741126 - Lecture SB 03.25.26 - Bombay

Lectures by Date, 1974

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

741126SB-BOMBAY - November 26, 1974 - 39:05 Minutes

Nitāi: "Thus consciously engaged in devotional service in the association of devotees, a person gains distaste for sense gratification, both in this world and in the next, by constantly thinking about the activities of the Lord. This process of Kṛṣṇa consciousness is the easiest process of mystic power. When one is actually situated on that path of devotional service, he is able to control the mind."

Prabhupāda:

bhaktyā pumāñ jāta-virāga aindriyād

dṛṣṭa-śrutān mad-racanānucintayā

cittasya yatto grahaṇe yoga-yukto

yatiṣyate ṛjubhir yoga-mārgaiḥ

(SB 3.25.26)

So the whole process of understanding the Absolute Truth . . . absolute truth means the Supreme Person, the Supreme Being, absolute. There is no contradictory. Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa's name, Kṛṣṇa's form, Kṛṣṇa's activities, Kṛṣṇa's paraphernalia, Kṛṣṇa's attributes—everything Kṛṣṇa. That is called Absolute Truth. There is no difference. Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa's form is not different. Kṛṣṇa's hand and Kṛṣṇa's leg, not different. Just like we have got difference, this left hand is different from the right hand; the nose is different from the ear. We have got. Because this is called sagata-vigata-vibheda. Kṛṣṇa hasn't got that thing. That is called absolute. It is stated in the Brahma-saṁhitā, aṅgāni yasya sakalendriya-vṛttimanti. Aṅgāni, we have got different parts of the body, limbs, for different purposes. But Kṛṣṇa can serve any purpose from any limbs of His body. Kṛṣṇa can eat by seeing only. Kṛṣṇa can go by thinking only. There are so many description that Kṛṣṇa is absolute. So these contradictory things, how one can understand of the Absolute? He is absolute, advaya-jñāna. Absolute means no duality; everything is one.

So virāga, bhaktyā pumāñ jāta-virāga aindriyād. Here our material disease is that we want to satisfy our sense. This is material life. The whole material civilization is going on, we have repeatedly said . . . advancement of civilization means advancement of sense gratification. That's all. So bhakti means just the opposite. So, so long we are, I mean to say, very much interested in sense gratification, there is no question of bhakti. That is not possible. So we have to reduce the tendency for sense gratification by increasing our devotional activities. That is the process. Therefore it is said, bhaktyā pumāñ jāta-virāga. Virāga, from where? Virāga means distasteful, virakti. The other word is virakti: "No, no, I don't like." That is called virāga.

Rāga means attachment, and vi means vigata. Vigata-rāga. And from virāga—vairāgya. Jñāna-vairāgya. This is wanted. Human life is meant for jñāna and vairāgya. Two things required. We are continuing this material existence on account of rāga, attachment, attachment for sense gratification. That is the cause of material bondage. Material bondage means, we have explained several times, to accept one body then create another body. We have got now this human form of body, and according to our, I mean to say, affection or infection to different qualities of the nature, we are creating another body. So in this way we are entangled. So unless we become virāga, virāga aindriyāt, sense gratification . . . these different changes of body are being possible on account of sense gratification. Nature, or God, or Kṛṣṇa will give me full facility. Just like in the Western countries especially, they are now trying to become naked, nudies. So nature will give them to stand naked like a tree, or tree, for many years. "You are so fond of become nudie. All right, you stand up here for ten thousand years without any dress." Nature will give you. Those who have no discrimination for eating—"Anything, damn rascal, let me. Give me. I will eat it"—"All right, then you can take the body of a pig and eat up to stool."

So nature will give you. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27). Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-yoni-janmasu (BG 13.22). Why we are getting different bodies? Because we have got different tendency for sense gratification. Indriya, aindriyāt. This is the disease, material disease. Everyone has got tendency for sense gratification, but not all of them of the same type. They have got different types. So our material bondage means these different types of sense gratification. Therefore we have to stop this. We have to be detestful from this sense gratification. Then our spiritual life will begin. That is possible by bhakti.

