No. 42, 1971

GODHEAD IS LIGHT, NESCIENCE IS DARKNESS. WHERE THERE IS GODHEAD THERE IS NO NESCIENCE

THE MAGAZINE OF THE HARE KRISHNA MOVEMENT

[same as issue No. 41 until....]

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Godhead Is Light, Nescience is darkness. Where there is Godhead there is no Nescience.

Founder
(under the direction of His Divine Grace Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Prabhupāda)
His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda.

Editors:

Hayagriva Das Adhikary (ISKCON—New Vṛndāvana)

Satsvarupa Das Adhikary (ISKCON—Boston)

Printed in Japan

Indeed, You alone know Yourself by Your own potencies, O origin of all, Lord of all beings, God of
gods, O Supreme Person, Lord of the universe! (Bhagavad-gītā, 10.15)

When the great king Mahārāja Parīkṣit learned that he had only seven days to live, he immediately renounced his wealth, family and kingdom in order to spend his last days hearing the divine instructions of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam from the foremost spiritual master of that time, Śrīla Śukadeva Gosvāmī.

FOUNDER-ĀCĀRYA OF THE INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR KRISHNA CONSCIOUSNESS

(The spiritual master is always offering Kṛṣṇa four kinds of foodstuffs [analyzed as those which are chewed, those which are licked up, those which are drunk and those which are swallowed]. Four kinds of prasādam are offered to Kṛṣṇa, and when the spiritual master sees that the devotees are eating bhagavat-prasādam, he is satisfied. I offer my respectful obeisances unto the lotus feet of such spiritual master.)

[Bhāg. 5.5.1]

Mahārāja Ṛṣabhadeva, an incarnation of Kṛṣṇa who many years ago was emperor of the whole world, instructed this verse to his sons. In former ages there was only one king on this planet. In every planet, not only on this planet but on all others also, there is a predominating personality, who is commonly called a king or emperor, or in some cases a predominating deity.

For instance, on the moon the predominating personality is called Candra, and on the sun the predominating deity or emperor at the present moment is called Vivasvān. The predominating deities or emperors in each and every important planet are mentioned in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. This indicates that the author of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam has complete knowledge, not only of this universe but also of the spiritual sky which lies beyond this universe. In the spiritual sky there are many planets, and in those planets the predominating deity is the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself. In the material universe the predominating personalities are human beings, as in our own planetary system, and their features are exactly like ours—two hands, two legs, one head, etc.—but they are very pious and God conscious.

On the various planets in the material universe there are different gradations of human beings. On this planet, for example, in some sections of the world there are slaves and uncivilized persons, and in some portions of the world there are civilized, God conscious and intelligent persons. Just as there are different types of human beings on this planet, so there are different living beings on other planets. The higher and lower statuses of the living entities are calculated in terms of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Of course consciousness is everywhere; every living entity, including the animals, has some form of consciousness, but that consciousness which is not Kṛṣṇa consciousness is of a lower grade. When one is completely conscious of Kṛṣṇa, his consciousness is considered to be in the highest position.

Mahārāja Ṛṣabhadeva was giving these instructions to his sons before his retirement. Mahārāja Ṛṣabhadeva had one hundred sons, and all of them assembled together so that their father, the king, could give them instruction. According to the Vedic system, it was the duty of the father to instruct his sons before his retirement. The Vedic system dictates that whether one is a king or an ordinary human being, at a certain age he must retire. The Vedic system does not recommend that just because one is a king and has ample opportunity for sense enjoyment he should indulge in sense gratification until the moment of death. The Vedic system is concerned with elevating oneself to the perfection of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. In the Bhagavad-gītā Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa says, “I am seated in everyone’s heart, and from Me come remembrance, knowledge, and forgetfulness. From all the Vedas I am to be known; indeed, I am the compiler of Vedānta, and I know the Veda as it is.” (Bg. 15.15) Thus the whole Vedic system is designed to enable the living entity to know Kṛṣṇa, who is the author of the Vedas.

For one who follows the Vedic system, his ultimate objective is Kṛṣṇa consciousness, knowledge of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa. This is the Vedic version corroborated by Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa Himself. Because Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the actual compiler of the Vedas, His words should be accepted. The very purpose of studying the Vedas is to come to know Kṛṣṇa—that is all. Of course Mahārāja Ṛṣabhadeva did not have to instruct his sons in this way. He could have remained on the throne and enjoyed his kingdom. At the present moment a king or a family man does not retire, even though he may be struggling with great difficulty. There are many old men who are suffering, who are not happy with their family members, but who are working arduously until their death. They will not agree to join the Kṛṣṇa consciousness society or to take up Vedic training. No, they will stick to family life until the very end. It is not uncommon to see politicians seventy-five and eighty years old continuing in the political arena until they are forced to vacate by death. Gandhi, for instance, was forced to retire when he was killed by a political opponent. When Gandhi attained independence, I wrote him a letter requesting, “Mr. Gandhi, now you have succeeded in your struggle with the British, and now India has attained its independence. Now we deserve to learn something about God. You have a great deal of influence, so now you should preach Bhagavad-gītā. You are known throughout the whole world as a very saintly person, and you also claim to be a great scholar of Bhagavad-gītā, so why don’t you take up Bhagavad-gītā and preach?” He did not reply but continued to meddle with politics until his assistants became disgusted and his assassination followed. Although he was considered a mahātmā, still the intoxication of materialistic life caught him up. Although he got his desire, although the Britishers left India, still he would not give up politics. That is the way of material life. Men refuse to retire until they are killed by the laws of material nature. This is a disease. Māyā is so strong that even an old man who advertises himself to be very pious cannot give up politics because he is thinking that if he leaves the political field his country will suffer, so many disasters will ensue, etc. He does not realize that things will go on without him.

Many great politicians come and go, and the people are still living, and the world is still going on. Hitlers come and go, and Gandhis come and go, but still things are going on. This is explained in Bhagavad-gītā: everything is being carried out by the laws of nature, and no one can change this process. “Nature is said to be the cause of all material activities and effects, whereas the living entity is the cause of the various sufferings and enjoyments of this world.” (Bg. 13.20) “This material nature is working under My direction, O son of Kuntī, producing all the moving and unmoving beings, and by its rule this manifestation is created and annihilated again and again.” (Bg. 9.10) Thus no one can change the laws of material nature, for they are following a plan, God’s plan. It is vain conceit to think that without oneself everything will be topsy-turvy. Actually no one can do anything. We are always thinking that our leadership is very much needed, but this is conceit. For instance, when I was a householder my Guru Mahārāj gave indications several times that I should give up my family life and become a sannyāsī and preach this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. Although in several ways there were hints from my spiritual master, still I was not willing, for I was thinking that if I went away my family, my sons and daughters, would suffer. Finally I left my family connections in 1954, and now I have found that in the past twenty years they are living and I am also living. They are neither dying nor suffering in my absence, and I am not suffering in their absence. Indeed, by Kṛṣṇa’s grace I now have better family members, such nice children in a foreign country who are taking such good care of me that I could never expect such good care from my own children. This is God’s grace. We should always depend on Kṛṣṇa. If Kṛṣṇa is pleased, wherever we go everyone will be pleased, and everyone will be kind. But if Kṛṣṇa is displeased, then one will be uncomfortable even in his family life. Therefore, according to the Vedic system, at a certain age one should retire from family life.

Although Mahārāja Ṛṣabhadeva had a hundred obedient sons and although he was the emperor and everything was at his command, he still chose to follow the Vedic system and retire. There are other instances of great kings’ retiring. After Mahārāja Parīkṣit retired, the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam was recited to him. Similarly his grandfather, Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira, also voluntarily retired. The Vedic system is very specific in regards to the particular courses one should take at various stages of life. At an early age, for instance, whether one is the son of a king or the son or an ordinary man, one must go to the āśrama of a spiritual master and live there as a servant. This is called brahmacārī life. A brahmacārī’s life is dedicated to serving the spiritual master as a menial servant. Whatever the spiritual master asks, the brahmacārī will do. This is such a strict system that whatever the brahmacārī collects in alms, he gives to the spiritual master, for he considers everything to be the spiritual master’s property, not his. And if the spiritual master forgets to call his disciple, “My dear son, come and take your prasādam,” then the brahmacārī will not eat a morsel. He will starve. Of course the spiritual master does not forget, but these are the injunctions of scriptures which one has to follow at the beginning of life whether one is the son of a king or even the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself. Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa Himself underwent this discipline when He was a brahmacārī for some time. After brahmacārī life, usually at the age of twenty-five, one marries and lives with his wife and children for twenty-five years at the most, and then one retires. After retirement, the husband and wife go on pilgrimages together, and when the husband is completely free from all family attachment, he takes sannyāsa. This is the process—brahmacārī, gṛhastha, vānaprastha and sannyāsa.

Thus, looking to the spiritual advancement as well as the personal affairs of his sons, Mahārāja Ṛṣabhadeva instructed, “O my dear sons, do not think that this particular body, this human body, is the same as those bodies of the cats, dogs and hogs. Please do not think like that.” Mahārāja Ṛṣabhadeva particularly mentions the word viḍ-bhujām which means a stool-eater. As in the human society the dog-eater is considered to be the lowest human, in the animal society those animals which eat stool are considered to be the lowest. The gradations of human beings and animals are also calculated according to their eating processes. Indeed, George Bernard Shaw has written one book entitled, “You Are What You Eat.” So the eating process is very important. If one eats like the cats and dogs, then he’ll become like a cat and dog, even in the human form of life. Similarly, if one works very hard like the animals, then what is the value of human life? Human life should be very sober, peaceful, full of knowledge and bliss. The devotee has a good sense of the real purpose of human life. One should not simply work hard like an animal and then eat like an animal.

Thus Mahārāja Ṛṣabhadeva is instructing, “My dear sons, everyone has a different body, but the body of the human being is to be considered different. It is not like the hog body. Day and night the hog is simply eating stool for sense gratification. Similarly, if all day and night the human being is simply eating and gratifying his senses, then he is missing the real opportunity of human life.” This is the instruction: Human life should be regulated. One should eat only specified foods, should have sex in such and such a way, should sleep for just so long, should act in this way, think in this way, etc. There are so many regulations. One should not simply act in an unrestricted way. In human society there are books of regulations, but this is not the case in animal society. Some people claim that human society becomes free when man somehow or other manages to abolish law and custom, but this only means that human society will become like animal society, for the animal society has no law book. For this reason Mahārāja Ṛṣabhadeva instructs his sons that they should not live like the hogs, for they have a human body, and the human form of life is specifically meant for austerity and penance. One should voluntarily accept some regulative principles, even though they may not be to one’s liking. For example, the students in the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement were accustomed to certain habits from the beginning of life, but now they are living under certain regulations and are accepting them. This is called tapasya. Tapasya means penance. For example, one may be habituated to smoking, and the spiritual master tells the student that he cannot smoke. When one tries to give up smoking, he feels some inconvenience and is put in an uncomfortable position. Nonetheless he gives up smoking because of the spiritual master’s order. This is called tapasya. Despite inconveniences, one abides by the regulative principles set down by the spiritual master.

When one accepts a spiritual master, it is to be understood that one is voluntarily accepting a great personality whose rules and regulations must be obeyed. The attitude of the disciple should be “Whatever you say, I will accept.” One with such an attitude is called śiṣya. In English this is called disciplined. In English the words discipline and disciple are related, so in both English and Sanskrit languages a disciple is one who accepts the discipline of the spiritual master. It is not that the spiritual master whimsically manufactures his own rules and regulations for the disciples. He always refers to the śāstras, scriptures. Therefore, Narottama Dāsa Ṭhākur says sadhu śāstra guru, etc.: If one wants to know who is a spiritual master and who is a saintly person, then one should corroborate them with the śāstra to see if they are abiding by or following the śāstra. If the spiritual master says something that is not in the śāstra, that is not good. Similarly, a saintly person also, a mahātmā, cannot disregard the regulative principles of scripture. “Anyone, therefore, who acts whimsically, not caring for the regulations of the scriptures, can never have perfection in his life, nor happiness, nor the supreme destination. One should understand what is duty and what is not duty by the regulations of the scriptures. Knowing such rules and regulations, one should act so that he may gradually be elevated.” (Bg. 16.23-24) Nor can one be happy in this life if one disregards the injunctions of the scriptures. “But ignorant and faithless persons who doubt the revealed scriptures go to ruin and perish. For the doubting soul there is happiness neither in this world nor the next.” (Bg. 4.40) And what to speak of liberation? Thus tapasya means voluntarily accepting the rulings of the scriptures, the spiritual master and saintly persons and molding one’s life in that way.

Mahārāja Ṛṣabhadeva therefore instructed his sons not to waste their lives living like animals but to utilize their lives for tapasya, voluntarily accepting the regulations of śāstra, the spiritual master and saintly persons. One may question why one should not live like an animal and why it is necessary to live by regulative principles. Mahārāja Ṛṣabhadeva answers that if one accepts these principles of life, then his existence will become purified. At the present moment living entities in the material universe are contaminated by the modes of material nature, mainly the modes of ignorance and passion. By abiding by the rules of tapasya, the living entity can purify his existence. If one further questions “What is the use of purification?” the answer to this is also given. When the living entity’s condition is purified, he will then be situated on the platform of transcendental, blissful life.

Everyone is hankering after happiness and pleasure, and when one’s existence is purified he will be placed on the transcendental platform and will be able to enjoy eternal happiness. Admittedly, we are all searching after happiness. Why are we struggling so hard in this material existence? For happiness. Why are we after sense gratification? For happiness. Why do we want to possess so many things? For happiness. Why do we want to become beautiful or rich or famous or powerful or knowledgeable? For happiness. Why do we want to eat so many things? For happiness. Thus we are working so hard for happiness, which is our ultimate goal. Unfortunately the happiness we are now deriving from the sources which we have manufactured is temporary. If one tries to become happy by indulging in sex, how long does that happiness last? That also is only for a few minutes, a few seconds. The fact is that if one wants eternal continued happiness, then one has to purify his position. He has to place himself in the transcendental position, and then he will feel that happiness.

In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam it is stated that the yogīs are also enjoying sense gratification. But where? Ananta—with the Supreme. Their senses are being gratified by Hṛṣīkeśa, Kṛṣṇa, the master of the senses. Everyone wants to enjoy the senses. Ramaṇa means enjoyer. Kṛṣṇa is sometimes called Rādhā-ramaṇa, meaning He who enjoys Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī. Lord Srī Kṛṣṇa’s sense gratification is with Rādhārāṇī, so sense enjoyment is there also in the spiritual world. Here in the material world sense gratification is a perverted reflection of the real spiritual sense gratification. Actually the whole devotional line of service is dedicated to the sense gratification of the master of the senses. Hrṣīkeśa hrṣīkena sevanam. Hṛsīka means senses, and Hṛsīkeśa means the master of the senses. The master of the senses is Kṛṣṇa, and when one’s senses are applied for his own gratification, that is material. That is the real difference. When one is situated on the transcendental platform, when one’s conditions are purified bv tapasya, voluntarily accepting austerities and penances under the guidance of a spiritual master, śāstra, and saintly persons, at that time it will be possible for one to satisfy the senses of Kṛṣṇa and become fully satisfied. How is this? In this connection the example of the body is often given. The different parts of the body cannot enjoy the senses or satisfy them independently. The parts depend upon the welfare of the whole body. One can pick up a piece of cake with the fingers, but the fingers alone cannot enjoy the cake. The fingers must put the cake into the mouth, and from thence the cake goes to the stomach and the stomach acts on it, and in this way the whole body receives nourishment. When the nourishment from the cake is transmitted to the various parts of the body, immediately the fingers and all other parts are benefited. This is the process. The identification of the senses is there, but it is through Kṛṣṇa. One can then go ahead and enjoy and completely gratify the senses perfectly just as the gopīs, the transcendental associates of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, gratified their senses perfectly by unalloyed devotion to the Supreme. This then is the process of human life indicated in the instruction of Mahārāja Ṛṣabhadeva. We must purify our present condition by voluntarily accepting the regulative principles given by the spiritual master and scriptures. Then our senses can be employed in the service of the Supreme, and in that way we can come to actually enjoy our senses in the perfectional state.

