Go to Vanipedia | Go to Vanisource | Go to Vanimedia


Vaniquotes - the compiled essence of Vedic knowledge


If you simply understand this science, then you become liberated. It is open order. Simply by understanding, even not engaging yourself in transcendental service of the Lord, simply by understanding the process of appearance and disappearance of Krsna

Expressions researched:
"if you simply understand this science, then you become liberated. It is open order. Simply by understanding, even not engaging yourself in transcendental service of the Lord, simply by understanding the process of appearance and disappearance"

Lectures

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

There is a science of God by which you can understand how God appears, disappears, how He acts, how He works. Everything is there, but if you are not interested that does not mean that the science of God is false or there is no such science. There is. You must be interested to know; then you can understand. And if you simply understand this science, then you become liberated. It is open order. Simply by understanding, even not engaging yourself in transcendental service of the Lord, simply by understanding the process of appearance and disappearance. So why don't you try that?
Lecture on BG 4.7-10 -- Los Angeles, January 6, 1969:

Prabhupāda: So there are some protagonists. They say that God cannot come personally. Why? Why God should be restricted? Is God under your regulation or restriction? Then what kind of God He is? Yes. God can come personally out of His compassion. That is possible. Yes. And He comes. He says here in this verse that "I come." But it is not that somebody will imitate and he will say that "I am God." No. That also not. You have to test actually. That test, if you have got, if you are conversant with the principles of God appearance, disappearance, incarnation, then you can understand who is a pretender and who is actually representative of God, by action.

There are... Just like Kṛṣṇa is accepted as the Supreme Personality of Godhead by His actions, wonderful actions, not that He pretended and cheated some people that "I am God." Actually, from the beginning of His appearance, He played, I mean to say, uncommon activities. Just like at the age of seven years old He lifted the Govardhana Hill. There are so many instances. If you read Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, life of Kṛṣṇa in the Tenth Canto, there is description. And in the Battle of Kurukṣetra, the Bhagavad-gītā. So by His activities, by His knowledge, by His opulence—everything is there. Nobody is supposed to be cheated by a pretender if he is actually intelligent. Go on.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "The principles of the Bhagavad-gītā were spoken to Arjuna, and for that matter, to other highly elevated persons, because they were highly advanced compared to ordinary men in other parts of the world. Two plus two equals four. This is a mathematical principle, and it is true both in the infant's arithmetic class and in the master's degree class as well. Still, there are higher and lower mathematics. In all incarnations of the Lord, therefore, the same principles are taught, but they appear to be higher and lower under various circumstances. The higher principles of religion begin with the acceptance of the four orders and the four ranks of social life, as will be explained later. The whole purpose of the mission of incarnations is to arouse Kṛṣṇa consciousness everywhere."

Eight: "In order to deliver the pious and to annihilate the miscreants, as well as to reestablish the principles of religion, I advent Myself millennium after millennium."

Nine: "One who knows the transcendental nature of My appearance and activities does not upon leaving the body take his birth again in this material world, but attains My eternal abode, O Arjuna."

Prabhupāda: This is very nice. If one can understand the principles of appearance and disappearance of God, His activities, so simply by understanding these principles he will be liberated. It is said here that after quitting this body, he is no more coming to take birth again in this material world. So just like a layman does not know how the sun appears and disappears, but an astronomer, he knows very well the movements of the sun, moon, and other planets' appearance and disappearance. This is a science, astronomy. Similarly, there is a science of God by which you can understand how God appears, disappears, how He acts, how He works. Everything is there, but if you are not interested that does not mean that the science of God is false or there is no such science. There is. You must be interested to know; then you can understand. And if you simply understand this science, then you become liberated. It is open order. Simply by understanding, even not engaging yourself in transcendental service of the Lord, simply by understanding the process of appearance and disappearance. So why don't you try that? Go on. Purport.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Purport: "The Lord's descent from His transcendental abode is already explained in the sixth verse. One who can understand the truth of the appearance of the Personality of Godhead is already liberated from material bondage, and therefore he returns to the kingdom of God immediately after quitting his present material body. Such liberation of the living entity from material bondage is not at all easy. The impersonalist and the yogi attain liberation only after much trouble and many, many births. Even then their liberation is..."

Prabhupāda: Try to understand bondage, what is bondage. We are thinking we are very, we are free. We are declaring that "We belong to the free nation" or "free community," or everyone is seeking after freedom. But nobody is free. Nobody is free. Everyone is under the stringent laws of nature. So bondage means to remain under the condition of material laws. That is called bondage.

Just like people are trying for so many years to go to the moon planet. The Russian and the American scientists are competing. But they are so bound up, they go some, say, thousands and thousands of miles up, again come back. Just see how they are bound up. You cannot go. So this is the nearest planet, and there are so many other planets also. So you cannot go by your whims or by your will. This is called bondage.

