There are many German scholars who can speak in Sanskrit language for hours. They are so serious student of Sanskrit. One of my Godbrothers, he is now in Sweden, he used to speak that "When one Indian student used to come to our country from London" In British days Indians would go to London, and he would take a degree there, and he would become a big man. That was the system. So while coming back home, naturally they used to visit other European countries. So in Germany they used to test the Indian student, how far he knew about his own culture. So this, my Godbrother, his name was Ansulye (?), now he's Sadānanda Swami, so he said that as soon as we saw that the student did not know anything of his Indian culture, immediately rejected him, "That is useless."
Degree (Lectures, SB)
Lectures
Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures
So people are becoming duṣkṛtina. Instead of becoming sukṛtina, they are becoming duṣkṛtina. And as a result of that, na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ prapadyante narādhamāḥ (BG 7.15). They are becoming rascals and lowest of the mankind. And whatever their university degrees are there, that knowledge is useless. And they are not going to surrender to God. This is the present position. Na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ prapadyante narādhamāḥ. Those who are coming to God, they are called sukṛtina, pious. But generally common men, even though he is pious, he goes to God to get some material profit. That is being discussed. Go on.
Everyone has got this desire. But... That is called civilization, "Eat, drink, be merry and enjoy." No. The human life is meant for being trained up to be detached. Just like we are training our students. They are not... If not cent percent, major portion, major percentage, they're detached. That is perfection. Gradually detached... Just like if you have got fever, 105 degrees, you should not increase it. You should decrease it. If you increase, "Oh, fever is very nice thing. Let us increase it," then death. As soon as it is 107 degrees, then death.
So this material civilization is like fever. We should not increase it. Neither we should decrease it to such an extent that we shall die. Just like fever. Fever, 105, 107 degrees, 106 degree, five degree, reduce it. Reduce, reduce, reduce. But it must stay at hundred, not hundred, 98 degrees. If you reduce 98 degree, 97, that is also not good. Similarly, our program is not to increase to the death point, neither to decrease it to the death point. Yuktāhāra-vihārasya.
No. As there are different things of different value, similarly, in each name there are potencies of the Lord. But there is degrees of potency. Just like rāma-līlā and kṛṣṇa-līlā, pastimes. Both of them are the same thing, God. But in the rāma-līlā you find less potential exhibition of the Lord, but in kṛṣṇa-līlā you find full potential manifestation of Lord. So degrees of potency... Although it does not mean the Rāma is less potent. No. Rāma is also the same potency. But under circumstances He exhibits a partial potency, not full potency. But kṛṣṇa-līlā, you will find full potency.
Big, big mountains, mountains, they have got also life. But they cannot enquire about God, that is not possible. You can enquire about God in this human form of life, that's all. Therefore in any civilized society, there is an enquiry of God, that is called religion. One may be, or in degrees there may be different. Just like in India, they are also making inquiry. Not now, not at the present moment. They have given up. But hundreds and thousands of years ago. Not thousand, even two hundred years ago, India was so inquisitive about enquiring about God. Even one Chinese gentleman, he has written one book, philosophical, that is recommended—I forgot the name, title of the book—that is studied in New York University in the religion class. In that book he has written that if you want to know about God, if you want to know about religion, then you must go to India. Yes, that's a fact.
That is āsuri-bhāva. There is no other ambition. So practically, modern society is going on on the āsuri-bhāva. They have rejected God consciousness, and they're simply interested in sense gratification. Āsuri-bhāvam āśritāḥ. Therefore, in spite of all educational advancement... They're very much proud of having big, big degrees, but Bhagavad-gītā says, māyayāpahṛta-jñānāḥ. Māyā has taken their knowledge, taken away. They have been stolen, because they have no real knowledge. Real knowledge is how to get freedom from repetition of birth and death. They do not believe in the next life. They think simply... Big, big professors, I have talked, especially in Russia. They think that "So long this body is there, you enjoy sense gratification to the utmost," the Cārvāka theory. This was also cultured long ago in India.
From the very beginning of life, appreciating, "It is nice." He knows or does not know, it doesn't matter. Simply appreciation is giving him a touch of spiritual life. It is so nice. Śraddhā. If they do not go against, simply appreciate, "Oh, they are doing nice..." So development of spiritual life means development of this appreciation, that's all. But degrees, there are appreciation.
So śuśrūṣoḥ śraddadhānasya vāsudeva-kathā-ruciḥ. In the previous verse, it has been explained, yad anudhyāsinā yuktāḥ. One has to be engaged always thinking. This is the sword. You have to take this sword of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Then you become free. The knot is cut by this sword. So... Now how we can get this sword? That process is described here that you simply, with faith, you try to hear. You'll get the sword. That's all. Actually, our this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is spreading. We are getting the sword one after another, simply by hearing.
Suppose you have no education, you do not understand Sanskrit or even English translation. Still, simply by hearing, śṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṇaḥ (SB 1.2.17), by simply hearing, puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtanaḥ. Puṇya means pious. We are all sinful. Life after life, we have committed sins, and this body is the evidence that we are sinful, this material body. It may be degrees different, but anyone who has got a material body, he is sinful. So every one of us is sinful, but simply by hearing...
Hearing, this hearing is possible in this human form of life. But even cats and dogs, if they hear, even the trees and ants and insects, they hear, they will also gain the benefit. This transcendental vibration. We human beings, we hear about Kṛṣṇa, we can understand about something that "Kṛṣṇa is saying like this," but the small child, or an animal, or even trees, insects, if they hear this Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, they'll be benefited. They will be benefited. This is the fact.
Bhakti, bhagavaty uttama-śloke bhaktir bhavati naiṣṭhikī. Then the Supreme Personality of Godhead, bhagavaty uttama-śloke, bhaktir bhavati naiṣṭhikī, devotional service becomes strong and fixed up. Simply by this process, hearing. There is no necessity of education or Ph.D. degree. Simply God has given you these ears and you hear, śṛṇvatām. Hear about Kṛṣṇa from realized soul. This process will make you to be situated on the platform of goodness, and as soon as you are promoted to the platform of goodness, that means you have already surpassed the other two platforms—means ignorance—and the symptom will be... That is clear here. The symptom is that the two things, lust and greediness, will not disturb you. You haven't got to take certificate from anyone, "Just give me certificate that I have become a Kṛṣṇa conscious." You take your certificate yourself, see yourself, whether you are free from lust and greediness. That's the certificate.
And devotees, they are engaged in serving the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
So all of them are searching about the... Devotees, they have finished their searching. They have found out the real truth. Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ (Bs. 5.1), the Supreme. So it is a question of degrees of spiritual understanding. So there are three million serious sādhus in India. None of them ever attended such Mahatma Gandhi's meeting, neither they invited Mahatma Gandhi. No. They never never recognized, recognized. Because what they have got to do with these political affairs? Just like... They know, this is the business of the crows. The crows will take interest in such meeting. Punaḥ punaś carvita-carvaṇānām (SB 7.5.30). What these politicians will do? They'll simply make plan. That's all. Hitler will make one plan, Mussolini will make one plan, Churchill will make another plan. Your Roosevelt will make another plan, Gandhi will make another. Simply planmaking business.
To reduce the reaction of sinful life. Because unless we are sinful, we cannot remain within this... A prisoner means a criminal. As soon as you find a person in the prisonhouse you should understand that he's a criminal. That criminality may be of different degrees, that is another thing, but he's a criminal. Similarly, anyone, beginning from Brahmā down to the germ in the stool, they're all sinful. All sinful. People will be surprised that "Brahmā is also sinful?" Yes. Brahmā has also desired that "I shall be the supreme creature within this brahmāṇḍa, whole universe." A little or more.
So anyone who has got this desire that "I shall enjoy in this material world," he's a sinful man. That is sinful. Because suppose something your, something belongs to you, and if I desire, "How I shall take this, possession of this thing?" is not that criminal?
We have to make purified. How it is purified? Sevonmukhe hi jihvādau svayam eva sphuraty adaḥ. When you engage yourself in the service of the Lord, sevonmukha—"Kṛṣṇa, I want to serve You"—this much wanted, qualification. No educational qualification, no Ph.D. degree, or to take birth in very high family or to become rich. Nothing. Simply a true feeling, desire: "Kṛṣṇa, so long I remained forgetting You. Now, somehow or other, I've come to the sense that You are everything. By hearing from my guru or the spiritual master or from the śāstra..." Sādhu-śāstra. Sat-saṅga-sādhu-śāstra. Lava-mātra sādhu-saṅge sarva-siddhi haya (CC Madhya 22.54).
In another verse in the Bhagavad-gītā, Kṛṣṇa says, samo 'haṁ sarva bhūteṣu: "I am equal to everyone." Otherwise, how He can be God? God is not partial, that He is merciful upon me and not merciful upon you. God cannot be like that. Just like a state, government. Government is equal to everyone, all citizens. But why somebody is going to the university to take his M.A. degree, and why one is going to the prison house to be imprisoned and suffering for so many years and...? It is not the government's partiality, that somebody go to the prison house and somebody will go to the university and occupy responsible position. No. It is our fault that we do not take opportunity or the facilities offered by the government or Kṛṣṇa. It is our fault. Why there are so many discrepancies and nonequality? Somebody is very rich; somebody is very poor. Somebody is eating stool, and somebody eating nice prasādam, halavā. It is all due to the living entity's karma. Otherwise, God is equal to everyone. Samaṁ carantaṁ sarvatra (SB 1.8.28).
This is the description of paṇḍita. Paṇḍita... And in the Bhagavad-gītā, the paṇḍita is described: paṇḍitāḥ sama-darśinaḥ (BG 5.18). This is paṇḍita. Nowadays it has become the custom that unless you have got a university degree, either you may be in knowledge..., māyayā apahṛta-jñānāḥ, you are not recognized as a paṇḍita. But in the Vedic scripture, the paṇḍita is different person. Anyone... This is the moral instruction by Cāṇakya Paṇḍita.
