A human being should realize the aim of human life. This direction is given in all the Vedic literature, and the essence is given in the Bhagavad-gītā. Vedic literature are meant for the human being and not for the cats and dogs. The cats and dogs can kill their eatable animals, and for that there is no question of sin on their part. But if a man kills an animal for the satisfaction of his uncontrolled taste, he must be responsible for breaking the laws of nature. And in the Bhagavad-gītā it is clearly explained that there are three kinds of activities according to the different modes of nature: the activities of goodness, the activities of passion, the activities of ignorance. Similarly, there are three kinds of eatables also: eatables in goodness, eatables on passion, eatables on ignorance. They're all clearly described, and if we properly utilize the instructions of the Bhagavad-gītā, then our whole life will become purified and ultimately we shall (be) able to reach the destination. Yad gatvā na nivartante tad dhāma paramaṁ mama (BG 15.6).
If a man... (Lectures)
Lectures
Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures
Now this bhagavān, you have heard, many times I have explained, bhaga. Bhaga means opulence. There are six kinds of opulences. What is that? Wealth, and then influence, strength, reputation and knowledge, beauty and renunciation. Is it not six? If a man is wealthy, very rich, just like in your country Rockefeller, Ford, there are many rich men in your, the..., your country is very rich. So if one is very rich he is called opulent. If a man is very reputed, famous man, he is also opulent. If a man is very influential, he is also opulent. If a man is very strong... Now the strong man, formerly strong men had request, ahh, respect. All the kings, they were respected on their personal strength. They used to..., they had to fight with the opponents. So that is also opulence. Then beauty. A very beautiful man or woman, that is also opulence. And wise, very learned, wise man, that is also opulence—scientist, philosopher, mathematician. So they are also opulent.
So śva-pacaḥ. Śva-pacaḥ means the dog-eaters. In Korea, and some parts of there, they eat dogs. They, they sell dog flesh publicly. So in India also there is a class. In Asamsaye, they eat also dog. So the dog-eaters, they are considered lowest of the mankind. Śva-pacaḥ. Śva means dog and pacaḥ means who cooks. Śva-pacaḥ means caṇḍāla. If a man from the śva-pacaḥ family, or the caṇḍāla family, he becomes a Vaiṣṇava, strictly according to the orders, then he can become guru, but not a brāhmaṇa if he's not a Vaiṣṇava. This is the stricture. Even one is born in the family of a brāhmaṇa, and he's not only born, he's qualified, sat-karma-nipuṇo... Nipuṇo means qualified. Brāhmaṇa has got six kinds of occupation. He must be learned himself, he must be able to teach others Vedic literatures. That is called paṭhana pāṭhana. Then he must worship... Worship means demigods. Or they consider that any demigod or God, the same, some impersonalists. So yajana, yājana. There are other also, religious ritual functions. They perform. That is called yajana.
Therefore in the Vedic literature it is said that "One who is in the bodily concept of life, he is nothing more than an animal." Therefore at the present moment, without knowledge of the self, the whole world is going on under the bodily concept of life. The bodily concept of life is there amongst the animals. The cats and dogs, they are very proud of becoming a big cat or big dog. Similarly, if a man also becomes similarly proud that "I am big American," "big German," "big," what is the difference? But that is actually going on, and therefore they are fighting like cats and dogs.
If there is sign that "Next time my killing is to be taken up," then he... At least he will protest or try to go away, something like that. But there is no such thing. So the distinction between animal and man is that that animal is not aware of the sufferings he is undergoing. There are sufferings both for the animals and for the man, but man is conscious. If a man is not awakened to his suffering, then he is in animal consciousness.
We should not forget that we are always under suffering. There are three kinds of sufferings. I don't say about this economic problem or... That is also another suffering. But according to Vedic knowledge—or it is a fact—there are three kinds of suffering. One kind of suffering belonging to the body and the mind... Now, suppose I am getting some headache. Now I am feeling very warm, I am feeling very cold, and so many bodily sufferings there are. Similarly, we have got sufferings of the mind. My mind is not well today. I have been... Somebody has called me something.
You can make your own opinion." That is going on. You can make your own opinion to understand God. So all foolish rascals, they're making their own opinion. No, that is not possible. Therefore Kṛṣṇa, Arjuna says: avāpya bhūmāv asaptnam ṛddham (BG 2.8). This is a very significant word. Sapatni. Sapatni means "rival wife, co-wife." If a man has got two, three wives... Why two, three? Our Lord had 16,100. So this is God. Sapatnya, but there is no competition. You'll find in the statements of all the queens in Kṛṣṇa book, when they were talking with Kuntī, er, Draupadī, every wife was giving description that how much she was anxious to become maidservant of Kṛṣṇa. Nobody is rival. In the material world, if a man has got more than one wife, there is rivalry. Rivalry. This example is given in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam that just like we have got our senses, similarly, if somebody has got different wife, so one wife is snatching him that: "You come to my room," another wife is snatching: "You come to my room." So he's perplexed.
Still. Especially I have seen in Punjab, there are many snake enchanters who know the how to chant the mantras. So if it is physically possible that a dead man... Of course, when a man is bitten by a snake he's not dead. He becomes unconscious. He's not dead. But by this chanting of mantra, he comes to his consciousness. Therefore, it is the system in India, if a man is bitten by a snake, he's not burned, or he's not taken as dead body. He's floated in some lifeboat and given to the water. If he gets chance he may come out again to consciousness. So similarly, we are, at the present moment, due to our ignorance, we are sleeping. We are sleeping. Therefore, to awaken us, this mantra, mahā-mantra, is required to awaken. Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12). Just like these boys, these European boys and girls who are along with me... I have got about, more than three, four thousand disciples like that. They are chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. And not that whimsically they are chanting.
Spiritual affair means that... We are in this material world. We are suffering. When the question will come in one's mind, "Why I am suffering?" that is spiritual. Just like an animal is being taken to the slaughterhouse. He cannot inquire, "Why I am being taken to the slaughterhouse?" But if a man is being taken forcibly, he'll protest; he will cry; he'll call crowd. Therefore human being can inquire about spiritual affair. So when there is spiritual inquiry, then one requires a guru. And by going to guru, as it is stated, tad viddhi praṇipātena paripraśnena sevayā (BG 4.34). One has to learn by surrendering, praṇipāta. So first of all there must be a strong impulse to inquire about the transcendental subject matter. Then one requires a guru. Not that, to follow a fashion, that one has guru. Ācāryavān puruṣo veda. Unless one becomes under the control of ācārya, he has no perfect knowledge. Therefore the Vedas says, tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet: (MU 1.2.12)
Hṛdayānanda: (translating) He wants to know how we can increase our desire for saṅkīrtana.
Prabhupāda: By performing saṅkīrtana. Just like if a man drinks and if he drinks, drinks, then you become a drunkard. (laughter) Drink more and you become drunkard. Similarly, chant more and you become perfect chanter.
Hṛdayānanda: (translating) He wants to know if the greatest offense is to disobey the guru.
Prabhupāda: Yes, that is the first offense. Guror avajñā, śruti-śāstra-nindanam. Śruti-śāstra-nindanaṁ guror avajñā. If you accept guru and again disobey him, then what is your position? You are not a gentleman. You promise before guru, before Kṛṣṇa, before fire, that "I shall obey your order; I shall execute this," and again you do not do this. Then you are not even a gentleman, what to speak about devotee. This is common sense.
If a man comes, follows the regulative principle even for some time and again he falls down, so so long he has followed, that asset is permanent. Anything, spiritual asset, that is never lost. So little, little, little, when it is complete, cent percent, then you become liberated. Spiritual asset is never lost. So even a person comes to the temple and follows the regulative principle for some time—again he falls down—he's not loser; he's gainer. Others who do not take this lesson and outside they may perform his so-called duties very perfectly, he's loser. So at least for some time let every one of you come here and follow the restriction. And if you become perfect, is all right, but even if you go away, whatever you have done, that is your permanent asset. That is stated in the Bhagavad... Svalpam apy asya dharmasya trāyate mahato bhayāt. And even that little asset can help you to become free from the greatest danger. There are many examples. They are stated in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Therefore, in this human form of life, at least we shall try to get some spiritual asset.
It is decreasing, day by day. As our forefathers lived ninety years, hundred years, now we are not living up to such extent of ages. Generally, people are dying... In India, the average age is thirty-five years. In other countries, maybe little more. But gradually it is decreasing, and it will decrease to such a point that even a, if a man lives for twenty to thirty years, then he'll be considered as grand old man. That, that day will come.
So this age... Therefore śāstra says, prāyeṇa alpa āyuṣaḥ. Generally, almost everyone is short-living. Prāyeṇa alpa āyuṣaḥ kalau asmin yuge janāḥ. Asmin yuge, kalau, they are very short-living. Then again, mandāḥ: all rascals. Mandāḥ, third class; no first-class men. Practically no brahminical qualification. All śūdra qualification. Therefore mandāḥ. Sumanda-matayaḥ. And if one comes forward to be spiritually enlightened, he accepts something bogus, which has no meaning, without any reference to the śāstras. Therefore mandāḥ sumanda-matayaḥ.
Why? That is a process to give her a chance to become a male next life. A, a woman, if he's, if she is educated to become chaste, attached to the husband, then naturally at the time of death, she'll think of the man, and she gets immediately... That is promotion. That is promotion. Similarly, if a man is very much attached to his wife, he'll think at the time of his... He becomes woman. These are the science. Where is the cultivation of this science? Simply all fools. And they are making research work. What is the research work? Can you go beyond the laws of the prakṛti? It is not possible.
No court witness. And it will go for ten years to find out whether he has stolen. This is government. Therefore, the injunction is kṣatriya hi prajā rakṣan śastra-pāṇiḥ pradaṇḍayan. Always must be very strict. Nirjitya para-sainyādi dharmeṇa pālayet. This is dharma. In the Manu-smṛti it is said that if a man, a murderer, one man has killed another man... Why man? Even animal. He's a murderer. Now murdering is no offense. They are killing daily so many babies within the womb, murderers. That has become a custom. They're killing hundreds and thousands of animals daily in the slaughterhouse. It has become a custom. So now even human being, murder, he's not condemned to death. Is it not?
So in the Manu-smṛti, as I am quoting from Parāśara-smṛti, there are smṛti-śāstras. The Manu-smṛti, it is said that if a man commits murder, then he should be killed. Otherwise, he'll suffer in the next life. So many sufferings. So the king's order to condemn a murderer to death is a mercy, is a mercy for him. Because he's saved from future, so many troubles. So the king should be so strict. Not that by compassion. "No. He's murderer. That's all right. He has killed one man. Why he should be killed?" No. He must be killed. This is the law. Here it is also, Parāśara-smṛti, it is said that kṣatriya should be always śastra-pāṇi, and must strictly, as soon as there is any discrepancy, he must take...
This is material world. But Kṛṣṇa is advising Arjuna that either goodness or passion or ignorance, after all, they are activities of this material world. You have to come above, transcend this position of goodness also. So goodness is not qualification for spiritual advancement, but it is helping. If a man is very good man, then it is helping to spiritual life. But that is not the cause. Here the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, this chanting, is directly offering spiritual life. Even one is not in goodness, even one is in the darkest part of the quality of ignorance, still, he can be immediately elevated to the spiritual platform, which is recommended by Kṛṣṇa, that you have come to the platform above the modes of goodness. So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is directly offering the spiritual platform which is above the mode of goodness. The quality of goodness will (be) automatically there. Any person who is in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, his quality of goodness, namely, he does not indulge in illicit sex life, he does not smoke even or take tea or coffee even, he does not eat any forbidden foodstuff, neither he takes part in unnecessary gambling.
So Lord Kṛṣṇa says, "Those who are captivated by this false enjoyment, bodily, bhoga..." Now, our bhoga enjoyment means through this body. But body is my diseased condition. As a diseased man cannot enjoy life... How it is possible? Take, for example, a man who is suffering from jaundice. It is practical. You can test practically. If a man... You find out a man who is suffering from jaundice. You give a piece of sugar candy and ask him to take. He will say, "It is bitter." He will say, "It is bitter." He won't taste its sweetness. Because his condition is diseased, therefore, he actually cannot enjoy the sweetness of sugar candy. But when he is cured, a man in healthy state, if you give him sugar candy, oh, he will say, he will appreciate, "Oh, it is very sweet, very nice." The same sugar candy, according to our condition of life, is tasted differently. So unless we cure from this disease of wrong conception of life, we cannot have any taste. Anything, anything, we cannot taste, have any taste for it. The bitter taste. We will have bitter taste.
When you catch hold of a bona fide spiritual master just to guide you to act on the spiritual platform, then your second life begins. It is called dvija. So this life is so important that one must begin it. One must begin it. There is no alternative. If a man is intelligent enough, if at all he wants to make his life successful, this must he do. That is the injunction of the Vedas. The Vedas says, tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum eva abhigacchet (MU 1.2.12). This abhigacchet is the form of verb which is imperative, "You must." Abhigacchet. This, this form of verb is used when the sense is "You must." So the Vedic Upaniṣad directs that tad-vijñānārtham: "In order to be situated, or in order to learn how to act on the spiritual platform, you must seek out a bona fide spiritual master who can guide you." So Kṛṣṇa, Arjuna has selected Kṛṣṇa as the spiritual master. We have already explained that Kṛṣṇa, Arjuna surrendered unto Arjuna (Kṛṣṇa).
"Now My devotee..." Now, this patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyam has been specifically mentioned by the Lord because it is universal. It is universal. If a man says that "All right, Lord wants to eat from me. But I am poor man. What I can give Lord for eating?" No, no, no. Even if you are a poor man, the poorest man, oh, these four things you can collect, one leaf, little water, one fruit, and one flower. Any, any poor man. Of course, in the city like New York, it is very difficult, (laughs) but in India it is not at all difficult. Because mostly they live, ninety percent of the population, they are villagers. So any villager, if he goes to another villager, "Sir, I want some flowers for worshiping God." "Oh, take it!" Immediately. Nobody will... In your country also, nobody will deny that. But here in the city there is no flower at all. Where to collect? If you go to the florist then I have to pay. That's a different proposal. But actually, in ordinary course of life, nobody is bereft of these four things.
They are also killing. The law is that a living entity lives by killing other living entities. That is the law. Those who have got hands, they are killing those who have got legs. Just like man is killing animal. The animal is eating the grass, those who have no legs. So this is the law. But our thing is that we have to offer yajña. Killing of animal does not mean that if a man kills a cow or goat for eating, he is killing, and those who are vegetarian, they are not killing. They are also killing. A vegetable has also got life. So it is not the question of killing. It is the question of offering yajña. It is the question of offering yajña.
Even animal eaters and flesh eaters, they have also some process for offering yajña. In the Vedic process, even the flesh eaters, they are also prescribed that "You can perform yajña like this." That yajña must be there. Yajña must be there. But so far we are concerned who are going to have Kṛṣṇa consciousness, we have to take the instruction of Kṛṣṇa as He says in the Bhagavad-gītā.
