We have written a small book, Kṛṣṇa, the Reservoir of All Pleasure. Ghastly or wondrous rasas or chivalrous rasas, although they are not exactly like the five primary rasas, conjugal love, paternal affection, friendly love... Just like Bhīṣma. Bhīṣmadeva was enjoying the chivalry rasas when he decided that "This day, I must kill Arjuna. Either Kṛṣṇa will have to break His promise..." Kṛṣṇa promised that He'd not take any weapon in the battle; He should remain neutral. Because both sides, they were relatives. So it is not good to take part partially in one party and neglect other. Of course, it was divided... Kṛṣṇa divided Himself, His soldiers, one side, and Kṛṣṇa, one side. He said, Duryodhana and Arjuna, that "I shall remain neutral, but I am dividing My strength in this way.
Exactly like (Lectures, Other)
Lectures
Nectar of Devotion Lectures
We, those who are materialistic persons, we are mad after sense gratification. Exactly like a person who is ghostly haunted, he speaks all sorts of nonsense, similarly, in our material condition we speak simply all nonsense. Unless we engage our tongue in the talking of kṛṣṇa-kathā... Vacāṁsi vaikuṇṭha-guṇanuvarṇane. Unless we engage our tongue in describing about the glories of Vaikuṇṭha—Vaikuṇṭha means the Supreme Personality of Godhead—then we shall be talking politics and other nonsense, and waste our time. Just like the frog. The frog is crowing. That means jihvāsatī dārdurikeva. In the Bhāgavata it is said that we have got tongue, but if we don't use the tongue for Kṛṣṇa-sevā... Sevonmukhe hi jihvādau (Brs. 1.2.234).
Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures
Don't be foolish. So in the spiritual platform, the everything are there, but they are different in quality. Just like iron is also metal and gold is also metal, but the quality is different; similarly, don't take that Kṛṣṇa's loving affairs with Rādhārāṇī is exactly like our loving affair with our girlfriend. No. It is not like that. One is gold, and one is iron. Don't minimize the value. Therefore Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī has described that it is ahlādinī-śaktiḥ. Rādhā-kṛṣṇa-praṇaya-vikṛtir hlādinī-śaktiḥ.
So this hlādinī-śakti is being described in Caitanya-caritāmṛta. Therefore Caitanya-caritāmṛta is the postgraduate study of highly elevated devotees. Ordinary devotees, they cannot understand. I have seen one professional reader. He was reading Caitanya-caritāmṛta, but he did not believe in it. Because he cannot understand. He cannot understand it.
That avidyā, avidyā, this material energy, is covering me exactly like the cloud covering. Now, this cloud covering also in different stages—one... Some of you must have traveled in the air. The cloud is covered... (break) ...little hazy, and when you go above the cloud, it is sunshine. So different stage of covering... Similarly, this avidyā or māyā is covering us in different stages, in different features. Māyā has got three qualities. Guṇamayī, māyā, Bhagavad-gītā says. Daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī (BG 7.14). Guṇamayī means having three modes of material nature: sattva, tamaḥ, rajaḥ. So here also the same thing is. Yayā kṣetra-jña-śaktiḥ sā veṣṭitā nṛpa sarva-gā.
And Kṛṣṇa claims that sarva-yoniṣu kaunteya (BG 14.4). Most of you must have read Bhagavad-gītā, and in the Fourteenth Chapter you'll find that Kṛṣṇa says, "My dear Arjuna, in all species of life there may be as many varieties of forms." We are all living entities. Here even, even in human society, we have got different types of forms. Nobody will be exactly like the form of another gentleman. There is difference. So this is the beauty of creation. If you go to a tree, there are millions and billions of leaves, and you won't find one leaf exactly like the other. So there are varieties of living entities. Out of the varieties of the living entities, the human kind living entities are very small. From śāstra, from scripture, we understand that there are 8,400,000 species of life, 8,400,000 species of life. Out of that, aquatics, water animals or water-living entities, are 900,000.
And because they are all fiery, everything made there fiery, therefore it is a blazing fire, and the illumination is coming all over the universe. But they cannot understand this, the so-called scientists. It is not... Beyond their conception. But this is a fact. And the moon planet is also fiery, exactly like the sun. Therefore that illumination is distributed. But the difference is, so far I can remember, that the moon planet fire is surrounded by cool atmosphere. Because the heat is coming through some cool atmosphere, it is at night so pleasing. It is not vacant. There is also living entities. This is one of the heavenly planets. Heavenly planet begins from the sun, then moon, then Mars, Jupiter, like that. We have challenged this, that moon planet is beyond the sun planet. The moon planet is not the first planet.
