721021 - Lecture SB 01.02.10 - Vrndavana

Lectures by Date, 1972

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

721021SB-VRNDAVAN - October 21, 1972 - 33:34 Minutes

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

kāmasya nendriya prītir

lābho jīveta yāvatā

jīvasya tattva-jijñāsā

nārtho yaś ceha karmabhiḥ

(SB 1.2.10)

Prabhupāda: Anyone else? (devotees chant) (break)

Pradyumna: (leads chanting of synonyms)

kāmasya—of desires; na—not; indriya—senses; prītiḥ—satisfaction; lābhaḥ—gain; jīveta—self-preservation; yāvatā—so much so; jīvasya—of the living being; tattva—Absolute Truth; jijñāsā—inquiries; na—not; arthaḥ—end; yaḥ ca iha—whatsoever else; karmabhiḥ—by occupational activities.

"Life's desires should never be aimed at gratifying the senses. One should desire to live only because human life enables one to inquire about the Absolute Truth. This should be the goal of all works."

Prabhupāda: Hm.

kāmasya nendriya prītir

lābho jīveta yāvatā

jīvasya tattva-jijñāsā

nārtho yaś ceha karmabhiḥ

(SB 1.2.10)

So we were discussing dharma, artha, kāma, mokṣa (SB 4.8.41, CC Adi 1.90). So we have already discussed that religiosity does not mean to gain material gain. Generally, people take to religiosity for material gain. We have already discussed, just people go to the church: "God, give us our daily bread." Or even in temple they go to ask something, material gain. But actually religiosity's not meant for that purpose. Religiosity meant for dharmasya āpavargyasya. To enter into life of religiosity means to get out of the threefold miserable condition of life, apavarga.

So then dharma, artha, money also we want. Arthasya dharmaikāntasya na kāmo lābhāya hi smṛtaḥ (SB 1.2.9). We want money—that's all right—but not for satisfaction of our lusty desires. Money has got its use. Just like in our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement we get money also. But we are spending for spreading Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Our need is very great. People will be surprised what we are expending per month.

We have got more than one hundred branches all over the world, and each branch, there is expenditure . . . in Los Angeles, we spend twenty thousand dollars per month. In New York, we spend ten thousand per . . . dollars per month, or more than that. Similarly, on the average, we spend not less than ten thousand dollars per each branch. But we have got calculation. We, we are spending seventy thousand dollar, dollar per month. So Indian exchange means seven lakhs of rupees.

So we need money. And we are getting money also. In Europe, in America, the process of getting money is not like here, that I go to any gentleman, "Give us some donation." That is not possible. You cannot enter even one's house without introduction. Then you are trespasser. If you enter anyone's house without permission, he can kill you.

This is the law. And every door, there is signboard: "Beware of the dogs." (chuckles) So it is not possible to go and beg, "Sir, give us something." But fortunately, we have published books, about twenty books, four hundred pages each. And we are going on publishing. By Kṛṣṇa's grace we are selling books, daily, twenty five thousand rupees. Therefore we are able to spend seven lakhs of rupees per month.

So Kṛṣṇa gives. My Guru Mahārāja always used to speak that "Why should you go and flatter? You should speak plain truth, without any flattering. Money will come." That was his conviction. And . . . so it is experienced. We have got very, very heavy expenditure. But all this money collected, they are not meant for indriya-prīti, not for sense gratification. That is the significance. If we want money for sense gratification, then according to our destiny we shall get. Not more than that. Nobody can get more. Therefore Bhāgavata says:

tasyaiva hetoḥ prayateta kovido

na labhyate yad bhramatām upary adhaḥ

tal labhyate duḥkhavad anyataḥ sukhaṁ

kālena sarvatra gabhīra-raṁhasā

(SB 1.5.18)

So far our sense gratification is concerned, we cannot get money more than what we are destined to get. Otherwise why there are so many people born with silver spoon in their mouth and somebody's born poor? And he's not getting even two times food, working very hard, day and night. So there is a destiny. Destiny we cannot improve. That is already settled up. But you can improve your Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That chance is there.

