Getting in Touch with God

"In the beginning was the Word." This indicates that before creation, transcendental sound existed. That word or transcendental sound is not like material sound, for if we associate with the transcendental sound Hare Krsna, we become purified and thus become transcendental. To give a crude example, if we put an iron rod into a fire, it will gradually become warmer and warmer until it becomes red hot. When it is red hot, it will no longer be iron; it will be fire. How has it become fire? By association with the fire. Therefore if you simply keep yourself in touch with God through the transcendental sound, gradually you will become godly, and as soon as you become godly, you will become the same in quality as God-full in riches, full in power, full in knowledge and everything else. Therefore the Vedic instruction is, "Don't keep yourself in darkness. Come to the light." At the present moment, the entire world, for want of godly understanding, is in darkness. But since we have the privilege of this human form of life, we should not stay in darkness, without knowledge of God and the soul.

As long as I think I am this body I am in darkness. One who has a material body has four needs-eating, sleeping, sexual intercourse and defense. Cats and dogs also eat, sleep, have sex and defend, but a human being should not be educated only in these four principles of animal necessities. The real need of humanity is the need to understand God. Therefore in every civilized human society there is some system of religion. Whether it is Christianity, Mohammedanism, Hinduism or whatever, in civilized society there must be some form of religion, and a human being is supposed to follow the religious principles to have complete knowledge of God and himself, to know the relationship between God and himself, and to know the goal of life. It doesn't matter whether one is Christian, Hindu or Muslim; the real purpose of life is to know God, or religion, consists of the codes given by God.

Therefore, in conclusion, there is God, and God's word indicates that God is a person. As soon as we accept the word of God, we have to conclude that God is a person. You are vibrating words and I am vibrating words, and this shows that we are persons. The word of God and God Himself are not different, yet God is a person, and He speaks. If He can speak, then He can also hear, smell, eat and perform all other sensual activities. If He could not hear, then our prayers to Him-"O God, please give us our daily bread"-would be useless. Therefore from the statements of the scriptures-whether the Bible or Bhagavad-gita-it is understood that God is a person like you.

As stated in the Vedas, nityo nityanam cetanas cetananam/ eko bahūnam yo vidadhati kaman. This verse indicates that God is the Supreme Being. Even in the dictionary it is stated that "God" refers to the Supreme Being. We are all beings, but God is the supreme being. Just as in every state there are citizens but there is one chief citizen or chief executive, so among the many living beings there is one supreme living being. Just as we are living beings, God is also a living being, and just as we are eternal, God is also eternal. But God is one, whereas we are many. And what is significant about that one? Eko bahūnam yo vidadhati kaman: that one-God-is maintaining all the other living beings. He is a person and we are persons, but because He is the one who maintains us, we therefore go to God to beg for our daily bread. By constitutional position, therefore, we are predominated, and God is the predominator; we are very small, and God is very great.

At the present moment, however, we are defying this position, and that is why we are in trouble. Our Krsna consciousness movement, therefore, is educating people to understand that since they are always subordinate to Krsna, if they surrender to Krsna they will be happy. Do not remain in a rebellious condition of life. Just surrender to God and you will be happy. That is the final conclusion of Bhagavad-gita (sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekam saranam vraja). We are making so many plans to become happy and they are failing, but if we take this plan, if we surrender to God, then all our problems will be solved. Our Krsna consciousness movement does not try to make Hindus into Christians or Christians into Hindus. That is not our purpose. Or only request to you is this: every one of you, try to understand God, love Him and be happy.

The final conclusion of Bhagavad-gita is that if you want your mind to be peaceful, you should understand three things: that God is the supreme enjoyer, that His is the proprietor of everything, and that His is the friend of everyone. If you very scientifically understand only these three things, then you life will successful.

You can understand these simple truths by chanting God's name: Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare / Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. Hare is an address to the energy of God, Krsna means God, who is all-attractive, and Rama is also a name of God. So in this verse-Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna Hare Hare / Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare-there are only three words: Hare, Krsna and Rama. Therefore anyone can chant these three names-Hare, Krsna and Rama-and make his life perfect. I hope that you will join us in chanting this Hare Krsna maha-mantra.