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<h1 class="menu-title">On the Way to Krsna</h1>
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<h1><a class="header" href="#throughway-to-happiness" id="throughway-to-happiness">Throughway to Happiness</a></h1>
Every one of us is searching after happiness, but we do not know what real happiness is.
We see so much advertised about happiness, but practically speaking we see so few happy people.
This is because so few people know that the platform of real happiness is beyond temporary things.
It is this real happiness that is described in Bhagavad-gītā by Lord Kṛṣṇa to Arjuna.
Happiness is generally perceived through our senses.
A stone, for instance, has no senses and cannot perceive happiness and distress.
Developed consciousness can perceive happiness and distress more intensely than undeveloped consciousness.
Trees have consciousness, but it is not developed.
Trees may stand for a long time in all kinds of weather, but they have no way of perceiving miseries.
If a human being were asked to stand like a tree for only three days or even less, he would not be able to tolerate it.
The conclusion is that every living being feels happiness or distress according to the degree of development of his consciousness.
The happiness that we are experiencing in the material world is not real happiness.
If one asks a tree, “Are you feeling happy?” the tree, if it could, might say,“Yes, I am happy, standing here all year.
I’m enjoying the wind and snowfall very much, etc.” This may be enjoyed by the tree, but for the human being it is a very low standard of enjoyment.
There are different kinds and grades of living entities, and their conceptions and perceptions of happiness are also of all different types and grades.
Although one animal may see that another animal is being slaughtered, he will go right on chewing grass, for he has no knowledge to understand that he may be next.
He is thinking that he is happy, but at the next moment he may be slaughtered.
In this way there are different degrees of happiness.
Yet of all of them, what is the highest happiness? Śri Kṛṣṇa tells Arjuna: sukham ātyantikaṁ yat tad buddhi-grāhyam atīndriyam vetti yatra na caivāyaṁ sthitaś calati tattvataḥ “In that joyous state (samādhi), one is situated in boundless transcendental happiness and enjoys himself through transcendental senses.
Established thus, one never departs from the truth.” (Bg.6.21) Buddhi means intelligence; one has to be intelligent if he wants to enjoy.
Animals do not have really developed intelligence and so cannot enjoy life as a human being can.
The hands, the nose, the eyes, the other sense organs and all the bodily parts may be present on a dead man, but he cannot enjoy.
Why not? The enjoying energy, the spiritual spark, has left, and therefore the body has no power.
If one looks further into the matter with a little intelligence, he can understand that it was not the body that was enjoying at all but the small spiritual spark that was within.
Although one may think that he is enjoying by the bodily sense organs, the real enjoyer is that spiritual spark.
That spark always has the potency of enjoyment, but it is not always manifest due to being covered by the material tabernacle.
Although we may not be aware of it, it is not possible for the body to experience enjoyment without the presence of this spiritual spark.
If a man is offered the dead body of a beautiful woman, will he accept it? No, because the spiritual spark has moved out of the body.
Not only was it enjoying within the body, but it was maintaining the body.
When that spark leaves, the body simply deteriorates.
It follows that if the spirit is enjoying, it must have its senses also, otherwise how can it enjoy? The Vedas confirm that the spirit soul, although atomic in size, is the actual enjoying agent.
It is not possible to measure the soul, but that is not to say that it is without measurement.
An object may seem to us to be no bigger than a point and may seem to have no length or width, but when we perceive it under a microscope we can see that it has both length and width.
Similarly, the soul also has its dimensions, but we cannot perceive them.
When we buy a suit or dress, it is made to fit the body.
The spiritual spark must have form, otherwise how is it the material body has grown to accommodate it? The conclusion is that the spiritual spark is not impersonal.
It is an actual person.
God is an actual person, and the spiritual spark, being a fragmental part of Him, is also a person.
If the father has personality and individuality, the son also has them; and if the son has them, we can conclude that the father has them.
So how can we, as sons of God, assert our personality and individuality and at the same time deny them to our Father, the Supreme Lord? Atīndriyam means that we have to transcend these material senses before we can appreciate real happiness.
Ramante yogino ’nante satyānanda-cid-ātmani: the yogīs who are aspiring after spiritual life are also tasting enjoyment by focusing on the Supersoul within.
If there is no pleasure, if there is no enjoyment, then what is the point of going to so much trouble to control the senses? What kind of pleasure are the yogīs relishing if they are taking so much trouble? That pleasure is ananta —endless.
How is this? The spirit soul is eternal, and the Supreme Lord is eternal; therefore reciprocation of their loving exchanges is eternal.
One who is actually intelligent will refrain from the flickering sensual enjoyment of this material body and fix his enjoyment in spiritual life.
His participation in spiritual life with the Supreme Lord is called rāsalīlā.
We have often heard of Kṛṣṇa’s rāsa-līlā with the cowherd girls in Vṛndāvana.
That is not like ordinary exchanges that take place between these material bodies.
Rather it is an exchange of feelings through spiritual bodies.
One has to be somewhat intelligent to understand this, for a foolish man, who cannot understand what real happiness is, seeks happiness in this material world.
In India there is the story of a man who did not know what sugarcane was and was told that it was very sweet to chew.
“Oh, what does it look like?” he asked.
“It looks just like a bamboo rod,” someone said.
So the foolish man began to chew all kinds of bamboo rods.
How can he begin to experience the sweetness of sugarcane? Similarly, we are trying to get happiness and pleasure, but we are trying for them by chewing this material body; therefore there is no happiness and no pleasure.
For the time being there may be some little feeling of pleasure, but that is not actual pleasure, for it is temporary.
It is like a show of lightning which we may see flashing in the sky that may momentarily seem like lightning, but the real lightning is beyond that.
Because a person does not really know what happiness is, he deviates from real happiness.
The process for establishing oneself in real happiness is this process of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
By Kṛṣṇa consciousness we can gradually develop our real intelligence and naturally enjoy relishing spiritual happiness as we make spiritual progress.
As we begin to relish spiritual happiness, we proportionately abandon material happiness.
As we make progress in understanding the Absolute Truth, we naturally become detached from this false happiness.
If somehow or other one is promoted to that stage of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, what is the result? yaṁ labdhvā cāparaṁ lābhaṁ manyate nādhikaṁ tataḥ yasmin sthito na duḥkhena guruṇāpi vicālyate “Upon gaining this, he thinks there is no greater gain.
Being situated in such a position, one is never shaken, even in the midst of greatest difficulty.” (Bg.6.22) When one attains that stage, other achievements appear insignificant.
In this material world we are trying to achieve so many things—riches, women, fame, beauty, knowledge, etc.—but as soon as we are situated in Kṛṣṇa consciousness we think, “Oh, no achievement is better than this.” Kṛṣṇa consciousness is so potent that a little taste can save one from the greatest danger.
As one begins to relish the taste of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he begins to see other so-called enjoyments and attainments as flat and tasteless.
And if one is situated firmly in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, the greatest danger cannot disturb him.
There are so many dangers in life because the material world is a place of danger.
We tend to close our eyes to this, and because we are foolish we try to adjust to these dangers.
We may have many dangerous moments in our lives, but if we are training ourselves in Kṛṣṇa consciousness and preparing ourselves to go home, back to Godhead, we will not care for them.
Our attitude will then be: “Dangers come and go—so let them happen.” It is very difficult to make this kind of adjustment as long as one is on the materialistic platform and is identifying with the gross body, which is composed of perishable elements.
But the more one advances in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, the more he becomes free from bodily designations and this material entanglement.
In Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam the material world is compared to a great ocean.
Within this material universe there are millions and billions of planets floating in space, and we can just imagine how many Atlantic and pacific Oceans are there.
In fact, the whole material universe is likened to a great ocean of misery, an ocean of birth and death.
In order to cross this great ocean of nescience, a strong boat is needed, and that strong boat is the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa.
We should immediately get aboard that boat.
We should not hesitate, thinking that Kṛṣṇa’s feet are very small.
The whole universe is simply resting on His leg.
For one who takes shelter of His feet, it is said that the material universe is no more significant than a puddle of water found in the impression of a calf’s hoofprint.
There is certainly no difficulty in crossing over such a small puddle.
taṁ vidyād duḥkha-saṁyogaviyogam yoga-saṁjñitam “This indeed is actual freedom from all miseries arising from material contact.” (Bg.6.23) We are entangled in this material world due to uncontrolled senses.
The yoga process is meant to control these senses.
If somehow we can manage to control the senses, we can turn our face to actual spiritual happiness and make our lives successful.
sa niścayena yoktavyo yogo ’nirviṇṇa-cetasā saṅkalpa-prabhavān kāmāṁs tyaktvā sarvān aśeṣataḥ manasaivendriya-grāmaṁ viniyamya samantataḥ śanaiḥ śanair uparamed buddhyā dhṛti-gṛhītayā ātma-saṁsthaṁ manaḥ kṛtvā na kiñcid api cintayet yato yato niścalati manaś cañcalam asthiram tatas tato niyamyaitad ātmany eva vaśaṁ nayet “One should engage oneself in the practice of yoga with undeviating determination and faith.
One should abandon, without exception, all material desires born of false ego and thus control all the senses on all sides by the mind.
Gradually, step by step, with full conviction, one should become situated in trance by means of intelligence, and thus the mind should be fixed on the Self alone and should think of nothing else.
From whatever and wherever the mind wanders due to its flickering and unsteady nature, one must certainly withdraw it and bring it back under the control of the Self.” (Bg.6.24–26) The mind is always disturbed.
It is going sometimes this way and sometimes that way.
By yoga practice we literally drag the mind to Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
The mind strays from Kṛṣṇa consciousness to so many exterior objects because from time immemorial, life after life, that has been our practice.
Due to this, there may be great difficulty in the beginning when one tries to fix his mind in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, but these difficulties can all be overcome.
It is because the mind is agitated and not fixed on Kṛṣṇa that it goes from one thought to another.
For instance, when we are engaged in work, memories of events that happened ten, twenty, thirty or forty years ago may suddenly come to our mind for no apparent reason.
These thoughts come from our subconscious, and because they are always rising, the mind is always agitated.
If we agitate a lake or a pond, all the mud from the bottom comes to the surface.
Similarly, when the mind is agitated so many thoughts arise from the subconscious that have been stored there over the years.
If we do not disturb a pond, the mud will settle to the bottom.
This yoga process is the means to quiet the mind and allow all these thoughts to settle.
For this reason there are so many rules and regulations to follow in order to keep the mind from becoming agitated.
If we follow the rules and regulations, gradually the mind will come under control.
There are so many don’t’s and so many do’s, and if one is serious about training the mind, he has to follow them.
If he acts whimsically, what is the possibility of the mind being controlled? When the mind is finally trained to the point where it will think of nothing but Kṛṣṇa, it will attain peace and will become very tranquil.
praśānta-manasaṁ hy enaṁ yoginaṁ sukham uttamam upaiti śānta-rajasaṁ brahma-bhūtam akalmaṣam “The yogī whose mind is fixed on Me verily attains the highest happiness.
By virtue of his identity with Brahman, he is liberated; his mind is peaceful, his passions are quieted, and he is freed from sin.” (Bg.6.27) The mind is always concocting objects for happiness.
I am always thinking, “This will make me happy,” or “That will make me happy.
Happiness is here.
Happiness is there.” In this way the mind is taking us anywhere and everywhere.
It is as though we are riding on a chariot behind an unbridled horse.
We have no power over where we are going but can only sit in horror and watch helplessly.
As soon as the mind is engaged in the Kṛṣṇa consciousness process—specifically by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare—then the wild horses of the mind will gradually come under our control.
We must engage in Kṛṣṇa’s service every moment of our lives in order to keep the restless and turbulent mind from dragging us from one object to another in a vain search for happiness in the temporary material world.
yuñjann evaṁ sadātmānaṁ yogī vigata-kalmaṣaḥ sukhe na brahma-saṁsparśam atyantaṁ sukham aśnute “Steady in the Self, being freed from all material contamination, the yogī achieves the highest perfectional stage of happiness in touch with the supreme consciousness.” (Bg.6.28) Kṛṣṇa serves as a patron for one who is devoted to Him.
When one is in difficulty, his patron saves him.
As stated in Bhagavad-gītā, Kṛṣṇa is the real friend of every living entity, and we have to revive our friendship with Him.
The method for reviving this friendship is the process of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
By practice of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, mundane passionate hankering will come to a stop.
This passionate hankering keeps us divorced from Kṛṣṇa.
Kṛṣṇa is within us and is waiting for us to turn to Him, but we are too busy passionately eating the fruits of the tree of material desire.
This passionate compulsion to enjoy these fruits must stop, and we must situate ourselves in our real identity as Brahman—pure spirit.
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<h1 class="menu-title">Elevation to Krsna Consciousness</h1>
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<h1><a class="header" href="#choosing-human-and-animal-lives" id="choosing-human-and-animal-lives">Choosing Human and Animal Lives</a></h1>
om ajnana-timirandhasya jnananjana-salakaya caksur unmilitam yena tasmai sri-gurave namah "I offer my respectful obeisances unto my spiritual master, who has opened my eyes, blinded by the darkness of ignorance, with the torchlight of knowledge." It is customary with this verse to offer obeisances to the spiritual master who enlightens his disciples in the matter of transcendental knowledge.
The Vedic process does not involve research work.
In mundane scholarship, we have to show our academic learning by some research, but the Vedic process is different.
In the Vedic process the research work is already done; it is complete, and it is simply handed down by disciplic succession from teacher to student.
There is no question of research work because the instruments and the means with which one conducts such research work are blunt and imperfect.
At this stage of our material existence, we are conditioned by many laws of nature.
All conditioned souls are subject to four defects due to the imperfection of their senses.
One defect is that the conditioned soul is certain to commit mistakes.
There is no man who does not commit mistakes.
In India, for instance, Mahatma Gandhi was supposed to be a very great personality, but he also committed mistakes.
Five minutes before he came to the meeting at which he was killed, he was warned by confidential associates not to go, but he persisted.
To commit mistakes is very natural in the conditioned state of life.
Indeed, the popular saying has arisen: "To err is human." Another imperfection of the conditioned soul is that he is sure to be illusioned.
Being illusioned means accepting something which is not, phantasmagoria to be factual.
Every one of us is under the impression that we are these bodies, but actually we are not.
Accepting the body to be the self is called illusion, or maya.
The third imperfection is that conditioned souls have a tendency to cheat.
We have often heard a storekeeper say, "Because you are my friend, I won't make any profit off you." But in actuality we know that he is making at least 50% profit.
There are so many instances of this cheating propensity.
There are also many examples of teachers who actually know nothing but put forth theories in words like "perhaps" or "it may be," while in actuality they are simply cheating their students.
The fourth imperfection is that the senses of the living entity are not perfect.
Our vision is so limited that we cannot see very far away nor very near.
The eye can see only under certain conditions, and therefore it is understood that our vision is limited.
Similarly, all our other senses are also limited.
It is not possible to understand the unlimited by these imperfect, limited senses.
The conclusion is that the Vedic process does not encourage us to endeavor to learn the Absolute Truth by employing our present senses, which are conditioned in so many ways.
If we are to have knowledge, it must come from a superior source which is not conditioned by these four imperfections.
That source is Krishna.
He is the supreme authority of Bhagavad-gita, and He is accepted as the perfect authority by so many saints and sages.
Those who are serious students of Vedic literature accept authority.
Bhagavad-gita, for example, is not a scholarly presentation which arose out of so much research work.
It is perfect knowledge that was taught by Lord Krishna to Arjuna on the battlefield of Kuruksetra, and we receive information from it that in previous ages Sri Krishna also taught it to the sun-god Vivasvan, and it was handed down from time immemorial from Vivasvan by disciplic succession.
imam vivasvate yogam proktavan aham avyayam vivasvan manave praha manur iksvakave 'bravit "The Blessed Lord said: I instructed this imperishable science of yoga to the sun-god Vivasvan, and Vivasvan instructed it to Manu, the father of mankind, and Manu in turn instructed it to Iksvaku." (Bg.4.1) If we study Bhagavad-gita according to academic knowledge or according to our own mental speculation, we are certain to commit mistakes.
It is not possible to understand Bhagavad-gita in this way.
It is necessary to follow carefully in the footsteps of Arjuna.
In previous ages, due to interpretation and mental speculation, the real purport of Bhagavad-gita was lost; therefore Krishna re-established the teachings by giving them to Arjuna.
evam parampara-praptam imam rajarsayo viduh sa kaleneha mahata yogo nastah parantapa sa evayam maya te 'dya yogah proktah puratanah bhakto 'si me sakha ceti rahasyam hy etad uttamam "This supreme science was thus received through the chain of disciplic succession, and the saintly kings understood it in that way.
But in course of time the succession was broken, and therefore the science as it is appears to be lost.
That very ancient science of the relationship with the Supreme is today told by Me to you because you are My devotee as well as My friend; therefore, you can understand the transcendental mystery of this science." (Bg.4.2,3) Thus whoever follows in the footsteps of Arjuna, approaching Krishna in a spirit of devotion, can understand the purpose of Bhagavad-gita as well as all other Vedic literatures.
There are four Vedas--Sama, Rg, Yajur and Atharva, and there are 108 Upanisads, including the Isopanisad, Katha Upanisad and Taittiriya Upanisad, as well as the Vedanta-sutra, Srimad-Bhagavatam and Bhagavad-gita.
These literatures are not meant for any particular class of men but for the totality of human society.
All societies can take advantage of Vedic knowledge to perfect human life.
As pointed out before, human life is not meant for sense gratification, but for understanding God, the universe and our own identity.
From Vedic literatures we can understand that this material world is only a partial manifestation of the complete creation of God.
The larger portion of God's creation is found in the spiritual world of the Vaikunthas.
Above and beyond this material nature there is a superior spiritual nature, as Sri Krishna states in Bhagavad-gita: bhumir apo 'nalo vayuh kham mano buddhir eva ca ahankara itiyam me bhinna prakrtir astadha apareyam itas tv anyam prakrtim viddhi me param jiva-bhutam maha-baho yayedam dharyate jagat "Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intelligence, and false ego--altogether these eight comprise My separated material energies.
Besides this inferior nature, O mighty Arjuna, there is a superior energy of Mine which is all living entities who are struggling with material nature and sustaining the universe." (Bg.7.4,5) There are many material universes clustered together, and all these universes constitute the material creation.
Beyond these clusters of countless material universes is the spiritual sky, which is also mentioned in Bhagavad-gita.
na tad bhasayate suryo na sasanko na pavakah yad gatva na nivartante tad dhama paramam mama "That abode of Mine is not illumined by the sun or moon, nor by electricity.
And anyone who reaches it never comes back to this material world." (Bg.15.6) That superior nature which is beyond this material nature is eternal.
There is no history of its ever having begun; it has neither beginning nor end.
paras tasmat tu bhavo 'nyo 'vyakto 'vyaktat sanatanah yah sa sarvesu bhutesu nasyatsu na vinasyati avyakto 'ksara ity uktas tam ahuh paramam gatim yam prapya na nivartante tad dhama paramam mama "There is another, eternal nature, which is transcendental to this manifested and non-manifested matter.
It is supreme and is never annihilated.
When all in this world is annihilated, that part remains as it is.
That supreme status is called unmanifested and infallible, and is the highest destination.
Going there, one never returns from that, My supreme abode." (Bg.8.20,21) The Vedic religion, or varnasrama-dharma, is also called eternal because no one can trace out its beginning.
The Christian religion has a history of 2,000 years, and the Mohammedan religion has a history of 1,300 years, but if we try to trace out the origins of Vedic religion, we will not be able to find a beginning.
Varnasrama-dharma is accepted as the eternal religion of the living entity.
We often say that God created this material world, and this means that God existed before the world.
Since the Lord was existing before this material manifestation, He is not subject to this creation.
If He were subject to the laws of the material world, how could He have created it? That the Lord is simultaneously identical with His creation and yet exists in His completeness apart from it is stated in Bhagavad-gita.
maya tatam idam sarvam jagad avyakta-murtina mat-sthani sarva-bhutani ma caham tesv avasthitah na ca mat-sthani bhutani pasya me yogam aisvaram bhuta-bhrn na ca bhuta-stho mamatma bhuta-bhavanah "In My transcendental form I pervade all this creation.
All things are resting in Me, but I am not in them.
Again, everything that is created does not rest on Me.
