Just like Nārada Muni. Nārada Muni is traveling in the space because he's liberated soul. He's not conditioned. But because we are conditioned, we cannot travel in the space without the help of some machine or something else. This conditional life is going on anywhere you go within this material world. There are innumerable universes, and each and every universe, there are innumerable planets of different climatic conditions. Just like we find the climatic condition in the moon is different from the climatic condition of this earth. The climatic condition of sun is different from the climatic condition in the earth or from the moon. Every, each and every planet, each and every universe is differently conditioned. That is the beauty of Kṛṣṇa's creation.
Different from... (Lectures, SB)
Lectures
Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures
Revatī-nandana: And Kṛṣṇa knows that; therefore we make advancement. He is sitting in our heart. He knows what we're doing. So He sees, "He's serving My pure devotee," immediately there is advancement.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Spiritual master..., Kṛṣṇa is not limited. It is not material. You can associate with Kṛṣṇa and the spiritual master in any circumstance, provided you want two things. Just like we can associate with Kṛṣṇa immediately if we take Bhagavad-gītā as it is. He is not different from Bhagavad-gītā. Nāma-rūpe kali-kāle kṛṣṇa-avatāra. Kṛṣṇa is incarnated in His name in this age. You associate with Kṛṣṇa's name, immediately associate with Kṛṣṇa.
Prabhupāda: Yes. That's it.
Revatī-nandana: But once you told me that... I asked you if we were all devotees of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa. You said, "Well, we might also be devotees of Lakṣmī-Nārāyaṇa, or Sītā-Rāma..."
Prabhupāda: None of them are different from Kṛṣṇa. Revatī-nandana is also Kṛṣṇa.
Revatī-nandana: Yes. But does that mean that definitely my spirit soul, if I do become Kṛṣṇa conscious, it will go to Kṛṣṇaloka and be associated with Balarāma?
Prabhupāda: Hm.
Revatī-nandana: It won't be to some Vaikuṇṭha planet? It wouldn't be to some Vaikuṇṭha planet?
Prabhupāda: Balarāma's expansion is Vaikuṇṭha planet.
Revatī-nandana: Yes. So Their expansions also may be.
Devotee: What does the name Vaiṣṇavī mean?
Prabhupāda: Vaiṣṇavī?
Devotee: Yes. You gave my daughter the name Vaiṣṇavī.
Prabhupāda: Oh.
So there are different types of bodies within this material world. We can compare. Just like ant's body, a fly's body, and my body. A fly's body may remain for few years, or, few hours. So our body may remain for few years. And similarly, there are other living entities like Brahmā, their body remains for a few decades. But every body, each body, is subjected to this law of nature: birth, death, disease, and old age. So God's body is not like that. It is eternal. Here in this material world we can possess a body which may exist for millions of years, but that does not mean it is eternal. It is not eternal. But God's body is eternal. Therefore, in the Vedic language, when it is said, nirākāra-nirākāra means "who has no form"—it does not mean that God has no form. He has got form, but His form is different from this form upon which you have got experience. Our experience is whatever form we can think of, even Brahma's form, that is liable to be annihilated. But God's form is not like that. So when in the Vedic language it is said, nirākāra—means nir, nir means "not," and ākāra means "form"—that means "God's form is not like ours." It is not that He has no form. He has form, but His form is different from ours.
So energy is not different from the energetic. Śakti-śaktimatayor abhedam. There is no difference. Just like the sun and the sunshine, or heat of the sun. Heat of the sun and the sunshine, or heat of the sun. Heat of the sun and the sunshine, they appear to be different from the sun, but actually it is not, because they are simultaneous. Wherever there is sun, there is heat and light. Or wherever there is heat and light, there is sun. In the morning, when you see that it is now clear, there is no more darkness, immediately you understand that there is sunrise. So this svānubhāva, when there is no darkness in your heart... Svānubhāva. What is Kṛṣṇa, when you understand fully within your heart, at that time your actual liberation is attained.
So what Śukadeva Gosvāmī did, that after assimilating the whole Vedic literature, he distributed it. That is another instinct. If you really have learned the essence of Vedic knowledge, automatically you'll be inclined to preach it. Śravaṇaṁ kīrtanam. Śravaṇam means to hear, to receive the knowledge. And next, kīrtanam, means to distribute, to describe the knowledge. Yaḥ svānubhāvam akhila-śruti-sāram ekam adhyātma-dīpam (SB 1.2.3). Dīpam means lamp. So this Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is just like the lamp in the darkness to see Kṛṣṇa, or God. Adhyātma-dīpam. And for whom is it meant? Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is not meant for the street boys, or who are accustomed to read so many nonsense literature. They want to waste their time. They have no engagement. They purchase some book, fictitious book, and read it. Not only they, even elderly men, they read it. But this book is different from those books. It is meant for persons, those who are desiring to get out of this world of ignorance. Tamo 'ndham.
So it is a great science, how the soul, living soul, is in contact with this material body and how he is transmigrating from one body to another. The example is given just like vāsāṁsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya (BG 2.22). We are... Just like when the garments, our shirt and coat, becomes too old, we give it up and we accept another shirt and coat... Similarly, I, you, every one of us, we are spirit soul. We are given a type of body and shirt and coat by the arrangement of material nature. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27). That particular body is given to us for our particular type of standard of living. Just like you European, American, Australians, you have got a particular type, and you are given the opportunity, a particular standard of living. Just if some Indian comes to your European, American, Australian cities, just like your Melbourne city... I was just speaking to my students, "If any Indian comes, so they will be surprised with this standard of living." They will think that "Oh, it is heaven." Because the material prosperity is far different from Indian cities to these American, or European, Australian. There is much difference.
So the supreme yogic power is Kṛṣṇa. Therefore it is said, brūhi yogeśvare kṛṣṇe. Yogeśvara. Īśvara means controller. There are many yogic power and yogis, but he is the supreme controller of everyone. Therefore He is mentioned here, brūhi yogeśvare kṛṣṇe: "The master of the mystic power, Kṛṣṇa, having gone from this planet..." Brahmaṇye dharma-varmaṇi. Dharma-varmaṇi means whose weapon is religious principle. Dharma means God, or Kṛṣṇa. Dharma, the Sanskrit word, it is translated into English as "religion," but this is not perfect translation. Dharma is different from religion. Religion is mentioned in the dictionary as "a kind of faith." So dharma is not like that. Faith can be changed. You can change your faith. Today you are Hindu; tomorrow you can become Muslim. Today you are Muslim; you can become Christian. So this kind of faith can be changed. So this is not actually dharma. Dharma means which you cannot change. That is called dharma.
Anyway, the word su-medhasaḥ... Su-medhasaḥ means one who has got good brain substance. But one thing I must explain here. So far spiritual life is concerned, it does not depend on the material brain substance. It is different thing. It is spiritual platform. It has nothing to do with this bodily construction. You must remember. We don't make any distinction that a man can be better Kṛṣṇa consciousness than woman. No. A woman can be better Kṛṣṇa consciousness because they are very simple. They can accept any religious system. Generally the women, they accept it because they are very simple. They have no crooked mind. Sometimes they are exploited therefore. So in the spiritual platform there is no such distinction, although in the material... Just like the bodily construction of man is different from woman, similarly, the brain substance may be also different, but that does not disqualify any woman for spiritual advancement in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is clearly defined in the Bhagavad-gītā.
So mukti and conditioned life... The whole world is conditioned because there is no Kṛṣṇa consciousness. And as soon as one takes to Kṛṣṇa conscious, he is mukta, immediately liberated. What is that Kṛṣṇa conscious? Now, "Kṛṣṇa is the enjoyer. I am not enjoyer. Why I am struggling so hard? Whatever prasāda will Kṛṣṇa give me, that's all." That is mukti. So one can become liberated in one second. In one second. It doesn't take many lives or... But because we are fools and rascals, therefore it takes many, many births. Bahūnāṁ janmanām ante jñānavān māṁ prapadyate (BG 7.19). After many, many births, when one actually becomes jñānavān, wise, intelligent, he surrenders immediately. Vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti sa mahātmā sudurlabhaḥ (BG 7.19). Immediately accepts Vāsudeva, Kṛṣṇa, is everything. That person is mahātmā. Sa mahātmā. But such kind of mahātmā is very rare. Sa mahātmā sudurlabhaḥ.
So just try to understand. Actually, there is no condition. It is a dream. By conditioned stage we are differentiating. Bheda-buddhi. Bheda-buddhi, that "Kṛṣṇa is different from me. Who is Kṛṣṇa? I am Kṛṣṇa." The bheda-buddhi. So... What is that?
So he says, sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmaḥ. Dharma means, I have already explained, dharma means occupational duty. So everyone has got occupation and he is trying to get out of the inconveniences of material existence. So here it is suggested, because the question was dharma, dharmaḥ kaṁ śaraṇaṁ gataḥ, under whose protection is dharma now existing? So he is coming to that point. First of all he's explaining what is dharma, what is occupational duty. Actually dharma means occupational duty. Religion, I have already said, it is a kind of faith. Faith can be changed, but our constitutional position, occupational duty, that cannot be changed. We are eternal servant of Kṛṣṇa, but without serving Kṛṣṇa we are serving māyā. We have accepted a false occupational duty, therefore it is called māyā. Māyā means false. Just like if I have got a body of America, American body, then my occupational duty is different from the body of an Indian, or from the body of a dog or a cat. So according to the body, our occupational duties change. But real occupational duty is of the soul. When you come to that platform—the occupational duty of the soul—that is the highest class of religion. That is explained here, sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmaḥ.
So, why the different bodies are there if there is not a superior endowment? Why different bodies? Can you answer this? Unless there is some superior endowment that "You accept this body, you take this body," you have to accept. You cannot deny it. Because in the Vedas we understand, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). You have to, after death you have accept another body. But what kind of body you are going to accept, that you do not know. But there is superior judgement that "You have done such-and-such karma, you accept this body." How can you deny it? Just like in the court the judge is giving different judgement, "Yes, you have to receive this one lakh of rupees from this person. I give you decree." And another person is given order, "You go to jail for six months." The judge is the same. But why one is going by his word six months imprisonment and another is given one lakh of rupees decree? The superior judgement is there and the karma is there. Therefore because we are getting so many different types of bodies, each body is different from the another body. Unless there is superior judgement that one has to accept this body, another has to accept that body. And that judgement is given by karma and that is stated in the Vedas, karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa (SB 3.31.1).
That is explained. Sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmo yato bhaktir adhokṣaje (SB 1.2.6). If you have learned to love God, then it doesn't matter what type of religion you are following. The Bhāgavata is very liberal. It does not say it, "If you follow Hindu religion or if you follow this type of religion, then you will understand God." No. Any religion, it doesn't matter. But the test is whether you have advanced in loving God. But if we see that instead of loving God, you are loving something else which is not God... Of course, God is everything. That is another thing. Without God, there cannot be anything. But still, there is the central point. It is described in the Bhagavad-gītā that because everything is the energy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but everything is not God... That is explained. Mayā tatam idaṁ sarvaṁ jagad avyakta-mūrtinā (BG 9.4). Kṛṣṇa says that "I am expanded in My impersonal feature everywhere. But I am not there." It is very simple to understand. Just like the sunshine. The sunshine is expanded all over the universe. But if you are in the sunshine, you cannot say that "I am in the sun planet." No, that is not. Sun planet is 93,000,000's miles away. But the sunshine is not different from the sun. That is also fact. But still, you cannot say, because the sunshine has entered in your room, you cannot say that "I am in direct connection with the sun-god or the sun planet." No.
So in the bodily concept of life there is a system of religion. That religion is different from your religion and my religion, because you possess a body. Suppose Hindu... I possess a body of Christian or Muslim; therefore I think, "You are different from me; I am different from you." But in the higher stage, when one is raised on the platform of spiritual understanding, there is no such a thing. Practically you can see. In our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement there are persons from every country or every religion, every cult. There are the devotees who have come from Christian group, the devotees who have come from Jewish group, from Muhammadan group, from Hindu group. You can see practically. We have got all types of devotees. But they have forgotten this bodily concept of life. Practically you see. They have, if not fully forgotten, very large percentage, they do not think. Otherwise these Americans would not have come here to take the trouble of preaching Kṛṣṇa consciousness in India, after taking so much trouble. We cannot give them actually the real comforts which they enjoy in their country. Their standard of life, living, is higher than our standard of life. So why they have joined this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement? Because they have forgotten this bodily concept of life. They are no more proud that "I am American" or "I am European." Why...? You know in the British rule, the Britishers they were always maintaining the superior complex. They were thinking because they are European... Everyone thinks. If he is in position in the material world, he thinks like that. That is not fault. That is natural.
So dharma is the life of human beings. And there are different types of dharmas. Not that, as some rascals say, that all dharmas are equal. No. According to qualities. There are three qualities, three modes of material nature. So one who is attached to the lowest quality, ignorance, his dharma is different from the person who is in the highest level of goodness. Therefore there are brāhmaṇa's dharma, kṣatriya's dharma, vaiśya's dharma and śūdra's dharma. So what is śūdra's dharma, that is not brāhmaṇa's dharma, because śūdra cannot execute the dharma of the brāhmaṇa. And the brāhmaṇa also cannot come down to the status of śūdras. These are Vedic principles. Therefore in the Vedic society there are divisions: this class of men are brāhmaṇas, this class of men kṣatriyas, this class of men are vaiśyas. Everything, their qualities and their activities, are mentioned in the Bhagavad-gītā. Samo damas titikṣā ārjavam, jñānaṁ vijñānam āstikyaṁ brahma-karma svabhāva-jam (BG 18.42). Śauryaṁ vīryaḥ yuddhe cāpy apalāyanam īśvara-bhāvaś ca. Just like seven qualities for the kṣatriyas, seven qualities, nine qualities for the brāhmaṇas, three qualities for the vaiśyas, and one quality for the śūdras.
So actually, there is no scarcity of food. Kṛṣṇa is so kind. God is so kind. Eko yo bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān. He is feeding many, many millions and trillions of living entities. In Africa there are millions of elephants. Who is feeding them? Kṛṣṇa is feeding them. So these economic questions, overpopulation question, these are not actually problems. Problem is scarcity of God consciousness. This is the problem. Therefore we are suffering. It is not my manufactured word. It was said by my Guru Mahārāja. He said that "I don't find any scarcity in the world except the scarcity of understanding Kṛṣṇa. That's all." So this jñānam... This is jñānam. Jñānam means that "I don't belong to this material world. This... My body is material, but I am different from the body." This is jñānam. So the necessities of my body, it must be supplied. It should not be neglected. But we should not be busy simply for the necessities of the body. We are spirit soul. The spirit soul has got its necessity. We must fill up that. Then we will be happy.
So these are tattva-jñānī, tattva-jñāna, kṛṣṇa jñāna. These are truths. People should devote to understand this tattva-jñāna. But those who are not very advanced, they conclude the Absolute Truth is nirākāra, impersonal Brahman. Or a little advanced than them, the yogis, they see Paramātmā within heart. They, they are also the same truth, advaya-jñāna. But if you want real bliss, if you want to talk with this Absolute Truth face to face, and treat with Him as friend, as son, as lover, that is Bhagavān. Not impersonal Brahman, neither Paramātmā. That will not get. Therefore it is said here, "The Absolute Truth is one." Either you call Him nirākāra Brahman or call you Him localized Paramātmā, He's in my heart, everyone's heart, īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānām hṛd-deśe arjuna tiṣṭhati (BG 18.61). But if you want to take advantage, full association of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, that is Kṛṣṇa. That is Kṛṣṇa. Brahmeti paramātmeti bhagavān iti śabdyate (SB 1.2.11). Vadanti tattva-vidas tattvaṁ yaj jñānam advayam. This is very important verse. So tattva-darśīs are that, nondual; there is no difference. The same example, that there is the sun planet; there is sun-god, whose bodily effulgence is the sunshine; and the sun globe, localized; and the sunshine. All these three taken together is one light, but the sun-god is different from the sunshine; the sun globe is different from the sun-god. Similarly, this brahma-jyotir is nothing but Kṛṣṇa's personal effulgence. Yasya prabhā. Yasya prabhā (Bs. 5.40), you can, you can say, "Oh, Kṛṣṇa is so powerful that He is providing brahma-jyotir." Well, why not? If some creation of Kṛṣṇa, the sunlight and moonlight, is so powerful that it expands all over the universe, so how much powerful is Kṛṣṇa? Brahmano 'ham pratiṣṭha. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, "I am the source of this brahma-jyotir." Brahmeti paramātmeti bhagavān iti śabdyate (SB 1.2.11).
So it is a fact that Lord Jesus Christ is present by his words, Bible. Similarly, Kṛṣṇa is present by His words. These personalities, either God or son of God, who come from the transcendental world, they keep their transcendental identity without being contaminated by this material world. That is their omnipotency. We are practiced to say that God is omnipotent. Now, this is His omnipotency. Omnipotency means that He is not different from His name, from His quality, from His pastimes, from His instruction, everything. Therefore the discussion on Bhagavad-gītā is as good as you are discussing certainly with Kṛṣṇa. And not only that; Kṛṣṇa is seated in your heart, in my heart also. Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānām (BG 18.61). God, God is situated in everyone's heart. God is not away from us. He's friendly. He's so friendly that in my repeated change of birth, He's with us. He's trying to see when we shall turn to Him. Rather, He's canvassing. He's canvassing. He's so kind that we may forget Him, but He has not forgotten us. He is with us. Just like the father never can forget the son, however the son may forget the father. That is, that is natural. Similarly, God is the original father of everything, everybody, all living entities. We may have different bodies. That is our shirt-coat. It has nothing to do with our real identity. Our real identity is pure soul. That pure soul is the part and parcel of the Supreme Lord. Mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūtaḥ (BG 15.7). You'll find in Bhagavad-gītā. And that part and parcel of the Supreme Lord is encaged in this material body.
If you simply hear about Kṛṣṇa,... Kṛṣṇa is speaking Himself in the Bhagavad-gītā. Don't malinterpret. Simply hear as Arjuna heard it. Sometimes some rascals say that "Bhagavad-gītā, Arjuna heard directly, but we do not find now Kṛṣṇa. So how we can hear?" His words are there. Kṛṣṇa is not different from His words. He's absolute. If you read Bhagavad-gītā as it is through the disciplic succession, then you are as good as Arjuna, hearing directly from Kṛṣṇa. There is no difference. But if you ras..., play rascaldom, "This word means this, this word means that, this word means..." This is rascaldom. If you play rascaldom, then you'll remain a rascal. You'll not improve. But if you hear exactly like Arjuna...
So that kind of activity is not required. Regular, varieties of activities. Therefore we have to hear about Kṛṣṇa. You'll hear about Kṛṣṇa in so many varieties of activities. Bhagavad-gītā, you hear. It's so many activities of Kṛṣṇa. So we have to hear about these. And unless there are activities, what you will hear? Simply "Brahman, Brahman, Brahman... nirākāra." How long you will hear? And how long you will enjoy? That is... There is no enjoyment. Therefore they, these Brahmavādīs, these Nirākāravādī, although by austerities and penances they may rise up to the Brahman effulgence, still, they will fall down. Because we are living entities, we want varieties of enjoyment. We are not satisfied in void, in zero. That is not possible. Therefore śṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṇaḥ (SB 1.2.17). One has to hear about Kṛṣṇa, varieties of activities. Varieties of activities. Not nirākāra, without any activities. No. That activity is different from material activity. Janma karma me divyam (BG 4.9). Therefore it is called divyam. They are not ordinary activities. They are all transcendental, spiritual activities. The Māyāvādī philosophers, they cannot understand.
So at least, if he comes to the platform of goodness, sattva-guṇa, then he can at least understand that "I am not this body. I am spirit soul. My duty is different from these bodily activities." Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā na śocati na kāṅkṣati (BG 18.54). The lusty and greediness keeps one always in lamentation and hankering. Na śocati na kāṅkṣ... Na kāṅkṣati. Kāṅkṣā. These people, they have no end of their kāṅkṣā, hankering. One after another, one after another, one after a... Sarva-kāma. In the śāstra they are called sarva-kāma. There is no end of their lusty desires. So naṣṭa-prāyeṣu abhadreṣu. By the hearing process, one becomes gradually free from the lusty and greedy platform, and he comes to the platform of knowledge. And at that time he can understand at least that "I am not this body. I am spirit soul. And what is my duty as spirit soul?" That duty, if he understands, that is, as it is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu mad-bhaktiṁ labhate parām (BG 18.54). That is the duty. When he comes to this platform that "My duty is to execute devotional service," that is required. He comes to the platform. Or at least, in between sattva-guṇa and śuddha-sattva. Sattva, sattva-guṇa, without being contaminated by the other two guṇas, modes of nature, namely, ignorance and passion. Pure. That is devotional stage.
Now unless one is taken to this Kṛṣṇa consciousness practice, he has got so many doubts. "Why I shall do this? Why I shall do that?" But when he is raised to the platform of goodness, as it is expressed, mukta-saṅgasya jāyate, bhagavat-tattva-vijñānam (SB 1.2.20), when he understand the science of God, automatically he becomes disinterested with these unwanted things. Kṣīyante ca asya karmāṇi. Karmāṇi, karmāṇi nirdahati kintu ca bhakti-bhājām (Bs. 5.54). We are bound up in this material existence due to our karma. According to my past karma, I have got this body, and again, as we are acting in this body, I am preparing forward my next body. Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa (SB 3.31.1). We have got varieties of body, varieties of body. Not that because we are all human beings... We have got common factors—two hands, two legs, one head—but each body is different from the other body. You won't find one pair of body exactly of the same nature. That is not possible. Because everyone's karma is different. Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa. According to our karma, we get different types of body. So we have to stop this karma. We have to stop this karma. How you can stop this karma? Yajñārthe karmaṇaḥ anyatra karma-bandhanaḥ. If we simply act for Kṛṣṇa, then we get rid of the resultant action of karma. Yajñārthe karma. Whatever you do, you do for Kṛṣṇa. Yajñārthe. Yajña means Viṣṇu. Kṛṣṇa's the origin of viṣṇu-tattva. So whatever you are ordered to do for Kṛṣṇa, you are not bound up by the karma. Otherwise, good or bad, you are bound up by the resultant action of karma.
We have got information of this universe, materially. But from Vedic literature, we get information there are millions and trillions of universes like this. We can see only one universe. We get this information from Brahma-saṁhitā: yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-aṇḍa-koṭi (Bs. 5.40). This very word is used. Jagad-aṇḍa means "one universe." And koṭi, koṭi means "millions." So there are unlimited number of universes also. And in each universe, koṭiṣu vasudhādi-vibhūti-bhinnam, in each universe, there are millions and trillions of planets, each different from one another. This is the creation. So just imagine that what is God's creation, how He attains every universe continually. His līlā is going on. As soon as in one universe the Kṛṣṇa's birth, appearance, is finished, immediately in another universe His birth takes place. This is called nitya-līlā. Exactly like... The same example: as soon as six-thirty, morning, finished here in India, immediately the six-thirty of the sunrise in some other place. Six-thirty another place. another... The six thirty is going on. It is very easy to understand. The six-thirty or seven-thirty or eight, nine, whatever you take, that is going on. That is called nitya-līlā. Kṛṣṇa's līlā is going on. So just imagine how many universes are there.