END

[This is the eighth in a series of eighteen essays on the chapters of Bhagavad-gītā.] [Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]

The Eighth Chapter of the Bhagavad-gītā begins with a series of seven questions. Arjuna asks, “What is Brahman?” “What is fruitive activity?” “What is the material manifestation?” “What are the demigods?” “How does this Lord of sacrifice live in the body?” “In which part does He live?” And finally, “How can those engaged in devotional service know You at the time of death?” Actually, these questions should not have been in the mind of Arjuna. Arjuna was a kṣatriya, a high caste man, supposedly well versed in the knowledge of the Vedas. He should have known all these things; besides, all these questions had already been dealt with by Kṛṣṇa previously in the first seven chapters: Brahman was analyzed and explained in 4.24, 6.27, and elaborately in 7.6-12; fruitive activities were discussed in every chapter, especially in 2.49, 3.19, 3.28, 3.31, 4.18-22, 5.3, and 6.1; the material manifestation is delineated in 7.4 and 7.30; the demigods are mentioned in 3.11-12, 4.12, 4.25, 5.29, and 7.20-23; the Lord of sacrifice, and where He lives, is explained in 3.9, 15, 4.23-33, 5.29, and 6.31; and even the last question is answered in 2.51, 6.47, and 7.23. For this reason, Kṛṣṇa is at once again addressed as Madhusūdana, the killer of the great Madhu demon, and Arjuna is indirectly asking Kṛṣṇa to kill these doubts that have arisen in his mind.

The first six questions the Lord deals with very summarily, although completely and authoritatively, because they have been dealt with at length previously. But the seventh question He answers at length and supplies much new information. Therefore almost the whole of the Eighth Chapter deals with how to quit the body at the time of death.

Arjuna also addresses Kṛṣṇa as Puruṣottama, which indicates that although he was Kṛṣṇa’s intimate friend, he was not asking the questions on that basis, but he was asking them of the Supreme Personality of Godhead; therefore, the answers can be expected to be definitive. There is one more important point to note about these two addresses of the Lord. Because Arjuna recognizes doubts as demons and presents them to the Lord (Madhūsudana and Puruṣottama) for final liquidation, it is to be understood that Arjuna is not in illusion at all. Arjuna is not asking the questions for himself at all, but for us. This is also indicated in the Fourth Chapter, where the Lord indicated that Arjuna was one of His eternal associates present millions of years before at the first recitation of the Bhagavad-gītā to the sun-god, Vivasvān. The eternal associates of the Lord are certainly liberated persons; therefore Arjuna should not be taken as an ordinary conditioned soul. Rather, these questions were raised so that the Lord could speak Bhagavad-gītā and so that His pure devotee and intimate friend (bhakta) could become the first in the new paramparā (disciplic succession) and thus give practical example that it is by bhakti (devotion) alone that one can enter into the understanding of the Gītā. Arjuna is asking the questions just like a conditioned soul, but he is not himself conditioned. That is the perfection of the Gītā: on all sides there is perfect knowledge. The questions are perfect, the answers are perfect, and if any conditioned soul will simply follow in the footsteps of Arjuna, he may also become perfect.

What is Brahman? Śrī Kṛṣṇa says, “The indestructible, transcendental, living entity is called Brahman, and his eternal nature is called the self.” (8.3) Kṛṣṇa is repeating the Vedic aphorism ahaṁ brahmāsmi “I am spirit soul.” Kṛṣṇa very elaborately explained in the Second Chapter that we are not these material bodies. “For the soul there is never birth or death. Nor, having once been, does he ever cease to be. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing, undying, and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain.” (2.20) That eternal, all-pervading, immeasurable self is called Brahman, and Kṛṣṇa adds: “I am the Self seated in the hearts of all creatures.” (10.20) Can we then conclude that there is only one soul as the Māyāvādī impersonalists say? No, we cannot do that, for then we could not understand so many other verses in which the eternal individuality of the soul is clearly established. (2.12, 13.12, 14.27, 15.7 for example). Therefore, Lord Caitanya, who is Kṛṣṇa Himself disguised as a devotee, clarifies the whole matter by His sublime philosophy of acintya-bhedābheda-tattva, inconceivable, simultaneous difference and nondifference. In other words, the living entity is inconceivably simultaneously one and different from Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Absolute. We are Brahman, and He is Parambrahman. We are the energy which is one in quality with the absolute whole, but which is not itself the energetic source.

This is a very beautiful mantra from Śrī Īśopaniṣad, one of the oldest of the Upaniṣads. It is translated by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda as follows: “The Personality of Godhead is perfect and complete. And because He is completely perfect, all emanations from Him, such as this phenomenal world are perfectly equipped as a complete whole. Whatever is produced of the complete whole is also complete by itself. And because He is the complete whole, even though so many complete units emanate from Him, He remains the complete balance.” It is just as if one has a bank account of one million dollars, and he withdraws one thousand dollars every hour. Now each withdrawal is qualitatively the same as the whole. A dollar is a dollar, either singly or in large groups. But suppose one could withdraw one thousand dollars every hour and the original million never diminished? The individual withdrawals have no such reproductive power—when they are spent, they are gone. Then that would be something like the difference between the original pūrṇam, which is the source of everything that be, and the individual parts and parcels, or the cosmic manifestation. We have energy, but are not the energetic.

What are fruitive activities? The Lord says, “And action pertaining to the development of these material bodies is called karma, or fruitive activities.” (8.3) In the Third Chapter, 28th verse, Kṛṣṇa says: “One who is in knowledge of the Absolute Truth, O mighty-armed, does not engage himself in the senses and sense gratification, knowing well the differences between work in devotion and work for fruitive results.” In the Fourth Chapter, 19th verse, He adds: “One is understood to be in full knowledge whose every act is devoid of desire for sense gratification. He is said by sages to be a worker whose fruitive action is burned up by the fire of perfect knowledge.” Fruitive activity, therefore, refers to all activities which have for their object self gratification, and conversely the patḥ to freedom (freedom from the control of the senses, which are dragging us into one body after another to enjoy or suffer according to karma) leads to surrendering the results of all actions to Kṛṣṇa—and that is Kṛṣṇa’s final summary instruction in the Bhagavad-gītā: “Give up all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me; and in return I shall protect you from all sinful reactions.” (18.66) Thus from beginning to end, the teaching of the Gītā is one: that the living entity should surrender to the Supreme Lord by engaging himself in full Kṛṣṇa consciousness according to his own particular talent or duty. Whatever he can do just do it for Kṛṣṇa.

What is the material manifestation? The Lord says: “The physical nature is known to be endlessly mutable. The universe is the cosmic form of the Supreme Lord.” (8.4). In the Seventh Chapter, 4th verse, Śrī Kṛṣṇa says: “Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intelligence, and false ego—altogether these eight comprise My separated material energies.” So it is concluded that the material manifestation is the temporary manifestation of the Lord for the twofold purpose of giving the living entity a chance to fulfill his material desires and at the same time a chance to cultivate spiritual knowledge so that at the conclusion of this life he does not have to take birth again, but can go back to Godhead. This is very nicely stated in the eleventh mantra of Śrī Īśopaniṣad:

“Only one who can learn the process of nescience and that of transcendental knowledge side by side can transcend the influence of repeated birth and death, and enjoy the full blessings of immortality.” That is the perfection of the Vedic culture, that everything is so arranged to give every living entity maximum opportunity to advance in knowledge both material and spiritual so that everyone may make his life successful. To that end society is divided into four classes: the śūdras to provide manpower, the vaiśyas to provide productivity in the form of agriculture, commerce and banking, the kṣatriyas—to give administration and protection, and the brāhmaṇas to give spiritual direction. There is no question of inequality—ahaṁ brahmāsmi. We are all part and parcel of the transcendental body of Kṛṣṇa. Without recognition of Kṛṣṇa, the system will never work. Without recognizing the father, how can there be brotherhood? Brotherhood means one father, and as soon as mankind recognizes Kṛṣṇa as that Supreme Father and all living entities as His parts and parcels, each with a particular talent to be used in the service of the whole, then the social organism will work just befitting the design of Kṛṣṇa—perfectly. Such consciousness can be realized by the āśramas, or stages of life, provided in the Vedic system. As a brahmacārī one remains a celibate student and learns the principles of Kṛṣṇa consciousness; as a gṛhastha he practices those principles in day to day family living; as a vānaprastha he gradually retires from his worldly affairs; and as a sannyāsī he travels all over the world preaching this sublime message of love of God. Nothing is left out, but everything is dovetailed to serve the whole, Kṛṣṇa.

What are the demigods? That of course has been answered previously by Kṛṣṇa in the Third Chapter where He outlines the demigods’ functions as universal managers in charge of supplying the various necessities of life 3.11-12. In the Fourth Chapter the Lord adds that one gets quick results from worshiping the demigods in the matter of fruitive activities 4.12, but in the Fifth Chapter the Lord clearly states that He alone is the Lord of all sacrifice, the Supreme Lord of all planets and demigods, the only benefactor and well-wisher of all living entities, and therefore He alone is the giver of peace and relief from the material miseries. And in the Seventh Chapter, 23rd verse, the Lord declares: “Men of small intelligence worship the demigods, and their fruits are limited and temporary. Those who worship the demigods go to the planets of the demigods, but My devotees reach My supreme abode.” They are of small intelligence because they are accepting something temporary and insignificant in place of the highest, the reservoir of all pleasure, Kṛṣṇa. It is something like a little child, who, if one offers him the choice of some little trinket or a check for a million dollars, takes the worthless toy, never realizing that with a million dollars he could have countless playthings. There are some mental speculators who teach that it doesn’t make any difference what or who is worshiped; the end is all the same. But that is clearly denied here by Kṛṣṇa. “Those who worship the demigods go to the planets of the demigods, but My devotees reach My supreme abode.” And it is clearly stated that the demigods and everything connected with them are temporary, so how can they be equal to the supreme eternal abode of Kṛṣṇa, which is sac-cid-ānanda, eternal, full of knowledge and bliss? Kṛṣṇa summarizes the whole matter here in the Eighth Chapter by saying, “The universe is the cosmic form of the Supreme Lord.” (8.4) That means that the demigods (and everything else) are located within the body of the Lord, but the demigods are highly placed administrators for the purpose of universal management; but it is one body, and it belongs to Kṛṣṇa. Therefore, everything is meant for His satisfaction, and when one knows this and acts accordingly, he is called intelligent and enlightened.

Intimately connected with this discussion of the demigods are the next two questions. “How does this Lord of sacrifice live in the body?" and “In which part does He live?” The Supreme Lord says: “I am that Lord represented as the Supersoul, dwelling in the heart of every embodied being.” (8.4) Similarly, in the Sixth Chapter the Lord told Arjuna: “The yogī who knows that I and the Supersoul within all creatures are one, worships Me and remains always in Me in all circumstances.” (6.31) Actually there was no reason for these six questions, and we will only understand the situation thoroughly if we recall that Arjuna is being placed in forgetfulness (yoga-māyā) by Kṛṣṇa’s superior yogic power (Yogeśvara) for our benefit. This repetition is not due to Arjuna’s dullness, nor is it foolish redundancy. Rather, repetition in the scriptures indicates emphasis for the purpose of clarifying and stabilizing a concept. It is another example Kṛṣṇa’s patience and mercy on His devotees.

The main topic of the chapter, however, is the final question, “How can those engaged in devotional service know You at the time of death?” On this point rests the remainder of the chapter. But in His typical fashion, the Lord states the whole position first, and then slowly elaborates. What is that complete statement? “Anyone who quits his body, at the end of life, remembering Me, attains immediately to My nature; and there is no doubt of this.” (5.5) There are nine authorized processes of devotional service, beginning with hearing, then chanting, praying, remembering, worshiping, serving, rendering personal service, making friendship, and surrendering everything. Remembering Kṛṣṇa is the central point of all nine. Therefore the instruction of Nārada Muni to King Yudhiṣṭhira is that “One has to fix his mind on Kṛṣṇa by any means.” There is no other way. We have to remember Kṛṣṇa; then we will be successful. “There is no doubt of this,” Kṛṣṇa says. That is the perfectional practice, and it may be begun at any time and at any place. It is at once the way and the goal, for at all times it is identical with Kṛṣṇa. But that final point must be Kṛṣṇa. That is most important. It is clearly indicated in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam that after following all the rules and regulations, performing all kinds of austerities, going to thousands of places of pilgrimage, or studying all the Vedas, or rigidly practicing the mystic yoga system, if one doesn’t ultimately come to Kṛṣṇa, it is all useless, a collosal hoax and waste of time.

That much is clear; we must finally come to Kṛṣṇa if we want the ultimate goal, for He is the Absolute Truth. But what of the man who doesn’t quite make it? Or the man who doesn’t even try? What is his fate? “In whatever condition one quits his present body, in his next life he will attain to that state of being without fail.” (8.6) There is no magic, no hokus-pokus involved. It is completely scientific. Consciousness is a continuous flow. We can all see that the consciousness of the baby is flowing into the youth and that of the youth into the old man. There is no break. How one develops his consciousness in life will determine one’s consciousness at death, and one’s consciousness at death will determine his next birth. The Gītā teaches from beginning to end that the living entity should surrender unto the Supreme Lord; that will make him happy, both now and forevermore. Kṛṣṇa is adding here that whatever progress we make in that direction is permanent; it can never be lost. No one ever tries for Kṛṣṇa consciousness without being elevated. In the Second Chapter the Lord told Arjuna: “In this endeavor there is no loss or diminution, and a little advancement on this path can protect one from the most dangerous type of fear.” (2.40) But one should not foolishly conclude that he need not do anything, that somehow or other everyone will make it. That is clearly denied by Lord Kṛṣṇa. Certainly the Lord is willing, and certainly the Lord’s grace is sufficient to save everyone. But because He is the well-wisher of every living entity, fulfilling each man’s desire, He cannot help us until we desire it. The Lord is absolute and all-powerful, yet He is subservient to our desire; thus for the atheist who is envious of the Lord’s existence, the Lord kindly hides Himself behind His curtain of māyā, so that the atheist can never find Him although all the Vedic literature informs us that He is everywhere.

In whatever condition one quits the body, the verse states, that state of being he attains in his next life. What is it that quits the body? It is consciousness. Anyone can understand that the difference between a live body and a dead body is the presence or absence of consciousness. Nor do we all have the same quality of consciousness: one man is meek, another is quarrelsome, another is silent, and some are godly. The particular quality of the consciousness can be changed during one’s life by his acts. That is fact. No one can dispute that. We have all seen a bright-eyed youth turn into a debauched addict, or a generous host become a mean old scrooge; or, on the other hand, we have seen so many ego-centered, sense gratifying young people take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness and become responsible, sober, intelligent parents and adults. The quality of the consciousness can be changed by changing the activity, and that is called karma. But at death no more change is possible, for activity has ceased; simply we reap the result. If by my activities I have developed cat consciousness or dog consciousness, then I am sure to be offered such suitable bodies by mother nature; if I have lived humanely, then I can again take a human birth, and if I have lived a godly life, I may go to the demigods. But Kṛṣṇa does not advise any one of these states, because they are all temporary, and from any one of them I will again have to take my birth, where I know not. Therefore, Kṛṣṇa advises, “Always think of Me, and … you will attain to Me without any doubt.” Kṛṣṇa is eternal, His abode is eternal, and those who attain Kṛṣṇa consciousness are eternally happy.

