32--Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 7.5.5

Prabhupada: My first impression of this temple is that I find that it is very nicely [indistinct]. The room is also very nice, and I understand that the strength of this [indistinct], there must be students. So I hope that many students should attend these class. The attendance is not so satisfactory. Student life is the life of reception.

Prahlada Maharaja...

[break]… a great student devotee happened to be born in family of atheists. His father was great atheist, but the boy some way or other got instruction from Narada Muni while he was in the…, within the abdomen of his mother. But he was inspired, and since his very childhood he was chanting Hare Krsna. When he was five years old only he was chanting Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna. So his father was materialistic. He wanted that "My son should be very much educated in politics, economics, how to gather money, how to enjoy senses," as the materialists are concerned-money and woman. So his father was teaching him like that, or he wanted…, he instructed to some teacher to teach him all these politics and economics. But the boy would not take lessons from the teacher. He tried to understand the Krsna movement.

So one day the father wanted to test him, "How my son has advanced in education?" So the boy was five years old, and he took him on his lap, "My dear child, can you tell me what nice things you have learned from your teacher? The best thing you have learned?" The child replied that "I have not learned anything best from my teacher, but I know the best thing. If you allow me to speak, then I will say." Father was affectionate. Generally, fathers are affectionate so long the boy is not disobedient to him. "All right." So the child is replying to the father,

This is in Sanskrit. I shall translate. He says, "My dear father…" Not "my dear father"-asura-varya. So "My dear the best of the atheists," asura-varya. Asura means "atheist"; varya means "best." So his father was the best atheist, first-class atheist. So he is addressing his father, "O the first-class atheist." He was not afraid of his father. He addressed his father as atheist, challenged him.

And he was an atheist. There was no insult, because he was atheist; he did not believe in God. So if his son addressed him, "You disbeliever or unbeliever in God," that is not insult. He did not believe it. But generally even that person is addressed as atheist, sometimes he becomes angry. Just like if a man is blind, if you call, "You blind," oh, he is angry, although it is a fact that he is blind. Therefore in social behavior it is said that if you speak the truth, but palatably: satyam bruyat priyam bruyat… [Manu-samhita 4.138] Truthfulness is very good, but you must say truth very palatably. Unpalatable truth, you do not...then [indistinct]. If a man is a thief, and if you call, "You thief," oh, he will be angry, because it is unpalatable. But if a man is thief and you address him, "O the great honest," he will be very much pleased. This is the social convention. But those who are preachers, they cannot, those who are actually philosophers, they cannot say anything palatable or unpalatable so much. There are many instances in your Western part of the world. Lord Jesus Christ, he believed in God: "God is great." People wanted him to say just the opposite, but he did not agree with that, and he was crucified. That is all right. But he did not change anything. Similarly, Socrates, he believed in the immortality of the soul, and he was forced to disbelieve it. But he did not say the opposite. That is a sign of really followers of the Absolute. Similarly, this boy, although he knew that "My father is very powerful, and he can do anything whatever he likes," but still he is addressing his father "the first-class atheist."

So he said that "If you ask me what is the best thing, that I will say: tat sadhu manye. That is the best thing." What is that? Tat sadhu manye 'sura-varya dehinam. Dehinam means persons, or the living entities, who have accepted this material body. Dehi. Deha means this body, and dehi means one who possesses this body, the possessor of this body. Both…, all of us sitting here, we possess, each one, a separate body. Your body and my body, there is no similarity. Suppose you are sitting here sixty heads, you won't find two heads exactly have the same body. It is not possible. Although you Americans, you are all white men, but still there are so many differences. If you particularly analyze each other you won't find each body of the same type. That is not possible. Even the bodies are the same kind, the finger impression will be different. That is the law of nature. So this law of nature is so made, such variety. How you can make it without variety? The impersonalists, they want to make everything void. Void means devoid of variety. But that is not possible. The impersonalist, they are eager to make everything void, means variety-less, because they have got a very bitter experience of this material variety. But there is spiritual variety. They have no taste for that spiritual variety; therefore they want to make this unpleasant variety as void. But actually this is not possible.

So Prahlada Maharaja is describing all men in this material world who has this material body. There are 8,400,000 species of varieties of body. Out of that, the human species are only 400,000. Out of that, civilized men are very few. So dehinam means of all living entities who has this material body. Prahlada Maharaja is describing the medicine for them. So why medicine? What is the disease? This is also..., describing that everybody, anyone who has accepted this material body… Please note this, that I have accepted this material body. How I have accepted I shall explain, but every one of us has accepted a particular type of body according to his own desire. Nature is so kind or so liberal, or God is so kind and so liberal, as you want, He supplies you.