But if you become free—when you are in spiritual understanding, then you are free—then you can travel anywhere. The perfect yogi, he can travel in any planet. That is freedom. That is little freedom. We have no idea what is the freedom of the spirit soul. That we have forgotten because for, from time immemorial we have been bound up under the laws of material nature, so we do not know what is freedom. But there are information of the freedom, how a spirit soul can become free. Go on.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "The impersonalists and the yogis attain liberation only after much trouble and many, many births. Even then the liberation they achieve, merging into the impersonal Brahmajyoti effulgence of the Lord, is only partial, and there is a risk of returning again to this material world. But the devotee, simply by understanding the transcendental nature of the body and the activities of the Lord, attains the abode of the Lord after ending this body and does not run the risk of returning again to this material world. In the Brahma-saṁhitā it is stated that the Lord has many, many forms and incarnations. Advaitam acyutam anādim ananta-rūpam (Bs. 5.33). Although there are many transcendental forms of the Lord, they are still one and the same Supreme Personality of Godhead. One has to understand this fact with conviction although it is incomprehensible to mundane scholars and empiric philosophers. As stated in the Vedas: eko devo nitya-līlānurakto bhakta-vyāpī hṛdy antarātmā: 'The one Supreme Personality of Godhead is eternally engaged in many many transcendental forms in relationships with His unalloyed devotees.' This Vedic version is confirmed in this verse of the Bhagavad-gītā personally by the Lord. Anyone who accepts this truth on the strength of the authority of the Vedas and of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and who does not waste time in philosophical speculation obtains the highest perfectional stage of liberation."

Prabhupāda: Yes. This is very important point. The process of understanding knowledge. The modern tendency is to understand by dint of one's sense perception. That is not possible. There are many things, especially spiritual matters; nobody can understand by simple speculation. So one has to accept the authority. So according to Vedic culture, the Vedas are the authority. If there is some information in the Vedas, you accept it, authority. That is very nice system.

Just like a child. If he wants to understand something out of his own intelligence, it is very difficult to understand, but if he asks his parents, "Mother, what is this?" mother says, "My dear child, this is this." So he understands immediately, "Oh." Because mother is the authority. Mother will not cheat the child. Similarly, those who are liberated persons... Vedas means the knowledge given by the liberated person, by God. So if you accept it, then you get the knowledge immediately. You haven't got to make research or philosophical speculation.

That process is deductive process. That process is very nice. So Vedic process means, as it is stated in the Fourth Chapter, that evaṁ paramparā-prāptam (BG 4.2), by disciplic succession, if you try to understand the truth, then you get infallible knowledge. Your purpose is to get knowledge. As soon as you get the knowledge from authority, your knowledge is perfect. But if you want to get the knowledge by your own sense perception, you will never be able to come to the right conclusion; neither it is possible to get knowledge in that process. Go on.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "The Vedic version, tat tvam asi, is actually applied in this case. Anyone who understands Lord Kṛṣṇa to be the Supreme or who says unto the Lord, 'You are the same Supreme Brahman, the Personality of Godhead,' is certainly liberated instantly, and consequently his entrance into the transcendental association of the Lord is guaranteed. In other words, such a faithful devotee of the Lord attains perfection, and this is confirmed by the following Vedic assertion: tam eva viditvāti mṛtyum eti nānyaḥ panthā vidyate ayanāya. One can attain the perfect stage of liberation from birth and death simply by knowing the Lord, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. There is no alternative means, because anyone who does not understand Lord Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Personality of Godhead is surely in the mode of ignorance. Consequently he will not attain salvation simply, so to speak, by licking the outer surface of the bottle of honey or by interpreting the text of the Bhagavad-gītā according to his own mundane scholarship. Such empiric philosophers may assume very important roles in the material world, but they are not necessarily eligible for liberation. Such puffed up mundane scholars have to wait for the causeless mercy of the devotee of the Lord. One should, therefore, accept the principle of Kṛṣṇa consciousness with faith and knowledge, and in this way one can attain the perfection of life."

Ten: "Being freed from attachment, fear and anger, being fully absorbed in Me and taking refuge in Me, many, many persons in the past became purified, and thus they all attained transcendental love for Me."

Purport: "As described above, it is very difficult for a person who is too materially affected to understand the personal nature of the Supreme Absolute Truth. Generally, people who are attached to the bodily concept of life are so absorbed in materialism that it is almost impossible for them to understand how the Supreme can be a person. Such materialists cannot even imagine that there is a transcendental body which is nonperishable, full of knowledge, and eternally blissful. In the materialistic concept, the body is perishable, full of ignorance and completely miserable. Therefore people in general keep this same bodily idea in mind when they are informed of the personal form of the Lord."

Prabhupāda: Yes. When we try to impress people about the personal nature or the personal body of God, generally, we think, "God is a person like me." Therefore they cannot imagine how God... Actually God is not a person like me, but He is a person. That is to be understood. Sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ (Bs. 5.1). He has got body, but He hasn't got body like me.

Just like in the Vedas it is stated, apāni-pādo javano gṛhītaḥ. In the Upaniṣads it is said that "God has no leg, but He can run faster than any one of us." Now, this is superficially contradiction. If He has no leg, then how He can run faster than me? So the adjustment is that He has got leg because He runs. Just like in another place, "God has no hands, but He can accept whatever we offer." There are many such Vedic version.

Now, we have to understand in this way, that He has got His hands, He has got His leg, but not this limited hand or limited leg. In another place in Bhagavad-gītā you'll find. God says that "Whatever is offered to Me in the group of flowers, fruits, vegetables, I accept for eating." Now, if we think that God is far, far away, how He eats? I offer here. How He eats? That means His eating process is different. He can eat even from millions and millions of miles away. So these things are to be understood, that God has got a form, but that form is not exactly our form. If we try to understand God's form as limited as our form, then we'll misunderstand.

In the Brahma-saṁhitā it is said, sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ (Bs. 5.1). His form is eternal, full of bliss and knowledge, just exactly opposite to this form which we have got just now. We can also attain that form. That is being explained here. Go on.

Page Title:If you simply understand this science, then you become liberated. It is open order. Simply by understanding, even not engaging yourself in transcendental service of the Lord, simply by understanding the process of appearance and disappearance of Krsna
Compiler:Krsnadas
Created:13 of Jun, 2012
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=1, Con=0, Let=0
No. of Quotes:1