Go to Vaniquotes | Go to Vanipedia | Go to Vanimedia


Vanisource - the complete essence of Vedic knowledge


720425 - Lecture SB 02.09.01-8 - Tokyo

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada



720425SB-TOKYO - April 25, 1972 - 59:17 Minutes



Pradyumna: Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. (leads chanting of verses)

śrī-śuka uvāca
ātma-māyām ṛte rājan
parasyānubhavātmanaḥ
na ghaṭetārtha-sambandhaḥ
svapna-draṣṭur ivāñjasā
(SB 2.9.1)
bahu-rūpa ivābhāti
māyayā bahu-rūpayā
ramamāṇo guṇeṣv asyā
mamāham iti manyate
(SB 2.9.2)
yarhi vāva mahimni sve
parasmin kāla-māyayoḥ
rameta gata-sammohas
tyaktvodāste tadobhayam
(SB 2.9.3)
ātma-tattva-viśuddhy-arthaṁ
yad āha bhagavān ṛtam
brahmaṇe darśayan rūpam
avyalīka-vratādṛtaḥ
(SB 2.9.4)

Prabhupāda: Brahmaṇe darśayan rūpam darśayan rūpam avyalīka-vratādṛtaḥ (SB 2.9.4). He manifested His form to Brahmā. That means God is not formless. If He is formless, then how He could show His form? Brahmaṇe darśayan rūpam avyalīka. Without . . . avyalīka means without any cheating? Where is avyalīkam? "Without any deceptive motive." So those who realize impersonal form—not form; impersonal feature—they are cheated. They do not know actually what is God, what is the Absolute Truth. It is . . . avyalīka-vrata. And why Brahmā was favored to see the form of the Lord? Because he underwent severe tapasya, vow, worship.

So God, or the Absolute Truth, is not formless. He has His form, sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha (Bs. 5.1). But that can be seen only by persons who underwent severe austerities, penances, or engaged in devotion. Bhaktyā mām abhijānāti (BG 18.55). Otherwise, they will remain impersonal. The conclusion is, those who are impersonalists, their knowledge is imperfect. They have still to go forward.

Therefore Bhagavad-gītā says, bahūnāṁ janmanām ante (BG 7.19): after many, many births of continued impersonal views, when he actually comes to the right platform of knowledge, he surrenders to Vāsudeva. Vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti sa mahātmā sudurlabhaḥ (BG 7.19): "That mahātmā, that saintly person, is very rare." All the so-called svāmīs or yogīs, they are all impersonalists. Therefore our svāmīs, they are very rare. They are not ordinary, these so-called svāmīs and yogīs, because they know the personal feature of God. Go on.

Pradyumna: (leads chanting of SB verses 5-8)

sa ādi-devo jagatāṁ paro guruḥ
svadhiṣṇyam āsthāya sisṛkṣayaikṣata
tāṁ nādhyagacchad dṛśam atra sammatāṁ
prapañca-nirmāṇa-vidhir yayā bhavet
(SB 2.9.5)
sa cintayan dvy-akṣaram ekadāmbhasy
upāśṛṇod dvir-gaditaṁ vaco vibhuḥ
sparśeṣu yat ṣoḍaśam ekaviṁśaṁ
niṣkiñcanānāṁ nṛpa yad dhanaṁ viduḥ
(SB 2.9.6)
niśamya tad-vaktṛ-didṛkṣayā diśo
vilokya tatrānyad apaśyamānaḥ
svadhiṣṇyam āsthāya vimṛśya tad-dhitaṁ
tapasy upādiṣṭa ivādadhe manaḥ
(SB 2.9.7)
divyaṁ sahasrābdam amogha-darśano . . .

Prabhupāda: Word by word first.

