So India especially, we have got so much advantages, so many Vedic literatures, and instruction by Kṛṣṇa, instruction by Vyāsadeva, Śukadeva Gosvāmī. So we can very easily make our life perfect. In other countries they cannot. They haven't got the advantage. Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu's mission is that those who are born in India, special privilege, they should take advantage of this infallible experience of the great sages, saintly persons, even by God personally. Why you should neglect this? Caitanya Mahāprabhu therefore said that "Make your life perfect. Take very seriously the instruction of the Vedic literature, and understand the position and preach this cult all over the world." That is para-upakāra. Not that "I have understood that I am not this body, ahaṁ brahmāsmi." No. You preach how you are brahmāsmi, how you can remain in the Brahman platform. Simply understanding will not do, theoretical. Jñānaṁ vijñānam. This theoretical knowledge is good, but there must be practical application. Then it is . . . Then it will stand.
Therefore in the Bhagavad-gītā it is said,
- brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā
- na śocati na kāṅkṣati
- samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu
- mad-bhaktiṁ labhate parām
- (BG 18.54)
That means simply to understand that "I am Brahman" will not endure. You must keep yourself as Brahman in the Brahman platform. And what is that? Mad-bhaktiṁ labhate parām. You must act as a Brahman. That is mad-bhakti, Kṛṣṇa said. And in another place Kṛṣṇa says,
- māṁ cāvyabhicāriṇi
- bhakti-yogena yaḥ sevate
- sa guṇān samatītyaitān
- brahma-bhūyāya kalpate
- (BG 14.26)
That is . . . After Brahman stage . . . Brahmeti paramātmeti bhagavān iti śabdyate (SB 1.2.11). Absolute Truth. So if you simply come to the Brahman stage, param pada, that will not endure. There is every chance of falling down. Just like you go in the sky in eighteen thousand miles per hour, and so on, so on. Just like these people are trying to go to the moon planet. If you get shelter in moon planet or any other planet, then you will be able to stay. Otherwise, come back again. They are coming back. They are going . . . It is well advertised they are going to the moon planet. Then why they are coming back? Why you should come back?
So the idea is that simply in the Brahman, impersonal stage—just like sky, nirviśeṣa—you can go eighteen miles, eighteen thousand miles speed, but if you don't get a shelter, then you'll have to come back again. This is the risk. So you must get shelter. So the Bhāgavata therefore advises that āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ patanty adho anādṛta-yuṣmad-aṅghrayaḥ (SB 10.2.32). You can go very high in the sky, but if you don't get any shelter in any other planet . . . So similarly, you can make your spiritual progress, understanding of Brahman, but if you do not get any shelter at the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, then you'll fall down. That is a fact. We have seen many sannyāsīs, they give up this material world, that brahma satyaṁ jagan mithyā. Then, after some years, he comes down again this mithyā jagat to open schools and hospitals. And if this world is mithyā, then why you are interested with the schools and hospitals? That means they could not get any Brahman realization. They again come to taste. So therefore śāstra says, āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padam (SB 10.2.32). One can rise up to the paraṁ pada, brahma pada, but patanty tataḥ. Āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ patanty adho. Adho means this material world. Why? Anādṛta-yuṣmad-aṅghrayaḥ. They could not take shelter at the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme. Brahmaṇo 'haṁ pratiṣṭhā. Yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-aṇḍa-koṭi (BS 5.40). This Brahman is the rays of the body of Kṛṣṇa, just like the sunshine is the rays of the sun god, the sun planet.