720430 - Lecture SB 02.09.01-5 - Tokyo

Lectures by Date, 1972

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

720430SB-TOKYO - April 30, 1972 - 16:38 Minutes

Pradyumna: (leads chanting of verse) (devotees repeat)

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)

sa ādi-devo jagatāṁ paro guruḥ

svadhiṣṇyam āsthāya sisṛkṣayaikṣata . . .

(Prabhupāda takes over leading chanting)

. . . tāṁ nādhyagacchad dṛśam atra sammatāṁ

prapañca-nirmāṇa-vidhir yayā bhavet

(SB 2.9.5)

sa ādi-devo jagatāṁ paro guruḥ

svadhiṣṇyam āsthāya sisṛkṣayaikṣata

tāṁ nādhyagacchad dṛśam atra sammatāṁ

prapañca-nirmāṇa-vidhir yayā bhavet

(SB 2.9.5)

(repeats verse, correcting pronunciation)

Prabhupāda: Chant, each one. Next?

Prabhupāda: This is the original problem. Even the greatest scientist, one who wants to discover something . . . it is not that somebody wishes to do something, to discover, it immediately comes out. No. He finds it difficult; therefore he makes researches how to do it. So when he is very keen and persistent, then from within, the Paramātmā, when He sees that, "This man wants to do it," so He gives him direction, "Yes, you do like that."

He is not actually inventor or discoverer. He is not. He tried. "Man proposes; God disposes." Here is the Brahmā's problem is also. If Brahmā is self-sufficient to create, why he is in perplexity? He is in perplexity. Lord Brahmā, the first spiritual master, supreme being, supreme—he is supreme—could not trace out the source of his lotus . . . he could not trace out wherefrom he is born, and what to speak of other things. This is our intelligence.

We do not know wherefrom we have come and where we have to go and why we are suffering. And we are proclaiming ourself M.A., Ph.D., D.A.C. and so on. But we do not know wherefrom we have come. Anyone, a scientist, any scientist, big scientist, M.A., Ph.D., D.A.C., ask him that "Wherefrom you have come and where you will go?" He cannot answer. He will think that, "I have come from the womb of my mother." That's all. "Wherefrom you came to the womb of your mother?" "The father injected." "Where your father got you?" These answers he will give.

So this is the problem. Nobody is self-independent. Everyone is dependent on Kṛṣṇa. Mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram (BG 9.10). Everything. Aham ādir hi devānām (BG 10.2), in Bhagavad-gītā: "I am the origin of all the demigods." The Brahmā is also demigod. Brahmā is born out of the lotus stem which is grown from the abdomen of Viṣṇu. So he has to find out the source of his birth. That is stated here. "Could not trace out the source of his lotus seat. And while thinking of creating the material . . ."

Now, he was to create. He was born, he was given birth, just to assist Viṣṇu to create. Then he could not understand the proper direction how to create. These are the actual problem. Everyone is trying to create. The creative energy is there in every living entity because he is part and parcel of the original creator. But he cannot create independently. These rascals, they do not . . . they will say "accident," "necessity . . ." What is that rascal? He has written book.

Pradyumna: Chance and Necessity.

Prabhupāda: Chance and Necessity. If you feel some necessity, and there is a chance by physical labor . . . the rascal does not know the chance is not the physical. The chance is given by Kṛṣṇa that, "You are so much anxious for this? All right, here is the way. You come on." They take it, "It has taken by chance, accident. Accident."

There are many chemists who are discovering many compositions, mixing this liquid in a test tube. All of a sudden they see it has come successful—they take it as chance. So therefore their rascal brain cannot understand that it is the chance . . . it is not chance, it is an opportunity given by Kṛṣṇa to you, "You are so much laboring hard. All right, do it."

Mattaḥ smṛtir jñānam apohanaṁ ca (BG 15.15), in the Bhagavad-gītā: "I give you. I give that intelligence." They take it as chance. There is no question of chance. There is no question of chance. When you become perplexed, you want to do something, Kṛṣṇa gives you the opportunity: "All right, do it like this." That is His mercy.

