The Boy Who Rejected Material Education

Prahlada Maharaja and spiritual education

0:00My first conversation of the food is that I find that it is very nice to... We won't be about very nice. And I understand that the some subjects for that. Yes. So I hope that many women will again be loved.

0:46But that woman is not for this anything. We would like with the life of the great Prahlāda Mahārāja. The place could and devote the pattern to be born in a family of the daityas.

1:38His father was a great atheist, but the boy somehow or other got instruction from Nārada Muni while he was within the abdomen of the mother. But he was inspired, and since he is very young, he was chanting.

2:27When he was five years old, he was dancing: "Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa." So his father was materialistic. He wanted that: "My son is very much educated in politics, in talks about how to gather money, how to enjoy them."

3:05That the materialist does: money and all that. So his father was teaching him like that, or he wanted some teacher to teach him all the politics and economics. But the boy would not take lessons from the teacher.

3:38He tried to understand Kṛṣṇa. Now, one day his father wanted to test it: "Oh, my son, how you have progressed in education?" So the boy was five years old.

4:06And he took him on his lap: "My dear boy, can you tell me what nice things you have learned from your teacher?" Well, things are like this: "I have not learned anything best from my teacher.

4:37But I know the best thing is..." Allow me, please. When I say father was after, generally father, and so long the boy is not disobedient, so... So the child is replying to the father.

5:17Tat-sādhu manye 'sura-varya dehināṁ. But that's what we've got to pay some... yeah, I'm not gonna... ya gṛham. This is in our case, I think. Say, "My dear father." Not "My dear father." If that's a kill, about, "I'll kill."

6:15And Prahlāda in the best. So his father was expected. So he, I think, his father or first classes. He was not afraid of his father. He addressed his father against his challenge.

Speaking truth and spiritual authority

6:44And was a thief. There was no in that. Because he was a thief, he did not believe in God. So if the son addressing you, this believer or unbeliever in God, that is not yourself. It is not believable.

7:05But generally, if that person is addressed as he, sometimes he becomes angry. Just like if the man is blind, if you call him "blind", it is a fact that he is blind.

7:28Therefore, in social behavior, it is said that it should be true but pleasing. Satyaṁ brūyāt priyaṁ brūyāt. Truthfulness is very good. But you must say truth very politely. Unpalatable truth is not sanctioned.

8:05If a man is blind and if you call him "you blind," although it is a fact that the man is blind, and you will address him, "Oh, the great honest," or he will be very... this is the social government.

8:33But those who are preachers, or they cannot... those who are actually loving, they cannot say anything palatable and unpalatable. Too much. There are many instances in your... That father... God. God is of God.

9:07He believed in God. God is great. People wonder if today just the opposite practices are the leadership. And you are supposed to follow, that's all right. That means you can't change the change. Similarly,

9:30Prahlāda, he believed in the authority of the God. And he was forced to disbelieve it. But he did not say they are good. That is a sign of really... all world of the absolute similarity. This boy...

9:56Also he knew that my father is very powerful and he can do anything with my life. But still his adoration is father.

10:13He first asked to be careful that if you ask me what is the best thing, then I will say, "Kāma," that is the best thing. What is that?

Distinction between body and soul

10:36Dehavatām, names of the word... deha. Deha means person, or living entities who have accepted this material body. Deha means this body. And dehī means one who possesses this body.

11:08It possesses... Both, all of us sitting here, we possess each one. His simple body. Your body and my body, there is no similarity. Suppose we are 50 years, 60... all find two exactly... how to say it is not possible.

11:47Although you Americans, you are all white men. But still there are so many differences which you particularly analyze these areas. You all find no bodies of the same type. That is not what the bodies are the same type.

12:14The finger impression and all. So this law of fingers is so many, that arise. How you can make it without arise? The impersonalists, they want to make everything void, a mass of light. But that is not possible.

12:55They impersonally say he has to make everything void, make variety-less, because they have got a very bitter experience of this material life. But there is future. They have no taste about the spiritual variety.

13:23Therefore, they want to make this unpleasant variety end and void. But actually, this is not void. So Prahlāda Mahārāja is describing all men in this material world who have this material body.

13:56There are 8,400,000 species or varieties of bodies. Out of that, the human species are only 400,000. Out of that, civilized men are very few. Dehina-maye, all the names who had the body. All of us this time, now,

14:42why medicine? Why does he disease? He diseases also. That everybody, anyone who has accepted this message of God, please note this, that I have accepted this material. I have accepted as a reason.

