Founder's Lecture

Hyderabad, India—November 29, 1972

“Come To My Eternal Place”

Lord Kṛṣṅa wants us to give up our rebelliousness and return to Him for a life of perfect happiness.

By His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda Founder-Ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness

avyakto ’yam acintyo ’yam avikāryo ’yam ucyate tasmād evaṁ viditvainaṁ nānuśocitum arhasi

“It is said that the soul is invisible, inconceivable, and immutable. Knowing this, you should not grieve for the body.”—Bhagavad-gītā 2.25

IN SO MANY WAYS Kṛṣṅa is convincing Arjuna that the spirit soul is immortal. Avyakto ’yam: It is not manifest to the blunt material eyes. We cannot see it, because the magnitude of the soul is one ten-thousandth part of the tip of the hair. Very small. Smaller than the atom.

That spirit soul is everywhere. Sarva-gataḥ. And wherever the spirit soul lives within the material world, he has a body and a heart, and within that heart Kṛṣṅa is also there. Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhutānāṁ hṛd-deśe ’rjuna tiṣṭhati. Both of them—the soul and Kṛṣṅa—are living there. Therefore, aṅor aṅiyān mahato mahīyān: Kṛṣṅa can become greater than the greatest and smaller than the smallest. That is God.

When Kṛṣṅa was playing as a child, He ate earth, and His playmates complained to Mother Yaśodā, “Mother, your son Kṛṣṅa is eating earth.”

Mother Yaśodā asked for an explanation: “Kṛṣṅa, why are You eating earth? I have given You sandeśa [a sweet].”

Kṛṣṅa said, “No, Mother, I have not eaten earth.”

“No, Your friends are complaining.”

“No, they have become My enemies this morning. We had some quarrel. Therefore they have combined so that you will chastise Me.”

Mother Yaśodā wanted to solve the problem.

“All right, show me Your mouth. Open Your mouth. I want to see.”

When Kṛṣṅa opened His mouth, His mother saw innumerable universes inside.

This is Kṛṣṅa. Aṅor aṅiyān mahato mahīyān. Kṛṣṅa enters within the universe, but at the same time millions of universes are within His mouth. This is the explanation of “greater than the greatest and smaller than the smallest.”

Of course, although Mother Yaśodā saw Kṛṣṅa's display, she could not believe it, because she never thought that Kṛṣṅa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. She always thought, “He is my tiny child.” That’s all. “I have to take care of Him.” These are called parental feelings—vātsalya-rasa.

Moods Of Service

Kṛṣṅa is served by devotees in many rasas—transcendental mellows or humors. Someone is serving as His servant. Someone is serving as His friend. Someone is serving as His father and mother. Someone is serving as His conjugal lover. These are the five primary mellows in which a devotee is connected with Kṛṣṅa.

There are seven other rasas. They are secondary. For example, somebody is serving Kṛṣṅa as an enemy, like the asuras, the demons. They also serve Kṛṣṅa, but as His enemy. Somebody serves by giving pleasure to Kṛṣṅa, another by fighting with Him.

So there are twelve rasas. Akhila-rasāmṛta-sindhu—all the rasas we experience within this world come from Kṛṣṅa. Janmādyasya yataḥ. The Vedānta-sūtra says that everything within our experience is in Kṛṣṅa. That is Kṛṣṅa. He was stealing, which we generally consider not very good business. But stealing is also in Kṛṣṅa. He’s famous as Mākhana-cora, the stealer of butter.

All our dealings in the material world are only a perverted reflection of our dealings with Kṛṣṅa in the spiritual world. But the impersonalists, unaware of the spiritual world, have no information that Kṛṣṅa is always busy. Because He’s a person, He’s always busy. He wants to please the gopījanas—the cowherd boys and the gopīs, His constant companions.

