Schopenhauer and the Philosophy of Pessimism

Schopenhauer and the nature of reality

0:01German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer. And his philosophy is exactly the opposite of Hegel's rational, optimistic world order. See, his philosophy is often referred to as the philosophy of pessimism.

0:20And actually, he was a neurotic bachelor who lived alone with his dog, and he was known for his sexual indulgence and scandalous behavior. Anyway, you can know it. Yeah. Philosophy of pessimism.

0:46He says that reality is... So why you are fond of God? Basically, he found some value in dog. Blind and irrational. Reality is blind and irrational and capricious or whimsical. And that actually life is an evil situation.

1:26How he is to establish his pleasure if everything is whimsical, irrational? How he'll convince others it is irrational and irresponsible? How he makes progress in his philosophical proposition?

1:57All the animal, it is rational. So how he is irrational? Flow that will be accepted, irrational animal. He doesn't believe in rationality at all. Our plans are always upset. There's always some flaw to our reasoning.

2:25Your reasoning may be flawed. Well, you couldn't think. But I do think the others also reasoning will be flawed. He was the first Western philosopher to read some of the Vedas.

2:48He read Bhagavad-gītā and other Vedic scriptures. So he concluded that all phenomena are mere illusions or māyā. He borrowed that word māyā. This world is simply illusory. And that also we say.

3:10There is rationality, there is regulation; the sun is moving, the moon is moving. Not irrational, in quite in order. Everything is in order. You cannot say that.

3:32Just like all of our desires that we have are never fulfilled, that will never fulfill, just like in a prison house. If the prisoner desires something, no, it will never fulfill. It is meant for punishment.

3:51So he will have to abide by the desire of the jail superintendent. He cannot. Similarly, here every living entity is a prisoner. The superintendent of prison is Durgā. Durga means force. He cannot go out. Conditioned.

4:12So therefore, and frustration is the law here. Yeah, he points that out.

Material bondage and the cycle of karma

4:20So but the thing is that one should be rational: that why there is frustration here? That "why" question is answered in the Vedānta-sūtra, five. Kena Upaniṣad, five. That is rational.

4:40I don't want to be frustrated, but I'm forced to be frustrated. I don't want to die, but I am forced to die. I don't want to become old. I am forced to become old.

4:53That this rationality must be awakened to why this is happening. That is what we thought. Nature is working in that way so that I may be intelligent to enquire. What then? There will be

5:14question, and by questioning and answering to one of my students, we come to the conclusion: what is the aim of this one? He says that this will is composed of two, two parts: idea and will.

5:37The ideas are sense experiences that we perceive in the world, and they're mere representatives of the will. But the will is the ultimate eternal reality. Yeah. But he says that will is the ultimate reality.

5:58Something is... Yeah. Will is the ultimate reality, we'll find, because we desire, we will like this, we will that we shall be enjoyer of the material world. Idea was that "I shall become like Krishna."

6:20This was the idea, and therefore I will. Krishna gave us chance, all right, to come here and fulfill your desire. So they are implicated in so many karma and becoming more and more involved.

6:38So according to karma, he is getting different types of body and there is no end, it is going on. Yes, he says that the will is eternal.

6:49There's always... the will is eternal and it is always incarnated in one body after another. But he describes it as a force. An impersonal force. Personal or impersonal, that will be discussed later on.

7:06As "avan" means force. And he is being forced. Prakṛter guṇaiḥ — manas is unique. He has associated with one of the modes of material nature and, as such, he is being forced to act according to the mode.

7:24Basically, you make your friend. She's forced. Nobody likes that. The wretched life, but she is forced because she has associated with a certain material mode's combination.

7:43They are forced; they are coming from respectable families, there is no scarcity of money, yet they are lying on the street, dirty-dressed, dirty-haired. But that which nature is forcing me, you do it.

8:05Because here it does say that with a certain type of quality of the nature, one will be forced. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-yoni-janmasu.

8:18Different types of species of life, the cause is kāraṇa — guṇa-saṅgaḥ, as he is associating with the material quality. But is this force irrational, implying necessity? No, it is not irrational. It's not a will.

8:40You desire, you will like that. And that as soon as you will, immediately material nature is helpful: "Yes, take this help, you take the help." And the force, supposing our will for something, sense enjoyment, so...

