This is the problem. Now Arjuna is facing the problem. What is this problem? Suppose you bring all my friends, my relatives, my sons, grandsons, my father-in-law, brother-in-law, friends, my animals... Because there were soldiers, senayor ubhayor api, there were animals also. Horses, elephants. They are also within the membership. According to Vedic conception, the animals, they are also members of your family. Because they are giving service. Not that one section of the members of my family I give protection, and the other section, I take everything from them and then cut throat. This is not civilization. You keep your sons, wife, daughters, cows, dogs, they are animals, asses, domestic animals, horses, elephants. If you are rich, you can keep elephants also. It does not mean... Either family-wise or state-wise, it does not mean that you give protection to some members and cut throat of the others. Oh, how horrible it is. So all of them were present now. And the problem is that he has to kill them, Arjuna. It is fight, it is a family fight.
This is the problem (Lectures)
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Lectures
Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures
So this is the problem. This material world is problematic, especially when we have got these family relationships. "Society, friendship, and love, divinely bestowed upon man." They say. (laughs) It is not divinely bestowed. It is not. It is entanglement. It is entanglement. Dehāpatya. There is verse in the Second Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Dehāpatya. What is that verse? Dehāpatya-kalatrādi (SB 2.1.4). Deha, first affection is with our body. "I am this Mr. Such and such. This is I am, this body." I have got attraction for this body. Then the offsprings, the by-products of this body. Apatya. Apatya means children. And how this by-product is made? Kalatra, through wife. Strī. Strī means which expands. Vistara, expands. I am alone. I accept wife, strī, and with her cooperation I expand. So one who helps me to expand, that is called strī. Every Sanskrit word has got meaning.
A devotee may excuse you. But Kṛṣṇa will not excuse you. Kṛṣṇa is so strict. He cannot tolerate any insult to His devotee. Therefore this arrangement of fighting. Arjuna wanted, "No, let them be excused." Kṛṣṇa wanted, "No, you must fight. You must kill them." This is the position. So he is within the dilemma. Kṛṣṇa is insisting that "You must fight and kill them," but he is thinking, "How shall I kill my kinsmen?" This is the problem. Therefore, tān samīkṣya sa kaunteyaḥ sarvān bandhūn avasthitān (BG 1.27). All friends are there. Kṛpayā parayāviṣṭo viṣīdann idam abravīt. So this is one side, that if you want to please Kṛṣṇa, then you have to be prepared for killing your so-called relatives. If you want Kṛṣṇa. If you want to please Kṛṣṇa.
So Arjuna is in gṛhastha-āśrama. He wants to serve Kṛṣṇa. He's Kṛṣṇa's friend. He is a devotee. Kṛṣṇa has already recommended. In the Fourth Chapter He will declare, bhakto 'si priyo 'si me (BG 4.3). "You are My dear friend. You are My devotee." So he is qualified, gṛhastha-āśramī. He is devotee of Kṛṣṇa, but he is also family man. He has his wife, children. So here the problem is what is śreyas? What is ultimate good? That is mistaken here. Therefore Bhagavad-gītā is required. He is thinking that "Kṛṣṇa is not so important. My family is important. My family." Although he is devotee. Therefore kaniṣṭha-adhikārī, in the lower stage of devotee, in the lower stage of devotion, one may be interested in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, but his real interest is how to improve this material life. Just like: "O God, give us our daily bread." So he has gone to God not to serve God, but to take bread. Ārtaḥ arthārthī. That is also good. But he... Because he has gone to God to ask for bread, he is better than the rascals who do not care for God.
Rājarṣayaḥ. Rāja, king means, he is not only king. He is a great ṛṣi, saintly person, just like Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira or Arjuna. They're saintly persons. They are not ordinary, this drunkard king, that "I have got so much money. Let me drink and let there be dancing of the prostitute." Not like that. They were ṛṣi. Although they were king, they were ṛṣis. That kind of king wanted, rājarṣi. Then people will be happy. In Bengali there is a proverb, rājara pāpe rāja naṣṭa gṛhiṇī doṣe gṛhastha bhraṣṭa (?). In gṛhastha life, in household life, if the wife is not good, then nobody will be happy in that home, gṛhastha life, household life. Similarly, in a kingdom, if the king is impious, then everything, everyone will suffer. This is the problem.
So this is the problem: duty. Arjuna was forgetting duty. And Kṛṣṇa was inducing him: "Never mind. According to kṣatriya rules and regulation, even the opposite party is your own son, you should not hesitate to kill him. This is kṣatriya's business." If the opposite party is your own son, but when there is fight, there must be decided: one party must be killed. This is kṣatriya's business. So he says, gurūn ahatvā hi mahānubhāvān (BG 2.5). "These guru, this Droṇācārya and Bhīṣma, they are not ordinary men." Mahānubhāvān. Bhīṣma, everyone knows. Bhīṣma is one of the authorities, authorities of religious principle. There are twelve authorities.
Similarly, this body, this material body, has been explained as dress. So if I change my dress... Now, suppose I am now human being, and I change my dress to become a demigod, or I change my dress to become a dog. It does not mean that I am finished. I have simply changed my dress, according to my karma. Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa jantur deha upapatti (SB 3.31.1). By your karma, you'll have a dress. After death, as it is explained in this verse, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20), the living soul is not destroyed after the destruction of this body. Therefore he remains, and his finer dress, subtle dress, is there—mind, intelligence, and ego. So according to the composition of his mind, he develops another gross dress. This is the process. So you, spirit soul, you are always the same, although you are changing dress. Our problem is that we are perpetually changing dress, but our desire is to have a permanent life. That is spiritual education. You can have a permanent life, permanent dress, permanent knowledge, if you become free from this dress-changing problem. That is called mukti. The Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is to stop this business of dress changing.
So there is no question of overpopulation. Overpopulation is already there, anantyāya kalpate. They why do you call overpopulation? When there is already fire, why do you say there will be fire? It is already there. So, but, the restriction, eko bahūnāṁ yo vidadhāti kāmān. That eka, that eka, Kṛṣṇa, He orders. He does not order actually. Just like, not every time the police has to be ordered by the superior authority to punish the criminal. They know how to punish. So the nature knows how to punish these criminals. Therefore, the scientists are finding now shortage of petrol, shortage of this, shortage... What to do? What to do? This is the position. Otherwise, there is no question of overpopulation. The supply is restricted. That is the problem. Eko yo bahūnām. Because He supplies all the necessities, the supply will be restricted. As we become more and more sinful and without Kṛṣṇa consciousness, they will be put into difficulties, they will be dying within the womb, they will be killed, within the womb, there will be war, there will be pestilence, there will be famine, there will be earthquake. In so many ways, we have to die. Bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19). Again, take birth, this business will go on. And ultimately, when the whole universe is annihilated, then again we take shelter in the body of Mahā-Viṣṇu and live for, in that way, without any body, for many millions of years. Again, there is creation, and then again given chance. "All right, take another chance. Be Kṛṣṇa conscious."
This is the problem at the present moment. People are not educated about the vital force of this body. Here in the Bhagavad-gītā, it is explained, dehī. Dehī means the proprietor of this body. Both we all, not only we human being, but also lower than human being, all living entities... There are 8,400,000 forms of living entities. They are called dehī. Dehī means the proprietor of the body. The dog, the cat, the human being, the president, or higher or lower, there are different species of life. Everyone is the proprietor of the body. That we can experience. You know everything about the pains and pleasures of your body. I know what are the pains and pleasures of the body. So this body has been given to us by material nature as our field of activities. With different bodies, we are acting differently. Not that your activities and my activities are the same. The dog's activities and the man's activities are different because the dog has got a different type of body and I have got a different type of body. Every one of us. So dehino 'smin yathā dehe (BG 2.13). The dehī, the living entity or the vital force, is within this body.
So therefore the question is that I am eternal and why I have been put into this temporary life? This is intelligent question. This is the problem. But these rascals, they have set aside this real problem. They are thinking how to eat, how to sleep, how to have sex, how to defend. Even if you eat nicely, if you sleep nicely, but ultimately you'll have to die. The problem is there. But they are careless about this real problem. They are very much alert in the temporary problem. So temporary problem, actually there is no problem. The birds, beasts they also eat, sleep, they have sexual intercourse and they defend. If they know all these things without becoming a human being, without having sufficient education or so-called civilization, how to live, how to sleep, how to defend. If they can live, so what is your problem? These things are not problems. The rascal says, "Overpopulation, this..." These are not at all problems. The real problem is that "I do not want to die. Why death comes, takes place?" This is real problem. But the rascals do not know it. They think these are problems, temporary things. He will live for fifty years and maybe.... That will be explained in the next verse, mātrā-sparśās tu kaunteya śītoṣṇa-sukha-duḥkha-dāḥ (BG 2.14).
That is the function of the human life, to understand that "I am eternal." Kṛṣṇa says that "In the past we existed, in the present we are existing, and in the future we shall continue to exist." Then why I have got this type of body by which I am actually, not actually, superficially I am not existing. So this is the problem. A dhīra means a sober man will think of this problem, that "I want to live. Why death takes place? I want to live very healthy life. Why disease comes? I don't want to become old man. Why old age comes?" Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi (BG 13.9). These are the problems. So solve this problem simply by taking to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, simply by understanding Kṛṣṇa. And for understand Kṛṣṇa, the Bhagavad-gītā is there, so nicely explained.
Therefore the problem is how to get out of this bodily entanglement. I am spirit soul. Somehow or other, I have fallen in this entanglement of bodily transformation. There, Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says, anādi karama-phale, pori' bhavārṇava-jale, toribāre nā dekhi upāy: "Somehow or other I have fallen in this ocean of birth and death. I do not know how to get out of it." Just like if you are thrown into the ocean, however expert swimmer you may be, that is not your comfortable life. You have to swim all along, otherwise immediately drown. Similarly, as soon as you get yourself in this material world, you have to struggle for existence. You have to. If you want to stop this struggle for existence, then you must get out of this material existence. That is the problem of life. Anādi karama-phale, pori' bhavārṇava-jale, toribāre nā dekhi upāy. Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu teaches us, ayi nanda-tanuja patitaṁ kiṅkaraṁ māṁ viṣame bhavāmbudhau: "My dear Lord, Nanda-tanuja, son of Nanda Mahārāja, Kṛṣṇa, I am Your eternal servant. Somehow or other, I am now fallen in this material ocean." Ayi nanda-tanuja patitaṁ kiṅkaraṁ māṁ viṣame bhavāmbudhau. Viṣame: "Very ferocious danger, ocean of this material existence, I am fallen. Although I am Your servant, some way or other, I have forgot. I have fallen down."
So anyway, we can understand that "I am sometimes in this gross body, and I am sometimes in the subtle body. So I am there, either in the gross body or in the subtle body. So I am eternal. But when I work with the subtle body, I forget this gross body. And when I work with this gross body, I forget this subtle body. So either I accept the gross body or subtle body, I am eternal. I am eternal. Now the problem is how to avoid this gross body and subtle body. That is problem. That means when you remain in your original body, means spiritual body, and do not come to this gross or subtle body, that is your eternal life. That is... We have to achieve. This human life is a gift by the nature or by God. Now you realize that you are changing your different condition, distress and happiness, being forced to accept some kind of gross and subtle body. That is the cause of your pains and pleasure. And if you get out of this gross and subtle body, remain in your original, spiritual body, then you are free from these pains and pleasure.
So anything you practice, you'll be successful. So if by practicing Kṛṣṇa consciousness, you can go back to home, back to Godhead, why should you neglect it? That will solve your all problems. The real problem is birth, death, old age and disease, and if you can solve this problem simply by practicing some regulative principles, why don't you do it? So that is our request. We are opening hundreds of centers to give training to the people to practice this and go back to home, back to Godhead. But you cannot go back to home, back to Godhead, so cheaply. You have to practice certain regulative principle; then you will be fit. That is not very difficult, and if you practice, that will be very easy, and the beginning should be chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra so that you'll be fit for practicing also. So therefore, take full advantage of this movement. Now it is one... We have got center in your city. I request you to take full advantage of this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement and be successful in your life. But rest assured. Do not be misled that (sic:) after finishing this body, every one of us will have to accept another body. If we neglecting the rules and regulation, if we have to accept the body of a dog, just imagine how much displeasing it will be. We have to take to this principle, as Kṛṣṇa says, mad-yājino 'pi yānti mām: (BG 9.25) "Anyone who is engaged in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he comes to Me."
But people have become so foolish, especially at the present days, they're simply making plan on this material world, how they will become happy. We have practically seen. What is in our country? It is far, far behind material civilization. In America, there are so many motorcars. Every third man, or second man has got a car. We are poor man, we are sannyāsīs, brahmacārī. Still, in each temple we have got at least four, five cars. In each temple. Very nice car. Such car even ministers in India cannot imagine. (laughter) You see? Nice, nice cars. So they have got so many cars. But the problem is that always they're engaged in making roads, flyways, one after another, one after another, one after... It has come to this stage, four, five. Four-, five-storied roads. (laughter) So how you can become happy? Therefore tattva-darśibhiḥ na asataḥ. You cannot become permanently happy in this material world. That is not possible. So don't waste your time to become happy here. In another place, it is said, padaṁ padaṁ yad vipadāṁ na teṣām (SB 10.14.58). The same example can be given. In America, so many millions of people die in motor accidents.
My birth and death is disease. You have to cure this disease. That is your problem, real problem. But they are not serious about solving this real problem, birth and death. They are thinking, "So long I live, let me enjoy senses as far as possible, and let me enjoy." That's all. That's their philosophy. Child's philosophy. Just like child does not look forward his future. He's very playful. He sees that "This playing will make me happy." Similarly, these rascals, they are simply enjoying senses, forgetting their future life. So this is a rascal civilization. This is not a good civilization. You see? Childish civilization. However they may be proud of their advancement of knowledge, it is childish civilization because they have no future. Everlasting. "How I am going to be everlasting," they do not think of it. You see? This one word can give so many volumes of thoughts to the real philosopher, to the real thinker. Here it is stated that the living entity is everlasting, and where is that living entity everlasting? Why it is not so? This is the problem.
Viṣṇujana: "It is said that the soul is invisible, inconceivable (BG 2.25)."
Prabhupāda: Yes, invisible. That is a fact. I am soul, you are soul, but I cannot see with these eyes. I am seeing your body. Just like I am seeing my son or husband or brother, and as soon as my son or husband or son, anyone, dies, "Oh, my son is gone." Where has your son gone? He's lying here. Why do you say gone? "No, he's gone. He's gone." Then what is that son? Have you ever seen him? That is the problem. He has never seen his son or husband. He has seen this body as husband or son or father. Therefore invisible. You cannot see even a small particle of soul which is spiritual, you want to see God immediately without preparing your eyes? Just see. They want to see God. They cannot see even the small particle of God, the soul, and they want to see immediately God. Yes, one can see God. But not immediately. You have to prepare your eyes. You'll see God, you'll see soul, everything. Everything will be visible. At the present moment it is invisible because we have got material eyes. With material eyes we cannot see anything spiritual. It is blocked.
Your problem is how to be reestablished again as eternal. Because we are eternal. Some way or other, we have fallen in this material world. Therefore, we have to accept birth and death. So our problem is how to again be eternal. That is amṛtatva. But these rascals, they do not know that there is possibility of becoming eternal. Simply by trying to understand Kṛṣṇa, one can become immortal. Janma karma ca me divyaṁ yo jānāti tattvataḥ (BG 4.9). Simply try to understand Kṛṣṇa, what is Kṛṣṇa. Then tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti (BG 4.9). Simply by understanding Kṛṣṇa, even you don't serve Kṛṣṇa. If you serve, then you are already liberated. If you simply philosophically try to understand the position of Kṛṣṇa. But no, the mūḍhas, the rascals, they'll say: "We accept Kṛṣṇa as a great man.
So about the soul and about God, the Supreme Soul, this is the problem of the material world. The Śrīmad-Bhāgavata says, naiṣāṁ matis tāvad urukramāṅghriṁ spṛśaty anarthāpagamo yad-arthaḥ (SB 7.5.32), niṣkiñcanānām... What is that? Mahīyasāṁ pāda-rajo-'bhiṣekaṁ niṣkiñcanānāṁ na vṛṇīta yāvat. This is very important verse. It says that urukramāṅghrim. Urukramāṅghrim is the name of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Uru means big, and krama means activities. One whose activities are very great. Whose activities are very great? Just try to understand. Now see, the big planet, biggest planets in the universe, the sun globe, is floating in the corner of the sky. So whose activities these are? Who has caused this floating? This is called urukrama, big activity.
So here fighting is a matter of duty. That is the kṣatriya spirit. Fighting is not killing. Because people have no idea what is the soul, therefore they think that stopping war will help us in peaceful condition of the society. There are so many troubles so long this body is there. War is one of the items. Even war is stopped, there is no question that people will live forever. No. That is not the law of nature. Duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam (BG 8.15). This life, the problem is how to stop our contact with this material body That is the problem. Not that these general people, they are thinking, "If war, there is no war, then we shall be very happy." How you'll stop your war with māyā? Māyā has declared war with you, or you have declared war with māyā. Daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā duratyayā (BG 7.14). The māyā, the material nature is enforcing, "Why you are closing this door?" "Oh, because it is very cold outside." Who is forcing? Immediately there will be cold, immediately there will be fog, immediately there will be excessive heat, immediately there may be earthquake. How you can stop it? So they simply think... Just like innocent child, they are concerned with the immediate problem. But sane man is concerned with the ultimate problem. So our ultimate problem is not this war. The ultimate problem is repetition of birth and death. That is ultimate problem, how to stop this. That is the problem. So Kṛṣṇa says that "This is useless lamentation, that you do not wish to fight. It is the concluded fact that even your grandfather or relatives die, they will continue as soul. You have to execute your duty. You cannot deviate from your duty."
Yata, because, ātmanaḥ, the spirit soul, ātmano 'yam... Asann api kleśada āsa dehaḥ (SB 5.5.4). This body is temporary, but so long this body is there, you'll have to suffer. What is that suffering? The sum total of suffering is birth, death, old age and disease. This is due to this body. Therefore the problem is how to stop this material body, repetition. Today I have got this body, Indian, tomorrow I may get American, next birth... Tomorrow means next birth. Next birth another, next birth another, next birth another—it is going on. Going on. There is no stoppage, this transmigration of the soul.
But so long you do not stop it, there is no question of being freed from sufferings. They do not know it. They are thinking they are advancing. What advancement you have made? These sufferings are there—birth, death, old age and disease. You cannot stop it. Ābrahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ, and even you go to this moon planet or to the highest planet, these four things will follow. So therefore sense gratification must be stopped. But if you want to stop it artificially it is impossible. Neither by this yoga process, neither by this jñāna process. Simply for the time being you can check.
Just like Hiraṇyakaśipu. He was very, very proud of his possession. He was controlling over the three worlds. He was chastising his Vaiṣṇava son, Prahlāda Mahārāja. In this way he was very, very proud. But when Kṛṣṇa came as Nṛsiṁha-deva, everything was finished within a second. So we should not mistake this, I mean to say, fact.
Kṛṣṇa therefore presents that "Your real problem is birth, death, old age, and disease, your real problem. You are making solution of all the problems by scientific advancement, by education, by so on, so on, political maneuver, everything. It is all right, but how you are going to solve this problem—janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9)? How you'll solve this problem?" Actually human life is meant for solving this problem, not this temporary problem. Temporary problem will go on. If you don't solve this problem, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi, then any form of life, there will be problems. Even if you are elevated to the heavenly planets, there are also problems. Indra is not very happy there, the king of heavenly planet. Although the higher planets, the duration of life, the standard of civilization, standard of comforts many, many thousand times greater than here, but the same problem—janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi—is there. You cannot avoid it.
But actually our problem is that I... Nobody wants to die, that's a fact, but death is enforced. No young man wants to become old man, but it is enforced. You cannot avoid it. So we should understand—this is sense—that we are not independent. That's a fact. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni (BG 3.27).
The aim of life is to go back to home, back to Godhead. That is the aim of life. We are fallen in this material conditional life. We are suffering. But we do not know. We are so fool. Just like animals. We do not know what is the aim of life. Aim of life, that is also described in the Bhagavad-gītā: janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). When we can understand that "This process of repetition of birth, death, old age and disease, this is not wanted by me..." Nobody wants to die, but death is forced upon him. He does not think that "This is my problem. I do not want to die, but death is as sure as anything." So this is the problem. Nobody is careful how to solve this problem. They are simply engaged in the, I mean to say, temporary problems. The temporary problems are not problems. Real problem is how to stop death, how to stop birth, how to stop old age, and how to stop disease. That is real problem. That can be done when you are liberated from this material world. This is our problem.
So Kṛṣṇa comes here again... Yadā yadā hi dharmasya glānir bhavati bhārata (BG 4.7). Dharmasya glāniḥ. Glāniḥ means when it is distorted. So people are manufacturing, in the name of so-called religion, "This is our religion. This is..." "This is Hindu religion." "This is Muslim religion." "This is Christian religion." Or "This is Buddha religion."
Just like we met some Indian gentleman while coming. I asked him, "Why don't you come to temple?" "Swamiji, I am searching after some employment. I have lost my employment." Just see. he has come from India, so, about fifteen thousand miles away, and the problem is still unemployment. Why he has come here, so far distant? That means he's educated. Otherwise, this country would not allow him immigration. But the problem is there, unemployment.
So there is very nice program, er, proverb in Bengali. Yadi yao bhaṅge kaphala yabe saṅge.(?) That means "Wherever you go, your, this fortune..." Generally, when we speak of fortune we touch our head. Sometimes we say, "Oh, it is my misfortune." That means fortune may be written here. It is said. So "Wherever you go, your, this fortune will go with you." So how you can avoid your..." If you have got nonsense fortune, then it will go with you. Either you go to Canada, or you go to hell, or you go to heaven, the fortune will go with you.
This is called māyā. Māyā means what is not. Māyā. Mā means not. Not. Yā means this. This is māyā. He is thinking... The modern human society, they are thinking that advancing. But māyā. It is not. You are not advancing. What advancement you have made? Your problem is, the primary problem is, eating, sleeping, mating and defending. Oh, that is not solved. Our problem is birth, death, old age and disease. And that is not solved. Then what nuisance you are doing in the name of progress? There is no progress. The real progress is to understand the laws of nature, how it is being conducted under the direction of the Supreme Lord. That is real progress.
This is very important verse. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti. Our problem is this transmigration of the soul, one body to another. This is going on. Because you do not know how to get out of it, modern education they do not know even what is soul, what is this body, how the transmigration of the soul taking place. All blunt. There is no educational institution all over the world to understand this science. Although it is the most important science for the human being. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti (BG 4.9). No more transmigration of the soul.
The soul, in its original spiritual body, can be transferred from this material world to the spiritual world. And there is the spiritual world as I've already explained, that is three times creation of the Lord. This is only one-fourth, this material world. So our problem of human life is to get out of these material clutches and transfer ourselves to the spiritual world. That is real problem. Not this food problem, that problem. This will go on. So long you are in the material world, such problems will come and go. They're not permanent. That is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā. Āgamāpāyinaḥ anityāḥ tāṁs titikṣasva bhārata. These problems, they'll come and they'll go.