Behold My mystic opulence: Although I am the maintainer of all living entities, and although I am everywhere, still My Self is the very source of creation." (Bg.9.4,5) Actually we are all spirit souls and are intended to associate with God in the spiritual sky where there are innumerable spiritual planets and innumerable spiritual living entities.
However, those who are not fit to live in that spiritual world are sent to this material world.
This very idea is expressed by Milton in Paradise Lost.
Although spirit soul, we have voluntarily accepted this material body and by accepting it have also accepted the threefold miseries of material nature.
Exactly when we accepted it and how we accepted it cannot be traced out.
No one can trace out the history of when the conditioned soul first began accepting these material bodies.
At present Darwin's theory of the evolution of organic matter is very prominent in institutions of higher learning, but there is information given in the Padma Purana and other authoritative scriptures of the living entities' spiritual evolution from one bodily form to another.
This Purana informs us that species amongst plants and vegetables alone.
At present everyone is giving stress to Darwin's theory, but in Vedic literature there is immense information about the different species.
Darwin expresses the opinion that the species are evolving from lower forms of life, but this is not the whole truth.
The soul may progress from lower forms to higher forms, but in the beginning of creation all species were created by Sri Krishna, as indicated in Bhagavad-gita.
sarva-bhutani kaunteya prakrtim yan ti mamikam kalpa-ksaye punas tani kalpadau visrjamy aham prakrtim svam avastabhya visrjami punah punah bhuta-gramam imam krtsnam avasam prakrter vasat "O son of Kunti, at the end of the millennium every material manifestation enters unto My nature, and at the beginning of another millennium, by My potency I again create.
The whole cosmic order is under Me.
By My will is it manifested again and again, and by My will is it annihilated at the end." (Bg.9.7,8) All of these living entities are subject to the threefold miseries, including those miseries pertaining to the body and mind.
Animals cannot understand that they are suffering, but human beings can.
One who does not know that he is suffering is in animal consciousness.
Animals may be standing behind a fence to be slaughtered, but they do not understand this.
As human beings, we should be cognizant that we are suffering the pains of birth, old age, disease and death and should be inquisitive to know how to avoid these miseries.
We have been suffering from the beginning of our birth when as a baby we were tightly placed for nine months in the womb of a mother.
After birth, suffering continues; although a mother may take much care for her child, the baby still cries.
Why? Because he is suffering.
Either a bug is biting, or there is a pain in the stomach or some other malady.
Whatever the case, the suffering goes on.
The child also suffers when he is forced to go to school when he does not want to.
The child does not want to study, but the teacher gives him tasks anyway.
If we carefully analyze our lives, we will find that they are full of suffering.
Generally speaking, conditioned souls are not very intelligent, and therefore they go on suffering without ever inquiring why.
We should understand, however, that this suffering is there, and if there is a remedy we must take advantage of it.
The great sage Rsabhadeva instructed his sons in this way: "My dear boys, in this life you have acquired these beautiful bodies.
Now you should know that they are not meant for sense gratification like the bodies of hogs and dogs but for spiritual realization." Essentially what Rsabhadeva is saying is that a life of sense gratification is meant for stool eaters like hogs, and now that we have a higher form of life, we should not try to imitate the lower forms.
Recently we were surprised to see, while walking in Central park in New York City, that a group of young American boys and girls were engaged in worshiping hogs.
While we were chanting Hare Krishna, these groups of youngsters were chanting, "Hog! Hog! Hog!" They were actually parading with hogs in Central park and bowing down before them and worshiping them.
They actually wanted one hog to become president, and they wanted the hogs to lead them.
This has gone to such lengths that at one be-in in Seattle there was a demonstration with hogs in which the boys and girls undressed themselves and got in the mud and played with the hogs, and in this way they were associating with the hogs and pigs which they worshiped.
All this is going on in a country where the young people have good looking bodies, a great deal of money and so many other advantages over the young people of other nations.
The result of gaining all these advantages is that they have simply taken to hog worship.
Such hog worship was anticipated long, long ago and was described in Srimad-Bhagavatam, which was compiled at least 5,000 years ago.
The point is that a beautiful situation in life should be utilized for a beautiful end, not for degraded forms of worship.
In the Vedic histories we find that there were many, many exalted emperors and kings who practiced austerities and penances.
Dhruva Maharaja, Ambarisa Maharaja and Yudhisthira Maharaja were all great kings and were most opulent, but at the same time they were great sages.
Thus they set the example for those who have acquired this good opportunity of a beautiful human form of life with all the facilities for economic development and good living.
This opportunity should be used to attain an even better life, and this can be actualized by practice of penance.
At present we are existing in these material bodies, but if we take to the process of Krishna consciousness, our consciousness will be purified.
Although American and European, the young students who are voluntarily practicing Krishna consciousness are very pleased to practice it.
The process is not troublesome but pleasing.
Now they are realizing that purified existence constitutes the difference between animal life and human life.
If we purify our existence simply by following the basic regulations of Krishna consciousness, which involve abstaining from illicit sexual connection, meat-eating, intoxication and gambling, we will gradually rise to attain our spiritual existence, which is completely pure.
The sage Rsabhadeva told his sons that once they purified their existence they would have unlimited happiness.
We are all intended to attain peace and happiness, but whatever peace and happiness we find in this material world is limited.
If we but purify our existence and attain spiritual existence, we will experience unlimited peace and happiness.
The spiritual world is not dry or abstract; as pointed out before, there is variegatedness there.
A part of the spiritual pleasure experienced in the Vaikunthas is the pleasure of dancing.
There are also young girls and young boys there.
Indeed, there is no such thing as old age, or disease, or death, or the pains of birth.
If we want to participate in the unlimited happiness, knowledge and eternal life which constitute our actual heritage in the spiritual world, we should not waste this life by working hard for sense gratification and worshiping hogs.
We should accept a life devoted to the cultivation of Krishna consciousness, and then we will get unlimited happiness and unlimited pleasure.
This is the sum and substance of the Krishna consciousness movement.
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<h1><a class="header" href="#spiritual-knowledge-through-kṛṣṇa" id="spiritual-knowledge-through-kṛṣṇa">Spiritual Knowledge Through Kṛṣṇa</a></h1>
The aim of this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is to bring all living entities back to their original consciousness.
All living entities within the material world are, to varying degrees, afflicted with a type of madness.
This Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement aims at curing man of his material disease and reestablishing his original consciousness.
In a Bengali poem a great Vaiṣṇava poet has written, “When a man is haunted by ghosts, he can only speak nonsense.
Similarly, anyone who is under the influence of material nature should be considered haunted, and whatever he speaks should be considered nonsense.” One may be considered a great philosopher or great scientist, but if he is haunted by the ghost of māyā, illusion, whatever he theorizes and whatever he speaks is more or less nonsensical.
Today we are given the example of a psychiatrist who, when requested to examine a murderer, proclaimed that since all the patients with whom he had come in contact were more or less crazy, the court could excuse the murderer on those grounds if it so desired.
The point is that in the material world it is very difficult to find a sane living entity.
The prevailing atmosphere of insanity in this world is all caused by the infection of material consciousness.
The purpose of this Hare Kṛṣṇa movement is to bring man back to his original consciousness, which is Kṛṣṇa consciousness, clear consciousness.
When water falls from the clouds, it is uncontaminated like distilled water, but as soon as it touches the ground it becomes muddy and discolored.
Similarly, we are originally pure spirit soul, part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa, and therefore our original constitutional position is as pure as God’s.
In Bhagavad-gītā Sri Kṛṣṇa says: mamaivāṁśo jīva-loke jīva-bhūtaḥ sanātanaḥ manaḥ ṣaṣṭhānīndriyāṇi prakṛti-sthāni karṣati “The living entities in this conditional world are My fragmental parts, and they are eternal.
But due to conditioned life, they are struggling very hard with the six senses, which include the mind.” (Bg.15.7) Thus all living entities are part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa.
By Kṛṣṇa it should always be remembered that we are speaking of God, Kṛṣṇa denoting the all-attractive Supreme Personality of Godhead.
As a fragment of gold is qualitatively the same as a gold reservoir, so the minute particles of Kṛṣṇa’s body are therefore qualitatively as good as Kṛṣṇa.
The chemical composition of God’s body and the eternal spiritual body of the living entity is the same-spiritual.
Thus originally, in our uncontaminated condition, we possessed a form as good as God’s, but just as rain falls to the ground, so we come in contact with this material world, which is manipulated by the external material energy of Kṛṣṇa.
When we speak of external energy or material nature, the question may be raised,“Whose energy? Whose nature?” Material energy or nature is not active independently.
Such a concept is foolish.
In Bhagavad-gītā it is clearly stated that material nature does not work independently.
When a foolish man sees a machine he may think that it is working automatically, but actually it is not—there is a driver, someone in control, although we sometimes cannot see the controller behind the machine due to our defective vision.
There are many electronic mechanisms which work very wonderfully, but behind these intricate systems there is a scientist who pushes the button.
This is very simple to understand: since a machine is matter, it cannot work on its own accord but must work under spiritual direction.
A tape recorder works, but it works according to the plans and under the direction of a living entity, a human being.
The machine is complete, but unless it is manipulated by a spirit soul, it cannot work.
Similarly, we should understand that this cosmic manifestation which we call nature is a great machine and that behind this machine there is God, Kṛṣṇa.
This is also affirmed in Bhagavad-gītā where Kṛṣṇa says: mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram hetunānena kaunteya jagad viparivartate “This material nature is working under My direction, O son of Kuntī, producing all the moving and unmoving beings, and by its rule this manifestation is created and annihilated again and again.” (Bg.9.10) There are two kinds of entities—the moving (such as human beings, animals and insects) and nonmoving (such as trees and mountains).
Kṛṣṇa says that material nature, which controls both kinds of entities, is acting under His direction.
Thus behind everything there is a supreme controller.
Modern civilization does not understand this due to lack of knowledge; it is the purpose of this Society for Kṛṣṇa consciousness, therefore, to enlighten all people who have been maddened by the influence of the three modes of material nature.
In other words, our aim is to awaken mankind to its normal condition.
There are many universities, especially in the United States, and many departments of knowledge, but they are not discussing these points.
Where is the department for this knowledge that we find given by Śrī Kṛṣṇa in Bhagavad-gītā? When I spoke before students and some faculty members at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the first question raised was: “Where is the technological department which is investigating the difference between a dead man and a living man?” When a man dies, something is lost.
Where is the technology to replace it? Why don’t scientists try to solve this problem? Because this is a very difficult subject matter, they set it aside and busily engage in the technology of eating, sleeping, mating and defending.
However, Vedic literatures inform us that this is animal technology.
Animals are also trying their best to eat well, to have an enjoyable sex life, to sleep peacefully, and to defend themselves.
What then is the difference between man’s knowledge and animal’s knowledge? The fact is that man’s knowledge should be developed to explore that difference between a living man and a dead man, a living body and a dead body.
That spiritual knowledge was imparted by Kṛṣṇa to Arjuna in the beginning of Bhagavad-gītā.
Being a friend of Kṛṣṇa’s, Arjuna was a very intelligent man, but his knowledge, as all men’s, was limited.
Kṛṣṇa spoke, however, of subject matters which were beyond Arjuna’s finite knowledge.
These subjects are called adhokṣaja because our direct perception by which we acquire material knowledge fails to approach them.
For example, we have many powerful microscopes to see what we cannot see with our limited vision, but there is no microscope that can show us the soul within the body.
Nevertheless, the soul is there.
Bhagavad-gītāinforms us that in this body there is a proprietor.
I am the proprietor, and others are the proprietors of their bodies.
I say, “My hand,” but not “I hand.” Since it is “my hand,” I am different from the hand, being its owner.
Similarly, we speak of “My eye,” “My leg,” “My this,” “My that.” In the midst of all of these objects which belong to me, where am I? The search for the answer to this question is the process of meditation.
In real meditation, we ask, “Where am I? What am I?” We cannot find the answers to these questions by any material effort, and because of this all the universities are setting these questions aside.
They say, “It is too difficult a subject.” Or they brush it aside: “It is irrelevant.” Thus engineers direct their attention to creating and attempting to perfect the horseless carriage and wingless bird.
Formerly, horses were drawing carriages and there was no air pollution, but now there are cars and rockets, and the scientists are very proud.
“We have invented horseless carriages and wingless birds,” they boast.
Although they invent imitation wings for the airplane or rocket, they cannot invent a soulless body.
When they are able to actually do this, they will deserve credit.
But such an attempt would necessarily be frustrated, for we know that there is no machine that can work without a spirit soul behind it.
Even the most complicated computers need trained men to handle them.
Similarly, we should know that this great machine, which is known as the cosmic manifestation, is manipulated by a supreme spirit.
That is Kṛṣṇa.
Scientists are searching for the ultimate cause or the ultimate controller of this material universe and are postulating different theories and proposals, but the real means for knowledge is very easy and perfect: we need only hear from the perfect person, Kṛṣṇa.
By accepting the knowledge imparted in Bhagavad-gītā, anyone can immediately know that this great cosmic machine, of which the earth is a part, is working so wonderfully because there is a driver behind it—Kṛṣṇa.
Our process of knowledge is very easy.
Kṛṣṇa’s instruction, Bhagavad-gītā, is the principal book of knowledge given by the ādipuruṣa Himself, the Supreme primeval person, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
He is indeed the perfect person.
It may be argued that although we have accepted Him as a perfect person, there are many others who do not.
But one should not think that this acceptance is whimsical; He is accepted as the perfect person on the evidence of many authorities.
We do not accept Kṛṣṇa as perfect simply on the basis of our whims or sentiments.
No—Kṛṣṇa is accepted as God by many Vedic authorities like Vyāsadeva, the author of all Vedic literatures.
The treasure house of knowledge is contained in the Vedas, and their author, Vyāsadeva, accepts Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and Vyāsadeva’s spiritual master, Nārada, also accepts Kṛṣṇa as such.
Nārada’s spiritual master, Brahmā, accepts Kṛṣṇa not only as the Supreme person but the supreme controller as well—īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ: “The supreme controller is Kṛṣṇa.” There is no one in the creation who can claim that he is not controlled.
Everyone, regardless of how important or powerful, has a controller over his head.
Kṛṣṇa, however, has no controller; therefore He is God.
He is the controller of everyone, but there is no one superior to Him, no one to control Him; nor is there anyone equal to Him, no one to share His platform of absolute control.
This may sound very strange, for there are many so-called gods nowadays.
Indeed, gods have become very cheap, being especially imported from India.
people in other countries are fortunate that gods are not manufactured there, but in India gods are manufactured practically every day.
We often hear that God is coming to Los Angeles or New York and that people are gathering to receive Him, etc.
But Kṛṣṇa is not the type of God manufactured in a mystic factory.
No.
He was not made God, but He is God.
We should know then on the basis of authority that behind this gigantic material nature, the cosmic manifestation, there is God— Kṛṣṇa—and that He is accepted by all Vedic authorities.
Acceptance of authority is not new for us; everyone accepts authority in some form or another.
For education we go to a teacher or to a school or simply learn from our father and mother.
They are all authorities, and our nature is to learn from them.
In our childhood we asked, “Father, what is this?” and father would say, “This is a pen,” “These are spectacles,” or “This is a table.” In this way from the very beginnings of life a child learns from his father and mother.
He learns the names of things and the basic relations of one thing to another by questioning his parents.
A good father and mother never cheat when their son inquires from them; they give exact and correct information.
Similarly, if we get spiritual information from an authority and if the authority is not a cheater, then our knowledge is perfect.
If we attempt to reach conclusions by dint of our own speculative powers, however, we are subject to fall into error.
The process of induction, by which, reasoning from particular facts or individual cases, one can arrive at a general conclusion, is never a perfect process.
Because we are limited and our experience is limited, it will always remain imperfect.
If we receive information from the perfect source, Kṛṣṇa, and if we repeat that information, then what we are speaking can also be accepted as perfect and authoritative.
The process of paramparā or disciplic succession is this very process of hearing from Kṛṣṇa or from authorities who have accepted Kṛṣṇa and repeating exactly what they have said.
In Bhagavad-gītā Kṛṣṇa recommends this process of knowledge: evam paramparā-prāptam imaṁ rājarṣayo viduḥ “This supreme science was thus received through the chain of disciplic succession, and the saintly kings understood it in that way.” (Bg.4.2) Formerly knowledge was passed down by great saintly kings who were the authorities.
In previous ages, however, these kings were ṛṣis — great learned scholars and devotees—and because they were not ordinary men the government which they headed worked very nicely.
There are many instances in Vedic civilization of kings who attained perfection as devotees of God.
For example, Dhruva Mahārāja went to the forest to search out God and by practice of severe penance and austerity found God within six months.
Although he was only a fiveyear-old prince with a very delicate body, he was successful because he followed the directions of his spiritual master, Nārada.
The first month Dhruva Mahārāja was in the forest, he simply ate some fruits and vegetables once every three days and drank a little water every six days.
He finally restricted his inhalation of air and stood for six months on one leg only.
After he executed these severe austerities for half a year, God became manifest before him, eye to eye.
It is not necessary for us to practice such severe austerities, but simply by following in the footsteps of Vedic authorities we also can see God eye to eye.
This vision of God is the perfection of life.
The Kṛṣṇa consciousness process is based on austerity, but it is not very difficult.
There are restrictions governing eating and sex life (only prasādam, food first offered to Kṛṣṇa, is taken, and sex is restricted to married life), and there are other regulations which facilitate and foster spiritual realization.
It is not possible in these days to imitate Dhruva Mahārāja, but by following certain basic Vedic principles, we can make advancement in spiritual consciousness, Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
As we advance, we become perfect in knowledge.
What is the use in becoming a scientist or a philosopher if we cannot say what our next life will be? A realized student of Kṛṣṇa consciousness can very easily say what his next life is, what God is, what the living entity is and what his relationship with God is.
His knowledge is perfect because it is coming from perfect books of knowledge such as Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
This, then, is the process of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
It is very easy, and anyone can adopt it and make his life perfect.
If someone says, “I’m not educated at all, and I cannot read books,” he is still not disqualified.
He can still perfect his life by simply chanting the mahāmantra: Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare.
Kṛṣṇa has given us a tongue and two ears, and we may be surprised to know that Kṛṣṇa is realized through the ears and tongue, not through the eyes.
By hearing His message, we learn to control the tongue, and after the tongue is controlled, the other senses follow.
Of all the senses, the tongue is the most voracious and difficult to control, but it can be controlled simply by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa and tasting Kṛṣṇa prasādam, food offered to Kṛṣṇa.
We cannot understand Kṛṣṇa by sensual perception or by speculation.
It is not possible, for Kṛṣṇa is so great that He is beyond our sensual range.
But He can be understood by surrender.
Kṛṣṇa therefore recommends this process: sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ “Give up all varieties of religiousness, and just surrender unto Me; and in return I shall protect you from all sinful reactions.
Therefore, you have nothing to fear.” (Bg.18.66) Unfortunately, our disease is that we are rebellious—we automatically resist authority.
Yet although we say that we don’t want authority, nature is so strong that it forces authority upon us.
We are forced to accept the authority of nature.
What can be more pathetic than a man who claims to answer to no authority but who follows his senses blindly wherever they lead him? Our false claim to independence is simply foolishness.
We are all under authority, yet we say that we don’t want authority.
This is called māyā, illusion.
We do, however, have a certain independence—we can choose to be under the authority of our senses or the authority of Kṛṣṇa.
The best and ultimate authority is Kṛṣṇa, for He is our eternal well-wisher, and He always speaks for our benefit.
Since we have to accept some authority, why not accept His? Simply by hearing of His glories from Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and by chanting His names— Hare Kṛṣṇa—we can swiftly perfect our lives.
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<h1 class="menu-title">Krsna Reservoir of Pleasure</h1>
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<h1><a class="header" href="#krsna-the-reservoir-of-pleasure" id="krsna-the-reservoir-of-pleasure">KRSNA THE RESERVOIR OF PLEASURE</a></h1>
Krsna— this sound is transcendental.
Krsna means the highest pleasure.
All of us, every living being, seeks pleasure.
But we do not know how to seek pleasure perfectly.
With a materialistic concept of life, we are frustrated at every step in satisfying our pleasure because we have no information regarding the real level on which to have real pleasure.
For the last few weeks we have been learning that we are not this body; we are consciousness.
