710712 - Lecture - Los Angeles

Lectures by Date, 1971

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

710712LE-LOS_ANGELES - July 12, 1971 - 15:51 Minutes

Prabhupāda: Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura said that kṛṣṇera saṁsāra kara chāḍi' anācāra. He advised that everyone can be engaged in family life or worldly life. Simply one has to give up bad habits. That's all. It is not negation. It is positive understanding. Simply negativating the material existence, like void philosophy or impersonal philosophy, is no good. We must have a positive platform. Without positive platform, simply giving up something bad is no good. If I have no destination, positive destination, simply by giving up the present condition has no value.

The Māyāvāda philosophy . . . Māyāvāda philosophy, there are two kinds of Māyāvāda philosophy. One kinds of . . . one kind of Māyāvāda philosophy is called voidism, "Void is the origin of everything," and another Māyāvāda philosophy is impersonalist. The Buddhist philosophy, they advocate voidism, that this material existence is combination of matter, and if we dismantle the matter then again it becomes void.

Just like a house, construction of house, it is combination of matter. You bring some iron, bring some wood, bring some stone, bring some cement and bricks, some earth, so many things you bring together, and it is a big house. But when you separate these bricks, this iron, the wood and the cement and everything, so it becomes void.

This philosophy is advocated by the voidists. Their theory is that the material miseries are due to combination of this matter. Our body is certainly combination of matter: earth, water, fire, air, ether and, still subtler, mind, intelligence, ego. These are all material things. So they have, somehow or other, they have combined. The voidist says that separate them, so there will be no more feeling of happiness or distress.

The other philosopher, impersonalist, they say that brahma satyaṁ jagan mithyā: this material combination is false. Behind this material combination there is spirit. That is also a fact, because matter grows on the platform of spirit. Just like this child is growing. Why? Because the spirit soul is there. If a dead child is born it will not grow; it will stop growing. If you keep a dead child in a very nice place by chemical preservative, it will not grow, because the spirit is not there. Therefore it is a proof that matter grows on the basis of spirit.

But the impersonalists say that spirit is impersonal—there is no form, it is formless. But we say no. The spirit is fact, and the spirit has form. If the spirit has no form, then how the matter grows formally? Just like your body has got form; therefore your shirt and coat takes a form. If your body is round, the coat or shirt is round. If your body has got hands and legs, then the coat has also hands and legs. So this external material body is compared with shirt and coat. So unless the original spiritual body is there, how the body grows?

So the impersonalist cannot answer this. Because in the Bhagavad-gītā it is plainly explained:

vāsāṁsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya

navāni vastrāṇi yatā aparāṇi

(BG 2.22)

Just like we give up our old dress and accept a new dress, similarly this body, when it is old enough, we give it up and accept another body, just like this child has accepted. We are also child, then body changes, and when it is too much old, then the spirit soul gives it up, accepts another.

So the spirit soul has form, but it is so small that this materialist cannot estimate what is the length and breadth. That is material science. They can estimate via media. They cannot estimate the smallest, and they cannot estimate the greatest. They cannot make any measurement of the outer space, nor they can make any measurement of the minute particles of spirit soul.

But there is measurement. That is stated in Vedic literature, that one ten-thousandth portion of upper tip of your hair is the measurement of the soul. But they have no instrument, they cannot measure. Therefore out of frustration they say it is formless. But there is form. Just like they say that a point has no length and breadth. That is nonsense. Point has length and breadth, but you have no measuring instrument. That's all. Similarly, the impersonalist, they cannot measure the great and the small.

The difference is He is great, we are small. He is infinite, and we are infinitesimal. Otherwise, qualitatively we are one. Just like a drop of seawater and the vast mass of seawater, they are qualitatively one. But quantitatively there is no comparison between the vast mass of seawater and the drop of seawater.

So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness process is that we accept our position as drop in comparison with the infinite. We are small. God is great and you are small. So our position is to serve the great. That is natural. Anywhere you find the smaller is serving the greater. And because God is great, He is greater than anything else, asamaurdhva. There is nothing greater than God or nothing equal to God. Therefore everyone is smaller than God, and his constitutional position is to serve God. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is our constitutional position.

So we are negativating the false existence, but we are trying to enter into the real existence. Now when I see the boys and girls with their children are dancing in Hare Kṛṣṇa, I am so glad to see how they are entering into the reality—real life. And when you come to the reality, when you are not in the false thing, then we become healthy.

To become healthy . . . what is the meaning of healthy? When you are free from diseased condition. It does not mean that because you are diseased, therefore you have got form, and when you will be free from disease you will be formless. This is nonsense. Why shall I be formless? I shall keep my form, but in healthy condition. That is healthy life. To become formless is not . . . that is negation; that is a opposite idea. "Because I have got this form, I am feeling pains and pleasure—so let me make it formless," this is a materialistic, opposite idea. This is not fact. The fact is that you keep your form, but be in healthy life.

muktir hitvānyathā-rūpaṁ

svarūpeṇa vyavasthitiḥ

(SB 2.10.6)

This is called mukti, liberation.

So everyone is acting under the spell of māyā. Everyone is dancing as māyā is impelling. Now we have to dance as Kṛṣṇa is impelling. That's all. The dancing will continue. Somebody is dancing in the ballroom and somebody is dancing in this temple, but there is vast difference of this dancing. Vast difference. That is false platform; this is real platform.

So this is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. So we are inviting everyone to come and dance with us and feel transcendental pleasure. That is our program. It is not very difficult. The child can dance also. They can also clap. It is so nice. But that dancing is real dancing. And by that dancing you make advancement in your spiritual life.

So this Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura's statement, kṛṣṇera saṁsāra kara chāḍi' anācāra. Anācāra means give up your bad habits. We are also eating. We are also sleeping. We have got also children. We have got family. But there is no bad habits, that is the difference—all spiritual. So this is the life of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So anyone who takes to it, he becomes happy perpetually, eternally. And he is seeking after eternal happiness, and here is the program. We are inviting everyone. Thank you. (end)