Prabhupāda: Our business is, as instructed by Caitanya Mahāprabhu, tṛṇād api sunīcena taror api sahiṣṇunā. This jealousy will go on. Therefore one has to learn how to tolerate jealousy. Kīrtaniyaḥ sadā hariḥ (CC Adi 17.31). If one wants to push on this saṅkīrtana movement.... Prabhupāda.... We are insignificant creature. So many persons. You cannot avoid it. The best way is to learn how to tolerate. That is very nice. Otherwise Caitanya Mahāprabhu not have said, taror api sahiṣṇunā. That is the best. So we are not like Caitanya Mahāprabhu, neither like Prabhupāda, and we shall have to learn to tolerate. (Bengali) It is clearly written in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta that kṛṣṇa śakti vinā nāhe kṛṣṇa nāma pracāraṇa. Even they have no common sense, what can be done? No, no, this formula, that this is something new in the history of the world, and still they are jealous, what is this? They are finding fault. In Vṛndāvana, Nṛsiṁha-vallabha Gosvāmī, you know? He comes to me. He says, "So many people are jealous upon you." I say that first of all you create something like me. Then you become jealous. (Bengali) First of all let them become like me. Then.... (Bengali) The superior, he will dictate. And yei, equal, they will live like friends. And those who are junior, they should follow and obey. This is the Vaiṣṇava niyama. So those who are neither equal nor higher, how they can dictate? That is their mistake. Either first of all become higher than him—then you dictate—or you be equal with him—then you suggest. You are lower and you want to dictate? What is this nonsense? (Bengali) By standard, one who is lower, they want to dictate. (Bengali) (loud conchshell) Bas. (laughter) Hare Kṛṣṇa. They may be very big visioner. (Bengali) A pakkā Vaiṣṇava like you, to find out faults, what is this? Rādhārāṇī is.... (Bengali) They have not united. They have disunited. And here, practically you see all religions, all nations, all persons, all philosophy. Everything is there. (Bengali) They have come with their life. (Bengali) C.I.A. (Bengali) Less common sense they have. They haven't got even common sense. (break) ...on behalf of Kṛṣṇa, so all the money should be given to us. The money actually belongs to Kṛṣṇa. You, by tricks you are holding it.
Common sense (Conversations 1976)
Conversations and Morning Walks
1976 Conversations and Morning Walks
Acyutānanda: "The thing is that because Kṛṣṇa knows the future, past, present, and future, so He knew that we would fall down, so why didn't He help me?"
Prabhupāda: No, no, future means, just like.... This is the law of nature, that if you steal, you'll be punished. So if I say, "Oh, you are stealing; you'll be punished," this is future. Suppose this is the month of March, and if I say, "In the month of July there will be rain." So I know; you know; everyone knows. This is not a future telling. The natural sequence is everyone knows it.
Madhudviṣa: But does that means that Kṛṣṇa doesn't know something?
Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa.... If everyone knows, why Kṛṣṇa does not know? "He knows everything" means this common sense everyone knows.
Satsvarūpa: That after you die, you take another body.
Prabhupāda: Apart from that, why, how the baby is becoming a boy? This is a fact. How a baby is becoming a child, a child is becoming a boy, a boy is becoming young man, a young man is becoming middle aged? Does it mean... Is it a particular type of religious system? Why this nonsense? What kind of intelligent person they are? It is a fact. Now we come to the old age. So I have come to the point of old age body after so many stages. Then where is the next? The next is tathā dehāntara: he'll get another body. This is very common sense.
Pañca-draviḍa: If that's true, then how does.... What about the changes in the moon's face? Sometimes...
Prabhupāda: True or nontrue, I am layman. I am saying that if the moon is rising from this side and going to this side, so sun is also rising from this side and going to this side. So if the moon is moving, the sun is moving.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Common sense.
Prabhupāda: Huh? Yes, I am a layman. Actually sun is moving, but they say fixed up.
Jayapatākā: So they found that if they attend a separate...