Therefore here it is said, bhaktyā pumāñ jāta-virāga. Bhakti is so powerful that if you engage yourself in the bhakti-mārga or bhakti-yoga . . . here it is said, ṛjubhir yoga-mārgaiḥ. Ṛjubhiḥ means very easy to perform. How? Now, dṛṣṭa-śrutān mad-racanānucintayā. Dṛṣṭa. You can see Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is kind enough. Although Kṛṣṇa is beyond our vision—we cannot see with these eyes Kṛṣṇa—but Kṛṣṇa has agreed to be seen by you or by us. How? He has assumed this arcā-vigraha. Kṛṣṇa, this vigraha, don't think it is stone. Even it is stone you think, but Kṛṣṇa can become visible before you like a stone, because you cannot see beyond stone. That is Kṛṣṇa's mercy. Because your eyes or senses are so imperfect that you cannot see Kṛṣṇa present everywhere in His original, spiritual . . . we have got difference between spiritual and material. We have got, because we are imperfect. But Kṛṣṇa has no such distinction. Because He is Absolute, He can become spiritual, He can become material, as He likes. That does not make any difference of Kṛṣṇa. Then how Kṛṣṇa is almighty, all-powerful? He can change matter into spirit, spirit into matter. That is Kṛṣṇa. So don't think that, as the atheist class men they think, that "They are worshiping an idol." Even it is an idol, still Kṛṣṇa. That is absolute. That is absolute nature of Kṛṣṇa. Even you think it is stone, it is metal, it is wood, still, He is Kṛṣṇa.

So how He is Kṛṣṇa, that will require your bhakti. Here it is said, bhaktyā, anucintayā. If you are thoughtful, if you are philosopher, and plus bhakti, then you will understand that even Kṛṣṇa is present here just like a stone, but stone is also Kṛṣṇa. How stone is also Kṛṣṇa? Now, Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā,

bhūmir āpo 'nalo vāyuḥ

khaṁ mano buddhir eva ca . . .

bhinnā prakṛtir aṣṭadhā

(BG 7.4)

Me prakṛtiḥ: "It is My nature." Bhinnā me prakṛtir aṣṭadhā. So stone is another formation of earth. Earth, water, air, sky, mind, intelligence—they're all Kṛṣṇa. Because Kṛṣṇa says, bhinnā me prakṛtir aṣṭadhā. (aside) That's all right. Get up. Nothing is different from Kṛṣṇa. Everything is Kṛṣṇa's energy. The Māyāvādī philosophers, they think that, "Because everything is God, everything is Kṛṣṇa, then where is Kṛṣṇa? Kṛṣṇa is finished." But actually that is not. Kṛṣṇa is Kṛṣṇa; at the same time, He is everything. That is Kṛṣṇa. That we can understand by bhakti. Therefore it is said, bhaktyā. Bhaktyā. In Bhagavad-gītā also, Kṛṣṇa says, bhaktyā mām abhijānāti (BG 18.55). These things can be understood not by ordinary person without any devotion. One who is bhakta, he can understand that Kṛṣṇa is everything and everything is Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is everything—that is dṛṣṭa. When a bhakta sees a tree, he sees Kṛṣṇa. That is bhakta's vision. It is explained in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta:

sthāvara-jaṅgama dekhe nā dekhe tāra mūrti

sarvatra phūrti haya iṣṭa-deva-mūrti

(CC Madhya 8.274)

A devotee, sthāvara-jaṅgama . . . sthāvara means which cannot move. Just like tree, it cannot move, or a mountain, it does not move. And jaṅgama means moving. Just like we are moving, animals are moving, and other, so many other, living entities, they are moving. So a advanced devotee, he sees both of them, the standing, immovable and movable, but he does not see immovable or movable; he sees Kṛṣṇa. There is another statement, in the Brahma-saṁhitā: premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena santaḥ sadaiva hṛdayeṣu vilokayanti (Bs. 5.38). Sadaiva means "always." Sadā eva, sadaiva. Who sees? Now, one who is devotee, one who is fully absorbed in love of Godhead, premāñjana-cchurita, or whose eyes are anointed with love of Godhead. Not this eye. Premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilo . . . that bhakti required. Premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena. Santaḥ, saintly person, sadaiva hṛdayeṣu vilokayanti. That is the position of santaḥ, always seeing Kṛṣṇa. He does not see anything else except Kṛṣṇa everywhere, but in everything, everywhere, the energy of Kṛṣṇa.

