740113 - Lecture SB 01.16.18 - Los Angeles

Lectures by Date, 1974

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

 Listen to a 'Nectar Drop' created from this lecture

740113SB-LOS ANGELES - January 13, 1974 - 46:54 Minutes

Prabhupāda: Govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi.

Devotees: Jaya! Haribol.

Prabhupāda: (leads chanting of Jaya Rādhā-Mādhava) (leads prema-dhvani prayers) Thank you very much.

(break)

Pradyumna: Translation, "The personality of religious principles, dharma, was wandering about in the form of a bull. And he met the personality of Earth in the form of a cow, who appeared to grieve like a mother who had lost her child. She had tears in her eyes, and the beauty of her body was lost. Thus dharma questioned the Earth as follows."

Prabhupāda: Dharmaḥ padaikena caran (SB 1.16.18). Padā ekena, padaikena. So in this Kali-yuga, religious principles of human society is supposed to be only one fourth, and there are four yugas: Satya, Tretā, Dvāpara, Kali. In the Satya-yuga people were very religious, paramahaṁsa. All of them were paramahaṁsa, so enlightened, elevated in religious principles, and they used to live for 100,000s of years. As the religious principles are reducing, so many other things are reducing, of which the duration of life, bodily strength, mercifulness, memory . . . in this way we are becoming almost on the level of animals. One-fourth religious principles means practically nobody is following. But still there is a section, they follow. Just like Vaiṣṇavas, Kṛṣṇa conscious people—they are all over the world, at least at the present moment, and India there are many millions, and other countries it is now spreading.

So dharmaḥ padaikena caran. The bull is the symbol of religious principles and cow is the mother. There are seven kinds of mother:

ādau-mātā guroḥ patnī

brahmaṇī rāja-patnikā

dhenur dhatrī tathā pṛthvī

sapta eta mataraḥ smṛtaḥ

Real mother, ādau-mātā, and guru-patnī, the wife of guru. This means that even gṛhastha, he can become guru. There is no such restriction that only sannyāsī will become guru—provided he knows the science. Caitanya Mahāprabhu has confirmed it:

kibā vipra, kibāśūdra, nyāsī kene naya

yei kṛṣṇa-tattva-vettā, sei "guru" haya

(CC Madhya 8.128)

It doesn't matter what he is. Kibā vipra, I may be a Brāhmiṇ, but I . . . born in a Brāhmiṇ family. Generally a Brāhmiṇ, born in a Brāhmiṇ family, he becomes guru. Brāhmiṇ is supposed to be the guru of other castes. Not supposed; that is the factually. Without becoming Brāhmiṇ nobody can become guru. Just like, without passing the BA examination, nobody can enter into the law college. Similarly there is restriction: without becoming a Brāhmiṇ, qualified Brāhmiṇ—satya, śama, dama, titikṣā—nobody is allowed. Not a rascal—no knowledge, and he becomes guru and incarnation of God. Because people do not know what is dharma. They want to be cheated, so there are so many cheaters. And they want to be satisfied. No . . . (indistinct) . . . is required now: now you remain as fool as you are, and still you become God. This is the . . .

So this is . . . therefore it is called dharmaḥ padaikena. The actually religious principle is lost in this age, and without becoming religious there is no human society; this is animal society. That is the distinction between animal and man: the cats and dogs, they have no church, they have no temple, they have no mosque. They are naked, loitering in the street, having sexual intercourse on the street. There is no restriction—live like anything, do like anything. That is animal life, animal. Dharmeṇa hīnāḥ paśubhiḥ samānāḥ. If religious principles are not accepted, there is lacking in the human society, nārakaī upa kalpate. It becomes a nāra, hell.

So religious principles required, and by religious principle one can become perfect in spiritual consciousness. Religious principle means to understand what is God. That is religious principle. The human life is meant for that purpose: to know God. Knowledge, Veda. Veda means knowledge. So vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyam (BG 15.15), in the Bhagavad-gītā it is said. Knowledge, advancement of knowledge, means ultimately to know God. That is knowledge. To become a first-class carpenter, that is not knowledge. That first-class carpenter you will find among the animals also. They can, birds even. I do not know whether that bird is here in your country. We have got in India one class of bird, they are called babwi. They manufacture their nest in such a nice way, carpentry, you will be surprised. Is that, Svarūpa Dāmodara, in your country also?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Just see. They do not learn from the school, college, what is carpentry, but they can do it. So these advancement of knowledge, these factories and other things, they are all śūdrās business; that is not Brāhmiṇ's business. Śūdrā. Therefore in this age, in the Kali-yuga, it is said, kalau śūdra-sambhavaḥ: the whole population is śūdra. There is no brāhmaṇa, there is no kṣatriya, no vaiśya. Śūdrās are doing this. Just like a śūdra, low class, fourth class, he is officially acting as priest, and he is sanctioning homosex, "Yes, I give you my blessing. Be married man-to-man." Just see. A śūdrā, who has no knowledge, and he is saying animal has no soul.

