Bhagavad-gītā 13.4

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

tat kṣetraṁ yac ca yādṛk ca yad vikāri yataś ca yat sa ca yo yat prabhāvaś ca tat samāsena me śṛṅu [Bg 13.4]

[break] [01:51]

"Now please hear My brief description of this field of activity and how it is constituted, what its changes are, whence it is produced, who that knower of the field of activities is, and what his influences are."

[break]

Prabhupāda:

tat kṣetraṁ yac ca yādṛk ca yad vikāri yataś ca yat sa ca yo yat prabhāvaś ca tat samāsena me śṛṅu [Bg 13.4]

We have discussed that this body is the field of activity. We are acting according to the body. I am the same person, but when I had my boyhood body or childhood body, I was acting differently. This child, they are acting now some way, but when they will get another body, they will act in a different way. Similarly, not only this human form of body, but there are 8,400,000 different types of bodies. We have explained several times, jalajā nava-lakṣāṅi [Padma Purāṅa]: "In the water there are 900,000 different forms of body." How many do we know? We do not know all the details. We know there are different types of fishes, and say 100,000 we have seen or experimented, the zoologist. But from the Vedic literature we understand that there are 900,000 forms of body within the water.

So this is called Vedic knowledge. Perfect information is given there. Doesn't say 901 or 950. Exactly, 900,000. Jalajā nava-lakṣāṅi. Then next, sthāvarā lakṣa-viṁśati. Then, after aquatic, when the water dries, the vegetation comes out, and that vegetation grow gradually into plants, trees, herbs and so many, big, big trees. Here we have got big, big trees. So from aquatic life they have come to this vegetable life. And one tree standing for thousands of years. They cannot move an inch. This is also life. There is life. The trees, these banyan trees, they are making their arrangement how to stand fixed-up very strong. Nobody can move. The same struggle for existence is going on. As we are struggling to make our position secure, similarly, the trees are also making their position secure. The cats and dogs, they are also making attempt to make their position secure. This is called struggle for existence. So from this tree, just try to remember that there are 900,000 species of aquatics.

We get information from śāstra, there is a fish which is called timiṅgala which swallows big, big whales, just like big fish swallows a small fish. This is struggle for existence. Jīvo jīvasya jīvanam. Phalgūni mahatāṁ tatra jīvo jīvasya jīvanam [SB 1.13.47].

[Those who are devoid of hands are prey for those who have hands; those devoid of legs are prey for the four-legged. The weak are the subsistence of the strong, and the general rule holds that one living being is food for another.]

The natural law is that ahastāni sahastānām: "The animals which has no hands"—that means four-legged animals; they have got legs, no hand—"so they are food for animals with two legs and two hands." That means human being. Human being is also animal, more powerful, more intelligent than the lower animals. So the śāstra says ahastāni, "The animals who hasn't got hands, they are food for the animals with two hands." Ahastāni sahastānām and apadāni catuṣ-padām: "And the animals or the living entities which cannot move, apadāni..." Pada means legs. Just like the trees, plants, grass, they cannot move; they have no leg. They have got leg, but they cannot move. They are eating through the legs. Therefore they are called pādapa, means "collecting waters through the leg." Just these trees, they are drinking water from within the earth with their legs. Therefore they push their roots very deep to find out where is water. And if you put little water on the root of the tree, they live. They drink water. They are standing on the riverside drinking water and becoming very flourished. But although they are drinking the same water, still, they are differently constituted the different fruits, different flowers. This is God's creation, we have to understand that.

So apadāni sapadānām, apadāni catuṣ-padām. Apadāni means those who cannot move—these trees, plants, grass—they are eatables for the four-legged animals, catuṣ-padām. Catuḥ means four. Similarly, nūnaṁ mahatāṁ tatra. Those who are weak, they are food for the strong. That is going on. "Might is right," in the human society also. Just like you Europeans, Americans..., Europeans, they have come. You come this land of America. Because you are strong, you have eaten up all the original inhabitants. [laughs] So this is going on. This is called struggle for existence.

