19870802 Bhagavad-gītā 15.6

The following is a class given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami on August 2nd 1987 in Penang, Malaysia. The class begins with a reading from the Bhagavad-gītā, chapter 15, text 6.

na tad bhāsayate sūryo
na śaśāṅko na pāvakaḥ
yad gatvā na nivartante
tad dhāma paramaṁ mama

Translation (by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda): That supreme abode of Mine is not illumined by the sun or the moon, nor by fire or electricity. Those who reach it never return to this material world. Translation and repetition: That supreme abode of Mine is not illumined by the sun or the moon, nor by fire or electricity. Those who reach it never return to this material world.

Purport (by Śrīla Prabhupāda): The spiritual world, the abode of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa – which is known as Kṛṣṇaloka, Goloka Vṛndāvana – is described here. In the spiritual sky there is no need of sunshine, moonshine,fire or electricity, because all the planets are self-luminous. We have only one planet in this universe, the sun, which is self-luminous, but all the planets in the spiritual sky are self-luminous. The shining effulgence of all those planets (called Vaikuṇṭha) constitutes the shining sky known as the brahmā-jyotir. Actually, the effulgence is emanating from the planet of Kṛṣṇa, Goloka Vṛndāvana. Part of that shining effulgence is covered by the mahat-tattva, the material world. Other than this, the major portion of that shining sky is full of spiritual planets, which are called Vaikuṇṭhas, chief of which is Goloka Vṛndāvana. As long as a living entity is in this dark material world, he is in conditional life, but as soon as he reaches the spiritual sky by cutting through the false, perverted tree of this material world, he becomes liberated. Then there is no chance of his coming back here. In his conditional life, the living entity considers himself to be the lord of this material world, but in his liberated state he enters into the spiritual kingdom and becomes an associate of the Supreme Lord. There he enjoys eternal bliss, eternal life, and full knowledge. One should be captivated by this information. He should desire to transfer himself to that eternal world and extricate himself from this false reflection of reality. For one who is too much attached to this material world, it is very difficult to cut that attachment, but if he takes to Kṛṣṇa consciousness there is a chance of gradually becoming detached. One has to associate himself with devotees, those who are in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. One should search out a society dedicated to Kṛṣṇa consciousness and learn how to discharge devotional service. In this way he can cut off his attachment to the material world. One cannot become detached from the attraction of the material world simply by dressing himself in saffron cloth. He must become attached to the devotional service of the Lord. Therefore one should take it very seriously that devotional service as described in the Twelfth Chapter is the only way to get out of this false representation of the real tree. In Chapter Fourteen the contamination of all kinds of processes by material nature is described. Only devotional service is described as purely transcendental The words paramaṁ mama are very important here. Actually every nook and corner is the property of the Supreme Lord, but the spiritual world is paramam, full of six opulences. The Kaṭha Upaniṣad (2.2.15) also confirms that in the spiritual world there is no need of sunshine, moonshine or stars (na tatra sūryo bhāti na candra-tārakam), for the whole spiritual sky is illuminated by the internal potency of the Supreme Lord. That supreme abode can be achieved only by surrender and by no other means.

Thus end the Bhaktivedānta Swami translation and purport to the Śrīmad Bhāgavad-gītā As It Is chapter 15, text 6.

Jayapatākā Swami: Here in the Bhagavad-gītā, a brief description of some of the qualities and of the existence of the spiritual world is described. In different religions of the world, there is a description that there exists a spiritual world, a divine kingdom of God. Here in the Bhagavad-gītā, a little additional fact is found about the spiritual world. The spiritual world is self-illumined, it is self-effulgent. In the material world there is darkness. In the spiritual world there is light. In the room we have light because we have electrical bulbs, and during the daylight we have the sun. But basically the outer space is dark, except for the illumination of the sun, the moon and the stars. That means the material world is by nature dark, black, un-illumined, it requires special luminaries. But in the spiritual world it is the opposite. Everything is illuminated, there is no darkness, simply light, illumination, full eternity, full bliss, transcendental and full knowledge. Naturally everyone is looking to be very joyful. According to this Vedānta-sūtra, everyone is coming from the Absolute Truth — ‘janmādy asya yataḥ’. And according to the Brahma-saṁhitā, the Absolute Truth is Kṛṣṇa. The Absolute Truth is eternal, blissful and full of knowledge.

īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ
anādir ādir govindaḥ sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam

That Supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa, Bhagavān, who is sac-cid-ānanda, naturally He has an appropriate residence, or the spiritual world. The spiritual world is coming from Him, this material world is coming from Him, we are also coming from Him. Everything is coming from the Paraṁ brahma, the Absolute Truth. So, by nature since the Supreme Absolute Personality of Godhead is blissful, is filled with joy. Therefore, by nature we are also filled with joy. We are looking for joy, but in the material world because we are out of our natural habitat, of our natural way of life, therefore we are not happy all the time. We are looking for happiness, because we are part of Kṛṣṇa.

mamaivāṁśo jīva-loke jīva-bhūtaḥ sanātanaḥ
(Bg. 15.7)

Because we are part of Kṛṣṇa and He is fully joyful ‘ānandamayo 'bhyāsāt’ therefore we also want that ānandamaya, we want that full joy, that full happiness of spiritual life. We want complete happiness and therefore we are looking in various ways. So when we find that there is an abode, there is a supreme place where one can always be happy, naturally that is very revolutionary. That is very attractive. Not only there’s a description that such a place exists, but there is also various descriptions about that spiritual world. Here in the Bhagavad-gītā, one or two verses are mentioned. Several verses refer to it. In the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, there is an elaborate description of the of the spiritual world. If one wants more descriptions of the spiritual world, you can see in the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam. Also the Brahma-saṁhitā gives some description, just like where the spiritual world is described as a cintāmaṇi-dhāma.

cintāmaṇi-prakara-sadmasu kalpa-vṛkṣa-
lakṣāvṛteṣu surabhir abhipālayantam
lakṣmī-sahasra-śata-sambhrama-sevyamānaḿ
govindam ādi-puruṣaḿ tam ahaḿ bhajāmi
(Bs. 5.29)

Cintāmaṇi means that it’s completely conscious, cognizant. In the material world dull matter is the substance we see everywhere. Dull matter in itself has no consciousness. It’s like this table. The table doesn’t have any consciousness on its own. These bodies, they are not conscious on their own. They require the presence of the soul, of the ātmā. When the jīva is present within the body, the body is conscious. When that living force is absent from the body, the body is described as dead. Actually the body is never alive, but the living essence is inside the body, and that makes this dead body appear alive. That makes the body, for all practical purposes, alive. But the real life is not in the body. It’s in the soul or the spirit which is in the body. Life symptom is coming from that spiritual essence. The Bhagavad-gītā clearly explains to us that we should understand the difference between the living force, and the body, and the mind. We are the living force, we are transcendental to the body. The body is considered a machine of material nature which is carrying us about. ‘yantrārūḍhāni māyayā (Bg. 18.61)’ Yantra means machine. This material body is a machine made of the material nature. It’s like one time Śrīla Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, he was touring India and he was visiting different villages. He went to one village and he told the simple village people “My dear village people, certainly in your village sometimes a grandfather, a village elder dies. At that time he’s laid down and his relatives are crying. Wife is crying, children are crying, brothers are crying they’re crying. Where has grandfather gone? Where has grandfather gone? Where has father gone? Where has brother gone? They’re crying because he’s dead. Where has he gone! So then Prabhupāda, he asked those villagers, “So who has actually gone? There the same man is laying down, the same body, the same head, the same legs, the same arms, same hair, same skin, same organs. So who is gone? If the body is gone, there the body is. Then who is gone?”

The villagers of India they are spiritually very astute, they said, “The jīva is gone, the ātmā has gone, the person has gone, the soul. The person is the soul.”

