Lecture

Prabhupāda:

...na tvaṁ neme janādipāḥ na caiva na bhaviśyāmaḥ sarve vayam ataḥ param [Bg 2.12]

[Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings; nor in the future shall any of us cease to be.]

This verse partially I explained last night, this is very important subject matter. Kṛṣṅa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead... Bhagavad-gītā is spoken by the Supreme Personality of Godhead; therefore the knowledge is perfect.

We are conditioned soul, under the rules and regulation of the material nature, and the Supreme Personality of Godhead is not under the rules and regulation of the material world. That is the difference. Both of us, we are living entities, as I explained. Nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām [Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13].

[The Supreme Lord is eternal and the living beings are eternal. The Supreme Lord is cognizant and the living beings are cognizant. The difference is that the Supreme Lord is supplying all the necessities of life for the many other living entities.]

God is also one of us. So far we are living entities are concerned, we are the same. Just like I explained last night that we are samples of God, but He's complete, He's the whole; we are part and parcel.

As part and parcel, there is tendency of being covered by māyā. The example we can cite that the sun and the sunshine... Sunshine means accumulation of shining particles. They are also individual shining material, molecular parts. The cloud can cover the sunshine partial, not all. The sunshine is expanding millions and millions of miles. Out of that, hundred, two hundred miles may be covered by the cloud. So that portion of sunshine is called material world. Just try to understand. The... God is just like sun, kṛṣṅa sūrya-sama, and the sunshine, light, is the brahma-jyoti. Impersonal brahma-jyoti is just like the sunshine, and Paramātmā is just like the sun globe. To understand the Absolute Truth we have to make progress from impersonal Brahman to localized Paramātmā and then, from Paramātmā to this Bhagavān, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

This is the statement of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

vadanti tat tattva-vidas tattvaṁ yaj jñānam advayam brahmeti paramātmeti bhagavān iti śabdyate [SB 1.2.11]

[Learned transcendentalists who know the Absolute Truth call this nondual substance Brahman, Paramātmā or Bhagavān.]

The Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, when Śukadeva Gosvāmī was explaining that duty of the human being... Duty of the human being is explained that first beginning is dharma. Dharmeṅa hīna paśubhiḥ samānāḥ [Hitopadeśa 25]. Unless we come to the platform of understanding what is dharma, or religion... "Religion" is not the exact translation of the word dharma. Religion is understood in English dictionary as a kind of faith. But dharma does not mean that. Dharma means your characteristic, which you cannot change.

Just like water. Water is liquid. That is the characteristic of water. It cannot be changed. Stone—hardness is the characteristic of the stone. It cannot be changed. If you say that water has now changed its characteristic, it has become now hard, stonelike, that is not actually the fact. Although water sometimes becomes hard like stone by the influence of atmosphere, it immediately begins to melt. That means it is going to its own characteristic, liquidity. So when we speak of dharma, according to Vedic understanding, dharma means your characteristic which you cannot change. Therefore, in other words, sometimes dharma is explained as sanātana-dharma. Sanātana-dharma. Sanātana means eternal. You cannot change it.

So you are eternal, as it is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, Second Chapter, text number 12:

na tv evāhaṁ jātu nāsaṁ na tvaṁ neme janādhipāḥ na ca eva na bhaviṣyāmaḥ sarve vayam ataḥ param [Bg 2.12]

[Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings; nor in the future shall any of us cease to be.]

Kṛṣṅa says that "Both, Arjuna, you, Me and all these persons, the soldiers and the kings who are assembled in this Battlefield of Kurukṣetra, don't think that they did not exist in the past nor they will not exist in the future." That means present we can see. Just like we are sitting together. Present we can see that you are there, I am here. Similarly, in the past also we are existing, and in the future also we shall exist in the same way. As you are individual souls, we are assembled together for understanding something. Similarly, every individual soul is different from one another.

We can understand by our present experiment. You are individual soul; I am individual soul. I do not agree with you in every respect, neither you agree with me in every respect. All of us, we have got our individuality. That is our characteristic. That we cannot change. We have got our individuality. We cannot change it. This is our characteristic. And that individuality also meant for giving service. Just like you are all sitting here. Every one of us, we are giving service. Nobody can say... I challenge anybody in this meeting if he can say that he's not serving anybody. No. Everyone is serving. Somebody is serving his family, somebody is serving his boss, somebody is serving his country, his community, his nation—must be serving, must render some service.

