Brahman." He is brahmana. But that is not very fixed up. Brahmeti paramatmeti bhagavan iti sabdyate. Brahman is impersonal effulgence, and then further progress, realization of the localized aspect, Paramatma, Antaryami, and finally, understanding the Supreme Person, Krsna, Supreme Person, that is the final understanding.

720518AR.LA Lectures
So we have got this message from Krsna, from Caitanya Mahaprabhu, from the six Gosvamis, later on, Bhaktivinoda Thakura, Bhaktisiddhanta Thakura. And we are trying our bit also to distribute this knowledge. Now, tenth, eleventh, twelfth... My Guru Maharaja is tenth from Caitanya Mahaprabhu, I am eleventh, you are the twelfth. So distribute this knowledge. People are suffering. They are simply fighting on some false thing, maya. They should be given the real fact of happiness. We have spoiled our life, many lives, coming through the evolutionary process of 8,400,000 species of life. Here is an opportunity, human form of life, and here is the message of Lord Caitanya, Krsna. Human form of life can understand, and especially in America you can understand. You have got better intelligence, better facility. We are not sentimental, simply chanting and dancing. We have got more than two thousand volumes of books. If you want to learn it through science, philosophy, it is also there. Otherwise, the simple method--simply chant Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare. Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama, Rama, Hare Hare, and you'll realize the whole thing. The child can take part, the philosopher can take part, the scientist can take part, the politician can take part, the religionist can take part, the public can take part. It is so universal. And it is open; there is no secrecy. It is not that "I shall give you some secret mantra, and give me some money, I go away." It is open.

721024ND.VRN Lectures
When Caitanya Mahaprabhu ordered that prthivite ache yata nagaradi grama, so that means He wanted that all over the world, in every town, in every village, His mission should be propagated. And what is His mission? His mission is: yei krsna-tattva-vetta sei guru haya. That is His mission, So it is not that in western countries one cannot become Vaisnava, one cannot become guru. This is not. This, such sort of remark is not tolerable from sastric point of view. It is completely, strictly to the sastric point of view. And it is a glory for us that people in other countries, outside India, they're accepting this cult of Krsna consciousness. But crippled people, they unnecessarily criticize this method. But we don't care for them.

710718RC.DET Conversations
Prabhupada: Yes. All of them will take over. These students, who are initiated from me, all of them will act as I am doing. Just like I have got many Godbrothers, they are all acting. Similarly, all these disciples which I am making, initiating, they are being trained to become future spiritual masters.

680706SB.MON Lectures
That is the order. In this old age I have come to your country. Why? Because we are trying to follow the footprints of Lord Caitanya; therefore we have come. Otherwise, in old age who goes out of home? Nobody goes. And anyway, it is our duty to present. What is that presentation? The presentation is yare dekha tare kaha 'krsna'- upadesa, very simple thing. You haven't got to manufacture anything. Just like there are many swamis, they come from India, but they manufacture something. But we have no power to manufacture. We simply present what is ordered by Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu. He has ordered, yare dekha tare kaha 'krsna'-upadesa: "Whomever you meet, you simply present the instruction of Krsna." And this instruction of Krsna is Bhagavad-gita. And what is that Bhagavad-gita? Krsna says, sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekam saranam vraja. Just be surrendered to Krsna; be Krsna conscious. This is... So everything is there. We haven't got to manufacture anything. And simply by strictly following the orders of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu everyone can become the spiritual master. Spiritual master means who is strictly following the orders of his superior. He is spiritual master. Spiritual master does not mean that he has got four hands or eight legs or three heads. No. One who is strictly following the orders of his predecessor, he is spiritual master. Just like Arjuna was told by Krsna that "This system, parampara system, disciplic succession of spiritual masters, is now lost." Sa kalena yogo nastah: "That yoga, that system of yoga is now lost. Therefore I am making you again My disciple."

730128ND.CAL Lectures
...It is a science. It is not sentiment. Sentiment: I close my eyes and shed some tears, and then I go for smoking cigarette. That sentiment will not help us. It is a science. Just like Caitanya Mahaprabhu said: yei krsna-tattva-vetta sei guru haya. Yei krsna- tattva-vetta. One who knows the science of Krsna, he can become guru. Prthivim sa sisyat. He can make disciples all over the world. Prthivim sa sisyat.

660729BG.NY Lectures
If I want to enter into the kingdom of God, or Krsna, if we want to be Krsna consciousness, there is no impediment. There is no impediment. Ahaituky apratihata. In the Bhagavata says that if one wants to cultivate the Krsna consciousness, it is without any cause and without any impediment. Because it is transcendental subject matter, it does not depend on any material condition, on any material condition. There is no consideration of material impediment. So it is open for everyone. Catur-varnyam maya srstam. That is a chance given, that you can become a brahmana, you can become a great devotee of Lord Krsna, and you can become the spiritual master of the world. That is the... And I think you should take seriously.

SB 2.9.43 P Answers by Citing the Lord' s Version
"Only unto one who has unflinching devotion to the Lord and to the spiritual master does transcendental knowledge become automatically revealed." Such relationship between the disciple and the spiritual master is eternal. One who is now the disciple is the next spiritual master. And one cannot be a bona fide and authorized spiritual master unless one has been strictly obedient to his spiritual master...

750406CC.MAY Lectures
And to become acarya is not very difficult. First of all, to become very faithful servant of your acarya, follow strictly what he says. Try to please him and spread Krsna consciousness. That's all. It is not at all difficult. Try to follow the instruction of your Guru Maharaja and spread Krsna consciousness. That is the order of Lord Caitanya.

amara ajnaya guru hana tara' ei desa
yare dekha tare kaha 'krsna'-upadesa

"By following My order, you become guru." And if we strictly follow the acarya system and try our best to spread the instruction of Krsna... Yare dekha tare kaha 'krsna'-upadesa. There are two kinds of krsna-upadesa. Upadesa means instruction. Instruction given by Krsna, that is also 'krsna'-upadesa, and instruction received about Krsna, that is also 'krsna'-upadesa. Krsnasya upadesa iti krsna upadesa. Samasa, sasti-tat-purusa-samasa. And Krsna visaya upadesa, that is also Krsna upadesa. Bahu-vrihi-samasa. This is the way of analyzing Sanskrit grammar. So Krsna's upadesa is Bhagavad-gita. He's directly giving instruction. So one who is spreading Krsna- upadesa, simply repeat what is said by Krsna, then you become acarya. Not difficult at all. Everything is stated there. We have to simply repeat like parrot. Not exactly parrot. Parrot does not understand the meaning; he simply vibrates. But you should understand the meaning also; otherwise how you can explain? So, so we want to spread Krsna consciousness. Simply prepare yourself how to repeat Krsna's instructions very nicely, without any malinterpretation. Then, in future... Suppose you have got now ten thousand. We shall expand to hundred thousand. That is required. Then hundred thousand to million, and million to ten million.
Devotees: Jaya!

Prabhupada: So there will be no scarcity of acarya, and people will understand Krsna consciousness very easily. So make that organization. Don't be falsely puffed up. Follow the acarya's instruction and try to make yourself perfect, mature. Then it will be very easy to fight out maya. Yes. Acaryas, they declare war against maya's activities, that maya instructing that "Here is wine. Here is cigarette. Here is that..." In your country these advertisements are very prominent, holding both ways, wine advertisement, cigarette advertisement, naked woman advertisements, and sometimes gambling also, advertisement. What is that? Congo?

Devotees: Bingo.