Therefore Kṛṣṅa says, tat kṣetraṁ yac ca yādṛk ca. Why we find so many varieties of life? How it has come into being? It is... Everything will be explained by Kṛṣṅa. He says, tat samāsena me śṛṅu: "From Me you hear." Everyone is inquisitive, "Why there are varieties of life?" I do not know what the modern scientist says, but they do not understand that there is soul in these different types of body. That we have already discussed, that idaṁ śarīraṁ kṣetram ity abhidhīyate. Every different particular living entity... Not particular. We are all living entities, part and parcel of God, but we have entered into different types of bodies according to our desire. That's it. According to... We have got desires, different types of desires. The 8,400,000 bodies means at least we have got 8,400,000 different types of desires. That we have to learn from authorities like Kṛṣṅa. Therefore He says, tat samāsena me śṛṅu: "You try to understand." You cannot speculate. Is there any psychologist who can say that how many different types of thinking, feeling, willings are there? No, they cannot say. But we must know from Kṛṣṅa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, that these 8,400,000 species or forms of life are there because there are 8,400,000 different types of desires, exactly 8,400,000. This is called Vedic knowledge. Exactly what is the fact, that is stated there.

So our process of understanding, this Kṛṣṅa consciousness movement—we do not hear from any bogus person. We hear from Kṛṣṅa. Therefore Kṛṣṅa says for us, those who are Kṛṣṅa conscious, tat samāsena me śṛṅu: "From Me, because I am the supreme authority, Kṛṣṅa." Kṛṣṅa says that 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 more superior authority than Me." So we get knowledge from superior authority. That is the process of acquiring knowledge. We go to school, colleges, teachers. So why? To receive knowledge. So teacher or school, college, they are in higher authority. Similarly, you go on, higher authorities, higher authorities, higher authorities, you reach to Brahmā, because he is the original creature, and he described the Vedic knowledge. So he is also not higher authority. He also received knowledge from God. Tene brahma hṛdā ādi-kavaye [SB 1.1.1]. That is stated in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavata. Ādi-kavaye, the original person.

We have got this body, expanding, expanding. The original person is Brahmā. From Brahmā there was Lord Śiva, and from Śiva there were so many, then these Dakṣas and Pracetasas and many sages gradually. So we are descendant, Manu. Manu also, one of the sons of Brahmā, and from manuṣya... Manu, the name has come, manuṣya. Manuṣya means man. In English also it is called "man." Manu, man. So we are all descendants from the original person, the supreme father, original. So we are not different. Here we have created out of ignorance: "I am Indian; you are European; he is American; he is African; he is black; he is white." That we have created. "He is cat; he is dog." But actually, we are all living entities. Because we have got different types of desire, and that is calculated 8,400[000] types of desires, so we are now in different types of body. This is understanding. Samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu [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.]

So when we get that spiritual knowledge, brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā [Bg 18.54], prasannātmā, then there is no difference. A learned person who has realized Brahman, spiritual realization, he looks everyone on the equal level. He knows that it is a dog or it is a cat on account of this body. He is neither cat, neither dog, neither I am human being. We are all spirit soul, ahaṁ brahmāsmi. This is understanding. This is real understanding.

vidyā-vinaya-sampanne brāhmaṅe gavi hastini śuni caiva śva-pāke ca paṅḍitāḥ sama-darśinaḥ [Bg 5.18]

[The humble sage, by virtue of true knowledge, sees with equal vision a learned and gentle brāhmaṅa, a cow, an elephant, a dog and a dog-eater [outcaste]]

Those who are learned, they see that "Here is a learned brāhmaṅa, and here is a dog, and here is a hog, and here is a dog-eater. There is an elephant. There is a cow. So they are in different dresses only, and the real occupier of the dress, or the body..." That is explained, idaṁ śarīraṁ kaunteya... What is called? Idaṁ śarīraṁ kaunteya kṣetram ity abhidhīyate [Bg 13.2]. This is only, we have got... According to different desires, we have got these different types of body, kṣetra. Just like field. The cultivator, the farmer, works on the field and gets some result. Similarly, we have got different types of body, and we are working on this body in the bodily concepts of life. That is not advanced life. If we are in the bodily concept of life, that is animal life. When we understand that "I know that I am not this body; I am working with this body," that is knowledge. Abhidhīyate.

