Questions & Answers With Srila Prabhupada
March 24, 2009 by srila-prabhupada
Filed under Letters, Preaching
Dear Swami Bhaktivedanta,
I’ve read that your Krishna Consciousness is a non-sectarian science of the soul. How is it, then, that you follow some particular concept of God- Krishna rather than a more universal concept, such as the One, or the All-Pervading Light?
Krishna and the Vedic View
[A Question and Answer with Sirla Prabhupada, published in Back to Godhead magazine, 1968]
Dear Swami Bhaktivedanta,
I’ve read that your Krishna Consciousness is a non-sectarian science of the soul. How is it, then, that you follow some particular concept of God- Krishna rather than a more universal concept, such as the One, or the All-Pervading Light? I like your movement very much, but I do feel this to be a clear contradiction in your philosophy. Yours truly,
Owen Darcy
My dear Mr. Darcy,
Thank you for your interest, and for your question also. I assure you that Krishna is not a concept: He is the Supreme, Original Person. Everything that exists is His energy, and He is the sole Energetic. He pervades His energy because He has complete and limitless control over it. All that exists, then, is of Him, from Him, possessed, pervaded and maintained by Him- therefore He is the One, All-Pervading, and the Resting Ground of the Universes. But He is more even than this. He is thus held to be an Individual: the Whole is more than the sum of the parts. This omnipotence is called the Lord’s simultaneously one and different Nature.
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Dear Swami,
I have always read that self-realization can only be attained by cutting oneself off from human society. Do you agree with this? Thank you,
Jereld Penne
Dear Mr. Penne,
No, I don’t agree. In India also this was long held to be true but my Spiritual Master, Sri Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati taught that one can use the implements of modern civilization for the service of the Lord, and thus attain to the highest perfection. This was his great contribution. In the Bhagavad Gita, as well, Lord Sri Krishna says that he who preaches the message of God to his fellow men is the most dear devotee (Chaps. XVIII, verse 68). One must, of course, be among one’s fellow men in order to do this.
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Dear Swami,
Is Krishna really Nirvana?
Thank you,
William Guttenroth
Dear Mr. Guttenroth,
Nirvana is the negation of material life; Krishna is the positive joy of spiritual existence.
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Dear Swami,
Your philosophy states that the soul or Self is eternal, and that God, the Supreme Self, is also eternal. If this is so, then how is God to be considered the Creator ?
Sincerely,
Mary Welch
Dear Miss Welch,
Creator means the Source, and creation means the emanation from that Source. The Creator and the creation are both eternal- but the creation depends upon the Creator, and not vice versa. It is like the sun and the sunlight. They are always together, but the sun is supreme and independent, while the sunlight is subordinate. Still, they are not separable, as we are eternally inseparable from God.
Ever your well-wisher,
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
Dear Swami
Where does one begin the first step?
How does one make that first step?
What does one do?
What books are recommended after reading the Bhagavad Gita- as it is?
We chant Hare Krishna,
now we want to do and learn more
Hare Krishna Andrew,
There are lots of books by Srila Prabhupada about continuing spiritual life by Krishna Consciousness. see Krishna.tv . But, the SOLE purpose of all these literature’s and rules and regulations, is to get you to chant Hare Krishna.
sincerely, Gadadhara das
I always wondered what the level in which one should be considered a devotee? But never got a satisfactory answer. The answer that I give is: One of the numberless krishna`s names is Hrisikesa “The One Who Control the senses.” So to be a devotee means be over the control of the senses, something that gives us knowledge. Channakya Pandit says: “There is no better feeling of happiness than the knowledge.” So be over the level of control of the senses means to have knowledge cit and Ananda blessedness.
These world is asat temporary and dukalayam full of distress, anityam asukham lokam.
Hare Krishna Gaurasundar Prabhu
A pure devotee sees that everyone is a devotee, he sees that everyone is serving Krishna except himself. And this is true. Everyone is playing their part in the plan of Krishna in one way or another.
These things you will know as you make more advancement in Krishna consciousness.
In the neophyte stage, kanistha adhikari, the devotee can not see who is a devotee and who is a nondevotee. In the madhyam stage he has advanced and then he can see the difference between the devotees, the innocent and the demons. This is the preaching platform. The preacher associates with devotees and preaches, gives mercy to the innocent and he avoids the envious demons. But, as I mentioned before, when the devotee comes to the paramahamsa stage he sees everyone serving Krishna…
It is not something I can explain really but something you will realize as a result of your surrender and service.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Q1. I don’t want to belief but want to know if there is such thing as God? Belief is not good enough!
