Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.25.39–40

Nitāi: [leads chanting of verse] [devotees repeat]

maṁ lokaṁ tathaivāmum ātmānam ubhayāyinam ātmānam anu ye ceha ye rāyaḥ paśavo gṛhāḥ

visṛjya sarvān anyāṁś ca mām evaṁ viśvato-mukham bhajanty ananyayā bhaktyā tān mṛtyor atipāraye [SB 3.25.39-40]

[break] [00:43]

"Thus the devotee who worships Me, the all-pervading Lord of the universe, in unflinching devotional service, gives up all aspirations to be promoted to heavenly planets or to become happy in this world with wealth, children, cattle, home or anything in relationship with the body. I take him to the other side of birth and death."

Prabhupāda:

imaṁ lokaṁ tathaivāmum ātmānam ubhayāyinam ātmānam anu ye ceha ye rāyaḥ paśavo gṛhāḥ

visṛjya sarvān anyāṁś ca mām evaṁ viśvato-mukham bhajanty ananyayā bhaktyā tān mṛtyor atipāraye [SB 3.25.39-40]

So Kapiladeva is describing bhakti-yoga. Yesterday, last night, we have already discussed the previous verse. Then bhaktas yeṣām ahaṁ priya. Bhakta means who takes Kṛṣṅa, or the Supreme Personality of Godhead, as the most dear, dearest of everything. And ātmā sutaś ca sakhā guruḥ suhṛdo daivam iṣṭam. Everything. "Kṛṣṅa is my guru. Kṛṣṅa is my ātmā, because I am part and parcel of Kṛṣṅa," mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūtaḥ [Bg 15.7]. "So Kṛṣṅa is origin; I am part and parcel. Then Kṛṣṅa is my..." One who wants to love Kṛṣṅa as son... We have described already. Kṛṣṅa is prepared to become your son, because we love son. We offer respect to guru. We offer respect to devatā. So everything should be Kṛṣṅa. Yeṣām ahaṁ priya ātmā sutaś ca sakhā, friend. Just like Arjuna, he accepted Kṛṣṅa as his friend.

So everyone can accept Kṛṣṅa in so many ways. So,

śravaṅaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṅoḥ smaraṅaṁ pāda-sevanam arcanaṁ vandanaṁ dāsyaṁ sakhyam... [SB 7.5.23]

[Prahlāda Mahārāja said: Hearing and chanting about the transcendental holy name, form, qualities, paraphernalia and pastimes of Lord Viṣṅu, remembering them, serving the lotus feet of the Lord, offering the Lord respectful worship with sixteen types of paraphernalia, offering prayers to the Lord, becoming His servant, considering the Lord one's best friend, and surrendering everything unto Him (in other words, serving Him with the body, mind and words)—these nine processes are accepted as pure devotional service. One who has dedicated his life to the service of Kṛṣṅa through these nine methods should be understood to be the most learned person, for he has acquired complete knowledge.]

So you can love Kṛṣṅa as sakhā, as Arjuna did. And similarly, Parīkṣit Mahārāja, he simply heard about Kṛṣṅa, śravaṅam. These are the nine processes. Śravaṅaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṅoḥ: "Of Viṣṅu, of Kṛṣṅa." Kṛṣṅa and Viṣṅu—the same. Not anyone else. You cannot say that "I am hearing about Mr. Such-and-such, a great politician, śravaṅam." No, that will not help you. Śravaṅaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṅoḥ. Smaraṅam, also "always thinking of Me."

yoginām api sarveṣāṁ mad-gatenāntar-ātmanā śraddhāvān bhajate yo māṁ sa me yuktatamo mataḥ [Bg 6.47]

[And of all yogīs, he who always abides in Me with great faith, worshiping Me in transcendental loving service, is most intimately united with Me in yoga and is the highest of all.]

man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru [Bg 18.65]

[Always think of Me and become My devotee. Worship Me and offer your homage unto Me. Thus you will come to Me without fail. I promise you this because you are My very dear friend.]

That is śravaṅaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṅoḥ smaraṅam [SB 7.5.23], always thinking of Kṛṣṅa. Simply if you... Meditation. That is meditation. If you meditate about Kṛṣṅa always, then you become the first-class yogī. That is said in the Bhagavad-gītā in the Sixth Chapter, yoginām api sarveṣāṁ mad-gatenāntar-ātmanā [Bg 6.47].

