720221 - Lecture at Andhra College - Visakhapatnam

Lectures by Date, 1972

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

 Listen to a 'Nectar Drop' created from this lecture

720221LE-VISAKHAPATNAM - February 21, 1972 - 45:44 Minutes

Prabhupāda: I beg to thank you for your kindly coming here and participating with this great Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. You have already heard something about our activities . . .

(break) . . . about our activities we are just trying to invoke the . . .

(break) . . . the Kṛṣṇa consciousness is not an arti.. (break) . . . it is already there. In you in me even in the child by this process that . . . (break) . . . so in this connection I shall read before you some of the instruction of Prahlāda Mahārāja which he gave to his fellow students. This morning we have been to ah . . .

Pradyumna: Nṛsiṁha.

Prabhupāda: Nṛsiṁhadeva-mandir, Siṁhācalam and there are many pictures . . .

(break) . . . so about Prahlāda Mahārāja's activities. That is very instructive for students. Prahlāda Mahārāja happened to be a son of a great atheist, his father was Hiraṇyakaśipu the celebrated atheist. And Prahlāda Mahārāja was his son only five years old but from his very birth he was a devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa and he was chanting always, Nārāyaṇa, Nārāyaṇa. So the father did not like. The father was an atheist and he was very much angry with his son.

There were many punishments for the son. He was thrown in the ocean, he was thrown in the fire, he was thrown to be trampled by the elephants, he was thrown before the snakes, he was given poison, in so many ways he was tortured by the father. So this is another instruction that atheism and theism that is going on, that is the way of material life. In the Bhagavad-gītā you’ll find there are two classes of men, one class of men are called the atheist or asura and the other class of men they are called demigods or sura.

So Śrī Rāmānujācāryapāda he has defined that the persons who are abiding by the orders of the Lord he is deva or demigod and persons who do not abide by the orders of God they are called asura. So Prahlāda Mahārāja—it is not that asuras will beget children only asuras, for example in Europe and America practically they are within the classification of asuras but they have got many children like Prahlāda and we have collected them.

These boys and girls although their father are atheist by nature they have come out very theist, high class God conscious students. So there is no question of disappointment if we take to the process the asuras can be changed into suras or devatā. Caṇḍālo 'pi dvija-śreṣṭhā hari-bhakti-parāyaṇaḥ, according to our Vedic system there are classification of brāhmain, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra and less than the śūdras they are called caṇḍālas or pañcamas or . . . (indistinct) . . . there are so many names. But it is not that because one is born in caṇḍālas family he cannot be elevated that is not the fact. Kṛṣṇa in the Bhagavad-gītā says:

māṁ hi pārtha vyapāśritya

ye 'pi syuḥ pāpa-yonayaḥ

striya vaiśyās tathāśūdrās

te 'pi yānti parāṁ gatim

(BG 9.32)

The thing is one has to take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness then it doesn’t matter where he is born. He can be elevated to the highest position of transcendental life. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam also confirms this when Parīkṣit Mahārāja was hearing from Śukadeva Gosvāmī he stated:

kirāta-hūṇāndhra-pulinda-pulkaśā

ābhīra-śumbhā yavanāḥ khasādayaḥ

ye 'nye ca pāpā yad-apāśrayāśrayāḥ

śudhyanti . . .

(SB 2.4.18)

The description of persons who are less than the śūdra namely kirāta. Kirāta generally those who are living in the jungles, generally the Africans are called kirāta. Hūṇa, hūṇa they live in the north of Russia, Germany. Āndhra, kirāta-hūṇāndhra-pulinda-pulkaśāābhīra-śumbhā, there are many. So Bhāgavata says śudhyanti they can be purified, how? Ye 'nye ca pāpā yad-apāśrayāśrayāḥ, if they take shelter of devotee they can be purified.

So this purification process is for everyone, everyone can take to it, this is called bhāgavata-dharma. There are . . . generally we understand dharma it means a kind of faith that is the modern definition of dharma, but dharma means the natural characteristics, that is called dharma. Natural characteristics of human being as stated by Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu is to understand that he is part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa or God—eternal servant of God that is natural characteristics.

