That is the instruction in the Bhagavad-gītā, that this science of Bhagavad-gītā has to be accepted by disciplic succession. That is the way of accepting any scientific thing. Just like even in material science, suppose if you have to become medical practitioner or a lawyer. So you have to study the law books by the previous lawyers, by the judgments of the courts. One who has studied the previous records of legal implications, he is best lawyer. Similarly a medical practicer, practitioner, who has studied the previous books and knowledge and experience, he is called experienced physician. The same principle is there that the spiritual knowl..., you cannot manufacture any spiritual knowledge. That is atheism. You cannot manufacture any religious principle. It is not possible.
Medical (BG Lectures)
Lectures
Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures
So chemical analysis means one has to test to find out the characteristic. So this I have seen, one doctor friend, he was keeping one dysentery stool in a plate, on his table, I saw. "What is this doctor?" He said, "Oh, it is to be tasted... It is dysentery stool". So they taste it. They have to. They take fish... Everyone, medical men know. So this hog's business is to eat stool, and as soon as he gets fatty, then sex. And that sex has no discrimination. You will see, a hogs, he does not care whether mother, sister or anyone, daughter. It doesn't matter. So this is hog civilization. Simply eating and getting strength of the senses and enjoy it.
Arjuna is a great warrior, fighter, and for a kṣatriya to kill one is not very difficult task. The kṣatriyas are trained up. Hunting. Hunting is allowed for the kṣatriyas. Just like medical practitioners, they are trained up how to practice surgical operation on dead body. It is not possible to, of course, for a gentleman, to push knife in someone's body. It is naturally very difficult thing. Rogues and thieves, they can stab. So as the doctors, medical men, surgeons are trained up to operate their knife on the dead body to see where are the nerves, similarly, kṣatriyas are also allowed for being trained how to kill. Kṣatriya means... Kṣat. Kṣat means injury. And tra means trāyate, saves. A kṣatriya has to save the citizens from being injured by others. He is called kṣatriya. Brāhmaṇa means one who knows brahma, the supreme. So brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra. These divisions are there according to quality. Guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ (BG 4.13). By guṇa. Guṇa means quality. And karma means actual operation of the guṇa.
Anyone who is identifying this, himself, with this body, which is made of tri-dhātu... According to Āyur Vedic medical system, this body is production of kapha, pitta, vāyu. Or in our modern medical science, anatomy, physiology, this body is a combination of bones, muscles, skin, blood, urine, stool. That's all. So śāstra says, "If anyone thinks that he is this lump of bones, flesh, blood, urine and stool," yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke (SB 10.84.13), and sva-dhīḥ kalatrādiṣu, "and the production of these bones and flesh, kalatrādiṣu..." Because we have got relationship here in this material world with wife. Kalatra means wife. Kalatra, kalatrādiṣu: "Beginning from wife."
Just like modern education system, if children are given some playthings, engineering... I've seen in your country especially. He's given railway line and so many things. He can understand how railway system is working, or engineering, so that from the very beginning of his life he's getting idea and he may catch up some line of activities. Similarly this Kṛṣṇa conscious education also should be given from the very beginning of life. That is the mistake of the modern civilization. Everyone is becoming engineering, technologist, or medical man or so many. But the real problem of life is to understand the self. But there is no educational system throughout the whole world what is the self, what is his need, how it is constituted, how it is working, so many things.
And because the things have topsy-turvied, there is chaos all over the world, not only here or there, because the division of labor or the division of working has been overlapped. Now this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is meant for creating some brāhmaṇas, or the most intelligent class of men. There is no hindrance. Anyone can become brāhmaṇa. Just like in education anyone can become engineer, anyone can become medical practitioner or anyone can become lawyer if he takes such education from the very beginning, similarly, brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra, there are natural division of the society. But at the present moment there is scarcity of brāhmaṇa. Brāhmaṇa means who has got very nice intellectual brain, who can understand the Absolute Truth. He is called brāhmaṇa. So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is trying to create some good brains so that he can understand, one can understand what is the Absolute Truth. This is the movement.
If we want to make progress towards spiritual advancement of knowledge, this preliminary knowledge we must have, that "I am not this body. I am not this body." This is the preliminary standing of spiritual knowledge. This is not advancement. This is simply A-B-C-D, ABCD of spiritual life. In the Bhāgavata there is a very nice verse in this connection in which it is stated, yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke sva-dhīḥ kalatrādiṣu bhauma-ijya-dhīḥ (SB 10.84.13). Yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke. Kuṇape means this bag, this bag made of three elements. Now, according to Āyurvedic medical system, this body is made of three elements: kapha, pitta, vāyu.
This kuṇape, this bag of three elements, kapha pitta vāyu, or, take it, the skin, muscle, veins, bones, urine, stool, blood—what you will find if you dissect this body? They are all material things. What is blood? It is also water, red water. The urine, this is also water. And this bone, bone is nothing but earth hardened. If you take plaster of Paris... They sometimes show artificial bone also in the medical college. But that is not. That is bone. That is earth. So do you think this combination of this earth, water, air, fire, is life? Can you produce life? You take... You can get enough earth, water, air, pus, stool, urine, blood. You manufacture one life. That you cannot do.
Woman: Is that a main claim?(?)
Prabhupāda: Yes. My... This individual experience that you are Mr. Such and Such, you are Mr. Such and Such, you are Mrs. Such and Such, this individual experience, is due to my ignorance. And generally, they give the example of a disease. I think it is called, medical terms, myopia. Myopia means they see this moon in two. The eyes become so defective that whenever they see things, they see two.
There is a control... Just like here, in this planet, when you go up, you see it is ball, but in this ball there are so many controlling deities here also. President Johnson, prime minister of India, this and that and so many things. But when you go up you see just like a ball. So when you come here you find... Similarly, from the distance of ninety millions of miles you can see the sun just like a ball, but it is not ball. It is a, it is a far, far greater than this planet, and there are cities and there men and there are persons and there are everything. But they are made up of fire. Their body's made of fire. Your body's made of earth. That is the difference. Just like in the water you cannot live because your body is made differently that you cannot live in the water. Similarly, the aquatics in the water, they cannot live in the land. Similarly, because I cannot live in the sun planet due to this, my body, that does not mean there are no living beings. There are living beings. After all, the whole material world is made of five elements, earth, water, fire, air and ether. Now these five elements, in some planet you'll find earth predominant. In some planet you'll find water predominant. In some planet you'll find fire predominant. In some planet you'll find air predominant. But that does not mean that there are no living entities. There are living entities. The sun planet is a planet where is, where fire is predominant. Now, according to medical science that by heat and fire of the germs are killed. But in the fire also there are living entities. Just like Dr. Mishra was giving the example the other day about opium. Now opium is a death poison. Death poison. But in the opium also you'll find some worms.
So imperceptibly we are changing our body every moment. Every moment. That is also medical science, that we are changing our blood corpuscles every moment. You see? Similarly, what is the difficulty to understand that, that the soul transmigrates from one body to another? It is very nicely explained here. "As the owner of the body is there within the body, but the body is changing, one after another, one after another..." Dehino 'smin yathā dehe, kaumāraṁ yauvanam (BG 2.13). Here two examples are given: kaumāram... Kaumāram means the age up to fifteen years, the age up to fifteen years, that is called kaumāra. And after fif..., from sixteen years, so upwards, say, up to forty years, one is youth. And then, after forty years, one becomes old. This is process of this body, but it will be later on explained the spirit soul within this body, that is not changing. The body is changing.
Therefore, the so-called modern scientific world advanced, they do not know what is the actual living force within this body which is moving this body. So long the soul or the living force is within this body, it is moving. As soon as the spirit soul is out of the body, it is..., we call it is dead. So we have got medical science for this body, we have got psychology for the mind, everything we've got, but where is the science of the soul, which is moving the body and the mind? Where is that science? Is there any such science? You are all students, I think. To understand what is the basic principle of moving this body and the mind, is there any department of knowledge in the universities all over the world to understand this science? Is there any? Then where is your knowledge? Somebody is accepting the mind as the self, and somebody is accepting the, this gross body as the self. They do not know that both the body and the mind, both of them are material.
