Nitai: "The Personality of Godhead, Kapila, continued: My dear mother, now I shall describe unto you the different categories of the Absolute Truth, knowing which any person can be released from the influence of the modes of material nature."

Prabhupada:

atha te sampravakṣyami
tattvanaṁ lakṣaṇaṁ prthak
yad viditva vimucyeta
puruṣaḥ; prakrtair guṇaiḥ;
[SB 3.26.1]

This is the disease. This is called material disease. One is infected by the prakrta-guṇa. The prakrta-guṇa... Guṇa means quality, mode. So prakrta means this material prakrti, and spiritual means aprakrta. There are different stages of knowledge: pratyakṣa, parokṣa, aparokṣa, adhokṣaja, aprakrta. One has to go step by step. General knowledge means pratyakṣa, whatever you perceive by the senses. That is called pratyakṣa. And the knowledge which you receive from authorities, that is parokṣa. Then aparokṣa, realization. Then adhokṣaja. Adhokṣaja means knowledge which beyond your perception. But there is source of knowledge, adhokṣaja. Therefore God's another name is Adhokṣaja. Adhaḥ;. Adhaḥ; means subduing, bring under subjugation. Adhah-krta, akṣaja. Akṣaja means the knowledge directly perceived by the senses. Akṣa means eyes and akṣa means atukya(?). So any knowledge within the alphabets, ABCD, that is called akṣaja. And the knowledge which is beyond that, that is called adhokṣaja. And beyond the adhokṣaja knowledge there is aprakrta. Aprakrta knowledge.

So the prakrta-guṇa. So long we are in this material world, infected by the material qualities, sattva-guṇa, rajo-guṇa, tamo-guṇa, that is prakrta life, not aprakrta. You have to go step by step. So our Krṣṇa consciousness is adhokṣaja, far beyond this prakrta knowledge, prakrta-guṇa. The highest position of prakrta or material life is the standard of brahminical qualities. But that is also prakrta. That is not aprakrta. That is also not the Brahman realization. Brahma janatiti brahmaṇaḥ;. That is also the highest stage of prakrta, glimpse of the light. But one has to become free from the prakrta envelopment. Prakrta-guṇaiḥ;. Our present position is we are infected by the prakrta-guṇa. Some of them are infected by the sattva-guṇa; some of them are infected by the rajo-guṇa; some of them are infected by tamo-guṇa. So long one is infected by the tamo-guṇa and rajo-guṇa, his position is very abominable, rajas-tamas. One has to become at least on the sattva-guṇa, the brahminical qualification. Then spiritual knowledge can be realized, prakrta-guṇa.

So Kapiladeva proposes to His mother... Kapiladeva is Bhagavan. We have explained several times, bhaga means opulence and van means one who possesses. So what is that opulence? Aisvarya, richness. Aisvaryasya samagrasya. One who is possession, one who has in his possession all the wealth. All the wealth... We have several times explained this. Nobody can claim... Except Bhagavan, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, nobody can claim, "The all the wealth within this universe belongs to me." Nobody can say. But Krṣṇa can say. Krṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gita, bhoktaraṁ yajña-tapasaṁ sarva-loka-mahesvaram: [Bg. 5.29] "I am the proprietor of all the lokas, of all the planets." We become proprietor a few thousands of years, and there are so many difficulties. And He's the proprietor of the whole universe. That is also very little estimation, because Krṣṇa says,

athava bahunaitena
kiṁ jñatena tavarjuna
viṣṭabhyaham idaṁ krtsnam
ekaṁsena sthito jagat
[Bg. 10.42]

Krṣṇa says that "By My one plenary portion I'm possessing or controlling the innumerable universes." We have no information of one universe. Universe, that is also, we cannot estimate. But the innumerable universes are estimated to give us some glimpse of knowledge. In the Brahma-saṁhita,

yasyaika-nisvasita-kalam athavalambya
jivanti loma-vilaja jagad-aṇḍa-nathaḥ;
viṣṇur mahan sa iha yasya kala-viseṣo
govindam adi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajami
[Bs. 5.48]

There is one feature of the Supreme Personality of Godhead who is called Maha-Viṣṇu. That Maha-Viṣṇu, that is the origin of this material creation. So Maha-Viṣṇu is in sleeping condition. So in sleeping condition, with the breathing, universes are coming. And when it is inhaled the whole universe is annihilated, dissolved. So this is only one portion. There are many devidences(?).

