Gita Overview Mumbai 17.3-4 Panchopasana and religions in various modes

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So, we continue with the 17th chapter. We discussed the introduction, Arjuna is asking, what is the faith of those, what is the destination, what is the status of those who have faith but not in scripture? And Krishna answers by telling that their faith will be in the three modes and where their faith will be, will be determined by Sabhavaja.
So, we discussed about nature, nurture and culture. And now, of course, choice and grace also are the factors that we discussed. Now, Krishna will describe further how the person’s faith is.
See here when he is talking about, when you talk about looking at the people’s austerities, food, sacrifices, he is saying this is the way we can understand where their faith is present. But then after that, if we are doing activities in fashion, by doing austerities in goodness, we can move upwards also. So, implied that upward direction, upward recommendation is there.
But right now, he is talking about the concept of faith. Actually, the word sattva has two meanings. One is goodness and the other is existence itself.
In 13.28, Krishna talks about whatever is existing, that is sattva, the word uses. So, according to one’s existence, one’s faith is. So, that is what Krishna is telling in that.
So, in a sense, as you live, so you believe. So, as you live, so you believe. Our lifestyles shape our beliefs and accordingly our beliefs also shape our lifestyles.
Our lifestyle shape our beliefs means that, you know, for example, if people go from one cultural environment, they go from one cultural environment to another, then their lifestyle changes and accordingly, their inner beliefs also change. Not visible? So, we believe. As we live, as our existence, so becomes our belief.
That means, if we come and live in the association of devotees and live devotionally, our beliefs will become devotional. If we live in the association of materialistic people, our beliefs will become materialistic. So, this is talking about the role of culture.
And then so much for, actually, the shraddha maya, maya means made up of, is usually referred to the absolute truth. It’s filled with ananda. Shraddha mayo yam purusha.
So, actually, the purusha, the living being is simply shraddha maya. So, Krishna is not using the word shraddhavan over here. He is using shraddha maya.
Shraddhanavan means possessor of dhana. So, like that shraddhavan will be possessor of shraddha. But actually, possession means I am here and I possess something.
Possession is something external towards. But shraddha mayo means I am made of shraddha. So, in a sense, actually, we are nothing but our faith.
Every one of us has certain beliefs. Even materialistic people have their beliefs. Even atheistic people have their beliefs.
Everybody, so what is Krishna Chalisa? We are nothing but our beliefs, in a sense. Our beliefs make us, because beliefs are the substratum based on which we see everything else. So, even atheists are believers.
But they are, even atheists are believers. They are believers in the non-existence of God. So, atheists are actually, they are following the religion of faith in faithlessness.
Faith in faithlessness. That means they say there is no God, in godlessness, but they have faith in that. So, shraddha mayo yam purusha.
Every one of us is nothing but our beliefs. Now, Krishna is talking about a loop over here. So, how do you draw a loop over here? Smart art or shapes? A sort of circular loop? Smart art.
Anyway, basically what I want to show is, our, the way we live shapes our beliefs. And the way we believe that shapes our life. So, our lives shape our beliefs and our beliefs shape our lives.
So, I just want to show a cumulative circle between the two. Okay, so we can have two in there. How do we? Okay, I got it.
Good. So, Krishna is telling, our beliefs shape our lifestyles and our lifestyles shape our beliefs. So, actually, let me put it this way.
So, let’s start with here. Sattvan rupa sarvasya. Sattvan rupa is our lifestyle, the way we exist.
So, the way we live, that shapes our beliefs. And as we live, according, sattvan rupa sarvasya shraddha bhavati bharata, shraddha mayo yam purusha, yo ye shraddha sayevasa. So, as is your shraddha, so you become.
Yo ye shraddha sayevasa. So, the last part is talking about, beliefs to lifestyle is talking about in the 17.3 D and lifestyle to belief is talking about in 17.3 A. Sattvan rupa sarvasya shraddha bhavati bharata. So, this is how actually these two contribute to each other.
