In the Bhagavad-gītā it is plainly said, mūḍha. Mūḍha means asses, rascal. He does not know his own interest. He is called mūḍha, ass. Just like ass. Ass is whole day working with tons of cloth on his back, but he does not... Not a piece of cloth belongs to him. This is ass. And he is working so hard only for a morsel of grass, which is available everywhere. But he is thinking that "This gentleman, washerman, is giving me food." This is ass. Such food can be available anywhere and everywhere, but he is thinking like that and working so hard. So karmīs are like that. He will eat two capātis or four capātis, but he is working day and night. If you want to see him, he will say, "Oh, I have no time." He does not think at any time that "I am interested to eat four capātis, which can be very easily available. So why I am working so hard?" But that sense does not come. He is working, working, working, "More money, more money, more money, more money, more money." The Bhāgavata says, "No, no. This is not your business." The four capātis is already destined to you; you will get, any circumstances. You don't waste your time simply under some false impression of economic development. Don't waste your time.
Plain (Lectures)
Lectures
Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures
"Kṛṣṇa, actually I am puzzled. It is my duty to fight, but now I am puzzled whether I shall fight or not fight because, after all, the other side, they are my relatives, family members, dhārtarāṣṭrāḥ. Dhṛtarāṣṭra is my elder brother of my father, and his sons they are my cousin-brothers. So I am puzzled whether I shall fight." He plainly explained his position that "Not that I have become anārya. I have got sufficient strength. I can fight, but I am puzzled whether I shall fight in this case or not."
Now that īśvara, sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha, how He appears sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha? Those who are present, of course, they saw the sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha, but because not all of them were devotees, they could not understand Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam (BG 9.11). Because He appeared just like a human being, so mūḍhas... Mūḍhas means less intelligent, or, in plain word, asses. Mūḍha means ass. So this class of men could not understand Kṛṣṇa, that He's the Supreme Personality of Godhead. That is the defect of the mūḍhas. They may be very great scholars, academic scholar, but in the matter of understanding God, they're mūḍhas, asses.
How plainly, how easily explained that kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā. There are three stages, kaumāram. Up to fifteenth year, it is called kaumāra. And then from sixteenth year, it begins youthful life up to fortieth year. Then after forty, one becomes jarā, old man. Primarily old man and later on. Say, forty to fifty, primarily old man, and after fifty, he is old man. Therefore it is advised pañcāś ordhvaṁ vanaṁ vrajet. Pañcāś means fifty. Ūrdhvam, fifty-one. And rest of the days, maybe one hundred years, but that is not possible nowadays. Maybe seventy, eighty, utmost. Somebody lives ninety, ninety-five. Hundred years, although the limit, nowadays nobody lives. So those who are dhīra, gentlemen, sober-headed, cool-headed, they can understand that "I have changed my body. When I was a boy, up to fifteenth year, I remember how I was playing, how I was jumping. Then I became young man. How I was enjoying my life with friends and families. Now I am old man." "I am" means my body. Dehinaḥ. Dehi and dehinaḥ. Dehi means the proprietor of the body, owner of the body, and deha means the body.
This is called enthusiasm. Then dhairyāt. "I have become Kṛṣṇa's devotee, but still I'm not feeling happy. How is that?" So therefore you have to become patient. The enthusiasm must be there, you must be patient also. And niścayāt. Niścayāt means you must be confident. "Oh, Kṛṣṇa has said that His devotee will never be vanquished, so surely I shall not be vanquished, even though I don't feel now. Let me do my duty." Utsāhād dhairyān niścayāt tat-tat-karma-pravartanāt. But you have to do your duties as they are prescribed. Sato vṛtteḥ. You should not... There should be no duplicity. Sato vṛtteḥ means plain dealing, straight dealing. Sato vṛtteḥ, and sādhu-saṅge, and in the company of devotees. So one must be enthusiastic, one must be patient, one must be confident, one must execute the duties, one must associate with devotees, and one must be very honest in dealing. Six things. If these six things are there, sure success.
Yes. As Arjuna has accepted. Arjuna was talking with Kṛṣṇa as friend, but he has accepted. Although he is friend, he has accepted Him as spiritual master. The significance is that as soon as you accept somebody as spiritual master, you cannot argue. You have to accept. You have to accept. Therefore the selection of spiritual (master) must be very scrutinizing. You cannot accept anyone as spiritual master. You must be very much satisfied that here is a person who can solve the problems of my life. Just like Arjuna thought. He plainly said that "The problem which is before me, I know, beyond You, besides You, nobody can make solution." That is the way of accepting spiritual master. When one is fully convinced that "Here is a person who can actually solve the problems of my life," then one should accept spiritual master. In the Hari-bhakti-vilāsa there is such process that one should accept a spiritual master after associating with him for some time. Similarly, the spiritual master also shall accept somebody as disciple after associating with him for some time, whether he is eligible or not. This is the process. Go on.
Here it is plainly said by Lord Kṛṣṇa, "the self, one who is taking pleasure in self." How we can take pleasure in self? As soon as we engage ourself with the Supreme Self. That is enjoyment. Ānandamayo 'bhyāsāt (Vedānta-sūtra 1.1.12). The Supreme Lord is joyful. Just like if you mix with a joyful society or joyful person, then automatically you become joyful. There is no necessity of becoming joyful separately. That association will make you joyful. If you mix with a society criminal, automatically you become criminal. There is no necessity of learning criminality separately. By association, you'll do that.
"If I do not place idea before the living entities, praja..." Praja means those who have taken birth, they are called praja. Ja means birth. Janma, janma. And praja, prakṛṣṭa-rūpeṇa ja. Anyone, praja... Just like in a state it is called praja, or citizens, who have taken the birth in that particular place. So similarly, Lord Kṛṣṇa says that "If I do not set example in My life, then there will be unwanted population." Unwanted population. And actually that has become now in the present world. By not following the principles of God consciousness or Kṛṣṇa consciousness we have got now unwanted population. Unwanted population. Here it is plainly written, saṅkarasya ca kartā syām. Saṅkarasya ca means cross-breeding, saṅkarasya.
Just like one has got the bottle of honey. If one thinks that "I have got the bottle of honey. Let me lick up the bottle," so licking the bottle, what taste you will get? The bottle has to be opened and see what is there. (laughter) And if a rascal thinks that "I am licking this bottle, I am eating honey, I am tasting honey," he's a rascal number one. Simply. So similarly, if one is not bhakta, if one is not Kṛṣṇa's devotee, that rascal cannot understand Bhagavad-gītā. Plainly. Plainly it is stated here. First of all, try to become the devotee of Kṛṣṇa. Then try to understand what is Bhagavad-gītā. Not by your scholarship or by your speculation. Then you'll never understand Bhagavad-gītā. If you have to understand Bhagavad-gītā, then you have to understand by the process as stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, not by your own mental speculation. This is the process of understanding. Bhakto 'si me sakhā ceti.
Actually, it is a fact that if you want to know about spiritual knowledge then you have to know it from India. That is recommended by one Chinese gentleman, I forget his name. His book is recommended as study book in the New York University. He has plainly written that if you have to understand the science of religion then you have to go to India. He has clearly said that.
So anyway, here Kṛṣṇa is imparting knowledge to Arjuna. The condition of the living entity, both Himself and the ordinary living entity. God and living entity, individual living entity. God is also individual. He is also living entity. He's not dead. Just like in your country, they have, some of them, they have taken it granted that God is dead. Is it not? Somebody says that God is dead. So God cannot be dead. If I am not dead, if I am eternal, how God can be dead? He is also eternal. So these things are very nicely explained.
Just like this body. This body is made of material nature, and we are within this body. Dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā (BG 2.13). So long we have got this body, material body, we must be unhappy. First of all, we must try to understand why we are unhappy. We are unhappy because we are in this material body. And the... What is that unhappiness? It is ending in four principles, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi (BG 13.9). To take birth and again to die, and so long we live we must suffer from some disease, and we must become old. Plain truth.
I am speaking especially of India because this Bhagavad-gītā was first seen in India, in the Indian plain. Of course, it is not meant for India. It is meant for everyone. Just like the sun rises in the east first, then comes to the west, but that does not mean east has the monopoly of the sun and not the west. Similarly, the sun of Bhagavad-gītā might have arisen in the land of India, but that does not mean that it is the monopoly of India. It is meant for everyone. It is meant for everyone. So it is an accepted authority. So mahājano yena gataḥ sa panthāḥ (CC Madhya 17.186). So we have to follow great personalities. Yes.
Because as you know that I am combination of matter and spirit... I am spirit, and I am now entangled in this material body. I am spirit, consciousness. As soon as I am out of this body, I can distinguish or... I cannot distinguish because I will go away. You can distinguish that "Now this real Swamiji's spirit is gone; the Swamiji's material body is here." So it is very plain thing. Therefore we should not only have perfect knowledge of this matter, but we should have perfect knowledge of the spirit also, if we are actually intelligent. Therefore the brāhmaṇas... Why they are called brāhmaṇas? Brahma jānāti iti brāhmaṇaḥ. Brahmin, it is English transcription. But real word is brāhmaṇa, brāhmaṇa. And wherefrom this brāhmaṇa word comes? Brahma jānāti iti brāhmaṇaḥ. That means one who knows the spirit, the spiritual. One who has got complete knowledge of the spiritual world, he is called brāhmaṇa.
Why you should? Kāma. We require to fulfill our, some desires. That desire means we have to eat something, we have to sleep somewhere, we must have a little sense gratification also, and we must defend. That is allowed. That is allowed. But why kaṣṭān kāmān? Why you should work so hard to satisfy your senses like the dogs, hogs and other animals? That is the Kṛṣṇa philosophy. Be satisfied, plain living and high thinking. That is required. If you miss this opportunity of human life and spoil it like dogs and hogs, then you lose the opportunity. This is the... Bahūnāṁ sambhavānte. Prahlāda Mahārāja says, kaumāra ācaret prājño dharmān bhāgavatān..., durlabhaṁ mānuṣaṁ janma (SB 7.6.1). A child should be taught Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Kaumāra ācaret prājño dharmān bhāgavatān... Dharmān... Generally... (break) ...kāma. Kāma means personal sense satisfaction, kāma. That may be extended, society-wise or family-wise or nation-wise, but that is kāma-saṅkalpa.
Yes. "Abandoning all attachment to the results of the activities." Everyone is aspiring some result of his activity. So the plain example is suppose you are working in an office. So you are not concerned with the result. You have to simply do your duty. The result, the ultimate profit or loss of that establishment is concern for the proprietors or directors. But your duty is that the post which you are occupying, you must do your work very nicely. That's your duty. Without being attached to the result. The result will be enjoyed by the proprietors of that establishment.
Viṣṇujana: If all that is required is chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, why do we have the pictures and the clothes and the instruments and the altar and Lord Jagannātha?
Prabhupāda: Because we are personalist. We are not impersonal. This is spiritual varieties. You are talking of no varieties. Is it not? You were asking me, "Why there are so many varieties?" This is your plain question.
Guest: Not only that. Why are the heads shaved?
Prabhupāda: That is another variety. So you want variety-less. Is it not?
Guest: No. I am asking why these are necessary. Why are they necessary?
Prabhupāda: They are not necessary for a person who is advanced. But in the preliminary stage we have such necessities. This creates atmosphere, but at the same time, these varieties are not, I mean to say, material varieties. They are spiritual varieties. The place where we are trying to approach, Vaikuṇṭha, there the inhabitants are like this. They have got this tilaka, they have got... Of course, we haven't got four hands, but they have got four hands. There are two hands also. And they are dressed like this. So these things are not material varieties as much as chanting is not material vibration.
The other day so many students came, now nobody. Because they want to remain the first-class rascal, that's all. That is... It is a fact. So unless one is very intelligent, they cannot take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. They want to be bluffed, cheated, in this way or that way. That's all. Plain thing, simple thing. And result is very great, they'll not agree to accept.
