Sharanagati

Collected words from talks of Swami Tirtha




Прабхупад като птиче

(from a lecture of Swami Tirtha, 05.01.2016, morning, Sofia)

(continues from the previous Monday) 

“Every living entity under the spell of the material energy is held (considered) to be in an abnormal condition of madness. In the Shrimad Bhagavatam it is said: Generally the conditioned soul is mad, because he is always engaged in activities, which are causes of bondage and suffering.”[1]

Once I met a sociologist and he had some questions to be answered. Like how did your movement start, how many practitioners are there, etc. – basic stuff. And then he came up with some difficult questions. He quoted Shrila Prabhupada. He asked: “What is your opinion about the following fundamental expression: “The majority of human beings are mad”? Sometimes Shrila Prabhupad said that “90% of humanity is simply mad.” “This is too fundamental!” said the guy. What could I say? I told him: “Well, I have read the official health statistics. It says that more than 60% of the Hungarian population is affected by some mental disease like depression and this and that. So, it’s only 30% left. How is it that you don’t take the official statistics as fundamental? To claim that the majority of your population is crazy – isn’t that fundamental?! Sorry! You are not upset at that, but if a saintly person says: “If you lose your chance for being happy, you are crazy” – then you take it as offensive? So wait a minute! Come to your senses, don’t read only the words! Try to catch the essence, the meaning – why does he say like that? Sometimes, please, you also have to be able to defend the dignity of our process if some stupid opinions come.

But here Prabhupad is even more fundamental, he says: “Every living entity under the spell of the material energy – all are in madness. Spirit soul in his original position is joyful, blissful, eternal and full of knowledge. Only by his implication in material activities has he become miserable, temporary and full of ignorance. This is due to vikarma. Vikarma means ‘actions which should not be done’.” 

(to be continued) 

[1] Nectar of Devotion, Chapter 2

 



Leave a Reply