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ANNOUNCER: [The following is a
class] from the Bhagavad-gītā As
It Is, 2nd chapter, text number 17,
given by His Divine Grace A. C.
Bhaktivedanta Swami
Prabhupāda, recorded on
November 22nd 1972 in
Hyderabad, India.

PRABHUPĀDA:

[avināśi tu tad viddhi yena sarvam]
idaṁ tatam vināśam avyayasyāsya
na kaścit kartum arhati.

So the distinction between the
living soul and the dead body—
anyone can perceive. What is the
distinction between a living body
and the dead body? When a man
is dead, he, his relatives cry,
lament: “Oh, my father has gone,”
“My son has gone.” But the
father, as we have seen, he’s lying
on the floor. Where he has gone?
He’s lying on the floor. Why you
are crying: “Oh, my father has
gone away”? That means the
person who has gone away, who
has left this body, you have not,
never seen. You have seen this
body. So the body is lying there,
and why you are crying, “My
father has gone away”? So any
intelligent man can understand
that the real father, within the
body, was a different thing. But
our ignorance is so great that we
accept this body, this dead body,
as my father. This body is not
only dead now, it was always
dead. Because the living soul was
there, within this dead body, it
was moving. This is the fact. Just
like a nice motorcar is running.
But when the driver is not there,
the motor is lying there, idle. If
one identifies with the motorcar,
the driver of the car, that is
foolishness. Yasyātma-buddhiḥ
kuṇape tri-dhātuke [SB 10.84.13].
Anyone who is identifying this
dead body, or this material body,
which is a composition of tri-
dhātuka, kapha-pitta-vāyu, some
blood, flesh, and some secretion,
and some bones—if anyone
identifies the self with this lump
of matter, then he is described as
no better than cow and ass.

yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-
dhātuke sva-dhīḥ kalatrādiṣu
bhauma ijya-dhīḥ yat-tīrtha-
buddhiḥ salile na karhicij janeṣv
abhijñeṣu sa eva go-kharaḥ [SB
10.84.13]

So at the present moment
especially… This ignorance is
there always, in the material
world, that one is identifying this
material body with the real self.
The self, the soul is different. It is
not this material body. But our
modern education, everything,
advancement of knowledge,
philosophy, everything on the
basis of, on this wrong
conception of life. So to give an, a
glimpse of idea what is that soul,
how it acts, here Kṛṣṇa, Lord
Kṛṣṇa informs us:

avināśi tu tad viddhi yena sarvam
idaṁ tatam vināśam avyayasyāsya
na kaścit kartum arhati.

So the soul, the presence of soul
is perceived by the
consciousness. That
consciousness… Just like the
presence of sun, even I was blind,
I could understand the sun is
there because the sunlight and
heat, I am experiencing. Without
seeing the sun… When, as soon
as I come to the sunshine, I feel
light and heat; therefore
immediately I can understand
there is sun. It is not very difficult.
Similarly just like we try to…
When a man is dying, we try to
feel whether the man is
breathing, or he’s feeling touch
sensation. These are the tests. So
the touch sensation is there so
long the soul is there. Now I am
living body. If somebody pinches
my body, because the
consciousness is all over the
body, so I feel: “Somebody’s
pinching me.” But when the
conscious, consciousness is not
there, if somebody chops up my
body I will not protest. Therefore
we should understand what is
that living thing. That
consciousness, which is spreading
all over this body, that is living
force. Kṛṣṇa says here: avināśi tu
tad viddhi yena sarvam idaṁ
tatam. Yena, by that
consciousness. The consciousness
is spread all over the body. So
Kṛṣṇa says, “That consciousness is
avināśi.” After the death of, after
the annihilation of this body,
which we call dead, the
consciousness is not dead. That
we do not understand. There is
no science; there is no
philosophy. Everything based on
a foolish assumption. They say
the consciousness is made
possible by combination of
matter. The combination of
matter, five elements, gross, the
subtle elements, they cannot see.
Even they see. So their… (aside:)
Not now. Their proposition is that
this consciousness is a symptom
of combination of matter. That is
Buddhist philosophy. They do not
accept the existence of soul. “The
consciousness is a combination of
matter.” But if it is a fact, then
why don’t you, if some matter is
lacking, why don’t you bring that
matter or chemical and inject in
the dead body and make it again
conscious? Why it is not possible?
What is your argument? If you
say consciousness is combination
of matter…

