We have been discussing this verse, what is knowledge. Knowledge means how this universe is working, what is the working force, what is the energy. Just like scientists, they are searching out different energies. Just like this earth is floating on weightlessness. Such a huge mass of material body with so many mountains, so many seas, oceans, skyscraper houses, cities, towns, countries, it is floating just like a swab, cotton swab, in the air. So if one understands how it is floating, that is knowledge. So Kṛṣṇa consciousness means to have all kinds of knowledge. Not that we Kṛṣṇa conscious people are being carried away by some sentiment. No. We have got philosophy, science, theology, ethics, morality, everything—everything that is required to be known in human form of life. So Kṛṣṇa says that “I’ll speak to you all about knowledge.” So this is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. A Kṛṣṇa consciousness, a Kṛṣṇa conscious person should not be fool. If he is required to explain how these universal planets are floating, how this human body is rotating, how many species of life, how they are being evolved… These are all scientific knowledge. Physics, botanics, chemistry, astronomy, everything. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, yaj jñātvā, if you understand this knowledge, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then you’ll have nothing to know. That means you’ll have complete knowledge. We are hankering after knowledge, but if we are in knowledge of Kṛṣṇa ...

Reporter: What do you try and teach, sir? Prabhupāda: I am trying to teach what you have forgotten. Devotees: Haribol! Hare Kṛṣṇa! [laughter] Reporter: Which is what? Prabhupāda: That is God. Some of you are saying there is no God, some of you are saying God is dead, and some of you are saying God is impersonal or void. These are all nonsense. I want to teach all these nonsense that there is God. That is my mission. Any nonsense can come to me, I shall prove that there is God. That is my Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. It is a challenge to the atheistic people. There is God. As we are sitting here face to face, you can see God face to face. If you are sincere and if you are serious, that is possible. Unfortunately, we are trying to forget God; therefore we are embracing so many miseries of life. So I am simply preaching that you have Kṛṣṇa consciousness and be happy. Don’t be swayed away by these nonsense waves of māyā, or illusion. That is my request.

John Lennon: I’ve read bits of the Bhagavad-gītā. I don’t know which version it was. There’s so many different translations. Prabhupāda: There are different translations. Therefore I have given this edition, Bhagavad-gītā As It Is. There are interpretations. In many translations they have got interpretations. Not only in other parts of the world, but in our own country also. Just like Mahatma Gandhi. He was a great man. He has also interpreted. But the point is interpretation where required. Now, here is a fountain pen box. Everyone knows this is a fountain pen box. But if I say, “No, this is something else.” That is my interpretation. Is that very nice thing? [Chuckling] Similarly, interpretation is required when things are not understood clearly. If everybody can understand this box is a fountain pen box, where is the necessity of interpretation? This is the first thing. So Bhagavad-gītā is so clear. It is just like sunlight. Sunlight does not require any other lamp. For example, I’ll give you, in the first verse,

Prabhupāda: …how to make progress in bhakti-yoga, or bīja-nirharaṇam. I have explained several times, bīja-nirharaṇam. There is bīja, the propensity for lording it over the material nature, resources, that is the bīja of materialistic life. How to become a very great personality within this material world. The bhakti-yoga is just the opposite. Here everyone is trying to become greater than the other. But bhakti-yoga is so nice, as Caitanya Mahāprabhu teaches us, gopī-bhartuḥ pada-kamalayor dāsa-dāsānudāsaḥ. Dāsa-dāsānudāsaḥ, servant of the servant of the servant of the servant. The more you become servant of the servant, the more you advance. And here in this material, the more you become greater than your friend, then you are [indistinct]. That means more you become implicated. More… Just like the same example, the more you increase your temperature, you are facing death. Certain temperature is required, 98 degrees. But if you simply increase your temperature, “Oh, it is very nice,” then at 107 degrees you finish. So this material improvement means meeting death. Let us come to the point. The nationalism is competition, which nation is greater. Now they have manufactured atomic bomb. That means finishing point they have come to.

Prabhupāda: So, apaśyatām ātma-tattvaṁ, apaśyatām, a means not, paśyatām refers to one who sees, so apaśyatām means one who cannot see. Who are they? Gṛheṣu gṛha-medhinām, gṛheṣu at home, in this verse, gṛheṣu at home… gṛha-medhinām, gṛha-gṛhamedhī means, animals also actually, there are human beings living with husband, wife, children but living like animals therefore gṛhamedhī. And then there is gṛhastha, gṛhastha means those who are living at home and exactly like others, brahmacārī or vānaprastha or sannyāsī. According to these divisions there are four divisions of social order and four divisions of spiritual order, eight. This is called varṇa-aśrama, aśrama means, now this word is very [indistinct], aśrama, aśrama means a place where spiritual cultivation is accepted, that is called aśrama. So everyone is living at home, gṛha, gṛha means householder at home but one is gṛhastha and the other is gṛhamedhī there is a distinction. One is living at home not in the renounced order with his wife, children, friends, so, but the aim is spiritual cultivation he is called gṛhastha, aśrama. Spiritual cultivation is not exactly meant for the sannyāsī’s or vānaprastha’s it is meant for everyone.