So this movement is teaching everyone always to be Kṛṣṅa conscious, to become first-class yogī, and take Kṛṣṅa as everything—priya, suta, sakhā, guru, everything. That is called bhakta. So in this way, visṛjya sarvān anyāṁś ca. Visṛjya means giving up completely. If you want a son, all right, Kṛṣṅa is prepared to become your son. If you want a lover, all right, Kṛṣṅa is prepared to become your lover. If you want a friend, Kṛṣṅa is prepared to become your friend. Everything Kṛṣṅa is prepared, and that relationship is going on in this material world. Somebody... I love somebody as my son. I love somebody as my friend. I love somebody as my lover. I love somebody as my father. Or in this relationship, sākhyam. There is the mellows, the sākhya-bhāva, vātsalya-bhāva, vātsalyam, mādhuryam, means loving platform, loving propensities. Kṛṣṅa is prepared.

So if actually if we want to become free from the clutches of this janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi... [Bg 13.9].

[Humility, pridelessness, nonviolence, tolerance, simplicity, approaching a bona fide spiritual master, cleanliness, steadiness and self-control; renunciation of the objects of sense gratification, absence of false ego, the perception of the evil of birth, death, old age and disease; nonattachment to children, wife, home and the rest, and evenmindedness amid pleasant and unpleasant events; constant and unalloyed devotion to Me, resorting to solitary places, detachment from the general mass of people; accepting the importance of self-realization, and philosophical search for the Absolute Truth—all these I thus declare to be knowledge, and what is contrary to these is ignorance.]

That is our problem. Here... We have discussed many times that we, as spirit soul, we are not this body. I am not this body; you are not this body. I am Brahman, ahaṁ brahmāsmi. You are also Brahman, or spirit soul. But I am not Para-brahman. That is mistake. Neither you are Para-brahman. There are two words in the scriptures: Brahman and Para-brahman; ātmā and Paramātmā; īśvara and Parameśvara. The Māyāvādīs, they think there is no difference. No, there is difference. Otherwise, why the word is used, "parama"? So I may be īśvara, you may be īśvara, but you are not Parameśvara. You are ātmā; I am ātmā. But I am not Paramātmā; you are not Paramātmā.

So in this way the Paramātmā, Parameśvara, that is Kṛṣṅa. Therefore it is said, visṛjya sarvān anyāṁś ca mām eva. Bhagavān says, Kapiladeva... Kapiladeva is also Kṛṣṅa. He says, mam eva: "Only unto Me." "And what is the difference between you and Me? No, I am viśvato-mukham. I am all-pervading. You are not all-pervading." That is the difference. You are sitting here. You are not at your home. But Kṛṣṅa is here, being worshiped in this temple, but He is present in many, many millions of temples. Viśvato-mukham. He is accepting devotional services from the devotee in many thousands of temple. Not only that; as Kṛṣṅa says in the Bhagavad-gītā that... What is that? I forget now. Now I am becoming old, I am forgetting.

Anyway, Kṛṣṅa is Paramātmā. He is present everywhere. Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe arjuna tiṣṭhati. That is viśvato-mukham. He is living in everyone's heart. That is the difference between Kṛṣṅa and me. Kṛṣṅa and me, that is the difference. Aham. Here it is said, mām eva viśvato-mukham. Mām eva. Kṛṣṅa or Bhagavān, He says mām eva, but what is the mām eva? He is not a person like me or you. He is viśvato-mukham. He, Kṛṣṅa, says in the Bhagavad-gītā that this body is the field of, kṣetra, field of activities. Idaṁ śarīraṁ kṣetram ity abhidhīyate. Kṣetra-kṣetrajña. And the owner of the body, or the occupier of the body, not owner... We are not actually owner of this body. Because as soon as there will be order that "You vacate this body," you have to immediately vacate. Therefore we are not owner; we are occupier.

This is a machine given by Kṛṣṅa.

īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe arjuna tiṣṭhati bhrāmayan sarva-bhūtāni yantrārūḍhāni māyayā [Bg 18.61]

[The Supreme Lord is situated in everyone's heart, O Arjuna, and is directing the wanderings of all living entities, who are seated as on a machine, made of the material energy.]

