721005 - Lecture SB 01.03.30 - Los Angeles

Lectures by Date, 1972

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

721005SB-LOS ANGELES - October 05, 1972 - 37:39 Minutes

Prabhupāda: (Govindam prayers playing, sings along) (leads singing of Jaya Rādhā-Mādhava) (prema-dhvani) Thank you very much.

Devotees: All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda. (devotees offer obeisances) (break)

Prabhupāda: Hums. Go on.

Pradyumna: Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya.

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto number one, Chapter 3, text 31. (begins chanting) Yathā nabhasi . . . (pauses) Hmm.

Prabhupāda: . . . (indistinct)

Pradyumna: Oh. Thirty. I'm sorry. (leads chanting of verse) (Prabhupāda and devotees repeat)

etad rūpaṁ bhagavato

hy arūpasya cid-ātmanaḥ

māyā-guṇair viracitaṁ

mahadādibhir ātmani

(SB 1.3.30)

Prabhupāda: All right. Ladies? (ladies chant) That's all right. Word meaning?

Pradyumna:

etat—all these; rūpam—forms; bhagavataḥ—of the Lord; hi—certainly; arūpasya—of one who has no material form; cit-ātmanaḥ—of the Transcendence; māyā—material energy; guṇaiḥ—by the qualities; viracitam—manufactured; mahat-ādibhiḥ—with the ingredients of matter; ātmani—in the self.

Translation: "The conception of the virāṭ, universal form of the Lord, as appearing in the material world, is imaginary. It is to enable the less intelligent and neophytes to adjust to the idea of the Lord having form. But factually the Lord has no material form."

Prabhupāda: So this is very important verse. Form and formless. When we speak of formless, we speak that God or even living entity, all of us, we have no material form. Just like we have got this form, but this form is temporary and it will never come again. As soon as this form is finished, I will have to take another form. That form may not be exactly like this.

So this is the formula for everyone. But for Kṛṣṇa, He has no material form. He has got spiritual form. Therefore His form is eternal. We do not remember our past lives, incidences, because the form has changed. But Kṛṣṇa remembers because His form does not change.

The evidence is the Bhagavad-gītā. Kṛṣṇa says . . . when He was questioned by Arjuna, "How can I believe that You spoke this philosophy of Bhagavad-gītā 400,000,000's of years ago to the sun god?" so Kṛṣṇa says that, "Yes, you were also present there, because you are My constant companion. But you have forgotten; I remember."

So we do not forget things so long the form continues. But when the form changes, we forget. Every night we have got this experience. Our form is lying on the bed, but I am dreaming in a different form. I am flying in the sky and forgetting that my real form is lying on the bed. You forget. We forget that, "I am American" or "I am the son of such-and-such gentleman" or . . . everything forgotten. Every night we have got this experience. So as soon as the form is forgotten, then everything is forgotten—with reference to the context.

So this universal form . . . the impersonalists, they are very much fond of this universal form. It is very favorable. But what is this universal form? This universal form is external expansion of the supreme form, Kṛṣṇa. You can understand it very easily, that we all living entities, we are a spiritual form, very minute. Materially we cannot understand. But there is a form.

We get the information from the śāstra, although we cannot see it with our material eyes. Śāstra says that every living entity is one ten-thousandth part of the tip of the hair. Śāstra says. Everyone has seen the tip of the hair, but he has no idea how to divide it into ten thousand part. Keśāgra-śata-bhāgasya śatadhā kalpitasya ca. Keśāgra. Agra. Agra means tip; keśa means hair. So you just imagine only that you see the top, tip, of the hair, and divide it into ten thousand parts. That one part is the form of the living entity.

(aside) Who is extending the . . .? This is not good.

keśāgra-śata-bhāgasya

śatadhā kalpitasya ca

jīva-bhāgaḥ sa vijñeyaḥ

sa cānantyāya kalpate

(Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad 5.9)

That is the dimension of the living entity, and they are innumerable, ananta. There is no limit how many there are.

So that small particle, atomic spiritual energy, takes shelter by superior control. When a man dies—I am speaking of man, every living entity is dying—so the spirit soul is taken to the court of judgment of Yamarāja. And according to his work, he is given a body, next life. How? By superior arrangement. That is stated in the Śrīmad . . . karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa (SB 3.31.1). Just like your . . .

