Go to Vanipedia | Go to Vanisource | Go to Vanimedia


Vaniquotes - the compiled essence of Vedic knowledge


Against the authority

Srimad-Bhagavatam

SB Canto 1

There are men called deva, or godly living beings, and there are men called asuras, or demons, who are against the authority of the Supreme Lord
SB 1.2.16, Purport: The conditioned life of a living being is caused by his revolting against the Lord. There are men called deva, or godly living beings, and there are men called asuras, or demons, who are against the authority of the Supreme Lord. In the Bhagavad-gītā (Sixteenth Chapter) a vivid description of the asuras is given in which it is said that the asuras are put into lower and lower states of ignorance life after life and so sink to the lower animal forms and have no information of the Absolute Truth, the Personality of Godhead. These asuras are gradually rectified to God consciousness by the mercy of the Lord's liberated servitors in different countries according to the supreme will. Such devotees of God are very confidential associates of the Lord, and when they come to save human society from the dangers of godlessness, they are known as the powerful incarnations of the Lord, as sons of the Lord, as servants of the Lord or as associates of the Lord. But none of them falsely claim to be God themselves. This is a blasphemy declared by the asuras, and the demoniac followers of such asuras also accept pretenders as God or His incarnation. In the revealed scriptures there is definite information of the incarnation of God. No one should be accepted as God or an incarnation of God unless he is confirmed by the revealed scriptures.
The less intelligent persons are those who rebel against the authority of the Lord. Such persons are known as asuras
SB 1.8.19, Purport: In the Bhagavad-gītā Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa affirms that less intelligent persons mistake Him to be an ordinary man like us, and thus they deride Him. The same is confirmed herein by Queen Kuntī. The less intelligent persons are those who rebel against the authority of the Lord. Such persons are known as asuras. The asuras cannot recognize the Lord's authority. When the Lord Himself appears amongst us, as Rāma, Nṛsiṁha, Varāha or in His original form as Kṛṣṇa, He performs many wonderful acts which are humanly impossible. As we shall find in the Tenth Canto of this great literature, Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa exhibited His humanly impossible activities even from the days of His lying on the lap of His mother. He killed the Pūtanā witch, although she smeared her breast with poison just to kill the Lord. The Lord sucked her breast like a natural baby, and He sucked out her very life also. Similarly, He lifted the Govardhana Hill, just as a boy picks up a frog's umbrella, and stood several days continuously just to give protection to the residents of Vṛndāvana. These are some of the superhuman activities of the Lord described in the authoritative Vedic literatures like the Purāṇas, Itihāsas (histories) and Upaniṣads. He has delivered wonderful instructions in the shape of the Bhagavad-gītā. He has shown marvelous capacities as a hero, as a householder, as a teacher and as a renouncer. He is accepted as the Supreme Personality of Godhead by such authoritative personalities as Vyāsa, Devala, Asita, Nārada, Madhva, Śaṅkara, Rāmānuja, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, Jīva Gosvāmī, Viśvanātha Cakravartī, Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī and all other authorities of the line. He Himself has declared as much in many places of the authentic literatures. And yet there is a class of men with demoniac mentality who are always reluctant to accept the Lord as the Supreme Absolute Truth. This is partially due to their poor fund of knowledge and partially due to their stubborn obstinacy, which results from various misdeeds in the past and present. Such persons could not recognize Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa even when He was present before them. Another difficulty is that those who depend more on their imperfect senses cannot realize Him as the Supreme Lord. Such persons are like the modern scientist. They want to know everything by their experimental knowledge. But it is not possible to know the Supreme Person by imperfect experimental knowledge. He is described herein as adhokṣaja, or beyond the range of experimental knowledge. All our senses are imperfect. We claim to observe everything and anything, but we must admit that we can observe things under certain material conditions only, which are also beyond our control. The Lord is beyond the observation of sense perception. Queen Kuntī accepts this deficiency of the conditioned soul, especially of the woman class, who are less intelligent. For less intelligent men there must be such things as temples, mosques or churches so that they may begin to recognize the authority of the Lord and hear about Him from authorities in such holy places. For less intelligent men, this beginning of spiritual life is essential, and only foolish men decry the establishment of such places of worship, which are required to raise the standard of spiritual attributes for the mass of people. For less intelligent persons, bowing down before the authority of the Lord, as generally done in the temples, mosques or churches, is as beneficial as it is for the advanced devotees to meditate upon Him by active service.

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta

CC Madhya-lila

Those who are actually in knowledge do not admit such conclusions, which are against the authority of the śāstras
CC Madhya 8.90, Purport: It is a completely mistaken idea that one can worship Kṛṣṇa in any form or in any way and still attain the ultimate result of receiving the favor of the Lord. This is a decision made by gross materialists. Generally such men say that you can manufacture your own way of worshiping the Supreme Lord and that any type of worship is sufficient to approach the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Certainly there are different means for attaining different results in fruitive activity, speculative knowledge, mystic yoga and austerity. Crude men therefore say that one who adopts any of these methods achieves the Supreme Personality of Godhead’s favor. They claim that it doesn’t matter what kind of method one adopts. A general example is given: If one wishes to arrive at a certain place, there are many roads leading there, and one can go to that place by any one of these roads. Similarly, these gross materialists say, there are different ways to attain the favor of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. They claim that one can conceive of the Supreme Personality of Godhead as goddess Durgā, goddess Kālī, Lord Śiva, demigod Gaṇeśa, Lord Rāmacandra, Kṛṣṇa, the impersonal Brahman or whatever, and one can chant the Lord’s name in any way and in any form. Such materialists claim that since ultimately all these names and forms are one, the result is the same. They also give the example that a man who has different names will answer if called by any one of them. Therefore, they claim, there is no need to chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. If one chants the name of Kālī, Durgā, Śiva, Gaṇeśa or anyone else, the result will be the same. Such claims made by mental speculators are no doubt very pleasing to mental speculators, but those who are actually in knowledge do not admit such conclusions, which are against the authority of the śāstras. A bona fide ācārya will certainly not accept such a conclusion.