And not only I. One should understand. It is clearly stated here; there is no difficulty. Kṛṣṅa says that "The living entity and Myself, we are both within this body." Kṣetra-jñaṁ cāpi māṁ viddhi sarva-kṣetreṣu [Bg 13.3]. The difference—we are individual soul. We are living, every one of us, living within this body, and there is another living entity. God is also living entity like you and me. The difference is that He is great and we are subordinate. Otherwise... Just like you have got your president. He is a big man of your nation, and we are small men, or you are a small man. But he is also a human being; I am also a human being or you are also. Similarly, God is exactly like us, with two hands and two legs. You see Kṛṣṅa, He hasn't got a hundred legs or a hundred... He has got the same, two legs and two hands, exactly like our body. In the Bible also it says, I think, that "Man is made after the feature of God"? So it is not that we have imagined God with two legs and two hands like us. No. Our this body is made imitating God's body. And the animals, they are also imitating God's body. God has got many forms. Advaitam acyutam anādim ananta-rūpam ādyaṁ purāṅa-puruṣaṁ nava-yauvanaṁ ca [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 many other forms, innumerable.

So anyway, this is knowledge, that "I am occupying this body. I have got this body according to my desire, and this desire has been fulfilled by God. God is with me, with you. He is within your heart. He understands what you desire. You have come, we have come in this material world to satisfy our different desires. Therefore, there are so many different forms of body." Now you can calculate also. What is that? There are three qualities within this material world. You know, everyone. Some are in goodness, and some are in passion, and some are in ignorance. In the animal or in the vegetable kingdom, in the human society, you will find these three types of men. Take our human society. Some of them are very good men, very truthful, very honest, very learned, and knows what is God. You find such men also. And you will find also very much passionate. And you will find also men like cats and dogs—no knowledge, blind. So there are three types of men. Why? Because there are three qualities or modes of material nature: goodness, passion and ignorance. Now, you mix up these three qualities with another three varieties of qualities. Just like the painter, they mix up different colors. The original color is blue, yellow and red. Now, you mix up these colors. You can... Hundreds and thousands of colors you can make. It requires expert handling. Similarly, originally these three qualities: goodness, passion and ignorance. Now, three into three equal to nine, and nine into nine equal to eighty-one. So we get immediately account for eighty-one varieties, and each variety is thousand and millions. Therefore 8,400,000 is calculated. And we have got so many varieties of life. Jalajā nava-lakṣāṅi sthāvarā lakṣa-viṁśati kṛmayo rudra-saṅkhyakāḥ, means the aquatics, there are 900,000; and the trees and plants, 2,000,000; and 1,100,000, these flies and insects. Kṛmayo rudra-saṅkhyakāḥ. And then birds, 1,000,000 types of birds. Then 3,000,000 types of beasts. Then 400,000 of human being—civilized, uncivilized, white, red, black, so many varieties. In this way, the whole calculation is 8,400,000 different types of body.

Now Kṛṣṅa will explain that tat kṣetraṁ yac ca yādṛk, why there are so many varieties. The living entity is the same, a spiritual spark, part and parcel of Kṛṣṅa, or God, but why they have assumed these different types of body calculated to be 8,400,000 forms? But each form is part and parcel of God. Not each form, or you can say form also; each living entity. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā:

sarva-yoniṣu kaunteya mūrtayaḥ sambhavanti yāḥ tāsāṁ brahma mahad yonir ahaṁ bīja-pradaḥ pitā [Bg 14.4]

[It should be understood that all species of life, O son of Kuntī, are made possible by birth in this material nature, and that I am the seed-giving father.]

Kṛṣṅa says—I think in the Fourteenth Chapter it is there—that "I am the seed-giving father of all these forms of life. All these forms of life. They are not automatic, come from anywhere. I am the original father." Therefore those who are fully Kṛṣṅa conscious or fully advanced in spiritual consciousness, they do not make any difference between an insect and a elephant, because he knows very well that the same spirit soul is there within the elephant and within insect, within the microbe. Because the dimension of the spirit soul is very small. You cannot imagine. It is one ten-thousandth part of the tip of the hair. Keśāgra-śata-bhāgasya śatadhā kalpita [Cc Madhya 19.140].

[If we divide the tip of a hair into a hundred parts and then take one of these parts and divide it again into a hundred parts, that very fine division is the size of but one of the numberless living entities. They are all cit-kaṅa, particles of spirit, not matter.]

Everything is there. So such minute particle is so powerful that it is managing the body of the elephant and it is managing the body of the ant.

