Verse: Srimad Bhagavatam 1.3.33
Speaker: HH Umapati Swami
Date: February 26, 2004
Place: Sri Mayapur Candrodaya Mandir
Transcription by: HG Ananda Tirtha das
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yatreme sad-asad-rupe
pratisiddhe sva-samvida
avidyayatmani krte
iti tad brahma-darsanam

TRANSLATION: Whenever a person experiences, by self-realization, that both the gross and subtle bodies have nothing to do with the pure self, at that time he sees himself as well as the Lord.

PURPORT: The difference between self-realization and material illusion is to know that the temporary or illusory impositions of material energy in the shape of gross and subtle bodies are superficial coverings of the self. The coverings take place due to ignorance. Such coverings are never effective in the person of the Personality of Godhead. Knowing this convincingly is called liberation, or seeing the Absolute. This means that perfect self-realization is made possible by adoption of godly or spiritual life.

Self-realization means becoming indifferent to the needs of the gross and subtle bodies and becoming serious about the activities of the self. The impetus for activities is generated from the self, but such activities become illusory due to ignorance of the real position of the self. By ignorance, self-interest is calculated in terms of the gross and subtle bodies, and therefore a whole set of activities is spoiled, life after life. When, however, one meets the self by proper culture, the activities of the self begin. Therefore a man who is engaged in the activities of the self is called jivan-mukta, or a liberated person even in the conditional existence.

This perfect stage of self-realization is attained not by artificial means, but under the lotus feet of the Lord, who is always transcendental. In the Bhagavad-gita the Lord says that He is present in everyone’s heart, and from Him only all knowledge, remembrance or forgetfulness take place. When the living being desires to be an enjoyer of material energy (illusory phenomena), the Lord covers the living being in the mystery of forgetfulness, and thus the living being misinterprets the gross body and subtle mind to be his own self. And by culture of transcendental knowledge, when the living being prays to the Lord for deliverance from the clutches of forgetfulness, the Lord, by His causeless mercy, removes the living being’s illusory curtain, and thus he realizes his own self. He then engages himself in the service of the Lord in his eternal constitutional position, becoming liberated from the conditioned life. All this is executed by the Lord either through His external potency or directly by the internal potency.

Om ajnana timirandhasya, etc.
Sri caitanya mano ‘bhistam, etc.

(repeats verse and translation)

So of course we all know what it means to become detached from the needs of the gross body–eating, sleeping, mating, defending–and we hear a lot about them. Unfortunately we often see that devotees who become very detached from the needs of the gross body do not so easily become detached from the needs of the subtle body. Because our material conceptions of life are carried in the subtle body. When we give up this gross material body, unless we’re completely liberated, then we retain the subtle body and the subtle body retains our material conceptions of life. And therefore this subtle body will cause us to take another gross body to live according to the material conceptions.

And I see because I am so involved with the Internet and websites and so on, so although I’m in a remote part of the world in a certain way, I’m in touch with the whole world, and I see so many devotees who like Krsna consciousness but they can’t give up their material conceptions. And you’ll know about this because they’ll say ‘Well, Prabhupada knows about the spiritual world, but he’s missing a few things about the material world’. You’re shaking your head; unfortunately this is true.

I consider it, as a teacher, that my primary duty is to give people absolute faith in Srila Prabhupada. Because when people have absolute faith in Srila Prabhupada, everything else is accomplished. But when people don’t have absolute faith in Srila Prabhupada, nothing is accomplished. It’s like the old story about the anchor–I’m sure you’ve all heard this story–about the wedding party and the boat rowed all night and in the morning they hadn’t moved because the anchor was still there. And of course the anchor represents sense gratification, but this attachment to material conceptions is also a form of sense gratification. These are the needs of the subtle body.

People want to find so many reasons for not accepting things in scripture, because we are, actually most of us, if not all of us, eductated in Darwinistic philosophy since the age of six. And anybody who didn’t believe in it was considered a crackpot.

Actually the United States went full circle. In the 1930’s it was against the law to teach Darwinism in the schools. There was a famous trial about that. Now it’s against the law not to teach Darwinism in the schools. So it’s gone all the way around. So this is the sense gratification of their subtle body, and unless we give this up then we will accomplish nothing. Well, we’ll accomplish something: chanting Hare Krsna is always beneficial, but just as Krsna explains in Bhagavad-Gita that this material world is like a banyan tree. And He gives a whole explanation–the leaves are like the Vedic hymns, the root is up and the branches are down–so if you’re tangled up in the big banyan tree you can’t find the way out. So Krsna says you must cut down this banyan tree. Well, many sages have already cut down the banyan tree but the material world is still here. . . . ??? we have so many sages, they have cut down the banyan tree of material existence but the material world is still here. So obviously Krsna is not telling us to destroy the material world (and how are you going to do it anyway?) but Krsna is telling us to give up your material conceptions of life.