Prabhupāda: It is common sense. Also attend many child in the lap of his mother. You see? He should also...?
Jayapatākā: Yeah, they find those seven-, eight-year-old, they attend better a small, private reading.
Prabhupāda: Yes, that's nice. But one thing is that if they can attend, even by hearing the Vedic mantras they'll be benefited. Even they.... Therefore I give stress on chanting the mantra, so that if one cannot chant and can under.... Simply by hearing, he'll be benefited. (break) Hm.
Pañca-draviḍa: Well, they say that from space the earth would be bright also, Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Prabhupāda: The nonsense may say anything. But our common sense that if the, there is some ingredient in this moon which makes it bright, so they have brought the dust, but other scientists say that this dust can be available here.
Reporter (1): No, sir, I just wanted to ask you...
Prabhupāda: No, no, why wonder? You just try to understand this common sense, that as soon as you go to the street, if the indication is that you must keep your car on the left side and as soon as you go to the right side, you become a criminal immediately. You can say, "What is the wrong? The right side or wrong side, I am driving my car," but it is criminal. You know or not know. Ignorance of law is no excuse. So just similarly there is law of God. So as soon as you violate, you must suffer.
Reporter (1): Why?
Prabhupāda: The bead is pure, so just to keep it aloof from the dust.... Just like we keep this drinking water covered. Why? This is common sense.
Reporter (1): Just to keep it pure.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Pure it is, but still, it is our duty not to treat ordinarily.
Reporter (1): Are your disciples supposed to chant the mantra all the time?
Prabhupāda: Yes. All my disciple is chanting.
Guru-kṛpā: He cannot hit the heart.
Prabhupāda: He was begging, "Give me. Give me (indistinct) (transportion check?)" Who is the rascal that he'll give him (transportion?)? What he is? But he is such a fool, he's begging, "Give me (transportion check?)." Why they'll give you? Then what benefit they'll derive? But he has no common sense to think.
Guru-kṛpā: That is what I think this disease is, with the Siddha's group, is they are looking for followers, and they do not preach in your style because they would not attract people.
Guest (2): No, see, you have a misunderstanding of the representation...
Prabhupāda: No misunderstanding. It is a common sense that if you have got respect for a person, instead of installing his form—either it is statue or stone, it doesn't matter—keeping it outside and giving chance the bird to pass stool on his head, if you keep that statue in a nice place, which is more respectful? That is my question. It is a common sense. If you have got respect for a person.... You have installed the statue. Don't call Deity. Statue. So which is more respectful, to keep him exposed on the open field or to keep him in a temple?
Prabhupāda: Just like fainted man is lying like a dead man, but he is not dead. There is life. It is fainted, unconscious state. So because there is life, he may lie down in that unconscious state for two, three hours; again he'll come. It is common sense. And if a log, wood log, is lying flat, will it come to life, anything? But because these mūḍhas, they are taking that "Fetus has no life. Kill it, finish it and eat it." It is going on.
Reporter: When I interviewed you perhaps five or six years ago, it was before there were reports of the astronauts landing on the moon, and I asked you at that time if you thought, what you thought about it, and you said that, as I recall, that they would not be able to land or explore, because spirits or creatures that lived on the moon would not allow it. The reports of course said that indeed people did land and explore and return safely. I understand you have further thoughts about that (laughter) and you've even written a lot about it. I wonder if you could tell me, not at great length perhaps, but what your belief about those events is.
Prabhupāda: Yes. From the.... That question I was discussing the other day. In the common sense, gross sense, that all over the world, they accept Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, in this way Saturday last. So why these arrangement? Sunday first and Monday second, and nobody could reply it. But as a layman I can conclude that Sun planet is first and the moon planet is next. So if you cannot go to the sun planet, which is ninety-three million miles away, how you can go to the moon planet within four days? Nobody could answer me. Can you answer?
