Knowledge for the sake of Knowledge?

(HH JAS 10/2007)

Lady Speaks: Burton Russel said that knowledge is this one possession we have which is never ending, it’s like a river you can take, take it as much as want, and everybody can and there’s so much of it and it won’t complete.... so this contradicts what you say ’knowledge should be proactive or should be...’ I think Burton Russel was thinking of terms of knowledge for knowledge’s sake.

HH JAS Speaks: I’m not sure that we are in contradiction although I’m sure Burton Russel and I would differ on all sorts of things. But by knowledge I don’t mean that now you’ve got it and it’s in a box, you know, how many square metres it takes up and put a little package in it and send it to your own address and post and you’re done...that’s not at all what I have in mind. Knowledge should expand, knowledge should be ongoing, knowledge should be progeressive, knowledge should lead to more knowledge and that should still lead to further knowledge....but there is such a thing as knowledge for knowledge's sake with no purpose: where I know how big this is, I know how much it costs, I know so many things and ultimately I don’t know what in the world I am doing with that, with that information, I am just being processed, I’m been given information, I take the information...I spit it back and I have knowledge at the end I have certified I have knowledge. But do I have a clear understanding of deeper issues...No, do they matter...maybe No ...you know, at the end of my education, deeper issues don’t matter, what matters is getting hired by a good company, and that matters more than the issues I haven’t even addressed or brought up, I’ve not even thought about, even as a professor! That’s my point. Thank you very much

Knowledge Without Ultimate Purpose...illusion!

(HH JAS 10/2007)
My main work is in publishing. I do editorial work in spiritual publishing. I met my spiritual teacher in 1968 in New York city .... I was about your age, maybe some of you are little older, I was eighteen at that time , i’m a little older now! I spent some time after leaving high school (American system) at the university , pretty good university, and i saw that students were there for four reasons .
One reason at the time, it was 1960s, was to avoid the Vietnam draft, which was quite a good reason for being at university!
The other reason was that some were very career orientated and wanted to make their mark in the job market.
Third group had left high school and weren’t ready to go in the job market and mummy and daddy were going to pay for them for four years to be in this park with nice people, beautiful girls and boys...and they could have a bit of leisure for four years and just turn in a few test papers and have a good time!
And the fourth group was there because they were looking for knowledge and it seemed to me at the time that that was the group that was being the most cheated!
Because in my experience, if you asked a professor , you know, who are you and why are you here and what is the purpose of your life , why are we here in these universities , what is the ultimate point of it all ....their answers would be..dull! They wouldn’t have answers of that at depth. They could tell you what their scholarly enterprise was, they could tell you so many other things, but in terms of delivering meaning , ultimate meaning, it just wasn’t there and what is knowledge if it is disconnected from ultimate purpose......really it is illusion.
Knowledge without purpose, knowledge without deeper understanding of the most basic questions (who we are, what our life is for) is not knowledge. That thought I had at the time and that is why I left the university community and by good fortune, some time later I came across my spiritual teacher, His Divine Grace A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, long name. I found on the contrary that if you asked him any questions he had very definite answers and he had a very definite train of thought ....... and that’s where my interest began and that’s where i still am.
Youth asks: How did you meet him?
I met him actually by joining his society, he had a small storefront in New York city. He had left New York and had gone to India for some time and it was in his absence that I met his student s in New York and then when he came back two months later ...I met him.

Can You Throw Away The Biscuit?!

Question by Youth: What do you mean by higher taste?

(HH JAS 10/2007) :
Well just like if you had a little biscuit in your hand and you were hungry and I said throw the biscuit away. You’ll say: "Wait a second that is my biscuit and I’m hungry, I’m not going to throw it away. Get lost!"
But if i come to you with a big plate of whatever your favourite food is, fancy delicious and everything and I say I’ll give you all of this but you have to throw away the biscuit...would you do that?
Yeah sure because there was a higher taste there. There is taste of the biscuit but there is more taste in the fifty other varieties of well prepared things. So there is a taste to material enjoyment, there’s a taste to a cigarette, I smoke it and there’s a taste. There is a taste to whatever, name something in the material world there is a taste to it. But the taste is not very satisfying. It’s advertised as satisfying! They advertise that you smoke this cigarette and it’s so smooth, it’s so satisfying, but it’s a lie! And more than that it is destructive, harmful, humm, so for the sake of satisfaction we are getting some little little taste..which is not satisfying: you smoke one , you throw it away, you then pick up the next one and we are harming ourselves at the same time.
So higher taste means beyond the taste of these temporary things which are no.1 temporary and no.2 unrewarding and no.3 even troublesome! When we come to the spiritual platform there’s a taste which is free from trouble, which is natural and which is permenent and which is constitutionally joyful.

