760609 - Lecture SB 06.01.43 - Los Angeles

Lectures by Date, 1976

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

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760609SB-LOS ANGELES - June 09, 1976 - 23.10 Minutes

Pradyumna: Translation: "The candidates for punishment are those who are confirmed by these many witnesses to have deviated from their prescribed regulative duties. Everyone engaged in fruitive activities is suitable to be subjected to punishment according to his sinful acts."

Prabhupāda:

etair adharmo vijñātaḥ

sthānaṁ daṇḍasya yujyate

sarve karmānurodhena

daṇḍam arhanti kāriṇaḥ

(SB 6.1.43)

So you can say that "God is dead" or "There is no God," but that is not the fact. The atheist class of men, they want that there may not be any God; they can do whatever they like. That is not possible. Just like in a small state there are so many CID, police and so many other depart . . . detectives, just to find out who is transgressing the law. So in this big government of the universe, how do you think that there is no system of finding out who is culprit? So what is adharma? Etair adharmo vijñātaḥ. Adharma, irreligiosity, or transgressing the law, that is adharma. Dharma and adharma . . . Dharma means obeying the laws. Just like good citizen means who is obeying the laws of the state. He is good citizen. And other person, who is disobeying, they are called outlaws. So what is dharma? Just like it is the duty of good citizen to abide by the laws of the state, similarly, dharmī, a person who is religious, means who is abiding by the laws of God. That's all. And who is not abiding, he is adharmi. That is the difference.

So what is our dharma? Living entities, we are part and parcel of God; we are not separated from God. Just like this finger is not separated from the whole body; a part of the body. So when Kṛṣṇa says that "All these living entities, they are My part and parcel . . ." Mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūtaḥ jīva-loke sanātanaḥ (BG 15.7). Not that the part and parcel is differently created. As soon as the body is there, the part and parcels are also there. So what is the duty of the part and parcel? Just like this finger. I am feeling some itching sensation; immediately comes, naturally, without asking. It's always ready to serve. This is the duty of the part and parcel. So if we are part and parcel of God, then what is our duty? To serve God, that's all. This is our duty. So anyone who is serving always Kṛṣṇa, or God, he is dharmī; he is in dharma. And who is not serving is adharma. Because a duty . . . it requires treatment. This finger, part and parcel of my body. I want to get some service from the finger, but if the finger is diseased or due to some pain or some injury it cannot serve the body, it requires treatment. It requires treatment. This is natural. Similarly, punishment means treatment. Why government has opened so many prison house? So this punishment . . . Government does not desire to keep the prison house open, and inviting, "Please come here." No, that is not the policy. Policy is that "One who is outlaw, diseased, he should be brought here and corrected."

So Yamarāja is for this purpose. When we are punished, that is no envious, envy on the part of God or His agent; it is our correction. I think the Yamarāja, er, the Yamadūtas said in the beginning that "We have come to take Ajāmila just to correct him." So dharma and adharma . . . our real dharma is to serve God. That is our real duty. And as soon as we neglect this permanent service or occupation, then we are liable to be punished. You cannot become independent of God. That is not possible. That will make you happy. The healthy condition of the finger is that it is able to serve the body. If the finger is not able to serve the body, that will mean unhealthy. Otherwise . . . similarly, when we are engaged in Kṛṣṇa consciousness and engaged in service of the Lord, that is our healthy state. That is mukti, liberation. Mukti means no disease. So when we deny to serve Kṛṣṇa, when we are not engaged in the service of Kṛṣṇa, that is our diseased condition; that is not healthy condition.

