What is Dharma?

sa vai pumsam paro dharmo
yato bhaktir adhoksaje
ahaituky apratihata
yayatma suprasidati
[SB 1.2.6]

The supreme occupation [dharma] for all humanity is that by which men can attain to loving devotional service unto the transcendent Lord. Such devotional service must be unmotivated and uninterrupted to completely satisfy the self.

In this statement, Sri Suta Gosvami answers the first question of the sages of Naimisaranya. The sages asked him to summarize the whole range of revealed scriptures and present the most essential part so that fallen people, or the people in general, might easily take it up. The Vedas prescribe two different types of occupation for the human being. One is called the pravrtti-marga, or the path of sense enjoyment, and the other is called the nivrtti-marga, or the path of renunciation. The path of enjoyment is inferior, and the path of sacrifice for the supreme cause is superior.

The material existence of the living being is a diseased condition of actual life. Actual life is spiritual existence, or brahma-bhuta existence, where life is eternal, blissful, and full of knowledge. Material existence is temporary, illusory, and full of miseries. There is no happiness at all. There is just the futile attempt to get rid of the miseries, and temporary cessation of misery is falsely called happiness. Therefore, the path of progressive material enjoyment, which is temporary, miserable, and illusory, is inferior. But devotional service to the Supreme Lord, which leads one to eternal, blissful, and all-cognizant life, is called the superior quality of occupation. This is sometimes polluted when mixed with the inferior quality. For example, adoption of devotional service for material gain is certainly an obstruction to the progressive path of renunciation. Renunciation, or abnegation for ultimate good, is certainly a better occupation than enjoyment in the diseased condition of life. Such enjoyment only aggravates the symptoms of disease and increases its duration. Therefore devotional service to the Lord must be pure in quality, i.e., without the least desire for material enjoyment. One should therefore accept the superior quality of occupation in the form of the devotional service of the Lord without any tinge of unnecessary desire, fruitive action, or philosophical speculation. This alone can lead one to perpetual solace in His service.

We have purposely denoted dharma as “occupation” because the root meaning of the word dharma is “that which sustains one’s existence.” A living being’s sustenance of existence is to coordinate his activities with his eternal relationship with the Supreme Lord, Krsna. Krsna is the central pivot of living beings, and He is the all-attractive living entity or eternal form amongst all other living beings or eternal forms. Each and every living being has his eternal form in the spiritual existence, and Krsna is the eternal attraction for all of them. Krsna is the complete whole, and everything else is His part and parcel. The relationship is one of the servant and the served. It is transcendental and is completely distinct from our experience in material existence. This relationship of servant and the served is the most congenial form of intimacy. One can realize it as devotional service progresses. Everyone should engage himself in that transcendental loving service of the Lord, even in the present conditioned state of material existence. That will gradually give one the clue to actual life and please him to complete satisfaction.

We are all hankering for complete self-satisfaction, or atma-suprasada, but first we must know what the real self is. The word atma, or “self,” refers to the body, the mind, and the soul. Actually, we are the spirit soul covered by two kinds of “garments.” Just as a gentleman is covered by his shirt and coat, so I, the soul, am covered by a gross body consisting of the physical senses and a subtle body consisting of mind, intelligence, and false ego. A person covered by false ego identifies with his body. When asked who he is, he will answer, “I am an American,” or “I am an Indian,” etc. But these are bodily designations; they are not his real identity.

The Vedic literature teaches that one begins to understand his real identity when he thinks, aham brahmasmi: “I am Brahman, or spirit soul.” Therefore the Vedanta-sutra says, athato brahma jijnasa: “Now one should inquire about spirit.” The human form of life is meant for advancing in knowledge of spirit, and this knowledge is the beginning of real happiness.
Everyone is hankering for happiness because by nature we are happy: anandamayo ’bhyasat. As spirit souls we are naturally happy, blissful. But we are suffering because we have been covered by five gross material elements—earth, water, fire, air, and ether—and three subtle material elements—mind, intelligence, and false ego.

Materialists, identifying themselves with these coverings, seek satisfaction through these gross and subtle elements of the body. In other words, they simply seek sense gratification, the happiness of the body. In the material world everyone is working hard only for this happiness. Some people try to be happy by gratifying the physical senses, and some try to be happy by gratifying the mind in such pursuits as art, poetry, and philosophy. But neither gross nor subtle sense gratification can give us real happiness, because real happiness belongs to the soul. And we actually see that although people are endeavoring throughout the whole world for bodily comforts, for sense gratification, they’re not happy. They cannot be happy, because the basic principle of happiness is missing.

Suppose you have a nice coat. If you simply show the coat and iron the coat and keep it very carefully, you’ll never be happy. Similarly, now you are trying to get happiness from gratifying the coat of the body, but that is not possible. Happiness comes only when you make the soul happy. Or, suppose you have a bird in a cage. If you simply polish the cage but do not give the bird any food, the bird will never be happy. Similarly, the material body is the cage of the soul, and if we simply care for the body, the soul will never become happy. So, the beginning of spiritual knowledge is to understand that the soul is encaged within the body and mind and that neither bodily comforts nor mental satisfaction will ever bring the soul real happiness.

Then how can the soul become happy? As stated in the present verse of the Srimad-Bhagavatam, the soul can become happy only when living according to the supreme dharma. A common English translation for the word dharma is “religion,” but, as mentioned above, a more accurate meaning is “that which sustains one’s existence” or “one’s essential characteristic.” Everything has an essential characteristic. The essential characteristic of chili peppers, for instance, is to taste very hot. When we go to the market to purchase chili peppers, we test how hot they are. If they are not very hot, we reject them. So the dharma of chili peppers is to be very hot. Similarly, the dharma of sugar is to be sweet.

Then what is the dharma of the soul? When entrapped by the material nature, the soul adopts various artificial dharmas based on his false identification with the body. Someone born in a Hindu family will say, “I am a Hindu,” someone born in a Muslim family will claim, “I am a Muslim,” someone born in a Christian family will claim, “I am a Christian,” and so on. But as I have already explained, one’s real identity is the spirit soul—aham brahmasmi: “I am Brahman. I am a spirit soul.” When we come to that platform of spiritual understanding, our essential characteristic becomes clear.

As explained here, sa vai pumsam paro dharmo yato bhaktir adhoksaje [SB 1.2.6]. The supreme dharma of the soul is bhakti, devotional service to the Supreme Lord. That is our essential characteristic. Everyone is already a devotee—a devotee of his country, his society, his family, his wife, his children, his senses. No one can say, “I do not serve anyone.” You must serve, because that is your dharma. If a person has no one to serve, he keeps a cat or dog and serves it. So to render loving service to someone else is our essential characteristic. But we are missing the point. We are loving cats and dogs and so many other things, but we are neglecting to love God. Therefore, we are not getting real happiness. When we shall direct our love toward the proper object—Adhoksaja, or Krsna—we’ll become happy.

When the word dharma is taken to mean “religion,” we can understand from this verse of the Srimad-Bhagavatam that rendering transcendental loving service to the Lord is the highest form of religion. The question asked by the sages at Naimisaranya was, “What is the best form of religion, by which anyone can become elevated to spiritual emancipation?” Some people may say that the Hindu religion is best, others may recommend the Christian religion, others may say that the Muslim religion is very good, others may say that Buddhism is very good, and so on. But the Srimad-Bhagavatam does not advocate the Hindu, Christian, Muslim, or Buddhist religion. It gives a general description of the best religion: “The best religious practice is that which enables you to become a devotee of Adhoksaja.”

“Adhoksaja” is a Sanskrit name for the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The literal meaning of the name Adhoksaja is “He who defeats, or ‘pushes down’ (adha), all efforts to understand Him by means of knowledge gained through sense perception (aksa-ja).” This name of God—Adhoksaja—is an answer to the mental speculators who research the question “What is God?” and write volumes of books. To them the name Adhoksaja says, “You may go on speculating for many thousands of years, but you will never be able to understand God in that way.”

Generally people say, “God is great.” But they do not know how great He is. God’s greatness is indicated perfectly by the name “Krsna.” If you want a perfect definition of the word “God,” then it is krsna, because the word krsna means “all-attractive.” Unless one is all-attractive, how can He be God, the greatest? If one is great, he must be attractive. For example, John D. Rockefeller and Henry Ford were considered great men because they were very rich, and their great wealth made them attractive.

So wealth is one feature of attraction. Therefore God must be the most wealthy person. Beauty is another attractive feature—so God must be the most beautiful person. Many people, when they see a picture of Krsna, are convinced they have never seen such a beautiful person, although He’s a little blackish. Similarly, Krsna fully possesses the attractive opulences of strength, wisdom, fame, and renunciation. And because these six opulences of infinite wealth, beauty, strength, wisdom, fame, and renunciation make Him all-attractive, God is known by the name “Krsna.” With these transcendental opulences He can attract the richest person, the most beautiful person, the strongest person, the wisest person, the most famous person, and the most renounced person. Such infinite attractive features are impossible for us to understand through mental speculation based on sense perception, and so Krsna is also known as Adhoksaja, the name used in this verse of the Srimad-Bhagavatam.

So, here the Srimad-Bhagavatam gives a simple definition of the best religion: That religion is the best by which you can develop your devotion and love for the Supreme Personality of Godhead. How nice this definition is! You may follow Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam—it doesn’t matter. But the test of your success is how far you have developed love of God. If you have developed your sense of love for God, you have actually followed religious principles. Religion does not mean that you go to a temple, mosque, or church and as a matter of formality observe some rituals, make some donation, and then come back home and do all kinds of nonsense. That is not religion. Suppose someone is said to be great. What is the proof of his greatness? He must have great riches, knowledge, influence, beauty, etc. Similarly, what is the proof that someone is a man of religious principles? The proof is that he has developed love of God. Then he is religious.

Now, someone may say, “Oh, yes, I love God.” But what is the nature of that love? In our experience in this world we commonly see that a man will love a beautiful girl. But for how long? As long as she is beautiful. And a girl loves a boy—for how long? As long as his pocket is all right. This is not love: it is lust. “I love your skin, I love your money”—that is not love. Here the Srimad-Bhagavatam states that love of God must be ahaituki, free of selfish motivation. Not that we say, “My dear God, I love You because You supply me my daily bread.” Whether in the church, temple, or mosque, people generally offer the same kind of prayer: “O God, give me my daily bread.” In India people generally go to a temple and pray, “My dear Krsna, I am in difficulty. Please get me out of it,” or “I am in need of some money. Kindly give me a million dollars.” This is not love of God.

