Krsna, Christos, Christ

In 1974, near ISKCON’s center in Frankfurt am Main, West Germany, Srila Prabhupada and several of his disciples took a morning walk with father Emmanuel Jungclaussen, a Benedictine monk from Niederalteich Monastery. Noticing that Srila Prabhupada was carrying meditation beads similar to the rosary, Father Emmanuel explained that he also chanted a constant prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, be merciful unto us.” The following conversation ensued.

Srila Prabhupada: What is the meaning of the word Christ?

Father Emmanuel: Christ comes from the Greek word Christos, meaning “the anointed one.”

Srila Prabhupada: Christos is the Greek version of the word Krsna.

Father Emmanuel: This is very interesting.

Srila Prabhupada: When an Indian person calls on Krsna, he often says, “Krsta.” Krsta is a Sanskrit word meaning “attraction.” So when we address God as “Christ,” “Krsta,” or “Krsna,” we indicate the same all-attractive Supreme Personality of Godhead. When Jesus said, “Our Father, who an in heaven, sanctified be Thy name,” that name of God was “Krsta” or “Krsna.” Do you agree?

Father Emmanuel: I think Jesus, as the son of God, has revealed to us the actual name of God: Christ. We can call God “Father,” but if we want to address Him by His actual name, we have to say “Christ.”

Srila Prabhupada: Yes. “Christ” is another way of saying Krsta, and “Krsta” is another way of pronouncing Krsna, the name of God. Jesus said that one should glorify the name of God, but yesterday I heard one theologian say that God has no name—that we can call Him only “Father.” A son may call his father “Father,” but the father also has a specific name. Similarly, “God” is the general name of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, whose specific name is Krsna. Therefore whether you call God “Christ,” “Krsta,” or “Krsna,” ultimately you are addressing the same Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Father Emmanuel: Yes, if we speak of God’s actual name, then we must say, “Christos.” In our religion, we have the Trinity: the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. We believe we can know the name of God only by revelation from the Son of God. Jesus Christ revealed the name of the father, and therefore we take the name Christ as the revealed name of God.

Srila Prabhupada: Actually, it doesn’t matter—Krsna or Christ—the name is the same. The main point is to follow the injunctions of the Vedic scriptures that recommend chanting the name of God in this age. The easiest way is to chant the maha-mantra: Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. Rama and Krsna are names of God, and Hare is the energy of God. So when we chant the maha-mantra, we address God together with His energy. This energy is of two kinds, the spiritual and the material.

At present we are in the clutches of the material energy. Therefore we pray to Krsna that He may kindly deliver us from the service of the material energy and accept us into the service of the spiritual energy. That is our whole philosophy. Hare Krsna means, “O energy of God, O God [Krsna], please engage me in Your service.”

It is our nature to render service. Somehow or other we have come to the service of material things, but when this service is transformed into the service of the spiritual energy, then our life is perfect. To practice bhakti-yoga [loving service to God] means to become free from designations like “Hindu,” “Muslim,” “Christian,” this or that, and simply to serve God. We have created Christian, Hindu, and Muhammadan religions, but when we come to a religion without designations, in which we don’t think we are Hindus or Christians or Muhammadans, then we can speak of pure religion, or bhakti.

Father Emmanuel: Mukti?

Srila Prabhupada: No, bhakti. When we speak of bhakti, mukti [liberation from material miseries] is included. Without bhakti there is no mukti, but if we act on the platform of bhakti, then mukti is included. We learn this from the Bhagavad-gita (14.26):

mam ca yo ’vyabhicarena
bhakti-yogena sevate
sa gunan samatityaitan
brahma-bhuyaya kalpate

“One who engages in full devotional service, who does not fall down under any circumstance, at once transcends the modes of material nature and thus comes to the level of Brahman.”

Father Emmanuel: Is Brahman Krsna?

Srila Prabhupada: Krsna is Parabrahman. Brahman is realized in three aspects: as impersonal Brahman, as localized Paramatma, and as personal Brahman. Krsna is personal, and He is the Supreme Brahman, for God is ultimately a person. In the Srimad-Bhagavatam (1.2.11), this is confirmed:

vadanti tat tattva-vidas
tattvam yaj jnanam advayam
brahmeti paramatmeti
bhagavan iti sabdyate

“Learned transcendentalists who know the Absolute Truth call this nondual substance Brahman, Paramatma, or Bhagavan.” The feature of the Supreme Personality is the ultimate realization of God. He has all six opulences in full: He is the strongest, the richest, the most beautiful, the most famous, the wisest, and the most renounced.

Father Emmanuel: Yes, I agree.

Srila Prabhupada: Because God is absolute, His name, His form, and His qualities are also absolute, and they are nondifferent from Him. Therefore to chant God’s holy name means to associate directly with Him. When one associates with God, one acquires godly qualities, and when one is completely purified, one becomes an associate of the Supreme Lord.

Father Emmanuel: But our understanding of the name of God is limited.

Srila Prabhupada: Yes, we are limited, but God is unlimited. And because He is unlimited, or absolute, He has unlimited names, each of which is God. We can understand His names as much as our spiritual understanding is developed.

Father Emmanuel: May I ask a question? We Christians also preach love of God, and we try to realize love of God and render service to Him with all our heart and all our soul. Now, what is the difference between your movement and ours? Why do you send your disciples to the Western countries to preach love of God when the gospel of Jesus Christ is propounding the same message?

Srila Prabhupada: The problem is that the Christians do not follow the commandments of God. Do you agree?

Father Emmanuel: Yes, to a large extent you’re right.

Srila Prabhupada: Then what is the meaning of the Christians’ love for God? If you do not follow the orders of God, then where is your love? Therefore we have come to teach what it means to love God: if you love Him, you cannot be disobedient to His orders. And if you’re disobedient, your love is not true.

All over the world, people love not God but their dogs. The Krsna consciousness movement is therefore necessary to teach people how to revive their forgotten love for God. Not only the Christians, but also the Hindus, the Muhammadans, and all others are guilty. They have rubber-stamped themselves “Christian,” “Hindu,” or “Muhammadan,” but they do not obey God. That is the problem.

Visitor: Can you say in what way the Christians are disobedient?

Srila Prabhupada: Yes. The first point is that they violate the commandment “Thou shalt not kill” by maintaining slaughterhouses. Do you agree that this commandment is being violated?

Father Emmanuel: Personally, I agree.

Srila Prabhupada: Good. So if the Christians want to love God, they must stop killing animals.

Father Emmanuel: But isn’t the most important point—

Srila Prabhupada: If you miss one point, there is a mistake in your calculation. Regardless of what you add or subtract after that, the mistake is already in the calculation, and everything that follows will also be faulty. We cannot simply accept that part of the scripture we like, and reject what we don’t like, and still expect to get the result.

For example, a hen lays eggs with its back part and eats with its beak. A farmer may consider, “The front part of the hen is very expensive because I have to feed it. Better to cut it off.” But if the head is missing there will be no eggs anymore, because the body is dead. Similarly, if we reject the difficult part of the scriptures and obey the part we like, such an interpretation will not help us. We have to accept all the injunctions of the scripture as they are given, not only those that suit us. If you do not follow the first order, “Thou shalt not kill,” then where is the question of love of God?

Visitor: Christians take this commandment to be applicable to human beings, not to animals.

Srila Prabhupada: That would mean that Christ was not intelligent enough to use the right word: murder. There is killing, and there is murder. Murder refers to human beings. Do you think Jesus was not intelligent enough to use the right word—murder—instead of the word killing? Killing means any kind of killing, and especially animal killing. If Jesus had meant simply the killing of humans, he would have used the word murder.

Father Emmanuel: But in the Old Testament the commandment “Thou shalt not kill” does refer to murder. And when Jesus said, “Thou shalt not kill,” he extended this commandment to mean that a human being should not only refrain from killing another human being, but should also treat him with love. He never spoke about man’s relationship with other living entities, but only about his relationship with other human beings. When he said, “Thou shalt not kill,” he also meant in the mental and emotional sense—that you should not insult anyone or hurt him, treat him badly, and so on.

Srila Prabhupada: We are not concerned with this or that testament but only with the words used in the commandments. If you want to interpret these words, that is something else. We understand the direct meaning. “Thou shalt not kill” means, “The Christians should not kill.” You may put forth interpretations in order to continue the present way of action, but we understand very clearly that there is no need for interpretation. Interpretation is necessary if things are not clear. But here the meaning is clear. “Thou shalt not kill” is a clear instruction. Why should we interpret it?

Father Emmanuel: Isn’t the eating of plants also killing?

Srila Prabhupada: The Vaisnava philosophy teaches that we should not even kill plants unnecessarily. In the Bhagavad-gita (9.26) Krsna says:

patram puspam phalam toyam
yo me bhaktya prayacchati
tad aham bhakty-upahrtam
asnami prayatatmanah

“If someone offers Me with love and devotion a leaf, a flower, a fruit, or a little water, I will accept it.”

We offer Krsna only the kind of food He demands, and then we eat the remnants. If offering vegetarian food to Krsna were sinful, then it would be Krsna’s sin, not ours. But God is apapa-viddha—sinful reactions are not applicable to Him. He is like the sun, which is so powerful that it can purify even urine—something impossible for us to do.

Krsna is also like a king, who may order a murderer to be hanged but who himself is beyond punishment because he is very powerful. Eating food first offered to the Lord is also something like a soldier’s killing during wartime. In a war, when the commander orders a man to attack, the obedient soldier who kills the enemy will get a medal. But if the same soldier kills someone on his own, he will be punished. Similarly, when we eat only prasada [the remnants of food offered to Krsna], we do not commit any sin. This is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gita (3.13):

yajna-sistasinah santo
mucyante sarva-kilbisaih
bhunjate te tv agham papa
ye pacanty atma-karanat

“The devotees of the Lord are released from all kinds of sins because they eat food that is first offered for sacrifice. Others, who prepare food for personal sense enjoyment, verily eat only sin.”

Father Emmanuel: Krsna cannot give permission to eat animals?

Srila Prabhupada: Yes—in the animal kingdom. But the civilized human being, the religious human being, is not meant to kill and eat animals. If you stop killing animals and chant the holy name Christ, everything will be perfect. I have not come to teach you, but only to request you to please chant the name of God.

