751014 - Lecture - Johannesburg

Lectures by Date, 1975

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

 Listen to a 'Nectar Drop' created from this lecture

751014LE-JOHANNESBURG - October 14, 1975 - 11:05 Minutes

Prabhupāda: . . . so on account of exploitation by the superior energy, the living entity, the material energy becomes important. So the Vedic civilization is for fulfilling the mission of the spiritual energy. And the modern civilization is to become entangled in the activities of this material energy. Entangled . . . I have used this word "entangled" because we are becoming entangled in this material energy by changing this body.

Now I have got this human form of body, and according to my work I’ll get next another body. That body is not guaranteed that I shall get human form of body. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is stated, tathā dehāntara-prāptir (BG 2.13): "You’ll get another body." Just like I am old man. I shall die, or I shall change body. Death means I will change the body. Just like I have changed my body many times. When I was in the womb of my mother the first day after the sex, my body was just like a pea. These are . . . these information are there in the Vedic literature. The secretion from the father and mother combine together, they become emulsified, and it forms a substance like a pea. Within that pea, the living spirit soul is there. Then it develops. The pea develops. Then there becomes holes, nine holes. We have got nine holes: this nostril, the ear, mouth, the eyes, the genital, the rectum, the navel. We have got nine holes. These nine holes develop. In this way, the body is formed. In seven months' time, the body gets consciousness back. Before that it is in the deep sleeping state. Then after seven months, it is in dreaming state. At that time, it feels inconvenience. To live in the midst of urine, stool, and worms biting so many inconvenience within the womb of the mother. At that time, if he is little pious, he prays to God, "God, give me relief from this state of life. This time I shall engage my time only for Your service, how to realize You." But as soon as he comes out, he forgets everything.

So it is the duty of the father and mother to give him remembrance of these things. Unfortunately, at the present moment especially, the father, mother is also not enlightened. So he is kept in darkness. Then he is given education how to exploit these material resources. That is immediate, very profitable. In this way, we are kept into darkness in the whole life. Then at the time of my death again, as I remember my circumstances,

yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran bhāvaṁ

tyajaty ante kalevaram

(BG 8.6)

The subtle body mind, intelligence and ego that does not annihilate. The gross body earth, water, air, fire that is finished. Then the subtle body carries me to another gross body. Just like the flavor; the air carries the flavor. If it is blowing on some nice rose garden, the air carries the flavor of the rose. Similarly, my activities in this life will be, at the time of death, will be carried by the subtle body to form another gross body. So that gross body may be any one of the 8,400,000's. There are 8,400,000 forms of body. And by the laws of nature, I will have to enter in one of them. Therefore you will find varieties of living entities.

So bhakti-yoga means to get relief from this business of being entangled in different bodies. That is called bhakti-yoga.

anarthopaśamaṁ sākṣād

bhakti-yogam adhokṣaje

(SB 1.7.6)

So the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is teaching people not to become too much embarrassed by the so-called material civilization. Then you will be entangled. Simply accept whatever is barely necessary. Don’t spoil your energy in something which will be left by you, and you will have to accept another body. You may spoil your reserve energy for getting material opulences, but you should know at least that after the end of this body everything will remain here, and I will have to go without body, without this skyscraper building, without my wife, children, bank balance. I will have to enter another body. Even if I get a human form of body, still I have to again acquire, and again leave it, and again go without anything.

So how to stop this business? That is vairāgya-vidyā. That business can be stopped. We don’t want to stop. We don’t say that, "You stop your material activities." No. But you should not forget your real business. If you simply spoil your energy in acquiring material assets which you will not be allowed to take . . . even if your body, which is taken care of so much, it will also remain, and kicked out in the dustbin. When a man dies, his son cries, "My father has gone away." Cry. "Why you are crying? Your father is lying on the bed." "No, no. He has gone away." What he has gone? The father, whom you call "Father," the hands and legs and the coat and pant, that is lying there. (laughter) Why do you say: "My father has gone away"? That means the hands and legs and coats and pants whom I took my father, it was illusion, māyā. It is illusion.

So we are within the jurisdiction of māyā. I am accepting a pattern of hands and legs as my son, daughter, wife, and they are also accepting another type of hands and legs as father, husband. In this way, we are illusioned. But after death we understand, "My father is gone," "My husband is gone," "My wife is gone." The illusion at that time becomes manifest. So whom I was seeing as my father and as son? That was the body. That was the coat-pant. The coat-pant is not my father. Then you may come to your senses. So this is going on all over the world.

daivī hy eṣā guṇa-mayī

mama māyā duratyayā

(BG 7.14)

This illusion is so strong, it is very, very difficult to get out of it. But you can. How?

mām eva ye prapadyante

māyām etāṁ taranti te

(BG 7.14)

"Anyone who surrenders to Me, God, Kṛṣṇa, he can get out of this illusion and regulate his life properly so that he can go back to home, back to Godhead for eternal blissful life of knowledge." This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Thank you very much.

Devotees: Jaya Prabhupāda. (end)