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Understandable (Conv. and Letters)

Conversations and Morning Walks

1968 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- July 16, 1968, Montreal:

Prabhupāda: " Because Suta Gosvāmī was speaking to very learned assembly of brāhmaṇas Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Because it is understandable not by ordinary class of men. But they are not disallowed. It depends on the speaker to present very nicely for their understanding. It is not, I mean to say, stopped. Nityam bhāgavata-sevaya (SB 1.2.18). This is the process.

śṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṇaḥ
puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtanaḥ
hrdy antah-stho hy abhadrani
vidhunoti suhrt satam
(SB 1.2.17)

If you kindly come and hear about Kṛṣṇa, then Kṛṣṇa will be very much pleased upon you. Anyone. Suppose if somebody is interested with you, he likes your activity, he likes to hear about your qualities, you will be also pleased with him. "Oh, this man is interested with my affairs."

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- August 17, 1971, London:

Prabhupāda: No, still, we understand better than them.

Revatīnandana: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa is not understandable does not mean that we are also as fool as they are. Rather, Kṛṣṇa is so big that He is understandable even by us, and what to, about these rascals. What you can understand? We cannot understand. This should be the position, that "We are constantly serving Kṛṣṇa, we cannot understand Him. And what, rascal, you can understand?" The attitude should be taken like that.

Haṁsadūta: We just accept whatever Kṛṣṇa says...

Prabhupāda: That's it.

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- July 4, 1972, New York:

Prabhupāda: Just like the tulasī plant is here, somebody will think that it is decoration. We put it here, devotion, but those who are not interested to speak them about Kṛṣṇa consciousness, we offense. One of the ten offenses.

Devotee (4): Yeah. I was wondering about that. I didn't know whether to do it or not.

Prabhupāda: They should be asked ordinary question: What is the life? What is the aim of life?

Devotee (4): Hm.

Prabhupāda: What is consciousness? Philosophy, which is understandable by everyone (indistinct).

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversations with Sannyasis -- March 15, 1974, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So, make something like that, because I cannot tax my brain with the administration.

Devotee: Yes.

Śyāmasundara: Well, Tamāla Kṛṣṇa will be in Hyderabad and we can ask him to do it.

Prabhupāda: Weak, weak I am. Physically I am weak and besides that, if I have to see to the administration then I cannot think of writing books and how to present our philosophy to be understandable by the people. Therefore the administration is divided. Now you do, little intelligently. We have got still respect. Keep our standard. The people will like us. People wants to give us help, just like this big sannyāsī, one of the biggest sannyāsīs, Gangesvarananda(?), he is attracted. He is a man of immense resource, men and money he has. Immense resource.

Room Conversation with French Nun -- August 13, 1973, Paris:

Prabhupāda: Rahasya. Something wonderful. Is that meaning? Mystic

Indian Man: Mystic... I mean. I think when Western historians and literators explain Indian religious literature, especially literature of bhakti-mārga, they term that those are the mystics and also they term the Sufi poets are mystics. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...say mystic means rahasya.

Yogeśvara: Rahasya.

Prabhupāda: Rahasya means it is little difficult to understand. (break) Just like Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā: rahasyam, rahasyam etad uttamam. Rahasyam etad uttamam. This Bhagavad-gītā is the first-class mystic. Rahasyam etad uttamaṁ bhakto 'si me priyo 'si me (BG 4.3). "Because you are My devotee, you are My dear friend, you'll understand." So mysticism is not understandable by common man. It requires a special qualification. Just like to understand. It is also mysticism. Understand, to understand God. This is also mystic. It is not understandable by ordinary man. (end)

Room Conversation with Sanskrit Professor, Dr. Suneson -- September 5, 1973, Stockholm:

Paramahaṁsa: Yes, like Śaṅkarācārya, remember, he was...

Prabhupāda: Impersonalist.

Paramahaṁsa: Yes. He was mentioning to you that he thought Śaṅkara's teachings were much more simpler, much more understandable, he said. Than, attractive, he said, than Caitanya Mahāprabhu's. This was his...

Prabhupāda: What is your... (break)

Professor: I do not find Śaṅkara... Well, it's too abstract and it's...

Prabhupāda: Yes, right you are. It is round.

Professor: It's a question of...

Prabhupāda: ...about way.

Room Conversation -- September 19, 1973, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: If you want to understand Kṛṣṇa in tattva, in fact, in truth, then you have to adopt this process of bhakti. Not jñāna, not yoga, not karma. Karma, jñāna, yoga, bhakti. So Kṛṣṇa is understandable simply by bhakti, not by other methods. Not by karma, not by jñāna, not by yoga. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, bahūnāṁ janmanām ante (BG 7.19). The jñānīs, karmīs, yogis, they are trying to come to the Absolute Truth, but they will take many, many births to come to this point to surrender. Therefore intelligence means if one understands that "Ultimately I have to come to Kṛṣṇa for my highest perfection; then why not immediately?

