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Aurobindo (Conversations, 1969 - 1975)

Conversations and Morning Walks

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 17, 1971, Allahabad:

Prabhupāda: Vivekananda has influence here in higher class, among the educated class. They talk about Vivekananda and this and that, nonsense. In your country, fortunately, that opposition was not there. There was no influence of Vivekananda class men. Here amongst the educated class there is influence of all these rascals, Vivekananda, Aurobindo, and... That is one defect.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- February 28, 1973, Jakarta:

Prabhupāda: All these yogis, everything, they do like that. Mahesh Yogi also: "Take my mantra. Within six months you become perfect man and whatever you like, you can do."

Devotee (3): Ha ha. No restrictions.

Prabhupāda: No. There is business only. Why there should be restrictions? Everyone does so, beginning from Vivekananda, Aurobindo, everyone. Aurobindo also used to say that you haven't got to do anything, you simply think of me, just like Kṛṣṇa says: "Simply think of Me."

Morning Walk -- April 29, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: In India, what is going on as "Hindu dharma," it is a bogus thing. It has no meaning. Just like this Ramakrishna Mission, this Vivekananda, this Aurobindo, this Mahesh Yogi, so many others, all bogus. Anyone who is not going in terms of the Caitanya Mahāprabhu's cult or His teaching, he's a bogus. Anyone. Not only in India, all over the world. At the present moment, the real, transcendental spiritual life means to follow the cult of instructions of Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Otherwise, everyone is bogus. They're simply wasting their time. They have no knowledge of spiritual life.

Room Conversation with Indian Guest -- October 4, 1973, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: That is my..., that this experience... You have got some experience, I have got some experience and another has experience. But so far you are talking of Bhagavad-gītā... Because you say that Aurobindo has written on the Bhagavad-gītā. The Bhagavad-gītā says, in the Bhagavad-gītā it is said, Kṛṣṇa says:

mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat
kiñcid asti dhanañjaya
mayi sarvam idaṁ protaṁ
sūtre maṇi-gaṇā iva
(BG 7.7)

Like that. He says that mattaḥ parataram: "There is no more superior, supramental or Supreme Personality..." As you say supramental, it is with reference to a person. Just like Aurobindo, supramental. That means it is with reference to the Aurobindo person. Is it not? Any mental. As you say, "mental," it is with reference to a person.

Room Conversation with Indian Guest -- October 4, 1973, Bombay:

Guest (1): As long as he's evolving and I'm evolving separately...

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes.

Guest (1): As individual...

Prabhupāda: No...,

Guest (1): ...because we are individualized.

Prabhupāda: But do you think that Aurobindo's mental condition or your mental condition, the same?

Guest (1): No.

Prabhupāda: Then here is higher and lower.

Guest (1): No, no.

Prabhupāda: Why "no"? One time you say, "No..." No, no, this is contradictory.

Room Conversation with Indian Guest -- October 4, 1973, Bombay:

Guest (1): When there is a world of ānanda, a new type of world...

Prabhupāda: But...

Guest (1): ...as animals...

Prabhupāda: That is, that is an expectation. That will never become. As you believe in Aurobindo, "When there will be," we say, "In the material world, there will be no such thing."

Guest (1): The Lord will be minus then, if He cannot create a...

Prabhupāda: No, Lord is not minus.

Room Conversation with Indian Guest -- October 4, 1973, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: So as soon as you have to take birth, you have to die. Just like Aurobindo took birth; he died. Everyone. Everyone, even Brahmā. It may be a long duration or a small duration. That doesn't matter. Everyone. That is the perfectional knowledge, how to solve this birth and death problem.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- February 17, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Now taking too much, too much taking in political part. Aurobindo, Aurobindo, he was a politician.

Dr. Patel: Great politician. He was a humanist also.

Prabhupāda: Yes, but he left. "This is no good." I must take to yoga practice.

Morning Walk -- March 27, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: My wife... I admit she's very nice lady. But I did not like her. (break) ...if he becomes so, he cannot become Aurobindo Ghosh. If he becomes attached to the wife up to the point of death, he never becomes Aurobindo Ghosh.

Morning Walk -- April 18, 1974, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: English medium, the intelligence gets baffled because it is not a mother language.

Prabhupāda: Aurobindo Ghosh studied English from the very beginning.