Rāmeśvara: They don't have..., the reason they don't have an idea is because before you came to America, the understanding of the science of God was presented on a kindergarten level, the Bible. So it did not satisfy their scientific mind. So because before you came to give them the Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, they had not information, and they did not accept the Christian version.
Prabhupāda: No, apart from Christian or Hindu, the general mass of people, how they can say that there is no creator? From common sense?
Rāmeśvara: They are accepting authority, and so they say...
Prabhupāda: Apart from authority, from practical experience....
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They are fools.
Prabhupāda: ...how one can...? Eh?
Candanācārya: Śrīla Prabhupāda once said that if the moon is dirt and dust, how is it that it reflects the light of the sun so much that it lights up the whole planet?
Prabhupāda: Yes. The common sense. They have lost their common sense.
Candanācārya: It's so shiny that it lights up the whole earth planet at night.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes.
Candanācārya: How can dirt reflect light like that?
Prabhupāda: That was my first question.
Arnold Weiss: So as I understand it-tell me if I interpret it correctly-we're being put more or less into our place, being shown where we really are in relation with God through our suffering.
Prabhupāda: Yes. God is giving you the remedy, that "You surrender to Me, you are immediately relieved from all sufferings." But we shall not do that. So what is the alternative than suffering? This is common sense.
all-remembering, then He is in a position where He can know what our choices are going to be, and what is going to happen with us in the future.
Prabhupāda: No, no. You make a choice; you can change it. But as soon as you change it, God knows what you are going to do. This is very common sense. Suppose you are honest man; I entrust you with something. But as soon as you become dishonest, immediately I withdraw my interest (entrust?), because I know what you'll do. So you have got little independence. You are put into certain position, but you can change it at anytime. So your position is, actually, you are eternal servant of God. As soon as you change it, then your suffering begins.
Jay Warner: The difficulty for me reaches the moment, retroactively, before the moment of birth, or past the moment of death. How can one come to have faith that there is life after one leaves his body?
Prabhupāda: This is the proof. A child may not understand that there is, after his childhood body, there is another body, boyhood body or youthful body. He may not understand. But that is the fact. If the child says, "There is no more body. This is the final body," that is not the fact. He is going to get another body which is boy's body, young man's body, old man's body. Similarly, you may believe or not believe, you are going to get another body. The proof is that you have no more the child's body; you have got a different body. The common sense reasoning.
Jay Warner: That makes sense.
Prabhupāda: Very common sense. But we are so dull-headed we cannot understand.
Jay Warner: I am so what?
Prabhupāda: We are so dull-headed.
Devotees: We, dull-headed.... (laughter)
Prabhupāda: Just like in the, what is called, movie spool....
Prabhupāda: There is no question of "I don't believe there is father." No, that cannot be (indistinct) It is like that, everything fact. No question of belief. You believe or not believe, there is father. Similarly, these rascals nowadays, they say "We don't believe in God." You believe or not believe, God is there. Who cares for your believe or not believe? The same way: the mother is there, the child is there; there must be father. There is no argument. Is it not? Can anyone say "Yes, my mother is there, I am there; I don't believe there is father"? Is it feasible? No. Common sense. So these rascals who do not believe in God, they're simply rascals. Mūḍha, narādhama, that is described in the Bhagavad-gītā. Anyone who has no understanding of God, he's lowest of the mankind and rascal number one. Hmm? What do you think?
Prabhupāda: She is giving, the mother earth is giving birth to so many varieties of children-8,400,000. Then the next inquiry should be: the mother is there, the children are there, then where is the father? That answer is given by Kṛṣṇa: ahaṁ bīja-pradaḥ pitā (BG 14.4), "I am the father." So where is the difficulty to understand the Supreme Lord? But they are so dull-headed that they have no even common sense, and they're passing as philosopher, politician, and scientist, big leader, big rascal. This is going on. This is going on. And big, big rascals, they have taken the leadership of the world, and the world is in chaos, chaotic condition, everyone is unhappy, suffering.
