Srila Prabhupada on the different sampradayas

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Bhagavad-gita As It Is

[Ahmedabad, December 8, 1972]

-A.C. Bhaktivdeanta Swami Srila Prabhupada

 

Prabhupada: ...yesterday the definition of Bhagavan, sad-aisvarya-purna-bhagavan: all riches, all strength, all reputation, all beauty, all knowledge and all renunciation. Complete. Because I have got mill... (break) Whether one has got... (break) That is not million, trillion, billion; it is unlimited. Asamordhva. That is the version. God must be asama urdhva. Asamor... Nobody's greater than God, nobody's equal to God. That is God. If you find somebody equal to you, then you are not God. You may be demigod, but the God means supreme. Isvarah paramah krsnah. That Supreme God is Krishna. Parama, Supreme. Nobody is equal to Krishna, nobody's greater than Krishna. Therefore Krishna is God. There are so many gods nowadays. The... Actually, the Mayavadi philosophers, they say everyone is Narayana. But what is the proof? We find out from the sastra that Narayana has got four hands. So where is your four hands? You are claiming to become Narayana. So where are your four hands? Just manifest your four hands at least so that we can understand you are Narayana. (chuckles) No. Without four hands. And Narayana is Laksmi-Narayana. He's the husband of Laksmi, the goddess of fortune. So where is your goddess of fortune? You are begging from door to door. Where is your goddess of fortune? You have become Narayana. This kind of God and Narayana is going on, bluffing.

 

But we are not bluffed in that way. We follow the shastric injunction, what is Narayana. We cannot accept Narayana as daridra. Daridra-narayana. What is this? Narayana is the husband of the goddess of fortune.

 

laksmi-sahasra-sata-sambhrama-sevyamanam

govindam adi-purusam tam aham bhajami

 

How Narayana can become daridra? So these are manufactured words. You cannot find all these words in the sastra. They are manufactured, concoction. So we are not concerned with this concoction. Yah sastra-vidhim utsrjya. We must follow the sastras, the mahajana. Mahajano yena gatah sa panthah. We are not perfect. Therefore we have to follow the footprints of the perfect. And that is given in the sastra, whom you have to follow.

 

svayambhur naradah sambhuh

kumarah kapilo manuh

prahlado janako bhismo

balir vaiyasakir vayam

 

Twelve mahajanas. We follow Lord Brahma. Just like we belong to the Brahma-sampradaya, Madhvacarya-sampradaya. Gaudiya..., Madhva-Gaudiya-sampradaya. Caitanya Mahaprabhu's spiritual master was Isvara Puri. Isvara Puri's spiritual master was Madhavendra Puri. And Madhavendra Puri belonged to the Madhvacarya-sampradaya. Therefore we present ourself belonging to the Madhva-Gaudiya-sampradaya. Similarly... From Brahma, there is one sampradaya. Similarly, there is another sampradaya from Lord Siva, Rudra-sampradaya. And there is another sampradaya, Kumara-sampradaya. Kumarah kapilo manuh. That is Nimbarka-sampradaya. Similarly, there is another sampradaya from Laksmi, Sri-sampradaya, Ramanuja-sampradaya.

 

So we have to understand the philosophy through the sampradaya. Sampradaya-vihina ye mantras te nisphala matah. If you don't accept... In ordinary life also, in political field, to develop, one has to accept a party, this party or that Congress Party, or Jana-sanga Party, or this party. So the aim is the same. Aim is the same, to serve the country, to develop your country, but still, there are parties. Similarly, the aim is the same: to understand what is our relationship with God. But the development is made by different parties. So the parties are, must be bona fide. As Krishna says, His party:

 

imam vivasvate yogam

proktavan aham avyayam

vivasvan manave praha

manur iksvakave 'bravit

 

evam parampara-praptam

imam rajarsayo viduh

 

Krishna said that "First of all, I described, I instructed this yoga system, bhakti-yoga system, Bhagavad-gita, to Vivasvan, the sun-god, and the sun-god, whose name is Vivasvan..." The particular name is also given. It is not vague, that... At the present moment, the predominating Deity in the sun planet is called Vivasvan. So he spoke this Bhagavad-gita philosophy to his son, vivasvan manave pra..., Manu. Manu is the original person of the human society. Manusya. Man. So Manu spoke to his son, Iksvaku. Maharaja Iksvaku. He's the first person of the surya-vamsa. There are two ksatriya families: one, candra-vamsa, coming from the Moon, and the other from the Sun, Vivasvan. So Maharaja Iksvaku is the original personality in the surya-vamsa ksatriyas in which Lord Ramacandra appeared. So in this way, there is parampara system.

