Bhagavad-gītā 4.24

[class is held outside, in garden]

Pradyumna: Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. [devotees repeat] [leads devotees in chanting]

brahmārpaṅaṁ brahma havir brahmāgnau brahmaṅā hutam brahmaiva tena gantavyaṁ brahma-karma-samādhinā [Bg 4.24]

[02:22]

Translation: "A person who is fully absorbed in Kṛṣṅa consciousness is sure to attain the spiritual kingdom because of his full contribution to spiritual activities, in which the consummation is absolute and that which is offered is of the same spiritual nature."

Prabhupāda: Some of you explain.

Jayāntakṛd: Translate.

Prabhupāda: Translation is already there.

Jayāntakṛd: Should we translate in French, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Where is French Bhagavad-gītā?

Harikeśa: Can we read the purport, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Harikeśa: Purport: "How activities in Kṛṣṅa consciousness can lead one ultimately to the spiritual goal is described here." [break]

Prabhupāda: So discuss any question.

Yogeśvara: Sometimes we speak of the material energy as being different from the spiritual energy, and other times we speak of all energies being ultimately spiritual. So what is the understanding?

Prabhupāda: [translated in French throughout] Just like the electricity energy is coming from the same source, but it is being utilized for different purposes. Sometimes it is helping to make cooler, and sometimes it is helping to make heater. But cooler and heater are two opposite things. But it is being done by the same energy. How it is being done?

In the Vedānta-sūtra it is said, janmādy asya yataḥ [SB 1.1.1]. Brahma or Absolute Truth is that from where everything is emanating. Kṛṣṅa says in the Bhagavad-gītā, ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavaḥ [Bg 10.8]:

[I am the source of all spiritual and material worlds. Everything emanates from Me. The wise who know this perfectly engage in My devotional service and worship Me with all their hearts.]

"I am the source of everything." Mattaḥ sarvaṁ pravartate: "Everything is coming from Me." So in another place, to make further clear, bhūmir āpo 'nalo vāyuḥ khaṁ mano buddhir eva ca. Bhinnā me prakṛtir aṣṭadhā [Bg 7.4]:

[Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intelligence and false ego—altogether these eight comprise My separated material energies.]

"These eight energies, they are My energy." Aṣṭadhā, eight: earth, water, air fire, sky, mind, intelligence, ego. Bhinnā, separated. Just like I am speaking in the Dictaphone, but after some time, without me, it will speak exactly like this. So I am speaking, but I'm not present there. Similarly, material world means it is being conducted by Kṛṣṅa, but still, Kṛṣṅa, personally, He's not present there. In another place Kṛṣṅa says that,

mayā tatam idaṁ sarvaṁ jagad avyakta-mūrtinā mat-sthāni sarva-bhūtāni na cāhaṁ teṣv avasthitaḥ [Bg 9.4]

[By Me, in My unmanifested form, this entire universe is pervaded. All beings are in Me, but I am not in them.]

Find out this verse.

Hari-śauri: 9.3. [devotees look for verse]

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṅa's energies present, and Kṛṣṅa is seemingly absent, that is material.

Jayatīrtha:

mayā tatam idaṁ sarvaṁ jagad avyakta-mūrtinā mat-sthāni sarva-bhūtāni na cāhaṁ teṣv avasthitaḥ [Bg 9.4]

"By Me, in My unmanifested form, this entire universe is pervaded. All beings are in Me, but I am not in them."

Prabhupāda: Explain that.

[break] So, it is understood, or if there is difficulty, you can question?

Caraṅāmbuja: What does it mean when Kṛṣṅa says "I am not in them"?

Prabhupāda: Huh? "I am not in them" because you cannot see there. Kṛṣṅa is there, but you cannot see Him. You are not advanced. Just like another example. Here is..., the sunlight is here. Everyone experiences. But that does not mean sun is here. It is clear? Sun is here means... Sunshine is here means sun is here. But still, because you are in the sunshine, you cannot say, "Now I've captured the sun." Sunlight is existing in the sun, but sun is not present in the sunshine. Without sun there is no sunshine. That does not mean the sunshine is sun. At same time, you can say the sunshine means sun. This is called acintya-bhedābheda,

[It is the living entity's constitutional position to be an eternal servant of Kṛṣṅa because he is the marginal energy of Kṛṣṅa and a manifestation simultaneously one and different from the Lord.]

simultaneously one and different. In the sunshine you feel the presence of the sun, but if you are able to enter in the sun globe, you can meet the sun-god also. Actually, the sunshine means the rays of the body of the person living in the sun globe.

