This relationship is already established, because I am eternal, God is eternal, therefore my relationship with God is also eternal. That relationship is there. Now, due to my covering of this material body or influence of material energy, I have forgotten. This is my position. In the conditioned state, in this material condition of life, our position is that I..., we have forgotten our relationship with God. But therefore you are trying to establish so many relationships with this material world. I am trying to find some relationship with particular type of society, particular type of community, particular type of nation, particular type of family or individuals. So many ways, I am searching where is my relationship, because I have lost my relationship with God. Therefore I have to reestablish, I have to revive my old relationship with Kṛṣṇa. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. This Kṛṣṇa consciousness process is to... Just like in darkness you are finding your things, your watch, you cannot find it out. Sometimes you are touching this, sometimes touching this, sometimes touching this, but the real thing you are not touching. So you are bewildered, you are harassed. And now you, if you touch Kṛṣṇa consciousness, these harassments will be stopped. It is so nice thing. We are giving you your lost relationship, which you are searching out life after life. And you are confused. Take this! You will be happy. You will find your relationship, eternal relationship with Kṛṣṇa.
God is eternal (Lectures, BG)
Expressions researched:
"God eternally"
|"God has His eternal"
|"God has got His eternal"
|"God is also eternal"
|"God is also eternally"
|"God is also nitya, eternal"
|"God is eternal"
|"God is eternally"
|"God is existing eternally"
|"God is one, and eternal"
|"God is sat, eternal"
|"God is singular, nitya, eternal"
|"God is the chief eternal"
|"God, He's also nitya, eternal"
|"God, is nitya, eternal"
|"God, is the supreme eternal"
|"God, or KRISHNA is eternal"
|"God, or Krsna is eternal"
|"God, sac-cid-ananda, eternal"
|"He is also eternal"
|"He is eternal"
Lectures
Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures
The body is changing. This is our disease. Therefore this disease... This disease means birth, death, old age and disease. So as soon as you accept this body, material body, you become subjected to the four laws of material nature. These four laws of material nature are that as soon as you've accepted this body, then you must accept death. Anything which is born must meet death also. Birth, death. And in the via media there is old age and disease. This body... I have got, you have got, everyone. There is a death of getting this body, and there will be a death of leaving this body. And between these two deaths there are so many other miserable conditions. They are summarized: old age and disease. But the real science is that "I am the soul. I am the part and parcel of the Supreme Lord. So Supreme Lord, God, is eternal. I am also eternal." These things are described. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). As God, we are as good as God, at least in quality, not in quantity. We are... Just like a drop of sea water is as good as the sea water in quality—the whole sea water is also salty, and the drop of sea water is also salty—similarly, we have got all the chemical composition, or qualities, of God. Now, God is eternal; therefore we must be eternal. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). After destruction of this body, the soul is never destroyed. This is our real, constitutional position. Then why we have accepted this changing process: birth, death, old age and disease? This is our material life.
At the time of death whatever I am thinking, a similar body will be offered to me by the laws of nature. Subtle body. The mind, intelligence and ego, they are subtle body, and the gross body is made of earth, water, air, fire, ether. So when we give up this gross body, the subtle body carries me to another gross body. This is the way of transmigration of the soul. The prakṛti, nature, nature's law, is very strict and stringent. The nature will immediately offer you a similar body according to the thinking at the time of your death. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13).
Therefore this human form of body is meant for going back to home, back to Godhead. Yad gatvā na nivartante tad dhāma paramaṁ mama (BG 15.6). We are eternal. As God is eternal, we are also eternal because we are part and parcel of God. As God is always blissful, jolly, similarly our nature is always blissful and jolly. Sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ (Bs. 5.1). Sat, cit, ānanda. Sat means eternal, and cit means blissful, cit means full of knowledge; and ānanda. Ānanda means blissfulness. That is our nature. Therefore we want to live. We do not wish to die. We do not wish... Nobody wishes to die, but we are forced to die. That is our punishment. Nityaḥ śāśvato 'yaṁ na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). This instruction you will get in the Bhagavad-gītā, that "The living entity is eternal," śāśvata, "very, very old." Nityaḥ śāśvato 'yaṁ na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre: (BG 2.20) "When the body is destroyed, is annihilated, the soul exists. It goes to another body."
