751202 - Lecture SB 07.06.01 - Vrndavana

Lectures by Date, 1975

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

Listen to a 'Nectar Drop' created from this Lecture

751202SB-VRNDAVAN - December 02, 1975 - 28:20 Minutes

Prabhupāda: . . .this table here.

kaumāra ācaret prājño

dharmān bhāgavatān iha

durlabhaṁ mānuṣaṁ janma

tad apy adhruvam arthadam

(SB 7.6.1)

Prahlāda Mahārāja, our predecessor guru. . . There are twelve mahājanas: Brahmā, Svayambhū, Nārada, Śambhu, Kapila, Kumāra, Manu, Prahlāda, Janaka, Bhīṣma, Bali, Vaiyāsaki, vayam. Mahājano yena gataḥ sa panthāḥ (CC Madhya 17.186). It is said in the Vedas that we have to follow the footprints of mahājana. Mahājana means great authorized devotees. And they have been described, twelve. Svayambhū means Lord Brahmā; Nārada, Nārada Muni the great saint; Śambhu, Lord Śiva. . . Svayambhūr nāradaḥ śambhuḥ kaumāra (SB 6.3.20)—the four Kumāras, sanat-kumāra ādi. Then Kapila, Kapiladeva, Devahūti's son. There are two Kapilas. So one is imitation; one is real. The real Kapila, He is known therefore Devahūti-putra, "the son of Devahūti." Devahūti was the daughter of Manu, Vaivasvata Manu. So in this way, kapilaḥ kumāro manuḥ. Then Prahlāda Mahārāja. Prahlāda Mahārāja was the son of Hiraṇyakaśipu, the famous demon.

So it is not that a demon's son will be demon. That is not. . . Kṛṣṇa consciousness can be achieved by anyone. Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā, māṁ hi pārtha vyapāśritya ye 'pi syuḥ pāpa-yonayaḥ (BG 9.32). Pāpa-yoni means to take birth in low class family or demonic family. So pāpa-yonayaḥ. Kṛṣṇa says openly, ye 'pi syuḥ pāpa-yonayaḥ. Anyone, it doesn't matter, even if he is born in a pāpa-yoni. . . Pāpa-yoni means generally less than the śūdras. According to our Vedic system, four classes, varṇāśrama, social and spiritual division. The social division is brāhmaṇa first, then kṣatriya, then vaiśya, then śūdra. This is social division, and there is a spiritual division: brahmacārī, gṛhastha, vānaprastha, sannyāsa. This is compulsory regulation for becoming human being. Without varṇāśrama institution there is no recognition of human being. Without being trained up in the varṇāśrama system there is no question of becoming human being. So actually it is not by birth as human being but by culture. Janmanā jāyate śūdraḥ saṁskārād bhaved dvijaḥ.

So Prahlāda Mahārāja is one of the twelve mahājanas. So he is speaking to his class friends. He was only five-years-old boy, and he took the opportunity of preaching bhāgavata-dharma whenever he got some opportunity. So at that time Prahlāda Mahārāja's father, Hiraṇyakaśipu, was a great demon. He would not allow Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So still, Prahlāda Mahārāja, although he was a boy, he used to take opportunity for preaching Kṛṣṇa consciousness among his friends. So in the tiffin hours, when the boys were left free to play, so Prahlāda Mahārāja used to call them, "My dear friends, sit down. Let us talk about Kṛṣṇa consciousness." So he is preaching Kṛṣṇa consciousness. He is saying to his friends, "My dear friends," kaumāra ācaret prājño dharmān bhāgavatān iha (SB 7.6.1). The friends were very much anxious to play, and Prahlāda Mahārāja says, "My dear friends, don't play. Sit down. Sit down." Why? "A very important subject matter, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, bhāgavata-dharma."

