Lecture Escapes Sabotage Attempt

On Friday 30 March 2007 I was scheduled to give an advertised public lecture in a hall at Sofia University. The disturbed professor, who was described in yesterday's "Thought for the Day", decided to take it on herself to sabotage my lecture. She sent me an email, lying to me that my lecture had to be postponed because an important event had been scheduled for that room. She did not mention anything about my lecture being rescheduled. This was simply her sneaky tactic to cancel my lecture. As it turned out there was no other event. It was simply her fabrication. The hall scheduled for my event was sitting there empty. Bhakta Todor, the student who had arranged for me to give the lecture, was very clever. He told me that I should still give the lecture. He sent me to another empty hall on the campus while he stationed himself at the original advertised hall and sent all the people who arrived for my lecture to the new location. In this way the lecture still went on covertly without the knowledge of the envious professor who tried to sabotage it.

Answers According to the Vedic Version

Question: Contradictory Statement?...

In the 2nd canto of Srimad Bhagavatam, while giving purport to Text 7, Srila Prabhupada writes as follows:

"In the Vedas it is said that persons who are attached to demigods to the exclusion of the Supreme Personality of Godhead are like the animals that follow the herdsman even though they are taken to the slaughterhouse."

The Vedas consist of various demigod worships to attain manifold worldly things. The Rig Veda is dealing with the worship of Lord Indra. How come in the same Veda, there appears such a statement, which seems to be contradictory? One place of the Vedas, it is recommending to worship demigods and in other place, it is saying that people who follow this are like animals.

Or does it mean that people who worship demigods without any devotion to the Supreme Personality of Godhead are like animals? In this context, is it proper to worship demigods if one has an understanding that Krishna is the Supreme Lord? Then, one question arrives here that if one has the realization that Krishna is the Supreme, in that case, why does he have to worship other demigods.

Also, it is mentioned by Srila Prabhupada that while Lord Krishna was present in the earth before 5000 years, He used to worship demigods and visit temples of demigods to show the common man how to lead a house holder life. Could you kindly clarify?

Sincerely,
Murali K V

Answer: Vedas are Not Contradictory...

It is a fact that demigod worship is for those who are less intelligent. This is confirmed by Lord Sri Krishna in the Bhagavad-gita as follows:

kamais tais tair hrta-jnanah
prapadyante 'nya-devatah
tam tam niyamam asthaya
prakrtya niyatah svaya

"Those whose intelligence has been stolen by material desires surrender unto demigods and follow the particular rules and regulations of worship according to their own natures." --Bhagavad-gita 7.20

Those who are advanced in intelligence simply worship the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Sri Krishna. Demigod worship is sometimes recommended for those who are less intelligent because this instills within them the idea that there is a higher authority to whom they should offer worship. Included in the proper procedures of demigod worship is the worshipping of the Supreme Lord. If the demigod worshipper becomes even slightly advanced in Vedic understanding, he will learn that whatever boon the demigod is offering to his worshipper is actually coming from Krishna. It is simply coming through the medium of the demigod. Therefore he will eventually transfer his worship from the demigod to the supreme Lord, Sri Krishna.

In this regard, please try to understand a simple crude example. In the retail business if the merchant can get a cheaper price for the goods he sells, he will make a bigger profit. So if he purchases his goods directly from the manufacturer instead of from a middle man, a distributor who marks up the price, he will get a much cheaper price and make a much bigger profit.

So why should we take our boons from a middle man? The intelligent thing is to go directly to the manufacturer of all that exists and get our boons from Him. This will bring about much greater profit. Just as purchasing from middlemen is standard business procedure for businessmen who are not very expert or advanced in the art of business, similarly demigod worship is recommended in the Vedas and even by Krishna's example as a standard operating procedure for those who are very expert or are less advanced. But Krishna also mercifully reveals in the Bhagavad-gita how one can easily rise beyond this less intelligent, less fortunate position and achieve the topmost boon of pure devotional service.

Once one realizes that Krishna is the Supreme Lord and takes to His worship he automatically worships all the demigods just by worshipping Krishna, just as by watering the root of a tree all the branches and leaves are nourished. The demigods are ultimately more pleased when we worship Krishna than when we worship them.

In short, just as the government advises against cigarette smoking but still allows it under restriction for those who cannot give it up, the Vedas recommend against demigod worship but still allow it for those who are not able to give it up. Just as the government's program is through restriction and instruction to gradually get all the cigarette smokers to give it up, the Vedic system is that through restriction and instruction the demigod worshippers should all give up demigod worship and simply worship Vishnu or Krishna.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari