SPD08-04 Bhagavad-gītā 4.13, April 8, 1973, New York
SPD08-04
Bhagavad-gita 4.13,
April 8, 1973, New York
Bhagavad-gita 4.13,
April 8, 1973, New York
SPD08-04 [62:32 Minutes]
[Introduction:] The following is a lecture of the Bhagavad-gita, Chapter 4, Verse 13, given by His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada in New York in 1973.
[07:42] [Prabhupada:] Catur-varnyam maya srstam. Catur-varnyam maya srstam.
[08:16] Catur-varnyam maya srstam guna-karma-vibhagasaḥ, tasya kartaram api mam viddhy akartaram avyayam [Bg. 4.13].
[08:35] This is a verse from Bhagavad-gita. Most of you know this book, Bhagavad-gita.
[08:44] It is very famous book of knowledge, and we are presenting Bhagavad-gita As It Is.
[08:57] This Krsna consciousness movement means to present Bhagavad-gita as it is, without any adulteration.
[09:12] So, Krsna says four classes of men, catur varnyam...
[09:23] Catur means four, and varna means division of society.
[09:34] Just like varna means color. As there are division of color-red, blue and yellow-
[09:48] similarly human being, human society, should be divided according to the quality.
[10:03] The quality is also called color.
[10:17] So there are three qualities in this material world. Three qualities,
[10:28] or three color: red, blue and yellow. You mix it, then you become 81 colors.
[10:45] Three colors. Three upon three multiplied, it becomes nine. Nine upon nine multiplied, it becomes 81.
[11:00] So there are 8,400,000 different forms of living entities, due to this mixture of different qualities.
[11:20] Nature is manufacturing different types of body according to the association
[11:30] of the living entity to the particular type of quality.
[11:38] Living entities are part and parcel of God.
[11:46] Suppose God is the big fire and living entities are just like sparks.
[11:55] The sparks, they are also fire. Sparks also, if one spark falls on your body, on your garment, it burns.
[12:09] But it is not as powerful as the big fire.
[12:14] Similarly, God is all-powerful, God is great.
[12:21] We are part and parcel of God, therefore our greatness is very, very small. Infinitesimal.
[12:34] God is great; therefore He has created so many universes.
[12:47] We cannot account for even one universe.
[12:54] This one universe which we see-the sky, the dome-within that sky, outer space,
[13:05] there are millions and trillions of stars, planets, they're floating,
[13:14] floating in the air. Everyone knows.
[13:19] We can float one sputnik in the sky, and we take so much credit,
[12:27] that "We have become very, very great scientist; we don't care for God."
[13:35] This is foolishness. Foolish person will say like that.
[13:41] But one who is intelligent, he knows that God is floating millions and trillions
[13:49] of planets in the sky, and what we have done in the comparison?
[13:56] This is intelligence.
[14:01] So we have become very much proud of our scientific knowledge,
[14:09] and therefore, at the present moment, we defy the existence of God.
[14:15] Sometimes we say that "I have become God now."
[14:19] These are foolish statements. You are nothing in comparison to the intelligence…
[14:28] He's also intelligent. Because we are part and parcel of God,
[14:34] that we can study what is God if we simply study ourself.
[14:42] Just like if you study a drop of seawater,
[14:48] if you analyze chemically, you'll find so many chemicals in that drop.
[14:55] So you can understand what is the composition of the sea:
[15:01] the same composition, but in greater quantity.
[15:07] That is the difference between God and ourself.
[15:13] We are small gods, we can say; small gods. Teeny, sample gods.
[15:22] Therefore, we are so much proud.
[15:25] But we should not be proud, because we should know that all our qualities are taken from God,
[15:38] because we are part and parcel.
[15:41] So originally all these qualities are there in God.
[15:47] And therefore Vedanta-sūtra says what is God, what is the Absolute Truth:
[15:54] Athatho brahma-jijnasa.
[15:57] When [we] inquire about God, about the Absolute Truth, the answer is immediately given:
[16:05] janmady asya yataḥ:
[16:09] "The Absolute Truth is that from whom everything comes, everything emanates."
[16:18] So everything is coming from God. He's the original source of all supplies.
[16:28] Now, what is our position? There are innumerable living entities,
[16:39] That is Vedic information. God is also a living entity like us, but He's the chief living entity.
[16:50] And we are also living entity.
[16:53] Just like one father. Father may have got twenty children, twenty sons.
[16:59] Formerly, they used to have one hundred sons.
[17:03] Now the fathers have no such power.
[17:07] But in the..., up to five thousand years ago, King Dhrtarastra gave birth to one hundred sons.
[17:21] Now we are… We say, we are saying that we are overpopulated.
[17:27] But that's not the fact. At the present moment, where is the question of overpopulation?
[17:35] Now, how many of us giving birth hundreds of children? No. Nobody.
[17:44] But formerly, a father could give birth to one hundred children.
[17:51] So there is no question of overpopulation.
[17:55] And even there is overpopulation, we get information…, information from the Vedas:
[18:07] that one chief living entity, God, He can maintain innumerable living entities.
[18:17] There is no question of overpopulation. This is a false theory.
[18:23] If God can create, He can maintain also.
[18:58] And actually, this is the fact. I am traveling all over the world.
[18:08] There are so much vacant places upon the surface of the globe
[18:15] that ten times more than the present population can be easily maintained.
[18:23] But we..., we..., we do not know how to use it.
[18:29] In Africa, in Australia, in your America, enough land still lying.
[18:37] But because we have encroached upon the land of Krsna, the difficulty's there.
[18:48] China is overpopulated. India is overpopulated.
[18:53] But if we take to Krsna consciousness, these difficulties will be over within a second.
[19:01] Krsna consciousness means to take everything Krsna's.
[19:07] I am also Krsna's. That is Krsna consciousness.
[19:11] Actually, that is fact. Everything… Krsna means God.
[19:16] Everything belong to God. I also belong to God. Īsavasyam idam sarvam
[19:25] Everything belongs to God. That's a fact. But we do not accept the fact.
[19:33] We take something illusory. Therefore it is called maya. Just like the Americans,
[19:44] they are claiming this land is for the American group.
[19:50] Similarly, other nations, they're… But the land actually belongs to God.
[19:57] The land, the sky, the water and the products in the land, in the sky, in the water,
[20:04] everything belongs to God. And we are children of God.
[20:10] We have got the right to live at the expense of father.
[20:16] Just like we live, small children, they live at the cost of father.
[20:23] Similarly, we also live by the arrangement of God.
[20:31] Why should we claim that this is our property?
[20:35] This is the idea of spiritual communism.
[20:39] In Bhagavata these things are stated, how to feel spiritual communism.
[20:47] In the spiritual communism…
[20:51] The present communist, they are thinking of the human being only,
[20:57] and the animals are being sent to the slaughterhouse,
[21:03] although the human being and the animal is born in the same land.
[21:09] Actually, they are also nationals. National means one who's born in that particular land.
[21:16] So why not these animals, national?
[21:20] But because they have no Krsna consciousness, they cannot think so broadly.
[21:27] They think nationalism means it is limited to the human being, not to the animals, not to the trees.
[21:38] But when you become Krsna conscious, you understand that the trees, the plants, the reptiles,
[21:47] the aquatics, the human beings, the beasts-everyone, each and everyone-part and parcel of God.
[21:58] According to their karma, they have got different bodies, the color, as I explained,
[22:14] These things are described in the Bhagavad-gita.
[22:18] One has got a different type of body according to his karma. Karmana daiva netrena jantor deha upapattaye .
[22:30] By karma we create next body. So this is a great science.
[22:36] People do not know how things are taking place, how there are so many species of life,
[22:45] how one is so-called happy, one so-called distressed; why one is rich, one is poor;
[22:53] why there are so many planets;
[22:56] why some of them are demigods and some of them are human being, some of them are animals.