Of course, this kind of religion is far better than atheism. As Lord Krsna states in the Bhagavad-gita (7.16): catur-vidha bhajante mam janah sukrtino ’rjuna. Anyone who goes to God and asks for some benediction is a pious man. But he’s not a devotee. He may be counted among pious men because he recognizes the supremacy of God, but he has not developed the highest principle of religion, love of God.

Lord Sri Caitanya describes love of God in His Siksastaka (7):

yugayitam nimesena caksusa pravrsayitam
sunyayitam jagat sarvam govinda-virahena me

“O my dear Govinda! Because I cannot see You, every moment seems like twelve years to Me.” Everyone has some experience of this feeling. If you love someone and you expect your beloved to come at any moment, you will feel as if every second were a full day. Then, because Lord Caitanya cannot see Krsna, He says, caksusa pravrsayitam: “Tears are pouring from My eyes like torrents of rain,” and sunyayitam jagat sarvam: “I see the whole world as vacant.” And all on account of separation from Govinda, or Krsna: govinda-virahena me. When you cannot tolerate separation from Govinda, that is pure, causeless love of God.

The next word used in the Srimad-Bhagavatam to describe pure love of God is apratihata, which means “without being hampered for any reason.” Sometimes people say, “I cannot love Krsna because I am a very poor man,” or “I cannot love Krsna because I have no education—I cannot study Vedanta philosophy.” No. To love Krsna you don’t require any material acquisition. You can begin developing your love of Krsna simply by bringing some fruit or a flower to the temple and offering it to the Deity form of Krsna. That is one of the six signs of love

Rupa Gosvami describes in his Upadesamrta (4):

dadati pratigrhnati guhyam akhyati prcchati
bhunkte bhojayate caiva sad-vidham priti-laksanam

First, you must give something to your beloved and accept something from your beloved. If you simply go on accepting but you do not give anything, then there is no love. Then guhyam akhyati prcchati: You should not keep anything secret within your mind, and your beloved should not keep anything secret within his or her mind. And bhunkte bhojayate caiva: One should give the beloved eatables and accept eatables from him or her. When we cultivate these six kinds of loving exchanges with Krsna, we develop pure love of God. And that love should be without any material motivation and without impediment.

If you can develop such love for God, you will feel su-prasidati, complete satisfaction. No more anxiety, no more dissatisfaction. You will feel that the whole world is full of pleasure (visvam purna-sukhayate). So the best religion is that which teaches one how to become a lover of God, and the best welfare work is to distribute this knowledge. These are the purposes of the Krsna consciousness movement. Krsna consciousness is such a beautiful thing. It does not depend on any material acquisition, nor can it be checked by any impediment. In any part of the world, at home or away from home, you can chant the Hare Krsna mantra in ecstasy and attain love of God very quickly.

From "Dharma: The Way of Transcendence"

Although You Are in this Bodily Conception of Life, Still, You Can Work From The Spiritual Platform

Bhagavad-gita 2.48-49
--
[Lecture, givin in New York City, April 1, 1966]
(660401BG.NY)

Prabhupada: All glories to the assembled devotees. All glories to the assembled devotees. Now, spiritual consciousness, and to continue it... Simple theoretical knowledge that “I am consciousness; I am not this body,” anything, simple theoretical knowledge, cannot help us. (aside:) You can put on this light. Unless...

Just like a person. He studied medical science or law, anything, any technical science. He gets all theoretical knowledge. But if he does not practice, then that knowledge will gradually subside. You see? Similarly, that “I am not this body, but I am that pure consciousness,” that is already analyzed in various ways. Now, we are in practical life. Now, if we say that “I am not this body,” so what is the use of working for this body? The whole world is moving under the bodily conception of life. Because I am born in this land, my body is born out of this land, American land, therefore I am thinking “American.” Because I am born in India, therefore I am thinking “Indian.” Because I am born of a certain family, therefore I am identifying myself with that family. Because my father has given me some name, so I am identifying with that name. So my position is that I am all around surrounded by this bodily conception of life.

Now, from studying Bhagavad-gita or deeply thinking over the matter, I come to understand that I am not this body. That is settled. That’s all right. But actually I am working on bodily plane. This adjustment is required, that yes, you, for the present moment, because you are entangled or enwrapped within this, encaged within this body, so you cannot say that “I will work without this body.” But you can work in such a way that even without this body, even with this body you can work in your spiritual platform. Although I am in this bodily conception of life, still, I can work from the spiritual platform. That technical knowledge is instructed by Lord Krsna to Arjuna, that “You are not this body, but you have to work at the same time.” Then how? Now, here is the formula: yoga-sthah kuru karmani. Yoga-sthah. Yoga-sthah means that you remain in spiritual consciousness, but at the same time, you go on with your usual work. You remain in spiritual consciousness and go on with your work. It is very difficult? I am working with bodily conception of life. How I can be situated in spiritual conception of life? So, this techniques is... sangam tyaktva dhananjaya. Sangam tyaktva dhananjaya. Without being touched with bodily conception. And how it can be done? Siddhy-asiddhyoh samo bhutva samatvam yoga ucyate. That neutrality will be that...

In the former verse it has been already explained that “You have right to work but not for the result. Don’t be cause of the effect of your result. Then you will be bound up.” We are being bound up by reaction of every work. It is just like this world is so situated... Just you know that a sound vibration... Practically, nowadays everyone knows it, that any sound vibrated, it, within a second it takes round all over the world seven times. It is so... The arrangement is so.

Just like in a pond if you drop a stone, the circle, the circle begins to enlarge, enlarge, enlarge, enlarge, enlarge, and so similarly, we catch the radio vibration. You know there is numbers. Under such and such vibration, you can catch the sound. So the whole arrangement is like that. Now, if we work even in that arrangement, yoga-sthah, being situated in my spiritual plane, then that will reach to the spiritual sky by enlargement of the circle, enlargement of the circle. I can do work here. You will find in the Bhagavad-gita that the Lord says that patram puspam phalam toyam yo me bhaktya prayacchati: “Anyone who offers in devotion patram puspam, a little flower, a little, small leaf, a little water, I accept them. Because it is offered to Me in devotion, therefore I accept them. I take them in My hand.” But people may ask question that “Where is the hand? Where is the hand of God?” He says that “I take.” “I take” means “I take it in my hand.” Without hand there is no question of taking. Therefore Vedic hymn says that apani-pado javano grahita: “The Lord has no legs, no hands, but still, He can walk more than the speed of the air, more than the speed of the mind, and He can accept whatever we offer. But He has no hand; He has no leg.” So this means that He has no hand, He has no leg, like our limited measured hand or leg. He can stretch His hand anywhere. And similarly, He can stretch, He can hear, from anywhere. That is the prerogative of the Supreme Lord.

I have given you several times the example that the sun is far, far away from us. Still, he can distribute his heat and light to us. So if we work with God consciousness, although we are here in this platform, material platform, that work is admitted by the Supreme Lord. That is called yoga-sthah. Yoga-sthah... Yoga means keeping touch with the Supreme. That is called yoga. There are different kinds of yoga mentioned in the Bhagavad-gita, especially jnana-yoga, karma-yoga, and bhakti-yoga. And within jnana-yoga there are many other yogas—dhyana-yoga, hatha-yoga, so many things.

Now, here it is said that yoga-sthah kuru karmani: “You be situated in your yoga or in meditation.” Generally yoga is understood as meditation. But yoga, real meaning of yoga—to keep in touch with the Supreme—that is called yoga, to keep in touch. So you have to work for, er, from the platform of spiritual consciousness. At the same time you have to work. The Lord never says that “You stop work,” never says. Arjuna... Arjuna’s friend was Lord Krsna, but Krsna never said... He is God Himself. He is the Supreme Personality of God Himself. He never said Arjuna that “I am your friend. I shall supply all your necessities. You don’t require to work. You stop.” No, He never said that. Rather, Arjuna was declining to fight, but Krsna is inducing him to fight. So in spiritual platform there is no question of stopping work, no question of stopping work. But work for the Supreme. That’s all, isavasyam idam sarvam, with God consciousness.

Now, there are three processes of yoga: jnana-yoga, and karma-yoga, and bhakti-yoga. Now, jnana-yoga, take for example jnana-yoga. Jnana-yoga means to keep in touch with the Supreme by speculation of higher knowledge, that discriminating what is spirit and what is matter. So there are philosophers, they are discriminating that “This is matter...” Neti neti: “This is matter, and this is spirit.” Now, that requires study, and that requires knowledge also. Now, suppose a man is neither educated, neither he has got sufficient knowledge, philosophical knowledge. Then what happens to him? He will not be able to perform yoga-sthah kuru karmani? No. He is also a bona fide person. He can also perform the work. Because he has no knowledge and because he is uneducated, that doesn’t mean that he cannot do the..., or he cannot work from the spiritual platform. He can also do. That, how he can do, that is the technique. This technique is explained herewith, the siddhy-asiddhyoh samo bhutva, siddhy-asiddhyoh samo bhutva, that “You do not be anxious for the success and failure of the attempt you are making.” Success and failure. A common example can be cited in this connection.

Suppose you are working for your master. You are working in a firm for selling something. The master says that “You go and find out some customers for this particular thing.” You go out. You go out. Now, you sincerely work for it. Suppose you get business worth 100,000 dollars or something like that. And suppose one day you don’t get any business. Now, the day in which you got some business and on the day in which you did not get any business, it doesn’t matter. Your connection with the master is there, so you get your salary. When the profit is 100,000’s of dollars, you don’t expect any profit out of it. And when there is no business, there is no loss on your part. Siddhy-asiddhyoh. Similarly, if you act on behalf of the Supreme Lord, you can do any work you are situated. That doesn’t matter.