So Prahlāda Mahārāja because he was guarded very much by his father, atheist father, he could not preach this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement very freely. So in the school he was only five years old but because he was a Vaiṣṇava, great Vaiṣṇava, he was trying to preach the Kṛṣṇa consciousness cult. So now he was preaching to his fellow students, "My dear friends,"

kaumāra ācaret prājño

dharmān bhāgavatān iha

durlabhaṁ mānuṣaṁ janma

tad apy adhruvam arthadam

(SB 7.6.1)

He says, "my dear friends, this bhāgavata-dharma Kṛṣṇa consciousness this characteristics natural characteristics should be invoked from very childhood,"kaumāram. After five years from sixth year to fifteenth year it is called kaumāra age. And then youthfulness from 16th year, so Prahlāda Mahārāja recommends that this bhāgavata-dharma should be learned, should be eh, left . . . given lessons to the students from very childhood. Why? Durlabhaṁ mānuṣaṁ janma, this mānuṣaṁ janma this human form of life durlabham, durlabham means it is very rarely obtained. How? After many many births we get this human form of life.

You know there is transmigration of the soul, evolution process. Evo . . . according to Darwin's theory the evolution takes place of the body but that is not the fact. Evolution, the bodies are there already, the soul evolves from lower type of animal life to the higher type of human life. He has to undergo transmigrate from aquatic life to the trees and plants then to the insects then to the birds, then to the bees, animals, then he comes to the human form. Out of the human form there are many uncivilised human form's and . . . then we come to this civilised human form of life.

The civilised form of life means Āryan family. Āryan family means those who are advancing. Āryans. So the Āryan family is controlled by Vedic culture so out of the Vedic culture people mostly they believe . . . not believe they say that we are under Vedic culture, just like we say we are Hindus. They are supposed to be under Vedic culture but actually we do not follow the Vedic culture and those who follow little bit, not altogether they are generally addicted to the fruitive activities, pious activities, sacrifices and out of many thousands of men who are addicted to this karma-kāṇḍa fruitive activities one person is interested in knowledge or self-realisation ātma-jñāna and out of many thousands and thousands of people who are interested in self-realisation one becomes liberated soul, brahma-bhūta.

And out of many thousands and thousands of brahma-bhūtas self realised souls that I am not this body, brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā na śocati na kāṅkṣati (BG 18.54). This position is rarely obtained and after passing these transcendental positions or after coming on this platform of transcendental realisation one can understand his real constitutional position as eternal servant of Kṛṣṇa, bahūnāṁ janmanām ante jñānavān māṁ prapadyate (BG 7.19). Jñānavān, one who is actually self realised in full knowledge of his constitutional position his relationship with God such person engages himself in devotional service and that is called bhāgavata-dharma.

Sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmo yato bhaktir adhokṣaje (SB 1.2.6), there are different kinds of religious systems but actual religious system is that which teaches the followers how to surrender unto the Supreme Lord.

Therefore the supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa when He comes to re-establish the religious principles, dharma-saṁsthāpanārthāya sambhavāmi yuge yuge (BG 4.8). He comes down, descends to re-establish the real religious principles. What is that real religious principles? What Kṛṣṇa says? Kṛṣṇa says, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁśaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). When we become free from so-called artificial kaitava-dharma.

In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam all the religious principles which does not teach how to love God they are called kaitava-dharma. Cheating, cheating dharma real dharma is how to surrender. It doesn’t matter what dharma you are following but if you are actually advancing in Kṛṣṇa consciousness or God consciousness and you are developing your consciousness how to love God then you must know that you are following real religious system.

That is called bhāgavata-dharma, the word bhāgavata comes from the word Bhagavān. Bhāgavata-saptāha. Bhāgavata. From bhāgavata-saptāha Bhagavān and bhāgavata so there are two kinds of bhāgavatas, the book bhāgavata and the person bhāgavata. Person bhāgavata means one who has dedicated his life simply for the service of the Supreme Lord, he is called person bhāgavata and book bhāgavata which teaches the science of loving God.

That is called book bhāgavata the book bhāgavata and person bhāgavata they are as good as Bhagavān. Bhagavān the Supreme Personality of Godhead is absolute, so there is no difference between Bhagavān's name, Bhagavān's form, Bhagavān's quality, Bhagavān's entourage and so on. Anything connected with Bhagavān is Bhagavān. That is the teachings of Śrī Rūpa Gosvāmī, nirbandhe kṛṣṇa-sambandhe yukta-vairāgyam ucyate.

So bhāgavata-dharma means to understand what is God. What I am? What is my relationship with God? And how to act, everyone has got a relationship with God but at the present moment by the cover of material modes we have forgotten. The relationship is there, just like if you come out of your home for many days, you forget your father and mother, somehow or other it is something like that.

