So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is a treatment to cure this disease, atheist and rogues, to come to Kṛṣṇa consciousness and be happy. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. It is not an artificial thing to give you facility for your sense gratification. No. There is no question of sense gratification. That is disease. The healthy state is how to satisfy Kṛṣṇa. That is bhakti. Bhakti definition, you know:
- anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ
- jñāna-karmādy-anāvṛtam
- ānukūlyena kṛṣṇānu-
- śīlanaṁ bhaktir uttamā
- (Brs. 1.1.11)
That is bhakti, no other business. Anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyam. Śūnyam means zero. We are singing, āra nā kariha mane āśā **. Make all... They could not understand. They are so much atheistic that it was impossible for them to understand what is God, what is devotion. So therefore Lord Buddha propounded the philosophy, "Make all your nonsense activities zero, so much. First of all make zero, then positive we shall say." That is zero movement, śūnyavādī. At least, if a rascal children is always doing something nonsense, then first of all stop him. Make him zero. Then good lesson: "Come. Do this." So this Buddhist movement means to make their atheistic activities zero. At least that is good. It is better not to... Maunam, silent. Instead of talking all nonsense, better be silent; don't create disturbance. So... And the other movement, nirviśeṣa-vādī, are giving little hint, Śaṅkarācārya, Māyāvāda, that "Yes, this zero is not sufficient. There is positive." Brahma satyaṁ jagan mithyā. His movement was that "This material world is false; make it zero. But there is a positive thing which is Brahman." What is that Brahman, he did not disclose.
Then the Vaiṣṇava ācāryas, Rāmanujācārya, Madhvācārya, they said, brahma satya. And what is Brahman? Brahmeti paramātmeti bhagavān iti śabdyate (SB 1.2.11). Brahman, first realization, impersonal; then localized; then person. Just like Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā, imaṁ vivasvate yogaṁ proktavān aham avyayam: (BG 4.1) "Long, long years ago, millions of years ago, I spoke this philosophy to the sun-god, Vivasvān." So, Kṛṣṇa, as He was instructing Arjuna, similarly, He was instructing the sun-god that... Arjuna is a person. Kṛṣṇa is a person. Similarly, sun-god is also a person, and Kṛṣṇa is a person. And Kṛṣṇa says in the Second Chapter of Bhagavad-gītā that "My dear Arjuna, you, Me, and all of them who are standing here in this battlefield, we were existing in the past, we are existing now, and we shall continue to exist." So God is person; we are also person. We existed in the past as person, we are existing now as person and we shall continue to exist as person. There is no question of imperson. If past, present, future, everywhere is a person, where is the question of imperson? So imperson means... Just like the sun-god is person, but the sunshine is imperson. Those who are in the sunshine, they cannot understand what is sun-god. That is not possible. It requires strength. If you want to go and see the sun-god Vivasvān, that requires qualification. It is not so easy. You cannot enter even the sun planet, what to speak of talking with him. But Kṛṣṇa could talk. Kṛṣṇa can go anywhere. And when there is sun-god, then "god" means not alone. A king does not mean alone. King means he has got his kingdom, he has got his subjects, he has got minister, he has got military strength. Everything is there. So similarly, if we accept Kṛṣṇa's statement that "I spoke to sun-god," the sun-god is there in the sun globe, and he has his kingdom, so dazzling kingdom. It looks like fire, blazing. But don't think it is impersonal. Impersonal? How Kṛṣṇa could talk with him? There is no question of impersonality.
