Yuddha, fighting, Arjuna was kṣatriya. It is his duty. Because here, in this material world, violence is also required. Violence. Because everyone is competitor, everyone is trying to become the Supreme, so there will be violence. Just like in your state, at the present moment, there is violence because one party is trying to become Supreme than the other. That is going on everywhere, all over the world, the struggle for existence. Everyone is trying to become supreme than the other. So there must be violence. So expecting that there will be violence, the kṣatriya class required. Just like in the state, expecting that there will be violence, therefore the police department is maintained, the military department is maintained. So you cannot avoid violence from this material world. It is useless proposal. Our Mahatma Gandhi tried to stop violence. He started the nonviolence movement, but factually he had to die by violence. So kṣatriya, they are trained up violent to become violent to stop violence. That is required. Therefore Kṛṣṇa advises that "Don't try to become nonviolent because..."
Everyone is trying to become God
Expressions researched:
"Everyone is trying to become an imitation God"
|"Everyone is trying to become another Krsna"
|"everyone is trying to become Supreme"
|"everyone is trying to become god"
|"everyone is trying to become isvara"
|"everyone is trying to become krsna"
|"everyone is trying to become one of the lords"
|"everyone is trying to become the lord"
|"everyone is trying to become the Supreme"
Srimad-Bhagavatam
SB Canto 1
As referred to above, the conditioned living beings contact material association by their own choice, dictated by a strong desire to lord it over the resources of the material world and become imitation lords of all they survey. Everyone is trying to become an imitation God; there is keen competition amongst such imitation gods, and such competitors are generally known as asuras. When there are too many asuras in the world, then it becomes a hell for those who are devotees of the Lord. Due to the growth of the asuras, the mass of people who are generally devoted to the Lord by nature and the pure devotees of the Lord, including the demigods in higher planets, pray to the Lord for relief, and the Lord either descends personally from His abode or deputes some of His devotees to remodel the fallen condition of human society, or even animal society. Such disruptions take place not only in human society but also among animals, birds or other living beings, including the demigods in the higher planets. Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa descended personally to vanquish asuras like Kaṁsa, Jarāsandha and Śiśupāla, and during the reign of Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira almost all these asuras were killed by the Lord. Now he was awaiting the annihilation of His own dynasty, called the Yadu-vaṁśa, who appeared by His will in this world.
Lectures
Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures
That we are now serving our senses. This is our material characteristic. Material characteristic because originally I am servant. I am not master. But I have given up service of Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa-bahirmukha hañā bhoga vāñchā kare (Prema-vivarta). "Why shall I become servant? I shall become Kṛṣṇa." All right, you become Kṛṣṇa. You become enjoyer. That is material world. Everyone is trying to become Kṛṣṇa, enjoyer. So there is fight. Always. You are becoming, trying to becoming Kṛṣṇa. I am trying to become Kṛṣṇa. As there are so many incarnations of God nowadays—every lane, every street. So we are all imitation Kṛṣṇa. And there is fight. That is asanātana-dharma. That is not sanātana. Therefore the brāhmaṇa says, kāmādīnāṁ kati na katidhā pālitā durnideśāḥ. "My dear Lord, I tried to become master, but I have become servant of my senses—kāma, krodha, lobha, moha, mātsarya, ityādi. Now I see that I have served so long, but my so-called masters, they are not satisfied."
Just like here also we can see practically, everyone is trying to become a big or small īśvara, Kṛṣṇa. Īśvara is Kṛṣṇa. Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ (Bs. 5.1). But here the struggle is that everyone is trying to become īśvara. Nobody wants to become servant. Although he is servant of māyā. He cannot be īśvara constitutionally. Any one of us. This is called illusion. Actually, we are servant but we are trying to become īśvara. This is called māyā. So this position of the living entity is called dharmasya glāniḥ, discrepancy of the constitutional position. Actually, I am servant but I am trying to become master. This is called dharmasya glāniḥ. So when the world is full...
Of course, there are devotees who are trying to become servant. They are trying. The devotional service means, Kṛṣṇa consciousness means to train people how to become servant of God. That is all.
Anyone who is in this material world, his original cause of coming down from the spiritual platform to this material platform means he wanted to enjoy.
In the spiritual world the only enjoyer is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. All others are enjoyed. But here in this material world everyone is trying to become the Supreme, and others, to be enjoyed. Everyone is trying to become God, and the last snare of māyā is that one is claiming that "I am God." When he tries to become big businessman, big zamindar, big minister, big president, or in the society, big rich man, big, big always. And when he fails to become all kinds of "bigs," he wants to become one with God. By mixing, by merging into God, he will be the biggest. That is the philosophy. So basic principle is how to become big. Otherwise... Because unless I become very big, I cannot enjoy.
Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures
The cause was Germany is always envious of England. Why this enviousness? Because England wants to lord it over, send Lord Clive to India to exploit. And the German wants that "We have got so many things manufactured. We cannot sell." That is the cause of war: lord it over. Everyone is trying to lord it over. The whole economic situation. Everyone is trying to become "the lord of all I survey." Yes. "In the lower stage of human civilization, there is always competition to lord it over the material nature..." That is the lowest stage of human civilization. But that is passing on as the highest stage of... Anyone who has developed to how to exploit the resources of nature, that nation is called to be very highly civilized or advanced. But that is the lowest stage of civilization. Everyone is trying to make economic development by exploiting the world—digging the earth, the mines, the... This is lowest stage, just like animal civilization. Next.
Because we wanted to become one with Kṛṣṇa, to compete with Kṛṣṇa, therefore we are put into this material world. Māyā tāre jāpaṭiyā dhare. And here, in this material world, it is going on. Everyone is trying to become Kṛṣṇa. That is māyā. Everyone. "First of all, let me become a big, big man; then let me become the minister, let me become the president." In this way, when everything fails, then "Let me merge into the existence of God." That means, "Let me become God." This is going on. This is material struggle for existence. Everyone is trying to become Kṛṣṇa.
But our philosophy is different. We do not want to become Kṛṣṇa. We are trying to become Kṛṣṇa's servant. That is the difference between Māyāvāda philosophy and Vaiṣṇava philosophy. Caitanya Mahāprabhu teaches us how to become the servant of the servant of the servant of the servant of Kṛṣṇa. Gopī-bhartuḥ pada-kamalayor dāsa-dāsa-dāsānudāsaḥ (CC Madhya 13.80).
Prabhupāda: We can also become one of them, eternally liberated. But we are not admitted in the spiritual kingdom unless we have given up this false sense of lording it over the material nature. Here, the conditioned souls, everyone is trying to become the lord, imitating. Everyone is trying. But there is clash. You are trying to become lord, I am trying to become lord. Therefore there is clash. And in the spiritual world the Lord is one and there is no competition of lording it over. Therefore in the spiritual world everything is unconditioned, freedom. Yes, go on.
Upendra: "After this such fortunate living entities have no more to come within the occasional material creation. But those who can not catch up the constitutional truth are again kept merged into the mahat-tattva at the time of annihilation of the material creation. When the creation is again set up this mahat-tattva is again let loose and this mahat-tattva contains all the ingredients of material manifestations including the conditioned souls. Primarily this mahat-tattva is divided into sixteen parts namely the five gross material elements and the eleven working instruments or senses."
So this is material world means everyone is trying to become God. I am trying to become God, you are trying to become God. So there is competition between Gods. He has forgotten that he is dog, but he's trying to become God. Especially in these days, especially in our (chuckling) India, Bengal, there (are) so many Gods incarnation, rascal. You see? So many. As if God is so cheap thing that anyone can become God. So God has given us the chance, "All right. You try to become God." He's trying to become God, and more and more... This is asuric. Just like Hiraṇyakaśipu. As soon as his little child would say "Kṛṣṇa, Nārāyaṇa," he would immediately become angry: "Oh, who is this Nārāyaṇa?" "Oh, He is God." Just like this child is doing. "I am God. Who is God? You are trying to respect some other God?"
It is a question of association. Similarly, the spirit soul, as son of God, he is pure. He is as pure as anything. As God is pure, similarly the son of God is also pure. But as soon as he forgets God and wants to become free, or wants to become imitation God... Here in this material world everyone is trying to become an imitation God. God is one. God cannot be two. But here the struggle for existence means that these, I mean to say, living entities who are put into this material world, every one of them is trying to become an imitation God. Therefore there is struggle. I am trying to... Either collectively or individually, everyone is trying to become a certain type of God. What is that God? God means, I have several times explained that God means the richest man, the richest, famous man, the most famous man, the strongest man, the beautiful man, the learned man, and the renounced man. You just find out who is God.