In the Bhagavad-gītā it is said anumantā upadraṣṭā. Upadraṣṭā means witness. This is also explained in the Upaniṣads, that one bird is eating, another bird is seeing. The seeing bird is God, upadraṣṭā. He's noting down that you like this. He's noting down that you like to eat such and such thing. You'll find so many animals; they are eating differently. The hog is eating stool, the tiger is eating fresh blood, another animal is eating something, something. All facilities are there. Open hotel: you come on and take whatever you like. And the witness... God is so kind, this person has no discrimination of eating, so let him become dog, hog. The hog has no discrimination. Whatever you think: you give him halavā, he will eat; you give him stool, it will eat. There are goats, so many animals, and no discrimination. The human being, there must be discrimination. Everything is eatable? So why don't you eat stool? No. Your eatable is different. It must be different from the animal eatables. Your teeth is different, your nature is different. A child, a child, you cannot give anything. She wants, he wants to drink milk only. Natural food. Artificially, the child is taught to eat something else. If you, if the child simply drinks mother's milk for six months, it becomes stout and strong for whole life. Because that is natural food. But there is no milk in the mother's breast. Artificial. So how the child will be healthy? This is modern civilization. Otherwise, if we get our natural food, there is no question of disease, there is no question of doctor's bill.
So there are different types of body, and each one is acting in a different way. Different way means the... Why they are working different way? If the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Paramātmā, is the same in the..., in each and every body—īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe arjuna tiṣṭhati (BG 18.61)—why one is acting different from the other? One is acting different... That is the action of the individual soul. The Supersoul is there, simply sanctioning: "All right, you do like this." Because he's insisting. And He's sanctioning: "All right, you do like this." Therefore nāneva bhāti viśvātmā. Viśvātmā, the Supersoul, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, He appears to be acting differently. He's not acting differently. Just like the magistrate. Magistrate is giving different judgment: "This man should be treated like this. This man should be treated..." The man, the magistrate, is the same, but because the culprit is different, therefore he has got to give different judgment. Culprit is different; he's not different. He's one. This is the proof that Paramātmā and jīvātmā are two different personalities. They're not one. This is the proof.
So the Supreme Personality of Godhead, līlāvatāra, incarnates in many forms, not only in the human society, but in the demigod society, or lower than human society, the animal society also, tree society. Because as we have forgotten our relationship with Kṛṣṇa, He's always anxious to get us back to home, back to Godhead. So He incarnates Himself in so many forms. Advaitam acyutam anādim ananta-rūpam (Bs. 5.33). He has got ananta-rūpa, unlimited forms. Advaitam acyutam anādim. But all those forms are in essence one. Advaita. That is not different. Just like rāmādi-mūrtiṣu. The Lord appears as Lord Rāmacandra, or as Lord Kṛṣṇa, or as Lord Varāha. They are not different. In the material sense a varāha, a hog, is different from the man. Or the man is..., one man is different from another man. But the incarnations of Kṛṣṇa, they are not different. The same thing. Just like Kṛṣṇa, when He appeared, He, He's Kṛṣṇa when He was so-called three months old, and He was Kṛṣṇa when He was twenty years old. The same Kṛṣṇa. As we find difference that a..., the same man, when he's three months old, he's different from the twenty years old. When his age is twenty years, he's different from his age when his age is three months.
The real occupational duty of the living entity is called sanātana-dharma. Dharma means not religion. Dharma means the natural characteristic. That is dharma. We don't mean dharma is a certain type of faith. No. Faith or no faith, the characteristics must be there. Just like salt. It has got a particular type of taste. So you like it or not like it, the taste is there. It is... That is... If you think that "I have faith that salt should be sweet," no. That cannot be. You may have faith. You may create that faith that salt has the sweet taste. But that's not a fact. Similarly, if you say, "I have got my faith that sugar will be pungent." No. That cannot be. Sugar has got a particular type of taste. That will continue. You may believe it or not believe it. It does not depend. And faith means you believe, you can change it. Therefore dharma, the exact word, dharma, is different from the dictionary meaning, English dictionary, "a kind of faith. Religion means a kind of faith." We don't mean that.
Upendra: "His body is eternally in spiritual existence par excellence." Purport: "The conception of virāḍ-rūpa or viśva-rūpa of the Supreme Absolute Truth is specially meant for the neophyte materialist who can hardly think of the transcendental form of the Personality of Godhead. To them a form means something of this material world and as such an opposite conception of the absolute is necessary for them in the beginning to concentrate their mind in the power extension of the Lord. As stated above the Lord extends His potency in the form of mahat-tattva which includes all material ingredients. The extension of power by the Lord and the Lord Himself personally are one in one sense but at the same time the mahat-tattva is different also from the Lord. Therefore the potency of the Lord and the Lord are non-different. The conception of the virāḍ-rūpa specially for impersonalist is thus non different from the eternal Form of the Lord. This eternal form of the Lord exists prior to the creation of the mahat-tattva and it is stressed here that the eternal Form of the Lord..."
Prabhupāda: Just like in the Bible it is said "God said, 'Let there be creation.' " That means before the creation, before this material creation, God was there. And the material... There was nothing material. Therefore, God's body cannot be material, because He existed before the creation of matter. So before creation of matter, there was nothing like matter, though God was there. Therefore conclusion is that God has no material body. He spoke, "Let there be creation." "He spoke" means He's a person; otherwise how He can speak? But His personality is not material, because when He spoke there was no material creation.
So here also, Vaivasvata Manu. Vaivasvata Manu means the son of the gentleman whose name is Vivasvān. He is the president of this solar world, of the sun, sun planet. There is also president. You have got your president here. Why not in the sun planet? Why...? How can you deny with teeny knowledge that there is no life, there is no city, there is no...? Simply you go on smoking gāñjā and telling anything, but the fact is different. The fact is different. From common sense we can understand that this is a planet made of five elements: earth, water, fire, air, and ether. So this whole material world is made of these five elements. Somewhere, some portion is very prominent. Here the earth is very prominent. Similarly, in the sun planet the fire is very prominent. But there are five elements. Nothing is made... Just like if you go to a fireplace, there the temperature is different, but the fireplace is made of these five elements: earth, water, air, fire, ether. Nothing but.
So these rascals, they do not understand the simple truth, that this body is different from my..., from the body of a youth or boy. They are different bodies. They are thinking the body is growing. The body's not growing. Body is changing. Just like in cinema, photograph, you see some body is moving, but that is not moving. That is different body changing, the photographs. But because it is shown so swiftly, we see that one body. As soon as the machine is stopped, the body is stopped. Immediately. We have experience. So these bodies are different bodies. Otherwise, a child does so many things foolishly and the elderly boy or a youth, he does not do so. Because the body is different. Why do they not understand? This is called ignorance. The body is different. Similarly, as everyone has got past, present and future... You are all young men. You had your past. You had a child's body or boy's body. In future you will get a body like me, aged. Similarly, I had my past. I was, I had a youth's body. Now I have got aged body. Then why not future, another body? This is very common conclusion. And it is given, it is confirmed. Not that we are imagining. It is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ. As the child is changing body to boyhood, boy is changing body to youthhood-dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā (BG 2.13)—and the youth is changing body to old age body, similarly, the old also will change the body, again will get a small baby's body and again, again. That is the way of nature.
So this Rāma-Kṛṣṇa is different from this bogus Ramakrishna. Rāma-Kṛṣṇa Bhagavān. They are actually the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and They proved it. Not that Rāma-Kṛṣṇa is dying out of cancer disease. Yes. We are not after such kind of Ramakrishna. Besides that, when there is real Rāma-Kṛṣṇa, why I shall go to the false and imitation Ramakrishna? They say the same Rāma-Kṛṣṇa. That's all right, the same, but I don't find any proof that the same. So why shall I take to this imitation Ramakrishna? Why not take this real Rāma-Kṛṣṇa?
So we should be intelligent enough. We should not be bluffed. Kṛṣṇa yei bhaje sei baḍa catura. Without being very intelligent, nobody surrenders to Kṛṣṇa.
The so-called followers of the Vedic religion. In the Vedas there are sanction for killing animal in a special sacrifice, but people took it as general, and they began to kill animals like anything, under the protection of Veda. Therefore when Lord Buddha began to preach his philosophy, ahiṁsā, nonviolence, he did not accept the authority of Vedas. Because people will misuse it. Therefore he said that "I don't care for your Vedas." Just like Lord Jesus Christ rebelled against the whole Testament. He formulated his own testament, New Testament. Similarly, Lord Buddha also, he rejected Vedas and He presented his own philosophy: ahiṁsā, nonviolence. Ahiṁsā paramo dharmaḥ. Because he was very kind upon on the poor animals. Sadaya-hṛdaya darśita-paśu-ghātam. Paśu-ghātam means animal killing. Nindasi yajña-vidher ahaha śruti-jātam. Śruti-jātam. Śruti means Veda. So in the Vedas, although there are, in particular cases, there are animal sacrifice... That is also very restricted. But we cannot say that there is no animal sacrifice. There is in some cases. So Lord Buddha, nindasi, He decried, "No, I don't accept your Vedas." Therefore Buddha religion is different from Vedic religion, because he rejected Vedas. And the Vedic followers, because he rejected Vedic principles, Vedic followers said that he, "You are nāstika." Nāstika means unbeliever.
So this saṅkīrtana movement, Hare Kṛṣṇa movement, is also incarnation of Kṛṣṇa. Nāma-rūpe avatāra. Kṛṣṇa can become incarnation in sound form also. Not even a physical form. Physical form also there; everything is there. But especially this age, Kṛṣṇa is incarnated in His name. The name of Kṛṣṇa is not different from Kṛṣṇa. So nāma-rūpe kṛṣṇa-avatāra. So Kṛṣṇa is already there. The whole world is now demonic, anti govern..., anti-God, anti-matter or anti-God now. So the incarnation has already come. Those who will take shelter of this incarnation of Kṛṣṇa's name, they will be never annihilated. Take it for granted. Yes. So incarnation. Kṛṣṇa's name and Kṛṣṇa, no difference. That is omnipotency. Omnipotency. Omnipotency means everything is Kṛṣṇa's energy. So the same potency in the energy and the energetic. This is omnipotency. God is omnipotent; He can give you protection when you take shelter of His name. Because His name is nondifferent from Him. Abhinnatvān nāma-nāminoḥ (CC Madhya 17.133). Nāma-kṛṣṇa. Nāma cintāmaṇiḥ kṛṣṇaḥ, pūrṇaḥ śuddho nitya-mukto 'bhinnatvān nāma-nāminoḥ. Don't think this Kṛṣṇa's name is less efficient than Kṛṣṇa. No. Pūrṇa. As Kṛṣṇa is perfect, similarly, this name is also perfect. Pūrṇaḥ śuddhaḥ. As Kṛṣṇa is pure, without any material contamination, apāpa-viddham, no, nothing sin, sinful can affect him... You have read it in the Īśopaniṣad. Just like sunshine. Infection cannot infect sunshine.
Now Vyāsadeva is discussing different kinds of literature. So he has explained that any literature, however nicely prepared from rhetorical point of view, or poetical, metaphorical, grammatical, but if there is no information of the Absolute Truth, such literatures are useless and no saintly person will take any interest in such literature. They give it up. Just like the swans, they do not take pleasure in a place where the crows can take pleasure. As there is distinction between the crows and the swans, even in the bird's kingdom, or even in the animal kingdom... You'll find always. The different kinds of varieties of birds and beasts, they live together. Similarly, those who are saintly persons, those who are Kṛṣṇa conscious persons, their taste is different from the persons who are just like crows. Crows are interested in things... Carvita-carvaṇānām. Prahlāda Mahārāja says, "chewing the chewed." Already it has been chewed, and if somebody wants to try it, "Let me see. What is the taste there?" it is useless labor only.
So he says, pravartamānasya guṇair anātmanas tato bhavān darśaya ceṣṭitam: "People are so much entangled by the modes of material nature. So in order to get them free from this entanglement, you show the path. Simply let them hear. Let them give aural reception to the wonderful activities of the Lord. That activity..." Because absolute... Kṛṣṇa is Absolute Truth. So Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa's activities are the same because it is absolute. It is not duality. In the material world, myself and my activities are different. But it is the... This world is dual world. But in the absolute world, Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa's pastimes, Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa's name, Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa's quality, Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa's fame, they're all Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa's associates, they're all Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is cowherd boy. So Kṛṣṇa and the cows, they're all Kṛṣṇa. That we have to learn. They're not different from Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa and the gopīs, they're all Kṛṣṇa. Ānanda-cinmaya-rasa-pratibhāvitābhiḥ (Bs. 5.37). So we have to understand that.
So Vyāsadeva is teaching Nārada Muni, idaṁ viśvaṁ bhagavān. Īśvarad prapañca na pṛthak.(?) This world is not different from Kṛṣṇa, na pṛthak. Pṛthak means different. The world is not... But that does not mean Kṛṣṇa has lost His personality. This is the difference between Māyāvāda philosophy and Vaiṣṇava philosophy. Māyāvāda philosophy is: "If the whole cosmic creation is God, then where is God again separately?" That is their poor fund of knowledge. That is God who, expanding Himself in so many ways, still He remains as He is. That is God. Otherwise, how He is God? It is material thing. If by expanding, He loses His identity, then it is material. In the material sense, that we experience. The same example: you take one big paper and cut into pieces and throw it. The original paper is lost. That is material. But in the Īśopaniṣad we hear that pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya pūrṇam idaṁ pūrṇam adaḥ pūrṇaṁ pūrṇāt udacyate, pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya pūrṇam eva avaśiṣyate (Īśo Invocation). Just like when Kṛṣṇa was sporting on this earth as cowherd boy, Brahmā became doubtful, "How is that? Kṛṣṇa has become a cowherds boy here?" So he wanted to test whether He's Kṛṣṇa. So he, he sifted all the cows and cowherds boys from the pasturing ground, and again he saw that millions times the same cows, boys and cowherd, cows and cowherd boys, are present there.
Kṛṣṇa says, vāsudeva... When Kṛṣṇa is in the Battlefield of Kurukṣetra, He's Vāsudeva. Kṛṣṇa does not go away from Vṛndāvana. But when He has got other business to do, He does it as Vāsudeva. Vāsudeva is in Mathurā. Vāsudeva is in Dvārakā. But original Kṛṣṇa is in Vṛndāvana. But that does not mean that this Vāsudeva is different from Kṛṣṇa. The foolish person, who cannot study, who does not know what is Vāsudeva, what is Aniruddha, what is Pradyumna, the, the Saṅkarṣaṇa... These are all expansions of Kṛṣṇa. They are not different from Kṛṣṇa. But still, They are not original Kṛṣṇa. There is no... It is not that Vāsudeva has got less power than Kṛṣṇa. They are equally powerful. Advaitam acyutam... Advaita. They are not different. Acyutam anādim ananta-rūpam (Bs. 5.33). But the difference is that the... Several times I explained that one candle, you lit up another candle, you lit up another candle, you lit up another, another, millions... So all the candles are of the same power, so far candle power is concerned, but still, you have to say, "This is the first candle, this is the second candle, this is the third candle, this is the fourth candle," like that. Not that because the second candle is lit up from the first candle, therefore second candle is less powerful than the first candle. No, that is not. That is called advaya-jñāna.
That is called bhakti-yoga. In Brahma-saṁhitā it is said, premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena santaḥ sadaiva hṛdayeṣu vilokayanti (Bs. 5.38). That is not possible simply by gymnastic. One has to develop transcendental love for Kṛṣṇa. Premāñjana-cchurita. When your eyes are anointed with love of God, then you can see Him within yourself twenty-four hours. Sadaiva hṛdayeṣu vilokayanti. This is not difficult for understanding because anyone you love, you always think of him, you always feel his presence, so why not of Kṛṣṇa? That is not difficult. Therefore Kṛṣṇa is teaching. To develop this love for Kṛṣṇa, he says, man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru: (BG 18.65) "Simply you think of Me," man-manāḥ, "you become devotee of Me," mad-bhakta, "worship Me," mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru. So we are expending so much money for installing Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma here. What is this purpose? The purpose is that you will be able to see Him present in this temple, and therefore you can think of Him. That is very natural. If you see the Deity always, then you get His picture impressed within your mind, and if you always think of Him, then you see Him within your mind. Man-manāḥ. That is not difficult. And this Deity is not different from Kṛṣṇa. For devotee, He is Kṛṣṇa Himself, identical. We are spending so much money, lakhs, not for worshiping a statue. That is not very intelligent. But sākṣād-kṛṣṇa. Therefore the temple is sanctified; the process is going on to cleanse our mind. Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12). In this way, when the mind is cleansed of all dirty things, then you can think of Kṛṣṇa.
So Kṛṣṇa's pastimes is going on. Somewhere, or elsewhere it is going on. Therefore His pastimes are called nitya-līlā, nitya-līlā-prakāśa. This vṛndāvana-līlā is nitya-līlā: it is going on continuously somewhere or other within this material world. And the spiritual world, it is permanently there. So the Pāṇḍavas, they are associates of the nitya-līlā. They are not ordinary human beings. Wherever there is kṛṣṇa-līlā, they go. Therefore Arjuna asked Kṛṣṇa that "How can I believe that You, first of all, many millions of years ago You spoke this philosophy to the sun-god?" Kṛṣṇa replied, bahūni me janmāni... What is that verse? Ah, bahūni me vyatītāni janmāni tava cārjuna. "Arjuna, both you and Me were together, and we have passed through many different līlās. But you have forgotten; I remember." That is the difference between God and the living entities. They cannot be equal. We forget... The Māyāvādī's philosopher, they put this argument that "Because we have forgotten. Now in māyā we have forgotten that we are God." So what kind of God he is if he forgets? God never says "I have forgotten." Kṛṣṇa says, vedāhaṁ samatītāni: (BG 7.26) "I know past, present, future." So where is the question of forgetting? So if somebody forgets, that God is different from the God who does not forget. Therefore we have to accept two. Immediately you have to accept dvaita-vāda: one forgetting-God and one not-forgetting-God. You cannot accept one. That is not possible.
So "Arjuna, who is guided by the infallible Lord as friend and driver." Kṛṣṇa's name is Acyuta. Cyuta means fallen, and acyuta means never fallen. The Māyāvādī philosophers, they foolishly say that when God becomes entangled by māyā, He becomes a living entity-jīva-bhūta. Jīva means when He forgets that He is God, then he becomes a jīva, living entity. This is Māyāvādī philosophy. But how God can degrade to become a man or an animal? He is Acyuta; He never falls. Otherwise how He is God? If God also falls... Just like we fall down... Aśvatthāmā, he is son of a brāhmaṇa, but he is fallen to become a butcher because he's a living being, he's different from God. In another place we find Kṛṣṇa says to Arjuna that both Arjuna and Kṛṣṇa was present when the Bhagavad-gītā instruction was given to sun-god millions of years ago. Kṛṣṇa said that "You have forgotten. I did not." So this is Acyuta. He never falls down from any standard. He is always perfect, complete.
Māyāvādī philosophers, they abuse that Viṣṇu's body is. Viṣṇu comes, appears, He accepts a material body. That is condemned, condemned by Bhagavān in Bhagavad-gītā. Avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam (BG 9.11). He does not accept any material body. Tadātmānaṁ sṛjāmy aham. Ātma-māyayā. Sambhavāmy ātma-māyayā (BG 4.6). Not with material help. Ātma-māyayā, cit-śakti. So Kṛṣṇa, there is no difference between Kṛṣṇa's soul and Kṛṣṇa's body. Just like we have got. We are different from this body. And Kṛṣṇa is not different from the body. He does not change His body. Although He assumes several avatāra, but he does not change His body. Advaitam acyutam... Acyuta, not different from the original personification, identification. Advaitam acyutam anādim ananta-rūpam (Bs. 5.33). Although He assumes so many varieties of viṣṇu-tattva, still, advaitam acyutam anādim ananta-rūpam ādyaṁ purāṇa-puruṣaṁ nava-yauvanaṁ ca (Bs. 5.33). Therefore viṣṇu-tattva is, never looks like old man. Nava-yauvanam. Always young. Kṛṣṇa always young. Nava-yauvanaṁ ca.
So God is invisible, who? For the persons who have no eyes to see Him. Alakṣyam. Although He is everywhere: aṇḍāntara-stha-paramāṇu-cayāntara-stham (Bs. 5.35), idaṁ hi viśvaṁ bhagavān. This viśvam, this universe, is the transformation of the energy of Kṛṣṇa. Therefore... The energy is not different from the energetic. Therefore the whole world is Kṛṣṇa, whole world is Kṛṣṇa. So we have to make our eyes. That eyes can be purified, as it is stated in the Brahma-saṁhitā, premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena santaḥ sadaiva hṛdayeṣu vilokayanti (Bs. 5.38). Santaḥ, those who are saintly persons, those who have developed love for God, prema, that añjana, that ointment, who have smear the ointment of love on the eyes... So then... Just like we apply sometimes ointment and cūrṇa... What is called in English, cūrṇa? Powder, something? Anyway... So when our eyes are cleansed we thinks clearly; similarly, if we apply the ointment of love of God on the eyes, then we can see God. Just like Arjuna, Kṛṣṇa. Kuntī is seeing. Others, they do not understand that Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but the Pāṇḍavas, and the Pāṇḍavas' mother, they know that "Here is Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead." Alakṣyam. Just like Kṛṣṇa was exhibiting His virāḍ-rūpa in the battlefield of Kurukṣetra. Only Arjuna was seeing, nobody else.
Other sannyāsīs, they are making any profit. They want mukti, mokṣa. But these sannyāsīs, they do not want even mokṣa. Just like Caitanya Mahāprabhu, the ideal sannyāsī. He says, mama janmani janmanīśvare bhavatād bhaktir ahaitukī (Cc. Antya 20.29, Śikṣāṣṭaka 4). He never claimed that "I may not have any more birth." Mokṣa means one who hasn't got to take birth of this material body. That is called mokṣa. So a Vaiṣṇava sannyāsī, they do not want even mokṣa. Therefore they have no demand. So that sannyāsī is different from the ordinary sannyāsī. Ordinary sannyāsī, he has demand. He wants mukti. But Vaiṣṇava sannyāsī, either he is in sannyāsī dress or in not sannyāsī dress, simply because his aim and object is to satisfy Kṛṣṇa; therefore he is sannyāsa. Anāśritaḥ karma. He has no shelter of the work that he is doing for Kṛṣṇa. Not that "I shall work in this way, and there will be good result, and I will enjoy it." Other sannyāsīs, they are thinking like that: "I will go austerities and penances severely. I shall go to Himalayas and execute very rigidly all the principles of sannyāsa. But as a result of this, I will get liberated, mukti." Therefore he has got demand.
Caitanya Mahāprabhu therefore said: etādṛśī tava kṛpā bhagavan mamāpi durdaivam īdṛśam ihājani nānurāgaḥ. Caitanya Mahāprabhu says: nāmnām akāri bahudhā nija-sarva-śaktiḥ. In the transcendental holy name of God, Kṛṣṇa, there is all potencies. As Kṛṣṇa has got unlimited potencies, similarly in the name, holy name of Kṛṣṇa, there is unlimited potency. So nāmnām akāri bahudhā. And there are many names of Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa has got thousands and thousands of names. Kṛṣṇa name is the chief name. Nāmnām akāri bahudhā nija-sarva-śaktis tatrārpitā niyamitaḥ smaraṇe na kālaḥ. And there is no hard and fast rule, that you have to chant in this time or that time. No. Any time. Any time you can take. And the name is identical with Kṛṣṇa. On this logic, the name, the holy name of Kṛṣṇa, is Kṛṣṇa. He's no other than Kṛṣṇa. Don't think that Kṛṣṇa is living in Goloka Vṛndāvana and the name is different. Just like in material world we have got this conception. The name is different from the fact. But in the Absolute world there is no such difference. That is called absolute. Name is as potential as Kṛṣṇa is potential.