I will give you a practical example. If you love your child, if you see the shoe of the child, immediately you see your child. If you see the toy of your child, you see your child immediately. If you hear the voice of your child, immediately you see the child. This is practical. Similarly, if you have actually developed love of Kṛṣṇa . . . and Kṛṣṇa has explained that everything is expansion of His energy; therefore nothing exists except Kṛṣṇa. And if you have developed your love for Kṛṣṇa, whatever you see, you will see Kṛṣṇa. That is called bhaktyā. Bhaktyā, dṛṣṭa and śruta. Śruta means Vedic literature, śruti. You hear from authentic literature. Just like in the Brahma-saṁhitā it is stated, cintāmaṇi-prakara-sadmasu kalpa-vṛkṣa-lakṣāvṛteṣu surabhīr abhipālayantam (Bs. 5.29). Now, apart from Brahma-saṁhitā, we have heard, devotees have heard, that Kṛṣṇa in Vṛndāvana used to go with His cowherd boys, friend, in the pasturing ground. So hundreds and thousands of devotees are there in Vṛndāvana. They have not seen, but they have heard. They have not practically seen, but they have heard only. And they have seen the picture of Kṛṣṇa with His boys, cowherd boys, or gopī friends. So a devotee can see and hear and immediately realize Kṛṣṇa. That is possible because he has developed love. Premāñjana-cchurita. Unless one is advanced in kṛṣṇa-prema, love of Kṛṣṇa, he cannot see. He cannot understand.

There is another verse in the Śrīmad . . . ataḥ śrī-kṛṣṇa-nāmādi na bhaved grāhyam indriyaiḥ (CC Madhya 17.136). So these blunt senses . . . by these blunt senses even we cannot understand what is the name of Kṛṣṇa, why these people are chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. We cannot understand. Ataḥ śrī-kṛṣṇa-nāma. Because Kṛṣṇa realization begins from the name. Therefore name, Kṛṣṇa's name, and Kṛṣṇa is not different—absolute—but we cannot realize. But the practice, if you practice chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, then you realize. Sevonmukhe hi jihvādau svayam eva sphuraty adaḥ. When you actually, in devotional attitude, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra . . . therefore it is advised that you should avoid the offenses in chanting. Then you will . . . by simply chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, you will realize. Ataḥ śrī-kṛṣṇa-nāmādi na bhaved grāhyam indriyaiḥ, sevonmukhe hi jihvādau. Jihvādau. Now, kṛṣṇa-bhakti begins from jihvā, from the tongue. People will be surprised, "How is that?" Yes. You can utilize your tongue simply by chanting and tasting kṛṣṇa-prasādam. Then you will become kṛṣṇa-bhakta.

Therefore it is so easy. Susukhaṁ kartum avyayam, in the Bhagavad-gītā. Susukhaṁ kartum avyayam (BG 9.2). To execute devotional service it is very easy, and susukham, very nice and pleasing also. Just like this chanting and dancing. Even the child takes pleasure, what to speak of others? Others may be sophisticated, but a child is not sophisticated. When there is dancing and chanting, a child comes in front and he dances. Unless he feels pleasure, how does he do it? This is practical. He has not been taught, but he comes. As soon as he comes, he also takes part with the elderly person, chanting and dancing. And if you give him prasādam, he will also accept. Anyone will accept. Therefore in the Bhagavad-gītā it is said susukham, and kartum avyayam. Kartum avyayam. Avyayam means whatever little service you render, that is permanent settlement. If you come here and dance and chant or ring the bell or anything about the ārātrika, if you see, dṛṣṭa—anything you do, that is your permanent credit.

Therefore, for the common man, this chance is given. This temple is meant for that purpose, that people will come, see the Deity. The Deity is Kṛṣṇa. Don't think otherwise. Kṛṣṇa has agreed to be dressed by you. If you think of Kṛṣṇa, about His virāṭ-rūpa, you will fail to bring dress for that virāṭ. His head is on the sky; His another leg is on the Pātāla. That is also true. But you cannot conceive of Kṛṣṇa in His virāṭ-rūpa and at the same time dress Him and give Him something to eat. That is not possible. Therefore Kṛṣṇa has become so merciful. Here, of course, the Deity is very big. Not very big; in Hyderabad we have got three times bigger Deity, like . . . but you can have a small Deity. Many Vaiṣṇava, they carry Deity with them, a small Deity in a small box, and they worship. So Kṛṣṇa . . . aṇor aṇīyān mahato mahīyān (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 1.2.20). He can become bigger than the biggest and the smaller than the smallest. That is Kṛṣṇa.

