The animals, they cannot take nice instruction. They do not know that the soul is, they are spirit soul. They are not this body. They do not know. So this is called illusion. I am accepting this body as self. I am accepting my father or my son... "Here is my son." What is that? "This body." Now, when the son is dead, he is crying, "My son is gone. My son is gone. Oh, my son, were you have gone?" Well, why you are crying? Here is your son. Here is your son, lying on the floor. Why you are crying that "My son is gone, gone, gone"? "No, no, no. My son is gone." This is illusion. He was all along illusioned to accept this body as his son. But at the time of death, he can understand that "The body was not my son. The son was a different thing which was within the body." So this is conditional life. Everyone is thinking, "I am this body." Everyone is committing mistake. Illusion and mistake.
Crying (SB Lectures)
Lectures
Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures
The Brahmā has said. And we see, "Yes. He is God. He is lifting hill. He is killing Pūtanā at the age of three months old only. A seven years old boy is lifting hill." So God must execute uncommon acts; otherwise, how shall I accept God if He's like me? Kṛṣṇa devoured the whole forest fire. His friends appealed, "My dear Kṛṣṇa, there is fire." The cows were crying. Kṛṣṇa said, "Don't worry." Boy of six years old. So that is God. We accept Rāmacandra as God. He brought big, big stones and floated over the ocean. Does a stone float over the ocean? Yes, it floats under the order of God. He can do it. The law of gravitation will not act there. He can change. You can see. Million tons heavy, this earth, so many hills, and Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean. It is floating in the air just like a swab of cotton. You are explaining "weightlessness," but that's all right. But you float such thing. You can say so many things.
As dream has no fact, it is all hallucination, similarly our detachment from Kṛṣṇa is also a hallucination. Actually, there is no detachment. And when we are covered by this hallucination... Just like in dream we cry, "Oh, here is a tiger! Here is a tiger!" Tiger. Where is tiger? Similarly, this forgetfulness of Kṛṣṇa is like that. So if we simply follow the rules and regulations given by the great ācāryas, then immediately we can revive our Kṛṣṇa consciousness. It doesn't take even second. The method...(?) Just like you are dreaming, crying, "There is tiger, tiger." And if somebody pushes you, "Why you are doing that?" And if you immediately become awake "Oh! All tiger finished." (laughter) "All tiger finished." So one has to give the push that "There is no tiger." Then immediately the whole hallucination will go.
Now these medical students, they do not believe in these mantras. They were surprised. They think that snakebite means finished, there is no medicine. So they were very much, because they were students, very much inquisitive. They went to that charmer at his place and wanted to know from him what is the secret, is it a fact that mantra... So he said, "All right, I shall show you." So he opened one box, and several hundred snakes immediately came out. And all the students, they became so disturbed. Some were crying, some were this way, that way... (laughter) Yes. And the charmer said, "Don't be worried. So long I am here they will not bite. And don't think that these snakes are without poison teeth." He took some of them and showed that "Here is a poison teeth. Not that the poison teeth has been taken away. The poison teeth is there. But by our mantra, we subdue it. He cannot do any harm." So the doctor students, medical students inquired that, "Can we not use this mantra?" Said, "No. You cannot."
New Vrindaban, September 1, 1972
Prabhupāda:
- iti sampraśna saṁhṛṣṭo
- viprāṇāṁ raumaharṣaṇiḥ
- pratipūjya vacas teṣāṁ
- pravaktum upacakrame
- (SB 1.2.1)
These are Sanskrit verses. I know most of you are not conversant with this language, but the significance is that simply by vibration (children crying—aside:) They should leave.
Pradyumna: People who have young children, perhaps they could take them away when the lecture is going on so they don't make noise and disturb people from hearing.
Prabhupāda: So simply by vibration the atmosphere will be cleansed and purified. Just like when there is thundering sound in the sky, it does not require to understand by any particular language. That very vibration And the origin of creation is sound.
Pradyumna: Translation: "Śrīla Sūta Gosvāmī said: Let me offer my respectful obeisances unto that great sage, Śukadeva Gosvāmī, who can enter the hearts of all. When he went away to take up the renounced order of life (sannyāsa), leaving home without undergoing the sacred thread ceremony, his father, Vyāsadeva, cried out to him, 'Oh my son!' Indeed, only the trees echoed in response to the begrieved father." (SB 1.2.2)
Prabhupāda: So the question raised by the sages and saintly persons in Naimiṣāraṇya was, "After departure of Kṛṣṇa, unto whom the charge of religious principle depended?" So Sūta Gosvāmī, who is a disciple of Śukadeva Gosvāmī... Śukadeva Gosvāmī is his spiritual master. Therefore it is the etiquette, before speaking anything, the disciple should first of all offer respect to the spiritual master.
So na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ prapadyante narādhamāḥ. Human life is meant for understanding what is God, what is my relationship with Him. And when he understands the relationship is there, "God is great, I am very small..." No. The rascal says, "No, I am God." And what, in which way you become God? God is great. Are you great? If I give you any slap, you immediately cry, and you're claiming God? You see. But these rascals are doing nicely, and fools are following, "Here is a God, incarnation of God." You see? So God is not so cheap. God..., our conception of God... Just like Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is so powerful. It is stated in the Vedic literature: Yasyaika-niśvasita-kālam athāvalambya jīvanti loma-vilajā jagad-aṇḍa-nāthāḥ (Bs. 5.48). Simply by the breathing of Mahā-Viṣṇu, innumerable... Just like we exhale and inhale and so many small microbes, germs, are coming out and going. This is a fact, medical science. Similarly, as microbes are coming and going, similarly, with the breathing of Mahā-Viṣṇu so many universes are coming and going. That is God. God, who can create unlimited number of universes simply by breathing. That is God. (aside:) Don't sleep. You can... So here, na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ prapadyante narādhamāḥ (BG 7.15).
Nitāi: (leads chanting, etc.)
- sūta uvāca
- yaṁ pravrajantam anupetam apeta-kṛtyaṁ
- dvaipāyano viraha-kātara ājuhāva
- putreti tan-mayatayā taravo 'bhinedus
- taṁ sarva-bhūta-hṛdayaṁ munim ānato 'smi
- (SB 1.2.2)
"Śrīla Sūta Gosvāmī said: Let me offer my respectful obeisances unto that great sage, Śukadeva Gosvāmī, who can enter the hearts of all. When he went away to take up the renounced order of life, sannyāsa, leaving aside home without undergoing the sacred thread ceremony, his father, Vyāsadeva, cried out to him, 'O my son!' Indeed, only the trees echoed in response to the begrieved father."
Prabhupāda: Yaṁ pravrajantam. Pravrajantam means to leave home in renounced order of life. That is called pravrajantam. Therefore a sannyāsī is called parivrājakācārya. A sannyāsī is supposed to be wandering without any shelter. That is called pravrajya. So Śukadeva Gosvāmī, he remained sixteen years within the womb of his mother. He did not come out. He was hearing his father within the womb. So this is called paramahaṁsa. So a paramahaṁsa does not require any reformatory process, because they are already reformed. Yaṁ pravrajantam anupetam (SB 1.2.2). Anu. Ana means without.
There are number of Muhammadans, they protested that "India is going to be independent, but we do not wish to participate with the Hindus. We must be separate." Why? Because they have got a bad experience that the Hindus did not treat them very well. Did not... Even śūdra. In South India, it was the process, so bad process. If śūdra is passing on the street, he has to cry, "I am a śūdra passing on the street. Please close your door." The brāhmaṇas would close the door so that they may not even see a śūdra. Then everything will be spoiled, their food grains and everything. They will close. You see. Now the result is that South India, the Communists Communists means the so-called low-class people, śūdras and caṇḍālas, they are now in majority. They have formed a government that on principle, as soon as some brāhmaṇa comes for government service, he will reject. So the brāhmaṇas are now hiding themselves, that he is brāhmaṇa, because he cannot get any job. (laughter) This is the position.
So our materialistic way of life is described as gṛha andha-kūpam. The family life is just like a dark well. We are already in the darkness, and another darkness is to fall in the dark well. If one falls down in the dark well, it is very difficult to get out because he may cry very loudly and people may not hear. These dark well are sometimes there in the paddy field. I have seen one dark well. In your country when I was guest in John Lennon's house in 1969 we saw in the garden there was a dark well. Dark well means a very deep ditch, well, but it is covered with grass. You cannot know that there is a deep well, but while walking, you may fall down within it. And it is already covered with grass, and it is very deep. If you fall down and you try to get out of it, because it is lonely place, nobody is there, nobody may hear you, and you may simply die without any help.
So your seeing power is so dependent, and you are so much proud that you can see. Just see how much the whole world is full of rascals! Do they not say, "We have not seen God"? And what you can see? You cannot see even yourself, and what you will see God? You are seeing your father and mother, and when they die, you are crying, "Oh, my father has gone." Where he has gone? He is lying here. Why do you say, "My father has gone?" "No, he has gone." What do you mean by gone? You have always seen the body of the father. That is lying here. Why do you say? That means you have never seen your father. You have never seen your brother.
That is the fact. At the present moment also, there is advancement of education-many universities, many technological institutes, economic development. In your America there is everything sufficient, but still, people are unhappy. They are becoming hippies. Why? Because there is no knowledge about God. This is the only cause. This is the only cause. Every one of us is part and parcel of God, so our real hankering is God. Just like child, baby, is the part and parcel of the mother, and when the child is unhappy, nothing can satisfy the child except when he is put on the lap of his mother. He is crying, everybody is trying to pacify him, but the child is going on, crying, crying. But as soon as you put him on the lap of his mother and the mother takes on his (her) breast, the child is immediately happy. Similarly, we are all children of God. We are making so many plans to become happy independently, without God. That is not possible. That is not possible. Therefore there is great necessity of understanding God at the present moment. Therefore this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is started.
"Every second is appearing to be a long duration of time." Everyone, you have got experience. If you love somebody and if you are expecting your lover, every moment you think, "Oh, it is full one day." You see. This is due to love. Caitanya Mahāprabhu says that yugāyitaṁ nimeṣeṇa. Nimeṣa means a moment. "My dear Govinda, Kṛṣṇa, a moment is appearing to Me as long as twelve years." Yugāyitaṁ nimeṣeṇa cakṣuṣā prāvṛṣāyitam: "And My tears pouring water just like torrents of rain." That means He's crying, "Hā Kṛṣṇa, I could not see You." Yugāyitaṁ nimeṣeṇa cakṣuṣā prāvṛṣāyitaṁ śūnyāyitaṁ jagat sarvam: "Oh, I see the whole world void and vacant." You see. He does not see anything. He sees everything void. Just like if you have lost anything beloved, you don't see anything; you see everything is gone. So śūnyāyitaṁ ja... How? Why? Govinda-viraheṇa me. Viraha means separation. "On account of separation." So this should be the only cause, that you cannot tolerate the separation of Govinda. That is love.
So that we may come to our sense, if there is any possibility of making a solution of this miserable condition of life... But we are so callous, just like animals. They do not know. The animals are kept in the room for being slaughtered. They do not know. They are eating grass and very happy. Not happy. Some of them know that "We are going to be killed." They cry. But there is no escape. What can be done? But human life is not like animals. They must know that "We are in threefold miserable condition of life, adhyātmika, adhibhautika, adhidaivika. And we do not want these all miserable condition. We want to be happy. We want to be peaceful.
Therefore a special word is used there: bhaktyā. And in the Bhagavad-gītā Kṛṣṇa also says, "Not by yoga system or by jñāna system or by karma system, but bhaktyā mām abhijānāti yāvān yaś cāsmi tattvataḥ (BG 18.55)." This tattvataḥ means the tattva-jñāna. Bhaktyā. And what kind of bhakti? Not that simply I sit I sit down and cry a little, I practice how to cry, sentiment. No. Śruta-gṛhītayā: understanding about the Absolute Truth from Vedic knowledge. That is bhakti. That is real bhakti. Sentiment is not bhakti—I stand and I practice how to cry: "Oh, this man cries always." No. Of course, crying is there, just like Caitanya Mahāprabhu used to cry. But that stage is very, very high. It is not possible. You are crying, but next moment you are engaged in ordinary thing, that crying is artificial. One who can cry for Kṛṣṇa, he becomes mad, just like Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Govinda-viraheṇa me. Śūnyāyitaṁ jagat-sarvaṁ govinda-viraheṇa me. He says, crying, "Everything is now over. There is I cannot see Kṛṣṇa." So that crying is different crying. Not that in the meeting I cry, and, next moment, I am now dry, "I want this, I want that..." But that not crying. Cakṣuṣā prāvṛṣāyitam śunyāyitaṁ jagat-sarvaṁ govinda-viraheṇa. Caitanya cakṣuṣā prāvṛṣāyitam, just like torrents of rain falls from the sky, so govinda-viraheṇa, on account of separation from Govinda, cakṣuṣā prāvṛṣāyitam, śunyāyitaṁ jagat sarvaṁ govinda-viraheṇa.
Just like Dhruva Mahārāja. Dhruva Mahārāja was a young boy, he was insulted by his stepmother. Son of a kṣatriya, they were very proud family, even a five-year-old boy could not tolerate the insult. A kṣatriya cannot tolerate insult, immediately sword. Not that nonviolence. Nonviolence is not for kṣatriya. Therefore it is said, varṇāśrama-vibhāgaśaḥ—you cannot stop violence. There must be violence, but kṣatriyas, they know how to use violence. That is different thing. So he was insulted and he went to his mother, "Stepmother has insulted me like this," he began to cry in front of his mother. She said,"How can I help you, my dear boy? Your father does not care for me, even like the maidservants." So he was determined to retaliate. So his mother advised, that "If you can meet Kṛṣṇa, or God, He can help you." "Where is God?" "Yes, I have heard that people go to the forest to search out God." This is eagerness.
When one is situated in his own spiritual consciousness, then he will have no hankering and no lamentation, lamentation for loss or hankering for gain." Two things are going on in this material world. The things which we do not possess, we hanker after it: "If I get these things, I'll be happy. If I get these things... Oh, I have no money. If I get one hundred thousand millions dollars, then I'll be happy." This is hankering. And when one hundred thousand million dollars you have got... Some way or other, it is lost, oh, you cry, "Oh, I am gone." So either for earning or we hanker, that is also a kind of distress, and when we suffer loss there is distress. But if you are situated in brahma-bhūtaḥ avasthāna, you'll be neither, neither distressed, nor hankering. You'll be in equilibrium. Yasmin sthite guruṇāpi duhkhena na vicālyate (Bg. 6.20-23). Even if you are situated in the midst of fiery tribulation, you'll not be disturbed. That is the position.
So the next stage is brahma-bhūta (SB 4.30.20). So brahma-bhūta stage means na śocati na kāṅkṣati. No more hankering, no more demanding. Na śocati na kāṅkṣati. Because here the business is we hanker after something which we do not possess, and if we lose something which we possessed, then we lament. This is our business. Some... First of all, we possess. Then, by nature, we lose it. When it is lost, then we cry. So these two things are material position, na śocati... But when you come to the brahma-bhūta stage, spiritual platform, then these two things will be absent. Na śocati na kāṅkṣati samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu. Then you will be able to see everyone on the spiritual platform. Paṇḍitāḥ sama-darśinaḥ (BG 5.18). Then you are learned.
Here is, also it is stated that sthitaṁ sattve prasīdati. Everyone is hankering after how to be peaceful in mind. Everyone. Everyone says, "Swamiji, kindly say how I can get peace of mind." The peace of mind, how it can be attained is stated here: sthitaṁ sattve prasīdati. If you fix up in sattva-guṇa, not in the rajo-guṇa, tamo-guṇa. Tamo-guṇa is the life of the karmīs. Tamo-guṇa and rajo-guṇa. Or rajo-guṇa is actually karmīs, and sattva-guṇa is the life of jñānīs. And after coming to the sattva-guṇa, being peaceful in mind, that is called... (baby crying-pause) ...brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā (BG 18.54). You have to come to the platform of sattva-guṇa. Then you'll be prasannātmā.
That is the best thing. One is rotting in this family life, which is just like a blind well, andha-kūpa, ātma-pātam. Just like a man falls in the blind well. He has no other alternative than to die, crying, crying. That's all. So he advises, hitvā, "Just give it up." Hitvātma-pātam andha-kūpam, gṛham andha-kūpam. Then where shall I go? Vanaṁ gataḥ. Vanaṁ gataḥ. Vanaṁ gataḥ, "Go to Vṛndāvana, or in the forest." Then how shall I live? No, harim āśrayeta: "Just take shelter of Kṛṣṇa, Hari. He'll give you protection." This is the instruction of Prahlāda Mahārāja.
So that is the standard of highest perfection. If you do not die, if you do not take birth... If you know what are the miserable conditions of birth, to remain within the womb of the mother... Not only to remain. Nowadays, modern advanced civilization, they are being killed by the mother. Not only abortion, but they are being killed. Now the Western world is very familiar with these things. So just imagine. First of all, you have to remain within the mother's womb, head down, packed-up condition. You cannot move, ten months. And that is also not secure. Even within the... Now this is the... Within the mother's womb you are not secure. At any moment the doctor may advise that "Kill the child." So these are the miserable condition of birth, but we do not remember them. We have to know it from the śāstra. So similarly, at the time of death, coma and... Nowadays it is a very common disease. For seven days or fifteen days he's unconscious, crying.
