There are many theories and philosophical speculation all over the world about understanding the soul. Therefore Kṛṣṇa is concluding that "Somebody's explaining wonderfully, somebody is hearing wonderfully, but even after hearing and speaking, it remains a mystery, and less intelligent person cannot understand it." That is the fact. There are so many theories. Therefore we have to accept the reality from the authority. By theorizing, by speculating, we cannot come into any decision. I may be very good logician. You may be greater logician. So you can defeat my logic. I can defeat your logic. So what is the conclusion? This kind of talking, it is called ku-tarka, unnecessarily talking, because you'll not come to my decision, I'll not come to your decision. So everyone is mysterious.
Less intelligent persons (Lectures, Conv and Letters)
Lectures
Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures
Just see. In those days less qualified men were meant for understanding Bhagavad-gītā in half an hour. Just imagine what class of less intelligent persons were at that time. The same Bhagavad-gītā, now scholars like Dr. Radhakrishnan, and others, so many big big scholars, they are scrutinizingly studying; still they cannot understand. But this Bhagavad-gītā was meant for the less intelligent class of men of that time. Just you can imagine what class of less intelligent class and women were there.
So we are preaching this Kṛṣṇa consciousness cult. It is not a cult. It is an actual, the fact for solving all problems. People should know. And if he is intelligent, he'll accept it. If he's intelligent. Because kṛṣṇa yei bhaje sei baḍa catura. Without being very intelligent, nobody can become Kṛṣṇa conscious. It is not possible. Less intelligent persons cannot do it. It is meant for the first-class intelligent men.
The ultimate cause cannot be void. How it can be void? Do you think from void something comes out? Do you think your body has come from something void? No. Behind this body is your father, your mother. How can you say that everything has come out of void. This is all, I mean to say, less intelligence. Whoever says like that, they are called asuras or less intelligent. Less intelligent persons, they become asuras because they cannot calculate. They cannot think of. Their brain does not provide provision to think of all these things, a dull brain.
Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures
There are two things: preya and śreya. Śreya means ultimate good. If you act in such a way that ultimately you actually become happy, that is called śreya. And if you want immediately some happiness—never mind what it will be in future—that is called preya. So less intelligent person or children, they want preya. They do not want śreya. A child is playing whole day. He likes it. That is preya. And if you want to send him to school to be educated, he doesn't like. That is śreya, ultimate good. So nobody is interested. Still, the śāstra gives us instruction that "You try for this śreya. Don't be captivated by the preya." Preya and śreya.
And in the Bhagavad-gītā you have seen that Kṛṣṇa says, mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat kiñcid asti dhanañjaya: (BG 7.7) "My dear Dhanañjaya, My dear Arjuna, there is nobody superior to Me." So just like some heating agent. You have got several heating agent. You have got heater in your apartment, oven in your apartment. There are so many different varieties of heater. But the heat of the sun cannot be compared with any other heat. You cannot say that "Because I have got little heat, I have become sun." (laughs) This is ludicrous; it is not possible. So those who are claiming that "I am God," "Everyone is God," they are simply, what can I say? Less intelligent persons. (laughter) They have no conception what is God.
Prabhupāda: When it is distinct, is there any necessity of interpretation? It is clear. Similarly, Kṛṣṇa says, "I am God. I am the Supreme." So how you can interpret that "No, no, not Kṛṣṇa. Something within Kṛṣṇa." Dr. Radhakrishnan says like that. Yes. That is foolishness. Kṛṣṇa says, man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad... (BG 18.65).
Guest: That is something within Kṛṣṇa?
Prabhupāda: That is his idea, foolish idea. Because he is nirviśeṣavādi, he cannot accept Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Person, therefore how he can avoid the version of Kṛṣṇa unless he pushes something extra out of his foolishness? And there are foolish persons, they'll say, "Oh, here is Dr. Radhakrishnan says." The intelligent person will see why this foolish person introduces something else? Here is the clear... Kṛṣṇa says, "Just become My devotee." And why he introduces somebody else? But less intelligent persons cannot.
So just like in the Vedic society, although there are meat-eaters, they would eat meat after offering sacrifice to Goddess Kālī. Restriction. Restriction. Because if you eat meat from the slaughterhouse there is no restriction. You can go and purchase at any time. But if you follow the scriptural regulation, they say, "Yes..." It is restriction. It is indirectly saying, "Don't eat," but because this less intelligent person will not be able to understand, therefore they are given some permission under certain restriction.
That is the injunction, that "If you want this benefit, particular benefit, then you worship this particular." Yānti deva-vratā devān (BG 9.25). There is injunction. The demigod worship, there is injunction that "You do this." But for whom? For the less intelligent person. Kāmais tais tair hṛta-jñānāḥ yajanti anya-devatāḥ: (BG 7.20) "Except God, the Supreme Lord, when the other demigod worship is allowed, that is for the person, hṛta-jñānāḥ, one who does not know his ultimate goal of life, for them." But one who is interested to stop the cycle of birth and death, they must come to Kṛṣṇa.
Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures
Now, here Caitanya Mahāprabhu says that Kṛṣṇa is person, the Supreme Personality of Godhead is person, but He is not a person like us. That is difference. But less intelligent persons, they think Kṛṣṇa, as soon as He is a person, "He is a person like us." That is a mistake. He is not a person like any one of us. Therefore He is confirmed by the Vedas, apāṇi-pāda javano grahītā: "This Absolute Truth has no leg or hand; still, He can walk very swiftly and He can accept anything you offer." That means His hands and legs are not like ours. That is transcendental. So Caitanya Mahāprabhu is trying to explain before Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya that the Absolute Truth is a person, a person like you and me. Cetana... Nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13). He is the Supreme Person, the chief person. We are all also individuals, Kṛṣṇa is also individual, but He is the chief and we are subordinate. That is the way.
So this impersonal idea of God is for the less intelligent person, not for the intelligent persons. Those who are, I mean to say, favored with poor fund of knowledge, they cannot conceive about the Personality of Godhead. Therefore we have to approach authorities just like Lord Caitanya. He is putting something before us. Even in Bhagavad-gītā Lord Kṛṣṇa also says that "I am person. I am person." Mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat kiñcid asti dhanañjaya (BG 7.7). And it is confirmed by Arjuna. What is that? Paraṁ brahma paraṁ dhāma pavitraṁ paramaṁ bhavān (BG 10.12). Pavitraṁ paramaṁ bhavān. So the Bhagavad-gītā, the speaker of the Bhagavad-gītā, establishing Himself that "I am person," and the student of the Bhagavad-gītā, I mean to say, Arjuna, he is accepting, "Yes. You are person. I accept it." I do not know why these fools explain, from Bhagavad-gītā, impersonalism. Where is the chance of explaining impersonal about conception of God from Bhagavad-gītā?
Just mark this description of Kṛṣṇa: cid-ānanda-deha. Cid-ānanda-deha means transcendental, spiritual body, not this body. Because the less intelligent persons, they cannot think of personal God... Because they think that whenever there is question of personality, it is material body. They cannot find out the shape of the spirit soul. It is so small that from material eyes, by material instrument, you cannot find out the shape of the soul. Therefore they conclude that there is no shape. The same example: just geometrically, the definition of point is given, "point has no length, no breadth," because a point cannot be measured by any human instrument. But nothing can be without... Even the atom has got its measure. But because we have no power to measure, we set aside, dismiss: "Oh, there is no, nothing." So similarly, "Because we do not know what is spirit, and we think spirit is something just opposite to this matter, and matter we find manifestation, form, therefore spirit should be formless." That is their conclusion.
Initiation Lectures
We are taking these fruits, flowers, grains. It is not possible to manufacture these in your factory. It is Kṛṣṇa sending, Kṛṣṇa giving you. So we are living at the cost of Kṛṣṇa, and after cooking these fruits, flowers or grains, if we do not offer to Kṛṣṇa, is that very good gentlemanliness? I take so much from you and simply, nicely, and very cleanly cooking the foodstuff, if we offer to Kṛṣṇa, then what is the wrong there? The rascals, they say, "Oh, they are heathens. They are worshiping some stone." Just see. So these are all less intelligent person. God eats. Kṛṣṇa says, tad aham aśnāmi. "I eat."
Philosophy Discussions
To worship God means to know God, actually what is God, more perfect—how He is managing, how material nature is working under Him. People cannot even imagine that God can be person, but here is everything person. Mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram: (BG 9.10) "Under My supervision the material nature is working." So these impersonalists or less intelligent persons, they cannot understand that how a person can dictate the wonderful activities of the material nature; therefore they remain impersonalist. But actually, person. That is the understanding of Bhagavad-gītā. God is person. Mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat kiñcid asti dhanañjaya: (BG 7.7) "There is no more superior authority than Me." So when He says mattaḥ, that means there is a person, person.
Hayagrīva: Plotinus conceives of the soul as having basically two parts: a lower part, directed toward the body, and a higher part, directed toward the spiritual.
Prabhupāda: Yes. That is, he is prone to fall down because he is very minute quantity, he is small, so there is tendency of falldown. The same example: the small spark of the fire, because it is very small, sometimes it falls down from the fire. So we become, being very small, minute particle of God, we become entangled by this material, external energy. Just like the example: a less intelligent person, in ignorance, commits criminal activities and he goes to jail. He is not supposed to go to the jail, but on account of his little intelligence or ignorance, he commits something which is criminal. This criminality is done by less intelligent class of men. Similarly, persons who are coming into this material world, they are less intelligent. Kṛṣṇa bhuliya jīva bhoga vāñchā kare. They think that they will be able to enjoy life independently, without Kṛṣṇa. This is less intelligence.
| Page Title: | Less intelligent persons (Lectures, Conv and Letters) |
| Compiler: | Labangalatika |
| Created: | 13 of Jun, 2010 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=15, Con=3, Let=4 |
| No. of Quotes: | 22 |