Prabhupāda: Now if the child is.... If the father puts the seed in the black wife, the child may come in black body. In the white body, the child may come in white body. So the body is different according to the mother, but the soul is the same. One gets the body according to the body of the mother. But either in the black body or the white body the soul is the same. Paṇḍitāḥ sama-darśinaḥ (BG 5.18). This simple truth they cannot understand, common sense. In one minute it can be understood. The father..., mother is there and the child is there. So there must be father.
Satsvarūpa: Learned.
Prabhupāda: That is gentleman. So one who does not understand this philosophy of life is not fit to be addressed as gentleman. It is commonsense knowledge.
George Gullen: My father used to speak of the Oversoul that I think had some similarity to these words that we just read, that the soul that is...
Prabhupāda: We call Supersoul, that is God. The idea is in Christianity also, "Holy Ghost" like that. Supersoul and the ordinary soul. We living entities, we are ordinary souls, and God in His all-pervading feature, He is Supersoul.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Nobody has criticized them. They have taken it seriously; otherwise, why they have published? Yes, that's right. What they have done except barking? "I am American," "I am Russian," "I am this," "I am that," that's all. If you keep them dogs and hogs and, nicely dressed, they go to United Nations and talk of unity, is it possible? Can the dogs and hogs can unite? Common sense. You bring all the dogs of this neighborhood and ask them "Don't bark now. Live peacefully," (laughter) will they be able? (laughs) The United Nation is like that. They're kept as dogs and they're advised, "Now keep peacefully." Is it possible? They have no common sense even. First of all, let them become human beings. Conference is going on, big conference, and Jawaharlal Nehru has imitated, that in the conference there are different languages, different..., but if somebody is speaking in any language you'll hear it in your own language. Remember? In New Delhi he has done that.
Rakṣaṇa: Nowadays they say that they're advanced in knowledge even without any sophistication at all, while Arjuna, when he was giving his arguments to Kṛṣṇa...
Prabhupāda: No, don't bring Arjuna now. Just speak on commonsense platform. As soon as we bring Arjuna, they think it is sectarian. We are talking on human common sense. What is advancement of knowledge?
Devotee: They say if it's advancement of knowledge, if they are advanced, why do they have to die? The animals are dying, and they're accepting that, and the human beings also die. But why does he have to die if he's advanced in knowledge?
Rakṣaṇa: Even if you are advanced in knowledge, you still have to die.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: There's a creator of everything. Janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). Origin of everything. The premise of these so-called spiritual masters...
Prabhupāda: No, this is a common sense. If everyone is God, then what is the necessity of finding out a guru? Guru means who explains about God. Everyone is God, then what is the use of explanation? There is no need of guru.
Devotee (2): It's a matter of argument also.
Prabhupāda: Argument? Why do you bring such nonsense argument, waste time? Don't waste time. You are ignorant, you are accepting. Don't remain ignorant. It is common sense. Is it so easy that one can talk with God? If some common man says "Just now I went to Mr. Ford, and talked with him. I'm coming back from him." So any gentleman will believe that? So these are our insufficiency that we believe such things. We are not properly trained up. Simply waste time. That's not good. He may talk nonsense. Why I shall accept nonsense? The same example. If somebody comes, "Now I'm just coming from talking with Mr. Ford, the President." Shall I have to believe? He's a common man. How he can talk with President Ford? If I believe, then I am also nonsense.
Rādhāvallabha: Well they have a system, so-called system, by using light.
Prabhupāda: No, no, we find there are two kinds of living entities, sthāvara and jaṅgama. One kind of living entity, they cannot move, and one kind of living entity, they move. So just like here there is grass, there are trees and there are... We are also. There are many animals who can move. So why, if there are plants who are not moving, why not the other moving animals? This is commonsense reason. Everywhere we see two kinds of animals, moving and not moving. If the not-moving is there, why not the moving? What is the wrong there? This is our first question.
Rādhāvallabha: They quoted you as saying this in Los Angeles, in a newspaper. Also your Monday-Tuesday example, Sunday-Monday. They put that in the newspaper.