So actually we are eternal. In the Vedic language it is said, nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām eko yo bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13). Nitya. Nitya means eternal. And nityānām. Nityānām means plural number of nityas. So there are many nityas, means many living entities, but there is one nitya Supreme. That is God. He is also a living entity like us. Then where is the difference? The difference is, we learn from the Vedic line, eko bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān: "That singular number nitya, eternal, maintains the plural number nityas." We are within the plural number, nityānām. So conclusion is that God is the Supreme Being and we are living being. So our relation is very intimate. Qualitatively we are one because we are part and parcel. So God is eternal, full of knowledge, and blissful; therefore our position is also the same but in minute quantity. His knowledge is great. Therefore God is great. Our knowledge is limited. And because we have got limited potencies, therefore we are called living entities. And God has got unlimited potencies, therefore God is great and we are small. This is conclusion of the Bhagavad-gītā. And we are in this material world being contaminated by the material nature. We are suffering because anything material, it has got limited period of existence. Anything you take, it is asat. Asat means "which will not exist," and sat means "which will exist." The Vedic injunction is asato mā sad gama: "You are sat. You revive your eternal life. Don't be entangled in this asat."
This soul... "Do not think that soul is born." No. As God is ever-existing, the soul is ever-existing. It is not... There is no question of birth. And when there is no question of birth, there is no question of death. Because we experience, anything, anybody, who has taken birth, he dies. Nobody will live here. So if the soul has no birth, there is no question of death. And as Kṛṣṇa, God, God is eternal, advaitam acyutam anādim ananta-rūpam ādyaṁ Purāṇa (Bs. 5.33). Purāṇa means old. Because Kṛṣṇa is the original person, therefore He must be Purāṇa, the oldest, older than Brahmā. Because Brahmā is given birth by Kṛṣṇa. Therefore Kṛṣṇa has been addressed in the Bhagavad-gītā as prapitāmaha (BG 11.39). Brahmā is called pitāmaha, the grandfather, and prapitāmaha means "the father of the grandfather." So Kṛṣṇa has been addressed as prapitāmaha, "father of Brahmā." Therefore He's ādi-puruṣa. Actually, within this creation, Lord Brahmā is the original person, because he was firstborn. There was no other person before him. But he's given birth by Nārāyaṇa, from the abdomen of Nārāyaṇa in the lotus flower. Therefore He's the father of Brahmā. Prapitāmaha (BG 11.39). So Kṛṣṇa here says, because that Māyāvādī philosophy's also nullified here. Because here it is said, na jāyate, na jāyate mriyate vā kadācin nāyaṁ bhūtvā bhavitā vā na bhūyaḥ. Māyāvāda philosophy says that the living entity has become separated on account of illusion. Not becomes separated. He is... There is no separation. But it is illusion; he's thinking, "I am different from God." But Kṛṣṇa says, mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūtaḥ jīva-loke sanātanaḥ (BG 15.7). That aṁśa, part and parcel of God, he's sanātana. Not that, being covered by illusion, he's thinking "I am separated." He's separated always, sanātana. That is the statement of the Vedas. Separated. Although separated, quality one, but that separation, that fragments of Kṛṣṇa, that is sanātana. It is not that by māyā we are fragmental separated; when we are liberated, we merge into the body or the effulgence of God.
He knows past, present, and future. Therefore, He is teaching Arjuna, "My dear Arjuna, the spirit soul within this body is eternal." That's a fact. Just like I can understand, I was in the past, I am in present, so I must be in the future. These are three phases of time, past, present, and future. In another place, we read in this Bhagavad-gītā, na jāyate na mriyate vā kadācit. The living entity is never born; neither it dies. Na jāyate means he never takes birth. Na jāyate na mriyate, it never dies. Nityaṁ śāśvato 'yam, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). It is eternal, śāśvata, existing forever. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). By annihilation of this body, the soul does not die. Because... This is also confirmed in the Upaniṣads, Vedas: nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām eko bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān. The God is also eternal, and we are also eternal. We are part and parcels of God. Just like gold and fragments of gold; both of them are gold. Although I am fragment, a particle of gold or the spirit, still, I am spirit. So we get this information that both God and we, living entities, we are eternal. Nityo nityānām, nitya means eternal.
So dhīra means that although there is cause of disturbance, one is not disturbed. Although there is cigarette, but I should promise, "I shall not smoke." Although there is facility for illicit sex, I'll not do it. That is called dhīra. Dhīra means the cause of agitation or disturbance is present there, but one is not disturbed. So in order to advance in spiritual life we have to become dhīra. And that is said here, sama-duḥkha-sukhaṁ dhīram. As soon as one become dhīra, sober, these so-called material pains and pleasure does not disturb me (him). Then he is fit for becoming immortal. Everyone is immortal, but he is fallen in such material condition that he thinks himself as mortal. Because I am spirit soul, therefore the Vedic injunction that feel:(?) ahaṁ brahmāsmi, so 'ham, means "I am as good as the Supreme Being," means "He is eternal; I am also eternal. He is also living being; I am also living being." That means qualitatively we are one, God and me. But quantitatively, He is great; we are small.
