Real yoga process is to see Krishna /God within our hearts: Srila Prabhupada

1. Srimad Bhagavatam, the ripened fruit of all Vedic literatures, is not just for Rasa Lila, the ultimate pastimes of the Lord.

2. To know and love God means to know in detail how this material energy/world works. 

3. If we don’t know God in truth then we will be mistaken and take Him to be an ordinary man or some imagination.    

4. Advanced devotees do not see fire, air or sky, they see Krishna and His energies.

5. Therefore we must make a study of these energies.

6. First class yogi sees God within his own heart, others’ hearts, and everywhere, 

24 hours a day.

7. How to do this? Increase our love for God, Krishna.

8. First love Him more and more, then we can surrender totally to Him. 

 

 

Lectures, Srimad Bhagavatam, January 15, 1975, Bombay          

 

 

Nitai: "Fire is appreciated by its light and by its capacity to cook, to digest, to destroy cold, to evaporate, and to give rise to hunger, thirst, eating and drinking."

 

Prabhupada:  So people may be astonished, that "They are reading Srimad Bhagavatam. Why they are discussing the action and reaction of fire?" Generally, they think Bhagavata reading means rasa-pancadhyaya, bas, immediately jump over to the rasa-lila of Krishna. Actually to know God means to know everything in detail. Kasmin tu bhagavo vijnate sarvam idam vijnatam bhavati. That is the Vedic injunction. If we understand Krishna, then we must understand also how Krishna's different energies are working. That is called tattvatah. Krishna says in the Bhagavad-gita, manusyanam sahasresu kascid yatati siddhaye. The other day I was reading Gandhi's discourses on Bhagavad-gita. He said that "I can imagine any way Krishna. I do not accept the historical Krishna." In this way, so many things. He was a big man. He can say like that. But we cannot imagine or manufacture Krishna. That is not possible. That is not Krishna. God is never imagined or speculated or manufactured by my limited knowledge and limited senses. That is not Krishna. Of course, Krishna is everything. But if we want to know tattvatah Krishna, in truth, how Krishna has created the panca-bhuta and how each bhuta or each material element is working, that is being discussed. This is perfect knowledge, tattvatah.

 

So because they do not want to know Krishna in tattvatah, factually, therefore they mistake Krishna. Especially they attack Krishna, that "He killed so many demons. He had rasa-lila with so many gopis. He married so many wives," misunderstand Krishna. But if Krishna is all-powerful, almighty, then what is the difficulty for Him to marry 16,108 wives? Krishna has many, many millions and millions of devotees. 

 

... So to understand Krishna, krsna-upadesa, to know about Krishna, that is Krishna consciousness movement. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's mission is like that. Yare dekha, tare kaha 'krsna'-upadesa.  If you study just like  here, analytical study of fire... Dyotanam, illumination; pacanam, digesting; panam, increasing thirst. If you don't feel thirsty, that means the agni, or the fire element within the stomach, is not working. Agni-mandya. Mandya, the word comes from manda. Manda means slow. So the Ayurvedic treatment, they say it, agni-mandya. So when there is agni-mandya, there is medicine how to ignite the fire again.

 

... So to know Krishna means know everything, because Krishna is everything. How Krishna is working in everything, even in different parts of our limbs, represented by demigods, they are all described. Even our eyelids moving under the direction of some demigod. And demigods, they are different parts and parcels, bodily limbs of whole Krishna. So do not mind, "Why Bhagavata is studying Krishna so analytically?" That is required. If we understand Krishna by analytical study, how His divine power is working throughout the whole universe, within the atom, within myself, within the movable, immovable, everywhere, antaryami... Eko 'py asau racayitum jagad-anda-kotim. Jagad-anda-koti. This universe, that is not one universe. We are in one of the universes..... 

 

Therefore in the advanced stage of devotional life a devotee does not see fire. He sees Krishna. A devotee does not see air, but he sees Krishna. A devotee does not see sky, but he sees Krishna. Sarvatra haya nija ista-deva-sphurti. Ista-deva. Krishna is the worshipable Deity of the devotee. So immediately, he sees anything, because he knows it is Krishna's energy... Just like we, generally, as soon as we see in the morning light, we can understand there is sun, immediately. There is no delay. "Now there is sun." The sun may not be visible immediately, but because the darkness is gone and there is light, although glimpse light, now we understand this is morning, and now there is sun. Similarly, an advanced devotee, because he knows everything is Krishna's energy... So this is energy study. Therefore in the Bhagavad-gita it is said, raso 'ham apsu kaunteya: "Apsu, in the water, the taste I am," because every one of us becomes thirsty and we take water. And actually it is so; the taste of water is Krishna. Otherwise who can give taste unless Krishna is there? Now take. There are big, vast water in front of Bombay. Now change the taste. Then there is no need of acquiring water from here and there, bringing big, big pipes. No. You take and change the taste, salty taste, and making drinkable. No. That you cannot unless Krishna does it. Therefore the taste is Krishna. It is not difficult to understand.

