Because Kṛṣṇa is absolute, there is no difference between Kṛṣṇa and the method of attaining Kṛṣṇa. They are the same. Method . . . the bhakti method means Kṛṣṇa method. Bhakta-bhagavān. And the method to approach Bhagavān is called bhakti. The whole thing is based on one root: bhaj. Bhaj-dhātu. Bhaj-dhātu. That means offering loving service to the Lord. And Kṛṣṇa says, bhaktyā mām abhijānāti (BG 18.55). Bhajate mām ananya-bhāk.
These words are there: sādhur eva sa mantavyaḥ (BG 9.30), api cet su-durācāro bhajate mām ananya-bhāk. Bhajate, this very . . . bhajate. Catur-vidhā bhajante mām. This word, bhaja is very important thing. From bhaja, the word bhakti comes. Bhaja dhātu ukti. So bhakti means bhajana. Bhajate mām ananya-bhāk. Mahātmānas tu māṁ pārtha daivīṁ prakṛtim āśritāḥ, bhajanty ananya-manasaḥ (BG 9.13). Again: bhajanti.
Mahātmānas tu māṁ pārtha daivīṁ prakṛtim āśritāḥ. This bhajana is for mahātmās, not for the durātmās, or kṣudrātmā. Mahātmā. One whose ātmā has been expanded, mahātmā. Not crippled. Those who are thinking in terms of society, nationality, country, religion or so many things, they are not mahātmās; they are kṣudrātmās: small, cripple-minded. Those, those who are thinking in broader way.
Just like Caitanya Mahāprabhu. He says, pṛthivīte āche yata nagarādi grāma. He's not thinking in terms of . . . pṛthivīte āche yata nagarādi grāma (CB Antya-khaṇḍa 4.126): as many towns and villages are there all over the world. He's not thinking in terms of "my village," "my country," "my society." Everyone is thinking like that. But those who are mahātmā actually, they are thinking in a broader way. Pṛthivīte āche yata nagarādi grāma. Kṛṣṇa is thinking in terms of all living entities. Sarva-yoniṣu kaunteya sambhavanti mūrtayaḥ yāḥ (BG 14.4): "All living entities, in all species of life, in all forms of life," ahaṁ bīja-pradaḥ pitā, "I am their father."
So this is called mahātmā. Kṛṣṇa is thinking in terms of all living entities. People are saying that Kṛṣṇa, Indian, Hindu God. Why Hindu God? The dictionary, it is said, in English dictionary, that Kṛṣṇa is one Hindu God. Is not? In the dictionary. Why Hindu God? He says that, "I am the father of all living entities." Why He should be the father of the Hindus, Indians? He's father of everyone. He says. But they write in the dictionary, "Kṛṣṇa is Hindu God." Misinterpretation. Kṛṣṇa does not say. He . . . and Kṛṣṇa Himself, as Caitanya Mahāprabhu, says, pṛthivīte āche yata nagarādi grāma: "As many villages and towns are there," sarvatra pracāra haibe mora nāma that, "My name will be celebrated in every village, every town."
So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is not a crippled movement. It is very broad movement, claiming all living entities to come to Kṛṣṇa, back to home, back to Godhead. Therefore we should not be bodily conscious. Kṛṣṇa here says, the body is not "I am this body." Idaṁ śarīraṁ kṣetram. It is a field of activities. Kṣetram. Field of activities. Just like one who is bodily conscious, he undergoes many severe exercises, so body becomes very stout and strong and he's happy. He's happy. Because he thinks, "I am this body."
Similarly, you can make your body spiritually stronger. As you make your body materially strong, similarly you can make your body . . . because this is kṣetra. Kṣetra means the field, or the land. You, in the land by tilling the land, by cultivating the land, you can produce nice grain also, and inferior grain also, as you work. Because the land is in your possession, you can cultivate as you like. Similarly, this body is land, and I am the tiller. I am the kṛṣaka, or agriculturist. So by using the land, I can become spiritually advanced or I can become materially advanced. It is up to me.
Spiritually advanced means gradually you forget that, "I am this material body." "I am Kṛṣṇa's. I am Brahman." That is spiritually advanced. And material advance means "I am this body." "I am American," "I am Indian," "I am brāhmin," "I am kṣatriya," "I am man," "woman." This is materially advanced. Both ways. This human form of life . . . because it is not animal life. Always remember that I'm not animal; I'm now human being. So I can utilize . . .