So our real business is to understand Kṛṣṇa. So Kṛṣṇa is explaining Himself. Then there is no difficulty. If you want to know me, you can imagine so many things: "Swamiji may be this. Swamiji may be that, like that, like this, like that." They are all imperfect. But if I tell you about myself openly that "I am like this," then your knowledge is perfect. Everyone says, "There is no God." Somebody says, "God is there, but He has no form," and somebody says, "He has any form you like. Imagine any form." In this way speculation is going on all over the world. Actually they are not interested in God. That is the plain simple thing. They do not want to know God, and they think there is no need of understanding. But that is the only need, to understand God. That they do not know. Therefore they are called fools and rascals, mūḍha. Mūḍho nābhijānāti mām ebhyaḥ param avyayam. So Kṛṣṇa therefore left His instruction behind Him that "These mūḍhas, rascals, after studying Bhagavad-gītā they may understand Me. I am keeping behind Me."
To merge into the Supreme, that is spiritual benefit. And material benefit, to get some material profits within this world, this life or next life. So that is bhukti. Bhukti and mukti. And merging into the spiritual effulgence, brahma-jyotir, that is also aśānta, because after all, he is wanting something. Bhukti-mukti-siddhi-kāmī. He wants something. To merge. And the yogis, they are plainly wanting some siddhis. So they, every one of them are wanting, in need. Therefore they are aśānta. They cannot be śānta. Kṛṣṇa-bhakta niṣkāma (CC Madhya 19.149). Kṛṣṇa-bhakta does not want anything. He does not want anything. He want to serve to Kṛṣṇa. That's all. Mama janmani janmanīśvare bhavatād bhaktir ahaitukī (Cc. Antya 20.29, Śikṣāṣṭaka 4). This is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's... Janmani janmani: "Ah, it doesn't matter. I take my birth, one after another. It doesn't matter. But I want simply to be engaged in Your service. That's all." This is niṣkāma. Janmani janmani means not even mukti. To stop repetition of birth, a devotee does not want even that. The jñānīs, they want stopping this repetition of birth, but bhakta, they do not want even stopping this.
All of them working like hogs and dogs. They do not know there is something other. This is the position. And the modern civilization means keep him in the darkness, that "Let him work hard like hogs and dogs, and don't give him any knowledge." Neither they know, the so-called leaders, what is the perfection. They think, "This is life: work like hog and dog, and then die like hog and dog, finish all business." This is not human life. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu kaścid yatati siddhaye (BG 7.3). They do not know what is perfection of life. Therefore we sometimes... We do not say. Kṛṣṇa says. And if we repeat Kṛṣṇa's words, the rascals, they become angry. Actually they are rascals. We plainly say. Because he does not know. If I ask him, "What is your next life?" he cannot answer. Then what is the difference? If I ask the dog that "What is your next life?" he cannot say. "Gow! gow!" That's all. So if I ask any human being that "What is your next life?" "I don't bother about that thing." (laughter) The same answer, "Gow! Gow!" That's all.
So far your material necessities are concerned, oh, there is enough. All right, you are eating? Can your manufacturing process can supply eating from the factories? No. Then why do you bother about the factory? Why you spoil your energy? Just eat. Be satisfied, whatever God has given you, and culture, devote your time for reviving your eternal relationship with God. Plain living and high thinking—that is the best type of civilization. You want sex? Can you manufacture sex in the factory? No. Then? It is supplied by God. So everything, whatever you require, that is supplied by God. You take advantage of it and be God conscious or Kṛṣṇa conscious. That is your business.
Kṛṣṇa preached this Bhagavad-gītā, five thousand years ago, but it was not broadly preached. It was spoken on the battlefield of Kurukṣetra. Arjuna knew it and some of his other friends. But Caitanya Mahāprabhu is also Kṛṣṇa. He appeared as a devotee of Kṛṣṇa. And He distributed this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement and He wanted that every Indian should seriously take this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, make his life perfect, and distribute the knowledge. This is India's duty. So you have got one opportunity, you Indian people, that you take this advantage of distributing Kṛṣṇa consciousness. It is good for you and for everyone who takes the knowledge very adherently. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says... This is Ninth Chapter of Bhagavad-gītā where He is speaking plainly about bhāgavata-bhakti. And this knowledge is described as rāja-guhyam. Most confidential knowledge.
So this is called mṛtyu-saṁsāra-vartmani. If we want to save this botheration, then hear what Kṛṣṇa says. Then your life will be successful. If you don't accept Kṛṣṇa's works, which are very plainly explained in the Bhagavad-gītā, then you have to remain in this mṛtyu-saṁsāra-vartmani. It is very plain truth. There is no doubt about it, that... You may be very proud of your strong body, your social condition or political condition, but after death it is not under your control. It is under the control of the material nature. So don't be falsely proud, bewildered. Ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā kartāham iti manyate (BG 3.27). Don't be foolish person by false egotism that "I am free, I can do whatever I like." Then you'll suffer and remain in the path of repetition of birth and death. And there are 8,400,000 species of life. We have to go through this process, we fall down. So this human form of life is obtained, bahūnāṁ janmanām ante (BG 7.19), after many many births, evolutional process we have got it. Now it is the time to understand our position. What is that position? The position is that we are eternal part and parcel of God.
So where is the difficulty to understand? Plain thing. Plain thing. But we are stubborn. We do not wish to understand. This is not a sectarian; this is a science. If a child becomes a boy, is that sectarian? The Hindu child becomes a boy, Hindu boy, and the Christian child becomes a Christian. That is outward, Hindu, Muslim, Christian. But within this body... I am Hindu or Christian because I have got this body from the Christian father-mother, Hindu father-mother. But that is body. I am not this body. Therefore we have to understand first that "I am not this body. Therefore I am not Hindu, not Muslim, not Christian, not black, not white. I am pure spirit soul." Ahaṁ brahmāsmi.
Prabhupāda: Because you were not born. After your birth we have come here to take you back to home, back to Godhead. Now you take the opportunity; come with us. We were waiting for your birth.
Gurukṛpā: Questions?
Guest (2) (man): How can one strengthen the spiritual will to act plain and live the spiritual life?
Prabhupāda: Spiritual life we are leading here. You can see. We are worshiping the Deity. We are chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. We haven't got to go to the factory early in the morning. This is spiritual life. Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, eat sumptuously Kṛṣṇa prasādam, and worship the Deity, that is spiritual life.
Devotee: Śrīla Prabhupāda, can one be in spiritual life if they're not worshiping the Deity?
Prabhupāda: Spiritual life means service to Kṛṣṇa. So if you don't serve Kṛṣṇa, where is spiritual life? That is the difference between material life and spiritual life. In the material life you serve but you don't serve Kṛṣṇa. Or you serve Kṛṣṇa indirectly under pressure. But actually when you serve Kṛṣṇa then you are situated in spiritual life.
Therefore Kṛṣṇa says: mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram (BG 9.10). It is Kṛṣṇa who has entered this material world and He is supervising all the actions and reactions of this material world. Therefore it is moving. Mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ. Prakṛti has no power. These rascals, foolish persons, they are thinking that the prakṛti is working automatically. No, that is not possible. Prakṛti is jaḍa. Jaḍa-prakṛti. Jaḍa-prakṛti. Without any sense. The motor car has got the wheels, the machine, everything, but it has no sense. So unless there is a sensible driver there, it cannot move. Very plain truth. Anyone can understand. But we are so foolishly educated that we do not accept this fact. We say that: "Matter is the cause of life. We do not accept this theory that life is the cause of matter." Because they are atheistic persons. As soon as they accept that life is the cause of matter, they have to accept God. Immediately. Immediately they have to accept God.
Of course, when there is something, talks about God, it is taken as religious. So religious, the meaning of religion in the English dictionary is different from what we mean by religion, that in the dictionary it is said, "Religion is a kind of faith." Faith may be wrong or right, but religion cannot be wrong or right. Religion must be correct. That is the meaning of religion. the example is that the sugar is sweet. It is not the question of wrong or right. Sugar must be always sweet. You cannot change it. That is religion. Chili is hot. That is correct. Chili cannot be sweet, and sugar cannot be hot. So religion means that. Religion described in the Vedic śāstras is said, dharmaṁ tu sākṣād bhagavat-praṇītam: (SB 6.3.19) "Dharma means..." The plain description of religion is "the code, or the laws, given by God." Dharmaṁ tu sākṣād bhagavat-praṇītam (SB 6.3.19).
And another facility is that because sometimes we cannot understand what is actually Bhagavad-gītā's purpose. It is very plain. Still, as we are very much unfortunate, we cannot understand. That misfortune can be avoided by chanting this Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. It will cleanse the heart. Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanaṁ bhava-mahā-dāvāgni-nirvāpaṇam (CC Antya 20.12). We are suffering for misunderstanding—misunderstanding that "I am this body, I belong to this nation, I belong to this family, I belong to this, that, so many things." All misunderstanding, all misunderstanding. My real identity is ahaṁ brahmāsmi: "I am spirit soul. Fortunately or unfortunately, by my own work, I have been put into the encagement of this body, temporary body, and I am creating another body. In this way I am traveling from one body to another, from one planet to another, from one place to another. This is going on." Bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19). "I am taking my birth and again I am becoming annihilated, although I am eternal."
If you simply speculate He'll remain dūre. Dūrastham antike ca. But if you surrender as Kṛṣṇa says, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja... (BG 18.66). Man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru (BG 18.65). Simply by this process... He confirms it, that "Anyone who has taken this process..." Janma karma me divyaṁ yo jānāti tattvataḥ. So simply by this process... Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti kaunteya (BG 4.9). These are things in the Bhagavad-gītā, plainly said. Unfortunately we do not read it, or even if we read it, we misinterpret it, or somebody mislead me. So-called scholars and so-called rascals mislead us, and we remain in the darkness.
Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, iti kṣetraṁ tathā jñānaṁ jñeyaṁ coktuṁ samāsataḥ. "My dear Arjuna, now I have explained to you in summary, not in detail, what is this body, who is the knower of the body, proprietor of the body, kṣetra-jña, and what is knowledge, and what is the object of knowledge. These things I have explained to you." So Kṛṣṇa is explaining, everything. Everything is there in the Bhagavad-gītā. You can become fully in knowledge if you read Bhagavad-gītā carefully. But you must have the qualification. If you are a rascal, nonsense you cannot understand. This is plain thing. Rascals and nonsense cannot understand Bhagavad-gītā. That is the first condition.
So as I told you, Rāmānanda Rāya, the discussion between Rāmānanda Rāya and Caitanya Mahāprabhu, Rāmānanda Rāya proposed different steps of spiritual advancement, and Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, "Yes, this is good, but this is external. It is not very effective." Even sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66), that also Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, "It is also not effect." It is not effective for these go-kharas. Otherwise it is effective. But in the beginning, they cannot. Otherwise in the Bhagavad-gītā it is plainly said, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekam (BG 18.66). Who is taking it? Nobody is taking it. Therefore it is not effective for the go-kharas. It is effective for one who is actually human being, but they are not human being. They are all rascals, go-kharas. Therefore it is not effective.
Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures
So as it is our duty to enjoy the property of the father, similarly, it is our duty to love the supreme father. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. And it cannot be checked. Ahaituky apratihatā. Yayātmā suprasīdati. Suprasīdati. Everyone is wanting peace of mind. Ātmā. Ātmā means body, ātmā means mind, ātmā means the soul. Yayātmā suprasīdati. Suprasīdati. Prasīdati means "becomes satisfied," and su means "very much." So unless you learn this art, how to love God, you cannot be happy. This is the fact. The sooner you make business, finish this business... How to learn? Now this chance is in this human form of life. You can learn. And the method is very plain, especially in this age.
So bhukti-mukti-siddhi. Bhukti means karmīs, those who are aspiring after being elevated to the higher planetary system, Svargaloka, or higher status of life. That is called bhukti. And mukti, the jñānīs, nirbheda-brahmānusandhana, just to become merged into the existence of the Absolute Brahman. They are, they are called jñānīs, or muktīs, mukti-kāmī. Bhukti-kāmī. And siddhi-kāmīs means the yogis. They are aspiring after so many material opulences. So because they are demanding something, aspiring something for sense gratification, therefore that is cheating. That is not religion. Bhukti-mukti-siddhi-kāmī sakali aśānta. Aśānta. If you have, if you have got some intention to cheat others, then you will be restless, aśānta. But if you are simple, plain, then there is no aśānta. There is śānti.