This is explained by Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, that the characteristic of individual living entity is to remain eternal servant of Kṛṣṅa, jīvera svarūpa haya nitya kṛṣṅa dāsa [Cc Madhya 20.108-109]. Kṛṣṅa dāsa. We do not become Kṛṣṅa. This is a false theory. We never become Kṛṣṅa. We cannot become even equal to Kṛṣṅa. Asamaurdhva. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is stated that God is not only great, but nobody is equal to Him. Asama. Asama means not equal. Everybody is below. Eko bahūnāṁ yo vidadhāti kāmām. That is the statement in the Kaṭha Upaniṣad:

nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām eka yo bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān [Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13]

[The Supreme Lord is eternal and the living beings are eternal. The Supreme Lord is cognizant and the living beings are cognizant. The difference is that the Supreme Lord is supplying all the necessities of life for the many other living entities.]

This is the distinction between God and others. He's also living entity, just... Kṛṣṅa comes just like ordinary human being, and He works also with us, but that does not mean that Kṛṣṅa is like us. No. That is a mistake.

That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā: avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritāḥ, paraṁ bhāvam ajānantaḥ [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.]

This is stated, that "Those who are mūḍhas"—mūḍha means rascal or asses—"they think that I am also equal to them or they're equal to Me." Avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā. They deride. They think, "Kṛṣṅa is as good as I am." This term... Thinking like this is meant for the asses, mūḍha. Muḍḥa means asses, who has no knowledge. Avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritāḥ, paraṁ bhāvam ajānantaḥ. "He does not know what is the background of My existence, personality." That is known by the devotees.

So this is the statement of Bhagavad-gītā, and we should try to understand this verse very nicely. Kṛṣṅa says, "I existed." That means Kṛṣṅa existed as the Supreme Lord, not like us. Similarly, we existed also in the past as His servants. That is the explanation of this verse. Because we are eternal servant of God, and that service attitude, being misplaced, we have divided our service spirit in so many ways. Everyone is trying to render service. Big, big leaders, they also want to give some service.

So this is our service attitude. It is our eternal attitude. It cannot be changed. Just like faith. Today I am Muslim; tomorrow I may become Hindu. Today I am Christian; tomorrow I may become Muslim. The faith can be changed, but my character is still that I am servant. That cannot be changed. It does not mean... Suppose you are working in office. Now today you are Hindu or tomorrow you become Muslim. Does it mean in the office you be..., become master? No. The service is there. Either you change your faith or don't change your faith, your character still to serve will continue. That is the reality. That is sanātana. Sanātana means eternal. Try to understand.

So sanātana, this word has been used in three or four places in the Bhagavad-gītā. Mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūta jīva-loka sanātana [Bg 15.7].

[The living entities in this conditioned world are My eternal, fragmental parts. Due to conditioned life, they are struggling very hard with the six senses, which include the mind.]

Sanātana. These living entities, they are sanātana. And another place in the Eighth Chapter in Bhagavad-gītā, this sanātana word is used: paras tasmāt tu bhāva anya 'vyakto 'vyaktāt sanātanaḥ [Bg 8.20]. There is another sky. Just like we are seeing this sky. This is called material sky, and we are seeing the sky in one universe.

We, according to our Vedic information, the sky which you are seeing, this is the sky of one of the universes. And there are millions of universes. We get this information from Vedic literature, Brahma-saṁhitā: yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-aṅḍa-koṭi [Bs 5.40].

[I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, whose effulgence is the source of the nondifferentiated Brahman mentioned in the Upaniṣads, being differentiated from the infinity of glories of the mundane universe appears as the indivisible, infinite, limitless, truth.]

Jagad-aṅḍa means universe, and koṭi means millions. So the sky which we're seeing before us, this is one of the sky of the universe. There are millions. And all these universes combined together is one part creation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

That we find in the Bhagavad-gītā:

atha vā bahunaitena kiṁ jñātena tavārjuna viṣṭabhyāham idaṁ kṛtsnam ekāṁśena sthito jagat [Bg 10.42]

[But what need is there, Arjuna, for all this detailed knowledge? With a single fragment of Myself I pervade and support this entire universe.]

