Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Madhya-lila 22.6 Prabhupada: srutir mata prsta disati bhavad-aradhana-vidhim yatha matur vani smrtir api tatha vakti bhagini puranadya ye va sahaja nivahas te tad anuga atah satyam jnatam murahara bhavan eva saranam So this learned sage, by his experience he is saying that after studying all Vedic literature, and all Upanisads, Vedanta, Puranam, four Vedas, Ramayana, Mahabharata, volumes of literature, so the conclusion is that, “O my dear Lord,” bhavan eva saranam, “You are the only ultimate shelter.” This is the last stage of knowledge, as it is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gita. Bahunam janmanam ante [Bg. 7.19]. “After struggling for many, many births to acquire knowledge…” So when one comes to this point—bhavan eva saranam, “You are the ultimate shelter”—that is the perfection of knowledge. Our editor has written very nice article, “Krsna, the End of Knowledge.” Yes. When you come to Krsna point, then everything is knowledge, knowable. Of course, so far our knowledge is concerned… But so far Krsna is concerned, He is unlimited. Nobody can know Him. But at least to that point, if we can reach… That is also very difficult. Simply to reach to that point, there are the struggle. So many scholars, so many still, coming to the nearest point, still, they say, “Oh, not Krsna, not Krsna. It is impersonal. It is impersonal.” So this knowledge is acquired by the grace of the Supreme Lord, by the association of pure devotees. Satam prasangat mama virya-samvidah, one can attain this qualification. And if some way or other, either by faith or by knowledge or by association or by accident, if one comes to this point, that “Krsna, the Supreme, is the ultimate goal,” then his life is perfect. advaya-jnana-tattva krsna—svayam bhagavan ‘svarupa-sakti’ rupe tanra haya avasthana Now, Lord Caitanya says that Krsna, the Absolute Truth, advaya-jnana-tattva, who is Absolute Truth, Krsna, svayam bhagavan, the Supreme Personality… The Absolute Truth in the ultimate is a person. In the Bhagavad-gita you will see in the Eleventh Chapter that Krsna was requested by Arjuna to show His universal form, because for ordinary persons, that universal form is…, the gigantic universal form is supposed to be… That is God. But they do not know. Param bhavam ajananto. They do not know that this universal form is only an offshoot of Krsna. They do not know. Less intelligent class of men, they think impersonal form or the universal form or even the four-handed Visnu form… They consider that they are greater. But in the Eleventh Chapter of Bhagavad-gita you will find that Krsna, by the request of Arjuna, assumed His universal form, visvarupa. Now, after seeing the visvarupa Arjuna was afraid. He was in friendly relationship with Krsna, and when he saw His visvarupa, he became too much perturbed in his mind: “Oh, what mistake I have done. I took Krsna as my friend, and I do not know how much offenses I have committed. Friendly relation, there are sometimes very slackened languages and used sometimes calling, ‘You, Krsna,’ sometimes…, so many things. Friendly relations are very relaxation relation.” So he thought that “I have committed so much offenses to Krsna,” and he begged pardon. “Out of my impudence, out of my ignorance, I have done so many things. Please excuse just like a father excuses his son, just like a friend excuses his friend, just like husband excuses wife or the wife excuses.” These things are there. Then again he asked Krsna to assume His four-handed Narayana-rupa. So Krsna also showed him the Narayana four-handed rupa. And then again Krsna transformed Himself again into that two- handed Syamasundara with flute, and as it is, He transformed Himself. Now, the question is: If Krsna is ordinary person, just like some foolish commentators say, “Not to Krsna,” then how could He assume this visvarupa and the Narayana-rupa? Can an ordinary person assume that rupa, that form? It is not possible. Therefore the answer in the Bhagavad-gita is avajananti mam mudha. There is stated, param bhavam ajanantah: “They do not know.” Now, Arjuna wanted to confirm this param bhavam, that the less intelligent class of men who are fond of the universal form or the Visnu, Narayana form, and there are so many innumerable forms… Advaita acyuta anadi ananta-rupam. Krsna has ananta-rupa. But the ultimate, supreme form is Krsna. They do not know. Param bhavam ajanantah. Ajanantah means they do not know that param bhava. So here the same thing is confirmed by Lord Caitanya, that He says, advaya-jnana-tattva krsna—svayam bhagavan. So the Absolute Truth, the ultimate stage of realizing Absolute Truth, is to understand Krsna. Brahman