Bhagavān means the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Bhaga, we generally know, bhāgya, opulence, fortune, a man is called bhāgyavān. This bhāgyavān word comes from the word bhaga, Bhagavān. Bhaga means opulence, six kinds of opulences: wealth, strength, influence, education, wisdom, beauty, and renunciation. These are opulences. If a man is wealthy, he's attractive. He attracts. Any man, very wealthy, he attracts. Similarly, if he's very strong, if he's very influential, if he's very learned, wise, if he's very beautiful... He or she, it doesn't matter. Or if he's a great renouncer, one who has renounced everything for public benefit, naturally we have got attraction. So in this material world we find some wealthy man, some rich man, some strong man, some beautiful man, some wise man, one renounced man, but they are only fragmental. Fragmental, very small quantity. Any man... You can take a rich man. He may be very rich man, but, in comparison to the other persons in the material world, but nobody can claim that "I am the richest man." No.
Asmin yuge, kali-yuge, alpa āyuṣaḥ, they are living very short time. The duration of life (is) reducing. Anyone can know. His forefather, his grandfather, lived for, say, hundred years. His father lived for eighty years. And he's going to live for sixty years. In this way, the duration of life will be reduced up to twenty years. That is already foretold. If a man lives for twenty to thirty years, he will be considered very old man. That day is coming. Because how they will live? There is no eating, there is no sleeping. There is no fixture of this program. These are required. Annād bhavanti bhūtāni (BG 3.14). Simply by dry lecture, how they will feel happy? There must be sufficient food grains so that people may live happily, the animal may live happily. Especially in India you will see. No animal is fatty, either cat, dog or cow. They have no eating. So annād bhavanti bhūtāni. They must be given sufficient food, annād. Kṛṣṇa does not say that "You fast and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa." He does not say. Kṛṣṇa is not so impractical.
Now, you can take history of the past years. Your forefathers were living eighty years, ninety years, hundred years. Now, generally, they live sixty years, seventy years. And gradually it will decrease so much that—these are all statement of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam—that if a man lives for twenty to thirty years, he will be considered a grand old man. You see? That time also will come very soon. So we are not improving actually. We are not improving. We are decreasing in every respect, and we are proud of advancement of civilization. Go on.
"My dear Arjuna, there is nobody else greater than Me. There is no greater authority than Me." Kṛṣṇa says. Now, apparently, it appears very dogmatic. Suppose if I say before you that, "There is nobody greater than me," oh, you'll think, "Oh, Swamiji is very proud." Yes. If a man like me, who is conditioned by so many, I mean to say, restrictions, if I say that I am the greatest of all, that is a blasphemy. I cannot say that. But Kṛṣṇa can say. Because the history of life from Kṛṣṇa, we can understand that actually He was the greatest personality. At least, during His time, He was the greatest personality in every field of activities. Now knowledge received from the greatest personality, greatest authority, is, according to Vedic system, that is accepted as perfect.
There are three kinds of proofs. According to Vedic system, they accept three kinds. For establishing truth, they, they take three kinds of proofs: pratyakṣa, anumāna, aitihya. In logic also, these three kinds of proofs are accepted. What is that?
Janmanā, by birth, everyone is śūdra or caṇḍāla. Those who are satisfied that "I have taken birth in my brāhmaṇa family, so now my business is over." No. Janmanā jāyate śūdraḥ. The birth by the father and mother, that is śūdra, that is not brāhmaṇa. Saṁskāra. If a man is born brāhmaṇa, then why there is necessity of sacred thread ceremony? No. That is the saṁskāra. Saṁskāra means the sacred thread is the symbol. It is offered by the ācārya. It is the certificate that "This boy has been trained up as a brāhmaṇa."
Therefore the sacred thread is a symbolic presentation. Not that to purchase one two-paise worth sacred thread and one becomes brāhmaṇa. No. Now, of course, in Kali-yuga... Vipratve sūtram eva hi. In Kali-yuga this will go on. Vipratve. A brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, śūdra, brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya. Simply purchase one thread from the market and get it on your body and you become.... Vipratve sūtram eva hi.
There is practical example. One who is suffering from jaundice, if you give him something sweet, sugar candy, he'll taste it bitter. Although sugar candy is not bitter, but due to his illness, due to his jaundice disease... You'll... You can make a practical test of it. But at the same time, that sugar candy is the medicine for jaundice. If a man is suffering from jaundice, if you simply give him water and sugar candy... You just moisten sugar candy at night, and just early in the morning you get a glass of sweet sugar candy water. Oh, within very short time you'll be cured from jaundice disease.
Similarly, this restriction, do-not... When we make spiritual life progressive, there are certain restriction, and they may seem at the present stage very bitter. Very bitter. But that is the way. We have to accept. Therefore it is called saṁyatendriyaḥ. And if we can make progress in that way, restrained sense gratification and following the rules and regulations, then we are sure to acquire the knowledge.
That spiritual spark has got the potency of enjoyment, but that is not being manifested on account of being covered by this material tabernacle, and therefore this enjoyment is not perfect.
This requires little intelligence, that "Where is the enjoyment for the dead body?" The dead body no more can enjoy. Suppose if a man is offered a dead body of a beautiful woman, will he accept? Or a woman is offered the dead body of a beautiful man, will she accept? No. Because that enjoying spark is moved now. That requires intelligence. Who is enjoying? Who is enjoying? The enjoying, the enjoying spirit. The spirit is enjoying, not this body. That requires intelligence. Then again... Now, if that spirit is enjoying, then the spirit must have enjoying senses also. Otherwise how it can enjoy? If you have no enjoying sense organ, then how you can enjoy? A blunt cannot enjoy. Therefore it is accepted that the spirit soul, although it is very small, atomic, we cannot measure...
Besides that, he is illusioned. Illusioned means to accept something what is not fact. Just like... (coughs) (aside:) Water. We accept this body as self. This is called illusion. According to Vedic understanding, anyone who thinks of this body as the self, he's animal. Just like a dog, he thinks that he is the body, similarly, if a man thinks that he is this body, he is American or Indian or Frenchman or German or Hindu or Muslim, with this bodily concept of life, so, according to Vedic understanding, this conception is animal conception. So this is called illusion.
Then next item is cheating. Cheating means with imperfect knowledge one takes the place of a teacher. And the last deficiency is that our senses are imperfect. It is not independent. Still, we are very much proud of our senses. For example, atheist class of men, they say that "Can you show me God?" He does not think whether he has got any power to see.
Similarly, there are so many attempts to discover scientific measures to stop death, but it is not possible. Death is taking place. Rather, in the present age, death is taking place earlier than in years before. Formerly people were living, say, hundred years, eighty years, ninety years, and nowadays a man is living, utmost, seventy years, sixty years. If a man lives for eighty years, then he is considered to be very... But time will come, as we get information from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, that at the end of this age, Kali-yuga, if a man lives for twenty to thirty years he'll be considered as the grand old man. So practically we are not making any progress. And materially it is not possible to make progress. It is... That is called māyā, illusion. We are actually not making any progress, but we are thinking that we are making progress. This is called spell of māyā.
When we are Kṛṣṇa conscious, then we are brahma-bhūta (SB 4.30.20), and when we are not Kṛṣṇa conscious, we are materially conscious, that is māyā.
Therefore as soon as we are freed from the clutches of māyā, brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā (BG 18.54), we become prasannātmā, very happy, joyful. Just like if a man is freed from the contamination of a certain type of disease, he feels happy: "Now I am feeling all right," similarly, these coverings of māyā of the jīvas, not of the Supreme Lord... The Supreme Lord cannot be covered by māyā. That is wrong. The jīvas. That is called ya... Apareyam itas tv anyāṁ prakṛtiṁ viddhi me parām, jīva-bhūtāṁ mahā-bāho (BG 7.5). Arjuna is addressed as mahā-bāhu, the great fighter. Great fighter can understand. Who is great fighter? Who is acting under Kṛṣṇa, he is great fighter. Just like Arjuna is fighting. So when you take shelter of Kṛṣṇa and fight with these material opposing elements... These preachers, they are also mahā-bāhu.
I mean to say, spirituality, "a show of devotion, a show of spirituality, without reference to the Vedic knowledge, śruti, smṛti, and corollaries to the Vedas, pañcarātra-vidhim, and the definition of bhakti-sūtras like Nārada-bhakti-sūtra and such authoritative books," aikāntikī harer bhaktiḥ, "if a man is showing himself that he is very great devotee, and a man in knowledge, without any reference of the authoritative śāstra, books—oḥ, that is simply disturbance," Utpāta. Utpāta means disturbance. A man showing that he is a great devotee, he's great man of knowledge, but he has no reference with the books of knowledge, or the authoritative books, oh, that is simply creating disturbance. That is not religiosity, neither devotion, nothing else.
Indian man: But don't you think it is a contradiction that if a man is a bad throughout his life and only at the time of death he thinks of Kṛṣṇa and gets...?
Prabhupāda: No. That history of Ajāmila is different. In his childhood he was a son of a brāhmaṇa. He was faithfully discharging the duties of a brāhmaṇa. But accidentally, when he was young... He was married also. Accidentally, when he was young he was passing on the road and some śūdra girl and boy were embracing and kissing, and he became attracted. And he became attracted by the prostitute. And he left home, wife, and everything, and then he became a great dacoit and smuggler, and everything he did. But... And he had so many children. Youngest was Nārāyaṇa. So at the time of death..., because generally, people become attached to the youngest son, so he was calling "Nārāyaṇa." But he remembered, "Oh, that Nārāyaṇa." Reference to the context. As soon as he called Nārāyaṇa... In his boyhood he served Nārāyaṇa under the direction of his father, so he remembered Nārāyaṇa.
Now what are the opulences? You have got, everyone of you, has got the idea of opulences. What are those opulences? Wealth, riches, strength, or influence, and fame, and beauty, knowledge and renunciation. These six things are called opulences. One has got, one, if a man has got sufficient riches, he attracts. This man attracts poor man. This is a instrument of attracting. Sometimes we also approach very rich men. Give us some contribution. Although we are Kṛṣṇa conscious. So richness has got attraction. You cannot deny it. Of course, for Kṛṣṇa, we can do anything. We have no restriction. For Kṛṣṇa's service, we can do everything. So anyway, richness, if a man is very rich, wealthy, he attracts.
That is the... These are the six opulences which at... which attract. Then if a man is very strong, he's also, he also attracts. Bala. A strong man, either by influence, or by his bodily strength, he attracts. If there is a strong man, many woman is attracted. So strength is also another feature of attraction.
Wealth, strength, and then fame. If a man is very famous, just take any famous man of the world, if he comes in this room, oh, thousands of people will come here. When Gandhi was alive I read one news from the newspaper in India that in some Italian city, there was great crowd, innumerable people gathered in the station. And nobody could understand why these people are assembled here. So when they are asked, they replied that, "We have heard that Gandhi is coming here." Mahatma Gandhi, perhaps you heard his name. He was very famous man, politician. So actually the news they are published that one, there was one Mr. Glandi. So he was coming. And people misunderstood as Gandhi. So my point is that a famous man also attracts. These things are attraction, richness, wealth, and strength, and famous, fame.
Then beauty. Beauty also attracts. If a man is beautiful, or a woman is beautiful, oh, many man or woman are after them, beautiful. Any beautiful, not only man or woman. Any beautiful flower, any beautiful picture, anything beautiful, that attracts. Beauty.
Form and knowledge. If one is learned, he's known as very possessing much knowledge. Just like great scientists, philosophers, or religionist, or teacher, they also attract.
And renunciation. That is also another attraction. If a man is in the renounced order of life. Renunciation means one has got all these things, richness, fame, beauty, knowledge, but he renounces everything for some higher purpose. Just like, in our country, for national movement, so many rich men, they renounced everything.
One of, some of them, perhaps you know, there was one Mr. C. R. Das. He was earning $50,000 a month as a lawyer. So everything renounced. He joined this Movement. And, perhaps you have heard the name of Nehru. Nehru was very rich man's son. His father was very rich lawyer. His father's history is that... In those days, there was not a single day when he was not earning $500.
What is that spiritual master? Simply a red dress like this or having a big beard? No. Samit-pāṇiḥ. Samit-pāṇiḥ śrotriyaṁ brahma-niṣṭham. You have to go to a person who is conversant with the science of Kṛṣṇa. You have to go. So this is the formula. Manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu (BG 7.3). Martyeṣu yatamāneṣu sahasreṣu madhye yo yadṛk ca mat-tattva-vit. Nobody inquires even. But if a man is fortunate to inquire, he can make progress and come to this understanding, that Kṛṣṇa is the origin, cause of all causes.
Go on inquiring. The inquiry is called philosophy. Philosophy means to inquire, research. Or say... You have read in the Bhagavad-gītā, jñānī jijñāsuḥ. Jijñāsuḥ means inquiry. Four kinds of people who are in the righteous path, whose life is regulated, who is not upstart, who follows the rules and regulation of scriptures, and higher authority, or higher principles, such person, not all... That is also described in the Bhagavad-gītā: na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ prapadyante narādhamāḥ (BG 7.15).
"You can do whatever you like. You can eat whatever you like." No. We don't restrict to the ordinary man, but if one comes forward to become our student, serious student, then he must follow this pravṛtti-nirvṛtti. Otherwise he remains asura. What we have to make an asura a deva. That is our process. Kṛṣṇa consciousness means that it is not that if a man is born in an asura family he cannot be deva. No. He can be deva. Kṛṣṇa says, māṁ hi pārtha vyapāśritya ye 'pi syuḥ pāpa-yonayaḥ (BG 9.32). Pāpa-yonayaḥ means asura-yonayaḥ, or lower than asura-yonayaḥ. Striyo vaiśyās tathā śūdrās te 'pi yānti parāṁ gatim. Everyone has got a chance.
So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is giving chance to everyone to become devatā. It is so nice movement. Because without becoming devatā he'll be entangled. He'll be entangled. He'll have to. He has to continue this four process of birth, death, disease, and old age. That he has to.
We can make you brāhmaṇa, provided you give up these bad habits." "What is that?" "No illicit sex, no meat-eating, no gambling, no intoxication." He said, "It is impossible. This is our life!" You see.
So it is very difficult. Therefore the pravṛtti-nirvṛtti, the Vedic rules have been formulated in such a way that if a man has got pravṛtti for meat-eating or drinking or for sex-life or gambling... So we know that gambling is allowed on the kālī-pūjā day. We know. Especially northern Indian people, mercantile people, they take it, advantage, gambling. And sex life is allowed married life. That is gradually nivṛtti, married life; otherwise they will become upstarts. The society will be lost. And meat-eating allowed also: "All right. Just offer a goat before Kali and take that." Not purchase from the market or slaughterhouse. No. So these things are there just to gradually make him refrain from all these habits. Nivṛtti. This is Vedic. Not that "Oh, there is in the Vedas Kālī-pūjā. We are devotees of Kali." Why? For meat-eating.
Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā na śocati kāṅkṣati samaḥ sarveṣu (BG 18.54). Equal to all living entities. Our philosophy is not like that, that we give protection to the human being and send the cows to the slaughterhouse. No, that is not our philosophy. Samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu. We think on this subject matter, that if a man is killed, as he's put into so difficult position for being killed, the animal also. They also feel. It is nonsense to think that animal has no soul, no. Everyone has got soul. There are 8,400,000 species or forms of life. Everyone has got soul. Even the ant has got soul, or the elephant has got soul, what to speak of other animals. Everyone, even the trees, birds, beasts, plants, everyone has got soul.
Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures
Caitanya Mahāprabhu said the pushing, the point pushing, enechi auṣadhi māyā nāśibāro lāgi': "Now I have brought this."
Just like... You have no experience in your country. In India still there are snake charmers. If one is bitten by a snake he remains unconscious. By mantra he can be brought into consciousness, in life. If a man is snakebitten... (aside:) He's sleeping. Why? Don't sleep and you can sleep at the end. Don't in the front. It is disturbing. Enechi auṣadhi māyā nāśibāro lāgi'. Lord Caitanya said that "I have brought the medicine." Māyā nāśibāro lāgi'. Just like the snake charmers, they chant mantra. That is factual. It is not story. One medical practitioner friend of mine, when he was student in Lucknow, he stated that there is a palace building, Satar Manji?(?) Satar Manju, in Lucknow. There is some government office. So there were several snakebite cases. Several men were killed by snakebite. So they could understand that there is a venomous snake in this building; at the opportunity he bites.
And now in this Kali-yuga, one hundred years. That also not complete. Nobody can complete one hundred years, and it is reducing. Maybe our forefathers or grandfathers might have lived for hundred years, but we are not living so much. And gradually, our children, our grandchildren, they will gradually reduce that span of life so much so that at the end of Kali-yuga, if a man would live for twenty to thirty years, he'll be considered a grand old man. Yes. We are reducing. But formerly, they were living so many years. Alpāyuṣaḥ. Prāyeṇālpāyuṣaḥ. Prāyeṇa. Almost everyone is short span of life. Prāyeṇālpāyuṣaḥ kalāv asmin yuge janāḥ. Kalau. In this age, kalau. It is not for a particular nation or party or religion. Everyone is subjected to the laws of nature.
So in this Kali-yuga the duration of life, the span of life will be gradually reduced. Memory will be reduced. Strength will be reduced. Mercifulness will be reduced. In this way... Now, it is a age of reduction. Not increasing.
That is very important thing. One should know his identification. At the present moment, identification is going on by the skin. "I am Indian," "I am American." This is going on. But that is not our proper identification. The proper identification is ahaṁ brahmāsmi: "I am spirit soul." This is to be understood in human form of life. Otherwise, the dog is also puffed up, "I am a big dog." So similarly, if a man becomes puffed up simply by the bodily concept of life, "I am a big Roman," "I am big Indian," "I am big...," there is no distinction between the dog's conception of life and the big Roman's conception of life—because the center is the body.
So here Kṛṣṇa came to establish this fact, that "You are neither Roman, nor Indian nor brāhmaṇa nor śūdra. You are My eternal servant. Therefore give up all this nonsense identification." Sarva-dharmān parityajya (BG 18.66). Because due to your wrong identification, you have created so-called "isms:" Hinduism, Muhammadanism, nationalism, this "ism," that "ism." This is all nonsense.
Prabhupāda: No, no, no. If you speak ridiculously, how can I hear you? You say that one man has got education and he acts ridiculously. This is... Your statement is ridiculous.
Indian man (2): I said if a man who has good education...
Prabhupāda: No, no. He has no good education. You cannot say that. If he acts ridiculously, that, he has no good education.
Indian man (2): Well, let me put it another way. In the Bhagavad-gītā is there a passage, is there a chapter where Arjuna says, "I have heard all Your teachings. Now I have understood the truth," or not?
Prabhupāda: So you have to hear and you have to understand; then you can speak. Otherwise you will speak ridiculously.
That is also explained in another place. Yeṣāṁ tv anta-gataṁ pāpam. Those who have finished their sinful activities... Yeṣāṁ tv anta-gataṁ pāpaṁ janānāṁ puṇya-karmaṇām. Those who are actually engaged in pious activity... Therefore, according to our Vedic civilization, people are advised to act piously. If a man is very poor, he has nothing to give in charity or make sacrifice, "Go to the Ganges, take your bath." That is also pious. Pious activities. So in this way the whole life, whole Vedic civilization, is based on inducing people to engage, to be engaged in pious activities. Because by acting piously, one day they come to the stage of bhajana.
India is trained... By culture, by birth, the land of Bhāratavarṣa is puṇya-bhūmi. Still, you will find in Kumbha-mela many millions of people will come to take bath, to take a dip into the Ganges, because they think it is pious. So through the veins of Indians, the spiritual fluid is flowing.
"What nonsense he's taking? A five-years-old boy, he's taking, talking of self-realization. I wanted to make him a great politician, economist. Now he's talking of this nonsense and..." Hitvātma-pātaṁ gṛham andha-kūpam. "He's describing that this family life is just like a dark well." If a man is put, dark well... (break)
...be engaged. Be... Whatever you are, that doesn't matter. But act it on the platform of consciousness. And that platform, acting on the consciousness, is, Lord Caitanya has made very easy. Just like there are some note-makers of school books, "Easy Study." So Lord Caitanya has recommended that "You may be engaged in whatever occupation. That may be good or bad. We don't mind for that. But you must hear the kṛṣṇa-kathā. You must continue to hear this Bhagavad-gītā." That is... For this, we are trying to organize this institution, that "You come.
So the fact is that there are innumerable incarnations of God. As it is said here: līlāvatārānurato deva-tiryaṅ-narādiṣu. And we have to accept Him as incarnation not by whims, not by public votes, but... Just like it has become a fashion. If a man is voted, without reference to the śāstra, if some rascals vote that "Here is incarnation of God," we accept? No, we have to accept with reference to śāstra, symptoms given in the śāstra, and then we shall... Just like Caitanya Mahāprabhu we accept as incarnation of Kṛṣṇa. It is confirmed in the śāstra. In the Upaniṣads, in Mahābhārata, in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Everywhere, there are... If you read Caitanya-caritāmṛta, there are so many quotations from the śāstras. Then we accept Caitanya Mahāprabhu. There are some men here in Vṛndāvana, they do not accept Caitanya Mahāprabhu as incarnation of Kṛṣṇa, but there are... They'll not see... They'll not see to the evidences in the śāstra. They'll blind. They'll make themselves blind.
"My life is perfect now." And more perfect life, dākṣyaṁ kuṭumba-bharaṇam. In this age, if one man can maintain his wife and children, he will be considered a great man "Oh, he is so able, that he is maintaining his wife and children." Maintaining wife and children, even cats and dogs can do. But in this age, if a man can maintain his wife and children, he will be considered as very expert. Because most people will have no wife, no children. This is the age. So more you become sinful, the more you become irresponsible, the more you become Godless—these things are awaiting.
We are thinking that we are making progress, but actually we are reducing. This is called māyā. We are making progress on the wrong side. That means reducing. Everyone, you know that people are not so much merciful at the present moment. If a man is attacked by some rogue, nobody is going to help him. If a man's apartment is, there is a burglar, thief, nobody is going to help him. Or if a man is very poor, nobody is going to help him. It is dwindling. It is decreasing. Similarly, duration of life. Your grandfather, your forefathers, they were living up to hundred years or more than that. And nowadays hardly they are living sixty or seventy years. Similarly, memory. The memory is also reducing. Knowledge is also reducing. This is the symptom of this age. Things will be reduced. Therefore Lord Caitanya is the most magnanimous. He knows that "People will not be very much alert in accepting spiritual knowledge after undergoing so much austerities and penances.
Yoga means controlling the senses. That is the first principle. Prabodhānanda Sarasvatī said that "Yes, it is admitted that the senses are just like snakes. But if you break the poisonous teeth, then there is no danger. There is no... They have no more fears." A snake without poison, a child may be afraid of, "There is a snake." But if a man knows that this snake is here but there is no poisonous teeth, it is broken, then there is no question of fearfulness. Otherwise, it is ordinary, insignificant... Just like reptile, something, or worm, or microbes. So he said... So that means he answers to the jñānīs, to the yogis, to the karmīs: durdānta indriya-kāla-sarpa-paṭalī protkhāta. Protkhāta, extracted. The teeth is extracted. Protkhāta. Protkhāta. Daṁṣṭrāyate. Daṁṣṭra means teeth. Taken away. So there is no cause of... Durdānta indriya-kāla-sarpa-paṭalī protkhāta-daṁṣṭrāyate viśvaṁ pūrṇa-sukhāyate.
Just like Yāmunācārya. He was emperor. He was emperor. And his standard of living is very, was very high. Standard of living, materialistic standard of living, means, high standard of living means, unrestricted enjoyment of wine and woman. That's all. That is the standard. So he was addicted to all these habits. He was king. At his command everything was there. If, if a man is rich, three things, four things will be at his command: wine, woman, gold and gambling. It is called. Yes. So therefore these are the places, I mean to say, allotted to Kali by Parīkṣit Mahārāja. Therefore a persons who is desirous of advancing in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he should take care. So this Yāmunācārya later on became a great devotee. So he has got... He happened to be the spiritual master of Rāmānujācārya. He became a great devotee, Yāmunācārya, in the Śrī-sampradāya Vaiṣṇavas. So he writes very nice... These are practical experience of the ācārya. Yad-avadhi mama cetaḥ kṛṣṇa-padāravinde nava-nava-dhāmany udyataṁ rantum āsīt...
So Satyavatī was the daughter of a fisherman, and Bhīṣma's father become enchanted. So he went to the fisherman. He was king. So "Give me your daughter. I shall marry." "Oh, you are already married. You have got son. Why shall I give my daughter to you?" "No, I am king. I shall maintain her." "No, no, No. I don't want to give." In India still, if a man wants to marry, and if he has got children by his former wife, people will hesitate to give him daughter, because there are stepsons. So nobody wants that "My daughter will be troubled by the stepson,—daughter. No." Still they are practiced. To marry for the second time becomes a problem. But nowadays these things are gone.
So the grown-up son, Bhīṣmadeva, he understood that "My father is inclined to marry that girl." So he went to plead, canvass: "So why don't you give your daughter to my father?" "No, no, I cannot give my daughter to your father. You are his son. You will inherit the kingdom, and my daughter's son will not inherit.
Rāvaṇa's brother was living on the other side of the globe, and Rāmacandra was taken through the subway. So taking this into consideration, we can suppose that Rāvaṇa imported large quantity of gold from Brazil, and he converted them into big, big houses. So Rāvaṇa was so powerful that he made his capital Svarṇa-laṅkā, "capital made of gold." Just like if a man comes from undeveloped country to your country, New York or any city, when they see the big, big skyscraper, they become astonished. Although skyscraper buildings are everywhere nowadays, formerly it was very wonderful.
So we can create everything very wonderful, but we can take the example of Rāvaṇa. Rāvaṇa was very advanced materially, and he had Vedic knowledge sufficiently. He was son of a brāhmaṇa. Everything was there. But the only fault was that he did not care for Rāma. That is the only fault. "Oh, what is Rāma? I don't care for Him.
"I have got so much bank balance. It may not be taken away. I have got this property." In this way everyone is suffering. That's a fact. Therefore Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura says, viṣaya-biṣānale, dibā-niśi hiyā jwale: "The heart is burning." The same word. It is in simple Bengali, and this is in Sanskrit. Viṣaya-biṣānale, dibā-niśi hiyā jwale, juṛāite nā koinu upāy. So if a man simply goes on suffering like this, then he is not a human being. Human being means if there is suffering, he must try to alleviate it, to mitigate the suffering. That is human being.
That is... Nature gives us this human form of body, intelligence, that if there is danger, if there is anxiety, he tries to get out of it. The animals also do, but they cannot do very nicely. Just like animals are slaughtered. So they know when they are put into one, what is called, pound and they know that they will be slaughtered, but they have no means to get out of it. So the human being can do that. If I foresee, "There is some danger, I can make some way to get out of it."
We have explained several times. You have read in the Bhagavad-gītā. Glāniḥ means discrepancy, discrepancy. And dharma means obedience to God. That is dharma. Religion means..., religion does not mean anything else. You can manufacture so many formulas and theses. The real meaning is obedience to God. That is religion. Simple definition. If a man is obedient to God, it doesn't matter to which religion he belongs. He may be a Christian, he may be Hindu, he may be Mussulman. It doesn't matter. Religion means... This is the... I have given.
Religion means the laws of God. There must be laws. God is the Supreme. As the state laws are there, now the so many affairs in the cosmic manifestation is going on, how they can think of that there is no law? There is law. The sun is rising exactly in time. The Pacific Ocean is exactly in its position. It is not coming even a few yards beyond the area. Such a huge water, it can overflood immediately the whole Los Angeles city in a second. But why it is not coming? You are sure.
Now, the next age, this Kali-yuga, the limit is one hundred years. We can live utmost up to one hundred years. We are not living one hundred years, but still, the limit is one hundred years. So just see. Now, from one hundred years... Now in India the average age is about thirty-five years. In your country they say seventy years? So it is reducing. And it will so reduce that if a man lives for twenty to thirty years, he will be considered grand old man, in this age, Kali-yuga. So āyuḥ, duration of life, will reduce.
Memory, smṛti, that will also reduce. We see nowadays, people are not very..., of sharp memory. They forget. Daily work they forget. Doing something daily; still, he is forgetting. The loss of memory. Similarly, āyuḥ, bodily strength. Everyone can understand. Your forefathers, your father or grandfather, as they were bodily strong, you are not so, I am not so. So bodily strength will reduce. Memory will reduce. Duration of life will reduce. Then dharma... There is no question. It is almost reduced.
Formerly, according to spiritual understanding, one man's position was calculated. Just like brāhmaṇa. Brāhmaṇa was honored because he knew Brahman. He was aware of the supreme spirit. So now in Kali-yuga, actually there is no brāhmaṇa. That will be also described, how a brāhmaṇa is. So janma ācāra, birthright. Birthright was there, but according to the behavior. If a man is born in a brāhmaṇa family or kṣatriya family or vai..., he must behave like that. That was the king's duty, to see that "This man is not falsely representing himself." Just like in England there is lord family. So to maintain their aristocracy, the family had to deposit some money with the government so that they may not deteriorate in their aristocratic behavior. Still, it is going on. But now things are finished.
So aristocracy and respectability, these things were according to culture, according to education. But nowadays, what is that? Vittam eva kalau nṟṇām. If you get money somehow or other, then everything is there.
