731031 - Lecture BG 07.03 - Vrndavana

Lectures by Date, 1973

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

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731031BG-VRNDAVAN - October 31, 1973 - 36:33 Minutes

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

manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu

kaścid yatati siddhaye

yatatām api siddhānāṁ

kaścin māṁ vetti tattvataḥ

(BG 7.3)

(break)

Translation: "Out of many thousands among men, one may endeavor for perfection, and of those who have achieved perfection, hardly one knows Me in truth."

Prabhupāda: So, the . . . English or Hindi?

Devotees: English.

Prabhupāda: English. So manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu (BG 7.3). Out of many hundreds and thousands of men, kaścid yatati siddhaye

(aside) Thank you.

The difficulty is that they do not know what is siddhi. At the present moment, people are so ignorant that they do not know what is siddhi. The major problem of life, that is unsolved. Everyone is trying to make a solution of some temporary difficulties—politically, socially, economically—but real solution, as it is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam . . . (BG 13.9). Janma, birth, mṛtyu, death, and jarā, old age, and vyādhi, disease—to get out of this entanglement.

Duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam. This is our real miserable condition of life. We have to die, we have to take birth again, and again we have to become old, and there will be disease. Between birth and death . . . birth is very miserable. To remain in the womb of the mother in a packed-up stage within a bag, and . . . that is miserable. Biting, the worms biting tender skin. We have forgotten, but these were the miseries for birth. In suffocated condition . . . but we have forgotten. So forgetfulness is not solution. Closing the eyes before the enemies is no solution. Daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā duratyayā (BG 7.14).

So long you are in material condition, you have to suffer all these miseries, either you become rich man or poor man. You may become American or Indian . . . the miseries of birth, death, old age and disease, they are all the same everywhere, not only within this planet, but also in other planets also. Ābrahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ. This is the intelligence. They are trying to go to the moon planet, or somebody, by karma-kāṇḍīya consideration, they are trying to go to the heavenly planet. But wherever you go, you must know that these four conditions of material life there are present. Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9).

So if you can conquer over this miserable condition of life, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi, that is siddhi. Otherwise it is not siddhi, that if I can construct a skyscraper building, or even if I go to the Brahmaloka to get millions and millions of years as duration of life . . . Brahmā's life, it is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, sahasra-yuga-paryantam ahar yad brahmaṇo viduḥ (BG 8.17). Millions of years.

And that is only twelve hours of Brahmā. Such twelve hours, night. Sahasra-yuga again, that is night. That is complete twenty-four hours. Then add thirty days like that, then one year, twelve months. Such one hundred years is the duration of life of Brahmā. So you may go to the highest planetary system or in the heavenly planets; you can have better standard of life than this earthly planet or you can live for long, long years; but that is not the solution of your problems. That is not solution. But they do not know it. Therefore Kṛṣṇa has described them as mūḍhas. Mūḍhas. Na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ prapadyante narādhamāḥ (BG 7.15).

They, these mūḍhas, they are very much proud of their education and knowledge, but if you ask them that, "What solution you have made for these four miseries of life, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi (BG 13.9)?" they have no answer. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says that manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu kaścid yatati siddhaye (BG 7.3). They do not know siddhi, what is siddhi. Yogīs are engaged for aṣṭa-siddhi, aṇimā-laghimā-prāpti-siddhi. They can become smaller than the smallest and heavier than the heaviest, and they can get anything they desire—prāpti, īśitā. They can control over . . . even they can create a planet also. yoga-siddhi. Just like Viśvāmitra Muni, he was such a great yogī that he used to create human being from trees. So you can get all these siddhis by yoga-siddhi or by any other process, but real siddhi is how to get out of this entanglement of janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi. That is real siddhi.

So they do not know it. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu (BG 7.3): out of millions and millions of persons, one can understand what is siddhi. And even one is siddha . . . one who becomes merged into the Brahman effulgence, because paraṁ padam, so they are also not siddha. Suppose if you merge into the Brahman effulgence, the jñānīs ultimate goal, to become one with the Brahman effulgence, sāyujya-mukti . . . that is also a siddhi. That is also partial siddhi. That is not perfect siddhi.

