Hegel, Krishna, and the Absolute Truth

Philosophical perspectives on absolute truth

0:08So today we're discussing the philosopher Hegel, German philosophy. His, uh, his basic method is that he wants to synthesize all opposites to arrive at the truth.

0:26And, uh, by doing so, his conclusion was that, uh, everything that exists is reason. Whatever exists is reason. Whatever is real is rational, whatever is rational is real. So that means he wants to arrive at the absolute.

0:46Yes. But there is no duality. Yes. And there is Krishna. That is Krishna. Because Krishna, uh, says that his mission is to protect the devotees, paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṁ vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām, and killing the demons.

1:12Krishna actually did it. Just like he killed Putana. The great giant Putana. Superficially he killed. But she got salvation exactly like his mother. Krishna gave Putana a position like his mother Yaśodā.

1:43Then what is the difference between, uh, loving Yaśodā and killing Putana? Because he is absolute. Whatever he does, it is good. God is good. So superficially we may see that God is doing bad. But it is not bad. It is good.

2:08That's what two opposing... viruddhārtha-sambandha, this is the word, viruddhārtha- sambandha. Coinciding two opposing elements. And that's it.

2:21Therefore, uh, he comes to Krishna, he becomes Krishna-panasai, he centers on Krishna, then he can... And so that, uh, his predecessors had become increasingly abstract in their thinking.

2:40Trying to, uh, find out what is the nature of substance, the essential substance, they had reduced it to nothingness. And Krishna they do not know. That is, uh, nirāśā. Nirākāra.

2:58Nirākāra, the Sanskrit was, uh... When one cannot actually specify what is the nature of God, what is the form of God, and by thinking, speculating, they cannot come to the right conclusion.

3:17So out of frustration, they say, "No, there is no form." Just like they try to analyze an object, they would divide it up into smaller and smaller parts until they came to nothing. That was their process.

3:33But the Absolute cannot be divided into parts. Nainam chindanti. The material thing, if you want to cut into pieces, that is possible. But spiritual being is inexhaustible;

4:00there is no possibility of dividing the spirit into pieces. The Māyāvāda theory is that the Absolute is all-pervading. Then when the question of Īśvara—that is the fourth one of knowledge.

4:21The Absolute keeping His form as He is, He can expand Himself. Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā: "mayā tatam idaṁ sarvaṁ jagad avyakta-mūrtinā." He is spread all over the creation in avyakta, like impersonal form.

4:47So God, Kṛṣṇa, has two features. There are three features: brahmeti paramātmeti bhagavān iti śabdyate. Impersonal feature, localized feature, and personal.

5:07Unless we come to understand this science, tattva, it is very difficult to come to the conclusion what is the right cause of the Absolute Truth.

5:20So one who cannot go, one who is not so acquainted with the profound of knowledge, they come to be confused by māyā. But actually it is this trend from abstraction to concretion.

5:38Every phenomenal object had its relationship with the whole, and that the whole was reality.

5:44So in order to understand reality, one had to examine every object and relate it to the whole and to each other; then we would understand what is the truth. Yeah. That we are doing. The whole is Kṛṣṇa.

5:59And just like this, take this material example. Behold the sun: the sunshine is expanding, and that is also in the whole. Kṛṣṇa is the core, and everything is related to Kṛṣṇa. That is our view.

6:27We see everything related with Kṛṣṇa. And because everything is in relationship with Kṛṣṇa, we do not give up anything. We try to utilize everything for the service of Krishna.

6:47The Māyāvādī philosophers, although they say everything is Brahman, they say this is non-Brahman. They say neti neti. Neti. Not this. Just like māyā, they also say Krishna and māyā. This Krishna, they say, is māyā.

7:12So we say that there is nothing māyā, it is simply use. But they say also like that, but as soon as Krishna actually comes, they say Krishna is māyā. My philosophy

Spiritual and material energy manifestations

7:30is that everything is a manifestation of Krishna's energy. The energy and the energetic are one. So Nārada explained: idaṁ hi viśvaṁ bhagavān ivetaraḥ. The whole universe is Bhagavān Krishna.

7:54But itaraḥ, it appears like separateness. So how it is not separate, that can be understood through this Krishna concept. Otherwise, ordinary men, they think Krishna and non-Krishna.

8:17Actually, there is no non-Krishna, there is illusion. Everything is—this was Hegel's idea too—that everything together as a whole is the truth, where he wrote "The Spirit".

8:30The whole, the summation of everything, is the Spirit. Nothing can be separated from the spiritual whole. Everything is related to it. There's one important point that I'd like to clear up.

8:44There was one philosopher we discussed, Kant, before; his idea was that the phenomena are modes of expression of the spirit, or the thing-in-itself. That the thing-in-itself expresses itself in objects.

9:02That we say it's like the sun is expressed by the sunshine, the heat and light. We understand the sun through all-spreading heat and light. Similarly, we understand God, Krishna, by His two energies.

9:24That is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā: the material energy and the spiritual energy. Two energies. The spiritual energy is described as superior energy.

9:38And material energy is described as inferior. This superior and inferior, that is in our consideration because we cannot understand.

9:48That's what Krishna has said; otherwise, there is only one energy, the superior spiritual energy. When the spiritual energy is

10:00covered by ignorance, by the spirit material, it's like the sky. In the sky, naturally it is clear, but when there is cloud, uh, we cannot see the sun. So sun is there.

10:21When we cannot see Krishna, cannot understand Krishna, that is material. Otherwise there is nothing material. Everything is good. Well, there's a distinction between what Hegel is saying.

10:38Hegel is saying that the objects themselves are the spirit, are the spirit expressing itself. Whereas, uh, Kant says the spirit expresses itself through the object.

10:51There's a distinction being made between the spirit within the object expressing itself or the spirit as the object? What is the distinction? Object as it is, it is spirit. It is spirit as it is. As it is.

11:09Because, uh, it is like sunshine. Sunshine is not sun in one sense, but it is sun, because in this sunshine there is heat and light. And in the sun there is heat and light. So there is no difference.

11:32So, but still sunshine is not the sun. Oh, both. Yeah, that is our philosophy. Simultaneously one and different. So in a sense this is spirit. Yeah. This is spirit, sādhu. Is spirit actually. Actually.

11:51But because I have no sense of Krishna, I am taking it as matter.

11:59Just like sometimes people criticize that we are spiritualists: "You hate materialism, why are you using this table, why are you using this typewriter or the microphone?"

12:12But our reply is that it is not matter, it is spirit. But when you use it for your sense gratification, then it's matter. Just like prasāda.

12:26But people will say, "What is this nonsense? We are taking also dāl, rice, capātī." "How it becomes spiritual?" They can argue like that, and sometimes they do that.

12:40But they do not know that we are accepting this, uh, dāl, rice, capātī in Krishna consciousness. Actually it belongs to Krishna. They... you cannot produce dāl, rice; it is Krishna's production.

12:56Everything is Krishna's production. But when you forget Krishna, his relationship with Krishna, then it's not. That will revive the relationship if everything is offered to Krishna; then he understands Krishna as He is.

13:11Now, it's that we speak. The consciousness is speaking. «Prapañcikatayā buddhyā hari-sambandhi-vastunaḥ», «mumukṣubhiḥ parityāgo phalgu-vairāgyam ucyate».

13:28This is our creed: that everything has a relation with Krishna. And those who are giving it up — "No, no, it's a matter, Brahma satyaṁ jagan mithyā, this is false" — that kind of renunciation is insufficient, or phalgu, means false, falseness.

14:02Our renunciation means we renounce thinking falsely. We renounce anything for our sense gratification.

14:22But we accept everything for Krishna. Some say, "But actually everything is spiritual, Krishna does not accept anything material." But they say that you are offering material flowers, material food, uh.

14:49Therefore, in a sense, it is not material. But because we have been habituated to accept them for our sense gratification, for the body, that's why it is material. This body is material, everyone knows.

15:08But Krishna says: «māṁ ca yo 'vyabhicāreṇa bhakti-yogena sevate», «sa guṇān samatītyaitān brahma-bhūyāya kalpate». As soon as one engages himself fully in devotional service, he immediately becomes spiritualized.

15:30So the consciousness or the spiritual quality is revived. Actually, everything is pure. But it is covered, just like gold. Gold is covered by some muddy dirt.

15:46So if you cleanse the heart, then immediately — this is pure, this is gold. I actually come to consciousness. No, I'm not American. I am Krishna's. And Krishna is part of my spirit. The same thing remains intact.

16:23But as soon as you come to the consciousness that "I am Krishna's," then you are spiritual. «Etām āsthitam ātmānaṁ rājasa-tāmasāu ha vā», «na bādhante śoka-lobhādi-cakram».

Illusion and the reflection of reality

16:43Ṛte 'rtham, it is māyā. Māyā. The spiritual and material conception is māyā. Except māyā there is nothing. Na pratīyeta cātmani. Otherwise, except māyā, there is no such thing as material.

17:13Example, Bhagavad-gītā, nice example. Svapna, this. It's like I'm dreaming. So many things. I'm dreaming. There is no such thing. Still I am feeling. I am feeling that I have fallen in a dark well. I am now suffocating.

17:34But actually there is no well. There is no suffocation. But I'm thinking because I'm absorbed in a dream. Therefore, all these concepts, material concepts, are māyā, exactly like dreaming. Dreaming, this is the best example.

18:00When one dreams, he actually suffers. He is put into some dark place and is trying to get out. He cannot get out. But there is no such dark place. He has not fallen. Everything is false. Yet he suffered.

18:20So actually there is nothing material. But due to our dreaming that I am separate from Krishna, I am Mr. America, I am Mr. India, I am Mr. Greece, I have got this duty, I have got that duty, all this is māyā.

18:39We have no other duty than to serve Krishna, because we are part and parcel. When that consciousness comes, then we are liberated. We have to change the concept, that's all.

18:59The Kant philosophy, and he took this idea from Plato, is that there is an ideal of which these temporary objects are representatives.

19:13For instance, the ideal tableness, an abstract idea of perfection, is represented before me in this table, in a perverted form. This table represents the ideal, expresses the ideal, but it is not the ideal. That we say.

19:32That this material world is perverted reflection of the spiritual world. This reflection. We say that. But the same example, there's like mirage. The mirage, there is no water. But uh we see a vast sea, a big river is white.

20:00Reflected. Actually there is no river. No, this is—this material world is like that. Just uh... due to the uh factual position of the spiritual world, this uh illusory world appears to be true. Because there is real table.

20:31Table concept. Because there is a real table. Therefore, I am considering this table. Yeah. So this is not table. This is wood. You know, somebody... this is not wood. It has tree life, it is tree.

20:48Then one of the... it is not tree. It is seed. All life is seed. No, it is not seed. It comes through. Nothing. And therefore it is perverted reflection. But there is a real table. There is a real table.

21:11Therefore the whole material creation is a perverted reflection of it and people are enamored by it. That people are taking this is real thing, this is real body, uh this is real happiness.

21:27This is real country, this is real society. This—this is where—this is what Hegel says is that this is the real thing. But they're—these are real objects. They're not uh images of the real, but they are themselves real.

21:43There—there's where I need to... Then he—he—he has no the idea. What is the... What do you mean by the... this is a real fact, this table? Yet this is spirit. This is not real fact. This is imitation of the real fact.

22:02It is fact to a person who has no knowledge of the real. Because... because, uh, it will not exist. How reality means which will exist. So this, otherwise, it is not real.

22:18This may be real for some time and then temporary, temporary, temporary; it is not real, it is some temporary manifestation. The same example like dreaming: dreaming is not real, but temporary hallucination.