And that is why people who try to believe in God and become sort of religious without adopting a culture, which is conducive to religiousness, that their faith doesn’t become very strong. Because the two are mutually dependent on each other. They are symbiotic.
Any questions you can feel free to ask. Now, Krishna will talk about, he will give about the broad classification of faith. How do you know what a person’s faith is? Look at whom that person worships.
yajante sattvika devan yaksha rakshamshi rajasaha pretan bhuta ganam shanye yajante tam sajanah So, yajante sattvika devan. So, the Deva, those who worship, those who are in goodness, they worship the demigods. Then yaksha rakshamshi rajasaha.
Those who are in passion, they worship the yakshas and rakshasas. And then beyond that, so you remember I talked about goodness, goodness, goodness, passion and goodness, ignorance. So, MG, MG is worship of Devas.
He is goodness. And within MG, you have MG, MG is word of goodness. So, MGMI is Shiva.
Then you have MGMP is who? Goodness, passion. Then you have goodness, goodness is Vishnu, correct. Then that means within goodness, there are subdivisions.
So, there has to be a basic platform of goodness by which only people will worship the Devatas. Otherwise, they will not worship. And when somebody is just entirely in passion, then what happens? Yajante sattvika devan yaksha rakshamshi rajasaha.
Yakshas and rakshasas. So, now are the yakshas demigods? Not exactly. Yakshas are beings who are somewhat more powerful than human beings.
And that is why when Dhruv Maharaj goes and defeats the yakshas, that is considered to be a very heroic feat. Although because he got angry, he killed too many rakshasas, rakshas than Kubera and Swayamvaman, they all came and stopped him. And they said, don’t get so violent.
The fact that he killed them indicated they are much more powerful than human beings. As you see, Kubera is the head of the yakshas. But the yakshas are not considered demigods.
Just like Yamaraj is a demigod, but Yamadutas are not considered demigods. Similarly, yakshas are not considered to be demigods. They are more powerful human beings, more powerful beings, just as Yamadutas are also powerful beings.
Ganapati worship, in which mode it is? It is generally in the lower modes. Is it passion or ignorance? Generally, it is passion and sometimes it may be ignorance. The idea is, what are the rituals that are performed primarily in the worship? In Lord Shiva’s worship, often there is this bhang drinking and then there is ashes smearing and all such things, which characterise it as in the mode of ignorance.
Now, most of the Ganesha worship that is performed nowadays, that was institutionalised during the time of India’s political struggles. 1929, if that is, Palanga Devila was the primary person who institutionalised it and became quite popular thereafter. So, it may have some basis in tradition, but we will have to see how the worship is done.
See, again, we have to understand that it is not that as soon as I choose a particular deity, automatically my worship becomes in goodness. In one sense, Dhruva Maharaj, when he went to Lord Vishnu, he was himself in the mode of passion. Although he chose a deity that was in goodness, whose worship is normally done in the mode of passion.
We cannot just superimpose any typology directly on reality. Any typology, typology is a system of classification. Typology is a framework for thinking and analysing, but no typology can be directly imposed on reality.
So, it is also possible that there can be some worshippers of Lord Shiva who are in goodness. It is entirely possible. That means they themselves might be advanced somehow for some reason they are attracted to worship of Lord Shiva.
But in general, the kind of rituals that are included in the worship of Lord Shiva, they are the kind of rituals which will attract people in the mode of ignorance. But that does not mean that everybody who is worshipping Lord Shiva has to be in the mode of ignorance. So, this is something which you always have to be cautious about when you talk about typologies.
The typologies cannot be imposed on reality without adequate discrimination. Is it clear? So, now, what is the difference between a preta and a bhuta? Pretas are forefathers. That is pitras, not pitras.
So, actually, I will tell you something which will give you some bad dreams. So, actually, I have a full class on all these different kinds of vampires and pretas and bhutas and all these things. What are they actually? So, the Garuda Purana talks a lot about this.
