View source for Maharaja, don't you think it's high time that our Indian philosophy or Indian religion, some classes should be started in schools like they used to have?

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[[Category:Questions asked to Srila Prabhupada]]
[[Category:Questions asked to SP... 1976]]
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<div id="Lectures" class="section" sec_index="4" parent="compilation" text="Lectures"><h2>Lectures</h2>
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<div id="Arrival_Addresses_and_Talks" class="sub_section" sec_index="7" parent="Lectures" text="Arrival Addresses and Talks"><h3>Arrival Addresses and Talks</h3>
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<div id="ArrivalTalkAligarhOctober91976_0" class="quote" parent="Arrival_Addresses_and_Talks" book="Lec" index="42" link="Arrival Talk -- Aligarh, October 9, 1976" link_text="Arrival Talk -- Aligarh, October 9, 1976">
<div class="heading">When we say that dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā... So as this boy, he was a child, now he has become a boy, then after few years he'll become a young man. And then he'll become middle-aged man, then he'll become old man. So this is not our religion, your religion. This is fact. Scientific. When Bhagavad-gītā says dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā, that is not meant for the so-called Hindus. It is meant for the Muslims, meant for the Christians, everyone. It is science. Religion is a kind of faith. That they describe. But religion is also not a blind faith. Religion means the order of God. That is religion.
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<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Arrival Talk -- Aligarh, October 9, 1976|Arrival Talk -- Aligarh, October 9, 1976]]: </span><div class="text"><p style="display: inline;">Indian lady: Mahārāja, don't you think it's high time that our Indian philosophy or Indian religion, some classes should be started in schools like they used to have? Missionaries used to have scripture classes in school. There should be in all the schools, I mean, classes on our own religion instead of learning somebody else's.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: It is not only... When we say that dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā... ([[Vanisource:BG 2.13|BG 2.13]]). So as this boy, he was a child, now he has become a boy, then after few years he'll become a young man. And then he'll become middle-aged man, then he'll become old man. So this is not our religion, your religion. This is fact. Scientific. When Bhagavad-gītā says dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā, that is not meant for the so-called Hindus. It is meant for the Muslims, meant for the Christians, everyone. It is science. Religion is a kind of faith. That they describe. But religion is also not a blind faith. Religion means the order of God. That is religion. Dharmaṁ tu sākṣād bhagavat-praṇītam ([[Vanisource:SB 6.3.19|SB 6.3.19]]). Just like law means the order of the state. Similarly, religion means the order of God. So if you have no conception of God, if you do not know what is God, what is order, then where is religion? It is all bogus.</p>
<p>Indian man (1): What my sister was saying was that most of the parents do not understand how they should bring up their progeny.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Yes. At least, the children should be... Therefore I'm starting that Gurukula in Vṛndāvana. So you come, you manage that take the ideas, and make your children... Whatever mistake is done is done. Now why the mistake should continue? Rectify it.</p>
<p>Indian man: (Hindi)</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Then kick out secularism. Kick out secularism. Science, it is science.</p>
<p>Indian man: Science is nothing. What is God, what is nature, what is soul.</p>
<p>Indian man (1): You don't give it the name of one particular way. You simply deal it with the basic idea of transforming the human...</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: When a child becomes a boy, there is no question of secularism. It is science. It is fact. Can you by secularism stop a child growing to become a boy? When I was explaining in South Africa these things, one Arya-samaji friend, he criticized me that "Why you are bringing Hindu ideas?" So I said, "Is it Hindu ideas? A child grows to become a boy. It is Hindu idea? Why you are so fool you're calling Hindu idea?" A child grows to become a boy. This is science.</p>
<p>Indian man: The law of nature. </p>
<p>Indian man: Dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā, tathā dehāntara-prāptir ([[Vanisource:BG 2.13|BG 2.13]]). Naturally...</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Because it is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, they take it Hindu idea. This is nonsense.</p>
