KNOWLEDGE OF SUPREME

[Guest guest]

DEAR FRIENDS

 

I'm sending you all a small book of TRANSCENDENTAL

wisdom by his divine grace Srila Prabhupada (my

spiritual master & guru).

 

You will find a new meaning to your life by just once

going through this book - where spiritality is

explained very logically & scientifically. For more

writings of Srila Prabhupada you can contact

www.krishna.com.

 

 

 

Thanx

 

Pranjal

 

pranjal.johry

 

 

 

The Laws of Nature: An Infallible Justice

 

Chapter 1

 

God and The Law of Karma

 

Among the vast ancient Sanskrit writings known as the

Vedas, the 108

 

Upanisads contain the philosophical essence. And among

all the Upanisads, the

 

Isopanisad is considered the foremost. In the

following essay, based on talks

 

Srila Prabhupada gave on the Isopanisad in 1968, we

learn the truth about the

 

Supreme Lord, the laws governing His material and

spiritual energies, and how to

 

break free of the bondage of karma.

 

The Isopanisad states that the Supreme Personality of

Godhead is " perfect and

 

complete. " Part of the Lord's complete arrangement for

this material world is

 

his process of creation, maintenance, and destruction.

Every living being in

 

this material world has a fixed schedule of six

changes: birth, growth,

 

maintenance, the production of by-products,

diminution, and destruction. This is

 

the law of material nature. A flower is born as a bud.

It grows, remains fresh

 

for two or three days, produces a seed, gradually

withers, and then is finished.

 

You cannot stop this by your so-called material

science. To try to do so is

 

avidya, ignorance.

 

Sometimes people foolishly think that by scientific

advancement man will

 

become immortal. This is nonsense. You cannot stop the

material laws. Therefore

 

in the Bhagavad-gita (7.14) Lord Krsna says that the

material energy is

 

duratyaya, impossible to overcome by material means.

 

Material nature consists of three modes, or gunas:

sattva-guna, rajo-guna,

 

and tamo-guna, or the modes of goodness, passion, and

ignorance. Another meaning

 

of guna is " rope. " Rope is made by twisting fiber in a

threefold process. First

 

the fiber is twisted in three small strands, then

three of them are twisted

 

together, then again three of those are twisted

together. In this way the rope

 

becomes very strong. Similarly, the three modes of

nature--goodness, passion,

 

and ignorance--are mixed, after which they produce

some by-product. Then they

 

are mixed again, and then again. Thus they are

" twisted together " innumerable

 

times.

 

In this way the material energy binds you more and

more. By your own efforts

 

you cannot get out of this bondage, which is known as

pavarga. Pa-varga is the

 

fifth set of letters in the Sanskrit Devanagari

alphabet. It contains the

 

letters pa, pha, ba, bha, and ma. Pa stands for

parisrama, " hard labor. " Every

 

living entity in this world is struggling very hard to

maintain himself and

 

survive. This is called the hard struggle for

existence. Pha stands for phena,

 

" foam. " When a horse works very hard, foam comes out

of its mouth. Similarly,

 

when we are tired from working very hard, our tongue

may become dry and some

 

foam forms in our mouth. Everyone is working very hard

for sense gratification--

 

so much so that foam is coming from their mouth. Ba

represents bandha,

 

" bondage. " In spite of all our efforts, we remain

bound up by the ropes of the

 

material modes of nature. Bha stands for bhaya,

" fear. " In material life, one is

 

always in a blazing fire of fear, since no one knows

what will happen next. And

 

ma represents mrtyu, " death. " All our hopes and plans

for happiness and security

 

in this world are ended by death.

 

So, Krsna consciousness nullifies this pavarga

process. In other words, by

 

taking to Krsna consciousness one attains apavarga,

where there is no hard

 

struggle for existence and no material bondage, fear,

or death. Pavarga

 

symptomizes this material world, but when you add the

prefix " a " to pavarga,

 

that means it is nullified. Our Krsna consciousness

movement is the path of

 

apavarga.

 

Unfortunately, people do not know of these things, and

therefore they are

 

wasting their lives. This modern civilization is a

soul-killing civilization;

 

people are killing themselves because they do not know

what real life is. They

 

are simply living like animals. The animal does not

know what life is, so he

 

simply works under the laws of nature, undergoing

gradual evolution. But when

 

you get this human form of life, you have a

responsibility to live in a

 

different way. Here is a chance for you to become

Krsna conscious and solve all

 

problems. But if you don't--if you continue to act

like animals--you will again

 

have to enter the cycle of birth and death and

transmigrate through 8,400,000

 

species of life. It will take many, many millions of

years to come back to the

 

human form of life. For example, the sunshine you are

seeing now you will not

 

see again until after twenty-four hours. Everything in

nature moves in a cycle.

 

So if you lose this opportunity of elevating yourself,

then again you must enter

 

the cycle of transmigration. Nature's law is very

strong. Therefore we are

 

opening so many centers so that people may take

advantage of this International

 

Society for Krishna Consciousness and elevate

themselves.

 

It is important to take to Krsna consciousness

immediately, because we do not

 

know how much time is left before death. When your

time in this body expires, no

 

one can stop your death. The arrangement of material

nature is so strong. You

 

cannot say, " Let me remain. " Actually, people

sometimes request like that. When

 

I was in Allahabad, an old friend who was very rich

was dying. At that time he

 

begged the doctor, " Can't you give me at least four

more years to live? I have

 

some plans which I could not finish. " You see. This is

foolishness. Everyone

 

thinks, " Oh, I have to do this. I have to do that. "

No. Neither the doctors nor

 

the scientists can check death: " Oh, no, sir. Not four

years, not even four

 

minutes. You have to go immediately. " This is the law.

So before that moment

 

comes, one should be very careful to become realized

in Krsna consciousness. You

 

should realize Krsna consciousness very quickly.

Before your next death comes,

 

you must finish your business. That is intelligence.

Otherwise you will suffer

 

defeat.

 

The Isopanisad states that whatever emanates from the

complete whole--the

 

Supreme Lord--is also complete in itself. Therefore if

you want to take

 

advantage of your life and become Krsna conscious,

there is complete facility.

 

But you have to come to the point of taking up the

practice. Krsna consciousness

 

is not theoretical; it is practical. All experiments

have already been

 

performed. So, as indicated in the Isopanisad, there

is a complete facility for

 

the small complete units--ourselves--to realize the

supreme complete, Krsna. We

 

are complete units, but we are small. For example, in

a big machine there is a

 

small screw, and the perfection of that small screw is

to be fitted in its

 

proper place. Then it has value. But if it becomes

unscrewed from the machine

 

and falls down on the floor, it has no value.

Similarly, we are perfect as long

 

as we are attached to Krsna; otherwise we are useless.

 

To realize the complete means to realize what our

relationship with the

 

complete is. And all forms of incompleteness are

experienced only on account of

 

incomplete knowledge of the complete. We are thinking,

" I am equal to God. I am

 

God. " This is incomplete knowledge. But if you know,

" I am part and parcel of

 

God, and therefore I am equal to God in quality, " that

is complete knowledge.

 

The human form of life is a chance to revive the

complete manifestation of the

 

consciousness of the living being. You can revive this

complete consciousness by

 

the process of Krsna consciousness. But if you don't

take advantage of this

 

complete facility, you are killing yourself,

committing suicide. As it is said

 

in the Isopanisad, " The killer of the soul, whoever he

may be, must enter into

 

the planets known as the worlds of the faithless, full

of darkness and

 

ignorance. " So don't be the killer of your soul.

Utilize the complete facility

 

of your human life to become Krsna conscious. That is

your only business.

 

Breaking the Bonds of Karma

 

In conditioned life we are committing sins at every

step, even without

 

knowing it. The reason we are sinning unknowingly is

that we have been in

 

ignorance from our very birth. This ignorance is

prominent despite so many

 

educational institutions. Why? Because despite so many

big, big universities,

 

none of them is teaching atma-tattva, the science of

the soul. Therefore people

 

remain in ignorance, and they continue to sin and

suffer the reactions. That is

 

stated in the Srimad-Bhagavatam (5.5.3): parabhavas

tavad abodha-jato yavan na

 

jijnasata atma-tattvam. This foolishness will continue

until one comes to the

 

platform of understanding self-realization. Otherwise,

all these universities

 

and institutions for imparting knowledge are a

continuation of that same

 

ignorance and foolishness. Unless one comes to the

point of asking " What am I?

 

What is God? What is this world? What is my

relationship with God and this

 

world? " and finds proper answers, one continues to be

foolish like an animal and

 

is subjected to transmigration from one body to

another in different species of

 

life. This is the result of ignorance.

 

So, the modern civilization is very risky. One may

feel comfortable as a

 

successful businessman or politician, or one may think

oneself comfortable

 

because of being born in a rich nation like America,

but these statuses of life

 

are temporary. They will have to change, and we do not

know what kind of

 

miseries we will have to suffer in our next life

because of our sinful

 

activities. So if one does not begin cultivating

transcendental knowledge, then

 

one's life is very risky. Suppose a healthy man is

living in a contaminated

 

place. Is his life not at risk? He may become infected

by disease at any moment.

 

Therefore we should work to dissipate our ignorance

through cultivation of

 

transcendental knowledge.

 

A good example of how we commit sins unknowingly is

cooking. In the Bhagavadgita

 

(3.13) Krsna says that His devotees are freed from sin

because they eat

 

only the remnants of food that has been offered to

Him. But, He says, those who

 

cook for themselves eat only sin. The difference

between cooking here in this

 

temple and cooking in some ordinary house is that our

cooking and eating are

 

relieving us from sin, while the cooking and eating of

a nondevotee are simply

 

entangling him more and more in sin. The cooking

appears to be the same, but

 

this cooking and that cooking are different. Here

there is no sin because the

 

food is being cooked for Krsna.

 

Anything you do outside the field of Krsna conscious

activities entangles you

 

in the modes of nature. Generally, you are being

implicated in sinful

 

activities. Those who are a little more cautious avoid

sinful activities and

 

perform pious activities. But one who performs pious

activities is also

 

entangled. If a man is pious, he may take birth in a

family that is very rich or

 

aristocratic, or he may be very beautiful or get the

opportunity to become very

 

learned. These are the results of pious activities.

But whether you are pious or

 

impious, you have to enter into the womb of some

mother. And that tribulation is

 

very severe. That we have forgotten. Whether you take

birth in a very rich and

 

aristocratic family or from an animal womb, the pangs

of birth, old age,

 

disease, and death continue.

 

The Krsna consciousness movement is meant to give you

an opportunity to solve

 

these four problems--birth, old age, disease, and

death. But if you continue to

 

act sinfully and eat sinfully, then these miseries

will continue. Otherwise, you

 

can nullify your sinful reactions by surrendering to

Krsna, as He states in the

 

Bhagavad-gita (18.66): " Just give up all your

so-called religious practices and

 

surrender unto Me. I shall protect you from all your

sinful reactions. " Part of

 

surrendering to Krsna is being careful not to eat

anything that has not been

 

offered to Him. That should be our determination. Even

if we have committed some

 

sin, by eating prasadam, food offered to Krsna, we

will counteract it. If we

 

surrender to Krsna in this way, He will protect us

from sinful reactions. That

 

is His promise.

 

And where does a surrendered devotee go at the time of

death? Is he finished,

 

as the voidists say? No. Krsna says, mam eti: " He

comes to Me. " And what is the

 

benefit of going there? Mam upetya punar janma

duhkhalayam asasvatam napnuvanti:

 

" One who comes back to Me does not have to return to

this miserable material

 

world. " That is the highest perfection.

 

The Isopanisad states, " The killer of the soul,

whoever he may be, must enter

 

into the planets known as the worlds of the faithless,

full of darkness and

 

ignorance. " Krsna is a lion to the demons and a lamb

to the devotees. The

 

atheists say, " We have not seen Krsna. " Yes, you will

see Krsna--you will see

 

Him as the lion of death when He ultimately comes to

capture you: " Ow! " The

 

atheist sees Krsna as death. And the theist, or

devotee, sees Krsna as his

 

lover, as gentle as a lamb.

 

Actually, everyone is engaged in Krsna's service,

either out of love or by

 

force. One who is entangled in material life is

engaged in Krsna's service

 

because he is forced to serve Krsna's external,

material energy. It is just like

 

what we see with the citizens of the state: whether

one is a law-abiding citizen

 

or a criminal, one is subservient to the state. The

criminal may say he doesn't

 

care for the state, but then the police will force him

to accept the authority

 

of the state by putting him in prison.

 

Therefore, whether one accepts or rejects Caitanya

Mahaprabhu's philosophy

 

that every living entity is eternally the servant of

Krsna, one remains His

 

servant. The only difference is that the atheist is

being forced to accept Krsna

 

as his master, and the devotee is voluntarily offering

Him service. This Krsna

 

consciousness movement is teaching people that they

are eternal servants of God

 

and should voluntarily offer Him service: " Don't

falsely claim that you are God.

 

Oh, you don't care for God? You have to care. " The

great demon Hiranya-kasipu

 

also didn't care for God, and so God came and killed

him. God is seen by the

 

atheist as death, but by the theist as a lover. That

is the difference.

 

If you are a devotee and understand this philosophy of

spiritual life, you

 

can live for a moment or you can live for a hundred

years--it doesn't matter.

 

Otherwise, what is the use of living? Some trees live

for five hundred or five

 

thousand years, but what is the use of such a life,

devoid of higher

 

consciousness?

 

If you know that you are Krsna's servant and that

everything belongs to

 

Krsna, you can live for hundreds of years doing your

duties and there will be no

 

karmic reaction. This is confirmed in the

Bhagavad-gita (3.9): yajnarthat

 

karmano 'nyatra loko 'yam karma-bandhanah. " Except

work for Krsna, any work,

 

whether good or bad, will bind you to this material

world. " If you do good work,

 

you will have so-called enjoyment in your next

life--but you will still remain

 

bound up in the cycle of birth and death. And if you

do bad work, then you will

 

have to suffer the sinful reactions and also remain

bound up in birth and death.

 

But if you work for Krsna, there are no such

reactions, good or bad, and at the

 

time of death you will return to Krsna. This is the

only way to break the bonds

 

of karma.

 

Krsna, the Controller and Owner of All

 

In the Isopanisad, the word isa is used to describe

the Supreme Personality

 

of Godhead. Isa means " controller. " Do you think you

are controlled or not? Is

 

there any person anywhere within this universe who is

not controlled? Can anyone

 

say, " I am not controlled " ? Nobody can say that. So if

you are controlled, then

 

why do you declare, " I am not controlled, I am

independent, I am God " ? Why this

 

nonsense? Mayavadi impersonalists claim, " I am God,

you are God, everyone is

 

God. " But if they are controlled, how can they be God?

Does this make any sense?

 

God is never controlled; He is the supreme controller.

So if somebody is

 

controlled, immediately we should know that he is not

God.

 

Of course, some rascals claim that they are not

controlled. I know one such

 

rascal who has a society and is preaching, " I am God. "

But one day I saw him

 

with a toothache; he was moaning, " Ohhh! " So I asked

him, " You claim that you

 

are God, the supreme controller, but now you are under

the control of a

 

toothache. What kind of God are you? " So if you see

someone who claims that he

 

is God or that everyone is God, you should immediately

know such a person is a

 

number-one rascal.

 

Now, this is not to say that the living entities are

not controllers to some

 

extent. In the Bhagavad-gita Lord Krsna says that the

living entities are His

 

superior energy. Why are the living entities superior

energy? Because they are

 

conscious, whereas the material energy is not.

Therefore the living entities can

 

control the material energy to some extent. For

example, all the paraphernalia

 

in this temple has been made from matter: earth,

water, fire, and air. But it

 

was a living entity who molded the material energy

into this paraphernalia for

 

the purpose of worshiping Krsna. Another example:

before people came from

 

Europe, this land of America was mostly vacant. The

people who lived here before

 

that did not fully exploit it. But the Europeans came

and developed it into a

 

country with great industries and roads.

 

So the superior energy, the living entities, can have

some control over the

 

material energy. That Krsna explains in the

Bhagavad-gita (7.5): yayedam

 

dharyate jagat. The importance of this material world

is due to the living

 

entities. A big city like Los Angeles, New York, or

London is valuable as long

 

as the living entities are there. Similarly, the body

is valuable as long as the

 

living entity--the soul--is there. Therefore the soul

is superior to matter. But

 

that superiority is being misused to exploit matter

for sense gratification.

 

That is conditioned life. We have forgotten that,

although we are superior to

 

matter, we are still subordinate to God.

 

The people of the modern civilization do not care for

God because they are

 

intoxicated with their superiority over matter. They

are simply trying to

 

exploit matter in different ways. But they are

forgetting that all people--

 

American, Russian, Chinese, Indian--are subordinate to

God. They have forgotten

 

Krsna and want to enjoy this material world. That is

their disease.

 

So, the duty of the devotee of the Lord is to invoke

the people's Krsna

 

consciousness. The devotee explains to them: " You are

superior to matter, but

 

you are subordinate to Krsna. Therefore you should not

try to enjoy matter but

 

rather use it for His enjoyment. " For example, we have

decorated this temple not

 

for our sense gratification but for Krsna's pleasure.

What is the difference

 

between us and ordinary people? They are decorating

their apartment very nicely,

 

and we are decorating our place very nicely--but the

purpose is different. We

 

are doing it for Krsna, and they are doing it for

themselves. Whether you

 

decorate your personal apartment or Krsna's temple,

your superiority over matter

 

remains, since you are utilizing matter for your

purposes. But when you apply

 

your intelligence toward utilizing matter for Krsna's

pleasure, your life is

 

successful, whereas when you apply the same

intelligence for your sense

 

gratification, you become entangled in material nature

and feel anxiety. Then

 

you have to change bodies, one after another.

 

Krsna is the supreme controller of both the inferior

energy, matter, and the

 

superior energy, the jivatma--ourselves. We are

Krsna's superior energy because

 

we can control the material world, but that control is

also conditional. We have

 

only limited control over this material world. But

Krsna has control over us;

 

therefore, whatever control we have, He has

sanctioned. For example, a human

 

being has manufactured this nice microphone using his

intelligence. That means

 

he has been able to control matter to a certain degree

to fulfill his desires.

 

But where has his intelligence come from? Krsna has

given man his superior

 

intelligence. In the Bhagavad-gita (15.15) Krsna says,

sarvasya caham hrdi

 

sannivisto mattah smrtir jnanam apohanam ca: " I am

seated in everyone's heart,

 

and from Me come remembrance, knowledge, and

forgetfulness. " Therefore the

 

supreme controller is giving intelligence to the

superior energy in the human

 

form of body: " Do this. Now do that... " This direction

is not whimsical. The

 

person wanted to do something in his past life, but in

his present life he

 

forgets, and so Krsna reminds him: " You wanted to do

this. Here is an

 

opportunity. " So although you have superior

intelligence, that is also

 

controlled by Krsna. If Krsna gives you the

intelligence, you can manufacture

 

this nice microphone. Otherwise, you cannot. Therefore

in every sphere of life

 

we are controlled by Krsna.

 

We can also see Krsna's control on the universal

level. For example, there

 

are so many huge planets; this earth planet is only a

small one. Still, on this

 

planet there are big oceans like the Atlantic and

Pacific, as well as big

 

mountains and skyscraper buildings. Yet despite all

this load, the earth is

 

floating in the air just like a swab of cotton. Who is

floating it? Can you

 

float even a grain of sand in the air? You may talk

about the law of gravity and

 

so many other things, but you cannot control it. Your

airplane is flying in the

 

air, but as soon as the petrol is finished, it will

immediately fall. So if it

 

takes so many scientists to build an airplane that can

float only temporarily in

 

the air, is it possible that this huge earth is

floating of its own accord? No.

 

Lord Krsna declares in the Bhagavad-gita (15.13), " I

enter into the material

 

planets and keep them aloft. " Just as to keep an

airplane aloft a pilot has to

 

enter it, so to keep this earth aloft Krsna has

entered it. This is the simple

 

truth.

 

We have to take knowledge from Krsna. We shouldn't

accept any process of

 

gaining knowledge except hearing from Krsna or His

representative. Then we will

 

have first-class knowledge. If you find an authority

who is representing Krsna

 

and who can speak on the subject matter, and if you

accept the knowledge he

 

gives, then your knowledge is perfect. Of all the

processes for receiving

 

knowledge, the least reliable is direct sense

perception. Suppose someone asks,

 

" Can you show me God? " That means he wants to

experience everything directly.

 

But this is a second-class process for gaining

knowledge, because our senses are

 

imperfect and we are prone to make mistakes. Suppose

you need some gold but you

 

don't know where to purchase it. So you go to a

proprietor of a hardware store

 

and ask, " Do you have any gold in stock? " He will

immediately understand that

 

you are a first-class fool because you have come to

purchase gold in a hardware

 

store. Therefore he will try to cheat you. He will

give you a piece of iron and

 

say, " Here is gold. " Then what will you say? Will you

accept that iron as gold?

 

Because you do not know what gold is and have gone to

a hardware store to

 

purchase it, you will get a piece of iron and be

cheated. Similarly, rascals who

 

demand that they be shown God do not know what God is,

and therefore they are

 

being cheated by so many bogus spiritual leaders who

claim that they are God.

 

That is happening.

 

If you want to purchase gold, you must have at least

some preliminary

 

knowledge of what gold is. Similarly, if you want to

see God, the first

 

requirement is that you must know some of the basic

characteristics of God.

 

Otherwise, if you go to some rascal and he claims to

be God and you accept him

 

as God, you will be cheated.

 

Another question we should ask when someone says " I

want to see God " is,

 

" What qualification do you have to see God? " God is

not so cheap that He can be

 

seen by anybody and everybody. No, the Krsna

consciousness movement does not

 

present any nonsense or cheap thing. If you want to

see God face to face, then

 

you must follow the rules and regulations. You must

chant Hare Krsna and purify

 

yourself. Then gradually the time will come when you

are purified and you will

 

see God.

 

Still, even though in your present contaminated

condition you are not

 

qualified to see God, He is so kind that He allows you

to see Him in His Deity

 

form in the temple. In that form He agrees to be seen

by everyone, whether or

 

not one knows He is God. The Deity is not an idol; it

is not imagination. The

 

knowledge of how to construct the Deity and install

Him on the altar is received

 

from the scripture and the superior acaryas, or

spiritual masters. Therefore the

 

authorized Deity in the temple is Krsna Himself and

can fully reciprocate your

 

love and service.

 

With your present blunt material senses, however, you

cannot immediately

 

perceive God's spiritual form, name, qualities,

pastimes, and paraphernalia. And

 

because people in the present civilization have no

power to understand God, nor

 

are they guided by some person who can help them

understand God, they have

 

become godless. But if you read Vedic scriptures like

the Isopanisad and

 

Bhagavad-gita under superior guidance and follow the

rules and regulations,

 

eventually God will be revealed to you. You cannot see

God or understand God by

 

your own endeavor. You have to surrender to the

process by which God can be

 

known. Then He will reveal Himself. He is the supreme

controller; you are being

 

controlled. So how can you control God? " O God, come

here. I want to see You. "

 

God is not so cheap that by your order He will come

and be seen by you. No, that

 

is not possible. You must always remember, " God is the

supreme controller and I

 

am controlled. So if I can please God by my service,

then He will reveal Himself

 

to me. " That is the process of knowing God.

 

Ultimately, this process leads to love of God. That is

real religion. It

 

doesn't matter whether you follow the Hindu, Muslim,

or Christian religion: if

 

you are developing love of God, then you are perfect

in your religion. And what

 

kind of love should we develop for God? It must be

without any selfish

 

motivation-- " O Lord, I love you because You supply me

so many nice things. You

 

are my order supplier. " No, we should not have this

sort of love for God. It

 

should not depend on any exchange.

 

Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu taught, " O Lord! Whether You

trample me under Your

 

feet or embrace me or leave me brokenhearted by not

being present before me,

 

that does not matter. You are completely free to do

anything, for You are my

 

worshipable Lord unconditionally. " That is love. We

should think, " God may do

 

whatever He likes, yet I will still love Him. I don't

want anything in

 

exchange. " That is the sort of love Krsna wants. That

is why He is so fond of

 

the gopis. In the gopis' love there is no question of

business ex-changes-- " Give

 

me this, then I will love You. " Their love was pure,

unalloyed, without any

 

impediment. If you try to love God in this way,

nothing in the whole world can

 

check you. You only have to develop your

eagerness-- " Krsna! I want You. " That's

 

all. Then there is no question of being stopped. In

any condition your love will

 

increase. If you attain that state, you will feel

fully satisfied. It is not

 

that God wants you to love Him for His benefit. It is

for your benefit. If you

 

do otherwise, you will never be happy.

 

God and His energies

 

The Isopanisad explains that whatever we see, whether

animate or inanimate,

 

is controlled by the Supreme Lord. Lord Krsna says the

same thing in the

 

Bhagavad-gita (9.10)--that His energies are managing

everything. And the Visnu

 

Purana confirms, eka-desa-sthitasyagner jyotsna

vistarini yatha: " As heat and

 

light are distributed all around by a fire situated in

one place, so the whole

 

creation is a manifestation of energies expanded from

the Supreme Lord. " For

 

example, the sun is in one place, but it is

distributing its heat and light all

 

over the universe. Similarly, the Supreme Lord is

distributing His material and

 

spiritual energies all over the creation.

 

The spiritual energy is present in this temporary

material world, but it is

 

covered by the material energy. For example, the sun

is always shining in the

 

sky--no one can stop the sun from shining--but it is

sometimes covered by a

 

cloud. When this happens, the sunshine on the ground

is dim. The more the sun is

 

covered, the dimmer the sunlight. But this covering of

the sun is partial. All

 

the sunshine cannot be covered; that is not possible.

An insignificant portion

 

of the sunshine may be covered by a cloud. Similarly,

this material world is an

 

insignificant portion of the spiritual world that is

covered by the material

 

energy.

 

And what is the material energy? The material energy

is just another form of

 

the spiritual energy. It manifests when there is an

absence of spiritual

 

activity. Again the analogy of the sun and the cloud:

What is a cloud? It is an

 

effect of the sunshine. The sunshine evaporates water

from the sea, and a cloud

 

is formed. So the sun is the cause of the cloud.

Similarly, the Supreme Lord is

 

the cause of this material energy, which covers our

vision of Him.

 

In this way, two energies are working in this material

world: the spiritual

 

energy and the material energy. The material energy

consists of eight material

 

elements: earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind,

intelligence, and false ego.

 

These are arranged from the grosser to the finer.

Water is finer than earth,

 

fire is finer than water, etc.

 

So, the finer the element, the more powerful it is.

For example, at the speed

 

of the mind you can go many thousands of miles within

a second. But even more

 

powerful than the mind is the intelligence, and even

more powerful than the

 

intelligence is spiritual energy. What is spiritual

energy? That is stated by

 

Krsna in the Bhagavad-gita (7.5): apareyam itas tv

anyam prakrtim viddhi me

 

param jiva-bhutam. " Beyond My inferior, material

energy is another energy, which

 

is spiritual. It comprises the living entities. "

 

We living entities are also energy, but superior

energy. How are we superior?

 

Because we can control the inferior energy, matter.

Matter has no power to act

 

on its own. The big airplane can fly so nicely in the

sky, but unless the

 

spiritual energy--the pilot--is there, it is useless.

The jet plane will sit in

 

the airport for thousands of years; it will not fly

unless the small particle of

 

spiritual energy, the pilot, comes and touches it. So

what is the difficulty in

 

understanding God? If there are so many huge machines

that cannot move without

 

the touch of the spiritual energy, a living being,

then how can you argue that

 

this whole material energy works automatically,

without any control? Who would

 

put forward such a foolish argument? Therefore, those

who cannot understand how

 

this material energy is being controlled by the

Supreme Lord are less

 

intelligent. The godless men who believe that this

material energy is working

 

automatically are fools.

 

The statement of the Isopanisad is that " Everything

animate or inanimate is

 

controlled and owned by the Supreme Personality of

Godhead. " Because He is the

 

supreme controller, He is also the supreme proprietor.

In our practical

 

experience we see that the man who controls a business

establishment is the

 

proprietor. Similarly, since God is the controller of

this material world, He is

 

also its proprietor. This means that as far as

possible we should engage

 

everything in the Lord's service.

 

Then what about our own needs? That is explained in

the Isopanisad: " One

 

should accept only those things necessary for himself,

which are set aside as

 

his quota, and one should not accept other things,

knowing well to whom they

 

belong. " Krsna consciousness means to understand

things as they are. So if we

 

simply understand these principles, we will be well

situated in Krsna

 

consciousness.

 

The Position of Krsna

 

The Isopanisad states, " Although fixed in His abode,

the Personality of

 

Godhead is swifter than the mind and can overcome all

others running. The

 

powerful demigods cannot approach Him. Although in one

place, He controls those

 

who supply the air and rain. He surpasses all in

excellence. " The Brahma-samhita

 

says something similar: goloka eva nivasaty

akhilatma-bhutah. Although Krsna is

 

always in Goloka Vrndavana, He is simultaneously in

the hearts of all living

 

beings.

 

Krsna has no duties to perform in Goloka. He is simply

enjoying in the

 

company of His associates--the gopis, the cowherd

boys, His mother and father,

 

His cows and calves, etc. He is completely free. And

His associates are even

 

freer than He is, because when they seem to be in

danger, Krsna feels some

 

anxiety about how to save them. But His associates

feel no anxiety. They simply

 

think, " Oh, Krsna is here. He will protect us. " When

Krsna enacted His pastimes

 

five thousand years ago in Vrndavana, India, He would

go every day with His

 

cowherd boyfriends and their calves and cows to play

in the forest on the bank

 

of the Yamuna River. And often Kamsa would send some

demon to try to kill Krsna

 

and His friends. Yet the cowherd boys would continue

enjoying their pastimes

 

without anxiety because they were so confident of

Krsna's protection. That is

 

spiritual life, which begins with surrendering to

Krsna.

 

Surrendering to Krsna means having the strong faith

that Krsna will save us

 

in any dangerous condition. The first step in

surrendering is that we should

 

accept whatever is favorable for devotional service.

Then we should reject

 

anything that is unfavorable for devotional service.

The next stage is the

 

confidence that in any situation Krsna will protect us

and maintain us.

 

Actually, He is already giving protection and

maintenance to everyone. That is a

 

fact. But in maya (illusion) we think that we are

protecting ourselves, or that

 

we are feeding ourselves.

 

For the devotees, Krsna personally takes charge of

their protection and

 

maintenance. And for the ordinary living entities,

Maya-devi--Krsna's external

 

energy--takes charge. Maya-devi is Krsna's agent for

punishing the conditioned

 

souls. The situation is like what we see in the state:

good citizens are taken

 

care of by the government directly, while criminals

are taken care of by the

 

government through the prison department. In the

prison house the government

 

takes care that the prisoners get sufficient food, and

that they get hospital

 

treatment if they become diseased. The government

cares for them--but under

 

punishment.

 

Similarly, in this material world Krsna has certainly

arranged for our care,

 

but also for our punishment. If you commit this sin,

then slap. If you commit

 

that sin, then kick. This is going on under the

heading of the threefold

 

miseries--those caused by our own body and mind, those

caused by other living

 

entities, and those caused by natural calamities under

the supervision of the

 

demigods. Unfortunately, instead of understanding that

we are being punished for

 

sinful activities, under the spell of maya we are

thinking that this kicking,

 

slapping, and thrashing are accidental. This is

illusion.

 

As soon as you take up Krsna consciousness, Krsna

begins personally taking

 

care of you. As He promises in the Bhagavad-gita

(18.66), " I will take care of

 

you. I will save you from all sinful reactions. Do not

worry. " Because we have

 

had so many lives in this material world, we are

suffering under heaps of sinful

 

reactions. But as soon as you surrender to Krsna, He

immediately takes care of

 

you and nullifies all your sinful reactions. Krsna

says, " Don't hesitate. " Don't

 

think, " Oh, I have committed so many sins. How can

Krsna save me? " No. Krsna is

 

all-powerful. He can save you. Your duty is to

surrender to Him and without any

 

reservation dedicate your life to His service. Then

Krsna will save you without

 

a doubt.

 

Krsna: A Seeming Paradox

 

The Isopanisad states, " The Supreme Lord walks and

does not walk. He is far

 

away, but He is very near as well. He is within

everything, and yet He is

 

outside of everything. " How can Krsna walk and also

not walk? As a crude

 

example, consider how the sun at noontime shines on

your head. Now, if you begin

 

walking, you will see that the sun is accompanying

you. About forty years ago,

 

when I was a householder, I was once walking with my

second son in the evening.

 

He was four years old. All of a sudden he said, " O

father, why is the moon

 

following us? " You see? The moon and the sun are fixed

in the sky, yet they seem

 

to be moving with us. Similarly, if you are going on

an airplane or a train, you

 

will see that the moon or the sun is going with you.

So if this is possible for

 

the sun and the moon, why can't Krsna also walk with

you? " Although He is

 

situated far away, He is very near as well. " In other

words, although Krsna is

 

in Goloka Vrndavana enjoying pastimes with His

associates, He is simultaneously

 

everywhere in this material world. In this way the

Supreme Lord " walks and does

 

not walk. "

 

If Krsna were not present here as well as in Goloka,

how could He accept the

 

food the devotees offer Him? Don't think that Krsna

does not accept the

 

devotees' offerings. He can stretch His hand

immediately if one offers Him

 

something with devotion. In the Bhagavad-gita (9.26)

Krsna says, tad aham

 

bhakty-upahrtam asnami: " Whenever someone offers Me

something with faith and

 

love, I accept it. " People may ask, " Oh, Krsna is far

away in Goloka Vrndavana.

 

How can He eat your offering? " Yes, He accepts it.

Yes, He eats it--provided it

 

is offered with love.

 

So, Krsna is present everywhere, and He can manifest

Himself anywhere

 

immediately, but you must have the qualification to

call Him. If you are

 

actually a devotee, Krsna will immediately come to

protect you. The demon

 

Hiranyakasipu challenged his son, the devotee

Prahlada: " Where is your God? You

 

say He is everywhere. Then is He in this column of my

palace? You think your God

 

is there? All right. Then I will kill Him. "

Hiranyakasipu immediately broke the

 

column. Then Krsna came out of the column in His form

as Nrsimhadeva--half man

 

and half lion--and killed the demon. That is Krsna.

 

So Krsna can manifest Himself anywhere because He is

present everywhere. That

 

is explained in the Isopanisad: tad antarasya sarvasya

tad u sarvasyasya

 

bahyatah. " The Supreme Lord is within everything, and

yet He is outside of

 

everything as well. " This Vedic mantra is proof that

the Lord is everywhere.

 

Whatever is said in the Vedas is a fact. Unless you

accept the Vedas as

 

axiomatic truth, you cannot make progress in Krsna

consciousness. In mathematics

 

there are also many axiomatic truths--a point has no

length or breadth, things

 

equal to the same thing are equal to one another, etc.

These are axiomatic

 

truths, and we have to accept them if we want to learn

mathematics. Similarly,

 

the Vedas contain axiomatic truths, and we have to

accept the Vedas as axiomatic

 

if we want to make spiritual progress.

 

Sometimes the Vedas seem to contradict themselves, but

still we have to

 

accept all the Vedic injunctions. For example,

according to Vedic injunction, if

 

you touch the bone of an animal you immediately become

impure and must take a

 

bath. Now, a conchshell is the bone of an animal, but

the conchshell is used in

 

the Deity room, where everything must be spotlessly

pure. You cannot argue, " Oh,

 

you said that a bone is impure, and that as soon as

you touch it you become

 

impure. Still you are putting a conchshell in the

Deity room? " No. There is no

 

room for such an argument. You have to accept that

while bones are impure, the

 

conchshell is so pure that it can be used in the Deity

room.

 

Similarly, you have to accept the spiritual master's

order as axiomatic.

 

There can be no argument. In this way you can make

progress. You cannot argue

 

about things that are inconceivable to you. You will

only fail. You have to

 

accept the Vedic injunctions and the orders of the

spiritual master as axiomatic

 

truth. This is not dogmatic, because our predecessor

spiritual masters accepted

 

this principle. If you argue with your spiritual

master, you will never reach a

 

conclusion. The argument will go on perpetually: you

put some argument, I put

 

some argument... That is not the process.

 

As the Mahabharata says, tarko 'pratisthah srutayo

vibhinna: Mere logic and

 

argument can never come to a firm conclusion, and due

to different countries and

 

different circumstances, one scripture is different

from another. Then nasav

 

rsir yasya matam na bhinnam: As far as philosophical

speculation is concerned,

 

one philosopher puts forward some theory, then another

philosopher puts forward

 

another theory, and the theories always contradict

each other. Unless you defeat

 

another philosopher, you cannot be a famous

philosopher. That is the way of

 

philosophy. Then how can one learn the conclusive

philosophical truth? That is

 

stated: dharmasya tattvam nihitam guhayam. The secret

of the religious process

 

is lying within the hearts of the self-realized souls.

