View source for If you want to know things which is beyond your conception, beyond your sense perception, then you must approach a bona fide spiritual master

<div id="compilation">
<div id="facts">
{{terms|"If you want to know things which is beyond your conception, beyond your sense perception, then you must approach a bona fide spiritual master"}}
{{notes|}}
{{compiler|Vaninetti}}
{{complete|ALL}}
{{first|13Oct11}}
{{last|13Oct11}}
{{totals_by_section|BG=0|SB=0|CC=0|OB=0|Lec=1|Con=0|Let=0}}
{{total|1}}
{{toc right}}
[[Category:If You Want To]]
[[Category:Know]]
[[Category:Thing]]
[[Category:Which Is]]
[[Category:Beyond]]
[[Category:Your]]
[[Category:Conception]]
[[Category:Sense Perception]]
[[Category:Then]]
[[Category:You Must]]
[[Category:Approach]]
[[Category:Bona Fide Spiritual Master]]
</div>
<div id="Lectures" class="section" sec_index="4" parent="compilation" text="Lectures"><h2>Lectures</h2>
</div>
<div id="Bhagavad-gita_As_It_Is_Lectures" class="sub_section" sec_index="0" parent="Lectures" text="Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures"><h3>Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures</h3>
</div>
<div id="LectureonBG213PittsburghSeptember81972_0" class="quote" parent="Bhagavad-gita_As_It_Is_Lectures" book="Lec" index="60" link="Lecture on BG 2.13 -- Pittsburgh, September 8, 1972" link_text="Lecture on BG 2.13 -- Pittsburgh, September 8, 1972">
<div class="heading">If you want to know things which is beyond your conception, beyond your sense perception, then you must approach a bona fide spiritual master. What is the symptom of bona fide spiritual master? One who has taken complete bath in the ocean of the Vedic literature. Just like if you take bath, you become refreshed. If you take nice bath, you feel refreshed. Without refreshness, one cannot understand this sublime subject matter. And the guru, or the spiritual master, should be refreshed by taking bath in the ocean of Vedic knowledge. And what is the result? After such cleanliness, he has taken shelter of the Supreme Absolute Truth, without any material desires. He has no more any material desires; he's simply interested in Kṛṣṇa, or the Absolute Truth
</div>
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Lecture on BG 2.13 -- Pittsburgh, September 8, 1972|Lecture on BG 2.13 -- Pittsburgh, September 8, 1972]]: </span><div class="text">So we request simply people that you accept this authoritative knowledge and try to assimilate it by your intelligence. It is not that you stop your argument and intelligence, simply blindly accept something. No. We are human beings, we have got intelligence. We are not animals that we shall be forced to accept something. No. Tad viddhi praṇipātena paripraśnena sevayā ([[Vanisource:BG 4.34|BG 4.34]]). In this Bhagavad-gītā you'll find. You try to understand, tad viddhi. Viddhi means try to understand. Praṇipāta. Praṇipātena means surrendering, not by challenge. A student should be very submissive to the spiritual master. Otherwise, he will be, I mean to say, bewildered. Submissive reception. Our process is...
:tasmād guruṁ prapadyeta
:jijñāsuḥ śreya uttamam
:śābde pare ca niṣṇātaṁ
:brahmaṇy upaśamāśrayam
:([[Vanisource:SB 11.3.21|SB 11.3.21]])
This is the injunction, Vedic. If you want to know things which is beyond your conception, beyond your sense perception, then you must approach a bona fide spiritual master. What is the symptom of bona fide spiritual master? Everyone wants to become spiritual master. So that is also stated. Śābde pare ca niṣṇātam. One who has taken complete bath in the ocean of the Vedic literature, śābde pare ca niṣṇātam. Just like if you take bath, you become refreshed. If you take nice bath, you feel refreshed. Śābde pare ca niṣṇātam. Without refreshness, one cannot understand this sublime subject matter. And the guru, or the spiritual master, should be refreshed by taking bath in the ocean of Vedic knowledge. And what is the result? Śābde pare ca niṣṇātaṁ brahmaṇy upaśamāśrayam. By, after such cleanliness, he has taken shelter of the Supreme Absolute Truth, without any material desires. He has no more any material desires; he's simply interested in Kṛṣṇa, or the Absolute Truth. These are the symptoms of guru, or spiritual master.
