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Avidhi means

Other Books by Srila Prabhupada

Krsna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead

Avidhi means "not bona fide."
Krsna Book 87:

The Vedas deal with three departments of activities. One is called karma-kāṇḍa, or activities under Vedic injunction, which gradually purify one to understand his real position; the next is jñāna-kāṇḍa, the process of understanding the Absolute Truth by speculative methods; and the third is upāsanā-kāṇḍa, or worship of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and sometimes of the demigods also. The worship of the demigods recommended in the Vedas is ordered with the understanding of the demigods' relationship to the Personality of Godhead. The Supreme Personality of Godhead has many parts and parcels; some are called svāṁśas, or His personal expansions, and some are called vibhinnāṁśas, the living entities. All such expansions, both svāṁśas and vibhinnāṁśas, are emanations from the original Personality of Godhead. Svāṁśa expansions are called viṣṇu-tattva, whereas the vibhinnāṁśa expansions are called jīva-tattva. The different demigods are jīva-tattva. The conditioned souls are generally put into the activities of the material world for sense gratification; therefore, as stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, to regulate those who are very much addicted to different kinds of sense gratification, the worship of demigods is sometimes recommended. For example, for persons very much addicted to meat-eating, the Vedic injunction recommends that after worshiping the form of goddess Kālī and sacrificing a goat (not any other animal) under karma-kāṇḍa regulation, the worshipers may be allowed to eat meat. The idea is not to encourage one to eat meat but to allow one who insists on eating meat to eat it under certain restricted conditions. Therefore, worship of the demigods is not worship of the Absolute Truth, but by worshiping the demigods one gradually comes to accept the Supreme Personality of Godhead in an indirect way. This indirect acceptance is described in the Bhagavad-gītā as avidhi. Avidhi means "not bona fide." Since demigod worship is not bona fide, the impersonalists stress concentration on the impersonal feature of the Absolute Truth. King Parīkṣit's question was, Which is the ultimate target of Vedic knowledge—this concentration on the impersonal feature of the Absolute Truth or concentration on the personal feature? After all, both the impersonal and the personal feature of the Supreme Lord are beyond our material conception. The impersonal feature of the Absolute, the Brahman effulgence, is but the rays of the personal body of Kṛṣṇa. These rays of the personal body of Kṛṣṇa are cast all over the creation of the Lord, and the portion of the effulgence which is covered by the material cloud is called the created cosmos of the three material qualities—sattva, rajas and tamas. How can persons who are within this clouded portion, called the material world, conceive of the Absolute Truth by the speculative method?

Conversations and Morning Walks

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Avidhi means rascaldom.
Morning Walk -- November 18, 1975, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: If other fellows say any damn thing, that does not mean... Even though he may be a Nobel Prize winner, that does not mean that he is really a true scientist. He may be all right. He is looking through a long narrow tube in his own subject, a specialist. I have my definition about a specialist is a one who sees through long narrow tube and he got this much vision of the horizon. Such a man may be saying like this to you. I don't think we should deride that science... Scientists are trying to approach God through their own way, sir. That is what I think.

Prabhupāda: That is rascaldom.

Dr. Patel: That doesn't matter if you call them "rascal" or no rascal, but that is their way. That's all. Our way is this; their way may be that. We must not... By many...

Prabhupāda: No, no. God says, bhaktyā mām abhijānāti (BG 18.55).

Dr. Patel: That's right.

Prabhupāda: How you can manufacture your own way? That is rascal.

Dr. Patel: But that is their bhakti.

Prabhupāda: That is rascaldom. That...

Dr. Patel: How can you say that? You may call them "rascal." Doesn't matter to them. But then that is their way, sir.

Prabhupāda: No, no. Yes... That is obstinacy.

Dr. Patel: That... Obstinacy or no obstinacy, that is their way. That's all. Truth has to be understood.

Prabhupāda: You cannot understand God in your own way. That is not possible. Everyone is...

Dr. Patel: "Those also come to Me," avidhi-pūrvakam. Avidhi-pūrvakam.

Prabhupāda: Avidhi means rascaldom.

Dr. Patel: You may call them rascal or rogue or...

Prabhupāda: No, no. Avidhi, avidhi...

Dr. Patel: But they are going to the same place.

Prabhupāda: You are a medical man. If somebody is doing wrongly, you must say it is a rascaldom. Yes. You cannot accept, "Oh, you are all right. You are all right. You are doing in your own way." (laughter) He's another rascal.

Dr. Patel: Yes, that's right, sir.

Prabhupāda: That's right? You are a medical man and you'll, you'll...?

Dr. Patel: Still I say... You'll hear.

Prabhupāda: No, no, no, I cannot hear this.

Dr. Patel: You see, we don't understand the working of those people in Africa, those junglis. But they do some...

Prabhupāda: But you are not a junglis; you are a medical man, sir.

Dr. Patel: Please listen to me. I beseech you to hear me for a minute. They do some things which we cannot explain, and we do by their own ways.

Prabhupāda: That is rascaldom.

Dr. Patel: The scientists know it.

Prabhupāda: As soon as you do in your own way, that is rascaldom.

Dr. Patel: Then we are rascals.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Dr. Patel: I am representative to all the rascals of the world here. (laughs) That way, if you say so.

Prabhupāda: Anything which is really scientific, you cannot do in your own way. Two plus two equal to four is applicable everywhere. You cannot say, "Two plus two equal to five. It is my own way." This is rascaldom. Scientific means "two plus two—four." It is accepted everywhere. You cannot say, "Two plus two equal to three. That is my own way."

Page Title:Avidhi means
Compiler:Rishab
Created:24 of Jan, 2012
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=1, Lec=0, Con=1, Let=0
No. of Quotes:2