Expressions researched:
"scope"
Wherever there is Kṛṣṇa, there is no jurisdiction of darkness or māyā.
You can become immediately out of the scope of māyā if you always remain surrendered to Kṛṣṇa. Māyā will not touch you. Just like if you remain always in the sunshine, there is no question of night.
So nimittāni viparītāni. This viparītāni, when we are materially conscious, we see that "Without happiness of myself, my family, my society, my country, my community..." They think happiness in terms of expanded selfishness. "First of all, my happiness, personal." Just like a child. It does not think of anyone's happiness. Whatever he takes, he wants to eat. So you, as we grow, we expand our happiness little more: "My happiness, my brother's happiness, my family's happiness, my community's happiness, or my nation's happiness." So you can go on expanding the scope of happiness, but there is no happiness. There is no happiness.
Just like something extraordinary happening in India, and if there is some photograph, cinematograph, and you see in the picture by a scope, cinema, you see the actually, what is happening. But Kṛṣṇa's pastimes is not like that. Just like originally, the incidence which is happening in India, you have got a photograph. You see in cinema. This cinema picture is a shadow of that actual picture. But when Kṛṣṇa comes, because He is absolute, the same picture, which is in the spiritual world, the same picture is represented here. There is no difference.
Everything is going on in the old principles. It is simply our imagination that we are doing something new. There is nothing new. Āhāra-nidrā-bhaya-maithunaṁ ca sāmānyam etat paśubhir narāṇām. We are under such stringent laws of the nature, there is no scope for inventing something new. That is not possible. We have to follow the old principles by force, by nature's law.
If mind says, "All right, let me go the Kṛṣṇa conscious temple," and the mind can say, "Oh what is that nonsense, Kṛṣṇa, let us go to some club." so mind is driving you. Therefore our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is to fix up the mind in Kṛṣṇa, that's all. He cannot but act as friend. You see? He has no scope to give any one place. As soon as Kṛṣṇa is seated on the mind, just like as soon as there is sunshine, the sun is on the sky, there is no scope of darkness. There is no possibility.
If you are simply desiring for Kṛṣṇa where is the scope of material desire? Finished, all material desire finished. You haven't got to try for it artificially. "Oh, I shall not see any nice girl. I shall close my eyes." That you cannot do. But if you fix up your mind in Kṛṣṇa consciousness you are dancing with so many beautiful girls. That's all right, as brother and sister there is no question. This is practical perfection of yoga. Artificially you cannot do.
If you want to learn the transcendental subject matter which is beyond the scope of your thinking, feeling and willing... Mental speculation means thinking, feeling and willing, psychology. But subject matter which is beyond your thinking. So God or anything about God is beyond the limit of our thinking, speculation. Therefore, we have to learn it submissively.
Any amount of material mixture, you cannot produce soul. They have produced so many things by material mixture, but nobody has produced. In India, of course, we heard so many news that "In America they have produced life in chemical laboratory." And sometimes they say, "In Russia they are trying." But this is not possible. Nobody has found. And greatest scientists, they have admitted that the problem of life is beyond the scope of material science.
So in the sun planet also, there are living entities, cities, just like here. Otherwise how Kṛṣṇa can say, imaṁ vivasvate yogaṁ proktavān aham avyayam (BG 4.1). Kṛṣṇa is telling lie, that "I spoke this science of Bhagavad-gītā to the sun-god?" Now, according to our calculation nobody can go to the sun planet, and where is the scope of speaking there, and to whom speaking? But Kṛṣṇa says, "Yes." Imaṁ vivasvate yogaṁ proktavān aham (BG 4.1), "I said," avyayam, "imperishable knowledge." Vivasvān manave prāha. So from this version we can understand, in the sun planet there are living entities, and the chief man, or chief demigod, is the sun-god, whose name is Vivasvān. So his body must be fiery; otherwise how he can live there? And the inhabitants there also.
I want to establish throughout the world that kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam (SB 1.3.28). Here is Bhagavān. Why you are searching after Bhagavān? Here is Bhagavān. I give the name and address of Bhagavān. His father's name and everything. Why you are being misled? Where is the scope for searching out where is Bhagavān? Here is Bhagavān.
Especially I have seen practically in America, in Africa, in Australia, there are so much immense scope for producing food that ten times of the whole population of the world could be fed simply by utilizing the open land still available. So there is no question of scarcity. We have simply mismanaged. Due to lack of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, we have mismanaged things.
A nondevotee cannot understand Kṛṣṇa. He has no scope. If a nondevotee interprets on the Bhagavad-gītā, he is simply wasting time of himself and others. Here it is clearly stated, bhaktyā śruta-gṛhītayā. One has to become devotee and hear from the authorities. Just like Arjuna.