But if you act on behalf of the Supreme Lord... Just like Arjuna is being requested indirectly that Lord Sri Krsna says that “This fighting is My plan. So if you work for it, so you have nothing to enjoy or suffer out of the reaction because you shall work under My instruction.” That is the... If we work on behalf of the Supreme Lord, then that is called yoga-sthah. So our work is also not stopped, and at the same time I am situated in the spiritual platform. That technique is taught by Lord Krsna. Yoga-sthah kuru karmani tyaktva sangam dhananjaya: “You do not be attached with the profit and loss of anything, but you simply do your duty. You don’t care for the success or failure. And if you are, I mean to say, steady either in success of failure, that is called yoga. That is called yoga.” Don’t mind for the success or failure.

Do act on behalf of the Supreme Lord. And if you are steady in that position, then your working in spiritual platform is successful. Sangam tyaktva. Sangam tyaktva means “Don’t be associated with the result of the work. Let the result come, whatever it may be, but you have to do your duty nicely and for the sake of God.” Sangam tyaktva. Kartrtva abhinivesam ca tyaktva yoga-sthas tam karmani kuru yuddhadi.(?) Kartrtva. Kartrtva means that you are the doer. “Forget this. You are not the doer. You are being ordered to do it.” Just like there is an example that you take a rod and kill a snake. Now, the rod is practically killing the snake, but actually the rod is not responsible because the man who has taken the rod, who is killing the snake, he is responsible for killing the snake, not the rod. So we have to become the rod in the hand of the Supreme. Then all the reaction of our work will be... I will not be responsible for the reaction. The Lord will be responsible for that. That is the system. Yoga-sthah kuru karmani sangam tyaktva dhananjaya.

Now, for a householder, according to our Vedic system... I have already described to you the four divisions of social system and four division of spiritual orders. Now, all the social system and orders, they are so designed that everyone is working for the satisfaction of the Supreme Lord. In a higher section of the social order, just like the brahmanas and the ksatriyas and the vaisyas, the system is that in every household they establish the Deity, I mean to..., the form of the Supreme Lord. Either in picture or in idol, they establish that. Now, what is the function in your household affairs? You have got wife, you have got children, and you require some money. And the activities in householder affair is that you have to get some store from the market, and they are brought in your house, and they are stocked, and in due time they are cooked, and you take your foodstuff and then go to your work. This is generally the whole system of household work.

Now here, the yoga-sthah kuru karmani. In India there are many families still. At least in my family, when I was family man, I was also doing this, that the Deity, Lord Krsna, the murti... Murti means Deity or the idol of Radha-Krsna, established in a room. That is called the God’s room. The God’s room. So our duty is to rise early in the morning and open the door of the God’s room, offer Him some prayers and some kirtana, and then cleanse the room and then begin our daily duty, take our breakfast and... The whole idea is that “The proprietor of this house is the Supreme Lord, and we are all workers.” The whole idea is “The proprietor is the Supreme Lord, and we are all workers.” Now, I am going to my office, to my work, to earn some money, because without money my household affairs cannot be run. So I am thinking that “This money is required; otherwise God’s service will be stopped.” So in earning that money in my office or in my workshop, my God consciousness is there. Therefore, even in earning, whatever may be the process, you are yoga-sthah; you are situated in yoga. Now, you get your money. Then you go to the market. You are thinking, “Oh, this is a very nice thing. Oh, it can be offered to Lord Krsna. It can be offered to Lord Krsna.” Just like sometimes you bring some fruits for me, thinking, out of your love, “Oh, Swamiji will take this and he will like it.” So the consciousness is love. Out of love, you think of Swamiji. Similarly, Swamiji is thought because he is in relation with God. So similarly, we can think of also God. God or anything, relation with God, that is God consciousness. Just like electric charge. Anything connected with the powerhouse and anything later on connected with that powerhouse link—everything is surcharged with electricity.

So our life should be so formed that in our every activity there will be God consciousness. That is the technique of yoga-sthah. You haven’t got to separately being seated in meditation as yoga, generally as we understand. Now, how much you can devote your time to meditation? Suppose one hour in the morning or one hour in the evening you can devote. But if you mold your life in such a way that always, twenty-four hours, you are in meditation, that is the platform of yoga-sthah kuru karmani. I am earning for the Supreme Lord. Then, when I earn, I bring things for cooking, I am thinking, “Oh, this thing will be cooked for Lord.” Now, your wife cooks, and she is also very clean because it is being cooked for Lord Krsna. You see? Now, as far as I am concerned here, I also cook myself my food and offer to Krsna, and therefore I ask my friends that unless it is offered to Krsna, you please do not take it. You see? Sometimes I see that in your country, while cooking, they taste. They taste. But I request them that don’t taste before the cooking is finished. After cooking is finished and when it is offered to the Deity, then you take as much as you like, as much as you like. So that means there is God consciousness, that “This thing is being cooked for the Lord.” The cooking will go on. If you don’t think of God, you require cooking because you want to eat. The cooking is there in the program. But if you think that this cooking is done for God, then your God consciousness is there.

The cooking you cannot avoid. As a householder you have to cook for yourself, you have to cook for your children, you have to cook for somebody else or for your own self. Just like I am cooking. I have no here family or children, but I am cooking for myself. So cooking you cannot stop. But if you cook with the understanding that “This foodstuff is being cooked for the Lord. The Lord may be offered first; then we shall take,” this is God consciousness. This is God consciousness. But is it very difficult thing? Anyone can accept this. Anyone can do it. It is not... Because your cooking business is not stopped. Simply the mode of thinking has to be changed. That’s all. A small technique, that “I am earning for God. I am cooking for God. I am eating also for God. I am eating also for God.”

How is that eating you are...? “Now, because my body is dedicated to the service of the Lord, if I don’t eat sufficiently to keep my body fit, then how can I work?” So your eating is also God consciousness. Your sleeping is also God consciousness. So that is the way. We have to mold our life’s activities. Now, when I think that “I have to keep this body fit for working for God,” so then that is not, I mean to... That is not bodily conception of life. Just like when you think that “My car has to be kept very nicely so that I can take nice work for it,” then you are not identified with your car; you simply want to take some service of the car. Similarly, if you think that “This body is required for acting, for working on behalf of the Supreme Lord; therefore I must keep the body fit to work,” so that is not your identification with the body. But if I use this body for sense gratification and therefore I make my body stout and strong to enjoy sense enjoyment, that is the cause of my bondage.

So it is a simple technique, and we have to understand it and we have to act it on the program as they have been made by experienced devotees, experienced devotees. Now, another thing. Take this... See the advantage of God consciousness. Now, if you have got determination that “I shall not take anything which is not offered to God,” because your life is meant for God’s service... You earn for God; you cook for God; you eat for God. Therefore the whole life is like that. Now, if you are cooking for God, if you are purchasing stores for God, then you have to know what sort of things can be offered to God because... Always remember that you are going to the store not for your own purpose. You will find in later chapters that pacanti te agham papah... Er, no. The idea is that anyone who is doing everything for the sake of the Lord, he is freed from the reaction, but anyone who is doing anything on his own account, he is being entangled in that action and reaction. So that is the technique of becoming yoga-sthah. Yoga-sthah kuru karmani.

In the next sloka, in next sloka, it is very clearly explained that

durena hy avaram karma
buddhi-yogad dhananjaya
buddhau saranam anviccha
krpanah phala-hetavah
Krpanah phala-hetavah.

Now, here is... The word krpana is very significant. Krpana. There are two classes of men. The krpana means miser, krpana, miser. And just the opposite word of krpana is brahmana. I have already explained to you sometimes that brahmana... Brahmana means who knows that “I am not this body; I am the... I am the... I am in spirit, conscious. I am soul, spirit, consciousness,” one who knows perfectly well this understanding and the science also, that “I am qualitatively one with the Supreme Lord,” aham brahmasmi. The Vedic mantra says, aham brahmasmi. That means “I am Brahman. I am not this matter. I am Brahman.” So one who knows this science, he is called brahmana. And that doesn’t matter who is he and where he is born. That doesn’t matter. Simply knowing this science... Now, the opposite word is krpana. Krpana means miser. Whom you call miser?

The miser is a man who has got enough money but does not spend it. He is called miser. Miser means who has got enough assets, but he does not spend. He simply sees his money and satisfied. He does not spend it, properly utilize it. He is called krpana. Is it right, the miser explanation? So krpana, who is krpana, and who is brahmana? Brahmana means who has known that “I am spiritual identity. I am qualitatively one with the Supreme Lord. I am the part and parcel of the Lord.” This knowledge, one who has developed highly and perfectly, he is called brahmana. And krpana means who has not utilized this human form of body to understand that he is spiritual identity, Brahman, but he simply knows that “I am this body, and because this body is born in a certain place, so I am identified to that country or to that society or to that family.”

They are called krpana. Krpana means that he has not properly utilized the developed consciousness he has got in his asset. A human being has got the developed consciousness than other sub-human or the animal society. So he has to utilize. Just like you have got 100,000’s of dollars. Now, if you properly utilize, it can be increased. It can be increased to millions of dollars by your intelligence if you utilize it. And if you do not utilize it, if you keep it as it is, that is also very good, but sometimes we lost the whole thing. They are called krpana. Foolishness. Foolishness.

So we must utilize this human form of body properly to understand that “I am not this body; I am pure consciousness. And this pure consciousness I have to practice in such a way that in next life I get my pure conscious or into pure spiritual body, not again this material body.” This material body, we must always know, this is a foreign thing. We have already explained to you that this is just like dress. Dress. Dress is a foreign thing to my body. Similarly, this gross and subtle body—gross body of this material five elements and the subtle body of mind, ego, intelligence—they are my foreign things. So I am now encaged in foreign things. My whole life mission is to get out of these foreign things. I want to be situated in my real spiritual body. That can be done if you practice. If you practice during this life to..., always to be spiritually situated, then your next life, after leaving... Even within this body, when you get clear conception that “I am not this body,” and you are clearly working from the spiritual platform, as Lord Krsna prescribes here that yoga-sthah kuru karmani, “Be situated in yoga and act in your daily duties,” then similarly, if we practice this to work in such a way that we have to work from the spiritual platform, then your next life will be free from this material bondage and you get your freedom life.