Just like Kṛṣṇa says Arjuna, in the Fourth Chapter you will find, Kṛṣṇa says that "This philosophy of Bhagavad-gītā, I spoke to the sun-god, some forty millions of years ago." How He remembers? Because He does not change His body. This is simple fact. We do not remember because we are changing body every moment. That is medical science. We are changing the corpuscles of blood. Every second, the body is changing, imperceptibly. Imperceptibly, body is changing. Therefore the father and mother cannot understand how the body is changing imperceptibly. But third person, if he comes all of a sudden and sees the child has grown very big, he says, "Oh, you have grown so big?" But the father-mother does not see that he has grown so big. Because he is always seeing, and the change is taking place very imperceptibly, every moment.
Now, this simple fact, as it is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā, that dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā (BG 2.13), the change of body is taking place every moment. Every moment. Just like this child, the child, if there is some measuring instrument, if you measure this child today, tomorrow you'll find the child has grown or changed the body. That is a medical science also. The body is changing. The body is changing, but the soul is there. Just like I had my childhood body, boyhood body, and now I am in a different body, but I remember all the activities of my childhood. Therefore I am permanent. And body is changing. This simple truth, what is the difficulty for the people to understand this simple truth? The body is changing, but I am not changing. I am eternal. Therefore I am not this body.
Madhudviṣa: "Those who are seers of the truth have concluded that of the nonexistent there is no endurance and of the eternal there is no cessation. Seers have concluded this by studying the nature of both." Purport: "There is no endurance of the changing body. That the body is changing every moment by the actions and reactions of different cells is admitted by modern medical science, and thus growth and old age are taking place. But the spiritual soul exists permanently, remaining the same in all changing circumstances of the body and mind. That is the difference between matter and spirit. By nature the body is ever-changing and the soul is eternal. This conclusion is established by all classes of seers of the truth, impersonalists and personalists."
Prabhupāda: This is... So far the constitution of the spirit is concerned, it is eternal. That is accepted by all philosophers, personalists and impersonalists. The only difference is that the impersonalist says that after liberation, after getting freed from this bodily contamination, the spirit soul mixes with the Supreme Soul, all-pervading, without any individual existence. Just like the same example, that the small sky within the pitcher. When the pitcher is broken, the small sky within the pitcher mixes with the big sky.
So these things cannot be understood so long we are in the darkness. Darkness means sinful life. The more we are engaged in sinful life, we cannot understand what is sat-saṅga and what is asat-saṅga. So we should be purified. The whole human life is meant for purification. Yasmāt śuddhyet sattvam. Sattvam. Sattvam means existence. Śuddhyet. Śuddhyet means becomes purified. Just like a diseased man, contaminated by some disease. The medical treatment means he has to be purified from the contamination. Similarly, we are impure in this material existence, by contamination of the three modes of material nature: sattva-guṇa, rajo-guṇa, tamo-guṇa—goodness, passion and ignorance.
So what is that which is spread all over the body? It is not the skin, not the... This is also spread over the body. The skin, the bone, the marrow, the blood—they are also spread over the body, but Kṛṣṇa is not meaning this material things. The actual active principle within this body is the spirit soul. Now, in medical science, bones are being replaced; flesh also being replaced; blood is also being replaced by injection. So everything can be replaced materially by scientific improvement. But when that things which is immortal, that is gone, it cannot be replaced. Even nowadays the heart is being replaced, but no medical science or any science has ever been able to replace the life. So he's giving the example that that presence of the soul is perceived by consciousness.
That is stated in the Kaṭha Upaniṣad. Aṇor aṇīyān mahato mahīyān ātmāsya jantor nihito guhāyām. Nihito guhāyām, guhāyām means in the heart. Both of them are there. Now find out modern science. Both the soul and the Supersoul, they are situated within the heart. Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe (BG 18.61). It is not said that "Anywhere in the body it is sitting." No. Hṛd-deśe, in the heart. And actually, by medical science, the heart is the center of all activities of the body, office. And the brain is the manager. The director is there, Kṛṣṇa.
So our actual business is to become brahma-bhūtaḥ. So who can become? That is explained already. Kṛṣṇa has already explained that, what is that verse? Yaṁ hi na vyathayanty ete. Vyathayanti, does not give pain. Material, material burden, that is always troublesome. Even this body. This is also another burden. We have to carry it. So when one is not disturbed by this bodily pain and pleasure... There is no pleasure, simply pain. Here, pleasure means a little absence of pain. Just like you have got a boil here. What is called? Boil? Phoṛā? So it is always painful. And by some medical application, when the pain is little relieved, you think that "Now it is happiness." But the boil is there. How you can be happy? So here, actually there is no happiness, but we think we have discovered so many counteraction. Just like there is disease. We have discovered medicine. We have discovered medical college. Manufacturing, big, big physician, M.D., a pharmacist(?) But that does not you'll live. No, you'll have to die, sir. So the boil is there. A little application of temporary medicine, it may... Therefore there is no happiness at all in this material world. Therefore Kṛṣṇa said that, "Why you are feeling happy? You have to die, after all, which is not your business. You are eternal, but still you have to accept death." Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). This is your real problem.
So scientific, I mean to say, proposition is based on observation and experiment. So this is simply observation, that those who are atheistic person... Just like medical science. There are many doctors. They are observing when a man dies, observing, feeling the pulse, taking pulse beating, offering oxygen gas, trying to save him. All of a sudden the man dies, and he is sure to die, but they cannot simply observe the symptoms. They cannot observe what is that thing which is gone now. They cannot say that. Neither it is possible for them to say. But their theory that combination of matter makes symptoms of life possible, they should prove it by experiment. Then it is complete science.
You cannot learn it. Just like if you purchase one pharmacology book from the bookseller's shop, and if you read, at home, do you mean that you become a medical practitioner, pharmacist? No. You must go to the university, you must go to the college. You must hear the experienced professor and learn it and practically experiment it. Then you can learn. Not that by purchasing a book you become a medical practitioner or lawyer. That is not possible. Therefore the direction is that tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum eva abhigacchet: (MU 1.2.12) "Must." Here also we see, Kṛṣṇa in the beginning was talking with Arjuna just like friends. But when Arjuna understood it that "We are talking like friends. So we cannot come into conclusion."
There is no difficulty to find out a madman. Any man you find out, he's a madman. And that is medical version also. That is medical version. In India, there was a case. A man was murdered, and the criminal lawyer pleaded that he was in madness. So the expert medical practitioner was invited and he was asked to examine whether this man is in madness. So he said that "So far my experience goes, I have studied, every man is a madman, more or less." Every man in the material concept of life is a madman because he does not know his identification. Therefore he's a madman. Piśācī pāile yena mati-cchana haya. Just like a ghostly-haunted man. His father is standing before him and he's calling the father by ill names, because he's ghostly-haunted. Similarly, a living entity who is entrapped by this material energy, illusion, he's a madman. And the whole treatment is to get out of this disease of madness, misidentification, misconception of life. So it is not difficult to find out a madman. Any man is a madman.
But people are being educated on this bodily concept of life, and they are creating problems, and in order to solve the problems, they are becoming entangled in sinful activities. Just like this morning we were discussing about killing the baby's body within the womb, abortion. Because we do not know that the soul within the body of the baby... That cannot be killed. That cannot be killed. But that is also explained, that one who knows the eternity of the soul, he does not kill anyone, neither the soul is killed. But we are creating problem. Because the soul has taken shelter in this body and the so-called medical science advising to destroy that body, that means he is becoming entangled. The person who is advising... I understand that one gentleman comes here, his wife is a medical doctor and her business is to check the pregnant wife, woman, and advise whether the child should be killed or not. This is the business.
