Sunday, November 3, 2013

Evolving Toward Perfection

"Evolving Toward Perfection"

October 4, 1973


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Srila A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada 

Guest (1) (Indian man): ...the light is (indistinct)Prabhupada: No, no. That means light becomes subordinate to the shadow.
Guest (1): Uh, for his experience, for his growth.
Prabhupada: That is my..., that this experience... You have got some experience, I have got some experience and another has experience. But so far you are talking of Bhagavad-gita... Because you say that Aurobindo has written on the Bhagavad-gita. The Bhagavad-gita says, in the Bhagavad-gita it is said, Krsna says:
mattah parataram nanyat
kincid asti dhananjaya
mayi sarvam idam protam
sutre mani-gana iva
 [Bg. 7.7]
Like that. He says that mattah parataram: "There is no more superior, supramental or Supreme Personality..." As you say supramental, it is with reference to a person. Just like Aurobindo, supramental. That means it is with reference to the Aurobindo person. Is it not? Any mental. As you say, "mental," it is with reference to a person.
Guest (1): Even if somebody says he is supramental or not, a yogi automatically, when he is in touch with the creative power, he gets the, gets the knowledge of past, present and future.
Prabhupada: Then why your knowledge and my knowledge different?
Guest (1): Because of our construction of mind.
Prabhupada: That's it. That's it, that...
Guest (1): The vibration comes the same, but one poet may write a poetry of a very high..., you know, Shakespeare...
Prabhupada: I've got... I made...
Guest (1): And another can be a lower form. But both of them are true. For me, even in the lower poetry's true, the higher is true. But it is a question of gradation merely, where the man has reached to.
Prabhupada: Well, everything is true, but higher true, or lower true?
Guest (1): Both are true.
Prabhupada: Both are true, but both are not the same thing. Then why higher and lower?
Guest (1): Because of his evolutionary stage.
Prabhupada: That's all. Then higher must be taken as higher, lower must be taken as lower. Just like a child's mental condition and his father's mental condition, they are not the same thing.
Guest (1): Sir, then today's lower, lower, higher, will be tomorrow's lower. Because tomorrow will be another unfolding.
Prabhupada: But, but then you have to admit... Tomorrow he may be higher, but there, there is always the same thing, higher and lower. That you have to admit.
Guest (1): It's a manifestation.
Prabhupada: Eh?
Guest (1): It's a manifestation of (indistinct).
Prabhupada: That's all right, but you have to accept... Just like your son, your son. Tomorrow he'll be grown up like you, but at the present moment, his mental condition, your mental condition, there are different.
Guest (1): He's in evolution.
Prabhupada: Yes, evolution. That, I understand. But these two things will continue.
Guest (1): As long as he's evolving and I'm evolving separately...
Prabhupada: Yes, yes.
Guest (1): As individual...
Prabhupada: No...,
Guest (1): ...because we are individualized.
Prabhupada: But do you think that Aurobindo's mental condition or your mental condition, the same?
Guest (1): No.
Prabhupada: Then here is higher and lower.
Guest (1): No, no.
Prabhupada: Why "no"? One time you say, "No..." No, no, this is contradictory.
Guest (1): Yes, sir, this is part (indistinct) higher and lower.
Prabhupada: Eh?
Guest (1): Gradations, you can use words.
Prabhupada: Yes. Yes, that will exist always.
Guest (1): Always?
Prabhupada: Always exist.
Guest (1): They will always exist? Gradations will always exist?
Prabhupada: Yes. That is a fact. Now where that evolution will end?
Guest (1): When there is a world of ananda, a new type of world...
Prabhupada: But...
Guest (1): ...as animals...
Prabhupada: That is, that is an expectation. That will never become. As you believe in Aurobindo, "When there will be," we say, "In the material world, there will be no such thing."
Guest (1): The Lord will be minus then, if He cannot create a...
Prabhupada: No, Lord is not minus.
Guest (1): ...a divine body on the sun.
Prabhupada: No, no. Lord is not minus. That you have to take information from the Bhagavad-gita, as the Lord says, duhkhalayam asasvatam [Bg. 8.15]. In this material world, it is everything duhkhalayam asas... Because you talked of the Bhagavad-gita, therefore I am talking on the Bhagavad-gita. The Bhagavad-gita states about this material world as duhkhalayam asasvatam [Bg. 8.15]. It is a place of miseries only.
Guest (1): Provided this is the body.
Prabhupada: Eh?
Guest (1): Provided this is the body. When the...
Prabhupada: But this body you have got. How you can deny?
Guest (1): But next evolution has to be another body only, sir.
Prabhupada: That is your expectation.
Guest (1): No. Already this, it is before us. The animals have come, and they, above the animals, we are there. We can't be the end of it. The next one is this yogic life, or a yogic body.