The Vedic mantra says,

This is the description of the Absolute Truth, or the Supreme Personality of Godhead. What is that? That the Supreme Personality of Godhead, He is also a living entity like us. As we are all living entities, similarly the Supreme Personality of Godhead is also a living entity, but He is the chief living entity. That's all. Nityo nityanam. Nityo means "eternal." We are all eternal. We are changing our body just like we change our dress, but we are eternal. Unfortunately, the modern civilization…, the modern education do not give us opportunity to study what is the nature of the spirit soul. In the education departments in the universities, there are so many departments for education-engineering department or medicinal department, technical department-so many departments, but there is no department to study what is that eternal spirit, or soul.

So actually from Vedic information and from practical experience also... We should not accept Vedic version blindly. One has to accept any truth with reason, argument and conviction. So we are eternal; that is proved by this version of the Bhagavad-gita. The Bhagavad-gita, Krsna, He gives instruction to Arjuna how the living entity is eternal. He says, dehino 'smin. Dehi means "the body."

As in this body there is the proprietor of this body… As the proprietor, when he comes out of the body of the mother, has got a very little body, then he gets another body-a more bigger body or still bigger, still bigger, still bigger. So he is taking different bodies, but the proprietor is the same. The idea is that although the proprietor of this body is the same, he is getting different bodies even in this life. You may say that it is growing, but it is a different body. The child born with a body, that body is no longer existing. All you are young boys and girls here. When you were born, your body was so small. Where is that small body gone?

So even in this life, as we have been changing several kinds of body-not several, but every minute we are changing body. That is a medical science. That are changing our body, blood corpuscles, and therefore we're changing the shape of our body. That is medical science. So changing the body or getting different bodies the same. Just like if you change this apartment, go to another apartment, or you get different apartment it is the same thing. Similarly, Bhagavad-gita says,

As you are changing different kinds of body even within this duration of life, similarly, when we change at the ultimate end for another body, that is called death. And dhiras tatra na muhyati, and those who are sober, those who are intelligent, they are not perplexed or bewildered by such change. So we are changing body, and the Vedic literature says that we are eternal. As we are eternal, and we are part and parcel of God, then God is also eternal. Because if the part and parcel is eternal, then the whole must be eternal. You have to be.

So Vedic literature confirms this, that nityo nityanam cetanas cetananam [Katha Upanisad 2.2.13]. Cetanaḥ means having consciousness. Cetanaḥ means… Just like this watch, it has no consciousness; but a small ant, I mean, walking within this stairway, it has got consciousness. Cetanaḥ. Cetanaḥ means consciousness. So Vedic literature confirms it that the Supreme Lord is the chief living entity, and He is being the supreme conscious person. As we are conscious, so He… We are part and parcel; then why the whole is not conscious? Just like a drop of water from the Atlantic Ocean, if it is salty, it is to be understood that the whole water of Atlantic Ocean is also salty. Similarly, if you want to study what is God, then you study yourself and you understand what is God. You are living; God is living. You are conscious; God is conscious. You have got this propensity; God has got His propensity. Everything, whatever you have got, the same chemical analysis. Just as a drop of water from the sea has the…, all the chemical compositions as the sea, the vast mass of sea. The difference is this is drop and that is vast mass of water. Similarly, God and you, both are of the same quality. Qualitatively you are one, but quantitatively you are different. Quantitatively you are not so great as God is great. Therefore God is great; we are all small. That is the axiom of the truth. Everyone knows-at least those who believe in God-they say, "God is great." So we should accept that. That God is great and we are small, or God is superior and we are inferior. This is called Krsna consciousness.

Krsna consciousness is nothing extraordinary that we have invented. Krsna means the Supreme, the all-attractive. If God is not all-attractive, then how He can be God? Even in this material world, if somebody is attractive somehow or other, what are the symptoms of his attractiveness? If you become a very wealthy man, you are attractive, just like in your country the Fords, the Rockefellers, the Carnegies, they are very…, the whole world over they are known. Why? Because they are wealthy. So wealthy-ness is one attraction. Similarly, if one is famous-either politically or scientifically or any form-he is also attractive. If one is very much influencial, he is also attractive. If one is very strong, just like Sandow or somebody else, bodily strength or military strength-just like your nation is considered to be strongest because you have got powerful weapons to fight. So this is also attraction. Your wealth is attractive, your strength is attractive-so these are attractive features. Similarly, if a person is very learned, wise, then he is also attractive. Similarly, if somebody is in the renounced order, he is also attractive.