So we have to realize this, that we can become eternal, immortal, all qualified like God, if we get out of these material clutches. And for this, we have to become dhīra. Dhīra means, I have already explained, not to be disturbed, even the cause of disturbance is there. So that is the qualification of becoming immortal. So little tolerance of the sensation... Just like there is some sensation. If you have got some itches and you are feeling that "I should itch," but if you stop itching, this will be cured, and if you go on itching, it will increase. So itching... Anyone who has got some experience of itching... Itching is very pleasing at the time of itching, but next time it is not very pleasing. It has created so many disturbing condition. Therefore śāstra says that we should try to control the itching of our senses. Then he is dhīra. And as soon as you become dhīra, you are the first-class candidate for going back to home, back to Godhead. So there is method; there is practice; there is process. If you like, you can adopt them—actually there is no difficulty—and solve all the problems of your life. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. Try to understand and adopt it. Now any question?
Therefore we do not come to the right knowledge by exercising our senses. The idea is that we should accept the statement of Kṛṣṇa and the śāstra that we or I or you, we are spirit soul; we are permanent. And the body is not permanent. But we should be intelligent enough—how we can get the condition of permanence. That is possible when you or I, we come to the platform of eternity. That is explained in another place of Śrīmad Bhagavad-gītā, bahavo jñāna-tapasā pūtā mad-bhāvam āgatāḥ, like that. Means that "Many persons, by cultivating knowledge and tapasya, jñāna-tapasā, pūtāḥ, became purified. They have got the same status like Me." The same status means God is eternal, God is full of knowledge and God is full of bliss.
So we are all part and parcel of God. We are part and parcel of God; therefore we have got the same quality just like a particle of gold has got the same quality as the big gold, and the small drop of sea water has got the same chemical composition as the large mass water. That God is sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ (Bs. 5.1), eternal, full of bliss and knowledge. We can also attain that stage by purifying ourself. That purificatory process is stated as jñāna-tapasā, means knowledge and austerity. We can come to the real knowledge of our existence by purifying ourself. The purificatory process we are introducing by this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. And the method is very simple: chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. The more you chant this mahā-mantra, or the transcendental vibration Hare Kṛṣṇa, you become purified. Then you can understand what you are. Then every one of us, we can understand that "I am not this body. I am not American. I am not Indian. I am not Mexican.
God is great; we are small. Otherwise, we the same. God is also living entity; you are also living entity. God is eternal; you are also eternal. God is full of bliss; you are also full of bliss. So quality, there is no difference. Only difference in quantity. Just like a drop of sea water. It is salty. So this means in the drop there is salt. But the quantity of the salt in the drop is not equal to the quantity of the salt in the vast water. And there is another example. Just like the big fire and the sparks of the fire. The spark of the fire, when it falls on your cloth, a pointlike space it can burn. But the big fire can burn the whole building. So the quality of God is in every one of us. We may take as a small god, that's all. But the power is different. God can create a planet like the sun, which is floating in the air, and you can create a small airplane floating in the air. God can create a mosquito which has got the same construction like the aeroplane, but you cannot do it. That is the difference between God and you. You can create; He can create. But His creation and your creation is not equal. Who put this question, "What is the difference between God and us?" You put? What did you...?
Now, water as it is, it is water constitutionally, chemically or whatever it may be, but it is due to the bodily touch of the water we sometimes feel pleasure and sometimes feel distress. Therefore all our feelings of distress and happiness is due to this body. Is due to the body. Body under certain condition, mind under certain condition, feels happiness and feel distress. So therefore, We are actually hankering after happiness because the soul's constitution is happiness. Soul's constitution is happiness. Anyone who is brought up in a very nice family with all comfortable conditions, as he feels distress in a different condition, similarly, the soul is the part and parcel of the Supreme Being.
Supreme Being, His constitution is sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha (Bs. 5.1). The Supreme Being is the embodiment of eternity, bliss and knowledge. Eternity, bliss and knowledge. That is the constitution of the supreme entity. He is eternal, He is blissful, and always full of pleasure. Always full of pleasure. Kṛṣṇa, this word, Kṛṣṇa... Now, we have chanted, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare. This Kṛṣṇa is... Do not take it that we are presenting some sectarian conception of God or like that. This Kṛṣṇa, this is a Sanskrit word. You have to understand, Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa means... Kṛṣ means the greatest, and ṇa means pleasure. He is the symbol of greatest pleasure, greatest pleasure. So we are also part and parcel of that greatest pleasure. Just like the ocean and a drop of water of the ocean, if you chemically analyze, you will find the same ingredients. The volume of the ocean is certainly greater than the volume of the drop of the ocean water, but so far the constitution is concerned, either this drop of ocean water or the full ocean water, the same chemical composition you will find. Similarly, because we are part and parcel of the Supreme, sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha (Bs. 5.1), eternity, blissful and knowledge, therefore, although we are minute particles, minute particle... But the minute particle has got so much energy. You can just see that that minute particle of the soul within this body, how wonderful things we are doing.