So this is not the fact. The fact is that there must be in the society, four classes of men. Because sometimes violence is required. Just like why government is maintaining the police force, the military force? It is required for keeping law and order. So violence is bad. That's all right. But sometimes it is required. Just like poison. Poison is bad, but sometimes it is required for administering medicine. Even poison is administered. When one's heart is... According to Āyur-vedic system, when the man's heart is almost to fail, at that time, poison is given. So the heart becomes again agitated. In the medical science also. So poison is poison, but sometimes it requires as medicine administration. Similarly, violence, killing is bad.
So Kṛṣṇa has described so far... Sāṅkhya yoga means analytical study of the soul and the body. He has very nicely... So this analytical study of the soul and body means so far, He has described the activities of the body. That is sāṅkhya yoga. Just like a medical man has got full analysis—not full, to a portion—of this body, the anatomy, the physiology. They have studied how the veins are working, how different secretions are transforming into blood, how the heart is working. This is called analytical study.
The elements are there, the ingredients are there. Now, if you think this ingredient has been decomposed or deteriorated, then replace that ingredient. Just like in a machine. In a machine some part is wear and tear. It is not working, stopped. You can replace that part into new part, and the machine will work. But this is not like that. If you think that something has deteriorated in this body, therefore it has become dead. Say, for example, that they say generally, due to heart failure. Now, heart... Medical practitioners they know it that heart is always pumping like this, pumping like this. Now, can you produce heart action by artificial pumping? No. It is not possible. They give respiratory oxygen gas and so many things, but it cannot be revived.
So this is the... Just like you know. There is a English proverb, "What is play to you is death to me." So that is the position here. Even if you are glorified, still, you cannot enjoy. You cannot enjoy. Anything, any position. Because this wrong conception of bodily existence is a diseased form of my constitution, so I cannot enjoy. Now, a patient who is suffering from some disease, he is unable to enjoy, but if he forcibly enjoys, then his life becomes risky. He becomes more implicated. Just like... Of course, in your country I know that there is no such disease as typhoid, but India there is a fever called typhoid. Here it is called typhosis, or something like, medical term. That typhoid is disease of intestine.
So one who knows the constitution of the soul, he is called brāhmaṇa. We have already discussed this matter, that brāhmaṇa does not mean a particular class or born in a particular country. A brāhmaṇa means who knows the position of the soul, or the constitution of the soul. He is brāhmaṇa. Just like a person who is conversant with medical science. He is called medical man or a doctor. It doesn't matter whether he is born in India or born in America or whether he is black or white. It doesn't matter. One must have the qualification of a medical man, and he is called a doctor. Similarly, Bhagavad-gītā also accepts the brahminical culture, the brahminical culture. Brahminical culture means the social position in which everyone is assisted to elevate himself to the highest position of understanding the position and the constitution of the soul. That should be the aim of human society.
All glories to the assembled devotees. All glories to the assembled devotees. Now, spiritual consciousness, and to continue it... Simple theoretical knowledge that "I am consciousness; I am not this body," anything, simple theoretical knowledge, cannot help us. (aside:) You can put on this light. Unless... Just like a person. He studied medical science or law, anything, any technical science. He gets all theoretical knowledge. But if he does not practice, then that knowledge will gradually subside. You see? Similarly, that "I am not this body, but I am that pure consciousness," that is already analyzed in various ways. Now, we are in practical life. Now, if we say that "I am not this body," so what is the use of working for this body? The whole world is moving under the bodily conception of life. Because I am born in this land, my body is born out of this land, American land, therefore I am thinking "American." Because I am born in India, therefore I am thinking "Indian." Because I am born of a certain family, therefore I am identifying myself with that family. Because my father has given me some name, so I am identifying with that name. So my position is that I am all around surrounded by this bodily conception of life.
Now, suppose even there is no loss by falling down from this path, that does not mean that we should neglect it. No. Formerly, in Medical College of Calcutta the students who failed in the final examination, they were given some title, L.M.S., "License in Medical, Medicine and Surgery," L.M.S. And those who passed, they were given the title M.D. or M.D., just like that way. So even by failure, they would get some title and allowed to practice as medical man. But that does not mean that we may try to fail also. No. The aim should be to become successful, not to fail, not to fail. Even though we are in failure, still, there is profit undoubtedly, but we should not aim to that objective.
Now, it is not only eating. The fighting also. Fighting also. (break) ...the fight! He was a fighting man. But after, after getting instruction of Bhagavad-gītā, he changed his attitude, oh, that he shall not, he should, he would not fight. He said, "Yes, I shall fight." Now this is dovetailing. He, the fighting man, remained. The fighting man did not change into artist, or a musician. No. You need not change. You are fighting man; you remain a fighting man. If you are musician, you remain a musician. If you are a medical man, remain a medical man. Whatever you are, you remain, but dovetail it. Dovetail it.
That is called bhajana-kriyā. Ādau śraddhā tataḥ sādhu-saṅgaḥ atha bhajana-kriyā tataḥ anartha-nivṛttiḥ syāt. And as you are more and more engaged in spiritual activities, so, proportionately, your material activities and affection for material activities will diminish. Counteraction. When you engage in the spiritual activities, your material activities diminishes. But just mind that. Material activities and spiritual activities, difference is that... Suppose you are engaged as a medical man. You don't think that "If I become spiritually engaged, then I have to give up my profession." No, no. That is not. You have to spiritualize your profession. Just like Arjuna, he was a military man. He became a spiritualist. That means he spiritualized his military activity.
So we are indebted. Deva, ṛṣi and bhūta. Bhūta means ordinary, general living beings in our dealings. Suppose if I go to consult some lawyer, I have to pay. If I want to consult some medical practitioner, I have to pay. So this is obligation. This is no mercy; this is obligation. Similarly, we are obliged in so many respects—to the supernatural power, to the sages, to the ordinary living beings, and to the animals also. Because we are drinking milk from the cows, so we are indebted. But instead of paying our indebtedness, we are killing. You see? These are all reactions. We are creating reactions. If you don't pay bill for the electricity for a many long time, your electricity will be cut off. Your telephone will be cut off. But we must be conscious of our indebtedness to so many things.
Now, how to supply the foodstuff to the body? The main source of supplying is this mouth. Now we have got several holes in this body, especially nine holes, big holes. Just like these two eyes, they are holes. The ears, they are holes. The mouth is one hole. And the evacuating process is another hole. This navel is another hole. There are nine holes in this body. Now, if somebody says that "I have to put foodstuff within the body..." Just like in medical treatment, sometimes, when one cannot take foodstuff from the mouth, foodstuff is injected from the rectum or somewhere else artificially. But that is not the system of supplying the foodstuff. The real process of supplying the foodstuff is through the mouth. If somebody says, "Oh, there are nine holes. You can put the foodstuff any hole," no, that will not do. You have to supply the foodstuff through the mouth.
Just like if you have achieved the quality of a medical practitioner, then your work shall be a medical practitioner. Similarly if one has achieved the quality of a brāhmaṇa or Vaiṣṇava, then his activities should be like that. If I become Kṛṣṇa conscious and if I work as a butcher, that will not be. You have to work just like a Vaiṣṇava. So guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ. You have to acquire the qualities and work like that. Then it is perfect.
Last day we were discussing about the process of understanding Bhagavad-gītā. This is to receive the knowledge in disciplic succession, bona fide disciplic succession. It is not a thing... Any knowledge, even material knowledge, if it is not received in bona fide disciplic succession, that knowledge is not perfect. Suppose if you want to be a lawyer, or if you want to be an engineer, or a medical practitioner. You have to receive the knowledge from the authoritative lawyer, authoritative engineer. Of course, I do not know what is the custom here. In India the custom is that a new lawyer, he has to become an apprentice of an experienced lawyer before he is given the license to practice. That is the Indian system. So any knowledge, unless we receive it through the authoritative sources, it is not perfect. It is not perfect.