Prabhupada: Bingo. (laughter) Yes. So this is maya. And our declaration of war with maya--no intoxication, no meat-eating, no bingo--(laughter) these are our declaration of war. So we have to fight in that way because nobody can understand Krsna without being free from all sinful activities. These are sinful activities. Therefore it is acarya's business to stop these nonsense activities. Otherwise they'll not be able to understand, especially the meat- eaters. They cannot understand.

680817VP.MON Lectures
Now, this spiritual master's succession is not very difficult. Of course, my students, they offer me so much respect, but all these respects are due to my spiritual master. I am nothing. I am just like peon. Just like peon delivers one letter. He is not responsible for what is written in that letter. He is not responsible for what is written in that letter. He simply delivers. But a peon's duty is that he must sincerely carry out the order of the postmaster and deliver the letter to the proper person. That is their duty. Similarly, this parampara system is like that. Every one of us should become a spiritual master because the world is in blazing fire. So to understand the spiritual master... Spiritual master is not a new invention. It is simply following the orders of the spiritual master. So all my students present here who are feeling so much obliged... I am also obliged to them because they are helping me in this missionary work. At the same time, I shall request them all to become spiritual master. Every one of you should be spiritual master next. And what is their duty? Whatever you are hearing from me, whatever you are learning from me, you have to distribute the same in toto without any addition or alteration. Then all of you become the spiritual master. That is the science of becoming spiritual master. Spiritual master is not any... To become a spiritual master is not very wonderful thing. Simply one has to become sincere soul. That's all. Evam parampara-praptam imam rajarsayo viduh. In the Bhagavad-gita it is said that "By disciplic succession this yoga process of Bhagavad-gita was handed down from disciple to disciple. But in course of time that disciplic succession is now lost. Therefore, Arjuna, I am teaching you again the same philosophy."

So this is the process. Simply if we... Therefore Vedic knowledge is called sruti. One has to hear it properly, assimilate it, and then practice it in life and preach the same thing. Then everyone becomes spiritual master. Caitanya Mahaprabhu says, amara ajnaya guru hana tara 'sarva-desa: "O My dear disciples, I tell you that you, all of you, become spiritual master. Simply you carry out My order. That's all." "And what is Your order?" "The order is the same: yare dekha, tare kaha 'krsna'-upadesa. Just like Krsna gave instruction in the Bhagavad-gita, and if you simply place the instruction received from Bhagavad- gita as it is..." I am publishing Bhagavad-gita As It Is because in the market there were so many Bhagavad-gita misinterpreted, but that is not the process of presenting Bhagavad-gita. Bhagavad-gita should be presented as it is. In the Bhagavad-gita it is simply said that Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. But most books which you have seen in English lang..., they are trying to make minus Krsna. That is their attempt. So what sort of Bhagavad-gita is that? That should not be done. Krsna is the Supreme. You should speak that Krsna is the Supreme. That is the preaching of Bhagavad-gita.

760316IN.MAY Lectures
Anywhere, either you are in this district or that district, it doesn't matter. Either you are at home or outside home, it doesn't matter. You become a guru. Everyone. "How shall I become guru? I have no qualification." Caitanya Mahaprabhu said, "You don't require any qualification. You simply require one qualification, that you repeat the instruction of Bhagavad-gita. That's all." Yare dekha tare kaha krsna-upadesa. That's all. You become a guru. Don't adulterate Krsna-upadesa like a rascal or nonsense. Present it as it is, Bhagavad-gita. Then you become a guru. You can become a guru in your family. You can guru your society, your nation, wherever you are. And if it is possible, you go outside and preach this mission of Bhagavad-gita. Therefore our movement's name is Krsna consciousness. Whatever Krsna says, you accept and preach. You become guru.

690410SB.NY Lectures
So every one of us, those who have come to this Krsna consciousness movement, expected to preach in the future and to become a spiritual master also in the future. But first of all you must spiritualize yourself; otherwise it is useless. So krsna-sakti vina nahe. Without... Just like without being red hot, you cannot burn any other thing. Similarly, without being fully spiritualized, you cannot make others spiritualized. Therefore we have to follow the parampara system. The disciplic succession, as we get the knowledge, as we get the power, as we get the instruction, so we have to follow. That will help me to spiritualize myself. And when you are spiritualized... You'll have to wait for that time. Then, wherever you will preach, the result will be there.

TLC 18 The Conversations with Prakasananda
Generally a human being is interested in religion, economic development, sense gratification and liberation, but love of God is above all these. A bona fide spiritual master chants the holy names-- Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare. Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare--and the transcendental sound vibration enters into the ear of the disciple, and if a disciple follows in the footsteps of his spiritual master and chants the holy name with similar respect, he actually comes to worship the transcendental name. When the transcendental name is worshiped by the devotee, the name Himself spreads His glories within the heart of a devotee. When a devotee is perfectly qualified in chanting the transcendental vibration of the holy name, he is quite fit to become a spiritual master and to deliver all the people of the world. The chanting of the holy name is so powerful that it gradually establishes its supremacy above everything in the world. The devotee who chants it becomes transcendentally situated in ecstasy and sometimes laughs, cries and dances in his ecstasy. Sometimes the unintelligent put hindrances in the path of chanting this maha-mantra, but one who is situated on the platform of love of Godhead chants the holy name loudly for all concerned. As a result, everyone becomes initiated in the chanting of the holy names--Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare. Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. By chanting and hearing the holy names of Krsna, a person can remember the forms and qualities of Krsna.

SB 4.18.5 P Prthu Maharaja Milks the Earth Planet
At the present moment it has become fashionable to disobey the unimpeachable directions given by the acaryas and liberated souls of the past. 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. Lord Caitanya therefore says: "By My order you may become a spiritual master." One can immediately become a spiritual master by having full faith in the transcendental words of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and by following His instructions. Materialistic men are not interested in taking directions from a liberated person, but they are very much interested in their own concocted ideas, which make them repeatedly fail in their attempts. Because the entire world is now following the imperfect directions of conditioned souls, humanity is completely bewildered.

SB 4.29.51 Talks Between Narada and King Pracinabarhi
One who is engaged in devotional service has not the least fear in material existence. This is because the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the Supersoul and friend of everyone. One who knows this secret is actually educated, and one thus educated can become the spiritual master of the world. One who is an actually bona fide spiritual master, representative of Krsna, is not different from Krsna.

Madhya 8.128 Talks Between Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Ramananda Raya
It is stated in the Hari-bhakti-vilasa that one should not accept initiation from a person who is not in the brahminical order if there is a fit person in the brahminical order present. This instruction is meant for those who are overly dependent on the mundane social order and is suitable for those who want to remain in mundane life. If one understands the truth of Krsna consciousness and seriously desires to attain transcendental knowledge for the perfection of life, he can accept a spiritual master from any social status, provided the spiritual master is fully conversant with the science of Krsna. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura also states that although one is situated as a brahmana, ksatriya, vaisya, sudra, brahmacari, vanaprastha, grhastha or sannyasi, if he is conversant in the science of Krsna he can become a spiritual master as vartma-pradarsaka-guru, diksa-guru or siksa-guru. The spiritual master who first gives information about spiritual life is called the vartma-pradarsaka-guru, the spiritual master who initiates according to the regulations of the sastras is called the diksa-guru, and the spiritual master who gives instructions for elevation is called the siksa-guru. Factually the qualifications of a spiritual master depend on his knowledge of the science of Krsna. It does not matter whether he is a brahmana, ksatriya, sannyasi or sudra. This injunction given by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu is not at all against the injunctions of the sastras.