And He's the eternal time. Everything is going on within the time. The time... Our time calculation is past present, and future. This is relative. The other day we were discussing. This past, present, future is relative term. The, for a small insect, the past, present and future is different from my past, present and future. Relative term. Similarly Brahmā's past, present and future is different from my past, present and future. But Kṛṣṇa has no past, present and future. Therefore He's eternal. We have got past, present and future because we change this body. Now we have got this body... It has got a date. In such and such date I was born by my father and mother. Now this body will stay for some time. It will grow. It will produce some by-product. Then it will become old. Then dwindle. Then vanish, finish. No more this body. You accept another body. this body's finished. The history of this body, past, present, and future, finished. You accept another body. Again your past, present and future begins. But Kṛṣṇa has no past, present, futures because He does not change His body. That is the difference between ourself and Kṛṣṇa.
In the higher sense there is no material world at all. Sarvaṁ khalv idaṁ brahma. Everything—Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa's energy. So Kṛṣṇa's energy is not different from Kṛṣṇa. Just like the sunshine is not different from the sun. Although sun is millions and millions of miles away, still, we can feel what is the sun by feeling the energy of the sun, the sunshine. We can understand that sun is complete heat and light. Although we cannot go to sun, but by the sunshine, we can understand. Similarly, we can understand Kṛṣṇa by His different energies. Parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate (Cc. Madhya 13.65, purport). He has got multi-energies. So these plants and creepers, they are also produced out of Kṛṣṇa's energy, and we take advantage of them.
Is it very difficult task? No, it is not at all. Kṛṣṇa gives the formula how He'll be satisfied. He says, man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru (BG 18.65). These four things: "Always think of Me..." Everyone can think of Kṛṣṇa. He is thinking of so many nonsense things. Why not Kṛṣṇa? Here is Kṛṣṇa. If you simply think of Kṛṣṇa and Rādhā-Mādhava, then where... Is very difficult thing? Therefore temple is there so that you see Kṛṣṇa always or at some interval, during ārātrika, during maṅgala-ārātrika, during bhoga. So the impression is always within your heart, and you think of. Where is the difficulty? Where is the difficulty? No difficulty. So Kṛṣṇa says, man-manāḥ. And if you have no time to come to the temple, all right, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. You hear the name of Kṛṣṇa. That is not different from Kṛṣṇa. The... After all, impression, either you hear or see, the experience is there. So you can think of Kṛṣṇa very easily. It doesn't require any university qualification. Anyone, any rascal, can do it. It is so easy. It doesn't require high education to think of Kṛṣṇa.
Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu says, nāmnām akāri bahudhā nija-sarva-śaktis tatrārpitā niyamitaḥ smaraṇe na kālaḥ. The name of Kṛṣṇa is identical with Kṛṣṇa, and all mystic power of Kṛṣṇa is there. Nāmnām akāri bahudhā nija-sarva, nija-sarva, nija-sarva-śaktis tatrārpitā. In the name, all the potencies... Kṛṣṇa is Yogeśvara, so all the potencies of Kṛṣṇa is there because the name is not different from Kṛṣṇa. So therefore, Caitanya Mahāprabhu says, regrets, etādṛśī tava kṛpā bhagavan mamāpi: "My dear Lord, You are so kind, so merciful, that simply by chanting Your holy name, I get the full benefit of Your personal association. Still, I am so unfortunate. I have no taste for chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa." Etādṛśī tava kṛpā bhagavan mamāpi durdaivam īdṛśam ihājani nānurāgaḥ. So you are so unfortunate that this, in Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, this Hare Kṛṣṇa movement, you are not taking part.
So when friends die, family members die, we talk of that we are not this body. Theo... Not theory; this is actually the fact. I say, you say, everyone says. At least, we have understood from Bhagavad-gītā, dehino 'smin yathā dehe (BG 2.13), the body is different from the soul. And it is also clearly said, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). After the destruction of the body, the soul is not destroyed. He remains. He gets another body. Arjuna was also consoled by Kṛṣṇa that "Why you are so much anxious about your grandfather? He will get another body, new body. What is the use of this old body?" So actually that is the fact. But still, why a man becomes aggrieved when the body is lost? That is explained here, that sneha-moha, illusion of affection. Actually, there is nothing to be aggrieved. Tathā dehāntara-prāptir dhīras tatra na muhyati (BG 2.13). Dhīra, those who are sober, they are not bewildered. Sober man knows that "My, this relative, my father or my brother, my grandfather, his death means he is changing this body. He is going to another body. He is not dead."
These rascals have no knowledge. They are simply concerned with this external body. Those who are interested only with this external body, not those who are, ninety-nine percent population, they are interested in this bodily concept of life. Perhaps we are the only institution in the world which is teaching that you are not this body. This is the wonder of Kṛṣṇa Consciousness movement. We are the only institution throughout the whole world that we are teaching people that "My dear sir, you are not this body. You are different from the body, and after death you get another body." Tathā dehantara-prāptir. Simple education in the Bhagavad-gītā. They do not understand. There are big, big scholars, rascals, all rascals. Our difficulty is these rascals are going on as scholar, dehātma-buddhiḥ. Their life is bodily concept of life and they are passing as scientists, scholars, leaders, politicians and they are leading us andhā yathāndhair. They are blind and they are leading us, so we have, we are also put into difficulty. So only this Kṛṣṇa Consciousness movement can save the human civilization and get him raised to the platform of the gopīs. We have got such nice thing, these gopīs' unalloyed Kṛṣṇa love. That is wanted.
But the Vedic culture is different from this. Woman is not given independence. And generally one man marries more than one wife. That is Vedic culture. Just like see Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa has 16,108. That is allowed. Kṛṣṇa was Personality of Godhead. He could maintain... Why sixteen? Sixteen millions wife. That is not difficult for Him. But even ordinary man, kṣatriyas especially, they used to marry more than one wife. Still. Not only wife, but one wife, one princess is married, and along with her, hundred, two hundred maidservants, they will go with the king. Just like when Vasudeva was married to Devakī, some hundreds of maidservant was given with. So women... The conclusion is that women are weak. They should be given protection. They should not be ill-treated. Just like a father gives protection to the children. It does not mean it is ill-treatment. There is no question of. But protection. Otherwise, abaleva, they can be victimized by any man, powerful, because man is powerful.
You can derive the same benefit as Arjuna by reading Bhagavad-gītā. People say that Arjuna was enlightened because Kṛṣṇa was present before Him. But Kṛṣṇa is present before you also, by His words, by His sound representation. Just like Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, Kṛṣṇa's name, it is not different from Kṛṣṇa. Nāma, abhinnatvān nāma-nāminoḥ (CC Madhya 17.133). Nāmi... Here in the material world the name and the person whose name, that is different because it is material. If you want water, this water substance or water is different from the name water. You cannot quench your thirst simply by chanting "Water, water." That is not possible. Because it is material. But you can realize the Supreme Personality of Godhead by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. That is the significance of spiritual and material. Otherwise, how people are satisfied simply by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra? Let him chant some other name, material. No. You cannot chant more than three times. Then you will feel tired. But you can go on chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra for hundreds and millions of years. It will, still you will not feel tired. That is the difference. Therefore His name and He is not different. Abhinnatva.
Kṛṣṇa is not different from His words. That is absolute. What Kṛṣṇa said five thousand years ago, if you catch up those words again you're immediately connected with Kṛṣṇa, immediately. This is the process. Just see Arjuna. He says, evaṁ cintayato jiṣṇoḥ kṛṣṇa-pāda-saroruham. When he began to think of Kṛṣṇa and His instruction as..., in the battlefield, immediately he become śānta, peaceful. Immediately pacified. This is the process. We have got intimate relationship with Kṛṣṇa, eternally. It is not artificial. Therefore if you keep ourself always connected with Kṛṣṇa, there will be no more disturbance. Peaceful. Yaṁ labdhvā cāparaṁ lābhaṁ manyate nādhikaṁ tataḥ. If you get that position, then that is the highest benefit, highest gain, yaṁ labdhvā ca, then you will not desire for any other gain. You'll perceive that I have got the highest gain. Yaṁ labdhvā cāparaṁ lābhaṁ manyate nādhikaṁ tataḥ, yasmin sthitaḥ... And if you keep yourself fixed up in that position, then guruṇāpi duḥkhena na (Bg. 6.20-23), even the heaviest type of calamities, you'll not be disturbed. That is peace. That is peace. Not that little pinching, you're disturbed. If you're actually fixed up in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, you'll not be disturbed in the greatest form of dangerous condition. That is the perfection of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
Now here, the same thing is repeated: Arjuna, who directly heard from Kṛṣṇa. Sometimes some people say that "Arjuna heard directly from Kṛṣṇa, but we don't find Kṛṣṇa in our presence, so how can I accept?" It is not a question of direct presence, because you have no idea of the absolute knowledge. Kṛṣṇa's words, Bhagavad-gītā, is not different from Kṛṣṇa. It's not different from Kṛṣṇa. When you hear Bhagavad-gītā, you are directly hearing from Kṛṣṇa because Kṛṣṇa is not different. Kṛṣṇa is absolute. Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa's name, Kṛṣṇa's form, Kṛṣṇa's quality, Kṛṣṇa's instruction, everything Kṛṣṇa's, they're all Kṛṣṇa. They're all Kṛṣṇa. This has to be understood. They're not different from Kṛṣṇa. Therefore Kṛṣṇa's form here, He's Kṛṣṇa. He's not a statue. "He's a marble statue." No. He's Kṛṣṇa. He has appeared before you because you cannot see Kṛṣṇa. You can see stone, wood; therefore He has appeared in that form. You think that it is stone and wood, but He's not stone and wood; He's Kṛṣṇa. This is called Absolute Truth. Similarly, Kṛṣṇa's words are also not different from Kṛṣṇa. When Kṛṣṇa's words are there in the Bhagavad-gītā, it's Kṛṣṇa.
So īśvara, the Supreme Lord, is there. Now He's giving chance, "You living entity, you did not surrender to Me. You wanted to enjoy this material world. So you take this chariot and take this driver and go on." This is going on. Kṛṣṇa is very kind. Ye yathā māṁ prapadyante (BG 4.11). "Whatever you want, you do it. But you'll never be happy." That is the point. "You can do whatever. I will give you chance. I'll give you." Just like you want a Rolls Royce car. "All right, it is." If you want this car, "All right." So you are changing this car. Sometimes you are carried by the doggish cars, sometimes goddish car. These are all cars, but we are different from the car. We wanted to sit down in a certain car, so Kṛṣṇa is giving us the chance. Bhrāmayan sarva-bhūtāni yantrārūḍhāni (BG 18.61). Yantra means car or machine. It is very easy to understand. So this is going on because we are identifying with the car. Just like foolish man, if he rides on a Rolls Royce car, he's thinking "Now I am very rich man. I have bought a Rolls Royce." Similarly, if one body has got inferior car, he thinks that "I am poor"; identifying with the car.
But he's not car. He's different from car. This knowledge is required. This is called viśoko brahma-sampattyā. When we understand our spiritual identity, then we are no more lamenting or jubilation, equilibrium. Read the purport. It is very important verse.
So this is the bhū-bhāraḥ. Bhū-bhāraḥ, this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is also incarnation of Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is absolute. Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa consciousness is the same. That is absolute. In relative world consciousness is different from the person, but in the absolute world consciousness and the subject matter of consciousness is the same. Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa's name is the same; Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa's form the same. Therefore when you worship Kṛṣṇa's form it is not waste of time; it is worshiping Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is omnipotent, He can accept your service by presenting Himself in His form. But Kṛṣṇa can do that, that is His omnipotency. Otherwise why Kṛṣṇa will say patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ yo me bhaktyā prayacchati tad aham aśnāmi: (BG 9.26) "If somebody gives me something to eat, it doesn't matter very valuable, very palatable dishes. It doesn't matter. Even patraṁ puṣpam, little flower, little fruits which any poor man can collect"? Just like if you are very, very poor man, you have nothing to offer to Kṛṣṇa, but you want to offer something. So Kṛṣṇa says, "All right. Offer Me a little fruit, little flower." So if you have no money to purchase, if you go to a friend, "Sir, I want to take little flower to offer to Kṛṣṇa," at least if he is human being he will never deny. "Yes, take it." If he's a dog, that is a different thing. If he's a human being you can collect this little flower and fruit anywhere, any part of the world.
They say... Darwin's theory is a failure because he cannot explain that why there are different types of... Even in human society, every man is different from the other man. Why? If it is nature's process, then all the bodies should have been equally the same. But why different? Just like in an apple tree the formation of apple is the same. So if it is nature's evolution, then why there are white men, black men, colored men, deformed men and...? No one's face will be equal to anyone. That he cannot explain. This is the explanation, that... Just the same example, just a man, as he pays for it, he gets a different apartment. So we have got different bodies, different apartments, according to our karma. And whose karma? The soul's karma. But he has no information of the soul or how the soul is working, how he is getting a different body. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). This science is unknown to him, but still, he is known as the master of evolution, and people are following him. This is ignorance. Andhā yathāndhaiḥ. One blind rascal gives some theory, and the followers are also blind rascals; they follow. They do not take instruction from the perfect.
So when there is śāstra sanctioning for this eating, sleeping, mating, that means to restrict. Pravṛttir eṣā bhūtānāṁ nivṛttes tu mahā-phalā. This inclination is natural, but when there is regulative principle, that means to restrict. Because the whole human society is supposed to be advanced in the art of detachment, jñāna-vairāgyam. That is perfection. First of all knowledge, perfect knowledge, that "I am not this body. I am simply wasting my time taking care of this body, but I am different from the body." That is natural. Suppose you are sitting in some place. If you know that place does not belong to you, then why should you take so much care? You are sitting there for some business. Finish, and go. Similarly, if one is in knowledge, full knowledge, that "I am not this body," that is called jñāna. Then why he should be bothering so much for this body which is going to be, as I explained yesterday, either ash, or stool or earth? This is the last stage of this body.
So there are different classes of men, crow society and swan society. The swan society is different from the crow society. How you can make equal? The people are making, try to make classless society. It is not possible to make classless society because every living entity is being controlled by a different quality. So the qualitative distinction must be there. You cannot make them classless. It is all imagination. The crow class, the swan class, the pigeon class, the dog class, even in the animals, even in the birds, even in the plants... There is a plant, rose tree, and there are other plants, useless, no fruit, no flower. It is simply meant for becoming fuel. So by nature there are so many distinctions. You cannot make equal everything. This is called variety. But everything is required, provided one knows how to utilize it, and that is possible by Kṛṣṇa conscious person, not by ordinary person. To accept all varieties of creation and engage them in Kṛṣṇa's service, that is Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
A thing which can be used for the service of Hari, Kṛṣṇa, if it is given up as material, that vairāgya, that renunciation, is not very good. That renunciation... "I have renounced everything..." Just like amongst the Jains, they will not ride on car, they'll walk. So our principle is not like that. "No, we shall not take advantage of the motorcar or the airplanes. These are all material. I shall walk." Why shall I walk? If I would not have taken the advantage of the airplanes, how I could preach Kṛṣṇa consciousness all over the world so swiftly? We must take all advantage, but for Kṛṣṇa. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. We shall encourage people, but the thing is that we may not forget. If by material opulence we forget Kṛṣṇa, then that is suicidal. That is sui... Therefore we have to be little careful. We may drive the Rolls Royce car, but may not identify with the car: "Oh, now I've become Rolls Royce. You are Chevrolet. I'm Rolls Royce." (laughter) Don't become nonsense like that. Rolls Royce car is different from you, and Chevrolet car is also different from you. You can take advantage of them. Don't identify. They are identifying with the matter. That is the defect. That is called māyā. He's not identifying with Kṛṣṇa, that "I am part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. I am not part and parcel of these Rolls Royce cars." If one keeps himself, I mean to say, awakened in this way, so in any condition of life, he is liberated, any condition.
So the evolution means developed consciousness, and according to the developed consciousness, one gets a particular type of body. This is nature's law. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ, ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā kartāham... (BG 3.27). The evolution means evolution of consciousness. The same child, when he's... He'll get a different body. Just like a female child. By evolution, means when she gets another body, youthful body, her consciousness is different. If you get the body of a pig, your consciousness is different from the consciousness of a man. A pig will very easily eat stool, but a human being will not eat. Similarly, in every behavior... Just like we, Kṛṣṇa conscious people, we have given up intoxication. Now, if somebody comes and bribes and offers some money that "You take this one thousand dollars and drink," you'll not agree. Because your consciousness is developed. So evolution is not of the body. Evolution of consciousness. And as your consciousness develops, you get a particular type of body. Yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran bhāvaṁ tyajaty ante kalevaram (BG 8.6). Therefore, the evolution should be of the consciousness. And this is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. When you come to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then your life is perfect. And fully Kṛṣṇa conscious, then you, after giving up this body—tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti (BG 4.9), no more material body.
So yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-aṇḍa-koṭi. Jagad-aṇḍa means this one universe, and aṇḍa... Aṇḍa means egg. Therefore it is called jagad-aṇḍa, "egglike, round." We are within the egg. Yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-aṇḍa-koṭi (Bs. 5.40). There are millions of eggslike clustered together. This is material world. Millions, not one. And each universe... Koṭiṣu vasudhādi-vibhūti-bhinnam. In each universe there are millions and trillions of stars and planets. Koṭiṣu vibhūti-bhinnam. And each one of them is different from the other. Just like you are going to, trying to go to the moon planet, but you cannot stay there because the atmosphere is different. Everything is there. Yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-aṇḍa-koṭi-koṭiṣu vasudhādi (Bs. 5.40). Vasudhā means planets. This is also called vasudhā, this planet. So just imagine what insignificant this vasudhā in comparison to the whole material world. There are millions of universes, and in each and every universe there are millions and trillions of the stars and planets. This is the whole creation of material world. And taking them together, this is one-fourth creation of God. The three-fourths creation is the spiritual world, and in that spiritual world, the topmost planet is called Goloka Vṛndāvana. That is the place of Kṛṣṇa.
That is Kṛṣṇa avatāra. Kali-yuge nāma-rūpe avatāra. So don't think that Kṛṣṇa, this vibration Kṛṣṇa, is different from that Kṛṣṇa. The same Kṛṣṇa. The same Kṛṣṇa. If you say that "Why has not come to kill the demons?" that is His great sympathy, mercy, that you are already killed. You see? What another killing? So we are already dead. Therefore we are so fallen that it does not require any more killing. Mercifulness. You see? The demons... Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu is Kṛṣṇa, merciful. Pāpī tāpī jata chilo hari-nāme uddhārilo. All the demons, full of sinful activities, they are to be delivered by this weapon, Hare Kṛṣṇa. Otherwise, killing is going on.
So here the Dharmarāja is lamenting, "On account of absence of Kṛṣṇa, our real business, nirvāṇa, is being delayed. Therefore, are you lamenting, mother?" So Kṛṣṇa is so kind that although He's not present at the present moment, still, in the form of His holy name, He's present. You can take still advantage of Kṛṣṇa's name by chanting this Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. You can take. Don't think that when you chant "Kṛṣṇa," this name Kṛṣṇa is different from the Kṛṣṇa person. No. They are the same. Nāma cintāmaṇiḥ kṛṣṇaś caitanya-rasa-vigrahaḥ, pūrṇaḥ śuddho nitya-mukto 'bhinnatvān nāma-nāminoḥ (CC Madhya 17.133). This is the shastric injunction. Abhinnatvān nāma-nāminoḥ. Nāma, the holy name of Kṛṣṇa, and Kṛṣṇa, they're not different. Abhinna. Abhinna means not separate. The same. So take advantage of this life, and take advantage of this Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, and make your life successful.
Prabhupāda: Cowherds boy, they were equally on the same level. Although not same level, but they were given the opportunity to speak, to stand, to talk, to eat on the same level with Kṛṣṇa. Now our position is different. Any other questions?
Devotee (1): Prabhupāda? I was wondering about... You were saying before, I heard, that before you start to learn, you must realize that you're not this body and you're spirit soul. Is realization different from knowing that you're spirit soul?
Prabhupāda: Eh?
Bali-mardana: He said what is realization of the spirit soul?
Prabhupāda: The spirit soul?
Bali-mardana: How does one realize, how does one know that...
Devotee (1): That, that you are...
Satsvarūpa: Between theoretically knowing that you are not this body and realizing.
Prabhupāda: Aḥ. Realizing means you can... It is very simple thing, that a living man and a dead man. So you can realize. There was soul so he was living. Now the soul is not there, he's dead. Is there any difficulty? What is the difficulty? Why this man is dead? They may explain, these rascals, in so many ways, but actual, any simple man can understand that there was something, either you call it soul or something else, that is now missing. That soul has now gone.
Generally people are ātmavit, bodily conscious, mass of people or class of people also. Hardly you will find a person at the present moment ātmavit, self-realized. Everyone is: "I am this body." "I am Indian," "I am American," "I am Canadian," "I am Australian," "I am white," "I am black," "I am brāhmaṇa," "I am śūdra," this way—"I am this body." Ātmavit means "I am the self; I am the soul." Bhāgavata... This is the Vedic word. If one understands that "I am not this body; I am spirit soul," he is called ātmavit, or he is liberated. He is not bodily conscious platform. There are three platforms of identification with self. Those who are grossly in ignorance, exactly like animals... Just like a dog. A dog thinks that he is the body. He cannot think that he is not the body, he is the soul. That is not possible. Because he is born in such a body, he is entrapped in such a body, animal body, they cannot think that the animal, the cat and dog, is different from the body. But at the present moment, so many big, big scholars and professors and educationists, they are also the same category as the dog. As the dog is thinking, "I am this body," he is also thinking, "I am this body." And on this bodily concept there are so many nations, big, big nation, they are on the bodily concept of life. Not ātmavit. Ātmavit is different, that "I am not this body; I am soul," Bhāgavata,.
Just like I am speaking. Now, this speaking recorded, when it will be replaced, the same sound will come. So that is my energy, but separated. I am on there, but still, the vibration is exactly what I am speaking because these words are emanated from me. Similarly, Kṛṣṇa says that "This earth is emanation of My energy. So therefore this earth... The stone is also earth, another form of earth. Therefore it is manifestation of Kṛṣṇa's energy. Therefore it is Kṛṣṇa. Energy and the energetic—no different. Just like the sun is situated 93,000,000's of miles away from you, but the sunshine, as soon as it reaches your body, you understand what is sun-heat and light-immediately. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. When one is learned about Kṛṣṇa, whatever He sees... When he sees the stone, he also sees Kṛṣṇa, immediately remembers the stone is manifestation of the energy of Kṛṣṇa. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Nothing is different from Kṛṣṇa. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. When one understands that everything is manifestation of Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa's energy, the... Exactly the same: just like the fire is situated in somewhere, but the fire exhibits or demonstrates its energy, the light and heat, although fire is far away, just like the sun is far, far away, but still, by sun's light and heat, he is spread all over the universe, similarly, Kṛṣṇa, by His two energies, material energy and spiritual energy... That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā.
