View source for Empiric philosophers

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{{terms|"empiric and atheistic philosophers"|"empiric philosopher"|"empiric philosophers"|"empirical methods. Each philosopher"|"empirical philosopher"|"empirical philosophers"|"empirical, atheistic philosophers"|"empiricist philosophers"}}
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[[Category:Empiric Philosophers|1]]
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<div id="Bhagavad-gita_As_It_Is" class="section" sec_index="0" parent="compilation" text="Bhagavad-gita As It Is"><h2>Bhagavad-gita As It Is</h2>
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<div id="BG_Chapters_1_-_6" class="sub_section" sec_index="1" parent="Bhagavad-gita_As_It_Is" text="BG Chapters 1 - 6"><h3>BG Chapters 1 - 6</h3>
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<div id="BG34_0" class="quote" parent="BG_Chapters_1_-_6" book="BG" index="114" link="BG 3.4" link_text="BG 3.4">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:BG 3.4 (1972)|BG 3.4, Purport]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="purport text"><p style="display: inline;">According to the empirical philosophers, simply by adopting sannyāsa, or retiring from fruitive activities, one at once becomes as good as Nārāyaṇa. But Lord Kṛṣṇa does not approve this principle. Without purification of heart, sannyāsa is simply a disturbance to the social order. On the other hand, if someone takes to the transcendental service of the Lord, even without discharging his prescribed duties, whatever he may be able to advance in the cause is accepted by the Lord (buddhi-yoga).</p>
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<div id="BG49_1" class="quote" parent="BG_Chapters_1_-_6" book="BG" index="162" link="BG 4.9" link_text="BG 4.9">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:BG 4.9 (1972)|BG 4.9, Purport]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="purport text"><p style="display: inline;">In the Brahma-saṁhitā (5.33) it is stated that the Lord has many, many forms and incarnations: advaitam acyutam anādim ananta-rūpam. Although there are many transcendental forms of the Lord, they are still one and the same Supreme Personality of Godhead. One has to understand this fact with conviction, although it is incomprehensible to mundane scholars and empiric philosophers.</p>
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<div id="BG49_2" class="quote" parent="BG_Chapters_1_-_6" book="BG" index="162" link="BG 4.9" link_text="BG 4.9">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:BG 4.9 (1972)|BG 4.9, Purport]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="purport text"><p style="display: inline;">"One can attain the perfect stage of liberation from birth and death simply by knowing the Lord, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and there is no other way to achieve this perfection." (Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad 3.8) That there is no alternative means that anyone who does not understand Lord Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Personality of Godhead is surely in the mode of ignorance and consequently he will not attain salvation simply, so to speak, by licking the outer surface of the bottle of honey, or by interpreting the Bhagavad-gītā according to mundane scholarship. Such empiric philosophers may assume very important roles in the material world, but they are not necessarily eligible for liberation. Such puffed-up mundane scholars have to wait for the causeless mercy of the devotee of the Lord. One should therefore cultivate Kṛṣṇa consciousness with faith and knowledge, and in this way attain perfection.</p>
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<div id="BG_Chapters_13_-_18" class="sub_section" sec_index="3" parent="Bhagavad-gita_As_It_Is" text="BG Chapters 13 - 18"><h3>BG Chapters 13 - 18</h3>
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<div id="BG1866_0" class="quote" parent="BG_Chapters_13_-_18" book="BG" index="180" link="BG 18.66" link_text="BG 18.66">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:BG 18.66 (1972)|BG 18.66, Purport]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="purport text"><p style="display: inline;">There are different kinds of transcendentalists—some of them are attached to the impersonal Brahman vision, some of them are attracted by the Supersoul feature, etc., but one who is attracted to the personal feature of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and, above all, one who is attracted by the Supreme Personality of Godhead as Kṛṣṇa Himself, is the most perfect transcendentalist. In other words, devotional service to Kṛṣṇa, in full consciousness, is the most confidential part of knowledge, and this is the essence of the whole Bhagavad-gītā. Karma-yogīs, empiric philosophers, mystics and devotees are all called transcendentalists, but one who is a pure devotee is the best of all.</p>
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<div id="Srimad-Bhagavatam" class="section" sec_index="1" parent="compilation" text="Srimad-Bhagavatam"><h2>Srimad-Bhagavatam</h2>
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<div id="SB_Preface_and_Introduction" class="sub_section" sec_index="0" parent="Srimad-Bhagavatam" text="SB Preface and Introduction"><h3>SB Preface and Introduction</h3>
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<div id="SBIntroduction_0" class="quote" parent="SB_Preface_and_Introduction" book="SB" index="1" link="SB Introduction" link_text="SB Introduction">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:SB Introduction|SB Introduction]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="text"><p style="display: inline;">On the bank of the Daśāśvamedha-ghāṭa at Prayāga for ten days continually the Lord instructed Rūpa Gosvāmī in the science of devotional service to the Lord. He taught the Gosvāmī the divisions of the living creatures in the 8,400,000 species of life. Then He taught him about the human species. Out of them He discussed the followers of the Vedic principles, out of them the fruitive workers, out of them the empiric philosophers, and out of them the liberated souls. He said that there are only a few who are actually pure devotees of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa.</p>
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<div id="SB_Canto_1" class="sub_section" sec_index="1" parent="Srimad-Bhagavatam" text="SB Canto 1"><h3>SB Canto 1</h3>
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<div id="SB1221_0" class="quote" parent="SB_Canto_1" book="SB" index="44" link="SB 1.2.21" link_text="SB 1.2.21">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:SB 1.2.21|SB 1.2.21, Purport]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="purport text"><p style="display: inline;">Attaining scientific knowledge of the Personality of Godhead means seeing one's own self simultaneously. As far as the identity of the living being as spirit self is concerned, there are a number of speculations and misgivings. The materialist does not believe in the existence of the spirit self, and empiric philosophers believe in the impersonal feature of the whole spirit without individuality of the living beings.</p>
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<div id="SB1337_1" class="quote" parent="SB_Canto_1" book="SB" index="93" link="SB 1.3.37" link_text="SB 1.3.37">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:SB 1.3.37|SB 1.3.37, Purport]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="purport text"><p style="display: inline;">There are two classes of materialists, namely the fruitive workers and the empiric philosophers. The fruitive workers have practically no information of the Absolute Truth, and the mental speculators, after being frustrated in fruitive activities, turn their faces towards the Absolute Truth and try to know Him by mental speculation. And for all these men, the Absolute Truth is a mystery, as the jugglery of the magician is a mystery to children.</p>
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<div id="SB1515_2" class="quote" parent="SB_Canto_1" book="SB" index="146" link="SB 1.5.15" link_text="SB 1.5.15">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:SB 1.5.15|SB 1.5.15, Purport]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="purport text"><p style="display: inline;">A patient suffering from a particular type of malady is almost always inclined to accept eatables which are forbidden for him. The expert physician does not make any compromise with the patient by allowing him to take partially what he should not at all take. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is also said that a man attached to fruitive work should not be discouraged from his occupation, for gradually he may be elevated to the position of self-realization. This is sometimes applicable for those who are only dry empiric philosophers without spiritual realization. But those who are in the devotional line need not be always so advised.</p>
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<div id="SB11850_3" class="quote" parent="SB_Canto_1" book="SB" index="740" link="SB 1.18.50" link_text="SB 1.18.50">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:SB 1.18.50|SB 1.18.50, Purport]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="purport text"><p style="display: inline;">The transcendentalists are the empiric philosophers, the mystics and the devotees of the Lord. Empiric philosophers aim at the perfection of merging into the being of the Absolute, mystics aim at perceiving the all-pervading Supersoul, and the devotees of the Lord are engaged in the transcendental loving service of the Personality of Godhead. Since Brahman, Paramātmā and Bhagavān are different phases of the same Transcendence, all these transcendentalists are beyond the three modes of material nature.</p>
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<div id="SB_Canto_2" class="sub_section" sec_index="2" parent="Srimad-Bhagavatam" text="SB Canto 2"><h3>SB Canto 2</h3>
