Lecture at Śrī Kṛṣṅa Caitanya Maṭha
[audience talking loudly in background throughout]
Prabhupāda: ... kindly coming here and participating in the great Kṛṣṅa consciousness movement.
[break] ...in this meeting, the Commissioner of Income Tax...
Host: Sales tax, Sales tax.
Prabhupāda: Sales tax, present here, and he has asked me [loud applause] one intelligent question, which I, I was just going to answer. So I shall try to answer, here in this meeting, what is the objective of this movement. This Kṛṣṅa consciousness movement is a purificatory process.
Consciousness is there, as it is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, avināśi tu tad viddhi yena sarvam idaṁ tatam [Bg 2.17]
[Know that which pervades the entire body is indestructible. No one is able to destroy the imperishable soul.]
There are two kinds of consciousness. One consciousness is limited, another consciousness is unlimited. The unlimited consciousness is there in God, and limited consciousness is there in you, in me, and of all living entities. [still much talking in audience]
Host: [calls out for silence]
Prabhupāda: Just like if I pinch your body, you feel pain. This is also consciousness, that "Somebody is pinching me." But if I pinch somebody else, you cannot feel it. Therefore your consciousness or my consciousness is limited within this body. Similarly, there is another consciousness, which is Kṛṣṅa's consciousness, or universal consciousness.
If I pinch your body, He feels that I am pinching somebody, as Paramātmā. These things are explained in the Bhagavad-gītā. Kṛṣṅa says in the Bhagavad-gītā, Kṣetra-kṣetrajña chapter [Bg 13.27]. Kṣetra means this body, and kṣetra-jña means the knower of the body. Kṣetra-jña. Jña means knower. So Kṛṣṅa says that each and every body can be kṣetra-jña. I know about the pains and pleasure of my body; you know the pains and pleasure of your body.
Host: [calls for silence again]
Prabhupāda: I think they cannot understand.
Host: [calls for silence and explains in local language that talk is in English, among other things] [break]
Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṅa says that kṣetra-jñaṁ cāpi māṁ viddhi sarva-kṣetreṣu bhārata [Bg 13.3]. Just like I am present in my body. I know the pains and pleasure of my body, but Kṛṣṅa, because He is present in everyone's body, īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe 'rjuna tiṣṭhati [Bg 18.61],
[The Supreme Lord is situated in everyone's heart, O Arjuna, and is directing the wanderings of all living entities, who are seated as on a machine, made of the material energy.]
He knows the pains and pleasure of all bodies. That is difference between Kṛṣṅa and ourself, or God and ourself. This is the test. Somebody is claiming that "I am God." How you can be God? You cannot know the pains and pleasures of others, but Kṛṣṅa knows. That is the difference between God and living entity.
Host: [calls for silence again] [break]
Prabhupāda: So far consciousness is concerned, God is also conscious, we are also conscious, but our consciousness is limited and God's consciousness is unlimited. That is the difference.
Arjuna, when he was..., he was taking instruction from Kṛṣṅa, Kṛṣṅa says that "This yoga system, I explained to the sun-god." And Arjuna inquired, "How is that, Kṛṣṅa? Both You and me, we are born recently. How it is that You say that You explained to the sun-god, long, long years, forty millions of years ago?" Kṛṣṅa answered this point, "My dear Arjuna, you are My eternal friend. You are always with Me. When I instructed the sun-god, you were also present, but you have forgotten. I do not forget."
That is the difference between Kṛṣṅa and Arjuna. Vedāhaṁ samatītāni [Bg 7.26]. Kṛṣṅa knows everything—whatever had happened in the past, whatever would happen in the future, and what is happening at the present, vedāhaṁ samatītāni. But we do not know. First of all this is..., we should understand this is the difference between God and the living entity. [break]
The jīva are explained in the Bhagavad-gītā as part and parcel of Kṛṣṅa. The example is given, just like the fire, big fire, and the sparks. The sparks are small, but in quality they are fire. They are not different from fire. If a spark of fire falls on your cloth, it will immediately burn. So the burning quality is there, either in the big fire or the small fire. Therefore, qualitatively we are one with God, the quality of burning. Another example is just like the drop of the ocean water. Chemical composition of this drop of ocean water is the same as the chemical combination of the big mass of water.