Prabhupāda: To the qualified physician, not to the storekeeper. Similarly, first thing is, when you want to solve the problem, you must go to the right person. First of all you have to select. So we understand that Kṛṣṇa is the right person. So therefore, it is guaranteed. He knows everything. Others, they do not know. May know to some extent; not perfect. The first thing is that we have to select from whom. Tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet. In Vedas it is stated in order to solve the problem or to understand the situation, you should go to the guru. So who can be better than Kṛṣṇa as guru? He taught, He gave lesson to Brahmā, the original living being in this universe. Tene brahma hṛdā. He gave lesson to Brahmā how to create. Therefore, who can be better guru than Kṛṣṇa? Or even Brahmā. Brahmā, [indistinct] he has created this universe, but He taught Brahmā. And Kṛṣṇa is accepted the supreme guru. To take instruction from Him or His pure representative, that is wanted. Otherwise, there will be trouble[?]. You cannot compare any ordinary person with Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is the original guru, instructor. You do not know about Kṛṣṇa, that is a different thing. But if you want to solve your problems, you must approach the guru. That is the Vedic instruction. Tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet. This verb is used when you must: no excuse, gacchet, vidhi-liṅ. In Sanskrit there are different forms of verb. So when vidhi-liṅ ...

Now, the question may be… The Viṣṇudūta asked the Yamadūta, “You don’t touch him. Don’t try to take him away. He is now clean of all sinful reaction. You cannot touch him.” Yamadūta is meant for the unclean, sinful men, not for the pious, clean men. Criminal department is meant for the unclean, not for the honest gentlemen. Similarly Yamarāja is meant for punishing the sinful men. So apparently he was sinful man. He did everything. But the Viṣṇudūta came to deliver him. So the question is that “When this man became sinless?” So that answer is given here, etenaiva: “This chanting of ‘Nārāyaṇa,’ by this process,” eva, “indeed, he, also,” aghonaḥ—agha means “sinful”—asya, “of this Ajāmila,” kṛtaṁ syād agha-niṣkṛtam, “he is now cleansed of all sinful reaction.” When he became? Yadā, “from that time,” yadā, nārāyaṇa, “ ‘O Nārāyaṇa,’ ” āyeti, āyeti, “ ‘Come here please…’ ” He was affectionate to his youngest son, little son, child. Generally, father-mother becomes very much attached. So this child was named Nārāyaṇa. So constantly he was chanting, “Nārāyaṇa, please come here.” [aside:] What is that?

Prabhupāda: The small Deities, śālagrāma, They are worshiped. And big Deity, They are decorated nicely. No need of washing. Saurabha: So only the opening ceremony. Prabhupāda: Yes. Harikeśa: Nitāi had them bathe the big Deities here, Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa, on Janmāṣṭamī. Dhanañjaya: And on Balarāma’s appearance day, the big Deities were bathed. Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma. Harikeśa: Terrible speculation. Dhanañjaya: Actually, Janmāṣṭamī celebrations were very bad, and it’s very… Prabhupāda: Therefore the color has faded? He is a rascal. Harikeśa: I remember that when these Deities… They’re never to be washed. Never water was to touch. Supposed to put a plastic bag over the Deity. That was… If you have to use the big Deities, you’re supposed to cover Them with plastic. Prabhupāda: Why did you allow? Just see, this is the disease. Rascals, they do not know. And although I was…

[discussing a recent Blitz article favorable to Sai Baba; Prabhupāda wants the devotees to write a response] Prabhupāda: “The Baba personifies Him[?].” Hari-śauri: Yes. He said, “Baba personifies this philosophy,” that’s God in man and man in God is the basis of religion. “As he told me, ‘God is man, and man is God. All of us have something of God, the divine spark, within us. All men are divine like myself, with the spirit embodied in human flesh and bone. The only difference is that they are unaware of this Godhood.’ ” Prabhupāda: Unaware. So God, how He’s unaware? Just see. Hari-śauri: They make God so cheap… Prabhupāda: The rascal.

This Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is another Purāṇa, history. We have already explained. So sometimes a class of devotees known as sahajiyā, they say that “What we have got to do with the narration of Kurukṣetra battle?” They immediately jump to the kṛṣṇa-līlā, directly with the gopīs. And Kṛṣṇa’s activities in other field, they think it is useless. But that is not the fact. Anywhere Kṛṣṇa is acting, that is transcendental. The battlefield of Kurukṣetra, historical references, description, so superficially it appears that what a devotee has got to do with this battlefield? But battlefield or no battlefield, wherever there is Kṛṣṇa, that is transcendental. This has to be understood. Otherwise, Śukadeva Gosvāmī, why he should indulge in describing how Uttarā’s pregnancy was saved by Kṛṣṇa, how the brahmāstra was thrown by Aśvatthāmā? So Śukadeva Gosvāmī is liberated person. Why he should indulge in these material things? No. Those who are advanced, they know that Kṛṣṇa’s dancing with the gopīs, that līlā and Kṛṣṇa’s playing as the leader of the battlefield of Kurukṣetra, is the same. It is all transcendental. One should not make any distinction between the two. Saṁsthāṁ ca pāṇḍu-putrāṇāṁ vakṣye kṛṣṇa-kathodayam. Pāṇḍu-putrāṇām, the pāṇḍu-putras, or the Pāṇḍavas, son of Pāṇḍu, they’re all devotees. Even their political affairs, because there is connection with ...