The Brahmana and the Cobbler

A story illustrates how one can appreciate Krsna.

Once, Narada Muni was passing by, and a very learned scholar, a brahmana, asked him, "Sir, where are you going?"

Narada said, "I am going to Vaikuntha to see my Lord."

"Oh, will you ask Narayana when my liberation will come?"

"All right, I shall ask."

Then Narada met a cobbler who was sewing shoes, and he also asked, "Sir, where are you going?"

"I am going to Vaikuntha to see my Lord."

"Will you ask when I shall get salvation?"

"All right, I shall ask."

When Narada Muni met Narayana, after finishing his business he asked the two men's question.

Narayana said, "The cobbler will get his salvation after finishing this life, and the brahmana will have to wait for many, many births."

Narada Muni thought, "How is that possible?"

Narayana said, "When you meet them again, if they inquire, 'What was my Lord doing?' say, 'He was pulling an elephant through the eye of a needle.'"

When Narada came back, first of all he met the brahmana, who asked, "Did you inquire about me, sir?"

"Yes, yes. He said that you have to wait many, many births."

The brahmana asked, "What was Narayana doing when you met Him?"

"I saw that He was pulling an elephant through the eye of a needle."

The brahmana immediately said, "Sir, I cannot believe such a story."

The cobbler asked Narada Muni the same question, and he replied in the same way.

The cobbler began to cry.

"Oh, my Lord is so powerful!" he said. "He can do anything."

Narada Muni asked, "How can you believe that an elephant is being drawn through the eye of a needle?"

"Why not?" the cobbler replied. "I am sitting under this banyan tree, and every day I see that inside the banyan fruit are thousands of seeds, and I know that each seed contains a big tree like this one."

That's a fact. Krsna says, bijam mam sarva-bhutanam: "I am the original seed of all existences." (Bhagavad-gita 7.10) The beginning of everything is the Supreme Lord. That is stated in the Vedanta-sutra, janmady asya yatah: "[the Absolute Truth] is that from which everything comes." You cannot say that life has come from matter. That is not possible. Krsna says bijam mam sarva-bhutanam: Krsna is the original source of anything that has come into existence. Krsna is life; He's not dead stone. Therefore the conclusion is that from life, life and matter have come. Not that life has come from matter. That is not the conclusion.

The Source of Perfect Knowledge

If we require perfect knowledge, then we have to accept knowledge in this way. It is called avaroha-pantha, the descending or deductive process. In our Krsna consciousness movement we claim we have perfect knowledge of everything because we take knowledge from the perfect person: Krsna. That is the real process.

If you want to study whether man is mortal or immortal, there are two processes. With the deductive process, you take the idea from a superior person that man is mortal. If you accept, then your knowledge is perfect. But if you want to approach the knowledge by the inductive process, by studying whether each man is mortal or immortal, you may study a thousand, two thousand, five thousand, but you cannot study all men. Your conclusion remains always defective. Therefore the best process is to receive knowledge from the authorized person. Actually, we do that. We go to school, we go to college, to receive knowledge from the superior person. That is our process to receive perfect knowledge.

You cannot manufacture knowledge. Real knowledge of everything can be had from the Bhagavad-gita. Study it nicely; it is very easy and perfect.

Lord Krsna says,

sarva-yonisu kaunteya murtayah sambhavanti yah tasam brahma mahad yonir aham bija-pradah pita

"It should be understood that all species of life, O son of Kunti, are made possible by birth in this material nature, and that I am the seed-giving father. (Bhagavad-gita 14.4) The father gives the seed in the womb of the mother, and the child comes out. Similarly, the original seed-giving father of all living entities is Krsna. Therefore Krsna is international, or inter-universal. Krsna is not a Hindu or an Indian or this or that. Krsna is for everyone. I have explained to my foreign students—American, European, African, and others: "Krsna is for everyone. Don't take it that Krsna is for the Hindus, for the Indians, or for the brahmanas or the ksatriyas. No. Krsna is for everyone." Therefore our society's name is "Krishna Consciousness."

The Original Father

Our only request is "Take Krsna as the original father." It is very easy to understand. I have my father, my father has his father, who has his father, and so on. But who is the original father? The original father is Krsna. Aham bija-pradah pita.

Where is the difficulty to understand this? There must be an original father. If you go on researching who is the original father, then you'll come to the conclusion that Krsna is the original father.

isvarah paramah Krsnah sac-cid-ananda-vigrahah anadir adir govindah sarva-karana-karanam

"Krsna, who is known as Govinda, is the Supreme Godhead. He has an eternal blissful spiritual body. He is the origin of all. He has no other origin, and He is the prime cause of all causes." (Brahma-saṁhitā 5.1)

This is the Vedic version. Father's father, his father, his father—you go on and on and you come to Brahma, who is considered the forefather or grandfather, pitamaha. But Krsna is addressed in the Bhagavad-gita as prapitamaha, the father of Brahma.

