Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 6.1.42

Prabhupāda: [leads singing of Jaya rādhā-mādhava; prema-dhvani] [break]

Pradyumna: [leads devotees in chanting] Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. [Devotees repeat] [break]

sūryo 'gniḥ khaṁ marud devaḥ somaḥ sandhyāhanī diśaḥ kaṁ kuḥ svayaṁ dharma iti hy ete daihyasya sākṣiṅaḥ [SB 6.1.42]

[06:09]

Translation: "The sun, fire, sky, air, demigods, moon, evening, day, night, directions, water, land and the Supersoul Himself all witness the activities of the living entity."

Prabhupāda:

sūryo 'gniḥ khaṁ marud devaḥ somaḥ sandhyāhanī diśaḥ kaṁ kuḥ svayaṁ dharma iti hy ete daihyasya sākṣiṅaḥ

In the Christian religion they do not believe karma, that I did something in my past life. "Where is the evidence that I did something, therefore I am suffering?" They take the analogy: just like a criminal in the court is convinced when there is sufficient witness, not that I have complained against you, and you go to the court, you are punished. No. My charges against you should be corroborated by sufficient witness. So the Christian religionists, they do not believe in the next birth, transmigration of the soul, something like that. So they do not believe also in the fruitive activities' resultant action of our past life. This very word "witness"... It is my personal experience. I was student in the Scottish Churches College in Calcutta, and we had to attend half an hour Bible class. So Dr. W. S. Urquhart, he was teaching, Reverend W. S. Urquhart. He said, I remember, that "Where is the evidence? The Hindus believe in the karma, but where is the evidence that I did it?"

The answer is here, that... We may not compare our inefficiency with the arrangement of the Supreme Lord. Now, God has kept so many witnesses. How you can escape? Here is a name, list of witness. Sūrya first of all—the sun. So how you can escape sūrya's light? You cannot escape. So here is one witness. Then agni, fire. Then kham, the sky. Where there is no sky? Here we are sitting; there is sky. And there is light also. Then marut, air. Deva. Who is deva? Demigods, yes. Then soma. At night there is moon. Sandhya, evening or noon. Noon is also sandhya. Sandhya means junction. When the night is going away—the day is coming early in the morning—that is also sandhya. When midday—the forenoon is passing; the afternoon is beginning—that is also sandhya. Tri-sandhya. Tri-sandhya. We have to chant Gāyatrī mantra tri-sandhya—early in the morning, in the midday and in the evening. That is tri-sandhya. Yasya prasādād bhagavat-prasādaḥ yasyāprasādād na gatiḥ kuto 'pi. What is next line?

Devotee: Dhyāyan stuvaṁs tasya yaśas tri-sandhyam.

Prabhupāda: Tri-sandhya. This tri-sandhya: early in the morning, midday and in the evening. And every sandhya is witness. Sandhya, ahani, day and night together, whole day, twenty-four hours, ahani. Ahany ahani lokā gacchanti yama-mandiram. This ahani. Every day, hundreds and thousands of living entities are dying. Śeṣaḥ sthitam icchanti kim āścaryam ataḥ param [Mahābhārata, Vana-parva 313.116]. Still, one who is not dead, he is thinking, "I'll not die. I'll remain." This is the wonderful thing, most wonderful thing. Everyone should be prepared for death. Death is inevitable. So diśaḥ, and ten directions: north, south, east, west, the four corners—eight—and up and down. They are ten directions. Where you'll go? Everywhere there is witness. You cannot escape. Kaṁ kuḥ svayam. What is kaṁ kuḥ?

Pradyumna: Water and earth.

