Prabhupada’s contributions to the world

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Welcome to this discussion today on the contribution of a great Sankhya teacher to the world’s wisdom, culture and to the overall effort of raising global human consciousness. Srila Prabhupada is the founder acharya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. Throughout the world, across history and geography, there have been many spiritual teachers and they have in their own way contributed significantly to raising the consciousness of people.
Raising the consciousness means to enable people to seek happiness in more selfless ways. To seek happiness through contribution rather than exploitation. Most of the problems in the world are caused because of a lack of selflessness, because of a lower consciousness where people seek happiness through exploitation instead of through contribution.
Spirituality is a very central and essential means for raising individual consciousness because when we become spiritually minded, then we understand that our happiness does not come just by acquiring more and more material things. Our happiness comes by uncovering the spiritual treasures that are there within our heart and delighting in those treasures and sharing them with the world. So Srila Prabhupada was one such extraordinary saint who lived just less than a century ago and he did tremendous contribution to share the ancient spiritual wisdom of India which in its essence is non-sectarian, is universal and is a potent vehicle for empowering individuals to raise their own consciousness.
So I would like to focus on three central aspects of the presentation of Srila Prabhupada and how thereby he contributed to the raising of global human consciousness. So first and foremost, Srila Prabhupada raised spirituality from the domain of subjective belief to objective reasoning. Spirituality in the realm of subjective belief means you believe something, you accept that.
I believe something, I’ll accept this. So yes, different people have their rights to their own beliefs but at a foundational level there is reality and Srila Prabhupada emphasized based on the ancient Vedic wisdom of India that our spirituality is the foundation of our existence. He would often say that you are not your body, you are the soul.
The idea of a soul is very much there in many spiritual traditions of the world but often this concept of the soul is vague. It is often used as a metaphorical reference to our non-material essence but based on the Bhagavad Gita’s teachings, Srila Prabhupada explained that the soul is not just some vague metaphorical reference to some non-material essence. The soul is a higher dimensional ontological entity distinct from the body.
So many people even within the Vedic tradition would say aham brahmasmi, I am spirit and that is true but Prabhupada explained the practical application of this aham brahmasmi, I am spirit is also that I am not the body. As long as we identify with the body till that time often even our spiritual practices end up perpetuating our illusion. How is that? Today in the world there are so many different religious traditions and all of them can contribute to raising human consciousness but if people identify too much with their material side then even their spiritual spiritual practices and spiritual beliefs end up creating divisions.
Today the world is being ripped apart by sectarian ideas based on nationality, based on race, based on creed, even based on religion but the Vedic wisdom as presented by Srila Prabhupada rips apart the foundation of all such divisiveness by emphasizing that we are not the body. So if we are not the body then actually we are not there is no need for conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, there is no need for conflict between Indians and Pakistanis, there is no need for conflicts between America and Vietnam or whatever conflicts have been there. They have all founded on the misconception that I am the body and even the conflicts which are there within religions ultimately as souls we are not Indians or Pakistanis, we are not Israelis or Palestinians where as souls we are not even Hindus or Muslims or Christians or Buddhists or non-believers as souls we are spiritual beings who are beyond all bodily designations.
So actually this is a very profound spiritual conception which cuts across all sectarian dogmas and brings about a universality of spiritual understanding which is extremely profound. Yad Tukrts Navad Ekasmin, Krishna describes in the Bhagavad Gita that that knowledge by which one sees the non-material essence of all living beings that knowledge is enlightened knowledge and that is what Srila Prabhupada presented. So in a world where so many divisions are being created even by religion if we can understand how the foundation of all divisiveness is the conception that I am the body and if this conception can be uprooted then the means for raising oneself to a higher level of consciousness and to contributing towards global harmony and progress becomes much much clearer.
