FOUNDER’S LECTURE EXCERPTS
Bhagavad-gita 9.2, New York,
November 22, 1966
We should know the other knower in our body.
By His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Founder-acarya of The International Society for Krishna Consciousness
ksetra-jnamcapi mamviddhi
sarva-ksetresubharata
ksetra-ksetrajnayorjnanam
yattajjnanammatam mama
Translation: “O scion of Bharata, you should understand that I am also the knower in all bodies, and to understand this body and its knower is called knowledge. That is My opinion.”
—Bhagavad-gita 9.2
While discussing the subject matter of the body and the owner of the body, the soul and the Supersoul, there are three topics of study: the Lord, the living entity, and matter. In every field of activity, or in every body, there are two souls: the Supersoul and the individual soul. The Mayavadi philosophers say that there is only one soul—the Supersoul. But here Krishna, the authoritative source of knowledge, says there are two souls: the individual soul and the Supersoul, atma and Paramatma.
Because the Supersoul is the plenary expansion of Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.Krishna says, “I am also the knower, but I am not the individual owner of the body.” The Supersoul, or Krishna, is the knower of the pains and pleasures of every body, whereas the individual soul is the knower of the pains and pleasures of his own body only. Krishna says, avinasitu tad viddhiyenasarvamidamtatam: “The consciousness of the individual soul is spread all over the body.” The soul, by his potency, spreads all over the body. Similarly, because Krishna is the Supersoul. His consciousness is spread not only in my individual body but in all bodies.
Special Favor of Krishna
Krishna understands when we become conscious of Him. Krishna is within your heart, so He can understand your purpose. We cannot cheat Krishna. Krishna can immediately understand how serious and sincere you are to understand Him, to approach Him, or to go back home, back to Godhead.
As soon as Krishna understands that you are very serious, He takes care of you especially. Being the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krishna is equal to everyone. Samo ’hamsarva-bhutesuna me dvesyo ’stinapriyah: Krishna is not envious, nor is He especially inclined to anyone. God’s position is neutrality. He likes everyone. That is also stated in the Bhagavad-gita: suhrdamsarva-bhutanamjnatva mamsantimrcchati. He is the friend of everyone. We are seeking friendship with so many people to satisfy our desires, but if we make Krishna our friend, all our desires will be fulfilled.
In the Upanisads it is said that two birds are sitting as friends in the same tree, the body. So you should understand that Krishna is your best friend. Krishna says He’s the friend of everyone. That friendship is equally distributed. But if one becomes a special devotee, engaged in the service of the Lord with love and affection, Krishna is especially inclined to him. That is Krishna’s mercy to the devotee. Krishna is equal to everyone, but He is especially inclined to the devotee who is engaged in His service with love and faith. He takes special care of the devotee; He guides him and gives him intelligence. What kind of intelligence? Yena mam upayantite: He gives the devotee the clue how to go back home, back to Godhead.
Maya is very powerful, but if one is very rigid in devotional service, he can overcome the influence of Maya. Krishna is there in the body. He’s always ready to help us, provided we are serious about Him. That is Krishna’s mercy.
The Krishna consciousness movement is for preaching the teachings of Krishna: Bhagavad-gitaAs It Is. This is called Krishna-upadesa. Another Krishna-upadesa is instruction about Krishna. Bhagavad-gita is the instruction given by Krishna, and Srimad-Bhagavatam is the instruction given by Vyasadeva and other sages about Krishna. Both of them are krsna-katha: topics of Krishna.
If we want to improve, if we want to make our life successful, then we must engage ourselves in this program of Krishna consciousness, or hearing about Krishna. Krishna is within your heart, and so as soon as you are very serious and eager to know about Krishna, you become liberated. Simply try to understand Krishna. This is the Vedic instruction: kasminbhagavovijnatesarvamidamvijnatambhavati—if you simply understand Krishna, then all other things become automatically known. You don’t have to make a separate endeavor to know. You will know what Paramatma is, what Brahman is, what this material world is. what our relationship with this world is—everything will be revealed.
In the Bhagavad-gita [10.11] Krishna says,
tesamevanukampartham
ahamajnana-jamtamah
nasayamyatma-bhava-stho
jnana-dipenabhasvata
“To show them special mercy, I, dwelling in their hearts, destroy with the shining lamp of knowledge the darkness born of ignorance.” If you actually become Krishna conscious, the result will be that you’ll get special favor from Krishna. Krishna is especially favorable to the devotees.
Maya is very powerful, but if one is very rigid in devotional service, he can overcome the influence of Maya. Krishna is there in the body. He’s always ready to help us, provided we are serious about Him. That is Krishna’s mercy.
The Krishna consciousness movement is for preaching the teachings of Krishna: Bhagavad-gitaAs It Is. This is called Krishna-upadesa. Another Krishna-upadesa is instruction about Krishna. Bhagavad-gita is the instruction given by Krishna, and Srimad-Bhagavatam is the instruction given by Vyasadeva and other sages about Krishna. Both of them are krsna-katha: topics of Krishna.
If we want to improve, if we want to make our life successful, then we must engage ourselves in this program of Krishna consciousness, or hearing about Krishna. Krishna is within your heart, and so as soon as you are very serious and eager to know about Krishna, you become liberated. Simply try to understand Krishna. This is the Vedic instruction: kasminbhagavovijnatesarvamidamvijnatambhavati—if you simply understand Krishna, then all other things become automatically known. You don’t have to make a separate endeavor to know. You will know what Paramatma is, what Brahman is, what this material world is. what our relationship with this world is—everything will be revealed.