So as soon as we think of one body, we think comparing with our body. So similarly, by our foolishness, if we think of Kṛṣṇa's body like one of us, then we become mūḍha. Avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam (BG 9.11). Because Kṛṣṇa comes in the human form like a human being, therefore we should not take Kṛṣṇa as one of us. Then we become mūḍha, rascal, fools. Or in other words, one who thinks of Kṛṣṇa having a body like us—that is the Māyāvāda philosophy—he is a mūḍha. Na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ prapadyante narādhamāḥ (BG 7.15). These are the statements of Bhagavad-gītā. How you can misinterpret? This is plain thing, that symptom. Na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ prapadyante narādhamāḥ. These are the words used in the Bhagavad-gītā. It is not our manufactured word. People may be very unhappy or angry, but we have to quote from these scriptures. These are the... Anyone who does not surrender to Kṛṣṇa, he is within these categories.
So Kṛṣṇa gives. My Guru Mahārāja always used to speak that "Why should you go and flatter? You should speak plain truth, without any flattering. Money will come." That was his conviction. And... So it is experienced. We have got very, very heavy expenditure. But all this money collected, they are not meant for indriya-prīti, not for sense gratification. That is the significance. If we want money for sense gratification, then, according to our destiny, we shall get. Not more than that. Nobody can get more. Therefore Bhāgavata says,
- tasyaiva hetoḥ prayateta kovido
- na labhyate yad bhramatām upary adhaḥ
- tal labhyate duḥkhavad anyataḥ sukhaṁ
- kālena sarvatra gabhīra-raṁhasā
- (SB 1.5.18)
So far our sense gratification is concerned, we cannot get money more than what we are destined to get. Otherwise why there are so many people born with silver spoon in their mouth and somebody's born poor? And he's not getting even two times food, working very hard, day and night. So there is a destiny. Destiny we cannot improve. That is already settled up. But you can improve your Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That chance is there.
So one has to know Kṛṣṇa in tattvataḥ, as He is. So this tattvataḥ means accept the process of devotional service. Tattvataḥ, Kṛṣṇa as He is, cannot be understood by the other methods, namely by mental speculation or mystic yogic exercises. Kṛṣṇa cannot be understood in that way. If we want to understand Kṛṣṇa, then we have to accept the Kṛṣṇa method, bhakti method. That is plainly spoken by Kṛṣṇa: bhaktyā mām abhijānāti (BG 18.55). Kṛṣṇa does not say that you can know Him by mental exercises or yogic practices. No. Yogi can know... Tad-gatena manasā paśyanti yaṁ yoginaḥ (SB 12.13.1). Dhyānāvasthita-tad-gatena manasā paśyanti yaṁ yoginaḥ. Yogi also, by meditation, they see Kṛṣṇa. That is real yoga. As it is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā, the first-class yogi is he who always thinks of Kṛṣṇa within himself.
Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). Those who are intelligent, they will..., they will see that these are the real problems. But they do not care. Mṛtyu, they think, "All right, it is coming naturally. Let us die." But they do not know, after death, where he's going? "Never mind. I shall forget." People say like that. In Western countries, when I speak, these questions are raised and they are so callous, they say, "Never mind. Next time, if I become a dog, what is the harm? I'll forget that I was a man." Plainly they say. So many people have gone so much down that they cannot understand that low-grade life is not desirable. High grade life is desirable. They do not make any distinction. In whatever life it may be, if there is sufficient arrangement for eating, sleeping, mating, then they are happy. Viṣayaḥ khalu sarvataḥ syāt. By God's grace, nature has sufficiently given opportunity for enjoying these things: eating, sleeping, mating and defending. Just like these monkeys, they have got enough facilities for eating, sleeping, mating, especially mating, they have got very good facility. Beginning from the morning, they are going on in sex matters. And defending also, they have got nails and teeth.
So Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu made one condition, that "Your life is full of sinful activities. So if you simply promise that 'I shall not do anymore,' then I can accept you." So they said, "Sir, I'll not do. We'll not do anymore." This is required. When you are initiated, you promise "No illicit sex, no intoxication, no meat-eating, no gambling." And if you do privately all these things, then what kind of man you are? Don't be cheater. Be plain. When you promise that "We shall not do these things," don't do it again. Then you remain in goodness. That's all. Nobody can disturb you. And if you pollute yourself silently, then this goodness will go on. So this is the warning. Once you are initiated on the promise that you shall not do these all nonsense, then you remain perfectly in goodness. Mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti. Māyā cannot do anything. But if you cheat yourself, cheat your spiritual master, cheat God, then you will be cheated by māyā.
Thank you very much. (pause) Begin. Begin. (pause) Begin! Begin. Don't delay. (kīrtana) (end)
So, ātmānaṁ sarvato rakṣet means..., real meaning is you should give protection to the ātmā, means trying to save this soul, your soul, or yourself, from this transmigration of the body. And the plain truth, very simply truth, is given in Bhagavad-gītā. Kṛṣṇa says, janma karma me divyaṁ yo jānāti tattvataḥ (BG 4.9). Simply by understanding what is Kṛṣṇa... That is also not very difficult to understand if you follow the scriptural injunctions. What is Kṛṣṇa? Kṛṣṇa, sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ (Bs. 5.1). He is not ordinary man. His body is sac-cid-ānanda, full of bliss, eternal, and full of knowledge. So is it very difficult to understand? He has given proof that Kṛṣṇa is always enjoying bliss. And Kṛṣṇa's instruction, knowledge, there is no comparison. Bhagavad-gītā and so many other instructions. And He is eternal. Just like the sun-sun is eternal, day and night. It is our adjustment of this planet. So Kṛṣṇa is there. Just like the sun is there always in the sky, but we think, "This is night, this is day." That is adjustment of this planet. Similarly, Kṛṣṇa is always there. When He is visible we say that Kṛṣṇa is living, and when He's not visible we say, "Kṛṣṇa is dead."
So this question is called brahma-jijñāsā, that "I am spirit soul, ahaṁ brahmāsmi. So 'ham. I am the same quality as the Supreme Lord. So why I am put into this condition?" This is beginning of human life. This is the beginning of human life. And if one does not inquire this, then he is animal. Plain thing. Just like Sanātana Gosvāmī. He was minister, but he could understand that "What to speak of becoming a minister... Minister can become any rascal. I am the fool number one." Therefore he came to Caitanya Mahāprabhu, and the first question was ke āmi kene āmāya jāre tāpa-traya. He was never proud, that "I am minister, I am so learned scholar. Why shall I go to Caitanya Mahāprabhu and ask Him who am I?" This is humbleness, and this is the qualification of becoming a disciple.
So if you are pleased by drinking wine, then God is pleased." This is their explanation. Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu has condemned this Māyāvādī commentary. Caitanya Mahāprabhu has said, māyāvādi-bhāṣya śunile haya sarva-nāśa (CC Madhya 6.169). Māyāvādī kṛṣṇe aparādhī. He has plainly said. No compromise. The Māyāvādīs, they're great offender to Kṛṣṇa. Tān ahaṁ dviṣataḥ krūrān (BG 16.19), Kṛṣṇa also says. They're very, very envious to Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is dvi-bhuja-muralīdhara, śyāmasundara, and the Māyāvādī explains that "Kṛṣṇa has no hand, no leg. This is all imagination." How much offensive it is they do not know. But to warn people like us, Caitanya Mahāprabhu has plainly warned that "Don't go to Māyāvādīs." Māyāvādi-bhāṣya śunile haya sarva-nāśa. Māyāvādī haya kṛṣṇe aparādhī. This is the statement of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu.
One becomes very great philanthropist, rejecting... They say, "What is the use of this temple worship?" The daridra-nārāyaṇa-sevā. Nārāyaṇa has now become daridra. Formerly Nārāyaṇa was husband of the goddess of fortune. And now he has become daridra. So serve this Nārāyaṇa. This, they're manufacturing, concoction. This is not... That means sinful activities. Because he has manufactured something, that is sinful. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says plainly that "You rascal, you give up any other engagement, even if you think it is very pious activity, very philanthropic. You give up." Sarva-dharmān. Sarva means whatever you think pious and whatever you think impious, both of them should be given up. Because there are two kinds of activities: pious or impious. And sarva includes pious and impious.
Tathā paramahaṁsānām (SB 1.8.20). Kṛṣṇa is realized by qualification, and the qualifications are described here. The first qualification is paramahaṁsa. Paramahaṁsa. Parama means the best, and haṁsa means the swans. So there are different types of swans. We have seen. Out of them, the white big swan is accepted the best of them. So this haṁsa, or this swan, has got a qualification special, that you offer them milk mixed with water. So the haṁsa, it will take the milk portion and leave aside the water portion. Every animal has got a special qualification. Just like you'll find the lizard, a very plain wall, polished wall, but they'll go very swiftly. You have no science to do that. You cannot do it. The vulture, it goes very high. They have got very small eyes, but they can see from miles away where is some dead body. That is their business.
So this is called self-realization. One must be sober to think over that "If I am eternal, if I do not die after the destruction of this body, and I do not like to die, how to stop it?" This is intelligence, how to stop the repetition of birth and death. But the human civilization, the so-called human being has become so much degraded, they have no brain even to think over these matters, that how to stop this repetition or if there is any means to stop this repetition of birth and death. They do not..., they have no knowledge. Still they are going on as human being. They're like animals. Even big, big professors in Europe, they say, "Swamiji, after death, everything is finished." You see. Tathā dehāntara-prāptir dhīras tatra na muhyati (BG 2.13). Even these plain words, the first instruction of Bhagavad-gītā, they do not understand. Not only they. Here, also. So many politicians, so many rascals, they take Bhagavad-gītā, but they do not understand. They're busy with politics.
Now we have opened such a big hall, inviting people to come to take part in the sat-saṅga, but nobody's interested. So therefore if anyone becomes interested, he's very intelligent. He's intelligent because he wants to stop this repetition of birth and death. This is the problem. This problem, the so-called scientists, philosophers, educationists, politician, they have set aside this question. The real problem is to solve the question of birth and death. They do not touch it. They are making plan for economic development and other things. Economic development... Suppose you become rich man for twenty years or fifty years, utmost, at the present moment. Then you become a cat and dog in next life. Then what is your economic development? But they do not know that there is life after death. We have to prepare for the next life. Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa (SB 3.31.1). Then according to my karma, by superior inspection, I'll get next birth. And in the Bhagavad-gītā it is plainly spoken: janma karma me divyaṁ yo jānāti tattvataḥ (BG 4.9). Kṛṣṇa says, "Simply try to understand My janma. I take birth." Ajo 'pi sann avyayātmā. He's aja. Every one of us aja. Na jāyate na mriyate. We don't take birth, don't die, because we are part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. So Kṛṣṇa must be aja.
So suhṛt means... Kṛṣṇa is suhṛt, suhṛt means who always, I mean to say, trying for our welfare. He comes Himself. And even though we do not accept... Kṛṣṇa says, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). Man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru (BG 18.65). He gives plain advice that "You always think of Me, become My devotee, offer your respectful obeisances unto Me. That will make your life perfect." But we shall not do that. We shall not do that. We shall think of so many other things, but we will never accept thinking of Kṛṣṇa. We shall become devotees of so many rascals, even of a dog also, but we shall never become devotee of Kṛṣṇa. This is the position. We are devotee or master to our wife, to our children, to our country, to our society, but as soon as you say that "You become devotee of Kṛṣṇa," oh, he is enraged immediately: "What nonsense you are speaking? I have got so many work to do. Why shall I become devotee of Kṛṣṇa?" This is the disease. This is the disease. Therefore Kṛṣṇa ultimately says that "You give up all this nonsense, and if you surrender unto Me, then I shall give you protection."
Just like we are preaching Kṛṣṇa consciousness. We are not devotee to the people in general. Then why we are preaching? We are devotee. We are actually devotee, without any motive. Any so-called political leader, he has got some motive. When he becomes devotee of the nation, he has got some motive. But we have no such motive. We simply say plainly that "You become happy by becoming devotee of Kṛṣṇa. You are now devotee of your lust, anger, and illusion. You have become devotee of so many things, rascaldom. You simply become devotee of Kṛṣṇa. Then your problems will be solved." Kāmādīnāṁ kati na katidhā pālitā durnideśāḥ. We are devotee, somebody. But we are not devotee of somebody. We are... We have got some motive. Just like now it is coming to exposure. So many leaders, they got election, pretending themselves devotee of the nation. In everywhere, not only in your country. But actually, they were not devotee of the nation. They were devotee of their own lusty desires. That's all. That "If I occupy this post, then I shall be able to fulfill my lusty desires." Nobody is devotee.
