Category:Questions asked to SP... 1971
- Here we place the questions that were asked to Prabhupada as page titles and the answers he gives are inside the pages as headings written in the colour green.
Pages in category "Questions asked to SP... 1971"
The following 401 pages are in this category, out of 742 total.
(previous page) (next page)A
- A man is finite. How can he do good for everyone?
- A man may evolve to a state like unto the demigods. Is that a possibility?
- A person (Krsna)? Person in the ordinary sense of the word, or...?
- A person who is not indulging in illicit sex life or intoxication and other things has to live a comparatively simpler life... One will live much simpler life, agreed. But at the same time, would it change some complex things?
- A priori we are not born with knowledge of what is right?
- According to the Vedic conception, is the king or the monarch above the law?
- After the festival, Prabhupada, are you going to Vrndavana?
- After you, is it any decision has been made who will take over?
- All new things are created out of necessity?
- All the people who are hoarding those grains, that economic procedure to produce famine. What is the way to check them?
- All they're (the scientists) doing is creating the conditions for the jiva to enter, actually. Isn't it?
- Am I conscious of... My body's being constantly changing?
- Am I separate from matter?
- And another thing I wanted to ask Your Divine Grace is this. This Bhagavad-gita, I would like to print it as it becomes finished chapter by chapter. Otherwise it will be a long time before we have a book
- And by origin you are from?
- And have you many participants in these fifty-five branches?
- And how many disciples you have in India itself? From three thousand, how many members of your community you have in India itself?
- And it's the same spiritual body that we had before we came into the material world?
- And space (time is eternal. Reality. And therefore we take time as another feature of God)?
- And that is also practical (the absolute value is God. That is division. Satyam param dhimahi. That is our objective)?
- And that works (voluntarily accepting death so that immediately he can return back to the spiritual world)?
- And the purport (of the meaing of verse SB 10.14.58)?
- And what else would one have to give up (illicit sex and)?
- And what is the figure (of people joining) likely to be? Five a week, ten a week?
- And you think there's enough food (now, so far I have studied, that in America, in Africa, in Australia, there are so much vacant places that the present population of the world, if it is increased ten times, still there is enough food)?
- Are there any moral guidelines to Krsna consciousness?
- Are there lines of disciplic succession on planets all over the universe or only on these middle planets, like Earth?
- Are there many Indian-born disciples abroad, or are they mainly Western disciples?
- Are there not certain characteristics that are particularly male and certain characteristics that are particularly female?
- Are they brahmanas (devotees in the Krsna consciousness movement)? Not by birth?
- Are they less fallen (the jivas in brahmajyoti) because they are doing some service by lighting it up?
- Are we going to have any kirtana tonight? What is the program
- Aren't these desires given outlet in other ways? Do we channel the desires to some other field? Instead of seeing a beautiful woman, we see the beautiful form of Krsna, like that?
- Arjuna was praised as Gudakesa?
- As a practical result of his (Arjuna followed the decision of Krsna, so there is value. He became victorious, he enjoyed the kingdom, and he became a famous devotee) activities?
- As far as I can operate within my practicality, there are no purple men. I've never seen one; no one has ever seen purple men. So isn't this logical?
- As the yugas progress, the human body itself, doesn't it become more degraded?
- As we develop our experience, our life progresses, then we develop truth because we see that this idea works in my experience, so then it becomes true. Is this not the process?
- At that time were there only insects existing?
B
- Because he (Arjuna in the beginning denied to fight, but he agreed to fight) was satisfied by his faith in Krsna?
- Because he has become devotee of a follower of Laksmi-Narayana, he may come to associate with Laksmi-Narayana?
- Because the guru is responsible for taking all of his disciples back to home, back to Godhead, I was wondering what was the position of Lord Jesus Christ?
- Before it can be printed, everything has to go through his hands because he is the chief translator. But at the present moment it's going so slowly. But one arrangement I proposed was to pay him some money?
- Before one has success, the kundalini must be opened. What do you think about this?
- Before the birth of Lord Krsna, was God existing?
- Being capable of action, is that a good definition of substance?
- Bhagavad-gita did it take place? There was a battlefield of Kuruksetra?
- Bijam, seed, "I am the seed of all existence" (Plato uses the word "idea" in order to denote a subject's primordial existence, or maybe it's archetype. I think that Krsna uses the word bijam)?
- But do the results of an idea have to be predictable?
- But for happiness, or ananda, isn't bhakti essential, love, or ananda?
- But how does someone prove that something exists beyond his..., beyond our senses?
- But how does that give us sense content (this is sense content, that sarvam khalv, "Everything is Brahman")? What does that mean to my sense observations?