In the Bhagavad-gita [10.11] Krishna says,
tesamevanukampartham
ahamajnana-jamtamah
nasayamyatma-bhava-stho
jnana-dipenabhasvata
“To show them special mercy, I, dwelling in their hearts, destroy with the shining lamp of knowledge the darkness born of ignorance.” If you actually become Krishna conscious, the result will be that you’ll get special favor from Krishna. Krishna is especially favorable to the devotees.
Hearing about Krishna is the beginning of becoming Krishna conscious. CaitanyaMahaprabhu also accepted this. We have to be submissive, not like the speculators who think, “Now I have become Brahman.” But everyone is Brahman. There is no question of becoming Brahman. We have now forgotten that we are Brahman. We are misidentifying with this body. This is maya. It is not that by some process I become Brahman. I am Brahman, but on account of maya my knowledge is covered. I am thinking I am a product of this material world—that I am American or I am Indian. I am thinking in terms of the soil where I have taken birth. All over the world, instead of worshiping Krishna, everyone is worshiping the land of his birth. That is going on under the name of so many “isms.”
Actually, we are part and parcel of Krishna. Krishna is Para-brahman; therefore we, being part and parcel of Krishna, are also Brahman, just as particles of gold are also gold. So there is no question of becoming Brahman. We are already Brahman. We simply have to know. “I am not this body; I am spirit soul, part and parcel of Krishna.” That is knowledge: that I am Brahman. Now, as soon as we are perfectly situated in that spiritual knowledge, there is no lamentation.
Cleansing the Heart
India’s position is now chaos and confusion because you have lost the Vedic civilization. You have lost Krishna consciousness. You have lost God consciousness. You are being directed by your whims. This is the very lamentable condition of India. Krishna consciousness is India’s original culture. Krishna appeared on this land. Krishna is not for any particular land, but still, Krishna appeared in this holy land of Bharata-varsa, in Mathura.
It is the duty of the Indians to understand Krishna culture—the Krishna consciousness cultural movement—and take part in it seriously. That is the instruction of CaitanyaMahaprabhu. He says, bharata-bhumitehailamanusya-janmayarajanmasarthakakari’ karapara-upakara: “Anyone who has taken birth in the holy land of Bharata-varsa must take advantage of the Vedic knowledge and work for the welfare of others.”
In the other part of the world, there is no such advantage as Vedic literature and Vedic knowledge. Unfortunately, the Indians are neglecting this Vedic perfection, whereas Europeans and Americans are taking interest. So we are not of course concerned with any particular nation or country. Our business is to carry out the order of SriCaitanyaMahaprabhu: yare dekha, tare kaha ’krsna’-upadesa. Whomever you meet—it doesn’t matter whether he is Indian, European, American, or African—he should be instructed about Krishna consciousness. Then his life will be successful, and the life of the preacher of Krishna consciousness will also become successful.
This is the Krishna consciousness movement. The beginning is to hear about Krishna in order to understand Him. We are opening temples all over the world just to give people the chance to hear about Krishna.
As soon as the individual soul is seriously engaged in hearing about Krishna, the dirty things within his heart become cleansed. And as soon as the heart is cleansed, all his problems in this material world are solved. Cleansing the heart means to understand that we are not Krishna but part and parcel of Krishna, and our duty is to serve Krishna.
The Mayavadi philosophers are thinking that they are Krishna: “I am God.” That is unclean. Because their intelligence is not yet clear, they are thinking that they are Krishna. No. Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and we are eternal servants of Krishna. Therefore Krishna demands in the Bhagavad-gita [18.66], sarva-dharmanparityajya mam ekamsaranamvraja: “Just surrender to Me.”
It is the right of the master to tell the servant, “You surrender.” Similarly, Krishna comes to teach this. because we are eternal servants of Krishna. The Mayavadi philosophers cannot understand this. The servant wants to become the master. That is not possible. If the servant remains a faithful servant that is the perfection of his life. If the servant wants to artificially become the master, that is only a botheration.
The Krishna consciousness movement is educating everyone to understand this fact: that everyone is the eternal servant of Krishna. Don’t try to imitate Krishna. That is a botheration. You cannot be happy that way. If one wants to artificially become something he is not, then it is simply a botheration. There is no happiness. Artificial life is not happiness. Natural life is happiness.
Naturally we are servants of Krishna. If we don’t serve Krishna, then we have to serve maya. Those who are not Krishna conscious have given up the service of Krishna but they have accepted the service of so many other things. Somebody is thinking. “I am the servant of my country”; somebody is thinking, “I am the servant of my family”; somebody is thinking, “I am the servant of my wife”; or someone is thinking, “I am the servant of my office boss.” Or somebody is thinking, “I am the servant of my dog.” That is also going on.
Therefore one who is intelligent—one who is actually intelligent—thinks, “If my position is to become a servant, why not become the servant of the Supreme?” This is intelligence.
We are the servant of our senses. Our senses are dictating so many nonsense things, and we are serving them. Therefore one who is not a servant of the senses, one who becomes the servant of Krishna, becomes the master of his senses. Such a person is called svamior gosvami. All over the world, everyone is the servant of the senses: godasa. One has to become gosvami.
So Krishna is advising: “I am in everyone’s heart.” You can take advice from Krishna. Krishna is ready. One name for Krishna is caitya-guru. “the guru situated within your heart.” Krishna comes out as the instructor guru or the initiator guru, and He is sitting within the heart as caitya-guru. Krishna is ready to help us in two ways: as the external guru and the internal guru. The internal guru is Krishna Himself, and the external guru is His manifestation as the spiritual master. So we should take advantage of these two gurus and make our life successful. This is the Krishna consciousness movement.
Thank you very much.