NoD 3 Eligibility of the Candidate for Accepting Devotional Service
Devotees may be divided into three classes. The devotee in the first or uppermost class is described as follows. He is very expert in the study of relevant scriptures, and he is also expert in putting forward arguments in terms of those scriptures. He can very nicely present conclusions with perfect discretion and can consider the ways of devotional service in a decisive way. He understands perfectly that the ultimate goal of life is to attain to the transcendental loving service of Krsna, and he knows that Krsna is the only object of worship and love. This first-class devotee is one who has strictly followed the rules and regulations under the training of a bona fide spiritual master and has sincerely obeyed him in accord with revealed scriptures. Thus, being fully trained to preach and become a spiritual master himself, he is considered first class. The first-class devotee never deviates from the principles of higher authority, and he attains firm faith in the scriptures by understanding with all reason and arguments. When we speak of arguments and reason, it means arguments and reason on the basis of revealed scriptures. The first-class devotee is not interested in dry speculative methods meant for wasting time. In other words, one who has attained a mature determination in the matter of devotional service can be accepted as the first-class devotee.

690509BG.COL Lectures
This is our business, just like a post peon's business is to deliver the envelope as it is. And if there is good news, it is for you. If it is bad news, it is for you. But the peon's business is to deliver as it is. Similarly, our business is to present Krsna's message as it is. Then you become spiritual master. Spiritual master does not become grown just like tree. No. It is carrying the message from higher authorities as it is stated. "I told this message," Krsna says, "to Vivasvan, the sun-god. He told to his son Manu. Manu told to his son Iksvaku. In this way this is coming down. Now it is broken. Therefore I am saying unto you, Arjuna."

690509BG.COL Lectures
Lord Caitanya says that "Every one of you become the spiritual master, every one of you. Why one, two? Every one of you." "Oh, spiritual master is very difficult job." No. No difficult job. Caitanya Maha... Amara ajnaya: "Just try to carry out My order. That's all. Then you become spiritual master." And if you interpolate, if you put something nonsense, rubbish, to show your so- called rascal's education, then it is spoiled. Immediately spoiled. And if you present as it is, then it is pure.

740404BG.BOM Lectures
This is Caitanya Mahaprabhu's mission. He says, "You become a spiritual master." "How? I have no qualification." "No. You just accept my order?" "So what is your order, sir?" Yare dekha, tare kaha 'krsna'-upadesa: "You simply speak the instruction of Krsna whoever you meet. Then you become a spiritual master."

740404BG.BOM Lectures
So actually it is happening. We are not wonderful men. But our only business is that we are speaking only the same thing as Krsna has spoken. That's all. There is no magic. This is the magic. If you adulterate nonsensically like a rascal, then you cannot become a spiritual master. If you simply follow what Krsna has spoken, then you become spiritual master. Very simple thing. It doesn't require education. You can hear from your spiritual master what has Krsna said.

761216BG.HYD Lectures
First of all make yourself perfect. You can make yourself perfect because in the Bharatavarsa there are this Bhagavad-gita, Srimad- Bhagavatam, Vedic literature. Just study them. And therefore we are publishing so many books on the basis of Bhagavad-gita and Srimad- Bhagavatam and people are appreciating very much all over the world. So it is the duty of every Indian to make his life perfect by understanding Bhagavad-gita at least, and spread the message. That is Caitanya Mahaprabhu's mission. Yare dekha tare kaha krsna- upadesa. Every one of you can become a guru. He says that. Amara ajnaya guru hana tara' ei desa. Wherever you are, you can deliver the persons, surrounding persons in your neighborhood. "How can I become guru? I have no qualification." No. There is no need of qualification. Simply repeat. Yare dekha tare kaha krsna-upadesa. Very simple thing. Anyone you meet, "My dear friend, just hear little." "What is that?" "Now, Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. You kindly think of Krsna. Just offer your obeisances to Krsna, just become a bhakta and chant His holy name." Bas. Your guru duty is finished. So it is not very difficult task. Anyone can do this. And then everyone will be benefited. And that is Krsna consciousness movement. Thank you very much. (end)

670324SB.SF Lectures
These two krsna-katha--you have nothing to manufacture. You haven't got to tax your brain by meditation, by speculation. Everything is there. You have simply to place, submit, "Here is krsna-katha. Here is Bhagavad-gita and here is Bhagavata. Just please hear." That is your business. You need not become a very learned speculator. Just like there are so many books simply full of speculation. You haven't got to do that. Caitanya Mahaprabhu is giving very simple formula. Yare dekha tare kaha 'krsna'-upadesa. Krsna-upadesa means instruction of Krsna--instruction given by Krsna or instructions spoken about Lord Krsna. If you do this then you become a spiritual master.

670324SB.SF Lectures
Now this mentality for hearing krsna-katha, how it is developed? That is also susrusoh. You must be very sincere, susrusoh. And you must be inquisitive to hear. Susrusoh. One who is very eager to hear, he can become, in future, the spiritual master. Susrusoh sraddadhanasya, with faith. Vasudeva-katha-rucih. Ruci means taste and vasudeva-katha means Krsna, the topics of Krsna.

731228SB.LA Lectures
And the very simple thing is that ya idam guhyam mad-bhaktesv abhidhasyati. This confidential service, preaching of Bhagavad- gita... What is that? Bhagavad-gita preaching essence: sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekam saranam vraja. Simply go and preach. This very thing. Krsna says, man-mana bhava mad-bhakto mad-yaji mam namaskuru. This is Krsna's desire. Preach to the world, "Just be Krsna conscious." Man-manah. "Just become Krsna's devotee." Man-mana bhava mad-bhakto mad-yaji. "Just worship Krsna." Mad-yaji mam... "Just offer your obeisances to Krsna." Four words. Then you become a preacher. It is not very difficult to become a preacher and to become a spiritual master. How? Very simple thing. Go and speak what Krsna says. That's all. You have nothing to manufacture, Dr. Frog. There is no need of manufacturing. We are very safe because we don't manufacture. We simply repeat, parrotlike, what Krsna has said. That's all, finished. Krsna says, sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekam saranam vraja: "Let aside everything. Just become My devotee, surrendered soul." So we are preaching that. We don't make compromise. Therefore all people are against me. Because "This man simply says, 'Krsna.' " But I cannot say anything more. That's all.

731108SB.DEL Lectures
So Krsna is describing Himself. Krsna-katha. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu's mission is therefore krsna-katha. Yare dekha tare kaha krsna-upadesa. Krsna-upadesa. Krsna-upadesa. This is the mission. What Krsna says, you just preach. You become spiritual master. That is not very difficult. Everyone can become spiritual master. Krsna's speaking is there in the Bhagavad-gita. You simply repeat what Krsna says. You become spiritual master. It is not very difficult. Krsna says, man-mana bhava mad-bhakto mad-yaji mam. You simply say that "You become devotee of Krsna." Where is the difficulty? No difficulty. Krsna says, man-mana bhaktah. You say, "You become Krsna's bhakta." Actually, we are doing that. We are not doing any miraculous thing. People say that "Swamiji, you have done miracles." But what miracles I have done? I am simply repeating Krsna's words. That's all. So everyone can do that. Everyone can take this matter very seriously. His life will be successful. He will make others successful. It is so nice thing.