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<div id="SB215_0" class="quote" parent="SB_Canto_2" book="SB" index="6" link="SB 2.1.5" link_text="SB 2.1.5">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:SB 2.1.5|SB 2.1.5, Purport]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="purport text"><p style="display: inline;">The Lord is the Supersoul (Paramātmā) present in the hearts of all living beings, and thus by the above hearing and glorifying process, the Lord invites the association of all in His creation. This process of hearing about and glorifying the Lord is applicable for everyone, whoever he may be, and it will lead one to the ultimate success in everything in which one may be engaged by providence. There are many classes of human beings: the fruitive workers, the empiric philosophers, the mystic yogīs, and ultimately, the unalloyed devotees. For all of them, one and the same process is applicable for achieving the desired success.</p>
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<div id="SB2233_1" class="quote" parent="SB_Canto_2" book="SB" index="73" link="SB 2.2.33" link_text="SB 2.2.33">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:SB 2.2.33|SB 2.2.33, Purport]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="purport text"><p style="display: inline;">In the Bhagavad-gītā (12.5) it is said that those who are attached to the impersonal feature of the Absolute are liable to many troubles in the pursuit of their desired goal, and the empiricist philosophers, searching after the Absolute Truth, realize the importance of Vāsudeva realization as all in all after many, many births ([[Vanisource:BG 7.19 (1972)|BG 7.19]]). As far as yoga systems are concerned, it is also said in the Bhagavad-gītā (6.47) that amongst the mystics who pursue the Absolute Truth, the one who is always engaged in the service of the Lord is the greatest of all.</p>
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<div id="SB2434_2" class="quote" parent="SB_Canto_2" book="SB" index="100" link="SB 2.4.3-4" link_text="SB 2.4.3-4">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:SB 2.4.3-4|SB 2.4.3-4, Purport]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="purport text"><p style="display: inline;">As a great emperor of the world, Mahārāja Parīkṣit had to observe such regulations of the Vedic karma-kāṇḍīya section, but by his slight association with Śukadeva Gosvāmī he could perfectly understand that Lord Kṛṣṇa, the Absolute Personality of Godhead (Vāsudeva), for whom he had a natural love since his birth, is everything, and thus he fixed his mind firmly upon Him, renouncing all modes of Vedic karma-kāṇḍīya activities. This perfectional stage is attained by a jñānī after many, many births. The jñānīs, or the empiric philosophers endeavoring for liberation, are thousands of times better than the fruitive workers, and out of hundreds of thousands of such jñānīs one is liberated factually.</p>
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<div id="SB2412_3" class="quote" parent="SB_Canto_2" book="SB" index="108" link="SB 2.4.12" link_text="SB 2.4.12">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:SB 2.4.12|SB 2.4.12, Purport]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="purport text"><p style="display: inline;">This material world is a manifestation of the three modes goodness, passion and ignorance, and the Supreme Lord, for the creation, maintenance and destruction of the material world, accepts three predominating forms as Brahmā, Viṣṇu and Śaṅkara (Śiva). As Viṣṇu He enters into every body materially created. As Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu He enters into every universe, and as Kṣīrodakaśāyī Viṣṇu He enters the body of every living being. Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, being the origin of all viṣṇu-tattvas, is addressed here as paraḥ pumān, or Puruṣottama, as described in the Bhagavad-gītā (15.18). He is the complete whole. The puruṣāvatāras are therefore His plenary expansions. Bhakti-yoga is the only process by which one can become competent to know Him. Because the empiric philosophers and mystic yogīs cannot conceive of the Personality of Godhead, He is called anupalakṣya-vartmane, the Lord of the inconceivable way, or bhakti-yoga.</p>
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<div id="SB2419_4" class="quote" parent="SB_Canto_2" book="SB" index="115" link="SB 2.4.19" link_text="SB 2.4.19">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:SB 2.4.19|SB 2.4.19, Purport]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="purport text"><p style="display: inline;">The Supreme Lord, the Personality of Godhead, although the Lord of all followers of different paths of self-realization, is knowable only by those who are above all pretensions. Everyone is searching for eternal peace or eternal life, and with an aim to this destination everyone is either studying the Vedic scriptures or other religious scriptures or undergoing severe austerity as empiric philosophers, as mystics yogīs or as unalloyed devotees, etc. But the Supreme Lord is perfectly realized only by the devotees because they are above all pretensions.</p>
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<div id="SB2637_5" class="quote" parent="SB_Canto_2" book="SB" index="193" link="SB 2.6.37" link_text="SB 2.6.37">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:SB 2.6.37|SB 2.6.37, Purport]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="purport text"><p style="display: inline;">The demigods, semi-demigods, Gandharvas, etc., are all highly intelligent persons in the upper planets, the human beings are inhabitants of the intermediate planets, and the asuras are inhabitants of the lower planets. All of them have their respective conceptions and estimations of the Absolute Truth, as does the scientist or the empiric philosopher in human society. All such living entities are creatures of the material nature, and consequently they are bewildered by the wonderful display of the three modes of material nature. Such bewilderment is mentioned in the Bhagavad-gītā (7.13).</p>
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<div id="SB264041_6" class="quote" parent="SB_Canto_2" book="SB" index="196" link="SB 2.6.40-41" link_text="SB 2.6.40-41">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:SB 2.6.40-41|SB 2.6.40-41, Purport]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="purport text"><p style="display: inline;">Only the praśāntas, or the unalloyed devotees of the Lord, can know Him to a greater extent. The reason is that the devotees have no demands in their lives but to be obedient servants of the Lord, while all others, namely the empiric philosophers, the mystics and the fruitive workers, all basically have some demand, and as such they cannot be pacified. The fruitive worker wants reward for his work, the mystic wants some perfection of life, and the empiric philosopher wants to merge in the existence of the Lord. Somehow or other, as long as there is a demand for sense satisfaction, there is no chance for pacification; on the contrary, by unnecessary dry speculative arguments, the whole matter becomes distorted, and thus the Lord moves still further away from our understanding.</p>
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<div id="SB2822_7" class="quote" parent="SB_Canto_2" book="SB" index="271" link="SB 2.8.22" link_text="SB 2.8.22">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:SB 2.8.22|SB 2.8.22, Purport]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="purport text"><p style="display: inline;">Of the ever-conditioned living beings, there are two divisions. They are the faithful and the infidels. Of the faithful there are again two divisions, namely the devotees and the mental speculators. The mental speculators desire to merge into the existence of the Lord, or to become one with the Lord, whereas the devotees of the Lord desire to keep separate identities and constantly engage in the service of the Lord. The devotees who are not fully purified, as well as the empiric philosophers, become conditioned again during the next creation for further purification. Such conditioned souls become liberated by further progress of devotional service to the Lord. Mahārāja Parīkṣit asked all these questions from the bona fide spiritual master in order to become fully equipped in the science of God.</p>
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<div id="SB2825_8" class="quote" parent="SB_Canto_2" book="SB" index="274" link="SB 2.8.25" link_text="SB 2.8.25">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:SB 2.8.25|SB 2.8.25, Purport]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="purport text"><p style="display: inline;">One cannot be a spiritual master in perfection unless and until one has received the same by disciplic succession. That is the secret of receiving transcendental knowledge. The six great sages mentioned above may be great thinkers, but their knowledge by mental speculation is not perfect. However perfect an empiric philosopher may be in presenting a philosophical thesis, such knowledge is never perfect because it is produced by an imperfect mind. Such great sages also have their disciplic successions, but they are not authorized because such knowledge does not come directly from the independent Supreme Personality of Godhead, Nārāyaṇa.</p>
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<div id="SB2918_9" class="quote" parent="SB_Canto_2" book="SB" index="296" link="SB 2.9.18" link_text="SB 2.9.18">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:SB 2.9.18|SB 2.9.18, Purport]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="purport text"><p style="display: inline;">Unfortunately, persons with impious backgrounds do not believe in the Personality of Godhead, and everyone wants to become God himself without any qualification. This malicious nature in the conditioned soul continues even up to the stage when a person wants to be one with the Lord, and thus even the greatest of the empiric philosophers speculating on becoming one with the Supreme Lord cannot become a paramahaṁsa because the malicious mind is there. Therefore the paramahaṁsa stage of life can be attained only by those who are fixed in the practice of bhakti-yoga. This bhakti-yoga begins if a person has the firm conviction that simply discharging devotional service to the Lord in full transcendental love can elevate him to the highest perfectional stage of life.</p>
