741213 - Lecture SB 03.26.01 - Bombay

Lectures by Date, 1974

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

741213SB-BOMBAY - December 13, 1974 - 36:44 Minutes

Nitāi: Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. (devotees repeat) (leads chanting of verse, etc.)

śrī-bhagavān uvāca

atha te sampravakṣyāmi

tattvānāṁ lakṣaṇaṁ pṛthak

yad viditvā vimucyeta

puruṣaḥ prākṛtair guṇaiḥ

(SB 3.26.1)

(break)

"The Personality of Godhead, Kapila, continued: My dear mother, now I shall describe unto you the different categories of the Absolute Truth, knowing which any person can be released from the influence of the modes of material nature."

Prabhupāda:

atha te sampravakṣyāmi

tattvānāṁ lakṣaṇaṁ pṛthak

yad viditvā vimucyeta

puruṣaḥ prākṛtair guṇaiḥ

(SB 3.26.1)

This is the disease. This is called material disease. One is infected by the prākṛta-guṇa. The prākṛta-guṇa . . . guṇa means quality, mode. So prākṛta means this material prakṛti, and spiritual means aprākṛta. There are different stages of knowledge: pratyakṣa, parokṣa, aparokṣa, adhokṣaja, aprākṛta. One has to go step by step. General knowledge means pratyakṣa, whatever we perceive by the senses. That is called pratyakṣa. And the knowledge which you receive from authorities, that is parokṣa. Then aparokṣa, realization. Then adhokṣaja. Adhokṣaja means knowledge which beyond your perception. But there is source of knowledge, adhokṣaja. Therefore God's another name is Adhokṣaja. Adhaḥ. Adhaḥ means subduing, bring under subjugation. Adhah-kṛta, akṣaja. Akṣaja means the knowledge directly perceived by the senses. Akṣa means eyes, and akṣa means atukya. So any knowledge within the alphabets, A-B-C-D, that is called akṣaja. And the knowledge which is beyond that, that is called adhokṣaja. And beyond the adhokṣaja knowledge there is aprākṛta, aprākṛta knowledge.

So the prākṛta-guṇa . . . so long we are in this material world, infected by the material qualities, sattva-guṇa, rajo-guṇa, tamo-guṇa, that is prākṛta life, not aprākṛta. You have to go step by step. So our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is adhokṣaja, far beyond this prākṛta knowledge, prākṛta-guṇa. The highest position of prākṛta, or material life, is the standard of brahminical qualification. But that is also prākṛta. That is not aprākṛta. That is also not the Brahman realization, brahma jānātīti brāhmaṇaḥ. That is also the highest stage of prākṛta, glimpse of the light. But one has to become free from the prākṛta envelopment, prākṛta-guṇaiḥ. Our present position is we are infected by the prākṛta-guṇa. Some of them are infected by the sattva-guṇa; some of them are infected by the rajo-guṇa; some of them are infected by tamo-guṇa. So long one is infected by the tamo-guṇa and rajo-guṇa, his position is very abominable, rajas-tamas. One has to become at least on the sattva-guṇa, the brahminical qualification. Then spiritual knowledge can be realized. Prākṛta-guṇaiḥ.

So Kapiladeva proposes to His mother . . . Kapiladeva is Bhagavān. We have explained several times, bhaga means opulence and vān means one who possesses. So what is that opulence? Aiśvarya, richness. Aiśvaryasya samagrasya: one who is possession . . . one who has in his possession all the wealth. All the wealth . . . we have several times explained this. Nobody can claim . . . except Bhagavān, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, nobody can claim, "The all the wealth within this universe belongs to me." Nobody can say. But Kṛṣṇa can say. Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā, bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasāṁ sarva-loka-maheśvaram (BG 5.29): "I am the proprietor of all the lokas, of all the planets." We become proprietor a few thousands of years, and there are so many difficulties. And He's the proprietor of the whole universe.