So in order to understand... Just like Kṛṣṇa is teaching Arjuna. Before this, Kṛṣṇa surrendered himself. Śiṣyas te 'haṁ śādhi māṁ prapannam ([[Vanisource:BG 2.7|BG 2.7]]). Although they were friends, Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna were friends... First of all, they were talking like friends, and Arjuna was arguing with Kṛṣṇa. This argument has no value because if I am imperfect, what is the meaning of my argument? Whatever I shall argue, that is also imperfect. So what is the use of wasting time by imperfect argument? This is not process. The process is that we must approach to a perfect person and take his instruction as it is. Then our knowledge is perfect. Without any argument. We accept Vedic knowledge like that. For example, just like stool of an animal. It is stated in the Vedic literature that it is impure. If you touch stool... According to Vedic system, even after passing my own stool, evacuating, I have to take bath. And what to speak of others' stool. That is the system. So stool is impure. One, after touching stool, he must take bath. This is Vedic injunction. But in another place it is said that the stool of the cow is pure, and if cow dung is applied in some impure place, it will be pure. Now, by your argument, you can say that "The stool of an animal is impure. Why it is said in one place pure and in another place impure? This is contradiction." But this is not contradiction. You practically make experiment. You take cow dung and apply anywhere, you'll find it is pure. Immediately purified. So this is Vedic injunction. They are perfect knowledge. We... Instead of wasting time arguing and putting forward false prestige, if you simply accept the perfect knowledge, as they are stated in the Vedic literature, then we get perfect knowledge and our life is success. Instead of making experiment on the body to find out where is the soul... The soul is there, but it is so small that it is not possible to see by your these blunt eyes. Any microscope or any machine, because it is stated it is one ten-thousandth part of the top of the tip of the hair. So there is no machine. You cannot see. But it is there. Otherwise, how we can find distinction between the dead body and the living body?
So here, the perfect knowledge is spoken by Kṛṣṇa:
:dehino 'smin yathā dehe
:kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā
:tathā dehāntara-prāptir
:dhīras tatra na muhyati
:([[Vanisource:BG 2.13|BG 2.13]])
Dehinaḥ, of the living soul, the body is changing. Similarly, after death, after so-called death... Because there is no death. After stoppage of the function of this gross body, the soul is transferred to another gross body. This statement we get from Bhagavad-gītā. And if we accept this statement, "This is fact," then our spiritual life immediately begins. Without this understanding, there is no question of spiritual understanding. Everything vague, simply mental speculation, "maybe," "perhaps." These theories are being forwarded by so-called scientists and philosophers. But we don't accept such things as "perhaps," "maybe." No. We accept what is fact. It is not a question of belief; it is a question of fact. So this is the fact.
Now, how the soul is transmigrating? Suppose after this life, I get better life, that's nice. But if I get lower life, then what is the condition? Suppose next life I get the life of a cat or dog or cow. Suppose you get again birth in America. But if you change your body, then whole circumstances change. As human being, you are given all protection by the state, but as soon as you become another body, either tree or animals, the treatment is different. Animal is going to the slaughterhouse; trees are being cut out. There is no protest. So this is the condition of material life. Sometimes we are getting better condition of life, sometimes we are getting lower condition of life. There is no guarantee. That will depend on my work. That is practical. In this life also, if you become educated, then your future is very nice. If you are not educated, then your future is not so bright. Similarly, this human form of life, we can make a solution of this repeated birth and death. And that is the only business of human form of life, how to get out of these material conditions of life: birth, death, old age, and disease. We can make solution. And that solution is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. As soon as we become Kṛṣṇa conscious... Kṛṣṇa conscious means Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme, He, Lord, God. We are part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Simply to understand that... Just like you understand your father, and your brothers and yourself. You are all sons of the father. So it is not difficult to understand. As father maintains the whole family, similarly, Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Lord, or God, He has many innumerable sons, living entities, and He is maintaining the whole body, whole family. What is the difficulty? Then next duty is to become developed consciousness. Just like a good son, when he feels that "Father has done so much for me. I must repay it, or at least I must accept obligation what my father has done for me," this much feeling is called Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So to become Kṛṣṇa conscious, we require to understand three things only:
:bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasāṁ
:sarva-loka-maheśvaram
:suhṛdaṁ sarva-bhūtānāṁ
:jñātvā māṁ śāntim ṛcchati
:([[Vanisource:BG 5.29|BG 5.29]])
Every one of us is trying to be happy, satisfied. That is the struggle for existence. But if we understand these three principles, that God is the supreme father, God is the supreme proprietor, God is the supreme friend, these three things, if you understand, then you become peaceful immediately. Immediately. You are seeking friends to get help, so many. But if we simply accept God, Kṛṣṇa, as my friend, supreme friend, your friendship problem is solved. Similarly, if we accept God as the supreme proprietor, then our other problem is solved. Because we are falsely claiming proprietorship of things which belong to God. By falsely claiming that "This land, this land of America, belongs to the Americans; the land of Africa belongs to the Africans." No. Every land belongs to God. We are different sons of God in different dresses. We have got right to enjoy the property of father, God, without infringing others' right. Just like in family, we live, so many brothers. So whatever father, mother gives us to eat we eat. We don't encroach upon others' plate. That is not civilized family. Similarly, if we become God conscious, Kṛṣṇa conscious, then the whole problems of the world—sociology, religion, economic development, politics—everything will be solved. That's a fact.
Therefore we are trying to spread this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement for total benefit of the human society. We request the intelligent persons, especially the student community, to join this movement, to try to understand scientifically what is this movement. We have got many books, at least two dozen books, big, big, voluminous. So you can read them, you can try to understand this movement, and join with us.
Thank you very much. Hare Kṛṣṇa.
</div>
</div>
</div>