So this question was asked, "Which family you belong to?" So he said, "I do not know what is my classification." "Now, who is your father?" "That I do not know." "Ask your mother." Then he went to his mother, "Who is my father?" "My dear boy, I do not know." So actually his mother was maidservant. So maidservants have so many men, and by whom she was pregnant she cannot remember. She also told the truth. And this Satyakāma, he also came to Gautama Muni, he said, "Sir, my father, my mother also do not know who is my father." "Oh, that's all right. You are a brāhmaṇa, because you are truthful. You do not hide yourself, that 'I am a prostitute's son.' You say this is the position. 'I am plainly speaking that my mother does not know who is my father. I do not know!' " So because he was truthful... That is the symptom of brāhmaṇa. He accepted, "Yes, I'll accept you as my disciple."
So many days, so many hours, they are simply wasting, simply wasting. It is said that the sunrise and sunset, during this period, the sun's business is to take away the duration of our life, sunrise and sunset. That means twelve hours or thirteen hours which is gone between the sunrise and sunset...This sun's business is to take away the portion, the fixed up duration of life which I have been given. That is, some of it, is taken away. The same example. Just like you have got a fixed balance in the bank. If you draw even ten pence, ten shillings, that means it is taken away. You have to replace it. But replacing is not possible. Bank balance you can replace. But the balance... Suppose you have passed... I have passed... Suppose if I live for eighty years or ninety years or hundred years. So this seventy-eight years is already taken away. It cannot be replaced. You cannot make the bank balance or the duration of..., again complete. That is not possible. This is plain fact.
So because we are... Madman cannot see. Just like a madman lies down on the street. He does not see, "Immediately, I may be killed by the motorcar, driving." But he's thinking he's safe. He is thinking, "I have ordered. Nobody can come here." A madman. We have seen in India, a madman lies down on the street. That is not in your country? But he thinks that he's safe. He's not safe. Similarly, we are, because we are mad, by the influence of māyā, we are not safe. We are unsafe because at any moment, we have to die, and we have to accept a body. That also we do not understand, the modern civilization. That is the first beginning of spiritual understanding, that "I am not this body, I am the soul. Within the body, I am living, and after giving up this body, I'll have to accept another body." This is the beginning of knowledge. One who does not understand these plain, primary principles of knowledge, he's animal. He's animal. It is not my manufactured word. It is stated in the śāstra that yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke (SB 10.84.13).
Just like we don't keep any furniture in our hou... What is the use of furniture? We can lie down on the floor. So many things, materialistic persons they possess. But we try to simplify matters, plain living. Well-wisher to all. Well-wisher. Just like we are advising our all students that "Save your country. They are becoming hippies. It is not... Future is very gloom. Try to save them." So Vaiṣṇava will always think like that, how people will be happy. Sarve sukhino bhavantu. Vaiṣṇava desire is not exploitation. Vaiṣṇava desire is that "How others will be happy, how they will understand Kṛṣṇa, how they will get happiness in this life and next life." This is Vaiṣṇava. Satisfied, in any condition. Not that "I must have all these things; then I'll be satisfied. Otherwise, I'm going from the temple." (laughter.) No, this is not Vaiṣṇava qualification. You must live with the devotees, even if you are not satisfied. Any condition, you should be satisfied. Because as soon as you leave the company, you become again rogues, again demons.
Yes. (laughter) You see? Because this material life means sex. So, they are seeking sex after death, also. (Laughter) This is, I mean to say, plain acceptance of the materialistic... He'll, "Is there sex after death?" they're inquiring. If there is sex after death, then they are not fearful of death. (laughter) There is a story that one man was drinking. So, drinking in India is a great sin. So his friend advised that "You are drinking. You'll go to hell." So he said, "Oh, my father also drinks." So he said, "Your father also will go to hell." "Oh, my brother also drinks." "Oh, he also will go to hell." In this way, he continued to say, "My father, my brother, my sister, my this, my that..." So... And he was replying, "Yes, he will also go to hell." "Oh, hell is heaven. Because we're all drinking here and drinking there. So what is the hell? That is heaven." Similarly, this is, this signboard is like that. "If sex is there after death then that is not death. That is life." (laughter) You see? So actually, you have got sex after death. Because you'll get into another body. Now you are having sex as human being in very nice apartment or on the street, on the beach, as you like. In the next life also, as cats and dogs, you will have sex life. The sex life is not denied, because the life is there.
So if we are not prepared to undertake even this very, very easily executable tapasya, then how we can expect go back to home, back to Godhead? No, that is not possible. Therefore here it is said, tapasaiva, tapasā eva. Eva means certainly. You have to. Now, executing this tapasya, penances, are you loser? You are not loser. Now, anyone who will come from outside, they will see in our society, our members, boys and girls. They say, "bright-faced." Do they not? They see distinction. One priest in plain cloth... I was going from Los Angeles to Hawaii. One priest, he came to me in the plane. So he asked my permission, "Can I talk with you?" "Yes, why not?" So his first question was that "I see your disciples very bright-faced. How it has been done?" He's sincere. So where is the loss? By undergoing, by denying all these things, sinful activities, we are not loser. We can live very simple life. We can sit down on the floor, we can lie down on the floor. We don't require much furniture, neither large amount of gorgeous dress. So tapasya required. If we want advancement in spiritual life, we must accept some sort of tapasya. In the Kali-yuga we cannot accept such severe type of tapasya as in the cold, we go underneath, under water, sometimes drowning or sometimes up to this, and then meditate or chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. That is not possible. The minimum. So tapasya must be there.
His father, Prahlāda Mahārāja's father asked—after all, he's son—"My dear son, Prahlāda, how you became so much advanced in Kṛṣṇa consciousness?" Although he was demon, still, he was inquisitive. So Prahlāda Mahārāja said, "My dear father..." He used to address his father as asura-varya, "the best of the asuras." Tat sādhu manye 'sura-varya. Asura-varya. Asura means demon, and varya means "the best," varīyān. So he... Because he asked that "How you have advanced in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, Prahlāda? What is the process?" After all, he was a learned scholar. He inquired out of joking or something like that. So Prahlāda Mahārāja plainly said, matir na kṛṣṇe parataḥ svato vā: "My dear asura-varya father, this Kṛṣṇa consciousness..." Na matiḥ. Matir na kṛṣṇe. "One cannot get Kṛṣṇa consciousness," matir na kṛṣṇe parataḥ, "by the instruction of others, or guru." Parataḥ. Svataḥ, "by speculating oneself," mitho 'bhipadyeta, "or by assembly, conference. For them..." Who? Who are they? Gṛha-vratānām.
Sarvasya cāhaṁ hṛdi sanniviṣṭaḥ (BG 15.15). Teṣāṁ satata-yuktānāṁ bhajatāṁ prīti-pūrvakam, buddhi-yogaṁ dadāmi tam (BG 10.10). Kṛṣṇa is ready to give intelligence to everyone because everyone is Kṛṣṇa's son. Mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūtaḥ (BG 15.7). Ahaṁ bīja-pradaḥ pitā (BG 14.4) So father is not particularly inclined to a particular son. No. But a son, if he is very obedient, then father discloses the most confidential things to that son. This is natural. This is not partiality. That is also explained in the Bhagavad-gītā, samo 'haṁ sarva-bhūteṣu na me dveṣyo 'sti na priyaḥ: (BG 9.29) "I am equal to..." Otherwise, how He can be God? If He is partial to somebody... Foolish people think, "Why God has made me poor? Why God has made so many poor men?" God has not made. They have made themselves poor. God has not made. He does not make any distinguish. He says the plain truth, man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru (BG 18.65). He is saying to everyone. So if we do not do—we have got little independence—then we are in this miserable condition of life.
What is that? Plain water bring.
- śri-ṛṣabha uvāca
- nāyaṁ deho deha-bhājāṁ nṛloke
- kaṣṭān kāmān arhate viḍ-bhujāṁ ye
- tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena sattvaṁ
- śuddhyed yasmād brahma-saukhyaṁ tv anantam
- (SB 5.5.1)
This is Fifth Chapter of the Fifth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the last contribution of Vyāsadeva. Śrīmad-bhāgavatam nigama-kalpa-taror galitaṁ phalaṁ idam (SB 1.1.3). In the beginning, introduction of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Vyāsadeva giving the information that this Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the nigama-kalpa-taror galitaṁ phalaṁ idam. Nigama means Vedas. So he compared the Vedas as a tree where you can get many fruits. So this Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is described as nigama-kalpa-taror galitaṁ phalaṁ idam (SB 1.1.3). Kalpa-taru means desire tree.
So the whole idea here is expressed by Ṛṣabhadeva. "My dear sons," ayaṁ deho deha-bhājāṁ nṛloke kaṣṭān kāmān na arhate viḍ-bhujāṁ ye, "you should distinguish yourself from the hogs and dogs, that simply for sense gratification, this life is not meant for working very hard." That is the modern civilization. Not only here... Now, the whole material world, history is like that. People are after sense gratification. (aside:) Come on. So Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura, a great commentator on Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, is explaining this verse that kaṣṭān, kaṣṭa-pradan kāmam yoṣit-darśana-sparśanadim na arhate naivarhati iti.(?) Kāmān. He has plainly explained that kāma, sense gratification, means to see woman with lust or to touch woman with lust. That is called kāma, or sense gratification. So this is natural. Materialistic life means wherever there is some beautiful woman or girl, it is natural. It is not... One sense, it is not bad because it is natural. There is a very nice verse written by Rūpa Gosvāmī. He is explaining, yuvatīnāṁ yathā yūni yūnāṁ yathā yuvatau.(?) Yuvatī means young girl, and yūna means young boy. So he is expressing his desire, "My dear Lord, as a young boy has got natural affection for a young girl, or a young girl has got a natural affection for a young boy..." Spontaneously. It is not to be taught or to be educated in the schools and colleges. Spontaneously the attraction is there. "...how my attraction for You will be like that, spontaneous?" It is a very nice example.
We have manufactured in so many ways encumbered ways of life. Therefore we have neglected spiritual life. And because we have neglected spiritual life there is no peace. If you want really peaceful life, then you have to make your material necessities simplified and engage your time for spiritual cultivation. Then you will have peace. And that is the best type of civilization. Plain living, high thinking. Now, in the modern days, the high living and plain thinking. Eating, sleeping, mating. This is plain thinking. This thinking also in the animals. They are also thinking what to eat, where to live, how to defend, how to have..., have semen or sex life. These are problems in animal life also. So if we keep that animal life problem, at the same time we claim that we are civilized, is it very nice? Civilization means how to get out of this material miseries—birth, death, disease and old age. That is real advancement of civilization. If there is any way and means to get out of this problem, then we must adopt in this human form of life. And that is possible in this human form of life. In no other life.
Actually, we are not meant for suffering. If we are sons of God, who is full with all opulence, why should we suffer? Does a rich man's son suffer anytime? If he suffers, it is due to his ignorance. Similarly, we are suffering, but our ignorance is so strong that we are suffering, but at the same time we are thinking that we are happy. This is the influence of ignorance. Just like last night in the television, that gentleman was talking with me. He said that "We have got good brain and we are utilizing it. So that is better for our advancement of happiness. Why Hare Kṛṣṇa?" His idea was, he plainly told me, that "If Hare Kṛṣṇa is so powerful, then why India is so poverty-stricken and they are suffering?" So I replied that "Do you think that your problems are solved because you have got a dozens or a hundreds dozens of skyscrapers? That problem is here also. It is not that because America is materially advanced, 'Oh, they are free from all sufferings.' Why there are so many hospitals? Why there are so many lunatic asylums? Why this confusion of the hippies? Why young boys are always disturbed for the draft board? So how can you say the Americans are free from all sufferings?" This is ignorance. The sufferings are there, here or India or hell or heaven—anywhere within this material world—there is suffering. But people are so foolish that simply having a nice motorcar or a skyscraper building, he thinks that "My all problems are solved." He does not know that this life is a flash only. I am eternal.