Dr. Patel: But he was extremely clever. He studied then Gujarati, not even Bengali. After he came from England...

Prabhupāda: He came to Gujarati. No. He came to Baroda.

Room Conversation -- June 5, 1974, Geneva:

Swiss Man (1): Have you been in connection with Aurobindo?

Yogeśvara: Have we been in contact with Aurobindo, Śrī Aurobindo?

Prabhupāda: Why? Why I shall be in contact, Aurobindo?

Swiss Man (1): Because he's... We know in (indistinct).

Prabhupāda: He does not know better than Kṛṣṇa. So one association is sufficient. There is no need of going this Aurobindo, Saurobindo. We never... Why should we waste our time? We have got sufficient education in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. First of all let us finish these hundred books of four hundred pages. Then we shall see what Aurobindo writes. We don't think anyone can speak better than Kṛṣṇa. That is admitted.

Yogeśvara: (translates)

Prabhupāda: Aurobindo was... Aurobindo, Vivekananda, they started talking something in the Western world hundred years ago. But not a single man became Kṛṣṇa devotee.

Room Conversation -- June 5, 1974, Geneva:

Prabhupāda: These Aurobindos or Vivekanandas and Gandhis, they have spoiled Hindu culture. Vedic culture they have spoiled. Hodgepodge writing, hodgepodge speaking, dry speaking, speculation-choked up the progress of Vedic civilization. Now here is some hope. People are now taking it. Now, did I say wrong, that "Why shall I go to Aurobindo?"

Nitāi: You never say wrong. (laughs) All of your answers were right, great.

Prabhupāda: I have got better instruction than Aurobindo. Why shall I go to Aurobindo, waste my time? People don't know anything. Nobody has become a devotee of Kṛṣṇa in reading Aurobindo's literature. And here, as soon as they saw our literature, immediately police officer said, "Oh, you are so high." Immediately. Where is the record, the professors and universities eager to purchase Aurobindo's book and Vivekananda's books? There is no record. But here they are eager "All sixty books, please, sir." "All twelve books, please, sir."

Room Conversation with Robert Gouiran, Nuclear Physicist from European Center for Nuclear Research -- June 5, 1974, Geneva:

Prabhupāda: Yes, you come to Vṛndāvana. We have got nice place there, and we shall accommodate you. Real spiritual life you'll find in Vṛndāvana, in Navadvīpa. We have got places... In Navadvīpa also we have got very big building, and Vṛndāvana. These are recognized.

Robert Gouiran: But where is it?

Prabhupāda: Actually... First of all, thing is that what is your point of view for visiting these Aurobindos and Maharshi Raman and what others?

Room Conversation with Roger Maria leading writer of communist literature -- June 12, 1974, Paris:

Pṛthu Putra: He says he choose Radhakrishnan, he choose all the seigneur...

Prabhupāda: But they, all of them...

Pṛthu Putra: He reject Aurobindo...

Prabhupāda: I understand. All of them, they make center Kṛṣṇa. So why not take Kṛṣṇa? (French) Now this Ramakrishna said, "I am the same Kṛṣṇa." So if we give respect to Ramakrishna because of his being the same Kṛṣṇa, why not go to the same Kṛṣṇa directly?

Room Conversation with Roger Maria leading writer of communist literature -- June 12, 1974, Paris:

Yogeśvara: He says Ramakrishna, whether he knew it or not, he was expressing a sentiment of the people at that time.

Prabhupāda: At that time. That is finished. So that is not permanent settlement. But Kṛṣṇa's, Kṛṣṇa's, I mean to say, supremacy, at least for the last five thousand years, is intact. Now, he says Aurobindo, Gandhi, Ramakrishna. They're all gone. They came and gone. But Kṛṣṇa philosophy is truth, and it is standing, and it will go on standing.

Room Conversation with Roger Maria leading writer of communist literature -- June 12, 1974, Paris:

Pṛthu Putra: He says it's not the person important in this example. It's the idea they was expressing, all from five thousand years. The same idea was there.

Prabhupāda: Yes, same idea. Kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam: (SB 1.3.28) "Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead." That idea is accepted.

Karandhara: No, he's saying that Aurobindo and Ramakrishna expressed that same idea in contemporary language in their own time.

Prabhupāda: So that existed temporarily. Now it is gone. That will not appeal.

