Hegel

Expressions researched:
"Hagel" |"Hegel"

Philosophy Discussions

Philosophy Discussion on Hegel:

Śyāmasundara: His idea is that this constant struggle between being and non-being is what makes the world go round.

Prabhupāda: That is also our proposition. That the spirit: yayedaṁ dhāryate jagat (BG 7.5). Therefore we are talking of two energies, the superior energy and the inferior energy.

Śyāmasundara: What is the synthesis?

Prabhupāda: The synthesis is that the superior energy, because it has accepted this material energy, therefore the material world's energy is working. Because I have entered into this body, therefore the body's material, it has no movement, but because I am within this body, it is moving. As soon as I shall go away, then this body is a lump of matter.

Śyāmasundara: He says this dialectic, basic dialectic between being and nothing is the basis of becoming, that because these two things are always conflicting, we are always becoming.

Prabhupāda: Becoming, that's... Therefore, the question becoming means I am now in this awkward position, that I am eternal and immortal but I have been entrapped by something which is mortal, therefore I am changing my position. So when I shall stop this taking of different position, I shall remain in my own being, that is the (synthesis).

Śyāmasundara: The previous example that you gave, that John is a man, man is immortal...

Prabhupāda: That is body, that is body, superficial.

Śyāmasundara: He says that that is a static analysis. That only deals with what is...

Prabhupāda: No, that is, that is static means those who are seeing simply the body. No introspection. They're simply, exoteric, no? Exoteric, what is called? Superficial, that is superficial.

Śyāmasundara: Exoteric.

Prabhupāda: So, but Kṛṣṇa says, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). Although the body is not mortal, still the proprietor of the body is immortal. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20).

Śyāmasundara: So that's a combination of thesis and antithesis into synthesis.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So when we perfectly come to that position then you become synthesis.

Śyāmasundara: That's what Hegel is trying to find out, that ultimate synthesis.

Prabhupāda: He has to find out that he has no knowledge to find out; he has to take knowledge from us. We can help him.

Śyāmasundara: But anyway the basic idea is that every fact can only be understood by relating it to its opposite.

Prabhupāda: That is in the relative world because here everything is relative. We cannot understand what is father unless he has got a son, and he cannot understand a son unless he has got a father. So similarly this world is like that. You cannot understand what is white unless there is black. And you cannot understand black unless there is white. So this is relative world, this is not absolute world. In the absolute world the black, white, everything is one.

Śyāmasundara: Well he says you can find out that absolute world by tracing out all of these black-white relationships in the material world. Eventually you come to the point of understanding the absolute.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is Bhagavad-gītā says: bahūnāṁ janmanām ante jñānavān māṁ prapadyate (BG 7.19). After many, many births when actually one comes to the understanding of the Absolute, he surrenders unto Me because I am the Absolute. So our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is teaching to approach the Absolute. That is our...

Śyāmasundara: He says that for instance by relating one idea to its opposite that we discover a different truth about each of them which transcends their separate truths.

Prabhupāda: Yes. It is just like this Bhagavad-gītā says, that dehino 'smin... It says that this dehi, the soul which is within the body, that is immortal and this body is mortal. Two things are there.

Śyāmasundara: Opposites.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Śyāmasundara: So the synthesis transcends their separate beings.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Śyāmasundara: The synthesis transcends their separate beings.

Prabhupāda: Separate means mortal and immortal.

Śyāmasundara: The combination is higher than both of them.

Prabhupāda: Avināśi tu tad viddhi yena sarvam idaṁ tatam.

Śyāmasundara: Then what is the synthesis?

Prabhupāda: Synthesis is to get out, the soul, from this awkward position of matter.

Śyāmasundara: Is that a higher understanding than understanding the soul by itself?

Prabhupāda: Yes, when soul is liberated, that is higher understanding. The soul should be liberated. He is in awkward position within this material world. He is in awkward position.

Philosophy Discussion on Hegel:

Prabhupāda: The conclusion is that Mr. Hegel is not in perfect knowledge.

