Feb 17 1971 Gorakhpur conversations
Prabhupāda: The sense of form.Because your brain is congested with impersonalism, you cannot understand what is spiritual form. That is your defect.
Guest: That is the trouble.
Prabhupāda: Yes. (Hindi) All hodgepodge things should be…
Guest: (Hindi)
Prabhupāda: Yes. Therefore… (Hindi) What is this intellect? It is ignorance. This is not intellect. It is ignorance. You are accepting something wrong. That is ignorance. Ignorance is jñānavān. Bahūnāṁ janmanām ante jñānavān māṁ prapadyate [Bg. 7.19]. That is knowledge. This is ignorance. He does not know Kṛṣṇa. And one who does not know Kṛṣṇa, he has no value of his knowledge. Bhāgavata says, na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇuṁ [SB 7.5.31]. Knowledge, what is the target of knowledge? To go up to Viṣṇu, to understand. Tad viṣṇuṁ paramaṁ padaṁ sadā paśyanti surayaḥ.Those who are actually intelligent, they are simply observing the Viṣṇu form. This is Vedic mantra. So unless you reach to that point, your knowledge has no value. It is ignorance. Nāhaṁ prakāśaḥ sarvasya yogamāyā-samāvṛtaḥ [Bg. 7.25]. So long you do not understand Kṛṣṇa, that means your knowledge is covered still.
yeśām anta-gataṁ pāpaṁ janānāṁ punya-karmaṇām te dvanda-moha-nirmuktā
bhajante māṁ dṛḍha-vratāḥ
Ignorance means pāpa. Through ignorance one commits sin. Just like a man kills somebody in ignorance that he will be killed also. He does not know. Just like so many people are killing animals. They do not know that the animal also kill him. That is ignorance.Just like here the law is life for life. If you take one life, then you have to give your life. State law. Is it not? If you kill somebody, then you’ll be killed also.So why not God’s law like that? But they are ignorant; they are killing animals. That is ignorance. Killing means sin.Why they are committing this sin? Ignorance. He does not know the law that he will also be killed. Karma-bandhana. Yajñārthāt karmaṇo ‘nyatra karma-bandhanaḥ. He’ll be bound up by his actions. And he does not know. That is ignorance.So this whole world is, this material world is full of ignorance. Therefore it is called tamasi. Tamasi mā jyotir gama. That ignorance is, I mean to say, dissipated simply by Kṛṣṇa consciousness. There is no other method. Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanaṁ [Cc. Antya 20.12].Simply by Kṛṣṇa consciousness, that ignorance can be dissipated. Otherwise not. Not possible. Kṛṣṇa therefore says, sa mahātmā sudurlabhaḥ.Completely eradicated from the platform of ignorance is very rarely to be found. Sa mahātmā sudurlabhaḥ. There may be so many mahātmās, but such mahātmā who has fully surrendered to Kṛṣṇa is very rare.Therefore one who has surrendered to Kṛṣṇa, he is perfect mahātmā, he is perfect yogi.
Devotee: Śrīla Prabhupāda?Suppose for one who’s not completely surrendered, how will he make choices? For example, suppose that there seem to be two different ways of serving Kṛṣṇa…
Prabhupāda:He should consult his spiritual master.
Devotee: Suppose for example questions are arising in my mind and I think to myself, “Oh, this question is a foolish question, so I shouldn’t waste the spiritual master’s time.” But on the other hand…
Prabhupāda:No. Don’t speculate. You should immediately refer the matter to your spiritual master.
Devotee: Then I would be asking you questions all day long and you’d have no time to do anything else. (laughter)
Prabhupāda:No. You are welcome. You are welcome.
Devotee: Then how do you… Suppose, for example, last night. I was chanting, and then I thought to myself, “Oh, I’m not concentrating on the chanting any more. Now I should go to sleep.” Then how…
Prabhupāda:Therefore you are, we have prescribed rules for chanting. You must finish sixteen rounds, then go to sleep, whole day sleeping. You finish that sixteen rounds and sleep whole day. I have no objection. (laughter)
Devotee: But then…
Prabhupāda: There is no then. Don’t talk nonsense.If you are so much addicted to sleeping, you simply chant sixteen rounds and whole day sleep. But don’t take food also. (laughter) Don’t get up taking prasādam. “Now I have to honor prasādam. Let me eat sumptuous, then again sleep more.”
Devotee: Is there some order of priority in service then? I mean, sixteen rounds is more important than anything else. And then following that, there’s something else.
Prabhupāda:That’s all right. If you cannot do anything else, you simply chant sixteen rounds, take prasādam, and sleep. (laughter) It is special prerogative for you. There is no then.This is, this is order for you.
Devotee: In a situation where there’s a choice between say chanting and reading. Is chanting a better activity than reading?
Prabhupāda:Yes, chanting and reading is the same thing.
Devotee: But is one better than the other?
Prabhupāda:No better. That I explained. It is absolute. Either you chant or read, the same thing. But you have to fulfill the sixteen rounds. That’s it. All right. Let us… (end)
Some Conclusions–Srila Prabhupada mentions right at the beginning that if ones brain iscongested with impersonalism,then one cannot understand or appreciate spiritual form.
Personally I have always wondered why devotees do as little as possible in the matter of deity worship instead of more? Most devotees have a very small altar setup with some pictures and maybe some deity forms, and that’s it. Not much in the matter ofdaily deity serviceother than lighting some incense and offering a flower. Of course that is the very minimum Krsna establishes in His BG as we all know, but as the saying goes-you get out of it what you put into it.
So if we are satisfied with just merely recognizing the Lord in His picture and offering our respects that is very good. But then how do we understand this verse from BG?As they surrender to Me I reward them accordingly?So the more we serve the Lord the more the Lord reciprocates with us. We are chanting Hare Krsna daily so many thousand of times asking for service. The better quality of our chanting means the better quality of our service as Krsna from within enlightens us with His darshan
Hare Krsna
damaghosa das