- But in our Krsna consciousness philosophy the ideas are not to be re-evaluated. Aren't they absolute, the philosophy of Krsna consciousness?
- But is meditation in itself..., would that be sufficient to transcend these lower...?
- But is that true (training should be given from childhood)?
- But is this force (nature is forcing) irrational and blind? This is what he thinks
- But isn't the tendency there to exploit the man and take more profit (I have hired one man to work for me. I have to pay him and therefore I require profit)?
- But isn't the understanding of the white light composed of seven other colors, isn't that also a fact of direct sense perception?
- But it's not by Krsna's sex desire. What is the meaning of the words "Krsna's sex desire"? Krsna's satisfaction?
- But philosophy is meant to understand the ultimate goal of life. What does he say the ultimate goal of life is? What is his ultimate goal of life?
- But the extinct species are not all present at this particular moment on this planet, are they?
- But then what is the stimulus? Why will they... (Krsna says, "Anyone who comes to Me, back to home, back to Godhead, he does not come again to this material world which is full of misery")?
- But you can improve it (this world)?
C
- Can a hydrogen molecule desire to become part of water and be given that body? Does it have the independence to desire something and take a body accordingly? The hydrogen molecule, does it have a life?
- Can a normal student from, for instance, from one of the best universities, who is attending lectures in normal way, etc., also be initiated and admitted to your community?
- Can I see God by becoming a Christian?
- Can one be forgetful of Krsna eternally?
- Can the living entity perceive the situation at this time, when he's being transferred from one body to another?
- Can the scientists control that, the type of genes, the kinds of body, the child will get?
- Can there be an existence without a faith, sir?
- Can we see Him, just as we see Lalaji? But with these eyes or the... (so our knowledge is very easy. We don't make any research. Here is Krsna says that He is the Supreme Personality - we accept it. That's all. It is very simple)?
- Can you explain about taking a spiritual body after death?
- Can you explain about vaibhava and prabhava?
- Can you say what is God?
- Can you tell me how many of those (who joins) actually stay?
- Can you tell me what is Krsna consciousness?
- Can't we all be combined in a single person rather than dividing them into four, at least in the present age?
- Could a monarch use this argument, the argument of divine right, in order to discourage his subjects' rebelling under the pretense that they are communing directly with God? What guidelines are there to assure against this? Wasn't there one King Vena...?
- Could you explain a little bit about the position in which we were situated in the spiritual sky before coming to the material world?
- Could you recall the beginning of your first trip to USA and how you spread the message? I was told that you came here with six dollars?
D
- Did Bhaktivinoda Thakura take sannyasa in later years?
- Did you say once that sometimes Krsna will let you work off some of your karma in a dream (indistinct)?
- Different levels of consciousness?
- Do (the jivas in vegetables that are offered to Krsna) they just get liberation or do they go directly to Krsna? They go to Krsna or do they only get liberation? Do they go to Goloka Vrndavana? What kind of liberation?
- Do innate ideas have to be universal? Might not some living entities have some innate ideas and other living entities have others? Why does an innate idea have to be universal and apply to everyone?
- Do the fallen souls leave the spiritual world all at once or gradually?
- Do the rays of the sun actually take away our life?
- Do we all originate from Krsna?
- Do we offer any solution for socio-economic problems that you can...?
- Do you advocate sending the children to secular schools, or have you made arrangements with the government to...?
- Do you attribute accidents and disease to a desire for self-destruction?
- Do you claim then that your way of loving God is the way to love God?
- Do you come (to India) every year, or is this the first time you have come?
- Do you differentiate, as you would do, it's only a matter of attempting to comprehend the differences of things, the difference between thinking and feeling as rational functions?
- Do you do your printing in Japan and America?
- Do you find that the chant goes on in your heart?
- Do you find that you chant, it clarifies you?
- Do you have any children, family?
- Do you have any hope in the future that you, your movement, will involve printing a lot of books, making, building schools for your children?
- Do you know that story of Ekalavya?
- Do you need to have a name and address and occupation for God?
- Do you suppose that the British supported Darwin so that that would also help their political ambitions, by introducing...?
- Do you think if people had a deeper understanding of God... a spiritual consciousness...? Do you think it would solve the problems of...?
- Do you think people should beware (of false gurus)?
- Do you think that there will become a level of demigods, a race of demigods?
- Do you think those who are butcher are all criminals?
- Do you think your movement is the only way to come to know God?
- Do you want to give ... authorization to take sannyasa as soon as possible?
- Do you want us to offer feast to your Guru Maharaja at noontime? A special plate of feast?
- Does he (Lord Brahma) become a pure devotee? Otherwise how he can see Krsna and reveal Brahma-samhita? Also he's the head of our disciplic succession. How can he be the head of our disciplic succession if he's not a pure devotee?
