Srila Prabhupada Speaks Out on Misinterpretation of Bhagavad Gita
Hare Krsna, all glories to His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada and all Vaisnavas. The following quotes give some instructions on misinterpretations of Bhagavad Gita.
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Idol Worship in “Iskcon”
by Narasimha das
“Intermingling the spiritual with the material causes one to look on transcendence as material and the mundane as spiritual. This is all due to a poor fund of knowledge.” (Cc. Madhya 16.72, Purport)
We have seen pictures that show a vyasasana in an Iskcon temple room. On this vyasasana is mounted a large picture of an “iskcon guru,” and it appears there is a ritvik initiation ceremony going on–but without Srila Prabhupada. Apparently the iskcon gbc accepts ritvik initiations if Srila Prabhupada is not recognized as the diksha-guru. These photos and various Iskcon altars show that the GBC is promoting idolatry in Iskcon.
Idol worship is condemned in every scripture. Idolatry is defined as the unauthorized worship or adoration of a material object or person as if it (or he) were super potent, super cognizant, fully divine, and capable of reciprocating with all devotional offerings. Srila Prabhupada and our previous acharyas teach that those who think Krishna’s archa-vigraha manifestation is simply a statue or prop to be used for money collection are atheists and idol worshippers. Those who think bona fide Deity worship and the Holy Names of Krishna are material or similar to the names and worship of demigods are considered atheists (psandis). Similarly, those who teach that the Vedic puranas like Srimad-Bhagavatam, which describe Krishna and His pastimes, are mythological, are atheists, although they sometimes pose as Vaishnavas.
“If one tries to mingle the worship of yogamaya with mahamaya, considering them one and the same, he does not really show high intelligence.” (Cc. Madhya 8.90, Purport)
One reason idolatry is sinful is because simple persons who are pious and naturally inclined to offer worship to the Supreme Lord often become diverted from authorized devotional service to the Lord’s Deity form and become bewildered instead by showy displays of idolatrous rituals based on concocted traditions. Sometimes, in imitation of Deity worship, tribesmen, fallen dvijas, misguided sudras, and others offer incense, flowers, fruits, ghee lamps, cooked foods, and other items to pictures or idols of minor devatas, yaksas, raksasas, bogus “avatars,”bogus “gurus,”and even political leaders.All such unauthorized ritual is farcical.
“Presently people are so fallen that they cannot distinguish between a liberated soul and a conditioned soul.” (Srimad-Bhagavatam 4.18.5, Purport)
Archana-marga and sri guru-puja are completely different from idol worship because both the Deity and Sri Guru are fully divine, omniscient, omnipotent, and fully capable of reciprocating all devotional offerings. Such worship has been going on since time immemorial and is authorized in the Vedic scriptures and by all Vedic acharyas. Sometimes great Vaishnavas or nitya-siddha parishadas of the Supreme Lord are worshiped in the same manner as Lord Krishna Himself, either as a painting, picture, or murti made of earth, stone, or wood.
If a devotee follows the rules of archana-marga with devotion, the representational form of the Supreme Lord or great Vaishnava becomes identical with the divine personality Himself, who accepts all sincere offerings and prayers and speaks to advanced worshipers. In true Vedic culture, even Lord Brahma and Lord Shiva are generally not worshiped on the same level as the Supreme Lord and His nitya-siddha parisada. Demigod worship, as described in the karma-kanda sections of the Vedas, is meant for less intelligent materialist—not Vaishnavas. In this age most demigod worship is done whimsically and without reference to Lord Vishnu, and is thus the same as idol worship.
Authorized worship of the Supreme Lord and His empowered devotees, one the other hand, is true spiritual action. It is not a mere “festival of flowers”, a Hindu custom, demigod worship, or an ecclesiastical ritual. Rather, it is the essence of pure spiritual activity, “the character of the living force in immortality”. Archana-marga, particularly the pancaratriki-vidhi enunciated by our param guru, Sri Narada Muni, is sanatana-dharma. Sanatana-dharma means activity that is eternal, common to all living beings, and directly enunciated by the Supreme Lord Himself or His empowered expansions such as Narada Muni, Asita, Vyasadeva, the Six Goswamis, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, Srila Bhaktiisiddhanta, or Srila Prabhupada.
Srila Prabhupada introduced the full practice of sri guru-puja as described in the revealed scriptures and by great acharyas like Srila Visvanatha Chakravarti Thakura. For the benefit of us fallen souls of Kali Yuga, Srila Prabhupada instituted elaborate guru-puja in His temples, in public, and all over the world. He has made all necessary arrangements to remain fully available for everyone through His books, His murtis, His mission, His institutions, and His representatives. This is His causeless mercy. He made it as easy as possible for conditioned souls of this age to approach Him and accept Him as spiritual master. By His mercy, He has prescribed an easy minimum sadhana to help guarantee anyone’s return home, back to Godhead. Only an empowered maha-bhagavata can offer this supreme boon to everyone in the world on behalf of Lord Krishna and Lord Chaitanya.