The Bible also demands this of you. So let’s kindly cooperate and chant, and if you have a prejudice against chanting the name Krsna, then chant “Christos” or “Krsta”—there is no difference. Sri Caitanya said: namnam akari bahudha nija-sarva-saktih. “God has millions and millions of names, and because there is no difference between God’s name and Himself, each one of these names has the same potency as God.”

Therefore, even if you accept designations like “Hindu,” “Christian,” or “Muhammadan,” if you simply chant the name of God found in your own scriptures, you will attain the spiritual platform. Human life is meant for self-realization—to learn how to love God. That is the actual beauty of man. Whether you discharge this duty as a Hindu, a Christian, or a Muhammadan, it doesn’t matter—but discharge it!

Father Emmanuel: I agree.

Srila Prabhupada [pointing to a string of 108 meditation beads]: We always have these beads, just as you have your rosary. You are chanting, but why don’t the other Christians also chant?

Why should they miss this opportunity as human beings? Cats and dogs cannot chant, but we can, because we have a human tongue. If we chant the holy names of God, we cannot lose anything; on the contrary, we gain greatly. My disciples practice chanting Hare Krsna constantly.

They could also go to the cinema or do so many other things, but they have given everything up. They eat neither fish nor meat nor eggs, they don’t take intoxicants, they don’t drink, they don’t smoke, they don’t partake in gambling, they don’t speculate, and they don’t maintain illicit sexual connections. But they do chant the holy name of God. If you would like to cooperate with us, then go to the churches and chant, “Christ,” “Krsta,” or “Krsna.” What could be the objection?

Father Emmanuel: There is none. For my part, I would be glad to join you.

Srila Prabhupada: No, we are speaking with you as a representative of the Christian church. Instead of keeping the churches closed, why not give them to us? We would chant the holy name of God there twenty-four hours a day.

In many places we have bought churches that were practically closed because no one was going there. In London I saw hundreds of churches that were closed or used for mundane purposes. We bought one such church in Los Angeles. It was sold because no one came there, but if you visit this same church today, you will see thousands of people. Any intelligent person can understand what God is in five minutes; it doesn’t require five hours.

Father Emmanuel: I understand.

Srila Prabhupada: But the people do not. Their disease is that they don’t want to understand.

Visitor: I think understanding God is not a question of intelligence, but a question of humility.

Srila Prabhupada: Humility means intelligence. The humble and meek own the kingdom of God. This is stated in the Bible, is it not? But the philosophy of the rascals is that everyone is God, and today this idea has become popular. Therefore no one is humble and meek.

If everyone thinks that he is God, why should he be humble and meek? Therefore I teach my disciples how to become humble and meek. They always offer their respectful obeisances in the temple and to the spiritual master, and in this way they make advancement. The qualities of humbleness and meekness lead very quickly to spiritual realization. In the Vedic scriptures it is said, “To those who have firm faith in God and the spiritual master, who is His representative, the meaning of the Vedic scriptures is revealed.”

Father Emmanuel: But shouldn’t this humility be offered to everyone else, also?

Srila Prabhupada: Yes, but there are two kinds of respect: special and ordinary. Sri Krsna Caitanya taught that we shouldn’t expect honor for ourselves, but should always respect everyone else, even if he is disrespectful to us. But special respect should be given to God and His pure devotee.

Father Emmanuel: Yes, I agree.

Srila Prabhupada: I think the Christian priests should cooperate with the Krsna consciousness movement. They should chant the name Christ or Christos and should stop condoning the slaughter of animals. This program follows the teachings of the Bible; it is not my philosophy. Please act accordingly and you will see how the world situation will change.

Father Emmanuel: I thank you very much.

Srila Prabhupada: Hare Krsna.

From Science of Self-Realization

The Present Need of Human Society

Lecture on The Srimad Bhagavatam (Preface)
--
Bombay, January 11, 1973

Prabhupada: Before speaking on the verses already quoted by my disciples, I may be permitted to read a portion of my preface to the Hare Krsna Movement. Those who are my, our life members, they have got the Srimad-Bhagavatam, First Canto, Part One.

There you’ll find this Preface, but for general information as to the need of this Krsna consciousness movement, I may read a portion of it. “We must know the present need of human society. And what is that need? Human society is no longer bounded by geographical limits.”

Just like we are traveling all over the world, not only once, but twice, thrice in a year. Because there is facility for traveling the airways, so it has become very easy to go from country to country. And practically while I am in India, all my disciples are coming here from different parts of the world. Every morning… There are facilities now. Therefore the world is now not limited by geo…, geographical condition. Anyone can go anywhere very swiftly. You can go to London from Bombay within nine hours. So the world is not bounded anymore by geographical limits to the particular countries or communities.

“Human society is broader than in the Middle Age, and the world tendency is toward’s one state of human society.” There is already the United Nation. In New York, they have constructed a big organization, establishment, United Nations, but actually when we pass through that road—I think it is First Avenue—instead of being united, the flags of the nations are increasing. They are becoming disunited.

Just like in India, our independence movement was started by Mahatma Gandhiji for uniting all the different sections of the people, but actually the result was that instead of being united, India was partitioned. And the partition has become so poisonous that formerly there was only sporadic Hindu…, Hindu-Muslim riots in some place. Now there is organized fighting between Pakistan and Hindustan.

So although the tendency is to unite, but in fact it is not being united. They’re becoming disunited more and more. Not only the Hindus and Muslims. Now in India, there are many provincial questions. Just like in Andhra the fight is going on for separation. Punjab is already separated. So actually we are not being united. We are being separated.
So the ideals of… “Human society is broader than in the Middle Age, and the world tendency is toward one state or one human society. The ideals of spiritual communism, according to Srimad-Bhagavatam, are based more or less on the oneness of the entire human society, nay, on the entire energy of living beings.” This Krsna consciousness movement is meant for not only uniting the human society, but also all living entities. As it is stated in the Bhagavad-gita: panditah sama-darsinah [Bg. 5.18].

vidya-vinaye sampann
brahmane gavi hastini
suni caiva sva-pake ca
panditah sama-darsinah
[Bg. 5.18]

When one is actually pandita, learned, he becomes sama-darsi. Vidya-vinaye sampanne. One learned brahmana, gentle brahmana. Vidya dadati namratah. Education means one becomes gentle, sober, cool-headed. Therefore it is said: vidya-vinaye sampanne. When one is learned, advanced in education, he must be very gentle, not haughty.

So vidya-vinaye sampanne gavi hastini and one side, the brahmana with gentle behavior, learned scholarship, and the other side, an animal, say a cow or a dog or an elephant. And another side the candala, the lowest of the human society. According to Vedic civilization, the dog-eaters are called candala. Just like in Hindu society, a person is not permitted to eat cow’s flesh. Even in human society, although they are eating different types of flesh, one is considered abominable than the other. The cow-eaters are taken as abominable than the goat-eaters, and the dog-eaters are accepted as abominable than the goat-eaters. So although they are eating flesh, they have got some distinction. That is material.

But, according to Vaisnava philosophy… Because a Vaisnava sees every living entity, not only human beings, not only animals, birds and beasts, anyone, panditah sama-darsinah [Bg. 5.18]. If he, one is actually learned and advanced, he sees all living entities on the equal status. Because the reason is that a learned Vaisnava… Vaisnava… Brahmana Vaisnava. Brahmana pandita.

These are the designations. A brahmana cannot be illiterate or rascal. And after becoming brahmana, one has to become Vaisnava. Brahmana, generally, brahma janati iti brahmana, one who knows Brahman. Brahma-bhutah. At the present moment, we are under the bodily concept of life, every one of us. “I am Indian,” “I am American,” “I am brahmana,” “I am ksatriya,” “I am sannyasi,” “I am brahmacari,” “I am grhastha.” There are so many designations. So these designations are pertaining to the body and mind. But when you transcend the bodily and the mental concept of life, then you can become Vaisnava.

brahma-bhutah prasannatma
na socati na kanksati
samah sarvesu bhutesu
mad-bhaktim labhate param
[Bg. 18.54]

Mad-bhaktim. Vaisnava means bhakta, devotee.

So this Bhagavad-gita or Srimad Bhagavatam or Krsna consciousness movement is meant for devotee. Without becoming devotee, one cannot become Krsna conscious. The nondevotees… (aside:) Water. The nondevotees accept Krsna (Prabhupada drinks) as ordinary person.

Avajananti mam mudhah manusim tanum asritam. Because Krsna comes before you as a human being, therefore because one has not sufficient knowledge about Krsna… Param bhavam ajanantah. Therefore such foolish persons accept Krsna as ordinary human being. Or a little better than ordinary human being. But that is not the fact. Krsnas tu bhagavan svayam. Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. That is the verdict of Vedic instruction.

Ete camsa-kalah pumsah krsnas tu bhagavan svayam [Bhag. 1.3.28]. There is a list of incarnation of God in the Srimad-Bhagavatam. Lord Buddha is also accepted as saktyavesa-avatara, especially empowered incarnation of Krsna. Kesava dhrta-buddha-sarira jaya jagadisa hare.

Although Buddhism, we do not accept the philosophy of Buddhism. We Vaisnavas, we do not accept, but we accept Lord Buddha as incarnation of Krsna. Kesava dhrta-buddha-sarira jaya jagadisa hare. Sadaya hrdaya-darsita-pasu ghatam. Lord Buddha appeared, being very much compassionate on the matter of animal-slaughter.

As nowadays animal-slaughter is going on without any check, similarly sometimes before, about 2,500 years ago, in India, the same condition prevailed. Vedic civilization, civilization is very liberal. According to Vedic civilization, the king has to give protection to all the prajas. Praja means one who has taken birth in his kingdom. Prajayate.

So the animal is also praja of the government. The trees are also praja of the government. So formerly nobody could slaughter an animal. Nobody can cut even a tree without reason, without sanction by the Vedic injunction.

At the present moment, in our country, this Bharata-varsa is called Punya-bhumi. Actually it is so because on this land all the great saintly persons appeared. The incarnation of God, Lord Ramacandra, Lord Krsna, Lord Buddhadeva, Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu and all the big, big acaryas, Sankaracarya, Sri Ramanujacarya, Madhvacarya, Visnuswami, to Vyasadeva, all of them appeared on this sacred land of Bharata-varsa. But the present Bharatavarsa has degraded so much that we have lost our Vedic culture. We are now eating meat. We are eating, drinking wine, and we are having illicit sex life and indulging in gambling. This is India’s position.

