740806 - Lecture BG 04.14 - Vrndavana

Lectures by Date, 1974

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

740806BG-VRNDAVAN - August 06, 1974 - 33:10 Minutes

Pradyumna: (leads chanting of verse, etc.) (devotees repeat)

na māṁ karmāṇi limpanti

na me karma-phale spṛhā

iti māṁ yo 'bhijānāti

karmabhir na sa badhyate

(BG 4.14)

(break)

Prabhupāda:

. . . na me karma-phale spṛhā

iti māṁ yo 'bhijānāti

karmabhir na sa badhyate

(BG 4.14)

So in another place Kṛṣṇa says, janma karma me divyaṁ yo jānāti tattvataḥ (BG 4.9). Karma, every living entity is bound up by the resultant action of his own karma. But Kṛṣṇa is not like that. The . . . in the English constitutional law it is said that, "The King can no . . . king can do no wrong." King can order punishment for the criminal, but the king is never criminal. King cannot be punished. Your President Nixon is fighting on this point. Although people wants to impeach him, he's fighting on this point that, "I am not wrong." Actually, that much facilities must be given to the head executive. If he becomes under the laws, then his position is not exalted. The . . . that is the principle of accepting in the highest order of life.

So in the material condition, that is not applicable perfectly, but so far spiritual condition is concerned, God must be given full freedom; otherwise, there is no meaning of God. If God is also under the, under your laws . . . sometimes, "Why God has done like this?" They inquire like that. This question sometimes put. "Why God has put us into this condition?" These are foolish question. But the real conception of God is that He is free to do anything, whatever He likes. You cannot say: "Why God can . . . will . . . God will do this, will do not that." No. That is not the conception of God.

So here Kṛṣṇa says that na me karma-phale spṛhā. He is ātmārāma. Ātmārāma. Ātmārāma means He is fully satisfied in Himself. And He can create so many things. He is creator. So there is no question of desiring something. He can do anything, whatever He likes. But . . . that will be explained. He sets example. Just like in the previous verse, we have already discussed:

cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭaṁ

guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ

tasya kartāram api māṁ

viddhy akartāram avyayam

(BG 4.13)

Although He has set up the principle of varṇāśrama-dharma, but He's not within the varṇāśrama-dharma. Just like Kṛṣṇa takes the incarnation of becoming a pig, but that does not mean He is a pig. Ordinary conception of pig we have got. Or He takes the incarnation of a fish; but that does not mean He's ordinary fish. So similarly, He comes here as a human being, as son of Nanda Mahārāja, or husband of Rukmiṇī, or son of Vasudeva, but actually, He is nobody's son. He is everybody's father. He is the origin. Nobody can be cause of His creation. This idea should be understood. And if anyone understands that Kṛṣṇa, or God, is not under any rules and regulation and laws of this material world, then he understands Kṛṣṇa perfectly.

Just like Kṛṣṇa performed the rāsa dance. At the midnight many young girls came by hearing His flute, and He danced with them. This is, from Vedic standard, it is not very moral, because at dead of night, with others' wives or sisters or daughters, to dance—Kṛṣṇa was young—that is not very good example from Vedic principle. But He did it. So, so . . . and that is the highest understanding of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Gopī-rasāmṛtābdhi-laharī-kallola-magnau muhuḥ. All the Gosvāmīs, even Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu . . . He was a sannyāsī. He was very strict about woman. No woman could come near Caitanya Mahāprabhu, as a sannyāsī. But Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu recommended, ramyā kācid upāsanā vraja-vadhū-vargeṇa yā kalpitā (Caitanya-manjusa) "There is no better method of worshiping Kṛṣṇa than the method conceived by the gopīs."

And the Gosvāmīs also . . . Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī . . . vande śrīla-rūpa-sanātanau raghu-yugau śrī-jīva-gopālakau. The six Gosvāmīs, they gave up their material opulence, tyaktvā tūrṇam aśeṣa-maṇḍala-pati-śreṇīṁ sadā tucchavat. They gave up their . . . they were ministers of the government, very exalted position. Their associates were most aristocratic persons. But he gave up everything. Tyaktvā tūrṇam aśeṣa-maṇḍala-pati-śreṇīm. Maṇḍala-pati means leaders of the society, big, big men, zamindars, or government officers. So he gave up, tucchavat, considering them most insignificant. Tyaktvā tūrṇam aśeṣa-maṇḍala-pati-śreṇīṁ sadā tucchavat bhūtvā dīna-gaṇeśakau karuṇayā. They have . . . gave up their opulent family. He was also belonging to the aristocratic family; He gave up, and became a mendicant, beggar, madhukārī. They were asking one cāpāṭi from one gṛhastha. They would not accept three or four or . . . cāpāṭis at a place. Only half, one, like that. All in this way. So, so much in the renounced order of life. But they lived—how? Gopī-bhāva-rasāmṛtābdhi-laharī-kallola-magnau muhuḥ. They were always thinking of the gopīs' dealing with Kṛṣṇa.

