721102 - Lecture SB 01.02.22 - Vrndavana

Lectures by Date, 1972

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

721102SB-VRNDAVAN - November 02, 1972 - 32:12 Minutes

Pradyumna: Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. (leads chanting of verse, etc.) (Prabhupāda and devotees repeat)

ato vai kavayo nityaṁ

bhaktiṁ paramayā mudā

vāsudeve bhagavati

kurvanty ātma-prasādanīm

(SB 1.2.22)

(break)

ataḥ—therefore; vai—certainly; kavayaḥ—all transcendentalists; nityam—from time immemorial; bhaktim—service unto the Lord; paramayā—supreme; mudā—with great delight; vāsudeve—Śrī Kṛṣṇa; bhagavati—the Personality of Godhead; kurvanti—do render; ātma—self; prasādanīm—that which enlivens.

Translation: "Therefore all transcendentalists have been rendering loving service with great delight to Lord Kṛṣṇa, the Personality of Godhead, from time immemorial, because such devotional service is enlivening to the self."

Prabhupāda: Hmm.

ato vai kavayo nityaṁ

bhaktiṁ paramayā mudā

vāsudeve bhagavati

kurvanty ātma-prasādanīm

(SB 1.2.22)

Bhaktim ātma-prasādanīm. Devotional service is ātmā, means self, or mind also, even body. Ātmā means the body, this mind and the self also. So ātma-prasādanīm means if you want to satisfy your mind, if you want to satisfy your self, or even you want to satisfy your body . . .

we are living in three stages: bodily concept of life, mental concept of life and spiritual concept of life. Those who are grossly in ignorance, they are thinking in terms of bodily concept of life. Those who are little more advanced, they are thinking in terms of mental or psychological concept of life.

And those who are still more advanced, they are thinking in terms of spiritual concept of life. The spiritual concept of life, as it is described before: vadanti tat tattva-vidas tattvam (SB 1.2.11). Tattvam means truth. The truth is spirit, not this matter. Matter is truth, subordinate to spirit. On the basis of spirit, the matter grows, just like our body has grown on the basis of our spiritual existence.

So spiritual realization is the ultimate goal of our life. Jīvasya tattva-jijñāsā nārtho yaś ceha karmabhiḥ. We have discussed these verses previously. This human form of life, jīvasya tattva-jijñāsā . . . jijñāsā, about the truth, inquiry about the truth, that is the main business of the living entity. But lower than human being—animals, birds, beasts, trees, aquatics, insects—they have no privilege to inquire about the Absolute Truth. It is in the human form of life one can inquire about the Absolute Truth. Athāto brahma jijñāsā. So when one is actually inquisitive about the Absolute Truth, he realizes three transcendental subject: brahmeti paramātmeti bhagavān iti śabdyate (SB 1.2.11).

So ultimately one has to reach to the platform of Bhagavān, Vāsudeva. Vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti sa mahātmā sudurlabhaḥ (BG 7.19). One who reaches to the point of understanding Vāsudeva, he is the perfect mahātmā. Vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti. According to Vedic description, mahātmā means one who has reached to the point of Vāsudeva, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. One who has reached . . . all of them are transcendentalists, kovidāḥ, men of knowledge, but one who has reached to the point of understanding Vāsudeva, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he's called mahātmā.

Mahātmā is a very common word in India. Any saintly person is called a mahātmā. But according to Vedic description, a mahātmā is he who has reached to the point of understanding Vāsudeva, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In another place it is stated:

mahat-sevāṁ dvāram āhur vimuktes

tamo-dvāraṁ yoṣitāṁ saṅgi-saṅgam

(SB 5.5.2)

There are two ways. Our life, they are going in two ways. One way is liberation, and the other way is bondage. Just like you have seen the reel. The reel is rolling. One way it is rolling to roll the thread, and another it is giving way to the thread. Similarly, we can lead in two ways our life, either towards liberation or towards darkness of bondage.

This, our human life, by gradual evolutionary process we come to the human form of life. Now we can move it two ways, either towards liberation or towards bondage. We do not know, modern education. There is no such information what is called bondage and what is called liberation. Andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānāḥ. Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇum (SB 7.5.31). They do not know. There is no such education that students may understand what is Viṣṇu, what is God, what he is, what is his relationship with God, Viṣṇu. These things are unknown to the modern educationist. The śāstra therefore says:

andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānās

te 'pīśa-tantryām uru-dāmni-baddhāḥ

(SB 7.5.31)

Uru-dāmni-baddhāḥ. Uru means very strong. Dāmni means rope. Just like if your hands and legs are tied very strongly, it is very difficult for you to move. Similarly, by the laws of nature, every living entity is bound up very strongly, īśa-tantryām, by the laws of the Supreme Lord. We are bound up. We cannot deviate. We cannot violate the laws of nature. Everyone can experience. A little violation, little deviation from the laws of nature, we accept some suffering. That is our daily experience.