Room Conversation with Roger Maria leading writer of communist literature -- June 12, 1974, Paris:

Pṛthu Putra: He received information that to follow, with some interest, that to follow what Kṛṣṇa says and like that, we can solve problems. (French) And personally, he respects you.

Prabhupāda: Thank you. That's all right. But thing is that we must know that he has spoken about Ramakrishna and Aurobindo. They also center their propaganda on Kṛṣṇa. Just like I already told. Ramakrishna said, "I am the same Krishna." That means he takes to Kṛṣṇa. Aurobindo, he has written "Life Divine." That is his explanation of Bhagavad-gītā. He takes to Kṛṣṇa. This Maharishi, he has also presented Bhagavad-gītā; he (has) taken to Kṛṣṇa. So their importance is by taking to Kṛṣṇa. Otherwise, they are valueless, nobody.

Room Conversation with Professor Oliver La Combe Director of the Sorbonne University -- June 14, 1974, Paris:

Devotee: Also you told us in India about Aurobindo and Ramakrishna. Aurobindo went also. Aurobindo, when that French woman came, he also fell to her, but just to cover it up he has called her "Mother" because in India, when you call someone "Mother..."

Prabhupāda: No, everyone knows he is mother and he is father.

Devotee: Yeah, right. And they don't think... There is no question of sex. When they think of mother and father, they don't think of these things. Also with Ramakrishna. He also had his divine mother. You told us a story in Calcutta that he was very debauched. In a village he used to chase the young women. And his brother actually made him famous.

Prabhupāda: It is very difficult to, not to be victimized by woman. It is very difficult.

Yogeśvara: Unless you are victimized by Kṛṣṇa first.

Prabhupāda: Yes. One who is, I means, what is called, captivated by the beauty of Kṛṣṇa, then he is not victimized.

Room Conversation with devotees about Twelfth Canto Kali-yuga, and Conversation with Guest -- June 15, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: Oh, you live in India?

Madame Siaude: Yeah, in the French part of, far eastern state, in Pondicherry.

Prabhupāda: Pondicherry?

Madame Siaude: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Oh, Aurobindo's place.

Madame Siaude: Yes, I have been there a long time.

Jyotirmayī: And she was studying with M. Laconde, this gentleman who came yesterday. She's very much studying Rāmānujācārya, Madhvācārya...

Prabhupāda: Hm. Vaiṣṇava philosophy.

Room Conversation -- August 12, 1975, Paris (with French translator):

Bhagavān: They have said that this Aurobindo copy, this is almost out of print now.

Devotee (1): There is no edition of Bhagavad-gītā like your edition ever in France. This is the first time.

Prabhupāda: Aurobindo is hodgepodge. It is simply vocabulary. No concrete contribution. Simply words. Tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet (MU 1.2.12). In order to learn the science, one must go to the bona fide guru. Otherwise it is not possible.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Sanskrit Professor, other Guests and Disciples -- February 12, 1975, Mexico:

Prabhupāda: Gandhi was a politician. What does he know about dharma? He was a politician. He thought it wise that British government is very strong... Before him so many political parties tried to become violent, and they were all curbed down. This Aurobindo also was a leader of anarchist party, and when he was condemned to death, then his senses came: "This is all useless. Let me engage in performing yoga." So Gandhi thought that before him all these violent movement was cast down by the British. So he took it as a method, nonviolence, noncooperation, and to capture the public of India-India is generally inclined religiously—he became a mahātmā. But mahātmā is different. A mahātmā is not interested in politics.

Room Conversation with Yoga Student -- March 14, 1975, Iran:

Prabhupāda: Three things required: first of all surrender, and then question, and seva. You cannot question by challenging. You have to render service and surrender. Between the two, praṇipāta and sevayā, there is paripraśna. Then you will understand. Upadekṣyanti tad jñānaṁ jñāninaḥ tattva-darśinaḥ. Tattva-darśi, one who has seen the truth, he can enlighten you. This is the process. Otherwise, even Gandhi, Dr. Rādhākrishnan, Vivekānanda, all they have committed mistake. Aurobindo. Aurobindo has understood little to some extent, but not fully. But if we are fortunate enough, then we can understand Kṛṣṇa very easily. What is that? Kṛṣṇa says, mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat kiñcid asti dhanañjaya (BG 7.7). "My dear Dhanañjaya, Arjuna, there is no more superior truth than Me." So if we accept that, either you say blindly or conscientiously, then that is perfection.

