Prabhupāda:
- ye yathā māṁ prapadyante
- tāṁs tathaiva bhajāmy aham
- mama vartmānuvartante
- manuṣyāḥ pārtha sarvaśaḥ
- (BG 4.11)
This śloka, this verse, we discussed last Friday evening, and I tried to explain the supreme leadership of the Supreme Lord. By nature we are destined to follow a leadership. Nobody is independent. Even in the animal society, the animals, they have also got a group, and there is leader of the group. Perhaps you know it. So in every group . . . we are trying to make some group according to the similarity of thoughts and propensities. There are association, you know, various association: mercantile association, bankers' association, lawyers' association, and there is a leader. That is the nature's way.
Now, the supreme leader is Śrī Kṛṣṇa. That we do not know. Supreme leader, the leadership is accepted, but we do not know that the supreme leader is the Supreme Lord, or Kṛṣṇa. So that is informed in the Vedic literature, and in the Bhagavad-gītā also, the same thing is confirmed that, ye yathā māṁ prapadyante: "Now, everyone is under My leadership. Everyone. There is no exception." Especially He mentions the manuṣya. Manuṣya means the human being.
The human being especially mentioned here, because amongst all the human beings in this lower status of our existence, the human being is considered the highest perfectional stage of living condition. And especially human being has the prerogative to understand the supreme leadership of Śrī Kṛṣṇa. The animals cannot understand it or the persons who are in the animal nature.
Just like you will find in the Seventh Chapter of Bhagavad-gītā, the Lord says:
- na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ
- prapadyante narādhamāḥ
- māyayāpahṛta-jñānā
- āsuraṁ bhāvam āśritāḥ
- (BG 7.15)
"Those who are always engaged in mischievous activities, those who are fools, those who are lowest of the mankind and those whose knowledge has been deluded by the external energy, they do not make their surrender unto the Supreme Lord." But there are other persons, who are virtuous. They are considered that ārto jijñāsur arthārthī jñānī ca bharatarṣabha (BG 7.16).
There are other persons who are distressed and in need of some wealth or inquisitive or really research worker in the field of understanding what is the Absolute Truth. And this morning we were discussing in the morning class that the person who are research scholar in the matter of understanding the nature of Kṛṣṇa, transcendental nature of Kṛṣṇa, he is called jñānī, or philosopher, and he is accepted, with bhakti, with devotional service, he is accepted as special for the attention of the Supreme Lord.
Now, everyone . . . therefore everyone is following the leadership or the representative of the leadership. Now you will find in the Bhagavad-gītā, when there is some specific qualification of a person, just like political leader or some spiritual leader . . . leader there must be. So suppose a political leader or religious leader is there, and thousands of people are following him. So that is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā, that they are invested with certain power of Śrī Kṛṣṇa. Yad yad vibhūtimat sattvaṁ mama tejo 'ṁśa-sambhavam (BG 10.41).
So everyone is following directly or indirectly the supreme leadership of Kṛṣṇa. And the perfectional stage of accepting that leadership is when we accept Śrī Kṛṣṇa as our direct leader.
We are going to that path gradually, going to that path gradually, but in the middle we are hampered, because there is want of sufficient knowledge. When sufficient knowledge is there . . . you'll find in the Bhagavad-gītā, bahūnāṁ janmanām ante jñānavān māṁ prapadyate (BG 7.19). "After many, many births, when one is developed in his real consciousness, he can understand." What? What he understand? Vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti sa mahātmā su-durlabhaḥ: "That Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme. He is all in all. So I have to surrender unto Him."