Socrates and the Absolute Truth
A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Chapters
Absolute truth and divine authority
That some have treated, but they're somewhat incomplete. So I will read—I've gone to the primary sources. He used the College Outline Series; that wasn't really adequate.
So I went to the primary sources and I'll read a little, and if you want to comment on it, comment; if you don't feel like commenting on it, I'll just go on to the next section.
Once a student of Socrates—this is a section on Socrates— said, "I cannot refute you, Socrates." To this Socrates replied, "Say rather that you cannot refute the truth, for Socrates is easily refuted."
This is by way of saying that the absolute truth is not a subject of mental speculation or personal opinion. The truth or the good for Socrates stands separate from mundane relativities or personal opinion.
That is our opinion. We accept Krishna, the Supreme Authority. And that we cannot repeat what Krishna says. And our philosophy is perfect because we follow Krishna. He is the supreme part. This is our position.
In other religious systems... Taking it out, Krishna consciousness movement. Religious. It is religious because our religion means to carry out the order of God. That is the simple thing. We don't manufacture religion.
And neither religion can be manufactured. Manufactured religion is useless. That has been described in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam: dharmaḥ projjhita-kaitavo 'tra—kaitava means cheating. So this is not cheating.
Our basic principle is dharmaṁ tu sākṣād bhagavat-praṇītam. Dharma means the order which is given by God. And if you execute that, that is dharma. Just like law. Law is given by the government. You cannot manufacture law.
That is not law. So our perfection is there. How we are executing the order of God cent percent.
One who has no conception of God, neither the order of God, he can manufacture the religious system, but our system is different. This is picking up fine, beginning.
Nature of the material world
Uh, Socrates considers the contemplation of beauty to be an activity of the wise man, but relative beauty in the mundane world is simply a reflection of absolute beauty.
In the same way, good in the relative world is simply a reflection of the absolute good. In either case, absolute good or beauty is transcendental. Yes. That is our opinion.
Beauty, knowledge, strength, and, uh, opulence, everything. They are transcendent. Here in this material world, it is perverted reflection.
Just like the example is the mirage, and a foolish animal is thinking there is water in the desert and he is running after it. And after some time he dies of thirst because there is no water.
But a sane man knows there is no water. It is simply a reflection by the sun's heat, and this foolish animal is running after it. So he does not, a sane man does not go for this false water.
But the other thing is that because there is no water in the desert, it does not mean there is no water. Water is there, but not there. Similarly, happiness, beauty, opulence, everything is there.
That is in the spiritual world. Here it is only a perverted pleasure. So generally people have no information of the spiritual world. Therefore they imagine something, God, something, spiritual world.
They do not take that this is imagination. This is material. When Krishna says, "tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti," they are reading Bhagavad-gītā.
But this simple thing they cannot understand: that a devotee of Krishna, after giving up this body—the body has to be given up—then what happens? This person, mām eti, he comes to Me.
And other systems say this: after death, he goes to hell or goes to heaven. So that is to some extent fact. This human life, if he understands Krishna, he goes to the eternal abode—you can take it as heaven or something.
Otherwise he remains in this material world to, uh, undergo this same cycle of birth and death—that is hell. It can be taken in that.
Stages of God realization
According to Socrates, the pursuit of man is the seeking of this absolute good.
Basically, Socrates is an impersonalist because he does not ultimately define this absolute good as a person, nor does he give the absolute good a personal name. He just calls it "the good."
That is primarily the stage of understanding the Absolute. Because at the beginning, Brahman-realization, impersonality. And then further advance: Paramātmā-realization, localization, God is everywhere.
And God is everywhere, that's a fact. That is God. But He has got His place above. That is God. Goloka eva nivasaty akhilātma-bhūto. The God is a person, He has His own abode, He has His own associates and everything.
The difference is that although He is in the abode, He is present everywhere, even within the atom. Aṇḍāntara-stha-paramāṇu-cayāntara-stham.
So Socrates and any other philosophers, they cannot understand the potency of God, how He can remain in His own place simultaneously in every atom. That is the conception of God.