So Prabhupada presented the soul as a higher dimensional ontological entity which is entirely trans-sectarian beyond all national, racial and religious designations and along with this he presented a conception of God that was also in one sense very specific because he presented Krishna as God but in other sense it is also very universal in the sense that he presented God with attributes which are harmonizable with most of the world’s theistic traditions. So Prabhupada presented that God is not just some way power or presence God is the source of everyone that is the definition which is given in the Vedanta Sutra the source of everything and Prabhupada explained that in this world we see so many beautiful things we see persons in this world so the source of the beauty the source of the personality which is the absolute truth must also have beauty must also have personality and he presented God not as one religion’s God as different from another religion’s God he said it is that same one God who is known by different names in different traditions and it is that same God who is being adored and worshipped by saints with different levels of realization in different traditions. So this trans-sectarian conception of God where God is the being who is all attractive who is all powerful who is universally adorable and who is revealed in the Vedic tradition to be Krishna is also a very significant contribution and this contribution Prabhupada made not by denying other religious traditions revelations but by complementing those religious traditions revelations so for example when he would interact with the spiritual teachers of other traditions for example even he would meet Christians and Christians asked him so what what are your thoughts about Jesus? Prabhupada said Jesus Christ is our Guru.
He had so much love for God that he was ready to sacrifice his life for the sake of service to God. Who can do such a thing? So the criteria of true spirituality as presented by Sri Prabhupada was not just some affiliation to some group or adherence to certain forms of beliefs or practices the criteria was universal trans-sectarian that was love for God and this is also based on the ancient Vedic scripture the Srimad Bhagavatam which describes that which enables one to develop love for God that is the highest religious system. So Srila Prabhupada said that Jesus had so much love for God that he was ready to give up his life for the service of God.
A person who has such exalted level of love of God is our Guru. Similarly Sri Prabhupada at one time when he was in Iran and the Namaz prayers were being recited at that time he closed his eyes and he went himself into an absorbed meditative phase of consciousness and he heard all the prayers and he said it is so beautiful and he said that there are different people in this world they’re all glorifying God in their own ways and it is this glorification of God which is going to benefit humanity is going to elevate human consciousness. So he would say that I have not come here to convert people from one religion to another.
If there is any conversion that is to be done that is not horizontal conversion from one religion to another it is a vertical conversion from materialism to spirituality from lovers of worldly things to lovers of God that is the conversion that is desired and that is the conversion that Srila Prabhupada strove throughout his life to bring about in all people according to their religious faith. He said that if a Christian understands the principles of God consciousness as given in the Vedic scripture that Christian will become a better Christian. So the idea is that raising one’s consciousness is the essence of one’s religious practices and further in this trans-sectarian presentation of Christian consciousness Prabhupada’s vision expanded not only to all of humanity but it extended beyond all of humanity to encompass all living beings.
This is also based on the Bhagavad Gita wherein it is said that the wise person sees all living beings equally in 5.18 in the Bhagavad Gita and the wise person sees a learned sage, an ignorant person, a dog, an elephant, a cow everybody equally. The idea is one sees the spiritual essence behind all living beings. Today our society and our culture is slowly awakening to animal rights and there is the idea that animals are being subjected to so much cruelty and we should stop this cruelty and there is a movement which is at one level promoting the rights of animals at another level also promoting vegetarianism as a healthy compassionate alternative for human dietary habits and Srila Prabhupada was a pioneer in this kind of presentation.
So he explained that actually all living beings have a spiritual spark within them. All living beings are integrally the parts of God. The soul is not the monopoly of only human beings.
All living beings have souls and that’s why all living beings have a right to life and we humans do not have the right to enroach on the lives of others just for the sake of satisfying our palate. Now of course, one of the geniuses of his presentation was that he did not present spirituality as a set of exalted ideas. He also presented practical means by which one could start living according to those ideas.
So for example, he recommended vegetarianism as the spiritually compassionate and enlightened dietary choice but along with that he facilitated the dietary choice by presenting to the western world vegetarian cuisine. When Srila Prabhupada came to the west in 1960s, many people thought that to become vegetarian means that we will have to eat vegetables and live. The idea that there could be a huge variety of delicacies that could be prepared without any non-vegetarian ingredients, this was foreign, alien, unknown to the mainstream western society and although even before Srila Prabhupada, there were many other spiritual leaders who had talked about spirituality and they had presented spirituality in intellectually appealing terms but Prabhupada presented it in culturally accessible and individually applicable terms.