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<div id="SB2934_10" class="quote" parent="SB_Canto_2" book="SB" index="312" link="SB 2.9.34" link_text="SB 2.9.34">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:SB 2.9.34|SB 2.9.34, Purport]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="purport text"><p style="display: inline;">Persons with a poor fund of knowledge become illusioned, and therefore the so-called scientists, physiologists, empiric philosophers, etc., become dazzled by the glaring reflection of the sun, moon, electricity, etc., and deny the existence of the Supreme Lord, putting forward theories and different speculations about the creation, maintenance and annihilation of everything material. The medical practitioner may deny the existence of the soul in the physiological bodily construction of an individual person, but he cannot give life to a dead body, even though all the mechanisms of the body exist even after death.</p>
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<div id="SB_Canto_3" class="sub_section" sec_index="3" parent="Srimad-Bhagavatam" text="SB Canto 3"><h3>SB Canto 3</h3>
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<div id="SB3131_0" class="quote" parent="SB_Canto_3" book="SB" index="31" link="SB 3.1.31" link_text="SB 3.1.31">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:SB 3.1.31|SB 3.1.31, Purport]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="purport text"><p style="display: inline;">The renouncers of the world, the sannyāsīs, give up all worldly connections, namely, family, wife, children, friends, home, wealth—everything—to attain the transcendental bliss of Brahman happiness. But adhokṣaja happiness is beyond Brahman happiness. The empiric philosophers enjoy a transcendental quality of bliss by philosophical speculation on the Supreme Truth, but beyond that pleasure is the pleasure enjoyed by Brahman in His eternal form of the Personality of Godhead. Brahman bliss is enjoyed by living entities after liberation from material bondage.</p>
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<div id="SB3131_1" class="quote" parent="SB_Canto_3" book="SB" index="31" link="SB 3.1.31" link_text="SB 3.1.31">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:SB 3.1.31|SB 3.1.31, Purport]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="purport text"><p style="display: inline;">The empiric philosopher who studies Brahman by negation of the external features has not yet learned the quality of the hlādinī potency of Brahman. Out of many potencies of the Omnipotent, there are three features of His internal potency—namely saṁvit, sandhinī and hlādinī. And in spite of their strict adherence to the principles of yama, niyama, āsana, dhyāna, dhāraṇā and prāṇāyāma, the great yogīs and jñānīs are unable to enter into the internal potency of the Lord. This internal potency is, however, easily realized by the devotees of the Lord by dint of devotional service.</p>
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<div id="SB3636_2" class="quote" parent="SB_Canto_3" book="SB" index="230" link="SB 3.6.36" link_text="SB 3.6.36">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:SB 3.6.36|SB 3.6.36, Purport]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="purport text"><p style="display: inline;">By the presence of consciousness, the presence of the transcendental soul is verified, and as soon as consciousness leaves the body, the material body is not active. Consciousness is perceived, therefore, by activities. The theory put forward by empiric philosophers that consciousness can remain in an inactive state is the proof of their poor fund of knowledge. One should not become unchaste by stopping the activities of pure consciousness. If the activities of pure consciousness are stopped, certainly the conscious living force will be otherwise engaged because unless engaged the consciousness has no standing.</p>
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<div id="SB3942_3" class="quote" parent="SB_Canto_3" book="SB" index="350" link="SB 3.9.42" link_text="SB 3.9.42">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:SB 3.9.42|SB 3.9.42, Purport]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="purport text"><p style="display: inline;">Without possessing affection for the sun, the eyes cannot bear the rays of the sun; or, in other words, such eyes have no capacity to understand the utility of the sun's rays. Similarly, the empiric philosophers, despite their theoretical knowledge of Brahman, cannot utilize the mercy of the Supreme Brahman because they lack affection. So many impersonal philosophers remain everlastingly under the influence of māyā Because, although they indulge in theoretical knowledge of Brahman, they do not develop affection for Brahman nor do they have any scope for development of affection because of their defective method.</p>
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<div id="SB32913_4" class="quote" parent="SB_Canto_3" book="SB" index="1201" link="SB 3.29.13" link_text="SB 3.29.13">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:SB 3.29.13|SB 3.29.13, Purport]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="purport text"><p style="display: inline;">Lord Caitanya teaches us how to execute pure devotional service out of spontaneous love for the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In the Śikṣāṣṭaka, He prays to the Lord: "O Lord, I do not wish to gain from You any wealth, nor do I wish to have a beautiful wife, nor do I wish to have many followers. All I want from You is that in life after life I may remain a pure devotee at Your lotus feet." There is a similarity between the prayers of Lord Caitanya and the statements of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Lord Caitanya prays, "in life after life," indicating that a devotee does not even desire the cessation of birth and death. The yogīs and empiric philosophers desire cessation of the process of birth and death, but a devotee is satisfied to remain even in this material world and execute devotional service.</p>
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<div id="SB33226_5" class="quote" parent="SB_Canto_3" book="SB" index="1337" link="SB 3.32.26" link_text="SB 3.32.26">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:SB 3.32.26|SB 3.32.26, Purport]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="purport text"><p style="display: inline;">The devotee can see the Supreme Lord face to face, but the jñānī, the empiric philosopher or yogī cannot. They cannot be elevated to the positions of associates of the Lord. There is no evidence in the scriptures stating that by cultivating knowledge or worshiping the impersonal Brahman one can become a personal associate of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Nor by executing the yogic principles can one become an associate of the Supreme Godhead. Impersonal Brahman, being formless, is described as adṛśya because the impersonal effulgence of brahmajyoti covers the face of the Supreme Lord.</p>
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<div id="SB_Canto_4" class="sub_section" sec_index="4" parent="Srimad-Bhagavatam" text="SB Canto 4"><h3>SB Canto 4</h3>
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<div id="SB4731_0" class="quote" parent="SB_Canto_4" book="SB" index="258" link="SB 4.7.31" link_text="SB 4.7.31">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:SB 4.7.31|SB 4.7.31, Purport]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="purport text"><p style="display: inline;">It is said that the transcendental name, qualities, activities, paraphernalia, etc., of the Supreme Personality of Godhead cannot be understood with our material senses. The attempt of the empiric philosophers to understand the Absolute Truth by speculation is always futile because their process of understanding, their objective and the instruments by which they try to understand the Absolute Truth are all material. The Lord is aprākṛta, beyond the creation of the material world.</p>
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<div id="SB_Canto_7" class="sub_section" sec_index="7" parent="Srimad-Bhagavatam" text="SB Canto 7"><h3>SB Canto 7</h3>
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<div id="SB71558_0" class="quote" parent="SB_Canto_7" book="SB" index="669" link="SB 7.15.58" link_text="SB 7.15.58">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:SB 7.15.58|SB 7.15.58, Purport]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="purport text"><p style="display: inline;">The impersonalists try to prove that the varieties in the vision of the empiric philosopher are false. The impersonalist philosophy, vivarta-vāda, generally cites the acceptance of a rope to be a snake as an example of this fact. According to this example, the varieties within our vision are false, just as a rope seen to be a snake is false. The Vaiṣṇavas say, however, that although the idea that the rope is a snake is false, the snake is not false; one has experience of a snake in reality, and therefore he knows that although the representation of the rope as a snake is false or illusory, there is a snake in reality.</p>
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<div id="SB_Cantos_1014_to_12_Translations_Only" class="sub_section" sec_index="11" parent="Srimad-Bhagavatam" text="SB Cantos 10.14 to 12 (Translations Only)"><h3>SB Cantos 10.14 to 12 (Translations Only)</h3>
</div>
