Prabhupada:
avinasi tu tad viddhi
yena sarvam idam tatam
vinasam avyayasyasya
na kascit kartum arhati
[Bg. 2.17]
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. Yasyatma-buddhih kunape tri-dhatuke [SB 10.84.13]. Anyone who is identifying this dead body, or this material body, which is a composition of tri-dhatuka, kapha-pitta-vayu, 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.
yasyatma-buddhih kunape tri-dhatuke
sva-dhih kalatradisu bhauma ijya-dhih
yat-tirtha-buddhih salile na karhicij
janesv abhijnesu sa eva go-kharah
[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 Krsna, Lord Krsna informs us:
avinasi tu tad viddhi
yena sarvam idam tatam
vinasam avyayasyasya
na kascit 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.
Krsna says here: avinasi tu tad viddhi yena sarvam idam tatam. Yena, by that
consciousness. The consciousness is spread all over the body. So Krsna says,
"That consciousness is avinasi." 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. Nasato vidyate bhavo nabhavo vidyate satah. We have discussed this verse. That is living force. And Krsna says, vinasam avyayasya asya. This consciousness has no annihilation. Vinasa. Nobody can kill this consciousness, or the soul. One can do harm to this material body, but not to the spirit soul and consciousness. Vinasam avyaya. Avyaya means which is never deteriorates. That is avyaya. Vinasam avyayasya asya na kascit kartum arhati. Nobody can kill. Nobody can kill consciousness, nobody can kill the soul. Therefore it is said, na hanyate hanyamane sarire [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-gita. 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 Krsna, the Supreme Personality. Because we cannot say anything, why it is avinasi, why this body's not avinasi, but the consciousness is avinasi, 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 Krsna's proposal? Avinasi tu tad viddhi yena sarvam idam tatam. Yena sarvam idam tatam. This is also very significant. Idam sariram.
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-gita. Ksetra-jnam capi mam viddhi sarva-ksetresu bharata [Bg. 13.3]. I am ksetra-jna, 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 Krsna. Isvarah sarva-bhutanam hrd-dese arjuna tisthati [Bg. 18.61]. That Supersoul is present both in you and in me. Ksetra-jnam capi mam viddhi sarva-ksetresu bharata [Bg. 13.3]. Sarva-ksetresu bharata. In every living entity. Sarva-ksetresu. It is confirmed in the Vedic sutras, Brahma-sutra: andantara-stha-paramanu-
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 Visnu. 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... Purnam idam purnam adah purnat purnam udacyate [Isopanisad, 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 Krsna consciousness. There is no other solution. The only solution. Krsna 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-mahesvaram [Bg. 5.29]. As Krsna says, "I am the proprietor of all the planets." When you understand this, that is Krsna consciousness. Then there will be peace.
Therefore this Krsna 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 us. As soon as the time factor is finished, my body's finished... So I have got this body, say, for seventy-six years, age, 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. Mudha. Mudha means one does not know to whom the property belongs, but foolishly he's claiming that "It is my property." This Krsna 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 -- isavasyam idam sarvam [Iso mantra 1], the center will be God, Krsna -- that will be perfect. When everyone will understand that Krsna is the central point, Krsna is the proprietor, Krsna is the enjoyer, when perfectly we come to that Krsna 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-gita: yad yad acarati sresthah. Yad yad acarati sresthas tat tad eva itarah janah. If the so-called leaders, they become Krsna 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 Krsna consciousness movement. Try to understand its philosophy, apply in life, and try to distribute this knowledge. Automatically others will accept. Sa yat pramanam kurute lokas tad anuvartate. If Krsna consciousness movement is accepted by the leading personalities... Why they shall not accept unless they are ignorant and less intelligent? Everything is there. The Bhagavad-gita is left for this purpose. It was instructed not to Arjuna, but to the whole world, in the midst of Battlefield of Kuruksetra. So the whole world is a battlefield now. They should learn the teachings of Bhagavad-gita and thus become happy within this world.
Thank you very much. Hare Krsna. (end)
>>> Ref. VedaBase => Bhagavad-gita 2.17
-- Hyderabad, November 22, 1972