- Does Krsna desire we get a spiritual name?
- Does Krsna know beforehand everything?
- Does one have to leave one's family? I think everybody lives in the temple, don't they?
- Does someone who has been in prison and then he becomes free, does he appreciate his freedom more than someone who has always been free?
- Does that include all sex life or...? What is illicit?
- Does that mean that the spiritual body changes, Prabhupada?
- Does that mean they have no knowledge about leaves (Vedic scripture was there. They did not read. That's all)?
- Does that means they should not worship these demigods and goddesses?
- Does the condition of being entrapped, enhance the understanding of liberation?
- Does the hydrogen molecule have an independent desire?
- Does the Krsna movement recognize other types of service to human beings like the social workers?
- Does the mind play any part in the evolutionary process? The mind?
- Does the table have a jiva soul?
- Doesn't everyone derive strength (from God)?
- During the time when the living entity is transferred from one body to another, is he always fully conscious of the subtle facts?
E
- Either direct or indirect. But how can I experience that statement that "Everything is Brahman"?
- Even between the atoms of matter there is a spiritual life, spiritual force?
- Even if we see the seven colors in the laboratory with instruments, we still don't understand the even simpler facts of which that is composed. There may be seven colors, but how to understand those?
- Even if you study the way the sun and the rain and so on combined to make this fruit ripe, you still have the question, "Well, why is there fruit in the first place?" Why is there fruit? Why has fruit appeared on this planet?
- Even the mind occupies space and transpires in time. Mind occupies space and works in time. Is that also a fact?
- Even though several million years ago they find no evidence in the rocks...?
- Even when this universe ends, doesn't that (temporary) law carry on?
- Every successive teacher has added some interpretations of the knowledge, no?
- Everyone is born with this devotional spirit?
- Everything that exists wants to enjoy?
- Excuse me. Your honor, sir, what is the duty of the perfect master?
F
- For instance, not a student but a young worker or a young son of a farmer, he would abstain from his old life and he would be initiated and join your community into a given center. How he would entertain himself?
- For instance, there's no dinosaurs existing now. They're extinct now but where are they gone? Some other planets then?
- For meditation, which form should we (meditate upon)?
- For purpose of practice I am asking, when you chant Rama, should you have the form of Rama before you?
- Forgetfulness is artificial?
- Freud put so much emphasis on children and the mentality and emotions of children - what one is experiencing, youth and so on - and it is all concocted, don't you think?
- From the Sanskrit (Christo and Krsna)?
- From the standpoint of the ingredients of this world, material ingredients, is this the best possible world with those ingredients?
H
- Has spirit no want?
- Have you been harassed in London at all?
- Have you been to Russia? They allowed you to preach?
- Have you got a particular mission for London?
- Have you many branches of your society everywhere? Where is your main center, and where are the branches?
- Have you put into writing these three subjects somewhere (Vedic Concept of Communism, Knowledge by Authorized Tradition, Scientific Values of Scientific Classless Society)?
- Have you seen Krsna?
- Haven't you come across some hostile attitude to your teaching from orthodox Hindu, from orthodox brahmanas in India itself?
- He (my ancestors) made no tools, or he had no house? But why weren't there any tools left behind for us to find, remnants?
- He mentions the point, what is that urge? Why do I want to improve? What is that urge that makes me want to...
- He says no one can hate God, but what about Kamsa and others?
- He says reason is by nature equal in all men. Now isn't reasoning power different in different men?
- He says, "It is not so much that God is in everything but rather that everything is in God."... What is this position?... Why should it be more one way than the other?
- Higher than the demigods (we are contaminated or conditioned on account of association with these three modes of material nature, and if we keep ourself aloof from the association of three modes then we are mukta, we are liberated)?
- His question is, do we concern ourselves with particular problems in the world, there's the war in Vietnam, there's racial discrimination? Do we make statements to condemn these things?
- How about the meaning of the chanting. You are insist on chanting?
- How are the individualities (of the spirit soul) accounted for?
- How are these conditions going to change (material condition is the four principles of bodily demands: eating, sleeping, sex and defense)?
- How are they going to change in order to bring about a profound spiritual transformation (formerly people used to live very humbly. Now they are living very, very big, big skyscraper building)?
- How can one see the spiritual master in darkness? If you are standing in a dark room...
- How could some people look at the seed of a tree and come to a different conclusion?
- How could you measure the spiritual phenomenon with something like one-thousandth of the tip of the hair? Hair is material.
- How did you find Moscow?
- How do I create matter that is my body?
- How do they know it's not millions of years ago
- How do you develop a service attitude in Krsna consciousness?
- How do you develop this seriousness if you find that you are always frivolous?
