Prabhupada's Lectures Srimad-Bhagavatam 1974 Mayapura
Prabhupada's Lectures Srimad-Bhagavatam 1974 Mayapura
Still in India, anyone who possesses some land, he is called king, raja. He is called raja, the zamindara, one who possesses some land, in..,
especially in the up-country. So Nanda Maharaja, because he possessed some land... He was well-to-do, rich man. Because... (Aside) Where is water? He possessed cows and grains. Formerly, a man... Still now, also... Actually that is rich, riches. Gavaya dhanavan: "One who has got many cows, he is to be considered as rich man." Dhanyena dhanavan. One who has got large quantity of food grains, he is dhanavan. Nowadays one who has got a bunch of paper, he is considered... And the paper is nothing. As soon as the government is failure, then the thousand dollar note and hundred dollar notes, it will have no value. So actual, actual value, to keep cows, to have food grains, or gold, jeweleries, these are the signs of richness. But Kali-Yuga is so cruel that if you have got gold, if you have got jewels, then government will take away. Dasyu-dharmabhih. Formerly there were ordinary plunderers, thieves. Now, according to Srimad-Bhagavatam, the government will be composed of organized thieves.
That is meant. Dasyu dharmabhih, rajabhih. Government officer means organized thieves in every country. That will be the situation. So you cannot keep now. You have to be satisfied with these papers. That's all. So Nanda Maharaja was rich because he possessed nine lacs of cows, not... And Krsna had to take care of. Although Krsna was Nanda Maharaja's son, king's son, still He had to go... When He was young, five, six years old, He had to take care, not only Krsna, but all His friends. That was the system. small boys, they would take care of the calves, and after sixth year, they would take care of the cows. So in this way, fifteen, sixteen years, they would pass. Then they would... They may go to school, but the ordinary vaisyas... Nanda Maharaja happened to be vaisya, not ksatriya. His father, Krsna's father, was Vasudeva. He was ksatriya. His uncle, Kamsa, he was ksatriya. He belonged to the ksatriya family because born as the son of Vasudeva, but because He was transferred in His..,
just after His birth to Nanda Maharaja, so in the boyhood, in childhood, he remained a vaisya. Actually Krsna is neither vaisya nor sudra, nor ksatriya, nor brahmana. He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Prakrteh parah. That has been described by Kunti. Prakrteh? No. Namasye..? What is the beginning?
Devotee: Namasye purusam tvadyam.
Prabhupada: Ah. Namasye purusam... What is that verse?
Devotee: Adyam.
Prabhupada: Adyam.
Devotee: Tvadyam.
Prabhupada: Tva. Tva means "You." So isvarah-prakrteh parah. He is beyond the jurisdiction of this material world, prakrteh parah. So He is neither brahmana... This brahmana, ksatriya, vaisya, sudra, brahma.., they are these material designations. They are not actually fact. So, as Krsna is not belonging to this material world... He belongs to the spiritual... Prakrteh parah. Paras tasmad tu bhava anyah. As it is stated in the Bhagavad-gita, parah. Para means another, or the superior. Paras tasmat tu bhava anyah. In the Bhagavad-gita you'll find that... You are seeing this material world up to the sky. Your vision is up to the sky, although you do not know what are these planets, how they are existing. You have no knowledge. But still, at least, you can get experience that this universe is covered by this round sky, and within this universe there are so many planets. So... So Krsna does not belong to these planets or this material sky. He belongs to the paravyoma.
Again paravyoma means sky. And para means the superior, or spiritual. Therefore Krsna does not... Krsna belongs to everything because everything is Krsna's, but He has got His special abode. That is Vaikuntha, Goloka Vrndavana. That is situated in the spiritual sky, not in this material sky. A... In the material sky, the, that Goloka Vrndavana is there, replica, just Vrndavana, where we go. When Krsna comes... Just like government, the governor or the king, when he is on tour in every city he has got a special house. What is that house called?
Devotee: Embassy.
Prabhupada: Now... Just like... Similarly when Krsna comes in this universe, He comes there, in Vrndavana, in Mathura, in the Dvaraka. So... But the real... But there is no difference between that Vrndavana, Goloka Vrndavana, and this Vrndavana. So these things are to be understood. Krsna is para. Paras tasmat tu bhava anyah. In the Bhagavad-gita we get this information. There is another nature exactly like this. But these so-called scientists, they are so ignorant, they cannot estimate that there is another nature, there are spiritual planets... This... They do not know even how many planets are there, how they are situated, how they are inhabited. They think simply this planet is full of living entities. In other planets, there is no living entity. But that is not the fact. Every planet. Every planet is full with living entities. Even in the sun planet, moon planet. So this is a subject matter. we have discussed many times. So Kunti has already pointed out that Krsna is isvara and He's beyond the jurisdiction of this material world.
That Krsna, when he comes here... Yada yada hi dharmasya glanir bhavati. He comes. Tadatmanam srjamy aham. He comes. Then how He comes? He comes as the son of Vasudeva. Krsnaya vasudevaya. Vasudeva, Vasudevaya. His name... Because he comes as the son of Vasudeva, therefore He is called Vasudeva. Vasudeva sarvam iti sa mahatma sudurlabhah. If one knows that this Vasudeva is everything, then he is the most exalted mahatma. So these things are to be understood. That is Krsna consciousness. And if we remain fool... No. Everything is there. In the Srimad-Bhagavatam, in Bhagavad-gita, everything is there about Krsna. Anyone can understand if he's little intelligent. And, as soon as you understand Krsna, then you are liberated person. Janma karma me divyam yo janati tattvatah, tyaktva deham punar janma naiti. So why should you not understand Krsna? Everything is given there. Why you should..? At least, the intelligent class, the Americans and Europeans, they are very intelligent materially.
