750721 - Lecture SB 06.01.40 - San Francisco

Lectures by Date, 1975

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

 Listen to a 'Nectar Drop' created from this lecture

750721SB-SAN FRANCISCO - July 21, 1975 - 26:19 Minutes

Nitāi: (leads chanting of verse, etc.)

yamadūtā ūcuḥ

veda-praṇihito dharmo

hy adharmas tad-viparyayaḥ

vedo nārāyaṇaḥ sākṣāt

svayambhūr iti śuśruma

(SB 6.1.40)

(break) (02:23)

"The Yamadūtas replied: What is established by the Vedas as duty, that is called religious principles, and irreligion is the opposite of that. The Vedas are directly the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Nārāyaṇa, and are self-born. Thus we have heard from Yamarāja."

Prabhupāda:

yamadūtā ūcuḥ

veda-praṇihito dharmo

hy adharmas tad-viparyayaḥ

vedo nārāyaṇaḥ sākṣāt

svayambhūr iti śuśruma

(SB 6.1.40)

This word śuśruma is very important. "We have heard it." They never say that "We have manufactured it." Śuśruma means "We have heard it." Śuśrūṣā, śuśruma: "We have heard it with service." That is the way of Vedic instruction.

The Bhagavad-gītā says,

tad viddhi praṇipātena

paripraśnena sevayā

upadekṣyanti te jñānaṁ

jñāninas tattva-darśinaḥ

(BG 4.34)

To receive Vedic knowledge. . . Vedic knowledge means spiritual knowledge. Material knowledge also, the same process, any knowledge, especially spiritual knowledge. Because material things sometimes we can perceive directly because our body is material. But spiritual knowledge, unless you hear from the authority, there is no source of knowledge. You cannot understand, because we do not see what is spirit. I am a spirit, you are spirit, but I do not see your spirit soul, you do not see my spirit soul, because we have got material eyes. When somebody dies, one cries, "Oh, my father is gone. My father is gone." Where is your father gone? Your father is lying on the bed. Why do you say father gone? That means with these material eyes we cannot see spirit.

So these material eyes has to be purified. Then spiritual knowledge begins. Therefore it is said,

ajñāna-timirāndhasya

jñānāñjana-śalākayā

cakṣur unmīlitaṁ yena

tasmai śrī-gurave namaḥ

All of our eyes are covered with darkness; we cannot see. Then how we can see in the darkness? Ajñāna-timirāndhasya jñānāñjana-śalākayā. Śalākayā means torch. So the torch, what is that torch? Jñānāñjana, smearing with the ointment of knowledge, that is the torch. So knowledge means not to see but to hear. Therefore it is called śruti, śuśruma. Knowledge has to be received through the ear, not by these eyes. Not by the eyes. This is not recommended. Nobody says, "I want to see knowledge." No: "I want to hear knowledge." Therefore it is called śruti, and knowledge is received through the ear, aural reception.

Why not with eyes and other senses? That is also very important to know. Suppose you are sleeping. Then all your senses are also sleeping. But the ear does not sleep. You have got practical experience. When a man is sleeping and somebody is coming to kill him, so what do you say? You cry, "Mr. Such-and-such, wake up! Wake up! There is danger. There is. . ." Then he can. . . Otherwise, all the senses are there, but only the ear will help you. The eyes are there, hands are there, legs are there, everything is there—nothing of this limbs of your. . . part of your body will help you. Simply your ear will help you when you are in danger. Therefore here it is said, śuśruma: "We have received knowledge through the ears, not with the eyes." Those rascals says, "I want to see practically." He cannot see. That is not possible. The modern defect is that they do not hear. The so-called scientists, philosophers, they do not hear. They simply want to see, want to touch, want to smell, want to lick up. That is not knowledge. So they are all failure. They do not hear. But the process is here, as it is said, śuśruma: "We have received knowledge by hearing from the authority." That is perfect knowledge. That is perfect knowledge.

So what they heard? They heard from Yamarāja, their master, that the dharma is that which is enunciated in the Vedas. That is dharma. Dharma, that does not mean that a faith. Faith, of course, we have to. Dharma, religion, is explained in English dictionary as "a kind of faith." That is the beginning. But really dharma means the constitutional position. That is dharma. Constitutional position. Just like chemicals. Chemicals, to find its purity, the books of pharmacology or other books, this chemical, the water, it contains so many percentage of hydrogen, so many percentage of oxygen, and so on, so on. So there is taste. The potassium cyanide, there is no taste. But other chemicals there are taste, touching. Because nobody has tasted potassium cyanide up to date, because as soon as you touch on the tongue, you will die. So similarly, there are taste.

