Purusha and Prakrti

Pusta Krsna: "This cosmic manifestation, the material world, is also Your body. By Your potential energy known as kala-sakti, this total lump of matter is agitated, and thus three modes of material nature are manifested. In this way You become awakened from the bed of Ananta-Sesa, and from Your navel a small transcendental seed is generated, from which the gigantic universe becomes manifest. Exactly like the small seed of banyan tree, the lotus flower of the cosmic manifestation is grown up."

Prabhupada: These verses of Srimad-Bhagavatam, they are Vedic mantras. They're not ordinary wording, set of wording. It is not. Veda-mantra, samhita. So every one of you must try to chant. This is required. Each verse of Bhagavad-gita or Srimad-Bhagavatam, they are Vedic mantras, veda-mantra. So simply by chanting them we become purified. So every one of you... There is diacritic marks, literation, transliteration, so everyone should try to chant the mantra. That is very beneficial. That is kirtana. Kirtanad eva krsnasya [SB 12.3.51]. Everything is being chanted in relationship with Krsna, with reference to Krsna.

So this material world is explained

,tasyaiva te vapur idam nija-kala-saktyasancodita-prakrti-dharmana atma-gudhamambhasy ananta-sayanad viramat-samadhernabher abhut sva-kanika-vatavat mahabjam [SB 7.9.33]

Vatavat mahabjam. Abjam means flower, lotus flower? Yes. So this is the description of Garbhodakasayi Visnu. Karanodakasayi Visnu and then Garbhodakasayi Visnu and then Ksirodakasayi Visnu, trin, three Visnus. First of all from... I have several times explained, from Krsna, then expansion, Balarama, then catur-vyuha, Sankarsana, Pradyumna, Aniruddha, like that. Then Narayana, then dvitiya catur-vyuha. From dvitiya catur-vyuha, Vaikuntha, Sankarsana, then Purusa, Purusa-avatara. These Purusas are three. In the Bhagavad-gita Arjuna recognized Krsna as purusa. Purusam sasvatam adyam. So He's the purusa. God is purusa, male. God is not female. Female... The sakti, that is female, prakrti.

In the Bhagavad-gita also it is mentioned, prakrtir me astadha, bhinna prakrtir me astadha. This material nature is separated energy, divided into eight elements: earth, water, air, and fire, then ether, mind, intelligence and ego. These are all prakrti, material. Bhinna me prakrtir astadha. Bhinna. Bhinna means separated. There is not direct connection, but another prakrti, that is... Apareyam itas tu viddhi me prakrtim para [Bg. 7.5]. This is inferior energy, material elements, and there is superior element, prakrti. That is also prakrti. We are prakrti. Prakrti means under the control of the purusa. That is natural.

We cannot conceive equal rights of purusa and prakrti. That is not Vedic conception. Vedic conception is purusa, the superior, Supreme, and prakrti means subordinate. Purusa is predominator, and prakrti is predominated. So we living entities, we are prakrti. Falsely if we try to become purusa, that is maya. We should remain prakrti, subservient, predominated. That is this Krsna consciousness movement. Because generally the people are misled, thinking himself as purusa, "I am the enjoyer." But that is not the fact. That false ego, that "I am enjoyer," that is false ego. And real ego is "I am servant of Krsna." So there is no necessity of giving up egotism or egoism, but it must be real. At the present moment we are falsely thinking, "I am this body," every one of us. There is no argument. The whole material world is going on on the basis of this false conception that "I am this body." And because I am this body, therefore "I am American," "I am Indian." So this is false ego.

So from this false ego, when we come to real ego... What is that real ego? That "I am servant of Krsna." Gopi-bhartur pada-kamalayor dasa-dasa-dasa-dasanudasah [Cc. Madhya 13.80]. That is real ego. So our, this Krsna consciousness movement is teaching people how to come to the real ego, real constitutional position. The Mayavadi philosophy, they are also trying to do that, but they're another false ego: aham brahmasmi. Aham brahmasmi -- "I am Brahman" -- that is a fact, but I am not Supreme Brahman, Parabrahman. The Mayavadi, they take it: "Because I am Brahman, I am Supreme Brahman." No. Suppose you are all coming from America. You can claim that you are American, but that does not mean you are Mr. Ford, the President. So similarly, this is false ego. If somebody thinks, "Because I am American, therefore I am equal to Mr. Ford," that is false. That is not... So our Krsna consciousness movement is how to bring back these, I mean to say, insane, crazy fellows to their real consciousness. These crazy fellows, they are thinking, "I am God," "I am master," "I am this," "I am that," "I am prime minister," "I am president." This false ego. The real ego is, "I am servant of Krsna." That is the beginning of Caitanya Mahaprabhu's teaching.