Yes, God is person, like you and me. You can go and talk with Him, he qualified for that pur... Nitya nitya... This is Vedic injunction. Nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13). God is eternal among all other eternals. We are all eternal, and God is the chief eternal. Nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām. We are also cognizant and God is also cognizant. The difference is that I am cognizant with a limited space and God is cognizant throughout the whole universe. But He is also cognizant. He is also person. I am also person. What is the difference? Eko bahūnāṁ yo vidadhāti kāmān. That one maintains all these innumerable living entities. Therefore in the Bible you go and ask God give us our daily bread, He is maintaining. That is the difference between God and ourself. We are maintained and God is the maintainer. We are predominated and God is the predominator. That is the difference. Otherwise He is a person, we are also persons. He is eternal, we are eternal. He is cognizant, we are cognizant.
And all the desires and propensities what God has got, we have also got. God has got this propensity to love Rādhārāṇī. We have got also the same propensity to love another young girl or young boy. So originally it is there. Therefore in the Vedānta-sūtra it is said janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). God means from whom everything has come. So if there is a question of love, the (indistinct) a man loving a woman and woman loving a man, that is in God. It must be there. Otherwise wherefrom it has come?
This planet is only a teeny, small planet in consideration of other planets. So we cannot know even what are there in this planet. So many things are unknown. So all these planets are floating. That's a fact. So that is the difference between God and me. I can create a small aeroplane, and I can take the credit that our science is so much advanced that we don't care for God. No, you cannot do, sir. You cannot manufacture a planet. That is not in your power. Similarly, there are so many things. You have creative power, God has got creative power, but your creation and God's creation there is vast difference. So this is the understanding of God. So God is great. How great? Nobody is equal to Him, nobody is above Him. Everyone is down. This is the conception of God. So God is eternal, I am also eternal. God is within this universe, therefore the universe is working, and because I am within this universe, this body is working. It is very easy to understand. If you simply study...
Just like we individual souls, we want to enjoy our senses. Similarly, God has also senses, He also wants to enjoy. Just like here, we see a young boy, a young girl is united. Similarly, you have seen our pictures, Kṛṣṇa, Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa, They are also united. There is also love, but that love is real. Here, the same thing, a reflection, is shadow. It is not real. The real love is there. There is no separation of that love. Here in this material world, because it is shadow, it is false, therefore there is separation. Love without separation is in God. Relationship between friend and friend, here it is breakable. As soon as there is some dissatisfaction, the friends separate. But if you make friendship with God, that is never separated. If you love Kṛṣṇa, that is never separated. If you accept Kṛṣṇa as your Son, that Son will never die.
In the Bhagavad-gītā it is said that you may be very much advanced, you have mitigated all your sufferings, all the problems of life, but these problems of life, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi, birth, death, old age and disease, that you cannot avoid. That is not possible. So, if, but everyone has got the tendency to avoid birth, death, old age, and disease. Why? Because the spirit soul, M am, in reality. I am not subjected to birth, death, old age, and disease. Because I have accepted this material body, therefore apparently I am subject to birth, death and old age. Otherwise, I am eternal.
Just like God is eternal, similarly I am also eternal. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). This living entity, the soul, after the annihilation of this body, he does not die. So this is, these are subject matter of knowledge in the human form of life. So etad aviditya without knowing this science, if somebody dies like cats and dog, he is a kṛpaṇa. Kṛpaṇa means miser. And one who dies with the knowledge of this brahma-jñāna, self-realization, he is called brāhmaṇa. Brāhmaṇa means brahma jānāti iti brāhmaṇaḥ. One who knows Brahman, the Absolute Truth, he is called brāhmaṇa. Therefore our business is to become a brāhmaṇa. Don't think that brāhmaṇas are produced only in India. No. Brāhmaṇa can be produced any part of the world. Simply by knowing Brahman, he can become brāhmaṇa. Everyone of you can become brāhmaṇa, if you understand what is Brahman, because brāhmaṇa means one who knows the Brahman. Janmanā jāyate śūdra, by birth everyone is a śūdra, illiterate, without any knowledge. He is called śūdra, worker class.
