The Supreme Living Entity and Creation

Devotional service and planetary systems

0:00Smaraṇaṁ pāda-sevanaṁ arcanaṁ vandanaṁ dāsyaṁ sakhyam ātma-nivedanam. This verse was spoken by Prahlāda Mahārāja, the path of devotional service. Śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ. To chant. First of all, to hear. Śravaṇaṁ.

0:51Śravaṇaṁ means to hear. To hear and then chant. Śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ: to hear and chant about whom? Viṣṇu. Viṣṇu means the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Tad viṣṇoḥ paramaṁ padaṁ. Viṣṇu is the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

1:28Nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām. Living entities. We are all living entities. Not only we, but there are many other living entities; and in higher planetary systems, they are more, uh, highly situated.

1:55Their duration of life, their standard of living, their knowledge, everything—if you go higher and higher to the planetary systems, in each and every planet we'll find thousand times better situation than this planet.

2:22There are fourteen planetary systems. We are in the middle planetary system. Oṁ bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ. Those who are initiated, they chant this mantra: bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ. Bhūloka, Bhuvarloka and Svarloka.

2:50Lower planetary system, middle planetary system, intermediate planetary system, and higher planetary system. So there are all living entities. No planet is without living entities. It is a wrong theory.

3:15Everywhere there are living entities. So innumerable planets, innumerable universes, innumerable varieties of living entities— that is the creation of God.

God as the supreme father

3:38And God Himself is also a living entity. But He is the Supreme. Just like in this meeting, you have selected me as the supreme person here. So I may be a supreme person within the group.

4:00Similarly, your president Nixon may be a supreme person within your national group. So he is a supreme person in a country, another country, another country. So this is only one planet.

4:19Similarly, each and every planet has a supreme person. Just like in the sun planet, the supreme person is called Vivasvān. Those who have read Bhagavad-gītā, they know.

4:47So in the sun planet, the supreme predominating person, or the president, we may say, his name is Vivasvān at the present moment. Their duration of life is very, very long in the upper planetary system.

5:10So these are the descriptions of the living entities. Intelligent living entities, demigods, human beings, civilized beings.

5:24And the animals, the plants, the trees, the birds, the bees, the aquatics, the insects, all of them are living entities. But they are in different grades. That is different. Going into the room. That should be chained. Yeah.

6:01Nobody should enter into this thing. So Viṣṇu or God is the supreme living entity. He is also a living entity as we are living entities. He is the supreme living entity. And we are born of Him.

6:28Just like we children, we are born of our father, similarly, God is the Supreme Father. So we are all born. He is the Supreme Father. From Him we have taken birth. So nityo nityānām, that He is the Supreme.

6:58And He is all-pervasive. How He is all-pervasive? All-pervasive means that He is also sitting within our heart. In the Bhagavad-gītā, we have learned that God has hands and legs everywhere. Sarvataḥ pāṇi-pādas tat.

7:25Pāṇi means hands. And pāda means legs. And another place in the Vedic literature we find that: apāṇi-pādo — He has no hands, no legs. Javana-gṛhītā. But still, He can accept.

7:54Whatever you offer Him in devotion and faith, He'll accept. In the Bhagavad-gītā you have read: patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ yo me bhaktyā prayacchati, tad ahaṁ bhakty-upahṛtam aśnāmi.

8:12Kṛṣṇa said that a devotee, poorest, a poorest of the poorest can collect a little flower, a little leaf, a little water — patraṁ puṣpaṁ, phalaṁ, toyaṁ. Toyaṁ means water.

8:38Yo me bhaktyā prayacchati: anyone who offers Me these things in devotion and love, tad ahaṁ aśnāmi — I eat.

8:54So one place it is said that God has no hand, and another place He says, Vedas says, but He can accept what you offer Him in devotion.

9:14Therefore, the conclusion is that God is not without hand or leg, but His hands and legs are different quality. That is explained in the Brahma-saṁhitā: īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ.

9:38His hands or legs or other limbs of the body, parts of the body, they are of spiritual quality.

9:53Otherwise, if God is in Vaikuṇṭha, in His kingdom, how He can accept the patraṁ puṣpaṁ, the fruits and flowers and water we offer? But He says, "I take it, I eat it." He's not lying.

