Prabhupāda Comments on

Prahlāda Mahārāja Slides

—
August 25, 1968, Montreal
Prabhupāda: ...from where everything emanates. He is the source
of all life. Whatever we see, it is in the Absolute Truth. All these
universes, all these planets, all the suns and moons, the sky, and
everything, they have come from the original source, the Absolute
Truth. Now, in the material world we have got so many
contradictions, but that contradiction is there also in the Absolute
Truth. Just like fighting. Fighting is not a very good thing, but still,
the fighting spirit is there in the Absolute Truth. Otherwise, how
fighting can be exhibited? So the theory, nonviolence... Nonviolence
is not absolute. Nonviolence and violence, everything is there in the
Absolute Truth. But in the Absolute Truth, either nonviolence or
violence, they are absolute. Here we have got bad effects of violence,
but when violence is performed by the Absolute, it has no bad effect,
it has good effect. Just like in the Bhagavad-gītā. The Bhagavad-
gītā is spoken in the battlefield, and Arjuna was denying to fight
but Kṛṣṇa was asking him to fight. So the fighting was good because
it was the will of the Absolute Personality of Godhead. Therefore at
the end of understanding Bhagavad-gītā, Arjuna agreed, "Yes, I
shall fight." So fighting for the matter of executing the desire of the
supreme will is also absolute. It is not different from Absolute Truth.
So sometimes it is... Just like we sometimes see mock-fighting,
because that fighting spirit is there. The father and son, the little son
is fighting with the father. That is not fighting, but the mock fight.
But the fighting spirit is there. You cannot deny it. Similarly, the
fighting spirit is there. Sometimes that is exhibited by the Supreme
Personality of Godhead. And He wanted to exhibit such fighting
spirit, so who will fight with Him? Ordinary living being cannot fight
with the Supreme Lord. Therefore some of His devotees, some of His
associates, must fight with Him. Just like in the Bhagavad-gītā it is
said that Arjuna was inquiring from Kṛṣṇa that "You say that millions
of years before You spoke this Bhagavad-gītā yoga to the sun-
god." Imaṁ vivasvate yogaṁ proktavān aham avyayam [Bg. 4.1]. T
he Lord said that "Many, many, many, many millions of years
before, ago, I explained this science of Bhagavad-gītā to the sun-
god." Now, to eliminate any doubt in the minds of ordinary persons
like us, Arjuna inquired that, "Kṛṣṇa, You are my friend. We are
almost of the same age. How do you say that You explained
this Bhagavad-gītā millions and millions of years ago to the sun-
god? How can I believe it?" In answer to this question, Kṛṣṇa said
that, "Both you..." [break] "...descended on this material world many
many times, but you have forgotten. I remember." That is the nature
of ordinary living entity. The nature is forgetfulness. But God does
not forget. He knows past, present, and future. That is the difference
between Arjuna and Kṛṣṇa. So the fighting spirit, it is to be
understood. The fighting spirit is there in the Supreme Personality of
Godhead, and it is exhibited at a certain period just to teach us that
when fighting should be taken. Fighting is not very good thing, but if
there is necessity... Just like in the Battlefield of Kurukṣetra. The
Battlefield of Kurukṣetra was organized by two rival parties. One
party was pious; another party was impious. So Kṛṣṇa took side
of Arjuna, and he was victorious. That is the history
of Kurukṣetra fight. So the Lord wanted to exhibit His fighting spirit.
And who will fight with Him? Therefore two of His devotees were
resigned that they should go in the material world and fight with the
Supreme Personality of Godhead. Because in the Vaikuṇṭha world
there is no question of fighting. There is no enmity. Everyone
accepts the Supreme Personality of Godhead as the protector, as the
master, as the Lord, and they serve faithfully. So there is no question
of fighting. In the material world everyone wants to be the lord,
everyone wants to be God. So therefore there is fight. The fighting
here takes place because everyone wants to lord it over the material
nature. So there is difference of interest. I want to be lord, you want
to be lord: now there must be fight. But in the Vaikuṇṭha world there
is one Lord and all others servitors. Therefore there is peace. So
fighting was not possible in the Vaikuṇṭha world; therefore these two
doorkeepers were sent to the material world by the plan of the
Supreme Lord so that they could fight as Hiraṇyakaśipu
and Hiraṇyākṣa with the Lord. That is stated in the Śrīmad-
Bhāgavatam. Now the spiritual spark is entering into the material
world, penetrating seven layers. This is
called avyakta, nonmanifested. Just like in the sky there are
nonmanifested and manifested things. If you go high, some 25,000,
fifty thousand miles up, you'll simply find in the sky nothing
manifested. But if you go still higher, higher, higher, you will find
some other planets existing. So the part which is nonmanifested is
called avyakta, and the part which is manifested, that is
called vyakta. So these two souls from Vaikuṇṭha, they are coming
into this material world. So they're penetrating the nonmanifested
matter. As the matter... Five elements—earth, water, fire, air, ether.