Aesthetic and ethical paths to salvation

9:07We began yesterday, we were discussing that Schopenhauer's idea was that the world is basically an evil place. So he says that there are three means of salvation from this basically evil world.

9:27The first means he calls aesthetic salvation, or contemplation of higher ideas which transport us above passion, just like poetry, music; by contemplating these higher ideas, then the desire — we become absent of desire.

9:49Desire drops away and we become transported to a higher plane, not really above our will. That is mentioned by what we are doing. And actually it is happening. Just like my students. So, their normal life and this life.

10:22They have given up their former abominable life because they have better life, better thoughts, better feeling, better eating, everything better. So mind can accommodate something.

10:44If you always fill up the mind with Krishna, Krishna consciousness, then there is no chance of the mind being filled up with any other nonsense.

10:59This means of salvation called aesthetic lower salvation, because they are saved from the four kinds of sinful life: illicit sex, meat-eating, intoxication, and gambling.

11:20Because they have got better engagement, they don't like to be there. But he's referring here to art, poetry. Yes, everything is there. Here is art, we are painting.

11:35Art, poetry — all our Bhagavad-gītā and Bhagavatam are poetries. He's describing an experience of someone in the material world who sees a nice painting there. Yeah, that we mean. Uh, we agree also.

12:01So we do not want to keep them for a few moments, but we want to keep them continually in that consciousness. Yeah. That is Krishna contact. This aesthetic salvation is only...

12:24The aesthetic salvation is only possible momentarily. No, contemplation of poetry and art and music is there... No, that is possible. Just like practice.

12:41Practice: the child is practiced to play, but if he is constantly practiced to read and write, he becomes educated. So not momentary. It is a practice.

12:57If you practice Krishna consciousness, then other consciousness will automatically vanish.

13:04But he's describing only one type of salvation called aesthetic salvation, where one transcends the normal state of desire by seeing art or hearing music or poetry. Only this momentary transcendence. Why momentary?

13:24It can be continued perpetually. By seeing pictures and art... Oh yes, you see Rādhā-Krishna picture, you see the deity, well- dressed deity, artistically flowered, so always see. So why momentary?

13:42Even aesthetically one can have permanent salvation.

13:53Because Krishna consciousness movement is all goodness, we find whatever the so-called philosophers will prescribe, we have got already there, already there. If you say aesthetic salvation, this is aesthetic salvation.

14:13Śrī-vigrahārādhana-nitya-nānā-śṛṅgāra-tan-mandira-mārjanādau. So worship the deity, and you cannot derive benefit unless the aesthetic senses applied to the higher authority with reverence and respect. That is what.

14:39So he sees the second type of salvation from this, uh, basically evil existence. That salvation he prescribes in the beginning, that is temporary salvation. Yes.

14:52So this type of salvation, uh, called ethical salvation, is permanent? It is not salvation. It is part-time. It is called, uh, śmaśāna-vairāgya.

15:05Śmaśāna-vairāgya means, uh, just like a man dies, uh, somebody dies, so his relatives take him to the crematorium or the burning place.

15:18So at that time he gets little renouncement: "Oh, this is the end of life, why you are struggling?" And again, as soon as he comes from crematorium, he begins again. He forgets that he has to die. Isn't it?

15:33But this kind of śmaśāna-vairāgya will not help. Actually this is not salvation. He says it's only momentary. Momentary. So no. We, we, we want to give actual salvation, perpetually aesthetic ideas about Krishna.

15:53So now he describes three types of salvation. That was the first type, momentary. The second type he calls ethical salvation.

16:02He says that because the final aim and the aim of our life is the final satisfaction of the will, after which no more desires will arise. This being our aim of life. That means the supreme will. He does not know that.

16:18Satisfy the supreme will. Just like father wants to do something, his son, the spiritual master, the teacher wants.

16:30So yasya prasādād bhagavat-prasādo. Our philosophy is to please the Supreme, the spiritual master, the representative of God or God. That means Supreme Will. Not my will, but the Supreme Will.

16:51That is, uh, highest perfection, that is health. It is like, uh, a person who is working under the guidance of a superior man; actually they do so. It's like in factories there is a foreman.

17:11Uh, so ordinary workers are working, but the foreman is giving direction. Similarly, that means he is fulfilling the desire of the superior. He is not doing his own whim.