Prabhupāda: Nobody can answer that. The common sense. Can any one of you answer why Sunday first and Monday next? You are one of the scientists. Why don't you say? It is commonsense question, "Why Sunday first and next...?" All over the world. In the human society, everywhere you go, they will say Sunday first, Monday second. In India Ravivāra. Ravi. Ravi means sun. And Somavāra. Somavāra means Monday. The planetary system is so arranged, first of all sun, then moon. Then Mars, then Saturn, Saturday. Saturn is last. Even Svarūpa Dāmodara has not answered.
Vṛṣākapi: They all think like that, Prabhupāda.
Prabhupāda: They are such rascals. They have no common sense that this is also one of the planets, it is filled up with life and everything, and why the other planets should be vacant? If there is rock and sand, then why not other things? Here is also rock and sand and other things. But these rascals, they think there is simply rock and sand, nothing else. And they are misleading. What is the reason? This planet is filled up with life, and other planets vacant.
Hari-śauri: They only say it reflects the sunlight.
Prabhupāda: Kick their face with shoes. That is the only reward for them. And foolish persons accepting. Just like sun is illuminating. It doesn't require illumination from any other planet. Similarly, if earth is also illuminating, why does it require moonlight in darkness? This common sense does not come into the brain of these rascals who believe that?
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: In the very complex molecules, very slight probability, practically none, that this could happen by chance. There has to be some intelligence. It is very good argument for chemistry point of view.
Hari-śauri: Even anyone with a little common sense can understand that a very simple thing cannot produce a highly complicated thing. It's such an obvious point, but they have to have so many mathematical equations to accept it.
Prabhupāda: Dictaphone, so many complicated, then it is working.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: And if one slight thing is off...
Prabhupāda: Immediately, work stopped.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: That basic point they find it hard to understand.
Prabhupāda: No. Because they are blind. It is common sense, that you have created the 747. So somebody must have created this, a small insect. This is common sense. You cannot see Him: that is your bad fortune. But somebody has done it.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes, that's our logic.
Devotee: ...he dressed up as Rādhārāṇī too.
Prabhupāda: So do you agree to that? Then how you appreciate it? Indian woman: No, I don't appreciate it.
Prabhupāda: No, no, no. It is a common sense. He, later on, he became God, by worshiping Kali, is it not?
Dr. Sukla: He was cursed by Kali.
Prabhupāda: No, he was a big worshiper of Kali. And he was meat-eater also, Ma Kali's prasāda, that unless one eats that prasādam he cannot become a devotee. So this was his position, that he worshiped Kali, and later on by worshiping Kali... His picture is there, mother Kali's embracing. And he also preached yata mata tata pat: "Whatever path you take, accept, that is all right." Is it not? So do you think it is all right? He worshiped Kali and he said yata mata tata pat.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: We talk sometimes things very complicated, Śrīla Prabhupāda, but Prabhupāda explains it very simply. (laughs)
Prabhupāda: Because I am not scientist. (laughter) Just like I captured immediately, common sense.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: In one of the articles in Back to Godhead, I think Dharmādhyakṣa, he uses different words for these five elements. So we are going to use these elements in our book also, so we wonder, he says for fire "radiant energy" instead of fire. I think it may sound little more...
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Some of the rocks can be similar.
Prabhupāda: So similar, then atmosphere cannot be dissimilar. It is common sense. And this is also bogus, that such a brilliant illuminating planet, it is full of rocks and sand.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: So that mentality has to be changed.
Prabhupāda: Yes. So if even two, three, points we can prove that they're all rascals, then they will change. Simply cheating people and take high salary. This is common sense. Suppose in the laboratory you make one living being. So what is credit to them? The living entities are coming, many millions...
Prabhupāda: That means the living entity is there, he has changed bodies. When a child is grown to become a boy, the father, mother do not think that "My child is no more existing." He knows "My child is existing, but in a different body." This is common sense. So we shall exist, we existed in the past, we are existing now and we shall exist in the future, but in a different body.