Everyone hides his secret before the enemy, but truthful means that he does not hide anything even to his enemy. That is brahminical qualification. Satya śama, controlling the senses, controlling the mind. Dama, controlling the senses, satya-sama-dama-śaucam, always clean, taking bath three times daily. Antar-bahiḥ. Outwardly, to wash with soap and other materials to clean, keep oneself clean, and inwardly, always thinking of Kṛṣṇa—that is cleanliness. So satya-sama-śaucam ārjavam, simplicity. Not to encourage artificial necessities of life. Simple life: plain living, high thinking—simplicity. And titikṣa, tolerance. Because this world is miserable. If we become disturbed with the miseries of this world, oh, you cannot live for a moment, because this life is, material life is full of miseries. So you have to become tolerant. When Kṛṣṇa was instructed about the eternity of the soul to Arjuna, Arjuna understood it. He said, "My dear Kṛṣṇa, I quite understand that soul is eternal. Even my teacher and grandfather is killed, he is bodily killed, but he is eternal. I can understand. But do You think that if my brother or if my grandfather or if my teacher with whom I am so thickly connected, if they die, shall I be happy?" So Kṛṣṇa answered, "Yes. You'll not be happy. Although you know that your son is eternal, he is not dying, he is changing his body... By theoretical knowledge or by understanding, you know it. But who is there in this world who will not cry when the son is dead? He will cry. But that crying is not crying like a layman. He knows that 'My...,' this is habitual. This is habitual."
To make one's life successful, to reach to the goal of life, it is very difficult. (break) ...discharge all these principles, tapasā, brahmacarya. Śamo damaḥ titikṣa satyam. Satyam means truthfulness. One should be so truthful that if a rogue comes to him and if he asks, "What money you have got?" he will say, "I have got so much money." This is called satyam. He will not conceal even to the enemies. That is called truthfulness. Everything should be plainly and truthfully presented. These are satyam. And śaucābhyām, cleanliness. Cleanliness means if you go to the latrine, the injunction is that you will have to wash your hands, legs, so many times. Not with water, but with earth. Nowadays it is soap. So if we cannot wash our hands and legs for many times, at least we should wash once or twice with soap. This is called śaucam. A brahminical qualification is he is very neat and clean, three times taking bath, and keeping the body very neat, cloth, everything. Where he lives, his bedding, his place—all must be cleansed. And yamena niyamena vā: sex control, mind control, and senses control by regulative principles.
One scientist in Delhi, our Delhi festival, he said very nicely that "We scientists, we are just like learning how to bark like dog." Yes. He said very plainly. Because a dog is barking, everyone knows. But if there is a tent and advertisement, yes, that "Mr. such and such will bark like a dog," and people will come and pay ten dollars' fee: "A man is barking. Very wonderful. Let us see." So these rascals, the chemists, they are trying to manufacture living being within test tube, and they are becoming very famous: "Oh, now they are making life in the..." Rascal, there are so many hundreds and millions of life are there, every day being created. What credit you'll get if you manufacture a life within test tube? But the rascals, they are: "Oh, scientists. He is now going to manufacture life." "No, show me how made..." "Yes, we are trying. It will be in future." Yes. Our Svarūpa Dāmodara... There was one professor. He came to California.
So unless you take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, how to create first-class man, you are doomed. You must know this. Therefore, those who have taken to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, it is my request that you help your countrymen how to become... At least, there must be a section of men first-class so that people will see. They are appreciating. I know that. When I was going from Los Angeles to Hawaii, one priest in plain dress came to see me. He came to..., "Oh, Swamiji, can I speak with you?" "Yes, come here." So his first question was that "How your disciples look so bright?" They are appreciating that "Here is a first-class man." So I replied, "The process is so nice. Face is the index of mind. If you become purified within, then your faces will be bright. If you dirty within his heart, how you can be brightened? No, that is not possible. Face is the index of mind."
But unfortunately, being misguided, instead of serving Kṛṣṇa, we are serving so many other things. Somebody is serving his family. Somebody is serving his country. Somebody is serving his dog. In this way, service is there—but the service is misplaced. Therefore we are not satisfied. Why in the material world people are not satisfied? Because his position is to serve Kṛṣṇa. He is serving māyā; therefore he is not happy. Plain thing. Kṛṣṇa says, mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūtaḥ: (BG 15.7) "Jīva, the living entity, they are My part and parcel." So each one of us, we are part and parcel of God. So we have got some duty. Just like the part and parcel of my body has got some duty. The eyes, his duty is to see. The ear, his duty is to hear. So every part of duty, even within, without. So we, being servant, eternal servant of Kṛṣṇa, our only duty is to serve Kṛṣṇa. And because we are not doing that, therefore we are unhappy.
Tat karma-nirhāram abhīpsatāṁ harer guṇānuvādaḥ khalu sattva-bhāvanaḥ. Therefore tat karma-nirhāram abhīpsatām. Karma. Because if you are engaged in ordinary karma... Karma I have already explained. Karma means doing something for your personal benefit. That is called karma. Or, in plain words, doing something for sense gratification, that is called karma. And as soon as you engage your activities for such sense gratification or for your personal benefit, then you have to commit sins. That's a fact. Therefore we are entangled in this birth and death problem. So here the Viṣṇudūta advises that "If you want..." Tat karma-nirhāram abhīpsatām. "If you desire at all that 'I shall be freed from the resultant action of karma,' then your duty should be harer guṇānuvādaḥ khalu sattva-bhāvanaḥ. You simply try to glorify the Supreme Lord always, twenty-four hours.
So the commissioner entrusted the inquiry to Kedāranātha Datta at that time. So Kedāranātha Datta, Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, took the matter and went to inquire at that, in the village of Orissa, with some constables in plain dress. So when he went there... He had some yogic power, so immediately he could say, "Oh, your name is Kedarnatha Datta. I know you are very good man, but don't be after me. You will not be happy. And I shall elevate you to become the king of this country. Don't be after me." Now, if anyone... He was Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, a strong devotee. If any other person would have been addressed like that, he would be immediately puzzled: "How this man is talking about me, that I am Kedāranātha Datta, I am magistrate and...?" So he would not do anything. But Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura was so strong, he said, "Yes.
So the test of advancement in Kṛṣṇa consciousness is that one should be detestful, lose attachment to the material things. Therefore Prahlāda Mahārāja did not like the material education from Sanda and Amarka. He very plainly said to his father that "What I have heard from my spiritual master, Nārada Muni..." Spiritual master means Nārada Muni or his representative. Therefore we should follow the Nārada Pañcarātra instructions. Sarvopādhi-vinirmuktaṁ tat-paratvena nirmalam (CC Madhya 19.170). According to Nārada Pañcarātra, one should be free from all designation. Just like you boys from America and Europe, you have forgotten your designation. Therefore you are advanced, and people are very much praising that "How these Europeans, Americans have become nice devotee."
Generally, when you pass a road you see the boys are playing, very much busy, and they're very jolly in playing. Bālas tāvad krīḍāsaktas taruṇas tāvad taruṇī raktaḥ. And young boys, they're after young girls. You see? Taruṇas tāvad taruṇī-rakto vṛddhas tāvad anta-magnaḥ. And the old man they are very much morose, what is to be done next. Parame brahmaṇi ko 'pi na lagnaḥ. Oh, everyone is busy. Nobody's interested in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, spiritual life. Everyone is busy. How they are spoiling their life! That is the version of Śaṅkarācārya. He's lamenting, that the boys, the youths, the old man, they are very happy in their materialistic way of life, but a spiritualistic man like Śaṅkarācārya or Lord Jesus Christ, they are unhappy, "Oh, what foolish things they are doing." That is the thankless task of persons who are spiritually enlightened. They can see it plain that how they are spoiling their valuable life. Simply for sense gratification.
So here in New Vrindaban we are trying to establish an ideal life—plain living and advanced in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is real business. People, they do not know that Kṛṣṇa consciousness business is essential, imperative. We must take to it. Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇu. They do not know this. Durāśayā ye bahir-artha-māninaḥ. Out of false hope they are trying to be happy materially. Bahir-artha-māninaḥ. Bahir means external. External means this body. I am soul, I am within this body. Dehino 'smin yathā dehe (BG 2.13). So real I am within the body, but because we are misled, we are thinking, "I am the body." Just like this shirt and coat, if I think, "I am this shirt, I am this coat," that is misleading. Actually no, I am within the shirt and coat. So this requires knowledge. We get this knowledge that this body is not all in all. There is soul. As soon as the soul is out of the body it is a lump of matter. But in spite of all our experience we are interested only with this body. This is called ignorance. This is called ignorance. We know, we are seeing every day, we are reading in the śāstra everything, but still we are attached to this body and sense gratification, and that is spoiling our life. We should be interested as spirit soul, ahaṁ brahmāsmi, as soul, my business is how to get out of this entanglement of repetition of birth and death and be situated in our original spiritual life, where eternal life, blissful life. That is our aim should be.
So everything can be adjusted. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness education. And we are trying to establish an ideal colony in New Vrindaban and other places. So I'm glad that in spite of all difficulties you are trying to... But do it nicely. Plain living, high thinking, that is required. It is not necessary that unnecessarily we increase objectives of sense gratification and be entangled. Minimize it and live peacefully, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa.
Prahlāda Mahārāja says, sadā samudvigna-dhiyām asad-grahāt hitvātma-ghataṁ gṛham andha-kūpaṁ vanaṁ gato yad dharim āśrayeta (SB 7.5.5). Prahlāda Mahārāja said to his father, "My dear father, if somebody quits this scene of gṛham andha-kūpam, a dark well of this material life, and goes to the forest and takes shelter of Kṛṣṇa, oh, that is very nice thing." That was the beginning of misunderstanding between the father and mother..., father and the son. The father expected that Prahlāda Mahārāja will explain something diplomacy, politics, technology, something like that. "Oh, what is this foolish boy is explaining, that one should go away from the scene and take shelter of Kṛṣṇa consciousness? Oh. The teacher has taught them all nonsense." So he became angry, and the misunderstanding between the father and the son began from that point. But he was devotee, fully Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So he told the plain thing, "Yes, unless one comes to this platform, that that platform, the material platform to the spiritual platform, there is no question of peace and prosperity." It is simply, I mean to say, artificial trying to forget this full of anxious life. It is not possible. When one becomes fully Kṛṣṇa conscious, automatically he forgets this nonsense. Just like I have several times given you the example: You have got a glass. If you fill it up with milk, then there is no possibility of its being filled up with ink. But so long it is filled up with ink, there is no possibility of its being filled up with milk. So Kṛṣṇa consciousness is milk, and material consciousness is ink. So if you want to black milk, then let us remain. But Caitanya Mahāprabhu suggests Or accepts, not suggests. It is already there in the Vedic literature, that sthāne sthitāḥ śruti-gatāṁ tanu-vāṅ-manobhiḥ. (children yelling outside, devotee chases away) (aside:) That's all right. Don't take much.
The father asked the best thing the boy learned from his teachers, and the boy, five-years-old boy, replied, "My dear best of the demons." He never addressed his father, "My dear father," because his father was atheist number one, godless, and he was a great devotee of God. So when the father inquired, he straightly replied. He knew that his father was very powerful demon, but he was not afraid, although he was five-years-old boy. He plainly replied, "My dear the best of the demons,' sura-varya, asura varya. Asura means demons, and varya means the best, first-class demon. So "I think," tat sādhu manye-sādhu means honest, very good, very nice—"that is very nice." What is that? Dehināṁ: "For the entities who have accepted this material body..." He is speaking universally. Not for himself or for his father, but he was speaking generally for everybody. Everybody. Anyone. Dehināṁ. Dehi means this body.
If a person is a brāhmaṇa, then his natural qualification will be like this. What is that? Satyam: he is truthful. In any circumstances he will be truthful. Even to an enemy he will disclose the secret, "This is the fact." That is truthfulness, not that I am very truthful, but when my interest is jeopardized, I tell lie. That is not truthfulness. Truthfulness means at any circumstances one will speak the plain truth. That is truthfulness. Satya sama. Satya śaucam. Śaucam, cleanliness. There are two kinds of cleanliness: external and internal. External cleanliness by taking bath with soap and other cleansing material... Of course, in India, the brāhmaṇas, they take... They cleanse themselves externally at least three times a day: in the morning, early in the morning; at noon before taking lunch; and in the evening before going to the temple. Tri-sandhyā. There are so many rules and regulations for becoming cleansed. This is external cleanliness. And there is internal cleanliness. The internal cleanliness is this chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanaṁ (CC Antya 20.12), cleansing the heart.
