Religion means accepting God's orders; only through guru's guidance can consciousness transcend material illusion.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Lecture at Tarrawarra Abbey [Christian Monastery] — April 6, 1972, Melbourne 720406LE-MELBOURNE [77:33 Minutes] Lecture_720406LE-MELBOURNE [introducing; sounds of devotees setting up in background] Hanumān: ...bhū-tale śrīmate bhaktisiddhānta-svāmin iti nāmine om ajñāna-timirāndhasya jñānāñjana-śalākayā cakṣur unmīlitaṁ yena tasmai śrī-gurave namaḥ śrī-caitanya-mano-'bhīṣṭaṁ sthāpitaṁ yena bhū-tale svayaṁ rūpaḥ kadā mahyaṁ dadāti sva-padāntikam I want first of all to offer my respectful obesance unto the lotus feet of my spiritual master, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, who forced us to open our eyes with the torchlight of knowledge, when we were in ignorance of this great knowledge of God. There is a verse in our scripture which run follows: imaṁ vivasvate yogaṁ proktavān aham avyayam vivasvān manave prāha manur ikṣvākave 'bravīt [Bg. 4.1] This great chanting, this great science that we are now delivering in all major country of the world—we have now eighty-five center all over the world—it is not a new religion, a new American religion. There are so many new religions.
This is not new religion. Evaṁ paramparā [Bg. 4.2]: it is very, very old—thousands and thousands and millions of years old, and this great science was passed down throughout time to the saintly kings, as a saint like this, from guru to guru. We are giving this great science, delivering this great science, and like this it is coming to us from time immemorial. So for thousands of years, holy man in India, they have attained the real, most super consciousness, or the real transcendence, by following the footsteps of these great saints, which are giving us this great science of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, or God..., conscious of God. His Divine Grace A. C.
Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, our spiritual master, the founder of this Society, is in direct line of this disciplic succession. He is the last representative of this line. Just like in your Christian Church also you have this paramparā of pope, and one pope disappeared and another pope legislates, so from Peter down to Pope Paul now you have a disciplic succession, so similarly, for thousands and thousands of years, we have a disciplic succession, and His Divine Grace A. C.
Bhaktivedanta is the representative of this great disciplic succession, which is called the Brahma-Gauḍīya-sampradāya. Just like if you have a very nice tree, and..., a mango tree, and on the top of the tree you have a very, very beautiful and mature fruit, then you are very careful to take down the fruit. So therefore you put the man on each branches, and the man on the top of the tree pick up the mango and pass down, down, down to man, and finally the mango arrives on the bottom of the tree very unbroken, uncontaminated. So His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta like this has received this mature fruit of knowledge of God from this disciplic succession, and on the order of his spiritual master His Divine Grace Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Prabhupāda, he went in America about six years ago, six, seven years ago, in New York, alone, without knowing anyone, without any money, just like a traveling monk, and he arrived in New York, with so many millions of people, like this.
He didn't know anyone. He sat down under a tree there in the main park, and he began to glorify God, like this. So one disciple came. From many disciple we have opened one center, and then His Divine Grace give initiations. Some have become monks or sannyāsī, brahmacārī; some also can get married.
And like this we opened a center in New York, in San Francisco, Montreal, and now we have center in every major city in the United States and Europe. We have a total eighty-five center all over the world, and we are opening about two center, one or two center, every month. So there is something very..., very, very powerful there, very great, why thousands of young boys, girls, men, women, are giving up everything—giving up their wealth, their nice house, their nice television, their nice everything. They are giving up everything, and they are giving their lives to this great saint, His Divine Grace A. C.
Bhaktivedanta, because he delivers something that cannot be found in this world. It cannot be found in this world. It can only be obtained by listening to this great message that is called Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So I just beg you to listen very carefully to his divine words. Thank you very much for your time.