16. February 2014 by Prabhupada News Leave a Comment

Uttama-adhikaris or Uttama-aparadhis? – Part 3 -of- 4
By Yasoda nandana dasa and the Prabhupada anugas

THE DEMONS SIMPLY ARGUE AND LABEL ALL THESE HISTORICAL INCIDENTS MYTHOLOGY.

Since He is floating innumerable planets with many hundreds and thousands of MandaraMountains, why can’t He lift one of them with His hand? This is not mythology, but the difference between the believers and the faithless is that the devotees accept the incidents mentioned in the Vedic literatures to be true, whereas the demons simply argue and label all these historical incidents mythology. Demons would prefer to explain that everything happening in the cosmic manifestation takes place by chance, but demigods, or devotees, never consider anything to be chance. Rather, they know that everything is an arrangement of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. That is the difference between the demigods and the demons… Srimad-Bhagavatam 8.6.38

SUCH PERSONS DESCRIBE THESE ACTIVITIES AS KALPANA-MYTHOLOGY OR IMAGINATION

Krsna appears as an incarnation when real spiritual life declines and when rogues and thieves increase to disturb the situation of the world. Unfortunate, less intelligent persons, bereft of devotional service, cannot understand the Lord’s activities, and therefore such persons describe these activities as kalpana-mythology or imagination-because they are rascals and the lowest of men (na mam duskrtino mudha prapadyante naradhamah [Bg. 7.15]). Such men cannot understand that the events described by Vyasadeva in the puranas and other aastras are not fictitious or imaginary, but factual.

Krsna, in His full, unlimited potency, here shows that He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, for although the two trees were so large and sturdy that even many elephants could not move them, Krsna, as a child, exhibited such extraordinary strength that they fell down with a great sound. From the very beginning, by killing Pütanä, Sakatasura and Trnavartasura, by causing the trees to fall, and by showing the entire universe within His mouth, Krsna proved that He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The lowest of men (mudhas), because of sinful activities, cannot understand this, but devotees can accept it without a doubt. Thus the position of a devotee is different from that of a nondevotee.   Srimad-Bhagavatam 10.10.34-45

JUMPING OVER TO THE TENTH CANTO.

What he cannot do, he takes as mythology.
Srila Prabhupada: No, no… It is… Krsna-lila is in the Srimad-Bhagavatam. So Srimad-Bhagavatam, why don’t you begin from the first chapter of the Srimad-Bhagavatam? Janmady asya yatah [SB 1.1.1]. Just show how Krsna is supreme, how everything is coming, coming from Him. Janmady asya yatah anvayad itarata carthesu abhijna svarat [SB 1.1.1]. These things explain by picture. That will be real education. Why you jump over on the Tenth Canto immediately? That is my point. Srila Prabhupada Conversation, January 22, 1977 Bhubhanesvara, India

Guest (1): No, we understand. We are depicting the…
Srila Prabhupada: Begin.
Indian man: …aspect, supreme superman.
Srila Prabhupada: Just like one learns from ABCD, not jumping over M.A. class. That is my point. Teach people from the ABCD. So this is the beginning of Srimad-Bhagavatam. Janmady asya yatah [SB 1.1.1]. What Krsna? He is the original. Aham sarvasya prabhavah [Bg. 10.8]. Show that by film, how He is sarvasya prabhavo. That will be…

Guest (1): So He is always supreme power.
Srila Prabhupada: That’s all right. Not… You are going to produce some film. Begin from the first chapter of Srimad-Bhagavatam. Why you jump over the Tenth Canto? That is kept very confidential. Unless one understands… By understanding nine cantos of Srimad-Bhagavatam, he has no entrance. Just like you cannot enter into the law college unless you are graduate. So Sukadeva Gosvami has arranged in such a way that one should understand what is Krsna by reading these nine cantos. Then he can enter into the Krsna’s lila and Krsna’s birth. What is the purpose? He could have given Krsna… Srimad-Bhagavatam is for Krsna. So we have named this, Krsna. Krsna-katha. So first Krsna-katha is: Krsna is explaining Himself in the Bhagavad-Gita. Present Bhagavad-Gita. Then one accept Krsna as the Supreme Personality… Sarva dharman parityajya mam ekam saranam vraja [Bg. 18.66]. When he comes to that stage, then Bhagavata begins. Dharmah projjhita-kaitavo ‘tra paramo nirmatsaranam [SB 1.1.2]. Paramo nirmatsaränam. Unless one is matsara… “Oh, Krsna is doing that? Why I cannot do it?” The sahajiya babajis, they do that. That is matsarata, that “Krsna can do? I can also do.” So he simply imitates Krsna’s rasa-lila. And Krsna can raise the Govardhana Hill—that is not possible. That is… What is called? Mythology. What he cannot do, he takes as mythology. And what he can easily imitate and go to hell, that is very good.