Vedic Culture. Man is Polite, Woman is Shy

Devotee's question: As you were saying Brahmacharya’s are trained to ignore the women does that also exclude being polite.

HH JAS: No...if you are separate then you don’t meet, If you have to pass through a narrow hallway do you have to be polite? It certainly includes being polite, but politeness in Western culture and politeness in Vedic culture are different.
In Western culture a young man and a young woman pass each other in the hall and he says good morning and she says good morning and who knows what’s going on, his mind is going her mind is going and that’s polite, if you don’t say good morning do a little smile and go through a little more body language then you’re a creep! In Vedic culture it's different a man and a women are passing and they make way for one other and that’s politeness. Generally the women are trained to be very shy, so a man is coming by the

woman stands by the side and becomes a little inconspicuous and the man passes by...and that way she maintains her chastity: There’s no interaction, there’s no somebody’s going after somebody or making time with somebody and therefore she becomes very respectable. It doesn’t mean she’s ...shrinking into the shadows and insignificant. It means she’s so high class that you can't mix with her. Just like a really high class woman you can’t really get close to her because she’s high class. Low class woman anyone can mix with, but a high class woman is a little unapproachable, even in Western society if a woman is really high class you can’t just walk up to her and say excuse me lady "da...da...da...da" She’s aristocratic she’s a little distant from ordinary men, of course then she goes out at the night she’s drinking and partying and whatever else! But at least on the street it's like that. In the Vedic culture it’s so respectable...Prabhupada said: :My mother would not go next door to accept an invitation except if she was in a palanquin covered with four men, nobody could see, even the sun couldn’t see her"...That’s high class, still to this day you go to Vrindavan and some men are passing by and the ladies are covering their faces because they’re shy so there are different signs of culture.
Now in the Western society a woman is considered cultured if she knows finance and she’s aggressive as a hawk...but in Vedic culture a woman is high class if she’s very shy. It’s a sign of good breeding, a sign of culture a sign of respectability and such a woman no respectable man will approach. Prabhupada gave the example that he and some men were standing by a doorway and some sweeper lady was there, a sweeper woman means a low class woman, sweeping where everybody is walking, but she had to get through that doorway so she was standing there, apart, and three or four friends, aristocratic, Prabhupada came from an aristocratic family, a high class family, so three or four gentlemen are standing there, and this woman was standing to the side and they could understand that she has to go through therefore they all had to move...by her behavior they had to move. That’s Vedic culture...shyness.

. EXCERPTS FROM: HOPES AND HORRORS OF HOUSEHOLDER LIFE
– SWAMI JAYADVAITA 1992 - PART 4)

Men and Women Together- Pressure Cooker!

HH JAS: In the Vedic civilization the men are out working someplace and the women are doing their business together. That’s very nice, they have their own society, they don’t always have to think about men...men...men. They're brought together at different times when its appropriate: so that’s Vedic culture, previously the house was divided into two sections there was an outside section and an inside section. The outside section, the men stayed and he did his business and received guests, business associates or whatever and in the inner quarters the women were there, they were separate.

Devotee Speaks: It’s still widespread in Arab society in Israel also.

HH JAS: In any civilized culture you’ll find this, ancient Arab culture the middle eastern countries, even countries we think of being savage. They’re more advanced as the so called civilized western first world countries on this point. The women are with the women the men are with the men and their doing their business and their more peaceful.
I went into some office of a big magazine in New York they have like 30 typewriters and little desks the men are sitting at some of them and the women are sitting at others of them and it’s like a pressure cooker! The men have their ties on, got their coats on and they got there Cologne on and they're powerful and their doing things and the women are dressed to kill!...and their minds are like...if you could draw a graph of it!...(laughter) Nobody can be peaceful in that place, so peaceful mind means separation of men and women as far as possible.
Prabhupad said one time, many times actually, that man is good and woman is good; man and woman together are not good, that is my philosophy he said. Man is good, Woman is good; man and woman together is not good.

