Man-made satellites and mechanical space vehicles will never be able to carry human beings to the planets of outer space. Men cannot even go on their much-advertised trips to the moon, for, as we have already stated, the atmosphere on such higher planets is different from the atmosphere here on earth. Each and every planet has its particular atmosphere, and if one wants to travel to any particular planet within the material universe, one has to have a material body exactly adapted to the climatic condition of that planet. For instance, if one wants to go from India to Europe, where the climatic condition is different, one has to change his dress accordingly. Similarly, a complete change of body is necessary if one wants to go to the transcendental planets of Vaikuṇṭha.
Man-made (Books)
Srimad-Bhagavatam
SB Canto 1
There are fourteen Manus in one day of Brahmā, and the Manu referred to herein is the seventh Manu, who is one of the prajāpatis (those who create progeny), and he is the son of the sun-god. He is known as the Vaivasvata Manu. He had ten sons, and Mahārāja Ikṣvāku is one of them. Mahārāja Ikṣvāku also learned bhakti-yoga as taught in the Bhagavad-gītā from his father, Manu, who got it from his father, the sun-god. Later on the teaching of the Bhagavad-gītā came down by disciplic succession from Mahārāja Ikṣvāku, but in course of time the chain was broken by unscrupulous persons, and therefore it again had to be taught to Arjuna on the Battlefield of Kurukṣetra. So all the Vedic literatures are current from the very beginning of creation of the material world, and thus the Vedic literatures are known as apauruṣeya (not made by man). The Vedic knowledge was spoken by the Lord and first heard by Brahmā, the first created living being within the universe.
Every living being, whether a man or an animal or a bird, thinks that he is free by himself, but actually no one is free from the severe laws of the Lord. The laws of the Lord are severe because they cannot be disobeyed in any circumstance. The man-made laws may be evaded by cunning outlaws, but in the codes of the supreme lawmaker there is not the slightest possibility of neglecting the laws. A slight change in the course of God-made law can bring about a massive danger to be faced by the lawbreaker. Such laws of the Supreme are generally known as the codes of religion, under different conditions, but the principle of religion everywhere is one and the same, namely, obey the orders of the Supreme God, the codes of religion. That is the condition of material existence.
The secular state, or the godless state, allows the citizens to break the laws of God, but restricts them from disobeying the laws of the state; the result is that the people in general suffer more by breaking the laws of God than by obeying the imperfect laws made by man. Every man is imperfect by constitution under conditions of material existence, and there is not the least possibility that even the most materially advanced man can enact perfect legislation. On the other hand, there is no such imperfection in the laws of God.
Material advancement of civilization means advancement of the reactions of the threefold miseries due to celestial influence, earthly reactions and bodily or mental pains. By the celestial influence of the stars there are many calamities like excessive heat, cold, rains or no rains, and the aftereffects are famine, disease and epidemic. The aggregate result is agony of the body and the mind. Man-made material science cannot do anything to counteract these threefold miseries. They are all punishments from the superior energy of māyā under the direction of the Supreme Lord. Therefore our constant touch with the Lord by devotional service can give us relief without our being disturbed in the discharge of our human duties.
The beauty and opulence of the world can be enhanced by the grace of the Lord and not by any man-made planning. When the Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa was present on this earth, the impressions of the special signs of His lotus feet were stamped on the dust, and as a result of this specific grace, the whole earth was made as perfect as possible. In other words, the rivers, the seas, the forests, the hills and the mines, which are the supplying agents for the necessities of men and animals, were fully discharging their respective duties. Therefore the riches of the world surpassed all the riches of all other planets in the three planetary systems of the universe.
The principles of religion do not stand on some dogmas or man-made formulas, but they stand on four primary regulative observances, namely austerity, cleanliness, mercy and truthfulness. The mass of people must be taught to practice these principles from childhood. Austerity means to accept voluntarily things which may not be very comfortable for the body but are conducive for spiritual realization, for example, fasting. Fasting twice or four times a month is a sort of austerity which may be voluntarily accepted for spiritual realization only, and not for any other purposes, political or otherwise. Fastings which are meant not for self-realization but for some other purposes are condemned in the Bhagavad-gītā (17.5-6).
SB Canto 2
When the human being gives up the process of hearing about the all-pervading Personality of Godhead, he becomes victim to hearing rubbish transmitted by man-made machines. Machinery is not bad because through the machine one can take advantage of hearing about the Lord, but because machinery is used for ulterior purposes, it is creating rapid degradation in the standard of human civilization.