 

If we want to understand the real fact, then we must receive from the parampara system. Just like we have got our genealogical table. I understand my great-great-grandfather by the parampara system. Not that I manufacture some name. No. Therefore Krishna says that imam, evam parampara-praptam. The Bhagavad-gita, knowledge must be received by the parampara system, as it was spoken by Krishna and as it has been received by the later acaryas. Although there are different parties... Just like the Sri-sampradaya, Brahma-sampradaya, Rudra-sampradaya. They are all in agreement that Krishna: the Supreme Personality of Godhead. All these acaryas. They'll not say anything that "Because I belong to Brahma-sampradaya, I speak something else." No. We are all in agreement that krsnas tu bhagavan svayam. That is accepted.

 

So Krishna said to Arjuna: sa kaleneha yogo nastah parantapa. "In due..., in course of time, that parampara system has been lost, or broken. Therefore," Krishna said, "I am speaking the old truth unto you so that you begin the parampara system again." So we have to accept Bhagavad-gita by the parampara system. Even the old system is broken, still, it is existing because Krishna is speaking to Arjuna, and we have to understand Bhagavad-gita as Arjuna understood. Then you are in the parampara. And if you understand Bhagavad-gita as some so-called scholar understands, then you are not understanding Bhagavad-gita. You are understanding something nonsense, wasting your time. This is the fact. If you try to understand Bhagavad-gita as Arjuna understood... That is not difficult. Arjuna's understanding is there in the Bhagavad-gita. So if you follow the footprints of Arjuna, then you are rightly understanding Bhagavad-gita. But if you are following the footprints of some rascal, then you are not understanding Bhagavad-gita. You are understanding something else. This is the secret. Here we have got so many commentaries on Bhagavad-gita, as one thinks. As if Krishna left Bhagavad-gita to be commented by some rascals to understand! Why? He said Bhagavad-gita clearly. Why it is to be interpreted by some rascals? Did Krishna mean that "I leave Bhagavad-gita ambiguous and some learned scholar will come. He will explain"? What is this nonsense? Everything is clear. Bhagavad-gita, in the beginning it is said that

 

dharma-ksetre kuru-ksetre

samaveta yuyutsavah

mamakah pandavas caiva

kim akurvata sanjaya

 

Now, why it should be interpreted that "Dharma-ksetra means this, kuru-ksetra means this, pandavah means this"? Why? It is clear. Kuruksetra still existing. Everyone knows. And that is dharma-ksetra. Everyone knows. It is not known now. From the Vedic age. Kuru-ksetre dharmam acaret. Still people go there for performing ritualistic ceremonies. So Kuruksetra is still there and it is dharma-ksetra from time immemorial. Why it should be interpreted that "Kuruksetra means this, and dharma-ksetra means this"? Why? Where is the dictionary?

But because one has got some whims, he wants to fulfill his whims on the authority of Bhagavad-gita, he interprets in a different way. Therefore we are presenting Bhagavad-gita as it is, without nonsensically interpreting. Therefore it is being effective. Before me, many swamis went to the Western countries to preach this Bhagavad-gita. Not a single person became a devotee of Krishna. Not a single person. There is not in the history. And now Bhagavad-gita is being presented as it is, thousands are becoming devotee of Krishna. This is the secret. People give me credit that "Swamiji, you have done wonderful. Nobody could do it." I am not a wonderful man. Neither I do know anything magic. I have presented Bhagavad-gita as it is. That's all. This is the secret. Anyone can do that. You present the thing as it is. Don't adulterate it. Then it will be accepted. Just like paramanna, ksira. Ksira is very nice food, but if you adulterate it with some grains of sand, it is spoiled. It is spoiled.