It is due to this Kali-yuga. Otherwise the land is punya-bhumi. Because the land is punya-bhumi, therefore, in spite of so much fallen condition, still you are anxious to hear about Krsna, you ladies and gentlemen who have come here, sacrificing your time. Why? Because still the Vedic culture is twinkling within your heart, and you are anxious to hear about Krsna, to hear about Srimad Bhagavatam. Even somebody wants to cheat you, but because it is advertised in the name of Bhagavad-gita, many people flock there. So Bharatabhumi is punya-bhumi, the land of piety. We should understand this. After many pious activities… I have travelled all over the world. They have got enough money, enough material facilities. But still the Vedic culture is different. It is so high. And it is taken still in estimation, in adoration all over the world.

So my request, especially to the Indians, that do not neglect your culture, the Vedic culture. Vedic culture means Krsna consciousness. There is no other, different meaning of Vedic culture.

In the Bhagavad-gita you have seen:

sarvasya caham hrdi sannivist
mattah smrtir jnanam apohanam ca
vedais ca sarvair aham eva vedyam…
[Bg. 15.15]

That Krsna is to be understood. Vedic culture means to understand Krsna, what is Krsna. Vedic culture… All the Vedas, they’re meaning how to understand Krsna. Vedais ca sarvair aham eva… Vedanta. Vedanta means, Veda means knowledge, and anta means the end. There is, everything has got the ultimate, the Supreme summum bonum. That summum bonum of Vedic knowledge, or Vedanta, is Krsna. So that Vedanta knowledge, Krsna personified, He is explaining Himself in the Bhagavad-gita.

Everyone is searching after God, where is God. What is God? What is the meaning of God? What God does? What is the power of God? so many things. Everything is explained in the Bhagavad-gita: what is God. Sarvasya… In the Vedanta-sutra it is said what is God. That is the first question of the Vedanta-sutra: athato brahma jijnasa. The human life especially meant for inquiring about God. Unfortunately people, instead of inquiring God, they’re very much eager now to inquire about dog. This is the position. There are big, big dog shows in India. At the present moment, we have seen many places.

So our, this Krsna consciousness movement is to revive the Vedic culture. And the Vedic culture, another name of Vedic culture is sanatana-dharma. Sanatana means eternal, and dharma means characteristic. Dharma, generally, in English is translated “religion.” Religion means a kind of faith. “I believe in such and such faith.” “I believe in the Muhammadan faith.” “I believe in Christian faith.” “I believe in Buddha faith.”

But actually dharma does not mean faith. Dharma means characteristics. What is that characteristic? Just like everything, every little item, has got his characteristic. Just like, take, for example, chili. It is very hot. The more the chili is hot, it is good. But if the sugar becomes hot, like chili, imme…, immediately rejected. But if the chili is hot, you accept. It is good chili. Similarly, dharma means characteristics of the living entity. That is dharma. The living entity is described in the Bhagavad-gita: mamaivamso jiva-bhutah jiva loke sanatanah [Bg. 15.7].

Sanatana means eternal. God is eternal, sanatana. We are eternal, sanatana. And there is an eternal place also. This material world is not eternal. The characteristics of this material world is that it appears at a certain date, it continues to stay for a certain period, it develops, then it dwindles, and then vanishes. Just like our body, your body, my body. It has got a date of appearance.

It is growing, or changing from one shape to another. It will stay for some time. From this body, some by-products will come out, sons and daughters. And then it will become old, dwindling, diminishing, and then it will vanish. One day it will come, no more this body. Similarly this material world is also like that. It is a gigantic body only. Whole man, cosmic manifestation has a date of its creation. It is expanding, and it is giving so many by-products. Then time will come which is called devastation. There will be no more rain and everything will dry up. All living entities will die. Then there will be devastating rainfall—everything will be absorbed in water. And then vanish. We have got this information from Vedic literature.

So this is not sanatana-dhama. This is not eternal dhama. This is temporary. In the Bhagavad-gita, it is said: bhutva bhutva praliyate. It comes into existence and it disappears. Therefore it is not sanatana-dhama. But there is another dhama, sanatana, eternal. That is also, there is information in the Bhagavad-gita. Paras tasmat tu bhavah anyah vyaktavyakta-sanatanah [Bg. 8.20].

So there is sanatana-dhama, the living entity is sanatana, and God is sanatana, Krsna is sanatana. So these three sanatanas… Just like we have our dealings. In Bombay there are so many businessmen. The place is Bombay, and two parties, business parties, they are dealing. Similarly… But these are all temporary. Our staying in Bombay city is temporary, that dealing is temporary. But there is another place, which is called sanatana-dhama. That place is eternal, and the parties, namely God and the living entities, both of them eternal. Their dealing also eternal. That eternal dealing is called nitya-lila, eternal pastimes. These descriptions are there in the Vedic samhita, Brahma-samhita:

cintamani-prakara-sadmasu kalpa-vrksa-
laksavrtesu surabhir abhipalayantam
laksmi-sahasra-sata-sambhrama sevyamanam
govindam adi-purusam tam aham bhajami
[Bs. 5.29]

Govinda has dealing. That dealing He represents exactly when He comes, when He appears on this planet. And the dealing is exhibited in Vrndavana dhama. You know Vrndavana dhama. When Krsna comes, about four, forty-three crores of years interval, Krsna comes.

This estimation, these things are there. Krsna comes in one day of Brahma. The duration of Brahma’s day, you know. That is described in the Bhagavad-gita: sahasra-yuga-paryantam ahar yad brahmano viduh [Bg. 8.17]. This means forty-three lakhs of years, multiply by one thousand. That is the duration of one day of Brahma. And similarly the duration of his night. So Krsna comes in one day, during that duration.

So when Krsna comes, He comes here, the same place, Vrndavana. Therefore Vrndavana is held in so much estimation by the devotees. Caitanya Mahaprabhu has said: aradhyah bhagavan vrajesa-tanayah. Aradhya, worshipable Deity, is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krsna, who appeared as the son of Maharaja Nanda. Vrajesa. Aradhyah bhagavan vrajesa-tanayah tad dhamam vrndavanam. Similarly His place, Vrndavana is also worshipable. Therefore those who are Vaisnavas, espeically Gaudiya Vaisnavas, they live in Vrndavana in numbers. There are hundreds and thousands of Gaudiya Vaisnava still living in Vrndavana. Because they worship the land, Vrndavana, as good as Krsna. Because it is Krsna’s place.

So the sanatana-dhama… Vrndavana is also part of the sanatana-dhama. The living entity is sanatana, eternal. Na hanyate hanyamane sarire [Bg. 2.20]. We do not die after destruction of this body. This is the preliminary instruction to understand Vedic knowledge or spiritual knowledge. If you do not understand the plain fact, that “I am not this body, I am spirit soul. I live within this body…” Dehino ’smin yatha dehe [Bg. 2.13]. Dehinah. Dehinah means the proprietor of the body. Idam sariram kaunteya ksetra iti abhidhiyate [Bg. 13.2].

This sarira, this body is called ksetra, and the person or the living entity who is working on this body, he’s called ksetra-jnah. Those who have read Bhagavad-gita, they have come to this understanding of ksetra and ksetra-jnah. Ksetra-jnah means I, you. I know about my body, about the interest of my body. If somebody wants to kill me, I take protection, because it is my body, ksetra. Just like your land: if somebody comes to encroach upon it, you take care. Similarly this body is ksetra, the field of activities, and I or you, the proprietor of the body, is ksetra-jnah, one who knows about the body.

But there is another ksetra-jnah. That is Krsna. That is explained in the Bhagavad-gita: ksetrajnam capi mam viddhi sarva-ksetresu bharata. Sarva-ksetresu. Krsna is also ksetra-jnah. Krsna is also sitting as I am sitting within this body, similarly Krsna is also sitting within this body.

isvarah sarva-bhutanam
hrd-dese arjuna tisthati
bhramayan sarva-bhutani
yantra-rudhani mayaya
[Bg. 18.61]

He’s directing. Actually under His instruction, we are taking permission. Just like you do business in your business office establishment, but you have to take permission, license from the government. It is very easy to understand.

Although you are proprietor of the business, you cannot do anything without being permitted by the government. Similarly, although this body is yours, you are the proprietor of this body, you have been given freedom to utilize the body to your best interest, still you cannot do anything without the permission of Krsna. That is the subject matter to understand spiritual life.

Sarvasya caham hrdi… Krsna confirms this in Bhagavad-gita: sarvasya caham hrdi sannivisto: [Bg. 15.15] “I am entered in everyone’s body.” Mattah smrtir jnanam apohanam ca: “Through Me, one remembers and one forgets.” Because our capacity is very limited. We forget very soon. Even we do not know two hours before what we were doing. That is our nature. Therefore Krsna helps us from within. Even though we forget, Krsna does not forget.

That is also there in the Bhagavad-gita. When Arjuna asked Him, Krsna, “You say that You gave instruction on Bhagavad-gita long, long ago, some forty thousands of millions of years ago, to sun-god. How can I believe it? Because we are contemporary.” Krsna answered: “Yes, at that time, you were also present, but you have forgotten. I have not forgotten.” That is the distinction between ordinary living being and the Supreme Being. The Supreme Being is also nitya.

The Supreme Being is also conscious. As we are eternal, nitya, and conscious. That is the statement of the Vedas: nityo nityanam cetanas cetananam. He is the Supreme Conscious, He is the Supreme Living Being. Therefore Krsna is person. Krsna is not imperson. Impersonal feature is one of the partial manifestation of Krsna. That is also stated in the Bhagavad-gita. Brahmano aham pratistha: Krsna is the basis of Brahman. But the original Brahman is Krsna, Param Brahman. As Arjuna accepted: param brahma param dhama pavitram paramam bhavan [Bg. 10.12].

So this Krsna consciousness movement is India’s movement because it was started from India. It is meant for everyone. Because every living entity is sanatana, eternal. It is not that only Indians are eternal. Everyone is eternal. Even the animals, they are also eternal. They have got different body, according to their karma.