As a medical man, why should you make difference that 'This disease is better than that disease'? Disease is disease." Actually that is the fact. You say that "We are suffering from malaria. It is better than to suffer from syphilis." No. Disease is disease. Similarly, either Brahmā or the ant, the disease is how to become master. This is the disease. Therefore, to cure this disease, Kṛṣṇa comes to cure this disease, to say plainly, "Rascal, you are not master; you are servant. Surrender unto Me." This is the cure of disease. If one agrees that "No more," āra nāre bapa (?), "No more trying for becoming master," that is the cure of disease.
Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, as Prahlāda Mahārāja says, nija bhṛtya-pārśvam: (SB 7.9.24) "Engage me as the servant of Your servant." The same thing Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, gopī-bhartur pada-kamalayor dāsa-dāsa-anudāsaḥ. So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement means we have to give up this nonsense idea of becoming master. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. We have to learn how to become servant.
Nectar of Devotion Lectures
The rascals, they will not understand Kṛṣṇa as Kṛṣṇa says. The rascal will mislead other and mislead himself. He'll go himself to hell and he'll drag all others to the hell. This is going on. This is going on. Everything is there, very plain and clear. One has to act according to that. He gets the benefit. But they, they will not allow. These rascal leaders, they'll not allow. They will be represent Kṛṣṇa as something else. The, the only business is to kill Kṛṣṇa. That's all. Not to accept Kṛṣṇa is fact. All the big commentaries on Bhagavad-gītā, you'll see. They're simply trying to make Kṛṣṇa is not a fact. It is some fictitious. It is some story, mental speculation. This is their business. Demonic. So the condition is very, I mean to say, dangerous. People are being misled.
Utsāhān dhairyāt. By patience. Not that "I am working so hard for Kṛṣṇa, but I'm not getting any impetus." No. Don't be impatient. Kṛṣṇa will give you chance. He's giving chance always, twenty-four hours, imperceptibly. But we cannot appreciate very much. Kṛṣṇa sees. As far as we are able, according to our strength, He gives responsibility. But we must be... Rest assured, when we have taken shelter of the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa fully, without any reservation, Kṛṣṇa must be pleased; maybe it will take some time. This is called niścayād, certainty, assurance. Utsāhān dhairyāt niścayād tat-tat-karma-pravartanāt. You have to execute the routine prescribed duties. Tat-tat-karma-pravartanāt. You cannot go against the principles of devotional service. With patience, you must execute. Tat-tat-pravartanāt. Sato vṛtteḥ. Sato vṛtteḥ means dealings must be very honest. No duplicity. Very frank, plain. Sato vṛtteḥ, sādhu-saṅge, and in association of devotees. Ṣaḍbhir bhaktir praṇasya..., uh, prasidhyati. In this way, our propensity for, of love for Kṛṣṇa will increase.
Just like Hanumān, he became angry upon Rāvaṇa for the sake of Lord Rāmacandra, and he set fire in the golden city of Rāvaṇa, Lanka. So that anger was utilized for Lord Rāmacandra's service. He never utilized anger for his personal sense gratification. In this way, everything can be dovetailed in the service of the Lord, and as I was explaining to other, there are six items, how devotional service, pure devotional service, is the only means to attract Kṛṣṇa. To attract Kṛṣṇa you cannot utilize your spirit or jñānīs or yogis. You can attract Kṛṣṇa simply by devotional service. Bhaktyā mām abhijānāti (BG 18.55). Kṛṣṇa says plainly that "Simply by devotional service, one can understand Me." Bhaktyā mām abhijānāti. So the activities of the karmīs, when dovetailed in the service of Kṛṣṇa, even by working so hard, our tendency, we can...
Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures
So this hlādinī-śakti is being described in Caitanya-caritāmṛta. Therefore Caitanya-caritāmṛta is the postgraduate study of highly elevated devotees. Ordinary devotees, they cannot understand. I have seen one professional reader. He was reading Caitanya-caritāmṛta, but he did not believe in it. Because he cannot understand. He cannot understand it. He plainly said, "These are only imaginary descriptions. There is no fact in it." I have seen it. So how one can understand this is fact unless one has understood what is spirit? Just like in your country, big, big professors, they do not believe in the spirit. They simply think of this body. So how they can understand about Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa and Their pastimes, all spiritual affairs? First of all we must understand what is spirit and what is Kṛṣṇa and what is Rādhārāṇī, and then we try to understand what is Kṛṣṇa and Rādhārāṇī's loving affairs.
That is eternal. God is one. That is eternal. Take anything, like gold. Gold is gold, always gold. Millions of years ago the what was gold, the metal, the same metal is still there. You cannot say, "This is Hindu gold," "This is Muslim gold," "This is Christian gold." Gold is gold. Similarly, God is one. You cannot say, "This is Hindu God," "This is Muslim God," "This is Christian God." God is one, and eternal. Therefore religion is one, eternal. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness, or God consciousness. God is one. You are also one because you are part and parcel. But you have created your struggle for existence because you are thinking otherwise without Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Manaḥ ṣaṣṭhānīndriyāṇi prakṛti-sthāni karṣati (BG 15.7). Because you have created different types of mind, different types of desires, and you are trying to fulfill it, that is called struggle for existence. Otherwise you are existing eternally, and your consciousness is one: think of Kṛṣṇa. But because you are doing not, not doing that, therefore there is struggle. That is māyā. That is māyā. Otherwise there is no question of struggling. Everything is there, plain and simple.
So this is the position. So Sanātana Gosvāmī is placing this plain fact, that ke āmi kene āmāya jāre tāpa... "I do not want to suffer. So there is suffering." That's a fact. Ihā nāhi jāni kemane. "So how I can get out of this suffering, kindly give me lesson." And this is human life. Go to a bona fide guru, try to understand the problems of life, what is the aim of life, how actually we can become happy. This is called brahma-jijñāsā. The Vedānta-sūtra philosophy, therefore, the first instruction is athāto brahma jijñāsā. Kena Upaniṣad. Why? And that is human life. If you remain silent, never ask "Why I am suffering?" then you are in the category of cats and dog. And when this inquiry begins, athāto brahma jijñāsā, then your human life begins. Otherwise you remain in the category of cats and dog. If you are satisfied with all miserable condition of life... In this country, the Western country, they present television, simply presenting problems. That's all.
So adhyātmika means sufferings pertaining to the body and mind, and adhibhautika means sufferings offered by other living entities. Adhibhautika. And adhidaivika, sufferings offered by natural disturbances. There are three kinds of sufferings. Just like the firework is going on, the heavy sound. It is intolerable by somebody. But still, he has to tolerate, that "This firework is going on by other persons." This is called adhibhautika. Similarly, there are so many sufferings which we do not want. Still, they are forced upon us. Therefore he said, kene āmāya jāre tāpa-traya: "These three kinds of miseries are always giving me trouble, and at the same time, I do not know what I am." Everyone is thinking, "I am this, I am that," but he is suffering. These are very plain questions. So these questions should be put before the spiritual master, and he should get proper answer and act accordingly. Then spiritual life will be successful. Unless we are interested in such questions, there is no need of wasting time to accept any guru or spiritual master.
So when he gives up this opposite conception of life that he is master, then he is mukti; he's liberated immediately. Mukti does not take so much time that you have to undergo so much severe austerities and go to the jungle and go to the Himalaya and meditate and press your nose and so many things. It doesn't require so many things. Simply you understand plain thing, that "I am servant of Kṛṣṇa"—you are mukta immediately. That is the definition of mukti given in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Muktir hitvā anyathā rūpaṁ svarūpeṇa avasthitiḥ. Just like even a criminal in the prison house, if he becomes submissive that "Henceforward I shall be law-abiding. I then shall obey the government laws very obediently," then sometimes he is released prematurely on account of giving a declaration.
Sri Isopanisad Lectures
That is given in the Bhagavad-gītā. What is that spiritual energy? That spiritual energy is this living entity. Apareyam itas tu viddhi me prakṛtiṁ parā (BG 7.5). Kṛṣṇa says, "These are material energies. Beyond this there is another, spiritual energy." Apareyam. Aparā means inferior. Apareyam. "All these described material elements, they are inferior energy. And beyond this there is superior energy, My dear Arjuna." What is that? Jīva-bhūta mahā-bāho: "These living entities." They are also energy. We living entities, we are also energy, but superior energy. How superior? Because yayedaṁ dhāryate jagat (BG 7.5). The superior energy is controlling the inferior energy. Matter has no power. The big airplane, nice machine, is flying in the sky, made of material things. But unless the spiritual energy, pilot, is there, it is useless. It is useless. Thousands of years the jet plane will stand on the airport; it will not be flying unless the small particle spiritual energy, that pilot, comes and touches it. So what is the difficulty to understand God? So plain thing, that if this huge machine... There are so many huge machineries, they cannot move without the touch of the spiritual energy, a human being or a living being. How can you expect that this whole material energy is working out of automatically or without any control? How you can put your arguments in that way? That is not possible.
Festival Lectures
So there were sane men also. They took objection, "What is this nonsense? This man is dancing with ladies and gentlemen, er, girls." So they filed a complaint. At that time it was British rule. They complained to the governor or the commissioner, very high officer. The commissioner knew that Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura... His name was Kedāranātha Datta. Datta. Kedāranātha Datta, his household name. So the commissioner of the division, he knew that Kedāranātha Datta is a religious man, and he's magistrate in charge. So he handed over the case for inquiry, "What is this complaint? You please inquire and do the needful." So he was a pure devotee, and he understood that "This rascal is a bogus man, cheating people. I must inquire." So he went to the village in plain dress with some constables, police constables. They were also in plain dress. And as soon as he approached that rascal yogi, he said, "Oh, you are Kedāranātha Datta. So, very nice. You are... I shall make you king of India. Please don't try to bother me." Because he could know that "He has come to inquire about my rāsa-līlā." So Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura first of all said, "Sir, you are such a great yogi. Why you are in the village? Why don't you go to Jagannātha Purī? There is temple and Lord Jagannātha is there. Better you go there and see the Lord and be happy.
Ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā kartāham iti manyate (BG 3.27). Those who are vimūḍha, especially rascal... Mūḍha, rascals, and vi means viśeṣa, viśeṣanam, particularly. Ahankara-vimudhātmā. The same thing which is spoken in the Bhagavad-gītā, Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura says the same thing in a plain Bengali language. Ahaṅkāre matta haiyā, nitāi-pada... By the spell of māyā-ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā kartāham iti manyate (BG 3.27)— they are thinking that "We are independent. We can do whatever we like." This is called ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā. Under false pretext, false prestige, everyone is thinking that "We are independent. We can find out the solution of the problems of life by material adjustment," so on, so on. So that is our material disease. Ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā. Bewildered, they do not understand that the real strength is spiritual strength. We see daily, see daily that a very strong man, very powerful man, very good brain, very good scientist... So where is the strength? The strength is ātmā. As soon as the ātmā, or the soul, goes out of this body, so intelligent, so strong, and so many things, that is nothing. That is the difference between dead man and the living man.
Arrival Addresses and Talks
Paramahaṁsa: They have some completely illogical argument. Just like those people...
Prabhupāda: Unfortunate. Illogical argument means unfortunate. Rascals. Therefore we say plainly, "You are all rascals." That's all. You have no discrimination. Anyone who does not believe as He is, he's a rascal. That's all. He may be happy or sorry. You don't mind. You don't make compromise. At least I do not do. If you have not full faith in Kṛṣṇa, then you are a rascal, that's all, whatever you may be. The Dr. Patel does not like this, but he does not protest to me. As others say, he protests by that. It is a fact. We have no difficulty to understand Kṛṣṇa and thus make our life successful. But we unnecessarily bring arguments, impediments to understand Kṛṣṇa. Therefore we are unfortunate, envious of Kṛṣṇa.
So we shall advise according to Bhagavad-gītā that "Make your life very simple, plain living, but the thinking should be very high." Plain living and high thinking. So thinking is that "I am the soul. I am not this body. I am eternal. I am changing only body. And due to change of body I am suffering." For this reason, the śāstra says,
- yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke
- sva-dhīḥ kalatrādiṣu bhauma ijya-dhīḥ
- yat tīrtha-buddhiḥ salile na karhicit
- janeṣv abhijñeṣu sa eva go-kharaḥ
- (SB 10.84.13)
If anyone is living on the bodily concept of life, ātma-buddhiḥ tri-dhātuke... Yasyātma-buddhiḥ śarīre, tri-dhātu, kuṇape tri-dhātuke. This body is a bag. Actually it is a bag. So long the soul is there, it is useful. As soon as the soul is not there, it is nothing but a bag of skin and bones. That's all. Everyone knows it. It is thrown away. It has no value. So actually it is a material bag made of this blood, skin, nails, bones, urine, stool. This is the ingredient of this body.