- How do you feel about Rabindranath Tagore, the poet?
- How do you feel about self-expression, art, as a path back to Godhead?
- How do you feel the modern world (have received Krsna consciousness)? What's your feeling?
- How do you get to the second stage by making your own decisions without God's..., without God's representative? In other words, how can you come to the platform of the third stage from the second stage?
- How do you have that assurance (this movement is the only way to know God)?
- How do you process to a right moment unless one is helped at the last minute of death?
- How do you recognize someone who has already a family and he's working and who wants to progress in Krsna consciousness? Is he, does he have to give up his job and shave his hair and wear robes?
- How do you stop that (greed)?
- How does one contact the spiritual master? Through a book can you contact the spiritual master?
- How does one learn to control the senses, overwhelming?
- How does our philosophy define mind and intelligence?
- How does that result in more women (the more the man will become attached to woman, the woman population will increase)?
- How does Vaisnava act? What are his...?
- How does worship of Visnu solve social problems? Just like in Calcutta there are more social problems than practically anywhere
- How far this adaption of Krsna consciousness by many American boys would affect the politics of their attitude, for instance, to such a bearing problem of America as Vietnam War?
- How foreign intervention will be dangerous to you if you are perfect (if your theory is perfect, why there should be foreign intervention?)?
- How is it that some men have no conception of God?
- How is Krsna different? How is He individual in each one of the atoms?
- How long does it take (to learn about God)? Well, can we do it? And what happens to me then?
- How long were you there (in Moscow)? With your disciple?
- How long will you be feeling bad from the injection?
- How long you are in India now?
- How many (ISKCON) branches in India?
- How many followers have you got now throughout the world or can you not count?
- How many swamis do you initiated, American?
- How old are you?
- How one can supremely control all conditions that would free one from karmic reaction? How could they control the environment?
- How the movement is growing? Can you give me any figures at all? I was speaking to one of your colleagues earlier who mentioned 150, but seventy-five approximately which were in London. Are the figures growing week by week?
- How this movement was formed when you came here. You are the father of this movement. How this idea was created within you?
- How to live in such a way where there is no dearth of thing as well as there is no continuing of that need that a man becomes lost?
- How was it possible for Ajamila to chant the name at the time of death?
- How will the spiritual master be pleased?
- How would I recognize a true follower of the Krsna consciousness movement by his behavior? What would his traits be? What would his outward expressions be?
- How would one tell that one had a genuine guru because one would be told to give up certain parts of...?
I
- I asked him the purpose of God of creating men, and if He is all love, He is all, nothing happens without His will, what is His purpose in creating men, and then these men, which he created, and claimed to be beloved by Him, suffers?
- I don't know how geologists date earth layers but let's say the deepest layer is only five hundred years old, but still the ones on top are newer. So in the lowest layer, there are no chariots, cities?
- I fear Swami, if I may say so, without disrespect, that in some ways you're preaching to the converted and you only make it more muddled to me by giving analogies, don't you feel that at times?
- I know some of the devotees have had to sever relationships, so to speak, with their material world parents, and it gives them some degree of grief, because their parents don't understand. Now what do you tell them to kind of make this easier?
- I know you define that as civilization. It's just, I was trying to suggest that some societies, and indeed, some individual personalities, are avaricious seemingly by nature. How do you...?
- I mean supposing I wished to become an initiate. Wouldn't I have to come and live here?
- I mean what is an example of different species of man. What are they, for example, several species of men?
- I read somewhere that possibly you wanted to convert people who were politicians and businessmen. Why?
- I should now request you, Your Divine Grace, if God wills everything?
- I think Radharani helps a man to reach Krsna, to hear, you know, the things...?
- I understand in fact that you are a pure devotee of Krsna. What does this mean? What do you mean by being pure? Does it mean that you have seen Krsna?
- I understand the principle of consciousness, but what is the exact meaning of the word "subconscious"?
- I want to know how I can see you as a person. What is the cure? What is the remedy? What is the solution?
- I want to know how I see someone as a person and not as an object. How do I do that? What is... You say that you can tell me how to see someone as a person
- I want to see everyone as a person, not as an object. So how do I do that?
- I was discussing this with somebody and they said that reading of books silently is no good. Is this true? Does one have to recite aloud while one is reading?
- I was going to ask you about that, (Western) civilization?
- I wondered whether you feel that it's right that you could perhaps issue a warning to people who are seeking some new spiritual life that they should take care to make sure they have a genuine guru to teach them
- I would have to become a member of the Krsna movement (in order to see Krsna)?
- I'm still trying to understand what you mean by the species of human life. It's not clear to me. I don't understand what you mean by the different species of human life?
- I've enjoyed it very much. It was very kind of you. Where are you going on Wednesday? Where are you going?