That is the greatest... That is the business of the Gosvāmīs. Not this, this party or that party, capitalism and communism, this "ism," that... What they will derive? You may follow capitalism or communism or this "ism," that "ism"; after death, you'll be immediately under the grip of material nature, karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa (SB 3.31.1). "Now all your so-called rascal nationalism go to hell. You become a dog. Finish." That is nature's course. You have treated your life like cats and dogs. You did not take advantage of your human life. Now nature will give you, "All right, again you become cats and dogs." Punar mūṣiko bhava. They do not know. They do not know the secret science of nature. You may be a very great leader, prime minister now. Next life you are going to be a dog in Scandinavia. (laughter) You see?
But how can you check it? What is your power? Suppose by nature... There are so many lives. Kṛṣṇa says, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). So you have to accept another body. Now, that is not in your hand, how to accept. That is, that will depend on your nature, karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa, and nature will give you the suitable body. So if you waste your time in this human form of life like cats and dogs, then you are going to get... Otherwise, wherefrom the cats and dogs are coming? They are coming... Vāsāṁsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya (BG 2.22). We are changing this body. So why you deny that in your next time you cannot become? No. That is your theory, but nature's law is different from your theory. You rascal, what do you know? You learn from the authorities. So the Gosvāmī's business is to do, how to save these people, these rascals, from this repetition of birth and death.
Don't you see what are our activities? Is it very secret? You can see what are our activities. We are discussing about Kṛṣṇa. We are talking about Kṛṣṇa. We are chanting about Kṛṣṇa. We are eating about Kṛṣṇa. We are typewriting about Kṛṣṇa. We are dictaphoning about Kṛṣṇa. Don't you see it? Then? Everything engaged in Kṛṣṇa consciousness—that is our activity. The same thing will be there; nothing will be changed. Here we are staying in also big apartment and the down, they are also staying in the similar apartment. But this is called temple, and that is called factory. Why? Here the consciousness is different from the consciousness down. That's all. Nothing has to be changed. Simply the rubberstamp has to be changed. Somebody is signing, "for, on behalf of such and such," and the rubberstamp is changed. We have to change our rubberstamp on behalf of Kṛṣṇa. That's all.
So therefore the Māyāvādīs, they think that "Make me zero, void. Then there will be no pains and pleasure, no embarrassment." Their philosophy is like that. Impersonal, that is also the same thing. Or void. Voidism, the same thing. "Make it zero." Just like the foolish man, when one is embarrassed, he commits suicide. He commits suicide. He thinks, "If I end this body, then my embarrassment will be finished." So these are the circumstances. Why? Now, apaśyatām ātma-tattvam (SB 2.1.2). He does not know "What is the necessity of me, soul, how to get me relieved from that." That he does not know. So therefore this word is used: apaśyatām ātma-tattvam (SB 2.1.2). He does not see that "I am spirit soul. My necessity is different from the bodily necessity." (break) "Then I'll become comfortable." Even one knows that "I am not this body," but the body is home... Or I know that "I am not this room," but I am engaged always how to keep this room very neat and clean. That is my business. I do not know that there is another business. Apaśyatām ātma-tattvam (SB 2.1.2). That is the defect.
That is described here. Janma-lābhaḥ paraḥ puṁsām. You must make a cultural institution where people may take education how to remember Nārāyaṇa at the time of death. That is required. Otherwise useless. What is the value? You waste your so much time to construct a very nice house, but at the time of death, you could not remember Nārāyaṇa. You remember your very nice friend, dog. Then what is the value? What is the value? They do not understand this, that there is life after death. Dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ: (BG 2.13) "As you are changing your body from childhood to boyhood, boyhood..." It is very simple philosophy. The rascal will not understand. I am changing my body. You may say "Growth or..." But it is changed. I had a childhood body; that body is different from my this present body. It is changed. Therefore I have already changed my body so many ways, so many times. And I change my body after this body is no more useful. That is going on. No more useful. That is the... The example is given. I am putting on this sweater, but when it is torn, no more useful, I get it up. I get another, new. Vāsāṁsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya navāni gṛhṇāti naro 'parāṇi (BG 2.22). Everything is clearly stated. This is dress only. This body is dress. Therefore we do not give on the bodily dress. We give stress on the soul. We do not make any distinction that "This is Hindu dress, Muslim dress, Christian dress, white dress, black dress." No, no, we have nothing to do with the dress. We have to do with the soul within the dress. He is part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. He has forgotten Kṛṣṇa. Therefore he is suffering.
In many places in the Bhagavad-gītā Kṛṣṇa claims all living entities as His sons, parts and parcels. Just like your children, they are part and parcel of your body. They are not different from you. The same blood is running in his body. Similarly, our constitutional position is that the same blood of God is running in our body. We are not different in that way from God.
There are two kinds of philosophers. One class of philosopher, they say that we are one with God. Another class of philosopher says that we are different, God is different from living entity. But Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu has adjusted that we are simultaneously one and different. Just like the father and the son. The father is one with the son, but at the same time, the son is different from the father. The son cannot claim cent percent equality with the father. That is not possible. But the son's body is nondifferent from the father's body. Similarly, living entities, we are simultaneously one and different from God. One in this sense: that all the qualities that God has, the same qualities the living entity has. But the difference is God has all the qualities in fullness, and so far we are concerned, we have got all the godly qualities in minute. That is the difference. Aṇu and vibhu. Vibhu means unlimited, and aṇu means limited. So we have got opulence, fame, beauty, strength, influence, knowledge, all good qualities that God has. But God has got in full, we have got in minute quantity.
This is not conclusion of the śāstra. Śāstra conclusion is: the Deity and Kṛṣṇa, the same. There is no difference. We have many times explained this. Deity, the worshipful Deity in the temple, is not different from Kṛṣṇa. So Svarūpa Dāmodara did not approve of the poetry to be presented to Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. At that time, he chastised him that "You do not know the conclusion, and you dare to write some poetry. Don't do this." And he said, bhāgavata para giya bhāgavata-sthāne:(?) "If you want to understand Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, then you go and study Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam from the pure devotee. Then you'll understand. Otherwise, you'll write all these nonsense." Bhāgavata para giya bhāgavata-sthāne. So one bhāgavata... The two bhāgavatas. You study Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam from living bhāgavata. So if one does not take or does not surrender unto the living bhāgavata, he cannot understand Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Many scholarly, learned scholars, Sanskrit scholars, they cannot understand Bhāgavatam.
Just like I am seeing through this glass. That does not mean the glass is seeing. The seeing power is different from the glass. Similarly, those who are thinking that they are this body, under bodily concept of life...
- yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke
- sva-dhīḥ kalatrādiśu bhauma ijya-dhīḥ
- yat-tīrtha-buddhiḥ salile na karhicij
- janeṣv abhijñeṣu sa eva go-kharaḥ
- (SB 10.84.13)
Bhāgavata says, "One who accepts this body as the self, he is no better then the cow and the ass." Foolish animal. I have several times explained why ass is called foolish, why cow is also foolish. Simple. Cow is simple; cow is... So they are compared with animals, one who accepts... Therefore this body continues to be animal body or a dead body unless in the human form of life one takes advantage of touching the dust of the lotus feet of a devotee. Jīvañ chavo bhāgavatāṅghri-reṇuṁ na jātu martyo 'bhilabheta yas tu... (aside:) She is sleeping. Śrī-viṣṇu-padyā manujas tulasyāḥ śvasañ chavo yas tu na veda gandham.
Therefore Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura..., sākṣād-dharitvena samasta-śāstraiḥ: "All the śāstras, the spiritual master is accepted as directly Hari, the Supreme Personality of Godhead," because he is carrying directly the message of Hari. Then again it is explained... Then Māyāvādī will say, "Then I am God. Because I am carrying the message of Kṛṣṇa, therefore I am Kṛṣṇa." No. Kintu prabhor yaḥ priya eva tasya. Not that he has become Prabhu, or God, but he is very dear servitor. Kintu prabhor yaḥ priya eva tasya. Because He is carrying an important message, therefore he is very confidential. And because he is very confidential servitor, he is not different from Him. Suppose if I ask somebody to do something very confidential, so that means he is identical with me, because otherwise, how can I trust? Therefore it is clear, not like Māyāvādīs, that "Because I have been deputed by Kṛṣṇa to carry some message," not that I have become. But I am equal because the business is the same. Kṛṣṇa says, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66), and the spiritual master says the same thing, sarva-dharmān parityajya: "Just surrender to Kṛṣṇa." Therefore, message being the same, they are identical. The persons are identical. But not identical in the Māyāvādī sense, that he has become now God. No. He is not God, but he is the most confidential servant of God. This is Vaiṣṇava philosophy. Because spiritual master has to be accepted, sākṣād-dhari, directly the Supreme Personality of Godhead, therefore the so-called spiritual master should not be puffed up, that "Now I have become God." This is Māyāvāda. This is rascaldom. He is most confidential servant of God, Kṛṣṇa. Therefore the disciple accepts him as good as God. Therefore the conclusion is simultaneously one and different. Acintya-bhedābheda. Bheda, different, means the spiritual master is a confidential servant, or the servant God. To the disciple he is servant God.
Pradyumna: Purport: "The inhabitants in Vaikuṇṭhaloka are all personalities with spiritual bodily features not to be found in the material world. We can find the descriptions in the revealed scriptures like Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Impersonal descriptions of transcendence in the scriptures indicate that the bodily features in Vaikuṇṭha are never to be seen in any part of the universe. As there are different bodily features in different places of a particular planet, or as there are different bodily features between bodies in different planets, similarly the bodily features of the inhabitants in the Vaikuṇṭhalokas are completely different from those in the material universe. For example, the four hands are distinct from two hands in this world."
Prabhupāda: So in other planets also there are different types of body. Some of the bodies are prominent in earth, earthly body. Just like we have got here earthly body. Similarly, fiery body, watery body, gaseous body, there are different types of body. What the scientists know about? Maybe in Candraloka they are going, but they cannot see the body. They say that there is no life. Suppose there is gaseous body, so they do not see it. But every planet has got different types of body. And Vaikuṇṭha planets also their bodily features are described herein.
Here it is only perverted reflection. Here the beauty... Just like the beauty is described there, bhrājiṣṇu. Bhrājiṣṇu, all glowing. Lasad-vimāna. Lasat, brilliant. There is also aeroplane, but not this tin aeroplane. You see? There the airplanes are made of jewels and gold, brilliant. And their beauty. There also men, women there are, not that simply men devotees, no. But the men and women, they are creation. The both sexes are there, Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa. So nothing is different from here, but they are permanent, real. Here everything are temporary and false. This is the difference. Everything, there is also tree, there is also flower, there are also palaces, there are aeroplanes, there are chariots, men, women, but they are real, and here it is unreal.
The same example, the mirage. It appears exactly like water, but it is not water. It is false. But there is real water. We should not think that because it is false water, therefore there is no water. Water is illu... That is Māyāvādī theory. Because here... Brahma satyaṁ jagan mithyā: Śaṅkarācārya, that "Only Brahman, impersonal Brahman, is fact, and everything, all varieties, they are mithyā." No. They have no full information of Brahman.
So we should note it by this verse that some sort of tapasya must be done if we are serious about God realization. That is wanted. And then the first realization is jyoti, brahma-jyotir. Generally, the Māyāvādī transcendentalists, they think that this realization of brahma-jyotir is all in all. The yogis, they think that realization of sarva-guhāvāsam, sarva-bhūta-guhāvāsam... Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe arjuna tiṣṭhati (BG 18.61). God is there in everyone's heart. This is accepted in all śāstra. In the Bhagavad-gītā says, here also it is said, sarva-bhūta-guhāvāsam. Guhā means the heart, core of heart. So He is there. So one feature is brahma-jyotir; another feature is sarva-bhūta-guhāvāsam. The Lord is everywhere, not only your heart, my heart or any animal's heart, beast's heart, bird's heart, but He is also within the atom. Aṇḍāntara-stha-paramāṇu-cayāntara-stham (Bs. 5.35). Paramāṇu means atom. Within the atom there is also. Sarva-bhūta-guhā, within, āvāsa, He is living there. So this is one feature. This is called Paramātmā feature, or Supersoul feature. As it is said in the Bhagavad-gītā, kṣetra-jñaṁ cāpi māṁ viddhi sarva-kṣetreṣu bhārata: (BG 13.3) "I am also owner of this body, but I am distributed in everyone's heart." In another place, sarvasya cāhaṁ hṛdi sanniviṣṭaḥ (BG 15.15). So God is present everywhere. He is omnipotent, omnipresent. So in our temple He is already there, and still more manifest, He is present here as arcā-vigraha, the form of the body by which He can accept our worship. He can accept. It is not that He is different from the original Kṛṣṇa. No, He is Kṛṣṇa, the same Kṛṣṇa, goloka eva nivasati, who is living in Goloka Vṛndāvana, but akhilātma-bhūtaḥ (Bs. 5.37), He can present Himself in different forms for accepting service for realization.
Kṛṣṇa is standing before you. He has no anxiety. He is very pleasantly with His consort, Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī, and enjoying playing on His flute. There is no anxiety. That is God. If God has got anxiety, then what class of God He is? No. So that anxietyless God you'll find in Kṛṣṇa. The demigods... Take any demigod, even Lord Brahmā. He's also anxiety. He's meditating. And... Lord Śiva is dancing with his triśūla. He has got something to do, to annihilate. He has got anxiety. Goddess Kālī. She's also standing with sword and so many things. So they have got activities. Durgā, she is engaged in so many activities. But Kṛṣṇa, you'll find always svacchandātmā, always peaceful. Kṛṣṇa, when He's engaged in killing some demons, that Kṛṣṇa is different from the original Kṛṣṇa. That is Vāsudeva Kṛṣṇa. That is Vāsudeva. Kṛṣṇa personally does not go anywhere. Padam, padam ekaṁ na gacchati. Giving up Vṛndāvana, He does not go even step away. That is original Kṛṣṇa. And other things, other activities which are done by Kṛṣṇa, that is Vāsudeva Kṛṣṇa. From Kṛṣṇa: Vāsudeva, Saṅkarṣaṇa, Aniruddha, Pradyumna. Then from, again Saṅkarṣaṇa: Nārāyaṇa. Again, from Nārāyaṇa, the dvitīya catur-vyūha. Then Viṣṇu, Mahā-Viṣṇu, Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, Kṣīrodakaśāyī... In this way, there is system how Kṛṣṇa expands. Ekaṁ bahu syām.
So to see God you have to make your eyes cleansed. Just like with cataractic eyes you cannot see anything. Everything is dark. But if you have operation, the cataract is taken away, then you can see. Similarly, with these eyes, these material eyes, you cannot see God. Not only you see God, you cannot understand Him although His name is there. Ataḥ śrī-kṛṣṇa-nāmādi. Nāmādi. To understand God means to understand first of all His name, nāmādi. Therefore... From the beginning with nāma. Therefore Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra means the name of God. God is not different from His name, absolute. "Kṛṣṇa" and the Kṛṣṇa person is the same. I have already explained that absolute means Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa's name, Kṛṣṇa's form, Kṛṣṇa's place, Kṛṣṇa's dress, Kṛṣṇa's throne, Kṛṣṇa's prasādam, everything Kṛṣṇa, they are not different. Advaya-jñāna. So Kṛṣṇa is there in the name, in the form, but because we have no love for Him, we cannot see. Premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena santaḥ sadaiva hṛdayeṣu vilokayanti (Bs. 5.38). Those who have developed God consciousness, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, love for God... Unless they have got love for God, why they have sacrificed their life for Kṛṣṇa? They could earn. They know how to earn money in America, and there is money also. Here if, even if I know how to earn money, there is no money. But America is not like that. You can earn money like anything. Like anything.
So the whole process of understanding the Absolute Truth... Absolute Truth means the Supreme Person, the Supreme Being, Absolute. There is no contradictory. Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa's name, Kṛṣṇa's form, Kṛṣṇa's activities, Kṛṣṇa's paraphernalia, Kṛṣṇa's attributes—everything Kṛṣṇa. That is called Absolute Truth. There is no difference. Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa's form is not different. Kṛṣṇa's hand and Kṛṣṇa's leg not different. Just like we have got difference: this left hand is different from the right hand; the nose is different from the ear. We have got. Because this is called sagata-vigata-vibheda(?). Kṛṣṇa hasn't got that thing. That is called Absolute. It is stated in the Brahma-saṁhitā, aṅgāni yasya sakalendriya-vṛttimanti. Aṅgāni, we have got different parts of the body, limbs, for different purposes. But Kṛṣṇa can serve any purpose from any limbs of His body. Kṛṣṇa can eat by seeing only. Kṛṣṇa can go by thinking only. There are so many description that Kṛṣṇa is Absolute. So these contradictory things, how one can understand of the Absolute? He is absolute, advaya-jñāna. Absolute means no duality; everything is one.
Me prakṛtiḥ: "It is My nature." Bhinnā me prakṛtir aṣṭadhā. So stone is another formation of earth. Earth, water, air, sky, mind, intelligence—they're all Kṛṣṇa. Because Kṛṣṇa says, bhinnā me prakṛtir aṣṭadhā. (aside:) That's all right. Get up. Nothing is different from Kṛṣṇa. Everything is Kṛṣṇa's energy. The Māyāvādī philosophers, they think that "Because everything is God, everything is Kṛṣṇa, then where is Kṛṣṇa? Kṛṣṇa is finished." But actually that is not. Kṛṣṇa is Kṛṣṇa; at the same time, He is everything. That is Kṛṣṇa. That we can understand by bhakti. Therefore it is said, bhaktyā. Bhaktyā. In Bhagavad-gītā also, Kṛṣṇa said, bhaktyā mām abhijānāti (BG 18.55). These things can be understood not by ordinary person without any devotion. One who is bhakta, he can understand that Kṛṣṇa is everything and everything is Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is everything—that is dṛṣṭa. When a bhakta sees a tree, he sees Kṛṣṇa. That is bhakta's vision.
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, in rascaldom, and spoil his career and other's 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, 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 iron can be melted, even a stone can be melted, but adāhyo 'yam, aśoṣyaḥ 'yam, in so many ways. That means it is different from this material thing, the soul.
So Kapiladeva is the propounder of Sāṅkhya philosophy. This is original Kapiladeva. Later on, there was another Kapiladeva, so he is called the atheist Kapila. And this Kapiladeva is known as Devahūti-putra, "the son of Devahūti" Kapila. So sāṅkhya-yoga, the later atheist Kapila's sāṅkhya-yoga, is different from this sāṅkhya-yoga. The atheist Kapila's sāṅkhya-yoga is analysis of the material elements. So this analysis of material elements by the atheist Kapila is very much liked by the Western philosophers. And the sāṅkhya-yoga explained, propounded, by Devahūti-putra Kapila is practically unknown.
So this Kapila, Devahūti, son of Devahūti Kapila, His sāṅkhya-yoga means bhakti-vitāna-yogam, how bhakti, devotional service to the Lord, is expanded. That is sāṅkhya-yoga. And how it is received, that is also stated here, tattva āmnāyaṁ yad pravadanti sāṅkhyam. Āmnāyam, by disciplic succession. No philosophical speculation, but as it is received by predecessor, by tradition, āmnāyam. Tattva āmnāyam. We cannot manufacture tattva. That is improper way of understanding the truth. Generally, the Western philosophers, they try to understand the Absolute Truth by the ascending process. There are two processes of understanding the Absolute Truth. One is called ascending process, or inductive logic, and another process is descending process, or deductive logic. So ascending process is based on speculation, and descending process is based on fact.
We have got experience of this body. That is gross experience. Anyone can see. I see your body; you see my body. But you don't see me actually; I don't see you actually. We see or perceive your presence when the soul is off from the body. Then we cry, "Oh, my friend has gone away. My friend has gone away." Why your friend has gone away? He is lying here. Then we can perceive that "My real friend or my real father, the soul, who is different from this body..." And now, at the present moment, "He is my father, he is my friend, who is this body"—that is animal vision. That is not human being vision. Yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke...sa eva go-kharaḥ (SB 10.84.13). Animals also see, "Here is a friend dog. Here is my mother dog."
So we have no eyes to see. So we cannot see even the soul, minute soul, and how we can see God in these blunt eyes? And still we want to see God. We cannot see even you; you cannot see me. We are part and parcel of God. And how you can see God? Therefore it is said, ataḥ śrī-kṛṣṇa-nāmādi na bhaved grāhyam indriyaiḥ: (CC Madhya 17.136) "The present senses is incapable of seeing God." Or seeing you and me. There is no spiritual vision. But we can perceive. Just like after death we can understand there was something which has gone away: "Now, the body which I was seeing is neither my father nor my friend. It is a lump of matter, that's all." This is knowledge.
Just like one gentleman was speaking that "Even the Māyāvādīs, they worship sometimes Lord Viṣṇu." Yes, they do. That is... They do not actually believe in the form of Viṣṇu, but they take it as a means, a imagination, to imagine the form of Viṣṇu. This is Māyāvāda philosophy. Sādhakānāṁ hitārthāya brāhmaṇaḥ rūpa-kalpanaḥ.(?) They imagine. Just like they are worshiping Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa. The Māyāvādī will say, "This is imagination. Actually, the Absolute Truth has no rūpa, no form." That is impersonalism. They do not know that here is the actual form, Kṛṣṇa. Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ (Bs. 5.1). Vigraha. Vigraha means who has got form. They do not know that. Therefore they mistake that that is not... There are many so-called Vaiṣṇavas. They are worshiping Viṣṇu, but thinking of becoming one with the Supreme, imagining. They cannot be one. How it can be? That is not possible. They sometimes give the example: the drop of water, when it mixes with the vast mass of water in the sea, it becomes one. But does it actually become so? No. According to scientific division these, there are the atomic molecules of water. So each molecule and atom is different from one another. Sometimes they call cell or they call molecule. So it app... Just like the sunshine. The sunshine is combination of many millions and trillions of small shining particles. That is sunshine. But each particle has got individual identity. They are not homogeneous. But because we have no eyes to see such a small atomic division, therefore we think that they are one. No. Even physically they are different. Similarly, although we are very small particle, we are different identity, not one.
So long you will have this material body, you will have to suffer. You cannot avoid it. Mātrā-sparśās tu kaunteya śītoṣṇa-sukha-duḥkha-dāḥ (BG 2.14). That is stated in the Bha... Mātrā-sparśāḥ. What is the suffering? Suffering means on account of this body. The same water, it is very pleasing during summer, and the same water, it is very distressing in winter. So water is the same, but it is distressing and pleasing on account of this body. Very simple thing, one can understand. Mātrā-sparśās tu kaunteya śītoṣṇa-sukha-duḥkha-dāḥ. The water is neither pleasing nor distressing. It is due to my this body and bodily concepts of life, we are suffering or enjoying, so-called enjoying, so-called suffering. Actually, I am the spirit soul. I am different from this body, gross body and subtle body. I have no suffering, no, I mean to say, enjoying. It is simply my imagination. Therefore a mukta-puruṣa, a liberated person, he is not affected by this so-called suffering or enjoying. That is called liberation.