Therefore it is clear herein that in spite of His being in the material world, He is the same unborn, eternal form of bliss and knowledge, changeless in His transcendental body and intelligence. Factually His appearance and disappearance are like the sun rising, moving before us and then disappearing from our eyesight. When the sun is out of sight, we think that the sun is dead. And when the sun is before our eyes, we think that the sun is on the horizon. Actually the sun is always there. But owing to our defective, insufficient eyesight we must calculate the appearance and disappearance of the sun in the sky. And because His appearance and disappearance are completely different from that of any ordinary common living entity, it is evident that He is eternal in blissful knowledge by His internal potency, and He is not contaminated by material nature. The Vedas confirm that the Supreme Personality of Godhead is unborn, and yet He still appears to be taking His birth in multi-manifestations. The Vedic supplementary literature also confirms that even though the Lord appears to be taking His birth, He is still without change of body. In the Bhāgavatam He appears before His mother as Nārāyaṇa with four hands and the decorations of the six kinds of full opulences. His appearance in His original eternal form is His causeless mercy, according to the Viśvakośa dictionary. The Lord is conscious of all His previous appearances and disappearances, but a common living entity forgets everything about his past body as soon as he gets another. He shows that He is the Lord of all living entities by performing wonderful and superhuman activities while on this earthly planet. The Lord is always the same Absolute Truth, and is without differentiation between His form and self, or between His quality and body. A question may now be raised as to why the Lord appears and disappears in this world at all. This is explained in the next verse."
Kṛṣṇa says, "My dear Arjuna, yes, your question is very intelligent question that you are asking Me how it is possible that forty millions of years before I spoke this science of Bhagavad-gītā to the sun-god. Yes. But you, you should know it that bahūni me vyatītāni janmāni tava cārjuna, You and Myself... Although I am God, I take incarnation many, many times. And you are a living entity; you are also taking your birth repeatedly so many times. So we have passed already. The difference between you and Me is this, that tāni veda, tāny ahaṁ veda sarvāṇi, I, I remember what I did in the past, long, long years before, but you cannot remember." That is the difference between God and man, or God and living entity.
Our, our position as living entity... We are also eternal. Just like God is eternal, similarly, we are also eternal. But the difficulty is that we change our body. We change our body. Vāsāṁsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya (BG 2.22). Just like we change our dress, similarly, we change our body. And as soon as we change our body, now, we forget everything. Death means forgetfulness. That's all. Just like at night, when you sleep, you forget yourself. You forget yourself that "I am the father of such and such children, I am the husband of such and such..." You dream that you are in a different place. Sometimes you are on the sea, sometimes on the sky, sometimes on something. You forget yourself. You forget yourself. Again, when you wake up, oh, you remember, "Oh, I am such and such person. I have to do such and such and such and such..." So this is going on. So death means forgetfulness. That's all.
Actually, it is a fact that if you want to know about spiritual knowledge then you have to know it from India. That is recommended by one Chinese gentleman, I forget his name. His book is recommended as study book in the New York University. He has plainly written that if you have to understand the science of religion then you have to go to India. He has clearly said that.
So anyway, here Kṛṣṇa is imparting knowledge to Arjuna. The condition of the living entity, both Himself and the ordinary living entity. God and living entity, individual living entity. God is also individual. He is also living entity. He's not dead. Just like in your country, they have, some of them, they have taken it granted that God is dead. Is it not? Somebody says that God is dead. So God cannot be dead. If I am not dead, if I am eternal, how God can be dead? He is also eternal. So these things are very nicely explained.
Tāny ahaṁ veda. Kṛṣṇa says that "I know My past, present, and future, and you do not know your past, present and future." That is the difference. "And because I know My past, present, and future, therefore I can say that so many, so many millions and billions of years ago, I spoke this truth of Bhagavad-gītā to the sun-god Vivasvān." So after He remembered, that because Kṛṣṇa says that, "Millions and billions of years ago I told this truth to sun-god," Kṛṣṇa, just to clear, Arjuna, just to clear Kṛṣṇa's position, he is putting this question, that "Kṛṣṇa, both You and me, we were born some few years ago. How I can believe that You told this truth to sun-god?" In answer to that question, Kṛṣṇa says that bahūni me vyatītāni janmāni tava cārjuna. "Both you and Me had many, many births, or appearance and disappearance, in the past.
Prabhupāda: Just like the change of time. Now it is nine o'clock in the watch. Now, this nine o'clock, this is now night. The morning nine o'clock is still existing somewhere. Similarly, Kṛṣṇa's līlā, Kṛṣṇa's pastime, is going on. Everything is going on at the same moment. Therefore His līlā is called nitya-līlā. Nitya means eternal. It does not change. Go on.
