raja-vidya raja-guhyam
pavitram idam uttamam
pratyaksavagamam dharmyam
su-sukham kartum avyayam.
"This knowledge is the king of education, the most secret of all secrets. It is the purest knowledge, and because it gives direct perception of the self by realisation, it is the perfection of religion. It is everlasting, and it is joyfully performed."
Before commencing the class, Srila Prabhupada asked the devotees to sit properly in two rows. "Nobody should sit with their backs to God. You can sit face to face. Yes, this is the etiquette. There must be division, and you sit down, face to face."
The theme of the evening class was "real education". The Krsna consciousness movement, Prabhupada explained, was offering real education beyond sectarian belief: "So-called religious people will say, 'We believe in this way', or 'We believe in that way'. But belief is concocted; belief is not a fact. You may believe in some way, I may believe in some other way, there may be a contradiction, but fact is fact. You cannot say 'two plus two is equal to four, I believe'. It is a fact. You cannot say that 'I am Christian, therefore two plus two is equal to five'. Or because I'm Hindu, I believe two plus two is equal to three. No. Two plus two is four, always. Either you believe or not believe. If you are Christian or Muslim or Hindu. Similarly, we are teaching God consciousness in this Krsna consciousness movement, and we are challenging: 'If you are religious people then do you know what is God?'"
Since the world was in urgent need of such education, Prabhupada argued, Krsna consciousness should be accepted without delay. He gave some pertinent examples originally offered by the great sage Canakya Pandit. "Visad apy amrtam grahyam -- sometimes a man is on his death bed, and in order for him to be brought to consciousness, he is injected with venomous poison from a snake. Even though it is poison, it will bring him to consciousness. In the same way, if something is an effective medicine, even if it is poison, it should be taken.
"Similarly, amedhyad api kancanam. If one finds gold lying in a dirty place, he should immediately accept it. And, stri-ratnam duskulad api -- if a girl is very qualified, even if she is born in a low family, one should accept her as a wife."
Prabhupada gave an example of this from history: the great emperor Maharaja Santanu accepted his wife Satyavati from a fisherman's family. Prabhupada's point was clear -- one should accept knowledge and enlightenment from wherever it was offered.
- From "The Great Transcendental Adventure" by HG Kurma Prabhu
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