Then how do you realize

 

it? Mahajano yena gatah sa panthah: You have to follow

in the footsteps of great

 

spiritual personalities. Therefore we are trying to

follow Lord Krsna and Lord

 

Caitanya. That is perfection. You have to accept the

injunctions of the Vedas,

 

and you have to follow the instructions of the bona

fide spiritual master. Then

 

success is sure.

 

The Lord and His Energy--One and Different

 

The Isopanisad states, " One who always sees all living

entities as spiritual

 

sparks, in quality one with the Lord, becomes a true

knower of things. What,

 

then, can cause him illusion or anxiety? " This

realization is Krsna

 

consciousness. There are different kinds of

realization, but the devotee of

 

Krsna realizes the truth--that we are qualitatively

one with the Lord but

 

quantitatively different from Him. The impersonalists

think that we are a

 

hundred percent one with the Lord, or the Supreme

Absolute Truth. But that is

 

not a fact. If we were a hundred percent one with the

Supreme Lord, then how

 

have we come under the control of maya (illusion)? The

impersonalists cannot

 

answer this question.

 

The real nature of our identity with the Supreme is

described in the Vedic

 

literature with the analogy of the sparks and the

fire. The sparks of a fire

 

have the same quality as the fire, yet they are

different in quantity. But when

 

the small spark leaves the fire and falls down in

water, its fiery quality is

 

lost. Similarly, when the infinitesimal soul leaves

the association of the Lord

 

and contacts the mode of ignorance, his spiritual

quality becomes almost

 

extinct. When a spark falls on the land instead of in

the water, then the spark

 

retains some heat. Similarly, when the living entity

is in the quality of

 

passion, there is some hope that he can revive his

Krsna consciousness. And if

 

the spark drops onto dry grass, it can ignite another

fire and regain all its

 

fiery qualities. Similarly, a person who is in the

mode of goodness can take

 

full advantage of spiritual association and easily

revive his Krsna

 

consciousness. Therefore one has to come to the

platform of goodness in this

 

material world.

 

Again, the analogy of the fire can help us understand

the simultaneous

 

oneness and difference of the Lord and His diverse

energies. Fire has two main

 

energies, heat and light. Wherever there is fire,

there is heat and light. Now,

 

the heat is not different from the fire, nor is the

light--but still, heat and

 

light are not fire. Similarly, the whole universe can

be understood in this way.

 

The universe is simply made up of Krsna's energies,

and therefore nothing is

 

different from Krsna. But still, Krsna is separate

from everything in the

 

material universe.

 

So, whatever we see within the material or spiritual

worlds is but an

 

expansion of Krsna's multifarious energies. This

material world is an expansion

 

of Krsna's external energy (bahiranga sakti), the

spiritual world is an

 

expansion of His internal energy (antaranga sakti),

and we living entities are

 

an expansion of His marginal energy (tatastha sakti).

We are sakti, energy. We

 

are not the energetic.

 

The Mayavadi philosophers say that because the

energies are not outside of

 

Brahman, the energetic, they are all identical with

Brahman. This is monism. Our

 

Vaisnava philosophy is that the energy is

simultaneously one with and different

 

from the energetic. Again the analogy of the heat and

fire: When you perceive

 

heat, you understand that there is fire nearby. But

this does not mean that

 

because you feel some heat, you are in the fire. So

the heat and the fire, the

 

energy and the energetic, are one yet different.

 

So the Mayavada philosophy of oneness and our Vaisnava

philosophy of oneness

 

are different. The Maya-vadis say Brahman is real but

that the energy emanating

 

from Brahman is false. We say that because Brahman is

real, His energy must also

 

be real. That is the difference between Mayavada

philosophy and Vaisnava

 

philosophy. One cannot claim that this material energy

is false, although it is

 

certainly temporary. Suppose we have some trouble.

There are so many kinds of

 

trouble pertaining to the body and mind and external

affairs. That trouble comes

 

and goes, but when we are undergoing it, it is

certainly real. We feel the

 

consequence. We cannot say it is false. The Mayavadi

philosophers say that it is

 

false. But then why do they become so disturbed when

they have some trouble? No,

 

none of Krsna's energies is false.

 

The Isopanisad uses the word vijanatah-- " one who

knows " --to describe a person

 

who understands the oneness and difference of the Lord

and His energies. If one

 

is not vijanatah, one will remain in illusion and

suffer. But for one who knows,

 

there is no illusion, no lamentation. When you are

perfectly convinced that

 

there is nothing except Krsna and Krsna's energies,

then there is no illusion or

 

lamentation for you. This is known as the brahma-bhuta

stage, as explained in

 

the Bhagavad-gita (18.54): brahma-bhutah prasannatma

na socati na kanksati. " One

 

who is transcendentally situated in Brahman

realization becomes fully joyful,

 

and he never laments or desires to have anything. "

 

For our sense gratification we are very eager to get

things we do not have.

 

That is hankering. And when we lose something, we

lament. But if we know that

 

Krsna is the source and proprietor of the entire

material energy, we understand

 

that everything belongs to Him and that anything

gained is given by Him for His

 

service. Thus we do not hanker for the things of this

world. Furthermore, if

 

something is taken away by Krsna, then what is the

need for lamentation? We

 

should think, " Krsna wanted to take it away from me.

Therefore, why should I

 

lament? The Supreme Lord is the cause of all causes.

He takes away, He also

 

gives. " When one is thus in full knowledge, there is

no more lamentation and no

 

more hankering. That is the spiritual platform. Then

you can see everyone as a

 

spiritual spark, as part and parcel of Krsna, and as

His eternal servant.

 

Krsna, the Supreme Pure

 

The Isopanisad states that the Lord is " the greatest

of all, unembodied,

 

omniscient, beyond reproach, without veins, pure and

uncontaminated. " No sin can

 

pollute Krsna. Sometimes less intelligent persons

criticize Krsna: " Why did

 

Krsna engage in the rasa dance, enjoying with other

men's wives in the middle of

 

the night? " Krsna is God. He can do whatever He likes.

Your laws cannot restrict

 

Krsna. For you there are so many restrictive laws, but

for Krsna there is no

 

restrictive law. He can surpass all regulations.

 

Pariksit Maharaja asked this same question of Sukadeva

Gosvami: " Krsna came

 

to establish the principles of morality and religion.

Then why did He enjoy the

 

company of so many young girls who were the wives of

others? This seems to be

 

very sinful. " Sukadeva Gosvami answered that Krsna

cannot be contaminated by

 

sin; rather, whoever comes in contact with Krsna, even

with a contaminated mind,

 

becomes purified. The sun is a good analogy: the sun

cannot be contaminated;

 

rather, if something contaminated is placed in the

sunshine, it becomes

 

purified. Similarly, you may approach Krsna with any

material desire and you

 

will become purified. Of course, the gopis' feelings

toward Krsna are not at all

 

material. Still, as young girls they were captivated

by His beauty. They

 

approached Krsna with the desire to have Him as their

paramour. But actually,

 

they became purified. Even demons can become purified

by coming in contact with

 

Krsna. The demon Kamsa, for example, thought of Krsna

as his enemy. But he was

 

also Krsna conscious, always thinking, " Oh, how will I

find Krsna? I will kill

 

Him. " That was his demoniac mentality. But he also

became purified. He got

 

salvation.

 

The conclusion is that if we can somehow or other

develop our Krsna

 

consciousness, we will immediately become purified of

all sinful desires. Krsna

 

gives this chance to everyone.

 

Beyond the Limits of the Body

 

When the Isopanisad describes the Supreme Lord as " He

who is the greatest of

 

all, who is unembodied and omniscient, " this shows the

distinction between God

 

and ourselves. We are embodied. Therefore my body is

different from me. When I

 

leave this body, it becomes dust. As the Bible says,

" Dust thou art, and unto

 

dust shalt thou return. " But I am not dust; I am a

spirit soul. Therefore thou

 

means " the body. "

 

Krsna, however, is not embodied. This means there is

no difference between

 

His body and His soul. In other words, His body is

pure spirit. Therefore He

 

does not change His body. And because He does not

change His body, He is

 

omniscient--He remembers everything. Because we do

change our material bodies,

 

however, we forget what happened in our last birth. We

have forgotten who we

 

were, just as when we sleep we forget our body and our

surroundings. The body

 

becomes tired and rests; it becomes inactive. In

contrast, in a dreamland I

 

work, I go somewhere, I fly, I create another body,

another environment. This we

 

experience 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 an Indian. In my next life, however, I

may not be an Indian--I

 

may be an American. But even if I become an American,

I may not be a man. I may

 

be a cow or a bull. Then I would be sent to the

slaughterhouse. Do you see the

 

difficulty?

 

The problem is that we are always changing bodies,

life after life. It is a

 

serious problem. We have no fixed position; we do not

know where we will be

 

placed within the 8,400,000 species of life. But there

is a solution: If somehow

 

or other a person develops pure Krsna consciousness,

he will go to Krsna at the

 

time of death, and then he does not have to accept a

material body again. He

 

gets a spiritual body similar to Krsna's, full of

eternity, knowledge, and

 

bliss.

 

Therefore we should take up the practice of Krsna

consciousness and execute

 

it very seriously, without any deviation. We should

not think that Krsna

 

consciousness is some kind of fashion. No, it is the

most important function of

 

every human being. Human life is simply meant for

developing Krsna

 

consciousness. One has no other business.

 

Unfortunately, the people of the modern civilization

have created so many

 

other engagements that they are forgetting Krsna

consciousness. This is called

 

maya, or illusion. They are forgetting their real

business. And the rascal,

 

blind leaders are leading everyone to hell. They are

simply misleaders. People

 

do not like to accept any authority. Still, they have

accepted these rascals as

 

leaders and are being misled. In this way both the

rascal leaders and their

 

unfortunate followers remain bound up by the stringent

laws of material nature.

 

So, if somehow or other one comes in contact with

Krsna, one should seriously

 

take up the process of Krsna consciousness and catch

hold of His lotus feet very

 

tightly. If you hold on to Krsna's lotus feet very

tightly, maya will not be

 

able to harm you.

 

Spiritual and Material Education

 

The Isopanisad states, " Those who are engaged in the

culture of nescience

 

shall enter into the darkest region of ignorance. "

There are two kinds of

 

education, material and spiritual. Material education

is called jada-vidya. Jada

 

means " that which cannot move, " or matter. Spirit can

move. Our body is a

 

combination of spirit and matter. As long as the

spirit is there, the body is

 

moving. For example, a man's coat and pants move as

long as the man wears them.

 

It appears that the coat and pants are moving on their

own, but actually it is

 

the body that is moving them. Similarly, this body is

moving because the spirit

 

soul is moving it. Another example is the motorcar.

The motorcar is moving

 

because the driver is moving it. Only a fool thinks

the motorcar is moving on

 

its own. In spite of a wonderful mechanical

arrangement, the motorcar cannot

 

move on its own.

 

Since they are given only jada-vidya, a materialistic

education, people think

 

that this material nature is working, moving, and

manifesting so many wonderful

 

things automatically. When we are at the seaside, we

see the waves moving. But

 

the waves are not moving automatically. The air is

moving them. And something

 

else is moving the air. In this way, if you go all the

way back to the ultimate

 

cause, you will find Krsna, the cause of all causes.

That is real education, to

 

search out the ultimate cause.

 

So the Isopanisad says that those who are captivated

by the external

 

movements of the material energy are worshiping

nescience. In the modern

 

civilization there are big, big institutions for

understanding technology, how a

 

motorcar or an airplane moves. They are studying how

to manufacture so much

 

machinery. But there is no educational institution for

investigating how the

 

spirit soul is moving. The actual mover is not being

studied. Instead they are

 

studying the external movements of matter.

 

When I lectured at the Massachusetts Institute of

Technology, I asked the

 

students, " Where is the technology to study the soul,

the mover of the body? "

 

They had no such technology. They could not answer

satisfactorily because their

 

education was simply jada-vidya. The Isopanisad says

that those who engage in

 

the advancement of such materialistic education will

go to the darkest region of

 

existence. Therefore the present civilization is in a

very dangerous position

 

because there is no arrangement anywhere in the world

for genuine spiritual

 

education. In this way human society is being pushed

to the darkest region of

 

existence.

 

In a song, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura has declared

that materialistic

 

education is simply an expansion of maya. The more we

advance in this

 

materialistic education, the more our ability to

understand God will be

 

hampered. And at last we will declare, " God is dead. "

This is all ignorance and

 

darkness.

 

So, the materialists are certainly being pushed into

darkness. But there is

 

another class--the so-called philosophers, mental

speculators, religionists, and

 

yogis--who are going into still greater darkness

because they are defying Krsna.

 

They are pretending to cultivate spiritual knowledge,

but because they have no

 

information of Krsna, or God, their teachings are even

more dangerous than those

 

of the outright materialists. Why? Because they are

misleading people into

 

thinking they are giving real spiritual knowledge. The

so-called yoga system

 

they are teaching is misleading people: " Simply

meditate, and you will

 

understand that you are God. " Krsna never meditated to

become God. He was God

 

from His very birth. When He was a three-month-old

baby, the Putana demon

 

attacked Him--and Krsna sucked out her life air along

with her breast milk. So

 

Krsna was God from the very beginning. That is God.

 

The nonsense so-called yogis teach, " You become still

and silent, and you

 

will become God. " How can I become silent? Is there

any possibility of becoming

 

silent? No, there is no such possibility. " Become

desireless and you will become

 

God. " How can I become desireless? These are all

bluffs. We cannot be

 

desireless. We cannot be silent. But our desires and

our activities can be

 

purified. That is real knowledge. We should desire

only to serve Krsna. That is

 

purification of desire. Instead of trying to be still

and silent, we should

 

dovetail our activities in Krsna's service. As living

entities, we have

 

activities, desires, and a loving propensity, but they

are being misdirected. If

 

we direct them into Krsna's service, that is the

perfection of education.

 

We don't say that you should not become advanced in

material education. You

 

may, but at the same time you should become Krsna

conscious. That is our

 

message. We don't say that you shouldn't manufacture

motorcars. No. We say, " All

 

right, you have manufactured these motorcars. Now

employ them in Krsna's

 

service. " That is our proposal.

 

So education is required, but if it is simply

materialistic--if it is devoid

 

of Krsna consciousness--it is very, very dangerous.

That is the teaching of the

 

Isopanisad.

 

Knowledge vs. Nescience

 

The Isopanisad says, " The wise have explained that one

result is derived from

 

the culture of knowledge and that a different result

is obtained from the

 

culture of nescience. " As explained above, the real

culture of knowledge is the

 

advancement of spiritual knowledge. And advancement of

knowledge in the matter

 

of bodily comforts or to protect the body is the

culture of nescience, because

 

however you may try to protect this body, it will

follow its natural course.

 

What is that? Repeated birth and death, and while the

body is manifested,

 

disease and old age. People are very busy cultivating

knowledge of this body,

 

although they see that at every moment the body is

decaying. The death of the

 

body was fixed when it was born. That is a fact. So

you cannot stop the natural

 

course of this body--namely birth, old age, disease,

and death.

 

The Srimad-Bhagavatam (10.84.13) says that this body

is nothing but a bag

 

containing three primary elements--mucus, bile, and

air--and that one who

 

accepts this combination of mucus, bile, and air as

himself is an ass. Even

 

great philosophers and scientists take themselves to

be this combination of

 

mucus, bile, and air. This is their mistake. Actually,

the philosophers and

 

scientists are spirit souls, and according to their

karma they are exhibiting

 

their talent. They do not understand the law of karma.

 

Why do we find so many different personalities? If

human beings are nothing

 

but combinations of mucus, bile, and air, why are they

not identical? One man is

 

born a millionaire; another is unable to have two full

meals a day, despite

 

struggling very hard. Why this difference? Because of

the law of karma, action

 

and reaction. One who understands this mystery is in

knowledge.

 

Human life is meant for understanding the mystery of

life. And one who fails

 

to utilize this human form for this purpose is a

krpana, a miser. This is stated

 

in the Garga Upanisad. If you get one million dollars

and do not use it,

 

thinking, " Oh, I will simply keep this bank balance of

one million dollars, " you

 

are a krpana. You do not know how to use your money.

On the other hand, one who

 

uses his million dollars to make another million

dollars is intelligent.

 

Similarly, this human body is invaluable. One who uses

it for cultivating

 

spiritual knowledge is a brahmana, a wise man, and one

who cultivates

 

materialistic knowledge is a krpana, a miser. That is

the difference between

 

brahmana and krpana.

 

One who uses this body the way cats and dogs do--for

sense gratification--is

 

a miser. He does not know how to use his " million

dollars. " Therefore it is the

 

duty of the father, the mother, the state, and the

teachers to provide spiritual

 

education for their dependents from the very beginning

of their lives. Indeed,

 

the Srimad-Bhagavatam says that one should not become

a father, a mother, a

 

teacher, or a governmental head unless one is able to

elevate one's dependents

 

to the platform of spiritual knowledge, which can save

them from repeated birth

 

and death.

 

The Way of Knowing God

 

In the Vedic disciplic succession, the spiritual

masters always base their

 

statements on what they have heard from authoritative

sources, never on personal

 

experience. Trying to understand things by one's own

direct experience is the

 

material process of gaining knowledge, technically

called pratyaksa. The Vedic

 

method is different. It is called sruti, which means

" to hear from authoritative

 

sources. " That is the secret of Vedic understanding.

 

With your imperfect senses you should not try to

understand things that are

 

beyond your experimental powers. That is not possible.

Suppose you want to know

 

who your father is. Can you find out by experimenting?

Is it possible? No. Then

 

how can you know who your father is? By hearing from

the proper authority, your

 

mother. This is common sense. And if you cannot know

your material father by the

 

experimental process, how can you know the Supreme

Father by the experimental

 

process? Krsna is the original father. He is the

father of the father of the

 

father, all the way down to you. So if you cannot

understand your immediate

 

father, the previous generation, by the experimental

process, how can you know

 

God, or Krsna, in this way?

 

People search for God by the experimental process, but

after much searching

 

they fail. Then they say, " Oh, there is no God. I am

God. " But the Isopanisad

 

says that one should try to learn about God not by the

experimental process but

 

by hearing. From whom should one hear? From a

shopkeeper? From fanatics? No. One

 

should hear from those who are dhira. Dhira means " one

whose senses are not

 

agitated by material influence. "

 

There are different kinds of agitation--agitations of

the mind, the power of

 

speech, and anger, and agitations of the tongue,

belly, and genitals. When we

 

become angry, we forget everything and can do any

nonsense and speak so much

 

nonsense. For the agitation of the tongue there are so

many advertisements:

 

" Here is liquor, here is chicken, here is beef. " Will

we die without liquor,

 

chicken, or beef? No. For the human beings Krsna has

given so many nice things

 

to eat--grains, fruits, milk, and so on.

 

The cow produces milk abundantly, not for herself but

for human beings. That

 

is proper human food. God says, " Mrs. Cow, although

you are producing milk, you

 

cannot drink it. It is for the human beings, who are

more advanced than

 

animals. " Of course, in the infant stage animals live

off their mother's milk,

 

so the calves drink some of the cow's milk. But the

cow gives excess milk, and

 

that excess is specifically meant for us.

 

We should accept whatever God has ordained as our

proper food. But no,

 

because of the agitation of the tongue, we think, " Why

should I be satisfied

 

eating grains, milk products, vegetables, and fruits?

Let me maintain a

 

slaughterhouse and kill these cows. After drinking

their milk, just as I drank

 

my mother's milk, let me kill them to satisfy my

tongue. " You shouldn't think

 

such nonsense but should hear from the dhiras, or

svamis, who have controlled

 

their senses. A svami, or gosvami, is one who has

control over the six

 

agitations: the speech, the mind, anger, the tongue,

the belly, and the

 

genitals.

 

There is a nice poem by Kalidasa called

Kumara-sambhava describing how Lord

 

Siva is dhira. When Lord Siva's wife, Sati, heard Siva

being blasphemed at a

 

sacrifice performed by her father, she committed

suicide. Upon hearing about his

 

wife's suicide, Lord Siva became very angry and left

this planet to meditate

 

elsewhere. During that time there was a war between

the demons and the demigods.

 

The demigods needed a good general. They concluded

that if Lord Siva were to

 

beget a son, the son would be able to lead them in the

fight against the demons.

 

Lord Siva was completely naked while meditating. So

Parvati, the reincarnation

 

of Sati, was sent to agitate his genitals for sex. But

he was not agitated. He

 

remained silent. At this point Kalidasa remarks, " Here

is a dhira. He is naked,

 

and a young girl is touching his genitals, but still

he is not agitated. " Dhira

 

means that even if there is some cause for agitation,

one will not be agitated.

 

If there is some very nice food, my tongue should not

be agitated to taste it.

 

If there is a very nice girl or boy, still I should

not be agitated sexually. In

 

this way one who is dhira is able to control the six

agitating forces mentioned

 

above. It is not that Lord Siva was impotent: he was

dhira. Similarly, Krsna

 

danced with so many girls, but there was no sex

appetite.

 

So, you have to hear from a person who is dhira. If

you hear from the adhira,

 

from those who are not self-controlled, then whatever

knowledge you learn will

 

be useless. In the Isopanisad, a student has

approached his spiritual master to

 

inquire from him, and the spiritual master is saying,

" This is what I have heard

 

from authoritative sources. " The spiritual master is

not inventing something

 

from his own experience. He is presenting exactly what

he has heard.

 

So we have nothing to research. Everything is there.

We simply have to hear

 

from a person who is dhira, who is not agitated by the

six urges. That is the

 

Vedic process of gaining knowledge. And if we try to

use some other process, we

 

will remain covered by nescience.

 

The Isopanisad states, " Only one who can learn the

process of nescience and

 

that of transcendental knowledge side by side can

transcend the influence of

 

repeated birth and death and enjoy the full blessings

of immortality. " People do

 

not understand what immortality is. They think it is a

mythological idea. They

 

are proud of their advancement of knowledge, but there

are many things they do

 

not know, nor can they ever know them by their modern

system of experimentation.

 

So if you want real knowledge, you should take

knowledge from the literature

 

known as the Vedas. (The word veda means " knowledge. " )

Part of the Vedas are the

 

108 Upanisads, out of which eleven are very important.

Of those eleven, the

 

Isopanisad stands first. In the word upanisad, upa

means " near. " So the

 

knowledge in the Isopanisad will take you nearer to

Krsna.

 

In learned society the Vedas are accepted as sruti, or

primary evidence. The

 

Vedas are not knowledge established by the research

work of contaminated,

 

conditioned souls. Such people have imperfect senses,

and so they cannot see

 

things as they are. They simply theorize, " It may be

like this. It may be like

 

that. " That is not knowledge. Knowledge is definite,

without any doubt or

 

mistake. Conditioned souls commit mistakes, become

illusioned, and cheat. How do

 

they cheat? When one who does not understand the

Bhagavad-gita writes a

 

commentary on it, he is cheating the innocent public.

Someone has a title as a

 

scholar, so he takes advantage of the popularity of

the Bhagavad-gita and writes

 

a commentary. Such so-called scholars claim that

anyone can give his own

 

opinion. But in the Bhagavad-gita Krsna says that only

His devotee can

 

understand the Gita. So these so-called scholars are

cheating.

 

The conclusion is that if you want genuine spiritual

knowledge you have to

 

approach a bona fide spiritual master who has realized

the Absolute Truth.

 

Otherwise you will remain in darkness. You cannot

think, " Oh, I may or may not

 

accept a spiritual master. In any case, there are

books that I can learn from. "

 

No, the Vedic injunction is tad-vijnanartham sa gurum

evabhigacchet. The word

 

gacchet means " one must go, " not that one may or may

not go. To understand

 

transcendental knowledge, one must go to a spiritual

master. That is the Vedic

 

injunction.

 

You must know two things: what is maya (illusion) and

what is Krsna. Then

 

your knowledge is perfect. Of course, Krsna is so nice

that if you somehow or

 

other fully surrender to Him, all your searching for

knowledge will be finished:

 

not only will you know what Krsna is, but you will

automatically learn what maya

 

is. Krsna will give you intelligence from within.

 

So, by the mercy of both the spiritual master and

Krsna, one takes up

 

devotional service. How is that? Their mercy runs on

parallel lines. If you have

 

not yet found a spiritual master but are sincere,

Krsna will direct you to a

 

bona fide spiritual master. And if you get a bona fide

spiritual master, he will

 

take you to Krsna. Krsna is always sitting in your

heart as the caitya-guru, the

 

spiritual master within. It is that caitya-guru who

manifests Himself externally

 

as the spiritual master. Therefore the spiritual

master is the direct

 

representative of Krsna.

 

The Isopanisad says we should learn what vidya and

avidya are. Avidya is

 

ignorance under the guise of materialistic knowledge.

Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura

 

writes in one of his songs that " advancement of

material knowledge is simply the

 

advancement of maya's jurisdiction. " The more you

become implicated in material

 

knowledge, the less you can understand Krsna

consciousness. Those who are

 

advanced in material knowledge think, " What use is

this Krsna consciousness

 

movement? " They have no attraction for spiritual

knowledge; they are too

 

absorbed in avidya.

 

Some Indian boys reject the spiritual culture of India

and come to the West

 

to learn technology. When they see that I have

introduced in the West the things

 

they rejected in India, they are surprised. One reason

I came to the West is

 

that modern India has rejected spiritual knowledge.

Today Indians think that if

 

they can imitate Western technology, they will be

happy. This is maya. They do

 

not see that those who are three hundred times more

technologically advanced

 

than the Indians are not happy. India will not be able

to equal American or

 

European technology for at least three hundred years

because the Western

 

countries have been developing technology for a very

long time. But since the

 

time of creation Indian culture has been a spiritual

culture.Vidya, or genuine

 

spiritual knowledge, does not depend on technology.

Srila Vyasadeva is the

 

original guru of Vedic knowledge. How was he living?

In a cottage in

 

Badarikasrama. But just see his knowledge! He wrote so

many Puranas, including

 

the Srimad-Bhagavatam. He also wrote the Vedanta-sutra

and the Mahabharata. If

 

you studied every single verse written by Vyasadeva,

it would take your whole

 

life. The Srimad-Bhagavatam alone has no less than

eighteen thousand verses. And

 

each verse is so full of meaning that it would take a

whole lifetime to fully

 

understand it. This is Vedic culture.

 

There is no knowledge comparable to that contained in

the Vedic literature--

 

not only spiritual knowledge, but material knowledge

also. The Vedas discuss

 

astronomy, mathematics, and many other subjects. It is

not that in ancient times

 

there were no airplanes. They are mentioned in the

Puranas. These airplanes were

 

so strong and swift that they could easily reach other

planets. It is not that

 

there was no advancement of material knowledge in the

Vedic age. It was there.

 

But the people then did not consider it so important.

They were interested in

 

spiritual knowledge.

 

So, one should know what knowledge is, and what

nescience is. If we advance

 

in nescience, or material knowledge, we will have to

undergo repeated birth and

 

death. Moreover, there is no guarantee what your next

birth will be. That is not

 

in your hands. Now you are happy being an American,

but after quitting this body

 

you cannot dictate, " Please give me an American body

again. " Yes, you may get an

 

American body, but it may be an American cow's body.

Then you are destined for

 

the slaughterhouse.

 

So, cultivating material knowledge--nationalism,

socialism, this " ism, " that

 

" ism " --is simply a dangerous waste of time. Better to

cultivate real knowledge,

 

Vedic knowledge, which leads one to surrender to

Krsna. As Krsna says in the

 

Bhagavad-gita (7.19), bahunam janmanam ante jnanavan

mam prapadyate. After many,

 

many births, one who is in genuine knowledge comes to

Krsna and surrenders to

 

Him, realizing, " O Krsna, You are everything. " This is

the culmination of all

 

cultivation of knowledge.

 

Beyond the White Light of Brahman

 

The Isopanisad states, " One should know perfectly the

Personality of Godhead

 

and His transcendental name, as well as the temporary

material creation with its

 

temporary demigods, men, and animals. When one knows

these, he surpasses death

 

and the ephemeral cosmic manifestation with it, and in

the eternal kingdom of

 

God he enjoys his eternal life of bliss and knowledge.

O my Lord, sustainer of

 

all that lives, Your real face is covered by Your

dazzling effulgence. Kindly

 

remove that covering and exhibit Yourself to Your pure

devotee. "

 

Here the Isopanisad mentions the kingdom of God. Every

planet, both spiritual

 

and material, has a predominating deity. In the sun,

for example, the

 

predominating deity is Vivasvan. We get this

information from the Bhagavad-gita.

 

So, there are millions and trillions of universes

within the material sky, and

 

within each universe are millions and trillions of

planets, and in every planet

 

there is a predominating deity.

 

Beyond the material sky is the brahmajyoti, or

spiritual sky, where there are

 

innumerable Vaikuntha planets. Each Vaikuntha planet

is predominated by the

 

Supreme Lord in His Narayana form, and each Narayana

has a different name--

 

Pradyumna, Ani-ruddha, Sankarsana, etc. One cannot see

these planets because

 

they are covered by the spiritual brahmajyoti

effulgence, just as one cannot see

 

the sun globe on account of the dazzling sunshine. The

effulgence in the

 

spiritual sky is coming out of Krsna's planet, Goloka

Vrndavana, which is above

 

even Vaikuntha and where Krsna alone is the

predominator.

 

The planet of the Absolute Truth, Krsna, is covered by

the Brahman

 

effulgence. One has to penetrate that effulgence in

order to see the Lord.

 

Therefore in the Isopanisad the devotee prays, " Kindly

remove Your effulgence so

 

I can see You. " The Mayavadi philosophers do not know

that there is something

 

beyond the brahmajyoti. But here in the Isopanisad is

the Vedic evidence that

 

the brahmajyoti is simply a golden effulgence covering

the real face of the

 

Supreme Lord.

 

The idea is that Krsna's planet and the Vaikuntha

planets are beyond the

 

Brahman effulgence and that only devotees can enter

those spiritual planets. The

 

jnanis, the mental speculators, practice severe

austerities to enter the Brahman

 

effulgence. But the demons who are killed by Krsna are

immediately transferred

 

to that Brahman effulgence. So just consider: Is the

place that is given to the

 

enemies of Krsna very covetable? If my enemy comes to

my house, I may give him

 

some place to stay, but if my intimate friend comes, I

give him a much nicer

 

place to stay. So this Brahman effulgence is not at

all covetable.

 

Srila Prabodhananda Sarasvati has composed a nice

verse in which he says that

 

for the devotee, for one who has attained the mercy of

the Lord, the Brahman

 

effulgence is just like hell. Then what about heaven?

The karmis, or fruitive

 

workers, are very eager to go to the heavenly planets,

where the demigods

 

reside. But for the devotees heaven is just a

will-o'-the-wisp. They are not at

 

all attracted to go there. And then there are the

mystic yogis, who try very

 

strenuously to control the senses in order to attain

special powers. The senses

 

are like venomous serpents because as soon as you

indulge in sense

 

gratification--as soon as the senses " bite " you--you

become degraded. But the

 

devotee says, " I do not fear the poisonous serpents of

the senses. " Why?

 

" Because I have extracted their fangs. " In other

words, by engaging his senses

 

in Krsna's service, the devotee is no longer tempted

to indulge in sense

 

gratification, and thus his senses cannot drag him

down to a hellish condition

 

of life.

 

In this way, the devotees are above the karmis,

jnanis, and yogis. The

 

devotees' place is the highest because only by

devotion can one understand God.

 

Krsna does not say you can understand Him by fruitive

work. He does not say you

 

can understand Him by speculation. He does not say you

can understand Him by

 

mystic yoga. He clearly says (Bg. 18.55), bhaktya mam

abhi-janati yavan yas

 

casmi tattvatah: " Only by devotional service can one

truly understand Me as I

 

am. "

 

Except for devotional service, there is no possibility

of understanding the

 

Absolute Truth. Any other process is imperfect because

it is based on

 

speculation. For example, the scientists may speculate

on what the sun planet

 

is, but because they have no access there, they cannot

actually know what the

 

sun planet is. They can only speculate. That's all.

Once three blind men came

 

upon an elephant. They began feeling the elephant and

speculating on what it

 

was. One felt its big legs and concluded, " Oh, the

elephant is just like a

 

pillar. " The second man felt the trunk and concluded,

" Oh, this elephant is just

 

like a snake. " And the third man felt the belly of the

elephant and concluded,

 

" This elephant is like a big boat. " But actually, the

blind men did not know

 

what the elephant really was.

 

If you have no ability to see something, you can only

speculate about it.

 

Therefore the Isopanisad says, " Please remove this

brilliant effulgence covering

 

Your face so I can see You. " That seeing power is

bestowed upon the devotee by

 

Krsna when He sees the devotee's love for Him. As the

Brahma-samhita says,

 

premanjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena: The devotees

anoint their eyes with the

 

salve of love of God, and therefore they can see the

Lord's beautiful form

 

within their hearts. In India there is a special eye

ointment. If you apply it

 

you can immediately see clearly. Similarly, if you

smear your eyes with the

 

ointment of love of Godhead, you will see God always.

This is the way of

 

understanding God--by service and by enhancing your

love for Him. This love can

 

be developed only by devotional service; otherwise

there is no possibility of

 

achieving it. So the more you increase your spirit of

service to God, the more

 

you increase your dormant love for God. And as soon as

you are in the

 

perfectional stage of love of God, you will see God

always, at every moment.

 

Chapter 2

 

Bad Karma

 

The Srimad-Bhagavatam is an ancient Sanskrit scripture

that contains the

 

essence of all Vedic wisdom, recording the teachings

of the Lord's devotees, as

 

well as those of the Lord in many of His incarnations.

In this Thirtieth Chapter

 

of the Third Canto, an incarnation of Krsna's named

Kapiladeva graphically

 

describes the results of sin. Srila Prabhupada

explains the texts in his

 

purports.

 

TEXT 1: The Personality of Godhead said, " As a mass of

clouds does not know

 

the powerful influence of the wind, a person engaged

in material consciousness

 

does not know the powerful strength of the time

factor, by which he is being

 

carried. "

 

PURPORT: The great politician-pandita named Canakya

said that even one moment

 

of time cannot be returned, even if one is prepared to

pay millions of dollars.

 

One cannot calculate the amount of loss there is in

wasting valuable time.

 

Whether materially or spiritually, one should be very

alert in utilizing the

 

time which he has at his disposal. A conditioned soul

lives in a particular body

 

for a fixed measurement of time, and it is recommended

in the scriptures that

 

within that small measurement of time one has to

finish Krsna consciousness and

 

thus gain release from the influence of the time

factor. But, unfortunately,

 

those who are not in Krsna consciousness are carried

away by the strong power of

 

time without their knowledge, as clouds are carried by

the wind.

 

TEXT 2: " Whatever is produced by the materialist with

great pain and labor

 

for so-called happiness, the Supreme Personality, as

the time factor, destroys,

 

and for this reason the conditioned soul laments. "

 

PURPORT: The main function of the time factor, which

is a representative of

 

the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is to destroy

everything. The materialists,

 

in material consciousness, are engaged in producing so

many things in the name

 

of economic development. They think that by advancing

in satisfying the material

 

needs of man they will be happy, but they forget that

everything they have

 

produced will be destroyed in due course of time. From

history we can see that

 

there were many powerful empires on the surface of the

globe that were

 

constructed with great pain and great perseverance,

but in due course of time

 

they have all been destroyed. Still the foolish

materialists cannot understand

 

that they are simply wasting time in producing

so-called material necessities,

 

which are destined to be vanquished in due course of

time. This waste of energy

 

is due to the ignorance of the mass of people, who do

not know that they are

 

eternal and that they have an eternal engagement also.

They do not know that

 

this span of life in a particular type of body is but

a flash in the eternal

 

journey. Not knowing this fact, they take the small

flash of their present life

 

to be everything, and they waste time in improving

economic conditions.

 

TEXT 3: " The misguided materialist does not know that

his very body is

 

impermanent and that the attractions of home, land,

and wealth, which are in

 

relationship to that body, are also temporary. Out of

ignorance only, he thinks

 

that everything is permanent. "

 

PURPORT: The materialist thinks that persons engaged

in Krsna consciousness

 

are crazy fellows wasting time by chanting Hare Krsna,

but actually he does not

 

know that he himself is in the darkest region of

craziness because of accepting

 

his body as permanent. And in relation to his body he

accepts his home, his

 

country, his society, and all other paraphernalia as

permanent. This

 

materialistic acceptance of the permanence of home,

land, etc. is called the

 

illusion of maya. This is clearly mentioned here.