Dharma. . . there are many dharmas. Especially nowadays there is Hindu dharma, Mussulman dharma or Christian dharma or Sikh dharma, Ārya dharma, this dharma, hundreds and thousands. But in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, in the beginning of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, it is declared, dharmo projjhita-kaitavo atra, atra śrīmad-bhāgavate: "In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam all rascaldom, cheating type of religion, is kicked out." This is bhāgavata-dharma. Bhāgavata-dharma means bhagavān, bhāgavata-śabda. From bhagavān the word bhāgavata has come. So bhāgavata-dharma means relationship with God, Bhagavān. Therefore you will see in the Bhagavad-gītā, it is. . . Bhagavad-gītā means the dharma, or the religious principle, preached by the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore Bhagavad-gītā is bhāgavata-dharma. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. That is bhāgavata-dharma. So dharma means bhāgavata-dharma. Any other dharma which does not teach anything about God, that is cheating, kaitava.

Dharmārtha-kāma-mokṣa (SB 4.8.41). Dharmārtha. Dharma, the religious principles; artha means economic development; kāma means sense gratification; and mokṣa means liberation. So above mokṣa there is bhāgavata-dharma. When one has attained actually mokṣa. . . Mokṣa means mukti, liberation. What is that liberation? Mukti hitvā anyathā rūpaṁ svarūpena vyavasthitiḥ (SB 2.10.6). This is called mukti. Mukti does not mean that after mukti one is finished, one becomes nirākāra or another two hand grow. Not like that. It is a change of consciousness. That is called mukti. Real mukti means change of consciousness. Caitanya Mahāprabhu says, jīvera svarūpa haya nitya kṛṣṇa dāsa (CC Madhya 20.108-109). Actually, every living being is part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. Mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūtaḥ (BG 15.7). So when we forget this position—I do not become the servant of Kṛṣṇa, but I become the servant of my society, my family, my nation, my dog, my cat—this kind of dharma is not mukti. When one understands ahaṁ brahmāsmi, when one understands properly that "I am not this body. I do not belong to any particular nation, family or relationship," ahaṁ brahmāsmi, this is called brahma-bhūtaḥ.

So long we identify with particular society or nation or community, then we are not brahma-bhūtaḥ. This is called upādhi-bhūtaḥ, designation. "I am Hindu." This is designation. Just like gold. Gold cannot be designation. Gold is gold. Because gold is in the hand of a Hindu, it does not become Hindu gold. Or the gold is in the hand of a Muslim; therefore it is Muslim gold. No. Gold is gold. Similarly, dharma is dharma. There cannot be any Hindu religion or Muslim religion or Christian religion. There is no possibility. As soon as you designate, then it is not dharma; it is cheating. That is rejected in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Dharmaḥ projjhita-kaitavo atra (SB 1.1.2): "All cheating type of religious system is rejected." That is required. So that bhāgavata-dharma, Prahlāda Mahārāja says that kaumāra ācaret prājño dharmān bhāgavatan iha (SB 7.6.1). From the very beginning, kaumāra. Kaumāra means from five year to fifteenth year, or five year to tenth year, then kiśora, kaiśora. That is division.

So anyway, just like we send our children to school at the age of five years, every country. . . In India also that is the system. When a child is five year, four years some months, he is old, his education begins. So Prahlāda Mahārāja says from the very beginning of education the bhāgavata-dharma must be taught. This is kaumāra ācaret prājño, if one is intelligent. If one is ass or cow or animal, he cannot understand. Prājña: "One who has known." One who knows the value of life, he is called prājña. Prakṛṣṭa-rūpena jñā. Jñā means one who has knowledge. So he says, Prahlāda Mahārāja, that kaumāra ācaret prājño dharmān bhāgavatān iha (SB 7.6.1). There are dharmas according to country, society, but real dharma is bhāgavata-dharma. That is instructed in the Bhagavad-gītā also: sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). Who is mām? Kṛṣṇa, Bhagavān. You will see in the Bhagavad-gītā, śrī-bhagavān uvāca.