Therefore panditah sama-darsinah [Bg. 5.18]. The pandita does not see the outward dress. If we talk with you, I do not see what kind of dress you have got. I talk with you as gentleman. Similarly a pandita sees the inner soul. He does not see the outward dress, that “Here is a human being” or “Here is an American,” “Here is an Indian,” “Here is a brahmana,” or “Here is a elephant” or dog or candala or tree. No. He sees only the spirit soul, the part and parcel of Krsna. And as soon as one sees the part and parcel of Krsna, he immediately remembers Krsna.

Therefore one who is advanced in Krsna consciousness, even though he sees a tree, immediately sees Krsna. But as soon as he sees the tree, he understands that this tree, standing here for seven thousands of years according to his karma, but here is a living entity. And this living entity is the part and parcel of Krsna. And as soon as he remembers Krsna, he sees Krsna.

Just try to understand. Therefore a maha-bhagavata, advanced devotee, he sees everything, but in everything he sees Krsna, Krsna’s energy. That is perfection of life. That is brahma-bhutah life, realization of Brahman in everything. He understands himself, He understands others.

Just like when there is sunrise. In the darkness of night, I cannot see you properly, neither you can see me properly. Suppose if the streets are dark, we cannot see, even we pass very near. Similarly in darkness of ignorance, we do not know actually what is our position. But as in the daytime, when there is sunrise, you can see the sun, you can see the world, you can see yourself, you can see your friend, you can see the whole world, therefore we have to see Krsna. Then this stage will come.

vidya-vinaye sampann
brahmane gavi hastini
suni caiva sva-pake ca
panditah sama-darsinah
[Bg. 5.18]

So this Krsna consciousness movement is meant for this purpose, that one can see in terms of Krsna consciousness. “In terms of Krsna consciousness” means that every living entity is part and parcel of Krsna. Krsna seys, mamaivamsa jiva-bhutah: “All these living entities, they are My part and parcel.” In another place, He says:

sarva-yonisu kaunteya
sambhavanti murtayah yah
tasam mahad yonir brahma
aham bija-pradah pita
[Bg. 14.4]

So Krsna is the aham bija-pradah pita. Just like the father gives the bija. Yoni, the mother is the yoni, and the father is the bija. Yatha, yatha bijam yatha yonim. We get our body by the bija and yoni. Similarly this material world is the yoni, mother, and the Krsna is the bija. Aham bija-pradah pita.

So in this way different forms of life has coming, 8,400,000 species life. So they’re all sanatana. All these living entities are sanatana. But on account of their forgetfulness, being diverted, misled by the illusory energy… Mayaya apahrta-jnana. That is also stated in the Bhagavad-gita.

na mam prapadyante mudhah
duskrtinah naradhamah
mayayapahrta-jnana…
[Bg. 7.15]

Their jnana, their knowledge, has been taken away by maya. Therefore they do not understand Krsna. Na mam prapadyante mudhah. Because they are foolish rascal, therefore maya has taken their knowledge, and therefore na mam prapadyante, “They do not surrender unto Me.” Therefore Krsna’s last instruction is sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekam saranam vraja [Bg. 18.66].

So we shall gradually discuss all these points. The preliminary is that the present moment, although we are trying to be united, United Nations, united society, united religion, united… So many things we are trying to be united. Communism, united community. But this unity can be possible only when we are actually learned in Krsna consciousness.

vidya-vinaye sampann
brahmane gavi hastini
suni caiva sva-pake ca
panditah sama-darsinah
[Bg. 5.18]

One has to become learned. And the process of learning is not very difficult. It is very easy, especially for the men of this age. That is this chanting of Hare Krsna maha-mantra. If you chant this Hare Krsna maha-mantra, is it very difficult for you? God has given you tongue. We are talking so many things, whole day and night. But if we utilize this tongue for chanting Hare Krsna mantra, what is the loss there? That is the injunction of the sastras. Kalau nasty eva nasty eva nasty eva gatir anyatha, harer nama harer nama harer nama eva kevalam [Adi 17.21]. Caitanya Mahaprabhu preached this cult.

ceto-darpana-marjanam bhava maha-davagni-nirvapanam… [break]
…ka vitaranam vidya-vadhu-jivanam
anandambudhi-vardanam pratipadam purnamrtasvadanam
sarvatma-snapanam param vijayate sri-krsna-sankirtanam
[Cc. Antya 20.12]

So this Krsna consciousness movement is spreading this cult of Krsna understanding. And we have got very good scheme for communism.

As I have stated here in this… “The ideals of spiritual communism, according to Srimad-Bhagavatam, are based more or less on the oneness of the entire human society, nay, on the entire energy of the living beings.” This is spiritual communism.

The communist cult is concentrating on the state. That is also limited. Not only on the state, there are so many limitations. Actual communism is this:

vidya-vinaye sampanne
brahmane gavi hastini
suni caiva sva-pake ca
panditah sama-darsinah
[Bg. 5.18]

Panditah sama… When we see equal, not only the learned brahmana, the learned brahmana or the elephant or the cow or the dog or the candala. No matter. Whatever the bodily condition is there, the spiritual condition is the same. Panditah sama… This samata, this communism, equality, is perfect. Their modern theory of communism, that “I am good, my brother is good, and all bad,” this is not communism. When we, we shall see that “I am good, my brother good, the dog is good, the cat is good, the Englishman is good, the every living entity’s good,” that is communism. That is perfect communism.

So this Krsna consciousness movement, or the Bhagavata-dharma, that is ideal communism. You’ll find in Srimad-Bhagavatam, in the Seventh Canto, Narada Muni’s instructing to Maharaja Yudhisthira about this communism that a grhastha, before taking lunch, he must see that every insect, every lizard, every cat, every rat… [break] …

a snake in that house must have been fed, must have taken their food. This is so hospitable that the householder, the owner of the house, not only sees that his wife, children, servants are well fed, but even the rats, cats or the insect or the lizard. Or even the snake has got his food. This is the ideal of communism.

Because when you are pandita, learned, you cannot distinguish that “This is animal and this is human being.” You can treat them different because their consciousness But on the basic principle the living entity, any living entity, doesn’t matter whether he’s animal or man, he’s part and parcel of Krsna. So you cannot kill one living entity for the satisfaction of the tongue of other… (end)

The Perfection of Yoga

Lord Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, speaks about the topmost system of yoga in the Sixth Chapter of Bhagavad-gita. There He has explained the hatha-yoga system. Please remember that we are preaching this Krsna consciousness movement on the authority of Bhagavad-gita. It is nothing manufactured. The bhakti-yoga system is authorized, and if you want to know about God, then you have to adopt this bhakti-yoga system because in the Sixth Chapter of Bhagavad-gita it is concluded that the topmost yogi is he who is always thinking of Krsna within himself.

Krsna, the supreme authority, recommended the eightfold yoga system. The first step of this yoga system is to select a very secluded and sacred place. Eightfold meditation cannot be performed in a fashionable city. It is not possible. In India, therefore, those who are very serious about practicing yoga go to Hardwar, a very secluded place in the Himalayas, where they remain alone and follow a very restrictive process for eating and sleeping. There is no question of mating. Those rules and regulations must be followed very strictly. Simply to make a show of gymnastics is not perfection of yoga. Yoga means control of the senses. If you indulge your senses unrestrictedly but make a show of yoga practice, you will never be successful. You have to select a sacred place; then you have to sit with half-closed eyes and concentrate on the tip of your nose. You cannot change your posture. There are many rules and regulations which cannot possibly be followed at the present.

Even 5,000 years ago, when circumstances in the world were different, this yoga system was not practicable. Even such a great personality as Arjuna, who belonged to the royal family and was a great warrior and an intimate friend of Krsna’s, constantly living with Him, after hearing this process of yoga from Krsna in a face-to-face discussion, said, “My dear Krsna, it is not possible to follow.” He flatly admitted, “For me these rules and regulations and practice for controlling the mind are not possible.” We have to think, then: 5,000 years ago a personality like Arjuna expressed his inability to practice this eightfold yoga system, so how can we follow it now?

In this age people are very short-lived. In India the average duration of life is thirty-five years. In your country it may be more than that. But actually, whereas your grandfather lived for 100 years, you cannot. These things are changing. The duration of life will be reduced. There are predictions in the scriptures that in this age, man’s duration of life, his mercy and his intelligence are being reduced. Men are not very powerful; their duration of life is very short. We are always disturbed, and we have practically no knowledge about spiritual science.

For example, in the hundreds and thousands of universities all over the world there is no department of knowledge where the science of the soul is taught. Actually, we are all spirit soul. From Bhagavad-gita we understand that we are transmigrating from one body to another, even in our present lives. All of us had at one time the body of a small baby. Where is that body? That body is gone. Presently I am an old man, but I remember that I was once a small baby. I still remember when I was about six months old; I was lying down on the lap of my elder sister, who was knitting, and I was playing. I can remember that, so it is possible for everyone to remember that he had a small body. After the baby’s body I had a boy’s body; then I had a youthful body, and now I am in this body. Where are those bodies? They are gone now. This is a different body. It is explained in Bhagavad-gita that when I give up this body, I will have to accept another body. It is very simple to understand. I have changed so many bodies, not only from childhood to boyhood to youth, but according to medical science we are changing bodies every second, imperceptibly. This Process indicates that the soul is permanent. Although I have changed many bodies, I remember my baby body and my childhood body—I am the same person, soul. Similarly, when ultimately I change this body, I shall have to accept another. This simple formula is stated in Bhagavad-gita. Everyone can reflect on it, and there must be scientific research done in this area.

Recently I received a letter from a doctor in Toronto. He suggested that there is body and there is soul. I corresponded with him. Actually, it is a fact. The soul is there. There is so much evidence, not only in the Vedic literature but even by ordinary experience. The soul is there, and it is transmigrating from one body to another, but unfortunately there is no serious study on this subject in the universities. This is not very good. The Vedanta-sutra says, “This human form of life is meant for searching out the spirit, the Absolute Truth.” The yoga system is used to search out the spiritual principles within this material world. That process for searching is recommended in Bhagavad-gita by Krsna Himself. When Arjuna said, “The system You are recommending, the hatha-yoga system, is not possible for me,” Krsna assured him that he was the greatest of all yogis. He pacified him by saying not to bother about being unable to practice hatha-yoga. He told him, “Of all different types of yogis—hatha-yogis, jnana-yogis, dhyana-yogis, bhakta-yogis, karma-yogis—you are the best yogi.” Krsna says, “Of all yogis, the one who is constantly thinking of Me within himself, meditating upon Me within the heart, is the first-class yogi.”