Otherwise you have so many Mayavadis and impersonalists who renounce all gross pleasures. They perform austerities we cannot even dream of. . . and yet they cannot attain the ultimate goal. The example is given of Dhrtarastra who performed great austerities in the forest but could not attain the ultimate goal because he was an offender to devotees. This is a case of maintaining attachment to the subtle body, and the gross body of course, the attachment to his son.

So of course we have to give up attachment to the gross material body. . . actually Prabhupada once told me–I forget what we had done–in Los Angeles we had used, either we were listening to recordings or we had used an electric clipper to shave his head, but we had done something with a machine. And Prabhupada said ‘Yes, we should take the middle path, not too much austerity and not too much sense gratification’. The middle path. And that’s pretty much what Srila Prabhupada has outlined for us.

But in the ??? sense gratification of the subtle body Srila Prabhupada never recommended a middle path. That the mind of the disciple should be a blank slate upon which the spiritual master can write. So that is leaving no room for subtle body sense gratification. A blank slate, you have to forget everything. ‘Everything I have learnt until now is nonsense.’ I was thinking that Prabhupada gave the example that the student should feel like a fool in front of his spiritual master. That Prabhupada said he always felt like a fool in front of his own spiritual master, and his own spiritual master–who was the greatest intellectual in the world–felt like a fool in front of his spiritual master, who couldn’t even write his name. So the devotee should never be very proud of his material qualifications.

I told a story about this the other night but maybe some of you didn’t hear it; I hope you don’t mind if I repeat a Prabhupada story. So in 1966 when I met Prabhupada I was kind of proud of my material qualifications because I worked in recording studios, I had knowledge of electronics, I used to rub elbows with big stars. So I kind of felt I was a something, I was a better hippy than all the other hippies.

So one day Prabhupada asked me to fix his tape recorder. So in those days we didn’t have these little cassette recorders you have now, that technology hadn’t come in yet, it was reel-to-reel recorders and Prabhupada had a pretty big one but I wasn’t familiar with it. I knew how to repair these multi-thousand dollar ones that we used in recording studios. So I said, ‘Well, I’ll try to fix it. What does this switch do’? Prabhupada said ‘You cannot fix it! You have to ask what does this switch do, this means you cannot fix it. You don’t know’. And then somebody else came in and Prabhupada started laughing and said, ‘He thinks he can fix my tape recorder but he’s asking what does this switch do. He cannot fix it.’ [chuckles]

So that was very kind of Srila Prabhupada to do that. So in front of the spiritual master we should never think we are qualified; what qualifications do we have? Just like Sanatana Goswami when he approached Lord Caitanya and he said that ‘People say I am so qualified and I am so educated and I know so many languages and I’ve read so many books, but I don’t know who I am. I don’t know who I am.’

So what is my qualification? Isn’t that the first thing you teach a baby, this is your mummy, this is your daddy, this is your name. I don’t know who my mummy are and I don’t know my name. I may know my name that Prabhupada gave me but I may have another name, I don’t know. So what is my qualification? I don’t have any. But because I want to gratify the subtle body, then therefore when the Srimad-Bhagavatam says the sun is here and the moon is here. And we say no. . . . We have to prove that the moon is there and the sun is there.

Prabhupada said you can take your choice: you can believe the scientists or you can believe Vyasadeva, but personally I believe Vyasadeva. So we have to have this kind of confidence, or when I speak of faith people say faith requires some leap of faith or magic miracle. . . this is no magic miracle. This is confidence. Srila Prabhupada knows the way out of the banyan tree. He knows the way out of the banyan tree. How he can know the way out of the banyan tree if he doesn’t understand the banyan tree? I am very proud because I have so much knowledge of this banyan tree. Or I think I do. But I don’t know where any of the branches lead. This is how we have to see things. ‘Oh, I am more worried about social issues’, and I’ve had to deal with that on the Web. What did Prabhupada say about women, what did Prabhupada say about blacks–read everything he said and don’t take one thing out of context and you’ll find that even by modern standards you cannot criticize him. All his statements are very compassionate, but read EVERYTHING he said, don’t take one sentence out of context and get a different meaning out of it. Prabhupada didn’t say bad things about women, bad things about. . . he never did, but because we’re so eager to find fault. . . .