General Lectures
So our problems of life, as it is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, is to solve these four things: no more birth... Because we are... Always remember that we are all eternal. Just like in this body, beginning from my mother's womb up to this old age, I am the same eternal soul, but my body is changing. So after changing this body also, I shall remain the same. Simply I shall have another body. This plain truth, there is no difficulty to understand. Now if I am eternal... If I am eternal means no death, no birth, no disease, no old age. That is eternal. So if I am eternal, whether it is possible to get an eternal body? Or eternal happiness? That is the problem of human society. If you can solve that problem, then you be proud of your civilization. Otherwise there is no difference between cats' and dogs' civilization and your civilization. Because you are simply trying to solve the problems of eating, sleeping, defending and mating. But these problems are already solved by nature's law.
Therefore this movement is that one understands himself what he is. It is, of course, very plain question and answer. The other day we had some lectures in a, one Sunday school, and I called one, a small boy, and I asked him that "What is this?" He said, "It is my hand, it is my head, it is my leg, it is my body, it is my pants, it is my..." And I asked him, "Where you are? You are simply saying 'my, my, my,' and where you are?" So similarly, everyone can understand that what I am? If you think yourself, if you meditate on yourself, if you see your hand, "Am I this hand?" you will say, "No, it is my hand." "Am I this leg?" You will say, "No, it is my leg." "Am I this head?" "No, it is my head." Then where you are? So that person who is thinking within that "It is my hand, it is my head, it is my leg, it is my pant, it is my coat," that you are. So have you seen that thing? You have seen your father, you have seen your mother or you have seen your son. But have you seen the real father who is within the body of the father? Have you seen the real son which is in the body of the son? No. Then your whole conception of education, your whole conception of living condition and problems—in the false world. Therefore this movement is required at the present moment in the world.
We have loved our children, we have loved our wife, we have loved our nest in the bird's life, in the beast's life. There is love. There is no necessity of teaching a bird or beast how to love the children. There is no necessity, because that is natural. To love your home, to love your country, to love your husband, to love your children, to love your wife, and so on, you go on, all this love, more or less they are all in the animal kingdom also. But that sort of love will not give you happiness. You'll be frustrated because this body is temporary. Therefore all these loving affairs are also temporary and they are not pure. They are simply a perverted reflection of the pure love that is existing between you and Kṛṣṇa. So if you want really peace, if you really want satisfaction, if you don't want to be confused, then try to love Kṛṣṇa. This is the plain program. Then your life will be successful. The Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is not something manufactured to mislead and bluff the people. It is a most authorized movement. Vedic literature, the Bhagavad-gītā, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Vedānta-sūtra, Purāṇas, and many, many great saintly persons adopted this means. And the vivid example is Lord Caitanya. You see His picture, He is in the dancing mood. So you have to learn this art, then our life will be successful. You haven't got to practice anything artificial and speculating and bother your brain and... You have the instinct for loving others. That is instinctive, natural. Simply we are misplacing love and therefore we are frustrated. Frustrated. Confused. So if you don't want to be confused, if you don't want to be frustrated, then try to love Kṛṣṇa, and you'll feel yourself how you are making progress in peacefulness, in happiness, in everything that you want.
Just like what is material civilization? All activities minus God. This is material. And as soon as all activities plus God, it is spiritual. So all activities minus God means trouble, and all activities plus God is wholesome, is pleasing. So Kṛṣṇa consciousness means all activities plus God. That's all. We are also doing the same thing. The candle is burned here, you also have candles at your home. You have got your apartment; this is also apartment. What is the difference between this apartment, your apartment? Because here is relationship of Kṛṣṇa. So you make everything in relationship with Kṛṣṇa, it is spiritual. That is the technique you have to learn in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Actually, there is nothing but Kṛṣṇa consciousness, but artificially we have covered Kṛṣṇa consciousness with something else, which is called māyā. So you have to get out of this māyā consciousness and stand in your original Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Then your life is perfect. That is being taught. There is nothing artificial, neither extraordinary, neither a very difficult thing. It is very plain and simple.
We are, however, misled by persons and leaders who have very little connection with God, or Kṛṣṇa. Some of them are denying the existence of God, some of them are falsely trying to place themselves in place of God, some of them are in favor of the impersonal feature of God, and, at last, some of them, without being able to reach any right conclusion, are accepting the ultimate goal of life as void, or zero, in utter hopelessness and frustration. But Kṛṣṇa consciousness is solid ground for understanding Kṛṣṇa, or God, directly by the simple method of chanting the holy name of God, or Kṛṣṇa. Misled by blind leaders, the followers who themselves are blind have failed to achieve the desired success, but here is a method called by the name Kṛṣṇa consciousness which is directly offered by Kṛṣṇa, and the instructions are plainly described in the Bhagavad-gītā, given to us five thousand years ago, and again confirmed by Him in the form of Lord Caitanya five hundred years ago. This Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is a great art of life, very easy and sublime.
So in the last, when Arjuna refused, that "Kṛṣṇa, it is not possible. This system is not possible for me," then Kṛṣṇa, as the last standard of this yoga system process, He said plainly that,
- yoginām api sarveṣāṁ
- mad-gatenāntarātmanā
- śraddhāvān bhajate yo māṁ
- sa me yuktatamo mataḥ
- (BG 6.47)
Yoginām, "all kinds of yogis." There are many yogis: karma-yogī, jñāna-yogī, dhyāna-yogī, hatha-yogī, bhakti-yogī. Yoga system is just like a staircase. Just like in New York, that Empire State Building, that 102-story building. So there is a staircase or a lift. So yoga system is just like a lift to go to the highest perfection of life. (break) ...I mean to say flat (indistinct). Just like karma-yoga. You can approach, you can make progress to the first or second floor. Similarly, by jñāna-yoga, you can make progress to the fiftieth floor. And similarly, by dhyāna-yoga, you can make progress up to the eightieth floor. But by bhakti-yoga, you can go to the highest platform.
So these are plain truths. Kurukṣetra... Still there is a place of the name Kurukṣetra near Delhi. And people interpret, " 'Kurukṣetra' means this body." We do not know wherefrom he gets this meaning, what is that dictionary. Now, how he can establish? Kurukṣetra is still existing, and it is called dharma-kṣetra; it is a place of religious pilgrimage. So everything is clear. There is no need of interpretation. Simply you have to take the teachings. Then you will be benefited. So in this Bhagavad-gītā you will find so many nice information that if you see... If you don't see, that is another thing. You have to see that "Why I am put into so many miserable conditions of life although I do not want it?" That should be your question. If this question does not arise in your mind, that means still you are in the animal state of life. That is the human stage of life, when one inquires that "I do not wish to suffer. I do not want this suffering, but I am put into this suffering. Why?" This "why," for this "why," there is Upaniṣad which is called Kena Upaniṣad. So this "why" question must be there in the developed stage of human consciousness. And when that "why" question comes, there is an answer. There is answer in the Bhagavad-gītā, in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and all Vedic literatures. So although people are not very much interested with all these questions and answers, but they are essential. If they do not question and seek for the answers, then they are simply wasting their the opportunity of human life.
So, so we are thinking at the present moment that "I am God. I am independent." That is māyā. Māyā means which is not actual fact. Plain philosophy. If you are God, then you must know what is God. God is never dependent. That is the definition given in Vedānta-sūtra: svarāṭ. Svarāṭ means fully independent. That is one of the quality of God. Janmādyasya yataḥ 'nvayād itarataś ca artheṣu abhijñaḥ svarāṭ. Svarāṭ means fully independent and fully conscious. So your consciousness is not full. Your independence is not full. That you cannot have. Now you belong to a independent country, but you are not fully independent. As soon as the state laws want you for some particular purpose, in spite of your unwillingness, you have to act. That means you are not fully independent, even in the state relationship. And how you are fully independent in God's relationship? So your claim that "I am God" is not fullfilled there, because God is independent. You are not independent.
So we have to prepare for eternal life, blissful life, and life full of knowledge. If we do not do that, then our this human form of life is missing, is misused. That is the philosophy not only of Lord Buddha, but Lord Caitanya, Śaṅkarācārya, or Lord Jesus Christ. Anyone you take, nobody will recommend that you make your plan and live in this material world very happily. Nobody has recommended. Everyone has said that this life is the preparation stage of your next best life. If you do not believe in that, if you think that this life you can make this world happy by arrangement, by scientific advancement, that is not possible. That is not possible. It is plainly and very straightly said in the Bhagavad-gītā,
- daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī
- mama māyā duratyayā
- mām eva ye prapadyante
- māyām etāṁ taranti te
- (BG 7.14)
It is very difficult to surmount the stringent laws of material nature. It is not possible. If you surrender to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, then it is possible. So this Kṛṣṇa conscious movement is very scientific movement. It is based on authentic scriptures and experience and recommended by personalities like Lord Caitanya, Rāmānujācārya, and many stalwart scholars and devotees.
So the sanātana-dhāma... Vṛndāvana is also part of the sanātana-dhāma. The living entity is sanātana, eternal, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). He do not die after destruction of this body. This is the preliminary instruction to understand Vedic knowledge, or spiritual knowledge. If you do not understand the plain fact that "I am not this body. I am spirit soul. I live within this body..." Dehino 'smin yathā dehe (BG 2.13). Dehinaḥ. Dehinaḥ means the proprietor of the body. Idaṁ śarīraṁ kaunteya kṣetram ity abhidhīyate (BG 13.2). This śarīra, this body, is called kṣetra, and the person, or the living entity, who is working on this body, he's called kṣetrajña. Those who have read Bhagavad-gītā, they have come to this understanding of kṣetra-kṣetrajña. Kṣetrajña means I, you. I know about my body, about the interest of my body. If somebody wants to kill me, I take protection because it is my body, kṣetra. Just like your land. If somebody comes to encroach upon it, you take care. Similarly, this body is kṣetra, the field of activities, and I or you, the proprietor of the body, is kṣetrajña one who knows about the body. But there is another kṣetrajña. That is Kṛṣṇa. That is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā, kṣetra-jñaṁ cāpi māṁ viddhi sarva-kṣetreṣu bhārata. Sarva-kṣetreṣu. Kṛṣṇa is also kṣetrajña. Kṛṣṇa is also sitting. As I am sitting within this body, similarly, Kṛṣṇa is also sitting within this body.
Similarly, all other ācāryas-Rāmānujācārya, Madhvācārya, Viṣṇu Svāmī, Nimbārka, and lately, Caitanya Mahāprabhu... Of course, Caitanya Mahāprabhu is both ācārya and Kṛṣṇa Himself. Apart from His being Kṛṣṇa, if we take the part which He played as ācārya, that is, He also accepts Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Ārādhyo bhagavān vrajeṣa-tanayas tad-dhāma vṛndāvanam. So we are to follow the ācāryas, not these casual interpretations, interpreters, to understand Bhagavad-gītā. Then we will be misled. We cannot understand. Because Kṛṣṇa says that "The mystery of Bhagavad-gītā will be understood by you because you are My very dear friend." So... "Because you are My devotee." So unless one is devotee, how one can understand Bhagavad-gītā and Kṛṣṇa? That is not possible. Kṛṣṇa says plainly in the Bhagavad-gītā, bhaktyā mām abhijānāti yāvān yas cāsmi tattvataḥ: (BG 18.55) "Only through devotional service one can understand." Although Kṛṣṇa has explained in the Bhagavad-gītā jñāna, yoga, karma, and other things, dhyāna, but He specifically recommends that simply by devotional service you can understand Him.