So the aṇu, vibhinnāṁśa jīva, when he comes within this material world, he becomes entrapped or his that jyoti... In the previous verse you have studied jyoti. Vibhinnāṁśa living entity, we are also jyoti. Just like spark. The original fire is also fire, and the spark fire, that is also fire. Quality, the same, but a spark, when falls down on your cloth, it can burn a little portion. Similarly, if the whole fire comes, then you become burned into pieces. The same example again: the sun and the sunshine. Sunshine is combination small particle of shining molecules. Similarly, we are also the same spark. Dīpārcir eva hi daśāntaram abhyupetya dīpāyate (Bs. 5.46). So Kṛṣṇa and His expansion, They are all the same. And we, vibhinnāṁśa jīva, we are very small. Therefore our condition is different from Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is not infected by the material qualities but, we become infected. Na māṁ karmāṇi limpanti na me karma-phale spṛhā (BG 4.14), it is said in the Bhagavad-gītā. The activities in this material world, Kṛṣṇa remains unaffected, but we, being a small particle, we become infected by the qualities: tribhir guṇamayair bhāvaiḥ.
Therefore Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura, he says, saṁsāra-dāvānala-līḍha-loka **. This saṁsṛtiḥ, this repetition of birth and death and different standard of material happiness... Everybody has got some material happiness. The man has got a standard of material happiness. The dog has got a standard of material happiness. The demigods, they have got a standard of material happiness. Everyone has got. So... But actually, it is not happiness. It is simply miserable condition. And because we do not appreciate this miserable condition, we still think that we are happy. That is called māyā, illusion. This is called saṁsṛtiḥ. Although we are in a miserable condition, continually, every moment, every second... This place is like that. Kṛṣṇa says, not that we are saying. Kṛṣṇa says, duḥkhālayam. Continually you have to suffer. But we are, we have become so much habituated in this suffering, we do not accept it as suffering. We take it as very pleasing, because we have no idea what is actually happiness. Sukham ātyantikaṁ yat tad atīndriyaṁ grāhyam (BG 6.21). Real happiness, what is real happiness? Sukhaṁ yat. Then what is sukham? That is not to be appreciated by these material senses. Sukham ātyantikam. Ātyantikam means supreme. This is not... Whatever so-called happiness we derive in this material world, that is dependent on so many conditions. That is not ātyantikam. Ātyantikam means the supreme happiness. That is different from this material happiness, but we have no information or taste because we have been conditioned for many many creation, anādi. Just like a man suffering from disease from many, many years. He becomes accustomed. He does not take any more that this suffering is suffering. He thinks this is natural.
Yes. This is very nice example. This prakṛti, the mother... Just like mother is woman, prakṛti, but her relationship with the husband is different from the relationship with her children. So both of them are puruṣa-living entities and the Supersoul, or the Supreme Lord. They come to this material world. But the relationship is that the Supreme Lord is the controller, controller of the material world, and the living entities, they are controlled. This is difference. One is controller, and the other is controlled. The same woman, mother, she is working under the direction of the husband. That is one relationship. And she is taking care of the children and controlling the children. The... Although the medium is the same, but the relationship is different.
So when Kṛṣṇa comes in touch with prakṛti for giving birth of these varieties of forms of life, that is Śiva. That is Śiva. Śiva is not different from Kṛṣṇa, but still, Śiva is not Kṛṣṇa. This is called inconceivable one and different. Inconceivable one and different. The example is given: just like milk and yogurt, dahi. Dahi is not different from milk. It is milk—it is milk, everyone knows—but it is not milk at the same time. You cannot get the benefit of milk by drinking dahi, or yogurt. Milk is used for different purpose, and dahi is different purpose. When you take too much milk, you get dysentery, and if you go to the physician, he gives you some medicine to take with yogurt, dahi. So dahi or yogurt, is not different from milk, but it is not milk. Similarly, all these demigods, especially Lord Śiva, Lord Brahmā... They are the original chief demigods from Viṣṇu.
So these demigods or even we... We are also the same principle, the living entities. Brahmā is also in the category of living entities, and Lord Śiva is between the living entities and the Supreme Lord, in between. Therefore you cannot keep Lord Śiva as living entity category, neither Viṣṇu category. Via media. Kṣīraṁ yathā dadhi vikāra-viśeṣa-yogāt (Bs. 5.45). The Supreme Personality of Godhead does not come directly in touch with this prakṛti, but the form by which He touches this prakṛti, that is Lord Śiva. Therefore Lord Śiva is not different from the Supreme Personality of Godhead; at the same time, he is not the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This is the conclusion. So that ceṣṭā... Ceṣṭā yataḥ sa bhagavān. Therefore Lord Śiva's another name is Kāla-bhairava. Kāla-bhairava. And he is the master of the annihilation.
This is our only business. This Hare Kṛṣṇa means, "O Kṛṣṇa, O Harā, Kṛṣṇa's energy, Rādhārāṇī, Harā..." Hari Harā. So this addressing, "O Kṛṣṇa, O Kṛṣṇa's internal potency..." Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare, chanting, addressing: "O Lord Kṛṣṇa, O the internal energy of Kṛṣṇa." So They will respond that "Why you are calling Me, or Us?" You have to submit, "Please again accept me as Your eternal servant." This is the only prayer, not that "Give me this money, this me that, this me that. Give me that." No. That is not pure devotion. That is devotion, but it is mixed. Catur-vidhā bhajante māṁ sukṛtinaḥ. That is pious life. When we ask from Kṛṣṇa anything other than devotional service, that is pious activities. That is not devotional activities. Devotional activity is different from pious activity. By pious activities you can get material, so-called happiness, Janmaiśvarya-śruta-śrī (SB 1.8.26). You can get birth in very nice family, rich family, brāhmaṇa family, janma, and you can get immense wealth, born with silver spoon, and aiśvarya-śruta, education, nice education, material education, and śrī, beauty. Generally, you will find in aristocratic family, rich family, they are very beautiful, they have got education, they have got wealth and good family, aristocratic family. So these are result of pious activities.
We are taking these political leaders as our friend and carried away by their dictation. Some political leader says, "You do like this," another political leader, "Do like that." So we are not, no. Bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasāṁ sarva-loka..., suhṛdaṁ. If we want to take advice of real well-wisher, so suhṛdaṁ sarva-bhūtānām. Similarly, a sādhu, he is also suhṛdaṁ sarva-dehinām, the same thing. As Kṛṣṇa is the supreme friend, well-wisher, suhṛt... Suhṛt means good heart. Friend, mitra, it is little different from suhṛt. Mitra means I make friendship with you with some motive. But a father, he is suhṛt, mother is suhṛt, always well-wishing. Or there may be some friend also, always well-wishing. But the best example, that the father is always well-wishing: "How my son will be well situated? How he will be happy?" Similarly, Kṛṣṇa is... Kṛṣṇa says that "When one can understand Me as suhṛdaṁ sarva-bhūtānām," then śāntim ṛcchati, "then he will get śānti, śāntatvam." When we accept it, firmly convinced that "Kṛṣṇa is my father, Kṛṣṇa is my friend, Kṛṣṇa is my well-wisher..." And Kṛṣṇa says. Where is the difficulty? Ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi (BG 18.66). He takes charge. Kaunteya pratijānīhi na me bhaktaḥ praṇaśyati (BG 9.31). He is giving assurance.
So if we keep Kṛṣṇa consciousness very active always, that means try to understand Kṛṣṇa from different angles of vision. Here also, as we are studying analytically the functions of agni, but what is this agni? This is also Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa's energy. Bhūmir āpo 'nalo vāyuḥ (BG 7.4), Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā. Anala. Anala means agni. Bhinnā me prakṛtir aṣṭadhā. They are not different from Kṛṣṇa. Just like sunshine: sunshine is not different from Kṛṣṇa. Whenever there is sun, wherever there is sun, there is sunshine. Similarly, wherever there is Kṛṣṇa, the Kṛṣṇa's energies are also there. Therefore Viṣṇu. Viṣṇu means all-pervading. So Kṛṣṇa's energies are spread everywhere, just like the illumination, dyotanam. It is called dyotanam, illumination. If the fire is there, there must be illumination. And you have seen in the morning—as soon as the sun, before the sun rising actually, before we can see the sun, immediately there is illumination, dyotanam. So the energy, sunshine, is the energy of the sun. it is always there. Sunshine is not differentiated from the sun. Similarly, Kṛṣṇa's energy is not differentiated from Kṛṣṇa. Therefore fire is Kṛṣṇa's energy, air is Kṛṣṇa's energy, water is Kṛṣṇa's energy, land is Kṛṣṇa's energy, the sky is Kṛṣṇa's energy. This is Kṛṣṇa's all-pervasiveness or God's all-pervasiveness. Parasya brahmaṇaḥ śaktis tathedam akhilaṁ jagat: "Akhilam, the entire universe, is expansion of Kṛṣṇa's energy."
So we request everyone to come to the temple because he will have the impression what is Kṛṣṇa, how He looks. Here is Kṛṣṇa. It is not imagination. Don't think it is imagination, we have imagined some form. Just like the Māyāvādīs say, "It is imagination." No. It is fact. Because this Kṛṣṇa, this form of Kṛṣṇa, the our forefathers or ācāryas they have seen when Kṛṣṇa was present on this planet. And there are many, many old temples. The same feature of Kṛṣṇa, two hands, playing on the flute, and anywhere you will see Kṛṣṇa He has got this flute. Because that is His most beloved, favorite instrument. That is stated in the śāstra, not imagination. Veṇuṁ kvaṇantam aravinda-dalāyatākṣaṁ barhāvataṁsam asita... (Bs. 5.30). In the Vedic language it is said that Kṛṣṇa, He has got a flute in His hand. He likes to play on flute. Veṇuṁ kvaṇantam aravinda-dalāyatākṣaṁ barhāvataṁsam asitāmbuda-sundarāṅgam (Bs. 5.30). Barhāvataṁsa means the peacock. He likes peacock feather. These symptoms are described in the Vedic literature, and when Kṛṣṇa was present on this earth, the same feature was there. So this picture, this photo, or this statue of Kṛṣṇa, this arcā-mūrti, is not different from the original Kṛṣṇa.
So this is kṛṣṇānuśīlanam. Even though I have got one decision in my life, but if I understand that Kṛṣṇa wants me to do something contrary, I shall be ready to perform this. That is kṛṣṇānuśīlanam. Ānukūlyena kṛṣṇānuśīlanaṁ bhaktir uttamā (CC Madhya 19.167). If you favorably serve Kṛṣṇa, that is bhaktir uttamā, first-class bhakti. Unfavorably, as Kaṁsa was thinking, that how to kill Kṛṣṇa... He got also salvation because always thinking of Kṛṣṇa, but not the salvation of the devotees. The devotee's salvation is different from the salvation of the nondevotees, jñānīs. Jñānīs... We have already explained there are three features of the Absolute Truth. One is impersonal Brahman, the other is localized Paramātmā, or antaryāmī, Supersoul, and the supermost is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Bhagavān, ṣaḍ-aiśvarya-pūrṇa-bhagavān. So impersonal Brahman is the destination of the jñānīs, and Paramātmā, localized antaryāmī, is the destination of the yogis, and the Supreme Person, Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, is the destination of the pure devotees. Pure devotee means anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyam (Brs. 1.1.11). They have no other desire. Others, the jñānīs, they have desire to merge into the existence of the Lord. They want that. And the yogis, they, by the grace of the Supreme Paramātmā, they want to get some siddhis, aṣṭa-siddhi. But the bhaktas, they do not want mukti or siddhi; they simply want to serve the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This is pure devotion.
The original person, the Supreme Lord-kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam (SB 1.3.28)—He also comes. Rāmādi-mūrtiṣu, Rāma, Nṛsiṁha, Varāha, that is Kṛṣṇa's expansion, incarnation. They also come, and Kṛṣṇa also come. Kṛṣṇaḥ svayaṁ samabhavat paramaḥ pumān yaḥ. He is the Supreme Person, pumān. Pumān means the puruṣa, the enjoyer, the proprietor. That is Kṛṣṇa. So immediately you can be in touch with Kṛṣṇa by vibrating this sound, Hare Kṛṣṇa. It is so potent. Nāma cintāmaṇiḥ kṛṣṇaś caitanya-rasa-vigrahaḥ (CC Madhya 17.133). The name of Kṛṣṇa is cintāmaṇi, transcendental. It is not this material sound, material name. Nāma cintāmaṇiḥ kṛṣṇaś caitanya. Living force, caitanya. It is not dead sound. If you want water, if you chant only "Water, water, water, water," you will not get water, because it is material sound. The water substance is different from the word water. Therefore, simply by chanting "water, water," you cannot quench your thirst. You must have the substance water. That is material sound. Anything you take, simply by chanting the name, you will not get the thing. That is material.
So ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12) means you will be freed from this ignorance, that "I am something of this material world." This is wanted. So long we are not realized, self-realized, then we are no better than these cats and dogs, because they do not know that he is not the body. So if we think that "I am this body," then we are no better than the cats and dogs. So if you want to become happy, first of all we must get this knowledge, that "I am not this body." Now we are busy with the bodily demands of life. We are not busy for spiritual demand of life. That is the business of the human being, that "I am not this material body. I am spirit soul. So my business is different from the business at the present moment we are engaged in." Everyone is engaged for satisfying the bodily necessities of life, everyone. The cats and dogs, animals, they are also busy how to fulfill the demands of the body. The demands of the body are four: āhāra-nidrā-bhaya-maithunaṁ ca. Āhāra means eating, and nidrā... Nidrā means sleeping, āhāra-nidrā-bhaya. Bhaya means to become fearful, to become anxious, full of anxieties. Āhāra-nidrā-bhaya. And maithuna, and sexual intercourse. So these are the demands of the body. They are called viṣaya. Viṣaya means so-called enjoyable, viṣaya. But the Vaiṣṇava says that viṣaya chāḍiyā, se rase majiyā, mukhe bolo hari hari. The transcendental sound Hari, Hare Kṛṣṇa, should be chanted, viṣaya chāḍiyā, without any attraction for this viṣaya. Āhāra-nidrā-bhaya-maithunaṁ ca. Then it will be perfect. Nidrāhāra-vihārakādi-vijitau cātyanta-dīnau ca yau **.
This is brahma-bhūtaḥ stage, not that artificially smoking cigarette and he has become brahma-bhūtaḥ. He is cigarette-bhutaḥ. Bhuta and cigarette smoker. How he is brahma-bhūtaḥ? These rascals say like that, table talks, "I am Brahman." Brahman. Doing all nonsense and he has become Brahman. Brahman he is. Everyone is Brahman, but there is no realization, neither they do know the method of realization. Brahman... Everyone is Brahman. There is no doubt about it. Because we are all minute part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa, therefore if Kṛṣṇa is Brahman, Para-brahman, we are also minute particle of Brahman. There is no doubt about it. Gold..., gold mine, big gold and a small particle of gold, they are qualitatively one-gold. But the gold mine is different from the gold particle. These rascals, they do not understand it. The gold particle is claiming to become the gold mine. This is Māyāvāda. And they are making people atheist. So 'ham. So 'ham, it is Vedic version. That is all right. "What is God, I am also the same thing." But not... "The same thing" does not mean that as God is powerful, I am also powerful. No. You are qualitatively the same thing. That's all right. But if you claim quantitatively that you are the same powerful as Kṛṣṇa, then you are mistaken. Kṛṣṇa can lift, when He is seven years' old boy, the whole mountain. And a seven years' boy, when he is here, he cannot even seven kilo. So you cannot compare with Kṛṣṇa potencies your potency.
So this is understanding. So we have to return to that understanding. Therefore it is advised how to make our relationship stronger with Kṛṣṇa. That is recommended here. Tasmiḻ labdha-padaṁ cittaṁ sarvāvayava-saṁsthitam. Don't think that Kṛṣṇa or God has no head, no tail. No. Sarvāvayava saṁsthitam. Virāṭa-mūrti. They are repeatedly said in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. But His avayava, different parts of the body, they are different from our, this material, at the present moment the material conception. That is different. He... Just like we can pick up our foodstuff by this hand. This hand is not just like Kṛṣṇa's hand. Kṛṣṇa's hand appears to be nonmoving. I think my hand is moving, but Kṛṣṇa is so powerful that even He has got the so-called statue hand, a metal hand or a stone hand, He can capture food which you offer. That you have to understand. When Kṛṣṇa is described as "He has no hand," that means He has no that limited hand as we have got. He has got... He appears before us just like a stone idol or statue, but He has got all the capacity of the limbs of the body, sarvāvayava. He has kindly appeared before us so that we can see. Here it is recommended that saṁyujyād aṅge. You have to see each and every part of the body, limb of Kṛṣṇa. That is meditation.
Jyotirmayī (translating for Guest): ...that at the beginning one, the word, and this word was God and this word was with God. So what is this word?
Prabhupāda: God, God and God's word. They're identical. God's, God and God's form, God's quality. God's, I mean to say, entourage, everything is God. That is called absolute. As, when I speak, my speaking is different from me, so that is not the case with God. God's words, the vibration of God, that is also God. (break)
Jyotirmayī: ...name of God, can the name of God be pronounced, uttered?
Prabhupāda: Yes, why not.
Jyotirmayī: God was existing before we could utter, we could pronounce, so how can you...
Prabhupāda: So God, because existing, His name was also existing. Therefore, His name is not material name. Because God was existing, His name was existing. So God was existing before creation, therefore His name, His form, is not material.
That is the instruction of Lord Ṛṣabhadeva to His sons. He says, "My dear sons, you cannot imitate your standard of demands of the body like cats and dogs and hogs. Oh, that is... Then you'll waste your time. You have got better opportunity." Just like there is very nice example. In this land of America, the Red Indians were living. Still they are living. But their standard of living, their standard of the same demands of the body, is different from the civilized nations who have come from Europe to this country. Therefore it is, America, is now so rich, because their standard of living and their standard of living is different. They could also develop this country very nicely, but their civilization, their standard of living, their consciousness, was different. So it is on the basis of different standard of consciousness the standard of living and existence is dependent.
So I've repeatedly saying the same thing—that Indian civilization is different from others. We should stick to our own culture. That is the prerogative that I am repeatedly speaking, Caitanya Mahāprabhu's message:
- bhārata-bhūmite manuṣya-janma haila yāra
- janma sārthaka kari' kara para-upakāra
- (CC Adi 9.41)
Anyone who has taken birth in this holy land of Bhārata-varṣa, he has got special advantage. He has got special advantage in this, that he can learn all this Vedic literature, mahat-sevā. Then he makes his life perfect. He understands what is his life, what is the value of this life, why he's suffering, how to mitigate it. This is, these things are required, and when one is very versed and practiced by example, then let him preach all over the world, para-upakāra. Because they do not know. Actually that is happening. By one man's endeavor all these foreigners they're getting real life of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. They have sacrificed everything practically. Sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). This is required. That is human life. Otherwise, if we simply work very hard just like the stool-eater hogs, "Where is food? Where is food? Where is sex? Where is..." This is... Therefore this particular name has been mentioned here, viḍ-bhujām. It is very peculiar. Nāyaṁ deho deha-bhājāṁ nṛ-loke kaṣṭān kāmān arhate viḍ-bhujāṁ ye (SB 5.5.1). This is the business of the stool-eater hogs. Śāstra sometimes uses very strong language. That is required.
If the sons have form, why the father will not have form? What is this logic? This is not logical conclusion. The real idea is... Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā that "My dear Arjuna, you, Me, and all these kings and soldiers who have assembled here, they were in the past like this," that means they have forms, "and they're existing like this. And they'll continue to exist." Where is formless? You see the (indistinct) Bhagavad-gītā. He says in the past all of them existed like this, and we're existing now like this, past present, and in the future they'll continue. So where is formlessness? There is no question of formlessness. Nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13). When there is such question, formlessness means that is not material form. But there is form. Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ (Bs. 5.1), vigraha means form. But that is sat-cid-ānanda, eternal, full of bliss, and full of knowledge. This is not this form. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritaḥ, paraṁ bhāvam ajānanto: (BG 9.11) "These rascals, they do not know what I am. Therefore he's thinking that My form and his form is the same." Avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā, unless one is mūḍha, he cannot say that God is formless. God has form. But His form is different from our form, this material form. Sat-cit-ānanda-vigraha. So therefore, we have to learn all these things by mahat-sevā dvāraṁ vimukteḥ. We can get out of all this ignorance when we are engaged in mahat-sevā. Otherwise we shall remain in the darkness. Kṛṣṇa has form, but His form is different from our, this material form.
So Kṛṣṇa in the very beginning of Bhagavad-gītā suggesting mukti. So, "Arjuna, you are lamenting for things which no paṇḍita, no learned man, laments." Gatāsūn agatāsūṁś ca nānuśocanti paṇḍitāḥ (BG 2.11). "You are talking very high high words, ideas, that 'If my brothers are killed, my sister-in-laws will be widows and their character will be polluted, the varṇa-saṅkara...' These are all bodily conception of life. You come to the spiritual platform." And what is that spirit? That is dehi. Dehi means "one who has got this body, " not "this body." This is the first instruction. Dehino 'smin yathā dehe (BG 2.13). So deha and dehi. Dehi, in Sanskrit it is said if you possess something, then there is grammatical "in" pratyaya. Deha, dehin. Guṇa, guṇin. So when you possess something, then this in pratyaya is used. So I'm not deha, I'm dehin. Therefore this word is used, dehi. Dehi means "the possessor of the body." So asmin dehe, there is the proprietor. And everywhere... And in another place, Bhagavad-gītā, kṣetra kṣetrajñaḥ. Kṣetra means "this body," and kṣetrajñaḥ, one who knows that "It is my body." That is kṣetra-jñaḥ. Ksetra..., just like ordinarily, kṣetra means land. A cultivator knows, "This is my land," not that "I am land." A driver knows that "I am the driver. I am not the car. The car is different from me." So this knowledge is imparted immediately. Then as soon as you understand that you are not this deha but you are dehi, then naturally your inquiry will be, then "I am working on the platform of deha, then what is my work?" That is called brahma-jijñāsā. This is called athāto brahma jijñāsā.
There are two kinds of strong avidyā, ignorance, unawareness. Sattva-guṇa, rajo-guṇa, tamo-guṇa. Rajo-guṇa and tamo-guṇa is covering. Tamo-guṇa is very densely covering, and rajo-guṇa little open, and sattva-guṇa means prakāśa, there is illumination, brahminical qualifications. When one is in the sattva-guṇa then he can understand that "I am not this body. I am different from this body." For them, those who are in the sattva-guṇa, for them it is easier. So therefore the process is Human civilization means not to drag somebody who is already in the sattva-guṇa or in the family of sattva-guṇa, to drag him down to the tamo-guṇa. The modern civilization is like that. The allurement of material civilization is so strong and so bad that those who are by pious activities born in brāhmaṇa family, they are being dragged to the tamo-guṇa behavior like śūdras. They are learning how to drink, how to eat meat, how to have illicit sex. These are the symptoms of tamo-guṇa, lowest type of tamo-guṇa. There are different degrees of guṇa. The degrees are so mixed up. Therefore three guṇas is manifested into 8,400,000 different forms of life, mixture. You can calculate.