And they believe in the next birth, next life, past life, they believe in God, in Kṛṣṇa. They're satisfied with that position, but the modern leaders they do not like it. They want to make them intoxicated so that they can work like an ass for the morsel of food. But this is not the problem. The real problem is here, stated, that you should stop the disease of birth and death. That is real problem. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma (BG 4.9). The human life is meant for making a solution of the repetition of birth and death. That is real problem. Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). We are finding fault with so many things. But really we should find fault with this process of repetition of birth and death. People are now being educated in this way that there is no more life. You have got this life and you enjoy the senses as far as possible.
Ladies and gentlemen, I wish to thank you for your kindly participating in this festival. This Hare Kṛṣṇa movement is a spiritual movement. There is spirit soul within the body, and the material body is covering, just like shirt and coat, of the spirit soul. The spirit soul somehow or other is encaged within this material body. The problems of life there are many, but they are pertaining to the body. Real problem is how to get the spirit soul out of this material encagement. The body has got attachment for material enjoyment. Therefore in this verse it is said, vīta-rāga, how to become detached from this material attachment. Rāga means attachment; vīta-rāga, giving up this attachment. Vīta-rāga-bhaya-krodhāḥ (BG 2.56). Bhaya means fearfulness, and krodha means anger. Because we are attached to the material enjoyment, we are also very much always fearful how our enjoyment may not be disturbed. And if our material enjoyment is not fulfilled, we become angry. This is our position on account of this material body. Therefore spiritual culture means how to get out of this attachment, fearfulness and the position of becoming angry.
So we have to cure this disease, material disease, accepting this material body. Our real problem, which is described in the Bhagavad-gītā, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam... (BG 13.9). Our real problem is that we are accepting a material body, and after some days, we are giving up the present material body, and we are accepting another material body. How we are accepting different bodies? That you have got experience. Just like you, I, both of us, had a small child body. That is now gone. The boy's body is now gone. The youthful body is now gone. Now I have got a different body. But I know that I had such and such body. Similarly, when this body will be useless, I cannot use it, I will have to accept another body. That we have got experience daily, in day and night. When we sleep at night, although we have got this body lying on my bed, I accept another body, subtle body, and I go to another place and dream. Similarly, at night, when I give up that subtle body, which took me far away from my bed, again I come and accept this material body and wake up.
Just like a dog. He does not know that he is spirit soul. He cannot understand. Ahaṁ brahmāsmi. He cannot understand. It is in the human body one can understand that "I am not this body." A human body can understand what is written in the Bhagavad-gītā. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). You have to change your body. You do not know what change is going to be happened. But you have to change your body. How? There are so many bodies. Cats, dogs, demigods, and so many others. You have to accept. According to your karma. Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa (SB 3.31.1), by the judgement of superior authority, and according to your karma, you'll get a body.
So this is the problem of life, and in the human form of life there is chance of understanding what is the problem of life. The problem is that "I am eternal spirit soul. Ahaṁ brahmāsmi. I am not this body." That, that is called knowledge.
So our problem is that we are suffering all kinds of miseries on account of this material body. Now, our business should be that we shall be cultured in Kṛṣṇa consciousness so that in next life will be my spiritual body. Then the solution of all problems solved. And so long we shall get material body repeatedly—just like we give up this dress and take another dress, similarly, we shall continue—then the four kinds of miseries, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi (BG 13.9), or at least these four kinds of miseries—the miseries of birth, the miseries of death, and the miseries of old age, and miseries of diseases—we have to suffer. And as soon as you get spiritual body, all these miseries over. Because your body is no more subjected to birth and death, disease and old age. That life is eternal, full of knowledge, and blissful. That you can get simply by studying the nature of Kṛṣṇa, transcendental nature of Kṛṣṇa. So we are hankering after so many things. We are taking the leadership of this leader, that leader, that leader just to relieve, get relief from our temporary misery. So our duty should be just to get rid of all misery by developing that spiritual body. That should be the aim of life. And that is possible by Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā, ābrahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ punar āvartino 'rjuna (BG 8.16). Even if you, by activities, pious activities, or worshiping different demigods, you go to the Brahmaloka, where the standard of life is very, very great, life is also, duration of life is very, very great, so that is not permanent. But our problem is that we are permanent, eternal, and we are trying to be happy in the nonpermanent condition of life. This is called less brain. My problem is that I am the spirit soul... Nityaḥ śāśvataḥ. I am eternal, śāśvataḥ. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). I do not die even after the annihilation of this body. Then where is my eternal body? This question should be raised by the human form of life. Athāto brahma jijñāsā.
But instead of athāto... Jīvasya tattva-jijñāsā. Jīvasya, the only business is "How, what is the aim of life, how I shall be eternally happy, how I shall get my eternal life." That is the problem. But they do not consider the real problem. They think, "Immediately I require some money. So let me worship Lord Śiva or Lord..., this, Goddess Durgā, or Gaṇeśa, or Sūrya..." There are so many, recommended. So that is condemned in the Bhagavad-gītā that tad bhavaty alpa, antavat tu phalaṁ teṣāṁ tad bhavaty alpa-medhasām (BG 7.23).
Therefore Ṛṣabhadeva advising that "This is not good. Don't be engaged in karma, fruitive activities." If you be engaged in fruitive activities, karma, then you'll have to accept another material body. That may be a cat's body or dog's body or demigod's body or... Body you'll have to... But as soon as you have a material body, then you'll suffer. The... One who does not understand this philosophy, he's called alpa-medhasa, poor fund of knowledge. Poor fund of knowledge.
Real problem is, as Kṛṣṇa says, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9), that I am implicated with this process of repetition of birth and death, and after birth, there is suffering, old age, disease. He does not consider it. He thinks, "This is natural." No, it is unnatural. One who does not understand this, he's alpa-medhasa, poor, poor fund of knowledge.
The real problem is... It is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā: janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi (BG 13.9), birth, death, old age and disease. This is real problem. Nobody wants to take birth. At least nobody wants to die. Birth and death. Wherever there is birth, there must be death. Anything which is born must die. So janma-mṛtyu. And old age. So long you live, you have to change your position. So one position is this old age. Just like we have become old. There are so many complaints. Jarā. And vyādhi. And when we become diseased. Everyone should become diseased. Everyone should become old. Everyone must die. This is the problem. Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam.
We are trying to mitigate all our miserable conditions of life. That is struggle for existence. We are scientists. We are discovering many counteracting processes to get out of distresed condition. But the difficult position, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi, we are avoiding. Because we cannot do anything.
This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. How, we are helping people how to get out of this material body, and revive your own spiritual body and, in that spiritual body, you go back to home, back to Godhead. This is the process. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti (BG 4.9). But people are so attracted to this material body that they are prepared to become cats and dogs next life, but they are not prepared to go back to home, back to Godhead. This is the problem.
Then, as human being, as we are trying to solve our problems... The real problem we have to solve. And why we are in material condition and miserable condition? Because we have got this material body. This is the problem, real problem. Asann api kleśada āsa dehaḥ (SB 5.5.4). This body is temporary. It will not exist forever. But so long it will exist, it will give trouble. This is a fact. So long we'll continue in this material body, you'll have to suffer.
But we have no intelligence. We think that "We are like cats and dogs. The cats and dogs, they also eat; we also eat. They sleep; we also sleep. And they have sex; we have also sex. And they defend, we also defend. Their business finished." No. Your business is not finished. Because you are human being, you have got advanced intelligence than the cats and dog. You should know analytically what are the miserable condition of life and try to solve. That is intelligence. That is intelligence. And if we remain satisfied like cats and dogs—"So I have got something to eat, I have got some nice place to sleep and I have also got some other sex for enjoying sex life, and I defend with so many weapons, latest nuclear weapon"—no, śāstra says, "These things are manufactured... These things are maintained by the cats and dogs." Āhāra-nidrā-bhaya-maithunaṁ ca sāmānyam etat paśubhir narāṇām. This is common formula between the animals and the man.
Now, Kṛṣṇa says tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ, we have to change to another body, but we do not know what is that body. We are not prepared. Just like here I am, Johannesburg. So I know, from here I'll have to go to Nairobi. That I know. And we are making arrangement. But if as human being one does not know what is going to happen next life, then what kind of human being is? Where is the difference between cats and dogs? The dog does not know, neither he can be instructed, neither he is able to take the instruction. But why the human being should remain like dog? This is the problem. So we must consult Bhagavad-gītā very regularly, try to understand the problems of life, and the first problem is that you have to change your body.
So what kind of change of body you are going to have? You must learn it. Otherwise you are in darkness. What is the value of life if you do not know? Suppose next life I am going to become a dog. So what is the value of my becoming this life a prime minister? But they do not know. The science is unknown. Science is known, but people are so fool that they do not take care of it. This is the position.
So one who is serious about Kṛṣṇa consciousness, all these wonderful things, they do not captivate. You see? For them, two cents worth. Two cents. Suppose you can fly in the air. What is that? A rich man pay something to the aeroplane and, say, hundred dollars. He can fly from one place to another. Modern science, modern, has made everything cheap. So don't be after this perfection, material perfection. Any kind of material perfection will not solve our real problem. Our real problem is how to get rid of this material entanglement, the threefold miseries, birth after birth, I am going, repeating transmigration of, repetition of, getting one birth after... These are the problems.
So Kṛṣṇa says, tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti kaunteya: (BG 4.9) "After leaving this body, no more birth in this miserable world. He comes unto Me." We should stick to that point. And that will make us successful in our Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Anything, any more questions? (break) ...very ideal prayer to follow. What to ask from Kṛṣṇa? That is the goal of every living being.
Now at the modern age, in every country all over the world, there is unemployment. Why unemployment? Because people do not know how to divide the population according to guṇa and karma. One is qualified as a śūdra, and he is engaged in the business of a kṣatriya. There is problem. The people are educated as śūdras, and when they are called for recruiting for the armies, they are afraid. The problem is very acute in America. Nobody wants to join military department. Why they will join? They have been trained up as śūdra, and why they will be like the business of kṣatriya? That is the problem. Everyone wants to avoid. Actually, the hippy movement is started on account of this, what is this?
Devotees: Draft.
Prabhupāda: Draft, yes. Young men, they want to avoid it, and they are forced. Therefore they take the part of madman or lunatic, in this way. This is going on, to avoid it. So that is the problem.
Therefore we are repeatedly asking everyone to study Bhagavad-gītā as it is. Don't become a learned scholar and interpret foolishly or differently from Bhagavad-gītā. Everything is there.
So Kṛṣṇa says that our real problem of life is janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). That is the problem. Repetition of birth. Bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19). We take one body according to karma. Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa jantur dehopapattaye (SB 3.31.1). We get a body according to karma, daiva-netreṇa. That is not in your hand. Suppose if you are living like cats and dogs, the nature's way is that you get next life the dog's body, cat's body, or hog's body. And if you are working just like a god, godly, with good qualification, godly qualification, then you become next life demigod. You get your situation in the higher planetary system. These are all explained in the Bhagavad-gītā.
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).
So if we... Kṛṣṇa says, tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti kaunteya: (BG 4.9) "If you become Kṛṣṇa conscious, the result will be that after finishing this term of your body..." We have got different terms of body. "So this term of body, you come unto Me." Yad gatvā na nivartante tad dhāma paramaṁ mama (BG 15.6). So our problem is that. We are not going to adjust here. Here any kind of, any amount of adjustment will not make us happy. That is a fact. Because this place is like that. So we have to completely get free from this repeated birth and death of the material world and go back to home, back to Godhead and live peacefully with eternal life, knowledge and bliss. That is the whole thing Bhagavad-gītā is teaching. Kṛṣṇa's business is not to stop war or this or that.
So those who are karma-kāṇḍīya, they are interested, next life in the heavenly planet or higher standard of life. So that is also stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. Ūrdhvaṁ gacchanti sattva-sthāḥ (BG 14.18). If you associate with the modes of goodness, then you are promoted to the higher planetary system, beyond heavenly planets. Janaloka, Tapoloka, Maharloka, Satyaloka, Siddhaloka, Brahmaloka. So that is possible. But our problem is not to promote ourself to go to the heavenly planet or higher than that, Janaloka, Satyaloka, Maharloka, or Brahmaloka. Kṛṣṇa advises ā-brahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ punar āvartino 'rjuna (BG 8.16). He does not encourage that "You go to the Brahmaloka." No. He never encourages. He says, ā-brahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ punar āvartino 'rjuna (BG 8.16). Even if you become promoted to the Brahmaloka, then again you have to come back. Kṣīṇe puṇye punar martya-lokaṁ viśanti. As soon as your puṇya, the duration of life, is finished, then you have to come back again. This is going on.
The real science is how to stop this business. That is being advised in Bhagavad-gītā. Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma (BG 4.9). People do not understand this, that our real problem is not become promoted to the higher position, but to stop this birth, death, old age, and disease. That is real problem. So Kṛṣṇa says that gata-saṅgasya.
(aside:) Don't sit like that. Don't sit like that.
Everything is manufactured by God. So everyone has right, not only human being, even the animals, everyone has got the right to live and use things as much as he requires. But if he stocks more, if he acquires more, he becomes the thief, and he is punishable." Now, suppose if I say, "Oh, I do not know this law. Therefore I have accumulated so much things in my control," oh, that does not mean that you'll not be punished. You'll be punished. You'll be punishable. This knowledge we require to know. And people at the modern age, they are lacking this knowledge.
So we require hundreds and thousands of spiritual masters who has understood this Kṛṣṇa science and preach all over the world. That is the problem. Therefore we have formed this society and we, we invite all sincere souls to take part in the society and become a spiritual master, and preach this science all over the world. This is the... There is a great necessity of this knowledge.
Now, just like in our worldly affairs we, for gentleman's etiquette we ask, "How are you? How things are going on?" now, here the king was asking the sage, aihisthaṁ yat taṁ punar-janma-jayāya: "You are... You have... You have become mendicant. You have become sage just to conquer over death, conquer over death." Aihisthaṁ yat taṁ punar-janma-jayāya.(?) So that is this highest knowledge. Highest knowledge is to conquer over the death. This sort of idea... Of course, now it has become a story, but to conquer over the death, that was the main problem in, at least in the former Vedic civilization days. Everyone, any highest, I mean to say, highly situated person in knowledge, his main business was how to conquer death. Now, at the present moment that question has become subordinate thing only, how to conquer death. "Let death there be. So long death does not come, let me enjoy and have sense gratification." That has become the standard of civilization at the present moment. But real problem is how to conquer death.
So actually, this is the problem of living entities. That knowledge can be acquired in the human form of life and it can be solved, not that simply we get the knowledge, but it can be solved. So therefore, real business of human life, to understand oneself, that is called self-realization, brahma-bhūta (SB 4.30.20), and find out the remedy and act accordingly. That is the mission of human life. Not like to dance like cats and dogs with a nice dress. That is not human life. This is the subject matter of Bhagavad-gītā, our whole Vedic instruction. Vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyaḥ (BG 15.15). This is God consciousness, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, or self-realization. Self-realization means either you see yourself or see the Supreme Lord, either way. But without seeing the Supreme Lord, you cannot see yourself. Just like without seeing the sun in the darkness... Just like it is now night. There is no sun. So I cannot see also. In darkness I cannot see also myself. But when there is sun in the morning, I can see the sun and I can see myself also. This is the theory. So if we want to understand ourselves rightly, that "I am spirit soul," ahaṁ brahmāsmi, then we must take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
So take instruction from God to understand God. Then your life will be perfect. And if you understand God, then your all problems solved. Our real problem is repetition of birth and death. That is real problem. That we do not know. We are callous. We do not know what is the position of my real self. That we do not know. This is called ignorance. That instruction is given in the Bhagavad-gītā in the beginning. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). This living spirit... Na jāyate na mriyate vā kadācin na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). This, I mean to say, spirit soul is never born. Then what is this birth? The birth is of this body. Dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāram (BG 2.13). This change of body We are changing body. But I am the eternal. I know that I had a body of a child. The body is gone. The childhood body is no more existing. But I know that I had a body. This is the proof that I am eternal; the body is changing. This is the way. I was a young man; now I am old man. But I know, "I was young man. My body was like this. I was doing that." But now that is not possible because that body has gone. So similarly, the conclusion is that when this body will be vanquished, I shall accept another body. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). This is simple method of understanding the transmigration of the soul. So real problem is that I am eternal, but I am put into such condition that I have to take birth and die, I have to become old and I have to disease. This is the real problem. The modern civilization, they are supposed to be very much advanced. What is the advancement? The real problem is there. You have to accept death. Nobody wants to die, but why death is there? But they are callous. They think, "We have to accept this death" or "This is finished," all vague idea, no real idea.
But how many are joining with us? Some of them are thinking these are fictitious. No, it is fact. It is scientific. It is scientific. But people have no interest in these things. They are simply interested in sense gratification. Nūnaṁ pramattaḥ kurute vikarma (SB 5.5.4). This is stated in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. They have become mad, simply mad, to gratify senses. But they are forgetting that this human life is meant for making a solution for all the problems of life. They are not interested in that. They are thinking, "By increasing the volumes of sense gratification, that is perfection." That is not perfection. You may improve the material condition of life, but you cannot live here. Just like you have constructed very nice city, Stockholm, or any European city. That is very good. But you'll not be allowed to stay here. You'll be kicked out at any moment. What is the solution for that? You construct a nice place. That's all right, very good. But you stay here. But you cannot stay. That is your problem. If you can solve that problem... "Yes, I have constructed nice place, nice city, nice country, and everything is nice, but I will stay and enjoy," but that is not allowed. Then where is your perfection? This is the problem.
So practically we are not making any progress. And materially it is not possible to make progress. It is... That is called māyā, illusion. We are actually not making any progress, but we are thinking that we are making progress. This is called spell of māyā.
But the real problem is that we should understand that this place is full of danger, and in the Bhagavad-gītā it is certified, this place, that duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam (BG 8.15). This place is full of miseries and aśāśvatam. Even if you accept, "Oh, let it be miserable. I don't mind. I shall remain here..." People say frankly that "We don't want any other world. We don't want, don't believe in it, heaven" or "We don't believe in Vaikuṇṭha. We want to make ourself happy in this world." They say. But from authorities like Kṛṣṇa or Bhagavad-gītā, we understand that this place is meant for suffering. This is called duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam (BG 8.15). Even if we agree to live in this miserable place... Because everyone, we want to live. Nobody wants to die. Nobody wants to die. Suppose we are sitting here, and if there is some death signal, oh, we shall at once flee away from this place, if there is fire, because we do not want to die. That is a fact.
Actually a living entity is eternal, but the problem is that he is changing body. Just like either I may live at Canada or USA or India, I shall live somewhere, but nobody will allow me to stay. Except in my own country, nobody will allow me to stay for long time. Similarly, this is not your place. This material world is foreign country for you, this material world. We belong to the spiritual world. We belong to the world where life is eternal, where life is blissful, and where there is no ignorance. Just like Kṛṣṇa's body is described in the Brahma-saṁhitā and other Vedic literatures that īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ (Bs. 5.1). Sac-cid-ananda-vigrahaḥ means His body is made of spiritual eternity, sat, and cit, full of knowledge, and ānanda, and full of bliss. In the Vedānta-sūtra also, it is stated about the Supreme Personality of Godhead, or the Absolute Truth, as ānandamayo 'bhyāsāt: "By nature He is full of bliss, the Absolute Truth, Absolute Person." You see the Kṛṣṇa's picture: ānanda-cinmaya-rasa-pratibhāvitābhiḥ (Bs. 5.37). He's enjoying in blissfulness. This Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa, this is enjoyment, but this enjoyment is not like here, the young boys and girls, they enjoy. It is not like that because here the ānanda is temporary, it is not eternal, but that ānanda, rādhā-kṛṣṇa-praṇaya-vikṛtiḥ, is eternal blissful. So Kṛṣṇa is canvassing everyone that "You come to Me. Here also you will have this eternal ānanda, eternal blissfulness." You are after loving affairs, but here in this material world, actually there is no love. It is only lust. And even if you accept that this is love, it will not exist. It will be finished.
We cannot understand perfectly, but so far our ability is concerned, we can understand Kṛṣṇa. And if we a little bit understand Kṛṣṇa, then our life is successful. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti kaunteya (BG 4.9). Simply by little understanding Kṛṣṇa. What is that? Now, tyaktvā dehaṁ punar... That is the highest perfection. After giving up this body... Ordinarily, we give up this body and we accept another. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). That we have to stop. We are trying our best to make solution of all problems of life. The real problem is janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi (BG 13.9), birth, death, old age and disease. But if you can conquer over birth, no more birth... As it is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti (BG 4.9). No more birth. "Then it is finished? I am finished?" No, you are not finished. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti. "You come to Me. You come to Me." Go back to home, back to Godhead. This is the process of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. It is very easy. Everyone can adopt. Why should you give up? Take it very seriously and be happy.
Thank you very much.
Vedic civilization, unless one is inquisitive for the solution of the problems, he is not on the human being standard. Because there are so many problems. The animals cannot inquire, but a man can inquire. So unless one comes to this point, to inquire how these problems can be solved, he's not developed to human consciousness. He's still in the animal consciousness. Actually, the problem is that... What is this human civilization, advanced civilization? They are trying to solve problems. One problem is presented, and they try to solve it. Just like at the present moment they have manufactured atomic bomb, and all the nations are anxious to keep peace, and they have started that United Nations organization to solve the problem. Although they are unable, but they are trying. So advancement of civilization means by nature some problem is offered, and they are trying to solve it. Anything you take, it is an attempt for trying to solve the problem. Just like in your country there is subway. What is that subway? Because on the surface there is a lot of traffic, to solve this problem they want to go underground. And in this way somebody thinks, "Oh, Western countries have advanced than the Eastern countries. They have made some solution." But after that, there is another problem. So problem after problem.
So what is the ultimate problem? The ultimate problem is we do not want to suffer. That's all. We want comfortable, peaceful life. This is the ultimate problem. Is it not? Just think over. That is... In Sanskrit language it is called ātyantika-duḥkha-nivṛttiḥ. Ātyantika-duḥkha-nivṛttiḥ, to solve the problems of miseries. We don't want any kind of misery. We don't want to suffer. We want very peaceful and joyful life. That is... But that is not being possible within this material world. That is the problem. The living entity is, by nature, he wants joyful life... Ānandamayo 'bhyāsāt (Vedānta-sūtra 1.1.12). Abhyāsāt means by natural tendency he wants joyful life. But... There is a song, Bengali song. A poet writes, sukhera lāgiyā ei ghara bandhila anale puriya gelā:(?) "I constructed my home to live very peacefully and comfortably. All of a sudden, there was set fire and everything vanquished."