So everywhere He is staying, uh, everything is His expansion, uh, His energy. Bhūmir āpo 'nalo vāyuḥ khaṁ mano buddhi... the material world is upon all land, water, fire, air.
So these are different expansions of God's energy. So, uh, He can be present everywhere because His energy is expanded everywhere.
So energy and energetic, they're not different, but at the same time, energy is not the energetic. This is simultaneously one and different: acintya-bhedābheda- tattva. This is perfect philosophy.
Uh, for Socrates, he taught a kind of a process of liberation. Um, for him liberation meant freedom from passion. Freedom from passion. Passion. Passion. Yes. And his motto was "Know Thyself."
And by knowing oneself through meditation or insight, one can gain self-control, and by being self-controlled, one can attain happiness. Yeah. That is fact. Uh, meditation means to analyze oneself.
That is the meditation: and find out the absolute truth. That is the description in the Vedic literature: «dhyānāvasthita-tad-gatena manasā paśyanti yaṁ yogino».
Yogi means by his meditation he is, uh, see the the supreme truth, Krishna, God, within himself. Krishna is there, so yogi, uh, consults Krishna, and Krishna advises him; that that is the relationship with yogi.
«buddhi-yogaṁ dadāmi tam». Once he is purified, he is seeing Krishna always within himself.
That is confirmed in the Brahma-saṁhitā: «premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena», «santaḥ sadaiva hṛdayeṣu vilokayanti» — a saintly person always, he is seeing Krishna. «yaṁ śyāmasundaram» — very body used.
Krishna is Śyāmasundara. Very beautiful, blackish, the Krishna's body. Śyāmasundara. Śyāma means blackish, but extraordinarily beautiful. That is called Śyāma.
«premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena santaḥ sadaiva» «hṛdayeṣu vilokayanti yaṁ śyāmasundaram acintya-guṇa-svarūpam». Acintya — unlimited qualities. «govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ» — he is Govinda.
So it can be realized that he is situated everywhere.
At the same time, in his person, he's always engaged in Vrindavan, dancing with the gopis and playing with his friends and talking with his mother, and sometimes, as a naughty boy, he's teasing mother's household affairs.
Ethics and spiritual discipline
So this is... It's been said that Socrates' philosophy is primarily a philosophy of ethics, and that ethics — ethics is the way, the way to, the way of action in the world, and that, uh, jñāna or knowledge in itself is not sufficient, but it must be applied and must serve as a basis for action in the world.
Yeah. It takes the basic principle of purification; unless one uh does uh know uh what is moral, what is immoral. Of course, in this material world, everything is immoral.
But still we have to distinguish good and bad; that is called regulative principle. Simply by following the regulative principle, if it does not reach the ultimate goal of spiritual life, so that is also not for content.
The real aim is to come to the spiritual platform and become free from the influence of these laws of material nature. So passion is the binding force uh in the material world.
Just like in a prison house, the prisoners are kept sometimes chained by some iron shackles and other methods.
So material nature has given the chains and shackles of sex life, passion, kāma eṣa krodha eṣa rajo-guṇa- samudbhavaḥ. Rajo-guṇa means the emotion, passion. So more some passion means uh karma, lusty desires, and krodha.
When the lusty desires are not fulfilled, one becomes angry. But these things are the means of bondage in this material world. In another place it is said: «tatraitasya mahā-bhāga kāma-lobha-dayas tu ye».
When one is uh afflicted with the base material modes of nature, namely rajo-guṇa and tamo-guṇa, then he becomes greedy and thirsty.
So ethics is required to get out of the clutches of greediness and lusty desires; then he comes to the platform of goodness, which will help him to go to the platform of spiritual life.
But is meditation in itself—would that be sufficient to transcend these laws? Yes, meditation. If he seeks after the Supersoul within himself, that meditation is part of it.
And if he's manufacturing something or bluffing others and bluffing himself in the name of meditation, it is a transcendent torment. It is useless. It has no value.