She's always anxious to see Kṛṣṇa. But Kṛṣṇa does not come. Just like Kṛṣṇa left all the gopīs, immediately went to Mathurā. Renouncement. So much love with the gopīs, and He could renounce immediately. This is one of the qualifications of God. Aiśvaryasya samagrasya vīryasya yaśasaḥ śriyaḥ (Viṣṇu Purāṇa 6.5.47), jñāna-vairāgyam. Vairāgya. Kṛṣṇa was so much attached to the gopīs, so much, but when it was necessary, He left all of them in Vṛndāvana and went to Mathurā for killing Kaṁsa. That is God, renouncement. So these gopīs remained simply crying for all the life, rest of their life. That is pure devotion. Marma-hatām, broken-hearted. Kṛṣṇa made them broken-hearted. "Never mind. We shall remain broken-hearted, crying all the life. You do Your business." That is love of Kṛṣṇa. That is love of Kṛṣṇa.
This body is supposed to be the tree, and the heart is supposed to be the nest. And in the nest, as there are two birds, similarly, there is one bird, the living entity, individual, and the Supersoul, both. One is eating the fruit; the other is simply observing, witnessing. Anumantā upadraṣṭā. Anumantā means "giving order." Just like a child wants to take something, but he also depends on the order of the father. The child is insisting: "Father, I want this." Father says, "No, you don't take it." "I shall touch it. I shall touch the fire." Father says, "No, don't touch it." But he's insisting and crying, so father says, "All right, you touch." Similarly, we create our own fortune and misfortune. Ye yathā māṁ prapadyante tāṁs tathaiva bhajāmy aham (BG 4.11). So the father wants us to do something else, but we want to do something else against the wish of the father.
Suppose a foolish boy is trying to touch fire. Father says, "Don't do it." In spite of that, if the foolish boy does it, his hand is burned. So father is not responsible. He says, "Don't do it." But the child does it out of ignorance and suffers. Similarly the sanction of God is there as we persist on it. "I want this. I want this." As a child sometimes cries and the mother is obliged to sanction, similarly, God is very kind. If we persist on doing something, He gives us sanction. But the result you have to suffer or enjoy.
So if a boy is taught... Just like our these children are being taught chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. They are chanting. They cannot forget throughout life. Similarly, if a brahmacārī is taught from childhood, from boyhood address all woman as "mother," he cannot see otherwise. "S(he) is my mother." I remember, it is an example. Long ago, say, in 1925, long ago, so we were in a cinema house. So my eldest son, as soon as he would see one woman in the picture, "Here is another mother! Here is another mother!" (laughter) he would cry. Because a small child, he does not know any woman except mother. He knows everyone as "my mother." So if we train from the childhood that "You should treat all woman as mother," then where is the question of anomalies? No. There is no question.
So Śukrācārya. Śukrācārya, he was very learned scholar. He knew everything, that "Here Vāmanadeva, He is incarnation of Viṣṇu. He has come to cheat Bali. He will ask something and then He will take everything from Bali." He knew it. So sometimes cheating also done by the Supreme Lord for the sake of the devotee. So this is not cheating. Just like father sometimes cheats a son. Suppose something is there, and two brothers, small children, they are fighting. One has taken, another is crying. So the one will not deliver to the other. So father says, "My dear child, will you kindly give me this." So he gives to the father and he delivers to the other child. (laughter) You see? So sometimes God has to do such cheating of affection. That is not cheating actually. But the cheating propensity is there in God.
Happiness can be attained when you come to God—because you are part and parcel of God. The same example. A little child is crying. Nobody could pacify it. As soon as the child is put on the breast of the mother, immediately happy. Because the child is the part and parcel of the mother. And immediately he understands that "Now I have come to safe, my mother." Immediately happy. This is practical. Similarly, we are all part and parcel of God, Viṣṇu. So unless we come to Kṛṣṇa or Viṣṇu—Kṛṣṇa is Viṣṇu there is no happiness. It is not possible. It is not possible. But the rascals, they do not know. They are trying to become happy by so-called scientific advancement. What is this science? Ātyantika-duḥkha-nivṛtti. The aim of life is to come to the platform of happiness, where there is no distress at all, simply happiness. That is our aim. There cannot be any distress. Only happiness. Ānandamayo 'bhyāsāt (Vedānta-sūtra 1.1.12).
So you see so many pictures of Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is playing with His cowherd boys; Kṛṣṇa dancing with His girlfriends, gopīs; Kṛṣṇa is stealing butter; Kṛṣṇa is doing so many—simply happiness, simply happiness. You won't find Kṛṣṇa is morose and sitting or crying. (laughter)
That one point is here to see, that a child of a brāhmaṇa, a son of a brāhmaṇa, was so powerful that he could curse a great king like Mahārāja Parīkṣit that "You have insulted my father. So that snake will bite you within seven days, and you will die." This was the version. Now the boy came back home and saw the father was garlanded with the dead snake, and he began to cry, began to cry. He felt so much that his father was insulted. His father was brāhmaṇa. He was brāhmaṇa. "Oh, brāhmaṇa has been insulted by the kṣatriya?" So he felt too much. He began to cry. So by his crying, that hermitage came to his senses and asked the boy, "Why you are crying?" "Oh, father, you do not know. You have been insulted by the king in this way, and I have cursed him." Oh, his father became astonished. "Oh, you have cursed Mahārāja Parīkṣit? Oh, you have done the greatest blunder. Oh, such a nice king. Depending on him, the subject, the citizens, are sleeping very peacefully. There is no danger. And you have cursed him?" Oh, he became very much sorry. And that description is there. Next day we shall explain how he was sorry. But after all, the cursing was already there.
I am speaking from bodily consideration, that I am, in here, in your country, I am very comfortably situated. The boys are taking care of me very seriously. But still, sometimes I think that I am, I was happy in Vṛndāvana. Similarly, if you are transferred to some other foreign country, however comfortably you may be situated, you'll think of your own country. This is natural. Therefore we are seeking after spiritual happiness actually. Just like the child. Child is crying. The child is crying, and the mother is trying to pacify the child in so many ways, but the child is still crying because it wants something else. The child wants mother's milk. So unless the mother is supplying that thing, it is not satisfied. Similarly, our demand is spiritual happiness. Our demand is spiritual happiness.
That is the mistake of the present civilization. Yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke (SB 10.84.13). Ātma-buddhi, "self." People, everyone thinks that this body, "I am this body." If I ask any gentleman, "What you are?" He'll say, "I am Mr. Such-and-such. I am born in this country," "I am American," "I am Englishman," "I am Indian." These are all bodily description. But basically I am not this body. This is called illusion. You have got practical experience. When one man's father or son or any relative dies, he cries, "Oh, my son has gone away," "My father has gone away." Then, "Your father is lying there on the bed. How do you say that 'My father has gone away'? " That means the actual father, he has never seen. He has seen the body only. And on this bodily conception of life, everything is being manipulated. This is called illusion.
So he said, "Sir, what can I say? My spiritual master asked me to read every day Bhagavad-gītā, so many chapters, but I am illiterate. I cannot read. Therefore I have taken the book, simply seeing. That's all. What can I do?" "But I see you are sometimes crying. You must be reading. Otherwise, how you are feeling and you are crying?" "Yes, I am feeling. That's a fact." "How, what is that?" "Now, as soon as I take this book, Bhagavad-gītā, the picture of Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna comes before me. I see that both Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna are sitting on the chariot, and Kṛṣṇa is instructing Bhagavad-gītā. So I am appreciating how Lord is kind, that He has accepted the charioteer, to become a charioteer of His devotee. He's so kind. So when I feel this, that 'Kṛṣṇa is so kind that He become the servant of His servant,' that feeling gives me some ecstasy, and I cry." Caitanya Mahāprabhu immediately embraced him. "Your Bhagavad-gītā reading is perfect."
So Nārada Muni is advising Vyāsadeva, tasyaiva hetoḥ prayateta kovidaḥ. Kovida means intelligent, expert. One who knows things as they are, he's called kovida. So one who is intelligent, he should try to achieve that thing which is not available—na labhyate yad bhramatām upary adhaḥ—which is not available even by wandering up and down. This we have already explained in the last meeting, that according to our karma, we are being sometimes elevated to the very high position, and sometimes we are being degraded to become an insignificant creature like ant. This is going on. (baby crying in background) (aside:) This boy... She, she can go to the... Yes. This is very disturbing child.
So our whole program is that Kṛṣṇa is very kind, always kind upon us, but we have to become little willing to take Kṛṣṇa's favor. That... What is the example? My Guru Mahārāja used to give a very nice example. I remember. Just like here is a well. Somebody has fallen down; he's crying, "Please get me out! Get me out! Get me out!" Now, if somebody drops a, a, I mean to, tight, strong rope and asks him, "All right, you catch this rope tightly. I'll get you out," and if he says, "No, that I cannot do," then how he'll be saved? That much endeavor he must have, to catch the rope. Then he'll be lifted immediately.
So especially pig, pig-eater. Still you'll find in villages, the sweeper class, they capture one pig. They maintain the pigs. They sell as well as they eat. So the living pig they burn into fire. Still, publicly. And it cries like anything, but they are allowed. Publicly they do that. So caṇḍāla-veśmani. That is very polluted, sinful place, but that does not mean that the moonlight is refused there. Moonlight is not refused. Because it is the house of a caṇḍāla, therefore moon does not consider that he should be refused, or sunlight is refused there. No. Sunlight is equally distributed. Na hi harate jyotsnaṁ candraś caṇḍāla-veśmani. Candra means the moon. Similarly, all devotees, or Kṛṣṇa, He's not reluctant. Either devotee, Kṛṣṇa's devotee, or Kṛṣṇa is reluctant to bestow the mercy to anyone. Tulya... That is called tulya-darśanāḥ. The mercy is open for everyone.
They never say he rādhe vraja-devike ca lalite he nanda-sūno kutaḥ. "Oh, where is Rādhārāṇī? Where You are? Where are Your friends, Lalitā and Viśākhā? Where is Nanda, son of Mahārāja Nanda, Kṛṣṇa?" Śrī-govardhana-kalpa-pādapa-tale kālindī-vane kutaḥ. "Where are You? Are You near the Govardhana Hill or in the forest on the bank of the Yamunā?" Ghoṣantāv iti khedair mahā-vihvalau. They are crying, "Where is Kṛṣṇa? Where is Kṛṣṇa? Where is Rādhārāṇī? Where is...?" They're crying ghoṣantāv iti sarvato vraja-pure khedair mahā-vihvalau. Mad... Mad after... Vande rūpa-sanātanau raghu-yugau śrī-jīva-gopālakau. This is the process of kṛṣṇa-bhajana. Not that "I've seen just last night Kṛṣṇa dancing with the gopīs." It is not so easy.
This is very significant. Yantrārūḍhāni māyayā. We are riding on a machine. This body is a machine, but we are accepting machine as myself. This is called sammohita, bewildered. If you are running on a car, if you think, "I am the car," as it is foolishness, similarly, I have got this yantra, machine, body, and it is running on on account of my presence, or I am driving, or Kṛṣṇa is giving me intelligence how to drive, but if I identify myself with this body, exactly like a foolish man—he is driving the car, and if he identifies himself with the car, he is a foolish man—so this is called sammohita. Yayā sammohito jīva. Therefore the example, as I was citing last night, that we do not see the driver, and when the driver goes away, then we see that the car is not moving, and then I can understand, "Oh, the driver, my father, or my son, has gone away." We sometimes cry, "My father has gone away," or "My son has gone away," but because we are sammohita, we actually never saw the father or the son. We accepted this coat-pant body as father and son. This is called sammoha, bewildered.
That madness wanted. Yugāyitaṁ nimeṣeṇa: one moment appears to be one yuga. One yuga means twelve years. So yugāyitaṁ nimeṣeṇa cakṣuṣā prāvṛṣāyitam. Crying. There is tears in the eyes like the torrents of rain. Yugāyitaṁ nimeṣeṇa cakṣuṣā... Śūnyāyitaṁ jagat sarvam. "I feel the whole world is vacant." Why? Govinda-viraheṇa me. This madness is wanted. Without Govinda, that madness. So that madness (was) fully exhibited in Vṛndāvana by the gopīs. They were mad after Kṛṣṇa. When Kṛṣṇa left Vṛndāvana, went to Mathurā, they became so mad that they had no other business than cakṣuṣā prāvṛṣāyitam, simply crying torrents of rain. That is wanted. That is Vṛndāvana life. Not that seeking after sex in Vṛndāvana.
Pradyumna:
- mātā śiśūnāṁ nidhanaṁ sutānāṁ
- niśamya ghoraṁ paritapyamānā
- tadārudad vāṣpa-kalākulākṣī
- tāṁ sāntvayann āha kirīṭamālī
- (SB 1.7.15)
"Draupadī, the mother of the five children of the Pāṇḍavas, after hearing of the massacre of her sons, began to cry in distress with eyes full of tears. Trying to pacify her in her great loss, Arjuna spoke to her thus."
Prabhupāda:
- mātā śiśūnāṁ nidhanaṁ sutānāṁ
- niśamya ghoraṁ paritapyamānā
- tadārudad vāṣpa-kalākulākṣī
- tāṁ sāntvayann āha kirīṭamālī
- (SB 1.7.15)
So Draupadī's five sons were killed—five sons by five husbands. You know the history of Draupadī. She had five husbands, which is forbidden nowadays. Although in some hilly districts still this system is current, that one woman has got five or six husbands—this practice was there even in high circle—that is now forbidden. Devareṇa sutotpattiṁ kalau pañca vivarjayet. Don't try to imitate Draupadī. That is not allowed in this age.
So when the mother understood that her sons were killed, certainly she was very, very unhappy. Mātā śiśūnāṁ nidhanaṁ sutānāṁ niśamya ghoraṁ paritapyamānā. Lamenting. That is natural. So tadārudad vāṣpa-kalākulākṣī. With tears, she was crying, and tāṁ sāntvayan, pacifying, āha kirīṭamālī. Kirīṭamālī is Arjuna. So they were directly connected with Kṛṣṇa. Draupadī's another name is Kṛṣṇā. And still they had to suffer the material pangs. Not that because one is Kṛṣṇa conscious there will be no material suffering. Actually, those who are Kṛṣṇa conscious, they have no material suffering. Although it appears that they are suffering, they are not suffering. They can accept any so-called suffering and accept it as mercy of Kṛṣṇa.
So this is the movement how to make an adhīra dhīra. Everyone is adhīra. Who is not afraid of death? Who is not afraid of...? Of course, they are too much agnostic, they forget. But there is suffering. We can see how one suffering at the time of death. There are some men dying... Nowadays it has become a very common... Coma. One is lying in the bed for weeks, two weeks, crying. The life is not going. Those who are very, very sinful. So there is great pain at the time of death. There is great pain at the time of birth, and there is pain when you are diseased, and there are so many pains when you're old. The body is not strong. We suffer in so many ways, especially rheumatism and indigestion. Then blood pressure, headache, so many things. Therefore one should be trained up how to become dhīra. These things, disturbances, make us adhīra, and we should be trained up to dhīra. That is spiritual education. One has to know it. Mātrā-sparśās tu kaunteya śītoṣṇa-sukha-duḥkha-dāḥ (BG 2.14). These sufferings, mātrā-sparśāḥ, tan-mātra. On account of the senses, sense perception, we suffer. And the senses are made of material nature. So one has to become above the material nature, then he can become dhīra. Otherwise, one has to remain adhīra. Dhīrādhīra-jana-priyau priya-karau.
Continuously suffering. They are thinking, "We are very happy," but this material world means continuously suffering. So one living entity is dying, and his gross body is left and the subtle body, mind, intelligence, ego, carrying him in another body through the semina of the father to the womb of the mother. Then it is placed, and the body again forms, and when the body is formed, then he comes out. And within the womb of the mother there is so much suffering, we know that. Many times we have discussed. And coming, from the very moment the child is crying, there is inconveniences. So many things he cannot express. In this way, within the womb there is suffering, out of the womb there is suffering. Then growing, child or baby or boy, there are so many sufferings. Then young man—suppose he becomes family man—then earn for the family. That is also suffering.
So... Because every one of us are māyā-mohita-ceta... Māyā-mohita-cetasaḥ. Prahlāda Mahārāja has described, vimukha-cetasaḥ. Māyā-mohita-cetasaḥ means averse to Kṛṣṇa. I want everything except Kṛṣṇa. That is māyā-mohita-cetasaḥ. I want everything, but except Kṛṣṇa. That is my missing point. Because we are rascals, fools, we do not know what we should want. Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇum (SB 7.5.31). He does not know that his actual want is Kṛṣṇa. Just like a small child crying, and we are trying to pacify him, giving this, giving that. But he's crying, crying. Because his actual want is his mother. And as soon the mother comes, takes the child on the lap, immediately he stops. Similarly, we want Kṛṣṇa because we are part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. That we want. Just like a part and parcel of a machine, if it is taken away from the machine, it has no... One screw. Suppose your typewriter machine, one screw is missing, and the machine is not working nicely. So without the machine that one screw has no value.
Teach him that he'll not have sex life more than twice or thrice in life. But no. Tṛpyanti neha kṛpaṇā bahu-duḥkha-bhājaḥ (SB 7.9.45). The sex life is so strong that one has produced one child and he has suffered... The child has to be taken at night, it is crying, and then you have to give him milk, and so on, so on, so on. He has suffered, but he has no sense, "Why again child?" The answer, tṛpyanti neha kṛpaṇā bahu-duḥkha-bhājaḥ. He knows that after this sex life, illegal or legal, there are so much troubles. Therefore a brahmacārī is a very safe life. No trouble. But those who are not trained up, they are suffering. But they do not know how to stop this suffering because he's not trained up as brahmacārī. "All right, make it sterilized." Contraceptive method. Kill the child. More and more and more and more implicated. Bahu-duḥkha-bhājaḥ. He does not know, or she does not know, "By killing the child what a risk I am going to take." Bahu-duḥkha-bhājaḥ. Behind this killing of child so much trouble is there. But he's rascal, he does not know, either the mother or the father.
