Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 6.3.11–12 – February 2, 1971, Allahabad

You have given me an opportunity to speak about the Lord's activities

Prabhupada: So this question should be put forward for superior masters in this way, not by challenge. One may question, but the humbleness is presented also, that "If you think that I am able to understand…" Sometimes we do not, I mean to say, possess the capacity to understand. For example, when I was meeting my spiritual master in the beginning, practically seventy-five percent or eighty-five percent of his version I could not understand, but still I was hearing. I was not able to understand, but still I wanted to hear. And for this reason only he accepted me as his disciple.

When… In this Allahabad, when I was being introduced by one of my Godbrother-he contributed the land for Gauḍiya Matha-one [indistinct]-chandradev, he is dead and gone-so he introduced me, that… Of course, he did not know that before this introduction I met Guru Maharaja in 1922. So as soon as he was introducing, my Guru Maharaja captured the word, and he said, "Yes, I have seen this boy, and he is very anxious to hear me, so I shall accept him." That was the only qualification, that although I did not understand what he was speaking, I tried to sit down and hear him.

So here is also is the same thing. The Yamadūta says that "You can answer about our enquiries if you think it is beneficial to us, or if we are able to understand it."

Smaran padambujam hareḥ. Hareḥ-"of the Lord, the Supreme Lord"; padambujam-"lotus feet"; smaran. That should be our principle. Whenever we try to speak something, we must offer prayers to Guru-Gaurahga and the Supreme Lord. Not directly to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but smaran padambujam hareḥ.

To memorize the lotus feet of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, it is the system that one should go through guru and Gaurahga. That is the prayer we offer daily: vande 'ham sri-guroḥ sri-yuta-pada-kamalam sri-gurūn vaisnavams ca sri-rūpam .

They are all guru. One spiritual master, his spiritual master, then up to Gosvamis. Sri-rūpam sagrajatam saha-gana-raghunathanvitam tam sa-jivam. Then the associates of Lord Caitanya: sa-avadhūta, sadvaitam. Sa-avadhūta, Nityananda Prabhu. Sadvaitam-sa-avadhūta parijana-sahitam. Parijana means Srivasa, Gadadhara and others. Sri krsna-caitanya-devam, that is Sri Caitanya, Guru-Gaurahga. Then, sri-radha-krsna-padan saha-gana-lalita-sri-visakhanvitams ca. This is...

So smaran padambujam hareḥ. Yamaraja, although he is so exalted, great personality, the system is also there. Nobody should try to answer or speak without offering proper respects to Guru-Gaurahga and Krsna. Smaran padambujam hareḥ. Pritaḥ sva-dūtan: and Yamaraja was very much pleased, because when the subordinates enquire from the superior master, he becomes very much pleased. Why he becomes pleased? Because he gets an opportunity to describe the holy activities and form and qualities of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. That is an opportunity.

You will find in the Srimad-Bhagavatam when Narada also enquires from Lord Brahma about the system of religion, he also thanked Narada, that "You have given me an opportunity to speak about the Lord's activities." Therefore the pastimes of the Lord, His name, His form, His qualities, His entourage, His abode-whenever one enquires, and whenever one speaks, both of them become blessed.

Now Yamaraja, the enquiry was, "Whether there are any other controller either equal to you or greater than you?" That was the enquiry. Now Yamaraja says,

Mad-anyaḥ. The first thing he explained, that "Don't think that I am the supreme controller." Mad-anyaḥ: "Besides me, there is another, supreme controller." That is the mistake of general population. Whenever they worship a demigod, they think he is the supreme.

In the Vedic system there are different demigods, and they are meant for worshiping for different purposes. This is also recommended in the Srimad-Bhagavatam. If you want knowledge, then you worship Brahma. If you want opulence, then you worship Lord Siva. If you want to have a good wife, then you worship Devi. If you want to be pure, then you worship the Sūrya. In this way there is a need. People have got various types of desires. So to give them facility, the facility is given in this sense, that let them go to some authority. They may not think themselves that "We are all-in-all, everything." That is mischief. The duskrtina, they have to be directed in that way: "No, you are not supreme."

Just like yesterday evening in that institution, Pedagogical Institution, one Indian boy from Maharastra, he says, "Swamiji, to be frank, I have no faith in God." "And why you have no faith in God? Don't you believe there is a controller?" He hesitated. So I told him that "You are speaking..., that you speaking that 'I do not believe in God' may be stopped immediately by some superior force. While speaking, you may die immediately. So are you not controlled?" He admitted, "Yes, I am controlled." "Then why don't you believe the controller is God?"