720519SB.LA Lectures
That is Bhagavad-gita and Srimad-Bhagavatam. So every one of you follow the instruction, as you have received. Chant sixteen rounds regularly, without fail, and follow the regulative principles, and hear about Krsna, and preach about Krsna. Every one of you become a spiritual master. Simple thing. No education required. Because we are hearing about Krsna, so we can speak the same thing. What is the difficulty? If I hear from my spiritual master or from any learned man that "Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead," so if I say by hearing that "Krsna is Supreme Personality of Godhead," so I haven't got to search out whether Krsna is Personality of Godhead or not, but if I accept the authority, then I speak the real truth. This is our Krsna consciousness movement. Therefore sometimes, when people say in India, "Swamiji, you have done wonderful." And yes, I do not know. I'm not a magician. But, so far I am confident that I did not adulterated the words of Krsna.

741202SB.BOM Lectures
So our Krsna consciousness movement on this principle. We are speaking not anything manufactured by us. That is not our business. Because how we can manufacture? We are defective. We are deficient, imperfect. What is the use of my philosophy? What is the use of my thinking? Generally they say, "I think," "In my opinion." He does not think that "I am a rascal. I have no value of my opinion." He thinks that he is something very big. No. Because our senses are imperfect, whatever knowledge we have gathered by our sense speculation, that is imperfect. That cannot be perfect. Therefore we have discussed already, tattva amnayam. We have to receive knowledge from disciplic succession, tattva. Then we will understand the truth. Tattvamnayam. This subject matter we have discussed already, amnayam, evam parampara, that we should not manufacture knowledge. We should take knowledge from the perfect. Just like here it is said, bhagavan uvaca. In the Bhagavad-gita also, bhagavan uvaca. If we follow this amnaya system, then we become guru.

741202SB.BOM Lectures
Guru means who follows the predecessor, authorized predecessor. He is guru. Not that everyone is guru. So therefore we have to follow the superior order. Then we become guru, not that by cheating others we become guru. No. That is cheater. That is not teacher. Guru means who is following the superior order. The superior order is Krsna or His representative. So Caitanya Mahaprabhu is Krsna. He is ordering, amara ajnaya, "By My order," guru hana, "you become guru." "Sir, it is very difficult to become guru. I have no education. I have no culture. I am not born in a very high family. I am very low." A devotee always thinks like that. He never thinks that "I have become very great man." Just like Caitanya-caritamrta, author of, he says, purisera kita haite muni se laghistha. Purisa, purisa means stool, and there are worms in the stool. So Caitanya- caritamrta author is saying that "I am lower than the worms in the stool." That is Vaisnava conception. Trnad api sunicena. He is very humble. He never says, "Oh, I am the Supreme. I have become God." A most rascal, foolish. So that is not... Therefore we have to follow. If we actually want to become guru, there is necessity of many thousands of gurus to teach this cheated public. But how to become guru? That is... Caitanya Mahaprabhu says, amara ajnaya: "By My order." "What is Your order, Sir?" Yare dekha, tare kaha 'krsna'- upadesa. Then you become guru. You simply advise people to follow Krsna's instruction. Then you become guru.

741211SB.BOM Lectures
This is Caitanya Mahaprabhu's advice. Yare dekha, tare kaha 'krsna'-upadesa. It is not very difficult. You haven't got to become very learned scholar to become guru. Guru's business is to give the right information. That is guru. So Caitanya Mahaprabhu says, amara ajnaya guru hana: "Every one of you become guru." "Oh, I am not a learned man," or "I am this, I am that, how can I become guru?" Caitanya Mahaprabhu said, "No, it is very easy thing."

yare dekha, tare kaha 'krsna'-upadesa
amara ajnaya guru hana tara' ei desa

Yare dekha, tare kaha 'krsna'-upadesa. "You become guru simply by advising everyone the instruction which Krsna has given." That's all. You become guru. It is not at all difficult thing. But if you want to cheat others that you are Bhagavan, you are this and that, you are yogi, you are very powerful, and "I am God," then you will cheat, because you are neither God. You are less than a dog. You are falsely claiming that you are God. That is not your position. You are servant of God, that is your position. That is real jnana. Therefore Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu says that don't talk all nonsense thing. Simply say the real thing.
And what is the real thing? That is explained by Krsna: sarva- dharman parityajya mam ekam saranam vraja. You take this mission, "My dear sir, you give up everything nonsense. You simply surrender to Krsna." Then you become guru. Is it very difficult to become guru? No. But we shall not take this business. We shall talk all nonsense and become guru and incarnation and God and so on, so on, and cheat others and cheat oneself. This is going on. Otherwise, to become guru is not at all difficult. Simply you surrender yourself to Krsna. You become abhayam sattva-suddhih. You become fearless, "Yes, I am now under the protection of Krsna. I have no more fear. I don't care for anyone. I simply take to Krsna." Akuto- bhayam. Akuto-bhayam. This is said by Kapiladeva also, all sastra says like that, and Krsna also says the same thing in the Bhagavad- gita. Bhaktya mam abhijanati: "If you want to know Me, then it is through bhakti, not your so-called jnana and karma and yoga." You will never be able to understand. You will never be able to understand. Naham prakasah sarvasya yoga-maya. You will be simply covered by yoga-maya. This is not possible. Bhakti means surrender.

750706SB.CHI Lectures
So this is gentleman; this is educated, culture. So this man, Ajamila, as soon as he became fallen down from the sadacara, gentleman's behavior, the next stage is this, bandy-aksaih kaitavais cauryaih. One must earn his livelihood. But he has fallen down to the sixth grade. First, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, or lower than that, everyone must have his means of livelihood. So what is the means of livelihood of the first-class man? That is said, pathana-pathana yajana-yajana dana-pratigraha. First-class man means brahminical class. Their occupational duty is first of all he must become a very learned scholar in the Vedic literature. Veda-pathad bhaved viprah. He must become a learned scholar. And after becoming a scholar, it is not that that he will enjoy himself the knowledge. No. He will distribute the knowledge. This is one, that first-class man, or the brahmana, first of all he must become a learned scholar... If he is not scholar, what he will, nonsense he will teach? So the first position is that he must become a learned scholar. And the next business is to teach others, to make disciple. Formerly even fifty year or sixty years ago in India a brahmana would not accept anyone's service. Because whatever he has knowledge, he would sit down anywhere, underneath a tree or in the corridor of somebody, and he will invite the village small children, and they will go, and he will teach little grammar, little mathematics, gradually. And the children will bring from their father and mother. Somebody will bring rice. Somebody will bring dal. Somebody will bring something. So he had no necessity of making any contract, that "You give me so many dollars. Then I shall teach you." No. Free. Free education. In this way India was free education. So pathana-pathana yajana-yajana.

750328CC.MAY Lectures
The so-called scholars and politicians, they misinterpret in a different way and mislead the people. That is going on. Therefore, in spite of Bhagavad-gita being read all over the world for the last two hundred years, not a single person became a devotee of Krsna. This is the defect. So let us try to understand Krsna through Caitanya Mahaprabhu, and as we have repeatedly said, that "Through Caitanya Mahaprabhu you understand Krsna and spread this cult all over the world." People are suffering for want of knowledge of Krsna. So this movement especially meant to establish the cult of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. The cult of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu is that you become, every one of you, you become a guru. How to become guru? Now, yare dekha, tare kaha 'krsna'-upadesa. Simply that qualification is sufficient. Don't adulterate the 'krsna'-upadesa. You simply present what Krsna says as it is. Then every one of you will become a guru. Don't adulterate--"I think," "In my opinion." These nonsense things should be given up. We should always be aware that we are insignificant creature. Our opinion and thinking has no value. This should be the first principle. Why should you give opinion on the words of Krsna? Are you more authoritative person than Krsna? This is foolishness, to try to become more than Krsna. There are so many rascals. They present that "Now we have advanced. We know more than Krsna." So be saved from these rascals. Then you will understand Krsna, and through Caitanya Mahaprabhu you will understand what is the position of Krsna, what is your relationship with Krsna, what is the ultimate goal of life. These things will be clearly exhibited.