So everywhere the potency of the Supreme Lord is working. Very good example, exactly like the illumination, sunshine, moonshine, they are influencing the creation and they are situated in their own place, and they are all different potencies of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. So this is the potency of Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is engaged in Vṛndāvana, Goloka Vṛndāvana. Goloka eva nivasaty akhilātma-bhūtaḥ (Bs. 5.37). Although He is in the Goloka Vṛndāvana, He is playing with His cowherd boyfriends and the gopīs and His father and mother, but still He's expanded all over the creation. That is Kṛṣṇa. That is Kṛṣṇa. Goloka eva nivasaty akhilātma-bhūtaḥ. Just like we live in some apartment.
They challenge foolishly, "I can... Can you show me God? I cannot see God, therefore..." No. Why you cannot see God? You can feel the presence of God by heat and light. Light. Light you can see. When there is sunshine, you can see both the light and the heat. So as it is confirmed in the Vedic literature, we should appreciate the presence of God everywhere by His different energies, exactly like heat and light.
Just in the morning, a little, not sun directly, but even there is sunshine far away, immediately the darkness goes away. I am in distress; I am in poverty-stricken. Suppose I get immediately some large amount of money. Immediately my distress gone. So exactly like that, dhana pāile yaiche sukha-bhoga phala pāya, then automatically he becomes happy, a poor man when he gets money. Similarly, as soon as we have little taste of this devotional service, at once all our miserable life becomes happy at once. Yes. Sukha-bhoga haite duḥkha āpani palāya. And if there is happiness, where is the question of misery? If there is light, where there is question of darkness?
Death means the influence of time is being acted on this body. So after a few days or few years, this must vanquish. So there is no influence of time.
So there is no death, there is no birth, there is no ignorance, and everyone is obedient, everyone is happy. And their features of body is also exactly like God. In the spiritual planets, all of a sudden if you go, you cannot distinguish who is God and who is not. Yes. Just like here also, when Kṛṣṇa comes, He appears just like one of us. So man is made after God. So so far features are concerned, there is no difference between God and man. But the difference is only that God has no material body; we have got this material body subjected to the influence of time. When Kṛṣṇa comes, He does not become old. He remains just like a boy even when He is great grandfather because on His body there is no influence of time. Because His body is spiritual, therefore there is no influence of time.
"So long my mind and attention is absorbed in Kṛṣṇa consciousness," tadavadhi, "since then," tad-avadhi bata nārī-saṅgame, "sex life, as soon as I remember about that, it becomes very nasty thing for me." This is the experience. And in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam also... Sex life is there in Kṛṣṇa, not exactly like this, but there is a, I mean to say, unification of embracing, kissing, everything is there, but there is no pregnancy, there is no abortion. That is the perfection. So that we cannot do here. Therefore we have to avoid. Yes. We have to avoid. The perfection... Kṛṣṇa mixed with so many girls, but there was not a single case. And Bhīṣmadeva certified that "If I had been among such beautiful young girls..."
Therefore there is no difference. The impersonalists, they cannot understand. Because everything is spiritual, they think that there is no variegatedness. But from this description of Caitanya-caritāmṛta and other scriptures like Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Bhagavad-gītā, we can understand that the spiritual sky is exactly like this, but that is spiritual and this is material.
Sri Isopanisad Lectures
This philosophy... Therefore this very word is used here, vijānataḥ. Vijānataḥ means one who knows, knower of things, how they are manifested. When one understands that things are manifested in this system exactly like the fire, heat and light... Fire is the original cause of heat and light. Similarly, whatever we see within this universe, within material world and spiritual world, the spiritual world is expansion of Kṛṣṇa's internal energy, and this material world is Kṛṣṇa's expansion of external energy, and we living entities, we are expansion of marginal energy.
Sri Brahma-samhita Lectures
The same example, as I have given you many times, that the sun, sun, sun planet is there in the sky, but sun is visible when he is in our front. Otherwise sun is there. Similarly Kṛṣṇa is always there, but when He descends, incarnates, He becomes visible to us, exactly like the sun. At the present moment, it is night. Sun is not visible. But in due course of time, say, after eight hours or ten hours, in the morning, the sun will be visible. Similarly there is scheduled time when Kṛṣṇa becomes visible on this planet, on this universe. And there are, there are innumerable universes. They..., therefore He's called nitya-līlā. Nitya-līlā means eternal pastimes. Kṛṣṇa is born as Yaśodā, Devakī-nandana. Immediately He begins to grow.
Festival Lectures
He says... Even if I do not say that He's my friend, He says, "I am friend of everyone." Suhṛdaṁ sarva-bhūtānām (BG 5.29). He's friend of everyone. We don't want His friendship, but He wants our friendship. He wants us to go back to home, Godhead; we don't want. So He is more anxious to take us, exactly like the father is more affectionate than the son. That's a fact. So He's the supreme father. So He wants that we may be happy, and therefore He comes to show us. He sends His representative, son. He leaves behind Him books so that we may go back to home, back to Godhead. So, sakhyam. He's always sitting with me, within my heart. I am in the heart, and Paramātmā is also within the heart as friend to give me advice that "Why you are bothering in this material world? Please come back to home, back to Me." This is going on. Sakhyam ātma-nivedanam.
