Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.2.5 [At Ladies Club]

Prabhupāda:

... pṛṣṭo 'haṁ bhavadbhir loka-maṅgalam yat kṛtaḥ kṛṣṅa-sampraśno yenātmā suprasīdati [SB 1.2.5]

Ladies and Gentlemen, I thank you very much for your kindly coming here to participate in this Kṛṣṅa consciousness movement. So I am reciting one or two verses from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, First Canto, Second Chapter, wherein Sūta Gosvāmī describes to the great sages assembled in Naimiṣāraṅya in respect of the importance of Kṛṣṅa consciousness.

Naimiṣāraṅya, perhaps you have heard the name. At present there is a railway station near..., between Hardoi and Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh. The station is called Nimsar, and still the Naimiṣāraṅya atmosphere is maintained there. It is a very nice, sacred place. If you go there, you will feel immediately Kṛṣṅa consciousness. So in that meeting, the great sages and saintly persons assembled there inquired from Sūta Gosvāmī that "After departure of Lord Kṛṣṅa, wherein the principles of religions are kept?"

Kṛṣṅa appeared for re-establishing the religious principle, dharma saṁsthāpanārthāya [Bg 4.8].

[In order to deliver the pious and to annihilate the miscreants, as well as to reestablish the principles of religion, I advent Myself millennium after millennium.]

When Kṛṣṅa or any incarnation of the Lord descends, there are two kinds of mission. One mission is paritrāṅāya sādhūnām [Bg 4.8]. The sādhus, or the devotees, they are very much anxious to meet God, Kṛṣṅa, so He fulfills the desires of the sādhu, and by the way He also vināśāya ca duṣkṛtam. Duṣkṛtaḥ means sinful, impious, to kill them.

So Kṛṣṅa has got two businesses. One, to give protection to the devotee, and the other is to kill the demon. Just like Kṛṣṅa appeared as keśava dhṛta narahari-rūpa [Śrī Daśāvatāra Stotra 4], Nṛsiṁhadeva, and Narahari, Nṛsiṁhadeva, one side He was blessing Prahlāda Mahārāja, the devotee, and the other side He was killing his atheist father, Hiraṅyakaśipu. You have seen the picture. So Kṛṣṅa, when He has got the fighting spirit...

Because Kṛṣṅa is the source of everything, janmādy asya yataḥ [SB 1.1.1]. Here in this world also, you find two things: friendship and hostility. Just like modern political atmosphere, sometimes there is conference of friendship, and sometimes there is fight with lethal weapons. So this duality is visible in this material world, but in the spiritual world there is no duality. There is absolute peace and... [break].

So when He wants to fight, He comes here, because here there are many demons, so His fighting spirit is satisfied. Otherwise, for killing the demons, Kṛṣṅa does not require to descend. There are many agents of Kṛṣṅa. For example, this city, Visakhapatnam, on the seashore, if Kṛṣṅa desires, this whole city can be killed in a second, simply by overflooding the sea, or by storm. He has got many agents, parasya śaktir vividhaiva śruyate [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.]

Or the material agent, Durgā devī, she can all..., do all these things.

So Kṛṣṅa does not require to descend for killing the demons, but when He feels... Just like a rich man sometimes feels to contest with some wrestler, that does not mean he requires it. That is the Kṛṣṅa spirit. He is all-blissful. So when Kṛṣṅa comes, descends, there are many demons. He especially comes for the devotee. But when He fights with the demon, that is also His favor, because anyone killed by Kṛṣṅa, he immediately attains liberation. Therefore Kṛṣṅa is absolute. Either He fights or blesses, the result is the same.

So this inquiry was made by the great sages in Naimiṣāraṅya, that "After departure of Kṛṣṅa, wherein the principles of religions are kept?" So the answer was given by Sūta Gosvāmī. He says, in the very beginning, munayaḥ sādhu pṛṣṭo aham [SB 1.2.5]: "Your question is very auspicious." Munayaḥ sādhu pṛṣṭo ahaṁ bhavadbhir loka-maṅgalam: "This question is very auspicious to the human society." Why? Yat kṛtaḥ kṛṣṅa-sampraśno: "Because you have inquired about Kṛṣṅa." So, someway or other if you talk of Kṛṣṅa, then it is loka-maṅgalam. Those who are talking about Kṛṣṅa and those who are hearing about Kṛṣṅa, both of them are benefited. It doesn't matter whether he understands or not, if he simply...

[aside:] You can stop. These children are creating disturbance. [host asks for quiet]

So the purpose is that this Kṛṣṅa consciousness movement is hearing and chanting about Kṛṣṅa. The shortcut is to chant the Hare Kṛṣṅa mantra. So anyone who chants this Hare Kṛṣṅa and anyone who hears Hare Kṛṣṅa, both of them are benefited.

There is another verse in this chapter, śṛṅvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṅaḥ...

śṛṅvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṅaḥ puṅya-śravaṅa-kīrtanaḥ hṛdy antaḥ stho hy abhadrāṅi vidhunoti suhṛt satām [SB 1.2.17]

[Śrī Kṛṣṅa, the Personality of Godhead, who is the Paramātmā [Supersoul] in everyone's heart and the benefactor of the truthful devotee, cleanses desire for material enjoyment from the heart of the devotee who has developed the urge to hear His messages, which are in themselves virtuous when properly heard and chanted.]

Our heart is filled up with dirty things. The dirty things is misunderstanding. The first misunderstanding is accepting, identifying oneself with this body: "I am this body." "I am American," "I am Indian," "I am Hindu," "I am Muslim," "I am Christian," "I am this," "I am that," this identification is one of the greatest misunderstanding. And when Kṛṣṅa began His teachings in the Bhagavad-gītā, He first... Because Arjuna accepted Him as his spiritual master. In the beginning he was talking like friends, but when the questions were not solved, Arjuna accepted Kṛṣṅa as his spiritual master: śiṣyas te 'haṁ śādhi māṁ prapannam [Bg 2.7].

[Now I am confused about my duty and have lost all composure because of weakness. In this condition I am asking You to tell me clearly what is best for me. Now I am Your disciple, and a soul surrendered unto You. Please instruct me.]

At that time, when Kṛṣṅa was accepted by Arjuna as his spiritual master, He first of all chastised him. He said, aśocyān anvaśocas tvaṁ prajñā-vādāṁś ca bhāṣase [Bg 2.11]. Because Kṛṣṅa..., Arjuna was talking as a family man, so therefore He first of all chastised him, that "You are talking from a low-grade platform, but you are talking just like learned man. You are not learned." Gatāsūn agatāsūṁś ca nānuśocanti paṅḍitāḥ. "You are not talking like a learned man." That means Kṛṣṅa indirectly said that "You are a fool. You do not know what is your identification."

Then He explained that,

dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā tathā dehāntara-prāptir dhīras tatra na muhyati [Bg 2.13]

[As the embodied soul continually passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. The self-realized soul is not bewildered by such a change.]

The soul is eternal and the body is temporary. It is changing every minute. Just like from our mother's womb, our first birth takes place between the father and mother. Two secretions emulsified, forms into a pealike body, a small pealike body. First night the soul takes shelter within that body, and the mother supplies the energy, and it develops. From that pea it becomes a small body, but the small body becomes greater and greater, and when it is fit for developing, or increasing in this material atmosphere, mother delivers the child and again it becomes developing.

So developing means changing the body. Child's body... Every one of us had a body like a child, baby, but that body is now missing; we have got a different body. Young man has got a different body, old man has got a different body. So this is a fact, that the soul is there, but body is changing. Therefore the natural conclusion should be that when we leave this body, I take another body.

There is no difficulty to understand this reasonable proposition of Bhagavad-gītā.

dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā tathā dehāntara-prāptir... [Bg 2.13]

As dehāntaram, from childhood to boyhood, boyhood to youthhood, is dehāntaram, another body, similarly, old man, when the body is not..., very old, it cannot be used anymore, or the supply ingredients is almost finished, then this body we give up; we accept another body. Now this body we are changing from multiforms of body, jalajā nava-lakṣāni sthāvarā lakṣa-viṁśati kṛmayo rudra-saṅkyakāḥ [Viṣṅu Purāṅa], in this way 8,400,000 species of body we are changing.

And this human form is the greatest benediction for the soul to understand Kṛṣṅa. And Kṛṣṅa says if in this body we try to understand Kṛṣṅa, janma karma me divyam yo jānāti tattvataḥ [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.]

if we simply try to understand Kṛṣṅa, how Kṛṣṅa comes, what is His business, paritrāṅāya sādhunaṁ vināśāya ca duṣkṛtaṁ dharma-saṁsthāpanārthāya [Bg 4.8],

[In order to deliver the pious and to annihilate the miscreants, as well as to reestablish the principles of religion, I advent Myself millennium after millennium.]

what kind of religious principle He re-establishes, sambhavāmi yuge yuge.

So these things are explained very nicely in the Bhagavad-gītā. Everyone in India knows Bhagavad-gītā, and not only in India, throughout the whole world Bhagavad-gītā is very well known and widely read book of knowledge. I have traveled all over the world. In every country there are different language, translations of Bhagavad-gītā, and in Japanese countries there is Bhagavad-gītā, in Muslim country there is Bhagavad-gītā. So Bhagavad-gītā is the universal book of knowledge, and our Kṛṣṅa consciousness movement is based on this Bhagavad-gītā.

