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When you change, then the authority is lost. Just like in our society, sometimes they do something nonsense and they say, "Prabhupada said"

Expressions researched:
"Prabhupāda said" |"when you change, then the authority is lost. Just like in our Society, sometimes they do something nonsense and they"

Conversations and Morning Walks

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

When you change, then the authority is lost. Just like in our society, sometimes they do something nonsense and they say, "Prabhupāda said." (laughter) They are doing that. We know that. It is deteriorated like that. Therefore Kṛṣṇa said, sa kāleneha mahatā yogo naṣṭaḥ kaunteya: "And in due course of time, this yoga was lost. Therefore I am repeating the same thing, old philosophy to you." So it requires like that.


Room Conversation with Carol Cameron -- May 9, 1975, Perth:

If I enquire that two thousand years ago you have taught that, "Thou shall not kill," and your business is only to kill; I have come to enquire from you, "What is your answer? How you have become civilized, that you cannot accept one instruction of Jesus Christ. And you are declaring yourself as Christian and civilized." This is my question. Answer it. In two thousand years, first of all you began killing Christ. Never mind; still, two thousand years passed, you could not stop killing? You could not accept the first instruction. What kind of civilized man?

Jayadharma: Sometimes they say, Prabhupāda, that Jesus meant just . . .

Prabhupāda: Meant?

Jayadharma: . . . just human beings.

Prabhupāda: All right. That means you are killer of human beings. That means, in the beginning, you are all killers of human beings. And therefore you killed Jesus Christ. That is not very good qualification. Killer of human being . . . he said: "Thou shall not kill." Where he says that, "Thou shall not kill human being"? That is your interpretation.

Śrutakīrti: That's obvious he meant only human beings, because he himself was killing animals.

Prabhupāda: Christ was killing animals?

Śrutakīrti: Well, he instructed his own disciples to distribute the fish. So he was also involved in killing of animals.

Prabhupāda: Yes, but he said that, "The fruits and vegetable should be your flesh." What is that?

Śrutakīrti: Well, that was before Christ. He never said that.

Paramahaṁsa: He also said that.

Śrutakīrti: Where does he say that?

Paramahaṁsa: He said that in the . . . (indistinct) . . . yes. The Bible says that, and Christ also spoke that, that "The grasses of the fields and the fruits of the trees shall be your meat."

Prabhupāda: Then there is contradiction?

Śrutakīrti: Served them wine.

Paramahaṁsa: Yes. The Christians, they always say that "Christ was eating fish and drinking wine, so what harm are we doing. Drinking a little alcohol, eating a little meat?"

Prabhupāda: When how did he say that, "Thou shall not kill"?

Śrutakīrti: That was also . . . that was actually the Ten Commandments. That was given by God.

Gaṇeśa: Given to Moses.

Śrutakīrti: That was given to Moses by God. The Ten Commandments.

Prabhupāda: That is not Christ has said?

Śrutakīrti: Well, Christ enforced it.

Paramahaṁsa: It was accepted by him as one of the rules.

Śrutakīrti: Christ's greatest commandment was to love God above all things. So if one is to love God, he must follow His instruction.

Prabhupāda: Then, who is following the instruction?

Śrutakīrti: We are.

Prabhupāda: But supposing Christ distributed fish, but did he say that we shall maintain regular slaughterhouse for killing animals?

Śrutakīrti: He was against that. He threw the men out of the temple because they were selling lambs in the temple to be offered to the . . . at the altar. So he kicked them out, saying: "This temple is not a place for selling animals for slaughter."

Paramahaṁsa: But in one place they say that Christ encouraged fishermen. Because he came, and the fishermen were fishing on one side of the boat, and Christ came along and said: "You are fishing on the wrong side of the boat." He said: "Put your nets on the other side, and you will get more fish." And they did that, and they got huge amounts of fish. And so they were encouraged in their fish-eating this way.

Gaṇeśa: Jesus also said to the fisherman, he said: "Give up you fishing, and I will make you fishers of men." He said this to his disciples. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: Then on the whole it comes that these instructions are sometimes contradictory.

Paramahaṁsa: Not only that, but they say that . . . usually when it comes right down to it, the Bible has gone through so many interpretations and so many changes in the last two thousand years that. . .

Prabhupāda: Yes. It is very difficult.

Paramahaṁsa: People . . . I've talked to professors who know the original Hebrew and the original tongues that the Bible was written in. And they say that is has changed so much that you can hardly . . .

Prabhupāda: Yes, they are changing. Just like he said: "Thou shall not kill." They are now changing, "Thou shall not commit murder." They are doing that.

Paramahaṁsa: Yes. They have a modern Bible, using all modern terminology.

Prabhupāda: So when you change, then the authority is lost. Just like in our Society, sometimes they do something nonsense and they, "Prabhupāda said." (laughter) They are doing that. We know that. Things deteriorated like that. Therefore Kṛṣṇa said, sa kāleneha mahatā yogo naṣṭaḥ kaunteya (BG 4.2): "And in due course of time, this yoga was lost. Therefore I am repeating the same thing, old philosophy, to you." So it requires like that.

Paramahaṁsa: The one thing about the Christian religion is that through the last two thousand years, Christ's original teachings may have been good teachings, may have been potent preaching, but because there were no potent preachers to carry on the preaching, therefore the whole thing has been lost. But if there are potent preachers to continue reestablishing and establishing the principles again . . .

Prabhupāda: So how you'll find, if everything is now changed? Where you will get the right information?

Paramahaṁsa: That's the problem. That's why there are so many hundreds of branches of Christianity, literally hundreds. So many divisions of Christianity. Some people accept this, some people accept this.

Prabhupāda: Therefore we should advocate that Bhagavad-gītā is not like that. It is coming in the same form as it was taught to Arjuna. If you challenge that, "How you know that it has not been changed?" the ācāryas are there. The ācāryas are there, and they are accepting; therefore it is correct. We have to follow the ācārya. So when we see the ācāryas have accepted, then we accept. All the ācāryas—Rāmānujācārya, Madhvācārya, before that, other ācāryas also—they accept. They never say that, "This was not in the original scripture. It has been changed." You don't find any such statement of the ācāryas. The best thing, therefore, if you want a religious system, Bhagavad-gītā is coming without any contradiction, change, for the last five thousand years. You accept it. Other scriptures are newly introduced, and there are so many doubts, so many interpretations. So if you want real religious system, this is the scripture spoken directly by God and accepted by all the ācāryas, so take it. If you are really after God, so you take enlightenment from this perfect scripture. If you want truth, it doesn't matter wherefrom it is coming; I must accept the truth.

Page Title:When you change, then the authority is lost. Just like in our society, sometimes they do something nonsense and they say, "Prabhupada said"
Compiler:Labangalatika
Created:16 of Mar, 2012
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=1, Let=0
No. of Quotes:1