Because He's God Himself. He can do anything. We cannot do that. But we can work in the human society. It doesn't matter, however fallen a man is. If he follows our instruction then he can be turned.
That is called dharma. Dharma means to bring one to his original position. That is dharma. So there may be degrees. But the original position is that we are part and parcel of God, and, when we understand that we are part and parcel of God, that is our real position of life. That is called brahma-bhūta (SB 4.30.20) stage, understanding his Brahman realization, identification. So Kṛṣṇa comes... This explanation...
Just like Kuntī says that: apare vasudevasya devakyāṁ yācito 'bhyagāt (SB 1.8.33). Vasudeva and Devakī prayed to the Supreme Personality of Godhead that: "We want a son like You. That is our desires." Although they were married, they were, they did not beget any child. They engaged themselves in tapasya, severe tapasya.
God is present here, and still, you are wasting your time. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, mūḍha. Mūḍha. Na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ (BG 7.15). Simply rascal. They cannot be given any other title except this one title, mūḍhāḥ. Why they remain mūḍhāḥ? Why are they are not intelligent? They are being educated in the universities, getting so many degrees. Still, they remain mūḍhāḥ. Why? Duṣkṛtinaḥ, sinful, engaged in sinful activities, these sinful activities. Yatra pāpaś catur-vidhā. Every one of them, all these rascals, are... They're engaged in four kinds of sinful activities. They'll search after illicit sex, they will eat meat, and they will drink and they will play gambling. Just one after a... You just study. They cannot understand God because they are mūḍhāḥ.
So this attachment becomes fixed up again. Already there is attachment, and as soon as they are united, that attachment becomes more firm. Tayor mitho hṛdaya-granthim āhuḥ. I have already got attachment, but when I am again united actually, that attachment increases. Now, after the attachment increases to some degree, then next degree is find out nice apartment to live together. That is another increase of attachment. Then we have got an apartment. Find out some means of earning money. Formerly, they were earning..., there were no factories. Everyone has to earn his livelihood by agriculture, kṣetra. Ato gṛha-kṣetra. First of all, apartment must be maintained by working, by earning something, gṛha-kṣetra. Then when we, everything is settled up, now we must have a son, children. Yes. Ato gṛha-kṣetra-sutāpta. Then we shall, we must have some friends, who will come and eulogize me: "Oh, you have such nice apartment, nice wife." Ato gṛha-kṣetra-sutāpta-vittaiḥ (SB 5.5.8).
That's all. We have got test tube, how much he is advanced in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. If he's not, then he is grouped immediately in four groups: duṣkṛtina, means constantly committing sinful activities; mūḍha, rascal; narādhama, lowest of the mankind; māyayā apahṛta-jñāna, although educated with high degrees, his knowledge has been taken away; āsuraṁ bhāvam āśritaḥ, and demon.
- na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ
- prapadyante narādhamāḥ
- māyayāpahṛta-jñānā
- āsuraṁ bhāvam āśritāḥ
- (BG 7.15)
Immediately we classify, "Here is a rascal number one, lowest of the mankind," or "always engaged in sinful activities," or "whatever education he has got, that is useless, because his real knowledge..."
So does it mean that in different time Kṛṣṇa is giving different intelligence? No. Kṛṣṇa's action is daiva, superior. Just like the high-court, the judge is... Somebody condemning somebody that "This man should be hanged," and other man, "Yes, he must get the degree. He will get the millions of dollars from that person." Now, is he partial? He is giving somebody millions of dollars and somebody is ordered to be hanged. Is he partial? No. He is not partial. He is simply administering the law. That's all. This man has created such a situation that he should be condemned to death, and this man has created such situation that he will be rewarded by ten thousand and millions of dollars. It is his action.
That is deśa-kālārtha-yuktāni. Then hṛt-tāpa upaśamāni ca. Hṛt-tāpa. There is a hṛt-tāpa. Hṛt means heart, and tāpa means... Real meaning is temperature, or temperature rooted. Just like agni-tāpa. Agni. Agni means fire, and tāpa, it has got temperature. So to a certain degree you can tolerate. But when the degree... Just like in India we have got temperature in summer season 120 degrees. Here, just like in your country, the temperature is less. In other country... The temperature in, I mean, the Middle East, the temperature is 135 degrees, Arabian countries.
So there are three tāpas, three kinds of miserable condition, this material world. That also can be taken, tāpa. Tāpa means suffering, excessive heat and cold. That is called tāpa. So hṛt-tāpopaśamāni ca. The teachings of Bhagavad-gītā... We are suffering always within the heart. As Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura says, that viṣaya viṣānale, divā-niśi hiyā jvale. Viṣaya. Viṣaya means this material enjoyment.
Prabhupāda: Yes, He says, paraṁ vijayate śrī-kṛṣṇa-saṅkīrtanam. So you follow His advice and you will get, become victorious. So I will advise you not to make research in that way. (laughter)
Indian woman: Well, I got my degree doing that research.
Prabhupāda: Yes, that degree is there. (laughter)
Indian woman: Well, but Lord Kṛṣṇa still helped me, you know, whether I was right or wrong.
Prabhupāda: Huh?
Indian woman: I still got His grace and help.
Prabhupāda: Well, when you go to the fire, the heat is there. (laughter) But the temperature may be different. Anyway, some way or other, if you go to the heat, fire, you'll get some heat. But that temperature may be different. Hmm?
Ninety-three million miles away from us; still, we are feeling scorching heat, 120 degree, 135 degree. In Middle East the temperature the temperature is 135 degrees. It is impossible to stay on the surface of the globe. One goes down to the earth. So potency is there. If in material thing like the sun-sun is a material thing; it has got so much potency—so how much potencies the Supreme Personality of Godhead got? That is called inconceivable potency. Acintya, beyond your perception. He has got that potency.
We are now situated in the middle, Bhūrloka. It is called Bhūrloka. Above this, there is Bhuvarloka. Above that, Svarloka, Janaloka, Maharloka, Satyaloka, like that, ūrdhvaloka. They are higher planetary... Then middle. And then lower planetary system. Ūrdhvaṁ gacchanti sattva-sthāḥ. If you develop sattva-guṇa, the quality of goodness, then according to your degree of goodness, you get promoted to the higher planets. Ūrdhvaṁ gacchanti sattva-sthā madhye tiṣṭhanti rājasāḥ (BG 14.18). If you are in the passion modes, then you stay here in this middle planetary system. And jaghanya-guṇa-vṛtti-sthā adho gacchanti tāmasāḥ. Those who are in the most abominable condition of life, adho gacchanti, they go down. Not only the down planetary system, but even to the animal kingdom, the beasts, birds, trees, plants, aquatics. You have to go.
Śūdra cannot live independently. That is śūdra. Nowadays the education is that nobody can live independently. Higher education means if he does not get a suitable service, then it is useless. Nobody. The education means nobody can live independently. So one takes titles in education degrees, "agriculturist." But he does not go to the field actually to act as agriculturist, kṛṣāṇa, no. He is finding some job in some school, college, how to teach agriculture. Nobody goes to the land practical, how to plow the land, how to produce foodgrains. Simply theoretical knowledge. "I am teaching you; you are teaching," that's all. This is going on. No independence.
So why this has happened? Because here it is said, kiṁ kṣatra-bandhūn. Kṣatriya, the administrator class, the government. So in Kali-yuga they will take charge of the administration or government, but they are not real kṣatriya. They are less than śūdra. So how the government will be nice?
And from the very beginning, if they begin education with Bhagavad-gītā and then comes to Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and reads the whole literature, then they will be more than M.A., Ph.D. More than. The knowledge will be so advanced.
These ordinary university degrees, M.A., Ph.D... Because the essence of knowledge is there. Nigama-kalpa-taror galitaṁ phalam idam (SB 1.1.3). It is stated that what is the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam? Nigama-kalpa-taru. Nigama means Vedas. It is just like kalpa-taru, desire tree. We have no idea of desire tree, what is desire tree. It is in the Vaikuṇṭha-loka. The trees are desire tree. Desire tree means from any tree you can get any fruit or anything you want. That is called desire tree. Here it is fixed up: you can get mango from the mango tree. But in the desire tree, whatever you want, you can get. So kalpa-taru. Kalpa-taru means any departmental knowledge that you require to execute your human form of life, so that you will find in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
Yes. He also taught about God. Kṛṣṇa consciousness means God consciousness. So why Jesus? Anyone speaks... But one must know. There are degrees. Just like a person... Somebody knows to some extent, other knows to some extent, other knows to some extent, other knows to some extent. Or somebody understands to some extent. So Kṛṣṇa consciousness means complete understanding of Kṛṣṇa. Just like there are steps; if you want to go to the 104th floor, there are so many steps. So everyone is going, aiming, to that 104th, but one has covered ten steps, one has covered twenty, another hundred, like that. The aim is the same, but you cannot say that one who has already covered one hundred steps, he is as good as one who has covered two steps. There is that difference. Here is a person who has covered only two steps; here is another person who has covered fifty steps; here is another person who has covered hundred steps. Suppose you have to fulfill five hundred steps. So proportionately, that is the position. But the steps are already there.
Puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtanaḥ. Śṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṇaḥ puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtanaḥ (SB 1.2.17). Simply by hearing, you become pious. Because we are all impious. Unless we are impious, we don't accept this material body. There may be difference of degrees. That does not make... Anyone who has come to this material world, he is to be considered as impious.
Therefore Kṛṣṇa said, ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi (BG 18.66). Because all of us are now in this material body means there is pāpa. Otherwise why there is... Just like in the prison house, anyone, he may be Gandhi or he may be a small pickpocket, anyone who is in the prison house, it is to be considered that he is criminal. He is a criminal in the eyes of the government. We may worship Gandhi, that's all right, or any political leader, but government think that he is a criminal. Similarly, we have to accept the government's decision.