Now about the gross and subtle bodies, here’s an important point. It is mentioned that mahat-tattva is present in everybody as the intellect. Everybody has an intellect, the finest part of the intelligence is the intellect. The part of our intelligence that lets us appreciate philosophy, music, art, alll these things, this is called the intellect. So this intellect is the representation of the mahat-tattva. Or this mahat-tattva is the primary element of material creation. Therefor the primary element of the material creation is intellect, or intelligence. That is what the material creation begins with. And then this intelligence gradually divides itself into grosser and grosser forms. But the very beginning of material existence is intellect. That is what this world is basically made of.

Of course this mahat-tattva intellect is not our original intellect. Intelligence, mind and ego are properties of the soul. And when we come into the material world, these are covered by the material false ego, material mind, material intelligence, just as seeing hearing is a property of the soul. But that body doesn’t see and hear, it’s a property of the soul. But when we come into the material world then our spiritual eyes are covered by our material eyes. And so we don’t see Krsna because we are covered by material eyes. And we don’t hear Krsna’s flute because we are covered by material intelligence. Of course Krsna’s so kind that He comes in a way that material eyes can see.

By the way, speaking of Krsna coming in that way, it was mentioned to me by one of the older devotees that we should never turn our back on the Deities. When we worship Prabhupada we should not turn our back on the Deities, and when we worship the Deities we should not turn our back on Srila Prabhupada. And just like the other day I saw we had this beautiful abhiseka for Srila Prabhupada in the palace [samadhi] and I saw Srila Prabhupada being worshipped just like Krsna, pouring things over him and fanning camaras, And I said ‘Yes, this is very right to worship Prabhupada like this, but it’s not meant for one abhiseka a year’.

Prabhupada says an offering of fruit and flowers does not constitute worship, that we should by worshipping Prabhupada in our preaching also. Not like the ritviks. I’m not up here preaching ritvik philosophy, I’m at war with them, but on the other hand Prabhupada is certainly not my competitor. As a teacher it is my job to teach new people how to take everything that Prabhupada said and see it that way. It’s easy. What could be easier than that? Don’t have to concoct anything, don’t have to speculate anything, and it’s the easiest thing in the world. But I’m sitting up here on this seat and I’ve got garlands on. . . I don’t deserve any credit, I’m doing the easiest thing in the world. I’m just reading Prabhupada’s books and telling you this is what’s in the books, you just believe this. . . . What is easier than this? I don’t go to any high mental planes, how can I invent something, or how can I make Krsna consciousness more attractive. No, you won’t succeed if you. . . you cannot make Krsna more beautiful than He is. If you think you have to make Krsna more beautiful you’re not looking at Krsna. You’re covering your eyes by subtle body sense gratification so you think Krsna’s not beautiful enough. If you think Krsna’s not beautiful enough you’re not seeing Krsna. Not that I’m seeing Krsna, but Prabhupada sees Krsna and Prabhupada tells me that Krsna’s like this so I know what Krsna’s like. And Prabhupada says you look at Krsna this way, so I know that you look at Krsna this way. And it’s all so easy and everybody can do it.

Sometimes I tell people you should all preach, and they say ‘No, you’re empowered, we’re not empowered’. That’s an excuse. Prabhupada would not even accept that in relation to himself. You can do it we can’t, Prabhupada would never say that. What does it take? You read Prabhupada’s books and you repeat it. Don’t try to make it better, because you can’t make it better, because there isn’t anything better. What’s in Prabhupada’s books, you just read it, and you preach it. Lord Caitanya says ‘Whomever you meet just tell them about Krsna’. But the focal point, and I know a lot of people say Prabhupada is not in the centre any more, so put him back in the centre. This is called guru-caksusa, you see through the eyes of the spiritual master. We have so much faith. . . Prabhupada said we have so much faith in our so-called eyes.

I remember this lecture in Los Angeles in 1968, the temple on Pico Boulevard. I don’t think there was anybody here who was ever at that temple. And. . . [to Bhavananda] Oh, right right, yeah, there we go, he remembers.