So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is a treatment to cure this disease, atheist and rogues, to come to Kṛṣṇa consciousness and be happy. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. It is not an artificial thing to give you facility for your sense gratification. No. There is no question of sense gratification. That is disease. The healthy state is how to satisfy Kṛṣṇa. That is bhakti. Bhakti definition, you know:

anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ

jñāna-karmādy-anāvṛtam

ānukūlyena kṛṣṇānu-

śīlanaṁ bhaktir uttamā

(Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu 1.1.11)

That is bhakti, no other business. Anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyam. Śūnyam means zero. You are singing, āra nā kariha mane āśā. Make all . . . (break). They could not understand. They are so much atheistic that it was impossible for them to understand what is God, what is devotion. So therefore Lord Buddha propounded the philosophy, "Make your all nonsense activities zero, so much. First of all make zero, then positive we shall say." That is zero movement, śūnyavādī, śūnyavādī. At least, if a rascal children is always doing something nonsense, then first of all stop him. Make him zero. Then good lesson: "Come. Do this." So this Buddhist movement means to make their atheistic activities zero. At least that is good. It is better not to . . . maunam, silent. Instead of talking all nonsense, better be silent; don't create disturbance. So . . . and the other movement, nirviśeṣa-vādī, are giving little hint, Śaṅkarācārya, Māyāvāda, that "Yes, this zero is not sufficient. There is positive: brahma satyaṁ jagan mithyā." His movement was that "This material world is false; make it zero. But there is a positive thing, which is Brahman." What is that Brahman, he did not disclose.

Then the Vaiṣṇava ācāryas, Rāmanujācārya, Madhvācārya, they said, brahma satya. And what is Brahman? Brahmeti paramātmeti bhagavān iti śabdyate (SB 1.2.11). Brahman, first realization, impersonal; then localized; then person. Just like Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā, imaṁ vivasvate yogaṁ proktavān aham avyayam (BG 4.1): "Long, long years ago, millions of years ago, I spoke this philosophy to the sun god, Vivasvān." So Kṛṣṇa, as He was instructing Arjuna, similarly, He was instructing the sun god that . . . Arjuna is a person. Kṛṣṇa is a person. Similarly, sun god is also a person, and Kṛṣṇa is a person. And Kṛṣṇa says in the Second Chapter of Bhagavad-gītā that "My dear Arjuna, you, Me, and all of them who are standing here in this battlefield, we were existing in the past, we are existing now, and we shall continue to exist."

So God is person; we are also person. We existed in the past as person, we are existing now as person and we shall continue to exist as person. There is no question of imperson. If past, present, future, everywhere is a person, where is the question of imperson? So imperson means . . . just like the sun-god is person, but the sunshine is imperson. Those who are in the sunshine, they cannot understand what is sun god. That is not possible. It requires strength. If you want to go and see the sun god Vivasvān, that requires qualification. It is not so easy. You cannot enter even the sun planet, what to speak of talking with him. But Kṛṣṇa could talk. Kṛṣṇa can go anywhere. And when there is sun god, then "god" means not alone. A king does not mean alone. King means he has got his kingdom, he has got his subjects, he has got minister, he has got military strength. Everything is there. So similarly, if we accept Kṛṣṇa's statement that "I spoke to sun god," the sun god is there in the sun globe, and he has his kingdom, so dazzling kingdom. It looks like fire, blazing. But don't think it is impersonal. Impersonal? How Kṛṣṇa could talk with him? There is no question of impersonality.

So here, adharmaḥ vijñātaḥ, the degrees. Real dharma is, Kṛṣṇa is explaining in the Bhagavad . . . sarva-dharmān parityajya . . . (BG 18.66). You have created, man-made, so many dharmas. So one Bengali Vaiṣṇava, he has mentioned, pṛthivite yaha kichu dharma nāme cale, bhāgavat kahe taha paripūrṇa chale (Vṛndāvana Dāsa Ṭhākura). Bhāgavata, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam says, dharmaḥ projjhita-kaitavo 'tra (SB 1.1.2): "In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam all kaitava"—kaitava means cheating—"cheating type of religious system is kicked out." Projjhita. Dharmaḥ projjhita-kaitavo atra. So dharma is one; religion is one. There cannot be different types of religion. That is concoction. Dharmaṁ tu sākṣād bhagavat-praṇītam (SB 6.3.19). I have several times . . . so dharma and adharma. These witnesses are there to see who is disobeying the orders of the Lord. That is adharma. A clear order is that sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). This is dharma. Everything is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā, what is jñāna, what is dharma, what is vairāgya.

