Learning One's True Identity
А. Ч. Бхактиведанта Свами Прабхупада
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Material identity and human purpose
That practically I do not know what I am. This is the actual position of all conditions. So he is under the impression that he is American, he is Indian, he is brāhmaṇa, he is kṣatriya, in so many ways.
But Sanātana Gosvāmī teaches us that this is not my identity. I am American, I am Indian, I am brāhmaṇa, I am kṣatriya, śūdra — this is not my identity.
So one has to learn in this human form of life actually what is his identity. Why is he suffering with material conditions of life, this body?
Why am I offered different types of body on account of my position in this body?
I have to undergo the process of changing this body, and according to different situations of the bodies, there are different types of suffering. That's according to different situations of the body.
The physiological condition of its survival. As soon as there is some disarrangement, they must go in parallel line. All the time, the kapha line is increased, then I'm cough.
Similarly, sometimes pitta line is increased, then there is this increase. Kapha, pitta, and vāyu — vāyu line is increased, then there is blood pressure. The Ayurvedic treatment, kapha-pitta-vāyu is very common. Tridhātu.
Vāsanātmaka-deha is tridhātu. Tri means three and dhātu means uh... In Ayurvedic secretion, there is pitta secretion, there is kapha secretion, and there is vāyu. Yes. There is big factories going on even. And we do not know.
We know that there is a factory, but how it is working, that is not known. Still I am claiming that this is my body. I am offered an opportunity to work, but the body is offered by prakṛti.
Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ. That was Sanātana Gosvāmī's... "Am I actually this body? Or am I offended? Then why am I suffering? I do not want to suffer."
Spiritual inquiry and authorized knowledge
These are the questions. But Caitanya Mahāprabhu says that kṛṣṇa-śakti dhara tumi, jāne saba jānī, tabu lāgi' pucha sādhu-rīti. Saba sādhu, saintly.
Although he knows everything, sādhu means one who knows śāstra, sādhu-śāstra. And guru, one who has a guru. And he is a devotee. See that, the definition of the sādhu. Sādhavaḥ, sādhu-ghoṣa. Sādhu means good.
Those who are possessed of many good qualities. Titikṣavaḥ. Sādhu means he is very tolerant. Titikṣavaḥ kāruṇikāḥ. He is very compassionate. Titikṣavaḥ kāruṇikāḥ, suhṛdaḥ sarva-dehinām.
And he is a friend of all, ajāta-śatravaḥ. He is not an enemy of anyone. Ajāta. No one is his enemy. These are the characteristics of a sādhu.
But such a sādhu, although he knows everything, still he remains just like an innocent ignoramus. He is not proud of his knowledge.
Caitanya Mahāprabhu said to Prakāśānanda Sarasvatī that "My spiritual master calculated my position as a first-class fool." Therefore, as a first-class fool, one has to empower some spiritual mind. That is the system.
Apana-pāvana lāgi' pucha sādhu-rīti. Still he makes his point by another sādhu. Then his confidence: "That's what I know is right."
You'll find in this chapter at the end, that Sanātana Gosvāmī, although he knew that Caitanya Mahāprabhu is Kṛṣṇa Himself, still he inquired in such a way, in this way, so that it was being confirmed by Caitanya Mahāprabhu Himself.
So there is a verse in the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu: viśvambhara-siddhāntaiḥ eṣām abhipsitaḥ sad-dharma-sambandham. Buddhaye yeṣāṁ nibandha... Anyone who is actually intuitive to understand the real power of spiritual realization.
And he inquired from his spiritual master very sincerely. Such person, “atirādhya mahā-bhāga siddhārthaḥ”, he all desires very soon becomes fulfilled.
In other words, one should be very serious and sincere, inquisitive, to inquire from the spiritual master. So, in other words, Sanātana Gosvāmī presented himself that he was very low, “nīca jāti”, uh, uh, “nīca karma”.
