All truth
Srimad-Bhagavatam
SB Canto 6
SB Canto 10.1 to 10.13
SB Cantos 10.14 to 12 (Translations Only)
Other Books by Srila Prabhupada
Krsna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead
Lectures
Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures
Indian man (2): In your lecture, Swamiji, if I don’t mistake, you have mentioned many authorities, beginning with the Veda, Brahma-sūtra, Bhagavad-gītā or wisdom of the Mahābhārata. Do you accept all truth?
Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.
Indian man (2): Or are they stories? (?)
Prabhupāda: Yes. Because it is given by Vyāsadeva, therefore it is also authority.
Indian man (2): We have all listened to you very attentively.
Prabhupāda: Rāmāyaṇa, Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, that is also authority.Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures
Philosophy Discussions
Prabhupāda: Yes. Without being, how there can be truth? To be is truth. “I am,” this is truth. I exist, that is truth. If I don’t exist, then where is truth?
- ātmānaṁ sarvato rakṣet
- tato dharmaṁ tato dhanam
- ātmānaṁ vikṛti sati
- tato kutaṁ tato dharmam
Ātmā, my identity, if I protect, then I can protect my religion, I can protect my riches. And if I cannot protect myself, then where is my riches? Where is my religion? That is our Vedic understanding. So to exist, self-preservation, that is the basic principle of all truth.
Śyāmasundara: He says that the understanding of my existence, of my being here, is truth. So when this, when all the details of why I am here and what I am here for become revealed, that is truth.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Because I am true, therefore why I am here, that is truth. The basic principle is “I am truth.” Therefore “Why I am here?” This is intelligent question. So that... These questions was asked by Sanātana Gosvāmī to Caitanya Mahāprabhu. The first question: “Actually what I am? I don’t want miserable condition of life, but this world is full of miserable condition of life. So why this is?” This is actually human understanding, when one comes to this enquiry that “I do not want any miserable condition of life, but why this miserable condition of life is forced upon me?”Prabhupāda: That means he knows that he has got another vision.
Śyāmasundara: Yes. But he’s still dealing on the lowest level now, just to really understand things (?). He says that this ego as truer subjectivity—that is the understanding that “I am”—is the wonder of wonders, and he considers that it is a mystery that the world should contain a being which is aware of its own existence. The phenomenological ego becomes a fundamental fact of the universe in which all truth is found. In other words, beginning with this understanding that “I am existing,” that “I am this,” becoming aware of myself, this is the springboard or launching pad to know the truth. And an animal, he does not have that knowledge, subjective...
Prabhupāda: So how you developed that knowledge, better knowledge than...?
Śyāmasundara: That is the mystery.
Prabhupāda: ...better knowledge than the animal?
Śyāmasundara: That is what he calls the mystery. That gradually that...
Prabhupāda: Then next mystery will be: there is somebody who is better than you.
Śyāmasundara: He comes to that conclusion.
Prabhupāda: Then it is better to consult that better than you. Why you shall go down to the animal status?Conversations and Morning Walks
1974 Conversations and Morning Walks
Dr. Patel: This scene and all those things showed to Brahmā was to teach him a sort of lesson to take out his ego from him.
Prabhupāda: Yes. That was the purpose. It was not that Brahmā was degraded, but Kṛṣṇa is merciful upon Brahmā and Indra. Hm. Go on.
Girirāja: “Lord Viṣṇu, Brahmā also realized, was the reservoir of all truth, knowledge and bliss. He is the combination of three transcendental features, namely eternity, knowledge and bliss. He is the object of worship by the followers of the Upaniṣads. Brahmā realized that all the different forms of cows, boys and calves transformed into Viṣṇu forms were not transformed by a mysticism of the type that a yogi or demigod can display by specific powers invested in him. The cows, calves and boys transformed into viṣṇu-mūrtis, or Viṣṇu forms, were not displays of viṣṇu-māyā, or Viṣṇu energy, but were Viṣṇu Himself. The respective qualifications of Viṣṇu and viṣṇu-māyā are just like fire and heat. In the heat there is...” [break]
Dr. Patel: (Sanskrit) [break] So you stop. You stop only.
Prabhupāda: Give up, give up the result.
Dr. Patel: That is what the Bhagavad-gītā says. [break]
Prabhupāda: ...kāryaṁ karma karoti yaḥ,...
Dr. Patel: Sa sannyāsī ca yogi ca.
Prabhupāda: Go on.
Girirāja: “The transcendental form of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is perfect or so great that the impersonal followers of the Upaniṣads cannot...” [break]
Prabhupāda: Sometimes we...
Dr. Patel: First reading you don’t mind following.
Prabhupāda: Yes. So after all, we have got still the material body. Sometimes we get tired. That is also fortune. [break] That is the advantage of human life. You can check.
Dr. Patel: Particular intelligence is given to human being?
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Dr. Patel: The elephant has got so much intelligence, they say, as good as human being.
Prabhupāda: Intelligence... Not only intelligence. Human life has got the discriminating power. Sad-asat. (Indians speaking) [break] ...infected, how your medicine will be sold? [break] ...merchant, I will say like that. [break] Since we are chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, then bahyābhyantaraṁ śuciḥ. We are... What is called? Prophylactic, prophylactic.Pṛthu Putra: He says that the answer of that is very often come, although it doesn’t have to come with a name of God because the name of God is very often utilized to mystify the people.
Yogeśvara: In other words, he’s saying, “I know what you want to get me to say. You want me to say that the center is God.” But he’s saying, “I’d rather not say that because that’s too mystical.”
Prabhupāda: Then what is the use of talking if you do not know the central point? He says that to come to the truth, neti neti. So we must come to the truth. So we must find out first of all truth. Then we discuss the other, subordinate things. (French) Neti neti means “Not this, not this,” means to search out the truth. (French for some time, devotees try to explain Prabhupāda’s challenges, RM makes a long speech.)
Bhagavān: The first thing is he’s talking for too long, and you’re missing the point. It’s getting confusing. Ask him, first of all, to speak a little shorter. (French)
Yogeśvara: So he said, what he’s suggesting is that first of all, we’d be better off not giving it some kind of concrete form because he thinks ultimately the silence is the best answer.
Prabhupāda: Then let him learn that. If silence is best, then don’t talk.
Yogeśvara: Well, he says, still, we can give it some form for discussion purposes.
Prabhupāda: Then what is his silence? Silence means don’t talk. If you prefer silence, then don’t talk.Page Title: | All truth |
Compiler: | Visnu Murti, Haya |
Created: | 18 of Nov, 2008 |
Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=4, CC=0, OB=1, Lec=5, Con=2, Let=0 |
No. of Quotes: | 12 |