10:13Therefore, even He is many, many thousands of miles away from us, still, He is within ourselves and He accepts. So these Vedic instructions have to be learned very carefully, attentively, from the person who has realized.

10:43Then we can understand about God. Now it is a common argument. We say everyone, either Hindu, Muslim or Christian, it doesn't matter, we say God the Father. So He is the Supreme Father.

11:06And Bhagavad-gītā also Kṛṣṇa says: ahaṁ bīja-pradaḥ pitā. Pitā means father. And bīja-pradaḥ means seed-giving. Krishna.

11:21In the material world, the father injects the seed in the womb of the mother and the mother gives facility to develop the birth.

11:35Similarly, the Supreme Father impregnates the material nature with the seeds of living entities, and the material nature gives birth to so many species of life. It is very plain fact.

11:56The same system is going on in our ordinary life. And it is in every scripture God is accepted as Father. It doesn't matter whether it is Vedas, the Bible, or Quran.

12:13And He is actually, first, from argument's sake also, if somebody tries to understand how I have come into existence. The common sense will say, "My father has given birth to me."

12:35Then how my father came into existence? His father. Go on searching: his father, his father, his father, his father. So there must be one ultimate father. You cannot deny this fact.

12:54Without a Supreme Father, how this birth, this generation has come into being? So therefore, it is the conclusion of all Vedic scriptures: God is Father. Now, what kind of father is He? He is Father of all living.

13:22Sarva-yoniṣu kaunteya sambhavanti mūrtayaḥ—there are eight million four hundred thousand of forms or species of life. And He says that "I am the father of all of them."

13:44Now suppose if you want to know about your forefather, your great-grandfather's great-grandfather or something, his great-grandfather.

Vedic knowledge versus mental speculation

14:08How you can know about him? Suppose your forefathers, great-grandfather's great-grandfather was Mr. John. And if you want to know something about Mr. John, how you can know him?

14:26Can you know him by speculation that that Mr. John was like this, was like that? No, that is not possible. You cannot know about your forefather who established your family.

14:46Everyone has got a tradition, a family, the family title is there. So if you want to know about your the first father, how you can know about it? You cannot know by speculation. That is not possible.

15:09You have to know from the right source in the family member.

15:15Either your father will describe about him, or your grandfather will describe about him, or you might have a family diary or chronological table, the genealogical table that his son, his son, his son, his son has.

15:33Anyway, you have to know about that, Mr. John, through authoritative description of literature or from the authoritative version of your father, grandfather, like that.

15:47You cannot speculate that certain such Mr. John was like this. That is not possible. However you may go on speculating, that will not be correct.

16:01But if you get authoritative family traditional information, generation by generation, you can understand. So if you cannot understand a material forefather's history by speculation, how can you speculate about God?

16:27So those who are speculating about God — "God may be like this, God may be like that, God is person, God is impersonal, God has hand, God has leg, God has no leg, no hand" — not in that.

16:45You have to take the information of God from the right source, then you will have right knowledge about God. Exactly like that.

16:59If you take the family history, traditional history of your family, you can know about your forefathers' activities, or from history, you can learn the activities of previous kings.

17:15How we learn the history of the previous kings? Just like your President Washington. You have not seen President Washington. How do you know about President Washington? You know by reading history.

17:35You know from traditional message coming from President Washington or so. Similarly, you have to learn about God from authoritative Vedic scripture. Now here we have got Bhagavad-gītā, which is spoken by God Himself.

18:04Bhagavān uvāca. It is not that I am saying that Bhagavad-gītā was spoken by God Himself. But great authorities, they all said.

18:19Formerly Vyāsadeva, Nārada, and in the modern age, great ācāryas — Rāmānujācārya, Madhvācārya, Nimbārka, Lord Caitanya — everyone, anyone who accepts Vedas, they will accept Krishna as the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

18:45In India, there is not a single Hindu or not a single Indian who does not know Krishna; everyone knows the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

19:02So if you want to learn about God, this is the process: that you have to learn from an authoritative source. And here in the Bhagavad-gītā, God Himself is speaking about Himself. How you can realize God?