Pradyumna: (chants each word individually first, Prabhupāda correcting some pronunciation, then line by line)

divyaṁ sahasrābdam amogha-darśano
jitānilātmā vijitobhayendriyaḥ
atapyata smākhila-loka-tāpanaṁ
tapas tapīyāṁs tapatāṁ samāhitaḥ
(SB 2.9.8)

(break)

Prabhupāda: . . . memory was so sharp that, once heard, it is practiced immediately. In the Kali-yuga this memory is declining, and they are proud, "We are advanced." There is no question of advancement. It is simply degraded. But this is māyā. Falsely they are thinking, "We are advanced." In this age, memory will be reduced, duration of life will be reduced, people's merciful tendency will be reduced, strength of the body will be reduced. In this way everything will be reduced. Now we do not find very strong men, very strong memory, living for long time, bodily strength. No. These are reducing. Now people are not merciful. One man is being killed before you in the street; nobody takes care. This is the sign of Kali-yuga. Everything will be reduced. Memory also being reduced.

There are eight kinds of things reducing. One of them, these four, five, I have already mentioned. Important things. The duration of life is reducing. No sympathy. No sympathy. One is suffering from some disease; nobody is taking care. This is the sign of Kali-yuga. "Oh, let him die. Let me live." These are the signs of Kali-yuga: no memory, no sympathy, no long duration of life, no bodily strength, no education. This is the symptoms of Kali-yuga. Therefore the only means is harer nāma harer nāma harer nāma (CC Adi 17.21). They cannot . . . in the ordinary way it is impossible to make advancement.

The so-called yogīs, karmīs, they are all cheaters. They show some bodily gymnastic and talks all nonsense, becomes God within a week or six months. These things are going on. Very precarious condition. Therefore it is, kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva nāsty eva: "Kalau, in this age, Kali-yuga, there is no other alternative." And I see practically our Society, our students, they are simply, practically chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. So compare any so-called yogī and jñānī and sannyāsī. They cannot stand before them in their . . . even though they are not perfectly advanced, still, they cannot stand. People are appreciating. So stick to your principles.

This morning I was reading Kṛṣṇa's activities. Regularly He was rising three hours before sunrise. Regularly. His wives were disgusted. As soon as there will be cock crowing, "kakaa-ko!" Kṛṣṇa immediately . . . (laughter) That is warning. That is warning, nature's warning. There is no need of alarm bell. And the alarm bell going on, but he is sleeping sound. (laughter). And if he by chance rises, immediately stops so that it may disturb . . . it may not disturb. But there is nature's alarming bell, that cock crowing at three o'clock. According to the . . . and Kṛṣṇa will immediately rise. Although He was sleeping with His beautiful queens . . . the queens were disgusted. They were cursing this cock crowing, "Now Kṛṣṇa will go away. Kṛṣṇa will go away." But Kṛṣṇa, He used to rise early. You read Kṛṣṇa's activities in our Kṛṣṇa book.

So if you are Kṛṣṇa conscious, then . . . we cannot imitate Kṛṣṇa, but we can follow Kṛṣṇa. We can follow His footsteps, how He was living. He was a gṛhastha. He was not a sannyāsī. So our sannyāsī is not very great credit. To remain gṛhastha . . . because we are going to back to Godhead, back to home, the home, our master, is gṛhastha. Not only gṛhastha, He has got so many wives. So to become sannyāsī is not very great credit, according to our Vaiṣṇava philosophy. To become perfect householder, that is credit. Perfect householder, like Kṛṣṇa.

Read Kṛṣṇa book regularly. Why these books are written? Only for selling? Taking statistics, "How many books you have sold?" You learn, read. Always read, twenty-four hours. As soon as you get time, read. I do that. I do that. Reading, writing or chanting. But when there is no other way, you sleep little. Not to enjoy sleep, but because it is not possible to continue, all right, sleep one hour, two hour, three hour, four hour, five hour. Not more than that.

Not that I am sleeping, enjoying life, up to eight o'clock, twelve o'clock. In Western countries they sleep twelve o'clock. As soon as there was kīrtana, half-naked he used to come in New York. He used to complain, Mr. Chutey, "Oh, it is . . ." "Mr. Chutey, sir, I cannot do anything. You request them." That was being done in our 26 Avenue. Always police complaint, police used to come. But we did not stop.

So things should be learned. We have got so many books, everything is there. Now here is tapasya. Akhila-loka-tāpanam. Akhila-loka. The whole universe became perturbed by the tapasya of Brahmā.