There are two kinds of feelings: painful or pleasure. And that is due to consciousness. And this consciousness is there in every body, but they are in degrees. That is, the consciousness in tree is very lower. Therefore if you cut a tree, it does not respond. It responds... According to modern science... Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose, he has invented a machine that when you cut a tree or take out the fruit or the leaves or the branches, he feels, and that feeling is recorded in a machine. I do not know exactly the machine name, but there is a machine. It immediately...
So the consciousness is there in the trees also. But that has been known by the scientific apparatus, but according to our Vedic injunction, that is already mentioned in the śāstras, that the trees have consciousness. They are also living entities. Don't say that they are without life. They have got life. And therefore the system is... Just like we pick up flowers from the trees for offering to Kṛṣṇa, but the injunction is that after evening you should not touch the tree.
An inch development, advancement in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, is a great profit. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. Svalpam apy asya dharmasya trāyate mahato bhayāt. This consciousness, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, if achieved in the slightest degree, it can help you for the highest benefit. For the highest benefit, to takes you to the spiritual kingdom, Vaikuṇṭhaloka, Vṛndāvana. So don't be proud that "I have got human body" unnecessarily. Don't be proud that "I can live very, very longer period than the cats and dogs."
These things are very nicely discussed here. We shall try to explain. The beginning is taravaḥ kiṁ na jīvanti (SB 2.3.18) . The beginning of this... How our consciousness is developed and important, that is stated in these pages, that taravaḥ kiṁ na jīvanti. You are proud of having a little long duration of life than the cats and dogs; therefore you are proud? Oh, don't you see how long the trees also live, for seven thousand years, many thousands of years. So what is there in living for long duration of life?
That is the disciple's duty. Sevayā. Upadekṣyanti te jñānaṁ jñāninas tattva-darśinaḥ. So real knowledge can be achieved in this process. Praṇipāta... Not that I can challenge, "Oh, I can know. I have got so much education and degrees. I can understand what is God," or "There is no need of God. I am God. We are the controller." So these are all rascaldom. Real thing is tad viddhi praṇipātena paripraśnena, as Parīkṣit Mahārāja, the emperor of the world, he's hearing from Śukadeva Gosvāmī, you have seen that picture in our Bhāgavata, newly published, how Parīkṣit Mahārāja humbly asking and sitting before Śukadeva Gosvāmī. So bhāgavata-pradhānaḥ. Bhāgavata-pradhānaḥ. So Śukadeva Gosvāmī is the chief bhāgavata. Bhāgavata, there are two kinds of bhāgavata: grantha bhāgavatam and this person bhāgavatam. So Śukadeva Gosvāmī was person bhāgavatam, bhāgavata, chief.
And we get information from the śāstra that it is one of the heavenly planets. People live there for ten thousands of years. They drink soma-rasa. These are statement in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. It is not yet published. We have explained this. It is cold. And that is also admitted by scientists here. It is 200 degrees below zero. Therefore they require some heating beverage. That is called soma-rasa. The Bhagavad-gītā also it is stated. And how we can believe that there is no living entity. One side is dark, and one side is full of dust. These are our doubts. What is your version? You think it is all right?
Who is a learned scholar? Now, somebody will say one who has passed the M.A., Ph.D. degrees in university, he is learned scholar. Cāṇakya Paṇḍita says, "No, that is not the criterion." Simply to hold degrees of university examination, that is not the test of his becoming learned scholar. That is not. Then what is the test of his becoming learned scholar? Three things. Mātṛvat para-dāreṣu. Except one's married wife, if one sees all other woman like mother, he is a learned scholar. Mātṛvat para-dāreṣu. Para-dravyeṣu loṣṭravat. And other's property, just like garbage in the street. And ātmavat sarva-bhūteṣu yaḥ paśyati sa paṇḍitaḥ. If one has acquired... By education, there must be some effect. So these are the tests how one has advanced in education. He must treat all woman except his mother, except his wife, as mother. In India still, women, especially in āśramas, any woman, visitor, she is addressed as "Mother" by all the... She may be young girl, but she is addressed as "Mother." This is the etiquette. "Mother, what can I help you?" This is the very relationship.
Just like you are suffering from some boil on the body. It is very painful. Then, in order to cure it, you have to undergo the surgical operation if you want to be cured. Therefore tapasā. That is tapasā. Tapa means painful condition, tapa. Just like temperature. If you are put into high temperature, 110 degree, then it is very intolerable for you. It is very painful. Even for us Indians—we are born in India, tropical climate—still, when the temperature is more than hundred, it becomes intolerable. And what to speak of you? You are born in a different temperature. Similarly, we cannot tolerate lower temperature. If it is below fifty degree, it is intolerable for us. So there are different climates, different temperature. And in Canada they tolerate forty degree less than zero. So it is a question of different condition of life. But we are conditioned: high grade temperature, less temperature, high grade cold. But we can we trained up to any kind of conditional life. That capacity we have got.
Already there is high temperature, and still they will get fire all round and go on, meditation. This is tapasya. These are the items of tapasya. There is scorching heat and they will arrange that. There is pinching, chilly cold, less than hundred degree, and they will go under water and put the body up to this and meditate. These are the items of tapasya. Tapasya. So for God realization formerly people used to undergo such severe type of penances, and at the present moment we are so fallen, we cannot tolerate these four principles? Is it very difficult? We are imposing some tapasya, that "Don't indulge in these things. No illicit sex, no intoxication, no meat-eating, no gambling." These are the items of tapasya for advancing in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So is it very difficult? It is not difficult. If one can practice, go within the water up to the neck in chilly pinching cold, is it more difficult to give up illicit sex and meat-eating and intoxication?
And what other qualification? Mūḍha, ass, rascal. Na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ prapadyante narādhamāḥ. Narādhama means the lowest of the mankind. Why lowest? Now, because the human life is meant for understanding God and he does not know. Therefore he is lowest of the mankind, narādhama. Why it is so? There are so many university degrees-M.A., Ph.D., D.A.C., and so on, so on, delete.(?) Still, he does not know? Still, he's mūḍha? The Bhagavad-gītā says, "Yes." Māyayāpahṛta-jñānāḥ: (BG 7.15) "The knowledge he has achieved, that has been taken away by māyā." He's superficially simply degree holder. His actual knowledge is taken away. So therefore māyayāpahṛta-jñānāḥ. Why this has happened? Āsuraṁ bhāvam āśritāḥ. Because he defies, "What is God? I am God. You are all God. Why you are searching God? There are so many Gods loitering in the street. Take care of them."
Of course, if you follow a saj-jana, a devotee, that is very nice. But if you follow a rascal, then you also become rascal. But at the present moment the whole world is full of rascals, mūḍhāḥ, duṣkṛtinaḥ, narādhamāḥ. "Why do you call mūḍhāḥ duṣkṛtinaḥ narādhamāḥ? There is so much advancement of education. There are so many universities, so many degrees." But Kṛṣṇa says, māyayāpahṛta-jñānāḥ: (BG 7.15) "Their so-called knowledge has no value because the essence of knowledge is taken away by the illusion." "Now why you say? They are educated. No, their knowledge has been taken away? Why? What is the reason?" The reason is āśuraṁ bhāvam āśritāḥ: "They have taken to the nonsense philosophy of godlessness." That's it. For this reason their so-called education, university education, degrees, are simply illusion of māyā.
So anyone who is in this material world, more or less, we are all mūḍhas. This morning I was walking while walking on the beach. More or less, we are all mūḍhas. Without being mūḍhaḥ, nobody comes here in this material world. Beginning from Brahmā down to the small ant, we are all mūḍhas of different degrees. So in order to become really learned, not to remain mūḍha, we have to associate with devotee. Satāṁ prasaṅgān mama vīrya-saṁvidaḥ. Then it will be relishable. Relishable. Satāṁ prasaṅgān mama vīrya-saṁvidaḥ. When it is relishable... Actually, when you take some foodstuff, if it is relishable, it gives you contentment, "Oh, very nice food." So bhavanti hṛt: "It is pleasing to the heart." "Oh, such a nice food." And pleasing to the tongue. Similarly, when kṛṣṇa-kathā is discussed amongst the devotees, it is pleasing to the heart and pleasing to the ear. Unless you taste, relish something through the ear and through the heart, how you can steadily follow kṛṣṇa-kathā? So that requires little training.
Before this verse... Guhyād guhyatamam. Guhyād guhyatamam. Guhya means very confidential. So this guhya, this Brahman realization, is also very confidential. But Paramātmā realization is guhyatara, still more confidential. And to understand Kṛṣṇa is guhyatama, superlative degree. Guhyād guhyatamam.
So to understand Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa has explained in so many ways. Simply to understand Kṛṣṇa makes you liberated. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti kaunteya (BG 4.9). So therefore this is the process of understanding Kṛṣṇa. These Kṛṣṇa consciousness centers are being opened all over the world just to give the people the chance how to become liberated simply by seeing the Deity and chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. This is the opportunity. But fools and rascals, they think that "It is nuisance." But actually it's not. This is a science.
Therefore they are mūḍha, rascal. Na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ prapadyante narādhamāḥ. And lowest of the... Human mind, human brain, can understand that "I am suffering," but because he is not understanding, therefore he is the lowest of the humankind, narādhamāḥ. These things are described in the Bhagavad-gītā. "No, they have passed M.A. degree, or Phd, M.A." Now, māyayāpahṛta-jñānāḥ. The knowledge has no value because it is māyā. He is thinking... He is employing for temporary happiness, māyā, māyā happiness. Māyā-sukhāya bharam udvahato vimūḍhān (SB 7.9.43). He has learned engineering and planning very high skyscraper building, but he does not know how long he will live in that skyscraper building. Say, twenty-five years, fifty years, that's all. Māyā-sukhāya, temporary happiness. He is engaging his brain in so stupendous, horrible work, ugra-karma. Māyā-sukhāya bharam udvahato vimūḍhān (SB 7.9.43).