So you cannot claim to become Bhagavan so cheaply. Bhagavan is different thing. One who is devotee of Bhagavan, he knows something about Bhagavan. And the other rascals, they claim Bhagavan—simply ludicrous. Only the rascals can accept another rascal as Bhagavan. It is not so easy.

yasyaika-nisvasita-kalam athavalambya
jivanti loma-vilaja jagad-aṇḍa-nathaḥ;
viṣṇur mahan sa iha yasya kala-viseṣo
govindam adi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajami
[Bs. 5.48]

So that Bhagavan is speaking. Kapiladeva is that Bhagavan. Therefore He says that atha te sampravakṣyami. Sam means samyak. Samyak means complete. Unless one has got complete knowledge, how he can say things complete? It is not the so-called scientist: "Perhaps," "It may be." No, not that kind of knowledge, simply theorizing, "It may be like that." No. There is no question of "maybe." Exact knowledge. Exact knowledge. That is called Vedic knowledge. Just like in the Padma Puraṇa we can understand the calculation of the species of life. It is said, jalaja nava-lakṣaṇi sthavara lakṣa-viṁsati. There are aquatic living entities nine lakhs of. How many you have seen? Neither it is possible for you to go within the water and see how many different forms of fishes and aquatics are there. But in the sastra it is said, jalaja nava-lakṣaṇi. It doesn't says "about nava-lakṣaṇi," "about nine lakhs," more or less. No. Exactly. Jalaja nava-lakṣaṇi sthavara lakṣa-viṁsati. Sthavaraḥ; means those plants and trees which cannot move, two millions, lakṣa-viṁsati, or twenty lakhs.

So that is Vedic knowledge. You get the exact knowledge. Therefore Vedic knowledge is called apauruṣeya. It is not spoken by ordinary human being by speculation: "It may be," "Perhaps." No. It is not like that. That is Bhagavan. Whatever He'll say exact, that is Vedic knowledge. Therefore it is safer to take knowledge from Bhagavan, especially the knowledge of Bhagavan. Bhagavan is not so cheap thing. If you want to know Bhagavan... If you do not be so fool to accept another fool as Bhagavan, then you have to hear about Bhagavan about Bhagavan. That is the process. Therefore the Vedic instruction is, to get perfect knowledge, you have to approach a person who is guru. Tad-vijñanarthaṁ sa gurum evabhigacchet [MU 1.2.12]. And who's guru? Guru means representative of Bhagavan. Sakṣad-dharitvena samasta-sastrair uktas tatha bhavyata eva sadbhiḥ; **. Guru... Because the real guru, he's representative of Krṣṇa, sakṣat-hari. Sakṣad-dharitvena samasta-sastraiḥ;. In all scriptures it is described that guru is as good as Bhagavan. Means he knows from the right source. Therefore he may be, not maybe exactly, but as good, sakṣad-dharitvena. Why? Kintu prabhor yaḥ; priya eva tasya. Guru is servant, servant God. The master God and the servant God. Krṣṇa is the master God and guru is the servant God. Although he's respected as Krṣṇa, still, kintu prabhor yaḥ; priya eva tasya; He does not claim that "I've become Krṣṇa." No. He's very dear to Krṣṇa. Kintu prabhor yaḥ; priya. Priya. Priya means dear. Why he's so dear? Because he preaches the master's message. Therefore he's pure. If he preaches his own message, manufactured, then he's not good; he's deceit. That now there are so many rascal, they say like that, that "Krṣṇa was Bhagavan. That is past now. He's dead and gone. Now I am Krṣṇa." There are many rascals they say like that. But these rascals are accepted by other rascals. God is never dead. God... How He can get...? Even the ordinary living being, he's not dead. Na jayate na mriyate. Even we, living entities, never die or never born. How the Supreme Lord can be dead or born? That is not the fact.

