Para-upakāra means the whole world does not know about the message of Kṛṣṇa, therefore it is the greatest welfare activities to carry this message and inform them. This is the work of Kṛṣṇa's representative, and any Indian can do it. But they'll not do it. They will take Bhagavad-gītā and speak their hodgepodge, that's all. That is not Kṛṣṇa's representative. Therefore it has not been successful. For the last two hundred years so many svāmīs and yogīs went to foreign countries, but nobody spoke about Kṛṣṇa. Simply hodgepodge. Therefore there was not a single person accepted this cult, Vedic culture. That is practical.
So as Arjuna . . . we are reading Bhagavad-gītā; you can understand that Arjuna is a friend. Why he's accepting Kṛṣṇa as guru? Why? He's a friend. He's talking equally, sitting equally, friend and friend, sometimes talking nonsense. Kṛṣṇa . . . in the Eleventh Chapter he was begging Kṛṣṇa, "Forgive me. As a friend I have misbehaved with You." Friend has got right that. Kṛṣṇa did not mind for that. But he knew that, "Kṛṣṇa, although He is my friend, He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore, He is the proper person to become my guru." And he says also that, "The perplexity which I have been put into now in this battlefield, this cannot be solved by anyone else except Yourself." That he said also.
So this is instruction we get from Bhagavad-gītā—everyone reads Bhagavad-gītā—that we have to accept Kṛṣṇa as the guru, or Kṛṣṇa's representative as guru. Tad viddhi praṇipātena paripraśnena sevayā (BG 4.34). And we have to give service to such guru and we have to surrender ourself. Not that I accept you guru just to know how much you are learned, how much you can talk with me. Not with that spirit. Surrender that, "I surrender to you, sir." Śiṣyas te 'ham, "I have become śiṣya." Śiṣya means voluntarily accepting his ruling. Whatever guru will say, he will accept. That is called śiṣya. Śiṣya means ruling, who accept disciple, means disciplinary measure. Whatever guru says, one who accepts, he becomes disciple. He . . . "I don't care for my guru's order, and still I am disciple," that is not accepting guru. Of course, it has become a fashion like that, to have a guru but don't care for guru. That is not . . . that will not help. Śiṣyas te 'haṁ śādhi māṁ prapannam (BG 2.7).
And immediately Kṛṣṇa, as we . . . as soon as He accepted to become guru of Arjuna, He immediately chastised him:
- aśocyān anvaśocas tvaṁ
- prajñā-vādāṁś ca bhāṣase
- gatāsūn agatāsūṁś ca
- nānuśocanti paṇḍitāḥ
- (BG 2.11)
"My dear Arjuna, you are not talking like a learned man. You are thinking that you are very learned man, that you are talking with Me, that 'What will happen to this, to that, if I fight?' You have wasted so much time. But actually I find that you are a fool number one. You do not know anything," aśocyān anvaśocas tvam, "because you are lamenting for things for which one should not lament. What is that? This body. You are thinking of this body of your relative, and because they will be in the war, they will be killed. You are thinking like that. But actually this is not the subject matter of pondering. The real subject matter is how to save the soul." Therefore He began instructing that, "We are not this body; we are soul." Dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā, tathā dehāntara-prāpti (BG 2.13). In this way He gave first instruction that we are not this body.
So here also, Devahūti is woman. Everyone is less intelligent before his guru, especially woman. Striyo śūdra tathā vaiśya te 'pi yānti parāṁ gatim. But God, or Kṛṣṇa, is open for everyone. It is not that Kṛṣṇa is open for the brāhmaṇas, the learned scholars or the Hindus or the Muslim or Christian. No, Kṛṣṇa is open for everyone. Striyo śūdra tathā vaiśyās te 'pi yānti param, māṁ hi pārtha vyapāśritya ye 'pi syuḥ pāpa-yonayaḥ (BG 9.32), even pāpa-yonayaḥ. Pāpa-yoni means low class. Just like in our country we have got low-class people, the cobbler, muci, the caṇḍālas, the dog-eaters. They are considered as low class. So Kṛṣṇa is open even for the low class.
This is universal movement, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, because it is concerned with the soul, consciousness. Therefore you have named the word "consciousness." Consciousness belongs to the soul. That is the symptom of presence of soul. At the present moment, because the soul is in the body, if I pinch your body then you feel—consciousness—feel pains or pleasure. But as soon as the soul is gone out of the body, if I chop off your body with a dagger, you will not protest. The consciousness is gone. Yena sarvam idaṁ tatam. Avināśi tu tad viddhi yena sarvam idaṁ tatam (BG 2.17), Kṛṣṇa says. Sarvam idam, this body. This body, wherever you pinch, you feel pain. Why? Because the consciousness is there. So Kṛṣṇa advises that consciousness is eternal, not this body. Avināśi tu tad viddhi yena sarvam idaṁ tatam. So the consciousness eternal. Therefore we have to purify our consciousness, then our life is successful.