Teachings of The Vedas

Delivered as a lecture by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada on October 6, 1969, at Conway Hall, London, England.

Ladies and gentlemen, today’s subject matter is the teachings of the Vedas. What are the Vedas? The Sanskrit verbal root of veda can be interpreted variously, but the purpose is finally one. Veda means knowledge. Any knowledge you accept is veda, for the teachings of the Vedas are the original knowledge. In the conditioned state, our knowledge is subjected to many deficiencies. The difference between a conditioned soul and a liberated soul is that the conditioned soul has four kinds of defects. The first defect is that he must commit mistakes. For example, in our country, Mahatma Gandhi was considered to be a very great personality, but he committed many mistakes. Even at the last stage of his life, his assistant warned, “Mahatma Gandhi, don’t go to the New Delhi meeting. I have some friends, and I have heard there is danger.” But he did not hear. He persisted on going and was killed. Even great personalities like Mahatma Gandhi, President Kennedy–there are so many of them–make mistakes. To err is human. This is one defect of the conditioned soul.

Sankaracarya on Bhagavad-Gita - Srila Prabhupada explains

Through the centuries, India’s greatest philosophers and spiritualists have praised the Bhagavad-gita as the distilled essence of the eternal Vedic wisdom. In his Meditations on the Bhagavad-gita, versified here, the renowned sixth-century philosopher Sankaracarya glorifies the Gita and its divine author, Sri Krishna. Although universally celebrated as an impersonalist, here Sankaracarya reveals his devotion to the original personal form of God, Lord Sri Krsna. And Srila Prabhupada elucidates.

Shankaracarya [Siva] Mayavada Philosophy - Truth Revealed

Mayavada Theory:

“The pure Vedic Upanishads, according to ShakaraAcharya, reveals no indication of a need for ritual or worship or anything remotely like what you suggest is part of the path to Brahman. ALL worship is nonsense . . . irrespective of the religion. Only an egotistic human being could conceive of a creator that required worship of ANY kind!”

Logical Facts:
1. The Upanishads are part of the Vedas, and the Vyasadeva is famous as the compiler of the Vedas. Specifically, He is the partial expansion of Vishnu who separated the one Veda into

Who is Nityananda Prabhu?

Lord Nityananda is the eternal associate of Caitanya Mahaprabhu, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Rarely is the name Nimai (Caitanya Mahaprabhu) taken without that of Nitai (Lord Nityananda). Mahaprabhu cannot be approached or understood without the mercy of Nityananda Prabhu, who is the cardinal guru of all the universes and serves as an intermediary between Mahaprabhu and His devotees. He is the Lord’s active principle in both creation and lila. He is the second body of the Lord, manifesting as Balaram to Sri Krishna, Lakshman to Sri Ram and Nityananda Prabhu to Caitanya Mahaprabhu. All other forms and expansions of the Lord emanate from this second body. Nityananda Prabhu is thus the source of Sankarshan, all the Vishu’s, and Ananta Sesa. As Vishnu tattva He and Advaita Acarya are worshipped in the same category as Caitanya Mahaprabhu. In the manifested earthly lila, Nityananda Prabhu is senior to Caitanya Mahaprabhu by more than a decade.

Lord Nityananda’s Appearance day lecture by Srila Prabhupada

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Bhubaneswar, February 2, 1977
Prabhupäda: So today, the appearance day of Nityänanda Prabhu… Nityänanda Prabhu is Baladeva, Baladeva-tattva.

vrajendra-nandana yei, çacé-suta haila sei,
balaräma haila nitäi

“Who was formerly the son of Nanda Mahäräja, He has appeared as the son of Çacédevi.” Caitanya Mahäprabhu’s mother’s name was Çacédevi. So Kåñëa… Kåñëa is Çré Caitanya Mahäprabhu, and Balaräma is Nityänanda Prabhu. Now…

vrajendra-nandana yei, çacé-suta haila sei,
balaräma haila nitäi

Lord Nityananda’s Childhood

Curiously there is no authoritative biography of Nityananda Prabhu; and while Rupa, Jiva, and Raghunatha do not even mention him once in their collective writings, Sanatana Gosvami refers to him only briefly in the invocation of his Vaisnava-tosani. Nonetheless, the world is fortunate that Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s biographers have devoted large sections of their work to Nityananda’s life, which can be pieced together from this massive literature, and also from later medieval Vaisnava texts, such as Bhakti-ratna- kara and Prema-vilasa. Nityananda Prabhu was born in the village of Ekcakra, also called Ekacakra, in the country of Rahr (Radhadesa), some eight miles east of where today stands the Mallarpura station of the E.I. Railway (within the modern Birbhum District of West Bengal). His birthsite is commemorated by a small temple named Garbhavasa and is visited by throngs of pilgrims to this day.