Therefore Bhāgavata says, tasyaiva hetoḥ prayateta kovidaḥ. Those who are learned, those who are intelligent, they should devote the life for developing Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Kṛṣṇa consciousness is there in everyone's heart, dormantly.

nitya-siddha kṛṣṇa-bhakti 'sādhya' kabhu naya

śravaṇādi-śuddha-citte karaye udaya

(CC Madhya 22.107)

Our love for Kṛṣṇa is there already, but it is covered. It is covered. By the influence of the modes of material nature, it is covered. So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is nothing but discovering Kṛṣṇa consciousness. It is already there. But we are giving chance to the people for hearing about Kṛṣṇa. That's all. All these European, American boys and girls who have joined, they have simply been given the chance of hearing. Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12).

Actually, if the people are given chance to hear this Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra, paraṁ vijayate śrī-kṛṣṇa-saṅkīrtanam, then gradually the dirty things within his heart becomes cleared, and he can understand what is Kṛṣṇa. This is the process. We do not ask anybody that, "You become Hindu" or "You become so and so." We simply ask, "Please come and chant with us." This is our program. I began my chanting in New York in a park, Tompkinson Square.

Those who are old students . . . here is Acyutānanda. He's one of the old students. He first of all came and danced, he and Brahmānanda. So that is the beginning. He knows what was the beginning. I was sitting underneath a tree like this, and no khol. It was some dundubhi. And I was playing on it from two to five, three hours, chanting. And these young boys and girls with their dogs, with their children, they began to dance. Yes. That was the beginning. Gradually, they became student. Here is . . . where is our Hayagrīva Prabhu?

Devotee: He's over here, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Yes. He's Professor Howard Wheeler. He also met me on the street. Before that, he came to India to search out a guru, but he could not find out a guru. He returned back. Then, when I was going on a street, he found me, and he began to join. In this way, we developed. First of all in New York, then San Francisco, then Montreal.

So now we have got more than one hundred branches all over the world. So simply by this chanting. And we are known as "Hare Krishna people." Wherever we go, people say: "Here are the Hare Krishna people." They respect, because we follow strictly the four principles: no illicit sex, no gambling, no intoxication and no meat-eating. They respect. They become surprised how we can avoid.

So here it is stated, kāmasya nendriya prītiḥ. So long we have this body, we have to eat, we have to sleep, we have to enjoy senses and we have to defend. Āhāra-nidrā-bhaya-maithuna (Hitopadeśa). These are bodily necessities of life, and they are called kāma. So kāma is allowed. Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā, dharma-aviruddhaḥ kāmo 'smi (BG 7.11): "Which is not against religious principles, that sort of kāma is allowed."

But not for sense gratification. You can marry. You can beget children. That's all right. But you cannot enjoy sex for enjoyment, for simply enjoyment. No. That is not allowed. You eat, you sleep, you have sex life, you defend—nothing is forbidden in the śāstra—but you must know the aim of your life. The aim of your life is tattva-jijñāsā. You should not forget that.

Therefore the Vedic system is so organized that people may satisfy the bodily necessities of life, at the same time, he may progress in Kṛṣṇa consciousness for understanding the Absolute Truth. That is Vedic system. Not one-sided. There is sufficient concession for our sense gratification, but we should not forget our real business of life, athāto brahma jijñāsā.

This brahma-jijñāsā is explained here as tattva-jijñāsā, the same thing. Jīvasya tattva-jijñāsā. This human life . . . athāto brahma jijñāsā means this human life is made for inquiring about the Absolute Truth. Just like Sanātana Gosvāmī, he inquired from Caitanya Mahāprabhu, ke āmi kene āmāya jāre tāpa-traya (CC Madhya 20.102), "Who am I?" This is also brahma-jijñāsā. Because I am part and parcel of Brahman, the Absolute Truth, so I must know myself. So that is the beginning of brahma-jijñāsā.

Just like Bhagavad-gītā begins . . . Kṛṣṇa is teaching Arjuna that, "You are not this body. You are Brahman." Dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā (BG 2.13). Asmin dehe, in this body, there is the proprietor of the body. So that is the beginning of brahma-jijñāsā. "Who am I?" Ke āmi. And without knowing myself, I cannot understand what is Kṛṣṇa. If I, without knowing myself, I try to understand Kṛṣṇa, then I shall misunderstand. Avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam (BG 9.11). I shall consider that, "He's also a man like me. Maybe a better man or stronger man or richer man, that's all." Because they have no conception of the spiritual identity of self, therefore they misunderstand Kṛṣṇa as ordinary man.