[23:01] It is a great science. But there is no cultivation of this knowledge in the modern universities or educational institution.
[23:15] Perhaps we are the only group of men, we are trying to propagate this science of Krsna consciousness.
[23:26] But it is a perfect science to understand the position.
[23:33] Now, Krsna says, catur varnyam maya srstam guna-karma-vibhagasaḥ.
[23:41] Now the… When we are animals, we had to pass through animal bodies.
[23:47] By evolution, we have come to this human form of body.
[23:52] Now it is an opportunity to get out of this cycle of birth and death.
[24:02] This is our real problem. But people, because they have no education, poor fund of knowledge,
[24:10] there is no educational institution how transmigration of the soul takes place,
[24:18] they do not know. Big, big M.A., Ph.D.'s,
[24:21] but they do not know what is the actual position of the living entity.
[24:26] But that is the real problem. They do not know the real problem. The real problem is…
[24:36] It is stated in the Bhagavad-gita, janma-mrtyu-jara-vyadhi: birth, death, old age and disease.
[24:45] This is real problem. Nobody wants to take birth. At least, nobody wants to die.
[24:56] Birth and death. Wherever there is birth, there must be death.
[25:00] Anything which is born must die. So janma-mrtyu. And old age.
[25:11] So long you'll live, you have to change your position. So one position is this old age.
[25:20] Just like we have become old, there are so many complaints. Jara.
[25:27] And vyadhi: And when we become diseased... Everyone should become diseased.
[25:32] Everyone should become old. Everyone must die. This is the problem.
[25:38] Janma-mrtyu-jara-vyadhi duḥkha-dosanudarsanam.
[25:43] We are trying to mitigate all our miserable conditions of life. That is struggle for existence.
[25:53] We are scientist. We are discovering many counteracting processes to get out of distressed condition.
[26:02] But the difficult position, janma-mrtyu-jara-vyadhi, we are avoiding.
[26:09] Because we cannot do anything. We cannot even…
[26:16] The so-called science, they cannot solve this problem,
[26:22] although sometimes they falsely become proud that "By science we shall become immortal," and so on.
[26:29] These things were tried before also by atheistic class of men like Ravana, Hiranyakasipu.
[26:37] But it is not possible to become successful, to stop birth, death, old age and disease.
[26:45] That is not possible. If there is any possible process, that is Krsna consciousness.
[26:52] That is Krsna consciousness.
[26:55] If you become Krsna conscious, then you can get a body...
[27:05] Not get… You have already got the body, spiritual body,
[27:10] and upon that spiritual body, this material body has developed.
[27:16] Just like dress. Your coat is cut according to your body.
[27:22] Similarly, this material body is cut according to our spiritual body.
[27:29] We have got our spiritual body. This material body is covering, vasamsi jirnani, just like dress.
[27:41] You shirt and coat is the covering of your real body.
[27:44] Similarly, this body, gross body and subtle body, made of material elements…
[27:54] The gross body is made of earth, water, air and fire,
[28:00] and the subtle body's made of mind, intelligence and ego. This is the shirt and coat.
[28:06] Within this shirt and coat, there is the soul.
[28:10] So the soul is now encased in this material body,
[28:16] and our business in the human form of body... In animal form of body, we cannot do this,
[28:24] but the human form of body we can understand that "I am not this body."
[28:31] The body, this material body, is an outer encasement. And because I have got this body,
[28:42] I am subjected to birth, death, old age and disease.
[28:45] Now, in the human form of body, I understand it. So if I take the process
[28:55] how to get out of this cycle of birth and death, then our human life is successful.
[29:03] This is Krsna consciousness movement, how we are helping people how to get out of this material body
[29:14] and revive your own spiritual body. And in that spiritual body, you go back home, back to Godhead.
[29:24] This is the process. Tyaktva deham punar janma naiti.