Not exactly consciousness, for consciousness is actually the symptom of our real identity: we are pure soul, now merged within this material body.
Modern material science lays no stress on this; therefore the scientists are sometimes misled in their understanding of spirit soul.
But spirit soul is a fact, which anyone can understand by the presence of consciousness.
Any child can understand that consciousness is the symptom of the spirit soul.
Now the whole process we are trying to learn from the Bhagavad-gita (The Song of God) is how to bring ourselves to this level of consciousness.
And if we act from the level of consciousness, then we may not be pushed again into the level of this bodily conception; and, if we can continue on that level, if we can continue to act in pure consciousness, then, at the end of this body we shall be free from material contamination, our spiritual life will be revived, and the ultimate result will be that in our next life, after leaving this body, we shall have our full, eternal spiritual life.
Spirit, as we have already discussed, is described as eternal.
Even after the destruction of this body, consciousness is not destroyed.
Rather, consciousness is transferred to another type of body and again makes us aware of the material conception of life.
That is also described in the Bhagavad-gita.
At the time of death, if our consciousness is pure, we can be sure that our next life will not be material—our next life will be spiritual.
If our consciousness is not pure at the point of death, then, after leaving this body, we shall have to take another material body.
That is the process which is going on.
That is Nature’s law.
We have now a final body.
The body which we see is the gross body.
It is just like a shirt and coat: within the coat there is a shirt, and within the shirt there is a body.
Similarly, the pure soul is covered by a shirt and coat.
The garments are the mind, intelligence and false ego.
False ego means the misconception that I am matter, that I am a product of this material world.
This misconception makes me localized.
For example, because I have taken my birth in India, I think myself Indian.
Because I have taken my birth in America, I think myself American.
But as pure soul, I am neither Indian nor American.
I am pure soul.
These others are designations.
American, or Indian, or German, or Englishman; cat or dog, or bee or bat, man or wife: all these are designations.
In spiritual consciousness we become free from all such designations.
That freedom is achieved when we are constantly in touch with the supreme spirit, Krsna.
The International Society for Krishna Consciousness is simply intended to keep us in constant touch with Krsna.
Krsna can be in constant companionship with us because He is omnipotent.
Therefore, He can be fully in touch with us by His words.
His words and He are not different.
That is omnipotence.
Omnipotence means that everything relating to Him has the same potency.
For example, here in this material world, if we are thirsty and we want water, simply repeating “Water, water, water, water,” will not satisfy our thirst, because this word has not the same potency as water itself.
We require the water in substance.
Then our thirst will be satisfied.
But in the transcendental, absolute world, there is no such difference— Krsna’s name, Krsna’s quality, Krsna’s word—everything is Krsna and provides the same satisfaction.
Some people argue that Arjuna was talking with Krsna because Krsna was present before him, whereas in my case, Krsna is not present.
So how can I get directions? But that is not a fact.
Krsna is present by His words—the Bhagavad-gita.
In India, when we speak on the Bhagavad-gita or Srimad-Bhagavatam, we regularly perform worship with flowers, or with other paraphernalia, as is required for worshiping.
In the Sikh religion also, although they have no form of the Deity, they worship the book Granthasahib.
Perhaps some of you are acquainted with this Sikh community.
They worship this Grantha.
Similarly, the Moslems worship the Koran.
Similarly, in the Christian world, the Bible is worshiped.
It is a fact that the Lord Jesus Christ is present by His words.
Krsna is also present by His words.
These personalities, either God or the son of God, who come from the transcendental world, keep their transcendental identities without being contaminated by the material world.
That is their omnipotence.
We are in the habit of saying that God is omnipotent.
Omnipotence means that He is not different from His name, from His quality, from His pastimes, from His instruction.
Therefore, the discussion of Bhagavad-gita is as good as discussion with Krsna Himself.
Krsna is seated in your heart, and in my heart too.
Isvarah sarva-bhutanam hrddese’rjuna tisthati.
God is situated in everyone’s heart.
God is not away from us.
He is present.
He is so friendly that He remains with us in our repeated change of births.
He is waiting to see when we shall turn to Him.
He is so kind that though we may forget Him, He never forgets us.
Although a son may forget his father, a father never forgets his son.
Similarly, God, the original father of everything, everybody, all living entities, will never forsake us.
We may have different bodies, but they are our shirt-coats.
That has nothing to do with our real identity.
Our real identity is pure soul, and that pure soul is part and parcel of the Supreme Lord.
There are 8,400,000 species of life.
Even the biologist and the anthropologist cannot calculate this accurately, but from authoritative, revealed scripture we get this information.
Human beings represent 400,000 species, and there are 8,000,000 other species.
But Krsna, the Supreme Lord, claims that all of them, whether beast, man, snake, god, semi-god, demigod—anything whatever—all of them are, in reality, His sons.
The father gives the seed, and the mother receives the seed.
The body is then formed, according to the mother’s body.
And when the body is completely formed, it comes out—either from cats, from dogs, or from man.
That is the process of generation.
The father gives the seed, and it is emulsified with two kinds of secretion in the womb of the mother, and on the first night the body is formed just like a pea.
Then, gradually, it develops.
There are nine holes that develop: two ears, two eyes, nostrils, a mouth, a navel, a penis, and an anus.
According to his last karma, or action, one gets this body to enjoy, or to suffer.
That is the process of birth and death.
And after finishing this life, again one dies, and again one enters into the womb of some mother.
Another type of body then comes out.
This is the process of reincarnation.
We should be very diligent as to how we can discontinue this process of repeated birth and death and change of body.
That is the prerogative of the human form of life.
We can stop this process of repeated change through birth and death.
We can get our actual spiritual form again and be blissful, full of knowledge and eternal life.
That is the purpose of evolution.
We should not miss this.
The entire process of liberation begins just as we have now begun this chanting and hearing.
I wish to point out that this chanting of the holy name of God (HARE KRSNA, HARE KRSNA, KRSNA KRSNA, HARE HARE/ HARE RAMA, HARE RAMA, RAMA RAMA, HARE HARE) and hearing the truths of the Gita is as good as bodily association with Krsna.
That is stated in the Gita.
This process is called kirtan.
Even if one does not understand the language, still, just by hearing, he acquires some piety.
His assets lead him to a pious life, even if he does not understand—it has such power.
There are two topics concerning Krsna.
Two kinds of topics, actually.
One topic is this Bhagavad-gita.
It is spoken by Krsna.
And the other topic concerning Krsna is Srimad-Bhagavatam.
That is spoken about Krsna.
So there are two types of Krsna katha (topics), and both of them are equally potent because they are connected with Krsna.
Because the Bhagavad-gita is spoken on the Battlefield of Kuruksetra some people have asked what we have to do with the battlefield.
We have nothing to do with any battlefield.
We are after knowledge of the spiritual sphere.
Then, why should we bother about this battlefield? Because Krsna is on the battlefield, and therefore the whole battlefield has become Krsna-ized.
Just as when an electric current is passed into some metal, the whole metal becomes surcharged with electricity; so too, when Krsna is interested in some matter, that matter becomes Krsna-ized.
Otherwise, there would be no need of discussing the Battlefield of Kuruksetra.
That is His omnipotence.
This omnipotence is also described in Srimad-Bhagavatam.
There are many Krsna kathas.
The Vedic literature is full of them.
Vedas mean that they are Krsna kathas.
Scripture, including the Vedas, may appear to be different, but they are all meant for Krsna katha.
If we simply hear these topics on Krsna, then what will be the result? It is pure transcendental vibration, and the result will be spiritual consciousness.
We have accumulated many inauspicious things within our hearts due to our material contamination during the course of many, many births.
Many, many births —not only this birth, but past births as well.
So, when we search into our hearts with the Krsna katha, then the contamination we have accumulated will be washed off.
Our hearts will be cleansed of all rubbish.
And, as soon as all the rubbish is cleared off, then we are situated in pure consciousness.
It is very difficult to eradicate all the false designations from oneself.
For example, I am Indian.
It is not very easy to immediately think that I am not Indian, but pure soul.
Similarly, it is not a very easy task for anyone to end his identification with these bodily designations.
But still, if we continue hearing the Krsna katha, it will be very easy.
Make an experiment.
Make an experiment to see how easily you’ll be able to free yourself from all these designations.
Of course, it is not possible to clear out the rubbish from the mind all of a sudden, but we are immediately aware that the influence of the material nature has become slackened.
The material nature is working in three modes—goodness, passion, and ignorance.
Ignorance is hopeless life.
Passion is materialistic.
One who is influenced by the modes of passion wants this false enjoyment of material existence.
Because he does not know the truth, he wants to squeeze out the energy of the body just to enjoy this matter.
That is called the mode of passion.
As for those in the mode of ignorance, they have neither passion nor goodness.
They are in the deepest darkness of life.
Situated in the mode of goodness, we can understand, at least theoretically, what I am, what this world is, what God is, and what our interrelationship is.
This is the mode of goodness.
By hearing Krsna katha, we will be freed from the stages of ignorance and passion.
We will be situated in the mode of goodness.
At least we’ll have the real knowledge —knowledge of what we are.
Ignorance is like the animal existence.
The animal’s life is full of suffering, but the animal does not know that he is suffering.
Take the case of a hog.
Of course, here in New York City no hog is seen.
But in villages in India one sees the hog.
Oh, how miserable his life is, living in a filthy place, eating stools and always unclean.
Yet the hog is very happy by eating stools, and having constant sexual intercourse with the she-hog and just getting fat.
The hog gets very fat, because of the spirit of enjoyment which is there—although, for him, it is sensual enjoyment.
We should not be like the hog, falsely thinking that we are very happy.
Working hard all day and night, then having some sex life—we think that in this way we are very happy.
But this is not happiness.
This has been described in the Bhagavatam as a hog’s happiness.
Man's happiness is when he is situated in the mode of goodness.
Then he can understand what true happiness is.
In our daily routine, if we hear this Krsna katha, the result will be that all the dirty things in the heart, accumulated life after life, will be cleared out.
As a matter of fact, we will see that we are no longer in ignorance or in passion, but are situated in the mode of goodness.
What is that position? We will find ourselves joyful in every circumstance of life.
We will never feel morose.
In the Bhagavad-gita we find that this is our brahma-bhuta (highest stage of goodness) situation.
The Vedas teach us that we are not this matter.
We are Brahman.
Aham brahmasmi.
Lord Sankaracarya preached this gospel to the world.
We are not this matter; we are Brahman, spirit.
When spiritual realization is actually accomplished, then our symptoms will change.
What are those symptoms? When one is situated in his own spiritual consciousness, then he will have no hankering and no lamentation.
Lamentation is for loss, and hankering is for gain.
Two diseases characterize this material world: What we do not possess, we hanker after.
“If I get these things I’ll be happy.
I have no money, but if I get a million dollars, then I’ll be happy.” And when we have a million dollars, somehow it will be lost.
So we’ll cry, “Oh, I have lost it!” When we hanker for earning, that is a kind of distress.
And when we suffer loss, that is also distress.
But if we are situated in brahma-bhuta, we will neither be distressed nor will we hanker.
We will view equally everyone and everything.
Even if we are situated in the midst of fiery turbulence, we will not be disturbed.
That is the mode of goodness.
Bhagavatam means the science of God.
If the science of God is perservered in, we will be situated in the brahma-bhuta status.
From that brahma-bhuta status, we have to work, for work is recommended here.
So long as we have this material body, we have to work.
We cannot stop working; it is not possible.
But we have to adopt the tactics of yoga, and in this way, even by doing some ordinary work, which, by destiny or circumstances we are put into, there is no harm.
Suppose that, in one’s own occupation, one must speak a lie or his business can’t go on.
Lying is not a very good thing, so one concludes that the business is not based on very moral principles and one should therefore give it up.
In the Bhagavad-gita, however, we find instruction not to give it up.
Even if we are put in such circumstances that our livelihood cannot go on without some unfair practice, we should not give it up.
But we should try to make it purified.
How is it purified? We should not take the fruitive result of our work.
That is meant for God.
Sukrta means pious activities.
And duskrta means impious activities.
On the material level we can be pious or impious.
Either we are performing some pious activities, or we are performing some impious activities—or we have a mixture, pious and impious.
Lord Krsna advises that we should act with knowledge of, or devotion to the Supreme.
What does that knowledge mean? It means that I am the part and parcel of the supreme consciousness, or that I am not this body.
If I identify myself as an American, as an Indian, or this or that, then I am on the material plane.
We should identify ourselves as neither Americans nor Indians, but as pure consciousness.
I am a subordinate consciousness of the supreme consciousness; in other words, I am the servant of God.
God is the supreme consciousness, and I am His servant.
So, for our present understanding, subordinate means servant.
We don’t ordinarily carry out the work of a servant in relationship to God.
Nobody wants to be a servant, but everyone wants to be the master, because to become a servant is not a very palatable thing.
But to become the servant of God is not exactly like this.
Sometimes the servant of God becomes the master of God.
The real position of the living entity is to be the servant of God, but in the Bhagavad-gita we can see that the master, Krsna, became the servant of Arjuna.
Arjuna is sitting in the chariot, and Krsna is his driver.
Arjuna is not the owner of the chariot, but in the spiritual relationship we should not cling to the concept of the material relationship.
Although the whole relationship, just as we have experience of it in this world, is there in the spiritual world, that relationship is not contaminated by matter.
Therefore it is pure and transcendental.
It is of a different nature.
As we become advanced in the spiritual conception of life, we can understand what the actual position in the spiritual, transcendental world is.
Here the Lord instructs us in buddhi-yoga.
Buddhi-yoga means that we have full consciousness that we are not this body; and if I act with this understanding, then I am not body—I am consciousness.
That is a fact.
Now, if we act on the level of consciousness, then we can overcome the fruitive result of good work or bad work.
It is a transcendental stage.
It means that we are acting on another’s account—on the Supreme’s account.
We are not liable to loss or gain.
When there is gain, we should not be puffed up.
We should think, “This gain is for the Lord.” And when there is loss, we should know that this is not our responsibility.
It is God’s work—His.
Then we will be happy.
This we have to practice: everything on account of the Supreme.
This transcendental nature we have to develop.
This is the trick of doing work under these present circumstances.
As soon as we work on the level of bodily consciousness, we become bound by the reaction of our work.
But when we work through spiritual consciousness, we are not bound either by pious activities or by vicious activities.
That is the technique.
Manisinah—this word is very significant.
Manisin means thoughtful.
Unless one is thoughtful, he cannot understand that he is not this body.
But if one is a little thoughtful he can understand, “Oh, I am not this body.
I am consciousness.” Sometimes, in our leisure time, we can see, “Oh, this is my finger, and this is my hand.
This is my ear, and this is my nose.
Everything is mine, but what I, what I?” I am feeling this is mine, and that I am.
Simply a little thought is required.
Everything is mine—my eyes, my finger, my hand.
My, my, my, and what is the I? The I is that consciousness, in which I am thinking, “This is mine.” Now, if I am not this body, then why should I act for this body? I should act for myself.
Then, how can I work for myself? What is my position? I am consciousness.
But what kind of consciousness? Subordinate consciousness—I am part of the supreme consciousness.
Then, what will my activities be? My activities will be under the guidance of the supreme consciousness, just as in the office, the managing director is the supreme consciousness.
For example, in the office everyone is working under the direction of the manager; therefore they have no responsibility.
They have only to discharge their duties.
Either pious or impious duties—never mind.
In the military line, too, the order of the captain or the commander is there.
The soldier has to execute it.
He does not consider whether it is pious or impious.
That does not matter.
He simply has to act, then he is a real soldier.
He acts in that way and he gets his reward.
He gets title and honor.
He doesn’t care.
The commander says, Just go and kill the enemy, and he is rewarded.
Do you think that by killing one gets reward? No—it is for the duty discharged.
Similarly, here the situation is that Krsna is instructing Arjuna.
Krsna is the supreme consciousness.
I am consciousness, the part and parcel of the supreme consciousness.
So my duty is to act according to that supreme consciousness.
For example, I consider my hand as a part of my body.
Now, it is moving in its own way.
“As I want, let my hand be moved.
Let my legs be moved.
Let my eyes be opened and see.” So, I am dictating, and these parts are working.
Similarly, we are all parts and parcels of the Supreme.
When we train ourselves to move and act in accordance with supreme consciousness, then we become transcendental to all these pious or impious activities.
That is the technique.
What will the result of this technique be? We become free from the bondage of birth and death.
No more birth and death.
Modern scientists and philosophers do not think about these four things: birth, death, disease, and old age.
They set them aside.
“Oh, let us be happy.
Let us enjoy this life.” But human life is meant for finding a solution to this bondage of birth, death, disease and old age.
If any civilization has not found a solution to these four problems, then that is not a human civilization.
Human civilization is meant for finding a complete solution to these things.
So herein the Bhagavad-gita, the Lord says, Karmajam buddhi-yuktah.
Karmajam means whenever there is action there will be some reaction.
If one acts in badness, there will be a bad reaction.
But reaction, either good or bad, is, in the higher sense, all suffering.
Suppose that by good action I get a good birth, fine bodily features, and a good education.
All these good things I may have, but that does not mean that I am free from material pains.
The material pains are birth, death, old age and disease.
Even if I am a rich man, a beautiful man, an educated man, born in an aristocratic family, etc., I still cannot avoid death, old age, and disease.
So, we must not be concerned with pious activities or impious activities.
We must be concerned with transcendental activities only.
That will save us from this bondage of birth, death, old age and disease.
That should be our aim in life.
We should not be hankering after good or bad things.
For example, suppose one is suffering from some disease.
He is lying in bed, eating, passing nature’s call uncomfortably, and taking bitter medicines.
He always has to be kept clean by the nurses; otherwise there is an obnoxious smell.
While he is lying in this condition some friends come to him and ask how he is feeling.
“Yes, I am feeling well.” What is this well? Lying in bed uncomfortably taking bitter medicine, and unable to move! Yet despite all these inconveniences he says, “I am well.” Similarly, in our material conception of life, if we think,”! am happy,” that is foolishness.
There is no happiness in material life.
It is impossible to have happiness here.
In this condition, we do not know the meaning of happiness.
That's why this very word is used, manisinah—thoughtful.
We seek happiness by some extraneous, artificial means, but how long does it last? It will not endure.
We again come back to sorrow.
Suppose, by intoxication, we feel happy.
That is not our actual happiness.
Suppose I am made unconscious by chloroform, and I don't feel the pain of an operation.
That does not mean that I am not having an operation.
This is artificial.
Real pleasure, real life exists.
As is commanded in the Bhagavad-gita by Sri Krsna, the thoughtful give up the reaction of work, being situated on the level of pure consciousness.
The result is that this bondage of birth and death, disease and old age comes to an end.
This end is in union with the true identity, Krsna, the reservoir of pleasure and eternal bliss.
There, indeed, is the true happiness for which we are intended.
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<h1 class="menu-title">Perfection of Yoga</h1>
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<h1><a class="header" href="#yoga-as-reestablishing-relations-with-kṛṣṇa" id="yoga-as-reestablishing-relations-with-kṛṣṇa">Yoga As Reestablishing Relations With Kṛṣṇa</a></h1>
We have heard many times of the yoga system.
The yoga system is approved by Bhagavad-gītā, but the yoga system in Bhagavad-gītā is especially meant for purification.
The aim is threefold: to control the senses, to purify activities and to link oneself to Kṛṣṇa in a reciprocal relationship.
The Absolute Truth is realized in three stages: impersonal Brahman, localized Paramātmā (Supersoul) and ultimately Bhagavān, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
In the final analysis, the Supreme Absolute Truth is a person, and simultaneously He is the all-pervading Supersoul within the hearts of all living entities and within the core of all atoms, and He is the brahmajyoti or the effulgence of spiritual light as well.
Bhagavān Śrī Kṛṣṇa is full of all opulence as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but at the same time He is full of all renunciation.
In the material world we find that one who has much opulence is not very much inclined to give it up, but Kṛṣṇa is not like this.
He can renounce everything and remain complete in Himself.
When we read or study Bhagavad-gītā under a bona fide spiritual master we should not think that the spiritual master is presenting his own opinions.
It is not he who is speaking.
He is just an instrument.
The real speaker is the Supreme Personality of Godhead who is both within and without.
