What is the difference between believing a half-man half-lion and believing a half-man half-spider?

Transcript

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spiderman but they don’t accept nirasimhadev because accepting that will bring some obligation on them some responsibility that we have to transform ourselves yes that’s true and why people are reluctant to take up that responsibility that’s because although at one level people want something higher but there is a lethargy people don’t want to labor to do that so going back to that point okay what is the difference between the conception of nirasimhadev and a half man half law and a conception of half and half bad we could say both are just products of imagination no i talk about the difference in a triple e no e exponents explanation and experience exponents means we look at the caliber of the people who are talking about logic they are people who have renounced the whole world the people who have devoted themselves to the law and many of them are profoundly intellectual people who analyze the nature of the material world and they’ve written philosophical classics so these exponents they have thought deeply whereas the exponents of fictional characters there’s no philosophy in their life they’re not renounced the world that they teach about this they talk about some fictional character that they make a million dollars out of it so the category of the caliber of the exponents if we see very philosophically astute that’s the second is explanation explanation means if we look at the not just the idea of half man half law and as god but there’s a whole world view that comes with it which helps us to make sense of life to make sense of the world it gives us a sense of purpose in this world for us whereas when we get into a fictional world it is the explanations there are no explanations there at all so where they simply stop thinking and enjoy just enjoy in fact whenever people enjoy fiction there is what is called in fictional circles as the suspension of disbelief or suspension of skepticism this is just to enjoy you stop using your rational mind just enjoy so actually you can’t there’s no deep thought involved there’s no explanation okay a spider man exists or the batman exists and he comes and rescues people who are in danger but what after that what is the purpose of life there’s no explanation of life per se so the explanation is very coherent when it comes to the bhakti world view in which say lord krishna lord simha deva are enthroned as the supreme and the third is the experience experience means okay by superman spiderman batman batman fans they may enjoy reading about batman and the krishna bhakta may enjoy hearing about krishna but the difference is the transformation that results that is bhakti process of bhakti is so joyful it gives us experience of god who cannot be experienced by any ordinary means he’s transcendental and that experience is so fulfilling that that there is detachment from other things because we feel this experience is so wonderful this is what i want more and more in my life i want to experience krishna i want to love krishna i want to serve krishna so basically the commitment is something which will come when people see the things they see the caliber of the exponents and get the explanation and then they themselves get the experience of the sweetness of bhakti then the commitment will come after that so when people just hear the stories they feel you know the story is one story that one story why should i commit myself so to to inspire the commitment the sense of responsibility they have to have the whole explanation of worldview that is given and sometimes we as devotees may not work out may not present krishna bhakti in the most attractive way say say a new model of an iphone has come say iphone x has come now where they are going to promote iphone x see the advertisement the first thing they are going to show is the price is it no the the promos they never tell you what the price this feature this feature this feature this feature and at the end we have to go and search what is the cost of it if they present the product and then the prize is something which is to found out later but for most of us when we start practicing bhakti we start following the regular principles there is some pride that comes i am following these principles so when we meet with people often what happens the first thing we tell is no meat eating no gambling no intoxication no illicit sex and people say no krishna bhakti the price there is a price to be paid but first you tell what the product is so we explain the philosophy we explain we give them the experience of bhakti and then say this is so this is so wonderful i want this more then we talk about the price so if we talk about the price before talking about the product we alienate people so what we need to do is focus on the product first and but what happens because our lifestyle is quite different from the lifestyle of people in general so people keep the price that they have to pay that is what comes first in their face oh i have to become i have to wear these strange clothes i have to become a monk i have to become a i have to become i have to give up the so this other worldly aspect of krishna bhakti that gets thrust in the face of people and that’s why they they fear but if we can present krishna bhakti in a way that is intelligible to them it’s not that that appears too far-fetched or too demanding if we can make it how it is understandable how it is not only understandable it helps us understand life we first present the product and then present the price and gradually people will take it and shila prabhupada sometimes they may talk of him as you talk about fools rascals condemn people that is one aspect of shila prabhupada’s presentation but prabhupada was also an expert in presenting one time a hippie came to him and asked swamiji what is the bliss of vaikuntha like and prabhupada replied it is like ocean of lsd ocean of lsd now we may say in which shastra is it said that vaikuntha’s happiness is like the ocean of lsd now we say lsd is tamasik, vaikuntha is shuddha sattva this is offense some skeptics may say like that but you know prabhupada was expert enough to present things in a way that people could understand so for a person who thinks life’s greatest happiness is taking lsd for them an idea of ocean of lsd that’s wonderful that’s what i want to do i want to go there i want to be there so we have prabhupada was expert in presenting things in a way that people could get attracted to it so we also have to be expert so that rather than focusing on the commitment part which will come in due course but we focus on the what it offers them not what it asks from them so if we focus on what is going to the prize rather than the product people become a little apprehensive does that answer your question