Suppose we are eating, but if we eat little more than we can digest . . . the laws of nature is that you can eat as much as you can digest. But if you eat more than you can digest, immediately, by the laws of nature, you suffer from indigestion. You cannot violate. Daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā duratyayā (BG 7.14). Nobody can violate the laws of nature.

So we have discussed how to get out of the laws of nature—mukta-saṅgasya jāyate. Mukta-saṅga means one who has become freed from the three modes of material nature. After being freed from the laws of material nature, or by the three modes of material nature, then we can talk of vāsudeva-bhakti. But one can become free from this bondage of material nature simply by devotional service to Vāsudeva. That is being stressed in this chapter of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam from the very beginning.

vāsudeve bhagavati

bhakti-yogaḥ prayojitaḥ

janayaty āśu vairāgyaṁ

jñānaṁ ca yad ahaitukam

(SB 1.2.7)

If we simply learn how to render devotional service to Vāsudeva, Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, vāsudeve bhagavati bhakti-yogaḥ prayojitaḥ . . . this is actually translated into English as Kṛṣṇa conscious. Everything for Kṛṣṇa. So that Kṛṣṇa consciousness, if we take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then janayaty āśu vairāgyam. Āśu, very soon, one becomes detached from this material bondage. Janayaty āśu vairāgyaṁ jñānaṁ ca. And jñāna, knowledge, real knowledge. In the material knowledge, that is the cause of bondage. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura has said:

anitya saṁsāre moha janamiyā

jaḍa-vidyā jato māyāra vaibhava

(Vidyāra Vilāse 3)

Material knowledge, advancement of material knowledge, means more and more bondage. And advancement of spiritual knowledge means more and more liberation. But our problem is how to liberate ourselves from this material bondage. We are bound up. Just like I am a spirit soul, you are spirit soul, but we are put into this material bondage. Because we are in material bondage, therefore we have no freedom. People do not understand this. Just like spirit soul is described as sarva-ga. Sarva-ga means the spirit soul can go anywhere he likes.

But due to this material bondage, because we have this material body, we are checked. Even we cannot go to the other planet. But we have got instances . . . just like Nārada Muni. Nārada Muni is traveling all over the universes, not only within the material world, but in the spiritual world, because he has got spiritual body. There is no material bondage.

These are very subtle matter, but one can realize if he meditates upon it. The yogīs, they can, because they become, by yogic process, they become a little free from this material body, therefore they can transfer from one place to another very quickly. Even those yogīs who are on this material platform, on this planet, they travel very quickly. There are many yogīs still in India who take bath in four places daily in the . . . early in the morning. They take bath in Jagannātha Purī, in Rāmeśvaram, in Haridwar. In this way, four places they take bath.

There are some books about the yogīs. These things are written there. And actually we met some yogīs and they said how quickly they can go from one place to another. That we can understand from our experience. Just like the mind. Mind is so swift that in a second the mind can reach thousands of miles away. So the spirit soul is still more subtle. And the speed of spirit soul is very, very great.

Just like in the Bhagavad-gītā it is said, tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti kaunteya (BG 4.9). Tyaktvā deham. "Just after giving up this body, he immediately comes to Me in the spiritual world." These are the Vedic statement. You can try to understand. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti: we accept another body immediately after death.

It is said just like go forward, when the first step, you find it is secure, you take up the second step. Similarly, as soon as the next body is arranged by superior arrangement, we give up this body and enter into another gross body. Immediately. Immediately we are transferred to a mother's womb for manufacturing another gross body. This is the law.

So here Kṛṣṇa says, tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti (BG 4.9). If the living entity does not enter into another gross body, then where does he go? So Kṛṣṇa says, mām eti: "He comes to Me." Now just imagine what is the speed of spirit soul, just after leaving this body after death, he immediately goes to Goloka Vṛndāvana, or at least where Kṛṣṇa is there. Mām eti.

