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Our movement is not a religious movement; it is a movement for advancement of knowledge. And this knowledge, God consciousness, or Krsna consciousness, is especially meant for this human body

Expressions researched:
"our movement is not a religious movement; it is a movement for advancement of knowledge. And this knowledge, God consciousness, or Kṛṣṇa consciousness, is especially meant for this human body"

Conversations and Morning Walks

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Veda means knowledge. So every human being should be interested for advancement of knowledge. So our movement is not a religious movement; it is a movement for advancement of knowledge. And this knowledge, God consciousness, or Kṛṣṇa consciousness, is especially meant for this human body. Because knowledge cannot be given to animals. I cannot speak to the other . . . animals about knowledge, because they are imperfect. Their body is imperfect. They are not suitable for receiving knowledge. Only elementary knowledge for maintaining this body, they have got: where to secure food, where to sleep, how to have sexual intercourse and how to defend. These knowledges are there in animals also.

Prabhupāda: Three hundred. Simply grains, fruits and butter, that's all, and sugar. You give us these four items and we give you three hundred items. Yes. There is a ceremony in India, annakūṭa, Govardhana-pūjā. So in that ceremony, in each and every temple they prepare as many varieties as possible. Some of them prepare three thousand.

Dai Nippon Rep: Three thousand.

Prabhupāda: Yes. For weeks they prepare. And the competition is the more items the temple prepares, he becomes . . . (break) . . . only. And distribution, prasāda distribution, free of charges. It was a very nice system, that nobody should remain hungry. That is the system. If there is any temple in any neighborhood, in that neighborhood nobody should remain hungry. The Vedic system is that in your house, a householder shall see that even a lizard in the house is not hungry. He must also be given food. Even there is a snake—nobody likes snake—but a Vedic householder has to call the snake and give him food. He also may not remain hungry. This is the . . .

And these things will be explained in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, that anything, wherever it is—on land, on the air, sky, within the water, everywhere—God's kingdom; and all living entities, they are God's sons. So everyone has got the right to take advantage of his father's property. This is Bhāgavata communism.

The Communists are thinking in terms of their own country. But we, a devotee, we think in terms of all living entities, wherever he is, either in the sky or in the land or in the water. These things are explained in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Everything—politics, sociology, religion, philosophy, science, astronomy—everything is there in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. And we should not take this movement as a religious movement. It is not religious movement. It is a movement for understanding knowledge. Veda. Veda means knowledge.

So religion, according to English dictionary, is a kind of faith. Faith you can change. You have faith today in something; tomorrow you may change. So this is knowledge. Any human being must be interested with advancement of knowledge.

So you are waiting to stop me?

Photographer: No, sir . . . (indistinct)

Sudāmā: He is waiting to have a very nice pose of Your Divine Grace. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: Oh, that's nice. So Veda . . . Veda means knowledge. So every human being should be interested for advancement of knowledge. So our movement is not a religious movement; it is a movement for advancement of knowledge. And this knowledge, God consciousness, or Kṛṣṇa consciousness, is especially meant for this human body. Because knowledge cannot be given to animals. I cannot speak to the other . . . animals about knowledge, because they are imperfect. Their body is imperfect. They are not suitable for receiving knowledge. Only elementary knowledge for maintaining this body, they have got: where to secure food, where to sleep, how to have sexual intercourse and how to defend. These knowledges are there in animals also.

So human being requires further knowledge. That is special prerogative, gift by God, by nature. Whatever you say. So we should utilize this human body for furtherance of knowledge. And the first important knowledge is that we should know that there is life after death. That is the basic principle of knowledge. Unfortunately, at the present moment, in no university there is any department of knowledge where this education is given where there is life after death. I am traveling all over the world. There is no such department. They have completely evaded or set aside, because they cannot make any solution whether there is . . . I talked with one Mr. Kotovsky, a Russian professor in Moscow. I was in Moscow. He said: "Swāmījī, there is no life after death." Just see. He's a big professor, and his knowledge is so imperfect that he says that there is no life after death.

So that is the position everywhere. Those who are teachers, they are with imperfect knowledge. The teachers in the universities, they are with imperfect knowledge. Now, life after death, in the Bhagavad-gītā it is very easily explained that just like a child has next life, boyhood; the boy has next life as youthhood; the youthhood has next life, the old age; so why not the old age next life?

If we are passing through so many stages of life, from birth or from the womb of the mother, then what is the reason that one does not believe there is no life after death? Can you say, any one of you? What is the reason? You remember your boyhood body; I remember my youthhood body. So that body is no longer existing, but I am existing. I remember my childhood body. My babyhood body also I remember, particularly. When I was about six months old, I still remember very vividly, I was lying down on the lap of my eldest sister, and she was knitting. I remember still.

Page Title:Our movement is not a religious movement; it is a movement for advancement of knowledge. And this knowledge, God consciousness, or Krsna consciousness, is especially meant for this human body
Compiler:Nabakumar
Created:2022-10-25, 06:19:32
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=1, Let=0
No. of Quotes:1