This is Kali-yuga. Nowadays the high-court judges, they are taking bribe, to give you a favorable judgment. You can purchase judgment. So if you have no money, then don't go to court. To push good money after bad money. No. No. Avṛttyā nyāya-daurbalyaṁ pāṇḍitye cāpalaṁ vacaḥ. If a man talks expertly, it doesn't matter what he talks. Nobody requires to understand him. Then he is paṇḍita. He is (speaks gibberish:) "Haperkulasvena bagavad dagvendikali gundulas, by the lacticism of wife...," like, if you go on speaking, nobody will understand. (laughter) Nobody will understand, and people, "Oh, see how learned he is." (laughter) Actually it is happening. There are so many rascals. They are writing book, and "Oh, such and such, oh..." "What you have understand?" "Oh, it is inexplicable. Inexplicable." That is going on.
Anāḍhyataivāsādhutve sādhutve dambha eva tu, svīkāra eva codvāhe snānam eva prasādhanam (SB 12.2.5). Anāḍhyatā. If you are poor man, then you are dishonest.
Therefore in the Bhagavad-gītā it is said, dharmāviruddhaḥ kāmo 'smi. Aviruddha, "Sex life which is not against the religious principles, that I am. That sex life I am," Kṛṣṇa says. "I am that sex life." That is godly. But sex life for sense gratification or for prostitution, that is not Kṛṣṇa. That is Kali. So this is the process.
So it was the duty of the king to see that if a man is professing himself as a brāhmaṇa, he must act as a brāhmaṇa. That was the duty. Otherwise, he should be punished. Just like here. This śūdra, he was presenting himself as a kṣatriya, nṛpa-liṅga-dharam. Therefore he was punished. Not that the king is callous: "Let him do whatever he likes." Just like now our, everywhere, the government, it doesn't care whether you are acting as a brāhmaṇa, śūdra, or whatever nonsense you are doing. Doesn't care. "You pay me tax, that's all." Bring your tax, income tax, and everything, then you are free, whatever you are doing. That was not the duty of the king.
Another man, not living entity. There is punishment. The law punishes. If you kill someone, if you commit murder, then you will be punished. This is punishable. But because it is man-made law, therefore it is defective. A man is a living entity, and a cow is also a living entity. Why this discrimination, that if a man is murdered or killed, that murderer must be punished? But that law is not permissible in God's law. In God's law, either you kill a man or you kill an ant, you are punishable. You are punishable. You cannot avoid this. Because in the eyes of God, the Brahmā, Lord Brahmā, and a small ant, they are all sons of God.
That is the test. If he has not surrendered to God, or Kṛṣṇa, then he is mūḍha. That is also explained in the Bhāgavata that ye 'nye 'ravindākṣa vimukta-māninaḥ. Why they are so mūḍhas? Just like cause and effect. If a man has no money, he is called poor, poor man. Similarly, if a man has no such sense to surrender unto God, he is mūḍha. He is mūḍha. So ye 'nye... But thinking that he has become liberated, he has become one with God, and he is God Himself, everyone is God. Therefore they are mūḍha. Ye 'nye 'ravindākṣa vimukta-māninaḥ.
So it is in good words, vimukta-māninaḥ. Because it is said by Vyāsadeva or a devotee, little respectful, vimukta-māninaḥ, falsely thinking that he has become liberated. But when Kṛṣṇa says, because He is the Supreme Lord, He says that "He is a mūḍha. He is a rascal."
And what is next after death? What I was before my birth? Why I am here? Why I am struggling so hard? I want to be happy. I want to be peaceful. Why there is no peace? Why there is no happiness? Why these things? Why I am put into this...?" These are called ātma-tattvam. These are called brahma-jijñāsā. If a man is not enlightened to this point of inquiring of this, "What? What I am? Wherefore I am come? What is this world? What is this body? Why I am getting old? Why I am getting diseased?" So many "whys" there are. This is called brahma-jijñāsā. But they are pramatta, they are mad after the struggle for existence, although they know nothing will exist, it has come just like a flash, and it will end like a flash. Then what is the actual platform of my life, my living condition? They do not inquire. They do not inquire.
This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
So everyone is dying, but those who are engaged in kṛṣṇa-kathā, in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, those who are busy in Kṛṣṇa's business, they are not dying. They are living. How? Because ordinary man, his duration of life, span of life, is being taken away by the sun rising and sunset every day. If a man is fifty years old, that means... He has to live for eighty years. So fifty years duration has already been taken away by the sun. Fifty years old means that fifty years of time has already been taken away by the sun. It will never come back. "But what about the devotees? He is also the same. His, also, life is being taken away." No. His life is not being taken away, because he is going to live. Superficially we see that the body of a devotee is also taken away. But this is not the real body. Real body is the spiritual body. So spiritual body... Just like Kṛṣṇa says, tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti (BG 4.9). "After giving up this body, he does not take birth. He comes to Me."
Now let our Indians' leader come out. Take this movement very seriously. There will be great advantage to the people of the whole world. This kind of situation, to keep them in darkness that "I am dog," "I am hog," "I am American," "I am Indian..." No. Ahaṁ brahmāsmi. This is real conception of life. What is the difference? If a bulldog thinks that "I am a bulldog," and if a man thinks, "I am American" or "I am brāhmaṇa," what is the difference? The real thing is knowledge. So don't keep this knowledge locked up in your books, but spread it. My only request is: the leaders of India should now come forward and join this movement and take this advantage of doing good to the whole world, para-upakāra. (applause)
Indian man (3): If a man is highly religious, it is very difficult for him to move in the material world. What is the subject? How should he move, the people who are materialistically-minded?
Prabhupāda: Yes. Therefore you have to understand your spiritual identification. Because you are fools and rascals, you are thinking, "I am this body," and Kṛṣṇa gives instruction in the beginning that you are not this body. Dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā (BG 2.13). Asmin dehe: you are within this body, not this body you are. So Kṛṣṇa is authority. You have to take it. Kṛṣṇa is not only simply speaking authoritatively but He is giving practical example. Dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā (BG 2.13). Because the soul is within the body it is changing. Tathā dehāntara-prāptir dhīras tatra na muhyati (BG 2.13). You have to become a dhīra, not adhīra. There are two classes of men: dhīra and adhīra. So in order to become a dhīra, you have to go... Tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet (MU 1.2.12). You have to be trained up. Then you'll understand, not so quickly, without being dhīra. Dhīras tatra na muhyati.
Therefore dissatisfied. In the Manu-saṁhitā it is recommended that if you want to keep your wife satisfied, you must give sufficient ornament. These are the psychological things. So the Kali-yuga, therefore, dākṣyaṁ kuṭumba-bharaṇam. People will be so much wretched that they'll be unable to maintain his wife and children. Therefore in this age, if a man can maintain his family, that will be dākṣyam: "Oh, very fortunate."
So don't take this so-called material civilization has got any value. Reject it. You see? And be prepared for going back to home, back to Godhead. That should be aim. Don't be allured by these rascal leaders. And the another rascal, the Māyāvādī, they cannot believe all these things—"Make it zero." Śūnyavāda. They also do not like the modern ways of life, disgusted, but they have no adjustment, and therefore "Make it impersonal, zero, finished." Here is not zero. Here is substance. We are not after zero. We are after substance. The substance is described here. Just try to understand.
As in the sky, outer space, here in this material world big, big...(break) So there also there are many big, big aeroplanes running on.
Now, how this information received. When Bhāgavata was compiled five thousand years ago, there was no existence of aeroplane. But how in the Bhāgavata the information of the aeroplane is there? If men were less intelligent five thousand years ago, and now they have advanced, then how persons five thousand years ago... Not five thousand years. Many, many millions of years ago the information was there. But from historical point of view, at least five thousand years ago. So how they give this information of airplane? So how you can say that some forty thousand years ago... What is the Darwin's theory? There was no brain?
And the wife you can accept even she is, if she is qualified, and... Strī-ratnaṁ duṣkulād api. Strī-ratnam. Ratna means jewel. If one girl is very qualified or beautiful, even she is born of lower family, you must accept. You can marry. This is Cāṇakya Paṇḍita. Strī-ratnaṁ duṣkulād api. Viṣād amṛtaṁ grāhyam amedhyād api kāñcanam, nīcād apy uttamā vidyā. If a man born in nīca, in lower-grade family, but if he's qualified, it doesn't matter. That is practically being done.
So this is Vedic system. Not that one is lower in the estimation of the society by birth or so on. But he must be qualified. So here also it doesn't matter. This is going on. That is Vedic system. Devahūti does not deny to take instruction from her son. It is the system. It doesn't matter whether he's inferior. That is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's... Yei kṛṣṇa-tattva-vettā sei guru haya: (CC Madhya 8.128) "You will accept anyone as guru if he knows the science of Kṛṣṇa." That is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's... And Caitanya Mahāprabhu instructed everyone to become a guru.
So Kṛṣṇa also says, all śāstra says, that our only obligation is to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and if we take to that process, then we are no more obliged to anyone. We are free. That is really freedom. How it is done? That is the almighty God's power. He can do that. Just like we have got practical experience. If a man is condemned to death, nobody can save him by law. But if the president or the king excuses him, then he is saved. That we have got practical experience, king's mercy or the president's mercy. So if you actually surrender your everything, your life... Prāṇair arthair dhiyā vācā. We can sacrifice our life, our wealth... Prāṇa, artha... We can sacrifice the intelligence. Everyone is intelligent. If he sacrifices... This is called yajña. If you sacri... You have got some intelligence. Everyone is intelligent how to make his sense gratification very nice. Even an ant knows how to gratify his senses. So you have to sacrifice that. Don't gratify your senses, but try to gratify Kṛṣṇa's senses. Then you are perfect. Then you are perfect.
Now, tyaktvā tūrṇam aśeṣa-maṇḍala-pati-śreṇīṁ sadā tuccha-vat bhūtvā dīna-gaṇeśakau karuṇayā kaupīna-kanthāśritau. Kaupīna, a, simply a loincloth and underwear, kaupīna-kanthāśritau, and one quilt. That's all. Minimum. Minimum necessities of the body. But how they lived? They were so big men. How they adopted such life and lived? Because if a man, rich man, adopts immediately renunciation, that affects his material condition of life. That we have seen. Just like in Bengal, C.R. Das, he had fifty thousand rupees' income in those days, and he gave up everything and joined Gandhi's movement. He died within one year, because he could not tolerate. So without spiritual engagement, one cannot give up this material engagement. That is the real fact. One must... Tyaktvā tūrṇam aśeṣa-maṇḍala-pati... They gave up this material enjoyment. That's all right. How they lived? Gopī-bhāva-rasāmṛtābdhi-laharī-kallola-magnau muhuḥ. They dipped into the ocean of the transcendental loving affairs of the gopīs with Kṛṣṇa. That was their asset.
This is the purpose of putrotpāda. Pu means pun-nāmno narakāt. Pun-nāmno narakāt. Tra means trāyate, "delivers." Pun-nāmno narakāt trāyate iti putraḥ. This is the meaning of putra. But if the putra is going himself to the pun-nāmno narakāt, then who will deliver me? That is the position now. Nobody is offering śrāddha ceremony. Nobody believes in that. So anyway, if a man taking the responsibility of maintaining wife and children, why? Because he thinking that "I will enjoy life. I will enjoy good atmosphere." Everyone is trying to that. Any family you go in this evening, they are trying to enjoy life with wife and children and friends. Therefore they are taking the responsibility.
So this is ānanda, but because in this material world the ānanda is being converted into distress... But you can get the ānanda when you are with the supreme father, Kṛṣṇa. We are all children of the supreme father.
Unless one is not awakened to this knowledge, then he is a fool, rascal. Yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke (SB 10.84.13). One who is thinking, "This is my body. This is I am," sa eva go-kharaḥ: he is no better than animals. There are dog thinking.
So if a man thinks that "I am this body," then what is this position? He is no better than a dog. You should not be that. This human form of life is meant for this inquiry, athāto brahma-jijñāsā. "If I am Brahman, then what is...? Brahman means eternal. So why I am busy with these bodily affairs?" This is called brahma-jijñāsā. And if you become very learned scholar in the Vedānta and busy with these bodily affairs, that is another foolishness. If you actually Vedantist, then you should be inquiring that "I am eternal. Why I am put into this temporary body, and on account of this body, I am subjected to so many miserable condition of material life? Why I should remain in this condition? How I can get released from this condition?" That is human life.
If we have little faith that we require awakening of spiritual consciousness, we should not sleep under the spell of this material consciousness... A little faith will help us. It is said in the Bhagavad-gītā, svalpam apy asya dharmasya trāyate mahato bhayāt. Mahato bhayāt. There is great dangerous position. That we do not know because we are sleeping. If a man is sleeping and somebody is coming to kill him, he does not know that "Somebody is coming to kill me. Immediately I will be dead." There are so many cases of murder while a man is sleeping. Similarly, in this sleeping state of ignorance, that "I am this body," "I am Hindu," "I am Muslim," "I am Christian," there is greatest danger. So somebody required. A man is sleeping, and another man is coming to kill him. A third person is required to awaken: "Mr. such and such, get up, get up, get up! The man is coming to kill you." So the ear is open, although the man is sleeping, all other parts of the body, limbs of the body are inactive. So the ear is open.
So therefore the Vedic mantras are called śruti. We have to hear the mantra, Vedic mantra. Just like if a man is bitten by snake, he is caused to hear the snake charmer's mantra—still there are—so that he can become awakened. And it is said in the Cāṇakya Paṇḍita śloka, mantrauṣadhi-vaśaḥ sarpaḥ. Mantra is powerful still—by mantra, a snake-bitten person can be brought into life. There are still some snake charmers in the villages. In our Māyāpura there is a Muhammadan, he can cure the snake-bitten case by mantra still.
So this mantra is required, the Vedic mantra, to hear mantra. This chanting of these verses is also hearing the Vedic mantra. So we should take chance, and the most important mantra is mahā-mantra. Mahā-mantra. We are sleeping, but this mahā-mantra, Hare Kṛṣṇa, if we hear somehow or other... Therefore the greatest beneficial activity or welfare activity is to chant this Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra so that others can hear. But unfortunately, when we chant loudly, others they think, "It is nuisance." That is the difficulty. But actually it is the process of awakening: "Get up, get up, get up, get up." Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam. If we hear this mantra, Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra, then the mistaken ideas... Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam: (CC Antya 20.12)
So it is a concoction, to finish the individuality. It is called spiritual suicide. Just like if a man becomes disappointed and he cuts his own throat or hangs him, some way or other, eats some poison, to finish, does it mean that he is finished? Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). He is rascal. He does not know. By finishing this body he is finished—no, that is not possible. The result is, because he violated the rules of nature, he becomes a ghost. That is his life. One who commits suicide, he becomes a ghost. Ghost means he does not get this material body. He remains in the subtle body, mind, intelligence. Therefore ghost can go because he is in the mind. Mind speed is very strong. If you have got this material body, you cannot go immediately hundred miles off. But if you are in the mental body, you can go immediately, thousand miles immediately, within a second. So the ghost, they can play something wonderful because... But they are not happy because they have no gross body. They want to enjoy. He's materialist. He has committed suicide for some material want.