22:38And you cannot say his dream real. This word is used: svapna-draṣṭur ivāñjasā, just like dream. It is very nice example. In dream, everything appears to be real, but it is not real.

22:58So, what... what I want to clarify is that you say so, actually we said there's a difference between reality and existing. Even though it exists doesn't mean it is real. No. Right. But this exists only temporarily.

23:20Therefore it can't be classified as reality. No. Temporary, uh, illusion. Real reality means which exist eternal. That's the table, the spiritual plane. Yeah.

23:36Yeah, Krishna's abode, Krishna's house, Krishna's table, chair, everything, they're all existing. Here they will not exist.

23:48So what is the distinction then between saying that the spirit expresses itself in this object or the spirit is this object? Everything is energy. Whatever is manifested, that is the energy of Krishna.

24:10But one energy manifestation is eternal. And another energy manifestation is temporary. Which is temporary manifestation, that is material. And which is eternal manifestation, that is spiritual.

24:26So you can say, boy, you can say this is made of spirit. Yes, but originally it is... it is made of spirit in this sense, but Krishna is whole spirit. And because it is Krishna's energy, the factuality is Krishna.

24:44Is this Krishna? No. Krishna. This is Krishna. Krishna. That... that which is giving rise to your perception of something material is actually spirit. The cause, the cause of what you are perceiving is spirit.

25:02But you think that what you are perceiving is material. Take gold. Now you have made an earring. You say it is an earring. But it—it may be an earring, but it is gold. Another example is just like, uh, earth, uh, earth.

25:26So you may take earth and make a pot, so, and a doll; there's only thing variety. So you say it is a doll, it is a pot, it is this, it is that, but that is also earth. Is it not? Yeah.

25:47And when it is broken, then it is again earth. So, but this pot, then it is earth. This pot and this brick, this so on. These are not images then. They are the—they are the—you make images. You make images.

26:04But when you make images, that is also earth. And when it's broken, that is also earth. And originally earth. There was sarvaṁ khalv idaṁ brahma. But three conditions. Formless condition, form, and again, it's vanished.

26:26Then three conditions. It is our Krishna says, "I existed in the beginning of creation. I am entering the creation, and when the creation is broken..."

26:42But that's why the Māyāvādīs, they say that all of this form, all form is māyā. Yes, we say temporary, they say māyā. But we also say that there is a spiritual world full of form. Yes. That they do not know.

26:55That is the ignorance. We say the world from this form came—who gave this idea? The Vedānta says, "Janmādy asya yataḥ." The origin. From the original source is form.

27:09Well, the question then is: these forms that are here, are they actually eternal forms? No. There is eternal. This is not eternal. This is imitation. Pratibimba, reflection. Reflection is not without.

27:25He says, "As soon as the condition is gone, there is no reflection." He says that they are not eternal, but that the interaction of forms is an eternal process. That one form interacts with another.

27:37They cannot explain in reality that this form is not eternal. But there is an eternal form. Just like the water. The form of the water in the desert. That is not real. Neither it is eternal. But there is eternal water.

27:58Otherwise, wherefrom I get the idea, "Here is water"? There is water. Now, the presentation of water in the mirage... But

28:13if ever, if the universe is rational, everything has a purpose, then this temporary form is also, uh, spiritual because it has some kind of purpose. Yeah. And that we are utilizing everything. For the purpose.

28:27To make the best use of a bad bargain. Even if someone can't see it. Isn't there a purpose, or why not? Everything can be seen. Without seeing, what is the idea? Yeah, right. Everything can be seen.

28:38Even if someone—there is someone outside who cannot see it and we're utilizing a car or some object—isn't that object also...? Why you cannot see? He's seeing. Why does he say that he cannot? He's seeing God.

28:50He's seeing it, but perhaps he doesn't have a knowledge of what it is. That is definitely. But he's seeing. So supposing he has no knowledge what it is, but isn't that object still...?

29:01Then he has to take knowledge from a person who knows. My question is, is that object still not spiritual? Yeah. He knows or he does not know—it doesn't matter. Uh-huh. It doesn't matter. Fact is fact. It's still spiritual. Yes.

29:18Yes. He has no see. He has no eyes to see. That is speech. He has no knowledge. And so God's plan is unfolding itself everywhere, whether we understand it or not.

29:31He is unfolding himself in Bhagavad-gītā, he is sending his representative for unfolding.

29:38But even in the material world, in the way water erodes the land and trees grow and die like that, even though there's no knowledge of the spiritual content, aren't they still spiritual? Yes. Going on.

29:54And this is an example. This is like the art. When it comes to form, it is also art. And if no form, it is also art. Dark remains always. Therefore, spiritual remains. The sky. The sky is the sky.

30:12But when there is cloud, you say there's no big sky. It's both material and spiritual. In essence it is spiritual. Essence is spiritual. That's it. But my imperfect design makes it material.

30:41His idea too is that everything has a purpose. The whole universe is rational. Certainly. Certainly. Those who do not agree to accept this... There is no purpose of life. Yeah, that we are teaching. That original is Krishna.

31:13Krishna's expanse of an energy is everything. Parāsya brahmaṇaḥ śaktiḥ. It's like heat and light, practically whole physical existence, the heat and light.

31:27So heat and light, there is a fire, but from the heat and light comes.

31:33Similarly, two energies, heat and light, the spiritual and material, they are emanating from the fire, Krishna, and everything is made of heat and light, material and sin. So one has got to see.

31:49One has got the eyes to see that it is spiritual. He can see. And one hasn't got the eyes to see, he thinks that he... and another way of looking is that Hegel considered that his predecessors were abstract philosophers.

32:06In other words, they were isolating or severing from the whole into parts, and that each part was static. But he saw that the truth is dynamic, it is always changing.

32:22That these dynamic or that these isolated factors, he called them moments, momentums, that the total of moments was a moving force. The truth was actually dynamic and always changing, not static.

32:42That we can understand from our personal self, that I am the soul, I am existing, and the bodily features change. Change. It is changing, definitely material. And the spirit soul, it is existing in all conditions.

33:05That is the difference between the belief in that. Everything is spiritual in that sense, but some things have more of an effect.

33:22We can see everything spiritual, but what's the difference between the Ganges water and the ordinary water?

33:27To someone who doesn't know that the Ganges water is spiritual, he doesn't have the realization of it, perceiving its spiritual benefit. Yes, he does not know.

33:37Krishna, He makes the difference between Ganges water and ordinary. Because we are giving Ganges water importance. Why? Because it is coming out, flowing from the toe of Krishna.

34:00So as soon as the other water, it is offered to Krishna's lotus feet, then how it becomes... in other words, it becomes Ganges. The one who hasn't got to see... The touching to the lotus feet, this is what is important. So

34:23any water, when it is touched to Krishna's feet, it's going to be... that by using something you just serve and relate this to which a part of the thing. Yeah, that's it. We have to see how it has become Ganges.

34:40Why we give importance to the Ganges? Because it is flowing from the toe of Krishna, Viṣṇu. So anything comes in contact with Krishna's lotus feet, that we are offering water.

34:59Generally in India, the Ganges water is used for worshiping. Then worshiping of Krishna will stop here in America? Does it mean so? We create Ganges water. If Krishna's toe is touched, then it is that. Yes, yes.

35:23Someone, someone doesn't know, it becomes... Someone does not know... the one who does not know, we are not talking. This is that: why Ganges water is important? Because it is flowing from the toe of Krishna.

35:41That means touching the toe of Krishna makes then this water important. So any water, when it touches Krishna's lotus feet, it becomes like this. This is logic. Things equal to the same thing are equal to one another.

36:01Is it not? So when you use something material and push your heart... if you have a material idea, then you would... so it makes it one iron rod. When it is red hot, you cannot say it is iron. It is actually, um, burning.

36:24You touch that red-hot iron. You know that it is an iron rod, but it is acting as fire. Similarly, everything is acting for Krishna. It has no other business. Don't use for any other purpose. Pratyūḍha.

36:53This is called pratyūḍha. Pratyūḍha means, uh, this original, uh, function stops. Uh, that gold... just this is wooden, that is, if you, uh, cover it with gold plate, everyone will say golden.

37:14No else wooden physical patches are there, that means its wooden quality is covered. That was gold. And another way, that it means completely are made of gold. In both ways it is gold. Both. Pratyūḍha and vikāra.

37:39He transforms gold into a cup, or he covers it with only gold. They are both equal. But they're not equal. Huh? They're not equal. Well, why not equal? Well, it is serving the purpose of gold, why it is not equal?

37:58Well, it is not equal. The gold table, whatever we can do with a gold table, you can do with gold covering.

38:05Then in function there's no difference between the tape recorder here used in the service of Krishna and one existing in the spiritual world. Yes. Pratyūḍha.

38:16That's why Krishna says: «māṁ ca yo 'vyabhicāreṇa bhakti-yogena sevate». Anyone who is engaged in devotional service, «sa guṇān samatītyaitān brahma-bhūyāya kalpate». Krishna. Why? Because that material function has stopped.

38:37You are all brahma-bhūta, because your material functions—that, uh, illicit sex, meat-eating, drinking, gambling— these things are stalled now. But he's working in the difference. That was his speech.

39:01But explain that more... "here" and "there" are... Does that indicate that their bodies are so spiritual? Yeah. That is fun. Now let us have it. So many questions, then we can still... Um,

Dialectics and the process of liberation

39:42his idea was that the truth is the sum of all moments. We call it the organic theory of truth. Truth is not static or composed of isolated segments or parts. And it's constantly changing.

40:04So he says that these phenomena, or the facts of nature, or these moments, they're progressing in an evolutionary process according to a course which is prescribed by a universal reason, the world spirit, Weltgeist.

40:20The world spirit is unfolding itself through phenomenal events. That means we are not... according to the universal reason. So wherefrom the reason, then, unless there is a person? But that he does not know.

40:42They call it Weltgeist, which means world spirit. That mind. World spirit—that's a person. Unless you accept a person, well, there is personal reason. And that he does not know.

40:57He's trying to explain half a reason, but he has no clear knowledge. But as soon as he speaks of reason, there must be some person. That reason is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā:

41:13mayādhyakṣeṇa—"under My superintendence, under My direction." That direction means reason. So as soon as we speak of reason, you must accept the person, the supreme person who is giving the reason, who is directing it.

41:38So would you say the whole world events, all phenomena of the world, are expressions of this world reason unfolding itself, gradual development? Yeah. After this is done, after this, this will be done.

41:55Otherwise, why Kṛṣṇa says "superintendent," adhyakṣa? Just like you stand, you get your assistants: "Work like this, do like this, do like this, do like that." So there is a plan. And there is this. And there is reason also.

42:12What is the purpose of the plan? Is there any also that plan... the old plan is that living entities, they're part and parcel of Krishna. Somehow or other they want to enjoy this material world.

42:27So Krishna has given them a chance. Just like children, some small children, they want to play with something, but the father desires that they may not meet, fall down, so many... "No, no, don't do this."

42:44"You can play like that." So Krishna said: "Sarvasya cāhaṁ hṛdi sanniviṣṭo", I am sitting in the heart. Forgetfulness. He wanted to play. Father gives him a chance to play.

43:04But the whole plan is: let him play and again come back. That is... he wants to play, or like you play. And when he is fatigued, like this nonsense play, He says: "Give up this, come to Me."

43:27So the world is... the world is a schoolhouse or a playground where we become educated? Yes, the playground. It is called field. It is called field. Kṣetra. Idaṁ śarīraṁ kaunteya kṣetram ity abhidhīyate.