Prayers to Lord Nityananda

Dalalera-gita
by Thakura Bhaktivinoda1) boro sukher khabor gai
surabhi-kunjete namer hat khule’che (khoda nitai)

2) boro mojar kotha tay
sraddha-mulye suddhe-nam sei hatete bikay

3) jata bhakta-brnda basi’
adhikari dekhe’ nam becche daro kasi

4) jadi nam kinbe, bhai
amar sange calo, mahajaner kache jai

5) tumi kinbe krsna-nama
dasturi loibo ami, purna ha’be kam

6) boro dayal nityananda
sraddha-matra lo’ye den parama-ananda

7) ek-bar dekhle cakhe jal
‘gaura’ bole’ nitai den sakala sambal den suddha krsna-sikha
jati, dhana, bidya, bala na kore apekha

9) amani chare maya-jal
grhe thako, bane thako, na thake janjal

10) ar naiko kalir bhoy
acandale den nam nitai doya-moy

11) bhaktivinoda daki’ koy
nitai-caran bina’ar nahi asroy

What is Brahman? - The truth revealed [BG part1]

 

tat tvam asi – Thou art that

This is the belief of the mayavadis or the impersonalists of Advaita Vedanta philosophy.

tat tvam asi, I am that, their belief is that Brahman is the only permanent and the Supreme absolute truth, nothing is higher than Brahman, all incarnations and forms of the lord are manifestations of Brahman, Brahman is the supreme and by aham brahmasmi they declare that “I” am Brahman, meaning, that the self is the only objective, that we are all god, and Brahman is our ultimate destination, the merger with Brahman is our goal of life, to become one with god, to realize the self. Hence they believe we are all god, and thus we should realize the self to become one whole, or one with God. Brahman is everywhere and all pervading so therefore everything and everyone is God, it is their belief that only by the realization of this does one get saved and attains salvation, by merger with the impersonal featureless and formless Brahman.

However I would like to declare first and foremost that this conception by the mayavadis is limited and misguided, and therefore this series is here to remove this growing misconception of “I am God, You are God, We are God…”

Srila Prabhupada’s last words - to HH.Narayana Maharaja

The cassette was kindly provided by the BBT Archives. Srila Prabhupada: Narayana Maharaja. He will come tomorrow?

Tamal Krsna Gosvami: He will come when we…(discussing with others). If we pick him up he might come tonight.

Srila Prabhupada: Hmm.

Tamal Krsna Gosvami: If we go just now with the car. Bhakticaru is going just now with the car. Maharaja may come tonight.

(Someone begins to sing govindam adi purusam…)

Tamal Krsna Gosvami: Yeah, Srila Prabhpada. Should we put a little fan on? A little bit.

(The conversation with Srila Narayana Maharaja begins

Srila Prabhupada: Prabhupada (Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura) had a desire to preach all over the world - in Europe, America…I tried my best to fulfill his desire. Now we should preach together.

Appearance day of Sri Advaita Acarya

Today,13th February, is the appearance day of Sri Advaita Acarya. He is Sadasiva. *[See endnote 1] He is non-different from Visnu-tattva, and therefore his name is ‘Advaita’ (non-different). He is also a prominent acarya (teacher and personal example) of preaching the glories of the holy name and giving prema-bhakti along with that chanting, and therefore his name is ‘Acarya’.

Advaita Acarya’s fathers’ name was Kuvera Pandita. Before Advaita Acarya’s birth, Kuvera Pandita performed austerities to please Lord Siva, that is, Sadasiva. After a long time, Siva became pleased with him and told him, “You may ask me for any boon.”

Kuvera Pandita then said, “I want a son like you. I want a son who is as qualified as you.”

Siva replied, “This is impossible, so I will personally come as your son.”