So this kṛṣṇa-yoga is the only process to understand God, or Kṛṣṇa. In the Bhāgavata also it is said: evaṁ prasanna-manaso bhagavad-bhakti-yogataḥ (SB 1.2.20). One can become jolly by practice of this bhagavad-bhakti-yoga. Evaṁ prasanna-manaso bhagavad-bhakti-yogataḥ. Kṛṣṇa-tattva-jñānaṁ jāyate, mukta-saṅgasya jāyate. Unless you are liberated, you cannot understand what is God. In the nonliberated condition, you cannot understand what is God or what is Kṛṣṇa. And if you engage yourself in the bhakti-mārga:
- śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ
- smaraṇaṁ pāda-sevanam
- arcanaṁ vandanaṁ dāsyaṁ
- sakhyam ātma-nivedanam
- (SB 7.5.23)
These are the bhakti processes.
Śravaṇam. The first business is hearing. Tad-vijñānārtham. Vijñānārtham. If you want to know some science, you must hear from the authorized person. Similarly, our process is to hear from Kṛṣṇa, the most authorized person. Not only our; all the ācāryas. Mostly ācāryas, they advented in your country, South India: Rāmānujācārya, Madhvācārya, Śaṅkarācārya, Viṣṇu Svāmī, all of them. So in your country, in your part of India, they are very fortunate. And they can . . . sometimes it is described the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is South Indian literature. I think in my Bhagavad-gītā one Professor Dimock, he has given an introduction of this Bhagavad-gītā, and he has mentioned Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam as South Indian literature. Actually it is not. It is Vedic literature. It is meant for everyone. But because from South India all the ācāryas, especially Vaiṣṇava ācāryas, Rāmānujācārya, Madhvācārya, they distributed the Vaiṣṇava philosophy, people, they understand this Bhā . . . Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is from South India. So anyway, it doesn't matter.
So our this preaching of kṛṣṇa-bhakti, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, is meant for everyone. Kṛṣṇa is for everyone. Sarva-yoniṣu kaunteya sambhavanti mūrtayaḥ yāḥ (BG 14.4). Sarva-yoniṣu. Not only He's for human being, but He's for every living entity, sarva-yoniṣu. There are 8,400,000 forms of life—trees, birds, beasts, aquatics, human being. So many. They're all . . . Kṛṣṇa claims, ahaṁ bīja-pradaḥ pitā: "The material nature is the mother of all these forms, and I am the bīja, seed-giving father." So Kṛṣṇa is not only for Indians or for the Hindus or for the brahmins. Not like that. Or for the śūdras. No. Kṛṣṇa is for everyone. That is.
Therefore, because Kṛṣṇa is for everyone, therefore these Americans, the Europeans, Canadians, Africans, they're taking to Kṛṣṇa. The same thing, as I begun: because our relationship is father and son, how it can be disconnected? One might have forgotten, but as soon as the forgetfulness is removed, immediately understand—"Oh, I am Kṛṣṇa's." That this is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. We are trying to invoke the dormant Kṛṣṇa's love in every human being. And this is the duty of the Indians. Caitanya Mahāprabhu prescribed this duty:
- bhārata-bhūmite manuṣya-janma haila yāra
- janma sārthaka kari' kara para-upakāra
- (CC Adi 9.41)
Caitanya Mahāprabhu, within these five hundred years, He inaugurated the saṅkīrtana movement, Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, from Bengal. You know. So His order is . . . it is not that because Caitanya Mahāprabhu advented Himself in Bengal, He requested the Bengalis. No. He said, especially to the Indians: bhārata-bhūmite haila manuṣya-janma yāra (CC Adi 9.41). Anyone who has taken birth on the land of Bhārata-varṣa as human being, he should make his life perfect and distribute the knowledge to the others, who are in ignorance. Because transcendental knowledge, spiritual knowledge, that is only in India. That is a fact. That is nowhere else. Even one Chinese educationist, he has admitted that, "If we want to know what is religion, then we have to approach India." There is no other source.
So my request is that we Indians, we shall take this order of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu very seriously. People are suffering for want of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. There is immense field for preaching this philosophy all over the world. You can see the example, the European and American boys, how they have been attracted, how they are singing in ecstasy. They have taken it seriously. So in India I don't find all young men are so serious about Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, but I invite that "Come and join this movement, make your life successful by understanding the Kṛṣṇa philosophy, and try to distribute it all over the world."
This is necessity of the present day. It is not sectarian, or crooked philosophy; it is meant for my brother and my sister, not for anyone else. No. It is meant for everyone. And this knowledge can be distributed specially if the Indians take it seriously. They are doing. There are . . . you'll find many sannyāsīs. The . . . Indians should have done it. Because Caitanya Mahāprabhu says, bhārata-bhūmite manu . . . but because there is scarcity of Indian philanthropist to do this business, so we are pushing on this movement through the Americans. But actually there is no such difference. Actually, American or Indian, for Kṛṣṇa consciousness we have no such distinction. Anyone. Everyone is Kṛṣṇa's, and Kṛṣṇa is for everyone.