731013 - Lecture BG 13.19 - Bombay

Lectures by Date, 1973

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

731013BG-BOMBAY - October 13, 1973 - 34:37 Minutes

Prabhupāda: (aside) So why don't you come forward? Back side, yes.

So, svayaṁ bhagavān, Kṛṣṇa, kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam (SB 1.3.28). We have many times explained the word bhagavān. Bhagavān means six opulences: riches and . . . aiśvaryasya samagrasya vīryasya, potency; vīryasya yaśasaḥ, fame, reputation; aiśvaryasya samagrasya vīryasya yaśasaḥ śriyaḥ (Viṣṇu Purāṇa 6.5.47), beauty; jñāna, knowledge; and vairāgya, detachment.

When one is full with all these six opulences, He's God. So people try to get the opulences. Everyone is trying by karma, jñāna, yoga. But nobody can attain the opulences in full strength. That is not possible. So the simple definition of God is that one who is in full six opulences, He's God. That has been analyzed by great saintly persons, including Lord Brahmā, and it has been decided that the all the six opulences can be found in Kṛṣṇa.

Therefore, Brahmā's decree is given there in the Brahma-saṁhitā:

īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ

sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ

anādir ādir govindaḥ

sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam

(Bs. 5.1)

In the Bhagavad-gītā also it is said, aham hi ādir devānāṁ maharṣīṇāṁ ca sarvaśaḥ (BG 10.2). So that Supreme Personality of Kṛṣṇa is giving us knowledge, the ultimate goal of knowledge. And the living entities, their body, field of activities, in this Thirteenth Chapter they have been very thoroughly described, although Kṛṣṇa said it is summary. Because they cannot be described in full.

This body, how many bodies you have changed? Even in this life, we are changing our body. Every one of us, a little body of a child, then little grown-up body of a boy, then youthful body, then this old body. So as we are changing body, dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13), similarly, after giving up this body, I will have to accept another body, and there are for 8,400,000 species of forms of body. According to our karma, we have to accept another body, karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa (SB 3.31.1), by superior arrangement.

You cannot say that, "I want this kind of body." God is not your order supplier. You'll get. Either you ask for it or don't ask for it, you, according to your karma, you'll have a next body, karmaṇā daiva . . . by the superior arrangement. If you work in this life like god, you'll get next life a god's body. And if you work in this life as a dog, then you get next the life as a dog. That is not in your hands. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27). Guṇaiḥ, according to your qualities, as you will work, and prakṛti, nature, will give you a similar body.

Otherwise, why do we find so many varieties of bodies? So many varieties. Just like so many varieties of apartment, so many varieties of hotels, so many varieties of appointment. So you are appointed, you are put into an apartment, or hotel, according to the terms of your payment. That is karma. So you cannot say everything is also equal. That is nonsense. They cannot be equal, because we are working under three qualities: goodness, passion and ignorance. If we work, field of activities . . .

This, this body is field of activities. Nobody can work similarly, because they have got field of activities different. My body is different, your body is different. You are acting according to your body. The hog is acting according to his body. The dog is acting according to his body. The president of some country is acting according to his body. So we should have brain to understand that, "Why there are different personalities and different activities?" Because there are different qualities.

So to organize human society these qualities should be taken into consideration. We should divide. Just like in our body we have got four departments: this head department, the arm department, the belly department and the leg department. Everyone is working according to the departmental function. The brain is working differently. The office, or the direction, the brain is giving direction, then my hand is moving, my leg is moving. So there must be a directory department. In office also there are board of directors, then secretaries, then clerks, then menials, then servants, then cāparāsi.

So even in your body this arrangement is there. How can you avoid? If you simply say that, "Let there be all heads," that cannot. Or "Let there be simply legs." That is cannot; that cannot be. There must be the heads, the legs, the hands, the belly. Similarly, the whole society should be divided into that way, and they should work cooperatively. The central point. Just like this head, leg, hands, they are working cooperatively for the benefit of this body, whole body. Actually for the benefit of this belly. Because we are all working now for eating. Without eating we cannot live. Then eating, after sleeping, then mating, then defending. First there must be arrangement for eating. So the practically the stomach is the king in this bodily arrangement, the stomach.