Any living being, beginning from the Brahmās (there are innumerable Brahmās in innumerable universes) to the insignificant ant, are all born in darkness, and they require factual light from the Lord to see Him directly, just as the sun can be seen only by the direct light of the sun. No lamp or man-made torchlight, however powerful it may be, can help one see the sun. The sun reveals itself. Therefore the action of different energies of the Lord, or the Personality of Godhead Himself, can be realized by the light manifested by the causeless mercy of the Lord. The impersonalists say that God cannot be seen. God can be seen by the light of God and not by man-made speculations. Here this light is specifically mentioned as vidyāt, which is an order by the Lord to Brahmā. This direct order of the Lord is a manifestation of His internal energy, and this particular energy is the means of seeing the Lord face to face. Not only Brahmā but anyone who may be graced by the Lord to see such merciful direct internal energy can also realize the Personality of Godhead without any mental speculation.
SB Canto 4
It appears that not only was the palace surrounded by compounds and gardens with varieties of trees, but there were small man-made lakes also, where the water was full of many-colored lotus flowers and lilies, and to get down to the lakes there were staircases made of valuable jewels such as emeralds. By the beautifully positioned garden houses there were many luxuriant birds, such as swans, cakravākas, kāraṇḍavas and cranes. These birds generally do not live in filthy places like crows do. The atmosphere of the city was very healthy and beautiful; it can simply be imagined from its description.
The varṇāśrama-dharma, the institution of four varṇas and four āśramas, is very scientifically designed. As stated in Bhagavad-gītā, varṇāśrama-dharma is not a man-made institution, but is God-made. In this narration it is clearly indicated that the brāhmaṇas used to control the royal power. When an evil king like Vena ruled, the brāhmaṇas would kill him through their brahminical powers and would select a proper ruler by testing his qualifications. In other words, the brāhmaṇas, the intelligent men or great sages, would control the monarchical powers.
In Vedic civilization the husband and wife were not separated by such man-made laws as divorce. We should understand the necessity for maintaining family life in human society and should thus abolish this artificial law known as divorce. The husband and wife should live in Kṛṣṇa consciousness and follow in the footsteps of Lakṣmī-Nārāyaṇa or Kṛṣṇa-Rukmiṇī. In this way peace and harmony can be possible within this world.
When a person within a state acts according to the laws and licenses of the government, he does not become involved in criminal activities. Man-made laws, however, are always defective because they are made by men who are prone to committing mistakes, being illusioned, cheating and having imperfect senses. The Vedic instructions are different because they do not have these four defects.
SB Canto 5
The word dharma is meant for human beings and is never used in connection with beings inferior to human beings, such as animals. Unfortunately, without being guided by the Supreme Lord, human beings sometimes manufacture a process of dharma by concoction. Actually dharma cannot be made by man. Dharmaṁ tu sākṣād bhagavat-praṇītam. (SB 6.3.19) Dharma is given by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, just as the law is given by the state government. Man-made dharma has no meaning. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam refers to man-made dharma as kaitava-dharma, cheating religion. The Supreme Lord sends an avatāra (incarnation) to teach human society the proper way to execute religious principles. Such religious principles are bhakti-mārga.
The personal weapon used by Lord Kṛṣṇa, the disc, is called hari-cakra, the disc of Hari. This cakra is the wheel of time. It expands from the beginning of the atoms up to the time of Brahmā's death, and it controls all activities. It is always revolving and spending the lives of the living entities, from Lord Brahmā down to an insignificant blade of grass. Thus one changes from infancy, to childhood, to youth and maturity, and thus one approaches the end of life. It is impossible to check this wheel of time. This wheel is very exacting because it is the personal weapon of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Sometimes the conditioned soul, fearing the approach of death, wants to worship someone who can save him from imminent danger. Yet he does not care for the Supreme Personality of Godhead, whose weapon is the indefatigable time factor. The conditioned soul instead takes shelter of a man-made god described in unauthorized scriptures. Such gods are like buzzards, vultures, herons and crows. Vedic scriptures do not refer to them. Imminent death is like the attack of a lion, and neither vultures, buzzards, crows nor herons can save one from such an attack. One who takes shelter of unauthorized man-made gods cannot be saved from the clutches of death.
In Bhagavad-gītā it is stated, mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti te: (BG 7.14) whoever fully surrenders unto Kṛṣṇa can be saved from the cruel hands of material nature. The conditioned soul, however, sometimes wants to take shelter of a demigod, man-made god, pseudo incarnation or bogus svāmī or yogī. All these cheaters claim to follow religious principles, and all this has become very popular in this age of Kali. There are many pāṣaṇḍīs who, without referring to the śāstras, pose themselves as incarnations, and foolish people follow them. Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, has left behind Him Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and Bhagavad-gītā. Not referring to these authorized scriptures, rascals take shelter of man-made scriptures and try to compete with Lord Kṛṣṇa. That is the greatest difficulty one encounters when trying to promote spiritual consciousness in human society.
SB Canto 6
A person who commits murder is envious of himself and also the person he has killed, for the result of committing murder is that he will be arrested and hanged. If one transgresses the laws of a man-made government, he may escape being killed by the state, but one cannot escape the laws of God. A killer of any animal must be killed in his next life by the same animal. This is the law of nature.
