Religious reformers

Expressions researched:
"religious reformer" |"religious reformers"

BG Chapters 13 - 18

Sometimes such demons take up the role of preacher, mislead the people, and become known as religious reformers or as incarnations of God.

BG 16.17, Translation and Purport:

Self-complacent and always impudent, deluded by wealth and false prestige, they sometimes proudly perform sacrifices in name only, without following any rules or regulations.

Thinking themselves all in all, not caring for any authority or scripture, the demoniac sometimes perform so-called religious or sacrificial rites. And since they do not believe in authority, they are very impudent. This is due to illusion caused by accumulating some wealth and false prestige. Sometimes such demons take up the role of preacher, mislead the people, and become known as religious reformers or as incarnations of God. They make a show of performing sacrifices, or they worship the demigods, or manufacture their own God. Common men advertise them as God and worship them, and by the foolish they are considered advanced in the principles of religion, or in the principles of spiritual knowledge. They take the dress of the renounced order of life and engage in all nonsense in that dress. Actually there are so many restrictions for one who has renounced this world. The demons, however, do not care for such restrictions. They think that whatever path one can create is one's own path; there is no such thing as a standard path one has to follow. The word avidhi-pūrvakam, meaning a disregard for the rules and regulations, is especially stressed here. These things are always due to ignorance and illusion.

Message of Godhead

Śaṅkarācārya, the great monist philosopher and religious reformer, said that simply for the matter of the stomach, one may not adopt the dress of a renunciant.

Message of Godhead 2:

All the various actions that we perform in this world beget various specific results. When we begin to enjoy the fruits of such performances, these further actions also produce, in their turn, further specific results as a matter of course. Thus, we have a big tree of these actions and reactions with their respective fruits. And as the enjoyers of these fruits, we become bound up in the network of such work and its fruit. Birth after birth, the spirit soul becomes bound up in the process of producing such fruits and enjoying the same.

While passing through various of the 8,400,000 species of life, the spirit soul is overwhelmed by the suffering created by those reactions. We have very little chance of escaping this bondage of action and reaction—work and its fruitive results. Even after abdicating all work and accepting the life of a sannyāsī, or renunciant, one still has to work, if only for his hungry stomach. And thus Śaṅkarācārya, the great monist philosopher and religious reformer, said that simply for the matter of the stomach, one may not adopt the dress of a renunciant. Therefore, there is no way out—no way to avoid doing work, if only for the belly's sake.

As a result, the Personality of Godhead, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, advises Marshal Arjuna in the following words: "O Arjuna, you must always do your duty. To do something is far better than to do nothing. You cannot even secure your everyday sustenance without doing any work."

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Anyone who does not know what is Bhagavad-gītā and Kṛṣṇa, he is a rascal. He is not a prophet. He's a rascal.

Lecture on BG 7.4 -- Nairobi, October 31, 1975:

Brahmānanda: Kṛṣṇa gives us five gross senses and He wants us to control them. How can we do this?

Prabhupāda: How you are being trained up? You do not know that? Why you are forbidden, "No illicit sex, no meat-eating, no intoxication, no gambling"? This is controlling. If you don't accept this controlling, then you are lost.

Indian man (7): Śrīla Prabhupāda, from time immemorial we see that in India every time there has been a religious reform...

Prabhupāda: Why you are bringing India? Is it meant we are simply for Indian, do you think?

Indian man (7): No, no.

Prabhupāda: Then why bring in India?

Indian man (7): It is not as a nation. I'm just referring it because of the auspiciousness, that every time there has been a religious reformer or a prophet, he has been treated very nicely, but in other parts of the world, prophets or religious reformers have been mistreated.

Prabhupāda: Anyone who does not know what is Bhagavad-gītā and Kṛṣṇa, he is a rascal. He is not a prophet. He's a rascal. Nobody can become prophet without full knowledge of Kṛṣṇa. Not that everyone will become and be a prophet, no. That is stated in the Bhagavad... Na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ prapadyante narādhamāḥ (BG 7.15). Anyone who has not surrendered to Kṛṣṇa, he is a narādhama. How he becomes a prophet? (laughter) Just see. Don't bring so-called prophets. They are all narādhamas, lowest of the mankind—and he is prophet. No. Prophet is not so cheap. Don't be misguided by these rascals. Kṛṣṇa says—it is not our manufacture—the sign, that anyone who does not know about Kṛṣṇa and he has not surrendered to Kṛṣṇa, he is narādhama.

