Prabhupāda: Now, when Lord Kṛṣṇa was present on the battlefield of Kurukṣetra, He was very old man. He was very old man, although you see His picture just like a young man of twenty years old. But you have seen. Some of you must have seen the picture of Kṛṣṇa of battlefield. Arjuna is sitting on the chariot, and Kṛṣṇa is the chariot driver. Arjuna and Kṛṣṇa was of the same age, but Arjuna looks older; Kṛṣṇa looks younger. And Kṛṣṇa at that time had great-grandchildren. His grandchildren and His grandchildren's children were present at that time, and the whole family extended to about ten millions.
So this may be astonishing, but for God is nothing astonishing. If it is a fact that everyone is the son of God... Sarva-yoniṣu kaunteya sambhavanti mūrtayo yāḥ (BG 14.4). You will find in the Bhagavad-gītā that "In every species of life, in whatever form you may see them, I am the father of all of them." Now, if He is the father of all living beings, just calculate how many living beings there are throughout the whole universe or in the creation. In comparison to that, if He displayed that He had only ten millions of sons and grandsons and grandchildren, that was nothing more. So these are things. Kṛṣṇa was equipped in that way.
So He says that "Pārtha, My dear Arjuna, I have nothing to give. Don't think that I am here in the battlefield to assist you just for some remuneration or for some gain because I can have anything and everything at My will only." Na me pārthāsti kartavyam: "Therefore I have no fixed duty." In the Upaniṣad you will find the definition of Brahman. Na tasya kāryaṁ karaṇaṁ ca vidyate: "The Supreme Brahman has nothing to do." That is the distinction. We have got everything to do. Suppose we want spiritual perfection. So we have to do something. We have to perform something. We have to act practically. We have to go, accept penance, we have to accept... Just like we are trying to chant
- Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare
- Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare
So the idea is that "I may be elevated to the perfect position." So anything, if we desire, we have to do something. But the definition of Brahman and God is that He has nothing to do. The Veda, Upaniṣad, say. Na tasya kāryaṁ karaṇaṁ ca vidyate: "He has nothing to do." Still, He is God.
Not that one becomes God by doing something. Nowadays it has been practiced to say that "I have meditated so many years, I have undergone so much penance. Then I have become now God." Oh, God is not manufactured in that way. God cannot be manufactured. Now, Kṛṣṇa, when He was in the lap of His mother, He was God at that time also, not that He had to grow up and undergo some penance and austerity and vows and go to the jungle or Himalaya or accept some very great spiritual master and so on, so on; then He became God, as it has been now the practice, that anyone who... He's a little advanced in spiritual life, and if he can display some wonders, oh, he at once becomes God. So God is not so cheap thing. Simply by playing some wonders...
Just like the other day I narrated the story of Durvāsā Muni. Durvāsā Muni was a great yogi. The yogis can display many wonders, many wonders. In my childhood I had got one tutor. So he was telling about his spiritual master. He was a yogi. That... He said that when he visited his spiritual master who was a yogi, his spiritual master asked him, "What do you want to eat?" And because my teacher knew that his spiritual master was a great yogi, he wanted to have a taste of pomegranate of Kabul. In India pomegranate of Kabul, Afghanistan, that is very famous. So his spiritual master said, "Yes, you will find it in this room. You can see it." So he saw that just it has been taken from the tree of pomegranate, and the juice was falling down. You see? So these wonders can be played by a yogi. You see? There are many yogis still living; they can manufacture gold. They can manufacture gold. The process is that they can eat, I mean to say, what is called? Pārā. What is the English of pārā, that liquid metal, white?
Rāyarāma: Mercury?
Prabhupāda: Mercury. Yes. (chuckles) Yes. Mercury. They eat mercury. They eat mercury, and after, the next morning, they pass urine, and in that urine they put some copper coins, just like you have got, cents. And when it is heated, the copper coins becomes gold. And it is a chemical, theoretical truth that the mercury, molecules of mercury, the molecules of gold are almost similar. Only one molecule is different. So mercury can be turned into gold. That is a chemical fact. And we have got information from Vedic scripture that formerly gun metal, gun metal mixed with mercury, could be transformed into gold. So these are some of the chemical process, physical process, which is being done by scientific advancement of knowledge. There are many yogis who can do by yogic power. Just like by physical process...
