manusyanam sahasresu
kascid yatati siddhaye
yatatam api siddhanam
kascin mam vetti tattvatah
"Out of many thousands among men, one may endeavor for perfection, and of those who have achieved perfection, hardly one knows Me in truth." (Bhagavad-gita 7.3)
To understand Krsna is not very easy.Krsna says manusyanam sahasresu: "Out of many millions and millions of persons," one tries to became perfect.Who is going to became perfect , especially in this age? Everyone is working like cats and dogs. The whole day is spent working for eating, sleeping, six, and defence, that's all. Peaple are not living as manusyanam, human beings.
ahara nidra bhaya maithunam ca
samanyam etat pasubhir naranam
dharmo hi tesam adhika viseso
dharmena hinah pasubhih samana
“Both animals and humans share the activities of eating, sleeping, mating, and defending. But the special property of the humans is that they are able to engage in spiritual life. Therefore without spiritual life, humans are on the level of animals.” [Hitopadesa] What is the difference between my eating and dog's? He is eating accoring to his taste. The eating business is there in the dog also. Don't think your eating is different because you are eating nice preparations on a table, with a chair and plates. It is still eating.
People say, "Because I am eating nice preparations on a table, I am civilized." The scripture, says that although your food may be different , your eating and dog's are the same. You are not civilized just by eating at a table. Similarly the dog can sleep on the street without caring for anything, and we can not sleep without a nice apartment, but both we and the dog are sleeping. And the sexual intercourse, the dog has no shame. It can enjoy sex on the street. we have some restrictions, but the sex is there nonthe less. And bhaya means defence, to take care of our fears. That is there in the dog and in you also. It does not make any difference. Because you have discovered your atomic bomb for defence, that does not mean that you are better than a dog. He defends himself according to his intelligence, and you defend yourself according to your intelligence.
Human beings and animals have these four buisness in common: eating, sleeping, mating, and defending. Then what is the special advantage of human life? That advantage is Athato brahma jijnasa: You should be inquisitive to know the value of life, the Absolute truth. The dog cannot do that. That is the distinction between a dog and a human being. In the human form of life there should be inquiry about Brahman and Parabrahman , spirit and the Supreme Spirit. When you attain brahma jijnasa, knowledge of the Absolute Truth, that is your perfection, not competing with the dog in eating, sleeping, mating, and defending. That is not civilization. That is not perfection of life. Foolish persons who a re animalistic, like dogs and cats, do not know the aim of life.
na te viduh svartha-gatim hi visnum
durasaya ye bahir-artha- maninah
andha yathandhair upaniyamanas
te 'pisa-tantryam uru-damni
baddhah
"Persons who are strongly entrapped by the consciousness of enjoying mate rial life, and who have therefore accepted as their leader or guru a similar blind man attached to external sense objects, cannot understand that the goal of life is to return home, back to Godhead, and engage in the service of Lord Visnu. As blind men guided by an other blind man miss the right path and fall into a ditch , materially attached men led by an other materially attached man are bound by the ropes of fruitive labor, which are made of very strong cords, and they continue again and again in materialistic life, suffering the three fold miseries ." [Srimad-Bhiigavatam 7.5.31]
The aim of life is to understand Visnu, the Supreme Lord. People are trying to become happy in the bahir-artha, in the external energy of God, the material energy. And the so-called leaders, politicians, philosophers, and scie ntists are all blind. They do not know the aim of life. Still, they are leading the whole society.
uru-damni baddhah. Uru means very strong, and diimni means rope. If I tie you with a very strong rope, it is very difficult to untie it, and you are put into difficulty. Similarly, we in this material world are tied very tightly by the laws of material nature. And still we declare, "I am free. I am independent. I can do whatever I like." That is called imperfection. As long as we are in the bodily concept of life and think ourselves free to do wh atever we like, we are inignorance, darkness, tama. Tama means darkness.
A Vedic injunction is Tamasi majyotir gamah: "Don't remain in darkness; go to the light." Darkness means thinking, "I am this body, and fulfilling the necessities of the body is the highest perfection of my life." Everyone is trying for that , and there is competition. Everyone is trying to have a skyscraper and three Rolls Royces, and so on. They think this is the perfection of life. They do not think to ask, "How many years shall I have this skyscraper ? And what is my main business? My main business is how to become perfect ."