730822VP.LON Lectures
Everything is there. Satam prasangan. From a bona fide spiritual master you receive knowledge, because he will present as he has received from his spiritual master. He'll not adulterate or manufacture something. That is the bona fide spiritual master. And that is very easy. To become spiritual master is not very difficult thing. You'll have to become spiritual master. You, all my disciples, everyone should become spiritual master. It is not difficult. It is difficult when you manufacture something. But if you simply present whatever you have heard from your spiritual master, it is very easy. If you want to become overintelligent, to present something, to interpret something, whatever over you have heard from spiritual master you can make some further addition, alteration, then you'll spoil whole thing. Then you'll spoil whole thing. Don't make addition or alteration. Simply present as it is. Therefore, we have begun Bhagavad-gita As It Is. Don't try to become over spiritual master. Then you'll spoil. Remain always a servant of your spiritual master and present the thing as you have heard. You'll be spiritual master. This is secret. You should know it. Don't try to become overintelligent. That will spoil. Evam parampara praptam imam rajarsayo viduh. This is the... So (child talking) you can stop.(?)

730822VP.LON Lectures
So, simply by accepting this principle, and even if you are not learned, illiterate, you are hearing so much from Bhagavad-gita, you simply repeat that. Simply repeat that. There is no question of becoming very learned scholar. God has given you this ear. Even if you are blind, you cannot read, you can hear. So Krsna upadesa, what is Krsna...? This is 'krsna'-upadesa. And at last, Krsna says, sarva- dharman parityajya mam ekam saranam vraja. So if you simply preach this cult, "My dear friend, my dear brother, you surrender to Krsna," you become spiritual master. You become spiritual master. You go door to door. No other talks. Simply say, "My dear friend, you are very nice, you are very learned." That was adopted by Prabodhananda Sarasvati.

dante nidhaya trnakam padayor nipatya
kaku-satam krtva caham bravimi
he sadhavah sakalam eva vihaya durad
caitanya-candra-carane kurutanuragam

The meaning is the preaching, very easy. Dante nidhaya trnakam. According to Indian system, if you put a grass on your mouth, it is a sign of that you have become very humble. If you approach a person with a grass in your mouth, he'll immediately know that you are coming there with very, very great humbleness. Therefore dante nidhaya. This was the system. Dante nidhaya trnakam, and touching his feet. Immediately, touch his feet. Immediately, even if he's enemy, he'll be a friend. Even if he's your enemy, it is so nice process. Take a grass on your mouth and immediately fall on his feet, padayor nipetya, and with folded hands, much flattering. Dante nidhaya trnakam padayor nipatya kaku- satam krtva ca. All flattering words. Aham bravimi. So immediately he will agree, "Yes, what you say I'll hear. I'll hear." Immediately, convert to hear you at least. Just see how perfect process is. "Then what is your purpose, sir? Why you are becoming so humble, meek? And now say." "Yes sir, I'll say." What is that? He sadhavah, "You are a great sadhu." Although he may be rascal number one. Still, you call him, he sadhavah. "Yes, I am sadhu, yes. What is your proposal?" "Now kindly forget all nonsense, whatever you have learned. That's all. I am flattering you because I want that you forget everything, all these yogis and this and that and that and meditation. Please kick out all these." "Then what I have to do?" "Caitanya-candra-carane kurutanuragam. Just adhere yourself to the lotus feet of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Then you become spiritual master. That's all."
730822VP.LON Lectures
So I hope that all of you, men, women, boys and girls, become spiritual master, and follow this principle. Spiritual master, simply, sincerely, follow the principles and speak to the general public. Then Krsna immediately becomes your favorite. Krsna does not become your favorite; you become Krsna's favorite. Krsna says in the Bhagavad-gita, na ca tasmad manusyesu kascin me priya-krttamah: "One who is doing this humble service of preaching work, Krsna consciousness, nobody is dearer than him to Me." So if you want to become recognized by Krsna very quickly, you take up this process of becoming spiritual master, present the Bhagavad-gita as it is. Your life is perfect.

760819VP.HYD Lectures
So Krsna says that acaryam mam vijaniyan: "You accept acarya as I am." Why? I see that he is a man. His sons call him father, or he looks like a man, so why he should be as good as God? Because he speaks as God speaks, that's all. Therefore. He does not make any change. Just like God says, Krsna says, sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekam saranam vraja. The guru says that you surrender to Krsna or God. The same word. God says man-mana bhava mad-bhakto mad-yaji mam namaskuru. Guru says that you always think of Krsna, you surrender unto Him, you offer Him prayer, you become His devotee. There is no change. Because he says as the Supreme Personality says, therefore he is guru. Even though you see that he is materially born, his behavior is like other men. But because he says the same truth as it is spoken in the Vedas or by the Personality of Godhead, therefore he is guru. Because he does not make any change whimsically, therefore he is guru. That is the definition. It is very simple. Caitanya Mahaprabhu has asked everyone to become guru. Everyone. Because there is need of guru. The world is full of rascals, therefore there is need of so many gurus to teach them. But what is that qualification of the guru? How everyone can become guru? This may be the question, next question. Because Caitanya Mahaprabhu says, amara ajnaya guru hana tara ei desa. Ei desa means wherever you are living you become a guru and deliver them. Suppose you are living in a small neighborhood, you can become a guru of that neighborhood and deliver them. "How it is possible? I have no education, I have no knowledge. How I can become guru and deliver them?" Caitanya Mahaprabhu said it is not at all difficult. Yare dekha tare kaha 'krsna'-upadesa. This is your qualification. If you simply deliver the message given by Krsna you become guru. Krsna said, sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekam saranam vraja. You preach, you request everyone, "Sir, you surrender to Krsna." You become guru. Very simple thing. Krsna said, man-mana bhava mad-bhakto mad- yaji mam namaskuru. You say that "You become a devotee of Krsna, you offer obeisances. Here is a temple; here is Krsna. Please come here. You offer your obeisances, and if you can you offer patram puspam phalam toyam. You don't offer... But it is very simple thing. Anyone can secure a little flower, a little fruit, a little water. It is not at all difficult."

710716LE.DET Lectures
He says that "Under My order, you become a spiritual master." To become a spiritual master under the order of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu is not very difficult. Unless we adulterate, mix in something nonsense in His teachings, if we simply present, as it is, then every one of us can become a spiritual master. But the difficulty is that they mix up something. Just like you have tasted sweet rice, paramanna. And if somebody mixes some sand with it... The paramanna is very good, but because it is mixed with some sand particles it is spoiled. You cannot take. This is practical. Similarly, the teachings of Caitanya Mahaprabhu, teachings of Lord Krsna, is very simple. But the rascals put some sand particles. That is the difficulty. Spoils the broth, spoils the everything. "Krsna means this, and Pandava means this." Why "Pandava means this"? Why not as it is in the Bhagavad-g ita? So this process should be avoided, mixing sand with the sweet rice. This rascaldom should be avoided. Then you can, everyone can distribute nicely. So many people say, "Oh, Swamiji, you have done wonderful." So I say, the secret of my wonderful activities is that I have not tried to adulterate it. I am simply presenting as it is. In the Bhagavad-gita Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. So I have told you that Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Krsna says in the Bhagavad-gita, sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekam saranam vraja. I say that "You simply surrender unto Krsna." So what is the difficulty? Everything is there in the Bhagavad-gita, and I am simply reproducing it: "Do this." And it is acting. Because I am not adulterating the sweet rice with sand, people are tasting it very nice. So you also follow the same principle. Don't try to adulterate. Present it as it is. And people will like it. There is no difficulty.