Who can think of Krsna always within himself? This is very easy to understand. If you love someone, you can think of him always within you; otherwise it is not possible. If you love someone, then naturally you think of him always. That is described in the Brahma-samhita. One who has developed love of God, Krsna, can think of Him constantly. When I speak of Krsna you should understand that He is God. Another name for Krsna is Syamasundara, which means that He is blackish like a cloud but very beautiful. In one verse of Brahma-samhita it is said that a santa, a saintly person, who has developed love for Syamasundara, Krsna, thinks of the Lord constantly within his heart. Actually, when one comes to the point of samadhi in the yoga system, he thinks, without cessation, of the Visnu form of the Lord within the heart. He is absorbed in that thought.

Krsna, Syamasundara, is the original Visnu. That is stated in Bhagavad-gita. Krsna includes Brahma, Visnu, Siva and everyone else. According to Vedic scripture, He expands first as Baladeva, Baladeva expands as Sankarsana, Sankarsana expands as Narayana, and Narayana expands as Visnu (Maha-Visnu, Garbhodakasayi Visnu and Ksirodakasayi Visnu). These are Vedic statements. We can understand that Krsna is the original Visnu, Syamasundara.

This is the perfect system. Anyone who is thinking of Krsna always within himself is a first-class yogi. If you want perfection in yoga, don’t be satisfied only by practicing codes. You have to go further. Actually, the perfection of yoga is reached when you are in samadhi, always thinking of the Visnu form of the Lord within your heart, without being disturbed. Therefore yogis go to a secluded place, and by controlling all the senses and the mind and concentrating everything on the form of Visnu, they reach samadhi. That is called perfection of yoga. Actually this yoga system is very, very difficult. It may be possible for some solitary man, but for the general mass of people it is not recommended in the scriptures: harer nama harer nama harer namaiva kevalam/ kalau nasty eva nasty eva nasty eva gatir anyatha [Adi 17.21]. “In this age of Kali one must chant the holy names of the Lord for deliverance. There is no other alternative. There is no other alternative. There is no other alternative.” (Brhan-Naradiya Purana)

The yoga system, as it was recommended in the Satya-yuga, the Golden Age, was to always meditate on Visnu. In the Treta-yuga one could practice yoga by performing great sacrifices, and in the next age, Dvapara-yuga, one could achieve perfection by temple worship. The present age is called Kali-yuga. Kali-yuga means the age of quarrel and disagreement. No one agrees with anyone else. Everyone has his own theory; everyone has his own philosophy. If I don’t agree with you, you fight me. This is the symptom of Kali-yuga.

The only method recommended in this age is chanting the holy name. Simply by chanting the holy name of God, one can attain that perfect self-realization which was attained by the yoga system in the Satya-yuga, by performance of great sacrifices in the Treta-yuga, and by large-scale temple worship in the Dvapara-yuga. That perfection can be attained by the simple method of Hari kirtana. Hari means the Supreme Personality of Godhead; kirtana means to glorify.

This method is recommended in the scriptures, and it was given to us by Caitanya Mahaprabhu 500 years ago. He appeared in a town which is known as Navadvipa. It is about sixty miles north of Calcutta. People still go there. We have a temple center there. It is also a sacred place of pilgrimage. Caitanya Mahaprabhu appeared there, and He started this mass sankirtana movement, which is conducted without discrimination. He predicted that this sankirtana movement would be spread all over the world and that the Hare Krsna mantra would be chanted in every village and town on the surface of the globe. In pursuance of the order of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, following in His footsteps, we are trying to introduce this sankirtana movement, chanting Hare Krsna, and it is proving very successful everywhere.

I am preaching especially in foreign countries, all over Europe, America, Japan, Canada, Australia, Malaysia, etc. I have introduced this sankirtana movement, and now we have centers around the world. All eighty centers are being received with great enthusiasm. I have not imported these boys and girls from India, but they are taking this movement very seriously because it appeals to the soul directly.

We have different stages of our life—the bodily concept of life, the mental concept of life, the intellectual concept of life, and the spiritual concept of life. Actually we are concerned with the spiritual concept. Those who are allured by the bodily concept are no better than cats and dogs. If we accept that “I am this body,” then we are not better than the cats and dogs because their concept of life is like that. We must understand that “I am not this body,” as Krsna wanted to impress upon Arjuna in the beginning of His teaching of Bhagavad-gita: “First of all, try to understand what you are. Why are you lamenting in the bodily concept of life? You have to fight. Certainly you have to fight with your brothers, brothers-in-law and nephews, and you are lamenting. But first of all understand whether you are body or not.”

That is the beginning of Bhagavad-gita. Krsna tried to make Arjuna understand that he was not his body. This instruction was not for Arjuna exclusively, but for everyone. First of all we have to learn that “I am not this body,” that “I am spirit soul.” That is Vedic instruction.

As soon as you come to this point of being firmly convinced that you are not this body, that is called the brahma-bhuta stage of Brahman realization. That is knowledge, real knowledge. Advancement of knowledge for eating, sleeping and mating is animal knowledge. A dog also knows how to eat, how to sleep, how to mate and how to defend.

If our education extends only to these points (the dog is eating according to his nature, and we are also eating, but in a nice place, with nicely cooked food on a nice table), that is not advancement. The principle is still eating. Similarly, you may sleep in a very nice apartment in a six-story building or in a 122-story building, and the dog may lie in a street, but when he sleeps and when you sleep, there is no difference. You cannot know whether you are sleeping in a skyscraper or on the ground because you are dreaming something which has taken you from your bed. You have forgotten that your body is lying there on the bed, and you are flying in the air, dreaming. Therefore, to improve the sleeping method is not advancement of civilization. Similarly, the dog has no social custom for mating.

Whenever there is a she-dog, he mates on the street. You may mate very silently, in a secret place (although now people are learning how to mate like dogs), but the mating is there. The same principle applies to defending. A dog has teeth and nails with which he can defend himself, and you have atom bombs. But the purpose is defending, that’s all. Therefore, scripture says that human life is not meant only for these four principles of life, bodily demands. There is another thing—a human being should be inquisitive to learn what is Absolute Truth. That education is lacking.

According to Vedic civilization a brahmana is a learned man, or one who knows the spirit. In India, brahmanas are addressed as learned men, but in fact they cannot be brahmanas by birth. They are expected to know what is spirit.

By birth everyone is a sudra, a fourth-class man, but he may be reformed by the purificatory process. There are ten kinds of purificatory processes. One undergoes all these processes and at last comes to the spiritual master who gives him the sacred thread as recognition of his second birth. One birth is by your father and mother, and the other birth is by the spiritual master and Vedic knowledge. That is called second birth.

At that time the candidate is given a chance to study and understand what is Veda. By studying all the Vedas very nicely, he actually realizes what is spirit and what is his relationship with God, and then he becomes a brahmana. Above that situation of impersonal Brahman understanding, he comes to the platform of understanding Lord Visnu, the Supreme Personality of Godhead; then he becomes a Vaisnava. This is the perfectional process.

From "Krsna Consciousness The Topmost Yoga System"

Yoga as Rejected by Arjuna

There have been many yoga systems popularized in the Western world, especially in this century, but none of them have actually taught the perfection of yoga. In the Bhagavad-gita, Sri Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, teaches Arjuna directly the perfection of yoga. If we actually want to participate in the perfection of the yoga system, in Bhagavad-gita we will find the authoritative statements of the Supreme Person.

It is certainly remarkable that the perfection of yoga was taught in the middle of a battlefield. It was taught to Arjuna, the warrior, just before Arjuna was to engage in a fratricidal battle. Out of sentiment, Arjuna was thinking, “Why should I fight against my own kinsmen?” That reluctance to fight was due to Arjuna’s illusion, and just to eradicate that illusion, Sri Krsna spoke the Bhagavad-gita to him.

One can just imagine how little time must have elapsed while Bhagavad-gita was being spoken. All the warriors on both sides were poised to fight, so there was very little time indeed—at the utmost, one hour. Within this one hour, the whole Bhagavad-gita was discussed, and Sri Krsna set forth the perfection of all yoga systems to His friend Arjuna. At the end of this great discourse, Arjuna set aside his misgivings and fought.

However, within the discourse, when Arjuna heard the explanation of the meditational system of yoga—how to sit down, how to keep the body straight, how to keep the eyes half-closed and how to gaze at the tip of the nose without diverting one’s attention, all this being conducted in a secluded place, alone—he replied,

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

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

This is important. We must always remember that we are in a material circumstance wherein at every moment our mind is subject to agitation. Actually we are not in a very comfortable situation. We are always thinking that by changing our situation we will overcome our mental agitation, and we are always thinking that when we reach a certain point, all mental agitations will disappear. But it is the nature of the material world that we cannot be free from anxiety. Our dilemma is that we are always trying to make a solution to our problems, but this universe is so designed that these solutions never come.

Not being a cheater, being very frank and open, Arjuna tells Krsna that the system of yoga which He has described is not possible for him to execute. In speaking to Krsna, it is significant that Arjuna addresses Him as Madhusudana, indicating that the Lord is the killer of the demon Madhu. It is notable that God’s names are innumerable, for He is often named according to His activities. Indeed, God has innumerable names because He has innumerable activities. We are only parts of God, and we cannot even remember how many activities we have engaged in from our childhood to the present.

The eternal God is unlimited, and since His activities are also unlimited, He has unlimited names, of which Krsna is the chief. Then why is Arjuna addressing Him as Madhusudana when, being Krsna’s friend, he could address Him directly as Krsna? The answer is that Arjuna considers his mind to be like a great demon, such as the demon Madhu. If it were possible for Krsna to kill the demon called the mind, then Arjuna would be able to attain the perfection of yoga. “My mind is much stronger than this demon Madhu,” Arjuna is saying. “Please, if You could kill him, then it would be possible for me to execute this yoga system.” Even the mind of a great man like Arjuna is always agitated. As Arjuna himself says,

cancalam hi manah krsna
pramathi balavad drdham
tasyaham nigraham manye
vayor iva suduskaram

“for the mind is restless, turbulent, obstinate and very strong, O Krsna, and to subdue it is, it seems to me, more difficult than controlling the wind.” (Bg. 6.34)

It is indeed a fact that the mind is always telling us to go here, go there, do this, do that—it is always telling us which way to turn. Thus the sum and substance of the yoga system is to control the agitated mind. In the meditational yoga system the mind is controlled by focusing on the Supersoul—that is the whole purpose of yoga. But Arjuna says that controlling this mind is more difficult than stopping the wind from blowing.