There are many animals within the skyscraper. There are human beings, dogs, cats, worms, rats- so many things. So the right to live in a sk yscra p e r is the re even fo r worms, cats, and rats. Then what is the difference between these animals and me? The difference is that I can become perfect. I can ask, "What I am? Am I this body?" This should be the question.
Krsna says here, "The ultimate goal is to underst and Me." mam vetti tattva tah -to understand Krsna in fact, in truth, not superficially. That is required. vedais ca sarvair aham eva vedyo [Bhagavad gita 15.15]. If you are a great scholar studying all kinds of Vedic literature, then you must know Krsna. If you do not understand Krsna and simply study the Vedas, it is a useless waste of time.
dharmah svanusthitah pumsam
vivaksena-kathasu yah
notpadayed yadi ratim
srama eva hi kevalam
"The occupational activities a man performs according to his own position are only so much useless labor if they do not provoke attraction for the message of the Personaity of Godhead ." [SrimadBhagavatam 1.2.8] You are executing your occupational duties very nicely, honestly. That is all righ t. But if after execut ing your duties very honestly and nicely you do not awaken your dormant Krsna consciousness, then Srama eva hi ke valam: You are simply wasting your time. Useless. When you understand Krsna, th at is the highest perfection. But nobody is interested. Therefore Krsna says in today's verse, manusyanam sahasresu : "Out of many millions of persons," one may be interested. Otherwise all are in darkness.
What is siddhi, as mentioned here? Siddhi means to understand my constitutional position, what I am. I am trying to lord if over material nature in so many ways. Is that my position? But I am failure. I am trying to lord it over material nature as a big man-as a minister or a zamindar or a big business magnate. And when I am a failure, then I want to become God. That is another ambition.
TRUE SELF-REALIZATION
This is not self-realization. Self realization means to understand, "I am trying to lord it over material nature in so many ways, but my attempt is becoming baffled." Why? With great endeavor I become a head of state, and I do not wish to die, but death comes and takes away everything-my political position, my wealth, my family, everything." mrtyuh sana-haras caham [Bhagavad-gita 10.34]. Who is taking? That is Krsna.
When you realize, "I am trying to accumulate so many things but Krsna is taking everything away," then why don't you surrender to Krsna so that he may not take away your position? That is siddhi. "I am not independent. I am trying to be independent, but it is not possible. I am dependent. I am an eternal servant of Krsna."
That is self-realization. That has been taught by Caitanya Mahaprabhu. jivera 'svarupa' hayakrsnera 'nitya-dasa': "It is the living entity's constitutional position to be an eternal servant of Krsna."[Caitanya-caritamrta, Madhya-lila 20.108-109]. Brahman realization aham brahmasmi -is liberation from the material conception of life. "I am not matter. I am not the body, but I am spirit soul." Aham brahmasmi. That is the first step of self-realization. But that is not final. The final realization is "I am an eternal servant of Krsna." As long as you do not come to that position-the final, constitutional position that "I am an eternal servant of Krsna"-then knowledge is lacking; there is no perfection of knowledge.
Therefore Krsna says in Bhagavad- gita [7.19], bahunam janmanam ante .. … vasudevah sarvamiti: "After many, many births, when one is actually self-realized in awareness, fully in knowledge then he understands that Vasudeva [Krsna] is everything."
"Vasudeva is the supreme everything. I am simply part and parcel of Vasudeva, an eternal servant of Vasudeva." Sa mahatma sudurlabha. One who thinks in that way, that kind of perfect persona mahatma-is very, very rare. A mahatma understands, "I am an eternal servant of Krsna. My only business is to serve Krsna. That is my constitutional position. I am part and parcel of Krsna."