Prahlāda Mahārāja prays to Lord Nṛsiṁha-deva as follows:

“My dear Lord of the universe, I am feeling transcendental pleasure in Your presence, and I have become merged in the ocean of happiness. I now consider the happiness of impersonal liberation to be no more than the water in the impression left by a cow’s hoof in the earth, compared to this ocean of bliss.” (Hari-bhakti-sudhodaya [14.36]) The idea is that any pleasure of the material world, even up to the realm of Brahmaloka, or even the pleasure of liberation itself, cannot compare with the pleasure that the devotees enjoy in the association of Kṛṣṇa. Therefore, Kṛṣṇa is recommending that everyone take to this process of devotional service and gain that supreme goal. It is the same thing that Nārada Muni instructed to Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira: “My dear King, one has to fix his mind on Kṛṣṇa by any means.”

But still there are some men who will not take to this direct easy process. And so the Lord, who incarnates just to reclaim all the conditioned souls, explains other processes by which, ultimately, with more difficulty, one may come to the same goal, namely Himself. Kṛṣṇa now describes the mystic yoga system of body control through various sitting postures and breathing exercises in conjunction with bona fide meditation. Bona fide meditation is meditation upon the Viṣṇu expansion of Kṛṣṇa which resides in the heart of every living entity. The object of meditation is not void or formless, as is sometimes taught today. Actually, all paths of spiritual development, such as Kṛṣṇa describes in the Gītā, are yogas, either karma-yoga, or jñāna-yoga, or bhakti-yoga. Yoga means to contact or connect, literally to link up, with Kṛṣṇa, the Soul of all souls. Without reaching that end, the practice is all useless. There is a verse in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam which says that if after performing all the rules and regulations, observing all kinds of vows of austerity, studying all the Vedas and related holy literature, or practicing the yoga system, or visiting all the places of pilgrimage, or giving everything in charity, one does not come to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, it is all useless, a great waste of time. Similarly, Lord Kṛṣṇa tells his intimate friend Uddhava, in the same text: “These are, of course, very nice activities, but they are not as attractive to Me as the transcendental loving service rendered by My devotees.” (Bhāg. 11.12.1)

That is the way to attract Kṛṣṇa—by transcendental loving service. But we are now talking about those foolish persons who will not go that way. In verses 10–15 Kṛṣṇa explains how by practicing the mystic yoga system one can come “to the highest perfection.” But what is the key to that perfection? “Without deviation in remembering Me” and “constant engagement in devotional service.” In the five verses, thinking of or remembering the Lord is mentioned three times, and devotion or devotional service is also mentioned three times. What then is the possibility of reaching or “linking up” with the Lord by some fraudulent system which neglects these two necessities which are declared by the Lord Himself?

The Lord is very anxious for all His sons to leave this material universe, this place of miseries. The next four verses, 16–19, tell us that from the highest to the lowest condition within the material spheres, all are places of misery, because everywhere there is birth, old age, disease and death. No one wants these things, but they are always present even up to Brahmaloka, the planet of Lord Brahmā, creator of this universe. Kṛṣṇa, however, is contrasting this with His own abode, in verses 20–21. That nature, He says, is eternal. Actually, it is sac-cid-ānanda, eternal, full of knowledge, and always blissful. It is not void; it is not impersonal. It is only hinted at here by such terms as “My supreme abode,” “never annihilated,” and “infallible.” But this transcendental abode of Lord Kṛṣṇa is elaborately described in the Brahma-saṁhitā as the cintāmaṇi-dhāma, called Goloka Vṛndāvana. “It is full of palaces made of touchstone. There the trees are called desire-trees, and the cows are called surabhi. And the Lord is being served by hundreds and thousands of goddesses of fortune. It is He whose name is Govinda, the primal Lord and the cause of all causes. There the Lord plays His flute. His eyes are like lotus petals, and the color of His body like a beautiful cloud; on His head there is a peacock feather. So attractive is He that He excels thousands of cupids.”

There is yet one more process described by the Lord for attaining the Supreme, and that is described in verses 24–26. This process is also connected with the mystic yoga system and is dependent on passing away at certain auspicious moments. The expert yogī is not forced to vacate his body like an ordinary human, and so he may, if he chooses, leave at certain prescribed times and thus attain the spiritual realms. But this is not possible for the ordinary man, and therefore Kṛṣṇa tells Arjuna in the 27th verse: “The devotees who know these different paths are never bewildered. Therefore be always fixed in devotion.” The devotee does not have to take any thought about how or when he is leaving this material world. The example of Mahārāja Bharata is very instructive. Śukadeva Gosvāmī told Mahārāja Parīkṣit: “The great soul of King Bharata was so much attracted to the service of the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa that he very easily gave up his lordship over the earthly planet and his affection for his children, society, friends, royal opulence, and beautiful wife. He was so very lucky that the goddess of fortune was pleased to offer him all kinds of material concessions, but he never accepted any of this material opulence. Any person whose heart is attracted by the transcendental quality of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Madhusūdana, not to speak of material opulence, does not care even for the liberation which is aspired to by many great sages.’ ” (Bhāg. 5.14.43) Similarly, Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu prays in His Śikṣāṣtakam: “My dear son of Nanda, I do not want any kind of material happiness in the shape of many followers, nor immense opulence in wealth, nor any beautiful wife, nor do I want cessation from material existence. I may take birth many times, one after another, but what I pray is that My devotion unto You may always remain unflinching.”

This same highest truth is now confirmed by Lord Kṛṣṇa in the final verse of the chapter: “A person who accepts the path of devotional service is not bereft of any result of studying the Vedas, performing austere sacrifices, making charity, and pursuing philosophical and fruitive activities. And at the end he reaches the supreme abode.” Nothing is lacking; nothing left out. Kṛṣṇa and His name are identical, and if one will simply chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛsna, Kṛṣṇa Kṛsṇa, Hare Hare/Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rama, Hare Hare, his mind will become fixed at that absolute point, and his human form of life will become successful.

END

In The Nectar of Devotion it is stated that if anyone just sees the Rathayātrā cart passing and stands up to receive the Lord, he can purge all sinful results from his body. And if anyone follows the Rathayātrā cart when the Deities pass in front or from behind, even if he is born of a lowly family, he can achieve opulence equal to that of Viṣṇu (God). Although one may think such statements to be exaggerations, expert devotees who know the intricacies of transcendental science do not doubt them.

The potency of the yearly Rathayātrā Festival is inconceivably great. As pictured here, thousands and thousands of people participated in the 1970 Rathayātrā Festival, which was celebrated simultaneously in San Francisco and London by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. In San Francisco the procession was personally led by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, the founder and ācārya of ISKCON and a pure devotee of Lord Jagannātha. Those who joined in this sublime transcendental event by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, dancing in ecstasy and feasting on prasādam, spiritual food offered to the Supreme Lord, took part in the highest form of yoga.

Yoga means to link with God in loving exchange. Lord Kṛṣṇa teaches in Bhagavad-gītā (6.47) that the highest yogī is “he who always abides in Me with great faith, worshiping Me in transcendental loving service.” The Rathayātrā Festival is a potent transcendental stimulus for developing love of Godhead. The Rathayātrā procession—the gigantic, opulently decorated Deity cars and thousands of people chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa and dancing ecstatically—can attract even the materialistic person. By becoming attracted to the Supreme Lord in His form as Jagannātha one loses his attachment to the illusory happiness of the mundane world. Thus simply by seeing the Deities, simply by hearing the transcendental sound vibration of Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare, or simply by tasting foodstuffs offered to Kṛṣṇa, anyone can begin his progress back to Godhead without difficulty. And by applying his energy in understanding the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement and participating in glorifying the all-blissful Lord of the universe, one can revive one’s eternal loving relationship with the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Rathayātrā is a love festival. God, Kṛṣṇa, is the ultimate object of love, and we are meant to love Him. Such spiritual loving ecstasy as was felt by the thousands who took part in the Rathayātrā Festival does not come from idol worship, but is an authorized transcendental feeling. Only a stone-hearted man could not react with delight to see the Deity of Lord Jagannātha drawn on His huge cart, surrounded by hundreds of chanting devotees. Idol worship means to pay obeisances to some whimsical material object, like a wood carving or stone sculpture of an imaginary God created within the mind. The Christian scripture, for example, declares that one should not worship any graven image. Lord Jagannātha, however, is certainly not in the category of imagination. Jagat means universe, and nātha means Lord, so Jagannātha means the Lord of the universe—Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is accepted by all the followers of the Vedas, the oldest scriptures known to man, as the Absolute Truth, the Personality of Godhead. As stated in the Brahma-saṁhitā, “Kṛṣṇa, who is known as Govinda, is the Supreme Godhead. He has an eternal, blissful spiritual body. He is the origin of all. He has no other origin, and He is the prime cause of all causes.”

In India there are thousands of Kṛṣṇa temples, and millions of people acknowledge Him to be the original God, the one without a second. Kṛṣṇa Himself declares in Bhagavad-gītā that He is the father of all living entities. So He is nothing like “a Hindu deity,” but He is the source and sustainer of all entities, be they Christian, Hindu, atheist, or lower animals and plants. Moreover, it is stated in Vedic scripture that Kṛṣṇa appears in the incarnation known as arca-vigraha, the Deity form, just so the devotee may worship Him easily in His personal form. Because in our conditioned state we cannot see Kṛṣṇa in His original spiritual form, with two hands holding a flute, He kindly appears in the natural elements such as wood or brass or oil paint. The Deity incarnates in this way just so the devotees can worship Him, dress Him, offer Him foodstuffs and look upon His grace-giving countenance. This is not a matter of imagination; rather, it is Kṛṣṇa’s grace. God is so kind that He becomes pliable to the devotees’ worship, He allows the devotees to feed Him, and whatever they offer Him with love and prayers, He accepts (Bg. 9.26). Similarly, the Lord is pleased to ride on the Rathayātrā cart and be seen by thousands of His subjects.

We request everyone to try to understand the transcendental nature of the Rathayātrā Festival. God is actually able to ride on the Rathayātrā cart, and in His form as the Deity, bestow His blessings upon all. Who can deny God if He wishes to appear before us? According to all authorized statements and the experience of great devotees and scholars of spiritual love, Lord Jagannātha is Kṛṣṇa Himself. We may believe or not believe; that is a different matter. But Lord Jagannātha rides on, and the devotees feel pleasure at heart, and all persons factually receive His blessings on the occasion of Rathayātrā.

The mammoth chariot lumbered down through the heart of London, while on all sides thousands chanted and danced in ecstasy. Piccadilly Circus overflowed with the masses who lined the streets and sidewalks. The giant tower, over 50 feet high, swayed precariously as Lord Jagannātha’s Rathayātrā car moved slowly towards Trafalgar Square. From between the buildings of disbelieving window-watchers, the challenging stature of the red, yellow and blue chariot, bedecked with flowers and gems, lotus petals and sparkling ornaments, appeared most imposing. And seated on the huge chariot, His golden cape blowing gracefully in the midsummer air, Lord Jagannātha, accompanied by His sister, Subhadrā, and His brother, Balarāma sat regally surveying the phantasmagoria of banners and flags, festoons and drums. The devotees sat reverently at the lotus feet of Their Lordships and led the teeming crowds in the chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛsṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare. The multitudes responded with an incredible procession of singing and dancing that extended for a thousand yards around the chariot—all in glorification of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa.

The second annual London Rathayātrā festival happened just like that. Two years before, when six disciples of the Hare Kṛṣṇa Movement first invaded British soil, the newspapers declared: “KṚṢṆA CHANT STARTLES LONDON.” Londoners still haven’t recovered from that initial shock of transcendental sound vibration. The Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa Temple (London) hasn’t let them. The devotees there (now numbering near thirty) have continued to bombard England with Hare Kṛṣṇa on records on television and radio, in the movies, in newspapers and magazines, and daily the saṅkīrtana party of saffron-clad chanters dance their way down Oxford Street.

The founder-ācārya of the International Society for Kṛṣṇa Consciousness is His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda. All knowledge of the topmost yoga system known as bhakti-yoga, propagated around the world by the Hare Kṛsṇa Movement, has come from him. On the order of his spiritual master, Śrīla Prabhupāda has introduced this science of God realization in the Western world. So perfect is the science of Kṛṣṇa, so blissful is its execution, that in just four years over 50 centers of Kṛṣṇa consciousness have been established by His Divine Grace, and the entire Western world has recognized the absolute authority of the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. Public festivals held for the glorification of God are a unique, happy process by which many, many people can achieve bhakti-yoga, devotion to the Supreme Lord. If the festival is pleasing and people respond to nice chanting, decorated carts and prasādam (spiritual foodstuffs offered first to the Supreme Lord), then they are actually appreciating Kṛṣṇa Himself, and by such appreciation all can attain pure devotional service. That is the transcendental meaning to the Rathayātrā Festivals.

īśvaraḥ—Godhead; paramaḥ—Supreme; kṛṣṇaḥ—Kṛṣṇa; sat—eternal; cit—knowledge; ānanda—bliss; vigrahaḥ—body; anādiḥ—having no origin; ādiḥ—prime cause or origin of all; govindaḥ—Govinda; sarva—all; kāraṇa—of causes; kāraṇam—the cause.

Kṛṣṇa who is known as Govinda, is the Supreme Godhead. He has an eternal, blissful spiritual body. He is the origin of all. He has no other origin, and He is the prime cause of all causes. (Brahma-saṁhitā, verse 1)

This Brahma-saṁhitā, which was often quoted by Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, the inaugurator of the current Hare Kṛṣṇa movement, was sung by Brahmā, the first created entity in this universe. Brahmā, who was born out of a lotus flower sprouting from the navel of the Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, a plenary expansion of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, is the greatest of the demigods, being directly empowered by Lord Kṛṣṇa to create the solar and planetary systems and all life that dwells therein. Despite his great power, at his birth Brahmā knew neither his whereabouts nor his identity. Therefore the Supreme Lord, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, imparted Vedic knowledge into his heart, and these hymns of the Brahma-saṁhitā are Brahmā’s articulation of that knowledge. It is not surprising then that the Brahma-saṁhitā is in praise of Govinda (Kṛṣṇa), the primeval Lord who is the very origin of Brahmā.

From the very first verse, the Brahma-saṁhitā asserts that of all the gods and the demigods, Lord Kṛṣṇa, also called Govinda, is the Supreme. This is also stated in Bhagavad-gītā by Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa Himself: “Neither the hosts of demigods nor the great sages know My origin, for in every respect, I am the source of the demigods and the sages.” (10.2) In the Gītā, Arjuna also proclaims the supremacy of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa: “You are the father of this complete cosmic manifestation, the worshipable chief, the spiritual master. No one is equal to You, nor can anyone be one with You. Within the three worlds, You are immeasurable.” (11.43)

The word Govinda (one who gives pleasure to the cows) also establishes that the Supreme Godhead is a personality who has characteristic pastimes, such as cowtending. When Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa descended on this earth some 5,000 years ago, He exhibited His eternal transcendental pastimes in Vṛndāvana, where He herded and tended cows along with His many cowherd boy friends. Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī explains the appellation “Govinda” in this way: “Kṛṣṇa, as truly envisioned in His variegated pastimes as the owner of transcendental cows, chief of cowherds, consort of milkmaids, ruler of the terrestrial abode Gokula and the object of worship of the beautiful transcendental residents of Goloka, is Govinda.” (Purport to Verse 1 of Brahma-saṁhitā) Indeed, the cow is very dear to Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa. In Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam the cow and the bull represent the earth and religion respectively. Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa is also called Govinda because He not only gives pleasure to the cows but to all other living entities as well, being that He is the reservoir of all pleasures. The word go also means senses. The senses are always craving some satisfaction, and to get some satisfaction, the senses are always roving from one object to another, but only Kṛṣṇa, Govinda, can give the senses unlimited satisfaction, for only Kṛṣṇa is unlimited. Through the chanting of flare Kṛṣṇa, the living entity participates in the infinite bliss of Kṛṣṇa, and thus his senses are automatically satisfied. It is Lord Brahmā who laments that he has only four heads with which to praise Kṛṣṇa. Brahmā feels he can not adequately chant His praises with even a thousand heads and thousand tongues.