Perceiving the divine in nature

19:25God says, "mṛtyuḥ sarva-haraś cāham." And describing Himself, at last He says — not at last, somewhere He said — that "I am death." All-plundering death. We are... we are becoming plundered by time.

19:57Just like I am seventy-four years old. So my seventy-three years of age has been plundered. So we are being plundered in course of time.

20:19Everyone, if you ask, "What is the age of this child?" his mother says, "He is three years old." Three years old. We think that he is growing, but actually three years are reduced.

20:40The actual fact is, suppose the child will live for a hundred years. So three years are already minus. Therefore, it is we are being plundered. Actually, we are being plundered.

20:58And Krishna said that the last plunder is at death. When death comes, everything goes finished.

21:10My body finished, my bank balance finished, my relatives finished, my education finished, my motor car finished, everything finished. Sarva-haraḥ. So, Krishna says that "I am all-plundering death."

21:36So, those rascals who say that "If there is God, then we want to see." This is a line. Everyone sees God. God says that "I am this." Just like God says, "raso 'ham apsu kaunteya." "I am the taste in the water."

22:09Who has not tasted the water? Every day we are drinking water. Have you not tasted? So if you cannot see Him as the Supreme Person, God, then you can see the taste, you can perceive the taste of water.

22:32Just like a third-class man or an illiterate man who does not know how the government is going on, he may say that "I do not see what is God." For him, the red light and the green light is government.

22:56As long as the red light is there, that is government order, and then who cares for the red light? So everyone sees God, just like everyone sees government, but he lied that "I do not see God." Liar.

23:17Every moment everyone is seeing God. So God says that mṛtyuḥ sarva-haraś cāham, at last I am the ultimate plunderer as death. So just like Hiraṇyakaśipu, he didn't care for God. But his son Prahlāda was God conscious.

23:55So he challenged his son: "Where is your God? You are always talking of God. Where is your God?" And the child was seeing to the columns, to the pillars of the palace. So he was very angry.

24:19He asked his son, "Is your God in this pillar?" He said, "Yes, my dear father, God is everywhere." He held up anger, he immediately broke the pillar and from the pillar God came out.

24:44So these kind of atheist class of men, they meet God as death. At that time he cannot say "I do not see God." God says, "I am death." So who does not see death? Who is a man here present who has not seen? Somebody is dying.

25:14Everybody. Nobody will live. So God is seen by the demons as death. And God is seen by the devotee as Kṛṣṇa. So everyone sees God. Nobody can say "I have not seen God."

25:42Just like nobody can say that "I do not know what is government." You do not know government? Just go to the street and you see the light, you see government.

25:56You may be a very rich man, but as soon as there is government red light, you have to stop your car. So similarly, God is seen in different grades. God is seen by everyone, but in different grades, in different capacities.

26:22Nobody can say that "I have not seen God." This is light. Everyone has seen God. And even if he has not seen, he can see from the description how God can be seen. In Buddhism, God is everything.

26:41Therefore, everything, in everything we can see God. But the atheists, the demons, the agnostics, they see God in a different way, and the devotees see God in a different way.

27:01A devotee, as soon as he sees a flower, he thinks of God: "Oh, how nice an artist is God, how nicely painted this flower symmetrically! Where red is required, there is red; where white is required, there is color."

27:23Without any brush, without any color, God has painted a nice flower. A devotee can see. You cannot say that this flower, this artistic flower, has come out itself. That is nonsense.

27:45There is the hand of God, there is the brush of God, there is the color of God, and actually it has been done by God, as we paint a flower, but His energies are so perfect that you cannot see; although you cannot see Him, it is being done.

28:12Therefore Vedas said, "He has no hand."

28:16As soon as we speak of a hand, we think of my hand, an imperfect hand, so God hasn't got that imperfect hand. He has got such a nice, perfect hand that anywhere He is working. How He is working anywhere?

28:38Everywhere, anywhere there is a living entity. And He is sitting in everyone's heart. And He is dictating. This is described in the Bhagavad-gītā: «sarvasya cāhaṁ hṛdi sanniviṣṭo» — and sitting in everyone's heart.

