760525 - Morning Walk - Honolulu

Morning Walks by Date, 1976

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

760525MW-HONOLULU - May 25, 1976 - 20:06 Minutes

Prabhupāda: . . . of the mind of God. And it is delivered. False mind is delivered.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: You made the statement in your purport that the moon is giving life to the vegetation on this planet. So how it can be a desert?

Prabhupāda: That I have just said. They cannot talk about moon. That means they did not go. That is now clear. (break) . . . has answered my question why Monday first, er, yes, Sunday first and Saturday last? All over the world, in India also, Sunday, er, Monday first . . . no. Sunday first, Monday second. Ask your scientist friend why this arrangement, Sunday first, Monday second, Saturday last? (break) We have concluded that it will take seven months to reach the moon planet at the speed of eighteen thousand miles per hour. But they're going in four days. (laughter) Just see how bluffing.

Hari-śauri: But they don't calculate the moon to be so far away.

Prabhupāda: That is their foolishness.

Hari-śauri: We did that calculation on the basis of 95,000,000 miles, which is about 2,000,000 miles from what the distance we get from the Bhāgavatam, combined with 93,000,000 miles . . .

Prabhupāda: But they accept ninety-three miles. Sun is ninety-three miles away.

Hari-śauri: But we don't say that.

Prabhupāda: No, no. We say also.

Hari-śauri: What? 93,000,000?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hari-śauri: Oh.

Prabhupāda: Four billion is the . . . what is called?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Diameter of the universe.

Prabhupāda: Diameter of the universe. Sun is almost in the middle.

Hari-śauri: So what is that distance that is given in the Bhāgavatam, then? It says 100,000 yojanas.

Prabhupāda: One hundred thousand . . . moon that is far away from the sun, 1,600,000. (break) . . . came from fire in the sea, varuvāgni. You know there is sometimes fire in the sea?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: In what way? Volcano? Like that?

Prabhupāda: Volcano eruption. Is there any technical term? Varuvāgni. (aside) Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Hari-śauri: You mean like when there's an eruption from below? Say, when an island's formed, or . . .

Prabhupāda: In Sanskrit it is called varuvāgni, fire in the water.

Hari-śauri: Well they say some eruption from below the earth's crust comes up, and then, er, all the gases underneath push the land up above the water.

Prabhupāda: There is fire within the earth, just like fire within the stomach, there is fire. That helps digestion. In the Āyurvedic śāstra, when one does not feel an appetite, it is called agni-māṁda, less temperature of the fire.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: How can the fire within the stomach be increased?

Prabhupāda: You know everything?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: No.

Prabhupāda: Then?

Hari-śauri: It said that by taking cold milk, that dampens the fire. I thought that was what we said. That's what I was always told.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Certain foods are cooling to the stomach.

Prabhupāda: Appetite is increased on account of the fire. The fire creates different secretion, blood. This is a big machine. It is mentioned in Bhagavad-gītā, yantra. So how this yantra is working? Electricity, everything, air.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Are persons who are trying to cut down appetite, they should eat cool foods?

Prabhupāda: Hmm?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Persons who are trying to eat less and less for spiritual life, they should . . .

Prabhupāda: No. Less is not spiritual. Whatever you want to eat, your food must be . . . machine is going on by the order of God. It is not under your order. But if you violate laws, then it is disturbed. The more that the fire is disturbed . . . oblations to the fire—svāhā—that is eaten by God . . . (indistinct) . . . grains are offered, fruits are offered in the fire sacrifice. It is through the fire. So as the part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa, we have got little fire; we eat through that. (break) In the fire you put tons of grains, tons of ghee—everything will be consumed. Similarly, little fire is there, whatever you eat is taken.

Hari-śauri: Whatever is there in the universal form is found in a small quantity in the bodies that the living entities get.

Prabhupāda: They are small universe. There is word, jha ache brahmāṇḍe, ta ache i bandhe. The arrangement what is there, universally, the same as in the smallest entity.

Hari-śauri: So many completes coming from the whole.

Prabhupāda: Drop of water, the chemical composition is the same as the big ocean. (break) . . . seven mile deep, they say.

Devotee: About 35,000 feet, I think. Just under seven miles. (break)

Prabhupāda: . . . wants to go against the current. That is their sporting. That is an example is given by Tulasī dāsa. Baijad gajarāja. A small fish, it will go against the current, and if you put one elephant, he cannot—he'll be washed away. Why the fish, the small fish, can go against the current and the elephant is washed out? Because that fish is under the shelter of the ocean, the elephant is foreigner. This example. So one who takes shelter of the Supreme, he can do anything. Otherwise he'll be washed away. This example.

Hari-śauri: That's a good example.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Bhaijad gajarāja Gajarāja means the king of elephants, he'll be washed away. But a small fish will go against the current.