That is also very little estimation, because Kṛṣṇa says:

athavā bahunaitena

kiṁ jñātena tavārjuna

viṣṭabhyāham idaṁ kṛtsnam

ekāṁśena sthito jagat

(BG 10.42)

Kṛṣṇa says that, "By My one plenary portion I'm possessing, or controlling, the innumerable universes." We have no information of one universe. Universe, that is also we cannot estimate. But the innumerable universes are estimated, to give us some glimpse of knowledge, in the Brahma-saṁhitā:

yasyaika-niśvasita-kālam athāvalambya

jīvanti loma-vilajā jagad-aṇḍa-nāthāḥ

viṣṇur mahān sa iha yasya kalā-viśeṣo

govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ . . .

(Bs. 5.48)

There is one feature of the Supreme Personality of Godhead who is called Mahā-Viṣṇu. That Mahā-Viṣṇu, that is the origin of this material creation. So Mahā-Viṣṇu is in the sleeping condition. So in sleeping condition, with the breathing, universes are coming. And when it is inhaled, the whole universe is annihilated, dissolved. So this is only one portion. There are many evidences.

So you cannot claim to become Bhagavān so cheaply. Bhagavān is different thing. One who is devotee of Bhagavān, he knows something about Bhagavān. And the other rascals, they claim Bhagavān—simply ludicrous. Only the rascals can accept another rascal as Bhagavān. It is not so easy.

yasyaika-niśvasita-kālam athāvalambya

jīvanti loma-vilajā jagad-aṇḍa-nāthāḥ

viṣṇur mahān sa iha yasya kalā-viśeṣo

govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi

(Bs. 5.48)

So that Bhagavān is speaking. Kapiladeva is that Bhagavān. Therefore He says that atha te sampravakṣyāmi. Sam means samyak. Samyak means complete. Unless one has got complete knowledge, how he can say things complete? It is not the so-called scientist: "perhaps," "it may be." No, not that kind of knowledge, simply theorizing, "It may be like that." No. There is no question of "maybe." Exact knowledge. Exact knowledge. That is called Vedic knowledge. Just like in the Padma Purāṇa we can understand the calculation of the species of life. It is said, jalajā nava-lakṣāṇi sthāvarā lakṣa-viṁśati (Padma Purāna). There are aquatic living entities, nine lakhs forms. How many you have seen? Neither it is possible for you to go within the water and see how many different forms of fishes and aquatics are there. But in the śāstra it is said, jalajā nava-lakṣāṇi. It doesn't says "about nava-lakṣā," "about nine lakhs, more or less." No. Exactly. Jalajā nava-lakṣāṇi sthāvarā lakṣa-viṁśati. Sthāvarāḥ means those plants and trees which cannot move, two millions, lakṣa-viṁśati, or twenty lakhs.

So that is Vedic knowledge. You get the exact knowledge. Therefore Vedic knowledge is called apauruṣeya. It is not spoken by ordinary human being by speculation: "It may be," "perhaps." No. It is not like that. That is Bhagavān. Whatever He'll say, exact—that is Vedic knowledge. Therefore it is safer to take knowledge from Bhagavān, especially the knowledge of Bhagavān. Bhagavān is not so cheap thing. If you want to know Bhagavān . . . if you do not be so fool to accept another fool as Bhagavān, then you have to hear about Bhagavān about Bhagavān. That is the process.

Therefore the Vedic instruction is, to get perfect knowledge, you have to approach a person who is guru. Tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet (MU 1.2.12). And who's guru? Guru means representative of Bhagavān. Sākṣād-dharitvena samasta-śāstrair uktas tathā bhāvyata eva sadbhiḥ. Guru . . . because the real guru, he's representative of Kṛṣṇa, sākṣāt-hari. Sākṣād-dharitvena samasta-śāstraiḥ. In all scriptures it is described that guru is as good as Bhagavān. Means he knows from the right source. Therefore he may be—not may be exactly, but as good—sākṣād-dharitvena. Why? Kintu prabhor yaḥ priya eva tasya. Guru is servant, servant God. The master God and the servant God. Kṛṣṇa is the master God, and guru is the servant God. Although he's respected as Kṛṣṇa, still, kintu prabhor yaḥ priya eva tasya; he does not claim that "I've become Kṛṣṇa." No. He's very dear to Kṛṣṇa. Kintu prabhor yaḥ priya. Priya. Priya means dear. Why he's so dear? Because he preaches the master's message. Therefore he's pure. If he preaches his own message, manufactured, then he's not good. He's not good; he's deceit. That now there are so many rascal, they say like that, that "Kṛṣṇa was Bhagavān. That is past now. He's dead and gone. Now I am Kṛṣṇa." There are many rascals, they say like that. But these rascals are accepted by other rascals. God is never dead. God . . . how He can get . . .? Even the ordinary living being, he's not dead. Na jāyate na mriyate. Even we, living entities, never die or never born. How the Supreme Lord can be dead or born? That is not the fact.

