740718 - Lecture SB 01.02.17 - New Vrindaban, USA

Lectures by Date, 1974

740718SB-NEW VRINDABAN - July 18, 1974 - 22:16 Minutes

(Video - 18:48)

Prabhupāda: Where is that book?

(Video - 19:53)

Prabhupāda: oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

Devotees: oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

Prabhupāda: Page hundred and seven(. First canto, part one, śṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṇaḥ

Devotees: (three times) oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

Devotees: (repeating word for word)

śṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṇaḥ

puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtanaḥ

hṛdy antaḥ-stho hy abhadrāṇi

vidhunoti suhṛt satām

Nitāi: "Sri Kṛṣṇa, the Personality of Godhead, who is the Paramātmā (Supersoul) in everyone's heart and the benefactor of all the truthful devotees, cleanses the desire for material enjoyment from the heart of the devotee who relishes His messages, which are in themselves virtuous when properly heard and chanted."

Prabhupāda:

śṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṇaḥ

puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtanaḥ

hṛdy antaḥ-stho hy abhadrāṇi

vidhunoti suhṛt satām

(SB 1.2.17)

Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā, suhṛdaṁ sarva-bhūtānāṁ.

bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasāṁ

sarva-loka-maheśvaram

suhṛdaṁ sarva-bhūtānāṁ

jñātvā māṁ śāntim ṛcchati

(BG 5.29)

This is the way of śānti. Śānti means "peacefulness." How it is? Not by this peace treaty. That kind of śānti, or peace, is going on perpetually—there is never śānti; it is simply formality. Śānti cannot be attained without Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Peacefulness, it is not possible. Temporary, you can make some arrangement, but it has no value. Even amongst the relatives—father and the son or husband and wife, brother and brother—there is no peace. Everywhere there is some disagreement and separation. This is the law of nature, of the material world, not of the spiritual world. Spiritual world, there is śānti. The material world: envious. "If you improve more than me, I will become your enemy." This is the nature of material life.

Therefore, the bhāgavata-dharma, or the cult of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, is not meant for the materialistic person. It is for the person who is spiritually interested. "Spiritually interested" means he is a paramahaṁsa. Parama means "the supreme," and haṁsa, haṁsa means "the swan." Paramahaṁsa means "the supreme swan." What is the special qualification of the swan? That if you give the swan to drink milk mixed with water, it has got a special power: she will drink the milk portion, and the water portion will not touch. Haṁsa. And paramahaṁsa means the person who knows what is the essence of this material world. He is called paramahaṁsa—who knows.

Just like we are all living entities. You have got your body; I have got my body; everyone has got his body. And what is the essence of this body? The essence of this body is the life. If there is no life, you may have very nice, beautiful body; I may have very strong, beautiful body; but as soon as the life is gone, it is has no use. Therefore the essence of the body is the . . . (indistinct) . . . similarly, this big, gigantic body, cosmic manifestation, there is also life. Otherwise, how it is going on? Anyone can understand this philosophy, that this body is very important, belonging to such-and-such great personality, scientist or philosopher, politician—whatever it may be—but so long the life is there. Otherwise, no more politician, no more scientist, no more philosopher. Similarly, it is very simple to think: unless there is life within this cosmic manifestation, how things are going on so nicely?

So one who is interested with that essence of this gigantic cosmic manifestation, he is called paramahaṁsa. He is no more interested in any other thing. Active principle. What is the active principle? Just like medical science, they take active principle from a drug. Similarly, those who are paramahaṁsa, they can understand that what is the active principle of this cosmic manifestation. There must be some. Must be some. There is no doubt. But one who is interested knows. Therefore, in the beginning of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam it is said, dharmaḥ projjhita-kaitavo 'tra paramo nirmatsarāṇāṁ satāṁ vāstavam atra vedam atra (SB 1.1.2). Here in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. So with this idea, to become paramahaṁsa, or to understand the central point—because if you simply understand the central point, then everything is understood. That is Vedic injunction. Yasmin vijñāte sarvam evaṁ vijñātaṁ bhavati (Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad 1.3). If you simply understand Kṛṣṇa, then everything becomes understood. It is so nice. Yasmin vijñāte. By understanding the Absolute Truth, Kṛṣṇa, sarvam evaṁ vijñātaṁ bhavati, everything becomes understood.