751206LE.VRN Lectures
So you should always keep yourself fixed up in Krsna consciousness. It is not very difficult. Strictly follow the rules and regulation and chant Hare Krsna mantra as many times... For a sannyasi, you should increase. Then you will be fixed up. And go on preaching. Preaching is also not very difficult, because you haven't got to manufacture anything. Everything is there, and it is Caitanya Mahaprabhu's order. Caitanya Mahaprabhu also took sannyasa very early age, twenty-four years old only. So He has practically shown by His activities how to preach Krsna consciousness all over the world. And He gives order to everyone, amara ajnaya guru hana tara ei desa: "In whichever country you may live--it doesn't matter--try to deliver them by becoming their guru." The sannyasa is supposed to be guru of all other divisions, brahmana, ksatriya, vaisya, sudra, brahmacari, grhastha, vanaprastha. Sannyasa is the topmost stage. So if you become guru, teacher, remembering the order of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, then you will never fall down. He will save you. And how one becomes guru? That is also very easy. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu says, yare dekha tare kaha krsna upadesa. You haven't got to manufacture anything. Simply you try to repeat the instruction of Bhagavad-gita, krsna upadesa. Not only Bhagavad-gita; there are many other instructions. Especially Bhagavad-gita. So if you simply carry the message of Bhagavad-gita, then you become guru. Don't manufacture anything. Then it will be spoiled. Simply stick primarily... Man-mana bhava mad-bhakto mad-yaji mam namaskuru. You can, everyone can, say this. Krsna says that "You always think of Me." So you can repeat only. You can say to others, "My dear sir, please think of Krsna." It doesn't require very much education. Simply just like a peon carry the message: "Sir, you always think of Krsna." Man-mana. Then you become guru. If you follow it strictly-- you also think of Krsna yourself, and you teach others, "My dear sir, my only request is that you think of Krsna"--nobody will kill you. Everyone will... If he doesn't follow, he will appreciate you: "Oh, these sannyasis are very nice. They are advising to think of Krsna." Then you become guru. Simple thing. Man-mana bhava mad- bhaktah. And anyone who thinks of Krsna, gradually he becomes a devotee of Krsna. Man-mana bhava mad-bhakto mad-yaji: "You worship Me." Here is the temple, and anyone can worship Krsna, and Krsna is satisfied simply with a little flower and little water. Patram puspam phalam toyam yo me bhaktya prayacchati. It is not expensive. Anyone can bring little flower, little fruit, little tulasi leaf, and offer to Krsna. Mam namaskuru. If you cannot do anything, simply offer your obeisances: "Krsna, I am so poor, I cannot even secure a little fruit, flower, and water." That is not possible. Everyone can secure this patram puspam phalam toyam and offer to Krsna and offer your obeisances.

751206LE.VRN Lectures
So you have to teach only these things. Where is the difficulty? You do it personally and teach them. Then you become guru. It doesn't require to learn big, big, I mean to say, grantha like Vedanta. This is not possible in this Kali-yuga. If possible, you can study Vedanta and other. But Caitanya Mahaprabhu has taught us... When Prakasananda Sarasvati inquired from Him that "You are a sannyasi. You are not studying Vedanta, and simply chanting Hare Krsna. What kind of sannyasi You are?"--this question was put by Prakasananda Sarasvati to Caitanya Mahaprabhu--Caitanya Mahaprabhu replied, "My dear sir, I am a great fool." Guru more murkha dekhi karila sasana: "My guru saw Me a great fool number one; therefore he has chastised Me." What is that? That " 'You cannot read Vedanta. You chant Hare Krsna.' So my Guru Maharaja has ordered Me like that. But by chanting only, I get ecstasy, I realize, like that." So the idea is Caitanya Mahaprabhu was not a murkha, fool. He is God Himself. And besides that, even in His lila, pastimes as human being, He was a great learned scholar. His name was Nimai Pandita. He was not ordinary. He's pandita. His education is proved when He explained atmarama sloka in sixty-four ways.

751217LE.BOM Lectures
So this attempt has been done by us individually, with teeny effort, but it is becoming successful. But if we take up seriously this movement, every one of us become completely aware of this movement and take this mission as Caitanya Mahaprabhu says, amara ajnaya guru hana tara ei desa: "Every one of you, you become a guru," by the order of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. So "I shall become guru? What shall I do? I do not know anything." No! You haven't got to know anything. You simply, yare dekha tare kaha krsna upadesa. You simply repeat the instruction of Bhagavad-gita. Whomever you meet, you try to convince him; then you are guru. So our mission is this, Caitanya Mahaprabhu's. We are trying to execute the order of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. We don't say anything else except what is described in the Bhagavad-gita. Bhagavad-gita says, Krsna says, man- mana bhava mad-bhakto mad-yaji mam namaskuru. Simple thing. It is not very difficult thing. Krsna says, "Always think of Me." Is it very difficult task? No. You chant Hare Krsna, you remember Krsna immediately. Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare. Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. So always remember Krsna, this is Krsna's instruction, man-mana, "Always think of Me," mad- bhakta, and naturally you become bhakta. As soon as you go on chanting Hare Krsna, just like these European and American boys, they have been instructed to chant Hare Krsna mantra... Don't think that I showed them any magic, how to manufacture gold, or how to become this or that. No. Simply I have asked them to chant Hare Krsna, and they have joined me because they have chanted Hare Krsna. Why? Ceto-darpana-marjanam. By chanting this Hare Krsna maha-mantra, the dirty things within the heart will be cleansed. They you will understand what is my position, what to do.

751225LE.SAN Lectures
You become guru. It is not very difficult. How? Now, because you have to simply repeat what Krsna has said. That's all. So Krsna says everything in the Bhagavad-gita. Man-mana bhava mad-bhakto mad-yaji mam namaskuru. These four things if you accept--to think of Krsna always, to become devotee of Krsna, to offer obeisances to Krsna and to worship Krsna--these four things if you do, you become Krsna conscious, a devotee of Krsna, and you can preach all over the world. It is not at all difficult. So if you become sincere, seriously Krsna conscious, then there will be no difficulty because Krsna says,