Kṛṣṅa is sanātana, eternal, and His dealings with His devotees are also sanātana. And these dealings are possible not here but in the sanātana-dhāma, the eternal world. We cannot have sanātana dealings with Kṛṣṅa in the material world. Therefore Kṛṣṅa comes to canvass the conditioned souls: “For eternal happiness, for eternal dealings, come to Me in My eternal place.” Yad gatvā na nivartante tad dhāma paramaṁ mama.

Why not in the material world? By nature the material world is not permanent; it is temporary. Janmādi. Everything in the material world has a date of birth, and anything which has a date of birth must have a date of death also. That is the nature of the material world.

Here we can practice sanātana-dharma, the eternal occupation, but sanātana-dharma is actually performed in the spiritual world. In business one is trained to become an apprentice and then he’s given a post. Similarly, Sanātana Gosvāmī explains, devotees who are perfectly trained in devotional service are first of all given birth in the universe where Kṛṣṅa is present.

Kṛṣṅa Everywhere

Of course, Kṛṣṅa is always present everywhere, just as the sun is always present in the sky. When the sun sets, it is not within my vision, but the sun is still in the sky. Similarly, Kṛṣṅa is always present. We have to make our eyes fit to see Him. How? Lord Brahmā explains:

premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti vilocanena santaḥ sadaiva hṛdayeṣu vilokayanti yaṁ śyāmasundaram acintya-guṅa-svarūpaṁ govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi

Only the devotees who have loving affection for Kṛṣṅa can see Him. The propensity to love Kṛṣṅa is there already. But we have transferred that loving propensity to māyā, illusion. The whole process of Kṛṣṅa consciousness is to transfer the loving propensity from māyā back to Kṛṣṅa. This is the simple definition of Kṛṣṅa consciousness. We have love for Kṛṣṅa, but being illusioned, being falsely positioned, we are trying to love something which is not Kṛṣṅa—māyā, Kṛṣṅa's māyā, or illusion.

Kṛṣṅa says, mama māyā: “Māyā is also Mine.” For example, the cloud is made by the sun. The sun evaporates water from the ocean, and the water becomes a cloud. The business of the cloud is to cover our eyes from seeing the sun, but actually the cloud has no separate existence, and as soon as the sun is bright, the cloud disappears. Bhūtva bhūtva pralīyate: The cloud comes into existence, and again it disappears. Similarly, māyā, illusion, is only sometimes generated. The material world is impermanent. It comes and goes. Māyā simply covers our eyes.

But although the cloud can cover my eyesight, it cannot cover the sun. Similarly māyā cannot touch Kṛṣṅa. The Māyāvāda philosophy says that when Kṛṣṅa comes here He comes covered by māyā. No. This is not correct. Māyā cannot touch Kṛṣṅa. When Vyāsadeva realized Kṛṣṅa before writing the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, he saw Kṛṣṅa and māyā. Māyā was in the background. Māyā cannot come in front of Kṛṣṅa. So Kṛṣṅa is never covered by māyā. It is our eyes which are covered by māyā.

So we, the fragments of Kṛṣṅa, are covered by māyā, but Kṛṣṅa is not. The theory that Kṛṣṅa becomes covered is nonsense. Kṛṣṅa is the controller of māyā. And we are controlled by māyā. That is the difference. Kṛṣṅa is māyādhīśa, the controller of māyā, and we are māyādhīna, controlled by māyā.

Transcending Māyā

Yet we can become free. When an airplane goes above the clouds, you have immense sunlight. The clouds are below. Similarly, you can go above māyā. You can transcend māyā and see Kṛṣṅa always. That is possible. How? Mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti te: Simply surrender to Kṛṣṅa, and Kṛṣṅa will arrange that you are no longer under māyā. Simple process. Just do as Kṛṣṅa demands—sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṅaṁ vraja: “Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me.” This is sanātana-dharma.

We are, after all, servants of Kṛṣṅa, but artificially we are trying to become masters of the material world. We are therefore sent here. Just as those who are revolutionary, who do not care for state laws, are sometimes killed or put into the prisonhouse, those who are not voluntarily surrendering to Kṛṣṅa are put into the prisonhouse of the material world. They are forced to surrender.