So every moment we are having a new body. And that is a medical science truth. Medical science, it is... We are having new body at every moment. Similarly, when we take another body, oh, a person who knows things as they are, they are not bewildered. Dhīras tatra na muhyati. Dhīra means who is conscious of this bodily change, who knows things as they are, he's not, I mean to, bewildered. He's not, he's, he's steady, "Oh, he has changed his body. That's all." A person who does not know, he's crying. He..., "Oh, my son is gone. My son is gone. My son is gone." But if he's, I mean to say, in the consciousness, he knows, "Oh, my son has simply changed body." That's all. Just immediately, exactly, "My son, when he was little baby... Now he has grown up to be a boy." So the father and the parents do not lament, "Oh, where my, that son gone, that small baby gone?"
This incarnation is going on every minute because you are changing your body. Imperceptibly you are changing your body. That is a medical, scientific point, that we are changing our body every second, every minute. This change, you call change, or you can transfer your identity from one body to another. It means the same thing. You see?
When a dead man is there, the medical man or every scientist, everyone is sitting. How that spiritual atom is passed from this body, nobody can see. They can simply say, "Oh, now he is gone." Who is gone? Have you see who is gone? "No." Then what you are seeing? "I am seeing this dead body." So whole life you have seen this dead body. If I cannot see at the present structure of my body even the spark, material atom, how we can see God, the Supreme Spirit?
Study, yes. Study, simply study will not help you. You must study from a bona fide teacher. Otherwise it will be misleading. Just like if you want to be a medical practitioner if you purchase books from the bookstore, medical books, and you study, that will not help you. You have to admit yourself in a medical college and study there. Then you will understand. If you say that "I have studied all the medical books," the government will not recognize you as a medical practitioner. When he will see and the government will see or any person will see that you have regularly passed medical examination from authorities then you will be accepted.
Just like if I go to a medical man or a lawyer, we go there for his qualification. We don't ask him, "Well, sir, are you Christian? Are you Jew or Indian or American or a brāhmaṇa?" No. We are concerned with the qualification. It doesn't matter what he is. He may be an American, he may be an Indian, he may be Christian, he may be Jew, he may be Hindu or Mohammedan. Doesn't matter. He's a practiced medical practitioner, so he's a qualified man. I have gone there for my treatment.
Similarly, Lord Caitanya also says the same thing, and Kṛṣṇa also says the same thing. Never it is, He is stressing on birth. Birth is no consideration. Nobody is responsible for his birth. He may be lowborn but what is that? Or he may be highborn. That doesn't matter. But when he comes out from the womb of the mother, he has got his own responsibility. He has to advance his cultural life in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is his responsibility. That is his responsibility. Of course, father, mother, state, teacher, friend, they can help us, but ultimately, the responsibility lies with me.
Educational institution, there should be, but the education.... Just like in a university, they have different departments: medical department, engineering department, or biological and so many, psychological, chemical, physical.... They have so many departments. But there is no department, brahminical, kshatriyacal, or vaiśya, nothing. Because they do not know what is the aim of life. They are simply interested with the bodily comforts of life. That's all. Never mind what is our next life, What kind of life we are going to. But that is, this is a fact.
What is the distinction between the animal body and the human body? Biologically.... Here is our friend Mr. Ghosh. He knows very well. There is no difference biologically between human body.... Medical students in the biological department, they study from the frogs, from guinea pigs, the human constitution of the body. There is no difference. But what is the difference? Not this bodily construction, but development of consciousness. That is the difference. So if we do not develop.... That is the opportunity, human life. In human life there is the opportunity to develop Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
Associating means even unknowingly. Just like infection. In medical science there is the word "infection." You may not know, but if you have infected typhoid disease, it will fructify at one moment. So similarly, even if we do not know, if we associate with the material modes of nature, it will be effective. Sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu. Therefore we must have full knowledge how to save oneself from the association, from the infection of this material disease. That is called jñānāvasthita-cetasaḥ. Just like a man who knows hygienic rules and regulation, he does not infect disease. But a man in ignorance, he infects disease and suffers. It is not God's creation. Your creation. If you do not know how to live, then you will infect the infection of the different modes of material nature, and you will have to suffer or enjoy.
In the material world also, suppose if I want to learn the art of music. Then I have to find out somebody who is a musician. Without having the association of a musician, nobody can learn the art of music. Or any art. Suppose if you want to become an engineer. So you have to enter yourself in an engineering college or technical college and learn there. Nobody can become a medical practitioner simply by purchasing book from the market and reading at home. That is not possible. You have to admit yourself in a medical college and undergo training and practical examination, so many things. Simply by purchasing book, it is not possible.
Brahman and Supersoul, we have been discussing this morning... Perhaps just we began the verse and you have forgot. Just like myself, I am soul, the spiritual soul. My place is within this heart. Now, in the medical science, they have found it that the heart is the center of all vitality of this body. Modern materialistic science they have found that whatever we are eating, it is going to the stomach and it is being transformed into various types of secretions, and the important secretion is coming to the heart and it is becoming red by coming to the heart. Then again from the heart there are many veins; it is being distributed to different parts of the body. So... But they could not found that where is the point wherefrom this vitality is coming. Wherefrom this vitality is coming? They could not find it. They have localized that here is the source of all energy.
When you go to a doctor, medical practitioner, you do not ask, "Well, Doctor, are you American or Indian? Are you brāhmaṇa? Are you Jew? Are you Christian?" No. Oh, he has got the qualification of a medical man, so you surrender, "Doctor, treat me. I am suffering." So there is no question. So Caitanya Mahāprabhu has given liberal that "Anyone who knows the spiritual science, or the Kṛṣṇa science..." Kṛṣṇa science is spiritual science. Because Kṛṣṇa is the ultimate goal of spiritual science.
When I speak of Kṛṣṇa, you must remember that I am speaking of God. There are millions of names of God in different parts of the world, but Kṛṣṇa is the supreme name according to Vedic knowledge.
Suppose if you want to learn engineering, so you cannot go to a butcher. You must find out an engineer. You must admit yourself into the engineering college, learn how to practice engineering. Suppose if you want to become a medical practitioner, so you have to admit yourself in some medical college. Similarly, if you want to know about spiritual matter, then you must approach a spiritual master who knows the things. How you can learn it from anywhere and everywhere? One must be expert in spiritual knowledge. From him you have to learn. Therefore it is said here, "Just try to learn the truth by..."
Because they are in a secluded place. This has got some chemical effect. If you sit on tiger skin and deer skin, then the reptiles, the snakes, they won't disturb you. It has got some, I mean to say, physical effect. There are so many medical effect in so many things. We do not know. But God has created everything for our use. We do not know. Every plant, every herb is a medicine. It is meant for some particular disease, for some particular protection. We do not know that. So cailājina. It is not a fashion. It is... Because they sit down in a secluded place in a jungle, so you are meditating, so some snake may come. There are so many snakes, so many reptiles. So therefore, cailājina-kuśottaram. And straw. The three things: straw, and the skin, and some cotton āsana. These things are required.
The pleasure is in spiritual life. That is real pleasure. We haven't got to sacrifice pleasure, but we have to enjoy it properly. Just like diseased man, he cannot enjoy life. His enjoyment of life is a false enjoyment. When he's cured, when he's in healthy life, then his enjoyment is bona fide. Similarly, so long we are in the material conception of life, we do not expect that we are enjoying. We are simply entangling. That means diseased man, if he enjoys, if he takes nice food. He cannot eat, but if he likes and takes stealthily, without the information of the medical physician, then he prolongs his diseases. That's all. He is killing himself, the process. Similarly, the more we increase our material enjoyment we are more making ourself entangled in this material world, without being freed from these material clutches.
You have to see the tip of your nose, two eyes. Thus with unagitated mind. This process will help your mind to be fixed up, unagitated mind, subdued mind, devoid of fear. Yes. Because you have to, generally the yogis they used to practice in jungle and if he's thinking of, "Some tiger is coming or not, what is that?" (laughter) Or some snake is coming. Because you have to sit down alone in a jungle. You see. There are so many animals. Tigers and deers and snake. So therefore it is specially stated, "devoid of fear." The skin of deer is specially used in yoga-āsana because it has got some medical effect that snakes do not come. If you sit down on that particular skin, the snakes and reptiles will not come there. That is the purpose. You'll not be disturbed. Devoid of fear, completely free from sex life. You see. If you indulge in sex life, you cannot fix up your mind in anything. That is the effect of brahmacārī life. If you remain brahmacārī without sex life, then you can be determined.