Spiritual body means your freedom life. We do not know; we have no conception that in our spiritual body how much we can be powerful. We do not know that. There is calculation. There is calculation that suppose God is cent percent perfect. So when you get your spiritual body, you may not be as powerful as God, but almost near to God. You get seventy-eight percent. You get seventy-eight percent of the whole power. That is a calculation by the great sages. They have calculated that a living entity can attain to the perfection of seventy-eight percent. Now, in our present material condition we have no spiritual power at all. We are always encumbered and conditioned by material forces. You see? So therefore one who does not utilize this body for perfection, for liberation, he is called krpana. Krpana. This is stated here. Krpanah phala-hetavah. Krpanah phala-hetavah.

That krpana, that means miserly person who does not utilize this human form of life for better profit. Then he wants that “Oh, I have done so much. I must get the profit. I must get it.” What profit you get? For the bodily enjoyment? For sense enjoyment? Oh, sacrifice it. Sacrifice it. You know that there is a word, yajna, sacrifice. Sacrifice means—it is a common word—that you dedicate, you dedicate your life for the service of the Lord, this life. You’ll not be sufferer. What is there, suffering? Now just the prescription or the formula I have just cited before you that your householder life... Now, you are doing everything. You are earning money; you are getting from the store; you are cooking. Everything... Nothing is stopped. Simply change your mentality, that everything is being done for God. It is not at all difficult. Simply we have to adopt it. We have to adopt it. So krpanah phala-hetavah. Now, if you think, “Oh, why...? I am earning for my palatable dishes. Why shall I offer it to God? This is there are so many, I mean to say, encumbrances. I am not going to do,” then you become krpana, miser. But if you be a brahmana... Brahmana means udara, liberated, liberal, not liberated, liberal. The opposite word of krpana is liberal. “I offer this body for the service of the Supreme.” I become so liberal. Not for my sense enjoyment.

So one who engages this body for sense enjoyment, he is called krpana, miser. And one who engages this body for the service of the Supreme Lord, he is called brahmana. So Lord says that “You don’t be krpana. You don’t be miser.” Miser want... Now, here, suppose there are so many rich men in your country and so many foundations also. And I tell you my practical experience. I wrote some letters to some good foundation that “I want to start here in America an institution for God consciousness, international institution for God consciousness. You kindly help me.” Now, they have flatly refused that “Our pledge is not anything for religion or God.” Just see. That means, according to Bhagavad-gita, they are all misers. Although they have got very good foundation, they are making actually some charities, but they are miserly. They do not know where to make charity, where to make charity. The karma-yoga, karma-yoga... It will be clearly stated by Lord in later chapter, yat karosi yaj juhosi yad asnasi dadasi yat kurusva tad mad-arpanam. The karma-yoga process is that “Whatever you do, whatever you take trouble for, whatever you eat, and everything, offer to Me. Offer to Me.” That is called karma-yoga, or yoga-sthah. But the people have developed such a consciousness at the present moment that whenever they hear of God or whenever they hear of some religion, they at once become adverse to it. In my country also the same position...

Now, this book, my Srimad-Bhagavatam, it is recognized by the government. The Ministry of Central Government, they have recognized this book, and they are purchasing hundred copies of each part. They recognize. But when I told that “For this publication of the whole thing, I require 500,000’s of dollars. The government can take up this work,” “No, our government is secular. Secular.” So I could not get any help from my government. You see? And here also I approached some foundation that “Here is my program, that I want to start one institution for God consciousness. Please, your... The institution will be established in your country. Your people will be benefited. I don’t take any money. I don’t make any profit. I want to simply give my service.” And I have got their letter, on the Rockefeller Foundation. They have flatly refused: “No, we are not going to contribute anything for religious purpose or for God consciousness. It is not possible.”

So people have become so averse to the sense of God. How they can be happy? At least from the Bhagavad-gita we find it clearly they cannot be happy. However they make progress in material advancement of science and economy and everything, oh, they cannot be happy. They cannot be happy. The whole thing is the wrong process. Here is the process recommended in the Bhagavad-gita, that yoga-sthah kuru karmani. Yoga-sthah kuru karmani. Unless you work. No work is condemned. Whatever you do, that doesn’t matter. But if that work is done on behalf of the Supreme Lord, that makes you purified. That makes you happy. But that science is lacking altogether all over the world, not only here or there. The whole thing... In Russia they are preaching godless civilization: “There is no God.” Here also there are even some churches. I know they are preaching that God is dead. You see? They are preaching like that.

So the condition is very precarious at the present moment. And we are preaching Bhagavad-gita and the formula, but the formula is practically very difficult to apply in the present circumstances. You see? Yoga-sthah kuru karmani. People have gone so much ahead in material, I mean to say... Material civilization means only sense gratification. That’s all. It has nothing more than this. And actually we are seeing that as much as we are making economic progress, as much money we are getting, the next program is how to spend it for sense gratification, how to spend it for sense gratification. They have no other program, no other program. You see? Everywhere. But here the formula is that nothing for your sense gratification; everything for God. The work is not condemned. Work you can do. Whatever in situation, position you are by God’s will you are put in, that doesn’t matter. Your work is not bad, provided you work for the Supreme Lord. That’s all. That is the technique.

So durena hy avaram karma. Here it is emphatically emphasized that durena hy avaram karma buddhi-yogad dhananjaya: “By application of this God consciousness, you throw away all other work. Any work which you cannot do with God consciousness, don’t do it.” Now, here is the injunction in Bhagavad-gita that “Anything which you cannot do with God consciousness, stop doing.” But the whole world is engaged, doing things in which there is no God consciousness. There is no God consciousness. And here it is enjoined that buddhau saranam anviccha krpanah phala-hetavah: “Only those who are krpana, those who are not self-realized, they are hankering after sense gratification. They want to enjoy the fruits of their labor. But you don’t be. Arjuna, you don’t be. If you want to be spiritually situated, if you want to work from the spiritual platform, then you don’t do it. You work on the spiritual platform and don’t do anything which you cannot do in God consciousness.”

This is clearly stated here. Now, it is, of course... It depends on us whether to accept it or not accept it, because God has given us independence. You’ll find also in the Bhagavad-gita at the end that after the instruction is given, the Lord inquires from Arjuna that “I have given you all instruction necessary. Now whatever you like, you do.” So this is the position. The Lord never interferes with the little independence that has been offered to us. We have got little independence because we are part and parcel of the Supreme Lord. Oh, so under certain percentage we have got independence. Not full independence, but under certain percentage we have got independence. And that independence we can use properly or misuse it also. When we misuse, then we become krpana, the miser. And when we use it properly, then we become brahmana. So durena hy avaram karma buddhi-yogad dhananjaya buddhau saranam anviccha, saranam anviccha krpanah phala-hetavah. Buddhi. By intelligence, by intelligence you take shelter of the Supreme Lord. Don’t be miser and be hankering after the result of your work and enjoy for yourself. No, sacrifice. Sacrifice means you sacrifice your energy. God is not hankering after your money or whatever you have got. He is full in Himself. He is full in Himself. He doesn’t require.

Now in India there is a system of worshiping the Ganges water. Ganges water. Ganges water. There are five sacred rivers which the Hindus, they worship. They are Ganga, Yamuna, Kaveri, Godavari, Narmada. Just like you have got your Hudson River here, similarly there are many rivers, and one of them... These five rivers, they are accepted as the sacred river and people take their bath and offer their respect. Now, what is the process of respect? The process of respect is just like worshiping the Ganges water. Now, after taking your bath, you stand on the water and take little water from the river, just like this. The river is flowing. You take little water like this, and chant your mantra and offer it. Now, this offering, offering of water, wherefrom the water is come? Oh, you have taken the water from the Ganges. You have not brought even the water from your house. You are taking the water from the Ganges, and you are again offering the same to the Ganges with some mantra. So similarly, the Ganges has got immense water. If you take one palmful of water out of it, the Ganges is not in loss. And again, if you offer a palmful of water on the Ganges, the Ganges does not gain anything. But utilizing the Ganges water and offering to the Ganges, you become a devotee of Ganges. Similarly, the offering to Lord... What you have got? Your body, it is also given by God. Your intelligence, it is given by God. The facility of work, it is given by God. Everything is given by God. Now, what do we work? Now, suppose I am writing books. All right. In which you are writing? On paper. All right, who has given you paper?

Now, you make philosophical study. “Well, paper I purchased from the market.” Market, how does it supply paper? “It is manufactured in mills.” Oh, it is manufactured in mills. Where they get the raw materials? “Oh, from the wood.” How the wood is produced? Oh, then you come to the God. You cannot produce the wood. You simply bring wood from the forest and get it to chemically purified and make a plaster, and the paper is made. So no raw material you can manufacture. Raw material has to be taken from God’s stock. Now, if the raw material is taken from God’s stock, then how the paper becomes yours? This is God consciousness. Everything we’ll find that nothing is our. We simply... The economists also say that we cannot manufacture anything; we can simply transform from one form to another. That’s all. We can give our labor only. And that labor also, given the strength... Now, suppose I work with my hand. Now, I am claiming, “This is my hand,” but if God withdraws the power of your hand, paralyzed, oh, your pride is at once vanished. Not your hand. You see? So in everything, nothing is yours. I am also... As spirit soul, I am also part and parcel of God. And we are thinking independently that “I have no connection with God.” This is very horrible condition. The whole world is suffering because this misconception of life, misconception of life, that he has forgotten his eternal relationship with God. So we have to revive it. We have to revive it, this process. The Bhagavad-gita has prescribed,

durena hy avaram karma
buddhi-yogad dhananjaya
buddhau saranam anviccha
krpanah phala-hetavah

Krpanah means those who are anxious for enjoying sense gratification, by the fruits of their labor. They are called krpana. And those who have sacrificed the whole body, whole intelligence... Sacrifice... You always remember: what we can sacrifice? Just like we take Ganges water from Ganges and offering Ganges, so everything is obtained from God, and now, if we offer the same thing to God, then we become liberated. Actually I am not proprietor in anything. Myself is also not... I am also the part and parcel of the Supreme Lord. These are the conception. Without this conception, without this God conception, there is no spiritual realization and there is no happiness, either personally, or impersonally, or socially, or economically or politically. There cannot be.