Now people are trying to travel in the space, but the yogis can travel in the space very swiftly, more swifter than any sputnik. Just like the other day I narrated, the Durvāsā Muni traveled all over the space in the universe and outside the universe, and he came back within one year. So therefore Kṛṣṇa's another name is Yogeśvara. Yogeśvara. There are many yogis and many yogic principle, but Kṛṣṇa is the master of all yoga. So if ordinary yogis, they can display some wonders, so why not Kṛṣṇa? He is the Yogeśvara; He is the lord of all yogis. So by performance of this yoga-prakriya(?), or the yogic mystic powers, one cannot become God. God is different from all of them. So Kṛṣṇa was that God. So His manifestations, His work...
Now, here He says which I was going to explain from Vedic scripture. So Kṛṣṇa says, na me pārthāsti kartavyam: "I have nothing to do." He has nothing to do; still, He is so powerful? Yes. That is confirmed in the Vedic scripture, that Brahman, the nature of Brahman, is described like this, na tasya kāryam karaṇaṁ ca vidyate: "The nature of Brahman is that He has nothing to do." He has nothing to do. That is the difference between God and ourself. We have to do everything to achieve a certain aim, but God has nothing to do. Na tasya kāryaṁ karaṇaṁ ca vidyate na tat-samaś cābhyadhikaś ca dṛśyate: "And nobody is found who is equal to Him and or greater than Him." Nobody is found. These are the definition in the Vedic literature, that "God has nothing to do. Nobody is equal to Him, and nobody is greater than Him."
That means everyone is below Him. Everyone is below Him. Nobody can be equal with God. Even such great demigods like Śiva and Brahmā... They are considered to be the highest demigods. Still, in the scriptures it is said that nobody should place all these demigods, even Śiva and Brahmā, on equal footing with Viṣṇu, Viṣṇu the Supreme Personality of Godhead, or Kṛṣṇa. So Kṛṣṇa has nothing to do. God, who is actually God, He has nothing to do. He has nothing to do. He is God from the very beginning. And He is all-powerful with all opulences. That is the God. So Kṛṣṇa says, "I have nothing to do," triṣu lokeṣu kiñcana, "not only in this earth, but in the three worlds, anywhere, anywhere I can go, anywhere I can work, anywhere I can see. But still, I have nothing to do."
Na anavāptam avāptavyam: "It is not that I am deficient in My possession." We work because we find deficient ourself. In any power, in any, either spiritual power or material power, we have to work because we are deficient. So Kṛṣṇa is not deficient so that He has to fill up the deficiency. No. Na anavāptam. So still, varta eva ca karmaṇi. Now, He says that "Arjuna, you see that still, I have engaged Myself in the worldly duties." Why? Just to become the ideal man. Although He was not man, He was God, because He was playing the part of a man, therefore He was...
Why He was taking part in the battlefield? He had nothing to gain out of it personally, but why He was taking part in the battlefield? Just for the right cause. So He wanted to establish that for right cause there must be fighting. You cannot abolish violence from the world. This is the instruction of Kṛṣṇa in Bhagavad-gītā. If required, violence will be taken. And Kṛṣṇa induced Arjuna to be violent. Arjuna wanted to be nonviolent, but He wanted that "You should. You must fight. This fight is arranged by Me." So these examples.
These are the examples. Nothing is bad... Nothing is good if it is not purposeful. That is the whole purpose of teaching Bhagavad-gītā. Nothing is good; nothing is bad. Everything is good, everything is bad, in this material world, but we have to see. Just like the common phrase goes, "The end justifies the means. The end justifies the means." So that is Kṛṣṇa teaching here that He has nothing to gain. He is full in Himself. But just to set examples in the world He was taking part in the fighting because He wanted to establish it that fighting for good cause should not be avoided. That was His mission.
Then further He says,
- yadi hy ahaṁ na varteyaṁ
- jātu karmaṇy atandritaḥ
- mama vartmānuvartante
- manuṣyāḥ pārtha sarvaśaḥ
- (BG 3.23)
Manuṣyāḥ. Now just see. Here it is said. Manuṣyāḥ means all men. All men. So Kṛṣṇa is not for a particular society or particular religious community or particular country or particular time. No. Kṛṣṇa is the leader of all men for all the time in all the countries in all the worlds and all the universes. So He is not a sectarian Personality of Godhead. We should know. Manuṣyāḥ. Manuṣyāḥ, it is plural number: "All men." All men. So He said, "If I do not set example by My practical work, then because I am the leader of all men, all living entities, they will be wrongly directed." Wrongly directed.