They have proved their intelligence. Why not spiritually? If they are materially intelligent, brain is there, you can utilize it either for material purpose or... Now, so far, you have done for material purposes. You have done enough, so many machineries and so many things. But there is no happiness. You take to, apply your brain and intelligence to understand Krsna. Then your life is successful. That I have said many times, that you American boys or American people, you are fortunate, so many ways. How? Now, because you have got the result of pious activities. What is the result of pious activities? Janma aisvarya sruta sri. You have... You were born in very rich nationality, in America. You were born of rich fathers. Nobody is poor, poverty is unknown there. I have studied. If, by voluntarily, one becomes poverty-stricken, that is another... But actually there is no poverty, so far I have studied. That is result of pious activities. To take birth in poor family, low family, is the result of sinful activities.
So because you are born in rich nationality, rich family, that is good sign. Janma aisvarya. And opulence. You don't care for money. Money is nothing for you. This... We, we, we take money so carefully. But you spend money without any... So these are the results... Janma aisvarya sruta. Education. And sri, beauty. These are ... So now you utilize this. Because one is fortunate if he gets all this opportunity, so you take this opportunity and utilize it for understanding Krsna. Then your life is successful. And I am hoping also that if you take to Krsna consciousness, and... It was the duty of the Indians. As Caitanya Mahaprabhu said, that bharata bhumite manusya janma haila yara, janma sarthaka kari paropakara... Of course, I am Indian, so I have tried my best to give you this Krsna consciousness. It was the duty of the Indians to preach this cult. But even they are not doing, so you can take up, and for the benefit of the human society, you simply preach about Krsna.
Krsnaya. We are speaking of this Krsna, not that Krsna, the "aborigine-Krsna" or "the black Krsna." "No, Krsna means b1ack." No, Krsna means many things. Krsna means also attractive. Does not mean... Kali-Krsna does not mean that He's black. He's... "Your Krsna is black." Yes, my Krsna is black, but at the same time all-attractive. So many beautiful gopis all became attracted. So many queens all became attracted. So this blackness of Krsna is not this ordinary. Therefore in the Brahma-samhita it is said that kandarpa-koti-kamaniya visesa-sobham. Krsna blackness is not ordinary blackness. Musitambudha-sundarangam. Although He's blackish like the black cloud, but sundara, very, very beautiful. How much beautiful? Kandarpa-koti-kamaniya visesa-sobham. He's so beautiful that if you bring millions and millions of cupids... Cupid is supposed to be very beautiful. Still, He will surpass. So Krsna... Syamasundaram. Syama means black, and still, very, very beautiful.
That is the understanding of Krsna. So therefore to understand Krsna perfectly, Kunti is pointing out that Krsna who is the son of Vasudeva, that beautiful Krsna, that Syamasundara Krsna. Krsnaya vasudevaya. Then Vasudeva may be... There may be Vasudevas. Then mother's name also. Devaki nandanaya: "That Krsna is born of Devaki and Vasudeva, not others." Then there cannot be any mistake. If both the father's and mother's name... And again, he's (she's) pointing out: nanda-gopa-kumaraya: "That Krsna who was carried to Vrndavana, and He remained as foster son of Maharaja Nanda." And then he (she) says, govindaya, govindaya, that "He was a cowherd boy, played as a cowherd..." Govinda. Go means cows: And go means indriya, senses. So He was pleasure to the cows. The cows were very much pleased with Krsna. As soon as Krsna will call them, they will immediately come. And this Govinda word is explained in the Brahma- samhita in so many ways. Govindam.
Therefore this reference is given there, govinda. What is that...? Srsti-sthiti-pralaya-sadhana-saktir eka chayeva bhuvanani vibharti durga, icchanu rupam api yasya ca cestate sa govindam adi-purusam. Govinda is not ordinary thing. That Govinda... Which Govinda? Now, this material energy, Durga, who is working so wonderfully... Srsti-sthiti-pralaya-sadhana-saktih. She has... This material energy has got so much power that it can create, it can destroy, it can maintain, so much power. But don't think that this material energy is working independently. And then how is..? How she is working? Chayeva yasya bhuvanani vibharti durga. Just she is working just like shadow. The... Then what is the reality? Govindam adi-purusam tam aham bhajami. So we are worshiping that person who is the original director of this material... Because we are captivated by the three gunas of material energy, we think this material energy, material world, is everything, because we are foolish.
Nabhijanati mam ebhyah param avyayam. Tribhir gunamyair bhavaih. They have been captivated by the three material... They cannot under- stand that behind this, there is Krsna. So this Govinda word can be explained in so many ways. Krsna can be... You can try to explain this verse year after year. Still, it cannot be ended. It is so nice verse. But you... We should try to understand Krsna. There are so many ways to understand Krsna. Some way or other, simply if you understand that Krsna is isvarah paramah krsnah, that much, that Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, if you are convinced on this subject matter, then your life is successful. Thank you very much. (end)
