740220 - Lecture BG 07.05 - Bombay

Lectures by Date, 1974

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

740220BG-BOMBAY - February 20, 1974 - 24:30 Minutes

(loud Indian music in background throughout)

Pradyumna: Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. (Prabhupāda and devotees repeat) (leads chanting of verse, etc.)

apareyam itas tv anyāṁ

prakṛtiṁ viddhi me parām

jīva-bhūtāṁ mahā-bāho

yayedaṁ dhāryate jagat

(BG 7.5)

(leads chanting of synonyms) (break)

Translation: "Besides this inferior nature, O mighty-armed Arjuna, there is a superior energy of Mine, which are all living entities who are struggling with material nature and are sustaining the universe."

Prabhupāda:

apareyam itas tv anyāṁ

prakṛtiṁ viddhi me parām

jīva-bhūtāṁ mahā-bāho

yayedaṁ dhāryate jagat

(BG 7.5)

So last night we discussed about the material energy and came to the conclusion that life is not made out of matter. Matter is product of living force or living entity. (music becomes louder) Hmm. Today it will be little disturbing. Anyway, we shall explain. (aside) No. That's all right. Let them go with their festival. No need.

Aparā and parā. Aparā means inferior, or material, and parā means superior, or spiritual. The spiritual force behind is moving the material world. Yayedaṁ dhāryate jagat. Jagat means gacchati iti jagat, which is moving or going forward. Everything is moving. All these planets are moving. Your earthly planet is also moving—within twenty-four hours covering 25,000 miles, day and night. The whole material planet, earthly planets, you have 25,000 miles, and this is rotating. Similarly, every planet is rotating. The sun is also rotating. Yasyājñayā bhramati sambhṛta-kāla-cakraḥ (Bs. 5.52). The sun is also having a duration of life, and it will rotate, then it will be finished. Everything in the material world, it has got a date of birth, it lives for some time, it grows or changes the body and produces some by-products, then dwindles and then vanishes. This is called ṣaḍ-vikāra, six kind of changes of anything material. That is called jagat. Gacchati. But there is a moving force. Just like the motorcar is going, gacchati. But the motorcar is not moving without any driver. There is a machine, very first class machine, Rolls-Royce car, Cadillac car, good machine, but the machine is useless unless there is a driver. The aeroplane is moving, but without the pilot it cannot move. Therefore material elements, however, I mean to say, wonderful it may be, it has no value without the spirit soul. That is the explanation here. Apareyam.

Kṛṣṇa has explained the material elements: bhūmir āpo 'nalo vāyuḥ khaṁ mano buddhir eva ca (BG 7.4). But these material elements cannot work independently. It must be added with the superior energy, or the living energy, jīva-bhūtāṁ mahā-bāho yayedaṁ dhāryate jagat. This Bombay city is important because there are so many living entities. Otherwise, where there are no living entities . . . even in Bombay, there are some open land. What is the value? There is no value. Therefore the conclusion should be that material elements may be wonderful, but it has no value without the touch of living entities. Modern scientists, they cannot understand that there is living, spiritual energy behind this material energy, therefore it is moving. They are . . . just like a child cannot understand that the motorcar or the aeroplane is moving because there is driver and the pilot. Foolish children may think, "Oh, how the motorcar is going on?" The motorcar is not going on independently. That the child does not know. Therefore, those who have no information of the spiritual energy behind the material energy, they are children, foolish children. Mūḍha. They have been described as mūḍha.

na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ

prapadyante narādhamāḥ

māyayāpahṛta-jñānā

āsuraṁ bhāvam āśritāḥ

(BG 7.15)

Therefore foolish persons who cannot understand that behind this gigantic material energy there is the spiritual energy, supreme spiritual energy, Kṛṣṇa . . . they have no inform . . .