Of all the demigods, Brahma is considered to be the chief being directly empowered by Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa to create all beings within the universe. Brahmā himself is an īśvaraḥ (controller), but in the first verse Lord Brahmā says īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ, which means that the supreme (paramaḥ) controller is Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa. Because living entities have some controlling capacity, however great or minute, they are always trying to control one another. One animal tries to devour or conquer another animal, one man tries to conquer another man, or the husband tries to control his wife or children, or one nation tries to control another nation, or the inhabitants of one planet may try to “conquer space,” or the demigods may control a variety of phenomena such as wind, rain, fire, water, etc., but ultimately there is a limit to the control of living entities. There is a point, despite a living entity’s power, beyond which he has no control. In Bhagavad-gītā Lord Kṛṣṇa tells Arjuna: “There are two classes of beings, the fallible and the infallible. In the material world every entity is fallible, and in the spiritual world every entity is called infallible. Besides these two, there is the greatest living personality, the Lord Himself, who has entered into these worlds and is maintaining them. Because I am transcendental, beyond both the fallible and the infallible, and because I am the greatest, I am celebrated both in the world and in the Vedas as that Supreme Person.” (Bg. 15.16-18)

In numerous places throughout the Gītā, Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa confirms that He is the supreme controller: “The whole cosmic order is under Me. By My will it is manifested again and again, and by My will it is annihilated at the end. This material nature is working under My direction, O son of Kuntī, producing all the moving and unmoving beings, and by its rules this manifestation is created and annihilated again and again.” (Bg. 9.8 & 10) Similarly, Īśopaniṣad testifies: īśāvāsyam idaṁ sarvam. “Everything animate or inanimate that is within the universe is controlled and owned by the Lord.” (Mantra 1) Both material nature (aparā prakṛti) and the individual spirit souls (parā prakṛti) are emanations from the Lord, and therefore He is ultimately the controller of everything that exists. The first verse of Brahma-saṁhitā establishes that this supreme controller is not an impersonal entity or concept but is a person having an eternal name, an eternal form, eternal attributes, and eternal pastimes.

The very name Kṛṣṇa indicates His all-attractive qualities, which are indicated in the second line: sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ. “He has an eternal, blissful, spiritual body.”

One may have a great deal of difficulty accepting the sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ aspect of the Supreme Person, or accepting the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but this is largely due to the frailties of human conceptualization. We think that because Kṛṣna has a body or because He has form He is limited. This is because in the material world all forms have some limitation. I can run just so fast, or I can reach just so far, but the Vedas assert that Kṛṣṇa’s body is not like this. Although located in one place, His hand can extend anywhere, and He can personally accept what is offered to Him. In Īśopaniṣad it is stated that the Supreme Lord “although fixed in His abode, is more swift than the mind, and He can overcome all others running. The powerful demigods cannot approach Him. Although in one place, He controls those who supply the air and rain. He surpasses all in excellence.” (Mantra 4) In Bhagavad-gītā Arjuna sees all the universes contained within the body of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, and in Brahma-saṁhitā it is said that any one of the organs of the body of the Supreme Person can perform all the actions of all the other parts and that Kṛṣṇa impregnated material nature simply by glancing at her. In Īśopaniṣad the Supreme Lord’s body is described as asnāviram, which means that it is without veins. His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda comments: “The Supreme Lord is not formless. He has His own transcendental form which is not at all similar to those of the mundane world. The living entities of this world have their forms embodied by the material nature, and they work like any material machines. The physiological and anatomical structure of the body of a living being must have a mechanical construction, with veins and so forth in the embodiment. But in the transcendental body of the Lord there is nothing like veins. It is clearly stated here (Īśopaniṣad, Mantra 8) that He is unembodied. That means that there is no difference between His body and soul. Nor does He accept a body by the law of nature. In the material concept of life, the soul is different from the gross embodiment and subtle mind. The Supreme Lord is apart from any such departmentalized arrangement, however. There is nothing like a difference of body and mind in the Supreme Lord. He is the complete whole, and His mind and body, and He Himself are all one and the same. In the Brahma-saṁhitā there is a similar description of the body of the Supreme Lord. He is described there as sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ. This means that He is the eternal form fully representing existence, knowledge and bliss. The Vedic literature states clearly that He has a different kind of transcendental body, and thus He is sometimes described as formless. This formlessness means that He has no form like ours and that He is devoid of a form which we can perceive. In the Brahma-saṁhitā it is further said that the Lord can do anything and everything with any one of the parts of His body. It is said there that with each and every one of the parts of His body, such as the hand, He can do the work of the other senses. This means that the Lord can walk with His hands, He can accept a thing with His legs, He can see by His hands and feet, and He can eat by His eyes. In the śruti mantras it is said that He has no hands and no legs like us, but that He has a different type of hand and leg by which He can accept all that we offer Him, and walk faster than anyone anywhere.”

In the Judaic-Christian tradition, God is sometimes pictured as an old man, but Vedic literatures give quite different information. The Lord is described in the Vedas as ever-youthful and ever-fresh. He never grows old. Although Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa was a grandfather on the Battlefield of Kurukṣetra, He still appeared as a beautiful youth around sixteen years of age. Although He is described as “the oldest” because He existed before everyone else in the creation, He should not be thought of as an old man. All of these misconceptions arise from habitual materialistic thinking. Because our bodies are temporary, full of ignorance, and miserable, we think these to be attributes of all bodies. But Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s body is sac-cid-ānanda, eternal and unchanging (sat), all-knowing (cit), and full of bliss (ānanda).

Next, Brahmā states that Kṛṣṇa, who is the Supreme Godhead, who possesses an eternal, blissful, spiritual body and individual pastimes, is the origin of everything (anādir ādir govindaḥ). This is also stated by Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa Himself throughout Bhagavad-gītā. Being the origin of everything, He Himself has no origin, which means that He is beginningless. This is a reassertion of His eternality. And not only is He the origin of everything. but He is the prime cause of all causes, or the ultimate cause. In Western philosophy, there has been much speculation on this subject of cause and effect. The philosopher Hume asserted in his classic thesis that external objects, as they appear to the senses in the material world, have no necessary connection with one another. “There is not, in any single, particular instance of cause and effect, anything which can suggest the idea of power or necessary connection.” (David Hume, An Inquiry Concerning Human Understanding, section 7) This posits that the connection between objects in the material universe is simply perceived in the mind: in actuality, there is no real connection between objects and events. “This connection, therefore, which we feel in the mind, this customary transition of the imagination from one object to its usual attendant, is the sentiment or impression from which we form the idea of power or necessary connection … When we say, therefore, that one object is connected with another, we mean only that they have acquired a connection in our thought, and give rise to this inference by which they become proofs to each other’s existence.” (Ibid.) This implies that materially one object cannot give impetus to another object or cause another object to come into existence. It then follows that the cause of objects in the material universe must be a force which is nonmaterial, a force which is outside the material universe. Many scientists today also agree that because everything in the universe is subject to creation and annihilation, that which causes the universe must be beyond creation and annihilation and must therefore be a nonmaterial or spiritual force.

Dr. John Cleveland Cotran, Professor of Chemistry and Chairman of Science & Mathematics Division, University of Minnesota, writes: “Chemistry discloses that matter is ceasing to exist, some varieties exceedingly slowly, others exceedingly swiftly. Therefore the existence of matter is not eternal. Consequently matter must have had a beginning. Evidence from chemistry and other sciences indicates that this beginning was not slow and gradual; on the contrary, it was sudden, and the evidence even indicates the approximate time when it occurred. Thus at some rather definite time the material realm was created and ever since has been obeying law, not the dictates of chance. Now, the material realm not being able to create itself and its governing laws, the act of creation must have been performed by some nonmaterial agent. The stupendous marvels accomplished in that act show that this agent must possess superlative intelligence, an attribute of mind. But to bring mind into action in the material realm, as, for example, in the practice of medicine and the field of parapsychology, the exercise of will is required, and this can be exerted only by a person. Hence our logical and inescapable conclusion is not only that creation occurred but that it was brought about according to the plan and will of a person endowed with supreme intelligence and knowledge (omniscience), and the power to bring it about and keep it running according to plan (omnipotence) always and everywhere throughout the universe (omnipresence). That is to say, we accept unhesitatingly the fact of the existence of ‘the supreme spiritual Being, God, the Creator and Director of the universe’ …” (The Evidence of God In An Expanding Universe, pp. 41–42, edited by John Clover, Monsma, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, N.Y., 1958). Similarly, Dr. Marlin Books Dreider, an eminent physiologist, University of Maryland, writes; “I see at the beginning of the cosmic road not eternal energy or matter, not ‘inscrutable fate,’ not a ‘fortuitous conflux of primordial elements,’ not ‘the great Unknown’—but the Lord God Almighty.” (lbid, p. 68)

Lord Brahmā, then, predates the current discoveries of science in asserting that the cause of the universe is not only nonmaterial but that it has personality and a body that has no origin and is eternally situated in its abode. The name Kṛṣṇa, as stated before, denotes that this supreme entity is all-attractive, and this implies that He is the object for loving affections. Being the origin of all, He maintains control over all plural created entities by dint of the charm of His original contact. Lord Kṛṣṇa speaks of the plural spiritual entities as “eternal fragments of Myself,” which are thrown into the material spheres. These fragments appear to have some individuation, and yet they are unified in their origin. “Although the Supersoul appears to be divided, He is never divided. He is situated as one. Although He is the maintainer of every living entity, it is to be understood that He devours and develops.” (Bg. 13.16)

When Brahmā establishes the supremacy of Lord Kṛṣṇa, he simultaneously asserts the three potencies of the Godhead—omniscience, omnipresence and omnipotence. By His omnipotence He can be present by His name alone. Therefore it is said that Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa’s name are nondifferent. This is the meaning of absolute. In the relative world, someone may call me in my apartment, but if I am not there, I will not suddenly appear just because my name is called. But Kṛṣṇa, being absolute, is different. He is always present, and the invocation of His name revives our awareness of this fact. This revival of awareness of Kṛṣṇa’s presence is called Kṛṣṇa consciousness. The omnipresence of Kṛṣṇa is like the sunlight which pervades everything. Wherever there is sunlight, there is no darkness, and wherever there is Godhead, there is no nescience. His omnipresent potency, by which He is present in every atom of the creation, is called Paramātmā. The omnipresent effulgence emanating from His spiritual body is called Brahman. Omniscience refers to His total knowledge. Being present everywhere, He automatically knows everything. And being the origin and cause of everything, He is naturally intimately acquainted with the functionings of everything. Apart from all these potencies, which are impersonal, He has a personality known as Govinda or Kṛṣṇa.

Brahmā is establishing this fact in the way of praise, for Brahmā is created by Kṛṣṇa, and Brahma-saṁhitā is his kīrtana, or celebration of the Supreme. Since Lord Kṛṣṇa is the origin of all, it is He who originates the words of the Brahma-saṁhitā as spoken by Brahmā. When Lord Brahmā says that Kṛṣṇa is the origin of all, it is to be understood that He is the origin of Lord Brahmā. Brahmā himself is the cause of this material universe, being the creator god, but Lord Kṛṣṇa, who is the “prime cause of all causes,” is the cause of Brahmā. Brahmā is born out of the stem of the lotus flower that comes from the navel of the Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, and this Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu is the second Viṣṇu incarnation of Lord Kṛṣṇa. A description of Lord Brahmā given in the Brahma-saṁhitā (Chapter 5, verse 49) likens Brahmā to valuable stones reflected in the rays of the sun, and the sun is likened to the Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu. This sun in its turn expands from the supreme sun, which is Kṛṣṇa.

We all acknowledge the origin of this body to come from our parents, who acknowledge the origin of their bodies to come from their parents, and so on. The ultimate origin of all our bodies is lost in time. But even if we have the knowledge to trace back to the remotest times, we can not find a causeless material origin for this material body. We could regress to a hypothetical first man called “Adam,” or whatever, but we are always left with the fact that Adam also has a father. It is at this point that we must make the leap from the material to the spiritual. Thus Christian theology holds that Adam, or the first man, has no material father, just as Brahmā, the first created entity, has no material father. “And God said, ‘Let us make man in Our image, after Our likeness … ’ So God created man in His own image …” (Genesis, I, 26–27) Thus man, created by God out of nothing, was not born by material parent. Conceding that God is the father of the first man, one might question the origin of the Godhead, to which all scriptures answer that God is the eternal father without beginning, and that which is eternal is nonmaterial by definition. Thus God is the eternal spiritual father who is the origin of all material beings.

Being the origin of all, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, is necessarily greater than His creation. He is the ultimate reality, the ultimate perfection. An effect cannot possess a greater reality than the cause that produces it, nor can it possess more perfection than its cause. Again the speculations of Western philosophy echo the Vedic conclusions: “It follows not only that what is cannot be produced by what is not, but likewise that the more perfect—in other words, that which contains in itself more reality—cannot be the effect of the less perfect …” (Rene Descartes, “The Meditations of God: that He Exists”) It is interesting that the philosopher Descartes accepted as proof of God the very idea of God Himself. He maintained that, being finite, man could not even have an idea of the infinite unless that idea were given to him by the infinite. The nature of the infinite is that it cannot be comprehended or intellectualized by the finite. Therefore the very fact that we can predicate an infinite or even speak of an infinite is proof that this infinite exists. “By the name God, I understand a substance infinite, eternal, immutable, independent, all-knowing, all-powerful, and by which I myself, and every other thing that exists, if any such there be, were created. But these properties are so great and excellent, that the more attentively I consider them, the less I feel persuaded that the idea I have of them owes its origin to myself alone. And thus it is absolutely necessary to conclude from all that I have foresaid that God exists: for though the idea of substance be in my mind owing to this, that I myself am substance, I should not, however, have the idea of an infinite substance, seeing I am a finite being, unless it were given me by some substance in reality infinite.” (Descartes, “The Meditations,” Ibid.)

Kṛṣṇa is not only the origin of the creation, but is the preserver as well. (“The conservation of a substance in each moment of its duration requires the same power and act that would be necessary to create it.” Descartes, Ibid.) In Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam Lord Kṛṣṇa tells Brahmā that He is not only the cause of the creation but is, in fact, the creation itself. And it follows that being the force that brings about the appearance of an object and that maintains that object during its duration, Kṛṣṇa is also the cause of the annihilation of that object by dint of His withdrawing potency. Therefore it is said that when Lord Kṛṣṇa wants someone killed, there is no possibility of his being saved, and when He wants someone to live, there is no possibility of killing him. This is what is meant by ultimate controller.

The conception of origin also implies separation. Etymologically the word “origin” comes from the Latin word oriri, meaning to rise or to arise out of. The word “source,” coming from the word “surge,” has its origin in the Latin word surgere, also meaning to rise. Therefore the idea of origin or source can be compared to the rising of waves from the ocean, the surging of the billows, their brief manifestation, and their lapsing and falling back into the ocean. The waves never exist outside the ocean, yet they are distinct from the ocean which is their source. Nor do the waves effect the ocean in any substantial way. They are simply the surface play of the ocean, as the material creation is but one of the manifestations of Kṛṣṇa’s incidental energies, one of His waste products or gratuities. The play of the waves on the surface is forever removed from the great depths inhabited by the mighty denizens, the great souls swimming in the effulgence of the Lord. “Again everything that is created does not rest on Me. Behold My mystic opulence: although I am the maintainer of all living entities and although I am everywhere, still My Self is the very source of creation.” (Bg. 9.5)

The absurdity of any created entity maintaining that he is God is obvious here. To extend the simile, it is as ridiculous as asserting a wave to be the entire ocean. One should notice that the existence of waves is very brief, that they appear to have no individuality, that they are countless, that they seem to have been appearing from time immemorial, that their motion cannot be stopped, that they never perish, that they return to the ocean to eventually become another wave and that each wave in its own right is infinite, having arisen from infinite waves, composed of infinite bubbles. One of the wonders of God’s creation is that one particle, like the wave or bubble, can reflect the totality.