<div id="SB12849_0" class="quote" parent="SB_Cantos_10.14_to_12_(Translations_Only)" book="SB" index="4671" link="SB 12.8.49" link_text="SB 12.8.49">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:SB 12.8.49|SB 12.8.49, Translation]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="trans text"><p style="display: inline;">My dear Lord, the Vedic literatures alone reveal confidential knowledge of Your supreme personality, and thus even such great scholars as Lord Brahmā himself are bewildered in their attempt to understand You through empirical methods. Each philosopher understands You according to his particular speculative conclusions. I worship that Supreme Person, knowledge of whom is hidden by the bodily designations covering the conditioned soul's spiritual identity.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div id="Sri_Caitanya-caritamrta" class="section" sec_index="2" parent="compilation" text="Sri Caitanya-caritamrta"><h2>Sri Caitanya-caritamrta</h2>
</div>
<div id="CC_Adi-lila" class="sub_section" sec_index="1" parent="Sri_Caitanya-caritamrta" text="CC Adi-lila"><h3>CC Adi-lila</h3>
</div>
<div id="CCAdi152_0" class="quote" parent="CC_Adi-lila" book="CC" index="53" link="CC Adi 1.52" link_text="CC Adi 1.52">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:CC Adi 1.52|CC Adi 1.52, Purport]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="purport text"><p style="display: inline;">The innumerable forms of the Lord, such as Śyāmasundara, Nārāyaṇa, Rāma and Gaurasundara; the colors of these forms (white, red, yellow, cloudlike śyāma and others); His qualities, as the responsive Personality of Godhead to pure devotees and as impersonal Brahman to dry speculators; His uncommon activities like lifting Govardhana Hill, marrying more than sixteen thousand queens at Dvārakā, and entering the rāsa dance with the damsels of Vraja, expanding Himself in as many forms as there were damsels in the dance—these and innumerable other uncommon acts and attributes are all mysteries, one aspect of which is presented in the scientific knowledge of the Bhagavad-gītā, which is read and adored all over the world by all classes of scholars, with as many interpretations as there are empiric philosophers.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div id="CCAdi191_1" class="quote" parent="CC_Adi-lila" book="CC" index="86" link="CC Adi 1.91" link_text="CC Adi 1.91">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:CC Adi 1.91|CC Adi 1.91, Purport]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="purport text"><p style="display: inline;">The paths of the culture of knowledge (jñāna-mārga) and of mystic powers (yoga-mārga) are equally hazardous, for one does not know where one will go by following these uncertain methods. An empiric philosopher in search of spiritual knowledge may endeavor most laboriously for many, many births in mental speculation, but unless and until he reaches the stage of the purest quality of goodness—in other words, until he transcends the plane of material speculation—it is not possible for him to know that everything emanates from the Personality of Godhead Vāsudeva.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div id="CCAdi191_2" class="quote" parent="CC_Adi-lila" book="CC" index="86" link="CC Adi 1.91" link_text="CC Adi 1.91">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:CC Adi 1.91|CC Adi 1.91, Purport]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="purport text"><p style="display: inline;">Bhāgavata-dharma, or the religious principle described in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, of which the Bhagavad-gītā is a preliminary study, is meant for liberated persons of the highest order, who attribute very little value to the sense gratification of pretentious religiosity. The first and foremost concern of fruitive workers, elevationists, empiric philosophers and salvationists is to raise their material position. But devotees of Godhead have no such selfish desires. They serve the Supreme Lord only for His satisfaction.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div id="CCAdi211_3" class="quote" parent="CC_Adi-lila" book="CC" index="116" link="CC Adi 2.11" link_text="CC Adi 2.11">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:CC Adi 2.11|CC Adi 2.11, Purport]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="purport text"><p style="display: inline;">One who is not Kṛṣṇa conscious is ruled by the spell of māyā under the control of a duality in knowledge. In the Absolute, all manifestations of the Supreme Lord are nondual, just as the multifarious forms of Viṣṇu, the controller of māyā, are nondual. Empiric philosophers who pursue the impersonal Brahman accept only the knowledge that the personality of the living entity is not different from the personality of the Supreme Lord, and mystic yogīs who try to locate the Paramātmā accept only the knowledge that the pure soul is not different from the Supersoul.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div id="CCAdi514_4" class="quote" parent="CC_Adi-lila" book="CC" index="618" link="CC Adi 5.14" link_text="CC Adi 5.14">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:CC Adi 5.14|CC Adi 5.14, Purport]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="purport text"><p style="display: inline;">According to Sāṅkhya philosophy, the material cosmos is composed of twenty-four elements: the five gross material elements, the three subtle material elements, the five knowledge-acquiring senses, the five active senses, the five objects of sense pleasure, and the mahat-tattva (the total material energy). Empiric philosophers, unable to go beyond these elements, speculate that anything beyond them must be avyakta, or inexplicable. But the world beyond the twenty-four elements is not inexplicable, for it is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā as the eternal (sanātana) nature. Beyond the manifested and unmanifested existence of material nature (vyaktāvyakta) is the sanātana nature, which is called the paravyoma, or the spiritual sky.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div id="CCAdi522_5" class="quote" parent="CC_Adi-lila" book="CC" index="626" link="CC Adi 5.22" link_text="CC Adi 5.22">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:CC Adi 5.22|CC Adi 5.22, Purport]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="purport text"><p style="display: inline;">To come to the stage of manipulating finer elements like mind, intelligence and spirit, one needs appropriate training, an appropriate mode of life and appropriate association. Such training depends upon sincere prayers, devotional service, achievement of success in mystic perfection, and the successful merging of oneself in the activities of the soul and Supersoul. A gross materialist, whether he be an empiric philosopher, a scientist, a psychologist or whatever, cannot attain such success through blunt efforts and word jugglery.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div id="CC_Madhya-lila" class="sub_section" sec_index="2" parent="Sri_Caitanya-caritamrta" text="CC Madhya-lila"><h3>CC Madhya-lila</h3>
</div>
<div id="CCMadhya8259_0" class="quote" parent="CC_Madhya-lila" book="CC" index="1662" link="CC Madhya 8.259" link_text="CC Madhya 8.259">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:CC Madhya 8.259|CC Madhya 8.259, Translation]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="trans text"><p style="display: inline;">Rāmānanda Rāya concluded, "The unfortunate empiric philosophers taste the dry process of philosophical knowledge, whereas the devotees regularly drink the nectar of love of Kṛṣṇa. Therefore they are the most fortunate of all."</p>
</div>
</div>
<div id="CCMadhya9360_1" class="quote" parent="CC_Madhya-lila" book="CC" index="2073" link="CC Madhya 9.360" link_text="CC Madhya 9.360">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:CC Madhya 9.360|CC Madhya 9.360, Purport]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="purport text"><p style="display: inline;">Both Māyāvādīs and those who imagine forms of God are misguided. According to them, worship of the Deity or any other form of the Lord is a result of the conditioned soul's illusion. However, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu confirms the conclusion of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam on the strength of His philosophy of acintya-bhedābheda-tattva. That philosophy holds that the Supreme Lord is simultaneously one with and different from His creation. That is to say, there is unity in diversity. In this way Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu proved the impotence of fruitive workers, speculative empiric philosophers and mystic yogīs. The realization of such men is simply a waste of time and energy.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div id="Other_Books_by_Srila_Prabhupada" class="section" sec_index="3" parent="compilation" text="Other Books by Srila Prabhupada"><h2>Other Books by Srila Prabhupada</h2>
</div>
<div id="Teachings_of_Lord_Caitanya" class="sub_section" sec_index="0" parent="Other_Books_by_Srila_Prabhupada" text="Teachings of Lord Caitanya"><h3>Teachings of Lord Caitanya</h3>
</div>
<div id="TLC1_0" class="quote" parent="Teachings_of_Lord_Caitanya" book="OB" index="7" link="TLC 1" link_text="Teachings of Lord Caitanya, Chapter 1">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:TLC 1|Teachings of Lord Caitanya, Chapter 1]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="text"><p style="display: inline;">Those who are righteous generally execute fruitive activities in order to derive some good result for sense gratification. Out of many such persons who engage in righteous activities for sense gratification, only a few come to know about the Absolute Truth. These are called jñānīs, empiric philosophers. Out of many hundreds and thousands of such empiric philosophers, only a handful actually attain liberation. When one is liberated, he theoretically understands that the living entity is not composed of material elements but is spirit soul, distinct from matter.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div id="Krsna_The_Supreme_Personality_of_Godhead" class="sub_section" sec_index="4" parent="Other_Books_by_Srila_Prabhupada" text="Krsna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead"><h3>Krsna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead</h3>