So, in traditional circles, some child would become mischievous. He will say, when you sleep, I will speak Garuda Purana to you while you are sleeping. I will say, no, no, don’t speak that because I will get all bad dreams.
So, the idea is, Garuda Purana talks elaborately about the journey of the soul. When the soul goes from, leaves this body. So, actually, maybe I will since the word preta is used over here.
So, bhuta is what? Bhuta is soul plus subtle body without gross body. Isn’t it? So, bhuta is soul plus subtle body without a gross body. Now, preta is soul plus subtle body plus transition body that is grosser than the subtle body and subtler than the gross body.
So, what happens is, when the soul leaves from this body. So, when the soul goes out, soul and subtle body go out. Now, from here, when the soul is supposed to go to a next destination, how does that soul go to the next destination? There is a process.
So, for that journey, the soul is given a covering and when the soul along with the subtle body, with that covering that goes along, that is called as a preta. So, that covering, it is not the same as a gross body. The gross body the soul will get after the soul enters into the next womb and gets a new body.
And it is not just a subtle body, it is grosser. So, that is the preta. Now, when this preta, there are, when the soul dies, there are actually two paths by which the soul goes.
You remember in the 8th chapter, I talked about deviyan and pitrayan. So, let’s put it this way. Person, then after that, on death, all people, the person becomes a preta.
And then, when the preta, after that, what is the post-death sacrifice called? Shraddha. One more word for it. Pindadan.
So, there is a whole pindadan kriya is done. So, when the pinda is done, basically, the food that is offered to that particular ancestor, departed person. So, the way the food is offered, it is at a subtle level, that food contributes to the building of the next body of that particular departed person.
It is not simplistic that you offer food and that builds, but the idea is the concept of sacrifice over here, and suddenly that contributes. And when the pindadan ritual is complete, then if the soul has gone by a pitrayan, then after, generally, it is after 11 or 13 days, depending on the varna, the preta will become a pitra. So, I will repeat this.
This is from the Garuda Purana, primarily. So, normally, when a person dies, the person becomes a preta. Then, when the pindadan kriya is performed properly, for that, by the pindadan kriya, that person’s journey to the next world is facilitated.
When the pindadan kriya is completed, at that time, the preta becomes a pitra. That means, he gets the next body in pitraloka, where that person becomes an ancestor. So, that is how his journey takes place.
So, what about those cultures in which the pindadan kriya is not performed? See, when the scriptures talk about one process, they do not necessarily bring in all the other factors that are involved. They just focus on that process and how that process brings the result. For example, Krishna may say that, remember me, you will come back to me.
Whatever you remember, you will attain that. That is the principle. You remember, I talked about these two principles overlapping.
If you practise spiritual life, you will never go down to a non-human species. But then, Bharat Maharaj practised spiritual life, still he went down to the non-human species. Why is that? Because there are two principles over there.
One principle is, the fruits of spiritual life are eternal. The other principle is that, whatever we are attached to, that we will attain. So, then both those principles were reconciled, so that the spiritual incarnations were retained, but he also got a body which is lower.
So, he got a deer’s body, but not deer’s consciousness. So, when the scriptures talk about certain rituals, they do not consider other complications. But when the other factors are there, they will shape things accordingly.
It is not that, it is just because of these rituals that the person attains Pitrloka. This is one thing, these sort of rituals are recommended for the descendants of that departed person, that they will stick to dharma and by that they will also acquire something. But it is not that if a person has done papa throughout his life, just because somebody has done Pindadana, at that time the person automatically goes to Pitrloka.
It does not work like that. So, this is one part of the set of activities which takes a person to a particular level. So, if a person has done the adequate punya by which the person will go to Pitrloka, then that punya means, punya is not something which is conceptually not related to Vedic culture.
Even other people in other religions, people who are just having mundane piety, they can also do punya. So, it is primarily by their punya that they go to a higher loka and these rituals that are performed, they assist in the transition. Just like when a person is, now let us talk about from a more familiar perspective, this is all the karmakandya punya perspective, let us talk from the bhakti perspective.