Śyāmasundara: No. At least he sees a purpose in the universe.

Prabhupāda: That's alright. He's trying to see in his own capacity; but he is not perfect.

Philosophy Discussion on Hegel:

Śyāmasundara: Last time we discussed Hegel, you said, "Yes, philosophy is highest but even higher than philosophy is the practice of philosophy."

Prabhupāda: Yes. This is practice as I say, the gopīs. They're actually loving.

Śyāmasundara: They were practising the result of philosophy.

Prabhupāda: Enjoying the result of philosophy. (laughter)

Śyāmasundara: I guess that's a good place to stop for today. We'll try to finish Hegel tomorrow. (break) First we'll be discussing the ethical, social and political philosophy of Hegel. He believed that one's basic right was to be a person and respect others as persons.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So what is the philosophy of killing animals?

Śyāmasundara: Well, animals are considered as things and persons have the dominion over things.

Prabhupāda: Therefore they are rascals. Rascal philosophy. So the basic principle is this, one has right to be.

Philosophy Discussion on Arthur Schopenhauer:

Śyāmasundara: Suffering sharpens the intelligence?

Prabhupāda: Yes, adverse..., blessings of adversity. Just like a businessman, one, he loses some money in some attempt, he becomes more intelligent, that "This account, business, should not be done."

Śyāmasundara: I think yesterday Hegel described it in terms of conflict, that through conflict progress comes out.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So here is a perpetual conflict with māyā. Daivī hy eṣā guṇa-mayī mama māyā duratyayā (BG 7.14). This is a fight against, māyā is putting impediments, what I think it is right, māyā is breaking it.

Śyāmasundara: That's what he sees in it, the irrational.

Prabhupāda: Hitler's plan, Nazism, in so many ways, māyā has broke it into pieces. The Britishers, they also found the British empire, and māyā broke it. Roman empire... So, this frustration. But we are so fooled that in spite of repeated frustration, we are still trying to do the same thing. That is explained in the Bhāgavata, punaḥ punaś carvita-carvaṇānām (SB 7.5.30), chewing the chewed. Chewing the chewed. He has been frustrated in so many ways, in sexual life, divorce this wife, again another accept, another wife. So what is the another wife? The same thing, sex, but he is making he is (indistinct): "Now again another." That is very nicely experienced in your country. In a year, three times divorce, three times accepting. That is named carvita-carvaṇānām, chewing the chewed. He should have experienced that "I am changing, but what is the change? The same sex life. So what is the use of changing?" But he has no intelligence. Punaḥ punaś carvita-carvaṇānām (SB 7.5.30). His business has become like that.

Philosophy Discussion on Bertrand Russell:

Śyāmasundara: Just like when we were discussing Hegel, Hegel's belief was everything was synthetic, that it..., for every thesis there was an antithesis, and each combining made a synthesis, so that all things were related and all things combined together were the world. But his idea is the opposite—that everything is separated, everything is individual.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Separated, but there is sympathy. It is not separated abrupt. There is sympathy. Just like here, all our students, they are individual, separately, but there is (indistinct) sympathy, that every one of you are learning Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is sympathy. Even though you are all separated, you have got your individual opinions, still there is a sympathy in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Otherwise what is the use of this assembly unless there is sympathy?

Philosophy Discussion on Karl Marx:

Hayagrīva: His father, Marx's father. And Marx's mother, however, remained Jewish, and Marx was raised a Christian. But at the age of twenty-three, after having studied some philosophy at the university, Marx became an avowed atheist. And Hegel, it was Hegel who wrote, "Because the accidental is not God or the Absolute is," and Marx commented on this, "Obviously the reverse can also be said." That is because God is not, the accidental is.

Prabhupāda: God is not?

Hayagrīva: Yes.

Prabhupāda: What, what does...?

Hayagrīva: So everything is accidental.

Prabhupāda: Accidental.

Hayagrīva: Hegel said, "Because the accidental is not,..." because nothing is accidental, "God exists." Marx says you can say it the other way around.