Now go on. You finished all reading? Yes. (more devotees lead chanting of verse 8, Prabhupāda correcting pronunciation)

divyaṁ sahasrābdam amogha-darśano
jitānilātmā vijitobhayendriyaḥ
atapyata smākhila-loka-tāpanaṁ
tapas tapīyāṁs tapatāṁ samāhitaḥ
(SB 2.9.8)

This is called anuprāsa. It is literary beauty. Everything "ta." Tapas tapīyāṁs tapatāṁ samāhitaḥ (SB 2.9.8). Anuprāsa. So many t's in one line. Tapas tapīyān. So in Bhāgavata, it is not that whimsically written. There is literary beauty—metaphor, simile, and what is called, symmetry, reason. Everything is complete. Not that whimsically a line, three lines, one line and two lines, and it becomes a poetry. In Sanskrit, poetry writing is not so easy. You have to follow so many rules and regulation—how many words in the beginning, first line, how many words in the second line.

Sāhitya-darpaṇa. There is a book, Sāhitya-darpaṇa. Therefore it is called Sanskrit. Sanskrit, everything is reformed. It is not like that "B-U-T, but; P-U-T, put." If you say "u," "a," then you must say "B-U-T, but" and "P-U-T, put." But not that sometimes "put," sometimes "but." No. That will not be allowed in Sanskrit. The pronunciation must be regular. You cannot change. Saṁskṛta. Saṁskṛta means reformed, Sanskrit language. Devanāgarī.

This language is spoken in the higher planetary system, even in Vaikuṇṭha. This language is spoken. Devanāgarī. Deva-nagara. Just like Tokyo is Japan-nagara, similarly . . . nagara means city. And the citizens are called nāgarī. One who lives in the city, they are called nāgarī. So devanāgarī. These alphabets, letters, are called devanāgarī. But in the cities of the demigods, this language is spoken. Devanāgarī.

They do not know whether there are cities. They simply go to other planet and say there is no men, no living entities. Why God created such planet where there is no living entity? How it is possible? In everywhere we see living entity, and why one planet is there where there is no life? This is most obnoxious. I cannot believe that.

How it is possible? We see while walking on the street, even within the earth . . . in jungle, neighbor, nobody goes. Full many, full many of flower . . . (indistinct) . . . and there are trees. And see. Nobody sees where there are flowers. Why Candraloka is so condemned that there is no living entities, no trees, no plants, and only some dust? And these people go and bring some dust, take all credit. It cannot be.

According to our Vedic instruction, living entity is called sarva-ga. Sarva-ga: the living entity can go anywhere. Anywhere. So why not in Candraloka? You are going. And why previous to you nobody was going? So it is very doubtful. What do you think? From reasoning point of view . . . and we get information from the śāstra that it is one of the heavenly planet. People live there for ten thousands of years. They drink soma-rasa.

These are statement in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. It is not yet published. We have explained this. It is cold. And that is also admitted by scientists here. It is 2000 . . . 200 degrees below zero. Therefore they require some heating beverage. That is called soma-rasa. The Bhagavad-gītā also it is stated. And how we can believe that there is no living entity. One side is dark, and one side is full of dust. These are our doubts.

What is your version? You think it is all right?

Sudāmā: No.

Bhūrijana: It's silly to have a prison house if there are no prisoners.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Bhūrijana: Why build a prison house if there are no prisoners in it?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Sarva-ga. We practically see everywhere living entities. Why this planet is made solitary—there is no living entity? How we can conclude like that? Even in the desert here there are living entities. This is . . . what is called this? Cactus?

Sudāmā: Cactus. Yes.

Prabhupāda: They grow in desert. Sometimes watermelon. Watermelon. Watermelon is grown in desert very nice. So how you can conclude that there is no life? Cactus is also life.

Sudāmā: Śrīla Prabhupāda? If they are really going there in the moon planet, then the bodies of the living entities are different than our bodies, because the . . .

Prabhupāda: No, you cannot go and live there.