(break) . . . mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti te (BG 7.14). If anyone surrenders unto me then there is no more māyā, māyām etāṁ taranti te. How there can be māyā? The real process . . . if one accepts the real process that I am part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa I have got intimate relationship with Kṛṣṇa my only business is to serve Kṛṣṇa if one comes to this conclusion in life there is no more māyā. And in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam it is said mukti, the definition of mukti is—hitvānyathā-rūpaṁ, svarūpeṇa vyavasthitiḥ (SB 2.10.6).

That is called mukti, now we are identifying that I am not Kṛṣṇa's, I am Indian, I am American, I am Christian, I am Hindu, I am identifying—hitvānyathā-rūpam which I am not because these designations, I am Hindu, I am Muslim, I am Christian, I am Indian, I am American, I am German, these are all due to this body, but I am not this body.

Therefore the whole designation is false because I do not belong to this body, I am separate from the body. Just like we are sitting in this room in this form that does not mean I am this form, you are this form, similarly I living entity you living entity soul. We are certainly somehow or another we have come in contact with this material body but that is not my identification I am not this body I am, ahaṁ brahmāsmi, I am pure soul. That is self-realization and as soon as you realize yourself then all these false designations immediately vanish.

brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā

na śocati na kāṅkṣati

samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu

mad-bhaktiṁ labhate parām

(BG 18.54)

So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is giving opportunity to the human society to come to the liberated position free from all designations. The bhakti, bhakti-marga it is generally known as bhakti-marga or the path of devotional service. The bhakti-marga is defined by Nārada Muni in Nārada-bhakti-sūtra:

sarvopādhi-vinirmuktaṁ

tat-paratvena nirmalam

hṛṣīkeṇa hṛṣīkeśa-

sevanaṁ bhaktir ucyate

(Nārada Pañcarātra)

When we become free from all these material designations, sarvopādhi-vinirmuktaṁ tat-paratvena nirmalam. When we actually become simply connected with Kṛṣṇa, tat-para and nirmala. That is nirmala that is Kṛṣṇa consciousness, simply thinking of Kṛṣṇa, this is also said in the Bhagavad-gītā:

yoginām api sarveṣāṁ

mad-gatenāntar-ātmanā

śraddhāvān bhajate yo māṁ

sa me yuktatamo mataḥ

(BG 6.47)

There are many instances like this, so he is the highest yogī, there are different types of yoga systems. The topmost yoga system is constantly thinking of Kṛṣṇa, smartavyaḥ satataṁ viṣṇuḥ (CC Madhya 22.113). So this is called bhāgavata-dharma or Kṛṣṇa consciousness, so Prahlāda Mahārāja recommends to the students, you are all students. Your . . . your now life is now dedicated to learn but you should know the first learning business is how to learn what is God? What you are? What is your relationship with God? These three things are to be learned that is the special advantage of the human form of life other things for maintaining this body that is done by the animals also.

They have no scientific knowledge how to open a slaughterhouse but they know how to kill animal and eat. God has provided nails and jaws and teeth so tiger without opening a slaughterhouse scientifically, he can kill any animal and eat directly the blood, but we are trying to do the same business in a scientific way. I understand that the Indian government is importing scientific machine for killing in the slaughterhouse. So these kind of knowledge is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, māyayāpahṛta-jñānā (7.15), there is no problem for eating sleeping mating, actually.

When I was coming from Madras to your city I saw so much vacant land still lying and you can utilise it them for producing food, producing milk. Your economic question can be solved simply if you can produce grains and you can maintain some cows. You get sufficient milk sufficient fruits and grains your economic question is solved. There is no need of opening big big factories, there is no need Kṛṣṇa has provided in such a way and the Vedas says, eko bahūnāṁ yo vidadhāti kāmān (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13) actually you see.

I have recently been in Africa there are millions of elephants and there is a national park the elephants, tigers, lions and other animals they are open there. You can go in your car and you can see, they come to your car but their food arrangement is there. So the elephant eats at a time at least 40 kilos, 50 kilos but God has provided for his food. In Africa there is a park, a jungle where the gorillas live and in that jungle there is a tree whose fruits are as strong as the bullet and they are meant for being chewed by the gorillas.

You cannot utilise those fruits. So the Vedic sūtra that, eko bahūnāṁ yo vidadhāti kāmān, nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām, eko bahūnāṁ yo vidadhāti kāmān. So God has provided food for everyone there is no question that unless you open slaughterhouse you cannot eat, that is not the fact. For human being, for animals everyone, everyone's food is there only, everyone sufficient arrangement:

pūrṇam idaṁ, pūrṇam adaḥ

pūrṇāt pūrṇam udacyate

pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya

pūrṇam evāvaśiṣyate

(Īśopaniṣad, Invocation).

