Sva-tejasā apibat tīvram ātma-prasvāpanaṁ tamaḥ. So the darkness is there, and the light is also there. Simply we have to be awakened. Therefore Vedas, they instruct us that, "Don't sleep! Get up!" Uttiṣṭhata prāpya varān nibodhata jāgrata (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 1.3.14). Similarly, Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura also sings, kota nidrā jāo māyā-piśācīra kole. Jīv jāgo, jīv jāgo, gauracānda bole. Gauracānda means Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. He says: "O the living entities, you get up! Be awakened!" We may say, "Now we are awakened." This is not awakening. This is also slumber in darkness of ignorance. Real awakening is when we come to our spiritual consciousness. That is real awakened. Yā niśā sarva-bhūtānāṁ tasyāṁ jāgarti saṁyamī (BG 2.69). This is not, this awakening stage, this is not real awakening. Real awakening comes when we understand, ahaṁ brahmāsmi. At the present moment we are not awakened, still sleeping, because we are thinking, every one of us, "I am this body." "I am American," "I am Indian," "I am Hindu," "I am Muslim." In this way we are conscious of the designation. So we have to get out of the designation, and when we shall understand our real identity, not this bodily identity but spiritual soul identity, that is called brahma-bhūtaḥ. Otherwise we are jīva-bhūtaḥ. So long we are identifying with this body, we are still sleeping. Kota nidrā jāo māyā-piśācīra kole. Just like a child sleeps on the lap of the mother, similarly, we are sleeping on the lap of mother material nature. This is our position.
So we have got the power to be awakened. Sva-tejasā. That power we have got, but we have to awaken it by good association, by sādhu, sādhu-saṅga. Sādhu-saṅga is good association. Then we are awakened. Ādau śraddhā tataḥ sādhu-saṅgaḥ (CC Madhya 23.14-15). If we have little faith that we require awakening of spiritual consciousness, we should not sleep under the spell of this material consciousness . . . a little faith will help us. It is said in the Bhagavad-gītā, svalpam apy asya dharmasya trāyate mahato bhayāt (BG 2.40). Mahato bhayāt. There is great dangerous position. That we do not know because we are sleeping. If a man is sleeping and somebody is coming to kill him, he does not know that, "Somebody is coming to kill me. Immediately I will be dead." There are so many cases of murder while a man is sleeping. Similarly, in this sleeping state of ignorance, that "I am this body," "I am Hindu," "I am Muslim," "I am Christian," there is greatest danger.
So somebody required. A man is sleeping, and another man is coming to kill him. A third person is required to awaken, "Mr. Such-and-such, get up, get up, get up! The man is coming to kill you." So the ear is open, although the man is sleeping, all other parts of the body, limbs of the body are inactive. So the ear is open. So therefore the Vedic mantras are called śruti. We have to hear the mantra, Vedic mantra. Just like if a man is bitten by snake, he is caused to hear the snake charmer's mantra—still there are—so that he can become awakened. And it is said in the Cāṇakya Paṇḍita śloka, mantrauṣadhi-vaśaḥ sarpaḥ. Mantra is powerful still. By mantra, a snake-bitten person can be brought into life. There are still some snake charmers in the villages. In our Māyāpur there is a Muhammadan, he, he can cure the snake-bitten case by mantra still.