And quantitatively, there is difference. What is the difference between nitya, the singular number nitya, and the plural number nitya? The plural number nitya is subordinate, eternal servants of the singular number nitya. Just like if you want to serve somebody, so the master is also exactly like you. He has got two hands, two legs, or the same sentiments. He also eats. Everything is same there. But the difference is the master and the servant. That's all. Otherwise, equal in every respect.
Arrival Addresses and Talks
A guru is worshiped... Just like my disciples. They are offering respect exactly like God. That is their duty. Sākṣād-dharitvena samasta-śāstraiḥ: "All the śāstra recommends that guru should be respected as good as God." But that does not mean guru is foolishly thinking, "I am God." Sākṣād-dharitvena samasta-śāstrair uktaḥ **. Uktaḥ means "said," "it is recommended." Tathā bhāvyata eva sadbhiḥ: "Those who are exalted, advanced, they accept this truth, that guru should be respected as good as God." But why he is respected as such? Because kintu prabhor yaḥ priya eva tasya: "Because he is very, very dear to God." The guru will never think that "My disciples are worshiping me exactly like God; therefore I have become God." He is not guru, he is rascal.
Initiation Lectures
So any intelligent man, if he's actually has got sense, he should try for this. And especially in this human form of life, it is possible to achieve this benediction, that I can become immortal, I can become blissful, I can become full of knowledge-sac-cid-ānanda. Kṛṣṇa is sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha (Bs. 5.1), and if you become Kṛṣṇa conscious, then ultimately you also become exactly like Him, sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha. Vigraha means form, body, and sat means eternal, and cit means knowledge. Sat, cit, ānanda. Ānanda means blissfulness. So this body, however you may be... You may be American, you may be Englishman, you may be very rich man, you may be very poor man, you may be white man, you may be black man, whatever you may be, but this body is not sac-cid-ānanda.
After all, they have no education, no improvement. Simply, they are bold enough, just like the insects. The insects are bold enough to fall down on the fire. Similarly, this civilization without any control of the senses, adānta-gobhir viśatāṁ tamisraṁ punaḥ punaś carvita-carvaṇānām (SB 7.5.30), being unable to control the senses, exactly like the insect, flies very boldly, falls on the fire. Similarly, these uncontrolled senses (are) leading them to the darkest region of materialistic life. They do not know it, and they don't care to know it, because they, they have got their own theory that after this body everything is finished, zero. But that is not the case. Not finished. There are so many species of life we have to enter, in any one of them, and this human form of life is the opportunity to get out of the clutches of māyā, this repetition of birth and death, and anyone can go back to home, back to Godhead, and become eternal associate of the Lord in blissful life. That opportunity is there.
General Lectures
Each and every living entity, they are different from each other so far individual capacities are concerned. So in spite of many... That is God's creation. In spite of many, each and every thing, you will find there is some difference. You can sit down at a place in New York and go on counting and seeing all people passing before you—you won't find one man is exactly like the other man. Not only that, in court, you know, every one of you know, that they take impression of the left hand thumb impression. Now, this thumb impression... You go on taking millions and millions of thumb impression, and you won't find one thumb impression is exactly like the other. And because there is difference of thumb impression, therefore the identity is taken in that way, that "This particular man's thumb impression, even if he denies his signature, the thumb impression will corroborate that his signature is this." So that is God's creation.
We are preparing our next life, next body rather... Life is continuing. I am eternal. Next body—according to my present one. Just like in this meeting we have got two hundred ladies and gentlemen, but you cannot find out any lady or any gentleman exactly like the feature of the other. Differences. That means different consciousness, different work, and we have got different body. According to Bhagavad-gītā, the soul is transmigrating from one body to another, but the soul is eternal and permanent. And there are evolutionary process also. There are nine million species of life in the water. Jalajā nava-lakṣāṇi sthāvarā lakṣa-viṁśati. And the trees and plants are two million. Similarly, there are reptiles, birds, then beasts, three million beast life, beastly life.
That is called living entity, minute; and the Lord: greatest. God is great; you are minute. Understanding of God, understanding of the living entities. Then try to understand this material nature. What is this material nature? The material nature is exactly like your body. This body is working so nicely because you, the soul, is present within this body. That is a fact. You do not know how your hairs are growing, how your nails are growing. You are claiming, "It is my hair; it is my nail," but can you explain how it is growing? No. Similarly, the nature's work is going on wonderfully. Just like my... That is... So many things are going on wonderfully due to the presence of the spirit soul. Similarly, all this nature's work is going on so wonderfully due to the presence of God, the Supersoul. This is understanding of the material nature.