Because we are spiritual sparks, small, very small. That magnitude has been described in the śāstras: keśāgra-śata-bhāgasya śatadhā kalpitasya ca (Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad 5.9). As spiritual spark, our magnitude is one ten-thousandth part of the upper portion of the hair. We are such a small. And this . . . just like the sunshine is combination of bright molecules, shining molecules. They are not one. They are also small, atomic, molecular parts. Similarly, brahma-jyotir means combination of all the living entities, the spiritual sparks. To become one with the brahma-jyotir means . . . just like one bird enters into the green tree. It appears that it has become one. The tree is also green and the bird is also green. So when the bird enters the tree, it appears that the bird is now mixed up. But that is not the fact. The bird keeps his individuality, and at any time, when he wants, he can come out of the tree and fly anywhere. That independence is there, although apparently it seems that he has become one with the tree. Similarly, the sāyujya-mukti means apparently he is in Brahman, but factually it is not. Because each individual soul is different.

Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā, kṣetra-kṣetra-jña. Kṛṣṇa has described that this body is kṣetra, and the spiritual spark, or the soul, is the kṣetra-jña. And He says also, kṣetra-jñaṁ cāpi māṁ viddhi sarva-kṣetreṣu bhārata (BG 13.3). Kṛṣṇa is also kṣetra-jña as Supersoul. So Kṛṣṇa is, as Supersoul, separate from the individual soul. Not that the Supersoul and . . . these are very clearly explained in the Bhagavad-gītā. Anumantā upadraṣṭā (BG 13.23). One puruṣa is anumantā upadraṣṭā, and another puruṣa is bhoktā. So without the permission of the superior puruṣa, Paramātmā, this man cannot . . . this individual soul cannot enjoy material. He has come here to enjoy material facilities.

kṛṣṇa bhuliya jīve bhoga vāñchā kare

pāsate māyā tāre jāpaṭiyā dhare

(Prema-vivarta)

He is now entrapped by māyā, and he is trying to enjoy this material world, but he cannot enjoy the material world without the permission of the Supersoul. Anumantā upadraṣṭā.

So they are not one. They are different. And Kṛṣṇa has described in the Second Chapter that, "All these soldiers or kings who have assembled there, and you and Me, all of us . . ." Now see. He described all of them differently, "You, me and they." First person, second person and the third person. So Kṛṣṇa said: "It is not that they did not exist in the past, and it is not that, that they will not exist in the future." So always—in the past, in the present and in future—the living entities, individual soul, is always different from the Supreme. They are never homogeneous, or mixed up. That is not possible. Mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūtaḥ sanātanaḥ (BG 15.7). It is not that now we have become separated. Means sanātana, eternally, we are different.

And besides that, how we can be separated? Spirit is not matter. That is also described. Nainaṁ chindanti śastrāṇi (BG 2.23). It is not that, that as we have got experience, that we can cut into pieces one material thing. Spirit cannot be cut into pieces. The part and parcel of the spirit, it is not that at a certain time we have become cut or separated from the Supreme. No. We are individual soul eternally, sanātana. Sanātana. That is our position.

So therefore those who are thinking that by merging into the existence of Brahman they will become one, that is not possible. Not one. They'll remain individual, but the whole atmosphere is spiritual. That's all. But it is impersonal spiritual. There is only existence, sac-cid-ānanda. But there is no ānanda. But every spiritual identity, every spiritual soul, as well as the Supreme Spirit, they are ānandamayo 'bhyāsāt (Vedānta-sūtra 1.1.12). Ānanda-cinmaya-rasa-pratibhāvitābhiḥ (Bs. 5.37). Everyone, as Kṛṣṇa enjoys, similarly we, being part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa, we also want to enjoy. But we can enjoy in combination with Kṛṣṇa. Just like our parts and parcel of the body—the finger, the leg, the toes, the eyes and ears—they cannot enjoy separately. When the enjoyable things or the foodstuff is given to the stomach, every part enjoys. Similarly, we being part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa, we can enjoy life in cooperation with Kṛṣṇa, not separately.

So this is the actual siddhi, to understand that "I am eternally part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. I can enjoy eternally blissful life in knowledge with cooperation or in the association of Kṛṣṇa and His devotees." That is real life. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, yatatām api siddhānām (BG 7.3). Some of them are thinking that by merging into the existence of the Supreme, that is siddhi. That is not siddhi. That is partial siddhi, and it will not exist.