Take for example any of the great religious reformers or ācāryas of any country. In your country, Lord Jesus Christ or Lord Buddha. Of course, Lord Buddha, he advented himself in India, but later on his philosophy was broadcast all over Asia. Then Lord Kṛṣṇa, or Hazrat Muhammad—anyone take. Nobody will say that "You make your best plan in this material world and live peacefully." That is a common factor.

Lecture on BG 8.28-9.2 -- New York, November 21, 1966:

The Lord says that the purpose of all Vedic instruction is to achieve the highest goal of life, back to Godhead. Any scripture of any country, not only of this Bhagavad-gītā, but any scripture, they are aiming simply how to get us back to Godhead. That is the purpose. Take for any ex... Take for example any of the great religious reformers or ācāryas of any country. In your country, Lord Jesus Christ or Lord Buddha. Of course, Lord Buddha, he advented himself in India, but later on his philosophy was broadcast all over Asia. Then Lord Kṛṣṇa, or Hazrat Muhammad—anyone take. Nobody will say that "You make your best plan in this material world and live peacefully." That is a common factor. There may be little difference according to country, climate and situation in the scriptural injunction, but the main principle—that we are not meant for this material world, we have our destination in the spiritual world—that is accepted by everyone.

Therefore Lord Kṛṣṇa says,

vedeṣu yajñeṣu tapaḥsu caiva

dāneṣu yat puṇya-phalaṁ pradiṣṭam

atyeti tat sarvam idaṁ viditvā

yogī paraṁ sthānam upaiti cādyam

Ah, the yogi, the transcendentalist, his chief aim of life is how to get into the spiritual kingdom. That is the highest ambition of the yogi, of the transcendentalist.

Now we begin the Ninth Chapter. We have finished the Eighth Chapter. We are beginning the Ninth Chapter of the Bhagavad-gītā. Śrī bhagavān uvāca. The Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, is speaking. Śrī Bhagavān. I have several times described what this word bhagavān means. Bhaga means "opulence," and vān means "who possesses." So bhagavān. There is... Everything has definition. So in the Vedic scripture we'll find the definition of God. We have got some conception of God, but in the Vedic literature you'll find definite description, what do we mean by "God." That what do we mean by "God" is described in one word: Śrī bhagavān. Bhagavān. Bhaga means opulence, and vān means "one who possesses."

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Yes. If he's going to become a dog next life and if he does not take precaution, then he is not envying himself? In this life you are prime minister, and next life, you are preparing to become a dog, so what is the use of becoming prime minister?

Garden Conversation -- June 28, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Purport, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: "Thinking themselves all in all, not caring for any authority or scripture, the demoniac sometimes perform so-called religious or sacrificial rites. And since they do not believe in authority, they are very impudent. This is due to illusion caused by accumulating some wealth and false prestige. Sometimes such demons take up the role of preacher, mislead the people, and become known as religious reformers or as incarnations of God. They make a show of performing sacrifices and they worship the demigods, or manufacture their own God. Common men advertise them as God and worship them, and by the foolish they are considered advanced in the principles of religion, or in the principles of spiritual knowledge. They take the dress of the renounced order of life and engage in all nonsense in that dress. Actually there are so many restrictions for one who has renounced this world. The demons, however, do not care for such restrictions. They think that whatever path one can create is one's own path; there is no such thing as a standard path one has to follow. The word avidhi-pūrvakam, meaning 'disregard for the rules and regulations,' is especially stressed here. These things are always due to ignorance and illusion." Next verse? Text 18.

