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Original disciple

Lectures

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

So Arjuna was so serious, and Kṛṣṇa was smiling. (laughs) "Just see the fool, what he is doing." Therefore there was necessity of instructing Bhagavad-gītā. The fool has to be instructed.
Lecture on BG 2.1-10 and Talk -- Los Angeles, November 25, 1968:

Prabhupāda: Here is a technique. The same Kṛṣṇa and same Arjuna, they are talking as friends. Then what was the necessity of Arjuna accepting Kṛṣṇa as spiritual master? The same Arjuna and same Kṛṣṇa, they'll talk, but what is the necessity of accepting as spiritual master? That means after accepting spiritual master he'll not argue. He'll simply accept whatever He says. That is the technique. Friendly talks, equal level, He, Kṛṣṇa was talking something and he was replying. So that argument has no end. But when he accepts Him as spiritual master, there is no more argument. One has to accept whatever He says. Therefore he's accepting as spiritual master. After this, Arjuna will never say, "This is wrong, this is, no," or "I don't agree." No. He'll accept. So acceptance of spiritual master means to accept anything, whatever he says. Therefore one has to select a spiritual master whom he can completely surrender. That is the technique. Veda-vākya. Just like in the Vedic injunction, nobody can deny. Similarly, spiritual master is also representative of Veda. Ācāryavān puruṣo veda. So similarly, it is just like Vedic injunction. So spiritual master has also got the great duty. He has to instruct the disciple in such a way that he may not be misled, and that is not possible because a spiritual master is he who will simply speak from authoritative sources. He'll speak from Bhagavad-gītā, Bhāgavata, or what was spoken by Nārada, Vyāsa, that is his authority. He does not say, "In my opinion it is..." No. Therefore it is perfect, it is coming from the disciplic succession, and if one agrees to such instruction, then he's also perfectly advancing. It is not difficult to understand. So he's accepting. "Now I accept You as my spiritual master. You teach me." Is that the statement? Yes. What is that?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "He offers himself to Kṛṣṇa as a disciple. He wants to stop friendly talks. Kṛṣṇa is therefore the original spiritual master in the science of the Bhagavad-gītā, and Arjuna is the original disciple in understanding the Gītā. How Arjuna understands the Bhagavad-gītā is stated in the Gītā itself, and yet foolish mundane scholars explain that one need not submit to Kṛṣṇa as a person but to the unborn within Kṛṣṇa. There is no difference between Kṛṣṇa's within and without, and one who has no sense of this understanding is the greatest fool, the greatest pretender."

"I can find no means to drive away this grief which is drying up my senses. I will not even be able to destroy it if I win an unrivalled kingdom on the earth with sovereignty like that of the demigods in heaven (BG 2.8).

"Sañjaya said: Having spoken thus, Arjuna, chastiser of enemies, told Kṛṣṇa, 'Govinda, I shall not fight,' and fell silent (BG 2.9).

O descendant of Bharata, at that time Kṛṣṇa, smiling in the midst of both the armies, spoke the following words to the grief-stricken Arjuna (BG 2.10)."

Prabhupāda: So Arjuna was so serious, and Kṛṣṇa was smiling. (laughs) "Just see the fool, what he is doing." Therefore there was necessity of instructing Bhagavad-gītā. The fool has to be instructed. Yes. This is the... He was smiling. This is childish. He was very serious, "Oh." Just like sometimes a child is very serious, and the father is smiling. Yes. So now Bhagavad-gītā will be spoken. He has accepted Kṛṣṇa as spiritual master. Now He'll teach. So what does He teach? Next?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "The Blessed Lord said: While speaking learned words, you are mourning for what is not worthy of grief. Those who are wise lament neither for the living nor the dead (BG 2.11)."

Prabhupāda: This is the first version of Kṛṣṇa as teacher. What is that? Read it again?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "Those who are wise lament neither for the living nor the dead."

Prabhupāda: Yes. Aśocyān anvaśocas tvaṁ prajñā-vādāṁś ca bhāṣase (BG 2.11), that "You are lamenting for a thing which no learned man does. That means you are not learned, but you are talking just like learned man." What is that? "You are talking"?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "While speaking learned words you are..."

