720426 - Lecture SB 02.09.07 - Tokyo

Lectures by Date, 1972

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

720426SB-TOKYO - April 26, 1972 - 18:05 Minutes

Pradyumna: (leads chanting of verse)

. . . āsthāya vimṛśya tad-dhitaṁ

tapasy upādiṣṭa ivādadhe manaḥ

(SB 2.9.7)

Prabhupāda: Now, chant. Recite.

(devotees chant verse)

niśamya tad-vaktṛ-didṛkṣayā diśo

vilokya tatrānyad apaśyamānaḥ

svadhiṣṇyam āsthāya vimṛśya tad-dhitaṁ

tapasy upādiṣṭa ivādadhe manaḥ

Prabhupāda: Yes. Very good. Transliteration is coming to be useful. Yes. Next. (break) The transliteration is there for you. So although you are selling books, but this is meant for you, so that you can . . . utter . . . the mantras. Who is next?

(lady devotee chants) (break)

Pradyumna: ". . . searching on all sides. But when he was unable to find anyone besides himself, he thought it wise to sit down on his lotus seat firmly and give his attention to the execution of penance, as he was instructed."

Prabhupāda: So he could not find any person. Still he took it seriously and began tapasya. Therefore in the beginning of Bhāgavata it is said, tene brahma hṛdā ādi-kavaye: "From heart." Yes. He heard from outside. From the heart the order was, "Yes, now you begin your tapasya." So he began. So Kṛṣṇa is helping both sides—from externally, internally.

Externally he heard—somewhere the sound came—and internally He confirmed, "Yes." So Kṛṣṇa is helping us externally by the spiritual master, internally by instruction. Buddhi-yogaṁ dadāmi (BG 10.10). In this way, He is trying to help us. Unfortunately we do not care to take His help. Then why should we not suffer?

Antar-bahiḥ. Antar-bahiḥ. There are two things: inside and outside. So Kṛṣṇa is . . . outside He is helping, spiritual master. Spiritual master is external manifestation of the Supreme Lord. Just like if somebody is going somewhere in this Tokyo city, I have to say something, so I apply him, "Will you kindly carry this message to him?"

Similarly, Kṛṣṇa deputes some of His confidential devotees to help the people to become Kṛṣṇa conscious: "Please go and tell him this." The spiritual master is, therefore, external manifestation of the Supreme Lord. And internally He is sitting there as Paramātmā. So both ways, He is helping. And because the business is Kṛṣṇa consciousness, therefore there is no difference between the external teacher and the internal teacher. Because the teaching is the same.

Therefore Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura . . . sākṣād-dharitvena samasta-śāstrair (Śrī Śrī Gurv-aṣṭaka 7): "All the śāstras, the spiritual master is accepted as directly Hari, the Supreme Personality of Godhead," because he is carrying directly the message of Hari. Then again it is explained . . . Then Māyāvādī will say, "Then I am God. Because I am carrying the message of Kṛṣṇa, therefore I am Kṛṣṇa." No. Kintu prabhor yaḥ priya eva tasya.

Not that he has become Prabhu, or God, but he is very dear servitor. Kintu prabhor yaḥ priya eva tasya. Because He is carrying an important message, therefore he is very confidential. And because he is very confidential servitor, he is not different from Him. Suppose if I ask somebody to do something very confidential, so that means he is identical with me, because otherwise, how can I trust?

Therefore it is clear. Not like Māyāvādīs that, "Because I have been deputed by Kṛṣṇa to carry some message," not that I have become. But I am equal, because the business is the same. Kṛṣṇa says, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66), and the spiritual master says the same thing, sarva-dharmān parityajya: "Just surrender to Kṛṣṇa." Therefore, message being the same, they are identical. The persons are identical. But not identical in the Māyāvādī sense, that he has become now God. No. He is not God, but he is the most confidential servant of God. This is Vaiṣṇava philosophy.

Because spiritual master has to be accepted sākṣād-dhari, directly the Supreme Personality of Godhead, therefore the so-called spiritual master should not be puffed up, that "Now I have become God." This is Māyāvāda. This is rascaldom. He is most confidential servant of God, Kṛṣṇa. Therefore the disciple accepts him as good as God. Therefore the conclusion is simultaneously one and different. Acintya-bhedābheda. Bheda, different, means the spiritual master is a confidential servant, or the servant God. To the disciple he is servant God. Just like in Christian philosophy, they say, "The father and the son, the same." Is it not?

Devotee: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So similarly, here the father and son, or the spiritual master and God, they are same, but at the same time not same. It is simultaneous. This is called acintya-bhedābheda-tattva, simultaneously one and different. I think the Christian philosophy is like that. Son . . . Christ, son, and God, Holy Ghost—they are simultaneously one and different? Is that? So that is the position. Sākṣād-dharitvena samasta-śāstrair uktas tathā bhāvyata eva sadbhiḥ, kintu prabhor yaḥ priya eva tasya.