Mohad grha-ksetra-vasuni: out

 

of illusion only does the materialist accept his home,

his land, and his money

 

as permanent. Out of this illusion have grown family

life, national life, and

 

economic development, which are very important factors

in modern civilization. A

 

Krsna conscious person knows that this economic

development of human society is

 

but temporary illusion.

 

In another part of the Srimad-Bhagavatam, the

acceptance of the body as

 

oneself, the acceptance of others as kinsmen in

relationship to one's body, and

 

the acceptance of the land of one's birth as

worshipable are declared to be the

 

products of an animal civilization. When, however, one

is enlightened in Krsna

 

consciousness, one can use these for the service of

the Lord. That is a very

 

suitable proposition. Everything has a relationship

with Krsna. When all

 

economic development and material advancement are

utilized to advance the cause

 

of Krsna consciousness, a new phase of progressive

life arises.

 

TEXT 4: " In whatever species of life the living entity

appears, he finds a

 

particular type of satisfaction in that species, and

he is never averse to being

 

situated in such a condition. "

 

PURPORT: The satisfaction of the living entity in a

particular type of body,

 

even if it is most abominable, is called illusion. A

man in a higher position

 

may feel dissatisfaction with the standard of life of

a lower-grade man, but the

 

lower-grade man is satisfied in that position because

of the spell of maya, the

 

external energy. Maya has two phases of activity. One

is called praksepatmika,

 

and the other is called avaranatmika. Avaranatmika

means " covering, " and

 

praksepatmika means " pulling down. " In any condition

of life, the materialistic

 

person or animal will be satisfied because his

knowledge is covered by the

 

influence of maya. In the lower grade or lower species

of life, the development

 

of consciousness is so poor that one cannot understand

whether one is happy or

 

distressed. This is called avaranatmika. Even a hog,

who lives by eating stool,

 

thinks himself happy, although a person in a higher

mode of life sees how

 

abominable that life is.

 

TEXT 5: " While deluded by the covering influence of

the illusory energy, the

 

living entity feels little inclined to cast off his

body, even when in hell, for

 

he takes delight in hellish enjoyment. "

 

PURPORT: It is said that once Indra, the king of

heaven, was cursed by his

 

spiritual master, Brhaspati, on account of his

misbehavior, and he became a hog

 

on this planet. After many days, when Brahma wanted to

recall him to his

 

heavenly kingdom, Indra, in the form of a hog, forgot

everything of his royal

 

position in the heavenly kingdom, and he refused to go

back. This is the spell

 

of maya. Even Indra forgets his heavenly standard of

life and is satisfied with

 

the standard of a hog's life.

 

By the influence of maya the conditioned soul becomes

so affectionate toward

 

his particular type of body that even if someone says

to him, " Give up this

 

body, and immediately you will have a king's body, " he

will not agree. This

 

attachment strongly affects all conditioned living

entities.

 

Lord Krsna personally canvasses, " Give up everything

in this material world.

 

Come to Me, and I shall give you all protection, " but

we are not agreeable. We

 

think, " We are quite all right. Why should we

surrender unto Krsna and go back

 

to His kingdom? " This is called illusion, or maya.

Everyone is satisfied with

 

his standard of living, however abominable it may be.

 

TEXT 6: " Such satisfaction with one's standard of

living is due to deeprooted

 

attraction for body, wife, home, children, animals,

wealth, and friends.

 

In such association, the conditioned soul thinks

himself quite perfect. "

 

PURPORT: This so-called perfection of human life is a

concoction. Therefore

 

it is said that however materially qualified a person

may be, if he is not a

 

devotee of the Lord he has no good qualities because

he is hovering on the

 

mental plane, which will drag him again to the

material existence of temporary

 

life. One who acts on the mental plane cannot get

promotion to the spiritual

 

plane. Such a person is always sure to glide down

again to material life. Still,

 

in the association of so-called society, friendship,

and love, the conditioned

 

soul feels completely satisfied.

 

TEXT 7: " Although he is always burning with anxiety,

such a fool always

 

performs all kinds of mischievous activities with the

unfulfillable hope of

 

maintaining his so-called family and society. "

 

PURPORT: It is said that it is easier to maintain a

great empire than a small

 

family, especially in these days, when the influence

of Kali-yuga is so strong

 

that everyone is harassed and full of anxieties

because of accepting the false

 

presentation of maya's family. The family we maintain

is created by maya; it is

 

the perverted reflection of the family in Krsnaloka.

In Krsnaloka there are also

 

family, friends, society, father, and mother;

everything is there, but they are

 

eternal. Here, as we change bodies our family

relationships also change.

 

Sometimes we are in a family of human beings,

sometimes in a family of demigods,

 

sometimes a family of cats or dogs.

 

Family, society, and friendship are flickering, and so

they are called asat.

 

It is said that as long as we are attached to this

asat--this temporary,

 

nonexistent society and family--we are always full of

anxieties. The

 

materialists do not know that the family, society, and

friendship here in this

 

material world are only shadows, and thus they become

attached. Naturally their

 

hearts are always burning, but in spite of all

inconvenience, they still work to

 

maintain such false families because they have no

information of the real family

 

association with Krsna.

 

TEXT 8: " He gives heart and senses to a woman, who

falsely charms him with

 

maya. He enjoys solitary embraces and talking with

her, and he is enchanted by

 

the sweet words of the small children. "

 

PURPORT: Family life within the kingdom of the

illusory energy, maya, is just

 

like a prison for the eternal living entity. In prison

a prisoner is shackled by

 

iron chains and iron bars. Similarly, a conditioned

soul is shackled by the

 

charming beauty of a woman, by her solitary embraces

and talks of so-called

 

love, and by the sweet words of his small children.

Thus he forgets his real

 

identity.

 

In this verse the words strinam asatinam indicate that

womanly love exists

 

just to agitate the mind of man. Actually, in the

material world there is no

 

love. Both the woman and the man are interested in

their sense gratification.

 

For sense gratification a woman creates an illusory

love, and the man becomes

 

enchanted by such false love and forgets his real

duty. When there are children

 

as the result of such a combination, the next

attraction is to the sweet words

 

of the children. The love of the woman at home and the

talk of the children make

 

one a secure prisoner, and thus he cannot leave his

home. Such a person is

 

termed, in Vedic language, a grhamedhi, which means

" one whose center of

 

attraction is home. " The word grhastha refers to one

who lives with family,

 

wife, and children but whose real purpose of living is

to develop Krsna

 

consciousness. One is therefore advised to become a

grhastha, not a grhamedhi.

 

The grhastha's concern is to get out of the family

life created by illusion and

 

enter into real family life with Krsna, whereas the

grhamedhi's business is to

 

repeatedly chain himself to so-called family life, in

one life after another,

 

and perpetually remain in the darkness of maya.

 

TEXT 9: " The attached householder remains in his

family life, which is full

 

of diplomacy and politics. Always spreading miseries

and controlled by acts of

 

sense gratification, he acts just to counteract the

reactions of all his

 

miseries, and if he can successfully counteract such

miseries, he thinks he is

 

happy. "

 

PURPORT: In the Bhagavad-gita the Personality of

Godhead Himself certifies

 

the material world as an impermanent place that is

full of miseries. There is no

 

question of happiness in this material world, either

individually or in terms of

 

family, society, or country. If something is going on

in the name of happiness,

 

that is illusion. Here in this material world,

happiness means successful

 

counteraction of distress. The material world is so

made that unless one becomes

 

a clever diplomat, his life will be a failure. What to

speak of human society,

 

even in the society of lower animals, the birds and

beasts cleverly manage their

 

bodily demands of eating, sleeping, mating, and

defending. Human society

 

competes nationally or individually, and in the

attempt to be successful the

 

entire human society becomes full of diplomacy. We

should always remember that

 

in spite of all diplomacy and all intelligence in the

struggle for existence,

 

everything will end in a second by the supreme will.

Therefore, all our attempts

 

to become happy in this material world are simply a

delusion offered by maya.

 

TEXT 10: " He secures money by committing violence here

and there, and

 

although he employs it in the service of his family,

he himself eats only a

 

little portion of the food thus purchased, and he goes

to hell for those for

 

whom he earned the money in such an irregular way. "

 

PURPORT: There is a Bengali proverb: " The person for

whom I have stolen

 

accuses me of being a thief. " The family members for

whom an attached person

 

acts in so many criminal ways are never satisfied. In

illusion an attached

 

person serves such family members, and by serving them

he is destined to enter

 

into a hellish condition of life. For example, a thief

steals something to

 

maintain his family, and he is caught and imprisoned.

This is the sum and

 

substance of material existence and attachment to

material society, friendship,

 

and love. Although an attached family man is always

engaged in getting money by

 

hook or by crook for the maintenance of his family, he

cannot enjoy more than

 

what he could consume even without such criminal

activities. A man who eats

 

eight ounces of food may have to maintain a big family

and earn money by any

 

means to support that family, but he himself is not

offered more than what he

 

can eat, and sometimes he eats the remnants that are

left after his family

 

members are fed. Even by earning money by unfair

means, he cannot enjoy life for

 

himself. That is called the covering illusion of maya.

 

The process of illusory service to society, country,

and community is exactly

 

the same everywhere; the same principle is applicable

even to big national

 

leaders. A national leader who is very great in

serving his country is sometimes

 

killed by his countrymen because of irregular service.

In other words, one

 

cannot satisfy his dependents by this illusory

service, although one cannot get

 

out of the service because being a servant is his

constitutional position.

 

A living entity is constitutionally part and parcel of

the Supreme Being, but

 

he forgets that he has to render service to the

Supreme Being and diverts his

 

attention to serving others; this is called maya. By

serving others he falsely

 

thinks that he is master. The head of a family thinks

of himself as the master

 

of the family, or the leader of a nation thinks of

himself as the master of the

 

nation, whereas actually he is serving, and by serving

maya he is gradually

 

going to hell. Therefore a sane man should come to the

point of Krsna

 

consciousness and engage in the service of the Supreme

Lord, applying his whole

 

life, all of his wealth, his entire intelligence, and

his full power of

 

speaking.

 

TEXTS 11-13: " When he suffers reverses in his

occupation, he tries again and

 

again to improve himself, but when he is baffled in

all attempts and is ruined,

 

he accepts money from others because of excessive

greed. Thus the unfortunate

 

man, unsuccessful in maintaining his family members,

is bereft of all beauty. He

 

always thinks of his failure, grieving very deeply.

Seeing him unable to support

 

them, his wife and others do not treat him with the

same respect as before, even

 

as miserly farmers do not accord the same treatment to

their old and worn-out

 

oxen. "

 

PURPORT: Not only in the present age but from time

immemorial no one has

 

liked an old man who is unable to earn in the family.

Even in the modern age, in

 

some communities or states, the old men are given

poison so that they will die

 

as soon as possible. In some cannibalistic

communities, the old grandfather is

 

sportingly killed, and a feast is held in which his

body is eaten. Here the

 

example is given that a farmer does not like an old ox

who has ceased to work.

 

Similarly, when an attached person in family life

becomes old and is unable to

 

earn, he is no longer liked by his wife, sons,

daughters, and other kinsmen, and

 

he is consequently neglected, what to speak of not

being given respect. It is

 

judicious, therefore, to give up family attachment

before one attains old age

 

and take shelter of the Supreme Personality of

Godhead. A person should employ

 

himself in the Lord's service so that the Supreme Lord

can take charge of him

 

and he will not be neglected by his so-called kinsmen.

 

TEXT 14: " The foolish family man does not become

averse to family life

 

although he is maintained by those whom he once

maintained. Deformed by the

 

influence of old age, he prepares himself to meet

ultimate death. "

 

PURPORT: Family attraction is so strong that even if a

person is neglected by

 

family members in his old age, he cannot give up

family affection, and he

 

remains at home just like a dog. In the Vedic way of

life, it is advised that

 

before getting too weak and being baffled in material

activities, and before

 

becoming diseased, one should give up family life and

engage oneself completely

 

in the service of the Lord for the remaining days of

his life.

 

Therefore the Vedic scriptures enjoin that as soon as

one passes fifty years

 

of age, he must give up family life and live alone in

the forest. After

 

preparing himself fully, he should become a sannyasi,

travel widely, and

 

distribute the knowledge of spiritual life to each and

every home.

 

TEXT 15: " Thus he remains at home just like a pet dog

and eats whatever is so

 

negligently given to him. Afflicted with many

illnesses, such as dyspepsia and

 

loss of appetite, he eats only very small morsels of

food, and he becomes an

 

invalid, who cannot work any more. "

 

PURPORT: Before meeting death a man is sure to become

a diseased invalid, and

 

when he is neglected by his family members, his life

becomes less than a dog's

 

because he is put into so many miserable conditions.

Vedic literatures enjoin,

 

therefore, that before the arrival of such miserable

conditions, a man should

 

leave home and die without the knowledge of his family

members. If a man leaves

 

home and dies without his family's knowing, that is

considered a glorious death.

 

But an attached family man wants his family members to

carry him in a great

 

procession even after his death, and although he will

not be able to see how the

 

procession goes, he still desires that his body be

taken gorgeously in

 

procession. Thus he is happy without even knowing

where he has to go when he

 

leaves his body for the next life.

 

TEXTS 16-17: " In that diseased condition, a man's eyes

bulge due to the

 

pressure of air from within, and his glands become

congested with mucus. He has

 

difficulty breathing, and upon exhaling and inhaling

he produces a sound like

 

ghura-ghura, a rattling within the throat. In this way

he comes under the

 

clutches of death and lies down, surrounded by

lamenting friends and relatives,

 

and although he wants to speak with them, he no longer

can because he is under

 

the control of time. "

 

PURPORT: For formality's sake, when a man is lying on

his deathbed, his

 

relatives come to him, and sometimes they cry very

loudly, addressing the dying

 

man: " O my father! " " O my friend! " or " O my husband! "

In that pitiable condition

 

the dying man wants to speak with them and instruct

them of his desires, but

 

because he is fully under the control of the time

factor, death, he cannot

 

express himself, and that causes him in-conceivable

pain. He is already in a

 

painful condition because of disease, and his glands

and throat are choked up

 

with mucus. He is already in a very difficult

position, and when he is addressed

 

by his relatives in that way, his grief increases.

 

TEXT 18: " Thus the man who engaged with uncontrolled

senses in maintaining

 

his family dies in great grief, seeing his relatives

crying. He dies most

 

pathetically, in great pain and without

consciousness. "

 

PURPORT: In the Bhagavad-gita it is said that at the

time of death one will

 

be absorbed in the thoughts he cultivated during his

lifetime. A person who had

 

no idea other than to properly maintain his family

members must have family

 

affairs in his last thoughts. That is the natural

sequence for a common man. The

 

common man does not know the destiny of his life; he

is simply busy in this

 

present flash of life, maintaining his family. At the

last stage, no one is

 

satisfied with how he has improved the family economic

condition; everyone

 

thinks that he could not provide sufficiently. Because

of his deep family

 

affection, he forgets his main duty of controlling his

senses and improving his

 

spiritual consciousness. Sometimes a dying man

entrusts the family affairs to

 

either his son or some relative, saying, " I am going.

Please look after the

 

family. " He does not know where he is going, but even

at the time of death he is

 

anxious about how his family will be maintained.

Sometimes it is seen that a

 

dying man requests the physician to increase his life

at least for a few years

 

so that the family maintenance plan which he has begun

can be completed. These

 

are the material diseases of the conditioned soul. He

completely forgets his

 

real engagement--to become Krsna conscious--and is

always serious about planning

 

to maintain his family, although he changes families

one after another.

 

TEXT 19: " At death, he sees the messengers of the lord

of death come before

 

him, their eyes full of wrath, and in great fear he

passes stool and urine. "

 

PURPORT: There are two kinds of transmigration of a

living entity after

 

passing away from the present body. One kind of

transmigration is to go to the

 

controller of sinful activities, who is known as

Yamaraja, and the other is to

 

go to the higher planets, up to Vaikuntha. Here Lord

Kapila describes how

 

persons engaged in activities of sense gratification

to maintain a family are

 

treated by the messengers of Yamaraja, called

Yamadutas. At the time of death

 

the Yamadutas become the custodians of those persons

who have strongly gratified

 

their senses. They take charge of the dying man and

take him to the planet where

 

Yamaraja resides. The conditions there are described

in the following verses.

 

TEXT 20: " As a criminal is arrested for punishment by

the constables of the

 

state, a person engaged in criminal sense

gratification is similarly arrested by

 

the Yamadutas, who bind him by the neck with strong

rope and cover his subtle

 

body so that he may undergo severe punishment. "

 

PURPORT: Every living entity is covered by a subtle

body and a gross body.

 

The subtle body is the covering of mind, ego,

intelligence, and consciousness.

 

It is said in the scriptures that the constables of

Yamaraja cover the subtle

 

body of the culprit and take him to the abode of

Yamaraja to be punished in a

 

way that he is able to tolerate. He does not die from

this punishment because if

 

he died, then who would suffer the punishment? It is

not the business of the

 

constables of Yamaraja to put one to death. In fact,

it is not possible to kill

 

a living entity because factually he is eternal; he

simply has to suffer the

 

consequences of his activities of sense gratification.

 

The process of punishment is explained in the

Caitanya-caritamrta. Formerly

 

the king's men would take a criminal in a boat in the

middle of the river. They

 

would dunk him by grasping a bunch of his hair and

thrusting him completely

 

under water, and when he was almost suffocated, the

king's constables would take

 

him out of the water and allow him to breathe for some

time, and then they would

 

again dunk him in the water to suffocate. This sort of

punishment is inflicted

 

upon the forgotten soul by Yamaraja, as will be

described in the following

 

verses.

 

TEXT 21: " While carried by the constables of Yamaraja,

he is overwhelmed and

 

trembles in their hands. While passing on the road he

is bitten by dogs, and he

 

can remember the sinful activities of his life. He is

thus terribly distressed. "

 

PURPORT: It appears from this verse that while passing

from this planet to

 

the planet of Yamaraja, the culprit arrested by

Yamaraja's constables meets many

 

dogs, which bark and bite just to remind him of his

criminal activities of sense

 

gratification. It is said in the Bhagavad-gita that

one becomes almost blind and

 

is bereft of all sense when he is infuriated by the

desire for sense

 

gratification. He forgets everything. A man is bereft

of all intelligence when

 

he is too attracted by sense gratification, and he

forgets that he has to suffer

 

the consequences also. Here the chance for recounting

his activities of sense

 

gratification is given by the dogs engaged by

Yamaraja. While we live in the

 

gross body, such activities of sense gratification are

encouraged, even by

 

modern governments. In many states all over the world,

the government encourages

 

such activities by pushing birth control. Women are

supplied pills, and they are

 

allowed to go to a clinical laboratory to get

assistance for abortions. This is

 

going on as a result of sense gratification. Actually

sex is meant for begetting

 

a good child, but because people have no control over

the senses and there is no

 

institution to train them to control the senses, the

poor people fall victim to

 

the criminal offenses of sense gratification, and they

are punished after death

 

as described in these passages of the

Srimad-Bhagavatam.

 

TEXTS 22-24: " Under the scorching sun, the criminal

has to pass through roads

 

of hot sand with forest fires on both sides. He is

whipped on the back by the

 

constables because of his inability to walk, and he is

afflicted by hunger and

 

thirst. But unfortunately there is no drinking water,

no shelter, and no place

 

for rest on the road. While passing on that road to

the abode of Yamaraja, he

 

falls down in fatigue, and sometimes he becomes

unconscious, but he is forced to

 

rise again.

 

" In this way he is very quickly brought to the

presence of Yamaraja. Thus he

 

has to pass ninety-nine thousand yojanas within two or

three moments, and then

 

he is at once engaged in the torturous punishment he

is destined to suffer. "

 

PURPORT: One yojana is eight miles, and thus he has to

pass along a road that

 

is as much as 792,000 miles long. Such a long distance

is passed over within a

 

few moments only. The subtle body is covered by the

constables so that the

 

living entity can travel such a long distance quickly

and at the same time

 

tolerate the suffering. This covering, although

material, is of such fine

 

elements that material scientists cannot discover what

the coverings are made

 

of. To pass 792,000 miles within a few moments seems

wonderful to the modern

 

space travelers. They have so far traveled at a speed

of 18,000 miles per hour,

 

but here we see that a criminal passes 792,000 miles

within a few seconds only,

 

although the process is not spiritual but material.

 

TEXT 25: " He is placed in the midst of burning pieces

of wood, and his limbs

 

are set on fire. In some cases he is made to eat his

own flesh or have it eaten

 

by others. "

 

PURPORT: This verse and the next three verses describe

the sinful living

 

entity's punishment. The first description is that the

criminal has to eat his

 

own flesh, burning with fire, or allow others like

himself who are present there

 

to eat it. In the last great war, people in

concentration camps sometimes ate

 

their own stool, so there is no wonder that in

Yamasadana, the abode of

 

Yamaraja, a meat-eater who had a very enjoyable life

eating others' flesh has to

 

eat his own flesh.

 

TEXTS 26-28: " His entrails are pulled out by the

hounds and vultures of hell,

 

even though he is still alive to see it, and he is

subjected to torment by

 

serpents, scorpions, gnats, and other creatures that

bite him. Next his limbs

 

are lopped off and torn asunder by elephants. He is

hurled down from hilltops,

 

and he is also held captive either in water or in a

cave.

 

" Men and women whose lives were built upon indulgence

in illicit sex are put

 

into many kinds of miserable conditions in the hells

known as Tamisra, Andhatamisra,

 

and Raurava. "

 

PURPORT: The lives of all materialistic people, who

are undergoing severe

 

tribulation in the struggle for existence, are based

on sex. Therefore, in the

 

Vedic civilization sex is allowed only in a restricted

way; it is for the

 

married couple, and only for begetting children. But

when sex is indulged in for

 

sense gratification illegally and illicitly, both the

man and the woman await

 

severe punishment in this world or after death. In

this world they are punished

 

by virulent diseases like syphilis and gonorrhea, and

in the next life, as we

 

see in this passage of the Srimad-Bhagavatam, they are

put into various kinds of

 

hellish conditions to suffer.

 

In the Bhagavad-gita, First Chapter, illicit sex is

also very much condemned,

 

and it is said that one who produces children by

illicit sex is sent to hell. It

 

is confirmed here in the Bhagavatam that such

offenders are put into hellish

 

conditions of life in Tamisra, Andha-tamisra, and

Raurava.

 

TEXT 29: Lord Kapila continued, " My dear mother, it is

sometimes said that we

 

experience hell or heaven on this planet, for hellish

punishments are sometimes

 

visible on this planet also. "

 

PURPORT: Sometimes unbelievers do not accept these

statements of scripture

 

regarding hell. Lord Kapila therefore confirms them by

saying that these hellish

 

conditions are also visible on this planet. It is not

that they are only on the

 

planet where Yamaraja lives. On the planet of

Yamaraja, the sinful man is given

 

the chance to practice living in the hellish

conditions that he will have to

 

endure in the next life, and then he is given a chance

to take birth on another

 

planet to continue his hellish life.

 

For example, if a man is to be punished to remain in

hell and eat stool and

 

urine, then first of all he practices such habits on

the planet of Yamaraja, and

 

then he is given a particular type of body, that of a

hog, so that he can eat

 

stool and think he is enjoying life. It is stated

previously that in any hellish

 

condition, the conditioned soul thinks he is happy.

Otherwise, it would not be

 

possible for him to suffer hellish life.

 

TEXT 30: " After leaving this body, the man who

maintained himself and his

 

family members by sinful activities suffers a hellish

life, and his relatives

 

suffer also. "

 

PURPORT: The mistake of modern civilization is that

man does not believe in

 

the next life. But whether he believes or not, the

next life is there, and one

 

has to suffer if one does not lead a responsible life

in terms of the

 

injunctions of authoritative scriptures like the Vedas

and Puranas. Species

 

lower than human beings are not responsible for their

actions because they are

 

made to act in a certain way, but in the developed

life of human consciousness,

 

one who does not act responsibly is sure to get a

hellish life, as described

 

herein.

 

TEXT 31: " He goes alone to the darkest regions of hell

after quitting the

 

present body, and the money he acquired by envying

other living entities is the

 

passage money with which he leaves this world. "

 

PURPORT: When a man earns money by unfair means and

maintains his family and

 

himself with that money, the money is enjoyed by many

members of the family, but

 

he alone goes to hell and suffers the resultant sinful

reactions accrued from

 

such a violent and illicit life. For example, if a man

secures some money by

 

killing someone and with that money maintains his

family, those who enjoy the

 

black money earned by him are also partially

responsible and are also sent to

 

hell, but he who is the leader is especially punished.

The money he earned is

 

left in this world, and he takes only the sinful

reaction.

 

In this world also, if a person acquires some money by

murdering someone, the

 

family is not hanged, although its members are

sinfully contaminated. But the

 

man who commits the murder and maintains his family is

himself hanged as a

 

murderer. The direct offender is more responsible for

sinful activities than the

 

indirect enjoyer. The great learned scholar Canakya

Pandita says, therefore,

 

that whatever one has in his possession had better be

spent for the cause of

 

sat, or the Supreme Personality of Godhead, because

one cannot take his

 

possessions with him. They remain here, and they will

be lost. Either we leave

 

the money or the money leaves us, but we will be

separated. The best use of

 

money as long as it is within our possession is to

spend it to acquire and

 

propagate Krsna consciousness.

 

TEXT 32: " Thus, by the arrangement of the Supreme

Personality of Godhead, the

 

maintainer of kinsmen is put into a hellish condition

to suffer for his sinful

 

activities, like a man who has lost his wealth. "

 

PURPORT: The example set herein is that the sinful

person suffers just like a

 

man who has lost his wealth. The human form of body is

achieved by the

 

conditioned soul after many, many births and is a very

valuable asset. Instead

 

of utilizing this life to get liberation, if one uses

it simply for the purpose

 

of maintaining his so-called family and therefore

performs foolish and

 

unauthorized action, he is compared to a man who has

lost his wealth and who,

 

upon losing it, laments. When wealth is lost, there is

no use lamenting, but as

 

long as there is wealth, one has to utilize it

properly and thereby gain eternal

 

profit. It may be argued that when a man leaves his

money earned by sinful

 

activities, he also leaves his sinful activities here

with his money. But it is

 

especially mentioned herein that by superior

arrangement, although the man

 

leaves behind his sinfully earned money, he carries

the effect of it.

 

When a man steals some money, if he is caught and

agrees to return it, he is

 

not freed from the criminal punishment. By the law of

the state, even though he

 

returns the money, he has to undergo the punishment.

Similarly, the money earned

 

by a criminal process may be left by the man when

dying, but by superior

 

arrangement he carries with him the effect, and

therefore he has to suffer

 

hellish life.

 

TEXT 33: " Therefore a person who is very eager to

maintain his family and

 

kinsmen simply by black methods certainly goes to the

darkest region of hell,

 

which is known as Andha-tamisra. "

 

PURPORT: Three words in this verse are very

significant. Kevalena means " only

 

by black methods, " adharmena means " unrighteous " or

" irreligious, " and kutumbabharana

 

means " family maintenance. " Maintaining one's family

is certainly the

 

duty of a householder, but one should be eager to earn

his livelihood by the

 

prescribed method, as stated in the scriptures. In the

Bhagavad-gita it is

 

described that the Lord has divided the social system

into four classifications

 

of castes, or varnas, according to quality and work.

Apart from the Bhagavadgita,

 

in every society a man is known according to his

quality and work. For

 

example, when a man earns his livelihood constructing

wooden furniture, he is

 

called a carpenter, and a man who works with an anvil

and iron is called a

 

blacksmith. Similarly, a man who is engaged in the

medical or engineering fields

 

has a particular duty and designation. All these human

activities have been

 

divided by the Supreme Lord into four varnas, namely

the brahmanas

 

(intellectuals and priests), the ksatriyas (warriors

and administrators), the

 

vaisyas (merchants and farmers), and sudras (manual

laborers). In the Bhagavadgita

 

and other Vedic scriptures, the specific duties of the

brahmanas,

 

ksatriyas, vaisyas, and sudras are mentioned.

 

One should work honestly according to his

qualification. He should not earn

 

his livelihood unfairly or in a way for which he is

not qualified. If someone

 

claims to be a brahmana and works as a priest,

attracting people who expect to

 

be enlightened about the spiritual way of life, but he

is not qualified as a

 

priest, then he is cheating the public. One should not

earn one's livelihood by

 

such unfair means. The same is applicable to a

ksatriya and a vaisya. It is

 

especially mentioned that the means of livelihood of

those who are trying to

 

advance in Krsna consciousness must be very fair and

uncomplicated. Here it is

 

mentioned that he who earns his livelihood by unfair

means (kevalena) is sent to

 

the darkest hellish region. Otherwise, if one

maintains his family by prescribed

 

methods and honest means, there is no objection to

one's being a family man.

 

TEXT 34: " Having gone through all the miserable,

hellish conditions and

 

having passed in a regular order through the lowest

forms of animal life prior

 

to human birth, and having thus been purged of one's

sins, one is reborn again

 

as a human being on this earth. "

 

PURPORT: Just as a prisoner who has undergone

troublesome prison life is set

 

free again, the person who has always engaged in

impious and mischievous

 

activities is put into hellish conditions, and when he

has undergone different

 

hellish lives, namely those of lower animals like

cats, dogs, and hogs, by the

 

gradual process of evolution he again comes back as a

human being. In the

 

Bhagavad-gita it is stated that even though a person

engaged in the practice of

 

the yoga system may not finish perfectly and may fall

down for some reason or

 

other, his next life as a human being is guaranteed.

It is stated that such a

 

person, who has fallen from the path of yoga practice,

is given a chance in his

 

next life to take birth in a very rich family or in a

very pious family. It is

 

interpreted that " rich family " refers to a big

mercantile family because

 

generally people who engage in business are very rich.

One who engaged in the

 

process of self-realization, or connecting with the

Supreme Absolute Truth, but

 

fell short is allowed to take birth in such a rich

family, or he is allowed to

 

take birth in the family of pious brahmanas; either

way, he is guaranteed to

 

appear in human society in his next life.

 

It can be concluded that if someone is not willing to

enter into hellish

 

life, as in Tamisra or Andha-tamisra, then he must

take to the process of Krsna

 

consciousness, which is the first-class yoga system,

because even if one is

 

unable to attain complete Krsna consciousness in this

life, he is guaranteed at

 

least to take his next birth in a human family. He

cannot be sent into a hellish

 

condition. Krsna consciousness is the purest life, and

it protects all human

 

beings from gliding down to hell to take birth in a

family of dogs or hogs.

 

Chapter 3

 

The Peace Formula

 

The laws of nature work collectively, as well as

individually. In the

 

following brief but cogent statement, Srila Prabhupada

explains that if we want

 

to break out of the tangled web of collective karma

that is wreaking havoc in

 

present-day society--if we want peace both

collectively and individually--we

 

need to take to Krsna consciousness seriously.

 

The great mistake of modern civilization is to

encroach upon others' property

 

as though it were one's own and thereby create an

unnecessary disturbance of the

 

laws of nature. These laws are very strong. No living

entity can violate them.

 

Only one who is Krsna conscious can easily overcome

the stringent laws of nature

 

and thus become happy and peaceful in the world.

 

As a state is protected by the department of law and

order, so the state of

 

the universe, of which this earth is only an

insignificant fragment, is

 

protected by the laws of nature. This material nature

is one of the different

 

potencies of God, who is the ultimate proprietor of

everything that be. This

 

earth is, therefore, the property of God, but we, the

living entities,

 

especially the so-called civilized human beings, are

claiming God's property as

 

our own under both an individual and collective false

conception. If you want

 

peace, you have to remove this false conception from

your mind and from the

 

world. This false claim of proprietorship by the human

race on earth is partly

 

or wholly the cause of all disturbances of peace on

earth.

 

Foolish so-called civilized men are claiming

proprietary rights on the

 

property of God because they have now become godless.

You cannot be happy and

 

peaceful in a godless society. In the Bhagavad-gita

Lord Krsna says that He is

 

the factual enjoyer of all activities of the living

entities, that He is the

 

Supreme Lord of all universes, and that He is the

well-wishing friend of all

 

beings. When the people of the world know this as the

formula for peace, it is

 

then and there that peace will prevail.

 

Therefore, if you want peace at all, you will have to

change your

 

consciousness into Krsna consciousness, both

individually and collectively, by

 

the simple process of chanting the holy name of God.

This is the standard and

 

recognized process for achieving peace in the world.

We therefore recommend that

 

everyone become Krsna conscious by chanting Hare

Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna,

 

Hare Hare. Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.

 

This is practical, simple, and sublime. Five hundred

years ago this formula

 

was introduced in India by Lord Sri Caitanya, and now

it is available throughout

 

the world. Take to this simple process of chanting as

above mentioned, realize

 

your factual position by reading the Bhagavad-gita As

It Is, and reestablish

 

your lost relationship with Krsna, God. Peace and

prosperity will be the

 

immediate worldwide result.

 

Transcendental Teachings of Prahlada Maharaja

 

What follows is based on a series of talks Srila

Prabhupada gave in 1968 on the

 

Srimad-Bhagavatam, Canto 7, Chapter 6.

 

The Dearmost Person

 

Today I shall speak to you of the history of a boy

devotee named Prahlada

 

Maharaja. He was born in a family that was stubbornly

atheistic. There are two

 

kinds of men in this world: the demons and the

demigods. What is the difference

 

between them? The main difference is that the

demigods, or godly persons, are

 

devoted to the Supreme Lord, whereas the demons are

atheistic. They do not

 

believe in God because they are materialists. These

two classes of men always

 

exist in this world. At the present moment, due to the

Age of Kali (Age of

 

Quarrel), the number of demons has increased, but the

classification has existed

 

since the beginning of creation. The incident I am

narrating to you occurred

 

very, very long ago, a few million years after the

time of creation.

 

Prahlada Maharaja was the son of the most atheistic

person and the most

 

materially powerful as well. Because the society was

materialistic, this boy had

 

no opportunity to glorify the Supreme Lord. The

characteristic of a great soul

 

is that he is very eager to broadcast glorification of

the Supreme Lord. Lord

 

Jesus Christ, for example, was very eager to broadcast

the glorification of God,

 

but demoniac people misunderstood him and crucified

him.

 

When Prahlada Maharaja was a five-year-old boy, he was

sent to school. As

 

soon as there was a recreation period, when the

teacher was away, he would say

 

to his friends, " My dear friends, come on. We shall

speak about Krsna

 

consciousness. " This scene is related in the

Srimad-Bhagavatam, Seventh Canto,

 

Sixth Chapter. The devotee Prahlada says, " My dear

friends, this is the time, in

 

this young age, to prosecute Krsna consciousness. "

 

His little friends reply, " Oh, we shall now play. Why

take up Krsna

 

consciousness? "

 

In answer to this, Prahlada Maharaja says, " If you are

intelligent, then you

 

must begin bhagavata-dharma from childhood. "

 

The Srimad-Bhagavatam offers bhagavata-dharma, or the

process leading to

 

scientific knowledge about God. Bhagavata means " the

Supreme Personality of

 

Godhead, " and dharma means " regulative principles. "

This human form of life is

 

very rare. It is a great opportunity. Therefore

Prahlada says, " My dear friends,

 

you are born as civilized human beings, so although

your human body is

 

temporary, it is the greatest opportunity. " No one

knows the length of his life.

 

It is calculated that in this age the human body may

live up to a hundred years.

 

But as the Age of Kali advances, duration of life,

memory, mercy, religiousness,

 

and all other such assets decrease. So no one has any

assurance of long life in

 

this age.

 

Still, although the human form is temporary, you can

achieve the highest

 

perfection of life while in this human form. What is

that perfection? To

 

understand the all-pervading Supreme Lord. For other

life forms this is not

 

possible. By the gradual evolutionary process we come

to this human form, so it

 

is a rare opportunity. By nature's law, a human body

is ultimately given to you

 

so that you can promote yourself in spiritual life and

go back home, back to

 

Godhead.

 

The ultimate goal of life is Visnu, or Krsna, the

Supreme Personality of

 

Godhead. In a later verse Prahlada Maharaja will say,

" People in this material

 

world who are enamored with the material energy do not

know what the goal of

 

human life is. Why? Because they have been enchanted

by the Lord's glaring

 

external energy. They have forgotten that life is an

opportunity to understand

 

the ultimate goal of perfection, Visnu. " Why should we

be very anxious to know

 

Visnu, or God? Prahlada Maharaja gives a reason:

" Visnu is the dearmost person.