So Kṛṣṅa, He is all-powerful. We are also powerful. Kṛṣṅa can create. We also can create. Kṛṣṅa can create, just like innumerable planets floating in the air. We can create a small, teeny aeroplane or sputnik flying in the air. You see? So the creative power is there, but there is far difference between Kṛṣṅa's creative power and my creative power. Kṛṣṅa, in the Vedas it is said,
parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate svābhāvikī jñāna-bala-kriyā ca na tasya kāryaṁ kāraṅam ca vidyate na tat-samaś cābhyadikaś ca dṛśyate [Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad 6.8]
[The Supreme Lord has nothing to do. Nothing is equal to Him or greater than Him. He acts in different phases by manifesting His parts and parcels, which are all simultaneously differently situated by His unlimited, variegated potencies. Each potency acts quite naturally in sequences, providing Him full knowledge, power and pastimes.]
The difference between Kṛṣṅa and me is this, that suppose I am painting one nice flower: so I require the brush, I require the color, I require the intelligence, I require the time, so that somehow or other, in few days or in few months, I paint a very nice color fruit, flower or fruit. But Kṛṣṅa's energy is so experienced that by working His energy, many millions of flowers, colorful flowers, come at once. The foolish scientists, they say that it is the work of the nature.
No. Nature is instrumental. Behind nature there is brain of God, Kṛṣṅa. That is Kṛṣṅa consciousness. One who is Kṛṣṅa conscious, he understands that this flower has not come blindly. These varieties of flowers, trees and leaves, they are developing under direction of Kṛṣṅa. But His direction is so powerful it comes at once, svābhāvikī jñāna-bala-kriyā ca. Just like a great scientist pushing on a button, electronics. Immediately something wonderful happens. But it is not that the machine is working; it is the scientist who is pushing on the button. Similarly, don't take..., this is nonsense that nature is producing. No. Nature cannot produce.
Therefore Kṛṣṅa says in the Bhagavad-gītā,
mayādhyakṣeṅa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram hetunānena kaunteya jagad viparivartate [Bg 9.10]
[This material nature is working under My direction, O son of Kuntī, and it is producing all moving and unmoving beings. By its rule this manifestation is created and annihilated again and again.]
"Mayādhyakṣeṅa, under My supervision, the nature is working." Not blindly. This is not something ignorance. This is crude knowledge. Just like a child, he sees that aeroplane is running on the sky. He may think that the aeroplane is running automatically, by itself. No. The machine, without being touched by the pilot, cannot work. The machine may be perfect, very nice, but the pilot is required.
So at the present moment the civilization is trying to avoid God, the brain of God. That is foolishness. That is not fact. Kṛṣṅa says in the Bhagavad-gītā,
mayādhyakṣeṅa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram hetunānena kaunteya jagad viparivartate [Bg 9.10]
So the Kṛṣṅa conscious person sees, behind nature, the hand of God. That is Kṛṣṅa consciousness. [break]
In this connection there is one verse in the Viṣṅu Purāṅa,
eka-deśa-sthitasyāgner jyotsnā vistāriṅī yathā parasya brahmaṅaḥ śaktis tathedam akhilaṁ jagat [Viṣṅu Purāṅa 1.22.53]
[Just as the illumination of a fire, which is situated in one place, is spread all over, the energies of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Para-brahman, are spread all over this universe.]
What is this world, manifestation, this is explained. Just like the fire is existing... Just like the sun, sun is an emblem of fire, and ninety-three millions of miles away it is situated, eka sthāni sthitasya. But because it is fiery planet, its heat and light is expanded, and in that heat and light everything is being generated. Just like, we have got practical experience, in Western countries, where there is no sufficient heat and light, the trees and the flowers do not grow so luxuriously, because there is want of heat and light. And when there is snowfall, when there is no sunlight, everything, the trees become without any leaf, dry, śuṣka.
So as it is the cause of the different leaves and flowers and fruit is the heat and light of the sun, similarly, Kṛṣṅa has got two kinds of energies. That is also heat and light. That heat and light is spiritual energy and material energy. The material energy... Not material energy; material energy is practically darkness, there is no light.
[host shouts to ask for quiet]
The Vedic instruction is therefore that don't keep yourself within this darkness, tamasi mā jyotir gamaḥ. There is another sky. Just like in this sky, you will find it is darkness. Naturally it is darkness. Because there is darkness, therefore Kṛṣṅa has created the sun.
