Our, this Bhāgavata system, or Vedic system, is not research work. It is not research work. Nowadays it is a fashion that... Just like the Theosophists. They're searching out God. Since the beginning, they're searching out. And so many leaders came and gone, but they are searching out. And they will go on searching out for lives together. But it is not a thing to be searched out. It is not ordinary thing, not material thing. You know...
- athāpi te deva padāmbuja-dvaya-
- prasāda-leśānugṛhīta eva hi
- jānāti tattvaṁ bhagavan-mahimno
- na cānya eko 'pi ciraṁ vicinvan
- (SB 10.14.29)
Ciraṁ vicinvan. For forever, millions of years, if you speculate, to understand what is God, it is not possible. It is not a subject matter of speculative knowledge. No. It is to be received through the right source, deductive process, not inductive process. Because our senses are limited. We cannot have any perfect idea on account of our senses being limited. We cannot see.
So there are so many examples. We have talked. This knowledge is not... The exact word used in Sanskrit... There are two ways: āroha-panthā, avaroha-panthā. Āroha-panthā means to know something by your dint of knowledge, ascending process, ascending process. Just like these people are trying to know the moon planet, the Venus planet, or other planets. They're going, ascending by airplane. And to know it. But they're doing it for the last twenty years. They do not know what is the actual position of the moon planet. That is not known. They're coming, going. Or whether they have gone, that they know. But from the situation it is understood they're not going. Maybe some other planet they are going. That is my opinion. Because the description of the moon planet does not tally. We have got in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam... The, this moon planet is one of the heavenly planets. There, high class of demigods, they live. Or one who is elevated to the moon planet, he is living there for ten thousands of years. Ten... What kind of ten thousands of years? In the moon planet, one day equal to our six months. Such months' year, and ten thousands of years. That is the duration of life in the moon planet. Those who are karma-kāṇḍīya, perform ritualistic ceremonies very nicely, they are promoted to the moon planet. And there are other planets also. This is Svargaloka. There are seven planetary systems upwards, and seven planetary systems downwards. Now we are living in the Bhūrloka, middle. Then above this, there is Bhuvarloka. Above this, there is Svarloka. Above this is Janaloka, Maharloka, Tapoloka, Brahmaloka. So this āroha... You cannot go to the Brahmaloka, although there is śāstra... Or you cannot go to the sun planet also. You are seeing every day, but go there. But you have no right. You cannot go.
So therefore this process, that "I shall go by my strength. I shall know by dint of my own knowledge, research work," these are all rascaldom. It is not possible. So what to speak of understanding God? You cannot understand even what is in your presence, the material world, and spiritual is beyond the sky. Paras tasmāt tu bhāvaḥ anyaḥ (BG 8.20). That is another sky. You have no estimation of this sky. Not only this, this sky; even in the material world, this is one universe. What sky we see, that is of one universe. But there are innumerable universes. That is material world. And beyond that, there is spiritual sky. Then the spiritual world begins. There are also planets, Vaikuṇṭha planets. And above these Vaikuṇṭha planets, there is Kṛṣṇaloka. That is Kṛṣṇa's abode. Cintāmaṇi-prakara-sadmasu kalpa-vṛkṣa-lakṣāvṛteṣu (Bs. 5.29).
So you cannot understand Kṛṣṇa, or God, or His abode by the speculative, ascending process. That is not possible. You have to inquire from. Therefore Parīkṣit Mahārāja inquired from Śukadeva Gosvāmī, "What is my duty now I am going to die?" He was cursed by a brāhmaṇa boy to die within seven days. Parīkṣit Mahārāja was quite competent to counteract the curse of the brāhmaṇa boy, but he decided that "I shall die." Because he thought that "I offended the boy's father by encircling a dead snake on the neck of the ṛṣi. So his son became angry that 'You have insulted my father. You die with this snake.' " So he accepted. So this, on the death point, he immediately left his kingdom, family, and everything, and went down to the river, bank of the river Ganges, and many... Because he was king, so many big, big men, even demigods, great saintly persons, they came to see Mahārāja Parīkṣit at his last stage of life, seven days. And so he asked, "What is my duty?" So he was a devotee, Parīkṣit Mahārāja. From his childhood, he was a devotee of Kṛṣṇa. So he inquired, "What is my duty to know about Kṛṣṇa?" And that is being welcomed by Śukadeva Gosvāmī, that "Your, to inquire about Kṛṣṇa, this question is very much welcome." Varīyān eṣa te praśnaḥ (SB 2.1.1). Praśna means question. "You have asked a question about Kṛṣṇa. It is very, very good." Why? Kṛto loka-hitaṁ nṛpa: "It is good for the all human society. Because you have inquired about Kṛṣṇa, you have inquired about Kṛṣṇa, and I'll have to reply. People will hear. It will be recorded. And people will be benefitted." Loka-hitam.
In another place, that Sūta Gosvāmī says... When the ṛṣis inquired... Now, here it is being inquired by King Parīkṣit, being answered by Śukadeva Gosvāmī. In another place, the ṛṣis, great saintly persons, they also inquired, and Sūta Gosvāmī replied. So this kind of question and answer is ātmavit-sammataḥ. Ātmavit. Ātmavit means one who knows, self-realized. Ātmavit means self-realized. Not these rascals, one who does not know what is self, what I am. He's an animal, one who does not know what he is. If I do not inquire, "What I am? I am this body? Or I am something extra than this body?" if this inquiry is not there, he's not human being. He's animal. Animal cannot inquire. Cats and dog cannot inquire, "What I am?" He's suffering. Everyone is suffering who has got this material body. That is the condition. If you have got material body, you must suffer. It is not the question of European, American or white, black. There is no such question. If you are animal or man, as soon as you have got this material body, you must suffer. This is condition. This is material condition. Therefore our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is not meant for, I mean to say, mitigating the so-called sufferings of the body. When there is body, there must be suffering. So we should not be very much disturbed by the sufferings of the body. Because you'll have to suffer. Even though you make very nice arrangement. Just like in comparison to Europe and America. In European cities we see so many nice arrangements, living condition, big, big house, big, big road, nice cars. In comparison to India, if some Indian comes from Indian village, he'll see, "It is heaven, so nice house, so nice building, so nice motorcars." But do you think you are not suffering? He may think, the rascal may think that "Here is heaven." But those who are residing in this heaven, they know what kind of heaven it is. (laughter)