One hotel man was cutting the throat of one chicken, half-cut, and it was throbbing, jumping. His child was crying because he could not see such horrible thing. And the man, the hotel man, he was laughing and pacifying the child, "Why you are crying? Just see how he's throbbing, how he's jumping." So one subject matter, the rasa is different. Humor is different. He's one, (?) enjoying one rasa, the father, and the child is crying. That is also another rasa. So the whole world is full of rasa. Ādi-rasa. The sex life is called ādi-rasa. There is bībhatsa-rasa, hāsya-rasa, karuṇa-rasa, mādhurya-rasa, vātsalya-rasa, sākhya-rasa, śānta-rasa. There are so many rasas-twelve rasas. Anaya(?) vyatireka, ādi-rasa. So janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura has described this ādi from ādi-rasa. Ādi-rasa means the conjugal love.
So Caitanya Mahāprabhu at noontime went there, but He saw the brāhmaṇa has not cooked anything. There was nothing prepared. And he was crying and reading Rāmāyaṇa. So Caitanya Mahāprabhu inquired, "Brāhmaṇa, why you are in such a depressed condition, you are crying?" "Sir, I am so..." He was in the ecstasy of Hanumān. "Sir, I am so unfortunate that Sītā-devī has been taken by Rāvaṇa and I could not rescue her still." In this way he was puzzled. So he did not cook anything. Then Caitanya Mahāprabhu pacified him. Then he cooked. He could understand that "I invited..." It was done. Then, when he was returning, I forget the name of the Purāṇa... Kūrma Purāṇa. He got evidences that Sītā-devī, when she was supposed to be kidnapped by Rāvaṇa, her a false form was kidnapped, and when Sītā-devī was tested, putting her into the fire, she entered into the fire and the māyā Sītā was burned and the original Sītā came out.
Pradyumna: "My lord, do not make the wife of Droṇācārya cry like me. I am aggrieved for the death of my sons. She need not cry constantly like me.
If the kingly administrative order, being unrestricted in sense control, offends the brāhmaṇa order and enrages them, then the fire of that rage burns up the whole body of the royal family and brings grief upon all."
Prabhupāda:
- mā rodīd asya jananī
- gautamī pati-devatā
- yathāhaṁ mṛta-vatsārtā
- rodimy aśru-mukhī muhuḥ
- (SB 1.7.47)
- yaiḥ kopitaṁ brahma-kulaṁ
- rājanyair ajitātmabhiḥ
- tat kulaṁ pradahaty āśu
- sānubandhaṁ śucārpitam
- (SB 1.7.48)
So, in these two verses the important point is that Draupadī is sympathetic. That is Vaiṣṇava. She is Vaiṣṇavī. This is the attitude of the Vaiṣṇava. Para-duḥkha-duḥkhī. Vaiṣṇava is para-duḥkha-duḥkhī. That is Vaiṣṇava's qualification. He doesn't care for his own personal distresses. But he, a Vaiṣṇava becomes aggrieved, distressed, when other is suffering. That is Vaiṣṇava.
So here it is said alakṣyam. Kṛṣṇa is not visible, God is not visible, but He is so kind that He has come before you, visible to your material eyes. Kṛṣṇa is not visible within this material world, material eyes. Just like Kṛṣṇa's part and parcel. We are Kṛṣṇa's part and parcel, all living entities, but we do not see each other. You cannot see me, I do not see you. "No, I see you." What you see? You see my body. Then, when the soul is gone from the body, why you are crying "My father is gone"? Why father is gone? Father is lying here. Then what you have seen? You have seen the dead body of your father, not your father. So if you cannot see the particle of Kṛṣṇa, the soul, how you can see Kṛṣṇa? Therefore śāstra says, ataḥ śrī-kṛṣṇa-nāmādi na bhaved grāhyam indriyaiḥ (CC Madhya 17.136). This blunt material eyes, he cannot see Kṛṣṇa, or cannot hear Kṛṣṇa's name, nāmādi. Nāma means name. Nāma means name, form, quality, pastime. These things cannot be understood by your material blunt eyes or senses. But if they are purified, sevonukhe hi jihvādau, if they are purified by the process of devotional service, you can see Kṛṣṇa at all times and everywhere.
So they became tired in trying to make her naked. (laughter) And she never became naked, and heaps of cloth was stacked. They could understand, "It is impossible." And Draupadī was also first of all trying to save her cloth. And what she can do? She is woman, and they were two men. Karṇa and Duḥśāsana was trying to make her naked. So she was crying and praying to Kṛṣṇa, "Save my honor." But she was trying also herself to save. When she thought that "It is impossible to save myself, my honor, in this way," then he (she) left the hands. She simply got up her arms and prayed, "Kṛṣṇa, if You like, You can save."
Therefore Bhīṣmadeva, while he was dying... He was grandfather of the Pāṇḍavas. So when the Pāṇḍavas came to see him on his deathbed, so he cried that: "These boys, my grandsons, they're all very pious. Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira, the topmost pious person. His name is Dharmarāja, the king of religiosity. He is the eldest brother. And Bhīma and Arjuna, they are devotees and so great hero. They can kill thousands of men. They're so powerful. So Yudhiṣṭhira, Yudhiṣṭhira is there, and Bhīma is there. Arjuna is there, and Draupadī is directly the Goddess of Fortune. There was this injunction that wherever Draupadī will be there, there will be no scarcity of food. In this way, the combination was so nice and over and above them, Kṛṣṇa is always with them, and still they are suffering." So he began to cry that: "I do not know what is the arrangement of Kṛṣṇa that such pious men, such devotees, they are also suffering."
Would you like to see your father being killed in your presence and you stand. You don't protest. Is that moral? Nobody will approve it, that this is moral. But actually it so happened that Hiraṇyakaśipu was being killed... The picture is here. And Prahlāda Mahārāja is trying to garland—the killer. "My dear Lord, Killer, You take this garland. You are killing my father. You are very good boy." You see. This is, this is spiritual understanding. Nobody will sanction that you, if you cannot protect your father, you must protest, you must cry that: "Here is my father is being killed. Come on, come on, come on. Help..." No. He's prepared with the garland. And when he was killed, he said to Nṛsiṁha-deva: "My dear Lord, now my father is killed. So everyone is happy. You now wind up Your angry mood." Nobody is unhappy. He said this very word. Modeta sādhur api vṛścika-sarpa-hatyā (SB 7.9.14). Modeta sādhur api. A sādhu, a saintly person never approves that one should be killed. Never. Even an animal. A sādhu does not approve.
Just like a rascal. He's simply washing the coat, but does not take care of the body. Or a bird is in the cage and if you take care of the cage and don't take care of the bird within the cage... The bird is crying: "Ka Ka. Give me food, give me food." But you are taking care of the cage. This is foolishness. So why we are unhappy? Why, in your country especially... You are supposed to be the richest country in the world. You have no scarcity. No scarcity of food, no scarcity of motor car, no scarcity of bank balance, no scarcity of sex. Everything is there, complete, in full abundance. And still why a section of people are frustrated and confused like the hippies? They are not satisfied. Why? That is the defect. Because there is no balance. You are taking care of the bodily necessities of life, but you have no information of the soul. And there is necessity of the soul also. Because soul is the real subject matter. Body is the covering only.
We are desiring and Kṛṣṇa is supplying. Without His supply you cannot get it. Just like in our India, after independence the leaders thought, "Now we have got independence we shall increase the tractors and other agricultural implements and we will get enough food." Now at the present moment, since two years, there is scarcity of water. There is no rainfall. So these tractors are now crying. You see? It is useless. Simply by so-called tractors, implements, you cannot produce, unless there is favor by Kṛṣṇa. He must supply water, that for want of... Recently the news is that people are so exasperated that they went to the secretary, they demanded food, and the result was they were shoot, shot down. Yes, so many people died. So actually, although we have got this arrangement that one has to work, but that work is simple. If you remain Kṛṣṇa conscious... That, after all, Kṛṣṇa is supplying the foodstuffs. That's a fact. Every religion accepts that. Just like in Bible it is said, "God give us our daily bread." That's a fact.
Kṛṣṇa actually did not leave Vṛndāvana. Because since Kṛṣṇa left Vṛndāvana, all the inhabitants of gopī, they were simply thinking of Kṛṣṇa and crying. That was their business. Mother Yaśodā, Nanda Mahārāja, Rādhārāṇī, all the gopīs, all the cows, all the calves, all the cowherd boys, their only business was to think of Kṛṣṇa and cry. Absence, separation.
So Kṛṣṇa can be felt, Kṛṣṇa can be present more acutely in separation. That is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's teaching: to love Kṛṣṇa in separation. Just like Caitanya Mahāprabhu in separation: govinda-viraheṇa me. Śūnyāyitaṁ jagat sarvaṁ govinda-viraheṇa me. He was thinking that "Everything is vacant without Govinda, without Kṛṣṇa." So everything is vacant, but Kṛṣṇa consciousness is there. Kṛṣṇa consciousness is there. That is the highest perfectional... When we'll see everything is nothing, simply Kṛṣṇa consciousness is there, that is the highest. That is the gopīs. Therefore gopīs are so exalted. Not for a single moment they could forget Kṛṣṇa. Not for a single moment. Kṛṣṇa was going in the forest with His cows and calves, and gopīs at home, they were disturbed in the mind, "Oh, Kṛṣṇa is walking bare-footed. There are so many stones and nails. There is pricking Kṛṣṇa's lotus feet, which is so soft that we think our breast as hard when Kṛṣṇa puts His lotus feet. Still He's walking." They are absorbed in this thought. And they are crying. So they are so anxious to see Kṛṣṇa back home in the evening that they are standing on the way, on the roof, "Now Kṛṣṇa is coming back with His..." This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. This is... Kṛṣṇa cannot be absent from a devotee when he's too much absorbed in Kṛṣṇa thought. This is the process of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
So here Kuntīdevī is very much anxious that Kṛṣṇa will be absent. But the effect will be, when Kṛṣṇa will be absent physically, He will be more, I mean to say, accurately present within the mind of the devotee. So Caitanya Mahāprabhu's teaching is that vipralambha-sevā. By His practical life. He's finding out Kṛṣṇa. Govinda-viraheṇa me. Śūnyāyitaṁ jagat sarvaṁ govinda-viraheṇa me. What is that verse? Cakṣuṣā prāvṛṣāyitam, cakṣuṣā prāvṛṣāyitam, śūnyāyitaṁ jagat sarvaṁ govinda-viraheṇa me. He's crying like torrents of rain coming out of the eyes, and He's feeling everything vacant for want of Kṛṣṇa, separation. Vipralambha. So sambhoga and vipralambha. There are two stages of meeting Kṛṣṇa. Sambhoga means when He's personally present. That is called sambhoga. Personally talking, personally meeting, personally embracing, that is called sambhoga. And there is another, vipralambha. The two ways a devotee can be benefited.
That is natural. The old man is dying, and he is thinking that "So many of my business remained unfinished." So he calls his dear son, "My dear son, if, if you... You take charge of the family, and so many things I could not finish, you do it." You see? He does not know where he is going. I have seen in Allahabad one big man. He was dying at the age of fifty-four. He was of my age. And he was requesting the physician, "My dear doctor, can you not give me four years more to live so that I could finish my business?" This so much attraction, so much attraction. They sometimes cry, that "What will happen to my this boy, that children, that..."
So therefore the family attraction especially, the family attraction is so strong that life after life one is bound up again in this material world, and he gets one body. To get body means to suffer.
So the baby, packed up, cannot move, cannot say anything but feels pain, therefore moves. And the pregnant woman therefore feels that the child is moving at the age of seven months in the womb. So therefore the struggle begins from the womb. And when the child comes out, again struggle. And he is lying on the bed; some bug is biting. He cannot express. He is crying, and the mother thinks that he's hungry. In this way, wrongly understands, cannot give relief him. And he is going on, crying, crying, crying. We have seen it. We have... Everyone has got experience. Then as soon as he is grown up, he is given responsibility for learning ABCD, or going to school. He doesn't like. No child likes. At least I did not like to go to school. So this is also another struggle. Then, when he is grown up, he is given more and more responsibility, examination, and then married life, then family maintenance. In this way, struggling, struggling, struggling—again death. Again enter into the womb of mother. Again the same struggle. So where is happiness? Therefore when Kṛṣṇa says, duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam: (BG 8.15) "This whole material world is a place for suffering only," that is a fact. But mūḍho 'yam, being enamored by māyā, he does not know. He forgets. This life is of forgetfulness, ignorance.
So these are the description of Kṛṣṇa. We have to follow. Mahājano yena gataḥ sa panthāḥ (CC Madhya 17.186). Don't manufacture something which will not be compatible. You just hear, sthāne sthitāḥ śruti-gatā..., from the realized soul, how Kṛṣṇa should be described. Here... Just like Kuntī is describing Kṛṣṇa, kṛṣṇa-sakha. He's Kṛṣṇa, and Draupadī is also called Kṛṣṇa, and Arjuna is also called Kṛṣṇa. So Kṛṣṇa is both, friends for both of them. Kṛṣṇa supplied unlimited measurement of cloth to Draupadī because Draupadī was crying to Kṛṣṇa, "Save my honor." Similarly, Arjuna also, he accepted Kṛṣṇa as the supreme guide. Śiṣyas te 'haṁ śādhi māṁ prapannam: (BG 2.7) "There is perplexity, my dear Kṛṣṇa. I cannot decide whether I shall fight or I shall not fight." Kārpaṇya-doṣopahata-svabhāvaḥ: "I am kṣatriya, but due to my weakness, I am crying to avoid fight. So therefore please instruct me. Because You can, I understand that You can give me the right instruction; therefore I become Your śiṣya." Śiṣyas te 'haṁ śādhi māṁ prapannam. Therefore Kṛṣṇa is known as Pārtha-sārathi.
So this verse... All the ladies of the palace... It is natural for ladies. When there is separation, they cry. So they were shedding tears, but Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira asked them to stop, not to cry, because it may be inauspicious. Kṛṣṇa was going home, and everyone should give Him farewell, a smiling face. But they could not do so. That was not possible. They were feeling so much of Kṛṣṇa's separation that they were crying, and Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira asked them not to cry.
This morning I was reading the statement of a fisherman who caught Caitanya Mahāprabhu in His trance, and by touching Caitanya Mahāprabhu he became spiritually ecstatic, but he thought that he has become ghostly haunted: "Here is a ghost." And he was thinking, "I am ghostly haunted, so if I become mad, who will take care of my wife and children?" This is the position. The fisherman was actually, spiritually, by the grace of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, simply by touching Him, he was so much spiritually advanced that he was chanting, dancing, crying—means all the symptoms of spiritual ecstatic transformation was visible in his body—but he thought that he had gone mad on account of touching the body, ghost. He was thinking like that. And the man thinking was that "If I become mad like this, then who will take care of my wife and children?"
So he committed a murder. Then when he was to be hanged, so the government men inquired, "What is your last wish?" "Now, I want to speak with my aunt through the ear." Then he was allowed. And the aunt was generally crying that "My nephew is going to be hanged." She was... So he caught up her ear with the teeth and cut it. So he said, "My dear aunt, if you would have chastised me in the beginning, then today, this position, that you are crying and I am going to be hanged, this would not have happened. But you did not do that. Therefore you are uselessly crying now, and this is your punishment: I cut off your ear with the teeth." A very good instruction.
Just like Arjuna, the same thing: out of affection he was denying. He was denying, "No, no, Kṛṣṇa, I shall not fight. There, on the other side, there are my brothers, my nephews, my grandfather, and my teacher, Droṇācārya, all my object of affection and obeisances, and I will have to kill them. You are inducing me. No, no, don't do it." That is prākṛtena. He did not know the spiritual necessities. Sometimes we take sannyāsa. I have seen. One of our Godbrother, big Godbrother, he took sannyāsa. So his son was crying, and he was also crying. Then, if you have got affection for your family, society, then why you are taking sannyāsa? That is prākṛtena. We should not be carried away by this material affection, no. That is not good. You must do your duty.
When the child, when we are children, we have got little affection for playing or for father, mother, that's all, limited. But the more we grow, and especially when you are married, then this material affection increases, more entangled. That is also stated in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, puṁsaḥ striyā mithunī-bhāvam etam (SB 5.5.8). This material life means sex life. So a man is searching after woman, and woman is searching after man. This is material bondage. This is natural not only human society—in dog society. Just see. The dog is crying, is crying at night because he has lost that woman. Is it not? Just see, even in the dog, what to speak of human being. So this is material life, to be affectionate unnecessarily. Therefore devotional service means vairāgya-vidyā. Caitanya Mahāprabhu showed by His example how He gave up the affection of young, beautiful wife, very nice home, most affectionate mother, most influential position in the society—gave up.
So generally, at the time of death, kapha-vāta-pittaiḥ, the whole system becomes disarranged. There are coughing, there are headache, there is some pain, this is general system. Sometimes they are so intolerable that the man who is going to die, he cries. The system within the body is so complicated that at any time it can be disarranged, and it becomes a great source of pain. So, at the time of death means, the arrangement becomes so dangerously painful, that one leaves this body, "No more." This is death. This bodily arrangement becomes so painful. Just like one commits suicide. When the situation is too much painful he wants a rescue by committing suicide. Similarly, when the bodily pains are too severe, then the living entity can not live in this body. Tyaktvā deham, he gives up this body. So we have to give up this body, that we forget.
