Everything is perfectly being done by nature. Nature is appointed by Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā, mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram: (BG 9.10) "Under My control." So prakṛti will work very nicely provided you are also nice, Kṛṣṇa conscious. If you are not nice, then daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā duratyayā (BG 7.14). "My māyā, My prakṛti, My energy, is very strong, duratyayā." These rascals, they are trying to control this flood, government. So much money they have wasted, but still in this quarter there are havoc. Therefore daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā duratyayā. You cannot control the nature's way. That is not possible.
How nature can be controlled? Mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti te (BG 7.14). This is the law of nature. If you become disobedient to God, then prakṛti or nature will give you trouble in so many ways. And as soon as you become submissive, surrender to Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, there will be no more natural disturbances. I have heard in 1900, 1898—I was born in 1896—so I have heard, I have seen also, I remember, in Calcutta there was a very virulent type of plague epidemic in 1898. So Calcutta became devastated. All people practically left Calcutta. Daily hundreds and hundreds of people were dying. I was one year old or one and a half year old. I have seen what was happening, but there was plague epidemic. That I did not know. I, later on, I heard from my parents. So one bābājī, he organized saṅkīrtana, Hare Kṛṣṇa saṅkīrtana. When there was no other way, so he organized saṅkīrtana all over Calcutta. And in the, in saṅkīrtana, all people, Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Parsi, everyone joined. And they were coming, they were going road to road, street to street, entering in every house. So that Mahatma Gandhi Road, 151, you have seen. The saṅkīrtana party we received very nicely. There was light, and I was very small, I was also dancing, I can remember. Just like our small children sometimes dances. I remember. I could see only up to the knees of the persons who were joined. So the plague subsided. This is a fact. Everyone who knows history of Calcutta, the plague was subsided by saṅkīrtana movement.
Of course, we do not recommend that saṅkīrtana should be used for some material purpose, that is nāma-aparādha, nāma-aparādha. Shama sa bhakti kriya (?) pramāṇa. Saṅkīrtana, you can utilize saṅkīrtana for some material purpose, but that is not allowed. That is nāma-aparādha, because nāma, the holy name of Kṛṣṇa, and Kṛṣṇa, they are identical. You cannot utilize Kṛṣṇa for your personal, material benefit. That is aparādha. Kṛṣṇa is the Lord. You cannot engage the Lord for your service. Similarly you cannot utilize the holy name of the Lord for some material purpose. That is not allowed. So anyway, because ye yathā māṁ prapadyante (BG 4.11). If you wanted some material benefit by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, you'll get it, but that is nāma-aparādha. You won't get the ecstasy of loving God. That is the aim of chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra: how you shall elevate yourself to the platform of loving God. That is required. Sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmo yato bhaktir adhokṣaje (SB 1.2.6). Not for utilizing the holy name for some material purpose. But this happened, we have got experience, I have heard, I have seen.
So, everything—the rivers, the seas, oceans, the mountains, the hills, the forest, the creepers, the vegetables—sarvāḥ kāmam anvṛtu, according to seasonal changes everything has got meaning. So if we are honest, if we are, because the, just like in prison house, jail, although the prisoners are criminals, condemned, still there is arrangement for your comfort also, by the government. There is arrangement of supplying food and all other necessities of life. Recently in Ahmedabad when I was visiting, the prison authorities also invited us for kīrtana. So I saw the criminals, prisoners. Savarmati. Savarmati jail, yes, where Gandhi was also imprisoned during the political movement. So Gandhi's room, where Gandhi was staying they showed me, and I sat down there. So, there is very good arrangement for the comforts of the prisoners, if they abide by the laws. Similarly, although this material world is just like prison house, prison house, we living entities, we have come here as punishment.
- kṛṣṇa-bahirmukha hañā bhoga vāñchā kare
- nikaṭa-stha māyā tāre jāpaṭiyā dhare
- (Prema-vivarta)
Now we are under the control of this external energy, material energy. We have become controlled, just like we become controlled by the prison authorities when we are criminals, not ordinarily. Ordinarily we are free. Those who are not within the walls of prison house, they are free. They are acting wherever they like they are going, but within the law. Similarly we have got freedom. There are living entities, their number is greater. Nitya-mukta, ever liberated. They live in the spiritual world, Vaikuṇṭha planets. Nitya-mukta. Nitya-mukta means eternally liberated. They never come down in this material world. And we are nitya-baddha-ever conditioned, eternally conditioned.
Eternally conditioned means... We cannot be eternally conditioned, because we are part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. Our natural position is ever liberated, eternally liberated. But because we wanted to imitate Kṛṣṇa, we wanted to become Kṛṣṇa, as the Māyāvādīs want to do, therefore in the spiritual world, Kṛṣṇa is the only enjoyer. Ekam eva aditiyam(?). Aham, bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasāṁ sarva-loka-maheśvaram (BG 5.29). Sarva-loka, not only of the Vaikuṇṭhalokas, planets, but these planets also. Everywhere, Kṛṣṇa is the supreme proprietor. Therefore he is the supreme enjoyer. We cannot be enjoyer. We each can simply be servitor; that is our natural position. Just like a dog, when it serves a nice master, he's happy. Otherwise, it is street dog. Nobody cares for it. Street dog. A street dog has no position. Sometimes they are killed. Similarly, when we live under the full protection of the Supreme Lord, that is our healthy condition, that is our real life. And as soon as we give up this position to be subordinate, to be predominated by the Supreme Lord, then we are bewildered. We are thrown into this, under the control of this material nature, and according to our work we get different bodies. There are 8,400,000 forms of bodies and we get one body after another. Tathā dehāntara-prāptir dhīras tatra na muhyati (BG 2.13). This is called ever conditioned. Caitanya Mahāprabhu says ei rūpe brahmāṇḍa bhramite kona bhāgyavān jīva guru-kṛṣṇa-kṛpāya pāya bhakti-latā-bīja (CC Madhya 19.151). In this way, we are wandering from one species of life to another, one planet to another. In this way the brahmāṇḍa, this universe is very very big and there is immense opportunity. You become sometimes demigod, sometimes dog, sometimes cat, sometimes tree. In this way, we are wandering.