As Arjuna . . . we are reading Bhagavad-gītā; you can understand that Arjuna is a friend. Why he's accepting Kṛṣṇa as guru? Why? He's a friend. He's talking equally, sitting equally, friend and friend, sometimes talking nonsense. Kṛṣṇa . . . in the Eleventh Chapter he was begging Kṛṣṇa, "Forgive me. As a friend I have misbehaved with You." Friend has got right that. Kṛṣṇa did not mind for that. But he knew that, "Kṛṣṇa, although He is my friend, He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore, He is the proper person to become my guru." And he says also that, "The perplexity which I have been put into now in this battlefield, this cannot be solved by anyone else except Yourself." That he said also. So this is instruction we get from Bhagavad-gītā—everyone reads Bhagavad-gītā—that we have to accept Kṛṣṇa as the guru, or Kṛṣṇa's representative as guru. Tad viddhi praṇipātena paripraśnena sevayā (BG 4.34). And we have to give service to such guru and we have to surrender ourself. Not that I accept you guru just to know how much you are learned, how much you can talk with me. Not with that spirit. Surrender that, "I surrender to you, sir." Śiṣyas te 'ham, "I have become śiṣya." Śiṣya means voluntarily accepting his ruling. Whatever guru will say, he will accept. That is called śiṣya. Śiṣya means ruling, who accept disciple, means disciplinary measure. Whatever guru says, one who accepts, he becomes disciple. He . . . "I don't care for my guru's order, and still I am disciple," that is not accepting guru. Of course, it has become a fashion like that, to have a guru but don't care for guru. That is not . . . that will not help. Śiṣyas te 'haṁ śādhi māṁ prapannam (BG 2.7).
And immediately Kṛṣṇa, as we . . . as soon as He accepted to become guru of Arjuna, He immediately chastised him:
- aśocyān anvaśocas tvaṁ
- prajñā-vādāṁś ca bhāṣase
- gatāsūn agatāsūṁś ca
- nānuśocanti paṇḍitāḥ
- (BG 2.11)
"My dear Arjuna, you are not talking like a learned man. You are thinking that you are very learned man, that you are talking with Me, that 'What will happen to this, to that, if I fight?' You have wasted so much time. But actually I find that you are a fool number one. You do not know anything," aśocyān anvaśocas tvam, "because you are lamenting for things for which one should not lament. What is that? This body. You are thinking of this body of your relative, and because they will be in the war, they will be killed. You are thinking like that. But actually this is not the subject matter of pondering. The real subject matter is how to save the soul." Therefore He began instructing that, "We are not this body; we are soul." Dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā, tathā dehāntara-prāpti (BG 2.13). In this way He gave first instruction that we are not this body.
So here also, Devahūti is woman. Everyone is less intelligent before his guru, especially woman. Striyo śūdra tathā vaiśya te 'pi yānti parāṁ gatim. But God, or Kṛṣṇa, is open for everyone. It is not that Kṛṣṇa is open for the brāhmaṇas, the learned scholars or the Hindus or the Muslim or Christian. No, Kṛṣṇa is open for everyone. Striyo śūdra tathā vaiśyās te 'pi yānti param, māṁ hi pārtha vyapāśritya ye 'pi syuḥ pāpa-yonayaḥ (BG 9.32), even pāpa-yonayaḥ. Pāpa-yoni means low class. Just like in our country we have got low-class people, the cobbler, muci, the caṇḍālas, the dog-eaters. They are considered as low class. So Kṛṣṇa is open even for the low class.
This is universal movement, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, because it is concerned with the soul, consciousness. Therefore you have named the word "consciousness." Consciousness belongs to the soul. That is the symptom of presence of soul. At the present moment, because the soul is in the body, if I pinch your body then you feel—consciousness—feel pains or pleasure. But as soon as the soul is gone out of the body, if I chop off your body with a dagger, you will not protest. The consciousness is gone. Yena sarvam idaṁ tatam. Avināśi tu tad viddhi yena sarvam idaṁ tatam (BG 2.17), Kṛṣṇa says. Sarvam idam, this body. This body, wherever you pinch, you feel pain. Why? Because the consciousness is there. So Kṛṣṇa advises that consciousness is eternal, not this body. Avināśi tu tad viddhi yena sarvam idaṁ tatam. So the consciousness eternal. Therefore we have to purify our consciousness, then our life is successful.