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Monsieur Roost, Hatha-yogi -- May 31, 1974, Geneva:

Nitāi: Fourteen. Yeah, let me see it to read it. So it says here, "The best process of understanding You is to submissively give up the speculative process and try to hear about You either from Yourself, as You have given statements in the Bhagavad-gītā and many other similar Vedic literatures, or from a realized devotee, who has taken shelter at Your lotus feet. One has to hear from a devotee without speculation. One does not even need to change his worldly position. Simply he has to hear Your message. Although You are not understandable by the material senses, simply by hearing about You one can gradually conquer the nescience of misunderstanding. By Your grace only, You become revealed to the devotee. You are unconquerable by any other means. Speculative knowledge without any trace of devotional service is simply useless waste of time in search for You. Devotional service is so important that even a little attempt can raise one to the highest perfectional platform. One should not therefore neglect this auspicious process of devotional service and take to the speculative method. By the speculative method, one may gain partial knowledge of Your cosmic manifestation, but it is not possible to understand You, the origin of everything. The attempt of persons who are interested only in speculative knowledge is simply wasted labor, like the labor of a person who attempts to gain something by beating the empty husk of rice paddy. A little quantity of paddy can be husked by the grinding wheel, and one can gain some grains of rice, but if the skin, the paddy, is already beaten by the grinding wheel, there is no further gain in beating the husk. It is simply useless labor."

Prabhupāda: So bhakti school does not very much appreciate the speculative method. They surrender and they try to get knowledge directly from the Supreme Lord, as Bhagavad-gītā is being spoken by the Supreme Lord, or statements of the pure highly elevated devotees, just like Brahmā is speaking. This way. Hearing. The main purpose is hearing, hearing from the right source. That is... Especially in the western world, instead of hearing from the right source, they want to speculate about the Absolute.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- October 7, 1975, Durban:

Devotee (2): I asked one lady, she said, "God wants to test your faith that... Ultimately He has no form, but He wants to test your faith to see if you..."

Prabhupāda: No, how He'll test? He has no head. How He'll test? Unless one has got head, how he can act with brain? Where you get this idea that one has no head, still he has got brain? Where you get this idea? Hm? The brain substance is within the head. This is our experience. So where do you get this idea that He has no head and still He has got brain? Hm? What is the answer?

Harikeśa: They will say that God is man's conception.

Prabhupāda: That means... You say directly, "There is no God. It is a false conception only." You say directly. That is understandable. But why do you say all these nonsense, that "God is there, but He has no head, He has no tail, He has no hands, He has no...?" What is this? Tell directly that "There is no God." The Buddhists say, "There is no God." That is understandable. Why do you cheat? The Christian also believe like that?

Harikeśa: Nowadays they do.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Garden Conversation -- June 14, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: Why, in different season, the day is longer and shorter?

Rakṣaṇa: The time that Lord Vivasvān takes to travel across the sky differs.

Prabhupāda: Who travels? You say.(?) Sun is fixed up, they say.

Devotee: According to their theory, it is fixed up.

Prabhupāda: According to our theory.... We don't say theory. According to Bhāgavata statement, in this season, the sun runs slow. In the other season, the sun runs fast. That is understandable. But if the sun is fixed up, why in some season if is going fast and some season it is going slow?

Garden Conversation -- June 14, 1976, Detroit:

Jayādvaita: They say that because the smaller portion of the earth..., the earth is spherical, and by the top it's smaller, so when that top side is pointed toward the sun, the sun is, as the earth turns, the sun is hitting each place sooner in each day. So it's going, traveling less distance on that surface. Then when it turns the other way, it has to go more distance. Some..., they have some concocted idea. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: (laughing) All concoction. That is not explanation. This is nice explanation, that in this season the sun goes faster and in this season the sun goes slower. That is quite understandable. Just like you are walking. Sometimes you walk slow, sometimes you walk fast. That is possible. (pause) So you can convert the down room, one of the down room as reception, like this. This should be Deity room.

Room Conversation -- July 31, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Jyotirmāyī: I also thought of a way to help the children remember the Kṛṣṇa book stories easier. It was... You started that long time ago with Madhupuri, you asked her to make the Kṛṣṇa book into a poem. That was a long time ago in New York, then she didn't do it...

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa book is not difficult to be understood by...

Jyotirmāyī: I was thinking if we make into poem and put music and they sing it, then they can remember...

Prabhupāda: That you can do, to make it understandable easily. It is already easy. If you want to make more easy, then do that.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation 'GBC Resolutions' -- March 1, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: So you have to understand it. How you can, mean, simplify it?

Rāmeśvara: But just like sometimes for Back to Godhead...

Prabhupāda: No, no. First of all come to the practical point. How he'll make it more easily understandable. Dharma-kṣetra is a place. Māyāpura is a place. There is...