This is a yantra, machine. I am not this machine, but this machine has been given to me to move. Just like you get a car to move. Especially mentioned, yantra. Yantra, just like a car is machine, but you are not the car. Suppose if you want a car to move. Your father gives you a car, maybe costly or not; that depends on the father's condition or your condition. But the father or the..., you purchase. But here it is said that the..., because we want to move in this material world under different desires, so Kṛṣṅa gives us different types of bodies, 8,400,000 different species of yantra. They are just like machine, yantrārūḍhāni, and that machine is made by māyā, this material energy. That is not spiritual energy. I am spiritual energy; you are spiritual energy. But this vehicle, or the car, or the moving machine, that is not spiritual. That is material. Yantrārūḍhāni māyayā [Bg 18.61].

[The Supreme Lord is situated in everyone's heart, O Arjuna, and is directing the wanderings of all living entities, who are seated as on a machine, made of the material energy.]

It is given by māyā. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṅāni guṅaiḥ... [Bg 3.27].

[The bewildered spirit soul, under the influence of the three modes of material nature, thinks himself to be the doer of activities, which are in actuality carried out by nature.]

We are in a machine made by māyā. And so long we are on this machine, the machine will be old and you will have to change it for another machine. That is going on. That is called janma-mṛtyu. That is called birth and death. Otherwise you and me, we have no birth and death. Na jāyate na mriyate vā kadācit. The soul, or the Brahman, he does not take birth or dies. Simply we change this machine, body. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre [Bg 2.20]. You are driving one car. If the car is broken or it is smashed, that does not mean you are smashed. You may have some accident, but you are not finished; the car may be finished. Similarly, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre. Similarly, this body being finished, we are not finished. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ [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.]

we get another car, another body, just like we are getting different bodies in this life.

So the question is that if I am nityaḥ śāśvataḥ, na hanyate han..., and my position is I never die, never take birth, so why I have been put into this condition, accepting this machine? That is real problem. That is real problem. Then what is the cause? That cause is that because I want to enjoy this material world. What is that material world? Here it is said, rāyaḥ paśavo gṛhāḥ. Rāyaḥ means wealth. Formerly, a man was considered to be wealthy—now also it is—dhānyena dhanavān, gavayā dhanavān. If you have got many number of cows, then you are considered to be rich man. Not papers. Nowadays, if you have got bunch of paper written "one thousand dollar," but they are paper only, you are dhanavān. Formerly, practical. Not dhanavān by the papers, by the currency notes, but by how many cows you possess. Because that is life. You get milk. And dhānyena, if you have got food grains, then you are rich, not by possessing some paper. No. Therefore it it said here, rāyaḥ paśavo gṛhāḥ. So these are the material possession.

So, so long we are after this material possession, then we cannot get out of this circle of birth and death. But if we give up this material possession and you take Kṛṣṅa and..., the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and worship Him in bhakti-yoga, as it is said here, bhajanty ananyayā bhaktyā... Ananyayā bhaktyā. Ananyayā bhaktyā means pure, not mixed. You should not mix bhakti with jñāna and karma. That is pure bhakti. Anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ jñāna-karmādy-anāvṛtam [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.]

To... Just like there are many bhaktas, they are not pure bhaktas. Chanting, they are also chanting, but they are aspiring after mukti. So they are not pure bhaktas; they are adulterated bhaktas. A bhakta does not want mukti. We have discussed all the things. Bhakta wants nothing from the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He simply wants to serve Him. That's all. And serve Him ānukūlyena, not whimsically, "I want to serve You as I like." No. Ānukūlyena. Just like Arjuna did. Arjuna served Kṛṣṅa not whimsically, but as Kṛṣṅa desired.

Kṛṣṅa... Arjuna was not willing to fight. He said, "No, Kṛṣṅa, the other side, my friends and relatives. I cannot." That is whimsical. But when he decided after hearing Bhagavad-gītā, kariṣye vacanaṁ tava [Bg 18.73]:

[Arjuna said, My dear Kṛṣṅa, O infallible one, my illusion is now gone. I have regained my memory by Your mercy, and I am now firm and free from doubt and am prepared to act according to Your instructions.]

"Yes, I shall do what You are asking, to fight. I shall kill my grandfather. That's all," that is anukūla. Ānukūlyena kṛṣṅānuśīlanaṁ bhaktir uttamā [Cc Madhya 19.167].