It is stated in the Brahma-saṁhitā. It is said,
yac-cakṣur eṣa savitā sakala-grahāṅāṁ rājā samasta-sura-mūrtir aśeṣa-tejāḥ yasyājñayā bhramati sambhṛta-kāla-cakro govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi [Bs 5.52]
[The sun who is the king of all the planets, full of infinite effulgence, the image of the good soul, is as the eye of this world. I adore the primeval Lord Govinda in pursuance of whose order the sun performs his journey mounting the wheel of time.]
The scientists say that the sun is rotating in its orbit so carefully that if it moves from one side, the whole universe will be immediately turned into ice, and if it moves the other side, then immediately the whole universe will be ablaze. So carefully, yasya ajñāyā bhramati. The scientists have seen so far that the sun is moving very carefully—neither this side nor that side; exactly in the orbit. So who has ordered, who has planned this orbit?
The Brahma-saṁhitā informs, yasya-ajñāyā, by whose order the sun is rotating exactly in the orbit, yasyājñāyā bhramati sambhṛta-kāla-cakro govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi. "I am offering..." He is not struck with wonder by the arrangement in the material world, how the sun is moving, how the moon is moving, how the nature is working. He knows that there is a brain, big brain, Kṛṣṅa.
Kṛṣṅa also says,
ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavo mattaḥ sarvaṁ pravartate iti matvā bhajante māṁ budhā bhāva-samanvitāḥ [Bg 10.8]
[I am the source of all spiritual and material worlds. Everything emanates from Me. The wise who know this perfectly engage in My devotional service and worship Me with all their hearts.]
Anyone who has understood Kṛṣṅa rightly, in truth, he is Kṛṣṅa conscious, he is budhā, he's actually in knowledge, bhāva-samanvitāḥ. Kṛṣṅa is so great. Kṛṣṅa's great power is so great. Generally, people take Kṛṣṅa very slightly: "Oh, Kṛṣṅa danced with the gopīs." They do not know what is Kṛṣṅa. Therefore they go to hell by hearing from unauthorized sources this Kṛṣṅa's rasa-līlā. They go to hell. We have to face so many questions sometimes, "Why Kṛṣṅa did like this?"
Because due to this professional Bhāgavata readers, when they read Bhāgavata, they immediately open the rasa-līlā chapter, because they have no other knowledge; they cannot explain. Bhāgavata begins from the very beginning, janmādy asya yataḥ anvayād itarataś ca arthe [SB 1.1.1]. They have no brain to explain all these intricate verses in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, what is Kṛṣṅa, janmādy asya yataḥ. They jump over to the spiritual rasa-līlā, and people misunderstand.
Therefore Kṛṣṅa says,
manuṣyāṅāṁ sahasreṣu kaścid yatati siddhaye yatatām api siddhānāṁ kaścin vetti māṁ tattvataḥ [Bg 7.3]
[Out of many thousands among men, one may endeavor for perfection, and of those who have achieved perfection, hardly one knows Me in truth.]
One has to understand Kṛṣṅa in truth, then his Kṛṣṅa consciousness will help him how to become budhā bhāva-samanvitāḥ. Then he'll be fully engaged in Kṛṣṅa consciousness. One who knows... But how one can know, understand, this Kṛṣṅa consciousness in truth, that is stated by Kṛṣṅa:
brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā na śocati na kāṅkṣati samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu mad-bhaktiṁ labhate parām [Bg 18.54]
[And of all yogīs, he who always abides in Me with great faith, worshiping Me in transcendental loving service, is most intimately united with Me in yoga and is the highest of all.]
After Brahman realization, after being freed from this material contamination, when one becomes actually happy, prasannātmā, na śocati na kāṅkṣati, no anxiety, at that time, samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu mad-bhaktiṁ labhate parām.
And He especially mentions,
bhaktyā mām abhijānāti yāvān yaś cāsmi tattvataḥ tato māṁ tattvato jñātvā viśate tad-anantaram [Bg 18.55]
[One can understand the Supreme Personality as He is only by devotional service. And when one is in full consciousness of the Supreme Lord by such devotion, he can enter into the kingdom of God.]
