Delusion (Conversations)

Expressions researched:
"delude" |"deluded" |"deluder" |"deludes" |"deluding" |"delusion" |"delusional" |"delusioned" |"delusions" |"delusive"

1968 Conversations and Morning Walks

Radio Interview -- March 12, 1968, San Francisco:

Caller: Yes, that's what I wanted to know. I think there is a comparison, not between organized religion as such, but just getting down to the bare facts of what Jesus spoke about. I think there's a similarity.

Prabhupāda: There is similarity, but one thing is, just like mathematics taught in the lower class. Two plus two equal to four is equally applicable in higher mathematics, two plus two equal to four. In higher mathematics it does not become two plus two equal to five. Similarly, the teachings of Bible or teachings of Bhagavad-gītā are the same, the same "two plus two."

Caller: Right, right...

Prabhupāda: But in the Bhagavad-gītā, it may be taken as higher mathematics. That's all.

Caller: You know, may I ask you one thing, I read some parts of the Bhagavad-gītā is it? And it said that knowledge is enveloped in ignorance, hence all men are deluded.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Caller: And I thought that was a profound...

Prabhupāda: Real, our real knowledge is covered by delusion.

Caller: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Yes, the real knowledge is that I am spirit.

Caller: Yes.

Prabhupāda: But we are identifying ourself with this body. Therefore we are covered in our knowledge, actual knowledge.

1969 Conversations and Morning Walks

Discussion with Guests -- December 23, 1969, Boston:

Prabhupāda: No, why not?

Guest (1): You speak of God and matter and as matter being the thing which keeps us from seeing God. It seems to me it's something like pride and delusions, myself, and something like this, and ideas that I have.

Prabhupāda: You may have ideas, but I don't agree with your idea. If... I say that anything take it material or spiritual they are different energy of God. Matter is not different from God as it is energy of God, but still matter is not God.

Guest (1): Yes.

Prabhupāda: Just try to understand this point, that whatever we see, that is distribution of energy of God. But energy and the energetic is not the same. But they are same as...simultaneously same also because you cannot separate.

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- April 2, 1972, Sydney:

Prabhupāda: Māyayāpahṛta-jñānāḥ (BG 7.15), yes. All nonsense. You take it granted that anyone who has no Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he is a nonsense, whatever he may be. That is I take it, and I challenged him like that. I criticized Dr. Radhakrishnan in my Back to Godhead, "scholar deluded." I was criticizing him like anything.

Devotee (2): That was the first Bhagavad-gītā I read was this one by Radhakrishnan.

Prabhupāda: I have criticized him like anything, yes.

Devotee (2): Then Paramānanda and Satyabhāmā, they brought me this your Bhagavad-gītā.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- September 19, 1973, Bombay:

Pradyumna:

mahātmānas tu māṁ pārtha

daivīṁ prakṛtim āśritāḥ

bhajanty ananya-manaso

jñātvā bhūtādim avyayam

(BG 9.13)

"O son of Pṛthā, those who are not deluded, the great souls, are under the protection of the divine nature. They are fully engaged in devotional service because they know Me as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, original and inexhaustible."

Prabhupāda: Yes. Bhajanti. Bhajanti means "engaged in devotional service." Bhaja sevāyām. Bhaj-dhātu, this verb, is meant for rendering service. Bhaj-dhātu, kti, bhakti. So bhakta. Bhakti, bhakta and Bhagavān. So these are the mahātmās. But these mahātmās, these bhakta-mahātmās... Actually, mahātmā is bhakta-mahātmā. But there are others, mahātmās; they are also called mahātmās, but they are not mentioned in the Bhāgavata.

Morning Walk -- December 16, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prajāpati: But Kṛṣṇa's disappearance, about having a māyā body that He left behind. A māyā body. Is that anything to do with Māyāvādī?

Prabhupāda: Yes, Māyāvādī means those who are in māyā, those who are thinking Kṛṣṇa as one of the human beings, for them, to delude them, He left the body. But actually He departed in His own body. There is no question of... Here is another... But just like this is also, this material world... This is also Kṛṣṇa's body. But this is interesting to the Māyāvādīs, the so-called scientists, so-called philosophers. But it is not interesting to the devotees. They are thinking, "This is all." Is not that? The scientists, the philosophers, they are thinking, "This is all. There is nothing beyond this." This is illusion. This is only reflection of the reality.