God is not poor, you can see practically, there is . . . you need water there are hundreds and thousands tons of water before you. You require air there is so much air, you require light there is so much light, so—so much foods everything is there. That is not our problem. Our only problem is how to understand Kṛṣṇa? This is problem. My Guru mahārāja used to say that there is no scarcity in the world of anything, the only scarcity is Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Therefore beginning from Prahlāda Mahārāja we belong to the disciplic succession of Prahlāda Mahārāja. So in days gone by he was teaching bhāgavata-dharma:

kaumāra ācaret prājño

dharmān bhāgavatān iha

durlabhaṁ mānuṣaṁ janma

tad apy adhruvam arthadam

(SB 7.6.1)

This human form of life is very rare, therefore from the very beginning of life the students should be given education about this bhāgavata-dharma. That is real education, other education for maintaining this body, you go on taking but there is no necessity absolutely. We have created so many problems because there are 8,400,000 species of life, if for 8,300,000 species of life there is food arrangement by God. Why this 100,000 species of life should suffer for want of food?

There is no such question but artificially we have made such problem by our so-called educational advancement. They say that by scientific advancement we are solving the problems of scarcity but actually we are not solving the problem of scarcity we are entangling the problem of scarcity. That is a fact, if you study impartially you will understand it, that 50 years ago the problems that were not evident in India they have now come out. So many problems. So all these problems can be solved if we take up seriously this bhāgavata-dharma or Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. That is a fact. We challenge any scientist, any philosopher, so-called scientist a real scientist he knows.

Now the other day I was asking one chemist that, "Sir, you chemists you say that water is a combination of hydrogen and oxygen. So there is so much water in front of you, so how many tons of hydrogen and oxygen was required to combine them and make it into water and who first supplied these chemicals?" So there was no answer, if you have got any answer you can give me. So things are going on by the laws of nature but we are, I mean taxing our brain in this way and that way.

The sunshine, the sun is rotating in its orbit in such a way that it does not go even an inch this way or that way. The scientist says that if it goes this way the whole universe will be turned . . . will be frozen and if it goes this way then everything there will be blazing fire. So who has made this law that answer is in the Brahma-saṁhitā:

yac-cakṣur eṣa savitā sakala-grahāṇāṁ

rājā samasta-sura-mūrtir aśeṣa-tejāḥ

yasyājñayā bhramati sambhṛta-kāla-cakro

govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi

(Bs 5.52)

So the sun is rotating exactly in its orbit in its position in due course of time by the order of the Supreme Lord Govindam and Govinda Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā, mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram (BG 9.10). "Whatever wonderful things are going on in this material nature that is under the direction of the Supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa." There must be brain, you must admit it. So people should learn that it is not that the nature is working blindly without any control. There is control, there is brain, there is a system, everything is going on and that brain the supreme brain belongs to the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

This is the movement of Kṛṣṇa consciousness and long long years ago our . . . one of the . . . ancestral spiritual masters Prahlāda Mahārāja he also taught to his class fellows that this human form of life must be utilized for understanding bhāgavata-dharma. Now if you say that how our economic question will be solved? That answer is also given by Prahlāda Mahārāja, actually there is no economic question we have embarrassed the things in such a way.

I will give you one example, that in London when I was walking in the park I saw many persons without any proper dress lying on the bench. The English nation has its background, the British Empire and still a class of men is suffering lying on the bench without proper dress. In America which is fabulously rich, now the hippies are coming and there is a street in New York, Bowery street. In that Bowery street you’ll find so many men drunkard's lying on the street and the hippies they are coming out from very respectable rich families but they have adopted voluntarily a wretched life.

So the problem is not economic development, the problem is how people are becoming mad or confused, how to save them? That is the problem and this problem can be saved . . . can be solved by Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. Actually it is happening so our request is that you students you try to understand this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement and it is very easy to understand if you read Bhagavad-gītā very carefully without any bad commentaries or without mal-commentation. If you read Bhagavad-gītā as it is, if you try to understand Bhagavad-gītā as it is your life will be perfect. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness, so far your economic problems are concerned you should know as Prahlāda Mahārāja advises us here he says that:

sukham aindriyakaṁ daityā

deha-yogena dehinām

sarvatra labhyate daivād

yathā duḥkham ayatnataḥ

(SB 7.6.3)

He says that our happiness, happiness means our sense gratification. That is our standard of happiness in this material world, "How much I have gratified my senses," that is called happiness. "With my eyes how many beautiful men or women I have seen, with my ears how many beautiful or nice songs have I heard, with my tongue how many palatable dishes have I eaten, with my other senses how much have I enjoyed it?"Sukham aindriyakam therefore Prahlāda Mahārāja says this, "in the material world this happiness means satisfaction of the senses."