So therefore if we discuss Bhagavān, there are so many things to be understood about Bhagavān.

aiśvaryasya samagrasya

vīryasya yaśasaḥ śriyaḥ

jñāna-vairāgyayoś caiva

ṣaṇṇāṁ iti bhaga gaṇa

(Viṣṇu Purāṇa 6.5.47)

One who possesses the full opulence of richness, one who possesses all the powers, all the influence, all beauty, all knowledge, all renunciation, that is Bhagavān. So you haven't got to think very ser . . . you take the formula given in the Vedas. That is perfect knowledge. You understand everything. Therefore the intelligent men, they follow the Vedic injunction. Then the knowledge is perfect. It is already there.

So bhagavān uvāca. So when Bhagavān is speaking—atha te sampravakṣyāmi tattvānām—of the truth, lakṣaṇam, characteristic . . . everyone has to understand anything by the characteristic. Just like in the chemical laboratory, if you send something just for chemical analysis just to see whether it is pure, so they have got in their authorized books, pharmacopeia, the characteristic: "The soda bicarb, its characteristic is like this, its taste is like this; it is formed like this, granules or powder or so many things." They analyze. And when the characteristics are corroborated, then they accept, "Yes. It is this." Similarly, you have to accept God from the characteristics, by analysis. Not that any rascal comes and says: "I am Bhagavān." You must know how to analyze Bhagavān. That is there in the śāstra. This word Bhagavān is used not loosely. It has got meaning, characteristics.

Just like Kṛṣṇa said when He was present, He said, mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat (BG 7.7): "Nobody is superior than Me." He proved it. So long Kṛṣṇa was on the planet, He proved it, that no . . . no more superior. Even from ordinary life as gṛhastha . . . Kṛṣṇa was gṛhastha, householder. Now, He married 16,108 wives. So who has got this potency to marry sixteen thousand? One . . . it is very difficult to maintain one wife. (chuckles) One lady in America, her (she) had a grown-up son. So I asked her, "Why don't you get your son married?" "No, I have no objection. He can maintain wife here, I have no objection." Then I understood that it is very difficult to maintain a wife here. And actually it is difficult. So even from material point of view, Kṛṣṇa, as far as we can calculate, we cannot conceive even at the present moment to maintain more than one wife or two wife. But He was maintaining sixteen thousand wives, 16,108.

But, because we have no conception of God, we take it, "This is all fictitious. God . . ." When God gives His reality, identification, and it is recorded in the śāstra, not by any loafer-class writer but like Vyāsadeva, and we take it fictitious. Just see our position—Vyāsadeva has bothered his brain to write something fictitious. Just see how low-grade persons we are. We don't believe writing of Vyāsadeva. Or sometimes we say, "No, no, this was not written by Vyāsadeva. It is interpolation." If it is interpolation, then why the ācāryas have accepted? They're also fools—Rāmānujācārya, Madhvācārya, Viṣṇu Svāmī . . .? They have made commentary on the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and they mention, they have accepted, "Yes. Kṛṣṇa has sixteen thousand wives." So Vyāsadeva has written and the ācāryas have accepted. Then I have become such a great scholar that I say it is fictitious. And we have to believe these rascals.

So don't go to rascal. If you want real knowledge, take it from Bhagavān. Bhagavān uvāca. Then your knowledge is perfect. That is our process. We, we have taken Bhagavad-gītā as it is, and we are preaching. We don't preach anything else which Bhagavān does not say. Bhagavān says, man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī mām . . . (BG 18.65). We are canvassing, "My dear sir, you just become a devotee of Kṛṣṇa. You always think of Kṛṣṇa." Kṛṣṇa says, man-manā bhava mad-bhaktaḥ. We say, "You just think of Kṛṣṇa." The same thing. There is no change. We do not interpret any way, "This man-manāḥ means this, and mad-bhaktaḥ means that." No. We don't do that. We present as it is. Therefore if Kṛṣṇa sees that, "One is presenting My message as I have given," then He is pleased. Therefore it is said, kintu prabhor yaḥ priya eva tasya. He has become very dear because he do not nonsensically . . . he does not nonsensically change the meaning that, "This meaning's that, this meaning's that." Why? When Kṛṣṇa has said, that is everything perfect. Why should I change it? That is guru-priya.