You will find even an ant, he has got all the propensities, just like human being. You can study how they are struggling, how they have organized their society, how they are eating, how they are sleeping, how they are begetting children. Everything is there in every life. The four principles of bodily demands, namely eating, sleeping, sex and defense, you will find in the insect, smallest insect, like full stop. I sometimes see at night. They wander on the page of the book, very small. But they have got all the propensities. All the propensities. You can study. Anyone, minute study, you can see. So these things are there everywhere, even to the ant or even to the elephant or to the demigod or any Brahmā or in everything. That's all. That is clear.

So when we get by evolutionary process, come to this human form of life by God's grace, nature's mercy, we can understand what is what. Therefore Kṛṣṅa is explaining to Arjuna, a human being, not to a cat and dog. Therefore He says, tat kṣetram, "that body," how it has become varieties, what is the ingredients. The ingredients are the same. This material body, the ingredients are the four primary gross elements, means earth, water, air, fire and ether or sky, the mind, intelligence and ego. This is the composition of this body. And beyond this composition, I am there, soul. Indriyāṅi parāṅy āhuḥ. Those who are in the bodily concept of life, they are thinking, "The senses are everything. So let us enjoy the senses. That is our happiness." No, that is not. Therefore we are not happy actually. Although we are trying to gratify our senses profusely, still we are unhappy, because that is not actually happiness. The actual happiness is of the soul. Unless you satisfy the soul, you cannot be happy, because my real identity is the soul, not this body.

The same example, as I have already said many times, that within the cage there is the bird. You don't take care of the bird, and you simply cleanse this cage—the bird will not be satisfied. He will cry always, "Give me food. Give me food." The another example I gave the another psychiatrist, that this body is a machine—actually it is a machine—and it is being driven by two persons. One is God and one is the living entity, individual. The God is giving direction. The living entity, individual soul, wants to enjoy, so he is on the carriage, same carriage, the Supersoul and the soul. So the Supersoul knows what I want to enjoy, and He is giving facility: "Oh, you want this facility? Now drive your car in this way. You want this facility? All right, drive this way, this way." Actually Supersoul, or God, does not want, but He is so kind. Just like a gentleman, he gives the dog all facility, sometimes going this side, sometimes going this side, sometimes passing stool, sometimes passing urine, and he is standing. He is controlling, but he is giving some facilities: "This dog is my servant. Let him have." This is going on. Without God's sanction, we cannot do anything.

Then why does He give sanction for our sinful activities? Because we want to do it. Because we want to do it. God does not want that you become implicated in sinful life. Therefore thief, he steals very stealthily. God says from within, "Don't steal. You will be implicated. You will be arrested. You will be punished. Why you are stealing?" But he will do. He will do. That is ajñāna. That is ignorance. God is always helping us, but we do not care for God. That is our disease. Therefore we are getting different types of body and suffering. This is the philosophy, real philosophy, that God is there with me in the same bird, in the same... Exactly the same, that the driver is there and the proprietor is there in the same car. The car is a machine; similarly, this body is a machine.

It is stated in the Bhagavatam, machine. Yantrārūḍhāni māyayā.

īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe 'rjuna tiṣṭhati bhrāmayan sarva-bhūtāni yantrārūḍhāni māyayā [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.]

"Īśvara, the Supreme Lord, God, is situated in everyone's heart, and He is directing the travel, or wandering, of the living entity." How? Yantrārūḍhāni: "sitting on the machine of this body." And who has supplied this machine? Māyayā: "the material nature." The material nature, according to the order of God, has given me—you or me or anyone, the cats, dogs—a particular type of machine, this body. And the living entity is driving the machine or driving the car, and God, the Supersoul, is reminding him, "You wanted to enjoy like this? Now you drive your car in this way. You drive your... You wanted to eat everything without any discrimination? Now I have given you the car of a hog. Now you go and eat the stool." And he is very glad. He is enjoying. He is enjoying. He is thinking, "I am eating very nice thing." This is going on. Nānā joni sadā phire, kadarjya bhakṣaṅa kore, tāra janma adhah-pāte jāya. Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura is singing that "Those who have taken this path of fruitive activities, they are forced to accept different forms of life and eat all abominable things, and thus he is lost in this material world."

So if we become God conscious, if we become faithful to Kṛṣṅa, or God, then He will give right direction so that you may go again back to home, back to Godhead. And that is our business.

teṣāṁ satata-yuktānāṁ bhajatāṁ prīti-pūrvakam dadāmi buddhi-yogaṁ taṁ yena mām upayānti te [Bg 10.10]

[To those who are constantly devoted and worship Me with love, I give the understanding by which they can come to Me.]