So as soon as you focus your mind upon Kṛṣṇa or Viṣṇu, that is bhakti-yoga. Either you do it by meditation or do it twenty-four hours by practical application of your activities for Kṛṣṇa, that is called bhakti-yoga. And that is called samādhi. Even if you are going to some place for Kṛṣṇa's business, to see the police commissioner or going to the court for some degree or..., because you are doing—you are concentrating your mind on Kṛṣṇa—that is called yoga, bhakti-yoga. Bhakti-yoga is so, so easy. Yat karoṣi yaj juhoṣi yad aśnāsi, yat tapasyasi kuruṣva mad-arpaṇam (BG 9.27). The result should be given to Kṛṣṇa. After working so hard day and night... People are working so hard day and night, but the result, they are enjoying. And a bhakti-yogī, the same thing—they are also working day and night, but the result is for Kṛṣṇa. This is the difference between bhakti-yogī and ordinary karmīs. Therefore ordinary karmīs, they cannot understand that the bhaktas are on the transcendental platform.
Vasudhā means planets or globes. This earthy planet is called vasudhā. Aśeṣa, not one, but aśeṣa, unlimited. Aśeṣa-vasudhādi-vibhūti. Vibhūti means each planet is saturated with different types of atmosphere. Just like the moon planet. The scientist says that it is below zero, two hundred degrees. It is very cold. That's a fact. Because it is very cold, therefore the shining from so much distance in the evening—we feel very comfortable. Not in the sunshine. God's arrangement is so nice. You require both. The sunshine also you require, and the moonshine also you require. If simply there is sunshine, then you die. And if there will be simply moonshine, then you will also die. Both.
Yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-aṇḍa-koṭi-koṭiṣv aśeṣa-vasudhādi (Bs. 5.40). Vasudhā means planet. Vasudhādi vibhūti-bhinnam. In every vasudhā, in every planet, there are different atmosphere. Just like we get information from here by the scientists that the moon planet, the temperature is two hundred degrees below zero. So that is another variety. Similarly, on the sun planet many thousand times temperature, thousand times the temperature is very, very high. Fire, it is almost fire. So vibhūti-bhinnam. Different planets, different.
So these varieties are material varieties. Material varieties means when it is nonmanifested, it is called pradhāna, and when it is manifested, it is called prakṛti, or nature, material nature. But these varieties, the material pradhāna... Pradhāna is nityam, but the prakṛti is not nityam. Nityam means eternal. But there is another world, paras tasmāt tu bhāvaḥ anyaḥ (BG 8.20). That is sanātanaḥ. That is eternal. We have got this experience of this material world. This is not eternal.
They do not surrender to Kṛṣṇa because they are narādhamāḥ, lowest of the mankind. Why lowest of the mankind? Because this human life was given to him for understanding Kṛṣṇa, and he is wasting in other way. Therefore narādhamaḥ. "But they are so educated, university degree..." Māyayāpahṛta-jñānāḥ: "Their knowledge has no meaning. It is taken away by māyā." Because he does not understand Kṛṣṇa, what is the use of such knowledge? Vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyaḥ (BG 15.15). Veda means knowledge. So if you actually advances knowledge, you must know what is Kṛṣṇa. But they do not know Kṛṣṇa. Rather, they are defying Kṛṣṇa.
So this is going on. Therefore this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is very, very important. Those who are intelligent, they will take to it and make his life successful.
Mām evaiṣyasi asaṁśaya. Kṛṣṇa says that "You, this practice," mām evaiṣyasi, "you will come to Me." Asaṁśaya. Kṛṣṇa says, "There is no doubt about it." So why don't you do that? Train your mind, always Kṛṣṇa conscious, and the method is simple. You do not require much education or university degree—nothing of the sort. Simply man-manā bhava mad-bhaktaḥ: you just become devotee of Kṛṣṇa and always think of Him. Where is the difficulty? You can walk on the street and remember Kṛṣṇa. Is there any tax? No, the government will not ask you for any income tax, sales tax, that "You are chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa." They may do so. The time is coming. (laughter) They may say, "The Hare Kṛṣṇa people must be taxed three times because they are chanting and doing nothing." The Communist government will do that. So never mind. The tax will be sent by Kṛṣṇa. (laughter) You haven't got to bother. Still, yoga-kṣemaṁ vahāmy aham (BG 9.22), Kṛṣṇa says. You believe in Kṛṣṇa. Then every problem is solved.
If you simply follow these four principles without arguing foolishly and rascally, manmanā bhava mad-bhakto (BG 18.65), these four principles. "Always think of Me," Kṛṣṇa says. Not I am saying, but Kṛṣṇa personally saying, man-mana bhava mad-bhakto: "Just become My devotee," and māṁ namaskuru, "worship Me." So it doesn't require any M.A., Ph.D. degrees. It doesn't require that Apratihatā. Bhakti is apratihatā, without any hindrance. Nobody can say that "Because I am poor," "Because I am uneducated," "Because I am black," "Because I am white"—no "because." Any condition of life, you can become a devotee and go back to home, back to This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. No material condition can check you. This is our movement.
You may have minute quantity of God's quality, but that does not mean you are God. Just like the same example. You may have a minute quantity of the total heat of the sun, but that does not mean you are sun. So qualitatively we are one, everyone has got some temperature, 98 degrees. But not that a million degree. That is not possible. Why the million? If you rise your temperature to 107 degrees, then finished your life. These are practical.
So because Lord Kṛṣṇa is all-powerful, you cannot compare with Kṛṣṇa. He's apāpa-viddham. No contamination can touch Him. But for that reason you cannot say, you cannot imitate Kṛṣṇa and you cannot say that "No contamination can touch me." No. That is not possible. Therefore the whole life, our this human form of life, is a chance to purify so that we may approach.
At least, if we get that fifty-five, fifty degrees, fifty parts or fifty fractional portions of God's quality, even in minute quantity, then we can approach God. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is said that pavitraṁ paramam (BG 10.12). Pavitra, pavitra means purity. So "You are, Kṛṣṇa, You are the supreme pure." So because we are trying by Kṛṣṇa consciousness, we are trying to approach Kṛṣṇa... Just like if you want to approach the sun, the same example can be given. Everything is there in the nature. If you study minutely, you become learned philosopher. But if we want to enter the sun planet, then you must equip yourself. Just like you are trying to go to the moon planet by artificially dressing, but still, you cannot stay there more than a few hours—if we suppose that somebody has gone there. So this is the position. If you want to enter into the sun planet also... That is also a planet. That is also possible. If it is possible to enter into the moon planet, then it is also possible to enter into the sun planet. Why not? And there are living entities. We get information from Vedic literature. But you have to raise your temperature so that you can exist there.
The higher and lower grades are calculated in terms of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Consciousness is there everywhere, every living entity. Not only human being but also animals, the consciousness is there. But the difference is, consciousness without Kṛṣṇa is lower grade, and consciousness of Kṛṣṇa in different degrees, they are higher grade. And when the consciousness is completely Kṛṣṇa, that is the highest position, or that is the real position of the living entity.
So this human form of life... Mahārāja Bharata is instructing to His sons. He had one hundred sons. So all of them assembled together, and the king, before retirement, was instructing. (aside:) Let him come in. (pause) So, instructing His sons. It is the duty of the father that before retirement... Now, here is one significant point. Why the king was retiring? That is the system, Vedic system. Either one is king or one is ordinary human being, at a certain age he must retire.
If we want to get out of these clutches of material bondage, then we must stop these forbidden activities, mad, the activities of a mad man. So if you go on like that, then we shall have to accept another material body. The problem is that we are suffering threefold miseries, every one of us. Maybe the degree different, but under being intoxicated, we do not take the sufferings as sufferings. That is another madness. But the sufferings are there. That is being pointed out by Kṛṣṇa in the Bhagavad-gītā: janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). You may be very perfect by arranging your material civilization to enjoy life but, you will not be allowed to live. That we do not see. There is no insurance. I am making very nice arrangement for my future enjoyment, having good bank balance, nice skyscraper building and other things, but where is the guarantee that you shall live and enjoy? That we do not see. Therefore we are madmen.
Or the temperature, the atmosphere, is so severe there, it is unfit. It is the statement of the scientists who are trying to go there that the temperature is below two hundred degrees zero. So how you can live there? Here, in your America, Canada, if the temperature is ten degrees below zero, you suffer so much. How you can live there? So you have to purify yourself before entering moon planet. Similarly, you have, if you want to enter into the sun planet, you have to purify a different way. Similarly, there are different heavenly planets. What do they know? There are millions and millions of high-grade planets, and they are... There is Siddhaloka, perfectional, according to this material conception. They are called Siddhaloka. Siddhaloka means the residents of that planet can fly in the space without any mechanical or any support, aeroplane or anything like that. They can, automatically can, travel in the space. Just like Nārada Muni, he can travel in the space. There are different grades of purificatory processes and purified life. And the highest purified life is Kṛṣṇaloka. So these are not imagination. We get all this knowledge from Vedic, I..., literature.
Paṇḍita does not mean one who has got degree. Paṇḍita means sama-cittāḥ. That is sama-cittāḥ. Cāṇakya Paṇḍita has also said that,
- mātṛ-vat para-dāreṣu
- para-dravyeṣu loṣṭra-vat
- ātma-vat sarva-bhūteṣu
- yaḥ paśyati sa paṇḍitaḥ
He is paṇḍita. Otherwise a rascal. Mātṛ-vat para-dāreṣu. As soon as you see one woman except your married wife, you immediately address her "mother." This is paṇḍita. This is paṇḍita. Not that talking phish-phish with other's woman. He's a rascal. So mātṛ-vat para-dāreṣu para-dravyeṣu loṣṭra-vat: not to touch other's property. Garbage nobody touches. But people are so unfortunate. I have seen in Hong Kong, they are picking out some food frome the garbage like dogs. I have seen. Somebody throws away some foodstuff and that is collecting. People are so unfortunate. So garbage nobody touches.