Daiva is the principle cause. Sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam (Bs. 5.1). That they do not accept. And people are giving credit to these artificial scientist.
In our Delhi program... There was lecture of a big scientist in Delhi, I forgot his name. He gave very good example, that if a man learns how to bark like dog and if he makes a show, many thousands of people will purchase ticket and go and see how he is barking. But by nature's arrangement, so many dogs are barking; nobody takes care. You see? So similarly, in the laboratory, if a scientist can produce a life some way or other, so they will go and see and give him clap. Just like this airplane is flying in the air. Little discrepancy is immediately crash down. So he is getting so much credit, and the scientists also saying, "There is no need of God. Now we have solved all the questions." But nobody is giving credit to Kṛṣṇa who is floating millions and trillions of stars and planets in the air. So by taking Kṛṣṇa's stock, the petroleum or gas, we become scientist and fly the airplane, and Kṛṣṇa has given the petrol, and He has no credit. He has no credit. That is the difference between demons and bhakta. A bhakta sees in everything presence of Kṛṣṇa. "Oh, here is Kṛṣṇa's energy is there.
Just like we are getting our boys and girls married. So according to Vedic rites, marriage is a very big program. But we are finishing, according to Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, simply by acceptance. Svīkāra eva ca udvāhe. In this age it is recommended that if a girl accepts somebody as husband or if a man accepts somebody as wife, that is final. That's all. They may not change it. There is no need of making a very gorgeous ceremony of marriage. There is no need of making... That is, of course, social function. Actually, thing is that one boy should accept one girl as his permanent friend in life. And one girl should accept one boy as her permanent friend in her life. The girl should be agreed to serve the boy for her comforts, and the boy should agree to accept the girl to maintain her throughout life. That's all. Finished. Simply we must have that good will. Then this process of opening the path of liberation will be very, I mean to say, favorable. You can open your path of liberation even without marriage, remaining brahmacārī, but for girls brahmacārī system is not recommended. Therefore girls are advised to get a husband. Or the parents take the responsibility, according to Vedic rites and according... Still, in India, the father, not the, I mean to say, modernized, educated Indians. In villages they are not very much educated. Oh, they must get their girl, I mean to say, daughter, married before fifteen years. Otherwise, it will be a social scandal.
We are not going to follow your instruction. We have to follow the instruction of the śāstra. You cannot say that "Why you are..." Are we not serving the man? We are trying to give you the knowledge of Kṛṣṇa. Is it not serving the man? The better service—to give knowledge. If a man is hungry, he can give some food. That will give him some temporary benefit. But if you give him knowledge how to earn his livelihood, that is better gift. So people are suffering for want of knowledge. So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is giving knowledge to the whole world. Not only that, we are giving prasādam also, hundreds and thousands of people. We are not that simply we are giving knowledge, but we are giving, we are inviting everyone, "Come, live with us peacefully, take Kṛṣṇa prasādam and be Kṛṣṇa conscious." This is our movement. That's all? One more.
That is go-kharaḥ. Go-kharaḥ means animal. Go means cow and kharaḥ means ass. So these animal think like that, "I am this body." And if a man thinks like that, he is no better than the animal. That is not possible. Do you mean to say by combination of this blood, flesh, bones, urine, and stool and so many other things, you can, by combination, make a person like big scientist, philosopher, mathematician, by combination of these ingredients? Is it possible? Then there are much quantity of blood and flesh and this in the slaughterhouse. You bring and mix with them stool and urine and make a Professor Einstein. (laughter) You are advanced scientist. You bring this ingredient and make a very intelligent man. So this is all foolishness. Sa eva go-kharaḥ (SB 10.84.13). Anyone who thinks this body as the self, then he is in the animal kingdom. One, if anyone wants spiritual knowledge, he first of all know what is spirit, then spiritual knowledge. If you have no idea of spirit, what is the value of your spiritual knowledge? There is no value. Sa eva go-kharaḥ (SB 10.84.13).
And according to the symptoms of the disease, you have to undergo treatment. That is called prāyaścitta.
Just like if a man who has committed murder... His prāyaścitta is that he should be hanged. This is prāyaścitta, life for life. That is Manu-saṁhitā. This hanging a condemned person, a murderer, is a mercy to him. That is stated in the Manu-saṁhitā. People are becoming now sympathetic that "Whatever is done is done. Let this man be saved." This kind of sympathy is no good. People are taking sympathy. A man suffering from certain disease or certain miserable condition. They want to ameliorate it. This kind of sympathy is not sanctioned. He should suffer so that the reaction of his sinful activities in the past life should be diminished. If he does not suffer, then he will have to suffer more, continue, because he is condemned to suffer so much. If you minimize it now, that does not mean he will not suffer. He will suffer next life. Just like a man is imprisoned, and if your friend or relative is imprisoned, by somehow or other you get him released by hook and crook, so when you are again captured you are again severely punished, both the men. Is it not the law?
So any slight deviation from the law and we are put into undesirable condition. That is a fact. Just like here, according to Vedic principle, the laws are given by Manu, Manu. From Manu, the word manuṣya has come, or "man." And there is Manu-saṁhitā. In the Manu-saṁhitā it is stated that if a man commits murder then he should be hanged. He should be hanged. That is followed by every human society. Why? Because the sinful activities which he has enacted, if he is punished in this life, then he'll not so suffer again in the next life. His punishment will be finished. So that is a favor. If a murderer is hanged, then that is a favor shown by the government, because the next life you'll not have to suffer.
"My dear Śukadeva Goswāmī..." If a man knows it, by knowing he may refrain for sometime from sinful activity, but again he does it. Again he does it. He's forced, he's forced: "Let me do it. All right, I suffer, doesn't matter." But again he suffers, and when he suffers he says, "Oh, I'll not do it again, I'll not do it again." But when he's again cured, again he does it. Therefore, Parīkṣit Mahārāja... The same, confession, or anything you take, atonement. So Parīkṣit Mahārāja is comparing it, kuñjara-śaucavat. It is just like the elephant's taking bath. The elephant... This is natural, one can see. The elephant takes bath very thoroughly, he washes the body in the water, in the tank, very thoroughly for long time, becomes very cleansed. And as soon as it comes on the shore it takes some dust and throws it. (laughter) That is nature, we have seen. So Parīkṣit Mahārāja... This is just like cleaning the body of an elephant like. The elephant cleanses the body very nicely, but as soon as he comes to the land, he takes dust and throws over it.
The Vaiṣṇava, or devotee, he is the perfect sympathizer for all suffering humanity. Others' sympathy is not perfect. They are planning so many things—opening hospitals or charitable dispensaries, schools, lunatic asylum. These are all public sympathetic activities. But they are not... They are, of course, good to some extent. If a man is suffering from the bodily ailments, if he is given some relief in the hospital, or if the society is not educated, give him education, this is all good work undoubtedly. But the ultimate good work is not known to them. They are taking care of the external symptoms. Why a person, a living entity, is put into that condition? And if that condition is ended, that is real sympathy. A person is suffering from some disease. He goes to the doctor, physician. He gives some medicine—immediate some relief from the pain. This is one sympathy. And there is another sympathy, that "Why the man is getting such disease and suffering? Why not stop the cause of the disease?" That is real sympathy.
So similarly, the disease. We are already in the material disease. This birth, death, old age, and disease. This is our material miserable condition. And again, if we act sinfully, then it will increase. Therefore Śukadeva Gosvāmī is advising that "Before your death, you should atone for the sinful activities, what you have done." Just like in the Manu-saṁhitā, if a man has committed some murder, it is advised that King should order him to be hanged. Otherwise next life he will have to suffer so much. So this order of hanging a murderer is a kind of kindness to the criminal.
So here it is advised that doṣasya dṛṣṭvā guru-lāghavaṁ yathā (SB 6.1.8). There are different kinds of sinful activities, and there are different kinds of suffering also. A little infection of bronchitis, the suffering is not so acute, but infection of smallpox is fatal. We should always remember that. We are infecting. On account of this material world, we are infecting different modes of material nature.
Because that distinction is imperfect because this is man-made law. Man-made law, they're taking consideration of the man being killed. Another, the killer, must be killed. Why not an animal? The animal also a living entity. The man is also living entity. So if you have law that if a man kills one man he must be killed, why not if a man kills an animal he should be killed also? What is the reason? This is man-made law, defective. But there cannot be defect in God-made laws. God-made law, if you kill an animal, you are equally punishable as you kill a man. That is God's law. There is no excuse that he..., when you kill a man you are punishable, but when you kill an animal you are not punishable. This is concoction. This is not perfect law. Perfect law. Therefore Lord Jesus Christ prescribes in the Ten Commandments: "Thou shalt not kill." That is perfect law. Not that you shall discriminate that "I shall not kill man, but I shall kill animals." This is cheating one's self. The God laws will not excuse.
That is all right, to counteract the sinful activities. But why a man commits again the same sinful activities? What is the remedy for that?"
This is intelligent question. He says: dṛṣṭvā, dṛṣṭa-śrutābhyāṁ yat pāpam (SB 6.1.9). Dṛṣṭa means just like one man sees this man has committed murder and he's hanged. Everyone sees. And in the lawbook it is said that if a man commits murder he'll be hanged. So śruta means we have heard it from authoritative sources; lawbook is authoritative source. Just like śāstra. Śāstra and lawbook is the same. Śāstra means that which controls. Śās-dhātu. Śāstra, śastra, śāsana, śiṣya comes from the same root. Śiṣya. Śiṣya also comes from the same root. Śiṣya means one agrees voluntarily to be governed by the spiritual master. He's called śiṣya. And śāsana, the government. So śāstra means that regulates our daily activities. So here it is called... Śāstra is learned by hearing, not by licking, not by seeing. Just like here is a śāstra, bhagavat-śāstra. You cannot learn it by seeing or by touching or... You have to learn it by hearing.
So one who becomes fit for going to the spiritual world, Kṛṣṇaloka, Vaikuṇṭhaloka, where is the question of his sinful reaction? Aghaṁ dhunvanti. No sinful man can go back to home, back to Godhead. So if one is actually, somehow or other, becomes fit for going back to home, back..., that means automatically his sinful reaction of life... One may question how it is. If a man is sinful for many, many lives, how simply by becoming Kṛṣṇa conscious he becomes free from the reaction? Yes. Kṛṣṇa says. You haven't got to take proof from anyone else.
Then the animals, they are also working hard day and night for their necessities of life. But if an animal steals something from your house or takes some eatables, he is not punishable. India you will find in the bazaars. There is crowd, and the cows enter there, and they eat the vegetables to their heart's content. But he is not punishable. Still the cow is not punishable. But if a man takes one potato without the permission, he is punishable. So the animals are not punishable. All the lawbooks are meant for the men, for the human being, not for the animals. Just like in your country the police law is: "Keep to the right your car." But if a animal goes, keep to the left, it is not punishable. So everyone not punishable. Then again, human being, all of them, not punishable. Those who are criminals, those who have violated laws, they are punishable. So therefore this question is "Whether and how they are punishable? What is dharma, and what is adharma? So if you are representative of Yamarāja, then you explain to us first of all whether you are actually representative."
He has to undergo the punishment. Similarly, in this life we may think very independent, "Whatever we like, we can do." That is foolishness. You cannot do that. If you do it wilfully, then you will be punished. That they do not know. Punished means by a different body. If a man, human being, is punished to stand up like as a tree for five thousand years, just imagine how much great punishment it is. And that is possible. Just like in the śāstra it is stated that those who want to remain naked, they are punished in the next life to become tree, that "You wanted to be naked. Now you stand naked." The trees, they do not dress; neither they have the opportunity. Nobody goes to dress them. So they stand naked for so many hundreds and thousands of years. This punishment is awaiting. Human being is not supposed to be naked. That is civilization. They must cover.
So this prasāda distribution means giving chance to the people, those who are poor in knowledge, to awaken their Kṛṣṇa consciousness. This is our policy. Otherwise we cannot do any good to any others.
Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sar... (BG 3.27). Everyone is going on under the stringent laws of material nature. We cannot help. The same example: If a man is diseased, you can try to bring to him nice physician, nice medicine, but that is not guarantee that he will be cured. That depends on Kṛṣṇa. Therefore Kṛṣṇa is the ultimate, I mean to say, beneficiary, or benevolent. Kṛṣṇa is the ultimate bene... If He likes, He can. So take Kṛṣṇa's shelter, and whatever He likes, accept that. This is full surrender. Just like Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura—
Great learned scholars, realized soul, liberated soul, they have given us Vedic literature. There are different types of explanation, just like main is the Manu-saṁhitā. In the Manu-saṁhitā it is said that if a man kills, then he should be also killed. No excuse. From Manu-saṁhitā the hanging or killing of a murderer, that is enjoined. That is there. Maharṣibhiḥ. A killer of other animals or other living entities, he must be killed. This is Manu-saṁhitā. This is showing the mercy. When a king orders a murderer to be hanged, that is king's mercy. It is said in the Manu-saṁhitā. He is not to be excused. Life for life. Now imagine how many lives we are killing every day. We have now become very civilized. We are maintaining slaughterhouses, thousands and thousands, up-to-date machine, how to kill the animals. This is our advancement of civilization, and they are all sinful activities, pāpāni. And not only killing. There are so many institution how to cheat, how to take your money by tricks, how to kidnap others' wife, how..., so many things, simply sinful activities.
That is the maximum. And in the Kali-yuga they can live up to one hundred years. That is also not completed. With the advancement of Kali-yuga the duration of life, bodily strength, memory, mercifulness, religious sense—in this way everything will be reduced. And the duration of life will be reduced so much so that it is stated in the Bhāgavata that "If a man lives for twenty to thirty years he will be considered as a grand old man." And there will be not available especially rice, wheat, milk, sugar. These are stated. This is Kali-yuga.
So the nature of this material world is that without knowing the goal of life they become leaders. Material world, especially in this age, they do not know what is the goal of life. They do not know what he is. That is the defect. Dehātma-buddhiḥ. Everyone, all over the world, they are thinking in terms of this body. Accidentally, somehow or other, because I have got this Indian body I am thinking, "I am Indian."
Guest (1): What about his soul? Did God welcome it to paradise or soul are always in the air and makes people think that he is a devil's man too?
Devotee: If a man does not understand God in this lifetime, is he still accepted by God? What he is hearing does not come...
Prabhupāda: God is everywhere, and God is with you also. God knows you, and He is trying to guide you. But you do not know Him.
Guest (1): You just said that the soul takes rebirth when he does. Therefore what's the soul? Got rebirth, soul, so that he will make always difficult thing in life and would not fix in God, or what God do with the souls?
