Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.25.33–34

Nitāi: Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. [devotees repeat] [leads chanting of verse, etc.]

jarayaty āśu yā kośaṁ nigīrṅam analo yathā [SB 3.25.33]

Text 34.

naikātmatāṁ me spṛhayanti kecin mat-pāda-sevābhiratā mad-īhāḥ ye 'nyonyato bhāgavatāḥ prasajya sabhājayante mama pauruṣāṅi [SB 3.25.34]

Prabhupāda: kecin.

[break] [02:24]

"[Bhakti, devotional service,] ...dissolves the subtle body of the living entity without separate effort, just as fire in the stomach digests all that we eat."

[leads synonyms of text 34]

[break] [03:38]

"A pure devotee, who is attached to the activities of devotional service and who always engages in the service of My lotus feet, never desires to become one with Me. Such a devotee, who is unflinchingly engaged, always glorifies My pastimes and activities."

Prabhupāda:

jarayaty āśu yā kośaṁ nigīrṅam analo yathā [SB 3.25.33]

naikātmatāṁ me spṛhayanti kecin mat-pāda-sevābhiratā mad-īhāḥ ye 'nyonyato bhāgavatāḥ prasajya sabhājayante mama pauruṣāṅi [SB 3.25.34]

So jarayaty āśu yā kośam. Kośam means covering. We have got..., the spirit soul has got two kinds of covering. As Kṛṣṅa says in the Bhagavad-gītā, dehino 'smin yathā dehe [Bg 2.13].

[As the embodied soul continually passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. The self-realized soul is not bewildered by such a change.]

Dehinaḥ, the proprietor or the occupier... Proprietor is not actually. The occupier. I have several times explained that this body, gross and subtle, both the bodies... Just like shirt and coat covering of the body, similarly, there are two kinds of covering of the body: subtle body and gross body. The gross body is made of earth, water, fire, air, sky, and the subtle body is made of mind, intelligence and ego.

There are eight kinds of material elements. Five are gross—we can see—and three are very subtle—we cannot see. And the soul is still more subtle.

indriyāṅi parāṅy āhur indriyebhyaḥ paraṁ manaḥ manasas tu parā buddhir buddhes tu yaḥ paratas saḥ [Bg 3.42]

[The working senses are superior to dull matter; mind is higher than the senses; intelligence is still higher than the mind; and he [the soul] is even higher than the intelligence.]

We have got experience of this body. That is gross experience. Anyone can see. I see your body; you see my body. But you don't see me actually; I don't see you actually. We see or perceive your presence when the soul is off from the body. Then we cry, "Oh, my friend has gone away. My friend has gone away." Why your friend has gone away? He is lying here. Then we can perceive that "My real friend or my real father, the soul, who is different from this body..." And now, at the present moment, "He is my father, he is my friend who is this body"—that is animal vision. That is not human being vision. Yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṅape tri-dhātuke ... sa eva go-kharaḥ [SB 10.84.13].

[One who identifies his self as the inert body composed of mucus, bile and air, who assumes his wife and family are permanently his own, who thinks an earthen image or the land of his birth is worshipable, or who sees a place of pilgrimage as merely the water there, but who never identifies himself with, feels kinship with, worships or even visits those who are wise in spiritual truth—such a person is no better than a cow or an ass.]

Animals also see, "Here is a friend dog. Here is my mother dog."

So we have no eyes to see. So we cannot see even the soul, minute soul, and how we can see God in these blunt eyes? And still you want to see God. We cannot see even you; you cannot see me. We are part and parcel of God. And how you can see God? Therefore it is said, ataḥ śrī-kṛṣṅa-nāmādi na bhaved grāhyam indriyaiḥ [Cc Madhya 17.136]:

[Therefore material senses cannot appreciate Kṛṣṅa’s holy name, form, qualities and pastimes. When a conditioned soul is awakened to Kṛṣṅa consciousness and renders service by using his tongue to chant the Lord’s holy name and taste the remnants of the Lord’s food, the tongue is purified, and one gradually comes to understand who Kṛṣṅa really is.]

