Dialectical Spiritualism: Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Part 6

BY: SUN STAFF

Conversations wtih HDG A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, excerpted from  Dialectical Spiritualism: A Vedic View of Western Philosophy.

VII. GERMAN IDEALISM 
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831)

Hayagriva dasa: Since the body is the soul's instrument, Hegel considered injury to the body to be injury to the person himself. In The Philosophy of Right and Law, he says: "It is but vain sophistry that says that the real person — the soul — cannot be injured by maltreatment offered to one's body Violence done to the body is really done to me."

Srila Prabhupada: Then what is the justification for killing animals?

Hayagriva dasa: He would say that a person can possess his body because he can put his will into it. Animals, however, have no right to life because they do not put their will into the possession of their bodies.

Srila Prabhupada: If that is the case, why do animals object when you kill them? What kind of philosophy is he expounding?

Hayagriva dasa: He says that mankind has the right of absolute proprietorship. He writes: "A thing belongs to the accidental first comer who gets it, because a second comer cannot take possession of what is already the property of another."

Srila Prabhupada: In other words, might makes right. But consider, how would you take ownership of gold? First of all, you must hunt out gold that has no proprietor. You must inquire who the actual proprietor of the gold is. You may claim first proprietorship, but the gold was there in the first place. Whose property is it? Who made the gold and kept it before you came along?

Hayagriva dasa: Hegel would say that "the first comer is not legal owner by virtue of his being the first comer, but because he has free will." That is, it is mine because I put my will into it.

Srila Prabhupada: That's all right, but someone made the gold and kept it before you went to capture it. Since this was the case, by willing it to be yours, or by taking it, you become a common thief, not a philosopher. Our claim to proprietorship is false because we are neither the creators nor maintainers of property.

Syamasundara dasa: As far as action is concerned, activity in accordance with conscience is proper activity for Hegel.

Srila Prabhupada: A thief becomes accustomed to stealing, and therefore his conscience says, "Yes, I must steal. It is my right." The conscience of a murderer tells him to murder. Originally, the Bible said, "Thou shalt not kill," but people have created a conscience by which they can think, "Yes, killing is all right." Conscience is created by association. If our association is good, we create a good conscience, and if it is bad, we create a bad conscience. There is no absolute standard for the conscience. Conscience means discriminating power.

Syamasundara dasa: He maintains that there is an absolute conscience, which is pure rationality.

Srila Prabhupada: Pure rationality is Krsna consciousness. Unless we come to that platform, so-called conscience and philosophy have no value.

Syamasundara dasa: Hegel believes that punishment for crime is justified because it vindicates justice and restores rights.

Srila Prabhupada: Yes. Therefore when one kills an animal, he should be prepared to be killed. That is justice. According to the Manu-samhita, it is justice to hang a murderer. It is unjust to save him because if he is not hanged in this life, he escapes justice, and has to suffer severely in the next. In order to be saved from many troubles in the next life, the murderer should be killed. The king who is hanging him is doing him justice in rendering a life for a life. But according to Vedic philosophy, if one kills an animal, he should also be prepared to be killed. A sane man would not run such a risk.

Syamasundara dasa: If I observe in nature that living entities are killing one another to eat, it only seems rational that I should be able to eat animals.

Srila Prabhupada: Well, Vedic philosophy also accepts the fact that one living being is food for another.

ahastani sahastanam 
apadani catus-padam 
phalguni tatra mahatam 
jivo jivasya jivanam

"Those who are devoid of hands are prey for those who have hands; those devoid of legs are prey for the four-legged. The weak are the subsistence of the strong, and the general rule holds that one living being is food for another." (Bhag. 1.13.47) But this does not mean that you should kill your son and eat him. There must be discrimination. It is nature's law that we have to eat other living beings in order to exist; therefore we can eat fruit and vegetables. We can take these without killing the trees and plants. But if we eat animals, we have to kill them. The point is that we should act intelligently to make the best of a bad bargain. We take fruits, grains, vegetables, and milk products, and offer them to Krsna. If there is any responsibility, it is Krsna's. After offering the food to Krsna, we then accept it as prasadam.

yajna-sistasinah santo 
mucyante sarva-kilbisaih 
bhuiijate te tv agham papa 
ye pacanty atma-karanat

"The devotees of the Lord are released from all kinds of sins because they eat food which is offered first for sacrifice. Others, who prepare food for personal sense enjoyment, verily eat only sin." (Bg. 3. 13) If you cook for yourself, you have to take all the responsibility for your sinful activity, even if you are a vegetarian. We therefore take the remnants of yajna, sacrifice, and in this way we perform yajna. It is not that we prepare food directly for our own consumption.

