Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.28.20

Harikeśa: Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto Three, Chapter Twenty-eight, text number twenty. [leads chanting of verse, etc.]

tasmiû labdha-padaṁ cittaṁ sarvāvayava-saṁsthitam vilakṣyaikatra saṁyujyād aṅge bhagavato muniḥ [SB 3.28.20]

[01:17]

Translation: "In fixing his mind on the eternal form of the Lord, the yogī should not take a collective view of all His limbs, but should fix the mind on each individual limb of the Lord."

Prabhupāda:

tasmiû labdha-padaṁ cittaṁ sarvāvayava-saṁsthitam vilakṣyaikatra saṁyujyād aṅge bhagavato muniḥ [SB 3.28.20]

So as we have explained many times, that this arcā-mūrti... The rascal class of men, they cannot understand arcā-mūrti. They think that "They are worshiping idol." Even amongst the Hindus there are so-called followers of Vedas, they also say that "What is the necessity of worshiping Deity in the temple?" They made very vigorous propaganda in India to stop temple worship. For a short time it has got some reaction, but now it is finished. That rascal propaganda not to worship the Deity in the temple is finished. Nobody cares for that. They think that God is everywhere—except in the temple. [laughter] That is their view. And God is everywhere; why not in the temple? No. That is their poor fund of knowledge. They cannot accommodate. No. God is everywhere, but not in the temple. This is their intelligence, rascals. So we have to follow therefore ācārya. Ācāryavān puruṣo veda [Chāndogya Upaniṣad 6.14.2]: one who has accepted ācārya... One who knows the śāstra and practically behaves according to the regulation of śāstra, he is called ācārya. Acinoti śāstrārthaḥ.

So all the ācāryas... In India there are many thousands and thousands of temples, very, very big temples, especially in South India. Some of them you have seen. Each temple is like a big fort. So all these temples were established by the ācāryas, not that the people whimsically established. No. Still there is very prominent temple, Bālajī temple, Tirupati, Tirumalai. People are going, and the daily collection is more than one lakh of rupees still. Although they have been propagated so vigorously not to visit temples, but people... That is the birthright in India—they are automatically Kṛṣṅa conscious. Automatically. Therefore all the demigods, they also desire to take birth in India. Automatically.

So the temple worship is essential. So those who are against temple worship, Deity worship, they are not very intelligent class of men—foolish, mūḍha. Again, the same word.

na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ prapadyante narādhamāḥ māyayāpahṛta-jñānā āsuri bhāvam āśritāḥ [Bg 7.15]

[Those miscreants who are grossly foolish, lowest among mankind, whose knowledge is stolen by illusion, and who partake of the atheistic nature of demons, do not surrender unto Me.]

Māyayāpahṛta jñānāḥ. They are talking very big, big words, that "God is everywhere," but they are forbidding temple worship. Apahṛta-jñānā. The knowledge is imperfect. A common man can say, "If God is everywhere, why not in the temple?" And if we have to worship God, why not in His original form? The original form, Kṛṣṅa, when He was present, the original form so many people have seen. They have got photograph..., not photograph; paintings. And it is confirmed in the śāstras, in the Brahma-saṁhitā, veṅuṁ kvaṅantam aravinda-dalāyatākṣaṁ barhāvataṁsam asitāmbuda-sundarāṅgam [Bs 5.30].

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

Kṛṣṅa is described in the Brahma-saṁhitā, from so millions and millions of years ago described by Lord Brahma, that veṅuṁ kvaṅantam aravinda-dalāyatākṣaṁ. He is always playing His flute, veṅuṁ. Venu means flute. Kvaṅantam. And eyes are like the petals of lotus flower. Veṅum kvaṅantam aravinda-dalāyatākṣaṁ barhāvataṁsam [Bs 5.30]. And on the head He has got the plume of peacock feather. In this way the description is there in the śāstra. And when Kṛṣṅa came...

[aside:] Let him... Why do you disturb? Let him do that. Sit down.

So śāstra says Kṛṣṅa is like this. And when Kṛṣṅa appeared on this planet the exactly the same description was there in His form.