Prabhupāda: How, how we, any sensible man can accept accidental?

Hayagrīva: He thought that...

Prabhupāda: Accidental... Just like a child takes birth, is it accidental? Beginning from the child, so it is not accidental. That there is a father-mother unity, and then, when the child is born, then how you can say accidental? Nothing is accidental.

Philosophy Discussion on George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel:

Hayagrīva: Hegel considered history and theodicy to be integral. He looks on history as a justification of God, and he rejects the Vedic conception of history because he doesn't see it unfolding any particular meaning. That is, universes are created, maintained and annihilated in an apparently meaningless way. For Hegel, history has to tell the story of man's elevation to God. Apart from the history of man, God would be alone and lifeless. God seems to depend on human history. God is not transcendental but is manifest in the world.

Prabhupāda: But if He is dependent on history, how He is God? This is nonsense proposal. (laughing) He is dependent on history!

Hayagrīva: Doesn't the history of mankind necessarily...

Prabhupāda: Whatever it may be, God is independent, satandhara (?). Janmādy asya yataḥ anvayād itarataś ca artheṣu abhijñaḥ svarāṭ (SB 1.1.1). Svarāṭ, independent. He does not depend on anything; still He is God. That is God. If He is dependent on anything, then He is not God.

Philosophy Discussion on George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel:

Hayagrīva: Hegel placed a great deal of emphasis on human freedom.

Prabhupāda: There is no freedom. That is another nonsense.

Hayagrīva: Yes.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) He is subjected to birth, death, old age. Where is his freedom? That is another nonsense.

Philosophy Discussion on George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel:

Hayagrīva: In a very often-quoted passage Hegel writes, "God is only God insofar as He knows Himself. His self-knowledge is more over His consciousness of Himself in man and man's knowledge of God, a knowledge that extends itself into the self-knowledge of man in God."

Prabhupāda: That, if he accepts that, then why not man takes knowledge of God from God? Then his knowledge is perfect. Why he should speculate?

Hayagrīva: He considers man to be essential to God.

Prabhupāda: But he, he has accepted God as man...

Hayagrīva: Yes.

Prabhupāda: So to possess the knowledge of God, the best duty of man is to take knowledge from God about God. I know myself, that he says, that God knows Himself. So if God knows, that is natural. I know what I am. So if you take knowledge of me from me instead of speculating, that is perfect knowledge. So here, in the Bhagavad-gītā, the God is explaining Himself. So if you simply take the knowledge given by God, that is your perfected knowledge of God. Why you are speculating? You are wasting time. Take the knowledge from God about Him, and then you have perfect knowledge. Why should you speculate? Suppose I am studying you, I am speculating, "Well, Hayagrīva may be like this, he might have so much money, he might have so much bank balance, he is living like that," this is speculation. But if I say, "Hayagrīva, what you are?" you say, "I have got this, I do like this," that is my perfect knowledge. Why shall I speculate?

Hayagrīva: Well then you wouldn't be able to write so many books.

Prabhupāda: Huh? No. When I have got perfect knowledge, then I can write.

Hayagrīva: Then.

Prabhupāda: Without perfect, whatever I write, that is nonsense. That is nonsense. That is the difference-paramparā system. All these philosophers, they are simply talking nonsense, and whatever we are writing, there is meaning. Why? Because we are studying God from God. This is our perfection. We are not speculating about God. That is the difference. Now we are expanding my knowledge so that you can understand. That is my writing. But my basic principle is that I have understood God from God, not by speculation. That is my qualification. If I know God from God, then my knowledge about God is perfect. Then whatever I write, that is perfect. Therefore Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura says, sākṣād-dharitvena samasta-śāstrair **, that therefore all scriptures accept the guru, spiritual master, as directly the Supreme Lord. Why? He does not speak anything nonsense. That is; therefore he is called servitor God. He is serving God, giving the same knowledge as God has given to him; therefore he is perfect. Sākṣād-dharitvena samasta-śāstrair uktas tathā bhāvyata eva **. So knowledge, if we, if we take God, what is God, if we understand from God, then our knowledge of God is perfect. Simply by speculating you cannot become perfect. That is not possible. So if Mr. Hegel...?