Those who are conversant with the sastra, or Vedic scriptures, know that another name for Brahma is Svayambhu, "self-born," because he's not born of any material father and mother. He's born on the lotus sprouted from the navel of Garbhodakasayi Visnu. Brahma is an authority because he was first educated about the Vedic knowledge by Krsna, or Visnu. Tene brahma hrda ya adi-kavaye muhyanti yat surayah (Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.1.1). Brahma here means "Vedic knowledge," tene means "imparted," adi-kavaye means "unto the original learned person" in this universe, and muhyanti yat surayah means that even big, big personalities become bewildered when trying to understand Krsna. Therefore Krsna says, as we have already discussed,

manusyanam sahasresu kascid yatati siddhaye yatatam api siddhanam kascin mam vetti tattvatah

"Out of many thousands among men, one may endeavor for perfection, and of those who have achieved perfection, hardly one knows Me in truth." (Bhagavad-gita 7.3)

Krsna is the Supreme Person and the original source of everything. Therefore Arjuna accepted Krsna’s teachings: "My dear Krsna, whatever You are saying I accept in toto, not deducting, not giving my own commentary." That is the way to study Bhagavad-gita.

If you study Bhagavad-gita as it is, and if you accept it, then your life is successful. Otherwise, you'll never understand God or the ultimate source, the Absolute Truth.

Spread Krsna’s Teachings

The Bhagavad-gita is the essence of all Vedic literature because, after all, the purpose of Vedic study is to understand Krsna, the Absolute Truth, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Vedais ca sarvair aham eva vedyah: "By all the Vedas I am to be known." (Bhagavad-gita 15.15). The Supreme Personality Himself is giving knowledge of the Supreme. Therefore we are preaching Bhagavad-gita as it is, or Krsna consciousness. And the easiest method to attain Krsna consciousness is to chant Krsna’s name. That is recommended in the sastra. We have not manufactured the idea.

When Maharaja Pariksit learned all the defects of this age, Kali-yuga, he was a little disappointed. He asked, "How will human beings be relieved from the miserable condition of materialistic life in this Age of Kali?"

It is stated in the sastra that in Kali-yuga the government will be all mlecchas, uncivilized persons, not ksatriyas, or rulers trained in spiritual principles. Mlecchas will take government posts, and their business will be to devour the citizens, who will feel so harassed that they will give up their home and hearth and go to the forest.

That time is coming. If there are no such divisions as brahmana, ksatriya, vaisya, and sudra, that is animal civilization.

Social, political, economic—all solutions are there in the Bhagavad-gita. The Bhagavad-gita is the property of Indians—it was spoken in India—and it was desired that all Indians should learn it and spread the knowledge all over the world, But unfortunately, the rascals are doing nothing. Caitanya Mahaprabhu ordered,

bharata-bhumite haila manusya-janma yara janma sarthaka kari’ kara para-upakara

“One who has taken his birth as a human being in the land of India [Bharata-varsa] should make his life successful and work for the benefit of all other people." (Caitanya-caritamrta, Adi-lila 9.41). Bhagavad-gita is for the perfect human being. The other parts of the world are in darkness. So there is great need to spread the knowledge of Bhagavad-gita all over the world. The customers are ready. If you want to glorify India, if you want to glorify your life, just study Bhagavad-gita as it is and spread it all over the world. You'll be honored.

People think that whatever I have done singlehandedly is wonderful. If many, many persons go outside India and preach this gospel of Bhagavad-gita, those who receive it will be benefitted and those who preach will be glorified. Your country will be glorified. The message of Bhagavad-gita is a fact; it is not a story.

People are fed up with this wrong type of civilization. It is not civilization. We have been warned in the Srimad-Bhagavatam (5.5.4):

nunam pramattah kurute vikarma yad indriya-pritaya aprnoti na sadhu manye yata atmano ’yam asann api klesada asa dehah

"When a person considers sense gratification the aim of life, he certainly becomes mad after materialistic living and engages in all kinds of sinful activity. He does not know that due to his past misdeeds he has already received a body which, although temporary, is the cause of his misery. Actually the living entity should not have taken on a material body, but he has been awarded the material body for sense gratification. Therefore I think it not befitting an intelligent man to involve himself again in the activities of sense gratification by which he perpetually gets material bodies one after another."

According to Vedic principles, at least the brahmanas and leaders should avoid four kinds of sinful activity: meat-eating, illicit sex, gambling, and intoxication. But practically everyone is addicted to these sinful activities. Therefore they are mad, pramattah. These are forbidden in the sastra, and people are doing them. Why? Because they are mad. Why are they are so mad? Yad indriya-pritaya aprnoti: "Simply for sense gratification." That's all. Not for anything big but to satisfy the senses.

"Oh, oh, my tongue is asking for a cigarette, asking for wine. All right, give the tongue wine."

Why? Without a cigarette, without wine, shall you die?

"I want to satisfy my tongue."

Why are meat-eating, illicit sex, intoxication, and gambling considered sinful? Because they force the atma, or soul, to accept another body, which is the source of misery. People have lost their brain. They do not know what is actual unhappiness; they do not know what a miserable condition they are in. They are like animals that do not know what is going on when they enter the slaughterhouse: "All right, let me go." That's all.

This kind of civilization will not make you happy. You have been born in the punya-bhumi, in the sacred land of Bharata-varsa. Here is your knowledge. Take it and be successful in your life.

Thank you very much.