Conversation with Professor Hopkins -- July 13, 1975, Philadelphia:

Prof. Hopkins: What is your view of Śrī Aurobindo? (loud laughter) Or should I have left well enough alone? He is not an impersonalist, he's not a Māyāvādī.

Prabhupāda: He says that above the Māyāvāda philosophy there is something else, super. That is bhakti. (indistinct) ...bhakti, but he could not understand because he did not take any education from realized person. He wanted to realize himself. That is his defect.

Prof. Hopkins: So one who... You would see his effort to transcend, I suppose you would call it...

Prabhupāda: That effort was for life after life. Then when his effort will be successful he will realize Kṛṣṇa. Vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti sa mahātmā su-durlabhaḥ. Bahūnāṁ janmanām ante (BG 7.19).

Morning Walk -- October 3, 1975, Mauritius:

Prabhupāda: And he is considered to be a great scholar in Bhagavad-gītā, and when cow protection was requested, he said that "How can I do it? It is their religious principle." And he is a great big scholar in Bhagavad-gītā. All nonsense, going on. Whole world is full of nonsense, mūḍhas, beginning from Gandhi to any rascal, all of them, rascals. Perhaps it is the first time we are detecting, "Here are all rascals." It is first time. Then we are enemy of everyone. We call everyone rascal-Gandhi rascal, Vivekananda rascal, Aurobindo rascal. So actually they are, but people are thinking, "These people say all big, big men rascals? Therefore they are rascals."

Room Conversation -- October 21, 1975, Johannesburg:

Guest: Well, we've been just reading mainly biographies by swamis and yogis, Aurobindo and Resynthesis of...

Prabhupāda: They have no realization. They have simply jugglery of words. That's all.

Guest: It's new for us, so I'm not very...

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes.

Guest: It's very new for us. We've only been doing it for a few months.

Prabhupāda: Read Bhagavad-gītā As It Is.

Guest: I've got it. I am reading it. Each time I read it, I find I read it a little better.

Prabhupāda: Aurobindo has no clear knowledge.

Morning Walk -- November 29, 1975, Delhi:

Prabhupāda: (break) ...people engage in academic kalākendra, and the price of rice is rising. No rice. Rice kalā. "My dear kalākendra, can you supply me rice?" "No." (laughter)

Tejās: In Bombay, even if any businessman brings more than five kgs of rice, they will seize him. They search the baggage many times in the trains at the station.

Prabhupāda: You see. This is the kalākendra.

Haṁsadūta: There was a political cartoon that people were shouting for food to Indira Gandhi, and the minister was saying, "The people want food." And she said, "But tomorrow we're going to have television."

Prabhupāda: Television. Kalākendra. (break) ...kalākendra? This big house.

Harikeśa: Rabindra...

Prabhupāda: Rabindranath. Oh, he is the foremost kalā, Rabindranath Tagore. He has shown biggest kalā to the people of India.

Devotee (1): Aurobindo kalākendra.

Prabhupāda: Aurobindo kalā.

Devotee (1): Very big. He spent a lot of money for that Victoria House.

Prabhupāda: But nobody is coming there, here or there. They have big, big Rabindra kalā and nobody is trying to taste it.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: When they have programs, a lot of people come.

Prabhupāda: That... You make any dog dance; they will come.

Morning Walk -- December 14, 1975, New Delhi:

Prabhupāda: They have got so many dance bhavan, and when Kṛṣṇa dances with the gopīs, "Ah, that is bad!" The rascals, they do not understand where you have got this tendency for dancing. Because it is there in Kṛṣṇa. That they do not understand. Kṛṣṇa dancing is bad, and my dancing is very good. They will put so many questions, "Why Kṛṣṇa dance with others' wives." "And why your are dancing with others wife, fall-down." Just see. Kṛṣṇa's dancing is mythology and his dancing is fact. Although His life is mythology (indistinct). (laughter) (indistinct) Rabindra Bhavan. What they are doing? Such a big house.

Devotee: Aravindra Bhavan

Prabhupāda: Hm? This is Aurobindo?

Tejas: This is Ravindra Bhavan.

Page Title:Aurobindo (Conversations, 1969 - 1975)
Compiler:Labangalatika
Created:01 of May, 2011
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=27, Let=0
No. of Quotes:27