[When first-class devotional service develops, one must be devoid of all material desires, knowledge obtained by monistic philosophy, and fruitive action. The devotee must constantly serve Kṛṣṅa favorably, as Kṛṣṅa desires.]

You cannot serve Kṛṣṅa by your whims. Ānukūlyena. Anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ jñāna-karmādy-anāvṛtam, ānukūlyena kṛṣṅānuśīlanam [Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu 1.1.11]. You have to serve Kṛṣṅa as He says. If I want a glass of water, you must give me a glass of water. You cannot say, "Prabhupāda, milk is better than water. Why don't you take one glass of milk?" That is not anukūla. You must supply me what I want. That is anukūla. That is favorably. I want to drink water. Why should you give me milk? That is anukūla. That is bhakti. That is ananyayā... You don't manufacture your own trademark of bhakti. No, that is not bhakti.

It is not that... Sometimes people say, some so-called bhaktas, they say that "I can worship the Lord in my own way." No, that you cannot do. You have to... But because you have no connection with the Supreme Lord, you simply think a fiction, an idea, imagination, kalpana. The Māyāvādīs, they say kalpanā. Brahma-rūpa-kalpanaḥ: "Brahma has no rūpa, but you imagine some rūpa, or form." That is Māyāvāda. That is not. Kṛṣṅa has got rūpa. Kṛṣṅa is present here with His original rūpa, as it is described in the Vedic literature:

veṅuṁ kvaṅantam aravinda-dalāyatākṣaṁ barhāvataṁsam asitāmbuda-sundarāṅgam kandarpa-koṭi-kamanīya-viśeṣa-śobhaṁ govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi [Bs 5.30]

[I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, who is adept in playing on His flute, with blooming eyes like lotus petals with head decked with peacock's feather, with the figure of beauty tinged with the hue of blue clouds, and His unique loveliness charming millions of Cupids.]

His form. Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṅaḥ [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.]

Paramaḥ. Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ. We may be īśvara; you may be īśvara. That's all right. But you are not Parameśvara; I am not Parameśvara. Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṅaḥ. The Parameśvara is Kṛṣṅa. Paramātmā is Kṛṣṅa. We are not. Kṣetra-kṣetrajña. Kṣetrajña means one who knows about the kṣetra. We are acting with this body. I am also acting, you are also acting, the dog is also acting, cat is also acting, the tree is also acting—according to the body. But within the body, dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanam..., tathā dehā... [Bg 2.13],

the owner, or the occupier of the body, is within.

So Kṛṣṅa says, kṣetra-jñaṁ cāpi māṁ viddhi: "You are kṣetrajña. You are owner of this body. But I am also kṣetrajña. So I am kṣetrajña. I am the real proprietor. You are simply occupier. You are not the proprietor." Yantrārūḍhāni māyayā [Bg 18.61].

[The Supreme Lord is situated in everyone's heart, O Arjuna, and is directing the wanderings of all living entities, who are seated as on a machine, made of the material energy.]

He gives you. You wanted a body like this, oh, you have got, "Now take this body." Kṛṣṅa is giving all facilities to enjoy this material world. Sometimes you want the body of a devatā like Brahmā, Indra, Candra. "All right." Yānti deva-vratā devān [Bg 9.25].

[Those who worship the demigods will take birth among the demigods; those who worship ghosts and spirits will take birth among such beings; those who worship ancestors go to the ancestors; and those who worship Me will live with Me.]

It is said in the Bhagavad-gītā, yānti deva-vratāḥ. If you want to become devatā, so you act like that. You qualify yourself, and you will go there, and you will get a body. You can get a body like Brahmā or you can get the body of the worm in the stool, as you like. Now it is... "Or if you like, a body like Me," Kṛṣṅa says. Yānti mad-yājino 'pi mām. And if you want to get a body like Kṛṣṅa, sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha [Bs 5.1]—that is our body, real body, sat, cit, ānanda—then you can get it.

[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.]

So our intelligence will be proved when we want to go back to home, back to Kṛṣṅa. Mad-yājī mām... He gives you freedom, free pass. If you want to go to the demigod's planet... Yānti deva... What is that? Deva-yajña. Huh?

Devotee: Pitṝn yānti pitṛ-vratāḥ.

