Quotes – Knowledge

Most devotees have no real necessity to simply intellectually discuss higher topics. They should first come to the platform of śuddha-nāma (chanting the Holy Name purely) and rendering selfless devotional service – then they will have access to higher understandings through the heart and not simply with their ‘brain power.’

It is not necessary to ‘know everything’ or ‘discuss everything’ about higher topics. Many devotees are doing these things as an intellectual or mental exercise without any real love or attainment of the higher type. In other words, scholarship alone does not lead to inner fulfillment. When you hear about topics which you are not actually qualified to hear, you run the risk of entering the mental plane, the zone of misconception.

In Europe in the 1920s and 30s, secret societies were a big thing – especially in Germany, England and America. Some of them even influenced Hitler, or at least some of his main men. There was even one that has its roots in Vermont – they were called the Theosophists. Anyhow, some of these societies even spoke about Bhagavad-gītā, the Vedas, Indian philosophy – but it was all mixed up with Christianity, a bunch of mental speculation, made-up rituals…all this mumbo-jumbo. And I was telling ___ Mahārāja, “None of these people had any sādhana. They all smoked, ate meat, womanised. They were basically just armchair philosophers, cherry-picking whatever sounded interesting and mystical to them.” And it’s a fact – these weren’t enlightened beings. Some of them may have been searching for something, but their search became clouded by their own crazy ideas and desires to be famous in their own circles as enlightened souls. They were basically the western version of your typical māyāvādī Hindus – just lumping everything in together and speaking big words to bamboozle people. But some of what they said had some truth – and that’s the danger. Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja used to say, “A half-truth is more dangerous than a lie.” Even the māyāvādī will say, “You’re not this body” and we’ll agree,”Yeah, that’s right!” But then he’ll tell you, “And actually, you are God!” And the whole thing is spoiled. So we’re not interested in half-truths – we want the real thing, the pure thing. We want to hear from a pure source.

Knowledge without a guru, knowledge without a connection to the paramparā can only be theoretical. Knowledge is available in books, but realisation is only found in the line of service in the paramparā. You can learn and study and attain knowledge, but service will draw the truth towards us. Knowledge doesn’t draw the truth – knowledge saves our self. If you’re going to drink from a bottle, and you suddenly see a label on it saying ‘poison’, you say, “Oh! I’m glad I came to know that!” You saved yourself because you ‘knew’ that poison would kill you. But through the paramparā, you get divine grace, and through that we may realise Kṛṣṇa and those divine things in relation to Him.

Simply to memorise things, or simply to learn things, but not actually enter into any understanding does not lead to self-realisation. That may lead to paṇḍitya, great learning. You may be recognised as a great scholar, or you may get name and fame – so many things we may get from study – but study and understanding are two different things. A child in Kṛṣṇa consciousness oftentimes surpasses people with a lifetime of study and learning in a very simple manner.

Long back, we had one devotee from Serbia and he’d go on the internet and look at all sorts of garbage about the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement, then ask me questions about it. First, I never told him to read that stuff! Who told him? I didn’t. He thought he was so advanced that he could read anything and everything and he wouldn’t be affected and he was wrong – he did get affected. Eventually, he lost faith and he left Kṛṣṇa consciousness. I heard he became an atheist and he’s back boozing with his old friends.

But it was all about ‘knowledge-seeking’ – it was a disease with him. He just ‘wanted to know.’ And the result of reading all that wasn’t that his faith increased – it was the opposite. He’s going all over the internet, looking for garbage and then he has all these questions. And when I answer them, he’s still not satisfied because, what does he do? He goes back and looks for more garbage! He was like a pig looking for stool – he had a taste for stool and couldn’t give it up! And the proof of that is, no matter how many times I told him to stop, he kept going back. He was addicted. It was an addiction – a stool addiction. But the difference between him and a pig was that a pig can digest stool – he couldn’t. At one point, I told him, “Listen, you spend hours and hours on the internet reading this crap, but you have no time to study the books of Śrīla Prabhupāda and Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja! Why aren’t you asking me questions based on those books?” The fact is, he didn’t really have a taste for those books – he only had a taste for stool!

Recently, a devotee asked one of our sannyāsīs what he thought of a particular book, and that sannyāsī replied, “I don’t know. I’ve never read it because Guru Mahārāja hasn’t told me to.” I appreciated that answer. That’s the right mood of a disciple. Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja said that even if you read the Bhāgavatam without your guru’s permission, it can be just jñāna – knowledge-acquiring. Why are we studying? Why are we learning all these ślokas and reading all these books? Did our guru tell us to? Is it for service, or is it to get a big name for ourself as a devotee-scholar, an advanced devotee? Sometimes it becomes like a competition – who can learn the most verses, who can learn the most Sanskrit or Bengali. That’s not the goal of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. The process is from the heart, not from the head. Of course, we should read the books – Prabhupāda was always stressing that. But when we are just using those books, or using Sanskrit and all these things just to establish ourselves as a paṇḍita, a scholar, then we lose sight of the goal.