67-11-02.Mad Letter: Madhusudana
Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated 24th October 1967. Kirtanananda was awarded the position of a Sannyasi because he wanted it although I could understand it that he wanted to be a spiritual master himself. Lord Caitanya wanted every one should be a spiritual master provided he follows the order of Lord Caitanya. The Lord's mission was to defeat the Mayavada philosophy and establish in the philosophy of Krishna consciousness because Krishna is the Supreme Lord the Personality of Godhead. Anyone following the order of Lord Caitanya under the guidance of His bonafide representative, can become a spiritual master and I wish that in my absence all my disciples become the bonafide spiritual master to spread Krishna Consciousness throughout the whole world. I want it but Kirtanananda was too much puffed up and artificially he took up a certificate from me that he has been awarded the order to a Sannyasi, In the spiritual field nobody can become a bonafide spirtual master by dissatisfying his spiritual master. It is said that one can satisfy the Supreme Lord simpy by satisfying the spiritual master and one who dissatisfies the spiritual master has no place in the spiritual world. Kirtanananda wanted to become a spiritual master by dissatisfying his spiritual master and as such he has fallen down. He cannot say anything genuine any more till he has had revival of his pure consciousness in the spiritual world as mentioned above. Differentiation between spirit & matter is clear & practical experience, when a living creature is dead no amount of material advancement of science can bring back a dead body to life. The thing which is absent from a dead body is the spirit. As there is individual spirit in individual body, similarly there is the Great Spirit in the universal material form. As the individual spirit is working systematically within the individual material body, similarly, the Supreme Spirit is conscious of the universal body. The lord knows what is happening in each & every planet as much as an individual soul knows what is happening in each & every part of his body. Therefore, the individual consciousness which is limited, when dovetailed with the Supreme Consciousness of the Lord is called Krishna Consciousness. When I return some of you shall be offered Sacred Thread. I very much appreciate your version that Rayarama is roaring like a Lion-cub. I wish that every one of you should be Lion's descendant. Our Lord Krishna assumed the form of Lion & killed the atheist, Hiranyakasipu, & by disciplic succession we shall also kill all impersonalist atheist. Absolutely there is no Krishna Consciousness for the impersonalist. Hope you are well.

69-06-16.Vis Letter: Visala
Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated June 10, 1969, and I have noted the contents. I have not heard anything from you for some time so I am very pleased to receive your letter. you have asked three nice questions and I shall give you the answers herewith. Regarding your first question, what is the difference in full between the Spiritual Master, Krishna, and the devotee? The answer is that Krishna is the source of all energies of the spiritual and material creations, the devotee is the part and parcel servant of Krishna, and the Spiritual Master is the transparent via media for leading the conditioned souls back to home, back to Godhead. All living entities are the servants of Krishna, but the living entities who have fallen into this conditioned life are forgetful of their eternal relationship with the Lord. The role of the bona fide Spiritual Master is to lead the conditioned souls out of forgetfulness and back into pure consciousness of serving the Lord in transcendental loving service. In material consciousness one is identifying himself with his particular body, and he is forgetting that he is spirit soul, servant of Krishna. Then by the association and instructions of the purified servants of Krishna, the living entity gradually comes to remember that I am not part of this miserable material world, but I too am the eternal servant of Krishna, and my only business is to give pleasure to the Lord in pure Krishna Consciousness. In this way, such devotee becomes himself eligible to lead other back to the path of devotional service and thus he too may become a Spiritual Master. This process is called parampara, or the line of disciplic succession.

70-03-17.Sur Letter: Suridas
Your combination with your good wife, Jotilla, is very good, and now with greater enthusiasm execute Krishna activities as I have advised Gurudasa also. We must be fully equipped, and the preaching work by pairs of husband and wife will be an unique example to the world. Formerly the Acaryas were generally all Sannyasis, but Lord Caitanya, in His instruction to Roy Ramananda, who was a confidential devotee of Lord Caitanya, but a householder and responsible government official, Governor of Madras, has given open instruction that it does not matter what is the social or ecclesiastical order, if one is fully in Krishna Consciousness, he can act as Acarya. So all you boys and girls who are now married, follow this instruction of Lord Caitanya, and show vivid example to the world how man and woman can be united, not for sense gratification but for the service of the Lord.

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Charles Darwin stood on a very slippery slope when trying to explain how something as biologically and biochemically complex as even the simplest form of life could have spontaneously generated itself from organic molecules and compounds loose in the early Earth's environment. Because that part of Darwin's theory has always been glaringly specious, moden Darwinists get hammered about it from all sides, including from the likes of me, with a net result that the edifice of "authority" they've hidden behind for 140 years is crumbling under the assault. - Lloyd Pye (12-07-02)

LIFE, OR SOMETHING LIKE IT

In Charles Darwin's time, nothing was known about life at the cellular level. Protoplasm was the smallest unit they understood. Yet Darwin's theory of natural selection stated that all of life--every living entity known then or to be discovered in the future--simply had to function from birth to death by "natural laws" that could be defined and analysed. This would of course include the origin of life. Darwin suggested life might have gradually assembled itself from stray parts lying about in some "warm pond" when the planet had cooled enough to make such an assemblage possible. Later it was realised that nothing would likely have taken shape (gradually or otherwise) in a static environment, so a catalytic element was added: lightning.

Throughout history up to the present moment, scientists have been forced to spend their working lives with the "God" of the Creationists hovering over every move they make, every mistake, every error in judgment, every personal peccadillo. So when faced with something they can't explain in rational terms, the only alternative option is "God did it", which for them is unacceptable. So they're forced by relentless Creationist pressure to come up with answers for absolutely everything that, no matter how absurd, are "natural". That was their motivation for the theory that a lightning bolt could strike countless random molecules in a warm pond and somehow transform them into the first living creature. The "natural" forces of biology, chemistry and electromagnetism could magically be swirled together--and voilla!... an event suspiciously close to a miracle.

Needless to say, no Darwinist would accept terms like "magic" or "miracle", which would be tantamount to agreeing with the Creationist argument that "God did it all". But in their heart-of-hearts, even the most fanatical Darwinists had to suspect the "warm pond" theory was absurd.

And as more and more was learned about the mind-boggling complexity of cellular structure and chemistry, there could be no doubt. The trenchant Fred Hoyle analogy still stands: it was as likely to be true as that a tornado could sweep through a junkyard and correctly assemble a jetliner.

Unfortunately, the "warm pond" had become a counterbalance to "God did it", so even when Darwinists knew past doubt that it was wrong, they clung to it, outwardly proclaimed it and taught it. In many places in the world, including the USA, it's still taught.

TOO HOT TO HANDLE

The next jarring bump on the Darwinist road to embattlement came when they learned that in certain places around the globe there existed remnants of what had to be the very first pieces of the Earth's crust. Those most ancient slabs of rock are called cratons, and the story of their survival for 4.0 billion [4,000,000,000] years is a miracle in itself. But what is most miraculous about them is that they contain fossils of "primitive" bacteria! Yes, bacteria, preserved in 4.0-billion-year-old cratonal rock. If that's not primitive, what is? However, it presented Darwinists with an embarrassing conundrum.

If Earth began to coalesce out of the solar system's primordial cloud of dust and gas around 4.5 billion years ago (which by then was a well supported certainty), then at 4.0 billion years ago the proto-planet was still a seething ball of cooling magma. No warm ponds would appear on Earth for at least a billion years or more. So how to reconcile reality with the warm-pond fantasy?

There was no way to reconcile it, so it was ignored by all but the specialists who had to work with it on a daily basis. Every other Darwinist assumed a position as one of the "see no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil" monkeys. To say they "withheld" the new, damaging information is not true; to say it was never emphasised in the popular media for public consumption is true.

That has become the way Darwinists handle any and all challenges to their pet theories: if they can no longer defend one, they don't talk about it, or they talk about it as little as possible. If forced to talk about it, they invariably try to "kill the messenger" by challenging any critic's "credentials". If the critic lacks academic credentials equal to their own, he or she is dismissed as little more than a crackpot. If the critic has equal credentials, he or she is labelled as a "closet Creationist" and dismissed. No career scientist can speak openly and vociferously against Darwinist dogma without paying a heavy price. That is why and how people of normally good conscience can be and have been "kept in line" and kept silent in the face of egregious distortions of truth.

If that system of merciless censure weren't so solidly in place, then surely the next Darwinist stumble would have made headlines around the world as the final and absolute end to the ridiculous notion that life could possibly have assembled itself "naturally". They couldn't even be sure it happened on Earth.