Now here is very important word, that payasodhasvatīr mudā, udhasvatīr mudā. They were very jolly because they can understand whether they are going to be killed or not. Because they have got, they're animal, they have got sense. I have seen in your country, almost all cows are crying, crying. Because in the beginning, all the calves are taken away and slaughtered in their presence. Perhaps you know. So what is the position of the cow? I have seen when we purchase cows, the calves are already taken away. The cow was crying, regular tears were gliding down. So they can understand that... Who cannot understand? Suppose if you are taken in the concentrated camp? Just like the Germans did. What is the meaning of concentrated...? That he'll be killed after some days. So how you can be happy? If you are already informed, condemned to death, and kept in a concentration camp, will you be happy? Similarly, when these people take these cows to the slaughterhouse, animal stock room, go down, they understand. Very recently, about few years ago, some..., that animal stock store was some way or other broken and all the cows began to... Perhaps you know. It was published in the... And they were shot down. Shot to death. They were fleeing like anything, that "We shall save ourselves."
They were so happy. So if you keep the cows happy, then cow will supply large quantity of milk. If the cow knows that you are going to kill it, she is always afraid, always fearful: "Oh, this man will kill." They can understand. I have seen in New Vrindaban. One cow, she was crying because her calf was taken away. So she was feeling so sorry. Now in our New Vrindaban, we see how the cows are happy, how they are dealing. They are not afraid. This is our duty, to keep the cows happy. Just like I want to see my wife and children happy, similarly, it is the duty of the human society to see that the cows feeling very happy. This is human civilization. Otherwise it is tiger civilization, meat-eaters. Meat is not eaten by human being. It is eaten by the dogs, by the tigers, by the animals.
Therefore Karṇa was, I mean to say, given away, because she could not show, and when Karṇa was floating on the water, that one carpenter picked up and he raised him. So Karṇa was known as the carpenter's son, śūdra's son. Actually, he is Kuntī's son. So when Karṇa was killed, Kuntī began to cry. And Yudhiṣṭhira Mahārāja inquired, "Mother, why you are crying?" At that time she admitted, "Karṇa was my son." "Oh? Such a secret you did not disclose? We treated Karṇa as our enemy. We could have taken..." There are so many incidences like that.
As soon as one comes to the platform of chanting pure Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, without any offense, he becomes immediately enhanced in love with Kṛṣṇa, prema, kṛṣṇa-prema. Just like Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Caitanya Mahāprabhu was chanting as ācārya. He was crying. Tava nāma-grahaṇe bhaviṣyati. Śūnyāyitaṁ jagat sarvaṁ govinda-viraheṇa me. So what is that verse? Cakṣ..., cakṣuṣā prāvṛṣāyitam. Cakṣuṣā prāvṛṣāyitam. Tava nāma, kadā tava nāma-grahaṇe bhaviṣyati. This is the ultimate, ultimate realization of chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra, that one should cry. Caitanya Mahāprabhu has said like that. So Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa's name, identical.
Still, I cannot give up Kṛṣṇa consciousness." This is required. I may be sent to hell, heaven; it doesn't matter. What qualification I have got that I want to see back to home, back to Godhead? It is not so easy thing. So why should I be sorry for that? I should be happy even in the hell simply by thinking of Kṛṣṇa. That is wanted. That is wanted. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So here is the example. Tears by force are coming out: "Oh, Kṛṣṇa is going away." At the same time, they want to check: "There may not be any inauspicity for Kṛṣṇa." They're thinking Kṛṣṇa, for Kṛṣṇa, not for personal self. "Oh, I am now crying. I have become very much fortunate. I am crying for Kṛṣṇa." No. "My crying will create inauspicity for Kṛṣṇa, I must check it." This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
Actually, he was unhappy on account of being separated from Kṛṣṇa. Similarly, not only Arjuna, all of us, we are also, as Kṛṣṇa, Arjuna, he is also a living entity, we are also living entity. So we are also unhappy, because we are separated from Kṛṣṇa. These modern philosophers or scientists, they may suggest that they may go on thinking otherwise that they can improve the world situation in their own way, but that is not possible. We are unhappy on account of being separated from Kṛṣṇa. They do not know that. Just like a child, a child is crying, nobody can say why he is crying, but actually a child is generally in crying condition being separated from the mother.
They are already intoxicated. So again if you drink, then how much intoxicated you become, just try to understand. Vāruṇīṁ madirāṁ pītvā madonmathita-cetasām. Everyone who is in this material world, forgotten God or Kṛṣṇa, he is already intoxicated. Just like intoxicated man, he cannot recognize even his father, mother, or even his sister or mother. It has been practical. One father intoxicated—there are so many instances—raped the daughter. Daughter is crying, "My dear father, I am, I am..." Who cares for that? Intoxicated. This is going on. So intoxication is so sinful. Intoxication is so sinful that... Just like the hog is intoxicated by this material world, eating stool. Is stool a food? But he is tasting very nice. And he's deriving benefit, sexually very strong, never cares whether mother, sister or daughter. Every example is there in front.
So others criticized him that "This man is illiterate. What he is reading?" But Caitanya Mahāprabhu did not criticize. Caitanya Mahāprabhu inquired, "Oh, what you are reading, My dear brāhmaṇa?" So he explained, that "This gentleman has not come to criticize me." So Caitanya Mahāprabhu knew that "He is a perfect knower of Bhagavad-gītā." Still, He inquired, "Well, if you are not reading, then how you are crying? I see there are tears in your eyes. What is the meaning?" Then he admitted, "Yes, sir. Yes. That is." "Why you are crying?" "No, as soon as I take this Bhagavad-gītā in my hand a picture comes before me that Arjuna is sitting on the chariot ordering Kṛṣṇa, and Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is carrying out his order and driving the chariot. So that makes me amazed. Therefore I am crying, that 'How Kṛṣṇa is merciful, that He accepted a menial service for His devotee. He is so kind.' " Caitanya Mahāprabhu immediately embraced him: "Yes, brāhmaṇa, your reading of Bhagavad-gītā is perfect." So it doesn't matter whether one is illiterate or literate. Everyone has got these ears. So we should hear from the realized person, guru Vaiṣṇava, not professional, no. That will not help us.
I belong to the spiritual world. I am part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. Why should I suffer so many things?" That is jubilation. Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā (BG 18.54). The prasannātmā means na śocati na kāṅkṣati. He has no lamentation, no hankering. Here people are always full of anxieties because they have got hankering, "I want this. I want that." And there is lamentation. What they possess, if it is lost, they cry, "Oh, my things are lost." And what they do not possess, they hanker. So their anxiety is there, either he possesses or not possesses. This is material anxiety.
That is king. That is emperor. If the so-called king or the president is dependent on the votes of some rascal voters, then what kind of sva-rāṭ he is? At the present moment, the so-called president is dependent on the votes of some rascals. That's all. The rascals, they do not know whom to vote, and therefore another rascal is elected, and when he is not doing well, they cry. You have elected. Why you are crying now? Because they are rascals. They do not know. So this is going on. But actually, the head of the state should be sva-rāṭ, fully independent. Not on the votes of the prajā. He is only dependent on Kṛṣṇa, just like Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira. All the Pāṇḍavas, they were under the order of Kṛṣṇa.
So this news was spread, and his son was playing, and as soon as he heard that "My father has been insulted in this way," he became very angry and cursed him immediately, that "This snake or a snake would bite this king and he will die out of snake bite." So... And then again he came to his father. He was crying. The father... At that time the meditation of the father was broken. "Why, my son, you are crying?" "You have been insulted by Mahārāja Parīkṣit. I have cursed him like this." "Oh," he became aston... "Oh, what you have done, wrong thing? You have cursed Mahārāja Parīkṣit? Oh. The greatest blame will be on the brāhmaṇa society. The Kali-yuga will begin, begins deterioration of the brāhmaṇa community. You are the first." So one thing is that even a child born of a brāhmaṇa was so powerful that because he cursed Mahārāja Parīkṣit to die out of snake bite, it could not be withdrawn. He died. Just see how much brahminical power was that time. Even a child. What to speak of grown-up.
So martyānām ṛtam icchatām. Martyānām. They should be conscious that "I do not wish to die. Why death is forced upon me?" This is intelligent question. This is the most intelligent man's question. "I do not want death." Just like if there is immediately some natural disturbance... I have got experience. Sometimes there was little trembling in the front house. People were crying, especially ladies, screaming. And that I have seen many times. As soon as there is a big trembling, everyone becomes afraid, "Now we are going to die. We have to die." So everyone is afraid of death, but nobody thinks how to make a solution of this problem. But there is solution. Therefore here it is said, martyānām. Martyānām means those who are destined to die. Ṛtam icchatām. If they are willing to live, if they want to stop calling the Yamarāja... Yamarāja means he will take you or take me, every one of us, after this body is finished, according to our karma. Yamarāja is there when we are sinful. Yamarāja is not for the devotees.
Devotee is not dying. There is very good example. Just like a cat. He catches the rat and he catches his cub also. But these two kinds of catching is different. When the cat catches a rat, that rat means his, "Chi chi chi," means dying, actually dying. And the cab (cub), he is feeling very comfortable: "Meow, meow, meow." Because the same cat, catching, process is the same, but the feeling is different. So a devotee seemingly dying, he is not dying. He is going back to Kṛṣṇa. He is very pleased, "Now my labor is finished. I am going to Kṛṣṇa." That is his feeling. And others, they are crying, "Oh, this is my estate. This is my family. This is my, this is my, this is my... I am leaving. I do not want to leave it. What will happen to that?" He is crying. That is death. And this is not death.
So although Kṛṣṇa is master, but He became a servant. Just like Kṛṣṇa, when He was playing as a child of Mother Yaśodā, so He was taken with stick, "Kṛṣṇa, if you become again very naughty, then see the stick." So Kṛṣṇa used to cry. There are very nice verses in the Kuntī's prayer, that "The whole universe is afraid of Kṛṣṇa, and Kṛṣṇa is afraid by the stick of Mother Yaśodā." (laughter) Just see. This is Kṛṣṇa. This is spiritual world. When Kṛṣṇa was a little boy playing, Nanda Mahārāja, father of Kṛṣṇa... Yaśodā and Nanda Mahārāja, they are foster father and mother. Real mother, father, is Vasudeva and Devakī. So Nanda Mahārāja came within the house and saw little Kṛṣṇa, "Yes." He was playing. So Nanda Mahārāja challenged Yaśodāmāyi, "Your Kṛṣṇa can do something work." "Oh, yes, why not? He can do anything." Immediately Yaśodā-mātā, Mother Yaśodā, ordered Kṛṣṇa, "Just carry the wooden slipper of Your father and go there." So Kṛṣṇa immediately took the slipper on His head and brought it to Mahārāja Nanda. Then Nanda Mahārāja said, "Oh, your Kṛṣṇa is very good. Come on, come on, come on." These were, that, the childhood pastimes of Kṛṣṇa was enjoyed by the foster father and mother.
Ultimately, that mental speculator remains in darkness, but he thinks that he has become liberated. This is another darkness. Another darkness. That is described in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam: ye 'nye 'ravindākṣa vimukta-māninaḥ. He Aravindākṣa. Kṛṣṇa's name is... (baby starts crying) (aside:) You take him out. (long pause in lecture and everyone starts chanting while baby is crying and being taken out)
- ye 'nye 'ravindākṣa vimukta-māninas
- tvayy asta-bhāvād aviśuddha-buddhayaḥ
- āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ
- patanty adho 'nādṛta-yuṣmad-aṅghrayaḥ
- (SB 10.2.32)
Prahlāda Mahārāja says, "My Lord," Aravinda-akṣa. Kṛṣṇa's another name... As I explained yesterday, God has no name, but He has got thousands and millions of names according to His relationship with the devotee or the world, like that. As I explained yesterday, Kṛṣṇa is called Devakī-nandana because He has got relationship with Devakī. Therefore He has become Devakī-nandana. Kṛṣṇa is called Yaśodā-nandana. So similarly, Kṛṣṇa's another name is Aravindākṣa, Aravinda, because His eyes are just like petals of the lotus flower. Aravinda-nābhi. Aravinda-nābhi means Viṣṇu, Lord Viṣṇu, Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, from His navel, one lotus flower is grown. Therefore He is called Aravinda-nābhi.
Actually the cows... When I was in New Vrindaban, our Kīrtanānanda Mahārāja purchased one cow without calf. (someone says, "Children have to go out") Yes. So that cow was actually crying because the calf was taken away for slaughtering. It is not that they have no soul, they cannot understand, they have no feeling. But they are helpless. Everything is there. The butchers, the cow slaughterers, or their supporters, they say wrongly that the animal has no soul. This is a rascal philosophy. Why animal has no soul? The question should be...
Here Yamarāja is addressing the cow as amba, mother. "Why you are so unhappy? From your face it appears." So Yamarāja was foolish man, that he is addressing a cow as mother? This is civilization. It doesn't matter one is appearing as a cow or a man or a dog or a demigod or a civilized man, uncivilized man.
here was a very good example of our Kṛṣṇa conscious men in Melbourne. That was published. There was a fire in one building, and they were, I mean to say, stranded. They were crying. So our girls went there and saved them. Nobody came. Therefore it is said, yasyāsti bhaktir bhagavaty akiñcanā sarvair guṇais tatra samāsate surāḥ (SB 5.18.12). If one is God conscious, Kṛṣṇa conscious, then other material good qualities will automatically develop. These girls in our Melbourne temple, they were not asked by me or their president, "You go and save them," but out of their good will they went and saved them, and some of the girls jumped from three story and they captured in this, what is called, canopy. So it was published and very much appreciated by the public. So the idea is that one cannot be merciful unless he is a devotee. The so-called mercifulness showed by the philanthropists, humanitarians, that is all false. They are humanitarian, but they maintain slaughterhouse. What is this humanitarian? It does not appeal to you that animals are being killed? So the real fact is that without becoming a devotee of Kṛṣṇa or God, nobody can be qualified with good attributes. It is not possible. Therefore śāstra says that "Make people devotee." Then automatically, all the good qualities will come in. Next.
So our present condition is diseased. Why you are dying? Because you are diseased. Why you are becoming old? Because you are diseased. That is due to this body. But actually I am spirit soul. I am neither old nor diseased, but I have fallen into the condition of material contamination. Therefore I am thinking that I am diseased. This is called māyā. Just like in the dream I am feeling that a tiger is eating me, and I am crying, "Here is a tiger eating me, eating me. Save me." But there is no tiger. This is called illusion, or māyā. But so long we'll have this body just like so long we shall dream, we shall have to suffer the effect, even it is illusion. A man is crying, "There is a tiger." Actually, there is no tiger; neither tiger is eating. But because he is in hallucination, he is feeling the pain. That is actual fact. So the whole process is to stop this illusion, bodily contamination. Then we are in real life. And then we can understand what is love, what is reciprocation of love, everything. That is real, healthy life. So this human form of life is meant for getting out of this illusion to the spiritual life. That we have been discussing. But instead of taking advantage of this human life, if we simply treat ourself just like animals and be engaged with eating, sleeping, fearing, and mating, then we are missing the chance. So long we have got this human intelligence, we should utilize it for the highest perfectional stage of life. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
These rascals, they cannot see. Apaśyatām ātma-tattvam (SB 2.1.2). That is the defect. Nobody thinks that, that "I was embarrassed from the very beginning of my life. I was embarrassed even within the womb of my mother. I was packed-up. And when I came out from the womb of my mother, there also I was embarrassed. I could not express my pains and pleasure. I was crying. Some ant was biting me, but I was crying and my mother gave me more milk, (laughter) although I was fully fed." This is embarrassment. I wanted something; my mother gave me something else. Because mother cannot understand that what is the pain and..., neither he can express what is the pains and pleasure. So the embarrassment was at the beginning. Otherwise why the child cries? He's feeling some pain, but mother does not know how to relieve. But he's crying. This is going on. Then childhood. I do not like to go to school. My parents force me to go to school.
That is the difference. You can get the same benefit from the photograph picture of Kṛṣṇa as you get benefit by directly meeting Him. Therefore, meeting this photograph Deity of Kṛṣṇa is as good as Kṛṣṇa. Advaya-jñāna, nonduality. Here in this material world there is duality, but in the spiritual world, there is no such duality. Brahma-varcasa-kāmas tu yajeta brahmaṇaḥ patim, indram, indram indriya-kāmaḥ. Indriya means senses. Those who are too much lusty satisfy simply... The most important indriya is the genital, sex. So for them, it is recommended that "You worship Indra." Indra, the demigod, he is number one sexually inclined demigod. He has got eyes, eyes over all his body. Śata-cakṣuṁṣi. These eyes were originally vagina. He was cursed by Gautama Muni that "You are so fond of vagina that I curse you that you get all over your body vagina only." Then, when he surrendered, he began to cry that "It will be very much, I mean to say, abominable for me."
Although we cannot do it, that is our desire. They are called sarva-kāmaḥ. There is no limit of desires. Anyone, you find out ordinarily, in this world, you ask him, "What is your ultimate desire?" There is no limit. Therefore he's called sarva-kāmaḥ. Pralayāntam upāśritam. Till the time of death, there is desire. A dying man, he is also desiring. I have seen it practically. One gentleman in Allahabad, he was contemporary, of our age. He was dying at the age of fifty-four years, and he was crying, and he was requesting the doctor... He was very rich man. "My dear doctor, can you not give me at least four years life so I could finish my program?" The nonsense, what is your program? You see? I have seen it.
They have no value. They have their value in their own way, but according to our line of thought, they have no value. So prajalpa ... In this way, prajalpa, there is tendency of talking. You talk of Kṛṣṇa. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Just like we assembled together, few friends, (baby cries) we want to vibrate something. Just like the child is also vibrating. That is nature. A bird will vibrate, a beast will vibrate. So we have to vibrate the transcendental sound. Then we shall be saved from the plundering business of the sun. This is the secret. Always talk of Kṛṣṇa and you must know that you are saving yourself. You are not dying yourself. Because talking of Kṛṣṇa means you will understand about Kṛṣṇa. And Kṛṣṇa says, "Anyone who understands Me rightly, then after giving up this body, he comes to Me." And as soon as you go to Him, back to home, back to Godhead, your life is eternal, blissful, and full of knowledge.