When a person is about to, when a Vaishnava is about to depart from their world, we will facilitate the transition by having kirtans, by providing the Maha Garland, Maha Tulsi, be having pictures of Krishna around that person. We will try to help that person to remember and that will definitely play a role. But more important than all that will be, how that person has lived throughout his or her life.
So, along with that, along with living a devotional life, towards the end of the life, others also help in, help that person in going through that journey, making that transition as smooth and as successful as possible. So, this aspect of creating a conducive culture is what we see as our responsibility. Now, we should do that as a service to the devotee.
But if we do not do that, does that mean that that person will not go to the destination? That person is a pure devotee or advanced devotee. Now, even if that person dies in an accident, that person dies in a prison, that person dies in a terrorist attack, and that person has lived a life of devotion, then accordingly they will attain that destination. Is it clear? So, support systems are more an aid, but they are not the determinant of the post-death destination.
And support systems are more for others to fulfil their obligations. Clear? So, Pretas and Bhutas are worshipped by those in Tamoguna. Now, today when we see the word Bhutaganams, so this can literally refer to, the word Bhuta has two meanings.
What are the two meanings of Bhutas? Generally living entities and can also refer to specifically the ghostly beings. So, when Krishna uses Bhutaganams, this is all kinds of ghostly beings are included in that. But it can also refer to all other ordinary human beings.
So, that means, many times people make sort of temples of film stars and politicians and such things, all these are in the Tamoguna. All these are Bhutaganams, people may even worship sports stars. It is all Tamasic.
Now, the rituals may not be Tamasic. See, the Indian mind has such a, the Prabhupada says spiritual substance flows in the body of Indians. So, the Indian mind has such a propensity to worship that they will indiscriminately worship anything and anything.
So, when India had won the World Cup, there was this Sachin Tendulkar, they had made a Virat Rupa of Sachin Tendulkar. And that was a cover thing of an article. And the idea, it was such a combination of creativity and perversity.
Creativity in terms of using the imagination, perversity in terms of distorting the principles. So, what they had shown was all the other, how many teams participated in the World Cup, 12 or 16 whatever. So, they had shown the Sachin Tendulkar with 16 mounts and the captains of all the 16 countries are going into his mouth.
And below that, they had written something like, that you are the best cricketer. So, you know, there is this word prayer. So, it was like, you are Wimbledon Richards, you are Brian Lara, you are this, you are that.
So, all this is Pretan Bhuta Ghamshyaane Jante Tamasaajana. It is all worship in the mode of ignorance. So, the ignorance may not be specifically in the rituals, but it is the underlying conception that are motivating this.
So, Naraprabhupada talks about Panchopasanaavadiya. The impersonalists are supposed to be situated in the mode of goodness and they worship five kinds of demigods. So, Panchopasana is a concept which is started by Shankaracharya primarily and he tried to unify Hinduism in its fight against Buddhism.
So, what he did was, he found that, so who are the five, so who are the five beings that are worshipped? Ganesh, Surya, Vishnu is the last, Shiva, Durga, Shakti. So, these are five deities that they worship. So, Ganapatyas, Sauryas, Shaivites, and then Shaktas and Vaishnavas.
These are the five. Now, Bhaktivinoda Thakur in one of his books, I think Chaitanya Shri Shankaracharya, he gives a very interesting hierarchy of these worships in the conception of how these are progressive. He explains that, so this is the hierarchy.
So, what he says is, when people live in nature, the first thing they observe is that actually nature is more powerful than them. They understand that in nature there can be thunderbolts, there can be storms, there can be hurricanes, and I am vulnerable to the powers of nature. So, at that time, they personify nature and they start worshipping nature.
So, he says that Shaktas are basically nature worshippers. They basically recognise that nature is extremely powerful and they start worshipping nature. And to a large extent, scientists will fall in this category.
Because scientists also deify. Deify means to make into a deity. They deify nature.
The whole theory of evolution is natural selection. It makes nature itself into a god. So, in a sense, they are Shaktas.