So we cannot understand Brahman or God or Para-brahman, Supersoul, without understanding the nature of myself. This is called tattva-jijñāsā. So jīvasya tattva-jijñāsā. We should work. Everyone is working, but they are working for sense gratification. Especially in the Western countries, not only Western countries—Eastern, everywhere—their aim is how to satisfy or gratify the senses more and more. This is their aim.

But that is not the li . . . aim of life. The aim of life, especially in the human form of life . . . we are coming to this human form of life through the evolutionary process, gradual evolutionary process of 8,400,000 species of life, and this is the opportunity to understand, "What I am, what is God, and what is our relationship with Him." If we miss this opportunity, then we are committing suicide. Again I . . . we're going back in the cycle of birth and death, and we do not know when again we shall come to this form of human body. So we should not misuse this human form of body. Therefore Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura sings:

hari hari biphale janama goṅāinu

manuṣya-janama pāiyā

rādhā-kṛṣṇa nā bhajiyā

jāniyā śuniyā biṣa khāinu

"Knowingly, I am drinking poison. I have heard that this life is meant for understanding the Absolute Truth, but I am spoiling my life in the business of sense gratification. So therefore I am drinking poison knowingly." Just like somebody takes poison knowingly that, "I . . . I must die." But he wants to end. So that is not our aim of life. We should properly utilize the opportunity given by nature, given by God. That is required.

So here is the opportunity. Kṛṣṇa is there. Kṛṣṇa is speaking. Not that Kṛṣṇa is not present. Kṛṣṇa is present by His words. Kṛṣṇa is absolute. There is no difference between Kṛṣṇa and His words. The Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, they're the words of Kṛṣṇa. When you read Bhagavad-gītā, you should know that you are talking with Kṛṣṇa directly: kṛṣṇa-kathā. Caitanya Mahāprabhu therefore advises, yāre dekha tāre kaha kṛṣṇa-upadeśa (CC Madhya 7.128). Kṛṣṇa-upadeśa, kṛṣṇa-kathā, this should be spread all over the world. My Guru Mahārāja used to say that "I don't find any scarcity within this world except Kṛṣṇa consciousness." Exc . . .

Actually, that is the fact. There is no scarcity all over the world. In India there may be scarcity, but outside India still there are so much vacant places, especially in Africa, in America, in Australia, in New Zealand, that ten times of the population of the whole world can be fed. Still. There is so much potency of producing food grains, milk and other things. Profusely. In America, they throw away so many grains and vegetables daily. It is simply mismanagement. Otherwise, there is no question of scarcity or poverty. There is no question. It is simply propaganda. Because they cannot manage, the foolish people, they present the population has increased and the foodstuff is not properly supplied. Foodstuff is always sufficient. But when there are demons, the supply is restricted by nature.

That we get information from Pṛthu Mahārāja's history. When there was scarcity, Pṛthu Mahārāja wanted to kill the earthly god, or Pṛthvī. But she replied that, "I have restricted supply on account of demons, because they are not actually executing the purpose of life, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Therefore I have restricted." So the more people become non–Kṛṣṇa conscious, materially conscious, the more there will be restriction of foodstuff. In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, in the Twelfth Canto, it is stated that the end of Kali-yuga there will be no grain supply. Wheat, rice and milk and sugar will not be available. Now it is available still, because still people are little Kṛṣṇa conscious. For them only. But gradually, the things will deteriorate so much so that almost all supplies will be stopped.

So the fact is that we do not require to, I mean to say, endeavor for finding out food. The food is already there. Jīvasya tattva-jijñāsā. We should sit down tightly, depending on Kṛṣṇa. That we have already explained, that this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is going on. We have got heavy expenditure, but Kṛṣṇa is supplying. This is a fact. None of our boys and girls, they go to office or to factory or they earn. The . . . in Los Angeles, our neighborhood men, they're very envious. They say: "How you maintain such huge establishment and you do not work?" They cannot dream that without working one can eat. Yes.