The temple on Pico Boulevard. And Prabhupada gave a lecture and he said in Brahma-Samhita it says that the sun is Krsna’s eye. And we are very proud of our so-called eyes but unless Krsna sees first we don’t see. If there’s no sun we can’t see. So we are very proud of our so-called eyes but unless Krsna sees first we can’t see. And in the absence of the sun we have to make an artificical sun. And even in that artificial sun, Krsna says the Supersoul is the source of light in all light-giving objects. So in all cases Krsna has to see first and then we see. So why not just see the way Krsna sees? It’s very easy, we have Srimad-Bhagavatam, we have Bhagavad-Gita, this is sastra-caksusa:

sarvam etad rtam manye
yan mam vadasi kesava

Arjuna says to Krsna, ‘O Krsna, everything You are telling me today I accept as truth’. He doesn’t say that ‘When you talk about the soul, well that’s OK but when you talk about the sun and the moon, I can’t take that’. He doesn’t say that. He doesn’t say that. We have to understand. . . Arjuna’s words in Bhagavad-Gita are very important, they’re as important as Krsna’s words. So we consider Arjuna our spiritual master. Krsna speaks to Arjuna but Arjuna speaks. . . when Arjuna says ‘Krsna, I accept everything You say.’

yatra yogesvarah krsno
yatra partho dhanur-dharah
tatra srir vijayo bhutir
dhruva nitir matir mama

Wherever there is Krsna and wherever there is Arjuna, then there will be opulence, victory and morality. Krsna and Arjuna, Krsan and His devotee, always together. You understand Krsna in the way that the devotee understands Him.

aradhananam sarvesam
visnor aradhanam param
tasmat parataram devi
tadiyanam samarcanam

Lord Siva tells Parvati ‘My dear Goddess’ (Prabhupada . .? that’s also an example that the wife should be called Goddess, not ‘Hey, you’! But the wife should be called Goddess. The husband is Prabhu and the wife is Devi). He says ‘My dear Goddess, the highest worship is the worship of Visnu, but even higher than that is worship of the devotee of Visnu. Bhaktivinoda says ‘Let me take birth as a worm if You like but let it be a worm in the home of the devotees’. Because if he can at least be a worm in the house of a devotee–of course we know that Bhaktivinoda will never be a worm–but that is his feeling, ‘At least let me be a worm in the house of a devotee’.

But worship of the devotees means all the devotees, all the devotees, not just the big guys. Sometimes the big guys they can show themselves to be little guys. Like me, I’m actually a little guy dressed as a big guy. But all the devotees, because they are all coming in line from Srila Prabhupada.

So we have to all become guru-caksusa, sastra-caksusa. The scripture becomes our eyes. So that now whatever I see with these eyes I believe. If someone would tell me that this person is not in front of me I’ll say ‘No, I see him with my eyes. Whatever I see with my eyes I believe.’ Doesn’t make a difference whether it’s right or wrong, I believe it. So now the scriptures will become my eyes. And whatever I see through scripture, that I will believe. It’s easy, just make up your mind to do it. It’s easy and then Krsna consciousness. . . everything becomes so much fun. All that struggling and misery ends right away. You just take this up and Krsna consciousness becomes so much fun.

Just like Prabhupada gave the example of somebody with hepatitis, and you give them sugarcane juice to drink and they think it tastes terrible. I never had it but people have told me that it tastes awful when you have hepatitis. And as you recover your health then the taste becomes sweeter and sweeter. And when you’re perfectly healthy then of course sugarcane juice is so sweet and delicious. And Krsna consciousness is like sugarcane juice. If you think that there’s anything bitter about it then you should know that you’ve still got material hepatitis because when you are Krsna conscious–not that I’m there yet–but when you are Krsna conscious, it becomes entirely sweet. Entirely sweet, no bitter taste. Not that I’m claiming to be there, but Prabhupada said so. And when you say that ‘OK, I will no longer see this world through material eyes but I will see the world through they eyes that Krsna through Prabhupada has so kindly given me. . .’

Now Prabhupada didn’t stay up all night for so many years writing books of fiction. These are books of science. Just like whenever I read in a science book, ‘Oh, that’s it, science says this’. I’ll tell you a story about science books because most of you are probably too young to know this. They were always looking for this missing link between ape and man. Because we’re supposed to come from the ape, and if you look at the books you’ll see there’s early man and he looks like this, and there’s more advanced and he looks like this, and more advanced and he looks like this, and with each step he looks more and more like the modern American as he advances more and more. [laughter]

So there was one piece missing. And one day in a place called Piltdown in England, in a garden somebody found a jawbone, and lo and behold! it was a half-ape and half-man jawbone. And this was it, the first real man was an Englishman and wouldn’t we all know it. [laughter] And it was in all the history books they had. . . ? one of the guys was like this, he was Piltdown Man. So when I was about 17 in 1954, it was discovered that the jawbone was a hoax, it was a fake. Somebody had put together part of a human jawbone and part of a monkey jawbone and planted in the garden of an anthropologist.