Prabhupāda: Water and earth, yes. So how you can escape God's eyes? Sarvataḥ pāṅi-pādaṁ tat sarvato cakṣuḥ [Bg 13.4]. Everywhere God's eyes are there. So you cannot escape. You are wanting witness? Here are so many witnesses. How you can hide your sinful activities? That is not possible. You can hide yourself from the material laws, that "The police has not seen me. Then I may escape." No. God's law you cannot do that. That is not possible. So we should remember it, that when we act sinfully, then there are so many witnesses, and we have to be punished. You cannot escape. Kaṁ kuḥ svayam. Svayam. These are so many gods, witnesses, and over and above them svayam, the Personality of Godhead in His Supersoul feature. Supersoul means God is present in everyone's heart. Not only heart, He is everywhere present, even within the atom. Aṅḍāntara-stha-paramānu-cayāntara-sthaṁ.

eko 'py asau racayituṁ jagad-aṅḍa-koṭiṁ yac-chaktir asti jagad-aṅḍa-cayā yad-antaḥ aṅḍāntara-stha-paramānu-cayāntara-sthaṁ govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi [Bs 5.35]

[He is an undifferentiated entity as there is no distinction between potency and the possessor thereof. In His work of creation of millions of worlds, His potency remains inseparable. All the universes exist in Him and He is present in His fullness in every one of the atoms that are scattered throughout the universe, at one and the same time. Such is the primeval Lord whom I adore.]

The Lord, in order to maintain this material world, how He has expanded, it is described in the śāstra: eko 'py asau racayituṁ jagad-aṅḍa-koṭi. Jagad-aṅḍa means this universe. Aṅḍa: it is egglike. Aṅḍa means egglike, jagat-aṅḍa, the universe. So that universe is not one. We are seeing only one universe with our, these naked eyes, but when we see through the eyes of śāstra, authority... Śāstra-cakṣuṣāt. This is Vedic knowledge, that "Don't be simply after your these defective eyes." What is the value of these eyes? There are so many things. Just like this morning we were discussing: you take photograph from the sea, what you will see? But there are many millions of fishes within the sea. What you will take, photograph? They say that "We have taken photograph on the moon planet. There is no life." What is the value of this photograph? Can you take photograph in the water, how many fishes are there? So what is the value of your photograph? This is the difficulty, that these rascals, they do not accept that they are defective. That is the difficulty. With their defective senses they are thinking, "We are perfect. Because we have got a photograph, telescope, therefore it is sufficient." It is made by you. You are defective, and whatever you make, that is defective. This is the conclusion. This is right conclusion. If blind man, if he creates some telescope or..., can he see? You are blind. What you can see? But they are taking evidence: "We have seen with photograph, with telescope."

So these questions were never raised. We are now raising these questions. And they were passing on. No. This is not the process. The process is śāstra-cakṣuṣāt, śabda-pramāṅam. That is the Vedic injunction, śabda-pramāṅam. Just like you are sleeping, and somebody is coming to kill you with knife. So how you can take precaution? You are sleeping. But some of your friend or relative: "Get up! Get up! Get up! There is enemy! There is enemy!" Immediately you wake up. That means you see with the ear, not with the eyes. The real seeing is through the eyes, er, through the ears. Suppose one does not know who is your..., who is his father. So how he can see the father? Through the ear, not with the eyes. That is not possible. The mother says, "My dear child, here is your father," and you see through the eyes: "Here is my father."

So therefore real eyes—the ear, not these eyes. Real eyes. That is real seeing. Therefore śāstra says, Vedic knowledge, that śāstra-cakṣuṣāt, paśyati jñāna-cakṣuṣāt: "One can see by the eyes of knowledge," not by these blunt eyes. This is useless. They cannot see. And how you can see through the śabda? Śāstra means śabda. Through the ear... My Guru Mahārāja used to say, "Don't try to see a saintly person by your eyes. You see a saintly person by the ear." Because if you hear from the saintly person, and if he is speaking from the experience which he has heard from the..., another saintly person—this is called guru-paramparā—then the knowledge is perfect. Yesterday we... The Yamadūtas said that iti śuśruma. Never said "I have seen it." Vedo nārāyaṅaḥ sākṣāt svayaṁbhūr iti śuśruma [SB 6.1.40]: "We have heard it." Vedo nārāyaṅaḥ sākṣā... He never says, "I have seen it." No. Iti ṣuṣruma. So this is experience, real experience, real knowledge. Vedo nārāyaṅaḥ sākṣāt. Veda is directly Nārāyaṅa. So Nārāyaṅa, you can see Nārāyaṅa. You can hear about Nārāyaṅa. Śravaṅaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṅoḥ [SB 7.5.23].