That means śūdrā, he has no perfect knowledge anything. Why animal has no soul? Here it is said that vivatsām iva mātaram, smāśru-vadanāṁ. The cow, mother, was crying, tears falling down. And why? Vivatsā: her calf was taken away, or dead. I have seen it personally. In New Vrindavan we purchased one cow, and she was crying. Do you remember that? Because her calf was taken away and already killed, and we purchased that cow. In our New Vrindaban we give protection to the cows. So I have seen it, she was crying. So why do you say that she has no soul? How foolish they are. What is the symptom of having a soul? How do you deny that the animal has no soul? How much foolishness it is. What is the symptom of soul? The symptom of soul is consciousness. This body, your body, my body, so long the soul is there you will feel pain and pleasure, consciousness. If I pinch your body, if you are living, then you will feel pain. But when the soul is gone, if I chopped off your body, you will not protest. That is the difference. So when the animal also feels the same way—just like her calf is taken away, she is crying—so how can you say that there is no soul in the . . .? How much foolish it is, just see. And the Kali-yuga has become so cruel that even a cow is crying for the lost child, and human being purposely killing child—purposely, knowingly, to avoid botheration. Just see. Where is dharma? Everything is gone, everything is gone. Every man is being prepared, being educated as śūdrā, nonreligious, mleccha, yavana, like that.

So there is no improvement. There is no spiritual improvement. Tān ahaṁ dviṣataḥ krūrān kṣipāmy ajasram eva yoniṣu (BG 16.19). Without religion, everyone will degrade. Degrade means, now in this life as human being you may have some facilities, but just after death, adho gacchanti tāmasāḥ. Jaghanya-guṇa-vṛtti-sthā adho gacchanti tāmasāḥ (BG 14.18). Without religious principles everyone will be abominable, and therefore adho gacchanti tāmasāḥ, they are in ignorance. So ignorance is bliss now, "It is folly to be wise where ignorance is bliss." You see? If we talk nonsense, then many people will accept. But if we are preaching Kṛṣṇa consciousness, God consciousness, they do not take very much care, "This is primitive. Only the old fools, they will take part in this."

So ignorance is bliss. At the present moment, to remain in darkness, that is advancement of knowledge. And to be enlightened that you are not this body, you are spirit soul, you are within this body—and on account of accepting this material body, you are in trouble; the death is there; that is not the death of the soul but of the body—this is advancement of knowledge. Asaṅgayaṁ puruṣa.

tathā dehāntara-prāptir

dhīras tatra na muhyati

(BG 2.13)

This knowledge is already there in the Vedas. Anyone can take advantage, but they think that to remain fool, that is advantage, that is advantage. "Ignorance is bliss. It is folly to be wise." So dharmaḥ padaikena caran. At the present moment the society, human society—not cats and dogs society, human society—they have lost seventy-five percent of their religious life. Seventy-five. That one percent has to be seen in some poor society like us. Otherwise it is finished. Dharmaḥ padaikena caran vicchāyām upalabhya gām.

So the . . . the cows at this present ages are very, very sorry always. They know. Where cows are maintained, raised, they understand that, "After a few days I will be sent into the slaughterhouse. I will be killed." She knows. Therefore they do not supply sufficient milk. Because if one is very sorry mood, so he cannot eat nicely, he cannot sleep nicely, he cannot work nicely. But during Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira's time the cows were so happy that in the grazing ground, from the milk bag, milk was dropping, and the grazing ground became muddy with milk. This is not a story; this is a fact. I have received one letter from Kīrtanānanda Swami from New Vrindavan that our cows are increasing giving milk, and one cow, she is first pregnant, and they are expecting 80 pounds of milk per day. Naturally. And they are not afraid of. Kīrtanānanda Mahārāja has given each cow a name. That was the system even Kṛṣṇa's time. Kṛṣṇa's all the cows were given name, and when Kṛṣṇa will call by name they will come immediately. So we have got very intimate relationship with cow. Cow is mother. And why not mother? You are drinking milk and killing. How much ungrateful! And they want to live in peace, just see. Committing daily so much sin all over the world, not only in the Western world, in India also. In India they are killing 10,000 cows daily, and what to speak of in the Western countries.