That is sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha (Bs. 5.1). So why should we lose this opportunity? The most rascal, rascal person, they give up this.
So he could understand that this Caitanya Mahāprabhu has not come to criticize him: "He's serious." So he informed Him, "Sir, I am reading Bhagavad-gītā, but I am illiterate. I am illiterate, but my spiritual master has ordered to read. So what can I do? I have taken this book and moving these pages. That's all. What can I do? Actually I cannot read." Then Caitanya Mahāprabhu inquired, "But I see you are sometimes crying." "Yes, sir, I sometimes cry." "Why?" "Now, because as soon as I take this book in my hand and I see the picture that Lord Kṛṣṇa is driving the chariot of Arjuna, I cry. 'Oh, Kṛṣṇa is so kind that He has taken the service of His devotee. He should have been seated on the chariot—Arjuna should have driven the chariot—but He's driving the chariot and Arjuna is sitting on the seat. So Kṛṣṇa is so kind and beloved that He can serve His devotee. It is the duty of the devotee to serve Him, but He's so kind and affectionate that He serves His devotee.' So as soon as I think of this-Kṛṣṇa's magnanimity—I cry."
Because you are a living entity, you are part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa, so actually you are trying to go to Kṛṣṇa. Just like a child is crying. The idea is that the child wants mother. Or mother's breast milk. That is his demand. But sometimes we do not know. We try to make the child comfortable in different ways. Similarly, all of us are searching after Kṛṣṇa. That is the fact. Kṛṣṇa, being the Supreme, we are all, being parts and parcels, our natural tendency is to approach Kṛṣṇa. Manuṣyāḥ pārtha sarvaśaḥ. Mama vartmānuvartante manuṣyāḥ pārtha sarvaśaḥ. In the Bhagavad-gītā you'll find this. Mama vartmānu... "They are all trying to come to Me." But they are being hampered by different types of māyā. So the spiritual advancement means ultimately to approach Kṛṣṇa. This is very nicely explained by Caitanya Mahāprabhu. The bhakti-latā, the creeper of bhakti, is growing, but it will go on growing, growing, growing, until the bhakti-latā, I mean to say, catches the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa.
The same example. Just like if (you) put your eatables into the stomach, so the stomach is satisfied and all the servants, the hands, legs, and others who acquire their foodstuff and put into the mouth, they are also satisfied, automatically. The hands, legs, fingers, eyes—every part of my body, immediately satisfied. Yathā prāṇopahārāc ca yathendriyāṇām. We are, at the present moment in the material existence, we are trying to be satisfied. That is also... The example is there. Just like a child is crying. You give him something eatable, he puts it in the mouth, and he's satisfied, no more crying.
Sometimes we played in our younger age Caitanya-līlā. I introduced. And one big director, Amrtalal Chosa, he was just like grandfather. He was one of the, just like in England Shakespeare and others, big, big dramatic, well-known persons. This Amrtalal Chosa and Girish Chandra Chosa, they introduced in India theatric... So we called him to give us direction. He was giving us direction, and repeatedly he was telling that "You feel like that," especially to me. "You feel like that." So actually, when we played according to his direction, the audience were all crying. And we could not understand how they cried. We could not understand. On the stage when we played, it was so perfect that all audience were crying. Actually we saw they were smearing over their eyes with... But the whole thing is artificial, but the effect to the audience became so nice. So similarly, we are... Actually we have nothing to do with this material world, But we have been trained by the illusory energy in such a way that we are thinking, "I am Indian. I am American. I am this. I am that. I am brāhmaṇa. I am śūdra. I have to do this. I have got so much duty," all these illusions, simply thinking. We have nothing to do with all this nonsense, but still, we are taking it very serious. "I have to do like that. I have to do like that. I am this. I am that." That's all.
Parasyānubhavātmanaḥ. Na ghaṭeta artha-sambandha. There cannot be any relation at all. Na ghaṭeta. Cannot be. Artha sambandhaḥ. Svapna-draṣṭur ivāñjasā. The very exact example is given, svapna-draṣṭuḥ. Just like a man seeing dream: "Oh, there is tiger, tiger, tiger, tiger! Save me!" He is crying. Another man is, "Where is tiger? Why you are crying? Where is tiger?" But he, in the dream, he is actually feeling: "The tiger has attacked me." Therefore this example is given, na ghaṭetārtha-sambandhaḥ. There cannot be any meaning of this relationship except like a man dreaming and he is creating a situation. He is dreaming there is a tiger and he is creating a situation, fearful situation. Actually there is no cause of fear. There is no tiger. That situation is created by dream. Actually there is no tiger. Similarly we have created this material world and activity. People are running, "Oh..., sonh, sonh, sonh, sonh, sonh, sonh, sonh," identifying that "Oh, I am the manager. I am the factory owner. I am this, I am that. We have got his politics. We have to defeat such competitors." All these things are created exactly like that, svapna-draṣṭur ivāñjasā, just like a man is creating his particular situation simply by dream. That's all.
Simply for sense gratification. I have seen one hotel man in Calcutta. He cut the throat of a chicken, and the chicken, half-cut, it was flapping and jumping. The child of the hotel man, he was crying, and the hotel man was laughing. He was taking pleasure, "Oh, how this chicken, half-cut throat, and how he is jumping... Why you are crying? Why you are crying?" And in Western countries I think students are sometimes taken to slaughterhouse to see. Is it a fact? Yes. You see. They take pleasure. Doing something sinful, they take pleasure. For pleasure's sake they do that. Nūnaṁ pramattaḥ kurute vikarma yad indriya-prītaye (SB 5.5.4). Simply for the matter of sense gratification.
So śāstra says, "No, no, this is not good. This is not good." Na sādhu manye yata ātmano 'yam asann api kleśada āsa dehaḥ (SB 5.5.4). But they have no brain. This body is temporary, but it is full of suffering, although it is temporary. One can say, "This body is temporary. So what do I care for...?" But it is painful. We have to suffer.
So here it is said, na yujyamānayā bhaktyā bhagavaty akhilātmani. If you engage yourself in devotional service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is Supersoul or expanded everywhere, even within the atom, then your yoga system for brahma-siddhaye, for self-realization will be complete. Siddhaye. Yatatām api siddhānām. Therefore it is said, manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu kaścid yatati siddhaye (BG 7.3). This siddhaye. Siddhaye means brahma-siddhaye. Out of many millions and millions of persons, one is interested in brahma-siddhi. Nobody's interested. We are crying everywhere, "Please come. We have made this center. Please come and realize yourself and make your life perfect." But nobody's interested. Manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, "Out of millions and millions of persons, one may be interested."
So He approached him and He asked, "My dear brāhmaṇa, what you are reading?" So he could also understand that "This man is not joking." So he said, "Sir, I am reading Bhagavad-gītā. I am trying to read Bhagavad-gītā, but I am illiterate. So my Guru Mahārāja said that 'You must read eighteen chapters daily.' So I have no knowledge. I cannot read. Still, Guru Mahārāja said, so I am just trying to carry out his order and opening the pages, and that's all. I do not know how to read it." Caitanya Mahāprabhu said that "You are crying sometimes, I see." Then, "Yes, I am crying." "How you are crying if you cannot read?" "No, because when I take this Bhagavad-gītā book, I see one picture, that Kṛṣṇa is so kind that He has taken the chariot driver, sārathi, of Arjuna. He is His devotee. So Śrī Kṛṣṇa is so kind that He can accept the position of a servant because Arjuna was ordering, 'Keep my chariot here,' and Kṛṣṇa was serving him. So Kṛṣṇa is so kind. So when I see this picture within my mind, I am crying." So Caitanya Mahāprabhu immediately embraced him, that "You are reading Bhagavad-gītā. Without any education, you are reading Bhagavad-gītā." He embraced him.
Everyone is misguided, everyone is acting in this world under the bodily concept of life. And they are very very much unhappy on account of this. Because as soon as one understands that "I am not this body," he immediately becomes Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā. Prasannātmā means, what do you mean by prasannātmā? Na śocati na kāṅkṣati (BG 18.54). No more material desire. That is brahma-bhūtaḥ. Everyone is trying for material sense gratification—the animals, the beasts, the birds, and the human being. That is material world. He is simply śocati and kāṅkṣati. When there is loss he is crying, and when there is no possession he is hankering. These are the two diseases of material existence.
One may understand Kṛṣṇa. So Kṛṣṇa, to understand... So first of all, we cannot understand Kṛṣṇa. Then what is the, where is the question of love of Kṛṣṇa? If you do not understand somebody, how you can love him? Love is far, far away. But Caitanya Mahāprabhu is so kind that He is distributing kṛṣṇa-prema: "Take, anyone. Come on." Kṛṣṇa-prema-pradāya te (CC Madhya 19.53). So therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu is very practical, that "I want to give kṛṣṇa-prema. One should be ecstatic, emotional in kṛṣṇa-prema. One shall cry for Kṛṣṇa." And He taught everyone by His practical example how He was mad after Kṛṣṇa. Govinda-viraheṇa me. Śūnyāyitaṁ jagat sarvaṁ govinda-viraheṇa me. This is kṛṣṇa-prema: without Kṛṣṇa, one should see everything vacant. This is Rādhārāṇī's prema.
We have got experience of this body. That is gross experience. Anyone can see. I see your body; you see my body. But you don't see me actually; I don't see you actually. We see or perceive your presence when the soul is off from the body. Then we cry, "Oh, my friend has gone away. My friend has gone away." Why your friend has gone away? He is lying here. Then we can perceive that "My real friend or my real father, the soul, who is different from this body..." And now, at the present moment, "He is my father, he is my friend, who is this body"—that is animal vision. That is not human being vision. Yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke...sa eva go-kharaḥ (SB 10.84.13). Animals also see, "Here is a friend dog. Here is my mother dog."
The mother said, "My dear son, we are so poor, we cannot give anything. But if Kṛṣṇa gives, He is dīna-bandhu, the friend of the poor. So if He gives something to you, you can promise." "Oh, where is Kṛṣṇa? What is His name?" "Now, His name is Dīnabandhu, friend of the poor." "Where He is?" "I understand that He is in the forest." So he went to the forest and called, "Dīnabandhu brother, Dīnabandhu brother, where You?" He began to cry. So Kṛṣṇa came. When a devotee is very much eager to see Him, Kṛṣṇa comes. He very is kind. So "Why you are asking?" "My mother... You are Dīnabandhu?" "Yes." "So this is my condition, sir. What can I promise?" So He said that "You promise that you will supply yogurt, dahi. You will supply dahi." So he was very much satisfied. And he came to the teacher that "My Dīnabandhu brother, dādā, He will supply dahi, or yogurt, for whatever you require." "Oh, that's nice. Very good."
He is dreaming so many things that sometimes he is crying. He cannot express. Especially those who are very sinful, they die in that way. So this is not finished. Then, after death, you have to enter in the womb of the mother. That is another fierceful stage. You become packed up in a bag, and the bag is filled up or surrounded by stool, urine, worms. And you have to remain there, airtight packed, for ten months.
This is actual fact. We have forgotten. Therefore we are not afraid of. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā that your real trouble is janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). You have to accept your birth within the womb of your mother in a packed-up condition, body developing. The germs, the worms within the urine, stool, biting very delicate skin. You cannot make any adjustment, simply moving. And if one is little pious, he can pray to God, "Please get me relief from this condition. Now I shall worship You." This is stated in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, this consciousness. There is consciousness. After seven months, there is consciousness. Then, some way or other, you get out of the womb of your mother. Then there are so many troubles, crying. The child is crying, crying, almost dependent on mother's mercy. The mother sometime cannot understand what the child wants. Some ant is biting, and mother is thinking that she is hungry. But actually it is not hungry, but it cannot say that "One ant is biting on my back," and he is crying.
The Vedic instruction is asato mā sad gama: "Don't remain in the asat, in the untruth. Come to the Truth." So at the material world we have forgotten Kṛṣṇa, and we are situated in the asat, which is not truth. Therefore there is bhaya, fearfulness. Just like a child, if he is forlorn by the father and mother, then he is always in fearful condition, crying on the street, "Where is my father? Where is my mother?" This is our position.
So some political party, by agitation, by propaganda, makes them convinced to accept some way, and they do it. Another party will do another... They have no their own discretion. They elect some president, and again they want to dethrone the president. Because they are śūdras, they have no intelligence. They do not know how to elect the president, who should be the governor, who should be the executive head. They commit mistake. They again cry.
Vilāsa means enjoyment. Bhoga-vilāsa. Devotees, they have no bhoga. They have vilāsa, enjoyment. And indirectly, this is also bhoga, transcendental bliss, ecstasy. Sometimes they are crying. Sometimes they are shivering. Sometimes they are laughing. There are eight kinds of sāttvika transformation. So when one is completely pure devotee, these symptoms are visible. That is called vilāsa, enjoyment.
But you will be surprised nowadays. Modern Gods... There are so many modern Gods; I do not wish to name. But one modern God, he gave his power to his disciple, and the, when he came into consciousness, then he was crying. The disciple inquired from the guru, "Why you are crying, sir?" "Now I have finished everything. I have given you everything. I have given you everything; therefore I am now finished." That is not spiritual. That is material. I have got hundred rupees. If I pay you hundred rupees, then my pocket is empty. But Kṛṣṇa is not like that. Kṛṣṇa can make hundreds of thousands and millions of Kṛṣṇa; still, He is Kṛṣṇa. That is Kṛṣṇa. The potency is never exhausted. That is called pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya pūrṇam eva avaśiṣyate (Īśo Invocation).
Then, if I'll not remain African, then I'll become Indian?" No. That is also designation. "I am Hindu. I become Muslim?" No, that is also designation. You have to become purified. Sarvopādhi-vinirmuktam (CC Madhya 19.170). All kinds of designations. (child cries) (aside:) This child may be... All kind of designations. You have to give up this designation that "I am Hindu," "I am Muslim," "I am Christian," "I am African." No, no designation. Simply become pure Brahman, then pratijāne. That is called pratijāne, not that "I remain a Christian," "I remain a Hindu," "I remain black," "I am white," and "I am Brahman." No, not that. You have to give up your designation. That requires practice. And that practice means this, paraṁ vijayate śrī-kṛṣṇa-saṅkīrtanam. Simply by chanting, you'll be purified.
So this is the tribulations of taking birth. And similarly the tribulations of death. Sometimes one remains in coma for months and he suffers so much. Sometimes he cries. Actually tears come out. We cannot see, but within the body of the dying man is so much painful. This is called janma-mṛtyu. And old man's, there are difficulties. And vyādhi. Everyone is subjected to some kind of disease. So we do not take account. So here Ṛṣabhadeva is stressing on this point. "My dear boys, do not spoil your life living like cats and dogs." Do not. This is not meant for this life. This human form of life is meant for different purposes. Durlabhaṁ mānuṣaṁ janma tad apy adhruvam arthadam. That we should always remember, that this human form of body is obtained after many, many births. Bahūnāṁ janmanām ante (BG 7.19). Bahu sambhavante. Bahu sambhava. Sambhava means birth and death, birth and death. So we should not forget this. Everyone should be very serious. That is civilization. Not that to remain for sense gratification like cats and dogs fighting. This is not good.
After realizing Brahman identification, ahaṁ brahmāsmi, that is called brahma-bhūta (SB 4.30.20). And the symptom of that brahma-bhūta stage is na śocati na kāṅkṣati. There is no more lamentation. So long we are in the bodily platform, there are two things prominent, lamentation and aspiration, hankering, two things. We hanker after things which we do not possess, and what we possess, if we lose, then we cry. This is our position. So if actually he's Brahman realized, then he has no more hankering or lamentation. Na śocati na kāṅkṣati. Then samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu. Then, from that platform, you can think of equality, not on the material platform. It is not possible.
Just like Cowper said, "England, with all thy faults, I love you." That is love. There is no return. Just like Rādhārāṇī's love to Kṛṣṇa. She does not require any return. You see? Kṛṣṇa left Vṛndāvana, Rādhārāṇī, and their whole life remained simply crying for Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa never returned. But still, they loved Kṛṣṇa. That is love. That love is being shown by Caitanya Mahāprabhu: "Where is Kṛṣṇa? Where is Kṛṣṇa?" That's Rādhārāṇī's separation, love in separation. So love means without any return, without any sense gratification, without any consideration. That is love.
Very good result. He is lamenting, that He doesn't want this good result that everyone will become Kṛṣṇa consciousness? Eh? There is a story in this connection, that there was a haṭṭa, a fair or market. So many people came there, and one old lady began to cry. "Where shall I give them place? So many people have come here." She began to cry. Then her son said, "My mother, see in the evening. You don't worry about giving them place." So in the evening she saw everyone has gone. Similarly, in due course of nature's activities, prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27), everything will go nicely. You haven't got to be worried. You better be worried how to develop your Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Other things will go on. And what is the harm there? If all people become Kṛṣṇa conscious, and go back to home, back to Godhead, what is the harm there? Do you mean to say, to remain here in this material existence and suffer three-fold miseries, is that very good business? That will not happen. Don't be worried. Kṛṣṇa Consciousness is not so cheap. Only a few fortunate people will take it. Others will remain. Don't worry. (laughter)
These rascals do not inquire also that "I am working so hard for this body, but this body cannot be protected. And when the body is dead, nobody can help." They are technologists. When the motor stops, they can again run on by supplying something which is wanting. Why not this technology?
That means they do not know what is the need of the body. When the body dies they cry simply like child, "My father has gone." Why your father has gone? It is lying there. Where he has gone? It is lying on the floor or on the bed. "No, my father has gone." He has not seen his father; he has seen the body. And now he says, "My father has gone." Body, you saw the father's body. The body is there. Why you are crying, "My father has gone"? He's lying there. This is called defeat. What you are seeing, his father or his son, that is lying there, but he does not know who is his father, who is his son. This is called defeat.