Just like our motorcar is being
driven. So when the petrol is
finished, matter… Because
motorcar running means
combination of matter—some
machine, made of matter, and
some oil, acting—so it is running.
Of course, the driver is there. But
foolish persons, they do not
understand, simply combination
of matter will not act. There must
be a driver, a living person. Then
the motorcar will go. So
supposing the combination of
matter, that the petrol is finished.
So we can bring petrol. Again the
motor runs. So if this body was
running simply on combination of
matter, and some matter is
lacking, so why not bring that
matter and put into it, and it will
run? But that is not possible. That
is, that was… The living force
which was running this body was
a different element, spirit. Nāsato
vidyate bhāvo nābhāvo vidyate
sataḥ. We have discussed this
verse. That is living force. And
Kṛṣṇa says, vināśam avyayasya
asya. This consciousness has no
annihilation. Vināśa. Nobody can
kill this consciousness, or the soul.
One can do harm to this material
body, but not to the spirit soul
and consciousness. Vināśam
avyaya. Avyaya means which is
never deteriorates. That is avyaya.
Vināśam avyayasya asya na kaścit
kartum arhati. Nobody can kill.
Nobody can kill consciousness,
nobody can kill the soul.
Therefore it is said, na hanyate
hanyamāne śarīre [Bg. 2.20] “The
consciousness, or the spirit soul,
is never killed, never annihilated,
on the destruction of this body.”

So this is a great science.
Unfortunately, the so-called
scientist, he has no idea. He does
not know. They simply say that
“We do not know, but we are
trying to know.” That’s all right.
But here is the knowledge,
perfect knowledge, in the
Bhagavad-gītā. Why don’t you
take it? That they will not take.
They’ll go on speculating and
promise falsely that “In future we
shall be able to inject some
matter within the body and the
body will again become alive.”
That is their dream. In the past
history, it was never possible; at
present also, it is not possible.
How you can expect in future?
But they are under illusion. They
think like that, that “We are
making progress.” At all, no
progress, practically. They have
no knowledge. That is their
position. They have no
knowledge. So we have to
understand from the authority.
There are so many arguments.
Now, if you say “This body’s dead
because the blood has become
white. Blood corpuscles, they are
now become white instead of
becoming red.” So if that is the
possible, so why don’t you make
the blood red? By some chemical
injection or by adding some
color, as soon as the blood
becomes red… Why don’t you do
that? No. If you say “That was
‘natural’ redness. That natural
redness cannot be brought,” then
your science is defective. And
even if we accept that natural
redness is the cause of living
force, there are many natural
redness in the flower, in the
jewels. Why does it not move? So
all the arguments of these foolish
scientists, or so-called logicians,
that can be, I mean to say,
nullified, if you are intelligent. We
have to take…, accept it, because
it is said by Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme
Personality. Because we cannot
say anything, why it is avināśi,
why this body’s not avināśi, but
the consciousness is avināśi, that
we cannot explain; therefore we
have to accept the version of the
supreme authority. That is
education. That is education. We,
we cannot deny. Because we
cannot give any counterproposal.
So how we can deny Kṛṣṇa’s
proposal? Avināśi tu tad viddhi
yena sarvam idaṁ tatam. Yena
sarvam idaṁ tatam. This is also
very significant. Idaṁ śarīram.

So I am individual spirit soul. I am
conscious. My consciousness is
spread all over the body. But my
consciousness is not spread over
your body. If you are pinched by
somebody, I don’t feel. Because
your consciousness is different
from my consciousness. You
cannot say that the consciousness
is the same in you and me. No.
Everyone is individual. Therefore
there is another consciousness.
That is explained in the
Bhagavad-gītā. Kṣetra-jñaṁ cāpi
māṁ viddhi sarva-kṣetreṣu
bhārata. I am kṣetra-jña,
conscious. I know about the pains
and pleasures of my body. You
know about the pains and
pleasures of your body. I do not
know about your pains and
pleasure. You do not know about
my pains and pleasure. Therefore
you are individual soul. I am
individual soul. But there is
another soul, Supersoul. That is
Kṛṣṇa. Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ
hṛd-deśe arjuna tiṣṭhati [Bg.
18.61]. That Supersoul is present
both in you and in me. Kṣetra-
jñaṁ cāpi māṁ viddhi sarva-
kṣetreṣu bhārata. Sarva-kṣetreṣu
bhārata. In every living entity.
Sarva-kṣetreṣu. It is confirmed in
the Vedic sūtras, Brahma-sūtra:
aṇḍāntara-stha-paramāṇu-
cayāntara-sthaṁ govindam ādi-
puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi.
Eko ’py asau racayituṁ jagad-
aṇḍa-koṭim [Bs. 5.35]. That
Supersoul is present within this
universe. Because that Supersoul
is present within this universe,
Kṛṣṇa says, viṣṭabhya aham: “I
enter within this world.”
Ekāṁśena sthito jagat: “I do not
enter, but My plenary portion,
ekāṁśena, Paramātmā…” The
Kṣīrodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, He enters.
The Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, He
enters within this universe. And
the Kṣīrodakaśāyī Viṣṇu enters
into everything, even in the atom.
Therefore it is working. So that
consciousness is there. Because
the universal consciousness of
Viṣṇu is there, therefore
everything within the universe is
working so nicely. Not that
nature… Nature, you can compare
with your body… The material
nature is there, but without the
soul’s presence, the
consciousness being there, it will
not work.