“The Lord empowers a special devotee to teach people their constitutional position.” (Cc. Madhya 19.114, Purport)
“Without being empowered by the direct potency of Lord Krishna to fulfill His desire, and without being specifically favored by the Lord, no human being can become spiritual master for the whole word… Only an empowered personality can distribute the holy name of the Lord and enjoin all fallen souls to worship Krishna. By distributing the holy name of the Lord, He cleanses the hearts of the most fallen people; therefore, He extinguishes the blazing fire of the material world. Not only that, He broadcasts the shining brightness of Krishna’s effulgence throughout the world… Such a person is… guru or spiritual master for the entire world, a devotee of the topmost platform, the maha-bhagavata stage.” (Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura’s prediction, Cited in Cc., Madhya 25.9, Purport.)
When imperfect preachers imitate Srila Prabhupada by allowing their followers to offer worship to their own pictures or put their pictures on the altar with nitya-siddha acharyas, such a farce is an offense. Such concocted rituals are never authorized and should never be allowed in Srila Prabhupada’s temples. It betrays a paucity of real knowledge on the part of the upstart “guru” and his followers.
“But if everyone simply imitates your exalted status, there will be only a contradictory result. As long as this pretense continues, there will only be utter failure.” (From Vaisistya-Astaka, a poem by Srila Prabhupada, 1961)
“However, one should not imitate the behavior of an advanced devotee or mahā-bhāgavata without being self-realized, for by such imitation one will eventually become degraded.” (Nectar of Instruction, Text 5, Purport.)
Srila Prabhupada, of course, is perfect and always fully present in His vani, His murti, His worshiped picture,andHismission. By Srila Prabhupada’s divine grace, devotees also have access to mercy and guidance from our great nitya-siddha param gurus: Their songs, Their stories, Their examples, Their pranams, Their prayers, Their murtis, Their pictures, Their poems, Their books, Their instructions.We have all this association, sadhu-sanga of the highest level,in Srila Prabhupada’s books and mission.Why should Srila Prabhupada’s followers believe they need a voted-in or self-appointed upstart “guru”? The reason is ignorance. The reason is their “poor fund of knowledge” and gbc campaigns of deliberate misinformation, envy, and deceit.
Regarding our eternally living gurus, Srila Prabhupada comments as follows: “As Narottama dasa Thakura has sung, tandera carana-sevi-bhakta-sane vasa. One’s aim of life should be to serve the acharyas. Acharya upasanam. So, our ahcarya in the Gaudiya Vaisnava Sampradaya, the sri-rupa sanatana bhatta-raghunatha, sri-jiva gopala-bhatta dasa-raghunatha, the Six Gosvamins, and if we associate with them…this book, Nectar of Devotion, Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu, if you read regularly, try to understand, this means you are associating with Srila Rupa Gosvami directly. And if you act accordingly, then you are serving their lotus feet. Tandera carana-sevi-bhakta-sane vasa.”
It is a great credit to many second-generation disciples of Srila Prabhupada that they have seen through the gbc’s acidic smoke screens and–in spite of the politics and chaos generated by these misguided clerics–have accepted Srila Prabhupada as their eternal diksha-guru.
Responding to the same question repeated twice–“Who will be your successor?”–Srila Prabhupada replied, “My success is always there. Yes. Just like the sun is there always. It may come before your vision or not–the sun is there. But if you are fortunate, you come before the sun… The sun is open to everyone.” (Interview, Mexico City, 1975.)
“These initiations–I have deputed my disciples. Is it clear or not?” (Conversation, Oct. 18, 1977, Vrindaban.)
Additional References:
“The spiritual master is not a question of [‘living’ or ‘dead’] … The spiritual master is eternal. The spiritual master is eternal…” (Lecture, Seattle, Oct. 2,1968.)
“Although the physical body in not present, the vibration should be accepted as the presence of the spiritual master. Vibration–what we have heard from the spiritual master–that is ‘living’.” (Lecture, January 13, 1969, LA, CA.)
“When one has attained the topmost position of maha-bhagavata, He is to be accepted as guru and worshiped exactly like Hari, the Personality of Godhead. Only such a person is eligible to occupy the post of guru.” (Chaitanya-charitamirta, Madhya 24.330, Purport, citing Padma Purana.)
“Srila Jiva Goswami advised that one not accept a spiritual master in terms of hereditary or customary social and ecclesiastical conventions. One should simply try to find a genuinely qualified spiritual master for actual advancement in spiritual understanding.” (Cc., Adi 1.35, Purport)
“As soon as a foolish disciple tries to overtake his spiritual master and becomes ambitious to occupy his post, he immediately falls down.” (Srimad-Bhagavatam 5.12.14, Purport.)