Sukham aindriyakaṁ daityā deha-yogena dehinām, now a dog has got different type of body, a hog has got a different type of body, a human being has got a different type of body. The standard of happiness will be provided according to the body, that's a fact.

Just like a dog enjoys sexual enjoyment on the street it has no shame but a human being cannot do that because he enjoys the same sense enjoyment but because he has got a different type of body he is ashamed. He is ashamed to enjoy sex life on the street but gradually this shamefulness is diminishing. I have seen in Western countries on the sea beach they go out at night and they enjoy in the open fields, open beach. You walk to see, so they are losing the shamefulness of it.

So this is a fact according to the body this standard of sense enjoyment is there you cannot change it. Just like a hog, a hog has got such a kind of taste, he has got such a kind of tongue that he will enjoy stool eating very nicely. But if you . . . you have got a different type of tongue therefore you cannot eat the stools, you want different types of food. So this is a fact, a scientific fact, deha-yogena dehinām. So my standard of happiness your standard of happiness which means sense gratification it is already made according to my body. So you cannot change it, just like the hog cannot change his tongue so that he can taste nicely halvā instead of stool, that is not possible.

Therefore Prahlāda Mahārāja says that this economic problem to increase material happiness that is already ordained according to the body. The best thing is that we should come out of the bodily consciousness of life we should come to the Kṛṣṇa consciousness platform and try to enjoy transcendental bliss, sukham ātyantikaṁ yat tad atīndriyam grāhyam (BG 6.21).

In the Bhagavad-gītā it is said that real happiness which is to be enjoyed transcendental bliss. That can be attained when one is self realized. In many places these things are stated that . . . Ṛṣabhadeva also says, tapo divyam, ah . . . sattva śuddhyed yato śuddhyeta sattva, yasmād brahma-saukhyaṁ tv anantam (SB 5.5.1). We are after happiness but if you want eternal blissful life then you should have to purify this ex . . . material existence and condition. That purification process is this Hare Krishna mahā-mantra. If you chant:

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare

Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare

Gradually your life will be changed, means all misconceptions within the heart will be cleansed, ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanaṁ bhava-mahā-dāvāgni-nirvāpaṇaṁ (Śikṣāṣṭaka 1). These are statements in the śāstras we have got sufficient stock of knowledge from the Vedic literature and the essence of Vedic literature is Bhagavad-gītā. If you read Bhagavad-gītā As It Is without any mal interpretation then your life will be sublime. Chant Hare Krishna mantra, read Bhagavad-gītā and do your work it doesn’t matter.

Bhaktivinode Ṭhākura says that, nāmāśraya kari thākaha āpana kāje, remain in your position. We don’t say that you change your position but as Arjuna was advised by Kṛṣṇa, yuddhyasva mām anusmara (BG 8.7). You go on fighting, at the same time Kṛṣṇa did not say that "I am your friend you stop fighting." No. He asked him "fight" but do not forget Me—that do not be out of Kṛṣṇa conscious, then your life will be successful. That is the instruction of all our sages, dharma-svanuṣṭitaḥ puṁsāṁ (SB 1.2.8), ah . . .

ataḥ pumbhir dvija-śreṣṭhā

varṇāśrama-vibhāgaśaḥ

svanuṣṭhitasya dharmasya

saṁsiddhir hari-toṣaṇam

(SB 1.2.13)

Try to satisfy the Supreme Personality of Godhead by your occupational duties that is success of life. So we are teaching this philosophy in Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement our process is very scientific, authorized and it is very simple it can be accepted by anyone and everyone even a child can accept it and there is no loss, there is no cost. Kindly take it. Thank you very much. (break)

Guest (1): (indistinct) . . . from Christianity?

Prabhupāda: What was that?

Tamal Kṛṣṇa: He wants to know if any of us have joined the Kṛṣṇa consciousness cult having failed to attain any satisfaction from Christian religion?

Guest (2): Would anyone of you . . . (break) . . . in what way is this Kṛṣṇa cult different from other religions?

Prabhupāda: At least if he takes to Kṛṣṇa consciousness he becomes a better Christian. Just like in Christianity the 10 Commandments. The first commandment is, "thou shalt not kill." But I see practically many Christians are engaged in killing animals. So if he takes to Kṛṣṇa consciousness he will abide by the orders of Lord Jesus Christ not to kill animals . . . so he becomes a better Christian. (end)