670224 - Lecture CC Madhya 06.154 - San Francisco

Lectures by Date, 1967

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

670224CC-SAN FRANCISCO - February 24, 1967 - 25:17 Minutes

Prabhupāda: Lord Caitanya, from different quotations of Vedas, He establishes that the Supreme Absolute Truth is person. He's not imperson. And so far Śaṅkarācārya is concerned, he was ordered to preach Māyāvāda philosophy by the Supreme Personality of Godhead for the time being. It is not that this is the only process for realizing the Absolute Truth.

There is a very nice story in this connection. There was a physician and his servant. So one day the physician was called by some person to treat his horse. So when the physician came, he asked, "What is the matter?" He says that, "The horse has suddenly swollen his throat. So please treat." Then the physician took a hammer and strongly struck the swollen portion, and it was at once cured.

The servant saw, "So this is the process of curing swollen parts of the body." So on that very day, he resigned his service and he thought that "Now I have learned how to cure swollen parts of the body." And whenever he was called to treat such disease, he used to hammer over that swollen part and the patient died.

So when he came to his former master, "Sir, you cured that horse, the swollen part, by beating hammer, but when I treat, it dies, the patient dies. What is the matter?" So he explained, "You nonsense, the swollen is not cured by beating. That was a special case. The horse took a squash while he was in the garden, and he could not swallow it up. Therefore it was swollen. So I struck therefore, and it was broken, and the same thing, his swollenness cured. But you foolish, you are simply striking on swollen parts?"

So this is there. Śaṅkarācārya took a special measure to convert the Buddhists to come to Vedic process, because at that time everyone became atheist, following the Buddha philosophy, void. Therefore he had to preach that, "Yes. It is void, but that is truth. That void is truth, and this material manifestation, nirvāṇa, that is false. Therefore Lord Buddha taught you that 'Finish this, these material activities, and your miseries will be solved.' "

Śaṅkarācārya said: "Yes, this is all right, but there is Brahman." But he did not describe the Brahman, whether He has . . . he is person or He has got pastimes, He has got many planets and there are many devotees, because those fools were not able to understand. Therefore he took for the time being. Caitanya Mahāprabhu, while criticizing, I mean to say, Śaṅkarācārya, He is always taking care that "It was not the fault of Ācārya Śaṅkara, because he's Lord Śiva, and he cannot make any mistake, but he was ordered to do so for the time being.

Actually, Absolute Truth, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, His body is spiritual. He is person. The difference is that He's sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha (Bs. 5.1). And so far the living entities are concerned, they are His energies." Energies. So the distinction between energy and energetic we have discussed several times. So energy is almost the same qualitative as the energetic. The same example, that the sun planet is hot; therefore the energy of the sun planet, sunshine, it is also hot. Sunshine, the sun is illuminating; therefore the energy of the sun, sunshine, it is also illuminating.

So there are so many qualitative equality with the supreme, I mean to say, living entity. But Śaṅkarācārya's statement that, "We living entities, we are God, and now we are illusioned in māyā. As soon as we become free from this māyā, we become God," that is not fact. You do not become God, but you are already in godly quality, qualities, to some extent, not fully.

So when you are free from this material clutches, you attain your original quality, spiritual quality. And that spiritual quality, you can serve. Because service means the person who is served, he is also person, and the servant is also person. Otherwise there is no question of service. Service, whenever we say service, there must be a person to take, to accept the service, and there must be one person who renders the service.

Therefore dvaita-vāda, duality, the . . . this predominator and the predominated. So Caitanya Mahāprabhu is giving evidence from Bhagavad-gītā:

apareyam itas tv anyāṁ

prakṛtiṁ viddhi me parām

jīva-bhūtaṁ mahā-bāho

yayedaṁ dhāryate jagat

(BG 7.5)

Now, apareyam, iyam. Before this verse, Lord Kṛṣṇa has described that "Earth, water, fire, air and ether, they are My different separated energies, and beyond this separated energy, there is another, superior energy. This, these energies are inferior, and there is another, superior energy." So therefore jīva, jīva, the living entities, they are described in the Bhagavad-gītā as energy, not the energetic.

viṣṇu-śaktiḥ para prokta

kṣetrajñākhya tatha para

avidya-karma-samjñānya

tṛtiya śaktir isyate

(CC Madhya 6.154)

So . . . what is this sound?

Eh?

Devotee: Motor. Someone's running some kind of machine. It's interfering.

Prabhupāda: Oh all right. So He's quoting another verse from Viṣṇu Purāṇa, where it is stated that viṣṇu-śaktiḥ para prokta: "The energy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is also transcendental." Energy, that that means of the same quality. The same example—just like sunshine and the sun, they are of the same quality, similarly, the energy of the Supreme Lord, because the Supreme Lord is all-spiritual, therefore His energy is also all-spiritual.