So we have got this opportunity, this human form of life. As I was saying yesterday, kṛṣṇa-bhuliya jīva . . . anādi bahirmukha jīva kṛṣṇa bhuli gela, ataeva kṛṣṇa veda-purāṇa karila (CC Madhya 20.117). We are since . . . we do not know when, but since a very, very long time, anādi . . . ādi means it is beginning of this creation. And before that, anādi. Anādi bahir-mukha jīva. We are forgetful of Kṛṣṇa since a very, very long time, and going within the cycle of birth and death, transmigration. So we get the opportunity, this human form of life. So we must revive our consciousness by going through, by understanding, by hearing these literatures, Veda-Purāṇa. Veda-Purāṇa. Anādi bahir-mukha jīva kṛṣṇa bhuli gela. Our position is: we have forgotten God. But this forgetfulness can be subdued, and we can revive our original consciousness. Just like a man sleeping, but if you call him again and again, "Mr. Such-and-such, get up. Get up. Now your time is to go to office and do this, do that," similarly, although we are sleeping on the lap of māyā, kota nidrā yao māyā piśācīra kole, so we can be awakened by simply this chanting process, Hare Kṛṣṇa, (devotees join in) Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare.

So this chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra will cleanse our heart. We are loaded with so many dirty things, so this can be cleansed. Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanaṁ bhava-mahā-dāvāgni-nirvāpanam (CC Antya 20.12). This Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is to cleanse the heart of the human being and get out all the . . . projjhita, kick out all dirty things and concentrate on devotional service of Kṛṣṇa. And the beginning is śṛṇvatām, śṛṇvatām, this process. It doesn't require that you should be very rich man or you should be very educated or so on, so on. No. In whatever position you are, remain. There is no question of artificial improvement. There is no question. You remain. Simply God has given you the ear. Utilize it properly. That's all. You don't require to go to the university and get a Ph.D. degree and then you can understand. No. That is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's mission, that,

jñāne prayāsam udapāsya namanta eva

jīvanti san-mukharitāṁ bhavadīya-vārtām

sthāne sthitāḥ śruti-gatāṁ tanu-vāṅ-manobhiḥ

(SB 10.14.3)

Caitanya Mahāprabhu's movement is so nice that you don't require to acquire something artificially. No. Whatever you are, remain there. Simply hear. And preaching means to propagate or to vibrate what Kṛṣṇa has said. So this is the position of the preacher, that you simply repeat, like a parrot. No qualification. You simply . . . whatever is said in the Bhagavad-gītā, you repeat. And the others, simply hear. Śravaṇaṁ kīrtanam (SB 7.5.23). Then both of them become liberated. There is no question of that to become a qualified person. This is the only qualification, that a preacher should preach only what Kṛṣṇa has said. That's all. No manufacturing, no concoction. And the audience? They will hear from such person who does not speak anything else except Kṛṣṇa's teaching. That's all. These two things, if carried, then your both the life, the śravaṇaṁ kīrtanam, the one who is speaking and one who is hearing, both of them are benefited.

So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is opening so many centers just to give people opportunity to hear. To hear. So I am very glad that this church . . . this was a church, and nobody was coming here, and therefore it was sold to us. Now, you are all belonging to America, Los Angeles, and the church also was there. Now why it is crowded? It is not that you are imported from India to hear about Kṛṣṇa. (laughter) So if there is substance, they will hear. If there is no substance, who will hear? That is the difference. So substance is here. Ataeva kṛṣṇa veda-purāṇa karila. You hear these Vedas and Purāṇas and make your life successful.

Thank you very much.

Devotees: Jaya. (end)