17:27He is doing according to the direction of the superior man present there. So this is the philosophy: that if you can satisfy the Supreme Will, then you are living.

17:42Just like Kṛṣṇa says: «sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja». This is Supreme Will, order. If you can fulfill this, then... You say that immorality comes about through egoism, so that I can... Yes.

18:01If you think that, uh, "Why should I surrender to Kṛṣṇa? Uh, Kṛṣṇa is also a person, I am also a person, why is He demanding?" — just like that, what Radhakrishnan said. Sophistry.

18:19It is, it is too much that one person is demanding that you give up everything and surrender it to Me. So this, they cannot understand that to surrender to the Supreme Will, to satisfy the Supreme Will, that is helpful.

Compassion and the basis of surrender

18:42That is that this egoism or this desire is crushed through love and sympathy for others. Love and sympathy for others. Yeah. Without love, nothing can... If I do not love Kṛṣṇa, I cannot surrender. It is not possible.

19:03Just like a small child is naturally surrendered to the parents because there is love. The child loves also the parents. So without the basic principle of love, the more you love, the more the surrender is also perfect.

19:23Just like a small child, uh, you slap the child, he is crying, they're crying also with the words "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy." Because there is love. Even in this distress, the child cannot follow. That is natural.

19:44Similarly, when you remain fully surrendered to the Supreme Will, either in distress or in happiness, that is your happiness. That is real happiness. When there is love, uh, surrender. This condition cannot be without love.

20:04In any condition, you remain surrendered. It cannot be done without love. When there is lack of love, uh, this kind of mentality you cannot do. Then, "In any condition I shall remain."

20:19Just like you are, you are, a whole society is carrying my order. Not that I'm... because I'm a superior person. There is love. Without love, you cannot do so.

20:35You have got some bit of love for me, therefore you carry my order. Otherwise, not for you. And I cannot also... you are foreigners, you are Americans, I came from another country, I had no account.

20:49I cannot also order you, "You must be." Otherwise I will chastise. Because there is love, it is a connection of love, I can also become bold enough to chastise you.

21:02And you also, uh, in whatever condition you carry my order, this the basic principle is love. And our whole philosophy is love. We are just trying to learn how to love Krishna.

21:19So without love, the basic principle of love, these things cannot be conceived. His idea is that we must love those who are suffering. If we love those who are suffering, then we lose our desire.

21:36Yeah, that is that... why you should love the suffering and not those who are... Well, he says everyone is suffering. And, uh, yes. Actually, we say everyone is suffering.

21:50Anyone who is under the condition of material nature is suffering. And that is, uh, real love. Patitānāṁ pāvanebhyo, or Krishna is described as the deliverer of all the fallen souls.

22:06Patitānāṁ pāvanebhyo vaiṣṇavebhyo namo namaḥ. Vaiṣṇavam. Why you have taken sannyāsa? You are going... why, what is the meaning of preaching? You are not going to preach for earning some money. Money you can earn.

22:22Just like Mukunda. When he was here, he could not earn; now he's earning some money. So not for money you have taken sannyāsa, but for sympathy of the others.

22:40They said Rūpa Gosvāmī, Sanātana Gosvāmī, they took sannyāsa, gave up government service. Why? Out of love for the mass of people. Loka-hitārtha-kārī.

23:02Being compassionate to the poor fellows who are simply wasting their time like cats and dogs, just to show them some sympathy. Is it? Just to inform them that this is not your life. Here is life. Be Krishna-parāyaṇa.

23:23This is sympathy. He says that sympathy is real. They are suffering for want of knowledge; in ignorance they are suffering. Therefore this is sympathy: to see suffering.

23:36They are thinking, "Because I have got a... I have got a nice car, I'm happy." But actually he's not happy.

23:47But he may think, out of ignorance we may think, that "I have got a nice car, I've got a nice apartment, I've got a nice girlfriend, so I'm happy." But actually he's not happy, he's suffering. So this is sympathy.

24:02This you have taken sannyāsa, you are going to preach, I thought you being compassionate with the others. That is real love. Because you love Krishna and they are part and parcel of Krishna.

24:18So you know that they are suffering for want of Krishna consciousness. Therefore you are going to teach. This is for Krishna. He says that love, real love means sympathy, not sex life. No, sex life is animal.

24:36That is not love. That is lust. We always repeat this. Sex life is lust. That is not love. Here is their love: they are suffering for want of Krishna consciousness.