Now, he is asking, "My dear Kṛṣṇa..." Now, these things are being discussed, that yoga system is... Not only that yoga system. The bhakti-yoga system, the Kṛṣṇa consciousness, this is also yoga system. Now, many students come to practice this yoga or that yoga. Now, somehow or other, they may not be successful. They may not be successful or half finished or one-fourth finished. Everything has got a course. So, just like if you want to be a medical student there are five years', six years' course. If you study for two years and give it up, then you cannot have that title, or you cannot be recognized as a medical practitioner. But if you complete the course, you get the university degree, MD, Doctor of Medicine, or something like that, and you are recognized; you can practice. Now, here it is said that ayatiḥ śraddhayopetaḥ. Somebody is attracted that "I shall make my life successful by a spiritual process, the yoga system or jñāna system or bhakti system." Without inclination... Because this inclination also does not come ordinarily... That also requires good asset in the past life, this inclination for spiritual advancement. Manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu (BG 7.3). Out of millions of men, few only try for making perfection of the human life. And yatatām api siddhānām (BG 7.3). And those who are trying for perfection, out of them a few only can understand what is God. So God understanding is not so easy.
So therefore he said, Arjuna said, that ayatiḥ śraddhayopetaḥ: "One has got some faith for spiritual advancement of life," yogāc calita-mānasaḥ, "but some way or other, he finishes halfway and then falls down from the process." Aprāpya yoga-saṁsiddhim: "He could not achieve the perfection." Kāṁ gatiṁ kṛṣṇa gacchati: "Then what happens to him?" Because half finished... Just like a person was studying for medical certificate or medical qualification, and out of six years, he simply performed two years. Oh, neither he is a doctor, neither he is a clerk. He is useless. He becomes useless. So Kṛṣṇa is being asked by Arjuna whether a person who is trying for perfection of life in spiritual advancement, if he finishes only a portion or half, so what happens to him? Does he become useless or worthless? Simply wasted time? Kaccin na ubhaya-vibhraṣṭaḥ chinnābhram iva naśyati: "Is it not like that, that a cloud assembles..." When the clouds are compact together then there is possibility of raining, but if by wind it is broken, now there is no possibility of rain.
He's given the chance of being born in such good family. Etaddhi durlabhataram. Now this kind of birth, in a family of devotee and yogi, is very, I mean to say, rare, and it is far better than the other two lives, to have birth in rich family or in pious family. Actually, they are acting. Just like when a boy is born of a father who is a medical man... We have seen it. So naturally he becomes a medical man. Because he sees his father and the inclination inherits. In that way, in the Indian caste system, originally it was a division. But because the son imitated the father, in this way, it has come to be a caste system by birth. So anyway, these chances are given. The purport is that we, everyone, every man should begin spiritual life.
You think you are eating more? So you can eat more. Yes, you can eat more. Yes, it is medical advise, that there are two kinds of mistakes in eating. Over-eating and under-eating. So under-eating mistake for old man is very good. And over-eating mistake for boys, that is good. So you can overeat. I cannot.
The beginning of searching out God is within yourself. God is within yourself. So yoga means concentrating the mind on the Paramātmā. Paramātmā is the feature of the Supreme Lord who is seated in everyone's heart. Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe 'rjuna tiṣṭhati (BG 18.61). Hṛd-deśe means in the heart. In the heart I am, as spiritual spark, I am also sitting, and the Kṛṣṇa is also sitting. The medical science cannot explain. As soon as the heart fails, they say, "Oh, he's gone." That means in the heart I am sitting and the Paramātmā is sitting. As the I and Paramātmā leaves the heart, the heart fails and there is no life. And it is a fact from medical science that all the energies of the body is coming from the heart. So this statement of the Bhagavad-gītā, that īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe... (BG 18.61). Hṛd-deśe means in the heart. So yoga means, as prescribed in the standard yoga system in the Bhagavad-gītā, means I myself try to find out the Paramātmā within my heart. So I cannot concentrate unless I withdraw all my sensual activities. You cannot practice yoga, (chuckling) at the same time indulge in sensual activities. These are all nonsense. So we have to concentrate all our sensual activities. That means repose them in the mind, and mind is concentrated upon the Paramātmā. That is real yoga.
It is very simple to understand. As I have changed so many bodies, not only childhood, babyhood, boyhood, youthhood. According to medical science we are changing body every second imperceptibly. So this process, that the soul is permanent... Just like I remember my babyhood body or childhood body. I am the same person, soul, but I have changed so many bodies. Similarly, when ultimately I shall change this body, I shall have to accept another body. This simple formula is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. Everyone can think on it. And there must be some scientific research. Recently I got one letter from a doctor in Toronto. He suggested there is body..., there is soul. I had some correspondence with him. Actually this is a fact. The soul is there. There are so many proofs. Not only in the Vedic literature, but even ordinary experience. The soul is there, and the soul is transmigrating from one body to another. This is going on, but unfortunately there is no serious study on the subject matter or department of knowledge in the universities. This is not very good.
If one is born in a brāhmaṇa family, he has got the opportunity to develop the brāhmaṇa qualities. Similarly, if one is born in the family of a kṣatriya, he gets the opportunity of kṣatriya spirit. Similarly vaiśya. Cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭaṁ guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ (BG 4.13). But the quality and actual action. Just like a boy is born of a medical practitioner. He has got greater chance of becoming, becoming a medical student, medical practitioner. But simply by getting birth as a son of medical practitioner is not sufficient. He has to take education. So cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭaṁ guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ (BG 4.13). Kṛṣṇa does not say "By birth." By acquiring the qualities and action. One must have the brahminical qualities and act as a brāhmaṇa; then he'll be accepted as brāhmaṇa.
That is the verdict of the śāstra. Not by birth. Birth is a facility. If you have the opportunity to take birth in a brāhmaṇa family, then you have got the best opportunity to acquire the brahminical qualification. Just like a person born as the son of a medical man, from the childhood he is learning all the medical terms and how his father is treating patient. So before entering medical college he is half medical man. That is the facility. But if we don't take the facility, we go astray... They are called brahma-bandhu. And if we have acquired the qualification of a śūdra, then, even though one is born in the brāhmaṇa family, he should be accepted as śūdra. Similarly, if a person is born in a śūdra family, but he has acquired these qualities, śamo damaḥ satyaṁ śaucam, he should be designated as brāhmaṇa. That is the injunction of the śāstras in many places. So if by force I want to assume myself as a brāhmaṇa or kṣatriya without qualification, that is the cause of India's cultural ruination. Such a high Vedic culture of India is now ruined because we have misused the terms. That is the cause.
Just like if you sow a seed, it not that immediately becomes a big tree and fruits. No. It takes some time. Similarly, our pāpa-bījam, the seed of sinful activity, we take it, but in the, immediately we may not see that it is fructified, but it will, in due course of time, it will. Same (indistinct), that one man has infected cholera bacteria, so not that immediately he is attacked with cholera; say after a few days. Therefore the injection is given, and that time is allowed in the medical treatment, so that if the infection has actually working, the disease will come. So immediately we may not see that we are infected with some certain type of sinful activities, but it will come into notice That is going on. Therefore we shall be careful not to infect. And how to become careful? If you always engage yourself in Kṛṣṇa's service. Therefore the Deity worship in the temple is there to keep us always engaged. Not only Deity worship. The class, reading, hearing, kīrtana. In so many ways.
On the other hand, in the name of brāhmaṇa, some persons claiming as brāhmaṇa, they are ruling over the society. But that is not the way. The brāhmaṇa or kṣatriya or vaiśya, śūdra, they are ascertained by the symptom. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is clearly said, cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭaṁ guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ: (BG 4.13) "I have created these four divisions of society, brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, and śūdra. So that should be divided according to the qualification and work." Just like if you are qualified as a medical man and if you are practicing as a medical man, then you are medical man. Simply by posing yourself that "I am the son of a medical man; therefore I am medical man," this is useless. In the śāstras, a person born of a brāhmaṇa family or a person born of a kṣatriya family but his qualities are not brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, he is called brahma-bandhu, kṣatri-bandhu, not brāhmaṇa.
