HH KKS: …Ok with that I am ending my talk this evening, I’m thanking you for attending our programme, I hope you found it of interest, our programme will continue with a vegetarian meal which will be served at the end outside in the foyer because in this area it is not permitted to serve any foodstuffs…but before we go onto that part of the programme I would like to ask you if there is any questions or responses that you have about what we have presented and any thoughts that you would like to express.
(Some one speaks)
HH KKS: From the east there, many philosophies have reached us of course since the sixties so much has come from India to the west. There are in India different kinds of philosophies: One philosophy coming from India describes how there is an impersonal force which is spiritual and all pervading and that is what you are referring to …shivi or it…this is known in Sanskrit as Brahman , it is said this all pervading energy is the source from which everything rests …………….so in philosophical terms you would call that monism, you would say the idea that everything is one and the idea that all variety ultimately is the manifestation of the one same spiritual energy. In western tradition there is another understanding theism , that there is God and He has a distinct identity and there is the living being and he has a distinct identity.
So in India there are also schools that are theistic. So we are in the theistic approach of God. So we have the idea that there is a God, one God and many innumerable living entities who are eternally connected with him but who are always in the position of dependence and that one person is the supplier of all. In the idea of monism the idea is that we should give up our identity and then we can merge with that one spiritual energy and in the end we come into some sort of pool and everything is all one and we are become part of that ….so that is another philosophy that exists in India and has reached the west many times …But we are closer to the western idea in the sense that we say there is one God and that God certainly has a form ….. See the idea is that God is the origin of everything that exists and so the form must also be included in him, also the formless energy must also be included within Him …so there is this energy and there is this form and in our understanding we accept both that He has form and energy ….so not just an all pervading energy or an all pervading intelligence but also form. 
After all we have energy, we have intelligence and we have form but it is all limited. We have limited energy, limited intelligence , limited form . He has unlimited energy, unlimited intelligence and unlimited form ..how, what should we imagine..unlimited form , maybe that is beyond our conception , maybe the human brain does not have the full capacity to figure out God , maybe He is greater than what we could conceive of , but something we can conceive and therefore it is said that if we try to figure it out by dint of our own intellect we may find that at one point we get stuck and therefore it is said best is if the knowledge comes down from self realised persons and there comes in the concept of guru. That’s where in the east the whole idea of guru comes, from a self realised person, a teacher, he is supposed to reveal the other dimension , he has a connection with that other dimension and therefore he can reveal it and we see of course that in the western tradition Jesus in one sense acted like that, like a person who had a connection with the other dimension and was then sending that and transmitting that into our world …so this is the idea…. on our own we can not understand the nature of God. But we accept His energy, His allpervading intelligence and also yet He is also a person and is always unlimited…there is a lot more but then again I would have to start another lecture so we have to save that for another evening I am afraid , because too much of something good is not good anymore …it’s like if you have a nice cake and if you eat too much of the nice cake it then becomes misery …so we are not going to spoil it by dishing out too much .(someone speaks)
If you try to conceive of God all at once then yes…it becomes too much of a good thing. One must take it just like food , whatever we take in we must digest …so you can not just, you know, just like you can not just read a whole bible….nobody can sit down and just read the bible from cover to cover non stop…somewhere in the middle, you know, it’s just… ‘Phewwww, oh boy, I need a break, I need some fresh air , let’s turn on the tv, let’s do something else’ ….
No one can just assimilate all that information and process it…the idea is not just to read it, but to assimilate, think about it , realise it, understand how it is logical and how it makes sense….that takes time therefore I think for tonight we have had our dose, if you ask me, maybe even more…so I don’t want to prolong it.I thank you once again for being with us this evening and we have some time for some informal discussion while we are serving the meals and I think we should take a little break…Is everything ready over there for serving out…everything is ready? So I hope you are all also ready. Thank you very very much and I hope you have an appetite because they have cooked all kind of things …and we do have some reputation as kitchen religion. Thank you very much. Hare Krishna! Hope to see you again in the future.