Hayagrīva: Yes.

Prabhupāda: He is Hegel now, what? What is his...?

Devotee: Hegel.

Hayagrīva: Hegel.

Prabhupāda: Ah. So if he accepts God and he inducts a man, the man should take knowledge from God about God. The his knowledge of God is perfect. He should not speculate. And if he has no such source of taking knowledge from God, then his conception of God is also false. If he has got actually the conception of God, then he should take knowledge from God what He is. That is perfect knowledge. He was talking of Oriental knowledge. This is Oriental knowledge: they know who is God and they take knowledge from God about God. But here, Occidental, they speculate about God. What they will know about God? Whatever they speculate, that is imperfect, because he is imperfect.

Philosophy Discussion on George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel:

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa is always present, but if when you hold a ceremony, garbhādhāna ceremony, that "I am going to have sex with my wife for begetting a Kṛṣṇa conscious child," then you remember Kṛṣṇa. And at the time of sex, the mentality of the father and mother, that is acquired by the child. There is rules and regulation for garbhādhāna ceremony, and in the Bhāgavata you will find that as soon as a..., the..., one gives up the garbhādhāna ceremony, he is a śūdra. So who is observing this garbhādhāna ceremony at the present moment? Therefore everyone is śūdra. Kalau śūdra-sambhavāḥ. Everyone is born as śūdra. The father and mother gave birth as śūdra. So this birthright of brāhmaṇa is no longer in this day. Even they falsely claim, "Because I am born of a brāhmaṇa father I am brāhmaṇa," that śāstra will not support. Whether garbhādhāna ceremony was performed? And nowadays, especially, who knows that he is son of a brāhmaṇa? The woman is intermingling with everyone, and who has given birth of the child? Whether he is actually a brāhmaṇa's son, a śūdra's son, who knows it? So how he can claim, by birthright, a brāhmaṇa? That is not possible. Therefore everyone is śūdra. But he can be trained as a brāhmaṇa. That is pāñcarātrikī-vidhi. We are following this pāñcarātrikī-vidhi, not Vedic vidhi. Vedic vidhi is different. Pāñcarātrikī. By training. He has got little tendency, little fire, to become Kṛṣṇa conscious. All right, fan it, make the fire bigger than this. But if he gives up the firing process, he remains fire, but he will go unfinished. (Sanskrit), that a small seed, you sow it and regularly pour water... Just like Govinda dāsī introduced this Tulasī. She is responsible for introducing Tulasī in the Western countries.

Hayagrīva: So the Tulasī, the actual... To get back to the original point, the actual philosophy behind reverence for the Tulasī plant or the cow or the sexual ceremony, the basis then would be remembrance of Kṛṣṇa, that these can bring remembrance of Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hayagrīva: Because Kṛṣṇa says so, but...

Prabhupāda: Just like Kṛṣṇa says satataṁ cintayantaṁ mām: "Always thinking of Me," that is the process of consciousness, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Satataṁ kīrtayanto māṁ yatantaś ca dṛḍha-vratāḥ (BG 9.14). Man-manā bhava mad-bhakto (BG 18.65). "Always think of Me." So somehow or other you think of Kṛṣṇa, then you will become Kṛṣṇa conscious, purified.

Hayagrīva: But you shouldn't think of Kṛṣṇa in any..., in another way, for instance a palm tree or...

Prabhupāda: (indistinct) Then He is giving indication that "Amongst the trees I am this." So you take it.

Hayagrīva: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Just like Kṛṣṇa said, raso 'ham apsu kaunteya (BG 7.8). He said that "I am the taste of the water." So you are drinking water always. The taste which quenches your thirst and you feel satisfaction, that is Kṛṣṇa. Now if you follow Kṛṣṇa's instruction, "Now I am drinking water. Now I am feeling satisfaction. Now this satisfaction is Kṛṣṇa," then you remember Him.