So therefore if we discuss Bhagavan, there are so many things to be understood about Bhagavan.

aisvaryasya samagrasya
viryasya yasasaḥ; sriyaḥ;
jñana-vairagyayos caiva
ṣaṇṇaṁ bhaga itiṅgaṇa
(Viṣṇu Puraṇa 6.5.47)

One who possesses the full opulence of richness. One who possesses all the powers, all the influence, all beauty, all knowledge, all renunciation, that is Bhagavan. So you haven't got to think very ser... You take the formula given in the Vedas. That is perfect knowledge. You understand everything. Therefore the intelligent man, they follow the Vedic injunction. Then the knowledge is perfect. It is already there.

So bhagavan uvaca. So when Bhagavan is speaking—atha te sampravakṣyami tattvanam—of the truth, lakṣaṇam, characteristic... Everyone has to understand anything by the characteristic. Just like in the chemical laboratory... If you send something just for chemical analysis just to see whether it is pure, so they have got in their authorized book, Pharmacopeia, the characteristics. The soda bicarb, its characteristic is like this; its taste is like this; it is formed like this, granules or powder or so many things. They analyze. And when the characteristics are accumulated, then they examine: "Yes. It is this." Similarly, you have to accept God from the characteristics, by analysis. Not that any rascal comes and says, "I'm Bhagavan." You must know, have to analyze Bhagavan. That is there in the sastra. This word Bhagavan is used not loosely. It has got many characteristics.

Just like Krṣṇa said when he was present, He said, mattaḥ; parataraṁ nanyat: [Bg. 7.7] "Nobody's superior than Me." He proved it. So long Krṣṇa was on the planet, he proved it, that no one superior. Even from ordinary life as grhastha... Krṣṇa was grhastha, householder. Now he married 16,108 wives. So who has got this potency to marry sixteen thousand? One wife... It is very difficult to maintain one wife. One lady in America, she had a grown-up son. So I asked her, "Why don't you get your son married?" "I have no objection if he can maintain wife here. I have no objection." Then I understood that it is very difficult to maintain wife here. And actually it is difficult to... Even from material point of view, Krṣṇa, as far as we can calculate, we cannot conceive even at the present moment to maintain more than one wife or two wife. But He was maintaining sixteen thousand wives, 16,108.

But, because we have no conception of God, we take it, "This is all fictitious. God..." When God gives His reality, identification, and it is recorded in the sastra, not by any loafer class writer but like Vyasadeva, and we take it fictitious. Just see our position-Vyasadeva has bothered his brain to write something fictitious! Just see how low-grade persons we are! We don't believe writing of Vyasadeva. Or sometimes we say, "No, no, this was not written by Vyasadeva. It is interpretation." If it is interpretation, then why the acaryas have accepted? They're also fools-Ramanujacarya, Madhvacarya, Viṣṇu Svami... They have made commentary on the Srimad-Bhagavatam, and they mention, they have accepted, "Yes. Krṣṇa has sixteen thousand wives." So Vyasadeva has written and the acaryas have accepted. Then I have become such a great scholar that I say it is fictitious. And we have to believe these rascals.