This finger is part and parcel of my body. Its business is to serve the whole body. I ask the finger, "Come here," and immediately it comes. That is the normal, healthy condition of the part and parcel. My leg is part and parcel of my body. As soon as I ask the leg, "Please take me there," it does so. That is normal. And if the leg cannot take me there-if I have to take help from a stick-that is not normal. It is a diseased condition that has to be treated. Similarly, as soon as we find that we do not abide by the orders of Krsna, we must know that we are in ignorance and in an abnormal condition, madness.
To serve Krsna is my duty. Krsna does not require my help, and still he asks me to surrender to his order. That is for my good. If I surrender to Krsna, then that is my benefit. Krsna does not require my service. He is omnipotent. But we are such rascals that we think, "Why shall I surrender to Krsna?" That is imperfection.
DEFYING KRSNA
When you come to the point that you abide by the order of Krsna and surrender to him, that is perfection. But people do not do that.
na mam duskrtino mudhah
prapadyante naradhamah
mayayapahrta-jnana
asuram bhavam asritah
"Those miscreants who are grossly foolish, who are lowest among mankind, whose knowledge is stolen by illusion, and who partake of the atheistic nature of demons do not surrender unto me. [Bhagavad-gitd 7.15] Why do they not surrender? Because they are duskrtino, always performing sinful activities, and they are mudhah rascals. They do not know their own interest. And naradhama means the lowest of mankind. Krsna says, "This human body was given to him by material nature to understand me, to surrender to me, but he will not do this. Therefore: lowest of mankind."
Someone may object: "No, he is so educated." No, this is nonsense. If he does not understand Krsna, what is the meaning of education? There is no education. mayayapahrta-jnana. His knowledge is stolen by illusion. Why? asuram bhavam asritah: he's defying Krsna, defying God.
"What is God? I am God." This is the position always of everyone in the material world, and especially in this age, Kali-yuga. In Kali-yuga, people are all first-class fools. That is described in the Bhagavatam [1.1.10]:
prayenalpayusah sabhya
kalav asmin yuge janah
mandah sumanda-matayo
manda-bhagya hy upadrutah
"0 learned one, in this iron age of Kali men have but short lives. They are quarrelsome, lazy, misguided, unlucky, and above all , always disturbed." Kali-yuga is a very difficult age. In ignorance people fight, quarrel. Kali means "fight." Therefore it is called Kali -yuga. In this age especially, the inhabitants are mandah. mandah means all bad. Nobody is good. And sumanda-matayo. Everyone has his own conception of perfection- all bogus. Why this is? manda-bhagya: because they are unfortunate. No one knows what he shall eat the next morning or in the evening. Everyone is in need. There is scarcity all over the world.
And people are disturbed. With the progression of Kali-yuga, people will be disturbed by two things especially: taxation and scarcity of food. That is stated in the Bhiigavatam [12.2.9]: durbhiksa-kara-piditah. Kara means taxation. People will be embarrassed for want of food, and at the same time, every year there will be an increase of taxation. They will be so disturbed that they will give up their hearth and home and go away to the forest. Men will give up their money, wife, children-everything. They will be disgusted: "Now it is impossible to maintain. Let me go away."
This is the position of Kaliyuga. So five thousand years ago, when Krsna spoke Bhagavad-gita, at that time the position was manusyanam sahasresu "one among thousands" will try for perfection. Now, on account of Kali-yuga, it is "one among millions." The percentage has increased to one in millions and millions.
Therefore nobody is interested in this Krsna consciousness movement. We are trying to give the highest perfection of life, but people are not interested. They want to remain like cats and dogs and suffer the consequences. That is going on.
The Krsna consciousness movement is very difficult to understand, but by the grace of Krsna it has been made very easy. That is stated in the Srimad-Bhagavatam [12.3 .51]: kaler dosa-nidhe rajann asti hy eko mahan gunah Sukadeva Goswami described the faults of Kali -yuga to Maharaja Pariksit, but he encouraged him with one verse: "My dear king, Kali-yuga is an ocean of faults, but there is one very nice gain." What is that? kirtana deva krsnasya mukta-sangah param vrajet: "Simply by chanting the Hare Krsna mantra one can become free from all the troubles of Kali -yuga, become liberated, and go back home, back to Godhead." So take Krsna consciousness very seriously and make your life perfect.
Thank you very much.