Therefore as this universe,
material cosmic manifestation is
working very nicely, you have to
accept there is God. You cannot
deny. So that consciousness,
superconsciousness, that is
different. You cannot say that “I
am the same. I have got
superconsciousness.” That is not
possible. Then, if you have got
superconsciousness, why don’t
you feel about my pains and
pleasure? The
superconsciousness is of Viṣṇu.
That is all-pervading
consciousness. That is also the
same. Nature is the same. As I
have got my consciousness all
over this body, similarly, the
superconsciousness is there all
over the universe. As I feel pains
and pleasure on account of some
disturbance on this body,
similarly, as soon as we create
some disturbance with this
universal atmosphere, the
supreme consciousness is
disturbed. That disturbance is
going on. Therefore, in spite of all
arrangement… Pūrṇam idaṁ
pūrṇam adaḥ pūrṇāt pūrṇam
udacyate [Īśopaniṣad, Invocation].
That, by God’s creation,
everything is complete. There is
no flaw. But because we are
creating disturbances, the world
situation is different.

We are creating disturbances. By
God’s creation, everything is nice.
Everything is fine. Take, for
example, within this planet, there
is sufficient place to grow food
for all the population. Not only all
the population at the present
moment, but if the population
increases ten times, twenty times,
still, there is sufficient place to
produce food for them. We are
traveling all over the world three
times a year, and we see in
Australia and Africa and other
countries, there are so much
vacant places. And food can be
produced, enough food can be
produced. Enough milk can be
available for feeding all this
population. That is God’s
arrangement. But the difficulty is
that we are quarreling amongst
ourself. I am thinking Indian.
Somebody’s thinking “I am an
American.” Somebody’s thinking
“I’m Australian.” “You cannot
come here. You, I cannot allow
you to come to my country.” The
immigration department.
Therefore, the difficulty. By God’s
arrangement, there is everything
complete. But I am disturbing. I
am encroaching upon God’s
property: “This is mine.” Therefore
there is disturbance. Therefore
the only solution of the whole
world problem is Kṛṣṇa
consciousness. There is no other
solution. The only solution. Kṛṣṇa
consciousness means when
people will be educated to
understand that this planet does
not belong to America or India
and Africa. Everything belongs…
Sarva-loka-maheśvaram. As Kṛṣṇa
says, “I am the proprietor of all
the planets.” When you
understand this, that is Kṛṣṇa
consciousness. Then there will be
peace.

Therefore this Kṛṣṇa
consciousness movement is very
important. To educate people.
Because foolishly they are
claiming God’s property His
property. Nothing belongs to us.
Even this body does not belong
to me. As soon as the time factor
is finished, my body’s finished…
So I have got this body, say, for
seventy-six years, ago, and, say,
after ten years, or five years, it will
be finished. So before my body
was created, the world was there,
and when my body will be
finished, the world will remain
there. Then how can I claim that
this world belongs to me? This is
called illusion. This is called
ignorance. Mūḍha. Mūḍha means
one does not know to whom the
property belongs, but foolishly
he’s claiming that “It is my
property.” This Kṛṣṇa
consciousness movement, in
other words, it is spiritual
communism. The material
communism, which is going on,
that is defective, because this
Communist movement is
centered around the state. But
when there will be perfect
communism—īśāvāsyam idaṁ
sarvam, the center will be God,
Kṛṣṇa—that will be perfect. When
everyone will understand that
Kṛṣṇa is the central point, Kṛṣṇa is
the proprietor, Kṛṣṇa is the
enjoyer, when perfectly we come
to that Kṛṣṇa consciousness, there
will be peace and prosperity.
Otherwise it is not possible.
Therefore our… Of course, it is
not possible that because the
number of fools are greater.

But still, as it is suggested in the
Bhagavad-gītā: yad yad ācarati
śreṣṭhaḥ. Yad yad ācarati śreṣṭhas
tat tad eva itaraḥ janaḥ. If the so-
called leaders, they become Kṛṣṇa
conscious, they understand the
philosophy, then others will
follow. As, at the present
moment, because the leaders are
foolish, blind, they have no
spiritual knowledge, all the
population of the world becomes
godless. Therefore our appeal is
to the leading personalities to
understand this Kṛṣṇa
consciousness movement. Try to
understand its philosophy, apply
in life, and try to distribute this
knowledge. Automatically others
will accept. 

Thank you very much. Hare Kṛṣṇa.