43:47Idaṁ śarīraṁ... this body is a field, a small field. You wanted to play, "All right, take this field and you work." What is going on? You are exhausted with this field. This one is another field. All right, take this.

44:05It is another field. In this way, it's changing different fields. Fields of action. That's all. Your body is a field of action. It's not aimless. There's a... there's a gradual evolution.

44:15No, there is an aim, that Krishna is giving knowledge also. The Vedas are also there, Krishna is coming, giving knowledge, that "This kind of playing will not very much help you."

44:27Therefore I request you: give up all this plan, come to Me. This is the plan. So Hegel has a method for relating all phenomenal objects to... Well, Hegel's method will not do, because he has no idea.

44:50Hegel's method will not help. His method is called dialectic. Dialectic means logicism. Well, just like logic, dialectic is this and that, this and that. What is the meaning of dialectic?

45:06Well, just like, uh, he divides it into three parts to try... Let him do that, but dialectic, what does it mean? Like, uh, if you have... Yeah, yeah. I understand. The thesis, the antithesis, and the synthesis.

45:27That is his argument. You say something, I say something, and then you come to a conclusion. Reconciliation, yes. And then reconciliation. Conclusion? Premises. What we call premises. Man is mortal. Mr. John is a man.

45:50No, but that's the Aristotelian process. He rejects the Aristotelian, Aristotle's process.

45:57He may reject that to present that the real thing is like that, that by your, uh, scanty, uh, reason you come to this function, inactive function.

46:09His, his, uh, process would be more like: man is immortal, the antithesis is that man is not immortal. So then the synthesis would be the combination, the resolution of those two. The

46:27synthesis would be perhaps: man's body is mortal. There is no side hand. Man's body is mortal and he is immortal. What is it? No, I'm not using it as an example.

46:38You said that you gave a proposal that a man is immortal, that John is a man, therefore John is immortal. That's Aristotelian logic, Aristotle's logic.

46:47But that means his business is to defeat Aristotle, and he says that that kind of reasoning means static. That it, it means he wants to deal with the... That's all. There are two processes.

47:01One is inductive and one is deductive. This is deductive process. And there is another process, inductive. Now let us see whether marriage is mortal or not. So go on study. So there are two processes.

47:19We say in our Sanskrit language, avaroha-panthā, āroha. Knowledge coming from up and knowledge trying to go up. Ascending process and descending process.

47:37So we say that descending process is... but actually the... the... the, uh, point, the example you brought out is very good because he says that the essential dialectic of all is just this: that there's a thesis of being. And so

47:56that you said man is immortal. That is, uh, being. That is being. Well, the... the antithesis of that is that man is mortal, uh, or nothing.

48:07So how to reconcile those two is... the reconcile is the body is nothing and the spirit is something. This is synthesis. This is our purpose. He says that this concept... The body is nothing. False. But I am real.

48:27But those who have no knowledge, they are taking one side. But we are taking two sides. This body is there, this is false, very temporary. As well I say I'm not this body. If somebody knocks me, I feel pain.

48:47So this is temporary. Mātrā-sparśās tu kaunteya śītoṣṇa-sukha-duḥkha-dāḥ. Due to this body, I am feeling pain some. So the Buddha philosophy is you make this body nil, then there is no pain. That is nirvana.

49:07Because I am there, I will accept another body. So the death does not mean liberation. Death does not mean liberation. Liberation means when you are no more in this material world to go back to Godhead.

49:32His idea is that this constant struggle between being and non-being is what makes the world go round. That... that is also our proposition. That is prakṛti, ya idaṁ dhāryate jagat. Therefore we are talking of two energies.

49:55The superior energy and the inferior energy. What is the synthesis? And synthesis is that the superior energy, because it has accepted this material energy, therefore the material world energy is what?

50:10Because I have entered into this body, therefore the body's material, it has no movement. But because I am within this body, as soon as I say "go ahead," this body is a lump of matter.

50:26Is that this dialectic, basic dialectic between being and nothing, is the basis of becoming?

50:33That because these two things are always conflicting, becoming, that's always becoming, therefore, the question becoming means I'm now in this awkward position that I am eternal and immortal, but I have been entrapped by something which is mortal; therefore I am changing my position.

50:54So when I shall stop this taking a different position, I shall remain in my own being, there is being. The previous example that you gave, that "John is a man, man is mortal." And that is body. Huh. That is body.

51:17He says that that is a static analysis. No, that is static means those words seeing simply the body. No introspection. They simply exterior, no? Exterior, what is that? Superficial. That is superficial. Except.

51:43So but Krishna says, "na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre." Although the body is mortal, still the proprietor of the body is immortal. So that's a combination of thesis and antithesis. Yeah.

52:02So when we perfectly come to that position, then it becomes synthesis. Well, that's what Hegel is trying to find out, the ultimate synthesis. He has to find that out, but he has no knowledge to find out.

52:16He has to take knowledge from us. We can help. But anyway, the basic idea is that every fact can only be understood by relating it to its opposite. That is in the relative world. Because yeah, everything is related.

52:37He cannot understand what is father unless he has got a son. He cannot understand a son unless he has got a father. Similarly, this world is like that. He cannot understand what is white unless there is black.

52:53And you cannot understand black unless there is white. So this is duality world. So this is not absolute one. So he was... And in the absolute world, the black, white, everything is one.

53:05Well, he says you can find out that absolute world by tracing out all of these black-white relationships in the material world. Eventually you come to the point of understanding, yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

53:16That is, uh, uh, Bhagavad-gītā says: bahūnāṁ janmanām ante, jñānavān māṁ, after many, many births. But actually one first should understand, "He surrendered to me."

53:35So our Krishna consciousness is teaching to approve the absolute. He

53:47says that, for instance, by relating one idea to its opposite, that we discover a different truth about each of them which transcends their separate truths. Yeah. What would Gītā say? Uh, that dehinas.

54:09He said that is dehi, the soul which is within the body, that is immortal. And this body is mortal. So the synthesis transcends their separate meanings. The synthesis, uh, transcends their separate meanings.

54:37Separate meanings: mortal and immortal. And what is the, the synthesis? The synthesis, the synthesis is still to get out this soul from this awkward position of matter.

55:02Is that a, is that a higher understanding than, uh, understanding the soul by itself? Is it a higher understanding? That is high in the sky. The soul should be liberated. He is in awkward position.

55:17He's in this material world. He is in, uh, in, in a very awkward position. Does the, does the condition of being entrapped enhance the understanding of liberation? First of all, an imprisonment, that he's entrapped.

55:34There's no personal religion. If he's in ignorance that this is the real life, this is very ordinary life, they're saying this is real life. But we are giving education. No, this is not real life.

55:47The real life is, uh, Krishna consciousness. Definitely everyone can understand. So to enhance the understanding of freedom, is it, uh, if someone has been to the platform of freedom? But say one has always been free.

56:24His understanding... No, no, why? So long we are entrapped by this material body, you're not free. No, but for instance, just an example, there's someone who's always been free in spirit in the spiritual world. Yeah.

56:36And he comes into the material world and he comes for a mission. It's like Krishna comes. He's not born. He is not bound up by the material. Similarly, Krishna's devotees come. He is not also bound up.

56:47They come with a mission. I mean, if someone is in the spiritual world, he falls down into the material world. Falls down is different. Yeah, and then he becomes again released. Yeah.

56:56Again he is... Is his understanding after release higher than previously? Yeah. Because he has learned something. Yeah. Learned something, he has become free. That's like Nārada. He's giving history of his past life.

57:12I've not read it. Conversation between Nārada and Vyāsa. See, he knows perfectly well that "I was a maidservant's son, and in this way I become free." That is freedom. Anyone knows.

57:30As soon as it comes to spiritual consciousness, you know, "Oh, I was in a condition." Now I am this in condition. I don't know.

57:41So is it good if someone comes to the material world and then they leave? I mean, the fact that they should come here is not good. Then where is the question of taking him back to Godhead? It's not good.

57:58But if someone falls down somewhere else... But not that those who are coming with a mission, they are falling. When the governor goes to the prison house to inspect, it doesn't mean he's also a prisoner.

58:15If the prisoners think, "Oh, the governor has come here, therefore he is also one of us," that is not. Therefore it is aparādha. Guruṣu nara-matiḥ: thinking of guru as an ordinary man.

58:37Guruṣu nara-matiḥ, vaiṣṇave jāti-buddhiḥ, arcye śilā-dhīḥ, and everything, a stone, wrestling stone, these are called. Actually they are not. Avajānanti māṁ mūḍhāḥ.

58:59It has like Krishna, avajānanti māṁ mūḍhāḥ, because he's coming as an ordinary man. Not ordinary man, as a man, but people are saying, "Ah, he's maybe a little powerful." That's right. That is ignorance.

59:21Well, Hegel's idea is actually not too much different than ours, because he says that—very, very much different. That will have different. He'll have to, uh, go through millions of parts to come to our instance. Yeah.

59:38But in one sense, he believes that, that, uh, the Absolute Truth is always changed, is always changing, and yet is, is, is also permanent. Absolute is—how can it change? But it is also permanent at the same time. No.

59:51That's not—no. What is Absolute Truth? Absolute cannot be changed. But just like Krishna is walking and moving and it's changing. But that's not means he is not Absolute Truth. At the same time he is perfect, eternal.

1:00:06But that we are. We, part and parcel of Krishna, we are moving in this material body. But we are part. Krishna is not like that. Then it will be avajānanti māṁ mūḍhāḥ in a skeleton.

1:00:31But everything will be coincided, inclusion. The whole process is, is eternal, immutable. It's like so many radii that everything is meeting the point. Even when the wheel turns, the center remains. Spokes. Spokes and hub.

1:01:02That's, that's his whole idea of, uh, his explaining, rather, because and all expansion take place, and that he didn't say.

1:01:18Does it—that the spirit is the divine idea being actualized in, uh, by the evolution of history and, uh, social, social, yeah, biological, everything.

1:01:31Kīrtanāni na kaunteya yāvad vīci-pālibhiḥ, that is expanded in Bhagavad-gītā. Gītā. Kīrtanāni na kaunteya yāvad vīci-paryatam... Can you find out the "nāni"?

1:01:51But if the truth is unfolding itself in history, in biology, and society— Everything. Then that is—so all events are leading toward, uh, what? Everything is emanating from Krishna.

1:02:08And after some manifestation, temporary, again then... bhūtvā bhūtvā. So everything is coming from Krishna and going toward Krishna. Going back. In the meantime, there is some manifestation.

1:02:26So the unfolding of history is simply, uh, replicas, that's the... repeats. He also, that's his idea of history also. Mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram. Material nature is controlled by Me in My direction. Yeah.

1:03:03I'll do it for you. Moving and not moving, that... Yeah. He only sees the mover and not the mover. Yeah. Exactly.

1:03:19Because, uh, this material nature is working in the right direction, instead of pointing everything on a moving and unmoving being, and by its rule this manifestation is created and annihilated again and again.

1:03:32Is anything expressed? So, uh... that's enough for today, tomorrow take a bunch. What does that mean? Uh, instead of bigure is not in fact. No. At least, at least, uh, he sees a purpose in the universe.

1:03:55He's learned to see in his own capacity. But he's not purposeful.

1:04:06In this regard, uh, later Śrīla Prabhupāda said that a man who has fever and a man who has never had fever, they enjoy when the man who has fever recovers; he enjoys equally with the man who never had fever.

1:04:26Therefore, someone who has fallen into the material world, if he is liberated, he enjoys equally with the man who has never fallen into the material world.