So the atheist class of men, because they cannot understand that there is soul, they cannot understand that evolution means evolution of consciousness. They do not understand. They are thinking that the, originally in the matter there was no life. and all of a sudden the life came. No. Life is completely different from the matter. Not completely different; it is the same energy from the Supreme Lord. One is developed, the other is not developed. In this way, as Brahmā has defined, mat-paro ahaṁ dvija-deva-devaḥ. So in this way, within this material world there are varieties of developed consciousness, and in the spiritual world, when we surpass, transcend the material world, paras tasmāt tu bhāvo anya (BG 8.20), when we are promoted to the other energy, other world, then our consciousness... Even when one is, I mean to say, transmitted to the spiritual world... The first is brahma-jyotir. Their consciousness is also not developed, even one has gone to the spiritual world where everything is spiritual. Āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ patanty adho anādṛta-yuṣmad-aṅghrayaḥ (SB 10.2.32). That means consciousness is fully developed when he is a devotee, when one adores the lotus feet of the Lord.
So we have to cure our disease. This disease means... Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement means purification of our diseased condition, infectious condition. It is not anything artificial. Nitya-siddha kṛṣṇa-bhakti śrādhya kabhu naya. Not that by artificial means, as they are making propaganda in Europe and America that we are brainwashing... It is not that by some means or by some artificial, what is called, hypnotism, we are making these European or American boys, girls kṛṣṇa-bhakta. No. It is there already, kṛṣṇa-bhakti. Otherwise why they should take to Kṛṣṇa? They have got their other, I mean to say, worshipable. There is Jesus, Jesus Christ, and others. Mostly they are coming from Christian family. Why they should agree to worship Kṛṣṇa? No, it is there already. It is not that because they are born in Europe and America they are different from Kṛṣṇa's relationship. No.
But paraṁ bhāvam ajānantaḥ. They do not know it, what is transcendental body, aprakṛta, sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha (Bs. 5.1), and what is the difference between this body and that body. Muḍḥa, they do not know. Avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam (BG 9.11). Therefore they consider that "The Kṛṣṇa's body and my body is the same. If He has become God, so why shall not I become God?" But that is not possible. His body is transcendental; your body is not transcendental. Your body is this rotten earth, water, fire, pañnca-bhautika. You cannot compare with that. In this way, as it is stated in the Brahma-saṁhitā, His body is completely different from our body. Aṅgāni yasya sakalendriya-vṛttimanti, we sing every day in the morning. His body is so made that He can do everything and anything by any part of the body. There are many instances. Just like generally we find a person is born from the yoni. Therefore we call sarva-yoni. But Mahā-Viṣṇu or Garbhodakaśayī Viṣṇu, He did not take any help from his wife to give birth to a son, Lord Brahmā. He generated from His navel. This is called aṅgāni yasya sakalendriya-vṛttimanti. We have to see that. Where is that instance ordinarily that a child is born from the navel? But He can do that. A child is born from female. That is from the yoni. But here is, a living creature is born from the navel, and that is also puruṣa. So these things are there. And Kṛṣṇa, He exhibited, manifested, His virāṭa-rūpa. So He can do everything and anything because His body is not this body. Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ (Bs. 5.1). That is sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ.
So kāma, and the proof is because in the material world everyone wants to fulfill his own desire, therefore when the desire is not fulfilled he becomes angry, manyu. The next stage is manyu. Manyu means anger. And mada, then pride, then greediness, then śoka. These are different stages. Lamentation, bhaya. So many things. What is the cause? The root cause is karma-bandha. Because I am bound up by the resultant action of my past karma. Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa yantra-dehopapattaye (SB 3.31.1). By the superior arrangement, according to my karma I get a body with varieties of kāma, krodha, moha, like that. Kāma, because somebody has got the body of a human being, his kāma, desires, are different from the hogs and pigs because he has got a different body. He has got also kāma, and the human body, he has human being, he has got also kāma. But one is desiring to have a very palatable dish, and the other is desiring stool. The different..., according to the bodies the desires are (indistinct)-less. So conclusion is that when you get your spiritual body then the desire will be different. And that is prema. Desires are going on. Now the desires are designated. Designated. Because one has got a particular type of body, his desires are different from another because another person, he has got a particular type of body. But in the spiritual world, because there is no material body, only desire is how to satisfy Kṛṣṇa. Kāma kṛṣṇa-karmārpaṇe. This is spiritual. Spiritual means when the center is Kṛṣṇa. That is spiritual.
Ah. So yaśasaḥ śriyaḥ jñāna-vairāgya. This is vairāgya. Not that Kṛṣṇa is simply enjoying sixteen thousand palaces, sixteen thousand queens, and millions of descendants, yadu-vaṁśa. This is another side, and this is another side, vairāgya. Jñāna-vairāgya. Jñāna. We can understand a little piece of His contribution of jñāna, Bhagavad-gītā. That is a little piece of His stock of knowledge. Five thousand years He spoke, and still it is being continued, not only in India, but also all over the world. This is jñāna. So anyway—strength. When He was seven years old, Kṛṣṇa, He lifted the Govardhana Hill. Jñāna-vairāgya, everything complete. That is God. Nothing less. Not that, that "I am rich man, but I cannot lie down on the street." Not that kind of vairāgya. He is complete, completely different from a rich person. Akhila-loka-pāla. He is the controller of the whole universe; still, you see His vairāgya.
Now, because the soul is there, therefore the body is changing. Everyone knows that he was a child. I know, you know. I remember my childhood body or my boyhood body, my youthhood body. I am old man. I remember them, that "I was doing as a young man like this. I was doing as a boy like this. I was jumping. Now I cannot jump. Why? The body has changed." The body has changed. It is very good logic. The same "I" am there. I was a boy. I was jumping. Now I am old man. I have changed my body. I cannot do that. I will have to take the stick. Because the body has changed. So where is the fallacy of logic? It is very clearly... And the authority says... Kṛṣṇa says, not an ordinary person. He says, "Within this body there is the soul, and as on account of the soul, the body is changing shape from childhood to boyhood, boyhood to youthhood, from youthhood to old man's body. Similarly, when this body will be useless, he will accept another body." This simply truth one has to understand first of all before anything spiritual knowledge. If one cannot understand that the spirit soul is different from this body, then he is cat and dog. He is not human being.
- yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke
- svā-dhīḥ kalatrādiṣu bhauma-ijya-dhīḥ
- yat-tīrtha-buddhiḥ salile na karhicij
- janeṣv abhijñeṣu sa eva go-kharaḥ
- (SB 10.84.13)
Yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke. If anyone accepts this body... This body is made of three elements, kapha, pitta, vāyuḥ: mucus, bile, and air. So if we accept this body, combination of bones and flesh and blood and urines and stool and kapha and mucus and so many things, if we consider this body as "I am, the soul," do you mean to say that is very good knowledge? No. That is go-kharaḥ. Go-kharaḥ means animal. Go means cow and kharaḥ means ass. So these animal think like that, "I am this body." And if a man thinks like that, he is no better than the animal. That is not possible.
So pravṛtti lakṣaṇaś caiva traiguṇya viṣayo mune. This is pravṛtti. There are different pravṛttis. Sometimes some animal wants to eat something, another animal wants to eat another thing, but that is pravṛtti. Just like the hog: he is satisfied with stool. That is also eatable. And an enlightened human being, he is satisfied with nice halavā. So this is pravṛtti. Therefore it is said, pravṛtti lakṣaṇaś caiva traiguṇya viṣayo veda. Traiguṇya, according to modes of nature. One who is in the modes of goodness, his foodstuff is different from the person in the modes of ignorance. Therefore we find so many varieties of foodstuff, varieties of taste. This is all within this material world. It is not that... Sometimes this morning we were talking about vegetarian and nonvegetarian. Our mission is not to make a nonvegetarian a vegetarian. No. Our mission is that "Either you are vegetarian or nonvegetarian, it doesn't matter. You become Kṛṣṇa conscious." That is our mission. To become vegetarian is not very good qualification. It is better than the nonvegetarian, but that is not the ultimate solution. The ultimate solution is when you become a lover of God. That is ultimate solution.
There was topics of the different hellish conditions of life according to different sinful activities. There is description in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Fifth Canto, the different planetary systems of this universe, how each and every planet is different from the other by its atmosphere, by its inhabitants, dealings. Just like modern scientists, they are finding difference between this planet and the moon planet. They say that there is no living entity. That is not fact. They... Even though they have reached the moon planet, it is not a fact that there is no living entity. Accepting they reached the moon planet, they might have gone to the part where it is desert or barren land, because in each and every planet there is such possibility. In our, this planet also, when I was passing through the Suez Canal, it is horrible desert. So if somebody drops in that Arabian desert and concludes that there is no living entity in this planet, it is simply foolish. Similarly, these people are going, maybe going... First of all, I don't believe they have gone, frankly speaking. Even they have gone, they are landing in some part of the moon planet where there is no inhabitation.
In the Fifth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, the universal planetary system have been very nicely explained, and within the planetary system there is some planet, some planetary system which are called hellish planet. Actually in every scripture, not only in Bhāgavata, in other religious scripture, the description of hell and heaven are there, some way or other. So in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam you'll find where are those hellish planets, how it is distant from this planet. Just like modern astronomy, they have got calculation, how far the moon planet is there from here, what is the distance, what is the distance between earthly planet, the sun planet. Similarly, there are hellish planets also. Just like... We have got practical experience. Even on this planet, there are different conditions of atmosphere. Western countries, nearing the North Pole, the climate is different from India because it is near the equator. As there are differences of atmosphere and condition of life within this planet, similarly, there are particular planets also, the condition of life, atmosphere and everything different.
So if you read different scripture, you will be bewildered. In one scripture it is said... But there is adjustment. If you go to the authorized person, he can adjust. But you cannot see. You see, you'll see contradiction. So śrutayo vibhinnāḥ. Therefore they are considered different, but actually, they are not different. Śrutayo vibhinnāḥ. Tarko 'pratiṣṭhaḥ śrutayo vibhinnā nāsau munir yasya mataṁ na bhinnam. And there are speculators, so-called philosophers, putting theories and doctrines. So one doctrine is different from another doctrine. And people are convinced that no doctrine is absolute; therefore they are going on searching doctrine after doctrine throughout the whole life, and they do not know... Just like the theosophists. They go on, simply searching. They have never come to the conclusion, "Here is the end." They cannot do that. But in Bhagavad-gītā you will find, "Here is the end." Kṛṣṇa says, mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat kiñcid asti dhanañjaya: (BG 7.7) "My dear Arjuna, here is the ultimate goal. I am—Kṛṣṇa. There is no more anything higher than Me." Nānyad asti kiñcid dhanañjaya. Mayi sarvam idaṁ protaṁ sūtre maṇi-ganā iva: "Just like in a thread, the pearls are woven, similarly, everything is standing in Me."
So if we read different scriptures, then we are also bewildered and we cannot come to the conclusions by arguments. And nāsau munir yasya mataṁ na bhinnam. And if you read different speculative methods or philosophical doctrines, that is also different from one another. Because the philosophy, one philosopher is big philosopher if he can defy his predecessor philosophers. Matam na bhinnam. Therefore, dharmasya tattvaṁ nihitaṁ guhāyām.
So Śukadeva Gosvāmī has described all the planetary system, where and how they are situated, how many miles they are different from one another. The calculation of the whole universe is made there. The diameter is described: four billion miles up and down, this way and that. And where is the sun is situated and how far above the sun the moon is situated, how far above the moon the Mars, Jupiter—everything is clearly described. And where the hellish planets are situated, and how in the hellish planets different sinful men are suffering. So Parīkṣit Mahārāja, after hearing... That is Vaiṣṇava. He did not take care of the other things. He immediately took care of the suffering planets, because that is the Vaiṣṇava's nature. Vaiṣṇava has no problem. He is servant of God, representative of God. But he is feeling the sufferings of the humanity. That is Vaiṣṇava. He feels, "Oh, these people are suffering. Let us give some information from the śāstra so that they can be relieved from the suffering condition."
So these nirākāra vādīs, they are..., they cannot think of that there can be any eye which can act from Vaikuṇṭha, which we cannot ascertain how far it is, still you can keep traveling. We can simply think of that "I can see three yards; therefore Kṛṣṇa can see also three yards." But the actual fact is Kṛṣṇa can see you from any distant place. Sarvata pāṇi pādas... sarvato. He has got eyes everywhere. That eyes is not exactly your eyes. Therefore it is called apāṇi acakṣur. Acakṣur means his eyes are not like your eyes. So as soon as we consider "Kṛṣṇa like me, Kṛṣṇa like me," that is natural for a foolish person. That is the first consideration. Because they cannot adjust that God can have eyes different from me, therefore they take nirviśeṣa, nirākāra. Nirākāra means He has no form, He has no eyes, no leg. If I say that God has no leg, no eyes, it is defaming. He has got the brilliant eyes. Yac-cakṣur eṣa savitā. Here is one of the eyes of Kṛṣṇa: the sun. When as soon as they declare "God has no eyes," if we take in that way that we cannot see, He has no eyes, then it is blaspheme.
herefore in the Brahma-saṁhitā it is said that yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-aṇḍa-koṭi (Bs. 5.40). On the effulgence, shining of Kṛṣṇa's body, there are innumerable universes. Jagad-aṇḍa. Jagad-aṇḍa, this aṇḍa. You were talking of that egg. Aṇḍa means egg, egglike. Jagad-aṇḍa. Yasya prabhā jagad-aṇḍa koṭi, and koṭiṣu vasudhādi-vibhūti-bhinnam (Bs. 5.40). In each universe there are millions and trillions of planets, each one different from the other. Vibhūti-bhinnam. Bhinnam means separate. As here earth is prominent, somewhere the fire is prominent, somewhere the air is prominent, but the whole thing is made of these five elements—earth, water, air, fire—that's all. So why should you deny that "Fire—no living entities"? You cannot live in the fire; you cannot live in the water. Does it mean others cannot? This is foolishness. This is foolish. And Kṛṣṇa says that imaṁ vivasvate yogaṁ proktavān aham avyayam: (BG 4.1) "I spoke this philosophy, Bhagavad-gītā, to sun-god." His name is also given, Vivasvān. So Vaivasvata Manu. So either Kṛṣṇa is talking lies... How Kṛṣṇa spoke unless he's a person, living there? Everything is there.
So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement means to give them idea of real enjoyment. If... So real enjoyment means that when you are uncontaminated with this material body. Spiritual enjoyment. Now we are trying to enjoy with this body. The body is senses. Indriyāṇi parāṇy āhuḥ. Bodily enjoy means the sense enjoyment. Indriyāṇi parāṇy āhur indriyebhyaḥ paraṁ manaḥ, manasas tu parā buddhiḥ (BG 3.42). In this way we have to understand that this body is false; therefore the bodily enjoyment is also false. That they cannot understand. This is their misfortune. Therefore one who does not understand in the beginning of spiritual life that "I am not this body. I am different from body..." Then his spiritual life begins. Otherwise, cats and dogs and everyone is engaged with this bodily enjoyment. So long we shall be captivated by this bodily enjoyment, we are in the groups of animals. That's all.
- yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke
- sva-dhīḥ kalatrādiṣu bhauma ijya-dhīḥ
- yat-tīrtha-buddhiḥ salile na karhicij
- janeṣv abhijñeṣu sa eva go-kharaḥ
- (SB 10.84.13)
Animals. The whole world is going on in a way which is animal civilization. So if you want to be happy, you have to come to the spiritual platform, reality. That is wanted, thorough overhauling. They should know perfectly well that "We are after false enjoyment. We have to come to the platform of real enjoyment." Somebody is mistaking that "Real enjoyment, there cannot be any varieties. If there are varieties, then what is the difference between this and that?" So these varieties are different in quality. This is material quality, and that is spiritual quality. They have no distinction between matter and spirit. They cannot understand this exactly like cats and dogs.
So after death we understand that this dead body is neither my husband nor my son. Late experience. But in the beginning there is no such experience. That is called illusion. He's understanding that this dead body is not neither my father, nor my husband, nor my son. He's different from. That is practical example. Otherwise why not take the dead body of your husband or son and keep it? No. That is not possible.
So it is clear that the soul is different from the body. But because we are fools and rascals, we learn it after death. That is foolishness. Not in the beginning. In the beginning the Bhagavad-gītā says, Kṛṣṇa says, that asmin dehe, "Within this body, the soul is there." "No, no. I don't believe." Dull brain cannot understand. But after death, he sees, "Yes. The body's not my son. The body's not my husband." So that is foolishness. The foolish person understands late, and the intelligent person understands very quickly. That is the difference. So I love my body. I love my husband's body, my wife's body. Why? The real husband, wife or son is within the body. Therefore we love. Then the conclusion is that the soul is important more than the body. Then the question will be that "Why you love the soul?" Then the answer will be "Because the soul is part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa." Kṛṣṇa says, mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūta (BG 15.7). So ultimately the conclusion is that I love Kṛṣṇa and, because the soul is part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa, therefore I love the soul. And because the soul loves within this body, therefore I love... There is no difficulty to understand. But so long one is under illusion, he's under the bodily concept of life. Therefore śāstra says that one who is in the bodily concept of life, he's animal. He's animal.
Therefore the result of yogic performances are achieved by the inimical personalities. In the impersonal Brahman effulgence, not only the highly learned scholars who are trying to attain brahma-jñāna, they enter, but also the enemies who are unfavorably thinking of Kṛṣṇa, they also enter into that spiritual kingdom, impersonal effulgence, nirviśeṣa-brahma-jyotir. Therefore a devotee's position is different from the jñānīs', impersonalists'. Because the destination which is achieved by the jñānīs is also achieved by the enemies of Kṛṣṇa. So that is not a very high position. Therefore devotees' position is very exalted. They do not... They go through the impersonal effulgence of Brahman, but they are not attracted. They are attracted in the Vaikuṇṭha planets, Goloka Vṛndāvana planets, where the Supreme Personality of Godhead lives eternally with His associates.
So we have to practice this, that Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra. If we practice, there is chance at the time of death repeating the same thing, Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra. So immediately you are saved, not to go to the yama-mandira. The powerful name, holy name is as good as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. There is no difference—absolute. Absolute means... Just like here if I simply chant "mango, mango, mango," there is no mango. Mango is different from the name mango. If I want to eat mango, the substance mango I must have. So there is difference between the name and its substance. That is material-duality. But in the absolute world there is..., means there's no duality. The name mango and mango: the same. This requires advanced knowledge. So there is no difference between Kṛṣṇa the name and Kṛṣṇa the person. There is no difference. Otherwise this is practical. You're chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. Twenty-four hours you can chant, you'll never feel tired. But if you chant any other thing... (break)
Yes. Yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-aṇḍa koṭi (Bs. 5.40). Jagad-aṇḍa. Jagad-aṇḍa means this universe, aṇḍa, round sphere(?). Koṭi. Koṭi means innumerable. Yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-aṇḍa-koṭi-koṭiṣv aśeṣa-vasudhādi-vibhūti-bhinnam (Bs. 5.40). And in each of them there are innumerable planets, and each planet, the atmosphere is different from one another. Vibhūti-bhinnam. Just like sun planet. It is a different thing from this planet, but... And the moon planet is a different thing from this planet. And the scientists, they are thinking that the sun planet being fiery, there cannot be any living entity. No. There are. There are living entities. Their bodies are also fiery. Fire is also one of the elements. Here we have body with material elements. Major portion is earth, and there major portion is fire. So somewhere major portion is water. So therefore there are vibhūti-bhinnam, different atmosphere. That is God's creation.
One tree is supplying mango, so this mango tree is respect, and another tree, which is producing nothing, they are cut and made into fuel, because useless, no use. So amongst the trees, also you will find first class, second class, third class. Amongst the birds, beasts, animals, there is... Just like lion. He is also animal, and dog is also animal. They are not on the same level. Amongst the birds there are swans and there are crows. The crow is different from the swan although they are birds. The standard of enjoyment by the crows is different from the standard of enjoyment of the swan, white swan.
- tad-vāg-visargo janatāgha-viplavo
- yasmin prati-ślokam abaddhavaty api
- nāmāny anantasya yaśo 'ṅkitāni yat
- śṛṇvanti gāyanti gṛṇanti sādhavaḥ
- (SB 1.5.11)
Now here we are studying Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam or Bhagavad-gītā. This is... This literature is meant for the swans, not for the crows. That is the division. And other literatures, sex literatures and these criminal literatures—there are so many literatures—they are meant for the crows, crow-class men. And this literature is meant for swan-class of men, swan, paramahaṁsa. We are also reading... We are not interested with the lump of newspaper. We are interested in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Why? Because within this literature there is glorification of the Supreme Lord, how He is conducting the whole universal affair, how the sun is rising exactly in time by His order, the moon is rising exactly by His order, not a minute's deviation. The big, big ocean, Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, very big, powerful, but still within the limit. The Pacific Ocean cannot come beyond the jurisdiction.
We are seeing daily. Similarly, there are innumerable universes in the brahma-jyotir. Yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-aṇḍa-koṭi (Bs. 5.40). And koṭiṣu, and each and every universe, millions, koṭiṣu. Yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-aṇḍa-koṭi-koṭiṣu aśeṣa-vasudhādi-vibhūti-bhinnam (Bs. 5.40). Vasudhā, vasudhā means planet. Just like this is also vasudhā, this planet here. We can see there are so many millions of planets, at night you can see, and each of them is peculiar, different from the others. Why they have failed to utilize the moon planet? It is a different atmosphere. It is different atmosphere. These rascals cannot go there. It is not possible. They have simply made false propaganda. They cannot go there. So because the atmosphere is different... There is also blazing fire surrounded by ice. That is the description. I am speaking from the description. And therefore at night it is so pleasing. You have got experience. Fire coming through ice, the rays, that is very pleasing. Therefore sunshine is making the whole thing very hot, and the moonshine making it pleasing.
So what is dharma, religion? In the dictionary, English dictionary it is explained: "a kind of faith." But we do not take in that way. Faith, you have got different faith, I have got different faith, how it will be dharma? The same example: if you have different faith that you do not accept this government law, that will not do. You may have faith or no faith, but you have to accept. That is dharma. That is dharma. So they very particularly analyzed dharma. Dharma means... I have given translation in many places: "occupational duty." Everyone is fit for a certain occupation. And the duty ascertained for such occupation, that is dharma. Natural. Or, in one word, it can be explained as characteristic. So, just like a chemical, it has got some characteristic in the chemical analytical book, that... Take soda bicarb. The characteristic—it tastes like this, the color is like this, the, like this, so many things. Hmm. (aside:) That child is coughing. So dharma means characteristic. So what is the dharma of the living entity? We are all living entities. What is the dharma? What is the characteristic? Common. Not that because I am Hindu, my characteristic is different from your characteristic. As living being, our characteristic is the same. Either you are Hindu or Muslim or Christian or white or black, never mind. What is that characteristic? That characteristic—to serve. The inferior must serve to the superior. That's all. This is characteristic. Find out all over the universe, the service.
Even He is the cause of Nārāyaṇa, Kṛṣṇa expansion. Kṛṣṇa expands, advaitam acyutam anādim ananta-rūpam (Bs. 5.33). He is advaita, absolute, but He expands Himself in multiforms. He expands Himself as Baladeva, and from Baladeva, there is Saṅkarṣaṇa; from Saṅkarṣaṇa, there is Aniruddha, Pradyumna. In this way, expansion goes. These are Vedic versions. So Nārāyaṇa is also Kṛṣṇa's expansion, although these expansions are not different from one another. That is also... The example is given, just like one candle. Then you light up another candle, another candle. Each one of these candles are equally powerful, but the original candle is called the first candle. Similarly, Kṛṣṇa is the original Supreme Personality of Godhead. From Him, all other expansions... They are called Viṣṇu-tattva. And Kṛṣṇa also says in the Bhagavad-gītā, ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavaḥ (BG 10.8), aham ādir devānām. These things are there.
