Kṛṣṇa Janmāṣṭamī is just approaching on the 8th September, the birthday of Kṛṣṇa we observe in India, and probably we may also make a program for observing the birthday ceremony here. So you will find that just like in your country in Christmas day you all observe the birthday of Lord Christ, similarly, Kṛṣṇa, the birthday of Kṛṣṇa, will be observed in India, cent percent people.
So Kṛṣṇa is a great authority, undoubtedly. That is accepted. So here Kṛṣṇa gives us a prescription, and if we try to follow, then surely we shall achieve the stage of perfect knowledge, and the result will be that we shall be perfectly peaceful in life. Bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasāṁ sarva-loka-maheśvaram (BG 5.29).
That is the perfect knowledge, when we understand that the Supreme Lord, He is the supreme enjoyer—bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasāṁ sarva-loka-maheśvaram—He is the supreme proprietor. And if we think very, I mean to say, scrutinizingly with cool head, then we can understand that everything, whatever there is in our presence, the actual proprietor is God, or Kṛṣṇa. We are not proprietor. We have got the right to use them, the things which are given by God to us. We shall have the right to use them, but we are not proprietor. So that is real knowledge.
- ajñaś cāśraddadhānaś ca
- saṁśayātmā vinaśyati
- nāyaṁ loko 'sti na paro
- na sukhaṁ saṁśayātmanaḥ
- (BG 4.40)
So this faith is very essential, and one who hasn't got such faith, for him, it is stated here that vinaśyati. Vinaśyati means he is put into the wilderness of this material world. Now, what is that wilderness? Oh, there are 8,400,000's different species of life. Now, if we miss this opportunity, this human form of life. . . it is the developed, conscious life, and if we miss the opportunity, then we shall be again thrown into the cycle of birth of death in that 8,400,000's of species of life. So there is comparative. Vinaśyati. Vinaśyati means where you shall be put up, oh, there is no certainty. So you must make proper utilization.
So one who hasn't got faith, for him it is stated, nāyaṁ loko 'sti na paro na sukhaṁ saṁśayātmanaḥ: "Anyone who has no faith, for him there is no profit even during this life, and what to speak of the next life."
- yoga-sannyasta-karmāṇaṁ
- jñāna-sañchinna-saṁśayam
- ātmavantaṁ na karmāṇi
- nibadhnanti dhanañjaya
- (BG 4.41)
Now, Lord Kṛṣṇa says: "O Dhanañjaya, Arjuna, anyone who is working in the Kṛṣṇa consciousness, or yoga . . ." Yoga means God conscious, or Kṛṣṇa conscious. Everything, anything, any attempt which you perform which you do for spiritual realization, is called yoga. Yoga. So there are many different kinds of yoga, but they have been divided into three: the jñāna-yoga, karma-yoga and bhakti-yoga. Jñāna-yoga means realization of self by culture of philosophical discussion. That is called jñāna-yoga. And dhyāna-yoga . . . oh, and karma- yoga . . . Karma-yoga means that the ordinary persons who are engaged in working . . . that we have got experience, that these people in New York City, they are working day and night. And karma means work and get some profit. That is called karma.
Karma . . . nobody is going to work without any remuneration. Everyone is working for getting some profit. That is called karma. But that ordinary karma and karma-yoga is different. You can engage yourself in ordinary work, but, at the same time, you can become a yogī. How that is possible? When your consciousness is changed.