So, they will not be worshipping Shakti or Kali. But the level of consciousness that prompts people to worship nature as if it is divine, that is the level of consciousness that is also characterised by amongst many scientists. Now, after that, when they observe, yes, nature is extremely powerful.
But they observe that actually in nature, there are animals. And these animals are very ferocious. They are very powerful.
So, therefore, they start conceiving that nature is supervised by some kind of animal beings. And then that leads to the level of worship that corresponds with Ganapathyas. So, this he calls as zoomorphism.
So, zoomorphism, zoology is study of animals. So, zoomorphism is, anthropomorphism is to conceive of God in a human form. So, zoomorphism is to conceive of God in an animal form.
Then after that, they move further and say, okay, we can look at nature, we can look at the powerful creatures that are in nature. But ultimately, nature and all the creatures within nature, they are sustained by an energy. And the source of the energy is the sun.
So, then they rise to the level of Shauryas. What is the word, Shauryas? Shauryas. Actually, I am sorry, it looks like this, a hierarchy like this.
So, what happens is first, they see that nature is animated by certain energy. Nature would be useless without energy. So, they start worshipping the energy.
And then they think, okay, this energy is okay, a storm may cause destruction. The storm is basically active because of certain presence of energy. And the energies in this planet and this universe practically come from the sun.
So, they consider the sun as the object of worship. And then at this stage, still it is the object of worship is conceived more in material, in terms of material elements. Then after that they think, supervising nature and energy is an animal like being, is a being conceived in animal form.
So, that time, the Ganapatya worship comes. Beyond all tempering matter is eternal spirit. So, there they understand that.
So, the Shaiva worship is actually a form of impersonalistic worship. So, this is, that is why among Shaivites, they always have this concept, Jiu-Shiyu Ek Ho Jaate. That is their idea.
So, generally the Shaivite worship is almost always impersonalist. Very, very few Shaivites are actually personalists. And then beyond that, the worship of Vishnu, this is not transcendental worship.
That is why Prabhupada uses the word here, philosophised Vishnu. See here, they worship the impersonal Vishnu form in the material world, which is known as the philosophised Vishnu. So, I will explain what philosophised Vishnu means.
So, this Vishnu idea is the conception of a human like being controlling all of existence. So, now they do not conceive of this being as transcendental to material existence. They consider, okay, he is in control, but he is also part of material existence.
I hope the difference between pure Vaishnavism and this form of philosophised Vaishnavism is clear. In the pure Vaishnavism, we understand clearly that Lord Vishnu is beyond, he is transcendental. But here they think, no, he is not transcendental, he is in the material world itself, but in the control of the material world.
And beyond, so basically he says, Bhaktivinoda Thakur that, all forms of worship which are there in the world, they will fall in these five categories. So, they may not necessarily, the Native Americans, they may be worshipped, they may be Aztecs and Mayans who worship the sun god or they may worship fire. They may not self-identify themselves as Shaktas or Shauryas or whatever.
But if we look at the level of consciousness that they have and the conceptions that they have, they will fall in one of these categories. Now, beyond these five kinds of worship, ultimately there is transcendental Vaishnavism, which goes beyond the body. And that is the highest of all forms of worship.
So, any questions about this? Yeah. If Shankaracharya was an impersonalist, how did he use these five conceptions? See, you remember yesterday I said how scripture or scriptural tradition is like a mirror. So, in general, within the Vedic scriptures, there are certain kinds of rituals which are given, many kinds of rituals are given.
But different rituals are for people of different mentalities. So, Shankaracharya observed that among the various kinds of worship that are going on, these five are prominent. What was existing in society at that time and also what was also given in the scriptures.
So, he emphasised this and based on this, he united all the people who follow the Vedic culture. Now, when Shankaracharya talked about this, he has not talked about the hierarchy. This hierarchy has been talked about by Bhaktivinoda Thakur.