So the sanātana-dhāma. Vṛndāvana is also part of the sanātana-dhāma. The living entity is sanātana, eternal. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). We do not die after destruction of this body. This is the preliminary instruction to understand Vedic knowledge, or spiritual knowledge. If you do not understand the plain fact that "I am not this body, I am spirit soul. I live within this body..." Dehino' smin yathā dehe (BG 2.13). Dehinaḥ. Dehina means the proprietor of the body. Idaṁ śarīraṁ kaunteya kṣetram ity abhidhiyate (BG 13.2). This śarīra, this body, is called kṣetra, and the person, or the living entity, who is working on this body, he is called kṣetra-jña. Those who have read Bhagavad-gītā, they have come to this understanding of kṣetra and kṣetra-jña. Ksetre-jña means I, you. I know about my body, about the interest of my body. If somebody wants to kill me, I take protection because it is my body, kṣetra. Just like your land, if somebody comes to encroach upon it, you take care. Similarly, this body is kṣetra, the field of activities, and I or you, the proprietor of the body, is kṣetra-jña, one who knows about the body. But there is another kṣetra-jña. That is Kṛṣṇa. That is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā. Ksetra-jñaṁ cāpi māṁ viddhi sarva-kṣetreṣu bhārata. Sarva-kṣetreṣu. Kṛṣṇa is also kṣetra-jña, Kṛṣṇa is also sitting... As I am sitting within this body, similarly, Kṛṣṇa is also sitting within this body.
You get all information how to realize Brahman, ahaṁ brahmāsmi. So 'ham. Don't misinterpret. Don't... There is no... Just like Kṛṣṇa... This verse is very plain. This verse says, na tv evāhaṁ jātu nāsam. Where is the difficulty? "My dear Arjuna, both I, you... It is not that I did not exist, you did not exist. Neither this soldier." Where is the difficulty to understand? Why should we misinterpret?
- dharma-kṣetre kuru-kṣetre
- samavetā yuyutsavaḥ
- māmakāḥ pāṇḍavāś caiva
- kim akurvata sañjaya
- (BG 1.1)
No. The main meaning is very plain: that Dhṛtarāṣṭra was asking his father's secretary, Sañjaya, "My dear Sañjaya, māmakāḥ, my sons and pāṇḍavāḥ, my brother's sons, Pāṇḍavas, they assembled," dharma-kṣetre kuru-kṣetre (BG 1.1), "in the Kurukṣetra Field, which is known as dharma-kṣetra, the religious pilgrimage. After that meeting, what did they do?" Now, where is the difficulty to understand this verse? But unfortunately, one so-called scholar or so-called foolish man will come, he'll say, "Dharma-kṣetre kuru-kṣetra means this body." No. "Where you get this meaning, sir?" But he'll say, explain in this way: "The Pāṇḍava means five senses." Well, in which dictionary you'll find? This is going on. This rascaldom is going on. If you'll give up this rascaldom, simply read Bhagavad-gītā as it is, then you'll become successful in life. That is our preaching Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
"Just think of Me," man-manā. "Just become devotee of Me," man-manā bhava mad-bhakto. "Just worship Me and just offer your obeisances unto Me." Sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). "Just surrender unto Me." You'll find this instruction in the Bhagavad-gītā. The same thing was spoken by all the ācāryas. Rāmanujācārya also says the same, Madhvācārya says the same thing, Caitanya Mahāprabhu says same thing, the Gosvāmīs say the same thing, and we are also speaking the same thing. There is no difference. We do not interpret the words of Kṛṣṇa, that "In my opinion, Kurukṣetra means this body." This is rascaldom. The whole situation has been spoiled by these so-called rascal gurus who gives his own opinion. This is our plain declaration: Let any rascal guru come. We can convince him that he is not guru, because he is speaking differently. We can challenge any rascal. Just like somebody came here, he said that he's God, every one of us God. (aside:) Stop this. So I asked that "Just find out in the dictionary what is meaning of God. Let us see whether he is God." The dictionary, as soon as dictionary was consulted, the meaning of God is "the supreme being," meaning of God. So I asked him, "Are you supreme? If you cannot understand, then find out the meaning of supreme." Then when he consulted dictionary, the supreme, it is said "the greatest authority."
So our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is trying to save people from the hog civilization or dog civilization to human civilization. That is... Human civilization means plain living and advancing in spiritual consciousness, not to increase unnecessarily artificial way of life. But we should know what is the aim of life and try to actually (achieve) success in the aim of life in any condition. That is Vedic civilization. Any condition. Any condition means in the material world we find that somebody is well situated and somebody... We think like that. Nobody is well situated. But we think like that. So if we want to cultivate Kṛṣṇa consciousness, in any material condition we can do that. Ahaituky apratihatā. Any material condition cannot check our advancement in spiritual life. Just like these European, American boys and girls, they're not accustomed to sit down on the ground. In their country that is not their civilization. They sit down very nicely on chairs and very nice apartment. But because they have taken to this Kṛṣṇa consciousness, they do not hesitate to sit down in any condition of life. This is advancement. They do not grudge that "We are not accustomed to sit in this way." No. That is any condition, any condition of life.
So people say that I have done miracle. Maybe. At least it is the first time in the history that Vedic culture in its true form is bring distributed all over the world. We have got many, many appreciation by the learned scholar circle, big, big professors all over the world. They are accepting that this is the first time that India's traditional spiritual culture is being spread. One professor in France, he has plainly said that even Aurobindo or Dr. Radhakrishnan, they presented this Vedic culture in a modernized way, not in its original traditional form. That is a fact. We don't make any compromise. Therefore we have especially meant Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Kṛṣṇa consciousness means to follow what Kṛṣṇa says. That is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's mission. Caitanya Mahāprabhu has said, āmāra ājñāya guru hañā tāra ei deśa (CC Madhya 7.128). Ei deśa. Wherever you are, it doesn't matter. Either you are in India or in America or France or anywhere, any deśa, or any country, wherever you are, just try to deliver them. Because guru's business is to deliver the fallen souls.
So we should be always so grateful to Śrīla Prabhupāda, not only for coming and visiting us in our temples, whereby we can actually see in this instance how by his visit this came about, that a year later now such a big, big temple is there... That anyone can plainly see. It is phenomenal. It can be seen. But also we should be grateful that by his instructions... Because the physical presence is not always appreciable. Sometimes he is here and some, then he is not here. But always Śrīla Prabhupāda is with us by our following his instructions. We simply have to be obedient to these instructions. As Śrīla Prabhupāda was saying last night in the initiation lecture, that human life is meant to follow these instructions of tapo-divyam (SB 5.5.1), going to the difficulty of giving up sinful habits, meat-eating, illicit sex, intoxication, gambling, and engaging in chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa.
So then what is religion? The religion is, as I have told you that dharmaṁ tu sākṣād bhagavat-praṇītam (SB 6.3.19), the order of the Lord, God. And what is that order? This is plainly stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru (BG 18.65). Simply be Kṛṣṇa conscious. Kṛṣṇa says, man-manā bhava. Mana means consciousness. So "You be always Kṛṣṇa conscious." Bhava mad-bhaktaḥ: "Become My devotee." Man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī: "And worship Me." Māṁ namaskuru: "You namaskuru." You have to submit yourself somewhere. That is our nature. Nobody can say, "No. I don't submit to anyone." That is not possible. You have to submit. That is your position. Whatever you may be, you have to submit. So Kṛṣṇa says, māṁ namaskuru: "Submit unto Me." Then what is the result? Mām evaiṣyasi: "Then you come back to Me," asaṁśayaḥ, "without any doubt."
Departure Talks
Western countries, many rich man's son becomes hippie, leaves home and unnecessarily takes trouble. Our position, our needs, we all living entities who are within this material world, is exactly like that. We have voluntarily come into this material world for sense enjoyment, and in sense enjoyment we have forgotten our supreme father, God. The material nature's duty is to give us simply miserable condition of life.
- kṛṣṇa bhuliya jīva bhoga vāñchā kare
- pāśate māyā tāre jāpaṭiyā dhare
means as soon as the living entity wants to enjoy life without Kṛṣṇa, without God, immediately he becomes under the clutches of māyā. This is our position. We are under the control of māyā, and we can get out of it also, as it is said in the Bhagavad-gītā, mām eva ya prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti: "Anyone who surrenders unto Me he gets out of the control of māyā." We are, therefore, preaching all over the world Kṛṣṇa consciousness, or God consciousness, and teaching them how to surrender to Kṛṣṇa and thus get out of the clutches of māyā. We have no other desire or ambition besides this. We plainly say, "Here is God. You surrender unto Him. You always think of Him, offer your obeisances. Then your life will be successful." But the people in general, they are exactly madmen. Simply for sense gratification, they are working so hard day and night.
Philosophy Discussions
Prabhupāda: That is a concern, that I want to enjoy this world; others may not interrupt. That is my concern. I am living in this world, I am living in this apartment, I am asking my assistant, "Let not others come here, disturb me." So that is my concern. Just like in your country, they keep dogs: "Beware of dog," "Please do not come here." Eh? So this is my concern. I want to enjoy this world to the best of my capacity and others may not disturb me. This is plain and simple concern. What, beyond this, what is the concern? That is going on as nationalism. That is going on as individualism. That is going on as communityism, so many things.
Śyāmasundara: But their explanation is that because everyone is so poor in India that they rely on religion for condolence.
Prabhupāda: But still, people come from other countries to learn religion here. And one Chinese writer, I have seen his book. He plainly writes that "If you want to study religion, it is India."
Śyāmasundara: But more people go from India there to learn science.
Indian man: No, no.
Prabhupāda: No. That is another thing, material science. Material science. But when people come from West to India, they do not come here to learn material science. They come here to understand what is God, these things.
Indian man: Not only that, you know. Gandhi told the same thing. He said when Kanjulatem(?) went to London, he was told that "Your religion is ancient. Why did you not come to teach us?" He said, "Whom to teach? Your fathers and grandfathers were jumping off trees."
Prabhupāda: That's it. Darwin's theory.
Revatīnandana: Now they have invited the American president to come there for talks. The imperfect one, they are inviting to talk with him now for some compromise.
Prabhupāda: This is described in Bhāgavata: punah punaś carvita-carvaṇānām (SB 7.5.30), "chewing the chewed." Once it is chewed, it is thrown away, and then again, "Let me see if there is any juice." (laughter) Chewing the chewed. Or in plain words, mental concoction. The mind's business is acceptance and rejection. First of all, reject American capitalists; then again accept for consulting. That means they are hovering on the mental plane. They have no intelligence. In big scale, accepting and rejecting. That's all. It is the business of the mind. As in your personal mind you see, you accept something immediately and again reject, "No, no, it is not good." The same thing is going on in a bigger scale. That's all. They are not... Just like a pickpocket and a big scientific thief. Huh? They are trying to... Modern, scientifically, they want to rob the bank. They set the bomb. And pickpocket is satisfied by taking one paisa from your pocket. But the principle is stealing. Because you are very organized thief, it does not mean from the eyes of the law you are honest. You cannot say in the court that "I am organized thief. I am scientific thief, and he is a pickpocket." In the eyes of the law you are also punishable, he is also punishable. That's all. So they are, I mean to say, large-scale speculators. That's all. But it is, after all, speculation. It has no fact.
Hayagrīva: His most famous book was Walden II, which was... Thoreau lived in Walden, Henry Thoreau. He lived alone. It was a solitary experiment of plain living and high thinking. He writes, "We practice the Thoreauvian principle of avoiding unnecessary possessions." Thoreau pointed out that the average Concord laborer worked ten or fifteen hours of his..., fifteen years of his life just to have a roof over his head. We could say ten weeks and be on the safe side. Food is plentiful and healthful but not expensive." So he goes on to say that "We strike for economic freedom, we do not believe in unnecessary consumption, we consume less than the average American." So it's an attempt to construct a society somewhat similar to New Vrindaban, with the exception of no spiritual basis as such.
Prabhupāda: That is primitive life, jungle life. Monkey civilization. Of course they claim to be descendant of monkey, that they will go on like that. But that is not human civilization, to keep the monkey in the jungle. We want life, very peaceful life without any unnecessary, what is called, necessities. That is all right. But the aim should be spiritual perfection. Therefore the first thing is what is the aim of life, that should be ascertained. Without aim, if you lounge on this ocean, where you are going? That is useless attempt. We must first of all know what is the aim of life. These people, they do not know what is the aim of life. Simply, superficially they are trying to adjust, "This will be done, this will be done." No. These are all mental speculation. First of all you must know what is the aim of life, and to this, to that direction, we have to adjust things. That is perfection.
| Page Title: | Plain (Lectures) |
| Compiler: | Visnu Murti, Mayapur |
| Created: | 10 of Mar, 2012 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=111, Con=0, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 111 |