Prabhupāda: Soul is there, and God is there. When you take rebirth, God is also there. He is trying to guide you. You are desiring the... Just like "I want to enjoy like this," and God is giving you facility: "All right, you enjoy like this." Just like driver. You are asking driver, "Please take me to this place," so driver is taking you to that place. Similarly it is said in the Bhagavad-gītā, īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe arjuna tiṣṭhati: (BG 18.61) "My dear Arjuna, the God is situated in everyone's heart, core of the heart," bhrāmayan sarva-bhūtāni (BG 18.61), "and He is causing the traveling of the living entity," yantrārūḍhāni māyayā, "on a machine which is given by this material nature." So this body is just like a machine, motorcar, and Kṛṣṇa is the driver, charioteer.
"One who is not in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he cannot have any good qualifications." Why? There are so many doctors, PhDs, and MAC, BAC, and very, very big man, and because they are not in Kṛṣṇa consciousness they have no good qualification? One may question like that. But the answer is that they may be very learned man in the estimation of common man, but manorathenāsati dhāvato bahiḥ, if a man is educated materially, without any spiritual understanding, without any Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then his field of activities is the mind. He cannot surpass the field of activities beyond the mind. Those who are grossly materialistic, they are working on the field of this gross body, senses. And those who are a little more advanced, the so-called philosophers, mental speculators, scientists, or many others, they are working on the mental plane. So unless you promote yourself to the platform of spiritual understanding, there cannot be any good qualification. Therefore harāv abhaktasya kuto mahad-guṇā (SB 5.18.12).
Their position is very high in the material calculation. So such persons, api, (Sanskrit quotes from Śrīdhara Swami commentary), they are also unable to satisfy.
Just like if a man becomes angry, so somebody tries to satisfy him. Just like somebody...sometimes our small child becomes angry and cries very loudly and the parents satisfy, "My dear boy, you are so nice, why you are crying? You can take this," just to pacify. Similarly, when Nṛsiṁhadeva became very angry for killing, because He was angry because Hiraṇyakaśipu teased his devotee, Prahlāda, so much. Therefore, He was very, very angry. Vaiṣṇava aparādha. If anyone offends a Vaiṣṇava, a pure devotee of Kṛṣṇa, he is the greatest offender. Kṛṣṇa never excuses. That I explained yesterday. It is very... Vaiṣṇava aparādha is the greatest dangerous offense.
So anyone can understand that God is all-powerful. He can create. But the scientist says that "There was a chunk, and creation took place from the chunk." Just see. When you say that God created, one can understand that God is... If a man can create such nice things, skyscraper buildings, very complicated bridge, engineering work, so God is great, He may have greater brain, so He has created this cosmic manifestation. There is a, I mean to say, standard to believe. But how the scientists believe that there was a chunk? And what is the explanation? I cannot understand. From the chunk everything come out. And who made the chunk? The next question should be that "Wherefrom this chunk came?" There is no answer. Therefore Prahlāda Mahārāja says that all these material qualification cannot satisfy the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
Ojasā means strength. Just like kṣatriya, they are tejaḥ. A kṣatriya cannot tolerate that a man is being tortured before him. No, he'll take immediately. Why man? Even animal. Even animal. Just like Parīkṣit Mahārāja. He saw that one cow was being attempted to be killed. Immediately he took his sword. And in the modern civilization, even in a city like New York, if a man is killed before one man, nobody will take care. Nobody will take care. Is it not? "Let him be killed. I am going in my own way." So this is not civilization. There is no brāhmaṇa. There is no kṣatriya. There is no vaiśya. Simply all śūdras. Kalau śūdra-sambhavaḥ. So you cannot be happy under the government of the śūdras. That is not possible. Must be tejaḥ. Government must be very, very powerful. Even, say, not more than hundred years ago, the Kashmir king was so powerful that there was no stealing in the state, on the whole state. There was no stealing. There was no thief. That is government. In the, at night I have to become concerned that thief may come, a burglar may come, so... That is not the government. One should lie down very freely: "The government is there." That is called tejaḥ, kṣatriya. Tejaḥ, then prabhāva, influence, and bala, bodily strength.
How they can gain the benediction from God? They simply disturb Him. And there are different kinds of demons, different classes of demons. That is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā. Duṣkṛtinaḥ. Duṣkṛtina means... Krti means very intelligent, and... What is that word, if a man does something wonderful? Genius? Genius? Yes. So the genius, duṣkṛtina, "wrong genius." That means the materialistic persons, scientists, they're genius. They have discovered very wonderful machine, wonderful things. They are genius, but duṣkṛtina, not for the welfare of the human society but for condemning the human society. Just like the same example, as I have given several times, that a, the person who has discovered this nuclear weapon, atomic bomb, he's certainly genius. He has got nice brain, that simply egglike bomb, if you throw, immediately the whole island of Hawaii will be finished. Just like you dropped your atomic bomb on the other side, Japan, Hiroshima... They attacked your Pearl Harbor, and the retaliation was atom bomb on Hiroshima. So these are politics. So this invention of atomic bomb, certainly it requires good brain. But Bhagavad-gītā says that this genius, or this brain, intelligence, has been used... (aside:) Stop that. ...has been wrongly used.
So Prahlāda Mahārāja advised that "The best thing which I have learned is that you should give up this material world." Tyaktva... Gṛham andha-kūpaṁ ātma-pātaṁ vanaṁ gato yad dharim āśrayeta (SB 7.5.5). "My dear father, I have learned this best thing," that tyaktva... Gṛham andha-kūpam. "This world, material world, which is just like a dark well..., if a man is thrown into this dark well as he is in this precarious condition of life, similarly, anyone who is in the material world, he is put in the dark well. Therefore, somehow or other, we have to get out of this and," vanaṁ gato yad dharim āśrayeta (SB 7.5.5), "we shall accept the shelter of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Hari." The father became very much angry. Mūrkhāya upadeśa hi prakopāya na śāntaye, if you give good instruction to a mūrkha, to a foolish person, he will be angry. He will not rectify himself, but he will be angry (indistinct).
They used to live for 1,000 years. And now, in the Kali-yuga, the duration of life is prescribed as 100 years. But you see that it is reducing. Everyone may note it. Perhaps your grandfather lived for 100 years. Your father lived for 80 years. And nowadays, 60 or 70 years. Gradually, it will so reduce, we shall come to that statement, that if a man lives for 20 to 30 years he will be considered a very grand old man. If he lives for 20 to 30 years he'll be considered, "Oh, you have got very good life." That will come, gradually. This is the progressive age. Progressive age for material civilization. We are proud of making advancement of our civilization, but these nice thing are being reduced. That means... We are advancing means reducing the nice things. This is advanced. Āyuḥ and smṛtiḥ. Smṛtiḥ means memory. So these eight items will reduce gradually. You can keep it noted, and you'll see how they are being reduced. And we have already experienced. Smṛtiḥ.
Therefore he was respected. So here it is said that janma, birth in a good family or high family, or good behavior. Janmācāra. Janmācāra, and guṇa, quality. Suppose a man is a great philosopher, a great learned scholar. That is a very good qualification. So these things will not be considered. If a man is very learned scholar or coming of a very respectable family and has got all good qualities, that will be neglected. Another man, if he has all the bad qualities but he has got money, he's respected. He'll be respected. This is the symptom of this age. And dharma-nyāya-vyavasthāyāṁ kāraṇaṁ balam eva hi. Dharma. Dharma means suppose you have acted something irreligious. In every religion, in every scripture, there are many things, you do it, and do not do it. So that is called following the religious principle. In every religion, either Hindu or Christian or Muhammadan, there are some rules and regulations. Just like in Muhammadan religion, drinking is greatest sin.
Nectar of Devotion Lectures
Just like if I am sitting on a certain type of motorcar, does it mean I am that motorcar? If I am... Suppose I am sitting on a Rolls Royce motorcar. If I say, "I am Rolls Royce," is that my identification? No. Actually... And this is a fact. If a man is driving a very nice car, and if in his front there is a thela walla... I've seen it. The driver says, "He thela." As is if that man has become thela. And he has become motor. So actually, this is the fact. Piśācī pāile yena mati-cchanna haya. Neither he's thela, nor he's motorcar. He's living entity, pure living entity. Therefore in Bhagavad-gītā it is said, brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā (BG 18.54). When one actually is self-realized, that "I am not American, not Indian, not Hindu, not Muslim, not man, not woman. I am spirit soul. Ahaṁ brahmāsmi," at that time, he does not lament. Na śocati na kāṅkṣati. We are fighting with one another, lamenting and hankering due to this misidentification of the self with this body.
Satāṁ prasaṅgān. We should have discourses of Bhagavad-gītā or Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam or any literature about the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Mama vīrya-saṁvido those words are vīrya-saṁvido. Vīrya means potency. Just like, if a man is potent, as soon as there is sex, he gives birth, potency. Similarly, we should associate with devotees who have got potency, mama vīrya-saṁvido, bhavanti hṛt-karṇa-rasāyanāḥ kathāḥ. Otherwise we may go on hearing for three millions of years, we are in the same position. But the words must be from the potent person. Potent person. Then it will act very quickly. Therefore Kṛṣṇa Himself advises, satāṁ prasaṅgān mama vīrya-saṁvido (SB 3.25.25). Satām, devotees. That same thing Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura says. Tādera caraṇa, the desire should be, how to serve the Gosvāmīs, how to serve Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, how to serve Kṛṣṇa.
And gradually it developed into organization. So in the beginning we did not impose so many rules and regulations. There is no rules and regulations. First thing required: ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12). Unless one's heart is cleansed, he cannot accept rules and regulations. That is not possible. Cora nasane dharme khaiḥ (?). If, if a man is thief, and if you give him moral instruction, that "Stealing is very sinful; do not do it," he will not care for it. A butcher, if you advise him that "Animal killing is very bad. It is sinful," he'll not accept it. That is not possible. His heart should be cleansed. Prāyaścittaṁ vimarśanam.
In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam the, the process of prāyaścitta, atonement, is discussed, and Śukadeva Gosvāmī has recommended that this process of prāyaścitta, ritualistic ceremony... After committing some sinful activities to counteract it, there are, in every śāstra there is some counteracting formulas. The people generally follow that. In Christian religion also, there is confession, atonement.
Others cannot. The neophyte devotees are classified into four groups: the distressed, those who are in need of money, the inquisitive and the wise—according to their gradations of pious activities. Without pious activities, if a man is in a distressed condition, he becomes an agnostic, communist, or something like that. Because he does not firmly believe in God, he thinks that he can adjust his distressed condition by totally disbelieving in Him.
"Lord Kṛṣṇa, however, has explained in the Gītā that out of these four types of neophytes, the one who is very..., who is wise is very dear to Him because a wise man, if he is attached to Kṛṣṇa, is not seeking an exchange of material benefits. A wise man who becomes attached to Kṛṣṇa does not want any return from Him, neither in the form of relieving distress nor in gaining money. This means that from the very beginning the basic principle of attachment to Kṛṣṇa is, more or less, love.
So bhukti-mukti, they are considered as witch. Bhukti-mukti-siddhi, bhukti-mukti piśācī yāvat hṛdi vartate, tāvad bhakti-sukhasya. So long this piśācī will be within heart... Just like if a man is ghostly haunted, he cannot have healthy condition. He's in a troubled condition, ghostly haunted. Bhūte pavana (?). So this is bhūte pavana, bhukti-mukti. That is the... Piśācī hṛdi vartate. Tāvad bhakti-sukhasya atra katham abhyudayo amale. So long these two piśācīs, witches, are there within the heart, how he can relish the transcendental bliss of devotional service? That is not possible. Bhukti-mukti... Bhukti-mukti piśācī yāvad hṛdi vartate tāvad bhakti-sukhasyātra katham abhyudayo 'male. There is no possibility. One must be freed from these desires. Anyābhilāṣita-śūnyaṁ jñāna-karmādy-anāvṛtam (Brs. 1.1.11). Then one can relish. So long one is overpowered by bhukti-mukti-siddhi, he cannot become a devotee. Go on.
Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures
Everyone knows that. My father lived so many years, my grandfather lived so many years, but it is certain I am not going to live so many years. And then my son is not... Gradually, it is reduced. Reducing, reducing, reducing. By the end of Kali-yuga, the duration of life from twenty years to thirty years will be considered very, very old age, very, very old. If a man is living for twenty-five years, he will be considered a very grand old man. Yes. That is coming gradually. So therefore it is said, manda, manda. Manda means everything bad or everything slow. Duration of life is bad, then their activities also very bad, always sinful activities. Mandāḥ sumanda-matayo (SB 1.1.10). And if somebody is little anxious to take shelter of somebody for spiritual advancement, then he will accept some bogus thing, sumanda-matayo, some bogus incarnation of God, some bogus yogi, some bogus... They will take sumanda-matayo, will not come to the real.
That is God desire. It is God's plan. Now, you can see that a ship on the ocean with 50,000 tons, it is floating. And take a grass and put it, or take a, I mean to say, a small needle. Put it on the ocean; it will go at once down. It is simply question of arrangement. A small needle will go down immediately to the depth of the sea, and a ship with 50,000 tons of loading, it is floating. So if a man can make such arrangement by some way or other that he can float a 50,000 tons of ship floating on this, I mean to say, ocean, is it not possible for God to float a stone on the ocean? Is there any reason to disbelieve it? There is no reason. And we can see. By God's energy these big, big lumps of planet, they are floating in the air. So as He likes... That is called omnipotency. If He likes, one thing will float. If He does not like, it will go down.
He never says that "I know everything." But actually, it is not possible to know everything. That is not possible. But one... Just like Sir Isaac Newton, he agrees that people say, "I am very much learned, but I do not know how much I have learned. I am simply collecting some pebbles on the sea shore." So that is the position. If a man who is actually learned, he'll never say that "I am learned." He'll simply say, "I am the fool number one. I do not know."
So Caitanya Mahāprabhu appreciated his humbleness, because actually he was a very learned and very man of position in the society, so as a matter of reciprocation, exchange of, I mean to say, etiquette, he also accepted, "No, you are not fallen. You don't be discouraged. Simply it is the duty of any learned man to place himself like that. But you are not fool." Kṛṣṇa śakti dhara tumi: (CC Madhya 20.105) "Because you are already devotee." Before retirement, and before coming to Caitanya Mahāprabhu, these Gosvāmīs, as I told you, they're very learned Sanskrit scholar.
Just like a poor man gets, say, ten lakhs of rupees. Immediately he'll have a nice bungalow, he'll have two, three cars, and so many other opulences. So simultaneously, the distress out of his poverty-stricken life is also vanquished, and there are symptoms of sukha, symptoms of happiness. We suppose like that. If a man has got a car, we think he's very happy. But this is a symptom of happiness. A poor man cannot get a car, but a rich man cannot get... If one has got a car, it is understood that he is rich man. So Caitanya Mahāprabhu said that automatically the symptoms of happiness come unto him, and his distress of material condition simultaneously becomes vanquished if one is elevated to the position of devotional service. That is the test. That is the test of how one is advanced in devotional service. This is the test. Bhaktiḥ pareśānubhavo viraktir anyatra ca (SB 11.2.42). He is no more interested in material happiness. He is fully satisfied with Kṛṣṇa. Taiche bhakti-phale kṛṣṇe prema upajaya. Kṛṣṇa bhakti-phale.
