So we cannot understand Brahman or God or Parabrahman, Supersoul, without understanding the nature of myself. This is called tattva-jijñāsā. So jīvasya tattva-jijñāsā. We should work. Everyone is working, but they are working for sense gratification. Especially in the Western countries. Not only Western countries, Eastern, everywhere. Their aim is how to satisfy or gratify the senses more and more. This is their aim. But that is not the li..., aim of life. The aim of life, especially in the human form of life... We are coming to this human form of life through the evolutionary process, gradual evolutionary process of 8,400,000 species of life, and this is the opportunity to understand "What I am, what is God, and what is our relationship with Him?" If we miss this opportunity, then we are committing suicide.
Not a question of Eastern or Western
Lectures
Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures
Initiation Lectures
These four things are paraphernalia of your civilization. In the western... Not only western, eastern, everywhere. The Kali-yuga is spreading very rapidly, and wherever the Kali-yuga is very prominent, these four items are very prominent: unrestricted sex life, gambling, and meat-eating, and intoxication. When people become practiced to all this nonsense, they think, "Oh, what is wrong there?" But it is the most abominable part of human civilization. Anyone who are indulging in these four things, they cannot imagine where is he and how he will be free from this conditional life. So this is the purificatory process. So as you are being initiated, initiation means beginning of your purificatory process. So if we are serious about purification, then we must follow these four principles, if you want to be cured.
General Lectures
Mister Allen, ladies and gentlemen, I thank you very much for your kindly inviting me to speak something about East and West. Of course, I have got considerable experience now because I am wandering East and West, not only once, at least twice, thrice in a year. So far Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is concerned, we have no such thing, East and West. Just like the sun rises from the Eastern horizon and sets on the Western horizon, but the sun is the same. You cannot say that Eastern sun and the Western sun. That is not possible. The planet, this Earthly planet is moving and we are considering that the sun is moving from East and West. The sun, sun is in his position. Similarly, this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement has no such distinction between East and West. If there is such distinction, it is due to lack of knowledge. Why this lack of knowledge? Because we are under bodily concept of life. According to Kṛṣṇa culture, anyone who is going on under the bodily concept of life, he is not considered as a human being.
I talked with Professor Kotovsky. He said: "Swamijī, after death, then everything finished. After death, everything finished." This is the difference, East and West. In the Eastern country, especially in India, a common man will understand the existence of soul. And in the Western countries, a topmost man, professor, he does not know what is soul. That is the difference.
Otherwise, so far your eating is concerned, it is same, either in Eastern country or Western country. You eat something on plate, or they also eat something. You sleep in nice apartment. They also sleep in something like that. You try to defend with your atomic weapons. They also try to defend. You also, after sex, the East and Western, they are also after sex. Not only Eastern and Western, the animals, they are also after these things. Āhāra-nidrā-bhaya-maithunaṁ ca sāmānyam etad paśubhiḥ narāṇām. Eating, sleeping, sex life and defense. This is common to the animal and to the human being. You may improve the cooking process or eating process but, after all, it is eating. Eating is meant for maintaining your body. That is done by the animals also. These things are not cultural advancement. Real cultural advancement is to know that "I am not this body." "I am spirit soul." Ahaṁ brahmāsmi. That is the difference.
Prabhupāda: Eh? Tell him, that man.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Doctor Bigelow.
Prabhupāda: So I had some correspondence with him, and he admitted: "Swamijī, your people know much about these things than we know." So there is no question of you and me. It is simply education. Just like these boys. Four or fives year, ago, they did not know anything about this Kṛṣṇa consciousness. But because they have been educated with this Bhagavad-gītā, they are also following me. And they are very sound in their conviction in this Western, Eastern culture, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Of course from my part of view, I do not think there is any East and West. Any knowledge is meant for the whole world. Any scientific knowledge. Just like Professor Einstein, if he discovered the law of relativity, it is not for the Western people. It is for the Eastern people also. So there is no such question. When there is culture, when there is knowledge, there is no question of Eastern and Western. But the difference is the Eastern people may know something very nicely and the Western people may take some time. Similarly, Western people may know something very nicely, the Eastern people may take little time. Just like for technology, they go to Western countries to learn how machine works. So they also learn it. In Eastern..., in India, they're also learning. So now the time is ripe that we should not think in terms of Eastern and Western. We should be hankering after real knowledge. That is wanted. That is the point of unity.