This material world is that. They are already inclined, so what is the use? Loke vyayāyāmiṣa-madya-sevā nityāstu jantuḥ. Just like sex life. Sex life is natural. It does not require any university education how to enjoy sex. They will enjoy it. Nobody... "Nobody is taught how to cry or how to laugh or how to enjoy sex life." There is a Bengali saying. That is natural. You don't require any education for this karma. Now they are making big, big plans to educate people how to work hard. This is waste of time. Educational institution should be for teaching people how to become Kṛṣṇa conscious, not to become this or that. That is waste of time, because that program will never be successful. Tal labhyate duḥkhavad anyataḥ sukhaṁ kālena sarvatra gabhīra-raṁhasā. The nature's law is working Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27).
So He asked him that "What you are reading?" He said frankly, "Sir, I cannot read. I have no education. Illiterate." "Then? It appears that you are reading something. And if you are illiterate, why you are reading Bhagavad-gītā?" "No, my Guru Mahārāja said. He knew that I am illiterate, but still, my Guru Mahārāja said that 'You read every day the ślokas of Bhagavad-gītā.' So on account of his order, although I do not know anything what is written there, I am trying to read." "Oh, that's very nice. You are carrying the order of your Guru Mahārāja. But it appears that you are crying also. How you are crying if you cannot read?" "Yes, Sir, that's... Because as soon as I take this Bhagavad-gītā in my hand I see the picture that Arjuna is asking Kṛṣṇa to place his chariot in the warfield, and Kṛṣṇa is driving the chariot by his order. So this is creating some feeling in me: 'Oh, Kṛṣṇa is so kind, so nice, that although He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, He is carrying the order of His devotee as servant.' When I feel this, I cry: 'Oh, how Kṛṣṇa is kind. How Kṛṣṇa is merciful.' " So immediately Caitanya Mahāprabhu embraced him: "You are reading Bhagavad-gītā. It is not the literacy or education or knowing grammar and putting jugglery of words. That is not reading. If one feels what is the purport of Bhagavad-gītā, that is reading Bhagavad-gītā."
So the entanglement is made by the senses. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura has sung that śarīra avidyā-jāl, joḍendriya tāhe kāl, jīve phele viṣaya-sāgore. This body is covering of ignorance, śarīra avidyā-jāl. Everyone has got a material body, and according to the different proportion of ignorance (aside:) This child is so crying. From three miles we can hear. Balanaṁ rodanaṁ balam. This is strength of the children, crying. They can disturb the whole world (laughter) simply by crying. So just see. This is the body, immediately. You cannot cry like that. Even if you are aggrieved, you cannot cry so loudly that up to four miles one can hear. That is not possible. Why it is not possible? Because he has got a different body and you have got a different. Everything is going on according to the body. This is mahā-vimoha. This is going on, 8,400,000's of different forms of body according to mano, vaca, dṛk, karaṇa, etc. This body is the entanglement, and the senses are the instruments, and we are acting with the senses and we creating another type of body. This is going on. Śarīra avidyā-jāl, joḍendriya tāhe kāl.
Therefore we should not spend our energy for maintenance of the body. That is not required. Tasyaiva hetoḥ prayateta kovido na labhyate yad brahmatām upary adhaḥ (SB 1.5.18). Our human energy should be utilized only for that purpose which was not fulfilled in other lives, in the 8,400,000 different species of life, and you are changing, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13), by nature's law, prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi (BG 3.27). According to guṇa and karma, we are changing our body in 8,400,000's of species and forms. That is By nature's law it is going on, and the nature's law, according to the body, one has to eat, sleep, and sense gratification and protection. At night we see so many dogs. The whole day they could not get food. At night they are crying. And there are other bodies; they are eating nicely. Even the small birds, they have got food. But this dog, they cannot get food. This is God's arrangement. They are condemned life. Otherwise others are getting food; why this body is not getting food? The hogs, they are eating stool.
So this is... This beating with shoes and broomstick is also another tapasya. For men like us, who have no control over the mind, we should practice this tapasya, beating the mind with shoes and broomstick. Then it can be controlled. And swami means who has control over the mind. Vāco-vegam, krodha-vegam, udara-vegam, upastha-vegam, manasa-vegam, krodha-vegam, etān vegān yo viṣaheta dhīraḥ pṛthivīṁ sa śiṣyāt (NOI 1). This is Rūpa Gosvāmī's instruction. When we can control vāco-vegam... (child crying, Prabhupāda pauses) This is krandana-vegam. (laughs) They cannot control. They cannot control. Therefore they are child. The child can be excused, but if a person who is in the spiritual life, he cannot control, then hopeless. Then he's hopeless. This should be controlled. Vaco-vegam, krodha-vegam, udara-vegam, upastha vegam. But the most important thing is udara-vegam and jihvā-vegam. Jihvā-vegam, it is very controlled. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura said that "All the senses are there, but out of them, this jihvā is very dangerous." Tā'ra madhye jihvā ati lobhamoy sudurmati tā'ke jetā kaṭhina saṁsāre. It is very, very difficult to control the tongue.
Even my teacher and grandfather is killed, he is bodily killed, but he is eternal. I can understand. But do You think that if my brother or if my grandfather or if my teacher with whom I am so thickly connected, if they die, shall I be happy?" So Kṛṣṇa answered, "Yes. You'll not be happy. Although you know that your son is eternal, he is not dying, he is changing his body... By theoretical knowledge or by understanding, you know it. But who is there in this world who will not cry when the son is dead? He will cry. But that crying is not crying like a layman. He knows that 'My...,' this is habitual. This is habitual."
We are thinking, "I am sleeping." Sleeping means the body is so much tired, it is no more working. But your another body, which is made of mind, intelligence, and ego—subtle body—that is working. Everyone has got this experience. The subtle body takes you to another place or another condition. You are dreaming that you have gone to the jungle. You are meeting some animals. The tiger is there coming to attack you, and you are crying, "Here is tiger! Tiger! Tiger!" And the man who is not dreaming, he says, "Where is tiger? Why you are crying?" But he's actually... The result is there. Don't think that the result is not there. In dream you are thinking your lover is there, you are embracing, and you get discharge, not that that you are not working and it is not, there is no result. There is result.
So unfortunately, I cannot give you electrical shocks. (laughter) You see? Electrical shocks, and he became fainted by electrical shock. And these are written publicly, and fools are accepting. Why teachers should give electrical shock? Where is that mentioned in the śāstra? (laughter) But these things are, bogus things are stated. Electrical shock. And when he fainted, then the God was sitting, and when he got his senses, then the disciple asked God, "Sir, why you are crying?" "Now, I have finished everything. I have given you everything." Just see. Does a teacher finishes everything by teaching his disciple? These things are going on. So Kṛṣṇa is not that kind of God, that "I have finished everything." Pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya pūrṇam evāvaśiṣyate (Īśo Invocation). This is definition of God. God is so perfect and full that even if you take all His opulences, still, He is full. That is God. Not that "I have finished my stock."
So in this way we have to remain within the womb of the mother. And when the body is formed, time is right, then by nature's way the child comes out. But he forgets that "I was in such condition. Now I am relieved." But he forgets. The mother or the father or the relative takes him. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura has sung these different conditions. So we forget. That is spell of māyā. Then, even in this childhood, there are so many pains. Just like our... Here are children. They are crying. There is some pain. But we cannot understand what is the pain. Suppose some bug is biting. He's crying and mother is thinking that "He is hungry, so he's not stopping. So just..." Our point is: just try to study this life, how much painful it is.
They are very safe. So much so that it is said, na te yamaṁ pāśa-bhṛtaś ca tad-bhaṭān svapne 'pi paśyanti. Svapna means dreaming. Dreaming is false. To see the Yamadūtas, or the carriers of order of Yamarāja, superintendent of death, to see face to face... At the time of death, when one very sinful man is dying, he sees the Yamarāja or the order carriers of Yamarāja. They are very fierce looking. Sometimes the man on the deathbed becomes very much fearful, cries, "Save me, save me." This also happened to Ajāmila. And that is the story we shall narrate later on. But he was saved. For his past activities in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he was saved. That story we shall get later on.
So downtrodden, this Kali-yuga. So mātṛvat para-dāreṣu para-dravyeṣu loṣṭravat ātmavat sarva-bhūteṣu. All other living entities think like yourself. That means your pains and pleasure that you feel, you should take others pains and pleasure. Not that you protect yourself from all danger and you cut the throat of the poor animals on the plea that it has no soul. This is not education. This is education, that whether the animal has soul or not soul, we shall consider later on. But when knife is on my throat I cry, and he also cries. Why shall I say that it has no soul and let me kill it? So that means he does not know how to see other living entity like himself. Buddha philosophy is based on this, that whatever you feel pain you should not inflict to others. This is education. Mātṛvat para-dāreṣu para-dravyeṣu loṣṭravat.
So mātṛvat para-dāreṣu para-dravyeṣu loṣṭravat, ātmavat sarva-bhūteṣu: "All other living entities think like yourself." That means your pains and pleasure, as you feel, you should take up others' pains and pleasure, not that you protect yourself from all danger and you cut the throat of the poor animals on the plea that it has no soul. This is not education. This is education, that whether the animal has soul or not soul we shall consider later on. But when knife is on my throat I cry, and he also cries. Why shall I say that "It has no soul, and let me kill it"? So that means he does not know how to see other living entities like himself. Buddha philosophy is based on this, that "Whatever you feel, pain, you should not inflict to others." This is education. Mātṛvat para-dāreṣu para-dravyeṣu loṣṭravat ātmavat. So this is moral education, and in the śāstra it is also said that there are seven mothers.
So I love the body because the spirit soul is there. This is right conclusion. Otherwise who is going to love a dead body? Nobody. Now if wife's husband has died, son has died, he's crying. You can say that "Why you are crying?" "Oh, my son is gone, my husband is gone." "Nobody gone. It is lying here." "No, no, no. He's not." So after death we understand that this dead body is neither my husband nor my son. Late experience. But in the beginning there is no such experience. That is called illusion. He's understanding that this dead body is not neither my father, nor my husband, nor my son. He's different from. That is practical example. Otherwise why not take the dead body of your husband or son and keep it? No. That is not possible.
If I created my mind as an ordinary karmī, then I will have to stay within this material world to enjoy the type of mentality which I have created. If I keep myself as a businessman, doing business... Naturally it is done so. One gentleman in Calcutta, he was a very big businessman, and he was dealing in shares. So at the time of death he was crying, "Kamahatti, Kamahatti shares." Kamahatti shares at that time was very popular to the people. So at the time of his death the result will be that he might have taken his birth as a rat in the Kamahatti mill. It is possible. At the time of death, whatever you think, that will carry you to a type of body. Kṛṣṇa is very kind. Ye yathā māṁ prapadyante (BG 4.11). Anyone whoever begs from Kṛṣṇa any any benefit, any type of benefit required from Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa gives him: "All right. You are thinking like rat, so you become a rat. You are thinking like a tiger; you become a tiger. You are thinking like a devotee, you become a devotee. You are thinking of Me, please come to Me." That's all. Simple truth.
When he was dying he also saw that three ferocious persons, very fearful persons with rope in their hands, sa pāśa-hastāṁs trīn dṛṣṭvā puruṣān ati-dāruṇān, very fearful, he saw. Sometimes dying man cries because he sees that "Somebody has come to take me to Yamarāja." He sees, and he is very fearful. So now he also became. Vakra-tuṇḍān ūrdhva-romṇa. The description of the assistants of Yamarāja: their hairs are very curled, vakra. Vakra-tuṇḍān ūrdhva-romṇa: and the hairs on the body are standing. Ūrdhva-romṇa ātmānaṁ netum āgatān. Now at the time of Ajāmila's death, the assistants of Yamarāja have come to take him.
So you should keep at least what is there. So this is the position at the time of death. Sometimes you will find the dying man is crying, ākulendriyaḥ, tearful eyes. He cannot express. He is not practiced. But he was given the chance. Kṛṣṇa gave him the conscience when the child was born to keep his name Nārāyaṇa. This is Kṛṣṇa's mercy, that "This rascal was My devotee, and now he is so fallen. All right, he is attracted to his children." So He gave the conscience, "Now keep your son's name Nārāyaṇa." Sarvasya cāhaṁ hṛdi sanniviṣṭaḥ. Kṛṣṇa is situated in everyone's heart. Mattaḥ smṛtir jñānam apohanaṁ ca (BG 15.15). Kṛṣṇa says, "From Me everything, remembrance and forgetfulness, come." Those who want to forget Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa helps him to forget: "All right, you forget." He does not give. He does not dictate from the within. And one who is foolishly in bad association, unfortunately forgets Kṛṣṇa, then Kṛṣṇa gives him chance. Offenders are very nuisance. Kṛṣṇa... Too much offender, purposefully, guru—Vaiṣṇava, his position is very difficult. But by chance if one forgets Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa does not forget him.
The Kali-yuga especially, this is a special prerogative of this age because God realization is very, very difficult for them. But if you take advantage of Caitanya Mahāprabhu's mercy... It is... Caitanya Mahāprabhu's mercy means it is perpetual. Not that because Caitanya Mahāprabhu has introduced the saṅkīrtana movement, therefore the name is as good as the person. No. It is always the name Nārāyaṇa or Kṛṣṇa, the name of the Supreme Lord, is as good as the Su... It is always. But in this age especially it has got special potency. That is because we are all very, very fallen souls. (child crying) (aside:) The child. We are very, very fallen souls. We cannot do anything. It is very, very difficult. Although at any time, as it is said before, kevalayā bhaktyā. Kecit kevalayā bhaktyā vāsudeva-parāyaṇāḥ (SB 6.1.15). Simply by bhakti, devotional service, one can become liberated from all contamination. That's a fact, especially in this age.
Once one girl becomes prostitute, she'll never be touched. Kṛṣṇa married sixteen thousand wives. Kṛṣṇa can do anything. That is another thing. So these sixteen thousand girls were kidnapped by that Bhaumāsura. So without finding any way how to escaped from this asura's hand, they appealed to Kṛṣṇa that "You save us. This is our position." So Kṛṣṇa is bhakta-vatsala. He came and released them and killed the Bhaumāsura and asked them, "Now you can go to your father's house." So they began to cry. Why? "Now our fathers will not accept us because we have been kidnapped." Just see. "We have been kidnapped. I have no right to go to the father. And we're not married also." "Then, what you want?" "You kindly marry us." "All right. Come on." (laughter) This is Kṛṣṇa. Yes. "You have no shelter. You're taking My shelter? Come on. I shall give you all palaces. Come on." This is Kṛṣṇa. Take shelter of Kṛṣṇa. Never mind what is your position. Kṛṣṇa will accept you and give you all comfort. Ahaṁ tvaṁ sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi (BG 18.66). He will not kick out, even you are a prostitute. "I will give you protection." So why shall..., we should not take shelter of Kṛṣṇa? This is very natural conclusion.
That is not possible. Living entities are everywhere. Even in the fiery planet like the sun, there are. But we are rascals. We think everyone is rascal like us. Ātmavat manyate jagat. If one is rascal, he thinks all other rascals also. That is nature. He cannot think that "Somebody is more intelligent than me." He thinks, "I am rascal; therefore everyone is rascal." Ātmavat manyate jagat. This is the formula. You will find the example: just like a deaf man. He speaks very slowly. He thinks the other man is also speaking slowly. No. He is deaf. Other man is crying, but he is hearing very slow. Therefore a deaf man speaks very slow. He thinks that he is speaking slow. So ātmavat manyate jagat. This is the nature.
And they were simply searching after in the Vṛndāvana forest. He rādhe, "Rādhārāṇī," vraja-devīke, "all the gopīs," he rādhe vraja-devike ca lalite he nanda-sūno: "O the son of Nanda Mahārāja, Kṛṣṇa." Kutaḥ, "Where you are all?" This is bhāva. "Where you are all?" Śrī-govardhana-kalpa-pādapa-tale kālindī-vane kutaḥ: "Where you are? Are you near the Govardhana Hill or some forest on the bank of the Yamunā? Please let me know." Ghoṣantāv iti sarvato vraja-pure khedair mahā-vihvalau. In this way they were searching after Kṛṣṇa, "Where is Kṛṣṇa? Where is Kṛṣṇa?" and crying, ghoṣantāv iti mahā-vihvalau, just like madmen. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. This is the highest perfection of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, when one will be mad after Kṛṣṇa, "Where is Kṛṣṇa? Where is Kṛṣṇa? Where is Kṛṣṇa?" That is... Caitanya Mahāprabhu also showed us that way. The Gosvāmīs also showed us that way.
So they may ask that "If God is everywhere, why you are worshiping an idol?" He's not idol, He is God, but he is seeing idol. Unless he has developed love for God, he cannot see. But it is, God is there. But because our eyes cannot see the spirit, at the present moment, our dull material eyes... Just like you are spirit soul, I am spirit soul, your father is spirit soul, your mother is spirit soul—but are you seeing the spirit soul? When the spirit soul goes away, you're crying, "My father is gone, my father is gone." Why father is gone? He's lying on the bed. You have seen the coat, pants, hands, legs, that is there. Why you say gone? "No, he's gone." So we cannot see the spirit soul even of our father and mother; how can you see God, the Supreme Spirit? Therefore God comes before you just like stone, which you can see. It is to favor you. God is everything. So, in this way, we have to understand God, Kṛṣṇa. And if anyone understands, then he becomes immediately fit for going back to home, back to Godhead. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti kaunteya. Janma karma ca me divyaṁ yo tattvataḥ (BG 4.9).