At the beginning of His discourse on the yoga system in the Sixth Chapter of Bhagavad-gītā, Śrī Kṛṣṇa says, anāśritaḥ karma-phalaṁ karyaṁ karma karoti yaḥ sa sannyāsī ca yogī ca na niragnir na cākriyaḥ “One who is unattached to the fruits of his work and who works as he is obligated is in the renounced order of life, and he is the true mystic; not he who lights no fire and performs no work.” (Bg.6.1) Everyone is working and expecting some result.
One may ask What is the purpose of working if no result is expected? A remuneration or salary is always demanded by the worker.
But here Kṛṣṇa indicates that one can work out of a sense of duty alone, not expecting the results of his activities.
If one works in this way, then he is actually a sannyāsī; he is in the renounced order of life.
According to Vedic culture, there are four stages of life: brahmacārī, gṛhastha, vānaprastha and sannyāsa.
Brahmacārī is student life devoted to training in spiritual understanding.
Gṛhastha life is married householder life.
Then upon reaching the approximate age of fifty, one may take the vānaprastha order-that is, he leaves his home and children and travels with his wife to holy places of pilgrimage.
Finally he gives up both wife and children and remains alone to cultivate Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and that stage is called sannyāsa, or the renounced order of life.
Yet Kṛṣṇa indicates that for a sannyāsī, renunciation is not all.
In addition, there must be some duty.
What then is the duty for a sannyāsī, for one who has renounced family life and no longer has material obligations? His duty is a most responsible one; it is to work for Kṛṣṇa.
Moreover, this is the real duty for everyone in all stages of life.
In everyone's life there are two duties: one is to serve the illusion, and the other is to serve the reality.
When one serves the reality, he is a real sannyāsī.
And when one serves the illusion, he is deluded by māyā.
One has to understand, however, that he is in all circumstances forced to serve.
Either he serves the illusion or the reality.
The constitutional position of the living entity is to be a servant, not a master.
Everyone in the material world is a servant; no one is master.
One may think that he is the master, but he is actually a servant.
When one has a family he may think that he is the master of his wife, or his children, or his home, business and so on, but that is all false.
One is actually the servant of his wife, of his children and of his business.
The president may be considered to be the master of the country, but actually he is the servant of the country.
Our position is always as servant—either as servant of the illusion or as servant of God.
If, however, we remain the servant of the illusion, then our life is wasted.
Of course everyone is thinking that he is not a servant, that he is working only for himself.
Although the fruits of his labor are transient and illusory, they force him to become a servant of illusion or a servant of his own senses.
But when one awakens to his transcendental senses and actually becomes situated in knowledge, he then becomes a servant of the reality.
When one comes to the platform of knowledge, he understands that in all circumstances he is a servant.
Since it is not possible for him to be master, he is much better situated serving the reality instead of the illusion.
When one becomes aware of this, he attains the platform of real knowledge.
By sannyāsa, the renounced order of life, we refer to one who has come to this platform.
Sannyāsa is a question of realization, not social status.
It is the duty of everyone to become Kṛṣṇa conscious and to serve the cause of Kṛṣṇa.
When one actually realizes this he becomes a mahātmā, or a great soul.
In Bhagavad-gītā Kṛṣṇa says that after many births, when one comes to the platform of real knowledge, he “surrenders unto Me.” Why is this? Vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti.
The wise man realizes that “Vāsudeva [Kṛṣṇa] is everything.” However, Kṛṣṇa says that such a great soul is rarely found.
Why is this? If an intelligent person comes to understand that the ultimate goal of life is to surrender unto Kṛṣṇa, why should he hesitate? Why not surrender immediately? What is the point in waiting for so many births? When one comes to that point of surrender, he becomes a real sannyāsī.
Kṛṣṇa never forces anyone to surrender unto Him.
Surrender is a result of love, transcendental love.
Where there is force and where there is no freedom, there can be no love.
When a mother loves a child, she is not forced to do so, nor does she do so out of expectation of some salary or remuneration.
Similarly, we can love the Supreme Lord in so many ways—we can love Him as master, as friend, as child or as husband.
There are five basic rasas or relationships in which we are eternally related to God.
When we are actually in the liberated stage of knowledge, we can understand that our relationship with the Lord is in a particular rasa.
That platform is called svarūpa-siddhi, or real self-realization.
Everyone has an eternal relationship with the Lord, either as master and servant, friend and friend, parent and child, husband and wife, or lover and beloved.
These relationships are eternally present.
The whole process of spiritual realization and the actual perfection of yoga is to revive our consciousness of this relationship.
At present our relationship with the Supreme Lord is pervertedly reflected in this material world.
In the material world, the relationship between master and servant is based on money or force or exploitation.
There is no question of service out of love.
The relationship between master and servant, pervertedly reflected, continues only for so long as the master can pay the servant.
As soon as the payment stops, the relationship also stops.
Similarly, in the material world there may be a relationship between friends, but as soon as there is a slight disagreement, the friendship breaks, and the friend becomes an enemy.
When there is a difference of opinion between son and parents, the son leaves home and the relationship is severed.
The same with husband and wife; a slight difference of opinion, and there is divorce.
No relationship in this material world is actual or eternal.
We must always remember that these ephemeral relationships are simply perverted reflections of that eternal relationship that we have with the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
We have experience that the reflection of an object in a glass is not real.
It may appear real, but when we go to touch it we find that there is only glass.
We must come to understand that these relationships as friend, parent, child, master, servant, husband, wife or lover are simply reflections of that relationship that we have with God.
When we come to this platform of understanding, then we are perfect in knowledge.
When that knowledge comes, we begin to understand that we are servants of Kṛṣṇa and that we have an eternal love relationship with Him.
In this love relationship there is no question of remuneration, but of course remuneration is there, and it is much greater than whatever we earn here through the rendering of service.
There is no limit to Śrī Kṛṣṇa's remuneration.
In this connection there is the story of Bali Mahārāja, a very powerful king who conquered a number of planets.
The denizens of the heavenly planets appealed to the Supreme Lord to save them, for they had been conquered by the demoniac king, Bali Mahārāja.
Upon hearing their pleas, Śrī Kṛṣṇa took the shape of a dwarf brāhmaṇa boy and approached Bali Mahārāja, saying, “My dear king, I would like something from you.
You are a great monarch and are renowned for giving in charity to the brāhmaṇas, so would you give Me something?” Bali Mahārāja said, “I will give You what You want.” “I simply want whatever land I can cover in three steps,” the boy said.
“Oh, is that all?” the king replied.
“And what will You do with such a small piece of land?” “Though it may be small, it will suffice Me,” the boy smiled.
Bali Mahārāja agreed, and the boy dwarf took two steps and covered the entire universe.
He then asked Bali Mahārāja where He was going to take his third step, and Bali Mahārāja, understanding that the Supreme Lord was showing him His favor, replied: "My dear Lord, I have now lost everything.
I have no other property, but I do have my head.
Would You so kindly step there?“ Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa was then very much pleased with Bali Mahārāja, and He asked, “What would you like from Me?” “I never expected anything from You,” Bali Mahārāja said.
“But I understand that You wanted something from me, and now I have offered You everything.” “Yes,” the Lord said, “but from My side I have something for you.
I shall remain always as an order-carrier servant in your court.” In this way the Lord became Bali Mahārāja's doorman, and that was his return.
If we offer something to the Lord, it is returned millions of times.
But we should not expect this.
The Lord is always eager to return the service of His servant.
Whoever thinks that the service of the Lord is actually his duty is perfect in knowledge and has attained the perfection of yoga.
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<h1 class="menu-title">Topmost Yoga System</h1>
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<h1><a class="header" href="#the-perfection-of-yoga" id="the-perfection-of-yoga">The Perfection of Yoga</a></h1>
Lord Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, speaks about the topmost system of yoga in the Sixth Chapter of Bhagavad-gītā.
There He has explained the haṭha-yoga system.
Please remember that we are preaching this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement on the authority of Bhagavad-gītā.
It is nothing manufactured.
The bhakti-yoga system is authorized, and if you want to know about God, then you have to adopt this bhakti-yoga system because in the Sixth Chapter of Bhagavad-gītā it is concluded that the topmost yogī is he who is always thinking of Kṛṣṇa within himself.
Kṛṣṇa, the supreme authority, recommended the eightfold yoga system.
The first step of this yoga system is to select a very secluded and sacred place.
Eightfold meditation cannot be performed in a fashionable city.
It is not possible.
In India, therefore, those who are very serious about practicing yoga go to Hardwar, a very secluded place in the Himalayas, where they remain alone and follow a very restrictive process for eating and sleeping.
There is no question of mating.
Those rules and regulations must be followed very strictly.
Simply to make a show of gymnastics is not perfection of yoga.
Yoga means control of the senses.
If you indulge your senses unrestrictedly but make a show of yoga practice, you will never be successful.
You have to select a sacred place; then you have to sit with half-closed eyes and concentrate on the tip of your nose.
You cannot change your posture.
There are many rules and regulations which cannot possibly be followed at the present.
Even 5,000 years ago, when circumstances in the world were different, this yoga system was not practicable.
Even such a great personality as Arjuna, who belonged to the royal family and was a great warrior and an intimate friend of Kṛṣṇa's, constantly living with Him, after hearing this process of yoga from Kṛṣṇa in a face-to-face discussion, said, "My dear Kṛṣṇa, it is not possible to follow." He flatly admitted, "For me these rules and regulations and practice for controlling the mind are not possible." We have to think, then: 5,000 years ago a personality like Arjuna expressed his inability to practice this eightfold yoga system, so how can we follow it now? In this age people are very short-lived.
In India the average duration of life is thirty-five years.
In your country it may be more than that.
But actually, whereas your grandfather lived for 100 years, you cannot.
These things are changing.
The duration of life will be reduced.
There are predictions in the scriptures that in this age, man's duration of life, his mercy and his intelligence are being reduced.
Men are not very powerful; their duration of life is very short.
We are always disturbed, and we have practically no knowledge about spiritual science.
For example, in the hundreds and thousands of universities all over the world there is no department of knowledge where the science of the soul is taught.
Actually, we are all spirit soul.
From Bhagavad-gītā we understand that we are transmigrating from one body to another, even in our present lives.
All of us had at one time the body of a small baby.
Where is that body? That body is gone.
Presently I am an old man, but I remember that I was once a small baby.
I still remember when I was about six months old; I was lying down on the lap of my elder sister, who was knitting, and I was playing.
I can remember that, so it is possible for everyone to remember that he had a small body.
After the baby's body I had a boy's body; then I had a youthful body, and now I am in this body.
Where are those bodies? They are gone now.
This is a different body.
It is explained in Bhagavad-gītā that when I give up this body, I will have to accept another body.
It is very simple to understand.
I have changed so many bodies, not only from childhood to boyhood to youth, but according to medical science we are changing bodies every second, imperceptibly.
This Process indicates that the soul is permanent.
Although I have changed many bodies, I remember my baby body and my childhood body—I am the same person, soul.
Similarly, when ultimately I change this body, I shall have to accept another.
This simple formula is stated in Bhagavad-gītā.
Everyone can reflect on it, and there must be scientific research done in this area.
Recently I received a letter from a doctor in Toronto.
He suggested that there is body and there is soul.
I corresponded with him.
Actually, it is a fact.
The soul is there.
There is so much evidence, not only in the Vedic literature but even by ordinary experience.
The soul is there, and it is transmigrating from one body to another, but unfortunately there is no serious study on this subject in the universities.
This is not very good.
The Vedānta-sūtra says, "This human form of life is meant for searching out the spirit, the Absolute Truth." The yoga system is used to search out the spiritual principles within this material world.
That process for searching is recommended in Bhagavad-gītā by Kṛṣṇa Himself.
When Arjuna said, "The system You are recommending, the haṭha-yoga system, is not possible for me," Kṛṣṇa assured him that he was the greatest of all yogīs.
He pacified him by saying not to bother about being unable to practice haṭha-yoga.
He told him, "Of all different types of yogīs-haṭha-yogīs, jñāna-yogīs, dhyānayogīs, bhakta-yogīs, karma-yogīs—you are the best yogī." Kṛṣṇa says, "Of all yogīs, the one who is constantly thinking of Me within himself, meditating upon Me within the heart, is the first-class yogī." Who can think of Kṛṣṇa always within himself? This is very easy to understand.
If you love someone, you can think of him always within you; otherwise it is not possible.
If you love someone, then naturally you think of him always.
That is described in the Brahma-saṁhitā.
One who has developed love of God, Kṛṣṇa, can think of Him constantly.
When I speak of Kṛṣṇa you should understand that He is God.
Another name for Kṛṣṇa is Śyāmasundara, which means that He is blackish like a cloud but very beautiful.
In one verse of Brahma-saṁhitā it is said that a santa, a saintly person, who has developed love for Śyāmasundara, Kṛṣṇa, thinks of the Lord constantly within his heart.
Actually, when one comes to the point of samādhi in the yoga system, he thinks, without cessation, of the Viṣṇu form of the Lord within the heart.
He is absorbed in that thought.
Kṛṣṇa, Śyāmasundara, is the original Viṣṇu.
That is stated in Bhagavad-gītā.
Kṛṣṇa includes Brahmā, Viṣṇu, Śiva and everyone else.
According to Vedic scripture, He expands first as Baladeva, Baladeva expands as Saṅkarṣaṇa, Saṅkarṣaṇa expands as Nārāyaṇa, and Nārāyaṇa expands as Viṣṇu (Mahā-Viṣṇu, Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu and Kṣīrodakaśāyī Viṣṇu).
These are Vedic statements.
We can understand that Kṛṣṇa is the original Viṣṇu, Śyāmasundara.
This is the perfect system.
Anyone who is thinking of Kṛṣṇa always within himself is a first-class yogī.
If you want perfection in yoga, don't be satisfied only by practicing codes.
You have to go further.
Actually, the perfection of yoga is reached when you are in samādhi, always thinking of the Viṣṇu form of the Lord within your heart, without being disturbed.
Therefore yogīs go to a secluded place, and by controlling all the senses and the mind and concentrating everything on the form of Viṣṇu, they reach samādhi.
That is called perfection of yoga.
Actually this yoga system is very, very difficult.
It may be possible for some solitary man, but for the general mass of people it is not recommended in the scriptures: harer nāma harer nāma harer nāmaiva kevalam/ kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva nāsty eva gatir anyathā [Cc.
Ādi 17.21].
"In this age of Kali one must chant the holy names of the Lord for deliverance.
There is no other alternative.
There is no other alternative.
There is no other alternative." (Bṛhan-Nāradīya Purāṇa) The yoga system, as it was recommended in the Satya-yuga, the Golden Age, was to always meditate on Viṣṇu.
In the Tretā-yuga one could practice yoga by performing great sacrifices, and in the next age, Dvāpara-yuga, one could achieve perfection by temple worship.
The present age is called Kali-yuga.
Kaliyuga means the age of quarrel and disagreement.
No one agrees with anyone else.
Everyone has his own theory; everyone has his own philosophy.
If I don't agree with you, you fight me.
This is the symptom of Kali-yuga.
The only method recommended in this age is chanting the holy name.
Simply by chanting the holy name of God, one can attain that perfect self-realization which was attained by the yoga system in the Satya-yuga, by performance of great sacrifices in the Tretā-yuga, and by large-scale temple worship in the Dvāpara-yuga.
That perfection can be attained by the simple method of Hari kīrtana.
Hari means the Supreme Personality of Godhead; kīrtana means to glorify.
This method is recommended in the scriptures, and it was given to us by Caitanya Mahāprabhu 500 years ago.
He appeared in a town which is known as Navadvīpa.
It is about sixty miles north of Calcutta.
People still go there.
We have a temple center there.
It is also a sacred place of pilgrimage.
Caitanya Mahāprabhu appeared there, and He started this mass saṅkīrtana movement, which is conducted without discrimination.
He predicted that this saṅkīrtana movement would be spread all over the world and that the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra would be chanted in every village and town on the surface of the globe.
In pursuance of the order of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, following in His footsteps, we are trying to introduce this saṅkīrtana movement, chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, and it is proving very successful everywhere.
I am preaching especially in foreign countries, all over Europe, America, Japan, Canada, Australia, Malaysia, etc.
I have introduced this saṅkīrtana movement, and now we have centers around the world.
All eighty centers are being received with great enthusiasm.
I have not imported these boys and girls from India, but they are taking this movement very seriously because it appeals to the soul directly.
We have different stages of our life—the bodily concept of life, the mental concept of life, the intellectual concept of life, and the spiritual concept of life.
Actually we are concerned with the spiritual concept.
Those who are allured by the bodily concept are no better than cats and dogs.
If we accept that "I am this body," then we are not better than the cats and dogs because their concept of life is like that.
We must understand that "I am not this body," as Kṛṣṇa wanted to impress upon Arjuna in the beginning of His teaching of Bhagavad-gītā: "First of all, try to understand what you are.
Why are you lamenting in the bodily concept of life? You have to fight.
Certainly you have to fight with your brothers, brothers-in-law and nephews, and you are lamenting.
But first of all understand whether you are body or not." That is the beginning of Bhagavad-gītā.
Kṛṣṇa tried to make Arjuna understand that he was not his body.
This instruction was not for Arjuna exclusively, but for everyone.
First of all we have to learn that "I am not this body," that "I am spirit soul." That is Vedic instruction.
As soon as you come to this point of being firmly convinced that you are not this body, that is called the brahma-bhūta [SB 4.30.20] stage of Brahman realization.
That is knowledge, real knowledge.
Advancement of knowledge for eating, sleeping and mating is animal knowledge.
A dog also knows how to eat, how to sleep, how to mate and how to defend.
If our education extends only to these points (the dog is eating according to his nature, and we are also eating, but in a nice place, with nicely cooked food on a nice table), that is not advancement.
The principle is still eating.
Similarly, you may sleep in a very nice apartment in a sixstory building or in a 122-story building, and the dog may lie in a street, but when he sleeps and when you sleep, there is no difference.
You cannot know whether you are sleeping in a skyscraper or on the ground because you are dreaming something which has taken you from your bed.
You have forgotten that your body is lying there on the bed, and you are flying in the air, dreaming.
Therefore, to improve the sleeping method is not advancement of civilization.
Similarly, the dog has no social custom for mating.
Whenever there is a she-dog, he mates on the street.
You may mate very silently, in a secret place (although now people are learning how to mate like dogs), but the mating is there.
The same principle applies to defending.
A dog has teeth and nails with which he can defend himself, and you have atom bombs.
But the purpose is defending, that's all.
Therefore, scripture says that human life is not meant only for these four principles of life, bodily demands.
There is another thing—a human being should be inquisitive to learn what is Absolute Truth.
That education is lacking.
According to Vedic civilization a brāhmaṇa is a learned man, or one who knows the spirit.
In India, brāhmaṇas are addressed as learned men, but in fact they cannot be brāhmaṇas by birth.
They are expected to know what is spirit.
By birth everyone is a śūdra, a fourth-class man, but he may be reformed by the purificatory process.
There are ten kinds of purificatory processes.
One undergoes all these processes and at last comes to the spiritual master who gives him the sacred thread as recognition of his second birth.
One birth is by your father and mother, and the other birth is by the spiritual master and Vedic knowledge.
That is called second birth.
At that time the candidate is given a chance to study and understand what is Veda.
By studying all the Vedas very nicely, he actually realizes what is spirit and what is his relationship with God, and then he becomes a brāhmaṇa.
Above that situation of impersonal Brahman understanding, he comes to the platform of understanding Lord Viṣṇu, the Supreme Personality of Godhead; then he becomes a Vaiṣṇava.
This is the perfectional process.
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<h1 class="menu-title">Beyond Birth and Death</h1>
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<h1><a class="header" href="#we-are-not-these-bodies" id="we-are-not-these-bodies">We Are Not These Bodies</a></h1>
dehī nityam avadhyo ’yaṁ dehe sarvasya bhārata tasmāt sarvāṇi bhūtāni na tvaṁ śocitum arhasi “O descendant of Bharata, he who dwells in the body is eternal and can never be slain.
Therefore you need not grieve for any creature.” (Bhagavad-gītā 2.30) The very first step in self-realization is realizing one’s identity as separate from the body.
“I am not this body but am spirit soul” is an essential realization for anyone who wants to transcend death and enter into the spiritual world beyond.
It is not simply a matter of saying “I am not this body,” but of actually realizing it.
This is not as simple as it may seem at first.
