In the Vedānta-sūtra it is inquired, athāto brahma jijñāsā. What is Brahman? This human life is meant for understanding Brahman. Ahaṁ brahmāsmi. This is real education. So that Para-brahman . . . We are Brahman, but Kṛṣṇa is Para-brahman. Nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13). He is the supreme nitya, eternal. Kṛṣṇa is also eternal; we are also eternal. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). So Kṛṣṇa is al . . . (break) . . .not a dead stone, and we are also living being. Nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām. And where is the difference between Kṛṣṇa and me? The difference is eko yo bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān. Kṛṣṇa maintains all these plural number. He is singular number. Nityo nityānām. He is singular number. Then this singular number or plural number, what is the difference? Difference is that Kṛṣṇa is the maintainer and we are the maintained. Kṛṣṇa is the predominator; we are predominated. This is difference.
So our preaching is, this Kṛṣṇa consciousness, that people are searching after God, speculating throughout the whole life, but here Kṛṣṇa is canvassing, "Here I am." "No." Avajānanti māṁ mūḍhāḥ (BG 9.11). God is canvassing, "Here I am," and these people are searching after God. Just see. Why? That is explained here: ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā, false egoism. Ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā kartāham iti manyate (BG 3.27). He is fully under the control of prakṛti, and still, he is thinking independent. That is vimūḍhātmā, bewildered. So,
- prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni
- guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ
- ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā
- kartāham iti manyate
- (BG 3.27)
The material world, especially in this age, everyone is thinking, "I am the greatest. Who can become more than me?" Ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā. This material world is like that. Everyone is thinking like that. Asuric pravṛtti. Kaḥ āḍhyo 'sti mama samaḥ: "Who is greater than me?" There is a struggle for this vimūḍhātmā competition. But at the end he is under the control of nature—everyone knows it—because ultimately the death will come, and all ahaṅkāras will be taken away. "I don't care for God. I am independent. I am God"—all these ahaṅkāra, false egotism, on account of bewildered, being bewildered, these things will be finished when Kṛṣṇa will come as death. Everything will be finished. Mṛtyuḥ sarva-haraś cāham (BG 10.34). Kṛṣṇa has described Himself that "I am death. I am death, and I take away all your possession, that's all, as death." It will be taken away. However intelligent we may be, however proud we may be for our possession, but the death is sure. "As sure as death." And when death comes—the death is also another form of Kṛṣṇa—then He will take everything.
Just like Hiraṇyakaśipu. He was very, very proud of his possession. He was controlling over the three worlds. He was chastising his Vaiṣṇava son, Prahlāda Mahārāja. In this way he was very, very proud. But when Kṛṣṇa came as Nṛsiṁha-deva, everything was finished within a second. So we should not mistake this, I mean to say, fact.