Then Prabhupāda said, “Yes, you have properly understood.” This is the very quality of India, that even a common people in the village, they know about soul, about the spirit. If someone suddenly has some misfortune, they will say, “Oh this is due to our karmic reaction of my previous life.” If they have good fortune, they think that is also due to their karma. They believe in reincarnation, and for them it is just natural as anything. So in the evolution of the soul, we gradually go through the 8 million 400 species of life. From the plants to the aquatics, the fish to the insects and reptiles, to the birds, then finally take birth in the animal kingdom. From the animal kingdom, we go through various evolutions from the rats to the cats to the dogs, to the monkeys and so on. When we take birth as a monkey, a lion or tiger or a cow, at that time our next birth will be a human being. Even according to the Buddhist philosophy, certain types of animals are never to be harmed, because they are considered to be very high on the evolution of reincarnation. In Thailand, the king of Thailand on his birthday, he will accept any donation of cow and put a seal on the cow that no one should ever slaughter that cow. Because the cow is considered to be the highest evolution of animal birth. After cow, one takes birth as a pious human being. So these philosophies are well spoken throughout Asia, India.

But here the Bhagavad-gītā is telling us of a higher evolution. Once we achieve the human form of life, then what? Modern science, they all thought human being is more intelligent than all the animals. Modern custom tells us, because human being is more powerful, because human being is more powerful, therefore the human being should eat all the weaker animals and fish. But the Bhāgavad-gītā says that whatever we eat, that will also give us the reaction. Actually Śrīla Prabhupāda explained that the animals… the animals are like the younger brothers and sisters of the human beings. They are weaker in many ways. They can be exploited by the human beings. But if a big brother, he may have little brother and sister. Does that mean you have the right to eat them? No. No right to do so. Similarly the human being they should not eat other creatures just because they’re weaker. They should eat according to the need for a healthy body, for a healthy mind. They should eat for their spiritual development. So at the present time, especially in opulent countries like Malaysia where there is a nut, fruit, vegetables, grains, milk products, butter, ghee, what is the need for killing innocent animals and eating the flesh. In the modern world there is a good enough supply that in all the countries of the world. Even I saw in Middle East, they are content in nuts, fruits and vegetables even though their own country are filled with ham. Everyone can eat a nonviolent diet which will offer an opportunity to advance in the evolution of life and will spare the innocent animals from suffering. So when a human beings starts to think responsibly this way, and starts to follow these various guidelines given in the sacred books - the Vedas, śāstras etc., then they are considered to be civilized, because they are acting responsibly, not causing unnecessary harm to others. This civilized life is different from the undeveloped life of humans who are not civilized, who without any responsibility of willing to commit violence to others including innocent animals is a lack of civilization in their activities. The civilized life begins from following certain rules and regulations given in religious scriptures. That civilized life tells one, in the first stage you do these activities to get a happy life. You do some authorized activities and you’ll be peaceful so on. Of course, now a days because people have been able to have certain amount of economic development, they feel no need to go to church, or mosque or temple to pray, because already the economic development is there. But sometimes even though one may be materially happy for some time, in due course of time frustration comes. Then one feels a need to understand what is the real purpose of life? Why am I suffering? Why am I not peaceful and happy even though I have certain material things? At that point one becomes a jñānī or one who is seeking for knowledge. The jñānī is more advanced than the person who is going through religion simply for some material benefit. One who is going for spiritual life in order to understand the purpose of life, in order to achieve freedom from material bondage, that person is considered more advanced. But even more advanced than the jñānī are those yogīs who are actually meditating on the Absolute. There are different types of yogīs. The mystic yogī who is able to meditate on the Absolute in the heart, who was able to achieve certain mystic powers, they are considered as more perfect than those who are simply seeking for liberation. But even more complete than these mystic yogīs is considered the devotee, a bhakti-yogī. A devotee of the Lord who’s practicing bhakti-yoga is considered to be above the material world. Because Kṛṣṇa is Himself above the material world, He’s living in the spiritual world. Just like if you want to write someone a letter, everyone has their address. If you want to write the president of United States, you address it to the White House in Washington DC. If you want to address a letter to the general secretary of the politburo of Russia, then you address it to Moscow, the Kremlin. If you want to address a letter to the Prime minister of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur. You see everyone has their address. So when we want to address to Kṛṣṇa, to Bhagavān, then what address do you put? Goloka! Thank you very much. You give the address, Goloka Vṛndāvana. That Goloka Vṛndāvana is described here in this verse as ‘tad dhāma paramaṁ mama’. My Supreme Abode. Unfortunately, so far I don’t think the national post office facility has been able to provide delivery facilities to that ‘tad dhāma paramaṁ’ or the supreme abode.

