Prabhupāda: You are not maintaining your body. You are given a body to fulfill your desire. You get a particular type of body to fulfill your desire. You desire . . . just like we have got, you analyze each and every one of us, each and every one has got a different type of body. Why? Each and every one of us has got a different type of mentality. That mentality is going on, and according to that mentality you are getting different types of body. So this body means to give me opportunity to satisfy a different type of mentality. That is God's grace.
- ye yathā māṁ prapadyante
- tāṁs tathaiva bhajāmy aham
- (BG 4.11)
You wanted this body, God has given you this body. If you want a tiger's body, God will give you a tiger's body. If you want a demigod's body, God will give you a demigod's body.
- yānti deva-vratā devān
- pitṝn yānti pitṛ-vrataḥ
- bhūtejyā yānti bhūtāni
- mad-yājino 'pi yānti mām
- (BG 9.25)
But if you want a God's body you will get it also. So why not take a God's body? This is the opportunity. This is the opportunity.
(break) . . . desire this body, that body, this body, that body, I have traveled so many bodies, 8,400,000's of bodies. Now here is a body where is perfect consciousness. I can understand that if I like, I can get next birth God's body.
(break) . . . means the same body as God has, sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ (Bs. 5.1). So this is illusion that I think that I am maintaining this body. You are not maintaining this body. The nature's law, nature's supply, nature's arrangement, that is . . . prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27). The nature is acting according to the different qualities. And ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā, being puffed up, one thinks that "I am doing this." Nonsense, you cannot do it anything. You are being forced to do by the laws of nature.
Yes.
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: So if the activities is going on with the laws of nature, then how do you become Kṛṣṇa consciousness? Do you (indistinct) yourself completely?
Prabhupāda: That Kṛṣṇa says, that sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ (BG 18.66). "You nonsense. You give up all this nonsense business. Come to Me." So we have . . . you have to develop such knowledge. "Oh, Kṛṣṇa says like this, let me do this."
(break) ". . . faith that whatever engagement you have manufactured, it is simply troublesome, miserable for your life. Don't try to manufacture any more. Please come to Me." "Oh, how shall I live?" Kṛṣṇa says, ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ (BG 18.66): "Don't bother. I shall give you protection."
Unfortunately, we do not follow. We have no business to maintain this body or that body, but simply to surrender to God. Then everything will be done.
(break) . . . maintain your body. Everyone is trying to become President Johnson or something like that. Does it mean that he will become? The arrangement is pre-arrangement. You may work day and night, hard labor, but you'll get whatever is destined to you. That's all. You cannot get more.
That is being taught by Prahlāda Mahārāja. Just like a dog, he has got a particular type of body. He is confined in that bodily activities. If a dog likes that, "I shall be President Johnson," is it possible? However . . . how much he may try, that body will not allow him. Similarly, we have got a particular type of body to enjoy a particular type of sense gratification. If we try to go beyond that, it is not possible.
Therefore Prahlāda Mahārāja says: "Don't try foolishly in that way. If you have got any energy, try to understand Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That will make you happy." Don't misuse your energy in that way that, "I shall become this, I shall become that." That you cannot become.
(break) . . . the example, yathā duḥkham ayatnataḥ (SB 7.6.3). You are trying to be happy in a different way. That is not the way of happiness. But you are thinking that "I shall be happy in this way."
But that also you cannot do. Your happiness, whatever is destined to you, that will come automatically. How? He gives the example, yathā duḥkham ayatnataḥ. Just like a misery of your life, you do not try for it, but it comes upon you automatically. Similarly, the happiness of your life will also come upon you automatically. So do not try to waste your time for so-called happiness or to drive away so-called distress. Just push yourself under the protection of Kṛṣṇa. He will manage everything and you'll be happy.