And when you falsely think you have become free—“I have now become liberated. I have become God”—you fall into the last snare of māyā. How can you become God? What capacity do you have? God has created so many things. What have you created? God has shown so many things. What have you done?

Still, people falsely think, “I am God.” This is the last snare of māyā. Everyone is trying to lord it over material nature. We think, “I want to become a cabinet minister.” “I want to become president.” “I want to become a business magnate.” And when everything fails, we want to become God. That is also māyā. It is not possible to become God.

Our relationship with God, Kṛṣṅa, is that we are meant to serve Him. But we have forgotten our real position, our sanātana-dharma. Sanātana-dharma means that the living entity is a part of the whole and is therefore meant to serve the whole. Because my finger is part of my body, its business is to carry out my order, to serve the whole body. If I want my finger to come to my head, it comes at once. Similarly, our business is to serve Kṛṣṅa. But when we want to become lord, independent of Kṛṣṅa, we place ourselves in māyā. The Prema-vivārta states, kṛṣṅa-bahirmukha hañā bhoga-vāñchā kare/ nikaa-stha māyā tāre jāpaiyā dhare: “When the living entity wants to enjoy material nature, he is immediately victimized by the material nature.” As soon as we desire to imitate Kṛṣṅa, that is māyā. We create the situation of māyā. “I want to become Kṛṣṅa. I want to become God. I want to become the Lord.” This is māyā.

Kṛṣṅa is sanātana, eternal. We are also sanātana, but when we forget to serve Kṛṣṅa, we serve temporary things. And when we engage again in the service of Kṛṣṅa, we return to our sanātana-dharma, eternally serving Kṛṣṅa.

Our Dharma

Dharma means “characteristic.” You cannot change dharma. The characteristic of sugar is sweetness, and the characteristic of chili is pungency. Everything has its characteristic. That is called its dharma. You purchase chili, and if it is not very pungent you throw it away—“Oh, it is not good”—because the dharma of the chili is lacking. Similarly, if you take sugar and find it salty, then you say, “Oh, what is this?”

So everything has some characteristic, and we as living entities have our characteristic. We are sanātana, eternal. Our characteristic is to serve God. If I don’t serve God, then the characteristic will remain and I’ll have to serve māyā, thinking in illusion that I have become master. For example, a man has a motorcar. To purchase a motorcar and maintain it requires lots of money, and to get this money he has to work very hard. But then he thinks, “Now I have a motorcar. Very nice.” Still, he is serving the motorcar, that’s all.

This is the position. One is actually servant, not master, but he thinks that he’s master. This is māyā. When we give up the falsely prestigious claim that we are master, then we are liberated.

Now we are struggling hard within the material world under the influence of māyā, changing between different bodies. Sometimes I go to the heavenly planets, sometimes to the hellish planets. Sometimes I am a rich man, sometimes a poor man, a brāhmaṅa, a śūdra, a tiger, a tree. In this way, everywhere within the universe the living entities are struggling for existence. Kṛṣṅa says:

mamaivāṁśo jīva-loke jīva-bhūtaḥ sanātanaḥ manaḥ-ṣaṣhānīndriyāṅi prakṛti-sthāni karṣati

“All living entities are My parts and parcels, but foolishly, carried by mental concoction within the material world, they are struggling to become master.”

This is the disease. The rascals are pulled by the ear by prakṛti, material nature. Material nature dictates, “Do this,” and I have to do it. To one who has associated with the mode of ignorance, prakṛti gives the body of a hog. Then prakṛti tells him, “Come here. Eat the stool.” And he eats. “Oh, so nice.” This is māyā. Is stool a very nice thing? But prakṛti has given the hog a certain type of body, and he is relishing, “Oh, stool is so nice.”