Dr. Sharma: Meat-eating is not useful from three points of view.
Prabhupāda: No, no, apart from that. He said that Christ ate fish, therefore we should maintain big, big slaughterhouse. What do you think? Is that good reasoning?
Devotee (2): No, it's demoniac by common sense if you maintain large slaughterhouses, it's completely irreligious.
Prabhupāda: When Christ said "Thou shalt not kill," does it mean that he wanted to maintain slaughterhouse? What is the answer, hm?
Devotee (1): No.
Prabhupāda: Whatever it may be, we are layman, and we follow Kṛṣṇa's instruction that cow, milk is very important, we drink the cow's milk, therefore she is mother. So at least she should be saved from being killed. This is common sense. Apart from other big, big reasoning, we take it, Kṛṣṇa says go-rakṣya, so we take it. Besides that, so far vegetables are concerned, Kṛṣṇa says that patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ yo me bhaktyā prayacchati: (BG 9.26) "If anyone offers Me even patram," patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyam,"I eat them." So we take Kṛṣṇa's prasādam.
Prabhupāda: Sadaiva, on account of his love... That is a very common sense. If you love somebody, wherever you are, you are seeing your lover, "When I shall meet him, where he is, what he is doing?" That was the gopīs' business. Kṛṣṇa was on the pasturing ground, and gopīs are crying at home that "Kṛṣṇa's foot is so soft, and He is walking in the fields barefooted.
Prabhupāda: That's all right, transmigration.
Guest (2): The living entity changed bodies.
Prabhupāda: Yes. This is common sense. If they cannot understand this commonsense affair, then how they are educated?
Dr. Sharma: Vāsāṁsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya (BG 2.22).
Prabhupāda: Yes. Common sense. And we are practically experiencing. When the child has grown to become a young man, the mother does not cry, "Oh, my child is gone." She knows, she knows that "Here is my child. Simply he has changed his body." So this is a fact, that we are changing bodies but we are eternal. This is the conclusion. Tathā dehāntara-prāptir dhīras tatra na muhyati (BG 2.13). So unless one is properly educated, where is the talk of advancing? So this is the beginning of spiritual education, to understand that the living entity is eternal and the body is changing.
Mr. Boyd: There's a saying that's printed on a piece of stationery I get from one of my supply houses of a particular piece of equipment this man designs and sells. And on the bottom he indicates, "Somebody has to lead."
Prabhupāda: Yes. So this is a commonsense philosophy, that the earth is there, everything is coming out of earth. As mother is giving birth to so many children, similarly the earth is giving birth to so many children. So the children are there, the mother is there, and where is the father? But these rascals, they say "Without father." Is it possible for the mother to give children without father?
Prabhupāda: There is a song in Bengal that formerly anything European, sāheb, that is good. So one person is selling meat, flesh of dog. Flesh of dog nobody takes, at least in India. So he said that "This is not ordinary dog. This is the dog which was killed by Viceroy, that dog. And because Viceroy killed it, therefore it has become nice dog. You can eat it." So, anything these so-called scientists said, that is to be accepted. Without any common sense. This is your intelligence. But I am fool Indian, I don't believe it. (laughter) I immediately capture the point, why this rascal is talking of Arizona? That means the whole business is going on in Arizona.
Rāmeśvara: No one thinks like that.
Prabhupāda: They are all rascals, therefore I say. They have no common sense, all rascals, dull. By eating meat they are... They may be like tigers or dogs, but they are not human beings. They may have strength of a tiger or barking capacity like a dog, but they are not human being. Useless. They cannot be used for anything human benefit, useless. We should take them like that, that "You may be a tiger, you may be a lion, you may be a dog, but you are not a human being.
Jayatīrtha: Nothing should be wasted.
Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa has sent you His grain. You cannot waste it. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Live that way. And Kṛṣṇa is providing so much facilities for becoming Kṛṣṇa conscious, and why should we deviate and spoil this life, take the risk of again going into the cycle of birth and death? Commonsense affair. We have got the good, greatest opportunity to solve this problem of repetition of birth. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti (BG 4.9). And only for little sense gratification we are going to sacrifice so great opportunity of life? This much education is wanted.
Prabhupāda: Again scripture, why do you bring scripture?
Mike Robinson: Well, I'm referring to your scripture, not...
Prabhupāda: Not my scripture, it is common sense, talking.
Mike Robinson: Yes, but everything that you, because in...
Prabhupāda: No, forget that everything, come to the common platform of understanding. The animal is eating, you are eating, the animal sleeping, you are sleeping. The animal is defending, you are defending. The animal is having sex, you have sex.
Mike Robinson: But you were a chemist yourself, were you not, in secular life before you took up the position you have...?
Prabhupāda: It doesn't require to become a very big chemist. Any common sense man can do it. Of course, I was chemist in my previous life.
Mike Robinson: So presumably you think that that science is also important, even if scientists are being dull-headed.
Prabhupāda: The important so far—not all-important. Not all-important.
Mike Robinson: I see. Can I come back to a question that is interesting me, and that is when we were differing a few minutes ago, you were saying don't bother, you know, don't bring the scriptures in, use common sense. But what part do the scriptures have in your religion? How important are they?
Prabhupāda: Our religion is science. As we, when we speak, that a child grows a boy, it is science, it is not religion. Every child grows to become a boy.
Harikeśa: (laughs) They have to give up.
Prabhupāda: Analogy, the more the points of similarities are there, it is perfect. That is the logical conclusion. Everything is there similar, why you should deny the other? How rascaldom it is. Common sense.
Hari-śauri: He was a little bit confused because first of all you quoted śāstra, said everything was from śāstra. Then again you said "Forget the śāstra; this is logic." (laughter) He couldn't figure out how they both came into play. And then at the end you said that religion is logic.
Prabhupāda: Yes, that is religion. If you have to accept the supreme authority, then as soon as you violate you are punishable. Very common sense.
Similarly, whatever comforts we are getting, from the nature's gift, you say that is arrangement of the father. Mayādhyakṣena prakṛtiḥ sūyate sacarācaram (BG 9.10). Clearly said. Father gives order, "Nature, do this way, do this way. He's disobeying, then punish him like this, that's all. Don't give him anything. Punish him." Just like nature is not supplying water. The order of Kṛṣṇa, "Let them suffer for some time." This is going on. You cannot check it, father's order. Common sense.
Hari-śauri: I'll try the grapes. If they are not sour, I'll bring some.
Prabhupāda: So you keep that.... (break) They are opening hospital for giving medicine to the shirt and coat, and where is the man's medicine? Washing the shirt and coat, laundry work. They do not know that the man within the shirt and coat requires different treatment, different, he has got different necessities, different life. If I simply wash the shirt and coat, does it mean the man is happy? They have no common sense even. "Yes, we are supplying petrol to the car.
Jñānagamya: They say the chemicals are giving off gases when they are feeding(?) the earth. They take the ground from Mars.
Prabhupāda: Just see so many bogus words they manufacture to make believe. Because they are scientist, they'll talk all big, big words which we cannot understand. So you cannot argue. (talks gibberish) Like that. By common sense question, that they are simply finding out rocks and sand, and again they are saying somebody has bombed. The first... (coughing) If there is bomb, then there is fight; so if there is fight, there must be human being.
Atreya Ṛṣi: Because Kṛṣṇa is missing. They don't accept Kṛṣṇa.
Prabhupāda: No, they should have at least common sense. But they have no common sense. Kṛṣṇa is far away from here, for these rascals, but at least they should have common sense. And that also they have not. Even they have not common sense.
Harikeśa: They are all wanting material things. Like in Bhagavad-gītā, what is the verse, traiguṇya-viṣayā vedāḥ? Kṛṣṇa is asking Arjuna to rise above the scriptures, the flowery words of the Vedas.
