Lecture [Hindi and English-final proofreading pending] – November 15, 1975, Bombay

Prabhupada: This land of India is for the welfare of humanity, not for looting others. This is Caitanya Mahaprabhu's mission. The persons outside India are only planning how to loot others. This is not the plan of India. India's plan is to do welfare for the humanity. But people outside India do not know what is the aim of life. This we have to make them understand. We have to make our own life successful, and how to do it is being disclosed by the Lord Himself and by the devotees of the Lord. So we need to hear that, work naturally on that, and make life successful. Then you go and tell others about this and make their life successful also. This is Caitanya Mahaprabhu's mission:

There is much to say, but we are requesting you. This Indian culture is being accepted by many. It is not that we are talking in the air. Actually they are accepting. So this Krsna consciousness means that we take the message as spoken by Lord Krsna, understand it nicely, and preach this message to the rest of the world. You will see how the glories of India increase. This is our request to you.

Thank you very much.

Devotees: Jaya Srila Prabhupada. [break]

Audience member: ...who returns there never comes back here again. But we have come. So how is that we will not come back again?

Prabhupada: If you wish to come back, then you will. Because mukti, or liberation, means, just like I told you earlier,

This is called liberation. What is your constitutional position? Your constitutional position is jivera 'svarūpa' haya-krsnera 'nitya-dasa' [Cc Madhya 20.108], the servant of the Lord. But if you do not want to be the servant, then after mukti also you have to return to this world to become the servant of maya. We all will remain servants. Servitorship will not go away. But when we rebel that we will not be the servant of God, then become the servant of maya. This is a fact.

Audience member: Once we merge in God, we will not come back?

Prabhupada: [laughs] What will happen if you merge in Him? That is sayujya-mukti. There are five kinds of liberation-sayujya [Sayujya-mukti means merging into God's impersonal effulgence, the brahma-jyoti], sarūpya [Sarūpya-mukti means attaining a body exactly like God's.], salokya [Salokya-mukti means living on the same planet with God, sarsti [Sarsti-mukti means having the opulence of God], and samipya [Samipya-mukti means always remaining with God as one of His associates].

This meeting Him is the merging into the brahma-jyoti, the impersonal effulgence of the Lord. This merging is not the ultimate liberation. After this, we come back into this world. This is given in the scriptures: ye 'nye 'ravindaksa vimukta-maninas. By merging with the impersonal effulgence of Lord, he thinks that he is liberated. Tvayy asta-bhavad avisuddha-buddhayaḥ. Because he does not have any experience about the form of the Lord, therefore his intelligence is impure, not pure. That is why, aruhya krcchrena param padam tataḥ patanty adho [SB 10.2.32].

After performing many severe austerities, he merges with the impersonal effulgence of the Lord but again falls down. He again falls down. But if he goes back to God, lives with God, eats, drinks, walks with God, then he does not have to come back here. Yad gatva na nivartante tad dhama paramam mama [Bg 15.6].

But from the impersonal effulgence he has to return here, as he does not find any bliss there. Just like you may fly in an aeroplane in the sky for some time, but after some time you will be anxious to land the plane on the ground. So by going to the impersonal effulgence of the Lord he could experience eternity, sat, but not bliss. But to enjoy this bliss he has to come into this material bliss again.

So the sannyasis who give up this world, saying brahma satyam jagan mithya, they come back again to join politics or to open hospitals. Because they did not get anything there. This is the fact. Aruhya krcchrena param padam tataḥ patanty adho. They again engage in material affairs, as they did not enjoy bliss by merging with the Brahman. That is why you should go to the abode of the Lord. Yad gatva na nivartante tad dhama paramam mama. You should go there. Then the liberation is complete.

Audience member: Once one goes to Vaikuntha he doesn't come back again.

Prabhupada: Yes. Once we go to Vaikuntha, Vrindavana, then we don't have to come back here.

Audience member: Your Holiness, I would like to be enlightened on the etymology of "brahmacarya." There is lot of confusion. Brahmacarya is equated with celibacy, being a life-long celibate.

Prabhupada: Austerity means brahmacaris. Tapasa brahmacaryena [SB 6.1.13]. This austerity begins with the brahmacaris. If one does not practice brahmacarya, then he will not be able to remain steady. You can perform any kind of austerity, jnana, yoga, meditation; you need brahmacarya in that. It is not possible to indulge in unrestricted sense gratification and also become a big yogi. This is not possible. That is why tapasa brahmacaryena. It is written in the scriptures: tapasya, or austerity, begins with the brahmacari. Yajna-dana-tapaḥ-kriya na tyajyam. The Lord says we should not give up sacrifices, charity and austerity. I have taken sannyasa so let me also give up these things. I have given up my home etc that's all right, but give up austerity, sacrifice and charity also? Yajna-dana-tapaḥ-kriya pavanani manisinam [Bg 18.5]. This should not be given up. So these regulations for the brahmacarya increase the intellectual prowess quickly. So that is why these regulations are needed.