“My associates are very low-grade people, I belong to a lower grade caste,” so many things he humbly presented, uh,
but Caitanya Mahāprabhu congratulated him: “Not that you are lower grade, but you are a sādhu because you are so humble, and in order to confirm your knowledge, you are so humbly asking.”
So his first question is, “What I ask?” “I find you that you are the just suitable person who can broadcast this kind.”
“Yogyapātra-pātra” — the first-class, quite just suitable to a superior authority, just like a teacher can understand that, uh, whose student is very intelligent by his dealing.
Similarly, the spiritual master also can understand that who is actually fit for preaching. So Caitanya Mahāprabhu found Sanātana Gosvāmī is such person, “yogya-pātra”. For what? For preaching. “You have, here you are.
You are the just suitable part.” “Karuṇā-sāgara pāśa-pāśa-vināśaka”. “Therefore, I shall take the trouble of speaking, speaking to you all the details of this path of devotional service.”
Eternal nature of the soul
Caitanya Mahāprabhu says, “vande rūpa-sanātanau”, “raghu-yugau”. Why?
Because these Gosvāmīs were directly instructed by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, and Caitanya Mahāprabhu approved them as a fit candidate to understand about bhakti-rasa. Mahārāja.
And therefore, he has particularly taught personally to Rūpa Gosvāmī, Sanātana Gosvāmī, also Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya and Prakāśānanda Sarasvatī, Rāmānanda Rāya in this way. Now directly, Caitanya Mahāprabhu says,
because the question was, “Who am I?” “Actually what is my identity?”
Just as if you go any place, first of all, we will ask, "What is your name? What religion you follow? Uh, what is your father's name? What is your village, or town?" — so many things, identification.
So Caitanya Mahāprabhu directly reached the identification of the living entity without bothering, because he's already advanced in spiritual life.
Caitanya Mahāprabhu accepted Sanātana, that "You know everything, but you are putting your questions just to confirm, trial, uh, explain everything in detail." So he is beginning from the knowledge where Bhagavad-gītā is.
In Bhagavad-gītā, Śrī Kṛṣṇa Himself is demanding of the living entity that you surrender. Just like we sometimes chastise our subordinate, the servant: "Don't talk, follow what I say." That is authoritative.
So that is the... after discussing the whole Bhagavad-gītā — jñāna-yoga, karma-yoga, dhyāna-yoga — so many things, it is full of philosophical understanding.
But the conclusion is that after reading Bhagavad-gītā, understanding it very well, one has to surrender. That is the ideal result of understanding Bhagavad-gītā.
If after reading Bhagavad-gītā one does not surrender unto Kṛṣṇa, then he has simply wasted his time, because he could not follow what is the objective of the... he simply has simply wasted his time.
So the end of Bhagavad-gītā is the beginning of Caitanya Mahāprabhu's teaching. When you have ended your school education, then you are allowed to enter into the college education.
Caitanya Mahāprabhu's teaching can be understood by a person who has actually understood Bhagavad-gītā. Caitanya Mahāprabhu is Kṛṣṇa Himself.
So as Lord Kṛṣṇa, where he ended his teaching, from that point again, Caitanya Mahāprabhu begins. That is the identification of Caitanya, that He is Kṛṣṇa.
When He appeared as Kṛṣṇa, then He gave the Bhagavad-gītā, preliminary entrance to the spiritual life, matriculation examination. So here Caitanya Mahāprabhu begins: jīvera svarūpa haya kṛṣṇera nitya-dāsa.
Jīvera svarūpa haya kṛṣṇera nitya-dāsa. The whole question was what I am. So you are eternal servant of God. That is the beginning of Caitanya's teaching. You are eternal servant. Everyone is puffed up.
"There is no God, God is loitering in the street, I am God, you are God." So many theories of God without understanding his own position.
But Caitanya Mahāprabhu is speaking, beginning, that first of all understand that you are eternal servant of God. That is the beginning. Then love.