[Prahlāda Mahārāja said: Hearing and chanting about the transcendental holy name, form, qualities, paraphernalia and pastimes of Lord Viṣṅu, remembering them, serving the lotus feet of the Lord, offering the Lord respectful worship with sixteen types of paraphernalia, offering prayers to the Lord, becoming His servant, considering the Lord one's best friend, and surrendering everything unto Him (in other words, serving Him with the body, mind and words)—these nine processes are accepted as pure devotional service. One who has dedicated his life to the service of Kṛṣṅa through these nine methods should be understood to be the most learned person, for he has acquired complete knowledge.]

Viṣṅu is Nārāyaṅa. This is the beginning of understanding Nārāyaṅa: śravaṅaṁ kīrtanam. Never says, "By seeing, by touching, by licking up." No. You cannot see. That is not experience. Real experience is iti śuśruma. So if we take our knowledge that there is no witness what we did in our previous life, that is nonsense. Here are the so many witnesses. Iti śuśruma. Hear. You cannot say there is no witness. You hear from the Vedic literature how many witnesses are present there for all your activities and how they are becoming recorded minutely, and everything will be judged. Therefore the Yamarāja is there.

So this is our position, that prakṛteḥ kriyamāṅāni guṅaiḥ karmāṅi sarvaśaḥ ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā [Bg 3.27].

[The bewildered spirit soul, under the influence of the three modes of material nature, thinks himself to be the doer of activities, which are in actuality carried out by nature.]

Anyone who is proud of his so-called knowledge, so-called experience—simply "I believe," "I think," "It may be," "Suppose"—what is this knowledge? They're all nonsense. When you get knowledge śuśruma, from the authority, that is knowledge. Otherwise all useless. All useless. Because your senses are imperfect. You cannot see properly. You cannot hear properly. You cannot touch properly. You cannot smell properly. These are your instruments for getting experience. You cannot go. How you can say in other planets there is no life? You cannot go. According to the scientists' calculations, they say that to go to the topmost planet it will take forty... Eh? Forty thousands of years. Who is going to travel forty thousand years? But we are seeing. The planets are there. Go there and see. You cannot estimate of one universe, which you are practically seeing. And in the śāstra we hear that there are millions of universes.

yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-aṅḍa-koṭi- koṭiṣv aśeṣa-vasudhādi vibhūti-bhinnam tad brahma niṣkalam anantam aśeṣa-bhūtaṁ govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi [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.]

So we have to take knowledge from śāstra. And who will teach me śāstra? Tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet [Muṅḍaka Upaniṣad 1.2.12].

[To understand these things properly, one must humbly approach, with firewood in hand, a spiritual master who is learned in the Vedas and firmly devoted to the Absolute Truth.]

Go to guru. Tad-vijñānārtham. Just like you go to some superior person to learn something. That is the process. Similarly, the same process: you have to go to a person who has also heard, śuśruma. You go to that, not that person who says that "I suppose," "I believe," "Maybe." No. You go to the person who says, iti śuśruma: "We have heard it from authorities." You have to go to that person. Śrotriyaṁ brahma-niṣṭham [Muṅḍaka Upaniṣad 1.2.12]. Who is guru? Śrotriyam: "Who has properly heard." Śrotriyam. And what is the result? Brahma-niṣṭham: by hearing, he is firmly convinced there is God. You have to go to such guru. If you go to a fakir, what he will teach you? No. Fakir means one who talks much without any knowledge. He is called fakir.

So everything is, direction is there. Tad-vijñānārtham. If you want to know that science, then tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum eva [Muṅḍaka Upaniṣad 1.2.12]. "Must," gacchet. This verb is used when there is the sense "must." If somebody says, "All right, I shall learn even without going to any guru," no, that is not possible. Therefore this verb is used, gacchet: "You must if you want to learn." Otherwise you remain in darkness. This is Vedic injunction. Śuśruma. You must hear from the right source; then you will get perfect knowledge. So therefore, whether there is witness or not witness, we cannot understand from a so-called professor. There is witness, śāstra says. And how can you deny it? If sūrya... First word is sūrya. The sūrya is the eyes of God, one eye. Another eye is the moon. And it is described in the śāstra,

yac-cakṣur eṣa savitā sakala-grahānāṁ rāja samasta-sura-mūrtir aśeṣa-tejāḥ, yasyājñayā bhramati sambhṛta-kāla-cakro govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi [Bs 5.52]

[The sun who is the king of all the planets, full of infinite effulgence, the image of the good soul, is as the eye of this world. I adore the primeval Lord Govinda in pursuance of whose order the sun performs his journey mounting the wheel of time.]

