View source for Mundane wranglers

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{{first|18Dec08}}
{{last|03Dec09}}
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[[Category:Mundane Wranglers|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_Preface_and_Introduction" class="sub_section" sec_index="0" parent="Bhagavad-gita_As_It_Is" text="BG Preface and Introduction"><h3>BG Preface and Introduction</h3>
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<div id="BGPreface_0" class="quote" parent="BG_Preface_and_Introduction" book="BG" index="2" link="BG Preface" link_text="BG Preface">
<div class="heading">Unfortunately, mundane wranglers have taken advantage of Bhagavad-gītā to push forward their demonic propensities and mislead people regarding right understanding of the simple principles of life.
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<span class="link">[[Vanisource:BG (1972) Preface|BG Preface]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="text"><p style="display: inline;">The Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is essential in human society, for it offers the highest perfection of life. How this is so is explained fully in the Bhagavad-gītā. Unfortunately, mundane wranglers have taken advantage of Bhagavad-gītā to push forward their demonic propensities and mislead people regarding right understanding of the simple principles of life. Everyone should know how God, or Kṛṣṇa, is great, and everyone should know the factual position of the living entities. Everyone should know that a living entity is eternally a servant and that unless one serves Kṛṣṇa one has to serve illusion in different varieties of the three modes of material nature and thus wander perpetually within the cycle of birth and death; even the so-called liberated Māyāvādī speculator has to undergo this process. This knowledge constitutes a great science, and each and every living being has to hear it for his own interest.</p>
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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="BG41_0" class="quote" parent="BG_Chapters_1_-_6" book="BG" index="154" link="BG 4.1" link_text="BG 4.1">
<div class="heading">The mundane wranglers may speculate on the Gītā in their own ways, but that is not Bhagavad-gītā as it is.
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<span class="link">[[Vanisource:BG 4.1 (1972)|BG 4.1, Purport]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="purport text"><p style="display: inline;">Because Bhagavad-gītā is as good as the Vedas, being spoken by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, this knowledge is apauruṣeya, superhuman. Since the Vedic instructions are accepted as they are, without human interpretation, the Gītā must therefore be accepted without mundane interpretation. The mundane wranglers may speculate on the Gītā in their own ways, but that is not Bhagavad-gītā as it is. Therefore, Bhagavad-gītā has to be accepted as it is, from the disciplic succession, and it is described herein that the Lord spoke to the sun-god, the sun-god spoke to his son Manu and Manu spoke to his son Ikṣvāku.</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_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="SB1611_0" class="quote" parent="SB_Canto_1" book="SB" index="182" link="SB 1.6.11" link_text="SB 1.6.11">
<div class="heading">After many hundreds of millions of years, one creation is started by the law of nature, and the history of the universe repeats itself practically in the same way. The mundane wranglers waste time with archaeological excavations without searching into the vital necessities of life.
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<span class="link">[[Vanisource:SB 1.6.11|SB 1.6.11, Purport]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="purport text"><p style="display: inline;">Man's activities in agriculture, mining, farming, industries, gardening, etc., were all on the same scale as they are now, even previous to the present creation, and the same activities will remain as they are, even in the next creation. After many hundreds of millions of years, one creation is started by the law of nature, and the history of the universe repeats itself practically in the same way. The mundane wranglers waste time with archaeological excavations without searching into the vital necessities of life. After getting an impetus in spiritual life, Śrī Nārada Muni, even though a mere child, did not waste time for a single moment with economic development, although he passed towns and villages, mines and industries. He continually went on to progressive spiritual emancipation. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the repetition of history which happened some hundreds of millions of years ago. As it is said herein, only the most important factors of history are picked up to be recorded in this transcendental literature.</p>
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<div id="SB11137_1" class="quote" parent="SB_Canto_1" book="SB" index="433" link="SB 1.11.37" link_text="SB 1.11.37">
<div class="heading">Due to ignorance only, the foolish mundane wranglers misunderstand the Supreme Lord and spread their foolish imaginations amongst innocent persons by propaganda.