15:11But every one of us has accepted a particular type of body according to his own. Nature is so kind or so developed. Or God is so kind and so developed. As you want.

15:36As we said, Vedic mantra: nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām. Cetanaś cetanānām. This is a śruti, as a good artist means that. What is that? That the Supreme Personality of Godhead is also living and being like us.

16:22As we are all living entities, similarly, the Supreme Personality of Godhead is also a living entity, but the distinction is... Nityo nityānām. Vyakta means that. We are all in that.

16:45We are changing our bodies just like we changed our dress. But we are eternal. Unfortunately, the modern situation, or modern do not give us opportunity to study what is the nature of the soul. In

17:14the education department, in the universities, there are so many departmental educations: engineering department, medicinal department, legal department, so many departments.

17:32But there's no department to study what is that internal history. Also, actually,

17:50from basic information and from practical experience also, we should not accept any person blindly; one has to accept any truth with reasons, argument, and honesty.

18:11So we are eternal, that is a proof by this version of the Bhagavad-gītā. Bhagavad-gītā, Kṛṣṇa begins the subject organ. How the living entity is dharma. He says: "Dehī". Same dehī. Dehī means the body.

18:43Dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ. As in this body, there is the proprietor of this body. As the proprietor, when he comes out of the body of the mother, has got a very little body.

19:18Then he gets another body, the boy's, bigger body, or still bigger, still bigger, still bigger. So he is getting different bodies. But the proprietor is there.

19:36The idea is that although the proprietor of the body is there, he is getting different bodies, even in this life. You may say that it is growth, but it is the current body. With the body, that body is no longer existing.

20:04All you are young boys and girls here. When you were born, your body was so small. Where is that small body gone?

20:17So even in this life, as we have been changing as the one kind of body, not several kinds, every minute we are changing body. Then we meditate. We are changing our blood too. And therefore we are changing the subtle body.

20:40That is next to the fact. So changing the body or getting different body systems... Just like if you change this apartment, go to another apartment, or you get different apartments in the same.

21:01Similarly, Bhagavad-gītā says we are changing different kinds of birth, even within this duration of life. Similarly, when we change as the ultimate end for another body, that is not death.

21:33And dhīras tatra na muhyati: those who are sober, those who are intelligent, they are not perplexed or confused by that thing. So we are changing that. And the Vedic literature says that we are eternal.

21:55As we are eternal and we are part and parcel of God, then God is also eternal. Because if the part and parcel is eternal, then the whole must be eternal. We have to know it.

Relationship between God and living entities

22:17So basically the function is that: nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām. Cetana means having consciousness. Just like, uh, this one.

22:38It has no consciousness, but it's small and, uh, uh, I'm knocking within this table. It does not feel them. Cetana. Cetana means consciousness.

22:55So we can see that the Supreme Lord is a conscious entity and He is the Supreme Conscious Person. And we are conscious. So we are part and parcel. Then why the whole is not conscious?

23:24Just like this drop of water from the Atlantic Ocean. If it is salty, it needs to be understood that the whole water of the Atlantic Ocean is also salty.

23:41Evidently, if you want to study what is God, then you study yourself and you understand what is God. You are living, God is living. You are conscious, God is conscious. We have got this propensity.

24:05God has got this propensity. Everything, whatever we have got. So there is a drop of water on the beach, as the all the chemical composition as the big vast mass of the sea. The difference is this is small and the vast sea.

24:35Similarly, God and you both are of the same quality. Qualitatively you are one. But so far as the quantity, you are not so great as God is. Because God is great. We are small God. That is the absolute truth.

25:15Everyone knows, at least those who believe in God, they say God is great. So we should accept that: that God is great and we are small. God is superior and we are subordinate. This is called upāsana.

25:49Upāsana is nothing extraordinary that we have invented. Kṛṣṇa means the super-attractive. If God is not all-attractive, then how is He God?

26:10Even in this material world, if somebody is attractive somehow or other, what are the symptoms of being attractive? If you become a very wealthy man, you are attractive.

26:32Just like in your country, before Rockefeller, Carnegie, the whole world over, they knew. Why? Because they are wealthy. So wealthiness is one of them.

26:53Similarly, if one is famous either politically or otherwise, in the same way. See your Shakespeare. If one is very much influential, see your Napoleon.

27:17If one is very strong, just like Sandow or somebody else, bodily strength, or beauty, just like film actors. We consider them to be strong because they have got a part of the strength. So this is all that.