But that does not mean that it is not based in scripture. It is implicit in scripture in the sense that if we look at the conceptions that people have, we can see that there is an evolution in the thought that is happening over there. So, Shankaracharya in his Panchopasana does not conceive of Panchopasana like that.
This is Bhaktivinoda Thakur’s explanation of how Panchopasana can gradually elevate people and how various forms of worship all over the world form a hierarchy that ultimately culminates in transcendental rationalism. Shankaracharya basically, his idea is that these five are the prominent forms of the impersonal Brahman that can be worshipped. So, his conception is different.
It is like the same terms are there, but they will be invested with the different meanings by different people. So, Shankaracharya according to the philosophy that he has used, he is not talking about, maybe I will clarify this, it is a good point. So, Panchopasana as explained by Bhaktivinoda Thakur or more specifically how Panchopasana elevates.
So, this is what we are talking about over here. Is it clear now? Any other questions? If people do not chant but do deity worship and they do it ritualistically, will it be considered transcendental? No, not necessarily transcendental. It will be conducive to transcendence.
Why is it conducive to transcendence? Because they have come to the right goal. They may not have got the right means, but they have come to the right goal. So, I will talk about one more aspect over here.
In my Aishwarya Upanishad classes, did I talk about Christianity and Islam? I have talked a little bit or I did not talk much about religions? No, how those religions are primarily in the mode of passion and ignorance and the quote of Prabhupada about how this religion is a particular conception. How many of you were there in my Dhramacharya classes I took on world religions? Okay, there I have spoken. Okay, I will speak briefly about that.
So, first, now you know that well-known statement of Prabhupada which is quoted even in the Ilavrata that Prabhupada said that even why Shakta is better than a Christian, why a demigod worshipper is better than a Christian? What is Prabhupada’s answer? He is in the house of the Vedas. So, what does this mean? This essentially means that he has less cultural and conceptual barriers to cross for attaining Vishnu worship. So, what does this mean? I will explain this point.
Cultural barriers, cultural barriers means that people who are outside the Vedic tradition, they have a very different culture quite often and because of that the transition from one culture to another is it requires a lot of reorientation. For example, you know in the Vedic tradition, almost anybody in the Vedic tradition, they worship deity, respect cows, respect Vedas. There is no cultural barrier because Vedas are already respected and no conceptual barrier because we see this as a part of one’s own tradition.
In general, if a person is a Christian and that person wants to become a Vaishnava, the amount of reorientation that is acquired is much much greater than somebody who says he is a Vaishnava. Because overall, it is like the same framework is there. The way of thinking which is taught in the Abrahamic religions about God, often that is quite different and one of the biggest differences is the idea that this is the only way.
This is the only way. Now, whichever form of worship people will follow, even if people are following Shaivism or Shaktism or whatever, no religion, no Vedic path reaches this is the only way. It may say this is the highest way.
But I have never said that this is the only way. So, that exclusive mentality is foreign to the Vedic mindset and that is why conceptually it is much easier for people to embrace the Vedic philosophy, the Vaishnava philosophy if they are already in the house of the Vedas. Otherwise, it becomes more difficult.
So, now, jante sattvika devan, saying that those who worship the devtas, they are in the mode of goodness. So, in a broad way if you look, what does the word Veda mean? The Veda means knowledge. In a more extremely restricted way, the word Veda means the four Vedas.
In an intermediate way, it means revealed knowledge. So, in a sense, we could say all scriptures are Veda. So, we could say in that sense even Bible and Quran are Veda.
At the same time, they do not contain the depth and the exhaustiveness of the revelation that is there over here. And that is why we will see that in the past time of Chand Kazi being delivered by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, there are a lot of strong statements which Chaitanya Mahaprabhu makes. He says that your path is Kalpita.
Chapter 17, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is talking with Chand Kazi and Chand Kazi says that, you know, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu asks, why do you kill cows? Cows are like your mother. So, then he says that actually in our Quran that is allowed and in your scriptures also, it is allowed to kill cows in Gomed. He says, no, that is only under regulation.