That's all. Anyone who speaks exactly what Lord Caitanya said, exactly what Kṛṣṇa said, then he is spiritual master. Just like a teacher who says that "I have passed M.A." Now what is the proof? That means if he speaks exactly like persons who have passed M.A. examination, then he is M.A. A medical practitioner who is approved by other medical practitioners in the medical college, he is medical practitioner. Similarly, if you want to test who is spiritual master, you have to see the standard spiritual master, Kṛṣṇa and Lord Caitanya and similar. Even Lord Jesus Christ, there are..., Lord Buddha, they are also spiritual masters, but they spoke in different circumstances. That is different thing. But if you want to know who is a spiritual master, then you have to test him whether he is speaking exactly like the bona fide spiritual master.
Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is a person, a person like you, like me. Just like we are facing each other, similarly, when you are spiritually perfect, you will be able to see Kṛṣṇa exactly like face to face.
Kṛṣṇa is not imperson. He is imperson also. He is present in three features: by His personal feature, by His impersonal features, and His localized feature. By His personal feature, He is always present in His abode known as Kṛṣṇaloka or Vaikuṇṭhaloka in the spiritual sky. And by His impersonal feature He is present as impersonal Brahman effulgence.
So everyone cannot be placed on the same level, not only materially, but also spiritually. If you say that "This higher status, lower status, are calculated in the material world; in the spiritual world there is no such distinction," that is partially true. In the spiritual world there is no such distinction, but that spiritual distinction is not exactly like material distinction. That distinction is of consciousness, varieties of consciousness. That distinction.
So in the higher status of life, when this distinction is not recognized or cannot be understood, that is called impersonal status, Brahman.
So what is the use of such realization if you cannot utilize it? So Brahman realization is not sufficient, that "I am not this body," ahaṁ brahma. No. That is clearly stated in Bhagavad-gītā. Brahman realization is not rejected, but if you do not go further, do not make further progress, then it is useless waste of time. Exactly like that: if you cannot go further, make arrangements how to live... You go with great speed in the space, but if you cannot stay in any other planet, then you come back again here. That's a fact. Similarly, you go, you realize Brahman—that's very nice—but if you cannot stay in the Brahman realization and again come to this bodily realization, bodily platform, then what is the use? Why you have taken so much trouble? Just after meditation, if you come again and you take to these, all these nonsense habits again, then what is the use? You must stay. That should be our...
Therefore by chanting this holy name of God, Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa... Hare is addressing the spiritual energy of the Lord, and Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Lord. So by being in touch with the Supreme Lord and His energy directly, we become purified. Exactly like if you take one iron rod, put into the fire, it becomes warner, warmer, and at last it becomes red hot. When it is red hot, it is no longer iron; it is fire. Similarly, if you constantly become in touch with the Supreme Lord by chanting His holy name, which is not different from the Supreme Lord, then you become spiritually purified. And as soon as you are spiritually purified, then all misunderstandings of this material world immediately vanquished.
Actually, our miserable condition of life is due to our forgetfulness. As I said yesterday, day before yesterday, this material existence is a condemned position of the living entities, exactly like a criminal is placed in the prisonhouse. Now, the whole Vedic literature is meant for getting us liberated from this condition of life. So far Bhagavad-gītā is concerned, the same aim is there because at the ultimate instruction, Lord Kṛṣṇa says, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). That is the ultimate goal. We have to come to that point, to surrender unto the lotus feet of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. It may take hundreds of years or hundreds of births, but unless we come to that point, our life is simply frustration.
Now the creation is going on since the birth of Lord Brahmā, and it will continue for so many millions of years. Again it will be annihilated. As you will find in the Bhagavad-gītā, bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19). This creation takes place exactly like your body, my body. The creation of this body takes place at a certain date. That is the beginning of history. But time is immemorial, I mean to say, eternal. It is all relative truth. The history is relative. Just like my life begins, this body begins somewhere in 1896—something like that—and it ends somewhere. That time limit is relative to my body.
We are pure spirit soul. This is only an outward dress. Suppose you have got green dress. You don't say that "I am green dress." You say, "I am Mr. John." Similarly, if we say that "I am American," "I am Indian," that is not my real identification. Exactly like that, if somebody says that "I am Mr. green dress," "I am Mr. white dress," as that is not identification, similarly, if I say "I am American" or "I am Indian" or "Englishman," or so many, "Hindus" or "Muslims," that is not my pure identification. My pure identification is that "I am eternal servant of Kṛṣṇa, or God." That's all. That is pure identification. When comes to this understanding, that "I am eternal servant of God," that is called brahma-bhūtaḥ stage, ahaṁ brahmāsmi.
Just like in the Bhagavad-gītā God Himself describes about Himself. So we can know. So He says that "Simply by understanding what I am..." Kṛṣṇa says or God says, janma karma me divyam: "My appearance, or taking birth just like a human being, is transcendental." It is not exactly like the human body, but God is so kind that He comes before us as an ordinary human being. Unfortunately one who does not know about Him, he thinks that Kṛṣṇa, or God, is like one of us. Avajānanti māṁ mūḍhāḥ (BG 9.11). That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. "Those who are mūḍhas, rascals, they think Me as if one of the human being." Actually He is not. So we have got the chance to know about Him. Provided we read the right literatures under right direction, we can know.