1:04:37Neither he enjoys more—for instance, that he has learned some lessons, so therefore he enjoys more his freedom—nor does he enjoy less than the man who has never fallen. Stop. The spirit.

1:04:57Well, everything is expressed in our spirit. So everything is art? Everything is art. What is the definition of art? Art is the expression of the spirit in sensuous form. That is that.

1:05:15We are worshipping Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa, there is love of Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa. But that is sensuous. Sensual. The gopīs are coming to Kṛṣṇa, lusty. Kṛṣṇa is beautiful, they're attractive. So these are there. Sensuous beautiful art.

1:05:36What about a tree? We say a tree is the artful, uh, display of, of, uh, yeah...

1:05:44Scenery is also art, because in a place if you find so many green trees you feel nice, and in a barren land at the desert you don't think thanks. That there is art. That the barren desert is not art? That is also art.

1:06:02In a different way. Uh-huh. So everything is artful. Yes. So the second expression of the absolute mind he calls religion. Um, he says that this is the absolute expressed as representations in our consciousness.

1:06:18Does it mean to accept God? Does it mean like that? Yes, but he means it as the opposite of sensuous form, but as something intangible. Something we can only relate to through sensory...

1:06:32Intangible it may be at the present moment, that's another thing.

Ethics justice and social responsibility

1:06:36But religion means an understanding of God. Otherwise there is no religion. But what do you mean by religion? No, then he has no clear definition of religion.

1:07:04We define religion is, uh, to abide by the laws of God. There is God, says you do this, when you do it, that is it. So you would say that, uh, the absolute expresses itself in the laws of God. Yeah, that is legal.

1:07:26And so the absolute gives you direction, and if you follow that direction, then you are delivered. That's tangible. You cannot create religion. That is tangible. That is tangible.

1:07:45That is every religion actually, just like in Christian religion. Thou shalt not kill. That is the order. And if you kill, then you are not religious. And if you do not kill, then you are religious.

1:08:02So therefore it is very difficult to find a real Christian. Because everyone is killing. Violating the law of God. In one sense there is no Christian. And every religion means not examined with God.

1:08:28Then he says that the highest form that the Absolute, uh, manifests itself, the highest mode, is in philosophy. He says that this combines art and religion and it synthesizes it, so it is highest.

1:08:49They say God says, "Thou shalt not kill."

1:08:52Now if you want to kill, then you must present your philosophy why you are killing, why you are violating the order of God, or why you are accepting your position. Not dry speculation. He

1:09:14says that philosophy is highest because it is highest. But now God says, "Thou shalt not kill." That's all right, religious. But if you understand why I'm accepting, that's like a devotee. Accept Krishna, God, that's all.

1:09:39He's also a devotee. But one understands actually what is Krishna. Therefore he is a very dear devotee. Madhyama-adhikārī. He's kaniṣṭha-adhikārī. The West Taylor. He says that he is as good as the other devotees.

1:10:03He does not like Krishna, just like gopīs. They are not philosophers. And neither they knew that Krishna is God. But they love Krishna. That is high. Without any concern. Take the name. So whatever you may.

1:10:20You said I love... last time we discussed Hegel, you said, "Yes, philosophy is highest," but even higher than... yeah, this is practice as they say, the Vraja people. They're actually loving.

1:10:35They were practicing the result of philosophy. I guess that's a good place to start with. We'll try to finish Hegel tomorrow. First, we're going to be discussing the ethical, social and political philosophy of Hegel.

1:11:05He believed that one's basic right was, uh, to be a person and respect others as persons. Yeah. So what is the philosophy of killing animals?

1:11:24Well, animals are considered as things, and persons have the dominion over things. That would be their rascals. Rascal. The basic principle is that one has the right to be a person. Huh?

1:11:49One has the right to be a person and respect others as persons. Yeah. So why do they not respect other persons? The animal is also a person. What is this pleasure?

1:12:09And that is the defect, that one is a rascal and he is taking the position of the pillar. That is the defect. He is rascal number one. He does not respect others' individuality. And his philosophy...

1:12:38So that there are three basic rights. The first is property rights, the second is the right of contract, and the third right is the right of redress of wrongs and such crimes to be punished. Yeah.

1:12:53So it is not right to kill an animal? The animal has no right to live independently.

1:13:05Well, they say that the standard of what is right is the universal or the rational will. Is that rational, that another living entity like me should be killed for my benefit, for satisfying my tongue?

1:13:25Well, their idea is that that animal is not in the same category as myself because it has no... Might is right. Hitler is right. When Hitler killed the Jews, he's right. He thinks that they are not in my category.

1:13:47The animal cannot understand philosophy. Huh? The animal cannot understand philosophy. What does he understand? Philosophy is man. He is less than an animal. He does not understand philosophy.

1:14:02He does not know that animal has also soul, animal has life. Then he should be killed first. He said that one standard whether something is right or wrong is that it is self-contradictory.

1:14:24If somebody's action is self-contradictory... His action is self-contradictory. He's going to give right to others, but he does not want to give the same right to the animal. That is self-contradictory.

1:14:39He uses the example of someone who doesn't want anyone to steal something from him, but he steals something from others. Yeah. And that is self-contradictory action. Yes, self-contradictory action is there.

1:14:51That I don't want to be killed, but I kill another one. This is self-contradictory. Supporting by some nonsense philosophy. I don't want to be killed, but I kill another. This is shark.

1:15:11He would say a self-contradictory act is irrational. Yeah. But he's not acting according to the rational.

1:15:18He is irrational and he's taking the position of the philosopher that another one of his ideas is that conflict creates progress. So the man kills the animal and progresses. And I give him and make problems.

1:15:45Yeah, that's a law of nature. And make problem. Conscience is the right type of activity. The conscience, the so-called conscience is created. You go on killing, your conscience will be killing conscience. It is all right.

1:16:17If he becomes accustomed to steal, the conscience will say, yes, I must steal. It is my right. So you can create your conscience in that. By association. By misguiding. They also create the concept.

1:16:42That's like the Christian religion says, "Thou shalt not kill," but they are creating a concept. Yes, killing is our right. In the religion, it is forbidden. Thou shalt not kill. But they are creating another concept.

1:17:05It is right. The conscience is created by association. By good association, conscience is the good conscience. And by bad association, bad concept is there. But there is no such standard as conscience.

1:17:30Conscience means discriminating power. He says that there is an absolute conscience which means pure rationality. Whatever is purely rational is conscience. The pure rationality is no concept. That is pure.

1:17:50Unless one comes to that standard, the so-called conscience, so-called pleasure is no land. Punishment for crime is justified because it indicates justice; it restores rights. Yeah.

1:18:07That's why when one is killing an animal, he should be prepared for being killed. That is justice. That is Manu-saṁhitā. Some Manu-saṁhitā said that a man-murderer is hanged. And that is complete justice. Complete justice.

1:18:38Because without being hanged in this life, he escapes justice. Then he will have to suffer next life very severely. So to save him from so many troubles in the next life, he is killed.

1:19:00And in this life, when you say, therefore, the king who is hanging him, he is doing him justice. Life for life.

1:19:13See, if this is the justice, then why one should not be prepared for being killed because he is killing an animal? That is justice. That is Vedic philosophy.

1:19:33Vedic philosophy: when an animal is killed, it is said that, "You are an animal, you are being sacrificed before Goddess Kālī. So you get the next chance to become a human."

1:19:49That means he is giving a lift from the evolutionary process to come to the human being, because he is giving his life innocent. One man wants to kill him, he will be killed.

1:20:06So because you are being killed, you get the next chance, human gain. And you have got the right to kill him. This is bali-dāna mantra. So any sane man will understand that "I am going to be killed, right?

1:20:27So why should I take this?" But I observe in nature that everything is killing something else for eating,

1:20:36then it seems only rational that I should be able to eat and— Well, that is also accepted in the Vedas: jīvo jīvasya jīvanam. One life is, one living being is food for another being.

1:20:52But that does not mean that you shall kill your son and eat, and it will be supported by the society. That is discrimination, that is concept.

1:21:07You can say that "I must eat some, uh, another living entity, that is my nature's law." "So I produce my children and I kill them and I eat them so that the population problem will be solved." We can say that.

1:21:28Really accepted? Therefore there must be discrimination. That you have to eat, uh, another living entity, that is nature's law. But if you eat fruit, you don't kill the tree. You take the fruit.

1:21:56If you, uh, eat vegetables, it is still, it's growing. But that is actually not killing. But if you eat animals, you're killing. Actually, it's being dead. Things should be done intelligently so that the...

1:22:22What is it? To make the best use of a bad bargain. Our philosophy is that although you can take—that is not killing—it is taking fruits, flowers and vegetables. It's taking from it, it's not killing.

1:22:44And we are offering to Kṛṣṇa. So if there is any responsibility, it is Kṛṣṇa's responsibility. We take the prasādam. Therefore we have no such responsibility. And that is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā.

1:23:03Anyone who is cooking for himself, he is taking all responsibility for sin. Even if he is a vegetarian, it doesn't matter.

1:23:15Bhuñjate te tv aghaṁ pāpā. But if he takes the remnants of yajña—so we are offering Kṛṣṇa daily, performing yajña— so we are taking the remnants of yajña. This is our field. We are not taking directly.

1:23:36If I take directly, whether I'm vegetarian or non-vegetarian, I become responsible. This is our... The law is there, but, uh, we have to, uh, tackle things, uh, very intelligently. But

1:24:00as far as the, uh, social ethics are concerned, if these begin with the family, then they go to the society or community, and then finally the state, he says that the family is a, is a single entity or the thesis, and, and the individual finds its real nature only in the presence of others. What about the family of the animals?

1:24:25They have got family. What does he say? Well, a tiger has got family, isn't it? He has got his wife.

1:24:36But a man, a man, a man finds himself in the presence of his family members; he's able to understand himself by relating with others.

1:24:46So, progressively, when relationship other—just like your family man, you don't encroach upon other family. This is society law. So the animals, they have got there. Family. Family, what do you mean by family?

1:25:07Husband, wife, or two children, there is family. There are the animals, they have got. So why you encroach on the elementary? What is his answer?

1:25:18Well, families, when they relate together in communities, are related by certain laws and rights. That one voluntarily abstains from killing, from stealing, from other families, so that no one will do the same for him.

1:25:33So, but this is not applicable to the animal family. No. This is philosophy. What kind of philosophy is it? And our Lord Buddha praised that if you feel pain when somebody pinches you, you should not pinch her.

1:26:00He does not say that he should not pinch a human. And therefore, this dharma is ahiṁsā paramo dharmaḥ. This is philosophy. What is this philosophy? Non-just philosophy.

1:26:19That you protect your family, but you eat their own family. This Buddha, Lord Buddha's philosophy has got meaning. But what is the meaning of this philosophy? So he doesn't consider the animal at all; he's an escape.

1:26:50He's an escape. Yeah, he purports to cover everything. He says that his philosophy is complete, that it covers everything. Must be complete.

1:27:12He says that that one understands himself the more he relates to others, so that eventually, as he relates to the whole universe, then he understands himself perfectly.

1:27:22Universe means his brother and white man, that's all; that is universe. Devaloka. My India is good man, I am good man, all but this philosophy.

1:27:54He gets as far as the state, says that one relates with all of the citizens in the state, but it is nearly impossible to relate with the citizens of another state.

God consciousness in state and leadership

1:28:05Therefore disputes must be settled by war between states. So he glorifies war as a means of progressing. That's all right. Well, also we did it. He said dharma-yuddha was encouraged. So everything has got its use.