So from this standpoint of view, the . . . the dealings of the gopīs with Kṛṣṇa, that is not these ordinary human dealing. That is all spiritual. Without understanding the spiritual platform of Kṛṣṇa and the gopīs . . . nobody try to understand it. Then they will be misled. So . . . therefore Kṛṣṇa says people may not be misled. Sometimes He's seen to be acting against the social laws. Therefore Kṛṣṇa warns, na māṁ karmāṇi limpanti (BG 4.14): "These social, political or religious laws do not apply to Me." Na māṁ karmāṇi limpanti.

This question was raised by Parīkṣit Mahārāja when Śukadeva Gosvāmī described the rāsa-līlā. So that . . . "Kṛṣṇa appeared on this material world," dharma-saṁsthāpanārthāya, paritrāṇāya sādhūnām (BG 4.8), dharma-saṁsthāpanārthāya. "So why He violated these rules of dharma?" Violation because, according to Vedic civilization, nobody can mix with other's wife or other woman. Even in moral principle, as Cāṇakya Paṇḍita said, mātṛvat para-dāreṣu: "All women should be treated just like mother." Not like the present society. Formerly, every woman should be addressed as Mother, Mātājī. And now they have invented "Bahinjī." No. Woman should be addressed as Mother. Mātṛvat para-dāreṣu.

So this question was put forward by Parīkṣit Mahārāja before Śukadeva Gosvāmī, "How Kṛṣṇa danced with others' wives and sisters, like that?" This is against principle of dharma. So just to clear the position of Kṛṣṇa . . . Kṛṣṇa is personally said . . . personally saying also, and this is confirmed by Śukadeva Gosvāmī, that tejīyasāṁ na doṣāya (SB 10.33.29). Kṛṣṇa cannot be polluted. Because by chanting Kṛṣṇa's name one becomes purified, how Kṛṣṇa can be polluted? If, by chanting . . . ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam . . . paraṁ vijayate kṛṣṇa . . . śrī-kṛṣṇa-saṅkīrtanam (CC Antya 20.12). And in another place, kīrtanād eva kṛṣṇasya mukta-saṅgaḥ paraṁ vrajet (SB 12.3.51). Simply by chanting the holy name of Kṛṣṇa, one becomes freed from all sinful activities. Kīrtanād eva kṛṣṇasya. Especially. Kīrtanād eva kṛṣṇasya mukta-saṅgaḥ. He becomes free from all contamination.

In material world we are simply becoming contaminated. Therefore karmāṇi limpanti. In the . . . we are becoming entangled by the reaction of our karma. Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa jantur deha upapattaye (SB 3.31.1). By karma, the jantu, means living entity, is getting different types of body one after another, one after another. In this way he's wandering 8,400,000 forms of body. This is karma. Therefore to the living entities, as we are, we are bound up by the laws of karma. But Kṛṣṇa is not like that. Na māṁ karmāṇi limpanti. This is to be understood. Unless we understand Kṛṣṇa that He is not bound up by the material laws, then we do not understand Kṛṣṇa. And if anyone understands it perfectly, then what is the result? The result, iti māṁ yo 'bhijānāti karmabhir na sa badhyate (BG 4.14). If one understands clearly that Kṛṣṇa is not under any material laws, then he also becomes not bound up by any material laws. Simply by knowing it. Karmāṇi nirdahati ca bhakti-bhājām.

In the Brahma-sūtra it is said . . . Brahma-saṁhitā: yas tv indra-gopam athavendram aho sva-karma . . . Indra, indra-gopa, and the King Indra, both are named as indra. Yas tu indra-gopam atha mahā-indra sva-karma-phala-bhuk. Everyone is enjoying the resultant action of his karma. Yas tv indra-gopam athavendram aho sva-karma-bandhānurūpa-phala-bhājanam ātanoti (Bs. 5.54). Everyone is enjoying or suffering the resultant action of his karma. Sva-karma-phala-bhuk. But karmāṇi nirdahati kintu ca bhakti-bhājām (Bs. 5.54). But one who is in the devotional service, although he has to suffer the resultant action of his past karma, but that is reduced to the minimum—karmāṇi nirdahati—or practically no. For whom? Bhakti-bhājām, those who are devotees, who are devotees.

