720526 - Conversation - Los Angeles

Conversations by Date, 1972

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

720526R1-LOS ANGELES - May 26, 1972 - 16:39 Minutes

Prabhupāda: . . . the crow and a peacock dance. Kāka-mayur. There is a story. Do you know it? Do you know? The crow imitated a peacock. He got some tail feathers and put, (laughter) holding his head up, and began to . . . so that is imitation.

But if guru-vaiṣṇava blesses, even a crow can become a peacock. That is the . . . there is vast ocean of difference between peacock and crow. Still, by guru-vaiṣṇava, a crow can become a peacock.

Śyāmasundara: The other day I was hearing a tape, a philosophy tape, of you telling a story about a man who sawed himself off a limb.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Śyāmasundara: He cut himself off the limb. The sages said: "Oh, you are such a great fool, you should marry the queen."

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Śyāmasundara: But I forgot the end part. After Sarasvatī, Goddess Sarasvatī, gave him knowledge, then what happened? I can’t remember.

Prabhupāda: Then he is coming back.

Śyāmasundara: After he was given knowledge . . . then how does the story go?

Prabhupāda: Then he returned to his wife. So he was knocking door. The wife was very, very sorry that, "My husband is such a fool." And he began to write. Asti-vada viśeṣa . Asti-kaścid vāda viśeṣa. The wife was very great Sanskrit scholar . . . (indistinct) . . . "Yes. I will write book." Then he began to write. She was very happy.

Asty uttarasyaṁ diśi himālayo nāma nagadhirājaḥ uttpaparam toya-nidhi avagāhya . . . (indistinct) . . . description of Himalaya. Asty uttarasyaṁ diśi himālayo nāma nagadhirājaḥ. On the northern side of the earth there is a big hill, Himalaya. Toya-nidhi avagāhya. He's touching both side, great oceans, sthita pratijñāna eva mana gandha. He is standing just like the . . . what is it called, weighing rod, two sides?

Śyāmasundara: Balance.

Prabhupāda: Balance? What it is called? Rod?

Śyāmasundara: I know what you mean. I know what you're saying. Scale.

Prabhupāda: Scale, yes. Standing like a scale, keeping the two oceans as balance. So I think the Arctic region, the Arctic region, where there is big mountain, this is mentioned here. Not that Himalaya. Himalaya means "the resort of the snow." Hima, hima means "snow"; alaya. So, uttarasyaṁ diśi, North Pole.

Śyāmasundara: There is huge mountain.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Huge means that. Asty uttarasyaṁ diśi himālayo nāma nagadhirājaḥ, toya-nidhi. Toya-nidhi, that is Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Ocean. Avagāhya—touching; sthita pratijñāna—of the earth, scale rod, and taking these are two scales. These are the description of the North Pole. That means he had full knowledge of the whole world situation. Asty uttarasyaṁ diśi himālayo nāma nagadhirājaḥ. Asti kaścid vāda viśeṣa, these four words which was uttered to his wife, asti . . . with asti, he began Kumāra-sambhava. Asti kaścid vāda viśeṣa. And with the verb, with this word he wrote Raghu-vaṁśa. He wrote this Kumāra-sambhava . . . (indistinct) . . . and śakuntalā. These four works are very famous of Kālidāsa.

So when he turned back to meet his wife, he uttered first four words: asti kaścid vāda viśeṣa: somebody who is a master of language. Because he (she) kicked him. The wife kicked him. So he was going to die, and Mother Sarasvatī appeared. She prayed . . . he prayed very feelingly, that "Mother Sarasvatī, you did not do me any favor, so I am so fool that I have been kicked by my wife, so I’ll suffer . . . (indistinct) . . ." So Mother Sarasvatī said, "What do you want?" "I want to be learned scholar." "Whatever you speak, that will be . . . (indistinct) . . . go back. Don't . . . (indistinct) . . . I give you blessing, whatever you will speak, that will be learned."

Śyāmasundara: So those four words, what do they mean?