- Ideally it is the moral obligation of everyone to obey the moral command, but...?
- If a man become honest, if a man deals with others very nicely, moral, and so on, so on, so what is the use of becoming devotee, devotee of God?
- If any of us here this morning wish to become followers what would we have to give or give up?
- If by our karma we desire a certain type of body but they create all the bodies to be the same, how is that? But men are tampering with the bodies.
- If Christian religion is teaching to understand God and to become obedient to God, then it is all right. If it is not teaching that then it is useless. Simply by stamping, "I am Christian," what do you gain by that?
- If God is not an idea but He's substance, how do you mean that, substance? How do you define substance?
- If he (Soren Aabye Kierkegaard) accepts Jesus as the perfection, why doesn't he, in the beginning when he was looking for a way of making decisions, why doesn't he follow Jesus's path of morality?
- If he made a mistake and it's the wrong medicine, would you say he cheated you? Isn't that the point you were getting at?
- If I am perfect, then why do I have to submit to imperfection?... That means actually I am not perfect. Therefore what qualification have I got to give truth?
- If I go from birth, youth, old age, then what is to say that I am again going to youth? They will say, "What is that logic? How I will go again to youth? Simply I will go again and vanish away"
- If I have got a lot of foodstuffs, Srila Prabhupada, I wish to distribute, but I'm afraid it will go bad, how could I distribute very quickly, very quickly?
- If I have that idea of a golden mountain, that means that in the spiritual world that must exist? or I can form an idea that is not in the spiritual world. Am I understanding you?
- If one accepts initiation from a bona fide spiritual master but continues to perform material activities, are they still bound by the karma?
- If one has accepted a bona fide spiritual master and he did not receive much knowledge from him, can he change his spiritual master at later...?
- If one realizes the impersonal Brahman, what progress can be made here from this?
- If one takes a birth in a rich man family, rich man's family, how it is good?
- If some scientist can change the genes so that the jiva can have a different kind of body, he still would have the previous desires?
- If somebody's son comes to us to become devotee, I have experienced, the father and mother immediately come: "Oh, Swamiji, what you are doing?" But his son becomes hippie - he will tolerate
- If someone develops the form of a boy, cowherds boy with Krsna, is that an expansion of his potency, of that living spirit soul's potency?
- If someone has a natural ksatriya tendency, he cannot become a Vaisnava?
- If someone in all seriousness wishes to find the spiritual life and happens to finish up with the wrong guru, I mean should they beware?
- If someone is engaged in devotional service and he commits an offense at the feet of a pure devotee, whatever he has done up until that time is not lost? in his next life he gets...?
- If someone is in the spiritual world, he falls down into the material world and then he becomes again released. Is his understanding after release higher than the previous?
- If the spiritual master, Prabhupada, worships God through a demigod, is he bona fide?
- If they try to stop us from printing, we can show them the copy of that letter that says they do not publish, and then what can they do?
- If we see a phenomenon like the rain falling or anything, and we want to apply the test that will prove that God is the cause of that phenomenon, what test do we apply?
- If you accept that there is an evolution, do you accept that the bodies change because of changing conditions of the natural surroundings?
- If you are unable to receive knowledge from a higher authority, could you still somehow have this knowledge inside? So one could understand about Krsna perhaps if he was unable to receive from outside?
- If you had a big house, a rich house. You would use that?
- If you make a scientific proposition that "Because I am, the body moves," that is your scientific proposition?
- If you must have a spiritual body in order to go back home, she asks, is it only with this Hare Krsna mantra and by taking prasada that we achieve that body?
- If you'd like to come to Germany, we can arrange a program for you in Heidelburg, and there, Pradyumna says, there are some big professors there that are important. If you like to come there?
- In a sense, the man is not really inventing a chair either. There is already an idea of chair previously existing. He's just discovering it, something which already exists. Is that correct?
- In a situation where there's a choice between say chanting and reading. Is chanting a better activity than reading?
- In God's temple, what human wants? And what type of life he wants so that he can be happy?
- In India (how is Krsna consciousness received)?
- In India, how many are Krsna conscious?
- In Krsna consciousness isn't knowledge rather than faith the basis for action?
- In other words, Krsna is the voice of your God then?
- In other words, that my ancestors had left impressions in my brain from the time of my birth, how to react according to their experiences. Is this true, that there is a collective experience which is passed on?
- In our world here, there are material scientists and they understand things in a particular way. They understand, for instance... Suppose, on the heavenly planets, there must also be a class of men who understand things...
- In reply to Jayadvaita's questions, regarding the policy for using diacritic markings
- In reply to your question whether TLC or the original cover of Srimad-Bhagavatam gives the authoritative picture of the hand symbols?