Prabhupāda: Pitṝn yānti pitṛ-vratāḥ.

Devotee: Bhūtāni...

Prabhupāda: Bhūtāni yānti bhūtejyā mad-yājino 'pi yā... [Bg 9.25].

Now it is your choice. It is your choice where you want to go. You have to go somewhere. You can remain here in this material world, you can remain to the higher planets, or you can go beyond these higher planets. Avyakto 'vyaktāt sanātanaḥ, paras tasmāt tu bhāvaḥ anyaḥ [Bg 8.20]. There is another nature. This is material nature, and there is another nature, spiritual nature. You can go there also, as you like. You are given full freedom. So here it is said... But wherever you go, it is said, ābrahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ punar āvartino 'rjuna [Bg 8.16].

[From the highest planet in the material world down to the lowest, all are places of misery wherein repeated birth and death take place. But one who attains to My abode, O son of Kuntī, never takes birth again.]

Kṣīṅe puṅye punar martya-lokaṁ viśanti. You can go to the Svarga-loka, the heavenly planets, by your pious activities, but kṣīṅe puṅye, when your puṅya, pious acti..., resultant action of pious activities will be finished, then you have to come back again. Kṣīṅe puṅye punar martya-lokam...

But Kṛṣṅa says, yad gatvā na nivartante tad dhāma paramaṁ mama [Bg 15.6]

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

"If you, some way or other, you go to that place where I live..." Kṛṣṅa lives everywhere. Kṛṣṅa, īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe 'rjuna tiṣṭhati [Bg 18.61],

[The Supreme Lord is situated in everyone's heart, O Arjuna, and is directing the wanderings of all living entities, who are seated as on a machine, made of the material energy.]

but He has got a special home. Just like the governor or the president, he can move many places, but still, he has got his own place, the rāja-bhavan, like that. Similarly, Kṛṣṅa's place is Goloka Vṛndāvana.

Cintāmaṅi-prakara-sadmasu kalpa-vṛkṣa-lakṣāvṛteṣu sura... [Bs 5.29]. But goloka eva nivasaty akhilātma-bhūtaḥ [Bs 5.37].

[I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, residing in His own realm, Goloka, with Rādhā, resembling His own spiritual figure, the embodiment of the ecstatic potency possessed of the sixty-four artistic activities, in the company of Her confidantes [sakhīs], embodiments of the extensions of Her bodily form, permeated and vitalized by His ever-blissful spiritual rasa.]

That is Kṛṣṅa. He can live in Goloka Vṛndāvana, like you see here Kṛṣṅa, His Goloka Vṛndāvana. He is enjoying the company of Vṛndāvaneśvarī, Rādhārāṅī. So goloka eva nivasaty akhilātma-bhūtaḥ. That is viśvato-mukham. Here it is said, visṛjya sarvān anyāṁś ca mām evaṁ viśvato-mukham.

So if you concentrate your devotion, your mind, your activities by this bhakti-yoga, śravaṅaṁ kīrtanam... Bhakti-yoga means first of all to hear. Without hearing, how you can become bhakta? You must know about Kṛṣṅa. If you want to make friendship with somebody or make some transaction, we have got already our relationship, eternal relationship with Kṛṣṅa, because we are part and parcel of Kṛṣṅa. But some way or other, we have forgotten it now. Therefore in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta it is said, anādi-bahirmukha jīva, kṛṣṅa bhuli' gelā [Cc Madhya 20.117].

[Forgetting Kṛṣṅa, the living entity has been attracted by the external feature from time immemorial. Therefore the illusory energy [māyā] gives him all kinds of misery in his material existence.]

Some way or other, from long, long time, we have forgotten Kṛṣṅa. Kṛṣṅa bhuli' gelā. Ataeva kṛṣṅa veda-purāṅa kailā: "Therefore Kṛṣṅa has made all these Vedas and Purāṅas and śāstra, everything, Mahābhārata." Kṛṣṅa comes there. This is... Because when we forget... Now this age is going on, Kali-yuga, forgetfulness. People are forgetting more and more Kṛṣṅa. They are not interested anymore. But Kṛṣṅa is interested. Kṛṣṅa, because we are sons of Kṛṣṅa... Just like a mad son, he is no more interested in home or father, mother, but still, the father and mother is interested, that "This boy has gone out of home and is simply suffering." Bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate [Bg 8.19]. "He is accepting one type of body and again giving it up, again accepting another body. In this way he is traveling," ābrahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ, "all the planets, all the species of life. So let Me try to rescue him." Therefore Kṛṣṅa comes. Yadā yadā hi dharmasya glānir bhavati bhārata, tadātmānaṁ sṛjāmy aham [Bg 4.7].