"The present senses is incapable of seeing God." Or seeing you and me. There is no spiritual vision. But we can perceive. Just like after death we can understand there was something which has gone away: "Now, the body which I was seeing is neither my father nor my friend. It is a lump of matter, that's all." This is knowledge.

So one who understands this body as a lump of matter before death, he is called wise. Jñāna-cakṣusā: "He sees the soul by the eyes of knowledge." Paśyati jñāna-cakṣusā. Those who are not in the platform of jñāna, on the gross platform of the animals, they cannot see the soul or Bhagavān, Supersoul. So it requires many, many births. Bahūnāṁ janmanām ante jñānavān māṁ prapadyate [Bg 7.19].

[After many births and deaths, he who is actually in knowledge surrenders unto Me, knowing Me to be the cause of all causes and all that is. Such a great soul is very rare.]

After practicing karma... Generally, people are karmīs. Karmīs means gross fruitive worker to get some profit for material benefit. They are called karmīs. So out of many millions and thousands of karmīs, one is jñānī. Jñānī means one who understands that "I am not this body." The karmīs cannot understand. They are in the gross field. Jñānī can understand that "I am not this body." Brahma-bhūta [SB 4.30.20]. And out of many millions of jñānīs, one becomes liberated.

Liberated means "I am not this body." Actually, he understands that "I am soul." But sometimes the Māyāvādīs, they become liberated, but they think, "Because I am spirit soul, therefore I am one with the Supreme." So 'ham. So 'ham. Actually, I am spirit soul. I am equal in quality. But that does not mean I am the Supreme Soul. Therefore in the next verse you will find, naikātmatāṁ me spṛhayanti kecit. The devotees are not so fool that they will desire to become one with the Supreme, na ekātmatām, because they are in full knowledge. And those who are not full in knowledge, in full knowledge, and..., but thinking that they have become liberated, conception of this body... That is theoretical, not practical. Theoretical. Ye 'nye 'ravindākṣa vimukta-māninaḥ. They are thinking that they have become now liberated, Nārāyaṅa. Now he has become equal with Nārāyaṅa. Therefore the Māyāvādīs, because they have become Nārāyaṅa, one with Nārāyaṅa, they are addressing one another, "Namo nārāyaṅāya." "You are Nārāyaṅa, I am Nārāyaṅa, and the everyone is Nārāyaṅa." Then daridra-nārāyaṅa, rich Nārāyaṅa, this Nārāyaṅa.

But this is not the verdict of the devotee. Mat-pāda-sevā abhiratā mad-īhāḥ. Those who are devotees, fully engaged in the service of the lotus feet of the Supreme Lord, mat-pāda-sevā abhiratāḥ—abhi means constantly, and ratāḥ means attached, abhiratāḥ—they do not think like that. They do not like that nonsense idea, that "I shall become one with..." How it is? If I am one with the Supreme, how I have fallen in this condition? No. I am not one. I am one in quality, a small particle. We have explained several times that we are also constitutionally the same spirit identity as God is. But we are aṁśa. Just like gold mine and a small particle of gold. You can say, "This is gold," and the gold in the mine, big mine, many millions of tons of gold... Quality is the same. A drop of seawater and the vast sea, the chemical composition is the same, the drop of water, but you cannot say that this small particle or drop of water is equal to the sea. That is nonsense. That is nonsense. That means less intelligent. Less intelligence.

So those who are less intelligence, they want to become one. But those who are actually in knowledge, for them it is said, na ekātmatāṁ spṛhayanti. They never even desire that "I shall become one with..." That is śuddha-bhakta. Just like one gentleman was speaking that "Even the Māyāvādīs, they worship sometimes Lord Viṣṅu." Yes, they do. That is... They do not actually believe in the form of Viṣṅu, but they take it as a means, a imagination, to imagine the form of Viṣṅu. This is Māyāvāda philosophy. Sādhakānāṁ hitārthāya brāhmaṅaḥ rūpa-kalpanaḥ. They imagine. Just like we are worshiping Rādhā-Kṛṣṅa. The Māyāvādī will say, "This is imagination. Actually, the Absolute Truth has no rūpa, no form." That is impersonalism. They do not know that here is the actual form, Kṛṣṅa. Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṅaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ [Bs 5.1].