Just like one big scientist, our disciple, Dr. Svarūpa Dāmodara dāsa, M.S., Ph.D., he has dedicated his very advanced scientific book—we cannot even utter the words . . . (indistinct) . . . like that (laughter). So (laughs), he is a great scientist, admitted by many universities: Gauhati University, Calcutta University, here in Boston University, and then again California University. He is not ordinary man. But he admits in his dedication that, "I dedicate this book to my spiritual master, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, because he has given me the real knowledge that Kṛṣṇa is the origin of everything."

Now, I am not a scientist. I am not a scientist, but I could teach a scientist, or convince him, that Kṛṣṇa is the original, the origin of everything. And unless he is convinced that Kṛṣṇa is the origin of everything, how he has written it? So many scientists will challenge him, but he is prepared to accept this challenge. So how it was possible for me to convince a big scientist? It was exactly as I have stated: that if you understand Kṛṣṇa, then you can teach even the greatest scientist, the greatest philosopher, greatest politician—everyone. That is Kṛṣṇa . . . (indistinct) . . . you don’t require to be a great scientist to teach a scientist—but if you simply understand Kṛṣṇa, then you will be able to teach even the greatest scientist. The greatest philosophers, greatest anyone, let them come; we shall teach. We shall become their teacher. We challenge. Why? Because we know a little about Kṛṣṇa.

There is a verse in the Bhāgavatam, athāpi te deva padāmbuja-dvaya-prasāda-leśānugṛhīta eva hi jānāti tattvaṁ. One devotee says: "My dear Lord, one who has got a little fragmental grace of Your lotus feet, he knows the Absolute Truth."

athāpi te deva padāmbuja-dvayam-

prasāda-leśānugṛhīta eva hi

jānāti tattvaṁ . . .

na cānya eko 'pi ciraṁ vicinvan

(SB 10.14.29)

"A devotee of Kṛṣṇa, he can understand the tattva, the truth, simply a little mercy, by the mercy of Kṛṣṇa. Others, they may continue to speculate for many, many births, they will not understand You." Therefore Bhagavad-gītā, Kṛṣṇa says, bahūnāṁ janmanām ante jñānavān māṁ prapadyate (BG 7.19). Just like this scientist, he has surrendered. His study of science is perfect. When one surrenders to Kṛṣṇa, perfectly knowing well that Kṛṣṇa is the origin of everything, that is the perfection of knowledge. In another place, the . . . I think in this chapter, you will find:

ataḥ pumbhir dvija-śreṣṭhā

varṇāśrama-vibhāgaśaḥ

svanuṣṭhitasya dharmasya

saṁsiddhir hari-toṣaṇam

(SB 1.2.13)

Everyone is engaged in different occupational duties, whatever he may be. But one should be interested to know whether, by executing this kind of duty, "Whether I am becoming perfect?" But they have no such interest. Neither they could know what is perfection. That human life is meant for achieving the perfection. That is the aim of life.

So there are so many things, but we must know that if we understand Kṛṣṇa slightly in truth, then our life is perfect. Not that . . . you cannot understand Kṛṣṇa fully. He is so big and so unlimited. So this is not possible. Kṛṣṇa even Himself does not know how great He is. "God is great," we say, but we do not know how great is God. That is intelligence. So that greatness, you can understand Kṛṣṇa, or Kṛṣṇa's greatness, life after life, hearing with thousands of millions of ears, still you do not know. Ananta, Ananta-deva is explaining about Kṛṣṇa by . . . Ananta, or unlimited faces . . . mouth, unlimited mouths. He has got many mouths—still He could not finish. So that is not possible. But if you try to understand about Kṛṣṇa, then Kṛṣṇa will help you how to understand. That is stated, śṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṇaḥ. Kṛṣṇa is so kind. If anyone is interested to know about Kṛṣṇa, to hear about Kṛṣṇa, then:

śṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṇaḥ

puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtanaḥ

(SB 1.2.17)

