A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada – Excerpts Hindu Dualism

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

Prabhupada

- Vedic teacher (Guru)

- Dvaita Vedanta

- International Society for

Krishna Consciousness

(ISKCON)

- Founded in 1966 in NYC

- Significant to 1960’s

Counterculture

Hindu Religion perfectly based on “the personal conception of God.”

(Visnu)

Absolute Truth: The Supreme Personality of the Godhead.

-“Side Issue”: Impersonal conception of God.

Traditional Theism

- Vedic Religion comes from

God

- Cannot be manufactured by

man

A Personal God

-Rejects (citing

Bhagavadgita) notion that

God is FIRST impersonal,

THEN incarnates.

- “Supreme Personality of the

Godhead” is PRIOR to

impersonal light of God

(Brahman)

Sri Krishna

- God is called Krishna = “All-

Attractive”

- Human qualities, like being

“wise,” “beautiful,” “famous,”

and being a “rascal”

Krishna and Radharani

- Krishna is “rascal” in teasing

Radha (a Gopi or milkmaid)

- But this “rascaldom” is good,

because it is done by God

(Krishna)

Power of Prayer and Devotion

(Bhakti)

- A person (even an evil one)

who prays to Krishna to

become rich, will become

rich.

- To know God, chanting

“Hare Krishna” is useful.

- For God to reveal self, must

please him or his Guru

(representative).

God and Creation

- Prabhupada’s argument for

theistic creation:

- Oxygen, Hydrogen, Water

example.

- Puri example.

Dualism

 - Your Body is made up of

Your Energy.

- Just as the Universal Body

(the universe) is made up of

Krishna’s Energy.

- “Separated energy”/ Cow

and Milk Analogy

Individualism

- Each soul is an individual

- “Qualitatively” the same, but permanently distinct from one another, and

from God (Krishna).

Suffering and Salvation

- Suffering is from impious

acts in past lives.

- Goal is to cease cycle of

rebirths.

-Avoid attachment, passions

(sex, drinking, eating meat,

gambling).

- Please Krishna (“higher

spiritual pleasures”)

Extinguishing Karma

- Even those who have

escaped “Karmic Influences”

may suffer bodily harm.

- But this is temporary.

- Does not induce further

rebirth, suffering.

- Fan Analogy.