Prabhupāda:
- mayy āsakta-manāḥ pārtha
- yogaṁ yuñjan mad-āśrayaḥ
- asaṁśayaṁ samagraṁ māṁ
- yathā jñāsyasi tac chṛṇu
- (BG 7.1)
(translated throughout into Oriya) Last night some gentleman questioned, "What is God?" Bhagavān, especially in our country, Bhāratavarṣa, Bhagavān personally comes. Yadā yadā hi dharmasya glānir bhavati bhārata tadātmānaṁ sṛjāmy aham (BG 4.7). So Bhāratavarṣa is not an ordinary country. It is puṇya-bhūmi, where Bhagavān comes. So in this land at the present moment our young men are inquiring what is God. Here Bhagavān comes personally, He leaves His instruction, He's accepted by the ācāryas, and our young men have become so much advanced in education that they're asking what is God. So we should understand what is the situation at the present moment.
So why this has happened? It has happened because we are making progress towards animal civilization. Because in the śāstra it is said,
- 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)
Anyone who has got this bodily conception of life, and in relation to the body the family, country, society, we are thinking they are our kinsmen . . . and bhauma ijya-dhīḥ, the land which the body is produced, we are taking that land as worshipable. And when we go to the holy places . . . just like people come Jagannātha Purī. They take bath in the sea water, salile . . . (indistinct) . . . te sa buddhe salile, but do not associate with experienced men who are advanced in spiritual consciousness—such person is nothing but cow or ass or animals. Therefore the question has been raised, "What is God?"