Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.1.1

Pradyumna: Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. [Prabhupāda and devotees repeat] [leads chanting of verse, etc.]

janmādy asya yato 'nvayād itarataś cārtheṣv abhijñaḥ svarāṭ tene brahma hṛdā ya ādi-kavaye muhyanti yat sūrayaḥ tejo-vāri-mṛdāṁ yathā vinimayo yatra tri-sargo 'mṛṣā dhāmnā svena sadā nirasta-kuhakaṁ satyaṁ paraṁ dhīmahi [SB 1.1.1]

[Prabhupāda interrupts chanting: "Not all at a time. Practice, then..." Pradyumna resumes chanting one word at a time, then a line at a time]

Prabhupāda: So, next, anyone? [devotees chant, with Prabhupāda correcting] Any girls? [lady devotee chants with Prabhupāda correcting] Any other girl? [lady devotee chants] Very good. So? Word meaning.

Pradyumna: [leads chanting of synonyms]

om—O my Lord; namaḥ—offering my obeisances; bhagavate—unto the Personality of Godhead; vāsudevāya—unto Vāsudeva (the son of Vasudeva), or Lord Śrī Kṛṣṅa, the primeval Lord; janma-ādi—creation, sustenance and destruction; asya—of the manifested universes; yataḥ—from whom; anvayāt—directly; itarataḥ—indirectly; ca—and; artheṣu—purposes; abhijñaḥ—fully cognizant; sva-rāṭ—fully independent; tene—imparted; brahma—the Vedic knowledge; hṛdā—consciousness of the heart; yaḥ—one who; ādi-kavaye—unto the original created being; muhyanti—are illusioned; yat—about whom; sūrayaḥ—great sages and demigods; tejaḥ—fire; vāri—water; mṛdām—earth; yathā—as much as; vinimayaḥ—action and reaction; yatra—whereupon; tri-sargaḥ—three modes of creation, creative faculties; amṛṣā—almost factual; dhāmnā—along with all transcendental paraphernalia; svena—self-sufficiently; sadā—always; nirasta—negation by absence; kuhakam—illusion; satyam—truth; param—absolute; dhīmahi—I do meditate upon.

[16:17]

Translation: "I offer my obeisances unto Lord Śrī Kṛṣṅa, the son of Vasudeva, who is the supreme, all-pervading Personality of Godhead. I meditate upon Him, the transcendent reality, who is the primeval cause of all causes, from whom all manifested universes arise, in whom they dwell and by whom they are destroyed. I meditate upon that eternally effulgent Lord who is directly and indirectly conscious of all manifestations and yet is beyond them. It is He only who first imparted Vedic knowledge unto the heart of Brahmā, the first created being. Through Him this world, like a mirage, appears real even to great sages and demigods. Because of Him, the material universes, created by the three modes of nature, appear to be factual, although they are unreal. I meditate therefore upon Him, the Absolute Truth, who is eternally existent in His transcendental abode, and who is forever free of illusion."

Prabhupāda: So Vyāsadeva is offering his obeisances unto the Supreme Lord, Kṛṣṅa. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Bhagavate, "unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is known as Vāsudeva." Vāsudeva means the son of Vasudeva. Even the leader of the impersonalists, namely Śaṅkarācārya, he has accepted that the Supreme Personality of Godhead appeared as the son of Vasudeva and Devakī.

People may not misunderstand. Just like we give identification by giving the name of father, mother, similarly, Kṛṣṅa's identification is that He is son of Vasudeva or son of Nanda Mahārāja, friend of Śrīdāmā, Sudāmā, lover of Rādhārāṅī. In so many ways He has got hundreds of thousands of names.

So people who protest that God cannot have any name... They say that God cannot have any name. Yes, we agree with that. God cannot have any name. Or God has so many names, how we'll address Him? The śāstra says that He has got many names, but the chief name is Kṛṣṅa. In the Atharva Veda it is said. Kṛṣṅa is the son of Devakī, Vasudeva. Those who are very much strict to understand everything on the evidence of Veda, Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī has given them quotation from Vedas, that "In the Vedas, Kṛṣṅa's name is there, His father's name is there." Like that.

