View source for Would it be dangerous for someone who is not at that level to study Srimad-Bhagavatam, or would they simply not understand it?

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[[Category:Srimad-Bhagavatam (Bhagavata Purana)]]
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[[Category:Questions asked to Srila Prabhupada]]
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<div id="Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" class="section" sec_index="5" parent="compilation" text="Conversations and Morning Walks"><h2>Conversations and Morning Walks</h2>
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<div id="1975_Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" class="sub_section" sec_index="8" parent="Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" text="1975 Conversations and Morning Walks"><h3>1975 Conversations and Morning Walks</h3>
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<div id="ConversationwithProfessorHopkinsJuly131975Philadelphia_0" class="quote" parent="1975_Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" book="Con" index="143" link="Conversation with Professor Hopkins -- July 13, 1975, Philadelphia" link_text="Conversation with Professor Hopkins -- July 13, 1975, Philadelphia">
<div class="heading">Dangerous means if one is not completely educated of self-realization he has the risk of degradation. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam or Bhagavad-gītā, if one realizes properly then he gets promotion back to home, back to Godhead. Our only business is to know the Absolute Truth. If you do not try for this then you remain animals.
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<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Conversation with Professor Hopkins -- July 13, 1975, Philadelphia|Conversation with Professor Hopkins -- July 13, 1975, Philadelphia]]: </span><div class="text"><p style="display: inline;">Prof. Hopkins: So you would see the Bhagavad-gītā then as accessible to a wide range of people, at an elementary level or beginning level, whereas Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam would be for more advanced, more advanced people.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Not only advanced, completely advanced. Because so long one will be, stay on the material platform, he will be envious of others only, animal propensity, dog. Dog does not like another dog is coming. So unless one is spiritually realized, the dog mentality will remain there. It is said nāsau munir yasya mataṁ na bhinnam, even amongst the topmost thinkers, if he does not refute other thinkers, he is not a good thinker. That enviousness. He will not be established a good thinker if he cannot... If a scientist, if he cannot refute the previous scientist, he is not a scientist. This is material world. Everyone is envious of the other. So Bhāgavata meant for who is no more envious. Simply loving.</p>
<p>Prof. Hopkins: Why, why is that more necessary for Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam than for Bhagavad-gītā?</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: More... Bhāgavatam, I told you, it is a counterpart. Just like when you have passed the school examination then next you admit yourself for degree or graduate degree. Similarly, Bhāgavata is the end of education. Everyone is progressing. When one comes to Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and understands it then his education is complete.</p>
<p>Prof. Hopkins: Then would it be, would it be dangerous for someone who is not at that level to study Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam or would they simply not understand it?</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Dangerous means if one is not completely educated of self-realization he has the risk of degradation.</p>
<p>Prof. Hopkins: He has what?</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: The risk of degradation. Now I have got human form of body, I may degrade to animal. Because transmigration of the soul. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is said, tathā dehāntara prāptir, after death one gets another body. Now, what kind of body, that depends on his work. Ūrdhvaṁ gacchanti sattva-sthāḥ ([[Vanisource:BG 14.18|BG 14.18]]). If he has done very nicely, in goodness, then he will be promoted to the higher planetary system. And if he has not done anything nice then he will remain here or he will be degraded to the lower planetary system.</p>
<p>Prof. Hopkins: That is... How does that relate to the question of studying the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam?</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam or Bhagavad-gītā, if one realizes properly then he gets promotion back to home, back to Godhead. He is no more a person to live in this material world. Material world means ups and down, ups and down. And spiritual world means steady life of knowledge and bliss.</p>
<p>Prof. Hopkins: But if one were to study, read Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam who was not ready for this, not prepared for it, this might throw them into confusion then, or this would be...</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: No.</p>
<p>Prof. Hopkins: Would it be bad for them or would they simply not learn from it.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: No, as I told you the... Our only business is to know the Absolute Truth. If you do not try for this then you remain animals. Animal cannot know the Absolute Truth. So to remain animal means varieties of life. Sometimes cat, sometimes dog, sometimes demigod, sometimes this, sometimes that, sometimes American, sometimes something else. This will go on. Bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate ([[Vanisource:BG 8.19|BG 8.19]]). In this life we are living, we are making the next body. So if we work nicely then next body may be the higher planetary system or above this material world, in the spiritual world.</p>
<p>Prof. Hopkins: And the way to progress then is to take, to study, to learn these things in order, in the proper order.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Yes.</p>
<p>Prof. Hopkins: I remember when I first, when I first met Brahmānanda in New York. I came there initially in part to, because I had been studying Bhāgavatam and I wanted to talk to people in the temple about Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. And they said, "What is this?" (laughs) "We've heard Swamiji speak of this but we don't know it." A few years later you were all sitting around reciting verses from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Was this... You did not begin to teach Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam when you first came to the U.S.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: No, I taught Bhagavad-gītā first of all, then Bhāgavata.</p>
<p>Prof. Hopkins: So you prepared, you prepared them with...</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Oh yes.</p>
<p>Prof. Hopkins: Bhagavad-gītā and then Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.</p>
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