Viśvareta: Scientists, they have their mental process, but what is our process to understand this knowledge?

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- February 13, 1974, Vrndavana:

Guest (1): The body is not the self. The self, or the ātmān, is the one absolute existence, but is has a delusive power whereby...

Prabhupāda: Who is that God? Delusive power?

Guest (1): God, or...

Devotee: God?

Guest (1): ...the māyā, the māyā of God makes, makes a man identify himself with his body, but it is, that's an illusion, and it's God's play that sometimes..., it's God's play that sometimes a man ignorantly identifies himself with the body, and through God's grace the bonds of ignorance are..., he is released from the bonds of ignorance through God's grace.

Prabhupāda: By God's grace, what happens?

Guest (1): One cannot... One achieves, one attains love for God, pure love. And, uh, by loving God, one, one, uh, one's..., one no longer identifies himself with his body.

Prabhupāda: So result of loving God, what it is?

Room Conversation -- February 13, 1974, Vrndavana:

Guest (1): In the absolute sense the soul is always pure, there is no impurity. But when man is in ignorance, as māyā... Śrī Kṛṣṇa's yogamāyā, His power of delusion, He can...., He makes you think, He makes you see impurity. You see suffering in the world.

Prabhupāda: So wherefrom the māyā comes?

Guest (1): From... I don't know, I can't answer that. It's, it's, it's God's nature, it's His līlā.

Guru dāsa: You stated that Kṛṣṇa makes us see impurity. Is this correct Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: (indistinct)

Guru dāsa: That Śrī Kṛṣṇa, Lord Kṛṣṇa makes us see impurity. He mentioned...

Guest (1): When a man is in ignorance.

Guru dāsa: Well which is first?

Guest (1): Which is first? Which, ignorance or what?

Guru dāsa: Does Kṛṣṇa make us in ignorance?

Room Conversation with Devotees -- July 2, 1974, Melbourne:

Cāru: " 'So much is mine now and it will increase in the future, more and more. He is my enemy, and I have killed him; and my other enemy will also be killed. I am the lord of everything, I am the enjoyer, I am perfect, powerful and happy. I am the richest man, surrounded by aristocratic relatives. There is none so powerful and happy as I am. I shall perform sacrifices, I shall give some charity, and thus I shall rejoice.' In this way, such persons are deluded by ignorance."

Prabhupāda: Just like Hitler, Napoleon. They thought like that. Yes. Then? Next verse?

Cāru: Aneka-citta-vibhrāntā moha-jāla samāvṛtāḥ...

Prabhupāda: Now where is Hitler? Where is Napoleon? Finished. Then?

Cāru: Moha-jāla-samāvṛtāḥ, prasaktāḥ kāma-bhogeṣu patanti narake 'śucau: (BG 16.16) "Thus perplexed by various anxieties and bound by a network of illusions, one becomes too strongly attached to sense enjoyment and falls down into hell."

Room Conversation with Devotees -- July 2, 1974, Melbourne:

Cāru:

ātma-sambhāvitāḥ stabdhā

dhana-māna-madānvitāḥ

yajante nāma-yajñais te

dambhenāvidhi-pūrvakam

(BG 16.17)

"Self-complacent and always impudent, deluded by wealth and false prestige, they sometimes perform sacrifices in name only without following any rules or regulations."

ahaṅkāraṁ balaṁ darpaṁ

kāmaṁ krodhaṁ ca saṁśritāḥ

mām ātma-para-deheṣu

pradviṣanto 'bhyasūyakāḥ

(BG 16.18)

"Bewildered by false ego, strength, pride, lust and anger, the demon becomes envious of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is situated in his own body..."

Prabhupāda: Next stage. "What is God? I am God." Then?