One can imagine a man stretching out his arms trying to stop a hurricane. Are we to assume that Arjuna is simply not sufficiently qualified to control his mind? The actual fact is that we cannot begin to understand the immense qualifications of Arjuna. After all, he was a personal friend of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This is a highly elevated position and is one that cannot be at all attained by one without great qualifications.

In addition to this, Arjuna was renowned as a great warrior and administrator. He was such an intelligent man that he could understand Bhagavad-gita within one hour, whereas at the present moment great scholars cannot even understand it in the course of a lifetime. Yet Arjuna was thinking that controlling the mind was simply not possible for him. Are we then to assume that what was impossible for Arjuna in a more advanced age is possible for us in this degenerate age? We should not for one moment think that we are in Arjuna’s category. We are a thousand times inferior.

Moreover, there is no record of Arjuna’s having executed the yoga system at any time. Yet Arjuna was praised by Krsna as the only man worthy of understanding Bhagavad-gita. What was Arjuna’s great qualification? Sri Krsna says, “You are My devotee. You are My very dear friend.” Despite this qualification, Arjuna refused to execute the meditational yoga system described by Sri Krsna. What then are we to conclude? Are we to despair the mind’s ever being controlled? No, it can be controlled, and the process is this Krsna consciousness. The mind must be fixed always in Krsna. Insofar as the mind is absorbed in Krsna, it has attained the perfection of yoga.

Now when we turn to the Srimad-Bhagavatam, in the Twelfth Canto we find Sukadeva Gosvami telling Maharaja Pariksit that in the golden age, the Satya-yuga, people were living for one hundred thousand years, and at that time, when advanced living entities lived for such lengths of time, it was possible to execute this meditational system of yoga. But what was achieved in the Satya-yuga by this meditational process, and in the following yuga, the Treta-yuga, by the offering of great sacrifices, and in the next yuga, the Dvapara-yuga, by temple worship, would be achieved at the present time, in this Kali-yuga, by simply chanting the names of God, hari-kirtana, Hare Krsna. So from authoritative sources we learn that this chanting of Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare is the embodiment of the perfection of yoga for this age.

Today we have great difficulties living fifty or sixty years. A man may live at the utmost eighty or a hundred years. In addition, these brief years are always fraught with anxiety, with difficulties due to circumstances of war, pestilence, famine and so many other disturbances. We’re also not very intelligent, and, at the same time, we’re unfortunate.

These are the characteristics of man living in Kali-yuga, a degraded age. So properly speaking, we can never attain success in this meditational yoga system described by Krsna. At the utmost we can only gratify our personal whims by some pseudoadaptation of this system. Thus people are paying money to attend some classes in gymnastic exercises and deep-breathing, and they’re happy if they think they can lengthen their lifetimes by a few years or enjoy better sex life. But we must understand that this is not the actual yoga system. In this age that meditational system cannot be properly executed.

Instead, all of the perfections of that system can be realized through bhakti-yoga, the sublime process of Krsna consciousness, specifically mantra-yoga, the glorification of Sri Krsna through the chanting of Hare Krsna. That is recommended in Vedic scriptures and is introduced by great authorities like Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Indeed, the Bhagavad-gita proclaims that the mahatmas, the great souls, are always chanting the glories of the Lord.

If one wants to be a mahatma in terms of the Vedic literature, in terms of Bhagavad-gita and in terms of the great authorities, then one has to adopt this process of Krsna consciousness and of chanting Hare Krsna. But if we’re content at making a show of meditation by sitting very straight in lotus position and going into a trance like some sort of performer, then that is a different thing. But we should understand that such show-bottle performances have nothing to do with the actual perfection of yoga. The material disease cannot be cured by artificial medicine. We have to take the real cure straight from Krsna.

From "The Perfection of Yoga"

We Are Not These Bodies

dehi nityam avadhyo ’yam
dehe sarvasya bharata
tasmat sarvani bhutani
na tvam socitum arhasi

“O descendant of Bharata, he who dwells in the body is eternal and can never be slain. Therefore you need not grieve for any creature.” (Bhagavad-gita 2.30)

The very first step in self-realization is realizing one’s identity as separate from the body. “I am not this body but am spirit soul” is an essential realization for anyone who wants to transcend death and enter into the spiritual world beyond. It is not simply a matter of saying “I am not this body,” but of actually realizing it. This is not as simple as it may seem at first. Although we are not these bodies but are pure consciousness, somehow or other we have become encased within the bodily dress. If we actually want the happiness and independence that transcend death, we have to establish ourselves and remain in our constitutional position as pure consciousness.

Living in the bodily conception, our idea of happiness is like that of a man in delirium. Some philosophers claim that this delirious condition of bodily identification should be cured by abstaining from all action. Because these material activities have been a source of distress for us, they claim that we should actually stop these activities. Their culmination of perfection is in a kind of Buddhistic nirvana, in which no activities are performed. Buddha maintained that due to a combination of material elements, this body has come into existence, and that somehow or other if these material elements are separated or dismantled, the cause of suffering is removed. If the tax collectors give us too much difficulty because we happen to possess a large house, one simple solution is to destroy the house. However, Bhagavad-gita indicates that this material body is not all in all. Beyond this combination of material elements, there is spirit, and the symptom of that spirit is consciousness.

Consciousness cannot be denied. A body without consciousness is a dead body. As soon as consciousness is removed from the body, the mouth will not speak, the eye will not see, nor the ears hear. A child can understand that. It is a fact that consciousness is absolutely necessary for the animation of the body. What is this consciousness? Just as heat or smoke are symptoms of fire, so consciousness is the symptom of the soul. The energy of the soul, or self, is produced in the shape of consciousness. Indeed, consciousness proves that the soul is present. This is not only the philosophy of Bhagavad-gita but the conclusion of all Vedic literature.

The impersonalist followers of Sankaracarya, as well as the Vaisnavas following in the disciplic succession from Lord Sri Krsna, acknowledge the factual existence of the soul, but the Buddhist philosophers do not. The Buddhists contend that at a certain stage the combination of matter produces consciousness, but this argument is refuted by the fact that although we may have all the constituents of matter at our disposal, we cannot produce consciousness from them. All the material elements may be present in a dead man, but we cannot revive that man to consciousness.

This body is not like a machine. When a part of a machine breaks down, it can be replaced, and the machine will work again, but when the body breaks down and consciousness leaves the body, there is no possibility of our replacing the broken part and rejuvenating the consciousness. The soul is different from the body, and as long as the soul is there, the body is animate. But there is no possibility of making the body animate in the absence of the soul.

Because we cannot perceive the soul by our gross senses, we deny it. Actually there are so many things that are there which we cannot see. We cannot see air, radio waves, or sound, nor can we perceive minute bacteria with our blunt senses, but this does not mean they are not there. By the aid of the microscope and other instruments, many things can be perceived which had previously been denied by the imperfect senses. Just because the soul, which is atomic in size, has not been perceived yet by senses or instruments, we should not conclude that it is not there. It can, however, be perceived by its symptoms and effects.

In Bhagavad-gita Sri Krsna points out that all of our miseries are due to false identification with the body.

matra-sparsas tu kaunteya
sitosna-sukha-duhkha-dah
agamapayino ’nityas
tams titiksasva bharata

“O son of Kunti, the nonpermanent appearance of heat and cold, happiness and distress, and their disappearance in due course, are like the appearance and disappearance of winter and summer seasons. They arise from sense perception, O scion of Bharata, and one must learn to tolerate them without being disturbed.” (Bg. 2.14) In the summertime we may feel pleasure from contact with water, but in the winter we may shun that very water because it is too cold. In either case, the water is the same, but we perceive it as pleasant or painful due to its contact with the body.

All feelings of distress and happiness are due to the body. Under certain conditions the body and mind feel happiness and distress. Factually we are hankering after happiness, for the soul’s constitutional position is that of happiness. The soul is part and parcel of the Supreme Being, who is sac-cid-ananda-vigrahah [Bs. 5.1]—the embodiment of knowledge, bliss, and eternity. Indeed, the very name Krsna, which is nonsectarian, means “the greatest pleasure.” Krs means “greatest,” and na means “pleasure.” Krsna is the epitome of pleasure, and being part and parcel of Him, we hanker for pleasure. A drop of ocean water has all the properties of the ocean itself, and we, although minute particles of the Supreme Whole, have the same energetic properties as the Supreme.

The atomic soul, although so small, is moving the entire body to act in so many wonderful ways. In the world we see so many cities, highways, bridges, great buildings, monuments, and great civilizations, but who has done all this? It is all done by the minute spirit spark within the body. If such wonderful things can be performed by the minute spirit spark, we cannot begin to imagine what can be accomplished by the Supreme Spirit Whole. The natural hankering of the minute spirit spark is for the qualities of the whole—knowledge, bliss, and eternality—but these hankerings are being frustrated due to the material body. The information on how to attain the soul’s desire is given in Bhagavad-gita.

At present we are trying to attain eternity, bliss, and knowledge by means of an imperfect instrument. Actually, our progress toward these goals is being blocked by the material body; therefore we have to come to the realization of our existence beyond the body. Theoretical knowledge that we are not these bodies will not do. We have to keep ourselves always separate as masters of the body, not as servants. If we know how to drive a car well, it will give us good service; but if we do not know how, we will be in danger.

The body is composed of senses, and the senses are always hungry after their objects. The eyes see a beautiful person and tell us, “Oh, there is a beautiful girl, a beautiful boy. Let’s go see.” The ears are telling us, “Oh, there is very nice music. Let us go hear it.” The tongue is saying, “Oh, there is a very nice restaurant with palatable dishes. Let us go.”