Suppose if you say something and if somebody takes it as it is and behaves like that, then you become pleased. And if you say to your son or to your servant something and he misunderstand and talks something else, then he becomes angry, "What this nonsense has understood?" Similarly, a guru does not change the word of Kṛṣṇa. Therefore he's called Bhagavān, servant Bhagavān. Kṛṣṇa is the master Bhagavān, master God, and the guru, who is serving Kṛṣṇa sincerely, he's the servant God. Therefore śāstra says, sākṣād-dharitvena samasta-śāstrair uktas tathā bhāvyata eva sadbhiḥ. In the morning also these boys, they sing, Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura, āra nā koriho mane āśā. If you have got a pure, bona fide guru, then whatever he says, you do it. You don't think of anything else. Āra nā koriho mane āśā (Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura). No more. That is all right.

So we have to receive knowledge from Bhagavān or from a person who is servant of Bhagavān, not that another imitation Bhagavān. Then you'll spoil your life. That will not help you. So Bhagavān says, atha te sampravakṣyāmi. Sam means samyak, "In full," full knowledge, not partial. Atha te sampravakṣyāmi. Pra means prakṛṣṭa-rūpe. Vakṣyāmi. Vakṣyāmi means "I shall speak." Tattvānām. Tattvānām . . . tattva is one. Absolute Truth, it cannot be two; but there are different phases of understanding the Absolute Truth. Therefore here it is plural number, tattvānām. Tattva is one. That is explained in another place: vadanti tat tattva-vidas tattvaṁ yaj jñānam advayam (SB 1.2.11). Although tattva is realized in different phases, three phases, brahmeti paramātmeti bhagavān iti śabdyate. Brahman, impersonal feature, brahmeti paramātmā. First localized feature, īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe 'rjuna tiṣṭhati (BG 18.61). That is Paramātmā.

Aṇḍāntara-stha-paramāṇu-cayāntara-stham.

eko 'py asau racayituṁ jagad-aṇḍa-koṭiṁ

yac-chaktir asti jagad-aṇḍa-cayā yad-antaḥ

aṇḍāntara-stha-paramāṇu-cayāntara-sthaṁ

govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi

(Bs. 5.35)

The Govinda is within the atom, Paramātmā. So that is another feature, all-pervading. And another feature is impersonal jyoti. And the original feature is Bhagavān. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat (BG 7.7). Finished. When you have come to this platform to understand Bhagavān, then your knowledge is perfect. Vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyaḥ (BG 15.15). That is perfect knowledge. If you do not understand what is Bhagavān, then your knowledge is imperfect. You have to learn again for many, many births. Then you'll come to the point of understanding what is Kṛṣṇa.

bahūnāṁ janmanām ante

jñānavān māṁ prapadyate

vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti

sa mahātmā su-durlabhaḥ

(BG 7.19)

When you'll understand tattva, that Kṛṣṇa is the original and the Paramātmā is secondary and the Brahman, impersonal, is the third status.

So therefore even if you are Brahman status, you are not still aprākṛta. You are aparokṣa. Aparokṣa status, not even adhokṣaja. As I told you, there are different stages of knowledge, so the brahma-jñāna is parokṣa-jñāna. Pratyakṣa, parokṣa, aparokṣa. And the spiritual planets, Vaikuṇṭha knowledge, that is adhokṣaja. And the knowledge about Kṛṣṇa and His planet, Goloka Vṛndāvana, that is aprākṛta. So we have to transcend from this prākṛta status of life. It is very, very high grade status, aprākṛta, aprākṛta status. Prākṛta kariyā māne viṣṇu kalevara (CC Adi 7.115), aparādha nāhi yāra ihāra upara. Caitanya Mahāprabhu said that "Any rascal who thinks that the body of Kṛṣṇa or Viṣṇu is prākṛta, material, this is the greatest offense."