“And as soon as he learns that Guru Maharaja is dead, ‘Now I am so advanced that I can kill my guru and I become guru’… then he is finished.” (Conversation, August 16, 1976, Bombay)
Continue readingThis Sudarshan cakra sila was given to me by Sukadev das shown below-and whose separation from I am not feeling any happiness…..
So to make a solution we must approach Kṛṣṇa as guru, or Kṛṣṇa’s representative. Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa’s representative… In, they are the same.
Therefore Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura says: yasya prasādād bhagavat-prasādaḥ **. By pleasing guru, you can please Kṛṣṇa. EVEN KRSNA IS NOT PLEASED, IF THE GURU IS PLEASED , KRSNA HAS TO BE PLEASED. Because he’s representative.
Suppose you have given somebody power of attorney to do some business. So after finishing the business, if you see the paper, not very favorable, it has not been done very nicely, still you have to accept. Because your representative has signed it. Yes. Therefore yasya prasādād bhagavat-prasādaḥ **. KRSNA NOT SATISFIED, BUT IF YOUR GURU IS SATISFIED, THEN KRSNA MUST BE SATISFIED. THIS IS KRSNA’S OBLIGATION. Because He has sent representative. Kṛṣṇa has… ācāryaṁ māṁ vijānīyān [SB 11.17.27]. Kṛṣṇa says: “ācārya, that is I am.” Ācāryaṁ māṁ vijānīyān nāvamanyeta karhicit. “Never try to neglect ācārya. Nāvamanyeta. Neither think of ācārya as ordinary person. Vedic injunction is one must approach understand all this subject matter.
Link to this page: https://prabhupadabooks.com/classes/bg/13/1-2/paris/august/10/1973
Subject: Extensive collection of BTG Magazine Ads of Bhagavad Gita As It Is (1972 Edition) to spread its glories
Extensive collection of BTG Magazine Ads
of Bhagavad Gita As It Is (1972 Edition) to spread its glories
Hare Krishna, Dandavat pranams and all glories to His Divine Grace Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada and all Vaisnavas.
The following link contains a collection of many advertisements of Original Bhagavad Gita As It Is(1972) that appeared in BTG Magazines in the 1970s.
https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:ccafded7-ecf3-4bd5-8d29-d5f80976ed6c
This collection is presented to glorify the Original Macmillan Edition(Complete 1972 Edition) that Srila Prabhupada gave 100s of lectures from and always wanted to print it in large numbers.
All these advertisements can be used by the book distributors who want this original edition to be restored to distribute to all sections of people.
A quote below gives a proper proof where the original Gita is reviewed by Dr. Vajpayee.
“The reviews have very much encouraged me. Especially those of Prof. Bhatt and Prof. Vajpeye. I have personally written a letter of thanks to Dr. Bhatt, that he has so much encouraged me. Dr. Vajpeye’s review we are going to print and widely distribute, especially in Bombay and Madras, where there is so much propaganda from these bogus gurus and yogis. He has got practical experience of how they are cheating the innocent people in foreign countries and he has written; “The authorized edition of Bhagavad-gita will help to stop the terrible cheating of ‘gurus’ and ‘yogis’ who are false and unauthorized. [Letter to: Svarupa, Ranadhira, Mayapur-3 February, 1976 Los Angeles]”
Srila Prabhupada explains the potency of Macmillan edition – “We present it exactly as it is; without any additions or subtractions. That is perfect in every way and THEREFORE IT IS ACTUALLY HAVING A TREMENDOUS EFFECT ALL OVER THE WORLD. “
75-03-14 Letter: Mr. Dennany
“You mentioned in your letter that you had read many other Bhagavad-gitas before you read mine and that none of them revealed as much to you as Bhagavad-gita As It Is. The reason is because we do not change the actual meaning of the gita at all. MANY OTHER COMMENTATORS DUE TO POOR FUND OF KNOWLEDGE TAMPER WITH THE LINES OF BAHGAVAD-GITA AND TWIST THE MEANING FOR THEIR PERSONAL MOTIVES, BUT WE DO NOT DO LIKE THAT. We present it exactly as it is; without any additions or subtractions. That is perfect in every way and THEREFORE IT IS ACTUALLY HAVING A TREMENDOUS EFFECT ALL OVER THE WORLD. The original words of Lord Krishna have unrivalled potency and anyone who is fortunate enough to hear those words and tries to apply them to his life becomes perfect.”
Srila Prabhupada proves that Macmillan edition fulfills the want of the Gita received in the Parampara system
Please find a wonderful quote below that proves that the 1972 Macmillan edition of the Bhagavad Gita As It Is fulfills the want of an edition that is in the line of disciplic succession.