Although we are not these bodies but are pure consciousness, somehow or other we have become encased with the bodily dress.
If we actually want the happiness and independence that transcend death we have to establish ourselves and remain in our constitutional position as pure consciousness.
Living in the bodily conception, our idea of happiness is like that of a man in delirium.
Some philosophers claim that this delirious condition of bodily identification should be cured by abstaining from all action.
Because these material activities have been a source of distress for us, they claim that we should actually stop these activities.
Their culmination of perfection is in a kind of Buddhistic nirvāṇa in which no activities are performed.
Buddha maintained that due to a combination of material elements, this body has come into existence, and that somehow or other if these material elements are separated or dismantled, the cause of suffering is removed.
If the tax collectors give us too much difficulty because we happen to possess a large house, one simple solution is to destroy the house.
However, Bhagavad-gītā indicates that this material body is not all in all.
Beyond this combination of material elements, there is spirit, and the symptom of that spirit is consciousness.
Consciousness cannot be denied.
A body without consciousness is a dead body.
As soon as consciousness is removed from the body, the mouth will not speak, the eye will not see, nor the ears hear.
A child can understand that.
It is a fact that consciousness is absolutely necessary for the animation of the body.
What is this consciousness? Just as heat or smoke are symptoms of fire, so consciousness is the symptom of the soul.
The energy of the soul or self is produced in the shape of consciousness.
Indeed, consciousness proves that the soul is present.
This is not only the philosophy of Bhagavad-gītā but the conclusion of all Vedic literature.
The impersonalist school of Śaṅkarācārya, as well as the Vaiṣṇavas following in the disciplic succession from Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, acknowledge the factual existence of the soul, but the Buddhist philosophers do not.
The Buddhists contend that at a certain stage the combination of matter produces consciousness, but this argument is refuted by the fact that although we may have all the constituents of matter at our disposal, we cannot produce consciousness from them.
All the material elements may be present in a dead man, but we cannot revive that man to consciousness.
This body is not like a machine.
When a part of a machine breaks down, it can be replaced, and the machine will work again, but when the body breaks down and consciousness leaves the body, there is no possibility of our replacing the broken part and rejuvenating the consciousness.
The soul is different from the body, and as long as the soul is there, the body is animate.
But there is no possibility of making the body animate in the absence of the soul.
Because we cannot perceive the soul by our gross senses, we deny it.
Actually there are so many things that are there which we cannot see.
We cannot see air, radio waves or sound, nor can we perceive minute bacteria with our blunt senses, but this does not mean they are not there.
By the aid of the microscope and other instruments, many things can be perceived which had previously been denied by the imperfect senses.
Just because the soul, which is atomic in size, has not been perceived yet by senses or instruments, we should not conclude that it is not there.
It can, however, be perceived by its symptoms and effects.
In Bhagavad-gītā Śrī Kṛṣṇa points out that all of our miseries are due to false identification with the body.
mātrā-sparśās tu kaunteya sītoṣṇa-sukha-duḥkha dāḥ āgamāpāyino ’nityās tāṁs titikṣasva bhārata “O son of Kuntī, the nonpermanent appearance of heat and cold, happiness and distress, and their disappearance in due course, are like the appearance and disappearance of winter and summer seasons.
They arise from sense perception, O scion of Bharata, and one must learn to tolerate them without being disturbed.” (Bg.2.14) In the summertime we may feel pleasure from contact with water, but in the winter we may shun that very water because it is too cold.
In either case, the water is the same, but we perceive it as pleasant or painful due to its contact with the body.
All feelings of distress and happiness are due to the body.
Under certain conditions the body and mind feel happiness and distress.
Factually we are hankering after happiness, for the soul’s constitutional position is that of happiness.
The soul is part and parcel of the Supreme Being, who is sac-cidānanda-vigrahaḥ-the embodiment of knowledge, bliss and eternity.
Indeed, the very name Kṛṣṇa, which is nonsectarian, means “the greatest pleasure.” Kṛṣ means greatest and ṇa means pleasure.
Kṛṣṇa is the epitome of pleasure, and being part and parcel of Him, we hanker for pleasure.
A drop of ocean water has all the properties of the ocean itself, and we, although minute particles of the Supreme Whole, have the same energetic properties of the Supreme.
The atomic soul, although so small, is moving the entire body to act in so many wonderful ways.
In the world we see so many cities, highways, bridges, great buildings, monuments and great civilizations, but who has done all this? It is all done by the minute spirit spark within the body.
If such wonderful things can be performed by the minute spirit spark, we cannot begin to imagine what can be accomplished by the Supreme Spirit Whole.
The natural hankering of the minute spirit spark is for the qualities of the Whole—knowledge, bliss and eternality—but these hankerings are being frustrated due to the material body.
The information on how to attain the soul’s desire is given in Bhagavad-gītā.
At present we are trying to attain eternity, bliss and knowledge by means of an imperfect instrument.
Actually our progress toward these goals is being blocked by the material body; therefore we have to come to the realization of our existence beyond the body.
Theoretical knowledge that we are not these bodies will not do.
We have to keep ourselves always separate as masters of the body, not as servants.
If we know how to drive a car well, it will give us good service; but if we do not know how, we will be in danger.
The body is composed of senses, and the senses are always hungry after their objects.
The eyes see a beautiful person and tell us, “Oh, there is a beautiful girl, a beautiful boy.
Let’s go see.” The ears are telling us, “Oh there is very nice music.
Let us go hear it.” The tongue is saying, “Oh, there is a very nice restaurant with palatable dishes.
Let us go.” In this way the senses are dragging us from one place to another, and because of this we are perplexed.
indriyāṇāṁ hi caratāṁ yan mano ’nuvidhīyate tad asya harati prajñāṁ vāyur nāvam ivāmbhasi “As a boat on the water is swept away by a strong wind, even one of the senses on which the mind focuses can carry away a man’s intelligence.” (Bg.2.67) It is imperative that we learn how to control the senses.
The name gosvāmī is given to someone who has learned how to master the senses.
Go means senses, and svāmī means controller, so one who can control the senses is to be considered a gosvāmī.
Kṛṣṇa indicates that one who identifies with the illusory material body cannot establish himself in his proper identity as spirit soul.
Bodily pleasure is flickering and intoxicating, and we cannot actually enjoy it because of its momentary nature.
Actual pleasure is of the soul, not the body.
We have to mold our lives in such a way that we will not be diverted by bodily pleasure.
If somehow we are diverted, it is not possible for us to establish our consciousness in its true identity beyond the body.
bhogaiśvarya-prasaktānāṁ tayāpahṛta-cetasām vyavasāyātmikā buddhiḥ samādhau na vidhīyate traiguṇya viṣayā vedā nistraiguṇyo bhavārjuna nirdvandvo nitya-sattva-stho niryoga-kṣema ātmavān “In the minds of those who are too attached to sense enjoyment and material opulence, and who are bewildered by such things, the resolute determination for devotional service to the Supreme Lord does not take place.
The Vedas deal with the subject of the three modes of material nature.
Rise above these modes, O Arjuna.
Be transcendental to all of them.
Be free from all dualities and from all anxieties for gain and safety, and be established in the Self.” (Bg.2.44–45) The word veda means book of knowledge.
There are many books of knowledge which vary according to the country, population, environment, etc.
In India, the books of knowledge are referred to as the Vedas.
In the West, they are called the Old Testament and New Testament.
The Muhammadans accept the Koran.
What is the purpose for all these books of knowledge? They are to train us to understand our position as pure soul.
Their purpose is to restrict bodily activities by certain rules and regulations, and these rules and regulations are known as codes of morality.
The Bible, for instance, has ten commandments intended to regulate our lives.
The body must be controlled in order for us to reach the highest perfection, and without regulated principles, it is not possible to perfect our lives.
The regulative principles may differ from country to country or from scripture to scripture, but that doesn’t matter, for they are made according to the time and circumstances and mentality of the people.
But the principle of regulated control is the same.
Similarly, the government sets down certain regulations to be obeyed by its citizens.
There is no possibility of making advancement in government or civilization without some regulations.
In the verse above, Śrī Kṛṣṇa tells Arjuna that the regulative principles of the Vedas are meant to control the three modes of material nature—goodness, passion and ignorance (traiguṇya-viṣayā vedā).
However, Kṛṣṇa is advising Arjuna to establish himself in his pure constitutional position as spirit soul beyond the dualities of material nature.
As we have already pointed out, these dualities—such as heat and cold, pleasure and pain—arise due to the contact of the senses with their objects.
In other words, they are born of identification with the body.
Kṛṣṇa indicates that those who are devoted to enjoyment and power are carried away by the words of the Vedas which promise pain or heavenly enjoyment by sacrifice and regulated activity.
Enjoyment is our birthright, for it is the characteristic of the spirit soul, but the spirit soul tries to enjoy materially, and this is the mistake.
Everyone is turning to material subjects for enjoyment and is compiling as much knowledge as possible.
Someone is becoming a chemist, physicist, politician or artist or whatever.
Everyone knows something of everything and everything of something, and this is generally known as knowledge.
But as soon as we leave the body, all of this knowledge is vanquished.
In a previous life, one may be a great man of knowledge, but in this life he has to start again by going to school and learning how to read and write from the beginning.
Whatever knowledge was acquired in the previous life is forgotten.
The situation is that we are actually seeking eternal knowledge, but this cannot be acquired by this material body.
We are all seeking enjoyment through these bodies, but bodily enjoyment is not our actual enjoyment.
It is artificial.
We have to understand that if we want to continue in this artificial enjoyment, we will not be able to attain our position of eternal enjoyment.
The body must be considered a diseased condition.
A diseased man cannot enjoy himself properly; a man with jaundice, for instance, will taste sugar candy as bitter, but a healthy man can taste its sweetness.
In either case, the sugar candy is the same, but according to our condition it tastes different.
Unless we are cured of this diseased conception of bodily life, we cannot taste the sweetness of spiritual life.
Indeed, it will taste bitter to us.
At the same time, by increasing our enjoyment of material life, we are further complicating our diseased condition.
A typhoid patient cannot eat solid food, and if someone gives it to him to enjoy, and he eats it, he is further complicating his malady and is endangering his life.
If we really want freedom from the miseries of material existence, we must minimize our bodily demands and pleasures.
Actually material enjoyment is not enjoyment at all.
Real enjoyment does not cease.
In the Mahābhārata there is a verse—ramante yogino ’nante—to the effect that the yogīs (yoginaḥ), those who are endeavoring to elevate themselves to the spiritual platform, are actually enjoying (ramante), but their enjoyment is ananteendless.
This is because their enjoyment is in relation to the supreme enjoyer (Rāma), Śrī Kṛṣṇa.
Bhagavān Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the real Enjoyer, and Bhagavad-gītā confirms this.
bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasāṁ sarva-loka-maheśvaram suhṛdaṁ sarva-bhūtānāṁ jñātvā māṁ śāntim ṛcchati “The sages, knowing Me as the ultimate enjoyer of all sacrifices and austerities, the Supreme Lord of all planets and demigods and the benefactor and well-wisher of all living entities, attain peace from the pangs of material miseries.” (Bg.5.
- Bhoga means enjoyment, and our enjoyment comes from understanding our position as the enjoyed.
The real enjoyer is the Supreme Lord, and we are enjoyed by Him.
An example of this relationship can be found in the material world between the husband and the wife; the husband is the enjoyer (puruṣa), and the wife is the enjoyed (prakṛti).
The word pri means woman.
Puruṣa, or spirit, is the subject, and prakṛti, or nature, is the object.
The enjoyment, however, is participated in both by the husband and the wife.
When actual enjoyment is there, there is no distinction that the husband is enjoying more or the wife is enjoying less.
Although the male is the predominator, and the female is the predominated, there is no division when it comes to enjoyment.
On a larger scale, no living entity is the enjoyer.
God expanded into many, and we constitute those expansions.
God is one without a second, but He willed to become many in order to enjoy.
We have experience that there is little or no enjoyment in sitting alone in a room talking to oneself.
However, if there are five people present, our enjoyment is enhanced, and if we can discuss Kṛṣṇa before many, many people, the enjoyment is all the greater.
Enjoyment means variety.
God became many for His enjoyment, and thus our position is that of enjoyed.
That is our constitutional position and the purpose for our creation.
Both enjoyer and enjoyed have consciousness, but the consciousness of the enjoyed is subordinate to the consciousness of the enjoyer.
Although Kṛṣṇa is the enjoyer and we the enjoyed, the enjoyment can be participated in equally by everyone.
Our enjoyment can be perfected when we participate in the enjoyment of God.
There is no possibility in our enjoying separately on the bodily platform.
Material enjoyment on the gross bodily platform is discouraged throughout Bhagavad-gītā: mātrā-sparśās tu kaunteya śītoṣṇa-sukha-duḥkha-dāḥ āgamāpāyino ’nityās tāṁs titikṣasva bhārata “O son of Kuntī, the nonpermanent appearance of heat and cold, happiness and distress, and their disappearance in due course, are like the appearance and disappearance of winter and summer seasons.
They arise from sense perception, O scion of Bharata, and one must learn to tolerate them without being disturbed.” (Bg.2.14) The gross material body is a result of the interaction of the modes of material nature, and it is doomed to destruction.
antavanta ime dehā nityasyoktāḥ śarīriṇaḥ anāśino ’prameyasya tasmād yudhyasva bhārata “Only the material body of the indestructible, immeasurable and eternal living entity is subject to destruction; therefore, fight, O descendant of Bharata.” (Bg.2.18) Śrī Kṛṣṇa therefore encourages us to transcend the bodily conception of existence and attain to our actual spiritual life.
guṇān etān atītya trīn dehī deha-samudbhavān janma-mṛtyu-jarā-duḥkhair vimukto ’mṛtam aśnute “When the embodied being is able to transcend these three modes (goodness, passion and ignorance), he can become free from birth, death, old age and their distresses and can enjoy nectar even in this life.” (Bg.14.20) To establish ourselves on the pure brahma-bhūta spiritual platform, above the three modes, we must take up the method of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
The gift of Caitanya Mahāprabhu, the chanting of the names of Kṛṣṇa-Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare, facilitates this process.
This method is called bhakti-yoga or mantra-yoga, and it is employed by the highest transcendentalists.
How the transcendentalists realize their identity beyond birth and death, beyond the material body, and transfer themselves from the material universe to the spiritual universes are the subjects of the following chapters.
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<h1 class="menu-title">Perfec Questions, Perfect Answers</h1>
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<h1><a class="header" href="#introduction" id="introduction">Introduction</a></h1>
God, spiritual life—those were such vague terms to me before I met Śrīla Prabhupāda.
I have always been interested in religion, but before I met the Kṛṣṇa conscious devotees, somehow I did not have the proper perspective needed to inquire fruitfully about spiritual life.
The existence of a Creator is only common sense—but who is God? Who am I? I had been to Hebrew School and had studied Oriental philosophy, but I could never get satisfying answers to my questions.
I first heard the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra in Greenwich Village, New York, in late 1968.
Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare The chanting was captivating, and it made me feel very comfortable.
The mantra stuck in my mind, and I soon regretted that I had not taken a magazine from the devotees.
As explained to me later, a transcendental seed had been planted that could eventually ripen into love of Godhead.
Several months later, I came across a card with the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra on it.
The card promised, "Chant these names of God, and your life will be sublime!" I would occasionally chant, and I found that the mantra did, in fact, give me a feeling of peace of mind.
After graduating from college with a B.S. in chemistry, I joined the Peace Corps in 1971 and went to India as a science teacher.
In India I inquired about the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement.
I was attracted by the chanting and intrigued by the philosophy, and I was curious about the movement's authenticity.
I had visited the Kṛṣṇa temple in New York several times before going to India, but I did not consider the seemingly austere life of a devotee for myself.
In India I first met the Kṛṣṇa conscious devotees at a festival they were holding in Calcutta during October of 1971.
The devotees explained to me the purpose of yoga and the need to inquire about spiritual life.
I began to feel that the rituals and ceremonies they practiced were not dull, sentimental obligations, but a real, sensible way of life.
At first, however, it was very difficult for me to understand the philosophy of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
In so many subtle ways, my Western upbringing prevented me from seeing things that were as plain as the nose on my face! Fortunately the devotees convinced me of the need to practice some few basic austerities, and in this way I began to gain some insight into spiritual life.
I can now recall how distant and tenuous were my concepts of spirituality and transcendental existence.
I met Śrīla Prabhupāda briefly at this time—in November of 1971—and shortly thereafter I decided to become a vegetarian.
(I was proud of being a vegetarian, but later Śrīla Prabhupāda reminded me that even pigeons are, too.) In February of 1972, I met some devotees in Calcutta who invited me to a festival in Māyāpur (a holy island ninety miles to the north).
The festival was to be held in honor of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, who is considered an incarnation of Kṛṣṇa Himself.
I had then been planning a trip to Nepal, but the Peace Corps denied me permission to leave India, and so I went to Māyāpur.
I left for Māyāpur planning to stay for two days at the most, but I ended up staying a week.
I was the only Western nondevotee on the island, and since I was living with the devotees on their land, this was a unique opportunity to learn intimately about Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
On the third day of the festival, I was invited in to see Śrīla Prabhupāda.
He was living in a small hut—half-brick and half-thatched, with two or three pieces of simple furniture.
Śrīla Prabhupāda asked me to be seated and then asked how I was and whether I had any questions.
The devotees had explained to me that Śrīla Prabhupāda could answer my questions because he represents a disciplic succession of spiritual masters.
I thought that Śrīla Prabhupāda might really know what is going on in the world.
After all, his devotees claimed this, and I admired and respected them.
So with this in mind I began to ask my questions.
Inadvertently, I had approached a guru, or spiritual master, in the prescribed way— by submissively asking questions about spiritual life.
Śrīla Prabhupāda seemed pleased with me, and over the next several days, he answered my questions.
I asked them mostly from an academic point of view, but he always gave me personal answers so that I would actually spiritualize my life.
His answers were logical, scientific, satisfying and amazingly lucid.
Before I met Śrīla Prabhupāda and his disciples, spiritual life was always obscure and nebulous.
But the discussions with Śrīla Prabhupāda were realistic, clear and exciting! Śrīla Prabhupāda was patiently trying to help me understand that Kṛṣṇa—God—is the supreme enjoyer, supreme friend and supreme proprietor.
I put forward many impediments to accepting the obvious: that I would have to become serious about God consciousness to understand God.
But Śrīla Prabhupāda relentlessly yet kindly urged me on.
Even though I had little ability to express myself, Śrīla Prabhupāda understood my every inquiry and answered perfectly.
Bob Cohen August 14, 1974
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<h1 class="menu-title">Easy Journey to Other Planets</h1>
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<h1><a class="header" href="#preface" id="preface">Preface</a></h1>
The antimaterial particle within the material body passes from boyhood to youth to old age, leaves the old unworkable body and takes up another one.
Lord Kṛṣṇa imparted this knowledge to the sun god, vivasvān who instructed Manu, the father of mankind, who in turn instructed Ikṣvāku.
Master yogīs can give up their bodies at will and enter the antimaterial worlds, while the gross materialists cannot even approach the higher material planets with their space vehicles.
Bhakti-yoga has been made easy to practice, especially in this iron age, by Lord Kṛṣṇa Himself in His most sublime, liberal and munificent appearance as Lord Śrī Caitanya.
There are unlimited Vaikuṇṭha planets in the spiritual sky, and their ratio to the material planets is three to one.
The Supreme Being is the all-attractive Personality of Godhead, Śrī Kṛṣṇa.
One may take an easy journey to the spiritual planets, where he can associate with the Personality of Godhead in full bliss and knowledge for eternity.
A living being, especially civilized man, has a natural desire to live forever in happiness.
This is quite natural because, in his original state, the living being is both eternal and joyful.
However, in the present conditioned state of life, he is engaged in a struggle against recurring birth and death.
Therefore he has attained neither happiness nor immortality.
The latest desire man has developed is the desire to travel to other planets.
This is also quite natural, because he has the constitutional right to go to any part of the material or spiritual skies.
Such travel is very tempting and exciting because these skies are full of unlimited globes of varying qualities, and they are occupied by all types of living entities.
The desire to travel there can be fulfilled by the process of yoga, which serves as a means by which one can transfer himself to whatever planet he likes-possibly to planets where life is not only eternal and blissful, but where there are multiple varieties of enjoyable energies.