Consciousness will go with us. At the time of death, the consciousness carries me to another body. Sūkṣma, the fine, or the subtle body, the mind, intelligence and ego. But we do not see that mind, intelligence, and ego and the soul, it is still finer. Mind is . . . we know you have got mind, you know I have got mind, but you do not see. I know you have got intelligence, you know I have got intelligence, but you can not see. But how the mind, intelligence carry the soul to another body, how you can see? We see that this gross body is stopped, we say it is everything finished, because we have got gross intelligence, we have no sūkṣma in . . . therefore we have to approach guru, just like Arjuna approached guru. And Arjuna, Kṛṣṇa teaching that "You are thinking of this body like a rascal." Nānuśocanti paṇḍitāḥ. He said in a very gentlemanly language, "No learned man thinks like that." That means "You are a fool." Nānuśocanti paṇḍitāḥ, that, "You are not a paṇḍita, you are a fool." Just try to understand that real life is for the soul; therefore you should take care of the soul. The whole Vedic language, Vedic education, means to take care of the soul. The soul is entangled, embodied, engaged in this material affair, and he is suffering, and to rescue him, to get him out of this material clutches, that is called education. That is called education, and for that education one has to approach a proper guru like Kapiladeva. Kapiladeva is incarnation of Kṛṣṇa.
So guru is there, Kṛṣṇa, and His instruction is there in the Bhagavad-gītā. Why you are not taking advantage? You have become so foolish. The instruction is there. Guru is there. Somebody says that "Arjuna had the opportunity, good opportunity, to talk with Kṛṣṇa face to face, but we haven't got that." But what is that talk? The talk is already there. You hear it from His representative, the same instruction. Where is the difficulty? But they will not do that. They will take Bhagavad-gītā and misinterpret in a foolish way, a rascaldom, and spoil his career and others' career. That's all. Otherwise everything is there. Where is the difficulty? Kṛṣṇa says that there is the owner of the body within the body, and He has explained in so many ways—acchedyo 'yam adāhyo 'yam (BG 2.24), distinguishing the quality that the soul is never to be cut into pieces, acchedyo 'yam. It cannot be burned into the fire. It cannot be moistened by water. That means everything matter, there is interruption. Any matter will be interrupted by another matter, but the soul is not anything of this material world. In the material world, any hard thing—the iron, the stone—can be cut into pieces if you have got the instrument. But Kṛṣṇa says the soul is acchedyo 'yam, it cannot be cut into pieces. So it is above all material action and reaction. Adāhyo 'yam. In material, even the iron can be melted, even a stone can be melted nowadays. But adāhyo 'yam, aśoṣyaḥ 'yam, in so many ways. That means it is different from this material thing, the soul. Therefore, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre.
This instruction, the common sense is that if my position is like that, acchedyo 'yam adāhyo 'yam, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20), then what is that life? How I can attain that life? That is brahma-jijñāsā. One should be inquisitive. If we remain fools and rascals like cats and dogs to maintain this body only, then what is the benefit of this human life? Human life is meant for understanding this science that, "I am not this body, but I am busy with this bodily comfort. I am soul within the body. What I am doing for that which is Brahman?" This is required. Therefore tad vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum eva abhigacchet (MU 1.2.12). If you want to learn about that, then you must find out a guru. What kind of guru? Just like Kapiladeva, Kṛṣṇa, or His representative. Not a bogus guru. Then you will be cheated. Andhā yathāndair upanīyamānāḥ (SB 7.5.31). The so-called rascal guru, he does not know also what is the aim of life, and if he makes some disciples, then śāstra says, andhā yathāndair upanīyamānāḥ: one blind man is trying to guide many other blind men. So what is the benefit? There is no benefit.