That is explained in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ patanty adhaḥ anādṛta-yuṣmad-aṅghrayaḥ (SB 10.2.32). If you do not engage yourself in the service of the lotus feet of the Lord, then you cannot eternally remain in the brahma-jyotir. You cannot remain in the brahma-jyotir. You'll fall down. Therefore we see so many big, big sannyāsīs, they think that "I have become Nārāyaṇa." They address between themselves, "Nārāyaṇa, namo nārāyaṇāya." They have become Nārāyaṇa. But not . . . they cannot become Nārāyaṇa. Some of them have manufactured the word "daridra-nārāyaṇa." Nārāyaṇa is never daridra. These are manufactured things. Neither one can become Nārāyaṇa. But one can remain eternally the servant of Nārāyaṇa. That is possible. That is siddhi.

Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu kaścid yatati siddhaye (BG 7.3). First of all, to get out of the entanglement, this bodily conception of life. The bodily conception of life is meant for the animals. Even if he is human being, but if he is under the bodily concept of life—"I am American," "I am Indian," "I am brahmin," "I am kṣatriya," "I am fat," "I am thin," "I am white," "I am black," "I am . . ."—if that is the identification, then he is not even a human being. Ātma-tattva. Parābhavas tāvad abodha-jātaḥ (SB 5.5.5). Abodha-jāta. Everyone is born that "I am this body," but if he continues to remain under the impression that "I am this body," then whatever he is doing under the bodily concept of life, he is parābhava. Parābhavas tāvad abodha-jātaḥ. Everything is defeat, because he is doing under the bodily concept of life.

So this so-called nationalism, socialism, community-ism and this "ism," that "ism," they have manufactured—they are all defeat, defeating. They are being defeated, because next life he does not know what he is going to become. There are 8,400,000 species of life, and according to your work, you will offer . . . you will be offered . . .

prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni

guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ

ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā

kartāham iti manyate

(BG 3.27)

So actually they do not know what is siddhi. They do not know. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says that manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu kaścid yatati siddhaye (BG 7.3). He does not know what is siddhi. He does not know. Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇum (SB 7.5.31). These foolish persons, they do not know what is siddhi, and they are after siddhi. What is siddhi? Ignorance is not siddhi. It is parābhava. Siddhi is, real siddhi is, as Kṛṣṇa says, and in so many ways, that mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat kiñcid asti dhanañjaya (BG 7.7), ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavo mattaḥ sarvaṁ pravartate (BG 10.8).

bahūnāṁ janmanām ante

jñānavān māṁ prapadyate

vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti

sa mahātmā . . .

(BG 7.19)

This is siddhi: to know Kṛṣṇa; to know Kṛṣṇa, what is Kṛṣṇa. And Kṛṣṇa is describing Himself, what He is. The foolish person, they do not take to Kṛṣṇa's instruction. They manufacture their own way of explanation. He thinks that he has become Kṛṣṇa. This is foolishness. This is foolishness.

Therefore people do not know what is siddhi. It is not my version; Kṛṣṇa says. Manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasre . . . what is siddhi? If you do not know what is siddhi, what is the use? Śrama eva hi kevalam (SB 1.2.8). You do not know what is the ultimate goal of life, what is siddhi, and you're working so hard. So Bhāgavata says, śrama eva hi kevalam: "He is working uselessly, laboriously." That's all.

They do not know siddhi. Manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu kaścid yatati siddhaye, yatatām api siddhānām (BG 7.3). Yatatām api siddha, siddhānāṁ kaścit. These siddhas, those who are self-realized, athāto brahma jijñāsā . . . even if he thinks that, "I am the Supreme," that is partially in the . . . that is also light. Just like if you come to the sunlight, sunshine, that is also light, but that is not perfection. If you can go within the sun globe and see the origin of shining, brightening principle, the sun-god, that is siddhi. Similarly, to merge into the Brahman is not siddhi. That is the verdict of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

Actually, it is a fact. Bhāgavata, whatever it says, that is real fact. Ye 'nye 'ravindākṣa vimukta-māninaḥ (SB 10.2.32). If one thinks that, "Now I am merged in the brahma-jyotir, so I am now vimukta. I am now mukta. I am now liberated," so that Bhāgavata says, "He is thinking like that, he's liberated—he is not liberated." Vimukta-mānina. Just like if I think am millionaire, does it mean I have become millionaire? I am not millionaire. Vimukta-mānina.

