So Ladies and Gentlemen, I thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to place before you our views on saṅkīrtana movement all over the world.
This saṅkīrtana movement, don't take it as a religious movement. As you generally understand in the Western country, the word religion is used as "a kind of faith." Faith you can change. Today you are Christian; tomorrow you can become Hindu. But religion cannot be changed. What we mean by the exact word, Sanskrit word, corresponding to religion is dharma, d-h-a-r-m-a.
That dharma is different thing from the word religion. Religion is generally understood as a kind of faith, but dharma is not like that. Dharma you cannot change. Just like water. Water is liquid. You cannot make it solid. If water becomes solid, then it is not in the natural state. If you can . . . you can say the water becomes sometimes solid by less temperature under certain condition. But the tendency of water is to become liquid again. Water cannot stand solid for good.
This is called dharma, religion. Or, say, take it for example, a stone. Stone is solid. Stone cannot be liquid. If by chemical process you make stone liquid sometimes, as you transform stone to glass, that liquidness of stone is temporary. Similarly, the solidity of water is also temporary.
So similarly, our religion, the dharma . . . try to understand the word dharma. Dharma is a permanent occupation of a certain thing. Just like sugar. Sugar is sweet. You cannot make sugar as salty. Or pepper is pungent, hot. You cannot make it sweet. So try to understand the word dharma, that it cannot be changed.
Similarly, we living entities, we have got a dharma, or religion. That we cannot change. What is that? A living entity is servant. We are all living entities, but we are all servants at the same time. Is anyone here who can say that, "I am not servant of anyone"? No. That is not possible. Everyone is servant. Everyone is servant. That is the definition given by Lord Caitanya, jīvera svarūpa haya nitya kṛṣṇa dāsa (Cc. Madhya 20.108-109): "A living entity is eternally servant of God." That cannot be changed.
Just like you are citizen of this Australian state, so you must have to abide by the laws of the state. You cannot change it. If you say that, "I don't want these laws," you will be forced to abide by the laws. You cannot change it, or you cannot make law at your home. Law is enacted by the government. Similarly, we should understand religion means you cannot change, and it is enacted by God. Dharmaṁ tu sākṣād bhagavat-praṇītam (SB 6.3.19). That is the definition given in the Vedic literature.
So this saṅkīrtana movement is meant for purifying our heart. By long association with this material nature, we are thinking that "There is no God," "I have nothing to do with God. I am independent of God." We are thinking like that. But actually this is not a fact. The gross material nature is very strong.
It is said in the Bhagavad-gītā—those who have read Bhagavad-gītā—daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā duratyayā (BG 7.14). God has got multi-energies, and they are divided grossly into three: the external energy, the internal energy and the marginal energy. The external energy is this material nature, and the internal energy, there is another, spiritual nature. As you see this universe, as far as you can see or imagine, it is covered. This is material energy.
Beyond this covering there is another nature. That is spiritual nature. We get this information from the Vedic literature. Paras tasmāt tu bhāvo 'nyo 'vyakto 'vyaktāt sanātanaḥ (BG 8.20). And we living entities, we are the marginal energy. That means if we like, we can live in this material nature—if we like, we can transfer ourselves to the spiritual nature.