In this way the senses are dragging us from one place to another, and because of this we are perplexed.

indriyanam hi caratam
yan mano ’nuvidhiyate
tad asya harati prajnam
vayur navam ivambhasi

“As a boat on the water is swept away by a strong wind, even one of the senses on which the mind focuses can carry away a man’s intelligence.” (Bg. 2.67)

It is imperative that we learn how to control the senses. The name gosvami is given to someone who has learned how to master the senses. Go means “senses,” and svami means “controller”; so one who can control the senses is to be considered a gosvami. Krsna indicates that one who identifies with the illusory material body cannot establish himself in his proper identity as spirit soul. Bodily pleasure is flickering and intoxicating, and we cannot actually enjoy it, because of its momentary nature. Actual pleasure is of the soul, not the body. We have to mold our lives in such a way that we will not be diverted by bodily pleasure. If somehow we are diverted, it is not possible for us to establish our consciousness in its true identity beyond the body.

bhogaisvarya-prasaktanam
tayapahrta-cetasam
vyavasayatmika buddhih
samadhau na vidhiyate
traigunya-visaya veda
nistraigunyo bhavarjuna
nirdvandvo nitya-sattva-stho
niryoga-ksema atmavan

“In the minds of those who are too attached to sense enjoyment and material opulence, and who are bewildered by such things, the resolute determination for devotional service to the Supreme Lord does not take place. The Vedas deal with the subject of the three modes of material nature. Rise above these modes, O Arjuna. Be transcendental to all of them. Be free from all dualities and from all anxieties for gain and safety, and be established in the Self.” (Bg. 2.44–45)

The word veda means “book of knowledge.” There are many books of knowledge, which vary according to the country, population, environment, etc. In India the books of knowledge are referred to as the Vedas. In the West they are called the Old Testament and New Testament. The Muhammadans accept the Koran. What is the purpose for all these books of knowledge? They are to train us to understand our position as pure soul. Their purpose is to restrict bodily activities by certain rules and regulations, and these rules and regulations are known as codes of morality.

The Bible, for instance, has ten commandments intended to regulate our lives. The body must be controlled in order for us to reach the highest perfection, and without regulative principles, it is not possible to perfect our lives. The regulative principles may differ from country to country or from scripture to scripture, but that doesn’t matter, for they are made according to the time and circumstances and the mentality of the people. But the principle of regulated control is the same. Similarly, the government sets down certain regulations to be obeyed by its citizens.

There is no possibility of making advancement in government or civilization without some regulations. In the previous verse, Sri Krsna tells Arjuna that the regulative principles of the Vedas are meant to control the three modes of material nature—goodness, passion, and ignorance (traigunya-visaya vedah). However, Krsna is advising Arjuna to establish himself in his pure constitutional position as spirit soul, beyond the dualities of material nature.

As we have already pointed out, these dualities—such as heat and cold, pleasure and pain—arise due to the contact of the senses with their objects. In other words, they are born of identification with the body. Krsna indicates that those who are devoted to enjoyment and power are carried away by the words of the Vedas, which promise heavenly enjoyment by sacrifice and regulated activity. Enjoyment is our birthright, for it is the characteristic of the spirit soul, but the spirit soul tries to enjoy materially, and this is the mistake.

Everyone is turning to material subjects for enjoyment and is compiling as much knowledge as possible. Someone is becoming a chemist, physicist, politician, artist, or whatever. Everyone knows something of everything or everything of something, and this is generally known as knowledge. But as soon as we leave the body, all of this knowledge is vanquished.

In a previous life one may have been a great man of knowledge, but in this life he has to start again by going to school and learning how to read and write from the beginning. Whatever knowledge was acquired in the previous life is forgotten. The situation is that we are actually seeking eternal knowledge, but this cannot be acquired by this material body. We are all seeking enjoyment through these bodies, but bodily enjoyment is not our actual enjoyment. It is artificial. We have to understand that if we want to continue in this artificial enjoyment, we will not be able to attain our position of eternal enjoyment.

The body must be considered a diseased condition. A diseased man cannot enjoy himself properly; a man with jaundice, for instance, will taste sugar candy as bitter, but a healthy man can taste its sweetness. In either case, the sugar candy is the same, but according to our condition it tastes different. Unless we are cured of this diseased conception of bodily life, we cannot taste the sweetness of spiritual life.

Indeed, it will taste bitter to us. At the same time, by increasing our enjoyment of material life, we are further complicating our diseased condition. A typhoid patient cannot eat solid food, and if someone gives it to him to enjoy, and he eats it, he is further complicating his malady and is endangering his life. If we really want freedom from the miseries of material existence, we must minimize our bodily demands and pleasures.

Actually, material enjoyment is not enjoyment at all. Real enjoyment does not cease. In the Mahabharata there is a verse—ramante yogino ’nante—to the effect that the yogis (yogino), those who are endeavoring to elevate themselves to the spiritual platform, are actually enjoying (ramante), but their enjoyment is anante, endless. This is because their enjoyment is in relation to the supreme enjoyer (Rama), Sri Krsna. Bhagavan Sri Krsna is the real enjoyer, and Bhagavad-gita (5.29) confirms this:

bhoktaram yajna-tapasam
sarva-loka-mahesvaram
suhrdam sarva-bhutanam
jnatva mam santim rcchati

“The sages, knowing Me as the ultimate enjoyer of all sacrifices and austerities, the Supreme Lord of all planets and demigods, and the benefactor and well-wisher of all living entities, attain peace from the pangs of material miseries.”

Bhoga means “enjoyment,” and our enjoyment comes from understanding our position as the enjoyed. The real enjoyer is the Supreme Lord, and we are enjoyed by Him.

An example of this relationship can be found in the material world between the husband and the wife: the husband is the enjoyer (purusa), and the wife is the enjoyed (prakrti). The word pri means “woman.” Purusa, or spirit, is the subject, and prakrti, or nature, is the object. The enjoyment, however, is participated in both by the husband and the wife. When actual enjoyment is there, there is no distinction that the husband is enjoying more or the wife is enjoying less. Although the male is the predominator and the female is the predominated, there is no division when it comes to enjoyment. On a larger scale, no living entity is the enjoyer.

God expanded into many, and we constitute those expansions. God is one without a second, but He willed to become many in order to enjoy. We have experience that there is little or no enjoyment in sitting alone in a room talking to oneself. However, if there are five people present, our enjoyment is enhanced, and if we can discuss Krsna before many, many people, the enjoyment is all the greater. Enjoyment means variety. God became many for His enjoyment, and thus our position is that of the enjoyed. That is our constitutional position and the purpose for our creation. Both enjoyer and enjoyed have consciousness, but the consciousness of the enjoyed is subordinate to the consciousness of the enjoyer. Although Krsna is the enjoyer and we the enjoyed, the enjoyment can be participated in equally by everyone.

Our enjoyment can be perfected when we participate in the enjoyment of God. There is no possibility of our enjoying separately on the bodily platform. Material enjoyment on the gross bodily platform is discouraged throughout Bhagavad-gita.

matra-sparsas tu kaunteya
sitosna-sukha-duhkha-dah
agamapayino ’nityas
tams titiksasva bharata

“O son of Kunti, the nonpermanent appearance of heat and cold, happiness and distress, and their disappearance in due course, are like the appearance and disappearance of winter and summer seasons. They arise from sense perception, O scion of Bharata, and one must learn to tolerate them without being disturbed.” (Bg. 2.14)

The gross material body is a result of the interaction of the modes of material nature, and it is doomed to destruction.

antavanta ime deha
nityasyoktah saririnah
anasino ’prameyasya
tasmad yudhyasva bharata

“Only the material body of the indestructible, immeasurable, and eternal living entity is subject to destruction; therefore, fight, O descendant of Bharata.” (Bg. 2.18)

Sri Krsna therefore encourages us to transcend the bodily conception of existence and attain to our actual spiritual life.

gunan etan atitya trin
dehi deha-samudbhavan
janma-mrtyu jara-duhkhair
vimukto ’mrtam asnute

“When the embodied being is able to transcend these three modes [goodness, passion, and ignorance], he can become free from birth, death, old age, and their distresses and can enjoy nectar even in this life.” (Bg. 14.20)

To establish ourselves on the pure brahma-bhuta spiritual platform, above the three modes, we must take up the method of Krsna consciousness. The gift of Caitanya Mahaprabhu, the chanting of the names of Krsna—Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare—facilitates this process.

This method is called bhakti-yoga or mantra-yoga, and it is employed by the highest transcendentalists. How the transcendentalists realize their identity beyond birth and death, beyond the material body, and transfer themselves from the material universe to the spiritual universes are the subjects of the following chapters.

From Beyond Birth and Death

Throughway to Happiness

Every one of us is searching after happiness, but we do not know what real happiness is. We see so much advertised about happiness, but practically speaking we see so few happy people. This is because so few people know that the platform of real happiness is beyond temporary things. It is this real happiness that is described in Bhagavad-gita by Lord Krsna to Arjuna.

Happiness is generally perceived through our senses A stone, for instance, has no senses and cannot perceive happiness and distress. Developed consciousness can perceive happiness and distress more intensely than undeveloped consciousness. Trees have consciousness, but it is not developed. Trees may stand for a long time in all kinds of weather, but they have no way of perceiving miseries. If a human being were asked to stand like a tree for only three days or even less, he would not be able to tolerate it. The conclusion is that every living being feels happiness or distress according to the degree of development of his consciousness.

The happiness that we are experiencing in the material world is not real happiness. If one asks a tree, “Are you feeling happy?” the tree, if it could, might say,“Yes, I am happy, standing here all year. I’m enjoying the wind and snowfall very much, etc.” This may be enjoyed by the tree, but for the human being it is a very low standard of enjoyment.

There are different kinds and grades of living entities, and their conceptions and perceptions of happiness are also of all different types and grades. Although one animal may see that another animal is being slaughtered, he will go right on chewing grass, for he has no knowledge to understand that he may be next. He is thinking that he is happy, but at the next moment he may be slaughtered.

In this way there are different degrees of happiness. Yet of all of them, what is the highest happiness? Sri Krsna tells Arjuna:

sukham atyantikam yat tad
buddhi-grahyam atindriyam
vetti yatra na caivayam
sthitas calati tattvatah

“In that joyous state (samadhi), one is situated in boundless transcendental happiness and enjoys himself through transcendental senses. Established thus, one never departs from the truth.” (Bg. 6.21)

Buddhi means intelligence; one has to be intelligent if he wants to enjoy. Animals do not have really developed intelligence and so cannot enjoy life as a human being can. The hands, the nose, the eyes, the other sense organs and all the bodily parts may be present on a dead man, but he cannot enjoy. Why not?