"This material world is being maintained by one of My plenary portion, who is known as Paramātmā." Viṣṭabhya aham. "I enter by one of My plenary portion, and this whole material world is maintained in that." This material world is one-fourth manifestation of God's creation, and the spiritual world is three-fourth manifestation of...

[break] ...which is known as brahma-jyoti. There are millions and trillions of Vaikuṅṭha planets. Vaikuṅṭha planets...

Vaikuṅṭha, Vaikuṅṭha means vigata-kuṅṭha yasmād. Kuṅṭha means anxiety. Just like within this material world we are full of anxieties. Similarly, when you..., when we go to the spiritual world there is also planet like this, but there is no kuṅṭha, there is no anxieties. Here anyone, up to Brahmā, ā-brahma bhuvanāl lokān punar āvartino 'rjuna [Bg 8.16],

[From the highest planet in the material world down to the lowest, all are places of misery wherein repeated birth and death take place. But one who attains to My abode, O son of Kuntī, never takes birth again.]

even if you go to the highest planetary system within this universe, still your anxiety will go with you. Your anxiety for what? Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam [Bg 13.9].

[Humility, pridelessness, nonviolence, tolerance, simplicity, approaching a bona fide spiritual master, cleanliness, steadiness and self-control; renunciation of the objects of sense gratification, absence of false ego, the perception of the evil of birth, death, old age and disease; nonattachment to children, wife, home and the rest, and evenmindedness amid pleasant and unpleasant events; constant and unalloyed devotion to Me, resorting to solitary places, detachment from the general mass of people; accepting the importance of self-realization, and philosophical search for the Absolute Truth—all these I thus declare to be knowledge, and what is contrary to these is ignorance.]

The anxiety for death, anxiety for birth, anxiety for disease—these are the sum and substance of all our anxieties. Anxiety must be there.

Therefore when Prahlāda Mahārāja was asked by his father, "My dear son, what nice things you have learned? Will you kindly explain? You're going to school," so Prahlāda Mahārāja said,

tat sādhu manye 'sura-varya dehināṁ sadā samudvigna-dhiyām asad-grahāt hitvātma-pātaṁ gṛham andha-kūpaṁ vanaṁ gato yad dharim āśrayeta [SB 7.5.5]

[Prahlāda Mahārāja replied: O best of the asuras, King of the demons, as far as I have learned from my spiritual master, any person who has accepted a temporary body and temporary household life is certainly embarrassed by anxiety because of having fallen in a dark well where there is no water but only suffering. One should give up this position and go to the forest [vana]. More clearly, one should go to Vṛndāvana, where only Kṛṣṅa consciousness is prevalent, and should thus take shelter of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.]

The father was atheist, and the son, by nature—not by nature; he was instructed by Nārada Muni about devotional service, so he became perfect. That was the quarrel between the father and the son. The son was a great devotee and the father was a great atheist. The father did not like that his son should be devotee, and father..., son did not like that his father should remain an atheist. So there was misunderstanding. The son was right, but the father will not change his atheistic view.

So anyway, after all, father and son, the relation is very affectionate, filial affection. So father asked that whether his son has changed his views. "My dear son, will you kindly explain what you have learned best?" So he said, tat sādhu manye-asura-varya. He's addressing his father, asura-varya. Asura means demon, and varya means the top, varyam, the first-class asura. He did not address his father as "father." Asura-varya: "My dear first-class demon, I think you are asking me what is the best thing. So, in my opinion, everyone is very, very anxious." Tat sādhu manye 'sura-varya dehinām.

Dehinām. Dehinām means one who has accepted this material body. He's called dehī. Practically we do not require this material body, but we have accepted this material body for enjoying in this material world. In the spiritual world we can simply remain as servant. We cannot become master. Because in the spiritual world the master is one—Kṛṣṅa, or God—and everyone is servant. Jīvera svarūpa haya nitya kṛṣṅa dāsa [Cc Madhya 20.108-109].

That is, that is our real position. Our real position is to serve. Now in the material world we have come here to enjoy, but we are serving. This is called māyā. Actually we are not enjoying; we are serving. Suppose I become president of a certain state. What is my position? My position is to serve the country well. But I am thinking, "Now I am president." Similarly, in family life, the head of the family, he's thinking that he's master, but actually he's serving his wife, his children, his servant.