<p>Indian man (1): Our approach is so wrong that people take it as...</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Immediately we can pass in a sectarian.</p>
<p>Indian lady: That is why it is necessary to have this as a part of social studies like you have other subjects in schools. If it is not given any more...</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: But then, as soon as you say "Bhagavad-gītā," immediately, "Hindu."</p>
<p>Indian man (1): What sister wants to know is that how can we add in innumerable, rather, uncountless schools and colleges? The management will be most willing, I mean, the progressive management will be most willing to introduce classes where such laws of nature and such-on scientific line, without giving it a Hindu or religious name. That should be taught. A curriculum should be drawn up. Because we control some of the schools.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: That is my program. I am writing all books just only on this point; therefore they are coming. Otherwise, what is the use? They were Christians and Jews. What is the use of becoming Hindus? So anyone wants to understand what is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, they can understand easily if he joins Hare Kṛṣṇa, chant. That is all right. If he wants to understand scientifically, there are eighty-four books. Come on. Which way you want?</p>
<p>Indian man (1): No. What we want is a very simple curricular. Elementary type.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Simple, this is simple curricular.</p>
<p>Indian man (1): So that they gradually, as a child grows into adolescence, when his intelligence also grows, his knowledge also grows. And then we give him still more deeper knowledge of the various things which we have been teaching on elementary basis. And still deeper. Just like this.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Just like this child, this boy inquired, "What is God?" So he can be instructed that "God is the Supreme Controller, just like your father is your controller." He'll accept this. Can you go against your father's will? He says no. He'll say naturally.</p>
<p>Indian man: (indistinct)</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: So, he'll understand English? He's angrej? (laughter)</p>
<p>Indian man: (Hindi)</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Very good.</p>
<p>Indian man: (Hindi)</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Just like at home you are controlled by your parents. Is it not? You like to obey them?</p>
<p>Indian man: You like to obey them or sometimes you don't want to obey them?</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Similarly, you take the whole world as a big family. So there must be somebody, father and controller. Otherwise, how it is being conducted? That is God, the Supreme Controller. Just like in your family the father is the controller, similarly, you take it in wide scale, broader scale, there must be somebody father. Therefore the Christians, they take it, "O Father, give us our daily bread." And in the Bhagavad-gītā it is also confirmed, ahaṁ bīja-pradaḥ pitā.</p>
:sarva-yoniṣu kaunteya
:sambhavanti mūrtayaḥ yāḥ
:tāsāṁ mahad yonir brahma
:ahaṁ bīja-pradaḥ pitā
:([[Vanisource:BG 14.4|BG 14.4]])
<p>(break) Then he decided, "Yes, I shall fight." Kṛṣṇa inquired from him, "Now I have instructed you. Now, whatever you like you can do. And what is your decision?" Then he clearly said, "Yes, my decision is there. I'll fight." Kariṣye vacanaṁ tava ([[Vanisource:BG 18.73|BG 18.73]]). "As You advise, I understand that You want this fighting." So Vaiṣṇava means for the sake of Kṛṣṇa he can do anything. Not that he is lazy fellow, showing, "I have become very big Vaiṣṇava. Let me sleep under the name of chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa." That is not Vaiṣṇava. Vaiṣṇava must be very busy, always awaiting the order of the... Ānukūlyena kṛṣṇānu-śīlanam ([[Vanisource:CC Madhya 19.167|CC Madhya 19.167]]). "What is Kṛṣṇa's order? What does He want?" He is ready. Just like a servant is always ready to receive the order of the master. That is faithful servant. That is real servant. Not that at night duty he is sleeping somewhere. No. That is not faithful servant. Faithful servant means always alert. And that is bhakti. Ānukūlyena kṛṣṇānu-śīlanam bhaktir uttama ([[Vanisource:CC Madhya 19.167|CC Madhya 19.167]]). Simply one has to execute, ānukūlyena, how Kṛṣṇa is satisfied. This is bhakti.</p>
