Prabhupada 0873 - Bhakti Means that We have to Clear Ourself from the Designations



750519 - Lecture SB - Melbourne

For sense enjoyment I have got this now body, Indian body; you have got this Australian or American or European body. But you have to change this body. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). We are eternal. Na jāyate na mriyate vā kadācit (BG 2.20). The soul does not take birth, neither it dies. We simply change body. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ. Just like we are changing our body.

In mother's womb we had a small body. It grows, and we come out. Again it grows. Grows... It is not actually growing; it is changing. The child is changing his body to baby, the baby is changing his body to boy, and the boy is changing his body to youthhood. Then... In this way you are changing body. That you have got experience. You had a child's body—you remember. Or you had a boy's body—you remember. But the body is no longer existing. But you are existing. Therefore the conclusion is that when this body will be no more fit for existing we shall have to accept another body. This is called tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ. So we have to change. That is nature's law. The soul is immortal. Na jāyate na mriyate vā kadācit na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). The soul is not finished; simply a particular type of body being finished. No. The people do not know it. And because they are simply engaged in sinful activities, their brain has become so dull that they cannot understand this simple truth that as you are changing body in this life, therefore you will change this body to another life. This is very simple truth. But at the advancement of material civilization, we have become so dull and rascal that we cannot understand it.

But India still, although it is so fallen, you go to a remote village: a common man, he has no education, he believes. He believes. And here in the Western countries, I saw many, many big, big professors, they have no idea. I met one big professor, Kotovsky, in Moscow. He said, "Swāmījī, after finishing this body, everything is finished." Just see. He is a big professor and in charge of a very big department, Indology. He has no idea. But this is not the fact. The fact is that we are all sparks, spiritual spark, part and parcel of God. Somehow or other, we have come into this material world for sense enjoyment. In the spiritual world there is no sense enjoyment. There is sense purification. In the material world the senses are impure. They simply want to enjoy material things. So Kṛṣṇa consciousness means that you have to purify your senses. That is the way.

sarvopādhi-vinirmuktaṁ
tat-paratvena nirmalam
hṛṣīkena hṛṣīkeśa-
sevanaṁ bhaktir ucyate
(CC Madhya 19.170)

This bhakti means that we have to clear ourself from the designations. What is that designation? Everyone is thinking, "I am American," "I am Indian," "I am European," "I am Australian," "I am cat," "I am dog, "I am this," "I am that"—bodily. We have to cleanse this bodily conception of life, that "I am not this body." Ahaṁ brahmāsmi: "I am spirit soul." This we have to realize. Then there will be no distinction that "Here is an American, here is an Australian, here is an Hindu, here is a Muslim, here is a tree, here..." No. Paṇḍitāḥ sama-darśinaḥ (BG 5.18). Paṇḍitāḥ means learned, one who knows things as they are. For them,

vidyā-vinaya-sampanne
brāhmaṇe gavi hastini
śuni caiva śva-pāke ca
paṇḍitāḥ sama-darśinaḥ
(BG 5.18)

A person, very learned, vidyā, and very gentle... Vidyā means, educated means, he is gentle, sober. He is not rogues and ruffian. That is vidyā. That is the test of education. He must be very educa... sober and silent. That is called gentleman, in one word.