Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.1.1 Pradyumna: Translation: “I offer my obeisances unto Lord Sri Krsna, son of Vasudeva, who is the supreme all-pervading Personality of Godhead. I meditate upon Him, the transcendent reality, who is the primeval cause of all causes, from whom all manifested universes arise, in whom they dwell, and by whom they are destroyed. I meditate upon that eternally effulgent Lord who is directly and indirectly conscious of all manifestations and yet is beyond them. It is He only who first imparted Vedic knowledge unto the heart of Brahma, the first created being. Through Him this world, like a mirage, appears real even to great sages and demigods. Because of Him, the material universes, created by the three modes of nature, appear to be factual, although they are unreal. I meditate therefore upon Him, the Absolute Truth, who is eternally existent in His transcendental abode, and who is forever free of illusion.” Prabhupada: Vyasadeva is offering his obeisances unto the Supreme Lord, Krsna. Om namo bhagavate vasudevaya. Bhagavate, “unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is known as Vasudeva.” Vasudeva means the son of Vasudeva. Even the leader of the impersonalists, namely Sankaracarya, he has accepted that the Supreme Personality of Godhead appeared as the son of Vasudeva and Devaki. People may not misunderstand. Just like we give identification by giving the name of father, mother, similarly, Krsna’s identification is that He is son of Vasudeva or son of Nanda Maharaja, friend of Sridama, Sudama, lover of Radharani. In so many ways He has got hundreds of thousands of names. So people who protest that God cannot have any name… They say that God cannot have any name. Yes, we agree with them. God cannot have any name. Or God has so many names, how we’ll address Him? The sastra says that He has got many names, but the chief name is Krsna. In the Atharva Veda it is said. Krsna is the son of Devaki, Vasudeva. Those who are very much strict to understand everything on the evidence of Veda, Srila Jiva Gosvami has given them quotation from Vedas, that “In the Vedas, Krsna’s name is there, His father’s name is there.” Like that. So God’s name… Actually, there is no God’s name. There is name, but He has got so many names. His name is given according to His pastimes. Just like according to… It has got meaning. You cannot give any name to God without bearing any meaning. That is the Vedic significance. When we say “Krsna” name of God, that means He’s all-attractive. All-attractive means He’s not only attractive to the devotees but to the nondevotees. It’s not that Krsna is one- sided, He’s attractive to the devotees. No. To the nondevotees also. Just like Kamsa. Kamsa was also attracted by Krsna. He was attracted to Krsna as enemy. There are two kinds of attraction. We can become attracted to somebody as friend as well as enemy. That is also attraction. If you think of some person that “This man is my enemy. I want to kill him, or I want to do some harm to him. How I shall do? How shall I capture him? He goes on the office, on the road. So I can capture him in that way…” So many. Just like in America the President Kennedy was killed. So the man who killed him, he made it a plan, thinking of President Kennedy always. That is attraction. All-attractive means, therefore, that Krsna is attractive to everyone, either one is Krsna’s devotee or nondevotee. The best example is Kamsa. Kamsa heard that the eighth son of his sister, Devaki, would kill him. Since that time, he became attracted to Krsna. “Oh, somebody’s coming in the name Krsna, as my sister’s eighth son. So He will kill me. So let me kill my sister, the source of Krsna.” So he first of all wanted to kill his sister. That is due to attraction of Krsna. He was very kind to his sister. After the marriage of his sister he was taking very jubilantly his sister and his brother-in-law in a chariot, and he was personally driving, because Devaki happened to be younger sister of Kamsa. Naturally, everyone has got some love for younger brother and sister. So he was affectionate. Although he was a nondevotee demon, still, natural attraction one cannot avoid. Just like a tiger. Tiger is killer of everyone. But still, the tiger and the tigress have got affection for the cubs. That is natural. So he had the natural attraction for his sister, but when he heard that his sister would be the killer of him, he immediately wanted to kill his sister. That story you know. It is stated in the Krsna book beginning. So the idea is… Satyam param dhimahi. Namo bhagavate vasudevaya. So Vyasadeva is offering his obeisances to the son of Devaki, Krsna. Krsna means all-attractive. Then, read. What is next? Pradyumna: “Obeisances unto the Personality of Godhead, Vasudeva, directly indicates Lord Sri Krsna, who is the divine son of Vasudeva and Devaki. This fact will be more explicitly explained in the text of this work. Sri Vyasadeva asserts herein that Sri Krsna is the original Personality of Godhead, and all others are His direct or indirect plenary portions or portions of the portion.” Prabhupada: Yes. This will be explained in the Third Chapter of the Srimad-Bhagavatam, First Canto. When describing different incarnations, so in that list of different incarnations, Krsna’s name is also there. So Vyasadeva has purposefully explained in that verse that there are so many incarnations. It has been described there that Krsna, or God, has got so many incarnations, just like so many waves of the river. If you have got some experience of the flowing river you’ll find so many waves are coming, one after another, one after another. He has got so many incarnations