Sudāmā: Right. So perhaps if they are really going there, then if they cannot . . . and the living entities are living there, as it is stated in the scripture, then perhaps they are doing very much damage or intruding, going against the laws of nature.

Prabhupāda: First of all let us admit that they are going. That is my first objection, whether they are actually going or giving bluff.

Pradyumna: And you suggested before that if on the moon planet there was such intelligent beings, that if someone was aiming to go to the moon, they could just by mystic powers . . .

Prabhupāda: Yes. Divert them.

Pradyumna: Divert them.

Prabhupāda: To some hellish place. (laughter) Nowadays they are going airplane, sometimes diverted. Yes. So if they are demigods, they have got better brain and . . . there are so many questionable things, contradictions of the . . . we cannot take, accept it, that the statement in the Vedic literature, they are not right, but they are right. No, we cannot. Next.

Devotees: (continue reciting verse SB 2.9.8)

divyaṁ sahasrābdam amogha-darśano
jitānilātmā vijitobhayendriyaḥ
tapyata smākhila-loka-tāpanaṁ
tapas tapīyāṁs tapatāṁ samāhitaḥ

Prabhupāda: Just like when the first sputnik traveled round the world. In one hour, twenty-five minutes, this whole world was circumbulated. So actually it takes so many hours if you circumbulate the whole world, 25,000 miles. Even by plane it will take day and night. What is the speed of aeroplane?

Devotee: Five hundred miles an hour.

Prabhupāda: So one thousand miles, two hours. So 25,000 miles it will take fifty hours. But by other arrangement, it was circumbulated one hour, twenty-five minutes. So, similarly, by other arrangement it can be done in one minute, in one second. It is a question of arranging. It is, therefore, all relative. Everything is relative. You cannot walk . . . the ant cannot walk. Therefore "It should be like this, it should be like that, according to my convenience." No. Relative. You have got greater power, greater speed than . . . my speed, your speed, may (be) different. Therefore what is one hundred years for me, it may be one second for you. It is relative, all relative truth. In your calculation it is one hundred years. In my calculation it is one second.

Therefore Brahmā's duration of life is described in the Bhagavad-gītā, sahasra-yuga-paryantam ahar yad brahmaṇo viduḥ (BG 8.17). Brahmaṇe. Here also divyam sahasrābdam. Now divyaṁ sahasrābdam. Brahmā's one day, one twelve hours, daytime, we cannot calculate. Our, according to our calculation, it is . . . sahasra-yuga. Sahasra-yuga. Yuga. Yugas means these Satya, Tretā, Dvāpara, Kali. That means forty-three hundred thousands of years. And thousand times, forty-three hundred thousands of years, that makes Brahmā's one day of twelve hours.

So rascals will say these are all imagination. Not imagination. Because relative truth. Your speed, your power . . . just like an ant. An ant lives, say, for few hours. That is also his hundred years. A germ lives for few seconds. That is also his hundred years. So this hundred years, they are relative. One hundred years calculation your, one hundred years of the demigods or one hundred years calculation of the ant, they are not the same.

According to the body, according to the power, the calculation is there. Time is unlimited. Time is unlimited, but according to my body, a certain duration of period, I say it is hundred years when we make our history. So therefore it is said, divyaṁ sahasra. One may not miscalculate that sahasra, one hundred. No, śata is hundred. Śata is hundred. It is sahasra, means thousand. Divyaṁ sahasrābdam.

Go on.

Pradyumna: (devotees repeating) sahasra—a thousand; abdam—years; amogha—spotless, without a tinge of impurity; darśanaḥ—one who has such a vision of life; jita—controlled; anila—life; ātmā—mind; vijita . . .

Prabhupāda: That anila, life, the soul is being carried by that anila, air. The yoga system is controlling the air, apāna, prāṇa, apāna. There are different kinds of air passing. And the ātmā is within that air. The yoga system is to take the ātmā, sata-cakra, from down to up. That is yoga practice. So anila means life air, and the ātmā, the soul, is within the air. So by perfect yogic practice, with this air the yogī can transfer himself to any planet. That is yoga, not that showing some gymnastic without any rules and regulation, without following any principles. These are all bogus.

