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Founder-Acharya of the world-wide Hare Krishna Movement, Brahma Sampradaya Acharya

Conversation, December 11, 1971, New Delhi

So-called scientists, Russian and American, for so many years they're trying to go to the moon planet, nearest planet. But here is no shelter. Actually, I do not know whether they have gone, but why they are coming back? Let them remain there, construct house there, there is everything. If there is no such possibility, why these rascals are going there? Practically, if it is full of dust only, why these rascals are going to see the dust every time? [laughter] Ask these rascals that "What benefit? You're spending so much money and going to the moon planet and touching, 'Now my flag is on the dust,' [laughter] and go back with little pebbles, 'Oh, we have gone.'" No. Moon-reaching day, holiday. Nixon, another rascal. Great rascal. Holiday. And what do you want there? Patanty adhah. After so much endeavor, trying to go to the moon planet, they are failing. And what to speak of other planets? What to speak of the Brahmaloka, Tapaloka...? They are there. We are seeing every day, at night, there are so many. Who is going there? The nearest planet, which is about 200,000 miles—I think it is so—from here, the moon planet, and they cannot go. And what to speak of other planets? There are many. They do not... cannot calculate how far they are, but we see every night there. So how imperfect knowledge they are. That is my point. And still they are going as scientists. Lokasya ajanatah. They are so fools and rascal, still they are passing on as scientists, big men, learned men. No. None of them. This is our challenge. None of them. And who is learned? Learned is Vyasadeva. Learned is Krishna.

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So we have to take knowledge from Vyasadeva. Vyasadeva. How? Vyasadeva is the learned, most learned than others. How? That is explained in the Bhagavata, Srimad-Bhagavatam: bhakti-yogena manasi. Because he has adopted bhakti-yoga, bhakti-yogena manasi samyak pranihite amale [SB 1.7.4]. Bhakti-yogena: by practice of bhakti-yoga one's mind and intelligence become cleansed, without any dirt. Just like the mirror, if it is without any dirt, it is cleansed, clear, you can see everything rightly—your face, or even in the spot in the face, everything, corner to corner, very nicely reflected. So bhakti-yogena, by practicing this bhakti-yoga, one becomes cleared in consciousness. That is Krishna consciousness. Then everything comes. Now suppose personally, myself, we are challenging, we are calling them by names, "rascal," but I am not a scientist. I never studied astronomy, astrology, or anything. But why I am telling? What power I have got? But I am challenging on the words of a superior answer. I am confident that the words spoken by Vyasadeva or Krishna, that is perfect. Therefore they [scientists] are rascals, because their statements do not corroborate. In other words, we can understand. That is our advantage. Bhakti-yogena. If you practice bhakti-yoga, yasya deve para bhaktir yatha deve tatha gurau [Shvetashvatara Upanishad 6.23]: if one has unflinching faith in the Supreme Personality of Godhead and his spiritual master, yatha-deve ... Deve means the Supreme Lord, and guru also, the spiritual master. A person who has got unflinching faith in these two personalities—guru and Krishna—then the facility will be that all the revealed scriptures will be manifest automatically, even though he is not very learned. The purport of the whole knowledge will be revealed from within, because Krishna is within, and the spiritual master is without, so both of them will help. Our students are going so many places—in the schools, colleges, universities. They're surprised how they're speaking so nicely, because they have got unflinching faith in Krishna and the spiritual master. They are not so learned. They have not gone to the college and learned so many things as the materialistic students do, but on this account: bhakti-yogena manasi. Vyasadeva also did like that. He became so great because he has accepted bhakti-yoga by the order of his spiritual master, Narada. Before that, he wrote so many books, Puranas and others. He was not satisfied. When Narada said that "You cannot be satisfied by describing so many material things. You try to describe the glories of the Lord..." So after his instruction, bhakti-yogena, by practicing bhakti-yogena, manasi, unto the mind, pranihite, mind became settled up; intelligence, right intelligence came, and everything became amala. Amala means without any material contamination. Then he saw apashyat purusham purnam. He saw the Supreme Personality of Godhead and also maya. Both things he saw.

So those who are in devotional service, they have got two things: they can see what is maya and what is Krishna. That is perfect life. Then he can understand how this world is going on, how Krishna is working. Everything becomes revealed. Bhakti-yoga is so powerful. Otherwise, what qualification we have got in comparison, their M.A., Ph.D., D.S.D. and so on? Still they cannot touch the right point. Just like Dr. Stahl in Berkeley University. He talked with me, and at last he became silent. So we can challenge like that. Just like we are discussing so many philosophies. So bhakti-yoga is so nice. So you execute bhakti-yoga very nicely, and then you become the topmost learned man in the world. This is a fact.