Therefore in the previous verse we have discussed:

manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu

kaścid yatati siddhaye

yatatām api siddhānāṁ

kaścin vetti māṁ tattvataḥ

(BG 7.3)

Ordinary persons, they cannot understand that behind this gigantic, wonderful material energy there is the supreme energy, spiritual energy, Kṛṣṇa. They cannot understand, just like the child cannot understand that the motorcar is not moving independently, but there is a driver. These foolish, materialistic persons, they cannot understand. Mām ebhyaḥ param avyayam (BG 7.13). They cannot understand. Tribhir guṇamayair bhāvaiḥ. They are bewildered by the three modes of material nature, finding out. Big, big scientists, big, big philosopher, big, big worker, they are simply studying the material energy, but they have no information of the spiritual energy.

Here, from the Bhagavad-gītā, you can understand that this material energy is inferior, apareyam. Apareyam. You cannot produce living force by combination of material energy. That is not possible. But they are . . . because these foolish persons, they are missing the spiritual energy, they are thinking, "By chemical reaction or by combination of matter, some living force is coming out." Just like if you mix acid and alkaline, there is some reaction and there is some movement. They are thinking like that. No. It is not that. The material energy is being pushed forward by the spiritual energy. Jīva-bhūtā mahā-bāho. Jīva, living force. Jīva-bhūtāṁ mahā-bāho. And because the spiritual force is there, the material world is working. This is the conclusion. Not that the material force is working independently. Apareyam itas tu anyām. Anya means it is different. It is not material energy. Anyām, completely. Prakṛti. But it is prakṛti, not puruṣa. Puruṣa means the worker. Puruṣa is Kṛṣṇa. Puruṣa is Kṛṣṇa. As it will be admitted by Arjuna after hearing Bhagavad-gītā, puruṣaṁ śāśvatam. Paraṁ brahma paraṁ dhāma pavitraṁ paramaṁ bhavān, puruṣam (BG 10.12). "You are puruṣa." Puruṣa means enjoyer, and prakṛti means enjoyed. So here jīva, the living entities, they have been described as prakṛti, not as puruṣa. The Māyāvādī philosopher, they think that living entity is puruṣa, the Supreme, but that is . . . that is not the fact. They are prakṛti. Prakṛti means subordinate. Energy acts under the direction of the puruṣa. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27). Just like a machine is made by a person, and the machine is working. That machine is working, that is prakṛti, but who has made the machine or pushing on the machine, that is puruṣa.

So prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ. When you set up the machine . . . just like electricity: you set up, machine will work. But the setter, or who first sets the machine, pushes on the machine, that is a puruṣa. Similarly, the whole material world is working very nicely, wonderfully, but behind that machine, behind that working, there is Kṛṣṇa. Mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram (BG 9.10). Just like electric powerhouse. You see the machine is going on—kat-kat-kat-kat-kat-kat, it is going on—but there is a supervising engineer. He's looking that whether the machine is rightly going on, if there is any defect. If there is oil required, he's putting some oil or something else. So the supervisor is the engineer.

Similarly the whole machine of this material world . . . or this material . . . you do not try to study the whole material world, but you study your own machine, this body. This body is also machine. Yantrārūḍhāni māyayā.

īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ

hṛd-deśe 'rjuna tiṣṭhati

bhrāmayan sarva-bhūtāni

yantrārūḍhāni māyayā

(BG 18.61)

This is a yantra, this body. Just like somebody seats you . . . just like a child is seated on the car, and the car is moving. There are many example. Similarly, this body is given by material energy. Yantrārūḍhāni māyayā. This body is given by māyā, but within the body . . . dehino 'smin yathā dehe (BG 2.13). Dehī, within the body, the living spirit, or living soul, is sitting there. And because we are under the control of māyā, we wanted it, such a . . . such a body, so Kṛṣṇa has given. Anumantā. He has given order to māyā that, "This living entity wants to enjoy this material world under certain body. So you give him this body." Just like a pig: he wanted to eat everything and anything, without any discrimination. So, by the order of the Supreme, anumantā, upadraṣṭā, He orders to the māyā that, "You give him a body, a vehicle, a machine of pig body, so that he can very nicely eat stool."

So this is karma, karma-vāda, that I want to possess a certain type of machine, or body, and Kṛṣṇa, Īśvara, is within everyone's heart. He understands, "He's persistent to get this machine. All right, you get this machine." This is called janmada . . . tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). In this way, we are desiring something in this life, and the next life is being prepared. And that next life or this life, it is just like machine. It is made by the material nature under the order . . .

mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ

sūyate sa-carācaram

hetunānena kaunteya

jagad viparivartate

(BG 9.10)

This is the fact.