 

That we have forgotten. " We all seek some dear

friend--everyone searches in this

 

way. A man searches for dear friendship with a woman,

and a woman searches for

 

dear friendship with a man. Or else a man searches out

a man, and a woman

 

searches out a woman. Everyone searches after some

dear friend, some sweet

 

friend. Why? We want the cooperation of a dear friend

who will help us. This is

 

part of the struggle for existence, and this is

natural. But we do not know that

 

our dearest friend is Visnu, the Supreme Personality

of Godhead.

 

Those who have read the Bhagavad-gita will find this

nice verse in the Fifth

 

Chapter: " If you want peace, then you must understand

perfectly that everything

 

in this world and other worlds is the property of

Krsna, that He is the enjoyer

 

of everything, and that He is the supreme friend of

everyone. " Why perform

 

austerity? Why perform religious rituals? Why give in

charity? All these

 

activities are meant for pleasing the Supreme Lord,

and nothing more. And when

 

the Supreme Lord is pleased, you will get the result.

Whether you want to gain

 

higher material happiness or spiritual happiness,

whether

 

you want to live a better life on this planet or on

other planets--whatever

 

you want you will get if you please the Supreme Lord.

Therefore He is the most

 

sincere friend. Whatever you want from Him, you can

get. But the intelligent man

 

does not want anything that is materially

contaminated.

 

In the Bhagavad-gita Krsna says that by pious

activities one can elevate

 

oneself to the highest material planet, known as

Brahmaloka, where the duration

 

of life is millions and millions of years. You cannot

figure the duration of

 

life there; your arithmetic will be ineffective. The

statement in the Bhagavadgita

 

is that the life of Brahma is so long that

4,320,000,000 of our years are

 

only twelve hours to him. Krsna says, " Whatever

position you want, beginning

 

from the ant right up to Brahma, you can have. But the

repetition of birth and

 

death will be there. However, if by practicing Krsna

consciousness you come to

 

Me, then you don't have to come back to this miserable

material condition. "

 

Prahlada Maharaja says the same thing: We should

search for our dearmost

 

friend, Krsna, the Supreme Lord. Why is He our

dearmost friend? By nature He is

 

dear. Now, what do you consider the dearmost thing?

Have you analyzed? You

 

yourself are the dearmost thing. I am sitting here,

but if there is a fire alarm

 

I shall at once take care of myself: " How can I save

myself? " We forget our

 

friends and even our relatives: " Let me first of all

save myself. " Selfpreservation

 

is the first law of nature.

 

In the grossest sense, the word atma-- " self " --refers

to the body. In the

 

subtler sphere the mind or intelligence is the atma,

and in the real sense atma

 

means the soul. In the gross stage we are very fond of

protecting and satisfying

 

the body, and in a subtler stage we are very fond of

satisfying the mind and

 

intelligence. But above the mental and intellectual

planes, where the atmosphere

 

is spiritualized, we can understand, " I am not this

mind, intellect, or body.

 

Aham brahmasmi--I am spirit, part and parcel of the

Supreme Lord. " That is the

 

platform of real understanding.

 

Prahlada Maharaja says that of all living entities,

Visnu is the supreme

 

well-wisher. Therefore we are all searching for Him.

When a child cries, what

 

does he long for? His mother. But he has no language

to express this. By nature

 

he has his body, born of his mother's body, so there

is an intimate relationship

 

with the mother's body. The child won't like any other

woman. The child cries,

 

but when the woman who is the child's mother comes and

picks him up, at once he

 

is pacified. He has no language to express all this,

but his relationship with

 

his mother is a law of nature. Similarly, by nature we

try to protect the body.

 

This is self-preservation. It is a natural law of the

living entity, just as

 

eating is a natural law and sleeping is a natural law.

Why do I protect the

 

body? Because within the body is the soul.

 

What is this soul? The soul is a part of the Supreme

Lord. As we want to

 

protect the hand or the finger because it is a part of

the whole body, similarly

 

we try to save ourselves because this is the defending

process of the Supreme.

 

The Supreme does not need defense, but this is a

manifestation of our love

 

toward Him, which is now perverted. The finger and the

hand are meant to act in

 

the interests of the whole body; as soon as I want the

hand to come here, it

 

comes, and as soon as I want the finger to play on the

drum, it plays. This is

 

the natural position. Similarly, we are searching for

God, to dovetail our

 

energy in the service of the Supreme, but under the

spell of the illusory energy

 

we do not know it. That is our mistake. Now, in human

life, we have an

 

opportunity to understand our actual position. Only

because you are human beings

 

have you all come here to learn about Krsna

consciousness, about the real goal

 

of your life. I cannot invite cats and dogs to sit

down here. That is the

 

difference between human beings and cats and dogs. A

human being can understand

 

the necessity of pursuing the real goal of life. But

if he loses the

 

opportunity, it is a great catastrophe.

 

Prahlada Maharaja says, " God is the dearmost

personality of all. We have to

 

search for God. " Then what about the material

necessities of life? Prahlada

 

Maharaja replies, " You are after sense gratification,

but sense gratification is

 

automatically achieved by contact with this body. "

Because a hog has a certain

 

type of body, his sense gratification comes from

eating stool, the very thing

 

that is most obnoxious to you. At once, after

evacuating, you leave to get free

 

from the bad smell--but the hog is waiting. As soon as

you evacuate, he will at

 

once enjoy. So there are different types of sense

gratification according to

 

different types of body. Everyone who has a material

body receives sense

 

gratification. Don't think that the hogs eating stool

are unhappy. No, they are

 

getting fat in that way. They are very happy.

 

Another example is the camel. The camel is very fond

of thorny twigs. Why?

 

Because when he eats thorny twigs, the twigs cut his

tongue, blood oozes out,

 

and he tastes his own blood. Then he thinks, " I am

enjoying. " This is sense

 

gratification. Sex life is also like that. We taste

our own blood, and we think

 

we are enjoying. This is our foolishness.

 

The living entity in this material world is a

spiritual being, but because he

 

has a tendency to enjoy, to exploit the material

energy, he has contacted a

 

body. There are 8,400,000 species of living entities,

each with a different

 

body, and according to the body, they have particular

senses with which they

 

enjoy a particular type of pleasure. Suppose you are

given thorny twigs to eat:

 

" Ladies and gentlemen, here is very nice food. It is

certified by the camels. It

 

is very good. " Would you like to take it? " No! What

nonsense are you offering

 

me? " Because you have a different body from the camel,

you have no taste for

 

thorny twigs. But if you offer them to a camel, he

will think it is a very nice

 

meal.

 

Now, if the hogs and camels can enjoy sense

gratification without great

 

struggle, why not we human beings? We can--but that is

not our ultimate

 

achievement. The facilities to enjoy sense

gratification are offered by nature,

 

whether one be a hog, a camel, or a human being. So

why should you labor for

 

facilities that you are destined to receive anyway, by

nature's law? In every

 

form of life the bodily demands are satisfied by the

arrangement of nature. This

 

gratification is arranged, just as there is an

arrangement for distress. Do you

 

like fever? No. Why does it come? I do not know. But

it does come, does it not?

 

Yes. Did you try for it? No. So how does it come? By

nature. That is the only

 

answer. And if your misery comes by nature, your

happiness will also come by

 

nature. Don't bother about it. That is the instruction

of Prahlada Maharaja. If

 

you receive the miseries of life without effort, you

will similarly achieve

 

happiness without effort.

 

Then what is the real purpose of the human form of

life? Cultivating Krsna

 

consciousness. Other things will be obtained by

nature's law, which is

 

ultimately God's law. Even if I don't try, I will be

supplied with whatever I am

 

to achieve because of my past work and my particular

type of body. Your real

 

concern, therefore, should be to seek out the higher

goal of human life.

 

" We Are Spoiling Our Lives "

 

Therefore, instead of being very anxious to stimulate

our senses to increase

 

material happiness, we should try to attain spiritual

happiness by practicing

 

Krsna consciousness. As Prahlada Maharaja says,

" Although your life in this

 

human body is temporary, it is very valuable. So

instead of trying to increase

 

your material sense enjoyment, your duty is to

dovetail your activities in some

 

way in Krsna consciousness. "

 

Our higher intelligence comes with his human body.

Because we have higher

 

consciousness, we should try for the higher enjoyment

in life, which is

 

spiritual enjoyment. And how can that spiritual

enjoyment be achieved? One

 

should absorb himself in serving the Supreme Lord, who

gives the pleasure of

 

liberation. We should turn our attention to achieving

the lotus feet of Krsna,

 

who can give us liberation from this material world.

 

But can't we enjoy in this life and engage ourselves

in Krsna's service in

 

our next life? Prahlada Maharaja answers, " We are now

in material entanglement.

 

Now I have this body, but I will quit this body after

a few years and then have

 

to accept another body. Once you take up one body and

enjoy as your body's

 

senses dictate, you prepare another body by such sense

enjoyment, and you get

 

another body as you want it. " There is no guarantee

that you will get a human

 

body. That will depend on your work. If you work like

a demigod, you will get a

 

demigod's body. And if you work like a dog, you will

get a dog's body. At the

 

time of death, your destiny is not in your hands--it

is in the hands of nature.

 

It is not our duty to speculate on what material body

we are going to get next.

 

At the present moment let us simply understand that

this human body is a great

 

opportunity to develop our spiritual consciousness,

our Krsna consciousness.

 

Therefore we should at once engage ourselves in

Krsna's service. Then we will

 

make progress.

 

How long should we do it? As long as this body keeps

working. We do not know

 

when it will stop functioning. The great saint

Pariksit Maharaja got seven days

 

notice: " Your body will fall in a week. " But we do not

know when our body will

 

fall. Whenever we are on the road, there may suddenly

be some accident. We

 

should always be prepared. Death is always there. We

should not optimistically

 

think, " Everyone is dying, but I shall live. " Why will

you live if everyone is

 

dying? Your grandfather has died, your

great-grandfather has died, other

 

relatives of yours have died--why should you live? You

will also die. And your

 

children will also die. Therefore, before death comes,

as long as we have this

 

human intelligence, let us engage in Krsna

consciousness. This is the

 

prescription of Prahlada Maharaja.

 

We do not know when this body will stop, so let us

immediately engage in

 

Krsna consciousness and act accordingly. " But if I

immediately engage myself in

 

Krsna consciousness, what about my means of

livelihood? " That is arranged for. I

 

am very happy to inform you of the confidence of a

student in one of our

 

branches. There was a disagreement. Another student

said, " You are not looking

 

after how to maintain the establishment, " and he

replied, " Oh, Krsna will

 

supply. " This is a very nice conviction; I was glad to

hear it. If cats and dogs

 

and hogs can get food, will Krsna not arrange for our

food also, if we are Krsna

 

conscious and fully devote our service to Him? Is

Krsna ungrateful? No.

 

In the Bhagavad-gita the Lord says, " My dear Arjuna, I

am equal to everyone.

 

No one is the object of My envy, and no one is My

special friend, but I give

 

special attention to one who engages in Krsna

consciousness. " A small child is

 

completely dependent on the mercy of his parents, so

the parents give special

 

attention to that child. Although the parents are

equally good to all the

 

children, for the small children who are always crying

" Mother! " they have

 

greater concern. " Yes, my dear child? Yes? " This is

natural.

 

If you are completely dependent on Krsna, who is

supplying food to the dogs,

 

birds, beasts--to 8,400,000 species of life--why

should He not supply food to

 

you? This conviction is a symptom of surrender. But we

should not think,

 

" Because Krsna is supplying my food, I shall now

sleep. " No, you have to work,

 

but without fear. You should engage yourself

wholeheartedly in Krsna

 

consciousness, confident of Krsna's maintenance and

protection.

 

Now, let us calculate our duration of life. In this

age it is said that we

 

can live at most one hundred years. Formerly, in the

Satya-yuga, the age of

 

goodness, human beings would live up to 100,000 years.

In the next age, Tretayuga,

 

they used to live for 10,000 years, and in the next

age, called Dvaparayuga,

 

they used to live for 1,000 years. Now, in this age,

called Kali-yuga, the

 

estimate is 100 years. But gradually, as the Kali-yuga

progresses, our duration

 

of life will decrease still further. This is the

so-called progress of our

 

modern civilization. We are very proud that we are

happy and are improving our

 

civilization. The result, however, is that although we

try to enjoy material

 

life, the duration of our life is shortened.

 

Now, accepting that a person lives for one hundred

years, if he has no

 

information of spiritual life, half of that is wasted

at night in sleeping and

 

sex life. That's all. He has no other interest. And in

the daytime, what is his

 

concern? " Where is money? Where is money? I must

maintain this body. " And when

 

he has money: " Now let me spend for my wife and

children. " So where is his

 

spiritual realization? At night he spends his time in

sleep and sex indulgence,

 

and by day he spends time working very hard to earn

money. Is that his mission

 

in life? How horrible such a life is!

 

The average person is illusioned in childhood, playing

frivolous games. Up to

 

twenty years, easily, you can go on like that. Then

when you become old, for

 

another twenty years you cannot do anything. When a

man becomes old, his senses

 

cannot function. You have seen many old men; they have

nothing to do but rest.

 

Just now we have received a letter from one of our

students reporting that his

 

grandmother is paralyzed and has been suffering for

the last three and a half

 

years. So, in old age, everything is finished as soon

as you are eighty years

 

old. Therefore, from the beginning to twenty years of

age, everything is

 

spoiled; and even if you live for a hundred years,

another twenty in the last

 

stage of life is also spoiled. So forty years of your

life are spoiled in that

 

way. And in the middle age there is a very strong sex

appetite, so another

 

twenty years can be lost. Twenty years, twenty years,

and twenty years--sixty

 

years gone. This is the analysis of life by Prahlada

Maharaja. We are spoiling

 

our life instead of using it to advance in Krsna

consciousness.

 

Family Illusion

 

Prahlada Maharaja told his friends, " You have to begin

Krsna consciousness

 

immediately. " All the boys were born of atheistic,

materialistic families, but

 

fortunately they had the association of Prahlada, who

was a great devotee of the

 

Lord from his birth. Whenever he found an opportunity,

when the teacher was out

 

of the classroom, he used to say, " My dear friends,

let's chant Hare Krsna; this

 

is the time to begin Krsna consciousness. "

 

Now, as we have stated, some boy might have said, " But

we are just boys. Let

 

us play. We are not going to die immediately. Let us

have some enjoyment, and

 

later we shall begin Krsna consciousness. " People do

not know that Krsna

 

consciousness is the highest enjoyment. They think

that the boys and girls who

 

have joined this Krsna consciousness movement are

foolish. " By Prabhupada's

 

influence they have joined Krsna consciousness and

left everything enjoyable. "

 

But actually this is not so. They are all intelligent,

educated boys and girls,

 

coming from very respectable families; they are not

fools. In our Society they

 

are actually enjoying life; otherwise they would not

have sacrificed their

 

valuable time for this movement.

 

Actually there is joyful life in Krsna consciousness,

but people do not know

 

of it. They say, " What use is this Krsna

consciousness? " When one grows up

 

entangled in the sense gratification process, it is

very difficult to get out of

 

it. Therefore, according to Vedic regulations, in

student life, beginning from

 

five years of age, boys are taught about spiritual

life. That is called

 

brahmacarya. A brahmacari dedicates his life to

attaining supreme consciousness-

 

-Krsna consciousness or Brahman

consciousness.Brahmacarya has many rules and

 

regulations. For example, however rich one's father

may be, the brahmacari

 

surrenders himself to be trained under the guidance of

a spiritual master and

 

works in the ashram of the spiritual master just like

a menial servant. How is

 

this possible? We are getting actual experience that

very nice boys coming from

 

very respectable families do not hesitate to do any

kind of work here. They are

 

washing dishes, cleansing floors--everything. One

student's mother was

 

astonished at her boy when he visited home. Before, he

would not even go to the

 

store, and now he is engaged twenty-four hours a day.

Unless one feels pleasure,

 

how is it possible that he can engage himself in such

a process as Krsna

 

consciousness? This is due only to the chanting of

Hare Krsna. This is our

 

single asset--the Hare Krsna mantra. One can be very

jolly simply by Krsna

 

consciousness. Actually, it is a joyful life. But

unless one is trained, one

 

cannot live it.

 

Prahlada Maharaja says that everyone is attached to

family affection. If one

 

is attached to family affairs, he cannot control his

senses. Naturally, everyone

 

wants to love someone. Society, friendship, and love

are needed. They are

 

demands of the spirit soul, but they are being

pervertedly reflected. I have

 

seen that many ladies and gentlemen in your country

have no family life, but

 

they have placed their love in cats and dogs. Because

they want to love someone

 

but do not see anyone suitable, they place their

valuable love in cats and dogs.

 

Our concern is to transfer this love--which has to be

placed somewhere--to

 

Krsna. This is Krsna consciousness. If you transfer

your love to Krsna, that is

 

perfection. But now, because people are being

frustrated and cheated, they do

 

not know where to place their love, and at last they

place their love in cats

 

and dogs.

 

Everyone is entangled by material love. It is very

difficult to develop

 

spiritual life when one is advanced in material love,

because this bondage of

 

love is very strong. Therefore Prahlada proposes that

one should learn Krsna

 

consciousness from childhood. When a child is five or

six years old--as soon as

 

his consciousness is developed--he should be sent to

school to be trained, and

 

Prahlada Maharaja says that his education should be

Krsna conscious from the

 

very beginning. The period from five to fifteen years

is a very valuable time;

 

you can train any child in Krsna consciousness, and he

will become perfect.

 

If a child is not trained in Krsna consciousness and

instead becomes advanced

 

in materialism, it is difficult for him to develop

spiritual life. What is

 

materialism? Materialism means that all of us in this

material world, although

 

we are spirit souls, somehow or other want to enjoy

this material world. The

 

spirit of enjoyment is present in its pure form in the

spiritual world, in

 

relation to Krsna, but we have come here to partake of

contaminated enjoyment,

 

just as a man on the Bowery thinks he can enjoy by

drinking some liquor. The

 

basic principle of material enjoyment is sex.

Therefore, you will find sex not

 

only in human society but in cat society, dog society,

bird society--everywhere.

 

During the daytime, a pigeon has sex at least twenty

times. This is his

 

enjoyment.

 

The Srimad-Bhagavatam confirms that material enjoyment

is based upon nothing

 

more than the sexual combination of man and woman. In

the beginning a boy

 

thinks, " Oh, that girl is nice, " and the girl says,

" That boy is nice. " When

 

they meet, that material contamination becomes more

prominent. And when they

 

actually enjoy sex, they become more attached,

completely attached. How? As soon

 

as a boy and girl are married, they want an apartment.

Then they have children.

 

And when they have children, they want social

recognition--society, friendship,

 

and love. In this way their material attachment goes

on increasing. And all of

 

this requires money. A man who is too materialistic

will cheat anyone, kill

 

anyone, beg, borrow, or steal--anything to bring

money. He knows that his

 

buildings, his family, his wife and children cannot

continue to exist

 

perpetually. They are just like bubbles in the ocean:

they have come into

 

existence, and after a little while they will be gone.

But he is too much

 

attached. He will sacrifice his spiritual advancement

for the pursuit of money

 

to maintain them. His perverted consciousness-- " I am

this body. I belong to this

 

material world. I belong to this country. I belong to

this community. I belong

 

to this religion. I belong to this family. " --becomes

greater and greater.

 

Where is his Krsna consciousness? He becomes so

entangled that money becomes

 

more valuable to him than his own life. In other

words, he can risk his life for

 

money. The householder, the laborer, the merchant, the

thief, the dacoit, the

 

rogue--everyone is after money. This is illusion. One

loses himself in the midst

 

of this entanglement.

 

Prahlada Maharaja says that in this state, when you

are too much implicated

 

in materialism, you cannot cultivate Krsna

consciousness. Therefore one should

 

practice Krsna consciousness from early childhood. Of

course, Lord Caitanya

 

Mahaprabhu is so kind that He says, " Better late than

never. Even though you

 

missed the opportunity to begin Krsna consciousness

from childhood, begin now,

 

in whatever position you are. " That is Caitanya

Mahaprabhu's teaching. He never

 

said, " Because you did not begin Krsna consciousness

from your childhood, you

 

cannot make progress. " No. He is very kind. He has

given us this nice process of

 

chanting Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare

Hare. Hare Rama, Hare Rama,

 

Rama Rama, Hare Hare. Whether you are young or old--no

matter what you are--just

 

begin. You do not know when your life will be

finished. If you chant sincerely,

 

even for a moment, it will have great effect. It will

save you from the greatest

 

danger--becoming an animal in your next life.

 

Although only five years old, Prahlada Maharaja speaks

just like a very

 

experienced and educated man because he received

knowledge from his spiritual

 

master, Narada Muni. That is disclosed in the next

chapter of the Srimad-

 

Bhagavatam (7.7). Wisdom does not depend on age, but

on knowledge received from

 

a superior source. One cannot become a wise man simply

by advancement of age.

 

No. That is not possible. Knowledge has to be received

from a superior source;

 

then one can become wise. It doesn't matter whether

one is a five-year-old boy

 

or a fifty-year-old man. As it is said, " By wisdom one

becomes an old man, even

 

without advanced age. "

 

So although Prahlada was only five years old, by

advancement in knowledge he

 

was imparting perfect instructions to his classmates.

Some may find these

 

instructions unpalatable. Suppose a man is already

married and Prahlada says,

 

" Take to Krsna consciousness. " He will think, " Oh, how

can I leave my wife? We

 

talk so nicely together, sit together and enjoy. How

can I leave? " Family

 

attraction is very strong.

 

I am an old man--seventy-two years old. I have been

away from my family

 

during the last fourteen years. Yet sometimes I also

think of my wife and

 

children. This is quite natural. But that does not

mean I have to go back. This

 

is knowledge. When the mind wanders to thoughts of

sense gratification, one

 

should at once understand, " This is illusion. "

 

According to the Vedic system, one has to forcibly

give up family life at the

 

age of fifty. One must go. There is no alternative.

The first twenty-five years

 

are for student life. From age five to age

twenty-five, one should be educated

 

very nicely in Krsna consciousness. The basic

principle of one's education

 

should be Krsna consciousness, nothing else. Then life

will be pleasing and

 

successful, both in this world and in the next. A

Krsna conscious education

 

means one is trained to give up material consciousness

altogether. That is

 

perfect Krsna consciousness.

 

But if the student is unable to capture the essence of

Krsna consciousness,

 

then he is allowed to marry a good wife and live a

peaceful householder life.

 

And because he has been trained in the basic

principles of Krsna consciousness,

 

he will not entangle himself in the material world.

One who lives simply--plain

 

living and high thinking--can make progress in Krsna

consciousness even within

 

family life.

 

So family life is not condemned. But if a man forgets

his spiritual identity

 

and simply becomes entangled in material affairs, then

he is lost. His life's

 

mission is lost. If one thinks, " I cannot protect

myself from the attack of sex

 

desire, " then let him be married. That is prescribed.

But don't have illicit

 

sex. If you want a girl, if you want a boy, get

married and live in Krsna

 

consciousness.

 

A person who is trained in Krsna consciousness from

childhood naturally

 

becomes disinclined toward the material way of life,

and at the age of fifty he

 

gives it up. How does he start giving it up? The

husband and wife leave home and

 

travel together on pilgrimage. If from twenty-five to

fifty one remains in

 

family life, one should have some grown-up children.

So at age fifty the husband

 

entrusts the family affairs to some of his sons who

are family men, and he and

 

his wife go on pilgrimage to the holy places in order

to forget family

 

attachments. When the gentleman is completely matured

in detachment, he asks his

 

wife to go home to their children, and he remains

alone. That is the Vedic

 

system. We have to give ourselves a chance to progress

in spiritual life, step

 

by step. Otherwise, if we remain attached to material

consciousness throughout

 

all our days, we will not perfect our Krsna

consciousness, and we shall miss the

 

opportunity of this human form of life.

 

So-called happy family life means that we have a very

loving wife and loving

 

children. Thus we enjoy life. But we do not know that

this enjoyment is false,

 

that it is resting on a false platform. At once, in

the twinkling of an eye, we

 

may have to give up this enjoyment. Death is not under

our control. From the

 

Bhagavad-gita we learn that if one dies while too much

attached to one's wife,

 

the result will be that in his next life he will have

the body of a woman. And

 

if the wife is very attached to her husband, she will

get a man's body in her

 

next life. Similarly, if you are not a family man but

are attached to a cat or

 

dog, then your next life will be as a cat or dog.

These are the laws of karma,

 

or material nature.

 

The whole point is that one should begin Krsna

consciousness immediately.

 

Suppose one thinks, " After finishing my sporting life,

when I am old and there

 

is nothing else to do, then I shall go to the Krsna

consciousness Society and

 

hear something. " Certainly at that time one can take

up spiritual life, but what

 

is the assurance that one will live to an old age? One

may die at any time; so

 

postponing one's spiritual life is very risky.

Therefore one should take the

 

opportunity now to advance in Krsna consciousness.

That is the purpose of this

 

Society: to give everyone a chance to begin Krsna

consciousness at any stage of

 

life. And by the process of chanting Hare Krsna, Hare

Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare

 

Hare. Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare,

advancement is very quick.

 

There is an immediate result.

 

We request all the ladies and gentlemen who are very

kindly attending our

 

lectures or reading our literature to chant Hare Krsna

during your leisure hours

 

at home, and to read our books. That is our request.

We are sure that you will

 

find this process very pleasing and very effective.

 

" I Love Krsna More Than Anything! "

 

Now Prahlada Maharaja makes a further statement about

the complications of

 

material life. He compares the attached householder to

the silkworm. The

 

silkworm wraps itself in a cocoon made of its own

saliva, until he is in a

 

prison from which he cannot escape. In the same way, a

materialistic

 

householder's entanglement becomes so tight that he

cannot come out of the

 

cocoon of family attraction. Even though there are so

many miseries in

 

materialistic family life, he cannot break free. Why?

He thinks that sex life

 

and eating palatable dishes are most important.

Therefore, in spite of so many

 

miserable conditions, he cannot give them up.

 

In this way, when a person is too much entangled in

family life, he cannot

 

think of his real benefit--to escape from material

life. Although he is always

 

disturbed by the threefold miseries of materialistic

life, still, because of

 

strong family affection, he cannot come out. He does

not know that he is wasting

 

his limited duration of life simply for family

affection. He is spoiling the

 

life that was meant for realizing his eternal self,

for realizing his real

 

spiritual life.

 

" Therefore, " Prahlada says to his demoniac friends,

" please give up the

 

company of those who are simply after material

enjoyment. Just associate with

 

persons who have taken to Krsna consciousness. " That

is his advice. He says to

 

his friends that this Krsna consciousness is easy to

attain. Why? Krsna

 

consciousness is actually very dear to us, but we have

forgotten it. Therefore

 

anyone who takes to Krsna consciousness becomes more

and more affected by it and

 

forgets his material consciousness.

 

If you are in a foreign country, you might forget your

home and your family

 

members and friends who are very dear to you. But if

you are all of a sudden

 

reminded of your home and friends, you will at once

become very preoccupied:

 

" How shall I meet them? " In San Francisco one of our

friends told me that long

 

ago he left his young children and went to another

country. Recently a letter

 

came from his grown-up son, and at once the father

remembered his affection for

 

him and sent some money. That affection automatically

came, even though he had

 

forgotten his child for so many years. Similarly, our

affection for Krsna is so

 

intimate that as soon as there is some touch of Krsna

consciousness, we at once

 

revive our relationship with Him.

 

Everyone has some particular relationship with Krsna,

the Supreme Lord, which

 

he has forgotten. But as we become Krsna conscious,

gradually our old

 

consciousness of our relationship with Krsna is

revived. And when our

 

consciousness is actually in the clear stage, we can

understand our particular

 

relationship with Krsna. One may have a relationship

with Krsna as a son or

 

servant, as a friend, as a parent, or as a beloved

wife or lover. All these

 

relationships are pervertedly reflected in life in the

material world. But as

 

soon as we come to the platform of Krsna

consciousness, our old relationship

 

with Krsna is revived.

 

We love--every one of us. First I love my body because

my self is within this

 

body. So actually I love my self better than the body.

But that self has an

 

intimate relationship with Krsna because the self is

part and parcel of Krsna.

 

Therefore I love Krsna more than anything. And because

Krsna is all-pervading, I

 

love everything.

 

Unfortunately, we have forgotten that Krsna, God, is

all-pervading. This

 

memory has to be revived. As soon as we revive our

Krsna consciousness, we can

 

see everything in relationship with Krsna, and then

everything becomes lovable.

 

Now I love you or you love me, but that love is on the

platform of this

 

ephemeral body. But when love of Krsna is developed, I

will love not only you

 

but every living entity because the outward

designation, the body, will be

 

forgotten. When a person becomes fully Krsna

conscious, he does not think, " Here

 

is a man, here is an animal, here is a cat, here is a

dog, here is a worm. " He

 

sees everyone as part and parcel of Krsna. This is

very nicely explained in the

 

Bhagavad-gita: " One who is actually learned in Krsna

consciousness becomes a

 

lover of everyone in the universe. " Unless one is

situated on the Krsna

 

conscious platform, there is no question of universal

brotherhood.

 

If we actually want to implement the idea of universal

brotherhood, then we

 

will have to come to the platform of Krsna

consciousness, not material

 

consciousness. As long as we are in material

consciousness, our lovable objects

 

will be limited. But when we are actually in Krsna

consciousness, our lovable

 

objects will be universal. That is stated by Prahlada

Maharaja: " Beginning from

 

the nonmoving plants and trees and extending up to the

highest living creature,

 

Brahma, the Supreme Personality of Godhead is present

everywhere by His

 

expansion as the Paramatma, the feature of the Lord in

everyone's heart. As soon

 

as we become Krsna conscious, that extension of the

Supreme Personality of

 

Godhead, Paramatma, induces us to love every object in

relation with Krsna. "

 

Realizing that God Is Everywhere

 

Maharaja Prahlada informed his classmates about the

all-pervasiveness of the

 

Supreme Lord. But although the Supreme Lord is

all-pervasive by means of His

 

expansions and His energies, that does not mean He has

lost His personality.

 

That is significant. Although He is all-pervading,

still He is a person.

 

According to our material perception, if something is

all-pervading, then it has

 

no personality, no localized aspect. But God is not

like that. For example, the

 

sunshine is all-pervading, but the sun also has a

localized aspect, the sun

 

planet, and you can see it. Not only is there a sun

planet, but within the sun

 

planet is a sun-god, whose name is Vivasvan. We get

this information from Vedic

 

literature. There is no way to understand what is

taking place on other planets

 

except to hear from authorized sources. In the modern

civilization we accept

 

scientists as authorities in these matters. We hear a

scientist say, " We have

 

seen the moon; it is such and such, " and we believe

it. We have not gone with

 

the scientist to see the moon, but we believe him.

 

Belief is the basic principle of understanding. You

may believe the

 

scientists, or you may believe the Vedas. It is up to

you which source you

 

believe. The difference is that the information from

the Vedas is infallible,

 

while that received from the scientists is fallible.

Why is the scientists'

 

information fallible? Because an ordinary man

conditioned by material nature has

 

four defects. What are they? The first is that a

conditioned human being has

 

imperfect senses. We view the sun as a small disc.

Why? It is far, far greater

 

than this earth, but we see it as just a disc.

Everyone knows that our seeing

 

power, our hearing power, and so on are limited. And

because his senses are

 

imperfect, the conditioned soul is sure to commit

mistakes, however great a

 

scientist he may be. Not very long ago in this

country, there was a disaster

 

when the scientists tried to send a rocket up but it

at once burned to ashes. So

 

there was a mistake. The conditioned soul must make

mistakes, because that is

 

the nature of conditioned life. The mistake may be

very great or very slight--

 

that doesn't matter--but a human being conditioned by

material nature is sure to

 

commit mistakes.

 

Further, the conditioned soul must become illusioned.

This happens when he

 

continually mistakes one thing for something else. For

example, we accept the

 

body as the self. Since I am not this body, my

acceptance of the body as my self

 

is an illusion. The whole world is going on under the

illusion that " I am this

 

body. " Therefore there is no peace. I am thinking that

I am Indian, you are

 

thinking that you are American, and a Chinese man is

thinking that he is

 

Chinese. What is this " Chinese, " " American, " and

" Indian " ? It is an illusion

 

based on the body. That's all.

 

The propensity to cheat is the fourth defect of

conditioned life. I may be a

 

fool, but I will boast that I am very learned.

Everyone who is illusioned and

 

commits mistakes is a fool, but still such fools pose

themselves as being

 

sources of infallible knowledge. So all conditioned

souls have imperfect senses,

 

they are subject to commit mistakes and become

illusioned, and they are

 

influenced by the propensity to cheat.

 

How can one expect real knowledge from such

conditioned souls? There is no

 

possibility of receiving actual knowledge from them.

Whether a person is a

 

scientist, a philosopher, or whatever, because he is

conditioned he cannot give

 

complete information, no matter how educated he may

be. That is a fact.

 

One may now ask, How can we get complete information?

The process is to

 

receive knowledge via the disciplic succession of

spiritual masters and

 

disciples beginning with Krsna. In the Bhagavad-gita

Lord Krsna says to Arjuna,

 

" This knowledge of Bhagavad-gita was first spoken by

Me to the sun-god, and the

 

sun-god spoke it to his son, Manu. In turn, Manu spoke

this knowledge to his son

 

Iksvaku, and then Iksvaku spoke the same to his son.

In this way the knowledge

 

has come down. But unfortunately that disciplic

succession is now broken.

 

Therefore, O Arjuna, I am now imparting the same

knowledge to you because you

 

are My very dear friend and good devotee. " This is the

process of receiving

 

perfect knowledge--to accept the transcendental

vibration coming down from

 

higher sources. The entire stock of Vedic knowledge is

a transcendental

 

vibration to help us understand the Supreme Lord.

 

So, Prahlada Maharaja says that the Supreme

Personality of Godhead is

 

identical with the all-pervading Supreme Soul, the

Paramatma. The same

 

information appears in the Brahma-samhita--that the

Supreme Lord, although

 

situated in His own transcendental abode, is

all-pervading. Still, although He

 

is present everywhere, we cannot see Him with our

imperfect senses.

 

Prahlada Maharaja then says, " Although He is not seen,

He can still be

 

perceived. One who is intelligent can perceive the

presence of the Supreme Lord

 

everywhere. " How is this possible? During the daytime,

even someone in a room

 

can know that the sun is up. Because it is light in

his room, he can understand

 

that the sun is shining in the sky. Similarly, those

who have received perfect

 

knowledge in disciplic succession know that everything

is an expansion of the

 

energy of the Supreme Lord. Therefore they see the

Lord everywhere.

 

What can we perceive with our material senses? We can

see what is visible to

 

the material eye--earth, water, fire. But we cannot

see air, although we can

 

perceive it by touch. We can understand that there is

sky by sound, and we can

 

understand that we have a mind because we are

thinking, feeling, and willing.

 

Similarly, we can understand that we have an

intelligence which guides the mind.

 

If we go still further, we can understand, " I am

consciousness. " And one who is

 

further advanced can understand that the source of

consciousness is the soul

 

and, above all, the Supersoul.

 

The visible things around us are expansions of the

inferior energy of the

 

Supreme Lord, but the Lord also has a superior

energy--consciousness. We have to

 

understand consciousness from higher authorities, but

we can also directly

 

perceive it. For example, we can perceive that there

is consciousness spread all

 

over the body. If I pinch any part of my body, I will

feel pain; that means

 

there is consciousness throughout my body. In the

Bhagavad-gita Krsna says we

 

should try to understand that consciousness is spread

all over the body and that

 

it is eternal. Similarly, consciousness is spread all

over this universe. But

 

that is not our consciousness. That is God's

consciousness. So God, the Supreme

 

Soul, is all-pervading by His consciousness. One who

understands this has begun

 

his Krsna consciousness.

 

Our process is to dovetail our consciousness with

Krsna consciousness--that

 

will make us perfect. It is not that we merge into

that consciousness. In one

 

sense we " merge, " but still we keep our individuality.

That is the difference

 

between impersonalist philosophy and Krsna conscious

philosophy. The

 

impersonalist philosopher says that perfection means

to merge into the Supreme

 

and lose our individuality. We say that in the

perfectional stage we merge into

 

the Supreme but keep our individuality. How is that?

An airplane starts from the

 

airport and climbs up and up, and when it goes very

high we cannot see it: we

 

can simply see sky. But the airplane is not lost--it

is still there. Another

 

example is that of a green bird entering into a big

green tree. We cannot

 

distinguish the bird from the tree, but they both

continue to exist. Similarly,

 

the supreme consciousness is Krsna, and when we

dovetail our individual

 

consciousness with the Supreme, we become perfect--but

keep our individuality.

