View source for The difficulty is, as soon as we misinterpret to our whims, to show our scholarship, it is spoiled. Don't do that. Read it as it is and you will get the benefit

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{{terms|"The difficulty is, as soon as we misinterpret to our whims, to show our scholarship, it is spoiled. Don't do that. Read it as it is and you will get the benefit"}}
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[[Category:The Difficulty Is...]]
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[[Category:Misinterpretation]]
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[[Category:Prabhupada Speaks - Lectures, 1966 - 1977]]
[[Category:Prabhupada Speaks - Lectures, 1975]]
[[Category:Prabhupada Speaks - Lectures, Bhagavad-gita As It Is]]
[[Category:Prabhupada Speaks - in  Africa, S. Africa - Durban]]
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<div id="Lectures" class="section" sec_index="4" parent="compilation" text="Lectures"><h2>Lectures</h2>
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<div id="Bhagavad-gita_As_It_Is_Lectures" class="sub_section" sec_index="0" parent="Lectures" text="Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures"><h3>Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures</h3>
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<div id="LectureonBG71DurbanOctober91975_0" class="quote" parent="Bhagavad-gita_As_It_Is_Lectures" book="Lec" index="245" link="Lecture on BG 7.1 -- Durban, October 9, 1975" link_text="Lecture on BG 7.1 -- Durban, October 9, 1975">
<div class="heading">Kurukṣetra is there, it is a pilgrimage, and in the past history, five thousand years ago, two sections of the same family, Kuru family... One section was known as Pāṇḍava and the other section as Kurus. They had to fight on political reason. This is historical. So there is no question of misinterpreting it. The difficulty is, as soon as we misinterpret to our whims, to show our scholarship, it is spoiled. Don't do that. Read it as it is and you will get the benefit.
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<mp3player>https://vanipedia.s3.amazonaws.com/clip/751009BG-DURBAN_clip.mp3</mp3player>
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Lecture on BG 7.1 -- Durban, October 9, 1975|Lecture on BG 7.1 -- Durban, October 9, 1975]]: </span><div class="text"><p style="display: inline;">
Indian man (2): Since the ''Bhagavad-gītā ''is the confidential message of from Lord Kṛṣṇa to Arjuna, can Swāmījī please explain how is it that Sañjaya is narrating to Dhṛtarāṣṭra, and how it came to pass that Vyāsadeva wrote the ''Bhagavad-gītā''?

Prabhupāda: It is just like television nowadays. You can see things happening thousands of miles away in television, and you can explain to your friends. This is like that. It is a question of seeing power. So now we have got the instrument, television machine. It is not difficult to understand. In the football ground the matches is going on, and it is being relayed in your room. It is like that.

Indian man (3): Swāmījī, of all holy scriptures we have two books available to follow, and one is the ''Rāmāyaṇa ''and one is the ''Śrī Bhagavad-gītā''. Can you give us or tell us who . . . (indistinct) . . .? 'Cause some people offer the reason that according to the ''Rāmāyaṇa ''we follow Rāma and Sītā as God. Can you just inform us the real or tell us who is our, the most of our . . . (indistinct) . . .?

Prabhupāda: So, we are . . . our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is to educate people on the principles of the teachings of ''Bhagavad-gītā''. So if you understand ''Bhagavad-gītā ''thoroughly, then you will understand Lord Rāma also and other incarnations, because Kṛṣṇa is present with all the incarnations.

:''rāmādi-mūrtiṣu kalā-niyamena tiṣṭhan''
:''nānāvatāram akarod bhuvaneṣu kintu''
:''kṛṣṇaḥ svayaṁ samabhavat paramaḥ pumān yo''
:''govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi''
:(Bs. 5.39)

In the Vedic literature it is said, ''yasmin vijñāte sarvam idaṁ vijñātaṁ bhavati ''(''Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad'' 1.3): "If you understand that one Supreme, then you will understand everything." So ''Rāmāyaṇa'', Vālmīki ''Rāmāyaṇa'', not other ''Rāmāyaṇa'', the so-called ''Rāmāyaṇa ''. . . authority, Vālmīki ''Rāmāyaṇa''. If you read Vālmīki ''Rāmāyaṇa'', that is also as good as reading ''Bhagavad-gītā''. But if you read ''Bhagavad-gītā'', you understand the transcendental science very easily. There is no difficulty. So we shall advise to read ''Bhagavad-gītā''. It is very widely read all over the world, not only by the Hindus but others also—by all scholars, all philosophers. They read ''Bhagavad-gītā''. So we recommend you all to read ''Bhagavad-gītā ''as it is. Do not distort the meaning. Try to understand as it is. Just like in the beginning the ''Bhagavad-gītā ''is mentioned:

:''dharma-kṣetre kuru-kṣetre''
:''samavetā yuyutsavaḥ''
:''māmakāḥ pāṇḍavāś caiva''
:''kim akurvata sañjaya''
:([[Vanisource:BG 1.1 (1972)|BG 1.1]])

The ''dharma-kṣetre'', ''kuru-kṣetre''. This is a fact. The ''kuru-kṣetra ''is a pilgrimage, ''dharma-kṣetra''. Still it is. There is a railway station of the name Kurukṣetra, and that Kurukṣetra place is very big field. So why should we misinterpret, "''Kuru-kṣetra ''means this body, and Pāṇḍava means the senses"? Why? This business distorted the meaning, so we should give up. We should understand as it is. Kurukṣetra is there, it is a pilgrimage, and in the past history, five thousand years ago, two sections of the same family, Kuru family . . . one section was known as Pāṇḍava and the other section as Kurus. They had to fight on political reason. This is historical. So there is no question of misinterpreting it. The difficulty is, as soon as we misinterpret to our whims, to show our scholarship, it is spoiled. Don't do that. Read it as it is and you will get the benefit. Yes?

Indian man (4): Swāmījī, we are living in a world where new thoughts, new ideas are being disseminated with a . . . by saintly people. But as we have read, that the ''Vedas ''were the first book of knowledge handed to mankind. Now what I would like to know is . . . the Christians have Bible as their book, the Muslims have the Koran as their book, and the Hindus have the ''Vedas ''as their book. Why should we not go back to the ''Vedas ''rather than accepting, notarizing the interest in many other scriptures, the ''Bhagavad-gītā ''or the ''Rāmāyaṇa ''for instance? But the sages, four ''ṛṣis'', who first gave them, and ''Vedas ''were given to us at the beginning of God's creation. Why don't we go back to ''Vedas'', and then we will know the ''Bhagavad-gītā ''also?

Prabhupāda: So, what is the purpose of reading ''Vedas''? Can you say me? Who can say what is the purpose of reading ''Vedas''? That is mentioned in the ''Bhagavad-gītā:'' ''vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyaḥ ''([[Vanisource:BG 15.15 (1972)|BG 15.15]]). By reading ''Vedas, ''any ''Vedas, ''you have to understand God. Then it is perfect reading of ''Vedas''. If you do not understand what is God, then what is the use of reading ''Vedas''? ''Śrama eva hi kevalam ''([[Vanisource:SB 1.2.8|SB 1.2.8]]). Simply waste of time. If you have read ''Vedas'', then give me full information of God. Then I can understand that you have read ''Vedas''. If you have no idea of God, then it is useless advertisement that "I have read ''Vedas''."