No one can understand who or what Kṛṣṇa is or the extent of His creation, but we can come to some finite understanding of the limitlessness of His being and of our finite relation to Him. He communicates to us by śabda, His sound potency, utilizing the orthodox symbols of the Sanskrit language, which for us are translated into English and entitled “The Song of the Opulent One,” or, in Sanskrit, Bhagavad-gītā. These words, symbols, give us mental impressions of the cosmic situation and eventually exhort us to make an emotional-spiritual conviction, which is to surrender to Him who is beyond our knowledge and to whom the Gītā points—Kṛṣṇa. Once surrendered, we can come to understand that the śabda of Kṛṣṇa (Hare Kṛṣṇa) is nondifferent from Kṛṣṇa Himself and that He is contained in it in His full potency.

This first verse of the Brahma-saṁhitā, like the Gīta, proclaims the supremacy and eternality of Lord Kṛṣṇa. Once one accepts this verse, his next logical course of action is to direct his worship to Kṛṣṇa. “I am the source of everything: from Me the entire creation flows. Knowing this, the wise worship Me with all their hearts.” (Bg. 10.8) Simply by realizing the knowledge of the first verse of Brahma-saṁhitā, one can enter into the spirit of Brahma-saṁhitā and Bhagavad-gītā and thus join Brahmā in his praise: Govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi “I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, who is inaccessible to the Vedas but obtainable by pure unalloyed devotion of the soul, who is without a second, who is not subject to decay, who is without a beginning, whose form is endless, who is the beginning, the eternal soul, and who is a person possessing the beauty of blossoming youth.” (Brahma-saṁhitā, 33)

END

“Friend: One joined to another in intimacy and affection; sympathizer, helper.” A friend is very hard to define; therefore, arbitrarily, we refer to The Little Oxford Dictionary, the only dictionary at hand. And utilizing this definition we can seek still further and ask, “Who is our dearmost friend?” And even by this definition, we are in agreement with the verdict of Bhagavad-gītā As It Is: Our dearmost friend is Kṛṣṇa!

Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is our dearmost friend. By Kṛṣṇa is meant God. Kṛṣṇa means all-attractive, for how can God be God if He does not have all attractive qualities in full? Kṛṣṇa is full in the six opulences of wealth, power, fame, beauty, wisdom and renunciation. If someone has a little wealth or if someone is beautiful, he is attractive for that reason. But Kṛsṇa is all-attractive because He possesses all attractive qualities in full. We may find someone wealthy, but if we look further we will find someone with more wealth than him. Or we may meet someone who is very learned, but if we look further we will find someone with more knowledge still. But when we get to Kṛṣṇa, we become at once satisfied and seek no further because no one has more wealth or knowledge than Him. Therefore Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, called Bhagavān, our dearmost friend. He possesses all opulences in full.

Since a bona fide spiritual master is the direct representative of Kṛṣṇa, he shares in Krṣṇa’s qualities of excellence. Thus for the devotees of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Śrīla Prabhupāda is also our dearmost friend. He is the external representative and the mercy incarnation of Kṛṣṇa. Practically he is the only authorized source of bona fide information about the Personality of Godhead because he is instructing us according to revealed scriptures how we can revive our eternal relationship with God. By hearing such information from the bona fide spiritual master one can at once become detached from one’s inferior engagement with matter and attach oneself to the transcendental loving service of the Lord. In this way one attains God. Therefore we consider the real friend to be he who can direct us to God, the supreme friend and well-wisher for all living entities, not he who merely claims to be our friend and asks us to tell him our problems. His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda can direct us to God and is therefore our dearmost friend.

Returning to our definition of a friend, we find that he is one who is joined to another in intimacy. Let us now seek out who is joined to us most intimately, and we shall find—Kṛṣṇa! Kṛṣṇa, according to Śrīla Prabhupāda, is “closer to us than our jugular vein.” This is confirmed by Kṛṣṇa Himself in Bhagavad-gītā: “I am seated in everyone’s heart, and from Me come remembrance, knowledge, and forgetfulness.” (Bg. 15.15) Śrīla Prabhupāda affirms that only Kṛṣṇa knows the volume of our suffering, and only Kṛṣṇa knows how nice we are.

The next point in the definition is that a friend offers help and sympathy. Again let us seek out who is most helpful and sympathetic to us, and we shall find—Kṛṣṇa! Kṛṣṇa, situated in our hearts, is so helpful that He guides us and gives us determination in pursuing our goals. Pervading the universe, Kṛṣṇa is so sympathetic that He fulfills our every desire. Only Kṛṣṇa can really help us or be sympathetic to us because only He has perfect knowledge of our desires, and He alone has the omnipotency to fulfill them for us. In other words, God is so kind that He gives us whatever we desire. Seated in our hearts, He knows what we actually desire, and directly or indirectly He fulfills that desire. Thus He is called in Śrī Īsopanisad the “self sufficient philosopher who is awarding everyone’s desire since time immemorial.” (Mantra 8) Kṛṣṇa says, “If you want to forget Me, you can forget Me forever; if you want to merge with Me, here is My effulgence, the brahmajyoti; and if you want to love Me, come—we shall play as cowherd boys.” God is kind to everyone.

The science of God and His relationship with us is elaborately explained in Bhagavad-gītā and other Vedic literatures. These literatures are designed to help the living entity realize his eternal relationship with the Supreme so that he can live happily in life. The factual relation between the Supreme Lord in the heart and the minute living entity, both of whom are spiritual and individual, is compared to that of two birds in a tree. The tree is the material body of the living entity. The living entity “bird,” captivated by the fruits of the material tree, is tasting both the bitter and the sweet, while the Supreme Lord “bird” is witnessing the activities of His friend, fulfilling his desires by His omnipotence. This example is given in the Muṇḍaka and Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣads, where the living entity is called “ātmā,” while the Supreme Lord in the heart is called “Paramātmā.” Though both are spiritual, the Supreme Lord is accepted as superior; therefore the Lord is simply witnessing the activities of His friend, waiting for him to surrender to Him.

Thus we see that the living entity is individual, and he has some minute independence, though he is always associated with and subordinate to the Lord, however forgetful or unconscious he may be of that relationship. Who could be a better friend than Kṛṣṇa, staying with us in every circumstance? While we are changing from tree to tree, or body to body, Kṛṣṇa, who is not affected whatsoever by this mundane world, accompanies us lifetime after lifetime. He is waiting for us to intelligently use that independence He has given us by surrendering to Him, thereby ending the cycle of repeated birth and death. Even in the liberated state He stays with us. The living entity and the Supreme Lord, though distinct from one another, always remain together. “The same living entity is eternal and is joined to the Supreme Lord by the tie of an eternal kinship.” (Brahma-saṁhitā) They are joined intimately, as two distinct individuals, eternally. The living entity must simply agree to accept the supreme will of the Supreme Lord; then he will be happy. The Lord, having given us independence, is so kind that He will fulfill our desires no matter what they may be. Man proposes and God disposes. The Lord is neutral toward all His sons and daughters, and He never interferes with the way in which we use our independence. If a son insists on doing something nonsensical, the father will reluctantly give his sanction. “All right, if you insist, go ahead.” Similarly, the Supreme Lord allows us to exercise our minute independence, and since we are helpless to fulfill our desires, He fulfills them for us.

For example, in Bhagavad-gītā Kṛṣṇa says, “Men of small intelligence worship the demigods, and their fruits are temporary and limited.” (Bg. 7.21) But “I am in everyone’s heart as Paramātmā. As soon as one desires to worship the demigods, I make his faith steady so that he can devote himself to some particular deity.” (Bg. 7.21) Then, present in the heart of the demigod, the Supreme Lord arranges for the demigod to fulfill the desire of the living entity. Both the demigod and the living entity are dependent on the Supreme Will. Even the fruits awarded by the demigods are created of Kṛṣṇa’s energy. So Kṛṣṇa says that “in actuality these benefits are bestowed by Me alone.” (Bg. 7.21) Therefore, from beginning to end, Kṛṣṇa is fulfilling our every desire. Who could be a better friend than Kṛṣṇa?

Birth after birth, body after body, Kṛṣṇa grants whatever we desire. Thus the body we take is created according to our desire. As long as we desire a material body, Kṛṣṇa will give us one. “The living entity in the material world carries his different conceptions of life, as the air carries aromas. Thus does he take one kind of body and again quit it to take another. The living entity, thus taking another gross body, obtains a particular type of ear, sense of touch, tongue, and nose, centered about the mind. He thus enjoys a particular set of sense objects.” (Bg. 15.8-9) Kṛṣṇa gives us our body, and then He accompanies us inside of it, but He is not responsible for how we utilize it. We get a particular body and various circumstances of birth according to our actions (karma) and what we are thinking of at the time of death—in other words, according to our own desires. “Those who worship the demigods will take birth among the demigods; those who worship ghosts and spirits will take birth among such beings; and those who worship Me will live with Me.” (Bg. 9.25)

By thus understanding that God grants material facilities according to our desires, we can understand that our suffering in the material world is due to us, not the Lord. The Lord is neutral to all His children, giving us whatever we want. God never interferes with the desires of the living entities, for if He did, what would be the meaning of the minute independence He has given us, and where would there be any possibility for love? In ignorance we think we are God or that we can enjoy independently of God, and so the Lord gives us this material body and material world. But the Lord is hoping that we will give up our material desires and come to Him. In the material world, the state provides both prisons and universities. Although wishing for everyone to enter the universities, it provides the prisons because it knows that some individuals will misuse their freedom and thereby merit entrance into the prisons. Similarly, God is kind even to the demons. As stated in the Vedānta-sūtra, “The Lord neither hates nor likes anyone, though He appears to.” Atheistic persons who are envious of God and wish to forget Him undoubtedly suffer, but even this suffering is God’s kindness. Since demons are desirous of forgetting Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa simply gives them the particular birth and body just suited to their forgetting Him, which is actually what they want: “These do I put into the ocean of material existence, into various demoniac species of life. Gaining repeated birth among the species of demoniac life, such persons can never approach Me, and gradually they sink down to the most abominable position of existence.” Such an abominable position is actually the desire of the demons and it is the mercy of God that such a desire is fulfilled. Desire is a subtle form of conditioning. The demon initially puts himself into demoniac conditions by misusing his independence, and only then does the long chain of material actions and reactions begin. Falsely identifying with such temporary situations, the bewildered demon wrongly blames the Lord for his condition, which in actuality is due to his own desire: “The living entity is the cause of the various sufferings and enjoyments in this world.” (Bg. 13.20)

But God is so kind and merciful that He will sometimes pull a demon out of his suffering, even though such a demon may be attached to his demoniac position. For example, sometimes God Himself will descend to kill a demon, and so great is God’s mercy that just by being killed by the Lord, the demon gains liberation. Or sometimes the Lord will send His son or representative, so that even the most abominable person can be elevated to the platform of transcendental loving service to the Lord simply by being graced by the dust of the lotus feet of such a pure devotee. Devotional service to the Lord is the perfection of life, and such service can be attained only by the mercy of the Lord and His pure devotee; there is no other way. The pure devotee is considered even more merciful than the all-merciful Lord because while the Lord will give us whatever we want, His pure devotee will give us the Lord only. If one is graced by a pure devotee such as His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, one has every possibility of himself becoming a pure devotee and thereby attaining the special mercy of God.

As kind as God is even to the demons, He is kinder still to the devotees. Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākur Mahārāja, the spiritual master of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, states in his Brahma-saṁhitā commentary: “It is a great wonder that Kṛṣṇa, being impartial, is fully partial to His devotees.” Kṛṣṇa Himself hints at this seeming contradiction when He says in the Gītā (9.29), “No one is envied by Me, nor am I partial to anyone. I am equal to all. Yet whoever renders service unto Me in devotion is a friend, is in Me, and I am a friend to Him.” The presence of simultaneously contradictory qualities in Kṛṣṇa is a further feature of His completeness, for how could God be God if He did not have all qualities and if He could not bewilder our limited brains with His inconceivable greatness. But God is so kind that He has provided a self-realized spiritual master who can impart knowledge of this great science of Kṛṣṇa to our conditioned souls so that we may penetrate a little into the mystery of Kṛṣṇa.

His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda directs us back to Chapter Four, Verse 11, of the Gītā, to understand this seeming contradiction: “All men, as they surrender unto Me, I reward accordingly.” In other words, as the demon is busy ignoring Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa similarly ignores the demon; and as the devotee is actively trying to care for the interests of Kṛṣṇa in devotional service to the Lord, the Supreme Lord Himself takes special care of His devotee. This reciprocation is natural. In the material world a man may be very charitably disposed toward all living entities, yet it is expected that he will take a special interest in his own children. Similarly the Supreme Lord, while kindly disposed toward all His parts and parcels, reciprocates in love with His devotees, who are engaged cent percent in His transcendental loving service.

While kindly fulfilling the needs of all His parts and parcels, God takes special supplies the necessities of life to all His sons and daughters. From the tiny ant to the great elephant, all receive His mercy in the shape of food, sunlight, air and whatever else is required by them for their maintenance. The impartial raincloud abundantly pours rain everywhere, be it on the rocks, the land, or the sea. Similarly God impartially fulfills the desires of all living entities through the agency of material nature. But in the case of devotees He takes special, personal care. Brahmā, the creator of this universe, prays, “I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, who burns to their roots all the fruitive activities of those who are imbued with devotion, and who, in accordance with the chain of their previously performed actions, impartially ordains for all those who walk in the path of work the due enjoyment of the fruits of their activities, no less in the case of the tiny insect named ‘indragopa’ than that of Indra, King of the demigods.” (Brahma-saṁhitā, 5.54) In other words, God impartially rewards those who indirectly serve Him by serving His material energy, and the agency for such rewarding is the mechanical working of material nature. But God takes personal charge of the life of His devotee, who serves Him directly as the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

In the Gītā Kṛṣṇa states that out of many thousands of men, few will seek perfection, but that in return, “I will give them the understanding by which they can come to Me. Out of compassion for them, I, dwelling in their hearts, destroy with the shining lamp of knowledge the darkness born of ignorance.” (Bg. 10.10-11) In this way God is both partial and impartial. He gives us whatever we want. He shines like the sun for everyone, but those who wish to remain in the closet of material nature receive no tangible benefit. Still, He impartially offers the possibility of His special care to all, and we take shelter of Him or of His material energy, māyā, as we choose. Kṛṣṇa confirms, “I am never manifest to the foolish and unintelligent. For them I am covered by My eternal creative potency, and so the deluded world knows Me not.” (Bg. 7.25) “O son of Pṛthā, those who are not deluded, the great souls, are under the protection of the divine nature. They are fully engaged in devotional service.” (Bg. 9.13)

Thus Kṛṣṇa, whether we take shelter of Him or not, is always our dearmost friend, since He always takes care to fulfill our desires. And beyond merely fulfilling our desires, He encourages us to desire for Him. Then, when we surrender to Him, we become happy, and He takes special care of us. He knows us and fulfills our desires by His expansion as Paramātmā, or Viṣṇu. But superior to the realization of Paramātmā is realization of Kṛṣṇa engaging in loving affairs with His pure devotees in His original form in His spiritual abode. At the end of Bhagavad-gītā, Kṛṣṇa gives His final instruction to Arjuna: “Surrender to Me.” He has previously stated that He and Paramātmā within are one, so His instruction is that somehow or other we surrender unto Him—within or without. “The Supreme Lord is situated in everyone’s heart, O Arjuna, and is directing the wanderings of all living entities, who are seated as on a machine, made of the material energy. O scion of Bharata, surrender unto Him in all respects, so that by His mercy you can have transcendental peace and eternal abode. Thus I have explained to you the most confidential of all knowledge. Deliberate on this fully, and do what you wish to do.” (Bg. 18.61-63) Kṛṣṇa, being so kind, invites us to serve Him, but He never forces us, nor does He interfere. And at once Arjuna replies, “I have regained my memory by Your mercy, and now I am fixed without any doubt, prepared to act according to Your instructions.” By the mercy of Paramātmā one gets the intelligence to attain Kṛṣṇa. The living entity “bird,” having surrendered to his dearmost friend the Paramatmā “bird,” becomes free from the entanglement of the material tree and is available to associate directly with Kṛsṇa in pastimes of love in the spiritual world.