ahaṅkāraṁ balaṁ darpaṁ

kāmaṁ krodhaṁ ca saṁśritāḥ

mām ātma-para-deheṣu

pradviṣanto 'bhyasūyakāḥ

Translation: "Bewildered by false ego, strength, pride, lust and anger, the demon becomes envious of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is situated in his own body and in the bodies of others, and blasphemes against the real religion." Purport? "A demoniac person, being always against God's supremacy, does not like to believe in the scriptures. He is envious of both the scriptures and of the existence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This is caused by his so-called prestige and his accumulation of wealth and strength. He does not know that the present life is a preparation for the next life. Not knowing this, he is actually envious of his own self, as well as of others. He commits violence on others' bodies and on his own. He does not care for the supreme control of the Personality of Godhead because he has no knowledge. Being envious of the scriptures and the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he puts forward false arguments against the existence of God and refutes the scriptural authority. He thinks himself independent and powerful in every action. He thinks that since no one can equal him in strength, power or in wealth, he can act in any way and no one can stop him. If he has an enemy who might check the advancement of his sensual activities, he makes plans to cut him down by his own power." Śrīla Prabhupāda, in this purport you mention that not knowing that this life is a preparation for the next life, that one actually becomes envious of his own self.

Prabhupāda: Yes. If he's going to become a dog next life and if he does not take precaution, then he is not envying himself? In this life you are prime minister, and next life, you are preparing to become a dog, so what is the use of becoming prime minister? You could not save yourself. Nature's law will go on. You may become prime minister or any minister, but the law will act. If you have infected some disease, so the disease will develop. It doesn't matter whether you are prime minister or this minister. So these rascals say they do not know it. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu. Find out this verse. This low-grade birth, high-grade birth, why it is happening? Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

So you have got assets. You have got parentage. Everything you have got. Now do something. You have come. It is a good association.

Conversations -- May 17, 1977, Vrndavana:

Indian man (2): Kavi. In the mission only he is to poet, no other sannyāsīs and nobody, even not Prabhupāda, any sannyāsī. But he realized it. How much love he saw, Prabhupāda. Yesterday I spoke, yesterday night. The greatest living export that has been brought down by God, it is what Bhaktivedanta Prabhupāda has... He's such a living export, Indian culture... (Hindi) ...in the world.

pṛthivīte āche yata nagarādi grāma

sarvatra pracāra haibe mora nāma

(CB Antya-khaṇḍa 4.126)

It is the literary living translator and implemented and carried out by single person. And that single person is so much infested and imbued with such a divine power. None of us can do. It is impossible. Practically it is impossible. The Prabhupāda's unfulfillment mission has been fulfilled by this Vedanta Prabhupāda. Śrīmad-Bhāgavata, all quotes, quotations, praising this all types of the power, all propagating the hari-nāma. And it is all-powerful... So there is a medium of literature, medium of professor, medium of the cinema, but still, medium of the personality who in (indistinct) presented it himself. And you, of all people, that attracted by transcendental personality. What with these social religions; there are many authorities and leaders have gone there, and social-religious reformers who practice the yoga, jñāna, karma, etcetera, etcetera. But the one person imbued and empowered fully, transcendental form, by Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu Himself, and by his guru, Prabhupāda. It is not that... Nobody can empower. And as a result our this Vaiṣṇava culture installing the Supreme as Kṛṣṇa pronounced in the mantra to worship Him. (Hindi) The nāma... If he fulfills the propagation of this out of the nāma, and then more powerful... Means that he is the more loved. This kīrtana, and then this saṅkīrtana. These things themselves teach us, though in one word—kṛṣṇa-nāma-saṅkīrtana is one faith. But still it has the three aspects—Kṛṣṇa, then nāma, then kīrtana, then saṅkīrtana. So he has, by his mission, his translations, and in the world he has given this Kṛṣṇa. He has given this Kṛṣṇa. He has given the nāma. He has given the kīrtana, the saṅkīrtana which we have seen this morning, the saṅkīrtana, bahubhir militvā. Wonderful. In the Caitanya-caritāmṛta...

Prabhupāda: So you have got assets. You have got parentage. Everything you have got. Now do something. You have come. It is a good association. Satāṁ prasaṅgān mama vīrya-saṁvidaḥ. (break) But they have dedicated their life to Kṛṣṇa. That is their qualification. Bhajate mām ananya-bhāk sādhur eva sa man... So their association is sādhu-saṅga (CC Madhya 22.83).