[29:29] But people are so attracted to this material body that they are prepared to become cats and dogs next life,
[29:42] but they are not prepared to go back to home, back to Godhead.
[29:44] This is the problem. So why this problem?
[29:51] Because the human society is in chaos. A chaotic condition.
[29:58] There must be division of four classes.
[30:04] One class must be brahmana, intelligent class of men.
[30:09] And one should be ksatriya, one class, the administrator,
[30:15] because human society, they require good consulting brain, good administrators,
[30:22] good producers and good worker. That is the division of brahmana, ksatriya, vaisya, sūdra.
[30:31] Therefore Krsna says, catur varnyam maya srstam.
[30:38] In order to keep smooth facilities for human life, there must be four divisions.
[30:48] If you say that "We don't require brahmana..."
[30:53] If you don't require brahmana, then you'll suffer. Just like you have got this body,
[31:01] and if you think, "This part of the body is very expensive, always eating. Cut it off,"
[31:08] then you'll be dead. Similarly, just to keep your body in good condition, in living condition,
[31:21] you must have your head, you must have your arms, you must have your belly, you must have your legs.
[31:28] You cannot say that "I can avoid this part of the body." No.
[31:33] Similarly, catur varnyam maya srstam, the four divisions of the society, must be there.
[31:42] Otherwise it will be chaotic, or dead body.
[31:45] So at the present moment, the difficulty is there is no brahmana, there is no ksatriya.
[31:54] There are only the vaisyas and the sūdras, belly. Vaisya means belly, and sūdra means the leg.
[32:07] So if out of the four divisions, one is wanting... [break]
[32:15] ...and one who knows God, that is brahmana. And keeping in view God, they teaches others to become God conscious.
[32:28] Without becoming God conscious, the human society is simply animal society.
[32:34] Because animals cannot be God conscious, however you may go on preaching amongst the animal,
[32:42] cats and dogs. It is not possible, because they have no brain to understand what is God.
[32:50] So in the human society, if there is no brahmana who can teach about God,
[32:58] who can elevate person to God consciousness, then it is also animal society.
[33:05] Simply eating, sleeping and sex life and defense, these are the business of the animals also.
[33:17] The animals also know how to eat, how to sleep, how to enjoy sex life, how to defend.
[33:24] They know in their own way.
[33:26] So simply to do these business does not mean human being.
[33:33] Then the human..., the mission of human being will not be fulfilled.
[33:37] There must be the four classes of men, as Krsna recommends: catur-varnyam maya srstam.
[33:46] There must be a brahminical class of men, a ksatriya class of men, a vaisya class…
[33:55] There are already, but they're not very scientifically settled, as it is propounded in the Bhagavad-gita:
[34:04] catur-varnyam maya srstam. These are guna-karma-vibhagasaḥ. Guna means according to quality.
[34:13] So in India, these four classes of men are there, but they are in the name.
[34:22] Actually it is also in the chaotic condition,
[34:26] because nobody is following the prescription as given by Bhagavad-gita,
[34:32] guna-karma-vibhagasaḥ.
[34:35] In India, although a person born in a brahmana family, but his guna, qualities, are less than sūdra,
[34:44] but still he's being accepted as a brahmana. That is the difficulty.
[34:51] Therefore, India's condition is so chaotic.
[34:53] But this is a scientific process. You Western people, you should try to understand that.
[35:02] And our boys and girls who have joined, they are trying to understand and execute the principles.
[35:09] So if you take up this Krsna consciousness movement, which is meant for the brahmanas,
[35:18] if you become brahmana by quality, then your the Western nations will be…,
[35:26] especially in America, they'll be first-class nation.
[35:29] They'll be first-class nation. You have got intelligence. You have got resources.
[35:35] You are also inquisitive. You catch up good things.
[35:41] So you have got good qualities. You take up this Krsna consciousness movement seriously,
[36:05] and you'll become the first-class nation of the world.
[35:52] That is my request. Thank you very much. Hare Krsna.
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