So our actual position is servitude. We serve. Either I become president or minister or head of the family, head of the community, society—whatever I may be, my position is servant, but I'm thinking that I have become master. This is called illusion. And sometimes, when I become exasperated by becoming such master, false master, I give up this world. I say brahma satyaṁ jagan mithyā: "This world is false. Now I shall become Brahman, the Supreme Brahman. I shall merge into Brahman."

This is... Just like the grapes are sour. The jackal and the orchard... You have no..., you have knowledge of this story. This jackal wanted to catch up the grapes, and when he could not catch up, he gives it up: "Oh, the grapes are sour. It has no use." Similarly, first of all we try to become master—master of family, master of society, master of community, master of nation, master of international figure—and when you're baffled, then we give up this world. So-called give up. We cannot give up. But we say, brahma satyaṁ jagan mithyā, "This world is false, and now brahma is satya; therefore I shall become Brahman."

You are already Brahman. Why you shall become? You're already Brahman, because you are part and parcel of God. God is Brahman, Para-brahman, and you are Brahman also. Just like your part and parcel of the body, finger, that is of the same material as your whole body—the same blood, same skin, same bone. Similarly, we are already all Brahman. There is no mistake. Actually you want to be situated in His position. He knows that "I'm Brahman," ahaṁ brahmāsmi, so 'ham. So 'ham means "I'm as good as Kṛṣṅa and God." That we know. Simply by our material understanding we cannot realize it. Actually we are Brahman.

Therefore this Brahman realization is being explained by Kṛṣṅa. This is Brahman. Brahman means sanātana, eternal. "My dear Arjuna, you also existed, I also existed in the past, because we are Brahman." Otherwise, matter does not exist eternally. Any matter, any material thing you take, it does not exist. It has got a beginning and it has got an end, and in the middle there are so many disturbances—six kinds of changes in the matter, ṣaḍ-vikāra. But spirit, soul, Brahman, it has no change. Avināśi tu tad viddhi yena sarvam idaṁ tatam. This is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā. Avināśi..., na hanyate, na jāyate na mriyate vā kadācit na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre [Bg 2.20]. These statements are there.

So this is Brahman realization, that "I have no death. I have no birth." This is Brahman realization. The birth and death is concerned with this body, and I am not this body.

dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ jauvanaṁ jarā tathā dehāntaraṁ prāptir [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.]

Just like I, living entity, I am all[?] existing in this body. I'm changing bodies so many times. I was a baby; I changed that body. I became a boy or a child. Then I became a boy; I changed my body. Then I became a young man; I changed my body. Then I became an old man; I changed my body. All those bodies, different types of body—babyhood, childhood, boyhood, youthhood—they are now gone, and now I'm existing in this old body. So it will also go.

But that does not mean that I'll be finished. No. I'll accept another body. As I am changing different types of bodies, I am existing. Similarly, when I shall change this body, I shall exist in another body. Tathā dehāntara-prāptir dhīras tatra na muhyati [Bg 2.13]. Dhīra means those who are sober. He's not bewildered. Adhīra.

There are two kinds of men—dhīra and adhīra. Adhīra means senseless, crazy, and dhīra means with sense. He's not bewildered. He's called dhīra. So when somebody dies, one who is dhīra, he understands, "My father, my brother, or my relative, or somebody else, he has simply changed this body." Tathā dehāntaraṁ prāptir. "So what is the cause of lamenting?" These things are discussed in the Bhagavad-gītā.

But even if you have got affection for that body, still Kṛṣṅa says,

mātrā-sparśās tu kaunteya śītoṣṅa-sukha-duḥkha-dāḥ āgamāpāyino anitya tāṁs titikṣasva bhārata [Bg 2.14]

"My dear Arjuna, even if you are very much affected when the body of your son or your relative is finished, these things are temporary," āgamāpāyina anitya. This death is also temporary, because he will accept immediately another body. So because we are accustomed to think that "This body is my son," or "my father," "my this," that, there is some pain, causes of pain. But Kṛṣṅa says, "These are temporary." You'll not forever cry for your father, for son. Say one day, two days, three days, that's all.