[Kṛṣṅa who is known as Govinda is the Supreme Godhead. He has an eternal blissful spiritual body. He is the origin of all. He has no other origin and He is the prime cause of all causes.]

Vigraha. Vigraha means who has got form. They do not know that. Therefore they mistake that that is not...

There are many so-called Vaiṣṅavas, they are worshiping Viṣṅu but thinking of becoming one with the Supreme. Imagining. Well, they cannot be that one. How it can be? That is not possible. They sometimes give the example: the drop of water, when it mixes with the vast mass of water in the sea, it becomes one. But does it actually become so? No. According to scientific division these..., there are the atomic molecules of water. So each molecule and atom is different from one another. Sometimes they call cell or they call molecule. So it appear... Just like the sunshine. The sunshine is combination of many millions and trillions of small shining particles. That is sunshine. But each particle has got individual identity. They are not homogeneous. But because we have no eyes to see such a small atomic division, therefore we think that they are one. No. Even physically they are different. Similarly, although we are very small particle, we are different identity, not one.

In the Bhagavad-gītā Kṛṣṅa has explained that "All these soldiers and kings who have assembled here, you and Me, all of us, we existed in the past, and we are now present, and in the future also we shall exist." But Kṛṣṅa never said that "Arjuna, you and Me and all these soldiers or kings, we shall become one." He never said. He never said. "We shall keep our individuality." This is knowledge. And in another place Kṛṣṅa says, mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūtaḥ jīva-loke sanātanaḥ [Bg 15.7]. We are part and parcel of Kṛṣṅa, or God, sanātana, eternally, not that at the present moment I have become separated from the spirit soul, and when I shall be uncovered by this gross and subtle body, we shall become one. Their theory is like that: ghaṭākāśa, poṭākāśa. Just like ghaṭa, a pot. In the pot there is also sky, and outside the pot there is also sky. Outside the pot there is big sky, and within the sky..., within the pot, a small sky. But if you break the pot, then small sky becomes one with the big sky. This is Māyāvāda theory. But Kṛṣṅa says that "These living entities, they are eternally My parts and parcel, small particle." It is not that sometimes they were one, homogeneous; now they have become part. That we do not get.

Therefore those who have got complete knowledge, they never expect like that: "I shall become one with the Supreme." Na eka, ekātmatām. Na ekātmatāṁ me spṛhayanti. They even hate to desire it. They simply want to remain... That is the constitutional position. Here we are also part and parcel of Kṛṣṅa, although we are now covered by this material body. That can be dissolved. This material, it can be easily dissolved by bhakti-yoga. Therefore it is said that jarayaty āśu yā kośaṁ nigīrṅam analo yathā. Just like if you have got good digestive power, you eat anything, it will be digested. You will not find any difficulty. Similarly, if you have got strong bhakti-yoga, then you are not any more in material body. You are free. You are in spiritual body. Therefore Kṛṣṅa says in the Bhagavad-gītā that māṁ ca yaḥ avyabhicāreṅa bhakti-yogena sevate [Bg 14.26].

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

Avyabhicāreṅa means without any deviation; śuddha-bhakti, pure devotional service. Anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyam [Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu 1.1.11].

[One should render transcendental loving service to the Supreme Lord Kṛṣṅa favorably and without desire for material profit or gain through fruitive activities or philosophical speculation. That is called pure devotional service.]

They... Anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyam means any kind of material desire. The, this desire, that "I shall become one with the Supreme," that is also material desire. That is not spiritual desire. That is artificial.

Now, just like we want to beco..., to hold very big post. So when we are baffled, then we want to become one with the Supreme, Nārāyaṅa. That means "Nārāyaṅa is the husband of Lakṣmī, so I shall become the husband of Lakṣmī. Now, in this material world, I am hankering after Lakṣmī, but I could not get it. Now let me become the husband of." This is their theory. They want to become Nārāyaṅa. Such a foolish theory. Nārāyaṅa is the Lakṣmī-pati. Can anyone attempt to enjoy Lakṣmījī? Because they are not bhaktas, they think like that, this rascaldom. How I can be Nārāyaṅa? That is not possible.