So in one way you stop your impious activities; in other way you improve your spiritual understanding in this way. Yeṣām anta-gataṁ pāpaṁ janānāṁ puṇya. Anta-gataṁ pāpam means you stop. Anta-gatam. So if you engage yourself in pious activities, in Kṛṣṇa consciousness activities, where is the scope of dong nonsense work? Therefore it is stopped. Automatically it is stopped.
Formerly (in) the Vedic civilization, the boys should be sent to Gurukula for practicing brahmacarya. There is no such question now. So the so-called practice of yoga is simply useless waste of time. They cannot do anything. It is not possible. Therefore bhakti-yoga system is to engage the senses and the mind in Kṛṣṇa's service. If your mind is engaged in Kṛṣṇa's service, then there is very little scope for the mind being diverted from it. It diverts, but if you practice, then Kṛṣṇa will help you.
But those who are seeing to the self... Self is one. Ekaṁ brahma dvitīyaṁ nāsti. For them, one talk only about Kṛṣṇa. So I'll request you, all my beloved disciples present here, that don't turn to that point, gṛheṣu gṛha-medhinām. Stick to this point, Kṛṣṇa. Then you'll be happy. Don't talk, create. Thousand... As soon as we go out of the scope of this Kṛṣṇa consciousness, there will be so many talks. And that will mislead you. That is māyā.
Prabhupāda: Yes. This is the secret. We have got the ears, and we have got the sound also. Just like we are reading this book. So if we don't fill up our ears with this transcendental sound, then it will be filled up with some rubbish things. It cannot remain empty. Either you fill up with transcendental message, or you fill up with rubbish nonsense. Two ways. So if you take care that your earholes are always filled up with the transcendental message of Kṛṣṇa, so there is no scope for rubbish things to enter into it. So therefore our attempt should be twenty-four hours hearing.
The legs can be engaged... If you are living in a distant place, engage your legs to come here. That is the engagement of the legs. Eyes should be engaged to see very beautiful Deity, well decorated. Then you'll feel satisfaction. Otherwise, your eyes will draw you to see something nonsense beautiful. So all our senses should be engaged. Then there is no māyā. If you have got good engagement, then there is no scope for wrong engagement. The wrong engagement is māyā, and good engagement is Kṛṣṇa. So try to engage yourself always in Kṛṣṇa's service, and māyā will not be able to touch you. Sa vai manaḥ kṛṣṇa-padāravindayoḥ (SB 9.4.18). If you engage your tongue for talking about Kṛṣṇa, to taste kṛṣṇa-prasādam, then there will be no scope of your tongue for being engaged in nonsense talking, for going to restaurant and take nonsense food.
The Śrīmad Bhāgavatam is called the Paramahaṁsa-saṁhitā, the treatise for the highest class of human beings. The paramahaṁsa is free from envy. In other stages, even in the householder stage of life, there is competition and envy, but since the activities of the human being in the paramahaṁsa stage are completely engaged in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, or devotional service, there is no scope for envy.
You cannot make any new thing beyond the scope of the āmnāya Sāṅkhya philosophy system. That is called āmnāya. Because we are imperfect. We must first of all know that we are all imperfect. However great scholar I may be, because my senses are imperfect, therefore, whatever conclusion I make by my so-called scholarship, that is imperfect. Therefore all these scientists, philosophers, they use this word "perhaps," "it may be," because there is no right conclusion. There is no right conclusion. He is simply speculating.
You cannot bring Kṛṣṇa under your speculative knowledge, avan manasa-gocaraḥ, because He is beyond the scope of the activities of the mind, Adhokṣaja. Therefore don't try to bring Kṛṣṇa within your speculative knowledge.
So how the little mercy can be obtained? That is also explained in the Bhagavad-gītā: bhaktyā mām abhijānāti yāvān yaś cāsmi tattvataḥ (BG 18.55). "You can get mercy of the Supreme Lord simply by devotional service, bhaktyā." He doesn't say by knowledge, jñānena, or karmeṇa. He never says. Or yogena. No. These are not the process to understand the Absolute Truth. You can make little advance, but it is... Avan manasa-gocaraḥ. What advance you can make with your limited senses? That is not possible. He is beyond the scope of my mental activities.
Because if anyone knows that I am a small particle, spiritual spark, and protected by the Supreme Lord, then where there is scope of my lamentation? Just like a small child, so long he knows that "My father is standing by me, I am free. Nobody can touch my body..." Because he's confident that if there is any danger, "My father is there." Similarly, this surrender means completely to have faith that "I have no danger because God, Kṛṣṇa, is protecting me. I am now fully surrendered, prasannātmā."