Rāmeśvara: That cannot be changed.

Prabhupāda: So everything is like that. Why do you endeavor to make it easier?

Meeting with Mr. Dwivedi -- April 23, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: All violating. You see? I had been recently in Gandhi's āśrama at Trinoba(?). I do not wish to say, but they do not understand Gītā.

Mr. Dwivedi: Because they mixed politics with religion and wanted an adjustment...

Prabhupāda: It is not religion. Why you take...? Religion is also, we shall do. As soon as I say religion, you say, "I have got my religion." It is science. "Two plus two equal to four" is equally understandable by Hindus, by Muslim, by Christian. "Two plus two equal to four," everyone knows. Everyone should accept. "Because I am Hindu, therefore two plus two equal to five"—that cannot be. So Bhagavad-gītā was misrepresented that it is meant for the Hindus. If it is meant for the Hindus, why they are coming? What is the use? They were Christians. They were Jews. Why they are coming? It is a science. So we have to present Bhagavad-gītā as it is—science. It is religion. Dharmaṁ tu sākṣād bhagavat-praṇītam (SB 6.3.19). But they misunderstand religion. We described in a...

Conversation, 'Rascal Editors,' and Morning Talk -- June 22, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: There was one verse in the Fifth Canto. From the way that they translated it, there was no way that anyone could possibly have understood what the verse meant. I mean, it was made unintelligible by the translation. So we were reading. Finally Bhakti-prema says, "Wait a minute. This translation is wrong. They have edited an extra statement here that is not there, and it makes it completely not understandable." Then suddenly, when he corrected the Sanskrit, it was easy to understand. It was very clear.

Prabhupāda: So what to do?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So I think we just have to be slow but sure. We have to go over all of the books and make sure that they're perfect before they're printed again. Not be in such a rush, print, print, and print all nonsense.

Correspondence

1966 Correspondence

Letter to Tirtha Maharaja -- New York 4 February, 1966:

I may cite herewith one incidence which happened yesterday evening. I have prepared some Tape record of my personal Kirtana. When one of this Tape record was played the audience became practically charmed by that although not a single word of my language was understandable by them. So I am confident of the statement of Srila Haridasa Thakura that the transcendental sound of Lord Caitanya's Harinama can do good even to the birds and the beasts.

1967 Correspondence

Letter to Rayarama -- San Francisco 28 February, 1967:

Krishna is actually husband of every woman. There was no necessity of formal marriage. But still Krishna played like husband by asking them to become naked. In the spiritual world there is no cohabitation; simply by such emotion in transcendental ecstasy the desire is fulfilled.

These pictures of Krishna and the Gopis are not understandable by a layman who has no idea of Krishna. Therefore, this picture was wrongly put without asking me.

1969 Correspondence

Letter to Rupanuga -- Hawaii 14 March, 1969:

The idea is, if a person is actually fast asleep, it is easier to awake him but if a person pretends to be sleeping but actually is awake, then it is very difficult to wake him up. So from all Sastric point of view, the living entity and the Supreme Lord, or the Supreme Living Entity are always simultaneously different and one. One in quality, and different in quantity. this simple thing is understandable by any common man, but these impersonalists, they will simply invent jugglery of words to mislead innocent people. Therefore Lord Caitanya has warned not to associate with these impersonalist mayavadis because they will spoil one's life by diverting one from devotional service.

Letter to Mr. Mottissey -- Montreal 16 July, 1969:

Please accept my blessings. I am so glad to receive your letter dated July 10, 1968, and I embrace you thankfully that you have become so much interested in Bhakti yoga. This Bhakti yoga is very pleasing, practical, and readily understandable how far we are making progress. But in practicing Bhakti yoga, we can make immediately an estimation of our progress.

1970 Correspondence

Letter to Ksirodakasayi -- Los Angeles 29 January, 1970:

Everyone comes to the Temple for some spiritual enlightenment, so why should a section of the audience be denied the benediction? The same thing applies for Hindi songs also. Hare Krishna Mantra is understood both by Hindi knowing and English knowing persons; other Hindi songs may not be understood by the Europeans. I have no objection for Mirabai's songs, but I think Hare Krishna is the greatest common factor understandable by all people all over the world. The chanting is transcendental and quickly effective.

1971 Correspondence

Letter to Satsvarupa -- Brooklyn 27 July, 1971:

The subject matter of BTG should be very grave. It should not be made a joking, comical literature. The subject matter is that everyone should know who is Krishna. So present it in philosophical way but with simple language. The next subject matter is our relationship with Krishna. Then how we fulfill our life's ambition in Krishna Consciousness. So all these subject matters should be made understandable by the people in general, but we should be very grave in our presentation.

Page Title:Understandable (Conv. and Letters)
Compiler:Visnu Murti, Mangalavati
Created:11 of Jan, 2011
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=15, Let=6
No. of Quotes:21