 

An outsider may think that there is no distinction

between God and His pure

 

devotee, but it is due only to a poor fund of

knowledge. Every individual

 

person, every individual being, maintains his

individuality eternally, even when

 

dovetailed with the Supreme.

 

Prahlada Maharaja says that we cannot see

consciousness--either supreme

 

consciousness or individual consciousness--but that it

is there. How can we

 

understand that it is there? We can understand the

supreme consciousness and our

 

individual consciousness simply by perception of

blissfulness. Because we have

 

consciousness, we can feel ananda, or pleasure.

Without consciousness, there is

 

no feeling of pleasure. Because of consciousness we

can enjoy life by applying

 

our senses in whatever way we like. But as soon as

consciousness is gone from

 

the body, we cannot enjoy our senses.

 

Our consciousness exists because we are part and

parcel of the supreme

 

consciousness. For example, a spark is only a tiny

particle of the fire, yet the

 

spark is also fire. A drop of the Atlantic Ocean

possesses the same quality as

 

all the ocean water--it is also salty. Similarly,

because the pleasure potency

 

exists in the Supreme Lord, we can also enjoy

pleasure. The Lord is paramesvara,

 

the supreme controller; therefore we are also isvaras,

or controllers. For

 

example, I have some controlling power to take a drink

of water when I cough.

 

According to our capacity, everyone of us has some

controlling power. But we are

 

not the supreme controller. The supreme controller is

God, Krsna.

 

Because Krsna is the supreme controller, He can

control all the universal

 

affairs by His different potencies. I also feel that I

am controlling my bodily

 

affairs to some extent, but because I am not the

supreme controller, if there is

 

something wrong in this body, I have to go to a

physician. Similarly, I have no

 

control over other bodies. I speak of this hand as " my

hand " because I can work

 

with this hand and move it according to my desire. But

I am not the controller

 

of your hand. If I desire to move your hand, that is

not in my power; that is in

 

your power. You can move your hand if you like. So I

am not the controller of

 

your body, and you are not the controller of my body,

but the Supreme Soul is

 

the controller of your body and my body and every

body.

 

In the Bhagavad-gita, the Lord says that you, the

soul, are present in your

 

body and that your body is the field of your

activities. So whatever you are

 

doing is limited by the field of your body. An animal

bound up in a certain

 

tract of land can move there but cannot go beyond what

that space allows.

 

Similarly, your activity and my activity are bound up

within the limits of our

 

bodies. My body is my field of activities, and your

body is your field of

 

activities. But Krsna says, " I am present in every

field. "

 

Thus Krsna, as the Supersoul, or Paramatma, knows what

is going on in my

 

body, in your body, and in millions and billions of

other bodies. Therefore He

 

is the supreme controller. We have our limited energy,

but His energy is

 

unlimited. By His controlling power, by His supreme

will, this material creation

 

is moving. That is also confirmed in the

Bhagavad-gita, where Krsna states,

 

" Under My superintendence the whole material nature is

working. All wonderful

 

things that you see in this material world are due to

My supervision, My supreme

 

control. "

 

Krsna Consciousness: The Perfection of Mercy

 

Prahlada Maharaja now gives his conclusion: " My dear

friends, because the

 

Supreme Lord is present everywhere and because we are

part and parcel of the

 

Supreme Lord, our duty is to be merciful to all living

entities. " When a person

 

is in a lower position, we have a duty to help him.

For example, because a small

 

child is helpless, he is dependent on the mercy of the

parent: " Mother, I want

 

this. " " Yes, my dear child. " We should be

compassionate to all living entities

 

and should show them mercy.

 

How can we show our mercy to everyone? There are

millions and millions of

 

poor people, so how can we show them all mercy? Are we

able to supply clothing

 

and food to all the needy persons of the world? That

is not possible. How, then,

 

can we be merciful to every living entity? By giving

them Krsna consciousness.

 

That is how Prahlada Maharaja is showing his class

friends real mercy. They were

 

all fools, devoid of Krsna consciousness, and

therefore he was showing them how

 

to become Krsna conscious. This is the highest mercy.

If you want to show any

 

mercy at all to the living entities, then enlighten

them in Krsna consciousness,

 

as Prahlada Maharaja did. Otherwise, it is materially

beyond your power to show

 

mercy.

 

" My dear friends, " Prahlada says, " give up this

demoniac life. Give up this

 

nonsense. " The belief that there is no God is the

demoniac feature that Prahlada

 

Maharaja requests his friends to give up. Because they

were born in the families

 

of demons and were being instructed by demoniac

teachers, Prahlada's friends

 

were thinking, " Who is God? There is no God. " We find

in the Bhagavad-gita that

 

people of this mentality are called miscreants, for

they always try to make

 

mischief. They may be very well educated lawyers, for

example, but their plan is

 

to cheat. We have practical experience. These lawyers

are highly educated with

 

so many qualifications and are nicely dressed, but

their mentality is more base

 

than that of a dog. " This man has some money, so let

us conspire to cheat him. "

 

They are simply miscreants.

 

What are they cheating for? Simply for sense

gratification, just like an ass

 

who does not know the purpose of life. He is kept by

the washerman, who loads

 

his back as much as possible. In this way the ass

works the whole day with this

 

burden simply for a few morsels of grass. Similarly,

materialistic people work

 

very hard simply for a little insignificant sense

gratification. Therefore they

 

are compared to asses. They are always planning

something mischievous. They are

 

the lowest of mankind because they do not believe in

God. Why? Their knowledge

 

has been plundered by the influence of the material

energy. Because they deny

 

the existence of God, illusion impels them: " Yes,

there is no God. Work hard and

 

commit sins so that you may go to hell. "

 

 

 

For any questions, comments, correspondence, or to

evaluate

 

dozens of other books in this collection, visit the

website of the publishers,

 

www.Krishna.com.

 

 

 

Or my e-mail: pranjal.johry

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

______________________________\

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DEAR FRIENDS

I'm sending you all a small book of TRANSCENDENTAL wisdom by

his divine grace Srila Prabhupada (my spiritual master & guru).

You will find a new meaning to your life by just once going

through this book - where spiritality is explained very logically &

scientifically. For more writings of Srila Prabhupada you can contact www.krishna.com.

 

Thanx

Pranjal

pranjal.johry

 

The

Laws of Nature: An Infallible Justice

Chapter 1

God and The Law of Karma

Among the vast ancient Sanskrit writings known as the Vedas,

the 108

Upanisads contain the philosophical essence. And among all

the Upanisads, the

Isopanisad is considered the foremost. In the following

essay, based on talks

Srila Prabhupada gave on the Isopanisad in 1968, we learn

the truth about the

Supreme Lord, the laws governing His material and spiritual

energies, and how to

break free of the bondage of karma.

The Isopanisad states that the Supreme Personality of

Godhead is " perfect and

complete. " Part of the Lord's complete arrangement for

this material world is

his process of creation, maintenance, and destruction. Every

living being in

this material world has a fixed schedule of six changes:

birth, growth,

maintenance, the production of by-products, diminution, and

destruction. This is

the law of material nature. A flower is born as a bud. It

grows, remains fresh

for two or three days, produces a seed, gradually withers,

and then is finished.

You cannot stop this by your so-called material science. To

try to do so is

avidya, ignorance.

Sometimes people foolishly think that by scientific

advancement man will

become immortal. This is nonsense. You cannot stop the

material laws. Therefore

in the Bhagavad-gita (7.14) Lord Krsna says that the

material energy is

duratyaya, impossible to overcome by material means.

Material nature consists of three modes, or gunas:

sattva-guna, rajo-guna,

and tamo-guna, or the modes of goodness, passion, and

ignorance. Another meaning

of guna is " rope. " Rope is made by twisting fiber

in a threefold process. First

the fiber is twisted in three small strands, then three of

them are twisted

together, then again three of those are twisted together. In

this way the rope

becomes very strong. Similarly, the three modes of

nature--goodness, passion,

and ignorance--are mixed, after which they produce some

by-product. Then they

are mixed again, and then again. Thus they are " twisted

together " innumerable

times.

In this way the material energy binds you more and more. By

your own efforts

you cannot get out of this bondage, which is known as

pavarga. Pa-varga is the

fifth set of letters in the Sanskrit Devanagari alphabet. It

contains the

letters pa, pha, ba, bha, and ma. Pa stands for parisrama,

" hard labor. " Every

living entity in this world is struggling very hard to

maintain himself and

survive. This is called the hard struggle for existence. Pha

stands for phena,

" foam. " When a horse works very hard, foam comes

out of its mouth. Similarly,

when we are tired from working very hard, our tongue may

become dry and some

foam forms in our mouth. Everyone is working very hard for

sense gratification--

so much so that foam is coming from their mouth. Ba

represents bandha,

" bondage. " In spite of all our efforts, we remain

bound up by the ropes of the

material modes of nature. Bha stands for bhaya,

" fear. " In material life, one is

always in a blazing fire of fear, since no one knows what

will happen next. And

ma represents mrtyu, " death. " All our hopes and

plans for happiness and security

in this world are ended by death.

So, Krsna consciousness nullifies this pavarga process. In

other words, by

taking to Krsna consciousness one attains apavarga, where

there is no hard

struggle for existence and no material bondage, fear, or

death. Pavarga

symptomizes this material world, but when you add the prefix

" a " to pavarga,

that means it is nullified. Our Krsna consciousness movement

is the path of

apavarga.

Unfortunately, people do not know of these things, and

therefore they are

wasting their lives. This modern civilization is a

soul-killing civilization;

people are killing themselves because they do not know what

real life is. They

are simply living like animals. The animal does not know

what life is, so he

simply works under the laws of nature, undergoing gradual

evolution. But when

you get this human form of life, you have a responsibility

to live in a

different way. Here is a chance for you to become Krsna

conscious and solve all

problems. But if you don't--if you continue to act like

animals--you will again

have to enter the cycle of birth and death and transmigrate

through 8,400,000

species of life. It will take many, many millions of years

to come back to the

human form of life. For example, the sunshine you are seeing

now you will not

see again until after twenty-four hours. Everything in nature

moves in a cycle.

So if you lose this opportunity of elevating yourself, then

again you must enter

the cycle of transmigration. Nature's law is very strong.

Therefore we are

opening so many centers so that people may take advantage of

this International

Society for Krishna Consciousness and elevate themselves.

It is important to take to Krsna consciousness immediately,

because we do not

know how much time is left before death. When your time in

this body expires, no

one can stop your death. The arrangement of material nature

is so strong. You

cannot say, " Let me remain. " Actually, people

sometimes request like that. When

I was in Allahabad,

an old friend who was very rich was dying. At that time he

begged the doctor, " Can't you give me at least four more

years to live? I have

some plans which I could not finish. " You see. This is

foolishness. Everyone

thinks, " Oh, I have to do this. I have to do

that. " No. Neither the doctors nor

the scientists can check death: " Oh, no, sir. Not four

years, not even four

minutes. You have to go immediately. " This is the law.

So before that moment

comes, one should be very careful to become realized in

Krsna consciousness. You

should realize Krsna consciousness very quickly. Before your

next death comes,

you must finish your business. That is intelligence.

Otherwise you will suffer

defeat.

The Isopanisad states that whatever emanates from the

complete whole--the

Supreme Lord--is also complete in itself. Therefore if you

want to take

advantage of your life and become Krsna conscious, there is

complete facility.

But you have to come to the point of taking up the practice.

Krsna consciousness

is not theoretical; it is practical. All experiments have

already been

performed. So, as indicated in the Isopanisad, there is a

complete facility for

the small complete units--ourselves--to realize the supreme

complete, Krsna. We

are complete units, but we are small. For example, in a big

machine there is a

small screw, and the perfection of that small screw is to be

fitted in its

proper place. Then it has value. But if it becomes unscrewed

from the machine

and falls down on the floor, it has no value. Similarly, we

are perfect as long

as we are attached to Krsna; otherwise we are useless.

To realize the complete means to realize what our relationship

with the

complete is. And all forms of incompleteness are experienced

only on account of

incomplete knowledge of the complete. We are thinking,

" I am equal to God. I am

God. " This is incomplete knowledge. But if you know,

" I am part and parcel of

God, and therefore I am equal to God in quality, " that

is complete knowledge.

The human form of life is a chance to revive the complete

manifestation of the

consciousness of the living being. You can revive this

complete consciousness by

the process of Krsna consciousness. But if you don't take

advantage of this

complete facility, you are killing yourself, committing

suicide. As it is said

in the Isopanisad, " The killer of the soul, whoever he

may be, must enter into

the planets known as the worlds of the faithless, full of

darkness and

ignorance. " So don't be the killer of your soul.

Utilize the complete facility

of your human life to become Krsna conscious. That is your

only business.

Breaking the Bonds of Karma

In conditioned life we are committing sins at every step,

even without

knowing it. The reason we are sinning unknowingly is that we

have been in

ignorance from our very birth. This ignorance is prominent

despite so many

educational institutions. Why? Because despite so many big,

big universities,

none of them is teaching atma-tattva, the science of the

soul. Therefore people

remain in ignorance, and they continue to sin and suffer the

reactions. That is

stated in the Srimad-Bhagavatam (5.5.3): parabhavas tavad

abodha-jato yavan na

jijnasata atma-tattvam. This foolishness will continue until

one comes to the

platform of understanding self-realization. Otherwise, all

these universities

and institutions for imparting knowledge are a continuation

of that same

ignorance and foolishness. Unless one comes to the point of

asking " What am I?

What is God? What is this world? What is my relationship

with God and this

world? " and finds proper answers, one continues to be

foolish like an animal and

is subjected to transmigration from one body to another in

different species of

life. This is the result of ignorance.

So, the modern civilization is very risky. One may feel

comfortable as a

successful businessman or politician, or one may think

oneself comfortable

because of being born in a rich nation like America,

but these statuses of life

are temporary. They will have to change, and we do not know

what kind of

miseries we will have to suffer in our next life because of

our sinful

activities. So if one does not begin cultivating

transcendental knowledge, then

one's life is very risky. Suppose a healthy man is living in

a contaminated

place. Is his life not at risk? He may become infected by

disease at any moment.

Therefore we should work to dissipate our ignorance through

cultivation of

transcendental knowledge.

A good example of how we commit sins unknowingly is cooking.

In the Bhagavadgita

(3.13) Krsna says that His devotees are freed from sin

because they eat

only the remnants of food that has been offered to Him. But,

He says, those who

cook for themselves eat only sin. The difference between

cooking here in this

temple and cooking in some ordinary house is that our

cooking and eating are

relieving us from sin, while the cooking and eating of a

nondevotee are simply

entangling him more and more in sin. The cooking appears to

be the same, but

this cooking and that cooking are different. Here there is

no sin because the

food is being cooked for Krsna.

Anything you do outside the field of Krsna conscious

activities entangles you

in the modes of nature. Generally, you are being implicated

in sinful

activities. Those who are a little more cautious avoid

sinful activities and

perform pious activities. But one who performs pious

activities is also

entangled. If a man is pious, he may take birth in a family

that is very rich or

aristocratic, or he may be very beautiful or get the

opportunity to become very

learned. These are the results of pious activities. But

whether you are pious or

impious, you have to enter into the womb of some mother. And

that tribulation is

very severe. That we have forgotten. Whether you take birth

in a very rich and

aristocratic family or from an animal womb, the pangs of

birth, old age,

disease, and death continue.

The Krsna consciousness movement is meant to give you an

opportunity to solve

these four problems--birth, old age, disease, and death. But

if you continue to

act sinfully and eat sinfully, then these miseries will

continue. Otherwise, you

can nullify your sinful reactions by surrendering to Krsna,

as He states in the

Bhagavad-gita (18.66): " Just give up all your so-called

religious practices and

surrender unto Me. I shall protect you from all your sinful

reactions. " Part of

surrendering to Krsna is being careful not to eat anything

that has not been

offered to Him. That should be our determination. Even if we

have committed some

sin, by eating prasadam, food offered to Krsna, we will

counteract it. If we

surrender to Krsna in this way, He will protect us from

sinful reactions. That

is His promise.

And where does a surrendered devotee go at the time of

death? Is he finished,

as the voidists say? No. Krsna says, mam eti: " He comes

to Me. " And what is the

benefit of going there? Mam upetya punar janma duhkhalayam

asasvatam napnuvanti:

" One who comes back to Me does not have to return to

this miserable material

world. " That is the highest perfection.

The Isopanisad states, " The killer of the soul, whoever

he may be, must enter

into the planets known as the worlds of the faithless, full

of darkness and

ignorance. " Krsna is a lion to the demons and a lamb to

the devotees. The

atheists say, " We have not seen Krsna. " Yes, you

will see Krsna--you will see

Him as the lion of death when He ultimately comes to capture

you: " Ow! " The

atheist sees Krsna as death. And the theist, or devotee,

sees Krsna as his

lover, as gentle as a lamb.

Actually, everyone is engaged in Krsna's service, either out

of love or by

force. One who is entangled in material life is engaged in

Krsna's service

because he is forced to serve Krsna's external, material

energy. It is just like

what we see with the citizens of the state: whether one is a

law-abiding citizen

or a criminal, one is subservient to the state. The criminal

may say he doesn't

care for the state, but then the police will force him to

accept the authority

of the state by putting him in prison.

Therefore, whether one accepts or rejects Caitanya

Mahaprabhu's philosophy

that every living entity is eternally the servant of Krsna,

one remains His

servant. The only difference is that the atheist is being

forced to accept Krsna

as his master, and the devotee is voluntarily offering Him

service. This Krsna

consciousness movement is teaching people that they are

eternal servants of God

and should voluntarily offer Him service: " Don't

falsely claim that you are God.

Oh, you don't care for God? You have to care. " The

great demon Hiranya-kasipu

also didn't care for God, and so God came and killed him.

God is seen by the

atheist as death, but by the theist as a lover. That is the

difference.

If you are a devotee and understand this philosophy of

spiritual life, you

can live for a moment or you can live for a hundred

years--it doesn't matter.

Otherwise, what is the use of living? Some trees live for

five hundred or five

thousand years, but what is the use of such a life, devoid

of higher

consciousness?

If you know that you are Krsna's servant and that everything

belongs to

Krsna, you can live for hundreds of years doing your duties

and there will be no

karmic reaction. This is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gita

(3.9): yajnarthat

karmano 'nyatra loko 'yam karma-bandhanah. " Except work

for Krsna, any work,

whether good or bad, will bind you to this material

world. " If you do good work,

you will have so-called enjoyment in your next life--but you

will still remain

bound up in the cycle of birth and death. And if you do bad

work, then you will

have to suffer the sinful reactions and also remain bound up

in birth and death.

But if you work for Krsna, there are no such reactions, good

or bad, and at the

time of death you will return to Krsna. This is the only way

to break the bonds

of karma.

Krsna, the Controller and Owner of All

In the Isopanisad, the word isa is used to describe the

Supreme Personality

of Godhead. Isa means " controller. " Do you think

you are controlled or not? Is

there any person anywhere within this universe who is not

controlled? Can anyone

say, " I am not controlled " ? Nobody can say that.

So if you are controlled, then

why do you declare, " I am not controlled, I am

independent, I am God " ? Why this

nonsense? Mayavadi impersonalists claim, " I am God, you

are God, everyone is

God. " But if they are controlled, how can they be God?

Does this make any sense?

God is never controlled; He is the supreme controller. So if

somebody is

controlled, immediately we should know that he is not God.

Of course, some rascals claim that they are not controlled.

I know one such

rascal who has a society and is preaching, " I am

God. " But one day I saw him

with a toothache; he was moaning, " Ohhh! " So I

asked him, " You claim that you

are God, the supreme controller, but now you are under the

control of a

toothache. What kind of God are you? " So if you see

someone who claims that he

is God or that everyone is God, you should immediately know

such a person is a

number-one rascal.

Now, this is not to say that the living entities are not

controllers to some

extent. In the Bhagavad-gita Lord Krsna says that the living

entities are His

superior energy. Why are the living entities superior

energy? Because they are

conscious, whereas the material energy is not. Therefore the

living entities can

control the material energy to some extent. For example, all

the paraphernalia

in this temple has been made from matter: earth, water,

fire, and air. But it

was a living entity who molded the material energy into this

paraphernalia for

the purpose of worshiping Krsna. Another example: before

people came from

Europe, this land

of America was mostly vacant. The

people who lived here before

that did not fully exploit it. But the Europeans came and

developed it into a

country with great industries and roads.

So the superior energy, the living entities, can have some

control over the

material energy. That Krsna explains in the Bhagavad-gita

(7.5): yayedam

dharyate jagat. The importance of this material world is due

to the living

entities. A big city like Los Angeles,

New York, or London

is valuable as long

as the living entities are there. Similarly, the body is

valuable as long as the

living entity--the soul--is there. Therefore the soul is

superior to matter. But

that superiority is being misused to exploit matter for

sense gratification.

That is conditioned life. We have forgotten that, although

we are superior to

matter, we are still subordinate to God.

The people of the modern civilization do not care for God

because they are

intoxicated with their superiority over matter. They are

simply trying to

exploit matter in different ways. But they are forgetting

that all people--

American, Russian, Chinese, Indian--are subordinate to God.

They have forgotten

Krsna and want to enjoy this material world. That is their

disease.

So, the duty of the devotee of the Lord is to invoke the

people's Krsna

consciousness. The devotee explains to them: " You are

superior to matter, but

you are subordinate to Krsna. Therefore you should not try

to enjoy matter but

rather use it for His enjoyment. " For example, we have

decorated this temple not

for our sense gratification but for Krsna's pleasure. What

is the difference

between us and ordinary people? They are decorating their

apartment very nicely,

and we are decorating our place very nicely--but the purpose

is different. We

are doing it for Krsna, and they are doing it for

themselves. Whether you

decorate your personal apartment or Krsna's temple, your

superiority over matter

remains, since you are utilizing matter for your purposes.

But when you apply

your intelligence toward utilizing matter for Krsna's

pleasure, your life is

successful, whereas when you apply the same intelligence for

your sense

gratification, you become entangled in material nature and

feel anxiety. Then

you have to change bodies, one after another.

Krsna is the supreme controller of both the inferior energy,

matter, and the

superior energy, the jivatma--ourselves. We are Krsna's

superior energy because

we can control the material world, but that control is also

conditional. We have

only limited control over this material world. But Krsna has

control over us;

therefore, whatever control we have, He has sanctioned. For

example, a human

being has manufactured this nice microphone using his

intelligence. That means

he has been able to control matter to a certain degree to

fulfill his desires.

But where has his intelligence come from? Krsna has given

man his superior

intelligence. In the Bhagavad-gita (15.15) Krsna says,

sarvasya caham hrdi

sannivisto mattah smrtir jnanam apohanam ca: " I am

seated in everyone's heart,

and from Me come remembrance, knowledge, and

forgetfulness. " Therefore the

supreme controller is giving intelligence to the superior

energy in the human

form of body: " Do this. Now do that... " This

direction is not whimsical. The

person wanted to do something in his past life, but in his

present life he

forgets, and so Krsna reminds him: " You wanted to do

this. Here is an

opportunity. " So although you have superior

intelligence, that is also

controlled by Krsna. If Krsna gives you the intelligence,

you can manufacture

this nice microphone. Otherwise, you cannot. Therefore in

every sphere of life

we are controlled by Krsna.

We can also see Krsna's control on the universal level. For

example, there

are so many huge planets; this earth planet is only a small

one. Still, on this

planet there are big oceans like the Atlantic

and Pacific, as well as big

mountains and skyscraper buildings. Yet despite all this

load, the earth is

floating in the air just like a swab of cotton. Who is

floating it? Can you

float even a grain of sand in the air? You may talk about

the law of gravity and

so many other things, but you cannot control it. Your

airplane is flying in the

air, but as soon as the petrol is finished, it will

immediately fall. So if it

takes so many scientists to build an airplane that can float

only temporarily in

the air, is it possible that this huge earth is floating of

its own accord? No.

Lord Krsna declares in the Bhagavad-gita (15.13), " I

enter into the material

planets and keep them aloft. " Just as to keep an

airplane aloft a pilot has to

enter it, so to keep this earth aloft Krsna has entered it.

This is the simple

truth.

We have to take knowledge from Krsna. We shouldn't accept any

process of

gaining knowledge except hearing from Krsna or His

representative. Then we will

have first-class knowledge. If you find an authority who is

representing Krsna

and who can speak on the subject matter, and if you accept

the knowledge he

gives, then your knowledge is perfect. Of all the processes

for receiving

knowledge, the least reliable is direct sense perception.

Suppose someone asks,

" Can you show me God? " That means he wants to

experience everything directly.

But this is a second-class process for gaining knowledge,

because our senses are

imperfect and we are prone to make mistakes. Suppose you

need some gold but you

don't know where to purchase it. So you go to a proprietor

of a hardware store

and ask, " Do you have any gold in stock? " He will

immediately understand that

you are a first-class fool because you have come to purchase

gold in a hardware

store. Therefore he will try to cheat you. He will give you

a piece of iron and

say, " Here is gold. " Then what will you say? Will

you accept that iron as gold?

Because you do not know what gold is and have gone to a

hardware store to

purchase it, you will get a piece of iron and be cheated.

Similarly, rascals who

demand that they be shown God do not know what God is, and

therefore they are

being cheated by so many bogus spiritual leaders who claim

that they are God.

That is happening.

If you want to purchase gold, you must have at least some

preliminary

knowledge of what gold is. Similarly, if you want to see

God, the first

requirement is that you must know some of the basic

characteristics of God.

Otherwise, if you go to some rascal and he claims to be God

and you accept him

as God, you will be cheated.

Another question we should ask when someone says " I

want to see God " is,

" What qualification do you have to see God? " God

is not so cheap that He can be

seen by anybody and everybody. No, the Krsna consciousness

movement does not

present any nonsense or cheap thing. If you want to see God

face to face, then

you must follow the rules and regulations. You must chant

Hare Krsna and purify

yourself. Then gradually the time will come when you are

purified and you will

see God.

Still, even though in your present contaminated condition

you are not

qualified to see God, He is so kind that He allows you to

see Him in His Deity

form in the temple. In that form He agrees to be seen by

everyone, whether or

not one knows He is God. The Deity is not an idol; it is not

imagination. The

knowledge of how to construct the Deity and install Him on

the altar is received

from the scripture and the superior acaryas, or spiritual

masters. Therefore the

authorized Deity in the temple is Krsna Himself and can

fully reciprocate your

love and service.

With your present blunt material senses, however, you cannot

immediately

perceive God's spiritual form, name, qualities, pastimes,

and paraphernalia. And

because people in the present civilization have no power to

understand God, nor

are they guided by some person who can help them understand

God, they have

become godless. But if you read Vedic scriptures like the

Isopanisad and

Bhagavad-gita under superior guidance and follow the rules

and regulations,

eventually God will be revealed to you. You cannot see God

or understand God by

your own endeavor. You have to surrender to the process by

which God can be

known. Then He will reveal Himself. He is the supreme

controller; you are being

controlled. So how can you control God? " O God, come

here. I want to see You. "

God is not so cheap that by your order He will come and be

seen by you. No, that

is not possible. You must always remember, " God is the

supreme controller and I

am controlled. So if I can please God by my service, then He

will reveal Himself

to me. " That is the process of knowing God.

Ultimately, this process leads to love of God. That is real

religion. It

doesn't matter whether you follow the Hindu, Muslim, or

Christian religion: if

you are developing love of God, then you are perfect in your

religion. And what

kind of love should we develop for God? It must be without

any selfish

motivation-- " O Lord, I love you because You supply me

so many nice things. You

are my order supplier. " No, we should not have this

sort of love for God. It

should not depend on any exchange.

Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu taught, " O Lord! Whether You

trample me under Your

feet or embrace me or leave me brokenhearted by not being

present before me,

that does not matter. You are completely free to do

anything, for You are my

worshipable Lord unconditionally. " That is love. We

should think, " God may do

whatever He likes, yet I will still love Him. I don't want

anything in

exchange. " That is the sort of love Krsna wants. That

is why He is so fond of

the gopis. In the gopis' love there is no question of

business ex-changes-- " Give

me this, then I will love You. " Their love was pure,

unalloyed, without any

impediment. If you try to love God in this way, nothing in

the whole world can

check you. You only have to develop your

eagerness-- " Krsna! I want You. " That's

all. Then there is no question of being stopped. In any condition

your love will

increase. If you attain that state, you will feel fully

satisfied. It is not

that God wants you to love Him for His benefit. It is for

your benefit. If you

do otherwise, you will never be happy.

God and His energies

The Isopanisad explains that whatever we see, whether

animate or inanimate,

is controlled by the Supreme Lord. Lord Krsna says the same

thing in the

Bhagavad-gita (9.10)--that His energies are managing

everything. And the Visnu

Purana confirms, eka-desa-sthitasyagner jyotsna vistarini

yatha: " As heat and

light are distributed all around by a fire situated in one

place, so the whole

creation is a manifestation of energies expanded from the

Supreme Lord. " For

example, the sun is in one place, but it is distributing its

heat and light all

over the universe. Similarly, the Supreme Lord is

distributing His material and

spiritual energies all over the creation.

The spiritual energy is present in this temporary material

world, but it is

covered by the material energy. For example, the sun is

always shining in the

sky--no one can stop the sun from shining--but it is

sometimes covered by a

cloud. When this happens, the sunshine on the ground is dim.

The more the sun is

covered, the dimmer the sunlight. But this covering of the

sun is partial. All

the sunshine cannot be covered; that is not possible. An

insignificant portion

of the sunshine may be covered by a cloud. Similarly, this

material world is an

insignificant portion of the spiritual world that is covered

by the material

energy.

And what is the material energy? The material energy is just

another form of

the spiritual energy. It manifests when there is an absence

of spiritual

activity. Again the analogy of the sun and the cloud: What

is a cloud? It is an

effect of the sunshine. The sunshine evaporates water from

the sea, and a cloud

is formed. So the sun is the cause of the cloud. Similarly,

the Supreme Lord is

the cause of this material energy, which covers our vision

of Him.

In this way, two energies are working in this material

world: the spiritual

energy and the material energy. The material energy consists

of eight material

elements: earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind,

intelligence, and false ego.

These are arranged from the grosser to the finer. Water is

finer than earth,

fire is finer than water, etc.

So, the finer the element, the more powerful it is. For

example, at the speed

of the mind you can go many thousands of miles within a

second. But even more

powerful than the mind is the intelligence, and even more

powerful than the

intelligence is spiritual energy. What is spiritual energy?

That is stated by

Krsna in the Bhagavad-gita (7.5): apareyam itas tv anyam

prakrtim viddhi me

param jiva-bhutam. " Beyond My inferior, material energy

is another energy, which

is spiritual. It comprises the living entities. "

We living entities are also energy, but superior energy. How

are we superior?

Because we can control the inferior energy, matter. Matter

has no power to act

on its own. The big airplane can fly so nicely in the sky,

but unless the

spiritual energy--the pilot--is there, it is useless. The

jet plane will sit in

the airport for thousands of years; it will not fly unless

the small particle of

spiritual energy, the pilot, comes and touches it. So what

is the difficulty in

understanding God? If there are so many huge machines that

cannot move without

the touch of the spiritual energy, a living being, then how

can you argue that

this whole material energy works automatically, without any

control? Who would

put forward such a foolish argument? Therefore, those who

cannot understand how

this material energy is being controlled by the Supreme Lord

are less

intelligent. The godless men who believe that this material

energy is working

automatically are fools.

The statement of the Isopanisad is that " Everything

animate or inanimate is

controlled and owned by the Supreme Personality of

Godhead. " Because He is the

supreme controller, He is also the supreme proprietor. In

our practical

experience we see that the man who controls a business establishment

is the

proprietor. Similarly, since God is the controller of this

material world, He is

also its proprietor. This means that as far as possible we

should engage

everything in the Lord's service.

Then what about our own needs? That is explained in the

Isopanisad: " One

should accept only those things necessary for himself, which

are set aside as

his quota, and one should not accept other things, knowing

well to whom they

belong. " Krsna consciousness means to understand things

as they are. So if we

simply understand these principles, we will be well situated

in Krsna

consciousness.

The Position of Krsna

The Isopanisad states, " Although fixed in His abode,

the Personality of

Godhead is swifter than the mind and can overcome all others

running. The

powerful demigods cannot approach Him. Although in one

place, He controls those

who supply the air and rain. He surpasses all in

excellence. " The Brahma-samhita

says something similar: goloka eva nivasaty

akhilatma-bhutah. Although Krsna is

always in Goloka Vrndavana, He is simultaneously in the

hearts of all living

beings.

Krsna has no duties to perform in Goloka. He is simply

enjoying in the

company of His associates--the gopis, the cowherd boys, His

mother and father,

His cows and calves, etc. He is completely free. And His

associates are even

freer than He is, because when they seem to be in danger,

Krsna feels some

anxiety about how to save them. But His associates feel no

anxiety. They simply

think, " Oh, Krsna is here. He will protect us. "

When Krsna enacted His pastimes

five thousand years ago in Vrndavana,

India, He would go every

day with His

cowherd boyfriends and their calves and cows to play in the

forest on the bank

of the Yamuna River.

And often Kamsa would send some demon to try to kill Krsna

and His friends. Yet the cowherd boys would continue

enjoying their pastimes

without anxiety because they were so confident of Krsna's

protection. That is

spiritual life, which begins with surrendering to Krsna.

Surrendering to Krsna means having the strong faith that

Krsna will save us

in any dangerous condition. The first step in surrendering

is that we should

accept whatever is favorable for devotional service. Then we

should reject

anything that is unfavorable for devotional service. The

next stage is the

confidence that in any situation Krsna will protect us and

maintain us.

Actually, He is already giving protection and maintenance to

everyone. That is a

fact. But in maya (illusion) we think that we are protecting

ourselves, or that

we are feeding ourselves.

For the devotees, Krsna personally takes charge of their

protection and

maintenance. And for the ordinary living entities,

Maya-devi--Krsna's external

energy--takes charge. Maya-devi is Krsna's agent for

punishing the conditioned

souls. The situation is like what we see in the state: good

citizens are taken

care of by the government directly, while criminals are

taken care of by the

government through the prison department. In the prison

house the government

takes care that the prisoners get sufficient food, and that

they get hospital

treatment if they become diseased. The government cares for

them--but under

punishment.

Similarly, in this material world Krsna has certainly

arranged for our care,

but also for our punishment. If you commit this sin, then slap.

If you commit

that sin, then kick. This is going on under the heading of

the threefold

miseries--those caused by our own body and mind, those

caused by other living

entities, and those caused by natural calamities under the

supervision of the

demigods. Unfortunately, instead of understanding that we

are being punished for

sinful activities, under the spell of maya we are thinking

that this kicking,

slapping, and thrashing are accidental. This is illusion.

As soon as you take up Krsna consciousness, Krsna begins

personally taking

care of you. As He promises in the Bhagavad-gita (18.66),

" I will take care of

you. I will save you from all sinful reactions. Do not

worry. " Because we have

had so many lives in this material world, we are suffering

under heaps of sinful

reactions. But as soon as you surrender to Krsna, He

immediately takes care of

you and nullifies all your sinful reactions. Krsna says,

" Don't hesitate. " Don't

think, " Oh, I have committed so many sins. How can

Krsna save me? " No. Krsna is

all-powerful. He can save you. Your duty is to surrender to

Him and without any

reservation dedicate your life to His service. Then Krsna

will save you without

a doubt.

Krsna: A Seeming Paradox

The Isopanisad states, " The Supreme Lord walks and does

not walk. He is far

away, but He is very near as well. He is within everything,

and yet He is

outside of everything. " How can Krsna walk and also not

walk? As a crude

example, consider how the sun at noontime shines on your

head. Now, if you begin

walking, you will see that the sun is accompanying you.

About forty years ago,

when I was a householder, I was once walking with my second

son in the evening.

He was four years old. All of a sudden he said, " O

father, why is the moon

following us? " You see? The moon and the sun are fixed

in the sky, yet they seem

to be moving with us. Similarly, if you are going on an

airplane or a train, you

will see that the moon or the sun is going with you. So if

this is possible for

the sun and the moon, why can't Krsna also walk with you?

" Although He is

situated far away, He is very near as well. " In other

words, although Krsna is

in Goloka Vrndavana enjoying pastimes with His associates,

He is simultaneously

everywhere in this material world. In this way the Supreme

Lord " walks and does

not walk. "

If Krsna were not present here as well as in Goloka, how

could He accept the

food the devotees offer Him? Don't think that Krsna does not

accept the

devotees' offerings. He can stretch His hand immediately if

one offers Him

something with devotion. In the Bhagavad-gita (9.26) Krsna

says, tad aham

bhakty-upahrtam asnami: " Whenever someone offers Me

something with faith and

love, I accept it. " People may ask, " Oh, Krsna is

far away in Goloka Vrndavana.