- In the Eleventh Chapter of the Gita the Lord has shown His virat-darsana. He has shown Brahma, Visnu, Mahesa, etc. They are all in Him. Subordinate to Him. They are subordinate to Him. Therefore (one should) meditate on Krsna, the only Hare Krsna?
- In the modern world, Swamiji, wouldn't you think that the same person has got to combine in himself the qualities traditionally ascribed to all the dharmas?
- In the part of the world where this particular philosophy and this particular belief originated, which is in India, in the Eastern part of the world, at least as we look at it. Is it successful there? Do you have a large following over there?
- In the Upanisads, as you know, there are many cases in which the brahmanas had to go to the ksatriyas for knowledge. You remember?
- In the Vedic age wouldn't everyone want to become a brahmana? Why train someone as a sudra?
- In what way did you think, that the teaching of the love of God which you are doing, is different and perhaps better than the teachings of which already were being conducted in this country and have been conducted in the Western world for centuries?
- In what way is God concerned with the moral or immoral actions of man? Is God indifferent to them, or has He simply set the laws of nature in motion and allowed men to follow their own course and reap the fruit of their own karma?
- In what way we will live in that spiritual form?
- Instead of just seeing black, white, this or that, I look for individual propensities, so I appreciate those individual propensities?
- Is (this movement) growing all the time?
- Is conscious repression advisable? Of my basic instincts, my desires. Should I consciously strive to repress these desires?
- Is desire, desire is due to the material contamination, or is it...?
- Is getting the soul out from this awkward position of matter a higher understanding than understanding the soul by itself?
- Is it a very good omen to see in your sleep state person showing to do the Hare Krsna chant?
- Is it better to chant the Hare Krsna mantra loud or is it better hide the mantra?
- Is it confirmed that the similarities in symbolism and cultural relationships, which are similar in civilizations all over the world, can that be due to the fact that they are all coming from the same source? Five thousand years ago there was one culture?
- Is it not necessary today for each person to have knowledge of the dharma. He's got to have the capacity to act?
- Is it not that because our real nature is perfect that we're always striving to become perfect again? Striving to reach that point again?
- Is it possible for a conditioned living entity to perceive the suchness or essence of anything
- Is it possible for any entity to do something until the Lord hears him?
- Is it possible, Swamiji, that Krsna may like to be satisfied through the material life?
- Is it right to say that Krsna-prema is the perfection of Krsna consciousness?
- Is it the same you found in all over the world, everybody speak the language, English-speaking language, you went and you did the same thing, you went up there, chant, and with the miracle of Lord Krsna you received your devotees and disciples?
- Is Paramatma a person?
- Is that so ("it is certain that man surpasses women in accordance with a general law which prevails throughout the animal kingdom. If there were nothing else to do but to love, women would be supreme")?
- Is that spiritual master still guiding after the death?
- Is that true on every level of... chemical law (without conflict, you cannot make progress)?
- Is that true, Srila Prabhupada? That service to mankind is service God?
- Is the (living force) in the same quantity in every body, in every living body? I mean the energy, the amount of energy
- Is the body not to be treated with a certain amount of care, and even comfort, because it is the vehicle for our spiritual progress and so on?
- Is the body really affecting the soul? Does the body really have a causal influence on the soul?
- Is the fact that America is now the dominant nation also God's will?
- Is the Krsna consciousness belief or philosophy compatible with the Hindu religion?
- Is the result of our inquiry to change the external environment?
- Is there a single, simple stitch that you could give to people who don't know anything about Krsna consciousness to help them to understand it
- Is there any example of this ascension into heaven? Didn't Arjuna...
- Is there any such thing as innate knowledge?
- Is there room in the movement for other persons who are indirectly serving Krsna rather than chanting Hare Krsna all day?
- Is there some experience that shows me that that is a predictable result (just like we don't want death. So if I get the chance to come to a position not to die, is it not predictable?)?
- Is there some order of priority in service then? I mean, sixteen rounds is more important than anything else. And then following that, there's something else?
- Is thinking a necessary function of the soul? He says, well for instance an oyster. How does he know whether or not an oyster thinks?
- Is this devotional spirit the only necessary truth that one is born with, or are there others?
- Is this isolation a characteristic only of the lower and middle planetary systems? In the higher planetary system, systems, is there so much isolation?
- Is this kind of extinction the purpose behind chastity (voluntary and complete chastity is the first step in asceticism or the denial of the will to live. It thereby denies the assertion of the will)?
- Is this one of the main things that distinguishes a genuine guru from a fake guru (we do not want, depend on anyone's financial contributions. We depend on God, or Krsna)?
- Is this progress toward human immortality, is that a creative process?