So the definition of God is given by Parasara Muni that one who has got six opulences, attractive opulences, He is God-the wealthiest, the most famous, the most learned, the most beautiful; similarly all the attractive features. Krsna means He has got all the six attractive features in full. When Krsna was present in this world, He proved that He is all-attractive. There are many instances; if you read Srimad-Bhagavatam you will find, at least you will know, that He was the wisest man, if He is taken as man. He was the wisest man. Not "was"; He is the wisest man still. How? You read His Bhagavad-gita, which is still present. He instructed this Bhagavad-gita to Arjuna. So it is so full of wisdom that many very, very big scholars, they are studying Bhagavad-gita for the whole life, and still some of them, they cannot understand the mystery of it. They are attracted to read it. Not only in India but in all other countries. I have seen in your country at least there are more than one dozen, I have seen, English version of Bhagavad-gita, and still I am publishing one edition of Bhagavad-gita from your country. Messrs Macmillan and Company, they have been pleased to publish this book; I am writing the Bhagavad-gita As It Is. Unfortunately, Bhagavad-gita has been interpreted by different scholars according to each whimsical idea. But it should be studied as it is. Then we can appreciate. So I'm trying to present one English edition of Bhagavad-gita, namely Bhagavad-gita As It Is, and it is being published by Macmillan, a big publisher of your country.

So the point is that God is extraordinary in the sense that the quantity of His qualifications is very, very, very great. Therefore God is great. And the same qualification we have also got, but that is very, very, very, very small. God is infinite, and the other is infinitesimal. That is the difference.

The Vedic literature says that singular number, eternal personality, or the conscious person, is the maintainer of all consciousness. Eko bahūnam yo vidadhati kaman. Kaman means "necessities." So if you study, who is supplying your necessities? Not only your necessities. You may say that we have developed our economic condition; we have started so many producing factories, farms, and so many things we can say. That is in human society more or less what you have there. But as I have already explained, that the human being, living entities, are very, very small in comparison to the other living entities. They are 8,000,000, and we are only 400…, 400,000, and they are 8,000,000. Now what is their economic problem? Have you seen ever any sparrow or any bird has died of starvation? No. No animal dies of starvation. No bird dies of starvation. Neither human beings. That means God has provided everyone's food. There is no doubt about it. Therefore the Vedic literature says, eko bahūnam vidadhati kaman: that one Supreme supplies all the necessities of the others. Now what is the problem of economic solution? Suppose you construct a very high skyscraper building. So far the material is concerned-the brick, or the cement, the iron, the wood… [break]

There are so many things if we study Vedic literature very nicely. So you can understand of these facts very nicely. So this Krsna consciousness movement is just to understand our relationship with the Supreme Lord. You can remain in your position; it doesn't matter. You remain as American; I remain as an Indian. You remain as householder or a student; I may remain as a sannyasi or a renouncer. It doesn't matter. You sit on chairs; I sit on ground. These things are not very essential things. The real progress is that we are part and parcel of the Supreme Lord. He is the supreme conscious personality and we are infinitesimal conscious personality. Our problem is that we have forgotten the Supreme and we are trying to act individually, independently to the Supreme Lord. If you try independently, you will never be happy; you will always remain unhappy. For example, we may give… Like the whole body, and the finger is the part and parcel of the body. So long the finger works for the whole body, the finger has value, and if you cut off this finger from this body, then it has no value. Suppose my finger's cut out, amputated, and it is lying on the ground. I don't care for it. I throw it; I kick it. But so long the finger is with this body, if there is any trouble I can spend millions of dollars for recovery. Therefore the value of the finger is so long…, as long as it is attached to this body. And what is the function of the body? Function of the finger? Some turn of the finger. I say, "Oh, finger is attached together like this one. Finger, you come here." "Yes." Therefore the part and parcel of the body, finger, is to carry out the order of the whole. Similarly, if Krsna, or the Lord, is the Supreme Conscious Personality, and if you carry out the order of the Supreme Personality, then you can be happy. Otherwise there is no happiness. This is Krsna consciousness. Thank you very much.

[pause] If there is a question?

Question: [indistinct]

Prabhupada: No. Just like you are a student in an institution, and when the teacher will confirm that "Yes, you are right," then you pass the exam; otherwise not. If you say that "I have understood this science like this," that will not be accepted. Two plus two equal to four. If somebody imagines that two plus two equal to five, that will not be accepted. So you cannot imagine whether you are Krsna conscious, or God conscious. You have actually to define it, and that has to be confirmed by the representative of Krsna. Then it is. Otherwise it is wrong. Anybody, but mostly it is wrong. You cannot manufacture. That is being done at the present moment. Everyone is manufacturing his own religion, own God, own idea. They don't accept this truth. That is a great science. They accept all other sciences, so scientifically. And the most important science of God consciousness, they manufacture their own ideas. That's wrong. Science means you cannot interpret. Science is truth. Two plus two equal to four-always four. You cannot say, "Oh, I may think it is five." That is not fact. So you cannot interpret. If you do that, then you will never know what is… Eh?