SB Canto 7
Telescopes and the other imperfect instruments of scientists are inadequate for evaluating the upper planetary system. Although such instruments are needed because the vision of the so-called scientists is imperfect, the instruments themselves are also imperfect. Therefore the upper planets cannot be appraised by imperfect men using imperfect man-made instruments. Direct information received from the Vedic literature, however, is perfect, We therefore cannot accept the statement that there are no opulent residences on planets other than this earth.
SB Canto 10.1 to 10.13
At present also, various demoniac states all over the world are increasing their military power in many ways, and the whole situation has become distressful. Therefore Kṛṣṇa has appeared by His name, in the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement, which will certainly diminish the burden of the world. Philosophers, religionists, and people in general must take to this movement very seriously, for man-made plans and devices will not help bring peace on earth. The transcendental sound Hare Kṛṣṇa is not different from the person Kṛṣṇa.
Since scientists are now enamored of theories about the chemical composition of the body, we have challenged many scientists to make even a small egg. The chemicals in eggs can be found very easily. There is a white substance and a yellow substance, covered by a shell, and modern scientists should very easily be able to duplicate all this. But even if they were to prepare such an egg and put it in an incubator, this man-made chemical egg would not produce a chicken. The soul must be added because there is no question of a chemical combination for life. Those who think that life can exist without the soul have therefore been described here as abudhaḥ, foolish rascals.
Lord Brahmā had gone away for only a moment of his time, but when he returned, a year of human time had passed. On different planets, the calculation of time is different. To give an example, a man-made satellite may orbit the earth in an hour and twenty-five minutes and thus complete one full day, although a day ordinarily takes twenty-four hours for those living on earth. Therefore, what was but a moment for Brahmā was one year on earth. Kṛṣṇa continued to expand Himself in so many forms for one year, but by the arrangement of yogamāyā no one could understand this but Balarāma.
Sri Caitanya-caritamrta
CC Adi-lila
Our modern civilization is sustained by scientific arrangements devised by many great scientific brains. We can just imagine, therefore, the gigantic brain whose arrangements sustain the gravity of the unlimited number of planets and satellites and who creates the unlimited space in which they float. If one considers the intelligence needed to orbit man-made satellites, one cannot be fooled into thinking that there is not a gigantic intelligence responsible for the arrangements of the various planetary systems. There is no reason to believe that all the gigantic planets float in space without the superior arrangement of a superior intelligence. This subject is clearly dealt with in the Bhagavad-gītā (15.13), where the Personality of Godhead says, "I enter into each planet, and by My energy they stay in orbit." Were the planets not held in the grip of the Personality of Godhead, they would all scatter like dust in the air. Modern scientists can only impractically explain this inconceivable strength of the Personality of Godhead.
CC Madhya-lila
If one actually wants to take a Ph.D. degree from Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu and be approved by Rāmānanda Rāya, he must first become free from all material designations (sarvopādhi-vinirmuktaṁ tat-paratvena nirmalam (CC Madhya 19.170)). A person who identifies with his material body cannot understand these talks between Śrī Rāmānanda Rāya and Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Man-made religious scriptures and transcendental philosophical talks are quite different. Indeed, there is a gulf of difference between the two. This subject matter has been very diligently described by Śrīman Madhvācārya.
Other Books by Srila Prabhupada
Easy Journey to Other Planets
Renunciation Through Wisdom
It is impossible to be exempted from the adversities caused by mentally concocted beliefs. According to man-made laws, if one person murders another he is condemned to the gallows, but no action is taken against a man for killing animals. Such is not the law of providence. The law of God is such that it punishes the killers of both man and animals; both acts of murder are penalized.
The mundane processes for elevation are, after all, initiated by intelligent human brains. They are like man-made canals: useful for easy transportation from one place to another, but otherwise of limited utility. Human efforts are imperfect, and therefore they keep us in the material world.
Message of Godhead
What the Personality of Godhead is, He Himself has explained in Bhagavad-gītā. How many common men have written their autobiographies, and how enthusiastically we have read and accepted them. But when the Personality of Godhead Himself tells about Himself, we cannot take it as it is. This is nothing but our misfortune. On the other hand, we try to drag concocted meanings out of the simple passages of Bhagavad-gītā to establish some man-made idea which is never supported by Bhagavad-gītā.
Light of the Bhagavata
According to Vedic culture, learned men consider all natural products, such as food grains, fruits, flowers, and milk, to be God-sent. No one can manufacture these things in man-made factories, however scientifically advanced people may be. People can make preparations of such God-sent foodstuffs, but they cannot manufacture the natural ingredients. Spiritually cultured men, therefore, feel obliged to the Lord when they get sufficient natural foodstuffs by the grace of the Lord.
| Page Title: | Man-made (Books) |
| Compiler: | Visnu Murti, ChandrasekharaAcarya |
| Created: | 08 of Mar, 2012 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=20, CC=2, OB=5, Lec=0, Con=0, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 27 |