27:47Beauty is attractive, wealth is attractive. So these are attractive people. Similarly, if a person is very learned, wise, then we are just attracted. And similarly, if somebody is in the renounced order. This is also there.

28:14So the definition of God is given by Parāśara Muni. That one who has got six opulences, attractive opulences, He is called Bhagavān.

28:34The wisest, the most famous, the most learned, the most beautiful, similarly, all the attractive features. Kṛṣṇa means He has got all the six attractive features in full.

28:59When Kṛṣṇa was present in this world, He proved that He is all-attractive. There are many instances. If you read Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, in fact, at least you know that He is the wisest man, if you take Him as a man.

29:27He is the wisest man. Not what? He is the wisest man still. How? You read this Bhagavad-gītā, which is still present.

29:42In fact, as the Gītā is so known, it is so full of wisdom that many very, very big scholars, they are studying Bhagavad-gītā for the whole life, and still they cannot understand it fully.

30:08They are attracted to it, not only in India, but in all other countries. I have seen in our country at least there are more than one dozen, I have seen in the Russian language also, and

30:28still I have... I am publishing one edition of the work in your country, Mr. Macmillan and Company. They are agreed to publish this book. I am writing Bhagavad-gītā As It Is.

30:52Unfortunately, Bhagavad-gītā has been interpreted by different scholars according to their personal ideas. But since we study it and see that and try to present it as it is, and it is published by Macmillan.

31:34So the point is that God is extraordinary in the sense that the quantity of qualification is very, very great.

31:57And these same qualifications we have also, but uh, that is very, very, very, very small. That is, one is inside and the other is inside the... Nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām eko bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān.

32:28The Vedic mantra says that singular number, the eternal personality or the form of the Lord, is the maintenance of all concepts. Kāmān means necessity. So you study who is supplying your necessity, not only your necessity.

33:02We may say that we have, uh, developed our economic, uh, region, uh, we have uh, started so many producing big farms and that is a human society, more or less, that you are there.

33:25But I have, as I have already said, that the human beings, living entities, are very, very small in comparison to the other living entities.

33:40They are eight million and we have only 400,000, 400,000, and they are eight million. Now, what is

Service as the natural function

33:52their economic problem? Have you seen them have any shelter or any God as God of salvation? No. No animal dies of starvation. No birds die of starvation. Neither human.

34:20That means God has provided everyone, which is no doubt about that. All the Vedas have said: "Eko bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān." That one person supplies all necessities of the others.

34:49Now, what is the, uh, problem of economic studies? Suppose you construct a very high-size skyscraper unit.

35:05So far the material is concerned—the brick, the cement, the iron used— there are so many things if you study Vedic literature very nicely. So you can understand all these facts very nicely.

35:36So this is knowledge, just to understand our relationship with Him. That you can remain in your position. It doesn't matter. You remain as American, I remain as an Indian.

36:03You remain as a householder or a student, I may remain as a vānaprastha. It doesn't matter. He sits on chairs, or he sits on the ground. These things are not very essential.

36:20The real point is that we are part and parcel of the Supreme Lord. He is the Supreme Conscious personality. And we are individual conscious personalities.

36:38Our problem is that we have forgotten this truth, and we are trying to act individually, independently, to form. If you try independently, you will never be happy. It will always be another.

37:03For example, we may give that the whole body and the finger is a part and parcel of the body. So long as the finger works for the whole body, the finger has value.

37:24If I need to cut off this finger from this body, then it has no value. Suppose my finger is cut off. I'm putting it and it is lying on the ground. I don't care for it. I throw it away.

37:44But so long as the finger is with this body, if there is any trouble, I can spend millions of dollars for the finger. Therefore, the value of the finger is so long as it is attached to this body.

38:05And what is the function of the body? The function of the finger, or I say, the finger's duty, is like it has one thing: that for the part and parcel of the body, the finger is to carry out the order of the body.

38:35Similarly, if Krishna or the Lord, He is the Supreme Conscious personality, and if you carry out the order of the Supreme Personality, then it's that human. Otherwise, there is God. This is good. Thank you.

39:04That is the whole thing. That's like you have a colleague, and when he says this point, that "Yes, you are right," then he agrees with it. Otherwise,

40:02if you say that "I have understood this, I have liked this," that is not work. Two plus two is four. If somebody imagines that 2 plus 2 equals five, that will not be it.

