Challenges

One young man approached the Swami asking, “What book will lecture from next week?  Will you be teaching the Tibetan Book of the Dead?” as if Prabhupada would teach spirituality like a college survey course in world religions.  “Everything is there in "Бхагавад-гита",” Prabhupada replied.  “We could study one verse for three months.”

And there were other questions: “What about Camus?”

“What is his philosophy?” Prabhupada would ask.

“He says everything is absurd and the only philosophical question is whether to commit suicide.”

“That means that everything is absurd for him.  The material world is absurd, but there is a spiritual world beyond this one.  That means he does not know the soul.  The soul cannot be killed.”

Adherents of various thinkers approached him: “What about Nietzsche? Kafka? Timothy Leary? Bob Dylan?” Prabhupada would ask what their philosophy was, and the particular follower would have to explain and defend his favorite intellectual hero.

“They are all mental speculators,” Prabhupada would say.  “Here in this material world we are all conditioned souls.  Your knowledge is imperfect.  Your senses are blunt.  What good is your мнение?  We have to hear from the perfect authority, Krishna.”

“Do you mean to say that none of the great thinkers are God conscious?” a boy asked.

“Their sincerity is their God consciousness.  But if we want perfect knowledge of God, then we have to consult sastra.”