How can He eat your offering? " Yes, He accepts it. Yes,

He eats it--provided it

is offered with love.

So, Krsna is present everywhere, and He can manifest Himself

anywhere

immediately, but you must have the qualification to call

Him. If you are

actually a devotee, Krsna will immediately come to protect

you. The demon

Hiranyakasipu challenged his son, the devotee Prahlada:

" Where is your God? You

say He is everywhere. Then is He in this column of my

palace? You think your God

is there? All right. Then I will kill Him. "

Hiranyakasipu immediately broke the

column. Then Krsna came out of the column in His form as

Nrsimhadeva--half man

and half lion--and killed the demon. That is Krsna.

So Krsna can manifest Himself anywhere because He is present

everywhere. That

is explained in the Isopanisad: tad antarasya sarvasya tad u

sarvasyasya

bahyatah. " The Supreme Lord is within everything, and

yet He is outside of

everything as well. " This Vedic mantra is proof that

the Lord is everywhere.

Whatever is said in the Vedas is a fact. Unless you accept

the Vedas as

axiomatic truth, you cannot make progress in Krsna

consciousness. In mathematics

there are also many axiomatic truths--a point has no length

or breadth, things

equal to the same thing are equal to one another, etc. These

are axiomatic

truths, and we have to accept them if we want to learn

mathematics. Similarly,

the Vedas contain axiomatic truths, and we have to accept

the Vedas as axiomatic

if we want to make spiritual progress.

Sometimes the Vedas seem to contradict themselves, but still

we have to

accept all the Vedic injunctions. For example, according to

Vedic injunction, if

you touch the bone of an animal you immediately become

impure and must take a

bath. Now, a conchshell is the bone of an animal, but the

conchshell is used in

the Deity room, where everything must be spotlessly pure.

You cannot argue, " Oh,

you said that a bone is impure, and that as soon as you

touch it you become

impure. Still you are putting a conchshell in the Deity

room? " No. There is no

room for such an argument. You have to accept that while

bones are impure, the

conchshell is so pure that it can be used in the Deity room.

Similarly, you have to accept the spiritual master's order

as axiomatic.

There can be no argument. In this way you can make progress.

You cannot argue

about things that are inconceivable to you. You will only

fail. You have to

accept the Vedic injunctions and the orders of the spiritual

master as axiomatic

truth. This is not dogmatic, because our predecessor

spiritual masters accepted

this principle. If you argue with your spiritual master, you

will never reach a

conclusion. The argument will go on perpetually: you put

some argument, I put

some argument... That is not the process.

As the Mahabharata says, tarko 'pratisthah srutayo vibhinna:

Mere logic and

argument can never come to a firm conclusion, and due to

different countries and

different circumstances, one scripture is different from

another. Then nasav

rsir yasya matam na bhinnam: As far as philosophical

speculation is concerned,

one philosopher puts forward some theory, then another

philosopher puts forward

another theory, and the theories always contradict each

other. Unless you defeat

another philosopher, you cannot be a famous philosopher.

That is the way of

philosophy. Then how can one learn the conclusive

philosophical truth? That is

stated: dharmasya tattvam nihitam guhayam. The secret of the

religious process

is lying within the hearts of the self-realized souls. Then

how do you realize

it? Mahajano yena gatah sa panthah: You have to follow in

the footsteps of great

spiritual personalities. Therefore we are trying to follow

Lord Krsna and Lord

Caitanya. That is perfection. You have to accept the

injunctions of the Vedas,

and you have to follow the instructions of the bona fide

spiritual master. Then

success is sure.

The Lord and His Energy--One and Different

The Isopanisad states, " One who always sees all living

entities as spiritual

sparks, in quality one with the Lord, becomes a true knower

of things. What,

then, can cause him illusion or anxiety? " This

realization is Krsna

consciousness. There are different kinds of realization, but

the devotee of

Krsna realizes the truth--that we are qualitatively one with

the Lord but

quantitatively different from Him. The impersonalists think

that we are a

hundred percent one with the Lord, or the Supreme Absolute

Truth. But that is

not a fact. If we were a hundred percent one with the

Supreme Lord, then how

have we come under the control of maya (illusion)? The

impersonalists cannot

answer this question.

The real nature of our identity with the Supreme is

described in the Vedic

literature with the analogy of the sparks and the fire. The

sparks of a fire

have the same quality as the fire, yet they are different in

quantity. But when

the small spark leaves the fire and falls down in water, its

fiery quality is

lost. Similarly, when the infinitesimal soul leaves the

association of the Lord

and contacts the mode of ignorance, his spiritual quality

becomes almost

extinct. When a spark falls on the land instead of in the water,

then the spark

retains some heat. Similarly, when the living entity is in

the quality of

passion, there is some hope that he can revive his Krsna

consciousness. And if

the spark drops onto dry grass, it can ignite another fire

and regain all its

fiery qualities. Similarly, a person who is in the mode of

goodness can take

full advantage of spiritual association and easily revive

his Krsna

consciousness. Therefore one has to come to the platform of

goodness in this

material world.

Again, the analogy of the fire can help us understand the

simultaneous

oneness and difference of the Lord and His diverse energies.

Fire has two main

energies, heat and light. Wherever there is fire, there is

heat and light. Now,

the heat is not different from the fire, nor is the

light--but still, heat and

light are not fire. Similarly, the whole universe can be

understood in this way.

The universe is simply made up of Krsna's energies, and

therefore nothing is

different from Krsna. But still, Krsna is separate from

everything in the

material universe.

So, whatever we see within the material or spiritual worlds

is but an

expansion of Krsna's multifarious energies. This material

world is an expansion

of Krsna's external energy (bahiranga sakti), the spiritual

world is an

expansion of His internal energy (antaranga sakti), and we

living entities are

an expansion of His marginal energy (tatastha sakti). We are

sakti, energy. We

are not the energetic.

The Mayavadi philosophers say that because the energies are

not outside of

Brahman, the energetic, they are all identical with Brahman.

This is monism. Our

Vaisnava philosophy is that the energy is simultaneously one

with and different

from the energetic. Again the analogy of the heat and fire:

When you perceive

heat, you understand that there is fire nearby. But this

does not mean that

because you feel some heat, you are in the fire. So the heat

and the fire, the

energy and the energetic, are one yet different.

So the Mayavada philosophy of oneness and our Vaisnava

philosophy of oneness

are different. The Maya-vadis say Brahman is real but that

the energy emanating

from Brahman is false. We say that because Brahman is real,

His energy must also

be real. That is the difference between Mayavada philosophy

and Vaisnava

philosophy. One cannot claim that this material energy is

false, although it is

certainly temporary. Suppose we have some trouble. There are

so many kinds of

trouble pertaining to the body and mind and external

affairs. That trouble comes

and goes, but when we are undergoing it, it is certainly

real. We feel the

consequence. We cannot say it is false. The Mayavadi

philosophers say that it is

false. But then why do they become so disturbed when they

have some trouble? No,

none of Krsna's energies is false.

The Isopanisad uses the word vijanatah-- " one who

knows " --to describe a person

who understands the oneness and difference of the Lord and

His energies. If one

is not vijanatah, one will remain in illusion and suffer.

But for one who knows,

there is no illusion, no lamentation. When you are perfectly

convinced that

there is nothing except Krsna and Krsna's energies, then

there is no illusion or

lamentation for you. This is known as the brahma-bhuta

stage, as explained in

the Bhagavad-gita (18.54): brahma-bhutah prasannatma na

socati na kanksati. " One

who is transcendentally situated in Brahman realization

becomes fully joyful,

and he never laments or desires to have anything. "

For our sense gratification we are very eager to get things

we do not have.

That is hankering. And when we lose something, we lament.

But if we know that

Krsna is the source and proprietor of the entire material

energy, we understand

that everything belongs to Him and that anything gained is

given by Him for His

service. Thus we do not hanker for the things of this world.

Furthermore, if

something is taken away by Krsna, then what is the need for

lamentation? We

should think, " Krsna wanted to take it away from me.

Therefore, why should I

lament? The Supreme Lord is the cause of all causes. He

takes away, He also

gives. " When one is thus in full knowledge, there is no

more lamentation and no

more hankering. That is the spiritual platform. Then you can

see everyone as a

spiritual spark, as part and parcel of Krsna, and as His

eternal servant.

Krsna, the Supreme Pure

The Isopanisad states that the Lord is " the greatest of

all, unembodied,

omniscient, beyond reproach, without veins, pure and

uncontaminated. " No sin can

pollute Krsna. Sometimes less intelligent persons criticize

Krsna: " Why did

Krsna engage in the rasa dance, enjoying with other men's

wives in the middle of

the night? " Krsna is God. He can do whatever He likes.

Your laws cannot restrict

Krsna. For you there are so many restrictive laws, but for

Krsna there is no

restrictive law. He can surpass all regulations.

Pariksit Maharaja asked this same question of Sukadeva

Gosvami: " Krsna came

to establish the principles of morality and religion. Then

why did He enjoy the

company of so many young girls who were the wives of others?

This seems to be

very sinful. " Sukadeva Gosvami answered that Krsna

cannot be contaminated by

sin; rather, whoever comes in contact with Krsna, even with

a contaminated mind,

becomes purified. The sun is a good analogy: the sun cannot

be contaminated;

rather, if something contaminated is placed in the sunshine,

it becomes

purified. Similarly, you may approach Krsna with any

material desire and you

will become purified. Of course, the gopis' feelings toward

Krsna are not at all

material. Still, as young girls they were captivated by His

beauty. They

approached Krsna with the desire to have Him as their

paramour. But actually,

they became purified. Even demons can become purified by

coming in contact with

Krsna. The demon Kamsa, for example, thought of Krsna as his

enemy. But he was

also Krsna conscious, always thinking, " Oh, how will I

find Krsna? I will kill

Him. " That was his demoniac mentality. But he also

became purified. He got

salvation.

The conclusion is that if we can somehow or other develop

our Krsna

consciousness, we will immediately become purified of all

sinful desires. Krsna

gives this chance to everyone.

Beyond the Limits of the Body

When the Isopanisad describes the Supreme Lord as " He

who is the greatest of

all, who is unembodied and omniscient, " this shows the

distinction between God

and ourselves. We are embodied. Therefore my body is

different from me. When I

leave this body, it becomes dust. As the Bible says,

" Dust thou art, and unto

dust shalt thou return. " But I am not dust; I am a

spirit soul. Therefore thou

means " the body. "

Krsna, however, is not embodied. This means there is no

difference between

His body and His soul. In other words, His body is pure

spirit. Therefore He

does not change His body. And because He does not change His

body, He is

omniscient--He remembers everything. Because we do change

our material bodies,

however, we forget what happened in our last birth. We have

forgotten who we

were, just as when we sleep we forget our body and our

surroundings. The body

becomes tired and rests; it becomes inactive. In contrast,

in a dreamland I

work, I go somewhere, I fly, I create another body, another

environment. This we

experience 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 an Indian. In my next life, however, I may

not be an Indian--I

may be an American. But even if I become an American, I may

not be a man. I may

be a cow or a bull. Then I would be sent to the

slaughterhouse. Do you see the

difficulty?

The problem is that we are always changing bodies, life

after life. It is a

serious problem. We have no fixed position; we do not know

where we will be

placed within the 8,400,000 species of life. But there is a

solution: If somehow

or other a person develops pure Krsna consciousness, he will

go to Krsna at the

time of death, and then he does not have to accept a

material body again. He

gets a spiritual body similar to Krsna's, full of eternity,

knowledge, and

bliss.

Therefore we should take up the practice of Krsna consciousness

and execute

it very seriously, without any deviation. We should not

think that Krsna

consciousness is some kind of fashion. No, it is the most

important function of

every human being. Human life is simply meant for developing

Krsna

consciousness. One has no other business.

Unfortunately, the people of the modern civilization have

created so many

other engagements that they are forgetting Krsna

consciousness. This is called

maya, or illusion. They are forgetting their real business.

And the rascal,

blind leaders are leading everyone to hell. They are simply

misleaders. People

do not like to accept any authority. Still, they have

accepted these rascals as

leaders and are being misled. In this way both the rascal

leaders and their

unfortunate followers remain bound up by the stringent laws

of material nature.

So, if somehow or other one comes in contact with Krsna, one

should seriously

take up the process of Krsna consciousness and catch hold of

His lotus feet very

tightly. If you hold on to Krsna's lotus feet very tightly,

maya will not be

able to harm you.

Spiritual and Material Education

The Isopanisad states, " Those who are engaged in the

culture of nescience

shall enter into the darkest region of ignorance. "

There are two kinds of

education, material and spiritual. Material education is

called jada-vidya. Jada

means " that which cannot move, " or matter. Spirit

can move. Our body is a

combination of spirit and matter. As long as the spirit is

there, the body is

moving. For example, a man's coat and pants move as long as

the man wears them.

It appears that the coat and pants are moving on their own,

but actually it is

the body that is moving them. Similarly, this body is moving

because the spirit

soul is moving it. Another example is the motorcar. The motorcar

is moving

because the driver is moving it. Only a fool thinks the

motorcar is moving on

its own. In spite of a wonderful mechanical arrangement, the

motorcar cannot

move on its own.

Since they are given only jada-vidya, a materialistic

education, people think

that this material nature is working, moving, and

manifesting so many wonderful

things automatically. When we are at the seaside, we see the

waves moving. But

the waves are not moving automatically. The air is moving

them. And something

else is moving the air. In this way, if you go all the way

back to the ultimate

cause, you will find Krsna, the cause of all causes. That is

real education, to

search out the ultimate cause.

So the Isopanisad says that those who are captivated by the

external

movements of the material energy are worshiping nescience.

In the modern

civilization there are big, big institutions for

understanding technology, how a

motorcar or an airplane moves. They are studying how to

manufacture so much

machinery. But there is no educational institution for

investigating how the

spirit soul is moving. The actual mover is not being

studied. Instead they are

studying the external movements of matter.

When I lectured at the Massachusetts Institute of

Technology, I asked the

students, " Where is the technology to study the soul,

the mover of the body? "

They had no such technology. They could not answer

satisfactorily because their

education was simply jada-vidya. The Isopanisad says that

those who engage in

the advancement of such materialistic education will go to

the darkest region of

existence. Therefore the present civilization is in a very

dangerous position

because there is no arrangement anywhere in the world for

genuine spiritual

education. In this way human society is being pushed to the

darkest region of

existence.

In a song, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura has declared that

materialistic

education is simply an expansion of maya. The more we

advance in this

materialistic education, the more our ability to understand

God will be

hampered. And at last we will declare, " God is

dead. " This is all ignorance and

darkness.

So, the materialists are certainly being pushed into

darkness. But there is

another class--the so-called philosophers, mental

speculators, religionists, and

yogis--who are going into still greater darkness because

they are defying Krsna.

They are pretending to cultivate spiritual knowledge, but

because they have no

information of Krsna, or God, their teachings are even more

dangerous than those

of the outright materialists. Why? Because they are

misleading people into

thinking they are giving real spiritual knowledge. The

so-called yoga system

they are teaching is misleading people: " Simply

meditate, and you will

understand that you are God. " Krsna never meditated to

become God. He was God

from His very birth. When He was a three-month-old baby, the

Putana demon

attacked Him--and Krsna sucked out her life air along with

her breast milk. So

Krsna was God from the very beginning. That is God.

The nonsense so-called yogis teach, " You become still

and silent, and you

will become God. " How can I become silent? Is there any

possibility of becoming

silent? No, there is no such possibility. " Become

desireless and you will become

God. " How can I become desireless? These are all

bluffs. We cannot be

desireless. We cannot be silent. But our desires and our

activities can be

purified. That is real knowledge. We should desire only to

serve Krsna. That is

purification of desire. Instead of trying to be still and

silent, we should

dovetail our activities in Krsna's service. As living

entities, we have

activities, desires, and a loving propensity, but they are

being misdirected. If

we direct them into Krsna's service, that is the perfection

of education.

We don't say that you should not become advanced in material

education. You

may, but at the same time you should become Krsna conscious.

That is our

message. We don't say that you shouldn't manufacture

motorcars. No. We say, " All

right, you have manufactured these motorcars. Now employ

them in Krsna's

service. " That is our proposal.

So education is required, but if it is simply

materialistic--if it is devoid

of Krsna consciousness--it is very, very dangerous. That is

the teaching of the

Isopanisad.

Knowledge vs. Nescience

The Isopanisad says, " The wise have explained that one

result is derived from

the culture of knowledge and that a different result is

obtained from the

culture of nescience. " As explained above, the real

culture of knowledge is the

advancement of spiritual knowledge. And advancement of

knowledge in the matter

of bodily comforts or to protect the body is the culture of

nescience, because

however you may try to protect this body, it will follow its

natural course.

What is that? Repeated birth and death, and while the body

is manifested,

disease and old age. People are very busy cultivating

knowledge of this body,

although they see that at every moment the body is decaying.

The death of the

body was fixed when it was born. That is a fact. So you

cannot stop the natural

course of this body--namely birth, old age, disease, and

death.

The Srimad-Bhagavatam (10.84.13) says that this body is

nothing but a bag

containing three primary elements--mucus, bile, and air--and

that one who

accepts this combination of mucus, bile, and air as himself

is an ass. Even

great philosophers and scientists take themselves to be this

combination of

mucus, bile, and air. This is their mistake. Actually, the

philosophers and

scientists are spirit souls, and according to their karma

they are exhibiting

their talent. They do not understand the law of karma.

Why do we find so many different personalities? If human

beings are nothing

but combinations of mucus, bile, and air, why are they not

identical? One man is

born a millionaire; another is unable to have two full meals

a day, despite

struggling very hard. Why this difference? Because of the

law of karma, action

and reaction. One who understands this mystery is in

knowledge.

Human life is meant for understanding the mystery of life.

And one who fails

to utilize this human form for this purpose is a krpana, a

miser. This is stated

in the Garga Upanisad. If you get one million dollars and do

not use it,

thinking, " Oh, I will simply keep this bank balance of

one million dollars, " you

are a krpana. You do not know how to use your money. On the

other hand, one who

uses his million dollars to make another million dollars is

intelligent.

Similarly, this human body is invaluable. One who uses it

for cultivating

spiritual knowledge is a brahmana, a wise man, and one who

cultivates

materialistic knowledge is a krpana, a miser. That is the

difference between

brahmana and krpana.

One who uses this body the way cats and dogs do--for sense

gratification--is

a miser. He does not know how to use his " million

dollars. " Therefore it is the

duty of the father, the mother, the state, and the teachers

to provide spiritual

education for their dependents from the very beginning of

their lives. Indeed,

the Srimad-Bhagavatam says that one should not become a

father, a mother, a

teacher, or a governmental head unless one is able to

elevate one's dependents

to the platform of spiritual knowledge, which can save them

from repeated birth

and death.

The Way of Knowing God

In the Vedic disciplic succession, the spiritual masters

always base their

statements on what they have heard from authoritative

sources, never on personal

experience. Trying to understand things by one's own direct

experience is the

material process of gaining knowledge, technically called

pratyaksa. The Vedic

method is different. It is called sruti, which means

" to hear from authoritative

sources. " That is the secret of Vedic understanding.

With your imperfect senses you should not try to understand

things that are

beyond your experimental powers. That is not possible.

Suppose you want to know

who your father is. Can you find out by experimenting? Is it

possible? No. Then

how can you know who your father is? By hearing from the

proper authority, your

mother. This is common sense. And if you cannot know your

material father by the

experimental process, how can you know the Supreme Father by

the experimental

process? Krsna is the original father. He is the father of

the father of the

father, all the way down to you. So if you cannot understand

your immediate

father, the previous generation, by the experimental

process, how can you know

God, or Krsna, in this way?

People search for God by the experimental process, but after

much searching

they fail. Then they say, " Oh, there is no God. I am

God. " But the Isopanisad

says that one should try to learn about God not by the

experimental process but

by hearing. From whom should one hear? From a shopkeeper?

From fanatics? No. One

should hear from those who are dhira. Dhira means " one

whose senses are not

agitated by material influence. "

There are different kinds of agitation--agitations of the

mind, the power of

speech, and anger, and agitations of the tongue, belly, and

genitals. When we

become angry, we forget everything and can do any nonsense

and speak so much

nonsense. For the agitation of the tongue there are so many

advertisements:

" Here is liquor, here is chicken, here is beef. "

Will we die without liquor,

chicken, or beef? No. For the human beings Krsna has given

so many nice things

to eat--grains, fruits, milk, and so on.

The cow produces milk abundantly, not for herself but for

human beings. That

is proper human food. God says, " Mrs. Cow, although you

are producing milk, you

cannot drink it. It is for the human beings, who are more

advanced than

animals. " Of course, in the infant stage animals live

off their mother's milk,

so the calves drink some of the cow's milk. But the cow

gives excess milk, and

that excess is specifically meant for us.

We should accept whatever God has ordained as our proper

food. But no,

because of the agitation of the tongue, we think, " Why

should I be satisfied

eating grains, milk products, vegetables, and fruits? Let me

maintain a

slaughterhouse and kill these cows. After drinking their

milk, just as I drank

my mother's milk, let me kill them to satisfy my

tongue. " You shouldn't think

such nonsense but should hear from the dhiras, or svamis,

who have controlled

their senses. A svami, or gosvami, is one who has control

over the six

agitations: the speech, the mind, anger, the tongue, the

belly, and the

genitals.

There is a nice poem by Kalidasa called Kumara-sambhava

describing how Lord

Siva is dhira. When Lord Siva's wife, Sati, heard Siva being

blasphemed at a

sacrifice performed by her father, she committed suicide.

Upon hearing about his

wife's suicide, Lord Siva became very angry and left this

planet to meditate

elsewhere. During that time there was a war between the

demons and the demigods.

The demigods needed a good general. They concluded that if

Lord Siva were to

beget a son, the son would be able to lead them in the fight

against the demons.

Lord Siva was completely naked while meditating. So Parvati,

the reincarnation

of Sati, was sent to agitate his genitals for sex. But he

was not agitated. He

remained silent. At this point Kalidasa remarks, " Here

is a dhira. He is naked,

and a young girl is touching his genitals, but still he is

not agitated. " Dhira

means that even if there is some cause for agitation, one

will not be agitated.

If there is some very nice food, my tongue should not be

agitated to taste it.

If there is a very nice girl or boy, still I should not be

agitated sexually. In

this way one who is dhira is able to control the six

agitating forces mentioned

above. It is not that Lord Siva was impotent: he was dhira.

Similarly, Krsna

danced with so many girls, but there was no sex appetite.

So, you have to hear from a person who is dhira. If you hear

from the adhira,

from those who are not self-controlled, then whatever

knowledge you learn will

be useless. In the Isopanisad, a student has approached his

spiritual master to

inquire from him, and the spiritual master is saying,

" This is what I have heard

from authoritative sources. " The spiritual master is

not inventing something

from his own experience. He is presenting exactly what he

has heard.

So we have nothing to research. Everything is there. We

simply have to hear

from a person who is dhira, who is not agitated by the six

urges. That is the

Vedic process of gaining knowledge. And if we try to use

some other process, we

will remain covered by nescience.

The Isopanisad states, " Only one who can learn the

process of nescience and

that of transcendental knowledge side by side can transcend

the influence of

repeated birth and death and enjoy the full blessings of

immortality. " People do

not understand what immortality is. They think it is a

mythological idea. They

are proud of their advancement of knowledge, but there are

many things they do

not know, nor can they ever know them by their modern system

of experimentation.

So if you want real knowledge, you should take knowledge

from the literature

known as the Vedas. (The word veda means

" knowledge. " ) Part of the Vedas are the

108 Upanisads, out of which eleven are very important. Of

those eleven, the

Isopanisad stands first. In the word upanisad, upa means

" near. " So the

knowledge in the Isopanisad will take you nearer to Krsna.

In learned society the Vedas are accepted as sruti, or

primary evidence. The

Vedas are not knowledge established by the research work of

contaminated,

conditioned souls. Such people have imperfect senses, and so

they cannot see

things as they are. They simply theorize, " It may be

like this. It may be like

that. " That is not knowledge. Knowledge is definite,

without any doubt or

mistake. Conditioned souls commit mistakes, become illusioned,

and cheat. How do

they cheat? When one who does not understand the

Bhagavad-gita writes a

commentary on it, he is cheating the innocent public.

Someone has a title as a

scholar, so he takes advantage of the popularity of the

Bhagavad-gita and writes

a commentary. Such so-called scholars claim that anyone can

give his own

opinion. But in the Bhagavad-gita Krsna says that only His

devotee can

understand the Gita. So these so-called scholars are

cheating.

The conclusion is that if you want genuine spiritual

knowledge you have to

approach a bona fide spiritual master who has realized the

Absolute Truth.

Otherwise you will remain in darkness. You cannot think,

" Oh, I may or may not

accept a spiritual master. In any case, there are books that

I can learn from. "

No, the Vedic injunction is tad-vijnanartham sa gurum

evabhigacchet. The word

gacchet means " one must go, " not that one may or

may not go. To understand

transcendental knowledge, one must go to a spiritual master.

That is the Vedic

injunction.

You must know two things: what is maya (illusion) and what

is Krsna. Then

your knowledge is perfect. Of course, Krsna is so nice that

if you somehow or

other fully surrender to Him, all your searching for

knowledge will be finished:

not only will you know what Krsna is, but you will

automatically learn what maya

is. Krsna will give you intelligence from within.

So, by the mercy of both the spiritual master and Krsna, one

takes up

devotional service. How is that? Their mercy runs on

parallel lines. If you have

not yet found a spiritual master but are sincere, Krsna will

direct you to a

bona fide spiritual master. And if you get a bona fide

spiritual master, he will

take you to Krsna. Krsna is always sitting in your heart as

the caitya-guru, the

spiritual master within. It is that caitya-guru who

manifests Himself externally

as the spiritual master. Therefore the spiritual master is

the direct

representative of Krsna.

The Isopanisad says we should learn what vidya and avidya

are. Avidya is

ignorance under the guise of materialistic knowledge. Srila

Bhaktivinoda Thakura

writes in one of his songs that " advancement of

material knowledge is simply the

advancement of maya's jurisdiction. " The more you

become implicated in material

knowledge, the less you can understand Krsna consciousness.

Those who are

advanced in material knowledge think, " What use is this

Krsna consciousness

movement? " They have no attraction for spiritual

knowledge; they are too

absorbed in avidya.

Some Indian boys reject the spiritual culture of India

and come to the West

to learn technology. When they see that I have introduced in

the West the things

they rejected in India,

they are surprised. One reason I came to the West is

that modern India

has rejected spiritual knowledge. Today Indians think that if

they can imitate Western technology, they will be happy.

This is maya. They do

not see that those who are three hundred times more

technologically advanced

than the Indians are not happy. India

will not be able to equal American or

European technology for at least three hundred years because

the Western

countries have been developing technology for a very long

time. But since the

time of creation Indian culture has been a spiritual

culture.Vidya, or genuine

spiritual knowledge, does not depend on technology. Srila

Vyasadeva is the

original guru of Vedic knowledge. How was he living? In a

cottage in

Badarikasrama. But just see his knowledge! He wrote so many

Puranas, including

the Srimad-Bhagavatam. He also wrote the Vedanta-sutra and

the Mahabharata. If

you studied every single verse written by Vyasadeva, it

would take your whole

life. The Srimad-Bhagavatam alone has no less than eighteen

thousand verses. And

each verse is so full of meaning that it would take a whole

lifetime to fully

understand it. This is Vedic culture.

There is no knowledge comparable to that contained in the

Vedic literature--

not only spiritual knowledge, but material knowledge also.

The Vedas discuss

astronomy, mathematics, and many other subjects. It is not

that in ancient times

there were no airplanes. They are mentioned in the Puranas.

These airplanes were

so strong and swift that they could easily reach other

planets. It is not that

there was no advancement of material knowledge in the Vedic

age. It was there.

But the people then did not consider it so important. They

were interested in

spiritual knowledge.

So, one should know what knowledge is, and what nescience

is. If we advance

in nescience, or material knowledge, we will have to undergo

repeated birth and

death. Moreover, there is no guarantee what your next birth

will be. That is not

in your hands. Now you are happy being an American, but

after quitting this body

you cannot dictate, " Please give me an American body

again. " Yes, you may get an

American body, but it may be an American cow's body. Then

you are destined for

the slaughterhouse.

So, cultivating material knowledge--nationalism, socialism,

this " ism, " that

" ism " --is simply a dangerous waste of time. Better

to cultivate real knowledge,

Vedic knowledge, which leads one to surrender to Krsna. As

Krsna says in the

Bhagavad-gita (7.19), bahunam janmanam ante jnanavan mam

prapadyate. After many,

many births, one who is in genuine knowledge comes to Krsna

and surrenders to

Him, realizing, " O Krsna, You are everything. "

This is the culmination of all

cultivation of knowledge.

Beyond the White Light of Brahman

The Isopanisad states, " One should know perfectly the

Personality of Godhead

and His transcendental name, as well as the temporary

material creation with its

temporary demigods, men, and animals. When one knows these,

he surpasses death

and the ephemeral cosmic manifestation with it, and in the

eternal kingdom of

God he enjoys his eternal life of bliss and knowledge. O my

Lord, sustainer of

all that lives, Your real face is covered by Your dazzling

effulgence. Kindly

remove that covering and exhibit Yourself to Your pure

devotee. "

Here the Isopanisad mentions the kingdom

of God. Every planet, both

spiritual

and material, has a predominating deity. In the sun, for

example, the

predominating deity is Vivasvan. We get this information

from the Bhagavad-gita.

So, there are millions and trillions of universes within the

material sky, and

within each universe are millions and trillions of planets,

and in every planet

there is a predominating deity.

Beyond the material sky is the brahmajyoti, or spiritual

sky, where there are

innumerable Vaikuntha planets. Each Vaikuntha planet is

predominated by the

Supreme Lord in His Narayana form, and each Narayana has a

different name--

Pradyumna, Ani-ruddha, Sankarsana, etc. One cannot see these

planets because

they are covered by the spiritual brahmajyoti effulgence,

just as one cannot see

the sun globe on account of the dazzling sunshine. The

effulgence in the

spiritual sky is coming out of Krsna's planet, Goloka

Vrndavana, which is above

even Vaikuntha and where Krsna alone is the predominator.

The planet of the Absolute Truth, Krsna, is covered by the

Brahman

effulgence. One has to penetrate that effulgence in order to

see the Lord.

Therefore in the Isopanisad the devotee prays, " Kindly

remove Your effulgence so

I can see You. " The Mayavadi philosophers do not know

that there is something

beyond the brahmajyoti. But here in the Isopanisad is the

Vedic evidence that

the brahmajyoti is simply a golden effulgence covering the

real face of the

Supreme Lord.

The idea is that Krsna's planet and the Vaikuntha planets

are beyond the

Brahman effulgence and that only devotees can enter those

spiritual planets. The

jnanis, the mental speculators, practice severe austerities

to enter the Brahman

effulgence. But the demons who are killed by Krsna are

immediately transferred

to that Brahman effulgence. So just consider: Is the place

that is given to the

enemies of Krsna very covetable? If my enemy comes to my

house, I may give him

some place to stay, but if my intimate friend comes, I give

him a much nicer

place to stay. So this Brahman effulgence is not at all

covetable.

Srila Prabodhananda Sarasvati has composed a nice verse in

which he says that

for the devotee, for one who has attained the mercy of the

Lord, the Brahman

effulgence is just like hell. Then what about heaven? The

karmis, or fruitive

workers, are very eager to go to the heavenly planets, where

the demigods

reside. But for the devotees heaven is just a

will-o'-the-wisp. They are not at

all attracted to go there. And then there are the mystic

yogis, who try very

strenuously to control the senses in order to attain special

powers. The senses

are like venomous serpents because as soon as you indulge in

sense

gratification--as soon as the senses " bite "

you--you become degraded. But the

devotee says, " I do not fear the poisonous serpents of

the senses. " Why?

" Because I have extracted their fangs. " In other

words, by engaging his senses

in Krsna's service, the devotee is no longer tempted to

indulge in sense

gratification, and thus his senses cannot drag him down to a

hellish condition

of life.

In this way, the devotees are above the karmis, jnanis, and

yogis. The

devotees' place is the highest because only by devotion can

one understand God.

Krsna does not say you can understand Him by fruitive work.

He does not say you

can understand Him by speculation. He does not say you can

understand Him by

mystic yoga. He clearly says (Bg. 18.55), bhaktya mam

abhi-janati yavan yas

casmi tattvatah: " Only by devotional service can one

truly understand Me as I

am. "

Except for devotional service, there is no possibility of

understanding the

Absolute Truth. Any other process is imperfect because it is

based on

speculation. For example, the scientists may speculate on

what the sun planet

is, but because they have no access there, they cannot

actually know what the

sun planet is. They can only speculate. That's all. Once

three blind men came

upon an elephant. They began feeling the elephant and

speculating on what it

was. One felt its big legs and concluded, " Oh, the

elephant is just like a

pillar. " The second man felt the trunk and concluded,

" Oh, this elephant is just

like a snake. " And the third man felt the belly of the

elephant and concluded,

" This elephant is like a big boat. " But actually,

the blind men did not know

what the elephant really was.

If you have no ability to see something, you can only

speculate about it.

Therefore the Isopanisad says, " Please remove this

brilliant effulgence covering

Your face so I can see You. " That seeing power is

bestowed upon the devotee by

Krsna when He sees the devotee's love for Him. As the

Brahma-samhita says,

premanjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena: The devotees anoint

their eyes with the

salve of love of God, and therefore they can see the Lord's

beautiful form

within their hearts. In India

there is a special eye ointment. If you apply it

you can immediately see clearly. Similarly, if you smear

your eyes with the

ointment of love of Godhead, you will see God always. This

is the way of

understanding God--by service and by enhancing your love for

Him. This love can

be developed only by devotional service; otherwise there is

no possibility of

achieving it. So the more you increase your spirit of

service to God, the more

you increase your dormant love for God. And as soon as you

are in the

perfectional stage of love of God, you will see God always,

at every moment.

Chapter 2

Bad Karma

The Srimad-Bhagavatam is an ancient Sanskrit scripture that

contains the

essence of all Vedic wisdom, recording the teachings of the

Lord's devotees, as

well as those of the Lord in many of His incarnations. In

this Thirtieth Chapter

of the Third Canto, an incarnation of Krsna's named

Kapiladeva graphically

describes the results of sin. Srila Prabhupada explains the

texts in his

purports.

TEXT 1: The Personality of Godhead said, " As a mass of

clouds does not know

the powerful influence of the wind, a person engaged in

material consciousness

does not know the powerful strength of the time factor, by

which he is being

carried. "

PURPORT: The great politician-pandita named Canakya said

that even one moment

of time cannot be returned, even if one is prepared to pay

millions of dollars.

One cannot calculate the amount of loss there is in wasting

valuable time.

Whether materially or spiritually, one should be very alert

in utilizing the

time which he has at his disposal. A conditioned soul lives

in a particular body

for a fixed measurement of time, and it is recommended in the

scriptures that

within that small measurement of time one has to finish

Krsna consciousness and

thus gain release from the influence of the time factor.

But, unfortunately,

those who are not in Krsna consciousness are carried away by

the strong power of

time without their knowledge, as clouds are carried by the

wind.

TEXT 2: " Whatever is produced by the materialist with

great pain and labor

for so-called happiness, the Supreme Personality, as the

time factor, destroys,

and for this reason the conditioned soul laments. "

PURPORT: The main function of the time factor, which is a

representative of

the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is to destroy

everything. The materialists,

in material consciousness, are engaged in producing so many

things in the name

of economic development. They think that by advancing in

satisfying the material

needs of man they will be happy, but they forget that

everything they have

produced will be destroyed in due course of time. From

history we can see that

there were many powerful empires on the surface of the globe

that were

constructed with great pain and great perseverance, but in

due course of time

they have all been destroyed. Still the foolish materialists

cannot understand

that they are simply wasting time in producing so-called

material necessities,

which are destined to be vanquished in due course of time.

This waste of energy

is due to the ignorance of the mass of people, who do not

know that they are

eternal and that they have an eternal engagement also. They

do not know that

this span of life in a particular type of body is but a

flash in the eternal

journey. Not knowing this fact, they take the small flash of

their present life

to be everything, and they waste time in improving economic

conditions.