So don't go to rascal. If you want real knowledge, take it from Bhagavan. bhagavan uvaca. Then your knowledge is perfect. That is our process. We, we have taken Bhagavad-gita as it is, and we are preaching. We don't preach anything else which Bhagavan does not say. Bhagavan says, man-mana bhava mad-bhakto mad-yaji mam... [Bg. 18.65]. We are canvassing, "My dear sir, you just become a devotee of Krṣṇa. You always think of Krṣṇa." Krṣṇa says, man-mana bhava mad-bhaktaḥ;. We say, "You just think of Krṣṇa." The same thing. There is no change. We do not interpret any way, "This man-manaḥ; means this, and mad-bhaktaḥ; means that." No. We don't do that. We present as it is. Therefore if Krṣṇa sees that "One is presenting My message as I have given," then He is pleased. Therefore, it is said, kintu prabhor yaḥ; priya eva tasya. He has become very dear because he does not, nonsensically, he does not nonsensically change the meaning, that "This meaning's that, this meaning's that." Why? When Krṣṇa has said, that is everything perfect. Why should I change it? That is guru-priya. Suppose if you say something and if somebody takes it as it is and behaves like that, then you become pleased. And if you say to your son or to your servant something and he misunderstand and talks something else, then he becomes angry: "What this nonsense has understood?" Similarly, a guru does not change the word of Krṣṇa. Therefore he's called Bhagavan, servant Bhagavan. Krṣṇa is the master Bhagavan, master God, and the guru, who is serving Krṣṇa sincerely, he's the servant God. Therefore sastra says, sakṣad-dharitvena samasta-sastrair uktas tatha bhavyata eva sadbhiḥ; **. In the morning also these boys, they sing Narottama dasa Ṭhakura, ara na koriho mane asa. If you have got a pure, bona fide guru, then whatever he says, you do it. You don't think of anything else, ara na koriho mane asa. No more. That is all right.

So we have to receive knowledge from Bhagavan or from a person who is servant of Bhagavan, not that another imitation Bhagavan. Then you'll spoil your life. That will not help you. Bhagavan says, atha te sampravakṣyami. Sam means samyak, in full, full knowledge, not partial. Atha te sampravakṣyami. Pra means prakrṣṭa-rupe. Vakṣyami. Vakṣyami means "I shall speak." Tattvanam. Tattvanam, tattva is one. Absolute Truth, it cannot be two; but there are different phases of understanding the Absolute Truth. Therefore here it is plural number, tattvanam. Tattva is one. That is explained in another place. Vadanti tat tattva-vidas tattvaṁ yaj jñanam advayam [SB 1.2.11]. Although tattva is realized in different phases, three phases, brahmeti paramatmeti bhagavan iti sabdyate. Brahman, impersonal feature, brahmeti paramatma. First localized feature, isvaraḥ; sarva-bhutanaṁ hrd-dese 'rjuna tiṣṭhati [Bg. 18.61]. That is Paramatma. Aṇḍantara-stha-paramaṇu-cayantara-stham.

eko 'py asau racayituṁ jagad-aṇḍa-koṭiṁ
yac-chaktir asti jagad-aṇḍa-caya yad-antaḥ;
aṇḍantara-stha-paramaṇu-cayantara-sthaṁ
govindam adi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajami
[Bs. 5.35]

The Govinda is within the atom, Paramatma. So that is another feature, all-pervading. And another feature is impersonal jyoti. And the original feature is Bhagavan. Therefore Krṣṇa says mattaḥ; parataraṁ nanyat [Bg. 7.7]. Finished. When you have come to this platform to understand Bhagavan, then your knowledge is perfect. Vedais ca sarvair aham eva vedyaḥ; [Bg. 15.15]. That is perfect knowledge. If you do not understand what is Bhagavan, then your knowledge is imperfect. You have to learn again for many births. Then you'll come to the point of understanding what is Krṣṇa.

bahunaṁ janmanam ante
jñanavan maṁ prapadyate
vasudevaḥ; sarvam iti
sa mahatma su-durlabhaḥ;
[Bg. 7.19]

When you'll understand tattva, that Krṣṇa is the original and the Paramatma is secondary and the Brahman, impersonal, the third status.

Therefore even if you are Brahman status, you are not still aprakrta. You are aparokṣa. Aparokṣa status, not even adhokṣaja. As I told you, there are different stages of knowledge, so the brahma-jñana is parokṣa-jñana. And the spiritual planets, Vaikuṇṭha knowledge, that is adhokṣaja. And the knowledge about Krṣṇa and His planet, Goloka Vrndavana, that is aprakrta. So we have to transcend from this prakrta status of life. It is a very, very high grade status, aprakrta. Aprakrta status.