Well, he feels that if one knows himself, one will be a sādhu because knowledge is identical with virtue. Yes. And through meditation—or he called it aretē— a person attains knowledge.
Through knowledge, a person becomes virtuous. When one is virtuous, he acts in the right way. When one acts properly, he becomes happy.
Therefore, the enlightened man is a man who is meditative, knowledgeable, virtuous, and because of his proper action he's happy.
Yes, that is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā: «brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā na śocati na kāṅkṣati». This is the symptom of a self-realized person.
If one is self-realized, he is immediately happy, prasanna, jolly, because immediately he is on the right.
It's like one is going on, others have mistaken ideas, and when he comes to the real idea, he becomes really happy: "Oh, so long I had such a mistake."
So immediately the result is happiness: "How foolish I was! I was doing like this, doing like that." So as soon as one comes to the right position, the symptom is his prasannātmā. What is that prasannātmā?
Prasannātmā happiness means he has no more anything to hanker for. Just like Dhruva Mahārāja said: «svāmin kṛtārtho 'smi varaṁ na yāce». "I don't want any material benediction."
Prahlāda Mahārāja said: "My Lord, don't tempt me for any material benefit. I have seen so much of it.
My father was so big a materialist that even the demigods, they were afraid of him, and You have finished it within a second. So I'm not after these things." This is their knowledge. That... so śocati, na kāṅkṣati.
The karmīs, jñānīs, yogīs, they have hanker... the karmīs, they are hankering after how to get material wealth, how to get material position, how to get nice women, how to get nice position. This is greed.
They are simply hankering, hankering. And if they lose it: "Oh, I have lost it, I've lost the business." So when one becomes self-realized, these two things are conspicuous by absence. No hankering, no lamenting.
The karmīs are hankering; the jñānīs, they are also expecting to become one with God and to merge into the existence of God. That is also hankering.
The yogis, they are hankering after some magic power, so they can befool others that he has become God. "I can manufacture gold, I can fly in the sky," and foolish people after that.
An intelligent person will see, "What is this perfection?" Even if we can fly in the sky, there are so many birds flying. What is the difference between this flying and that flying? So he doesn't care.
So these are not perfect. But they people, foolish people, they think it is perfect. If one guy will say that "I will walk over the sea." He actually says what happened. Thousands and thousands of fools will come.
Just like the same thing, that if a man advertises that he'll show how you can bark like a dog. People will pay ten rupees ticket and go to see how a man is barking like a dog. But he doesn't care.
So many dogs are barking, creating disturbance. So this is going.
Some extraordinary power showing, making one karmī, jñānī, yogī, but a devotee, he is so satisfied in the service of the Lord, he doesn't want anything, powers and all that. That is the position. You...
Demigods and the personal absolute
Once you once mentioned that Greeks, the ancient Greeks, were chased out of India, where they were kṣatriyas, chased out of India by Paraśurāma Muni, something like that.
But Socrates was confronted with a society that on the one hand included what were called sophists. These were more or less mental speculators. They were paid money to philosophize or to speculate.
And humanists who said man is the measure of all things, they had no belief in God or any higher force, nothing beside man.
And with the demigod worshippers, the Greek pantheon of gods were very much like the demigods described in the Vedic literatures. Like Zeus was like Indra and Athena was like Saraswati.
They retain, the Greeks retain their worship of the demigods, but there is no mention of a supreme God under whom everyone else served. And Socrates neglected the worship of these demigods.
He felt that there was no use in worshiping the demigods, and he stressed meditation on the self, on the highest good which resides in the heart, which must correspond to the Paramātmā.
And so in teaching this he was teaching something radically different, and this is one of the reasons that he was condemned to death for blaspheming the demigods, for blaspheming the gods.
He felt that the worship of these gods did not lead to self-realization at all. Yes, that's a fact.
That is partly what the... God was śāstra, hṛta-jñānāḥ, vidanti anante, the Vaisnava... the demigod being too much lasting because they worship for some material benefit. So they have been described as hṛta-jñānāḥ.