So everyone is trying to be very happy, comfortable, but it is being finished within a second. Is it not a fact? Huh? Is there any disagreement on this point? That is the problem. Everyone is trying to solve this problem in his own way. They are manufacturing different ways only, but the problem is not solved. The problem is there. Here in America, whenever I meet some gentleman in the street and he understands that I am coming from India, he says, "Oh, India is very poverty-stricken." You see. So... As if there is no problem in America. There is one problem, food scarcity. But I told him that "You have got also many problems. You are not problem-free." So there is... Suppose you have got some pain here. Sometimes we think that "If pain would have been here, then it would have been nice. Here it is very painful." So pain, here or there, it is pain. You see.
So either you have got problem of food grain or problem of hippies, but the problem is there. A different feature only. Therefore one should be very much careful to know how to solve the problems. Actually, we are trying. We are trying to advance in education, in scientific knowledge. In so many things we are trying. The material nature is offering problems after problem. That is the nature's business. You solve one problem, and she'll present another problem. First of all, one, somebody thought, "If there is airplane, then it will be very nice to travel in the space." But now the problem is that by airplane, if there is enmity, another country can face my country without any fight. So another problem. (laughs) Now they have to go underground. I was reading in the World Almanac that next hundred years people will live underground.
Prabhupāda: Just see. They will come on the surface just to breathe little freely. Otherwise, they will have to live within underground. So another problem is coming. (chuckles) But intelligent persons should think of how this ultimate problem can be solved.
So what will be the answer? How ultimate problem can be solved? The problem is there, you agree everyone? Or you have disagreement, there is no problem. You think there is no problem? Eh? Problem there is, you think? So how to solve it? They have tried their utmost. It is not solved. Then what is the solution? That solution is there in the Bhagavad-gītā in the Seventh Chapter. Where is Bhagavad-gītā? Is there? No Bhagavad-gītā here?
Devotee (1): I have one in my case.
Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. Give me my spectacle. Behind that, there is small book. Just up, here. (break) ...seven. Give me that. Hayagrīva, you can come here. Sit down here. Seventh Chapter, fourteenth verse.
You may try to keep that old body for... But there is suffering. A young man cannot understand, but one who is old, he can understand, there is suffering. Suffering of old age, suffering of birth, suffering of death, and suffering of disease. Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). If you are proud of your advancement of knowledge, that you have solved all the questions, all the problems, in the Bhagavad-gītā Kṛṣṇa says, "Don't think like that. That is your foolishness. These problems are there. What you can do?" That is learning: "Yes. Problems are not solved. The problems are there." That is learning. If you have got some problem, and... Just like the rabbits. The rabbits, when they face one hunter and it understands that "Now my life is in danger," he closes his eyes. He thinks that "The problem is now solved." (laughs) And peacefully he is killed. (laughs) You see? Similarly, the problems are there, but we are closing our eyes: "Oh, there is no problem. We are very happy." That's it. (laughter) So this is called māyā. The problem is not solved, but they are thinking their problem is solved by closing the eyes. That's all.
We are in difficulties, this material life. But we have to come over. That is required. It is not that you cannot come over the difficulties. In every step of our life there are difficulties. The material life is like that. Padaṁ padaṁ yad vipadām (SB 10.14.58). In every step there is danger. It is a place like that. Even if you are comfortable in a nice car, you are going, oh, there may be any moment accident. Even you are sitting here, there may be accident. So difficulties, this world is full of difficulties. One who does not understand this difficult position, he's a fool. If one thinks that "I am very comfortable," then he's a fool. This is animal life, just as animal thinks, "Oh, I am very comfortable. I am very nice." And dissatisfaction is human life. He's not happy unless he gets the greatest happiness. That is human life. And if he thinks, "Yes, I am well off. I am very happy," then he is animal. Because there is no happiness here. Full of distress. Full of miseries. How he says that "I am happy"? That means he is ignorant. So difficulties are there. You have to work out. That is the problem.
One who understands... This is rāja-vidyā. He must know how to work. We are manufacturing so many ways of happy life, this ism, that ism, that plan, that plan. So many plans. We are seeing suggestion, so many suggestions, in the television. "This is the problem. This is the suggestion. This is problem." Full of new, new problem, new, new suggestion. But because we are lacking this rāja-vidyā, the king of knowledge, we are perplexed. But if you know that Kṛṣṇa is the root cause of everything and if we serve Kṛṣṇa, then every problem will be solved immediately. This is called rāja-vidyā. Rāja-vidyā rāja-guhyam. And pratyakṣāvagamaṁ dharmyam. Just like I have given the example that the different parts of the body, they are suffering from different diseases. But if you make good treatment, if you take the proper medicine and put it in the stomach, then immediately you will understand, "Yes, I am getting relief."
So we are not interested how to get out of the cage of mṛtyu-saṁsāra-vartmani. We are again and again coming back to the cage. This is called ajñāna. This is called ajñāna. Jñāna means that I am eternal, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). I don't..., I am not annihilated after the killing, after the annihilation of this body. Nityaḥ śāśvatayam, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). Then why I am entering this body, which is annihilated? That is the problem. That is mṛtyu-saṁsāra-vartmani. If you enter again into this material body, then again mṛtyu. Again enter, again die, again mṛtyu. Bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19). This is the problem, mṛtyu-saṁsāra-vartmani. But nobody is interested how to get out of this problem. They do not know, they do not feel. They think that "After death I am annihilated." But that is not the fact. The fact is that you have to enter another body, and any material body you accept, either king's body or dog's body or hog's body or tree's body, it will be finished. It will. That is called mṛtyu, mṛtyu-saṁsāra-vartmani.
Now, we are concerned how to get out of this temporary life. We are hankering after eternal life, how to get out of this temporary life. That should be our problem. There is no use calculating for how many years one kalpa, one duration of this cosmic manifestation, is maintained. But our concern is that whether we can get out of these clutches of material nature and get into our spiritual nature and have our eternal blissful life. That is our problem. That we can make solution. If we culture the Kṛṣṇa consciousness seriously, then even after annihilation of this body, we can get into the spiritual nature and spiritual nature, and we are also spirit. Therefore there is no difference; there is no question of birth and death. That is the problem.
- prakṛtiṁ svām avaṣṭabhya
- visṛjāmi punaḥ punaḥ
- bhūta-grāmam imaṁ kṛtsnam
- avaśaṁ prakṛter vaśāt
Prakṛter vaśāt. We are completely under the grip of the stringent laws of material nature, and we are repeatedly put into that stringent laws of material nature so that we may come into our consciousness that "Why we are suffering this repeated birth and death?" But we have become so much dull and so much accustomed to this habit... Because it is continuing since a very, very long time, time immemorial, so we have become accustomed.
Just for example, take for example myself. I am a foreigner, Indian. I came here only with seven dollars with me. Dock, I got down from the ship. I did not know where to live, where to eat. But I am here, here for the last more than one year. So I am also eating, I am also sleeping, and I am also well-protected by my friends. So how it is being done? I am not serving here, I did not come with some money, but there is arrangement. Everyone, you have got arrangement made. Don't be very anxious for these problems. You should be anxious, athāto brahma jijñāsā. This is the problem of life. So who inquires about this, athāto brahma jijñāsā? Those who are actually developed in consciousness, they inquire, athātaḥ, "What is the source of myself? I am living entity, this world, this nature, this so many things we see, and what is the cause of, the cause of all causes? What is that?" That should be inquiry. Jijñāsuḥ, inquisitive, inquisitive. And the answer is given here in the Vedānta-sūtra, next. Athāto brahma jijñāsā: "Now this life is meant for inquiring about the Supreme Brahman." And what is that Brahman? That Brahman means that janmādy asya yataḥ: (SB 1.1.1) "Brahman means that source, that Supreme Absolute Truth from whom or from which everything emanates, the cause of all causes." That is Brahman.
Now, sages, saints, philosophers, and transcendentalists, yogis, jñānīs—they are all searching, "What is the ultimate source?" So they have found out. What is that? They have found out. In the Brahma-saṁhitā, we see, there is a very nice verse.
Now, suppose you are diseased and you are cured by worshiping sun, or becoming in the sunshine. Do you think that is the solution of your life? You may be cured. So how long you will remain cured? There will be again disease. Again you worship sunshine. So this is called gatāgatam, chewing the chewed. The problem is why you shall be diseased at all? That should be the problem of intelligent person, not that I become diseased and I worship sun or go to the doctor and be cured and again become diseased. No. Sukham ātyantikam. You should cure from all diseases. The... So long you have this material body, you have got life, you have got birth, you have got death, you have got diseases, and you have got old age, besides other miseries. This is a permanent thing. Now, your human form of life is meant for curing for good all these inconveniences. You should not be satisfied by curing disease and again falling diseased. No. That is not your business. Therefore Lord Kṛṣṇa says, antavat tu phalaṁ teṣām: (BG 7.23) "Those who are worshiping other demigods for some immediate result, their result is antavat. It is to be ended at a certain point. It has got end. So such things are desired by alpa-medhasām, alpa-medhasām, those who have got less amount of brain substance." Why one should be satisfied by temporary cure? He must see that "Why I shall die? Why I shall be diseased? Why I shall go again into the womb of the mother? And why I shall become old? This is my problem." So if you want to solve all these problems, then you have to become to Kṛṣṇa conscious.
The modern civilization is suffering from this defect, that they are not inquisitive about the Brahman. They are simply... Just like cats and dogs, they are interested with this body and the bodily necessities of life. They do not know beyond that. That is the defect. The other day in Caracas some psychiatrists came. Their question was that "The problems of the world are increasing, so what is your prescription to solve these problems?" So the problem is very easy to be solved. I gave the example that this body is there. And there is something which is moving the body, living force. So that living force is the driver of the body, and the body is also described in the Bhagavad-gītā as a machine. It is... Actually it is a machine.
This is the problem of life. Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). Bhagavad-gītā says that "You may think of yourself as very happy within this material condition. You may think. That is called māyā. Actually, it is not happiness. "I am working very hard day and night to decorate my country, my society, my family, my house. Everything. That is not very happiness, working very day and night. But it is māyā.
I am working day and night very hard, and I am still thinking I am very happy. Natural tendency is that not to work. Therefore as soon as one man gets some money, he wants to live peacefully in a country place, a nice bungalow, without any working, without any turmoil. That is our natural tendency, peaceful. But we are forced to work, especially in this modern world. So many factories, so many work, so many. Unless we work, we cannot get the so-called comforts of life. So for the comforts of life, the so-called comforts of life I shall be able to enjoy, I am forced to work day and night. And I am thinking I am happy. This is called māyā. He is not happy, but he is distressed, but he is thinking, "I am happy." This is called māyā.
Although there are innumerable planets, but even if you go to the moon planet, your problem is not solved. What is the benefit? If you... Suppose if you go to moon planet. How your problem is solved? The real problem is that I am forced to accept different types of body. Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi (BG 13.9). And as soon as I accept body, I have to be under the tribulation of material nature.
That was advised by Ṛṣabhadeva: nūnaṁ pramattaḥ kurute vikarma (SB 5.5.4). All these foolish rascals, being mad, they're acting against the laws of nature. Vikarma. Vikarma means against the laws of nature. That is vikarma. Karma means prescribed duties. And akarma means doing something which will have no effect. Three things are there. Karma, vikarma, akarma. Karma means prescribed duties. If you want... Just like you want to do business, you must do according to the rules and regulations, license of the government. Then you make profit, be happy. That's another thing. But if you act vikarma, against the rules and regulations of the state, you commit theft or this or that, then you'll suffer. Vikarma.
But real problem is janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi, that you have to take birth, you have to die, and when you are in life, you have to suffer from diseases, jarā-vyadhi, and you have to become old. Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha. These are really problems. But who knows that these are the real problems? They have taken it, accepted it.
Kṛṣṇa says, "This is knowledge." If you are scientifically advanced how to stop death, how to stop birth, how to stop old age, how to stop disease, then you should know that you have advanced in science. Otherwise what is this? If you have made a horseless carriage motorcar, that is not advancement. It is advancement, but it is not the solution of the problem. The solution of problem is, human life, is to how to stop death.
Therefore śāstra says that nobody should become guru, nobody should become father, nobody should become husband—in this way there is a list—na mocayed yaḥ samupetya mṛtyum, if one cannot help his student or his son or his subordinate to stop death. Actually this is the problem Na mocayed yaḥ samupetya mṛtyum. We are under the clutches of death. "It is as sure as death." So this human life is meant for stopping this death. But if you don't see that this is the problem, that is ajñāna. That is ignorance. If you don't accept this is the problem, if you simply think "My problem is how to eat, how to sleep, how to have sex life, how to defend... These problems are already solved, even by the birds and the beasts. These are not the problems. They are already set up. Real problem is here: janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9).
So Kṛṣṇa says here that jñeyaṁ yat tat pravakṣyāmi: "The ultimate goal of knowledge I will explain to you. Yaj jñātvā: "If you can understand that knowledge, then," amṛtam aśnute, "if anyone can understand that knowledge, he becomes immortal." That is the problem. The process of knowledge... In that chapter it is already said that janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). The subject matter should be how to understand or how to get relief from the repetition of birth and death, old age and disease. This is knowledge. And here also Kṛṣṇa says again, anyone who comes to the ultimate goal of knowledge, then he becomes immortal.
So, the mind is within, the intelligence is within, the soul is within, and outside your body... So this body made of five elements, they are also Kṛṣṇa's energy, and within, the mind, intelligence and the soul, that is also Kṛṣṇa's energy. Two kinds of energies: supreme, er, inferior and superior. Therefore He is outside and inside both. Bahir antaś ca bhūtānām. Every living entity, Kṛṣṇa is existing outside and inside. Therefore we have to purify both outside and inside. That is our human life. Human life means to become purified. Because we are not purified, therefore we have to accept birth, death, old age and disease. This is the problem. Because we are not purified...
That is stated in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena śuddhyet sattvam (SB 5.5.1). Ṛṣabhadeva advised his sons, "My dear sons," tapo divyam, "just undergo austerities." This life, human life is for austerities, penance. Therefore you'll find in the Vedic civilization, big big saintly persons, big, big brāhmaṇas, kṣatriyas, rājarṣis, they are engaged. Just like Lord Buddha. Lord Buddha was the prince, royal family, but still he left everything and underwent meditation to understand himself. There are many others. Bharata Mahārāja, under whose name this country is called Bhāratavarṣa, at the twenty-fourth years of his age, he left his kingdom, his wife, little children, and went for austerity, penance. This is meant for.
If you are able to acquire that nature, sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ (Bs. 5.1), then how is, how it is possible? That is mad-bhakta, mad-bhakta etad vijñāya (BG 13.19). These three things. What is this body, who is the owner of this body, what is knowledge, what is the object of knowledge. If we understand these three things, then we can get, revive our original position. We are also sac-cid-ānanda, but at the present moment our vigrahaḥ, our body is different. This is, subjected to birth, death, old age, and disease. This we have to conquer; this is the problem. I don't want to die, why death is enforced upon me? That these rascals they have no brain. That I don't want to die. How I can escape death? Just like we are trying to escape disease. We don't want to be diseased. As soon as we become diseased, we go to a doctor, we take medical help. "Sir, cure my disease, cure my disease." Then why don't you go to a doctor who can give you relief from death? But they have no brain. The educational system is so rascaldom that there is no brain. All over the world. There is no institution where people are being taught how to conquer over death. There is no such institution.
So this is the science of Bhagavad-gītā. One has to learn these things; otherwise he's spoiling his human life. One must know that what is the importance of this human form of life. One must take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness to save himself. Try to understand Kṛṣṇa only. Then you are saved. Janma karma me divyaṁ yo jānāti tattvataḥ, tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti (BG 4.9). The problem is janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānu... (BG 13.9). This problem we have set aside. We are busy for a few years life, fifty years, twenty years or... We have forgotten that we are eternal. We don't die after the destruction of this body. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). This is my problem, what kind of body again I am going to get.
So therefore, parābhavas tāvat, yāvan na jijñāsata ātma-tattvam. So long we do not inquire about the ātma-tattva, whatever you are doing, it is all foolishness and defeat. It is actually defeat. We got opportunity, this human form of life, to get out of this control of material nature, get completely freedom. If we don't try for that, simply if we try like cats and dogs, how to improve the method of eating, sleeping, sex life and defending, we are spoiling our life. This is the instruction of Bhagavad-gītā. Thank you very much. Hare Kṛṣṇa.
So either you get this life or that life, the janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi is there. It is not that because you have got very beautiful body and born in very high-class family and highly educated, you will avoid janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi. That is not possible. The real problem is janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi.
So kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad... Sad-yoni (BG 13.22), high-class life, and asad-yoni, pāpa-yoni... So why one is born in lower grade family? Why one is born in high-grade family? Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya. The cause is as he has associated with different types of qualities. So unfortunately, this science, that there is birth after death, and there is, actually, we are experience, we are seeing, but they do not inquire. They think that one can improve. That is not possible. Unless he changes the quality, he cannot improve. That is not possible. They do not know it. They are falsely trying to improve the position. Nobody is trying to become poor. Everyone is trying to become rich. But it is not possible. Because he has got a particular type of body, and that body is already destined, and he has to achieve happiness or suffer distresses according to the body.
Therefore śāstra says, tasyaiva hetoḥ prayateta kovido na labhyate yad bhramatām upary adhaḥ: (SB 1.5.18) "You should try for that thing which you did not receive in your past lives." Past life, by our pious activities or impious activities, we have got a different type of body, here or in higher planetary system. That's all right. But that is not solution of my problem. The real problem is janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi (BG 13.9). So we should try, we should save time and utilize it, how to get out of this janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi. That is the whole Vedic civilization.
Because eating, sleeping, even the birds and beasts and insects, they have no problem. They are confident. They are depending on nature. Just like we are. Because we are surrendered to Kṛṣṇa we are confident about eating, sleeping. We don't bother about that. That is not our problem.
Our problem is how to serve Kṛṣṇa honestly. This is our problem. The devotees are always anxious. Here Kṛṣṇa is the enjoyer, and we're enjoyed. So our business is to see "How I am being enjoyed by Kṛṣṇa, by serving Him." This is devotion, this is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So long you want to enjoy this material world, you are in the material world. And as soon as you offer yourself to be enjoyed by Kṛṣṇa as servant, according to His order you serve, then immediately you are in the spiritual world.
That means as soon as one has a land sufficient to produce, he is safe. His food problem—that is the real problem—is solved. So people are not being trained up to... In America, I have seen. Now the farmers, the father is working on the farm, and the sons, they do not come. They live in the city. This is the tendency all over the world. They are not producing food grains. Therefore there is scarcity. There is scarcity of...
Especially in a country like India where the population is very big and there is no land available, there must be scarcity of food. Especially the Britishers, they have divided India: Pakistan and Hindustan. So all the food grains are there on the Pakistan side, and in the Hindustan side all the industries are there. So they are fighting. They have no industrial facilities, and they have no agricultural facilities. All policies. They would fight all along. The Britishers wanted that "You have taken your independence. All right, you'll suffer all the time, fighting between your..." This was a policy. So it is going on nicely.
So anyway, the whole world situation is degrading, that people are not producing their own food. This is the problem, real problem.
Actually we are not independent. We are dependent on the laws of nature. And suppose we become independent, so-called independent, for a few days. That is not independence. Real independence is how to get out of the clutches of these material laws. Therefore Kṛṣṇa presents before you the problem amongst... We have got so many problems, but that is temporary. Real problem is, Kṛṣṇa says, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). A man of knowledge should always keep in the front the real problem. What is that? Birth, death, old age, and disease. This is your real problem. So the human life is meant for solving these four problems: birth, death, old age and disease. And that can be done by Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So we are pushing on this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement to solve the ultimate problems of life. So our request is that you take this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement very seriously and solve the ultimate problems of life. And that problems of life can be solved simply by understanding Kṛṣṇa, simply by understanding Kṛṣṇa.
Prabhupāda: Anyone can become perfect in his own position simply if he receives this transcendental message by proper aural reception. Śruti-gatāṁ tanu-vāṅ-manobhiḥ... (break) ...five thousand years, Kṛṣṇa says forty-millions of years, He spoke...
Indian man (6): Forty millions of years, but as it is, Gītā was made to Arjuna five thousand years back. And so before five thousand years back, who was that surrendering. Russia says that there may be five million years. That is what they say. Even today, you say or I say, then the world, ten million years back. That doesn't solve the problem. The problem is that Gītā was written down or dictated or recited about five thousand years back. So what was there before five thousand years back? Was there Kṛṣṇa consciousness?
Prabhupāda: Why, yes...
Indian man (6): Or was there, it was, it was given to... Hear me. Veda is the oldest scripture in the world. So all other are based on, after Veda, out of Veda. So if before one surrenders to Kṛṣṇa, what becomes of him?
Prabhupāda: Yes, in the Vedas, there are Kṛṣṇa consciousness mentioned. It is not that five thousand years ago only Kṛṣṇa consciousness. No, in the Vedas there is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. In the Vedas.
Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures
So we should not be disturbed by the so-called distress and happiness. They are coming and going. Kṛṣṇa has advised in the Bhagavad-gītā: āgamāpāyino 'nityās tāṁs titikṣasva bhārata. The so-called distress and happiness, they come and go like seasonal changes. Just like we have got summer season, winter season. The winter also not staying for good, neither the summer is staying for good. It will change. Cakravat parivartante sukhāni duḥkhāni ca. There are so many. So we should not bother about this material happiness and distress. That is perfect civilization. We shall depend on the arrangement of God, as lower animals, they are depending. The birds, rising early in the morning, they chirp, but they are not hampered, "Where to find out food?" They know, "There is somewhere our food." They go and get it. Similarly, our real problem is that we have forgotten Kṛṣṇa or God. We must revive our God consciousness again—that is not very difficult task—and save time, how to reestablish our relationship with God.
There are aquatics, there are insects, there are birds, beasts, trees, plants, then human being, by evolution process. So they have no problem. You can see, in the early morning, these parrots, they are dancing, chirping, and they have no problem. Immediately they will go to some tree and they will find out some little fruit. They will eat. Their eating problem... There is no eating problem. There is no sleeping problem, and there is no sex life problem also. Along with them, there is opposite sex. And they defend in their own way. So these are not actually problems. These are already settled up according to your body. That is the verdict of the śāstra. Tal labhyate duḥkhavad anyataḥ sukhaṁ kālena sarvatra gabhīra-raṁhasā. According to your body, your eating problem, your sleeping problem, your sense gratification problem and defending problem are already settled. That is the verdict of the śāstra. Your real problem is, as our Pañca-draviḍa Mahārāja explained, how to solve the problem of repetition of birth, death, old age and disease. That is your problem.
So actually, there is no scarcity of food. Kṛṣṇa is so kind. God is so kind. Eko yo bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān. He is feeding many, many millions and trillions of living entities. In Africa there are millions of elephants. Who is feeding them? Kṛṣṇa is feeding them. So these economic questions, overpopulation question, these are not actually problems. Problem is scarcity of God consciousness. This is the problem. Therefore we are suffering. It is not my manufactured word. It was said by my Guru Mahārāja. He said that "I don't find any scarcity in the world except the scarcity of understanding Kṛṣṇa. That's all." So this jñānam... This is jñānam. Jñānam means that "I don't belong to this material world. This... My body is material, but I am different from the body." This is jñānam. So the necessities of my body, it must be supplied. It should not be neglected. But we should not be busy simply for the necessities of the body. We are spirit soul. The spirit soul has got its necessity. We must fill up that. Then we will be happy.
verything will be finished, because this material world is temporary. So the benediction which you have achieved from a demigod, the demigod, the benediction, and yourself—everything will be finished. Therefore it is said, antavat tu phalaṁ teṣāṁ tad bhavaty alpa-medhasām (BG 7.23). Real problem is apavarga, how to get out of this entanglement of hard labor and fearfulness. That can be given by Viṣṇu. Hariṁ vinā na mṛtiṁ taranti.