That is explained in the Brahma-saṁhitā, yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-aṅḍa-koṭi [Bs 5.40].

[I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, whose effulgence is the source of the nondifferentiated Brahman mentioned in the Upaniṣads, being differentiated from the infinity of glories of the mundane universe appears as the indivisible, infinite, limitless, truth.]

On account of Kṛṣṅa's... You have seen Kṛṣṅa's effulgence is coming. That is the source of everything. That expansion of that effulgence is the brahma-jyoti, and in that brahma-jyoti, innumerable spiritual planets, material planets are generated. And in each and every planet there are varieties of presentation. Actually, the origin is the Kṛṣṅa's rays of the body, and the rays of the body's origin is Kṛṣṅa. Any other questions? [break] ...or not?

Viśvambhara: We say that Kṛṣṅa is present within the spiritual, within the heart of the living entity.

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṅa is present everywhere.

Viśvambhara: As a person or as an energy?

Prabhupāda: In His energy. Also person. Person we cannot see with the present eyes, but energy we can feel. Clear this point more and more. So when fully realized, then this verse, that everything is brahma, sarvaṁ khalv idaṁ brahma... [Chāndogya Upaniṣad 3.14.1]

[Everything, both matter and spirit, is non-different from the Supreme Personality of Godhead who is the Supreme Brahman.]

The advanced devotee, he does not see anything except Kṛṣṅa.

Devotee (2): Śrīla Prabhupāda, is there is an actual difference between the material energy and the spiritual energy?

Prabhupāda: Yes, difference, there are many differences. The same example, electricity. So many things are working, difference of energy. Even the Dictaphone is working, electricity. By the same energy, electricity. Therefore Kṛṣṅa says, ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavaḥ [Bg 10.8].

[I am the source of all spiritual and material worlds. Everything emanates from Me. The wise who know this perfectly engage in My devotional service and worship Me with all their hearts.]

He's the origin of everything.

Devotee (3): It is explained in Bhagavad-gītā that one change body during the lifetime, but we see that a black man never becomes white, or that there is a constant, there is something constant in the body though it changes. What is it? How come this is..., change of body, but still we can recognize someone from his youth to his old age.

Prabhupāda: So when you further advance you'll find there is no distinction between black and white. Just like a flower is coming out, there are many colors. So it is coming from the same source. As such there is no such difference, but to make it beautiful there are so many colors. In the sunshine there are seven colors, and from that seven colors, multicolors are coming out, origin the one color white, and then so many colors coming. Is that clear or not?

Devotee (4): Śrīla Prabhupāda, if Kṛṣṅa has created everything and everything is submitted to Kṛṣṅa's will, can we really say what is good or bad?

Prabhupāda: There is no good or bad; it is mental concoction. But on the whole, in the material world means everything bad. Spiritual world everything is good. Material world means absence of spiritual world, that's all. You bring again spiritual world, it is good.

Devotee (5): Śrīla Prabhupāda, since presently we cannot see Kṛṣṅa as He is as a person, how can we..., how should we meditate on Him?

Prabhupāda: Hmm?

Yogeśvara: He says now, because we are not yet advanced enough to see Kṛṣṅa as the Supreme Person directly, how should we meditate upon him?

Prabhupāda: You do not see Kṛṣṅa is in the temple? [laughter] We are worshiping something vague? You have to see Kṛṣṅa as Kṛṣṅa says. In the present stage... Just like Kṛṣṅa says raso 'ham apsu kaunteya [Bg 7.8].

[O son of Kuntī [Arjuna], I am the taste of water, the light of the sun and the moon, the syllable om in the Vedic mantras; I am the sound in ether and ability in man.]

