Arrival Lecture

Prabhupāda:

śrī-vigrahārādhana-nitya-nānā- śṛṅgāra-tan-mandira-mārjanādau yuktasya bhaktaṁś ca niyuñjato 'pi vande guroḥ śrī-caraṅāravindam

So who has decorated?

Abhirāma: Pūrṅaprajña dāsa.

Purnaprajñā: My wife and I [indistinct].

Prabhupāda: Very good. So this is the injunction of the śāstra, śrī-vigrahārādhana-nitya-nānā. They...

[aside:] She should not stand before the Deity. Little back.

Hari-śauri: Ask her to stand to the left of the Deities.

Prabhupāda: Yes. [Bengali to lady] So this is the duty of all disciples under the guidance of the spiritual master—to decorate. Śrī-vigrahārādhana-nitya-nānā-śṛṅgāra. Śṛṅgāra means decoration. Amongst the various paraphernalia of worshiping the Lord, the śṛṅgāra is very essential, śṛṅgāra and tan-mandira-mārjanādi, and cleansing the temple. The more you cleanse the temple, the more you decorate the Deity, more your heart becomes cleansed and you become spiritually decorated.

So cleanliness is next to godliness. And after cleansing, taking bath regularly, keeping the temple very neat and clean and worshiping the Deity, dressing, decorating, ornamenting... These are the general process. So if we follow the process regularly, then we gradually become advanced in spiritual consciousness. Material world and spiritual world. Material world means dirty things, and spiritual world means clean.

So the living entities, they are called taṭasthā-śakta. Parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate [Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad 6.8].

[The Supreme Lord has nothing to do. Nothing is equal to Him or greater than Him. He acts in different phases by manifesting His parts and parcels, which are all simultaneously differently situated by His unlimited, variegated potencies. Each potency acts quite naturally in sequences, providing Him full knowledge, power and pastimes.]

God has many potencies. They have been divided into three primarily: external, internal and marginal; bahiraṅgā-śakti, antaraṅga-śakti and taṭasthā-śakti. So we jīvas, living entities, we are also another energy of Kṛṣṅa, in between the material and spiritual. So if we like, we can remain in the spiritual world; if we like, we can remain in the material world. If we remain in the material world, then, temporary, we enjoy happiness or distress. There is no happiness. Sometimes we take distress as happiness. Actually there is no happiness, because however happy you may be, you have to change this body. Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi [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.]

So this happiness... Suppose this life I am a king. Maybe for few years, but I have to change this body. Tathā dehāntara-prāptir dhīras tatra na muhyati [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.]

So there is no happiness. Suppose you arrange very nicely to live very happily in this world, but you'll not be allowed to live. You'll not be allowed. Duḥkhalayam 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.]

So long we live, there is happiness or distress. There is no happiness. To get happiness we have to go through distress. Anyway, mixed-up happiness or distress, even if you make nice arrangement, but all of a sudden you'll be asked to get out. Duḥkhalayam aśāśvatam. Therefore we should not be attracted with this happiness, so-called happiness of material world. Aśāśvatam. Even if you think you are happy, you'll not be allowed to stay here.

So we must know all these principles of our life, and Kṛṣṅa consciousness is the guide. Kṛṣṅa consciousness means we are guided by Kṛṣṅa personally. Everyone can be guided. Kṛṣṅa is giving instruction to the whole human society in the Bhagavad-gītā. So we can take advantage of it. Kṛṣṅa is guiding personally. So there are two ways of accepting Kṛṣṅa's guidance. You accept the instruction of the Bhagavad-gītā, then you'll be happy. If you don't accept, then you will go back again to the cycle of birth and death. Mām aprāpya nivartante mṛtyu-saṁsāra-vartmani [Bg 9.3].

[Those who are not faithful in this devotional service cannot attain Me, O conqueror of enemies. Therefore they return to the path of birth and death in this material world.]

So mṛtyu-saṁsāra-vartmani is not good life. Mṛtyu-saṁ..., mṛtyu... Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi [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.]