You should know that "Why there are so many varieties of life." That is explained here. The varieties of life is na sādhu manye yata ātmano 'yam asann api kleśada āsa dehaḥ (SB 5.5.4). Here, and anyone who has got this material body Material body means kleśada, different degrees of kleśada. Somebody is millionaire—but don't think that his body is not kleśada. His body is also kleśada, giving some pain. Nobody is free from kleśa. There was a very big rich man in Calcutta. So he could not eat. His appetite, there was no appetite. So he's rich man. So he was given sufficient foodstuff, and simply show, he could not eat. But a big rich man. And one poor man was passing on the street, taking a fish and chanting very Not chanting; singing very jubilantly. So this gentleman saw. He said that "I have become so rich man, but I have no appetite inspite of so many nice foodstuff before me. And that poor man is carrying one fish. He's thinking that he'll go and cook it and eat it very nicely.
The allurement of material civilization is so strong and so bad that those who are by pious activities born in brāhmaṇa family, they are being dragged to the tamo-guṇa behavior like śūdras. They are learning how to drink, how to eat meat, how to have illicit sex. These are the symptoms of tamo-guṇa, lowest type of tamo-guṇa. There are different degrees of guṇa. The degrees are so mixed up. Therefore three guṇas is manifested into 8,400,000 different forms of life, mixture. You can calculate. We have several times calculated. Three multiplied by three equals nine. Nine multiplied by nine, eighty-one. So therefore there are so many varieties. So human civilization should be so arranged that never mind, it is so mixed up, you have to gradually draw him again to the sattva-guṇa. That is human civilization. Not that drag him again to the tamo-guṇa. Somebody, by pious activities, by good work, he's already in the sattva-guṇa, but the arrangement The social, political, economical arrangement is so bad that one is dragged to the tamo-guṇa. This is not civilization. This is degradation. Civilization means elevation.
Nature will punish you, three days' starvation. You have taken more. So this is the law of nature. You cannot violate the... There is salt is required, little in the food. If it is a little more, you cannot take. If it is a little, you cannot take. So stricture, you cannot violate even a slightest degree the laws of nature. But these rascals are thinking that "I am independent." Ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā kartāham iti manyate (BG 3.27). We should take guidance of the spiritual master or the guru or Kṛṣṇa. Guidance of guru means guidance of Kṛṣṇa, because ācāryaṁ māṁ vijānīyān nāvamanyeta karhicit (SB 11.17.27). Ācāryaṁ mām, ācārya is as good as guru, as good as Kṛṣṇa. Caitanya Mahāprabhu says, guru-kṛṣṇa kṛpāya pāya bhakti-latā-bīja (CC Madhya 19.151). Not only Kṛṣṇa's mercy, but guru's mercy, both mercy required. Guru-kṛṣṇa kṛpāya pāya bhakti-latā-bīja.
This is dog's business. They are... At the present moment everyone is being trained up to become śūdra, dogs. High education, big, big degrees, but if the dog is not appointed by a master, his all qualification useless. Therefore it is doggish civilization. And Aryan civilization means brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra. Śūdra means one who cannot live independently—he has to depend on some master—he's a śūdra. That's all. The brāhmaṇa should live by education, by knowledge. Everyone will honor them. They will give advice to the śūdras, er, to the kṣatriyas. When Paraśurāma killed eleven..., twenty-one times all the kṣatriyas, his father chastised him that "This is not the business of a brāhmaṇa. My dear son, you are so angry, you have killed all the kṣatriyas and you have killed Kārtavīryārjuna by anger. Oh, you have done great sinful activities. It is not the business of the brāhmaṇa. Therefore you should retire for some time and go to holy places to counteract your sinful activities." This was spoken to Paraśurāma by his father.
"What is the fault?" Because he does not accept Kṛṣṇa—finish. So we are also like other fools and rascals, but we accept this Kṛṣṇa's word as final, that's all. Kṛṣṇa says that these are Those who have not surrendered to Kṛṣṇa, they are four classes, means most sinful, and rascal, lowest of the mankind, and although he has got university degrees, his knowledge is taken away by māyā. Āsuriṁ bhāvam āśritāḥ. This is āsuriṁ bhāvam. And there are two classes of men—the āsura and the deva. So deva means who accepts the authority of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He is deva. Devata. Viṣṇu-bhaktaḥ bhaved daiva āsuras tad-viparyayaḥ. Even those who are devotees of other demigods, they are also āsuras, what to speak of atheist. Even Just like Rāvaṇa. He was a great devotee of Lord Śiva—everyone knows—but he was called a rākṣasa. Rākṣasa and āsura, the same thing. Hiraṇyakaśipu, he was a great devotee of Lord Brahmā. He is also called rākṣasa.
Devotee (1): Being..., everybody being influenced by different desires, different intentions and desires, each individual's sādhana is something different?
Madhudvīṣa: Being influenced by different degrees of desires, would that influence each person's faith?
Prabhupāda: No. It may be faith. Just like different kinds of disease. You infect one kind of, I mean to say, infection. You suffer in that disease. So it is due to... Different desire means different types of association. We are, therefore, recommending that you associate with us. Then there will be one desire, how to understand God, that's all. That is wanted. The bhakti means sarvopādhi... Anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyam (Brs. 1.1.11). Anyābhilāṣa, other desires, other material desires, when we give up and only desire to serve Kṛṣṇa, that is our perfection. This has to be learned. We have got certainly many desires according to infection and association. But when we agree to give up all these desire... Desire must be there. If there is no desire, then you are a dead stone. Desire must be there. Any living being, he must have desires. Otherwise how he is living? He is dead stone. So desire must be there. But is should be proper desire. The proper desire is... Because we are part and parcel of God, so our desire should be how to meet Him again and work with Him conjointly.
So according to degree of sinful activities... So degree, the most sinful activity, according to Vedic information—to kill a child, to kill a woman, to kill a brāhmaṇa, and to kill a cow. This is very abominable punishment. Child, brāhmaṇa, cow, and woman, they are to be given protection by the laws of Vedic instruction. They have to be protected. So this should be very carefully done. Strī-śūdra-dvija-bandhūnām (SB 1.4.25). Strī, they are considered either as innocent as the child or as innocent as the animal. So they should be given always protection. So here it is said that tasmāt puraiva āśu iha pāpa-niṣkṛtau. Very busy. We do not know when is, when we shall die. But we must know, we have committed so many sinful activities; therefore before the next death, yateta mṛtyor avipadyatātmanā. Mṛtyu: we have to die. Before death, we have to make the atonement.
"Otherwise," Śukadeva Gosvāmī says, "as I have already described the different position of hellish condition of life, one has to suffer." And how it will be done? Doṣasya dṛṣṭvā lāghu..., guru-lāghavaṁ yathā. There are degrees. The first degree sinful activity I have already said. There are different degrees. So as the physician The example is given that bhiṣak cikitseta rujāṁ nidānavit. Bhiṣak means physician. You have got some pain, disease, ailments. He gives you Suppose you are suffering, so he sees that this suffering is not very serious. "All right, you take this tablet." What is called? Anacin? "And you will be relived." But if he has got a big boil, and it has got pus and bad (break)
...decided in India still there is the system. Now everything is gone practically. But still the Vedic system is there that if one has committed... They are always conscious, the mass of people, not the so-called educated men, that "In the śāstra it is said that this is sinful." So if he commits some sinful activity, he goes to a very expert brāhmaṇa. They are called bhaṭṭācārya. They are especial... Just like there are physicians for treatment of the disease, there are highly learned brāhmaṇas who are called bhaṭṭācāryas.
Actually, there is no education. Without this knowledge, spiritual knowledge, this education for earning bread, eating, sleeping, mating... That can be done without education. The animals, they are not educated—they are not technologists, or they have no education in the universities, degrees—they're also eating, sleeping, mating and defending. So if our education is meant for simply eating sleeping, mating and defending, then what is the difference? That is not education. Real education is to understand what you are. That is real education. Ātma-jñāna. In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam it is said, parābhavas tāvad abodha-jāto yāvan na jijñāsata ātma-tattvam. So long a man does not develop consciousness to understand his self, ātma-tattvam, the truth of the self, then whatever he's doing in ignorance, it is all defeat for his life. This human life is meant for victorious, to become victorious over the laws of material nature. Actually we are trying for that purpose.
Simply we have to change the consciousness, that "I am doing for Kṛṣṇa, not for my personal." In this way, if we develop Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then we come to our original consciousness. Then we become happy.
Unless we come to the original consciousness, then we are crazy in different degrees. Everyone who is not in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he is to be supposed crazy because he is talking on a platform which is temporary, transient. It will be finished. But we, as living entities, we are eternal. So temporary business is not our business. Our business should be eternal because we are eternal. And that eternal business is how to serve Kṛṣṇa. Just like this finger is the part and parcel of my body, but the finger's eternal business is how to serve this body, here. That's all. It has no other business. And that is the healthy state of the finger. If it cannot serve the whole body, that is diseased condition. Similarly, Kṛṣṇa is eternal; we are eternal. Nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13).
Avyayam means whatever you do, that is your permanent asset. Other things, that is finishable. Suppose you are very much advanced educated person. You have passed M.A., Ph.D., and something, something. But it is not avyayam; it is vyayam. Vyayam means it is finishable. As soon as your body is finished, your so-called degrees all finished. Then again next life if you become a human being, of course again there is chance of becoming M.A., Ph.D., but the first M.A., Ph.D. in this life, that is finished.
So whatever we are acquiring here, that is not avyayam. Vyayam means expenditure, and a means "not," not expenditure. If you have got some money, if you spend, then it is vyayam, finished after some time. Avyayam means you spend as much, still not finished. That is avyayam. So devotional service of Kṛṣṇa is explained as susukhaṁ kartum avyayam. Whatever you do, if you have attained success ten percent, that ten percent your permanent.