There is a story, Udarendriyāṇām, in the Hitopadeśa written by Viṣṇuśarma. There, there was strike. All the hands, legs, eyes, they observed strike that, "This belly, the stomach is eating only, and we are working. So we shall not work. We shall not work. Stop working," just like nowadays striking goes on. So they stopped working, and after few days, all of them became weak because they were not feeding the stomach. Then they arranged another conference, "Why we are becoming weak?" Then the fault was found out that, "Because we are not giving to eat to the stomach." So all then agreed, "Well, let the stomach eat, and let us work." So this is the nature's arrangement. The stomach will simply eat, and the hands and legs and eyes, they must work.

Similarly, the central point is Kṛṣṇa, God. God must simply eat. You must work. We are all part and parcel of . . . mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūtaḥ (BG 15.7). Just like part and parcel of my body, they must work, and the stomach shall eat. So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is that, that Kṛṣṇa is the central stomach and you all work for Kṛṣṇa. You are also benefited. Just like here is Kṛṣṇa. We are all working for Kṛṣṇa whole day and night, but we are not starving. We are not starving; we are getting Kṛṣṇa's prasāda, nice foodstuff. So this cooperation should be. If you supply food to the stomach, the energy will be distributed to the hands, legs, fingers, eyes. And if you do not supply food, you cannot say that the fingers, if they capture a nice sweetmeat and if he non-cooperates, "No, I shall not give to the stomach. I shall eat," he cannot eat; the fingers cannot eat. It must give to the stomach and take the prasādam energy; then the fingers and eyes will work.

So we must serve. Therefore, in the Bhagavad-gītā the last instruction is that, "You surrender to Me." Sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). So if we surrender to God and if we serve God, because we are part and parcel, then we shall be happy. The energy will come from the central, just like the energy is coming from the heart. Because—this is practical medically and scientifically—the energy is coming. As soon as the heart fails, everything stops. And the energy is there because īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe arjuna tiṣṭhati (BG 18.61). Hṛd-deśe, it is there. The īśvara, the Supreme Lord as Paramātmā, is situated within your heart. Now you find out, if you have got means to see. But the situation is given, described in the śāstra.

Therefore yogīs, they try to find out God within the heart. Dhyānāvasthita-tad-gatena manasā paśyanti yaṁ yoginaḥ (SB 12.13.1). Yogī, those who are yogīs, transcendentalist, they are trying to observe the Supreme Personality of Godhead, dhyānāvasthita, by meditation. That is real meditation, to focus the mind to see the Supreme Personality of Godhead within the heart. But who can see? That is also described in the śāstra. Premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena santaḥ sadaiva hṛdayeṣu (Bs. 5.38), again hṛdayeṣu. Hṛdayeṣu. Premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena santaḥ, santaḥ, saintly person, being developed in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, in love of Kṛṣṇa . . . premāñjana: and smearing the eyes with the ointment of love of Kṛṣṇa. We can see Kṛṣṇa, God, with these eyes when it is anointed with the particular medicine, which is called love of Godhead.

Premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena santaḥ (Bs. 5.38). Not ordinary man; santaḥ, advanced saintly persons. Santaḥ sadaiva paśyanti. Where? Where they see? Hṛdayeṣu: in their own heart. Santaḥ hṛdayeṣu paśyanti. Yaṁ śyāmasundaram acintya-guṇa-svarūpaṁ govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi. Yaṁ śyāmasundaram. Kṛṣṇa's another name is Śyāmasundara. He's blackish, but very beautiful. Generally, we don't like to see blackish people. But Kṛṣṇa is so nice. Although He's blackish, He's kandarpa-koṭi-kamanīya. Barhāvataṁsam asitāmbuda-sundarāṅgam. These are described in the Vedic literature. Although He's blackish, He is more beautiful than millions of millions of Cupids. Kandarpa-koṭi-kamanīya.

So Kṛṣṇa is so beauty. That is His godliness. Because beauty is also . . . we don't worship nirākāra. Beautiful. The most beautiful. The most beautiful. Kṛṣṇa is the most beautiful. Rādhārāṇī is the most beautiful. Couple, young couple. Our object of worship when we see how nice Rādhārāṇī, how nice Kṛṣṇa—beauty. Yes. Wherefrom the beauty worship has come in this material world unless there is beauty in the original form, Kṛṣṇa and Rādhārāṇī? So God cannot be nirākāra. Otherwise, why this beauty worship has come, with . . . (indistinct) . . .? Janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1), the Vedānta-sūtra says. Whatever you see within this world, there is origin. It is only reflection. It is only reflection. Just like in the mirror, there is reflection of your beautiful face, and it looks beautiful because the face is beautiful. If the face is ugly, the reflection will be ugly.