So it is just like temporary seasonal change, āgamāpāyino 'nitya, mātrā-sparśās tu..., śītoṣṅa-sukha-duḥkha-dāḥ [Bg 2.14]. Just like we are feeling now very warm; therefore we require fan. This is due to change of season. Again, sometimes it will come that we have to cover with warm. So the body is the same, the world is the same, but something comes and goes. It makes some changes in the order. So we have to simply tolerate, tāṁs titikṣasva bhārata. We should not be overwhelmed. This is knowledge.

This human form of life is meant for this knowledge. Therefore Kṛṣṅa is teaching. This is brahma-jñāna. This Bhagavad-gītā is actually brahma-jñāna. To make one brahma-bhūta by understanding the Bhagavad-gītā, teachings of Bhagavad-gītā, one realizes that he's Brahman. That is called Brahman. And as soon as one realizes—brahma-bhūta [SB 4.30.20]. Now we are jīva-bhūta. Jīva-bhūta. We have accepted this body as "I am." "I am American," "I am Indian," "I am Indonesian," "I'm a Hindu," "I am Muslim," "I'm black," "I'm white." This is bodily. Yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṅape tri-dhātuke [SB 10.84.13].

[One who identifies his self as the inert body composed of mucus, bile and air, who assumes his wife and family are permanently his own, who thinks an earthen image or the land of his birth is worshipable, or who sees a place of pilgrimage as merely the water there, but who never identifies himself with, feels kinship with, worships or even visits those who are wise in spiritual truth—such a person is no better than a cow or an ass.]

One who is in bodily concept of life... Yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṅape tri-dhātuke sva-dhīḥ kalatrādiṣu bhauma ijya-dhīḥ. Bhauma ijya-dhīḥ. Now everyone is mad after bhauma. Bhauma means the land. Because my body, by accident, my body is produced in certain land, therefore I take this land as worshipable. Now it is going on, nationalism.

[break] ...bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate [Bg 8.19].

So where is your national? Your national home is back to home, back to Godhead. That is your national, real, actual home. That is called sanātana. That I was explaining. There is another place, material..., spiritual world. That is also called sanātana. And the jīva, the living entity, is also mentioned as sanātana. And Kṛṣṅa is also mentioned as sanātana. When these three sanātanas come together, that is called sanātana life, and any process that takes us to that sanātana position, that is called sanātana-dharma. That is called sanātana-dharma.

We know sanātana-dharma. We have heard it only. But sanātana-dharma is not limited to a certain class of men or certain class of society or certain kind of country. No. Sanātana-dharma is meant for all living entities, because living entity is sanātana, and God is sanātana, and the place where we can exist eternally, that place is called sanātana. And the process which teaches us to go back to sanātana land, sanātana existence, that is called sanātana-dharma. Try to understand. Most of our Hindus, they call the sanātana-dharmī, but sanātana-dharma is not limited for any particular type of society. It is meant for the whole human being, living entity. Living entity, sanātana. So when you accept this, when you understand what is sanātana, and we employ ourself in that process, that is called execution of sanātana-dharma.

So we are spreading this sanātana-dharma, or Kṛṣṅa consciousness movement, throughout the whole world—not on the superficial platform of this bodily concept of life. We are teaching everyone that "You are not this body." Actually we are not, but it is because we are, at the present moment, we are educated as first-class rascals and fools, we are thinking that "I am this body." This is the defect of the modern civilization. But actually what Kṛṣṅa is trying to instruct Arjuna... Arjuna means everyone. He's not simply talking with Arjuna. Arjuna is simply via media. [break] [duplicate] He's talking to the whole human society, intelligent class of men, that "We existed, we are existing now, and we shall exist also in the future." This is called sanātana, eternity.

So na caiva na bhaviṣyāmaḥ [Bg 2.12]:

[Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings; nor in the future shall any of us cease to be.]

"In the future we also shall exist." Now we should consider what is the problem now: I was present in the past, I am now present in the present, and I shall exist in the future. Then what is my problem? The problem is why I am changing this position of eternity. I am sanātana. I am eternal. Ahaṁ brahmāsmi. That is the real existence, that I am Brahman. Brahman means eternal. But Kṛṣṅa is Para-brahman. Param means the supreme, the chief. Therefore there are two terms in the Vedic language: ātmā, paramātmā; brahman, parabrahman; īśvara, parameśvara. There are two terms. We are not parameśvara, not paramātmā, not parabrahman. We are ātmā, īśvara... We can say, "I am īśvara." What does it mean, īśvara? Īśvara means controller. So, although we are servant, at the same time we are controller.