So we have to accept the form of the Lord as confirmed in the śāstra and as confirmed by the ācārya. Then it is perfect. Sādhu śāstra guru vākya tinete kariyā aikya. We have to understand something very rigidly by three things, the... It must be confirmed by the śāstra, and it must be confirmed by the ācāryas and by the spiritual master. Very simple thing. We have description of Kṛṣṅa in the śāstra, Brahma-saṁhitā, the treatise given by Lord Brahma. And this Brahma-saṁhitā was collected from South India in handwriting by Caitanya Mahāprabhu, and He delivered to His devotees. So the sādhu... Caitanya Mahāprabhu is Kṛṣṅa. Still, He is playing the part of a sādhu. Sādhu and śāstra, Brahma-saṁhitā. And because we have received from Caitanya Mahāprabhu, we are delivering to our disciples: "Here is Kṛṣṅa's form." The sādhu, śāstra, guru, it must be confirmed. Then we can accept. Not that whimsically if some rascal comes and becomes God by concoction. We cannot accept. It must be confirmed by... [aside:] Why do you bother? Let them. No, no. As he likes. That's all.

So sādhu, śāstra, guru. This is the way. When Caitanya Mahāprabhu was instructing Sanātana Gosvāmī in various subject matter, and he also described the incarnation in Kali-yuga from śāstra that,

kṛṣṅa-varṅam tviṣākṛṣṅaṁ sāṅgopāṅgāstra-pārṣadam yajñaiḥ saṅkīrtanaiḥ-prāyair yajanti hi su-medhasaḥ [SB 11.5.32]

[In the Age of Kali, intelligent persons perform congregational chanting to worship the incarnation of Godhead who constantly sings the names of Kṛṣṅa. Although His complexion is not blackish, He is Kṛṣṅa Himself. He is accompanied by His associates, servants, weapons and confidential companions.]

He quoted from Bhāgavatam, "This is the incarnation of Kali-yuga." So He is Himself yajñaiḥ saṅkīrtanaiḥ-prāyaiḥ. So Sanātana Gosvāmī was prime minister, very intelligent man. So he had inquired from Caitanya Mahāprabhu that "How we can accept the avatāra?" So Caitanya Mahāprabhu also said, "From the śāstra." And Sanātana Gosvāmī got it confirmed that Caitanya Mahāprabhu was... He stopped, of course. When he inquired that "Shall I accept this personality who is now preaching saṅkīrtana movement and along with His associates, He is the Supreme Lord?" Then Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, "Let us go on further. We don't..."

So this is the way, not whimsically accept any rascal as avatāra. No. That is not the process. Or any rascal as God. This rascaldom has killed the whole human society to become atheist. You should be very, very careful of these rascals. As soon as somebody says that "I am God," you shall immediately take him as dog, not God. So God is not so cheap. In the Brahma-saṁhitā the description of God, Kṛṣṅa, is given, and it is said there,

yasyaika-niśvasita-kālam athāvalambya jīvanti loma-vilajā jagad-aṅḍa-nāthāḥ viṣṅur mahān sa iha yasya kalā-viśeṣo govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi [Bs 5.48]

[Brahmā and other lords of the mundane worlds, appearing from the pores of hair of Mahā-Viṣṅu, remain alive as long as the duration of one exhalation of the latter [Mahā-Viṣṅu]. I adore the primeval Lord Govinda of whose subjective personality Mahā-Viṣṅu is the portion of portion.]

Govinda, the ādi-puruṣa, His plenary representation is Mahā-Viṣṅu. And what is the description of Mahā-Viṣṅu? Yasya eka niśvasita-kālam athāvalambya: from one exhaling of the breath, then, yasyaika niśvasita-kālam athāvalambya, all these innumerable universes. We are seeing... We are in one universe. There are many millions of universes. That we cannot see. We are within this universe compact. We can see it is packed up, just like a ball. But there are many such. So all these different universes controlled by one Lord Brahma, they are coming during the exhaling period of Mahā-Viṣṅu's breathing. That is God. Who can imagine it? Yasyaika-niśvasita-kālam athāvalambya jīvanti loma-vilajā jagad-aṅḍa-nāthāḥ. And universes are coming from the..., what is called? Hole?

Devotee: Pores.

Prabhupāda: Pores. Pores of the body. From breathing in this way. Then just imagine how many pores are there in the Mahā-Viṣṅu's body and how many universes are coming. And this is also confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā:

athavā bahunaitena kiṁ jñātena tavārjuna viṣṭabhyā 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 manifestation is one fourth-part of My energy, so many innumerable universes." And this is the plenary portion of God, Govinda—not full, but plenary, one part only. And do you think God is so cheap, anyone can become God? You don't take so cheaply that "Here is a God, incarnation. Here is a God." All bogus. Immediately reject them. Sādhu śāstra guru vākya.