In the human form of body also, people are eating so many nonsense things in the restaurants, in the hotels. And they’re relishing, “Oh, it is so nice.” This is māyā.

Our business is to serve, but because we take the attitude “I don’t like to serve Kṛṣṅa” or “I am Kṛṣṅa,” we are placed under the clutches of māyā—immediately. And under the illusion of māyā, we associate with the different modes of material nature, and so we have to take birth. Sad-asad-yoni-janmasu. One becomes a hog, one becomes a dog, one becomes a human being, a demigod, a tree, a plant—8,400,000 species and forms of life. Kṛṣṅa says, sarva-yoniṣu kaunteya . . . ahaṁ bīja-pradaḥ pitā: “Of all these forms—whatever they may be—I am the father.”

So if Kṛṣṅa is the original father of every living entity, how has one become a brāhmaṅa, one a śūdra, one a tree, one a tiger, a hog, an Indra, a Brahmā? How is that?

We get our births in different types of body because we associate with different modes of nature. My mind carries me to the next body. It is foolish to say, “This man is now dead. Everything is finished.” That is rascaldom. He is not finished. His life is going on.

Foolish rascals say, “Now this man is dead, finished.” Big, big professors say, “Swamiji, after death everything is finished.” And they’re professors. Just see. Rascals and fools are becoming leaders, professors, politicians. How will the people be happy when they are always led into ignorance and enamored by the external feature of Kṛṣṅa's energy?

Kṛṣṅa's Two Energies

The material world is also Kṛṣṅa's energy. But we are attracted by the material energy when we should be attracted by the spiritual. As explained in the Bhagavad-gītā, both energies are Kṛṣṅa's: aparā (inferior) energy and parā (superior) energy. But we are now attracted by the material elements of the aparā energy: bhūmir āpo ’nalo vāyuḥ—earth, water, fire, air. And because we are attracted by the material energy, when we construct a very nice stone house we think, “Now, yes, my life is successful. I have a very nice house of stone.” Am I stone? No. Still, my attraction is for the stone. Therefore Kṛṣṅa gives me facility: “All right, take the stone and try to be happy. But you’ll never be happy. You’ll be happy when you surrender to Me.”

For example, a father gives his child all facilities to play, but at the same time the father says, “My dear child, don’t play like this. It is not good.” But because the child persists, the father sometimes says, “All right, you play like that.” Similarly, Kṛṣṅa does not want us to come to the material world and be attracted by earth, water, air, fire, and sky and become great scientists and make combinations of these five elements. What is this world? Tejo-vāri-mṛdāṁ yathā vinimayo yatra tri-sargo ’mṛṣā: This world is a mixture of fire, earth, water, air, and sky. It is a false thing.

As this world is a combination of these five elements, our body is also a combination of these same five elements, and we are attracted to it. “Oh, I have such a nice, strong, beautiful body—American body, Indian body, brāhmaṅa body, this body, that body.” All māyā. You’ll never be happy by this bodily concept of life.

Kṛṣṅa indirectly explains this point when He says, acchedyo ’yam adāhyo ’yam akledyo ’śoṣya eva ca: “The individual soul is unbreakable and insoluble, and can be neither burned nor dried.” Since the body is burned to ashes, how can we be the body? When a man is dead, the body is put into the fire and burned. Then how are we the body?

The body is made of three elements: bile, mucus, and air. It is a bag of bones and ṣesh and blood. If one thinks, “I am this body,” then he is go-kharaḥ—a cow or an ass. Anyone in the bodily concept of life is an animal. And how can you receive knowledge from a person who is an animal? You cannot get any knowledge from the cows or asses.

To speak frankly, practically everyone is in the bodily concept of life. Therefore the modern civilization is an animal civilization, not a human civilization. Human civilization begins when one understands, “I am not this body. I am spirit soul—ahaṁ brahmāsmi.” As long as people are under the bodily concept of life, theirs is a civilization of cats and dogs, that’s all.

Thank you very much.