When you love Him, you will see Him always.
tad-dhyanodriktaya bhaktya
visuddha-dhisanah pare
tasmin narayana-pade
ekanta-matayo gatim
avapur duravapam te
asadbhir visayatmabhih
vidhuta-kalmasa sthanam
virajenatmanaiva hi
"Thus by pure consciousness due to constant devotional remembrance, the Pandavas attained the spiritual sky, which is ruled by the Supreme Narayana, Lord Krsna. That is attained only by those who meditate upon the one Supreme Lord without deviation. That abode of the Lord Sri Krsna, known as Goloka Vrndavana, cannot be attained by persons who are absorbed in the material conception of life. But the Pandavas, being completely washed of all material contamination, attained that abode in their very same bodies." (Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.15.47-48)
Dhyana means meditation. The Pandavas were always thinking of Krsna. While eating, sitting, sleeping, talking, fighting Krsna. That is Krsna consciousness. When Arjuna fought, Krsna was there. When the Pandavas dealt in politics with Duryodhana, Krsna was there.
Krsna is Arjuna's friend. Krsna was always talking with him, staying with him, sleeping with him, eating with him. Krsna consciousness is so nice that in our ordinary life we can deal with Krsna as Arjuna and the Pandavas did. There is no difficulty in doing this. We simply we have to practice. That practice must be bhaktya, "with a devotional attitude." Dealing with Krsna as the Pandavas did is only possible through devotional service. Krsna was so near to the Pandavas on account of their devotion.
The sage Narada, while speaking to Yudhisthira, the eldest Pandava, praised the Pandavas: "Even yogis and jnanis, speculative philosophers, cannot reach Krsna, but by your devotion Krsna is living with you as a friend and sometimes even as your order carrier."
During negotiations with Duryodhana, the Pandavas once asked Krsna, "Take this letter and deliver it to Duryodhana." And Krsna agreed "Yes, I shall go." Krsna acted as an ordinary peon. He also acted as an ordinary chariot driver Partha-sarathi, the charioteer of Arjuna.
If you become a devotee of Krsna, then you can live with Krsna, even in this life. Krsna is omnipotent. If you are really a devotee of Krsna, He will talk with you, He will dance with you, He will eat with you everything. Premanjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena santah sadaiva. By bhakti, prema love saintly persons, those who have developed love of Krsna, can see Krsna at every moment. Sadaiva means "at every moment." Saintly persons do not see anything except Krsna.
Rascals inquire, "Have you seen God?"
We may reply, "Not 'seen' God, sir. The saintly person is seeing God at every moment."
There is no question of seeing God only once. No. Sadaiva at every moment.
Why can one see Krsna at every moment? Because Krsna is already there within us. Isvarah sarva-bhutanam hrd-dese 'rjuna tisthati. Krsna's location is given in the Bhagavad-gita: He is within your heart. So to see God you don't have to go far away. Wherever you are you can see God.
Sarva-bhutanam means that God is not only within the human beings; He is also within the animals, the beasts, the trees, the plants, the aquatics, the insects. He is within everyone, from Brahma, the greatest creature, down to the ant.
God is everywhere. Andantara-stha paramanu-cayantara-stham. God is within the universe, within your heart, even within the atom. So what is the difficulty in seeing God? You simply have to make your eyes qualified to see Him. That is the meaning of premanjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena. If you actually love somebody, you can see him always. When you are in your office, you see him. When you are eating, you see him. If that is possible materially, how much more must it be possible spiritually.
Seeing God always is possible only by bhakti, as described in today's verse: bhaktya visuddha-dhisanah pare. Visuddha means "purified." Our consciousness is not purified at the present moment, but we can purify it by being always in touch with Krsna. And that touch is made possible very easily by hearing about Krsna. Those who come here to our classes may not know anything about Krsna, but God has given them ears, so they can hear about Krsna. We are therefore discussing so many points about Krsna, and we have written so many books simply about Krsna. People cannot imagine that sixty books can be written about God. There is no system of religion where you can find so much information about God.
We should turn our attention to Krsna consciousness. We can chant Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. We can read about Krsna our whole life, because the literature about Krsna is so vast. Even if you read twenty-four hours daily, you'll have to devote your whole life to finish this literature.
My Guru Maharaja published a daily newspaper in Mayapur called Nadiya Prakasa. A big politician once asked him, "You are publishing a daily paper about God consciousness?"
"Yes."
"What are you writing about?" The politician was surprised. Politicians think that newspapers can be filled with rubbish political news only. They cannot think that a newspaper can be filled by news from the spiritual world. They have no idea of this. They have no idea even that there is a spiritual world.
My Guru Maharaja explained: "Why are you thinking of only one small newspaper? You do not know the spiritual world. The material world is one fourth of the whole creation of the Lord. And the three-fourths portion is the spiritual world. In this one-fourth portion there are innumerable universes. This is one of the universes. In each universe there are millions of planets. And this planet is only a small planet in one universe. And on this earth planet there are so many cities. And in each city there are so many newspapers. And each newspaper has so many editions. This is the position of the material world.
"Now, consider the spiritual world. It is three times bigger than the material world. And there are so many spiritual planets and so many universes and so many activities. So we can produce not just one newspaper about God daily, but a newspaper every minute. Unfortunately, there are no customers. That is the difficulty. For material news there are so many customers, but for spiritual news, no customers. You are thinking of one newspaper daily. We could issue a newspaper of spiritual news every second."
