Srimad-Bhagavatam 7.9.15
by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Mayapur, February 22, 1976

Dayananda: “My Lord who is never conquered by anyone, certainly I am not at all afraid of Your very ferocious mouth, tongue, bright eyes like the sunshine, movement of Your eyebrows, very pinching sharp set of teeth, garland of intestines, hands soaked with blood, fixed-up-high ears, Your tumultuous sound which causes the elephants to go away to a distant place, and Your nails which are meant for killing Your enemies. Undoubtedly I am not afraid of them.”

Devotee: (Sanskrit and Bengali)

Prabhupada: (Bengali), “movement.” Yes.

naham bibhemy ajita te ’tibhayanakasya-jihvarka-netra-bhrukuti-rabhasogra-damstrat antra-srajah-ksataja-kesara-sanku-karnan nihrada-bhita-digibhad ari-bhin-nakhagrat

So, narayana-parah sarve na kutascana bibhyati. This is the sign or pure devotee. Others, they are afraid of the fierceful appearance of Narasimhadeva, but Prahlada Maharaja says that “I am not afraid.” He was a child of five years old. So, others were very, very afraid, even could not approach the Lord to pacify Him, and Prahlada Maharaja was not afraid.

So there is a description of different features of the body of Nrsimhadeva, description of the face, the ear, the mane and the nails, everything, very, very fearful. But the nails, the significant word is here—ari-bhit nakhagrat. Ari-bhit. Ari means enemy, and these nails are meant for piercing the chest of the enemy, not of the devotee. Ari-bhit nakhagrat. Everything is fierceful to the enemy, to the demons, but to the devotees they’re all beautiful. They are pleasing. That is the difference between the Personality of Godhead and material personality. Everything… God is all-good. Even God appears in such fierceful attitude, it is beautiful to the devotees. God’s stealing… This is abominable, stealing, in this material world. But in the spiritual world, that stealing by Krsna is worshipable. Makhana-chora, butter thief. The devotees like that “Krsna should come to my house and steal my things, butter.” That is the pastime of Vrndavana-lila. Krsna would go to every house and steal butter, and they would be very much pleased that “Krsna has come to steal here.” They would come, a formally complaint lodged before Yasodamayi, and Krsna would be afraid. But these things are very, very enjoyable. Krsna is being chastised by Yasodamayi, and still, he’s thinking, she’s thinking, “Whether Krsna has become very much afraid?” This is called Vrndavana-lila. The love for Krsna is so strong that whatever Krsna does, that is beautiful. And the spiritual world, what is condemnable in this material world, that is very worshipable in the spiritual world. Spiritual world, the love is parakiya-rasa. Parakiya-rasa. Here in this material world, if you create some relationship with other’s wife, that is very condemnable. But in the spiritual world the loving affairs between the gopis and Krsna is the same, is like that. Krsna is making loving affairs with other’s wife. So therefore sometimes, without understanding Krsna, if one tries to understand the loving affairs of Krsna with gopis, they misunderstand. They think that “Krsna is woman-hunter, and Krsna is making love with other’s wife and daughter.” They do not know.

So here the fierceful attitude, very, very fierceful, that is very pleasing to Prahlada Maharaja. He said, naham bibhemy ajita te ’tibhayanakasya: “Your face is very fearful to the enemies, but it is very beautiful to me.” Everything. Naham bibhemy ajita te ’tibhayanakasya jihva. Everything fierceful… In the next verse Prahlada Maharaja will say that “This fierceful attitude of Your Lordship is not at all fearful to me, as it is fearful to me, this material existence.” That he will explain, next verse. Trasto ’smy aham krpana-vatsala duhsahogra-samsara-cakra-kadanad grasatam pranitah. This material world is very, very fierceful to the devotees. They are very, very much afraid of. This is the difference. Materialistic persons, they are thinking, “This world is very pleasing. We are enjoying. Eat, drink, be merry and enjoy.” But the devotees, they think, “It is very, very fierceful. How soon we shall get out of it?” My Guru Maharaja used to say that “This material world is not fit for living for any gentleman.” He used to say. “No gentleman can live here.” So these things are not understood by the nondevotees, how much pinching this material world is. Duhkhala… Krsna says it is duhkhalayam asasvatam [Bg. 8.15]. That is the difference between the devotee and nondevotee. The duhkhalayam, they are trying to adjust how to make it sukhalayam. That is not possible.

So unless one becomes detestful of this material world, it is to be understood that he has not yet entered in the spiritual understanding. Bhaktih paresanubhavo viraktir anyatra syat [SB 11.2.42]. This is the test of bhakti. If one has entered the domain of devotional service, this material world will be not at all tasteful for him. Virakti. No more. Ara nare bapa (?). The Jagai-Madhai, too much materialistic, woman-hunters, drunkard, meat-eater… So these things have become now common affairs. But it is very, very fearful for the devotees. Therefore we say, “No intoxication; no illicit sex; no meat-eating.” It is very very fearful. But they do not know. Mudhah nabhijanati. They do not know it. They indulge in. The whole world is going on on this platform. He does not know that he is creating a very, very fierceful situation by indulging in these sinful activities.

