720200 - Lecture SB 01.01.01 - Los Angeles

Lectures by Date, 1972

720000SB-LOS ANGELES - 1972

(Video - 00:19)

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

janmādy asya yato 'nvayād itarataś cārtheṣv abhijñaḥ svarāṭ

tene brahma hṛdā ya ādi-kavaye muhyanti yat sūrayaḥ

tejo-vāri-mṛdāṁ yathā vinimayo yatra tri-sargo 'mṛṣā

dhāmnā svena sadā nirasta-kuhakaṁ satyaṁ paraṁ dhīmahi

This is a prayer offered by Śrīla Vyāsadeva before writing Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. He offers his respectful obeisances to Bhagavate Vāsudeva. Bhagavate means the Supreme Personality of Godhead who is known as Vāsudeva. He appears, Lord Kṛṣṇa appeared as the son of Vasudeva. Therefore He's called Vāsudeva. Another meaning is that He is all-pervading. Everywhere he is present. So, Vāsudeva, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the origin of everything. "Janmādy asya yatah". Janma means creation. Creation of this material world, cosmic manifestation is from Vāsudeva. Janma-adi means creation, maintenance, and annihilation. Anything in this material world has three features. It is created at a certain date. It exists for a certain number of years, and then it is dissolved, annihilated. That is called janmādy asya-janmasthiti yah

So everything is taking place from the Supreme Personality of the Lord. The cosmic manifestation is also emanating from Him. It is existing on His energy, external energy, or it is being maintained by His external energy and as everything material dissolves ultimately or annihilates. So after annihilation the power merges into Him. The power, the energy is extended from Him and maintained by His energy and again when it is dissolved it merges into Him. This is the way of creation, maintenance and dissolution. Now the question is that the supreme power or the supreme source, what is the nature of that supreme source? Is it matter or living force? The Bhāgavata says: "No, it cannot be matter." From matter has nothing is created automatically. We have no such experience. Unless there is some living force behind the matter there cannot be anything created. We have no such experience. Just like anything material, suppose the motor car, it has got all the machine equipped, subtle machines, but still the motor car cannot move automatically. There must be a driver. And the driver is a living force. Therefore, the original source of everything must be a living force. This is the conclusion of Bhāgavatam.

And what kind of living force? That means He knows everything. Just like an expert motor mechanic, he knows everything, therefore, he can detect, when the motor car stalls, he can immediately detect how the motor car has stopped. So he tightens one screw or does something so that it is again in motion. Therefore in Bhāgavata it says, that the original source of all emanation knows everything. 'Anvayād itarataś cārtheṣv Directly and indirectly. He's so expert. Just like I am the creator of this body. I am a living soul. As I desired, I have created this body. By energy. By my energy. According to my desire, I have produced this body. But although I am claiming my body, I do no know how the body is working. That is unknown to me. I cut my hair, but I do not know how the hair grows again. I cut my nails. But I do not know how the, what is the function going on inside so that even after cutting the nails and hair, again it grows. Neither I do know I'm eating, I know because I'm eating something substantial, it is transforming into different types of secretions within my abdomen and the secretion is distributed. I have known it from some medical practitioner or medical science, but so far I am concerned, I do not know how my foodstuff is transforming into blood. How the blood is transmitted in different parts of my body, and then again I get energy. Actually I do not know.

But the Supreme Personality of Godhead, He knows, indirectly and directly, both, how this material cosmic manifestation is working. He knows everything. How the sun is rising. How the moon is rising. How the oceans are steady. It is not trespassing on the land. Such a big ocean - it can over-flood immediately any city or any land within a second. But it is not doing that. So the direction is there. Therefore Bhāgavata says that the original source of everything is sentient. Conscious. And consciously is controlling everything. "Anvayād itarataś cārtheṣv abhijñaḥ" Abhijñaḥ' means completely cognizant.

The next question may be raised that, wherefrom He got the knowledge? He's the origin. Because we have got this idea that any living being, he gets knowledge from others. Just like we have got our knowledge from our spiritual master. My disciples are getting knowledge from me, so then knowledge is also given by somebody. It has got a source. But, if the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the origin, How He got this knowledge of creation, maintenance? The answer is 'sva-rāṭ.' He did not get knowledge from anyone. He is self-sufficient Himself in knowledge. That is the nature of God. He does not require to get knowledge from anyone superior because nobody can be superior than God. Neither equal to God."Asamordhva". Nobody is equal to Him. Nobody is greater than Him.

Now we have got experience that the first creature, living creature within this universe is Lord Brahmā. So, he also got knowledge without any help from others, because he is the first living creature. So there was no other living creature, so how he got knowledge? So does it mean this original source is Lord Brahmā? People may question, but Bhāgavata says no. He's the original teacher of this universe, that's all right, but he's also a created being. Because the cosmic manifestation was created by God, The Supreme. And after this creation Brahmā was created. Therefore he's a created being. After the cosmic manifestation. And because God, or the Supreme Lord, He's the creator, so He's not one of the created beings. He creates but He is not created. But Brahmā is created. Therefore he gets knowledge from the Supreme Creator, who is independent.

Now the process is, just like we approach a teacher, the spiritual master, to get knowledge. So there was no visible living creature before Brahmā. So how he got knowledge? The answer is "tene brahma hṛdā ya ādi-kavaye" Ādi-kavaye'. The first created living being Brahmā was educated from within the heart. That means Kṛṣṇa, Vāsudeva, or the Supreme Lord is situated in everyone's heart. He is situated in Brahmā's heart also. He is situated in your heart, my heart. And hṛdā this very word is used. Hṛdā means heart. So He can educate anyone from within the heart. But why we are not aware of Him? Theoretically we know, but practically in our conditioned state we cannot understand how He is directing us. But He's directing. That's a fact. Brahmā is not ordinary living being, therefore he could take direction from the Supreme Lord within the heart. We can also take when we are qualified, exactly like Brahmā.

Brahmā appeared to serve the Lord. To fulfill the desire of the Lord. Just like we engage one carpenter, and I ask him to make a cabinet for me. I give him the ingredients, tools, or wages, and he creates a cabinet. Similarly, God created the ingredients and the manufacturer also, and Brahmā created this universe. But he's not the original creator. The original creator is Kṛṣṇa. As such, the original proprietor is also Kṛṣṇa because He has created the ingredients. Actually when we work in practical field, the ingredients we cannot create. Suppose we construct a very high skyscraper building, but the ingredients, namely the earth, stone, wood, iron, which are the ingredients of the house, that we cannot create. That is created by God. We simply transform. We take earth, dirt from the earth and mix it with water. The water is created by God. The earth is created by God. Then we mix it and make a lump like brick and put it in the fire. The fire is also created by God. In this way if we study scrutinizingly the ingredients and the materials which we are handling, they are not our creation. They are creation of God. We simply handle them. And because we handle them it does not become our property. This is sense.

Suppose I am worker, I'm handling some others things, materials, and preparing something, that does not mean when the thing is manufactured, complete, it become my property. No. How it can be? Therefore the philosophy is that everything belongs to Kṛṣṇa, God. I also belong to Him. And whatever I do, manufacture, that also belongs to Him. This sense to understand that everything belongs to God. I also belong to God. My intelligence also belongs to God. The ingredients of physical elements with which we work, that also belongs to God. Then where is the scope for my claiming that I am proprietor? This is called illusion. So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is meant for reviving the original consciousness of the human society because in the cats and dogs or animals, such consciousness cannot be invoked. They are so dull and in the lower stage of consciousness, it is not possible for them to understand . . . (end)