So God's name... Actually, there is no God's name. There is name, but He has got so many names. His name is given according to His pastime. Just like according to... It has got meaning. You cannot give any name to God without bearing any meaning. That is the Vedic significance. When we say "Kṛṣṅa" name of God, that means He's all-attractive. All-attractive means, He's not only attractive to the devotees but to the nondevotees also. It's not that Kṛṣṅa is one-sided, He's attractive to the devotees. No. To the nondevotees also.

Just like Kaṁsa. Kaṁsa was also attracted by Kṛṣṅa. He was attracted to Kṛṣṅa as enemy. There are two kinds of attraction. We can become attracted to somebody as friend as well as enemy. That is also attraction. If you think of some person that "This man is my enemy. I want to kill him, or I want to do some harm to him. How I shall do? How shall I capture him? He goes from the office, on the road. So I can capture him in that way." So many ways. Just like in America the President Kennedy was killed. So the man who killed him, he made it a plan, thinking of President Kennedy always. That is attraction.

All-attractive means, therefore, that Kṛṣṅa is attractive to everyone, either one is Kṛṣṅa's devotee or nondevotee. The best example is Kaṁsa. Kaṁsa heard that the eighth son of his sister, Devakī, would kill him. Since that time, he became attracted to Kṛṣṅa: "Oh, somebody's coming in the name Kṛṣṅa, as my sister's eighth son. So He will kill me. So let me kill my sister, the source of Kṛṣṅa."

So he first of all wanted to kill his sister. That is due to attraction of Kṛṣṅa. He was very kind to his sister. After the marriage of his sister he was taking very jubilantly his sister and his brother-in-law in a chariot, and he was personally driving, because Devakī happened to be younger sister of Kaṁsa. Naturally, everyone has got some love for younger brother and sister.

So he was affectionate. Although he was a devotee..., a nondevotee demon, still, natural attraction one cannot avoid. Just like a tiger. Tiger is killer of everyone, but still, the tiger and the tigress have got affection for the cubs. That is natural. So he had the natural attraction for his sister, but when he heard that his sister would be the killer of him, he immediately wanted to kill his sister. That story you know. It is stated in the Kṛṣṅa book, beginning.

So the idea is... Satyaṁ paraṁ dhīmahi [SB 1.1.1]. Namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. So Vyāsadeva is offering his obeisances to the son of Devakī, Kṛṣṅa. Kṛṣṅa means all-attractive. Then, read. What is next?

Pradyumna: "Obeisances unto the Personality of Godhead, Vāsudeva, directly indicates Lord Śrī Kṛṣṅa, who is the divine son of Vasudeva and Devakī. This fact will be more explicitly explained in the texts of this work. Śrī Vyāsadeva asserts herein that Śrī Kṛṣṅa is the original Personality of Godhead, and all others are His direct or indirect plenary portions or portions of the portion."

Prabhupāda: Yes. This will be explained in the Third Chapter [aside:] Third Chapter? Third Chapter of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, First Canto. When describing different incarnations, so in that list of different incarnations, Kṛṣṅa's name is also there. So Vyāsadeva has purposefully explained in that verse that there are so many incarnations. It has been described there that Kṛṣṅa, or God, has got so many incarnation, just like so many waves of the river.

If you have got some experience of the flowing river, you'll find so many waves are coming, one after another, one after another. So He has got so many incarnations that you cannot count even. Just like if you sit down on the bank of a river and go on counting the waves, so whole day and night, whole year, whole life, still, it will not be finished.

Therefore Kṛṣṅa's another name is Ananta. Ananta means "who has no end." Ananta. Anta means end. Everything of us, there is end. But Kṛṣṅa has no end. Similarly, His incarnation has no end. So in spite of so many incarnations, He is full. If we take..., try to understand Kṛṣṅa materially, that...

Just like if you take from some stock one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, like that, then the stock will be finished at a certain point. Kṛṣṅa is not like that. Pūrṅam. The Veda says Kṛṣṅa is pūrṅam, complete. What kind of pūrṅam? We understand also complete. But if you want to take something from the complete, gradually it will be reduced, and ultimately it becomes zero.

So Kṛṣṅa is not like that. The Vedas says that pūrṅasya pūrṅam ādāya pūrṅam eva avaśiṣyate [Īśo Invocation].