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<span class="link">[[Vanisource:SB 1.11.37|SB 1.11.37, Purport]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="purport text"><p style="display: inline;">The word abudhaḥ is significant here. Due to ignorance only, the foolish mundane wranglers misunderstand the Supreme Lord and spread their foolish imaginations amongst innocent persons by propaganda. The Supreme Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the original primeval Personality of Godhead, and when He was personally present before the eyes of everyone, He displayed full-fledged divine potency in every field of activities. As we have already explained in the first verse of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, He is completely independent to act however He likes, but all His actions are full of bliss, knowledge and eternity. Only the foolish mundaners misunderstand Him, unaware of His eternal form of knowledge and bliss, which is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā and Upaniṣads.</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="SB246_0" class="quote" parent="SB_Canto_2" book="SB" index="102" link="SB 2.4.6" link_text="SB 2.4.6">
<div class="heading">When the Lord says in the Bhagavad-gītā that He (Lord Kṛṣṇa) is all in all, the speculative philosophers and the mundane wranglers deride Him.
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<span class="link">[[Vanisource:SB 2.4.6|SB 2.4.6, Purport]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="purport text"><p style="display: inline;">Brahmājī admits Lord Kṛṣṇa to be the supreme cause of all causes. But persons with tiny brains within this petty planet earth think of the Lord as one of them. Thus when the Lord says in the Bhagavad-gītā that He (Lord Kṛṣṇa) is all in all, the speculative philosophers and the mundane wranglers deride Him, and the Lord regretfully says:</p>
:avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā
:mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam
:paraṁ bhāvam ajānanto
:mama bhūta-maheśvaram
<p>"Fools deride Me when I descend in the human form. They do not know My transcendental nature and My supreme dominion over all that be." ([[Vanisource:BG 9.11 (1972)|BG 9.11]])</p>
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<div id="SB2751_1" class="quote" parent="SB_Canto_2" book="SB" index="247" link="SB 2.7.51" link_text="SB 2.7.51">
<div class="heading">The transcendental knowledge of the Supreme Lord is not mental speculation by the mundane wranglers, but is uncontaminated, eternal, perfect knowledge beyond the jurisdiction of material modes.
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<span class="link">[[Vanisource:SB 2.7.51|SB 2.7.51, Purport]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="purport text"><p style="display: inline;">The Bhāgavatam in a nutshell, spoken by the Personality of Godhead in about half a dozen verses, which will appear ahead, is the science of God, and it is the potent representation of the Personality of Godhead. He, being absolute, is nondifferent from the science of God, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Brahmājī received this science of Godhead from the Lord directly, and he handed over the same to Nārada, who in his turn ordered Śrīla Vyāsadeva to expand it. So the transcendental knowledge of the Supreme Lord is not mental speculation by the mundane wranglers, but is uncontaminated, eternal, perfect knowledge beyond the jurisdiction of material modes. The Bhāgavata Purāṇa is therefore the direct incarnation of the Lord in the form of transcendental sound, and one should receive this transcendental knowledge from the bona fide representative of the Lord in the chain of disciplic succession from the Lord to Brahmājī, from Brahmājī to Nārada, from Nārada to Vyāsa, from Vyāsadeva to Śukadeva Gosvāmī, from Śukadeva Gosvāmī to Sūta Gosvāmī.</p>
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<div id="SB2932_2" class="quote" parent="SB_Canto_2" book="SB" index="310" link="SB 2.9.32" link_text="SB 2.9.32">
<div class="heading">The mundane wranglers make mundane conceptions of the form of the Lord. It is said in the revealed scriptures that the Lord has no mundane form; therefore persons with a poor fund of knowledge conclude that He must be formless.