So this loss of religious principles is going on vigorously, without any restriction, and still they are thinking of good president, good rule, good government. It is dream. It will not be possible. The nature's punishment:

ūrdhvaṁ gacchanti sattva-sthā

madhye tiṣṭhanti rājasāḥ

jaghanya-guṇa-vṛtti-sthā

adho gacchanti tāmasāḥ

(BG 14.18)

This is the statement in the Bhagavad-gītā. Jaghanya, abominable character. You are going down, down, down, down, and at . . . because, tathā dehāntara-prāptir. Dehāntara: it is said that after giving up this body, you'll accept another body. Now, there are 8,400,000 species of life, bodies, forms, so Kṛṣṇa says, tathā dehāntara-prāptir: you will have to accept another body. But does not say what kind of body—there are so many types of body—because there is no guarantee. That will depend on your work, karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa (SB 3.31.1). As you work in this . . . this life is preparation for the next life.

So for the human civilization they should try for going . . . just like they are trying to go to the moon planet by machine. That is not possible. But you can go to the moon planet, provided you qualify yourself in this life, next life you will be promoted. That is possible. Ūrdhvaṁ gacchanti, it is said, sattva-sthā. If you remain in the modes of goodness, then you will be promoted to the higher planetary system, ūrdhvaṁ. Higher planetary system means long duration of life, better standard of living condition, very beautiful, and God conscious—so many facilities. Even in the . . . there is one planet, one lot . . . there are groups of planet. There good planet is called Satyaloka . . . er, Siddhaloka. Siddhaloka means in this planet, what you learn by yogic practice there, anyone who is born he has got all the yogic power within his influence. That is called Siddhaloka. Yogic, yogic siddhi, there are eight kinds of siddhis, perfection: aṇimā, laghimā, prāpti-siddhi, īśitva, vaśitva, prākāmya, like that. Aṇimā means, I have several times . . . aṇimā means you can become the smaller than the smallest, and mahimā means you can become larger than the largest. These are siddhis, not yogīs simply pressing the nose. No. That is preliminary. Yoga-siddhi.

So in the Siddhaloka, those who are born, they are higher than human being. They have got aṇimā-siddhi, laghimā-siddhi. Laghimā-siddhi means to become lighter than the feather. That is called laghimā-siddhi. Just like a feather floats in the air, similarly you can, by laghimā-siddhi, you can float in the air. So in that Siddhiloka, Siddhaloka, people are so advanced that they can float in the air, and they go from one planet to another there, Siddhaloka.

So there are many facilities. In the Bhagavad-gītā also it is confirmed, not only in one place, ūrdhvaṁ gacchanti sattva-sthā. Ūrdhvaṁ means higher planetary system. Another place Kṛṣṇa says:

yānti deva-vratā devān

pitṟn yānti pitṛ-vratāḥ

bhūtejyā yānti bhūtāni

yānti mad-yājino 'pi mām

(BG 9.25)

You go anywhere you like. Our propensity is there, that at night we see so many stars, so many planets, or at daytime we see the sun. Sometimes we think, "How we can go there?" That is natural. That is natural. But you can go there. Because you are feeling that, "How can I go there," you have got the capacity, provided you become perfect like that. There is process. Not by force that you can go this planet; no, that is not possible. Ūrdhvaṁ gacchanti sattva-sthā. If you are in the modes of goodness, automatically you will be promoted. You will be promoted. So yānti deva-vratā devān: if you treat like devā–devā means godly character—then you can go to any planets where the demigods live. There, these are all planets what you see, millions, millions of stars. They are all planets, and there are living entities, just like in this planet.

That is also confirmed in the Brahma-saṁhitā (5.40), yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-aṇḍa-koṭi. Not only this one universe, but there are millions of universes.

yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-aṇḍa-koṭi-

koṭiṣv aśeṣa-vasudhādi vibhūti-bhinnam

(Brahma-saṁhitā 5.40)

Koṭiṣu. There are millions of universes, and each universe, koṭiṣu. Yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-aṇḍa-koṭi-koṭiṣv aśeṣa. Aśeṣa: in each universe there are unlimited number of planets. Take this knowledge, those who are scientists. Everything is there; that is called Veda—all knowledge is perfect. You are making research. What research you can make? Do you know how many stars? You cannot count it, but they are not fictitious; they are fact. Your daily seeing, but you cannot go there. That is called conditioned soul—you must remain here. That is called conditioned . . . what is the advancement of science? You cannot go to other planets. You cannot live forever. You cannot stop death, you cannot stop disease, you cannot stop old age. Then what is the advancement? Eh? Simply talking nonsense. Just make a solution of this problem. I want to go to moon planet, but I am being stopped, I am being checked. So many so-called scientists are trying, but useless, useless. They're simply talking, "I have gone . . . I have seen a great fracture in the moon planet," and they are making research, how the fracture. They are spending, after so many millions and trillions of dollars, they are now researching how the fracture came in. Or they brought some dust, that's all. And these foolish rascals are being highly paid, and they are bluffing, and they are accepting, and there are some corporations, "Now we are advancing in science," that's all.

