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Sandy Nixon: Can the Vedas be taken symbolically as well as literally?
Prabhupada: As it is. We are presenting Bhagavad-gita As It Is, not symbolically.
Sandy Nixon: Are you attempting to revive… I feel like asking this question two different ways. First I’ll ask it one way which is, in a sense, incorrect. Maybe I’ll just ask it this way and just get your answer. Are you attempting to revive in the West the awareness… Are you attempting to revive the ancient Indian caste system in the West?
Prabhupada: Where do you find we are reviving caste system? Where do you find? First of all let me know. Why you are asking this question? If you have seen that we are trying to introduce the Indian caste system, then you say. But if there is no such attempt, why you are asking this question?
Sandy Nixon: Well, because a lot of people are interested, and…
Prabhupada: No, no, lot of people, you are also one of them. So where do you find that we are trying to introduce caste system? First of all find out where is the attempt. Then you ask question. Otherwise it is irrelevant question.
Sandy Nixon: The Gita mentions the caste system.
Prabhupada: Gita, what mentions, do you know?
Sandy Nixon: The four castes and an untouchable caste.
Prabhupada: What is that? On the basis of what?
Sandy Nixon: I can’t locate it directly. But the Brahma…
Prabhupada: Brahmananda. Who has said that this is caste system? This is not caste system. Catur-varnyam maya srstam guna-karma-vibhagasah. According to quality and according to work, there are four divisions of men. Just like you can understand there are engineers and there are medical practitioners. So do you take them as caste? “Oh, he is engineer caste. He is medical caste.” Do you say like that?
Sandy Nixon: I don’t want to say what I feel because I’m recording you. (laughs)
Prabhupada: I’m asking you, I’m asking you…
Sandy Nixon: Well, I think there’s always been castes. It’s just that we don’t recognize the fact that they’re there.
Prabhupada: No, recognize means if a man is qualified medical man we accept him as medical man. And if a man is qualified engineer, we accept him as engineer. Similarly, Bhagavad-gita suggests–not suggest, it is there–there are four classes of men, the most intelligent class of men, the administrator class of men, the productive class of men and ordinary worker. That is already there. Bhagavad-gita says how they should be classified, that “He belongs to this class, he belongs to that class.” That is described in the Bhagavad-gita, not that by birth, hereditarily, one becomes a caste. You don’t try to misunderstand. The classification is already there: one class of men, very intelligent. Is he not there in the human society? Do you think all men are equally intelligent? Do you think? There must be one class, very highly intelligent class. So what are the symptoms of the intelligent class? That is described in the Bhagavad-gita. The first-class intelligent man… (break) …you find all these qualities, he is first-class man. So we are trying to introduce that, that without first-class man, the society is useless. So there are first-class men. You train up. Just like a boy is intelligent; still, he requires training in the school, college. Then he maintains his first-class brain, first-class position. So there is first-class man. Now we have to train them properly how to become controller of the mind, how to become controller of the senses, how to become truthful, how to become cleansed internally, externally, how to become full of knowledge, how to try to apply the knowledge in practical life, how to become God conscious. This training is… A first-class man can take up, just like they are taking, all these boys. They had their first-class brain, and now they are being trained up. That is required, trained up first-class men. That training is required. So we are not introducing caste system, that any rascal born in a brahmana family, he becomes a brahmana. We don’t accept that.
*DESCRIPTION CONTINUES IN MY COMMENTS.
[Room Conversation, with writer, Sandy Nixon, July 13, 1975, Philadelphia]
Duration : 0:5:47
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i love how he had …
i love how he had the interviewer fumbling. she’s so unprepared for the teacher!!!!
Prabhupada rules!
Prabhupada rules!
People confuse …
People confuse thoughts with soul conscioussness. It cannot be explained. The particular master is fully enlightened, incarnation of krishna conscioussness there is no doubt, his whole face his presence is opening dimensions of light. That is intelligence.
Om Namo Bhaghavate …
Om Namo Bhaghavate Vasudevaya
If God was …
If God was controlled he wouldn’t be God would he?
God is fully independent, there is no other cause beyond Him. He is the cause of all causes!
who’s the …
who’s the controller of the controller then? and the controller of the controller of the controller? it has to reduce back to some stopping point somewhere. Your “rule” seems to end at God”, for me it stops a bit earlier. So why should you assume I’m a fool? Because I won’t take the short-cut by saying “God did it”?
Only fools don’t …
Only fools don’t believe in God. One must know that there is a controller. That is the beginning of knowledge. Why should you deny? In every field of activity we find some controller. How can I deny that there is no controller of this creation?
Treating people …
Treating people equally gives them equal opportunity to show their true potential. How can there be differences between individuals but not races as a whole? For your statement to be correct, then some kind of racial stereotype would have to be true for an individual all the time, regardless of all other influences. If you’ve ever socialised beyond your own race then you can see that as self-evident in life itself. Every stereotype has been broken at some time, and not just individually.
Given some stats …
Given some stats showing a correlation between IQ and belief in God, I think it’s shown that a symptom of a highly intelligent man can surely not be faith in God. Sure, some smart people still believe, but not all, and a higher proportion of educated people (advanced in knowledge) are non-religious compared to the rest.
god did not create …
god did not create everyone equally some are better than others i believe that but i also believe that you can judge a whole race or ethinic group like that. all im saying is taht there is a defference between individuals but not races as a whole. ( just to naemone characteristic thqat seperates humans)
* DESCRIPTION …
* DESCRIPTION CONTINUED: No, we are not introducing. Otherwise how I am offering them sacred thread? Now just see. Anyone from India, he will understand he is a first-class brahmana. We are training like that.
* DESCRIPTION …
* DESCRIPTION CONTINUED: Similarly, a person, very intelligent, he can be adaptable to all first-class habit, but because he is born in a sudra family, he is sudra. We want to stop this nonsense. We are picking up first-class brain and training up how to become first-class men. This is our business, not that introducing this rubbish thing.
* DESCRIPTION …
* DESCRIPTION CONTINUED: A man who is first-class trained up to become a brahmana, we accept him. It doesn’t matter whether he is India or Europe or America. It doesn’t matter. We are trying to introduce this system. That is mentioned in the Bhagavad-gita. Caste system means a man is born in a brahmana family, and if by habit he is fifth-class man, and he is accepted first-class man on account of birth.