Hṛta-jñānāḥ means one who has lost his intelligence. Actually it is so. Suppose, what does it mean? A demigod, Saraswati, the goddess of learning. So you get the opportunity of becoming a very nice scholar.
But how long you can remain a scholar? As soon as the body is finished, your whole scholarship is finished. Then you have to accept another body and you have to act according to that body.
Then how will the scholarship help you? But if you worship God, as Krishna says, that janma karma me divyam... God means to know God, actually, what is God, more quite frankly.
How He is managing, how material nature is working under Him. People cannot even imagine that God can be a person. But here He is everything, person. Mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram.
Under My supervision, the material nature is working. So these impersonalists are less intelligent persons. They cannot understand how a person can dictate the wonderful activities of the material nature.
That was the remaining persons. But actually person, that is the understanding of Bhagavad-gītā. God is person. Mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat kiñcid asti dhanañjaya. There is no more superior authority than me.
So when he says mattaḥ, that "me", there is a person. No, Krishna, God. Yes. God is person. Yes. And he says, "Mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat kiñcid asti dhanañjaya." There is no more superior authority than me.
Ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavo. Mattaḥ sarvaṁ pravartate. I am the origin of everything. Everything emanates from me. And the Vedānta-sūtra confirmed. The absolute truth is there from which everything comes. Janmādy asya yataḥ.
The absolute truth is person. And Arjuna, when he understood Bhagavad-gītā, he addressed Krishna: "Parabrahman." That is absolute. Paraṁ brahma paraṁ dhāma pavitraṁ paramaṁ bhavān.
So really understanding absolute should mean to understand his personal feature. He has got three features: impersonal feature, localized feature, and personal feature. Brahmeti paramātmeti bhagavān iti śabdyate.
All of them are the same truth, spiritual truth, but different phases, different features. The example is given: just like you see one mountain from a very distant place.
Very distant place, you see the hazy something like cloud. When you come nearer, you see something green, there are trees, and
if you come still nearer, you see, no, it is not only trees and hills, but there are houses, there are men, there are animals. So actually the same thing, the mountain from a distant place.
But because one is far away from the mountain, he sees the same mountain, the impersonal; and he becomes little nearer, then he sees Paramātmā, person within, present everywhere.
And when he comes again still, he sees the same person still there, he's dancing and playing. This is the difference.
So through, uh, jñāna, through the path of jñāna, uh, Socrates may have realized Brahman, he may have realized Paramātmā, but there was no way to realize Krishna. There is a way.
If you make that advancement, the same example: this same mountain is there. From a distant place you say, "It's a cloud." Nearer you see something green, there are trees.
And still you go farther, you see everything perfect. But I thought, uh, Krishna can only be realized through bhakti, through devotion. Yes, you cannot enter into Krishna's place without being a purified bhakta.
Bhaktyā mām abhijānāti, that is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. He never says that, uh, by jñāna, by karma, or by yoga, one can understand it. It is clearly said that: bhaktyā mām abhijānāti.
Then only through devotional service, one can understand. The personal abode of Krishna is specially reserved for the bhaktas, of course. Not for others; jñānīs, yogīs cannot.
They remain outside. Like there is sunshine and the sun. To enter into the sun is not so easy. But sunshine, anyone can enter. The temperature is not so harsh. You can tolerate it.
But although the sunshine and the sun are not different,
in the sunshine, sun globe, if you enter, if you've got the power to enter, the same light and same temperature... not same, but I mean to say temperature and light.
So the temperature and sunshine, light and temperature is not the same as the temperature and light in the sun globe.
Role of the spiritual master
Now, Socrates as a teacher, in addition to believing in the value of insight or meditation, Socrates also believed that knowledge can be imparted from one person to another.
He therefore believed in the role of a guru or teacher, which he himself was for many people. He believed also in good association amongst people who were interested in self-realization.
And he followed the method known as the Socratic dialogue as a means for evoking the truth.
