Hayagriva: This is Fichte. He’s not as important as Kant or Hegel, but he followed pretty much in the footsteps of Kant. His first work was entitled Our Belief in a Divine Government of the Universe, and he writes, “Our belief in a moral world order must be based on the concept of a supersensible transcendental world.”
Prabhupada: But thing is that what is morality? If he cannot define what is morality, simply saying on moral principles, what is this morality? First of all you have to understand what is morality. Simply imaginary moral principle. We want practical understanding what is morality. That they have not defined.
Hayagriva: Not, not specifically.
Prabhupada: Then what is immoral? Everyone will say this is morality. Just like we say, following the Vedic scripture, we say krsi- go-raksya-vanijyam [Bg. 18.44], go-raksya, to give protection to the cows. So according to the scripture we would say it is morality, and somebody will say no, killing a cow in some religious place, mosque or synagogue, this is morality. So which one is morality?
Hayagriva: Well he, following Kant, he emphasized inner reality…
Prabhupada: He may, he may follow Kant and I may follow Krishna, but if there is contradiction, then which one is morality? How it will be decided, and who will decide? He may follow somebody. That this question I asked Professor Kotovsky in Moscow, that “You are following Communism, and we are following, say, Krishna-ism, but your leader is Lenin and our leader is Krishna, that so far the philosophy is concerned we have to accept a leader.” So there is no difference in the basic principle of philosophy that we must have a leader. Now who shall be the leader and who will decide it? Regards to both of us, we have got a leader. Now which leader is perfect? If both of them are perfect, then why there is difference of opinion— one leader does not agree with the other leader? So who will answer this question that who is the best leader? Leader you have to follow. That you cannot avoid. Either you follow Kant or you follow Krishna. Either you follow Lenin or you follow Krishna. What is the answer? Who is the perfect leader? You cannot avoid leader, either you say according to Kant, I say according to Krishna.
Hayagriva: Well they both emphasize intuition or conscience. The interior…
Prabhupada: The conscience is prepared. If you go on drinking, then your conscience will say it is good, and if you go on chanting, your conscience will say this is good. The conscience is prepared according to association. There is no standard conscience.
Hayagriva: No standard conscience or intuition.
Prabhupada: So which one will you follow?
Hayagriva: They seem to think there is a standard within everyone.
Prabhupada: So what is that standard? We say the order of Krishna is standard. That’s all. What Krishna says, that is standard, that we have got some standard. Unless there is standard, you say conscience, high sense, morality… What is that? Define it. Just like we have got definition of God. I think nobody has got any definition of God. What is the standard that a person should be called God? I don’t think… it is only in Vedic literature.
aisvaryasya samagrasya viryasya yasasah sriyah jnana-vairagyayos caiva sannam iti bhaga ingana
Clear. What is religion? Dharmam tu saksad bhagavat-pranitam [SB 6.3.19]. This is the definition of God, and dharma means the order of God. Everything is standard. What is their standard conception? And if you have no standard conception, simply imaginary morality, imaginary controller, imaginary God, how it will help us?
Hayagriva: For Fichte the world has no objective reality outside of its being an instrument for the enactment of morality. He calls the world of the senses “the stuff of duty.”
Prabhupada: This is all vague. There is no definite direction.
Hayagriva: He says our duty is revealed in the world of the senses. There’s no definition of duty as such.
Prabhupada: That means I can manufacture my own duty, you can manufacture your own duty. There is no standard. But our standard is, Krishna says, sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekam sar… [Bg. 18.66], whatever you, rascal, whatever you have manufactured, give it up. The Bhagavata says that dharmah projjhita atra kaitavah, that all cheating type of religious system is kicked out. Here is the religious system, satyam param dhimahi. What is that satyam? Om namo bhagavate vasudevaya. Everything is clear. And where is that clear understanding? Simply speculating. That is the difference, the Vedic standard knowledge and this speculative philosophy. So, so far we are concerned, we refer to the Vedas, sabdah pramanam. Sabdah means Vedas, sabdah brahman. So whatever action we do, if it is approved by the Vedic injunction then it is standard and confirmed.
Full Discussion: http://prabhupadabooks.com/classes/philosophy/syamasundara/johann_gottlieb_fichte
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