</div>
<div id="KB47_0" class="quote" parent="Krsna,_The_Supreme_Personality_of_Godhead" book="OB" index="51" link="KB 47" link_text="Krsna Book 47">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:KB 47|Krsna Book 47]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="text"><p style="display: inline;">Uddhava did not deliver to the gopīs the written message brought from Kṛṣṇa, but he personally read it to them. The message was very gravely written, so that not only the gopīs but all empiric philosophers might understand how pure love of God is intrinsically integrated with all the different energies of the Supreme Lord. From Vedic information it is understood that the Supreme Lord has multi-energies: parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate (Cc. Madhya 13.65, purport). Also, the gopīs were such intimate personal friends of Kṛṣṇa that while He was writing the message for them He was so moved that He could not write distinctly.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div id="KB47_1" class="quote" parent="Krsna,_The_Supreme_Personality_of_Godhead" book="OB" index="51" link="KB 47" link_text="Krsna Book 47">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:KB 47|Krsna Book 47]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="text"><p style="display: inline;">When the living entities forget Kṛṣṇa, they are not in their normal condition. As for the gopīs, because they are always thinking of Kṛṣṇa, they are on the absolute stage of perfection in knowledge. The so-called empiric philosophers sometimes think that the path of bhakti is meant for the less intelligent, but unless the so-called man of knowledge comes to the platform of bhakti, his knowledge is certainly impure and imperfect. Actually, the stage of forgetfulness of our eternal relationship with Kṛṣṇa is separation. But that is also illusory because there is no such separation. The gopīs were not situated in that illusory condition of life, so even from the philosophical point of view, for them there was no separation.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div id="KB47_2" class="quote" parent="Krsna,_The_Supreme_Personality_of_Godhead" book="OB" index="51" link="KB 47" link_text="Krsna Book 47">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:KB 47|Krsna Book 47]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="text"><p style="display: inline;">The mind acts throughout all three conditions of life; the living entity in his sleeping or dreaming condition sees something as real, and when awake he sees the same thing as unreal. It is concluded, therefore, that under certain circumstances he accepts something as real, and under other circumstances he accepts the very same thing as unreal. These matters are the subject of study for the empiric philosopher or the sāṅkhya-yogī. To come to the right conclusion, sāṅkhya-yogīs undergo severe austerities and penances, practicing control of the senses and renunciation.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div id="Renunciation_Through_Wisdom" class="sub_section" sec_index="5" parent="Other_Books_by_Srila_Prabhupada" text="Renunciation Through Wisdom"><h3>Renunciation Through Wisdom</h3>
</div>
<div id="RTW27_0" class="quote" parent="Renunciation_Through_Wisdom" book="OB" index="19" link="RTW 2.7" link_text="Renunciation Through Wisdom 2.7">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:RTW 2.7|Renunciation Through Wisdom 2.7]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="text"><p style="display: inline;">Empirical, atheistic philosophers like Kapila spent innumerable tedious hours researching the material phenomena of this cosmic creation. Yet it remained beyond the grasp of their limited intelligence to understand that there exists a realm transcendental and far superior to this manifested material world. Finally, when their probing minds failed to sight land in an ocean of speculation, they concluded that the absolute truth is unmanifest.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div id="RTW27_1" class="quote" parent="Renunciation_Through_Wisdom" book="OB" index="19" link="RTW 2.7" link_text="Renunciation Through Wisdom 2.7">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:RTW 2.7|Renunciation Through Wisdom 2.7]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="text"><p style="display: inline;">Compared to other species, human beings are certainly endowed with good intelligence, yet unless they are devotees of the Lord, all their thinking is limited within mundane boundaries. Therefore it is impossible for the mundane mind to approach the transcendence. But instead of surrendering to the Supreme Lord or His representative, the empirical philosophers try to explain away as "unmanifest" that which is beyond their mundane minds. This is known as the logic of the frog in the well.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div id="RTW28_2" class="quote" parent="Renunciation_Through_Wisdom" book="OB" index="20" link="RTW 2.8" link_text="Renunciation Through Wisdom 2.8">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:RTW 2.8|Renunciation Through Wisdom 2.8]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="text"><p style="display: inline;">One often comes across monists and pseudo-devotees posing as Lord Kṛṣṇa's devotees, but eventually they try to usurp Kṛṣṇa's position. They want to be Lord Kṛṣṇa themselves. Persons with such insidious desires are totally bewildered. If a fruitive worker thinks that Lord Kṛṣṇa is an ordinary mortal, he does not attain the goal of his fruitive work—elevation to the heavenly planets. And if an anthropomorphist happens to be a jñānī, an empirical philosopher, then he also fails to achieve the goal of his pursuit of knowledge—liberation from the material modes.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div id="RTW29_3" class="quote" parent="Renunciation_Through_Wisdom" book="OB" index="21" link="RTW 2.9" link_text="Renunciation Through Wisdom 2.9">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:RTW 2.9|Renunciation Through Wisdom 2.9]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="text"><p style="display: inline;">The neophyte Vaiṣṇava devotees' ringing the bell even once during worship of the Deity of the Supreme Lord is a million times more valuable, spiritually and otherwise, than the charitable fruitive workers building many hospitals, feeding thousands of the poor, or building homes, or even the empirical philosophers' Vedic studies, meditation, austerities, and penances.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div id="RTW210_4" class="quote" parent="Renunciation_Through_Wisdom" book="OB" index="22" link="RTW 2.10" link_text="Renunciation Through Wisdom 2.10">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:RTW 2.10|Renunciation Through Wisdom 2.10]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="text"><p style="display: inline;">The devotees do not always suffer, for the Supreme Lord personally takes care of them. The devotees are the Lord's relatives and family members. Just as ordinary people feel joy and satisfaction when they look after the needs and comforts of their family, the Lord also feels pleasure when he tends to the well-being of His devotees. Thus the Supreme Lord is known as Bhakta-vatsala, "the maintainer of the devotees." But He is never referred to as Karmī-vatsala, "the maintainer of fruitive workers," or Jñānī-vatsala, "the maintainer of empiric philosophers."</p>
</div>
</div>
<div id="RTW210_5" class="quote" parent="Renunciation_Through_Wisdom" book="OB" index="22" link="RTW 2.10" link_text="Renunciation Through Wisdom 2.10">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:RTW 2.10|Renunciation Through Wisdom 2.10]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="text"><p style="display: inline;">Though the obedient son may never express his wants to his father, the loving father spontaneously tries to make his son happy and derives joy from doing so. Therefore the Lord's devotees never lack anything, even materially, and at the end of this life, after leaving the body, they are situated in eternal bliss. This is the transcendental wealth a devotee inherits. Others—the fruitive workers, empiric philosophers, demigod-worshippers, and mystic yogīs—cannot attain eternal bliss.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div id="RTW213_6" class="quote" parent="Renunciation_Through_Wisdom" book="OB" index="25" link="RTW 2.13" link_text="Renunciation Through Wisdom 2.13">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:RTW 2.13|Renunciation Through Wisdom 2.13]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="text"><p style="display: inline;">The impersonalists and empiric philosophers consider the unalloyed devotees of the Lord sentimental fools, and thus they deride them. This is a big offense. Such offences cause the impersonalists and pseudo-devotees to slowly become demoniac. Having lost good sense and a stable mind, they gradually develop animosity toward the Supreme Lord and find all their life's endeavors reduced to suffering and futility.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div id="RTW213_7" class="quote" parent="Renunciation_Through_Wisdom" book="OB" index="25" link="RTW 2.13" link_text="Renunciation Through Wisdom 2.13">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:RTW 2.13|Renunciation Through Wisdom 2.13]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="text"><p style="display: inline;">The dry speculative philosophers may kindly note one  point: By using the word teṣām, Lord Kṛṣṇa openly declares that He is always merciful to His surrendered devotees. The reason that the Lord expands Himself as the Supersoul and enters everyone's heart is not to bless the empiric philosophers and yogīs but to bless the devotees from within. If the Supreme Lord Himself wishes to enlighten the devotees with spiritual knowledge and gradually draw them closer to Him, then what question is there of such devotees ever coming under the spell of nescience? Rather, it is out of nescience only that the empiric philosophers try to approach the Supreme Truth on the strength of their own intellect.