760602 - Lecture SB 06.01.34-36 - Honolulu

Lectures by Date, 1976

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

 Listen to a 'Nectar Drop' created from this lecture

760602SB-LOS ANGELES - June 02, 1976 -31.54 Minutes

(Devotees sing Śrī guru-vandanā) (break)

Pradyumna: (06:15) " . . . of Yamarāja said: Your eyes are just like the petals of lotus flowers. Dressed in yellow silken garments, decorated with garlands of lotuses, and wearing very attractive helmets on your heads and earrings on your ears, you all appear fresh and youthful. Your four long arms are decorated with bows and quivers of arrows and with swords, clubs, conchshells, discs and lotus flowers. Your effulgence has dissipated the darkness of this place with extraordinary illumination. Now, sirs, why are you obstructing us?"

Prabhupāda:

sarve padma-palāśākṣāḥ

pīta-kauśeya-vāsasaḥ

kirīṭinaḥkuṇḍalino

lasat-puṣkara-mālinaḥ

sarve ca nūtna-vayasaḥ

sarve cāru-caturbhujāḥ

dhanur-niṣaṅgāsi-gadā-

śaṅkha-cakrāmbuja-śriyaḥ

diśo vitimirālokāḥ

kurvantaḥ svena tejasā

kim arthaṁ dharma-pālasya

kiṅkarān no niṣedhatha

(SB 6.1.34-36)

So here is a description of the residents of Vaikuṇṭha. Now, the fools and rascals will say this is all mythology . . . (indistinct) . . . and Vyāsadeva, the compiler of the Vedic literature, he has presented this science by presenting our Vedic philosophy . . . (indistinct) . . . it is not mythology; it is fact. Have you seen all the inhabitants of all the planets? How you can say? You have to take information from the right source, Vedic source. There are, yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-aṇḍa-koṭi-koṭiṣv aśeṣa . . . yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-aṇḍa-koṭi-koṭiṣv aśeṣa-vibhūti-bhinnam (BS 5.40). God's creation is so vast, you cannot estimate even what is the length and breadth of this universe. It is not possible. We have got information four millions of miles. And where is sun situated? Everything is there. So how it is? We are not going by sputnik to measure it. We have got information from Vedic literature. And if you don’t agree, so how you can say it is not, because you have not measured it. If you say you have measured by, what is called, telescope and other machinery. So what is this measuring? You are imperfect, and your machine must be imperfect. How you can measure or manufacture a perfect machine? It is not possible, because you are imperfect; your senses are imperfect. Although you have got your eyes, you cannot see which is situated a very long distance away. Just like you see the sun like the disc. Huh? So the sun is not like a disc if you get closer. It is big.

So with every sense you analyze, you will find, not only your eyes, your all other senses, they are imperfect. Imperfectness of senses . . . you have got four defects. One defect is that you commit mistakes. One defect is that we accept something for something else, illusion. Just like everybody, practically 99.9% all over the world, they are accepting this body as the self. It is also imperfect senses. One who accepts this body as the self is in the line of the animals. The animals . . . the dogs are thinking, "I am dog," and he's barking. So similarly, if I think, "I am Indian," "I am American," where is the difference between the dog and me? There is no difference. Dog does not know that he is not this body, and I do not know that I am not this body.

Actually I am not this body. That is a fact. You analyze your body. From every point of view—bhūmir āpo 'nalo vāyuḥ, this material body is composition of five gross elements: earth, water, air, fire and ether. So mind, intelligence, ego, that is aparā, inferior energy. Kṛṣṇa says, apareyam itas tu viddhi me prakṛtiṁ param (BG 7.5). These material elements, gross and subtle, they are aparā, inferior. You cannot manufacture life by this inferior way. Otherwise, the so-called scientists would have manufactured long, long ago. Earth is available, water is available, and fire is available, the air is available. Why don’t you manufacture it? If life means combination of these five elements or eight elements, why don’t you manufacture it? Do you think there is life within these elements? You are . . . (indistinct) . . . you say the man is dead because there is no breathing. So what is this breathing? This breathing is air. So if there is a scarcity of air, why don’t you take a little air and inject, or make some machine? You are very expert in making machines. Make some machine with bellow, and put it within the . . . and it will . . . (indistinct) . . . it whenever you like. So analyze in this way. Actually if you are scientist, will you find in the breathing life? No. Then if you say that the blood has become white, therefore he is dead, then make the blood red. (laughter) It is natural red. Natural red doesn’t mean . . . so many flowers are naturally red. Is that life?

