Nobody can become greater than God or equal to God. Therefore, God's another name is Asamordhva. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. Nobody can be equal with God, nobody can be greater than God. Everyone must be . . . ekale īśvara kṛṣṇa āra saba bhṛtya (CC Adi 5.142), that is the statement in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta. God is only one, Kṛṣṇa, and everyone is servant. Of course, God's servant and God, there is little difference. Because sometimes servant has got greater power than God; that is different thing. But actually nobody can be greater than God, nobody can be equal to God.
So the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, we are not manufacturing anything. We simply place it that, "Here is Kṛṣṇa. You are searching after God." When I first went to America, they were speaking that, "God is dead." Even church, in the church, the priest in the church, they were sermoning that God is dead. But when I began chanting in the Tompkinson Square alone, underneath a tree, "Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa," these boys and girls began to assemble. So next day there was a big publicity in a paper with my picture and all this crowd, that they say that, "We thought God is dead, but here we see the Swāmījī has brought God again in his kīrtana, in his chanting." They admitted. The New York published in all their papers.
So God cannot be dead. Not that everyone can be God. God is one, and that is Kṛṣṇa.
- īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇah
- sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ
- anādir ādir govindaḥ
- sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam
- (Bs. 5.1)
These are the Vedic authorities accepted by the ācāryas. Therefore it has become easy for me to convert so many boys and girls in the foreign countries. Not only Christian, Jews, but there are many Muhammadans, Africans. In Africa also we have got branches. And recently I went to Africa, the Africans are also chanting exactly like these European and Americans. So this benediction, this foretelling of Lord Caitanya, is actually going to be fulfilled.
- pṛthivīte āche yata nagarādi-grama
- sarvatra pracāra haibe mora nāma
- (CB Antya-khaṇḍa 4.126)
So my request is that it is experiment that this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement can be spread all over the world, and there are many, many customers still awaiting. So if we actually want to do welfare to the people of the world, as Caitanya Mahāprabhu predicted, Caitanya Mahāprabhu said:
- bhārata bhumite manuṣya-janma haila yāra
- janma sārthaka kari kara para-upakāra
- (CC Adi 9.41)
So India, India at least, those who have taken birth as human being, never mind what he is, he has got special privilege. This land is called puṇya-bhūmi. A not ordinary living entity can take birth in this land, Bharata-varṣa. We have got this opportunity. And according to Caitanya Mahāprabhu's instruction, if we take advantage of the Vedic literature, Veda, Purāṇa, Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, anādi bahirmukha jīva kṛṣṇa bhuli gela, ataeva kṛṣṇa veda purāṇa karilā. These Veda Purāṇas are meant for the human being. We should study these Veda Purāṇas and know what is what, what is God, what I am, what is this world. In this way, we must fructify, make our life successful, and then preach this message of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
It is not very difficult. Anyone can do, provided he does not make the mistake, adulterating the statements of Bhagavad-gītā. Those who are adulterating, interpreting in a different way this Bhagavad-gītā, they are very mischievous. Therefore, Kṛṣṇa has already declared, na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ prapadyante narādhamāḥ (BG 7.15). Duṣkṛtinaḥ. Those who are not surrendered to Kṛṣṇa's lotus feet, they have been described by Kṛṣṇa Himself as duṣkṛtinaḥ, mischievous; narādhama, the lowest of the mankind; mūḍhā, asses, rascals. And if somebody says . . . we find so many learned scholars, they do not surrender to Kṛṣṇa, then what is their position? Kṛṣṇa says: "Yes, māyaya apahṛta-jñānā." They are learned, so-called learned, but their knowledge has been taken away by māyā.
So this is the essence of Vedas. Vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyaḥ (BG 15.15), to understand Kṛṣṇa. And kṛṣṇa-bhakti is there in everyone's heart. The Caitanya-caritāmṛta-kar says:
- nitya-siddha kṛṣṇa-bhakti sadhya kabhu naya
- śravaṇādi-śuddha-citte karaye udaya
- (Hari-bhakti-vilāsa)
The Kṛṣṇa consciousness is there in everyone's heart. Just like we see the child, three-years-old child, she is dancing in ecstasy. We have got many children like that, they are chanting. There is no need of higher education to understand. Simply give oral reception to this transcendental vibration, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare. Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura says, golokera prema-dhana hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana (Prārthanā). This hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana is not this material vibration like radios and television. It is imported from the Goloka Vṛndāvana. Therefore, if we are pure, if we chant this vibration, immediately we will be touching Kṛṣṇa. Immediately.
Paraṁ vijayate śrī-kṛṣṇa-saṅkīrtanam, Caitanya Mahāprabhu has said. If you chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra without any offense . . . there are ten kinds of offenses. Apart from that offenses, if you simply chant, then Caitanya Mahāprabhu says, ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12): immediately your heart will be cleansed of all nasty, dirty things. Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanaṁ bhava-mahā-dāvāgni-nirvāpanam. And you will get immediately freed from this.
Just now one of my students was speaking to me before coming to this, that somebody was asking him, "How you are free from all anxieties?" They see. One priest, and . . . as I was traveling from Hawaii to . . . no, from Los Angeles to Hawaii, one gentleman—he is a priest—he asked me, he began to talk in the airplane for at least half an hour. He said: "Swāmījī, how is that your disciples look so bright-faced?" Yes, they are bright-faced. One priest in Boston, he regretted, he issued regret that, "These boys, they are our boys, they are mad after God, but we could not give them."
So this is practical. Why practical? Because we are following the principles. As Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanaṁ bhava-mahā-dāvāgni-nirvāpanam (CC Antya 20.12). Bhava-mahā . . . immediately, the second you will start it, as soon as you go on chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, immediately you become free from . . . bhava-mahā-dāvāgni. Everyone is . . . material existence means full of anxieties. That is material existence. And Prahlāda Mahārāja was asked by his father, "What best thing you have learned, my dear boy?" He said that "If you want to cut down your material anxiety, then you must take surrender unto the God." Hitvātma-pātaṁ gṛham andha-kūpaṁ vanaṁ gato yad dharim āśrayeta (SB 7.5.5). You must surrender to Kṛṣṇa.