Room Conversations -- September 10, 1974, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes. The whole world is envious, whole world. I am envious of you, you are envious of me. That Bhāgavata is not meant for such envious persons. Paramo nirmatsarāṇām (SB 1.1.2), those who are no more envious. How they will have a devotee envious? He loves Kṛṣṇa and in relationship with Kṛṣṇa loves everyone. In that position, in that state, one will not try to suppress another. Otherwise, it is material life. To live at the cost of others, to suppress one, to take other's money and become rich. There is story in the Aesop's Fable that—you perhaps know it—that a dog took the flesh in his mouth and was crossing a river, and the shadow was in the water. So he thought there is another dog with the flesh, so he wanted to..., he lost this, and that was a shadow. So he has got a flesh in his mouth, but he is an animal, it was deluded that "Another dog is carrying, so I shall take."

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Conversation with Devotees on Theology -- April 1, 1975, Mayapur:

Acyutānanda: They have another mish-mosh to delude the people into paying the money. They're simply tricksters. Tricksters.

Prajāpati: Many of the theologians today are influenced by a book called I'm OK, You're OK, which...

Acyutānanda: We're O.K.

Śrutakīrti: (To Prabhupāda) You want to keep this here?

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Prajāpati: ...Dr. Harris. And this book's central tenet is that we can be happy in life simply by patting each other on the back and approving of what each other does.

Evening Discussion -- May 6, 1975, Perth:

Paramahaṁsa:

nāhaṁ prakāśaḥ sarvasya

yoga-māyā samāvṛtaḥ

mūḍho 'yaṁ nābhijānāti

loko mām ajam avyayam

(BG 7.25)

"I am never manifest to the foolish and unintelligent. For them I am covered by My eternal creative potency, yoga-māyā. So the deluded world knows Me not, who am unborn and infallible."

Prabhupāda: It is explained there. He does not reveal Himself. Why He shall reveal Himself to an unqualified person? That is Kṛṣṇa's prerogative. If He likes He will reveal. If He does not like He will not reveal. You cannot by force see Kṛṣṇa. Therefore, first of all be qualified, then try to see Kṛṣṇa. He is not exposed. Even a big man, if you want to see him, he may refuse: "No, I will not see." What can you do? If you think that "This man is third-class man, why shall I see him?" Even in ordinary human society that is going on.

Room Conversation with Dr. Copeland, Professor of Modern Indian History -- May 20, 1975, Melbourne:

Madhudviṣa:

yeṣāṁ tv anta-gataṁ pāpaṁ

janānāṁ puṇya-karmaṇām

te dvandva-moha-nirmuktā

bhajante māṁ dṛḍha-vratāḥ

(BG 7.28)

This is from the Bhagavad-gītā. Translation: "Persons who have acted piously in previous lives and in this life, whose sinful actions are completely eradicated, and who are freed from the duality of delusion, engage themselves in My service with determination."

Prabhupāda: So this is not very ordinary thing. Pāpam, sinful life... At the present moment people are very, very much addicted to sinful life.

Room Conversation with Dr. Copeland, Professor of Modern Indian History -- May 20, 1975, Melbourne:

Amogha:

mahātmānas tu māṁ pārtha

daivīṁ prakṛtim āśritāḥ

bhajanty ananya-manaso

jñātvā bhūtādim avyayam

(BG 9.13)

"Translation. O son of Pṛthā, those who are not deluded, the great souls, are under the protection of the divine nature. They are fully engaged in devotional service because they know Me as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, original and inexhaustible."

Prabhupāda: That—because you are student of history-Mahatma Gandhi's photograph with Gītā. Did he speak anything about Gītā or Kṛṣṇa in the history of his life? Then how he is mahātmā?

Dr. Copeland: People called him that.

Prabhupāda: People call, that is another thing. That is the defect of the modern civilization, that vox populi. The people may be asses; still, their votes are accepted. The people are trained up as the fourth-class, fifth-class men, and their votes are appre... This is the defect of the modern... They are not trained up as first-class men, and still, their votes are accepted.

Room Conversation -- July 31, 1975, New Orleans:

Prabhupāda: Yes. One who is foolish, nonintelligent, he cannot see Kṛṣṇa. Means Kṛṣṇa does not reveal to him. They never see. Next?