Not only me, everyone has seen Kṛṣṇa. Everyone has seen Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa... It's not that... You can see Kṛṣṇa in this form. He is playing flute and enjoying with Rādhārāṇī. That is His natural picture or natural form. But He has got multi other forms also. If you are not fortunate enough to understand this form, then you can turn your attention to other, many other forms, and you can see Kṛṣṇa. Actually, we cannot see spirit. Spirit soul even we cannot see. The modern advancement of science, they cannot see even the particle of the spirit. They have no power. Just like I am, you are, we are all spirit souls. We are in this body, but the medical science after dissection of the body cannot find out where is the spirit soul. But there is. That's a fact. But you have no instrument or power to see it. In spite of your advancement of so many scientific instruments, you cannot see. Therefore in the śāstra it is said, ataḥ śrī-kṛṣṇa-nāmādi na bhaved grāhyam indriyaiḥ (CC Madhya 17.136). Our, these senses are so imperfect that we cannot perceive even what is spirit soul. We cannot see. That's a fact. And we cannot... It is very difficult to perceive also. But you can see also, you can perceive also, by accepting a certain method.
Kṛṣṇa is claiming, "They are My manifestation of energy." So there is connection with Kṛṣṇa with this earth, water, physical science. But we do not know Kṛṣṇa. We simply (are) studying externally. Just like medical science. He is studying the external body, but within the body there is a spiritual spark, soul. He does not know that.
According to smārta-vidhi, unless one changes his body, he cannot be purified. That impression is going on in India, that unless one is born in Hindu family or born in brāhmaṇa family, kṣatriya, he cannot be accepted as brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra, like that. But according to Vedic literature, that is not sanctioned. It is... To become a son of brāhmaṇa and to have the privilege of becoming a brāhmaṇa, certainly there is. Just like a boy born in a medical man's family, so he has got a chance, better chance, to become a medical man. Similarly, a boy born in a brāhmaṇa family, he has got better chance to become a brāhmaṇa. Or a boy born in kṣatriya family or vaiśya family, he has got better chance. But that does not mean simply by taking birth in a brāhmaṇa family or kṣatriya family, one becomes kṣatriya or brāhmaṇa. No. He has to acquire the qualities. That is stated in Bhagavad-gītā. Cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭaṁ guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ (BG 4.13). And the qualification of brāhmaṇa is also stated there: satyaṁ śamaḥ damaḥ śaucaṁ titikṣā ārjavam āstikyam, jñānaṁ vijñānaṁ brahma-karma svabhāva-jam. These are the characteristics of brāhmaṇa. Similarly, there are characteristics of kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra.
The Vedas says, the śāstra says, "This is the magnitude of the soul." You have to take it. Then you will understand. Otherwise, by so-called experiment, you have neither instrument nor facility to make, find out. The first-class medical man or physiologist, find out where is the soul in this body. But they cannot. They have no such power, but there is something which, being absent, the body is dead. That is a fact. That is a fact. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). That... Because that soul has gone out of this body, therefore the body is now dead. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ. Therefore it is authority.
The upper portion, the tip of the hair, just like a point, you divide it into hundred parts and take another one part and divide another hundred parts. That means one ten-thousandth part of the tip of the hair is the dimension of the spirit soul. That spirit soul, on the basis of that spirit soul, this body develops. Any medical scientist knows. And we know from the Vedic literatures that this small particle, atomic particle of spiritual spark, takes shelter in the semina of the father, and the father injects the semina in the womb of the mother. Then, if the situation is favorable, then it takes a form of body just like a pea in the first night. That pealike body develops. Then different holes are manifested. They are developed into eyes, ears, mouth, and so many holes, nine holes in the body. So anyone can understand that that small particle of atomic portion of a spiritual spark develops this body, big body. Not only human body, all sorts of bodies. Similarly, this whole universe is also a development of the spiritual body of Kṛṣṇa, Paramātmā.
So ahaṁ brahmāsmi... Dehino 'smin yathā dehe (BG 2.13). That Brahman, particle of Brahman, is there within the body. It is very small. You just study. It is stated that ātmā and Paramātmā, they are living together. And where is the ātmā, Paramātmā? The Paramātmā is stated also, īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe arjuna tiṣṭhati (BG 18.61). So everything... Paramātmā is within my heart and I am sitting with Paramātmā; therefore I am also within the heart. So medical science, they also know. They take care of the heart. When the heart stops, then everything stops. That means when the ātmā goes out of the heart, it has no meaning. So in the small scale the whole construction of this body is dependent on that ātmā.
So association with Kṛṣṇa means just like association with daylight, sunshine, there is no question of contamination. If you get sunshine always, oh, you will never be..., ultra violet rays... That is scientific truth. If you are always in the sunshine, there will be no disease. This is a practical point. This is a practical fact, that modern medical science, they approve a disease incurable. They recommend, "Just lie down on the sunshine." Yes, it is a fact. And Vedic rules, one man who is diseased, he worships sun. That means he has to come into the sunshine, and naturally his disease will be cured.
So in order to advance in spiritual life, we have to voluntarily decrease these demands of the body. That is called tapasya. In our country especially, many great saintly persons, sages, even kings, voluntarily they would give up these demands of the body, not that artificially increasing these demands of the body. That will not help us in spiritual life. So this strī-saṅga, or association with woman, that is a demand of the body. Loke vyavāyāmiṣa-madya-sevā. Āmiṣa means nonvegetarian foods. Eating flesh, fish, eggs, these are called āmiṣa. And madya means wine, liquor. So all the conditioned souls, they have got a natural inclination for sex life, intoxication, and eating fish, eat... They have got a natural inclination. Even ants, they have got all these inclinations. Expert psychologists and medical men, they have studied that even the ant, it has got also the same propensities. Loke vyavāyāmiṣa-madya-sevā. So when there is legalized, or marriage under religious principle, it is to be understood a sort of concession.
Therefore Kṛṣṇa says that this knowledge is rāja-vidyā. We have got different departments of knowledge, university and institutes. But nowhere this subject matter is discussed, or there is any department. There are... Suppose medical department. What is the medical department? To give us relief from diseased condition. But there is no department which discusses how to become free from all diseases. That is not found. There is no such department. There is department how to give you relief from disease, there is department how to manufacture very effective medicines, but there is no department where knowledge is given that no more disease. Is there any department? Therefore this knowledge which is given by Kṛṣṇa, it is called rāja-vidyā. Rāja-vidyā means the king of knowledge. If you learn this knowledge, then you become completely freed from the conditioned stage of this material world. Therefore it is called rāja. Rāja means king, and vidyā means knowledge.
Prabhupāda: What is that? (laughter)
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Well, when someone is having some kind of mental problem the psychiatrist analyzes it from the medical viewpoint, sometimes from the psychological viewpoint.
Prabhupāda: Hm. Psychiatrist.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes. (laughter)
Prabhupāda: This is an expansion of the energy known as mind. That is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā, khaṁ mano buddhir eva ca. These are subtle matter. So different division. God's creation is wonderful that even if you take the atom, there are so many things. That is... Scientists are... So what to speak of mind, thinking, feeling, willing, and there are so many divisions. So what is your question about the psychiatrist? It is a material thing and very subtle, and there are so many divisions.
So psychiatrists generally their patients are crazy fellows. Generally they treat crazy fellows. Is it not? No sane man goes to a psychiatrist. (laughter) Is it not a fact? So all these crazy men sometimes makes the psychiatrist a crazy also. So more or less, everyone is crazy. That is the... It is not my layman's opinion. It is the opinion of a big medical surgeon. There was a case in the court, murder case. The murderer pleaded that "I became crazy, mad, at that time." That is generally... So the medical man was called to examine. He was great civil surgeon in Calcutta. So he gave his opinion in the court that "So far I have treated many patients, so my opinion is that everyone is more or less a madman. More or less. It is a question of degree."