So here, adharmaḥ vijñātaḥ, the degrees. Real dharma is, Kṛṣṇa is explaining in the Bhagavad..., sarva-dharmān parityajya... (BG 18.66). You have created, man-made, so many dharmas. So one Bengali Vaiṣṇava, he has mentioned, pṛthivite yaha kichu dharma nāme cale, bhāgavat kahe taha paripūrṇa chale. Bhāgavata, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam says, dharmaḥ projjhita-kaitavo 'tra: (SB 1.1.2) "In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam all kaitava"—kaitava means cheating—"cheating type of religious religious system is kicked out." Projjhita, dharmaḥ projjhita-kaitavo atra. So dharma is one; religion is one. There cannot be different types of religion. That is concoction. Dharmaṁ tu sākṣād bhagavat-praṇītam (SB 6.3.19). I have several times... So dharma and adharma. These witnesses are there to see who is disobeying the orders of the Lord. That is adharma. A clear order is that sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). This is dharma. Everything is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā, what is jñāna, what is dharma, what is vairāgya.
So we have got this opportunity, this human form of life. As I was saying yesterday, kṛṣṇa-bhuliya jīva... Anādi bahirmukha jīva kṛṣṇa bhuli gela, ataeva kṛṣṇa veda-purāṇa karila. We do not know when, but since a very, very long time, anādi... Ādi means it is beginning of this creation. And before that, anādi. Anādi bahir-mukha jīva. We are forgetful of Kṛṣṇa since a very, very long time, and going within the cycle of birth and death, transmigration. So we get the opportunity, this human form of life. So we must revive our consciousness by going through, by understanding, by hearing these literatures. Veda-Purāṇa. Veda-Purāṇa. Anādi bahir-mukha jīva kṛṣṇa bhuli gela. Our position is: we have forgotten God. But this forgetfulness can be subdued, and we can revive our original consciousness. Just like a man sleeping, but if you call him again and again, "Mr. such and such, get up. Get up. Now your time is to go to office and do this, to do that," similarly, although we are sleeping on the lap of māyā, kota nidrā yao māyā piśācīra kole, so we can be awakened by simply this chanting process, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare.
So this chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra will cleanse our heart. We are loaded with so many dirty things, so this can be cleansed. Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanaṁ bhava-mahā-dāvāgni-nirvāpanam (CC Antya 20.12). This Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is to cleanse the heart of the human being and get out all the..., projjhita, kick out all dirty things and concentrate on devotional service of Kṛṣṇa. And the beginning is śṛṇvatām, śṛṇvatām, this process. It doesn't require that you should be very rich man or you should be very educated or so on, so on. No. In whatever position you are, remain. There is no question of artificial improvement. There is no question. You remain. Simply God has given you the ear. Utilize it properly. That's all. You don't require to go to the university and get a Ph.D. degree and then you can understand. No. That is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's mission, that,
- jñāne prayāsam udapāsya namanta eva
- jīvanti san-mukharitāṁ bhavadīya-vārtām
- sthāne sthitāḥ śruti-gatāṁ tanu-vāṅ-manobhiḥ
Caitanya Mahāprabhu's movement is so nice that you don't require to acquire something artificial. No. Wherever you are, remain there. Simply hear. And preaching means to propagate or to vibrate what Kṛṣṇa has said. So this is the position of the preacher, that you simply repeat, like a parrot, no qualification. You simply ... Whatever is said in the Bhagavad-gītā, you repeat. And the others simply hear. Śravaṇaṁ kīrtanam (SB 7.5.23). Then both of them become liberated. There is no question of that, to become a qualified person. This is the only qualification, that a preacher should preach only what Kṛṣṇa has said. That's all. No manufacturing, no concoction. And the audience? They will hear from such person who does not speak anything else except Kṛṣṇa's teaching, that's all. These two things, if carried, then your both the life,(?) the śravaṇaṁ kīrtanam, the one who is speaking and one who is hearing, both of them are benefited.
So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is opening so many centers just to give people opportunity to hear. To hear. So I am very glad that this church... This was a church, and nobody was coming here, and therefore it was sold to us. Now... You are all belonging to America, Los Angeles, and the church also was there. Now why it is crowded? It is not that you are imported from India to hear about Kṛṣṇa. (laughter) So if there is substance, they will hear. If there is no substance, who will hear? That is the difference. So substance is here. Ataeva kṛṣṇa veda-purāṇa karila. You hear these Vedas and Purāṇas and make your life successful.
Thank you very much.