So we are falsely engaged in this material world, illusion. Ato gṛha-kṣetra-sutāpta-vittair janasya moho 'yam [SB 5.5.8]. This material world, it is not our home. How we can say it is home? I am living in this body, in this home, say, for fifty, sixty or hundred years, again get out. So how I can say it is my home? I am nitya. I must have an eternal home. Why I am this temporary? This is knowledge. This is knowledge. Unless one is not awakened to this knowledge, then he is a fool, rascal. Yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṅape tri-dhātuke [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.]

One who is thinking, "This is my body. This is I am," sa eva go-kharaḥ: he is no better than animals. There are dog thinking. So if a man thinks that "I am this body," then what is this position? He is no better than a dog.

You should not be that. This human form of life is meant for this inquiry, athāto brahma-jijñāsā. "If I am Brahman, then what is...? Brahman means eternal. So why I am busy with these bodily affairs?" This is called brahma-jijñāsā. And if you become very learned scholar in Vedānta and busy with these bodily affairs, that is another foolishness. If you actually Vedāntist, then you should be inquiring that "I am eternal. Why I am put into this temporary body, and on account of this body, I am subjected to so many miserable condition of material life? Why I should remain in this condition? How I can get released from this condition?" That is human life. That is human life. And tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet [Muṅḍaka Upaniṣad 1.2.12].

[To understand these things properly, one must humbly approach, with firewood in hand, a spiritual master who is learned in the Vedas and firmly devoted to the Absolute Truth.]

If you actually very much eager to inquire about it, then you require a guru. Tasmād guruṁ prapadyeta jijñāsuḥ śreya uttamam [SB 11.3.21]:

[Therefore any person who seriously desires real happiness must seek a bona fide spiritual master and take shelter of him by initiation. The qualification of the bona fide guru is that he has realized the conclusions of the scriptures by deliberation and is able to convince others of these conclusions. Such great personalities, who have taken shelter of the Supreme Godhead, leaving aside all material considerations, should be understood to be bona fide spiritual masters.]

"One who is inquisitive about spiritual life, about spiritual identity," tasmāt, "therefore," guruṁ prapadyeta, "you must seek out a bona fide guru."

So who can be better guru than Kṛṣṅa? He is the original guru. Here it is stated, guruḥ. In the previous verse, yeṣām ahaṁ priya ātmā sutaś ca sakhā guruḥ. Guruḥ. So you don't accept anyone guru, but accept guru, Kṛṣṅa. And Kṛṣṅa is instructing Bhagavad-gītā as guru. Śiṣyas te 'haṁ śādhi māṁ prapannam [Bg 2.7].

[Now I am confused about my duty and have lost all composure because of weakness. In this condition I am asking You to tell me clearly what is best for me. Now I am Your disciple, and a soul surrendered unto You. Please instruct me.]

Arjuna says, "My dear Kṛṣṅa, I am accepting as my guru. I am Your śiṣya." So everyone should become like that, accept Kṛṣṅa as guru. Or Kṛṣṅa's representative. You can say, "Where is Kṛṣṅa? I don't find." But Kṛṣṅa's representative is there. That is also stated in the Bhagavad-gītā:

tad viddhi praṅipātena paripraśnena sevayā upadekṣyanti tad jñānaṁ jñāninas tattva-darśinaḥ [Bg 4.34]

[Just try to learn the truth by approaching a spiritual master. Inquire from him submissively and render service unto him. The self-realized soul can impart knowledge unto you because he has seen the truth.]

So one who knows Kṛṣṅa perfectly, he is Kṛṣṅa's representative. And to know Kṛṣṅa is very difficult task? No. Everything is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā. But if you, like a rascal, interpret in a different way, then you are not a guru; you are a goru. Then you are animal. You are guru so long you take Bhagavad-gītā as it is.

Thank you very much.

Devotees: Haribol. [end]