There is no question of chance. There is nothing like chance. This is foolish proposition. Everything . . . just like this flower is coming. So there is immense manufacturing process. Suppose if you want to manufacture a flower like this, you have to secure so many things—the color, the ingredient, the paper, the brush. So many. Still, you cannot do like this.

So if your nonsense, artificial flower takes so many instrumental assistance, brain, how do you think that this has come automatically? There is brain. It is not chance. You have no eyes to see. Therefore you call "chance." But a devotee, he sees. He does not see this flower; He sees the hand of Kṛṣṇa, how He is preparing, how He is preparing, Kṛṣṇa. Therefore a devotee does not see anything except Kṛṣṇa, because he sees the craftsmanship, hands of Kṛṣṇa, how He is preparing. He sees Kṛṣṇa. He does not see this flower. The rascal sees this flower, and he thinks that it is coming out by chance. No chance. There is no question of chance.

Parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate (Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad 6.8, CC Madhya 13.65, purport). His intelligence, His energies, are so subtle and working. Just like we have got so many examples, electronics. There is one typewriter there, and there is one typewriter here. And one pushes the key there, and here it is "kut." So the one who does not know, rascal, he says: "Ah, it is chance." Not chance. There is electronic working. They have discovered something, how Kṛṣṇa's energies are working, this electronic.

Just like television working: one man talking five thousand miles away, and the man is seeing. By electronic, it is immediately transferred. Now, the fool will see, "It is chance. It is chance." No. There is work, but you cannot see how the method and process of the work is going on. There is everything working. Not chance. There is no question of chance. Everything is there, but Kṛṣṇa's power, energy, is so subtle, so inconceivable by us, we cannot understand.

Mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram (BG 9.10). Kṛṣṇa says: "Don't take it as chance." Mayādhyakṣa: "Under My superintendence. I am directing, direction." Here is direction. He could not find out the direction. He could not understand the proper direction. The direction has to be taken from Kṛṣṇa; then everything will be done. Otherwise, there is no question of chance, or . . . what is that? Necessity?

Pradyumna: Necessity.

Prabhupāda: Chance . . . no. There is nothing like that. There is nothing like that. There is nothing like miracle. For me it is miracle. Just like somebody wants . . . asking me some money. So I have no money. I simply write here that "Go to Śyāmasundara," and if you present the slip, then he gives immediately one hundred dollars. So he will think, "It is chance that a simple little paper produced hundred dollars." He . . . foolishly, he may think that, "There is something magic. He has written something." But no; there is some arrangement. There is no question of chance.

Everything, there is arrangement; everything is direction. But our insufficient brain . . . because with our tiny brain we think that, "We are all successful." We are all perplexed. Therefore, we rascals, we take it as chance and necessity and like that. There is no chance. Even Brahmā could not—the actual creator of this universe. What you have created? He has created so many planets. Huh? So he could not, and what we are?

So these are rascaldom only. There is no question of chance, there is no question of accident. Everything is working under subtle laws, under subtle direction of Kṛṣṇa.

Read it.

Pradyumna: Purport?

Prabhupāda: If you understand Kṛṣṇa . . . just like I was speaking that the devotee does not see how the flower is growing. He sees Kṛṣṇa is working. Just like a painter is painting some flower and I am seeing, so similarly, he sees Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa's hand in it. That is explained here.

What is that? As soon as you know the Lord, then you know everything. That is Vedic injunction. Yasmin vijñāte sarvam idaṁ vijñātaṁ bhavanti (Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad 1.3): "Knowing whom, one can understand everything very easily."

Then?

Pradyumna: "One who knows the . . ." (break)

Prabhupāda: Therefore our process is to know everything through Kṛṣṇa. That is perfect knowledge. Or through Kṛṣṇa's representative. That is perfect knowledge. Otherwise, śrama eva hi kevalam (SB 1.2.8). Śrama, śrama means laboring. Śrama eva hi kevalam.

So, I think one verse is all right. Have kīrtana. (end)