11 March 1976 — Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 7.9.33

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Translation: “This cosmic manifestation, the material world, is also Your body. By Your potential energy known as kāla-śakti, this total lump of matter becomes agitated, and thus three modes of material nature become manifested. In this way You become awakened from the bedstead of Ananta-Śeṣa, and from Your navel a small transcendental seed is generated, from which the gigantic universe becomes manifest. Exactly like the small seed of banyan tree, the lotus flower of the cosmic manifestation is grown up.”

Prabhupāda: These verses of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, they are Vedic mantras. They’re not ordinary wording, set of wording. It is not. Veda-mantra; saṁhitā. So every one of you must try to chant. This is required. Each verse of Bhagavad-gītā or Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, they are Vedic mantras, veda-mantra. So simply by chanting them we become purified. So every one of you . . . there is diacritic marks, literation, transliteration, so everyone should try to chant the mantra. That is very beneficial. That is kīrtana. Kīrtanād eva kṛṣṇasya (SB 12.3.51). Everything is being chanted in relationship with Kṛṣṇa, with reference to Kṛṣṇa.

So this material world is explained,

tasyaiva te vapur idaṁ nija-kāla-śaktyā

sañcodita-prakṛti-dharmaṇa ātma-gūḍham

ambhasy ananta-śayanād viramat-samādher

nābher abhūt sva-kaṇikā-vaṭavat mahābjam

(SB 7.9.33)

Vaṭavat mahābjam. Abjam means flower, lotus flower? Yes. So this is the description of Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu. Kāraṇodakaśāyī Viṣṇu and then Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu and then Kṣīrodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, trīn, three Viṣṇus. First of all, from . . . I have several times explained: from Kṛṣṇa, then expansion, Balarāma; then catur-vyūha—Saṅkarṣaṇa, Pradyumna, Aniruddha, like that. Then Nārāyaṇa, then dvitīya catur-vyūha. From dvitīya catur-vyūha, Vaikuṇṭha, Saṅkarṣaṇa, then puruṣa, puruṣa-avatāra. These puruṣas are three. In the Bhagavad-gītā Arjuna recognized Kṛṣṇa as puruṣa: puruṣaṁ śāśvatam ādyam (BG 10.12). So He’s the puruṣa. God is puruṣa, male. God is not female. Female . . . the śakti, that is female, prakṛti. In the Bhagavad-gītā also it is mentioned, prakṛtir me aṣṭadhā, bhinnā prakṛtir me aṣṭadhā (BG 7.4). This material nature is separated energy, divided into eight elements: earth, water, air and fire, then ether, mind, intelligence and ego. These are all prakṛti, material. Bhinnā me prakṛtir aṣṭadhā. Bhinnā. Bhinnā means “separated.” There is not direct connection. But another prakṛti, that is . . . apareyam itas tu viddhi me prakṛtiṁ parā (BG 7.5). This is inferior energy, material elements, and there is superior element, prakṛti. That is also prakṛti.

We are prakṛti. Prakṛti means under the control of the puruṣa. That is natural. We cannot conceive equal rights of puruṣa and prakṛti. That is not Vedic conception. Vedic conception is puruṣa, the superior, Supreme; and prakṛti means subordinate. Puruṣa is predominator, and prakṛti is predominated. So we living entities, we are prakṛti. Falsely if we try to become puruṣa, that is māyā. We should remain prakṛti, subservient, predominated. That is this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. Because generally the people are misled, thinking himself as puruṣa: “I am the enjoyer.” But that is not the fact. That false ego, that “I am enjoyer,” that is false ego. And real ego is “I am servant of Kṛṣṇa.” So there is no necessity of giving up egotism or egoism, but it must be real. At the present moment we are falsely thinking, “I am this body,” every one of us. There is no argument. The whole material world is going on on the basis of this false conception that “I am this body.” And because I am this body, therefore “I am American,” “I am Indian.” So this is false ego.

So from this false ego, when we come to real ego . . . what is that real ego? That “I am servant of Kṛṣṇa.” Gopī-bhartur pada-kamalayor dāsa-dāsa-dāsa-dāsānudāsaḥ (CC Madhya 13.80). That is real ego. So our this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is teaching people how to come to the real ego, real constitutional position. The Māyāvādī philosophy, they are also trying to do that, but they’re another false ego: ahaṁ brahmāsmi. Ahaṁ brahmāsmi—”I am Brahman”—that is a fact, but I am not Supreme Brahman, Para-brahman. The Māyāvādī, they take it: “Because I am Brahman, I am Supreme Brahman.” No. Suppose you are all coming from America. You can claim that you are American, but that does not mean you are Mr. Ford, the President. So similarly, this is false ego. If somebody thinks, “Because I am American, therefore I am equal to Mr. Ford,” that is false. That is not . . . so our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is how to bring back these, I mean to say, insane, crazy fellows to their real consciousness. These crazy fellows, they are thinking, “I am God,” “I am master,” “I am this,” “I am that,” “I am prime minister,” “I am president.” This is false ego. The real ego is, “I am servant of Kṛṣṇa.” That is the beginning of Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s teaching.