So everything is there in God. Aham ādir hi devānām (BG 10.2). Another place, Kṛṣṇa says, mattaḥ sarvaṁ pravartate. Ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavaḥ (BG 10.8). So Kṛṣṇa is the origin of everything. Mattaḥ sarvaṁ pravartate: "Everything emanates from Me." That is the answer to the Vedānta-sūtra, Brahma-sūtra, Brahma-sūtra. Athāto brahma jijñāsā. Janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). So the origin is there, the richness is there, the potency is there, the beauty is there, the riches is there, the knowledge is there and the detachment is there.

Just see. Here, in this material world, it is all created by God. But how much He is detached: He does not live within this material world; He lives in His own abode, in the spiritual world. He has no attachment, although He has created. That is also confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā:

mayā tatam idaṁ sarvaṁ

jagad avyakta-mūrtinā

mat-sthāni sarva-bhūtāni

nāhaṁ teṣv avasthitaḥ

(BG 9.4)

Kṛṣṇa says, mayā tatam idaṁ sarvam, "Whatever you see, that is My expansion of energy." Just like the energy, sun, is there in the localized place, and the energy, sunshine, is distributed all over the universe. But you cannot say: "Because I am in touch with the sunshine, therefore I am in touch with the sun." You are simultaneously, you are in touch with the sun, at the same time not touching sun. Just like at the present moment at night we are not in touch with the sun, because it is darkness. So when . . . we are not in touch with God when we forget Him. And as soon as we understand that everything is the energy of the Supreme Lord, then immediately we become in touch. That can be done, premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena santaḥ sadaiva hṛdayeṣu vilokayanti (Bs. 5.38).

Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, iti kṣetraṁ tathā jñānaṁ jñeyaṁ coktuṁ samāsataḥ, "My dear Arjuna, now I have explained to you in summary, not in detail, what is this body, who is the knower of the body, proprietor of the body, kṣetra-jña, and what is knowledge, and what is the object of knowledge. These things I have explained to you." So Kṛṣṇa is explaining everything. Everything is there in the Bhagavad-gītā. You can become fully in knowledge if you read Bhagavad-gītā carefully. But you must have the qualification. If you are a rascal, nonsense, you cannot understand. This is plain thing. Rascals and nonsense cannot understand Bhagavad-gītā. That is the first condition.

When Bhagavad-gītā was taught to Arjuna, He said, bhakto 'si sakhā ceti rahasyaṁ hy etad uttamam: "My dear Arjuna, I am speaking to you this mystery of Bhagavad-gītā, which was spoken long, long ago to the sun-god, but now it is lost because the paramparā is lost, disciplic succession is lost. Therefore I am again speaking to you the same truth so that from you people will understand what is Bhagavad-gītā." "So why You have selected me, Sir? I am an ordinary military man. I know how to fight. I am not a Vedāntist, neither I am a brāhmaṇa. So why You have selected me? Because, the spiritual knowledge is meant for the Vedāntist, brāhmaṇa, saintly person and sannyāsīs. I am neither of them. Why You have selected me?" Bhakto 'si, "Because you are My devotee."

This is the qualification. Without becoming devotee, no rascal can understand what is Bhagavad-gītā. Again the same thing is spoken to Arjuna: mad-bhakta etad vijñāya (BG 13.19). "I have explained everything in summary, but only My devotee can understand. Not others." That is also concluded in the Eighteenth Chapter. One can understand God, or Kṛṣṇa: bhaktyā mām abhijānāti yāvān yaś cāsmi tattvataḥ (BG 18.55). If you want to understand Kṛṣṇa, or God, then you have to become a devotee. Kṛṣṇa does not say the jñānī, karmī, yogī, they can understand. No.