When Caitanya Mahaprabhu was approached by Sanatana Gosvami, his first question was ke ami: "Who am I?" This is the first education, spiritual education. And the same thing is taught in the Bhagavad-gita because Arjuna was too much identifying himself in the bodily conception of life: "I belong to this Kurus' family, so if I kill them, then family will be ruined. The women will be widows, and they'll be corrupted. Then there will be unwanted children, varna-sankara, and in this way the whole world will be hellish," and so on, so on, so many, but beginning with the bodily conception of life. All, what was, Arjuna was explaining to Krsna, that was... From material point of view, it is very nice. He wanted to become nonviolent. He did not like to kill his family members. He, rather, liked to forego his claim, that "I don't want. Let them enjoy." But everything, from material point of view, it was very nice proposal. But this identification with family, with nation, with community, this is all foolishness. All foolishness.

So if you study this point only, you'll see the whole world is full of fools and rascals, that's all, because everyone is identifying with his body. There is fight, the United Nation. What is this United Nation nonsense? Assembly of rascals and fools, that's all. (laughter) Because they have got this bodily concept of life we can say, freely. There is no -- what is called? -- defaming. Everyone, fools and rascals. How we can say?

On the strength of Vedic knowledge. This is our power. Otherwise how we can challenge the United Nation that "You are all assembly of fools and rascals"? This is Vedic knowledge. We can say and prove it, that they are all fools and rascals from the spiritual point of view because they do not know their identification. This is the first education, to know one's identification. That is being taught by Sanatana Gosvami and Caitanya Mahaprabhu. He was prime minister. He knew himself, Sanatana Gosvami, that he was prime minister of Hussain Shah and he's coming of very learned brahmana family.

He knew it. Then why he's asking, ke ami: "Who am?" This is knowledge. This is knowledge. One has to understand himself. That is the basic principle of spiritual life. Unless we understand who I am... You go to the spiritual master, our first business is inquiry. That inquiry is "Who am I?" This is the... This is the beginning of inquiry. So our, this Krsna consciousness movement is authorized.

We have printed one pamphlet, "Krsna Consciousness Movement Is Authorized." It is not a sentiment, fanaticism. No. It is scientific, authorized. So I am very glad that you European and American boys, you have taken so much trouble to come here, but you'll be benefited if you come here and try to take lessons from Caitanya Mahaprabhu as He gave it to Sanatana Gosvami. Sanatana Gosvami inquired, "Who am I?" and He replied very simple thing: jivera svarupa haya nitya krsna dasa [Cc. Madhya 20.108-109]. This is the beginning of our lesson, so we must understand very nicely this point.

So this material world is explained here: tasyaiva te vapur idam nija-kala-saktya. Energy, Krsna's energy, prakrti. Energy means prakrti. So parasya brahmana sakti. Eka-sthane sthitasyagner jyotsna vistarini yatha, parasya brahmanah sakti tathaiva akhilam jagat. Then same thing we'll find in the Vedic literature everywhere, either you read Puranas or Mahabharata, or Bhagavad-gita or Srimad-Bhagavatam or Vedanta-sutra.

Vedanta-sutra also says that "The origin... The Absolute Truth is origin, and everything is emanation." So emanation and the original fact-vapur idam. Idam hi visvam bhagavan ivetarah: "This visvam, this universe, is Bhagavan in one sense." Just like this my finger, so that is also my body. Although it is named "finger," but it is my body. Or even a piece of hair, that is also my body, although it is differently named, "hair." So similarly, when you understand that every particle of this material world is also the body of the Supreme Lord, that is Krsna consciousness. Andantarastham paramanu-cayantara-stham. Eko 'py asau racayitum jagad-anda-koti. So there are millions and trillions of universes, and each atom of each universe is Krsna. That we have to understand. That is being explained here.

Tasyaiva te vapur idam nija-kala-saktya sancodita-prakrti dharmana atma-gudham. The secret, the people, they do not know. They... But Prahlada Maharaja knows. Ambhasi. This is the beginning of creation, ambhasi. Ambhasy ananta-sayanat. Anantadeva... Ananta faces, there are. On that Ananta-naga, the Garbhodakasayi Visnu is lying on. So from the navel of Garbhodakasayi Visnu there is a lotus flower, and... Vatavat-mahabjam. So, so there is Brahma, and Brahma created other thing. So it is just like the...

In previous verse it has been explained, "Just like the seed of the fruit of the tree." Seed is the cause of the tree, and tree is the cause of the seed. In this way the whole material cosmic manifestation is there, and vapur idam tava te. So everything of Krsna. Therefore a Vaisnava's, I mean to say, conception is that everything at least Krsna's, so everything should be utilized for Krsna's benefit. This is Krsna consciousness, not "my benefit." "I also belong to Krsna, so I must be utilized for Krsna's benefit." So in this way, if we develop our Krsna consciousness, then we'll be benefited.

Thank you very much. (end)