We have not manufactured anything. The same thing which is very, very old, at least from historical point of view it is five thousand years old, but from scriptural point of view it is more than forty millions of years old. So our Kṛṣṅa consciousness movement is based on this Bhagavad-gītā, because it is full of kṛṣṅa-sampraśno. Here Sūta Gosvāmī says, yat kṛtaḥ kṛṣṅa-sampraśno loka-maṅgala. "The question raised by you," bhavadbhiḥ, "by you," loka-maṅgala.

The Bhagavad-gītā should be read very widely, and should be understood very widely. That is the only source of auspicity for the human society. But don't misrepresent it. It has become a fashion now to misrepresent, comment on Bhagavad-gītā according to one's whims. That is very dangerous. That is very dangerous. Bhagavad-gītā should be read, should be understood as prescribed in the Bhagavad-gītā. Kṛṣṅa says, in the Fourth Chapter, evaṁ paramparā-prāptam imaṁ rājarṣayo viduḥ [Bg 4.2].

[This supreme science was thus received through the chain of disciplic succession, and the saintly kings understood it in that way. But in course of time the succession was broken, and therefore the science as it is appears to be lost.]

The Bhagavad-gītā should be understood by the line of disciplic succession of authorized ācāryas. Fortunately, in your South India all the great ācāryas appeared—Śaṅkarācārya, Rāmānujācārya, Madhvācārya, Viṣṅu Svāmī, all of them. So you are very fortunate, and the ācārya commentary is also there. Rāmānujācārya commentary is there, Madhvācārya commentary is there.

So you take advantage and read them very nicely. That is our request, Kṛṣṅa consciousness. And try to understand Kṛṣṅa. If you simply understand Kṛṣṅa, then the result will be, janma karma me divyam yo jānāti tattvataḥ, in truth, if fact, which you can do only if you follow the ācāryas, not the rascals. Don't follow any rascal. You follow the ācārya, you'll get the benefit of Kṛṣṅa consciousness. That is our request. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti [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.]

Then your human form of life will be blessed. You'll get success in obtaining this human form of life.

Not only that. You are all mothers present here. Teach your children from the very beginning, as it is recommended by Prahlāda Mahārāja,

kaumāra ācaret prājño dharmān bhāgavatān iha durlabhaṁ mānuṣaṁ janma tad apy adhruvam arthadam [SB 7.6.1]

Prahlāda Mahārāja says that children should be taught about religious principle, especially bhāgavata dharma. What is dharma and bhāgavata dharma? Bhāgavata dharma means the dharma of the soul, and ordinary dharma means the dharma of this body. Generally we understand the varṅāśrama-dharma, cātur-varṅyaṁ mayā śṛṣṭaṁ 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.]

The brāhmaṅas, the kṣatriyas, the vaiśyas and the śūdras; brahmacārī, gṛhastha, vānaprastha and sannyāsa.

So actually this is our..., Vedic principle is varṅāśrama-dharma. So this varṅāśrama-dharma is in relationship with this body. But we are not this body. Dehāntaraṁ prāp..., we are changing our body. So sometimes we may become a śūdra, sometimes we may become brāhmaṅa—that is change. But when you come to the platform of the soul, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre [Bg 2.20], that dharma, when it begins, the dharma of the soul, that is called bhāgavata-dharma, because when one is, uh..., I mean, in the platform, on the platform of understanding soul, that is called brahma-jñāna, ātmā-jñāna.

So when one comes to the platform of Brahman understanding, that is called brahma-bhūta [SB 4.30.20]. Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā [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.]

when you come to that platform, understanding of the soul, then you become joyful, free from material anxieties. Just like you are on a ship and it is in danger on the ocean, tottering. At any moment you can drown. But somehow or other, if you come to the land, then you feel safety, "Now I am safe." Similarly, this bodily consciousness—"I am Indian," "I am American," "I am Hindu," "I am Muslim," "I am this," "I am that"—that is just on the tottering sea. But if you come immediately on the spiritual platform, then prasannātmā, "Now I am safe." Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā na śocati na kāṅkṣati [Bg 18.54].

To Brahman realized soul, he has no more any hankering, nor any lamentation. So long we are on the bodily platform, we are hankering and lamenting. We are hankering for things which we do not possess, and we lament for things we lose. There are two business: to gain some material profit or lose it. This is bodily platform. But when you come to the spiritual platform, there is no more question of loss and profit. Equilibrium. So brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā na śocati na kāṅkṣati, samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu. Because he has no more hankering and lamenting, there is no more enemy. Because if there is enemy, then there is lamenting, but if there is no enemy, then samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu mad-bhaktiṁ labhate parām. That is the beginning of transcendental activities, bhakti.

So our Kṛṣṅa consciousness movement is directly giving this bhakti platform, by the mercy of Kṛṣṅa, in the form of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṅa Caitanya Mahāprabhu. He is distributing Kṛṣṅa immediately, because in this age people are so fallen, mandaḥ sumanda-matayo manda-bhāgyā hy upadrutāḥ [SB 1.1.10].