So kindly be responsible, those who are second initiated. If you fall down, then the whole movement becomes false. That is happening. So kindly rectify if that is happening, that guṇa-karma. You must acquire the qualities and must act accordingly. That is practical. Suppose one man is educated as medical man, but after taking his degrees he is playing football. So will anybody call him a medical man? He might have the qualification, medical qualification, but because he is not practicing as medical man he is useless. That is the śāstra injunction. Yady anyatrāpi dṛśyeta tat tenaiva vinirdiśet (SB 7.11.35). If one has acquired some quality but he practices differently, then he should be called by the name of that practice. A medical man, after passing medical examination—I am giving you crude example—if he is, he becomes a football player, then he will be called a football player, not a medical man. These are the sastric injunction.
What you feel yourself... If somebody cuts your throat, do you feel very happy? No. Then why should you cut throat of others, other animals or human beings? So these three things, Cāṇakya Paṇḍita has said that this is, if one has learned these three things, he is learned. Not that he has got a university degrees, no. Mātṛvat para-dāreṣu para-dravyeṣu loṣṭravat, ātmavat sarva-bhūteṣu.
So this is gentleman; this is educated, culture. So this man, Ajāmila, as soon as he became fallen down from the sadācāra, gentleman's behavior, the next stage is this, bandy-akṣaiḥ kaitavaiś cauryaiḥ. One must earn his livelihood. But he has fallen down to the sixth grade. First, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, or lower than that, everyone must have his means of livelihood. So what is the means of livelihood of the first-class man? That is said, paṭhana-pāṭhana yajana-yājana dāna-pratigraha. First-class man means brahminical class.
Yes. Kṛṣṇa says, mṛtyuḥ sarva-haraś cāham (BG 10.34). What is death? Just like in your previous life you had been something. Death means you have forgotten everything. Suppose I was a very big king or prime minister or president. But that is all finished. Now I've got another life, another chapter of life. Tathā dehāntara-prāpti. You have to change your body. It may be lower degree or higher degree, but you have to change your body. There are 8,400,000 species of life, forms of life. You have to accept one of them. That is our real problem. If we forget the real problem and blindly or foolishly say that "God is dead..." God may be dead, but God's law is not dead. Suppose a king dies, a president dies; does it mean the government dies? Huh? The government will go on. You can say, "God is dead." God is not dead, neither you are dead. But if you foolishly say that God is dead, that does not mean His law is also dead. The law will go on.
This very word is very important: asuri-bhāvam āśritāḥ. They have... Because they have taken to the shelter of asuri-bhāva, atheistic philosophy, in spite of advancement of education, they are narādhama, lowest of the mankind. These words are exactly there. Naradhāmā. You cannot say, "How you can say this gentleman asura? He is so much educated, highly qualified, university degree." The answer is there, māyayā apahṛta-jñānā: "Yes, it appears that he is very learned, but his actual knowledge is taken away by the māyā on account of his being atheistic." And such atheistic person, bewildered by māyā and being lowest of the mankind, they cannot surrender unto God. Na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhā prapadyante narādhamāḥ (BG 7.15). So these things may not be very palatable, but these things are there in scriptures. We have to preach the scriptural injunction. Therefore we say, "Bhagavad-gītā as it is." You cannot play hide and seek with the problem of life. You must know your real position, and you must...
A child can preach. A child can understand, "Do you know God?" "No." "You are a demon." (laughter) Finished. Where is the difficulty? As soon as you say "I do not know God," you are a demon. Bās. First-class demon. "I am scientist." "You are rascal." "No, I have studied, I have got my degrees." "Māyayāpahṛta-jñāna. (laughter) Rascal, you have studied so long, simply waste of time. Your real knowledge is taken away because you do not know God." That is described. We have got very simple test in Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement how to distinguish between an intelligent man a rascal. As soon as we understand that he's not Kṛṣṇa conscious, he's a rascal. Bās. There is no need of testing. Even though he's M.A., Ph.D, D.H.C. and so on, so on, still we shall call him a rascal. This is open challenge; it is not secret. How? Cāṇakya Paṇḍita has said, tyaja durjana-saṁsargaṁ vidyayā 'pi alaṅkṛto san. He very nicely says that rascals and fools, must give up their company. Tyaja durjana-saṁsargam.
How? Cāṇakya Paṇḍita has said, tyaja durjana-saṁsargaṁ vidyayā 'pi alaṅkṛto san. He very nicely says that rascals and fools, must give up their company. Tyaja durjana-saṁsargam. "No, I have got many friends, they are university educated." But he says, vidyayālaṅkṛto 'pi san. Even they are with degrees of M.A. Ph.D., tyaja durjana saṁsargaṁ vidyayālaṅkṛto 'pi san. Even he is educated, so-called educated, he's not educated. Anyone who does not know God, he's not educated, he's a rascal. This is our conclusion. Not our conclusions, this is śāstra's conclusion. So "He has got so many degrees and he's rascal and he's durjana, a bad man?" "Yes." "Why?" Now maṇinā bhuṣitaḥ sarpaḥ kim asau na bhayāṅkaraḥ. Suppose a serpent, he has got a gem on his head. Is it not fearful? Very good example. Suppose a snake comes here and he, it has a jewel on the head. So you'll be all safe? (laughter) No. He's dangerous.
So that is going on. So-called educated scientist, degrees, what they're doing?
It looks like fire, blazing. But don't think it is impersonal. Impersonal? How Kṛṣṇa could talk with him? There is no question of impersonality.
So here, adharmaḥ vijñātaḥ, the degrees. Real dharma is, Kṛṣṇa is explaining in the Bhagavad..., sarva-dharmān parityajya... (BG 18.66). You have created, man-made, so many dharmas. So one Bengali Vaiṣṇava, he has mentioned, pṛthivite yaha kichu dharma nāme cale, bhāgavat kahe taha paripūrṇa chale. Bhāgavata, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam says, dharmaḥ projjhita-kaitavo 'tra: (SB 1.1.2) "In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam all kaitava"—kaitava means cheating—"cheating type of religious religious system is kicked out." Projjhita, dharmaḥ projjhita-kaitavo atra. So dharma is one; religion is one. There cannot be different types of religion. That is concoction. Dharmaṁ tu sākṣād bhagavat-praṇītam (SB 6.3.19).
No. In whatever position you are, remain. There is no question of artificial improvement. There is no question. You remain. Simply God has given you the ear. Utilize it properly. That's all. You don't require to go to the university and get a Ph.D. degree and then you can understand. No. That is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's mission, that,
- jñāne prayāsam udapāsya namanta eva
- jīvanti san-mukharitāṁ bhavadīya-vārtām
- sthāne sthitāḥ śruti-gatāṁ tanu-vāṅ-manobhiḥ
Caitanya Mahāprabhu's movement is so nice that you don't require to acquire something artificial. No. Wherever you are, remain there. Simply hear. And preaching means to propagate or to vibrate what Kṛṣṇa has said. So this is the position of the preacher, that you simply repeat, like a parrot, no qualification. You simply ... Whatever is said in the Bhagavad-gītā, you repeat. And the others simply hear. Śravaṇaṁ kīrtanam (SB 7.5.23). Then both of them become liberated. There is no question of that, to become a qualified person.
Nitai: "In this life, any person to the proportionate degree of the varieties of work, either religious or irreligious, as they are performed in the next life also, the same person to the same degree, the same variety, the resultant action of his karma must enjoy or suffer."
Prabhupāda:
- yena yāvān yathādharmo
- dharmo veha samīhitaḥ
- sa eva tat-phalaṁ bhuṅkte
- tathā tāvad amutra vai
- (SB 6.1.45)
So in the previous verse we have discussed, dehavān na hy akarma-kṛt. Anyone who has got this material body, he has to work. Everyone has to work. In the spiritual body also you have to work. In the material body also you have to work. Because the working principle is the soul—soul is living force—so he is busy. Living body means there is movement. There is work. He cannot sit idly. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is said, "Not even for a moment one can be idle." That is the symptom of living being. So this working is going on according to the particular body. The dog is also running, and a man is also running. But a man thinks he is very much civilized because he is running on motorcar.
Piśāci, ghostly haunted or inspired by the witches, when one becomes so, mati-cchana, he becomes bewildered and his intelligence becomes scattered. Mati-cchana. That is the condition of all living entities within this material world in different degrees. Everyone is ghostly haunted. And what is that ghostly haunted? That ghostly haunted, tan-nimitta-smara-vyāja. This Ajāmila had seen one śūdra and one śūdrāṇī were embracing, kissing, laughing, enjoying in lusty affairs. So he became tan-nimitta. By seeing these activities of the śūdra and the śūdrāṇī, naturally the lusty desire is there, which I explained yesterday. It is called hṛd-roga-kāma. This kāma, lusty desire, is a heart disease. So he was infected by the heart disease by seeing the scene, that one woman and man is embracing kissing, immediately.
"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."
He was thinking in that way because a devotee, yasyāsti bhaktir bhagavaty akiñcanā sarvair guṇais tatra samāsate surāḥ (SB 5.18.12). A devotee, a pure devotee, is naturally qualified with all good qualities. Automatically it comes as he becomes... Just like as a man suffering from fever decreases the degree of fever—he becomes healthy—similarly, with the increase of our degree of devotional service, naturally all the good qualities that is constitutionally existing in the pure soul... Pure soul, being part and parcel, it is naturally very pure. And Vedas says even when the soul is within the material existence, it is not mixed up. It remains always separate. Just like if you put a drop of oil in the water it does not mix—although it is in the water, it does not mix—similarly the spirit soul, part and parcel of God, Kṛṣṇa, although in the material world, he does not mix. Therefore if there is a process...
