Pradyumna:

sa eva jiva-lokasya
maya-mohita-cetasaḥ;
vidhatse svena viryeṇa
sreyo dharmadi-lakṣaṇam
[SB 1.7.24]

"And yet, though You are beyond the purview of the material energy, You execute the four principles of liberation characterized by religion and so on for the ultimate good of the conditioned souls."

Prabhupada:

sa eva jiva-lokasya
maya-mohita-cetasaḥ;
vidhatse svena viryeṇa
sreyo dharmadi-lakṣaṇam
[SB 1.7.24]

So, saḥ;, Krṣṇa, who is described in the previous verse, tvam adyaḥ; puruṣaḥ;, the original person... Original person, Absolute Truth, that is described in the Vedanta-sutra, janmady asya yataḥ; [SB 1.1.1]. Original person. Just like in our familywise, or guru-parampara-wise, there is somebody, original person. So similarly, the whole creation, there is original person. In the Srimad-Bhagavatam it is said, aham asam agre. Aham asam agre. In the Vedic literature, eko narayaṇa asit. So eko narayaṇa asit, that is original person. And Krṣṇa says aham agre asam. So He's the original person, adyam. In the Bhagavad-gita also it is said, paraṁ brahma paraṁ dhama pavitraṁ paramaṁ bhavan puruṣam adyam [Bg. 10.12].

So Krṣṇa is the original person. And if somebody questions that "If Krṣṇa is the original person, who is the origin of Krṣṇa?"... Naturally, we can ask that because our experience is different—that answer is there in the Brahma-saṁhita: isvaraḥ; paramaḥ; krṣṇaḥ; sac-cid-ananda-vigrahaḥ; anadir adiḥ; [Bs. 5.1]. Anadir adiḥ;. He's adi, adyaṁ puruṣam. But if you question, "Who is the cause of Krṣṇa?" Anadi—He has no cause. That is God. You go on searching after, one after another. I am. My origin is my father, my father's origin is his father, his father's origin, his father, his father... In this way you go on researching. Then come to Brahma. Brahma is adi-kavi. In this material world, in this universe, adi-kavi. Tene brahma hrda adi-kavaye [SB 1.1.1]. So he's the adi, original, first created being. Then who is his adi? Wherefrom Brahma is coming? That is Krṣṇa. Tene brahma hrda adi-kavaye. So in this way, when you come to Krṣṇa... Brahma is coming from Viṣṇu, Garbhodakasayi Viṣṇu. Svayambhu. He's born of the lotus flower. That Garbhodakasayi Viṣṇu is coming from Karaṇodakasayi Viṣṇu. And Karaṇodakasayi Viṣṇu is coming from Saṅkarṣaṇa. Saṅkarṣaṇa is coming from Aniruddha; Aniruddha from Pradyumna, like that. Ultimately-Krṣṇa. Therefore Krṣṇa is adyam. And Krṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gita, mattaḥ; parataraṁ nanyat [Bg. 7.7]. There is no more. So that is God. You go on researching, researching, adyam, adyam, adyam—when you come to a point, there is no more adyam, that is God.

isvaraḥ; paramaḥ; krṣṇaḥ;
sac-cid-ananda-vigrahaḥ;
anadir adir govindaḥ;
sarva-karaṇa-karaṇam
[Bs. 5.1]