So real thing is bhakti, bhaktyā. Therefore it is said, bhaktyā pumāñ jāta-virāga aindriyāt. And the more you serve Kṛṣṇa, serve Kṛṣṇa—you give Kṛṣṇa to eat; you give Kṛṣṇa to be dressed nicely—then you will forget dressing of yourself. Now see these devotees. They are dressing Kṛṣṇa so nicely, they are satisfied with that dressing of Kṛṣṇa. They are not very much busy for dressing themselves. This is bhakti-yoga, virāga. Everyone is very busy how to dress himself very nicely so that he may be attractive, but if you try to dress Kṛṣṇa nicely, then you will forget yourself how to dress nicely. Is it not practical? Anyone will agree. These Vaiṣṇavas, these boys, they are young boys. The girls, they are . . . they don't care for their dress, because they are dressing Kṛṣṇa. This is the way. You dress Kṛṣṇa nicely. You give Kṛṣṇa nice foodstuff. Then you will forget, "Oh, I will have to satisfy my tongue in this way and that way, by chop, by cutlet, by going to restaurant." You will forget. Therefore it is called bhaktyā pumāñ jāta-virāga aindriyāt. The materialistic persons, they are simply busy for satisfying the senses. Go to the hotel, satisfy the tongue. Go to the cinema; hear the cinema song, see nice girls and so on, so on. But these devotees, they are not interested at all. The cinema is here, a few steps away, but you will never see a student or a disciple of Kṛṣṇa consciousness will go to that nonsense place. Practical you can see. How it has become possible? Bhaktyā pumāñ jāta-virāga aindriyāt. It is practical. The more you engage yourself in devotional service, the more you will forget your sense gratification process. And as soon as you become completely detestful for sense gratification, then you are liberated person, fit for going back to home, back to Godhead. This is the process.

So the bhakti gives you chance to see Kṛṣṇa, as you can see now. Of this seeing or any other kind of seeing, they are the same thing; there is no difference. When Arjuna was seeing Kṛṣṇa face to face—Kṛṣṇa was teaching Bhagavad-gītā—that seeing of Kṛṣṇa and when you read Bhagavad-gītā, it is the same thing. There is no difference. Somebody, they say that, "Arjuna was fortunate enough to see Kṛṣṇa face to face and take instruction." That is not correct. Kṛṣṇa, He can be seen immediately, provided you have got eyes to see. Therefore it is said, premāñjana-cchurita . . . prema and bhakti, the same thing. Premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena santaḥ sadaiva hṛdayeṣu vilokayanti (Bs. 5.38).

I will recite one story in this connection, that one brahmin in South India, in Raṅganātha temple, he was reading Bhagavad-gītā. And he was illiterate. He did not know neither Sanskrit nor any letter. Illiterate. So the people, neighborhood, they knew that, "This man is illiterate, and he is reading Bhagavad-gītā." He is opening the Bhagavad-gītā, "Uh, uh, uh," like that, just. So somebody was joking, "Well, brahmin, how you are reading Bhagavad-gītā?" He could understand that, "This man is joking, because I am illiterate." So in this way, Caitanya Mahāprabhu also happened to be that day in the Raṅganātha temple, and He could understand that, "Here is a devotee." So He approached him and He asked: "My dear brāhmaṇa, what you are reading?" So he could also understand that, "This man is not joking." So he said: "Sir, I am reading Bhagavad-gītā. I am trying to read Bhagavad-gītā, but I am illiterate. So my Guru Mahārāja said that, 'You must read eighteen chapters daily.' So I have no knowledge. I cannot read. Still, Guru Mahārāja said, so I am just trying to carry out his order and opening the pages, and that's all. I do not know how to read it."

Caitanya Mahāprabhu said that, "You are crying sometimes, I see?" Then, "Yes, I am crying." "How you are crying if you cannot read?" "No, because when I take this Bhagavad-gītā book, I see one picture, that Kṛṣṇa is so kind that He has taken the chariot driver, sārathi, of Arjuna. He is His devotee. So Śrī Kṛṣṇa is so kind that He can accept the position of a servant because Arjuna was ordering, 'Keep my chariot here,' and Kṛṣṇa was serving him. So Kṛṣṇa is so kind. So when I see this picture within my mind, I am crying." So Caitanya Mahāprabhu immediately embraced him, that "You are reading Bhagavad-gītā. Without any education, you are reading Bhagavad-gītā." He embraced him.

So this is . . . how he was seeing the picture? Because he was a lover of Kṛṣṇa. It doesn't matter he could read these ślokas or not, but he was absorbed in love of Kṛṣṇa, and he was seeing Kṛṣṇa was sitting there, and He was driving the chariot of Arjuna. This is required, not that education. Bhaktyā mām abhijānāti (BG 18.55). Kṛṣṇa said: "Not by passing M.A., Ph.D." Bhaktyā: "Simply by bhakti." Bhaktyā mām abhijānāti yāvān yaś cāsmi tattvataḥ. And bhaktyā, the practical example, if you become pure bhakta, then you will forget all this material sense enjoyment. Bhaktiḥ pareśānubhavo viraktir anyatra syāt (SB 11.2.42). This is the test of bhakti. But if you have got taste for material enjoyment and at the same time you advertise yourself that you have become a bhakta, that is not bhakta. One who knows who is a bhakta, immediately detect that, "Here is not a bhakta." Ei dharma dadi. He has got the tilaka and kaṇṭhi simply for advertisement, he is not a bhakta, because he has got material taste.