. EXCERPTS FROM: HOPES AND HORRORS OF HOUSEHOLDER LIFE
– SWAMI JAYADVAITA 1992 - PART 4)

Material Civilization Exploits Women

Devotee speaks: When a man gives a lot of attention to a woman, listens to her, nods his head, in this way expressing very friendly emotions towards her, this is considered ‘he’s a nice man’ but actually from our point of view that’s exploitation.
HH JAS: That’s exploitation, exploitation, the basic focal point of exploitation is sex enjoyment. The final pinnacle of exploitation is sexual intercourse: that’s exploitation, let me enjoy this woman.... and that the materialistic civilization, somehow or other by some arrangement by candy or liquor by this by that to win over a woman and make her an object of enjoyment,that’s the business and then this way that way or some other way so many things are expanded from that. But that’s the point, that this woman is meant for satisfying my senses and sense satisfaction culminates in sex life. So when you cut out that point, that sexual contact then your exploitation is practically not very much to be said about it...how much exploitation will there be?
From one point of view, we’re very heavy on women in Iskcon, we make them stand in the back during Arati or the Kirtan: horrors of life in Iskcon, "I had to stand in the back!" That same woman in the course of a year would be used by 50 men but that’s not

exploitation that’s just love!...that’s called Maya! One is being exploited and she’s thinking he loves me, the whole materialistic civilization is set up for that kind of cheating.
When they’re free they can be victimized, otherwise in Vedic civilization her father is there, her husband is there her grown son is there: no access. But materialistic civilization: free access. And the woman is so bewildered she’s thinking this is very nice, "I have free choice" "I have so much opportunity for enjoyment" "so many people are attracted to me" but nobody wants to accept any responsibility: When you’re pregnant they send you to the hospital for an abortion, clinic or when you’re a little old you’ve been married for 10 or 15 years or 5 years or something now you’re not as beautiful as you were when you were sweet sixteen...so we go and find some new cookie and throw you away...because your business was to satisfy my senses and now your not as interesting so we’ll find something else. That’s exploitation! Krishna Consciousness means to engage man and woman in the service of Krishna where’s the exploitation?
...Krishna Conscious person, a perfectly cultured person, so he knows how to be cultured how to be courteous how to be decent in dealings with others.

. EXCERPTS FROM: HOPES AND HORRORS OF HOUSEHOLDER LIFE
– SWAMI JAYADVAITA 1992 - PART 4)

Women Should Be Respected As Mothers

HH JAS: Prabhupada said the defect with materialistic civilization especially western materialistic civilization is that they have friendship: men and women are like friends and they mix together freely. In a cultured civilization, Vedic culture, that mixing is not there, they know they are spirit soul but they know that the combination of these spirit souls in these two kinds of bodies kills spiritual realization. It doesn’t mean women are hated but it means that we know what’s what...(sanskrit)...every woman is respected as being like the mother. If the mother gives advice that’s taken as an affectionate gesture. The mother may also say something and that’s taken, mothers saying something but after all mothers may be a little sentimental. Women are considered less discriminating -so it's respected the mother is saying something - but not that that advice is always taken. First thing is that mother is not meant for my enjoyment, there’s no question any civilized society of enjoying one's own mother - that’s for the pigs! So that’s the first thing, mother is respected, she’s not meant for my enjoyment, that’s the most abominable degraded thing...(sanskrit)...she’s somebody else’s wife so she is to be respected, mothers are respected - given respect.
Krishna and Balaram how they are respecting Devaki and Yasoda, especially Krishna and Balaram they went to see Devaki and Vasudev - they are offering such respects, offering obeciences, so the women are respected...(sanskrit)...where the women are worshipped there the demigods enjoy: this is Vedic civilization this doesn’t mean we put the ladies on the altar and offer Arati, but it means they are treated with such respect- not exploited....respected.