- Is your spiritual master still alive?
- Isn't everything we see a product of experience? Don't all living things have experience?
- Isn't speech, which is the articulation of the intellect, the primary difference between man and the animals in the sense that is it not through words that one can come to understand God?
- Isn't that the same thing as jnana-yoga (wiping away all understanding and knowledge and beginning from the objects themselves, and reducing from those things, the essence of those things, to the truth)?
- Isn't the breaking of a promise a universal moral command, that one should never break his promise, whether it is here or other countries?
- Isn't there an absolute value?
- Isn't there motion (in the spiritual sky)?
- It appears that Schopenhauer recommends about eight hours of sleep a night, and Krsna says not too much or too little. But what is recommended in terms of sleep, just concretely?
- It can be changed, the age of Kali, by presence of the devotees of Krsna?
- It does require a certain price for them to pay as individuals. To sincerely try to find Him (Krsna)?
- It goes deeper and deeper (the chanting)?
- It is a question of eyes and knowing, sir? So, sir, how do we prepare eyes to see (Krsna)?
- It is because we desired something and we were always frustrated by that desire (anxiety shall continue so long as you are in material condition)?
- It is both, isn't it Srila Prabhupada, it is both material and spiritual. In essence it is spiritual?
- It is not (an accident) determined even by karma?
- It is the attitude with which one does it (tries to satisfy Krsna, that is important)?
- It is true that if there are certain laws, moral commandments, that I should follow them regardless of individual exception? There are no exceptions, regardless...
- It is written in Gita the soul never dies. When the soul does not die, where does it go after that?
- It isn't a negation of pleasure, but it's a higher pleasure?
- It says in the Bhagavad-gita that when, if one performs devotional service, then his result is never lost. Then how was it possible for Ajamila to lose all his devotional service to Visnu by associating with a prostitute?
- It seems that he believes in the Paramatma present within all beings but does not believe in the jiva along with Paramatma. Is this a typical impersonalist position?
- It seems that most of the devotees are young people, persons under thirty, under twenty-five. Why is this so? Why hasn't the movement spread? Is this a deliberate thing, or why do you feel it hasn't spread to parents or to older people?
- It seems to me, sir, that there is a very high emphasis placed on the relationship between the individual and God. But more emphasis on that relationship than on the relationship between one individual and another individual. Am I right in that?
- It's not that one has to develop them (moral qualities) independently?
J
- Jati. So when you say 400,000 species of human life... It's different from what we think of as species?
- Jiva atma is also a person?
- Jnana means knowledge?
- Jung's understanding of religion is made considerably more difficult owing to the lack of explanations. Do you understand what you are reading?" And he said, "How can I, unless someone guides me?"
- Just like if five thousand years from now some archeologists came to Los Angeles, which is all covered over, who knows what they may dig up? What will they conclude from their findings? That all of Los Angeles was made up of monkeys?
- Just like if it suddenly got cold, the spirit soul would desire to be warm so he would evolve a body with hair?
- Just like the bird—whether the bird caused the fruit to fall, or whether the fruit happened to fall coincidentally. It doesn't matter. Is that the point?
- Just like the Visnudutas, they have their four-handed form. Does that mean that they will never rise up to the state of associating with Krsna in two-handed form?
K
- Karl Marx says, "The most persistent form of antagonism between the Jew and the Christian is religious antagonism." How has one solved an antagonism by... making it impossible?
- Krsna has exhibited His pastimes on every planet in the universe?
- Krsna knows everything in the past and everything in the future, so can we say it is predestined?
- Krsna knows everything we're thinking and He knows exactly when each of us will give up the material body, does that mean that everything is predestined?
- Ksirodakasayi-Visnu is in which category?
L
- Laborers exploit (not only the capitalists exploit, the laborers also exploit)?
- Last night you said that what is the meaning of the word "nothing." That maya means "nothing"?
- Legally (married). And they will be living outside the temple for sure. Is that correct, Prabhupada (so we have some girls and they have asked us, they want to be married. What is our position?)?
- Let us now praise famous men and our fathers who beget us as they oddly enough seem always to be... but I've never been able to understand why?
- Let's say a person has been involved in the Vietnam War due to his relation with the material world and has been drawn into this activity. And now he's in Krsna consciousness. How is he then relieved of the law of karma for his activity?
- Locke argues on behalf of private property given to man by God. That is to say a man may have a certain stewardship over a certain amount of property. Is this in compliance with the Isopanisadic version?
M
- Maharaja Yudhisthira and Arjuna after Krsna left the earth, returned to the spiritual sky in this same body. Does that indicate that their bodies were so spiritual from spiritual activities that they no longer were material bodies?
