Realistic

Expressions researched:
"realist" |"realistic" |"realistically" |"realists"

SB Canto 1

SB 1.18.7, Translation:

Mahārāja Parīkṣit was a realist, like the bees who only accept the essence (of a flower). He knew perfectly well that in this age of Kali, auspicious things produce good effects immediately, whereas inauspicious acts must be actually performed (to render effects). So he was never envious of the personality of Kali.

SB Canto 3

SB 3.9.5, Purport:

The relationship of the pure devotees with the Lord develops because of devotional service to the Lord on the authentic basis of Vedic authority. Such pure devotees are not mundane sentimentalists, but are factually realists because their activities are supported by the Vedic authorities who have given aural reception to the facts mentioned in the Vedic literatures.

SB Cantos 10.14 to 12 (Translations Only)

SB 10.14.34, Translation:

My greatest possible good fortune would be to take any birth whatever in this forest of Gokula and have my head bathed by the dust falling from the lotus feet of any of its residents. Their entire life and soul is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Mukunda, the dust of whose lotus feet is still being searched for in the Vedic mantras.

SB 11.22.49, Translation:

By the death of one's father or grandfather one can surmise one's own death, and by the birth of one's son one can understand the condition of one's own birth. A person who thus realistically understands the creation and destruction of material bodies is no longer subject to these dualities.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Lecture on SB 5.5.2 -- Hyderabad, April 11, 1975:

Guest (1): Brahma-sūtra, as propounded by Vyāsa is one. It is only one. But after reading Brahma-sūtra, the bhāṣyas, Śaṇkara-bhāṣya, Madhva-bhāṣya, and Śrī-bhāṣya as written by Rāmānujācārya, all these things differ in many ways, and they leave us confused to know what is actually existing. Am I to follow this or that or this? Because "Jagat is mithyā," it is said by Śaṇkarācārya. Madhvācārya says, "It's not mithyā. It is realistic." It's contradiction. And Rāmānuja used another way of explanation, that he says, "It is that, and it is this." And in that way, tava dāsaḥ aham, Madhvācārya says, "I am your slave." Tava dāsaḥ aham, tava dāso 'ham. But Śaṇkarācārya says, "No. Ātmā itself is Paramātmā. There is no question of his saying, tava dāso 'ham." Like that, jagan mithyā, brahma satyaṁ jagan mithyā. And then we see, as propounded by Śaṇkarācārya, as explained by Śaṇkarācārya, the same it is said by Madhvācārya as jagat satyam and brahma satyam: "Both are satya." And when Śaṇkarācārya says that jagan mithyā brahma satyam, the same Brahma-sūtra it is taken up by Madhvācārya in a different way. He says jagan mithyā, er, I'm sorry, jagat satyam and brahma satyam. And Rāmānuja says in a different way again, most confusing, he says at some stage, "It is realistic, and at a different stage it becomes unrealistic." So, in so many factors, I find that there are so many contradictions there. If you kindly clarify the matter in a very clear and straightforward manner, I will be and people will be much obliged to you. So Swamiji will have to say something about this, whether the world is temporary, or whether the world is unrealistic or not, or is it realistic. And if it is realistic, why Śaṇkarācārya has said that it is mithyā, and Rāmānujācārya says, "At one stage it is realistic, and after some stage it becomes unrealistic"? And therefore I want clarification so that I can understand.

Prabhupāda: The Śaṇkarācārya is accepted as Māyāvādī because these Māyāvādī philosophers, they think everything is māyā; even Kṛṣṇa is māyā. So, our Caitanya Mahāprabhu... We belong to Caitanya Mahāprabhu, and Caitanya Mahāprabhu belongs to Madhvācārya-sampradāya. As I have already explained, there are mahājanas. So all mahājanas, they have got different sampradāyas. Just like Lord Brahmā, he has got his sampradāya; it is called Brahma-sampradāya. Similarly, Lord Śiva has his sampradāya; it is called Rudra-sampradāya. Lakṣmījī has got his (her) sampradāya; it is called Śrī-sampradāya. So śāstra says that śrutayo vibhinnaḥ. You hear different types of philosophy from different sources.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- September 18, 1973, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa is all spirit.

Guest (1): His senses are...?

Prabhupāda: Everything. He has no difference between the body and the soul. He's Supreme Soul, simply Supreme Soul.

Guest (1): He has no these external senses?

Prabhupāda: No, no, no. He has no external, internal. We are conditioned souls. We have got external, internal. Avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam (BG 9.11). Because people cannot understand it, they think that "Kṛṣṇa is like us."

Guest (1): He's not person then realistically.

Prabhupāda: He's person. Not like you person.

Guest (1): A different.

Prabhupāda: That you are always in want. Not like that. He's Supreme, full of all opulences. He's person, but not a person like us. The same example: Indira Gandhi is a person. I am also person. But not a person like me. Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ (Bs. 5.1). Vigraha means person. He is sac-cid-ānanda. We are not ānanda. This body is not sat.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 12, 1974, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: :...accepting a leader, one has to consider what is the position of the leader. They do not take such account. Now they calculate if the leader is very cunning, then he is qualified. They think that politics means cheating, cunning, bluffing. That is good qualification. Lloyd George, sometimes before he came, he said, "Consistency in politics is the qualification of an ass." He must be inconsistent. And here, this is defense. Tasya vartamānasya. How he is situated (break) ...as it was everywhere, especially in India, that if one is not God conscious, he is a third-class rascal. That standard is now gone. Now to become God conscious, to talk of God, is a business of primitive fools. They think like that. Is it not?