Anyone who can attain the freedom of the spiritual planets need never return to this miserable land of birth, old age, disease and death.
One can attain this stage of perfection very easily by his individual effort.
He can simply follow, in his own home, the prescribed method of bhakti-yoga.
This method, under proper guidance, is simple and enjoyable.
An attempt is made herein to give information to the people in general, and to philosophers and religionists in particular, as to how one can transfer oneself to other planets by this process of bhakti-yoga-the highest of all yogic processes.
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<h1 class="menu-title">Raja Vidya: The King of Knowledge</h1>
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<h1><a class="header" href="#raja-vidya-the-king-of-knowledge" id="raja-vidya-the-king-of-knowledge">Raja-Vidya: The King of Knowledge</a></h1>
sri bhagavan uvaca idam tu te guhyatamam pravaksyamy anasuyave jnanam vijnana-sahitam yaj jnatva moksyase 'subhat "The Supreme Lord said: My dear Arjuna, because you are never envious of Me, I shall impart to you this most secret wisdom, knowing which you shall be relieved of the miseries of material existence." (Bg.9.1) The opening words of the Ninth Chapter of Bhagavad-gita indicate that the Supreme Godhead is speaking.
Here Sri Krsna is referred to as Bhagavan.
Bhaga means opulences, and van means one who possesses.
We have some conception of God, but in the Vedic literature there are definite descriptions and definitions of what is meant by God, and what is meant is described in one word-Bhagavan.
Bhagavan possesses all opulences, the totality of knowledge, wealth, power, beauty, fame and renunciation.
When we find someone who possesses these opulences in full, we are to know that he is God.
There are many rich, wise, famous, beautiful and powerful men, but no one man can claim to possess all of these opulences.
Only Krsna claims to possess them in totality.
bhoktaram yajna-tapasam sarva-loka-mahesvaram suhrdam sarva-bhutanam jnatva mam santim rcchati "The sages, knowing Me as the ultimate purpose of all sacrifices and austerities, the Supreme Lord of all planets and demigods and the benefactor and well-wisher of all living entities, attain peace from the pangs of material miseries." (Bg.5.29) Here Krsna proclaims that He is the enjoyer of all activities and the proprietor of all planets (sarva-loka-mahesvaram).
An individual may possess a large tract of land, and he may be proud of his ownership, but Krsna claims to possess all planetary systems.
Krsna also claims to be the friend of all living entities (suhrdam sarva-bhutanam).
When a person understands that God is the proprietor of everything, the friend of everyone and the enjoyer of all, he becomes very peaceful.
This is the actual peace formula.
No one can have peace as long as he thinks, "I am the proprietor." Who is capable of claiming proprietorship? Only a few hundred years ago the red Indians were considered to be the proprietors of America.
Today we in our turn are claiming that proprietorship, but in four hundred or a thousand years perhaps someone else will come to claim the same.
The land is here, and we come here and falsely claim ourselves to be proprietors of it.
This philosophy of false proprietorship is not in line with Vedic injunctions.
Sri Isopanisad states that "everything animate or inanimate that is within the universe is controlled and owned by the Lord (isavasyam idam sarvam)." The truth of this statement is factual, but under illusion we are thinking that we are the proprietors.
In actuality God owns everything, and therefore He is called the richest.
Of course there are many men who claim to be God.
In India, for instance, at any time, one has no difficulty in finding at least one dozen people claiming to be God.
But if you ask them if they are the proprietor of everything, they find this difficult to answer.
This is a criterion by which we can understand who God is.
God is the proprietor of everything, and, being so, He must be more powerful than anyone or anything else.
When Krsna was personally present on this earth, no one could conquer Him.
There is no record of His ever having lost a battle.
He belonged to a ksatriya (warrior) family, and the ksatriyas are meant to give protection to the weak.
As far as His opulence is concerned, He married 16,108 wives.
Every wife had her own separate palace, and Krsna expanded Himself 16,108 times in order to enjoy them all.
This may seem difficult to believe, but it is stated in Srimad-Bhagavatam, and the great sages of India recognize this as scripture and recognize Krsna as God.
In the first verse of this Ninth Chapter, by the word guhyatamam, Sri Krsna intimates that He is imparting the most confidential knowledge to Arjuna.
Why is He proclaiming this to Arjuna? It is because Arjuna is anasuyu--non-envious.
In the material world if someone is greater than us, we are envious.
We are not only envious of one another, but of God.
Also when Krsna says, "I am the proprietor," we disbelieve it.
But this is not the case with Arjuna, who listens to Krsna without envy.
Arjuna does not cavil with Krsna but agrees with whatever He says.
This is his special qualification, and this is the way of understanding Bhagavad-gita.
It is not possible to understand what God is by our own mental speculations; we have to hear, and we have to accept.
Because Arjuna is not envious, Krsna speaks this special knowledge to him.
This is not only theoretical knowledge but practical knowledge (vijnana-sahitam).
Whatever knowledge we receive from Bhagavad-gita should not be taken for sentimentality or fanaticism.
The knowledge is both jnana and vijnana, theoretical wisdom and scientific knowledge.
If one becomes well-versed in this knowledge, liberation is certain.
Life in this material world is by nature inauspicious and miserable.
Moksa means liberation, and the promise is that by dint of understanding this knowledge one will attain liberation from all miseries.
It is important then to understand what Krsna says about this knowledge.
raja-vidya raja-guhyam pavitram idam uttamam pratyaksavagamam dharmyam su-sukham kartum avyayam "This knowledge is the king of education, the most secret of all secrets.
It is the purest knowledge, and because it gives direct perception of the self by realization, it is the perfection of religion.
It is everlasting, and it is joyfully performed." (Bg.9.2) According to Bhagavad-gita, the topmost knowledge (raja-vidya raja-guhyam) is Krsna consciousness because in Bhagavad-gita we find that the symptom of one who is actually in knowledge is that he has surrendered unto Krsna.
As long as we go on speculating about God but do not surrender, it is understood that we have not attained the perfection of knowledge.
The perfection of knowledge is: bahunam janmanam ante jnanavan mam prapadyate vasudevah sarvam iti sa mahatma sudurlabhah "After many births and deaths, he who is actually in knowledge surrenders unto Me, knowing Me to be the cause of all causes and all that is.
Such a great soul is very rare." (Bg.7.19) As long as we do not surrender, we cannot understand God.
Surrender to God may take many births, but if we accept that God is great, it is possible to surrender unto Him immediately.
But generally this is not our position in the material world.
We are characteristically envious and consequently think, "Oh, why should I surrender unto God? I am independent.
I shall work independently." Therefore in order to rectify this misgiving, we have to work for many births.
In this regard, the name of Krsna is especially significant.
Krs means "repetition of birth," and na means "one who checks." Our repetition of birth can be checked only by God.
No one can check his repetition of birth and death without the causeless mercy of God.
The subject matter of the Ninth Chapter is raja-vidya.
Raja means "king," and vidya means "knowledge." In ordinary life we find one person king in one subject and another in another subject.
This knowledge, however, is sovereign over all others, and all other knowledge is subject or relative to it.
The word raja-guhyam indicates that this sovereign knowledge is very confidential, and the word pavitram means that it is very pure.
This knowledge is also uttamam; ud means "transcend," and tama means "darkness," and that knowledge which surpasses this world and the knowledge of this world is called uttamam.
It is the knowledge of light, and darkness has been separated from it.
If one follows this path of knowledge, he will personally understand how far he has progressed down the path of perfection (pratyaksavagamam dharmyam).
Su-sukham kartum indicates that this knowledge is very happy and joyful to execute.
And avyayam indicates that this knowledge is permanent.
We may work in this material world for education or riches, but these things are not avyayam, for as soon as this body is finished, everything else is also finished.
With death, our education, advanced degrees, bank balances, family--everything--are all finished.
Whatever we're doing in this material world is not eternal.
However, this knowledge is not like that.
nehabhikrama-naso 'sti pratyavayo na vidyate svalpam apy asya dharmasya trayate mahato bhayat "In this endeavor there is no loss or diminution, and a little advancement on this path can protect one from the most dangerous type of fear." (Bg.2.40) Knowledge in Krsna consciousness is so perfect that if one performs work in Krsna consciousness and yet does not attain perfection, in his next life he takes up from wherever he left off.
In other words, actions performed in Krsna consciousness are durable.
On the other hand, material achievements, because they pertain to the body, are vanquished at death.
Knowledge that pertains to designations does not endure.
I am thinking that I am a man or a woman, an American or Indian, a Christian or Hindu--these are all designations pertaining to the body, and when the body is finished, they will also be finished.
We are actually spirit, and therefore our spiritual activities will go with us wherever we go.
Sri Krsna indicates that this king of knowledge is also happily performed.
We can easily see that activities in Krsna consciousness are joyfully done.
There is chanting and dancing, eating prasadam (food that has been offered to Krsna) and discussing Bhagavad-gita.
These are the main processes.
There are no stringent rules and regulations that we have to sit so straight for so long or do so many gymnastics, or control our breath.
No, the process is very easily and happily done.
Everyone wants to dance, to sing, to eat and to hear the truth.
This process is truly susukham--very happy.
In the material world there are so many gradations of education.
Some people never finish grammar school or high school, whereas others go on and receive a university education, a BA, MA, PhD, and so on.
But what is this raja-vidya, the king of education, the summum bonum of knowledge? It is this Krsna consciousness.
Real knowledge is understanding "what I am." Unless we come to the point of understanding what we are, we cannot attain real knowledge.
When Sanatana Gosvami left his government post and came to Caitanya Mahaprabhu for the first time, he asked the Lord, "What is education?" Although Sanatana Gosvami knew a number of languages, including Sanskrit, he still inquired about real education.
"The general populace calls me highly educated," Sanatana Gosvami told the Lord, "and I am such a fool that I actually believe them." The Lord replied, "Why should you not think you're well educated? You're a great scholar in Sanskrit and Persian." "That may be," Sanatana Gosvami said, "but I do not know what I am." He then went on to tell the Lord: "I do not wish to suffer, but these material miseries are forced upon me.
I neither know where I've come from nor where I'm going, but people are calling me educated.
When they call me a great scholar, I am satisfied, but in truth I am such a great fool that I know not what I am." Sanatana Gosvami was actually speaking for all of us, for this is our present situation.
We may be proud of our academic education, but if asked what we are, we are not able to say.
Everyone is under the conception that this body is the self, but we learn from Vedic sources that this is not so.
Only after realizing that we are not these bodies can we enter into real knowledge and understand what we actually are.
This then, is the beginning of knowledge.
Raja-vidya may be further defined as not only knowing what one is, but acting accordingly.
If we do not know who we are, how can our activities be proper? If we are mistaken about our identity, we will also be mistaken about our activities.
Simply knowing that we are not these material bodies is not sufficient; we must act according to the conviction that we are spiritual.
Action based on this knowledge--spiritual activity--is work in Krsna consciousness.
This kind of knowledge may not seem to be so easily attainable, but it is made very easy by the mercy of Krsna and Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu who made this knowledge easily available through the process of chanting Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare.
Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.
Caitanya Mahaprabhu divided the living entities into two major categories: those that are moving and those that are not moving.
Trees, grass, plants, stones, etc., do not move because they do not have sufficiently developed consciousness.
Their consciousness is there, but is covered.
If a living being does not understand his position, he is stonelike, although dwelling in a human body.
The living entities--birds, reptiles, animals, insects, human beings, demigods, etc.--number over 8,000,000 species, and of these a very small number are human beings.
Lord Caitanya further points out that out of 400,000 species of human beings, some are civilized; and out of many civilized persons, there are only a few who are devoted to the scriptures.
In the present day most people claim to be devoted to some religion--Christian, Hindu, Moslem, Buddhist, etc.--but in fact they do not really believe in the scriptures.
Those who do believe in the scriptures are, by and large, attached to pious philanthropic activities.
They believe that religion means yajna (sacrifice), dana (charity) and tapas (penance).
One who engages in tapasya undertakes voluntarily very rigid regulations, such as brahmacari students (celibates) or sannyasis (renounced order) undertake.
Charity means voluntarily giving away one's material possessions.
In the present age there is no sacrifice, but from historical literatures like the Mahabharata we get information that kings performed sacrifices by distributing rubies, gold and silver.
Yajna was primarily for kings, and charity, on a much smaller scale, was meant for householders.
Those who actually believed in scriptures usually adopted some of these principles.
But generally in this age people simply say that they belong to a religion but in actuality do nothing.
Out of millions of such people, a very small number actually perform charity, sacrifice and penance.
Caitanya Mahaprabhu further points out that out of millions who perform such religious principles all over the universe, only a few attain perfect knowledge and understand what they are.
Just knowing "I am not this body but am spirit soul" is not sufficient.
We have to escape this entanglement of material nature.
This is called mukti, liberation.
Out of many thousands of persons who are in self-knowledge as to what and who they are, only one or two may be actually liberated.
And out of many thousands who are liberated, only one or two may understand what and who Krsna is.
So understanding Krsna is not such an easy job.
Thus in this age of Kali, an age characterized by ignorance and chaos, liberation is out of the reach of practically everyone.
One has to go through the whole ordeal of becoming civilized, then religious, and then one has to perform charities and sacrifices and come to the platform of knowledge, then to the stage of liberation, and finally, after liberation, to the understanding of what Krsna is.
This process is also indicated in Bhagavad-gita: brahma-bhutah prasannatma na socati na kanksati samah sarvesu bhutesu mad-bhaktim labhate param "One who is thus transcendentally situated at once realizes the Supreme Brahman.
He never laments or desires to have anything; he is equally disposed to every living entity.
In that state he attains pure devotional service unto Me." (Bg.18.54) These are the signs of liberation.
The first symptom of one who is liberated is that he is very happy.
It is not possible to find him morose.
Nor does he have any anxiety.
He never frets, "This thing I don't have.
Oh, I must secure this thing.
Oh, this bill I have to pay.
I have to go here, there." One who is liberated has no anxieties at all.
He may be the poorest man in the world, but he neither laments nor thinks that he is poor.
Why should he think that he is poor? When we think that we are these material bodies and that we have possessions to go with them, then we think that we are poor or rich, but one who is liberated from the material conception of life has nothing to do with possessions or lack of possessions.
"I have nothing to lose and nothing to gain," he thinks.
"I am completely separate from all this." Nor does he see anyone else as rich or poor, educated or uneducated, beautiful or ugly, etc.
He does not see any material dualities, for his vision is completely on the spiritual platform, and he sees that every living entity is part and parcel of Krsna.
Thus seeing all entities in their true identity, he tries to take them back to Krsna consciousness.
His viewpoint is that everyone--whether he be brahmana or sudra, black or white, Hindu, Christian, or whatever--should come to Krsna consciousness.
When one is situated in this way, then: madbhaktim labhate param--he becomes eligible for becoming a pure devotee of Krsna's.
Practically speaking, this process is not very easy in this age of Kali.
In Srimad-Bhagavatam a description is given of the people of this age.
Their duration of life is said to be very short, they tend to be phlegmatic and slow and to sleep a great deal, and when they're not sleeping, they are busy earning money.
At the most they only have two hours a day for spiritual activities, so what is the hope for spiritual understanding? It is also stated that even if one is anxious to make spiritual progress, there are many pseudo-spiritual societies to take advantage of him.
People are also characterized in this age as being unfortunate.
They have a great deal of difficulty meeting the primary demands of life--eating, defending, mating, and sleeping--necessities which are met even by the animals.
Even if people are meeting these necessities in this age, they are always anxious about war, either defending themselves from aggressors or having to go to war themselves.
In addition to this, there are always disturbing diseases and economic problems in Kali-yuga.
Therefore Lord Sri Krsna considered that in this age it is impossible for people to come to the perfectional stage of liberation by following the prescribed rules and regulations.
Thus out of His causeless mercy, Sri Krsna came as Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu and distributed the means to the highest perfection of life and spiritual ecstasy by the chanting of Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare.
Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.
This process of chanting is most practical, and it does not depend on whether one is liberated or not, or whether one's condition is conducive to spiritual life or not--whoever takes to this process becomes immediately purified.
Therefore it is called pavitram (pure).
Furthermore, for one who takes to this Krsna consciousness process, the seeds of latent reactions to his sinful actions are all nullified.
just as a fire turns whatever we put into it to ashes, this process turns to ashes all the sinful reactions of our past lives.
We must understand that our suffering is due to our sinful activity, and sinful activity is due to our ignorance.
Sins, or transgressions, are committed by those who do not know what is what.
A child, for instance, will naively put his hand in a fire because of ignorance.
He is thus burned immediately, for the fire is impartial and does not allow any special consideration for the innocent child.
It will simply act as fire.
Similarly, we do not know how this material world is functioning, who its controller is, nor how it is controlled, and due to our ignorance we act in foolish ways, but nature is so stringent that she does not allow us to escape the reactions to our actions.
Whether we commit an act knowingly or unknowingly, the reactions and consequent sufferings are there.
However, through knowledge we can understand what the actual situation is, who God is, and what our relationship with Him is.
This knowledge by which we can gain release from suffering is possible in the human form of life, not in the animal form.
To give us knowledge, to give us proper direction, there are scriptures written in various languages in all parts of the world.
Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu pointed out that people are forgetful from time immemorial about their relationship with the Supreme Lord; therefore Krsna has sent so many representatives to impart the scriptures to man.
We should take advantage of these, especially of Bhagavad-gita, which is the prime scripture for the modern world.
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<h1 class="menu-title">Teachings of Prahlada</h1>
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<h1><a class="header" href="#the-dearmost-person" id="the-dearmost-person">The Dearmost Person</a></h1>
Today I shall speak before you of the history of a boy devotee.
His name is Prahlāda Mahārāja, and he was born in a family which was stubbornly atheistic.
There are two kinds of men in this world; one is called the demon, and the other is called the demigod.
What is the difference between them? The main difference is that the demigods or godly persons are devoted to the Supreme Lord, whereas the demons are atheistic.
They do not believe in God because they are materialists.
These two classes of men always exist in this world.
At the present moment, due to this age of Kali (Quarrel), the number of demons has increased, but the classification has existed since the beginning of creation.
This incident which I am narrating to you occurred very, very long ago, a few million years after the time of creation.
This boy Prahlāda Mahārāja happened to be the son of the most atheistic person and the most materially powerful as wellso you will be interested to rear this history.
Because the society was materialistic, this boy had no opportunity to glorify the Supreme Lord.
The characteristic of a great soul is that he is very eager to broadcast glorification of the Supreme Lord.
Lord Jesus Christ for example, was very much eager to broadcast the glorification of God, but demoniac people misunderstood him and crucified him.
Prahlāda Mahārāja was a fiveyearold boy, and, when he was in school, as soon as there was a recreation period, when the teacher was off, he would say to his friends, "My dear friends, come on.
We shall speak about Kṛṣṇa consciousness." I am just opening a scene.
This is Srīmad Bhāgavatam, Seventh Canto, Sixth Chapter.
The devotee Prahlāda is saying, "My dear boys, my dear friends, this is the time, in this young age, to prosecute Kṛṣṇa consciousness." Before that, he had held discussions with his little friends, but they said, "Oh, we shall now play.
Why take up Kṛṣṇa consciousness?" In answer to this, Prahlāda Mahārāja is stating, "If you are intelligent, then you must begin Kṛṣṇa consciousness from childhood!" Srīmad Bhāgavatam offers bhāgavatadharma, or scientific knowledge about God.
Bhāgavatam means the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and dharma means the regulative principles of understanding Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
This human form of life is very rare.
It is a great opportunity.
Therefore, Prahlāda says, "My dear friends, you are born as civilized human beings, so this is the greatest opportunity." Although it is temporary, do not know what is the length of my lifeit is calculated that in this age the human body is meant to exist not more than a hundred years.
But as the age of Kali advances, duration of life, memory, mercy, religiousness and all other such assets decrease.
Although it is temporary, you can achieve the highest perfection of life while in this human form.
Why is this so important? This is the opportunityyou can understand the Supreme Lord, the allpervading Lord.
For other life forms this is not possible, By the gradual evolutionary process we come to this plane, so this is the opportunity, this human form of life.
By nature's law, a human body is ultimately given to you so that you can promote yourself to the spiritual life and go back home, back to Godhead.
The ultimate goal of life is Viṣṇu.