If you make transcendental knowledge your seminar study, then forget it! You will just waste your money. There are no studies of these things. The study is at the lotus feet of Gurudeva. That is the place of study – not in any classroom setting. It is not possible. It is not a matter of paying money. Can you imagine if we were paying for the darśana of Śrīla Purī Mahārāja, or paying for some class on the Śikṣāṣṭakam? What an appalling thing! You have to pay to hear the purport of Śikṣāṣṭakam? Horrible! You cannot sell this! You cannot open a school and pay. But someone may say, “Well, something is required to maintain things” Okay, then sell something to make money, but you can’t make a business out of preaching! And I know the kind of people that have studied all types of seminar courses like that – in the end they don’t improve themselves. They just get some intellectual approach to Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Some devotees know thousands of ślokas, or they know the whole Bhagavad-gītā off by heart, or they just know the philosophy very well – and that’s nice. We should know the philosophy, and if we know some ślokas that’s also good. But if you know the philosophy and your heart is still like a stone, then you are not living the philosophy. There’s a big difference – speaking the philosophy and living it. If we are living the philosophy, our heart should become soft. But I know some devotees who know so much philosophy and they can rattle off a bunch of verses all day long, but they’re hard-hearted, dry and mean. For some people, learning the philosophy is just an intellectual exercise. They don’t live it because deep down, they don’t really believe in it.

A higher truth here is a total falsity in the spiritual world – it is totally false! It’s a truth you have heard particularly in Iskcon classes every day – “You are not the body.” How many times have you heard that? Thousands of times! But if you go to Goloka Vṛndāvana and you tell somebody, “You are not the body.” They’ll say, “You’re wrong. I AM this body!” So the body is not different there. It is a spiritual body. So a higher truth here is a nothing there.

Guard yourself from the intellectual approach to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Don’t be an idiot, but don’t become a scholar either. Scholarship is also nowhere. We see so many of our ācāryas who were great scholars. That’s secondary! They were scholars second and they were bhaktas first. We want pure devotion, and the scholarship which follows that is real scholarship. But just book-learning and that level? No! That may simply lead to so much false pride. Then you will become dāmbikā (proud)…you will become a dāmbikā brāhmaṇa.

If we don’t get a taste for the Holy Name, if we don’t associate properly with devotees, then we won’t develop spiritually. We’ll become hard-hearted and dry. And that’s the yardstick of our advancement – are we becoming soft-hearted or hard-hearted? I’ve seen so many devotees who hardly chant…no emphasis on that. They just study, study, study – going to seminars, reading more and more books – just ‘knowledge-acquiring ‘as Śrīla Śridhara Mahārāja called it. Yes, we should know the philosophy of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, so study is there. But when we are studying just to gain more knowledge than others, to compete with others, or to get a reputation as being learned, then you won’t actually enter into Kṛṣṇa consciousness proper. Your knowledge and renunciation will just become academic and dry as old dahl-cakes.

T

he so-called ‘scholars’ of religion and yoga who themselves have no practicing life, no paramparā and no realization completely disgust me! I have no interest in their opinions. If what I write passes the inspection of our guru-varga then that is all that matters to me.

T he mādhurya-līla is most confidential. By acquiring only categorical knowledge of the subject, one does not enter that realm of consciousness. One can only know the super-subjective plane of intimate līlās of Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa by submissive inquiry and service to the lotus feet of one who is connected with that realm. The confidential līlās of Kṛṣṇa are never knowable by the primary students of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. The proof that we have no standing there, even after researching so much knowledge, is that we utter the Name of Rādhārāṇī and Her confidential friends, but we remain absorbed in kanaka, kāminī and pratiṣṭhā: money, sex, and name and fame. The fact that we talk about the confidential pastimes of Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa and remain conscious is proof that we have no real devotion. Śrī Caitanya used to say that the proof of His not having any love for Kṛṣṇa was the fact that He did not die immediately out of separation.