Now, according to my whims, according to my different desires, I am going deep and deep to the hellish condition of life. I am becoming the worms of the stool, beginning from Brahmā. Now, if... When we have got this human form of life, we should understand, "How things are happening? How I am getting different types of body? How I am dictated according to the body and I am not happy? Now what is the reason? Then what I am? I do not want distress. Why distress is forced upon me? I do not want to die. Why death is forced upon me? I do not want to become old. I want to remain perpetually young. Why old age is forced upon me?" There are so many things. In this way, when we become intelligent enough and approach Kṛṣṅa or His, Kṛṣṅa's, representative, then our life becomes reformed.

This Kṛṣṅa consciousness movement is for this purpose. They are giving the opportunity to the human society that "You are suffering on account of your whimsical desires. Now you learn how to purify your desire. Then you become happy." This is Kṛṣṅa consciousness movement. Desire cannot be stopped. That is not possible. You have to purify your desire. That's all. Sarvopādhi-vinirmuktaṁ tat-paratvena nirmalam [Cc Madhya 19.170].

[Bhakti, or devotional service, means engaging all our senses in the service of the Lord, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the master of all the senses. When the spirit soul renders service unto the Supreme, there are two side effects. One is freed from all material designations, and one’s senses are purified simply by being employed in the service of the Lord.]

I am thinking that "I am this American," I am thinking, "I am this Indian," or I am thinking this and that, and creating my desires accordingly. "It is my duty because I am American." "It is my duty because I am Russian. So let us fight." So this is going on.

So you have to change your desire. That is Kṛṣṅa consciousness movement. Sarvopādhi-vinirmuktam. You have to understand that "I am not this body. I am neither Indian, nor American, nor Russian. I am part and parcel of God. Therefore my business is to serve God." This is called bhakti. When you are self-realized... That is definition of bhakti: sarva upādhi-vinirmuktam. You have to get yourself cleansed from all these designations, that "I am Hindu," "I am Muslim," "I am Christian," "I am American," "I am this," "I am cat," "I am dog." These are all designations, because I am pure soul, ahaṁ brahmāsmi, and these conceptions are designation. So you have to be educated how to become free from the designation. That is sarvopādhi-vinirmuktaṁ tat-paratvena nirmalam [Cc Madhya 19.170], that when we become free from the designation...

[Bhakti, or devotional service, means engaging all our senses in the service of the Lord, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the master of all the senses. When the spirit soul renders service unto the Supreme, there are two side effects. One is freed from all material designations, and one’s senses are purified simply by being employed in the service of the Lord.]

It does not mean because I become free from the designation, therefore I become zero. No. I remain, because I am spirit soul, eternal. I may become sometimes American, sometimes Indian, sometimes cat, sometime dog, but that is change of designation, or body. But as spirit soul I am eternal. Na jāyate na mriyate vā kadācit, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre [Bg 2.20]. These things are all clearly stated.

So our request is that all over the world they should take advantage of this knowledge. This Kṛṣṅa consciousness movement is not a bluffing movement. It is scientific movement for the benefit of the whole world. They are suffering. So that is our request, that let us wash ourself from the designation. Then how it will be possible? It will be possible. What is that?

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.]

Hṛdy an... This I am thinking, "American," "Indian," "Hindu," "Muslim," this is all dirty things in my heart. You cleanse your heart. Hṛdy antaḥ-sthaḥ abhadrāṅi. The dirty things are within my heart, so if we cleanse our heart, then we become free from this designation. Naṣṭa-prāyeṣu abhadreṣu nityaṁ bhāgavata-sevayā [SB 1.2.18].

[By regular attendance in classes on the Bhāgavatam and by rendering of service to the pure devotee, all that is troublesome to the heart is almost completely destroyed, and loving service unto the Personality of Godhead, who is praised with transcendental songs, is established as an irrevocable fact.]

Naṣṭa-prāyeṣu. These dirty things will be cleansed if we regularly hear Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam or Bhagavad-gītā. Nityaṁ bhāgavata... And bhāgavata means the book Bhāgavata and the person bhāgavata. The person bhāgavata is spiritual master or any exalted devotee. He is bhāgavata, mahā-bhāgavata, bhāgavata. So bhāgavata-sevayā means not only reading Bhagavad-gītā and Bhāgavatam, but we have to study from the person bhāgavata. That is required.