In the śāstra it says that,

yas tu nārāyaṅaṁ devaṁ brahma-rudrādi-daivataiḥ samatvenaiva vīkṣeta sa pāṣaṅḍī bhaved dhruvam [Cc Madhya 18.116]

You cannot equalize Nārāyaṅa even with such exalted demigods as like Lord Śiva or Lord Brahmā. Amongst the devas, demigods, Lord Śiva is called Mahādeva. He is the foremost demigod. And similarly Brahmā. Brahmā is less than Lord Śiva, but because in this material world Brahmā appeared to be the father of Rudra, therefore he is given a little more respect. But actually, Lord Śiva is more than Lord Brahmā. But even Lord Śiva and Lord Brahmā—rudrādi-daivataiḥ—Rudra means Śiva, and Brahmā means..., not..., they also cannot be equalized with Nārāyaṅa. And we are so foolish that we are making daridra-nārāyaṅa: "Nārāyaṅa has become daridra." Śāstra says, "Don't equalize even with such exalted demigods like Lord Brahmā, Lord Śiva," and these foolish rascals, they are making equal Nārāyaṅa with daridra.

How Nārāyaṅa can be daridra? He is Lakṣmī-pati. We are asking for the favor of mother Lakṣmī, "Give me some money, mother." Dhanaṁ dehi rūpaṁ dehi rūpavatī-bhāryāṁ dehi, dehi, dehi. And Nārāyaṅa is worshiped by Lakṣmījī. Not one Lakṣmījī—śata-sahasra. Lakṣmī-sahasra-śata-sambhrama-sevyamānam [Bs 5.29]. Nārāyaṅa is being worshiped by many thousands of goddess of fortune, sambhrama, with great fear. Just like Rukmiṅī-devī. She is Lakṣmī-devī, and she was always afraid of Kṛṣṅa, that "He may not leave me away." Always afraid. Sometimes Kṛṣṅa was joking with Rukmiṅī-devī, "My dear Rukmiṅī-devī, rāja-kanyā, you are the daughter of a king, and you, it was better you could have married Śiśupāla. I am simply a cowherd boy." In this way, husband and wife joking. Kṛṣṅa was joking. And Lakṣmī, Rukmiṅī-devī, became so afraid that immediately she fainted, that "Kṛṣṅa is now finding out the way to give me up." This is called lakṣmī-sahasra-śata-sambhrama-sevyamānam [Bs 5.29]. The Lakṣmīs are so with great respecter, and that Nārāyaṅa has become daridra. Just see the logic.

So these are all rascal philosophy. This is not. Nobody should become so ambitious as to become one with the Supreme. That is not very good intelligence. Good intelligence is that "I am eternal part and parcel of Nārāyaṅa, and it is the duty of the part and parcel to serve the whole." That is correct philosophy. Just like this finger is part and parcel of my body, so it is the duty of the finger to serve the whole body. Whenever I ask any service from the finger, "Come here," it is coming here. "Come here," it is coming here, "Come here." This is the duty. That is the normal condition. If at once with my order the finger cannot come here or come here, then it is diseased—because it cannot give service. So, so long as we are part and parcel of Kṛṣṅa, or the Supreme Lord, our duty is to give service. That is the description given by Lord Caitanya. Everywhere, in every śāstra, that is the... Jīvera 'svarūpa' haya-nitya-kṛṣṅa-dāsa [Cc Madhya 20.108-109]. Eternally we are servant.

So as in this material condition... Of course, a devotee is not under material condition. As soon as he becomes servant of Kṛṣṅa and gives pure devotional service with love and faith, immediately he becomes spiritually situated. Therefore it is said, jarayaty āśu yā kośaṁ nigīrṅam analo yathā. Just like if you put something in the fire, immediately it is burned and turned into ashes; similarly, as soon as you put yourself in the devotional service without any material desire, anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyam [Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu 1.1.11],

immediately your subtle body and gross body become dissolved; you remain only spirit soul. Immediately. The same example is given here. Immediately. Just like Kṛṣṅa says, ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi. Kṛṣṅa says, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṅam [Bg 18.66],

[Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reaction. Do not fear.]