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div id="RTW31_8" class="quote" parent="Renunciation_Through_Wisdom" book="OB" index="27" link="RTW 3.1" link_text="Renunciation Through Wisdom 3.1">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:RTW 3.1|Renunciation Through Wisdom 3.1]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="text"><p style="display: inline;">Argumentative impersonalists fail to grasp that without first properly understanding the science of the Absolute Truth, one cannot possibly develop firm devotion to the Supreme Lord. Hence when a person is seen to be situated on the platform of pure devotional service, it is to be understood that his ignorance has been destroyed. We have discussed this point in some detail in the previous essay, "The Science of Devotion." The empirical philosophers generally put forward the idea that human life is meant for achieving perfect knowledge.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div id="RTW31_9" class="quote" parent="Renunciation_Through_Wisdom" book="OB" index="27" link="RTW 3.1" link_text="Renunciation Through Wisdom 3.1">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:RTW 3.1|Renunciation Through Wisdom 3.1]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="text"><p style="display: inline;">If one pretends to be a devotee of the Lord but does not understand the difference between dry speculative knowledge and knowledge of the Supreme Absolute Truth, then such a person's devotion borders on impersonalism and is rank with cheap sentimentalism, which is totally against the spiritual teachings of Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī. Therefore jñāna-yoga is not speculation or empirical research; nor is it the sudden emotional outbursts of upstarts pretending to be devotees. By practicing genuine jñāna-yoga, even an empirical philosopher will develop a taste for hearing purely spiritual topics from the scriptures.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div id="RTW51_10" class="quote" parent="Renunciation_Through_Wisdom" book="OB" index="39" link="RTW 5.1" link_text="Renunciation Through Wisdom 5.1">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:RTW 5.1|Renunciation Through Wisdom 5.1]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="text"><p style="display: inline;">For the devotee of the Lord, this kind of vision develops easily. Conversely, the empirical philosophers, fruitive workers, and gross materialists cannot possibly attain this stage. The devotees are inspired by Him to develop spiritual perception, and thus the dualities fade into inconsequence. Such a state is the ultimate result of their devotional surrender and love for the Lord.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div id="RTW51_11" class="quote" parent="Renunciation_Through_Wisdom" book="OB" index="39" link="RTW 5.1" link_text="Renunciation Through Wisdom 5.1">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:RTW 5.1|Renunciation Through Wisdom 5.1]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="text"><p style="display: inline;">The devotees work hard to induce people from the materialistic masses to take up devotional service, all the while trying to not disturb their minds. Such spiritual efforts are never to be confused with the mundane endeavors of fruitive workers, empirical philosophers, or outright sense gratifiers. As the Supreme Lord says in the Gītā (3.24), utsīdeyur ime lokāḥ na kuryāṁ karma ced aham: "If I did not perform prescribed duties, all these worlds would be put to ruination."</p>
</div>
</div>
<div id="Message_of_Godhead" class="sub_section" sec_index="6" parent="Other_Books_by_Srila_Prabhupada" text="Message of Godhead"><h3>Message of Godhead</h3>
</div>
<div id="MOGIntroduction_0" class="quote" parent="Message_of_Godhead" book="OB" index="1" link="MOG Introduction" link_text="Message of Godhead Introduction">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:MOG Introduction|Message of Godhead Introduction]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="text"><p style="display: inline;">The philosophers and the logicians have tried to understand the intrinsic relationship of living entities with God by various conceptions and methods, on the strength of their mundane education and scholastic research. But the Absolute Truth remains above the philosophers and their acquired knowledge. The conception of the Absolute is never perfectly attained by such an ascending process, because of its being born of imperfect, material senses. These empiric philosophers and logicians cannot realize their imperfection by the vanity of material knowledge, and the ultimate conclusion of such materialistic philosophers is atheism. They deny the existence of God, who is the Supreme Person, different from all other persons. Under such a vague assumption, we remain in the same darkness as before.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div id="MOG2_1" class="quote" parent="Message_of_Godhead" book="OB" index="3" link="MOG 2" link_text="Message of Godhead 2">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:MOG 2|Message of Godhead 2]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="text"><p style="display: inline;">We can see such signs in the method of preaching espoused by Gandhijī. Although he chants the name of Rāma, he is not aware of the transcendental science of the name. He is a worshiper of the impersonal Godhead. That is to say, his Godhead or Viṣṇu is devoid of transcendental activities. His Godhead cannot eat, cannot see, and cannot hear; for impersonality means being without any of these sensory activities. When the empiric philosopher tries to approach the Absolute Truth, he can reach only as far as the impersonal feature of Godhead, without knowing anything about the Lord's transcendental pastimes. When the Absolute Truth is not credited with having any transcendental senses or sensory activities, certainly He is supposed impotent. An impotent Godhead, of course, cannot hear the prayers of His devotees, nor can He ameliorate the distress of the universe.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div id="MOG2_2" class="quote" parent="Message_of_Godhead" book="OB" index="3" link="MOG 2" link_text="Message of Godhead 2">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:MOG 2|Message of Godhead 2]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="text"><p style="display: inline;">We have already discussed the necessity of performing work for sacrifice only, or to please the transcendental senses of Viṣṇu. And in the above statement of Bhagavad-gītā, it is clear that Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality, who alone is capable of enjoying the result of all sacrificial performances. The sacrifices of the ordinary workers and the meditation and austerities of the empiric philosophers are all ordained and maintained by the Personality of Godhead, Śrī Kṛṣṇa. In turn, the Supersoul—the localized aspect of Viṣṇu, which is the object of meditation for the mystics—is a plenary portion of Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the Personality of Godhead.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div id="MOG2_3" class="quote" parent="Message_of_Godhead" book="OB" index="3" link="MOG 2" link_text="Message of Godhead 2">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:MOG 2|Message of Godhead 2]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="text"><p style="display: inline;">We may be able to further discuss all these workers and their work later. But one may know at present that Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the friend of everyone, whether he be an ordinary worker, an empiric philosopher, or even a mystic—and what to speak of the transcendentalists who are cent-percent servitors of the Personality of Godhead. The Personality of Godhead always does good for one and all, by empowering His devotees to preach and propagate the transcendental process of devotional service to Godhead everywhere in accord with the specific time, place, and audience. The Lord is therefore called "Govinda," or the prime cause of all causes and the reservoir of all blessings. And the people in general can attain to perfect peace and tranquillity when they come to know Him by the gradual process of work with transcendental results.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div id="MOG2_4" class="quote" parent="Message_of_Godhead" book="OB" index="3" link="MOG 2" link_text="Message of Godhead 2">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:MOG 2|Message of Godhead 2]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="text"><p style="display: inline;">They may be civilized or uncivilized, they may be learned or illiterate, they may be powerful or weak, but such illegitimate persons, generally known as outlaws, always act like the lower animals. There is no good in them, in spite of all appearances. But those who are legitimate or law-abiding persons may be divided into three transcendental divisions: namely, the lawful workers, the empiric philosophers, and the transcendental devotees. The lawful workers are again divided into two sections: namely, the workers with a desire to enjoy the fruits of their work; and the transcendental workers, without any such desire.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div id="MOG2_5" class="quote" parent="Message_of_Godhead" book="OB" index="3" link="MOG 2" link_text="Message of Godhead 2">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:MOG 2|Message of Godhead 2]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="text"><p style="display: inline;">One who renders loving service to Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the Personality of Godhead, with devotion and austerity, is the greatest of all mystics. Men who undertake austerities motivated by a desire for material results cannot be called yogīs or mystics. Those who are not motivated by material results include the empiric philosopher, the mystic pursuing the eightfold mystic perfections, and finally the mystic engaged in the transcendental loving service of the Personality of Godhead.</p>