So submissively, submissively we shall try to hear from the authorized source, representative of God. San-mukharitāṁ bhavadīya-vārtāṁ jīvanti, lives, sthāne sthitāḥ. Sthāne sthitāḥ means keeping himself in his position. Sthāne sthitāḥ. Just like you are hearing Bhagavad-gītā. Some of you are medical man. Some of you are engineer. Some of you businessman. Some of you clerk. That doesn't matter. You keep yourself in your position. You remain as American. You remain as Christian. It doesn't matter. But there is no harm in hearing Bhagavad-gītā. There is no harm. You'll get knowledge. You'll get knowledge. You'll become better Christian. You'll become better American. You see? It is not the purpose, that we are trying to convert American into Indian, or Indian into American, or Christian into Hindu. That is not our mission. We are just preaching the science of Kṛṣṇa, or science of God, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So everyone can learn this science. Just like when you go to college there is no question of whether a man is American or Indian or African. Everyone is allowed in the schools, college and universities to take science, knowledge. So this is Kṛṣṇa consciousness, science of God. Everyone can take. Sthāne sthitāḥ. You just keep yourself in your place. There is no need of change.
So if you take this advantage of Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare, Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare, in whatever position you may be, you will never be unhappy. You will always be prosperous. So why don't you take this advantage? Be situated. Oh, you are medical practitioner? That's all right. You are engineer? That's all right. You are a clerk? That's all right. You are a real estate man? That's all right. Never mind whatever doing. Everyone has to do something to keep his body and soul together. That is the law of nature. Niyataṁ kuru karma tvaṁ karma jyāyo hy akarmaṇaḥ. Arjuna was Kṛṣṇa's friend, but He never said that "You stop your working." Rather, He engaged him in his real work. He was a fighter. He was a soldier. He was declining to do the duty of a soldier. But Kṛṣṇa induced him, "No. You must become a soldier." So we may do whatever by God's grace or by nature's freaks we are situated. That doesn't matter. But if you take this formula, ananyāś cintayanto mām, always think of Kṛṣṇa, then the result will be that you will never be unhappy. Just try. Make an experiment.
So by arguments we cannot reach the Supreme Truth. Tarko 'pratiṣṭhaḥ śrutayo vibhinnāḥ. Not by purchasing books from the market and reading it. No. That also will not help you. Tarko 'pratiṣṭhaḥ śrutayo vibhinnāḥ. If you purchase Bhagavad-gītā, you purchase Bible, you purchase Koran, or... So many, there are, literatures. They are also authorized. That's all right. But you cannot learn them by your own study. Tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet (MU 1.2.12). One must go and learn it from the spiritual master, exactly you purchase some scientific book, medical science, or engineering and study at home. Oh, you will never be acknowledged as a medical practitioner. You have to admit yourself into the, that disciplic succession, medical college. You have to attend lectures. Then, when you pass degree, then you will be admitted.
In, in the market you'll have so many commentaries of the Bhagavad-gītā. In India we have counted, there are about six hundred and forty-five different commentaries of Bhagavad-gītā. One Dr. Rele(?) of Bombay, he has interpreted Bhagavad-gītā as the talks between the patient and the medical practitioner. Yes. He has imposed on Kṛṣṇa as the physician and Arjuna as the patient. And in his commentary he has tried to, I mean to say, interpose all the meanings of anatomy, physiology, everything in his own imagination.
Similarly, at the present moment, there are so many commentaries and people have taken that anybody can interpret in his own way. This is the modern view. Everyone is perfect and he can interpret any scripture in his own way. But so far we are concerned, we are not agreeable to that point. We agree to read Bhagavad-gītā in terms of the instruction as it is given in the Bhagavad-gītā. The Bhagavad-gītā says that this knowledge has to be taken by the paramparā system or the disciplic succession. It is not that anyone can interpret. This viewpoint no bona fide student of Bhagavad-gītā will accept.
Material knowledge, any subject matter you can take, but that is temporary. Just like this body is temporary, similarly, any material knowledge you acquire, either you become a chemist or physicist or a medical man or an engineer, whatever you may acquire knowledge, all this knowledge will finish as soon as this body is finished. You forget. Death means forgetfulness.
It is not śāstra, it is the opinion of medical science also. The medical science. In India there was a case, a murderer. So his pleader, lawyer pleaded that "This man, when committed this murder, he was insane." So the judge called for the civil surgeon to examine him whether he has got such tendency, insanity. So he gave evidence, "My lord, so far my knowledge concerned, I have tested so many men, everyone is insane. It is a question of degree. Now if you consider that he was insane, you, that is your business to punish him, or not punish him. But so far my knowledge is concerned, I have studied so many men and I have found they are all insane." Actually that is the position.
Nārada Muni says, yad anyatrāpi dṛśyeta tat tenaiva vinirdiśet (SB 7.11.35). Every has got qualification. That is very natural. That is very natural. Yasya hi yal-lakṣaṇaṁ syād varṇābhivyanjakam. To ascertain which class a man belongs, whether he is a brāhmaṇa, or a kṣatriya, or vaiśya, there are qualifications. Just like ordinarily we know. We understand an engineer by qualification, a medical practitioner by qualification. We don't ask, "Whose son you are, Mr. Engineer?" No. If you have got engineer's qualification, you are engineer. Otherwise, how can you be engineer? Similarly, yasya hi yal-lakṣaṇaṁ syād varṇābhivyanjakam. Varṇa. This is brahminical quality.
It is not that "If I like, I can go to a guru; if I don't like I can learn the books at home and learn everything." No, that is not possible. Practically... Just like if you purchase some medical book and study at home and if you begin to practice, you will be called a quack. You will not be recognized by the government. You will not get the practitioner's registration. You will not. Unless you have passed through the medical college, your medical examination, you will not be accepted, even if you say that "I have read all the books." Similarly, if you simply think that "I have read... As we see generally, "Oh, I have read Bhagavad-gītā hundred times." But you ask him what is Kṛṣṇa, he cannot say. Because he has not approached the ācārya. This is the difficulty. He might have read Bhagavad-gītā a thousand times, but he will not understand a single word because he has not approached.
Everyone has got particular type of occupational duty. That is called dharma. Dharma is not a faith. The particular duty... Just like you are a medical practitioner. So your dharma is to treat patients. That is your dharma. So everyone has got particular occupational duty. (break) Actually, what is going on as Hindu dharma... Actually, Hindu dharma this word is not there in the śāstras. In the śāstra it is called varṇāśrama-dharma. Four varṇas: brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra; and four āśramas: brahmacārī, gṛhastha, vānaprastha, and sannyāsa. These are called varṇāśrama-dharma. So in every varṇa, brāhmaṇa, his qualification is described in the śāstra. Śamo damas titikṣā ārjavaṁ kṣāntir jñānaṁ vijñānam āstikyaṁ brahma-karma svabhāva-jam (BG 18.42). Similarly, kṣatriya, vaiśya. So by discharging one's occupational duty according to varṇa and āśrama, if one does not understand Kṛṣṇa, the Bhāgavata says, śrama eva hi kevalam. Then he's simply spoiling his time and wasting his labor. That's all.
I am seeing you, your hands and legs and head, but I am actually not seeing you. You are seeing me, you are seeing my hands and legs, but you are not seeing me. So even the particles of spirit soul, the part and parcel of God, we cannot see. How we can see God? Even a small particle, mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūtaḥ (BG 15.7). All living entities are part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. Just like if even a drop of ocean water we cannot recognize, how we can recognize the ocean? Similarly, we living entities, we are simply small particle of the spirit soul, Kṛṣṇa. Mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūtaḥ (BG 15.7). So we cannot see. No medical man has ever seen what is that soul, although they are perceiving there is soul. Now medical men, cardiologists, they are accepting, "Yes, there is soul." But we cannot see.