And then... These are gross elements. And there are subtle elements:
mind, intelligence, ego. And then spiritual. Our body is composed of
three things—the spirit soul, and it is covered by subtle body: mind,
intelligence ego; and there is gross body: fire, water... earth, water,
fire, air, ether. So this universe, this universe is only one universe,
but there are millions of universes, and they are covered with the
gross and subtle elements. And penetrating that gross and subtle
elements, when one comes to the sky, there are innumerable planets.
The planets are seen, the suns and stars, like that. So the two
souls, Jaya and Vijaya, they are coming on this earth. That is shown
in this picture. Now they came as demons because they had to fight
with the Supreme Lord. The devotees will not fight. The devotees are
servitors, but the atheists, the demons, they are always inimical to
the Personality of Godhead. That is the nature. Demonic nature
means they do not believe in God. "Oh, what nonsense, God. I am
God." Although he's a dog, he thinks himself, "I am God." That is
demonic nature. He is being kicked every minute by the laws of
nature, and still, he is superficially thinking that "I am God." God is
not so cheap, but they have made to become God is very cheap. If
you pay thirty-five dollars to a person, he'll give you a mantra and
you become within six months God. This is very nice statement and
people will follow. Thousands and thousands will follow. But if you
say, "Oh, you have to undergo much austerity, penance, regulation
and tapasya," "Oh, this is botheration. We shall enjoy material life,
and the same time become God." So these cheap things are exhibited
by the demons. And when a demon is born, the natural disturbances
are there. When there are natural disturbances, we must know that
there is some demonic principle. That is stated in all Vedic
scriptures. At the present moment, because we are increasing daily
demonic principles, or demonic population is increasing, we are
meeting with so many disturbances. So when these two demons,
playing the part of demons, they also took birth on this planet, there
were so many disturbances and this picture is there, that so many
disturbances are being created at the time of their birth. Next
picture? Ah. So when the demons became full-fledged human being,
got this body... Demons and... There are two classes of men. One is
called demon, and other is called demigod, or god. The demigod and
the... The difference between demons and demigods is that the
demigods, they are also human beings, but they obey the Supreme
Personality of Godhead and they believe in the supremac
y of the Supreme Lord. But the demons, they do not believe in the
existence of God or they obey the supremacy of the Lord. That is the
difference between demons and demigods. In the Bhagavad-
gītā also, in other scriptures also, you'll find, dvau bhūta-
sargau loke 'smin daiva āsura eva ca [Bg. 16.6]. There are two
classes of men. Men means living entities. Either in this planet or
any other planet. But in this planet the demons, number of demons,
are great, not in other planets. So there are two classes of men. One
class is called demon, and other classes are god, or demigod. And
what is the difference between them? Viṣṇu-
bhaktaḥ bhaved daivaḥ. The godly persons, who are devoted to the
Lord, they are called demigods. And asuras tad-
viparyayaḥ. Asura means demons. They are just opposite number.
They are very much against anything God. They want simply,
cheaply to become God. That is their demonic principle. So where,
there was fight. And the demons are always very much inimical to
the gods. There are many men... You have got experience, some of
you, that if you speak something about God, they become very angry:
"What nonsense, God? I am God. Everyone is God. What special
qualification of God?" This is demonic principle. So there is always...
Not now, there is always fighting between the gods and the demons.
So when these demons grew up with full-fledged strength by the
grace of the Lord, so they fought with the demigods in other planets.
And sometimes the demons became victorious, sometimes the gods
became victorious. So when the gods became victorious,
Hiraṇyakaśipu, his wife was arrested. At that time, his wife was
pregnant, and the demigods arresting the wife of Hiraṇyakaśipu
were dragging her to take her into their, I mean to say, planet. In the
meantime, Nārada Muni met. Nārada Muni asked them, "What you
are doing? This innocent woman you are dragging?" They replied
that, "The woman is innocent, I know," the head of the
demigods, Indra, "but she is pregnant, and the child is born of the
demon. So we shall keep this woman under our custody, and as soon
as the child is born we shall kill him. That is our program. We are
not going to do any harm to the woman." So Nārada Muni informed
that "This child, although he's born of a demon father, he's a great
devotee. He's a great devotee, and do not try to kill. Neither you can
kill him. This is not possible." But the demigods, they accept the
instruction of the authority. Nārada is an authority. So immediately
they accepted that "This woman has got a child who is a great
devotee." So in order to show respect to the child, they offered their
obeisances and circumambulated the mother and they left the
woman. They went to their own places. And Nārada advised the wife
of Hiraṇyakaśipu, "My dear daughter, you don't worry. I shall give
you protection. Your husband has gone away. So long he does not
come back, I will give you protection. You come to my āśrama." So
he took the woman to his āśrama, and as it is the duty of saintly
persons to instruct about God and His activities, so he was daily
explaining about God and His activities, and the child was hearing
from the womb of his mother. The mother was anxious to give
protection to the child, but the child was fortunate that he was
hearing directly from the Nārada. And as a result of this, when the
child came out of the womb of his mother he became a great
devotee... [break] So will it go on, still more?
Devotee: Whatever you think.
Prabhupāda: It is quarter to nine. All right, next day we shall see.
Come on. Let us have... (end)