I have seen in this Delhi near Jawarmal Street the small Muhammadan boys, they are reading Koran. That is very good. From childhood they should learn, learn about God. And that is recommendation in Bhāgavata. Prahlāda Mahārāja said that kaumāra ācaret prājño dharmān bhāgavatān (SB 7.6.1). Kaumāra, from the beginning of life, children should be engaged. Therefore we have opened the Gurukula, Dallas. The small children, four years, five years old, they are hearing about Kṛṣṇa, about God. They are chanting about Kṛṣṇa, they are rising early in the morning, attending maṅgala-ārātrika. Anyone goes there... Even the education superintendent came to visit our temple. He was astonished that "How these children are happy. How children, they are being educated." So this is to be introduced. Kaumāra ācaret prājño dharmān bhāgavat..., durlabhaṁ mānuṣaṁ janma. This human form of life is durlabham. Durlabham, very rare to achieve. It is not so easily obtained. We have to pass through evolutionary process, 8,400,000 species of life, aquatics... Jalajā nava-lakṣāṇi sthāvarā lakṣa-viṁśati. We have to pass through aquatics, animals in the water, then trees, plants, then insects, birds, beasts. After all, we get this human form of life, especially civilized form of life, with some idea of religion. If we do not utilize it... Religion means to understand God. That is religion. In religion, a godless religion, where there is no conception of God, that is not religion. That is called cheating religion. In the name of religion, but there is no conception of God. That is not religion.
Then here it is said that śrotavyaḥ bhagavān hariḥ. If you do not know who is Bhagavān, if you do not know who is Hari, if you do not know who is Īśvara, then what you will hear about Him? That is the problem. Those who are after God, they make God nirākāra. "There is no ākāra. There is no form." God is the origin of all forms, but the poor God has no form. Just see. This is the conclusion. He is the origin of all forms, yato vā imāni bhūtāni jāyante, from whom everything is coming out. Janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). Everything... We have also come from God. We are also claimed as sons of God. Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā, sarva-yoniṣu kaunteya sambhavanti mūrtayo yāḥ (BG 14.4). There are 8,400,000 species of life, and they have got forms. They are sons of God. So where is our experience that a son who has got a form, his father is impersonal, no form? Where you have got this experience? If the son has got form and the father is formless, how it can be? What is the reason? Where is the argument? But they are concluding like that. I am the son of my father, so my father has got a form. I have got a form. His father has got form. His father has got form. Even if we do not see the tenth generation, up to, whether it was form or formless, but it is supposed that he must have a form. So similarly, if you ultimately go to the supreme father, then how it is formless? No. Formless is not the actual realization of God. That is the beginning. That may be beginning. To realize the energy of God, that is formless. Just like the sun. The sunshine is formless, but the sun globe is not formless, or the person, the predominating Deity within the sunglobe, he is not formless. The sunshine is formless. So this formless realization... Just like the sun. Sun is also light. Sun is also heat. The sunshine is also light, sunshine is also heat. But this heat and light, energy of the sun, they are not actually the sun. It is only the energy.
This is described in the Viṣṇu Purāṇa, that,
- eka-deśa-sthitasyāgner
- jyotsnā vistāriṇī yathā
- parasya brahmaṇaḥ śaktis
- tathedam akhilaṁ jagat
Just like a fire is there in one place, in a particular localized place, but it expands in heat and light, similarly, the Supreme Personality of Godhead is there. He is person. That is described in the Brahma-saṁhitā. Goloka eva nivasaty akhilātma-bhūtaḥ (Bs. 5.37). That is God. Although He is everywhere present by His energy, it does not mean that He is lost, He has lost His personality. No. Pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya pūrṇam evāvaśiṣyate (Īśo Invocation). He is so perfect and complete. Just like you take the example of the sun. For millions and millions of years, unlimited temperature, light and heat is coming out, but still, it is the same. Pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya pūrṇam evāvaśiṣyate. Similarly, God is so perfect, so complete, that unlimited number of suns and energies... We are also energy. We sons of God, we are also energy. That is described in the Bhagavad-gītā:
- apareyam itas tv anyāṁ
- prakṛtiṁ viddhi me parām
- jīva-bhūtāṁ mahā-bāho
- yayedaṁ dhāryate jagat
- (BG 7.5)
Prakṛtiṁ parām. This material world is aparā-prakṛti, and prakṛti, nature or energy, this is inferior energy, the matter, dull matter. But apareyam. Bhūmir āpo 'nalo vāyuḥ (BG 7.4), earth, water, air, fire, they are inferior energy of the Lord. But there is another, superior nature. That is described. Apareyam. These energies, bhūmir āpo 'nalo vāyuḥ, earth, water, air, they are inferior. There is another superior. What is that? Jīva-bhūtām, these living entities, mahā-bāho, yayedaṁ dhāryate jagat, who are controlling now.