Conversations and Morning Walks
1971 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: That is one line: sukham ātyantikaṁ yat tad atīndriya-grāhyam (BG 6.21). This sukham ātyantikaṁ is being searched both by the Western, Eastern, everyone, even cats, dogs, everyone. But the cats and dogs, animals, they cannot adjust what is that ātyantikaṁ sukham. But human being can. So human being, there is no question of Eastern and Western. It is a question of degree only. But actually everyone is searching after that perpetual happiness. So it is a problem for everyone, and that problem can be solved by Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
Guest (1): By?
Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa consciousness. This is the..., I mean to say, a rough scheme, rough estimation. Now, how Kṛṣṇa consciousness can solve this problem, that is a detailed thing. But this is a fact. It is not the question of Eastern-Western. It is the problem of all living entities.
Guest (1): Yes, living entities. Human, actually we have.
Prabhupāda: Not even human life, even animal life. There are 8,400,000s of different kinds of bodies. So this is a problem for everyone. Now in other species of life than the human form, they cannot solve. They have no power. But a human being can solve.
1973 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: How a priest can be intoxicants?
Father Tanner: He would say, wouldn't he, that was just his weakness.
Prabhupāda: Eh?
Father Tanner: He would say it was his weakness.
Prabhupāda: Weakness is hypocrisy. If you are weak, you cannot become priest. Because you are teacher, religious teacher. You should not take that post. That is hypocrisy.
Father Tanner: But perhaps this is the difference, or one of the differences between western and eastern civilization...
Prabhupāda: No, it is not the question of eastern or western...
Father Tanner: But in the East, your wise man is nearly always an elderly man.
Prabhupāda: Not always.
Father Tanner: Not always.
Prabhupāda: Not always.
Father Tanner: But in the West, you know, your priest is generally made a priest in his early twenties. Then he has thrust upon him the role of the wise man, which he doesn't always seek.
Prabhupāda: Just like these boys, they are very young, twenties, between twenty to thirty. So they are made here brahmacārī, and some of them are sannyāsī, but they are strictly following these principles. Because they are young men, there cannot be any concession that he can become intoxicants, he can indulge in meat-eating. No.
Father Tanner: But would you think of a young man as wise man? Isn't it normal that a young man is working his way towards wisdom?
Prabhupāda: The wise man becomes by knowledge, not by age. Even an old man, if he has no knowledge, what is...? He is not wise man. Wise means one who has attained knowledge.
David Lawrence: One other point, and again a practical point really, this one. This is about the nature of the book. I suggested early on that I hoped that I might get the cooperation of somebody like George Harrison. What would you think about this? Do you think, with your knowledge of the young mind, particularly the young western mind, that this might be a good means through to the young people...?
Prabhupāda: It is not the question of western mind, eastern mind. Any sincere student will take to.
David Lawrence: No, I was thinking in terms of the western mind with its culture, more than of philosophy.
Prabhupāda: Hm. Western mind... I, I do not find any difference between western mind and eastern mind. Because so many western mind is changed. Yes. So there was no difficulty. Two, two plus two equal to four is to be understood by the western mind and the eastern mind. You cannot say, because you are western mind, you'll say, "No, two plus two equal to five." You cannot say that. So there may be some influence of the culture, but that is superficial. When you speak the real truth, science, that is equally applicable to the western mind and eastern mind. There is no difference. If you speak the real truth... Two plus two equal to four, mathematical calculation, nobody will deny, either western mind or eastern mind. Yes. So he must be reasonable. That's all.
Malcolm: If he would then, when he is a grown person, recapture or re-feel the link to his reason for being, he must go back in his experience or thought to the point at which he cried to feel again the feeling of being lost. Now, the Western youth seem to have been forced to accept their position, and the position that they have accepted gives them no freedom to go back and find the point at which they felt the experience of the thing they had lost. So in their minds they would say, "There is something missing. There is no God. But there is a God. Yet I must find him with my mind." And then they know through the search that it is only going back through their own years of experience to the point at which they had lost that they will find it. But for the Westerner it clashes with his total Western heritage, the thing imposed him upon by his senses which is that he may not isolate himself from his community in order to go back. And the young people cannot move because this point holds them.