Satsvarūpa: "For them I am covered by My eternal creative potency, yogamāyā, and so the deluded world knows Me not, who am unborn and infallible."

Prabhupāda: If you have no qualification to see Him, even Kṛṣṇa comes before you, you cannot see. You will see Him—"Oh, He's an ordinary man like me," because you are not qualified to see Him. But when you become qualified, you will see Him always. Kuntidevi said, "Kṛṣṇa, You are within and without; still, they cannot see You." If Kṛṣṇa is within and without, there are two things. Still, the example is given, naṭo nāṭya-dharo yathā. Just like a friend or a family member playing on the stage, and somebody says that "Your brother is playing." "Oh, where is my brother? Where is my brother?" "He is just playing this part, taken this part." "Oh." So he requires the help.

Morning Walk -- September 29, 1975, Ahmedabad:

Indian man (5): He thinks who is living under the delusion.

Prabhupāda: That is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā, Sixteenth Chapter. "I am..." Aḍhyo 'smi dhanavān asmi ko'sti mama samaḥ: "Who is there like me, intelligent? I will do this. I will do that." These are all...

Indian man (5): Continues delusion.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Therefore Kṛṣṇa has imposed death, that "You may make your plan as free man, but you'll not be allowed to stay. I'll kick you out." These poor men, they did not think of it, that "I am making so nice plan, but at any moment I'll be kicked out. So where is my freedom?" Dull brain does not think of it. A prisoner, if he thinks that he is free to act, is it not foolishness? A prisoner, in prison, and if he thinks that he is free to act, is it not foolishness? So that they do not think.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 8, 1976, Nellore:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "For them I am covered by My eternal creative potency, yogamāyā, and so the deluded world knows Me not, who am unborn and infallible."

Mahamsa: So who is fool is defined as avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritaḥ (BG 9.11).

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Mahamsa: Who is a fool, that is defined in the other verse, avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Mānuṣīṁ tanum āśri... That one who considers Kṛṣṇa as ordinary human being, he is mūḍha. So read the purport.

Room Conversation -- April 22, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: You have read?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Oh, yes.

Prabhupāda: "Scholars Deluded."

Hari-śauri: Sometimes the devotees say that "Now Prabhupāda is preaching much more strongly than ever before." But then, when we read the old Back to Godheads, it's exactly the same.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Even if we read the First Canto of Bhāgavatam... You translated that in India before you came. It's so powerful.

Conversation with Clergymen -- June 15, 1976, Detroit:

Jayādvaita: Yes. "Persons who have acted piously in previous lives and in this life, whose sinful actions are completely eradicated and who are freed from the duality of delusion, engage themselves in My service with determination."

Scheverman: Yes, we too see sin as an obstacle to communication and relationship with the Lord God.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Read the purport.

Scheverman: In fact, we define sin as that which separates us from the friendship of God.

Rakṣaṇa: So that means following God's instructions, such as "Thou shalt not kill," right?

Garden Conversation -- June 28, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Chapter Sixteen, text number seventeen.

ātma-sambhāvitāḥ stabdhā

dhana-māna-madānvitāḥ

yajante nāma-yajñais te

dambhenāvidhi-pūrvakam

Translation: "Self-complacent and always impudent, deluded by wealth and false prestige, they sometimes perform sacrifices in name only, without following any rules or regulations."

Prabhupāda: Modern yogic society. "Transcendental Meditation." Whatever nonsense they like, they do. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is stated that yogis should sit down in a secluded, sacred place, and they are seeking after America's big, big cities. Hmm? They find out yogic class in America's big, big cities, hotels.

Evening Darsana -- July 8, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: So even in the Vaikuṇṭha, if I desire that "Why shall I serve Kṛṣṇa? Why not become Kṛṣṇa?" I immediately fall down. That is natural. A servant is serving the master, sometimes he may think that "If I could become the master." They are thinking like that, they are trying to become God. That is delusion. You cannot become God. That is not possible. But he's wrongly thinking.

Vipina: Why doesn't Kṛṣṇa protect us from that desire?