So we can argue, a good argument, logic, that you won’t find life by combination of these material elements. That is not possible. Therefore a sane man must consider that life does not belong to these eight elements. It is . . . (indistinct) . . . and that is explained in Bhagavad-gītā, apareyam. This is . . . (indistinct) . . . this is dead matter. There is no life. Apareyam itas tv viddhi me prakṛtiṁ parām (BG 7.5). There is another element. What is that? Jīva-bhūtā. That is jīva-bhūtā. It is clearly explained. Why we should waste our time to find out how there is life, how it is working? Take instruction from Kṛṣṇa. Everything is given. And if you are intelligent, you’ll understand; then you can learn. But if you are over-intelligent then you will interpret in a different way, then you go to hell and other places. Don’t do that. Therefore we are presenting Bhagavad-gītā As It Is. Don’t interpret foolishly.

So śāstra, śāstra-cakṣuṣaḥ. You should see through the śāstra. That is our advice. We don’t see with our imperfect aparatus. Eyes are imperfect. All our senses are imperfect. Either you see through microscope or telescope or any scope, there is no scope of seeing right. There is no. So this is explained. Therefore śāstra says, Vedānta says, śāstra-cakṣuṣaḥ. Paśyanti jñāna-cakṣuṣaḥ (BG 15.9) in the Bhagavad-gītā. Paśyanti jñāna-cakṣuṣā: eyes should be enlightened by knowledge. That is real eyes. These blunt eyes is not eyes. Therefore guru is worshiped,

ajñāna-timirāndhasya

jñānāñjana-śalākayā

cakṣur unmīlitaṁ yena

tasmai śrī-gurave

(Gautamīya-tantra)

Just we are singing,

guru-mukha-padma-vākya, cittete koriyā aikya,

ār nā koriho mane āśā

(Śrī-guru-vandanā 2)

Do not try to foolishly search anything and waste your time. Hear from a bona fide spiritual master, and that is final knowledge. That is final knowledge.

There is no question of researching or corroborating when the guru is speaking. Guru is bona fide, he will speak the right thing because he has got the knowledge from the right source. That is guru. Guru means one who has received the knowledge from the right source and distributed the same knowledge. He is not manufacturing. That is Guru. Guru is worshiped because he is delivering the right thing—no nonsense. That is guru. Why guru should be worshiped? Sākṣād-dharitvena samasta (Śrī Gurv-aṣṭaka 7)—because he has no cheating propensity. That is guru. Guru hasn’t got . . . to become a guru, then you require very good qualifications, and the best qualification is that he does not cheat. Cheater, how he can become guru? The first qualification is cheating. If cheater can become teacher—no. Cheater is cheater. So don’t be misled by cheaters. Go to the real teacher. Tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet (Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad 1.2.12). One must have . . . go to real guru.