In fact I think they are still limited to this planet. They are not even able to deliver letters to the moon or to the sun. Although recently they’ve sent out some voyager aircraft to go deep into outer space. By 30,000 years from now it’s expected to reach the next solar system. So that’s one way of sending mail, but by that rate I think that will take a long time to reach to Kṛṣṇaloka. When Durvāsa Muni was escaping from the Sudarśana-cakra, he went by the speed of the intelligence to the Viṣṇu-loka of the universe. He reached to that planet in one years' time, going at a speed far faster than light. So by doing it through your means, it is very difficult to reach the Supreme Abode. But one can go from the material world to the spiritual world at the speed of the spirit, no separation of time and space. So because that Lord is in that supreme abode, if someone is connected with the Lord through the process of devotional service, then that devotee is already considered to be transcendentally situated. He’s under the protection of that Supreme Energy ‘mayādhyakṣeṇa (Bg. 9.10)’. Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhāgavad-gītā, in another place, that He always puts His devotee under His protection of His internal potency. So when one is fully Kṛṣṇa conscious, in one moment you can transfer from the material world to the spiritual sky. Nārada Muni when he was meditating on Kṛṣṇa in this material world, before he become Nārada Muni, when he was just a son of a maid servant, suddenly death came. But it came like a lightning shot *clap*. Suddenly there was a flash. He looked; he saw his material body lying beneath him. He looked and he had his own spiritual form. A spiritual, effulgent body. In that form he could immediately go to the planet of Kṛṣṇa, of Viṣṇu or anywhere in the material worlds. No longer does he have to suffer birth and death like the ordinary living entities in the material world. So, for the devotee, there is no fear of death, because death means simply transferring from the material body to spiritual body. So one can immediately go to the supreme abode in that way, or sometimes a devotee goes through the material worlds, touring the different planetary systems, until finally one goes to the supreme abode. In this way there is considered to be 14 levels of planetary existence. Just like in this world, by modern usage,they say there’s the first world, second world, third world countries. Or within a particular city, there is a very rich upper class, then there is the upper middle class, then middle class, then lower middle class, then upper lower class, then low class, then there is the very poor class. There are various type levels that people divide - the city, the residences. In some places it’s very evident, in other place it’s very subtle. So in this universe there is considered to be, generally speaking 14 different levels of planets. The millions of planets you see in the Milky Way, all of them can be categorized into 14 levels. So just for information’s sake you might be wondering what level does this planet we are? Are we the 14th? Are we the lowest? Or are we the number one, the highest? What number are we? Does anyone know? 8? 7? Anyone else? Yes. We are in the 7th class. We are in the 7th level. That means we’re just on the upper half. There are another 6 levels of planets which are considered better than we are. They each have their own unique qualities, but in terms of basic standard of living, our planet is number 7. Then there is 6-5-4-3-2-1. Who can say the no 1 world? Brahmā-loka, Satya-loka! Lord Brahmā with 4 heads, his planet is considered to be number one, topmost abode in this material world. So from this planet, you could go and you can see each of the different levels, how the living standard is, how the variety of enjoyment is. Each are having more happiness, more peacefulness than the next, ten times more. Within