prakrta kariya mane viṣṇu kalevara
viṣṇu-ninda ara nahi ihara upara

Caitanya Mahaprabhu said that "Any rascal who thinks that the body of Krṣṇa or Viṣṇu is prakrta, material, this is the greatest offense." The Mayavadi philosophers, they think like that, that the Absolute Truth, (is) imperson; but when He comes in form He accepts a material body. This is the greatest offense, aparadha nahi yara ihara rupa.(?) Therefore they cannot understand very well because they're aparadhi. Krṣṇa, Caitanya Mahaprabhu says, mayavadi krṣṇe aparadhi. The Mayavadis, they're offenders to Krṣṇa. Therefore they cannot understand Krṣṇa, offenders. Krṣṇa is not exposed to the offenders. Nahaṁ prakasaḥ; sarvasya yogamaya-samavrtaḥ; [Bg. 7.25]. So the Mayavadis, they cannot see Krṣṇa. They cannot understand Krṣṇa. They'll avoid Krṣṇa. They'll speak so many things, spiritual knowledge, but avoid Krṣṇa's figure, Krṣṇa's form. They think it is maya. It is maya. But it is not maya. That is the original form. Avajananti maṁ muḍha manuṣiṁ tanum asritam [Bg. 9.11]. Because Krṣṇa has got the form exactly, the dvibhuja-murali-lila, two hands with flute. That is Krṣṇa's original form.

veṇuṁ kvaṇantam aravinda-dalayatakṣaṁ
barhavataṁsam asitambuda-sundaraṅgam
kandarpa-koṭi-kamaniya-viseṣa-sobhaṁ
govindam adi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajami
[Bs. 5.30]

So we have to understand Bhagavan and we have to hear from Him. And He's speaking perfectly in the Bhagavad-gita, Srimad-Bhagavatam. And if you take it yad viditva, if you are fortunate enough to understand the words of Krṣṇa and Kapiladeva, then the result will be vimucyeta: immediately become liberated. If you are fortunate enough, if you are intelligent enough to understand the words of Kapiladeva or Krṣṇa or Ṛṣabhadeva—there are so many incarnations—then puruṣaḥ; prakrtair vimucyeta. Vimucyeta means become free, uncontaminated. What is that contamination? Prakrta-guṇa, these material infection that "I'm brahmaṇa," "I'm kṣatriya," "I'm vaisya," "I'm sudra," "I'm American," "I'm Indian," "I'm this," "I'm that." These are all prakrti. Prakrti, material qualifications. Even if you are perfect brahmaṇa, that is also material qualification. But in the platform of pure brahmaṇa you can have the chance of understanding the aprakrta, adhokṣaja. Therefore you have to become brahmaṇa, qualified brahmaṇa. Then there is chance.

So in this age it is very difficult to become exactly Vedic brahmaṇa. That's very, very difficult because everyone has become sudra. Kalau sudra-sambhavaḥ;. In the Kali-yuga you cannot find out exactly a qualified brahmaṇa. Very rare, very rare. Therefore Vedic brahmaṇa is not possible. It is... Our movement, Krṣṇa consciousness movement, is creating pañcaratriki-vidhi. Pañcaratriki-vidhi-brahmaṇa means there is no evidence of, there is no certainty whether one is brahmaṇa or son of brahmaṇa because so many things are lacking. But, if he has got little taste of Krṣṇa understanding, he should be encouraged. That is pañcaratriki. Just like if there is little fire you fan it-fan it and it will come out a big blazing fire. So this Krṣṇa consciousness movement is trying to do that, and it is easier because in the sastra it is said by Sukadeva Gosvami that there is one opportunity. "My dear King, Parikṣit, I've described to you about the faulty nature of this Kali-yuga, but there is a very good opportunity for the people, fallen conditioned souls, of this Kali-yuga." "What is that?" Kaler doṣa-nidhe rajann asti hy eko mahan guṇaḥ;: "The, in the Kali-yuga, it is like the ocean of fault. But still there is one very good opportunity." "What is that?" Kirtanad eva krṣṇasya mukta-saṅgaḥ; paraṁ vrajet: [SB 12.3.51] "You chant Hare Krṣṇa and become liberated and go to back to home, back to Godhead."

Thank you very much. (end)

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