So Bhagavān says that "surrender unto Me." Opportunity. Kṛṣṇa comes to give the opportunity. He is canvassing. Not only in this universe, in every universe He is going. That is calculation is there. Out of four hundred crores of years, Kṛṣṇa appears in one universe. In this universe, when He comes, He appears in this land of Vṛndāvana. Therefore Vṛndāvana is so valuable. This is Kṛṣṇa's place. When He comes here. . . Just like when the governor goes to a city he has got his own resting house, similarly, when Kṛṣṇa comes to teach us dharma, dharmasya glānir bhava. . . Yadā yadā hi dharmasya glānir bhavati bhārata, tadātmānaṁ sṛjāmy aham (BG 4.7). So what is that dharma? This bhāgavata-dharma. When the rascals forget what is the relationship with Kṛṣṇa, what is the relationship with God, he becomes entangled in this material affair, māyā. He is harassed, harassed in this way, that he has to take birth one after another, beginning from Brahmā down to the small ant. There are so many varieties of life.

So according to karma, karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa (SB 3.31.1), by superior arrangement one has to accept a type of body. That we are forgetting. We are thinking that we shall remain free like this. That is not possible. Your every inch of activity is being recorded and at the end of life these things will be taken into account, karmaṇā. And by the superior arrangement you have to accept one type of body. Today you may become a prime minister, but your activities will be recorded, and tomorrow after your death you may have to accept the body of a dog. That is the law of nature.

prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni

guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ

ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā

kartāham iti manyate

(BG 3.27)

These rascals, they are thinking, "I am free. I can do anything and whatever I like." No. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni. You have to. . . Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22). As you are infecting the different types of modes of nature, you are making your next life like that.

So we should be very careful. Therefore the others accept. . . Because without this varṇāśrama system of religious principles, we can declare there is no scientific understanding of the modes of material nature, how we are contacting, how we are becoming infected and where is our next life. But if we. . . Śāstra-caksusat. If you see through the śāstra, then you can understand.

ūrdhvaṁ gacchanti sattva-sthā

madhye tiṣṭhanti rājasāḥ

jaghanya-guṇa-vṛtti-sthā

adho gacchanti tāmasāḥ

(BG 14.18)

Everything is there in the Bhagavad-gītā. Unfortunately, we do not take care of it, and we make our own interpretation. This rascaldom is going on. And perhaps we are the only society who is proclaiming, "Here is God, Kṛṣṇa. Take it." We are the only society in the whole world. Otherwise they are all misled, all misled.

So anyway, others may cooperate or noncooperate, we don't mind. But we cannot change our policy. Our policy is: Kṛṣṇa says, "I am the Supreme"; we must declare throughout the whole world that Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme. Kṛṣṇa says, mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat kiñcid asti dhanañjaya (BG 7.7). We shall declare to the whole world that "Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme. There is no more superior anyone than Kṛṣṇa." This is our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. Kṛṣṇa says, man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru (BG 18.65). We are preaching this. In this temple we are asking eveyone, "Here is Kṛṣṇa. Always think of Kṛṣṇa. Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa." Then you will have to think, "Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa" means thinking of Kṛṣṇa. As soon as you hear the name of Kṛṣṇa, man-manā. And who will do that? Mad-bhakta. Unless you become a devotee of Kṛṣṇa, you cannot waste your time, "Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa." That means simply by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra you become a devotee of Kṛṣṇa. Man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī.

Now this worship of Kṛṣṇa: the whole day is engaged for Kṛṣṇa's maṅgala-āratika, for Kṛṣṇa's chanting, for Kṛṣṇa's cooking, for Kṛṣṇa's prasādam distribution, so many ways. So our devotees all over the world—there are a 102 centers—they are simply engaged in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. This is our propaganda. Always, no other business. We don't do any business, but we are spending at least twenty-five lakhs of rupees, twenty-five lakhs of rupees every month, but Kṛṣṇa is supplying. Teṣāṁ nityābhiyuktānāṁ yoga-kṣemaṁ vahāmy aham (BG 9.22). If you remain Kṛṣṇa consciousness, fully dependent on Kṛṣṇa, then there will be no scarcity. I started this Kṛṣṇa business with forty rupees. Now we have got forty crores of rupees. Is there any businessman in the whole world within ten years with forty rupees he can increase forty crores? There is no example. And ten thousand men, they are eating prasādam daily. So this is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Yoga-kṣemaṁ vahāmy aham (BG 9.22). As soon as you become Kṛṣṇa conscious, you simply depend on Him and work sincerely and then Kṛṣṇa will supply everything. Everything.