Prabhupāda: The four words, when he came back, he was knocking the door. His wife come and said, "Who is that?" So he replied in Sanskrit, asti kaścid vāda viśeṣa. So she was surprised at the words . . . (indistinct) . . . "I kicked him out; now he's speaking in Sanskrit. How is that?"

Śyāmasundara: What does that mean?

Prabhupāda: Oh, asti kaścid vāda viśeṣa: "Here is standing something, personified language."

Śyāmasundara: Ohh. (laughs) Ah, that's . . . (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: Somebody who is personified language. So, "Are you speaking?" "Yes." Then he began to write books with the four words—four books.

Śyāmasundara: And each book began with one word, with one of those four words?

Prabhupāda: Hmm. With asti he wrote Kumāra-sambhava, birth of Kārtikeya. Kārtikeya is known as Kumara. So how Kārtikeya was born, the story is written with the . . . beginning with the word asti. Asty uttarasyaṁ diśi himālayo nāma nagadhirājaḥ.

Śyāmasundara: Oh, Śiva and Pārvatī . . .

Prabhupāda: Then with bhāg, this word, bhāga ta pratipattaye. Bhāga ta pratipattaye.

Śyāmasundara: Asti bhāg . . .

Prabhupāda: Asti kāscit.

Śyāmasundara: Kāscit.

Prabhupāda: Kaścid vāda viśeṣa.

Śyāmasundara: Kaścid vāda viśeṣa. Megha-dūta . . .

Prabhupāda: Megha-dūta, Śakuntalā and Kumāra-sambhava, Raghu-vaṁśa. Asti kaścid vāda viśeṣa. So many scholars, paṇḍitas, poets are there in the mundane world, but they have no knowledge of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Śyāmasundara: Are these considered mundane poems?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Śyāmasundara: Oh.

Prabhupāda: Grāmya-kavi. Grāmya-kavi. They are called grāmya-kavi, mundane poet. We read in our I.A. I have Sanskrit up to I.A. In the B.A. I gave up Sanskrit and I took history of the world, economics and philosophy . . . (indistinct) . . . history of England.

Śyāmasundara: Yes, I remember you used to tell us all of the history in London—kings, all the kings . . .

Prabhupāda: In economics I read your president's book, Woodrow Wilson, State. Woodrow Wilson, State, his book.

Śyāmasundara: Philosophy?

Prabhupāda: Hmm. Philosophy we studied Dr. Stephen's Metaphysics and Psychology.

Śyāmasundara: And now you’re commenting on all of them . . . (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: No, at that time we did not read all these things. But there was reference to Aristotle, Kant, Percival. Percival. And then one Milt?

Śyāmasundara: Mill?

Prabhupāda: Mill, Mill, yes. John Stuart Mill.

Śyāmasundara: That was on one of the tapes that was lost. Maybe we'll have to do that one over again.

Prabhupāda: John Stuart Mill was big name.

Śyāmasundara: Yes. British.

Prabhupāda: And Aristotle. (pause)

Devotee (2): Śrīla Prabhupāda, the nitya-mukta, a person who it says in the Bhāgavatam sees the . . . (indistinct) . . . form, he sees the variegatedness of the material world . . .

Prabhupāda: Hmm?

Devotee (2): He sees . . . he thinks that . . . he doesn't . . . he thinks the variegatedness of the material world, that is just produced of illusion, nescience. The liberated soul . . .

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. That is. We Vaiṣṇava philosopher, we don’t say false; we say temporary. Why we shall say God's creation is false? We don’t say that. Huh?

Devotee (2): We're got exactly the verse . . . (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: That is Māyāvādī philosophy. No. Why shall I say creation of God is false? That is insult. If some Māyāvādī philosopher comes that, "Oh, you have created this Kṛṣṇa consciousness institution. It is all false," so what shall I think? "What a nonsense, that I have worked so hard, and after you say something . . . (indistinct) . . . he says false?" I’ll not be very much happy. Similarly, God's so nice creation, why shall I say false? And if He is true, why He shall create false? That theory we don’t accept. We say that it is temporary. Temporary, illusory.

Devotee (2): . . . (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: Huh? Means? (break) (end)