So this arca-vigraha which you are worshiping, it is recommended by sādhu, by ācārya, by śāstra. It is not poetic imagination. Don't think that Kṛṣṅa's form has been carved by the sculptor by some poetic imagination. No. Sādhu śāstra guru vākya. It is confirmed by the sādhu, by śāstra, by ācārya. So why? To give us facility. Give us facility. We cannot see God by this blunt, materialistic eyes. Materialistic eyes means everything we think in the..., with reference to our sense gratification. That is materialistic eyes. "Everything belongs to God"—that we cannot believe or neither we have got the power to understand it. Kṛṣṅa says, God says, sarva-loka-maheśvaram [Bg 5.29]: "Everything belongs to Me."

[The sages, knowing Me as the ultimate purpose of all sacrifices and austerities, the Supreme Lord of all planets and demigods and the benefactor and well-wisher of all living entities, attain peace from the pangs of material miseries.]

Still, we are fighting: "No, this Africa is mine," "This America is mine," or "This India is mine." They are simply fighting, simply fighting on this misconception. It is clearly said, and is a fact. How this land becomes yours? It does not belong to you. You have come for the time being, for, say, fifty years, hundred years. But the land is lying for millions and millions of years. So before your coming, the land was there, and after your going away the land will be there. How it becomes yours? But they have no common sense, these rascals. They have no common sense. They are fighting—"nationalism." Therefore they are described as go-khara, go-khara, animals, cows and asses. Yasyātma-buddhiḥ kunape tri-dhātuke svā-dhīḥ kalatrādiṣu bhauma-ijya-dhīḥ [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.]

Bhauma-idya-dhīḥ, this is nationalism, worshiping the land of birth. This is called nationalism.

So everyone is becoming very great personality by bhauma-ijya-dhīḥ. The land in which he has taken birth is worshipable, not this Deity. Deity is impersonal, but the land is personal. This is their intelligence. Therefore in śāstra it is said, yasyātma-buddhiḥ kunape tri-dhātuke. The mistake begins from this misunderstanding that "I am this body." Therefore all other mistakes... What are those? Yasyātma-buddhiḥ kunape tri-dhātuke..., svā-dhīḥ kalatrādiṣu: family. "My wife. This is my wife. This is my children. This is my father. This is my mother. We are in a family." Svā-dhīḥ: "They are my kith and kin. Others, they are all my enemies." So this crippled thought. Yasyātma-buddhiḥ kunape tri-dhātuke svā-dhīḥ kalatrādiṣu. Because they have no knowledge that "Nobody is my father. Nobody is my mother. I am nobody's son. We are simply assembled together under certain condition, just like some straws gathered together by the waves of the river, and again, by the same river, it is tossed here and there, and then the straw remains one."

So we can study our history of life, that someone was born in India; someone was born in America; someone was born in Africa, Canada. So we have come together. We did... There was no idea that we shall have to give up our family relationship and come into this society of Kṛṣṅa conscious. So similarly, we mix together, intermingle, by chance. Not by chance—by the arrangement of the Supreme, by providence. Karmaṅā daiva-netreṅa [SB 3.31.1].

[The Personality of Godhead said: Under the supervision of the Supreme Lord and according to the result of his work, the living entity, the soul, is made to enter into the womb of a woman through the particle of male semen to assume a particular type of body.]

So we play the part of the son, the father, the wife, the children, but it is exactly the same—a straw gathering by the waves of the river. So just like sometimes in a foreign country we make some relationship, brother, father, but that is not actually the fact. The real father is Kṛṣṅa. Sarva-yoniṣu kaunteya sambhavanti mūrtayoyaḥ [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.]

So this is understanding. So we have to return to that understanding. Therefore it is advised how to make our relationship stronger with Kṛṣṅa. That is recommended here. Tasmiû labdha-padaṁ cittaṁ sarvāvayava-saṁsthitam. Don't think that Kṛṣṅa, or God, has no head, no tail. No. Sarvāvayava saṁsthitam. Virāṭa-mūrti. They are repeatedly said in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. But His avayava, different parts of the body, they are different from our, this material, at the present moment the material conception. That is different. He... Just like we can pick up our foodstuff by this hand. This hand is not just like Kṛṣṅa's hand. Kṛṣṅa's hand appears to be nonmoving. I think my hand is moving, but Kṛṣṅa is so powerful that even He has got the so-called statue hand, a metal hand or a stone hand, He can capture food which you offer. That you have to understand. When Kṛṣṅa is described as "He has no hand," that means He has no that limited hand as we have got. He has got... He appears before us just like a stone idol or statue, but He has got all the capacity of the limbs of the body, sarvāvayava. He has kindly appeared before us so that we can see. Here it is recommended that saṁyujyād aṅge. You have to see each and every part of the body, limb of Kṛṣṅa. That is meditation.