that you cannot count even. Just like if you sit down on the bank of a river and go on counting the waves, so whole day and night, whole year, whole life, still, it will not be done. Therefore Krsna’s another name is Ananta. Ananta means “who has no end.” Ananta. Anta means end. Everything of us, there is end. But Krsna has no end. Similarly, His incarnation has no end. So in spite of so many incarnations, He is full. If we take, try to understand Krsna materially that… Just like if you take from some stock one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, like that, then the stock will be finished at a certain point. Krsna is not like that. Purnam. The Veda says Krsna is purnam, complete. What kind of purnam? We understand also complete. But if you want to take something from the complete, gradually it will reduce, and ultimately it becomes zero. So Krsna is not like that. The Vedas say that purnasya purnam adaya purnam eva avasisyate. He’s complete. So many incarnations are coming from Him, just like the waves of the river; still, he’s complete. Purnasya purnam. From original Krsna so many incarnations are coming. But still, He’s there. In the Brahma-samhita it is stated that goloka eva nivasaty akhilatma-bhutah [Bs. 5.37]. Krsna lives at His home, Goloka Vrndavana. Just like Krsna is in Goloka Vrndavana. So still, He emanates, He expands Himself. Akhilatma-bhutah. Akhilatma-bhutah means throughout the whole creation. He has creation; that is also innumerable. We are seeing this creation, this universe. There are innumerable planets. But… Akhilatma-bhutah [Bs. 5.37], in everywhere Krsna is there. Still, He is existing in His own abode. We cannot imagine because we have no such experience. Just like we are sitting in this room. We are not sitting in the other room. Try to understand the distinction between Krsna and ourselves. But Krsna is here and He’s not only in the other room, other building, other city, other universe—everywhere. That is Krsna. It is stated—not that we are imagining, because we take evidence from the Vedic literatures. In the Brahma-samhita it is stated like that: eko ’py asau racayitum jagad-anda-kotim yac chaktir asti jagad-anda-caya yad-antah andantara-stha-paramanu-cayantara-stham govindam adi-purusam tam aham bhajami [Bs. 5.35] One portion of Krsna. Krsna has direct expansion and expansion of the expansion. Just like Krsna, His immediate expansion is Baladeva, Balarama. Then from Balarama the next expansion is Catur-vyuha, quadruple: Sankarsana, Vasudeva, Aniruddha, Pradyumna. Again, from this Sankarsana there is another expansion, Narayana. From Narayana, another expansion. Again, second status of Sankarsana, Vasudeva… Not only one Narayana, but innumerable Narayanas. Because in the Vaikunthaloka, the spiritual sky, there are innumerable planets. How many? Now, just imagine here in this universe there are planets. This is one universe. There are millions of planets. You cannot count. You cannot count. So similarly, there are innumerable universes also. That also you cannot count. Still, all these universes taken together is only one-fourth manifestation of Krsna’s expansion. In the Vaikunthaloka there is three-fourths expansion. So we cannot count even one planet how many Krsna’s expansions are there, because He is andantara-stha-paramanu-cayantara-stham. He’s within the atom also. The scientists are perplexed to analyze one atom. More and more they’re finding components. Krsna… Therefore His name is Ananta. Advaitam acyutam anadim ananta-rupam [Bs. 5.33] He has got multiforms. Multiforms. So Vyasadeva will explain in the Third Chapter that although He has got all these multiforms, none are more than Krsna. But still that Krsna, the name which He appeared in this day, He’s the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Ete camsa-kalah pumsah krsnas tu bhagavan svayam [Bhag. 1.3.28]. All other incarnations who are mentioned in this list, they are amsa-kalah. They’re directly expansion or expansion of the expansion, expansion of the expansion, you go on. That is Krsna. Just like Krsna is in this temple. In other temples also, Krsna is there. Not that because in this temple Krsna is there, He is finished. Just like we are present in this room, not in other room. That means in one room. Krsna is not like that. Try to understand Krsna. Therefore Bhagavata is trying to inform you about Krsna, beginning janmady asya… Om namo bhagavate vasudevaya. Vasudeva is Krsna, svayam bhagavan. Now, what kind of Vasudeva? Janmady asya yatah [Bhag. 1.1.1] From whom everything is there. What is that everything? Means birth, sustenance, and death—everything you can understand, any material object we can understand by these three symptoms. Just like your body, my body, or everyone’s body: it has got a date of birth, it continues to live for some time, and there is annihilation. That is called janmady asya. Janma adi. First of all birth, then sustenance, then death. This is three summary. But actually there are six. Six in the birth, then living for some time, then growth, then producing something out of the body, then dwindling, then finished. Every body. Every body takes birth, then remains for some time, grows also or changes different body, and then from the body some other bodies are also coming out. In this way one becomes old. That means dwindling. And one day will come he’ll be finished. Sad-vikara. These are called six kinds of transformations. Any material thing you can take: six kinds of transformation. But Krsna has not such transformation. Therefore He is not of this body. His body is mentioned in the sastra, sac-cid-ananda-vigraha [Bs. 5.1]. So anyone accepting Krsna like ordinary man, then