1:28:35War has got also its use. And uh, that is progress? Yes, the progress comes about through conflict of opposites.

1:28:53So that, uh, as states fight each other, the one who comes out victorious is the most progressive, advanced state. Well, when the war should be declared? Is there any philosophy? No, he doesn't believe in peace.

1:29:12He says that peace is, uh, a dream. No, peace cannot be possible within this material world. Uh, especially without God consciousness, there cannot be any peace. That's okay.

1:29:31So the state is... I'll just read a segment of what he says about the state. The state is the realization of the ethical idea. The true state is the ethical whole and the realization of freedom.

1:29:45The state is the march of God through the world. March. God. God through the world. The state is an organism. The state is real, and its reality consists in the interest of the whole being realized in particular end.

1:30:00The state is the world which the spirit has made for itself. One often speaks of the wisdom of God in nature, but one must not believe that the physical world of nature is higher than the world of spirit.

1:30:13Just as spirit is superior to nature, so the state is superior to the physical life. We must therefore worship the state as the manifestation of the divine on earth. That is a very nice idea. We agree to that.

1:30:29Therefore we have to see what is the beauty of this state. It is accepted that the state is the representative of God. Therefore, the state's first business is to make citizens God-conscious.

1:30:54Any state which is neglecting this duty, he immediately becomes unqualified to hold this state, whether he may be president or the king.

1:31:08Because if it is admitted... the king, we say that the king's name is Naradeva, God in human form. And the king is offered that respect. Therefore, the king is expected... Why?

1:31:31Because he is to be considered God's representative. So therefore, as God's representative—just like we who are working as God's representatives. We present ourselves as God's representative, Kṛṣṇa's representative.

1:31:52What is our duty? What is our business? What we are doing? We are trying to lead others to God consciousness. That is the proof that I am God's representative. I am not teaching them anything else.

1:32:12I am teaching everything that is reasonable, but this is my primary.

1:32:17Similarly, if the state—the state executive head, the president or the king—is accepted as God's representative, his first and foremost duty is to train the citizens to become God-conscious.

1:32:37If he is lacking in that duty, he is not fit to become the executive head of the state. What does he say about that?

1:32:47He also agrees that a monarchy, a constitutional monarchy, is recommended to head the state, and that he fulfills the universal will. He is simply the executor of the world spirit. Yeah, that's nice.

1:33:00That's nice, the system, the Vedic system: a king, but educated. But because he was so vague, this left room for someone like Hitler to come in and use this philosophy. He's not a king. That is going on.

1:33:24Somehow or other he gets power, he becomes the head. He has no training how to become actually the protector of the citizens. Therefore, the whole world is in trouble.

1:33:39He whimsically declares war and involves all the citizens. Implicated. Therefore, this support to monarchy is better in this sense: that a person, by son to son, by disciplic succession or hereditary succession,

1:34:07he can be trained. And if one man is trained nicely, he can govern for hundreds and thousands. Very nice.

1:34:19It says that in a well-ordered monarchy, the law alone has objective power, to which the monarch has but to affix the subjective "I will." In other words, the law alone rules.

1:34:31The king is simply the order-supplier of the law. That is another democracy. Constitutional king. He's simply symbolic. But if the king has got the complete power and it is strength, he is a God-conscious king, rājarṣi.

1:34:53Evaṁ rājarṣayo viduḥ. The Bhagavad-gītā, the fourth chapter, it is saying: "Evaṁ rājarṣayo viduḥ." This saintly king understood. Not only anywhere. Therefore a king, monarch, is supposed to be saintly.

1:35:14He must understand the philosophy, Bhagavad-gītā. And he should introduce an educational system so that people may understand Bhagavad-gītā or the science of God. That is the first beauty of the state, of the king.

1:35:32And in another place, the Bhāgavatam said that one should not become a father, one should not become the head of the state, one should not become a guru, if he cannot save persons from the imminent danger of death.

1:35:51So we are now in entanglement, repeated birth and death; it is the state's duty to stop this cycle of birth and death. He says that it is the purpose of the state and the king to apply the moral law.

1:36:14That is the beauty of the king. But the modern democratic state, they are simply constantly taxing. That's all.

1:36:31But this has to be said: that if you keep the citizens lying in the matter of morality and immorality and levy tax, only if you satisfy the tax, then you also go to ruin and they also, yeah, ruin that.

1:36:54Because he is taking all the sins. That means the sinfully earned, and he's taking the money. But he gets it worse than anyone. Yeah. He will be the worst suffering, in this life and next life.

1:37:15These things are discussed in Mahārāja, because you cannot keep the... just like I'm accepting disciples. Well, I'm taking responsibility. So similarly, a king living practical, that means he...

1:37:41Therefore, if he keeps the citizens in a pious life, then he will be profited and citizens will be profited. Otherwise, he will go to hell and the citizens. And then we will have one blind man leading another blind man.

1:38:09This is nice philosophy. that this is not nice, right philosophy: that the state head, the president or the king or whatever it may be, he is representative of God.

1:38:25Therefore his duty is to train the citizen to become God-conscious, pure, without any symptoms.

1:38:35But this, uh, a big, big state head, just like in our country, Dr. Radhakrishnan, he is supposed to be a very, uh, great philosopher, and what he has been? That he was, uh, sanctioning the cow slaughterhouse.

1:38:56So he, he is a philosopher and he had no sense that "I am the state head, I am sanctioning slaughterhouse." And I am passing as a philosopher. And I am suffering, I have seen. He's lost, he's a dead man, a living dead man.

1:39:16He cannot even experience. His philosophy and for money's sake he occupied the presidential post and maintained slaughterhouses. So he got the reaction. Yeah. That, that, that is his, uh, opportunity.

1:39:42He's finishing his sinful life in this life. Oh, you said that's right. You said it was good for him. It's good for him. Because he's fortunate that his sinful reaction is being finished in this life.

1:39:56Otherwise he will have to drag it. He will have to continue. He, he might have been a dog, a cat, like that. Yeah. It is good for him. I said that. It is good for him.

1:40:11So he, he says that we could, we rise up to the level of the state, but then each state is independent and not subordinate to other states. Yes. Independent. Independent, that is also another contradictory theory.

1:40:25If the state is supposed to be a God, the highest independent, then he is then less intelligent. He is speaking contradiction. He says that no state is subordinate to any other state. That is another thing.

1:40:44He, you, you are all my disciples who are working under my instruction.

1:40:51So there is cooperation, but, uh, not that other sort of is uh, obligatory to. Similarly, one state is uh, representative of God, another representative of God. So they are not independent; dependent.

1:41:14That can be applied in any field. Citizen. Everyone is independent. But everyone is dependent on the state law.

1:41:22Similarly, every state may be independent in their individual capacity, but it is independent, dependent on God's uh, order. That is the position. That is perfect.

1:41:39But whenever there are disputes arising between states, then there must be war. Yes. That, that is natural. Just like in our ordinary life, citizens, they disagree. Uh, they go to the court.

1:41:55But here he said there's no higher body between two, uh, they have jurisdiction between states, that it can only be settled by war; there's no court or higher authority for judging between states.

1:42:07No, there is higher party. If there is religion, if there is philosophy, if there is learned section, brāhmaṇa, Krishna can't speak, says no food, so you have killed all, all these things, but the system is there.

1:42:25Therefore the brāhmaṇa culture is above the kṣatriya culture. Therefore this division must be there: brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra. The administrators, the kings, they are kṣatriyas, but above that, the brāhmaṇas are.

1:42:44Just like princes. But because there is no brāhmaṇical class, they will kill them. Uh, therefore he said there is no other way.

1:42:55It's like between, for instance, Rāma's kingdom and Rāvaṇa's kingdom, there is no way for, uh, there is no judge to settle the argument; there was, there must have been war. Judge, judge was Lord Rāma himself. He is God.

1:43:12If there was war, it's settled. So Hegel glorifies this war. It says there is an ethical element in war. No, what? We also say dharma-yuddha. Dharma-yuddha. Like that is concluded by Sañjaya: vijaya. Yatra yogeśvaraḥ...

1:43:40Yatra yogeśvaraḥ kṛṣṇaḥ. He said to Dhṛtarāṣṭra, "Sir, I think the side on which Krishna is there, he'll be victory." So actually, in their war, the party with the God concept wins.

1:44:12That Yatra yogeśvaraḥ... What is that? What about between America and Germany, for instance? Neither one recognized Krishna. And then it is demonic. This is not justified war.

1:44:33This is the two demons who fight; that's the cats and dogs fight. That's all. He says that there is a case. But there is, according to Vedic literature, dharma-yuddha. Dharma-yuddha. On behalf of Supreme Law.

1:44:54That is dharma-yuddha. Respect order. They are not fighting. But Krishna said: "Yes, I am on the side to fight." And therefore, Arjuna became victorious because God was on his side. That is that.

1:45:23So if you declare war on the principle of God consciousness, that war is justified and you will become victorious. This is Hegel.

1:45:35His idea is that our everyday life, everything is in a state of war, and that this is purifying, and that this conflict is purifying, but it has an ethical element.

1:45:49And he makes the statement: "By this war, ethical health of the nation is preserved and their finite aims uprooted. War protects the people from the corruption which an everlasting peace would bring upon it."

1:46:03He says that to be in a state of peace is corrupt. Then he wants continuous war. Something like that. It glorifies war. But it makes a nation healthy to have war. See, progress only comes from conflict.

1:46:47That means according to Hegel, people should always engage themselves in war, because it's the project. That makes for progress, to be in conflict. Competition, conflict. This creates progress.

1:47:04Competition, that is another thing. But if you say that war settles our morality and laws, then without any aim... We say: "Yes, war may be there and must be there, but the party who has got Kṛṣṇa's support there.

1:47:34They're right, but this is our problem. We don't say that the war should be stopped. War must be there. Because this world is a material world, there must be one opposition.

1:47:54Now the party who has got Kṛṣṇa's support in that, that is the battlefield initially. What about this thing? We don't say stop. But we say if you fight, fight on behalf of Kṛṣṇa.

1:48:25But, uh, in the conflict you should take the right side. Yes. That is the other. Right side means on this side Kṛṣṇa is... that is in a snap type in the back of the future. What is the definition of progress?

1:48:48Yeah, ethical advancing. Ethical is ethical element. He has no ethical principle. He does not know what is ethics. Otherwise, he could not have supported the anyway. He does not know what is ethics.

1:49:06He speaks something hard on. That's it. There is no practical application about this. What about the statement that peace is stagnation? Peace is stagnation. Well, nobody is in stagnation. Everyone is working.

1:49:32Stagnation, just like a stagnant water. It has no flow. That is stagnant. But who is it? Everyone is happy, so there is no peace anywhere. No, no. It is not stagnation. Just like we, we are taking to Kṛṣṇa. It is not stagnant.

1:49:59We are going up. We are sending preachers. So we are not stagnant. We are fighting, we are not... So, so the position of stagnation does not come anywhere.

1:50:13The fact that in the Vedic culture the thing that keeps it from becoming stagnant is the presence of the brāhmaṇa.

1:50:18Whereas the brāhmaṇa community, they give purpose so that all of the other orders they can remain just as much involved as if they were involved in war.

1:50:26But in this kind of society that Hegel is describing where there is no Brahman, see, there is simply this materialism. So they require war, or else they become stagnant. But our answer

1:50:37is that they require the brāhmaṇa to give the directions so that everyone can work with full energy and Krishna purpose. So would you say that we are in a state of peace or in a state of war? Real peace. We don't accept.