Without Kṛṣṇa, nobody can save you. Other demigods... Just like Rāvaṇa. Rāvaṇa was a great devotee of
Lord Śiva. But when Lord Rāmacandra wanted to kill him, Lord Śiva's father could not even protect him. That is not possible. That is not possible. Mare kṛṣṇa rākhe ke. (aside:) Make it little... Yes. Little... Yes. If Kṛṣṇa kills you, nobody can protect, And if Kṛṣṇa protects you, nobody can kill you. Rākhe kṛṣṇa mare ke, mare kṛṣṇa rākhe ke. This is the formula. Here it is said that dharmasya. If you want to take to religiosity Practically dharma.
So we are changing, but we are so fool that we do not understand what is the real problem of life. We are simply busy in some temporary problems. Real problem is that a living being is eternal, and by the laws of nature, by his karma, he has to change his body. That is real problem. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ. And we can see, if we have got eyes, that there are many varieties of life, 8,400,000 varieties of life. Jalajā nava-lakṣāni sthāvarā lakṣa-viṁśati. So Kṛṣṇa says, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ. According to your karma, you will get another body. That What kind of body I shall get? That I do not know. Then what is your education? Suppose you are being educated. You know aim, that "I shall become a lawyer," "I shall become a scientist," "I shall become mathematician." With this purpose you are being educated. But what purpose you are being educated for the next life? Do you know this? No. Then what is your education? You may be very good scientist, but can you manufacture a scientific law that you will never die? No. That is not possible. You will never take birth after death? You will never be diseased? You can manufacture nice medicine for a type of disease, but you cannot stop disease. You cannot stop birth, you cannot stop death, you cannot stop disease, you cannot stop old age.
Therefore Kṛṣṇa gives the essence of knowledge, janma... Jñānī means one who can see "What is the problem of my life." Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). This is the problem.
Although we have got this temporary body... You can say that "Although I am suffering, I'll, it will be finished, within, say, twenty years, ten years." Asann api. It is not permanent. But why you should make yourself under these tribulations of life? That is the problem. Not only that. Asann api kleśada āsa dehaḥ. I have got this body. I am suffering. I am undergoing threefold miseries, threefold miserable condition of life. Why I shall make another body, again undergo the threefold miseries of life? Not only human life, any form of life. Human life, there... Human form of life, there is possibility of little comfort. Suppose if I get a body like a tree. Just like here is an eucalyptus tree standing. Then I'll have to stand for thousands of years. And I have to suffer scorching heat, shivering cold, and blast wind, and so many things.
So Kṛṣṇa is father for all living entities. They are simply struggling here in this material world under different desires, and therefore they are getting transmigrating from one body to another, and in this way they are wandering within this material world. That is their real disadvantageous position. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says the real problem is janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). This is the real problem. Whole spiritual process should be executed to get out of this entanglement of repetition of birth, death, old age and disease. That is real problem. So Kṛṣṇa therefore comes, that "Why you are rotting in this material world?" Manaḥ ṣaṣṭhāni indriyāṇi prakṛti-sthāni karṣati. "Why you are struggling so hard?" For ānanda. Everyone is struggling for ānanda, but he does not know whether ānanda is there. Ānandamayo 'bhyāsāt (Vedānta-sūtra 1.1.12). Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Absolute Truth, He is the reservoir of ānanda Therefore you will see Kṛṣṇa's picture always in ānanda. Wherever you see Kṛṣṇa... Kṛṣṇa is in the battlefield, still, He is smiling, ānanda. He is not morose. Arjuna is morose. But He is not morose. Because he is ānandamayo 'bhyāsāt.
So Kṛṣṇa, kaunteya pratijānīhi na me bhaktaḥ praṇaśyati... (BG 9.31). Kṛṣṇa's vow is that He will see always His devotees are protected. So when they were perplexed, Kṛṣṇa came. Kṛṣṇa came that "What is the problem?" They explained, "This is the problem." Then asked Draupadī that "You have already finished..." Because Draupadī had an, a benediction that so long she does not take his (her) lunch, any number of men come, she, she will be able to feed. That was his (her)... But she had finished her lunch. then Kṛṣṇa said, "Just go, find out some foodstuff, any little in the kitchen." They said, "No, everything is finished. There is no food." "No, just try to see." Then, in one pot, they saw a little śāk, a vegetable, was stuck up. So they brought it and Kṛṣṇa took it, immediately. So as soon as Kṛṣṇa took, all the Durvāsā Muni and company, they, they felt that their belly is filled up. Tasmin tuṣṭo jagat tuṣṭaḥ. So they were feeling ashamed that "How we shall go? We cannot take any food?" So they fled away from the Ganges.
For all the reactions out of that act. It may be bad or good. That doesn't matter. Our problem is not to be infected with the reaction. If you think that bringing up your brother... It is, actually, it is good thing. You are doing good thing. That's all right. And you'll have the good result of it. But that, having that good result, does not mean that you are free from the reaction. Now, our problem is that we want to be free from the reaction. So long... Now... The same answer is there, that reaction of my good work, that I get good birth, I get good education, I get sufficient wealth or I get good features of body. These things are goodness of this material world. But that does not make solution of the disease in which... (break)...vyādhi, birth, death, old age and disease. The whole problem is that we have to get out of this material existence. So the, from the material point of view, or platform, any act, good or bad, that will have material reaction. And we are, we want to get out of this material reaction. That is our point of view.
If you want... Because the problem is that we want to be happy and peaceful. Everyone says, "I want peace. There is no peace in my mind." That is a general understanding. Nobody can say that "I am completely happy and peaceful." No, that is not possible. The material world is made in such a way that you cannot feel happy. That is not possible. First of all, we have come to this material world to enjoy sense gratification, but that is not our proper business. Our proper business is to satisfy the senses of Kṛṣṇa, not our senses. So because we have deviated from our original position, therefore it is always a perplexity of our life. But due to illusion we cannot understand it.
Material knowledge, advancement of material knowledge, means more and more bondage. And advancement of spiritual knowledge means more and more liberation. But our problem is how to liberate ourselves from this material bondage. We are bound up. Just like I am a spirit soul, you are spirit soul, but we are put into this material bondage. Because we are in material bondage, therefore we have no freedom. People do not understand this. Just like spirit soul is described as sarva-ga. Sarva-ga means the spirit soul can go anywhere he likes. But due to this material bondage, because we have this material body, we are checked. Even we cannot go to the other planet. But we have got instances... Just like Nārada Muni. Nārada Muni is traveling all over the universes, not only within the material world, but in the spiritual world, because he has got spiritual body. There is no material bondage.
Therefore in the Bhagavad-gītā it is stated: kāmais tais tair hṛta-jñānāḥ yajante anya-devatāḥ (BG 7.20). Hṛta-jñānāḥ, hṛta-jñānāḥ, those who have lost their intelligence. They are influenced by their lust and greediness. They worship different demigods to get some material temporary benefit. Therefore they are called naṣṭa-buddhi. His real problem is how to get out of this entanglement of repetition of birth and death, but he doesn't care that. He thinks, "Oh, now I am living in this way. If I live in a palatial building, then my problem is solved." That is not your problem, solution of the problem. That is not solution. But people are very much enamored by this temporary material elements. Therefore they are called by Kṛṣṇa as naṣṭa-buddhayaḥ, hṛta-jñānāḥ. They're actual knowledge is lost. Real thing is... Just like in the jail. The same example: the boy was given a little relief. Instead of breaking stone, he was allowed to type in the office. That does not mean his problem is solved. His problem is solved when he's out of the prison. That is. But that the superintendent of police cannot give. That will be given by the government. Similarly, if we want to get relief from this prison house of material existence, we must take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. No other method will relieve us.
Now, for our..., solving our problems... What is our problems? That we do not know. There is a great problem. The problem is repetition of birth, death, old age and disease. This is the problem. 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.
There is no brain substance." So those whose brains are filled up with cow dung, they want to exploit this material world. It is impossible. It is not possible. Under certain pleas only, that "This political party will give you better chance for exploiting." But you cannot do that. It is not possible. This is called māyā. In illusion, I'm thinking, "If I make certain more progress..." We see, in America, they're increasing the number of motorcars and the problem is road. One flyway above another flyway, another another. The flyway construction is going on perpetually. Is it not? And this is called advancement. The rascals do not know that "I am simply laboring, laboring, laboring. Where is the stoppage of laboring? " No. That you cannot stop. Your progress means you simply work hard. And because you are illusioned, that hard-working, you are thinking progress, happiness. That's all. This is called māyā. He is working just like an ass. The ass, ass, ass is working whole day and night for the washerman for a morsel of grass. But ass, why it is called ass? He can, the ass can have grasses anywhere, but he, for that, he's working very hard for the washerman. Therefore he's ass.
Adānta-gobhir viśatāṁ tamisraṁ punaḥ punaś carvita-carvaṇānām (SB 7.5.30). The problem is they cannot control the senses. Therefore their philosophical idea is that sense gratification is the ultimate goal of life. They are thinking, which will never be successful, that by advancement of material comforts they will be happy. Therefore the śāstra says impossible or very difficult or by a kind of hope which will never to be fulfilled. It was never successful in the past, it is not successful in the present, therefore in the future also it will never be successful. But they have taken up this philosophy of sense gratification materially.
So our problem is that we have entered this material world out of our own will. Icchā-dveṣa samutthena (BG 7.27). No one... Kṛṣṇa has not pushed us. You wanted something for your enjoyment, so-called enjoyment. Kṛṣṇa has provided you. Just like you want to enter into the prison life, therefore government creates a prison house. Government does not like that there should be prison house, and government has to make a department, criminal department, and spend millions of dollars for nothing, for maintaining the prison house. Government has no such thing, plan. But because you want to enter into the prison house, therefore, before your entering, government is prepared, "Here is your house. Please come." So that is the way of material creation.
So our problem is that we may not make any more cause for our next material birth. That is called akāraṇam. Akāraṇam. Just like I have got this body. The cause is my previous activities, in my past life's activities. Similarly, if I continue my materialistic way of life, then I am causing another material body. This is called kāraṇam. If I have got a doggish mentality, then I am causing myself to get a dog's body. Akāraṇam.
So if we want to stop these causal activities, then, as it is stated: yāvān na prītir mayi vāsudeve. Unless you develop your love of Godhead, there is no other way to stop this causal, cause and effect. The cause is this and the effect is this. Cause and effect. The whole material world is going on, cause and effect. People do not consider that why there are so many, 8,400,000 species of life. There must be something. Some of them foolishly think that once one gets this human form of life he does not glide down. Is it not? He remains in the human form of life. No. There are many instances. Just like Bharata Mahārāja, he got the body of a deer. There are so many instances.
So actually there is no scarcity. The scarcity is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So if you become Kṛṣṇa conscious then everything is ample. There is no scarcity. This is the process. Tvayā hṛṣīkeśa... And here it is said: tvayā hṛṣī... Yathā hṛṣīkeśa khalena devakī. The world is full of dangers. But Devakī, Kuntīdevī says, "But because Devakī is Your devotee, You saved her from the distresses offered by her envious brother." As soon as the brother heard that "My sister's son, eighth son of my sister will kill me," oh, he was ready immediately to kill Devakī. So he was pacified by Devakī's husband. It is the duty of the husband to give protection. "So my dear brother-in-law, why you are envious to your sister? After all, your sister will not kill you. Her son will kill you. That is the problem. So I shall deliver all the sons to you, then you can do whatever you like. Why you are killing this innocent girl, newly married? She is your younger sister, just like your daughter. You should give her protection.
Devotee: It's in the Second Canto, Fourth Chapter.
Prabhupāda: Ah, he knows. Second Canto, Fourth Chapter. So asmin bhave. This is the problem. These rascals, they do not care to understand. They are so absorbed in ignorance. Just like some of the, what is called, smugglers. Smugglers, they go on with their work. They do not know... Some of them know also that "We'll be punished. We'll be arrested." Still, they go on. That is the difficulty. A thief knows that "If I am arrested for these criminal acts, I'll be punished." He knows it. And perhaps he has been punished several times. But still, he commits the same thing. Still, he steals. Punaḥ punaś carvita-carvaṇānām (SB 7.5.30).
Why you have invented so big, big factories? That is avidyā, nescience, avidyā. Suppose hundred years ago there was no factory. So all the people of the world were starving? Eh? Nobody was staring. In, in, in our Vedic literature we don't find any mention anywhere about the factory. No. There is no mention. And how opulent they were. Even in Vṛndāvana. In Vṛndāvana, as soon as Kaṁsa invited Nanda Mahārāja, immediately they took wagons of milk preparation to distribute. And you will find in the literature they are all well dressed, well fed. They have got enough food, enough milk, enough cows. But they are village, village men. Vṛndāvana is a village. There is no scarcity. No moroseness, always jolly, dancing, chanting and eating. So we have created these problems. Simply you have created. Now, you have created so many horseless carriages, now the problem is where to get petrol. In your country it has become a problem. Brahmānanda was speaking to me yesterday. There are so many problems. Simply unnecessarily we have created so many artificial wants. Kāma-karmabhiḥ. This is called kāma.
So in the previous verse it has been explained, bhave 'smin kliśyanti. This is the problem, kliśyanti, simply laboring and... Kliśyanti means suffering, suffering the hard work. Everyone. Kliśyanti. Everyone is working very hard for maintenance, struggle for existence. Tṛtīyā śaktir iṣyate. Karma-saṁjñānyā tṛtīyā śaktir iṣyate. Here, in this material world, you have to work very, very hard. Just even for maintenance, and what to speak of sense gratification? This is the position. Bhave 'smin kliśyanti. Bhave 'smin kliśyamānānām avidyā-kāma-karmabhiḥ. If you work hard, at least there is some expectation... Just like ordinarily a man, a boy, takes education, works very hard so that he may be very successful in examination. And then he passes. Then he works hard to get a good job. Then, in the job, in the service, he works very hard so that he get, he may get promotion. So the hard working is going on. You cannot stop it. Kliśyanti. But unfortunately they do not know the aim of life, "Why we are working so hard." That is the difficulty. But generally they want—"We are working hard for sense gratification. That's all, enjoy the senses." That is the whole civilization.
So mystic power there is in everyone. It has to be developed. Parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate (Cc. Madhya 13.65, purport). We have got so many dormant powers. It has to be cultivated. Just like Kṛṣṇa. Say, four or five years ago, you did not know what is Kṛṣṇa. By cultivation you are coming to know Kṛṣṇa, what is God, what is our relationship. So the human life is meant for such cultivation, not for seeking where is food, where is shelter, where is sex. These are already there. Tasyaiva hetoḥ prayateta kovido na labhyate... (SB 1.5.18). These things are not our subject matter of inquiry. These are already there. It is enough there even for the birds and beasts. And what to speak of human being? But they have become so rascal. They are simply absorbed in the thought of the where is food, where is shelter, where is sex, where is defense. This is the misguided civilization, misguided. There is no question of these things for... There is no problem at all. They do not see that the animal has no problem, the bird has no problem. Why the human society will have such problem? That is not at all problem. Real problem is how to stop this repetition of birth, death, old age and disease. That is real problem. That problem is being solved by Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. If you simply understand what is Kṛṣṇa, tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti (BG 4.9), there are no more material birth.
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 now the most important thing is that Kṛṣṇa made this plan to kill His descendants. He did not like that they should, but who will kill them? That is the problem. They are descendants of Kṛṣṇa. Who will kill them? Therefore it was Kṛṣṇa's plan that they will kill themselves. If others come to kill Kṛṣṇa's descendants, then what is the value of Kṛṣṇa's descendants? Nobody could kill, because in Kṛṣṇa's presence, whenever there was fight, all the descendants they came out... And who will conquer them? Nobody. That is not possible. But Kṛṣṇa wanted that before His going away, all these demigods, they must also return. "Return" means this body must be killed. But who will kill them? That was the plan of Kṛṣṇa. Therefore Kṛṣṇa is... Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe 'rjuna tiṣṭhati (BG 18.61). He is planning. He made this plan.
Because he has accepted a body which is temporary, he is full of anxieties. That is the real problem. We, if we want to be anxiety-less, no anxiety, then we have to refuse to accept this material body. Otherwise there is no possibility. All anxieties are due to this material body. Therefore Prahlāda Mahārāja said, tat sādhu manye 'sura-varya dehināṁ sadā samudvigna-dhiyām asad-grahāt (SB 7.5.5).
This is the problem. Now somehow or other, we have come in contact with this material body. We, "I am not this material body, you are not this material... We are soul." That realization required, that "I am not this material body. Therefore I am not American, I am not Indian, I am not white, I am not black. I am pure soul."
Similarly, as soon as you practice this, how to see, meditate upon Kṛṣṇa, that means you develop. Premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena santaḥ sadaiva hṛdayeṣu vilokayanti (Bs. 5.38). Then gradually it will increase, and you will be perfect. It is very easy. This process, Kṛṣṇa consciousness is so easy, and so pleasant, anyone can take. There is no difficulty. And if you become Kṛṣṇa consciousness, completely, always thinking of Kṛṣṇa, bahu anudhyānam, always, anudhyānam, thinking of Kṛṣṇa, thinking of Kṛṣṇa—anyone can do it—then you become perfect. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti kaunteya (BG 4.9). That is the problem. Our, what is that problem? Problem is that we are full of anxiety. Why you are full of anxiety? Because you have accepted this material body. So if you stop accepting material body, there is no anxiety. That can be done by vāsudeva-anudhyānam, constantly thinking of Kṛṣṇa.
Therefore real problem is that, that we are coming, we are accepting one type of body, either in the human society or animal society or tree society or dog society, accepting some body, karmaṇā daiva, according to our karma. There (are) so many varieties of life. Why so many varieties of...? What is the explanation? Just like there are so many varieties of apartment. So what does this mean? You enter some apartment according to the payment you can provide. Therefore there are so many varieties of apartment. It is a commonsense affair. Otherwise all apartments would have been the same, of the same size, same quality, same... No. There are different tenants, they pay differently; therefore there are different kinds of apartment. Similarly, this is also apartment. Dehino 'smin yathā dehe (BG 2.13). The spirit soul is within this apartment body. So according to karma, according to payment, one has got American body, one has got African body, one has got Indian body, one has got this body, that body, dog's body, cat's body, tree's body. This is karma. This is karma. This is our real problem. And this human life is especially meant for solving this problem, not the problem of petrol. But they have forgotten this. They are so rascals, the real problem they have forgotten.
So this is the problem. But that is not the problem for Kṛṣṇa. But that is problem for us. Because we are very minute spark of Kṛṣṇa, as the spark has the chance of being extinguished out of the fire, similarly, being separated from Kṛṣṇa, being entangled in this material energy, we have forgotten. Our spiritual quality, burning quality, just like fire, that is now extinguished. It is not exactly extinguished: almost extinguished. We have forgotten. But it can be again brought into the original position by fanning. Just like there is small fire in the charcoal. You fan it, and it will gradually become a big fire. So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is fanning that spiritual spark to come into full consciousness. Go on fanning like that. That is the rules and regulation, attending this class, hearing this Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Bhagavad-gītā. Twenty-four hours be engaged. That is real business. Dhyāyan, always, constantly, hṛdi brahma paraṁ dhyāyan. Dhyāyan means medi... This is meditation. And who is Para-brahman? Kṛṣṇa. Paraṁ brahma paraṁ dhāma pavitraṁ paramaṁ bhavān (BG 10.12).
So why should we waste our time otherwise for solving these so-called problems? So-called problem, they will come. Just like now it is winter season. This is also problem. Just little cover it. Then it will... Again there will be summer season; this covering will not be required, not be required. So manage somehow if there is little problem, but don't forget your real problem. That is life. That is life. "Because now it is very chilly, so I shall not take bath." No. You have to do your duty, even it is very cold, severe cold, you have to do duty. "Because it is very hot, warm, we shall not cook, we shall not go to the kitchen." No. You have to go. Similarly, real problem is how to solve this birth, death, old age and disease. And that can be done by Kṛṣṇa consciousness. In all circumstances, we have to pull on our Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Satataṁ kīrtayanto māṁ yatantaś ca dṛḍha-vratāḥ (BG 9.14). That business do not forget. Then you are missing the point. Satatam, always, yudhyasva mām anusmara (BG 8.7). That is the instruction. This world is full of struggle. That's a fact, everyone knows. But just like Arjuna was advised that yudhyasva, "You fight; at the same time, remember Me." Yudhyasva mām anusmara (BG 8.7). Similarly, in different fields of activities you have to fight. This is a world of fighting. But do not forget Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa.
So the..., this is the aspiration of the karmīs, to elevate life to higher standard of life. As the world is going on... The struggle is going on for having a higher standard of life. But they are becoming implicated. Now, there was bull-drawn cart or horse-drawn carriages. Now they have got nice cars also, but the problem is petrol. So the karmī world is like that. You create one kind of happiness, but side by side you create another kind of unhappiness. This is called karmī-yoga. Just like if you want to raise one big skyscraper building, then you have to dig somewhere to get the earth to make the bricks and the iron. You cannot manufacture without taking help of the nature. So if you raise here, you must dig here. This is karmī-yoga. If you want to enjoy something extraordinarily, you must create another unhappiness extraordinarily. This is called karmī. Therefore they are mūḍhas. Mūḍhas means rascals, asses. They do not know that "By increasing every year new motorcars, I am creating another problem. If there is no petrol, then the whole business will be spoiled." That they do not know. And because they do not know, they are called asses, mūḍha. The effect they do not know. So the tri-daśa-pūr, going to the heavenly planet... Just like they are going to the moon planet, but problems after problem, contemplating how to make a platform in the sky to get petrol. The problem is there, not that very easily going. The problematic... Things are problematic.
So that is the difference between a child in the womb and a grown-up woman. You see? That is by nature. They forget. Strī-śūdra-dvijabandhūnāṁ trayī na śruti-gocarā (SB 1.4.25). Therefore Mahābhārata was created by Vyāsadeva, Vedic instruction through history, to battle of Kurukṣetra. Because strī, śūdra, woman, śūdra and dvija-bandhu... Men born in high-class family, but behavior is different, they are called dvija-bandhu. So they cannot understand the Vedic lessons directly. It is not possible. They have no such intelligence. Strī, śūdra and dvija-bandhu. So Vedānta-sūtra says, janmādy asya yataḥ anvayād itarataś cārtheṣu (SB 1.1.1). They cannot understand. Therefore through Mahābhārata they are instructed. History. History they can hear. So Prahlāda Mahārāja says, "It is the duty of a human being, even from childhood, kaumāra..." Kaumāra means from the age of fifth year up to tenth year. This is called kaumāra. So people should be educated about this, that the problem is how to stop janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi (BG 13.9). This education. This is called Bhāgavata instruction. You are noting. We are talking on the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. The subject matter is how one shall transfer himself from this material world to the spiritual world and thereby stop birth, death, old age and disease. This is the whole subject matter.