he’s a rascal. Avajananti mam mudha manusim tanum asritam [Bg. 9.11]. Krsna says, “The rascal only, they take Me as a human being.” Just like a great rascal scholar, he has mentioned, “Perhaps Krsna was a leader of an aborigine, and He has been accepted as God.” So we cannot study Krsna in that way, from the fools and rascals. We have to know Krsna from authorities. Just like Vyasadeva is explaining what is Krsna. First of all let us understand what is Krsna, then we enter into the other information of Krsna. Just like if you want to know somebody, you have to acquaint himself with that particular person. Then gradually you can understand that “This man is of this position, his financial strength is like this, his influence is like this, like that, like that.” So many things you will understand. First of all sambandha. So anyone who does not know what is God, and what is my relationship… Relationship later on. First of all at least we must know what is God. Then we can speak something about God. If I do not know what is God, then we can speak something about God. If I do not know what is God, then how you can explain, how you can understand about Him? So that is the defect. Actually you search out all process of understanding God. Generally religion means the process of understanding God. That is religion. Religion without God is just like Hamlet without Hamlet. Playwright, Hamlet. Religion cannot be without God. The so-called religion, that is cheating. That is, it will be explained in the next verse, dharmah projjhita-kaitavo ’tra [SB 1.1.2]. Any kind of religion which is going on under the name of religion, but the system has no information of God, that is cheating religion. Cheating religion. Because religion means the laws of God. But if you do not know what is God, then how you can know His laws? If you do not know the king, how you can understand the king’s laws, even though you try to understand? Just the scientists, they are trying to understand the laws of God, but because they are imperfect, therefore they cannot understand what is God, in spite of their scientific improvement. They do not know. Ask any scientist, “You are great scientist. Can you say what is God?” The reply will be, “No. We don’t believe in God. We don’t believe.” Why? You believe in the laws of God? “Yes, that we are studying.” But the laws means somebody has made that law. That is our experience. Just like when we understand government laws, we understand also the government has enacted this law. We understand that. Just like on the street when you go, it is written there, “Keep to the left.” It is the order of the government. You have abide by that. That is obedience to the government. Discipline. Discipline is the first law of obedience. If people do not care for the government laws, then there will be chaos. So the present situation is the so-called modern civilization, they have no knowledge of God, although they are trying to study the laws of God. But they should accept at least theoretically there must be God. How I can say God is dead? Because if God is the law-giver, by His order everything is moving nicely. The sun is rising exactly at the time, the moon is rising exactly at the time, the seasonal changes are taking place exactly in due course of time. Everything is going on. Foods are grown for our feeding, for animals. Everything is going on nicely. So how I can say the manager who is managing all these things, He is dead? How we can accept? These are imperfect knowledge or demonic knowledge or rascaldom. So our Krsna consciousness movement is against all this rascaldom, all this rascaldom. We present, “Here is God.” Here is God. Take His name. Take His address also. That is also… It is so perfect. They are searching after God. We are giving the name, address, activity, everything, quality, all. Nama-rupa-lila-parikara-vaisisthyam, everything. Nama means name. Here is Krsna, God’s name. Form, here is the form. He is engaged in enjoyment with Radharani and playing on His flute. Venum kvanantam aravinda-dalayataksam bar… [Bs. 5.30]. We are not imagining. Not that this artist imagines, the poet imagines. No. We don’t do that rascaldom. We don’t do that. We take information from the Vedas. Krsna, when He was present personally, He played on His flute. The gopis saw and the cowherds boys saw five thousand years ago. And the acaryas took information. Even if you don’t believe in the history, then come to sastra. The sastra says venum kvanantam aravinda-dalayataksam: [Bs. 5.30] “Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is always engaged in playing on His flute.” This is Vedic statement. Venum kvanantam aravinda-dalayataksam: [Bs. 5.30] “His eyes are just like lotus petals.” Venum kvanantam aravinda-dalayataksam barhavatamsam asitambuda-sundarangam: [Bs. 5.30] “He has got a peacock feather on His head.” These are the description in the Vedas. “He has got a peacock feather on His head.” Barhavatamsam asitambuda: “His color is blackish.” What kind of blackish? Asitambuda: “Just like new cloud.” Asitambuda-sundarangam: “But don’t think because He is blackish, He is not beautiful. He is most beautiful.” How much beautiful? Kandarpa-koti-kamaniya-visesa-sobham: [Bs. 5.30] “He is so beautiful that if you gather millions of Cupids, still He is more beautiful.” These descriptions are there. So Krsna consciousness movement is very nice. You will be able to understand what is God, and you will be able to understand what is your relationship with God. And you will be able to understand how you can go back to home, back to Godhead. Thank you very much. (end)
by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
London, August 7, 1971