So Kṛṣṇa is the original puruṣa. Prakṛti, the material energy is also prakṛti, subordinate to Kṛṣṇa, and the spiritual energy, the living entity, they are also prakṛti, but they are superior prakṛti. Inferior, not . . . inferior matter. Just like we are handling matter, we are getting matter. We are getting cement, we are getting bricks, we are getting iron and combining them, and making a very, very high skyscraper building. So the material energy is also Kṛṣṇa's, and the spiritual energy, the living entity, that is also Kṛṣṇa's energy. So . . . but they are working for satisfying their senses. Therefore superior, jīva-bhūtāṁ yayedaṁ dhāryate . . . they are handling the material energy. The same living entity, when he understands his constitutional position that, "I am part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa," mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūtaḥ (BG 15.7), then he'll work for Kṛṣṇa. Then the same energy spent for building skyscraper building will be utilized to build a nice temple for Kṛṣṇa.

This is proper utilization of energy. When the energy of Kṛṣṇa, the spiritual energy of Kṛṣṇa or the living entity, works for Kṛṣṇa, that is healthy condition. Just like part and parcel of my body, this finger: when this finger works for me . . . I want the finger, "Come here. Work some here." But if the finger is not in healthy condition—it is painful, it cannot work—that is not normal condition. The normal condition is the finger is to work for my body. Similarly, we, being part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa, when we are engaged in Kṛṣṇa's service, that is our normal condition, our healthy life. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says that, "These foolish creatures, mūḍhāḥ, who are thinking that 'We shall work for sense gratification,' they are mūḍhas." Na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ prapadyante narādhamāḥ (BG 7.15). The animals cannot understand this constitutional position of the living entity. Because this material world means all the living entities, they have come here for satisfying their senses. And in different grades of life they are satisfying their senses. Either as Brahmā or the worm in the stool, they are satisfying their senses, different senses. That is material life. And when one understands that, "I am part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. My duty is to serve Kṛṣṇa," that is normal life. That is actually spiritual life. Sevonmukhe hi jihvādau svayam eva sphuraty adaḥ (Brs. 1.2.234). When we forget to serve Kṛṣṇa, that is material life. And when we serve Kṛṣṇa with love and affection, understanding that we are very intimately related, part and parcel, that is spiritual life.

This is the difference between material life and spiritual life. When one works for his own sense gratification, that is material life. And when works for Kṛṣṇa's satisfaction, that is spiritual life. That is spiritual life. It is very easy to understand. We are working, we are servant of somebody. All these people who have gathered here, nobody can claim that, "I am not servant." Everyone is servant—servant of the society, servant of the family, servant of the country, servant of dog, servant of cat. Everyone is servant. That is misplacement. But actually he is servant of Kṛṣṇa. When he forgets that he is servant of Kṛṣṇa, he becomes servant of so many māyā. But when he understands that, "I am servant of Kṛṣṇa and, becoming servant of Kṛṣṇa, I can become servant of others also," that is called Kṛṣṇa consciousness. This is the movement of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Everyone is a servant, but he is serving wrongly. His service is misplaced. We are simply educating people that, "Your service being misplaced, therefore you are not satisfied, neither your master is satisfied. Nobody's satisfied." For example . . . I have repeated this example many times. Even Mahatma Gandhi, the great servant of India. He served India so nicely; still, the master was not satisfied, and the master killed him. He wanted to serve his country, but the result was that his countrymen killed him.

So this service is frustration. If you go on serving the material world, you'll be frustrated, in this way or that way. But if you serve Kṛṣṇa, the same service applied to Kṛṣṇa, your life will be successful. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, that ser . . . you cannot avoid service, but service other than Kṛṣṇa will be frustration. But you serve Kṛṣṇa, you'll be satisfied, the Supreme Lord will be satisfied, and your life will be successful.

Thank you very much.

Devotees: Jaya Prabhupada. (end)