TEXT 3: " The misguided materialist does not know that

his very body is

impermanent and that the attractions of home, land, and

wealth, which are in

relationship to that body, are also temporary. Out of

ignorance only, he thinks

that everything is permanent. "

PURPORT: The materialist thinks that persons engaged in

Krsna consciousness

are crazy fellows wasting time by chanting Hare Krsna, but

actually he does not

know that he himself is in the darkest region of craziness

because of accepting

his body as permanent. And in relation to his body he

accepts his home, his

country, his society, and all other paraphernalia as

permanent. This

materialistic acceptance of the permanence of home, land,

etc. is called the

illusion of maya. This is clearly mentioned here. Mohad

grha-ksetra-vasuni: out

of illusion only does the materialist accept his home, his

land, and his money

as permanent. Out of this illusion have grown family life,

national life, and

economic development, which are very important factors in

modern civilization. A

Krsna conscious person knows that this economic development

of human society is

but temporary illusion.

In another part of the Srimad-Bhagavatam, the acceptance of

the body as

oneself, the acceptance of others as kinsmen in relationship

to one's body, and

the acceptance of the land of one's birth as worshipable are

declared to be the

products of an animal civilization. When, however, one is

enlightened in Krsna

consciousness, one can use these for the service of the

Lord. That is a very

suitable proposition. Everything has a relationship with

Krsna. When all

economic development and material advancement are utilized

to advance the cause

of Krsna consciousness, a new phase of progressive life

arises.

TEXT 4: " In whatever species of life the living entity

appears, he finds a

particular type of satisfaction in that species, and he is

never averse to being

situated in such a condition. "

PURPORT: The satisfaction of the living entity in a

particular type of body,

even if it is most abominable, is called illusion. A man in

a higher position

may feel dissatisfaction with the standard of life of a

lower-grade man, but the

lower-grade man is satisfied in that position because of the

spell of maya, the

external energy. Maya has two phases of activity. One is

called praksepatmika,

and the other is called avaranatmika. Avaranatmika means

" covering, " and

praksepatmika means " pulling down. " In any

condition of life, the materialistic

person or animal will be satisfied because his knowledge is

covered by the

influence of maya. In the lower grade or lower species of

life, the development

of consciousness is so poor that one cannot understand

whether one is happy or

distressed. This is called avaranatmika. Even a hog, who

lives by eating stool,

thinks himself happy, although a person in a higher mode of

life sees how

abominable that life is.

TEXT 5: " While deluded by the covering influence of the

illusory energy, the

living entity feels little inclined to cast off his body,

even when in hell, for

he takes delight in hellish enjoyment. "

PURPORT: It is said that once Indra, the king of heaven, was

cursed by his

spiritual master, Brhaspati, on account of his misbehavior,

and he became a hog

on this planet. After many days, when Brahma wanted to

recall him to his

heavenly kingdom, Indra, in the form of a hog, forgot

everything of his royal

position in the heavenly kingdom, and he refused to go back.

This is the spell

of maya. Even Indra forgets his heavenly standard of life

and is satisfied with

the standard of a hog's life.

By the influence of maya the conditioned soul becomes so

affectionate toward

his particular type of body that even if someone says to

him, " Give up this

body, and immediately you will have a king's body, " he

will not agree. This

attachment strongly affects all conditioned living entities.

Lord Krsna personally canvasses, " Give up everything in

this material world.

Come to Me, and I shall give you all protection, " but

we are not agreeable. We

think, " We are quite all right. Why should we surrender

unto Krsna and go back

to His kingdom? " This is called illusion, or maya.

Everyone is satisfied with

his standard of living, however abominable it may be.

TEXT 6: " Such satisfaction with one's standard of

living is due to deeprooted

attraction for body, wife, home, children, animals, wealth,

and friends.

In such association, the conditioned soul thinks himself

quite perfect. "

PURPORT: This so-called perfection of human life is a

concoction. Therefore

it is said that however materially qualified a person may

be, if he is not a

devotee of the Lord he has no good qualities because he is

hovering on the

mental plane, which will drag him again to the material

existence of temporary

life. One who acts on the mental plane cannot get promotion

to the spiritual

plane. Such a person is always sure to glide down again to

material life. Still,

in the association of so-called society, friendship, and

love, the conditioned

soul feels completely satisfied.

TEXT 7: " Although he is always burning with anxiety,

such a fool always

performs all kinds of mischievous activities with the

unfulfillable hope of

maintaining his so-called family and society. "

PURPORT: It is said that it is easier to maintain a great

empire than a small

family, especially in these days, when the influence of

Kali-yuga is so strong

that everyone is harassed and full of anxieties because of

accepting the false

presentation of maya's family. The family we maintain is

created by maya; it is

the perverted reflection of the family in Krsnaloka. In

Krsnaloka there are also

family, friends, society, father, and mother; everything is

there, but they are

eternal. Here, as we change bodies our family relationships

also change.

Sometimes we are in a family of human beings, sometimes in a

family of demigods,

sometimes a family of cats or dogs.

Family, society, and friendship are flickering, and so they

are called asat.

It is said that as long as we are attached to this

asat--this temporary,

nonexistent society and family--we are always full of

anxieties. The

materialists do not know that the family, society, and

friendship here in this

material world are only shadows, and thus they become

attached. Naturally their

hearts are always burning, but in spite of all

inconvenience, they still work to

maintain such false families because they have no information

of the real family

association with Krsna.

TEXT 8: " He gives heart and senses to a woman, who

falsely charms him with

maya. He enjoys solitary embraces and talking with her, and

he is enchanted by

the sweet words of the small children. "

PURPORT: Family life within the kingdom of the illusory

energy, maya, is just

like a prison for the eternal living entity. In prison a

prisoner is shackled by

iron chains and iron bars. Similarly, a conditioned soul is

shackled by the

charming beauty of a woman, by her solitary embraces and

talks of so-called

love, and by the sweet words of his small children. Thus he

forgets his real

identity.

In this verse the words strinam asatinam indicate that

womanly love exists

just to agitate the mind of man. Actually, in the material

world there is no

love. Both the woman and the man are interested in their

sense gratification.

For sense gratification a woman creates an illusory love,

and the man becomes

enchanted by such false love and forgets his real duty. When

there are children

as the result of such a combination, the next attraction is

to the sweet words

of the children. The love of the woman at home and the talk

of the children make

one a secure prisoner, and thus he cannot leave his home.

Such a person is

termed, in Vedic language, a grhamedhi, which means

" one whose center of

attraction is home. " The word grhastha refers to one

who lives with family,

wife, and children but whose real purpose of living is to

develop Krsna

consciousness. One is therefore advised to become a grhastha,

not a grhamedhi.

The grhastha's concern is to get out of the family life

created by illusion and

enter into real family life with Krsna, whereas the

grhamedhi's business is to

repeatedly chain himself to so-called family life, in one

life after another,

and perpetually remain in the darkness of maya.

TEXT 9: " The attached householder remains in his family

life, which is full

of diplomacy and politics. Always spreading miseries and

controlled by acts of

sense gratification, he acts just to counteract the

reactions of all his

miseries, and if he can successfully counteract such

miseries, he thinks he is

happy. "

PURPORT: In the Bhagavad-gita the Personality of Godhead

Himself certifies

the material world as an impermanent place that is full of

miseries. There is no

question of happiness in this material world, either

individually or in terms of

family, society, or country. If something is going on in the

name of happiness,

that is illusion. Here in this material world, happiness

means successful

counteraction of distress. The material world is so made

that unless one becomes

a clever diplomat, his life will be a failure. What to speak

of human society,

even in the society of lower animals, the birds and beasts

cleverly manage their

bodily demands of eating, sleeping, mating, and defending.

Human society

competes nationally or individually, and in the attempt to

be successful the

entire human society becomes full of diplomacy. We should

always remember that

in spite of all diplomacy and all intelligence in the

struggle for existence,

everything will end in a second by the supreme will.

Therefore, all our attempts

to become happy in this material world are simply a delusion

offered by maya.

TEXT 10: " He secures money by committing violence here

and there, and

although he employs it in the service of his family, he

himself eats only a

little portion of the food thus purchased, and he goes to

hell for those for

whom he earned the money in such an irregular way. "

PURPORT: There is a Bengali proverb: " The person for

whom I have stolen

accuses me of being a thief. " The family members for

whom an attached person

acts in so many criminal ways are never satisfied. In

illusion an attached

person serves such family members, and by serving them he is

destined to enter

into a hellish condition of life. For example, a thief

steals something to

maintain his family, and he is caught and imprisoned. This

is the sum and

substance of material existence and attachment to material

society, friendship,

and love. Although an attached family man is always engaged

in getting money by

hook or by crook for the maintenance of his family, he

cannot enjoy more than

what he could consume even without such criminal activities.

A man who eats

eight ounces of food may have to maintain a big family and

earn money by any

means to support that family, but he himself is not offered

more than what he

can eat, and sometimes he eats the remnants that are left

after his family

members are fed. Even by earning money by unfair means, he

cannot enjoy life for

himself. That is called the covering illusion of maya.

The process of illusory service to society, country, and

community is exactly

the same everywhere; the same principle is applicable even

to big national

leaders. A national leader who is very great in serving his

country is sometimes

killed by his countrymen because of irregular service. In

other words, one

cannot satisfy his dependents by this illusory service,

although one cannot get

out of the service because being a servant is his

constitutional position.

A living entity is constitutionally part and parcel of the

Supreme Being, but

he forgets that he has to render service to the Supreme

Being and diverts his

attention to serving others; this is called maya. By serving

others he falsely

thinks that he is master. The head of a family thinks of

himself as the master

of the family, or the leader of a nation thinks of himself

as the master of the

nation, whereas actually he is serving, and by serving maya

he is gradually

going to hell. Therefore a sane man should come to the point

of Krsna

consciousness and engage in the service of the Supreme Lord,

applying his whole

life, all of his wealth, his entire intelligence, and his

full power of

speaking.

TEXTS 11-13: " When he suffers reverses in his

occupation, he tries again and

again to improve himself, but when he is baffled in all

attempts and is ruined,

he accepts money from others because of excessive greed.

Thus the unfortunate

man, unsuccessful in maintaining his family members, is

bereft of all beauty. He

always thinks of his failure, grieving very deeply. Seeing

him unable to support

them, his wife and others do not treat him with the same

respect as before, even

as miserly farmers do not accord the same treatment to their

old and worn-out

oxen. "

PURPORT: Not only in the present age but from time

immemorial no one has

liked an old man who is unable to earn in the family. Even

in the modern age, in

some communities or states, the old men are given poison so

that they will die

as soon as possible. In some cannibalistic communities, the

old grandfather is

sportingly killed, and a feast is held in which his body is

eaten. Here the

example is given that a farmer does not like an old ox who

has ceased to work.

Similarly, when an attached person in family life becomes

old and is unable to

earn, he is no longer liked by his wife, sons, daughters,

and other kinsmen, and

he is consequently neglected, what to speak of not being

given respect. It is

judicious, therefore, to give up family attachment before

one attains old age

and take shelter of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. A

person should employ

himself in the Lord's service so that the Supreme Lord can

take charge of him

and he will not be neglected by his so-called kinsmen.

TEXT 14: " The foolish family man does not become averse

to family life

although he is maintained by those whom he once maintained.

Deformed by the

influence of old age, he prepares himself to meet ultimate

death. "

PURPORT: Family attraction is so strong that even if a

person is neglected by

family members in his old age, he cannot give up family

affection, and he

remains at home just like a dog. In the Vedic way of life,

it is advised that

before getting too weak and being baffled in material

activities, and before

becoming diseased, one should give up family life and engage

oneself completely

in the service of the Lord for the remaining days of his

life.

Therefore the Vedic scriptures enjoin that as soon as one

passes fifty years

of age, he must give up family life and live alone in the

forest. After

preparing himself fully, he should become a sannyasi, travel

widely, and

distribute the knowledge of spiritual life to each and every

home.

TEXT 15: " Thus he remains at home just like a pet dog

and eats whatever is so

negligently given to him. Afflicted with many illnesses,

such as dyspepsia and

loss of appetite, he eats only very small morsels of food,

and he becomes an

invalid, who cannot work any more. "

PURPORT: Before meeting death a man is sure to become a

diseased invalid, and

when he is neglected by his family members, his life becomes

less than a dog's

because he is put into so many miserable conditions. Vedic

literatures enjoin,

therefore, that before the arrival of such miserable

conditions, a man should

leave home and die without the knowledge of his family

members. If a man leaves

home and dies without his family's knowing, that is

considered a glorious death.

But an attached family man wants his family members to carry

him in a great

procession even after his death, and although he will not be

able to see how the

procession goes, he still desires that his body be taken

gorgeously in

procession. Thus he is happy without even knowing where he

has to go when he

leaves his body for the next life.

TEXTS 16-17: " In that diseased condition, a man's eyes

bulge due to the

pressure of air from within, and his glands become congested

with mucus. He has

difficulty breathing, and upon exhaling and inhaling he

produces a sound like

ghura-ghura, a rattling within the throat. In this way he

comes under the

clutches of death and lies down, surrounded by lamenting

friends and relatives,

and although he wants to speak with them, he no longer can

because he is under

the control of time. "

PURPORT: For formality's sake, when a man is lying on his

deathbed, his

relatives come to him, and sometimes they cry very loudly,

addressing the dying

man: " O my father! " " O my friend! " or

" O my husband! " In that pitiable condition

the dying man wants to speak with them and instruct them of

his desires, but

because he is fully under the control of the time factor,

death, he cannot

express himself, and that causes him in-conceivable pain. He

is already in a

painful condition because of disease, and his glands and

throat are choked up

with mucus. He is already in a very difficult position, and

when he is addressed

by his relatives in that way, his grief increases.

TEXT 18: " Thus the man who engaged with uncontrolled

senses in maintaining

his family dies in great grief, seeing his relatives crying.

He dies most

pathetically, in great pain and without consciousness. "

PURPORT: In the Bhagavad-gita it is said that at the time of

death one will

be absorbed in the thoughts he cultivated during his

lifetime. A person who had

no idea other than to properly maintain his family members

must have family

affairs in his last thoughts. That is the natural sequence

for a common man. The

common man does not know the destiny of his life; he is

simply busy in this

present flash of life, maintaining his family. At the last

stage, no one is

satisfied with how he has improved the family economic

condition; everyone

thinks that he could not provide sufficiently. Because of

his deep family

affection, he forgets his main duty of controlling his

senses and improving his

spiritual consciousness. Sometimes a dying man entrusts the

family affairs to

either his son or some relative, saying, " I am going.

Please look after the

family. " He does not know where he is going, but even

at the time of death he is

anxious about how his family will be maintained. Sometimes

it is seen that a

dying man requests the physician to increase his life at

least for a few years

so that the family maintenance plan which he has begun can

be completed. These

are the material diseases of the conditioned soul. He

completely forgets his

real engagement--to become Krsna conscious--and is always

serious about planning

to maintain his family, although he changes families one

after another.

TEXT 19: " At death, he sees the messengers of the lord

of death come before

him, their eyes full of wrath, and in great fear he passes

stool and urine. "

PURPORT: There are two kinds of transmigration of a living

entity after

passing away from the present body. One kind of

transmigration is to go to the

controller of sinful activities, who is known as Yamaraja,

and the other is to

go to the higher planets, up to Vaikuntha. Here Lord Kapila

describes how

persons engaged in activities of sense gratification to

maintain a family are

treated by the messengers of Yamaraja, called Yamadutas. At

the time of death

the Yamadutas become the custodians of those persons who

have strongly gratified

their senses. They take charge of the dying man and take him

to the planet where

Yamaraja resides. The conditions there are described in the

following verses.

TEXT 20: " As a criminal is arrested for punishment by

the constables of the

state, a person engaged in criminal sense gratification is

similarly arrested by

the Yamadutas, who bind him by the neck with strong rope and

cover his subtle

body so that he may undergo severe punishment. "

PURPORT: Every living entity is covered by a subtle body and

a gross body.

The subtle body is the covering of mind, ego, intelligence,

and consciousness.

It is said in the scriptures that the constables of Yamaraja

cover the subtle

body of the culprit and take him to the abode of Yamaraja to

be punished in a

way that he is able to tolerate. He does not die from this

punishment because if

he died, then who would suffer the punishment? It is not the

business of the

constables of Yamaraja to put one to death. In fact, it is

not possible to kill

a living entity because factually he is eternal; he simply

has to suffer the

consequences of his activities of sense gratification.

The process of punishment is explained in the

Caitanya-caritamrta. Formerly

the king's men would take a criminal in a boat in the middle

of the river. They

would dunk him by grasping a bunch of his hair and thrusting

him completely

under water, and when he was almost suffocated, the king's

constables would take

him out of the water and allow him to breathe for some time,

and then they would

again dunk him in the water to suffocate. This sort of

punishment is inflicted

upon the forgotten soul by Yamaraja, as will be described in

the following

verses.

TEXT 21: " While carried by the constables of Yamaraja,

he is overwhelmed and

trembles in their hands. While passing on the road he is

bitten by dogs, and he

can remember the sinful activities of his life. He is thus

terribly distressed. "

PURPORT: It appears from this verse that while passing from

this planet to

the planet of Yamaraja, the culprit arrested by Yamaraja's

constables meets many

dogs, which bark and bite just to remind him of his criminal

activities of sense

gratification. It is said in the Bhagavad-gita that one

becomes almost blind and

is bereft of all sense when he is infuriated by the desire

for sense

gratification. He forgets everything. A man is bereft of all

intelligence when

he is too attracted by sense gratification, and he forgets

that he has to suffer

the consequences also. Here the chance for recounting his

activities of sense

gratification is given by the dogs engaged by Yamaraja.

While we live in the

gross body, such activities of sense gratification are

encouraged, even by

modern governments. In many states all over the world, the

government encourages

such activities by pushing birth control. Women are supplied

pills, and they are

allowed to go to a clinical laboratory to get assistance for

abortions. This is

going on as a result of sense gratification. Actually sex is

meant for begetting

a good child, but because people have no control over the

senses and there is no

institution to train them to control the senses, the poor

people fall victim to

the criminal offenses of sense gratification, and they are

punished after death

as described in these passages of the Srimad-Bhagavatam.

TEXTS 22-24: " Under the scorching sun, the criminal has

to pass through roads

of hot sand with forest fires on both sides. He is whipped

on the back by the

constables because of his inability to walk, and he is

afflicted by hunger and

thirst. But unfortunately there is no drinking water, no

shelter, and no place

for rest on the road. While passing on that road to the

abode of Yamaraja, he

falls down in fatigue, and sometimes he becomes unconscious,

but he is forced to

rise again.

" In this way he is very quickly brought to the presence

of Yamaraja. Thus he

has to pass ninety-nine thousand yojanas within two or three

moments, and then

he is at once engaged in the torturous punishment he is

destined to suffer. "

PURPORT: One yojana is eight miles, and thus he has to pass

along a road that

is as much as 792,000 miles long. Such a long distance is

passed over within a

few moments only. The subtle body is covered by the

constables so that the

living entity can travel such a long distance quickly and at

the same time

tolerate the suffering. This covering, although material, is

of such fine

elements that material scientists cannot discover what the

coverings are made

of. To pass 792,000 miles within a few moments seems

wonderful to the modern

space travelers. They have so far traveled at a speed of

18,000 miles per hour,

but here we see that a criminal passes 792,000 miles within

a few seconds only,

although the process is not spiritual but material.

TEXT 25: " He is placed in the midst of burning pieces

of wood, and his limbs

are set on fire. In some cases he is made to eat his own

flesh or have it eaten

by others. "

PURPORT: This verse and the next three verses describe the

sinful living

entity's punishment. The first description is that the

criminal has to eat his

own flesh, burning with fire, or allow others like himself

who are present there

to eat it. In the last great war, people in concentration

camps sometimes ate

their own stool, so there is no wonder that in Yamasadana,

the abode of

Yamaraja, a meat-eater who had a very enjoyable life eating

others' flesh has to

eat his own flesh.

TEXTS 26-28: " His entrails are pulled out by the hounds

and vultures of hell,

even though he is still alive to see it, and he is subjected

to torment by

serpents, scorpions, gnats, and other creatures that bite

him. Next his limbs

are lopped off and torn asunder by elephants. He is hurled

down from hilltops,

and he is also held captive either in water or in a cave.

" Men and women whose lives were built upon indulgence

in illicit sex are put

into many kinds of miserable conditions in the hells known

as Tamisra, Andhatamisra,

and Raurava. "

PURPORT: The lives of all materialistic people, who are

undergoing severe

tribulation in the struggle for existence, are based on sex.

Therefore, in the

Vedic civilization sex is allowed only in a restricted way;

it is for the

married couple, and only for begetting children. But when

sex is indulged in for

sense gratification illegally and illicitly, both the man

and the woman await

severe punishment in this world or after death. In this

world they are punished

by virulent diseases like syphilis and gonorrhea, and in the

next life, as we

see in this passage of the Srimad-Bhagavatam, they are put

into various kinds of

hellish conditions to suffer.

In the Bhagavad-gita, First Chapter, illicit sex is also

very much condemned,

and it is said that one who produces children by illicit sex

is sent to hell. It

is confirmed here in the Bhagavatam that such offenders are

put into hellish

conditions of life in Tamisra, Andha-tamisra, and Raurava.

TEXT 29: Lord Kapila continued, " My dear mother, it is

sometimes said that we

experience hell or heaven on this planet, for hellish

punishments are sometimes

visible on this planet also. "

PURPORT: Sometimes unbelievers do not accept these

statements of scripture

regarding hell. Lord Kapila therefore confirms them by

saying that these hellish

conditions are also visible on this planet. It is not that

they are only on the

planet where Yamaraja lives. On the planet of Yamaraja, the

sinful man is given

the chance to practice living in the hellish conditions that

he will have to

endure in the next life, and then he is given a chance to

take birth on another

planet to continue his hellish life.

For example, if a man is to be punished to remain in hell

and eat stool and

urine, then first of all he practices such habits on the

planet of Yamaraja, and

then he is given a particular type of body, that of a hog,

so that he can eat

stool and think he is enjoying life. It is stated previously

that in any hellish

condition, the conditioned soul thinks he is happy.

Otherwise, it would not be

possible for him to suffer hellish life.

TEXT 30: " After leaving this body, the man who maintained

himself and his

family members by sinful activities suffers a hellish life,

and his relatives

suffer also. "

PURPORT: The mistake of modern civilization is that man does

not believe in

the next life. But whether he believes or not, the next life

is there, and one

has to suffer if one does not lead a responsible life in

terms of the

injunctions of authoritative scriptures like the Vedas and

Puranas. Species

lower than human beings are not responsible for their

actions because they are

made to act in a certain way, but in the developed life of

human consciousness,

one who does not act responsibly is sure to get a hellish

life, as described

herein.

TEXT 31: " He goes alone to the darkest regions of hell

after quitting the

present body, and the money he acquired by envying other

living entities is the

passage money with which he leaves this world. "

PURPORT: When a man earns money by unfair means and

maintains his family and

himself with that money, the money is enjoyed by many

members of the family, but

he alone goes to hell and suffers the resultant sinful

reactions accrued from

such a violent and illicit life. For example, if a man

secures some money by

killing someone and with that money maintains his family,

those who enjoy the

black money earned by him are also partially responsible and

are also sent to

hell, but he who is the leader is especially punished. The

money he earned is

left in this world, and he takes only the sinful reaction.

In this world also, if a person acquires some money by

murdering someone, the

family is not hanged, although its members are sinfully

contaminated. But the

man who commits the murder and maintains his family is

himself hanged as a

murderer. The direct offender is more responsible for sinful

activities than the

indirect enjoyer. The great learned scholar Canakya Pandita

says, therefore,

that whatever one has in his possession had better be spent

for the cause of

sat, or the Supreme Personality of Godhead, because one

cannot take his

possessions with him. They remain here, and they will be

lost. Either we leave

the money or the money leaves us, but we will be separated.

The best use of

money as long as it is within our possession is to spend it

to acquire and

propagate Krsna consciousness.

TEXT 32: " Thus, by the arrangement of the Supreme

Personality of Godhead, the

maintainer of kinsmen is put into a hellish condition to

suffer for his sinful

activities, like a man who has lost his wealth. "

PURPORT: The example set herein is that the sinful person

suffers just like a

man who has lost his wealth. The human form of body is

achieved by the

conditioned soul after many, many births and is a very

valuable asset. Instead

of utilizing this life to get liberation, if one uses it

simply for the purpose

of maintaining his so-called family and therefore performs

foolish and

unauthorized action, he is compared to a man who has lost

his wealth and who,

upon losing it, laments. When wealth is lost, there is no

use lamenting, but as

long as there is wealth, one has to utilize it properly and

thereby gain eternal

profit. It may be argued that when a man leaves his money

earned by sinful

activities, he also leaves his sinful activities here with

his money. But it is

especially mentioned herein that by superior arrangement,

although the man

leaves behind his sinfully earned money, he carries the

effect of it.

When a man steals some money, if he is caught and agrees to

return it, he is

not freed from the criminal punishment. By the law of the

state, even though he

returns the money, he has to undergo the punishment.

Similarly, the money earned

by a criminal process may be left by the man when dying, but

by superior

arrangement he carries with him the effect, and therefore he

has to suffer

hellish life.

TEXT 33: " Therefore a person who is very eager to maintain

his family and

kinsmen simply by black methods certainly goes to the

darkest region of hell,

which is known as Andha-tamisra. "

PURPORT: Three words in this verse are very significant.

Kevalena means " only

by black methods, " adharmena means " unrighteous "

or " irreligious, " and kutumbabharana

means " family maintenance. " Maintaining one's

family is certainly the

duty of a householder, but one should be eager to earn his

livelihood by the

prescribed method, as stated in the scriptures. In the

Bhagavad-gita it is

described that the Lord has divided the social system into

four classifications

of castes, or varnas, according to quality and work. Apart

from the Bhagavadgita,

in every society a man is known according to his quality and

work. For

example, when a man earns his livelihood constructing wooden

furniture, he is

called a carpenter, and a man who works with an anvil and

iron is called a

blacksmith. Similarly, a man who is engaged in the medical

or engineering fields

has a particular duty and designation. All these human

activities have been

divided by the Supreme Lord into four varnas, namely the

brahmanas

(intellectuals and priests), the ksatriyas (warriors and

administrators), the

vaisyas (merchants and farmers), and sudras (manual

laborers). In the Bhagavadgita

and other Vedic scriptures, the specific duties of the

brahmanas,

ksatriyas, vaisyas, and sudras are mentioned.

One should work honestly according to his qualification. He

should not earn

his livelihood unfairly or in a way for which he is not qualified.

If someone

claims to be a brahmana and works as a priest, attracting

people who expect to

be enlightened about the spiritual way of life, but he is

not qualified as a

priest, then he is cheating the public. One should not earn

one's livelihood by

such unfair means. The same is applicable to a ksatriya and

a vaisya. It is

especially mentioned that the means of livelihood of those

who are trying to

advance in Krsna consciousness must be very fair and

uncomplicated. Here it is

mentioned that he who earns his livelihood by unfair means

(kevalena) is sent to

the darkest hellish region. Otherwise, if one maintains his

family by prescribed

methods and honest means, there is no objection to one's

being a family man.

TEXT 34: " Having gone through all the miserable,

hellish conditions and

having passed in a regular order through the lowest forms of

animal life prior

to human birth, and having thus been purged of one's sins,

one is reborn again

as a human being on this earth. "

PURPORT: Just as a prisoner who has undergone troublesome

prison life is set

free again, the person who has always engaged in impious and

mischievous

activities is put into hellish conditions, and when he has

undergone different

hellish lives, namely those of lower animals like cats, dogs,

and hogs, by the

gradual process of evolution he again comes back as a human

being. In the

Bhagavad-gita it is stated that even though a person engaged

in the practice of

the yoga system may not finish perfectly and may fall down

for some reason or

other, his next life as a human being is guaranteed. It is

stated that such a

person, who has fallen from the path of yoga practice, is

given a chance in his

next life to take birth in a very rich family or in a very

pious family. It is

interpreted that " rich family " refers to a big

mercantile family because

generally people who engage in business are very rich. One

who engaged in the

process of self-realization, or connecting with the Supreme

Absolute Truth, but

fell short is allowed to take birth in such a rich family,

or he is allowed to

take birth in the family of pious brahmanas; either way, he

is guaranteed to

appear in human society in his next life.

It can be concluded that if someone is not willing to enter

into hellish

life, as in Tamisra or Andha-tamisra, then he must take to

the process of Krsna

consciousness, which is the first-class yoga system, because

even if one is

unable to attain complete Krsna consciousness in this life,

he is guaranteed at

least to take his next birth in a human family. He cannot be

sent into a hellish

condition. Krsna consciousness is the purest life, and it

protects all human

beings from gliding down to hell to take birth in a family

of dogs or hogs.

Chapter 3

The Peace Formula

The laws of nature work collectively, as well as

individually. In the

following brief but cogent statement, Srila Prabhupada

explains that if we want

to break out of the tangled web of collective karma that is

wreaking havoc in

present-day society--if we want peace both collectively and

individually--we

need to take to Krsna consciousness seriously.

The great mistake of modern civilization is to encroach upon

others' property

as though it were one's own and thereby create an

unnecessary disturbance of the

laws of nature. These laws are very strong. No living entity

can violate them.

Only one who is Krsna conscious can easily overcome the

stringent laws of nature

and thus become happy and peaceful in the world.

As a state is protected by the department of law and order,

so the state of

the universe, of which this earth is only an insignificant

fragment, is

protected by the laws of nature. This material nature is one

of the different

potencies of God, who is the ultimate proprietor of

everything that be. This

earth is, therefore, the property of God, but we, the living

entities,

especially the so-called civilized human beings, are

claiming God's property as

our own under both an individual and collective false

conception. If you want

peace, you have to remove this false conception from your

mind and from the

world. This false claim of proprietorship by the human race

on earth is partly

or wholly the cause of all disturbances of peace on earth.

Foolish so-called civilized men are claiming proprietary

rights on the

property of God because they have now become godless. You

cannot be happy and

peaceful in a godless society. In the Bhagavad-gita Lord

Krsna says that He is

the factual enjoyer of all activities of the living

entities, that He is the

Supreme Lord of all universes, and that He is the

well-wishing friend of all

beings. When the people of the world know this as the

formula for peace, it is

then and there that peace will prevail.

Therefore, if you want peace at all, you will have to change

your

consciousness into Krsna consciousness, both individually

and collectively, by

the simple process of chanting the holy name of God. This is

the standard and

recognized process for achieving peace in the world. We

therefore recommend that

everyone become Krsna conscious by chanting Hare Krsna, Hare

Krsna, Krsna Krsna,

Hare Hare. Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.

This is practical, simple, and sublime. Five hundred years

ago this formula

was introduced in India

by Lord Sri Caitanya, and now it is available throughout

the world. Take to this simple process of chanting as above

mentioned, realize

your factual position by reading the Bhagavad-gita As It Is,

and reestablish

your lost relationship with Krsna, God. Peace and prosperity

will be the

immediate worldwide result.

Transcendental Teachings of Prahlada Maharaja

What follows is based on a series of talks Srila Prabhupada

gave in 1968 on the

Srimad-Bhagavatam, Canto 7, Chapter 6.

The Dearmost Person

Today I shall speak to you of the history of a boy devotee

named Prahlada

Maharaja. He was born in a family that was stubbornly

atheistic. There are two

kinds of men in this world: the demons and the demigods.

What is the difference

between them? The main difference is that the demigods, or

godly persons, are

devoted to the Supreme Lord, whereas the demons are atheistic.

They do not

believe in God because they are materialists. These two

classes of men always

exist in this world. At the present moment, due to the Age

of Kali (Age of

Quarrel), the number of demons has increased, but the

classification has existed

since the beginning of creation. The incident I am narrating

to you occurred

very, very long ago, a few million years after the time of

creation.

Prahlada Maharaja was the son of the most atheistic person

and the most

materially powerful as well. Because the society was

materialistic, this boy had

no opportunity to glorify the Supreme Lord. The

characteristic of a great soul

is that he is very eager to broadcast glorification of the

Supreme Lord. Lord

Jesus Christ, for example, was very eager to broadcast the

glorification of God,

but demoniac people misunderstood him and crucified him.

When Prahlada Maharaja was a five-year-old boy, he was sent

to school. As

soon as there was a recreation period, when the teacher was

away, he would say

to his friends, " My dear friends, come on. We shall

speak about Krsna

consciousness. " This scene is related in the

Srimad-Bhagavatam, Seventh Canto,

Sixth Chapter. The devotee Prahlada says, " My dear

friends, this is the time, in

this young age, to prosecute Krsna consciousness. "

His little friends reply, " Oh, we shall now play. Why

take up Krsna

consciousness? "

In answer to this, Prahlada Maharaja says, " If you are

intelligent, then you

must begin bhagavata-dharma from childhood. "

The Srimad-Bhagavatam offers bhagavata-dharma, or the

process leading to

scientific knowledge about God. Bhagavata means " the

Supreme Personality of

Godhead, " and dharma means " regulative

principles. " This human form of life is

very rare. It is a great opportunity. Therefore Prahlada

says, " My dear friends,

you are born as civilized human beings, so although your

human body is

temporary, it is the greatest opportunity. " No one

knows the length of his life.

It is calculated that in this age the human body may live up

to a hundred years.

But as the Age of Kali advances, duration of life, memory,

mercy, religiousness,

and all other such assets decrease. So no one has any

assurance of long life in

this age.

Still, although the human form is temporary, you can achieve

the highest

perfection of life while in this human form. What is that

perfection? To

understand the all-pervading Supreme Lord. For other life

forms this is not

possible. By the gradual evolutionary process we come to

this human form, so it

is a rare opportunity. By nature's law, a human body is

ultimately given to you

so that you can promote yourself in spiritual life and go

back home, back to

Godhead.

The ultimate goal of life is Visnu, or Krsna, the Supreme

Personality of

Godhead. In a later verse Prahlada Maharaja will say,

" People in this material

world who are enamored with the material energy do not know

what the goal of

human life is. Why? Because they have been enchanted by the

Lord's glaring

external energy. They have forgotten that life is an

opportunity to understand

the ultimate goal of perfection, Visnu. " Why should we

be very anxious to know

Visnu, or God? Prahlada Maharaja gives a reason: " Visnu

is the dearmost person.

That we have forgotten. " We all seek some dear

friend--everyone searches in this

way. A man searches for dear friendship with a woman, and a

woman searches for

dear friendship with a man. Or else a man searches out a

man, and a woman

searches out a woman. Everyone searches after some dear

friend, some sweet

friend. Why? We want the cooperation of a dear friend who

will help us. This is

part of the struggle for existence, and this is natural. But

we do not know that

our dearest friend is Visnu, the Supreme Personality of

Godhead.

Those who have read the Bhagavad-gita will find this nice

verse in the Fifth

Chapter: " If you want peace, then you must understand

perfectly that everything

in this world and other worlds is the property of Krsna,

that He is the enjoyer

of everything, and that He is the supreme friend of

everyone. " Why perform

austerity? Why perform religious rituals? Why give in

charity? All these

activities are meant for pleasing the Supreme Lord, and

nothing more. And when

the Supreme Lord is pleased, you will get the result.

Whether you want to gain

higher material happiness or spiritual happiness, whether

you want to live a better life on this planet or on other

planets--whatever

you want you will get if you please the Supreme Lord.

Therefore He is the most

sincere friend. Whatever you want from Him, you can get. But

the intelligent man

does not want anything that is materially contaminated.

In the Bhagavad-gita Krsna says that by pious activities one

can elevate

oneself to the highest material planet, known as Brahmaloka,

where the duration

of life is millions and millions of years. You cannot figure

the duration of

life there; your arithmetic will be ineffective. The

statement in the Bhagavadgita

is that the life of Brahma is so long that 4,320,000,000 of

our years are

only twelve hours to him. Krsna says, " Whatever

position you want, beginning

from the ant right up to Brahma, you can have. But the

repetition of birth and

death will be there. However, if by practicing Krsna

consciousness you come to

Me, then you don't have to come back to this miserable

material condition. "

Prahlada Maharaja says the same thing: We should search for

our dearmost

friend, Krsna, the Supreme Lord. Why is He our dearmost

friend? By nature He is

dear. Now, what do you consider the dearmost thing? Have you

analyzed? You

yourself are the dearmost thing. I am sitting here, but if

there is a fire alarm

I shall at once take care of myself: " How can I save

myself? " We forget our

friends and even our relatives: " Let me first of all

save myself. " Selfpreservation

is the first law of nature.

In the grossest sense, the word

atma-- " self " --refers to the body. In the

subtler sphere the mind or intelligence is the atma, and in

the real sense atma

means the soul. In the gross stage we are very fond of

protecting and satisfying

the body, and in a subtler stage we are very fond of

satisfying the mind and

intelligence. But above the mental and intellectual planes,

where the atmosphere

is spiritualized, we can understand, " I am not this

mind, intellect, or body.