"As you surrender." Then what...? Immediately you become purified. Ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyaḥ.

We are contaminated by sinful activities. We are getting different types of bodies on account of our sinful activities—or pious activities, you take it. Pious activity or sinful activities, they, they are meant for giving you different types of body. That is suffering. So long you will have this material body, you will have to suffer. You cannot avoid it. Mātrā-sparśās tu kaunteya śītoṣṅa-sukha-duḥkha-dāḥ [Bg 2.14]. That is stated in the Bha... Mātrā-sparśās. What is the suffering? Suffering means on account of this body. The same water, it is very pleasing during summer, and the same water, it is very distressing in winter. So water is the same, but it is distressing and pleasing on account of this body. Very simple thing, one can understand. Mātrā-sparśās tu kaunteya śītoṣṅa-sukha-duḥkha-dāḥ. The water is neither pleasing nor distressing. It is due to my this body and bodily concepts of life we are suffering or enjoying, so-called enjoying, so-called suffering. Actually, I am the spirit soul. I am different from this body, gross body and subtle body. I have no suffering, no, I mean to say, enjoying. It is simply my imagination. Therefore a mukta-puruṣa, a liberated person, he is not affected by this so-called suffering or enjoying. That is called liberation.

So our actual constitutional position is that we are small particle of Nārāyaṅa. And our business is, because we are part and parcel of Nārāyaṅa... Why Nārāyaṅa has created? Ekaṁ bahu syāma: "The Nārāyaṅa has become many." Why He has become many? To enjoy. Ānandamayo 'bhyāsāt [Vedānta-sūtra 1.1.12].

[By nature, the Supreme Lord is blissful.]

He has created us. Just like a gentleman accepts a wife, putrārthe kriyate bhāryā, that is the aim, that "If I get one wife, I'll get children." Putra-piṅḍa-prayojanam. This is the spiritual value of begetting children, that "Putra will offer piṅḍa. So in my next life I am in difficulty; by offering piṅḍa, he will save me." This is the purpose of putrotpāda. Pu means pun-nāmno narakāt. Pun-nāmno narakāt. Tra means trāyate, "delivers." Pun-nāmno narakāt trāyate iti putraḥ. This is the meaning of putra. But if the putra is going himself to the pun-nāmno narakāt, then who will deliver me? That is the position now. Nobody is offering śrāddha ceremony. Nobody believes in that. So anyway, if a man taking the responsibility of maintaining wife and children, why? Because he's thinking that "I will enjoy life. I will enjoy good atmosphere." Everyone is trying to that. Any family you go in this evening, they are trying to enjoy life with wife and children and friends. Therefore they are taking the responsibility.

So this is ānanda, but because in this material world, the ānanda is being converted into distress. But you can get the ānanda when you are with the supreme father, Kṛṣṅa. We are all children of the supreme father.

sarva-yoniṣu kaunteya sambhavanti mūrtayaḥ yāḥ tāsāṁ mahad-yonir brahma ahaṁ bīja-pradaḥ pitā [Bg 14.4]

[It should be understood that all species of life, O son of Kuntī, are made possible by birth in this material nature, and that I am the seed-giving father.]

Kṛṣṅa says that He is the father. He has created for enjoyment, not for distressing the children and Himself. But we children of Kṛṣṅa, we have given up the supreme father. We wanted to enjoy independently; therefore we are suffering. Just like if a big man's, very rich man's son, he gives up his home, "I want to live and enjoy life independently," it is not possible. Therefore our duty is to go back to home, back to Godhead, again return to our original father, Kṛṣṅa. That will give us happiness. Kṛṣṅa is full of opulences, and He has got enough money, enough strength, enough beauty, everything enough, unlimitedly. So if we go to our original father, back to home, back to Godhead, then we can also enjoy with Him unlimitedly. That is the philosophy, not that... You cannot enjoy... Father has given you birth. You are separate entity from the father. And if you are suffering, if you say father, "My dear father, I am very much suffering. You make me again one with you," is it very good proposal? Father says, "I have begotten you separately to enjoy. You remain separate, I remain separate, and we enjoy. And you are now asking to become one with me? What is this nonsense?"