So we can interpret . . . when the Christian people say that . . . just like they say "only son." So we can interpret . . . of course, we are not going to interpret. We can take it that anyone who becomes confidential . . . just like father position. He has got many sons. One son who is very obedient, he says: "He is my only son, and others not sons." Does he not, father say, sometimes? "Actually he is my son." Sometimes father says like that. But that does not mean that he has got only one son. He has got many sons, but all of them are useless, worthless. He is only bona fide.

Similar statement is there by Tulasī dāsa. He says—Tulasī dāsa was some Hindi poet—that "The put, the son, and mut, the urine, they come through the same source." That's a fact. Put and mut. Put means son, and mut means urine. So when we beget son, the same genital; when we pass urine, the same genital. Son, he has . . . you . . . liquid. Tulasī dāsa says—it is very nice—that "Put and mut, they are coming from the same source.

So a put, if he is devotee of the Lord, then he is put. If he is not, then he is mut." (laughter) "Then he is mut." If the son . . . after begetting son, if the son does not become devotee, then he is as good as mut, I pass urine. Mut son, he says, because he's less than mut. Because mut, I pass urine. The obnoxious thing, that is gone away. But it is present. (laughter) It is present. (chuckles) The bad smell is constantly giving me trouble. Mut-karma's there. So these are very instructive.

So why this is? Anyone . . . everyone is son of God, but one who is acting as real son of God, he is praised, "He is my only son." This idea. Not that God is limited to produce only one son. Why? God has unlimited sons. He is unlimited. If an ordinary man can beget hundreds of sons, just like Dhṛtarāṣṭra . . . there are many instances . . . Ṛṣabhadeva. So why God should be restricted to beget only one son? I asked this question in church to some Christian priest, that "God is limited or unlimited?" He said, "Unlimited." "Then why you are restricting, limited one son?"

He could not answer. You know that? "Why you are limiting? He is unlimited. The ordinary person can beget hundreds of sons. Why God, unlimited, He should be restricted to one son?" The interpretation should be . . . anyway, that Tulasī dāsa says, that if he is devotee, then he is son. Otherwise it is urine. The God has begotten many sons. Just like . . . the only worthy son was Jesus Christ—you can interpret it like that—because he was giving service to the Lord, to the father. He brought the message of father.

So our interpretation is like that, not that God has got only one son, but he is the only worthy son. All are mut. Anyone who is not God conscious, Kṛṣṇa conscious, mut . . . (indistinct)

Then? Read the purport.

Pradyumna: "To achieve success in life, one should follow the example of Lord Brahmā, the first living creature in the beginning of creation. After being initiated by the Supreme Lord to execute tapasya, he was fixed in his determination to do it."

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Pradyumna: "And although he could not find anyone besides himself, he could rightly understand that the sound was transmitted by the Lord Himself. Brahmā was the only living being at that time, because there was no other creation. And none could be found there except himself. In the beginning of the First Canto, First Chapter, first verse of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (SB 1.1.1), it is already mentioned that Brahmā was initiated by the Lord from within. The Lord is within every living entity as the Supersoul, and he initiated Brahmā because Brahmā was willing to receive the initiation. The Lord can similarly initiate everyone who is inclined to have it.

"As already stated, Brahmā is the original spiritual master for the universe. And since he was initiated by the Lord Himself, the message of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is coming down by disciplic succession. And in order to receive the real message of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, one should approach the current link or spiritual master in the chain of disciplic succession. After being initiated by the proper spiritual master in that chain of succession, one should engage himself in discharge of tapasya in the execution of devotional service. One should not, however, think himself on the level of Brahmā, to be initiated directly from the Lord by the Lord from inside, because in the present age no one can be accepted to be as pure as Brahmā. The post of Brahmā, to officiate in the creation of the universe, is offered to the most pure living being. And unless one is so qualified . . ."

Prabhupāda: Yes. This is important. Who becomes Brahmā? A very exalted living being, pure, he is entrusted that, "You become Brahmā." Brahmā is also living being, but because he is very pure . . . this Brahmā post is sometimes not available, because there is no such pure living being. So Kṛṣṇa becomes Himself Brahmā sometimes.

Go on.

Pradyumna: "The post of Brahmā, to officiate in the creation of the universe, is offered to the most pure living being. And unless one is so qualified, one cannot expect to be treated like Brahmā directly. But one can have the same facility through unalloyed devotees of the Lord and scriptural instructions as revealed in the Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam especially, and also the bona fide spiritual master available to the sincere soul. The Lord Himself appears as the spiritual master, and the person who is sincere in heart serves the Lord. Therefore the bona fide spiritual master who happens to meet the sincere devotee should be accepted as the most confidential and beloved representative of the Lord. If a person is posted under the guidance of such a bona fide spiritual master, it may be accepted without any doubt that the desiring person has achieved the grace of the Lord."

Devotee: All glories to you, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. (devotees offer obeisances) There is kīrtana? No. No? (kīrtana) (end)