So Kṛṣṇa, to know about Kṛṣṇa . . . if you think you don’t understand Kṛṣṇa, if you simply chant Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa . . . actually we are advising: kṛṣṇa! kṛṣṇa! kṛṣṇa! kṛṣṇa! kṛṣṇa! kṛṣṇa! kṛṣṇa! he, kṛṣṇa! kṛṣṇa! kṛṣṇa! kṛṣṇa! kṛṣṇa! kṛṣṇa! kṛṣṇa! Chant like that, you will become perfect. Immediately you become perfect. Yes. Śṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṇaḥ puṇya. Kṛṣṇa means . . . hearing and chanting means to become perfect. We are all sinful. We are all sinful, material world. Anyone who is living in this material world, he must be considered sinful. It is a question of degree. Unless we are sinful, there is no question of accepting this material body. Bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19). We are committing sinful life. Therefore, next life we are getting another type of body . . . (indistinct) . . . Bhagavad-gītā. Why different types of body? Why not the same body? No.

kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya

sad-asad-yoni-janmasu

(BG 13.22)

Because we are associating with certain quality of material nature. There are three qualities of material nature: sattva-guṇa, raja-guṇa and tamo-guṇa. So one of them I must associate, one of them. So if we associate with sattva-guṇa, we will get a different type of body. If we associate with raja-guṇa, then we get a different type of body. If we associate with the tamo-guṇa, then we have to get a different type of body. This is the law of nature. Exactly like that if you infect a certain type of disease, you get that. Nature's law. You cannot avoid it. If you infect typhoid disease, then you must suffer from typhoid. Similarly we, during this living condition, bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19), we are . . . our position is that we are changing body after body, and we are suffering according to the body.

So if we want to stop our suffering, then we must stop getting another material body. This is . . . (indistinct) . . . and that you can do only by Kṛṣṇa consciousness; otherwise . . . (indistinct) . . . otherwise it may be in the modes of goodness, that much. Here in the material world, you can elevate up to the modes of goodness. And what is the result of goodness? Ūrdhvaṁ gacchanti sattva-sthā (BG 14.18). If you associate with goodness, then you can be promoted to the very, very higher planetary system, ūrdhvaṁ. There are ūrdhvaṁ, adhaḥ and madhyaṁ are the planetary systems of the world. Therefore, it is called three worlds. And there are other planetary system. Just like this earth is called Bhurloka. It is situated in the middle. And above us there are seven lokas, and down there are seven lokas.

So in this middle position, if we associate with goodness, then we can be promoted to the higher planetary system. Just like Brahmā has got . . . he has got very, very long duration of life. The standard of living in other planets, other planetary system, is thousand, thousand times more comfortable. We can get up, ūrdhvaṁ gacchanti sattva-sthā (BG 14.18). We can get promoted. Madhye tiṣṭhanti rājasāḥ: and if we associate with rajo-guna, then we can remain in the middle position. And if you associate with tamo-guna, then you will go down. Just like here we see some of the animals are meant for the slaughterers. So in previous life, they also slaughtered. Therefore, they are waiting to become to be slaughtered. Mām saḥ. This is Sanskrit word of . . . means, mām means "me"; saḥ means "he." "I eat you this time—you eat me next time." (laughter) This is called karma-bandhanaḥ. Yajñārthe karma anyatra loko 'yaṁ karma (BG 3.9). "Now we are very happy that we have got so much, so many living stocks. I shall kill one and eat, enjoy." But he does not know that he is making the path so that he will be also eaten. This is karma-bandhanaḥ.

So this is going on, bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19). We are getting one type of body and eating or sleeping or mating according to the body. There are so many hundreds, thousands. So eating, sleeping, sex life and defending—everywhere. Either as insect or as big man, everyone knows how to eat, how to sleep, how to enjoy sex life and how to defend in his own way. That is not real business of human life. Real business of human life is here mentioned, śṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ: just try to hear about Kṛṣṇa. We are opening so many centers just to give chance to people to hear about Kṛṣṇa. That's all. And if one hears, then, or chants, immediately he becomes purified, puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtanaḥ. And as . . . as much as, the more you become purified, hṛdy antaḥ-stho hy abhadrāṇi vidhunoti: then all the dirty things accumulated within the heart on account of contamination of this material world, that becomes cleansed. And as soon as it is cleansed, you understand that you are eternally related with Kṛṣṇa. He is the Supreme Master, and we are servitor—"Let us serve Kṛṣṇa." That is perfection of life.

Thank you very much.

Devotees: Jaya! (kirtana) (end)