Everything we can know. This human form of body is specially meant for that purpose. You can understand what you are, what is this material nature, what is God and how we are related, how things are going on. Everything is there, but we are so foolish that we do not take care. We live like cats and dogs, eat something and sleep and have sexual intercourse and then we are afraid always and then die. This is cats' and dogs' life. Real life is to know, athāto brahma jijñāsā. That is real life, human life. One must be inquisitive to understand the Absolute Truth, brahma-jijñāsā, not inquiring in the market, "What is the rate of share? What is the rate of rice? No, not for this inquiry. Jijñāsuḥ śreya uttamam. To inquire about the Absolute Truth, uttamam, beyond this material nature. Udgata tamam. This material nature is called tama. Tamaso mā jyotir gama. These are the Vedic injunctions.
You have to enter, you have to understand the world of light. This world is the world of darkness. It is simply... We require, therefore, sunlight, moonlight, electric light. Otherwise it is dark. It is called tamaḥ. But there is another world which is full of light. It is so full of light that you do not require the sunlight, moonlight or electric light there.
- na tad bhāsayate sūryo
- na śaśāṅko na pāvakaḥ
- yad gatvā na nivartante
- tad dhāma paramaṁ mama
- (BG 15.6)
The spiritual world there is. Paras tasmāt tu bhāvo 'nyo 'vyakto 'vyaktāt sanātanaḥ (BG 8.20). Everything is there, but we do not take care. We think that "We have understood three bighās of land, my neighborhood" or "this, my India" or "my America," "this planet," "That is sufficient knowledge." No, that is not sufficient knowledge. You have to know so many things. But if you understand Kṛṣṇa, to understand Kṛṣṇa means to understand everything. Kasmin tu bhagavo vijñāte sarvam idaṁ vijñātaṁ bhavati. If you try to...
This Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is that try to understand Kṛṣṇa, as Kṛṣṇa is speaking in the Bhagavad-gītā. Don't mal-interpret. Don't be foolish, that "Kṛṣṇa means this, Kurukṣetra means that," manufacture some words and you be also foolish and make others foolish. No. Try to understand Bhagavad-gītā as it is. Then you'll understand everything.
Now here Kṛṣṇa says, bahir antaś ca bhūtānām. The Absolute Truth is there, bahir antaś ca, not that it is in a different position or different angle of vision. You are already in the Absolute Truth, even materially conception. Bhūmir āpo 'nalo vāyuḥ khaṁ mano buddhir eva ca (BG 7.4). These are the material elements, five gross elements and three subtle elements. So even taken materially, so what is this material? We have already explained. The materials are different energies of the Supreme Lord. Bhinnā me prakṛtir aṣṭadhā. Kṛṣṇa says, "These eight kinds of material nature, subtle and gross, they are My energy, inferior energy." Itas tu viddhi me prakṛtiṁ parām.
So, the mind is within, the intelligence is within, the soul is within, and outside your body... So this body made of five elements, they are also Kṛṣṇa's energy, and within, the mind, intelligence and the soul, that is also Kṛṣṇa's energy. Two kinds of energies: supreme, er, inferior and superior. Therefore He is outside and inside both. Bahir antaś ca bhūtānām. Every living entity, Kṛṣṇa is existing outside and inside. Therefore we have to purify both outside and inside. That is our human life. Human life means to become purified. Because we are not purified, therefore we have to accept birth, death, old age and disease. This is the problem. Because we are not purified...
That is stated in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena śuddhyet sattvam (SB 5.5.1). Ṛṣabhadeva advised his sons, "My dear sons," tapo divyam, "just undergo austerities." This life, human life is for austerities, penance. Therefore you'll find in the Vedic civilization, big big saintly persons, big, big brāhmaṇas, kṣatriyas, rājarṣis, they are engaged. Just like Lord Buddha. Lord Buddha was the prince, royal family, but still he left everything and underwent meditation to understand himself. There are many others. Bharata Mahārāja, under whose name this country is called Bhāratavarṣa, at the twenty-fourth years of his age, he left his kingdom, his wife, little children, and went for austerity, penance. This is meant for.