Kṛṣṇa's nitya-līlā, that has been described in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta, how Kṛṣṇa's nitya-līlā is going on. Kṛṣṇa is present in a bhauma-līlā in one of the universes every time. The . . . Lord Caitanya has given the example as the movement of the sun. The sun is moving, and the twenty-four hours into sixty minutes, into sixty seconds . . . the . . .

All these time changes are there, every time. Just like our sunrise was, say, at six-thirty, or six. This six thirty passed here, but somewhere else it is now six-thirty. Again when it will pass six-thirty there, in somewhere else there will be six-thirty. Similarly, Kṛṣṇa is passing from one universe to another, and when He's visible in this universe, we find Kṛṣṇa's appearance.

So Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī has informed us that those who are competent, those who have become competent to associate with Kṛṣṇa, as Kṛṣṇa says, tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti . . . (BG 4.9). This mam eti, that spirit soul goes to Kṛṣṇa first of all within some universe where Kṛṣṇa is having His pastimes, bhauma-līlā. He goes there. Then just like when a person is trained up as apprentice, then he's given the post. Just like a magistrate, after passing the examination, I.C.S. examination, he's trained up under some magistrate, and then he's given the post.

Similarly, a living entity, when he is actually eligible by Kṛṣṇa consciousness, by development of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then immediately after giving up this body, he's transferred to that universe where Kṛṣṇa is there. Bhauma-līlā. And after his being trained up thoroughly, then he's transferred to the original Kṛṣṇaloka, Goloka Vṛndāvana.

(aside) These boys may be given some prasādam. These boys who have come. Come here, boys! Ask them. Come here. One in hand . . . (Śyāmasundara distributing rasagullās) Why . . .? Give them one in hand.

So the . . . my point is that how swift is the spirit soul that either he goes to one of the universes . . . one of the universes means there are millions and trillions of universes. That we do not know. We have got information of this universe, materially. But from Vedic literature, we get information there are millions and trillions of universes like this.

We can see only one universe. We get this information from Brahmā-saṁhitā: yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-aṇḍa-koṭi (Bs. 5.40). This very word is used. Jagad-aṇḍa means "one universe." And koṭi, koṭi means "millions." So there are unlimited number of universes also. And in each universe, koṭiṣu vasudhādi-vibhūti-bhinnam, in each universe, there are millions and trillions of planets, each different from one another. This is the creation.

So just imagine that what is God's creation, how He attains every universe continually. His līlā is going on. As soon as in one universe the Kṛṣṇa's birth, appearance, is finished, immediately in another universe His birth takes place. This is called nitya-līlā. Exactly like . . . the same example: as soon as six-thirty, morning, finished here in India, immediately the six-thirty of the sunrise in some other place. Six-thirty another place, another . . . the six-thirty is going on. It is very easy to understand. The six-thirty or seven-thirty or eight, nine, whatever you take, that is going on. That is called nitya-līlā. Kṛṣṇa's līlā is going on. So just imagine how many universes are there.

So the spirit soul has got immense power. Immense power. That is only fragment of Kṛṣṇa, part and parcel. Now, just you can imagine what is the power of Kṛṣṇa. A . . . a small, fragmental portion of Kṛṣṇa . . . mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūtaḥ (BG 15.7). The living entity, he has got so much potencies. And what potency Kṛṣṇa has got, who is full spiritual potency?

So actually if we want to be happy, as part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa we must join Him. That is our value. This example I have given several time, that a small screw of a machine has got immense value when it is attached with the machine. The same small screw, when it is detached from the machine, it has no value.

Not even a farthing. Similarly, we are part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa, Vāsudeva. Our value is in full when we join Kṛṣṇa, when we dovetail our activities in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Then it is valuable. Otherwise the so-called progress is simply illusion. There is no progress. It is simply illusion. Ato vai kavayo nityaṁ bhaktiṁ paramayā mudā.

Therefore if we actually want happiness, pleasure, then we must dovetail our activities, devotional service, with Kṛṣṇa, Vāsudeva. Vāsudeve bhagavati kurvanty ātma-prasāda. It is for your interest. It is not for Kṛṣṇa's interest. Kṛṣṇa can create millions of living entities like you. He doesn't require your service.

He's complete. But if you want your satisfaction, then vāsudeve bhagavati, bhaktiṁ kurvanty ahaitukīm (SB 1.7.10). Then you have to dovetail yourself in devotional service to Kṛṣṇa. That is intelligence. Otherwise foolish ignorance, illusion.

Thank you very much.

Devotees: Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda. (end)