Of course, today there is no time. Otherwise I would have recited. Those who have got my books, you will see that how much profusely the earth was producing during the time of Maharaja Yudhisthira, because the executive head of the state was a pious, so how nature was helping. Nature was helping. Now India there is scarcity, scarcity of foodstuff. But the same India was producing so much grains, even during British time, that many thousands and thousand tons of rice were being exported from India to other countries. You see? That I have seen. I have seen. My maternal uncle was very rich man by simply exporting rice to the foreign countries. Yes. Spices... And old history you will find that India, they had got their own ships for exporting spices to Greece and other countries of Europe. The history is there. And they were supplying muslin cloth, even just before the British period, Muslim period. So India’s export, export, I mean to say, status was far greater than other countries. And these spices and other export attracted persons from Europe, that Vasco de Gama, and the Columbus also wanted to go, but he fortunately came to America. You see?

All these Europeans and the Britishers went and established their supremacy. So India was so rich. But now how that India has become so poor? The same land is there. Why? Because they have lost that old culture, God consciousness. You see? And at least my calculation is that, that a state, a secular state... Secular state means he has no... Here in America you have got state religion. You have got state religion. But in India there is no state religion. Every country has state religion. Even Pakistan, it has divided. It is now a part of India. But they have also their state religion. But unfortunately India has no state religion. That means deliberately they are trying to disconnect with God relation, godly relation. But in the same India... You just read the history, five thousand years before, how much profusely the nature was supplying. In the morning we are studying that portion. Mr. Paul was reading that portion, that how much nature was giving. So nature can give you anything. After all, it is the nature that supplies your necessities, not the industry. Industry simply transformed in a different way, and a certain class make profit out of it. Industry does not mean really economic improvement. Real economic improvement means what you produce from the land. That requires God help. Without raw materials, even your industry cannot go on. Just like I have cited the example of paper. Nowadays paper is made from wood. Now, if there is no sufficient... Now you have got in your America sufficient wood, so you can make, produce paper in large quantity. But suppose the woods are finished. Then industry will be finished.

Anyway, we should always be in conscious that everything that we have in our possession, even our body, even our mind, even our energy, everything, that is God-gifted. One who has got this conception of life, he is brahmana. He is the one who knows Brahman. One who does not know this and simply lives for sense gratification, he is called the miser. So we shall not be miser. We shall be the brahmana. That should be our... And there is no restriction. Don’t think that because you are born in America, you cannot become a brahmana. No, you can become a brahmana. There is no restriction. Brahma janatiti brahmanah. The formula is that janmana jayate sudrah samskarad bhaved dvijah. Janmana jayate sudrah. Everyone who is born, first born by the father and mother... Then he is called a sudra. Even he is born in a brahmana family, he is called a sudra. Then samskarad bhaved dvijah. Then, by culture... The cultural birth is called the second birth, dvija. The higher caste in India, they are called dvija. Dvija means the first birth by father and mother, that is... Animal birth and man birth is the same because the process is the same. But unless one takes his birth by higher culture, he cannot be called dvija.

Sometimes the birds are also called dvija. Dvija means twice-born. Twice-born. Just like the birds... The sea bird lays the egg first, and then it is fomented. And from the, I mean to, the egg, the cub comes out, the offspring comes out—the second birth. Therefore birds are also sometimes called dvija. Similarly human and higher status of life, they must have twice-born. Therefore the brahmanas, the ksatriyas, and the vaisyas, this thread, this thread is the sign that “My second birth has been done.” This is the emblem. This upavita, upanayanam, this is the sign. In India higher caste you will find this sacred thread. Sacred thread means when he is accepted, when he is given the second birth, this thread ceremony, there is a thread ceremony. So second birth means samskara, samskara, reformation, reformation. It doesn’t matter where and how he is born. It doesn’t matter.

The other day I cited the example of Jabali Upanisad. He could not say even his father’s name. But because he was so sincere that he declared before Gautama Muni that “Either my mother or myself, I do not know who is my father,” Gautama Muni ac..., “Oh, you are brahmana. You are truthful. You are truthful.” So these are the qualifications, samskara, cultural birth. Cultural birth makes the twice-born. Samskarad bhaved dvijah. Janmana jayate. By birth everyone is sudra. And when he is reformed, when he is culturally rebirth, taken rebirth, then he is dvija, twice-born. And after being dvija, veda-pathad bhaved viprah. Veda-pathat means this knowledge, scriptural knowledge, Vedic wisdom. By studying this Vedic wisdom he becomes a vipra. And after studying, when he knows, “Oh, I am spiritual. I am not this matter,” and he knows the constitution of himself, constitution of the Supreme Lord, then he is brahmana. Therefore the whole mission of human society should be how to prepare brahmana. Then peace and prosperity will be there. If you keep them just like cats and dogs in the platform of sudra, how can you expect? Do you mean to say there is any peace in the dog society? No. That is not possible. Peace can be had only, really—human society.

So this is the culture. The Vedic, whole Vedic culture is to make a man a brahmana, not to keep him in the sudra stage, not to. Every father has to take care. The state has to take care, the teacher has to take care—how to make the children, the poor children, the innocent children, to..., a perfect brahmana. The whole culture is like that. You see? so Bhagavad-gita teaches that. And don’t become... Don’t remain in the sudra stage and a miser, but just try to become a brahmana by culture. Then your life will be successful.

Thank you very much.

Space Travel & The Sky Beyond the Universe

If even the higher planets in this universe are subject to birth and death, why do great yogis strive for elevation to them? Although they may have many mystic powers, these yogis still have the tendency to want to enjoy the facilities of material life. On the higher planets, it is possible to live for incredibly long lifetimes. The time calculation on these planets is indicated by Sri Krsna:

sahasra-yuga-paryantam
ahar yad brahmano viduh
ratrim yuga-sahasrantam
te ’ho-ratra-vido janah

“By human calculation, a thousand ages taken together is the duration of Brahma’s one day. And such also is the duration of his night.” (Bg. 8.17)

One yuga covers 4,300,000 years. This number multiplied by one thousand is calculated to be twelve hours of Brahma on the planet Brahmaloka. Similarly, another twelve-hour period covers the night. Thirty such days equal a month, twelve months a year, and Brahma lives for one hundred such years. Life on such a planet is indeed long, yet even after trillions of years, the inhabitants of Brahmaloka have to face death. Unless we go to the spiritual planets, there is no escape from death.

avyaktad vyaktayah sarvah
prabhavanty ahar-agame
ratry-agame praliyante
tatraivavyakta-samjnake

“When Brahma’s day is manifest, this multitude of living entities comes into being, and at the arrival of Brahma’s night, they are all annihilated.” (Bg. 8.18)

At the end of the day of Brahma, all the lower planetary systems are covered with water, and the beings on them are annihilated. After this devastation and after the night of Brahma passes, in the morning when Brahma arises there is again creation, and all these beings come forth. Thus subjection to creation and destruction is the nature of the material world.

bhuta-gramah sa evayam
bhutva bhutva praliyate
ratry-agame ’vasah partha
prabhavaty ahar-agame

“Again and again the day comes, and this host of beings is active; and again the night falls, O Partha, and they are helplessly dissolved.” (Bg. 8.19)

Although the living entities do not like devastation, that devastation will come and overflood the planets until all living beings on the planets stay merged in water throughout the night of Brahma. But as day comes, the water gradually disappears.

paras tasmat tu bhavo ’nyo
’vyakto ’vyaktat sanatanah
yah sa sarvesu bhutesu
nasyatsu na vinasyati

“Yet there is another nature, which is eternal and is transcendental to this manifested and unmanifested matter. It is supreme and is never annihilated. When all in this world is annihilated, that part remains as it is.” (Bg. 8.20)

We cannot calculate the extent of the material universe, but we have Vedic information that there are millions of universes within the entire creation, and beyond these material universes there is another sky, which is spiritual. There all the planets are eternal, and the lives of all the beings on them are eternal. In this verse the word bhavah means “nature,” and here another nature is indicated. In this world we have experience also of two natures. The living entity is spirit, and as long as he is within matter, matter is moving, and as soon as the living entity, the spiritual spark, is out of the body, the body is immovable.

The spiritual nature is called Krsna’s superior nature, and the material is called the inferior. Beyond this material nature there is a superior nature, which is totally spiritual. It is not possible to understand this by experimental knowledge. We can see millions and millions of stars through a telescope, but we cannot approach them. We have to understand our incapabilities.

If we cannot understand the material universe by experimental knowledge, what is the possibility of understanding God and His kingdom? It is not possible experimentally. We have to understand by hearing Bhagavad-gita. We cannot understand who our father is by experimental knowledge; we have to hear the word of our mother and believe her. If we do not believe her, there is no way of knowing. Similarly, if we just stick to the Krsna conscious method, all information about Krsna and His kingdom will be revealed.

Paras tu bhavah means “superior nature,” and vyaktah refers to what we see manifested. We can see that the material universe is manifested through the earth, sun, stars, and planets. And beyond this universe is another nature, an eternal nature. Avyaktat sanatanah. This material nature has a beginning and an end, but that spiritual nature is sanatanah—eternal.

It has neither beginning nor end. How is this possible? A cloud may pass over the sky, and it may appear to cover a great distance, but actually it is only a small speck covering an insignificant part of the whole sky. Because we are so small, if only a few hundred miles is covered by cloud, it appears that the whole sky is covered. Similarly, this whole material universe is like a small, insignificant cloud in the vast spiritual sky. It is encased by the mahat-tattva, matter. As a cloud has a beginning and an end, this material nature also has a beginning and an end. When the clouds disappear and the sky clears, we see everything as it is. Similarly, the body is like a cloud passing over the spirit soul. It stays for some time, gives some by-products, dwindles, and then vanishes.

Any kind of material phenomenon that we observe is subject to these six transformations of material nature—it comes into being, grows, stays for a while, produces some by-products, dwindles, and then vanishes. Krsna indicates that beyond this changing, cloudlike nature there is a spiritual nature, which is eternal. In addition, when this material nature is annihilated, that avyaktat sanatanah will remain.

In Vedic literatures there is a good deal of information about the material and spiritual skies. In the Second Canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam there are descriptions of the spiritual sky and of its inhabitants. There is even information given that there are spiritual airplanes in the spiritual sky and that the liberated entities there travel about on these planes like lightning. Everything that we find here can also be found there in reality. Here in the material sky everything is an imitation, or shadow, of that which exists in the spiritual sky.

As in a cinema we simply see a show or facsimile of the real thing, in Srimad-Bhagavatam it is said that this material world is but a combination of matter modeled after the reality, just as a mannequin of a girl in a store window is modeled after a girl. Every sane man knows that the mannequin is an imitation. Sridhara Svami says that because the spiritual world is real, this material world, which is an imitation, appears to be real. We must understand the meaning of reality—reality means existence which cannot be vanquished; reality means eternity.

nasato vidyate bhavo
nabhavo vidyate satah
ubhayor api drsto ’ntas
tv anayos tattva-darsibhih

“Those who are seers of the truth have concluded that of the nonexistent there is no endurance, and of the existent there is no cessation. This seers have concluded by studying the nature of both.” (Bg. 2.16)

Real pleasure is Krsna, whereas material pleasure, which is temporary, is not actual. Those who can see things as they are do not take part in shadow pleasure. The real aim of human life is to attain to the spiritual sky, but as Srimad-Bhagavatam points out, most people do not know about it. Human life is meant to understand reality and to be transferred into it. All Vedic literature instructs us not to remain in this darkness. The nature of this material world is darkness, but the spiritual world is full of light and yet is not illumined by fire or electricity. Krsna hints of this in the Fifteenth Chapter of Bhagavad-gita (15.6):

na tad bhasayate suryo
na sasanko na pavakah
yad gatva na nivartante
tad dhama paramam mama

“That abode of Mine is not illumined by the sun or moon, nor by electricity. One who reaches it never returns to this material world.”

The spiritual world is called unmanifested because it cannot be perceived by material senses.

avyakto ’ksara ity uktas
tam ahuh paramam gatim
yam prapya na nivartante
tad dhama paramam mama

“That supreme abode is called unmanifested and infallible, and it is the supreme destination. When one goes there, he never comes back. That is My supreme abode.” (Bg. 8.21)

A great journey is indicated in this verse. We have to be able to penetrate outer space, traverse the material universe, penetrate its covering, and enter the spiritual sky. Paramam gatim—that journey is supreme. There is no question of going a few thousand miles away from this planet and then returning. This sort of journey is not very heroic. We have to penetrate the whole material universe.

This we cannot do by spaceships but by Krsna consciousness. One who is absorbed in Krsna consciousness and who at the time of death thinks of Krsna is at once transferred there. If we at all want to go to that spiritual sky and cultivate eternal, blissful life, full of knowledge, we will have to begin now to cultivate a sac-cid-ananda body. It is said that Krsna has a sac-cid-ananda body—isvarah paramah krsnah sac-cid-ananda-vigrahah [Bs. 5.1]—and we also have a similar body of eternity, knowledge, and bliss, but it is very small and is covered by the dress of matter.

If somehow or other we are able to give up this false dress, we can reach that spiritual kingdom. If once we can attain that spiritual world, return is not necessary (yam prapya na nivartante).
Everyone, then, should try to go to that dhama paramam—Krsna’s supreme abode. Krsna Himself comes to call us, and He gives us literatures as guidebooks and sends His bona fide representatives. We should take advantage of this facility given to human life. For one who reaches that supreme abode, penances, austerities, yogic meditations, and so on are no longer required, and for one who does not reach it, all penances and austerities are a useless waste of time.

The human form of life is an opportunity to get this boon, and it is the duty of the state, parents, teachers, and guardians to elevate those who have acquired this human form of life to attain this perfection of life. Simply eating, sleeping, mating, and quarreling like cats and dogs is not civilization. We should properly utilize this human form of life and take advantage of this knowledge to prepare ourselves in Krsna consciousness, so that twenty-four hours of the day we will be absorbed in Krsna and at death at once transfer to that spiritual sky.

purusah sa parah partha
bhaktya labhyas tv ananyaya
yasyantah-sthani bhutani
yena sarvam idam tatam

“The Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is greater than all, is attainable by unalloyed devotion. Although He is present in His abode, He is all-pervading, and everything is situated within Him.” (Bg. 8.22)

If we are at all interested in reaching that supreme abode, the process, as indicated here, is bhakti. Bhaktya means devotional service, submission to the Supreme Lord. The root word for bhaktya is bhaj, which means “service.” The definition of bhakti given in the Narada-pancaratra is “freedom from designation.” If one is determined to get out of all the designations that are attached to the pure spirit soul, and which arise due to the body and are always changed when the body is changed, one can attain to bhakti. Bhakti is realizing that one is pure spirit and not matter at all.

Our real identity is not this body, which is simply a covering of the spirit, but our real identity is dasa, servant of Krsna. When one is situated in his real identity and is rendering service to Krsna, he is a bhakta. Hrsikena hrsikesa-sevanam: [Cc. Madhya 19.170] when our senses are free from material designations, we will utilize them in the service of the master of the senses, Hrsikesa, or Krsna.

As Rupa Gosvami points out, we have to serve Krsna favorably. Generally we want to serve God for some material purpose or gain. Of course, one who goes to God for material gain is better than one who never goes, but we should be free from desire for material benefit. Our aim should be to understand Krsna. Of course Krsna is unlimited, and it is not possible to understand Him, but we have to accept what we can understand. Bhagavad-gita is specifically presented for our understanding. Through receiving knowledge in this way, we should know that Krsna is pleased, and we should serve Him favorably, according to His pleasure. Krsna consciousness is a great science with immense literatures, and we should utilize them for the attainment of bhakti.

Purusah sa parah: in the spiritual sky, the Supreme Lord is present as the Supreme Person. There are innumerable self-luminous planets there, and in each one an expansion of Krsna resides. They are four-armed and have innumerable names. They are all persons—they are not impersonal. These purusas, or persons, can be approached by bhakti, not by challenge, philosophical speculation, or mental concoctions, nor by physical exercises, but by devotion without the deviations of fruitive activity.

What is the purusah, the Supreme Person, like? Yasyantah-sthani bhutani yena sarvam idam tatam: every living entity and everything is within Him, and yet He is without, all-pervading. How is that? He is just like the sun, which is situated in one place and yet is present all over by its rays. Although God is situated in His dhama paramam, His energies are distributed everywhere. Nor is He different from His energies, inasmuch as the sunshine and the sun are nondifferent. Since Krsna and His energies are nondifferent, we can see Krsna everywhere if we are advanced in devotional service.

premanjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena
santah sadaiva hrdayesu vilokayanti

“I worship the original Personality of Godhead, Govinda, whom the pure devotees whose eyes are smeared with the ointment of love of Godhead always observe within their hearts.” (Brahma-samhita 5.38)

Those who are filled with love of God see God constantly before them. It is not that we saw God last night and He is no longer present. No. For one who is Krsna conscious, Krsna is always present and can be perceived constantly. We simply have to develop the eyes to see Him.
Due to our material bondage, the covering of the material senses, we cannot understand what is spiritual. But this ignorance can be removed by this process of chanting Hare Krsna. How is this? A sleeping man may be awakened by sound vibration.

Although a man may be for all intents and purposes unconscious—he cannot see, feel, smell, etc.—the sense of hearing is so prominent that a sleeping man may be awakened just by sound vibration. Similarly, the spirit soul, although now overpowered by the sleep of material contact, can be revived by this transcendental sound vibration of Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. Hare Krsna is simply an address to the Supreme Lord and His energies. Hare means energy, and Krsna is the name of the Supreme Lord, so when we chant Hare Krsna we are saying, “O energy of the Lord, O Lord, please accept me.”

We have no other prayer for acceptance by the Lord. There is no question of praying for daily bread, for the bread is always there. Hare Krsna is but an address to the Supreme Lord, requesting Him to accept us. Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu Himself prayed,

ayi nanda-tanuja kinkaram
patitam mam visame bhavambudhau
krpaya tava pada-pankaja-
sthita-dhuli-sadrsam vicintaya

“O son of Maharaja Nanda, I am Your eternal servitor, and although I am so, somehow or other I have fallen in the ocean of birth and death. Please, therefore, pick me up from this ocean of death and fix me as one of the atoms at Your lotus feet.” (Siksastaka 5) The only hope for a man fallen in the middle of the ocean is that someone will come and pick him up. If someone just comes and hauls him but a few feet out of the water, he is immediately relieved. Similarly, if we are somehow lifted from the ocean of birth and death by the process of Krsna consciousness, we are immediately relieved.

Although we cannot perceive the transcendental nature of the Supreme Lord, His name, fame, and activities, if we establish ourselves in Krsna consciousness, gradually God will reveal Himself before us. We cannot see God by our own endeavor, but if we qualify ourselves, God will reveal Himself, and then we will see. No one can order God to come before him and dance, but we do have to work in such a way that Krsna will be pleased to reveal Himself to us.
Krsna gives us information about Himself in Bhagavad-gita, and there is no question of doubting it; we just have to feel it, understand it.

There is no preliminary qualification necessary for the understanding of Bhagavad-gita, because it is spoken from the absolute platform. The simple process of chanting the names of Krsna will reveal what one is, what God is, what the material and spiritual universes are, why we are conditioned, how we can get out of that conditioning—and everything else, step by step. Actually, the process of belief and revelation is not foreign to us. Every day we place faith in something that we have confidence will be revealed later. We may purchase a ticket to go to India, and on the basis of the ticket we have faith that we will be transported there. Why should we pay money for a ticket? We do not just give the money to anyone. The company is authorized and the airline is authorized, so faith is created. Without faith we cannot take one step forward in the ordinary course of our life. Faith we must have, but it must be faith in that which is authorized. It is not that we have blind faith, but that we accept something that is recognized.

Bhagavad-gita is recognized and accepted as scripture by all classes of men in India, and as far as outside India is concerned, many scholars, theologians, and philosophers accept Bhagavad-gita as a great, authoritative work. There is no question that Bhagavad-gita is authority. Even Professor Albert Einstein, such a scientist, read Bhagavad-gita regularly.

From Bhagavad-gita we have to accept that there is a spiritual universe which is the kingdom of God. If somehow we are transported to a country where we are informed that we will no longer have to undergo birth, old age, disease, and death, will we not be happy? If we heard of such a place, surely we would try as hard as possible to go there. No one wants to grow old; no one wants to die. Indeed, a place free of such sufferings would be our heart’s desire. Why do we want this? Because we have the right, the prerogative, to want it. We are eternal, blissful, and full of knowledge, but having been covered by this material entanglement, we have forgotten ourselves. Therefore Bhagavad-gita gives us the advantage of being able to revive our original status.

The Sankarites and Buddhists claim that the world beyond is void, but Bhagavad-gita does not disappoint us like this. The philosophy of voidness has simply created atheists. We are spiritual beings, and we want enjoyment, but as soon as our future is void, we will become inclined to enjoy this material life. In this way, the impersonalists discuss the philosophy of voidism while trying as much as possible to enjoy this material life. One may enjoy speculation in this way, but there is no spiritual benefit.

brahma-bhutah prasannatma
na socati na kanksati
samah sarvesu bhutesu
mad-bhaktim labhate param

“One who is thus transcendentally situated at once realizes the Supreme Brahman. He never laments or desires to have anything; he is equally disposed to every living entity. In that state he attains pure devotional service unto Me.” (Bg. 18.54)

He who has progressed in devotional life and who is relishing service to Krsna will automatically become detached from material enjoyment. The symptom of one absorbed in bhakti is that he is fully satisfied with Krsna.

From "Beyond Birth & Death", Ch. 4

Yoga as Action

In the Sixth and Eighth Chapters of Bhagavad-gita, Lord Sri Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, explains that the eightfold yoga system is a means to control the mind and senses. This method, however, is very difficult for people to perform, especially in this age of Kali, an age characterized by ignorance and chaos.

Although this eightfold yoga system is particularly recommended in the Sixth Chapter of Bhagavad-gita, the Lord emphasizes that the process of karma-yoga, action in Krsna consciousness, is superior. In this world, everyone acts to maintain his family, and everyone is working with a view to some self-interest, or personal sense gratification, be it concentrated or extended. But to act perfectly is to act in Krsna consciousness, and this means acting detached from the fruits of labor.

It is our duty to act in Krsna consciousness because we are constitutionally parts and parcels of the Supreme. The parts of the body work for the satisfaction of the entire body, not for the individual parts. The goal is the satisfaction of the complete whole. Similarly, the living entity should act for the satisfaction of the supreme whole, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and not for his own personal satisfaction. One who can do this is the perfect sannyasi and the perfect yogi. In the first verse of the Sixth Chapter of Bhagavad-gita, the chapter dealing with sankhya-yoga, Bhagavan Sri Krsna states,

anasritah karma-phalam
karyam karma karoti yah
sa sannyasi ca yogi ca
na niragnir na cakriyah

“One who is unattached to the fruits of his work and who works as he is obligated is in the renounced order of life, and he is the true mystic, not he who lights no fire and performs no work.”

Sometimes sannyasis (renunciates) incorrectly think that they have become liberated from all material engagements and therefore no longer have to perform agni-hotra yajnas, or fire sacrifices. This is a mistake. Certain yajnas (sacrifices) have to be performed by everyone for purification. Since sannyasis are not traditionally required to perform yajnas, they sometimes think that they can attain liberation by ceasing to perform the ritualistic yajnas, but actually, unless one comes to the platform of Krsna consciousness, there is no question of liberation.

Those sannyasis who cease to perform yajnas are in fact acting out of self-interest, because their goal is to become one with the impersonal Brahman. That is the ultimate goal of the impersonalists (Mayavadis), who have one major goal or demand: to become one with the supreme impersonal Being. The devotees have no such demands. They are simply satisfied in serving Krsna for the satisfaction of Krsna. They do not want anything in return. That is the characteristic of pure devotion.

It was Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu who expressed this devotional attitude so succinctly:

na dhanam na janam na sundarim
kavitam va jagad-isa kamaye
mama janmani janmanisvare
bhavatad bhaktir ahaituki tvayi

“O Almighty Lord, I have no desire to accumulate wealth, nor to enjoy beautiful women. Nor do I want any number of followers. What I want is only the causeless mercy of Your devotional service in my life, birth after birth.” (Siksastaka 4)

In essence, this is the bhakti-yoga system. There are many examples of the pure devotional attitude. Once Lord Nrsimhadeva told Prahlada Maharaja, “My dear boy, you have suffered so much for Me. Whatever you want, ask for it.” Being a pure devotee, Prahlada Maharaja refused to ask for anything. He said, “My dear Master, I am not carrying out mercantile business with You. I will not accept any remuneration for my service.” This is the pure devotional attitude.
Yogis and jnanis are demanding to become one with the Supreme because they have such bitter experience suffering the material pangs. They want to become one with the Lord because they are suffering in separation.

A pure devotee, however, does not experience this. Although separate from the Lord, he fully enjoys the service of the Lord in separation. The desire to become one with the impersonal Brahman, or to merge with God, is certainly greater than any material desire, but this is not without self-interest. Similarly, the mystic yogi who practices the yoga system with half-open eyes, ceasing all material activities, desires some satisfaction for his personal self. Such yogis are desirous of material power, and that is their conception of the perfection of yoga. Actually, this is not the perfection of yoga, but a materialistic process.

If one practices the regulative principles of yoga, he can attain eight kinds of perfection. He can become lighter than a cotton swab. He can become heavier than a great stone. He can immediately get whatever he likes. Sometimes he can even create a planet. Although rare, such powerful yogis actually exist. Visvamitra Yogi wanted to beget a man from a palm tree. He was thinking, “Why should a man have to live so many months within the womb of his mother? Why can’t he be produced just like a fruit?” Thinking like this, Visvamitra Yogi produced men like coconuts. Sometimes yogis are so powerful, they can perform such acts, but these are all material powers. Ultimately such yogis are vanquished, because they cannot retain these material powers indefinitely. Bhakti-yogis are not interested in such powers.

The bhakti-yogi, acting in Krsna consciousness, works for the satisfaction of the whole without self-interest. A Krsna conscious person does not desire self-satisfaction. Rather, his criterion of success is the satisfaction of Krsna; therefore he is considered the perfect sannyasi and the perfect yogi.

A pure devotee does not even want salvation. The salvationists want to be saved from rebirth, and the voidists also want to put an end to all material life. Caitanya Mahaprabhu, however, requested only devotional service to Lord Krsna, birth after birth; in other words, Caitanya Mahaprabhu was prepared to endure material miseries in one body after another. What, then, was Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s desire? He wanted to engage in God’s service, and nothing more, for that is the real perfection of yoga.

Whether in the spiritual sky or the material sky, the individual spirit soul is constitutionally the same. It is said that he is one ten-thousandth part of the tip of a hair. This means that our position is that of a small particle. But spirit can expand. Just as we develop a material body in the material world, we develop a spiritual body in the spiritual world. In the material world, expansion takes place in contact with matter. In the spiritual world, this expansion is spiritual.
Actually, the first lesson of Bhagavad-gita is, “I am spirit soul. I am different from this body.” I am a living force, but this material body is not a living force. It is dull matter, and it is activated only because spiritual force is present. In the spiritual world, everything is living force; there is no dead matter. There, the body is totally spiritual. One may compare the spirit soul with oil and the body with water. When oil is in water, there is a distinction, and that distinction always remains. In the spiritual sky, there is no question of oil being placed in water. There everything is spirit.

The impersonalists do not want to develop a body. They simply want to remain spiritual particles, and that is their idea of happiness. But we bhakti-yogis (Vaisnavas) want to serve Krsna, and therefore we require hands, legs, and all the other bodily parts. Indeed, we are given these bodies in order to serve Krsna. Just as we develop a material body in our mother’s womb, we can similarly develop a spiritual body in the spiritual world.

The spiritual body is developed through the practice of Krsna consciousness. This material body is spiritualized by this bhakti-yoga process. If you place an iron within fire, the iron becomes so hot that it also becomes fiery. When the iron is red hot, it acquires all the qualities of fire. If you touch something with that iron, that iron will act as fire. Similarly, although this body is material, it can become spiritualized through Krsna consciousness and act as spirit. Although copper is just a metal, as soon as it comes in contact with electricity, it becomes electrified, and if you touch it, you will receive an electric shock.

As soon as your body is spiritualized, material activity ceases. Material activity means acting for sense gratification. As you become spiritualized, material demands dwindle until they become nil. How is this possible? In order for an iron to act as fire, it must remain constantly in contact with fire. In order for the material body to become spiritualized, one must remain constantly in Krsna consciousness. When this material body is fully engaged in spiritual activities, it becomes spiritual.

According to the Vedic system, the body of a high personality, a sannyasi, is not burned but buried, because a sannyasi’s body is considered spiritual, having ceased to engage in material activities. If everyone in this world engages fully in Krsna consciousness and ceases to work for sense gratification, this entire world will immediately become spiritual. Therefore it is necessary to learn how to work for the satisfaction of Krsna.

This requires a little time to understand. If something is used for Krsna’s satisfaction, it is spiritual. Since we are using microphones, typewriters, etc., in order to talk and write about Krsna, they become spiritualized. What is the difference between prasada and ordinary food? Some people may say, “What is this prasada? We are eating the same food. Why do you call it prasada?” It is prasada because it has been offered for Krsna’s satisfaction and has thus become spiritualized.

In a higher sense, there is no matter at all. Everything is spiritual. Because Krsna is spiritual and matter is one of the energies of Krsna, matter is also spiritual. Krsna is totally spiritual, and spirit comes from spirit. However, because the living entities are misusing this energy—that is, using it for something other than Krsna’s purposes—it becomes materialized, and so we call it matter. The purpose of this Krsna consciousness movement is to respiritualize this energy. It is our purpose to respiritualize the whole world, socially and politically. Of course, this may not be possible, but it is our ideal. At least if we individually take up this respiritualization process, our lives become perfect.

In Bhagavad-gita (9.22) Krsna says that He provides for His devotees by giving them what they lack and preserving what they have. People are very fond of saying that God helps those who help themselves, but they do not understand that helping yourself means putting yourself under Krsna’s protection.

If one thinks, “Oh, I can help myself. I can protect myself,” one is thinking foolishly. As long as my finger is attached to my body, it is useful, and I may spend thousands of dollars to preserve it. But if this finger is cut off, it is useless and is thrown away. Similarly, we are part and parcel of Krsna, and helping ourselves means putting ourselves in our proper position as His parts and parcels. Otherwise we are only fit to be cast away.

The finger can help itself only when situated properly on the hand and working on behalf of the entire body. If the finger thinks, “I will separate myself from this body and simply help myself,” that finger will be cast away and will die. As soon as we think, “I shall live independently of Krsna,” that is our spiritual death, and as soon as we engage in Krsna’s service, as His part and parcel, that is our spiritual life. Therefore, helping oneself means knowing one’s actual position and working accordingly. It is not possible to help oneself without knowing one’s position.

Service means activity, for when we serve someone, we are acting. When we serve Krsna, we are preaching Krsna consciousness, or cooking, or cleansing the temple, or distributing books about Krsna, or writing about Him, or shopping for foodstuff to offer Him. There are so many ways to serve. Helping Krsna means acting for Him, not sitting down in one place and artificially meditating. Krsna consciousness means activity. Whatever assets we have should be utilized for Krsna. That is the process of bhakti-yoga. Krsna has given us a mind, and we must utilize this mind to think of Krsna. We have been given these hands, and we must use them to wash the temple or cook for Krsna. We have been given these legs, and we should use them to go to the temple of Krsna. We have been given a nose, and we should use it to smell the flowers that have been offered to Krsna. Through the process of bhakti-yoga, we engage all these senses in the service of Krsna, and in this way the senses are spiritualized.

In Bhagavad-gita, Arjuna was refusing to act, and Krsna was inspiring him to engage in activity. The entire Bhagavad-gita is an inspiration to work, to engage in Krsna consciousness, to act on Krsna’s behalf. Krsna never tells Arjuna, “My dear friend Arjuna, don’t concern yourself with this war. Just sit down and meditate upon Me.” This is not the message of Bhagavad-gita. We are not to refrain from all activity, but only from those activities that impede our consciousness of Krsna. Meditation means stopping all nonsensical activity. Those who are advanced in Krsna consciousness are constantly working for Krsna.

A mother tells only her bad child to sit down and do nothing. If a child can do nothing but disturb his mother, the mother says, “My dear child, just sit down here and keep quiet.” But if the child can work nicely, the mother says, “My dear child, will you please help me do this? Will you go over there and do that?”

Sitting still in one place is just for those who do not know how to work sensibly. As long as the child sits in one place, he does not raise havoc. Sitting still means negating nonsense; it is not positive activity. In negation, there is no life. Positive activities constitute life, and positive activity is the message of Bhagavad-gita. Spiritual life is not “Don’t do this.” Spiritual life is “Do this!” In order to act properly, there are certain things that one must know not to do; therefore certain activities are forbidden. The whole Bhagavad-gita, however, is “do.” Krsna says, “Fight for Me.” At the beginning of Bhagavad-gita, when Arjuna told Krsna, “I will not fight,” Sri Krsna said,

kutas tva kasmalam idam
visame samupasthitam
anarya justam asvargyam
akirti-karam arjuna

“My dear Arjuna, how have these impurities come upon you? They are not at all befitting a man who knows the progressive values of life. They lead not to higher planets, but to infamy.” (Bg. 2.2)

Krsna directly tells Arjuna that he is speaking like a non-Aryan—that is, like one who does not know the spiritual values of life. So Krsna consciousness does not mean sitting down idly.
Krsna Himself does not sit down idly. All His pastimes are filled with activity. When we go to the spiritual world, we will see that Krsna is always engaged in dancing, eating, and enjoying. He does not sit down to meditate.

Is there any account of the gopis meditating? Did Caitanya Mahaprabhu sit down to meditate? No, He was always dancing and chanting Hare Krsna. The spirit soul is naturally active. How can we sit down silently and do nothing? It is not possible. Therefore, after Sri Krsna outlined the sankhya-yoga system in the Sixth Chapter of Bhagavad-gita, Arjuna frankly said,

yo ’yam yogas tvaya proktah
samyena madhusudana
etasyaham na pasyami
cancalatvat sthitim sthiram

“O Madhusudana [Krsna], the system of yoga which You have summarized appears impractical and unendurable to me, for the mind is restless and unsteady.” (Bg. 6.33)

Although Arjuna was highly elevated and was Krsna’s intimate friend, he immediately refused to take up this sankhya-yoga system. In essence, he said, “It is not possible for me.” How could it have been possible? Arjuna was a warrior, a householder, and he wanted a kingdom. What time did he have for meditation? He flatly refused to practice this type of meditational yoga, saying that the mind is as difficult to control as the wind (Bg. 6.34).

That is a fact. It is not possible to control the mind artificially; therefore we must engage the mind in Krsna consciousness. Then it is controlled. If Arjuna found this process more difficult than controlling the wind, then what of us? After all, Arjuna was not an ordinary man. He was personally talking with the Supreme Lord, Sri Krsna, and he proclaimed the mind to be like a great wind. How can we control the wind? We can control the mind only by fixing it on Krsna’s lotus feet. That is the perfection of meditation.

No one really wants to sit down and meditate. Why should we? We’re meant for positive activity, for recreation, for pleasure. In Krsna consciousness, our recreation is dancing and chanting, and when we get tired, we take prasada. Is dancing difficult? Is chanting difficult? We don’t charge anything to dance in the temple. If you go to a ballroom, you have to pay to enter, but we do not charge. It is natural to enjoy music and dancing and palatable foods. These are our recreations, and this is our method of meditation. So this yoga system is not at all laborious. It is simply recreation, susukham. It is stated in the Ninth Chapter of Bhagavad-gita (9.2) that this yoga is susukham—very happy. “It is everlasting, and it is joyfully performed.” It is natural, automatic, and spontaneous. It is our real life in the spiritual world.

In Vaikuntha, the spiritual world, there is no anxiety. Vaikuntha means “freedom from anxiety,” and in Vaikuntha the liberated souls are always dancing, chanting, and taking prasada. There are no factories, hard work, or technical institutions. There is no need for these artificial things. In Vedanta-sutra it is stated, anandamayo ’bhyasat: God is anandamaya, full of bliss and pleasure. Since we are part and parcel of God, we also possess these same qualities. So the goal of our yoga process is to join with the supreme anandamaya, Sri Krsna, to join His dance party. Then we will be actually happy.

On this earth we are trying to be happy artificially and are therefore frustrated. Once we are situated in Krsna consciousness, we will revive our original position and become simply joyful. Since our actual nature is anandamaya, blissful, we are always searching for happiness. In the cities we are inundated with advertisements. Restaurants, bars, nightclubs, and dance halls are always announcing, “Come on, here is ananda. Here is pleasure.” That is because everyone is searching for ananda, pleasure. Our society for Krsna consciousness is also announcing, “Here is ananda,” but our standard of pleasure is very different. In any case, the goal—pleasure—is the same.

Most people are hunting for pleasure on the gross material platform. The more advanced search for pleasure in speculation, philosophy, poetry, or art. The bhakti-yogi, however, searches for pleasure on the transcendental platform, and that is his only business. Why are people working so hard all day? They are thinking, “Tonight I shall enjoy. Tonight I will associate with this girl or with my wife.” Thus people are going to so much trouble to acquire a little pleasure. Pleasure is the ultimate goal, but unfortunately, under illusion, people do not know where real pleasure is to be found. Real pleasure exists eternally in the transcendental form of Krsna.

Perhaps you have seen pictures of Krsna, and if so, you have noticed that Krsna is always jolly. If you join His society, you will also become jolly. Have you ever seen pictures of Krsna working with a machine? Have you ever seen pictures of Krsna smoking? No, He is by nature full of pleasure, and if you unfold yourself in that way, you will also find pleasure. Pleasure cannot be found artificially.

ananda-cinmaya-rasa-pratibhavitabhis
tabhir ya eva nija-rupataya kalabhih
goloka eva nivasaty akhilatma-bhuto
govindam adi-purusam tam aham bhajami

“I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, residing in His own realm, Goloka, with Radha, resembling His own spiritual figure, the embodiment of the ecstatic potency possessed of the sixty-four artistic activities, in the company of Her confidantes (sakhis), embodiments of the extensions of Her bodily form, permeated and vitalized by His ever-blissful spiritual rasa.” (Brahma-samhita 5.37)

The word rasa means “taste,” or “mellow.” We enjoy sweets or candy because of their taste. Everyone is trying to enjoy some taste, and we want to enjoy sex because there is some taste there. That is called adi taste. Material tastes are different because they are tasted and quickly finished. Material tastes last only a few minutes. You may take a piece of candy, taste it, and say, “Oh, that is very nice,” but you have to taste another in order to continue the enjoyment. Material taste is not unlimited, but real taste is without end. Spiritual taste cannot be forgotten; it goes on increasing. Anandambudhi-vardhanam. Caitanya Mahaprabhu says, “This taste is always increasing.” Spiritual taste is like the ocean in the sense that it is very great. The Pacific Ocean is always tossing, but it is not increasing. By God’s order, the ocean does not extend beyond its limit, and if it extends, there is havoc. Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu says that there is another ocean, an ocean of transcendental bliss, an ocean that is always increasing.

Anandambudhi-vardhanam
prati-padam purnamrtasvadanam
sarvatma-snapanam param vijayate
sri-krsna-sankirtanam.

By chanting Hare Krsna, our pleasure potency increases more and more.

One who has realized Sri Krsna is always living in Vrndavana, Vaikuntha. Although a devotee may seem to be living in some place far from Vrndavana, he is always living in Vrndavana, because he knows that Krsna is present everywhere, even within the atom. The Supreme Lord is bigger than the biggest and smaller than the smallest. Once we are fully realized and established in Krsna consciousness, we never lose sight of Krsna, and our bliss is always increasing. This is the true yoga system, bhakti-yoga, as expounded by Lord Sri Krsna Himself in Bhagavad-gita.

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