So in this way we have to accept dharma. As it is said in the recent, say, within five years, five thousand years, the Kṛṣṇa consciousness is... Actually we are spreading. This Kṛṣṇa consciousness means what Kṛṣṇa has said. That we have taken. That is Vedas. Sometimes people argue that Bhagavad-gītā is smṛti. Professor, Dr. Stahl, he argued with me that Bhagavad-gītā is smṛti. Smṛti means the Vedic conclusion written by somebody else. That is called smṛti. He is also authorized. So Bhagavad-gītā is also accepted as smṛti, but smṛti is not different from śruti.
So that duty is called dharma. It is not a kind of faith. It is the constitutional position. You must have to serve. If you don't serve Kṛṣṇa, then you will have to serve māyā. There are two things: God or Satan. So similarly, God is Kṛṣṇa, and Satan is māyā. So if you refuse to serve God, then you have to serve Satan. That's all. You cannot become master. This is called dharma. Dharmaṁ tu sākṣād bhagavat-praṇītam (SB 6.3.19). And, as it is said here, vedo nārāyaṇaḥ sākṣāt. Vedo nārāyaṇaḥ sākṣāt. Veda, the knowledge, the law or the order, that order is from God. Therefore there is no difference between the Vedas and Nārāyaṇa. Because Nārāyaṇa or God is absolute, He personally and His word, it is the same thing. And in the material experience also we see that the government and the government law is the same thing. You cannot say that the government law is different from government. This is material example. And spiritual is still more perfect. Vedo nārāyaṇaḥ sākṣāt. In other words, that you cannot make any law. The government can make law. Similarly, you cannot manufacture any religion. Nārāyaṇa sākṣāt. Nārāyaṇa, God, He can make. You cannot make at your home, "I have manufactured a type of religion." No. That you cannot do. Nowadays this is going on. Yata mata tata patha: "You can manufacture your own religion." This is going on.
So we must know what is our constitutional position. That we do not know. We are sat, eternal; therefore we shall act in such a way that will benefit my eternal life. That is sat. Therefore the Vedas instruct, asato mā sad gamaḥ: "Don't be engaged in temporary activities, bodily..." Bodily necessities means temporary. If I am child, my body is of a child's body, then my necessities are different from my father's necessities. So everyone is engaged in bodily necessities. Therefore it is said, dehavān na hy akarma-kṛt. And kāriṇāṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sti. Infection. We have got this practical understanding. If your body infects some disease, then you have to suffer. And if your body remains uninfected, unaffected by any poisonous..., then you remain healthy. Therefore it is said, sambhavanti hi bhadrāṇi viparītāni cānaghaḥ. Viparītāni. Viparī means just opposite. Sambhavanti bhadrāṇi. One is acting in auspicity, and one is acting viparītāni, just the opposite, inauspicity. In this way we are becoming entangled, life after life. Karinam guṇa-sango 'sti. In other place it is said, karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa: (SB 3.31.1) "As we are acting auspicious or inauspicious, by higher supervision, higher consideration, judgment, we are getting different body." Otherwise why there are so many varieties of body? This is the cause.
Therefore the conclusion is if you act spiritually, then it is bhadrāṇi, or auspicious. If you act materially, on the bodily concept of life, that is inauspicious. This is the conclusion. And that is being watched by the authorities, as we have already explained, the witnesses. God is the original chastiser or awarder, but there are so many witnesses. That we have already discussed. Sūryaḥ agniḥ khaṁ marud devaḥ somaḥ. Everywhere it is thoroughly watched. So we must be very careful that we have got this human form of body—how to act? The act means first of all you know what is your position. That is the first instruction in the Bhagavad-gītā, that "Your position is that you are not this body. Your position is that you are the proprietor of the body, you are spirit soul." So if people are not educated on this understanding, that the soul is different from body, that is... The beginning of education is wrong. Therefore whatever further advancement of so-called education is wrong, because the basic principle is wrong.
So, according to the Vedic conception of life, it was not right thing that Kṛṣṇa danced with other's wife or other's daughter. This question was put. Parīkṣit Mahārāja said that Kṛṣṇa, because He is God, He cannot do anything wrong. Just like in England, the constitution says, "The king can do no wrong." King cannot be subject to any law. Similarly, when Kṛṣṇa danced with the gopīs, it has got a deep meaning. Because they are all devotees, they did not know except Kṛṣṇa, and they prayed to the Kātyāyanī, although they are married, they prayed to Kātyāyanī before they were married, that "Let Kṛṣṇa become our husband." Kṛṣṇa is so beautiful. Naturally there is attraction. Kṛṣṇa means all-attractive. So... And they were not ordinary women. They are eternal consorts or associates of Kṛṣṇa. Ānanda-cin-māyā-rasa-pratibhāvitābhiḥ. They are expansion of Kṛṣṇa; they are not ordinary women. Expansion of Kṛṣṇa. Rādhā-kṛṣṇa-praṇaya-vikṛtiḥ hlādinī-śaktiḥ asmād. The gopīs, Rādhārāṇī, they are expansion of the spiritual energy of Kṛṣṇa. Don't think they are ordinary women. They are Kṛṣṇa. Śaktiḥ śaktimator abhedaḥ. They are not different from Kṛṣṇa. But to give Kṛṣṇa pleasure, Kṛṣṇa expands Himself by His spiritual energy, ānanda hlādinī, spiritual energy, sandinī hlādinī. That is the expansion of His pleasure potency. It is not that to imitate gopīs. That is sahajiyā. That is sahajiyā. They are ānanda-cin-māyā-rasa-pratibhāvitābhis tābhir ya eva nija-rūpatayā kalābhiḥ goloka eva nivasaty akhilātma-bhūto (Bs. 5.37). When Kṛṣṇa wants pleasure, He is full spiritual, His pleasure is full spiritual. There is no question of material.
Actually, they are suffering. Bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19). We are getting these elements according to the circumstances, according to the body. The same encagement, but quality. A dog has got body, I have got body. The body is made of the same ingredients, but according to the body or quality of the body, the thinking, feeling, willing and activities are different. Because mind, mind's sphere of activities is thinking, feeling and willing, psychology. So according to the body... Just like a child. His thinking, feeling, willing is different from the child's father. Why? Because he has got a body, child, and the father has got a different body. People cannot understand. We are changing. Child is the father of man. So the same child, he has become now father, but he's not talking nonsense now because the body has changed. The child is talking so many nonsense things. People laugh, enjoy. But if the father talks nonsense, then he'll be called, "Here is a rascal." Because the body has changed. So in this way, body is being changed. The child is becoming father, the body has changed. Still, you cannot understand how the change of body, transformation of the body, does not make any transformation of the owner of the body. Dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanam (BG 2.13). He is there, but according to the body he is behaving differently. When he's in the cat's body, he's behaving differently. When he's in a dog's body, he's behaving differently. When he's human body, he's behaving differently. When he's child's body... This is all due to the body.
So with whom associate? Now, Īśa. These are... Īśa means His name, His form, His attributes, His, so many things. You see? Nāma, rūpa, rasa—everything is Īśa. So this temple means to give chance to people for associating with Īśa, with Kṛṣṇa. So therefore, according to Vedic civilization, everyone is advised to go to the temple. Still people are going to the church, to the temple, to the mosque, to the synagogue. Why? Īśa-saṅgāt, īśa-saṅgāt, just to associate with God. That is the purpose. So if you actually search after Īśa, Kṛṣṇa, or God, you can get it. There is arrangement. Just like this temple. This temple, if you come, if you make association with this temple, immediately you will be benefited by hearing the glories of the Lord this, every subject matter pertaining to God. We are reading Bhāgavatam or Bhagavad-gītā. That is also Īśa. Because these are the words of Īśa, therefore, Īśa being absolute, there is no difference between His words and Him. Kṛṣṇa, five thousand years ago He spoke Bhagavad-gītā. That Bhagavad-gītā is the same Bhagavad-gītā which He spoke five thousand years ago, and it is not different from Kṛṣṇa because Kṛṣṇa is absolute. Whatever, His words, His form, His name, His quality, everything, His temple, His activities, His books—everything Īśa.
Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is therefore giving them knowledge. The first knowledge is that we are trying to convince everyone, following the footprints of Lord Kṛṣṇa, as He wanted to convince in the very beginning, that dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā (BG 2.13). This is the first knowledge. One should know that he is not this body. He is spirit soul, different from this body. He is living within this body. This is called knowledge. And at the same time, he should be supplied the necessities of the body. Yāvād artha-prayojanaṁ. Nirbandhe kṛṣṇa-sambandhe yukta-vairāgyam ucyate. Anāsaktasya viṣayān yathārham upayuñjataḥ Viṣayā. Viṣayā means we need something for our sense gratification. That is allowed. We don't say that "You don't eat." No, you eat, but you eat kṛṣṇa-prasādam. Don't eat anything else. Then gradually your senses will be conquered. Sevonmukhe hi jihvādau svayam eva sphuraty adaḥ (Brs. 1.2.234). If you want to realize God, first of all you should engage your tongue in the service of the Lord. It is very astonishing that "Engaging the tongue I become perfect?" Yes. The beginning is the tongue because tongue is the greatest enemy. People are going to hell on account of being unable to control the tongue.
One who has become completely freed from all kinds of material desires... Jñāna-karmādy-anāvṛtam (CC Madhya 19.167). Jñāna-karmādy... Jñāna, cultivation of knowledge, and cultivation of pious activities, that is also on the material field. The pious... To become very pious man does not mean that he is a liberated man. He is good man, on the platform of the quality of goodness, but he is not a liberated man. Try to understand. A good man is not a liberated man. Good man is also conditioned soul. He is bound up by good condition. Just like to become a brāhmaṇa. That does not mean that... He has acquired the good qualities but that does not mean that he is a devotee. You will find in this prayer. You will find many good men but you will find rarely a pure devotee. So good man is not a devotee. Try to distinguish. Good man is good for this material existence but devotee is different from good man.
We gather knowledge from different senses. Suppose there is a good mango. So when you say, "Let me see how the mango is," but you are seeing. No, this seeing is imperfect. You take little portion of the mango and taste it; then you can understand. So experience is gathered from different senses. Why you are giving stress only on seeing? This is foolishness. Just like you can... Even if you do not taste—the mango seller may not allow you to taste—but you can smell. By smelling, you can understand whether the mango is good or bad. After all, you have to get experience. So why we should stress upon seeing Kṛṣṇa? That is most foolish proposal. You have other senses. Kṛṣṇa is prepared to be perceived by you by other senses. What is that? If you hear Kṛṣṇa, then you must know there is Kṛṣṇa. There is Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is not different from His name, from His form, either form or name or quality or paraphernalia, anything. He is Absolute. There is no duality. Anything you perceive, that is Kṛṣṇa. This Kṛṣṇa temple is also Kṛṣṇa. So we have no sufficient knowledge how to understand Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is prepared to be understood by us in so many ways. So the Kali-yuga, therefore, name is so important. Kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva nāsty eva gatir anyathā. Harer nāma harer nāma harer nāmaiva kevalam (CC Adi 17.21). This formula should be seriously taken. Kṛtāśeṣa agha-niṣkṛtam. Aśeṣa. Unlimited amount or unlimited number of sinful activities are already finished.
This is tattva, truth, that Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Person, His holy name, His form, His attributes, His pastimes, His paraphernalia, His dhāma... Just like we are in Vṛndāvana-dhāma. So why Vṛndāvana-dhāma is worshiped? Because the Vṛndāvana-dhāma is not different from Kṛṣṇa. When you take little dust of Vṛndāvana-dhāma and take it, that means you are taking the dust of Kṛṣṇa's lotus feet, and you take it. Vṛndāvana-dhāma, so important.
So Vṛndāvana-dhāma, ordinary man cannot see. Therefore Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura says,
rūpa-raghunātha-pade haibe ākuti
kabe hāma bujhabo śrī yugala-pīriti
- viṣaya chādiyā kabe śuddha ha'be mana
- kabe hāma herabo śrī-vṛndāvana
Vṛndāvana, if you come from anywhere by the train and airplane and see Vṛndāvana, that is not seeing Vṛndāvana. Vṛndāvana seeing means
viṣaya chādiyā kabe śuddha ha'be mana
kabe hāma herabo śrī-vṛndāvana
When we shall be free from viṣaya... Viṣaya means āhāra-nidrā-bhaya-maithunam. So who can give up viṣaya unless he is a great devotee? Others cannot. Viṣaya, it is very difficult. But if one is advanced devotee—paraṁ dṛṣṭvā nivartate (BG 2.59)—they can give up. So if you come to Vṛndāvana and arrange for a viṣaya-bhoga-āhāra-nidrā-bhaya-maithunam—then Vṛndāvana is far away. Viṣaya chādiyā. The whole Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is on the basis of viṣaya chādiyā.
So this is the scientific understanding of brahma-bhūtaḥ stage, or ahaṁ brahmāsmi, and... Everything is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā. So therefore this name is Brahman. The holy name of Lord is Brahman, Brahman's name. Brahman's name means Brahman. Because Brahman is Absolute, He is not different from His name, He is not different from His form, He is not different from His quality. Otherwise how we are worshiping this form of Kṛṣṇa here? This Kṛṣṇa and that Kṛṣṇa... There is no "this" and "that." Kṛṣṇa is one. But even if we think that this is the statue of Kṛṣṇa, that is our misconception. It is not statue. It (is) Kṛṣṇa. We have to prepare our eyes to see Him. Just like Caitanya Mahāprabhu. When He entered Jagannātha temple, He immediately fainted—"Here is Kṛṣṇa. Here is Kṛṣṇa"—because He had the eyes to see Kṛṣṇa. So we have to prepare our eyes to see. That eye is also explained in the Brahma-saṁhitā: premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena santaḥ sadaiva hṛdayeṣu vilokayanti (Bs. 5.38), to develop your love of Kṛṣṇa. Then Kṛṣṇa will be revealed. Sevonmukhe hi jihvādau svayam eva sphuraty adaḥ (Brs. 1.2.234).
So you cannot understand Kṛṣṇa by argument or by your these staring eyes. No. You have to prepare your eyes, you have to prepare your ear, you have to prepare your nose, you have to prepare your tongue, you have to prepare your hand, you have to prepare your leg—all the senses.
So, so long you are in this material world of duality, then you have to commit sinful activities. Therefore the whole Vedic literature is meant for taking you to the spiritual world. Tamasi mā jyotir gamā: "Don't remain in this material world of darkness. Come to the spiritual world." Tamasi mā jyotir gamā. This is instruction. And jyotir means that spiritual world. First appreciation of the jyotirmān, Brahman, Brahmaloka, Brahman effulgence, that is the first entrance. Brahmeti paramātmeti bhagavān iti (SB 1.2.11). Just like you see the sunshine: it is impersonal, only light. But if you have got power, strength, if you can go to the sun planet, that is another. This is also... Sun planet is also shining. The heat and light is there. And in the sunshine there is heat and light and shining. But the temperature in the sun globe is different from this temperature. And if you have got strength, then you can see who is reigning over that sun planet. In the Vedic literature you will find his name. Imaṁ vivasvate yogaṁ proktavān aham avyayam (BG 4.1). The name of the predominating deity, or the president of the sun globe, is Vivasvān. His name is also there. His address is also there. The God is there. God's name is there. God's address is there. Now if you have got power to go there, you can go. Just like Indira Gandhi or the President's name is there, address is there, but if you are fit to see him or her, that depends on you. Not that because you cannot see the President or Indira Gandhi, she is nirākāra. This is foolishness. This is foolishness.
This is the conclusion, that etāvatālam agha-nirharaṇāya puṁsāṁ saṅkīrtanaṁ bhagavato guṇa-karma-nāmnām. Therefore Yamarāja is recommending that by our fruitive activities we are implicated in so many sinful reaction of life, so saṅkīrtanaṁ bhagavato guṇa-karma-nāmnām. Not only the chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra is called saṅkīrtana of the holy name of the Lord, but here it is said, guṇa-karma-nāmnām. Saṅkīrtanaṁ bhagavato guṇa-karma-nāmnām. Not that when you read Kṛṣṇa, the book which is full of Kṛṣṇa's activities... That is also saṅkīrtana. That is also saṅkīrtana. Saṅkīrtana does not mean simply chanting the holy name of Kṛṣṇa. Saṅkīrtana means you discuss Kṛṣṇa's activities, that is also saṅkīrtana. That is not different from saṅkīrtana. It is clearly stated here that bhagavato guṇa-karma-nāmnām. Nāma means name, and guṇa means quality, and karma means activities. That is not ordinary karma. Just like when we read Kṛṣṇa book, Kṛṣṇa is killing so many demons, He is kidnapping somebody, He is... So many things. It appears just like ordinary, I mean to say, malpractices in the material world. It appears like that. "So what is this God? He is killing so many persons, He is kidnapping some woman. What is this God?" they may say. But they do not know that that is also transcendental. That is as pure as chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. It is as pure as. Otherwise, what interest we have got to read Bhagavad-gītā? It is in the battlefield. Senayor ubhayor madhye. Combination of two parties, soldiers, and they are fighting, they are killing.
But this Mādhavendra's statement is not for the neophyte devotees. We should not imitate Mādhavendra Purī. Mādhavendra Purī was the spiritual master of Īśvara Purī, and Īśvara Purī was the spiritual master of Caitanya Mahāprabhu. So the position of Mādhavendra Purī, the position of Haridāsa Ṭhākura, they are different from our position. We should not imitate, that "Because Mādhavendra Purī gave up everything and simply concentrated his mind in chanting mahā-mantra, Hare Kṛṣṇa, or Haridāsa Ṭhākura, therefore I shall also do that. I shall not rise early in the morning. I shall not take bath. I shall not worship the Deity. Simply I shall..." That is not possible. That is not possible. But actually, if anyone can chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra offenselessly and in devotion and love... There the first thing is love—not force—love, what is called automatically, spontaneous. Spontaneous. Just like Rūpa Gosvāmī, he said that "How I shall chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra in one tongue? If I had hundreds and thousands of tongues, then I could chant and relish what is Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra." That is a different stage. We should not imitate. But actually this is a fact, that simply by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, you can get relief from all kinds of performances, ritualistic ceremonies. That is the point stressed by Śrīdhara Svāmī.
As soon as we desire to enjoy... Because constitutionally we are not enjoyer; we are enjoyed. We are not predominator, but we are predominated. That is our position. And Caitanya Mahāprabhu says, jīvera svarūpa haya nitya kṛṣṇa dāsa (Cc. Madhya 20.108-109). Our real position is to remain eternal servant of Kṛṣṇa. This is our real position. But because we have got little independence... Because we are part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa... Kṛṣṇa is supremely independent. abhijñaḥ sva-rāṭ. Description of Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is there in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam: janmādy asya yataḥ anvayād itarataś ca artheṣu abhijñaḥ sva-rāṭ (SB 1.1.1). Sva-rāṭ means fully independent. Kṛṣṇa is fully independent. But because we are part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa, we are minutely possessing almost, not all, all the qualities of Kṛṣṇa in proportionately in minute quantity. Just like the particle of gold is also gold. That is nothing else but gold. But the value of that particle is different from the gold mine. Our relationship with Kṛṣṇa is like that. Kṛṣṇa is just like the gold mine, and I and you, just like gold earring. The gold earring or gold finger ring or any golden ornament, that is gold undoubtedly, but is not as big as the gold mine. That is the difference between God and ourself. That is the difference. Qualitatively, we are one, being part and parcel of the Supreme Absolute Truth, but quantitatively we are different. Therefore, simultaneously, we are one and different. This is called acintya-bhedābheda tattva. Acintya. We cannot conceive in our present status of life that one thing can be equal and different from another. But if we think over it (a) little soberly, we can understand. This is the example. Mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūtaḥ jīva-loke sanātanaḥ (BG 15.7).
So these are the instruction of Vedic literature, especially in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Bhāgavatam. The Bhāgavatam, it is derived from the word bhagavat-śabda. Bhagavat-śabda means bhagavān, and bhāgavata means those who are in connection with Bhagavat, Bhagavān. So this Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam means it is in connection with the Supreme Lord and His devotee. A devotee is called bhāgavata, and the book about Bhagavān, that is also bhāgavata. There are two kinds of bhāgavatam. The living bhāgavatam is the devotee, and the representation Bhāgavatam is the Bhagavat-grantha. There is no difference. Absolute means there is no difference. Kṛṣṇa is Absolute; therefore either this grantha-bhāgavatam or the devotee bhāgavata or Kṛṣṇa, they are all one. That is Absolute conception. Advaya-jñāna. We should not distinguish a devotee from Bhagavān. We shall not distinguish Bhāgavatam from Bhagavān. When we read Bhagavad-gītā—practically every one of us reads—we should not think that Bhagavad-gītā is different from Kṛṣṇa. Bhagavad-gītā is as good as Kṛṣṇa. It is not ordinary book. Ordinary book is different from the author, but this Bhagavad-gītā is Bhagavān Himself.
That is also explained, deha-yogena dehinām. Another standard of sense gratification. Because the human body's sense gratification is different from dog's body's sense gratification. Or European sense gratification is different from African sense gratification because it is due to the body. So wherever you take your birth, in this planet or another planet, or this family or that family, this nation or that, that sense gratification arrangement is already there according to your body. You cannot improve it. If a dog likes to gratify his senses like a man, it is not possible because he has got a particular type of body. Deha-yogena dehinām. So that sense... Just like a dog has no economic problems. So a cat has no economic problems, a bird has no economic problem. But we civilized human being, we have got economic problem. Why? Now, because the advanced consciousness which are to be used for understanding our relationship with God, we are utilizing, misusing it for sense gratification. The advanced consciousness which was given to us by the law of nature, to utilize it to understand what is God, what is my relationship with Him, and what is my duty in that relationship, this is the boon to understand in the human life, but we don't care for it.
The body of man is not exactly body of God. There is no difference between the body and soul of God because it is spiritual. The soul is spiritual, the body is spiritual. Just like if you have got your golden body and golden soul, there is no difference between the soul and body. But in our case, we, as we are, we are spirit soul but this body is material, therefore I am different from this body. But when you are liberated, we get spiritual body, similar, at that time, as Kṛṣṇa has no difference between His body and soul, similarly, we also have no difference between body and soul. But at the present moment we have got difference with the body and soul. Therefore as soon as the soul goes away from this body, the body being matter, "Dust thou art, dust thou beist." It mixes with the matter. The soul takes another body. The whole problem is that we have to stop this repetition of migration from one material body to another material body. That is the highest perfection of life.
Why you should understand God from the beginning of life? That is explained here: because the human life is meant for understanding God. The cats and dogs, they cannot understand God, but although He has got this material body like us, the cats and dogs body and my body, if we make analysis, there is some blood, there is some muscle, there is some bone, there is some urine and stool. You'll find in the dog's body and in my body. Although these material things I am not. I am different from this muscle or blood or air, whatever it is composition. I am different. That also we can analyze what is this body. This body, first of all, you analyze when there is no breathing, the life is lost. Do you think that breathing is life? No. Analyze it. What is breathing? It is a air only, little air. Do you mean to say when this breathing is stopped you can inject some air by some machine and life will come? No, that will not come. Therefore air is not life. Neither the blood is life, neither the bone is life, neither the muscle is life. Life is different from all these things. That you have to learn. That is called bhāgavata-dharma.