You know this conchshell is a bone of an animal. So it is being used in the Deity room, and the cow dung is also used in the Deity room. Even Kṛṣṇa is smearing His whole body with cow dung. You know Kṛṣṇa's līlā. So if you say, argue, with your poor knowledge, then it becomes contradiction. One stool is good; another stool is bad. But because it is said by the Vedas, you have to accept it. This is Vedic knowledge. You cannot argue. There is no scope of argument. Whatever is said, you have to accept. Otherwise how Vedas become authority?
"My dear Sañjaya," Dhṛtarāṣṭra is asking his private secretary, Mr. Sañjaya, "my sons and my brother's sons, Pāṇḍava..." His brother's name was Pandu, therefore they are Pāṇḍava. Māmakāḥ means "my sons." Where is the scope for interpretation? Kuru-kṣetre. There is still one place, you know better, you are Indian, there is place Kurukṣetra still existing. Dharmakṣetra, that is a religious place, place of pilgrimage. Still, people go for religious performances. In the Vedas it is stated, kuru-kṣetre dharmam ācaret. One should perform religious rituals in the Kurukṣetra. So where is the scope for interpretation? Interpretation means when you cannot understand something. Then you can interpret.
Because as soon as he becomes animal, there is no scope of unlimited committing sinful life. Animals are restricted. They can commit one kind of sinful life. That, the human being, because he is very intelligence, he commits unlimited duration of sinful life. That is another danger. So one who commits this sinful life in Vṛndāvana, remember, he has to become next life cats and dogs. There, as you see, there are many dogs, hogs.
Unfortunately, the modern civilization has discovered so many artificial ways of life that it is very, very difficult to execute Kṛṣṇa consciousness business. So therefore Prahlāda Mahārāja says that simply for sense gratification, if we waste our time, that is not good. Tat prayāso na kartavyo—don't waste your time for increasing the scope of sense gratification. That is not at all required.
But the world is such that satyaṁ bruyāt priyaṁ bruyāt ma bruyāt satyam apriyam. They want if you can say the truth, but don't say the unpalatable truth. But that is social etiquette. When you speak about spiritual life there is no such scope. You must speak the truth: "Yes, you are rascal. Because you are not Kṛṣṇa conscious: rascal, mūḍha. You are sinful. You are lowest of the mankind." Kṛṣṇa says. Kṛṣṇa says, na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ.
Out of these three guṇas, sattva-guṇa is the best. If one is situated in sattva-guṇa, then there is chance of being promoted to the stage of nirguṇa. The sattva-guṇa is the (indistinct) and ignorance (indistinct) can be found in animals. This is tamo-guṇa. Pāpa-yoni, this is tamo-guṇa. Then if one is fortunate, he can be situated in the rajo-guṇa. Rajo-guṇa, at least there is some material interest (indistinct). So... But above that, there is sattva-guṇa, to understand things as they are. In this way, when you get full scope for understanding of things as they are, not falsely studying and speculating but proper (indistinct), that is called sattva-guṇa,
Similarly, to understand the Vedas, the necessary qualification is that one must be a qualified brāhmaṇa. Not that Mr. Max Muller, he has got little knowledge of Sanskrit and he translates. That kind of translation is no use, just like so many commentaries on the Bhagavad-gītā without becoming a devotee of Kṛṣṇa is useless. It has no meaning, because Kṛṣṇa says that bhaktyā mām abhijānāti: (BG 18.55) "Only through devotional service one can understand Me." How a nondevotee can understand Him? He has no scope to enter into the knowledge of Bhagavad-gītā. So first qualification is that he must be a pure devotee of Kṛṣṇa. Then it will be revealed.
Prabhupāda: Stop speculation? Don't manufacture ideas. You take what Kṛṣṇa says. Then it will automatically stop. Speculation, the question of speculation comes when you do not accept what Kṛṣṇa says. If you accept Kṛṣṇa, what Kṛṣṇa says, then there is no scope of speculation. That is our movement, that "Accept Kṛṣṇa's teachings as it is. Don't speculate; then it is lost."
So our, this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is not blind. Don't think wrongly. We are confident. We sometimes challenge big, big scientists. On what ground? Not whimsically, but on the ground of śāstra. So we may not please everyone, but we cannot go out of this scope. We know that in the moon planet, in the Mars planet and all other planets, Jupiter and others, there are living entities, there is a predominating deity in each and every planet.