If one tries to understand Kṛṣṅa as He is, not by fiction, not by speculation, not by so-called scholarly, foolish commentation, but Kṛṣṅa should be understood as He is. Then, that is right Kṛṣṅa consciousness, and then one will be able to understand how Kṛṣṅa is working, how the whole world, material atmosphere and material..., cosmic manifestation is working. Then you will understand. Kṛṣṅa says, mayādhyakṣeṅa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram [Bg 9.10],
[This material nature is working under My direction, O son of Kuntī, and it is producing all moving and unmoving beings. By its rule this manifestation is created and annihilated again and again.]
"under My supervision," to understand Kṛṣṅa.
And anyone who understands Kṛṣṅa scientifically, then he, Kṛṣṅa says, janma karma me divyaṁ yo jānāti tattvataḥ. Not the foolish man; the intelligent man, who knows Kṛṣṅa actually, then the result is tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti [Bg 4.9].
[One who knows the transcendental nature of My appearance and activities does not, upon leaving the body, take his birth again in this material world, but attains My eternal abode, O Arjuna.]
Immediately he becomes liberated. So after giving up this body, he never, no more comes back to accept another this material body. He goes back to home, back to Godhead. [break]
This living entity, part and parcel of Kṛṣṅa, how he has got this condition of material life? That can be explained in this way: Just like this fire spark. As long as it is in the fire, it is also just like fire, glowing, glowing. Only it is spark, it is glowing. But if it falls down from the fire, then immediately it becomes extinguished. The glowing quality becomes extinguished. And there are three kinds of different position of the living entity according to the quality of this material nature he associates. Kāraṅaṁ guṅa-saṅgaḥ asya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu. The living entity is the same, but when he comes into this material world, he associates with three kinds of material qualities: sattva-guṅa, rajo-guṅa, tamo-guṅa.
So one who is in sattva-guṅa, brahminical qualification, actually, cātur-varṅyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭaṁ guṅa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ [Bg 4.13].
[According to the three modes of material nature and the work ascribed to them, the four divisions of human society were created by Me. And, although I am the creator of this system, you should know that I am yet the non-doer, being unchangeable.]
One who has got the brahminical qualities by work and actually in life, satya, śama, dama, titikṣa, ārjavam, jñānaṁ-vijñānam āstikyaṁ brahma-karma svabhāva-jam [Bg 18.42],
[Peacefulness, self-control, austerity, purity, tolerance, honesty, wisdom, knowledge, and religiousness—these are the qualities by which the brāhmaṅas work.]
so he can understand. Brahma jānāti iti brāhmaṅaḥ, he can understand so how..., what is my relationship with the Supreme Lord. So similarly, one who is in the rajo-guṅa, the example is given: There is a spark.
When it falls down on dry grass, the dry grass becomes blazing. Although the spark is fallen, it causes the atmosphere lighten. And if the spark falls on the wet ground, then it is..., the sparking, the glowing quality may remain for some time, but it will be extinguished. And if it falls down on the water, it is extinguished. Similarly, when the living entity comes to this material world, if by chance he is in the association of the goodness, he keeps God consciousness. And if he is in the association of passion, he is materially busy. And if he associates with the quality of ignorance, he becomes animals or animals-like man.
So this Kṛṣṅa consciousness movement is giving everyone the chance of to become again blazing fire by associating of Kṛṣṅa. The same spark, that extinguished charcoal, or karma, if you put into the fire, it will be again light. Similarly, this Kṛṣṅa consciousness movement is trying to bring forth again the dormant Kṛṣṅa consciousness in every living entity.
nitya-siddha kṛṣṅa-bhakti sādhya kabhu naya śravaṅādi-śuddha-citte karaye udaya [Hari-bhakti-vilāsa, Cc Madhya 22.107]
[Pure love for Kṛṣṅa is eternally established in the hearts of the living entities. It is not something to be gained from another source. When the heart is purified by hearing and chanting, this love naturally awakens.]
We are just trying to revive it, uttiṣṭhata jāgrata prāpya varān nibhodata [Kaṭha Upaniṣad 1.3.14].
[Please wake up and try to understand the boon that you now have in this human form of life. The path of spiritual realization is very difficult; it is sharp like a razor's edge. That is the opinion of learned transcendental scholars.]
We are trying to awaken the human society to come to the Kṛṣṅa consciousness movement and live this life successfully. That is the program.
Thank you very much. [end]