Pradyumna: "Actually, the sun is always in its fixed position, but owing to our defective, insufficient senses, we calculate the appearance and disappearance of the sun in the sky. And because His appearance and disappearance are completely different from that of any ordinary common living entity, it is evident that He is eternal blissful knowledge by His internal potency, and He is never contaminated by material nature. The Vedas also confirm that the Supreme Personality of Godhead is unborn. Yet, He still appears to take His birth in multi-manifestations. The Vedic supplementary literatures also confirm that even though the Lord appears to be taking His birth, He is still without change of body. In the Bhāgavatam, He appears before His mother as Nārāyaṇa with four hands and the decoration of the six kinds of full opulences. His appearance in His original eternal form is His causeless mercy, according to the Viśvakośa dictionary. The Lord is conscious of all of His previous appearances and disappearances, but a common living entity forgets everything about his past body as soon as he gets another body. He is the Lord of all living entities because He performs wonderful and superhuman activities while He is on this earth. Therefore the Lord is always the same Absolute Truth, and is without differentiation between His form and self or between His quality and body. The question may now be raised as to why the Lord appears and disappears in His form. This is explained in the next verse."
So the Supreme Lord, He is called in the Vedic literature that He is the supreme leader. Nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām. Nitya means eternal, and nityānām, that means many other eternals. We are many other eternals. Eka, that one eternal... Eko bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān. There are two kinds of eternals. We living entities, we are also eternal, and the Supreme Lord, He is also eternal. So far eternity is concerned, both of us equal on the qualitative nature. He is eternal, and we are eternal. Sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha (Bs. 5.1). He is also all pleasure, and we are also all pleasure because we are all parts and parcel of the same quality. But He is the leader.
Eko bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān: "That one is maintaining all these many." We, the living entities, we are many. So our position is always subordinate. That is our natural constitutional position. Now, the Supreme Lord's position is the leadership, and our position is subordinate. Then what is our duty? Our duty is to follow the leader. And actually we are doing so. We have got... Instead of... We have forgotten that the supreme leader is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but still, for our daily activities we create a leader. We accept some leader and follow his principles. Just like you have elected your leader as President Johnson, the president of your state. He is supposed to be the leader of your nation, and he is asking you to go to the Vietnam and sacrifice your life. So you are following. So this is the natural position. Even if we do not accept God, if we do not accept the leadership of God, we have to select another leader. We cannot get rid of this principle, that we can live without leader. That is our constitutional position.
It is very easily understood. The bodily strength is different from the finger's strength. The finger is also part and parcel of this body. If I say... If you ask, "What is this?" if I say, "It is my body," so there is no mistake. It is part of the body. But it is not the whole body. The whole body is different. Therefore God and the living entity, they are the same quality, but quantity different.
So in the Vedas the description is there about God and ourselves. Nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām eko yo bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13). What is God? God means He is the chief, nitya, chief. Nitya means eternal. Nityānām. There are millions and millions, unlimited. Nityānām, this is plural number. That we are, living entity. We are also nitya. We are also eternal and God is also eternal. But He is the chief eternal. Nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām. He is also living entity, we are also living entities, but He is the chief living entity.
What is the difference between the chief and ourselves? Now, the difference is eko yo bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān. There are two chiefs, two eternal... One is... Two eternal and two... Cetana means living being, two living quality. So the singular number is maintaining the plural numbers. Eko yo bahūnām. We, we living entities, we are plural number, many. Jīva-bhāgaḥ sa vijñeyaḥ sa anantyāya kalpate (CC Madhya 19.140). Jīva...
This is common formula between the animals and the man.
But you have got another problem: how to solve this material position. That is required by you. If you do not try to understand what is your problem and if you do not try to solve them, then you are no better than the cats and dogs. This is the shastric injunction. So how to organize the human society so that we may not be called the cats' and dog society? That we must know. If we keep our society only for the purpose of better eating, better sleeping, better sex life and better defense, then we don't improve. That is the business of cats and dogs, even ants. They also know how to eat, how to sleep, how to have sex and how to defend.
So our business does not finish there. Our business is more business, that "If I am eternal as God is eternal, then why I am subjected to birth and death?" This is real question. This is called brahma-jijñāsā. The Vedānta-sūtra, the Vedānta philosophy, begins from this inquiry, athāto brahma jijñāsā: "This human life is meant for inquiring for the Absolute Truth, what is the ultimate truth of life." Janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). So when we forget completely our real problems of life, that is animalism.