Prabhupada: But then... What is that end. That you do not know.
Guest (1): It will be always unfolding.
Prabhupada: That means it is always unknown.
Guest (1): Yes, the Lord is... Nobody can limit Lord.
Prabhupada: No, no. That is, that is unknown to you. But according to Bhagavad-gita, it is not unknown. There is a standard. There is a perfection stage.
Guest (1): As long as I have got body, I can never know God fully.
Prabhupada: No, no, that's all right, so long you have got the body.
Guest (1): All of our sastras says...
Prabhupada: But, you hear me. You have come to take some light. You kindly hear.
Guest (1): Yes. Yes.
Prabhupada: You were talking on the Bhagavad-gita. I say on the Bhagavad-gita. So so long you have got this body, there is no perfection. That's a fact.
Guest (1): Yes, sir.
Prabhupada: But Bhagavad-gita says, tyaktva deham punar janma naiti mam eti kaunteya [Bg. 4.9]. Bhagavad-gita says that if you understand the Krsna consciousness philosophy, janma karma me... First of all, you always remember that whatever we are talking, we are talking on the Bhagavad-gita, on the basis of Bhagavad-gita. The Bhagavad-gita says, janma karma me divyam yo janati tattvatah, tyaktva deham punar janma naiti [Bg. 4.9]. If you simply understand Krsna, what is Krsna, then tyaktva deham, giving up this body, you'll not have to accept another material body. This is the statement of Bhagavad-gita. But so long you'll accept this body, material body, you'll remain imperfect. There cannot be any perfection. It may be gradation. There are eight million, four hundred forms of life. There is Brahma, and there is ant also. Both of them are living entities. But the status quo of the ant, and the status quo of Brahma is not the same, higher consciousness or mental... So they're all in the material world. None of them are perfect. Between Brahma and ant, there are millions of other living entities, eight million. Not only one million. Millions. 8,400,000 forms of life. They're all imperfect because they have accepted this material body, either Brahma or ant, but your perfection will come when you do not accept this material body. That is the, I mean to, the destination of Bhagavad-gita. Krsna says, tyaktva deham punar janma naiti: [Bg. 4.9] "After quitting this body, he does not accept any more this material body." This, that means he, he becomes perfect. That is stated in another place. Samsiddhim paramam gatah. Samsiddhim paramam gatah. Find out this verse. Mam upetya kaunteya duhkhalayam asasvatam, napnuvanti mahatmanah samsiddhim paramam gatah [Bg. 8.15]. Mam upetya. Find out this... Now, unless you take some standard book of knowledge, we cannot talk. If you talk whimsically, I talk whimsically, then there will be no end of talk. We have to... Because you told me the other day: "In the Bhagavad-gita..." That is all right. Here is a standard. Everyone accepts. Now..., You have found it?
Srutakirti: Mam upetya punar janma... [Bg. 8.15].
Prabhupada: Mam upetya tu kaunteya...
Srutakirti: Oh.
Girl: May I ask you a question?
Prabhupada: No, you don't ask. We are talking.
Srutakirti: A-brahma...?
Prabhupada: Yes.
Srutakirti:
a-brahma-bhuvanal lokah
punar avartino 'rjuna
mam upetya tu kaunteya
punar janma na vidyate
 [Bg. 8.16]
Prabhupada: Yes. Now here is the perfectional stage. Now what is the translation?
Srutakirti: "From the highest planet in the material world down to the lowest, all are places of misery wherein repeated birth and death take place, but one who attains to My abode, O son of Kunti, never takes birth again."
Prabhupada: So as soon as you have to take birth, you have to die. Just like Aurobindo took birth; he died. Everyone. Everyone, even Brahma. It may be a long duration or a small duration. That doesn't matter. Everyone. That is the perfectional knowledge, how to solve this birth and death problem. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gita. Janma-mrtyu-jara-vyadhi-duhkha-dosanudarsanam [Bg. 13.9]. As soon as we are under these clutches of birth and death, old age and disease, we are imperfect. We are imperfect. Whatever I may be, you may be, but if I am subjected to birth, death, old age and disease, then I am imperfect. Therefore the perfectional, perfection of life is when you haven't got to take birth or die or become diseased and old. That is perfection.
Guest (1): That world must be somewhere in existence.
Prabhupada: Yes. There is. That is, that is indicated...
Guest (1): But that...
Prabhupada: Yad gatva na nivartante tad... [Bg. 15.6].
Guest (1): But that, the pressure of that world can come on our world also...
Prabhupada: No, that world will not.
Guest (1): ...can become our world.
Prabhupada: That knowledge... Just like we are getting this knowledge. Krsna came. Krsna is giving us the knowledge. You can get the knowledge and make your life perfect.
Guest (1): No, But that world must be in existence somewhere.