So what is the taste? Taste is that jīvera svarūpa haya nitya-kṛṣṇa-dāsa (CC Madhya 20.108-109): we are eternal servant of God. This is our dharma, or constitutional position. Just like sugar is sweet. That is the taste. If sugar is salty, although both of them looks the same, white powder, but if I give you sugar and if it is actually salt, then immediately you will say, "Oh, this is not sugar. This is not sugar." How? By taste. Similarly, everything has got his constitutional position. The sugar is sweet, and the chili is pungent. If sugar is pungent and chili is sweet, then you throw it away. It is not real. It is not real. Similarly, what is the constitutional position of human being, dharma? To serve. This is the constitutional position. Every one of us, we are serving. Without service we have no other business. So this is our constitutional position. But we are serving wrongly; therefore we are not satisfied. This is the position. Caitanya Mahāprabhu therefore begins His philosophy from this point, that jīvera svarūpa haya nitya-kṛṣṇa-dāsa: "The real constitutional position of all living entities is to serve Kṛṣṇa." This is constitutional position.

But unfortunately, being misguided, instead of serving Kṛṣṇa, we are serving so many other things. Somebody is serving his family. Somebody is serving his country. Somebody is serving his dog. In this way, service is there—but the service is misplaced. Therefore we are not satisfied. Why in the material world people are not satisfied? Because his position is to serve Kṛṣṇa. He is serving māyā; therefore he is not happy. Plain thing. Kṛṣṇa says, mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūtaḥ (BG 15.7): "Jīva, the living entity, they are My part and parcel." So each one of us, we are part and parcel of God. So we have got some duty. Just like the part and parcel of my body has got some duty. The eyes, his duty is to see. The ear, his duty is to hear. So every part of duty, even within, without. So we, being servant, eternal servant of Kṛṣṇa, our only duty is to serve Kṛṣṇa. And because we are not doing that, therefore we are unhappy.

So that duty is called dharma. It is not a kind of faith; it is the constitutional position. You must have to serve. If you don't serve Kṛṣṇa, then you will have to serve māyā. There are two things: God or Satan. So similarly, God is Kṛṣṇa, and Satan is māyā. So if don't. . . if you refuse to serve God, then you have to serve Satan. That's all. You cannot become master. This is called dharma. Dharmaṁ tu sākṣād bhagavat-praṇītam (SB 6.3.19). And, as it is said here, vedo nārāyaṇaḥ sākṣāt. Vedo nārāyaṇaḥ sākṣāt. Veda, the knowledge, the law or the order, that order is from God. Therefore there is no difference between the Vedas and Nārāyaṇa. Because Nārāyaṇa, or God, is absolute, He personally and His word, it is the same thing. And in the material experience also we see that the government and the government law is the same thing. You cannot say that the government law is different from government. This is material example. And spiritual is still more perfect. Vedo nārāyaṇaḥ sākṣāt. In other words, that you cannot make any law. The government can make law. Similarly, you cannot manufacture any religion. Nārāyaṇa sākṣāt. Nārāyaṇa, God, He can make. You cannot make at your home, "I have manufactured a type of religion." No. That you cannot do.

Nowadays this is going on. Yata mata tata patha: "You can manufacture your own religion." This is going on. "You are okay; I am okay." "I manufacture my religion. You manufacture your religion. Don't fight. Let us become brother." This is going on. So how you can be brother? The dog remains a dog. How they can become brother? It is not possible. Therefore so many religious systems, they are all rascaldom. One religion. That is the order of God. That is religion. If you want one religion, then you must know who is God and you must abide by the order of God. That is religion, very simple thing. You cannot manufacture, concoction. That is not religion. Therefore Bhāgavata, it is said, dharmaḥ projjhita-kaitavaḥ (SB 1.1.2): "All these cheating type of religion is rejected, kicked out from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam." What is that religion there? Paraṁ satyaṁ dhīmahi (SB 1.1.1): "The Supreme Truth, the Absolute Truth, we are accepting." This is religion.

