“Mike Robinson: But if I understand you correctly, you seem to be educating people on a purely scientific basis. Where does religion come into it at all?
Srila Prabhupada: Religion also means science. People have wrongly taken religion to mean faith–“I believe.” [To a devotee:] Look up the word religion in the dictionary.
Disciple: Under religion the dictionary says, “recognition of superhuman control or power, and especially of a personal God entitled to obedience, and effecting such recognition with the proper mental attitude.”
Srila Prabhupada: Yes. Religion means learning how to obey the supreme controller. So, you may be Christian and I may be Hindu; it doesn’t matter. We must both accept that there is a supreme controller. Everyone has to accept that; that is real religion. Not this “We believe animals have no soul.” That is not religion. That is most unscientific. Religion means scientific understanding of the supreme controller: to understand the supreme controller and obey Him–that’s all. In the state, the good citizen is he who understands the government and obeys the laws of the government, and the bad citizen is the one who doesn’t care for the government. So, if you become a bad citizen by ignoring God’s government, then you are irreligious. And if you are a good citizen, then you are religious.
Mike Robinson: I see. Can you tell me what you believe to be the meaning of life? Why do we exist in the first place?
Srila Prabhupada: The meaning of life is to enjoy. But now you are on a false platform of life, and therefore you are suffering instead of enjoying. Everywhere we see the struggle for existence. Everyone is struggling, but what is their enjoyment in the end? They are simply suffering and dying. Therefore, although life means enjoyment, at the present moment your life is not enjoyment. But if you come to the real, spiritual platform of life, then you’ll enjoy.
Mike Robinson: Can you explain to me, finally, some of the stages you go through in spiritual life? What are the spiritual stages a new devotee of Krsna goes through?
Srila Prabhupada: The first stage is that you are inquisitive. “So,” you say, “what is this Krsna consciousness movement? Let me study it.” This is called sraddha, or faith. This is the beginning. Then, if you are serious, you mix with those who are cultivating this knowledge. You try to understand how they are feeling. Then you’ll feel, “Why not become one of them?” And when you become one of them, then all your misgivings soon go away. You become more faithful, and then you get a real taste for Krsna consciousness. Why aren’t these boys going to see the cinema? Why don’t they eat meat or go to the nightclub? Because their taste has changed. They hate all these things now. In this way, you make progress. First faith, then association with devotees, then removal of all misgivings, then firm faith, then taste, then God realization, and then love of God, the perfection. That is first-class religion. Not some ritualistic ceremony of “I believe, you believe.” That is not religion. That is cheating. Real religion means to develop your love for God. That is the perfection of religion.
Mike Robinson: Thank you very much for talking with me. It’s been a pleasure talking to you.
Srila Prabhupada: Hare Krsna.
Science Of Self Realization, Ch 1
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