[The Personality of Godhead is perfect and complete, and because He is completely perfect, all emanations from Him, such as this phenomenal world, are perfectly equipped as complete wholes. Whatever is produced of the Complete Whole is also complete in itself. Because He is the Complete Whole, even though so many complete units emanate from Him, He remains the complete balance.]

He's complete. So many incarnations are coming from Him, just like the waves of the river; still, He's complete. Pūrṅasya pūrṅam. From original Kṛṣṅa so many incarnation are coming. But still, He's there.

In the Brahma-saṁhitā it is stated that: goloka eva nivasaty akhilātma-bhūtaḥ [Bs 5.37].

[I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, residing in His own realm, Goloka, with Rādhā, resembling His own spiritual figure, the embodiment of the ecstatic potency possessed of the sixty-four artistic activities, in the company of Her confidantes [sakhīs], embodiments of the extensions of Her bodily form, permeated and vitalized by His ever-blissful spiritual rasa.]

Kṛṣṅa lives at His home, Goloka Vṛndāvana. Just like Kṛṣṅa is in Goloka Vṛndāvana. So still, He emanates, He expands Himself. Akhilātma-bhūtaḥ. Akhilātma-bhūtaḥ means throughout the whole creation. He has creation; that is also innumerable. We are seeing this creation, this universe. There are innumerable planets. But... Akhilātma-bhūtaḥ [Bs 5.37], in everywhere Kṛṣṅa is there. Still He is existing in His own abode.

We cannot imagine, because we have no such experience. Just like we are sitting in this room. We are not sitting in the other room. Try to understand the distinction between Kṛṣṅa and ourselves. But Kṛṣṅa is here, and He's not only in the other room—other building, other city, other universe, everywhere. That is Kṛṣṅa.

It is stated—not that we are imagining, because we take evidence from the Vedic literature. In the Brahma-saṁhitā it is stated like that:

eko 'py asau racayituṁ jagad-aṅḍa-koṭiṁ yac chaktir asti jagad-aṅḍa-cayā yad-antaḥ aṅḍāntara-stha-paramāṅu-cayāntara-sthaṁ govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi [Bs 5.35]

[He is an undifferentiated entity as there is no distinction between potency and the possessor thereof. In His work of creation of millions of worlds, His potency remains inseparable. All the universes exist in Him and He is present in His fullness in every one of the atoms that are scattered throughout the universe, at one and the same time. Such is the primeval Lord whom I adore.]

One portion of Kṛṣṅa. Kṛṣṅa has direct expansion and expansion of the expansion. Just like Kṛṣṅa, His immediate expansion is Baladeva, Balarāma. Then from Balarāma the next expansion is catur-vyūha, quadruple: Saṅkarṣaṅa, Vāsudeva, Aniruddha, Pradyumna. Again, from this Saṅkarṣaṅa there is another expansion, Nārāyaṅa. From Nārāyaṅa, there is another expansion. Again, second status of Saṅkarṣaṅa, Vāsudeva, Aniruddha... Not only one Nārāyaṅa, but innumerable Nārāyaṅas.

Because in the Vaikuṅṭhaloka, spiritual sky, there are innumerable planets. How many? Now, just imagine here in this universe there are planets. This is one universe. There are millions of planets. You cannot count. You cannot count. So similarly, there are innumerable universes also. That also you cannot count. Still, all these universes taken together is only one-fourth manifestation of Kṛṣṅa's expansion. So in the Vaikuṅṭhaloka there is three-fourths expansion.

So we cannot count even one planet how many Kṛṣṅa's expansions are there, because He is aṅḍāntara-stha-paramāṅu-cayāntara-stham [Bs 5.35].

[He is an undifferentiated entity as there is no distinction between potency and the possessor thereof. In His work of creation of millions of worlds, His potency remains inseparable. All the universes exist in Him and He is present in His fullness in every one of the atoms that are scattered throughout the universe, at one and the same time. Such is the primeval Lord whom I adore.]

He's within the atom also. The scientists are perplexed to analyze one atom. More and more they're finding components. Kṛṣṅa... Therefore His name is Ananta. Advaitam acyutam ananta..., anādim ananta-rūpam [Bs 5.33].

[I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, who is inaccessible to the Vedas, but obtainable by pure unalloyed devotion of the soul, who is without a second, who is not subject to decay, is without a beginning, whose form is endless, who is the beginning, and the eternal puruṣa; yet He is a person possessing the beauty of blooming youth.]