realization, Paramatma realization, they are not perfect realization of the Absolute Truth. Partial realization. Brahman realization means realization of the Absolute Truth in eternity. That’s all. Paramatma realization of the Absolute Truth is realization of eternity and knowledge. And Krsna realization means full realization of the Absolute Truth, means eternity, knowledge, and bliss. Without Krsna knowledge we cannot be blissful. But by nature we are blissful. In the Brahma-sutra, in the Vedanta-sutra, it is stated, anandamayo abhyasat. Every living entity, Brahman… Living entities, they are Brahman, and Krsna is also Parabrahman. So Brahman and Parabrahman, both of them are by nature joyful. They want joy, enjoyment. So our joyfulness is in connection with Krsna, just like fire and the sparks of fire. The sparks of fire, so long manifested with the fire, it is beautiful. And as soon as the sparks of fire falls down from the original fire, oh, it is extinguished, no more beautiful. So we are in the same relationship with Krsna. He is the complete whole; we are parts and parcels. Just like the complete whole fire and the sparks of fire. When the fire and the sparks are displayed, it looks very nice. Both of them enjoy. And when the spark… Of course, fire has unlimited potency to produce sparks. But the sparks, when is out of the fire, fireplace, then it loses its identity, and this is called conditioned life. We are in that conditioned life. We are fire, sparks of fire. But because we are in material contamination, therefore we have become conditioned. So knowledge means to understand… Beginning of knowledge is to understand one’s constitutional position. That knowledge is imparted in the beginning of the Bhagavad-gita, that “You are not this body. You are spirit spark.” dehino ’smin yatha dehe kaumaram yauvanam jara tatha dehantara-praptir dhiras tatra na muhyati [Bg. 2.13] So you are spark, spiritual spark. You are simply changing dress. That is your conditioned stage. So Lord Caitanya says, advaya-jnana-tattva krsna—svayam bhagavan. Svayam bhagavan, the Absolute Truth… ‘Svarupa sakti’ rupe tanra haya avasthana: “He is situated in His internal potency.” Just like in the Bhagavad-gita the Lord says, yada yada hi dharmasya glanir bhavati bharata abhyutthanam adharmasya… [Bg. 4.7] paritranaya sadhunam vinasaya ca duskrtam sambhavamy atma-mayaya [Bg. 4.8] Atma-mayaya, internal potency. He is situated in the spiritual world by internal potency. And this is, this material world, His external potency. Therefore, although external potency is also Krsna’s potency—it is not different from Krsna—but Krsna is not here in the external potency. Krsna is in the internal potency, although this potency is not different. Therefore it is inferior. It is inferior energy, it is called. And this, this is explained very nicely in the Bhagavad-gita. Maya tatam idam sarvam jagat avyakta-murtina: “By Me the whole spiritual and material world is manifested.” Tatam idam. How it is manifested? Just like the sun and sunshine. Sunshine is manifested all over the universe, and sun is the central point. Similarly, Krsna is the central point, and His shining brahmajyoti is diffused all over. And the part of that brahmajyoti, when it is, I mean to say, covered by the cloud of mahat-tattva, that is called material existence. So we are in this darkness. So Krsna says, Lord Cai… So his place is in the internal potency. ‘Svarupa-sakti’ rupe tanra haya avasthana. He is situated there in His internal potency. svamsa-vibhinnamsa-rupe hana vistara ananta vaikuntha-brahmande karena vihara Now, then Krsna, He expands Himself. Eko bahu syama. That is the Vedic version: “One is expanding into many.” And how that many is manifested? That is explained here, that svamsa, vibhinnamsa. He expands Himself as person, Himself, and as parts. As person, Himself, that expansion is called Visnu-tattva. And the vibhinnamsa, separated expansion, we are, living entities. We are also expansion. The expansion of Visnu-tattva is just like Rama, Nrsimha, Varaha, all the incarnation, all Visnu-tattva, Rama, Nrsimha. There are so many thousands and millions of expansions, svamsa, personal self and separated self. We are also Krsna’s part and parcel expansion; therefore we have got intimate relationship with Krsna. svamsa-vibhinnamsa-rupe hana vistara ananta vaikuntha-brahmande karena vihara So Krsna is both in the spiritual world and the material world. Because we represent Krsna, we are in this brahmanda conditioned. But there are many living entities who are eternally liberated. They never come to this. How it is, that? Just like the ocean and the rivers. In river, in the river, you will find fishes, and in the ocean