So who can understand Kṛṣṇa is not under the laws of any material nature? Only the bhaktas. Bhaktas can understand. Who can understand Kṛṣṇa? Bhaktyā mām abhijānāti (BG 18.55). Only the bhaktas can understand Him. Therefore Bhagavad-gītā was spoken to Arjuna, bhakto 'si, "You are My devotee." So Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa's name, Kṛṣṇa's form, Kṛṣṇa's attributes, Kṛṣṇa's pastimes, they can be understood by the bhaktas only, not the nondevotees. Nondevotees cannot understand that na māṁ karmāṇi . . . this process, that Kṛṣṇa is not bound up by any material laws. The example is given by Śukadeva Gosvāmī to Mahārāja Parīkṣit: tejīyasāṁ na doṣāya (SB 10.33.29). Tejīyasām. Just like the sun. The sun is evaporating the urine from the street. But that does not mean sun is infected. Although sun is evaporating the urine, the stool, or any contaminated place . . . rather, he is, sun is sterilizing that process. This is practical. If sunshine is anywhere, even the most contaminated place, the sun does not become contaminated, but the place becomes purified. Is it not a fact?

Similarly, Kṛṣṇa . . . Kṛṣṇa was very beautiful. So gopīs became attracted with Kṛṣṇa. As it is natural, a young boy is attracted with young woman or young girl is attracted . . . that is natural. Yuvatīnāṁ yathā yūvaḥ. (Vijñāpti-pañcaka) It is natural. So the gopīs, they were attracted by Kṛṣṇa's beauty. And therefore they went to Kṛṣṇa. But the result was that the gopīs became purified; Kṛṣṇa remained uncontaminated. This is understanding of Kṛṣṇa. Some way or other, if one reaches Kṛṣṇa, he becomes . . . kamāt krodhād bhayāt. Either by lusty desire or by anger or bhayāt . . . just like Kaṁsa. Kaṁsa was always thinking of Kṛṣṇa that, "Kṛṣṇa is coming. So how shall I kill Him? How shall I kill Him?" Bhayāt, out of fear. So he also got salvation. Kṛṣṇa killed him; he got salvation. So gopīs approached Kṛṣṇa out of lusty desire, but they became purified. Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu says, ramyā kācid upāsanā vraja-vadhū-vargeṇa yā kalpitā. So even one approaches Kṛṣṇa with impurity, he becomes purified.

Now, Kṛṣṇa does not become impure. Don't think like that. Therefore Kṛṣṇa said:

kṣipraṁ bhavati dharmātmā

śaśvac-chāntiṁ nigacchati

kaunteya pratijānīhi

na me bhaktaḥ praṇaśyati

(BG 9.31)

So somehow or other, approach Kṛṣṇa. Then your life is perfect. Kṛṣṇa does not become imperfect. Kṛṣṇa is always . . . in the Īśopaniṣad: apāpa-viddham (ISO 8). Description of God is there, apāpa-viddham, that Kṛṣṇa, or the Lord, is never contaminated by any so-called . . . for Him, there is nothing sinful. This is understanding of Kṛṣṇa. Na māṁ karmāṇi limpanti (BG 4.14). Why He should be? Therefore, if anyone understands, studies Kṛṣṇa perfectly, about His activities, about His birth, about His name, about His form, anything . . . He has got everything like us. He has got His form. He has got His activities. He has got His attributes. Everything is there. But they're all transcendental. Therefore His name is sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ. Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ (Bs. 5.1). His vigraha is sac-cid-ānanda. His vigraha is not like us.

The Māyāvādīs, they mistake. Therefore they imitate Kṛṣṇa. The rascal Māyāvādī, they imitate Kṛṣṇa. "I am Kṛṣṇa. I can play flute like Him. I become Kṛṣṇa, by playing flute." This is all rascaldom. Kṛṣṇa's vigraha is different. You cannot imitate Kṛṣṇa. Even you imitate, that does not mean you become Kṛṣṇa. This is rascaldom. Kṛṣṇa is not . . . na māṁ karmāṇi limpanti. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says this janma karma me divyam (BG 4.9). That is all transcendental. Kṛṣṇa's body . . . just like sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha (Bs. 5.1). Kṛṣṇa's body is eternal. My body is not eternal, so how can I imitate Kṛṣṇa? Kṛṣṇa's body is eternal, sat. Kṛṣṇa's body is full of knowledge. And I am full of ignorance, my body. I do not know, if there is some disease in the finger. But . . . just like the other day, there was some trouble. Now automatically, the skin is being purified. So I do not know how it is being done. Therefore full of ignorance. But Kṛṣṇa is not like that. Sat cit. Cit means knowledge. He knows everything. Not only Himself, He knows everything. Vedāhaṁ samatītāni (BG 7.26). Kṛṣṇa says: "I know everything." In the Bhāgavatam it is said, janmādy asya anvayād itarataś ca artheṣu abhijñaḥ (SB 1.1.1). Kṛṣṇa knows everything. But I do not know. I do not know how many hairs are here. And still I am claiming I am Kṛṣṇa.