Don't go to the Kṛṣṇa consciousness society. It is cheating." No, it is not cheating. It is actual fact. Yes. It is not cheating. But if you want to gratify your senses, oh, there is no scope. Then go to hell. Then go to hell. But if you want to serve Kṛṣṇa, there is every arrangement for you. There is every arrangement for you. If you want to cheat Kṛṣṇa, then Kṛṣṇa will also cheat you.
If you are engaged in some type of activities, you are not engaged in other activities, you cannot do. Similarly, if you simply engage yourself in pious activities, the reaction of sinful activities cannot touch you. Yeṣāṁ anta-gataṁ pāpaṁ janānāṁ puṇya-karmaṇām te, such persons, dvandva-moha-nirmuktā, they're released from the duality, bhajante māṁ dṛḍha-vratāḥ. So you are engaged in that business. There is no scope of sinful reaction in your life, provided you follow the four principles. No intoxication, no meat eating, no illicit sex, no gambling.
So there are twelve months, but we have got twenty-four festivals as big as this Ratha-yātrā Festival. So if you kindly take to them, then as advised by Lord Caitanya, kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ (CC Adi 17.31), you will always be in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and there will be no scope of your frustration and confusion.
So Arjuna, when he was talking with Kṛṣṇa as friend, but when he saw that there was no solution talking like this, he surrendered to Kṛṣṇa. He said, śiṣyas te 'ham, aham: (BG 2.7) "Myself, I surrender unto You as Your disciple." Śiṣyas te 'haṁ śādhi māṁ prapannam. Prapannam means surrender. So that is the Vedic injunction, that if you want to know transcendental knowledge or science... "Transcendental" means beyond the scope of your direct perception.
So spiritual knowledge is beyond the scope of our sense speculation. Beyond the scope. Just like when a soul, a spiritual spark only, leaves this body, you cannot see. Therefore, atheistic class of men, they speculate,
Don't have any food besides prasādam or foodstuff offered to Kṛṣṇa. And Kṛṣṇa does not eat anything beyond the vegetarian group. Because in the Bhagavad-gītā it is said patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ yo me bhaktyā prayacchati (BG 9.26). So you cannot offer Kṛṣṇa anything beyond this scope. So there is no question of nonvegetarian diet,
And the people from all parts of the world, they are responding. There is very, very good scope for spreading this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, and learned circle, important men in all parts of the society and world, they are appreciating this mission. Bhārata-bhūmite manuṣya... It was Caitanya Mahāprabhu's desire that especially those who are born in India, and especially in Bengal, because Caitanya Mahāprabhu appeared in this land of Bengal, so it is the duty to spread this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. But unfortunately they are not coming forward.
Don't you see that a small spiritual spark which no physician, no medical science has still discovered, where is the soul, but the soul is there. That is a fact. As soon as the soul is gone from this body, it is useless. Find out what is that important particle. That is not possible, because it is so small that your, with these material eyes or microscope or any scope you cannot find out. Therefore they say there is no soul. But they cannot explain what is gone. Even that small particle of spiritual soul is so powerful that as long as it is within this body, it keeps it fresh, nice, beautiful. And as soon as it is gone, immediately it begins to decompose.
One can understand what is God by the mercy of God, not by mental speculation. It is not possible. We have got very limited scope of knowledge. Our senses are imperfect, we are full of cheating propensities, and we are liable to commit mistake. These four defects are within us.
Kṛṣṇa is all-powerful, almighty, full with six opulences. So if you have got any material desire, that also Kṛṣṇa can fulfill, but you stick to Kṛṣṇa so that your āsakti will be increased. If you divert your attention to other demigods, then this āsakti will fail. Therefore for a devotee who sticks his faith in Kṛṣṇa, he has no chance for worshiping other demigods. So the Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura says, anya devāśraya nāi, tomāre kahinu bhāi, ei parama bhakti karaṇa. For a devotee of Kṛṣṇa there is no scope for worshiping other Deity, because that will not help him to increase his attachment for Kṛṣṇa.
There is no comparison. He... Those who have read Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, they are acquainted with the activities of Kṛṣṇa. I am speaking this for people who are outside the scope of Vedic religion. Those who are in the Vedic religion, all of them, they accept Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. There is no doubt about it.
Prabhupāda: Because our study is imperfect, because if our senses are imperfect, our scope of knowledge is imperfect, therefore as soon as we receive the knowledge from the perfect source, then it is perfect.
| Page Title: | Scope (Lectures) |
| Compiler: | Labangalatika, ChandrasekharaAcarya |
| Created: | 05 of Feb, 2010 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=43, Con=0, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 43 |