Question: [indistinct]

Prabhupada: Happy, you do not know what is happiness. Happiness, you accept… Happiness means, just like a man is struggling hard, and after struggling say for so many years, if he is happy or gets…, achieves the result for one year, he thinks that he is happy. Here happiness means the counteracting the process of distress. There is no happiness. Here we imagine happiness by counteracting the process of distress. You do not know what is actual happiness. Actual happiness is, just like I am explaining, eternal life. "Oh, this nonsense we do not know what is eternal life?" They are satisfied with this span of life, fifty years, forty years, fifty years. That's all. So what is their happiness? The death is there. This birth is there. The old age is there. The disease is there. Then what is your happiness? You are struggling against death; you are struggling against birth; you are struggling against old age; you are struggling against disease. Have you stopped them? Then what is happiness? You are falsely believing that this is happiness. There is no happiness. In the material world there cannot be any happiness. Otherwise… You are the foremost country in the world, and you have got enough food, enough money, everything enough. Why hundreds and thousands of frustrated young youths are confused? They are leaving your country. Why? This is not the process of happiness. You do not know what is happiness. Happiness is described in the Bhagavad-gita:

That happiness which is real happiness, that is to be understood by your transcendental senses, not with this material senses. Sense happiness, as you have got experience, that is not happy. That has reaction. So that is not happiness. We do not know what is happiness. You have to learn what is happiness.

Question: [indistinct]

Prabhupada: You cannot understand that you..., you are not this body? That I have already explained, just now-that you are changing your body. You have got this body. That is… How you have got this body, that is a different issue.

Question: [indistinct]

Prabhupada: Begin...This is a very nice, intelligent question. The answer is in the Bhagavad-gita. Just like if a person is in the prison house for many, many years, from say childhood, if he inquires this question, that "Wherefrom this prison life began?" so the best answer is, instead of tracing out the history, that "When this miserable conditions of body has begun?"… One has to understand that this body is miserable. Do you think that this body is not miserable?

Question: [indistinct]

Prabhupada: Yes. It is... That pleasure I have already explained. That pleasure is nothing but a counteraction of the distress. That is not pleasure. So first of all we have to understand that "I am not this body, and I have somehow or other I have contacted this body, and the body is the source of all miseries." If you understand these three things, then our spiritual life, or real life, begins. And unless…, we do not understand the basic principles of this body, there is no question of spiritual life.

Question: [indistinct]

Prabhupada: Yes. The same thing, that as a prisoner, if he inquires that "Why I have become in this unpleasant condition of prison life?" the only answer is that "You have disobeyed the laws of God." Similarly, because we have disobeyed the Supreme Personality of Godhead, because we have disobeyed to cooperate with Him, as the finger is to cooperate with the whole body, it has become useless. Therefore, originally my position is pleasurable, or as it is stated in the Vedanta-sūtra 1.1.12], ananda-mayo 'bhyasat.

Selected verses from the Upanisads. The living entity is joyful by nature. So in this conditional life you are trying to be joyful, because my nature is joyful. But the circumstances is different. Therefore I have to change the circumstances. That is called Krsna consciousness. You have to change your consciousness. That's all.

Question: [indistinct]

Prabhupada: So you have to regain your original position.

Question: [indistinct]

Prabhupada: Because we have got independence. You are sitting here. You shall go away nobody can check it. Because God is fully independent, and you are part and parcel of that supreme independent. You have got a minute independence also, but as soon as you misuse your independence, you are fallen.

Question: [indistinct]

Prabhupada: Yes. If you make your life perfect while you are living, then you will become perfect after. If you prepare yourself nicely, then you pass your exam. Not that simply by sitting on the examination table you pass your exam. Similarly, you have to prepare yourself for the best life, next. That is the prerogative of the human life. If we act like cats and dogs and simply engage ourselves like cats and dogs, eating, sleeping, mating and defending, then we don't prepare for the best life. These things are being done by cats and dogs. They also eat, they also sleep, they also have sexual intercourse, and they also defend according to their capacity. Do you mean to say if you make these four things in a polished way and in an advanced way, is that civilization? It is cats' and dogs' business. Your civilization will be advanced when you understand why I am suffering. "I want pleasure. Why I am in distress?" If you inquire from that point of view, then your civilization is... [end]