There are two classes of men—one is sādhu and another is miscreant. Sādhu means devotees of the Lord, and miscreant means always committing sinful activities. That's all. So there are two classes of men anywhere you go within this material world. One is called demigod or devotees, and the other is called nondevotee or demon. So Kṛṣṇa comes . . . both of them are conditioned, one has become demon and one has become . . . of course, devotee's in higher state—he is not conditioned, he is mukta, liberated even in this life. So Kṛṣṇa comes down, He has got two businesses: to reclaim or rescue the devotees and to vanquish the nondevotees.
You have seen the picture of Lord Viṣṇu . . . uh, there is no picture of Lord Viṣṇu? So He has got four hands. In two hands there is weapon, club and cakra. This is meant for the demons. And in the other two hands He has got conchshell and lotus flower. Lotus flower means blessings, and conchshell means dissipating all ignorance, all ink spots, inauspiciousness. Śaṅkha cakra gadā-padma.
But Kṛṣṇa being absolute, even the demons who are killed by Kṛṣṇa, they get the same result as the devotees who are delivered from this material world. Kṛṣṇa being absolute, His activities are also absolute. Not that . . . God is good. He is good in all circumstances.
Why He kills, that is also His goodness, and while He protects, that is also His goodness. This is the conception of God: all-good. Here in this material world if we do some pious activities, then we are good, and if we act some impious activities, sinful activities, then we are bad. But in the case of God, Kṛṣṇa, there is no such distinction.
His activities are all good, not that Kṛṣṇa is not in . . . now in favorable. "I am going to church or temple. God is not very kind upon me. What I will want He does not give me; therefore He is bad. I don't go to temple."
Just like in the last war, one my German Godbrother, he told me in Germany, all men, male members, they went to fight, so the female members, either her husband or father or brother, gone to the battle, so they are anxious how they will come back. So the war was going; at the same time they were going to church to pray to get back their relatives.
So they did not take sanction when declaring the war, so—did not take sanction from God—but when they were in danger, they go to the temple and church, "Save me. God save." God may not ask, "Why you did declare war without My sanction?" "No, that I can do, anything. I am free. But I am in danger—please save me."
So God is just like order-supplier, my instrument. God has been accepted in the present civilization that, "If God can satisfy my senses—whatever I want to do, if I can do by the blessings of God, then God is very good; and if God punishes me, then He is not good. This is our philosophy, Navana's philosophy." But for a devotee, God is always good: "When He punishes me, that is also good, and when He blesses me, that is also good." This is devotees' conception of God.
And nondevotees' conception of God means if God supplies my order, or carries my order, whatever I say, then God is good. And if he does not do so, then God is bad. This is not conception of God. Conception of God means when we say: "God is good," God is good in every circumstance. That is conception. So this conception is difficult for ordinary man, but those who are devotees, they can understand.
- tat te 'nukampāṁ susamīkṣamāṇo
- bhuñjāna evātma-kṛtaṁ vipākam
- hṛd-vāg-vapurbhir vidadhan namas te
- mukti-pade sa dāya-bhāk . . . jīveta
- (SB 10.14.8)
Now, a person who lives under the protection of God, ah, he's . . . because this is the material world . . . material or any world. Take . . . we are now in the material world. Here our position is, in every stage there is danger, padaṁ padaṁ yad vipadāṁ (SB 10.14.8). This is a place where you can expect every moment some type of danger.
This is a place like that, those who have come here. Just like in prison house where the prisoners are there, a little discrepancy, again punishment: "Oh, you have not done this," then again punishment, again punishment. Because that place is for punishment. How you can become happy, like your hog, in prison house? That is not possible. Because that prison house is created for punishing the criminals so that they may be rectified. That is the purpose.