He has got multiforms. Multiforms.

So Vyāsadeva will explain in the Third Chapter that although He has got all these multiforms, nobody is lesser than Kṛṣṅa. But still that Kṛṣṅa, the name which He appeared in this list[?], He's the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Ete cāṁśa-kalāḥ puṁsaḥ kṛṣṅas tu bhagavān svayam [SB 1.3.28].

[All of the above-mentioned incarnations are either plenary portions or portions of the plenary portions of the Lord, but Lord Śrī Kṛṣṅa is the original Personality of Godhead. All of them appear on planets whenever there is a disturbance created by the atheists. The Lord incarnates to protect the theists.]

All other incarnations who are mentioned in this list, they are aṁśa-kalāḥ. They're directly expansion or expansion of the expansion, expansion of the expansion, you go on; there is no limit. That is Kṛṣṅa. Just like Kṛṣṅa is in this temple. In other temples also, Kṛṣṅa is there. Not that because in this temple Kṛṣṅa is there, He is finished. Just like we are present in this room, not in other room; that means this one room—finished. Kṛṣṅa is not like that. Try to understand Kṛṣṅa.

Therefore Bhāgavata is trying to inform you about Kṛṣṅa, beginning janmādy asya... [SB 1.1.1], oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Vāsudeva Kṛṣṅa, svayaṁ bhagavān. Now, what kind of Vāsudeva? Janmādy asya yataḥ: from whom everything is there. What is that everything? Means birth, sustenance and death. Everything we can understand, any material object we can understand by these three symptoms. Just like your body, my body, or everyone's body: it has got a date of birth, it continues to live for some time, and there is end. That is called janmādy asya [SB 1.1.1]. Janma ādi asya. First of all birth, then sustenance, then death. This is three summary.

But actually there are six. Six... In the birth, then living for some time, then growth, then producing something out of the body, then dwindling, then finished. Every body. Everybody takes birth, then remains for some time, grows also or changes different body, and then from the body some other bodies are also come out. In this way one becomes old; that means dwindling. And one day will come he'll be finished. Ṣaḍ-vikāra. These are called six kinds of transformation. Any material thing we can take: six kinds of transformation. But Kṛṣṅa has not such transformation. Therefore He is not of this body. His body is mentioned in the śāstra, sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha [Bs 5.1].

[Kṛṣṅa who is known as Govinda is the Supreme Godhead. He has an eternal blissful spiritual body. He is the origin of all. He has no other origin and He is the prime cause of all causes.]

So anyone accepting Kṛṣṅa like ordinary man, then he's a rascal. Avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam [Bg 9.11].

[Fools deride Me when I descend in the human form. They do not know My transcendental nature and My supreme dominion over all that be.]

Kṛṣṅa says, "The rascal only, they take Me as a human being." Just like a great rascal scholar, he has mentioned, "Perhaps Kṛṣṅa was the leader of an aborigine, and He has been accepted as God." You see? So we cannot study Kṛṣṅa in that way, from the fools and rascals. We have to know Kṛṣṅa from authorities.

Just like Vyāsadeva is explaining what is Kṛṣṅa. First of all let us understand what is Kṛṣṅa, then we enter into the other information of Kṛṣṅa. Just like if you want to know somebody, you have to acquaint himself with that particular person. Then gradually you can understand that "This man is of this position, his financial strength is like this, his influence is like this, like that, like that." So many things you will understand. First of all sambandha.

So anyone who does not know what is God and what is my relationship. Relationship later on. First of all at least we must know what is God. Then we can speak something about God. If I do not know what is God, then how we can explain, how we can understand about Him? So that is the defect. Actually you search out all processes of understanding God.

Generally religion means the process of understanding God. That is religion. Religion without God is just like Hamlet without Hamlet. Playwright, Hamlet. Religion cannot be... Without God, the so-called religion, that is cheating. That is, it will be explained in the next verse, dharmaḥ projjhita-kaitavo 'tra [SB 1.1.2].