In another verse, Prahlāda Mahārāja will say: "People who are in this material world enamored by the material energy, do not know what the goal of human life is." Why? They have been enchanted by the glaring external energy.
They have forgotten that they are spiritual energy.
This is explained later on, but here he says, "This life is an opportunity to understand the ultimate goal of perfection, Viṣṇu." Why should we be very anxious to know Viṣṇu, or God? Prahlāda Mahārāja gives a reason: "Viṣṇu is the dearmost person.
That we have forgotten." We all seek for some dear friendeveryone searches in this way.
A man searches for dear friendship in woman, and woman searches.
for dear friendship in man.
Or else a man searches in man, and woman searches in woman.
Everyone searches after some dear friend, some sweet friend.
Why? We want the cooperation of a dear friend who will help us.
This is part of the struggle for existence, and this is natural.
But we do not know that our most dear friend is Viṣṇu, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
We are searching after some dear friend, but we do not know who this dear friend can be.
Those who have read Bhagavadgītā will find this nice verse in the Fifth Chapter: "If you make friendship with Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Lord, then you can understand perfectly that everything that exists in this world or other worlds is all the property of Kṛṣṇa.
He is the proprietor and enjoyer of everything." Why are you performing austerity? Why are you performing religious rituals? Why are you giving in charity? Why do you engage in righteous activities? Whatever formulas you have manufactured are meant for pleasing the Supreme Lord, and nothing more.
By your actions, by your righteous activities, when the Supreme Lord is pleased, you will get the result.
If by your actions you want to gain either material happiness or spiritual happiness, if you want to live on this planet or on other planets, if you want to be a human being or you want to be a tiger, cat or dog, whatever you like you will get.
Therefore He is the most sincere friend.
Whatever you want from Him, you can get.
But the intelligent man does not want anything that is materially contaminated.
In Bhagavadgītā you will find that Kṛṣṇa says that one can elevate oneself to the highest planet, which is known as Brahmaloka, where the duration of life is millions and millions of years.
You cannot figure the duration of life there: your arithmetic will be ineffective.
The statement in Bhagvadgītā is that Brahma's life is so long that 4,200,000 years make one day to him.
Kṛṣṇa says, "Whatever position you want, beginning from the ant right up to Brahma, you can have.
But the repetition of birth and death will be there.
However, if, somehow or other, by discharging Kṛṣṇa consciousness in devotional service, you come to Me, then you don't have to come back again to this miserable material condition." Prahlāda Mahārāja said the same thing: We are searching for the most dear friend, Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Lord.
Why is He the most dear friend? By nature He is dear.
What is the dearmost thing within yourself? Have you analyzed? You are yourself the dearmost thing.
I am sitting here, but if there is a fire alarm I shall at once take care of myself: "How can I save myself?" We forget our friends and even our children: "Let me first of all save myself." Selfpreservation is the first law of nature.
Ātmā, self, in the grossest sense refers to the body.
In the subtler sphere the mind is ātmā, and in the real sense ātmā means the soul.
In the gross stage we are very fond of protecting the body, and in a subtler stage we are very fond of protecting the mind.
But above this mental, intellectual plane, where the atmosphere is spiritualized, we can understand: "I am not this mind and not this body.
Aham brahmāsmi—am a part and parcel of the Supreme Lord." That is the platform of real understanding.
Prahād Mahārāja says that of all living entities, Viṣṇu is the supreme wellwisher.
Therefore we are all searching for Him.
When a child cries, what does he long for? He longs for the mother.
But he has no language to express this.
By nature, he has his body, born of the mother's body, so there is an intimate relation with the mother's body.
The child won't like any other woman.
The child cries, but when the woman who is the child's mother comes and picks him up, at once he is pacified.
He has no language to express all this, but the real demand is there.
Similarly, we are trying to protect the body.
This is selfpreservation.
It is a natural law of the living entity, just as eating is a natural law and sleeping is a natural law.
I defend the body because within the body there is soul.
What is this soul? The soul is a part and parcel of the Supreme Lord.
As we want to protect the hand or the finger because it is a part of the whole body, similarly we try to save ourselves because this is the defending process of the Supreme.
The Supreme does not need defense, but this is a manifestation of our love towards Him, which is now perverted.
The finger and the hand are meant to act in the interests of the whole body; as soon as I want the hand to come here, it comes, and as soon as I want the finger to play on the drum, it plays.
This is the natural position.
Similarly, we are searching for God, to dovetail our energy for the Supreme, but, under the spell of illusory energy, we do not know it.
That is our mistake.
Now, here is an opportunity, in human life.
You have come to understand about Kṛṣṇa consciousness, about your real goal of life, because you are human beings.
I cannot invite cats and dogs and human beings.
A human being can understand the necessity of life.
If he loses the opportunity, it is a great catastrophe.
Prahlāda Mahārāja said, "God is the dearmost personality of all.
We have to search for God." Then what about the material necessities of life? Prahlāda Mahārāja replies to this, "You are after sense gratification.
I know that.
Sense gratification is automatically achieved by contact with this body." Because a hog has a certain type of body, his sense gratification comes from eating stool, the very thing which is most obnoxious to you.
At once, after evacuating, you leave to get free from the bad smellbut the hog is waiting.
As soon as you evacuate, he will at once enjoy.
Other animals are not attracted because one's form of pleasureseeking is due to his particular body.
There are different types of sense gratification according to different types of bodies.
Therefore, Prahlāda says, "My dear friends, sense gratification is achieved according to one's particular type of body." Everyone who has a material body receives sense gratification.
Don't think that the hogs eating stools are unhappy.
No, they are getting fat in that way.
They are very happy.
Now, if a hog can achieve sense gratification, why not a human being? But that is not our achievement.
That is given by nature; the facilities of a hog's body are offered by nature, and the facilities of a dog's body are also offered by nature, or God.
Why should you labor for facilities which you are destined to receive anyway, by nature's law? In every form of life the bodily demands are satisfied by the arrangement of nature.
This gratification is arranged, just as there is an arrangement for distress.
Do you like fever? No.
Why does it come? I do not know.
But it does come, does it not? Yes.
Did you try for it? No.
So how does it come? "By nature.
That is the only answer.
Similarly, if miseries come by nature, your happiness will also come by nature.
Don't bother about it.
That is the instruction of Prahlāda Mahārāja.
If you can receive the miseries of life without effort, similarly, you can have your happiness also without effort.
Then, what is the real purpose of this human form of life? You have to cultivate Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
Other things will be obtained by nature's law, or God's law.
Even if I don't try, whatever I am to achieve because of my past work and my particular type of body will be supplied.
At any stage or in any form of life, facility is given for sense gratification.
As you do not try for misery, so also happiness will take place without your control.
Your real concern, therefore; ,should be to seek out the higher goal of human life.
Prahlāda Mahārāja was a boy devotee—a born sage, who, at only five years of age, used to speak to his school friends thus:— "My dear friends, now is the time to prosecute Krishna Consciousness, while we are still young (or at least young at heart) unless we start immediately we'll never get out of the sufferings of the material entanglement.
So please at once take up the chanting of HARE KRISHNA HARE KRISHNA KRISHNA KRISHNA HARE HARE HARE RAMA HARE RAMA RAMA RAMA HARE HARE.
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<h1 class="menu-title">Nectar of Instruction</h1>
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<h1><a class="header" href="#text-one" id="text-one">TEXT ONE</a></h1>
vāco vegaṁ manasaḥ krodha-vegaṁ jihvā-vegam udaropastha-vegam etān vegān yo viṣaheta dhīraḥ sarvām apīmāṁ pṛthivīṁ sa śiṣyāt
SYNONYMS
vācaḥ—of speech; vegam—urge; manasaḥ—of the mind; krodha—of anger; vegam—urge; jihvā—of the tongue; vegam—urge; udara-upastha—of the belly and genitals; vegam—urge; etān—these; vegān—urges; yaḥ—whoever; viṣaheta —can tolerate; dhīraḥ— sober ; sarvām— all ; api—certainly; imām—this; pṛthivīm—world; saḥ—that personality; śiṣyāt—can make disciples.
TRANSLATION
A sober person who can tolerate the urge to speak, the mind’s demands, the actions of anger and the urges of the tongue, belly and genitals is qualified to make disciples all over the world.
PURPORT
In Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (6.1.9–10) Parīkṣit Mahārāja placed a number of intelligent questions before Śukadeva Gosvāmī.
One of these questions was: “Why do people undergo atonement if they cannot control their senses?” For instance, a thief may know perfectly well that he may be arrested for his stealing, and he may actually even see a thief arrested by the police, yet he continues to steal.
Experience is gathered by hearing and seeing.
One who is less intelligent gathers experience by seeing, and one who is more intelligent gathers experience by hearing.
When an intelligent person hears from the lawbooks and śāstras, or scriptures, that stealing is not good and hears that a thief is punished when arrested, he refrains from theft.
A less intelligent person may first have to be arrested and punished for stealing to learn to stop stealing.
However, a rascal, a foolish man, may have the experience of both hearing and seeing and may even be punished, but still he continues to steal.
Even if such a person atones and is punished by the government, he will again commit theft as soon as he comes out of jail.
If punishment in jail is considered atonement, what is the benefit of such atonement? Thus Parīkṣit Mahārāja inquired: dṛṣṭa-śrutābhyāṁ yat pāpaṁ jānann apy ātmano ’hitam karoti bhūyo vivaśaḥ prāyaścittam atho katham kvacin nivartate ’bhadrāt kvacic carati tat punaḥ prāyaścittam atho ’pārthaṁ manye kuñjara-śaucavat He compared atonement to an elephant’s bathing.
The elephant may take a very nice bath in the river, but as soon as it comes onto the bank, it throws dirt all over its body.
What, then, is the value of its bathing? Similarly, many spiritual practitioners chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra and at the same time commit many forbidden things, thinking that their chanting will counteract their offenses.
Of the ten types of offenses one can commit while chanting the holy name of the Lord, this offense is called nāmno balād yasya hi pāpa-buddhiḥ, committing sinful activities on the strength of chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra.
Similarly, certain Christians go to church to confess their sins, thinking that confessing their sins before a priest and performing some penance will relieve them from the results of their weekly sins.
As soon as Saturday is over and Sunday comes, they again begin their sinful activities, expecting to be forgiven the next Saturday.
This kind of prāyaścitta, or atonement, is condemned by Parīkṣit Mahārāja, the most intelligent king of his time.
Śukadeva Gosvāmī, equally intelligent, as befitting the spiritual master of Mahārāja Parīkṣit, answered the King and confirmed that his statement concerning atonement was correct.
A sinful activity cannot be counteracted by a pious activity.
Thus real prāyaścitta, atonement, is the awakening of our dormant Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
Real atonement involves coming to real knowledge, and for this there is a standard process.
When one follows a regulated hygienic process, he does not fall sick.
A human being is meant to be trained according to certain principles to revive his original knowledge.
Such a methodical life is described as tapasya.
One can be gradually elevated to the standard of real knowledge, or Kṛṣṇa consciousness, by practicing austerity and celibacy (brahmacarya), by controlling the mind, by controlling the senses, by giving up one’s possessions in charity, by being avowedly truthful, by keeping clean and by practicing yoga-āsanas.
However, if one is fortunate enough to get the association of a pure devotee, he can easily surpass all the practices for controlling the mind by the mystic yoga process simply by following the regulative principles of Kṛṣṇa consciousness—refraining from illicit sex, meat-eating, intoxication and gambling—and by engaging in the service of the Supreme Lord under the direction of the bona fide spiritual master.
This easy process is being recommended by Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī.
First one must control his speaking power.
Every one of us has the power of speech; as soon as we get an opportunity we begin to speak.
If we do not speak about Kṛṣṇa consciousness, we speak about all sorts of nonsense.
A toad in a field speaks by croaking, and similarly everyone who has a tongue wants to speak, even if all he has to say is nonsense.
The croaking of the toad, however, simply invites the snake: “Please come here and eat me.” Nevertheless, although it is inviting death, the toad goes on croaking.
The talking of materialistic men and impersonalist Māyāvādī philosophers may be compared to the croaking of frogs.
They are always speaking nonsense and thus inviting death to catch them.
Controlling speech, however, does not mean self-imposed silence (the external process of mauna), as Māyāvādī philosophers think.
Silence may appear helpful for some time, but ultimately it proves a failure.
The meaning of controlled speech conveyed by Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī advocates the positive process of kṛṣṇa-kathā, engaging the speaking process in glorifying the Supreme Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa.
The tongue can thus glorify the name, form, qualities and pastimes of the Lord.
The preacher of kṛṣṇa-kathā is always beyond the clutches of death.
This is the significance of controlling the urge to speak.
The restlessness or fickleness of the mind (mano-vega) is controlled when one can fix his mind on the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa.
The Caitanya-caritāmṛta (Madhya 22.31) says: kṛṣṇa——sūrya-sama; māyā haya andhakāra yāhāṅ kṛṣṇa, tāhāṅ nāhi māyāra adhikāra Kṛṣṇa is just like the sun, and māyā is just like darkness.
If the sun is present, there is no question of darkness.
Similarly, if Kṛṣṇa is present in the mind, there is no possibility of the mind’s being agitated by māyā’s influence.
The yogic process of negating all material thoughts will not help.
To try to create a vacuum in the mind is artificial.
The vacuum will not remain.
However, if one always thinks of Kṛṣṇa and how to serve Kṛṣṇa best, one’s mind will naturally be controlled.
Similarly, anger can be controlled.
We cannot stop anger altogether, but if we simply become angry with those who blaspheme the Lord or the devotees of the Lord, we control our anger in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu became angry with the miscreant brothers Jagāi and Mādhāi, who blasphemed and struck Nityānanda Prabhu.
In His Śikṣāṣṭaka Lord Caitanya wrote, tṛṇād api sunīcena taror api sahiṣṇunā: “One should be humbler than the grass and more tolerant than the tree.” One may then ask why the Lord exhibited His anger.
The point is that one should be ready to tolerate all insults to one’s own self, but when Kṛṣṇa or His pure devotee is blasphemed, a genuine devotee becomes angry and acts like fire against the offenders.
Krodha, anger, cannot be stopped, but it can be applied rightly.
It was in anger that Hanumān set fire to Laṅkā, but he is worshiped as the greatest devotee of Lord Rāmacandra.
This means that he utilized his anger in the right way.
Arjuna serves as another example.
He was not willing to fight, but Kṛṣṇa incited his anger: “You must fight!” To fight without anger is not possible.
Anger is controlled, however, when utilized in the service of the Lord.
As for the urges of the tongue, we all experience that the tongue wants to eat palatable dishes.
Generally we should not allow the tongue to eat according to its choice, but should control the tongue by supplying prasāda.
The devotee’s attitude is that he will eat only when Kṛṣṇa gives him prasāda.
That is the way to control the urge of the tongue.
One should take prasāda at scheduled times and should not eat in restaurants or sweetmeat shops simply to satisfy the whims of the tongue or belly.
If we stick to the principle of taking only prasāda, the urges of the belly and tongue can be controlled.
In a similar manner, the urges of the genitals, the sex impulse, can be controlled when not used unnecessarily.
The genitals should be used to beget a Kṛṣṇa conscious child, otherwise they should not be used.
The Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement encourages marriage not for the satisfaction of the genitals but for the begetting of Kṛṣṇa conscious children.
As soon as the children are a little grown up, they are sent to our Gurukula school in Dallas, Texas, where they are trained to become fully Kṛṣṇa conscious devotees.
Many such Kṛṣṇa conscious children are required, and one who is capable of bringing forth Kṛṣṇa conscious offspring is allowed to utilize his genitals.
When one is fully practiced in the methods of Kṛṣṇa conscious control, he can become qualified to be a bona fide spiritual master.
In his Anuvṛtti explanation of Upadeśāmṛta, Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura writes that our material identification creates three kinds of urges—the urge to speak, the urge or demands of the mind and the demands of the body.
When a living entity falls victim to these three types of urges, his life becomes inauspicious.
One who practices resisting these demands or urges is called tapasvī, or one who practices austerities.
By such tapasya one can overcome victimization by the material energy, the external potency of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
When we refer to the urge to speak, we refer to useless talking, such as that of the impersonal Māyāvādī philosophers, or of persons engaged in fruitive activities (technically called karma-kāṇḍa), or of materialistic people who simply want to enjoy life without restriction.
All such talks or literatures are practical exhibitions of the urge to speak.
Many people are talking nonsensically and writing volumes of useless books, and all this is the result of the urge to speak.
To counteract this tendency, we have to divert our talking to the subject of Kṛṣṇa.
This is explained in Śrīmad- Bhāgavatam (1.5.10–11): na yad vacaś citra-padaṁ harer yaśo jagat-pavitraṁ pragṛṇīta karhicit tad vāyasaṁ tīrtham uśanti mānasā na yatra haṁsā niramanty uśikkṣayāḥ “Those words which do not describe the glories of the Lord, who alone can sanctify the atmosphere of the whole universe, are considered by saintly persons to be like unto a place of pilgrimage for crows.
Since the all-perfect persons are inhabitants of the transcendental abode, they do not derive any pleasure there.” tad-vāg-visargo janatāgha-viplavo yasmin prati-ślokam abaddhavaty api nāmāny anantasya yaśo ’ṅkitāni yat śṛṇvanti gāyanti gṛṇanti sādhavaḥ “On the other hand, that literature which is full of descriptions of the transcendental glories of the name, fame, forms, pastimes, etc., of the unlimited Supreme Lord is a different creation, full of transcendental words directed toward bringing about a revolution in the impious lives of this world’s misdirected civilization.
Such transcendental literatures, even though imperfectly composed, are heard, sung and accepted by purified men who are thoroughly honest.” The conclusion is that only when we talk about devotional service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead can we refrain from useless nonsensical talk.
We should always endeavor to use our speaking power solely for the purpose of realizing Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
As for the agitations of the bickering mind, they are divided into two divisions.
The first is called avirodha-prīti, or unrestricted attachment, and the other is called virodha- yukta-krodha, anger arising from frustration.
Adherence to the philosophy of the Māyāvādīs, belief in the fruitive results of the karma-vādīs, and belief in plans based on materialistic desires are called avirodha-prīti.
Jñānīs, karmīs and materialistic planmakers generally attract the attention of conditioned souls, but when the materialists cannot fulfill their plans and when their devices are frustrated, they become angry.
Frustration of material desires produces anger.
Similarly, the demands of the body can be divided into three categories—the demands of the tongue, the belly and the genitals.
One may observe that these three senses are physically situated in a straight line, as far as the body is concerned, and that the bodily demands begin with the tongue.
If one can restrain the demands of the tongue by limiting its activities to the eating of prasāda, the urges of the belly and the genitals can automatically be controlled.
In this connection Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says: śarīra avidyā jāla, jaḍendriya tāhe kāla, jīve phele viṣaya-sāgare tā’ra madhye jihvā ati, lobhamāyā sudurmati, tā’ke jetā kaṭhina saṁsāre kṛṣṇa baḍa dayāmaya, karibāre jihvā jaya, sva-prasāda-anna dila bhāi sei annāmṛta khāo, rādhā-kṛṣṇa-guṇa gāo, preme ḍāka caitanya-nitāi “O Lord! This material body is a lump of ignorance, and the senses are a network of paths leading to death.
Somehow or other we have fallen into the ocean of material sense enjoyment, and of all the senses the tongue is the most voracious and uncontrollable.
It is very difficult to conquer the tongue in this world, but You, dear Kṛṣṇa, are very kind to us.
You have sent this nice prasāda to help us conquer the tongue; therefore let us take this prasāda to our full satisfaction and glorify Your Lordships Śrī Śrī Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa and in love call for the help of Lord Caitanya and Prabhu Nityānanda.” There are six kinds of rasas (tastes), and if one is agitated by any one of them, he becomes controlled by the urges of the tongue.
Some persons are attracted to the eating of meat, fish, crabs, eggs and other things produced by semina and blood and eaten in the form of dead bodies.
Others are attracted by eating vegetables, creepers, spinach or milk products, but all for the satisfaction of the tongue’s demands.
Such eating for sense gratification—including the use of extra quantities of spices like chili and tamarind—is to be given up by Kṛṣṇa conscious persons.
The use of pan, haritakī, betel nuts, various spices used in pan-making, tobacco, LSD, marijuana, opium, liquor, coffee and tea is indulged in to fulfill illicit demands.