Prajāpati: Yes. They say they are realistic and we are not realistic.

Prabhupāda: Who is realistic? The rascals?

Prajāpati: They think that people who believe in God are not realistic.

Prabhupāda: Oh. And what is the realistic?

Satsvarūpa: To work in social reform or politics is realistic.

Prabhupāda: Reform means that continuously reform? Then where is perfection?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: They have no standard.

Prabhupāda: No standard. What is the standard of reform, that they do not know.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Woman Sanskrit Professor -- February 13, 1975, Mexico:

Guest (1): Well, origin, that is more on the theoretical side. It's a question, "Why?" But I am, rather, after the purpose.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is a nice question. But there is the real source of everything. That is the Vedānta-sūtra... Perhaps you have read. Vedānta-sūtra, first question is: "Wherefrom all these things come?" So the answer is that janmādy asya yataḥ: (SB 1.1.1) "Brahmān. The original thing is Brahmān, or the Absolute Truth, and from Him, everything is emanating." Just like physical... The sun is there, and whole material world is product of the sunshine. What your physical science says? Eh? Eh? Do they not say? It is a fact that sunshine... Due to the sunshine all these material things are there.

Guest (1): Well, it's more involved than just saying that. Sun is just a big complex of hydrogen and helium, a big pile of rubbish really, but it develops this marvelous reactions which causes it to work as a big nuclear reactor, an entirely different story, what the vision of science, of the present science, about the meaning of celestial bodies and the meaning of, in particular, of sun and moon and so on. We are extremely realistic about this world. We can't see, assuming all the glory of that what happens on the earth due to the existence of those bodies, we do not try to look inside of the structure of these things, as something meant for us. Just universe as it is... And this question, like Nietzchean question which I am repeating—that's not my point—this big question is... Western philosophy presently does not answer, does not ask this question. I think that this scientist who did ask it had quite a point. This question expresses the quest of the human race for some meaning for some sense, for some sense. That's what religion is now offering us, or philosophy, or... Rarely, directly, we hear the direct answer to that.

Prabhupāda: What is your direct answer?

Guest (1): Oh, I don't have any. If I would have, I wouldn't ask you.

Prabhupāda: That means your knowledge is insufficient.

Guest (1): Precisely. Precisely. That is the beginning of...

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- December 27, 1976, Bombay:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: So what we have to do, we'll have to have courses starting every Monday. So suppose I come in on Saturday I have to wait till Monday for the course to start.

Prabhupāda: No, why? Why?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Because we do not have, realistically speaking, seven qualified teachers.

Prabhupāda: Why? What is the qualification? They cannot read Bhagavad-gītā?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, at least you need some intelligence. Like...

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 10, 1977, Bombay:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Like Jayatīrtha wrote to me. He prefers the Indian Gītā to the American because it is economical.

Rāmeśvara: Because it is... Yes, because of the price.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. We all have to be realistic. The price...

Prabhupāda: Now Jayatīrtha is going first in selling, more than anyone.

Evening Darsana -- February 24, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: This warfield painting is done very nicely.

Jayatīrtha: I think so.

Prabhupāda: Who has done it?

Jayatīrtha: Parīkṣit.

Prabhupāda: Oh. Actual.

Jayatīrtha: People I've shown it to like it much better than this picture. It's more realistic. Has a very classical look.

Prabhupāda: This is a protest against Gandhi's nonviolence, (laughter) bogus nonviolence. So it is a protest against that idea.

1970 Correspondence

Letter to Bali-mardana -- Tokyo 25 August, 1970:

Spiritual Master is the representative of Vyasadeva because he carries the message of Vyasadeva throughout the world. As you know it very well that Vyasadeva compiled all Vedic literatures wonderfully. Sometimes so-called "realist" philosophers do not believe that there was any person of the name Vyasadeva. Their opinion is that any person distributing the Vedic knowledge is called a Vyasadeva. This class of philosophers generally being impersonalists cannot appreciate how one man could write so many books. Actually it is astonishing.

1971 Correspondence

Letter to Madhusudana -- London 18 August, 1971:

So far your choice of artwork for BTG, I do not know the artistic sense. I am a layman and do not know the techniques. But the picture you have enclosed appeals to me, so it may be used. I have no objection.

The point is that these drawings should be realistic. Not that you make Krishna a cartoon character and therefore laughing stock. And hippy ideas shouldn't be used either. Whatever technique is there, make it realistic. That will be nice.

1972 Correspondence

Letter to Lalitananda -- New Vrindaban 2 September, 1972:

So far I am concerned, I have no objection if there is carved form of guru on the Guru-Gauranga altar, but one thing, is unless that sculptor is very excellent, it should not be attempted. How will you get photos from all angles of vision for the carving process? Unless it can be done very nicely, just perfectly realistic, he should not do it. Yes, God is always there in His Arca Vigraha form, either as Krishna or Rama or Caitanya, whatever. So He must be offered all respects as if He is there personally present, and if you are always sincerely chanting and following our Krishna Consciousness programme of chanting and other things you will very quickly develop the eyes to see Krishna there.