Don’t study too many books. People want to acquire more and more knowledge. Even if it’s about Kṛṣṇa, it can become a major defect. Unfortunately, the co-wife of knowledge is not humility. The co-wife of knowledge is pride. Sometimes, the more we know, the prouder we become because we know something that other people don’t know. If you come to know something about some high or intimate thing in relation to Kṛṣṇa and His devotees, it is not necessary to run out and preach it to the whole world. Kṛṣṇa did not run out from Vṛndāvana and preach the glories of the gopīs to the world. Of course, it could be argued that He did, but He did it in such a hidden way. To understand that, practically you have to have two feet in Vṛndāvana in order to realise that. For the benefit of the world, Kṛṣṇa rushed off to Kurukṣetra and spoke the Bhagavad-gītā. Hidden there in Kṛṣṇa’s own language, in a secret way, there is some sign that points towards Vṛndāvana. There are some indications of what lies in Vṛndāvana, but that is a very secret thing. Some people think that secrets are meant to be told to the whole world. They think that as soon as you know a secret, you’re supposed to go out and tell everybody. That is not so. Probably you shouldn’t have been told in the first place. Secrets are to be kept secret.

There are two things I hate in this world – so-called scholars and so-called scholarship! I have actually seen a few devotees become so learned in the śāstra that they then thought that they knew better than their guru and better than the previous ācāryas. One should not remain a fool. One should learn proper siddhānta and use that siddhānta to cut out false pride and envy from the heart.

To chant the Holy Name without offense, one must first become free from dāmbha, or pride. A dāmbhika-brāhmaṇa is one who is proud of his scholarship and thus becomes offensive to the humble Vaiṣṇavas. A true Vaiṣṇava is always meek and humble. He sees every living entity as constitutionally a servant of Kṛṣṇa and he never mistreats others, or looks upon them as his inferior.

Knowledge is not to be hoarded, but to be shared freely. We are not in the business of making name, fame or dividends from our research or the knowledge we have received from our guru-varga.

Once, long back I was preaching in South Africa at a university, and somebody said, “I’ve realised the truth!” and he pointed to his head. There was a new devotee with me at the time and I told him, “If he had said, ‘I’ve realised the truth!’ and pointed to his heart, that would have been a little closer to reality.”

The truth is not a ‘head-thing’ – it’s a ‘heart-thing.’ Not the organ, but in that region. Its in the heart because consciousness is more acutely felt in the heart. The core of our being is where the truth will appear, not just in our head, in our brain! It is very, very difficult to understand Kṛṣṇa through the head! The head, the brain is just a material element.

I n Gītā, Lord Kṛṣṇa says that one should approach a self-realized spiritual master, inquire from him, and render service to him. That is the formula. Receiving bhakti-jñāna one must acknowledge the source and render service to the source. Instead of offering some service, some rascals try to steal the knowledge, and then turn around and blaspheme the saintly person they have received it from.

H ow to be drawn into the love affair of Mahāprabhu? It is very simple – it is through service and surrender. Everything which is of the highest nature of divinity will become known to us in due course of time according to Their sweet will. It is not something that a scholar has access to – you can study the highest conceptions of līlā for eternity, but that is licking the honey bottle from the outside. But through a life of service and surrender, even at a great distance, we will find that we are as if by a miracle, drawn into a transcendental reality. We are drawn into the līlā of Mahāprabhu, and in the līlā of Mahāprabhu, we will find that we are simultaneously drawn into the līlā of Kṛṣṇa. It becomes known to us and there is no second choice in this matter!

Knowledge is not the path to love of God! We need some knowledge to go beyond the snare of māyā to know that eating animals is not good, illicit activities, intoxication…all these things…some knowledge. That is called sambandha-jñāna. But the path is not just learning, learning, learning and even repeating that. No – the path is service and surrender with faith.

Y our mood is correct. Unless encouraged to read a particular literature by your guru, it is not necessary for the path of pure devotion to look here, there and everywhere just to ‘know’ a little more. What IS important is to know how to serve the higher/senior Vaiṣṇavas.

F aith allows the descending eternal knowledge (śabda-brahman) to flow through the realized spiritual master to the heart of a qualified disciple, completely unobstructed by any material defect. The knowledge of the empiricist however is always wrought with troubles and defects because it is an ascending process and depends solely on the material mind, intelligence, and senses, which are imperfect.

N o amount of ignorance produces light – even great thinkers like Einstein died in ignorance because their knowledge was only on the mental plane. Real knowledge is described as that which explains the difference between matter and spirit. It doesn’t matter how advanced one is in any particular field of modern science or cultural science, if you don’t know the difference between the body and the soul. That is where knowledge begins.

Y ou ask how it is that a person can have such vast scholarship in the śāstra, but still show such little Kṛṣṇa consciousness? Truth be told, scholarship is one of the least important qualifications of a Vaiṣṇava. In fact, knowledge without humility. or scholarship without compassion simply takes one to hell.