So this... Real religion is love, how to love God. That is real religion Dharma, what is that? Yato bhaktir... Sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmo (SB 1.2.6). There are different kinds of dharma, or religious system. But real religious system means how we have learned to love God. That's all. Nothing more. No ritualistic ceremony, no formula, nothing. If your heart is always crying for God, that is perfect religion. That is perfect religion. Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu says, śūnyāyitaṁ jagat sarvam: "Oh, without Kṛṣṇa, I am feeling the whole world is vacant." Vacant, yes. So we have to come to that stage. Of course, it is not possible for all of us, but Caitanya Mahāprabhu showed us how to become highest religious person. That is to feel always, "Oh, without Kṛṣṇa, everything is vacant." Śūnyāyitaṁ jagat sarvaṁ govinda viraheṇa me. That is dharma, that is dharma. So the Viṣṇudūta is testing these Yamadūtas, whether he understands what is the meaning of dharma. Dharma, we cannot create. Dharma is neither Hindu dharma, Muslim dharma, Christian dharma, this dharma, that dharma. They may be some sectarian understanding, but real dharma means how we have learned to love God.
We commit mistake. Bhrama, pramāda. And pramāda means to accept something as something, something else. Just like the most erudite scholar, he also accepts that "This body is the self. There is no soul." Others... There are many scholars, they do not accept that there is soul differently. "This body is everything," that is called pramāda. Bhrama, pramāda, vipralipsā. Vipralipsā means cheating. Every conditioned soul has a cheating propensity. "For my purpose, to fulfill my purpose, I say something to you which is not beneficial to you, but still, I impress that this is right." That is called cheating. And karaṇa-pāṭava. Karaṇa means the senses. The senses are also imperfect. I am seeing the sun daily with my eyes, but still, I have no full knowledge of the sun because my eyes are imperfect. If there is any sound upstairs, and I inquire, "What is this sound?" (aside:) Why he is crying so much? What is that? (man talking loudly outside the room)
To receive Vedic knowledge... Vedic knowledge means spiritual knowledge. Material knowledge also, the same process, any knowledge, especially spiritual knowledge. Because material things sometimes we can perceive directly because our body is material. But spiritual knowledge, unless you hear from the authority, there is no source of knowledge. You cannot understand. Because we do not see what is spirit. I am spirit, you are spirit, but I do not see your spirit soul, you do not see my spirit soul, because we have got material eyes. When somebody dies, one cries, "Oh, my father is gone. My father is gone." Where is your father gone? Your father is lying on the bed. Why do you say father gone? That means with these material eyes we cannot see spirit.
This is not recommended. Nobody says, "I want to see knowledge," no: "I want to hear knowledge." Therefore it is called śruti, and knowledge is received through the ear, aural reception. Why not with eyes and other senses? That is also very important to know. Suppose you are sleeping. Then all your senses are also sleeping. But the ear does not sleep. You have got practical experience. When a man is sleeping and somebody is coming to kill him, so what do you say? You cry, "Mr. such and such, wake up! Wake up! There is danger. There is..." Then he can... Otherwise, all the senses are there, but only the ear will help you. The eyes are there, hands are there, legs are there, everything is there—nothing of this limbs of your, part of your body, will help you. Simply your ear will help you when you are in danger. Therefore here it is said, śuśruma: "We have received knowledge through the ears, not with the eyes." Those rascals says, "I want to see practically." He cannot see. That is not possible. The modern defect is that they do not hear. The so-called scientists, philosophers, they do not hear. They simply want to see, want to touch, want to smell, want to lick up. That is not knowledge. So they are all failure. They do not hear. But the process is here, as it is said, śuśruma: "We have received knowledge by hearing from the authority." That is perfect knowledge. That is perfect knowledge.
He's the supreme controller, but He is controlled by His devotee, Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī. He is controlled. So it is not to be easily understood what is the pastimes between... But Kṛṣṇa is willingly agreed to be controlled by His devotee. That is Kṛṣṇa's nature. Just like Mother Yaśodā. Mother Yaśodā is controlling Kṛṣṇa, binding Him: "You are very naughty? I will bind you." Mother Yaśodā has a stick, and Kṛṣṇa is crying. Kṛṣṇa is crying. These things you study. It is stated in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Kunti's prayer, how she is appreciating that "My dear Kṛṣṇa, You are the Supreme. But when under the stick of Mother Yaśodā you are crying, that scene I want to see." So Kṛṣṇa is so bhakta-vatsala that He is the supreme controller. But a devotee like Mother Yaśodā, a devotee like Rādhārāṇī, devotees like gopīs, devotees like the cowherds boy, they can control Kṛṣṇa. That is Vṛndāvana life.
So we have to be very careful. The age is very bad, the Kali-yuga. You are experiencing. We have to simply take shelter of Kṛṣṇa and always cry,
kṛṣṇa, kṛṣṇa, kṛṣṇa, kṛṣṇa, kṛṣṇa, kṛṣṇa, kṛṣṇa, he!
kṛṣṇa, kṛṣṇa, kṛṣṇa, kṛṣṇa, kṛṣṇa, kṛṣṇa, kṛṣṇa, he!
kṛṣṇa, kṛṣṇa, kṛṣṇa, kṛṣṇa, kṛṣṇa, kṛṣṇa, rakṣa mām!
kṛṣṇa, kṛṣṇa, kṛṣṇa, kṛṣṇa, kṛṣṇa, kṛṣṇa, pāhi mām!
kṛṣṇa, keśava, kṛṣṇa, keśava, kṛṣṇa, keśava, rakṣa mām!
rāma rāghava, rāma rāghava, rāma rāghava, pāhi mām!
Like that, as Caitanya Mahāprabhu taught us. The time is very dangerous. And still, in this dangerous time... Just like in epidemic condition where every people is being contaminated and dying, still, the doctors appointed by the government, they have to go into the epidemic area and try to treat the person and save them. Our duty is like that. The whole atmosphere is epidemic, whole atmosphere, this Kali-yuga.
As soon as he said, Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura became fire. "Oh, this rascal is like that." He immediately ordered, "Arrest him. Arrest him." And he showed some fiery spark coming from his jāta. So the constables were hesitating to arrest him, but Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura ordered, "Yes, immediately arrest him. Handcuff." So he took him away, arrested. And as soon as he returned home, all the members of his family were in fever, high degree fever, and Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura himself was in fever. He made some trick, yogic trick. So his wife began to cry: "Oh, you have arrested one great yogi. He is Viṣṇu, and therefore we are now going to die. We are now..." (laughter) So Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura: "Yes, you die. All die. Still, what I have done is all right." Then when there is date for appearance in the court, in the court the man was brought, and yogi. You see? And Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura asked... Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura was suffering still in fever. Still, he attended the court and asked the constables that "Cut his jāta."
They do not, cannot do anything. They have taken to this process." So therefore he is avaiṣṇava. Just like Rāmānanda Rāya. He was accompanied by very, very learned men, learned brāhmaṇas. And Caitanya Mahāprabhu, when he met Caitanya Mahāprabhu and both of them embraced and were crying in ecstasy, the brāhmaṇas, the smārta-brāhmaṇas, they could not understand that "Why this great personality, governor...? He is so great and simply by embracing a sannyāsī he is crying. And why this sannyāsī... It is understood that He is coming from a brāhmaṇa family. And He has taken such a great personality. Why He is crying by embracing Rāmānanda?" They could not understand. And as soon as Lord Caitanya saw that the smārtas are puzzled, He stopped. He stopped. Perhaps you know this incidence. So the smārtas, they cannot understand the... Smārta, jāta-gosāi. The smārtas, to pull on their business, so they have become gosvāmīs. But actually they are not devotees. So these gosvāmīs will go to a devotee, and one who is willing to accept a spiritual master. Then they will offer different kinds of mantras: "You want to worship Kṛṣṇa? All right. I will give you Kṛṣṇa mantra. You want to worship Kālī? I will give you kālī-mantra." This way the business is going on.
Yes, certainly. That is another bliss, to feel separation from Kṛṣṇa. Everything, either you meet or you separate, the bliss is there. Crying for Kṛṣṇa is better bliss. So as there are Yamadūtas—they are arresting all the sinful persons—similarly, Viṣṇudūtas, they are always protecting the devotees. Nārāyaṇa-paraḥ sarve na kutaścana bibhyati (SB 6.17.28). Therefore those who are devotees, they are not afraid of anything because they know confidently that "Kṛṣṇa is there." That is one of the items of śaraṇāgati. Surrender means when... Unless one is convinced that "Kṛṣṇa will give me protection," so how he can surrender? There is no question of surrender. Avaśya rakṣibe kṛṣṇa vivaśa-pālana. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura has said to be firmly convinced: "Then Kṛṣṇa will give me all protection." Therefore surrender is perfect.
This word is bhāva-yogam. Bhāva means ecstasy. Ecstatic yoga, the yoga principle by which one comes to the ecstasy. Just like sometimes while you are chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa you come to the ecstatic point. You forget yourself and dance, forget everything. That is called bhāva-yogam. To the devotee it appears sometimes. So bhāva-yogam. There are aṣṭa-sāttvika-bhāva—sometimes crying, some stunned, sometimes perspiring. These things come to the devotee. That is not to be practiced artificially. When actually one advances in devotional service this bhāva-yoga, aṣṭa-sāttvika-bhāva, vikāra, comes into existence. Therefore the devotional service is known also, bhāva-yogam.
The gopīs... Kṛṣṇa became absent from Vṛndāvana, so their mind was always absorbed in the thought of Kṛṣṇa. When Kṛṣṇa was present in Vṛndāvana, that time also. When Kṛṣṇa used to go the forest, the gopīs were thinking of Kṛṣṇa always: "Oh, how Kṛṣṇa is walking on the rough field. There are so many stone chips. Kṛṣṇa's feet is so soft. How He is feeling?" And feeling this, they were crying. That was the gopīs. So therefore, as Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa's thought, they are absolute, there is no difference... Therefore it is said Kṛṣṇa never goes a step forward from Vṛndāvana because gopīs have captured them. Kṛṣṇa cannot go out of Vṛndāvana on account of gopīs always thinking of Him.
Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatim. Actually his interest is Viṣṇu. Just like a small child is crying. Then what is the child's interest? It is searching after the mother's breast. So anyone who knows, immediately he takes the child and brings to the mother, "Take care of your child. She is crying." And the mother takes on the breast. The child is immediately happy. The child cannot express what does he want, but he is simply crying. But one who knows what for she is crying or he is crying, he takes that, he helps with the child, and then the child is happy. Similarly, na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇum (SB 7.5.31). Because we are part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa or the Supreme Lord, Supreme Personality of Godhead, we are actually crying for Kṛṣṇa. But these false leaders, these blind leaders, they do not know. They are giving... Instead of bread, they are giving stone. How one can be happy? That is the position.
There is a very nice story. I have several times perhaps recited that one morning... In the western countries also fair takes place, some in county, some village place. So in India there are weekly bazaar which is called haṭṭa. So at that time the salesmen with their goods, commodities, they assemble and many purchase are..., just like in market place. So there was a market, weekly market, and thousands of people assembled there. So one old lady of that village, she began to cry. Then her elderly son inquired, "Mother, why you are crying?" "No, where shall I accommodate all these people to lie down in the, at night? There are so many people in this village, and how I shall accommodate?" The son began to laugh. "My dear mother, you don't bother. It will be all arranged." "No, my dear son, I am very much perplexed." So she began to cry. So in the evening the son called the mother, "Mother, now you see in the marketplace." She saw, "Oh, where are all those people gone? Huh?" So there is arrangement. All those thousands of people assembled in the market, they have got their sleeping place. They have got their eating place.
The soul is the production of Kṛṣṇa. Therefore ultimately, He is our dearmost friend. We are trying to love somebody. That somebody is a perverted reflection of Kṛṣṇa. Actually... Just like the child. The child is searching after the mother's breast. And it is crying. If somebody takes the child, he's not satisfied. Because he cannot express that "I want my mother." Similarly, we are hankering after loving Kṛṣṇa in a perverted way. But because we have no information of Kṛṣṇa, we have forgotten our relationship with Kṛṣṇa, therefore we are loving this body, that body. Ultimately, I am loving a cat or dog or something else. The love is there, but we have misplaced the love. As soon as we replace our love to Kṛṣṇa, then our perfection of love is manifested and our perfection of life is also achieved. Lord Caitanya preached this philosophy that premā pum-artho mahān. Prema, prema means love. His philosophy, Lord Caitanya's philosophy, is ārādhyo bhagavān vrajeśa-tanayaḥ. Vrajeśa-tanayaḥ means Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa appeared as the son of the king of Vraja, Vṛndāvana. Therefore And tanaya means son. So Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, His propagation, His teaching, the substance of His teaching is that Kṛṣṇa is the most worshipable object.
I shall just try to explain you about their mentality, how they are loving Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa used to take His cows to the forest for pasturing. And the gopīs, when Kṛṣṇa was away from the village, the gopīs were thinking, "Oh, Kṛṣṇa's, I mean to say, foot is so soft, and He's walking barefooted on the stones and chips of stones, and they are pricking His foot. Oh, how much He's suffering!" In this way they were thinking and crying. Kṛṣṇa is away from the village and is walking in the forest, and the gopīs were thinking at home that, "How much troublesome the walking is that He has gone out." In this way there are so many. So while they were at home, while they were cooking or they were feeding their children, always they were thinking of Kṛṣṇa. That was their qualification. That's all. They were so much absorbed in thoughts of Kṛṣṇa that not a single moment were without Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
So he requested his four Kumāra sons, "My dear boys, you get yourself married and increase generation." But the Kumāras, they said, "My dear father, we are not going to marry. We are not going to be entangled in this material way of life. We shall remain as brahmacārīs and cultivate Kṛṣṇa consciousness." Oh, the father was very angry. Oh, you are refusing my order? So when he became angry... Angry means that is Rudra. So from that anger Lord Śiva was born. Therefore he is called Rudra. And he was Rudra, his name was Rudra because he was crying from the very beginning of his birth. So anyway, Rudra is also one of the authorities, Rudra, or Lord Śiva.
God is everywhere. Eko 'py asau racayituṁ jagad-aṇḍa-koṭim yac-chaktir asti jagad-aṇḍa-cayā yad-antaḥ aṇḍāntara-stha-paramāṇu-cayāntara-stham (Bs. 5.35). God is everywhere. Even within the atoms. But we have no eyes. The part of God, mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūtaḥ (BG 15.7). The little portion of God is there in you and me. The living force. But we cannot see that. So we haven't got eyes to see God. We cannot eyes to see my father, mother. We are seeing the body. When the father dies, we cry, "My father has gone." Where your father has gone? Here he's lying. But he has not seen ever who is his father. Therefore our present eyes are not fit to see spiritual thing. We are fit to see stone, wood, like that. Therefore Kṛṣṇa, out of His great kindness, He has appeared before you. You are thinking it is stone. It is not stone. Kṛṣṇa. But because you cannot see except stone, He appears like stone. This is called Deity worship.
Same example: Father and the son. The son is dear to father, and the father is dear to the son, at least so long the child is not grown up to rebel against the father and mother. Just like the small child lying down on the lap of the mother. It does not know anything except mother. So as soon as mother is not there it begins to cry because very, very dear. Mother is very dear. Similarly, the child is also very dear to the mother. This is natural relationship. So we being part and parcel... What is this child? A part and parcel of the mother. From very small body the child has grown. That means the mother has given the body of the child. Therefore it is part and parcel. Hm. What is child? From the mother's body it has developed, and then it comes out and develops again, go on. So yad eṣa sarva-bhūtānāṁ priya. Therefore child is... Because part and parcel, therefore the child is very dear to the mother and the mother is very dear to the child, priya. Priya means very, very dear.
Because by nature there is love. Just like the child. It loves the mother. And in the absence of the mother he cries, and when the mother comes he becomes satisfied. So our real love is for Kṛṣṇa but that we have forgotten. And you are offered, "Why you are crying? You take this. You take this. You take this." No. Nothing will satisfy us unless we again come back to love our original source of life.
Just like Dhruva Mahārāja. Dhruva Mahārāja was thinking of becoming happy by getting a great kingdom and ultimately when he met the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he found the object of love. He said, svāmin kṛtārtho 'smi varaṁ na yāce: (CC Madhya 22.42) "No. I don't want anything. I have got now everything. I have seen You." Yaṁ labdhvā cāparaṁ lābhaṁ manyate nādhikaṁ tataḥ. If you get Kṛṣṇa—Kṛṣṇa or Viṣṇu, the same thing—then you become satisfied. Otherwise there is no possibility of satisfaction. That is not possible. Simply when you get Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa's service is the same. It is not Māyāvāda, that we get Kṛṣṇa and we become one with Him. Then that is not satisfaction. That is not satisfaction. When Dhruva Mahārāja saw Viṣṇu he did not say, "Now let me become one with You." No. He said, svāmin kṛtārtho 'smi varaṁ na yāce. There is svāmi, master, and the servant is feeling full satisfaction by seeing the master. This is real satisfaction, not that stop our relation, not that the child is crying and praying to the mother, "Mother, you push me within your belly. We become one." No. It is crying for the love exchange of mother. "Mother, give me your breast milk. I will be satisfied."
Things cannot be adjusted unless we stand on the spiritual platform, because the actual necessity is spiritual demand. The best example is your country. Materially, you are so much advanced. No other country can be compared. But a section of younger generation, they feel frustrated, confused. Why? They are brought up very nicely. The government system is very nice. They can get education. Everything is complete. But still, they are not happy. They are finding something else which will make them happy. Why? This is spiritual demand. Just like this child cannot express what is the trouble. May be some ant is there within the bedding, and it is cutting on his delicate body, but he cannot express what is the actual trouble. Cries, expression of difficulty.