Caitanya Mahāprabhu advised, bhāgavata paṛa giya bhāgavata-sthāne: "If you want to learn Bhāgavata, then go to the person bhāgavata who is realized soul." Not professional. That will not help you. Official professional—I go to a temple, to a church, and go back again to hellish condition of... No. You just associate with the person bhāgavata who is realized soul and hear from him this the same book, the same knowledge, Kṛṣṅa's representative. Just like Kṛṣṅa says, tat samāsena me śṛṅu. Me śṛṅu: "Hear from Me or My representative. Then you will benefit."

So these centers are being opened just to give the opportunity to the people who are suffering, not only in this life, life after life.

ei rūpe brahmāṅḍa bhramite kona bhāgyavān jīva guru-kṛṣṅa-kṛpāya pāya bhakti-latā-bīja [Cc Madhya 19.151]

[According to their karma, all living entities are wandering throughout the entire universe. Some of them are being elevated to the upper planetary systems, and some are going down into the lower planetary systems. Out of many millions of wandering living entities, one who is very fortunate gets an opportunity to associate with a bona fide spiritual master by the grace of Kṛṣṅa. By the mercy of both Kṛṣṅa and the spiritual master, such a person receives the seed of the creeper of devotional service.]

So it is our duty. We have taken this duty on behalf of Kṛṣṅa. Kṛṣṅa personally comes to teach. Just like He left His Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, then He entrusts His devotees to explain to the people in general. We are attempting to do that. We have not manufactured anything or we have got anything of our own. The asset and the property is there. We are simply distributing as peon. That's all. And we have no difficulty. If we simply present Bhagavad-gītā, the instruction of Kṛṣṅa, as it is, then our duty finished. We haven't got to manufacture anything; neither we have power to manufacture anything. Just like there are so many others, they manufacture new type of ideas, new type of philos..., all nonsense. That will not help. Take the real knowledge. Tat śṛṅu. What is called? Tat samāsena me śṛṅu.

Try to understand from the Supreme Personality of Godhead or the real servant of Godhead who will present simply what Kṛṣṅa has said. He will not say anything more or less. That is the identification of real servant. Just like you have got a servant. You say, "My dear boy, you go this errand. Inform him this." So his duty is to carry your news and deliver to the person. Similarly, we who are now in the Kṛṣṅa consciousness movement, we should simply take, tat samāsena me śṛṅu. We should hear from Kṛṣṅa and distribute this knowledge. We have no difficulty. Then those who will hear, they will be benefited and we will be benefited. This is Kṛṣṅa consciousness movement.

Thank you very much. Hare Kṛṣṅa.

Devotees: Jaya Prabhupāda. [break]

Prabhupāda: ...instruction which I have given to you. Chant Hare Kṛṣṅa mantra—it is very easy—at least sixteen rounds, and follow the regulative principle, and pray to Kṛṣṅa to help you. Everything will be all right.

[break] ...books, everything is there.

[break] ...Kṛṣṅa. Hare Kṛṣṅa is Kṛṣṅa personally. So if you chant Hare Kṛṣṅa, Hare Kṛṣṅa, Hare Kṛṣṅa, you associate with Kṛṣṅa. And if you associate with fire, you become warm, similarly, if you associate with Kṛṣṅa, then you become gradually Kṛṣṅa-ized. And when you perfect... Just like you put one iron rod into the fire. It becomes warm, warmer, warmer, and at last it becomes red hot. At that time it is fire because it has acquired the quality of the fire, although it is iron rod. So the process is to remain with the fire. Similarly, if you remain with Kṛṣṅa by chanting His holy name, then you will be purified and one day will come—you will be Kṛṣṅa-ized. The process is very simple, chant

Hare Kṛṣṅa, Hare Kṛṣṅa, Kṛṣṅa Kṛṣṅa, Hare Hare Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare.

That's all.

[break] ...twenty-four hours. Kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ [Cc Ādi 17.31].

[One who thinks himself lower than the grass, who is more tolerant than a tree, and who does not expect personal honor yet is always prepared to give all respect to others can very easily always chant the holy name of the Lord.]