Sa eva, that adi-puruṣa, that original person, He comes down, descends in this material world. Jiva-lokasya. This is called jiva-loka. This material world is called jiva-loka because here atma, the soul, is covered, conditioned. We have given the meaning, jiva-loka means when the atma is conditioned. That is called jiva-loka. There is no freedom. Just like there are so many planets. You have got airplane, but because you have got airplane you cannot go there. Conditioned. You cannot go. They're trying, one, two planets, moon planet or Mars planet. No. You cannot go there, what to speak of other planets. If you want to go there then you have to qualify yourself. Not that because you have got a machine, you can go there. No. That is not possible. Therefore conditioned. Conditioned means you have to fulfill the condition. Just like from here if I want to go to America, then I have to fulfill the condition: the visa condition, the passport condition, the health condition, the custom condition—so many conditions. You cannot go immediately. Or nobody can come from there also. In every respect we are conditioned. Every respect. This body is conditioned. You cannot enjoy this body unconditionally. No. That is not possible. You have to change. Dehino 'smin yatha dehe kaumaraṁ yauvanaṁ jara [Bg. 2.13]. The body has to be changed. A baby has to be changed to become a boy. A boy has to be changed to become a young man. A young man has to be changed to an old man. You cannot stop that. Therefore it is called jiva-loka, conditioned. Every one of us is conditioned. An animal is conditioned. He cannot... There are so many animals in the jungles. They are conditioned. They cannot come in the city or in the town. We are conditioned. We cannot go to the jungle. Conditioned. Every step there is condition.

So that is our bondage. We are mamaivaṁso jiva-bhutaḥ; [Bg. 15.7]. We are part and parcel of Krṣṇa. Why you are conditioned? The condition is because maya-mohita-cetasaḥ;. Maya-mohita. They are bewildered by maya. Maya means "what is not." Ma-ya. So because we are under the clutches of maya, this material world, therefore we have been conditioned. And what is that maya? That maya is forgetfulness of our relationship with God. That is maya. Krṣṇa-bahirmukha haña bhoga vañcha kare. This jiva, when we forget Krṣṇa, our relationship with Krṣṇa... What is that relationship? Caitanya Mahaprabhu says jivera svarupa haya nitya-krṣṇa-dasa [Cc. Madhya 20.108-109]. That is our relationship. We are eternal servant of Krṣṇa. When we forget this, and we want to be master of all I survey... "I am the monarch of all I survey." I think, "I shall become independent and I shall enjoy. I shall improve my economic condition, and I shall be very happy." This is called maya-mohita-cetasaḥ;. He'll never be. Because he is conditioned. You cannot improve. That is not possible. That is called destiny. So the Western peoples, they say, "Why should we..." [break] ...any animal, take. You cannot improve the condition. Suppose the pig, he is conditioned to live in a very filthy place and eat stool, urine. You cannot improve that condition. By philanthropic mentality, if you want to improve his condition, not to live in filthy place, not to eat stool, if you try to give them halava instead of stool, they cannot. That is not possible. This is called conditioned.

Therefore sastra says that you are conditioned. You cannot change the condition. So there is no need of endeavoring for changing the condition. That is not possible. Daivi hy eṣa guṇamayi mama maya duratyaya [Bg. 7.14], Krṣṇa says. Maya, mama maya duratyaya. It is not that... Suppose if you are in the prisonhouse, you are shackled. You cannot improve your condition. You must be shackled. You are put in a cell, you must live there. Similarly, this is useless effort. The so-called maya-mohita-cetasaḥ;, the whole material world is like that. They're trying to improve the condition. But that is not possible. Therefore they're called maya-mohita-cetasaḥ;. Simply he's thinking that "If I do like this, if I go a step forward, I shall improve my condition." No. That is not possible. Again and again.

That is described in another place:

na te viduḥ; svartha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇuṁ
durasaya ye bahir-artha-maninaḥ;
andha yathandhair upaniyamanas
te 'pisa-tantryam uru-damni baddhaḥ;
[SB 7.5.31]