Culturally accessible means by himself presenting a variety of delicacies in vegetarian food and training his students to also learn the vegetarian cuisine, he actually laid the foundations for vegetarianism becoming a healthy alternative dietary preference. So that is a very significant contribution of spiritually providing a foundation for a vegetarian lifestyle and animal rights and then culturally making it accessible through providing training and accessibility to vegetarian cuisine. Along with that, one of the most significant practical aspects of Srila Prabhupada’s presentation was his teaching of the emphasis on the holy names as a means for individual transformation.
Prabhupada came to America at the time when the counterculture was gaining momentum. In 1965, he came to America. In 1966, he established the International Society for Krishna Consciousness and he established this right in the heart of hippie land in Haight-Westbury in San Francisco and in New York, it was in the Lower East Side and there people in the young Americans from the flower generation, those who had become hippies had taken to drugs as a means for raising their consciousness as a means in the hope of experiencing higher spiritual consciousness.
But unfortunately, far from experiencing higher consciousness, many of them, most of them in fact, ended up getting addicted to drugs and hurting even ruining their lives. So at such a time, Srila Prabhupada used the spiritual wisdom of India to launch a sociological rescue operation wherein he presented the chanting of the holy names as an authentic means for experiencing higher consciousness and thousands and thousands of people he transformed by that means and he transformed it in such a way that those people who were not even able to have any basic level of self-mastery and live disciplined lives, they became selfless servants of God and of humanity in service to God and it was such a dramatic transformation. Thousands and thousands of people became transformed, became free from addiction and became devoted to the service of humanity and service of God.
There are many scholars of religion and experts in sociology who have noted the dramatic transformation that Srila Prabhupada brought about. In fact, a professor, Professor Susan Judah, he says that the extent of transformation that Srila Prabhupada brought about is extraordinary. He said that perhaps the only parallel in world history is what Jesus brought about thousands of years ago.
So Jesus told people that you know live whatever you’re doing and follow me. There were people who were fishermen and he told them you become a fisherman of human beings. Come and follow me and people left everything and they followed him.
So Bhaktivedanta Swami did something similar. He told people, inspired them by his charisma, by his wisdom, by his love, he inspired them to give up whatever they were doing which actually they were dissipating their lives by the dissolute ways and inspired them to follow. But the professor further says that actually the comparison stops at a particular point because Jesus preached in an area where he was born and people he knew the culture in which he was preaching and knew the people to whom he was preaching.
But Srila Prabhupada went at the advanced age of 69 to a distant land where he had never been before and met people who had no idea for the previous 20-30 years of their life of the message that he was preaching and he inspired that transformation in them. And what did he do? What was the transformation? With people who had been rejected by mainstream American society he engaged them, empowered them, transformed them and made them into emissaries who would raise the consciousness of people all over the world for many generations to come. Today the institution that Srila Prabhupada founded the International Society for Christian Consciousness is a vibrant spiritual institution which centers practically in all the countries of the world and millions of devotees in various parts of the world.
So the greatness of a person can be measured not just by what that person does but also by how many lives that person affects and how long that effect is there. So if you look at Srila Prabhupada’s life in terms of his teachings, his presentation of non-sectarian spiritual wisdom that we are not the body of the soul, wisdom that can free the world from sectarian divisive dogmas, his presentation of a non-sectarian criteria of spiritual advancement, love of God which is the universally acclaimed role of all the world’s theistic traditions, his emphasis on the spirituality not just of all human beings but of all living beings, his providing an intellectual philosophical foundation for animal rights and vegetarianism and his presentation of vegetarian cuisine and training in the vegetarian cooking culture and his sharing of the chanting of the holy names of God the Hare Krishna Mahamantra, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Ram, Hare Ram, Ram Ram, Hare Hare as a potent means for raising one’s consciousness. All these are his extraordinary contributions which have enabled and empowered thousands of millions of people all over the world actually to become better human beings, to become more advanced spiritualists and to contribute to shaping a more healthy and harmonious world.
Thank you very much. Chaitanya Charan Prabhu, we have a question for you.