This is another statement of Bhagavad-gītā, that the Lord, Supreme Lord, he is situated in everyone's heart, hṛd-deśe, particularly pointed out. Hṛd-deśe means "in the heart". Hṛt means heart. So modern medical science, they see that the energy is coming from the heart and as soon as the heart stops to work, it is said that the body is dead. So here also the same thing is confirmed. Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe 'rjuna tiṣṭhati (BG 18.61). They cannot say, explain, why the heart stops, but here we get the explanation that as soon as the soul, both the soul and the Supersoul, leave this body, then it is only a lump of matter only. "Dust thou art; dust thou beist." It is developed from these material elements, five gross elements and three subtle elements, but so long... It works as long as the soul, the spirit soul and the Supersoul, remains.
Therefore, in the Bhagavad-gītā the last instruction is that "You surrender to Me. Sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). So if we surrender to God and if we serve God, because we are part and parcel, then we shall be happy. The energy will come from the central.
Just like the energy is coming from the heart. Because, this is practical medically, and scientifically. The energy is coming. As soon as the heart fails, everything stops. And the energy is there because īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe arjuna tiṣṭhati (BG 18.61). Hṛd-deśe, it is there, the īśvara, the Supreme Lord as Paramātmā, is situated within your heart. Now you find out, if you have got means to see. But the situation is given, described in the śāstra.
We are also sac-cid-ānanda, but at the present moment our vigrahaḥ, our body is different. This is, subjected to birth, death, old age, and disease. This we have to conquer; this is the problem. I don't want to die, why death is enforced upon me? That these rascals they have no brain. That I don't want to die. How I can escape death? Just like we are trying to escape disease. We don't want to be diseased. As soon as we become diseased, we go to a doctor, we take medical help. "Sir, cure my disease, cure my disease." Then why don't you go to a doctor who can give you relief from death? But they have no brain. The educational system is so rascaldom that there is no brain. All over the world. There is no institution where people are being taught how to conquer over death. There is no such institution.
Only this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is there. How to conquer over death.
Anye means general public, not very important men. Anye. Anye tu evam ajānantaḥ. They do not know, because they are like animals, what is kṣetra... Kṛṣṇa is discussing in this chapter, what is kṣetra, what is kṣetra-jña, what is knowledge, what is knowable, what is prakṛti, what is puruṣa. Who is studying all these things? There is not institution, no school, college, university, to study these things. They have medical college. Kṣetra means this body. Idaṁ śarīraṁ kṣetram ity abhidhīyate. So they have little knowledge about this anatomical, physiological, condition of this body, but they do not know the kṣetra-jña. Kṣetra-jña they do not know.
They may know something, but Kṛṣṇa says, kṣetra-kṣetrajñayor jñānaṁ yaj jñānaṁ tad mataṁ mama. Unless you know the kṣetra and kṣetra-jña both, then your knowledge is imperfect. The medical man, very experienced medical man, attending a man on the deathbed, oxygen gas, injection, everything is supplied, but the man dies. And when he dies, the medical man says, "We cannot say what has happened. We have tried our best with the modern medical appliances, but we do not know what has happened." Therefore their knowledge is imperfect. They cannot say. They do not know that there is the soul, kṣetra-jña, who has now left this body. Therefore it is nothing but a lump of matter.
I have several times spoken to you that in my, when I was about six months old, I remember, I remember I was lying down on my eldest sister's lap, and she was knitting. I still remember it very vividly. And so many things I remember. But where is that body, lying down on the lap of mother or sister? You cannot say... Either you say it has grown, grown or not grown... According to medical science, it is not grown; it is changed. The body is changing. Just like in a film spool, you will find so many bodies. One hand is like this, one hand is like this, one hand is like this, and when they are taken together, it moves like this. This is the film. Film means there are different bodies in different position and when they are taken at once, it, likes that it moves. The picture is not moving. Similarly, we are changing of the different body, but it is taking place so quickly and so imperceptibly by Kṛṣṇa's energy. The machine is so nice that we are thinking that it is growing. It is not growing, all different bodies, all different. Every moment, every second. That is the scientific. The blood corpuscles are changing, and the body is different.
Now, if you want to reach to the ultimate goal of life, where only blissful life, sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ (Bs. 5.1), eternal body of knowledge and bliss, then you have to become sura. It is not that the asuras will remain asura. It doesn't matter. Even born in the asura family one can become sura. Just like Prahlāda Mahārāja. His father was asura, but he was perfect sura. That is possible. It is not prohibited to anyone. If he wants to become sura... Just like in ordinary life also. If you are determined to become medical man, you can become. There is no impediment. If you are persistent, you can become medical man, engineer, or anything. People are trying, education. Similarly, if you want to become sura, there is no impediment, and there is no obstacle. You can become. Simply you have to know what sort of life we should accept, pravṛtti—this is called pravṛtti—and what sort of life we should reject. This is required. This is the distinction between sura and asura.
The person is exactly the animal, cows or asses. Who? Now, yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke: "One who has accepted this body as self." Ātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape. This is a bag, the bag of tri-dhātus. According to Ayurvedic medical science this body is working under three elements, kapha, pitta, vāyu. Therefore it is called tri-dhātu. So the whole world is going on on this concept of life. They have no spiritual. Even big, big professors, big, big, they also say that "This body is everything. After the body is finished, then everything is finished." But that is not the fact. That is the first spiritual education to understand, that "I am not this body." Ahaṁ brahmāsmi: "I am spirit soul."
Therefore we have to change. Just like a man diseased, he can be changed into a healthy person provided he follows the medical rules and regulation, takes medicine, diet and... That is possible. So if one does not follow the regulation, rules and regulation, he remains there, diseased. It is not that, that "We have become now free. We can talk nonsensically and we can behave like nonsense. Still, we are advanced," That is not possible. Sāttvikī rājasī caiva tāmasī ceti tāṁ śṛṇu. How? What are the symptoms to know that one is situated in the sattva-guṇa or one is situated in the rajo-guṇa or one is situated in tamo-guṇa? By the symptoms.
There are many other examples. Just like water. Water is liquid, everyone knows. But sometimes water becomes solid, ice, under certain circumstances. That is not his dharma. To remain liquid-its dharma. Therefore, sometimes water, even it is transformed into solid ice, it melts, again wants to become water. This is dharma. So what is our dharma, we human being. There is no question of any sect, any nation or any party, no, as human being. As human being or living being, what is our dharma? Dharma is to render service. Every one of us is rendering service. As a family man, he is rendering service, as a society man, as a national—everyone is, whatever... Or occupation. As a medical man, you are also offering your service. As engineer, you are offering your service, or any other, businessman, you are also. Sometimes businessmen, they hang the signboard, "Our first business is to offer you service." So everyone is engaged in giving service to somebody else. This is called dharma, basic principle of dharma. So what is our dharma, living entity? Our dharma is to render service. But we are rendering service? But no. We are rendering service not rightly, but wrongly. Therefore you are no satisfied. There are many examples.
In every respect we can render service. In all positions we can render service to Kṛṣṇa. And that is being taught here: sve sve karmaṇi, sve sve karmaṇy abhirataḥ. You are a medical man. You are giving service. You can also be engaged in giving service to Kṛṣṇa. Sve sve karmaṇi. Or you are a businessman or you are engineer, whatever you may be. Sve sve karmaṇi. Everyone has got a particular type of duty, engagement. That is dharma. So sve sve karmaṇy abhirataḥ saṁsiddhiṁ labhate naraḥ. He can become perfect.
Then I have got guṇa, but I do not practice it. Suppose I have passed medical examination, but I do not practice. Then nobody will call me a doctor sir. I must practice. I must cure patient. Then I will be known as medical practitioner. So guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ, not only quality but also practice. So what are the guṇas? The guṇas are described in the Bhagavad-gītā. Everything is there. Simply we have to study thoroughly and understand it thoroughly. Then the whole human society will be in peace and they will make progress not only in this life but in the next life also.
| Page Title: | Medical (BG Lectures) |
| Compiler: | Rishab, Mayapur |
| Created: | 18 of May, 2011 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=93, Con=0, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 93 |