One who has not understood the simple fact that he is eternal servant of God, then he cannot understand what he is teaching else. kṛṣṇa-taṭasthā-śakti bhedābheda-prakāśa.
So the jīva, living entity, is uh marginal potency of Krishna. The jīva is not this body. deha-smṛti nāhi yāra, sei ta' mukta. deha-smṛti nāhi yāra, sei ta' mukta. sei ta' mukta. So, realize it. There.
So when the question of identity comes, first of all you think of this gross body. So you uh identify yourself and out and very name. I have the one with that one. Huh? I have the one that... How is that?
If somebody goes out, nobody knows. I think you know where you went. Where did we go to? I think it's also that... Right, probably that's nice. That's what we call that. So by analyzing what I am,
so I am not this body, I'm not this body, I am not this mind, but our spirit soul, and spirit soul is part and parcel of the Supreme Soul Krishna. This is self-realization.
Limitations of yoga and speculation
The yogī, the people are very much attracted for yoga system. But this yoga system is a commander for persons who are misled by the identification of bodies, around these bodies.
Therefore, they are given so many exercises so that they can concentrate. But if anyone understands that "I am not this body," so what shall I get by exercising the body?
Or if one understands that "I am not this mind," then what shall I get by speculating the mind? If I have no identification in the body and the mind, then where is the utility of yoga system and jñāna system?
He first will reject that "I'm not this." It's like if somebody comes here, he knows that he has no interest in this house. Then what business he has got to do here?
Similarly, it is a fact that I'm not this body, I'm not this mind, I am a eternal servant of God. Then why should I waste my time to have a yoga system or mental speculation?
Just immediately let me be engaged in the service of the Lord. That is my liberation and that is my constitutional position. Simple, simple. Why waste time? So what do you think? There is no need at all.
But people do not understand. They give more stress on the yoga system and jñāna system. What do you think? Yes, that's a sort of sense that it is. He's thinking that "By pressing my nose I will be much well known."
Or if I get some yoga-siddhi, if I can prepare rasagullā very cheap... then people... yes, they do that, actually they do that. Yes. People are attracted. People are so rascal.
Suppose the yogī has given two rasagullās, immediately prepared. What he has given? Two rasagullās. What is the price of two rasagullās? The four annas or eight annas. By giving eight annas he has captivated.
But he has no sense. He is God instead. He can be better. Just like another rascal was speaking that day that Ramakrishna induced Caitanya, of course, to give up drinking.
And I have to—I have, I have, uh, finished this drinking for thousands of men, then I am thousands better than Ramakrishna.
If that is the qualification of Ramakrishna, that he induced Girish Ghosh to give up drinking, that I have done for thousands of students; I am thousand times better God than Ramakrishna.
So these rascal people are misled in that. Because he induced Girish Ghosh to give up. I knew this Girish Ghosh. I saw him in Calcutta. He was a grand smoker of ganja. Yes. His son was also a ganja smoker.
Ramakrishna was a great one. He was an actor, a player. He was a good playwright, that's all. Uh, dancing dog. So that's all right. But what other quality is this one?
So Caitanya Mahāprabhu said that you are actually—your position is that you are eternal servant of Krishna.
Relationship between God and energy
You belong to the marginal potency. Marginal potency means Krishna has got, uh, uh, on the rough calculation, three potencies: external potency and, uh, internal potency and marginal potency.
So in the internal potency, the spiritual world is manifested. In the external potency, the material world is manifested.
And the jīvas, they are also another potency, taṭastha-śakti, because the jīva, if he likes, he can live in this material potency, or if he likes, he can live in this spiritual potency.
That's why you have selected to live with this Krishna consciousness at this time. This is spiritual phase. Before that, you were in material, so many material enjoyments like.