Now, he would use a method called Socratic irony, in which he himself, Socrates, would pose himself as an ignorant person and would ask questions of his young disciples.
He would never offer the answers, but would try to draw the answers out of his disciples. And this was called the maieutic, the maieutic method. So he considered himself to be a kind of midwife.
In fact, his mother was a midwife, who would draw the truth from the repository in the soul. He felt that the truth was there within, but had to be drawn out, and that the truth is dormant within everyone.
That the individual possesses the truth previous to birth, in an existence previous to earthly existence. So almost similar to our method.
Because we advise, we advise basic principle: that for the truth one must approach a guru. That is the process everywhere. In Bhagavad-gītā, as we say, "tad viddhi".
«tad viddhi praṇipātena paripraśnena sevayā / upadekṣyanti» «te jñānaṁ jñāninas tattva-darśinaḥ». You have to approach a guru who knows the absolute truth. "Knows" means "has seen".
It's like in our daily life, direct perception. To see something, people argue on that, the canvas. That is the tendency, the direct perception. So the direct perception is possible by advanced devotion.
There is no difficulty. Because as I have already explained, "santaḥ sadaiva hṛdayeṣu vilokayanti". Constantly he is seeing the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
So there is a state when one can constantly see the Supreme Lord and Paramātmā sitting within his heart and taking advice from Him. Kṛṣṇa also confirmed this: «buddhi-yogaṁ dadāmi tam». So
by meditation, if it is actually meditation to search out the absolute truth within the heart, then he can meet. That is the yoga practice. Yoga practice means concentrating the mind to see the Supersoul within.
And therefore he has to control the activities of the senses from all other ends.
Then it is what yoga practice is: dhāraṇā, āsana, prāṇāyāma — these are why? Simply to concentrate the mind, focusing toward the Paramātmā. And it's perfect, the other sits.
Therefore, Krishna concludes in the Bhagavad-gītā: «yoginām api sarveṣāṁ mad-gatenāntar-ātmanā śraddhāvān bhajate yo māṁ sa me yuktatamo mataḥ».
Of all the yogis, one who has learned to see Me within himself is the first one, attainer of yoga. The perfection in yoga means to see God within himself. That is perfection.
So this process, as Socrates seems to give chance to his disciples, then it's a good process to give him chance to develop his understanding. The teacher helps, like the father and mother give the child.
First of all, he helps. Taking his hand: "Now walk, walk." And sometimes he gives him freedom. "Now you walk, let me see, alone." Although he sometimes falls down.
But Father then cries: "Oh, you have fallen. Stand up, stand up again." Wow. So give chance to the disciple, how they can think properly to go back to home.
The teacher is giving instruction and tries to see how he has developed. So that process is natural. And another process is that suppose a man comes to argue, we should give him first chance.
Alright, he would say what is the import of this person; then he can understand his position, where he is. Then he captures it. Because an expert, he knows how to capture the fool.
So let the fool first of all go and talk all nonsense. Then he'll understand where he is, and it is also a process. Socrates, in a very famous allegory or metaphor, pictures humanity living in a dark cave,
and, uh, the teacher has seen the light outside of the cave. He knows that there's something outside the cave that is light. And he may return to the cave to tell people in the cave that this is darkness.
And the people in the cave, many of them would consider him to be crazy uh, for speaking of such a thing as the light outside of the cave. And that this was very conceivably a very dangerous position to be in.
But actually that is a fact. Just like we have said so many times: Dr. Frog. See, the frog within the dark well. He's thinking he knows everything.
And if he's informed, "Oh, there is a big mass of water, the Atlantic Ocean." So the Dr. Frog, from within the well, he has never seen the Atlantic Ocean and he cannot conceive that the water can be so expansive.
So therefore those who are in the dark well, for them it is surprising that there is light outside. But that's a fact. And one who has fallen, if he's crying that "I am fallen."
So it is said that the man outside, he drops a rope. "You catch this rope." And he says, "Take it out." But he does not catch it.