The Māyāvādī philosophers, they think like that, that the Absolute Truth, imperson, but when He comes in form He accepts a material body. This is the greatest offense, aparādha nāhi yāra ihāra rūpa. Therefore they cannot understand what is God, because they're aparādhī. Kṛṣṇa, Caitanya Mahāprabhu, says, māyāvādī haya kṛṣṇe aparādhī (CC Madhya 17.129). The Māyāvādīs, they're offenders to Kṛṣṇa. Therefore they cannot understand Kṛṣṇa, offenders. Kṛṣṇa is not exposed to the offenders. Nāhaṁ prakāśaḥ sarvasya yogamāyā-samāvṛtaḥ (BG 7.25). So the Māyāvādīs, they cannot see Kṛṣṇa. They cannot understand Kṛṣṇa. They'll avoid Kṛṣṇa. They'll speak so many things, spiritual knowledge, but avoid Kṛṣṇa's figure, Kṛṣṇa's form. They think it is māyā. It is māyā. But it is not māyā. That is the original form. Avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam (BG 9.11). Because Kṛṣṇa has got the form exactly the dvibhuja-muralī-līlā, two hands with flute. That is Kṛṣṇa's original form.

veṇuṁ kvaṇantam aravinda-dalāyatākṣaṁ

barhāvataṁsam asitāmbuda-sundarāṅgam

kandarpa-koṭi-kamanīya-viśeṣa-śobhaṁ

govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi

(Bs. 5.30)

So we have to understand Bhagavān and we have to hear from Him. And He's speaking perfectly in the Bhagavad-gītā, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. And if you take it yad viditvā, if you are fortunate enough to understand the words of Kṛṣṇa and Kapiladeva, then the result will be vimucyeta: immediately become liberated. If you are fortunate enough, if you are intelligent enough to understand the words of Kapiladeva or Kṛṣṇa or Ṛṣabhadeva—there are so many incarnation—then puruṣaḥ prākṛtair vimucyeta. Vimucyeta means become free, uncontaminated. What is that contamination? Prākṛta-guṇaih, these material infection that, "I am brāhmaṇa," "I am kṣatriya," "I am vaiśya," "I am śūdra," "I am American," "I am Indian," "I am this," "I am that." These are all prākṛti. Prākṛti, material qualification. Even if you are perfect Brāhmiṇ, that is also material qualification. But in the platform of pure Brāhmiṇ you can have the chance of understanding the aprākṛta, adhokṣaja. Therefore you have to become brāhmaṇa, qualified brāhmaṇa. Then there is chance.

So in this age it is very difficult to become exactly a Vedic brāhmaṇa. That's very, very difficult, because everyone has become śūdra. Kalau śūdra-sambhavaḥ (Skanda Purāṇa). In the Kali-yuga you cannot find out exactly a qualified brāhmaṇa. Very rare. Very rare. Therefore Vedic brāhmaṇa is not possible. It is . . . our movement, Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, is creating pāñcarātriki-vidhi. Pāñcarātriki-vidhi-brāhmaṇa means there is no evidence or there is no certainty whether one is brāhmaṇa or son of brāhmaṇa, because so many things are lacking. But, if he has got little taste for Kṛṣṇa understanding, he should be encouraged. That is pāñcarātriki. Just like if there is little fire you fan it—fan it, and it will come out a big, blazing fire.

So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is trying to do that, and it is easier because in the śāstra it is said by Śukadeva Gosvāmī that there is one opportunity. "My dear King, Parīkṣit, I've described to you about the faulty nature of this Kali-yuga, but there is a very good opportunity for the people, fallen conditioned souls, of this Kali-yuga." "What is that?" Kaler doṣa-nidhe rājann asti hy eko mahān guṇaḥ (SB 12.3.51): "The . . . in the Kali-yuga, it is like the ocean of fault. So, but still there is one very good opportunity." "What is that?" Kīrtanād eva kṛṣṇasya mukta-saṅgaḥ paraṁ vrajet (SB 12.3.51): "You chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and become liberated and go to back to home, back to Godhead."

Thank you very much.

Devotees: Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda. Haribol Prabhupāda. (end)