In last meeting we had been discussing about the path of salvation. There are two paths. One path is to salvation. Salvation means liberation from this material bondage. People do not understand what is material bondage, but those who are in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, they are educated what is bondage and what is liberation. A spirit soul, being part and parcel of the Supreme Lord, he is by nature very powerful. We do not know how much spiritual power we have got, but that is being suppressed by the material covering. Just like this fire. This fire, if there are too many ashes, the heat of the fire is not properly felt. But you move the ashes and just fan it, and when it is blazing, then you get the proper heat and you can utilize it for so many purposes. Similarly, we, as spirit soul, we have immense power. And God is the supreme spirit soul, so we cannot imagine how much power God has got. But even we, who are a simply minute particle… Just like… Comparison is just like the fire and the sparks. The fire and the sparks, both of them are fire. The spark even, wherever the spark will fall, immediately it will burn. Similarly, we have got all the qualities in minute quantity of God. God has the creative force; therefore we are also creating so many things. The scientists are creating so many wonderful things. That is wonderful for persons like us, because we do not know how much wonderful one can play. That we do not know. We simply…

Prabhupāda: Eh? Devotee: They are thinking all the oil will be finished. Prabhupāda: That’s all right it will be finished but when it was not introduced… Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes. Prabhupāda: …this gasoline and gas and what other energies? Śyāmasundara: Just gas and oil… Petroleum. Prabhupāda: Ah. When it is introduced, the gas and oil energies? Devotee: It was started to be introduced about a hundred years ago. Prabhupāda: Eh? Devotee (2): No it wasn’t really much used then. Svarūpa Dāmodara: No they cannot trust completely the history of origins of the minerals. Prabhupāda: [indistinct] I mean to say when there was no energy, just like gasoline, petroleum. Karāndhara: They have been using coal for hundreds of years but then the oil [indistinct] Prabhupāda: Say hundreds of years, so before that how the world was existing? Karāndhara: Well they say it was existing in a primitive state. Prabhupāda: That’s all right, you go to primitive state and be steady, why do you artificially try to come to so-called civilised state? Karāndhara: They have two plans for the future then one is, the first one is. Prabhupāda: No our point is the more you make plans you become. Svarūpa Dāmodara: More entangled? Prabhupāda: More entangled that is our point. Śyāmasundara: The next plan is to harness the atomic energy but there is one constraining factor there and that would be the waste. Atomic energy pollutes the atmosphere. ...

Prabhupāda: So here we see that you can have God as your son. There are so many instances. Just like Devakī got Kṛṣṇa as his [her] son; Mother Yaśodā got God as his [her] son; Śacī-mātā, [s]he also got Caitanya Mahāprabhu as son. So this is better philosophy than to accept God as father. That is especially in the Vaiṣṇava philosophy. Others, the impersonalist, voidist, they have no conception of God. Voidists—“Ultimately everything is zero,” and the impersonalists, “God has no form.” Both are the same thing, in a different language. The voidists, they say, “Ultimately there is nothing but zero,” and the impersonalist statement that “Maybe something, but it is not person; it is imperson.” Therefore in the Padma Purāṇa this Buddhist theory, voidism, and the Śaṅkara’s theory, impersonalism, they are taken as one and the same. Pracchannaṁ bauddham ucyate. Pracchannaṁ bauddham. The Buddhists, they decline to accept the authority of Vedas, and the Māyāvādī, the impersonalist, they wanted to accept the authority of Vedas, but under the garb of Buddhism. Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu has given His remark, veda nā māniyā bauddha haya ta’ nāstika. According to Vedic line of thought, anyone who does not accept the authority of Vedas, he is called atheist. Just like the Muhammadans, they also call kafir. One who does not accept the authority of Koran, they call kafir. And the Christians also, they call heathens. So there are ...