29:00«mattaḥ smṛtir jñānam apohanaṁ ca». From Me. One can remember. Smṛti. Smṛti means remembering. Jñāna. Knowledge. A scientist is working very nicely. But who is giving him knowledge? God. The artist painting very nicely.

29:27Who is giving him the knowledge? God. "I'm forgetting." That is also God is making me to forget. These are described in the Bhagavad-gītā. So God is doing just like a very big businessman.

29:51He is acting through his workers, millions of workers working in the factory. But actually he is working, his brain is working. But if you go to him in his room, you will find that he is sitting silent.

30:13Sarvasya cāhaṁ hṛdi... that Veda says, na tasya kāryaṁ karaṇaṁ ca vidyate. God has nothing to do. Why he shall do? If he's all-powerful, the Supreme. Why he shall do? He has got so many assistants.

30:37Parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate. Therefore you'll find God always enjoying in the company of Rādhārāṇī. His only business is to enjoy. Why he shall work? What is our tendency? We also want to enjoy without working.

31:01Wherefrom we get this tendency? Because it is in God. We are sons of God. We have inherited that tendency not to work, but in the human psychology, as long as he is forced to work, he doesn't like to work.

31:27If he gets money without working, nobody will work. But when the money is finished, he goes to work. This is psychology. Therefore, the real fact is that living entities, they have got the God's quality. What is that?

31:53No work, but simple enjoyment. They are not working. Everyone is working for him. But he is enjoying. That is possible for you also. When you become free from this material contamination, that is Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Spiritual world and material anxiety

32:22If you associate with God, just like this picture, God's associates, the gopis or the cowherd boys, or the inhabitants of Vṛndāvana, they are all associates of Krishna.

32:40As Krishna has nothing to do, similarly, they have not to do anything. There is a place where without doing anything you get everything enjoyable. That is possible. Ānanda-mayo 'bhyāsāt.

33:02Simply transcendental pleasure and enjoyment. There is life. Here we are struggling hard to get little peace and happiness, but there is possibility of eternal happiness and eternal peace.

33:23These things are described in the Bhagavad-gītā: yad gatvā na nivartante tad dhāma paramaṁ mama. As this is a planet, there are many variegated planets. Similarly, there are many variegated planets in the spiritual world.

33:45They are called Vaikuṇṭha. This very name suggests: vai means "without", kuṇṭha, anxiety. So Vaikuṇṭha-lokas... Here in this planet, we are full of anxiety. Every one of us. Simple anxiety.

34:12Bird, beast, human being, king, president, Nixon and this and that, everyone full of anxiety. Nobody can say, "I have no anxiety." No. The greater his position is, he has got greater anxiety.

34:29Rather, a poor man has no anxiety. So these lokas are kuṇṭha lokas. Kuṇṭha means anxiety. Why will there not be anxiety?

34:46Because the disease of this material world is that however you may advance yourself scientifically or anyway, socially or conventionally, the four things— janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi: birth, death, old age, and disease—they are with you.

35:11Therefore, when a man is diseased, he is full of anxiety. When there is question of death, he is full of anxiety. When there is birth, there is anxiety.

35:27The mother giving birth to the child, she is also full of anxieties, and the child, the greatest anxieties; there is no surety whether it will live or die during the birth, especially in these days. Why?

35:50Before birth they are killed within the womb. This is the scientific world. Before the child has taken shelter in the womb of the mother, and science had discovered how to kill. This is going on. So where is the exit?

36:17The child in this way lying down within the womb of the mother is full of anxiety. From the beginning of the construction of this body, full of anxiety, up to the point of death.

36:37So we do not think seriously how we are living in this material world. And we are proud that we are advanced in education, advanced in civilization. Nothing.

Human responsibility and Krishna consciousness

37:02The animals, they have no aim of life, going on by nature's way. The modern civilization is like that. But human being is not meant for such irresponsible life.

37:21So if you want to take advantage of the facility of this human form of life, you should be very careful that we may not miss this opportunity.

37:35You have got the greatest opportunity to understand your position as part and parcel of God. God is full of bliss, knowledge, and eternity. You are part and parcel, you have also the same thing.

37:54But you have been covered by this material energy. So you have to come out of it. That is described in the Bhagavad-gītā: «daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā duratyayā».