Audience member: Sarvam khalu idam brahma. If the whole world is Brahman, then all the anomalies like corruption, cheating propensity, gambling, drunkenness, lies, etc. are also emanating from this Brahman.

Prabhupada: Yes, just like in your house there is a toilet also. So we should not go there. We should go only to the room where the Deities are kept. Do you understand? Can you live in the toilet, saying that is also the part of the house? Is that a good idea?

Audience member: But we need to go once in a while.

Prabhupada: Yes, we need to go, but we must get out quickly. [everybody laughs and claps] If your mentality is such, then stay there. Who is stopping you? [laughter]

Audience member: Maharaja, the rules and regulations of Krsna consciousness movement are very nice. There are a lot of Life Members of your movement in Bombay. What are you doing for them to follow these regulations…

Prabhupada: Why don't you come? We have big houses built there for you. Come and stay. Why don't you come? After so many fights we are developing the Hare Krsna land. Is it for us to stay? Do we not have a place to stay? We are making it for you. Why don't you come?

You are all respectable people of Bombay, come and see, stay. We have written so many books. Read them, understand them, and then all things will work out. If you stay so far, then how will it work out?

Brahmananda: Srila Prabhupada? Here's one question.

Prabhupada: Yes?

Brahmananda: [reading question] "In your first chapter of Bhagavad-gita, I read we have to detach ourselves from worldly life and then surrender to God. Instead of concentrating on the emphasis to detach, should we just concentrate on the Almighty? Then, with His grace, the attraction towards worldly life will die out. Is that not enough? Or should we constantly struggle to kill the attachment with the maya?

Prabhupada: Attachment and detachment. Param drstva nivartate [Bg 2.59]. Unless you get a better thing, you cannot give up your attachment for the inferior thing. Therefore you have to increase your devotion to Krsna. Then you will be able to...

As soon as you engage in devotional service, devotional life to Vasudeva, janayaty asu vairagyam, very soon you will be detached with this material world. Bhaktiḥ paresanubhavo viraktir anyatra ca [SB 11.2.42]. The vivid example is yourself [Brahmananda]. You are American; your father is a great industrialist. How you have been able to give up everything and join Krsna consciousness movement? This is attachment and detachment. If you become attached to Krsna, then naturally you will be detached to material things. The more you become attached to Krsna, the more you become detached. That is the test. Just like if you are hungry, the more you eat, the hunger is finished. Similarly, we have got this tendency for enjoying this material world. The more we become attached to Krsna, then we forget this material world. This is attachment and detachment. You cannot remain simply detached. Then aruhya krcchena param padam tataḥ patanti adhaḥ, then you will again fall down. There must be some positive attachment. That positive attachment is Krsna. Then you will be able to be detached with this material world. Otherwise, it will be not possible.

Two things: if you want to get out of this maya, then you have to surrender to Krsna and become more attached by devotional service. Adau sraddha tataḥ sadhu-sahga. The processes are there.

So the summary is if you increase your attachment for Krsna. Just like Arjuna. Arjuna had already attachment for Krsna, but when he listened Bhagavad-gita from Krsna, he understood what is Krsna. Then, in the beginning, he was not listening to the order of Krsna, that "You must fight." But when he understood that "Krsna is my friend. Krsna is my life and soul," then he said, karisye vacanam tava [Bg 18.73]: "Yes. I shall do now. I shall kill. Never mind." This is attachment and detachment. First of all he had attachment to the family, and when he understood that "My real attachment is Krsna. Whatever He is saying, I shall do it..." This is attachment, detachment.

Audience member: Your Holiness? Our Hindu sages from times immemorial have enjoined the four purusarthas [objectives of life]-dharma, artha, kama and moksa. How do you...

Prabhupada: To become Krsna conscious you have to transcend even the dharma, artha, kama, moksa. Therefore in the Srimad-Bhagavatam, in the beginning it is said, dharmaḥ projjhita-kaitavo 'tra paramo nirmatsaranam vastavam vastu vedyam atra [SB 1.1.2]. So we have to... Sridhara Svami is giving his comment in this connection, atra moksa-vancha api nirastam. [here the desire for liberation is even refuted] You have to go beyond moksa-vancha; then there will be attachment for Krsna. Satyam param dhimahi. So this is ordinary things, dharma, artha, karma, moksa. And krsna-bhakti is beyond moksa. So you have to go beyond that. How you can go? That is by krsna-bhakti.

So this is the way. Mam ca yo 'vyabhicarena. If one takes to Krsna consciousness seriously, sa gunan samatityaitan brahma-bhūyaya kalpate, he very easily transcends the influence of the three modes of material nature, and immediately he becomes identified with his Brahman realization. That is wanted. [pause]

Now let us chant Hare Krsna.

Devotees: Jaya. [end]