Kṛṣṅa says, "I am the taste of the water." You see Kṛṣṅa in the taste of the water. That will make you advanced. According to different stages... Kṛṣṅa says, "I am the taste of the water." So when you drink water, why don't you see Kṛṣṅa: "Oh, this taste is Kṛṣṅa"? Raso 'ham apsu kaunteya prabhāsmi śaśi-sūryayoḥ. When you see the sunshine, moonshine... Kṛṣṅa says, "I am the sunshine, I am the moonshine." So as soon as you see in the morning, sunshine, you see Kṛṣṅa. As soon as you see, at night, moonshine, you see Kṛṣṅa. Praṅavaḥ sarva-vedeṣu [Bg 7.8]. Any Vedic mantra is chanted, oṁ tad viṣṅoḥ para... [Ṛg Veda 1.22.20],

[The lotus feet of Lord Viṣṅu are the supreme objective of all the demigods. These lotus feet of the Lord are as enlightening as the sun in the sky.]

this oṁkāra is Kṛṣṅa. Pauruṣaṁ viṣṅu. And anything extraordinary done by somebody, that is Kṛṣṅa. So you have to see Kṛṣṅa in this way, then gradually you'll see: Kṛṣṅa will reveal Himself. You'll see. But there is no difference between realizing the taste of water as Kṛṣṅa and seeing Kṛṣṅa personally. There is no difference. So according to your present position, you'll see Kṛṣṅa in that way. Then you will gradually see Him. If you want to see immediately Kṛṣṅa's rāsa-līlā, that is not possible. You have to see Kṛṣṅa. As soon as there is heat, you have to know that there is fire. As soon as there is smoke, you have to know there is fire. Even though you do not see directly fire, but we can understand, because the smoke is there, there must be fire. So in this way, in the beginning, you have to realize Kṛṣṅa. You have studied in the Seventh Chapter... Find out: raso 'ham apsu kaunteya prabhāsmi śaśi-sūryayoḥ praṅavaḥ sarva-vedeṣu... [Bg 7.8].

[O son of Kuntī [Arjuna], I am the taste of water, the light of the sun and the moon, the syllable om in the Vedic mantras; I am the sound in ether and ability in man.]

Jayatīrtha: 7.8. "O son of Kunti, Arjuna, I am the taste of water, the light of the sun and the moon, the syllable oṁ in the Vedic mantras. I am the sound in ether and ability in man."

Prabhupāda: So this way see Kṛṣṅa. Where is the difficulty? Eh? Who asked this question? So where is the difficulty to see Kṛṣṅa? Is there any difficulty? See Kṛṣṅa. And man-manā bhava mad-bhakto. Kṛṣṅa says, "Always think of Me." So as soon as you drink water, immediately taste and say, "Ah, here is Kṛṣṅa." Man-manā bhava mad-bhakto [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.]

Where is the difficulty? There is no difficulty. Everything is given. Hmm? What is the difficulty? [break]

French Devotee: ...think of Krsna? Should we try...

Yogeśvara: He's not finished translating.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Abhinanda: How should we try to remember that Kṛṣṅa is God? [laughter]

Prabhupāda: What do you think of God? [laughter] Sāta kāṅḍa rāmāyaṅa paḍe, sītā kāra bābā? One has read all the Rāmāyaṅa, and after reading, he is asking, "Sītādevī, whose father she is?" [laughter] "Whose father is Sītādevī?" Your question is like that.

Abhinanda: Because in Māyāpur, last time, Śrīla Prabhupāda, you told us that we should not forget that Kṛṣṅa is God. You told it many times.

Prabhupāda: Yes. But why you are forgetting? [laughter] What is this?

Devotee: Prabhupāda, if a devotee falls down from the path of devotional service, is he ever subject to the hells described in the Bhāgavatam?

Caraṅāmbuja: [to Jayāntakṛd] You should translate all these things.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Devotee: Is a devotee ever subject to the punishments of hells if he falls down, as they're given in Bhāgavatam?

Prabhupāda: A devotee never falls down. [laughter] All right.

Devotees: Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda. [end]