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</div>
<div id="Light_of_the_Bhagavata" class="sub_section" sec_index="7" parent="Other_Books_by_Srila_Prabhupada" text="Light of the Bhagavata"><h3>Light of the Bhagavata</h3>
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<div id="LOB22_0" class="quote" parent="Light_of_the_Bhagavata" book="OB" index="23" link="LOB 22" link_text="Light of the Bhagavata 22">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:LOB 22|Light of the Bhagavata 22, Purport]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="purport text"><p style="display: inline;">Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, appears with His personal entourage once in paraphernalia, just to attract the conditioned souls of the material world. Although the material world is only a shadow of the spiritual world, the materially encaged living entities seek spiritual happiness here in a form perverted by materialistic attachment. Empiric philosophers with a poor fund of knowledge imagine a spiritual picture that is impersonal. But the spiritual living being, less attracted by the impersonal form of spiritual emancipation, becomes more attracted by the material form and becomes hopeless of spiritual emancipation.</p>
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</div>
<div id="Mukunda-mala-stotra_mantras_1_to_6_only" class="sub_section" sec_index="9" parent="Other_Books_by_Srila_Prabhupada" text="Mukunda-mala-stotra (mantras 1 to 6 only)"><h3>Mukunda-mala-stotra (mantras 1 to 6 only)</h3>
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<div id="MM1_0" class="quote" parent="Mukunda-mala-stotra_(mantras_1_to_6_only)" book="OB" index="2" link="MM 1" link_text="Mukunda-mala-stotra mantra 1">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:MM 1|Mukunda-mala-stotra mantra 1, Purport]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="purport text"><p style="display: inline;">The Lord is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and His consort, Lakṣmī, is a manifestation of His internal potency. By expanding His internal potency, the Lord enjoys His spiritual paraphernalia. In the highest spiritual realization, therefore, the Lord is not impersonal or void, as empiric philosophers conceive Him to be. Although He is not of the material world, He is much more than simply a negation of material variegatedness. He is positively the supreme enjoyer of spiritual variegatedness, of which Lakṣmī, the internal potency, is the fountainhead.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div id="MM3_1" class="quote" parent="Mukunda-mala-stotra_(mantras_1_to_6_only)" book="OB" index="4" link="MM 3" link_text="Mukunda-mala-stotra mantra 3">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:MM 3|Mukunda-mala-stotra mantra 3, Purport]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="purport text"><p style="display: inline;">Those who are mad after capturing and enjoying the imitation peacock, as well as those who have a pessimistic view of the imitation peacock but lack any positive information of the real peacock—both are illusioned by the modes of material nature. Those who are after the imitation peacock are the fruitive workers, and those who simply condemn the imitation peacock but are ignorant of the real peacock are the empiric philosophers. Disgusted with the mirage of happiness in the material desert, they seek to merge into voidness.</p>
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</div>
<div id="MM4_2" class="quote" parent="Mukunda-mala-stotra_(mantras_1_to_6_only)" book="OB" index="5" link="MM 4" link_text="Mukunda-mala-stotra mantra 4">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:MM 4|Mukunda-mala-stotra mantra 4, Purport]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="purport text"><p style="display: inline;">A pure devotee is neither a needy man, a man fallen into difficulty, nor an empiric philosopher who tries to approach the Divinity on the strength his own imperfect knowledge. A pure devotee receives knowledge of the Divinity from the right source—the disciplic succession of realized souls who have followed strictly the disciplinary method of devotional service under the guidance of bona fide spiritual masters. It is not possible to know the transcendental nature of the Divinity by dint of one's imperfect sense perception, but the Divinity reveals Himself to a pure devotee in proportion to the transcendental service rendered unto Him.</p>
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</div>
<div id="MM4_3" class="quote" parent="Mukunda-mala-stotra_(mantras_1_to_6_only)" book="OB" index="5" link="MM 4" link_text="Mukunda-mala-stotra mantra 4">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:MM 4|Mukunda-mala-stotra mantra 4, Purport]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="purport text"><p style="display: inline;">King Kulaśekhara is a pure devotee, and as such he is not eager to improve himself by the standards of the empiric philosophers, distressed men, or fruitive workers of this world. Pious acts may lead a mundane creature toward the path of spiritual realization, but practical activity in the domain of devotional service to the Lord need not wait for the reactions of pious acts. A pure devotee does not think in terms of his personal gain or loss because he is fully surrendered to the Lord. He is concerned only with the service of the Lord and always engages in that service, and for this reason his heart is the Lord's home.</p>
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</div>
<div id="Lectures" class="section" sec_index="4" parent="compilation" text="Lectures"><h2>Lectures</h2>
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<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>
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<div id="LectureonBG212NewYorkMarch91966_0" class="quote" parent="Bhagavad-gita_As_It_Is_Lectures" book="Lec" index="53" link="Lecture on BG 2.12 -- New York, March 9, 1966" link_text="Lecture on BG 2.12 -- New York, March 9, 1966">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Lecture on BG 2.12 -- New York, March 9, 1966|Lecture on BG 2.12 -- New York, March 9, 1966]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="text"><p style="display: inline;">Jñānī means philosophers, empiric philosophers. Empiric philosophers. Brahma, Brahmavādīs, those who want to merge into the existence of Brahman. They are called jñānīs. And those who meditate on God within himself, they are called yogis. This is general definition. And those, those who worship the Supreme as Personality of Godhead, they are devotees.</p>
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</div>
<div id="LectureonBG412ColumbusMay91969_1" class="quote" parent="Bhagavad-gita_As_It_Is_Lectures" book="Lec" index="134" link="Lecture on BG 4.1-2 -- Columbus, May 9, 1969" link_text="Lecture on BG 4.1-2 -- Columbus, May 9, 1969">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Lecture on BG 4.1-2 -- Columbus, May 9, 1969|Lecture on BG 4.1-2 -- Columbus, May 9, 1969]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="text"><p style="display: inline;">So if you study Vedic literature very nicely and if you try to understand, then your life will be sublime. So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is trying to give you all the authoritative information from Vedic literature. They are not manufacturing anything. They are not empiric philosophers presenting something, mental concoction. No. Therefore this Bhagavad-gītā, we have presented: Bhagavad-gītā As It Is.</p>
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<div id="Srimad-Bhagavatam_Lectures" class="sub_section" sec_index="1" parent="Lectures" text="Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures"><h3>Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures</h3>
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<div id="LectureonSB1212DelhiNovember181973_0" class="quote" parent="Srimad-Bhagavatam_Lectures" book="Lec" index="65" link="Lecture on SB 1.2.12 -- Delhi, November 18, 1973" link_text="Lecture on SB 1.2.12 -- Delhi, November 18, 1973">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Lecture on SB 1.2.12 -- Delhi, November 18, 1973|Lecture on SB 1.2.12 -- Delhi, November 18, 1973]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="text"><p style="display: inline;">So there are two kinds of philosophers. The mental speculators, empiric philosophers, they therefore reject that this should be zero. Here the association of woman is so abominable that it should be rejected. But they have no information that this association of woman and man is so, I mean to say, opulent in the spiritual world. Otherwise how Kṛṣṇa is associating with the gopīs? Gopī-bhāva-rasāmṛtābdhi-laharī. Gosvāmīs, the six Gosvāmīs, about their life, they are described by Śrīnivāsa Ācārya, tyaktvā tūrṇam aśeṣa-maṇḍala-pati-śreṇīṁ sadā tuccha-vat.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div id="LectureonSB2111LosAngelesAugust11970_1" class="quote" parent="Srimad-Bhagavatam_Lectures" book="Lec" index="371" link="Lecture on SB 2.1.11 -- Los Angeles, August 1, 1970" link_text="Lecture on SB 2.1.11 -- Los Angeles, August 1, 1970">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Lecture on SB 2.1.11 -- Los Angeles, August 1, 1970|Lecture on SB 2.1.11 -- Los Angeles, August 1, 1970]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="text"><p style="display: inline;">Nārāyaṇa-parāḥ means devotees who have dedicated their life to the service of Nārāyaṇa, Kṛṣṇa. Na kutaścana bibhyati. He does not fear in any condition of life. So here, icchatām akutaḥ. Icchatām means those who are desiring. Nirvidyamānānām means those who are not desiring, renouncing. And the other class, akuto-bhayam, fearless. And yoginām. Another class-mystic yogis. So generally, these four classes men are there. So Śukadeva Gosvāmī says that for all of them, either he is karmī or he is jñānī or he is yogi or he is bhakta. Karmī means fruitive worker, and jñānīs means empiric philosophers, and yogis, mystic, I mean to say, yogis, and bhaktas, and the devotees. Generally, these four classes of men.</p>
