|
700508IP.LA
Prabhupada: "A person who sees everything in relation to the Supreme Lord and sees all entities as His parts and parcels and who sees the Supreme Lord within everything never hates anything, nor any being." This is the stage of maha-bhagavata. In devotional service there are three stages. In the beginning it is called neophyte stage, beginners. The beginners are concentrated in the Deity worship. That is very important thing, to purify.
Prakrtah means, from material platform, one is coming to the spiritual platform at that stage one is taught or trained to worship the Deity with great faith and devotion under regulative principle. But in the neophyte stage, na tad-bhaktesu canyesu, he, the neophyte devotee, cannot understand who is highly elevated or devotee or what is his interest with other people. He cannot discriminate. Na tad-bhaktesu canyesu sa bhaktah prakrtah smrtah. That neophyte devotee is almost material. Then next stage is to make friendship, to love God, and to make friendship with devotees, and to be merciful to the innocent and to reject the atheist. Four classes of men. You have to offer all your love for Krsna and you have to make friendship with the devotees of Krsna. And those who are innocent, just preach this Hare Krsna mantra and try to attract them to Krsna. And another class, atheists, don't go there. Don't try there. Hopeless. Not hopeless. For a person who is not very much elevated, for him it is hopeless.
But when one is on the higher stage of devotional service, that system is explained here:
He has no discrimination who is devotee, who is nondevotee, who is atheist or theist, or who is... In this way, he sees everyone, the part and parcel of the Supreme Lord. And everyone is engaged... One who is suffering, he's also engaged, because... Just like the prisoner. The prisoner, he's also serving the governmentby force. Therefore one who is elevated, even those who are in abominable stage of life, the maha-bhagavata sees, "Oh, he's also obeying." Actually, it is obeying. The prisoners, they are obeying the government, although by force; but they're obeying. Similarly, those who are materialists, they are also obeying. Caitanya Mahaprabhu's, this philosophy, that jivera svarupa haya nitya krsna dasa [Cc. Madhya 20.108-109]. A living entity's eternally servant of Krsna, either he admits or not admits. That doesn't matter. He's a servant. Just like any citizen is law abider or subservient to the state. He may say that "I don't care for the state," but by the police, by the military, he'll be forced to accept. So one is being forced to accept Krsna as the master, and the other is voluntarily offering service. That is the difference. But nobody's free from the service of Krsna. That is not possible. Therefore Caitanya Mahaprabhu's philosophy that eternal servant. Either you accept or not accept, you are servant. You are never equal or greater than God.
So this Krsna consciousness movement is for that purpose, that people should be taught that "You are eternal servant of God. Don't falsely claim that you are God. You don't care for God. You have to care." Just like this Hiranyakasipu. He didn't care for God, but God came and, at the time of his last moment. You see? Similarly, God is visible to atheist as death and to the theist as lover. That is the difference. Everyone sees God. Nobody can say, "I do not see God." Everyone sees God. But one sees as death, and one sees as lover. That is the difference.
Link to this page: https://prabhupadabooks.com/classes/iso/los_angeles/may/08/1970 Previous: Sri Isopanisad, Mantra 5 -- Los Angeles, May 7, 1970 Next: Sri Isopanisad, Mantra 7 -- Los Angeles, May 9, 1970
|