As friend, He is sitting in the heart of all living entities. He is sitting in your heart, He is sitting in my heart, He is sitting in the ant's heart. The ant has also heart and the elephant has got also heart. Sometimes we find an insect exactly like a full stop. You have got experience. Sometimes when you open your book you find. They are called bookworm, they're very small, but it is moving. And because it is moving, from biological study we must conclude that it has got a heart. Even we do not know about biology, but Kṛṣṇa said that īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe 'rjuna tiṣṭhati (BG 18.61).
Therefore, it has become easy for me to convert so many boys and girls in the foreign countries. Not only Christian, Jews, but there are many Mohammedans, Africans. In Africa also we have got branches. And recently I went to Africa, the Africans are also chanting exactly like these European and Americans. So this benediction, this foretelling of Lord Caitanya is actually going to be fulfilled.
Therefore His body is spiritual body. The spiritual... When you get your spiritual body, you also get nava-yauvanam. Those who are associating with Kṛṣṇa in the Kṛṣṇa planet or those who are associating with Nārāyaṇa in the Vaikuṇṭha planets, they are also ever-young. Their bodily features are exactly like Nārāyaṇa. It is called sārūpya-mukti.
The two energies are coming from the sun, and the material world is creation of the sunshine, heat and light. Similarly there are two energies of God, heat and light. So one is called material energy, another is called spiritual energy, although both of them coming from the supreme spirit, exactly like heat and light is coming from the sun. But heat is not light; light is not heat. There is distinction. This is called inconceivable one and difference simultaneously. Acintya-bhedābheda tattva. This is our philosophy. Nothing is different from God, but not that everything is God. Simultaneous one and different.
You can understand it. As soon as the spiritual energy is off from the combination of this material energy, it is simply lump of matter. It cannot move. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā: yayā idaṁ dhāryate jagat. The whole world is moving by the combination of material and spiritual energy, and both of them coming from one source, exactly like that, that both heat and light is coming from the sun. But they are working differently or working combinedly.
Tasyaiva hetoḥ prayateta kovidaḥ na labhyate yad bhramatam upary adhaḥ (1.5.18). Now the animal life, there is no cultivation of spiritual life. That is not possible. The animal cannot cultivate this knowledge. The human beings, if they do not cultivate spiritual knowledge, they're exactly like animals. Dharmeṇa hīna paśubhiḥ samānāḥ. So we should be very conscious about our eternal existence. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). Nityaḥ śāśvato 'yam. We, spirit soul, we are eternal. We are not going to die after the annihilation of this body. This is the cultivation of knowledge. This is called brahma-jijñāsā, to know about one's self.
All-pervading. Everywhere, there is God. The sunshine..., the sun is ninety millions miles away from us. But as soon as the sunshine is there, we can understand there is sun. So if we are thoughtful, then we can understand what is God and how His energies are acting. That we can understand, exactly like that. As the fire is situated in one place but the heat and light is working, similarly, you can understand the existence of God by the energy of God, the energy, how the energy of God is working, you can understand God. And the energies are acting under certain laws given by God. Just like the sunshine. There is a particular time, at this hour, the sunshine will be visible.
It is not theoretical. If you practice, you will see, pratyakṣāvagamam. And it is very easy to perform. So if you chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, then you will understand. Exactly like that: if you eat, then you will feel satisfaction. Simply theoretically discussing how it become, we can say to you... It will not be understood. You chant, you will understand. Practical. Pratyakṣāvagamaṁ dharmyam su-sukhaṁ kartum avyayam. This is the process. Any other question?
Suppose I, this time, this life, I am very busy for constructing a big skyscraper building, and next time, next life, if I get the body of a cat or dog, so I'll have to live in that house because I have got attraction as a cat and dog, and who will care for me? So these are the facts. Because nobody can change the nature's law. Nature's law is exactly like infectious disease. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-sango 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22). They do not even believe that there is life after death. I talked, in Moscow, a big professor, Kotovsky. He said, "Swamijī, after death there is nothing." You... He's a big professor. He has no knowledge of the soul. And he's a big professor. Just see. This is going on.
We are conditioned in every step by the laws of material nature. Still, foolishly we are thinking we are free. This is foolishness. We are so much controlled by the material nature, exactly like a small child is pulled by the ear by its mother. "Come here"—he comes here. "Go there." Just like a dog. A dog may feel very freedom jumping, but as soon as the master says, "Come here," he comes and immediately chained. This is our position.