Jñānī, what is that jñānī? Jñānī . . . bahūnāṁ janmanām ante jñānavān māṁ prapadyate (BG 7.19). That is jñāna. If you do not understand Kṛṣṇa, if you do not surrender to Kṛṣṇa, what is the value of your so-called knowledge? Śrama eva hi kevalam (SB 1.2.8). It is simply waste of time, if you do not understand Kṛṣṇa. You are studying Vedic literature, you are very good student of Vedas. That's all right. Have you understood Kṛṣṇa? "No, sir." Then it is useless. Useless waste of time. Because it is said, vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyaḥ (BG 15.15). If you actually understand Vedas, then you must understand Kṛṣṇa. "Jñānī. I am jñānī." What kind of jñānī? Simply a speculation? Waste your time? "This is not this, this is not this, this is not this?" Neti neti vicāra. This is simply called waste of . . . kevala-bodha-labdhaye.

That is confirmed in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Bhaktim udasya te vibho kliśyanti ye kevala-bodha-labdhaye (SB 10.14.4). Kevala-bodha-labdhaye, simply to understand. And you can take any insignificant thing, and if you want to speculate upon it, we can write volumes of books, but what is the use of such knowledge? Simply waste of time. But if by knowledge you come to the point of bhakti, how to surrender to Kṛṣṇa, then your knowledge is perfect. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says that, "This knowledge, to surrender unto Me," how to surrender to Kṛṣṇa, comes after many many births. Bahūnāṁ janmanām ante (BG 7.19). We are taking birth one after another, one after another, one after another. So in this way, not ordinary person. Ordinary persons, if they have no knowledge, then their next birth may be cats, dogs, trees or anything else. Those who are in knowledge, ūrdhvaṁ gacchanti sattva-sthāḥ. Knowledge means those who are situated in the quality of goodness, prakāśa, everything is clearly understood. That is knowledge.

So they, persons who are actually in knowledge, they are promoted to the higher planetary system. Ūrdhvaṁ gacchanti sattva-sthā madhye tiṣṭhanti rājasāḥ (BG 14.18). If you have no knowledge, simply you are trying to enjoy the senses, as in this material world everyone is busy how to enjoy senses, then you remain here. Madhye tiṣṭhanti rājasāḥ. And if you are in darkness, neither you have knowledge, neither you have the capacity to enjoy this world, simply lazy and sleepy—that is the darkness—then you become animal, trees, and other lower classes of species of life. These three things are going on.

Therefore, this knowledge means that to understand the Absolute Truth. That process is described, jñānam. Amānitvam adambhitvaṁ kṣāntir ārjavam, ācāryopāsanam, bhakti. Māṁ ca 'vyabhicāreṇa bhakti-yogena yaḥ sevate (BG 14.26). Adhyātma-jñānārtha-darśanam (BG 13.12). Everything is described. Kṛṣṇa said therefore that iti kṣetraṁ tathā jñānam: "I have described about this body and I have described about the knowledge and the object of knowledge. Everything I have described." But who will understand? That is also described here: mad-bhakta etad vijñāya (BG 13.19). So that is the qualification. Unless one is devotee, one cannot.

That is . . . so the politicians, they cannot understand Bhagavad-gītā. They will simply misuse. The politicians, the scholars, the so-called scholars, they cannot understand. Nāhaṁ prakāśaḥ sarvasya yoga-māyā-samāvṛtaḥ (BG 7.25). They cannot understand. You have to become a devotee. Mad-bhakta. Devotee of Kṛṣṇa. Not that deśa-bhakta that, "I am deśa-bhakta. I am a bhakta of my wife, I am bhakta of my country." No, no, you cannot understand. You get out. Mad-bhakta, kṛṣṇa-bhakta, it is clearly said. How these rascals try to explain Bhagavad-gītā without becoming kṛṣṇa-bhakta?

It is clearly stated here, you have to become kṛṣṇa-bhakta. If you actually understand, if you want to understand Kṛṣṇa, God, then you have to become. So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is for this purpose. We are making propaganda to teach people how to become kṛṣṇa-bhakta, and then he can understand Kṛṣṇa. And as soon as he understands Kṛṣṇa, he's liberated. Janma karma me divyaṁ yo jānāti tattvataḥ, Kṛṣṇa has already explained. If you simply understand Kṛṣṇa in truth, tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti (BG 4.9), he, after giving up this body, he does not come to this material world to accept another miserable body.