Hayagrīva: Hegel mistook this for pantheism.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Hayagrīva: Hegel mistook this for pantheism.

Prabhupāda: He has mistaken in so many ways. (Sanskrit) Just like our... Not Pradyumna. If somebody has boils all over the body, then where it will be operated? Better kill this body. (laughing) So he has got so many boils, this Hegel and Segel, all, because they are speculators. They have no definite knowledge. Speculators cannot have definite knowledge. Therefore our Professor Dimmock has said, "Here is definite definition of Gītā." What is that? Just see. Then it is so. He has appreciated it. You cannot see, of the...

Devotee: They only put two lines of what he said in there. He says this...

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is his word.

Devotee: Oh.

Prabhupāda: Read it all.

Devotee: "Definitive English edition of Bhagavad-gītā. By bringing us a new and living interpretation of the text already known to many, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda has increased our own understanding manyfold."

Prabhupāda: That is a definite, not vague, speculative. That is the difference between my translation and others. Therefore I have given the name "As It Is." So we will be no spoke or speculation. As soon as you speculate, you are rejected. Therefore others are seeing some danger that "This Bhaktivedanta's..., this Bhagavad-gītā As It Is accepted, then where we are?"

Hayagrīva: Everybody wants to speculate.

Prabhupāda: That's all. We are, I have stopped it. They cannot speculate on the words of Bhagavad-gītā. That is our mission. Won't allow you to speculate. You are finite, imperfect. How you can by speculation give the unlimited, infinite? How it is possible? That is reasonable. Waste of time, misleading others. Aṇḍhā yathāndair upanīyamānāḥ. You are blind; how you can show others, blind men? They are already blind. You open your eyes, then take the leadership of the blind. Ajñāna-timirāndhasya jñānāñjana-śalākayā. That is our process. That's all right. (end)

1971 Correspondence

Letter to Sivananda -- Delhi 12 December, 1971:

Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter of December 1, 1971, and I have noted the contents with great pleasure. You have from the very beginning been a very determined and nice servant of Krishna, and just now as I am taking my daily massage, I remember that you also used to massage me. You are a very good boy, thank you very much for helping me.

I received a few days back a recommendation from Srivatsa to accept Joachim and Gabi as my disciples, and I have done so and sent their beads to them. However there was no mention of Jeanne Pierre. So by your recommendation I am glad to consent to accept him as my duly initiated disciple, and I am sending his beads duly chanted under separate post. His spiritual name shall be _________.

So far East Berlin, I don't think there is need to push the matter farther. Our real field is the western countries. But I thought if some program could be started in these Communist countries there are many nice boys there who are fed up with their government and want to join us. Later we shall see.

Your idea to take German citizenship and organize the whole of Germany is the first class plan. If you can recruit many members there and get German language books published, that is the very best idea. When Mayapur place is organized you can come and see it, but your place is Germany. The German people are very intelligent and advanced in philosophy. Lately we have been discussing some of their philosophers like Kant, Hegel, Marx, and so on, so I can understand that there are many intellectual people in Germany who will appreciate our Krishna philosophy. They have got good respect for India's philosophy, so now we must take advantage and present it purely. Therefore the printing of so many books in German language is very necessary. I have heard that you may be going to Heidelberg, Germany, where there is a very large and important university. That is our best field. Become yourself very convinced and learned in our Krishna philosophy and take it into such university and contaminate everything with it. We are not afraid to challenge every mundane philosopher and defeat them, because they are simply operating on the mental platform which is constantly changing, so they cannot have any real authority. But because we are hearing from the Source of all knowledge, Krishna, through His representatives, the saints and acaryas in disciplic succession, we have got solid basis for understanding. If we are very much convinced to preach in this way, the intelligent class of men will respect and join us, and this will be your success in Germany. If a Marx can change so many men's minds to follow his imperfect philosophy, what can Krishna, the Supreme Perfect, accomplish! If we remain pure and teach others purely, then we will achieve all success and the whole world listen to us and be delivered from their very dangerous condition. Thank you very much for assisting me in this great endeavor, I think you are convinced that it is the highest and most exalted activity of all.