So that animalism... When the human society, the animalism is prominent, simply living like animals, that is called dharmasya glāniḥ, "deficiency in the matter of dharma." Therefore, in human society there is some sort of religious system. It does not matter what is that religion. May be Hinduism or Christianism or Mohammedanism or Buddhism. In the civilized human society there is some conception of religious principle. Without religious principle, we are cats and dogs because in the cat society, dog society there is no such thing as church, mosque, or temple or synagogue. They live naked and bark. That's all. So if we simply live and try to become naked like the cats and dogs and bark, then where is the difference? Where is the difference? No difference. So we must take to religious system. That is humanity.
What is that? What is the process of taking away the poison teeth? That is bhakti-yoga. That is bhakti-yoga. That means sarvopādhi-vinirmuktaṁ tat-paratvena nirmalam (CC Madhya 19.170), hṛṣīkeṇa-hṛṣīkeśa means indriya-hṛṣīkeśa-sevanam. You cannot control the senses unless you engage your senses in the service of the senses of the Lord.
The Lord has got senses. He is also a living being like us. But less intelligent class, they cannot understand. They think that something must be opposite. No. The Vedic information is nityo nityānām: "The Absolute Supreme Personality of Godhead, He is also eternal." That is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā also. Bhagavān says that "Arjuna, you and Me and all these people who have gathered here, we are nitya. We were present in the past, and we are now in the battlefield, and when we give up this body, we shall again remain the same, individual."
That is explained in the second chapter. This individuality continues. There is no such information that all of them become one by amalgamation. That is not possible because in the Bhagavad-gītā it..., mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūtaḥ jīva-loke sanātanaḥ (BG 15.7). Aṁśaḥ, the particles of the Supreme, they are sanātanaḥ. It is not that by chance the spirit, whole spirit, has been broken into pieces. No. That is not possible. Because in the Bhagavad-gītā you will find acchedyo 'yam: "It cannot be broken into pieces."
Then we can talk with Kṛṣṇa, then we can do everything. He is a person. He is the Supreme Person. That is the Vedic injunction. Nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13). He is the Supreme Person, or the Supreme Eternal. We are all eternal. Now we're being encaged within this body. We are meeting birth and death. But actually we have no birth and death. We are eternal spirit soul. And according to my work, according to my desire, I am transmigrating from one kind of body to another body, another body, another body. This is going on. Actually I have no birth and death. This is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā in the Second Chapter you have read: na jāyate na mriyate vā. The living entity never takes birth or never dies. Similarly, God is also eternal, you are also eternal. When you establish your eternal relationship with the eternal, complete eternal—nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām. He's the supreme living entity amongst the living entities. He's the supreme eternal amongst eternals.
So there are many descriptions in many śāstras that one should avoid asādhu and try to associate with sādhu. Then his life will be successful. Because human life is meant for spiritual advancement of life, not for advancement of eating, sleeping, mating and defending. That is cats and dogs life. Human life means advancement in spiritual life. Tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena śuddhyet sattvam (SB 5.5.1). We have to purify our existence. That people do not know, what is impure existence and pure existence. They do not know. There is no education, there is no science. The... Because we do not, do not understand that we are living entities, we are part and parcel of God. God is eternal, so I am also eternal. God is always fresh. I am also fresh. Nityaḥ śāśvato 'yaṁ purāṇaḥ. Although Kṛṣṇa is the oldest person. Kṛṣṇa is ādi-puruṣa. He must be the oldest. But He... Nava-yauvanaṁ ca. Advaitam acyutam anādim ananta-rūpam ādyaṁ purāṇa-puruṣaṁ nava-yauvanam (Bs. 5.33). This is Kṛṣṇa's feature. He is the ādi-puruṣa, the oldest.
That I have already explained. Time is relative. (break) Time is eternal. Eternal. But it is... Just like Brahmā's duration of time. That is... According to our calculation, that is eternal, many, many millions of years. But Brahmā is also subjected to birth and death. Although time is eternal, but within this material world we are not eternal on account of material contamination. But time is eternal. Time is eternal; God is eternal; you are also eternal, living entity. Simply our work is not eternal. That can be changed. That we are... Changing our work... Suppose in this life you are American. Your work is different from the China. But next time, when you change your body to something else, your work changes. In this body you are human being. Next time, if you become a dog or a demigod, then your work changes. So we are changing our work according to the change of the body. Therefore work is not eternal. So our whole material existence is due to different kinds of work. So if we make the work also eternal, that is Kṛṣṇa consciousness activities. Then we come to the eternal. But in the material existence our work is not eternal. We have understood that "I am not this body." Theoretically. If not practically, theoretically because we have heard from Bhagavad-gītā that dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā: (BG 2.13) "As the soul is changing the body every moment..." And I am not this body. The body is changing.