Guest (2): This very assertion, to our eyes, that… Our (indistinct) tells about Krsna. So we can’t take it otherwise.
Srila Prabhupada: No, no, you cannot take, but the public will take like that.    Srila Prabhupada Conversation, January 22, 1977 Bhubhanesvara, India

Nothing is mythology
Devotee: I heard a story, Visvamitra once he grew people from trees. Is that correct?
Srila Prabhupada: Everything is possible by Krsna’s inconceivable energy. Everything is possible. That is inconceivable. It is called therefore “inconceivable.” You, we cannot conceive how it is done. Our intelligence is very little. We cannot conceive. Therefore we say, “Oh, this is all mythology.” Because we cannot conceive of it. Whatever we cannot conceive we take it as mythology. Nothing is mythology. Everything is possible. That is inconceivable. But they cannot understand what is inconceivable. Unless it is conceivable by them, they do not accept. That is their foolishness. We can see at night worms or flies so small Just like if you divide one grain of rice into one hundred divisions one division—such a small fly. They are independently walking, flying. Freedom. Now just imagine how their anatomic physiology is manufactured within that small (indistinct) of life. But he’s exactly doing everything just like a big fly. How it is doing? Therefore I said in that, my interview.

Devotee: Oh. “They can manufacture a jumbo jet but they can’t make a mosquito. Neither can they supply the pilot.”
Srila Prabhupäda: And the mosquito is with the pilot. They are manufacturing jumbo 747 plane. It requires a pilot separately. But Krsna is manufacturing an airplane, mosquito—everything complete, with pilot. This is inconceivable. You can manufacture a big airplane. The pilot is separate. You cannot manufacture the pilot. Krsna is manufacturing not only the smallest airplane, but with a pilot. This is inconceivable.

Devotee: Also he makes those, you wrote in the Bhägavatam there are those giant birds that fly in space.
Srila Prabhupada: And there will be hundreds and thousands mosquitoes, they will fly. There will be no accident.
Devotee: No collisions.
Srila Prabhupada: No. Anywhere it will be… Not only flies. The birds, when they flock together, so there is no collision. And they very forcibly go like this, this, this, this, all together, but you won’t find one accident. And this is Krsna’s inconceivable energy. What you can do? You cannot fly hundreds of planes at a time. There will be at least three, four accidents.   Srila Prabhupada Conversation, September 3, 1976.  Vrindavana, India.

GREAT PERSONS WHO CONSIDERED THEMSELVES GREAT OFFENDERS.

Examples of great personalities who considered themselves great offenders:

1.         Lord Balarama, after killing Romaharsana Suta.
2.         Parasurama, after killing the ksatriyas.
3.         Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati, who refused to take mango, saying,” No, I am offender.”
4.         Srila Prabhupada, who begged forgiveness in his last days for offending His Godbrothers.
5.         Narottama dasa and Bhaktivinoda Thakura, who lament in their songs not exactly for having committed offenses, but for wasting their lives in material life.”(19)  ISKCON Guru from Potomac, Maryland, USA, and former GBC, ‘Guru Reform Notebook’, pgs. 24-25

EVEN SRILA PRABHUPADA COULD FALL DOWN.

Devotee: So what is this philosophy that you are claiming that pure devotees can fall down?
ISKCON Sannyasi: Oh yes, in the Caitanya-Caritamrta, it says that even a Maha-Bhagavata can fall down?
Devotee: But do you see any examples of that?
ISKCON sannyasi: [silent]
Even Prabhupada could have fallen down!
Devotee: “Do you mean to say that according to your philosophy, if all living entities can fall down, could Prabhupada have fallen down?”
ISKCON Guru: “Oh yes that is always a possibility. Even he could fall down.”  ISKCON Guru from Kansas City, Kansas, USA, to a senior Prabhupada disciple, August 1994, ISKCON Los Angeles, CA, USA.

There is no possibility that a first-class devotee will fall down, even though he may mix with nondevotees to preach.

Madhya 22.71The Process of Devotional Service
It should be understood that a madhyama-adhikari, a second-class devotee, is fully convinced of Krsna consciousness but cannot support his convictions with sastric reference. A neophyte may fall down by associating with nondevotees because he is not firmly convinced and strongly situated. The second-class devotee, even though he cannot support his position with sastric reference, can gradually become a first-class devotee by studying the sastras and associating with a first-class devotee. However, if the second-class devotee does not advance himself by associating with a first-class devotee, he makes no progress. There is no possibility that a first-class devotee will fall down, even though he may mix with nondevotees to preach. Conviction and faith gradually increase to make one an uttama-adhikari, a first-class devotee.

Will be continued on Part 4

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