And then he says that how those cows were revived and now because they cannot do it, that should be prohibited now. But then, so he says, because you cannot bring cow back to life, therefore you are going to go to hell. And then he says, cow killers are condemned.
Now, this is where he says, so he says, there are many mistakes and illusions in your scriptures and their compilers, not knowing the essence of logic, gave orders that were against reason and argument. And then he became silent and then Prabhupada talks about it over here. He says that, similarly, from a scientific point of view, the answers of the Old Testament, New Testament and Quran to many questions have changed.
But a Shastra cannot change at a person’s whim. Shastra must be free from four defects. And then Prabhupada says that the scriptures of the Yavanas are free, Old Testament, New Testament and the Quran.
Their compilation has a history. They are not eternal like the Vedic knowledge. Therefore, although they have their arguments and reasonings, they are not very sound and transcendental.
As such, modern people, advanced in science and philosophy, deem these scriptures unacceptable. This is a very strong purpose. So, what Prabhupada is saying over here is, first is, they are not eternal.
They are not transcendental. They have originated at a particular time in history. And to the extent that they contain principles about God Consciousness, to that extent, they are good.
You are not saying that they are bad. And you are not certainly saying that they are false. But they are not flawless.
They have mistakes. So, they are not transcendental. They are not eternal.
And they are not, they may have some mistakes in terms of reasoning and other things. So, now, after talking about this, there is a Satsvarupa Maharaj, while preaching in America, he asked Prabhupada a question about how they should preach to Christians. And there Prabhupada gives a very interesting answer.
Yeah. Would someone like to read this? Instead of exactly quoting, go ahead. So, Prabhupada is cautious, you know.
He names Christianity rather than name Islam. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Literally convention of the author of the fourth gospel. There are four gospels.
He is talking about the fourth gospel over here. Yeah. And Prabhupada says that this has not been told about our Acharyas anywhere.
No author is Acharya has ever commented that this was what was put into the mouth of Krishna or Vyasadeva or Sanjay or any other person. So, now the important point. Prabhupada is saying that, yeah, I will explain that.
Basically, there are many passages in the Bible that have been interpolated. They were not originally there, but later on they have been added. Prabhupada is talking about that is a literary convention.
That means, see, in general, one of the biggest problems with either the Bible or the Quran is that the was written far, far after the book. Long, long time afterwards. Now, Jesus, when he spoke, okay, his followers thought he is a great person in some way, but they never did not recognise him to be a Messiah in any way.
So, after he was crucified, they were all shattered. Then eventually, later on, when he was resurrected, then they started galvanising their faith. And then they started reaching out to others.
And then after a long, long time, they started writing down what he taught. So, during this transition, what originally Jesus had spoken, what his audience had heard and what was written down in the books, there are gaps that have been coming to that. Similarly, what Muhammad spoke, Muhammad got the revelation of the Quran at different times.
Now, he would just, it was said that Gabriel, the archangel would appear to him and tell him to write. Now, Muhammad did not know how to write. So, he would just start speaking.
He would start speaking and somebody else would write it down for him. And then like that, he from the age of 40 till the time he died, he got revelations. And those whoever was present, they would write the revelations down.
Then almost like 30-40 years after he died, then those revelations were compiled together and they were made into what is called as the Quran. So, now what happened during this 40 years, it is difficult to see. And not only that, even before when he was, Muhammad was there at one particular time, he said, okay, now the spirit speaks through me.
The God is speaking through me, write down. So, when he started writing down, he wrote down. And at that time, what he wrote is, Islam is aggressively monotheistic.
Monotheistic means one God and aggressively monotheistic means only one God. And all other Gods should be demolished, should be destroyed. So, at that particular time, Muhammad, he was getting some followers.
At the same time, he was also starting some opposition. So, he was trying to do some reconciliation. And he was saying that, okay, you can worship other Gods also, but Allah should be considered the highest God.
So, there was some discussion going on between him and the local authorities over there. You know that he was originally speaking in Mecca. And then when the people, the ruling authorities over Mecca started persecuting, then he left from Mecca to Medina.