this planet there is variation, but if you take the average happiness of this planet with the average happiness of the next level, then according to the Vedas the next level is ten times happier. Ten times more peace, more happiness, more everything. And it goes like that ten, ten, ten, each one is ten times more than the next. That means two levels up is 100 times more than this, three levels up is a 1000 is a 1000 metric system. And till right here up to Brahma-loka that is the 1000 times more than the one before. There’s not be any suffering there. So one can go up planet by planet seeing each of the different levels. The second level below Brahmā-loka is the level of the devas, Indra, Varuṇa and so on. They have all their planets. Of course Indra, amongst all the devas, is considered to be 100 times more, because he’s the king of the devas. If you go beyond this, and then just outside, just at the border of the material world, when you leave the universe, you leave the darkness and you just come at the twilight between the material and the spiritual world, between the supreme abode and this material world, there you find Kailāsa. Who is the lord of Kailāsa? Lord Śiva, Śambhu. Lord Śiva with Pārvatī or Umā, or Durgā, different forms, Devī. There he is residing. So when one leaves the material world, goes to the nirvāṇa, gets to Kailāsa, there in Kailāsa, the abode of Śiva, the soul can have very high standard of peace in a type of, almost liberated state. Very wonderful type of environment is there in Kailāsa. This is described in Brahma-saṁhitā, that we have Devī-dhāma, Maheśa-dhāma. But beyond Maheśa-dhāma, is coming the Vaikuṇṭha-dhāma. So when the soul wants to go to the Vaikuṇṭha-dhāma, but there’s an ocean, an ocean of brahma-nirvāṇa, an ocean of brahma-jyoti. Once there was a soul was trying to cross that brahma-jyoti, trying to go to the Vaikuṇṭha planets. He just started to leave Kailāsa to go, to make that journey across the unlimited spans of Brahman, light. Going into the Brahman light. Trying to go to the planets of Viṣṇu. Suddenly he started to think that, ‘I can merge, I can become one with the Brahman, I can become God!’ As he was thinking, he started to merge. He was starting to just merge to become nothing! Just become merged with that light! Boom he was in Viṣṇu-loka, Nārāyaṇa. He was saved from merging into that sāyujya-mukti, that merging into the brahma-jyoti which is given by Kṛṣṇa when He kills the demons who attacked Him. That brahma-jyoti which is aspired to by the great advaita-yogīs who study the Vedānta-Sūtra following Śankarācārya. That unlimited brahma-jyoti is not accepted as a suitable place for residence by devotees of Kṛṣṇa or Viṣṇu. Because when you merge into that brahma-jyoti, it is almost like a spiritual suicide. One loses one’s own individual cognizance, that I am an individual separate from others. And one identifies that I am just light. So that’s considered to be a horrible state for the devotee who is able to experience the spiritual variety, the spiritual beauty of the Lord’s saccidānanda form. Simple to be locked into the sat form, the eternal aspect, and be deprived from the bliss and the knowledge is not acceptable to the devotee. So somehow that devotee, he saved himself by remembering the name of Nārāyaṇa, and he immediately went to the abode of Nārāyaṇa. You see so this way the soul can either journey directly to the planet of Nārāyaṇa, or can go planet by planet. But we may also get stuck up, we may get mislead, or may get diverted, detoured, if you go to these other planets. Even from Vaikuṇṭha, there’s again Ayodhyā, from Ayodhyā, there’s finally Goloka Vṛndāvana. Goloka Vṛndāvana, there Kṛṣṇa is present in his two-handed form. These are all the spiritual worlds, the paramaṁ-dhāma. So there’s one famous verse in Bhāgavatam that tells us what great souls consider about this world and the spiritual world.