This is called durāpūreṇa. It is never fulfilled. This attraction of man and women in family life continues. The other day one devotee came to me, and he was almost crying, that "My wife is suffering, and she may not live. So kindly give me some blessings." Before the death of his wife—because there was nothing serious—the wife has said, "My dear husband, I may not live very long with you," and he is so disturbed that he is thinking that "My wife may die at any moment." So this is the position. This is not very extraordinary thing. This attraction of man and women, this is material bondage. Therefore it is said, durāpūreṇa kāmena: (SB 7.6.8) this lusty desires is never fulfilled even up to the point of death. And what is this nature of this lusty desire? Moha, illusion. It is not fact. It has no substance, but it is there; that's a fact. The example is given just like in dream, somebody is cutting my head and I'm crying.
This sneha-pāśa, sneha is there. Sneha means affection. Everyone got affection. The cats and dogs they have got also affection. But the affection is wrongly placed. We are affectionate to the skin, to this body. So this is wrong affection. Real affection is to the soul. That we do not know, we have no information. We are loving our child, that is very good, but not the soul, but the body. If someway or other the child is dead or my father is dead, we cry, "Father has gone." Why father has gone away? The body which you loved, that is lying there. So we do not know whom to love. So if we love actually, let us love the soul. How the soul... Love..., to love means for benefit. That is real love. I love you for your benefit; you love me for my benefit. If I so-called love you for my benefit, that is lust. So in this material world there cannot be love. It is not possible. Because everyone loves, so-called love. He loves his sense gratification. A young boy loves a young woman for his sense gratification, not for her sense gratification.
In this way, as he makes advance in spiritual life, then simply by niśamya karmāṇi guṇān atulyān, simply by hearing about Kṛṣṇa's pastimes, immediately he will be filled up in ecstasy and he will cry. These are the symptoms. Niśamya karmāṇi guṇān atulyān, vīryāṇi līlā-tanubhiḥ kṛtāni. Vīryān līlā, Kṛṣṇa is killing so many demons, Kṛṣṇa is dancing with gopīs, Kṛṣṇa is playing with His cowherd boys, Kṛṣṇa is going there, this is līlā, smaraṇam. The Kṛṣṇa book reading means remembering all these activities of Kṛṣṇa. Simply go on reading Kṛṣṇa book, repeat it, you are in the perfect stage of transcendental position. Simply read our Nectar of Devotion. Līlā, atulyān. Niśamya karmāṇi guṇān atulyān, vīryāṇi līlā-tanubhiḥ kṛtāni, yadātiharṣotpulakāśru-gadgadam. Pulakasru, in ecstasy. Pulaka is trembling and faltering voice and tears coming down, perspiring, these are (called) aṣṭa-sāttvika-vikāra (CC Antya 14.99). Protkaṇṭha udgāyati rauti nṛtyati.
Similarly when one has actually in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, in developed position, his symptom will be that as soon as he hears of Kṛṣṇa, or God, he becomes immediately ecstatic and begins to dance and cry and sing just like a madman. So this stage... We have several times cited the example, that reading of Bhagavad-gītā... When Lord Caitanya was traveling in South India, He saw one brāhmaṇa, he was reading Bhagavad-gītā, but he was illiterate. But he was crying. So on inquiry from Caitanya Mahāprabhu what he is reading, he frankly admitted that "I am illiterate. I do not know even the letters. But my Guru Mahārāja asked me to read Bhagavad-gītā daily, so I am trying to read it. But I cannot read it." Then Caitanya Mahāprabhu inquired, "Then why you are crying?" He replied, "Yes, I get an ecstatic sentiment. As soon as I touch this book, I see the picture, that Kṛṣṇa is driving the chariot, and Arjuna is sitting, and He is instructing. So Kṛṣṇa is so kind, Kṛṣṇa is so faithful to His devotee, that He has taken the menial execution of service to His devotee. These feelings, whenever I feel, I am crying." This is the stage.
So Prahlāda Mahārāja says, yadā atiharṣotpulakāśru-gadgadam. He became so glad that he is faltering in speaking. Caitanya Mahāprabhu, when He was dancing in Jagannātha Purī during car festival and was singing, He could not utter "Jagannātha." He was uttering, "Jaga-aga-aaa-aaa..." Like that. He was faltering, faltering. These signs are that. They become at once transferred to the spiritual atmosphere and platform. These are very higher stage. Yadā graha-grasta iva kvacid dhasaty ākrandate dhyāyati vandate janam. Just like one man is haunted by ghost. He shows different caricatures. Sometimes he laughs; sometimes he cries; sometimes he is falldown; sometimes he touches your feet. These are the symptoms.
If one can understand nitya-siddha bhāgavata, then he immediately becomes eligible to go back to home, to back to godhead. This is the privilege of associating with mahā-bhāgavata. So our system is, (child crying—aside:) try and maintain (?). Evaṁ paramparā, to associate with the mahā-bhāgavata by words or by physical exposition (?). So mahā-bhāgavata arbhakaḥ. One may argue, arbhakaḥ means foolish child, who has no knowledge, he is called arbhakaḥ. How we can say mahā-bhāgavata? Arbhakaḥ, he has no knowledge. No. It is possible. Ahaituky apratihatā. Bhakti does not depend on age, or on advanced knowledge, or richness, or so many other things. Janmaiśvarya-śruta-śrī (SB 1.8.26). To take birth in high family, aristocracy, and to become rich, to become beautiful, to become very learned scholar. These things are material assets, but spiritual life does not depend on these things. One can become spiritually very advanced even though he is poor, he is born in a low, low-grade family.
These are the kramaḥ. You cannot get prema state artificially, crying, falling down and then smoking bidi, this is not prema. Prema you have to learn by the kramaḥ pantha. That kramaḥ pantha is the same, ādau śraddhā. Ādau śraddhā. Śraddha means faith. "Yes, Kṛṣṇa says that, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekam (BG 18.66), it is right." This is faith, this is beginning of faith. Now to keep the faith or to increase the faith, you have to live with faithful servants of Kṛṣṇa.
So Prahlāda Mahārāja suggests the remedy, how to become free from anxieties. He says hitvātma-ghātaṁ gṛham andha-kūpaṁ. Ātma ghāṭam. Ātma means the soul, and ghāṭam means killing. Hitvātmā-ghāṭam gṛham andha-kūpaṁ. Andha-kūpa means blind well. Blind well... I do not know whether you have got experience. In India there are several old wells on the paddy fields and they are covered with grass. Nobody can understand that there is a well underneath this, underneath this grass. And if by mistake one comes there, he falls down, say hundred feet down. And it is covered with grass. Even if he cries, "Please save me, save me," who is going to save him? Sometimes cow and animals and men fall down in that way. If he's fortunate enough, somebody comes and rescues. Otherwise, generally, there is no rescue. Who is going to know that there is a man or there is an animal? So hitvātmā-ghāṭam andha-kūpaṁ. This material world is just like that blind well.
Just like if a man becomes angry, so somebody tries to satisfy him. Just like somebody...sometimes our small child becomes angry and cries very loudly and the parents satisfy, "My dear boy, you are so nice, why you are crying? You can take this," just to pacify. Similarly, when Nṛsiṁha-deva became very angry for killing, because He was angry because Hiraṇyakaśipu teased his devotee, Prahlāda, so much. Therefore, He was very, very angry. Vaiṣṇava aparādha. If anyone offends a Vaiṣṇava, a pure devotee of Kṛṣṇa, he is the greatest offender. Kṛṣṇa never excuses. That I explained yesterday. It is very... Vaiṣṇava aparādha is the greatest dangerous offense.
Because the topic was on the body, so Arjuna said, "Accepting that the soul is immortal and it never dies, still, if some relative dies, we feel pain. Is it not a fact?" Kṛṣṇa said, "Yes, it is a fact." Even if I know that my son is dead, my son is not dead. The soul of my son is departed from this body to another body. So there is no cause of anxiety. He has got another body, but still, I feel, "Oh, my son...," for the body, because I am accustomed to love my son by the body. So this concession should be allowed. If somebody is crying, that does not mean he is a fool, but it is material affection. So Kṛṣṇa advises that this kṣānti, titikṣa, toleration. How toleration? Śītoṣṇa-sukha-duḥkha-dāḥ. Just like we tolerate there is severe cold. There is no use fighting and howling, "Oh, there is so much cold, so much cold, so much." You have to tolerate. You cannot fight.
It is said that a verse written in broken language... Suppose a person, a great devotee, is writing some prayers for God, but he has no idea of the rhetorical or prosodic method, the system of poetry. He has no such idea, but he is simply expressing his feeling. But if that feeling is correct, even the language is broken... There are many examples. Just like a child, he prays mother, parents, simply by crying. It has no language, but the mother understands what is the feeling of the child. It is the feeling that is taken into consideration, not the language. So Prahlāda Mahārāja very much encouraged, that tasmād ahaṁ vigata-viklava.
You have to sit down in a certain posture. So many things. Those things are not possible at the present age because we are so much disturbed by the present atmosphere, everyone. Just like this morning you have news that the Russians have captured Czechoslovakia. How much distressed they are. I heard from the newspaper that several of them were crying. So this is the position. Padaṁ padaṁ yad vipadam (SB 10.14.58). Every step, there is danger. The material conditional life is so obscure that every step. Therefore the first-class process of yoga is this bhakti-yoga. Simply you turn your attention to this vibration and chant it according to your capacity. It does not require any pre-education.
So according to the quality or modes of material nature we associate, we create another body. There are many places this thing has been described in the Bhagavad-gītā. Māyayā, yantrārūḍhāni māyayā. Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe 'rjuna tiṣṭhati, bhrāmayan sarva-bhūtāni (BG 18.61). Just like that Jumnagar(?) Agarwal, that... He is now in the police custody. Now he is crying, "Save me, save me, save me." But nature's law is very strict. Daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā duratyayā (BG 7.14). Once you have committed mistake, immediately nature's law reacts, and it is very difficult to come out of it. Daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā duratyayā.
There is one story in this connection. Not story; these are facts. A hunter spread his net. So some little birds, they fell down in the net and they are crying. They are crying. So the father, mother, when they came, they saw that their children are in danger: "It is caught by the net of the hunter." So mother immediately jumped over it to save the children, and she was also captured. Then the father saw, "Now if I go to save them, I'll be captured. Let me go away. Let me take sannyāsa. That's all." (laughter) That is intelligence. (laughter) You cannot give protection to your family, to your society. To your... No, you cannot give. That is not possible. They must die. They must be captured by the network of māyā. You cannot save them. If you want to save them, then make them Kṛṣṇa conscious. That is the only remedy. Unless you are expert in saving your children by giving them Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then you are not, you should not become father and mother. That is real contraceptive method, that "I shall... We are married, undoubtedly, husband and wife, but unless we are competent to give protection to my children—no more death—we should not beget children." This is real contraceptive.
Where is that education? Where is that education? No. But these children will be educated in that way, to see all woman as mother. Mātṛvat para-dāreṣu para-dravyeṣu loṣṭravat. Para-dravyeṣu: other's property as garbage in the street. Nobody touches. That is paṇḍita. He'll not touch even anything. Even valuable jewel is lying on the street, a paṇḍita will say, "I shall not touch it." This is a moral education. And ātmavat sarva-bhūteṣu. Ātmavat. If you feel some pain by pinching, why should you pinch others? And that is paṇḍita. If you cry when your throat is cut with a knife, why you should slaughter other animals? Therefore Lord Christ says, "Thou shall not kill." But these people are so uneducated. In spite of their Ph.D.s, they have no, this simple education, that "I suffer when I am killed. Why I shall kill others?" This is the modern education, all nonsense rascals' education. This is not education.
That is the difference, potent and potency. So "Such Ramā, the goddess of fortune, she also could not get this compassionate mercy or causeless mercy." So he's feeling proud that "You are so affectionate to Your devotee." Therefore Lord's name is bhakta-vatsala. He can offer to His bhakta any position, more than Himself. Just like Mother Yaśodā. She is bhakta, and Lord has given her the position for punishing Him. Mother Yaśodā is threatening Kṛṣṇa that "Kṛṣṇa, You were very naughty. Now I shall bind You." So Kṛṣṇa, out of being afraid, was crying. So Kṛṣṇa has given the position to the bhakta that "You chastise Me. I'll accept it." This is bhakta's position. This is Kṛṣṇa's causeless mercy. He can do that.
So Prahlāda Mahārāja is appreciating that "I am worthless. I have no qualification." That should be the position of the bhaktas always. Never we should think that "I have become a big bhakta."
Although he is born directly from the Supreme Lord, Viṣṇu, still, he could not see the Lord. Sa tv ātma-yonir ativismita. Suppose all of a sudden you are sleeping and you are put into a place where nobody else there—you are simply there and everything, it is dark. How much perplexed you would be. So the Brahmā's position was like that. After each millennium, Brahmā's death, and then again birth... Our birth and death is going on, the same process. We are in the womb of the mother, and all of a sudden we come out, we see light, began to cry, and the relatives take care of us and we forget everything, in how much precarious condition I was before my birth.
So they take pleasure. I have seen in my own eyes in Calcutta. One hotel man was cutting the throat of a chicken and half-cut, and the half-dead chicken was jumping like this, and the man was laughing. His little son, he was crying. I have seen it. He was crying. Because he's innocent child, he could not tolerate. He was crying. And the father was saying, "Why you are crying? Why you are crying? It is very nice." Just see. So without being devotee a man will become cruel, cruel, cruel, cruel, cruel, in this way go to hell. And devotee cannot tolerate. We have studied in the life of Lord Jesus Christ. When he saw that in the Jewish synagogue the birds were being killed, he became shocked. He therefore left. Jes... He inaugurated the Christian religion. Perhaps you know. He was shocked by this animal-killing. And therefore his first commandment is "Thou shall not kill." But the foolish Christians, instead of following his instruction, they are opening daily slaughterhouse.
There are two common questions. Everyone, so many people, come to us. Their first question is that "I am not getting peace in my mind. How can I get peace?" Yes, how can you get peace? You have no connection with the Supreme Person. Kuto śānty ayuktasya. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is... How you can get peace? It is impossible. Many examples we have given many times. A child is crying. Everyone is trying to pacify the child, still crying. But as soon as the mother takes the child on the breast, immediately pacified. This is the... You are searching after peace life after life, moment after mo..., hour after... You cannot have peace unless you come to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. It is not possible. Therefore it is advised, tasyaiva hetoḥ prayateta kovido (SB 1.5.18). For that purpose, how you can see God or you can please God, tasyaiva, hetoḥ, for that purpose only, prayateta, one should endeavor. No other endeavor. Human life is meant for... That is Vedānta-sūtra. Athāto brahma jijñāsā. Where is Brahman? Where is the Absolute Truth? Where is God? Govinda-viraheṇa me.
There is no more better, sublime upāsana, worship, than it was conceived by the gopīs." They did not want anything. They simply wanted to see Kṛṣṇa, how He is satisfied. Kṛṣṇa is away from home in the forest, and they are thinking, "In the forest there are so many crags, so many stone chipped, and Kṛṣṇa's feet is so soft. How He is walking in the forest?" In this way they are crying. This is gopī, always Kṛṣṇa conscious, and how Kṛṣṇa is happy or not, that is their business. Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu recommended, "There is no better form of worship than it was done by the gopīs." So Prahlāda Mahārāja... There are stages of devotees. So gopīs are the topmost, and amongst the gopīs, Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī is the topmost. Therefore there is no comparison of Rādhārāṇī's love for Kṛṣṇa. There is no comparison. Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu took the part of Rādhārāṇī to understand Kṛṣṇa. So these are very confidential subject matter, but they are described in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta, in the beginning. So that is the highest perfection, that don't ask anything from Kṛṣṇa. Try to make such arrangement that Kṛṣṇa may not give you anything; you give to Him.
So his one boy, he was ten, twelve years old. He was playing, and his friends told him that, "The king has insulted your father in this way." And the boy became very angry, "Oh, the king is so rude that he has insulted my father." He saw that a dead snake is over his neck. He immediately cursed Mahārāja Parīkṣit that "You will die within seven days, bitten by a snake." So when he was crying very loudly and this, I mean to say, sound was going on, the saintly person, the sage, he got up. "What has happened, my dear boy, you are crying?" "No, no! The king has insulted you, so I have cursed him." Oh, he became very sorry that "You have cursed such a saintly king? Oh, you have brought defamation to the whole brāhmaṇa community. You have allowed Kali-yuga to come in. It is the Kali-yuga's conspiracy." Anyway he sent the news to the king that "My son foolishly has cursed you. This is... But what can I do? It is God's wish. It has been done. So you be prepared." Now, just see, even a boy born of a brāhmaṇa, how much he was powerful. If a ten years old, he could curse such a great king and he had to abide by that. This was the condition of kṣatriya, brāhmaṇa, and vaiśya and śūdra.
When one is self-realized that he is not this body, he is the spirit soul, brahma-bhūtaḥ, then what are the symptoms? Now, prasannātmā: he becomes immediately very jolly. So long we are materially engrossed, bodily concept of life, there will be always anxiety. This is the test. Anyone who is in anxiety, means he is materially situated. And anyone who is elevated to the spiritual platform, he is prasannātmā. He is jolly. What is the meaning of prasannātmā? Na śocati na kāṅkṣati. He does not want anything, and if anything he has got, if he has lost, he does not cry for it. That's all. Here in the material world we are hankering after something which we do not possess. And if we possess something, if it is lost, then we cry. Two business: Śocana and ākāṅkṣa. Everyone is trying to be very big man. That is called ākāṅkṣa. And if he is lost of his possession, then he cries. So these two things will be finished if you become spiritually situated.
| Page Title: | Crying (SB Lectures) |
| Compiler: | Rishab, Mayapur |
| Created: | 26 of May, 2011 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=173, Con=0, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 173 |