So this Māyāvādī philosophy, to become one with the supreme father, is like that. They are suffering here. Kṛṣṅa has created. Kṛṣṅa created him to enjoy with his company, but he did not like that. He suffered in this material world. Now he's thinking of becoming one with the father. What is this? So this is... Therefore here it is said, naikātmatāṁ me spṛhayanti kecit. No pure devotee will desire like that. It is foolish proposal. Aviśuddha-buddhayaḥ. They are called aviśuddha-buddhayaḥ, whose intelligence is not yet clear or purified. Ye 'nye 'ravindākṣa vimukta-māninaḥ. They are thinking, "Now we have become spiritually realized, vimukta, liberated from material bondage." Ye 'nye 'ravindākṣa vimukta-māninaḥ. Aviśuddha-buddhayaḥ. Āruhya kṛcchreṅa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ patanty adhaḥ [SB 10.2.32].

[[Someone may say that aside from devotees, who always seek shelter at the Lord's lotus feet, there are those who are not devotees but who have accepted different processes for attaining salvation. What happens to them? In answer to this question, Lord Brahmā and the other demigods said:] O lotus-eyed Lord, although nondevotees who accept severe austerities and penances to achieve the highest position may think themselves liberated, their intelligence is impure. They fall down from their position of imagined superiority because they have no regard for Your lotus feet.]

Patanty adhaḥ. Now, they are thinking, "Now we are liberated. We have become Nārāyaṅa." Vimukta-māninaḥ. They are thinking like that. Actually, they are not liberated. That is another..., the last snare of māyā, that "You are God." Māyā is still talking that to bewilder him. Māyā's business is to bewilder the living entity. So this is the last snare, that to become one with the Supreme. Ye 'nye 'ravindākṣa vimukta-mā..., tvayy asta-bhāvāt. Because they have no information that they can go back to home, back to Godhead, and enjoy the company of the Supreme Lord, they think that to become one with the Supreme, that is the highest perfection.

But that is not the perfection. Because our original, constitutional position is: Kṛṣṅa, or God, created us to enjoy the company. Just like we are sitting together; we are enjoying. Suppose you had..., none of you would have come here, so what I would have enjoyed alone? So variety is the mother of enjoyment. Therefore real enjoyment is in Kṛṣṅa's company. Therefore a devotee who is actually in knowledge, na aikāntikata, na ekātmatām. To become one with the Supreme, they never desire. They never desire. They... Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu is saying, mama janmani janmani īśvare bhavatād bhaktir ahaitukī tvayi: "My dear Lord, I do not want to stop even." Mukti means stopping of this repetition of birth, death. But Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, mama janmani janmani: "Let Me take birth after birth. It doesn't matter. But let Me be engaged in Your service." That is ānanda. That is real ānanda, not that you become one with.

And "one" means you cannot enter into the spiritual planets. There are so many..., not devotees but spiritualists; they want to become one. That oneness means that you remain outside the spiritual planet in the brahma-jyoti, in the rays. We are part and parcel of the rays. Just like I have given the example: the sunrays means combination of so many bright, minute atomic particles. Similarly, we can remain as atomic soul outside. Just like this sunshine is outside the sphere of the sun globe. It is outside. It is not... Inside also, that is brightness, but the sunshine is outside the sun globe, and inside there is sun-god. That information we get from Bhagavad-gītā. Imaṁ vivasvate yogaṁ proktavān aham avyayam [Bg 4.1].

[The Blessed Lord said: I instructed this imperishable science of yoga to the sun-god, Vivasvān, and Vivasvān instructed it to Manu, the father of mankind, and Manu in turn instructed it to Ikṣvāku.]

The sun planet is also a planet like this, but it is fiery planet. And it is earthly planet. The sun planet is fire, but fire and earth is the same material element. Bhūmir āpaḥ analaḥ. Analaḥ. Analaḥ means fire. So either it is made of earth or it is made of fire or it is made of water or it is made of air, or prominent, it is all material.