Q2. If so why are we limiting it by saying “The Supreme Personality of God Head”, because that is limiting…..giving God “personality” is limiting if God is the supreme…..
I will ask more questions but for now i may stop here. thankyou kindly. God Bless
Dear Ronee
Yes. Two questions is enough at one time. Thank you for that.
In Krishna consciousness we do not “believe” in God. We know that Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In the beginning of course you may not know that Krishna is God, but the scientific process of Krishna consciousness is so nice that if you follow it carefully under the guidance of a bona fide spiritual master then it will not very long and you will also know that Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
I know this may sound a bit unreasonable to you and you may not be satisfied with this explanation. I have had so many experiences in the past 25 years of my life as a devotee of Krishna that prove to me beyond any doubt whatsoever that Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead and that Srila Prabhuapda is a pure devotee of Krishna. But it is something you have to experience by following the process of Krishna consciousness. Otherwise you will never know. The example given is you can not taste the sweetness of honey if you try to simply lick the outside of the bottle. To taste the honey you have to open the bottle. And to “open the bottle” of Krishna consciousness you have to surrender to Krishna and serve Him according to the directions of His pure devotee. There is no other way to understand this…
As far as your second point saying that God does not have personality would be limiting him. Then you would be saying that we have something that God doesn’t have. That is very limiting. Then you would say that God has no feelings, because feelings require personality, He has no ability to have relationships, because relationships require personality, so you would go on and on like this and ultimately conclude that God can not do anything, and we are so much greater than God because we can do all these things…. But you would be very wrong of course.
Even in the Bible it is clearly stated that we are made in the image of God. So whatever we have God has it also. The difference between God and us is that He is unlimited in every way and we are tiny and infinitesimal in every way. But in quality God and us, the living entities, are the same. Like the entire ocean and the drop of ocean water are the same in quality. If you analyze the drop you will find salt and if you analyze the entire ocean you will also find salt. But to say the salt in the drop is equal to the salt in the ocean would be a mistake. It is equal in quality but not in quantity. There is a very small amount of salt in the drop and a huge amount of salt in the ocean.
So it is with God and us. We are the same in quality, but in quantity God is unlimited and we are very tiny…
So God certainly has personality. Everything we see in this world is a perverted reflection of what is present in God and in the spiritual world. So our personality is a perverted reflection of God’s personality.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Dear Madhudvisa-dasa
I truly do appreciate your reply.
Madhudvisa-dasa says;
“The example given is you can not taste the sweetness of honey if you try to simply lick the outside of the bottle. To taste the honey you have to open the bottle. And to “open the bottle” of Krishna consciousness you have to surrender to Krishna and serve Him according to the directions of His pure devotee. There is no other way to understand this…”
Ronee replying;
Honey doesn’t take years to taste whereas knowing Krishna “GOD” do exist will take years? There is a difference which is that “honey” takes short time. You know “yes, tasted honey and now know how it taste like”, whereas to know “not Believe”, Krishna is a long process, till you “know” Krishna exist, we have to have a faith in Krishna being real?
As you said you “know Krishna is the Supreme”, very fortunate that you know! Have you seen Krishna or do you “believe”, you seen Krishna or is it that your mind creating the faith in Supreme Krishna?
Madhudvisa-dasa says;
“As far as your second point saying that God does not have personality would be limiting him. Then you would be saying that we have something that God doesn’t have. That is very limiting. Then you would say that God has no feelings, because feelings require personality, He has no ability to have relationships, because relationships require personality, so you would go on and on like this and ultimately conclude that God can not do anything, and we are so much greater than God because we can do all these things…. But you would be very wrong of course.”
Ronee replying;
A personality by its VERY NATURE IS LIMITED. A personality is always limited therefore giving something that is unlimited (God) a personality (limitation) will limit.
Isn’t God beyound action and doesn’t God do nothing but yet work through us!
In Bible it is my understanding that when they say we are made in the “image of God”, they are refering to our spiritual aspect NOT our personality/ego or body.
If he is unlimited then why are we giving him personality which is unlimiting?
God Bless
Ronee
There is one Vedic verse “Atmavan manyate jagat.” It means “what I am thinking, the whole world is thinking.” Generally people are like this. And you are feeling like this also. You are seeing that you are person and you feel limited in so many ways therefore you think that every person must be limited like you. But that is not the case. Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead and He is not limited in any way. You can not understand how this can be because when you think person you think limited person. But Krishna is a person and He is not limited.
