Kṛṣṇa consciousness is within you, because you are originally, eternally the part and parcel of the Supreme. Artificially, I am trying to forget it. I am trying to live independently. That is not possible. We are not independent. If we want to live independently, that means we voluntarily become dependent on the influence of material nature. That's all.
Actually, we are not independent. If I think I am independent of Kṛṣṇa, then I am dependent on the influence of material nature. Just like, if I think that I am independent of government regulation, then I become dependent of the police force. My dependence is neither in this way or that way. I'll see? So that is our mistaken. Everyone is trying to be . . . become independent. That is called māyā. That is called māyā, or illusion. Nobody can be independent. Individually, community-wise, society-wise or nation-wise—you can extend even universal-wise—nobody can be independent. We are dependent. And this is called knowledge. When you come to the sense that, "I am dependent; I am not independent," this is called knowledge. Now we are misguided. Jñānāgni-dagdha karmāṇam. In other place, you'll find, Kṛṣṇa says:
- bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasāṁ
- sarva-loka-maheśvaram
- suhṛdaṁ sarva-bhūtānāṁ
- jñātvā māṁ śāntim ṛcchati
- (BG 5.29)
Now, people are planning for peace in the world, but they do not know how to formulate that peace formula. You know, the United Nation are trying for the last twenty years or more than that for peace, but there is no peace actually in the world. The war is going on because they do not know.
The formula is in the Bhagavad-gītā. The Bhagavad-gītā says that bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasāṁ sarva-loka-maheśvaram: "I am the proprietor of everything. Whatever you are doing, I am the ultimate beneficiary. I have to take the result." Just like a laborer works in a factory, but who is the proprietor?
The ultimate proprietor is the . . . the proprietor is the ultimate owner of the . . . so everything, whatever we do . . . jñānāgni-dagdha-karmāṇam. Now, we are thinking that, "This thing I am doing, I am the proprietor of this thing." That is a misconception. When we understand that everything, whatever we are doing, the ultimate proprietor is Kṛṣṇa, that is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is jñānāgni-dagdha-karmāṇam.
So we can have simply . . . just like in office. In office so many people are working. Hundreds of people are working. Everyone is conscious that "Whatever we are acting, whatever profit we are making, that belongs to the proprietor." Then there is peace. As soon as the cashier thinks, "Oh, I have got so much money. I am the proprietor," then whole trouble begins.
This consciousness, Kṛṣṇa consciousness . . . if we understand that, "I am a very rich man. I have got so much bank balance. I can use it for my sense gratification," that is kāma. That is kāma-rāga. But if we understand that, "Whatever I have got, it belongs to Kṛṣṇa," then I am liberated person. I am liberated person.
This is Kṛṣṇa . . . you, you'll have the same money under your custody. It doesn't matter. But as soon as you think that "I am the proprietor of this wealth," then you are under the influence of māyā. And as soon as you think that "Kṛṣṇa is the proprietor of all these things," then you are free.
Kāma-rāga-varjitāḥ, jñānāgni-dagdha-karmāṇaṁ tam āhuḥ paṇḍitaṁ budhāḥ: "One who thinks like that, one who is situated in that consciousness," paṇḍitaṁ budhāḥ, "he is learned, and he is actually a man of knowledge." This is the whole process. Tam āhuḥ. Tam, he is known as the paṇḍita. Paṇḍita means one who knows things as it is, not to take a thing wrongly. So that consciousness has to be invoked, not only individually, but also community-wise, society-wise, nation-wise, all over the world. Then there will be peace. If you want real peace.
- bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasāṁ
- sarva-loka-maheśvaram
- suhṛdaṁ sarva-bhūtānāṁ
- jñātvā māṁ śāntim ṛcchati
- (BG 5.29)
We are just trying to be philanthropic, altruistic. And we are trying to become friend of my countrymen, of my society, of my family. But that is a wrong conception. Real friend is Kṛṣṇa. I can work on His behalf. How I can work? You try. If you actually want to do something good to your family, then you try to make all the members of your family Kṛṣṇa conscious.
Then your life will be successful. If you want to make them otherwise, without Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then you will be serving . . . not serving; you will be rendering them disservice. Because any knowledge will not help your wife or children. Any knowledge, any amount of knowledge, will not help his real problem.
What is his real problem we do not know. The real problem is . . . that we do not know. The real problem is janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi (BG 13.9).
The Bhāgavata says, pitā na sa syāj jananī na sā syāt (SB 5.5.18); "One should not try to become father. One should not try to become mother." Why? Na mocayed yaḥ samupeta-mṛtyum: "One who is unable to save his children from the grip of material nature." That should be Kṛṣṇa consciousness. If you are a responsible father, then, if you are completely in knowledge of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then your duty will be that, "These creatures, these innocent creatures now who are playing in my . . . at my home as my children, as my boy, now this life should be the last installment of his transmigration from one body to another. I shall train these boys in such a way that after this body he will have no more to go into the cycle of birth and death." That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
That means you have to make yourself expert. Then you can help your children also. Then you can help your nation also. Then you can help your society also. If you are yourself ignorant, then; andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānās, te 'pīśa-tantryām uru-dāmni baddhāḥ (SB 7.5.31).
Just like a person who is, I mean, tightly bound-up, hands and feet. Suppose we are sitting here, some people, twenty-five gentlemen, ladies, and all our hands are tightly bound-up by some rope. And if I want to make you free, although my hand is also tightly bound-up, is it possible? No. At least my hand should be free. Then I can open, I can untie your bindings by the rope. So unless one is free man . . . and what is that freedom? One who is Kṛṣṇa conscious, he is free man. And nobody is free man.