Matir na krṣṇe parataḥ; svato va mitho 'bhipadyeta grha-vratanam. Grha-vratanaṁ matir na krṣṇe. Those who have taken it a vow, that "I shall remain in this family life and improve my condition," grha-vratanam... Grha-vrata. Grhastha and grha-vrata are different. Grhastha means grhastha-asrama. A man is living with husband and wife or children, but the aim is how to improve spiritual life. That is grhastha-asrama. And one who has no such aim, he simply wants to enjoy the senses, and for that purpose he's decorating the house, decorating the wife, children—that is called grha-vrata or grhamedhi. In Sanskrit there are different terms for different meaning. So those who are grha-vrata, they cannot be Krṣṇa conscious. Matir na krṣṇe parataḥ; svato va. Parataḥ; means by the instruction of guru or instruction of authority, parataḥ;. And svato va. Svataḥ; means automatically. And automatically is not possible even by instruction. Because his vow is that "I shall remain in this way." Grha-vratanam. Matir na krṣṇe parataḥ; svato va mitho 'bhipadyeta. Mithaḥ;, not by conference, by meeting, by passing resolution, "If we want to become Krṣṇa conscious," that is not possible. It is all individual. I have to surrender to Krṣṇa individually. Just like when you go to the sky on airplane, it is all individual. If one airplane is in danger, other airplane cannot save him. That is not possible. Similarly, it is all individual. It is all parataḥ; svato va. One has to take it seriously, personally, that "Krṣṇa wants, so I'll surrender. Krṣṇa said, sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekaṁ saraṇaṁ vraja [Bg. 18.66], so I'll do it." Not that "When my father will do, then I shall do," or "My husband will do, then I shall do," or "My wife will do." No. It is all individual. It is all individual. And there is no restraint. There is no restraint. Ahaituky apratihata. If you want to surrender to Krṣṇa, nobody can check you. Ahaituky apratihata yaya atma suprasidati. When you do that individually... If you... Collectively if it is done, it is good, but it has to be done individually.

So... Because every one of us are maya-mohita-ceta... Maya-mohita-cetasaḥ;. Prahlada Maharaja has described, vimukha-cetasaḥ;. Maya-mohita-cetasaḥ; means averse to Krṣṇa. I want everything except Krṣṇa. That is maya-mohita-cetasaḥ;. I want everything, but except Krṣṇa. That is my missing point. Because we are rascals, fools, we do not know what we should want. Na te viduḥ; svartha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇum [SB 7.5.31]. He does not know that his actual want is Krṣṇa. Just like a small child crying, and we are trying to pacify him, giving this, giving that. But he's crying, crying. Because his actual want is his mother. And as soon the mother comes, takes the child on the lap, immediately he stops. Similarly, we want Krṣṇa because we are part and parcel of Krṣṇa. That we want. Just like a part and parcel of a machine, if it is taken away from the machine, it has no... One screw. Suppose your typewriter machine, one screw is missing, and the machine is not working nicely. So without the machine that one screw has no value. If it is lying somewhere, one does not know what is the screw, nobody cares for it. It is no worth. But if you want to complete the machine, if you want to go to purchase in a mechanical shop, that very screw which has no value, you have to purchase at ten rupees. Because it is to be fit up. In this way, we are parcel and parcel of Krṣṇa, part and parcel of Krṣṇa. When we are along with Krṣṇa we have got value; otherwise no value. There are so many examples. This finger, when it is attached to the body, if there is any trouble you can spend thousands of rupees to cure the trouble. But if the finger is cut off, amputate, and thrown on the street, it has no value. No value. Similarly, so long we are maya-mohita-cetasaḥ;, out of Krṣṇa's touch, we have no value. No value. Valueless. Useless. That is our position. Matir na krṣṇe parataḥ; svato va mitho... The position is that adanta-gobhir visataṁ tamisram [SB 7.5.30]. When you forget Krṣṇa... What is that forgetfulness? When you are interested in sense gratification. That is called forgetfulness.