That we can experience. I am now working in office. I am servant of the establishment, but I'm given some power to control over certain departments. So simultaneously, I am servant and controller. As controller, I can be called īśvara, īśvara, god, as controller. But I am not controller Supreme Controller. That I cannot say. Nobody can say that "I am the Supreme Controller." That you cannot say. You can control, say, a dozen of men. Another can control a hundred men. Another can control a thousand, or millions. But nobody can say that "I am the controller of the whole universe." That is not possible. That controller is Kṛṣṅa.

Therefore in the śāstra it is said, īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṅaḥ [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.]

"The Supreme Controller is Kṛṣṅa." You are not supreme controller. Controller means god. So you can become a god, but you are not Supreme God. Therefore we use the word Godhead. Our magazine name is Back to Godhead. Not to "God." God, there are so many. Even the rascal, he is also god. That is another thing. But Godhead, that is explained in the Vedic literature, īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṅaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ. This is explanation. Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṅaḥ, the Supreme Personality of Godhead is Kṛṣṅa. And how is He? Sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ [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.]

He has got His form. God is not formless. Vigraha. Vigraha means form. But what kind of form? Sat-cid-ānanda. Sat means eternal, cit means full of knowledge, and ānanda means full of bliss. You find that form, Kṛṣṅa's picture, always blissful, ānanda.

You'll see here is Kṛṣṅa's picture. He is enjoying with His pleasure potency, Rādhārāṅī. That is His own potency. When Kṛṣṅa..., Kṛṣṅa is Para-brahman, described, paraṁ brahma paraṁ dhāma pavitraṁ paramaṁ bhavān [Bg 10.12].

[Arjuna said: You are the Supreme Brahman, the ultimate, the supreme abode and purifier, the Absolute Truth and the eternal divine person. You are the primal God, transcendental and original, and You are the unborn and all-pervading beauty. All the great sages such as Nārada, Asita, Devala, and Vyāsa proclaim this of You, and now You Yourself are declaring it to me.]

When Arjuna understood Bhagavad-gītā, he said..., he addressed Kṛṣṅa not as Kṛṣṅa. Before that, he was addressing Kṛṣṅa, because he is friend. Now when he understood Bhagavad-gītā, he understood Kṛṣṅa also, he addressed Him, paraṁ brahma paraṁ dhāma pavitraṁ paramaṁ bhavān: "You are Para-brahman."

So if Kṛṣṅa is even naughty, actually He's Para-brahman. So when Para-brahman wants to enjoy... Para-brahman must enjoy. Para-brahman is not without enjoyment, because wherefrom the idea of enjoyment comes unless it is in the Para-brahman? That is described in the Vedānta-sūtra, athāto brahma jijñāsā: Brahman, inquiry about Brahman, Para-brahman, both. So what is that Para-brahman? Janmādy asya yataḥ [SB 1.1.1]: wherefrom everything comes. Everything, all emanations.

So this ānanda potency... We are seeking after ānanda. Every one of us, we are seeking after pleasure. This is struggle for existence. Everyone wants to be happy, peace and pleasure. But wherefrom this idea comes? Now, Vedānta-sūtra says, janmādy asya yataḥ: it also comes from Para-brahman. So if Para-brahman has no such tendency how to enjoy, wherefrom this so-called love in this material world between young boy and young girl comes? There cannot be any existing. It is only perverted reflection of that pleasure potency of Rādhā and Kṛṣṅa.

It is only perverted reflection. It is not false. It is temporary, perverted. Just like the example is sometimes given to mistake a rope as snake. The Māyāvādī philosophers, they give. They say it is māyā. But it is not māyā. When you mistake a snake as..., huh... mistake a rope as a snake, that is not māyā; that is illusion. You can call it māyā, but the snake is there. You cannot say, because it is rope, therefore there is no snake. No. Snake is there. Otherwise, how it comes to the idea of snake? The snake is a fact, but you are mistaking the rope as snake. That is your mistake. But snake is not illusion; snake is a fact.