1:50:59Our peace is working for Krishna. That is peace. suhṛdaṁ sarva-bhūtānāṁ maheśvaram, suhṛdaṁ sarva-bhūtānāṁ jñātvā māṁ śāntim ṛcchati. Our life is there. We are educating people. The Krishna is your friend.

1:51:26This is not stagnation. This is real war. That we take Krishna as the Supreme Enjoyer. Whatever enjoyable things are there, we are supplying to Krishna. Krishna, You take all nice food. Krishna, You live nicely.

1:51:45You take all women. Rāsa-līlā. Rāsa-līlā. Sixteen thousand wives. This is Supreme Enjoyer. This will be given all energy. Material nature by... Well, that we don't fight with māyā.

1:52:08Those who are under the class who are being kicked by māyā, they are struggling. We have nothing to do. māyām etāṁ... We have it. māyā doesn't disturb us. So where is the fight?

1:52:27Those who are being kicked by māyā, they are the police. Police is for chastisement. But he has nothing to do to be honest. Let them be police. What is the trouble?

1:52:51Those who are criminals, they have got a fight with the police. But we are not in that.

1:53:05Then, uh, he describes world history, uh, to be the supreme tribunal or the higher judge of events. Is that what actually happens to a state or a people represents the final judgment as to the worth of a national policy or a course of action?

1:53:24That history will bear out... Well, if this state is imperfect, then there's no such possibility to find out whether a policy is good or bad. For instance, the Roman Empire: if it came, then it fell.

1:53:40So their policy is approved. Oh, we say that any empire will come, without studying it, because a godless empire will never exist.

1:53:54He says that each state represents some phase of the absolute truth and that it expresses itself in the temporal events or the march of time.

1:54:06Well, we have said then, without historical defense, we say unless one state or king is the representative of God, that is not a state. That is a group. That is not a state.

1:54:25Just like even in, uh, aboriginals, they are also groups. They are also groups. That is not a state. I think there must be some tribe distinction. Yeah, tribe and state.

1:54:41He says that the dominant nation in any epoch represents the dominant phase of the absolute idea during that time, just like now America is the dominant nation in the world.

1:54:55So that the dominant phase of the truth is being expressed through America. Therefore Mr. Nixon supported Pakistan. Everyone knew, all other nations knew that this Pakistan are creating havoc.

1:55:17Genocide, killing, announcement made, Bangladesh, and Nixon, Mr. Nixon, publicly supporting it. Just like in the last, and still he is angry about India because India has defeated, he has withdrawn all help.

1:55:42So he's a supporter and his children too. Just like before, the British were the dominant nation, and then again some other country would be the dominant nation.

1:55:53He says that this dominant nation expresses at the time what the absolute truth is expressing itself in time.

1:56:02Yeah, the dominant nature, it is connected with the absolute truth, that after Mahārāja Parīkṣit, five thousand years, the the kings of Hastināpura, they were dominating the whole world because Mahārāja Parīkṣit, Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira, these kings were actually representing God.

1:56:27So therefore their domination was possible. Now that being lost, now there are so many small states, they're not God-conscious, they're for fighting each other.

1:56:40That's like a... but uh it is a fact that the Vedic cultured kings like Maharaj Indra, Maharaj Pṛthu, Maharaj Yudhiṣṭhira, Maharaj Parīkṣit, later on some other kings also, they were actually the will of the law, so there was no trouble.

1:57:03One king was ruling all over the world. But is it the fact that America is now the dominant nation also God's will? Yeah, that I say. But because uh some of the Americans are Krishna conscious...

1:57:23So where is the meaning then that America is the dominant nation? And America, American now actually uh... most of you don't support Mr. Nixon. But uh he's on the head. So how he has become head, uh that is mysterious.

1:57:46Because people, when you study people, they do not support. There are so many uh I mean to say processions against, protesting against Mr. Nixon's policy and something. But he's still he's a uh head of the executive power.

1:58:08So there is something mysterious. Actually, representative government does not represent other than they have. So how you cannot understand that this nation is good or bad by the state behavior.

1:58:31Just like we issued that statement that these Americans... and not the Americans are calling the victim to the... there are the cartoons. And in our temple nobody is hanging. Nobody's what? Nobody is coming. In India.

1:58:53In India. Because there was a feeling against the Americans.

1:59:00People were going to the ambassadors and places, the consulate, they were protesting, the police was uh very very good uh against feeling. Uh contrary feeling against the Americans during the war.

1:59:23As I issued one statement, that these Americans are devotees. They have nothing to do with politics. So at the present moment, basically, uh actually, what is the American nation?

1:59:43Uh simply by seeing the state, we cannot give our judgment that this is the... because there are many who are not in agreement with the state power. But they are posing themselves that we represent them.

2:00:01But he says that it is God's will that a certain nation will be dominant at a certain time. So I'm just wondering: what is the reason that God has made America dominant? And that is his belief.

2:00:13He says... God does not speak. He has no connection with God that he can speak on behalf of God. It is God's will, God Himself, at least.

2:00:27So he said that whatever is, is right, and that this good and this reason in its most concrete form is God. God governs the world.

2:00:39That also we admit, because in the Bhagavad-gītā it is said: yad yad vibhūtimat sattvaṁ śrīmad ūrjitam eva vā.

2:00:50Whenever there is some extraordinary power, it should be understood that it is derived partially from God's power. That we have... Um, so the predominance of the American nation is God's favor. You can accept that.

2:01:16Now, if you put on the head dependency like this condition and some other head, then it will deteriorate.

2:01:27If you spread this consciousness and if you make your president Kṛṣṇa conscious, then actually it will be God's empowerment. Let the president become a Kṛṣṇa conscious man. Why not? You are American citizens also. Capture.

2:01:50You can be congressmen. So educate the American public. Elect Kṛṣṇa conscious as president and actually God-favored. You have got the opportunity. And the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is also in your hand.

2:02:10Now it is up to you. People like it and become actually the leaders of the nation. And that was my mission. And if they follow, then the whole world. And that is coming to be true. You are all young men. In your hand.

2:02:32Now we make policy in that way. This like communists, a few communists — Stalin, Lenin — they formed a big communist party; now it is community all over the world.

2:02:43Similarly, similarly, you have so many nice young flowers, intelligent young Americans here, understood the philosophy; now it is up to you to spread this. Isn't it? You don't become stagnant.

2:03:08"I have understood Krishna consciousness, let me sit down and chant Hare Krishna." Peace. No, we don't want that. Go. Spread, create, and make your nation glorify.

Aesthetics religion and philosophical synthesis

2:03:32And he discusses one more topic, which is, uh, aesthetics, or what is the idea of beauty. He says that beauty is the absolute idea shining through the sense world.

2:03:45Beauty is the absolute idea shining through to the sense world, or the spirit shining through the sense forms. Yes. Therefore our Krishna is the most beautiful. That beautiful. Because Krishna is most beautiful.

2:04:06Just like I say, we are at the nice bhajans and chanting. I say Krishna is good. So these are all pleasure, all beauty. So beauty is appreciable because it is one of the qualifications of Krishna.

2:04:32So, so beauty in the material world is Krishna's, Krishna's, Krishna's perverted reflection. This, this—like now the sky is clear. Now the sunshine is bright.

2:04:48But even if the sky is covered by cloud, you will understand it is daytime because the glaring shining of, uh, sun is still to be understood.

2:05:03Similarly, whatever little beauty we find in this material world, that is perverted reflection. We still understand its beauty, but not very much. Not very much. Well, there's just a few more minutes. And sensuous form.

2:05:37This is really art. That the artist should try to form spiritual content. This is the material. That we are doing. Whenever we are painting, picture, art, music, we are placing Krishna with it.

2:05:59Our music, our painting, or anything that we send out, Krishna. He says that of all arts, that music and poetry are the highest. Yeah. And therefore we write. Vāsudeva has written so many nice poetries in praise of Krishna.

2:06:20Brahmā is writing: «cintāmaṇi-prakara-sadmasu kalpa-vṛkṣa-», lakṣāvṛteṣu surabhīr abhipālayantam. All serious and right. Yes, poetry. Therefore, Krishna's another name is Uttama-śloka. He is described by first-class poetry.

2:06:41And a devotee is supposed to be a poet. Among the twenty-six qualifications. So all of us write glorifying Krishna. Poetry and prose doesn't matter. Anything sublime is called poetry. Not that it has to be written in rhythm.

2:07:18He says that the Absolute manifests itself in representations. In other words, pure thought is couched in imagery and pictorial contemplation. This is related.

2:07:34He says pure thought, which we imagine in form, we put into form. No, then he has no knowledge of religion. Religion means imagining—not pure. Religion means the order coming from the most pure; that is, you cannot imagine.

2:07:58Your imagination is imagination, at best. But if you receive the best thing directly from the most pure, that is easy. Just like we are receiving directly from the most pure, Krishna.

2:08:15He says: man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru. That is it. That is it. We are directly receiving the order from the most pure, Krishna. We are not imagining. It's not imagining.

2:08:34He says that the religion unfolds in three phases. The first phase are natural religions; they worship objects of nature, like the sun, like trees.

2:08:49Then as men become more advanced, they begin to think that God is localized, like the Jewish religion; perhaps God is somewhere as one thing.

2:08:57Then the highest religion, he says, is Christianity because it gives us a clear idea of God, His Son, and the Holy Ghost. He thinks, he says, that Christian religion is the perfect religion.

2:09:11God has only one son—is that perfect? God is unlimited, and He is limited to one son? Why is He limited? One son. Well, he says that this son represents nature and the objective world. Because it's God incarnate.

2:09:38We can see, and everything looks like... then he believes in incarnation. So, well, there is son incarnation and God incarnation, So, well, there is son incarnation and God incarnation, which is different. Incarnation.

2:09:56No, He incarnates as a son and He incarnates Himself. He maintains that God is an absolute idea, that He is pure conception. Huh? That means he has no clear idea of God.

2:10:14If God has got a son, I think the father must be a person. Where is a son who is born out of an impersonal father? Where is the evidence? No idea. No idea. Idea. This is an answer.

2:10:30If the son is a person, his father must be a person. He says that in philosophy we approach closest to the absolute or God. Whereas art is the form of the absolute, then his statement that Christianity is perfect.

2:10:55That is a fruit. Yeah. His character too. Yeah. He presents... Yeah. Well then.

2:11:05As Hegel presents this character, he says that the Holy Trinity — Father, Son, and Holy Ghost — is just like his philosophy in thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. So he says therefore it is perfect. But

2:11:32he says that even higher than religion is philosophy, because we can approach God through pure concept or thought, pure thought.

2:11:50He says that the philosophy, knowledge of the absolute idea, is unique because it is in and for itself. Or it is pure idea.

2:12:05But we say that religion without philosophy is sentiment, and philosophy without religion is mental speculation. He wants to have philosophy without religion. He says that philosophy... That is mental speculation.

2:12:21Which is unencumbered by... He says that above religion is philosophy. That means religion supported by philosophy is real religion. Religion supported by philosophy is real religion. Otherwise insufficient. It is sentiment.

2:12:43Actually, except Bhagavata religion, all other religions in the world, they are sentiment.

2:12:52Therefore, in Bhagavata beginning, he says, "dharmaḥ projjhita-kaitavo 'tra" — all cheating type of religion is kicked out from Bhagavata. Projjhita, kicked out. They accept Bhagavata religion.

2:13:07Any religion which is going on in the world, they are all cheating. The philosophy of Bhagavata is not sentiment. But it's not purely conceptual, is it?

2:13:19Maybe it is religion, and it is religion in this sense: that it is carrying out the order of God. That is it. Dharmaṁ tu sākṣād bhagavat-praṇītam. Just like law means the law given by the state.