According to Vedic system, the representative of God must be honored as God. Yasya prasādād bhagavat-prasādaḥ **. Just like in India we had British rule. The governor general, he was viceroy. So he was given honor, as much honor we used to give to the king. So that is the etiquette. That is the system. It is not that the honor given to the viceroy exactly like to the king, he becomes a king. No. He is servant of God. But it is the duty of the citizen to honor the representative of the king as king. That is etiquette. That is our Vedic system.
Prabhupāda: That is another thing, but... (laughter) God has got His two hands and two legs, one head, like human being, but that hands and legs and head may not be exactly like us. But He has got the image.
Woman: I have never seen Him. I do not know.
Prabhupāda: Then why you are speaking? You do not know. Don't talk. (laughter) Then you learn. If you do not know, then you learn who knows. Don't talk.
Woman: I'll listen to you.
Prabhupāda: That is the defect of the modern civilization. One does not know, and he wants to teach. (laughter)
That is His hand. And my hand? Only three feet, that's all. So there is God's hand, but that hand is not like my hand. This is understanding. He can expand His hand millions and trillions of miles. That is His hand. That is explained in the Vedic literature. Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ (Bs. 5.1). God is vigraha, is form, exactly like our form. But His form is sat cit ānanda. Sat means eternal, and cit means full of knowledge, and ānanda means bliss. So our body, this hand, this leg, this body, is not sac-cid-ānanda. It is not eternal; it will be finished. But God's body will never be finished. That is the difference. He has got His body, and I have got my body. But this body will be finished at a certain date, but His body will remain eternally.
Same is quality. But the individual soul is not exactly like the Supersoul. The Supersoul is within you and within me, within everywhere. But I, individual soul, I am only within me. You are within you. That is the difference. I cannot feel your pains and pleasure; neither you can feel my pains and pleasure. Therefore we are individual. But Supersoul, because He is in everyone's heart, He knows what is going on in everyone's body. That is Supersoul. Therefore He is called Supersoul. That is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā, kṣetra-jñaṁ cāpi māṁ viddhi sarva-kṣetreṣu bhārata. Supersoul, He is God. He can expand Himself in millions and millions of places. But I cannot do that; you cannot do that.
We can see that year by year things are becoming more and more degraded, not in arithmetic proportion but even in geometric proportions. So rapidly everywhere society is decaying and people are becoming more and more just like animals, exactly like animals—simply interested in eating, simply interested in sex life, simply interested in trying somehow or another to find some object to gratify the senses. But in the temple we can practically experience a different quality of life altogether. So Śrīla Prabhupāda is establishing the internal potency of the Lord within this material world in the form of his temples.
Departure Talks
We left our home and father, and we are in this fallen material world, and we are suffering too much. It is exactly like a very rich man's son leaves home for independence and wanders all over the world, unnecessarily taking trouble. A rich man's son has nothing to do. His father's property is sufficient for his comfortable life. Still, as we have got examples now in the Western countries, many rich man's son becomes hippie, leaves home and unnecessarily takes trouble. Our position, our needs, we all living entities who are within this material world, is exactly like that. We have voluntarily come into this material world for sense enjoyment, and in sense enjoyment we have forgotten our supreme father, God. The material nature's duty is to give us simply miserable condition of life.
Philosophy Discussions
Prabhupāda: Yes. God can do anything He likes, but this world is planned not by God; it is given to the living entities who wanted to imitate God. So actually, the plan is according to the desire of the living entities who wanted to lord it over the material nature. God's plan is not this. It is exactly like the prison house is planned by the government because there are criminals. God's plan is "Come back home, giving everything up." Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar iti mām eti. His plan is to invite all the conditioned souls back to home, back to Godhead. He doesn't like the living entities to live here. But because they wanted to lord it over the material nature, they have been given that facility.
Śyāmasundara: So from the standpoint of the ingredients of this world, material ingredients, is this the best possible world with those ingredients?
Prabhupāda: So simply by understanding that he is spirit, gradually he understands that there is a spiritual world. This spiritual world is full of varieties. Everything is there, exactly like this, but that is eternal and this is temporary.
Śyāmasundara: He says that this pure reason has a regulative value, that is, by attempting to grasp the totality of conditions by connecting a particular phenomenon with the whole experience. In other words, for example, the idea of a supreme being is a regulative principle of reason because it tells us to view everything in the world in connection, as if it proceeded from the necessary cause, or the Supreme Being.
Prabhupāda: So, that means he wants to arrive at the absolute, that there is no duality. That is Kṛṣṇa. That is Kṛṣṇa. Because Kṛṣṇa says that His mission is to protect the devotees, paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṁ vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām (BG 4.8). And killing the demons. Kṛṣṇa actually did it. Just like He killed the Pūtanā, the great giant Pūtanā. Superficially he killed, but she got salvation exactly like His mother. Kṛṣṇa gave Pūtanā a position like His Mother Yaśodā. Then, what is the difference between loving Yaśodā and killing Pūtanā? Because He is absolute, whatever He does, it is good. God is good. So superficially you may see, "Now God is doing bad," but it is not bad, it is good. Therefore two opposing, viruddhatta samanvaya(?), the Sanskrit word is viruddhata samanvaya(?). Coinciding two opposing elements, and that He can do. Therefore if he comes to Kṛṣṇa, he becomes Kṛṣṇa conscious, he surrenders to Kṛṣṇa, then his philosophical aim will be fulfilled.