So the sun planet is also material planet like this earthly planet, but it is made of fire. Just like there are so many things we have got experience. There is water, sea. There also, living being, aquatics. They are not dying. But if you are thrown into the water, you will die. But that does not mean that in the water there is no living being. There is. There are hundreds and thousands. Jalajā nava-lakṣāṅi [Padma Purāṅa]. We are the men population. We are only 400,000. And in the water there are 900,000's, aquatics. Jalajā nava-lakṣāṅi sthāvarā lakṣa-viṁś... Everything is there is the śāstra. So... But you cannot live within the... You have got a separate body. Similarly, these so-called scientists, they are thinking that nobody can live in the sun planet: "There is no life." That is wrong. They have got a separate type of body—they can live in the fire. That is the information. There is also towns. There is also palaces. Everything is there. But they are made of fire.

We cannot understand that. In the fire you cannot live. In the water you cannot live. But there are living entities. Just like you see in the beach there are crabs. They are living within the sands, but you cannot live. That does not mean in the sand there is no life. There is life. Life, sarva-gaḥ. It is said life can exist everywhere, either in the fire or in the water or in the earth or in the air. We are practically experiencing. So everywhere there is life. So... But different position. As you cannot enter in this body either in the moon planet or in the sun planet, similarly, unless you are fully qualified devotee, you cannot enter into the Vaikuṅṭha planets. You have to live outside. You have to live outside in the brahma-jyoti. That is called aikānta.

So if you desire that, Kṛṣṅa will give you the oppor... Ye yathā māṁ prapadyante [Bg 4.11].

[All of them—as they surrender unto Me—I reward accordingly. Everyone follows My path in all respects, O son of Pṛthā.]

Mām... Kṛṣṅa is everything. Kṛṣṅa is brahma-jyoti; Kṛṣṅa is Paramātmā. Brahmeti paramātmeti bhagavān iti śabdyate [SB 1.2.11].

[Learned transcendentalists who know the Absolute Truth call this nondual substance Brahman, Paramātmā or Bhagavān.]

So if you want oneness, so you will be allowed outside the Vaikuṅṭha planet in the brahma-jyoti. But there you cannot stay. That is the difficulty. Āruhya kṛcchreṅa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ patanty adhaḥ [SB 10.2.32].

Because we want varieties of enjoyment. In the brahma-jyoti you are simply live eternally, but there is no varieties. But because these persons, they have no information of the Vaikuṅṭha varieties, they have to come down again to these material varieties. Āruhya kṛcchreṅa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ patanty adhaḥ anādṛta-yuṣmad-aṅghrayaḥ. This is the process.

Therefore a devotee, automatically he dissolves his material and..., I mean to say, material bodies, subtle and gross, dissolves in this life. That is called jīvan-muktaḥ sa ucyate. That is called jīvan-mukti. Īhā yasya harer dāsye [Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu 1.2.187].

Anyone, īhā, mad-īhāḥ. Here it is said, mad-īhāḥ. What is that mad-īhāḥ? Always thinking of how to serve Kṛṣṅa. That is called mad-īhāḥ, thinking of Kṛṣṅa, always thinking of Kṛṣṅa. That Rūpa Gosvāmī has explained this mad-īhāḥ. What is that? Īhā yasya harer dāsye. Anyone who is always thinking of how to serve Kṛṣṅa, karmaṅā manasā vācā... You can serve by your body activities, by your mind, by your words. Just like we are talking about Kṛṣṅa; we are serving Kṛṣṅa by words. You are hearing: that karmaṅā, the activities of the senses, you are hearing. Karmaṅā manasā, we are thinking; I am thinking. So any way, if we are simply engaged in Kṛṣṅa's service or at least trying to do that, karmaṅā manasā vācā, īhā yasya harer dāsye... But it is not to become one but to serve. If this attitude you keep, so nikhilāsv apy avasthāsu jīvan-muktaḥ sa ucyate: in any condition of life he is liberated. Any condition life. He may be engaged in some business or in some occupation or this way. If he is always thinking of Kṛṣṅa, how to serve Him, then he is liberated. This is the idea of actual liberation, not by thinking that "I shall become one with the Supreme."

Thank you very much.

Devotees: Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda. [end]