730408 - Lecture BG 04.13 - New York

Lectures by Date, 1973

730408BG-NEW YORK - April 8, 1973 - 29:41 Minutes

(Video - 07:40)

Prabhupāda:

catur varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭaṁ

guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ

tasya kartāram api māṁ

vidhy akartāram avyayam

(BG 4.13)

This is a verse from Bhagavad-gītā. Most of you know this book, Bhagavad-gītā. It is very famous book of knowledge. And we are presenting Bhagavad-gītā as it is. This Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement means to present Bhagavad-gītā as it is, without any adulteration.

So Kṛṣṇa says four classes of men, catur varṇyam . . . catur means "four," and varṇa means "Division of society." Just like varṇa means color. As there are division of color—red, blue and yellow—similarly human being, human society should be divided according to the quality. The quality is also called color. Catur varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭaṁ guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ (BG 4.13).

So there are three qualities in this material world. Three qualities, or three color: red, blue and yellow. You mix it, then you become eighty-one colors. Three colors, three upon three, multiplied, it becomes nine. Nine upon nine multiplied, it becomes eighty-one. So there are 8,400,000's different forms of living entities, due to this mixture of different qualities. Nature is manufacturing different types of body according to the association of the living entity to the particular type of quality.

Living entities are part and parcel of God. Suppose God is the big fire and living entities are just like sparks. The sparks, they are also fire. Sparks also, if one spark falls on your body, on your garment, it burns. But it is not as powerful as the big fire. Similarly, God is all-powerful. God is great. We are part and parcel of God. Therefore our greatness is very, very small, infinitesimal. God is great. Therefore He has created so many universes. We cannot account for even one universe. This one universe which we see, the sky, the dome, within that sky, outer space, there are millions and trillions of stars, planets, they're floating, floating in the air. Everyone knows.

We can float one Sputnik in the sky, and we take so much credit that we have become very, very great scientist. We don't care for God. This is foolishness. Foolish person will say like that. But one who is intelligent, he knows that God is floating millions and trillions of planets in the sky, and what we have done in that comparison? This is intelligence. So we have become very much proud of our scientific knowledge, and therefore, at the present moment, we defy the existence of God. Sometimes we say that, "I have become God now." These are foolish statements.

You are nothing in comparison to the intelligence . . . He's also intelligent. Because we are part and parcel of God, therefore we can study what is God if we simply study ourself. Just like if you study a drop of seawater, if you analyze chemically, you'll find so many chemicals in that drop. So you can understand what is the composition of the sea: the same composition, but in greater quantity. That is the difference between God and ourself. We are small gods, we can say, small gods. Teeny, sample gods. Therefore we are so much proud. But we should not be proud because we should know that all our qualities are taken from God, because we are part and parcel. So originally all these qualities are there in God.

And therefore Vedānta-sūtra says what is God, what is the Absolute Truth. Athātho brahma-jijñāsā. When inquire about God, about the Absolute Truth, the answer is immediately given: janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). The Absolute Truth is that from whom everything comes, everything emanates. So everything is coming from God. He's the original source of all supplies. Now what is our position? There are innumerable living entities: nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānāṁ (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13). That is Vedic information. God is also a living entity, like us, but He's the chief living entity. And we are also living entity.

Just like one father. Father may have got twenty children, twenty sons. Formerly, they used to have one hundred sons. Now the fathers have no such power. But in the . . . up to five thousand years ago, King Dhṛtarāṣṭra gave birth to one hundred sons. Now we are . . . we say, we are saying that we are overpopulated. But that's not the fact. At the present moment, where there is the question of overpopulation? Now how many of us giving birth hundreds of children? No. Nobody. But formerly, a father could give birth to one hundred children. So there is no question of overpopulation. And even there is overpopulation, we get information from the Vedas: eko bahūnāṁ yo vidadhāti kāmān. (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13) That one chief living entity, God, He can maintain innumerable living entities.

There is no question of overpopulation. This is a false theory. If God can create, He can maintain also. And actually, this is the fact. I am travelling all over the world. There are so much vacant places upon the surface of the globe that . . . that ten times more than the present population can be easily maintained. But we, we do not know how to use it. In Africa, in Australia, in your America, enough land still lying. But because we have encroached upon the land of Kṛṣṇa, the difficulty is there. China is overpopulated. India is overpopulated. But we, if we take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, these difficulties will be over within a second.