We must be interested in the news of the spiritual world. Krsna consciousness can be achieved by ekanta-matayo gatim a person who has decided, "Now, in this life, I must go back home, back to Godhead." That determination is described in theBhagavad-gita:
vyavasayatmika-buddhir
ekeha kuru-nandana
bahu-sakha hy anantas ca
buddhayo 'vyavasayinam
"Those who are on this path are resolute in purpose, and their aim is one. O beloved child of the Kurus [Arjuna], the intelligence of those who are irresolute is many-branched."
One must decide, "This life is not an ordinary life like that of the cats and dogs. It is human life. I have advanced intelligence, and it is possible in this life to go back home, back to Godhead, simply by cultivating spiritual knowledge. So why shall I waste my time like cats and dogs?" That determination is required. "The cats and dogs are busy in eating, sleeping, and sex life and one day they die. So why shall I waste my time in that way? I have good intelligence. Krsna has provided me a better standard of life. I can lie in a nice room, not like the cats and dogs on the street."
And Krsna has provided such nice foodstuff fruits, grains, milk which we can offer Him. Krsna has given different food for different animals and human beings. Krsna has given stool for the pigs and such nice foodstuff fruits and grains and milk for the human being. It is not that every food is for everyone. No. "One man's food is another man's poison." Stool is also a kind of food. Everything is a kind of food. Even the stone is food. Pigeons eat stones. They can digest them. The gorillas in the African jungles eat fruits harder than iron bullets. If you hammer on a bullet, it may bend. But that fruit will not bend. And the gorillas chew them just as you chew peanuts. [Laughter.]
Human beings determined to go back home, back to Godhead, have their food. For them, no meat-eating. For them, fine kacauri, rasagulla, puri.* "You are what you eat." If you eat stool, then you are stool. After all, this body will be stool. After death, the body becomes stool or ashes or earth. If the body is buried, in due course it will turn into earth. If it is burned, as done by the Hindus, it will turn into ashes. And if the body is simply thrown away at death, as done by the Parsees, it will be eaten by animals and birds, like vultures. So the body will become the stool of a vulture. That's all.
Our beautiful body will become one of three things: stool, earth, or ashes. And we are taking so much care for stool, earth, and ashes. And the occupier of the body? Forgotten. That is the position of modern society with its so-called advanced scientists.
Those who think "I am this body" are third-class rascals. The present world is simply full of third-class rascals because everyone is thinking, "I am American," "I am Indian," "I am white," "I am black," "I am Hindu," "I am Muslim," "I am Christian." Such thinking is simply "I am this body." That's all.
One must become completely cleansed of this misconception. Virajena atmanaiva. Virajena means to become completely washed, cleansed. Raja means "the material world," and vi means vigata, "without." It is very difficult to come to the position of complete purification. Therefore it is said here, avapur duravapam: It is very difficult to come to this stage of life, but the Pandavas did it. For whom is it very difficult? Asadbhih, for those attached to temporary things.
Asat means "temporary." There are two kinds of things: those that will exist permanently and those that will not exist. Temporary things may exist for a few minutes, a few hours, or a few years. The material world is asat, because it will not exist. The material body will also not exist. Everyone knows that. Everyone knows that the body is born at a certain date, will continue for a certain number of years, will produce some by-products, will change into different forms, will become old, will dwindle, and one day will be finished.
These are called sad-vikara, "six changes." This is not progress. If one is progressing in age, that is not progress; that means he is going to death. I am seventy-eight years old. So I have already died seventy-eight years. I have only, say, two to five years left. People say "advanced age." No. Advanced in death, not advanced in age.
So that is the meaning of asat: The body will not stay. It has begun to die from the very moment of birth. If you ask a mother how old her child is and she says "One month," that means the child has already died one month. And he has a certain balance of months and years before he dies. He is simple waiting for death.
Our duration of life is called asat. And material existence is also asat. Narottama Dasa Thakura therefore sings, sat-sanga chadi kainu asate vilasa/ te karane lagila ye karma-bandha-phansa: "I gave up sat-sanga, the spiritual society, and I associated with the material society. Therefore I am now entangled by karma, one reaction after another."
Spiritual realization is difficult for persons attached to temporary things. Why? Visayatmabhih: Because they are simply attracted by the four principles of material life eating, sleeping, sex life, and, one day, death. One must be above these interests. One must be sane. One must think, "These interests are there in the animals. So if I am also interested in only these things, what is the difference between the dog and me?"
There must be something more. That information is given in the Bhagavad-gita: avinasi tu tad viddhi yena sarvam idam tatam. The body is perishable, asat, but there is another thing, which is sat, permanent. What is that? It is that which spreads all over the body. If you pinch your body you feel pain. Why? Because there is consciousness. Consciousness is permanent. And as soon as the consciousness is gone from someone's body, you can chop off the hand and there will be no response.
Those not interested in understanding consciousness and the origin of consciousness are asat. They cannot understand spiritual life. Therefore the beginning of spiritual life is to understand consciousness. The Bhagavad-gita says, dehino 'smin yatha dehe: In the temporary body is the proprietor of the body. That point is to be understood. Who can understand? Vidhuta-kalmasa, "those who are washed of all sinful acts." Therefore we prescribe, "Don't associate with sinful activities." What are the sinful activities? Meat-eating, intoxication, gambling, and illicit sex. One must be washed of these to understand spiritual life. If you think, "I will do whatever I want," then you will remain in the material world life after life. That is the point.
Thank you very much.
*These are tasty preparations offered to Krsna.