Dhanañjaya: …at midday. He said we should also fast this morning. In fact, he said we should really fast all day and break the fast at moonrise. Prabhupāda: Hmm? Harikeśa: He said that? Dhanañjaya: Is that right? Until this evening? Harikeśa: No. He didn’t say that. Dhanañjaya: Oh. What did he say? He said fast all day. Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: No, no. Harikeśa said that. Brahmānanda: On our calendar it says tomorrow is Vāmana… Harikeśa: Tomorrow is Vāmana-dvādaśī. Prabhupāda: You can come back, half past six, in my room. Dhanañjaya: Yes. Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. [end]

Prabhupāda: All right. Sāṅketyam, “indication.” Everyone should know, viduḥ. Generally we do not know what is the power of vaikuṇṭha-nāma. Caitanya Mahāprabhu regretted that the holy name of Kṛṣṇa is so powerful that all the potencies or all the energies in the Absolute Person, the same thing you’ll find in His name, in His form, but these things are not understood by less intelligent class of men. To understand these things means to know Kṛṣṇa in truth. This is tattva, truth, that Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Person, His holy name, His form, His attributes, His pastimes, His paraphernalia, His dhāma… Just like we are in Vṛndāvana-dhāma. So why Vṛndāvana-dhāma is worshiped? Because the Vṛndāvana-dhāma is not different from Kṛṣṇa. When you take little dust of Vṛndāvana-dhāma and take it, that means you are taking the dust of Kṛṣṇa’s lotus feet, and you take it. Vṛndāvana-dhāma, so important. So Vṛndāvana-dhāma, ordinary man cannot see. Therefore Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura says, Vṛndāvana, if you come from anywhere by the train and aeroplane and see Vṛndāvana, that is not seeing Vṛndāvana. Vṛndāvana-seeing means, When we shall be free from viṣaya… Viṣaya means āhāra-nidrā-bhaya-maithunam. So who can give up viṣaya unless it is a great devotee? Others cannot. Viṣaya, it is very difficult. But if one is advanced devotee—paraṁ dṛṣṭvā nivartate—they can give up. So if ...

Prabhupāda: …one horse within the mouth—that is God. One hill. One Pūtanā, sucking the breast, her life goes. That is God. Why shall I take some cheap God? We are not so foolish. Here is the… So many great saintly persons hearing about God. Śṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṇaḥ puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtanaḥ. They are fools, hearing about Kṛṣṇa? Such great, great personalities? And Śukadeva Gosvāmī is speaking. Are they fools? All of them fools? One, two may be fool. They were wholesale fools? All the great personalities, they’re all fools? Asita, Devala, Vyāsa, Nārada—all big personalities—Rāmānujācārya, Madhvācārya, Caitanya Mahāprabhu—they’re all fools? I may be fool. They are not fools. Mahājano yena gataḥ sa panthāḥ. Why shall I accept a rascal God? Varīyān eṣa te praśnaḥ. “Oh, you want to hear about Kṛṣṇa?” Varīyān eṣa te praśnaḥ. Śukadeva was praising: “Oh, glorious, you have taken… Yes.” Here is God. Breathing, and innumerable universes are coming. Here is God. Sleeping and breathing is not unnatural. He is also—nityo nityānāṁ cetanaḥ—like us. But like not us. He can breathe and… That is the difference. Breathing is common. I breathe; He breathes. That’s all right. But His breathing, my breathing is not the same breathing. He eats; I eat. That’s all right. But when He eats, Mother Yaśodā sees all the universes are within Him.

So necessity has no law. This brahma-bandhu, he knew how to create this brahmāstra. He learnt it. But he knew it also that this weapon is not to be used generally. In very, very rare cases this should be used. As I explained, that atomic bomb, the nuclear weapon, is not used when there is fight between two dogs. It is not so insignificant. When the fight is very severe… Just like your country used this nuclear bomb. When the Japanese people dared to attack your Pearl Harbor, at that time, your president was Mr. Truman. So it was not to be used, but he took little more precaution. Anyway, such weapon, deadly weapon, should not be used ordinarily. Therefore here it is said that prāṇa-kṛcchra upasthite. He knew that Arjuna was after him and there is no escape. He would be killed. So whatever last resort he knew, he used that knowledge to throw brahmāstra so that the other party may be killed altogether. But ajānann api saṁhāram. He was not willing, but he did not know how to withdraw that. Formerly, they used to know it. They could throw one brahmāstra, and if he likes he can withdraw, or the other party, he can nullify it. This is warfare. But he did not know that. How to counteract it, he did not know that.