Kṛṣṇa consciousness means to take everything Kṛṣṇa's. I am also Kṛṣṇa's. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Actually, that is the fact. Everything . . . Kṛṣṇa means God. Everything belongs to God. I also belong to God. Īśāvāsyam idaṁ sarvam (ISO 1). Everything belongs to God. That's a fact. But we do not accept the fact. We take something illusory. Therefore it is called māyā.

Just like the Americans: they are claiming this land is for the American group. Similarly, other nations, they're . . . but the land actually belongs to God. The land, the sky, the water, and the products in the land, in the sky, in the water, everything belongs to God. And we are children of God. We have got the right to live at the expense of father. Just like we live, small children, they live at the cost of father. Similarly, we also live by the arrangement of God. Why should we claim that this is our property?

This is the idea of spiritual communism. In Bhāgavata these things are stated, how to feel spiritual communism. In the spiritual communism . . . the present Communists, they are thinking of the human being only. And the animals are being sent to the slaughterhouse. Although the human being and the animal is born in the same land . . . actually, they are also nationals. National means one who's born in that particular land. So why not these animals, nationals? But because they have no Kṛṣṇa consciousness, they cannot think so broadly. They think nationalism means it is limited to the human being, not to the animals, not to the trees.

But when you become Kṛṣṇa conscious you understand that the trees, the plants, the reptiles, the aquatics, the human beings, the beasts, everyone, each and everyone, part and parcel of God. According to their karma they have got different bodies, the color, as I explained. According to kāraṇam guṇa-sango 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22). These things are described in the Bhagavad-gītā. One has got a different type of body according to his karma. Karmaṇā daiva netreṇa jantor deha upapattaye (SB 3.31.1). By karma we create next body.

So this is a great science. People do not know how things are taking place, how there are so many species of life, how one is so-called happy, one so-called distressed. Why one is rich, one is poor. Why there are so many planets. Why some of them are demigods and some of them are human beings, some of them are animals. It is a great science. But there is not cultivation of this knowledge in the modern universities or educational institution. Perhaps we are the only group of men, we are trying to propagate this science of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. But it is a perfect science to understand the position.

Now, Kṛṣṇa says: catur varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭaṁ guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ (BG 4.13). Now the . . . when we are animals . . . we had to pass through animal bodies. By evolution, we have come to this human form of body. Now it is an opportunity to get out of this cycle of birth and death. This is our real problem. But people, because they have no education, poor fund of knowledge . . . there is no educational institution how transmigration of the soul takes place. They do not know. Big, big M.A., Ph.D.'s, but they do not know what is the actual position of the living entity. But that is the real problem. They do not know the real problem.

The real problem is . . . it is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi (BG 13.9): birth, death, old age and disease. This is real problem. Nobody wants to take birth. At least nobody wants to die. Birth and death. Wherever there is birth, there must be death. Anything which is born must die. So janma-mṛtyu. And old age. So long you live, you have to change your position. So one position is this old age. Just like we have become old. There are so many complaints. Jarā. And vyādhi: and when we become diseased. Everyone should become diseased. Everyone should become old. Everyone must die. This is the problem. Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam.

We are trying to mitigate all our miserable conditions of life. That is struggle for existence. We are scientist. We are discovering many counteracting processes to get out of distressed condition. But the difficult position, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi, we are avoiding, because we cannot do anything. We cannot even . . . the so-called science, they cannot solve this problem. Although sometimes they falsely become proud that, "By science we shall become immortal," and so on . . . these things were tried before also by atheistic class of men like Rāvaṇa, Hiraṇyakaśipu. But it is not possible to become successful to stop birth, death, old age and disease. That is not possible. If there is any possible process, that is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

If you become Kṛṣṇa conscious, then you can get a body . . . not get, you have already got the body, spiritual body. And upon that spiritual body, this material body has developed. Just like dress. Your coat is cut according to your body. Similarly, this materially body is cut 19:25 according to our spiritual body. So we have got our spiritual body. This material body is covering. Vāsāṁsi jirṇāni. Just like dress. Your shirt and coat is the covering of your real body. Similarly, this body, gross body and subtle body, made of material elements . . . the gross body is made of earth, water, air, fire, and the subtle body's made of mind, intelligence and ego. This is the shirt and coat. Within this shirt and coat, there is the soul.

So the soul is now encaged in this material body. And our business in the human form of body . . . in animal form of body, we cannot do this. But the human form of body we can understand that "I am not this body." The is, the body is, this material body, is a outer encagement, and, because I have got this body, I am subjected to birth, death, old age and disease. Now, in the human form of body . . . I understand it. So if I take the process, how to get out of this cycle of birth and death, then our human life is successful.