Kṛṣṇa stands before Arjuna as a person on the Battlefield of Kurukṣetra—as his dearmost friend and helper—and we can understand that Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead and is talking to His friend. There are many pictures of Kṛṣṇa in His original transcendental form standing and talking to Arjuna on the Battlefield of Kurukṣetra. But how are we to understand that God is in our hearts? He is there in His beautiful four-handed form as Viṣṇu, and He is just as real as if He were standing before us and talking to us. He is there within the heart, and we must purify ourselves in order to see Him. Do not think that “God is in our hearts” is simply a truism. He is there and can be seen by a pure devotee.

This investigation of the friend within our hearts—when based on the scientific information regarding the living entity and the Supreme Soul presented by Kṛṣṇa in Bhagavad-gītā—culminates in the realization of Paramātmā, as experienced by great sages like Nārada Muni and described in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. From these descriptions we can understand that Kṛṣṇa is actually there, in our hearts, and that when we fully surrender to Him we become completely satisfied and can see Him face to face. And what do we see? We see the all-attractive transcendental form of our dearmost friend.

The meditation on this dearmost friend in our hearts is explained in the Second Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam: “The process of meditation should begin from the lotus feet of the Lord and progress to His smiling face. The meditation should be concentrated upon the lotus feet, then the calves, then the thighs, and in this way higher and higher. The more the mind becomes fixed upon the different parts of the limbs, one after another, the more the intelligence becomes purified.” (Bhāg. 2.2.13) Thus is revealed the beautiful form of “the Personality of Godhead residing within the body in the region of the heart and measuring only eight inches, with four hands carrying a lotus, a wheel of a chariot, a conchshell and a club respectively.” (Bhāg. 2.2.8) “His lotus feet are placed over the whorl of the lotus-like hearts of great mystics. On His chest there is the Kaustubha jewel engraved with a beautiful calf, there are other jewels on His shoulders, and His complete torso is garlanded with fresh flowers. He is well decorated with an ornamental wreath about His waist and rings studded with valuable jewels on His fingers. His leglet, bangles, oiled hair curling with a bluish tint, and His beautiful smiling face are all very pleasing. The Lord’s magnanimous pastimes and the glowing glancing of His smiling face are all indications of His extensive benedictions. One must therefore concentrate on this transcendental form of the Lord as long as the mind can be fixed on Him by meditation.” (Bhāg. 2.2.10-12)

“Thus being fixed, one must render service unto the Supersoul situated in one’s heart by His omnipotency. Because He is the Almighty Personality of Godhead, eternal and unlimited, He is the ultimate goal of life, and by worshiping Him one can end the cause of the conditioned state of existence.” (Bhāg. 2.2.6) This is the final instruction of Kṛṣṇa in the Gītā: to surrender unto Him and render service unto Him. This is God’s greatest kindness. Even though He is always fulfilling our desires, He allows us to fulfill His desires in transcendental loving service. Of course God is ātmārāma, self-satisfied, and in no way does He need our service, but out of His causeless mercy He allows us to render service to Him, and through the medium of the bona fide spiritual master He accepts our so-called service.

Actually in this age the meditation on God in the heart as described in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is not possible. Our duration of life is too short and living conditions troubled. Even Arjuna, who was superior in all spiritual and material attributes, and who lived at a time much more conducive to spiritual realization than our own, rejected this system of yoga. “The system appears impractical and unendurable to me, for the mind is restless and unsteady, O Kṛṣṇa, and to subdue it, is, it seems to me, more difficult than controlling the wind.” (Bg. 6.33-34) And Kṛṣṇa replied: “Of all yogīs, he who always abides in Me with great faith, worshiping Me in transcendental loving service, is most intimately united with Me in yoga and is highest of all.” (Bg. 6.47)

Thus the best way to realize Paramātmā, especially in this age, is to realize Bhagavān, the highest realization of Godhead, which automatically includes all other realizations. Bhagavān, Kṛṣṇa in His original form, is our dearmost friend. And what is the process for attaining Bhagavān realization? It is simply to render service to His pure devotee and to chant His name. This is the process recommended by Śrī Kṛṣṇa in Bhagavad-gītā and made especially practicable by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu in this age. Kṛṣṇa says: “The sages, knowing Me as the ultimate purpose of all sacrifices and austerities, the Supreme Lord of all planets and demigods, and the benefactor and well-wisher of all living entities, attain peace from the pangs of material miseries.” (Bg. 5.29) So it is up to us. We can do as we like; Kṛṣṇa never interferes. “Yet whoever renders service unto Me in devotion is a friend, is in Me, and I am a friend to Him.” Now what do you want to do?

Śrīla Prabhupāda has written the President of the Tokyo, Japan, temple of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness: “Your temple can be named New Gayā. Gayā is the province in India where Lord Buddha flourished. Japan is a Buddhist country, and we accept Lord Buddha as an incarnation of God. Also, it was at Gayā that Lord Caitanya was initiated by His spiritual master, Śrī Īśvara Purī Mahārāja.” Just in the tradition of Lord Caitanya, the Rathayātrā Festival was celebrated by ISKCON devotees in New Gayā. The Supreme Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s realm is everywhere, and the chanting of the holy name Hare Kṛṣṇa is universal because it is transcendental to all material designations such as country, race and sectarian religion. Devotional service, as taught by Lord Caitanya and exemplified in Rathayātrā, is simply transcendentally joyful.

GODHEAD IS LIGHT, NESCIENCE IS DARKNESS. WHERE THERE IS GODHEAD THERE IS NO NESCIENCE

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Godhead Is Light, Nescience is darkness. Where there is Godhead there is no Nescience.

Founder
(under the direction of His Divine Grace Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Prabhupāda)
His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda.

Editors:

Hayagriva Das Adhikary (ISKCON—New Vṛndāvana)

Satsvarupa Das Adhikary (ISKCON—Boston)

Printed in Japan

"I offer my respectful obeisances unto my spiritual master, who, with the torchlight of knowledge, has opened my eyes, which were blinded by the darkness of ignorance."

The greatest spiritual master of the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement, Caitanya Mahāprabhu, asked His disciple Rūpa Gosvāmī to go to Vṛndāvana and preach His mission. This is disciplic succession. One should not think, “I have understood everything from my spiritual master; now let me sit down tightly.” This is also nice, but Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s mission is to spread the cult. He was a very learned scholar and a very beautiful young man. He had a very beautiful wife and very affectionate mother and was a respectable brāhmaṇa. Everyone looked up to Him; by His one command He could gather hundreds of thousands of men to start a civil disobedience movement. However, in spite of such a sublime position in householder life, He took sannyāsa, the renounced order of life, at the age of twenty-four years. He could have satisfied Himself with sense gratification—“Let Me remain very peacefully at home. I have My good wife, My mother, and the public.” But He took sannyāsa. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Kṛṣṇa wanted everyone to surrender unto Him, so Kṛṣṇa came Himself as Caitanya Mahāprabhu to teach how to preach this process of devotional service. Caitanya Mahāprabhu is Kṛṣṇa Himself, in the incarnation of a pure devotee, so He set the example. Not only did He Himself show how to become Kṛṣṇa conscious, but His disciples also did so. After teaching His principal disciple, Rūpa Gosvāmī, about the principles of devotional service, Lord Caitanya said, “It is your duty to go preach.” When a disciple receives instruction from his spiritual master he has an obligation to the spiritual master. This is called guru-dakṣiṇā. After being initiated and instructed, the disciple should offer service: “My dear master, what can I do for you?” I also asked my spiritual master what I could do, and he asked me to try to preach Kṛṣṇa consciousness in the Western world. This is the duty of the disciple. He should not only receive instruction; he becomes indebted to his spiritual master for the knowledge imparted. Therefore he must also serve him. Caitanya Mahāprabhu instructs that Kṛṣṇa consciousness means to serve Kṛṣṇa and the spiritual master simultaneously, because we are elevated by the mercy of these two personalities, Kṛṣṇa and the spiritual master. When one is very sincere, Kṛṣṇa, who is seated in everyone's heart, gives him a qualified spiritual master. By the grace of Kṛṣṇa one can have a bona fide spiritual master, and by the grace of the spiritual master one makes advancement in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. This is the process.

The seed of devotional service is achieved by the combined mercy of Kṛṣṇa and the spiritual master. Therefore Lord Caitanya told Rūpa Gosvāmī, “It is your duty to accept what I say. Please go to Vṛndāvana and execute My order. I have given you hints; now expand upon them.” Caitanya Mahāprabhu was the greatest spiritual master, and now He and Rūpa Gosvāmī were being separated, and it was not known when they would meet again. Therefore Lord Caitanya pacified him. “Don't be sorry. You will again come to Jagannātha Purī, and we shall meet again.” Rūpa Gosvāmī could not deny this, but he was so afflicted that as soon as Lord Caitanya embraced him and got on a boat to start across the river, Rūpa Gosvāmī could not say anything but at once fainted and fell down due to feelings of separation. There was a Mahārāṣṭrian brāhmaṇa who was also a great devotee of Lord Caitanya and was also present there. Somehow or other he lifted Rūpa Gosvāmī and took him to his own house.

Rūpa Gosvāmī was accompanied by Anupama, his younger brother. Anupama's son is Jīva Gosvāmī, the celebrated scholar in the line of disciplic succession. When his father and uncle went away from home, this Jīva Gosvāmī was only ten years old, but he was such an intelligent boy that he decided, “My father and my uncle have left home to understand Kṛṣṇa. Why should I remain at home?” So he also left home at the age of ten years. But he knew that because he was a young boy he would not be of much help. “If I go to my father or uncle, what shall I do there?” He knew that they had gone to Vṛndavana on a great mission for Caitanya Mahāprabhu. “If I go to live there, then I must be qualified to assist them.” Therefore Jīva Gosvāmī went to Benares and became a very great scholar and philosopher. He was an accredited scholar both in literature and philosophy, so when he was a young man, after being fully educated, he went to Rūpa Gosvāmī, his uncle. In the meantime, he could not see his father, but his uncle was there, so Jīva Gosvāmī became his disciple, and he proved himself the greatest scholar and philosopher in the world. A great Sanskrit scholar in Calcutta once declared in a meeting that there has never been a philosopher and scholar like Jīva Gosvāmī in the world, nor in the future will there ever be one. His erudition is admitted by all scholarly circles. Even the Māyāvādī school, who are against our Vaiṣṇava philosophy, also study the theses of Jīva Gosvāmī. When I was in Bombay there was a very influential Māyāvādī sannyāsī who told me at a meeting, “I am studying Jīva Gosvāmī’s philosophy.” I said, “Very good.” He was a Māyāvādī sannyāsī, yet within his heart he had studied him very carefully—in fact, he was a devotee of Kṛṣṇa. I went to his āśrama, and I saw that he was worshiping Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa Deities. This very great scholar could present everything very nicely, and in public he would speak Māyāvādī philosophy, impersonalism, but secretly, despite his sectarian view, he was worshiping Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa. In the last meeting I declared to the audience, “Your spiritual master is speaking impersonalism here, but secretly he is worshiping Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa at home. You should see. He has very good devotion for Kṛṣṇa; he has Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa Deities and is worshiping nicely.” Jīva Gosvāmī was such a scholar that the greatest scholars among the Śaṅkarite impersonalists admit his superiority. Śaṅkara’s philosophy has so much word jugglery that it is very difficult for an ordinary man to understand, so generally the Śaṅkarites are mostly scholars. But nevertheless they admit defeat before Jīva Gosvāmī. This Jīva Gosvāmī was Rūpa Gosvāmī’s nephew.

When Lord Caitanya went to Benares (Vārāṇasī), one of his disciples, Candraśekhara Ācārya, who was by caste considered a śūdra, gladly received Him. Although Candraśekhara Acārya was not a brāhmaṇa, whenever Lord Caitanya visited Benares, He used to stop at Candraśekhara’s house. Before Lord Caitanya came to Benares, Candraśekhara Ācārya dreamt that the Lord had already come, so in the morning he went out and met Lord Caitanya. When he saw Lord Caitanya he was so glad that he fell down at His feet, and he received Him very obediently at his home. There was another devotee, Tapana Miśra, who was a very learned scholar, and as soon as he heard that Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu had arrived, he invited Him to take His meals at his house.

According to the Māyāvādīs, a sannyāsī should not cook. Therefore, anywhere a sannyāsī goes in a village, the village inhabitants, especially the householder brāhmaṇas, invite him to come and take prasādam. It is a rule that a sannyāsī cannot touch fire. (As far as we are concerned, we never touch fire for ourselves. We touch fire for Kṛṣṇa. As sannyāsīs we should not touch fire, but because we have to cook for Kṛṣṇa, the situation is different.)

After Caitanya Mahāprabhu had taken a meal at his house, Tapana Miśra requested Him, “My dear sir, I beg to request that as long as You remain at Vārāṇasī, please do not accept anyone else’s invitation. That is my request.”

Lord Caitanya knew that He would stay at Benares for four or five days, and He did not want to accept invitations from the Māyāvādī sannyāsīs. Benares is full of Māyāvādī sannyāsīs—there is not a single Vaiṣṇava sannyāsī. Not just Benares, anywhere. In the United States, when I first came, I was perhaps the only Vaiṣṇava sannyāsī. There were so many svāmīs who came, but they were all Māyāvādīs. Vaiṣṇava sannyāsīs are very rare, but Caitanya Mahāprabhu did not accept any invitation to dine with the Māyāvādī sannyāsīs. Generally we also follow that course. Because the Māyāvādīs do not believe in God, we call them atheists, although they are very learned scholars. Therefore we almost never accept an invitation from a Māyāvādī sannyāsī. Lord Caitanya made it a point to reside at Candraśekhara’s house, and He accepted the proposal that He take His meals at Tapana Miśra’s. Another friend, a brāhmaṇa, also learned that Caitanya Mahāprabhu had returned to Benares, so he also came and offered his respects. There were many admirers and devotees, respectable kṣatriyas and brāhmaṇas, and they began to come to see Caitanya Mahāprabhu. These events are described in Caitanya-caritāmṛta by Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī. In closing the chapter describing the talks between Rūpa Gosvāmī and Caitanya Mahāprabhu, he offers his blessings to us and affirms that anyone who hears this dialogue with faith and devotion will surely develop in spiritual life. He offers loving affection and obeisances to the feet of the gosvāmīs, especially Rūpa Gosvāmī.

In describing the activities of Lord Caitanya, Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja writes that His activities delivered even the mlecchas, or those who don’t follow the Vedas. Just as those who don’t follow the Christian Bible are called heathens, those who don’t follow the Vedas are called mlecchas, and even those people Caitanya Mahāprabhu delivered from nescience. But He could not deliver the Māyāvādīs. Therefore they are less than mlecchas. The word Māyāvādī is composed of two elements—māyā, matter, and vādī, one who sticks to this principle. Matter extends to the point of intelligence. The grossest materialist is the sense gratifier, and above him is the mental speculator. And the attempt to reach spiritual perfection by physical exercise, by making the proper physical adjustments to concentrate the mind, is also material. Therefore neither the process of karma, whereby the karmī works hard for sense gratification, nor the process of jñāna, whereby the philosopher seeks a solution by speculation, nor yoga, whereby perfection is sought by exercise, is on the spiritual platform. The spiritualist is he who knows that he is constitutionally spiritual and acts that way. Devotees know that they are part and parcel of the Supreme Spirit and that to engage in service is spiritualism. Both the Śaṅkarites and the Buddhists are Māyāvādīs. Formerly there was no animosity between the Buddhists and the Hindus. Lord Buddha started meditation near Gayā, which is near Benares. The Buddhists were Hindus, but since Buddhism was driven out of India it has been considered a different sect.

