Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.2.17 – July 18, 1974, New Vrindavan

What is the special qualification of the swan?

[recorded on faulty equipment]

Nitai: "Sri Krsna, the Personality of Godhead, who is the Paramatma [Supersoul] in everyone's heart and the benefactor of all the truthful devotees, cleanses the desire for material enjoyment from the heart of the devotee who relishes His messages, which are in themselves virtuous when properly heard and chanted."

Prabhupada:

Krsna says in the Bhagavad-gita, suhrdam sarva-bhūtanam.

This is the way of santi. Santi means "peacefulness." How it is? Not by this peace treaty. That kind of santi, or peace, is going on perpetually-there is never santi; it is simply formality. Santi cannot be attained without Krsna consciousness. Peacefulness, it is not possible. Temporary, you can make some arrangement, but it has no value. Even amongst the relatives-father and the son or husband and wife, brother and brother-there is no peace. Everywhere there is some disagreement and separation. This is the law of nature, of the material world, not of the spiritual world. Spiritual world, there is santi. The material world: envious. "If you improve more than me, I will become your enemy." This is the nature of material life.

Therefore, the bhagavata-dharma, or the cult of Srimad-Bhagavatam, is not meant for the materialistic person. It is for the person who is spiritually interested. "Spiritually interested" means he is a paramahamsa. Parama means "the supreme," and hamsa, hamsa means "the swan." Paramahamsa means "the supreme swan." What is the special qualification of the swan? That if you give the swan to drink milk mixed with water, it has got a special power: she will drink the milk portion, and the water portion will not touch. Hamsa. And paramahamsa means the person who knows what is the essence of this material world. He is called paramahamsa-who knows.

Just like we are all living entities. You have got your body; I have got my body; everyone has got his body. And what is the essence of this body? The essence of this body is the life. If there is no life, you may have very nice, beautiful body; I may have very strong, beautiful body; but as soon as the life is gone, it is has no use[?]. Therefore the essence of the body is the [indistinct]. Similarly, this big, gigantic body, cosmic manifestation, there is also life. Otherwise, how it is going on? Anyone can understand this philosophy, that this body is very important, belonging to such-and-such great personality, scientist or philosopher, politician-whatever it may be-but so long the life is there. Otherwise, no more politician, no more scientist, no more philosopher. Similarly, it is very simple to think: unless there is life within this cosmic manifestation, how things are going on so nicely?

So one who is interested with that essence of this gigantic cosmic manifestation, he is called paramahamsa. He is no more interested in any other thing. Active principle. What is the active principle? Just like medical science, they take active principle from a drug. Similarly, those who are paramahamsa, they can understand that what is the active principle of this cosmic manifestation. There must be some. Must be some. There is no doubt. But one who is interested knows. Therefore, in the beginning of the Srimad-Bhagavatam it is said, dharmaḥ projjhita-kaitavo 'tra paramo nirmatsaranam satam vastavam atra vedam atra [SB 1.1.2].

Here in the Srimad-Bhagavatam. So with this idea, to become paramahamsa, or to understand the central point-because if you simply understand the central point, then everything is understood. That is Vedic injunction. Yasmin vijnate sarvam evam vijnatam bhavati [Munḍaka Upanisad 1.3]. If you simply understand Krsna, then everything becomes understood. It is so nice. Yasmin vijnate. By understanding the Absolute Truth, Krsna, sarvam evam vijnatam bhavati, everything becomes understood.

Just like one big scientist, our disciple, Dr. Svarūpa Damodara dasa, M.S., Ph.D., he has dedicated his very advanced scientific book-we cannot even utter the words, [indistinct], like that [laughter]. So [laughs], he is a great scientist, admitted by many universities: Gauhati University, Calcutta University, here in Boston University, and then again California University. He is not ordinary man. But he admits in his dedication that "I dedicate this book to my spiritual master, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, because he has given me the real knowledge that Krsna is the origin of everything."

Now, I am not a scientist. I am not a scientist, but I could teach a scientist, or convince him, that Krsna is the original, the origin of everything. And unless he is convinced that Krsna is the origin of everything, how he has written it? So many scientists will challenge him, but he is prepared to accept this challenge. So how it was possible for me to convince a big scientist? It was exactly as I have stated: that if you understand Krsna, then you can teach even the greatest scientist, the greatest philosopher, greatest politician-everyone. That is Krsna [indistinct]. You don't require to be a great scientist to teach a scientist; but if you simply understand Krsna, then you will be able to teach even the greatest scientist. The greatest philosophers, greatest anyone, let them come; we shall teach. We shall become their teacher. We challenge. Why? Because we know a little about Krsna.

There is a verse in the Bhagavata, athapi te deva padambuja-dvaya-prasada-lesanugrhita eva hi janati tattvam. One devotee says, "My dear Lord, one who has got a little fragmental grace of Your lotus feet, he knows the Absolute Truth."

"A devotee of Krsna, he can understand the tattva, the truth, simply a little mercy, by the mercy of Krsna. Others, they may continue to speculate for many, many births, they will not understand You." Therefore Bhagavad-gita, Krsna says, bahūnam janmanam ante jnanavan mam prapadyate [Bg 7.19]. Just like this scientist, he has surrendered. His study of science is perfect. When one surrenders to Krsna, perfectly knowing well that Krsna is the origin of everything, that is the perfection of knowledge. In another place, the... I think in this chapter, you will find,

Everyone is engaged in different occupational duties, whatever he may be. But one should be interested to know whether, by executing this kind of duty, "Whether I am becoming perfect?" But they have no such interest. Neither they could know what is perfection. That human life is meant for achieving the perfection. That is the aim of life.

