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760609SB.LA
Srimad-Bhagavatam 6.1.43

Los Angeles, June 9, 1976
Pradyumna: Translation: "The candidates for punishment are those who are confirmed by these many witnesses to have deviated from their prescribed regulative duties. Everyone engaged in fruitive activities is suitable to be subjected to punishment according to his sinful acts."
Prabhupada:
So you can say that "God is dead" or "There is no God," but that is not the fact. The atheist class of men, they want that there may not be any God; they can do whatever they like. That is not possible. Just like in a small state there are so many CID, police and so many other depart..., detectives, just to find out who is transgressing the law. So in this big government of the universe, how do you think that there is no system of finding out who is culprit? So what is adharma? Etair adharmo vijnatah. Adharma, irreligiosity, or transgressing the law, that is adharma. Dharma and adharma... Dharma means obeying the laws. Just like good citizens means who is obeying the laws of the state. He is good citizen. And other person who is disobeying, they are called outlaws. So what is dharma? Just like it is the duty of good citizen to abide by the laws of the state, similarly, dharmi, a person who is religious, means who is abiding by the laws of God. That's all. And who is not abiding, he is adharmi. That is the difference.
So what is our dharma? Living entities, we are part and parcel of God; we are not separated from God. Just like this finger is not separated from the whole body, a part of the body. So when Krsna says that "All these living entities, they are My part and parcel..." Mamaivamso jiva-bhutah jiva-loke sanatanah [Bg. 15.7]. Not that the part and parcel is differently created. As soon as the body is there, the part and parcel are also there. So what is the duty of the part and parcel? Just like this finger. I am feeling some itching sensation; immediately comes, naturally, without asking. It's always ready to serve. This is the duty of the part and parcel. So if we are part and parcel of God, then what is our duty? To serve God, that's all. This is our duty. So anyone who is serving always Krsna, or God, he is dharmi; he is in dharma. And who is not serving is adharma. Because a duty... It requires treatment. This finger, part and parcel of my body. I want to get some service from the finger, but if the finger is diseased or due to some pain or some injury it cannot serve the body, it requires treatment. This is natural. Similarly, punishment means treatment. Why government has opened so many prison house? So this punishment... Government does not desire to keep the prison house open and inviting, "Please come here." No, that is not the policy. Policy is that "One who is outlaw, diseased, he should be brought here and corrected."
So Yamaraja is for this purpose. When we are punished that is no envious envy on the part of God or His agent; it is our correction, I think the Yamaraja, er, the Yamadutas said in the beginning that "We have come to take Ajamila just to correct him." So dharma and adharma... Our real dharma is to serve God. That is our real duty. And as soon as we neglect this permanent service or occupation, then we are liable to be punished. You cannot become independent of God. That is not possible. That will (not) make you happy. The healthy condition of the finger is that it is able to serve the body. If the finger is not able to serve the body, that will mean unhealthy. Otherwise... Similarly, when we are engaged in Krsna consciousness and engaged in the service of the Lord, that is our healthy state. That is mukti, liberation. Mukti means no disease. So when we deny to serve Krsna, when we are not engaged in the service of Krsna, that is our diseased condition. That is not healthy condition.
So this Krsna consciousness movement is a treatment to cure this disease, atheist and rogues, to come to Krsna consciousness and be happy. This is Krsna consciousness movement. It is not an artificial thing to give you facility for your sense gratification. No. There is no question of sense gratification. That is disease. The healthy state is how to satisfy Krsna. That is bhakti. Bhakti definition, you know:
anyabhilasita-sunyam
jnana-karmady-anavrtam
anukulyena krsnanu-
silanam bhaktir uttama
[Brs. 1.1.11]
That is bhakti, no other business. Anyabhilasita-sunyam. Sunyam means zero. We are singing, ara na kariha mane asa **. Make all... They could not understand. They are so much atheistic that it was impossible for them to understand what is God, what is devotion. So therefore Lord Buddha propounded the philosophy, "Make all your nonsense activities zero, so much. First of all make zero, then positive we shall say." That is zero movement, sunyavadi. At least, if a rascal children is always doing something nonsense, then first of all stop him. Make him zero. Then good lesson: "Come. Do this." So this Buddhist movement means to make their atheistic activities zero. At least that is good. It is better not to... Maunam, silent. Instead of talking all nonsense, better be silent; don't create disturbance. So... And the other movement, nirvisesa-vadi, are giving little hint, Sankaracarya, Mayavada, that "Yes, this zero is not sufficient. There is positive." Brahma satyam jagan mithya. His movement was that "This material world is false; make it zero. But there is a positive thing which is Brahman." What is that Brahman, he did not disclose.