It's like we are presenting that you, everyone in the material world, you are suffering, you catch it, this Krishna consciousness. They are refusing. They do not do it. That is going on.
But if one is fortunate, he can catch the rope, and the man wants to help him, he can get him out. But he has to catch it.
It is Krishna's advice that you are crying, you are suffering, you are trying to find out how your suffering will be ended. The materialists, they are doing it in their own way.
The impersonalists, they are doing it in their own way. The yogis, they are doing it in their own way. Everyone is trying to get out of this.
But when Krishna says that these things will not help you, "sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja," he does not catch it. That is his misfortune.
God Himself said that "You take, you take Me, Me, in this instruction in the Bhagavad-gītā." "You take to Me, you'll be saved," but they will not do that. That is their obstinacy.
And the Vedas therefore says, "Tamaso mā jyotir gama", don't remain in the dark well. You come out to the light, but they will not come to the light. They want to remain in the dark well and you want to become perfect.
That is that misfortune.
Critique of modern material civilization
Within this material world it is darkness. Just now it is evening. It is giving us that actually it is dark because Krishna has supplied the sun, moon, therefore it is light.
But there is another place where without sun, without moon you'll get light. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. Na tad bhāsayate sūryo — that is my kingdom. Everything is Krishna's kingdom. But that is special.
There is no need of sunshine. There is no need of moonshine. There is no need of electric light. It is all self-effulgent. So he is giving the information. But these asuras will not take.
They want to make adjustment in the darkness of life. How is this possible? This is teaching also, the nature's way of world.
The sun is in the sky, but the arrangement is such that twelve hours it is darkness and twelve hours it is light. But the sun is there always. There is no doubt about it.
But the arrangement is just to convince us that actually it is dark. With the sunshine, it is sometimes day and shine.
Similarly, happiness can be to remain under the sunshine, under the illumination of Krishna, that is happiness. Krishna consciousness.
And if you want to be happy in darkness, just like in darkness at night, the only happiness is sleeping and sex. That's all. There is no other means.
And when there was that in New York, electricity failure, and so many women became pregnant. Yes, in the darkness this is the happiness. Either you sleep or you enjoy sex. That is it. That is material world.
Therefore it is darkness.
As it is said in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam: «śrotavyādīni rājendra nṛṇāṁ santi sahasraśaḥ |» «apaśyatām ātma-tattvaṁ gṛheṣu gṛha-medhinām ||» «nidrayā hriyate naktaṁ vyavāyena ca vā vayaḥ |» «divā cārthehayā rājan...» These materialistic persons, they've got many things to hear.
Huge, big, big volumes of newspapers, so many useless informations. And why they have got so many engagements in apaśyatām? Because they do not know what is self-realization. Gṛheṣu gṛha-medhinām.
They think they should live in this family life surrounded by wife, children, friends. This is life. So let's use this newspaper and talk on nonsense and waste time. Their engagement is:
at night they sleep or enjoy sex, nidrayā hriyate naktam, vyavāyena, and at day they hanker after money, runs the motor car at neck-break speed, neck-break speed. Breakneck. Breakneck. What is the business?
Searching of some means of food, exactly like the hog is running here and there: "Where is stool? Where is stool? Where is stool?"
And this is going on in a polished way. As civilization, there is so much richness as running this car, so many people are dying. This car, it is very dangerous.
At least I feel as soon as I go to the street, it is dangerous. The motor car running so speedy. And what is the business? The business is where to find out food. So therefore it is condemned.
This kind of civilization is hoggish civilization. The hog is running after "Where is stool? Where is stool? Where is stool?" And you are running in a car; the purpose is the same. Where is stool? Purpose is the same.
Therefore this is not advancement of civilization. Advancement of civilization is as Krishna advises, that you require food, so produce food grain. Remember, wherever you are, you can produce food grain anywhere.
A little labor. And keep cows. Go-rakṣya. Kṛṣi-go-rakṣya-vāṇijyaṁ vaiśya-karma svabhāvajam. Solve your problem. Produce your food wherever you are there.