If you take birth, then you'll have to die; and if you have to die, you have to take birth again. This is called mṛtyu-saṁsāra-vartma. So this is not very good business. That intelligence is lacking. We are simply trying to adjust things for a few years, but we are not taking account of our real life. Our real life is na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre [Bg 2.20]. That is real life, that we do not die. But our brain is so dull that we have accepted janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi as usual thing.

But death can be checked. That is Kṛṣṅa consciousness movement. If you so desire, you can stop it. There is no difficulty. Very easy. And that is also explained by Kṛṣṅa: janma karma ca me divyaṁ yo jānāti tattvataḥ [Bg 4.9].

[One who knows the transcendental nature of My appearance and activities does not, upon leaving the body, take his birth again in this material world, but attains My eternal abode, O Arjuna.]

Simply try to understand Kṛṣṅa. And He's explaining Himself. What is the difficulty to understand Kṛṣṅa? Kṛṣṅa is the Supreme, Para-brahman, the greatest, and we are anu, very small. Our knowledge is very small, limited. It is not possible to understand Kṛṣṅa. But He is explaining Himself for our little understanding. Whatever we have got capacity to understand, that Kṛṣṅa is explaining. So if you simply take Kṛṣṅa's word, man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru [Bg 18.65].

[Always think of Me and become My devotee. Worship Me and offer your homage unto Me. Thus you will come to Me without fail. I promise you this because you are My very dear friend.]

Here is a chance. This Deity worship... When we see the form of Kṛṣṅa, naturally our mind is impressed that "Here is Kṛṣṅa; here is Rādhārāṅī; here is Jagannātha." So if you come daily and see Kṛṣṅa at least once—man-manā bhava mad-bhaktoḥ—where is the difficulty? But people are so much engrossed. Their education is so low grade. Just now, when I was coming from Bhubaneswar, the next room, next apartment, was occupied by some young men. As they were talking, it appeared they were educated, medical practitioner. They were addressing amongst themselves, "Dr. this," "Dr. this..." [break]

So our mission is para-upakāra, Caitanya Mahāprabhu's mission, para-upakāra. This para-upakāra mission was entrusted to the Indians. Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, bhārata bhūmite haila manuṣya-janma yāra [Cc Ādi 9.41]—"to the human beings," not to the cats and dogs. Unfortunately, we have become like cats and dogs. We do not take the responsibility of an Indian. It is the duty of the Indian, as Caitanya Mahāprabhu said,

bhārata bhumite haila manuṣya-janma yāra janma sārthaka kari kara para-upakāra [Cc Ādi 9.41]

[One who has taken his birth as a human being in the land of India [Bhārata-varṣa] should make his life successful and work for the benefit of all other people.]

All over the world they are in darkness. They do not know what is the value of life. So in India, anyone born, he can make his life successful. We have got Bhagavad-gītā and all Vedic literatures. By learning, by practicing, we can make our life perfect and then distribute the knowledge. This is India's business. Unfortunately, they have been conquered by the illusion of māyā, and they are not interested. They are becoming drunkard and talking all nonsense. So you have come, kindly. Of course, Bhārata means the whole planet. Anyway, don't deviate. Just try to do some good to the human society by awakening them to spiritual consciousness, or Kṛṣṅa consciousness. The method is very simple: harer nāma harer nāma harer nāma eva kevalam [Cc Ādi 17.21].

[In this Age of Kali there is no other means, no other means, no other means for self-realization than chanting the holy name, chanting the holy name, chanting the holy name of Lord Hari.]

But it is para-upakāra. That is human life, para-upakāra: to do good to others, not to exploit others. That is not human life.

So you have very kindly joined this movement. You have not joined this movement for your poverty. You are not poverty-stricken. Sometimes people join this movement for poverty-stricken. But you are not belonging to that. You have voluntarily joined. So don't be disappointed. There is now opposition, but don't be disappointed. Kṛṣṅa will give you protection. Try to go on with this para-upakāra movement. Maybe, because it is a fight against atheism, so some of our soldiers may fall down. But that should not discourage us. We must go on fighting with this atheistic civilization and try to push Kṛṣṅa consciousness movement.

Thank you very much.

Devotees: Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda! [end]