Description of God. He's nitya. Nitya means eternal. And we living entities, we are also eternal. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). We, at the present moment, in the material condition, we are changing body. That change of body is called death. Actually, the living entity within the body, he has no death. Na jāyate na mriyate vā kadācit. This description we have got in the Vedic literature. So God is also nitya, eternal. We are also eternal. God is also cognizant, and we are also cognizant. We have got knowledge, and God has got knowledge. The difference is that I have got knowledge limited within this limit of this body. I have no knowledge what is going on in your body; neither you know what is going on in my body. Therefore, we are individuals. But God is, although individual, He's spread everywhere. That is God.
Aṇḍāntara-stha-paramāṇu-cayāntara-stham (Bs. 5.35). God is within this universe, within yourself, within myself, within the atom. Aṇḍāntara-stha-paramāṇu... Paramāṇu means atom. He's within the atom also. But I, you, we are limited within this body. We are limited. I cannot say that I understand what is going in your body, pains and pleasure. That I cannot say. But I can understand pains and pleasure of my body. So the quality is the same. God has knowledge. You, you, me, we have got knowledge. But our knowledge is limited. God's knowledge is unlimited. But knowledge is there, cognizant. Therefore the Vedas says nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13). He is the supreme eternal amongst all other eternals. He's the supreme cognizant amongst all other cognizants. This is the difference.
I said, "mister." (laughs) "So where is the difference between your philosophy and my philosophy, or our philosophy? You have to accept one leader, head, and we also accept one head. Then where is the difference between communism and other ism?" So he was stopped. He appreciated very much. "The difference is that you have accepted Lenin as your head and we have accepted Kṛṣṇa as our head."
So there is no difference of the philosophy. You have to accept. Nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13). That is the Vedic instruction. What is meaning of God? God means the head of the living entities. What is the difficulty to understand it? Nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām. Nitya means eternal. We are also eternal. And God is also eternal. So what is the difference? So qualitatively we are one. Because God is eternal, I am also eternal. I am now somehow or other in diseased condition, that I have to change my body. But God does not change His body. Sambhavāmy ātma-māyayā (BG 4.6). He says, ātma-māyayā: "By My own will-power. I am not forced." Just like according to my karma, I have been forced to accept this material body, certain type of body. I cannot dictate. As I am creating another body by my karma, so the karma, by... Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni (BG 3.27). Another place. So why the living entities are getting different types of bodies? That is also answered: kāraṇam, the reason is guṇa-saṅgaḥ asya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu. Kāraṇam, the cause, is the material nature.
The material nature is divided into three modes: sattva-guṇa, tamo-guṇa, rajo-guṇa.
He says, mayādhyakṣeṇa (BG 9.10). Mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram. Adhyakṣa means superintendence. "Under My superintendence..." Prakṛti means this material nature. Sūyate, sūyate means producing. What she is producing. She is producing carācara. Cara acara. Cara means which is moving, just like we are moving. We have got life. And acara, there are many things acara, that does not move. So two things are there, cara and acara, moving and not moving. And above this, there is God, who is controlling both this cara and acara.
There are five things: God; the living entities; the prakṛti, the nature; the time; and combined together, there is work. So the work is not permanent; it is temporary. But this prakṛti is eternal, nature is eternal, God is eternal, you are eternal, and time is eternal. Out of four things—God, living entities, nature, time, and the work—these four material manifestation, whatever you are seeing, they are composed of these five things: God, living entity, nature, time, and work. Out of that, four things—God, we living entities, time and nature—they are permanent. This nature is nonpermanent, but there is another part of this nature. That is permanent. And I am permanent, you are permanent, God is permanent, and there is a permanent nature also. So our whole problems will be solved if we can transfer into that permanent nature. Now we are struggling hard because we are put into this nonpermanent nature, but there is a permanent nature. That information we get from Bhagavad-gītā. Paras tasmāt tu bhāvaḥ anyaḥ avyaktaḥ avyaktāt sanātanaḥ (BG 8.20). Sanātana means eternal.
So eternal... You are eternal, I am eternal, God is eternal, and there is a place which is eternal. Why not transfer yourself? Then that is called eternal life. And the modes and the process which help you to transfer yourself into that eternal place, that is called sanātana-dharma. When we speak of sanātana-dharma, don't think that sanātana-dharma is meant for the Hindus. Sanātana means eternal, and dharma means occupation.
| Page Title: | God is eternal (Lectures, BG) |
| Compiler: | MadhuGopaldas, RupaManjari, Visnu Murti |
| Created: | 13 of Apr, 2013 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=27, Con=0, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 27 |