So many things will be. But formerly, it was village. They will take it, "This is primitive." But remaining primitive, you were more happy than becoming so-called civilized, creating so many problems. You have already problems, but people are so rascal, so blind, they do not see to the real problem. They artificially create problem and try to solve it. Instead of touching the real problem, that is set aside.
The Bhagavad-gītā says that problem, one should be very vigilant to the problem. And what is that problem? He says, Kṛṣṇa says, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam. They do not know what is the real problem. Real problem is repetition of birth, death, old age and disease. This is real problem. Whole Vedic civilization is meant for stopping these problems, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi. The whole Bhagavad-gītā is taught... You are reading Bhagavad-gītā. You just try to understand what is the real problem. The real problem is birth, death, old age and disease.
So this is the problem. Animal-killing is not within the category of human civilization. When a man becomes civilized, he knows how to produce food. He can till the ground. He can produce food grains. He can produce fruits and flowers and so many things. Even in the animal kingdom, there are different kinds of animals. They do not touch meat-eating even. They do not touch. Every, every animal has to live by destroying or killing another animal. That is nature's law. Jīvo jīvasya jīvanam. Either you eat vegetable or you eat meat, it doesn't matter. Vegetable has also got life. But there is allotment. Just like the cows or other animals, they do not eat meat, they live on grass.
The main problem is janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi (BG 13.9). That is main problem. So our cultivation of knowledge, advancement of civilization, should be on the basis of solving the main problems, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi, not the temporary problem. For the temporary problems, it is advised that the temporary problems, they come and go. Just like nowadays there is the petrol problem. Petrol is there, but because the Arabians are restricting supply, it has become a problem. So there are, as soon as there will be some peace agreement between the Arabians and others, this problem will be solved. Take for example. Best example is given in the Bhagavad-gītā, śītoṣṇa-sukha-duḥkha-dāḥ. You can solve your petrol problem, but you can never solve the problem of winter and summer. That will come and go. So it is not that winter will remain for good, or the summer will remain for good. Āgamāpāyino 'nityāḥ. They will come and go away. So don't be bothered about them. If you feel botheration, just try to suffer or tolerate. That is not your real problem. Real problem is how to stop the birth, death, old age and disease, and that is Vedic civilization, and that is depending on the brahminical culture.
But here, the advanced civilization, the mother is killing the child, abortion. You see? Still, it is called advancement. Mother's duty is to take care of the child, motherly affection. Woman is meant for that. And now the problem is the mother doesn't want children. You see? And to avoid children, they are killing. Regularly they are killing. So what is the use of this civilization? Because you are becoming implicated in sinful activities, and therefore you'll have to be punished. You cannot escape the punishment of God as you can escape the punishment of the state. No. You have no right to kill even an ant without any purpose, without any sanction. So they do not know.
However burden you may feel, as soon as you perform kṛṣṇa-kīrtana, you'll find immediately refreshed. So one who has got taste for this kīrtana, he has no problem. That is... Prahlāda Mahārāja says. Tvad-vīrya-gāyana-mahāmṛta-magna-cittaḥ: "Because my heart is always merged into the ocean of Your glorification, I have no problem." This is the devotee. Everyone goes to God to mitigate some problem, that "God, give us our daily bread." That means bread is a problem, and... That is the general tendency. They go to temple, church, to mitigate some problem. And as soon as the problem is finished, they forget God. No more church, no more temple. You see? That is not devotion. Devotion is that "No problem. I am ready to serve You, my Lord." That is life. No problem. We should not take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness or saṅkīrtana to solve some problem. No. That is not pure devotion. When you will feel that "There is no problem. I am chanting, glorifying. So I am becoming merged into the ocean of bliss," that is life. That is the symptom.
The different type of body is due to our different karma and different mentality. That we do not know. But Parīkṣit Mahārāja, although he is king... Nowadays the king and president, they are sure that "I am Prime Minister" and "I am President. My position is secure," because he is prime minister. This is the difficulty. The big, big men, they think that "My position is secure," "I am prime minister," "I am Rahis," "I am Birla," "I am big man, so my position is secure." But Parīkṣit Mahārāja did not think like that. Although he was the emperor, most powerful king, Parīkṣit Mahārāja, he did not think that "I am secure. Because I am emperor of the world, I am secure." No. He immediately become alert: "Oh, I will have to die within seven days. So I must prepare." This is the problem. We do not know whether we are going to die within seven seconds, because there is no guarantee, whereas Parīkṣit Mahārāja had at least seven days' guarantee that he will die after seven days. But so far we are concerned, we can go on the street. There may be any accident. I can die immediately. There are, so many deaths are taking place. The death is sure, and when it will take place, that nobody knows.
Without following the principles, religious principles... The human life is given a chance by the nature, that "In this life you make a solution of this birth and death," janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). So these rascals do not know that janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi is actually problem. They are simply trying to solve so many temporary problems. They do not know the real problem is janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi. Therefore, following the real religious principle means sad-dharma. That is lokānāṁ hita-kāriṇau, the greatest benefit to the human society—to stop their repetition of birth and death. That is the greatest... That is the business of the Gosvāmīs. Not this, this party or that party, capitalism and communism, this "ism," that... What they will derive? You may follow capitalism or communism or this "ism," that "ism"; after death, you'll be immediately under the grip of material nature, karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa (SB 3.31.1). "Now all your so-called rascal nationalism go to hell. You become a dog. Finish." That is nature's course. You have treated your life like cats and dogs. You did not take advantage of your human life. Now nature will give you, "All right, again you become cats and dogs." Punar mūṣiko bhava. They do not know. They do not know the secret science of nature. You may be a very great leader, prime minister now. Next life you are going to be a dog in Scandinavia. (laughter) You see?
So you hear about Kṛṣṇa, you chant about Kṛṣṇa, you memorize or remember about Kṛṣṇa. You worship Kṛṣṇa, the Deity, arcanam. You offer prayers to Kṛṣṇa. There are nine different ways. So you just try to understand Kṛṣṇa in nine processes or either of, some of the processes, or one process only, Kṛṣṇa will agree. Kṛṣṇa is so kind. And as soon as you understand Kṛṣṇa, His nature, then, actually, you become liberated. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti kaunteya (BG 4.9). This is the process. Real problem is how to get out of this material existence. If we remain attached to this material existence, either in this body or in the society or in the nationalism or in the greater, greater, greater—you make greater—but that is your bondage.
In this way we have to mold our life if we are actually interested to become free from this janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9), if we actually want to get free from the repetition of birth, death, old age and disease. That is our real problem. People do not understand that this is our real problem. They are simply engaged in some temporary problem. The real problem is that "Why I am dying? In the Bhagavad-gītā it is said, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre: (BG 2.20) 'The soul does not die even after the destruction of this body.' So why my body should be destroyed?" This is real inquiry. "Why... Can I not get a permanent body which will never be destroyed?" Yes. You'll get. You will get. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti kaunteya (BG 4.9). Kṛṣṇa says, "You will get a permanent body. After giving up this body," tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti (BG 4.9), "you do not get again material body." "Then where shall I go?" Mām eti: "You come to Me." If you go back to home, back to Kṛṣṇa, then, as Kṛṣṇa has got eternal body never to be destroyed, similarly Kṛṣṇa has got eternal body.
The real business is that we have to withdraw our attraction for this material... That they do not know. I am a spirit soul. Being attracted by this material nature, I am now encaged within this body, and I am changing this body. Just like I am changing this body from boyhood to childhood, childhood to, from childhood to boyhood, from youthhood. In this way, I have been entangled in this transmigration of the soul. This is my problem. Bhagavān, Kṛṣṇa, says, "Real problem is janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi (BG 13.9)." This is not problem. Nowadays they have discovered so many problems. But actual problem—janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi—they are not very much serious. Therefore they have been described here as pramattaḥ, madmen. He does not know what is the real problem, but he is very busy with the superficial problems. Therefore śāstra says that these people, blind, they do not know what is the problem. Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇum (SB 7.5.31). My real self-interest is to go back to home, back to Godhead. That is my real self-interest. They do not know. They want to live here, which is described as duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam (BG 8.15), simply a place of miserable conditions and repetition of birth, death, old age and disease.
One should examine the fact that the father or father's father has already died, and therefore he himself is also sure to die. And similarly his children, who are the would-be fathers of their children, will also die in due course. No one will survive in the struggle with material nature. Daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā duratyayā (BG 7.14).
So our real problem is how to revive our original, eternal life. That is struggle. The modern people, scientists, philosophers, they even do not know what is our original constitutional position, and... Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). I do not die, even after the destruction of this body. These things are unknown. And still, they are posing themselves as leader of the society. Therefore the śāstra says, andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānāḥ: (SB 7.5.31) "One blind man is leading several other blind men." Te 'pīśa-tantryām uru-dāmni baddhāḥ: "They do not know that they are bound up by the laws of nature very tight, hands and legs." There is no question of freedom.
But the śāstra says that this human life is meant for understanding God, nothing else. Other things are already arranged. You are harassed by the problems of eating, sleeping, mating, but there is no such question. Eating arrangement is there. Even the birds and bees, they are confident. They have no office-going, they are not lawyers, engineers, politicians, to earn their bread, but the bread is ready for them. Even for the beast, birds, so they are confident. So this is not problem. Real problem is to understand God. And what will the benefit by understanding God? Then the problem of your birth, death, old age and disease will be solved. That is the real problem. We are undergoing repetition of birth, death, old age and disease. These problems can be solved simply by understanding what is God. This is the solution.
Religion means to understand God. That is religion. In religion, a godless religion, where there is no conception of God, that is not religion. That is called cheating religion. In the name of religion, but there is no conception of God. That is not religion.
Then here it is said that śrotavyaḥ bhagavān hariḥ. If you do not know who is Bhagavān, if you do not know who is Hari, if you do not know who is Īśvara, then what you will hear about Him? That is the problem. Those who are after God, they make God nirākāra. "There is no ākāra. There is no form." God is the origin of all forms, but the poor God has no form. Just see. This is the conclusion. He is the origin of all forms, yato vā imāni bhūtāni jāyante, from whom everything is coming out. Janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). Everything... We have also come from God.
So service is not an ordinary thing. So this is, this service is unimpaired, unchecked by any material condition. So Śukadeva Gosvāmī, he gives us some definition how you can be completely independent to serve the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Now our problem is eating-sleeping. Eating-sleeping. After sleeping, there is mating or fearing. These are the problems of bodily demands. So Śukadeva Gosvāmī recommends for a serious devotee, he says, cīrāṇi kiṁ pathi na santi. Cīrāṇi means worn-out, rejected garments. In your country it is very usual to find in the dustbin so many things are thrown away. So sometimes nice dress is also thrown away. So Śukadeva Gosvāmī says that if you have problem of dressing yourself, just pick up some old garments from the street. Cīrāṇi kiṁ pathi na santi. "All right. I get my garment. What about my food?" He said, cīrāṇi kiṁ pathi na santi diśanti bhikṣāṁ naivāṅghripāḥ para-bhṛtaḥ. Aṅghripāḥ means the living entity who eats by its leg. Just like we eat by our hand. Do you know what is that living entity who eats by the leg? Can you... Huh? No. Trees. Yes. Yes. The trees, they eat from the root. That is their eating process. You pour water on the root of the tree, and that water the whole tree sucks. That is their eating. Therefore they are called aṅghripāḥ. They drink their food, eatables, by the leg.
So here Śukadeva Gosvāmī advises, this is very important work, kim ajito na avati upasannān. Ajita the Supreme Lord, Kṛṣṇa, He's maintaining everyone: yoga-kṣemaṁ vahāmy aham (BG 9.22). And He'll not maintain a person who has fully surrendered to Him? No. How it can be. Suppose a gentleman is maintaining so many other children. And he does not maintain his own children? Surely he does. Therefore our principle should be we should not think about our personal maintenance. We should dedicate our life for Kṛṣṇa, and Kṛṣṇa will take care. That should be the principle. Don't be harassed, thinking always "How I shall be maintained?" That is not the problem. Maintenance is no problem. Real problem is "How we shall be fully surrendered to Kṛṣṇa?" That is wanted.
"My dear Lord, I am not anxious for myself. Because I have got the thing. I have no problem how to cross over the nescience or how to go to Vaikuṇṭha or to become liberated. These problems are solved." Why? How you have solved? Now, tvad-vīrya-gāyana-mahāmṛta-magna-cittaḥ. "Because I am engaged always in glorifying your activities, so my problem is solved."
Then what is your problem? The problem is śoce. "I am lamenting," śoce tato vimukha-cetasaḥ, "those who are averse to You. Being averse to You, they are working so hard," māyā-sukhāya, "for so-called happiness, these rascals. So I am simply lamenting for them." This is our Vaiṣṇava philosophy. One who has taken shelter of the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, he has no problem. But his only problem is how to deliver the rascals who are simply working hard forgetting Kṛṣṇa. That is the problem.
So when you have got developed consciousness, try to understand Kṛṣṇa. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Don't waste your time in nonsense literature. Don't waste. The life is very valuable. You don't think that "Because we have got human form of life, we shall live for one hundred years or sixty or seventy years, so let us enjoy." Bhāgavata says this kind of enjoyment is there everywhere—in animal life, in plant life. This enjoyment means sex pleasure. Viṣayaḥ khalu sarvataḥ syāt. Viṣaya. Viṣaya means eating, sleeping, mating, and defending. This is called viṣaya. One who is very much fond of these principles of life only... Just like animals. They have no other problem. They do not know what Kṛṣṇa consciousness, what philosophy, what is metaphysical understanding. They have no such problem. Their only problem is eating, sleeping, mating and defending. That's all.
That you cannot get by material adjustment, by your so-called scientific education, advancement of civilization. It is not possible. Therefore here it is said, nānyatra mad bhagavataḥ pradhāna-puruṣeśvarāt: "Without coming under My shelter, there is no possibility." There is no possibility. Therefore Kṛṣṇa, out of compassion, He comes when we completely become dull and rascal, we forget the sufferings of this material life, and we think that we are very nicely situated. "I have got so much bank balance and I will live very happily. I have got so nice wife and so many children. How my problem is solved." No, sir, your problem is not solved. (chuckling) Real problem is not solved. This temporary, you may have some facilities. This is called māyā. Māyayāpahṛta-jñāna. The real business of human life is to, as we have several times discussed, is to discuss about the problems of life and inquire about the Brahman. Athāto brahma jijñāsā. That is real business of life. But we are not interested. Mūḍha. We are thinking that "We are very happy. Now things will go on like this. I will never die." Śeṣāḥ sthāvaram icchanti kim āścaryam ataḥ param. Yudhiṣṭhira Mahārāja was asked by Dharmarāja, "What is the most wonderful thing in this world?" He replied, "This is the most wonderful thing."
The real problem is, Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). Our real miserable condition of life is birth, death, old age, and disease. Where is scientific help to mitigate these miseries? There is no stoppage of birth; there is no stoppage of death; there is no stoppage of disease. You can manufacture very good medicine for disease, but you stop disease. That is not possible. So our so-called meritorious activities in scientific research and education, they have been described in the Bhagavad-gītā as duṣkṛtinaḥ, mischievous activities. Duṣkṛtinaḥ. They are not actually beneficial, but they are mischievous. And why, mischievous, they are engaged, they are wasting their so much time in mischievous? Because mūḍhāḥ: they do not know what is the purpose of life. They are mūḍhas. Na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ prapadyante narādhamāḥ (BG 7.15). They do not surrender to Kṛṣṇa because they are narādhamāḥ, lowest of the mankind.
So Prahlāda Mahārāja says, śoce tato vimukha-cetasa māyā-sukhāya bharam udvahato vimūḍhān (SB 7.9.43). That is the thankless task of the devotees, to turn these vimūḍhān from this māyā-sukha to real sukha. This is the business of the devotees. They have no other business. Their business is not for making money. Money, they have got enough, and Kṛṣṇa supplies all their money. So there is no such problem for a devotee of how to secure money. Their only problem is how to turn these rascals to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, all rascals, vimūḍhān. We say clearly, "If you are not Kṛṣṇa conscious, you are rascal number one." "No, I am M.A. Ph.D." "Still, you are rascal." That is our verdict. "We don't care for your Ph.D. I know that you are a rascal because you do not know Kṛṣṇa." Just a few minutes before, one gentleman came to see me, and he advertised himself that "I have read Vedas, I have read the Purāṇas, I have seen Dr. Radhakrishnan, but I do not get peace of mind." So I asked him, "You have studied so many literatures. Do you know who is God?" And the God who has created this, what is His name, what is the address—that he does not know. Yes. This is going on. Vimūḍhān. They are proud of education, proud of learning, advancement, everything, all right, complete. But real knowledge—"Do you know God?"—that he cannot explain. That he cannot explain. He will explain something hodgepodge. This is the disease. Therefore they are vimūḍhān.
So material sense gratification will not give us real happiness. Everyone is trying to get happiness; so therefore Ṛṣabhadeva said, tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena śuddhyet sattvam (SB 5.5.1). Your exis... First of all, purify your existence; then talk of happiness. Happiness, if you want to enter happiness with this covered material covering, you'll never find happiness. And that is actually experience of everyone. If you say that "Yes, I am enjoying this. I am enjoying this life very nicely. I don't require to give up this material body," no. It is foolishness. You are not enjoying. You may think so, but the real problem is there. What is that? Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). You may enjoy very nicely because you are Englishman or American, you have got money, but what about the question of death? Do you enjoy death? If a body is... Of course, one who is frustrated, one who wants to commit suicide, that is a different thing. For a sane man, does he enjoy birth, death, old age and disease? Therefore Bhagavad-gītā points out that you may feel very happy with your so-called material senses, but you should see to the real problem of life, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi: birth, death, old age and disease.
So therefore, this human form of life, as it is advised by Ṛṣabhadeva, is not meant for unnecessary sense gratification. This is not meant for. This is meant for the hogs and dogs, not for the human beings. This is division of life. The human life is to make a solution of all the problems of life. The real problem is birth, death, old age and disease. All other problems, they are secondary. So you can conquer over this birth and death and old age and disease. There is possibility. Here is a chance of human form of life. Here you take a chance. Don't lose it, don't spoil it like hogs and dogs. That is the propaganda of this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. Don't take it that it is a type of sectarian religion. No. It is a culture. It is meant for every human being. Therefore we are trying to propagate this movement all over the world, without any consideration of caste, creed and nation. Because we don't see, "This is Englishman, this is European, this is American." No. We have no such vision. Paṇḍitāḥ sama-darśinaḥ (BG 5.18). One who is really learned, he sees everyone on the equal level: soul, spirit soul.
If we really want to come out this material bondage... Material bondage means this body. Our real problem is this body. That we do not know. Nūnaṁ pramattaḥ kurute vikarma yad indriya-prītaya āpṛṇoti (SB 5.5.4). This will come, that "We have now become mad after sense gratification." Pramattaḥ. Pramattaḥ means prakṛṣṭa-rūpena mattaḥ. Mattaḥ means mad. And when this affix is there, prefix is there, that pra, pra means prakṛṣṭa-rūpena, sufficiently mad. So in this material world we have become sufficiently mad—not only mad, but sufficiently mad. Nūnaṁ pramattaḥ kurute vikarma (SB 5.5.4). And we are engaged in activities which are forbidden. Forbidden. Just like we are drinking. This is forbidden. We are eating meat. This is forbidden. We are having illicit sex. This is forbidden. We are having gambling. This is forbidden. This is called vikarma. But because we have become mad, we are, whole human civilization is meant for these four things: illicit sex, meat-eating, and intoxication, and gambling.
So nūnaṁ pramattaḥ kurute vikarma yad indriya-prītaya āpṛṇoti (SB 5.5.4). So we have become mad and we are engaged in these forbidden works. If we want to get out of these clutches of material bondage, then we must stop these forbidden activities, mad, the activities of a mad man. So if you go on like that, then we shall have to accept another material body. The problem is that we are suffering threefold miseries, every one of us. Maybe the degree different, but under being intoxicated, we do not take the sufferings as sufferings. That is another madness. But the sufferings are there.
So we are parts and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa admits, mamaivāṁśo jīva bhūtaḥ (BG 15.7), ahaṁ bīja-pradaḥ pitā (BG 14.4). We are sons of God, Kṛṣṇa. Not that by imagination; God Himself says. And all śāstra says that jīva is equal in quality with God. That's a fact. Then why we are subjected to this birth and death, old age and disease? That is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā: janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). We are trying to solve all problems of life, but real problem is janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi. Where is that scientist, where is that education to conquer over birth, death, old age and disease? They are trying to control: birth control, over-population. But that is not a problem. Birth control cannot be. That cannot be. The birth is increasing. That is not possible. And why birth control? That is also a long subject matter. There is no need of birth control, because Kṛṣṇa says, ahaṁ bīja-pradaḥ pitā: (BG 14.4) "I am the father." And Kṛṣṇa is not only ordinary father but He is the controller of nature:
- mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ
- sūyate sa-carācaram
- hetunānena kaunteya
- jagad viparivartate
- (BG 9.10)
This business is going on. But the basic principle of that continued transmigration is sex life or sense gratification. Anyway, as long we have got a pinch of sense gratification we have to take birth in any form or any shape within this material world. That is the whole process. Therefore if we are at all interested... And that interest must be there in human life; otherwise it is spoiling. That is the problem, that no more transmigration from one body to another. That problem can be solved in this human form of life. Therefore Ṛṣabhadeva advises His sons, "My dear sons, to work very, very hard simply for sense gratification is not the business of human form of life." Nāyaṁ deho deha-bhājāṁ nṛloke.
Then what it is meant for? The next line He says that tapaḥ. Tapaḥ means austerity. Austerity. What is that austerity? The austerity is to follow the rules and regulations by which one can elevate himself to the spiritual platform. That is required. In human... Either you practice yoga or haṭha-yoga or jñāna-yoga or dhyāna-yoga or karma-yoga or... Everything is yoga. As I explained last night in the meeting in the church, that yoga is one staircase to reach to the perfection of spiritual realization, and there are many steps.