Everyone is, even an animal, a small insect, everyone is interested in sense enjoyment. This morning I was reading in the Bhagavatam, one Saubhari Muni, he was a great yogi, and within the water he was executing the yoga, mystic, and he saw that the two fishes are enjoying sex. So he became sexually inclined-old man, yogi. So he went to Mandhata king, that "You give me one daughter, your daughter." So he was within the water, old man, and old man's bodily feature is not very good. The king knew that "This is a useless person, but he is a yogi. He has come to ask me for a daughter." So he said, "Yes, you are welcome. I have got my fifty daughters. So any one will like you. You can accept. I have no objection." So Saubhari Muni understood that "The king has tactfully avoided to give his daughter." So he was a yogi. So he made himself very beautiful young man. That yogi can do that. They can change. Because we are not this body, so body is old, it can be younger; younger body can be older. Nowadays in medical science, they are also doing. A man is woman, woman is man. So body can be changed. There is no difficulty if you know the process. So he changed to be a very nice, beautiful young man. So all the fifty daughters, they became attracted. They began to fight: "Oh, he is for me. He is not for you." So anyway, he accepted all the fifty daughters. In this way he became very elevated householder. But at some time he began to think, "What is my, this enjoyment? Simply by seeing the sex affairs of the fish... I was a yogi, I was a tapasvi, I've lost everything. Now I am a householder and pet husband of these women." So he came to his senses. Again he went to the forest for tapasya.

So this material life, however opulent it may be, it is maya-mohita-cetasaḥ;. It has no value. It has no value. Why? Because in this life I may be very favorably situated by arrangement by improving my material condition. But after death—dehantara-praptiḥ; [Bg. 2.13]—you do not know, we do not know what kind of body we are going to get. It may not be as comfortable. So karmis, they, those who are little advanced than the ordinary foolish persons... There are... First of all, ordinary foolish person means animals. They are just like animals. And little above that, they are karmis, and little above that, there are jñanis. And little above that, there is yogis. And above all them is the bhakta. Therefore bhakta life is the summum bonum of life.

So Krṣṇa comes here, sa eva jiva-lokasya maya-mohita-cetasaḥ; vidhatse svena viryeṇa. Krṣṇa comes down. It is said in the Bhagavad-gita also, yada yada hi dharmasya glanir bhavati [Bg. 4.7]. The dharma is, "I am servant of Krṣṇa. That is my position." Dharma means characteristic. Just like sugar has to become sweet. That is dharma. A chili has to be hot. Sugar, if it is chili taste-useless. A chili's sweet taste—it is useless. So this taste of a particular thing is called dharma. So this dharma according to the body is developed in this material world. But the original dharma... Original is the spirit soul. That spirit soul is the part and parcel of Krṣṇa, and his duty is to serve Krṣṇa. That is original dharma. So in order to teach that original dharma, Krṣṇa comes. Yada yada hi dharmasya glanir bhavati [Bg. 4.7]. Glani means discrepancies. When the conditioned soul is, by the influence of maya, is engaged in sense gratification, that is called dharmasya glaniḥ;. Yada yada hi... Just like nowadays nobody's interested. The so-called educated or advanced man, if we say that "You have to serve Krṣṇa. This is not your duty. You are going to the office and earning daily five thousand rupees. That is simply useless. Useless. It is simply a waste of energy," who will believe it? Nobody. "Oh, this is a nonsense proposal."

But sastra says that,

dharmaḥ; svanuṣṭhitaḥ; puṁsaṁ
viṣvaksena-kathasu yaḥ;
notpadayed yadi ratiṁ
srama eva hi kevalam
[SB 1.2.8]