you will find fishes. But the… Sometimes it may be that the fishes of the river may go to the ocean, but the fishes of the ocean never comes to the river. Never comes to the river. There is no place for them. This is a crude example. Similarly… And as the ocean is far, far greater than the river—thousands of rivers cannot be compared with the, I mean to say, measurement of the ocean—similarly, thousands and millions of this material world cannot be compared with the spiritual world. The spiritual world is so great that millions of material world taken together, it can be dropped into the spiritual world. It is such great. Therefore material world is called one-fourth manifestation of Krsna’s energy. And the spiritual world is called three-fourth manifestation of Krsna’s energy. svamsa-vibhinnamsa-rupe hana vistara ananta vaikuntha-brahmande karena vihara svamsa-vistara—catur-vyuha avatara-gana vibhinnamsa jiva—tanra saktite ganana Now, svamsa, His personal expansion, is catur-vyuha. The first expansion is catur-vyuha. Svayam rupa, svayam prakasa. Svayam rupa, the personal self, Krsna. And when He begins to expand, the next immediate expansion is Balarama, Baladeva. And from Baladeva, catur-vyuha, four expansion. Kaya-vyuha. He is guarding, vyuha, guarding. What are those expansion? Sankarsana, Pradyumna, Aniruddha and Vasudeva, these expansion, catur-vyuha. And from Sankarsana, all kinds of incarnations… From Sankarsana, all kinds of incarnation comes. In this way we have already discussed to some extent in the previous chapter. Vibhinnamsa jiva—tanra saktite ganana. And the separated expansions, the living entities, they are counted as a different energy of the Supreme Lord. Just like there is difference between the heat and the fire. Fire is with heat, but heat is, although has got the fire’s qualification, it is not fire. Heat you can touch, but fire you cannot touch. Just like there is some distinction. But there is no distinction also because fire is also hot and heat is also hot. But still, there is distinction between fire and heat. So heat, what is the position of heat? Heat is energy of fire. Similarly, although we are expansion of the Supreme Lord, we jivas, living entities, we are just like heat, not fire. Fire is Krsna. So, sei vibhinnamsa jiva—dui ta’ prakara eka—‘nitya-mukta’, eka—‘nitya samsara’ Now, this energy manifested as the living entities, they are also two kinds. What are they? Eka—nitya-mukta. One class of living entities, they are eternally liberated. Just like the fishes in the ocean. Take the ocean as the place of liberation. Sometimes the example is given that as the rivers glide down to the ocean and the water is become one… That’s all right. That oneness… This is impersonal conception. Everyone goes and mixes as every river goes down to the ocean, and there is no more distinction which is the river water and which is the ocean water. They become one. That is the monistic philosophy. But Vaisnava philosophy goes farther, that “Why you are satisfied with the water? Why don’t you see within the water?” Within the water you will find there are big, big fishes and aquatic animals. They keep their separate identity, and they enjoy in the ocean. The foolish persons, they are satisfied that “I am in the ocean now.” That is the less intelligence. Go deep into the ocean and see what is going there. Similarly, those who are satisfied simply by merging into the spiritual existence, impersonalists, they are less intelligent. They have no intelligence to see that within the ocean there is individual expansion, individual life, and they are enjoying. Similarly, in the spiritual sky there is individuality. That individuality is there. And that individuality is reciprocated between Krsna and the individual souls. They are called nitya-mukta, eternally liberated. And the other class, who are just like in the river fishes, they are called nitya-baddha. Their, I mean to say, limited sphere in the river or in the pond or in the well… The frog philosophy. They are expanding themselves, frogs: “How much great is Atlantic Ocean?” So they are called conditioned soul. Those who are in this material world, although they are part and parcel of the Supreme Lord energy, but because they are conditioned in this material contamination, they are called, I mean to say, conditioned, conditioned by the laws of nature. So the whole process is… To understand these thing means that why should we remain conditioned under the laws of material nature? Let us try to go back to the ocean and become as big. That should be the philosophy of your life. Thank you very much. Any question? (end)
by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
New York, January 8, 1967