So we have to become a devotee or we have to establish a transcendental relationship with Kṛṣṇa. Then it is possible to understand what is the mystery of Bhagavad-gītā. Bhagavad-gītā cannot be understood by so-called scholars by academic degrees. One has to become a devotee of Kṛṣṇa. One has to become a friend or some way related with Kṛṣṇa. Then it is possible to understand Bhagavad-gītā. Otherwise it is impossible.
My Guru Mahārāja used to say that one who is licking up the bottle of honey. He is thinking that "I am licking honey," but that is impossible(?). Similarly, the so-called scholars when they comment on Bhagavad-gītā, they are licking up the bottle of honey. The taste of honey is different. That taste one can get when the bottle is opened by (indistinct) person. Then he can taste the Bhagavad-gītā. Otherwise licking up the bottle, that's all. If one is satisfied by licking up the bottle of honey, without tasting it. Then is he not a fool? (laughter) The fools say "I have got the honey!" but it is not opened. Therefore in Bhagavad-gītā it is said rahasyaṁ hy etad uttamam. Rahasyam, the transcendental secrecy(?) of Bhagavad-gītā. That secret will not be opened to a so-called scholar or academic educated. It must be taken from the (indistinct) authorized person.
Cāṇakya Paṇḍita even says that mātṛvat para-dāreṣu. Anyone, any other woman, the wife of other gentleman, she should be considered as mother. This is civilization. So what to speak of illicit sex? But people are degrading. That is another thing. But this is our standard of civilization. Even a great politician, he says who is paṇḍita? Who is learned?
- mātṛvat para-dāresu
- para-dravyeṣu loṣṭravat
- ātmavat sarva-bhūteṣu
- yaḥ paśyati sa paṇḍitaḥ
He doesn't say one has to take degrees. By behavior one should be understood. So these four principles, namely illicit sex, animal killing, and intoxication... Yes. So these are sinful activities and our position is how to become sinless. Therefore we do not recommend animal killing. That is not possible.
At twelve o'clock, no, they are playing football. Why? There is no engagement. What he'll do? Unemployment. There is no employment. Because education means to become servant, to write one application and go office to office: "Sir, give me some service." "No, no, no. No vacancy. Get out." This is education. After taking the M.A., B.A. degrees, they have no employment. So what they'll do? They'll form party of anarchist and Naxalite and play football, because they must have some engagement. Oh, this is advancement of civilization. Instead of utilizing the valuable form of human life, there is always wasting. And at night they are sleeping, and at noon they are playing football, you see, wasting in this time. So this will be explained next verse, mugdhasya bālye kaiśore krīḍato yāti viṁśatiḥ: (SB 7.6.7) "By so-called sporting life, twenty years passed, fifty years by sleeping, and twenty years by football." Then seventy years passed. And jarayā grasta-dehasya yāty akalpasya viṁśatiḥ. And when he is old man: "Here is pain.
Umāpati: Swamijī, is there degrees of Kṛṣṇa consciousness? I thought of an example of walking through a dark tunnel and it's getting lighter and lighter and all of a sudden you're out in light. Is there degrees of this?
Prabhupāda: Degrees of Kṛṣṇa consciousness?
Umāpati: Yes. Do you work up to it and then all of a sudden achieve it or is it blackness up to light?
Prabhupāda: Yes. There are degrees according to the degrees of understanding. If Kṛṣṇa consciousness is accepted immediately, there is no question of degrees. But that acceptance is not possible in a second or in a minute. But if it is accepted, that "This is the nicest thing," then there is no question of degrees; it is immediately realized also. Just like there is an example that one king, he joined with the demigods to fight with the demons. He helped. And the demigods were very pleased with that king, and the demigods liked to give him some benediction, material benediction, that "You have helped us so much; so we want to give you something. What do you want?"
Mahārāja Parīkṣit was cursed by a brāhmaṇa that he would die within seven days. So he simply heard this Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam for seven days very seriously, and he was fully conscious of Kṛṣṇa. Similarly, Śukadeva Gosvāmī, he described also the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam to Mahārāja Parīkṣit for seven days only. He also became fully Kṛṣṇa conscious. So it is a thing which is not material. In material calculation one has to wait. But here, as it is stated in the Śrīmad-Bhagavad-gītā, ye yathā māṁ prapadyante tāṁs tathaiva bhajāmy aham (BG 4.11). According to the degree of surrender, Kṛṣṇa consciousness becomes revealed. The degree is in my hand. If I surrender fully, immediately, then Kṛṣṇa consciousness is aroused immediately. If the degree of surrender...
And here in this material, the more you become greater than your friend, then you are (indistinct). That means more you become implicated. More... Just like the same example, the more you increase your temperature, you are facing death. Certain temperature is required, 98 degrees. But if you simply increase your temperature, "Oh, it is very nice," then at 107 degrees you finish. So this material improvement means meeting death. Let us come to the point. The nationalism is competition, which nation is greater. Now they have manufactured atomic bomb. That means finishing point they have come to.
So bīja-nirharaṇam. This propensity we should always remember that "I shall be greater than him, I shall overlord him." Just like my Godbrothers. The propensity is that "Oh, he has become greater than us," they are very envious. Their propensity is to become but they could not, they are therefore envious.
Prahlāda Mahārāja recommends guru-śuśrūṣayā. Guru-śuśrūṣayā. Guru-śuśrū... means that you have to first of all select a spiritual master. Without a teacher, without guidance, nobody can make any process. Even if you have passed M.A., and if you want to put some theses and if you want to get yourself doctorate degree, then it is the system that the theses should be guided by three expert Ph.D.'s. This is the system. So similarly, if you want to be purely Kṛṣṇa conscious person, then you must select a person who can give you instruction, who can guide you in the matter of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So Bhagavad-gītā also teaches us the same thing: tad viddhi praṇipātena paripraśnena sevayā (BG 4.34). If you want to understand that transcendental science, then you have to understand from an expert, upadekṣyanti tad jñānam. The expert who is in, expert in that knowledge, he will instruct you, upadekṣyanti tad jñānaṁ jñāninas tattva-darśinaḥ. One who has actually realized, he will teach you.
In quality there is no difference. Just like the sunshine and the sun. It may be the temperature in the sun planet is very great. That's all right. But you cannot say that sun is hot, but the sunshine is cold. No. That cannot be. That cannot be. It may be the degree of temperature lesser, but there is temperature. That is the sign that it is coming, emanating from sunshine. Similarly, in the Bhagavad-gītā you'll find that this whole manifestation, there are different kinds of energy.
That is confirmed in the Vedas, Vedic literature, Upaniṣad also: parasya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate (Cc. Madhya 13.65, purport). The energy of the Lord are differently manifested. Just like this light. Take the same example, fire. Fire is placed in one place, but it is manifesting in different way. It is illuminating, it is distributing its heat from one place.
So miscreants, fools, and narādhamāḥ. Narādhama means the lowest of the mankind. Narādhamāḥ. And māyayāpahṛta-jñānāḥ: and one whose knowledge is taken away by the illusory energy. Who are they? So-called educated. The so-called educated persons, they are very much proud of their university degree, but if you ask some of them, "What you are? Wherefrom you have come to this world, and where you are going next?" Oh, they will say, "What is this nonsense? I am... I do not know wherefrom I have come, where I am going. I have no concern with that. I am concerned with the present life. That's all." But actually, we are not this present life. It is only a spot in our journey.
So Bhagavad-gītā is the study for the neophytes, those who are inquiring, those who are trying to understand the science of God, for them. That means it is primary study. And after studying Bhagavad-gītā, just like the boys, after passing the school final examination, they are allowed to enter into the degree college, similarly, one who has understood Bhagavad-gītā very nicely and taken up the instruction, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66), such person is eligible to enter into the study of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. He accepts Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This is a preliminary qualification.
The beginning of devotional service is to accept Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme. In the Caitanya-caritāmṛta it is also said that what is the beginning of devotional life. He has explained that śraddhā. Devotion means... The Sanskrit word is śraddhā, devotion, affection, affinity, attachment. So... Or faith.
And to develop that Kṛṣṇa consciousness, just like when you have passed preliminary examination in the school, then you have to further enlightenment, further progress of advancement of education, you enter into the college, degree college, similarly, after finishing or understanding Bhagavad-gītā very nicely, if you are convinced about Kṛṣṇa, then study Bhagavad-gītā (Bhāgavatam), where the beginning is: namo bhagavate vaṣudeva. Vyāsadeva begins by surrendering himself to Bhagavān, Kṛṣṇa. Bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). He is the origin of everything. Then Bhāgavata begins. And one who has understood Bhāgavata, or he has made his relationship well established with Kṛṣṇa and is functioning in that relationship, then he is passed on the subject matter of Bhāgavata, and then you begin Caitanya-caritāmṛta. That is postgraduate study. After getting your degree, as you try for your Ph.D. or M.A., similarly, Caitanya-caritāmṛta is like that, post-graduate study. And the author of the Caitanya-caritāmṛta, he places himself that "I am lower than the worm in the stool." Just see how humble.
You can satisfy simply by your love. Bhaktyā means bhakti. Bhakti means bhaja sevayā. Bhakti... Simply you have to develop your service attitude. Service attitude is already there. We are servants by constitution, but we are serving māyā. We are so constitutionally servant that after very, very high education, taking all these degrees, oh, we are moving door to door, that "Give me some service." So this service is my constitutional position, but I am serving my lust, my greediness, kāma. Kāmādīnāṁ kati na katidhā pālitā durnideśās. We are serving actually, but instead of serving God, we are serving kamādi, our lust, our greediness, our senses. In one word we are serving our senses. So the position is there, but when you turn that service spirit to God, that is your success of life. Otherwise it is simply waste of time. Kāmādīnāṁ kati na katidhā pālitā durnideśās. Dictated by the lust, by kāma, by serving kāma, we sometimes do something which is very, very, abominable. Just don't you see the fight?