Prabhupāda: Yes. "You are speaking learned words, but your behavior shows that you are not learned because you are lamenting on a subject which no learned man laments." Politely He says that "You are not learned, but you are talking just like a learned man." That you will find. Dr. Frog, (laughs) speaking like a very great philosopher. Just like here, that Dr. Radhakrishnan, that says, "It is not to Kṛṣṇa but within Kṛṣṇa." That fool does not know that there is no within or without of Kṛṣṇa. Rather, Kṛṣṇa is within and without. That he does not know. And he's accepted as a very great learned man. Dr. Frog, or Dr. Radhakrishnan. You see? This is going on in the world. They are posing themself as very learned, but... This can be detected by devotees, who is learned and who is not learned. Others cannot detect. Others will be misled. The devotees, they have got such eyes to see that they can immediately discriminate who is a fool, who is learned. There is a story that one man was searching after the truth. So he met some person, saintly person. So he gave him one feather, that "You try to see within the feather who is a human being and who is not." So when he began to see within the feather, he saw, "There is no human being."

Conversations and Morning Walks

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

He said like that?
Room Conversation -- February 3, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Anyone who is preaching God's glories, he is guru. So how can I decry him? He is guru. Tad vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet (MU 1.2.12). Unless one is guru how he can preach about God?

Hari-śauri: Yes. Actually we have a much better appreciation of Jesus than anyone.

Prabhupāda: More yes. Oh, yes.

Hari-śauri: Because we actually understand the value of the guru.

Prabhupāda: We are the greatest Christian. We follow his instruction; we accept him as guru.

Hari-śauri: Yeah. Without following the guru's instructions, there's no question of appreciating who he is or his work.

Prabhupāda: And this word, Jesus, the Christ, it is not?

Hari-śauri: Well, originally they say it was "Jesus of the Christ."

Prabhupāda: (indistinct) Christ means...

Hari-śauri: God.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hari-śauri: So they... Originally it was "Jesus of the Christ," meaning he was son of God.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That Christ is Kṛṣṇa.

Hari-śauri: Yeah. Same word.

Prabhupāda: Hm. Krisht, Krisht. Christ means Krisht, Krisht. Krishta is vulgar expression of Kṛṣṇa. No, from his teaching, we can understand he is representative of God.

Hari-śauri: Oh, yes. What he was teaching is exactly in accord with what we're doing.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hari-śauri: I was reading some of his instructions, what he was giving to his original disciples. And he gave them examples, that "The birds, they are not worrying about their food. God is supplying. So you should not worry for your food. You should simply go out and preach."

Prabhupāda: He said like that?

Hari-śauri: Yes. He said, "So what should you worry if you go out and preach? Do you think that God will not give to you?"

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hari-śauri: "He is giving to the birds."

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is, our mission.

Hari-śauri: Yes. And he told them, "You should not worry for your food, for your clothing, for somewhere to stay. If you preach then God will look after all those things."

Prabhupāda: Yes. That's a fact.

Hari-śauri: And he had them give up everything. They had a common pool. Anyone that came to join him, they would pool all their resources and share it among them. Anybody who was with nothing, he would get something. They would get food and clothing, like that.

Prabhupāda: We are planning like that. "Come, take your food. Reside comfortably. Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa."

Hari-śauri: Yes. We have no objection for...

Prabhupāda: No.

Hari-śauri: ...feeding. He was an actual Vaiṣṇava.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Hari-śauri: Teaching Vaiṣṇava principles.

Prabhupāda: If he has taken sometimes fish, there was no way. What can be done? Not for his sense gratification.

Hari-śauri: Even that's not certain, that he took fish anyway.

Prabhupāda: Sometimes it is said.

Hari-śauri: Well, it mentions that they distributed foodstuffs to a lot of people, fish and bread, 'cause that's all that was available.

Prabhupāda: Yes, what can be done?

Hari-śauri: And because it wasn't always easy to get good water, there's a very cheap kind of wine. It's not actually very alcoholic. It's very, very cheap. Then they used to drink that because there's no good water.

Prabhupāda: That is not plea that we shall drink bottle after bottle.

Correspondence

1977 Correspondence

I am still prepared to accept you as my original disciple and if there is anything wrong, I am prepared to try and correct it so that your life may not be spoiled.
Letter to Madhudvisa -- Bombay 3 January, 1977:

My dear Madhudvisa,

Please accept my blessings.

Srimati Govinda dasi is here and I have heard everything from her about yourself. Therefore, immediately after hearing from her I have sent you the following telegram: My dear son Madhudvisa please immediately come and live with me letter follows. So, when you come here we shall talk in detail and according to the conditions we shall arrange everything. There is no worry. I am still prepared to accept you as my original disciple and if there is anything wrong, I am prepared to try and correct it so that your life may not be spoiled. Please therefore come here immediately and live with me.

I hope this will meet you in good health.

Your ever well-wisher,

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

ACBS/jda

Page Title:Original disciple
Compiler:Visnu Murti
Created:12 of Feb, 2012
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=1, Con=1, Let=1
No. of Quotes:3