So we are the energy of the Supreme Lord. We are also all-spiritual. Viṣṇu-śaktiḥ para prokta kṣetrajñākhya tathā para. Kṣetrajñā-śaktiḥ. Kṣetrajñā-śaktiḥ means the living entities. So they are also transcendental, superior. Avidya-karma-samjñānya tṛtiya śaktir isyate. And this material energy, it is the product, product of avidya. Avidya means ignorance or nescience.

Now, the next question will be, "Whose ignorance?" As soon as we say: "Ignorance," there must be somebody who is ignorant. So who is ignorance? Now, we find the supreme living entity is Kṛṣṇa, and we, the subordinate living entities. So who is ignorant? Ignorant is the living entities—not all living entities, but there is, I mean to say, tendency of becoming ignorant.

Ignorant or forgetfulness. Ignorant we are not, but sometimes we forget, just like under some diseased condition we forget. Or forgetfulness is the diseased condition. Just like a madman: He forgets his identity. He forgets the identity of his family. Either you take this forgetfulness is madness or due to madness, he's forgetful, whatever you say.

Similarly, the . . . this forgetfulness is also energy, another energy. Then whose energy? Avidya. This is living entity's energy. The Māyāvāda philosophers, they cannot answer. They claim that, "We are God," but when they are asked, "Why you have become dog?" they say, "We do not know." But here is the answer. They hide the reason. They know, and because they have to establish the Māyāvāda philosophy that "There is no God. We are all God," therefore they pretend that, "We do not know."

The real fact is that because we are . . . although we are energies, therefore we are prone to be in the darkness of ignorance. Just like the same example. It is very easy to understand that the sunshine and the sun, both of them are illuminating and warm, but there is cloud, and the cloud cannot cover the sun; the cloud can cover the sunshine. This is a fact.

Everyone can understand. When there is cloud . . . suppose immediately there is cloud, say, two miles or three miles above the surface. So we do not see the sun or the sunshine. Does it mean the cloud has covered the sun? No. Sunshine is so great that cloud's father's . . . there is no capacity of the cloud's father to cover sun. It is not possible.

Therefore ignorance . . . here it is stated, avidya-karma-samjñānya. This ignorance cannot cover God. That is nonsense. Ignorance covers the God's energy, living entity. Therefore we say that, "We are God, but now we have become dog." That is another ignorance. He's never God. He's the energy of God.

This is the difference between Māyāvāda philosophy and Vaiṣṇava philosophy. We should always know that we we are energies of God, and because we are energies, we are . . . there are so many things qualitatively equal. Just the same example—the warmth and the illumination of the sunshine and the sun planet is practically the same, but the sun is never covered by cloud, but the sunshine is covered—sometimes, not always.

Just like you see that the sunshine is . . . the immense sunshine all over the universe, a part of the sunshine is covered, not all; similarly, a part of the energy, living energy, is covered by this māyā, not all.

Therefore there are millions and billions of liberated souls above this material world, just like there is millions and billions of miles' sunshine above the cloud. You go by airplane above the cloud, oh, the cloud is . . . appear to be very insignificant. But sunshine? Oh, so nice, sunshine. Similarly, when you are above this material world, jyotir gamaḥ . . . jyotir gamaḥ. Tamasi mā.

The Vedānta, the Vedas, inform you that "Don't remain in this darkness. Just try to get out of it." Jyotir gamaḥ. Similarly . . . just like the same way, aeroplane. As soon as you penetrate the cloud and go to the sky, you'll see, "Oh, there is immense sunshine." But while you are in, within the covering of the cloud, you say: "Oh, there is no sunshine today." We see as soon as we go out, "Today is very bad." The day is very good, but you are in the cloud. Therefore you say: "It is very bad."

So similarly, those who are in the clutches of māyā, for them, this world is very bad. You see? But those who are above this māyā, it is pleasant, because it is Kṛṣṇa's kingdom. Ānandāmbudhi-vardhanam (CC Antya 20.12). So if you remain in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, the cloud cannot touch you, and if your former, your original . . . ānandamayo 'bhyāsāt (Vedānta-sūtra 1.1.12). You become always joyful. Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā na śocati na kāṅkṣati (BG 18.54): "One who is brahma-bhūtaḥ, he never laments or never aspires anything for material enjoyment." Samaḥ sarveṣu: "And he becomes universal. He sees everyone on the same level: 'Oh, they are my brothers. They are part and parcel of my father. They are my brothers.' " Mad-bhaktiṁ labhate parām (BG 18.54). This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So:

viṣṇu-śaktiḥ parā proktā

kṣetrajñākhyā tathā parā

avidyā-karma-saṁjñānyā

tṛtīyā śaktir iṣyate

(CC Madhya 6.154)

So this avidyā, this ignorance, this forgetfulness, is another energy. Another energy. So just like a sun, er, a cloud, this is also another energy of the sunshine. It is not different. When the sunshine warms the sea water, it evaporates and becomes cloud. Therefore cloud is also another energy. Similarly, this material energy is also energy of God, but it cannot cover God. That is the difference.