And it’s suspected although it’s not been proved, that the culprit was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the one who wrote Sherlock Holmes because he lived nearby and he was very opposed(?) to Darwinism. And now they say that it was such a crude job, such a poorly-done job, they don’t know how it even fooled the scientists at that time.

So they had to revise all of the textbooks, and they had to write new textbooks for all of the schools all across America to take Piltdown Man out. So this is something in my lifetime that I saw, a complete revision of a scientific theory because something was a hoax.

But we’re reading stuff that was written 5000 years ago, we’re reading books that were written at the beginning of the universe:

cintamani-prakara-sadmasu kalpa-vrksa-
laksavrtesu surabhir abhipalayantam
laksmi-sahasra-sata-sambhrama-sevyamanam
govindam adi-purusam tam aham bhajami

That is not 5000 years ago, that’s in the beginning of the universe. We don’t even have a number for it, and we haven’t had to change anything. We haven’t discovered anything that needs revision. Krsna still has a pea*censored* feather in His head. And He’s still being served by millions of goddesses of fortune. And the houses in the spiritual world are still made of touchstone. So we’ve not had to revise anything.

So just keep this in mind. It’s real easy. Everybody can go out and preach. You read Prabhupada’s books and you tell people ‘This is what’s in Prabhupada’s books, you just take this, everything will be perfect.’ And it works, it works. Even a jerk like me–and of course you’re sitting there and saying ‘He’s being humble, huh’. Not too many of you know my history in Krsna consciousness, and how many times I’ve left and all that–so even a jerk like me can create devotees. Not by ? potency. I know sometimes when I say that. . . ?? you’re just waiting to say ‘Oh, he’s so humble.’ I say no. You’re not coming here to hear me, you’re coming to hear what’s in Prabhupada’s books. That’s why you come. If I told you what was on my mind you would run away. [laughter] You’re coming here because you want to hear what’s in Prabhupada’s books. Everybody is starving for this. And just give it to them straight, straight. You don’t have to cover it with anything, no chocolate sauce, it’s already perfectly sweet. It’s already perfectly sweet. [chuckles] If you’re not perfectly convinced then you’ll preach like this and you’ll see, you’ll see that people will come.

In the early days of our movement–there’s a few people who would remember this–when the devotees had no tact at all. And somebody would come to the temple and they’d argue with us . . . ?? why you don’t believe, you’re a dog. [laughter] They were preaching(?) like that to people but every day you’d come back from book distribution and three new people had moved in to the temple. I’m not saying that we should be as gross as that, but we should be a little more refined, but that’s when our movement was growing like anything. Because we only knew what was in Prabhupada’s books and we didn’t know anything about making it nicer or making it look like what they already know. No, Krsna consciousness is not what you already know. It has nothing to do with anything you already know, it doesn’t look like anything you already know, it doesn’t taste like anything you already know, it’s different from start to finish. And people will come.

All right, I’m stopping everybody from taking prasada. Any questions or comments? Yes?

Comment by Makhanlal Das (The comment didn’t get recorded so Ekendra Das paraphrased it for me): A reporter once asked Srila Prabhupada why devotees look so much different from everyone else, why they look so strange. Srila Prabhupada replied that we look this way because we are spiritual and you are material. . . .

Maharaja: [chuckles] Yeah, you don’t have to disguise it. I remember a time, very early 1967, one of the persons who had come back from India convinced the devotees to cut off their sikhas, and he bought himself a ??? Of course I’m embarrassed to say that I went with him and helped him pick it out–but then Prabhupada ??? sikhas–we called them flags in those days–and Prabhupada said ‘When I see the devotees with flags and tilak to me you look as beautiful as the angels of Vaikuntha’.