Yes. I have seen Krishna. I do not believe in Krishna, I know Krishna. Not very well, but I do know Him well enough to be certain that He exists and that He is a person…
Chant Hare Krshna and be happy!
Dear Madhuvisa-dasa,
I replied to you but it doesn’t seem to be appearing?
Oh sorry, it is there! My mistake, apology
Very well answered “the 1st paragrapg” Madhuvisa-dasa,
Madhuvisa-dasa says;
Yes. I have seen Krishna. I do not believe in Krishna, I know Krishna. Not very well, but I do know Him well enough to be certain that He exists and that He is a person…
Ronee replying,
I call that a believe and so will any individual on the street!
Knowing Krishna well enough to be “certain”, is indeed is a believe! = Accept as true; take to be true.
The science of god is a science as any other. We are scientists dont sentimentality, that is our light in the darkness in order to achieve a higher light. Scientists claim that the propositions of the knowledge of God escapes any scientific treatment, but they are wrong. The Science of God is a science such as physics, chemistry or otherwise and is also based on experimentation and observation and its results are completely verifiable.
But science of God is a trascendental science and its experiments are of different nature, since they imply a greater difficulty of the ordinary science experiments, because while the material experiments are performed with external elements in the science of God the object of experimentation is one self and it is not easy to do with us what we commonly do with other elements in scientific experiments.
In a scientific experiment is taken the element in its natural and pure form and is isolated from everything else. Since nature does not always manifest things in a pure form and without mixing, before it is necessary to isolate the object of study. Once this has been done, certain changes take place in the element, to be observed carefully. Under different conditions, the item will react in different ways. That is how are discovered the laws governing the reactions of the element. The body of knowledge on these laws is called “science.”
The Science of God and of the conscious being is a question regarding the source of their consciousness. The being neither exists in pure form, as it is conditioned by its partnership with the body consisting of five material elements (earth, water, fire, air and ether), the five senses of perception (sight, touch, hearing, taste and smell) are also the five senses of action (speech, walking, grasping, evacuate and urine), and the five objects of the senses. The object of the sight is light, the object of the touch is the texture, the object of hearing the sound, the object of the smell is the scent and flavor is the object of taste). There are too the three subtle senses, that is: the mind, the intelligence and the false ego. The mind is the sense of thinking feeling and desire. The intelligence is the sense of determination to discriminate, and the ego is the sense of the identification whith the body. Moreover, the vision of the element experience (the being) is stained by the six enemies of the conditional soul: the selfishness, lust, avarice, wrath, gluttony, jealousy and bitterness.
So the first condition of a scientific experiment is the isolation and purification of the element to experiment. This is not easy to achieve. We can easily manipulate objects that are outside of us, we can set off a hydrogen bomb, or send a man to the moon, but when it comes to doing something to change the soul of the former association with objects external to it, we are in front of something different.
Human nature has a tendency to ridicule what is difficult to achieve. This partly explains the attitude of the scientists at the science of God. But there are many people who, despite their apparent difficulty, have carried out experiments in the light and the science of God is the result of the generalizations made by them. The detailed treatment, accurate and systematic (scientific) that makes the laws, stages, classes and conditions of the various experiments of the science of God easily convince anyone that takes place, that the science of God is, wherever you look, a science.
There are two questions we need to do to try to establish whether a body of knowledge can be called science: 1 • To what extent has come to describe the nature of the object that looks? 2 • How necessary or absolute laws that are discovered?
Judged in the light of these questions, we conclude that the cience of God is the only one can be called truthfully science and is the only science that deserves that name, since only science of God is the only science that gives us knowledge, the basic science of all sciences and its laws are the only laws necessary.
The development of modern science has led scientists to accept that they are unable to discover the true nature and laws of an object.
Follow chanting Hare Krishna.
I totally agree as what you said. However yet haven’t quite touched on my question “it is still a beleif”. I understand that the Science Of God is to do with one self. Therefore it is hard to proof, but say chanting Hare Krishna….focussing on the words…which is enhancing your mind,than your intelligence and than elevates your soul…so forth. Accordding to some other “Scientist”, psychology say to speak….the mind, intelligence…soul can be controlled simply by meditating,focusing on one thing, listenning to particular kind of music which enhance neurotransmitters “brain cells” directing better control of your mind…peace ful life, stress free etc. The experiments has proven it being effective SO why chanting Hare Krishna?? Why not other means of doing so?
dear sir,
I wan to know who is god and is lord Krishna is our real father,is Bhagvat Geeta is real(sorry) please clear my doubt Iam realy very confused.
Please read Bhagavad Gita As It Is:
http://www.AsItIs.com