Prabhupāda: Just like I am dreaming so many things, I am dreaming; there is nothing such thing, still I am dreaming. I am feeling that I am fallen in a dark well and I am now suffocating. But actually there is no well, there is no suffocation, but I'm thinking because I've fallen or I am absorbed in dream, therefore all these conceptions, material conceptions, māyā, exactly like dreaming. Dreaming, this is the best example. When one dreams he factually suffers, he is put into some dark place and he is trying to get out, he cannot get out; there is no such dark place, he has not fallen, everything is (indistinct). He is suffering, he is suffering, he is crying, "Save me." So actually there is nothing material. But due to our dreaming that I am separate from Kṛṣṇa, "I'm Mr. American, I'm Mr. Indian, I'm Mr. This, I have got this duty, I have got that duty."
Prabhupāda: Reason explain... He cannot explain because he does not know. The soul is a living force, and it has got little independence. So the supreme living force is God, and he is part and parcel of God, exactly like the spark of the whole fire. So this song, he has finished, bhuliya tomāre saṁsāre. So as soon as the soul receives his independence from (indistinct) become God Himself or wants to become enjoyer of the material nature, he becomes powerless, and he is subjected to the influence (indistinct) by the physical elements, and because he forgets his real identity, he thinks that he is body. Just like Darwin's theory. He is not this body. It is simply, circumstantially, a covering, a dress, and the living soul is different from the physical body.
Prabhupāda: No. You are immortal always, by constitution, but you are changing your bodies exactly like the moon is fixed but the bodies are changing, clouds, changing, and it appears that the moon is also going on, but moon is not going on. Similarly, soul is permanent.
Śyāmasundara: Is that process we take, from body to body to body, is that a creative process?
Prabhupāda: Yes, that is a fact. He is putting himself in more. By suicide he becomes a ghost. That is more troublesome. Yes. Because the body given by God, he is killing. So from this body he has to accept another body. So unless that point comes, he has to remain a ghost. No body. Suppose I have to live in this body eighty years. I'll make suicide. So up to five years I have to remain a ghost, no body. Then it may be chance to get another body. This is wrong. Killing of any body, because na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). So one can put this argument, that the soul is everlasting, so what if the body is killed? But that's all right, body is killed, but you cannot kill the body to hamper its progress. One living entity is destined to live in a certain body. If you destroy that body, then he has to wait for the next body. That means you are interfering with his progress. Therefore you are sinful. Just like I am living in this apartment. If somebody by force drives me away, it is criminal. If I go to the police, that "I was living in this apartment and this man by force has driven me," is it not criminal? So I am not lost because I am driven out of this body. But you will be liable for criminal punishment because you have forced me to leave this body. Ramakrishna Mission says that what is the point if a man or animal is killed? The soul is immortal, so what is this? What is that? The rascals, they do not know. The real philosophy is here. The soul is destined to live in a certain body for a certain period. If you immaturely stop it, then you become responsible. Exactly like that.
Hayagrīva: The will to live is the irrational urge that brings about all suffering. And his is a philosophy of extinction. Now in his first book, The World Is Idea, he ascribes to the philosophy of māyā, like a Māyāvādī. He writes, "The Vedas and Purāṇas have no better simile than a dream for the whole knowledge of the actual world, which they call the web of māyā, and they use none more frequently." From this Schopenhauer concludes that life is a long dream. "What is this world of perception besides being my idea? Is that of which I am conscious only as idea exactly like my own body, of which I am doubly conscious, in one aspect as idea, in another aspect as will?" So from this he concludes that life is a projection of the will.
Prabhupāda: This material life?
Hayagrīva: Material life is a projection of the will.
Prabhupāda: No, no. There is no difference in temperament. The real (indistinct), the center (indistinct). Just like in your country it is the women is very (indistinct) that why they shall not be treated exactly like men. And the same thing is coming in our country also.
Śyāmasundara: And the men also want to have long hair and...
Prabhupāda: Actually, the real position is that every living entity is female, originally. But falsely he is imitating to become a male, enjoy. This is called māyā. Actually he is female, but he is trying to imitate the supreme male, Kṛṣṇa. That is called māyā. This is not fact. So our proposition is, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, that you come to the original state, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. You are not predominator, you are predominated. Predominated means female.
Prabhupāda: He is person. That is the Vedic description. He is person exactly like us, but His personality is unlimited. The same example I was giving, that I am a person so far I am concerned with this particular body, but He is a person living in every body, Super Person. And in the Bhagavad-gītā it is also said that that personality, either of God or of the individual soul, eternally existing. In the Bhagavad-gītā Kṛṣṇa says that in the past we are existing, at present we are existing, and in the future we shall continue to exist. So past, present, future. That means all the time, eternally, both of them are person. One person is unlimited, and the other person is limited. Finite and infinite.