Hayagriva dasa: Hegel was a strong believer in the right of man to choose his own occupation. He writes: "In the Platonic State, subjective freedom was of no account, since the government assigned to each individual his occupation. In many Oriental states, this assignment results from birth. The subjective choice which ought to be respected requires free choice by individuals."

Srila Prabhupada: The occupations are already given, but you have the freedom to select one of them. Krsna states in Bhagavad-gita:

catur-varnyam maya srstam 
guna karma-vibhagasah

"According to the three modes of material nature and the work ascribed to them, the four divisions of human society were created by Me." (Bg. 4. 13) One can make his selection according to his qualifications. A man can become an engineer, for instance, when he becomes qualified to do the work. The words used are guna-karma: the work is determined by one's qualities, not by birth. It is not that one automatically becomes a brahmana because he is born in a brahmana family. Rather, he has a better chance of being trained as a brahmana if his father is a brahmana, just as one stands a better chance of being trained as a musician or a cobbler if those are his father's occupations. However, it is not that a cobbler cannot become a brahmana. If he acquires the qualifications, he should be considered a brahmana. Nor is it that a brahmana's son necessarily becomes a brahmana without qualification. The point is that we must first attain the qualifications and then work accordingly.

Syamasundara dasa: Concerning the state, Hegel writes: "The state is the realization of the ethical ideal We must therefore worship the state as the manifestation of the divine on earth."

Srila Prabhupada: First, we have to understand the duty of the state. If it is accepted that the state is the representative of God, the state's first business is to make its citizens God conscious. Any state that neglects this duty should be immediately rejected as unqualified. The leader may either be a president or a king — it doesn't matter. In Vedic culture, the king is called naradeva, God in human form, and he is offered respect in that way. A king is respected because he is considered God's representative. We also present ourselves as Krsna's representative. And what is our duty? To lift others to God consciousness.

Syamasundara dasa: Hegel recommended a constitutional monarch to be the executor for the World Spirit, but he was so vague that even Hitler could utilize his political philosophy to his ends.

Srila Prabhupada: First of all, the monarch has to be educated. Hitler came not as a king but a usurper. Nowadays, any rascal can assume power. Because the leaders are not trained to protect the citizens, the whole world is in trouble. A leader can whimsically declare war and involve all the citizens. In Vedic monarchy, there is a kind of disciplic succession wherein the king trains his son, and in this way he can govern properly.

Syamasundara dasa: According to Hegel, in a well-ordered monarchy, only the law has objective power; the king is simply the servant of the law.

Srila Prabhupada: That is constitutional monarchy, a showbottle king. If a king is God conscious and is trained up properly and has complete power, he is a rajarsi. In Bhagavad-gita, it is mentioned that the ancient saintly kings had understood this science of Krsna consciousness (Bg. 4.2). They were not ordinary men. The king was supposed to have been saintly. He had to understand the philosophy of Bhagavad-gita and introduce an educational system so that the people could understand the science of God. That is the very first duty of the state and king. It is also stated in Srimad-Bhagavatam that one should not become a head of state, a father, or a guru if he cannot save his wards from the imminent danger of death (Bhag. 5.5.18). We are now entangled in repeated birth and death, and it is the state's duty to promote liberation from this cycle.

Syamasundara dasa: Hegel considers it the purpose of the state and king to apply the moral law.

Srila Prabhupada: That is the duty of the king, but the leaders in modern democratic states are concerned only with exacting taxes. It is stated in the sastras that if the leaders keep the citizens morally blind and exact taxes from them, the leaders will go to ruination. Because they are sinfully earning money, they suffer in this life and the next. Similarly, when the guru accepts disciples, he takes the responsibility for their sinful reactions. When a king levies taxes, he takes a share of the sinful reactions of the citizens. If the citizens are pious, both the king and the citizens will profit. If not, if it is a case of the blind leading the blind, they will lead one another to hell. The main point is that the head of state should be a representative of God, and his duty should be to train citizens to become God conscious.