So the bhakti means bhaktyā pumāñ jāta-virāga aindriyāt. From indriya, this word has come, aindriya, "pertaining to indriya." Everyone in this material world is engaged in sense gratification. That is the only . . . the cats, dogs and so-called civilized man is simply nūnaṁ pramattaḥ kurute vikarma (SB 5.5.4), doing all kinds of sinful activities. Why? Yad indriya-prītaya āpṛṇoti: simply for sense gratification. Simply for sense grat . . . this is material world. And spiritual world means there is no question of sense gratification. Simply they want to satisfy Kṛṣṇa. That is spiritual world. Just like Vṛndāvana. What is the picture of Vṛndāvana? Vṛndāvana means there Mother Yaśodā, Nanda Mahārāja, the Rādhārāṇī, the gopīs, the cowherds boys, Śrīdāmā, Sudāmā, the land, the water, the trees, the birds—everyone is trying to satisfy Kṛṣṇa. That is Vṛndāvana. Vṛndāvana means nothing . . . hen Kṛṣṇa left Vṛndāvana for Mathurā, all of them become dead. That is Vṛndāvana. Similarly, you can live always in Vṛndāvana, always in Vaikuṇṭha, if you are mad after Kṛṣṇa. That was the teachings of Caitanya Mahāprabhu. By His practical example, He showed. When He was in Jagannātha Purī, He was mad always, day and night. Last twelve years of His life was passed in madness. Sometimes He was falling down on the sea, sometimes somewhere, sometime, day and night, just like mad.

So of course, that is not possible. But that is śūnyāyitaṁ jagat sarvam (CC Antya 20.39, Śikṣāṣṭaka 7). When you will find everything vacant, govinda-viraheṇa me, without Govinda, that is the highest state of devotional service. But that is possible. That is possible, that bhaktyā pumāñ jāta-virāga aindriyād dṛṣṭa-śrutān mad-racanānucintayā. If you become a bhakta, you will find . . . anything, creation, you will find Kṛṣṇa's intelligence. If you take one flower and see the constitution, how this flower is made, how the color is displayed, how it has come into existence, if we are intelligent, we can see Kṛṣṇa's racanānucintayā, how Kṛṣṇa has created intelligently. That is premāñjana-cchuri . . . actually, it is created by Kṛṣṇa. Parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate (CC Madhya 13.65, purport). Don't think like rascal, "It has come out automatically." Does thing come out automatically, automatically? Why not your lucī, purī and everything comes automatically? Why you have to take so much trouble? No automatically. It has Kṛṣṇa's hand, but you cannot see. You cannot see. But those who are learned, they can see.

Parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate svābhāvikī jñāna. This is the Vedic instruction. Everything in every creation, there is hand of the Supreme Lord. Īśāvāsyam idaṁ sarvam (ISO 1). But one who has got eyes to see, he can see Kṛṣṇa, anucintayām, by thinking, by thoughtful, not like rascal, "It has come automatically." Why? Nothing comes automatically. How it comes automatically? That is rascaldom. It has come through the intelligence of Kṛṣṇa. But His power is so fine and so accurate that svābhāvikī jñāna-bala-kriyā ca. If you paint one picture of flower, you will have to arrange for so many things; Still, it will not be perfect. And this flower has come so perfectly. Does it mean there was no brain behind it? You nonsense. There is brain. And Kṛṣṇa says that mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram (BG 9.10): "Don't think prakṛti, nature, is working automatically. No. Under My direction." So one has to eye . . . one has to develop that eye. Premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena (Bs. 5.38). Then one can see how things are going on. That is required, bhaktyā. Bhaktyā pumāñ jāta-virāga aindriyāt. This will be possible.

So as you engage your indriyas, senses, in the service of Kṛṣṇa, so it is very easy, that first of all you engage your tongue. Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and eat bhagavat-prasāda. You will become perfect. Nothing, no other things required. That we are doing. We are distributing prasādam and engaging people, "Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa." This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Thank you very much.

Devotees: Haribol. (end)