Still little, little labor, and you get your holy food and distribute the food to the animal, cow, and eat yourself; the cow will eat the refuse. You take the rice and the skin you give to the cow.
From dal, you take the grain and the skin you give to the... in fruit, you take the fruit and the skin, you give to the cow. And she gives you milk. So why should you kill her? Milk is the best food.
Therefore Krishna says, "kṛṣi-go-rakṣya." Give protection to the cow, take milk from it, and eat food grains. Then your food problem is solved. Where is the food problem?
Why should you invent a civilization always full of anxieties, running the car here and there and fight with the other nation? And economic development,
is what is this? Is that what we require? Take Krishna consciousness to be happy everywhere: economically, philosophically, religiously, culturally, everything. That is Krishna consciousness.
Uh, one last point on Socrates. For Socrates, civilization is darkness, that is my point. Yes. It is not in the light. We are fighting within darkness. Just like if immediately this room becomes dark, everyone knows it,
there is fight, struggle. You are asking me, "Apurva, where you are?" I see here, you are going in the other room. Well, he pictures in the cave the... uh, something like a cinema on the wall of the cave. Yeah.
And everyone is sitting in the cave looking, absorbed in the cinema, these forms that are not actual forms but are imitation. That means darkness. Mm-hmm. The darkness you are saying, for what?
I am here, I am looking here. Where you are? So that is the position of darkness. Everything you see, uh, it is not clear. Uh, that is darkness. Therefore, Vedic injunction is: "Don't remain in darkness." Come to the light.
That light is guru. Ajñāna-timirāndhasya jñānāñjana-śalākayā. This is guru's description. While we are in darkness of ignorance, the guru, spiritual master, ignites the torch of knowledge.
Ajñāna-timirāndhasya jñānāñjana-śalākayā. Śalākā means torch. Then he sees your things on the way when you become self-realized, brahma-bhūta. Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā. That is civilization.
To get the light, and to remain in darkness and struggle for existence— that is not civilization. That is animal life. It has no value. That is going on.
Therefore, you are trying to give Krishna consciousness, the greatest contribution to the human society. Krishna consciousness we are not manufacturing, we are not bluffing like other swamis and yogis and philosophers.
We are simply carrying the light, torchlight. Light is Krishna, and that's all. Our business is very easy.
Purification and the liberated state
Very easy and beneficial and practical. The good that Socrates speaks of is not the same as sattva-guṇa. This is a quotation from the Republic.
Socrates says: "This then which gives to the objects of knowledge their truth, and to him who knows them his power of knowing, is the form or essential nature of goodness.
It is the cause of knowledge and truth, and so, while he may think of it as an object of knowledge, he would do well to regard it as something beyond truth and knowledge, and precious as these both are, of still higher worth.
And just as in our analogy light and vision were to be thought of like the sun, but not identical with it, so here both knowledge and truth are to be regarded as like the good, but to identify either with the good is wrong.
The good must hold a yet higher place of honor. The objects of knowledge derive from the good not only their power of being known, but their very being and reality.
And goodness is not the same thing as being, but even beyond being, surpassing it in dignity and power." Yes.
So goodness is the position where you can get knowledge and darśana, and ignorance is not the platform of knowledge.
And therefore the endeavor should be how to, uh, bring, uh, persons in the basic, uh, or base platform, ignorance, and the ignorance... So this is very easily done by our this Krishna consciousness movement.
If one hears about Krishna, God, then gradually he becomes freed from the clutches of darkness and passion. And actually he then comes to the platform of goodness.
And when he is perfectly in goodness, then this passion and ignorance and the byproducts cannot touch you. Tadā rajas-tamo-bhāvāḥ kāma-lobhādayaś ca ye. Uh, nityaṁ bhāgavata-sevayā. Bhaktir bhavati naisthikī.
Tadā rajas-tamo-bhāvāḥ kāma-lobhādayaś ca ye,
ceta etair anāviddhaṁ sthitaṁ sattve prasīdati. Yeah, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Bhagavad-gītā regularly, then we, uh, become free from the effects of, uh, the modes of ignorance and passion.