Prabhupāda: He's protecting. He says, "You rascal, don't desire, surrender unto Me." But you are rascal, you do not do this.

Vipina: Why doesn't He save me from thinking like that?

Prabhupāda: That means you lose your independence.

Arrival Comments in Car to Temple -- July 9, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: Yes. (laughs)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He gets deluded. Well, you know what we've done with all of these people, Prabhupāda, we've...

Prabhupāda: If they are disturbed, let them marry.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He doesn't want, he says he knows it's a waste of time, marriage. What we have done with Ṛṣi Kumāra and Bali-mardana is we are living with them. Like Ṛṣi Kumāra lives with Ādi-keśava Swami.

Prabhupāda: Somebody must be with him. Then it is all right. Not alone. Either Cyavana or him, some experienced devotee must be with him. Then they.

Evening Darsana -- July 11, 1976, New York:

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: "Then in the beginning of Kali-yuga, the Lord will appear as Lord Buddha, the son of Añjanā, in the province of Gayā, just for the purpose of deluding those who are envious of the faithful theists."

Prabhupāda: To delude them. Read the purport.

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: "Lord Buddha, a powerful incarnation of the Personality of Godhead, appeared in the province of Gayā (Bihar) as the son of Añjanā, and he preached his own conception of nonviolence and deprecated even the animal sacrifices sanctioned in the Vedas. At the time when Lord Buddha appeared, the people in general were atheistic and preferred animal flesh to anything else. On the plea of Vedic sacrifice, every place was practically turned into a slaughterhouse, and animal killing was indulged in unrestrictedly.

Evening Darsana -- September 1, 1976, Delhi:

Prabhupāda: Therefore their mental speculations to arrive at the Absolute Truth bring them to the false conclusion that the ordinary living entity and Kṛṣṇa are one and the same. With such a false conviction, they think that the body of any human being is now simply covered by material nature and that as soon as one is liberated from this material body there is no difference between God and himself. This attempt to become one with Kṛṣṇa will be baffled because of delusion. Such atheistic and demoniac cultivation of spiritual knowledge is always futile. That is the indication of this verse. For such persons, cultivation of the knowledge in the Vedic literature, like the Vedānta-sūtra and the Upaniṣads, is always baffled.

It is a great offense, therefore, to consider Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, to be an ordinary man. Those who do so are certainly deluded because they cannot understand the eternal form of Kṛṣṇa.

Evening Darsana -- September 1, 1976, Delhi:

Prabhupāda: It is a great offense, therefore, to consider Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, to be an ordinary man. Those who do so are certainly deluded because they cannot understand the eternal form of Kṛṣṇa. In the Bṛhad-vaiṣṇava mantra it is clearly stated that one who considers the body of Kṛṣṇa to be material should be driven out from all rituals and activities of the śruti. And if one by chance sees his face, he should at once take bath in the Ganges to rid himself of infection. People jeer at Kṛṣṇa because they are envious of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Their destiny is certainly to take birth after birth in the species of atheistic and demoniac life. Perpetually, their real knowledge will remain under delusion, and gradually they will regress to the darkest region of creation.

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1976, Vrndavana:

Hari-śauri:

tribhir guṇamayair bhāvair

ebhiḥ sarvam idaṁ jagat

mohitaṁ nābhijānāti

mām ebhyaḥ param avyayam

(BG 7.13)

"Deluded by the three modes (goodness, passion, and ignorance), the whole world does not know Me, who am above the modes and inexhaustible."

Prabhupāda: Here is the disease, material disease. They are being carried away by the three modes of material nature. Hm? It is explained further that puruṣaḥ prakṛti-stho hi bhuṅkte... (BG 13.22). Hm.

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: And if we become entangled with the modes of material nature, then we forget the Supreme Personality of Godhead who is behind all these modes. So Lord Kṛṣṇa says that men, deluded by these three modes of nature, do not understand that behind the material background is the Supreme Godhead.

