every one of you must be very careful that "Here is Kṛṣṇa personally present." Not that wood and stone, as atheists think. Atheist will think, "Oh, they are worshiping a wood, a stone statue." Because they have their ideas, worshiping of great men. They make also statue, but place them in the open air, and their worship is by the stools of crows, worshiping. So if... The crows take it a place of passing stool on the head of your leader. (laughter) That is their method of worship. They are respecting president George Washington, keeping a statue and honoring him with the stool of crows. You see? This is their intelligence. This is their intelligence.
And our Indian people are also imitating. I have seen one statue of Sir Asutosh Mukherjee. He was a very respectable man. Or Gandhi. The whole year, the crows passed stool on the face. It becomes covered with stool. And the day of their anniversary the municipal washing brush, street, they brush over the..., in the morning. (laughter) They brush over the... Because they do..., no gentlemen will go; they have to call some sweeper. So he will brush the face of Sir Asutosh Mukherjee and wash, and then in the evening, big garland. In the morning it was washed with municipal brush, and in the evening there is big garland.
So people have become so... Therefore they are compared with these dogs, asses, camels. They have no intelligence. We are worshiping Deity. Shall we allow like that? That is worship. But this is a fictitious thing, and they are thinking, "We are honoring Sir Asutosh Mukherjee" or "President Jawaharlal Nehru," like that. Such foolish persons. If I know that "This is Sir Asutosh Mukherjee," how I can allow his mouth to be washed by the municipal brush? No. They know it is stone. It is stone.
Therefore it has been forbidden, arcye viṣṇau śilā-dhīr guruṣu nara-matir vaiṣṇave jāti-buddhiḥ (Padma Purāṇa). If anyone, the Deity in the temple, thinks śilādhīḥ, stone and wood; vaiṣṇave jāti-buddhiḥ, if anyone considers a Vaiṣṇava under certain particular race or caste; guruṣu nara-matiḥ, if one considers guru as ordinary human being, then he is hellish. These are forbidden. We should know the arcā-vigraha, the worshipable Deity, Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself, present. He is not wood and stone, but because we cannot touch except wood and stone, therefore He has appeared as wood and stone. He is not wood and stone; He is all-powerful.
So to show me favor... If somebody says, "Here is Kṛṣṇa standing," but I have no eyes to see Kṛṣṇa... Spirit, I cannot see even your spirit, my spirit. Spirit is there, but I have no eyes to see the spirit, what to speak of touching. Therefore Kṛṣṇa, although He is spirit... In connection with Him, He is stone also. Because everything is Kṛṣṇa. Everything is product of Kṛṣṇa, energy. So we are not worshiping stone. We are worshiping Kṛṣṇa in a form which is tangible for us. That's all. Not that Kṛṣṇa is stone. Kṛṣṇa is stone also, because stone is nothing but Kṛṣṇa's energy.
So in this way you should understand what is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Don't remain foolish. Perfect knowledge. Perfect knowledge. Yasmin vijñāte sarvam idaṁ vijñātaṁ bhavati (Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad 1.3): simply if you understand Kṛṣṇa, everything will be known to you. And if you actually understand Kṛṣṇa, then your life is successful—immediately you are eligible to go back to home, back to Godhead. Immediately. (break) Janma karma me divyaṁ yo jānāti tattvataḥ, tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti (BG 4.9): "Such man who has understood Me rightly, he is no more coming back to accept this temporary material body. He comes to Me."
So try to understand Kṛṣṇa. And the beginning is karṇa-patha, these holes of the ear. Lend your ears to hear from the devotee. That's all. Na yat-karṇa-pathopetaḥ. It is not that you have to pass M.A.C., D.H.C. No. Simply lend your ear: "Oh, let us hear about Kṛṣṇa." Then everything is all right. Sthāne sthitāḥ śruti-gatāṁ tanu-vāṅ-manobhiḥ (SB 10.14.3). Kṛṣṇa is unconquerable, but if you simply hear about Him in your position, śruti-gatām, through the aural reception, you will conquer Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa's name is Ajita. Nobody can conquer Kṛṣṇa. But if you simply hear about Kṛṣṇa, time will come, you will conquer Kṛṣṇa, like the gopīs. They conquered Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa was within the hand, or the grip, of the gopīs.
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Kṛṣṇa could not go away even an inch from Vṛndāvana (break) on account of the gopīs. What was their education? They were village girls. Not even (break) brāhmaṇa. Uneducated girls, village girls, but they conquered Kṛṣṇa. So this aural reception is so great.