These things will be explained in this chapter, how I can utilize this body. Both ways I can utilize. If I simply limit myself with the bodily necessities of life, just like the animals, eating, sleeping, sex intercourse, and defense—these are common to the human body and the cats' and dogs' body. But because I am human being, I can utilize my body in a different way. The cats and dogs cannot do. That is the difference between a human being and an animal. If you don't utilize my body as human being, then I am no better than cats and dogs.
Actually I am cats and dogs. If we simply limit myself how to eat very nicely, how to sleep very nicely, how to have sex intercourse very nicely and how to defend myself very nicely, then you are no better than animal. But this is the business of the animals. The ani . . . animal cannot be invited to become Kṛṣṇa conscious. That is not possible. Even if he's invited, he cannot sit down, he cannot hear.
Therefore those who are very much advanced in animal propensities, they cannot take part in this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. Those are . . . those who are, to say frankly, no better than animals, they cannot take any interest in the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. That is not possible. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says who can take. He says . . . we take from Kṛṣṇa all the words; you don't believe me. Kṛṣṇa says that:
- yeṣāṁ tv anta-gataṁ pāpaṁ
- janānāṁ puṇya-karmaṇām
- te dvandva-moha-nirmuktā
- bhajante māṁ dṛḍha-vratāḥ
- (BG 7.28)
So animal life means sinful life. Animal life. Even this human form of life is also sinful unless we come to the Kṛṣṇa consciousness platform. We come to the . . . animal life means sinful life. If I act as sinful, like hogs and dogs . . . just like if I don't discriminate of eating. Just like the hogs, they have no discrimination. They accept even stool: "Come on. I shall eat." You get the body of hogs or dogs. And if you utilize this body according to the śāstra to purify it . . .
Because human body is meant for purification. Yasmāt śuddhyet sattvam. That is the given, instruction given by Ṛṣabhadeva. Tapo divyaṁ putrakā yasmāt śuddhyet sattvaṁ yena . . . śuddhyet sattvaṁ yasmād brahma-saukhyam anantam. Nāyaṁ deho deha-bhājāṁ nṛloke kaṣṭān kāmān arhati viḍ-bhujāṁ ye (SB 5.5.1). He advised, instructed His sons, "My dear sons, don't use this body like the hogs and dogs, whole day and night searching after stool, eating, for eating. Don't use this."
And after eating, as soon as there is the sex is strong, then sex life. That is hogs' life. We have seen. These are the examples, nature's. They are very stout and strong, fatty, eating stool. And as soon as fatty, immediately sex life, without any discrimination mother, sister, or anyone. That is hogs. You see from nature's example, dogs and hogs. The dog has no, I mean to say, courtesy or shame. At, in the street, they're having sex life.
So human civilization is coming to that. Already it has come. In Western countries . . . at least, in our country it has not come still. And Western, it is common affair. Young man, young woman is embracing, kissing, and everything. And sometimes sexually also engaged on the sea beach, in the garden. We have seen it. So practically you are coming to the hogs' and dogs' life. This is our advancement of civilization. Why? On account of this bodily concept of life: "I am this body. I am this body."
Therefore this should be first of all understood. As Kṛṣṇa says, idaṁ śarīraṁ kaunteya kṣetram ity . . . (BG 13.2). It has been awarded to you for utilizing it for different purposes, as you like. You can utilize it like cats and dogs and hogs, and you can utilize it as devatā, as demigod. That is up to you. We have got little independence. We can utilize or misuse this independence. But the śāstra says that this body is not to be utilized as cats and dogs and hogs. Śāstra says.
Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, yaḥ śāstra-vidhim utsṛjya vartate kāma-kārataḥ (BG 16.23): anyone who does not care for the instruction given in the śāstras . . . Śāstra. Just like anyone who doesn't care for the law of the state, what kind of man he is? He's a loafer, a outlaw. He's not a respectable citizen. Similarly, anyone who does not follow the śāstric in . . . Śāstras are meant for human being, not for the cats and dogs and hogs, as law is meant for the human being, not for the cats and dogs. Therefore we have to follow the śāstric injunction.