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If you become elevated to the perfection of devotional service, you'll go to God and you'll see Him as you are seeing me, I am seeing you. You'll see Krsna. Try to understand

Expressions researched:
"if you become elevated to the perfection of devotional service, you'll go to God and you'll see Him as you are seeing me, I am seeing you. You'll see Kṛṣṇa. Try to understand"

Lectures

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

God is a person like you and me. As we are sitting together; you are seeing me, I am seeing you. Similarly, if you become elevated to the perfection of devotional service, you'll go to God and you'll see Him as you are seeing me, I am seeing you. You'll see Kṛṣṇa. Try to understand.

Demigods means exactly under the position of God. Just like here there is governor. Immediately under him there are secretaries. Similarly these demigods, they are different officers, secretaries, directors under God. We don't deny the existence of demigod, but we don't worship that he is God. We worship, we give him all respect.

Just like if the queen's secretary comes here, we shall give him all respect because he's queen's secretary. But we'll never accept that he is king. No. That is not possible. That is sane. It is not that . . . we Vaiṣṇavas, we are prepared to offer respect even to the ant, and why not to the secretary? When we offer to a big officer, it is not that we are flattering. It is the etiquette, it is the duty, to offer respect to the respectable persons.

So we give all honor to the demigods, but we don't accept the demigods as the Supreme. That is Vaiṣṇava philosophy. There may be 330,000,000's or 330,000,000's of secretaries, but we say . . . just like it is stated in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta: ekale īśvara kṛṣṇa. Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ (Bs. 5.1). The only master, or controller, is Kṛṣṇa. Āra saba bhṛtya. And all other demigods . . . just like Lord Brahmā, Śiva, so many others. Indra, Candra, Varuṇa. 330,000,000's, how many we can remember? It is not possible. But there are. So they are all servants.

ekale īśvara kṛṣṇa, āra saba bhṛtya
yāre yaiche nācāya, se taiche kare nṛtya
(CC Adi 5.142)

He is pulling the wire. Just like the doll dancing, there is a man pulling the wire. These are the descriptions in the śāstras, or Vedic literatures. So we should not equalize or we should not place the demigods on the same level with God. That is offense.

The Māyāvādīs, because they think that, "God is formless, impersonal, but I cannot meditate upon anything which is formless. So let me imagine something . . ." That is their theory. They say: "Let me imagine a form of God." Sādhakānāṁ hitārthāya brahmaṇo rūpa-kalpanaḥ. Kalpana, "imagine." The Māyāvādī philosophy is that, that "You imagine a form of God. Actually, there is no form of God." That is their theory. And we say, "No. Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ (Bs. 5.1). He has got form, but not a form like me." That we know. It is a different type of form. Different material. Or we don't say material: different ingredient, spirit, complete spirit.

So that is our philosophy. God is a person like you and me. As we are sitting together; you are seeing me, I am seeing you. Similarly, if you become elevated to the perfection of devotional service, you'll go to God and you'll see Him as you are seeing me, I am seeing you. You'll see Kṛṣṇa. Try to understand. Therefore there are so many religious systems which say, "God has no form. There is no God. Let us imagine." These are . . . this kind of religion is cheating religion.

Therefore it is said here, dharmaḥ projjhita-kaitavo 'tra (SB 1.1.2). Cheating. Because there is no real information. Real information is īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ (Bs. 5.1), the Supreme Lord has got His spiritual body, and He is . . . in the Christian Bible also, it is said: "Man is made after God." Is it not? So unless God has got form, two hands, two legs, like that, how man has got two hands, two legs? If we are imitation of God, then God must be person. This is natural conclusion.

So impersonal concept of God is imperfect conception of God. That is not perfect. They are puzzled because Kṛṣṇa, God, is sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha (Bs. 5.1). They cannot imagine that a form of sac-cid-ānanda can be possible. That is their lack of knowledge. But we learn from Vedic literature that God has got form, complete form, like us. Just like Kṛṣṇa, you see, He has got also two hands, He is also playing flute, with consort, Rādhārāṇī. She has also got two hands, nice face, nice head. Everything is there. Only the ingredients are different.

These ingredients, at the present moment . . . I have also got form, spiritual form. You have also spiritual form. Now that spiritual form is covered by material dress. Just like my body is covered by this shirt. You cannot see the actual body. Similarly, the spiritual body is now covered by this material body—therefore we cannot see. Besides that, our present eyes, that is also material. So with material eyes, we cannot see God. But God has got form. That's a fact. Now we are unable to see. Therefore the process is that we have to purify our eyes, our legs, our hands, and everything, so that we may be able to serve God.

So this arcana-paddhati, the devotional service, although we have got this material body, under the direction of śāstra, under the direction of spiritual master, we are working, we are trying to serve God, Kṛṣṇa. So that service is as good as the service in the spiritual world. There is no difference. Just like . . . the example is: just like you have got a green mango. Green mango. So the green mango is not so tasteful, but when it is ripe, it is tasteful. The mango is not different. The same mango. You wait. You wait for the time when it is ripened, you will taste it, nice.

Page Title:If you become elevated to the perfection of devotional service, you'll go to God and you'll see Him as you are seeing me, I am seeing you. You'll see Krsna. Try to understand
Compiler:SharmisthaK
Created:2023-03-04, 14:34:26
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=1, Con=0, Let=0
No. of Quotes:1