24:50Let us do something so that they may understand the values of life. Here is love. Sex is you satisfy your senses and the other party satisfies her senses. That is sex. So that is lust. You are lusty, she is lusty. That's all.

25:11There is no love. It is going on in the name of love, rascal. It is not lust. It is lust. They do not know it. Lusty thing has been accepted as love. Mr. Brahmā. Brahmā, Mr. Illusion. Illusion is accepted as something else.

25:36Lust is accepted as love. This is illusion.

Consequences of suicide and transmigration

25:46He says that, uh, permanent happiness comes about when we lose our desire to live. When, when we deny, when we deny, deny the will to live, that is frustrated. That is frustration.

26:01That is suicide, just like one man is very much suffering. He does not find any other means, then he cuts his own throat or hangs himself or takes some poison. Well, suppose now I'm, I'm

26:16desiring to live so much that I'm always desiring. Are you desiring or not desiring? Because you are foolish and do not know that you have to live. Desire or not desire. Because you are eternal. You have to live.

26:32But if you don't, uh, live in Krishna consciousness, then you'll have to live in abominable conditions, like trees, like you have to live. The modern civilization, they do not know that.

26:49Uh, there's a tree is also living, I'm also living. So I, so why these two different conditions are there? I am living. We are living, every one of us living eternally.

27:04But according to our karma, according to our work, creative activities, we are getting different bodies. But we have to live. There's no question of not living. And there's a will... Schopenhauer, uh, rascal.

27:19One who does not know, he commits suicide. He thinks that if I commit suicide, then everything is finished. That is his ignorance. He's going to get another abominable body. Ghost. He becomes a ghost.

27:36So that he, he suffers more. A ghost means he has got subtle body, mental body. Mind, intelligence, everything is there. Mind is there, intelligence, ego is there, but no gross body. So he cannot enjoy that.

27:53And that is mostly life. Suppose I am bound up by the desire to live. So that I'm always in... So if desire, good desire to live, good. Change your desire.

28:06That is our program: change your conception and live nicely with Krishna. That is our program. We don't say you die. You live. But live with Krishna conception and you become happy. So the will to live must not be denied.

28:25No, but you cannot do that. That is not possible. That is impossible. The same man who was doing all nonsense and now they are mad after Krishna. So will is there.

28:42Formerly he was willing to do all nonsense, now he's willing to serve Krishna. So will is not banished. No. But we have been engaged in a good willing program. That's why. No. Not for a second.

29:12That they do not believe in his soul. They have no idea. They desire a state of non-willingness. The Buddhists desire a state of nothing.

29:20No, their philosophy is that willingness is a symptom at a certain condition of material combination. So you dismantle this material condition, so there will be no more will. Yeah, yeah. That is that. Yeah.

29:43But that is not that. That's not possible. You don't think it's possible to stop will? No, how it can be? Because you are permanent. Therefore thinking, feeling, willing goes with you.

29:59The thinking, feeling, willing actually carries you from this gross body to another gross body. How transmigration is taking place. I must say gross here; they see that this body is dead.

30:19But he does not know the body is dead. But the willing is not dead. He is being carried out by the willing. That he has no eyes to see. He is simply seeing this gross body is dead, finished.

30:34But he has no eyes to see that this soul is now being carried away by this subtle body willing. Another one. According to his willing, he gets another body, gross body. Either demigod or dog. As he will say. As he wills. Yeah.

30:56At the time of death. Because the will is the carrier. Suppose he wills nothing at the time of death. That is not possible. That is not possible. Even even in dream you think.

31:13The body is sleeping, completely stopped, but still while you are dreaming. Does not enquire about his output of self-realization. What about his acting is defeat? It's not advanced.

Suffering and the need for guidance

31:32That's what he points out: that whenever we gratify our desires, that is so-called happiness, and whenever our desires are frustrated, that is suffering.

31:41But our desires are continuously frustrated; they're never satisfied. So he said that we are always suffering. And that the more intelligent a person is, the more he suffers.

31:57The more intelligent a person is, the more he suffers. Yeah. By suffering, one's intelligence becomes manifested. Oh. Suffering sharpens the intelligence? Yeah. Adversity is a blessing, some adversity.

32:23That's where a businessman, losing some money in some, becomes more intelligent that this business should not be done.