Prabhupada: Yes, that is existing. That is existing. Yes. That is... That is stated here in the Bhagavad...
Guest (1): But we can bring it down here with us.
Prabhupada: No, no. That is not your servant, that you can bring it down. That is not possible.
Guest (1): Somebody has to work for it.
Prabhupada: No, that is another, I mean to say, rascal proposition. You cannot bring that.
Guest (1): Somebody has to. Because the creation can be...
Prabhupada: No, no. "Somebody has to," that is your theory. But that is not possible.
Guest (1): The creation is always unfolding, more and more, and becoming of more and more.
Prabhupada: No, no. Creation is already there. Your knowledge is imperfect. You do not know what is that creation.
Guest (1): Few billion years before there was no human being living here.
Prabhupada: That is rascaldom. That is rascaldom.
Guest (1): Hm?
Prabhupada: That is rascaldom, that statement.
Guest (1): Is...?
Prabhupada: Rascaldom.
Guest (1): Pardon me, Sir?
Prabhupada: Rascaldom. Foolishness.
Guest (1): Foolishness?
Prabhupada: Yes.
Guest (1): Well, today...
Prabhupada: Because, because you say, "Two millions of years ago..." Now...
Guest (1): Six billion, whatever you may say...
Prabhupada: Eh?
Guest (1): Whatever amount of time, one can say, before that, there was no life here.
Prabhupada: Yes, but Vedic literature, Vedic literatures, you see. These four yugas. Now, in the Bhagavad-gita... We are talking always: Sahasra-yuga-paryantam ahar yad brahmano viduh [Bg. 8.17]. You study Bhagavad-gita. You'll understand. Sahasra-yuga-paryantam. One yuga means forty-three lakhs of years. And multiply by... Eh?
Devotee: Mrs. Nair has come.
Prabhupada: Let her come in, yes. And forty-three lakhs of years, multiply it by one thousand. Then how much it comes?
Guest (1): Forty-three multiplied by...
Prabhupada: Forty-three lakhs multiplied by one thousand.
Guest (1): Four hundred thirty crores.
Prabhupada: Thirty crores.
Guest (1): Four hundred thirty crores.
Prabhupada: That is only twelve hours of Brahma. So what you can two million?
Guest (1): No, no. I said six billion...
Prabhupada: Six billion, you may say, but this is only twelve hours of Brahma. So just see how long he's living. Hundreds of millions of years he's living, still. And you say two millions years.
Guest (1): No, when you say Brahma, you mean Supreme or the...?
Prabhupada: No, no. Brahma is a person like you and me. (Hindi) Jaya. (Hindi) Brahma is also a living entity. Just like... (Hindi) We are all living entities. Similarly, Brahma is also a living entity. Just like you are bigger than the ant, Brahma is bigger than me. That is the difference only. But he's also living entity. So he lives for millions and millions of years. (Hindi) So the other gentleman not yet, not has yet come, our Asnani. So let him come. Then we shall begin talking. So it is not a fact that two millions of years ago, there was no living entity. This is all rascaldom. Time is immemorial, and many, many millions of years ago there were living entities, more perfect living entities. They're still living. But we have no information. Just like Brahma. Brahma's one twelve hours, if you believe in the Bhagavad..., statement of Bhagavad-gita... sahasra-yuga-paryantam ahar yad brahmano viduh [Bg. 8.17]. Read that.
Srutakirti:
sahasra-yuga-paryantam
ahar yad brahmano viduh
ratrim yuga-sahasrantam
te 'ho-ratra-vido janah
 [Bg. 8.17]
Prabhupada: Translation.
Srutakirti: "By human calculation, a thousand ages taken together is the duration of Brahma's one day. And such also is the duration of his night."
Prabhupada: Now, that, this forty-three lakhs of years, multiplied by one thousand, how many years it is?
Guest (1): Four hundred thirty crores.
Prabhupada: Four hundred and thirty...?
Guest (1): Crores.
Prabhupada: Crores. That is day. Similarly, four hundred thirty crores, night.
Guest 2 (Indian man): Four thousand, three hundred crores.
Prabhupada: Just see. So four thousand, three hundred crores, that is day. And similarly night. Now this becomes complete twenty-four hours. Similarly one month. Similarly one year. He lives for one thousand, one hundred years. Now calculate.
Srutakirti: You have a total here.
Prabhupada: Eh?
Srutakirti: You have a total here.
Prabhupada: Ah.
Srutakirti: Says, "These hundred years, by earth calculations, total to three hundred and eleven trillion and forty million, and forty million earth years."
Prabhupada: Yes. If you believe in Bhagavad-gita, that is different thing. You cannot say all these things. But if you take this also, that also, that is another thing. We have to take a standard. Accha. (Hindi) I have got some important engagement with Mrs. Nair. She's the proprietor of the land. So...
Guest (2): (Hindi)
Prabhupada: (Hindi ) So you can go and see the temple, arati. (end)
 
>>> Ref. VedaBase => Room Conversation with Indian Guest -- October 4, 1973, Bombay
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