So do not compare Kṛṣṇa with any human body. No. That is great offense. To think of Kṛṣṇa as ordinary human being and as equal, or a human being is Kṛṣṇa, these are, two things are offensive. Aparādha. Māyāvādī haya kṛṣṇe aparādhī. That is the statement of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Māyāvādī, those who think that "Kṛṣṇa is like us," Māyāvādīs, they are aparādhī, they are offender to Kṛṣṇa. They are punishable. They are punishable, offender. Therefore we should rightly understand Kṛṣṇa. His activities we should not imitate. Kṛṣṇa's activities are worshipable. We cannot imitate Kṛṣṇa's activities. Janma karma me . . . His activities are transcendental. You cannot . . . how you can imitate? Can you imitate to lift a mountain as Kṛṣṇa did? You can imitate falsely Kṛṣṇa's rāsa-līlā. That is very easy. But can you imitate Kṛṣṇa to lift up the mountain? Then how you are Kṛṣṇa, equal with Kṛṣṇa? This is all rascaldom. Kṛṣṇa is sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha (Bs. 5.1), and you have got this rotten material body. Therefore cannot be compared with Kṛṣṇa. This rotten material body is subjected to the material laws. But Kṛṣṇa is not under the material laws. That is real understanding of Kṛṣṇa. Janma . . .

And if you really understand . . . that is stated here: iti māṁ yo 'bhijānāti. In this way if one understands Kṛṣṇa, karmabhir na sa badhyate, he does not become entangled with the karma. In another place it is also confirmed: janma karma me divyaṁ yo jānāti tattvataḥ. If one understands Kṛṣṇa's activities, Kṛṣṇa's birth and Kṛṣṇa's form, Kṛṣṇa's attributes, if one can understand tattvataḥ, in truth, not by mental speculation—in truth, as it is—then what happens? Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti (BG 4.9). He does not get any more material body after leaving this body.

So try to understand Kṛṣṇa on this principle, as Kṛṣṇa says. Don't imagine; don't speculate. Then your life will be perfect.

Thank you very much.

Devotees: Jaya! (break)

Devotee: . . . Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam there is one śloka which describes that Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira and his younger brothers all attained the spiritual world in the self-same body. Does this mean that they had their spiritual bodies while they were on the earth?

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is possible. They went to heaven, heavenly planet? No? No, where? Where it is?

Devotee: Bhāgavatam, they are . . . you described that they were going to the Kṛṣṇaloka planet.

Prabhupāda: Hmm. So that's all right. But not this body. With their spiritual body. Yes.

Brahmānanda: In your lecture you quoted Cāṇakya Paṇḍita that a man must see every woman other than his own wife as mother. How should a woman see other men?

Prabhupāda: As son. (laughter)

Brahmānanda: That was my idea.

Prabhupāda: Yes. If I see woman as mother, she must see me as son. That's all. That is the system. The brahmacārī, the sannyāsīs go to beg alms from door to door, "Mother, give me some bhikṣā, alms." And it is the duty of the gṛhastha to treat brahmacārī and sannyāsī as their son. As they maintain their children with food, shelter, cloth, similarly the brahmacārīs and sannyāsīs, they are dependent on the society. They should be treated as the sons of the society. And they must supply their necessities, bare necessities. A sannyāsī, brahmacārī, does not want more than what they need. They should not collect more than what they need. Bhikṣā nirvāhana (CC Adi 7.46). Not collect more and enjoy at others' cost. No. That is not the business of sannyāsī. They can collect so much as they need, that's all.

Devotee: When you address a woman, do you . . .

Prabhupāda: Hmm?

Devotee: When you address a woman do you use the word "Mātājī"? Is that the right, proper word for her?

Prabhupāda: Mātājī. Yes, very good. "Mother." All right. Chant. (end)