Originally, the . . . it is very common sense. Just like we require a leader. To organize some business, some nationality, any group of organization, it requires a leader. Without leader, you cannot organize anything. Nobody has got any such experience that without direction, without leader, anything has sprung up automatically, by nature. The foolish philosophers say like that, that the whole cosmic manifestation has come out . . . out of a chunk. They say like that. The rascals say like that, "There was a chunk." And wherefrom this chunk came? No, that is not fact. Fact is that there must be a good brain behind all this organization. This cosmic manifestation, there must be a leader. That is the information we get from Vedas. Nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13). Nitya, we living entities, we are nitya. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). We do not die. Na jāyate na mriyate vā. Neither we take birth or we die. We simply change the body. Vāsāṁsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya (BG 2.22). As old garments, old shirts and coats, we change, similarly, when this body becomes old enough not to be used, we change to another body. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). This is real knowledge.
So we are eternal, and God is also eternal. In that way we are the same quality. God is eternal; we are also eternal. God is cognizant, cetana, abhijña; we are also cetana. We are not dull matter. So what is the difference between God and me? The difference—He is great, we are small. He is vibhu; we are aṇu. He's all-pervading, we are very small. He is infinite; we are infinitesimal. That is the difference. So nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām. That is the Vedic information. So you apply your reason, arguments. As you find here, you are more intelligent than me, somebody else more intelligent than you, other is more intelligent than he . . . in this way, if you analyze, there is not . . . all of us not on the same level. One is more intelligent, one is less intelligent. Similarly, you go on analyzing, one after another, one after another, throughout the whole universe. Then you come to the demigods. And the most important demigod is Lord Brahmā. So he's the original creature within this universe. So he is also not enough intelligent. You'll have to find out a person more intelligent than him. So that is, we get information . . . just like Brahmā. He was alone in the beginning. Wherefrom he got knowledge? There was nobody else. So śāstra says: "Yes, he got knowledge . . ." Tene brahma hṛdā ādi-kavaye (SB 1.1.1). He got knowledge from Kṛṣṇa. Brahmā haite catur-mukha.
So there must be some leader. In order to get knowledge, we have to find out some leader. And actually, by our experience, whatever we're doing . . . just like we got independence. So there was a leader, Mahatma Gandhi. He led the country. Then you came to your national consciousness, and you combined together, and the Britishers went away. The opinion was against them. So there must be leader, and that leader is a person. That leader cannot be an imperson. No. That is not possible. I think there was a news in the newspaper, Free Press Journal, that the faith in personal God is diminishing. That means they are becoming more foolish. The faith in personal God is diminishing, percentage diminishing. That means people are becoming more and more foolish. That is natural. This is Kali-yuga. Mandāḥ sumanda-matayo manda-bhāgyā hy upadrutāḥ (SB 1.1.10). The more this age of Kali will increase, people will diminish in their bodily strength, in their memory, in their mercifulness—in so many ways. Eight kinds of diminishing, decreasing. Actually, we find, even in Western countries, the present generation, they are not as strong as their father or grandfather. Bodily strength (sic) increasing. Memory is decreasing. There is no mercifulness. Now, at the present moment, if somebody is being killed and you are passing, nobody takes care. "Let him be killed." Because dayā, mercifulness, is diminishing. The duration of life diminishing. The bodily stature diminishing. The memory diminishing. Everything is diminishing.
So because we are diminishing in everything, therefore our God consciousness is diminishing also. Therefore they are in the news word that, "Personal God conception is diminishing." That is natural. Mūḍha. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, that one who does not accept the personal God, he is described in the Bhagavad-gītā, mūḍha.