Gradual it is, although it takes, but he is sure. The more he hears about Krishna — or Krishna means His instruction or about Him, what He is — the more he becomes purified.
So that is a test that, uh, how one has become purified. Means one is purified from the base quality of passion and ignorance, means that he is no more attacked by greediness and passion. That is the test.
That means he is free from the base qualities. He is situated. Ceta etair anāviddhaṁ sthitaṁ sattve prasīdati. When he is no more disturbed by these base qualities of passion and greediness, then he is happy.
Then he becomes happy. Sthitaṁ sattve prasīdati, that is goodness. That is goodness. Then he is happy. Happiness. That the ultimate stage of goodness is Brahman, to realize himself, realize God.
So goodness, one must come to the platform of goodness. So we are therefore asking people to give up these base qualitative activities: illicit sex and meat-eating and drinking or intoxication and base qualities.
So anyone gives up this quality, he remains in sa-guṇa. And then it is promoted further, just like Socrates said, the goodness is not still your bhakti. Then his life is not perfect. He becomes liberated.
And then gradually he develops love of God and then his original state. Muktiḥ hitvānyathā-rūpam. Liberation means that to be free from these our nonsense engagements. They are engaged.
All these conditioned souls are simply engaged in some false engagements to become happy. So when one is free from these false engagements, then he is in the liberated state. Mukti means muktiḥ hitvānyathā-rūpam.
Anyathā-rūpam means he's acting otherwise. So one has to come to the real position, not act otherwise. So he is an eternal servant of Krishna. When he fully engages himself in the service of Krishna, then he is liberated.
And if he keeps himself, then nobody can touch. The māyā cannot touch. Daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā is very strong. But if one keeps in touch with Krishna constantly, māyā has no jurisdiction.
Mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti te. Transcendental to the modes. Yeah. No more affected by the modes of material nature. Sa guṇān samatītyaitān brahma-bhūyāya kalpate.
Such person is transcendental to the modes of material nature. Sa guṇān samatītyaitān, that is brahma-bhūta state. Every devotee, if he is strictly following the rules and regulations, he is in the brahma-bhūta state.
Uh, just like there is an epidemic. But one who has taken the vaccine, uh, the epidemic cannot touch him. Uh, so it is like that.
Brahma, when you come to the brahma-bhūta state, there may be māyā, there are many, so many activities of ignorance and passion. He has nothing to do. He is free. That is one of the one. That is perfection.
So that's the conclusion of the additional notes on Socrates. And if new philosophers that we will present eventually all— um, I don't know if these were ever mentioned. That would be Socrates, do you think?
Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, these have been done. Just a little, a few additions.
But then there's Plotinus, Origen, and Augustine, and these were the three philosophers who shaped Christian thought, or Catholic, the Church thought, Church Fathers.
And, uh, Saint Anselm, Saint Thomas Aquinas, Scotus, and Eckhart, these are Christian. So they are not philosophers. They are Christian with different points of view.
So we are not going to, uh, uh, have to discuss with a person, uh, he is from the stand, deviating from the standard way and thinking in the mental speculations. But these, um, these are considered philosophers.
They're considered, but because they belong to a certain sect of religion. Because they're followers of Christ. Yes. Mm-hmm. And they're deviating from the original, uh, Christian power. So they are useless.
They do, they do deviate. They, you cannot deviate. No more you're Christian. So you can, you have no platform to draw from the Christianity. Mm-hmm. They, this was rejected. Uh-huh. So, well, Plotinus was not Christian.
Neither was Origen. If you say Christian, you must follow the four, uh, Ten Commandments of Christ. If you don't follow, you make your own ways to be scared, then you are no longer a Christian. So you cannot talk.
But Augustine was one of the ones who, um, maintained that animals do not, uh, have souls. That's what they're escaping. Yes. Mm-hmm. And this was exciting. What to use, but they used to talk him with the rescue. Mm-hmm.
It is a waste of time. Mm-hmm.