What is the difference between animal and human being? The animals, they are engaged with the bodily necessities of life, āhāra-nidrā-bhaya-maithunam (Hitopadeśa 25): eating, sleeping—āhāra nidrā—and defending and sex life. These are the bodily necessities. You have to eat something, you have to sleep for some time, you have to defend yourself from others' attack, and you must have sex enjoyment. These are bodily necessities. So these bodily necessities are there in the human society and the animal society. Āhāra-nidrā-bhaya-maithunaṁ ca sāmānyam etad paśubhiḥ narāṇām.
Then what is the speciality of human society? The speciality of human society is that there must be some form of religion. In the animal society there cannot be any form of religion; therefore the śāstric injunction is that without any form of religion, a human society is animal society. Dharmeṇa hīna paśubhiḥ samānāḥ.
Now, we have to understand what is religion. Religion, as I have already told you, religion means the codes and words given by God, these codes and words coming from God in disciplic succession. According to our Vedic principles . . . that is the original principles of the world. Because at the present moment the history of the world cannot give any chronological account more than three thousand years. And what was the position of the human society beyond these three thousand years? That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
From Mahābhārata history we can understand that the whole world, this planet, was called Bhārata-varṣa. Now Bhārata-varṣa has come to a limited circle only, but formerly the Bhārata-varṣa was . . . the whole planet was known as Bhārata-varṣa. There was an emperor of the name Mahārāja Bharata, under whose name, or after his name, this planet is called Bhārata-varṣa. Before that, this planet was known as Ilāvṛta-varṣa.
So the Vedic civilization . . . I mean to say, before three thousand years, the whole world was under Vedic civilization, the Āryans. The Āryans, at least they were under Vedic civilization. And that Vedic civilization is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. One friend was telling me that in Russia the word kṛṣṇa is there, and kṛṣṇa means beautiful.
(aside) Somebody told me? You told me?
Yes. And in Greek, I mean to say, what is called, dictionary, there is a word krista. And some of the Christians say that this Christ comes from the word krista.
So there is a link. Of course, those who are philologists, they can find out what is the history of this word. But so far we have studied the history of the world, Kṛṣṇa was known all over the world. Kṛṣṇa was known all over the world. Therefore it is to be understood that everyone was Kṛṣṇa conscious.
So apart from this historical point of view, try to understand what is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Kṛṣṇa consciousness means pure consciousness. Just like water, when it falls down from the cloud, it is pure, and as soon as it drops or mixes with the muddy earth, it becomes muddy; it is no more clear. Similarly, we, as spirit soul, our consciousness is as pure as Kṛṣṇa is pure. And Kṛṣṇa consciousness means that "I am eternal servant of Kṛṣṇa." That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Gradually, as we contact the material contamination, we become different conscious.