So if this jīva is called taṭastha-śakti, it is up to his selection, either here or there. Either I am a materialist or a spiritualist. That is called taṭastha-śakti, bhedābheda-prakāśa. Krishna-taṭastha-śakti.
Bhedābheda-prakāśa. Bhedābheda-prakāśa. Bheda means different. Abheda means, uh, one. So jīva being spiritual spark, it is abheda, non-different from Krishna in quality. Spark.
A spark is fire, but a particle of fire; so as a particle, it is different, but as fire, it is one. Krishna-tattva, tatastha, bhedābheda, this is Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu's acintya-bhedābheda-tattva.
It is very easy to understand. There is no necessity of specification very much to understand this simple truth. Simple truth. I am actually part and parcel of Krishna.
Therefore, all the qualities of Krishna I have got in minute quantities. Minute quantity. Just like Krishna is very much fond of loving. So we are also very much fond of loving.
Krishna has got attractions, therefore we have got the attractions. But all these qualifications are in minute quantities and perverted. That is material.
These very things, actually, in its original state, will be manifested in the association of Krishna in Goloka Vrindavana. Just like friendship, fraternity. Fraternity is also here.
Because fraternity is there, therefore fraternity; because janmādy asya yataḥ, everything in humanity is born from the original Absolute Truth. So wherefrom this fraternity comes, unless there is fraternity?
Wherefrom this attraction for young man and young woman comes? Because there is Krishna young, Rādhārāṇī is young, there is attraction, everything.
That veda-rahasya, this philosophy, "jīvera svarūpa haya kṛṣṇera nitya-dāsa, kṛṣṇera taṭasthā-śakti bhedābheda-prakāśa." Now he's analyzing. Caitanya Mahāprabhu, first time. Just like you analyze the sun.
The sun is a blazing fire. That is admitted by the scientists. Sometimes they present the photograph of the sun, blazing fire, is it not? So that is one for Krishna-siddhānta. Krishna is sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha.
So the sun means the original blazing fire, then the sunshine; and the sunshine means there are molecules, sparkling particular things. So in this way, there are manifestations of three kinds of potencies of Krishna.
So he's quoting one verse from Viṣṇu Purāṇa: ekadeśa- sthitasyāgner jyotsnā vistāriṇī yathā / parasya brahmaṇaḥ śaktiḥ sarvedam akhilaṁ jagat.
Ekadeśa-sthitasyāgner jyotsnā vistāriṇī yathā / parasya brahmaṇaḥ śaktiḥ sarvedam... Just as fire is situated in one place, it's not moving,
but the temperature and the illumination is expanding with heat, uh, heat and light.
Those who are conversant with the physics of heat and light, they can understand how constantly the waves of heat and light are coming from this fire. This is a very, um, nice example.
Yathāgner jyotsnā vistāriṇī, that is, vistāriṇī, vyāpinī, sarvedam akhilam, all this world, whole universe, not only this material world, but the spiritual world.
Because Krishna has got two potencies: spiritual potencies and material potencies. So for Him, both the potencies are one.
Just as electricity coming from the electric house, it is one, but it is utilized for various purposes. You can utilize it for making things cold, and you can utilize it for making things warm.
Similarly, kṛṣṇa-śaktiḥ parā-brahmaṇaḥ, the spiritual energy is coming from the same source of Krishna. But in the material world it is cold, and in the spiritual world it is warm. So Krishna hasn't got to move.
Those who are less intelligent, they cannot think that from a person such energies can come out which can create such wonderful things that it is impossible for them to think of personal God. That is the reason.
But actually we are finding the example of the sun. There is a sun-god. See, the blazing fire in the sun planet, that is also coming from the sun-god. And from the blazing fire of the sun, the sunshine is coming.
And the sunshine is composed of many small molecular particles of light. Para-brahmaṇaḥ śaktiḥ kṛṣṇasya. Para-brahmaṇaḥ... Brahman, we are all brahman because we are part and parcel. We are also brahman.