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</div>
<div id="Initiation_Lectures" class="sub_section" sec_index="8" parent="Lectures" text="Initiation Lectures"><h3>Initiation Lectures</h3>
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<div id="InitiationofLokanathadasaNewVrindabanMay211969_0" class="quote" parent="Initiation_Lectures" book="Lec" index="16" link="Initiation of Lokanatha dasa -- New Vrindaban, May 21, 1969" link_text="Initiation of Lokanatha dasa -- New Vrindaban, May 21, 1969">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Initiation of Lokanatha dasa -- New Vrindaban, May 21, 1969|Initiation of Lokanatha dasa -- New Vrindaban, May 21, 1969]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="text"><p style="display: inline;">So Caitanya Mahāprabhu says, jñāne prayāsam. Jñānīs, the empiric philosophers, they simply speculate and try to prove that "I am God." That means āsuriṁ bhāvam āśritāḥ. The atheist says that "There is no God," and here the Māyāvādī philosophy says, "Yes, there is God, but God I am." That's all. It is the same philosophy, atheism. He is also denying that "There is no separate God. I am God." That atheistic philosophy, like Buddha philosophy, "There is no God..." But Buddha himself is God.</p>
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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="1969_Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" class="sub_section" sec_index="2" parent="Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" text="1969 Conversations and Morning Walks"><h3>1969 Conversations and Morning Walks</h3>
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<div id="RoomConversationWithJohnLennonYokoOnoandGeorgeHarrisonSeptember111969LondonAtTittenhurst_0" class="quote" parent="1969_Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" book="Con" index="20" link="Room Conversation With John Lennon, Yoko Ono, and George Harrison -- September 11, 1969, London, At Tittenhurst" link_text="Room Conversation With John Lennon, Yoko Ono, and George Harrison -- September 11, 1969, London, At Tittenhurst">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Room Conversation With John Lennon, Yoko Ono, and George Harrison -- September 11, 1969, London, At Tittenhurst|Room Conversation With John Lennon, Yoko Ono, and George Harrison -- September 11, 1969, London, At Tittenhurst]]: </span><div class="text"><p style="display: inline;">Prabhupāda: So therefore attraction for any flower is not the solution of the question. That is also stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, ye yathā māṁ prapadyante tāṁs tathaiva bhajāmy aham ([[Vanisource:BG 4.11 (1972)|BG 4.11]]). Kṛṣṇa is Supreme Absolute. Anyone wants Him in any way, He also presents Himself in that way. Just like the same example. If you want a yellow flower, never mind whether there is any scent or any flavor or not, so that flower is there. It is for you. That's all. But if anyone wants rose flower, Kṛṣṇa gives him rose flower. But when you make a comparative study which one is better, then rose will be considered better. (chuckling) So ye yathā māṁ prapadyante. That means the Absolute is realized... Of course, varieties there are, but the original division of the Absolute is three: Brahman, Paramātmā, and Bhagavān. Now, Brahman, Paramātmā, and Bhagavān is the same Absolute. Different names. The jñānis, or the empiric philosophers, they reach or they aim at Brahman, impersonal Brahman. The yogis, they, I mean to say, focus on the Supersoul, Paramātmā. And the devotees, they aim at Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Now, this Kṛṣṇa and the Supersoul and the impersonal Brahman, they are not different. They are light. They are not darkness. But in the light also, there is difference</p>
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<div id="Correspondence" class="section" sec_index="6" parent="compilation" text="Correspondence"><h2>Correspondence</h2>
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<div id="1947_to_1965_Correspondence" class="sub_section" sec_index="0" parent="Correspondence" text="1947 to 1965 Correspondence"><h3>1947 to 1965 Correspondence</h3>
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<div id="LettertoRajaMohendraPratapCawnpore13July1947_0" class="quote" parent="1947_to_1965_Correspondence" book="Let" index="2" link="Letter to Raja Mohendra Pratap -- Cawnpore 13 July, 1947" link_text="Letter to Raja Mohendra Pratap -- Cawnpore 13 July, 1947">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Letter to Raja Mohendra Pratap -- Cawnpore 13 July, 1947|Letter to Raja Mohendra Pratap -- Cawnpore 13 July, 1947]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="text"><p style="display: inline;">6) He is better realized when He by His causeless mercy agrees to descend in this mortal world but he He is never realized by the partial speculations of the empiric philosophers however systematic and long-termed it may be.</p>
<p>7) Sri Krishna is the Personality of Godhead and is the Summum Bonum Cause of all Causes proved by fact and figures in the statement of Bhagavad-gita, but He reserves the right of not being exposed to the sensual speculations of the empiric philosophers.</p>
<p>8) One should therefore surrender unto Him if one wants to know Him as He is and that is the real process to approach the Infinite by the infinitesimals.</p>
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</div>
<div id="LettertoRPrakashAllahabad22June1951_1" class="quote" parent="1947_to_1965_Correspondence" book="Let" index="10" link="Letter to R. Prakash -- Allahabad 22 June, 1951" link_text="Letter to R. Prakash -- Allahabad 22 June, 1951">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Letter to R. Prakash -- Allahabad 22 June, 1951|Letter to R. Prakash -- Allahabad 22 June, 1951]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="text"><p style="display: inline;">So the present process of human thinking for material gains only has to be changed by an organized preaching work of Bhagavad-gita as done by Lord Caitanya not only for the benefit the people of India but also for all people in the world. Lord Caitanya's way of preaching is ___ but a practical demonstration of the way of Bhagavad-gita. No amount of dry speculation by easy chair empiric philosophers will be able to implement the teachings of Bhagavad-gita unless we adopt the practical ways of Lord Caitanya as above mentioned.</p>
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<div id="LettertoMrBaileyAllahabad2October1951_2" class="quote" parent="1947_to_1965_Correspondence" book="Let" index="12" link="Letter to Mr. Bailey -- Allahabad 2 October, 1951" link_text="Letter to Mr. Bailey -- Allahabad 2 October, 1951">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Letter to Mr. Bailey -- Allahabad 2 October, 1951|Letter to Mr. Bailey -- Allahabad 2 October, 1951]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="text"><p style="display: inline;">I am glad that you have a copy of Gita with you. Apart from the Swamijee's learned interpretations—you can see for yourself what is written in the 18th Chapter 67th sloka. Empiric philosophers may call it a sophistry but is a fact substantiated after all human reasoning offered by Arjuna. It is clearly said here that one should follow Sri Krishna alone. If any body makes his choice not to follow him surely he will have relative result.</p>
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<div id="LettertoMrBaileyAllahabad7July1953_3" class="quote" parent="1947_to_1965_Correspondence" book="Let" index="15" link="Letter to Mr. Bailey -- Allahabad 7 July, 1953" link_text="Letter to Mr. Bailey -- Allahabad 7 July, 1953">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Letter to Mr. Bailey -- Allahabad 7 July, 1953|Letter to Mr. Bailey -- Allahabad 7 July, 1953]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="text"><p style="display: inline;">Above these senses or sense-organs is a dymitric force which is subtler than the sense-organs and is known as the mind but acts in terms of thinking, feeling &amp; willing. The empiric philosophers speculating on an imperfect process of induction, generally indulge intellectual feats without knowing that behind the mind there is human intelligence which is able to analyse the process of psychology but is unable to find out the ultimate force or spirit behind their intelligence.</p>
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<div id="LettertoSriMunshijiBombay18February1957_4" class="quote" parent="1947_to_1965_Correspondence" book="Let" index="29" link="Letter to Sri Munshiji -- Bombay 18 February, 1957" link_text="Letter to Sri Munshiji -- Bombay 18 February, 1957">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Letter to Sri Munshiji -- Bombay 18 February, 1957|Letter to Sri Munshiji -- Bombay 18 February, 1957]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="text"><p style="display: inline;">But so far quantity of energy and potencies are concerned, there is a great ocean of difference between living being and God. Therefore, the right philosophy is that God is simultaneously one and different from the living being. Those, who therefore consider God and living beings are identical in every respect, are polluted in thought. This pollution of thought of the empiric and atheistic philosophers now prevailing practically all over the world, has caused a tremendous deterioration of human civilization as to become agnostics in dealings. Symptoms of this agnostic trend of human civilization is described in the 16th chapter of the Bhagavad-gita and I need not describe it before you.</p>
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