When Lord Caitanya was on His way to Vṛndāvana, He never made His headquarters anywhere but in Jagannātha Purī. But He stopped at Benares and resided with Candraśekhara and took prasādam with Tapana Miśra. His only propaganda was Hare Kṛṣṇa, and when He passed on the road all the people joined Him. Even when insignificant people saw Him they liked to chant, and He drew crowds. In three or four days He became famous. The propaganda of the young sannyāsī reached the Māyāvādīs, who indulged in backbiting. “Here is a sannyāsī, and He is dancing.” Dancing and singing were strictly forbidden to Māyāvādī sannyāsīs. (It appears, however, that kīrtana, chanting, is recommended in the Bible, and today even Māyāvādīs are taking to it.) They said of Lord Caitanya: “Here is a sannyāsī dancing and singing. He doesn’t give attention to studying Vedānta.” Sometimes Kṛṣṇa conscious devotees are considered foolish because they have no stock but chanting. People want to talk of philosophy, but simply by chanting all is complete. Criticism was going on: “There are other sentimentalists who are also foolish and ignorant; therefore they are following this sannyāsī.” When Lord Caitanya was criticized in that way, He smiled. “What can I do?” He said. He was very grave: “Let them criticize, and let Me continue My activities. That’s all.” Because He was anxious to visit Vṛndāvana, He did not care. He left Benares after three or four days. Although He was criticized, He did not challenge, but went to Vṛndāvana.

Lord Caitanya came back to Benares, however, on His way from Mathurā to Jagannātha Purī, and again He stayed at the house of Candraśekhara, although he was not a brāhmaṇa but a śūdra. Why? Because He is completely independent. Because He is Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa sometimes takes the incarnation of a hog. The hog is considered to be the lowest of animals because it eats stool. Just as those who are dog-eaters are considered the lowest of human society, similarly amongst the animals the hog is considered the lowest because it eats stool. But Kṛṣṇa took the appearance of a hog. That does not mean, however, that Kṛṣṇa became a hog. He is full independent. What sort of hog was He? That hog was so big that He covered almost half of the universe. In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam there is a very nice explanation of the hog incarnation. The residents of the three highest planets—Janaloka, Tapoloka and Satyaloka—are the most pious within the material world. They were praying, and when the hog incarnation sprinkled water upon those three planets by shaking His body, the residents thought. “We are becoming purified.” Although they are considered to be the most pious and purified residents of this material world, still they prayed, “We are becoming purified.”

Kṛṣṇa and His devotees are independent. They are not under the rules and regulations of this material world. Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu set an example by staying at a place which was considered abominable by other sannyāsīs. Candraśekhara was a clerk. The clerical occupation was offered to the śūdras, the laborer class. Recently in Calcutta, at a European firm, there was a strike of the clerks. Their chief man met with the manager and asked, “Do you want to compromise with us?” But the manager said, “No, I don’t want to compromise with you. I don’t care about you because you are educated laborers.” He gave that title to the clerks—educated laborers. Actually in Hindu society the clerks were called educated laborers—lekhak śūdras. But spiritually there is no such distinction. We should always remember that materially, in every society and every country, there are always higher and lower classes, but spiritually there is no such consideration. That is Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s propaganda. He made Haridāsa Ṭhākur, a Mohammedan, the spiritual master for saṅkīrtana, and He picked up Sanātana Gosvāmī and Rūpa Gosvāmī, who were rejected by Hindu society, and made them gosvāmīs. That is Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s distinctive feature. Here we see that He honored a laborer, a śūdra clerk who was inferior in society, by staying at his home. Ramānanda Rāya was also a śūdra, and he was a householder and a politician, a governor, but Caitanya Mahāprabhu took instruction from him. Caitanya Mahāprabhu gave him the preference of being His teacher. Ramānanda Rāya was hesitating: “Sir, You are a sannyāsī in the highest stage of elevation. and in Your former life You belonged to the brāhmaṇa sect, so You belong to the highest class. And I am a śūdra, a householder and a politician. How low I am in comparison to You, yet You are taking instruction from me. So I am feeling hesitation.” Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, “No, don’t feel hesitation. It doesn’t matter whether a man is a laborer, a brāhmaṇa, a sannyāsī, or a householder. Anyone who knows the science of Kṛṣṇa is a spiritual master.” Anyone—that is Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s highest recommendation, especially for the Hindus who have so much caste consciousness. Caitanya Mahāprabhu broke all the barriers. His simple teaching was that anyone who is Kṛṣṇa conscious is the greatest personality in the world. He did not care what people would say because He was staying at a śūdra’s house. He stayed with a śūdra and took meals with another brāhmaṇa who was not sannyāsī, and in this way He resided in Benares.

While Lord Caitanya was in Benares He met Sanātana Gosvāmī and instructed him for two months about Kṛṣṇa consciousness and how it should be executed. But Tapana Miśra and Candraśekhara submitted with great regret that the Māyāvādī sannyāsīs were criticizing His activities. “Because You are chanting and You do not give much attention to the reading of Vedānta philosophy, they are criticizing, “What kind of sannyāsī is He? He does not take part in studying Vedānta philosophy. On sentiment He is chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare, and some innocent people are following Him.’ ” It is the duty of a devotee to be intolerant of blasphemy, so they told the Lord, “The criticism by the Māvāvādīs has become unbearable. Something must be done, otherwise we shall die or commit suicide.”

There are three kinds of devotees—those who are in the lowest status, those who are in the intermediate status and those who are in the highest status. Those who are in the lowest status are beginners. Such devotees go to the temple, church or mosque and offer prayers to the Lord with great devotion and faith. but they have no knowledge about other devotees, nor do they know their duty to others. A devotee should not be satisfied simply with elevating himself in spiritual advancement; he has other duties also. There are innocent persons who have forgotten their relationship with God, and it is the duty of a devotee to enlighten them. That is required. Just like Lord Jesus Christ. He also preached the science of God, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. This is the duty of a devotee, or a good son of God. But those who are in the neophyte status have not developed the consciousness that one has to preach the philosophy of God consciousness or Kṛṣṇa consciousness to others. They are simply satisfied in themselves. They go to the church or mosque or temple and offer their prayers in devotion. That’s all.

One who has advanced spiritually to the next stage sees four objects of vision—the atheist, the innocent, God, and God’s devotees. Therefore a person who has elevated himself to this stage of Kṛṣṇa consciousness has four kinds of dealings. Firstly, because he knows God, he therefore loves God. This is called premā. His only lovable object is God or Kṛṣṇa. Secondly, because he loves God, he makes friendship with devotees of God. But God is always the center. If one loves God, then one can love others also, perfectly. For example, suppose a girl is married to a boy and the boy has a father, mother, brothers and other relatives. As soon as the girl comes to the house of her husband, the father of the husband becomes her father-in-law, and the mother of the husband becomes her mother-in-law. Therefore, although before marriage she had no connection with all these people, now she has a permanent relationship with the father-in-law, the mother-in-law, the brother-in-law, etc. Similarly, as soon as we make our connection with Kṛṣṇa, that connection is permanent. Our relationship with Kṛṣṇa or God is eternal. We have forgotten, but as soon as it is revived—“I am part and parcel of the Supreme.” or “I am son of the Supreme.”—then our relationship with other sons of God becomes clear. That is universal brotherhood. One who is in the second stage of development knows God and loves God, and in relationship with God he loves the devotees of God and makes friendships with them. And as far as the innocent are concerned, the innocent are those who are not offenders but do not know what is God. They are ordinary men. The person who is in the second stage of Kṛṣṇa consciousness has the duty to enlighten them. And those who are atheists, who are purposely against God, he avoids. Therefore there are four kinds of dealings for the person who is in the intermediate position. Those who are in the highest status of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, however, do not see anyone as being against God. Their vision is that everyone is engaged in God’s service. They make no distinctions. That is a very elevated stage and should not be imitated.

Tapana Miśra and Candraśekhara, hearing the criticism against Lord Caitanya, placed themselves in the lower status and said, “We cannot bear it.” They felt sorry because they did not have sufficient power to refute the arguments of the other party. Unless one is conversant with logic, arguments and Vedic literature, it is very difficult to defend oneself. The more one can defend himself from the attacks of atheists, the more one is understood to be advanced in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. The atheists will undoubtedly attack, but devotees have to defend themselves. That is the business of those who are in the intermediate position.

While Lord Caitanya and His two devotees were talking, a brāhmaṇa came in to invite Lord Caitanya, as he had invited all the other sannyāsīs, to dine at his house. The brāhmaṇa fell at the feet of Caitanya Mahāprabhu and requested Him, “I have comt to beg one thing from You. Please be so kind as to agree to this. I know that You do not associate Yourself with the Māyāvādī sannyāsīs, but nevertheless I have come to invite You. Please accept my request.” Although Caitanya Mahāprabhu was in the renounced order of life, sannyāsa, He avoided the company of the Māyāvādī impersonalists because Caitanya Mahāprabhu was a personalist. Generally that is still the system. As soon as impersonalists see a personalist, they begin to attack with arguments, so those who are not very highly developed avoid them, but those who are conversant argue.

While Caitanya Mahāprabhu was staying at Benares, He was not very enthusiastic to meet with the Māvāvādī sannyāsīs, yet this brāhmaṇa who had invited all the other sannyāsīs for dinner also came to Caitanya Mahāprabhu and invited Him. Lord Caitanya’s two devotees were very sorry that the Māvāvādīs were criticizing Him, and while they were discussing this, the brāhmaṇa came with his invitation, so it was coincidence. Caitanya Mahāprabhu thought this a good opportunity to meet with the Māvāvādī sannyāsīs, and talk with them about their criticism of the personalists. Previously He did not associate with them, but to please His devotees, who were very sorry to hear the criticism, He accepted the invitation so that He could meet them and talk with them.

The next day the Lord went to the house of the brāhmaṇa, and He saw that there were many other Māyāvādī sannyāsīs sitting together. Just see the behavior of Lord Caitanya. Although Caitanya Mahāprabhu was not in agreement with them, because they were sannyāsīs in the renounced order of life, He offered his respects by bowing down before them. According to the customs of the Vedic system, it is the duty of everyone to at once offer his respect as soon as he sees a sannyāsī. If he does not do so, then it is enjoined that he should fast for a day as punishment. He should not eat. “I saw a sannyāsī, but I did not offer my respect. Therefore the penance should be that I should fast for a day.” This is the injunction. Although Caitanya Mahāprabhu was God Himself, His behavior and etiquette were excellent. As soon as He saw the sannyāsīs, He offered His respects.

It is the system that when one comes from outside he has to wash his feet before he enters a room. This is especially so for sannyāsīs. Lord Caitanya washed His feet and sat down a little apart from where the other sannyāsīs were sitting, just in the place where He had washed His feet. He was very beautiful, only twenty-four or twenty-five years old, His complexion was very fair, and He had accepted the sannyāsa order. With His saffron cloth and with tilaka, He looked so very beautiful that the other sannyāsīs began to be attracted: “He is very nice.” The other sannyāsīs, all attracted by the very nice boy sannyāsī, were so pleased that they automatically stood up to show Him respect.

The chief of the sannyāsīs who were sitting there was Prakāśānanda Sarasvatī. Sannyāsīs have various titles. According to the impersonalists there are ten titles, but according to the Vaiṣṇavas there are 108. The ten titles which the impersonalists claim—Sarasvatī, Bhāratī, Vāna, etc.—are included in those of the Vaiṣṇavas. My spiritual master was a sannyāsī, and his title was Sarasvatī. The chief sannyāsī at that meeting was Prakāśānanda. He was a great scholar. Offering respect to Lord Caitanya, he said, “My dear sir, why are You sitting at such a distant and filthy place? Please come here. Sit with us.” Caitanya Mahāprabhu had heard that Prakāśānanda Sarasvatī had criticized, “This Caitanya Mahāprabhu who has come to Benares is not very learned.” Thus Caitanya Mahāprabhu replied to him. “I belong among the lower class sannyāsīs; therefore I am sitting in this filthy place. You had better sit in higher places. I am not fit to sit with you.” Prakāśānanda Sarasvatī was a learned man, and he could understand the hint given by Lord Caitanya. Therefore he himself went personally to Caitanya Mahāprabhu and took His hand. “Please come sit with us. Why are You sitting here?”

When Lord Caitanya was seated, Prakāśānanda Sarasvatī said, “I think Your name is Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya and You have accepted this renounced order of life from Keśava Bhāratī.” Although Caitanya Mahāprabhu was initiated by a Vaiṣṇava, devotee, He took sannyāsa from Keśava Bhāratī, who belonged to the Śaṅkara sect. The rule is if one wishes to accept the renounced order of life, there is an initiation ceremony and that ceremony must be performed by a bona fide member of the renounced order. It is not that one can take one’s cloth, dye the color, and in one day become a sannyāsī. No. There is a ceremony. Caitanya Mahāprabhu took sannyāsa from Keśava Bhāratī, who belonged to the Śaṅkara disciplic succession. Therefore Prakāśānanda Sarasvatī, who also belonged to this Śaṅkara line, said, “I understand that Your name is Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya.” There are different names for brahmacārī students also, who are under the guidance of a sannyāsī. A brahmacārī who is under the guidance of Bhāratī is named Caitanya. Although Caitanya Mahāprabhu was a sannyāsī, He did not change His brahmacārī name. That is also very significant. As soon as a Māvāvādī takes sannyāsa, he thinks, “I have become Nārāyaṇa. I have become God.” Therefore although Caitanya Mahāprabhu was a sannyāsī, He did not change His brahmacārī name. A brahmacārī is meant to serve the spiritual master, so He continued to be a servitor.

Prakāśānanda Sarasvatī asked, “You are a sannyāsī of our line because You have accepted the renounced order from Keśava Bhāratī, so what is the reason that You do not mix with us?” That was his first question. And another complaint was: “Because You are a sannyāsī, You should devote Your time to discussing Śaṅkara philosophy and Vedānta-sūtra. You should understand why You have taken sannyāsa. Why are You simply dancing and chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare?” This was his question. Caitanya Mahāprabhu was simply dancing and chanting. This was the specific contribution of Caitanya Mahāprabhu. But amongst the Māyāvādī sannyāsīs, dancing and singing is considered to be a sin. A sannyāsī is supposed to stop sense gratification, and according to them, that is also a kind of sense gratification. They took it to be ordinary singing. Prakāśānanda Sarasvatī asked Caitanya Mahāprabhu, “Why do You follow this sentimentalism, chanting and dancing.” Prakāśānanda said, “As far as I can see from Your bodily features You appear to be very glorious.” Because He was a boy and Prakāśānanda was very elderly—Caitanya Mahāprabhu was only twenty-four years old—he appreciated Him: “From Your face it appears that You are very learned, advanced and intelligent. Why, then, do You indulge in this sentimentalism?” This is a very important question for the saṅkīrtana movement, and the answer is very significant.