<p>So Hanumān is example. Hanumān was ordered to bring some medicine from some mountain. And he was a monkey, he was animal, he did not know how to pick up it—"Take the whole mountain. Execute the order. And then Rāmacandra and Lakṣmana, They'll find out what is that medicine." So this is Vaiṣṇava. In one's own capacity he should give the best service to the Lord. That is bhakti. Bhakti is not laziness. If somebody thinks that "The bhaktas are lazy fellows and they are out of the worldly activity," that is mistake. It is mistake. Ānukūlyena kṛṣṇānu-śīlanam ([[Vanisource:CC Madhya 19.167|CC Madhya 19.167]]). Kṛṣṇa says personally, yat karoṣi yaj juhoṣi dadāsi yat tapasyasi yat kuruṣva mad-arpaṇam: "Come on! Do it for Me." That is bhakti.. He does not say that "You become a lazy fellow, give up your occupational duty, and sleep, and snore, and become a great devotee." No. He never says. He says that "You are attached to this kind of work. All right, do it, but the result you give Me," that is bhakti. "Arjuna, you are a military man. All right, I ask you to fight. You become a fighter and become My devotee." Bhakto 'si priyo 'si me ([[Vanisource:BG 4.3|BG 4.3]]). Just see. What is that? He was not chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. But Kṛṣṇa says, bhakto 'si priyo 'si me: "You are very dear friend and My devotee." Did he go on the Battlefield of Kurukṣetra... So not that imitation. Of course, ultimate is always be absorbed in glorifying the Lord, but not in the beginning. In the beginning you must work very hard; you come to the stage of pure devotional platform. Then you can fully engage yourself meditation or chanting. Not in the beginning. In the beginning you should be very expert and active. That is wanted. That is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's... Udilo, from early in the morning, active. "Come on, chant. Come with Me so that others will see. If we make a party chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, so in the beginning they may be disturbed because they have been accustomed to sleep up to nine o'clock, but as they will hear, gradually they'll become purified. They'll receive it."</p>
<p>So that is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's mission. He practically did it, and He asked everyone to do it. Āmāra ājñāya guru hañā tāra ei deśa ([[Vanisource:CC Madhya 7.128|CC Madhya 7.128]]). "This is My order." He could remain a big devotee at His home. He was very popular in Navadvīpa, even when He was twenty years old. But still, He took sannyāsa and went door to door, village to village, town to town in India, and He left His order: pṛthivīte āche yata nagarādi-grāma. "All over the world, as many towns and villages are there, this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement should be..."  (CB Antya-khaṇḍa 4.126) Not that "We are big, big gosvāmīs and bābājīs. We do not go out of Vṛndāvana." They say that: "We do not go out of..." You are imitating them. (chuckles) Caitanya Mahāprabhu says that pṛthivīte āche yata nagarādi-grāma. And they have become very big Vaiṣṇava: "No, I don't go beyond the limits of Vṛndāvana." What is this nonsense? Did Caitanya Mahāprabhu say like that, that "You do not go beyond the limits...?" A devotee, wherever he is, that is Vṛndāvana. That is Vṛndāvana tīrtha. Kurvanti tīrthāni. A devotee, a pure devotee, can make any hell a tīrtha, a holy place. That is devotee. Tīrthī-kurvanti tīrthāni. That was Bhagīratha. Gaṅgā was hesitating, mother Gaṅgā, that "I shall go to the material world. People will take, all sinful men will take bathing, and I'll be overloaded with sin. Then how I shall get out of this sinful, accumulation of sins?" So Bhagīratha said, "My mother, don't hesitate. When a holy man will take bath in your water, then all the sins he will assimilate." Then she agreed. "Yes. That's..." So if we become holy man, actually, then immune. There is no difference. That is Caitanya Mahāprabhu. These are bogus, that "I do not go out of Vṛndāvana." They are making Vṛndāvana limited. Vṛndāvana is not limited. Wherever there is Kṛṣṇa, wherever there is Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa temple, that is Vṛndāvana. That is Vṛndāvana. Caitanya Mahāprabhu said. Caitanya Mahāprabhu, He, once only, He went to Vṛndāvana. Does it mean He was not in Vṛndāvana? So this is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's mission, that preaching must go on in hell and heaven. We should be very much expert and follow the instruction of Caitanya Mahāprabhu, the simple instructions. Mukunda mādhava yādava hari bolena bolo re vadana bori. Simply chant the holy names of Lord, mukunda mādhava yādava. This is Caitanya. Rise early in the morning. You go and preach, and work hard, day and night, and that is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's... This song indicates. That's all.</p>
<p>Thank you.</p>
<p>Devotees: Jaya. (offer obeisances)</p>
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