Prabhupāda: No. The young people, they are moving. They are coming to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. There is no check. Because they are western boys, there is no check. Just like they're all Europeans, Americans. So how they are coming to Kṛṣṇa consciousness? It doesn't matter whether Western, Eastern. Natural propensity is the same, either in the East or in the West. So it doesn't matter. That is not impediment. Anywhere, the science is... Just like your physical science. It is as good as in the West as in the East. For the East, there cannot be a different physical science. The same science can be taught in the East and the West.
Prabhupāda: Any science does not depend on East and West understanding. Science is science.
Malcolm: No. I'm talking not of science, but of education which...
Prabhupāda: No, education is different. Education may be wrong or right, but science is always the fact. "Two plus two equal to four,"—that is equally good in the East and West, not that in the western countries, two plus two will be five. So similarly, any scientific knowledge, it does not depend on East and West understanding. It is good for everywhere. Similarly, to understand the science of God, it does not depend on the Western culture or Eastern culture. One must be serious to understand. Then it is equally available. Ahaituky apratihatā. These material impediments cannot check progress in the science of God, cannot. Apratihatā, without any checking. That we are experiencing, that Kṛṣṇa consciousness is not checked anywhere. We have got branches all over the world. Any country, there is no language difficulty. Wherever we chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, they join, "Hare Kṛṣṇa." There is no checking.
1975 Conversations and Morning Walks
Professor (Hṛdayānanda): He said it seems to him that this involves a retiring from ordinary life, western life, and even maybe retiring from ordinary eastern life.
Prabhupāda: It is not the question of western life or eastern life. The life... Just like westerners, they eat, and the easterners, they eat. Now the question is how to supply eating.
1976 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: No, these boys and girls are not imported from India, recruited. They are recruited here. I came alone. They are all recruited. I have got so many centers all over the world. They are simply recruited.
Scheverman: Your asceticism, your way of life, your training program, having its Eastern origins, has a great appeal, I think, for many young people.
Prabhupāda: It is not Eastern, Western. It is the life. Just like to become peaceful, is it Eastern or Western? Peaceful is peaceful. Why do you bring Eastern?
Scheverman: No, but the way in which, the method in which..., is it Eastern? This is not to say it is bad; it is good too. There are many traditions....
Prabhupāda: No, I mean to say, it we look for Eastern, Western, then it become sectarian. But it is for all. If you teach a person to become peaceful, it is not the question of Eastern and Western. It is meant for everyone.
Scheverman: Jesus said "Blessed are the peacemakers; they shall see God." Yes.
Prabhupāda: That's right. That's right. So why should you say that it is Eastern or Western?
Scheverman: Well your methodology, much of your personal vocabulary, your garb, is from the East.
Prabhupāda: It is not personal. It may be said that in Eastern countries or in India, these things are very much appreciated and developed. That is another thing. But the thing as it is, it is neither Eastern or Western.
Prabhupāda: There is no question of Eastern, Western. Now people are intermingling. Now I think that we shall have institution, especially in America, to train these first class, second class, third class, and the balance fourth class. Who cannot take up any training, they are fourth class. So how they should be trained up, that indication is there. It is not the question of Eastern and Western. You become peaceful...
Scheverman: Now, how would you proceed in this training program? I'd be interested in that.
Prabhupāda: Yes, that is.... If I say that "Live peacefully," this instruction is neither exclusively for America or Indian. It is for everyone.
Scheverman: That's universal, peaceful, that's universal.
Prabhupāda: Universal. What is another quality? Peaceful, and then?
Dhṛṣṭadyumna: Self-control.
Prabhupāda: Self-control. This is also not either for American or.... "The Americans should not be self-controlled, only Indians should be self-controlled." (laughter) This is not the proposal. Self-control.
Guest (3): Prabhupāda, here in the Western world, we're so caught up in sense enjoyment.
Prabhupāda: We do not speak of Western world or Eastern world, we speak for all world. What we are speaking, that is for all world, not Western or Eastern. There is no such thing in the teachings of Kṛṣṇa. He never says that it is meant for the Eastern or Western. He says sarva-yoniṣu kaunteya sambhavanti mūrtayaḥ yāḥ (BG 14.4). For everyone.
| Page Title: | Not a question of Eastern or Western |
| Compiler: | Labangalatika |
| Created: | 17 of Sep, 2010 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=5, Con=9, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 14 |