[Completely rejecting all religious activities which are materially motivated, this Bhāgavata Purāṅa propounds the highest truth, which is understandable by those devotees who are fully pure in heart. The highest truth is reality distinguished from illusion for the welfare of all. Such truth uproots the threefold miseries. This beautiful Bhāgavatam, compiled by the great sage Vyāsadeva [in his maturity], is sufficient in itself for God realization. What is the need of any other scripture? As soon as one attentively and submissively hears the message of Bhāgavatam, by this culture of knowledge the Supreme Lord is established within his heart.]

Any kind of religion which is going on under the name of religion but the system has no information of God, that is cheating religion. Cheating religion. Because religion means the laws of God. But if you do not know what is God, then how you can know His laws? If you do not know the king, how you can understand the king's laws, even though you try to understand?

Just like scientists, they are trying to understand the laws of God, but because they are imperfect, therefore they cannot understand what is God, in spite of their scientific improvement. They do not know. Ask any scientist, "You are great scientist. Can you say what is God?" The reply will be, "No. We don't believe in God. We don't believe." "Why? You believe in the laws of God?" "Yes, that we are studying."

But the laws means somebody has made that law. That is our experience. Just like when we understand government laws, we understand also the government has enacted this law. We understand that. Just like on the street when you go, it is written there, "Keep to the left." It is the order of the government. You have to abide by that. That is obedience to the government. Discipline. Discipline is the first law of obedience. If people do not care for the government laws, then there will be chaos.

So the present situation is the so-called modern civilization, they have no knowledge of God, although they are trying to study the laws of God. But they should accept at least theoretically there must be God. How I can say God is dead? Because if God is the law-giver, by His order everything is moving nicely. The sun is rising exactly at the time, the moon is rising exactly at the time, the seasonal changes are taking place exactly in due course of time. Everything is going on. Foods are grown for our feeding, for animals. Everything is going on nicely. So how I can say the manager, who is managing all these things, He is dead? How we can accept? These are imperfect knowledge, or demonic knowledge, or rascaldom.

So our Kṛṣṅa consciousness movement is against all this rascaldom. All this rascaldom. We present, "Here is God." "Here is God. Take His name. Take His address also." [laughter] That is also... It is so perfect. They are searching after God: we are giving the name, address, activity, everything, quality, all. Nāma, rūpa, līlā, parikara, vaisiṣṭya, everything. Nāma means name. Here is Kṛṣṅa, God's name. Form, here is the form. He is engaged in enjoyment with Rādhārāṅī and playing on His flute. Veṅuṁ kvaṅantam aravinda-dalāyatākṣaṁ bar... [Bs 5.30].

[I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, who is adept in playing on His flute, with blooming eyes like lotus petals with head decked with peacock's feather, with the figure of beauty tinged with the hue of blue clouds, and His unique loveliness charming millions of Cupids.]

We are not imagining. Not that this artist imagines, the poet imagines. No. We don't do that rascaldom. We don't do that. We take information from the Vedas. Kṛṣṅa, when He was present personally, He played on His flute. The gopīs saw and the cowherds boys saw five thousand years ago. And the ācāryas took information. Even if you don't believe in the history, then come to śāstra. The śāstra says, veṅuṁ kvaṅantam aravinda-dalāyatākṣam [Bs 5.30]: "Kṛṣṅa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is always engaged in playing on His flute." This is Vedic statement.

Veṅuṁ kvaṅantam aravinda-dalāyatākṣam: "His eyes are just like lotus petals." Veṅuṁ kvaṅantam aravinda-dalāyatākṣaṁ barhāvataṁsam asitāmbuda-sundarāṅgam [Bs 5.30]: "He has got a peacock feather on His head." These are the description in the Vedas. "He has got a peacock feather on His head." Barhāvataṁsam asitāmbuda sunda...: "His color is blackish." What kind of blackish? Asitāmbuda: "Just like new cloud." Asitām-sundarāṅgam: "But don't think because He is blackish, He is not beautiful. He is most beautiful." How much beautiful?

Kandarpa-koṭi-kamanīya-viśeṣa-śobham [Bs 5.30]: "He is so beautiful that if you gather millions of Cupids, still He is more beautiful." These descriptions are there.

So Kṛṣṅa consciousness movement is very nice. You will be able to understand what is God, and you will be able to understand what is your relationship with God. And you will be able to understand how you can go back to home, back to Godhead.

Thank you very much.

Devotee: Jaya! All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda! [devotees offer obeisances] [end]