So to get out of these habits, it requires tapasa, tapasya.

tapasa brahmacaryena samena damena va tyagena sauca… yamena niyamena va [SB 6.1.13]

This is called advancement of spiritual life. Tapasa. The first thing is tapasya, voluntarily rejecting this so-called comfortable situation of material world. That is called tapasya. Tapasa brahmacaryena [SB 6.1.13] And to execute that tapasya, the first thing is brahmacarya. Brahmacarya means to avoid sex indulgence. That is called brahmacarya.

tapasa brahmacaryena samena damena va tyagena sauca saucabhyam samena damena va [SB 6.1.13]

These are the… Therefore you’ll find, all transcendentalists, they are practicing tapasya very, very severely. That is required. The human life is meant for tapasya. That is human life. Human life is not meant for living like cats and dogs. That is not human life. Nayam deho deha-bhajam nrloke kastan kaman arhate vid-bhujam ye [Bhag. 5.5.1] To live like cats and dog is not meant for the human life. Human life is meant for tapo divyam putraka yena suddhyet sattva. We have to execute tapasya, austerity. Why? Now, to purify our existence. This present existence is not purified; therefore we have to meet death. Otherwise we are eternal. “Why should we meet death?” This question does not arise at all. The modern civilization, they do not care for death. This is another daring. Death… They never question that “We are eternal.” Na hanyate hanyamane sarire [Bg. 2.20] “Why I shall meet death?” But this question does not arise for… They think, “Death? We can finish everything.” This is called mudha. They do not know things are there, what it should be. They do not know that.

So in order to know all this transcendental subject matter, it is recommended, tad-vijnanartham sa gurum evabhigacchet: [MU 1.2.12] “One must approach to the proper guru to understand this subject matter.” And that is success of human life. Otherwise, to live like cats and dogs—sa eva go-kharah: [SB 10.84.13] cows and asses, animal life—this is not civilization. So our this Krsna consciousness movement is an attempt, however small it may be, to bring back the human society to real civilization. It is not ordinary movement. They are not civilized. Mudha. This is a civilization of rascals and fools. But to bring them back to knowledge, that is civilization. That civilization is spiritual life. Athato brahma jijnasa. This human life is meant for spiritual life, not for material life like cats and dogs. This is not required. This is Vedanta philosophy, athato brahma jijnasa. One must try to learn what is the ultimate source of everything, not that theorizing or, what is called, imagining something. Take knowledge from the right source, brahma-vidya, the Vedic knowledge, and try to understand the situation, what is Brahman, what you are. We are also Brahman. Aham brahmasmi. These things are to be known. And when we neglect to understand these things, that means we are going to the wrong way of life. The wrong way of life can be allowed up to the animal life. Out of 8,400,000 forms of life, the animal life, three million types of animal life, by evolutionary process we come to the human life. Now we should inquire about spiritual life. That is civilization. Without spiritual life, without inquiring the spiritual life, it is animal life. Sa eva go-kharah [SB 10.84.13] So try to understand this Krsna consciousness movement. And spiritual life means to understand Krsna. That is spiritual life. Krsna comes to explain Himself. And hear from Him and understand Him as He says. Then, as soon as you understand Krsna, your life is successful. This is Krsna consciousness movement.

Krsna, or God, is very difficult to understand.

manusyanam sahasresu kascid yayati siddhaye yatatam api siddhanam kascid vetti mam tattvatah [Bg. 7.3]

To understand God, to understand Krsna, is not very easy job; very, very difficult job. Therefore we don’t find anyone is interested in Krsna. Anywhere you go, all over the world, you make a statistic: nobody is interested in Krsna. Is it not a fact? Out of millions. Krsna says, manusyanam sahasresu, “Out of millions…” That’s a fact. Nobody is interested in Krsna. Manusyanam sahasresu. So therefore, to understand Krsna is not very easy job. But by the grace of Krsna You can understand Krsna. Krsna is explaining Himself. That is Krsna, great. You take. And again Krsna is coming as Caitanya Mahaprabhu to show us the way how to understand Krsna. Caitanya Mahaprabhu means Krsna Himself, present to teach us how to understand Krsna. So Krsna is so kind: He is coming Himself. He’s teaching Bhagavad-gita. Again He is coming as Caitanya Mahaprabhu, as devotee, to become a devotee of Krsna. Krsna-prema-pradaya te [Madhya 19.53] He’s not only teaching Krsna but love of Krsna. Krsna, when He personally came, He did not teach how to love Him. He simply asked, “You rascal, surrender to Me.” That’s all. “You are all rascals. You have forgotten Me. I am the Supreme. You are searching after so many wrong things. You have created so many so-called occupational and religious duties, but these are all useless.” That much. But again Krsna came to teach people how to love Krsna. Therefore Rupa Gosvami offers his respect to Caitanya Mahaprabhu, namo maha-vadanyaya krsna-prema-pradaya te: [Madhya 19.53] “You are not only giving Krsna but giving love of Krsna.” That is very rare thing. Prema pumartho mahan. People are after dharma, after kama, moksa, but Caitanya Mahaprabhu says, “No, above this, there is fifth perfection. That is prema, Krsna-prema.” Prema pumartho mahan.

So this Krsna consciousness movement is the topmost education, culture. Those who have come to Krsna consciousness movement, they should seriously take it and try to understand Krsna. Their life will be successful.

Thank you very much. (end)