This arca-vigraha... By offering worship to the Deity, you see the lotus feet is there, the ankle is there, the mark in the sole is there. Everything is there. So each and every part you study and understand, "Kṛṣṅa is here. Kṛṣṅa is there." This is meditation. It is not that the rascal's theory that God is everywhere except in the temple. No. It is not like that. He is everywhere. Now He has appeared in this temple specifically to show His mercy how we can study very analytically: "Here is feet. Here is hand. The feet is marked with these symptoms. His hand is like this. His flute is like this. His hair is like this. Eyes are..." Study everything minutely. Then that is meditation, and this will help you to think of Kṛṣṅa constantly, and that will be trance, samādhi, samādhi, practical. It is not to be imaginary. The Māyāvādīs, they think that it is imagination. No, it is not imagination. It is confirmed by the śāstras, sādhu śāstra guru vākya.

So don't be misled by the Māyāvādīs. As we have got our ācāryas, they are instructing, as Bhāgavata is instructing, Bhagavad-gītā is instructing, we have to follow. And if we cannot follow, then we should see the ācāryas, how they are doing. Mahājano yena gataḥ sa panthāḥ [Cc Madhya 17.186].

[Dry arguments are inconclusive. A great personality whose opinion does not differ from others is not considered a great sage. Simply by studying the Vedas, which are variegated, one cannot come to the right path by which religious principles are understood. The solid truth of religious principles is hidden in the heart of an unadulterated self-realized person. Consequently, as the śāstras confirm, one should accept whatever progressive path the mahājanas advocate.]

In this way we have to make our life perfect.

Thank you very much.

Devotees: All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda. [break]

Prabhupāda: ...on this subject matter, not bring the whole list of questions.

Girl devotee (1): Śrīla Prabhupāda, you said that the demigods, they want to take birth in India, but is there not the same Vedic culture in the heavenly planets? Why do they want to [indistinct]?

Prabhupāda: They are missing the opportunity. That is their misfortune. They do not take advantage of the instruction of Bhagavad-gītā, Bhāgavatam. They are taking to technology. What can be done?

Brahmānanda: Her question was of the demigods, that you said that they wanted to take their birth in India, but is not the Vedic culture in the heavenly planets?

Prabhupāda: No, heavenly, they... By pious activities they go to the heavenly planets, but they find there inconvenience in God consciousness. Therefore they desire that "By our pious activities we have come to this higher planetary system, and as soon as our reaction, or the resultant action of pious activities will be finished, we shall have to go again to the material, or this Bhūrloka. So if remaining little balance of our pious activities, instead of going anywhere, let us take birth in India." They desire like that. Just like Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says, janmāobi more iccha yadi tora kīṭa-janma ha-u..., dāsa tuara, like that. He is praying, "My Lord, I do not know whether I am sufficiently fit to go back to home, to Godhead, but my only prayer is that if You think that I have to take birth again, so kindly give me this opportunity that I may take birth in a place..." Kīṭa janma hau yathā dāsa tuyā: "Let me become an insignificant ant in the house of a devotee. If I am going to take birth at all, so give me this concession, that let me take birth as an ant even in the house of a devotee." So Bhārata-varṣa, the devatās, the demigods, they desire to take birth in India because here is the opportunity. Still, so much broken, you will find, you have seen, that when we hold this Hare Kṛṣṅa festival, twenty thousand, fifty thousand men come automatically. You will find never in any other country. Still in India you will find that. Why? Because they have taken birth in India the facility is there. So it is very unfortunate that Indians are trying to forget Kṛṣṅa. Very unfortunate. Kṛpaṅa. If you have got money, if you don't utilize it properly, that is your misfortune. Similarly, in India, those who have taken birth, they have got the opportunity. Bhagavad-gītā was spoken in India, but they are reluctant. They're reluctant. This is their misfortune.

Jñāna: Śrīla Prabhupāda, is it sometimes more appropriate to worship arca-mūrti of Śrī Śrī Gaura-Nitāi than Śrī Śrī Rādhā and Kṛṣṅa?

Prabhupāda: That will be recommended to you by your spiritual master according to your position. There is no stereotyped idea. That you have to take instruction from your spiritual master, or you have to do according to the instruction of spiritual master. That will be done[?].

Girl devotee (2): Śrīla Prabhupāda, when we chant japa in front of arca-mūrti, do we then therefore, by this verse, meditate on Kṛṣṅa limb by limb?

Prabhupāda: Hmm?

Brahmānanda: When we chant japa in front of the Deity, does that correspond to this verse of meditating on the Lord limb by limb?

Prabhupāda: Yes. You can see. The Lord is everywhere. You can... Anyone can think. All right. Chant Hare Kṛṣṅa.

Devotees: Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda. [end]