So how shall I find real guru? That is very easy. Eh? How it is? Caitanya Mahāprabhu gives us direction. He says, "You become a guru." He asked everyone—not only the Indians, but everyone. Especially He has advised the Indians to become perfect and distribute the knowledge throughout the whole world. Because actually knowledge is there, revealed. That is a fact, Vedic knowledge. So one has to make his life perfect by receiving Vedic knowledge through the right source, and distribute the knowledge. It is not very difficult. So that is the injunction of Caitanya Mahāprabhu. He asked especially the Indians,

bhārata-bhūmite manuṣya janma haila yāra

janma sārthaka kari' kara para-upakāra

(CC Adi 9.41)

Anyone who has taken birth in India, Bhāratavarṣa, because he has got the facilities, the Vedas—the Bhagavad-gītā, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Vedānta-sūtra—all these things are cultivated in India. So they have got the facilities, but at the present moment the people have become rascals. They have given up the Vedic knowledge. They are hankering after technical knowledge. That is India's main fault. Otherwise real knowledge is there, and Caitanya Mahāprabhu said that "Make your life perfect by understanding the Vedic knowledge, and distribute it."

These people are, all over the world, they are in darkness. It is not partiality, because I am Indian . . . (indistinct) . . . behalf, but actually it is a fact. If you have to . . . even a Chinese Communist gentleman, he wrote a book, I forget the name, in the New York University; I saw it. He has written in that book that "If you want to know about religion, then go to India." He has said that, although he is Communist. So actually, so our Bhagavad-gītā, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, it is not meant for Indians only. That is not the idea. But nowadays everything is seen through national consciousness. But in the Bhagavad-gītā you will not find anything as so-called nationalism or communism. That is spiritualism. We are discussing about spirit soul, not the Indian, American, Christian, Hindu. No. We have no business with this skin philosophy, that "Here is an American, white; and here is an African, black." No. We have no skin philosophy. Our philosophy: what is there within this black and white body. That is our philosophy. That is the beginning of Bhagavad-gītā:

dehino 'smin yathā dehe

kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā

tathā dehāntara-prāptir

dhīras tatra na muhyati

(BG 2.13)

This is the first education to Arjuna. "My dear Arjuna, you are lamenting so much for your family. You have come to war field, you have to fight, and now you are crying for your family. What is this nonsense?"

So this is the fact. He chastised, that "Your vision is so poor that you are looking after this body."

aśocyān anvaśocas tvaṁ

prajñā-vādāṁś ca bhāṣase

gatāsūn agatāsūṁś ca

nānuśocanti paṇḍitāḥ

(BG 2.11)

This is first chastisement, that so far this body is concerned, it is a dead lump of matter, either it is moving or not moving. When there is life, it will move. When there is not life, it does not move. But both cases, it is a lump of matter. Just like the motorcar, when it is going at the speed of hundred miles, and when it is not going, in both the cases it is nothing but a lump of matter. If there's a life . . . the life is the driver. So that is actually vision. One should take care of the driver, of the driver within the car. That is the instruction of Bhagavad-gītā: dehino 'smin yathā dehe (BG 2.13). Asmin dehe. Within this body there is actually life. And therefore we are changing this body on account of presence of this life. In this way there are so many so-called scholars of Bhagavad-gītā, they do not understand even the first lesson actually. Asmin dehe. Dehino 'smin yathā dehe (BG 2.13).

So it is very easy to understand these things. If you have become so dull on account of sinful activities . . . therefore to understand properly, to have clear brain, one has to become pure: no illicit sex, no intoxication, no meat-eating, no gambling. And then you will be, you can learn. And then, when we are advanced, then we shall learn other things also. Paśyanti jñāna-cakṣuṣaḥ (BG 15.9). There are innumerable planets. Each planet is different from the other. This is God's . . . you see on one tree there are millions of leaves, but you cannot find two leaves of the same size or the same . . . this is God's creation. This is God's creation. So how you can expect the same atmosphere in other planets?

So we are very doubtful whether they have gone to the moon planet. From the śāstra it appears they haven’t gone. You can see. Otherwise why they have stopped talking of the moon . . . (indistinct) . . .? (laughter) Finished. They have brought little sand and rocks after spending millions of dollars, and they are satisfied: "Now I have gone to the moon." This kind of bluffing can go on, but we don’t accept it.

Thank you very much.

Devotees: Jaya! (kīrtana) (end)