Kṛṣṇa is actually bhoktā. Bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasām (BG 5.29). So we are imitating Kṛṣṇa. This is our position. Everyone is trying to become Kṛṣṇa. The Māyāvādīs, although they have undergone penances, austerities—very strictly they follow the principles of spiritual life—but because they are under māyā, at the end they are thinking that "I am God, Purusa," the same disease, puruṣa. Purusa means bhoktā. That "I am Kṛṣṇa..." Bhoktāraṁ yajña... And even after advancing so much by austerities, penances, following regulative principle, the māyā is so strong that still, he is under this impression that "I am puruṣa." Not only ordinary puruṣa, but the Supreme Puruṣa, as Kṛṣṇa is described in the Bhagavad-gītā. Paraṁ brahma paraṁ dhāma pavitraṁ paramaṁ bhavān, puruṣam śāśvata: (BG 10.12) "You are puruṣa." So māyā is so strong that after being kicked so many lives, life after life, still he is thinking, "I am puruṣa. I am enjoyer." This is the disease.
So you practice it. The sanātana-dharma means this bhakti-yoga. Because we have forgotten. Everyone is trying to become God. Now practice here how to become a servant of God. And if you are qualified, factually, that now you are rest assured that you have become a servant of God, that is bhakti-mārga. As Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, gopī-bhartur pada-kamalayor dāsa-dāsa-dāsa-dāsānudāsaḥ. When you are expert in becoming the servant of the servant of the servant of the servant of the Lord-hundred times down, servant—then you are perfect (CC Madhya 13.80). But here everyone is trying to become the Supreme Lord. Somebody is misusing the word "so 'ham," "ahaṁ brahmāsmi" and therefore "I am the Supreme." But that is not. These are Vedic words, but so 'ham does not mean "I am God." So 'ham means "I am also the same quality." Because mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūtaḥ (BG 15.7). Jīva is the part and parcel of God, Kṛṣṇa, so the quality is the same. Just like you take a drop of water from the sea. So the chemical composition of the whole water of the sea and a drop of water—the same. That is called so 'ham or brahmāsmi. Not that we misuse these words, Vedic version, and I think falsely that "I am God. I have become God."
Anna, anna means foodstuff, and paramānna means that sweet rice. It is called paramānna. Amongst all sorts of rice preparation, that sweet rice preparation is considered to be the best. So param is used when it is the best or the supermost. So īśvaraḥ, controller. There are many controllers. "Might is right." But nobody is supreme controller. That is not possible. Nobody. Everyone is trying to become the supreme controller, but that is not being possible. By individual effort, by national effort, by communal effort, any way, every community, every nation, every individual person is trying to be the supreme. Therefore there is competition. Everyone is trying to be the supreme, but that is not possible. This world, this creation is so made that nobody is supreme. Any position you place yourself, you'll find somebody inferior to you and somebody superior to you. Nobody can say that "I am superior" or "I am inferior." If you think that you are inferior, you'll find somebody immediately less inferior than you. And if you think you are superior, you'll find immediately somebody is more superior than you.
Therefore here it is said, vidhi-karāḥ, brahmādaya, "They are all your servants, vidhi-karāḥ." Vidhi-karās means who executes the order of the Supreme Lord. That is devatā. And one who wants to become one or equal with the Supreme Lord, they are asuras. They always create disturbance. At the present moment there are so many asuras. Everyone is defying the supremacy of the Supreme Lord. Everyone is trying to become God. Therefore the whole world is in chaotic condition. If we want to adjust this chaotic condition, then we require the incarnation of God. That is already there. Nāma-rūpe kali kāle kṛṣṇa-avatāra. This Hare Kṛṣṇa movement is the incarnation of Kṛṣṇa in the form of name. There is no difference... The saṅkīrtana movement which was inaugurated by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu... And Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu is Kṛṣṇa Himself. So abhinnatvād nāma-nāminoḥ. So this Hare Kṛṣṇa movement is not different from Kṛṣṇa or Caitanya Mahāprabhu.
Festival Lectures
That is answered by Prahlāda, na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇum (SB 7.5.31). "These persons, those who are so much materially attached, they do not know the ultimate goal of life is Viṣṇu, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Viṣṇu." That is actually the ultimate goal of life. We are here in this material world, forgetting Kṛṣṇa, to enjoy, to lord it over the material nature. Everyone is trying to become the lord, master of material... That is struggle. Nobody can become lord or master of this material world. But that struggle to become master, they are taking it happiness. They are taking it happiness. That is the nature of persons who are influenced by the modes of passion. They'll work hard, and that will, they will take it is very good, pleasing. Because they do not know that the... Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇuṁ durāśayā ye bahir-artha-māninaḥ (SB 7.5.31). They are hoping against hope to become happy within this material world. That is the whole history.