2:13:37Similarly, religion means the order given by God. That is... He said the philosophy is higher than it is. Yes. Then you apply your philosophy.

2:13:52The why... just like Krishna says... Now try to understand why Krishna says that is, "surrender to Me," and why we are obliged to surrender. That is philosophy. That is philosophy.

2:14:17And when your philosophy is supported — yes, we have to surrender to Krishna — then it's perfect. It's not sentiment. So yesterday we were discussing Hegel. He says that the absolute idea or God assumes three forms.

2:14:48The first form is called the idea in itself. Second form is called the idea for itself. The third form is called the idea in and for itself. Idea in, in and for itself. And these three things may also be called...

2:15:07That means he is creating God. Is it not? God is an idea. So his philosophy is that we create by imagination something as God. Actually there is no God. Just like Māyāvādī. They say God is impersonal. It is like that.

2:15:33And he can create a God. That's like Vivekananda. That is their theory. Therefore they create Ramakrishna as God. He says that God is the idea behind all concrete objects. Whatever is concrete, there's a superior idea.

2:15:53Very vague. The God becomes a thing which is subjected to the whims and change of respect. That is his idea. It, he says that God is the sum total of every, uh, all concrete phenomena. That's all right.

2:16:15But that means he has no clear knowledge of God. Doesn't he know? So therefore, we can say we have respect. And one who does not know God will respond, "Whatever you know." Very doubtful. According to Hegel, it's idea.

2:16:37But because knowledge means to understand God. The animals, they do not understand God. Therefore, they are called animal. Similarly, any man, any so-called gentleman, if he doesn't know God, he is animal.

2:16:57He may be nicely dressed. That is another thing. But actually he is an animal. But he doesn't know what? That is the position of animals. What is the difference between man and that?

2:17:14Is it that the animal cannot know what is God and mankind can? That is fundamental. It may be there are different animals, but no animal is able to understand about God.

2:17:42And here the difficulty is that while he is in the animal's position, he does not know God, but he takes the position of teacher. That is the difficulty of this modern civilization.

2:17:59The person in the position of animal is trying to teach others. Alas. The blind man is trying to lead other blind. That is a defect of it. We, our very civilization—not our, for everyone— we accept the teacher like Kṛṣṇa,

2:18:33and they must be beyond the, uh, beyond suspicion. That's like the English proverb: "Caesar's wife must be above suspicion." Is it not? Is it the English proverb? Caesar's wife must be above suspicion.

2:18:55So anyone who is in the position of teacher, he must be above suspicion. That is our first acceptance of teachers. We don't accept any teacher who is under suspicion. How he can be teacher if he is under suspicion?

2:19:22Now they may question that, "If you are above suspicion?" No, I am not above suspicion. But I am carrying the message as it is. Therefore I am.

2:19:42Beyond delivering you, who I am with all that... But he is actually delivering firsthand. That is what we say. I may be imperfect, it doesn't matter.

2:20:04But because I am carrying the message which is not restricted, that's why I am picked. This is all.

2:20:18We don't say anything... that's tell them, because we don't say anything which is not spoken by Kṛṣṇa or by authority like that. We don't teach anyone else except what Kṛṣṇa teaches.

2:20:39Kṛṣṇa says, "śaraṇāgata to Me," we say, "śaraṇāgata to Kṛṣṇa." That's like that. Comes from the child. And she says, "Duna Kṛṣṇa," and the party. She may be a child, but the message she is delivering is perfect.

2:21:08The message she is delivering, that's perfect. Is it not? She said, now the child may be imperfect. That's all that. But the message he is delivering, this is perfect. So there is no suspicion about the message.

2:21:34That message is above suspicion. The position. We don't change it. Even paramparā. Receive message by paramparā. And they hear it. Kṛṣṇa says, "śaraṇāgata to Me," we say, "śaraṇāgata to Kṛṣṇa." I may be less than that.

2:21:57But the message I am carrying is that. So the... this... the idea in itself, he says, is the thesis. The idea for itself is the antithesis. And the idea is not the idea.

2:22:20But the point thing is that that idea, it—it is then... anything idea is not God. God is substance. Anything nonsense idea, that is not God. God has created you. You cannot create God. And they are deep in God.

2:22:56It's like Vivekananda. Yata mata tata patha—many opinions of that we can, and you... Yata mata. This is the mission. Yata mata tata patha. Whatever I think is... Ramakrishna, he wanted to realize God from anywhere.

2:23:20And later on, he wanted to realize God by the Mohammedans, and he asked the proprietor of the temple to allow him to take meat, cow's flesh. And when he asked, they said, "Please go, get out."

2:23:43Now, don't realize—don't want the real idea of this. This philosophy: you can realize God in any way. Now he wanted to realize in the Mohammedan way, therefore he thought it wise that we must eat cow's flesh.

Realizing the absolute through spiritual authority

2:24:15God is not an idea, but He is substance. How—how do you mean that substance? What do you define substance? Well, how you define substance? What is your definition of substance? Well, substance is the, uh, concrete.

2:24:30The realization of the idea. I know. Some things are the concrete. That's right. Some substance is concrete, concrete. And it's like, you know, you know gold, and you know a big mountain.

2:24:55So now you form an idea: gold mountain. This is idea. But when you see actually gold mountain, that is a substance. This is defined between idea and... You have never seen gold mountain. But you say "gold mountain."

2:25:14You combine some ideas. You are thinking there is gold. Now if I get a mountain like gold, then there is idea. But when we actually find out, "Oh, here is a gold mountain," there is fact. There is something.

2:25:33There's idea, then there's substance, but the synthesis is spirit. The spirit combines both idea and substance. Yeah. But spirit is, according to our... spirit is realized in three phases.

2:25:58Brahmeti, Paramātmeti, Bhagavān iti śabdyate. Supreme spirit is realized in three things. And the example is given: when you see from a distant place a mountain, you see just like a hill with clouds.

2:26:17You go forward, you see something, some space, green, and if you enter it, you will see some trees, some animals. So you are seeing the same object.

2:26:31But according to your understanding, somebody is saying, "Oh, it is a cloud."

2:26:36Somebody is saying, "It is some green big," and somebody saying, "Oh," since he was... so it is... it is a portion of where he is standing to understand God.

2:26:56So those who are standing in a distant place, for example, that's why we have seen the sunshine in fact, and the sun globe localized. And if you have got capacity to enter into the sun globe, you see sun-god. God

2:27:23is realized in three phases: Brahmeti, Paramātmā, Bhagavān iti śabdyate. Either impersonal Brahman or localized Paramātmā or the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

2:27:36But if you somehow approach the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, then you understand the other two things. Kṛṣṇa explained it: brahmaṇo hi pratiṣṭhāham. "I am the resting place of Brahman effulgence."

2:27:59Brahma-saṁhitā says: yasya prabhā. This Brahman effulgence, impersonal, Brahman effulgence is the bodily rays of Kṛṣṇa.

2:28:12Similarly, Paramātmā, īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe 'rjuna tiṣṭhati, this is another feature of Kṛṣṇa. He's sitting in everyone's heart. Just like the sun is reflected in thousands and millions of pots.

2:28:29There is in each pot one sun. There are not so many suns. There is only one sun. What is reflected? Reflection. The God is one.

2:28:45But according to the water in the pot, and one who has seen the pot, he says, he says, "Oh, there are millions of suns." And one who has not seen the pots, he has seen only the sun, the sun is in person.

2:29:01But the person who is realizing that actually God is a person, sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha. That is it. We have got clear concepts about sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha Kṛṣṇa.

2:29:18His idea is that principles... Well, his idea, but we are talking of śāstra. Yeah. First, before, for instance, we make a table, we have to have an idea about a table.

2:29:30No, that means anything if you're trying to approach by your idea. That is not saviśeṣa. No, this is first there's the idea of something, then the substance. And but spirit is that which has both the idea and the substance.

2:29:50That first of all let us have an idea. That is not satisfactory. No. So we, we first is the table. I want to build a table. So I have an idea and this is what it should look like, shaped like.

2:30:04Then I, I gather the substance together, there's a table. But why idea? If you are going to make a table, we have seen a table. That's not idea. There's a substance. What is the idea? Nonsense. Isn't it an idea?

2:30:22Suppose I've never seen a table. But then you cannot say what is table. But I have an idea. I want to make something. No, no, that is false. As soon as you speak of ideas, that is nonsense. You cannot make an idea.

2:30:38That is nonsense. What do you think? Huh? All ideas are coming from Kṛṣṇa. Yeah. I guess then below that is how it's not talking about God. I'm talking about anything. You cannot make an idea.

2:31:01I always thought we can make an idea. I can always, though, when Hegel uses the word "idea", he doesn't mean just like speaking, uh, it's a mental image. He, he's using the term differently. I, I don't start.

2:31:13You know, he's using it as a rational form which precedes the material form or physical form. Just like I can think in my mind that E equals mc². Anyway, that you are speculative. We don't accept that.

2:31:30No, but I can put that into practical form. Practical form we can know. Just like we understand what is God, that, uh, Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa, paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ.

2:31:43Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, His vigraha. He's a form. He's a form. But what kind of form? Sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha. He is sac-cid-ānanda.

2:31:56Now this sac-cid-ānanda, we have no understanding what is sac-cid-ānanda, but you can understand what is sac-cid-ānanda. Sat means it, you can compare that Kṛṣṇa has got a body which is sat.

2:32:14Whereas I have got this body, it is asat. Therefore, Kṛṣṇa's body is not like this body. This is philosophy. The ānanda, blissful. If I compare myself, well then, my body is blissful? No, it is always pain.

2:32:35So therefore His body is not like this. So you're, you're saying that the ideal also has substance. Substance, everything's substance. For instance, uh, the ideal table. The ideal table.

2:32:50I don't, I don't see any table that's ideal, but I can imagine there is one ideal table. No, no, you, you do not know what is table. You have to ask what is table. You have to ask somebody.

2:33:07Or you have got, uh, uh, practically, unless you see or know from uh, some way or other, how can one... Just like, just like Albert Einstein.

2:33:17He, he thought about this theory. Because he's Albert Einstein, he's not perfect. No, but he, he was able to conceptualize that the speed of light squared times the mass equals the energy of a, of an object.

2:33:34And then he was able to experiment in the laboratory and actually find out that was true. But no one told him that formula. He found it out through a process of idealizing. That's another thing.

2:33:48That is, he's studying science. He's a scientist. You cannot say, "But he is a scientist." He is just like the same—you are seeing the mountain from this distance. You are the seer.

2:34:02The more you make progress, you see it is green; then the more progress you make, it is that seer, because he is a scientist, he is searching, so he's making progress. But all of a sudden, a layman cannot see like this.

2:34:21No, but doesn't he have an idea before he finds the substantial idea? Well, idea... idea means scientist means they see something. Observation. That is called observation. So observation in the beginning may be hazy.

2:34:41That's like two scientists, Jagadish Chandra Bose and Marconi, were both of them were trying to capture sound in radio. They are theorizing that sound can be captured. That's an idea. Not an idea.

2:35:03Some way or other, they are both scientists, they thought the sound can be captured. So they were making research. Now, they say Chandra Bose, he found it first.

2:35:20But because he was Indian, the British government did not give him the credit. Actually, it was a discovery of Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose.

2:35:39So I was present in the meeting in my childhood in one Baptist Mission Church in College Square. I saw it then and there. Then he challenged that, "Now I shall give something."

2:36:02He was a professor of physics, and then he showed that the trees have sensitivity, they can feel. And he had that machine, yes, we can go and have seen the list in the institute here. We were discussing Plato.