If you want to understand the Absolute Truth by your argument and logic, oh, it is not possible. Because our argument, logic, may be defeated by another man. Another man's argument may be defeated by another man. Because all of us, we are limited. Whatever qualification we have got, they are all limited, and there is greater and greatest, comparative, superlative degree in every field of activities.
So that is not the way. Tarko apratiṣṭhaḥ. If you want to understand the Absolute Truth by your arguments, it is not possible. Tarko apratiṣṭhaḥ śrutayo vibhinnam. Śrutayo means scriptures. If you want to understand the Absolute Truth by studying different scriptures... Just like the Hindus have got their different scriptures. They have got four Vedas, eighteen Purāṇas, Mahābhārata, Rāmāyaṇa, Vedānta-sūtra, 108 Upaniṣads, so many, similarly, in other countries also, they have got Bible or Buddhist literature or Muhammadan.
Śamo damas tapaḥ, austerity. Tapa means... Tapa means from tapa, heat. Just like this heat is not tolerable. I require the fan. So tapa means to accept voluntarily some physical trouble. That is called tapa. There are many sages who, in, during summer, they will burn fire all sides and meditate. There is already high temperature, 112 degrees in India. Sometimes 180 degree, and still they have fire all sides, all sides. Yes. And they are meditating, not disturbed. So this is called voluntarily tapa. And in winter season, when the temperature is forty degrees, fifty degrees, is of course, not below zero, anyway, he goes to the water and dip into the water simply keeping the mouth up and meditating. So there are some severe processes for tapasya. So this is one of the good qualities.
But in this age it is very difficult. To undergo such voluntary tribulations for realization, self-realization, meditation is not possible in this age. Therefore the Vedic injunction is that "You simply chant Hare Kṛṣṇa."
And one who is very learned, a great scholar, he is also very proud. So Prahlāda Mahārāja says that what this pride will help him? You may remain a very proud man, full of pride so long this body is there. That's all. As long the body is finished, your designation as Rockefeller finished. Your degree, M.A., Ph.D., finished. Your beautiful body finished. Your aristocratic family finished. Then you have to take another platform according to your work. If you have done works like again aristocratic or learned activities, then you get similar body. But in spite of all your acquisitions, you have played the part of a dog, then you are going to become a dog. Because after leaving this body we are completely in the hands of material nature. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27). The Bhagavad-gītā says that the material nature is acting. I have got this body not according to my choice. You have got this body not according to your choice.
That is not the fact.
The fact is that these fools, these rascals who are thinking that this world is for their enjoyment, this money belongs to him... It is stated here, aviduṣaḥ. Aviduṣaḥ means rascal, without any education. Without any education. They have got all these university degrees and without education? Yes. Why? Because they have no spiritual education. So aviduṣaḥ. So mānaṁ janam aviduṣaḥ karuṇo vṛṇīte. When Kṛṣṇa says or God says that "Give Me this...," Just like He is begging from Bali Mahārāja, Vāmanadeva, "My dear King, will you give Me a little land?" So his spiritual master, he was a demon. He forbade Bali Mahārāja not to promise, because He is Viṣṇu. "He'll take everything from you." That's a nice story. Some of you know how Bali Mahārāja became a great devotee of the Lord. Now here it is stated that mānaṁ janād aviduṣaḥ karuṇo vṛṇīte. Whatever He wants from any person, provided he is a devotee...
So Prahlāda Mahārāja, therefore, taking courage, that the material qualifications are not assets to approach God, but it is only devotional service, service attitude. "Kṛṣṇa, or God, I love You. I can sacrifice You... I can sacrifice everything for You." Just like Lord Jesus Christ. He sacrificed even his life. The gopīs, they also sacrificed everything for Kṛṣṇa. This is wanted. The degree of sacrifice, the degree of attachment is taken into consideration by God, not any material opulence. So Prahlāda Mahārāja is encouraged. Tasmād ahaṁ vigata-viklava īśvarasya sarvātmanā mahi gṛṇāmi yathā manīṣam: "Therefore I shall try to offer my prayers according to my capacity." It is not that because one does not know Sanskrit or a particular type of language and he cannot pray very nicely with poetic simile, metaphors... These things are not required. Simply you have to open your feelings of love of Godhead. Then He's pleased. It does not depend on the particular type of language or poetic ideas. No.
Less awareness is the kṣatriya, or in the modes of passion. Less awareness is the vaiśyas, the mercantile class of people. They are in the third position. And the śūdra, they are in the fourth position, in the darkness, unawareness. And again, the degree of unawareness makes more and more abominable condition of life. Just like animal life. So here Prahlāda Mahārāja says that you have nothing to be disturbed by these people because they are in the modes of goodness. Therefore if we can produce population in the modes of goodness, there will be no problem in this material world even. Just like in the Satya-yuga, they were all brāhmaṇas, in the modes of goodness, so there was no trouble. And again, Tretā-yuga, seventy-five percent, modes of goodness. In the Dvāpara-yuga, fifty percent, and the Kali-yuga, seventy-five percent calculated to be in the modes of ignorance. Therefore we are feeling so much disturbances in the social condition, in the political condition.
So real knowledge means that ahaṁ brahmāsmi: "I am not matter, I am a spirit soul." That is real knowledge. On the basis of this real knowledge, whatever is done, that is done in knowledge; otherwise it is done in ignorance. That is the difference. Knowledge and difference. Knowledge is not that you have to get degrees from the university, big, big degrees. No. Real knowledge is that "I am," ahaṁ brahmāsmi, "I am spirit soul." If one has realized this one word only, then he is in knowledge. He's in knowledge. One who has not realized this thing, he's in ignorance. Yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke (SB 10.84.13). Anyone who has accepted this body, which is made of three elements, sva-dhiḥ kalatrādiṣu bhauma-ijya-dhīḥ, and therefore accepted the bodily productions as his own or the place or the land where this body is produced is worshipable... There are so many other things. Naturally, at the present moment, knowledge means that "This is my country." "I am American," "I am Indian," "I am Chinese."
This is going on. This is called māyā manaḥ. Māyā is so strong that she is bewildering even so-called doctorates, deletes(?) and others. All rascals. Māyayāpahṛta-jñānā. Therefore Bhagavad-gītā says, māyayāpahṛta-jñānā. Although they have got these university degrees, but they are rascals. Why? Māyayapahṛta-jñānā. Their knowledge has been taken away by māyā.
Māyā is very strong. You have seen the picture of Māyā, Durgādevī, and the Mahiṣāsura is fighting, very strong, just like Hiraṇyakaśipu. There are many asuras. So Mahiṣa... Sometimes Kṛṣṇa Himself comes to kill the asura, or sometimes His agent, Māyā, Durgādevī, kills. You have seen the picture of Goddess Kālī. She is killing simply the asuras, chopping one after another, one after another, one after... Sṛṣṭi-sthiti-pralaya-sādhana-śaktir ekā (Bs. 5.44). She can create, she can maintain, and she can make pralaya, devastator. That is her business.
This is material disease. So Brahmā is also trying to become the master of this universe. The same mentality is there. Hiraṇyakaśipu underwent severe penances. Why? To become the master of the world. This is the material disease. Kṛṣṇa bhuliya jīva bhoga-vāñchā kare. So this bhoga-vāñchā are different degrees. One man is satisfied having a family, three, four men. He thinks, "I have become master." But other is not satisfied. Other wants, "No, no. Why a family? I must be master of a society or a community or a nation." So Brahmā is also the same thing, same degree—not same degree; different degree—but the desire is how to become master. That disease is there. We are trying to be... Disease is disease. That...
Some of you have seen that my friend, Dr. Bose. I have said many times that when he was student, so one professor, he—in those days medical professors were Englishmen—he said in the class that "In our country, seventy-five percent of the students, they are infected with syphilis." So this doctor, he was a student. He said in the class, "Oh, horrible." So that professor said, "Why you are saying "horrible"?
So the first teaching is brahmacārī should rise early in the morning. Brahmacārī... That is the general education. It doesn't require that you have to learn some book immediately. No. First of all build your character. Otherwise what is the use of taking degrees if you have no character? Yasyāsti bhaktir bhagavaty akiñcanā sarvair guṇair tatra samāsate surāḥ (SB 5.18.12). If you become a devotee of Kṛṣṇa... Just like in our institution they are being trained up as devotee, so to rise early in the morning is automatically there. There is no separate training. Because he is devotee, he has to rise early in the morning for offering maṅgala-āratika, and you have got our order that everyone must attend the maṅgala-ārati. That is automatically brahmacārī. Eh? Sāyaṁ prātar upāsita. And what is the upāsana? The first guru. Guru, agni, arka—means sun—and then God. Therefore you see in our Deity room there is picture of guru first of all. First of all your guru, then his guru, then his guru—at least four, five generation, because the spiritual knowledge is received through the paramparā. I have received from my guru; you are receiving from your guru; and my guru received from his guru; he received his guru. Evaṁ paramparā-prāptam imaṁ rājarṣayo viduḥ (BG 4.2).
Just like we are studying the moon. So many scientists were engaged to study the moon. Every day we read something about moon. And in Bhāgavata you see that the moon is very cold planet, and there people drink soma-rasa. And the other day I was reading in the paper, the temperature is 200 degrees less than zero. Just you can imagine how cold it is. So how we can go there? Cannot go to Canada because when it is below zero degree, you are you so unhappy. And it is, if we accept the statement of the scientists, it is 200 degrees below zero. So how you can go there? At once you'll die, immediately. Similarly, the temperature of sun, oh, so many degree hot centrigrade. So you have to remain. Therefore we are called conditioned. You cannot go outside. You are conditioned. You may try, but you cannot go outside in that way. If you want to go other planets, then you have to prepare yourself. That is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā:
| Page Title: | Degree (Lectures, SB) |
| Compiler: | Visnu Murti, RupaManjari |
| Created: | 27 of Jun, 2012 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=97, Con=0, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 97 |