If a cat can have sense enjoyment without arranging for it, if a dog can have sense enjoyment without arranging for it, do you think that a human being will not have sense enjoyment without arranging for it? Then why should you waste your time for sense enjoyment? The arrangement is already there by nature. A man or woman has to satisfy his senses. By nature there is arrangement. Rest assured. Don't waste your time for improving sense enjoyment. That means wasting time. You cannot get more than what is destined to you. A dog or a cat cannot get more sense enjoyment than its body will allow. Similarly, we have got particular type of body according to our association of different modes of material nature. Now we have got, say, about hundred men or fifty or sixty men sitting here. Nobody's body will be just equal to the other's body. You examine. Every body is different from other's body. Nobody's face will be exactly the face of the other man. So by nature's process the subtle law is such nice that according to the association of the modes of material nature, you have got a particular type of body. That means you are meant for a particular standard of sense enjoyment. Suppose your body is born in a low family—you cannot expect sense enjoyment as the higher grade persons, they enjoy. That is not possible. So one should be satisfied: "Oh, Kṛṣṇa has given me this body, and He has given me this arrangement of sense enjoyment. Let me be satisfied. My real business is how to advance my Kṛṣṇa consciousness."
So Prahlāda Mahārāja says, na tathā vindate kṣemam. Kṣemam means auspicity. The highest auspicity of life is to reconnect his lost relationship with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, or Kṛṣṇa. This is called yoga. Real yoga means this, that we are, at the present moment we have lost our consciousness. Not actually we have lost our consciousness; we have lost our memory. Consciousness is there, but consciousness may be differently contaminated. Different person, your consciousness may be different from my consciousness. You are thinking in a different way; I am thinking in different way. Similarly, consciousness is there. That is a symptom of life, symptom of spirit soul. But the difference is due to material contamination. Just like superficially your blood and my blood, the same, red. But if we analyze, oh, there may be so many chemicals present in your blood, and so many chemicals may be present which is not exactly equal. Similarly, as soon as there is life and there is spirit soul, the focus of the spirit soul, consciousness, must be there. I am present in this body—how I can understand? Because this consciousness. You pinch any part of your body: you feel. This is your consciousness. That means I am present in this body, and as soon as I am away from this body, you may cut this body into pieces—there will be no consciousness. There is no feeling.
Similarly, deha, and you add in, then dehin. The real meaning is, deha means this body and dehī means the possessor of the body. So actually in the modern age, the so-called civilization, they do not understand what is deha and dehī. They think this deha is everything, the body is everything. But that is not the fact. So dehī, the possessor of the body. So there are so many different types of body. But it is possessed, each and every deha, or body, is possessed by the dehī. So dehī, in a particular possession of deha. Dehī means the spirit soul. When he is within the encagement of a particular body, then his standard of happiness and distress is particular. Just like the hog, he's in a particular type of body, and a human being is in a particular type of body. Deha-yogena dehinām. This dehī, the spirit soul, he's encaged in a particular type of body. Therefore the happiness of the hog is different from the happiness of a man because he has got a particular type of body. A man, if you give him nice halavā, he'll be pleased. And the hog, if you give fresh stool, he'll be pleased. Why? The hog will not protest; rather he will like: "Oh, it is very nice." And a man will hate to even stand there. So why this difference? Deha-yogena dehina. The dehī, the spirit soul has a particular type of body and he's taking pleasure in particular type of food.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Do you know the definition of Om?
Guest (1): The Bhagavad-gītā defines it.
Prabhupāda: It is in the Bhagavad-gītā said, akṣarāṇām oṁkāro 'smi. Kṛṣṇa says that "Amongst the alphabets, I am oṁkāra." Therefore oṁkāra is not different from Kṛṣṇa. As soon as we say "Kṛṣṇa," the oṁkāra is there.
Guest (1): Right. And I imagine that as soon as I say my mantra, Om is also there, is it not?
Prabhupāda: So oṁkāra... In every Vedic mantra the oṁkāra is there. But when Kṛṣṇa is there, oṁkāra is automatically there. Because it is said in the Bhagavad-gītā, akṣarāṇām oṁkāro 'smi: "Amongst the alphabets, I am oṁkāra." So when you speak of Kṛṣṇa, the oṁkāra is automatically there. When there is fire, the heat is automatically there.
To become a devotee of the Supreme Lord is not unnatural. It is very easy, natural thing. By nature, we are attached to Kṛṣṇa, or the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Somehow or other, circumstantially, we are separated. Not separated, because here it is stated ātmatvāt: the Supreme Personality of Godhead is, although we are thinking we are different from Him, He is within our hearts. Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe arjuna: (BG 18.61) He is so friendly that although we are averse, we do not like even the word of God, God is so kind that He is sitting within my heart. Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānām, He's simply looking forward for the opportunity when I, the living entity, shall look towards Him. He's always anxious.
The expansion of the Absolute Truth how it is working, so Kṛṣṇa summarized before Arjuna that this material world, material world... Ekāṁśena sthito jagat, this material world. What is that material world? This material world, we see only one universe to our vision. Similarly, there are millions of universes. Yasya prabhā prabhavato jadad-aṇḍa koṭi (Bs. 5.40). Jagad-aṇḍa means one universe. And in each universe, koṭiṣu aśeṣa. Yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-aṇḍa-koṭi-koṭisv aśeṣu vibhūti-bhinnam (Bs. 5.40). There are millions of planets and each planet is different from here. That is God's creation. So all this together, ekāṁśena sthito jagat, this material world is one-fourth part exhibition of God's creation. And three-fourths' part is in the Vaikuṇṭhaloka, spiritual world. So by speculation, by our research, it is impossible, but we can get a glimpse of knowledge of the Absolute Truth when we receive it through the Absolute Truth, Kṛṣṇa. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement.
So, Prahlāda Mahārāja has very nicely analyzed the characteristics of the soul by twelve items: ātmā, nitya, avyaya, śuddha, eka, kṣetra-jña, āśraya, avikriya, sva-dṛk, hetuḥ, vyāpaka, asaṅgī, anāvṛta. These things I have explained in Calcutta. Again we may repeat. These are important points. The characteristic of ātmā, either ātmā or paramātmā, the same characteristics are there. Exactly like gold bar and gold particle. The chemical composition of the gold bar and the gold particle is the same. So, ātmā nitya eternal. The materialistic scientists, they have no information of the ātmā. They think that this material combination of elements evolved some living force. That is their theory. As such they think that in other planets, where the atmosphere is different, they think there is no life, because they do not know that life means presence of the ātmā, and the ātmā, the soul, can live in any condition of material existence, any condition. Even in fire the ātmā can live because according to the information we receive from Bhagavad-gītā, the ātmā is never burned even in the fire. It is never moistened in the water. It cannot be cut into pieces. These things are there. This material body can be cut into pieces, it can be burned, it can be wetted in water, but ātmā, spirit soul, is different from this body.
These are gross and subtle material elements. Aṣṭau prakṛtayaḥ proktās traya eva hi tad-guṇāḥ, and these material elements are moving by the interaction of the three material qualities—sattva-guṇa, raja-guṇa, tamo-guṇa. One who is situated in the sattva-guṇa, he is also existing on these eight material elements. And one who is existing in the modes of passion, he is also existing on the... Brāhmaṇa's body, take for example. Brāhmaṇa is in the sattva-guṇa, and kṣatriya is in the raja-guṇa. Vaiśya is mixed up and śūdra is the tamo-guṇa. So existing means the consciousness according to the contamination of different condition of the guṇas... This condition is the guṇas. Sattva-guṇa, one who is in sattva-guṇa, his consciousness is different from the consciousness of the raja-guṇa. One whose consciousness is raja-guṇa, his consciousness is different from the tamo-guṇa. In this way you will find different types of consciousness. In pure there are three. If they're mixed up-three into three, it becomes nine. Again mixed up-nine into nine, it becomes eighty-one. Again mixed up-eighty-one... In this way you will find varieties of life. But they're based on the three types of consciousness—sattva-guṇa consciousness, raja-guṇa consciousness, tamo-guṇa consciousness. So when one is transcendental to this contaminated consciousness, polluted by the three qualities of material nature, that is Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
So in this way we have to understand Kṛṣṇa, the Lord, devaḥ, how He is working, transcendentally. That is paśyaty acakṣaḥ, acakṣuḥ, śṛṇoti, akarṇaḥ. His hearing, His seeing, His eating is different from us. Therefore it is said, aṅgāni yasya sakalendriya-vṛtti-manti (Bs. 5.32). If we offer at His lotus feet something, He eats. He can eat with His leg. Therefore how His eating process can be equal to us? Therefore there are two contradictions, paśyati, acakṣuḥ. Śṛnoti, akarṇaḥ. This is to be understood. Not that He is impersonal. His personality is different from our personality. We cannot eat witl our leg, but Kṛṣṇa can eat with, by His leg. He can see by His leg, He can hear by His finger. This is called aṅgani yasya sakalendriya-vṛtti-manti (Bs. 5.32). He is perfect. In this way you have to understand Kṛṣṇa. So, as soon as we come in touch with Kṛṣṇa by devotional service, then we become abhayam, no more fear. As soon as we are in the material world, bhayam. Kṛṣṇa's another name is Abhaya. Bhajahū re mana śrī-nanda-nandana abhaya-caraṇāravinda re, abhaya. His name is Abhaya. So if you come in touch with Kṛṣṇa by devotional service, and there is no more fear. Everyone is afraid. But, who is a devotee of Kṛṣṇa, nārāyaṇa-parāḥ, nārāyaṇa-parāḥ sarve na kutaścana bibhyati (SB 6.17.28). (end)
So as Nṛsiṁha-deva touched the head of Prahlāda Mahārāja, immediately you can have that same facility. "What is that facility? How? Nṛsiṁha-deva is not here. Kṛṣṇa is not here." No. He is here. "What is that?" Nama rūpe kali kale kṛṣṇa avatāra. Kṛṣṇa is present by his name, Kṛṣṇa. Don't think this Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, this name, is different from Kṛṣṇa. Absolute. Kṛṣṇa, the Deity Kṛṣṇa, the name Kṛṣṇa, the person Kṛṣṇa—everything, the same Absolute Truth. There is no differentiation. So in this age simply by chanting Kīrtanād eva kṛṣṇasya mukta-saṅgaḥ paraṁ vrajet (SB 12.3.51). Simply by chanting the holy name of Kṛṣṇa... Nama-cintāmaṇi kṛṣṇaḥ caitanya-rasa-vigrahaḥ, pūrṇaḥ śuddho nitya-muktaḥ. Don't think the holy name of Kṛṣṇa is different from Kṛṣṇa. It is pūrṇam. Pūrṇaḥ pūrṇam adaḥ pūrṇam idam (Īśopaniṣad, Invocation). Everything pūrṇa. Pūrṇa means complete. We have tried to explain this completeness in our Īśopaniṣad. You have read. So stick to the holy name of Kṛṣṇa. You'll get the same benefit as Prahlāda Mahārāja got by direct touch of the lotus palm of Nṛsiṁha-deva. There is no difference. Always think like that, that as soon as you are chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, you must know that you are touching Kṛṣṇa with your tongue. Then you get the same benefit as Prahlāda Mahārāja.
So "I think," tat sādhu manye-sādhu means honest, very good, very nice—"that is very nice." What is that? Dehināṁ: "For the entities who have accepted this material body..." He is speaking universally. Not for himself or for his father, but he was speaking generally for everybody. Everybody. Anyone. Dehināṁ. Dehi means this body. We are different from this body. We have several times discussed this point. So in Sanskrit word there are two implications in the understanding of our existence. One is deha. Deha means this body. And dehi means the proprietor of this body. I am the proprietor of my body, you are the proprietor of your body. So Prahlāda Mahārāja says, "For all the proprietors of the body"—that means for everyone who has accepted this material body, all living entities—"that is the best thing." What is that? Sadā samudvigna-dhiyṁ. And anyone who has accepted this material body, his symptom is that he is full of anxieties. This is the disease. To get this body, material body, means to remain always full of anxieties. Either you become the first-class, I mean to say, executive head, President Johnson, or an ordinary man in the Bowery Street—everyone is full of anxiety. Not only human society but also bird society, beast society—everyone. Anyone who has got this material body, he's full of anxiety. But we want to get free from anxieties. That is our aspiration.
So saṁskārād bhaved dvijaḥ. By reformation, by following the regulative principle of how to elevate oneself to the knowledge of Brahman... That is called saṁskāra. There are ten kinds of saṁskāras, reformatory. This Vedic system is very scientific system to elevate the humankind to the highest perfection of life. So saṁskārād bhaved dvijaḥ. Then, when the saṁskāra is given, when his, the spiritual master sees that "This boy is now competent to study Vedas..." That requires a qualification. A śūdra is not allowed to study Vedas. There is restriction. Sometimes they think injustice, that "Why śūdras?" That is modern convention. Actually that is very nice. What a śūdra can understand Vedas? To the śūdras, a different type of knowledge... Just like the same thing, that the two plus two in the lower class is different from the two plus two in the higher mathematics. So śūdra cannot understand. So one has to become brāhmaṇa, vipra at least, dvija, twice—birth by initiation. Then he is allowed to study. Then he will be able to understand the language of... It is not injustice that śūdras are not... Just like... I do not know what is the system in your country, but in India, one who is not a graduate, he is not allowed to study law. If one, anyone wants to study law, if he wants to enter into the law college, then he must be a graduate first of all, at least B.A. Otherwise he cannot. So if somebody says, "It is injustice," why? "Everyone should." Everyone cannot understand.
No. You know it. He's Lord of everyone. Therefore everyone can say "my Lord." That does not mean if somebody says "my Lord," He becomes monopolized. (chuckles) It does not mean. You are speaking on the platform of monopolizing, "mine." But God is never monopolized. He's everyone's, so everyone has the right to say "my God," "my Lord." It does not mean... Generally, in the material sense, when I say, "This is my spectacle," it does not belong to you. Is it not? So this "my" is not that "my." When I say "my God," that does not mean He's not your God. That is the difference. In the material sense, when I say "It is my wife," then it is not any other's wife. But God is not like that. If I say "my God," so you can say "my God," he can say "my God," everyone can say "my God." This is spiritual "my," absolute "my." Try to understand this way, that in the material sense, when I saying something "my," that is different from when I say "my God." That is different. That is not exactly... As we think in the material way, "my thing," "my God," "my home," "my wife," "my wealth," "my bank," it is not like that. But the relationship... Just like I say "my hand." So how can I express? Just like Kṛṣṇa says mamaivāṁśo (BG 15.7). Mama means "Mine." "These, all these living creatures, they are My part and parcels." So why the living creatures shall not say "my God"? Do you follow? Kṛṣṇa says "You are Mine." Why shall you not say, "Kṛṣṇa, You are mine." Your husband says, "You are mine." Why shall you not say, "You are mine"? But don't take it in the material sense. In material sense, as soon as I say it is mine, it is nobody else's. It is my property. Law of identity or something like that. So Kṛṣṇa is not like that.
So, sarve hy amī vidhi-karāḥ. These vidhi-karāḥ, they are not svāṁśa; they are vibhinnāṁśa. Brahmā and other demigods and we, we are of them same category, not that because one has become Brahmā, so he is equal to the Supreme Lord. No. That is not possible. Śiva-viriñci-nutam: (SB 11.5.33) "The Supreme Lord is worshiped even by Lord Brahmā, Lord Śiva." Nobody can be equal. This Māyāvāda philosophy that in whichever form you worship the Lord, they are all the same—no, they are not same. Therefore here it is said, vidhi-karāḥ, brahmādaya, "They are all your servants, vidhi-karāḥ." Vidhi-karās means who executes the order of the Supreme Lord. That is devatā. And one who wants to become one or equal with the Supreme Lord, they are asuras. They always create disturbance. At the present moment there are so many asuras. Everyone is defying the supremacy of the Supreme Lord. Everyone is trying to become God. Therefore the whole world is in chaotic condition. If we want to adjust this chaotic condition, then we require the incarnation of God. That is already there. Nāma-rūpe kali kāle kṛṣṇa-avatāra. This Hare Kṛṣṇa movement is the incarnation of Kṛṣṇa in the form of name. There is no difference... The saṅkīrtana movement which was inaugurated by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu... And Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu is Kṛṣṇa Himself. So abhinnatvād nāma-nāminoḥ. So this Hare Kṛṣṇa movement is not different from Kṛṣṇa or Caitanya Mahāprabhu. So if we take shelter of this holy name of the Lord, Hare Kṛṣṇa, then we shall be saved. Paritrāṇāya sādhūnām (BG 4.8). We shall become sādhu simply by chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12).
Therefore Prahlāda Mahārāja is giving warning that "I shall recite the narration of Your pastime which is composed by Brahmā." Viriñci. Viriñci means... Śiva-viriñci-nutam (SB 11.5.33). That is the secret of success. You cannot compose by whimsical way. No. That is not. That will not be possible. Therefore the next word is very important, when he says, pada-yugālaya-haṁsa-saṅgaḥ. Pada-yugālaya-haṁsa-saṅgaḥ. This is possible when we associate, saṅgaḥ... Saṅgaḥ means association. Whose association? Pada-yugālaya-haṁsa. One who is... Because Kṛṣṇa's feet is compared as lotus—"lotus feet," we say—so where there is lotus, there is haṁsa, swan. Swan, you'll find. That is the difference between the crows and the swan. Crows gather in a place, filthy place, where all rotten things are kept. The crows come there. Where all rotten things are there, all the crows will come. But when there is lotus, the crows will not go there; the haṁsa, swan, they'll go there. Even in the bird society there are classes: crow society, swan society, pigeon society, sparrow society. Everyone has got society. But one society is different from another society. Similarly, where there is kṛṣṇa-kathā, the crowslike men will not come. Where there is cinema, where there is prostitute dance, where there is drinking, the crowslike men will gather.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: "My dear Lordship, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the whole cosmic creation is caused by You, and the cosmic manifestation is the effect of Your energy. Although the whole cosmic creation is Yourself, still, You keep Yourself aloof from it. The conception of 'my' and 'yours' is certainly a kind of illusion, māyā. Because everything is emanating from You, it is not different from You. The manifestation is also not different from You, and the annihilation is also caused by You. In this connection, the example is of the seed and the tree, or the subtle cause and the gross manifestation."
Prabhupāda:
- tvaṁ vā idaṁ sad-asad īśa bhavāṁs tato 'nyo
- māyā yad ātma-para-buddhir iyaṁ hy apārthā
- yad yasya janma nidhanaṁ sthitir īkṣaṇaṁ ca
- tad vaitad eva vasukālavad aṣṭi-tarvoḥ
- (SB 7.9.31)
Cause and effect, sad-asad. One disappears, the cause appears, disappears, and the effect comes into being. The very good example is given here, aṣṭi-tarvoḥ. Aṣṭi means seed, and the... From the aṣṭi, from the seed, a big banyan tree comes out. At that time the aṣṭi, the seed, disappears. A tree is manifestation, so this is example of sad-asat. Aṣṭi, the seed, disappears, and the tree is manifest. So the creation of God is like that. Therefore, in the Bhagavad-gītā it is said, bījo 'haṁ sarva-bhūtānām (Bg 7.10). Bīja, aṣṭi, or seed, He is the root cause of everything. One seed, a small seed, grain, and hundreds of thousands trees coming out of it, and in each tree there are millions of fruits, and each fruit, there are hundreds and thousands of seeds. Again, from the seed, the same creation, hundreds and thousands, millions and millions. This is God's intelligence, how from one source so many varieties are coming out. Again, when annihilation takes place, they again go into the original seed, Kṛṣṇa. Yānti māmikam, it is said. It's coming out.
So the Vaiṣṇava and the Lord are equally respected, even by the demigods. A Vaiṣṇava is not different from the Supreme Personality of Godhead, advaya-jñāna. In the material world, there is difference between the master and the servant. But in the spiritual world, the servant is as much respectful as the master. That is spiritual world. Sri Caitanya Mahāprabhu says, gopī-bhartuḥ pada-kamalayor dāsa-dāsānudāsaḥ (CC Madhya 13.80). Vaiṣṇava means that to become the servant of the servant of the servant of the Lord. Caitanya Mahāprabhu said like that. We don't want...as the Māyāvādī philosophy, they want to become God, at once. No. Nobody can become God, that is not possible. Caitanya Mahāprabhu says that jīvera 'svarūpa' haya-nitya kṛṣṇa-dāsa (Cc. Madhya 20.108-109). The real identity of living entity is eternal servant of the Lord, Kṛṣṇa dāsa. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is clearly explained, mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūta (BG 15.7). In the Bhagavad-gītā or any Vedic literature, there is no such mention that the jīva is as good as the Supreme Lord. It is never stated. Aṁśa, minute particles.
There are living entities who do not accept this material body. They are in the spiritual world. Their number is greater than the number of the living entities within this material world. They are called nitya-siddha. Eternally perfect. And here in this material world, the living entities are called nitya-baddha. Nitya-baddha means eternally conditioned. Therefore, Prahlāda Mahārāja says, tat sādhu manye asura-varya dehinām. Dehinām means in this material world. We are not this deha, this body. We are dehī, only accepting. Just like I am not this shirt. I am different from this shirt. This is called self-realization. Ahaṁ brahmāsmi, I am spirit soul. That is jñāna. So long I am identifying with this body, then my..., I am in ignorance, I am a go-kharaḥ. Yasyātma-buddhiḥ kunape tri-dhātuke, sa eva go-kharaḥ (SB 10.84.13). But unfortunately, these people are going under the identification of this body. "I am Indian," "I am American," "I am Hindu," "I am Muslim," "I am white," "I am black," "I am learned," " I am fool," " I am rich," "I am poor." All these designations are our ignorance. Therefore, Prahlāda Mahārāja says dehinām. Anyone who has accepted this body, tat sādhu manye 'sura-vārya dehināṁ sadā samudvigna-dhiyam. Because the living entity, although spirit soul, he has accepted this material body, asat. Asat means which will not exist. This body will not exist, but we forget that. This is the most wonderful thing in this material world. Everyone is dying every moment, still one who is living, he thinks that he will live forever. That is the most wonderful thing.
Therefore, if you are intelligent enough, you take one ingredient of this body. One after another, one after another, one after another, you analyze. You won't find. Neither with that ingredient you can create life. That is not possible. This is analysis. You are very expert in analyzing things in the laboratory and charge fees, chemical analysis. But this is also composition of these chemical. But they say "chemical evolution." That's right, evolution. It has come, life. Then, when life is lost, why don't you combine these chemicals, bring life? That is not possible. Therefore, by proper analysis one must come to the conclusion that these ingredients are different from the living force. Then... That is called self-realization. Ahaṁ brahmāsmi: "I am not this matter." That is the first step of knowledge. Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā (BG 18.54). "Oh, I was so much busy with this lump of matter. Now I understand that I am spirit soul." Ahaṁ brahmāsmi. This is the first realization, self-realization.
| Page Title: | Different from... (Lectures, SB) |
| Compiler: | Visnu Murti, Mayapur |
| Created: | 08 of Dec, 2011 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=166, Con=0, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 166 |