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<span class="link">[[Vanisource:SB 2.9.32|SB 2.9.32, Purport]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="purport text"><p style="display: inline;">The Lord discloses the transcendental nature of His existence. The mundane wranglers make mundane conceptions of the form of the Lord. It is said in the revealed scriptures that the Lord has no mundane form; therefore persons with a poor fund of knowledge conclude that He must be formless. They cannot distinguish between the mundane form and the spiritual form. According to them, without a mundane form one must be formless. This conclusion is also mundane because formlessness is the opposite conception of form. Negation of the mundane conception does not establish a transcendental fact. In the Brahma-saṁhitā it is said that the Lord has a transcendental form and that He can utilize any one of His senses for any purpose.</p>
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<div id="SB2932_3" class="quote" parent="SB_Canto_2" book="SB" index="310" link="SB 2.9.32" link_text="SB 2.9.32">
<div class="heading">The impersonal interpretation of the mundane wranglers is completely refuted in this verse because it is clearly stated here that the Supreme Lord has His qualities, form, pastimes and everything that a person has.
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<span class="link">[[Vanisource:SB 2.9.32|SB 2.9.32, Purport]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="purport text"><p style="display: inline;">The impersonal interpretation of the mundane wranglers is completely refuted in this verse because it is clearly stated here that the Supreme Lord has His qualities, form, pastimes and everything that a person has. All these descriptions of the transcendental nature of the Personality of Godhead are factual realizations by the devotee of the Lord, and by the causeless mercy of the Lord they are revealed to His pure devotee, and to no one else.</p>
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<div id="SB2937_4" class="quote" parent="SB_Canto_2" book="SB" index="315" link="SB 2.9.37" link_text="SB 2.9.37">
<div class="heading">The mundane wranglers are surprised that one can detach himself from the world of sense gratification, and thus any attempt to be fixed in God realization appears to them to be mysticism.
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<span class="link">[[Vanisource:SB 2.9.37|SB 2.9.37, Purport]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="purport text"><p style="display: inline;">The bona fide spiritual master, by his personal activities, teaches the disciple the principles of devotional service. Without personal service, one would go on speculating like the impersonalists and dry speculators life after life and would be unable to reach the final conclusion. By following the instructions of the bona fide spiritual master in conjunction with the principles of revealed scriptures, the student will rise to the plane of complete knowledge, which will be exhibited by development of detachment from the world of sense gratification. The mundane wranglers are surprised that one can detach himself from the world of sense gratification, and thus any attempt to be fixed in God realization appears to them to be mysticism. This detachment from the sensory world is called the brahma-bhūta ([[Vanisource:SB 4.30.20|SB 4.30.20]]) stage of realization, the preliminary stage of transcendental devotional life (parā bhaktiḥ).</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="SB3425_0" class="quote" parent="SB_Canto_3" book="SB" index="132" link="SB 3.4.25" link_text="SB 3.4.25">
<div class="heading">Supreme transcendental knowledge is not possible to achieve by the process of imperfect speculation as performed by the so-called learned mundane wranglers.
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<span class="link">[[Vanisource:SB 3.4.25|SB 3.4.25, Purport]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="purport text"><p style="display: inline;">Real transcendental knowledge descends in the disciplic succession from the Lord to Uddhava, from Uddhava to Vidura and so on. Such supreme transcendental knowledge is not possible to achieve by the process of imperfect speculation as performed by the so-called learned mundane wranglers. Vidura was anxious to know from Uddhava that confidential knowledge known as paramāṁ sthitim, in which the Lord is known by His transcendental pastimes. Although Vidura was older than Uddhava, he was anxious to become a servant of Uddhava in the transcendental relationship. This formula of transcendental disciplic succession is taught by Lord Caitanya also. Lord Caitanya advises that one receive transcendental knowledge from anyone—whether a brāhmaṇa or a śūdra, a householder or a sannyāsī—provided that person is factually conversant with the science of Kṛṣṇa. A person who knows the science of Kṛṣṇa is factually a bona fide spiritual master.</p>
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<div id="SB3513_1" class="quote" parent="SB_Canto_3" book="SB" index="156" link="SB 3.5.13" link_text="SB 3.5.13">
<div class="heading">When a sincere devotee reads Bhagavad-gītā, this is as good as seeing the Lord face to face in his personal presence, but this is not so for the mundane wrangler.