So here the fact, jīvasya tattva-jijñāsā nārtho yaś ceha karmabhiḥ. It is not that you have to work very hard. The . . . everywhere in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, that is the instruction. In one place, in the Fifth Chapter of Fifth Canto, while Ṛṣabhadeva was instructing His boys, He also said, nāham . . . nāyaṁ deho deha-bhājāṁ nṛloke kaṣṭān kāmān arhate viḍ-bhujāṁ ye (SB 5.5.1). This human form of body is not meant for working hard like the dogs and the hogs for simply for sense gratification; it is meant for tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena śuddhyet (SB 5.5.1). The human life is meant for tapasya, self-realization, tattva-jijñāsā. That is the basic principle of Vedic civilization.

In the Vedic, in Mahābhārata, we don't find there is any industrial development or trade development. No. Nothing like that. Why Mahābhārata? Even two hundred years ago, before the British advent, there was no industry all over the India. And they were happy. So it is not that simply by increasing your fruitive activities, karmabhiḥ, you can become happy. No. That is not possible. If you simply restrict yourself for life, inquiring about the Absolute Truth, then you'll be happy. Jīvasya tattva-jijñāsā. That is, that is the only business of the human form of life, not working hard like asses and cows, sa eva go-karaḥ.

These examples are there in the . . . I was giving the example while coming. Who was there? That this ass . . . ass, one ass was going. So the ass, he can eat grass anywhere. There are so many grasses. But he's thinking that, "Unless I work very hard, the washerman will not give me grass." You see? This is ass intelligence. Everything is there. Why ass? There are elephants. In Africa there are millions of elephants. They're eating at the, at one time, at least eighty-two pounds, but they are supplied food.

So there is no question of. This is all political propaganda: "There is no food. There is increase of population." Nothing. Everything, Kṛṣṇa can provide. Eko bahūnāṁ yo vidadhāti kāmān, nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13). The Supreme Lord is the supreme nitya, eternal, and we are all dependent upon Him. Nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām. And that one singular number of nitya, Kṛṣṇa, bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān.

So Kṛṣṇa has provided everyone's food. There is no necessity . . . necessity of becoming anxious, "Where is food? Where is food?" Every arrangement is there. Our only business is how to develop Kṛṣṇa consciousness, how to know Kṛṣṇa. And if you simply know Kṛṣṇa, janma karma me divyam yo janati tattva (BG 4.9), simply in truth if we try to understand Kṛṣṇa, our all problems are solved. Especially this problem, this repetition of birth and death, this is solved. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti (BG 4.9). And that is the main problem.

So our request is that everyone may take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement without any hesitation. This is authorized movement and approved movement, and people are accepting all over the world. Unfortunately, in India they are lacking. I must admit that as the younger generation from other countries, they're enthusiastically join, or joining, our Indian youths are not joining in that way. But we require so many preachers, so many young men to preach all over the world this sublime movement, Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

People are accepting. Even in Africa, who are supposed to be uncivilized, they are also accepting. Everywhere. There is no impediment. Ahaituky apratihatā. People are chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. You'll be surprised to know that I was going from London to Nairobi, Africa, and our plane stopped for forty-five minutes in Athens, and as soon as we dropped down, some young men there, in Athens, Greece, they immediately began to chant, "Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa."

So the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement is, or Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, is now well spread all over the world. The framework is there. So anyone can go and preach this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement very easily, and people will take it. Recently I'm coming from Manila, Philippines. There also, they're dog-eaters, but still they took part in Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, chanted, and we were very much encouraged.

In the last meeting . . . we held our meeting in the hotel, big hall, very nice hall, and all young men came, and they chanted and danced with us, purchased our books, and here are . . . the organizer is Sudāmā-vipra Ma . . . Gosvāmī Mahārāja, is present here. He has gone there only six months, and within six months, he has organized so nicely that wherever we go, the young generation, especially, they chant "Hare Kṛṣṇa!"

So the purpose is that this Hare Kṛṣṇa movement has got great potency, everywhere, all over the world. Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, pṛthivīte āche yata nagarādi grāma. (CB Antya-khaṇḍa 4.126) He did not say in vain. There was meaning. Simply we have to take the opportunity, the blessings of Caitanya Mahāprabhu, and try our best. The people will be happy, and we shall be happy. That is the meaning of jīvasya tattva-jijñāsā nārtho yaś ceha karmabhiḥ (SB 1.2.10).

Thank you very much. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Devotees: Jaya! All glories. Hare . . . (break) (end)