And of course at that time we were all very self-conscious about it. Everything was a little strange. You had the beadbag but the finger sticks out. And you wore the robe but there’s a tail in the back. And you shaved your head but there’s a tail in the back. And then you got the stuff on your forehead. So everything was a little bit outrageous. And the only example we had was Prabhupada, but he’s Indian. So we all felt self-conscious about it. And I remember last year I was with Yadubara Prabhu and we were looking at these old movies from 1966 and you can see the devotees look very self-conscious. Even the way they danced, the way they moved, they all seem very self-conscious. But Prabhupada pushed us, no, this is real life. This is real life. Just like Prabhupada said ‘All the other Indians have gone to the West to borrow technology but I’ve gone to the West to give you something’. So now we should be very happy to give this, give it, and give it freely.

Thank you, any other questions or comments? I hope everybody agrees, not that everybody is mad at me. [chuckles] All right, ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, yeah.

Comment by Bhavananda Prabhu (again paraphrased): Actually I disagree with you on that point because I was very proud of my dhoti and sikha because I was representing Srila Prabhupada. I always wanted to make everything glamorous so I felt that the Vaisnava dress was very glamorous.

Maharaja: I remember that and I thought it was really great that were so proud, and I remember you said, we were in Los Angeles, and you said ‘I want to go to New York and wear my dhoti on 5th Avenue. [chuckles] . . . . Of course by this time we were used to it and not so self-conscious, but I remember that and I really thought that was great that you had just come and already were so into that. I remember that. [chuckles] Any other comments, yeah?

. . . .

I’m sorry but I didn’t hear what you said. It sounded like something that I
would like but I didn’t. . . . [laughter]

Comment by Mitravinda Dasi (paraphrased): I want to thank you very much, nowadays many people are afraid to speak directly what Srila Prabhupada said.

Maharaja: Well, I don’t get any credit for that. It’s the only thing I know how to do. I came to this realization very suddenly one day when somebody put on a tape of Prabhupada, and as soon as Prabhupada started to speak I felt ‘Why can’t I talk like that?’ And . . .? I felt this wave of nectar, this wave of pleasure. Then I thought ‘Why can’t I speak like that’. Then I thought ‘Dumbbell, of course you can’t speak like that because you’re not repeating what Prabhupada says’. Not that I’ll ever speak like Prabhupada but at least I can do my best to repeat what he says. That’s what the whole thing is about. It’s like I’m not the sun but I can be a window. [chuckles]

[applause] Anybody else, huh? I’m sorry.

(lengthy pause for the question to be understood, Maharaja asks for someone to help transate the question)

Question (paraphrased): How many ways are there to understand Brahman.

Maharaja: What is Brahman realization? OK. Brahma-darsanam. Oh, how many ways you can realize Brahman? OK.

Basically, three ways. You can realize Brahman, as what we call Brahman, you can realize, let’s say realize truth as light, this is what the Mayavadis want to do and they do this. And that can be done by speculation, jnana-yoga. There’s a higher realization where you can realize truth as the Supersoul in the heart of every living entity. That is called Paramatma. If you realize Paramatma you will also realize Brahman as light, because the higher realization will include the lesser one. And you can attain that realization by the different kinds of yoga.

But above that there’s another kind of realization called Bhagavan, where you realize the Supreme Absolute Truth is a person. This realization includes all other realizations. That is realized only by bhakti-yoga. Just as at the end of the Eleventh chapter, Krsna tells Arjuna that this form that you are seeing–not the universal form but Krsna’s two-handed form–can be realized only by pure devotion, not by study of the Vedas, not by austerity, not by any other process. Only by pure devotion.

Now I’ll tell you something else. Srila Vyasadeva has had of course every possible realization. He wrote the Vedas, he wrote all the Vedic scriptures (except the Ramayana) he has attained every possible realization, he is a personal friend of Krsna, and yet he did not attain perfect satisfaction until he took shelter of a Vaisnava spiritual master. Now of course Srila Vyasadeva was on the same level as his spiritual master, but he showed that example that even one who has every possible spiritual realization–there is nothing that Srila Vyasadeva does not know because in the Vedas there’s all knowledge and that’s all coming from Vyasadeva–He’s Krsna’s personal friend, but he could not find satisfaction in his heart until he took instruction from his spiritual master. And that was when he wrote the one work of his that gave him satisfaction and that was Srimad-Bhagavatam.

So there is also a lesson to be learnt from that pastime. Even if you are as great as Vyasadeva–but don’t think you are–but even if you are as great as Vyasadeva, you will never find satisfaction in your heart until you give yourself 100% to the lotus feet of a Vaisnava.

Thank you all for your time. Thank you for putting up with me. All glories to Srila Prabhupada! [applause]