That the controller is God is simple words, a simple understanding; but see, the atheist class of people will not understand. That is big foolishness. Therefore to the atheist class of men God presents Himself as death. There they cannot challenge. Just like Hiranyakasipu, when Lord Nrsimhadeva appeared before him as death personified, he could not challenge anymore. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gita: mrtyuḥ sarva-haras caham [Bg 10.34]. Mrtyuḥ means death. When death takes place, then everything is taken away, everything finished-not only his material opulence, not only his position, but even his life is also taken away.

So for the atheist class of men, death is God, whilst the devotees, they see God in the lifetime in the ordinary dealings.

Sadaiva: always he is seeing God, Krsna. The atheist class challenges that "Whether you have seen God?" But they do not know how one can see God. God can be seen. So when God is seen in process of premanjana, in loving devotional service, that is very pleasurable; that is blissful. And when God is seen as death, ah, that is very displeasure.

Therefore two processes are going on:

The atheists will see God when they are vanquished. That is there. And the devotees are seeing God always, santaḥ sadaiva hrdayesu vilokayanti. So not that all these atheist… Atheist generally means who do not believe in the scriptures describing about God; he is called atheist. In all scriptures of the world there is acceptance of God. Bible accepts God, Koran accepts God, our Vedic literature, Vedas, Vedanta, they accept God. The Buddhists, they do not accept God; therefore it is atheist literature. Caitanya Mahaprabhu said that any literature which is devoid of God consciousness, that is atheistic literature. So Yamaraja says that paro mad-anyo jagatas tasthusas ca.

He immediately said, "Don't think that I am all-in-all." This is devotee. One may be very, very much exalted, but he should always think that "I am servant of God." That is mukti. Then maya cannot touch you. And as soon as he thinks that he is all-in-all, that is maya. So Yamaraja, because he is mahajana…We recommend, mahajano yena gataḥ sa panthaḥ [Cc Madhya 17.186].

We have to follow the footsteps of mahajana. They are authorities. He is authority. He is authority because immediately he accepts, "No, no, no! I am not the Supreme." Here is a third-class man and being kicked by maya; he challenges, "I am God. I am everything." This is the position of the people in general in this age.

Here Yamaraja, he is so powerful that he is controlling the whole criminal department of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He is arresting all the sinful persons and giving them proper punishment. He is so powerful, but he does not think himself all-in-all, or God. And yet a third-class man, a simple pain in the teeth will kill him in so many ways, and he is claiming to become God. Just see the point. Therefore he is a mahajana. Mahajano yena gataḥ sa panthaḥ. Dharmam tu saksad bhagavat-pranitam [SB 6.3.19].

These instructions of Yamaraja is very valuable. Just see how he is humble and submissive to his master. Such a powerful man. Everyone is threatened, Yamaraja. Everyone, if one understands that Yamaraja is coming, then in this world so many [indistinct] will be immediately fainted: "Death is coming." Yamaraja means death is coming. There are so many big men with the same… One of the svamis-very well advertised; I do not wish to name him-at the time of his death he regretted that "I have taught so many foolish things." Even Sahkaracarya also lamented. So that lamentation comes to the atheist class of men who preaches against Lord. That lamentation comes.

So Yamaraja says that mad-anyatah jagatas tasthusas ca para isvarah asi [indistinct] tat kihkara [indistinct] isvarah] [Sridhara Svami's commentary] That is very nice comment. "The other controller besides me, He is so powerful that He can control the creation, maintenance and annihilation of this whole cosmic manifestation. He is so great in power. And so far you have the idea that I am the greatest, I am the greatest controller, so my controlling department is that not those who are moving. I am controlling only…"

Because there is living entities divided into two classes. Some of them are not moving and some of them are moving. Just like trees and mountains, they do not move. Moving means beginning from the insects, birds, beasts and human beings. So that is how he humbly presents, this lord, that "I am controller, but I am controlling only in this department: those who are moving, living entities. And that also not all-only the sinful living entities."

The sinful living entities are not great in numbers; they are very small. First of all, the living entities who are in this material world, very, very small, because the whole creation is one-fourth, one-fourth part of the whole creation of God. The creation… The spiritual world is also creation; the material world is also creation.