God is never covered by ignorance. This is nonsense. Those fools and rascals say that, "God . . . we are God. We are now covered." Is the most rascaldom. How? If we are God, how we can be covered by ignorance? Then what is your value of your becoming God? You are not God. You are . . . this is very nicely explained here. Try to understand. Caitanya Mahāprabhu says that, "Living entities, they are energy of God. They are never God."

The Śaṅkarācārya's theory is nullified by evidences from Vedic scripture, just like Bhagavad-gītā, Viṣṇu Purāṇa. So, so never claim that "We are God." That is most, I mean, the darkest part of your ignorance, when you say that "I am God." There is neither voidness; neither you are God. You are a eternal, perpetual blissful, but your blissful is now covered by this māyā. You get out of it, be one with Kṛṣṇa consciousness, your life is successful. This is this theory.

hena jīva-tattva lañā likhi' para-tattva

ācchanna karila śreṣṭha īśvara-mahattva

(CC Adi 7.120)

Oh, Caitanya Mahāprabhu regrets that such a great difference between God and the living entity, and Śaṅkarācārya has described that they we are God? That means he has diminished the opulence and value of God. Suppose if I call a third-class man "His Majesty," then what is that? This word, means "His Majesty," is misused.

Just like they are saying daridra-nārāyaṇa. The foolish Ramakrishna Mission has, I mean to say, discovered a word, daridra-nārāyaṇa, "poor Nārāyaṇa." Nārāyaṇa, who is the husband of many thousands of goddess of fortune, He has become poor. Just see the theory.

You can ask Nikhilananda what is the meaning of daridra-nārāyaṇa. They have discovered. Vivekananda has discovered. Nārāyaṇa has become poor. When you ask him, "Why do you call daridra-nārāyaṇa?" they will explain like that, "Because Nārāyaṇa is there, therefore Nārāyaṇa has become daridra."

Just see. Suppose a rich man comes into this store, so he becomes poor just like us. Because he has kindly come here in this store, so because we are all poor men, he'll also becomes poor man? This is the reason.

But these are all nonsense. Nārāyaṇa never becomes poor. The poor, poverty-stricken man, all these things are for the jīvas, the living entities. Nārāyaṇa is never poor. Nārāyaṇa is never under ignorance. Nārāyaṇa never becomes dog. We become dog. We become cat. You should always . . .

Caitanya Mahāprabhu therefore regrets that, "This sort of philosophy propounded by Śaṅkara is a great mistake, because he has minimized the value of the Supreme Lord. By making a dog a god, he has insulted God. Therefore this Māyāvāda philosophy is the most offensive activities of the living being."

So you should be very, very careful; very careful. Hena jīva-tattva lañā likhi' para-tattva. "And, and just studied the ordinary living entities, and I am speaking of the Absolute Truth? Oh, this is the greatest nonsensical activity." Ācchanna karila śreṣṭha īśvara-mahattva: "By this the glorification of the Lord has been diminised, er, diminished, and therefore it is a great offense."

vyāsera sūtrete kahe 'pariṇāma'-vāda

'vyāsa bhrānta'-bali' tāra uṭhāila vivāda

(CC Adi 7.120)

Now, vyāsera sūtra means Vedānta-sūtra. Vedānta-sūtra begins from the very beginning, janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). Janmādy asya yataḥ means the source of all emanation. Now, this is clear, janmādy asya yataḥ, that "Brahman is that from which . . . . from whom everything emanates." That does not mean . . .

Pariṇāma-vāda means by-product, by-product. Just like you . . . this is a tree, and this flower is the by-product. So suppose the flower is there and the flower becomes dried up and falls down. That does not mean the tree is lost. There are thousands and thousands of flowers are coming out, out of . . . fruits and flowers, but the tree is there.

Similarly, pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya pūrṇam evāvaśiṣyate (Īśo Invocation). Although the this material manifestation, this world, has emanated from Brahman, that Supreme Brahman, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, that does not mean that he is lost. It is material conception. Just like you take some paper and you make something from that paper. That original paper is lost, because it is material. But spiritually they cannot be lost. There are many, many material examples also. Just like the sun. The sun, we are getting heat from sun from millions and billions of years . . . (break) (end)