Then the Vaisnava acaryas, Ramanujacarya, Madhvacarya, they said, brahma satya. And what is Brahman? Brahmeti paramatmeti bhagavan iti sabdyate [SB 1.2.11]. Brahman, first realization, impersonal; then localized; then person. Just like Krsna says in the Bhagavad-gita, imam vivasvate yogam proktavan aham avyayam: [Bg. 4.1] "Long, long years ago, millions of years ago, I spoke this philosophy to the sun-god, Vivasvan." So, Krsna, as He was instructing Arjuna, similarly, He was instructing the sun-god that... Arjuna is a person. Krsna is a person. Similarly, sun-god is also a person, and Krsna is a person. And Krsna says in the Second Chapter of Bhagavad-gita that "My dear Arjuna, you, Me, and all of them who are standing here in this battlefield, we were existing in the past, we are existing now, and we shall continue to exist." So God is person; we are also person. We existed in the past as person, we are existing now as person and we shall continue to exist as person. There is no question of imperson. If past, present, future, everywhere is a person, where is the question of imperson? So imperson means... Just like the sun-god is person, but the sunshine is imperson. Those who are in the sunshine, they cannot understand what is sun-god. That is not possible. It requires strength. If you want to go and see the sun-god Vivasvan, that requires qualification. It is not so easy. You cannot enter even the sun planet, what to speak of talking with him. But Krsna could talk. Krsna can go anywhere. And when there is sun-god, then "god" means not alone. A king does not mean alone. King means he has got his kingdom, he has got his subjects, he has got minister, he has got military strength. Everything is there. So similarly, if we accept Krsna's statement that "I spoke to sun-god," the sun-god is there in the sun globe, and he has his kingdom, so dazzling kingdom. It looks like fire, blazing. But don't think it is impersonal. Impersonal? How Krsna could talk with him? There is no question of impersonality.
So here, adharmah vijnatah, the degrees. Real dharma is, Krsna is explaining in the Bhagavad..., sarva-dharman parityajya... [Bg. 18.66]. You have created, man-made, so many dharmas. So one Bengali Vaisnava, he has mentioned, prthivite yaha kichu dharma name cale, bhagavat kahe taha paripurna chale. Bhagavata, Srimad-Bhagavatam says, dharmah projjhita-kaitavo 'tra: [SB 1.1.2] "In the Srimad-Bhagavatam all kaitava"kaitava means cheating"cheating type of religious religious system is kicked out." Projjhita, dharmah projjhita-kaitavo atra. So dharma is one; religion is one. There cannot be different types of religion. That is concoction. Dharmam tu saksad bhagavat-pranitam [SB 6.3.19]. I have several times... So dharma and adharma. These witnesses are there to see who is disobeying the orders of the Lord. That is adharma. A clear order is that sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekam saranam vraja [Bg. 18.66]. This is dharma. Everything is explained in the Bhagavad-gita, what is jnana, what is dharma, what is vairagya.
So we have got this opportunity, this human form of life. As I was saying yesterday, krsna-bhuliya jiva... Anadi bahirmukha jiva krsna bhuli gela, ataeva krsna veda-purana karila. We do not know when, but since a very, very long time, anadi... Adi means it is beginning of this creation. And before that, anadi. Anadi bahir-mukha jiva. We are forgetful of Krsna since a very, very long time, and going within the cycle of birth and death, transmigration. So we get the opportunity, this human form of life. So we must revive our consciousness by going through, by understanding, by hearing these literatures. Veda-Purana. Veda-Purana. Anadi bahir-mukha jiva krsna bhuli gela. Our position is: we have forgotten God. But this forgetfulness can be subdued, and we can revive our original consciousness. Just like a man sleeping, but if you call him again and again, "Mr. such and such, get up. Get up. Now your time is to go to office and do this, to do that," similarly, although we are sleeping on the lap of maya, kota nidra yao maya pisacira kole, so we can be awakened by simply this chanting process, Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.
So this chanting Hare Krsna mantra will cleanse our heart. We are loaded with so many dirty things, so this can be cleansed. Ceto-darpana-marjanam bhava-maha-davagni-nirvapanam [Cc. Antya 20.12]. This Krsna consciousness movement is to cleanse the heart of the human being and get out all the..., projjhita, kick out all dirty things and concentrate on devotional service of Krsna. And the beginning is srnvatam, srnvatam, this process. It doesn't require that you should be very rich man or you should be very educated or so on, so on. No. In whatever position you are, remain. There is no question of artificial improvement. There is no question. You remain. Simply God has given you the ear. Utilize it properly. That's all. You don't require to go to the university and get a Ph.D. degree and then you can understand. No. That is Caitanya Mahaprabhu's mission, that,
Caitanya Mahaprabhu's movement is so nice that you don't require to acquire something artificial. No. Wherever you are, remain there. Simply hear. And preaching means to propagate or to vibrate what Krsna has said. So this is the position of the preacher, that you simply repeat, like a parrot, no qualification. You simply ... Whatever is said in the Bhagavad-gita, you repeat. And the others simply hear. Sravanam kirtanam [SB 7.5.23]. Then both of them become liberated. There is no question of that, to become a qualified person. This is the only qualification, that a preacher should preach only what Krsna has said. That's all. No manufacturing, no concoction. And the audience? They will hear from such person who does not speak anything else except Krsna's teaching, that's all. These two things, if carried, then your both the life,(?) the sravanam kirtanam, the one who is speaking and one who is hearing, both of them are benefited.
So this Krsna consciousness movement is opening so many centers just to give people opportunity to hear. To hear. So I am very glad that this church... This was a church, and nobody was coming here, and therefore it was sold to us. Now... You are all belonging to America, Los Angeles, and the church also was there. Now why it is crowded? It is not that you are imported from India to hear about Krsna. (laughter) So if there is substance, they will hear. If there is no substance, who will hear? That is the difference. So substance is here. Ataeva krsna veda-purana karila. You hear these Vedas and Puranas and make your life successful.
Thank you very much. (end)

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