TWO FOR THE PRICE OF ONE

The imposing edifice of Darwinian "origin of life" dogma rested on a piece of incontrovertible bedrock: there could be only one progenitor for all of life. When the fortuitous lightning bolt struck the ideally concocted warm pond, it created only one entity. However, it was no ordinary entity. With it came the multiple ability to take nourishment from its environment, create energy from that nourishment, expel waste created by the use of that energy and (almost as an afterthought) reproduce itself ad infinitum until one of its millions of subsequent generations sits here at this moment reading these words. Nothing miraculous about that; simply incalculable good fortune.

This was Darwinist gospel--preached and believed--until the bacteria fossils were found in the cratons. Their discovery was upsetting, but not a deathblow to the Darwinist theory. They had to concede (among themselves, of course) that the first life-form didn't assemble itself in a warm pond, but it came together somehow because every ancient fossil it spawned was a single-celled bacteria lacking a cell nucleus (prokaryotes). Prokaryotes preceded the much later single-celled bacteria with a nucleus (eukaryotes), so the post-craton situation stayed well within the Darwinian framework. No matter how the first life-form came into existence, it was a single unit lacking a cell nucleus, which was mandatory because even the simplest nucleus would be much too "irreducibly complex" (a favourite Intelligent Design phrase) to be created by a lightning bolt tearing through a warm pond's molecular junkyard. So the Darwinists still held half a loaf.

In the mid-1980's, however, biologist Carl Woese stunned his colleagues with a shattering discovery. There wasn't just the predicted (and essential) single source for all forms of life; there were two: two types of prokaryotic bacteria as distinct as apples and oranges, dogs and cats, horses and cows... Two distinct forms of life, alive and well on the planet at 4.0 billion years ago. Unmistakable. Irrefutable. Get over it. Deal with it.

But how? How to explain separate forms of life springing into existence in an environment that would make hell seem like a summer resort? With nothing but cooling lava as far as an incipient eye might have seen, how could it be explained in "natural" terms? Indeed, how could it be explained in any terms other than the totally unacceptable? Life, with all its deepening mystery, had to have been seeded onto Earth.

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(Lord Nityananda and Lord Caitanya)
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Manah-siksa
Teachings to the Mind
by Narottama dasa Thakura
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Purport
by His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
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This is a very nice song sung by Narottama dasa Thakura. He advises that nitai-pada, the lotus feet of Lord Nityananda (kamala means "lotus," and pada means "feet"), are a shelter where one will get the soothing moonlight not only of one, but of millions of moons. We can just imagine the aggregate total value of the soothing shine of millions of moons. In this material world (jagat), which is progressing toward hell, there is always a blazing fire, and everyone is struggling hard without finding peace; therefore, if the world wants to have real peace, it should take shelter under the lotus feet of Lord Nityananda, which are cooling like the shining of a million moons. Juraya means "relief." If one actually wants relief from the struggle of existence and actually wants to extinguish the blazing fire of material pangs, Narottama dasa Thakura advises, "Please take shelter of Lord Nityananda."

What will be the result of accepting the shelter of the lotus feet of Lord Nityananda? He says, heno nitai bine bhai: unless one takes shelter under the shade of the lotus feet of Lord Nityananda, radha-krsna paite nai -- it will be very difficult for him to approach Radha-Krsna. The aim of this Krsna consciousness movement is to enable us to approach Radha-Krsna and associate with the Supreme Lord in His sublime pleasure dance. Narottama dasa Thakura advises that if one actually wants to enter into the dancing party of Radha-Krsna, he must accept the shelter of the lotus feet of Lord Nityananda.

Then he says, se sambandha nahi. Sambandha means "connection" or "contact." Anyone who has not contacted a relationship with Nityananda is understood to have spoiled his human birth. In another song also, Narottama dasa says, hari hari bifale janama gonainu: anyone who does not approach Radha-Krsna through a relationship with Nityananda has uselessly spoiled his life. Brtha means "useless," janma means "life," ta'r means "his," and sambandha means "relationship." Anyone who does not make a relationship with Nityananda is simply spoiling the boon of his human form of life. Why is he spoiling it? Sei pasu boro duracar. Sei means "that," pasu means "animal," and duracar means "misbehaved" or "the most misbehaved." Without elevation to Krsna consciousness through the mercy of Lord Caitanya and Nityananda, life is simply spoiled in the animal propensities of sense gratification. Narottama dasa says that ordinary animals can be tamed, but when a human being is animalistic, having only animal propensities, he is most horrible, for he cannot be tamed. Ordinary cats and dogs or even a tiger can be tamed, but when a human being goes out of his way and neglects to take to the human activity of Krsna consciousness, his higher intelligence will simply be misused for animal propensities, and it is very difficult to tame him. The enactment of state laws cannot make a thief an honest man -- because his heart is polluted, he cannot be tamed. Every man sees that a person who commits criminal offenses is punished by the government, and also in scriptural injunctions punishment in hell is mentioned. But despite hearing from scripture and seeing the action of the state laws, the demoniac cannot be tamed.

What are they doing? Nitai na bolilo mukhe. Since they do not know who Nityananda is, they never say the names of Lord Nityananda and Lord Caitanya. Majilo samsara-sukhe. Majilo means "becomes absorbed." They become absorbed in so-called material enjoyment. They don't care who Lord Caitanya and Nityananda are, and therefore they go deep down into material existence. Vidya-kule ki koribe tar: if one has no connection with Nityananda, and if he does not come to Krsna consciousness, his vidya, or his so-called academic education, and kula, birth in a high family or great nation, will not protect him. Regardless of whether one is born in a very big family or nation or has a very advanced academic education, at the time of death nature's law will act, his work will be finished, and he will get another body according to that work.

Why are these human animals acting in this way? Ahankare matta hoiya, nitai-pada pasariya. They have become maddened by a false concept of bodily life, and thus they have forgotten their eternal relationship with Nityananda. Asatyere satya kori mani: such forgetful persons accept the illusory energy as factual. Asatyere refers to that which is not a fact, or, in other words, maya. Maya means that which has no existence but is a temporary illusion only. Persons who have no contact with Nityananda accept this illusory body as factual.

Narottama dasa Thakura then says, nitaiyer koruna habe, braje radha-krsna pabe: "If you actually want to approach the association of Radha-Krsna, you must achieve the mercy of Lord Nityananda first. When He is merciful toward you, then you will be able to approach Radha-Krsna." Dharo nitai-carana du'khani. Narottama dasa advises that one firmly catch the lotus feet of Lord Nityananda.

Then again he says, nitai-carana satya. One should not misunderstand and think that as he has caught hold of maya, similarly the lotus feet of Nityananda may also be something like that maya, or illusion. Therefore Narottama dasa confirms, nitai-carana satya: the lotus feet of Nityananda are not illusion; they are a fact. Tahara sevaka nitya: and one who engages in the transcendental loving service of Nityananda is also transcendental. If one engages in the transcendental loving service of Nityananda in Krsna consciousness, he immediately achieves his transcendental position on the spiritual platform, which is eternal and blissful. Therefore he advises, nitai-pada sada koro asa: always try to catch the lotus feet of Lord Nityananda.

Narottama boro dukhi. Narottama dasa Thakura, the acarya, is taking the position that he is very unhappy. Actually, he is representing ourselves. He says, "My dear Lord, I am very unhappy." Nitai more koro sukhi: "Therefore I am praying to Lord Nityananda to make me happy." Rakho ranga-caranera pasa: "Please keep me in a corner of Your lotus feet."