Ordinarily, suppose you are working somewhere. So your service record is there. Now, at the end of the year, or at the end of some period, the service record is checked, and you are given promotion or increase, increment. So many things are judged. Similarly, all our activities what we are doing now, that is being recorded. There is record. And after death, you are taken to the court of Yamarāja, the days of judgment, and the decision is made by the higher authority what kind of body I or you shall get. This is the way.

Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa jantur deha upapattaye (SB 3.31.1). Jantu means living entities. For giving him a body, it is decided by the higher authorities. You cannot say, "Now give me the body of a king." Now you are American. You cannot say, you cannot dictate that, "Give me again the American body as the son of Rockefeller." No.

That will be judged, what you have done. Of course, you have got this opportunity for your pious activities. Because to take birth in rich family or a rich nation, that is due to pious activity, past. Janmaiśvarya-śruta-śrībhiḥ (SB 1.8.26). Janma, birth; aiśvarya, riches; śruta, education; and śrī, and beauty. These things are obtained according to past activities. Not that everyone becomes educated. No. There is no such chance.

That we were discussing this morning. There is no chance. Everything depends on some cause. Not that by chance anyone becomes very rich man. No. One has to work for it. Not that by chance one becomes very educated. These things are not chances. So as soon as there is no chance, there is cause, there must be judgment. There must be judgment. Otherwise why one man is born rich and other man is working so hard, but he is lying down on the street?

So there is judgment. So the small particle of the living entity, by the judgment, superior judgment, is transferred to the semina of a particular father. And the living entity is injected in the womb of the female, and both secretion combine, the living entity develops body. This is the science. If you use contraceptive, that means if you contaminate the emulsion, the poor living entity cannot take place. That is contra . . . you cannot kill the living soul, but you make the circumstances unfavorable for his staying, or . . . then he has to be transferred to another womb.

So, so many subtle laws are going on. But the basic principle is that small particle of soul. Then the body develops. That we can see. Not that a pregnancy, on the day of pregnancy, immediately the body develops. No. It develops gradually, gradually. First it is just like a small pea, then gradually develops. As we see, the child born, he also develops. That is also not developed.

That is transmigration from one body to another. Just like in a film, in cinema film, there are so many pictures, but when they are moved very swiftly, we see the picture is moving. But there are hundreds of picture. They are combined together. Similarly, the process of our change of body is so swift that we cannot perceive it. We think that it is growing. No. It is not growing. It is different bodies.

So our point is that the small spiritual spark develops this body, as we have developed this body. Similarly, this huge, gigantic body of universal form is the development of Kṛṣṇa's external body. This is also body. Therefore as your bodily functions are going on nicely because that spiritual spark is within, similarly, you see all these material activities, they are going nicely because the Supreme Lord is there.

The rascal scientists, they cannot understand it. But any sane man can understand that these bodily functions are going on very nicely so long the spirit soul is there. Similarly, all this material . . . big manifestation of material world is going on nicely because Kṛṣṇa is there. What is the difficulty? Because Kṛṣṇa is there.

That is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā, viṣṭabhyāham idam jagat, ekāṁśena sthito jagat (BG 10.42). "My dear Arjuna . . ." Arjuna asked, "Kṛṣṇa, kindly explain how Your energies are acting." So He explained in the Twelfth Chapter. He explained how Kṛṣṇa's energies are working. Just like your energy is working on this body, similarly Kṛṣṇa's energy also working in this universal body. So He summarized how His energies are working. Athavā bahunaitena kiṁ jñātena tavārjuna: "Arjuna, now I shall go on explaining how My energies are working. But you can summarize that I, in one of My plenary portion, enter into this material world, and therefore it is going on so nicely."

So as our this material body is not our real form . . . the real form is within this body, spiritual form. This body is explained as the dress. The dress is made when there is a real form. Just like you have got coat. Because you have got hands, the coat has got a hand. Your shirt: because you have got hand, the shirt has got a hand. But you are not the shirt or the coat. Similarly, because we are spiritual forms, maybe very minute, therefore we grow our hands and legs and heads and so many things. That is materially coated.

