[world-vedic] Allah is not name It is just like the idea of God.

[Guest guest]

740609RC.PAR conversations

Devotee: That's all right. We're saying chant. Our spiritual master is

teaching "You chant the name of God." That's the important thing.

Prabhupada: If you think that Jesus Christ's name is also, you can chant, we

have no objection. We say that you chant the holy name of God, whatever you

have got. That's all right.

Priest: And for a Muslim you mean to chant Allah.

Prabhupada: Yes.

Priest: Name Krsna, Allah, Jesus, (indistinct), what is the...

Prabhupada: Allah is not name. That is...It is not the name. It is just like

the idea of God.

Priest: Yeah.

Prabhupada: Allah means God, isvara.

Priest: Allah means also (indistinct).

Prabhupada: But that is not the name. That is...Just like the President and

Mr. Nixon. The President may be another person. Not only Nixon, but another

person also may be. So President is the general understanding of the post.

But still, one who occupies the post, he has got a name.

Priest: Do you know the Sufi?

Prabhupada: Huh?

Priest: Do you know the Sufis are Muslims (indistinct).

Prabhupada: No.

Priest: They are the great mystics of Islam, and they always address God as

Allah. As we say...

Prabhupada: Allah means God.

Priest: Yes. It is the name of God for them. "Allah the all-knowing is

great." Anybody who knows Islam knows that.

Prabhupada: Anyway, if one chants Allah or Jesus Christ, we have no

objection. We don't say that you stop it. We say that you chant the holy

name of God. If that name is of God, you chant.

Yogesvara: Yesterday, Srila Prabhupada, you gave the story, I think you said

it was from the Padma Purana, about a Muslim who was attacked by a wild

boar.

Prabhupada: Yes.

Yogesvara: He was attacked by a wild boar, and the boars for the Muslims are

untouchable. So he was saying haram, haram, which means untouchable. And he

was killed by that boar, but it was taken by higher authority that he was

chanting "ha rama," which means "where is Lord Rama," so he derived

liberation. Even unconsciously he was chanting and derived liberation.

Prabhupada: Although he did not mean Rama, he condemned the boar as haram,

condemned. But the...

Priest: Same story is said in the bhakti tradition of Maharastra of the

hunter.

Prabhupada: Yes, may be the same story.

Priest: Untouchable hunter who was chased by a boar and went to a tree, and

then...It is a common story.

Prabhupada: Anyway, we are recommending "Chant the holy name of God." (end)