In the spiritual world there are also living entities, and the spiritual…, spiritual world also there are living entities. But the living entities who are within this material world, they are only one-fourth of all the living entities. They are ananta, and still Krsna knows. He says, ekamsena sthito jagat [Bg 10.42].

He knows that "This is only one-fourth of My energy." And within this one-fourth energy there are innumerable universes, and this is one of them, and in each universe there are controlling demigods.

So within this universe there is one only who is controlling-Yamaraja. And that also not for all. He is not controller for everyone; only for the moving. And amongst the moving, those who are acting as the sinful, their number are not as great. Just like criminals, if you go to the prison house you will find so many people. But what are the proportion? These criminals who are put in together are a very small proportion.

So just see how humbly he presents, that "I am also controller. My controlling capacity is here." And here there are such fools, if he has control over a dozen of disciples, he declares himself, "I am God." How much foolish they are, just try to understand. A dozens of fools controlled by a rascal, and he says that "I am God. I have become God."

Therefore mahajana. Mahajana means great personality. A great personality means to accept the supreme great; he is a great personality. Not that fool who declares himself "I am the great." He is a rascal. How you can be great? There are so many things to be controlled, and he declares that by some so-called gesture, moving the eyes, we find so many cheaters, or by showing some pictures[?], or by knowing some yogic principle, hypnotizing the man, he declares himself, "I am God." God is not so cheap. Here Yamaraja says that paro mad-anyo jagatas tasthusas ca [SB 6.3.12]:

"The greater controller than me, He is so great that He is controlling the creation and maintenance and annihilation of this world, and this whole manifestation." Otam protam patavad yatra visvam. Visvam. Visvam means the universe, the whole collection of universes. Because we have got information, beyond this universe what is there. That information no scientist can give you.

They cannot give even information even very completely of the moon planet. They cannot give full information of the sun planet. Their information only gestures[?], that's all-theorizing. Because we cannot live in so high temperature as the sun has, they say there is no living entities there. But factually that is not the fact. There are living entities. Sūryaloka. Loka means there are inhabitants. There is a predominating deity, Vivasvan. Krsna says. How you can say there is no population in Sūryaloka?

Krsna said,

Krsna, He was speaking to Arjuna. And as it was possible for Him to speak to Arjuna, a living entity on this planet, similarly, He is able to speak to the sun-god. But you cannot imagine if there are living entities. This is Krsna. This is God.

So we have to take information that Arjuna was not talking; Arjuna simply enquired. He did not, I mean to say, challenge, that "Krsna, You said You spoke this science of Bhagavad-gita yoga to the sun-god. How You can go to sun-god? His planet is high. The temperature is so great. How You could go?" That much he knew, that there are population of a different kind. That is…, any person who is God conscious, Krsna conscious, he knows all these things.

Why he knows? That is also stated in the Vedas: yasmin vijnate sarvam idam vijnatam bhavati [Munḍaka Upanisad 1.3]. Just like what to speak of Arjuna, even insignificant personalities as we are, who confidently believe that there are population in the sun-god. But even the greatest scientist, he cannot do. Why is this? Then Vedic injunction: yasmin vijnate sarvam idam vijnatam bhavati. If you simply understand Krsna-you cannot understand Krsna cent per cent; if you understand Him very little-then you understand the whole creation, sarvam idam vijnatam, very easily.

To understand reincarnation, eh, to understand reincarnation one says, "Yes, [indistinct]." Another says, "No, I will tell you." Therefore our process of understanding from the Vedic scripture is very nice. You don't have to take so much trouble from the scientists, nonsensical. Accept: you take when a mahajana, just like Yamaraja, said, "Yes, there is a greater controller than me." That's all. There is no question that "How is a greater controller than you..., existing than you?" [indistinct], zero, void, or impersonal. No. There is a controller, and as soon as you speak of controller, He must be a person. There cannot be imperson.

So in this way try to understand, mahajano yena gataḥ sa panthaḥ [Cc Madhya 17.186], then everything will be clear. Yasmin vijnate sarvam idam vijnatam bhavati. Try to understand Krsna, and He is so kind that He discloses the whole mystery of this universe. Yasmin vijnate sarvam idam vijnatam bhavati means it is by Krsna's grace the devotee understands everything very clearly.

Thank you. [end]