32:34I think I think yesterday Hegel described it in terms of conflict, that through conflict progress comes down. Yeah. So here is a partial conflict with māyā.

32:48The name mama māyā, you fight against the māyā, māyā is putting impediment. What I think it is right, māyā breaking.

33:01That's what he sees as the irrational Hitler plan last season and so many well, uh, māyā broke it in the pieces. The British, they also formed the British Empire, uh, māyā broke it, Roman Empire, so oh, this frustration.

33:21But we are so fooled, the initiative frustration, we are still trying to do the same thing. That is explained in the Bhāgavatam: punaḥ punaś carvita-carvaṇānām. Chewing the chewed. Chewing the chewed.

33:40He has, he has been frustrated in so, so many ways in sexual life, uh, divorce this way. Again, another, another way. So what is the another way? The same thing. Sex. But he's making his trial. Now again. Again.

34:03That is very nicely explained in your, in a, three times tiger. Three times, that is mean carvita-carvaṇānām. Chewing the chewed. He should have an experience. But I am changing, but what is the change?

34:20The same sex life, everyone changed me. But he has no intelligence. He says that because there is no, no end to our, uh, striving. There is end.

34:44Provided we can end everything, all this miscalculations, provided he goes to the right person. But that he is not good. He becomes self-made philosopher. He will not accept guru.

35:00So because of that there's no measure for suffering. Yes. Suffering. You'll suffer continually. Just like if a man who is diseased, suffering from so many things. He should approach a physician.

35:17But if he wants to suffer without consultation of the physician, he will suffer for the... He says that this will does not care for the individual's satisfaction, but only for the perpetuation of the species.

35:37For instance, uh, I have a sex life, it is not satisfying to me personally. It simply, uh, perpetuates the species. In all species there's sex life. Yes.

35:50But it isn't satisfying, uh, it isn't satisfying ultimately, and the satisfaction dwindles immediately afterward. So he says that this, this is a trick by the will just to perpetuate the species. Why that is a trick?

36:05Well, I would think, I think that by this sex life I will be satisfied. That's a trick of the will. But I find I'm not satisfied by it. Yeah. And simply the race goes on, the species goes on. Yeah. That, that, that's nice.

36:20But, uh, he must be given a point or a goal that he gave himself. Where is that goal? That goal, he says it doesn't exist. He does not know. But he, he says—I'll read a statement of his.

36:37It says that the will, uh, forces a person to remain alive even when there is nothing for which to live. It impels him to live and suffer another day, even when there is no hope or promise of any pleasant future prospect.

36:53It is like the alms which the beggar receives from life today that he may hunger again on the morrow. For all men, irrespective of their status, the essence of life is misery and frustration. Yes. That is a good point.

37:10But why he's hankering after something? Why is he hankering after? He's being cast at will. Therefore, the conclusion is there is a goal. He is hungering after that goal.

37:29But he has not as yet, uh, uh, uh, approached that goal, achieved that goal. Therefore, to understand what is the goal, why should I go to this Janārdana or that sage? He has no idea of any goal.

37:50He says that life is a waste of effort. That means he, that he's not a particular effort. The thing is that when I'm willing to have some solution, there must be some solution. There must be some solution.

38:10But I do not know what is the solution. Huh. If I will have some solution, there must be some solution. Crying. But the mother's breast-feeding. Crying, crying, crying. Very sad.

38:32As long as the breast feeding is given in the mouth.

38:40So I shouldn't know what the child is wanting, why this is, that, uh, human life must be some kind of mistake, and but the greatest crime of man is that he was ever born.

38:57Well, that's all. Then, then back to somebody who punishes him for his crime. Is it not? The greatest crime we suffer. That there must be somebody who is judge. That you are killing that, you must suffer.

39:15You must be going, must take that job. So who is that? He doesn't believe in God. Actually, uh, that means nonsense.

39:30Anyone who doesn't believe... He says that, uh, because the world is so mad that it could not possibly have any author, because, uh, if there was a God, that God would have set the world in order.

39:44Well, while he's mad, we have got experience that there are madmen, but there is hospital also for treating men. Similarly, the world may be mad, but there is hospitalization that it does not come.

40:04Practical experience we see that there are many madmen. At the same time there is a hospital, lunatic hospital where treatment is done. So he does not see that.