You are doing your duty very nicely. Your dharma means your occupational duty. Suppose you are engineer. You are doing duty very nicely. Or a medical man, or a business man, or anyone—everyone has to do something. You cannot sit down idly and you'll get your livelihood. Even if you are a lion you have to work. Na hi suptasya siṁhasya pravisanti mukhe mrgaḥ;. This is... The material world is like that. Even if you are as powerful as a lion, you cannot sleep. If you think, "I am lion, I am the king of the forest. Let me sleep, and the animal will come and enter in my mouth." No, that is not possible. Even if you are animal, you have to catch up an animal. Then you'll be able to eat. Otherwise you'll have to starve. Therefore Krṣṇa says, niyataṁ kuru karma tvaṁ karma jyayo hy akarmaṇaḥ;. "You must do your duty." Sarira-yatrapi ca te na prasiddhyed akarmaṇaḥ;. Don't think... The rascal says that "Krṣṇa consciousness movement is teaching people to escape. They've become..." No, that is not Krṣṇa's instruction. We do not allow any lazy man. He must be engaged. That is Krṣṇa consciousness movement. That is Krṣṇa's order. Niyataṁ kuru karma. Arjuna was refusing to fight. He was trying to be nonviolent gentleman. Krṣṇa did not allow him. "No, no, you cannot do that. That is your weakness." Kutas tva kasmalam idaṁ viṣame samupasthitam: "You are proving yourself rascal. It is anarya-juṣṭam. This kind of proposal is for the anarya, uncivilized man. Don't do that." That is Krṣṇa's... So don't think that Krṣṇa consciousness movement, those who are Krṣṇa conscious, they'll become lazy and imitate Haridasa Ṭhakura. That is not Krṣṇa consciousness. Krṣṇa consciousness means, as Krṣṇa instructs, you must be very, very busy, twenty-four hours. That is Krṣṇa consciousness. Not to become a lazy fellow, eat and sleep. No.

So this is dharmasya glaniḥ;. But you have to change your angle of vision. In the material conditioned life your aim is how to satisfy your senses. And Krṣṇa consciousness means you have to work in the same spirit, same vigor, but you have to satisfy Krṣṇa. That is spiritual life. Not that to become lazy fellow. The difference is, as it is said by author, Krṣṇadasa, atmendriya-priti-vañcha tare bali 'kama' [Cc. Adi 4.165]. What is kama? Kama means when one desires to satisfy his own senses. That is kama. Krṣṇendriya-priti-iccha dhare 'prema' nama. And what is prema? Prema means when you engage yourself for satisfying Krṣṇa's senses. Why gopis are exalted? Because their only endeavor was to satisfy Krṣṇa's senses. Therefore Caitanya Mahaprabhu recommended, ramya kacid upasana vraja-vadhu-vargeṇa ya kalpita. They had no other business. Vrndavana means, those who are in Vrndavana... If they actually want to live in Vrndavana, their business should be how to satisfy the senses of Krṣṇa. That is Vrndavana. Not that "I am living in Vrndavana and trying to satisfy my senses." That is not vrndavana-vasi. That kind of living is... There are so many monkeys, dogs and hogs also; they are in Vrndavana. Do you mean to say that they are living in Vrndavana? No. Anyone who wants to satisfy senses in Vrndavana, their next life is dogs, hogs, and monkeys. You must know that. So one should not try to sense gratify in Vrndavana. That is a great sin. Simply try to satisfy Krṣṇa's senses.

sarvopadhi-vinirmuktaṁ
tat-paratvena nirmalam
hrṣikeṇa hrṣikesa-
sevanaṁ bhaktir ucyate
[Cc. Madhya 19.170]

That is bhakti. Hrṣikeṇa hrṣikesa-sevanam.

So in order to teach this lesson to us, the conditioned souls, jiva-loka, Krṣṇa, vidhatse svena viryeṇa, by His own potency... Own potency means, if you surrender to Krṣṇa, He has got such potency He can deliver you from this conditioned life, jiva-loka. He can make you purified, mukti. That is called mukti. When you are free from this conditioned stage, this bodily conception of life, then you become free—simply by understanding Krṣṇa.

janma karma ca me divyaṁ
yo janati tattvataḥ;
tyaktva dehaṁ punar janma
naiti mam eti so 'rjuna
[Bg. 4.9]

After giving up this body, he does not get any more this material body. Then what happens to him? Tyaktva dehaṁ punar janma naiti mam eti [Bg. 4.9]. Krṣṇa comes to call you back. So he comes back. If you take Krṣṇa's instruction, you go back to Krṣṇa. And again you become happy. Otherwise, maya-mohita-cetasaḥ;. You'll have to suffer life after life.

Thank you very much. (end)

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