Why? Tvayy asta-bhāvād aviśuddha-buddhayaḥ (SB 10.2.32). Because these persons who are thinking that he has become liberated, their buddhi is not yet cleansed. Aviśuddha. Śuddhāśuddha. Aviśuddha-buddhayaḥ. Ye 'nye 'ravindākṣa vimukta-māninaḥ . . . vimukta-mānina tvayy asta-bhāvāt. Asta-bhāvāt: no information of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He is thinking that the Absolute is imperson. Therefore, asta-bhāvāt, he has no information of the Supreme Person.

The ultimate, the last word of the Absolute Truth is the Supreme Person. Brahmeti paramātmeti bhagavān iti śabdyate (SB 1.2.11). Unless one realizes Bhagavān, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, there is no question of perfection. And because one is not in complete perfection, there is chance of coming down. Therefore Kṛṣṇa has said, kaścit, kaścid vetti mām. But there is chance. If an impersonalist becomes in association with a personalist devotee, then there is chance of siddhi. Otherwise there is no chance. This siddhi, the so-called siddhi, vimukta-māninaḥ, "I have become liberated," (break) . . . that he can fall down. And that we see practically. Big, big sannyāsīs—brahma satyaṁ jagan mithyā—they give up this world as mithyā, but again they come to these worldly activities: opening schools, opening hospital and politics and sociology, so many things. But if it is mithyā, why you are engaged in this?

Therefore Bhāgavata says that, "Although they got up to the platform, āruhya, after much penance and austerities, they fall down." Otherwise a common man, he is also opening hospital. And if a sannyāsī who has rejected this world as mithyā, and if he also wants to open hospital and school and college, then what is the difference between the common man and this learned scholar or learned self-realized brahma-jñānī? That means he has not realized what is actually siddhi, what is brahma-jñāna. Otherwise, why he is coming? Paraṁ dṛṣṭvā nivartate (BG 2.59). You can cease yourself from all material activities when you actually realize the Supreme Brahman.

Just like you see the Americans and European boys. They are no more interested with material activities. You bribe them that, "Again come to material activities," they will refuse, because paraṁ dṛṣṭvā nivartate, they are actually liberated. Actually liberated. And simply talking big, big words and becoming engaged in material activities, what is this nonsense, you are thinking liberated? You cannot give up even the family affection, and you are liberated?

Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu (BG 7.3). Actually liberated person is a devotee. Sa guṇān samatītyaitān brahma-bhūyāya kalpate (BG 14.26). Not these impersonalist. They do not know what is siddhi. They simply talk big words, that's all. Real siddhi is that to be engaged. Why Brahman is mithyā, er, why this jagat is mithyā? The Vaiṣṇava who knows how to serve Kṛṣṇa, he does not take anything as mithyā. Because Kṛṣṇa is the Absolute Truth, why anything emanation from Kṛṣṇa should be mithyā? How it is possible? If something is prepared from gold, why it should be valueless? It is also gold.

Similarly, if this world, yato vā imāni bhūtāni jāyante, all these things have emanated from this Absolute Truth, then why it is mithyā? It is not mithyā. It is mithyā . . . the way in which we are, I mean to say, behaving, that is mithyā. We are behaving with this material world with an enjoying spirit, as our enjoyable things. That is mithyā. It is not your enjoyable things; it is Kṛṣṇa's enjoyable thing. That is truth. We do not know what is truth, then we do not know what is siddhi. Why should we . . .

That is the instruction of Rūpa Gosvāmī:

prāpañcikatayā buddhyā

hari-sambandhi-vastunaḥ

mumukṣubhiḥ parityāgo

phalgu vairāgyaṁ kathyate

(Brs. 1.2.256)

Why? Now suppose if you construct a temple for Kṛṣṇa, the same spirit that as one . . . a karmī, is constructing a big skyscraper building, a bhakta is doing the same thing. He is also after the cement, after the iron, after the stone. Does it mean simply by handling this iron and stone and cement he becomes bhakta? No. He knows that cement is the property of Kṛṣṇa; it should be used for Kṛṣṇa. This is siddhi. He knows perfectly—the cement comes from Kṛṣṇa, iron comes from Kṛṣṇa. Bhūmir āpo 'nalo vāyuḥ khaṁ mano buddhiḥ (BG 7.4). Everything comes from Kṛṣṇa. Yato vā imāni bhūtāni.