Initiation Lectures
So this is the opportunity to... You are part and parcel of God. Don't try to become artificially like God. That is not possible. That will be simply waste of energy. This is māyā. Everyone under the spell of māyā, they are working very hard. Why? Everyone is trying to become God: "I shall be the great man of this country," or "My country shall be the greatest country in the world." That means God is great, and everyone is trying to be great like that. That is competition. So you are trying, I am trying, he is trying, everyone is trying. This is called māyā. But our Bhāgavata philosophy says that "Don't try artificially in that way. Better remain what you are. Better remain..." Just like the same example: If you want to be the greatest man in your country, just like President Nixon, so you have to work very hard. And that is also for temporary. It will be finished within five years.
General Lectures
As soon as we turn our consciousness in this way, then our troubles begin. Immediately māyā. This very consciousness, that "I can enjoy this material world to my best capacity..." Everyone is trying to do that. Every one of us, beginning from the ant up to the highest living creature, Brahmā, everyone is trying to become one of the lords. Just like recently in your country there were so many canvassing for becoming the president. Why? The same idea. Everyone is after becoming some kind of lord. This is māyā. Our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is completely opposite. We are just trying to become the servant of the servant of the servant of the servant of Kṛṣṇa. Just opposite. Instead of becoming the lord, we want to be the servant of the servant of Kṛṣṇa. Gopī-bhartuḥ pada-kamalayor dāsa-dāsānudāsaḥ (CC Madhya 13.80).
So it is understood from any source of scriptural injunction that the Supreme Lord, or Kṛṣṇa, is the maintainer of the individual living entities, and it is the duty of the individual entity to feel obliged to the Supreme Lord. This is the whole background of religious principle. Without this acknowledgement, there is chaos, as it is happening in our daily experience at the present moment. Everyone is trying to become the Supreme Lord, either socially, politically or individually. Therefore there is competition for this false lordship and there is chaos all over the world, individually, nationally, socially or collectively. The Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is trying to establish the supremacy of the Absolute Personality of Godhead. The human society is meant for this understanding because this consciousness makes his life successful. This Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is not a new introduction of the mental speculators. Actually this movement was started by Kṛṣṇa Himself in the Battlefield of Kurukṣetra.
Conversations and Morning Walks
1976 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Oh. Prahlāda Mahārāja's...
Dr. Patel: From Śrīmad-Bhāgavata. This morning only I read about this thing.
Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. (break) ...becomes humble. God is for the humble and meek. In Bible also it is stated. And because everyone is trying to become God, how he becomes humble?
Dr. Patel: I think Christ taught humility by his own action.
Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Even Vaiṣṇava...
Dr. Patel: All Vaiṣṇava.... I mean Vaiṣṇava ācāryas suffered extremely than that.
Prabhupāda: Kavirāja Gosvāmī, who has written this immortal Caitanya-caritāmṛta, he is presenting himself, purīṣera kīṭa haite muñi se laghiṣṭha: (CC Adi 5.205) "I am lower than the worms in the stool." Just see. He is not hypocrite. He is feeling like that. "Oh, what is my value?" Purīṣera kīṭa haite muñi se laghiṣṭha, jagāi mādhāi haite muñi se pāpiṣṭha. Jagāi-Mādhāi was a...
Dr. Patel: Those two boys Caitanya...
1977 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Stop breathing means you don't spend. You have got a limited breathing period. By yogic process, you stop breathing, but you remain. That is mystic yoga. So similarly, you can simply increase your life by not using the breathing process. That is praṇāyāma. That is praṇāyāma. So... But you cannot exceed the limit. That is not possible. (Hindi) You don't keep hygienic life. (Hindi) You infect. That is your fault. (Hindi) To live ordinarily healthy life, that is... But if you transgress the hygienic principle, if you transgress the law of nature, you must suffer. Similarly, we are suffering in this material world—the covering is there—because we wanted to transgress the laws of God. Kṛṣṇa bhuliya jīva bhoga vañcha kare. When we forget our relationship with Kṛṣṇa, that "Kṛṣṇa is the original master, and I am the servant," as soon as you forget this relationship, this is contamination, immediately. Everyone is trying to become another Kṛṣṇa. This is struggle. Here in this material world you'll find everyone is trying to become very, very big-big leader, big politician, big businessman, big, big, big. But he is not big. That is the disease. He is not big, and he's trying to become big.
| Page Title: | Everyone is trying to become God |
| Compiler: | Visnu Murti, RupaManjari |
| Created: | 28 of May, 2013 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=1, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=17, Con=2, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 20 |