samāśritā ye pada-pallava-plavaṁ
mahat-padaṁ puṇya-yaśo murāreḥ
bhavāmbudhir vatsa-padaṁ paraṁ padaṁ
padaṁ padaṁ yad vipadāṁ na teṣām
(ŚB. 10.14.58)

By taking in this world the shelter, samāśritā ye pada-pallava-plavaṁ, the shelter of the boat which is the lotus feet of Murāri. If we take shelter of Murāri or Kṛṣṇa’s lotus feet, this becomes like a boat, a ship. In Penang I think ships are very well known because this is one of the famous jewel pearl of the orient. So if you want to cross over from Penang, to the mainland of Malaysia, you can go now by bridge or by ferry. But if you want cross over the ocean and go to India, or go to Australia, then you have to go by ship. There’s no bridge as yet. Maybe for India we have land way but at least for Australia there is no bridge, you have to go by ship. So to cross over this ocean of material nature you need a ship. So that ship is called Kṛṣṇa’s lotus feet. Taking shelter of Kṛṣṇa is like crossing this ocean of birth and death in a ship. Bhavāmbudhi - the ocean of material birth and death. Everyone in this material world is supposed to die. After death, (the spirit always living, we’re eternal consciousness) again we are forced to be born, again we live life, we die. Again we are born. Death-birth-death-birth-death, it goes on like that again and again and again and again and again - punarjanma, transmigration of the soul. So this is an ocean of being born and dying again. And again after death we’re born again, and after birth we all are dying again. Going on like this. So how we get out of this ocean? How do cross over this ocean of repeated birth and death? So the suitable ship is taking shelter of devotional service of Lord Kṛṣṇa, Murāri. Why the name Murāri is given? Murā means the Murā demon. Hari means that will clear up. Material world has so many obstacles which are like demons to us. But Kṛṣṇa can remove all the obstacles in our path of progress to the supreme liberation, to the supreme abode, to that supreme perfection of life. So when we take shelter of Murāri, of Kṛṣṇa, then we easily crossover this ocean of birth and death. Bhavāmbudhir vatsa-padaṁ paraṁ padaṁ. Again they say paraṁ padaṁ. In the Gītā today we read paraṁ dhāma. In the Bhāgavatam it’s saying paraṁ padaṁ. We easily cross over the ocean. How easily? It said the ocean become so small, that you can just step over. You say two for more. Padam-padaṁ means more steps. Step after step. Every step we take, padaṁ padaṁ yad vipadāṁ. Vipada means danger. There’s danger every step. Who takes shelter in the material world where there’s danger at every step? Life insurance companies are making money because everyone knows they could die at any moment. The existence of life insurance is the proof of my point. So life insurance can only help those who are remaining after we leave, but this is eternal life insurance. This helps those after, as well as the person who’s left. Because by taking the insurance of Kṛṣṇa’s lotus feet, you crossover the material world to the paraṁ padaṁ. And if one family member reaches, the whole family gets delivered. The whole family, also the children, also the grandchildren, the great grandchildren, seven generations! Not only that, also the parents, grandparents, great grandparents, seven generations before. So who can offer insurance policy for fourteen generations? Only the Kṛṣṇa Conscious movement. So everyone should book their ticket to the Murāri Express Ship. (laughing) Luxury liner. (laughing) Crossing over all the dangers and going to the supreme abode, where Kṛṣṇa says, once you go you don’t have to come back. If you want to come back, you are always free to. But who will come back to this place of padaṁ padaṁ yad vipadāṁ. No one wants to come back to a place where every step is danger. Just like I was recently visiting somewhere. There were some youth, they were all going out for a trek in the country, forgot which country. A whole party of people went out trekking, and one person went on the wrong way. So they all came back. They looked, there was one person missing. They sent out helicopters, they tried to locate that person but they couldn’t find him. Finally they found him dead. This material world, you go out for a little walk in the country, everyone was going one way, they hear some boys say, “You go that way”, but it was the wrong way. They end up somewhere far away, lost in the forest. It gets dark, it’s very cold at night, then morning comes, person dead. Danger every step. Then after that who wants to go in the forest like that alone? You get lost like that and you don’t want to go to such a dangerous place again so easily. So once one leaves this material world, they don’t want to come back. Why should they, when they are in a very happy spiritual world. Completely happy. So we can experience that supreme abode now, just like now we can talk from Malaysia to London by telephone through satellite. By sound vibration we can communicate. Similarly, you can communicate with the supreme abode not by satellite, not by telecommunication, but by vibration. Transcendental vibration, spiritual vibration, mantra. The mantra for communicating from any soul to the spiritual world is known as mahā-mantra. There are many mantras. Some mantras are only for some special parties. Just like there are special government rights, only can be used by some people. Like that there are these Gāyatrī-mantras, other mantra, only for particular source, to particular destination. But mahā-mantra means for everyone to the supreme destination. Anyone who chants the mahā-mantra, they can communicate with the Supreme destination. Does anyone know the mahā-mantra for this age of Kali? Any other ladies? Or the children? You know the maha mantra? Anyone knows? (clapping)