There are many different kinds of living entities—human beings, demigods, animals, etc.—and each and every one of them is under the influence of material nature, and all of them have forgotten the transcendent Personality of Godhead. Those who are in the modes of passion and ignorance, and even those who are in the mode of goodness, cannot go beyond the impersonal Brahman conception of the Absolute Truth. They are bewildered before the Supreme Lord in His personal feature, which possesses all beauty, opulence, knowledge, strength, fame and renunciation.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 21, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Loko mām ajam avyayam.

Hari-śauri: "I am never manifest to the foolish and unintelligent. For them I am covered by My eternal creative potency, yoga-māyā, and so the deluded world knows Me not, who am unborn and infallible."

Prabhupāda: This is the answer—just to delude them, cheat them. They want to remain atheist—"All right, remain atheist. Suffer," janmani janmani, "life after life." This is the real explanation. Is that correct answer? But still, there is some argument. Nāhaṁ prakāśaḥ sarvasya (BG 7.25). This is the idea. "Why shall I reveal Myself to this atheist class?" Mūḍha janmani janmani (BG 16.20). "Let them remain asuras."

Room Conversation -- January 31, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Yogeśvara:

nāhaṁ prakāśaḥ sarvasya

yoga-māyā-samāvṛtaḥ

mūḍho 'yaṁ nābhijānāti

loko mām ajam avyayam

(BG 7.25)

"I am never manifest to the foolish and unintelligent. For them I am covered by My eternal creative potency, yogamāyā, and so the deluded world knows Me not, who am unborn and infallible."

Prabhupāda: That is the... So I am setting up the flower, but who has made this flower? That is... I do not know. But somebody has made. You have to accept. Because you are somebody, you are trying to make more beautiful by setting up the different flowers, so who has made the flower? That is intelligent. But mūḍho nābhijānāti. The rascals, they do not.

Room Conversation -- January 31, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Satsvarūpa:

mahātmānas tu māṁ pārtha

daivīṁ prakṛtim āśritāḥ

bhajanty ananya-manaso

jñātvā bhūtādim avyayam

(BG 9.13)

"O son of Pṛthā, those who are not deluded, the great souls, are under the protection of the divine nature. They are fully engaged in devotional service because they know Me as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, original and inexhaustible."

Prabhupāda: This is mahātmā. Is there any purport?

Evening Darsana -- February 24, 1977, Mayapura:

Tripurāri:

tribhir guṇamayair bhāvair

ebhiḥ sarvam idaṁ jagat

mohitaṁ nābhijānāti

mām ebhyaḥ param avyayam

(BG 7.13)

"Deluded by the three modes (goodness, passion and ignorance), the whole world does not know Me, who am above the modes and inexhaustible."

Prabhupāda: Hm. What is the purport?

Morning Talk -- April 18, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Māyāvādī. Otherwise he was a brāhmaṇa and learned scholar, God-fearing, everything.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, he's very well respected still.

Prabhupāda: In my paper I criticized him, "Scholars Deluded." I gave him criticism.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: (laughs) Even then you were doing that. It's always amazing how, to me, you can practically, whenever you meet these big men, you kick them on the head and then you make them like it. Just like this lawyer. You told him, "This dog civilization..." Practically you were telling him that "You are acting like that." But still, he liked it. And at the pandal you were doing the same.

Prabhupāda: Still, the Chief Minister applauded.

Evening Darsana -- May 11, 1977, Hrishikesh:

Prabhupāda: 'The patriarchs, Śiva and others are created by Me, though they do not know that they are created by Me because they are deluded by My illusory energy.' In the Varāha Purāṇa it is also said,

nārāyaṇaḥ paro devas

tasmāj jātaś caturmukhaḥ

tasmād rudro 'bhavad devaḥ

sa ca sarva-jñatāṁ gataḥ

'Nārāyaṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and from Him Brahmā was born, from whom Śiva was born.' Lord Kṛṣṇa is the source of all generations, and He is called the most efficient cause of everything. He says that 'Because everything is born of Me, I am the original source of it all. Everything is under Me. No one is above Me.' There is no supreme controller other than Kṛṣṇa. One who understands Kṛṣṇa in such a way from a bona fide spiritual master and from Vedic literature, who engages all his energy in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, becomes a truly learned man.