[O learned one, in this iron Age of Kali men almost always have but short lives. They are quarrelsome, lazy, misguided, unlucky and, above all, always disturbed.]

Alpayu: they're living for a short time; and mandaḥ, mandaḥ means very slow or inferior quality of human being. Not superior. Inferior quality means in this age there is practically no brāhmaṅa; all śūdras. Kalau śūdra sambhavaḥ. Actually also it is so, because people in this age, if he gets one nice service, master, he is satisfied. One wife, one service, then his life is dākṣyaṁ kuṭumba bharaṅam [SB 12.2.6].

In this age if one can maintain his wife and few children, ah, he is very expert. He is to be considered as dākṣa, very expert. He hasn't got to make any sacrifice. Simply if he is somehow or other able to maintain a wife, that is... That has also become impossible. The social system is coming to such degraded position. In Europe and America I have seen, very few men are family men, you see, because it is botheration. They think it is botheration, or it is very heavy task. Actually, in their country it is very heavy task by so many laws and so many conventions. So they avoid marriage.

So therefore, in the symptoms of Kali-yuga it has been stated, dākṣyaṁ kuṭumba-bharanam. Kuṭumba means family. If one can maintain his family, he is to be considered as very successful. No, he hasn't got to make dākṣa-yajña or naradeva-yajña or so many yajña. No. That he has not got means. This is the position. Mandaḥ sumanda-matayo [SB 1.1.10]. And if anyone wants to accept something for spiritual, that is sumanda-matayo, something bogus. He will accept something bogus which has no spiritual, I mean to say, reference. He will accept. "I have... I have got this religion." Mandaḥ sumanda-matayo manda-bhāgyā. Because they're all unfortunate, and upadrutāḥ, and always disturbed and anxious by so many external affairs.

Therefore, in this age Caitanya Mahāprabhu has given us very shortcut method—not manufactured by Him. No saintly ācārya will manufacture his way. He must refer to the Vedic literature. So Caitanya Mahāprabhu picked up the Vedic instruction,

harer nāma harer nāma harer nāmaiva kevalam kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva nāsty eva gatir anyathā [Cc Ādi 17.21]

[In this Age of Kali there is no other means, no other means, no other means for self-realization than chanting the holy name, chanting the holy name, chanting the holy name of Lord Hari.]

From Bṛhad Nāradīya Purāṅa. In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam also it is said,

kaler doṣa-nidhe rājan asti hy eko mahān guṅaḥ kīrtanād eva kṛṣṅasya mukta-saṅgaḥ paraṁ vrajet [SB 12.3.51]

[My dear King, although Kali-yuga is an ocean of faults, there is still one good quality about this age: Simply by chanting the Hare Kṛṣṅa mahā-mantra, one can become free from material bondage and be promoted to the transcendental kingdom.]

So Caitanya Mahāprabhu picked up these Vedic instruction and introduced it to the world five hundred years ago. And He predicted that this mission should be spread all over the world, and specially the task was entrusted with Indians. He said specifically that,

bhārata-bhūmite manuṣya-janma haila yāra janma sārthaka kari' kara para-upakāra [Cc Ādi 9.41]

[One who has taken his birth as a human being in the land of India [Bhārata-varṣa] should make his life successful and work for the benefit of all other people.]

Those who have taken birth as human being in India, they should take this task of distributing Kṛṣṅa consciousness all over the world, for doing well to others. [applause]

So I request that we have made a background only for spreading Kṛṣṅa consciousness, and this movement has a great demand all over the world. They are confused with this materialistic way of life. They are not satisfied. Many thousands and thousands of young men, they are confused. They do not know what to do, but they do not like to live like their fathers or grandfathers.

So this is an opportunity for spreading this mission of Caitanya Mahāprabhu, Kṛṣṅa consciousness and Kṛṣṅa, amongst the scholars, amongst the religionists, amongst the philosophers, even amongst people in general. This Kṛṣṅa book, Bhagavad-gītā, is very well known, so take this opportunity, both ladies and gentlemen in India, and present Kṛṣṅa consciousness without any adulteration. Don't do this misservice, that adding something rascaldom in Bhagavad-gītā. In Bhagavad-gītā it is simply mentioned, and it is described, that Kṛṣṅa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat kiñcid asti dhanañjaya [Bg 7.7].

[O conqueror of wealth [Arjuna], there is no Truth superior to Me. Everything rests upon Me, as pearls are strung on a thread.]

There is no greater authority than Kṛṣṅa.

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.]

These things are there. So my request is that your South Indian people are very intelligent men, and you are benedicted by the blessings of all ācāryas. My sincere request is that you take up this movement seriously and spread all over the world. Join with us.

Thank you very much. [applause] [end]