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 entity. Here even, even in human society, we have got different types of form. Nobody will be exactly like the form of other 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.
The botanist or the physiologist, how many they have seen or how many they have experimented or how many we have seen? But from the śāstra, from the Vedic scriptures, we find that there are 900,000's of species of life in the water, and 2,000,000 species of life in the botanical department. Similarly, there are birds, there are beasts, there are four-legged animals, and at last, the human beings.
The human life is considered to be the developed form of all species of life. Darwin's theory also, some idea, gives some idea. I think he might have taken this idea from Vedic literature. But the gradual evolution is recommended, is, I mean to say, mentioned in the Vedic literature that from aquatic to plant life, then worms' life, then birds' life, then animal life . . . there are thirty-three hundred thousands of animal life.
So at last this human form of life. And the human form of life, there are many species, some of them civilized, some of them not civilized. Some of them have no religion. But we can know from the history of human civilization that any civilized nation, it doesn't matter whether he's Christian, whether he's Muhammadan or he's Hindu or Buddhist—there is some type of religion.
So in the Vedic literature (it) says that without religion, without accepting religion . . . Dharmeṇa hīnāḥ paśubhiḥ samānāḥ (Hitopadeśa). If in some society there is no religion . . . religion means to abide by the laws of the Supreme. That is religion. It doesn't matter whether it is Christian religion or Muhammadan religion or Hindu religion, religion means . . . just like citizen, good citizen. Good citizen means who abides by the law of the state.
It doesn't matter what he is. Similarly anyone, either he may be Christian or may be Muhammadan or may be Hindu, that doesn't matter. Anyone who accepts the Supreme Lord, God, and abides by the laws of God, or laws of nature, he's called religionist or an advanced human being.
But Kṛṣṇa says: "Either advanced or not advanced, that doesn't matter. It is a kind of dress only. But I am the father." Ahaṁ bīja-pradaḥ pitā (BG 14.4). Just like father is the seed-giving agent into the womb of the mother, and then the child, baby, comes out . . . without the combination of father and mother, there is no possibility of generation. Similarly, Kṛṣṇa says that, "In all species of life, the living entities, I am the seed-giving father, and this material nature is the mother."
Nobody can deny it. Because our this body . . . just like the child's body is made by the mother. Father gives the opportunity to develop the body, and the mother supplies the ingredients for developing the body. Similarly, God impregnates, God impregnates material nature with the living entities, and they come out in different form: aquatics, birds, beasts, animals, trees, plants, vegetables—so many. And Kṛṣṇa says that "I am the father of all of them."
So my request to you, that don't accept Kṛṣṇa as something Indian god or Hindu god. No. Kṛṣṇa is the original father of all living entities. He claims. If you don't accept . . . if the father says: "You are my son," and the son says: "No, I am not your son," oh, that is son's prerogative. He may deny it if he doesn't believe his mother. Now what is the proof that one man is my father? The mother is the proof.
There is no other source of understanding who is my father. If a boy wants to understand, "Who is my father?" the only authority is the mother. Mother will say: "My dear boy, my dear child, here is your father," you have to accept. If you say: "I don't accept. I must have proof that he is my father," how it is possible? It is not possible.
Similarly, the Vedic literature is to be considered the mother, and Vedic literature says, janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1): "The Supreme Absolute Truth is that who is the source of all generation, all emanations." And what is that source? Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā that "I am the father." So if you believe scriptures, Vedic literatures, if you believe Bhagavad-gītā, then you have to accept Kṛṣṇa as the supreme father, because the mother . . .
Vedic literature is considered to be the mother. She gives evidence that Kṛṣṇa is the father. Just like mother gives evidence who is your father, similarly, the Vedic literatures is compared to a mother, and the Vedic literature says that Kṛṣṇa is the father.
In your Christian literature, Bible, Jesus Christ is accepted as the son of God. He presented himself as son of God. And here Kṛṣṇa says that, "I am the father." So there is no contradiction. The son of God also says about God, and the father also says about the God, Himself. The son of God says that, "You surrender unto God," and God says: "You surrender unto Me." Then where there is contradiction? There is no contradiction.
So Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu's movement is to understand the father. It is nothing new; it is old—but in a new process, convenient for the people of this age. Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12, Śikṣāṣṭaka 1). We have forgotten our father. We have forgotten God. The modern civilization, wherever you go, they say that, "We are secular state." Secular state. Secular state means without knowing who is the father of the mankind. That is secular state. But the Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya, a great logician during the time of Lord Caitanya, he was also godless. And generally, the so-called learned philosophers, scientist, or so-called educated, they deny the existence of God. They depend more or less on their experimental knowledge of science.
But actually, the fact is that there is God. There is God. In every religion they accept there is God, and actually, the fact is there is God. In the Vedic literatures it is accepted, janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). And in the Bhagavad-gītā it is clearly said by Kṛṣṇa that "I am the father." Not only one place, in many other places.
I am especially referring to the Bhagavad-gītā because most of you, you are acquainted with the study of Bhagavad-gītā. Similarly, in the Tenth Chapter you'll find, ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavaḥ: "I am the origin of everything." Ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavo mattaḥ sarvaṁ pravartate: "Whatever you see, that is from Me." Iti . . .
- ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavo
- mattaḥ sarvaṁ pravartate
- iti matvā bhajante māṁ
- budhā bhāva-samanvitāḥ
- (BG 10.8)
One who understands this perfectly . . . one has to understand. It is not that you blindly follow something. One has to understand. So Kṛṣṇa says: "One who has understood that I am the origin of everything . . ." Budhā. Budhā means one who is learned. Bhāva-samanvitāḥ. Bhāva-samanvitāḥ means "with thoughts." Not that whimsically or sentimentally to accept something, but with thought. "With thoughtful attitude or mood, one who has understood this fact," budhā bhāva-samanvitāḥ, "he worships Me." These things are there.