If we can practice accepting only remnants of food offered to Kṛṣṇa, it is possible to get free from māyā’s victimization.
Vegetables, grains, fruits, milk products and water are proper foods to offer to the Lord, as Lord Kṛṣṇa Himself prescribes.
However, if one accepts prasāda only because of its palatable taste and thus eats too much, he also falls prey to trying to satisfy the demands of the tongue.
Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu taught us to avoid very palatable dishes even while eating prasāda.
If we offer palatable dishes to the Deity with the intention of eating such nice food, we are involved in trying to satisfy the demands of the tongue.
If we accept the invitation of a rich man with the idea of receiving palatable food, we are also trying to satisfy the demands of the tongue.
In Caitanya-caritāmṛta (Antya 6.227) it is stated: jihvāra lālase yei iti-uti dhāya śiśnodara-parāyaṇa kṛṣṇa nāhi pāya “That person who runs here and there seeking to gratify his palate and who is always attached to the desires of his stomach and genitals is unable to attain Kṛṣṇa.” As stated before, the tongue, belly and genitals are all situated in a straight line, and they fall in the same category.
Lord Caitanya has said, bhāla nā khāibe āra bhāla nā paribe: “Do not dress luxuriously and do not eat delicious foodstuffs.” (Cc.Antya 6.236) Those who suffer from diseases of the stomach must be unable to control the urges of the belly, at least according to this analysis.
When we desire to eat more than necessary we automatically create many inconveniences in life.
However, if we observe fasting days like Ekādaśī and Janmāṣṭamī, we can restrain the demands of the belly.
As far as the urges of the genitals are concerned, there are two—proper and improper, or legal and illicit sex.
When a man is properly mature, he can marry according to the rules and regulations of the śāstras and use his genitals for begetting nice children.
That is legal and religious.
Otherwise, he may adopt many artificial means to satisfy the demands of the genitals, and he may not use any restraint.
When one indulges in illicit sex life, as defined by the śāstras, either by thinking, planning, talking about or actually having sexual intercourse, or by satisfying the genitals by artificial means, he is caught in the clutches of māyā.
These instructions apply not only to householders but also to tyāgīs, or those who are in the renounced order of life.
In his book Prema-vivarta, Chapter Seven, Śrī Jagadānanda Paṇḍita says: vairāgī bhāi grāmya-kathā nā śunibe kāne grāmya-vārtā nā kahibe yabe milibe āne svapane o nā kara bhāi strī-sambhāṣaṇa gṛhe strī chāḍiyā bhāi āsiyācha vana yadi cāha praṇaya rākhite gaurāṅgera sane choṭa haridāsera kathā thāke yena mane bhāla nā khāibe āra bhāla nā paribe hṛdayete rādhā-kṛṣṇa sarvadā sevibe “My dear brother, you are in the renounced order of life and should not listen to talk about ordinary worldly things, nor should you talk about worldly things when you meet with others.
Do not think of women even in dreams.
You have accepted the renounced order of life with a vow that forbids you to associate with women.
If you wish to associate with Caitanya Mahāprabhu, you must always remember the incident of Choṭa Haridāsa and how he was rejected by the Lord.
Do not eat luxurious dishes or dress in fine garments, but always remain humble and serve Their Lordships Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa in your heart of hearts.” The conclusion is that one who can control these six items—speech, mind, anger, tongue, belly and genitals—is to be called a svāmī or gosvāmī.
Svāmī means master, and gosvāmī means master of the go, or senses.
When one accepts the renounced order of life, he automatically assumes the title of svāmī.
This does not mean that he is the master of his family, community or society; he must be master of his senses.
Unless one is master of his senses, he should not be called gosvāmī, but go-dāsa, servant of the senses.
Following in the footsteps of the six Gosvāmīs of Vṛndāvana, all svāmīs and gosvāmīs should fully engage in the transcendental loving service of the Lord.
As opposed to this, the go-dāsas engage in the service of the senses or in the service of the material world.
They have no other engagement.
Prahlāda Mahārāja has further described the go-dāsa as adānta-go, which refers to one whose senses are not controlled.
An adānta-go cannot become a servant of Kṛṣṇa.
In Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (7.5.30), Prahlāda Mahārāja has said: matir na kṛṣṇe parataḥ svato vā mitho ’bhipadyeta gṛhavratānām adānta-gobhir viśatāṁ tamisraṁ punaḥ punaś carvita-carvaṇānām “For those who have decided to continue their existence in this material world for the gratification of their senses, there is no chance of becoming Kṛṣṇa conscious, not by personal endeavor, by instruction from others or by joint conferences.
They are dragged by the unbridled senses into the darkest region of ignorance, and thus they madly engage in what is called ‘chewing the chewed.’ ”
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<h1 class="menu-title">Path of Perfection</h1>
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<h1><a class="header" href="#introduction" id="introduction">Introduction</a></h1>
When we see a book with a title like The Path of Perfection, we may react with a bit of common skepticism: "Oh, another book claiming to give all the answers.
One more do-it-yourself enlightenment scheme." And certainly it seems that such skepticism is justified nowadays.
Our natural desire for ultimate meaning, happiness, enlightenment, liberation, and salvation has become the most exploited commodity of the twentieth century, creating what one contemporary theologian termed a disastrous "seduction of the spirit." This seduction is, indeed, the most tragic kind of exploitation.
And the unfortunate consequence of this exploitation is a kind of deadening cynicism that discourages our search for self-fulfillment and a means to attain it.
The contemporary, thoughtful reader, weary of the many speculative, simplistic books cluttering the bookstore shelves, offering instant formulas for psychological or spiritual salvation, will find The Path of Perfection a welcome relief.
Herein one will find a clear, intriguing explanation of the philosophy and practice of mankind's oldest system of spiritual development--yoga.
Now, the word yoga may conjure up an image of some skinny fakir contorted like a human pretzel, or perhaps a room full of corpulent matrons in black leotards struggling to stand on their heads in hope of improving their health, losing weight, or increasing their sexual powers.
This is not what we mean by yoga.
Here we are referring to an ancient philosophy and meditational system that has been practiced by millions throughout the ages.
What has, in modern times, been reduced to a commercially exploited technique of bodily agility and pseudomeditation was once a comprehensive and easily applied form of self-realization.
The path of perfection consists of a historic series of talks-elaborations on a previously published commentary--by His Divine Grace A.C.Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (1896-1977) on India's greatest spiritual classic, the Bhagavad-gita.
In these absorbing talks, Srila Prabhupada explores deeply the philosophy of yoga as explained in the Sixth and Eighth Chapters of the Gita, showing clearly how these timeless teachings apply to twentieth century mankind.
Srila Prabhupada's talks probe questions concerning the nature of consciousness, techniques of meditation, karma, death, reincarnation, and even spiritual ecstasy.
The Bhagavad-gita, described by one contemporary psychologist as"a remarkable psychotherapeutic session," appears to us in the form of an extraordinary dialogue between Lord Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and His warrior disciple Arjuna.
Perplexed and confused about his identity and purpose, Arjuna turns to Krsna, who reveals "the path of perfection" to His able student.
The essence of Lord Krsna's teachings is that one must become a yogi, that is, one whose life is centered on the practice of yoga.
And what is yoga? The Sanskrit word yoga literally means "union," and refers to the union, in love, between the individual consciousness and the Supreme Consciousness, the self and the Superself, the soul and God.
Yoga is, indeed, "the path of perfection," because it aims toward this most exalted human attainment.
In the Bhagavad-gita, we discover four basic varieties of yoga described.
Karma-yoga refers to the process whereby one performs his work for God, without the selfish desire for personal gain.
Jnana-yoga is the process of elevation to spiritual consciousness through the cultivation of philosophical knowledge.
The astanga-yoga system, of which the modern "hatha-yoga" is a watered-down version, is a mechanical, meditative practice meant to control the mind and senses and focus one's concentration on the Supreme.
These three yoga systems culminate in bhakti-yoga, the yoga of selfless, ecstatic, devotional love of God, Krsna.
Lord Krsna Himself states in the last verse of Chapter Six, "Of all yogis, he who always abides in Me with great faith, worshiping Me in transcendental loving service, is most intimately united with Me in yoga and is the highest of all." In The Path of Perfection, Srila Prabhupada offers a brilliant summary of the methods of bhakti-yoga, revealing the universal applicability of this simple but all-inclusive form of yoga.
He shows how even those who are entangled in the complexity and chaos of modern materialistic life can begin an uncomplicated practice which purifies the mind and puts one in touch with the Supreme Consciousness.
This, perhaps, was Srila Prabhupada's greatest contribution to our age.
Srila Prabhupada was an acknowledged master scholar of India's ancient spiritual culture and of its linguistic foundation, the Sanskrit language.
But he was not merely a textual scholar or a philosopher or theologian engaged in the manufacture of interesting philosophical or theological notions.
He was a true spiritual genius who succeeded in bringing to life the essence of India's universal spiritual wisdom in a form which is easy for twentieth century man to understand and practice.
This was the unique genius which inspired the late prime minister of India, Sri Lal Bahadur Shastri, to declare openly that the writings of Srila Prabhupada "are a significant contribution to the salvation of mankind." The transforming quality of Srila Prabhupada's writings was also appreciated by sociologist Elwin H.
Powell, who commented on Srila Prabhupada's best-selling edition of the Bhagavad-gita: "This transcendental mysticism from the East is now taking root in the `countercultures' of the West and providing for many a way out of the wilderness of a disintegrating civilization....
If truth is what works, there must be a kind of truth in the Bhagavad-gita As It Is, since those who follow its teachings display a joyous serenity usually missing in the bleak and strident lives of contemporary people." --The Publishers
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<h1 class="menu-title">Science of Self-Realization</h1>
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<h1><a class="header" href="#foreword" id="foreword">Foreword</a></h1>
From the very start, I knew that His Divine Grace A.C.Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada was the most extraordinary person I had ever met.
The first meeting occurred in the summer of 1966, in New York City.
A friend had invited me to hear a lecture by "an old Indian svami" on lower Manhattan's Bowery.
Overwhelmed with curiosity about a svami lecturing on skid row, I went there and felt my way up a pitchblack staircase.
A bell-like, rhythmic sound got louder and clearer as I climbed higher.
Finally I reached the fourth floor and opened the door, and there he was.
About fifty feet away from where I stood, at the other end of a long, dark room, he sat on a small dais, his face and saffron robes radiant under a small light.
He was elderly, perhaps sixty or so, I thought, and he sat cross-legged in an erect, stately posture.
His head was shaven, and his powerful face and reddish horn-rimmed glasses gave him the look of a monk who had spent most of his life absorbed in study.
His eyes were closed, and he softly chanted a simple Sanskrit prayer while playing a hand drum.
The small audience joined in at intervals, in call-and-response fashion.
A few played hand cymbals, which accounted for the bell-like sounds I'd heard.
Fascinated, I sat down quietly at the back, tried to participate in the chanting, and waited.
After a few moments the svami began lecturing in English, apparently from a huge Sanskrit volume that lay open before him.
Occasionally he would quote from the book, but more often from memory.
The sound of the language was beautiful, and he followed each passage with meticulously detailed explanations.
He sounded like a scholar, his vocabulary intricately laced with philosophical terms and phrases.
Elegant hand gestures and animated facial expressions added considerable impact to his delivery.
The subject matter was the most weighty I had ever encountered: "I am not this body.
I am not an Indian....
You are not Americans....
We are all spirit souls...." After the lecture someone gave me a pamphlet printed in India.
A photo showed the svami handing three of his books to Indian prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri.
The caption quoted Mr.Shastri as saying that all Indian government libraries should order the books.
"His Divine Grace A.C.Bhaktivedanta swami Prabhupada is doing great work," the prime minister said in another small tract, "and his books are significant contributions to the salvation of mankind." I purchased copies of the books, which I learned the svami had brought over from India.
After reading the jacket flaps, the small pamphlet, and various other literature, I began to realize that I had just met one of India's most respected spiritual leaders.
But I could not understand why a gentleman of such distinction was residing and lecturing in the Bowery, of all places.
He was certainly well educated and, by all appearances, born of an aristocratic Indian family.
Why was he living in such poverty? What in the world had brought him here? one afternoon several days later, I stopped in to visit him and find out.
To my surprise, Srila Prabhupada (as I later came to call him) was not too busy to talk with me.
In fact, it seemed that he was prepared to talk all day.
He was warm and friendly and explained that he had accepted the renounced order of life in India in 1959, and that he was not allowed to carry or earn money for his personal needs.
He had completed his studies at the University of Calcutta many years ago and had raised a family, and then he had left his eldest sons in charge of family and business affairs, as the age-old vedic culture prescribes.
After accepting the renounced order, he had arranged a free passage on an Indian freighter (Scindia Steamship Company's Jaladuta) through mutual friends.
In September 1965, he had sailed from Bombay to Boston, armed with only seven dollars' worth of rupees, a trunk of books, and a few clothes.
His spiritual master, His Divine Grace Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, had entrusted him with delivering India's vedic teachings to the English-speaking world.
And this was why, at age sixty-nine, he had come to America.
He told me he wanted to teach Americans about Indian music, cooking, languages, and various other arts.
I was mildly amazed.
I saw that Srila Prabhupada slept on a small mattress and that his clothes hung on lines at the back of the room, where they were drying in the summer afternoon heat.
He washed them himself and cooked his own food on an ingenious utensil he had fashioned with his own hands in India.
In this four-layer apparatus he cooked four preparations at once.
Stacked all around him and his ancient-looking portable typewriter in another section of the room were seemingly endless manuscripts.
He spent almost all of his waking hours--about twenty in twenty-four, I learned--typing the sequels to the three volumes I had purchased.
It was a projected sixty-volume set called the SrimadBhagavatam, and virtually it was the encyclopedia of spiritual life.
I wished him luck with the publishing, and he invited me back for Sanskrit classes on Saturdays and for his evening lectures on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
I accepted, thanked him, and left, marveling at his incredible determination.
A few weeks later--it was July 1966--I had the privilege of helping Srila Prabhupada relocate in a somewhat more respectable neighborhood, on Second Avenue.
Some friends and I pitched in and rented a ground-floor storefront and a second-floor apartment, to the rear of a little courtyard, in the same building.
The lectures and chanting continued, and within two weeks a rapidly growing congregation was providing for the storefront (by this time a temple) and the apartment.
By now Srila Prabhupada was instructing his followers to print and distribute leaflets, and the owner of a record company had invited him to record an LP of the Hare Krishna chant.
He did, and it was a huge success.
In his new location he was teaching chanting, vedic philosophy, music, japa meditation, fine art, and cooking.
At first he cooked--he always taught by example.
The results were the most wonderful vegetarian meals I had ever experienced.
(Srila Prabhupada would even serve everything out himself!) The meals usually consisted of a rice preparation, a vegetable dish, capatis (tortilla-like whole-wheat patties), and dal (a zestfully spiced mung bean or split pea soup).
The spicing, the cooking medium--ghee, or clarified butter--and the close attention paid to the cooking temperature and other details all combined to produce taste treats totally unknown to me.
Others' opinions of the food, called prasadam ("the Lord's mercy"), agreed emphatically with mine.
A Peace Corps worker who was also a Chinese-language scholar was learning from Srila Prabhupada how to paint in the classical Indian style.
I was startled at the high quality of his first canvases.
In philosophical debate and logic Srila Prabhupada was undefeatable and indefatigable.
He would interrupt his translating work for discussions that would last up to eight hours.
Sometimes seven or eight people jammed into the small, immaculately clean room where he worked, ate, and slept on a two-inch-thick foam cushion.
Srila Prabhupada constantly emphasized and exemplified what he called "plain living and high thinking." He stressed that spiritual life was a science provable through reason and logic, not a matter of mere sentiment or blind faith.
He began a monthly magazine, and in the autumn of 1966 The New York Times published a favorable picture story about him and his followers.
Shortly thereafter, television crews came out and did a feature news story.
Srila Prabhupada was an exciting person to know.
Whether it was out of my desire for the personal benefits of yoga and chanting or just out of raw fascination, I knew I wanted to follow his progress every step of the way.
His plans for expansion were daring and unpredictable--except for the fact that they always seemed to succeed gloriously.
He was seventyish and a stranger to America, and he had arrived with practically nothing, yet now, within a few months, he had single-handedly started a movement! It was mind-boggling.
One August morning at the Second Avenue storefront temple, Srila Prabhupada told us, "Today is Lord Krishna's appearance day." We would observe a twenty-four-hour fast and stay inside the temple.
That evening some visitors from India happened along.
One of them--practically in tears--described his unbounded rapture at finding this little piece of authentic India on the other side of the world.
Never in his wildest dreams could he have imagined such a thing.
He offered Srila Prabhupada eloquent praise and deep thanks, left a donation, and bowed at his feet.
Everyone was deeply moved.
Later, Srila Prabhupada conversed with the gentleman in Hindi, and since what he was saying was unintelligible to me, I was able to observe how his every expression and gesture communicated to the very core of the human soul.
Later that year, while in San Francisco, I sent Srila Prabhupada his first airline ticket, and he flew out from New York.
A sizable group of us greeted him at the terminal by chanting the Hare Krishna mantra.
Then we drove him to the eastern edge of Golden Gate Park, to a newly rented apartment and storefront temple--an arrangement very similar to that in New York.
We had established a pattern.
Srila Prabhupada was ecstatic.
A few weeks later the first mrdanga (a long clay drum with a playing head on each end) arrived in San Francisco from India.
When I went up to Srila Prabhupada's apartment and informed him, his eyes opened wide, and in an excited voice he told me to go down quickly and open the crate.
I took the elevator, got out on the ground floor, and was walking toward the front door when Srila Prabhupada appeared.
So eager was he to see the mrdanga that he had taken the stairway and had beaten the elevator.
He asked us to open the crate, he tore off a piece of the saffron cloth he was wearing, and, leaving only the playing heads exposed, he wrapped the drum with the cloth.
Then he said, "This must never come off," and he began giving detailed instructions on how to play and care for the instrument.
Also in San Francisco, in 1967, Srila Prabhupada inaugurated Ratha-yatra, the Festival of the Chariots, one of several festivals that, thanks to him, people all over the world now observe.
Ratha-yatra has taken place in India's Jagannatha Puri each year for two thousand years, and by 1975 the festival had become so popular with San Franciscans that the mayor issued a formal proclamation--"Ratha-yatra Day in San Francisco." By late 1966 Srila Prabhupada had begun accepting disciples.
He was quick to point out to everyone that they should think of him not as God but as God's servant, and he criticized self-styled gurus who let their disciples worship them as God.
"These 'gods' are very cheap," he used to say.
one day, after someone had asked, "Are you God?" Srila Prabhupada replied, "No, I am not God--I am a servant of God." Then he reflected a moment and went on.
"Actually, I am not a servant of God.
I am trying to be a servant of God.
A servant of God is no ordinary thing." In the mid-seventies Srila Prabhupada's translating and publishing intensified dramatically.
Scholars all over the world showered favorable reviews on his books, and practically all the universities and colleges in America accepted them as standard texts.
Altogether he produced some eighty books, which his disciples have translated into twenty-five languages and distributed to the tune of fifty-five million copies.
He established one hundred eight temples worldwide, and he has some ten thousand initiated disciples and a congregational following in the millions.
Srila Prabhupada was writing and translating up to the last days of his eighty-one-year stay on earth.
Srila Prabhupada was not just another oriental scholar, guru, mystic, yoga teacher, or meditation instructor.
He was the embodiment of a whole culture, and he implanted that culture in the West.
To me and many others he was first and foremost someone who truly cared, who completely sacrificed his own comfort to work for the good of others.
He had no private life, but lived only for others.
He taught spiritual science, philosophy, common sense, the arts, languages, the vedic way of life--hygiene, nutrition, medicine, etiquette, family living, farming, social organization, schooling, economics-and many more things to many people.
To me he was a master, a father, and my dearmost friend.
I am deeply indebted to Srila Prabhupada, and it is a debt I shall never be able to repay.
But I can at least show some gratitude by joining with his other followers in fulfilling his innermost desire--publishing and distributing his books.
"I shall never die," Srila Prabhupada once said.
"I shall live forever in my books."
He passed away from this world on November 14, 1977, but surely he will live forever.
Michael Grant (Mukunda dasa)
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