Lecture at Kumbha-melā

Prabhupāda: [indistinct] ...the Personality of Godhead, He has come down. He comes,

yadā yadā hi dharmasya glānir bhavati bhārata [Bg 4.7]

That is one of the pastimes: to deliver the fallen souls. Fallen souls means anyone who is in this material world, beginning from Brahmā down to the small ant, all of them are fallen. It is simply degree of position. Just like in the prison house everyone is a criminal. One may be first-class prisoner and one may be third-class prisoner, but all of them are prisoners. Similarly, in this material world, anyone. There are millions in different positions, but none of them are liberated; they’re all conditioned. Kṛṣṅa has given them different position according to their desire. Kṛṣṅa can fulfill everyone’s needs. There is no difficulty for Him. If someone wanted to become Brahmā, Kṛṣṅa can fulfill his desire.

yānti deva-vratā devān pitṝn yānti pitṛ-vratāḥ [Bg 9.25]

[Those who worship the demigods will take birth among the demigods; those who worship ghosts and spirits will take birth among such beings; those who worship ancestors go to the ancestors; and those who worship Me will live with Me.]

So Kṛṣṅa is giving everyone facility. Whatever he wants, ye yathā māṁ prapadyante [Bg 4.11], but mad-yājino 'pi yānti mām:

[All of them—as they surrender unto Me—I reward accordingly. Everyone follows My path in all respects, O son of Pṛthā.]

"But if you desire, you can come to Me, back to home, back to..." That facility is also there. So when Kṛṣṅa comes personally or Caitanya Mahāprabhu comes, He advises that “Come back to home. Why you are fallen?”

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.]

To remain conditioned under the laws of nature, that is not good life. That is not good, either you become a Brahmā or Lord Indra or Chandra or a big minister, big president, just [indistinct]. That is Kṛṣṅa’s advice, Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s: finish this business. Sarva-guhyatamaṁ. This is the most confidential knowledge. Finish this business of material existence, either as Brahmā or... That is the verdict of all Vedic śāstras. They do not know what is there, the conditioned souls; they do not know what is real self-interest. Everyone will say that "I have got some self-interest." That’s very good. Everyone should be self-interested. One should be interested in his own self and the goal of life. That is very intelligent. But they do not know what is self, that is the problem. Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ [SB 7.5.31].

[Persons who are strongly entrapped by the consciousness of enjoying material life, and who have therefore accepted as their leader or guru a similar blind man attached to external sense objects, cannot understand that the goal of life is to return home, back to Godhead, and engage in the service of Lord Viṣṅu. As blind men guided by another blind man miss the right path and fall into a ditch, materially attached men led by another materially attached man are bound by the ropes of fruitive labor, which are made of very strong cords, and they continue again and again in materialistic life, suffering the threefold miseries.]

Svārtha-gatiṁ, real life, is to go back to Visnu, tad viṣṅoḥ paramaṁ padaṁ sadā paśyanti sūrayo [Ṛg Veda 1.2.22.20].

[The lotus feet of Lord Viṣṅu are the supreme objective of all the demigods. These lotus feet of the Lord are as enlightening as the sun in the sky.]

Those who are sūrayaḥ—not asūrayaḥ—sūrayaḥ, learned demigods, learned persons, they are aiming how to go back home, back to Godhead. That is param padaṁ, tad viṣṅoḥ paramaṁ padaṁ sadā. This is Ṛg Veda mantra. They’re trying to be happy by material adjustments, durāśayā ye bahir-artha-māninaḥ. Bahir-artha, external. This material world means creation of the external energy. So they have taken it, if here he can become a big man or big demigod, that is our self-interest. But that is not [indistinct]. That is not self-interest. Real self-interest is to go back to home, go back to Godhead.

So Caitanya Mahāprabhu also directly teaches the same principle, and Kṛṣṅa also teaches the same principle because They are one. But Caitanya Mahāprabhu is more kind, merciful than Kṛṣṅa. Kṛṣṅa is teaching the same principle, but as the Supreme Personality of Godhead He commands, “Do this, rascal!” Sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekam [Bg 18.66]. That is His position. But the rascals are so rascals they could not understand Kṛṣṅa; they began to comment upon Kṛṣṅa in different way. They are so rascal that even very learned scholars that..., like..., mundane scholars—they’re not scholars, but so-called scholars. They are full of ignorance but proud of their material knowledge. Āḍhya-māninā [SB 8.21.34], vimukta-māninaḥ, this word is used. Ye 'nye 'ravindākṣa vimukta-māninaḥ [SB 10.2.32].

[[Someone may say that aside from devotees, who always seek shelter at the Lord's lotus feet, there are those who are not devotees but who have accepted different processes for attaining salvation. What happens to them? In answer to this question, Lord Brahmā and the other demigods said:] O lotus-eyed Lord, although nondevotees who accept severe austerities and penances to achieve the highest position may think themselves liberated, their intelligence is impure. They fall down from their position of imagined superiority because they have no regard for Your lotus feet.]

These rascals, they are thinking only that they have become very learned scholars, and sometimes they think, “We are now liberated,” they have become Nārāyaṅa, and somebody is designating daridra-nārāyaṅa, so on, so on. That means actually they are not very learned, but vimukta-māninaḥ, they are thinking like that.