So the Absolute Truth is Kṛṣṇa. So Kṛṣṇa is God, accepted in the Vedas. That is. . . Kṛṣṇa also says in the Bhagavad-gītā, ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavaḥ (BG 10.8). From Vedic knowledge, you get all knowledge. So if you don't accept Kṛṣṇa as God, that is also your mistake. You do not know God, but here Kṛṣṇa presents Himself as God, and He is accepted by authorities. So you have to accept. If you say that "I don't accept Kṛṣṇa," then you have to present somebody else if you know God. And if you say that "I do not know what is God," then you have to accept Kṛṣṇa, because you do not know. Here the authority says, "Kṛṣṇa is God." So you have to accept that. You cannot deny it. So Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and Kṛṣṇa means Nārāyaṇa. Therefore it is said, vedo nārāyaṇaḥ sākṣāt. Veda means. . . Therefore knowledge or religion means what is ordained, what is described by the words of Kṛṣṇa, Nārāyaṇa.

Then the next question will be: "Then how Nārāyaṇa learned the Vedas, or knowledge?" Because we have got experience, we receive knowledge from others. So this question may be raised. Therefore it is said, sākṣāt svayambhūḥ. He does not require. That is God. All of us, we require knowledge by somebody, guru. But Kṛṣṇa does not require any guru, although when He comes, He accepts guru just to teach us. Caitanya Mahāprabhu had guru, Kṛṣṇa has also guru, because when They incarnate, They play just like ordinary man. But the knowledge is self-sufficient. The example is given like this: Just like the cloud. Cloud takes water from the sea, and he pours it down, and again the water goes down to the sea. So all knowledge comes from Kṛṣṇa, but when Kṛṣṇa appears, He takes the same knowledge from, through the guru. Just try to understand. The knowledge is just like the sea, full knowledge, but it distributes the water on the land. Again the water goes down. Similarly, anyone who becomes Kṛṣṇa's guru or Caitanya Mahāprabhu's guru, They take knowledge from him, but superficially Kṛṣṇa accepts guru. He has no guru. Svayambhū. Therefore it is called svayambhū. Svayambhū. Svayambhūr iti śuśruma. Kṛṣṇa has no cause. Sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam (Bs. 5.1). Anādir ādir govindaḥ. Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ. Īśvara, the Supreme Lord, is Kṛṣṇa, sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha, anādi. He has no source of knowledge. That is called svayambhū.

In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, in the beginning, also it is described, janmādy asya yataḥ anvayād itarataś ca artheṣu abhijñaḥ (SB 1.1.1). Abhijñaḥ. Now, God created this world. Everyone knows, those who are religious, either Hindu, Muslim, Christian, that God has created. Now, creation means He must be very expert. You do not see that this cosmic manifestation, the earth, water, air, fire, so nicely arranged, and they are being mixed up and so many other things are happening. Everything is perfectly, perfectly being done. So this perfect knowledge, how Kṛṣṇa, or God, received? Wherefrom He got this perfect knowledge? That is the difference between our knowledge and Kṛṣṇa's knowledge, God's knowledge. That is called abhijña: He knows everything perfectly, without going to anyone else.

Parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate svābhāvikī jñāna-bala-kriyā ca (CC Madhya 13.65, purport). This is the Vedic statement, that "The Absolute Truth is so perfect, He has got so many potencies, that everything is being done so perfectly." Just like one artist, if he wants to paint one picture, one flower, he has to give his attention in so many ways. He has to move the brush in such a way and take this color, different colors. It requires so many artistic sense and so much good sense, so many things. It does not come. One who is not artist, not painter, he cannot paint. So do you think this flower which is coming out daily in your garden in different colors and different smell and flavor, they are being done without any artistic sense? This is nonsense. There is sense. There is God's potency. But parāsya śaktiḥ, His senses, His knowledge, is so perfect that it is coming automatically, and we foolish people, we think that nature is producing. No, nature is the instrument, just like the brush, but the brain is God. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. These rascal scientists, they do not know that. They deny God.

So therefore, veda-praṇihito dharmaḥ. So how God is working, how His brush is moving, how the things are coming out so nicely, how much great brain He has got. . . Kṛṣṇa says, mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat. Kṛṣṇa says, "There is no more good brain than Me." He says. Mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat kiñcid asti dhanañjaya (BG 7.7). Mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram (BG 9.10). The prakṛti, nature, is instrument. Nature is not brain. Just like the nowadays you have got very complicated machine, computer. The computer machine is not brain; the man who is pushing the buttons, he has got the brain. So we have to learn like that. Therefore we have to take knowledge from Kṛṣṇa, and Kṛṣṇa is giving knowledge directly in the Bhagavad-gītā. So if you read and accept it as it is, without any foolishness, then you become perfectly in knowledge.

Thank you very much.

Devotees: Jaya Prabhupāda. (end).