40:24So you cannot imagine whether you are Krishna's masters or God, or you have actually to be a śiṣya. And that has been confirmed by the representative reality. Otherwise, it is wrong. Then the atmosphere is wrong.

40:45We cannot manifest. That is being done at the present house. Everyone is manufacturing their own religion, own thoughts, own ideas. They don't accept the thing. They can say science. They are there. All other signs go science.

41:11And the most important science, once they manufacture their own ideas... Science means you cannot interpret. Science is true. Two plus two, if I say it's four, you cannot say, "Oh, I may think this is five."

41:41That is not that. So you cannot inject it. If you do that, then you will never be happy. No worries. They do not know what is happiness.

Happiness and the laws of God

42:06Happiness... you can say happiness means just like a man is traveling hard. And after struggling, say for so many years, he is happy or has achieved the result for one year, then he's happy.

42:27Here the happiness may be counteracting the process of death. There is no happiness. We have imagined happiness by counteracting the process of this. They do not know what is actual happiness.

42:56Actual happiness is just like I'm explaining: eternal life. Oh, this nonsense is not so. What is eternal life? They are satisfied with this span of life: 50 years, 40 years, 50 years. So what is there happening?

43:15The death is there. The birth is there, the old age is there, the disease is there, then what is your happiness? You are struggling against death, you are struggling against birth,

43:38you are struggling against old age, you are struggling against disease. Have you stopped them? Then what is happening? You are false to believe it that this is happy. That is not happiness.

43:57In the material world there cannot be any happiness. Otherwise, you are the foremost country in the world and you have got enough food, enough money, everything enough.

44:11Why hundreds and thousands of hippies? Your youth are confused. They are leaving your country. Why? This is not the process of happiness. We do not know what it is. The happiness is described in the Bhagavad-gītā.

44:37Sukham ātyantikaṁ yat tad— happiness, which is real happiness, that is to be understood by your transcendental senses. Sense happiness as you have got experience, that is not happy. That has reaction.

45:11So that is not happiness. We do not know what is happiness. We have to learn what is happiness.

45:46You cannot understand that as long as you are in this body, as I have already expressed just now, that you are getting your God.

45:58We have got this body. That is how we have got this body, that is a different thing, this is a very long process. They answer even the word.

46:21Just like if a person is in the prison house for many, many years from their childhood, and if he inquires, questions, "Wherefrom this prison life began?"

46:43So the best answer is, instead of taking out the history of when this miserable condition and our body has appeared, one has to understand that this body is miserable. Do you think this body is not miserable? Yes, it is.

47:19That thing that I have already said, that figure is nothing but the counter-action, not the display. That is not true.

47:35So first of all, we have to understand that I am not this body, and I have somehow or rather I have contact with this body, and the body is the source of all this. If we understand these three things, then our spiritual life or real life begins.

48:07And unless we do not understand the basic principles of this body, there is no question of happiness. Yes, the same thing, that as a prisoner it be inquired that why I have become in this hard statement. The

48:36only answer is that you have disobeyed the laws of God. Even that is because we have disobeyed the Supreme Person. But because we have disobeyed to cooperate with Him as the King, that is to cooperate with the whole world.

48:56It has become easy.

Independence and preparing for the future

49:00Therefore, originally my position is pleasure, or as it is stated in the Vedānta-sūtra: ānamdamayo 'bhyāsāt. The living entity is joyful by nature.

49:20So, in this conditional life you are trying to be joyful because my nature is joyful, but the satisfaction is not there. Therefore I have to change this atmosphere; that is possible. You have to change your mind.

50:01So you have to regain your original. Because we are part of Nityānanda. We are keeping the minute independence.

50:19Because God is full independence and you are part and parcel of the supreme independence, we have got a minute independent soul. But as soon as you misuse independence, you are sold.

50:40Yes, if you make your life perfect while you are living, then you become perfect after death. If you prepare yourself nicely, then you pass your exam. Not that simply by sitting in the examination hall you pass your exam.

51:05You have to prepare yourself for the next life. Next. That is the prerogative of the human life.

51:19And if we simply engage ourselves like cats and dogs—eating, sleeping, mating, and defending— then we don't prepare for a big life. This is being done by cats and dogs. They also eat. They also sleep.

51:36They also have sexual intercourse. And they also defend according to their capacity. You mean to say, if you make these four things in a polished way and in an advanced way, is that civilization?

51:53It is that God is saying: "Your civilization will be advanced while you understand why I am suffering." "I want pleasure, why I am in this place?" If you inquire from that point of view, then you are religious.