40:16He has no knowledge where is the hospital, how they can be treated. This is accepted. The one is mad, that's all right. But there is treatment.

40:32Because in our experience, practical experience, whenever there is disease, there is some treatment. But he does not know what is the treatment.

40:43When we discussed, he's speaking of sinful life, said this life, but he does not have said, who is the judge to give me the resultant action of my sinful life?

41:02The world is mad, but he does not know where the treatment of madman is done. He does not know. Therefore his knowledge is imperfect. And he still is philosophizing. That is the difference.

Vedic knowledge and the perfect creation

41:24Our proposition is that unless one is perfect, we cannot take knowledge. That is our position. That's why our authority is Vedas.

41:38Vedas means knowledge, perfect knowledge. Vedānta is knowledge, perfect knowledge. Why it is perfect? Because it is given by God. tene brahma hṛdā ya ādi-kavaye.

41:51The basic knowledge was imparted to the Brahmā within the heart. So the perfect knowledge is coming from the Supreme Perfect. When you take that knowledge, then your knowledge is perfect. Otherwise you become...

42:09You can become Dr. Frog. Once before we were discussing a philosopher named Leibniz. And Leibniz said that this is the best of all possible worlds. And you agreed.

42:26You said, "Yes, this is the best of all possible worlds, because it's God's arrangement." But, uh, Schopenhauer says that this is the worst of all possible worlds.

42:39In the sense that because Krishna created it, or God created it, that it was the best arrangement. What Krishna creates, that is like pūrṇam adaḥ pūrṇam idam pūrṇāt pūrṇam udacyate. Everything is perfect.

42:56The world is perfect. So there is no doubt. But the nature of the world being material, there are three qualities. They are also working perfectly. As you want to get the... Reaction.

43:16Then what would you say if Schopenhauer says this is the worst of all possible worlds? Why "worst"? We don't say "worst." Because it's so full of things. Nothing can be "worst" which is created by God.

43:32Why God's creation, "worst"? Why he says "worst"? Because it's so full of madness and frustration. They're making it successful.

43:59We get so many letters from our students; first frustrated, but now they are thinking that they are safe. So frustration is another help, but provided we take the real center, then frustration is not bad.

44:21It says that the working of the world... if you are put into some dangerous position, but if you know how to save yourself, that danger will be later on a feeling of pleasure, I guess. Pleasure, I guess.

44:42He says that the working of the world is ethically evil. For instance, he observes—and to some extent that is alright— because when you are in prison life, you'll find evil. But that evil is good for you.

45:00So that you can learn some lesson, and when you are out of the prison you'll not come back. That is the blessings of evil. Blessings of evil. Yes.

45:16For instance, in the animal kingdom he observes the brutality of one animal eating another animal. And he says that this is life's pattern: one disappointment after another.

45:28Well, they... the "washed brute" is the human being who is eating animals. Animals are called brutal because we are eating another animal, and the human being who is eating animals is the "washed brute."

45:48Because in spite of his sense, he's violated. He's the washed animal. He says that happiness is a, is a negative state. It only means a, a momentary suspension of suffering. Yeah, that is explained.

46:09Śāntam, dāntam, janaiḥ... rādānanda-vid-acitta. And the man is destined to be punished, his foot within the water. And he's almost on the point of suffocation. He is taken. He feels, uh, happy.

46:26He does not... "Oh, again I am..." "Again I am." And he... so he says that happiness here is temporary relief.

46:39But, uh, if he is intelligent enough, then he will not do something which may put him into that unhappiness. But suicide is, is no escape from evil because the will is indestructible and eternal.

46:56Yeah, it's simply putting himself in the wall. By suicide, he becomes a ghost; that's more trouble. Because the body given by, uh, God, and he is killing. So from this body he has to accept another body.

47:19So unless that point comes, he has to remain a ghost, no body. Suppose I have to live in this body 80 years, I make suicide.

47:33So after five years, I'll have to remain ghost, no one, then it may be chance to get another visit. Killing of anybody... because mā hantavyaḥ sarva-bhūtāni is for all day.

47:54So one can put this argument that the soul is everlasting. So body is killed. But that's alright, body is killed. But you cannot kill the body to help his progress. One living entity is destined to live in a certain body.

48:15If you destroy that body, then he has to wait for the next body. That means you are, uh, interfering with his progress; therefore you are sinful. Just by living in this apartment. If somebody by force drives me out...