Lectures

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

So our proposition is: anyone against the authority of God, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, we must strongly criticize him and take to task. This is our business.
Lecture on SB 5.5.20 -- Vrndavana, November 8, 1976: Among the scientists it is a great sin to utter even the name of God. They will say, "Oh, you are talking of God. You are not scientist." Is it not? Yes. Scientist means you must be godless. This is going on. Therefore we are making so much propaganda against these rascal scientists. We are presenting... They are putting this theory that life is born out of chemicals. We are putting the counter theory: "No. Life is born of life, never from chemicals." Our scientist students, they are writing the book, you know. And so our proposition is: anyone against the authority of God, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, we must strongly criticize him and take to task. This is our business. Just like Hanumān, Vajrāṅgajī. He took very severely to punish Rāvaṇa. What was the fault? He was godless. He was against Rāma. Therefore he took it very seriously and set fire to his beautiful kingdom, Laṅkā.

Conversations and Morning Walks

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation and Interview with Ian Polsen -- July 31, 1972, London: Prabhupāda: Our present conditional life is rebellious. We have rebelled against the authority of Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Lord. It is very simple thing. Just like a person, a citizen, if he becomes rebellious, then he is arrested and put into custody, and his life becomes conditioned, he has no freedom. Similarly, as soon aw we are rebellious to the authority of the Supreme Lord, we are captured by māyā—that is also an energy of Kṛṣṇa—and we become conditioned. So this is our position. So in this conditional life we can never be happy, that's a fact. So we have to transcend this conditional life and again become engaged in our constitutional position. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

You are teaching him to accept the authority. And you are teaching against authority. Everything contradictory.
Morning Walk -- March 19, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: What is the value? If you are calling him to take education from the school, that means he is accepting authority. Let him be educated at home. Why the college?

Devotee: But in the classrooms, they simply...

Prabhupāda: No, no, no, first of all, the principle? What is this principle?

Rāmeśvara: To train him in the methods of...

Prabhupāda: Yes. So that means authority. You are teaching him to accept the authority. And you are teaching against authority. Everything contradictory. One side, contraceptive; one side, illicit sex. And the.... But Vedic civilization says, "All right, as soon as woman is widow, let her remain as a saintly woman—no more sex." But "No, you can marry and you can have sex hundred times daily, but use contraceptive." Is that civilization? To train one woman not to have any more sex, this is also contraceptive. And another way that "You can have sex any amount, as many times as you like. Take this contraceptive." Whose civilization better? And you call him to be trained up to accept authority and teach him, "Don't accept any authority." Is that education? Nonsense.

Correspondence

1971 Correspondence

So if you argue against the authority of Bhāgavatam, then that argument has no value.
Room Conversation -- July 17, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: So everything is given with logic and argument. Ete cāṁśa-kalāḥ puṁsaḥ kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam [SB 1.3.28]. First of all He's grouped among the incarnations, but Kṛṣṇa is not incarnation. He's bhagavān svayam.

Indian man: He comes original.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So if you argue against the authority of Bhāgavatam, then that argument has no value.

Indian man: That's where the problem in India is. Everyone is saying God is Mahā-Viṣṇu, and Kṛṣṇa and Rāma are only avatāras, and that's where the big argument came in. In fact, I talked to so many...

Prabhupāda: Otherwise why Sūta Gosvāmī, kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam [SB 1.3.28]? And Kṛṣṇa says, mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat [Bg. 7.7]. So how one can say like that? That means less intelligent. If Kṛṣṇa... If one accepts the authority of Bhagavad-gītā, Kṛṣṇa says, mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat [Bg. 7.7]. Aham ādir hi devānām [Bg 10.2]. Then how they falsely say? Aham ādir hi devānām. Find out this verse.
It is good if the newspapers take our side and public opinion is against the authorities viewpoint, but it will be better if we use all goodwill and tact to avoid such violent confrontation in public.
Letter to Rsabhadeva -- Bombay 28 December, 1971: So far the action taken by city officials, it is not good to disturb them unduly or cause unwanted agitation or anger with such people. They are demons so they will not change. Civil disobedience movement can be led by Lord Caitanya, but we are not so strongly organized and influential to be able to perform successfully such civil disobedience movement. It is good if the newspapers take our side and public opinion is against the authorities viewpoint, but it will be better if we use all goodwill and tact to avoid such violent confrontation in public and simply take another place with required parking space. Regarding your question about deities, what is the use of such temple if nonresidents cannot come? For ourselves, we do not require temple for serving Krishna. But, because the public must have a comfortable place to sit down and chant Hare Krishna, therefore we get a nice house, install deity, decorate nicely and invite everyone. So if no one can come due to law, I do not think you should keep such place. Better to find a more suitable place, then install Lord Jagannatha. Consult Karandhara in this matter.
Page Title:Against the authority
Compiler: Siddha Rupa, Visnu Murti
Created: 12March08,
No. of Quotes:8
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=2, CC=1, OB=0, Lec=1, Con=3, Let=1