Actual yoga practice is to control the air within this body. Then, by mechanical means, he can control, and at the perfection, the yogī can leave this body according to his will. That means unless he thinks that "I am now perfect; I can transfer to any planet," he does not leave his body. Therefore yogīs . . . still there are yogīs who are seven hundred years old, three hundred years old, four hundred years. You see just like young man. Still in India you'll find such yogīs. They can give complete history which happened two hundred years here . . . (indistinct) . . . history they can give. "This happened. This Englishman was here. He did . . ." like that.

So actually I am not this body. So if by some method I can see it, that is samādhi. We have got a limited number of breathing power. This is going on, breathing. So everyone has got . . . just like you have got bank balance—one has got one thousand or hundred years, er, one hundred dollars or one thousand dollars—similarly, every living entity has got a number of breathings. That is . . .

(break) But if you spend, if you spend, then one day it becomes one dollar. So that yoga practice is not to waste this breathing. The breathing is wasted when you eat voraciously, when you have sex life, when you are . . . these breathings are lost, wasted.

So one has to control these things. Then breathing will be reserved. And plus, by samādhi, no breathing. That is the process of increasing life. Increasing life means you have got a certain amount of breathing facility. If you can save it without spending . . . therefore you have to control your senses, the mind, your activities, your eating, your sleeping. Because these are breathing, when sleeping, (makes snoring sound) breathing, lost breathing. Sex, lost breathing. Eating voraciously, lost breathing. Therefore they have to control all these things. Then you can increase your duration of life. That is called prāṇāyāma. This is called prāṇāyāma. Prāṇa means life, this life, prāṇa. What is that?

Devotee: Your Divine Grace, is this also true that every species of life . . . for instance, plants and trees don't appear to be breathing as we do, but they breathe through their . . .

Prabhupāda: Don't appear to you. What do you know about plant life? Something does not appear to you, that does not mean there is nothing such thing. You don't be so courageous that you know everything. You have to know from the śāstra. They have got breathing. They have got feeling also. That is already proved by modern scientist, Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose, that when you cut a plant, it feels the pain and it is recorded in the machine, the feeling. So everything is there. As soon as you find some living entity . . . a small full stop–like. Sometimes you find in the book; it is lesser than the full stop. It is moving, (makes sound) "but, but, but, but." It has got heart; it has got legs; it has got everything within it. Otherwise, how it is working?

Everything is there. This is rascaldom, that "This has got soul; this has got no soul." This is rascal's theory. Living entity so small, one ten-thousandth part of the top tip of the hair we are. Very . . . you cannot imagine. So any life he takes, any form, it has got all the, I mean to say, functional thing. Everything is there. That is God's creation. Aṇor aṇīyān mahato mahīyān (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 1.2.20). The biggest of the biggest, he has got the same, what is called, physiological construction. And the small ant, it has got the same physiological construction. You cannot see. What is your strength? That we are studying with our tiny brain, "Oh, it has got no breathing. It has no soul. It has . . ." That is our tiny brain.

But we have to know actually from authentic śāstra what is the actual thing. Śāstra-cakṣusā. You don't see with your these blunt eyes, rascal eyes. We see through the śāstra. That should be. That is real knowledge. What is our capacity of these eyes, these senses? They are all imperfect. So whatever knowledge you gather, the so-called scientists, they are all imperfect. Real perfect knowledge is here, Veda. Vedaiś ca sarvaiḥ. Therefore you should see through the Vedic version what is actually the fact.

So living entity, sarva-ga. Sarva-ga means a living entity can enter anywhere, and the material function is there. Just like we say, "The point has no length, no breadth." Why? I can see point. Why length and . . .? "I have no instrument to measure it." That you say. You cannot say there is no length and breadth. You have no instrument to measure what is the length and breadth of the point. You say . . . similarly, you cannot understand what is the form of God. You say, "Oh, God is false."