Similarly, the another example is given. Just like in the desert, the mirage. In the desert, sometimes the animals find that water, there is a vast mass of water, and they are after, when they're thirsty, they jump over and go farther, farther, farther. But because there is no water, he dies. But no sane man goes after that water. But water is not false. That water is being sought in a false place. Similarly, the pleasure, the pleasure between two sexes, man and woman, that is not false. But we are seeking that pleasure in a false place in this material world. Therefore you have done. It is a great science.

So there is the pleasure, this sex attraction. But that sex attraction is not material: Kṛṣṅa, rādhā kṛṣṅa-praṅaya-vikṛtir hlādinī śaktir asmāt, ekātmānāv api deha bhedaṁ gatau [Cc Ādi 1.5]. Try to understand. For Brahman perception, Brahman pleasure, a great saintly person, he gives up everything material. He takes sannyāsa, he goes..., undergoes severe penances, just to realize brahmānanda. So when Brahman... A person, ordinary person, to realize brahmānanda, he gives up everything material, do you think Kṛṣṅa, the Para-brahman, is enjoying something material? Just try to understand. Kṛṣṅa does not enjoy anything. He's Para-brahman. For understanding Brahman pleasure, a person is recommended to give up everything material. And when the Para-brahman wants to enjoy, does it means that He's enjoying something material?

This is our nescience only. This is our misunderstanding. When Para-brahman enjoys, He... But the difficulty is that this Māyāvādī philosopher, they cannot understand that in the spiritual world there is also pleasure. Their foolish brain cannot accommodate. Because here in this material world they have got very bad experience of this material... They want to make the spiritual world as zero, or imperson, due to less intelligence. But actually, real life, real pleasure, eternal pleasure is there in the spiritual world, not in this material world.

So from Bhagavad-gītā, if you study scrutinizingly each word and each śloka—not by malinterpretation, but actually as it is—then we can understand what is our eternal life, what is our eternal pleasure, how we can return and sport[?] there. Everything is explained there. Everyone can go. Everyone can transfer himself in that spiritual world—simply by understanding Kṛṣṅa. That's all. And the Kṛṣṅa understanding is there. Kṛṣṅa is explaining Himself in the Bhagavad-gītā. He... If you do not introduce your so-called foolish scholarship, then you get actually back to home, back to Godhead, by simply studying Bhagavad-gītā. But if you add your foolish rascal scholarship, that "Kṛṣṅa means this and that means this, this means that," then you are lost.

Study Bhagavad-gītā as it is. You get all information how to realize Brahman, ahaṁ brahmāsmi, so 'ham. Don't misinterpret. [break] Don't... There is no... Just like Kṛṣṅa... This verse is very plain. This verse says, na tv evāhaṁ jātu nāsam [Bg 2.12].

[Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings; nor in the future shall any of us cease to be.]

Where is the difficulty? "My dear Arjuna, both I, you... It is not that I did not exist, you did not exist, neither this soldier." Where is the difficulty to understand? Why should we misinterpret?

dharma-kṣetre kuru-kṣetre samavetā yuyutsavaḥ māmakāḥ pāṅḍavāś caiva kim akurvata sañjaya [Bg 1.1]

[Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: O Sañjaya, after assembling in the place of pilgrimage at Kurukṣetra, what did my sons and the sons of Pāṅḍu do, being desirous to fight?]

No. The main meaning is very plain: that Dhṛtarāṣṭra is asking his private secretary, Sañjaya, "My dear Sañjaya, māmakāḥ, my sons, and pāṅḍavāḥ, my brother's sons, Pāṅḍavas, they assembled," dharma-kṣetre kuru-kṣetre [Bg 1.1], "in the Kurukṣetra field, which is known as dharma-kṣetra, the religious pilgrimage. After that meeting, what did they do?" Now, where is the, I mean, difficulty to understand this verse?

But unfortunately, one so-called scholar or so-called foolish man will come, he'll say, "Dharma-kṣetre kuru-kṣetra means this body." No. "Where you get this meaning, sir?" But he'll say, explain in this way: "The Pāṅḍava means five senses." Well, in which dictionary you'll find? This is going on. This rascaldom is going on. If you give up this rascaldom, simply read Bhagavad-gītā as it is, then you'll become successful in life. That is our preaching Kṛṣṅa consciousness.

Thank you very much. Hare Kṛṣṅa. [end]