Duality means "Whether I shall do it or not? Whether I shall stick up to this process of Kṛṣṇa conscious or not?" This is called duality. So one who is free from all these sinful reactions, he has no more duality. He has firm faith: "Yes! Kṛṣṇa worship is the final."
So Kṛṣṇa worship means he is liberated already. Just like the same example: If a man is sitting on the high-court bench, it is to be understood that he has passed all educational qualification, and he is a good lawyer. Therefore... There is no more necessity to ask, "Whether you have passed M.A. examination or law examination?" This is foolishness. Similarly, if one is, I mean to say, strictly in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then it is to be understood that he is liberated. Liberation, the definition of liberation, is in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, mukti..., svarūpeṇa vyavasthitiḥ. Hitvā... Muktir hitvānyathā rūpaṁ svarūpeṇa vyavasthitiḥ (SB 2.10.6). Mukti means hitvā anyathā rūpam. Now we are now represented in different kinds of formalities.
And Caitanya Mahāprabhu said that... Not Caitanya Mahāprabhu, I'm sorry. That disciple, the chief disciple of Prakāśānanda Sarasvatī, he's repeating what Caitanya Mahāprabhu explained about the Vedānta-sūtra. He also accepts. Yes. Brahman, the great, means He is great in all respect. He is great in richness, He is great in strength, He is great in power, He is great in knowledge, He is great in renouncement. Then He is great. So if a man is the greatest man in richness, greatest man in power, greatest man in fame, greatest man in knowledge, greatest man in beauty, then where is the impersonality? These are all personal qualifications. So Brahman, or the Supreme, or the Absolute Truth, cannot be imperson. Imperson may be a feature, but ultimately He is person.
Sri Isopanisad Lectures
Yajñārthe. Yajñārthe karmaṇo 'nyatra. Beyond this field of activities, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, everything with the laws of nature. Generally, you are being implicated in sinful activities, generally. And those who are little more cautious, they avoid sinful activities, they are pious activities. But even there is pious activities, he is implicated. This I have explained several times, that if a man is pious, he has to take his birth in rich family, janmaiśvarya-śruta (SB 1.8.26), in very aristocratic family, rich family. He may become next life very learned scholar, very beautiful. These are the results of pious activities. But pious or impious, you have to enter into the womb of some mother. That tribulation is very severe. That we have forgotten. That we have forgotten. Either you take birth in a very rich family, aristocratic family, or you take birth in the animal womb, so the pangs of birth, death, disease and old age will continue.
Arrival Addresses and Talks
Yes. When they will read, then they will get. Nowadays in the Sixth Canto, Fourth Chapter, the soul and how the soul is covered, that is being described wonderfully. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam amalaṁ purāṇam. Vidvāṁś cakre sātvata-saṁhitām. It is written by the most learned Vyāsadeva, vidvāṁs, and sātvata-saṁhitām. How merciful he was. He is still living, Vyāsadeva. He is still existing.
- anarthopaśamaṁ sākṣād
- bhakti-yogam adhokṣaje
- lokasya ajānataḥ vidvāṁś
- cakre sātvata...
- (SB 1.7.6)
Do you remember this verse? It is in the First Canto. Anartha. The soul has been embarrassed, the unnecessary things. Just like a man is within the huge garbage. What is his position? If... You have got your garbage car, so within that, (chuckles) if a man is pushed...
Initiation Lectures
And then perfectional stage, that he loves Kṛṣṇa cent percent. So this is the process.
So this initiation means the third stage of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Those who are being initiated, they should remember that they have to follow the rules and regulations. Just like if a man wants to be cured from a certain type of disease, he has to follow the regulation given by the physician, and that will help him to recover from the illness very quickly. So these four principles of restriction they should follow, and chant at least sixteen rounds daily, and gradually he'll get fixed up in this conviction and will have attachment and taste, and then love of Kṛṣṇa will automatically... It is there in everyone's heart. Love of Kṛṣṇa, it is not a foreign thing that we are imposing. No. It is there, everywhere, in every living entity. Otherwise how these American boys and girls are taking it if it is not there? It is there.
"No. Give Me patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyam (BG 9.26)." Kṛṣṇa can eat everything. He is God. But He says that "Give Me this." Patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyam. "Offer Me this flower, fruit, water. Like that." So we are after Kṛṣṇa-prasādam. That is our motto. We don't fight with vegetarian and non... We are not making propaganda... Just like there is vegetarian society. No. We have no business. Even if a man becomes vegetarian, what does he gain? In this material world, either vegetarian or nonvegetarian, they are on the same platform, birds of the same feather. You see? So that is not our propaganda. We are introducing Kṛṣṇa-prasāda; therefore we invite people to take nice prasāda. So these four principles we should follow. We shall not accept anything which is not offered to Kṛṣṇa. That is our position. And no illicit sex life, no gambling, no intoxication. We are already intoxicated, being haunted by the ghost of māyā. And further intoxication...? Do you think intoxication can be cured by intoxication? No. That is not possible. So these four rules you have to follow.
General Lectures
These question do not arise. Actually, when people will come to the understanding, when they will inquire that "Why I am suffering from the threefold miseries...?" The threefold miseries is summarized in Bhagavad-gītā by four principles: janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). If a man is actually learned and intelligent, he should always see before him that there are four kinds of distresses. What is that? The distress of taking birth, the distress of dying procedure, janma-mṛtyu, and distress of old age, and distress of diseases. So we are very much proud of our advancement of knowledge, but actually there is no solution for these four principles of miseries. There is no remedy. They are trying to control birth rate, janma, but still, every minute there are increasing, the population of the world is increasing. Similarly, they are trying to save people from death, but still, people are dying in hundreds and thousands. And they are trying to get out of this old age.
Prabhupāda: Of course, those who are living in the forest, there is no barber. Naturally they have got long hairs. But why the sādhus in the city imitate them? There is no meaning. If a man is living in the forest, there is no facility of the barber. So he can keep long hairs. Why in the city?
Young man (4): No, I didn't mean the hair. I meant does a sādhu who lives in the woods, does he have a spiritual master or...
Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.
Young man (4): How does he live in the woods without a spiritual master and learn?
Prabhupāda: No. In the woods also there are many saintly persons. People go there, accept spiritual master, and live with the spiritual master. But that is not very much convenient in this age. So in this age nobody is going to the forest to find out spiritual master, but the spiritual master has to come and canvass from India to New York. (laughter) This is a different position. Yes?
So bhaga... Bhaga means opulence. And what are the opulences? That also, we can very easily understand. If one man is very rich, we call opulent. If one man is very famous, reputed, he's opulent. If a man is very advanced in learning, in wisdom, he's al... That is also opulence. A scientist, a philosopher... If one is very beautiful, he is also opulent. So there are six kinds of opulences: richness, reputation, strength, influence, beauty, and wisdom. So asamaurdhva, that equality and greatness... When you'll find a certain man is in such a position that nobody is richer than him and nobody is famous, more famous, than him, nobody is more stronger than him, nobody is more influential than him, nobody is more beautiful than him, and nobody is wiser than him—if you find somebody full in six opulences... These are the definition given in Vedic literature.
I saw. My grandmother lived for ninety-five years. My father lived for eighty-four years. So I do not know how long I shall live. Still I am living. So in this way the age, duration of life, will reduce in this age. And it is also said that at the ultimate stage, at the end of this age, if a man lives for twenty to thirty years, he'll be considered a grand old man. So because our human assets are reducing... Practically there is no mercifulness now, dayā. Formerly a man was very charitable, but here, at the present moment, where is the question of charity? He cannot maintain oneself. So these things are reducing. Therefore Vyāsadeva thought it wise to give the Vedic knowledge in writings so that we can read, we can hear, and we can utilize, we can take benefit out of it. So Vyāsadeva gave us this Vedic literature. His father, Parāśara Muni, gave us the definition, the understanding of God, what we mean by God. So he gave us this definition, that "God is He who is full with six kinds of opulences, of which there is nobody greater or nobody is equal. Then he is God." You try to understand the six kinds of, I mean to say, opulences, and you try to find out a person who has no competitor, neither greater than him. Then you accept him as God. Otherwise reject.
Actually, although officially the age is calculated that we can live for one hundred years, but nobody goes up to that limit. Most utterly, very old man means eighty years or eighty-five years. That's all. But gradually, the duration of age in this period will decrease so much so that it is stated that if a man lives for twenty to thirty years, he'll be considered a very old man. That is also predicted. So we are gradually declining in our strength, in our duration of life, in our memory, in our merciful activities, so many things. So in this age there is no time for meditation, there is no money for offering great sacrifices, neither people are very much interested in temple worship or church worship. Therefore, wherever you remain, you can simply chant this mahā-mantra—Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare. That is the recommendation of Vedic literature. Kalau tad dhari-kīrtanāt. Simply by chanting these sixteen names, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare... There are actually three words only—Hare, Kṛṣṇa, Rāma—but they are set up very nicely.
These are our objects of being proud. But this can be finished within a second, because it is due to this body. So actually, those who are in the bodily concept of life, they're in lower grade of human civilization. Just like animals. They are considered as animals. Just like the animals, they are fully absorbed in the thought that "I am this body," similarly, if a man is absorbed in such thought, that "I am this body," then he is equal to animal. That's all. Yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke (SB 10.84.13). And with bodily relation we make our identification. "Because my body is born in this land, England, therefore I am Englishman. Therefore all Englishmen are my countrymen." Or my family: "Because I have got this bodily relationship, they are my kinsmen, they are my sons, they are my wife, they are my father, they are my mother, they are my societymen." In this way, all our conception of life is on the bodily concept of life. But we are not body; we are ātmā.
Because his vision is no more on the platform of this body. Sama-darśinaḥ. He sees a learned brāhmaṇa is also a spirit soul, and a dog is also a spirit soul, an elephant is also a spirit soul, or a low-born man, he is also spirit soul. Beginning from the high-born brāhmaṇa up to the caṇḍāla, there are social stages in the human society. But if a man is really learned, he sees everyone, every living entity, on the same level. That is the stage of learning.
- vidyā-vinaya-sampanne
- brāhmaṇe gavi hastini
- śuni caiva śva-pāke ca...
- (BG 5.18)
Śva-pāk means the dog-eaters. In India there are many types of flesh eaters. Not higher caste, amongst the lower grade. But anyone who eats the flesh of dog, he is called caṇḍāla, lowest of the mankind. But here Bhagavad-gītā says even if he is caṇḍāla, the paṇḍitaḥ, he sees equally like the brāhmaṇa because he sees the spirit soul.
We are energy of Kṛṣṇa, or God. So, just like in dream I accept a different position, forgetting my real identification, and I think that I have gone far away from home, and I am flying, or I am in the forest—so many things I may dream—but that is not actual fact. So this movement is practically awakening the human society dreaming in sleep. Just like if a man is sleeping very sound, forgetting his duty, and some friend of the man is trying to awake him, "Mr. such and such. Please wake up. It is now morning. You have to do this thing, that thing." So this movement is like that. When a man is fast asleep, all other senses cannot work, but one sense, which is called ear, it can work. Just like you are sleeping and somebody is coming with a knife to kill you. You cannot see. The man can come and kill you. But if somebody cries, "Mr. such and such, wake up! Somebody is coming to kill you," you can use your ear and be precautious. So this Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra is something like that, awakening from the slumbering state of material consciousness.
The gross body is made of five elements, earth, water, air, fire, sky. And the subtle body is made of intelligence, mind and ego. So when a soul does not get a gross body, he has to work with the subtle body, that is ghostly life. So ghostly life is not false. Those who are too, too much sinful, sometimes they are condemned not to get a gross body. Just like if a man commits suicide. So nature gave him this gross body. He misused it. Therefore he's punished sometimes not to get again gross body. He becomes ghost.
Mother loves spontaneously child, as duty. He (she) loves to serve the child. Similarly, when our love of God will be spontaneous, without any motive, and without being impeded... Love of God cannot be checked by any material condition. It is not that because a man is poor, therefore he cannot love God. No. If a man is very rich, therefore he cannot love. No. Ahaituky apratihatā. Whatever you may be, you can learn how to love God without any impediment. And if we come to that stage of life—here it is said, yayātmā suprasīdati—then you will be fully satisfied and pleased. If you are engaged in the service of the Lord without any motive and without being impeded, spontaneously loving, then you will feel complete satisfaction. Svāmin kṛtārtho 'smi varaṁ na yāce (CC Madhya 22.42). There are many instances of devotees. One Dhruva Mahārāja, he was five-years-old boy. So there was some family dissension. He was insulted by his stepmother. So he wanted to retaliate, five-years-old boy. So he inquired from his mother, "How can I do it?"
"I am not this body; I am spirit soul." This is the first realization, self-realization. So long we are not on this platform of spiritual understanding, we are equal to the animals. Animals, they do not know what is the difference between body and the soul. A dog is always thinking that "I am this body." Similarly, if a man thinks that "I am this body," he is no better than the dog because he has no realization of the self. Therefore the Vedic literature says, yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape sva-dhīḥ kalatrādiṣu bhauma ijya-dhīḥ. Actually we are standing on a false platform, understanding this body as the self, and in relationship with the body we are considering, "This country is my country. This man is my family man" or "my national man." So all these bodily concepts of life is based on ignorance, because we do not know soul. Actually the human life is meant for being educated that he is not this body; he is soul. That is the Vedānta-sūtra philosophy, to inquire about the spirit soul. That is our main business. Unfortunately... We are traveling all over the world.
God should be attractive... Just like God's knowledge. Kṛṣṇa is giving this Bhagavad-gītā. It is attractive all over the world, among the scholars, among the religionists, public. Not that simply my Bhagavad-gītā is being read. There are many other editions of Bhagavad-gītā. It is widely read because the knowledge is so perfect. So knowledge is an attraction. Riches, wealth, that is attraction. If a man is very rich, just like in your country, Ford, Rockefeller, they are attractive. A man, if he is beautiful, if he is strong, if he is wise, they become attractive. So you will find in Kṛṣṇa all these attractive features. Therefore He is God.
Philosophy Discussions
Prabhupāda: Even inborn there is, you must get it confirmed by the superior.
Śyāmasundara: He says that man, because he respects the moral law and practices it, is a personality having infinite dignity. He believes in the dignity of man based upon his adherence to moral principles. If a man follows moral principles, then he has dignity, which is different than any other...