- Materialistic pleasure, Freud says, serves the death instinct, but doesn't materialistic pleasure just bring out more craving for pleasure?
- May I ask you about, for example, we have Bahulasva. He's married, he has two children, twins. Now, how is the future as you foresee it, from now until his...?
- Moral qualities will follow? (all good qualifications will come automatically if he sticks to these four principles)
- My master, many people are interested to know something about you, and I found just not enough to know about you, and I could write volumes about your life. Could you (tell us) about your life?
- My master, what's your opinion on the Ramakrishna Mission? We have a Ramakrishna Mission in Chicago
- My question is, Prabhupada, that yes, maybe through speculation we can get knowledge, some knowledge
- My question is, what is the, why is that this particular movement is not emphasizing so-called meditation?
- My solution, Swamiji, most respectfully, is how do you judge that "I am correct"?
N
- No, I want to say, like at the point of death we are also changing to another body. Do we feel that then?
- No, no. Stop this. Just try to understand. If you are not surrendered to me you have no right to ask me anything
- Not according to birth (the occupational duties are already there. The (indistinct) are already there. That is created by God. Now you can select one of them according to the price you can pay)?
- Not simply because of the increased population (India is faced with so many problems)?
- Now how was it that a great personality like Indra, with his mind, intelligence, and ego all intact, how is it he could become a toad?
- Now the reason is one thing, but intellection is another there... Intellection and reason you would call the same?... Intellection and reason and the Supersoul speaking from within?...That's something different?
- Now you said that from your very birth you knew that Krsna was the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Now does this mean that from your very birth you were acquainted with the name Krsna, or didn't your father have to at least say the word once?
O
- Oh, after time. Oh (space is later created). And it creates the ultimate reality?
- Oh, that's the basis for morality (if you obey God, then all the laws are also included. That is the universal morality. " Just become My servitor, always think of Me, just offer obeisances unto Me," that is morality)?
- Oh, there's only one truth (servitude of the living entity is truth. But he is serving maya. That is untruth. If we take that there are two types of truth, there cannot be two kinds of truth. Truth is one. What we take as truth, that is maya)?
- On a social scale as well (the best method is to surrender unto Krsna, and all problems are solved)?
- One last statement from Aristotle. He states, in his Politics, he says, "The beauty of the body is seen, whereas the beauty of the soul is not seen." Is this true?
- One thing that puzzles me is if what is practical for one person is not practical for another person, then what is the criterion of truth? Is truth relative?
- One thing they (indistinct) Prabhupada, that we are thinking in terms of Vedic culture, and they say well, if this Vedic culture was previously existing, then why did it dissolve? Why did it fall apart and now we have to make a new one?
- Only difficulty, for instance, in socialist society of our country and a socialist society how can you distinguish productive group and workers?
- Original form... Which is the form of the body (he (the soul) has got his original form)?
- Otherwise where does the impersonal idea come from (God is there, but he is refusing to accept. Just like the impersonalist: unless you have got personal understanding, how will you try to make it impersonal? The first is personal)?
P
- Para-tattva? Means?
- People are fascinated in the ritual things, the ara..., during the offering puja to the Deities and especially this initiation service. I would like to record the meaning of these ritual?
- Personality is there certainly, but is it continued? Is there a continuity of personality from the dead body to the new body?
- Plato says, "men must be brought up from childhood to feel pleasure and pain at the proper things, for this is correct education." So how does this correspond to the Vedic view of education?
- Prabhupada has told us that even in the spiritual world there is desire to have the senses enjoy. Isn't that so?
- Prabhupada, can you explain a little more about Ratha-yatra? Anyone who takes part in Ratha-yatra, are they liberated?
- Prabhupada, if someone is hearing the holy name in the street, if the sankirtana party is chanting, and they are atheists, what benefit is it for them?
- Prabhupada, in case, for example some scientist makes a change, like if the scientist comes and cuts off my hand, that's also my karma. In that way he's not making a change. Everything that is happening is God's plan?
- Prabhupada, is the best method to read Bhagavad-gita?
- Prabhupada, what do you think about the German translation work? I know it must go on. But isn't there some way to increase it, to make it go more quickly?
- Prabhupada, you said that at the time of death, if one is Krsna conscious, he's given a spiritual body. Is the spiritual body... You said it has been created. Originally, we had a spiritual body, and then we fell under the...
- Prabhupada? When you were speaking of bhagavata-vidhi, you said that of the nine devotional methods, it includes... I didn't understand which ones it includes, up to what point?
- Prabhupada? You said Arjuna was lamenting, but pure devotees become... Superior qualities that all devotees possess... So why is this? So why did Krsna call him a fool?
- Prakrti means space?
- Presumably you would encourage this movement of more people to find a spiritual life?