Caitanya Mahāprabhu replied: “Yes, you are right, my dear Prakāśānanda Sarasvatī, but there is a reason why I do it. Now I can explain to you. When I took sannyāsa from My spiritual master, he found Me a rascal, a number one fool, and therefore he chastised Me. He called Me foolish, uneducated and illiterate. ‘It is not possible for You to understand Vedānta. Therefore, You simply chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare. That will make You all right.’ ” Now here is the point: Was Caitanya Mahāprabhu a foolish person? No, He was not. In His childhood He was known as Nimai Pandit. He was greatly learned; even when He was sixteen years old He defeated a very reputable scholar from Kashmir. Prakāśānanda Sarasvatī also knew that Caitanya Mahāprabhu was a teacher of logic in His householder life and was a very learned man. They all knew it. But Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, “My spiritual master found Me a fool. Therefore he said, ‘You have no chance to understand Vedānta. You just take to this principle: simply chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare.’ ” What was His purpose in presenting Himself as a fool and a rascal? The idea is that in this age, 99.9% of the people are fools and rascals. Therefore it is very difficult for them to understand what is the purpose of Vedānta. Lord Caitanya represented Himself as one of them. According to Caitanya Mahāprabhu the so-called learned scholars of Vedānta are not actually Vedānta scholars; they are all fools. Vedānta-sutra is very difficult to understand. The author of Vedānta-sūtra is Vyāsadeva, and he himself thought it wise to write a commentation on Vedānta-sūtra so that in the future people would not misunderstand and misuse it.

In this connection there is a speech delivered in Chicago by an impersonalist who was the first svāmī to come from India to preach Hindu philosophy. It is very surprising. Even a clergyman from this country was surprised. “You come from India, and you are decrying God in this way? I am surprised.” He has simply decried God: “Why do you care for God? Throw Him away. You are God.” In this way he has spoken. Caitanya Mahāprabhu knew 500 years ago that in the future all these rascals would misinterpret Vedānta-sūtra; therefore He presented Himself as a fool.

Since Vedānta-sūtra is not a very easy subject, Vyāsadeva explained Vedānta-sūtra in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. The first aphorism of Vedānta-sūtra is janmādyasya. “Now is the time to understand what is Brahman, the Absolute Truth.” The next sūtra is: “What is Brahman?” The next answer is: “Brahman is that from which everything emanates.” Vyāsadeva gives a lucid explanation of the janmādyasya verse. We can consider this first aphorism of Vedānta-sūtra: “Brahman is that Absolute Truth from which everything emanates or everything is born.” (Janma means birth, sthiti means maintenance, and pralaya means dissolution.) This material world has a death to its existence, just as our body has a death. It stays for some time, and again there is death, dissolution. Consider the history of everything material—whether this body or this world or the empire or America. All have a death to their being. Now America is staying? but a day will come when there will be no more Americans. We should know it. That is nature’s law. Everything is born, it stays for some time, and then there is dissolution and it dissolves. That is explained in Bhagavad-gītā. All these material manifestations are just like bubbles in the ocean. There are millions and millions of bubbles created in one second, and in the next second they are finished. This is the manifestation of the material creation, but behind this manifestation is spirit. That spirit is called Brahman.

Now what is the nature of that Brahman? Is it impersonal or personal? Vyāsadeva says that the Supreme Truth is cognizant; He knows. Bhagavad-gītā also confirms this. The Lord says, “I know everything.” Unless He is cognizant, unless behind this cosmic manifestation there is a brain, how could everything be regulated and timed so nicely? Everything is working, the planets are working—do you think that there is no brain behind it? There must be. Therefore Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam says, “Yes. He is cognizant. He is a person. He also educated Brahmā, who is considered to be the first created being in this universe. He impregnated Brahmā with the Vedic knowledge.” These are explanations of Vedānta. But there are so many foolish rascals who misinterpret the Vedānta-sūtra in different ways. Therefore Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu very cunningly said, “I am a great fool. Therefore My spiritual master chastised Me: ‘You rascal, You fool, You cannot understand Vedānta-sūtra! You had better take this mantra.’ ” In other words, at the present time the circumstances are so awkward that it is not possible to understand Vedānta-sūtra. If we indulge in Vedānta-sūtra it will be very difficult for us. Therefore Caitanya’s contribution is that we should just chant. That will make everything progressive.

Caitanya Mahāprabhu represented Himself as the chief of the fools and rascals: “My spiritual master ordered Me: ‘You had better chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. That will make You happy and progressive and will help You one day understand what is Vedānta.’ ” Now one may question, “By understanding Vedānta-sūtra one is liberated from this material entanglement, but you are asking me simply to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Will that same purpose be served?” Lord Caitanya’s spiritual master said, “Yes, if You continue chanting this Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare, there will be a day when You will come to the perfectional stage. Then You will be liberated. The same result that one gets by studying Vedānta philosophy or sāṅkhya philosophy can also be obtained simply by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa. Furthermore, the Vedāntist sometimes cannot attain the Kṛṣṇa planet. But Your advantage will be You will not only be liberated, but You will achieve the highest planetary kingdom—the kingdom of God.”

Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, “This Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa is the only universal religious principle in this age. No other religious process will be effective because people in this age are distracted in so many different ways. This is the common formula, and it is the most effective. There is no alternative for self-realization in this age of Kali than to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. It is the essence of all scriptures. There are different hymns and mantras, but this is the topmost of all. Therefore My spiritual master asked Me to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa.”

Caitanya Mahāprabhu told Prakāśānanda Sarasvatī, “My spiritual master has given Me this chanting, and he has given Me one verse from authoritative Vedic literature and asked Me to always keep this verse within my throat and always chant it.” That verse is a quotation from the Bṛhan-Nāradīya Purāṇa. There are four Vedas, and as supplements to the Vedas, there are also eighteen Purāṇas. In one of the Purāṇas, which is called the Bṛhan-nāradīya Purāṇa, this quotation is found: “Harer nāma harer nāma harer nāmaiva kevalam/ kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva nāsty eva gatir anyathā.” Kalau means this age of Kali, the age of disagreement, quarrel, misunderstanding, deceit, and diminished intelligence, mercy and life span. It is explicitly stated in Bṛhan-Nāradīya Purāṇa that in this age of Kali there is no other alternative, no other alternative, no other alternative to chanting the holy name. Thrice. When we want to stress a point we say it thrice: Do this! Do this! Do this! Similarly, in the Bṛhan-Nāradīya Purāṇa, it has been thrice emphasized that one must take to this harer nāma—Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare. Why? Why must one take it? Because there is no other alternative than this for self-realization. If one at all wants to know himself, if one at all wants to become perfect, or if one at all wants to reach the goal of human life, then he must, he must, he must chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. “My spiritual master,” Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, “asked Me to keep this verse within My throat. ‘Go on chanting, and I give You my blessing that You will be liberated. Not only will You be liberaled, but You will reach the highest goal—the abode of Kṛṣṇa.’ ”

Text related to photo:"If you continue chanting this Hare Kṛṣṇa, there will be a day when you will come to the perfectional stage."

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India has always been known as a holy land long before the advent of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, who originated the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement 500 years ago. Lord Rāmacandra, who was the incarnation of the Supreme Lord in the role of the perfect king, actually walked on this land millions of years ago when it extended as the kingdom of the whole world. His activities are recounted in the Rāmāyaṇa, which is accepted by all transcendental authorities as authentic scripture. The most pious and learned devotees of the Lord have resided in India and taught there. The appearance of the incarnation of Lord Buddha was foretold in the First Canto of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Chapter Three, verse 24, written 2,000 years before Buddha’s birth: “In the beginning of the Kali-yuga, the Lord will appear as Lord Buddha, the son of Añjana, in the province of Gayā, for the purpose of deluding persons envious of the faithful theist.” India is therefore the land where the religion of Buddhism sprang forth. For his special mission, Lord Buddha rejected the Vedas, and therefore the authority of the scriptures had to be reaffirmed. This was done by the great spiritual master Śaṅkarācārya, who drove Buddhism from the land of India by his brilliant explanations based on the Vedic literature. According to Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam Lord Kṛṣṇa is Himself the source of all the incarnations. The self-same Lord Kṛṣṇa appeared in His original form, also on Indian soil, 5,000 years ago when He exhibited full-fledged activities as the Personality of Godhead in the provinces of Vṛndāvana and Mathurā. As it is said, God is great. The true vision of His pastimes and His greatness was then displayed to all living entities on this planet, and it is all recorded in the book Krṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda. It is even stated in a recent book called the Aquarian Gospel that Lord Jesus Christ declared by the New Testament of the Holy Bible to be the son of God, also spent some time in India and worshiped in Jagannātha Purī. India is naturally pious, and throughout the villages of India the people still remain God conscious. But this present age is an impious age. It can be checked only by dependence on the Lord and His devotees and by following the benediction of this age. The leaders of India have in recent history rejected the transcendental culture of the Vedas, which points out that everything is actually spiritual. This material world is simply temporary and is inherently miserable, due to birth, death, disease and old age. The human form of life is therefore meant for realizing God, even by working at one’s occupation; the whole society has to aim at realization of God through its activities. Instead of following this path, called varṇāśrama-dharma, the Indians, influenced by the attraction of foreign city life, have rejected their original culture and tried to be happy by following the materialistic ways of the great countries of the West such as the United States. The danger in their rejecting this Kṛṣṇa consciousness while in the human form of life is expressed in the Bhagavad-gītā. One may slip down to the lower forms of life in the future births. We are all spiritual by nature, but we have become covered, like a mirror becomes covered by dust. Especially for this age, Lord Caitanya, the incarnation of Kṛṣṇa who is appearing as a devotee in order to teach, has given a very simple method. Everyone should chant the holy name of God, and everyone can do it in any position of life. He has especially stated that anyone born in India has the responsibility to take up this chanting and spread it, and He has quoted scripture to state that there is no alternative for spiritual realization in this age than chanting the holy name of God. It is therefore concluded that spiritual life is urgently needed, and this method should be taken. It is very easy and is being taught by Kṛṣṇa Himself, yet it has been rejected in India. By the line of disciplic succession, the Brahma-sampradāya has passed down this information; despite the corruption of the present age, it remains pure and intact. Since the incarnation of Lord Caitanya, the spiritual masters in this line are Rūpa Gosvāmī, Raghunātha, Jīva, Kṛṣṇadāsa, Narottama, Viśvanātha, Jagannātha, Bhaktivinode, Gaura Kiśora, Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī and now His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda. Although the teachings are intact, unfortunately the philosophers of the impersonal school have misinterpreted the Vedic philosophy to deny the existence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. They have given all attention to the impersonal aspect and thus have wreaked havoc. This is not a theoretical disagreement on theology, but it concerns all humanity. If there is no understanding that God is the Supreme Person, then people in general are led to believe that there is no God, or they are told that if there is any spiritual existence at all, then this implies that every man is God, and that he can do as he likes, without worshiping the supreme authority of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In the impersonal philosophy of the Absolute Truth there is no ultimate love. There is no reason to stay on the spiritual platform; therefore intoxication and sex life enter and take over, and both the impersonalist teachers and their students glide to the hellish path. There are real spiritual individualities and spiritual activities according to the Bhagavad-gītā, but if one does not take to them then one must take to material individuality, which is temporary and leads to lower births. Seeking to become one with the Supreme in nirvāṇa is not a substitute for the permanent positive happiness which the spirit soul is seeking. One has to engage in spiritual life in service of the Supreme Lord under the direction of a spiritual master, or else he must return to the material platform. Thus it is stated that in order to wipe out impersonalism and to present an easy to perform process of devotional service to the people in this age, Lord Caitanya appeared. In Bhagavad-gītā Lord Kṛṣṇa states, “Just surrender to Me,” but Lord Caitanya was even more merciful. His movement is simply joyful. His program is listening to Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa and feasting on prasādam (spiritual food). The Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is not a Hindu or national culture, but it is the worship of the Supreme Personality of Godhead who is the father of all living entities. The attainment of the eternal, peaceful, happy state of loving service taught by Lord Caitanya can bring the solution to all the problems of life that has not been attained by technology, politics or modern science. Śrīla Prabhupāda, on the order of his spiritual master, came to the United States in 1966 to teach this message. Due to Śrīla Prabhupāda’s all-attractive transcendental nature as spiritual master and due to the solid teachings of scriptures and the cleansing experience of chanting the mahāmantra, and eating prasādam, spiritual foodstuffs, this message quickly gained support. Temples began opening here in the United States in 1966, and now, in 1970, with 50 temples open, when Śrīla Prabhupāda returned to India his reception was overwhelmingly favorable.

Text related to photo: Wherever the devotees went in India they were favorably received by great crowds.

On December 16, 1970, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda arrived in Surat at 6:00 A.M., accompanied by twenty-five of his American, European and Japanese disciples. They observed fasting until noon to celebrate the Disappearance Day of His Divine Grace’s spiritual master, Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī. Vaiṣṇavas, or devotees of Kṛṣṇa, take every opportunity to glorify the Lord’s representatives, the blessed spiritual masters, who can implant love of God in everyone’s heart. In the spiritual world there is no difference between appearance and disappearance because spirit soul is transcendental to birth and death. The spiritual master is considered to be descending from the spiritual world, and therefore like Kṛṣṇa’s, his appearance and disappearance are transcendental and glorious. This is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā (8.6): “One who knows the transcendental nature of My appearance and disappearance and activities does not, upon leaving the body, take his birth again in this material world, but attains My abode.” In this way the Vaiṣṇavas actually fulfill the ultimate goal of human life, to return home, back to Godhead, which was explained by Śrīla Prabhupāda later in the day to a crowd of reporters at a press conference arranged by Mr. Jariwala, our host in Surat.

Instead of the reporters’ asking questions, Śrīla Prabhupāda immediately captured the attention of all parties by asking, “What is the ultimate goal of life?” Everyone had something to say on this point, but no one could respond conclusively. Śrīla Prabhupāda explained, “The members of society should engage their lives, money, intelligence and words in śriya. So what is śriya? Śriya means the ultimate goal of life. What is the ultimate goal of life that no one knows? In the Bhagavad-gītā it is said by Kṛṣṇa that the ultimate goal of life is to surrender to Him only. ‘Give up all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me, and in return I shall protect you from all sinful reactions. Therefore you have nothing to fear.’ ” Śrīla Prabhupāda continued, “For that purpose we have formed this International Society for Krishna Consciousness—to enlighten the people in general about the ultimate goal of life. This movement is being accepted in the Western world and in India, yet nowadays Indians are erroneously thinking that the goal of life is something else.

“Vedānta answers what is the Absolute Truth and what is the nature of the greatest, of Brahman. His nature is that He is the cause of everything, the cause of all causes. In the Brahma-saṁhitā [5.1] we find: īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ, and with that understanding we have published our booklet, The Cause of All Causes. Kṛṣṇa imparted the Vedic knowledge unto the heart of Brahmājī, the first created living being in this material world. Brahmā is the chief engineer of the material universe, and for his work of creating different planets and living entities he is specifically empowered by the Lord. Brahmā admits that although he is so advanced in knowledge, still it should be understood that he is not independent. His position is stated in the hymns of Brahma-saṁhitā [5.29], where he sings: ‘Cintāmaṇi-prakara-sadmasu kalpa-vṛkṣa-lakṣāvṛteṣu … govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi.’ He says, ‘I worship Govinda, the cowherd boy, who is in His own abode in the spiritual world, which is made of cintāmaṇi, or touchstone, and is known as Goloka Vṛndāvana, the supermost planet in the spiritual sky. There the Supreme Lord, the Absolute Truth, is playing on His flute and wears a peacock feather in His hair.’ This transcendental Vedic knowledge was received by Brahmājī from the Lord, and thus Brahmā is the first disciple in the Guru-Paramparā, or authorized disciplic succession for distribution of Vedic knowledge. This line is known as Brahma-Gauḍīya-Vaiṣṇava Sampradāya. Brahmā is the original initiator, Gauḍīya designates Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s birthplace, the province of Gauḍa, and Vaiṣṇava means one who worships Kṛṣṇa or Viṣṇu.”

His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda asked the reporters to ventilate the message of Kṛṣṇa consciousness in their newspapers, thus engaging the newspapers in the service of Kṛṣṇa. This is the qualification of the ācārya; he adjusts the transcendental message so that anything in any particular time and place can be transformed to spiritual energy by being utilizing in the service of the Supreme Absolute Truth, the Personality of Godhead Śrī Kṛṣṇa. Thus the ultimate goal of life can be realized by the mercy of a pure devotee or fully realized soul, such as His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda.