Prabhupāda: The real education . . . real education is, first of all, you must know what you are. You are this body or something else than the body? Just like when a man dies, his son or relative laments, "Oh, my father has gone away." Now, father is lying there on the bed. Why do you say: "My father has gone away"? The father is lying on the bed. Therefore you did not see who is your father. After death you are realizing that your father is gone away. (loud applause) Then where is your education? You cannot see even your father; then where is your education? This is no education. Therefore you must know, "What I am, what is my father, what is my mother." That is real education.
Indian man (1): You see, the question regarding the . . .
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Just one question per person . . . (indistinct) . . . anyone else who as a question can come forward.
Indian man (2): Since the Bhagavad-gītā is the confidential message of from Lord Kṛṣṇa to Arjuna, can Swāmījī please explain how is it that Sañjaya is narrating to Dhṛtarāṣṭra, and how it came to pass that Vyāsadeva wrote the Bhagavad-gītā?
Prabhupāda: It is just like television nowadays. You can see things happening thousands of miles away in television, and you can explain to your friends. This is like that. It is a question of seeing power. So now we have got the instrument, television machine. It is not difficult to understand. In the football ground the matches is going on, and it is being relayed in your room. It is like that.
Indian man (3): Swāmījī, of all holy scriptures we have two books available to follow, and one is the Rāmāyaṇa and one is the Śrī Bhagavad-gītā. Can you give us or tell us who . . . (indistinct) . . .? 'Cause some people offer the reason that according to the Rāmāyaṇa we follow Rāma and Sītā as God. Can you just inform us the real or tell us who is our, the most of our . . . (indistinct) . . .?
Prabhupāda: So, we are . . . our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is to educate people on the principles of the teachings of Bhagavad-gītā. So if you understand Bhagavad-gītā thoroughly, then you will understand Lord Rāma also and other incarnations, because Kṛṣṇa is present with all the incarnations.
rāmādi-mūrtiṣu kalā-niyamena tiṣṭhan nānāvatāram akarod bhuvaneṣu kintu kṛṣṇaḥ svayaṁ samabhavat paramaḥ pumān yo govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi (Bs. 5.39) In the Vedic literature it is said, yasmin vijñāte sarvam idaṁ vijñātaṁ bhavati (Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad 1.3): "If you understand that one Supreme, then you will understand everything." So Rāmāyaṇa, Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, not other Rāmāyaṇa, the so-called Rāmāyaṇa . . . authority, Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa. If you read Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, that is also as good as reading Bhagavad-gītā. But if you read Bhagavad-gītā, you understand the transcendental science very easily. There is no difficulty. So we shall advise to read Bhagavad-gītā. It is very widely read all over the world, not only by the Hindus but others also—by all scholars, all philosophers. They read Bhagavad-gītā. So we recommend you all to read Bhagavad-gītā as it is. Do not distort the meaning. Try to understand as it is. Just like in the beginning the Bhagavad-gītā is mentioned:
dharma-kṣetre kuru-kṣetre samavetā yuyutsavaḥ māmakāḥ pāṇḍavāś caiva kim akurvata sañjaya (BG 1.1) The dharma-kṣetre, kuru-kṣetre. This is a fact. The kuru-kṣetra is a pilgrimage, dharma-kṣetra. Still it is. There is a railway station of the name Kurukṣetra, and that Kurukṣetra place is very big field. So why should we misinterpret, "Kuru-kṣetra means this body, and Pāṇḍava means the senses"? Why? This business distorted the meaning, so we should give up. We should understand as it is. Kurukṣetra is there, it is a pilgrimage, and in the past history, five thousand years ago, two sections of the same family, Kuru family . . . one section was known as Pāṇḍava and the other section as Kurus. They had to fight on political reason. This is historical. So there is no question of misinterpreting it. The difficulty is, as soon as we misinterpret to our whims, to show our scholarship, it is spoiled. Don't do that. Read it as it is and you will get the benefit. Yes?
Indian man (4): Swāmījī, we are living in a world where new thoughts, new ideas are being disseminated with a . . . by saintly people. But as we have read, that the Vedas were the first book of knowledge handed to mankind. Now what I would like to know is . . . the Christians have Bible as their book, the Muslims have the Koran as their book, and the Hindus have the Vedas as their book. Why should we not go back to the Vedas rather than accepting, notarizing the interest in many other scriptures, the Bhagavad-gītā or the Rāmāyaṇa for instance? But the sages, four ṛṣis, who first gave them, and Vedas were given to us at the beginning of God's creation. Why don't we go back to Vedas, and then we will know the Bhagavad-gītā also?
Prabhupāda: So, what is the purpose of reading Vedas? Can you say me? Who can say what is the purpose of reading Vedas? That is mentioned in the Bhagavad-gītā: vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyaḥ (BG 15.15). By reading Vedas, any Vedas, you have to understand God. Then it is perfect reading of Vedas. If you do not understand what is God, then what is the use of reading Vedas? Śrama eva hi kevalam (SB 1.2.8). Simply waste of time. If you have read Vedas, then give me full information of God. Then I can understand that you have read Vedas. If you have no idea of God, then it is useless advertisement that "I have read Vedas."
Indian man (5): Swāmījī, most of our Hindus accept Lord Kṛṣṇa as our Supreme Being, as God. Yet in the Bhagavad-gītā, Arjuna won't fight his brothers, but Lord Kṛṣṇa encouraged this, to fight his own brothers, to kill his own brothers, to shed blood. Isn't this condoning violence? Yet Hinduism doesn't condone violence. Can you explain why Lord Kṛṣṇa encourages Arjuna to fight his own blood?
Prabhupāda: If you can question the high-court judge why he is ordering somebody to be hanged, then what will be the answer? The high-court judge orders somebody to be hanged and somebody to take decree for one lakh of rupees. Is there injustice? It is the law. The Supreme Lord has to execute the law. So there is no mistake. As there is no mistake in the judgment of the high court, similarly, what to speak of Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Lord. There is necessity. The government, in order to keep law and order, there is violence also. The police sometimes commit violence, the military force. So in order to keep whole thing in balance, sometimes violence is required, and that is not to our whims but at the decision of the Supreme Lord.