Then where does he go? Mad-yāti tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti (BG 4.9). "He comes to Me. He comes to Me." Mad-bhāva. Here it is also said, same thing, explained. Mad-bhakta etad vijñāya mad-bhāvāyopapadyate (BG 13.19). Mad-bhāva, "My nature." What is that nature? Sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ. Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ (Bs. 5.1). He has got a body which is eternal, sat, and cit, full of knowledge. Sat, cit and ānanda, full of blissfulness.

So we are also searching after, because we are part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. We are also trying to become eternal. We are making scientific improvement how to live long. Nobody wants to die. That is also described previously. Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). Actually we are making struggle, hard struggle, just to conquer over this miserable condition of life, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi. But that is not possible. Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi, you can conquer when you get the same nature as of Kṛṣṇa. Mad-bhāvāyopapadyate.

If you are able to acquire that nature, sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ (Bs. 5.1), then how is . . . how it is possible? That is mad-bhakta, mad-bhakta etad vijñāya (BG 13.19). These three things. What is this body, who is the owner of this body, what is knowledge, what is the object of knowledge. If we understand these three things, then we can get, revive our original position. We are also sac-cid-ānanda, but at the present moment our vigrahaḥ, our body, is different. This is subjected to birth, death, old age and disease. This we have to conquer; this is the problem. I don't want to die. Why death is enforced upon me? That these rascals they have no brain that, "I don't want to die. How I can escape death?" Just like we are trying to escape disease. We don't want to be diseased. As soon as we become diseased, we go to a doctor, we take medical help, "Sir, cure my disease, cure my disease." Then why don't you go to a doctor who can give you relief from death? But they have no brain. The educational system is so rascaldom that there is no brain. All over the world there is no institution where people are being taught how to conquer over death. There is no such institution.

Only this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is there, how to conquer over death. Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). If one person is intelligent, if he's in knowledge, he should know that "What improvement we are making?" "I am, I am Professor Einstein, big professor of science." "Sir, what you have done you'll not die?" "No, I die." Then what is improvement? What is your improvement? Oh, you have discovered atomic bomb? That's all? Death is there. You have accelerated death, that's all. This is your qualification. People die, everyone dies; there is no need of atomic bomb. But you are great scientist, you have discovered atomic bomb so that a man who is not immediately to die, he'll also die. This is our improvement. And they're very much proud, scientifically advanced.

First of all, discover that no more death. Then scientific advancement. No more disease. "No, we have got very good medicine for disease." That's all right. Stop disease. "No, that we cannot do." Then what is the improvement? What is the improvement, nonsense? This is not improvement. Improvement means stop death, stop disease, stop old age, stop birth, also. There are so many contraceptive method, birth control; still, the population increasing. Increasing. So these are not solution. Real solution is here in the Bhagavad-gītā. You get real knowledge, jñānam, jñeyam, the object of knowledge, as it is stated by Bhagavad-gītā, by Kṛṣṇa Himself, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Become His devotee, etad vijñāya, then, what is that? Mad-bhāvāyopapadyate.

Then, originally we are part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa just like a part and parcel of gold is gold. It is not earth or dirt, it is gold. But when it is covered by something else then it becomes something else. No. Similarly, we are also as good as Kṛṣṇa, because we are part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. Acintya-bhedābheda. That is the philosophy of simultaneously one and different. We are one with Kṛṣṇa in the sense by quality. As Kṛṣṇa is sac-cid-ānanda, eternal life, blissful life, knowledge, full of knowledge, we are also like that in minute quantity, not like Kṛṣṇa. But there is the same quality. But now we are covered by this material energy. That Kṛṣṇa is never covered. That is the difference between Kṛṣṇa and ourself, although the quality is the same.

But we are prone to be covered. But Kṛṣṇa is not prone to be covered. Otherwise, why should we take lessons from Kṛṣṇa? If He's also like one of us, then what is the use of taking knowledge from Him? There is no use. But these rascals, they think that Kṛṣṇa is like us. Avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam (BG 9.11). Because Kṛṣṇa, by His causeless mercy, comes down to teach you how to take you back to home, back to Godhead, rascals think that, "Kṛṣṇa is like us." Avajānanti māṁ mūḍhāḥ.

Therefore Kṛṣṇa says: "All these lessons, instructions, can be assimilated, understood, by My devotee," mad-bhakta etad vijñāya (BG 13.19). "And therefore they are eligible to get back his original consciousness," mad-bhāvāyopapadyate. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Thank you very much. Hare Kṛṣṇa. (end)