48:40If I go to the police, that "I was living in this apartment and this man by force has driven me out." Is it a free man? So I am not lost because I am driven out of this room.

48:55But you are liable for criminal punishment because you have forced me to be out. fault. If a man is an animal scale, the soul is immortal, so it is, it is there. The real pleasure is here.

49:23The soul is destined to live in a certain body for a certain period. If you prematurely stop it, then you become responsible. Exactly like that. I am living in my apartment. By force, you are killing it.

49:44They do not know all this. Imperfect law. He says that the bodies are manifestations of the will. Yeah. But whose will? The will — he calls it the will in the abstract.

50:00No, that is not so. When we say it's will, then the will must be for a person. Yeah. That it doesn't look like... we only have experience that will is coming from a person. Yeah.

50:16But what about the will of electricity and gravity, these forces of nature, aren't they all? That is the will of a person. They make a computer machine. He has will. A computer machine has a will also. Will, not wheel.

50:37It is so mechanically added, it is acting. It's like a record is singing. Oh. Outside, you know, who is singing. Oh. Computer doesn't... I am made to sing. The computer is not the animal. The real brain is the one who made it.

50:59The computer doesn't have a will, but it expresses the will of some mechanism. Yes, the mechanical element is so nice by the brain of the manufacturer that it is acting.

51:15So he says that this blind will must continuously reincarnate time after time. There's no stopping it. No. So that we cannot become nothing, we must endure. No, we have something, I don't care.

51:39Therefore, he says that we must endure our state, our suffering state, and make the best of a bad bargain. You should endure, at the same time, you should find out the way that you are suffering and stop. That is it.

51:54That isn't it. He says that, uh, life is more than a disappointment, it is a form of deception, and all human beings born into this world are condemned not to death but to life. That we say.

52:11But we give also hope that in this way, if you... it will be happy. Your life will be blissful. We say this is cultural life and this is blissful life. That is Krishna's answer. So he has no such knowledge.

52:28He is simply saying he contemplates. He has no knowledge of the blissful side. That was important. Yeah. So all the time... do you have... so this, this kind of level we accept that... my man, now please get it.

52:53He's blind and I'm the blind man. So tomorrow we'll finish Schopenhauer's experience. The willing cannot discover. Therefore you have to reform your willing to it. That is Krishna.

Religious salvation and purifying the will

53:13He says now... he mentions a third type of salvation called religious salvation. He says this is the highest.

53:21But his idea of religious salvation is asceticism, that by denying the will, then we can... Yes, that is, that is in one sense, that you don't will anything which is not favorable to Krishna's service.

53:39That is not what it is. Ānukūlyasya saṅkalpaḥ. This is out of the six items of surrender, these are the two items: that you should give up, uh, things which are not favorable in execution of devotional...

54:01You should give up. Uh, that's how the willing you should give up. And, and you should accept everything which is favorable for Krishna. So willing cannot be... our process is to purify it.

54:22Sarvopādhi-vinirmuktaṁ tat-paratvena nirmalam. So this you are working. Somebody is working: "I am American." Uh, "I must, uh, do this as American." "I am communist." "I must do this."

54:39This is super... according to designation, their willing. And when we come to this willing, simply to serve Krishna, that is designationless. That sort of willing is suppression, not willing with designation.

55:02He's thinking of willing of designation, but practically that's the same as not willing. Willing without designation. Not willing, you cannot say. Not willing bad, but willing good. That is, that is called purification.

55:21Sarvopādhi-vinirmuktaṁ tat-paratvena nirmalam. So we are, we are willing. We are willing to serve Krishna. We are willing to preach Krishna's glory. This kind of willing, willing is now reformed. This is real willing.

55:37Because I'm part and parcel of Krishna, so I must will according to Krishna's will. Just like this hand is part and parcel of my body, it is moving according to my will.

55:52He, he says that through self-mortification that we can destroy the willing process altogether. That is impossible. That is, that's kind of... That is not possible. Nobody can destroy the willing power.

56:05I'll just read one thing.

56:07He says, uh, "Eventually the ascetic will exist only as a pure knowing being, the undimmed mirror of the world. Nothing can trouble him more, nothing can move him, for he has cut all the thousand cords of will which hold us bound to the world, and as desire, fear, envy, anger drag us hither and thither in constant pain.