There is another verse in the Viṣṇu Purāṇa, labdhvā su-durlabham idaṁ bahu-sambhavānte... That is the way of Vedic instruction. Everywhere you'll find. Labdhvā su-durlabham idaṁ bahu-sambhavānte. After many, many births... Unfortunately, they do not believe in the next birth, or past birth—always in ignorance. But that is a fact, and we are repeatedly exemplified that I am living. Although I am changing my body, I am living. Therefore, when I change this body, I shall continue to live. This is the bare truth. Why you do not understand? Life is continuous. Simply you are changing bodies. Now how I am preparing for the next nice body which is eternal? That is the problem of human life, not that to be carried away by cats and dogs and meat and fish and everything. No. This is the main theme of this instruction, that tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena, yena śuddhyet sattvam (SB 5.5.1). Tapo divyaṁ putra, putrakā yena sattvaṁ śuddhyet. Just try to purify your existence. Just like I gave you the list of purification from lowest stage of life to the highest, so, I mean to say, as the change of body, just like change of dress, you like a nice dress, giving up the old dress, similarly, change of body is going on. You accept the first-class body next life, first-class body next life which is eternal, which is not subjected to the tribulations of this body. That should be the aim of human civilization, not that simply getting money and spending for sense gratification. That is cats' and dogs' civilization. That is not human civilization. One should utilize the opportunity.
This is another important verse. The problem is presented, deha-yogena. Deha-yogena, this body, contact with this material body, this is the problem. But nobody knows it. Especially in these days they cannot understand that "This material body is a foreign element, and somehow or other I am victimized, I am entrapped within this body." This problem is real problem. But they do not know. And this is called avidyā, ignorance.
There are two kinds of strong avidyā, ignorance, unawareness. Sattva-guṇa, rajo-guṇa, tamo-guṇa. Rajo-guṇa and tamo-guṇa is covering. Tamo-guṇa is very densely covering, and rajo-guṇa little open, and sattva-guṇa means prakāśa, there is illumination, brahminical qualifications. When one is in the sattva-guṇa then he can understand that "I am not this body. I am different from this body." For them, those who are in the sattva-guṇa, for them it is easier.
So the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is an attempt to bring the human society into the proper platform of civilization. It is a very scientific movement. How it is done? Here it is said, prītir na yāvan mayi vāsudeve. Prītir na yāvan mayi vāsudeve na mucyate deha-yogena tāvat. This is the problem. So by gradual process, to bring one to the platform of vāsudeve prītir, that is bhakti. Prītir means love, how to love Vāsudeva, Kṛṣṇa. That is civilization—to bring one to the platform of loving Kṛṣṇa, prītir to Vāsudeva. Vāsudeva sarvam iti. Just like if you love somebody, the intense love is that your lover or beloved is everything. That is love. Just like a mother loves her child. So she is always anxious to take care of the child. Whole attention is on the child. These are examples. These are not actually love, but a perverted reflection of love. We can understand what is love. This love does not stand, but nature dictates that you love your child like this, you love your husband like this, your wife like this, your country like this, your society like this. There are different grades of loving demonstration. That loving demonstration, when it will be concentrated on Vāsudeva, Kṛṣṇa, that is the highest perfection of life.
So if you want to avoid these four things... That is specially pointed out by Kṛṣṇa, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi (BG 13.9). You are solving your problems, but what, how you have solved your birth, death, old age, and disease? That is the question by Kṛṣṇa. Have you solved? Then what is the use of solving problems? The real problem is there. But if you want to solve this real problem, then you should take up this nivṛtti-mārga. Nivṛtti-mārga means stop this way of sense gratification and take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is the way. If you continue your misbehavior, at the same time you want to cure your disease, that is not possible. Just like this alcoholic treatment. They go to the psychiatrist and so experienced... After all, if you do not give up this bad habit, then where is the question of treatment? Where is the question of treatment? That is called... That is explained in the śāstra, hasti-snāna. The example is very right. Hasti-snāna. Hasti, hasti means elephant. Elephant, they go into the water, in the lake, in the pond, and very nicely cleanse their body. Body very nicely cleansed, and after taking bath, as soon as it comes to the bank on the ground, he takes some dust and throw over the body. So atonement... Sometimes we make atonement. I have committed some sin. I go to church or go to temple. I make some atonement. Then after finishing that business, again I do that business. So this kind of habit will not help you. You must try to stop the bad habit. That you can do when you are in the association of devotees. Otherwise it is not possible.
The different types of bodies means that is our punishment. We may think it as happiness, but as soon as you accept a material body, you are subjected to the four principles of material distresses. What is that? Janma, mṛtyu, jarā, vyādhi. You may think that you are very scientifically advanced—"There is no more distress in my life"—but Kṛṣṇa says, "No. If you are intelligent, then you should think of these four principles as distresses." What is that? Birth, death, old age and disease. But the modern so-called scientists, they cannot make any solution to birth, death, old age and disease; therefore they have left them aside: "Oh, don't care for them." That is ignorance. Our real problem is not this temporary problem that we are in such and such distressed condition. That is temporary. But real problem is, as Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). If anyone is intelligent enough, he should always keep before him that there are, these are my distresses: janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi. I don't want to die, so what I have done for stopping my death? What have I done to stop my birth? Huh? Because as soon as I die, again I enter into the womb of a particular type of mother. Hm? Again I have to live there, packed up. That is the... Everyone knows. I cannot move even. No independence.
So the problem is that within the heart we have got so many dirty things. So unless those dirty things are removed or cleansed, this kind of prāyaścitta or medicine or fine or going to the jail—he is not saved. He will commit the same thing. Again will suffer. Again he will suffer. Bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19). Real problem is that we should stop our suffering. But the karmīs, they are interested in the temporary cure, and they do not know how to cure completely. There will be no more suffering. That they do not know. But a Vaiṣṇava, because he is Kṛṣṇa conscious, he knows what is real suffering—because he understands from Kṛṣṇa. So Kṛṣṇa says that "Your real suffering is these four things, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi: (BG 13.9) repetition of birth, death, old age, and disease. Actually this is your problem." So without devotees, without hearing from Kṛṣṇa, these rascals, they do not know actually what is the problem nor what is suffering. They are simply concerned with temporary suffering and temporary cure. Therefore they have been explained, they have been described in the Bhagavad-gītā, as mūḍhas. Mūḍha means ass.
So a little... Kaṇḍūyanena karayor iva duḥkha-duḥkham. This is śāstra, that "What is this sex life?" It is said, kaṇḍūyanena karayor iva duḥkha-duḥkham. Yan maithunādi-gṛhamedhi-sukhaṁ hi tuccham (SB 7.9.45). Gṛhamedhi. Gṛhamedhi means one who does not know what is the aim of life. Gṛhamedhi and gṛhastha. Gṛhastha means although he is living with wife and children, but he knows what is the aim of life. That is the gṛhastha āśrama. As the sannyāsī knows what is the aim of life, similarly, a gṛhastha also may know. So such gṛhastha, sex life is allowed, who knows the aim of life. And one who does not know the aim of life, simply enjoys sex, he is called gṛhamedhi. These two words are there. In Sanskrit literature every word has got particular meaning, particular thought. Therefore it is called Sanskṛta, most performed and purified literature, Sanskrit. Sanskrit means purified. Saṁskāra. Just like we offer saṁskāra at the time of initiation, purification. So our main problem is the sex life. That is... Because sex life is the basic principle of material life. Either you are human being or you are demigod or you are a bird, you are a beast, you are a fly, you are a fish, you are tree, plants—everything—the basic principle of material life is sex. Puṁsaḥ striyā mithunī-bhāvam etat tayor mitho hṛdaya-granthim āhuḥ (SB 5.5.8). Everything is there. You have got books. You study and follow the practice. Be little sober. It is not that you'll not be able. You'll be able. And Kṛṣṇa will help. As soon as you are very eager, then Kṛṣṇa will help. Teṣāṁ satata-yuktānāṁ bhajatāṁ prīti-pūrvakam (BG 10.10).
They have accepted, "It is very nice." Animals. Animals Just like in the slaughterhouse, livestock godown, there are so many animals, and they are going to be slaughtered. Everyone knows. They also know, the animals. But on account of their animal quality, they cannot do anything. Similarly, we are also put into the slaughterhouse of this material world. It is called mṛtyu-loka. Everyone knows that he will be slaughtered. Today or tomorrow or fifty years after or a hundred years after, everyone knows that he will be slaughtered. He will die. Death means slaughter. Nobody wants to die. The animal also do not like to die. But they are forcibly killed. This is called slaughter. Similarly, who wants to die? Nobody wants to die. But by nature's law he has to be killed. That is slaughterhouse. The whole material world is slaughterhouse. We have to realize that. And it is called mṛtyu-loka. This is the problem. But they do not take it very seriously, like animal. The animal, he does not take very seriously. And even if he knows he will die, he cannot take any step.
So our mṛtyu-saṁsāra-sāgarāt, position is like that. Teṣām ahaṁ anukampārtham aham ajñāna-jaṁ tamaḥ. Teṣām ahaṁ samuddhartā mṛtyu-saṁsāra-sāgarāt (BG 12.7). So we should understand our position. Nobody wants to die, but he is slaughtered. Again he is given another chance, another body. Again he is slaughtered. This is the laws of nature, going on. Daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā duratyayā (BG 7.14). We should seriously understand this, that how to stop this slaughtering process of material nature. That is intelligence. Otherwise, to become happy like cats and dogs, "Oh, I am very nicely eating and jumping. I don't care for being slaughtered," that is not very good intelligence. Intelligence is how to stop this slaughtering process of nature. That is intelligence. That is being discussed.
So this Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra means to purify inside. Purify inside. Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanaṁ bhava-mahā-dāvāgni-nirvāpaṇam (CC Antya 20.12). So, of course, we are trying our best. Now, you American boys and girls, try to understand more and more and help your countrymen how to become first-class men. That I have requested every time, that from material point of view, you are already first class because you are not poverty-stricken. You have got enough everything. But in spite of materially first class, bigger or stronger than other nations, because there is no training spiritual, therefore there is crime. Therefore there is crime. And it is very difficult to solve. So this is the problem. I am talking since yesterday when as soon as I saw the Times magazine and the heading, "Crime: Why and What to Do?" Yes, this is a problem. It is a problem. But the solution is here, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Solution is here. And it is very easy to become first-class men. You know by practical experience: simply by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. That's all. It is not difficult. Anyone, even a child can do it. So increase this chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra and give them nice prasādam.
That is spiritual. It does not change. Therefore it is said, itihāsaṁ purātanam. Although it is very old, but the effect is the same, effect is the same. In the old times people used to eat and get satisfaction; the same satisfaction is now also. You eat; you feel satisfaction. Eating, sleeping, mating and defending—this is the material necessities. So the such necessities were in the old, millions of years ago, and those necessities are still there. It is no change actually. So this is the process how to... They are now thinking, "Why there is crime, and why, what is the remedy?" They are think in the material way. They are thinking that "We have got enough everything. Why there should be crime?" But they do not know that unless you make first-class men by training, the fourth-class man will degrade more and more. Just like a child, if you don't send him to school to get education, he will be street boy and degrade more and more. So this is the problem. So how to train first-class man, that method is here, Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. And take it seriously, and if you actually love your countrymen, raise them to the standard of first-class man.
The knowledge is given by Bhagavān Śrī Kṛṣṇa that "Here is the solution: janma karma ca me divyaṁ yo janati tattvataḥ, tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti (BG 4.9)." The problem is punar janma, repetition of birth, and if you want to stop it, then try to understand Kṛṣṇa. Then you will be able to stop. As soon as you understand Kṛṣṇa... To understand Kṛṣṇa means even if you blindly accept, that is also beneficial. Kṛṣṇa says what He is, that He is the Supreme Lord. So you accept Him. That's all. Simply have this faith, that "Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead." That will make you sufficiently advanced. But this is very difficult for the materialistic person. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, bahūnāṁ janmanām ante: (BG 7.19) "After endeavoring for many, many births," bahūnāṁ janmanām ante jñānavān māṁ prapadyate, jñānavān, "who is actually wise, he surrenders to Kṛṣṇa." Otherwise, na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ prapadyante narādhamāh: (BG 7.15) "Otherwise he remain a rascal and implicated in sinful activities, lowest of the mankind, knowledge is taken away." Na māṁ prapadyante: "He never surrenders to Kṛṣṇa."
So this future, past, present, future, is being controlled by the three modes of material nature. If we practice in this life sattva-guṇa, then ūrdhvaṁ gacchanti sattva-sthāḥ: (BG 14.18) then we shall be promoted to the higher planetary system. Madhye tiṣṭhanti rājasāḥ. If we cultivate rajo-guṇa... Rajo-guṇa means kāma-lobha, kāma, simply desiring. This is called rajo-guṇa. "I want this, I want this, I want this." Because there is no satiation of want, therefore every man or woman planning something, "How my sense gratification will be fully satisfied." This is rajo-guṇa, kāma. Everyone is forgetting his real business. His real business is he should know, one should know, that "I am eternal. I have taken this temporary body and subjected to the laws of nature, birth, death and old age. So my real problem is how to become again eternal, not accepting any more birth, death, old age. That is my real business." But because I am infected with the material modes of nature, we are making different plans. Everyone is busy. Everyone is busy in different plans, forgetting his real business. This is called māyā. Māyā means..., ma means not; ya means this. Therefore māyā means when you understand, "This is not my business," then you are out of māyā. "This is not," mā-yā.
So they are under the laws of nature. They do not now why the laws of nature acting in a different way, against their will. Suppose I do not wish to die. Why laws of nature enforcing, forcing me to die? Nobody wants to die. So you cannot surpass the laws of nature. Therefore Kṛṣṇa presents in the Bhagavad-gītā that "You are trying to solve the problems of life, but here are the real problems of life: janma-mṛtyu-jarā vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9)." The real problem is that there is death, there is birth, there is old age and there is disease. This is real problem. That problem is due to this material body. Therefore our real problem is that we have got this material body, but we have no sense that "Within this material body I am the spirit soul, living. So how to get out of this material body and again revive our spiritual body?" Spiritual body is already there. How to become free from the bondage of this material body and become free again in spiritual life, that is real problem of life. That they do not. Who knows? Bring any big, big leaders. Ask him that "Do you know what is the problem of life?" They do not know. Therefore it is said, na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇum (SB 7.5.31).
Better find out somebody to love. That is the problem. That is the problem of this life. Everyone is there... Now, after disappointment they say that "I had tried to find out somebody, girl or boy, to love, but I was, I mean to say, frustrated, disappointed. Now I find the dog is the best friend." Yes. Actually, they say like that. "We find the dog is the best friend." Is it not? Yes. Why? Everyone is searching after to love somebody. That's a fact. Because we are lover. Our constitutional position is lover. Prahlāda Mahārāja says that Viṣṇu, your loving object is Viṣṇu. So try to love Viṣṇu, then your life will be successful. You'll feel satisfaction. Yayātmā suprasīdati. You'll feel, "Oh, I have got something now. Now I have got this loving object." In another place Prahlāda Mahārāja said na te viduḥ svārtha gatiṁ hi viṣṇu. They do not know what is their actual loving object. That is Viṣṇu. And in the Vedic mantra, Ṛg mantra, it is said, tad viṣṇoḥ paramaṁ padaṁ sadā paśyanti sūrayaḥ. Those who are demigods, they are always sūrayaḥ. Sūrayaḥ means Just like Aryans and non-Aryans. Then there's suri and asuri, or sura or asura. Asura, asura means demons, and sura, just the opposite. Or Aryans and non-Aryans. So the Aryans Aryans, the real meaning, the Sanskrit word, "Aryans," means progressive. We have historically made a class of men. No. Aryan civilization means who is progressive, advancing. They are intelligent. They are fair-complexioned. Therefore Aryan means progressive. So they know.
Therefore Prahlāda Mahārāja says, tat-prayāso na kartavyo. Tat-prayāso means in the previous verse it is said that sukham aindriyakaṁ daityā. Everyone is trying. Why they are working so hard? Sukham aindriyakam. Just to get some sense gratification. That's all. This is the only aim.
In another place Ṛṣabhadeva says,
- nūnaṁ pramattaḥ kurute vikarma
- yad indriya-prītaya āpṛṇoti
- na sādhu manye yata ātmano 'yam
- asann api kleśada āsa dehaḥ
- (SB 5.5.4)
The real problem is that how to stop to get another another body. Where is that education? They do not know what is material body or there is spiritual body. No knowledge. Big, big scientists, philosophers, but they have no knowledge even that "What I am." Everyone is thinking, "I am this body." And in the śāstra if anyone is thinking like that, he's no better than the dogs and cats because dog is also thinking like that.
I shall disturb you always, in this way or that way." That we haven't got eyes to see, that we are being disturbed. But if we want undisturbed happiness then we have to purify our existence. That is wanted. It is for our interest. To become Kṛṣṇa conscious means that is our interest. Kṛṣṇa doesn't want that you become... Kṛṣṇa wants, but if you do not become Kṛṣṇa conscious, He has nothing to lose. But if we do not become Kṛṣṇa conscious, it is, our chance is lost. This is the problem. So when Kṛṣṇa comes and He advises sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66), it is for our interest. If we do that, then we become happy. Because we want happiness, so little tapasya. Just like if you want to cure your feverish condition you have to accept some rules and regulations ordered by the physician. If we want to cure, bhavauṣadhiḥ. So simple thing: tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena śuddhyed sattvam (SB 5.5.1). Little tapasya. It is not very difficult. But if we undergo a little tapasya—no illicit sex, no meat-eating, no gambling, no intoxication—little, not very... Now those who have given up these bad habits, they are not dying for want of these. But this little tapasya, tapasā brahmacaryeṇa... (SB 6.1.13).
Guest: Supposing if I were to become a devotee and I might be influenced to try to live like Śiva because richness doesn't appeal to me. But the problem is that in a country like this the winter is extremely cold, and if I try to live like Śiva I would freeze to death. So...
Prabhupāda: I have understood. I have understood. Kṛṣṇa consciousness does not mean that you falsely make some attempt. The... Just like Arjuna. Arjuna understood the Kṛṣṇa philosophy, and it does not mean that he became a naked fakir and went away from the fighting place, and without any clothing he began to travel. Is it that? No. The only thing is that he changed the account. The account was on behalf of Kṛṣṇa. So you haven't got to make such renunciation that you have to live underneath a tree or give up your dress, become naked. No. That is not... You have misunderstood. You should dress himself properly, you should eat properly, you should work properly, but not on your account, but Kṛṣṇa's account. That is the thing. That's all. Nirbandhe kṛṣṇa-sambandhe yukta-vairāgya ucyate. That is the difference between Vaiṣṇava philosophy and Māyāvādī philosophy. The Māyāvāda philosophy says that brahma satyaṁ jagan mithyā, "This world is false and Brahman is truth. So let me become renounced of all this worldly relationship and try to be one with the Brahman." That is Māyāvāda philosophy. We don't say that. We say that because Brahman is satya, truth, and because the world is created by Brahman, so this is also truth. This is also truth. Pūrṇam idaṁ pūrṇam adaḥ pūrṇāt pūrṇam udacyate (Īśopaniṣad, Invocation). That is the version of Upaniṣad. The thing is, difference between Māyāvādī and Vaiṣṇava, they do not know the proprietorship.
Therefore we should try to give to Kṛṣṇa, not to ask. Because He has given us everything without asking. Without asking. We go to temple or churches to ask for our daily bread, but the birds and beasts, they have no churches, no temples, they do not ask. But how do they get their bread? Therefore according to Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, there is no actually bread problem. The only problem is that we have forgotten our relationship with God. Whatever... Tasyaiva hetoḥ prayateta kovido (SB 1.5.18). Therefore the instruction of Bhāgavata is, "Just try to revive your lost relationship with God, or Kṛṣṇa." That relationship is never extinguished, but sometimes it is covered. Just like a crazy boy forgets his father and mother and home, goes away. But the relationship between the son and the parents cannot be lost. As soon as the son comes back, the parents receives him very nicely. Similarly, we are all sons of the Supreme Lord. We have forgotten our father, we have forgotten our relationship, and we are loitering in this material world as helpless, and if we revive our consciousness, our Kṛṣṇa consciousness, that "My home is in the spiritual world. I am a foreigner in this material world..." Just like a foreigner is traveling from one place to another, similarly, I am also changing my body from one body to another, one planet to another. But there is no permanent settlement anywhere in this material world. This is our condition.
So people do not understand. Therefore they are called mūḍhas. They are simply making arrangement how to become happy. It is not possible to become happy here. That's a fact. But still they are. Therefore they are called mūḍhas, rascals. Which will never be possible, and they are trying for that. You see, whole world is trying to be happy. They are discovering so many technological arts, but they are dying. They cannot. They have invented horseless carriage, having very, I mean to say, speedy carriages, but there are so many dangers. Every moment the life can go, the motor accident. It is happening in the Western country. So whatever you do for the advancement of material civilization, you are one side increasing more danger. If you did not discover these aeroplane and motorcar, then death would not have been so easier. You could live at least for some days. But because you have discovered some facilities, your death is also very become near. So this is prakṛti. You are trying to solve the problem in one way, and the problem is becoming more dangerous and difficult by the laws of nature. That these rascals cannot find even. They continually working. There is a verse in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, paśyann api na paśyati. They are so big rascals that paśyann api na paśyati: even they are seeing every moment that "All our endeavors are being baffled," still, they'll try for it. They'll try for it, again and again. Punaḥ punaś carvita-carvaṇānām (SB 7.5.30). These things are... Punaḥ punaḥ, again and again, chewing the chewed, this is their business. Therefore they are called mūḍhas.
So they do not see to this, that in spite of our so much advancement of civilization, hospitals and other relief measures, why still people are suffering? You are increasing hospital or beds of hospital. You are very much proud that "We have opened hospitals." That... What does it mean? That means people have become diseased. You have opened hospitals, you are very much proud, but what is the other side? Other side: that people have increased their diseased condition. That they do not see. They are simply proud of increasing hospital. Why there should be hospital? Why not stop disease? That is scientific advancement. Stop disease, and there will be no need of opening hospital. Kṛṣṇa therefore presents in the Bhagavad-gītā that "You rascal, you see. Real problem is
Because we become diseased, we become subject to birth and death, we... This is all due to our sinful activities. Why are repeatedly...? We are eternal. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). This is our position, that we do not die even after the body's destruction. Then why should I be in this position, that repeatedly I have to die, I have to give up this body, again accept another body, again suffer? This is the problem, but mūḍhā, duṣkṛtina, they do not see to the real problem. That is their fault. Neither they have knowledge to see the real problem. Therefore they are mūḍhā. Is it not? He's understood that na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). So this question does not come, that "I am eternal. I do not die after the annihilation of the body. Why I am subjected to this tribulation?" Nobody thinks; therefore mūḍhā. Just like animal. Animal, in the slaughterhouse, one animal is being killed, and the other animal is eating grass. He's thinking that "I am safe." He does not know that "Next moment I'll be killed." This is animal life. The human life means if somebody is being killed, so he should be immediately warned, taking warning, "Oh, my turn is coming. Let me go away."
We are traveling, going through eight million four hundred thousand species of life. Sometimes in different species of life in different types of planets and different types of body, we are passing through. We do not know that. We know, we know even in this life we can understand that I have passed over so many bodies. I had my childhood body, I had my boyhood body, I had my youthhood body, now I have got a different body which is old man's body. Similarly, I shall give up this body and I will have to accept another body by the laws of nature. Tatha dehāntara-prāptir. As we are changing our body even in this present life, similarly, after giving up this body, I have to accept another body. Tathā dehāntara prāptir dhīras tatra na muhyati (BG 2.13). But the problem is what kind of body I am going to have in my next life. That is to be thought over.