So here it is explained that people are very much fond of this universal form. They cannot imagine that a person—Kṛṣṇa is a person—He can work so wonderfully. Because he cannot do it. How he can do? He is very small. They do not understand that a small fire and big fire. Just like spark. Spark is also fire, so spark can also burn, but it can burn very small portion. Suppose a spark falls on your cloth, it will burn immediately.

It will make immediately black. But it is very small. Similarly, the difference between Kṛṣṇa and me is that He is great, God is great, and I am small—although qualitatively we are one. The same: big fire and small fire. Similarly, we have got also the same qualities, approximately, but very small quantity. We can play very wonderful by discovering some machine, say, the machine, what is called, which goes to the moon planet?

Devotee: Capsule.

Prabhupāda: Capsule. Or we float something in the sky, Sputnik. But that is imitation of God. God is floating gigantic planets like sun, moon, in the space. You cannot do that. You can float a small Sputnik.

So you have got the creative power, God has got the creative power. But God's creative power cannot be compared with your creative power. You have got the creative power, but not exactly like God. This is the conclusion. You cannot become God. You can imitate or you can do something very little. Just like little children, they play with little toys. Similarly, you can play with little toys and advertise yourself great scientist. That's all. But you are nothing. You are nothing.

This is to be realized. This is called bhakti-yoga. The rascals are puffed up, "I am God," foolishly. How you can be God? You may have some qualities, very minute quality of God, but you cannot claim that you are God. The same example: the small spark of fire is also fire. Nobody . . . there is no doubt. A small particle of gold is gold, but it cannot be compared with the gold mine. That is not possible.

So this gigantic . . . people, they are very much appreciative of the gigantic universal form. They do not like . . . "Oh, Kṛṣṇa. Why Kṛṣṇa I shall worship? We worship gigantic form." But this gigantic form is a product of Kṛṣṇa's energy. They do not know that. Here it is said, māyā-guṇair viracitam. By Kṛṣṇa's energy it is created. Māyā-guṇair viracitaṁ mahadādibhir ātmani. The material energy. The material energy also from Kṛṣṇa's body, as much as spiritual energy. Whatever we see, they are different energies of Kṛṣṇa. Just like in the Viṣṇu Purāṇa it is said:

eka-deśa-sthitasyāgner

jyotsnā vistāriṇī yathā

parasya brahmaṇaḥ śakti

sarvedam akhilaṁ jagat

(Viṣṇu Purāṇa 1.22.52)

Akhilaṁ jagat. The vast universal form which you are seeing, it is nothing but parasya brahmaṇaḥ śaktiḥ: it is the manifestation of the energy of the Supreme Person. How? The example is given, eka-deśa-sthitasyāgneḥ, just like fire.

Take the example of the sun, the biggest fire within this universe. It is situated in a place. The sun is not distributed; the sunshine is distributed. The sunshine may be covering the whole universe, but that is not very important. The sun globe is important. It is localized.

Similarly, as the sun is distributing heat and light, remaining itself in one place, similarly, Kṛṣṇa is playing with gopīs in Goloka Vṛndāvana, and His shine is creating the whole universe. Not that Kṛṣṇa is playing there, He is enjoying, therefore He is absent. No. Goloka eva nivasaty akhilātma-bhūtaḥ (Bs. 5.37). That is Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is Goloka Vṛndāvana, but He is present everywhere. That is Kṛṣṇa.

I am sitting here, you are sitting here. You are not in your apartment. That is my position. But Kṛṣṇa's position is that although He is always in Goloka Vṛndāvana, He is present everywhere. How? Aṇḍāntara-stha-paramāṇu-cayāntara-stham (Bs. 5.35). He is within every universe; not only within every universe, He is within every atom. That is Kṛṣṇa. That is Kṛṣṇa.

Don't think that Kṛṣṇa, because He is playing as a cowherd boy or He is playing as a friend of the gopīs, therefore He is ordinary man. The rascals imitate Kṛṣṇa. They say, "Oh, Kṛṣṇa has enjoyed the gopīs? Oh, let me gather some young girls and enjoy." But you become universally represented everywhere, then you enjoy. Rascal, he cannot do that. (laughs) you see? He can simply imitate how to be in the midst of young girls and enjoy. That is the difference.

Thank you very much.

Devotees: Jaya! All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda. (devotees offer obeisances) (end)