38:20The laws of material nature are so stringent that nobody can surpass it. «daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā». But these laws of material nature, or the material nature itself, is working under God.

38:43Just like police force is working under government. So if you become a good citizen, then there is no question of police force. If you become criminal, then there is necessity of police force.

39:02But if you are a civil gentleman, do not violate the laws, then police department may remain there, but you have no connection.

39:16Similarly, if you surrender unto God, the māyā may be there, but it has nothing to do with you. You are free from the clutches of māyā. Anyone who surrenders unto Me, he surpasses the jurisdiction of this material nature.

39:44So try to do that. Don't miss this opportunity. Surrender unto Krishna. Surrender unto God. If you think Krishna is Indian, that is of course different thing.

40:00But whatever conception of God you have got, you surrender to God, then you will be free from the clutches of the stringent laws of material nature. And then you will be free. Your real life will be there.

40:22Ānandamayo 'bhyāsāt. Simply enjoyment. Simply transcendental bliss and eternity. So this Krishna consciousness movement is started in your country to give you perfect knowledge about God.

40:41If you want, you can take advantage of it. For you only, we have taken this nice church. For us, we don't require any nice place. We can sit down underneath the tree. This room is for you.

41:02We invite you to come here, to chant with us. We hear, you hear the science of God and then take little prasāda and then you go about your day. So we are inviting you. Don't think that it is sectarianism.

41:29God is not Hindu, not Muslim, not Christian. God is God. So don't think that why you shall go to Krishna temple, it is of Indian culture. No, we are speaking this philosophical topic. It is neither Christian nor Hindu.

41:53It is fact. Philosophy is philosophy. When I say raso 'ham apsu kaunteya, God says, "I am the taste in the water." The taste in the water is neither Christian nor Hindu nor Muslim. Taste is taste.

42:10Why do you say, take it, or it is Hindu taste or it is Indian taste? Taste is the same, either in India or in Czechoslovakia or China, Russia. The taste is there.

Universal qualities of supreme love

42:28The sun, the sun when he's, uh, on the American horizon? Does it mean that is the American sun? Or when it is on the Indian horizon, does it mean that is the Indian sun? It is our creation. God is one.

42:50Eka brahma dvitīya nāsti. God cannot be two. If God has competition, then he is not God. If I am God and you are God and he is God, then we are all dogs, we are not God. God will have no competition. God is great.

43:15Nobody can be greater than him. Nobody can be equal to him. That is God. God cannot be created. God cannot be manufactured. One cannot become God by meditation. God is God from the very beginning.

43:37He hasn't got to meditate to become God. So don't be misled by all these false assumptions.

43:49Take: God is great, God is beautiful, God is all-powerful, God is all-wise, God is all-famous, and try to see where that all-famous, all-powerful, all-beautiful, all-wise personality is there.

44:10If you sincerely make a scientific research, you'll find in Krishna they're all present. All-powerful, all-beautiful, all-famous, all-wise. Everything.

44:30So try to understand the science of Krishna, and we are trying to push this movement, Krishna consciousness movement, to understand God. So our only request is that you take advantage of this facility.

44:51Don't take us as sectarian or this, that. We're actually teaching love of God. That is our mission. Anyone who wants to love God, that is the highest perfection of life. We are meant for loving God.

45:12Just like a father takes the responsibility of the family, he expects that his wife, his children, all will love him, and he'll be happy to work for them. Similarly, there is a big family of God. We are all children.

45:34If we simply love him, he'll be happy. And you will have no anxiety. Just like if one has got a father—every father—he has no anxiety. So we have got the richest father. Why should there be any anxiety at all?

45:55Just like a little child. As soon as he's in difficulty, the mother is immediately there: "Baby!" "Yes, my dear child, come on." And he's happy. "Oh, I've got my mother, I have got my father."

46:12Similarly, there is the eternal father. Why should you be unhappy? Why should you be unhappy at all? He is all-powerful, all riches, all ability, all potential. So why shall we have anxiety?

46:38Anxiety is due to our rebellious condition. We don't care for God. We don't acknowledge God. We disobey God. So these things we should give up and try to learn the science of God and become happy in this world.

46:59Thank you very much.