Since your wife has not come back, you should prepare yourself for sannyasa. I think it is Krishna's grace she has left you.

1972 Correspondence

Letter to Tribhuvanatha -- Los Angeles 16 June, 1972:

Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated 10th June, 1972, and with great pleasure I have noted the contents. I was wondering what you are doing, so I am very glad to hear your report of getting the very nice temple in Edinburgh. I think it is Krishna's desire that you have got that place in such perfect location, so now apply yourself very seriously and take advantage of this opportunity for spreading Krishna Consciousness all over that city and in other places in Scotland. The price of 13 Pounds a week for such a large place is not at all bad. Yes, take the place for as many years as they will agree to.

Because there is close proximity of many students, the important thing to give them is our book and literature. They are interested to get knowledge, but the materialistic knowledge will lead them astray from real goal of their intelligence, and all of their credits in education will only add up to so many zeros. But if you yourself are very much well-acquainted with our Krishna philosophy, you will be able to convince them that if they make Krishna or God the center of their learning process, never mind they're scientists, chemists, politicians, whatever they may be, if they put Krishna in front of so many zeros they will come out with a huge sum and their life will be very much perfect. If you require assistance for preaching to the student class, I think Revatinandana can come there and preach very nicely to the scholarly class in their own language. Now in our philosophy classes, each day I am discussing one of your western philosophies and so far we have discussed many, many philosophers like Aristotle, Kant, Hegel, Marx, like that, and now we are discussing Darwin and other scientists from your western countries. Because they have missed the central point that we are not the controllers of nature, rather we are controlled by nature, and because they do not see that there is a Supreme Controller who is controlling even the nature, therefore their vast research and display of intelligence is only so much waste of time. It is just like a child. A child may play with the imitation of another child and the child will hold the doll and play with it as if it is real. But the parents who gave the child the doll, they know good and well the child is nonsense but they tolerate and enjoy sometimes. Just like my sisters used to prepare for me some imaginary puris from their toys of very small cooking things, and I used to pretend I was eating them and we were quite happy that this was the same thing just like our parents were doing. We did not know we were nonsense, one nonsense cooking, another nonsense eating, but our father knew we were nonsense. So it is like that in this material world, everyone is acting more or less like children clinging to some play things provided by the Father and taking them very seriously. But when we become actually wise and see things from the point of view of our Father and take his instruction, then we make progressive advancement out of the childish nonsense state of life or life in this material world.

Now organize the temple very nicely and request tourists to come in, and with many flowers you can decorate the whole hall with flowers and it will be very much attractive. You can make a sign-board that says "Guests are requested to offer a flower to the Deity". The flower market is nearby and any gentleman will bring flowers, and give them prasadam. A gorgeous temple means many flowers, beautiful decorations, and prasadam distribution. Some sort of kirtana must go on continuously. Further, chanting 16 rounds must be completed, that is our spiritual strength. And I am very much stressing nowadays that my students shall increase their reading of my books and try to understand them from different angles of vision. Each sloka can be seen from many, many angles of vision, so become practiced in seeing things like this. If we are selling the books but we do not know what is inside the book, that will be a farce, especially if you are preaching and selling books to the students of Edinburgh.

Now I am coming to London very soon for your Rathayatra Celebration, and I shall be very happy to see you all, my beloved disciples there in England. You mention one very large festival being held there in Edinburgh from July 20 to August 9, so if you can arrange some big, big, meeting for me to speak there and address the public at large as well as the students, that will be very nice. One thing, I am already scheduled to speak in Paris on July 21, 22, 23, so if you arrange some meetings at the Edinburgh Festival, you should schedule them for last part of July or early August accordingly.

The best thing is to always serve Krishna and depend upon Him at every moment and everything will come.