This is not my word; this is Caitanya Mahāprabhu. You have to associate with kīrtana. The reading is also kīrtana, and chanting on the beads, that is also kīrtana. There is no difference. So make your life in such a way. Either chant Hare Kṛṣṅa or read books. And when you are hungry, you take little prasādam. Don't take much—then you will sleep more. Take as little as possible. Then you will also sleep... Our business is to conquer over the demands of the body. The demands of the body is eating, sleeping, sex and defense. So spiritual life means make it almost nil. Nidrāhāra-vihārakādi-vijitau. All the Gosvāmīs, they did so. They conquered over sleeping, conquered over eating, conquered over sex desire and conquered defense. So in this way we have to minimize nidrāhāra-vihāra and save time for chanting Hare Kṛṣṅa.

[break] [indistinct] And chant Hare Kṛṣṅa. That is a botheration.

[break] ...use of industry? That you have created trouble. You can get your food by cultivation. That is stated in the Śrīmad Bhagavad-gītā: annād bhavanti bhūtāni [Bg 3.14].

[All living bodies subsist on food grains, which are produced from rain. Rains are produced by performance of yajña [sacrifice], and yajña is born of prescribed duties.]

You produce food grains, and both the animals and the men, they will remain satisfied. And we have got so much land even on this earthly planet. I am traveling all over the world. You can produce food grains so in large quantity that you can feed all the population, ten times population. So we are not interested in producing food grain. We are interested in... [break] ...this is education. You get your admission in this institution, you will understand.

[break] If you do not follow the rules and regulation, you'll go to hell. That's all.

Woman devotee: Prabhupāda, how can Lord Śiva get intoxicated and be so pure?

Prabhupāda: What is that?

Devotee: [explaining] How can Lord Śiva get intoxicated and still be pure?

Prabhupāda: We are not concerned with Lord Śiva. We are concerned with Kṛṣṅa.

Devotee (1): Should we beg people to read these books, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Yes, by touching their leg, "Please read." That is the process.

dante nidhāya tṛṅakaṁ padayor nipatya kṛtvā ca kāku-śatam etad ahaṁ bravīmi he sādhavaḥ sakalam eva vihāya dūrād caitanya-candra-caraṅe kurutānurāgam [Caitanya-candrāmṛta 90]

[Taking a straw between my teeth and falling at your feet a hundred times, I humbly submit, "O great personality, please give up all mundane knowledge that you have learned and just submit yourself at the lotus feet of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu."]

This is the instruction of Prabodhānanda Sarasvatī. He says that "Taking a straw in my mouth..." That is a Indian system of to become humble. If I approach somebody with a straw in my mouth, that means I have become very humble to him. So he says, dante nidhāya tṛṅakam, "Taking a straw in my teeth," and padayor nipatya, "and falling down on your leg," kāku-śataṁ kṛtvā ca, "hundred times flattering you," ahaṁ bravīmi, "I want to submit something." Naturally the man will be inclined: "All right, you say it, what you want." So he says, he sādhavaḥ: "You are very nice man, you are very great man, but you kindly forget what you have learned. [laughter] You all nonsense, whatever you have learned, please forget." "Then, what I have to do?" Caitanya-candra-caraṅe kurutānurāgam: "Just take shelter of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Your life will be successful." So we shall flatter, we shall hold our hands, we shall fall on the feet and do everything, but we shall, "You nonsense, please forget what you have learned." That is our submission.

Devotee (2): Prabhupāda, did Jesus read all those books?

Prabhupāda: Yes. You can read also Bible. That is nice.

Devotee (2): He actually learned. He actually traveled to India...

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes. We do not say that don't read Bible. Read something, but learn something. Jesus Christ said, "Thou shall not kill." You learn this art. But you read Bible and kill animals, then what is your benefit?

Indian man: So Lord Kṛṣṅa speaks through other beings, or...?

Prabhupāda: First of all try to understand that you read Christ and you violate his order, then what is the use of reading? You follow. Then that is reading.

Devotee (3): Prabhupāda, if we follow these four regulative principles and chant sixteen rounds sincerely every day, all this nonsense knowledge will eventually be forgotten?

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes. You can see practically, all of you, what you were and what you are now. That's all. It is practical; it is not theoretical.

Devotee (4): Śrīla Prabhupāda, if someone takes prasādam even once, is it true that they're guaranteed at least a human body in their next life?

Prabhupāda: Yes. You go on simply eating, that's all. [laughter] And all of my devotees, they have come to me simply by eating prasāda. You are also? [laughter] So we give all facilities. If you cannot do anything, please come and eat with us. All right, thank you very much.

Devotees: All glories to Prabhupāda. [end]