The enjoying energy, the spiritual spark, has left, and therefore the body has no power. If one looks further into the matter with a little intelligence, he can understand that it was not the body that was enjoying at all but the small spiritual spark that was within. Although one may think that he is enjoying by the bodily sense organs, the real enjoyer is that spiritual spark. That spark always has the potency of enjoyment, but it is not always manifest due to being covered by the material tabernacle. Although we may not be aware of it, it is not possible for the body to experience enjoyment without the presence of this spiritual spark.

If a man is offered the dead body of a beautiful woman, will he accept it? No, because the spiritual spark has moved out of the body. Not only was it enjoying within the body, but it was maintaining the body. When that spark leaves, the body simply deteriorates.

It follows that if the spirit is enjoying, it must have its senses also, otherwise how can it enjoy? The Vedas confirm that the spirit soul, although atomic in size, is the actual enjoying agent. It is not possible to measure the soul, but that is not to say that it is without measurement. An object may seem to us to be no bigger than a point and may seem to have no length or width, but when we perceive it under a microscope we can see that it has both length and width. Similarly, the soul also has its dimensions, but we cannot perceive them.

When we buy a suit or dress, it is made to fit the body. The spiritual spark must have form, otherwise how is it the material body has grown to accommodate it? The conclusion is that the spiritual spark is not impersonal. It is an actual person. God is an actual person, and the spiritual spark, being a fragmental part of Him, is also a person. If the father has personality and individuality, the son also has them; and if the son has them, we can conclude that the father has them. So how can we, as sons of God, assert our personality and individuality and at the same time deny them to our Father, the Supreme Lord?

Atindriyam means that we have to transcend these material senses before we can appreciate real happiness. Ramante yogino ’nante satyananda-cid-atmani: the yogis who are aspiring after spiritual life are also tasting enjoyment by focusing on the Supersoul within. If there is no pleasure, if there is no enjoyment, then what is the point of going to so much trouble to control the senses? What kind of pleasure are the yogis relishing if they are taking so much trouble? That pleasure is ananta—endless. How is this? The spirit soul is eternal, and the Supreme Lord is eternal; therefore reciprocation of their loving exchanges is eternal. One who is actually intelligent will refrain from the flickering sensual enjoyment of this material body and fix his enjoyment in spiritual life. His participation in spiritual life with the Supreme Lord is called rasa-lila.

We have often heard of Krsna’s rasa-lila with the cowherd girls in Vrndavana. That is not like ordinary exchanges that take place between these material bodies. Rather it is an exchange of feelings through spiritual bodies. One has to be somewhat intelligent to understand this, for a foolish man, who cannot understand what real happiness is, seeks happiness in this material world. In India there is the story of a man who did not know what sugarcane was and was told that it was very sweet to chew. “Oh, what does it look like?” he asked. “It looks just like a bamboo rod,” someone said.

So the foolish man began to chew all kinds of bamboo rods. How can he begin to experience the sweetness of sugarcane? Similarly, we are trying to get happiness and pleasure, but we are trying for them by chewing this material body; therefore there is no happiness and no pleasure. For the time being there may be some little feeling of pleasure, but that is not actual pleasure, for it is temporary. It is like a show of lightning which we may see flashing in the sky that may momentarily seem like lightning, but the real lightning is beyond that. Because a person does not really know what happiness is, he deviates from real happiness.

The process for establishing oneself in real happiness is this process of Krsna consciousness. By Krsna consciousness we can gradually develop our real intelligence and naturally enjoy relishing spiritual happiness as we make spiritual progress. As we begin to relish spiritual happiness, we proportionately abandon material happiness. As we make progress in understanding the Absolute Truth, we naturally become detached from this false happiness. If somehow or other one is promoted to that stage of Krsna consciousness, what is the result?

yam labdhva caparam labham
manyate nadhikam tatah
yasmin sthito na duhkhena
gurunapi vicalyate

“Upon gaining this, he thinks there is no greater gain. Being situated in such a position, one is never shaken, even in the midst of greatest difficulty.” (Bg. 6.22)

When one attains that stage, other achievements appear insignificant. In this material world we are trying to achieve so many things—riches, women, fame, beauty, knowledge, etc.—but as soon as we are situated in Krsna consciousness we think, “Oh, no achievement is better than this.” Krsna consciousness is so potent that a little taste can save one from the greatest danger. As one begins to relish the taste of Krsna consciousness, he begins to see other so-called enjoyments and attainments as flat and tasteless. And if one is situated firmly in Krsna consciousness, the greatest danger cannot disturb him.

There are so many dangers in life because the material world is a place of danger. We tend to close our eyes to this, and because we are foolish we try to adjust to these dangers. We may have many dangerous moments in our lives, but if we are training ourselves in Krsna consciousness and preparing ourselves to go home, back to Godhead, we will not care for them. Our attitude will then be: “Dangers come and go—so let them happen.” It is very difficult to make this kind of adjustment as long as one is on the materialistic platform and is identifying with the gross body, which is composed of perishable elements. But the more one advances in Krsna consciousness, the more he becomes free from bodily designations and this material entanglement.

In Srimad-Bhagavatam the material world is compared to a great ocean. Within this material universe there are millions and billions of planets floating in space, and we can just imagine how many Atlantic and pacific Oceans are there. In fact, the whole material universe is likened to a great ocean of misery, an ocean of birth and death. In order to cross this great ocean of nescience, a strong boat is needed, and that strong boat is the lotus feet of Krsna. We should immediately get aboard that boat. We should not hesitate, thinking that Krsna’s feet are very small. The whole universe is simply resting on His leg. For one who takes shelter of His feet, it is said that the material universe is no more significant than a puddle of water found in the impression of a calf’s hoofprint. There is certainly no difficulty in crossing over such a small puddle.

tam vidyad duhkha-samyoga-
viyogam yoga-samjnitam

“This indeed is actual freedom from all miseries arising from material contact.” (Bg. 6.23)

We are entangled in this material world due to uncontrolled senses. The yoga process is meant to control these senses. If somehow we can manage to control the senses, we can turn our face to actual spiritual happiness and make our lives successful.

sa niscayena yoktavyo
yogo ’nirvinna-cetasa
sankalpa-prabhavan kamams
tyaktva sarvan asesatah
manasaivendriya-gramam
viniyamya samantatah
sanaih sanair uparamed
buddhya dhrti-grhitaya
atma-samstham manah krtva
na kincid api cintayet
yato yato niscalati
manas cancalam asthiram
tatas tato niyamyaitad
atmany eva vasam nayet

“One should engage oneself in the practice of yoga with undeviating determination and faith. One should abandon, without exception, all material desires born of false ego and thus control all the senses on all sides by the mind. Gradually, step by step, with full conviction, one should become situated in trance by means of intelligence, and thus the mind should be fixed on the Self alone and should think of nothing else. From whatever and wherever the mind wanders due to its flickering and unsteady nature, one must certainly withdraw it and bring it back under the control of the Self.” (Bg. 6.24–26)

The mind is always disturbed. It is going sometimes this way and sometimes that way. By yoga practice we literally drag the mind to Krsna consciousness. The mind strays from Krsna consciousness to so many exterior objects because from time immemorial, life after life, that has been our practice. Due to this, there may be great difficulty in the beginning when one tries to fix his mind in Krsna consciousness, but these difficulties can all be overcome.

It is because the mind is agitated and not fixed on Krsna that it goes from one thought to another. For instance, when we are engaged in work, memories of events that happened ten, twenty, thirty or forty years ago may suddenly come to our mind for no apparent reason. These thoughts come from our subconscious, and because they are always rising, the mind is always agitated. If we agitate a lake or a pond, all the mud from the bottom comes to the surface. Similarly, when the mind is agitated so many thoughts arise from the subconscious that have been stored there over the years. If we do not disturb a pond, the mud will settle to the bottom.

This yoga process is the means to quiet the mind and allow all these thoughts to settle. For this reason there are so many rules and regulations to follow in order to keep the mind from becoming agitated. If we follow the rules and regulations, gradually the mind will come under control. There are so many don’t’s and so many do’s, and if one is serious about training the mind, he has to follow them. If he acts whimsically, what is the possibility of the mind being controlled? When the mind is finally trained to the point where it will think of nothing but Krsna, it will attain peace and will become very tranquil.

prasanta-manasam hy enam
yoginam sukham uttamam
upaiti santa-rajasam
brahma-bhutam akalmasam

“The yogi whose mind is fixed on Me verily attains the highest happiness. By virtue of his identity with Brahman, he is liberated; his mind is peaceful, his passions are quieted, and he is freed from sin.” (Bg. 6.27)

The mind is always concocting objects for happiness. I am always thinking, “This will make me happy,” or “That will make me happy. Happiness is here. Happiness is there.” In this way the mind is taking us anywhere and everywhere. It is as though we are riding on a chariot behind an unbridled horse.

We have no power over where we are going but can only sit in horror and watch helplessly. As soon as the mind is engaged in the Krsna consciousness process—specifically by chanting Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare—then the wild horses of the mind will gradually come under our control. We must engage in Krsna’s service every moment of our lives in order to keep the restless and turbulent mind from dragging us from one object to another in a vain search for happiness in the temporary material world.

yunjann evam sadatmanam
yogi vigata-kalmasah
sukhe na brahma-samsparsam
atyantam sukham asnute

“Steady in the Self, being freed from all material contamination, the yogi achieves the highest perfectional stage of happiness in touch with the supreme consciousness.” (Bg. 6.28)

Krsna serves as a patron for one who is devoted to Him. When one is in difficulty, his patron saves him. As stated in Bhagavad-gita, Krsna is the real friend of every living entity, and we have to revive our friendship with Him. The method for reviving this friendship is the process of Krsna consciousness. By practice of Krsna consciousness, mundane passionate hankering will come to a stop. This passionate hankering keeps us divorced from Krsna. Krsna is within us and is waiting for us to turn to Him, but we are too busy passionately eating the fruits of the tree of material desire. This passionate compulsion to enjoy these fruits must stop, and we must situate ourselves in our real identity as Brahman—pure spirit.