But from the śāstra we can understand. Here it is said that rūpaṁ sa ādi-devo jagatāṁ paro guruḥ. Brahmaṇe darśayan rūpam. So if God has no form, how He showed His form to Brahmā? He has form. Brahmā has attained the perfection to see the form of God, and the rascals who have no such perfection, they say, "No form." That is the position. They, with their imperfect senses, all rascal theories, they are thinking that they have become perfect. But they are not perfect. First thing is that the senses with which you are studying, they are imperfect. What is the value of our eyes? Unless there is sunlight, you cannot see. So how can you say that "Our seeing is absolute"? It is relative.

So whatever knowledge we are getting, they're all relative knowledge. Relative means according to my power I am studying, "This is this. This is this." But they are all wrong. You do not know what is actually the position. Therefore the conclusion is that we have to take knowledge from the perfect. Śāstra-cakṣusā. Your eyes should be . . . actually we are doing that. Now, directly we are seeing the sun, we see just like the disk. But when you go through scientific books, geographic and other authorit . . . astronomy, they, "No, the sun is fourteen hundred thousand times bigger than this planet." So actually we are understanding about the sun not by our direct eyes but through the authoritative knowledge, through the śāstra, through the books. Śruti-pramāṇam. That is evidence, śruti-pramāṇam. Śruti means Veda.

In the Vedas it is stated . . . just like Brahmā. He is receiving Vedic knowledge from . . . directly from God, Kṛṣṇa. Brahmaṇe darśayan rūpam. This is the process of understanding. Brahmā, how Brahmā is receiving knowledge? Directly he is not . . . he sees there is nobody there, but he is receiving knowledge. Directly he could not see. Upāśṛṇot. Upāśṛṇot. Upāśṛṇot: "He simply heard." Upāśṛṇot. Ear, not the eyes. So therefore knowledge has to be gathered by aural reception, not by the eyes. My Guru Mahārāja used to say that, "Do not try to see a saintly person. You try to hear a saintly person." If you see a long beard and very strong man, "He is a great sādhu. Oh. That's it." No. You have to hear, what does he speak? Then you understand. Upāśṛṇot. Divyaṁ sahasrābdam.

Then? Go on.

Pradyumna: Vijita—controlled over; ubhaya—both; indriyaḥ—one who has such senses; atapyata—executed penance; sma—in the past; akhila—all; loka—planet; tāpanam—enlightening; tapaḥ—penance; tapīyān—extremely hard penance; tapatām—of all the executors of penances; samāhitaḥ—thus situated.

Prabhupāda: Then?

Pradyumna: Translation: "Lord Brahmā underwent penances for one thousand years by the calculations of the demigods. He heard this transcendental vibration from the sky and he accepted it as divine. Thus he controlled his mind and senses, and the penances which he executed were a great lesson for the living entities. Thus he is known as the greatest of all ascetics."

Prabhupāda: So one has to become ascetic and therefore penance. Then these things will be learned. Not with imperfect senses, imperfect conclusion we can understand. No. Then?

Pradyumna: Purport: "Lord Brahmā heard the occult sound tapa, but he did not see the person who vibrated the sound. And still he accepted the instruction as beneficial for him, and therefore he engaged himself in meditation for one thousand celestial years. One celestial year is equal to 6 x 30 x 12 x 1000 of our years. His acceptance of the sound was due to his pure vision of the absolute nature of the Lord. And due to his correct vision he made no distinction between the Lord and the Lord's instruction. There is no difference between the Lord and the sound vibration coming from Him, even though He is not personally present. The best way of understanding is to accept such a divine instruction, and Brahmā, the prime spiritual master of everyone, is the living example of this process of receiving transcendental knowledge. The potency of transcendental sound is never minimized because the vibrator is apparently absent. Therefore Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam or the Bhagavad-gītā or any revealed scripture in the world is never to be accepted as an ordinary, mundane sound without transcendental potency."

"One has to receive the transcendental sound from the right source and accept it as a reality and prosecute the direction without any hesitation, and the secret of success is to receive the sound from the right source of a bona fide spiritual master. Mundane manufactured sound has no potency, and as such, seemingly transcendental sound received from an unauthorized person also has no potency. One should be qualified enough to discern such transcendental potency, and either by discriminating or by fortunate chance, if one is able to receive the transcendental sound from a bona fide spiritual master, his path of liberation is guaranteed. The disciple, however, must be ready to execute the order of the bona fide spiritual master, as Lord Brahmā executed the instruction of his spiritual master, the Lord Himself. Following the order of the bona fide spiritual master is the only duty of the disciple, and this completely faithful execution of the order of the bona fide spiritual master is the secret of success."