This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. How . . . we are helping people how to get out of this material body and revive your own spiritual body and, in that spiritual body, you go back to home, back to Godhead. This is the process. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti (BG 4.9). But people are so attracted to this material body that they are prepared to become cats and dogs next life, but they are not prepared to go back to home, back to Godhead. This is the problem.

So why this problem? Because the human society is in chaos, a chaotic condition. There must be division of four classes. One class must be brāhmaṇa, intelligent class of men. And one should be kṣatriya, one class, the administrator. Because human society, they require good consulting brain, good administrators, good producers and good worker. That is the division of brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, catur varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭam (BG 4.13). In order to keep smooth facilities for human life, there must be four divisions. If you say that don't . . . "We don't require brāhmaṇa,". . . if you don't require brāhmaṇa, then you'll suffer.

Just like you have got this body. And if you think, "This part of the body's very expensive, always eating. Cut it off," then you will dead. Similarly, just to keep your body in good condition, in living condition, you must have your head, you must have your arms, you must have your belly, you must have your legs. You cannot say that "I can avoid this part of the body." No. Similarly, catur varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭam (BG 4.13), the four divisions of the society must be there. Otherwise it will be chaotic, or dead body.

So at the present moment, the difficulty is there is no brāhmaṇa, there is no kṣatriya. There are only the vaiśyas and the śūdras. Belly. Vaiśya means belly and śūdra means the leg. So if, out of the four divisions, one is wanting, the society must be in chaotic condition. The four must exist. Although comparatively head is the most important part of the body, still, you cannot neglect the leg also. This is a cooperative combination.

So we have to cooperate. It doesn't matter one is very intelligent, one is less intelligent. One is less intelligent . . . the four classes are there. The most intelligent class is the head, brain. And the next intelligent class, the administrator, government. The next intelligent class, the industrialists, merchants. The next intelligent class is the worker. All of them are required. But at the present moment, there is only this mercantile industrialist and worker. There is no brain. How to conduct society? How to become perfect human society, how to fulfill the mission of human society, for these things there is no brain.

So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is creating some brain of the human society. Brāhmaṇa. And this brain . . . Brāhmaṇa's business is . . . Brāhmaṇa, this word, very word comes:

namo brahmaṇya-devāya

go-brāhmaṇa-hitāya ca

jagad-dhitāya kṛṣṇāya

govindāya namo namaḥ

(Viṣṇu Purāṇa 1.19.65)

So brāhmaṇa means one who knows God. That is brāhmaṇa. And keeping in view God, they teaches others to become God conscious. Without becoming God conscious, the human society is simply animal society. Because animals cannot be God conscious, however you may go on preaching amongst the animal, cats and dogs. It is not possible, because they have no brain to understand what is God. So in the human society, if there is no brāhmaṇa who can teach about God, who can elevate person to God consciousness, then it is also animal society. Simply eating, sleeping and sex life and defense, these are the business of the animals also. The animals also know how to eat, how to sleep, how to enjoy sex life, how to defend. They know in their own way.

So simply to do these business does not mean human being. Then human, the mission of human being will not be fulfilled. There must be the four classes of men, as Kṛṣṇa recommends: cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭam (BG 4.13). There must be a brahminical class of men, a kṣatriya class of men, a vaiśya class . . . there are already, but they're not very scientifically settled, as it is propounded in the Bhagavad-gītā, cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭam. These are guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ. Guna means according to quality.

So in India, these four classes of men are there, but they are in the name. Actually it is also in the chaotic condition, because nobody is following the prescription as given by Bhagavad-gītā, guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ. In India, although a person born in a brāhmaṇa family, but his guṇa, qualities, are less than śūdra, but still he's being accepted as a brāhmaṇa. That is the difficulty. Therefore India's condition is so chaotic.

But this is a scientific process. You Western people, you should try to understand that. And our boys and girls, who have joined, they're trying to understand, and execute the principles. So if you take up this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, which is meant for the brāhmaṇas, if you become brāhmaṇa by quality, then your . . . the Western nations will be . . .

Especially in America, they'll be first-class nation. They'll be first-class nation. You have got intelligence. You have got resources. You are also inquisitive. You catch up good things. So you have got good qualities. You take up this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement seriously and you'll become the first-class nation of the world. That is my request.

Thank you very much. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Devotees: All glories . . . (audio end) to Prabhupāda! (Video - 36:30) (kirtan) (end)

730408 - Lecture BG 04.13 - New York

(Redirected from Lecture on BG 4.13 -- New York, April 8, 1973)