Purport from Chapter 4: Transcendental Knowledge,Verse 2, Bhagavad Gita As It is,1972 original unrevised Macmillan Edition:
“There are innumerable interpretations rendered by different mundane scholars, but almost all of them do not accept the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, although they make a good business on the words of Śrī Kṛṣṇa. This spirit is demonic, because demons do not believe in God but simply enjoy the property of the Supreme. Since there is a great need of an edition of the Gītā in English, as it is received by the paramparā (disciplic succession) system, an attempt is made herewith to fulfill this great want. Bhagavad-gītā—accepted as it is—is a great boon to humanity; but if it is accepted as a treatise of philosophical speculations, it is simply a waste of time.“
The above quote “an attempt is made herewith to fulfill this great want” proves that this Macmillan edition fulfills the great want of the edition of Bhagavad Gita in English that’s received by Parampara as it is.
Also the quote “Bhagavad-gita—accepted as it is—is a great boon to humanity” explains everything.
Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā, na ca tasmān manuṣyeṣu kaścin me priya-kṛttamaḥ (BG 18.69): “One who is doing this humble service of preaching work, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, nobody is dearer than him to Me.” So if you want to become recognized by Kṛṣṇa very quickly, you take up this process of becoming spiritual master, present the Bhagavad-gītā as it is, your life is perfect.
[Lecture Festival Appearance Day, Sri Vyasa-puja – London,22nd August,1973]
Hare Krsna-Just for historical sake here is a picture (below) I took of our TSKP Gaura Nitai deities back in 1974
And here below, some 47 years later is our Deities today with 26 different very opulent outfits along with many jewelry pieces made mostly by my wife and a little by myself. Personally, I don’t think most of the outfits they make in India can compare to these.,as I have seen both. Ours are made of mostly of silk, and some cotton or linen-no polyester or other synthetic materials. Natural fabric “breathes” whereas synthetic ones just make you perspire.DEITY WORSHIP-THE MOST VALUABLE BENEDICTIONGIVEN BY THE LORD TO NEOPHYTESSB 4.30.27 purport–Deity worship in the form of temple worship is themost valuable benediction given by the Lord to beginners. All neophytes must therefore engage in the worship of the Lord by keeping the arcā-vigraha (arcāvatāra) at home or in the temple.SB 7.14.39-TRANSLATION–My dear King, when great sages and saintly persons saw mutually disrespectful dealings at the beginning of Tretā-yuga, Deity worship in the temple was introduced with all paraphernalia.NoD 35 Neutral Love of God 175614/530501Without worshiping the arca-vigraha, the form or Deity of the Lord,one cannot understand such literature as Bhagavad-gita andSrimad-Bhagavatam.751030SB.NAI Lectures 223477/530501So the temple worship is essential. So those who are against templeworship, Deity worship, they are not very intelligent class of men,foolish, mudha. NoD 35 Neutral Love of God 175614/530501When we have lost that loving feeling760924SB.VRN–
If we think that “Here is a stone statue,” then it will not prolong many days. It will not… Galagraha. No more vigraha, but galagraha. Suppose I have established this temple. Now under my direction, my disciples are worshiping vigraha. Vigraha means the form of the Lord, rūpa. But if there is no following of the regulative principles, then after my death it will be galagraha, a burden, that “Our rascal Guru Mahārāja established this temple, and we have to worship, early rise in the morning, all botheration.”This will be… That is called galagraha, a burden, “He has left with us a burden.” This is the risk. Then this, such a big temple will be mismanaged, and you’ll find that “This is breaking” and “This is unclean,” and there is no attention. This will be our… That is called galagraha. “The rascal has given us a burden.”Lecture NY sept 18 1966So in my childhood, when I was five or six years old, I requested my father that “Father, give me this Deity. I shall worship.” So father purchased for me little Krishna, Radha, and he gave me, and I was imitating. Whatever foodstuff I was getting, I was offering to Krishna and eating. In this way I got my life developed. And there was a temple in our neighbourhood.So I was seeing the Krishna deity. Oh, I was thinking…..I still remember. I was standing for hours together.SB 4.30.27 Purport-The form of the Lord as worshiped in the temples is called arca-vigraha or arcāvatāra, the worshipable form, the Deity incarnation. This facility is offered to neophyte devoteesso that they can see the real form of the Lord face to face and offer their respectful obeisances and sacrifices in the form of arcā.Through such facilities the neophytes gradually invoke their original Kṛṣṇaconsciousness. Deity worship in the form of temple worship is themost valuable benediction given by the Lord to beginners. All neophytes must therefore engage in the worship of the Lord by keeping the arcā-vigraha (arcāvatāra) at home or in the temple.