. EXCERPTS FROM: HOPES AND HORRORS OF HOUSEHOLDER LIFE
– SWAMI JAYADVAITA 1992 - PART 4)

Body Engaged In the Service Of Krishna

HH JAS: ...That’s what a human being is or a living entity is in this material world, a combination of matter and spirit. So a swan distinguishes between milk and water, so a self realized person distinguishes, he knows here’s two things: the spirit soul and the body and the spirit soul is constitutionally very nice, the servant of Krishna. Consciousness, that’s eternal and the bodies not very nice, so therefore the self realized person values the spirit soul. He values everything, he knows everything is Krishna’s energy. This body also is meant for the service of Krishna, it’s meant for the pleasure of Krishna therefore a Krishna Conscious person, Prabhupada said, he sees a nice woman and thinks this person could be engaged in the service of Krishna and a materialist thinks this person could be engaged in my service.
Everything has value, even the body has value when it's engaged in the service of Krishna, we have to see that, we’re taking care of the body, keeping body and soul together for the service of Krishna. So a devotee will see it that way, that this lady could be engaged for the service of Krishna. The materialistic Gṛhamedhi sees here is a wife who can cook for me who can satisfy my senses. The business for both man and woman is to be engaged in the service of this deity Krishna...so their attention becomes diverted from the material platform to the spiritual engagement so householder life becomes nice.
. EXCERPTS FROM: HOPES AND HORRORS OF HOUSEHOLDER LIFE
– SWAMI JAYADVAITA 1992 - PART 4)

Temporary Beauty

HH JAS: Lord Chaitanya said that even if I see the wooden form of a woman my mind gets agitated. By nature's arrangement the form of woman is so made to agitate the mind of men. Beautiful or not beautiful doesn’t matter, the agitation is there, so a Krishna Consciousness person being situated on the spiritual platform he’s not attracted, he’s busy, just like you’re eating a big Sunday feast and somebody comes over with some left over dog biscuits, you’re not going to get all agitated about that because you have some better thing.
The more one becomes advanced in Krishna Consciousness the more this sex pleasure just seems ridiculous or nasty. The actual advancement Prabhupada said I can walk into a room of beautiful women and not be attracted, that’s the advanced stage of Krishna Consciousness. One is so much absorbed in the beauty of Krishna that the so called beauty of this material body appears nasty. After all what is it

some skin and bones, blood and guts all put together to appear as something nice...and if it does appear as something nice by natures arrangement for a brief time ....then it's not nice to anybody.
There was recently some horrible picture of Bridget Bardoux published in her old age, some news magazine published, nobody is going to get agitated because now she is finished, old lady...so briefly by nature's arrangement, Prabhupada quoted, by natures arrangement in her youth all women look beautiful, it's nature's arrangement, it lasts for some time and then it's over.
The Krishna Conscious person know that: it's beautiful today but it's not going to be beautiful tomorrow,so how is it beautiful? Krishna beautiful today, He’s beautiful tomorrow, He’s beautiful 100,000 years from now, He’s Beautiful always.
. EXCERPTS FROM: HOPES AND HORRORS OF HOUSEHOLDER LIFE
– SWAMI JAYADVAITA 1992 - PART 4)

Because You've Decided

HH JAS: Today’s ekadasi...so suppose someone has decided to fast, not that you have to, but suppose you’ve decided today I won’t eat anything, so because you’ve decided even if during the day some thought comes to you: I wonder what they’re having for lunch today? Or you'er walking in the hallway and you notice that they’ve made such and such nice preparation, but you’ve already decided so you're not going to agitate your mind about it: alright today I’m not eating, the mind is peaceful, otherwise if you haven’t decided, you’re going this way and that way, should I, shouldn’t I, this...that...but once you know that today is my day for not eating food ,doesn’t matter,food doesn’t matter because you’ve decided : so then you're peaceful.
Let me chant Hare Krishna, that’s the idea, let me sit down chant Hare Krishna use my time. So a Krishna Conscious person some desires are coming, I want this, I want that, but he knows this is nonsense: I want illicit sex, I want to smoke, I want to gamble but he tolerates that. These desires are nonsense: "I’ve promised my spiritual master not to do these things to stay out of trouble" He becomes peaceful, not the person who goes chasing after desires.
. EXCERPTS FROM: HOPES AND HORRORS OF HOUSEHOLDER LIFE
– SWAMI JAYADVAITA 1992 - PART 4)