INTRODUCTION
(Teachings of the Vedas)

[Delivered as a lecture by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta
Swami Prabhupada on October 6, 1969, at Conway Hall, London,
England. |

Ladies and gentlemen, today’s subject matter is the teachings
of the Vedas. W hat are the Vedas? The Sanskrit verbal root of
Veda can be interpreted variously, but the purpose is finally one.
Veda means knowledge. Any knowledge you accept is Veda, for
the teachings of the Vedas are the original knowledge. In- the
conditioned state, our knowledge is subjected to so many defi-
ciencies. The difference between a conditioned soul and a
liberated soul is that the conditioned soul has four kinds of
defects. The first defect is that he must commit mistakes. For
example, in our country, Mahatma Gandhi was considered to be
avery great personality, but he committed many mistakes. Even
al the last stage of his life, his assistant warned, “Mahatma
Gandhi, dont go to the New Delhi meeting. | have some friends,
and PT ohave heard there is danger.” But he did not hear. tle per-
sisted on going and was killed. Even great) personalities like
Mahatma Gandhi, President’ Kennedy—there are so many of
them—make mistakes. To err is human. This is one defect of the
conditioned soul.

Another defect: to be illusioned. Mlusion means to accept
something which is not: maya. Maya means what is not. Every-
one is accepling the body as the self. If bask you what you are,
you will say, “Lam Mr. John; } am a rich man; Lam this, | am
that.” All these are bodily identifications. But you are not this
body. This is illusion.

The third defeet is the cheating propensity. Everyone has the
propensily lo cheat others. Although a person is fool number
one, he poses himself as very inte llisent. Although it is already
pointed out that he is in illusion and makes mistakes, he will