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<span class="link">[[Vanisource:SB 3.5.13|SB 3.5.13, Purport]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="purport text"><p style="display: inline;">The Lord is the Absolute Truth, and therefore His name, form, quality, etc., which are all understood to be kṛṣṇa-kathā, are nondifferent from Him. Bhagavad-gītā, being spoken by the Lord, is as good as the Lord Himself. When a sincere devotee reads Bhagavad-gītā, this is as good as seeing the Lord face to face in his personal presence, but this is not so for the mundane wrangler. All the potencies of the Lord are there when one reads Bhagavad-gītā, provided it is read in the way recommended in the Gītā by the Lord Himself. One cannot foolishly manufacture an interpretation of Bhagavad-gītā and still bring about transcendental benefit. Anyone who tries to squeeze some artificial meaning or interpretation from Bhagavad-gītā for an ulterior motive is not śraddadhāna-puṁsaḥ (one engaged anxiously in bona fide hearing of kṛṣṇa-kathā). Such a person cannot derive any benefit from reading Bhagavad-gīta, however great a scholar he may be in the estimation of a layman</p>
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<div id="SB3639_2" class="quote" parent="SB_Canto_3" book="SB" index="233" link="SB 3.6.39" link_text="SB 3.6.39">
<div class="heading">He froggish philosophers and mundane wranglers in science and mathematical calculation may not believe in the inconceivable potency of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but they are sometimes puzzled by the wonderful jugglery of man and nature.
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<span class="link">[[Vanisource:SB 3.6.39|SB 3.6.39, Purport]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="purport text"><p style="display: inline;">He froggish philosophers and mundane wranglers in science and mathematical calculation may not believe in the inconceivable potency of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but they are sometimes puzzled by the wonderful jugglery of man and nature. Such jugglers and magicians of the mundane world are actually puzzled by the jugglery of the Lord in His transcendental activities, but they try to adjust their bewilderment by saying that it is all mythology. There is, however, nothing impossible or mythological in the Supreme Omnipotent Person. The most wonderful puzzle for the mundane wranglers is that while they remain calculating the length and breadth of the unlimited potency of the Supreme Person, His faithful devotees are set free from the bondage of material encagement simply by appreciating the wonderful jugglery of the Supreme in the practical field.</p>
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<div id="SB3639_3" class="quote" parent="SB_Canto_3" book="SB" index="233" link="SB 3.6.39" link_text="SB 3.6.39">
<div class="heading">The trees and seeds engage the devotees in meditation about the activities of the Lord, while the mundane wranglers waste time in dry speculation and mental concoction, which are fruitless in both this life and the next.
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<span class="link">[[Vanisource:SB 3.6.39|SB 3.6.39, Purport]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="purport text"><p style="display: inline;">The devotees of the Lord see the wonderful dexterity in everything with which they come in contact in all circumstances of eating, sleeping, working, etc. A small banyan fruit contains thousands of small seeds, and each seed holds the potency of another tree, which again holds the potency of many millions of such fruits as causes and effects. So the trees and seeds engage the devotees in meditation about the activities of the Lord, while the mundane wranglers waste time in dry speculation and mental concoction, which are fruitless in both this life and the next. In spite of their pride in speculation, they can never appreciate the simple potential activities of the banyan tree. Such speculators are poor souls destined to remain in matter perpetually.</p>
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<div id="Sri_Caitanya-caritamrta" class="section" sec_index="2" parent="compilation" text="Sri Caitanya-caritamrta"><h2>Sri Caitanya-caritamrta</h2>
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<div id="CC_Adi-lila" class="sub_section" sec_index="1" parent="Sri_Caitanya-caritamrta" text="CC Adi-lila"><h3>CC Adi-lila</h3>
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<div id="CCAdi435_0" class="quote" parent="CC_Adi-lila" book="CC" index="371" link="CC Adi 4.35" link_text="CC Adi 4.35">
<div class="heading">If one accepts Kṛṣṇa as the supreme friend, the attraction of material friendship will be finished for him, and he will not be dismayed by so-called friendship with mundane wranglers.