Aham brahmasmi--I am spirit, part and parcel of the Supreme

Lord. " That is the

platform of real understanding.

Prahlada Maharaja says that of all living entities, Visnu is

the supreme

well-wisher. Therefore we are all searching for Him. When a

child cries, what

does he long for? His mother. But he has no language to

express this. By nature

he has his body, born of his mother's body, so there is an

intimate relationship

with the mother's body. The child won't like any other

woman. The child cries,

but when the woman who is the child's mother comes and picks

him up, at once he

is pacified. He has no language to express all this, but his

relationship with

his mother is a law of nature. Similarly, by nature we try

to protect the body.

This is self-preservation. It is a natural law of the living

entity, just as

eating is a natural law and sleeping is a natural law. Why

do I protect the

body? Because within the body is the soul.

What is this soul? The soul is a part of the Supreme Lord.

As we want to

protect the hand or the finger because it is a part of the

whole body, similarly

we try to save ourselves because this is the defending

process of the Supreme.

The Supreme does not need defense, but this is a

manifestation of our love

toward Him, which is now perverted. The finger and the hand

are meant to act in

the interests of the whole body; as soon as I want the hand

to come here, it

comes, and as soon as I want the finger to play on the drum,

it plays. This is

the natural position. Similarly, we are searching for God,

to dovetail our

energy in the service of the Supreme, but under the spell of

the illusory energy

we do not know it. That is our mistake. Now, in human life,

we have an

opportunity to understand our actual position. Only because

you are human beings

have you all come here to learn about Krsna consciousness,

about the real goal

of your life. I cannot invite cats and dogs to sit down

here. That is the

difference between human beings and cats and dogs. A human

being can understand

the necessity of pursuing the real goal of life. But if he

loses the

opportunity, it is a great catastrophe.

Prahlada Maharaja says, " God is the dearmost

personality of all. We have to

search for God. " Then what about the material

necessities of life? Prahlada

Maharaja replies, " You are after sense gratification,

but sense gratification is

automatically achieved by contact with this body. "

Because a hog has a certain

type of body, his sense gratification comes from eating

stool, the very thing

that is most obnoxious to you. At once, after evacuating,

you leave to get free

from the bad smell--but the hog is waiting. As soon as you evacuate,

he will at

once enjoy. So there are different types of sense

gratification according to

different types of body. Everyone who has a material body

receives sense

gratification. Don't think that the hogs eating stool are

unhappy. No, they are

getting fat in that way. They are very happy.

Another example is the camel. The camel is very fond of

thorny twigs. Why?

Because when he eats thorny twigs, the twigs cut his tongue,

blood oozes out,

and he tastes his own blood. Then he thinks, " I am

enjoying. " This is sense

gratification. Sex life is also like that. We taste our own

blood, and we think

we are enjoying. This is our foolishness.

The living entity in this material world is a spiritual

being, but because he

has a tendency to enjoy, to exploit the material energy, he

has contacted a

body. There are 8,400,000 species of living entities, each

with a different

body, and according to the body, they have particular senses

with which they

enjoy a particular type of pleasure. Suppose you are given

thorny twigs to eat:

" Ladies and gentlemen, here is very nice food. It is

certified by the camels. It

is very good. " Would you like to take it? " No!

What nonsense are you offering

me? " Because you have a different body from the camel,

you have no taste for

thorny twigs. But if you offer them to a camel, he will

think it is a very nice

meal.

Now, if the hogs and camels can enjoy sense gratification

without great

struggle, why not we human beings? We can--but that is not

our ultimate

achievement. The facilities to enjoy sense gratification are

offered by nature,

whether one be a hog, a camel, or a human being. So why

should you labor for

facilities that you are destined to receive anyway, by

nature's law? In every

form of life the bodily demands are satisfied by the arrangement

of nature. This

gratification is arranged, just as there is an arrangement

for distress. Do you

like fever? No. Why does it come? I do not know. But it does

come, does it not?

Yes. Did you try for it? No. So how does it come? By nature.

That is the only

answer. And if your misery comes by nature, your happiness

will also come by

nature. Don't bother about it. That is the instruction of

Prahlada Maharaja. If

you receive the miseries of life without effort, you will

similarly achieve

happiness without effort.

Then what is the real purpose of the human form of life?

Cultivating Krsna

consciousness. Other things will be obtained by nature's

law, which is

ultimately God's law. Even if I don't try, I will be

supplied with whatever I am

to achieve because of my past work and my particular type of

body. Your real

concern, therefore, should be to seek out the higher goal of

human life.

" We Are Spoiling Our Lives "

Therefore, instead of being very anxious to stimulate our

senses to increase

material happiness, we should try to attain spiritual

happiness by practicing

Krsna consciousness. As Prahlada Maharaja says,

" Although your life in this

human body is temporary, it is very valuable. So instead of

trying to increase

your material sense enjoyment, your duty is to dovetail your

activities in some

way in Krsna consciousness. "

Our higher intelligence comes with his human body. Because

we have higher

consciousness, we should try for the higher enjoyment in

life, which is

spiritual enjoyment. And how can that spiritual enjoyment be

achieved? One

should absorb himself in serving the Supreme Lord, who gives

the pleasure of

liberation. We should turn our attention to achieving the

lotus feet of Krsna,

who can give us liberation from this material world.

But can't we enjoy in this life and engage ourselves in

Krsna's service in

our next life? Prahlada Maharaja answers, " We are now

in material entanglement.

Now I have this body, but I will quit this body after a few

years and then have

to accept another body. Once you take up one body and enjoy

as your body's

senses dictate, you prepare another body by such sense

enjoyment, and you get

another body as you want it. " There is no guarantee

that you will get a human

body. That will depend on your work. If you work like a

demigod, you will get a

demigod's body. And if you work like a dog, you will get a

dog's body. At the

time of death, your destiny is not in your hands--it is in

the hands of nature.

It is not our duty to speculate on what material body we are

going to get next.

At the present moment let us simply understand that this

human body is a great

opportunity to develop our spiritual consciousness, our

Krsna consciousness.

Therefore we should at once engage ourselves in Krsna's

service. Then we will

make progress.

How long should we do it? As long as this body keeps

working. We do not know

when it will stop functioning. The great saint Pariksit

Maharaja got seven days

notice: " Your body will fall in a week. " But we do

not know when our body will

fall. Whenever we are on the road, there may suddenly be

some accident. We

should always be prepared. Death is always there. We should

not optimistically

think, " Everyone is dying, but I shall live. " Why

will you live if everyone is

dying? Your grandfather has died, your great-grandfather has

died, other

relatives of yours have died--why should you live? You will

also die. And your

children will also die. Therefore, before death comes, as

long as we have this

human intelligence, let us engage in Krsna consciousness.

This is the

prescription of Prahlada Maharaja.

We do not know when this body will stop, so let us

immediately engage in

Krsna consciousness and act accordingly. " But if I

immediately engage myself in

Krsna consciousness, what about my means of

livelihood? " That is arranged for. I

am very happy to inform you of the confidence of a student

in one of our

branches. There was a disagreement. Another student said,

" You are not looking

after how to maintain the establishment, " and he

replied, " Oh, Krsna will

supply. " This is a very nice conviction; I was glad to

hear it. If cats and dogs

and hogs can get food, will Krsna not arrange for our food

also, if we are Krsna

conscious and fully devote our service to Him? Is Krsna

ungrateful? No.

In the Bhagavad-gita the Lord says, " My dear Arjuna, I

am equal to everyone.

No one is the object of My envy, and no one is My special

friend, but I give

special attention to one who engages in Krsna

consciousness. " A small child is

completely dependent on the mercy of his parents, so the

parents give special

attention to that child. Although the parents are equally

good to all the

children, for the small children who are always crying

" Mother! " they have

greater concern. " Yes, my dear child? Yes? " This

is natural.

If you are completely dependent on Krsna, who is supplying

food to the dogs,

birds, beasts--to 8,400,000 species of life--why should He

not supply food to

you? This conviction is a symptom of surrender. But we

should not think,

" Because Krsna is supplying my food, I shall now

sleep. " No, you have to work,

but without fear. You should engage yourself wholeheartedly

in Krsna

consciousness, confident of Krsna's maintenance and

protection.

Now, let us calculate our duration of life. In this age it

is said that we

can live at most one hundred years. Formerly, in the

Satya-yuga, the age of

goodness, human beings would live up to 100,000 years. In

the next age, Tretayuga,

they used to live for 10,000 years, and in the next age,

called Dvaparayuga,

they used to live for 1,000 years. Now, in this age, called

Kali-yuga, the

estimate is 100 years. But gradually, as the Kali-yuga

progresses, our duration

of life will decrease still further. This is the so-called

progress of our

modern civilization. We are very proud that we are happy and

are improving our

civilization. The result, however, is that although we try

to enjoy material

life, the duration of our life is shortened.

Now, accepting that a person lives for one hundred years, if

he has no

information of spiritual life, half of that is wasted at

night in sleeping and

sex life. That's all. He has no other interest. And in the

daytime, what is his

concern? " Where is money? Where is money? I must

maintain this body. " And when

he has money: " Now let me spend for my wife and

children. " So where is his

spiritual realization? At night he spends his time in sleep

and sex indulgence,

and by day he spends time working very hard to earn money.

Is that his mission

in life? How horrible such a life is!

The average person is illusioned in childhood, playing

frivolous games. Up to

twenty years, easily, you can go on like that. Then when you

become old, for

another twenty years you cannot do anything. When a man

becomes old, his senses

cannot function. You have seen many old men; they have

nothing to do but rest.

Just now we have received a letter from one of our students

reporting that his

grandmother is paralyzed and has been suffering for the last

three and a half

years. So, in old age, everything is finished as soon as you

are eighty years

old. Therefore, from the beginning to twenty years of age,

everything is

spoiled; and even if you live for a hundred years, another

twenty in the last

stage of life is also spoiled. So forty years of your life

are spoiled in that

way. And in the middle age there is a very strong sex

appetite, so another

twenty years can be lost. Twenty years, twenty years, and

twenty years--sixty

years gone. This is the analysis of life by Prahlada

Maharaja. We are spoiling

our life instead of using it to advance in Krsna

consciousness.

Family Illusion

Prahlada Maharaja told his friends, " You have to begin

Krsna consciousness

immediately. " All the boys were born of atheistic,

materialistic families, but

fortunately they had the association of Prahlada, who was a

great devotee of the

Lord from his birth. Whenever he found an opportunity, when

the teacher was out

of the classroom, he used to say, " My dear friends,

let's chant Hare Krsna; this

is the time to begin Krsna consciousness. "

Now, as we have stated, some boy might have said, " But

we are just boys. Let

us play. We are not going to die immediately. Let us have

some enjoyment, and

later we shall begin Krsna consciousness. " People do

not know that Krsna

consciousness is the highest enjoyment. They think that the

boys and girls who

have joined this Krsna consciousness movement are foolish.

" By Prabhupada's

influence they have joined Krsna consciousness and left

everything enjoyable. "

But actually this is not so. They are all intelligent,

educated boys and girls,

coming from very respectable families; they are not fools.

In our Society they

are actually enjoying life; otherwise they would not have

sacrificed their

valuable time for this movement.

Actually there is joyful life in Krsna consciousness, but

people do not know

of it. They say, " What use is this Krsna

consciousness? " When one grows up

entangled in the sense gratification process, it is very

difficult to get out of

it. Therefore, according to Vedic regulations, in student

life, beginning from

five years of age, boys are taught about spiritual life.

That is called

brahmacarya. A brahmacari dedicates his life to attaining

supreme consciousness-

-Krsna consciousness or Brahman consciousness.Brahmacarya

has many rules and

regulations. For example, however rich one's father may be,

the brahmacari

surrenders himself to be trained under the guidance of a

spiritual master and

works in the ashram of the spiritual master just like a

menial servant. How is

this possible? We are getting actual experience that very

nice boys coming from

very respectable families do not hesitate to do any kind of

work here. They are

washing dishes, cleansing floors--everything. One student's

mother was

astonished at her boy when he visited home. Before, he would

not even go to the

store, and now he is engaged twenty-four hours a day. Unless

one feels pleasure,

how is it possible that he can engage himself in such a

process as Krsna

consciousness? This is due only to the chanting of Hare

Krsna. This is our

single asset--the Hare Krsna mantra. One can be very jolly

simply by Krsna

consciousness. Actually, it is a joyful life. But unless one

is trained, one

cannot live it.

Prahlada Maharaja says that everyone is attached to family

affection. If one

is attached to family affairs, he cannot control his senses.

Naturally, everyone

wants to love someone. Society, friendship, and love are

needed. They are

demands of the spirit soul, but they are being pervertedly

reflected. I have

seen that many ladies and gentlemen in your country have no

family life, but

they have placed their love in cats and dogs. Because they

want to love someone

but do not see anyone suitable, they place their valuable

love in cats and dogs.

Our concern is to transfer this love--which has to be placed

somewhere--to

Krsna. This is Krsna consciousness. If you transfer your

love to Krsna, that is

perfection. But now, because people are being frustrated and

cheated, they do

not know where to place their love, and at last they place

their love in cats

and dogs.

Everyone is entangled by material love. It is very difficult

to develop

spiritual life when one is advanced in material love,

because this bondage of

love is very strong. Therefore Prahlada proposes that one

should learn Krsna

consciousness from childhood. When a child is five or six

years old--as soon as

his consciousness is developed--he should be sent to school

to be trained, and

Prahlada Maharaja says that his education should be Krsna

conscious from the

very beginning. The period from five to fifteen years is a

very valuable time;

you can train any child in Krsna consciousness, and he will

become perfect.

If a child is not trained in Krsna consciousness and instead

becomes advanced

in materialism, it is difficult for him to develop spiritual

life. What is

materialism? Materialism means that all of us in this material

world, although

we are spirit souls, somehow or other want to enjoy this

material world. The

spirit of enjoyment is present in its pure form in the

spiritual world, in

relation to Krsna, but we have come here to partake of

contaminated enjoyment,

just as a man on the Bowery thinks he can enjoy by drinking

some liquor. The

basic principle of material enjoyment is sex. Therefore, you

will find sex not

only in human society but in cat society, dog society, bird

society--everywhere.

During the daytime, a pigeon has sex at least twenty times.

This is his

enjoyment.

The Srimad-Bhagavatam confirms that material enjoyment is

based upon nothing

more than the sexual combination of man and woman. In the

beginning a boy

thinks, " Oh, that girl is nice, " and the girl says,

" That boy is nice. " When

they meet, that material contamination becomes more

prominent. And when they

actually enjoy sex, they become more attached, completely

attached. How? As soon

as a boy and girl are married, they want an apartment. Then

they have children.

And when they have children, they want social

recognition--society, friendship,

and love. In this way their material attachment goes on

increasing. And all of

this requires money. A man who is too materialistic will

cheat anyone, kill

anyone, beg, borrow, or steal--anything to bring money. He

knows that his

buildings, his family, his wife and children cannot continue

to exist

perpetually. They are just like bubbles in the ocean: they

have come into

existence, and after a little while they will be gone. But

he is too much

attached. He will sacrifice his spiritual advancement for

the pursuit of money

to maintain them. His perverted consciousness-- " I am

this body. I belong to this

material world. I belong to this country. I belong to this

community. I belong

to this religion. I belong to this family. " --becomes

greater and greater.

Where is his Krsna consciousness? He becomes so entangled

that money becomes

more valuable to him than his own life. In other words, he

can risk his life for

money. The householder, the laborer, the merchant, the

thief, the dacoit, the

rogue--everyone is after money. This is illusion. One loses

himself in the midst

of this entanglement.

Prahlada Maharaja says that in this state, when you are too

much implicated

in materialism, you cannot cultivate Krsna consciousness.

Therefore one should

practice Krsna consciousness from early childhood. Of

course, Lord Caitanya

Mahaprabhu is so kind that He says, " Better late than

never. Even though you

missed the opportunity to begin Krsna consciousness from

childhood, begin now,

in whatever position you are. " That is Caitanya

Mahaprabhu's teaching. He never

said, " Because you did not begin Krsna consciousness

from your childhood, you

cannot make progress. " No. He is very kind. He has

given us this nice process of

chanting Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare.

Hare Rama, Hare Rama,

Rama Rama, Hare Hare. Whether you are young or old--no

matter what you are--just

begin. You do not know when your life will be finished. If

you chant sincerely,

even for a moment, it will have great effect. It will save

you from the greatest

danger--becoming an animal in your next life.

Although only five years old, Prahlada Maharaja speaks just

like a very

experienced and educated man because he received knowledge

from his spiritual

master, Narada Muni. That is disclosed in the next chapter

of the Srimad-

Bhagavatam (7.7). Wisdom does not depend on age, but on

knowledge received from

a superior source. One cannot become a wise man simply by

advancement of age.

No. That is not possible. Knowledge has to be received from

a superior source;

then one can become wise. It doesn't matter whether one is a

five-year-old boy

or a fifty-year-old man. As it is said, " By wisdom one

becomes an old man, even

without advanced age. "

So although Prahlada was only five years old, by advancement

in knowledge he

was imparting perfect instructions to his classmates. Some

may find these

instructions unpalatable. Suppose a man is already married

and Prahlada says,

" Take to Krsna consciousness. " He will think,

" Oh, how can I leave my wife? We

talk so nicely together, sit together and enjoy. How can I

leave? " Family

attraction is very strong.

I am an old man--seventy-two years old. I have been away

from my family

during the last fourteen years. Yet sometimes I also think

of my wife and

children. This is quite natural. But that does not mean I

have to go back. This

is knowledge. When the mind wanders to thoughts of sense

gratification, one

should at once understand, " This is illusion. "

According to the Vedic system, one has to forcibly give up

family life at the

age of fifty. One must go. There is no alternative. The

first twenty-five years

are for student life. From age five to age twenty-five, one

should be educated

very nicely in Krsna consciousness. The basic principle of

one's education

should be Krsna consciousness, nothing else. Then life will

be pleasing and

successful, both in this world and in the next. A Krsna

conscious education

means one is trained to give up material consciousness

altogether. That is

perfect Krsna consciousness.

But if the student is unable to capture the essence of Krsna

consciousness,

then he is allowed to marry a good wife and live a peaceful

householder life.

And because he has been trained in the basic principles of

Krsna consciousness,

he will not entangle himself in the material world. One who

lives simply--plain

living and high thinking--can make progress in Krsna

consciousness even within

family life.

So family life is not condemned. But if a man forgets his

spiritual identity

and simply becomes entangled in material affairs, then he is

lost. His life's

mission is lost. If one thinks, " I cannot protect

myself from the attack of sex

desire, " then let him be married. That is prescribed.

But don't have illicit

sex. If you want a girl, if you want a boy, get married and

live in Krsna

consciousness.

A person who is trained in Krsna consciousness from

childhood naturally

becomes disinclined toward the material way of life, and at

the age of fifty he

gives it up. How does he start giving it up? The husband and

wife leave home and

travel together on pilgrimage. If from twenty-five to fifty

one remains in

family life, one should have some grown-up children. So at

age fifty the husband

entrusts the family affairs to some of his sons who are

family men, and he and

his wife go on pilgrimage to the holy places in order to

forget family

attachments. When the gentleman is completely matured in

detachment, he asks his

wife to go home to their children, and he remains alone.

That is the Vedic

system. We have to give ourselves a chance to progress in

spiritual life, step

by step. Otherwise, if we remain attached to material

consciousness throughout

all our days, we will not perfect our Krsna consciousness,

and we shall miss the

opportunity of this human form of life.

So-called happy family life means that we have a very loving

wife and loving

children. Thus we enjoy life. But we do not know that this

enjoyment is false,

that it is resting on a false platform. At once, in the

twinkling of an eye, we

may have to give up this enjoyment. Death is not under our

control. From the

Bhagavad-gita we learn that if one dies while too much

attached to one's wife,

the result will be that in his next life he will have the

body of a woman. And

if the wife is very attached to her husband, she will get a

man's body in her

next life. Similarly, if you are not a family man but are

attached to a cat or

dog, then your next life will be as a cat or dog. These are

the laws of karma,

or material nature.

The whole point is that one should begin Krsna consciousness

immediately.

Suppose one thinks, " After finishing my sporting life,

when I am old and there

is nothing else to do, then I shall go to the Krsna

consciousness Society and

hear something. " Certainly at that time one can take up

spiritual life, but what

is the assurance that one will live to an old age? One may

die at any time; so

postponing one's spiritual life is very risky. Therefore one

should take the

opportunity now to advance in Krsna consciousness. That is

the purpose of this

Society: to give everyone a chance to begin Krsna

consciousness at any stage of

life. And by the process of chanting Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna,

Krsna Krsna, Hare

Hare. Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare, advancement

is very quick.

There is an immediate result.

We request all the ladies and gentlemen who are very kindly

attending our

lectures or reading our literature to chant Hare Krsna

during your leisure hours

at home, and to read our books. That is our request. We are

sure that you will

find this process very pleasing and very effective.

" I Love Krsna More Than Anything! "

Now Prahlada Maharaja makes a further statement about the

complications of

material life. He compares the attached householder to the

silkworm. The

silkworm wraps itself in a cocoon made of its own saliva,

until he is in a

prison from which he cannot escape. In the same way, a

materialistic

householder's entanglement becomes so tight that he cannot

come out of the

cocoon of family attraction. Even though there are so many

miseries in

materialistic family life, he cannot break free. Why? He

thinks that sex life

and eating palatable dishes are most important. Therefore,

in spite of so many

miserable conditions, he cannot give them up.

In this way, when a person is too much entangled in family

life, he cannot

think of his real benefit--to escape from material life.

Although he is always

disturbed by the threefold miseries of materialistic life,

still, because of

strong family affection, he cannot come out. He does not

know that he is wasting

his limited duration of life simply for family affection. He

is spoiling the

life that was meant for realizing his eternal self, for

realizing his real

spiritual life.

" Therefore, " Prahlada says to his demoniac friends,

" please give up the

company of those who are simply after material enjoyment.

Just associate with

persons who have taken to Krsna consciousness. " That is

his advice. He says to

his friends that this Krsna consciousness is easy to attain.

Why? Krsna

consciousness is actually very dear to us, but we have

forgotten it. Therefore

anyone who takes to Krsna consciousness becomes more and

more affected by it and

forgets his material consciousness.

If you are in a foreign country, you might forget your home

and your family

members and friends who are very dear to you. But if you are

all of a sudden

reminded of your home and friends, you will at once become

very preoccupied:

" How shall I meet them? " In San

Francisco one of our friends told me that long

ago he left his young children and went to another country.

Recently a letter

came from his grown-up son, and at once the father

remembered his affection for

him and sent some money. That affection automatically came,

even though he had

forgotten his child for so many years. Similarly, our

affection for Krsna is so

intimate that as soon as there is some touch of Krsna

consciousness, we at once

revive our relationship with Him.

Everyone has some particular relationship with Krsna, the

Supreme Lord, which

he has forgotten. But as we become Krsna conscious,

gradually our old

consciousness of our relationship with Krsna is revived. And

when our

consciousness is actually in the clear stage, we can

understand our particular

relationship with Krsna. One may have a relationship with

Krsna as a son or

servant, as a friend, as a parent, or as a beloved wife or

lover. All these

relationships are pervertedly reflected in life in the

material world. But as

soon as we come to the platform of Krsna consciousness, our

old relationship

with Krsna is revived.

We love--every one of us. First I love my body because my

self is within this

body. So actually I love my self better than the body. But

that self has an

intimate relationship with Krsna because the self is part

and parcel of Krsna.

Therefore I love Krsna more than anything. And because Krsna

is all-pervading, I

love everything.

Unfortunately, we have forgotten that Krsna, God, is

all-pervading. This

memory has to be revived. As soon as we revive our Krsna

consciousness, we can

see everything in relationship with Krsna, and then

everything becomes lovable.

Now I love you or you love me, but that love is on the

platform of this

ephemeral body. But when love of Krsna is developed, I will

love not only you

but every living entity because the outward designation, the

body, will be

forgotten. When a person becomes fully Krsna conscious, he

does not think, " Here

is a man, here is an animal, here is a cat, here is a dog,

here is a worm. " He

sees everyone as part and parcel of Krsna. This is very

nicely explained in the

Bhagavad-gita: " One who is actually learned in Krsna

consciousness becomes a

lover of everyone in the universe. " Unless one is

situated on the Krsna

conscious platform, there is no question of universal

brotherhood.

If we actually want to implement the idea of universal

brotherhood, then we

will have to come to the platform of Krsna consciousness,

not material

consciousness. As long as we are in material consciousness,

our lovable objects

will be limited. But when we are actually in Krsna

consciousness, our lovable

objects will be universal. That is stated by Prahlada

Maharaja: " Beginning from

the nonmoving plants and trees and extending up to the

highest living creature,

Brahma, the Supreme Personality of Godhead is present everywhere

by His

expansion as the Paramatma, the feature of the Lord in

everyone's heart. As soon

as we become Krsna conscious, that extension of the Supreme

Personality of

Godhead, Paramatma, induces us to love every object in

relation with Krsna. "

Realizing that God Is Everywhere

Maharaja Prahlada informed his classmates about the

all-pervasiveness of the

Supreme Lord. But although the Supreme Lord is all-pervasive

by means of His

expansions and His energies, that does not mean He has lost

His personality.

That is significant. Although He is all-pervading, still He

is a person.

According to our material perception, if something is

all-pervading, then it has

no personality, no localized aspect. But God is not like

that. For example, the

sunshine is all-pervading, but the sun also has a localized

aspect, the sun

planet, and you can see it. Not only is there a sun planet,

but within the sun

planet is a sun-god, whose name is Vivasvan. We get this

information from Vedic

literature. There is no way to understand what is taking

place on other planets

except to hear from authorized sources. In the modern

civilization we accept

scientists as authorities in these matters. We hear a

scientist say, " We have

seen the moon; it is such and such, " and we believe it.

We have not gone with

the scientist to see the moon, but we believe him.

Belief is the basic principle of understanding. You may

believe the

scientists, or you may believe the Vedas. It is up to you

which source you

believe. The difference is that the information from the

Vedas is infallible,

while that received from the scientists is fallible. Why is

the scientists'

information fallible? Because an ordinary man conditioned by

material nature has

four defects. What are they? The first is that a conditioned

human being has

imperfect senses. We view the sun as a small disc. Why? It

is far, far greater

than this earth, but we see it as just a disc. Everyone

knows that our seeing

power, our hearing power, and so on are limited. And because

his senses are

imperfect, the conditioned soul is sure to commit mistakes,

however great a

scientist he may be. Not very long ago in this country,

there was a disaster

when the scientists tried to send a rocket up but it at once

burned to ashes. So

there was a mistake. The conditioned soul must make

mistakes, because that is

the nature of conditioned life. The mistake may be very

great or very slight--

that doesn't matter--but a human being conditioned by

material nature is sure to

commit mistakes.

Further, the conditioned soul must become illusioned. This

happens when he

continually mistakes one thing for something else. For

example, we accept the

body as the self. Since I am not this body, my acceptance of

the body as my self

is an illusion. The whole world is going on under the illusion

that " I am this

body. " Therefore there is no peace. I am thinking that

I am Indian, you are

thinking that you are American, and a Chinese man is

thinking that he is

Chinese. What is this " Chinese, "

" American, " and " Indian " ? It is an illusion

based on the body. That's all.

The propensity to cheat is the fourth defect of conditioned

life. I may be a

fool, but I will boast that I am very learned. Everyone who

is illusioned and

commits mistakes is a fool, but still such fools pose

themselves as being

sources of infallible knowledge. So all conditioned souls

have imperfect senses,

they are subject to commit mistakes and become illusioned,

and they are

influenced by the propensity to cheat.

How can one expect real knowledge from such conditioned

souls? There is no

possibility of receiving actual knowledge from them. Whether

a person is a

scientist, a philosopher, or whatever, because he is

conditioned he cannot give

complete information, no matter how educated he may be. That

is a fact.

One may now ask, How can we get complete information? The

process is to

receive knowledge via the disciplic succession of spiritual

masters and

disciples beginning with Krsna. In the Bhagavad-gita Lord

Krsna says to Arjuna,

" This knowledge of Bhagavad-gita was first spoken by Me

to the sun-god, and the

sun-god spoke it to his son, Manu. In turn, Manu spoke this

knowledge to his son

Iksvaku, and then Iksvaku spoke the same to his son. In this

way the knowledge

has come down. But unfortunately that disciplic succession

is now broken.

Therefore, O Arjuna, I am now imparting the same knowledge

to you because you

are My very dear friend and good devotee. " This is the

process of receiving

perfect knowledge--to accept the transcendental vibration

coming down from

higher sources. The entire stock of Vedic knowledge is a

transcendental

vibration to help us understand the Supreme Lord.

So, Prahlada Maharaja says that the Supreme Personality of

Godhead is

identical with the all-pervading Supreme Soul, the

Paramatma. The same

information appears in the Brahma-samhita--that the Supreme

Lord, although

situated in His own transcendental abode, is all-pervading.

Still, although He

is present everywhere, we cannot see Him with our imperfect

senses.

Prahlada Maharaja then says, " Although He is not seen,

He can still be

perceived. One who is intelligent can perceive the presence

of the Supreme Lord

everywhere. " How is this possible? During the daytime,

even someone in a room

can know that the sun is up. Because it is light in his

room, he can understand

that the sun is shining in the sky. Similarly, those who

have received perfect

knowledge in disciplic succession know that everything is an

expansion of the

energy of the Supreme Lord. Therefore they see the Lord

everywhere.

What can we perceive with our material senses? We can see

what is visible to

the material eye--earth, water, fire. But we cannot see air,

although we can

perceive it by touch. We can understand that there is sky by

sound, and we can

understand that we have a mind because we are thinking,

feeling, and willing.

Similarly, we can understand that we have an intelligence

which guides the mind.

If we go still further, we can understand, " I am

consciousness. " And one who is

further advanced can understand that the source of

consciousness is the soul

and, above all, the Supersoul.

The visible things around us are expansions of the inferior

energy of the

Supreme Lord, but the Lord also has a superior

energy--consciousness. We have to

understand consciousness from higher authorities, but we can

also directly

perceive it. For example, we can perceive that there is

consciousness spread all

over the body. If I pinch any part of my body, I will feel

pain; that means

there is consciousness throughout my body. In the

Bhagavad-gita Krsna says we

should try to understand that consciousness is spread all

over the body and that

it is eternal. Similarly, consciousness is spread all over

this universe. But

that is not our consciousness. That is God's consciousness.

So God, the Supreme

Soul, is all-pervading by His consciousness. One who

understands this has begun

his Krsna consciousness.

Our process is to dovetail our consciousness with Krsna

consciousness--that

will make us perfect. It is not that we merge into that

consciousness. In one

sense we " merge, " but still we keep our

individuality. That is the difference

between impersonalist philosophy and Krsna conscious

philosophy. The

impersonalist philosopher says that perfection means to

merge into the Supreme

and lose our individuality. We say that in the perfectional

stage we merge into

the Supreme but keep our individuality. How is that? An

airplane starts from the

airport and climbs up and up, and when it goes very high we

cannot see it: we

can simply see sky. But the airplane is not lost--it is

still there. Another

example is that of a green bird entering into a big green

tree. We cannot

distinguish the bird from the tree, but they both continue

to exist. Similarly,

the supreme consciousness is Krsna, and when we dovetail our

individual

consciousness with the Supreme, we become perfect--but keep

our individuality.

An outsider may think that there is no distinction between

God and His pure

devotee, but it is due only to a poor fund of knowledge.

Every individual

person, every individual being, maintains his individuality

eternally, even when

dovetailed with the Supreme.

Prahlada Maharaja says that we cannot see

consciousness--either supreme

consciousness or individual consciousness--but that it is

there. How can we

understand that it is there? We can understand the supreme

consciousness and our

individual consciousness simply by perception of

blissfulness. Because we have

consciousness, we can feel ananda, or pleasure. Without

consciousness, there is

no feeling of pleasure. Because of consciousness we can

enjoy life by applying

our senses in whatever way we like. But as soon as

consciousness is gone from

the body, we cannot enjoy our senses.

Our consciousness exists because we are part and parcel of

the supreme

consciousness. For example, a spark is only a tiny particle

of the fire, yet the

spark is also fire. A drop of the Atlantic Ocean

possesses the same quality as

all the ocean water--it is also salty. Similarly, because

the pleasure potency

exists in the Supreme Lord, we can also enjoy pleasure. The

Lord is paramesvara,

the supreme controller; therefore we are also isvaras, or

controllers. For

example, I have some controlling power to take a drink of

water when I cough.

According to our capacity, everyone of us has some

controlling power. But we are

not the supreme controller. The supreme controller is God,

Krsna.

Because Krsna is the supreme controller, He can control all

the universal

affairs by His different potencies. I also feel that I am

controlling my bodily

affairs to some extent, but because I am not the supreme

controller, if there is

something wrong in this body, I have to go to a physician.

Similarly, I have no

control over other bodies. I speak of this hand as " my

hand " because I can work

with this hand and move it according to my desire. But I am

not the controller

of your hand. If I desire to move your hand, that is not in

my power; that is in

your power. You can move your hand if you like. So I am not

the controller of

your body, and you are not the controller of my body, but

the Supreme Soul is

the controller of your body and my body and every body.

In the Bhagavad-gita, the Lord says that you, the soul, are

present in your

body and that your body is the field of your activities. So

whatever you are

doing is limited by the field of your body. An animal bound

up in a certain

tract of land can move there but cannot go beyond what that

space allows.

Similarly, your activity and my activity are bound up within

the limits of our

bodies. My body is my field of activities, and your body is

your field of

activities. But Krsna says, " I am present in every

field. "

Thus Krsna, as the Supersoul, or Paramatma, knows what is

going on in my

body, in your body, and in millions and billions of other

bodies. Therefore He

is the supreme controller. We have our limited energy, but

His energy is

unlimited. By His controlling power, by His supreme will,

this material creation

is moving. That is also confirmed in the Bhagavad-gita,

where Krsna states,

" Under My superintendence the whole material nature is

working. All wonderful

things that you see in this material world are due to My

supervision, My supreme

control. "

Krsna Consciousness: The Perfection of Mercy

Prahlada Maharaja now gives his conclusion: " My dear

friends, because the

Supreme Lord is present everywhere and because we are part

and parcel of the

Supreme Lord, our duty is to be merciful to all living

entities. " When a person

is in a lower position, we have a duty to help him. For

example, because a small

child is helpless, he is dependent on the mercy of the parent:

" Mother, I want

this. " " Yes, my dear child. " We should be

compassionate to all living entities

and should show them mercy.

How can we show our mercy to everyone? There are millions

and millions of

poor people, so how can we show them all mercy? Are we able

to supply clothing

and food to all the needy persons of the world? That is not

possible. How, then,

can we be merciful to every living entity? By giving them

Krsna consciousness.

That is how Prahlada Maharaja is showing his class friends

real mercy. They were

all fools, devoid of Krsna consciousness, and therefore he

was showing them how

to become Krsna conscious. This is the highest mercy. If you

want to show any

mercy at all to the living entities, then enlighten them in

Krsna consciousness,

as Prahlada Maharaja did. Otherwise, it is materially beyond

your power to show

mercy.

" My dear friends, " Prahlada says, " give up

this demoniac life. Give up this

nonsense. " The belief that there is no God is the

demoniac feature that Prahlada

Maharaja requests his friends to give up. Because they were

born in the families

of demons and were being instructed by demoniac teachers,

Prahlada's friends

were thinking, " Who is God? There is no God. " We

find in the Bhagavad-gita that

people of this mentality are called miscreants, for they

always try to make

mischief. They may be very well educated lawyers, for

example, but their plan is

to cheat. We have practical experience. These lawyers are

highly educated with

so many qualifications and are nicely dressed, but their mentality

is more base

than that of a dog. " This man has some money, so let us

conspire to cheat him. "

They are simply miscreants.

What are they cheating for? Simply for sense gratification,

just like an ass

who does not know the purpose of life. He is kept by the

washerman, who loads

his back as much as possible. In this way the ass works the

whole day with this

burden simply for a few morsels of grass. Similarly,

materialistic people work

very hard simply for a little insignificant sense

gratification. Therefore they

are compared to asses. They are always planning something

mischievous. They are

the lowest of mankind because they do not believe in God.

Why? Their knowledge

has been plundered by the influence of the material energy.

Because they deny

the existence of God, illusion impels them: " Yes, there

is no God. Work hard and

commit sins so that you may go to hell. "

 

For any questions, comments, correspondence, or to evaluate

dozens of other books in this collection, visit the website

of the publishers,

www.Krishna.com.

 

Or my e-mail: pranjal.johry