"Lord Brahmā controlled his two grades of senses by means of sense perception and sense organs, because he had to engage such senses in the execution of the order of the Lord. Therefore controlling the senses means to engage them in the transcendental service of the Lord. The Lord's order descends in disciplic succession . . ."

Prabhupāda: If you simply engage your senses to execute the order of the Lord, then it is controlled. Otherwise, you cannot control. It is impossible, because we have got our senses—they are very strong. Sa vai manaḥ kṛṣṇa-padāravindayoḥ (SB 9.4.18). The mind is the master of the senses. The central sense, the chief sense, the prime minister sense is the mind. Therefore Mahārāja Ambarīṣa first of all engaged his mind in Kṛṣṇa. Sa vai manaḥ kṛṣṇa-padāravindayoḥ. If you engage your mind always to the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, then the sense deviation, sense going other, otherwise—immediately controlled. Immediately controlled.

The senses are very strong. They are compared with serpents. Durdāntendriya-kāla-sarpa-paṭalī (Caitanya-candrāmṛta 5). Kāla-sarpa. Just like cobra. Some way or other, it touches you—immediately death. So our senses are so strong that it is simply dragging us towards hell. Adānta-gobhir viśatāṁ tamisram (SB 7.5.30). Mind is dragging somewhere, eyes is dragging somewhere, ear is dragging somewhere and touch sensation is dragging somewhere. In this way we are perplexed.

Therefore the process is sa vai manaḥ kṛṣṇa-padāravindayor vacāṁsi vaikuṇṭha-guṇānuvarṇane (SB 9.4.18). You have to engage your mind unto the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, and your tongue, always chanting and taking little prasādam. Then all senses will be controlled. Sa vai manaḥ kṛṣṇa-padāravindayor vacāṁsi vaikuṇṭha-guṇānuvarṇane. And see. Eyes should be engaged to see the Deity, very gorgeously, nicely dressed. Then our eyes will not ask, "Oh, let me see this beautiful woman." No.

You will see the most beautiful woman, Rādhārāṇī, and you will become . . . similarly, ear should be engaged always hearing about Kṛṣṇa. Eyes, ear . . . nose should be engaged for smelling the flower which is offered to Kṛṣṇa. Legs should be engaged for preaching work going or going to the temple. Hands should be engaged for cleansing the temple. In this way, if you are engaged always your senses, you are perfect. You are the greatest yogī.

Yogī means yoga indriya-saṁyamaḥ. Yoga practice means to control the senses. But this bhakti process is so nice, automatically senses are controlled.

yoginām api sarveṣāṁ
mad-gatenāntar-ātmanā
śraddhāvān bhajate yo māṁ
sa me yuktatamo mataḥ
(BG 6.47)

He is the highest yogī. Those whose senses are always engaged in serving or satisfying Kṛṣṇa, he is the greatest yogī.

Finished? "Therefore controlling the senses means to engage them in the transcendental service of the Lord."

Pradyumna: "The Lord's order descends in disciplic succession through the bona fide spiritual master, and thus execution of the order of the bona fide spiritual master is factual control of the senses. Such execution of penance in full faith and sincerity made Brahmājī so powerful that he became the creator of the universe. And because he was able to attain such power, he is called the best amongst all the tapasvīs."

Prabhupāda: Nārādhito yadi haris tapasā tataḥ kim: "If you cannot approach the Supreme Personality of Godhead, then what is the value of your tapasya?" Ārādhito yadi haris tapasā tataḥ kim: "And if somehow or other, if you approach Kṛṣṇa, there is no more necessity of tapasya." You have already got all the results of tapasya.

ārādhito yadi haris tapasā tataḥ kim
nārādhito yadi haris tapasā tataḥ kim
(Nārada Pañcarātra)

That's all.

Devotees: All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda. (end)