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<span class="link">[[Vanisource:CC Adi 4.35|CC Adi 4.35, Purport]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="purport text"><p style="display: inline;">But by understanding the conjugal love of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa one is freed from the grip of attraction to material so-called love between man and woman. Similarly, one who understands the pure parental love of Nanda and Yaśodā for Kṛṣṇa will be saved from being dragged into material parental affection. If one accepts Kṛṣṇa as the supreme friend, the attraction of material friendship will be finished for him, and he will not be dismayed by so-called friendship with mundane wranglers. If he is attracted by servitorship to Kṛṣṇa, he will no longer have to serve the material body in the degraded status of material existence, with the false hope of becoming master in the future. Similarly, one who sees the greatness of Kṛṣṇa in neutrality will certainly never again seek the so-called relief of impersonalist or voidist philosophy.</p>
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<div id="CC_Madhya-lila" class="sub_section" sec_index="2" parent="Sri_Caitanya-caritamrta" text="CC Madhya-lila"><h3>CC Madhya-lila</h3>
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<div id="CCMadhya883_0" class="quote" parent="CC_Madhya-lila" book="CC" index="1489" link="CC Madhya 8.83" link_text="CC Madhya 8.83">
<div class="heading">Inexperienced and unauthorized persons in the mundane world, not understanding the transcendental position of pure love, try to find some material fault in the transcendental process. Such faultfinding is symptomatic of unfortunate mundane wranglers.
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<span class="link">[[Vanisource:CC Madhya 8.83|CC Madhya 8.83, Purport]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="purport text"><p style="display: inline;">The analysis of different types of love of Godhead has been made by expert ācāryas who know all about devotional service on the transcendental platform. Unfortunately, inexperienced and unauthorized persons in the mundane world, not understanding the transcendental position of pure love, try to find some material fault in the transcendental process. This is simply impudence on the part of spiritually inexperienced people. Such faultfinding is symptomatic of unfortunate mundane wranglers.</p>
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<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>
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<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">
<div class="heading">If the Lord Himself instructs the devotee, how can he remain foolish like the mundane wranglers?
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<span class="link">[[Vanisource:MM 1|Mukunda-mala-stotra mantra 1, Purport]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="purport text"><p style="display: inline;">By the mercy of the Lord, a devotee develops all the good qualities of God, for a devotee can never remain in the darkness of ignorance. A father is always anxious to impart knowledge and experience to his son, but the son can choose whether to accept such instructions. A submissive devotee becomes automatically enlightened in all the intricacies of knowledge because the Lord, from within, dissipates his ignorance with the self-illumined lamp of wisdom. If the Lord Himself instructs the devotee, how can he remain foolish like the mundane wranglers?</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="1968_Correspondence" class="sub_section" sec_index="3" parent="Correspondence" text="1968 Correspondence"><h3>1968 Correspondence</h3>
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<div id="LettertoJanardanaNewYork26April1968_0" class="quote" parent="1968_Correspondence" book="Let" index="151" link="Letter to Janardana -- New York 26 April, 1968" link_text="Letter to Janardana -- New York 26 April, 1968">
<div class="heading">I shall always pray to Krishna that you may come out a successful and eminent scholar so that your writings and thoughts may be seriously taken by the mundane wranglers. Our only business is to present Krishna Consciousness to the ignorant mass of people.
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<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Letter to Janardana -- New York 26 April, 1968|Letter to Janardana -- New York 26 April, 1968]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="text"><p style="display: inline;">There are four things desirable in this material world, namely, good parentage, sumptuous wealth, sufficient education, and good beauty. These things are sometimes impediments in the service of the Lord because such persons with great parentage, wealth, etc., becomes materially puffed up, and thus deviates from Krishna Consciousness, but when they are employed in the service of the Lord, their value becomes many more times greater. Just like zero has no value, but when zero is placed on right side of one, the value of zero enhances to 10 times; similarly, our life, wealth, intelligence, and words become 100 times 100 greater and greater if they are employed in the service of the Lord. I shall always pray to Krishna that you may come out a successful and eminent scholar so that your writings and thoughts may be seriously taken by the mundane wranglers. Our only business is to present Krishna Consciousness to the ignorant mass of people, and if such people agree to hear in consideration of our important position in the material world, it is a great opportunity to place our submission, and thereby our mission is fulfilled.</p>
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