Hari-śauri: Is that from the Eighth Canto?

Prabhupāda: No. It is one Tulasī dāsa.

Hari-śauri: Oh. Like it says in Caitanya-caritāmṛta, if you have the mercy of Lord Caitanya, a big thing becomes easy, but if you don't have His mercy, then a small thing becomes difficult. (break)

Devotee: . . . the universe was created five to ten billion years ago. Do we agree with their proposition, or . . .?

Prabhupāda: Hmm?

Devotee: They say that this universe was created five to ten billion years ago.

Prabhupāda: So?

Devotee: Do we agree with that proposition, or . . .?

Prabhupāda: Where it was before? Lump. Or gas?

Devotee: Well, they basically have two theories. Either the "Big Bang" theory . . .

Prabhupāda: Theories. Don't take theories. Nonsense. Theory is speculation, nonsense. (laughter)

Hari-śauri: I was just reading last night in Caitanya-caritāmṛta how Lord Brahmā saw Kṛṣṇa produce hundreds and millions of universes and Lord Brahmās and cowherdboys and cows and calves from His body, and then they entered back into His body within a moment. (laughs) It's going to be a little difficult for these scientists to appreciate the actual creative potency.

Prabhupāda: Because he thinks Kṛṣṇa is like him, but He's busier. So it is said this water is the semina of Kṛṣṇa. So they will say: "How you can . . .? So much semina?"

Devotee: Well there are some theories where they think the universe was started from a big lake.

Prabhupāda: Wherefrom the lake came?

Devotee: Well, actually they say that that's not so important.

Prabhupāda: So your word is also not important. "That is not important. His word is important." Do you see the point? Whatever he'll say, that is important. So anyone can say something that is very important.

Devotee: That is to say that to understand the universe may be difficult. So therefore then they try to explain . . .

Prabhupāda: So difficult, stop. Don't talk. "Why you are talking like nonsense?" If it is difficult, accept it; don't talk. (break) Take difficult things and talk nonsense.

Devotee: Because they all have a yearning to want to know these things. They all have a yearning to want to know these things about the mystery of the universe.

Prabhupāda: Yes. But you know from the proper person. As you are very much eager to teach us, similarly, you learn; you can teach. Why do you talk nonsense without learning? You are scientist. You have to teach me. But from which scientist you have learned? So anyone can say something nonsense and become a teacher? Not teacher, but cheater.

Devotee: They have many persons that they accept as authorities.

Prabhupāda: Hah?

Devotee: They have many persons that they accept as authorities.

Prabhupāda: They have many fools. Maybe like you?

Devotee: (laughs) Yes, I admit, I am the biggest fool. But they accept some people—just like Isaac Newton. They accept him as a great authority.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Perhaps this is a speculation—I'm not certain—but in the Bhagavad-gītā it describes that lust is also sometimes like a fire. And practically one experiences that the heat in the body, the lusty desires increases heat within the body. So is there any correlation between the fire within the body and the mode of passion?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Passion is there. Just like fire, if you fan it, it blazes more. Similarly, by passion, the fire is more powerful.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Then the passion is like the fuel.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Lust is sometimes described as fire, kāmāgni. Heart burns, the lusty desire burns.

Devotee (2): What about tamo-guṇa? Does tamo-guṇa have a relationship with the body?

Prabhupāda: Tamo-guṇa is laziness. It is ass. Neither fire. Ignorance. Civilized man, they're working, making some material arrangement nice. That is mode of passion. But the uncivilized, he doesn't want to work. Just like this Hawaii was under the Hawaiians' control, they could not do anything. Ignorant, lazy. Tamo-guṇa, darkness, is no work, no reason. Simply like animals, that's life. And rajo-guṇa, there is activity to create material facilities. And sattva-guṇa, "Why you are working? What is the aim of my life?" That is sattva-guṇa.

Devotee: So it's better to be in the mode of passion than the mode of ignorance?

Prabhupāda: Eh? No. We have to come to the mode of goodness. That is wanted. Neither passion nor ignorance. But passion is better than ignorance. That is comparative. But the best quality in this material world is goodness, when knowledge is sufficient. And beyond that, śuddha-sattva. Here in this material world even goodness is disturbed sometimes by passion and ignorance. But the platform where no more disturbance by all these three qualities, that is śuddha-sattva. That is spiritual. Devotees are expected to remain on that platform, śuddha-sattva, pure goodness. Then they will not be disturbed by these three qualities.

Devotee (2): In the mode of ignorance, if he wishes to come to the platform of the mode of goodness, does he have to pass through the mode of passion to get to the mode of goodness? Or can you go directly from the mode of ignorance to the mode of goodness?

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. You can instantly go to the platform of pure goodness. (end)