So this is practically being manifested. Take, for example, in the Bombay, now the land is one crore of rupees' worth. And when I purchased this land I had. . . might be three or four lakhs. So it was completely speculation, because I was confident that "I shall be able to pay. Kṛṣṇa will give me." There was no money. That's a long history. I do not wish to discuss. But I have got now practical experience that you depend on Kṛṣṇa—there will be no scarcity. Whatever you want, it will be fulfilled. Teṣāṁ nityābhiyuktānām. So be always engaged in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Then everything will be fulfilled, any desire, if you have got.

akāmaḥ sarva-kāmo vā

mokṣa-kāma udāra-dhīḥ

tīvreṇa bhakti-yogena

yajeta paramaṁ puruṣaḥ

(SB 2.3.10)

There are three classes of men: akāma. . . Akāma means devotee. He has no desire. He has no. . . Anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyam (Brs. 1.1.11). Personally he has no desire. His only desire is how he will glorify Kṛṣṇa. That is the only desire. Akāmaḥ sarva-kāmo. He is akāma. And sarva-kāma means the karmīs. They are desiring, "Bring money, bring money, bring money, bring money." They are called karmīs, sarva-kāma. Their desire is never fulfilled. And akāmaḥ sarva-kāmo vā mokṣa-kāma (SB 2.3.10), the jñānīs. They want to become united, one with the Supreme, mokṣa-kāma. So Caitanya-caritāmṛta, the mokṣa-kāma. . . Tara madhye mokṣa vāñchā (CC Adi 1.92). That is very inferior desire. And Śrīdhara Swami, he has commented on the Bhāgavata verse, atra mokṣa-vāñchā api nirasta. A devotee should not desire even for mokṣa. What is mokṣa? Mokṣa is very insignificant thing for a devotee. Bilvamaṅgala Ṭhākura has explained, muktiḥ mukulitāñjali sevate asmān: "Mukti, she is standing on my door and flattering me, 'Sir, what can I do for you?' " This is mukti. So why a devotee shall aspire about mukti? No.

nārāyaṇa-parāḥ sarve

na kutaścana bibhyati

svargāpavarga-narakeṣv

api tulyārtha-darśinaḥ

(SB 6.17.28)

Just like Nārada Muni. He is going to the hellish planet also for preaching Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So a devotee is not afraid of going anywhere for the service of the Lord. That is devotee. He has no personal desire; simply how to glorify.

So this Prahlāda Mahārāja, he is our guru. Out of the twelve mahājanas, he is one of them. So he is advising, kaumāra ācaret prājño dharmān bhāgavatān iha (SB 7.6.1). Why so early, kaumāra? Prahlāda Mahārāja says, durlabhaṁ mānuṣaṁ janma: "This human form of life is very, very rarely obtained in the process of evolution, 8,400,000's of different species of life." After that, we have got this durlabhaṁ mānuṣaṁ janma. It should not be wasted, living like cats and dogs. Everyone should be trained up in this bhāgavata-dharma. Durlabhaṁ mānuṣaṁ janma tad apy adhruvam arthadam. And "Yes, it is important, that's all right. But let me live for hundred years, then we shall talk about Kṛṣṇa." And Prahlāda Mahārāja said, "No." Adhruvam: "You do not know when you will die. At any moment you can die." Padaṁ padaṁ yad vipadām (SB 10.14.58). Therefore, before your next death, you realize Kṛṣṇa. Durlabhaṁ mānuṣaṁ janma tad apy adhruvam. But arthadam. Arthadam means even if you live for a few years and if you take the chance of chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, still, you are benefited. You are still benefited.

So this chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa is so important that you can think always that "Death is coming. Death is at my door. Let me finish my chanting. Let me finish my chanting." Always you should think like that, that "Death is already coming, so let me chant." So this is called bhāgavata-dharma, and Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement means bhāgavata-dharma. So you read Prahlāda Mahārāja's instruction very nicely and utilize it in your life. Your life will be successful.

Thank you very much.

Devotees: Jaya. (end).