But for us, the Supreme Brahman. Nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām. Then the Supreme. They forget that.
They just... Just like we are in human society also, there is a leader who is far advanced in knowledge and guidance wherever you go; similarly, there is a big leader behind all this manifest. That is Śeṣa, Parabrahman.
So His brain, His energy, uh, His... That the impersonalists, they cannot conceive. That's how it is possible. Because they think Kṛṣṇa is like them. That's the problem of it.
That Atlantic Ocean is simply... well, it may be so great, it may be so great, it may be so great.
Similarly, as long as there is a question of a personal God, we think, «Yeah, well, that personal God may be a little more intelligent than me, a little more powerful than me».
But how it is that He has created the whole universe of the planets? That cannot accommodate in the tiny brain. But actually that is the fact. Kṛṣṇa's everything is so...
cit-śakti, spiritual energy; jīva-śakti, marginal potency; and māyā-śakti, external.
śaktayaḥ sarva-bhāvānām acintya-jñāna-gocarāḥ / yato brahmaṇas tāḥ sargādyā bhāva-śaktayaḥ bhavanti tapatāṁ śreṣṭha pāvakasya yathoṣṇatā. Śreṣṭha tapatāṁ tapasāṁ... Śrīdhara Svāmī is struggling.
ato 'to 'bhinnatvād eva taviha sargādyāḥ sargādyā aviṣayā anirūpyā brahmaṇas tāḥ śaktayaḥ svābhāvikyaḥ bhavanti.
Purification and the original source
So as there are different degrees of heat and light illumination, here is a power lamp.
So the degree of heating and degree of illuminating is greater than the lamp which has got fifteen candle power or, say, twenty-five candle power.
Similarly, there are different grades of living entities, and Kṛṣṇa exists. The only difference is that Kṛṣṇa has got the greatest amount of energy. Every one of us has some energy, minute quantity.
That is also analyzed by the Gosvāmīs. The living entities have got seventy-eight percent in minute quantity, not in full quantity. Lord Śiva has about eighty-four percent. Brahmā is amongst the living entities.
Therefore, Brahmā is less than Lord Śiva. Lord Śiva is eighty-four percent, and Nārāyaṇa is, uh, ninety-five percent or ninety-six percent, and Kṛṣṇa is cent percent. It is simply varieties of degrees.
You can claim that "I am also God." That's all right. Because we have got the God's qualities exactly like the, uh, spark of the fire has got the burning capacity. The quality is there. Similarly, you are also God.
You have got the qualities of God in minute quantity. But you cannot claim that you are full-fledged God. That is because if we understand this philosophy, there is no, uh, I will say, misunderstanding.
How we can claim that "I am possessing the full potential of Brahman," then how I am covered by māyā? These are the questions. Because I'm very small. Particles. Exactly the same example. This is spark of the fire.
Because it is very small, if it is out of the big uh, fire, then it is extinguished. If the fire quality is lost, it does not burn anymore, it becomes a cinder.
Similarly, when we are in the, uh, material energy, our, uh, burning power, our spiritual, um, sense, we are practically lost.
This, uh, power is lost also proportionately according to the three qualities of material nature as we accept it. Our spiritual sense becomes almost lost, because fully lost you cannot say, but originally spiritual it is.
See, when we are covered by the modes of darkness or ignorance, that is also very difficult. The persons who are in the darkness of ignorance, for them the progress is very difficult. Tamo-guṇa.
Similarly, rajo-guṇa is less difficult.
But when you have come on the platform of sattva-guṇa, then it is easier, because by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra or by hearing, uh, kṛṣṇa-kathā, saṅkīrtana, this covering degree of power covering becomes light.
Then your real energy comes out. Naṣṭa-prāyeṣv abhadreṣu nityaṁ bhāgavata-sevayā.
If you regularly hear Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, uh, Bhagavad-gītā, books like that, then, uh, and try to follow the regulative principles, naṣṭa-prāyeṣu, then the āvaraṇa, the covering, the material covering of rajo-guṇa, tamo-guṇa, will be destroyed. Even naṣṭa-prāyeṣv abhadreṣu nityaṁ bhāgavata-sevayā.
Then your devotional condition will be fixed.
Otherwise it will be flickering. Uh, the sahajiyās, those who do not step to the process of, uh, observing regulative principles, before them, because they have no standard, naṣṭa- prāyeṣu.
We have to dissipate, our mission is carrying. And this will help the debilitation. And when you are completely free from the contamination, uh, brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā, then you can understand the science of God.
Then he, you may become full. He may be full. And besides that, why he goes in this one, is going fine. Otherwise, if anyone walks independently, that's not good. Nobody knows how he has gone. So then, guess. Huh? For, uh...
Then we have one, just so... We think two, at least two should go, not one. For any other business, one may go, that's something. But we can... nobody should go alone.
When one hand Krishna is manifested from Vishnu, that's what Krishna is Vishnu. So we have not this time to that project. Don't quarrel on that point. Krishna is viṣṇu-tattva. Viṣṇu-tattva, jīva-tattva.
Krishna is the original Vishnu. This subject matter is discussed in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta.
This belief that Krishna, as Śaṅkarācārya also says, that Nārāyaṇa is transcendental, the same Nārāyaṇa has incarnated as Krishna, we are saying. So we have no objection to such a lot of fight on that side.
That's not very important.
If the act of Krishna is known, it's not ordinary man, very subject, but that's... Rāmādi-mūrtiṣu kalā-niyamena tiṣṭhan nānāvatāram akarod bhuvanesu kintu. this has vyākaraṇa-kārya in the word gītā.
For argument's sake, I say, Krishna says: mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat kiñcid asti dhanañjaya. There is no superior God, superior truth than... how Viṣṇu can be done about this? Nānyat. There is no other superior truth than Me.
That is the statement in Bhagavad-gītā. Then how Viṣṇu can be original? Krishna is original. Another statement is there himself: aham ādir hi devānām, that I am the origin of all the devas.
The Viṣṇu is in the material world. Viṣṇu is the supreme deva because Brahmā is born from Viṣṇu and Shiva is born from Brahmā. And Brahmā, Viṣṇu, and Shiva, they are considered the supreme God in this material world.
And He is the original. Then how Krishna... Krishna says: aham ādir hi devānām, original... Brahmā, Viṣṇu, Maheśa. Aham ādir hi devānām. Then another place: ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavo, and the manifestation of everything.
So how Viṣṇu can be greater than Krishna? Some state, in Bhagavad-gītā, devānām, all the devatās. So amongst all the devatās — Brahmā, Viṣṇu, Maheśa — they are considered the chief deities.
Krishna says that "I am original of them." This is for argument's sake. So what should be their answer? Devānām... devānām means bahu-vacana.
All the devatās, all the gods, that 33 crore demigods, and Krishna says: aham ādir hi devānām. So what is their answer? Some Bhagavad-gītā... Krishna is speaking lies or what? What do they think? Blaspheming it?
They're not accepting Krishna. They accept the self. They are not accepting that Krishna is God. There are so many people, they ask this question. Well, then he's not Hindu. All Hindus believe Krishna is the Supreme Lord.
He does not believe in the Vedas. Not even... not even a great demigod... no, many truths, yeah. Never mind. Brahmā says that "I do not know Krishna fully." Nārada says, "I do not know Krishna fully."
Lord Shiva says... there are many statements like that. But if people do not believe Krishna as the Supreme Lord... And what is that Supreme Lord?
For preaching, we will have to face so many opposing elements, so you should have some clear understanding. Well, you can say in that case that we are following the Sanātana-dharma system.
That is following a particular line. And this is not just me. There is... please, of course.