Prabhupāda: That is insects' philosophy, that's all. This is "I have my decision to run hundred miles an hour, not caring for others." So this is exactly like the insects.
Śyāmasundara: And they say I'm responsible for my actions, but it's a very irresponsible position because it doesn't take into consideration other people, or supposing he would have killed other people too.
Prabhupāda: So that is animal decision. That is not human decision. Human decision that there is signboard, "Speed Limit 35." If he doesn't care, he is not a human being, he is animal. A human being, he will take care, "Why shall I drive 100?"
Prabhupāda: No. What the philosophers, the... Not all philosophers they denied the existence, but from our practical study we can see that take personal existence, that before I got this body, there was my father and mother. So how can I deny this fact? This whole cosmic manifestation is exactly like the manifestation of my body. Everything you take, there is practical experience. So far you take this spectacle, it is created by some spectacle..., spectacle manufacturer, and it will exist for some time, then it will annihilate. Similarly, the whole creation, annihilation. There is another crude example, just like earthen pot is made from the clay, earth. It is, it gets a shape, and it continues to exist for a certain time, and then it is broken. So when it is broken, again it is clay. So in the beginning the clay was there, in the middle there is a form, and at the end again clay. So clay is the original.
Prabhupāda: Breakneck. And then what is the business? Searching out some means of food, exactly like the hog, he is loitering here and there, "Where is stool? Where is stool? Where is stool?" And this is going on in the polished way as civilization. There is so much risk, as running these cars so many people are dying. There is record, it is very dangerous. At least I feel as soon as I go to the street, it is dangerous. The motorcar are running so speedy, and what is the business? The business is where to find out food. So therefore it is condemned that this kind of civilization is hoggish civilization. This hog is running after, "Where is stool? Where is stool? Where is stool?" And you are running in a car. The same. Purpose is the same: "Where is stool?" Purpose is the same.
Prabhupāda: ...philosophical and, I mean, fact. The example is very nicely given in the Bhagavad-gītā, with dress. As a person cannot continue the same dress perpetually—the dress becomes old, useless, and he has to change his dress—so the living being is eternal, but he has to accept a material body for material sense gratification. But the body cannot endure perpetually. Therefore it is very natural to understand that he has to change the body exactly like he has to change the dress.
Hayagrīva: So that's the conclusion of Origen.
Prabhupāda: No. The material nature is also inferior nature of God. That is described in the Bhagavad-gītā: bhūmir āpo 'nalo vāyuḥ khaṁ mano buddhir eva ca (BG 7.4). Apareyam, the material nature, means earth, water, fire, air, ether, and the subtle materials, mind, intelligence, ego. They are all emanation from God, so actually they are not unreal but inferior. They are, it is called, bhinnā me prakṛtir aṣṭadhā. They are separated material energy. We can have a little idea, just like we are speaking in the microphone, and it is being recorded in the tape recorder. When the tape recorder is replayed, the sound coming from exactly like the original person's sound, but it is not in touch with the person, but it has come from the person. If somebody does not see wherefrom the sound is coming, he can conjecture that such and such person speaking, although such and such person is away from that speaking engagement.
Prabhupāda: Then if he is godless, God has no use, will. Either he is godless or God has no will. Is it not? Then he is animal, and if he says animal has no will, then God becomes exactly like animal.
Hayagrīva: Speaking of the body and the soul, he says "The body, insofar as it is an uncultivated piece of external existence, is inadequate to the spirit. The spirit must first take possession of it in order to make it its animated tool. But in reference to other people, I am essentially free even as to my body. It is but a vain sophistry that says that the real person, the soul, cannot be injured by maltreatment offered to one's body. Violence done to the body is really done to me." Since the body, he says, is the tool of the soul...
Purports to Songs
He has sung many songs, important songs, and his songs are accepted as Vedic conclusion. (break) ...very authoritative songs. So he says, praying to Lord Kṛṣṇa, "My dear Lord," hari hari, "I have simply spoiled my life." Hari hari biphale janama goṅāinu. Why you have spoiled your life? He says, manuṣya-janama pāiyā, "I got this human form of life," rādhā-kṛṣṇa nā bhajiyā, "but I did not care to worship Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa. Therefore I have spoiled my life." And how it is? It is exactly like one takes poison knowingly. If somebody takes poison unknowingly, there is excuse, but if somebody takes poison knowingly, it is suicidal. So he says that "I have committed suicide simply by not worshiping Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa in this human form of life."
| Page Title: | Exactly like (Lectures, Other) |
| Compiler: | Visnu Murti, RupaManjari |
| Created: | 23 of Nov, 2011 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=64, Con=0, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 64 |