Dr. Atmaram, Ladies and Gentlemen, I thank you very much for your kindly coming here and participating in this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. Today I shall discuss one chapter from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. This is Seventh Canto, Sixth Chapter, the statement by Prahlāda Mahārāja. (SB 7.6.1)
Prahlāda Mahārāja was a great devotee, and his father was a great atheist. The struggle between the theist and the atheist is perpetual; it is not new. Actually, anyone who is in this material world, he is supposed to be atheist. Because just like the government gets together all the criminals in the prison house, similarly, those who are disobedient to the laws of the Supreme Lord, such criminals are sent into this material world.
- icchā-dveṣa-samutthena
- sarge yānti parantapa
- (BG 7.27)
Icchā and dveṣa. Icchā means desiring, and dveṣa means hating. These two things are there; it is natural. A living entity . . . even in God there is such things, but in God, because He is absolute, His hiṁsā, dveṣa or love is the same thing, advaya-jñāna. Just like, for example, those who are scientifically searching after God, the jñānīs, they also merge into the existence of God; and similarly the enemies, the atheists, just like Hiraṇyakaśipu, Rāvaṇa, Kaṁsa, they were killed by God, but they got the same salvation. That is God, absolute.