So sūrya, we can see that... We have got some rays of the eyes, three feet. But, you see, from the 93,000,000 miles away he is seeing you. So brightly he is seeing. So you have to understand in that way. The śāstra says, "Here is the eye." Another eye, another eye, one after another, one after another. How you will escape? That is not possible.

Therefore we must be very cautious and, I mean to say, with sense we must act. And if we act according to the direction of the śāstra, then our position is safe. Otherwise, we are risking life. Risking life means this human life. Human life... The dog has got ear; we have got also ear. But a dog cannot understand śāstra. That is not possible. Or the elephant has got ear, very big ear. [laughter] Does it mean that he can hear more? No. This is rascaldom. One must be quite able to hear to understand śāstra. Therefore śāstra is meant for the human society. In the Caitanya-caritāmṛta you will find, the Sanātana Gosvāmī's teachings, you will find, anadi bahirmukha jīva kṛṣṅa bhuli gela, ataeva kṛṣṅa veda purāṅa karila [Cc Madhya 20.117].

[Forgetting Kṛṣṅa, the living entity has been attracted by the external feature from time immemorial. Therefore the illusory energy [māyā] gives him all kinds of misery in his material existence.]

Why these Vedas and Purāṅas are there? Just to remind us. The veda purāṅa karila. Veda, the four Vedas and other literatures abiding by the Vedas... Purāṅa means supplementary Vedas. There are many historical incidences, they say "mythology." No, it is not mythology. It is from selected historical incidences put together, but the same Vedic instruction for common men. In the Vedas the mantras are there. Common man cannot understand. Janmādy asya yataḥ [SB 1.1.1], athāto brahma jijñāsā. This Veda mantra goes on. But ordinary persons, they cannot understand. Therefore the same Vedas explained with reference to the historical incidences, that is called Purāṅa. Purāṅa means "who is complete." Purāṅa, pūrayati iti purāṅa [Tattva-sandarbha 12]. So the Māyāvādī philosopher, they say the Purāṅas are stories. No. The Bhāgavata is Purāṅa. It is full of stories. But what kind of stories? All Vedic instruction.

Just like Ajāmila. Ajāmila began, itihāsa. The Bhāgavata Purāṅa is speaking itihāsa, in the beginning. "It is said." So Śukadeva Gosvāmī is giving incidences of itihāsa, history, example from the history. So this is actual fact. So in order to convince Parīkṣit Mahārāja how chanting of Hare Kṛṣṅa mantra is powerful, he is giving a lesson from the history, how Ajāmila was delivered simply by chanting "Nārāyaṅa." This is the incidence from the history. And it is history. The story begins, kānyakubje. Kānyakubja is still there in India. Perhaps you have heard the name of Kanpur. So that is within the Kānyakubja area. Kānyakubje dvijaḥ: "There was a brāhmaṅa in Kānyakubja." Historical name is all... So it is history. It is not story, mythology. No story. It is historical fact. Anything which is described in the śāstra... The Bhāgavata is Maha-Purāṅa. Don't be misled, "These are mythology." No, these are historical facts. And we have to learn the Vedic knowledge by the description selected from the history so that we can easily understand. This is the purpose.

So in our this human form of life we should be very careful, and what is ordered that "You should do like this..." Just like if you go to a medical man, so if you are diseased, a medical man, physician, will give you a prescription that "You take this medicine, and you do not take this kind of food. You can take this kind of food." Āhāra-pathya. So if you want to cure your material disease, then the two things are required: the medicine and the food. Pathya. It is called pathya. The proper food and proper medicine. The proper medicine is chanting Hare Kṛṣṅa, and the proper food is Kṛṣṅa prasādam.

Devotees: Jaya!

Prabhupāda: Take these two things—you are liberated.

Thank you very much.

Devotee: Jaya Prabhupāda! [end]