 

So if we study in this way, analytically, everything, Krishna's energy... Sasi-suryayoh. Prabhasmi sasi-suryayoh. Krishna says, "I am the illumination of the sun and the moon." So you can create by... Scientists, they say the sun is combination of so many chemicals.  Now you create one sun and illuminate the whole universe. That you cannot do because that is Krishna. You cannot create Krishna. You cannot imagine Krishna. That is not possible. Foolish persons, they may say, "Krishna is my imagination." No, He's not imagination. He's fact. Simply one has to know how Krishna is present in everything. That is described in the Bhagavad-gita.

 

raso 'ham apsu kaunteya

 prabhasmi sasi-suryayoh

 pranavah sarva-vedesu 

sabdah khe paurusam nrsu

 

So there is list of understanding Krishna. Don't say that "We have not seen God. Can you show me God?" Why don't you see? The God says, "I am here," but why don't you see? God says, "I am the taste of water." So when you drink water, why don't you see God in the taste? He is visible in every step. Every working of this nature, He is doing that. Simply we have to make our eyes to see. That is Krishna consciousness. Everything is there, present. Krishna, God, is present everywhere. Andantara-stha-paramanu-cayantara-stham. Krishna is present here. Krishna is within your heart. Isvarah sarva-bhutanam hrd-dese 'rjuna tisthati. But when you learn the art to see Him within your

heart, that is called mystic yoga. Dhyanavasthita-tad-gatena manasa pasyanti yam yoginah.

 

The yogic process is to see Krishna within the heart. That is real yoga. That is real yoga system. Try to see Krishna within the heart. Then you first-class yogi. That is the perfection of topmost yogic process.

 

yoginam api sarvesam

mad-gatenantar-atmana

sraddhavan bhajate yo mam

sa me yuktatamo matah

 

If you can learn how to see Krishna within the heart always, twenty-four hours, then your life is successful. That is perfection of life. That is Krishna consciousness movement, how you can learn to see Krishna within your heart, within other's heart, and everywhere. Sthavara-jangama dekhe na dekhe tara murti. This is wanted.

   

So this is possible by increasing our love for Krishna. Simply we have to increase our love. Just like in practical life also, we begin to love somebody, one after another, gradually, not all of a sudden, similarly, we have to increase our love for Krishna. That love for Krishna is the devotional process.

 

sravanam kirtanam visnoh

smaranam pada-sevanam

arcanam vandanam dasyam

sakhyam atma-nivedanam

 

Then surrender. That is the ultimate state of loving affairs, surrender. Why one should surrender to another person unless there is love? Just like wife surrenders to husband and husband protects the wife. This is general duty. So why one man is interested with one woman for giving her all protection, and why one man is surrendered to..., one woman is surrendered to one man? What is the basic principle? The basic principle is love. So similarly, our full surrender, full Krishna consciousness, can be achieved when we develop our love for Krishna little by little, little by little, and then come to the perfection. When we come to the perfection, then we cannot live without Krishna. Just like Chaitanya Mahaprabhu taught us. In the last stage of His life He exhibited such manifestation of love that He was dying without Krishna. Sunyayitam jagat sarvam govinda-virahena me. Sunyayitam, everything is vacant. Sunyayitam jagat sarvam govinda-virahena me. "Without Govinda, I see everything vacant."

 

Sometimes we have got experience. If we lose a friend, a son, at that time, everything becomes vacant without my son, without my lover. That is practical. So Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was exhibiting that type of love for Krishna, that He was feeling that "Without Krishna, everything is void." Sunyayitam jagat sarvam govinda-virahena me. This He taught personally, how to raise oneself to the topmost stage of love for Krishna. That is the ultimate aim and object of life. Preman... yam syama-sundaram acintya-guna-svarupam govindam adi-purusam tam aham bhajami. To see Krishna within the heart always. 

 

(end)