So Caitanya Mahāprabhu, because these rascals, they have misunderstood Kṛṣṅa—“Why shall I surrender to Kṛṣṅa? I am also Kṛṣṅa”—therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu, without any condition, He’s distributing kṛṣṅa-prema. Kṛṣṅa-prema is not so easy thing. First of all one cannot understand Kṛṣṅa. And what is kṛṣṅa-prema?

manuṣyāṅāṁ sahasreṣu kaścid yatati siddhaye yatatām api siddhānāṁ [Bg 7.3]

[Out of many thousands among men, one may endeavor for perfection, and of those who have achieved perfection, hardly one knows Me in truth.]

Big, big personalities, they cannot understand Kṛṣṅa, but Caitanya Mahāprabhu is so kind that in this age He understood that these rascals, they'll not understand what is Kṛṣṅa, and what to speak about kṛṣṅa-prema?

[train passing overhead on bridge]

Therefore Rūpa Gosvāmī offers the prayer, namo mahā-vadānyāya: "Most munificent avatāra." There are many avatāras of Kṛṣṅa: advaitam acyutam anādir ananta-rūpam [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 millions and millions of avatāras. But this avatāra, Caitanya Mahāprabhu, is the most munificent, kind, merciful avatāra. In every avatāra He takes two parts,

paritrāṅā sādhūnāṁ vināśāya ca duṣkṛti [Bg 4.8]

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

Cut off the head these rascals. But Caitanya Mahāprabhu does not. He, without any comparison, He is giving kṛṣṅa-prema, kṛṣṅa-prema-pradāya te. That is detected by His pure devotee, Rūpa Gosvāmī, that "Here is..." Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya, they understood, "Here is the Supreme Person."

vairāgya-vidyā-nija-bhakti-yogam- śikṣārtham ekaḥ puruṣaḥ purāṅaḥ [Cc Madhya 6.254]

"Same Supreme Person, purāṅaḥ, He has come to teach us vairāgya-vidyā."

This Kṛṣṅa consciousness movement means vairāgya-vidyā, to become detestful to this material world. Because we are not becoming detestful. The karmīs, they are more and more becoming entangled: "Give me this, give me that, give me that"; ultimately, "Give me the post of Brahmā," "Give me the post of Indra." So their business is simply "give me." So they are karmīs. And jñānīs, when they are disgusted with this asking... They are also asking, but they are asking in a finer way, that “We shall become one with Viṣṅu. Why shall I ask?” He’s asking. He’s asking, “Make me one,” but in a subtle way. He’s also beggar. And yogīs, they’re also asking, “Give me this mystic power. I shall manufacture gold and delude this poor conditioned soul,” and advertise, “I have become God.” These are third-class yogīs. First-class yogīs, they do not want. They, although get this power, like this, they do not utilize it; they simply, dhyāna avasthita-tad-gatena manasā paśyanti yaṁ yoginaḥ [SB 12.13.1].

[Sūta Gosvāmī said: Unto that personality whom Brahmā, Varuṅa, Indra, Rudra and the Maruts praise by chanting transcendental hymns and reciting the Vedas with all their corollaries, pada-kramas and Upaniṣads, to whom the chanters of the Sāma Veda always sing, whom the perfected yogīs see within their minds after fixing themselves in trance and becoming fully absorbed in thoughts of Him, and whose limit can never be found by any demigod or demon—unto that Supreme Personality of Godhead I offer my humble obeisances.]

That is their [indistinct] always meditating and seeing Kṛṣṅa.

yoginām api sarveṣāṁ mad-gatenāntarātmanā śraddhāvān bhajate yo māṁ sa me yuktatamo [Bg 6.47]

[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.]

He’s actually yogī, that always trying to seize the lotus feet of Kṛṣṅa, so that gradually they’ll be promoted to the pure devotional stage.

So unless one is situated in pure devotional stage, the perfection will be not be there. Mām upetya kaunteya duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam [Bg 8.15].

[After attaining Me, the great souls, who are yogīs in devotion, never return to this temporary world, which is full of miseries, because they have attained the highest perfection.]

Even if he becomes a very big yogī, he has to undergo suffering, duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam. This world is like that. For practicing this haṭha-yoga, it requires much labor. It is not so easy. They are thinking that they have got this power, yogī, but it is exactly like if you want to become high-court judge, if you want to become prime minister—it is not so easy. You have to work very hard. Nobody gets all these posts so easily like [indistinct]. No. One has to work very hard. Duḥkhālayam, you have to undergo. You want some very exalted post in this material, either as yogī, or karmī or jñānī, it requires the hard labor. But a devotee, because he does not want anything like the karmī, jñānī and yogī, for them, viśvaṁ pūrṅaṁ sukhāyate. The whole material world is happy. Viśvaṁ pūrṅaṁ sukhāyate.

So this is possible by Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s mercy. It is possible. Therefore Prabodhānanda Sarasvatī has given us this instruction, that yat kāruṅya katākṣa vaibhavavātaṁ [Caitanya-candrāmṛta 5]. It is possible to become perfectly cent per cent happy by the mercy of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Not even full mercy. If Caitanya Mahāprabhu simply looks over anyone, directly person will be happy as [indistinct]. Take mercy of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu and distribute it throughout the whole world. This is the Kṛṣṅa consciousness movement.

Thank you very much.

Devotees: Jaya Prabhupāda! [end]