Prabhupāda: They are not concerned with the Bhagavad-gītā. You cannot quote from Bhagavad-gītā to instruct these rascals. You have to talk with them with common sense. Their charge is, what is their charge? That you are engaged in ritualistic ceremonies?
Nava-yauvana: Yes.
Prabhupāda: A seven-years-old boy lifting the mountain. That is mythology. When Kṛṣṇa shows something wonderful, that is mythology. Mythology, Vyāsadeva has written mythology. And big, big ācāryas, Rāmānujācārya and Madhvācārya, big, big, Caitanya Mahāprabhu, they have studied this mythology and given their comments. Another common sense is that there are hundreds and thousands and millions planets.
Prabhupāda: They never thought, "Why Guru Mahārāja gave us instruction so many things, why he did not say that this man should be ācārya?" They wanted to create artificially somebody ācārya and everything failed. They did not consider even with common sense that if Guru Mahārāja wanted to appoint somebody as ācārya, why did he not say? He said so many things, and this point he missed? The real point? And they insist upon it. They declared some unfit person to become ācārya. Then another man came, then another, ācārya, another ācārya. So better remain a foolish person perpetually to be directed by Guru Mahārāja.
Prabhupāda: Twelve lakhs. So by selling my books. And I have sent him more than four lakhs, five lakhs from foreign countries. This is my fault. Similarly, in Bombay we are spending every month seven lakhs regularly. That is coming from foreign countries. And they are thinking that I'm taking bribe and acting as C.I.A. And C.I.A. have become Vaiṣṇavas with long śikhā and giving up all facilities of life and they are dancing with the C.I.A. People have no common sense that C.I.A. agent could stay in a nice hotel and enjoy life. Why so much vairāgya? Even my Godbrothers said that American government has given me two crores of rupees.
Prabhupāda: What kind of body he'll get next? That is judged by the superior authority. Just like in the office a person is promoted. So his record is examined, how he has worked honestly to the interest of the establishment. All this consideration. Then he's given increment of salary or promotion to higher post. This is common sense. So it is not accident. A man is born from the very beginning, a rich man's son. That does not mean that it is accident. Daiva-netreṇa.
Mr. Saxena: But Swamiji, mostly educated persons, Ph.D, D.Litt., M.A., postgraduates, they are the followers of this.
Prabhupāda: Therefore in the Bhagavad-gītā it is said, māyayāpahṛta-jñānā. They are supposed to be very learned but actually they're fools, māyayāpahṛta-jñānā. These so-called educated, they are bereft of knowledge. They have no common sense. That I was asking this debauch, as God. That also ignorance. He does not know what is God.
Guest (1): Yes, that's the main source. Because I inquired with him that whether it is not something to do with CIA, wherefrom your money comes?
Prabhupāda: Just see how foolish. The CIA, American CIA, they will pay us, (laughter) and these boys, CIA boys, will come and dance with me. (laughter) Just understand how these Indians have become rascals. They have no common sense.
Dr. Patel: Śrī Śaṅkarācārya also said bhaja govindaṁ bhaja govindaṁ bhaja govindam...
Prabhupāda: That's all right. One who says... We are studying from our common sense. Veda means knowledge and anta means the last. And Kṛṣṇa says, vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyaḥ (BG 15.15). So unless you know Kṛṣṇa, there is no question of Vedānta. There may be Veda...
Guest (4): Knowledge.
Guest (2): Lord Jesus Christ, the son of God, he's a person. His father must be person.
Prabhupāda: Yes. This is common sense. If son of God, if the son has form, how the father hasn't got form? What do you say? I'm asking you. This English boy. How the father can be formless? Christ says that he's the son of God. Is it not?
Englishman: He said he was, yes.
| Page Title: | Common sense (Conversations 1976) |
| Compiler: | Sahadeva, Gopinath |
| Created: | 08 of Mar, 2010 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=61, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 61 |