Prabhupāda: That is already explained, that varṇāśrama-dharma, because the brāhmaṇas, they follow the good laws, therefore dignity. A brāhmaṇa is supposed to be the first-class man in the society, and therefore they are honored.
Śyāmasundara: He says everything else has an exchange value or a price, but man alone possesses self-direction or dignity, and this is priceless, and so we should never stoop to sell ourselves. If we sell ourselves like a commodity, then we lose our dignity.
Śyāmasundara: So Kant is beginning to realize that, by observing that if a man does sin, nevertheless, the fact that the moral law is present somewhere in his personality, that he is able to understand it if he is rightly trained, that this in itself must be regarded as holy. This propensity to understand the moral principles is an inborn holy trait that everyone has. And he says that this self-determination is the indispensable condition of all morality, that in order to be moral one must be self-determined.
Prabhupāda: That point we have already discussed, that one should be self-determined. But sometimes it is not possible to become self-determined. So first of all he does not know what is the aim of life. Suppose one becomes moral or becomes immoral. So what is the difference? I say that it is very easy for me to earn my livelihood by becoming immoral. Why shall I become moral? Then should he be condemned? If he is condemned, why is he condemned?
Śyāmasundara: But it is not combined with virtue.
Prabhupāda: Why not virtue? If you get happiness, that is virtuous. That means he has no standard knowledge. Harāv abhaktasya kuto mahad-guṇā (SB 5.18.12). If a man is not a devotee of Kṛṣṇa, he has no good qualities. He may be a great philosopher, scientist, but he is a nonsense. Harāv abhaktasya kuto mahad-guṇā, mano-rathenāsati dhāvato bahiḥ (SB 5.18.12). By his mental speculation he is coming again and again on this material platform, that's all. He has no idea what is happiness, what is goal of life, the aim of life. He has no such idea. Vague. So therefore imperfect knowledge. (break) (end)
Prabhupāda: That is not chance; that is plan. That is plan. That is not chance. He does not know that. As soon as he says chance, that means his knowledge is not perfect. Chance... If a man says chance when he cannot explain, that is evasive. Therefore he is not in perfect knowledge; therefore he is not fit for giving any knowledge. He is cheating, that's all, because he has no perfect knowledge.
Śyāmasundara: Well, he sees a plan or a design also, but he sees it in...
Prabhupāda: Therefore if he sees a plan and design, then whose design? As soon as you call it design, there must be designer. As (soon as) you call a plan, there must be a planner. That he does not know.
Śyāmasundara: He says that the plan is only the workings of mechanical nature.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Śyāmasundara: "In our experience..."
Prabhupāda: The monkey is existing, the man is existing.
Śyāmasundara: "So if men came from monkeys, why don't we see it still happening?" That's what you said.
Prabhupāda: Yes. That is our argument.
Śyāmasundara: So if you accept that there is an evolution, do you accept that the bodies change because of changing conditions of the natural surroundings?
Prabhupāda: Body is not changing. The body is already there. The soul is changing bodies, transmigrating from one body to another.
Prabhupāda: The different forms are already there. Just like the form of monkeys also there, the form of man is also there, other animals, other birds, beasts. So he has no clear conception how the evolution is taking place, neither he has any idea about whose evolution. He simply takes account of the body. A body never evolves. It is the soul within the body—he evolves, transmigrates from one body to another. Just we see that a child becomes a boy. The..., if the child is dead, it no more evolves. So it is the soul that is concerned. The soul is within the body, and he desires and evolves. That is Vedic conception and that is life. For example, if a man is within an apartment, the man desires to change the apartment to another apartment, it does not mean that the apartment evolves, but the man desires a change, and he goes to different apartment. That is (indistinct). So Darwin has no such conception. He has described the idea of evolution from the Vedas in his own way.
Prabhupāda: In Bombay. It was prohibited area. So Gandhi made this prohibition as far as possible. Now they are lifting. Because simply prohibition will not help you. Unless you have got a better engagement, this prohibition will not help you. By law you can say, "Don't do this," but if you have no better engagement, this order of the law, "Don't do this," will not act. Will not act. Just like government, your government is trying to stop this intoxication. They could not. It is increasing. But so far our society is concerned, anyone who is coming here, immediately there is no intoxication. That means he gets something better. Therefore he voluntarily checks himself. And it is possible to check. So unless you give better thing, simply by prohibition you cannot check. That is not possible. The same example again, just like a thief, he knows the prohibitive order that you shall not steal. He knows the prohibitive order even in śāstra, that if a man is a thief he will suffer this kind of hellish condition. So he has heard it from the lawyer and from the śāstra that stealing is not good and he has seen it that a thief is arrested and is punished but still he does it. But a Kṛṣṇa conscious person will not do it. That is the difference. So by law or by pressure you cannot make anyone moral. That's not possible. He has to be given something which is better than morality, then he will stop committing all kinds of sins.
Prabhupāda: It is not belief. It is not the question of belief. It is the question of fact. Just like a man if he says, "I don't believe that I shall become old," then that is his ignorance or foolishness. He must become old man, or the body must become old. So if a man thinks that, when I shall become old, that is immortality of soul, that when I shall become old means when my body will become old. He will continue. It is common sense affair. It is a fact. Where is the question of belief or not belief?
Hayagrīva: Well, wouldn't knowledge...
Prabhupāda: This is knowledge.
Hayagrīva: ...of immortality...
Prabhupāda: This is perfect knowledge.
Hayagrīva: Yes. Wouldn't knowledge of immortality...
Prabhupāda: Business, that is socially required. If you, of course... In our Bengali it is called jana bahune pohite dakhane. If a man is known a brāhmaṇa, he doesn't require to show his sacred thread. Just like our Kṛṣṇa conscious men, gradually people are understanding our philosophy, so even if we go in this dress, they honor us. But for ordinary things, if you go in this dress, it will not attract them.
Śyāmasundara: One thing that puzzles me is if what is practical for one person is not practical for another person, then what is the criterion of truth? Is truth relative? This is true for me but it is not true for you. This isn't true for him but it is...
Prabhupāda: Yes. There are relative truths. But for the Absolute Truth... There is Absolute Truth and relative truth. So first of all we have to see in which you are interested—Absolute Truth or relative truth. That is to be understood. There are two kinds of truth.
Prabhupāda: That's all right. But what is the guarantee that he'll develop consciousness fully?
Śyāmasundara: Yes. What if a man develops into a madman? Does that make him more aware of reality?
Prabhupāda: That definition we can give him. When a man becomes Kṛṣṇa conscious, then he is contacted with reality.
Devānanda: It's only when a man becomes Kṛṣṇa conscious or actually reaches the reality, then he can be sure that the process does lead to the reality. He is speculating that this process will lead to the reality, but he doesn't know it for sure, because it has not actually brought him to the point of reaching the reality.
Prabhupāda: Of course, to reach the Kṛṣṇa consciousness platform the process is not man-made.
Prabhupāda: He can define, but he must be a very, what is called, sane man to define. The sane man's definition of God is there. Just like everyone says, "God is great." So now if he can define what is the greatness... The greatness, if one man is very rich, we consider him great man. If a man is very wise we call him a great man. If a man is very strong or influential or beautiful... Greatness according to our estimation. So all this greatness must be there in God. God must be the richest, God must be the strongest, God must be the most beautiful, God must be wisest. In this way, six opulences calculated, and when these opulences are in completeness, that is God. So that completeness we find in the history Kṛṣṇa. In the history of humanity it is very easy to find out that when Kṛṣṇa was present on this planet, so He proved the strongest, the most influential, the most beautiful, the supreme wise—everything—supreme famous. Kṛṣṇa's fame, fame is still going on. Kṛṣṇa's knowledge, stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, is still being studied all over the world. This is the proof that He is God. And all saintly persons in India, they are not controlled by these foreign Dr. Frogs. So these big, big ācāryas, like Rāmānujācārya, Madhvācārya, Nimbārka, Śaṅkarācārya, and Caitanya Mahāprabhu, all big ācāryas, they have accepted Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Lord. So there is complete uniformity of the authorities in the past, present and future. So here is God. If one cannot accept Him God, then he is insane.
Śyāmasundara: He will suffer continually.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Just like if a man who is diseased, suffering from so many symptoms, he should approach a physician. But if he wants to suffer without consultation of a physician, he will suffer until death. What can be done?
Śyāmasundara: He says that this will does not care for the individual's satisfaction, but only for the perpetuation of the species. For instance I have sex life; it is not satisfying to me personally, it simply perpetuates the species.
Prabhupāda: In all species there is sex life, so why...
Śyāmasundara: But it isn't satisfying ultimately. The satisfaction dwindles immediately afterward. So he says that this is a trick by the will just to perpetuate the species.
Prabhupāda: So why there is a trick?
Śyāmasundara: I think that by this sex life I will be satisfied. That is a trick of the will. I find I am not satisfied by it.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
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. I am living in my apartment. If you by force drive me away, you are criminal. They do not know all these things. Imperfect knowledge.
Hayagrīva: Although it appears that Schopenhauer does not believe in God, although his stand appears atheistic, he writes, "If a man fears death as his annihilation, it is just as if he were to think that the sun cries out at evening, 'Woe is me, for I go down to eternal night.' Thus even already, suicide appears to us as a vain and therefore a foolish action. When we have carried out our investigation further, it will appear to us in a still less favorable light."
Prabhupāda: Investigation of father, that means God.
Hayagrīva: The what?
Prabhupāda: Investigation, he says?
Hayagrīva: Oh, "When we have carried out our investigation further."
Prabhupāda: Further.
Prabhupāda: No. The same example, just like a man has committed murder and he is arrested and taken away. So others, they know that this man will be hanged. And one was, "Oh, I have not seen, so how he is hanged?" But that is foolishness. The state law says that if a man has committed murder he will be hanged. So you have to see through the law, not with your eyes. The nonsense eyes, what can they see? So see through knowledge, through books.
Śyāmasundara: So our ultimate verification does not rest with our senses but with the authoritative...
Prabhupāda: Yes. Authoritative knowledge, that is real seeing. That is real seeing. Just like we have not seen Kṛṣṇa, take for example. Then all we are fools and rascals, that we are after Kṛṣṇa? People may say that "You have not seen Kṛṣṇa. Why you are after so much, Kṛṣṇa?" They can say. But then you are all set of fools. Does it mean that we are all set of fools? Then how we have seen Kṛṣṇa?
Prabhupāda: So you can talk any nonsense. (laughter) Then what is the use of going to school? There is no need of opening so many schools and colleges. You go on studying, you can know all knowledge and talk all kinds of nonsense. Is that perfect?
Śyāmasundara: No. He says that if a man has a clear intelligence that he will be able to understand the essence of that...
Prabhupāda: But why these schools are there? Every day we see, actually, from the most intelligent persons, scientist, he has to go to a school. Not that at home, by speculating and talking nonsense, they have become a scientist. They will never become.
Śyāmasundara: But if evidence from that leaf—that it is the color green, for instance...
Śyāmasundara: He says that behavior is classified under different functions, for example there is sensory behavior, thinking behavior, fear and emotional behavior...
Prabhupāda: That is (indistinct), because the animals, the consciousness is not developed, and the animals' behavior is different. Similarly, if a man is not in this Kṛṣṇa consciousness, (indistinct) any difference? Kṛṣṇa conscious person, he'll not act anything like killing one animal, but another who is not Kṛṣṇa conscious, he will kill animals: "I must kill. I must kill." But the same man, when he is brought into Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he'll refuse. Just like the shikari, (indistinct), he was killing animal, half dead, he would enjoy. The same man, by grace of Nārada, when he became Vaiṣṇava, he was not prepared to kill even one ant. So the man is the same, the consciousness is different. So our program is like that. To bring man into Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he will become perfect.
Prabhupāda: You have not been clear. What is it?
Śyāmasundara: A person is doing something, it doesn't matter so much what he is doing but how he is doing it, that he is doing it genuinely, with full integrity.
Prabhupāda: Then if a man is stealing, and he is doing it very scientifically, is that all right?
Śyāmasundara: Yes. The existentialists...
Prabhupāda: There are many, many thieves, they know how to go into the bank treasury scientifically. Is that all right?
Śyāmasundara: Yes. He is an existential hero, the good thief or the good killer.
Prabhupāda: Then the same hero, just like the insect hero. The same hero. The insect hero very boldly goes to the fire. (laughter) The same. He is no better than an insect, without any knowledge or discrimination.
Prabhupāda: So they are without any responsibility. Whatever he likes, he can do. So that is animal. There is no question of human civilization or human beings.
Śyāmasundara: He has an optimistic side to his philosophy in that he says the fate of the world depends upon man's decision. Obviously, if men decide to do things properly, the world would be a better place.
Prabhupāda: Yes. We agree with that. We are trying to do that by introducing this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, to make the world Vaikuṇṭha. That is our philosophy. Anyone can come to this Kṛṣṇa consciousness and become happy. But that is not a blind decision. We take decision from higher authority; therefore it is perfect. We are taking decision from the ācārya, Kṛṣṇa.
Prabhupāda: Yes. You will be ashamed. If you are not guided by a superior man, you'll be ashamed. But if you are guided by a proper man you won't be ashamed; you'll be glorious.
Śyāmasundara: He says that if a man considers himself as an object, he is afraid to look inside himself, then he will also consider other people as objects. And that is the cause of the basic sickness of the world, that we treat each other as objects instead as persons.
Prabhupāda: That is a wrong conception. Everybody is a person.
Śyāmasundara: What is your remedy for seeing everyone as persons?
Prabhupāda: That is the real vision: everyone is person.
Prabhupāda: That is struggle for existence you can say. They are simply trying to live. They have no other ambition. That's all. But if a man..., if the living soul, after having come to the stage of human being, if he also simply tries for these four things, eating, sleeping, mating and defending, then he is no better than animal. So nowadays in the modern civilization, simply these things are taught: how you can live comfortably with a car, with a bungalow...
Śyāmasundara: So the urge, the urge to improve or to advance...
Prabhupāda: (aside, Hindi:) Aiye aiye. Give them something, sitting place. Hare Kṛṣṇa.
Śyāmasundara: The urge to advance is there in the human more developed. How does that...?
Prabhupāda: You can give this side. This side. Yes. Why not this fan is running? What is that? All right. Let them sit.
Prabhupāda: Yes. That is Vedic injunction, that don't beget children unless you can give the children relief from the cycle of birth and death. One should not become father and mother. That is responsible father and mother. And without this responsibility, if a man gives birth to a child and if a woman bears the pregnancy, that is prohibited. One should not become a father, one should not become a mother unless they are competent to give freedom to the children from the cycle of birth and death.
Hayagrīva: His argument, well, he says, "Marriage is natural to man, and an irregular connection outside of marriage is contrary to the good of man; therefore fornication must be sinful."
Prabhupāda: Yes.
| Page Title: | If a man... (Lectures) |
| Compiler: | Visnu Murti, RupaManjari |
| Created: | 31 of Aug, 2012 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=148, Con=0, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 148 |