Even if you go moon planet, what is that? There are millions and trillions of planets. Can you go there? They calculate that to go to the topmost planet, which we call Brahmaloka, it will take 40,000s of light years to go. Do they not say? Eh? Svarūpa Dāmodara? For going to the topmost planet, how many years they take? No, some paper says that it will take 40,000s of years, leap years—no, what it is called? Light years. Now see, who is going to live for (laughter) 40,000? (laughs) Before going to that planet he will be 40,000 times finished. (laughter) And still they're advanced; still they are proud of advancement of knowledge. They say that in their own word, the 40,000s of years it will take, and they want to expect to go there, although the fact is before going there, you will be 40,000 times killed.

So this ignorance . . . therefore ignorance is bliss here. No knowledge. This is not knowledge—this is knowledge, Bhagavad-gītā: yānti deva-vratā devān. If you become godly, good character, that good character is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. A Kṛṣṇa conscious man does not even like to go to the moon planet, sun planet. Their idea is further. What is that? Goloka Vṛndāvana. That is confirmed. Is it possible to go to Goloka Vṛndāvana, Kṛṣṇa's planet? Yes. Kṛṣṇa says, mad-yājino yānti mām (BG 9.25): "If you become My devotee, you come to Me." Many places. Kṛṣṇa says, tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti kaunteya (BG 4.9). If you become fully Kṛṣṇa conscious . . . there are many places in Bhagavad-gītā, yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran loke tyajanty ante kalevaram (BG 8.6), many places, it is confirmed that if you understand Kṛṣṇa, then at the time of death you will think of Kṛṣṇa naturally. If you are trying to understand, kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ . . . (CC Adi 17.31) Sadā means twenty-four hours. If you are in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, naturally at the time of death you will think of Kṛṣṇa. So that is confirmed, yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran bhāvaṁ tyajanty ante kalevaram (BG 8.6).

Then another place, tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti: such person, Kṛṣṇa conscious person, who has understood Kṛṣṇa, such person, after giving up this body, tyaktvā dehaṁ– dehaṁ means this body—punar janma naiti: he is not going to take birth again in this material world. Then what will happen? Mām eti: "He comes to Me." Immediately, immediately your soul is transferred to the spiritual world. The spiritual world . . . even in the material world you cannot go to the topmost planet, and spiritual world means you have to go through the covering of this material universe. Then you come to the spiritual sky. And the spiritual sky, this topmost planet is called Goloka Vṛndāvana. That is Kṛṣṇa's planet.

So what this university can educate? We have got this all knowledge from the Vedas, ūrdhvaṁ gacchanti sattva-sthā madhye tiṣṭhanti rājasāḥ. So don't commit sinful life. Don't become easily digressed. That is not for your interest. That is for māyā's interest. Your interest is to become religious—your interest. Just like in . . . dharmaḥ . . . (indistinct) . . . kena. Why want twenty-four . . . practically at the present, nobody is religious—nil. But by calculation, in book theory, that in this age twenty-five percent, or one fourth. So at least execute that facility. At the present moment nobody can also; therefore śāstra is very lenient to the people of this age.

In the Bhāga . . . Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam it is said that kaler doṣa-nidhe rājann asti hy eko mahān guṇaḥ (SB 12.3.51), that Śukadeva Goswāmī was describing about the symptoms of this Kali-yuga, how downfallen will be the people: doṣa, full of doṣa, faults only. Not only full, but doṣa-nidhe: a ocean of faults. Kaler doṣa-nidhe rājann asti hy eko mahān guṇaḥ: "My dear king, I have described about the ocean of faults of this age, but there is one great boon in this age,"kaler doṣa-nidhe rājann asti hy eko mahān guṇaḥ: "that is special facility for the men of this age," eko mahā. What is that? Kīrtanād eva kṛṣṇasya mukta-saṅgaḥ paraṁ vrajet: "Simply by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra he can be liberated and in turn can be transformed, transferred to the spiritual world." Kīrtanād eva kṛṣṇasya. This Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, especially meant, kīrtanād. One can say: "I can chant this name, that name. God has got many names." No. God has got many names, that's all right. But when kīrtana is required, that is Kṛṣṇa—that name, not other name. You cannot say, "Why Kṛṣṇa?" Although Kṛṣṇa says you can chant any name, but specifically says "Kṛṣṇa."

harer nāma harer nāma

harer nāmaiva kevalam

(CC Adi 17.21)

Harer nāma. Hare means Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa's name. So:

kīrtanād eva kṛṣṇasya

mukta-saṅgaḥ paraṁ vrajet

(SB 12.3.51)

If you chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, then you become liberated from the contamination of so many faults of this age. Practically you can see, this Kṛṣṇa consciousness society, the boys and girls are sitting here, and bring any number of boys and girls from outside and compare with them. Compare with them. If you are actually honest, then study: these boys, these girls are not comparable outside this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement.

Thank you very much.

Devotees: Jaya! All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda. (obeisances) (kīrtana) (end)