[Interviewer] Acharya Shree, someone commented on YouTube that you said that the soul and God are one.
[Interviewer] So worshipping Lord Krishna would make us see God as seperate from us. This commentor asks, "Does this make the Gita wrong?
It's a very good question.
There is no difference between soul and God.
Aatma is Mahaatma and Paramaatma.
In Hindu culture there is no word like God. But there is word like paramaatma.
Aatma becomes Mahaatma, great soul, and then becomes Paramaatma, the greatest soul.
So basically soul is God. Aatma is Paramaatma.
Nara is Narayana.
Yes, if you will worship if some incarnation of God, what people believe.
Like the many Hindu beliefs, even though Krishna, about Krishna there is no history.
There is no truth that he existed on the Earth.
Krishna is prehistoric. He is not an historical person.
So when things are prehistoric, it is like a myth.
That's what Gandhi accepted. Gita is like a fight between the family and psychologically.
And it helps the people because there are...human society is always fighting.
About money, about kingdom, about the children, about the cousins, about who can have the most beautiful wife.
That's what this kind of fighting in Mahabharata or in Gita.
So, that proves that this is not historical event. Krishna is not historical.
People believe that he was supreme. If he we don't have historical proof, why we have to believe it?
Yes in the story it seems like he is supreme, he is incarnation of God.
So when people believe incarnation of God, it means they don't consider that he is like a soul.
And the reality is, truth is, soul is God.
If Krishna comes on the Earth in human body or he came into the human body, he became like aatma.
And slowly maybe he can be paramaatma.
So when somebody worship Krishna these days like supreme, like a God, it makes a big difference.
Because it means we are thinking there is only one supreme, Krishna.
It means we are making seperate all these souls from the God.
And when we have this attitude towards Krishna, automatically it shows that Gita is not more valuable anymore.
Because even though in Gita there are very good teachings of Krishna, even though he's not historical person, but teachings are available,
A few teachings are very good. So it makes that Gita is right or Gita is wrong, it's not definite because Gita still has value.
Because there are good things about it. Maybe good things about karma, maybe good things about how to fully be egoless or how to fully be like in peace.
There are many messages in Gita. It's mixed.
It's one book in Hindu culture which has all mixed messages. And it contradicts itself.
I will not say the book is wrong, but there are many contradictory teachings in it.
That is sure that it contradicts all the teachings itself.
Somewhere Gita says that this universe is not made by, is not created by the God.
Svabhaavastu pravartateh. It is naturally. It is just natural. It is automatic. It is there.
It's not created by anybody. And sometimes they say that no, it is creation by God.
All the universe is creation by God. So it is contradictory things in Gita.
It doesn't make Gita is wrong, but I think whoever collected these ideas. He, that person, tried to collect all the beliefs among the Hindu culture, among all Hindu religions.
All the religions in that culture. That's what it happened.
It seems contradictory, but it is still valuable, Gita.
It's more valuable, a few things, if you set apart. You still learn from Gita lot of good things.
How to live peacefully in the society. Like Krishna, even according to the story, that he was a king.
But he accepted to be like an ambassador, like a peace messenger.
And it is like very difficult when a king becomes somebody's messenger of peace.
And he tried to negotiate. So things like that there are many good things, there are many bad things about the war.
It seems like in Gita, Krishna is trying to inspire Arjuna to fight. And Arjuna is very peaceful in Gita.
He doesn't want to fight. He doesn't want to kill any of his cousins, any of his grandfathers, any of his teachers.
But Krishna is inspiring him, "No you have to kill it. If you don't kill it", even he says, "I'm going to kill it".
So can you still believe that Krishna is God? He says that, "Arjuna, if you don't kill it, I am going to kill them."
So where there killing is involved, can you believe that we are children of that God?
You have to just have to think about it.
What is written, it is not everything is not true.
Maybe a few things are valuable for the society, for the family.
Don't take everything, don't take Gita as a just a holy book.
Take Gita as a good book. That's what Gandhi accepted.
That's what many scholars accepted that Gita is a good book.
But don't consider Gita is a holy book.
And I will suggest to you same thing. No history about it.
About Krishna. Why to bother about to consider him supreme?
Consider him incarnation of God? And incarnation of God, if you consider him, your God is Vishnu.
And Vishnu is not even supreme. Vishnu is just a Mahadeva. There are 3 Mahadevas. Vishnu, Brahma, and Shiva.
They are Mahadevas. So Mahadevas are not God. They are devas. Deva means angels.
So they are like that. So if you consider even Krishna incarnation of Vishnu, it doesn't make him God.
So you have to think about it lot of things.
Need to talk about it, more and more about it.
Is it valuable or not valuable?
Need to talk more.