So there are so many things, but we must know that if we understand Krsna slightly in truth, then our life is perfect. Not that… You cannot understand Krsna fully. He is so big and so unlimited. So this is not possible. Krsna even Himself does not know how great He is. "God is great," we say, but we do not know how great is God. That is intelligence. So that greatness..., you cannot understand Krsna or Krsna's greatness. Life after life, hearing with thousands of millions of ears, still you will not be able to understand. Ananta, Ananta-deva is explaining about Krsna by… Ananta, or unlimited faces..., mouth, unlimited mouths. He has got many mouths-still He could not finish. So that is not possible. But if you try to understand about Krsna, then Krsna will help you how to understand. That is stated: srnvatam sva-kathaḥ krsnaḥ. Krsna is so kind. If anyone is interested to know about Krsna, to hear about Krsna, then,

So Krsna, to know about Krsna… If you think you don't understand Krsna, if you simply chant Krsna, Krsna… Actually we are advising: krsna! krsna! krsna! krsna! krsna! krsna! krsna! he, krsna! krsna! krsna! krsna! krsna! krsna! krsna! Chant like that, you will become perfect. Immediately you become perfect. Yes. Srnvatam sva-kathaḥ krsnaḥ punya. Krsna means… Hearing and chanting means to become perfect. We are all sinful. We are all sinful, material world. Anyone who is living in this material world, he must be considered sinful. It is a question of degree. Unless we are sinful, there is no question of accepting this material body. Bhūtva bhūtva praliyate [Bg 8.19]. We are committing sinful life. Therefore, next life we are getting another type of body. [indistinct] Bhagavad-gita. Why different types of body? Why not the same body? No.

Because we are associating with certain quality of material nature. There are three qualities of material nature: sattva-guna, rajo-guna and tamo-guna. So one of them I must associate, one of them. So if we associate with sattva-guna, we will get a different type of body. If we associate with rajo-guna, then we get a different type of body. If we associate with the tamo-guna, then we have to get a different type of body. This is the law of nature. Exactly like that if you infect a certain type of disease, you get that. Nature's law. You cannot avoid it. If you infect typhoid disease, then you must suffer from typhoid. Similarly we, during this living condition, bhūtva bhūtva praliyate [Bg 8.19], we are…, our position is that we are changing body after body, and we are suffering according to the body.

So if we want to stop our suffering, then we must stop getting another material body. This is [indistinct]. And that you can do only by Krsna consciousness; otherwise [indistinct]. Otherwise it may be in the modes of goodness, that much. Here in the material world, you can elevate up to the modes of goodness. And what is the result of goodness? urdhvam gacchanti sattva-stha [Bg 14.18]. If you associate with goodness, then you can be promoted to the very, very higher planetary system, ūrdhvam. There are ūrdhvam, adhaḥ and madhyam are the planetary systems of the world. Therefore, it is called three worlds. And there are other planetary system. Just like this earth is called Bhurloka. It is situated in the middle. And above us there are seven lokas, and down there are seven lokas.

So in this middle position, if we associate with goodness, then we can be promoted to the higher planetary system. Just like Brahma has got..., he has got very, very long duration of life. The standard of living in other planets, other planetary system, is thousand, thousand times more comfortable. We can get up, ūrdhvam gacchanti sattva-stha [Bg 14.18]. We can get promoted. Madhye tisthanti rajasaḥ: and if we associate with rajo-guna, then we can remain in the middle position. And if you associate with tamo-guna, then you will go down. Just like here we see some of the animals are meant for the slaughterers. So in previous life, they also slaughtered. Therefore, they are waiting to become to be slaughtered. Mam saḥ. This is Sanskrit word of…, means, mam means "me"; saḥ means "he." "I eat you this time; you eat me next time." [laughter] This is called karma-bandhanaḥ. Yajnarthe karma anyatra loko 'yam karma [Bg 3.9].

"Now we are very happy that we have got so much, so many living stocks. I shall kill one and eat, enjoy." But he does not know that he is making the path so that he will be also eaten. This is karma-bandhanaḥ. So this is going on, bhūtva bhūtva praliyate [Bg 8.19]. We are getting one type of body and eating or sleeping or mating according to the body. There are so many hundreds, thousands. So eating, sleeping, sex life and defending-everywhere. Either as insect or as big man, everyone knows how to eat, how to sleep, how to enjoy sex life and how to defend in his own way. That is not real business of human life. Real business of human life is here mentioned, srnvatam sva-kathaḥ: just try to hear about Krsna. We are opening so many centers just to give chance to people to hear about Krsna. That's all. And if one hears, then, or chants, immediately he becomes purified, punya-sravana-kirtanaḥ. And as..., as much as, the more you become purified, hrdy antaḥ-stho hy abhadrani vidhunoti: then all the dirty things accumulated within the heart on account of contamination of this material world, that becomes cleansed. And as soon as it is cleansed, you understand that you are eternally related with Krsna. He is the Supreme Master, and we are servitor-"Let us serve Krsna." That is perfection of life.

Thank you very much.

Devotees: Jaya! [end]