When Caitanya Mahāprabhu was approached by Sanātana Gosvāmī, his first question was ke āmi: “Who am I?” This is the first education, spiritual education. And the same thing is taught in the Bhagavad-gītā, because Arjuna was too much identifying himself the bodily conception of life: “I belong to this Kurus’ family, so if I kill them, then family will be ruined. The women will be widows, and they’ll be corrupted. Then there will be unwanted children, varṇa-saṅkara, and in this way the whole world will be hellish,” and so on, so on, so many—but beginning with the bodily conception of life. All, what was, Arjuna was explaining to Kṛṣṇa, that was . . . from material point of view, it is very nice. He wanted to become nonviolent. He did not like to kill his family members. He, rather, liked to forego his claim, that “I don’t want. Let them enjoy.” But everything, from material point of view, it was very nice proposal. But this identification with family, with nation, with community, this is all foolishness. All foolishness.

So if you study this point only, you’ll see the whole world is full of fools and rascals, that’s all, because everyone is identifying with his body. There is fight, the United Nation. What is this United Nation nonsense? Assembly of rascals and fools, that’s all. (laughter) Because they have got this bodily concept of life we can say, freely. There is no—what is called?—defaming. Everyone, fools and rascals. How we can say? On the strength of Vedic knowledge. This is our power. Otherwise how we can challenge the United Nation that “You are all assembly of fools and rascals”? This is Vedic knowledge. We can say, and prove it, that they are all fools and rascals from the spiritual point of view, because they do not know their identification. This is the first education: to know one’s identification. That is being taught by Sanātana Gosvāmī and Caitanya Mahāprabhu. He was prime minister. He knew himself, Sanātana Gosvāmī, that he was prime minister of Hussain Shah, and he’s coming of very learned brāhmaṇa family. He knew it. Then why he’s asking, ke āmi: “Who I am?”

This is knowledge. This is knowledge. One has to understand himself. That is the basic principle of spiritual life. Unless we understand who I am . . . you go to the spiritual master, our first business is inquiry. That inquiry is “Who am I?” This is the . . . that is the beginning of inquiry. So our this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is authorized. We have printed one pamphlet, “Kṛṣṇa Consciousness Movement Is Authorized.” It is not a sentiment, fanaticism. No. It is scientific, authorized. I am very glad that you European and American boys, you have taken so much trouble to come here, but you’ll be benefited if you come here and try to take lessons from Caitanya Mahāprabhu as He gave it to Sanātana Gosvāmī. Sanātana Gosvāmī inquired, “Who am I?” and He replied very simple thing: jīvera svarūpa haya nitya kṛṣṇa dāsa (CC Madhya 20.108). This is the beginning of our lesson, so we must understand very nicely this point.

So this material world is explained here: tasyaiva te vapur idaṁ nija-kāla-śaktyā. Energy, Kṛṣṇa’s energy, prakṛti. Energy means prakṛti. So parasya brāhmaṇa śakti. Eka-sthāne sthitasyāgner jyotsnā vistāriṇi yathā, parasya brāhmaṇaḥ śakti tathaiva akhilaṁ jagat (CC Madhya 13.65, purport). Then same thing we’ll find in the Vedic literature everywhere, either you read Purāṇas or Mahābhārata or Bhagavad-gītā or Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam or Vedānta-sūtra. Vedānta-sūtra also says that “The origin . . . the Absolute Truth is origin, and everything is emanation.” So emanation and the original fact—vapur idam. Idaṁ hi viśvaṁ bhagavān ivetaraḥ (SB 1.5.20): “This viśvam, this universe, is Bhagavān in one sense.” Just like this my finger, so that is also my body. Although it is named “finger,” but it is my body. Or even a piece of hair, that is also my body, although it is differently named, “hair.” So similarly, when you understand that every particle of this material world is also the body of the Supreme Lord, that is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Aṇḍāntara-stha-paramāṇu-cayāntara-sthaṁ. Eko ‘py asau racayituṁ jagad-aṇḍa-koṭi (BS 5.35). So there are millions and trillions of universes, and each atom of each universe is Kṛṣṇa. That we have to understand. That is being explained here.

Tasyaiva te vapur idaṁ nija-kāla-śaktyā sañcodita-prakṛti dharmaṇa ātma-gūḍham. The secret, the people, they do not know. They . . . but Prahlāda Mahārāja knows. Ambhasi. This is the beginning of creation, ambhasi. Ambhasy ananta-śayanāt. Anantadeva . . . Ananta faces, there are. On that Ananta-nāga, the Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu is lying on. So from the navel of Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu there is a lotus flower, vaṭavat-mahābjam. So, so there is Brahmā, and Brahmā created other thing. So it is just like the . . . in a previous verse it has been explained, “Just like the seed of the fruit of the tree.” Seed is the cause of the tree, and tree is the cause of the seed. In this way the whole material cosmic manifestation is there, and vapur idaṁ tava te. So everything of Kṛṣṇa. Therefore a Vaiṣṇava’s, I mean to say, conception is that everything at least Kṛṣṇa’s, so everything should be utilized for Kṛṣṇa’s benefit. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness, not “my benefit.” “I also belong to Kṛṣṇa, so I must be utilized for Kṛṣṇa’s benefit.” So in this way, if we develop our Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then we’ll be benefited.

Thank you very much. (end)