This is going on. And Prahlāda Mahārāja is lamenting for these rascals, vimūḍhān. Vimūḍha means... Vi means viśeṣa pūrvaka, particularly. And mūḍha means rascal. Not only rascal—"particularly rascal." That is the problem for the Vaiṣṇava. Therefore, following the footprints of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, and before that, Prahlāda Mahārāja, Nārada Muni, many, many ācāryas... So Caitanya Mahāprabhu, He is Kṛṣṇa Himself. He also, He is thinking of these fallen souls. He has come again. First of all He came as Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa said, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja: (BG 18.66) "You rascal, you are creating so many plans. It will not help you. You just surrender unto Me." He said, but still, we are so rascals, we could not take up the proposal of Kṛṣṇa: "Oh, why shall I surrender? Kṛṣṇa is also as good as I am. I am also a man; He is also man." Avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritāḥ (BG 9.11). These rascals, they are so rascal that Kṛṣṇa, because Kṛṣṇa comes to bestow His mercy as human being, they think that "Kṛṣṇa is like me." Paraṁ bhāvam ajānanto. The rascal means he does not understand what is Kṛṣṇa, paraṁ bhāva. Manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu kaścid yatati siddhaye (BG 7.3). And these other rascals, they are declaring that "Kṛṣṇa is dead and gone; now I am Kṛṣṇa." So this is going on.
So that is the problem. For Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement these are the problems. First of all the public is also vimūḍha, rascal, and their so-called leaders, political, social, religious, and so on, so on, so on, so many leaders, misguiding them.
It is condemned, too much being attached to woman. If one is too much attached to woman, if you make association with him, then you are also condemned. Tamo-dvāraṁ yoṣitāṁ saṅgi-saṅgam. Mahat-sevāṁ dvāram āhur vimukteḥ (SB 5.5.2). If you want to be relieved from these anarthas, unwanted things, to become clean, sattva, yes... Sattva-śuddhi. It is called sattva-śuddhi. Tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena śuddhyed sattva (SB 5.5.1). We do not understand that we are in aśuddha-sattva. Our existence is impure. Therefore, although I am eternal, although I am living entity, nityo śāśvato 'yam, still I have to suffer this consequence: birth, death, old age, and disease. They have no brain even. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is said, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). After annihilation of this body the soul is never destroyed. Then why I am suffering this destruction, death? The whole problem is there, but they do not care. They have become so rascals and fools, they do not know what is the problem. The real problem is stop your repetition of birth, death, old age, and disease. They don't care, just like animals. The animals, they do not care. But the human form, if they do not care like that, they are animals.
Nectar of Devotion Lectures
These results derived out of karma-kāṇḍa, jñāna-kāṇḍa, they are temporary. Of course, we do..., we do not know what kind of temporary. But temporary means even if you live for many millions of years, that is also temporary, because you are eternal. So somebody's living for one year, somebody's living for one minute, and somebody's living for one million or more than that. Just like Brahma's life: sahasra-yuga-paryantam ahar yad brahmaṇo viduḥ (BG 8.17). That is also temporary. Our problem is to get our eternal life again. Yad gatvā na nivartante tad dhāmaṁ pa. (BG 15.6).. This is the process. One should go to such a place that he'll not have to come back again to this temporary world. So karma-kāṇḍa, jñāna-kāṇḍa means you can be elevated to the heavenly planet by karma-kāṇḍīya process, or even to the Brahmā planet, Brahmaloka, Satyaloka, but what Kṛṣṇa says? Ā-brahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ punar āvartino 'rjuna (BG 8.16).
One may question how he becomes purified. He's born in a family of dog-eaters. How he becomes purified? It requires... According to Smārta consideration, he requires next birth. There are two processes of Vedic understanding, Smārta-vicāra and Gosvāmī-vicāra. According to Smārta-vicāra, unless a person born in a low-grade family takes another birth, he cannot be eligible to become a brāhmaṇa. But according to Gosvāmī-vicāra, if he's properly initiated by a bona fide Vaiṣṇava, then he becomes more than a brāhmaṇa. Śvādyo 'pi sadyaḥ. Immediately he becomes eligible to perform sacrifices. so the problem is that at the present moment we are not taking care... I mean that our Indian brāhmaṇas, those who are spiritual leaders, they are not actually taking care of the fallen souls. But in the Bhagavad-gītā it is sanctioned, it is said clearly: māṁ hi pārtha vyapāśritya ye 'pi syuḥ pāpa-yonayaḥ (BG 9.32). Any person born of low-grade family, pāpa-yoni, striyo vaiśyās tathā śūdrās te 'pi yānti parāṁ gatim... So it is the duty of the elevated person, brāhmaṇas and Vaiṣṇavas, to take charge of this business. Kṛṣṇa says, ye 'pi syuḥ pāpa-yonayaḥ. Never mind one is born in low-grade family, but he can go back to home, back to Godhead. Te 'pi yānti parāṁ gatim. So who will take the initiative to elevate these persons? Unless one who is expert does take interest for elevating these fallen souls, then how they will be elevated? This is problem.
Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures
This should be the prayer to the lotus feet of the Lord, not for any material benefit. That is not very good idea. We should not approach the Supreme Being some material benefit. Material benefit is already there. Everything is arranged by the Supreme Lord for everyone's necessities of life. There is no question about that. Just like if a person is in the prison house, that prisoner has no problem for his material necessities. The government has arranged already for his eating, sleeping and, if he is sick, medical help. That is not problem. The problem is that he has become criminal by transgressing the laws of the state. Now he should become a very good citizen and come out of the prison house. Then he is happy. Similarly, in this material world, so far our material necessities are concerned, it is already arranged. There is no question of becoming anxious for getting our material necessities. It is already arranged by God.
Nārada Muni advises, through Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, says, that "You, you have got this human form of life. Now you have no necessity for finding out where is your food, where is your shelter, where is your sex satisfaction, where is your defense. This is not your problem. You should try for that thing, means the thing which will give you relief from these material necessities of life." That is the advice. We are mistaken. We are... In this morning walk we saw that such a big nation, but the problem is food problem. Early in the morning at six o'clock, they are going to work. They are going to work. Why? Now, for finding out the necessities of life. So what is this civilization? Early in the morning, six o'clock... According to Vedic civilization, one should rise early in the morning and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, perform maṅgala āratrika, worship the Deity. This is the morning business.
Everyone is under the clutches of these material laws. You cannot violate even an inch. And still the rascal, ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā, by false prestige, he's thinking that "I am the master." I was asking this morning that what is this independence meaning? Actually, where is independence? This independence, has it meaning? If you are completely under the rules and regulations of the material nature, what is the meaning of this independence? So those who are paṇḍita, they do not take it as independence. They do not take it. Therefore Sanātana Gosvāmī said, āpanāra hitāhita kichui nā jāni. "I do not know what is independence, I am dancing like dog, independence." Therefore he says, āpanāra hitāhita kichui nā jāni: "How independence I can get, that I do not know." Real independence is, as Kṛṣṇa puts in the Bhagavad-gītā, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). One who is intelligent, he sees that "My real problem is janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi, birth, death, old age and disease."So when we get free from these four problems, that is real independence. Otherwise, there is no independence. I may dance with independence, but any moment I shall have to leave my country, my society, my friends, my family, any moment, "Get out immediately. No, no independence." That is my position. So that is intelligence.
So this is the problem, dehātma-buddhi, identifying oneself with this body. That is condemned in the śāstra. Yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke sva-dhīḥ kalatrādiṣu bhauma ijya-dhīḥ sa eva go-kharaḥ: (SB 10.84.13) "Anyone who is identifying himself with this body, he is no better than the cows and the asses, animal." This is... The whole Vedic civilization is based on this principle, that one has to learn first of all that he is not this body. Then further advancement. If one keeps himself under this misidentification that "I am this body," he remains an animal.
So Sanātana Gosvāmī submitted to his guru. This is the actually necessity of approaching a guru, not that guru should be approached for some material gains, for some medical help: "Guru Mahārāja, I am suffering from this disease. Give me your blessing," and he gives some powder and you are cured. So for this purpose there is no necessity of guru. You can go to a medical man. Then he can help you. Why should you search out a guru? But that has become a fashion. For some material gain they would go to guru. And if the guru can manufacture gold, then what to speak of? This is going on. But śāstra does not say that you should approach a guru for some material benefit. No. Tasmād guruṁ prapadyeta jijñāsuḥ śreya uttamam (SB 11.3.21). You should approach a guru—what purpose? Jijñāsuḥ, if you are inquisitive, jijñāsuḥ. What is that jijñāsuḥ? Athāto brahma jijñāsā. This is the Vedānta. Jijñāsā, enquiry, means not for any other purpose, any political, social or this... So many things are there in this material world. But real jijñāsā is brahma-jijñāsā. That is, the Vedānta-sūtra begins.
Guru means one who has seen the Absolute Truth. That is guru. Tattva-darśinaḥ, tattva means the Absolute Truth, and darśinaḥ, one who has seen. So this movement, our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, is for this purpose, to see the Absolute Truth, to understand the Absolute Truth, to know the problems of life and how to make a solution. These things are our subject matter. Our subject matter is not material things, that somehow or other you get a car and a good apartment and a good wife, then all your problems solved. No. That is not solution of problems. The real problem is how to stop your death. That is the real problem. But because it is very difficult subject matter, nobody touches it. "Oh, death—we shall peacefully die." But nobody peacefully dies. If I take a dagger and I say, "Now die peacefully," (laughter) the whole peaceful condition finished immediately. He will cry. So these are nonsense, if somebody says, "I will die peacefully." Nobody dies peacefully, that is not possible. Therefore death is a problem. Birth is also a problem. Nobody is peaceful while within the womb of the mother. It is packed-up, airtight condition, and nowadays there is risk of being killed also. So there is no question of peacefulness, birth and death. And then old age. Just like I am old man, so many troubles I have got. So old age. And disease, everyone has got experience, even headache is sufficient to give you trouble. The real problem is this: birth, death, old age and disease. That is the statement given by Kṛṣṇa, that janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). If you are intelligent, you should take up these four problems of life as very dangerous.
If you know how to protect yourself from disease, then that is better position than to become diseased and cured. That is not very good intelligence. Rather, don't be diseased, not that you become diseased repeatedly and go to the medical man and be cured. Punaḥ punaś carvita-carvaṇānām (SB 7.5.30). They have been described as chewing the chewed again and again. So actually our problem is that we are diseased at the present moment, every one of us. What is that disease? Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). This is our disease: we are forced to die, we are forced to take birth, we are forced to become old and we are forced to become diseased. This is our problem, but nobody inquires about this. When there is death forced upon us, they simply cry, "Oh, my father is gone. My father is gone." When we are diseased, then we cry. But nobody inquires that "Why I am put into this condition?" That is intelligence. That is called brahma-jijñāsā. Athāto brahma jijñāsā. So this Caitanya Mahāprabhu's disciple Sanātana Gosvāmī is inquiring that, that "What I am? Why I am put into these difficulties?" This is intelligent question. One should go to the spiritual master, guru, for answering or making solution of these problems, not for getting some material profit, that "I have got some disease," and the guru says, "All right, you take this dust and you become cured." "I am poor," "All right, I am creating some gold for you. Take it." This is not relationship with guru. Tasmād guruṁ prapadyeta jijñāsuḥ śreya uttamam (SB 11.3.21). One should go to guru for making the ultimate solution of life, not temporary.
Sri Isopanisad Lectures
This we experience every day, every night. It is not difficult to understand. Similarly, in every life, we create a different environment. In this life I may think I am Indian. You may think you are American. Or next life, a different position. Next life, I may not be American, or I may not be Indian. And if I, even I, I become American, I may not be a man. I may be a cow or bull. Then I am sent to the slaughterhouse. You see? This is going on. This is the problem. Always changing bodies. Bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19). It is serious position. We should very..., take this life very seriously, that "I'm changing my body life after life. I have no fixed position. I do not know where I am put within these 8,400,000 species of life. So I must make a solution." And that solution is... Kṛṣṇa says, yad gatvā na nivartante tad dhāma paramaṁ mama (BG 15.6). Mām upetya kaunteya duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam, nāpnuvanti mahātmānaḥ: (BG 8.15) "If anyone, some way or other, by developing Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he comes to Me, he hasn't got any more to go back and accept a material body." He gets the same body as Kṛṣṇa, sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ (Bs. 5.1).
Festival Lectures
So that is the profit of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So the people of modern civilization, they have no information about this, how this body is being created. They are simply busy with the present problem. That's all. Present problem is not problem. We are eternal. Our problem is eternal. Therefore the modern age, the people are not very intelligent. They are advertising themselves that they are very much advanced. Actually, they are fools. And "It is folly to be wise where ignorance is bliss." The whole world is full of ignorant. Therefore we are trying to preach this Kṛṣṇa consciousness—it is our folly. You see? It is our folly, "the cry in the wilderness." But we cannot stop this business. You see? They may think that "Why you are nonsense people? You have given up everything. You are chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. You are fools. You are not enjoying life." They may say like that, but our, because we have nothing to do with them, our business is to satisfy the Supreme. That is my real sense gratification.
So this is the problem. Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇuṁ duraṣśayā ye bahir-artha māninaḥ (SB 7.5.31). They are trying to be happy by the arrangement of these material activities. Andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānās te 'pīśa-tantryām. They do not know that the material nature is so strong that you cannot get out of it unless you are prepared to suffer more and more. If you take to natural life and live peacefully and take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, that is your real life. And if you simply increase botheration and problems, then you'll have to suffer. That is the position of modern civilization. Actually, superficially we see that material advancement of material science, people have got so many machines, so many facilities. But actually, they are in trouble.
So this Hiraṇyakaśipu wanted to become immortal, and he underwent penances, severe penances, so much so, the whole universe became trembled. So that Brahmā, Lord Brahmā, had to come to pacify him, "What do you want?" So he wanted to become immortal. Lord Brahmā said that "Although I have got very long duration of life,..." The duration of life of Brahmājī is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, sahasra-yuga-paryantam arhad yad brahmaṇo viduḥ (BG 8.17). Sahasra-yuga, one group of yugas-Satya, Treta, Dvāpara, Kali—it becomes about forty-three lakhs of years. And multiply these forty-three lakhs of years by one thousand, that duration of time is Brahma's twelve hours, one day. Sahasra-yuga-paryantam arhad yad brahmaṇo viduḥ. So that Brahmā who lives for millions of trillions of years—still, he has to die. Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānu-darśanam (BG 13.9). Wherever you go within this material world, either in the Brahmaloka or in the Patala-loka, you have to die. That is the problem. Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā, "Real problem is janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi, birth, death, old age and disease." Just try to... So Hiraṇyakaśipu wanted to solve these in a materialstic way, but that is not possible.
Because the superior energy is controlling the material energy... Or trying to control. Not controlling, but trying to control. That is called struggle for existence. Actually, we cannot control the material energy, but we are trying. That endeavor, to try to control over this material energy, is called struggle for existence. Actually, we shall not be controller. We shall not be able to control. That is explained. Therefore, in the material world, we are trying to solve one problem, but we are getting new problems. In the Western countries we see it very easily. Man manufactured the horseless carriage, motorcar, to go very swiftly, but now it is problem is where to park and how to drive the motorcar. In America we have seen. They are increasing different paths, one after another, one after another, one after another. Still, the problem is not solved. Still somewhere you'll find bottleneck. So many accidents. So we cannot actually solve the material problems. That is not possible. Material energy is so strong.
So Prahlāda Mahārāja advises that hitvātma-ghātam gṛham andha-kūpaṁ vanam gato yad dharim āśrayeta (SB 7.5.5). If you... Real problem is anxiety. And this anxiety will continue so long you are material existent. Therefore the real life is to get out of this material... Hitvātma-ghātam. Ātma-ghāṭam. Ātma-ghātam means killing the soul. This material civilization is killing the soul. That... They have no information of the soul. They do not know how to become peaceful, how to become blissful. They are trying to be peaceful, bahir-artha-māninaḥ, by external material energy. They are thinking by constructing big, big buildings, just like in Bhuvaneśvara they are doing, and having good, very big, big roads and motorcars, that is advancement of civilization. No. That is not advancement of civili... That is increasing their anxiety. There is no solution of the anxiety.
Arrival Addresses and Talks
So they don't go outside for solving economic problems. At the present moment—now I am coming from India—in Bombay there is strike, railway strike. People are in so miserable condition to go to their work fifty miles, forty miles, hundred miles, for earning their bread. This kind of economic situation has increased the problems of life. Rather, if we accept this economic problem solution, then anywhere, any part of the world, you live. You don't require to go outside, hundred miles, two hundred miles, five hundred miles. No. You produce your food there, keep animals, then everything is solved. Actually, the problem is, as it is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). One should take up these problems very seriously: birth, death, old age and disease. So... Actually, as spirit soul, we have no birth, no death. You will find in the Bhagavad, na jayate na mriyate vā kadācit: "The living entity does not take birth." Na jayate na mriyate vā: "Neither he dies." Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre: (BG 2.20) "After the destruction of the body, the living entity does not annihilate. He..." Just like we have got already the example: my body, childhood body, is annihilated; still, I am existing. Similarly, I will exist. Now, the problem is how I shall exist? I shall exist eternally in full knowledge and in blissfulness. That is the idea. But so long we accept this material body, it is just the opposite. It is miserable, without any knowledge and without eternity. Philosophy should be to save our time from complicated economic problems. We should make our life simple and save time for spiritual cultivation so that we can be relieved from repetition of birth, death, old age and disease.
We are presenting, therefore, Bhagavad-gītā as it is. And you take any question and the answer is there in the Bhagavad-gītā, very nicely given. Just like, say, our first problem is economic problem. So Bhagavad-gītā says, "Yes. Economic problem will be solved very easily if you produce food grains." Annād bhavanti bhūtāni (BG 3.14). You produce food grain. Just like in your country I see there is enough land. If you people produce your food grain, within three months you can get all the necessities of life for the whole year. And the balance time you can save, nine months. And these nine months you can utilize for advancing in spiritual life, because your life or my life, this human form of life, it is distinct from the cats' and dogs' life. The cats and dogs, they cannot understand what is the basic principle of life. But a human being can understand. If he takes little care, he can understand that his problem of life is due to misunderstanding, accepting this body as self. This is the problem.
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."
So Kṛṣṇa is the supreme authority, accepted by all ācāryas. In our India the ācāryas are Rāmānujācārya, Śaṅkarācārya, Madhvācārya. They all accepted Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme. Formerly the ācāryas like Vyāsadeva, Śukadeva Gosvāmī, Nārada... Later, Caitanya Mahāprabhu. So all accept Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore we should accept what Kṛṣṇa said, that. Then you are sound. No question of "My religion is the best." What Kṛṣṇa said, that is sound. So Kṛṣṇa says very simple thing. Our real problem is how to get relief from the material world. One may say, "What is fault of material world?" The fault is that you may arrange... First of all, there is no happiness. But even though you make some arrangement, still, you are not allowed to stay. Suppose you have made very good arrangement: "I have got very nice house, nice car, very nice family, wife and relatives, and business, just going on." But where is the guarantee that you shall stay here very long? That is the question.
We are loitering throughout the whole universe. This is conditional stage of our materialistic life, and we are simply suffering. People are kept into ignorance without knowing the aim of life, how we are suffering in this materialistic way of life. They are so dull-brained that Kṛṣṇa says personally that here the real problem is janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). You are simply busy with some petty problems. And they are not problems. Real problem is janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi. Why...? We are eternal living entities. Why we should be subjected to birth, death, old age and disease repeatedly? This is real problem. Unfortunately there is no such education all over the world to deal with the real problem. They are simply tackling some temporary problem and spoiling the human form of life to solve these petty problems and creating a situation for the next life which may not be very good, because this material world is matsaratā. Matsaratā means envious. I am envious of you, you are envious of me.
The first thing is that why do you send your sons to the school? It is duty that he should know. So if the father is a rascal, then how the son can be subodha? (laughter) Therefore the śāstra says that unless you can train your son to overcome this process of birth, death, old..., you don't become a father. You remain a rascal. Don't beget children. This is contraception. Pitā na sa syāj jananī na sā syāt na mocayed yaḥ samupeta-mṛtyum. The real problem is mṛtyu. But they have taken it that "It is ordinary." But nobody wants to die. The education is na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). But who knows that I do not die after the destruction of the body? Then why I am put into this position that I have to change this body, I have to die? This question does not arise. Therefore they're abodha. The instruction is na jāyate na mriyate vā kadācit na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre. There is no inquiry that "If I'm not born, why I am born in this body?" This is question. Athāto brahma jijñāsā. "If I am not subjected to death, then why I am dying?" This question does not arise at all. Therefore everyone is abodha-jāto. Nobody is subodha. Everyone is abodha. The problem is there, but he does not inquire.
Initiation Lectures
So the scientist, the philosopher, they are not studying what is the cause. Everyone is trying to get out of all sorts of miserable problems, but they do not know what is that problem. The problem is this body. But they have no knowledge what is this body, how it is working, what is the soul, how it is transmigrating. They are all rascals, fools. They have no knowledge. And they are trying to make a solution of the problem. There is a story... Not... Yes, take it for story, that sosera bhetare bujugheche (?). If somebody is haunted by a ghost, there was some expert, I mean to say, chanter, who can drive away that ghost by mantra. And they usually use the mustard seed. They chant the mantra and they throw the mustard seed on the person who is ghost-haunted, and the ghost is driven away. So there is a story that the ghost entered the mustard. He is throwing the mustard, but the ghost has already entered the mustard. Similarly, we are trying to solve the problems, but the problem is this body.
So we have to prepare where we want to go. That is real education. Either by the yogic principle or by cultivation of knowledge or by this devotional service, the whole idea is how to transfer oneself to the better condition of life. The better, the best condition of life is to mad-dhāma gatvā punar janma na vidyate. "If anyone," Kṛṣṇa says, "if anyone comes to Me, he hasn't got to come back again to take this cycle of birth and death." So the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is to give that highest, topmost position, that no more coming to this material world, either this planet or that planet. We may go to the moon planet, but that will not solve our real problem. The real problem is birth, death, old age, and disease. Anywhere you go in the material planet, either by sputniks or by your tapasya or by meditation, if you, ā-brahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ (BG 8.16), even if you go to the highest planet, there the four principles of material miseries are there. But if you go, mad-dhāma gatvā punar janma na vidyate. Mad-yājino 'pi yānti mām. These are very nicely explained in the Bhagavad-gītā. You try to understand what is the problem of life.
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.
The idea is that we are making progress, certainly, in technology, in economics, in so many other departments of human necessities. But Bhagavad-gītā says that real problem of this world, or real problem of our life, it is said in the Bhagavad-gītā, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). If you are intelligent enough, then you should see the real problem is birth, death, old age and disease. Janma means birth, and mṛtyu means death. Janma-mṛtyu-jarā. Jarā means old age, and vyādhi means disease. So actual material problem is this, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi. We have forgotten that "In the abdomen of my mother, how precarious condition I was living in." Of course, we can know from the description of medical science or any other science how the child is packed up there and how much suffering is there. The worms bite the child and he cannot express; he suffers the suffering. Similarly, the mother eats something and the pungent taste also gives him suffering.