Therefore it should be used for Kṛṣṇa. That is siddhi. That is siddhi. This secret, they do not know, and they claim they have become siddhas. No. Siddhi means that nirbandhaḥ kṛṣṇa-sambandhe yuktaṁ vairāgyam ucyate. Everything should be used for Kṛṣṇa. That is siddhi. That is known to the bhaktas, not so-called karmīs, jñānīs, yogīs. No. They are not siddhas. Therefore pure devotion is:

anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ

jñāna-karmādy-anāvṛtam

ānukūlyena kṛṣṇānu-

śīlanaṁ bhaktir uttamā

(Brs. 1.1.11)

Bhakti is the siddhi. Paramaṁ siddhim. Mām upetya kaunteya duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam, nāpnuvanti . . . (BG 8.15). What is that? Saṁsiddhiṁ paramāṁ gatāḥ. Saṁsiddhim. Samyak siddhi, paramam, paraṁ siddhi. That is paraṁ siddhi, to go back to Kṛṣṇa. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti kaunteya (BG 4.9). That is siddhi.

So Caitanya-caritāmṛta-kār says that the material bhukti-mukti-siddhi-kāmī, they cannot be happy. Bhukti-mukti-siddhi-kāmī sakali aśānta (CC Madhya 19.149). They cannot be. The karmīs, they are trying to be materially happy in this world, in this life, in the next life. No. Any life. You can change your life in so many times, but you'll never be happy, because you are aśānta, you want something. You want some benefit, material benefit. Or spiritual benefit. Spiritual benefit . . . to merge into the Supreme, that is spiritual benefit. And material benefit: to get some material profits within this world, this life or next life. So that is bhukti. Bhukti and mukti. And merging into the spiritual effulgence, brahma-jyotir, that is also aśānta, because after all, he is wanting something. Bhukti-mukti-siddhi-kāmī. He wants something: to merge. And the yogīs, they are plainly wanting some siddhis. So they, every one of them are wanting, in need. Therefore they are aśānta. They cannot be śānti.

Kṛṣṇa-bhakta niṣkāma (CC Madhya 19.149). Kṛṣṇa-bhakta does not want anything. He does not want anything. He want to serve to Kṛṣṇa. That's all. Mama janmani janmanīśvare bhavatād bhaktir ahaitukī (CC Antya 20.29, Śikṣāṣṭaka 4). This is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's . . . janmani janmani: "Ah, it doesn't matter. I take my birth, one after another. It doesn't matter. But I want simply to be engaged in Your service. That's all." This is niṣkāma. He . . . janmani janmani means not even mukti. To stop repetition of birth, a devotee does not want even that. The jñānīs, they want stopping this repetition of birth, but bhakta, they do not want even stopping this.

nārāyaṇa-parāḥ sarve

na kutaścana bibhyati

svargāpavarga-narakeṣv

api tulyārtha-darśinaḥ

(SB 6.17.28)

Just like one king, he was condemned by Lord Śiva that, "You become a demon." He was a great devotee. He immediately accepted, "Yes, I will accept." Bhagavān . . . Śiva said: "Just see." Nārāyaṇa-parāḥ sarve na kutaścana bibhyati. "I have condemned him to become a demon. He has accepted, 'Yes, sir, I shall become.' " Kutaścana, na kutaścana bibhyati. He is not afraid of.

So our this Kṛṣṇa consciousness philosophy is like that, that we simply want to serve Kṛṣṇa. We have no other desire—no mukti, no bhukti, no siddhi. That is real siddhi. That is real siddhi. So people do not know that real siddhi is to approach, to go back to home, back to Godhead.

And either you go to Vaikuṇṭha or to Goloka Vṛndāvana planet after giving up this body, tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti (BG 4.9), that is real siddhi, not this yoga-siddhi, jñāna-siddhi, karma-siddhi. That is not siddhi. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu kaścid yatati (BG 7.3). They do not know what is siddhi. That is the defect.

Thank you very much.

Devotees: Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda. (end)