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare
Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare

By using this form of communication, we can directly become in contact, soul to soul communication between individual soul and the supreme abode. This can give us an immediate experience of some of that transcendental knowledge, and happiness, and eternal bliss that we are going to expect where we get to the supreme abode. Even a drop, you can get an idea what it’s about. Even if we get a drop of that happiness, it is such a profound experience, it’s more than anything experiences anywhere in the material world. What to speak of a 7th level planetary system like planet earth, known in Vedas as Bhārata-varṣa or Ilāvṛtavarṣa. So we know you’re all very religious people, you are very philosophical, and intellectual, awakened audience. Therefore we’d like to offer you this very best of systems for achieving perfection in your life, and we hope that all of you will study the Bhāgavad-gītā and Śrīmad Bhāgavatam by Bhaktivedānta Swami Prabhupāda, and chant

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare
Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare

mahā-mantra and remain in constant communication, don’t cut off the links. Bhaktivedānta Swami Prabhupāda came from India. In 1965 he went to America and spread this movement to the West. Then he came back to the East at 1971. He came here to Malaysia. He’s the founder of the Kṛṣṇa conscious movement in the world. He’s also the Founder Ācārya in one sense,here in Malaysia, because he brought the first message of Kṛṣṇa consciousness here in Malaysia, (clapping) the movement of Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Actually Bhaktivedānta Swami Prabhupāda, he could see the vision, that here in Malaysia, people could easily achieve this perfection. They don’t have a lot of material economic worries as they might have in other countries. Of course, everywhere on this world today there are economic worries, but not life and death, in Malaysia. Even in America there are economic worries are there. American government has got deficit budget, and Russia is always trying to make the ends meet. So there’s always economic worry. But there’s not that type of worry that people should sacrifice their spiritual life. There is enough economy that one can concentrate on the higher goal of life. So Prabhupāda's vision was that the people here have spiritual potential to achieve the complete perfection. Therefore, he visited to various cities in Malaysia (clapping) spreading this message. So, I am very glad to be invited here by the Society of Kṛṣṇa Consciousness in Malaysia for this opportunity to come here and to explain to you some of the teachings of Bhaktivedānta Swami Prabhupāda of Lord Kṛṣṇa in the Bhāgavad-gītā, and I am sure that each one of you can achieve complete perfection, whether a man, whether a woman, whether a child or whether an elderly, whether you’re in an Indian origin body or Chinese origin body or whatever origin body you might have. Because this is the spiritual process is with the soul, it is with the consciousness. And any human consciousness can bring it up to the highest level of complete realization. Thank you very much!

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare
Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare 

On food: It says in the Vedas that emergency knows no rules. If there’s life and death situation, and there’s no other food, then one can eat whatever will keep one alive. Even one great ācārya, he got lost in the desert. There was a drought, and he was about to die, and as he was not even able to walk, he was just crawling through the sand. In front of him there was a dog, that dog suddenly died. So he took this as a sign. Because the dog died when he was about to die, and there was no way to get out of the desert, he ate the dead dog. Of course he didn’t kill the dog. He waited for it to die. When it died, he ate the meat, he got out of the desert. After that he was pure vegetarian, pure Kṛṣṇa-prasādarian again. But I mean the population of Greenland is also only 70,000. So it’s 70,000 in Greenland or Iceland. They are also growing bananas. (laughing). In Northern Iceland they’re having volcanic gases coming from the earth, so because it’s so far north, they have six months of the sun and six months dark. That’s what they call the midnight sun. It doesn’t set. So they build very big greenhouses, and the hot gases is captured in the greenhouse, and inside they’re growing bananas. And because it’s getting six months daylight, no night, they grow very fast. Here in Malaysia it takes about nine months for banana to give fruit, but there because day and night it’s getting sun, so within four five-six months it’s getting the fruit. So now they are exporting bananas from Iceland to other parts of the earth (laughing). to other parts of the earth (laughing). So now that we have the modern technology even in Iceland, Greenland, there’s a scope for them to eat vegetarian sāttvika food.