If I would have seen that, rather if we would have felt that "I have served so many years my senses, now my senses are satisfied..." No. They are not satisfied. Still dictating. Still dictating. "I am very..." Of course, it is very natural, but I may disclose herewith that some of my students said that in an elderly age of his mother, he's(she's) going to marry. Just see. She has got grown-up children. And somebody complained that his grandmother also married. Why? Just see. In seventy-five years old, in fifty years old, the senses are still so strong that she is being dictated: "Yes, you must do it." Try to understand practically how the senses are strong. It is not that simply the young men are servant of the senses. Even seventy-five years old, eighty years old, or at the point of death, they are all servants of senses. The senses are never satisfied. That is the material dictation. So I'm servant. I am servant of my senses, and by serving my senses, neither I am satisfied nor my senses are satisfied nor they are pleased upon me. There is chaos. So this is the problem.
Either in religious scripture or by lawbooks or by morality or ethical principle, they are taught to the human, civilized human society. And he sees also practically that "This man has committed this kind of criminality, and he is punished." And again why does he commit? That is the problem. So kāma eṣa krodha eṣa rajo-guṇa-samudbhavaḥ. Kāma and krodha. Kāma means desire, lust. Kāma. And when the desire or lust is not fulfilled, then there is krodha. Krodha means anger. There are so many cases of criminality, when the lust is not fulfilled, one commits some criminal action and he is punished and so many things happen. So kāma eṣa krodha eṣa rajo-guṇa-samudbhavaḥ. As we have discussed many times that we are in this material world controlled by the three modes of material nature. Three qualities: goodness, passion and ignorance. So goodness... Yes, passion and ignorance are the causes of our bondage. And goodness is also cause of bondage, but in that platform one can see things as they are. Goodness. Prakāśa. Just like at night we cannot see, but in daytime we see. But seeing is not all. Unless I am convinced of something, even seeing... Just the same example: one man is seeing that a criminal person is punished; still he is committing criminal act.
Some criminals who are disobedient to the laws of the state, they are put into the prison house under confinement. Similarly, these conditioned souls within this material world, they are only fractional portion of the whole living enti..., number of living entities in the creation of God, and because they have disobeyed or declined to obey or abide by the orders of Kṛṣṇa, or God, they have been put into this material world. Now, the problem is: if one is sensible, if one is inquisitive and serious, he should try to understand that "Why I am put into this material conditional life?" That should be the inquiry. This is called brahma-jijñāsā. In the Vedānta-sūtra this is the first inquiry, that people should be educated to that standard of life when he will be inquisitive to know, "Why I am put into this conditional life? What is the condition? I do not wish to suffer."
There are three kinds of sufferings. Many times I have explained. They are called ādhyātmika, ādhibhautika, ādhidaivika. Ādhyātmika sufferings means pertaining to this body and mind. Suppose I have got some pain here today. This is bodily suffering. Or my mind is not in... (break) They do not mind it. Just like animals.
We can get a dog's body, or we can get a demigod's body. We can live for five minutes. There are many insects and germs which live for five minutes, and there are living entities in Brahmaloka who live for five millions of years. All varieties of life there are within this universe. By Kṛṣṇa's creation, you will find, aṇor aṇīyān mahato mahīyān: the bigger than the biggest and the smaller than the smallest. You will find. Just see in this New Vrindaban. There are big trees, also small, very insignificant, so small tree that you are trampling over it. So in the living condition there are so many varieties, 8,400,000's of species. But the problem is not to promote ourself from this small body to big body, from the ant's body to elephant's body. That is not our problem. Not to accept this material body—to have our spiritual body, sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha (Bs. 5.1). Just like Kṛṣṇa has sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha, Nārāyaṇa has got sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha. So that is our problem.
But in other countries, because there is no bhāgavata-dharma culture, the students, although they are provided with ample opportunity for education, the nicest educational system, nice building, nice facilities, everything nice, unfortunately the products are coming out frustrated, confused young men, and some of them are called hippies. They are educated. They are coming from very nice aristocratic family. In Western countries, in comparison to our country, every home is aristocratic. At least their standard of living is so high. So what we call aristocratic, that is a common affair. So this mishappening is going on all over the Western countries. Some of them are joining us, but this is the problem. The Prahlāda Mahārāja recommends, kaumāra ācaret prājño dharmān bhāgavatān iha (SB 7.6.1). This is very, very important message. We should be careful to educate our sons, our boys, with bhāgavata-dharma from the very beginning of life. That was the Vedic system. Therefore, in the first twenty-five years of life, the children were sent to gurukula for learning this bhāgavata-dharma.
So this is the problem. Nobody is self-independent. Everyone is dependent on Kṛṣṇa. Mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram (BG 9.10). Everything. Aham ādir hi devānām (Bg 10.2), in Bhagavad-gītā: "I am the origin of all the demigods." The Brahmā is also demigod. Brahmā is born out of the lotus stem which is grown from the abdomen of Viṣṇu. So he has to find out the source of his birth. That is stated here. "Could not trace out the source of his lotus seat. And while thinking of creating the material..." Now, he was to create. He was born, he was given birth, just to assist Viṣṇu to create. Then he could not understand the proper direction how to create. These are the actual problems. Everyone is trying to create. The creative energy is there in every living entity because he is part and parcel of the original creator. But he cannot create independently. These rascals, they do not... They will say, "accident," "necessity..." What is that rascal? He has written book.
First of all, we think of sex. A man also thinks. A woman also thinks. And when they are united, that attraction becomes more and more complete. Then, in a gentlemanly way, when there is sex unity, then there is need of a nice apartment or house. Then there is need of land. Formerly, for living condition, everyone possessed some land to grow foodstuff. Ataḥ gṛha-kṣetra-sutāpta-vittaiḥ. So after sex unity, there is need of house, land, gṛha, kṣetra, then children, ataḥ gṛha-kṣetra-suta, āpta. Then friends. Then vitta, then money. In this way, we increase our attachment for this material world. Janasya moho 'yam. Moha means illusion. In this way, he becomes illusioned. Ahaṁ mameti: (SB 5.5.8) "I" and "mine." Here, the real problem is we want to get out of this material conditional life. We are spirit soul. We are not matter. But in order to enjoy this material world we have come here. Every one of us who is existing within this material world has a desire to lord it over the material nature. It is said when a living entity, a part and parcel of God, he desires independently to enjoy or to lord it over the material nature, he comes down from the spiritual world to this material world. That is the cause of his falldown.
So we are spreading this sanātana-dharma, or Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, throughout the whole world, not on the superficial platform of this bodily concept of life. We are teaching everyone that "You are not this body." Actually we are not, but it is because we are, at the present moment, we are educated as first-class rascals and fools, we are thinking that "I am this body." This is the defect of the modern civilization. But actually what Kṛṣṇa is trying to instruct Arjuna... Arjuna means everyone. He's not simply talking with Arjuna. Arjuna is simply via media. He's talking to the whole human society, intelligent class of men, that "We existed, we are existing now, and we shall exist also in the future." This is called sanātana, eternity. So na caiva na bhaviṣyāmaḥ: "In the future we also shall exist." Now we should consider what is the problem now: I was present in the past, I am now present in the present, and I shall exist in the future. Then what is my problem? The problem is why I am changing this position of eternity? I am sanātana. I am eternal. Ahaṁ brahmāsmi. That is the real existence, that I am Brahman. Brahman means eternal. But Kṛṣṇa is Para-brahman. Param means the supreme, the chief.
You have uttered the name of Puṇḍarīkākṣam, Nārāyaṇa, these are very known terms in the Bhāgavata pṛṣṭam(?). Śrīpāda Śaṅkarācārya has mentioned about Nārāyaṇa, nārāyaṇa parā avyaktāt. Nārāyaṇa is the Personality of Godhead beyond this material world. Nārāyaṇa is not the person of this material world. So there is another word which is mentioned in the Bhagavad-gītā: paras tasmāt tu bhāva anyaḥ (BG 8.20). There is another nature, bhāva-bhāva means nature—which is beyond this material nature. So we, living entities, we also belong to that spiritual nature. We are also part and parcel of Nārāyaṇa. So some way or other we have come to this material world. Some way or other we have come to this material world, therefore we have got this material body. And because we have got this material body, we are subjected to birth, death, old age and disease. So our real problem is that although we are spiritual beings, we have been caught up by material bodies. How to get out of these clutches of birth, death, old age and disease, that is described in the Bhagavad-gītā.
The, within this material body there is the spirit soul, and that spirit soul, out of ignorance it is desiring material sense gratification; therefore he has to transmigrate into different types of bodies. And as soon as we accept one material body—it doesn't matter whether it is king's body or dog's body; it doesn't matter—because the spirit soul has accepted this material body, he has to undergo the threefold miserable conditions of material existence. This is the problem. Therefore Kṛṣṇa advises that mātrā-sparśās tu kaunteya śītoṣṇa-sukha-duḥkha-dāḥ (BG 2.14). Our material understanding of pains and pleasure (is) on account of this body. When the body feels cold, we cover. When the body feels very warm, we uncover. The covering and uncovering is due to seasonal changes. Therefore this material world means changing always. It is called jagat. Jagat means always changing. On account of the material world's changing, we feel pains and pleasure on this material body. Kṛṣṇa advises, therefore, that mātrā-sparśās tu kaunteya śītoṣṇa-sukha-duḥkha-dāḥ. The material pains and pleasures, they are on account of this body. But we are not this body; we are spirit soul. Our main business is how to elevate the soul to its original position of eternity. That is our problem.
We are not this body; we are spirit soul. As spirit soul we are all eternal, blissful, and cognizant. But on account of this material covering we are suffering the material conditions, threefold kinds of miserable life. It is very difficult, little, but this is the problem. We have to understand this; otherwise, we are missing the opportunity of this human life. If we neglect, then we are just like animals. The animals have no concern to understand this philosophy of life, that "I am not this body, I am spirit soul. I am encaged. Somehow or other I have to get out of this entanglement and be again reinstalled in my original consciousness and be happy, having eternal life, blissful life and full of knowledge." This is the problem. But people have become so dull and rascal that they do not even care to understand this philosophy of life, that "I am not this body; I am spirit soul."
The change of the body is known as birth and death. We are eternal; therefore nobody wants to die, because he is eternal by constitution. He doesn't like to change, but he's forced to change by some power. That is understanding, that "I do not wish to die. What is that force that obliges me to accept death? I do not wish to become old man, but there is a power which is forcing me to accept old age." This is the problem. Unfortunately we have given up the real problem of life. We are very much embarrassed with the temporary existence of this body, say for some years, fifty years or hundred years. But as we are eternal, we are not taking care of the eternal soul, what is its need. But when a person is developed, his spiritual consciousness automatically develops. At that time, he is no more satisfied with the comforts of the material body. In the Western country, that feeling is now very prominent because there are so many confused, frustrated young men who are known as hippies. They are not satisfied with the ways of life as their fathers and grandfathers are living. They are protesting rather. That means there is spiritual starvation.
Mr. High Commissioner and Ladies and Gentlemen, I thank you very much for your coming here, taking so much trouble, to participate in this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. And I shall simply try to draw your attention about the importance of this movement. Importance of this movement is this, that we do not know what is the aim of life. The modern civilization, all over the world, especially in the Western world—nobody knows what is the actual problem and what is the aim of life. That is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā. The Bhagavad-gītā says, "The real problem is janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9), that birth, death, old age and disease, these are the problems." If you take birth, then you will have to die. Anyone who takes birth, he must have to die. And so long, between birth and death, there is old age and disease. Actually, these are the problems. So far we are concerned, living entities, every one of us, that is described in the Bhagavad-gītā. Na jāyate na mriyate vā kadācit: "The living entity is never born, never dies." Nityaḥ śāśvato 'yaṁ purāṇo na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre: (BG 2.20) "The living entity is eternal, ever-existing and very old, and," na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre, "it does not die after the annihilation of this body." But the modern civilization, they are thinking that "This body we have got somehow or other, a lump of matter, and so long we have got this body, let us enjoy life, sense gratification." This is atheistic theory.
In the śāstras, in the Vedic literature, we don't find such thing as overpopulation, because the living entities are already fixed up. From the Padma-Purāṇa, we can understand that the living entities, they're very, very small particles of the supreme spirit soul, or God. Mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūtaḥ (BG 15.7). And their dimension is also mentioned, keśāgra-śata-bhāgasya śatadhā kalpitasya ca: (CC Madhya 19.140) the one ten-thousandth part of the top of the hair. And jīva-bhāgo sa vijñeya sa anantaya kalpate. So the living entities are already ananta, unlimited. In another place of Upaniṣad, Kaṭhopaniṣad, we find that nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām eko yo bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13). These living entities, they are maintained. Their provision for their maintenance is already there, made by God. So there is no question of overpopulation. The question is varṇa-saṅkara. Varṇa-saṅkara, that is the problem. So the human life is meant for systematic organization of spiritual realization. That is human life. There is evolutionary process from low-grade life, from aquatics to trees, plants, from trees, plants to insects, from insects to birds, and then from birds to the beasts, from beasts to human being. So there are 8,400,000's of living entities in different species of life.
So we can produce enough quantity of food grains all over the world. And if we actually produce food grains, we can feed ten times of the population which are at present. But unfortunately, we are not producing food grains. That is the problem. It is not the problem of overpopulation. It is the problem that we are not producing food grains. This is clearly stated, that unless you have sufficient food grains, how you can maintain? They have taken a policy that they would not... Especially in the Western countries, I see that they will not produce food. They will raise some cattles and send them to the slaughterhouse for eating. This policy is going on. And this is not a very good policy. You produce your food grain. Why you should kill the innocent animals and eat them? So on account of these sinful activities, according to Vedic civlization, there are four kinds of sinful activities. One sinful activity is illegitimate, illicit sex life. According to Vedic civilization, without marriage, no sex life is allowed. Therefore marriage is compulsory. In every human society, there is marriage. But according to Vedic civilization, marriage is compulsory, saṁskāra. So therefore in the Bhagavad-gītā it is said, strīṣu duṣṭāsu vārṣṇeya jāyate varṇa-saṅkaraḥ. If the women are not married, then varṇa-saṅkara population will increase. It is said. And as soon as there is varṇa-saṅkara population, the whole world will be in chaotic condition.
It is factually complete. There is no problem. The problem is that we are not following the, I mean to..., the principles of life as they are enunciated, as they are enjoined. Dharma, the word dharma, it is not a, a religious sentiment. Dharma means occupational duty. So in the... From Vedic literature, we understand that dharmaṁ tu sākṣād bhagavat-praṇītam (SB 6.3.19). Dharma means the laws given by God. Unfortunately, at the present moment, they have no information what is God and what is God's law and how to abide God's law. They're all in ignorance and they're manufacturing their own way of life, every day changing. This will not solve the problems of human society. If we actually follow the Vedic injunction, it is very simple thing. The whole idea is that everything belongs to God. Actually, that's a fact. This is the... Īśāvāsyam idaṁ sarvam (ISO 1). Everything be... Now this United Nations, they're trying to be united, but actually, in the heart, they have got this, "This is my land," "This is my land." The American thinking, "This is my land." The German thinking, "Oh, it is my land." Indians thinking, "My land." Actually, there is no knowledge. Every land belongs to God.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Guest (1): Now, the problem is, eventually, of course, if we agree as you said, that everything belongs to God... And this idea is also, as you pointed out, in the, in the Bhagavad-gītā, but also in the Bible, they say, "The earth is the Lord's." And in the Koran also it is said that Al addha lila, which means the same thing.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Guest (1): The idea has been there for thousands of years, but the question is, until this idea is accepted and put into practice the way you said, what is to be done in the interim period? Because lot of people are dying in misery and...
Prabhupāda: Now, one thing is that...
Guest (1):. You see. What is the solution?
Prabhupāda: The solution is that... As soon as there is problem and you want solution... Suppose there is some problem in legal affairs. So you go to lawyer. When there is problems of your health, you go to the physician. Similarly, our Vedic instruction is for solution of this all chaotic condition, one should... Tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum eva abhigaccet samit-pāṇiḥ śrotriyaṁ brahma-niṣṭham (MU 1.2.12). You have to approach persons who can make the solution. So that is, that is the injunction, tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum eva abhigaccet. Who is guru? Guru means śrotriyam, who knows all the Vedic literature, the information. Śrotriyam. And brahma-niṣṭham. Brahma-niṣṭham means completely God conscious. These are two qualifications. Those who are claiming that "I am God," cheating people, they are not gurus. Guru means he's always... Sākṣād-dharitvena samasta-śāstrair uktas tathā bhāvyata eva sadbhiḥ kintu prabhor yaḥ priya eva tasya **. That is the definition of guru.
So a few men may be happy, so-called happy. The other day, I saw in Calcutta Mr. Kanunga. He's the son of late governor of Gujarat. So he said... He's the manager of that coal distribution, government... So he said that "Now, being government concerned, the laborers, they're not working. They're sitting idly. So we have to increase the price. Cost is..." So this is the problem. People, being godless, they are dishonest, they are not working honestly and so many things. The only remedy is that people should be taught to become God conscious. And this method is very simple: chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Harer nāma harer nāma harer nāma eva kevalam, kalau nāsty eva... (CC Adi 17.21). And samples are there, these European and American boys. They were addicted to so many bad habits. Now they are... Just see how sober they are, and they're chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. So everything is possible, provided you people take our instruction. Otherwise, there is no other remedy. What can be done? The remedy's there. The medicine is also there.
The new thing is that they do not go outside for bread. That is the new thing. Here, at the present moment, in every big, big city, they are coming from hundred miles to the office. Now there was railway strike in Bombay. I was there at that time. Oh, people are suffering so much. You see? From five o'clock in the morning, they are standing in queue for catching one... Not bus, it is truck. The buses on strike. So people are so much in difficulty. And if one train or two train was running, so many people smashed the... They were on the top of the train. So the problem is why one should be induced to go hundred miles off from his home for earning his livelihood? This is a very bad civilization. One must have his food locally. That is good civilization.
This is our condition. Now this human form of body is a chance to understand what is our real inconvenience—birth, death, old age, and disease—and to think of whether there is any way out of this entanglement of repetition of birth, death, old age and disease. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. We are educating people how to get out of the clutches of illusion that continually, one after another, we have to take birth. Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). Real problem is this. So if we take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness—that means if we understand, "What is God? What I am? What is our relationship? What is the ultimate goal of our life?" If these things we understand, then we can get out of the clutches of illusion, repetition of birth, death, old age and disease. This is the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, sum and substance. And to realize this, the method is very simple-chant the holy name of God. We are chanting the holy name of God: Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare.
So our real problem is that we... Every one of us, we are the spirit soul, part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. We are struggling for existence within this material world. So manaḥ-ṣaṣṭhānīndriyāṇi prakṛti-sthāni karṣati (BG 15.7), struggle for existence. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says that "Your real problem is janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9)." We are eternal. We understand from Bhagavad-gītā, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). So if I am eternal, nityaḥ śāśvata, then why I am accepting death? This is real question. But foolishly we are thinking, "I am this body." Therefore we remain as an animal. So we should be interested to understand actually "What I am," ahaṁ brahmāsmi. That is real solution of all problems. This is called knowledge. But sometimes we are misled by misleaders; therefore we still remain in darkness in spite of cultivating knowledge. But actually, when we cultivate knowledge under the guidance of real guru, then we can understand vasudevaḥ sarvam iti sa mahātmā su-durlabhaḥ (BG 7.19). This is confirmed in the Vedas, Brahma-saṁhitā:
- īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ
- sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ
- anādir ādir govindaḥ
- sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam
- (Bs. 5.1)
Philosophy Discussions
Śyāmasundara: Well I still want to find out how they...
Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa nāma koro bhai ar sab niche, parai gab pap nahi yoni ache piche (?). Our real problem is birth, death. All these scientist, they could not solve any of these problems, neither they could answer. Maybe Darwin's cam(?) has died. They could not stop death. Kata choto dayana na mari meri jao (?).
Śyāmasundara: Tomorrow we can discuss ethical evolution, how ethics evolved. That is also part of his doctrine.
Prabhupāda: Ethic morality?
Śyāmasundara: How morality is also a product of evolution.
Prabhupāda: We change morality within six months. The most immoral man, you can make the most moral man within six months. This is practically happening.
Prabhupāda: Yes. I can measure it is about 3000 miles by 3000 miles. And whereas India is 1000 miles. What is the area of India? Maybe 1000 miles by 800 miles, whereas in America 3000 miles by 3000 miles. And the population is one quarter of India's. The land is four times than India, but the population is one quarter of India. So they can produce enough. Actually they are producing enough. And that can be distributed to the portion where the food is a scarcity. And that is arrangement of God. The land and the water given by God is sufficient for the whole population. Not only human beings—all beasts, birds... Sufficient food. But we are, I mean to say, mismanaging the whole thing. Therefore we find that India is poverty-stricken and America is throwing grains in the water. So actually, if we take the perfection made by God, that "This planet belongs to us, we human beings, and it is God's property, so let us live peacefully..." But..., but no. That is māyā. So therefore the whole solution of the problem is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. If people will understand that "We are all sons of Kṛṣṇa's. This land belongs to Kṛṣṇa, so let us enjoy our father's property without fighting..." That they will not do. And they will accuse that God has made incomplete. That is māyā. Otherwise from God's side everything is complete.
Prabhupāda: But the existence, therefore we say that your real problem is unless you know what is your position, then there cannot be any tangible program. If I know that I exist eternally, then my real concern should be how to check all these concerns so that I may live eternally without any concern. My question will be: "I am existing eternally. Why there should be concerns?" I must live and exist eternally without any concern. Why there have to be so many concerns? I do not want. Suppose the death. I know I shall death, but I do not know; I do not want to die. That is my concern. That my concern should be how I can live without death. That is real intelligent concern. There is death. I know I will die, but I do not wish to die. That is also fact. Suppose you are... If I take a sword and want to kill you, you know that you will die, why don't you accept, "All right, kill me. I'll have to die, so kill me"? Why you protest? Why you protest? Why you fly away? Why you (indistinct) defend? You know you shall die. So die now.
Hayagrīva: Berkeley. Berkeley—very brief section on Berkeley. Berkeley seems to be arguing against objective reality. In other words, three men standing in a field looking at a tree could all have a different impression or idea of the tree, or at least according to his argument. The problem is, although there are three impressions of the tree, each differing from one another, there is no tree as such. Now, how does the tree as such exist? In the mind of God? Is it possible for a conditioned living entity to perceive the suchness or essence of anything?
Prabhupāda: Everything means God, expansion of God's energy. So how tree or anything can be without reference to God? We see that the earthen pot is on the ground, on the, what is called, ground?
Hayagrīva: The what?
Prabhupāda: Earthen pot, pot, pots made of earth.
| Page Title: | This is the problem (Lectures) |
| Compiler: | Rishab, Mayapur |
| Created: | 22 of May, 2011 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=205, Con=0, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 205 |