And it was Medina where he became powerful. Later on, when he came back with his army, he conquered Mecca without a war. And that’s how Islam started spreading.
So, when he was in Mecca at that time, he spoke a surah, which said to the effect that, you can worship some other Gods also, but Allah should be considered the highest. And after hearing this, the authorities who were there, rather than they becoming conciliatory, they said, just see, he is contradicting himself. First he said, you should worship only Allah.
Now, he is saying other Gods can also be worshipped. And then when this sort of, after that revelation came about, then Mohammed, he said, I realised that that was not the voice of God that was speaking. That was the voice of Shaitan that was speaking.
So, those were satanic verses. They were not divine verses. And he removed them from the Quran.
So, now, taking this as the centre story, Salman Rushdie has written that book, novel called Satanic Verses. So, and that became controversial novel, because of which he was, the novel was banned and a fatwa was made against him and then he had to live in hiding for most of his life. But the point here is that even Mohammed himself, he did say at particular point that sometimes it was the Shaitan who spoke through it.
So, that is why what Prabhupada is saying is, there are possibilities of interpolations. Now, somebody may argue, oh, there is possibility of interpolation in your scriptures also. You may argue like that.
So, Prabhupada says, okay, that is why, Prabhupada’s important point is, as we discussed earlier, the Bhagavad Gita core has not been changed, thousands of years at least. And apart from that, Prabhupada has different points. He says, look at the standard of the teachings itself.
The teachings that are required, thou shall not have sex with your mother, that is definitely not a very elevated teaching. So, let us look at what all Prabhupada is saying over here from these different points of view. We will continue this tomorrow, but just summarising this.
So, problems non-educated, Prabhupada says, not eternal, revealed at, they appeared at, what of course Prabhupada uses, does anyone remember? Exactly what I would like to see. But you do the work. 17th chapter only? Yeah.
Fashion recently. So, fashion recently, Prabhupada is about fashion. Then he says, not transcendental.
So, what is the difference between eternal and transcendental? Eternal means that which exists forever. Transcendental means that which is beyond matter. So, matter itself is also eternal, but matter is not transcendental.
Then he says, not having sound arguments and reasonings. So, he has said that, not very sound, not transcendental. Then these three are from C.C. Saranthi Nadi.
And then there he says, there are interpolations and then he says level of teachings not very high. What is the date? 6910. Okay.
6910. Now, one very important point is after this, very important, now please be very careful about this. Now, we should not think that now I have got a weapon to bash all Muslims and Christians.
Your scriptures are not transcendental, not eternal, there is no class. No. I give you all these hints, not for general discussion, but for your personal understanding to know the respective positions of different types of religious principles.
Ours is transcendental because we are not very much concerned with the minor moral or immoral principles. Although each and every devotee is a first-class moralist. But our religious principles, our natural occupational duty is to learn how to love Krishna.
We are practising the same teachings. So, let us very steadily stick to our principles and our movement will surely come out successfully. So, our goal is not to bash other religions.
Now, our goal, if we just present Krishna consciousness in a coherent and attractive way, people will become attracted. So, he does not say that you go about and criticise other religions. We just stick to our principles and we will attract others.
But for our education, we can understand this. So, we are talking about this here because in a broad sense, there is the understanding of revolution even in these other religions. But if you look at the content of their teachings, this content is not very elegant.
And beyond it also, what Srila Prabhupada refers to elsewhere is there is no detailed knowledge about God or his kingdom. I gave a class on East or West Krishna Consciousness is the best. So, there I talk about this very elaborately how Sambandha, Avideya, Prayojan, all three are best revealed in the Vedic tradition.
So, there are other aspects also. So, that is Sambandha, Avideya and Prayojan are not clearly described. So, that is why we focus on practising Krishna Consciousness ourselves and sharing Krishna Consciousness with others.
But that does not mean we disrespect other religions. We focus on sharing Krishna Consciousness with others and encouraging them according to their level of consciousness. Thank you very much.