Prabhupada 0306 - We Should Submit Our Doubtful Questions



Lecture -- Seattle, October 2, 1968

Prabhupāda: So any question? First of all from audience. We invite questions, if you have any question, doubt, about the statements, you can inquire. Tad viddhi praṇipātena paripraśnena sevayā (BG 4.34). Everything, if you are serious to understood, we should submit our doubtful questions and then understand. You see. Yes?

Young man: Does one attain a consciousness that is beyond words? Or, I dare say, is there a communication that is not the word itself but perhaps a vibration which is much like sound or sound itself? Perhaps reaching for the oṁ. Is there a communication, something understood between you and myself, myself and my brother, others, all of us? Is there an experience perhaps where we're... Does it sound like "dong," "aung." Is there something else beside the verbal? Talk?

Prabhupāda: Yes, this Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Young man: Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Young man: Could you elaborate? Could you tell me how this can be? How it can be all the time? Rather than to be a man, rather than to have to talk English alone or other languages? How to talk that one language?

Prabhupāda: Well, sound can be vibrated in any language. It doesn't matter that Hare Kṛṣṇa can be sounded in Sanskrit only. You can sound it in English tone also: "Hare Kṛṣṇa." Is there any difficulty? These boys, they are also sounding in Hare Kṛṣṇa. So there is no difficulty. It is the sound that matters. It doesn't matter who is sounding. Just like in piano, if you touch, there is "dung." It doesn't matter whether an American is striking or an Indian striking or a Hindu striking or Muslim striking, the sound is sound. Similarly, this piano, Hare Kṛṣṇa, you just touch it and it will sound. That's all. Yes?

Young man (2): Do you sit and meditate alone? What do you do with your mind as it wanders? Do you think of something? Do you put it on something or do you let it wander by itself?

Prabhupāda: First of all let me know what do you mean by meditation?

Young man (2): Sitting alone quietly.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Young man (2): Sitting alone quietly.

Prabhupāda: Sitting alone quiet. Is it possible? Do you think it is possible?

Young man (2): If you listen to your own mind.

Prabhupāda: Then mind is always acting.

Young man (2): It chatters to you.

Prabhupāda: How can you sit, silent mind? Mind is always acting. Is there any experience that mind is not acting when you sit silently? When you sleep, the mind is acting. You are dreaming. This is the action of mind. So when do you find that your mind is silent?

Young man (2): That's what I was trying to ask you.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So therefore mind is never silent. You have to engage your mind to something. That is meditation.

Young man (2): What do you engage it to?

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is Kṛṣṇa. We engage our mind to Kṛṣṇa, the beautiful Supreme Personality of Godhead. Not only simply engaging the mind, but engaging the mind in action with the senses. Because mind is acting with our senses.