I can ask any of my disciple to do something, he'll do it. But this microphone, it has also a form, but if I want microphone, "Please do this," he cannot, it cannot be, because it is material

Expressions researched:
"I can ask any of my disciple to do something, he'll do it. But this microphone, it has also a form, but if I want microphone," |"Please do this," |"he cannot, it cannot be, because it is material"

Lectures

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Material form and spiritual form, what is the difference? The difference is that just like a living being . . . I can ask any of my disciple to do something, he'll do it. But this microphone, it has also a form, but if I want microphone, "Please do this," he cannot, it cannot be, because it is material. It can mechanical, give some mechanical service, one only, but it cannot do any other thing. A man can speak or he can dance or he can become a thief, he can become so many—because he's living. That is the difference between material form and spiritual form. Therefore in the Bhagavad-gītā the material forms, they have been described as inferior, and spiritual forms . . . there is spiritual world also. That is called parā-prakṛti. There is another nature.

760419 - Lecture BG 09.01 - Melbourne

You can change your dress any moment. Similarly, this body, material body, is considered . . . actual fact: it will not endure. We'll have to change. Therefore it is not sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha.

But Kṛṣṇa's form is sac-cid-ānanda. Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ (BS 5.1). Vigraha means form. So everyone has got form. There are 8,400,000 forms of living entity. In the water there are 900,000 forms. Jalajā nava-lakṣāṇi sthāvarā lakṣa-viṁśati (Padma Purāṇa). Amongst the trees, plants, there are 2,000,000 forms. So there are hundred and thousands of forms in the material world. But in the spiritual world the form is sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha. Every form is eternal, full of knowledge and full of bliss. That is the difference between material world and spiritual world. Material world means . . . although the varieties are there in the spiritual world . . . there are also trees, as well as we have got here trees. But there the forms are spiritual form, and here they are material form. Material form and spiritual form, what is the difference? The difference is that just like a living being . . . I can ask any of my disciple to do something, he'll do it. But this microphone, it has also a form, but if I want microphone, "Please do this," he cannot, it cannot be, because it is material. It can mechanical, give some mechanical service, one only, but it cannot do any other thing. A man can speak or he can dance or he can become a thief, he can become so many—because he's living. That is the difference between material form and spiritual form. Therefore in the Bhagavad-gītā the material forms, they have been described as inferior, and spiritual forms . . . there is spiritual world also. That is called parā-prakṛti. There is another nature.

So we have no information. But information means we have in the Vedic literature. In other literatures also there are slight information, but in the Vedic literature you'll find described information of the spiritual world. So Bhagavad-gītā is the nutshell, cream of all spiritual knowledge. Here, therefore, Bhagavān, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, He is speaking. He is giving spiritual knowledge directly.