2:36:24Plato has this idea also that the ideal precedes the physical representation. And we said yes, that the idea is in the spiritual world. Exists in the spiritual world.

2:36:37And because of that, we're able to conceptualize some idea. Not that that idea is the... like a reflection, we have found that there is a spiritual world and this is what we reflect.

2:36:52So this has to... here: cintāmaṇi-prakara-sadmasu. The houses are made of touchstone. We have never seen touchstone. Neither we have seen a house. We have seen a house made of bricks, a roof.

2:37:10So this is... this may be an idea. But that idea comes by hearing from authorities. Not that we manufactured the spiritual world must be made of life.

2:37:26So there's always some substances which form the contents of the idea before. Idea means there is some, but I have not seen it. That is it.

2:37:36Well, his... his idea is that the spirit, the spirit is... is the one who both has the ideas and puts them into practice. Why these are that? Janmādy asya yataḥ: everything is coming from. Why these are that?

2:37:59There is no such distinction. What about a... a notion or a concept? How does that come into being if... if it has never existed before? But we have seen gold and we have seen mountain. So you can build a golden mountain.

2:38:22Although you have never seen one golden mountain. But if I have that idea of a golden mountain, does that mean that in the spiritual world that must exist? No. That necessary... Not necessarily. No.

2:38:34This... a spiritual world means everything exists. Unless, uh, there is some start in the spiritual world, there cannot be anything in you. Because if you say janmādy asya yataḥ, everything is bhakti.

2:38:50But I can form an idea that it's not in the spiritual world. Is that... I'm not... my understanding of it? There's no dog. No, this is... therefore it is called temporary. So the spirit soul is there. That's a fact.

2:39:22There's a... for instance, in mathematics, in mathematics, uh, advanced mathematics has to do with sets, sets of formulas, equations, symbols which have no place in reality, they have no substance.

2:39:36They're merely ideas on paper or in my brain. What about these kind of ideas? They're... they're, uh, how to say, like... like the square root of minus one. Ad infinitum. Like... like the square root of minus one.

2:39:53There's no substantial reference for that idea. But there is an equation, and indeed... I think my understanding, uh, if we have to accept this formula, then not the suit of God. So everything is managing house.

2:40:18So without having a place on that idea in this house, that you cannot have that as a side. Because you are also a product from this something. So whatever you are thinking, that must be there.

2:40:42Um, suppose, uh, I have an idea for tomorrow: I, I want to go to Pittsburgh.

2:40:48So then I actualized my idea tomorrow by going to the airplane, airport, getting the ticket and going to... But you have heard that which there is a place. This is how it's... You may not have seen.

2:41:01You are preparing to go to Pittsburgh means Pittsburgh is there. Not idea. You are not going to idea Pittsburgh. You are going to actual physical. That you have known. Therefore, your idea... might have not said it.

2:41:20Just like I came to New York. I came and saw it. I got an idea. It may be like this. But I was coming to actual place. Now I see a point.

2:41:32I see your point also, but supposing then that I have an idea I'm going, uh, to a vacant place, a vacant land and build a house which has never existed before.

2:41:43Uh, this you have seen another house, this way about this idea. A new house, yes. That's what a new house means: you have seen other houses. Then you make a new idea. That's all.

2:41:55Originally, originally, before there was ever any houses... That doesn't matter. But we have seen another place, uh, house. That's not really... we have seen that in that people.

2:42:08No, but in the, in the beginning, millions of years ago, before there was any house. Suppose I'm the first man on the planet. There's never existed any other house. Yeah.

2:42:18Then I, I get an idea to build a house, does that idea precede the substance? Yes, according to, uh, our case, that's Brahmā. Brahmā, he created another universe, his being as well. But in this birth, uh, he forgot.

2:42:41Therefore he underwent tapasya for one hundred years, you know? So it is, it is called like finding lost something. So you think, uh, well, I think it is not invention.

2:43:04That I am seeking where I have kept the thing, that means there I am not following up. Yeah. Just like I invent the television instead. Because you cannot invent anything which is not in the house.

2:43:25There's no question I've invented. Where does the idea come from? Like that? From the origin? From our past lives? From the origin. Yes.

2:43:47That is, that is that, uh, I'll explain in the Bhagavad-gītā, that the yogi, uh, remembers uh, and pūrvābhyāsena. I don't pass that to you. And again he regains where he left it. And from that point again he regains.

2:44:22All ideas can be traced back to the original substance, which is the substance. Yes. Ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavo, that Kṛṣṇa says, everything from Me. Therefore, if you get Kṛṣṇa, then you get everything.

2:44:43So actually, tasmin vijñāte sarvam idaṁ vijñātaṁ bhavati, then is this. If you understand God, then we understand everything. So you say that form, form precedes idea. Form precedes idea. Not idea precedes form. Yeah. Yeah.

2:45:04Form precedes idea. And, uh, when you talk to Bhāgavatam, you state that, uh, before a man has an idea about anything, because the Supreme Lord has the idea.

2:45:17The idea before is in the, the Lord's eyes, and any idea what it, what, what that we have, whether good or bad, uh, that has come from Kṛṣṇa. Yeah. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, fifteenth, uh, chapter.

2:45:43Uh, sarvasya cāhaṁ hṛdi sanniviṣṭo, and, uh, the ideas are coming from Me.

2:45:54But the person wants to, uh, if a person thinks he has an idea of the skyscraper building it, because Brahmā has given him that idea of the skyscraper. Yes, there is a building like that, you can do that.

2:46:13So he says that, uh, for man there cannot be anything invention. He can say discovery. There is nothing in him. So, so he says that these two things are opposing: idea and substance.

2:46:39They're, they're, uh, thesis and antithesis. But the spirit contains both of them, so it is the synthesis. Yeah. Let me get viruddha-dharma-samañjasya, viruddha, contradictory things can be adjusted in Krishna.

2:47:01Because, uh, what is viruddha, opposite, that is also coming from Krishna. And what is substance, that is also coming from Him. We are thinking viruddha. It's like this, same example: cool air and heater.

2:47:21They're opposite, but they're coming from electricity. Therefore, in electricity power both can work. You can say the electricity can be cooler, but electricity can be heater. That is viruddha-dharma-samañjasya.

2:47:45Contradictory things' adjustment. Inconceivable. There we say inconceivable, simultaneously one and different. Simultaneously we are all equal, one with God, and different. To think like that.

2:48:12Therefore it is called inconceivable. Everything we can conceive of, that must exist somewhere. Yeah. It's like I can... I conceive of a gold mountain. Now, in this world there's no gold mountain.

2:48:31All right, then let us say, then let us say, uh, I can conceive of a building eight hundred stories high. Eight hundred twenty-eight million stories. It doesn't exist on the... It exists. On this planet, no.

2:48:48So, so you can see, but it's somewhere, so it must exist. Yeah. Just like when many Brahmās came. So not only four-headed, but millions and millions. Yeah. I can conceive of that. So it must be a good idea.

2:49:06You cannot conceive anything which is not in existence. So somewhere it must be the square root of minus one. That is, spiritual world is like that.

2:49:22But here in this material, we have got experience: one plus one equal to two and one minus one equal to zero. In spiritual world this does not apply. There one plus one equals one and one minus one equal to one.

2:49:41Pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya pūrṇam evāvaśiṣyate. Pūrṇa. Complete. You take the complete, it's still it is complete. So where you have got this idea? So that we have to know from the Vedas. It must exist if I complete, yeah.

2:50:02So what about, what about the idea that God is evil? Evil answer. I can see what I'm saying. But now it put in our understanding. Yes. But because it's absolute, either is he evil or good, he is God. That is absolute.

2:50:24We cannot say God is evil there and now. That we're not... What about the idea that God does not exist? Huh? God does not exist. Yes, he does not exist in the dustbin. That's a fact.

2:50:41It has still cannot understand what it's gone. That is also fact. Because you are part and parcel of God. Gold is gold. Gold part particles are also gold.

2:51:04If you say "I'm God", that means as a particle of gold you can say "I'm gold". And President Nixon also can say "I'm American". That does not mean you are President Nixon.

2:51:16Yeah, but I can say, what if I think I am President Nixon? I can consider... Yes, he can hold the post of President Nixon somehow. Somebody. But let's say I am now president of the United States. That is madness.

2:51:33You can, you can, you can say "I'm President Nixon", which will be taken your, uh, President Nixon as America. Because he is also America. You are also America. In that way you can say "I am President".

2:51:56So that madness is not a good thing. That is not madness. You can say like that. That I am... for the... it is not clearly said, you can say, "I am as good as President Nixon," as everyone. That is the exponent.

2:52:14Anyway, whatever I can conceive must exist. So, he says that this absolute consciousness, or the idea in and for itself, manifests itself in three forms. The first one is the subjective mind.

2:52:32This is the individual who creates abstractions.

2:52:38Subjective mind—that's like, although I never heard what is God, but I can think within my mind that there is everywhere some controller, some chief man. So all this creation, as I'm saying, there must be a function.

2:53:07This is thinking. Rightly. Subjective. Yeah. This subjective mind manifests itself again in three ways.

2:53:15First, well, that to you is impersonal, globalized, and a way... the first, I understand I relate to this body somehow, then I get some understanding of outside objects, and then I get intelligence, real and moral choice.

2:53:38Yeah. These things are there, yeah. These things are there. He is thinking that he's body. But when it comes to the human form of body, he thinks, "Am I the only body?"

2:53:55Then he thinks, "No, I am not this body. This is my body." Advanced thing. Then, "What I am?" This is body.

2:54:08Then he says that this absolute idea, the in and for itself, manifests itself in the objective mind, such as our laws, our ideas of morality, our social ethics.

2:54:22In other words, the individual consciousness manifests itself as a group consciousness. As we have laws that govern the state. These are extensions of our own. Absolutely. Accept the control, and all these things will come.

2:54:34The laws must come, the control must come, the morality must come—the morality, everything. As soon as you accept the control. The atheistic persons do not accept the controller. They do everything nonsense.

2:54:53He says that the free will develops in these three areas of experience: from law, uh, morality and social ethics. That's right.

2:55:04That is the... that is the pillar view of the... unless you have a platform to execute free will, there is no meaning of free will. So that... that is the platform.

2:55:21That must be law, that must be system, morality, like Krishna. Now, whatever you like, that is clear. But he has explained this is the... this is the narrative. This is where he may differ from you.

2:55:46He says that morality is where the will evaluates itself and sets its own standards. No. Our morality is not like that. We accept morality from hierarchy. Our morality is standard.

2:56:08Just like Krishna says, "sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja", we accept that as morality. Yeah. Just... just like the state of California's morality may change.

2:56:19It may say gambling is legal, then immoral, and drinking is not legal. Because that law is imperfect. But God's law cannot be imperfect. It's perfect. That we don't take others' advice. That is imperfect. We take God's advice.

2:56:38Or God's representative's advice. That is what... that he says that the, uh, idea in and for itself expresses itself as the absolute spirit.

2:56:56That means he... he is quoting the imperfect perfect, he's quoting from material platform. He has no spiritual perspective.

2:57:06He said the subjective mind deals with inner experience, the objective mind deals with outer experience, but the absolute mind, uh, absolute, uh, mind deals with both, it unites them.

2:57:21That is absolute, and it... this... this absolute expresses itself in three forms again: art, religion, and philosophy. On the first level, the absolute assumes a sensuous form, what we call beauty. This is art.

2:57:44Our definition of God is all-beautiful. So we know that possible. The all-beautiful remains, includes everything, anything beautiful.