56:31To such a man life is an illusion to which he must be indifferent." So his idea is that you cut all the cords of will which bind us to this material world. Then? Nothing. Nothing.

56:44That means he is the philosopher of śūnyavāda. Yes. Śūnyavāda. Nirviśeṣa-śūnyavāda. So we are calling this kind of philosopher śūnyavāda. But you cannot become śūnya. Mm-hmm. It is not possible.

57:00But his, he, he has a similar idea to the Buddhist. He says that we repudiate desire and pass into nirvana or nothingness. That is not possible. This is simply lack of knowledge.

57:14Just like the same philosophy: that there is danger before me, I cannot protect me from the danger, I simply close my eyes. Ah, the danger remains there. He thinks by closing the eyes, he thinks, "Now I'm out of them."

57:34That is his foolishness. You know? Small animals. Yes, rabbits and monkeys. They close the eyes. There was a—I do not know whether I heard that— there was an artistic competition prize still.

58:06That one has to paint a picture that, before the mother, a son is being killed. So the artist has to paint the facial expression for the mother.

58:21So so many artists paint so many; one artist painted the mother closed the eyes. He got the first prize, because this kind of suffering cannot be expressed. The best thing is close. Ah, I see.

58:45Yeah, that this is definitely: close the eye, I am no longer, no longer exist. But that is not that. You have to exist, my dear sir, and you have to die. You have to become a tree. It's like a tree exists. It does not lie.

59:07But practically it is not existing. Cut it, insult it, kick it. But that kind of existence will be the salvation for this respect. Remain a tree for ten thousand years. No sense.

59:29He says where there is no will, then there is no idea, no world. And that is all explained. And that means when there is no sense, pain and pleasure, as they say, there is no will. But this is not will. It is suppression.

59:49Suṣupti, it is called suṣupti. There are three stages. One stage is that I have... Another stage is that I'm not awakening, I'm sleeping, but dreaming. And another stage is unconscious. Three stages.

1:00:06But in three stages the will is... Because then I will see an unconscious person again comes to consciousness. "Oh, I have to do this, I have to go there." What can it come? It is called supta-utthāna.

1:00:26Supta-utthāna means you are sleeping, but when you are awakened, you may immediately remember your duties, past and present. No, it cannot be. That is the function of the soul.

1:00:42The soul is eternal and the willing is eternal. It can be suppressed for some time. That's like death. What is death? Death means stop willingness for seven months, that's all. That is that.

1:01:01And as soon as according to your will you develop a type of body and come out from your mother's womb, you are a willing being again. Death means suppression of will for several months.

1:01:22Suppression of willing, just like if you are chloroformed, if you are given anesthetic, you can suppress the willing as far as you are unconscious. I mean, somebody is cutting you, you don't protest.

1:01:38But that doesn't mean the will is not there. It is suppressed by artificial means. Otherwise, will cannot be killed, you cannot be stopped. If you train your willing process badly, then you have to suffer life after life.

1:02:04I mean, you train with willing nicely, then you go to Vaikuṇṭha or after that. Yes. That is, and that is willingness in a negative way. "I shall not will. I shall not."

1:02:28Because I have got experience that by willing I have suffered so much, so I shall not. That stage you cannot stay for a long time. Then you have to again will in the same way.

1:02:43What about these men who perform great austerity and lash their body and starve and... That is the same thing, not really. They have no knowledge of good willing. They therefore simply want to kill bad willing.

1:03:04Because they are insufficient in knowledge that in this way willing cannot be stopped. It's like a child is accustomed to play. If you stop playing, then he will be dull, he'll be diseased.

1:03:25But you must give him good engagement. That's like... Stop playing. He must, uh, worship Jagannātha and say, "This is māyā." It's that. And she's engaged in vātsalya-bhāva.

1:03:46So give good engagement, good willing, and you will automatically give up all this nonsense badly. But if you want to stop artificially willing, that will not happen. That if I don't stop for the time, that it will again.

1:04:02So you go through so much trouble. So therefore the Māyāvādī, the impersonalist, because they are not willing to serve Krishna, they stop willing, they can fall down. That's like your free time is willing and tamas.

1:04:28You have to will badly or godly. So better try to will godly than badly or oppositely. This is our purpose. We don't stop willing. Yes, we will, but Krishna's service. So that's all the show we have.