Delivered as a class on the 1st mantra of Sri Isopanisad by his grace Purujit Prabhu in the B.L.I.S.S. ashrama in London, UK.
It's such a wonderful mantra, sometimes, when people are Christians or Muslims and they're a little biased, they think that 'Oh, Hare Krishna is another religion'. So when they come into the attack mode, we show them this particular verse. It is so nice.
'Everything animate or inanimate, that is within the universe is controlled and owned by the Lord. One should therefore accept things necessary for himself, which is set aside as this quota and must not accept other things knowing well to Whom they belong.'
So, who can deny that everything belongs to God? Any of these religious people must admit, 'Yes, everything belongs to God'. Srila Prabhupada is analyzing in the purport, that even the building... Prabhupada is very clever because we all live in some buildings, so he's trying to relate to us, that even the building you live in consists of cement, earth and water and all these different elements, metals. But you can't make any of these elements in the laboratory. You can't make metal out of nothing. It is in nature. Water also, earth, these are different energies of Krishna. Krishna has different energies. We are also one of Krishna's energies, but we are the superior energy. So, it is foolish, this is our illusion. The illusion is that we think we are the body, 'I'm a man, woman, ugly, beautiful, British, Mitish, Shmitish, Finnish, Polish... polish, finish, don't finish... Another problem we have is that whatever is related to the body, we consider to be 'mine'. But the body is not yours, you can't keep the body, tomorrow you'll have another body, the body is constantly changing, growing. You can't keep this body, you want to catch it, but you can't catch the body because it changes in your hands and the hands themselves change.
dehino 'smin yatha dehe kaumaram yauvanam jara
tatha dehantara-praptir dhiras tatra na muhyati (Bg 2.13).
This is a nice verse from the Bhagavad-gita. 'As the embodied soul continually passes from boyhood to youth to old age, so he passes into another body at death. The self-realized soul is not bewildered by such a change.' Nothing belongs to us, the body doesn't belong to us. Because the body is also made of earth, water, fire, air ether, all these elements.
So, everything belongs to Krishna. Srila Prabhupada gives a very nice definition or a description of God. He says that you create water by your body. A limited portion of water - saliva, urine, sweat, you generate these. As soon as the soul is out of the body - no sweat, no saliva, no urine. Finished. Similarly, just like in the Bible it is said that the man is created in God's image, Krishna, gigantic Krishna, Maha-Visnhu generates oceans, rivers, lakes, all coming from His body. So those who say, 'Where is God? I cannot see God'. That's okay. There is earth, there is air, water, fire, can you see these elements? In this world, can you see earth? Yes. Can you see water? Yes. Can you see air? No, you cannot see, but you can feel it.
So these are all coming from God's body, He generates the elements for us, so we can play here, we can play God. We're complete nonsense, but we play gods, 'I am God'. So, we can understand God very simply. It is science. It is not a belief that 'I believe, you believe, we all believe'. We all believe something blindly, then we realise 'Oh, we're so foolish, we are so mudha' We have accepted someone, some so-called guru and then we realise that guru was simply taking our money and enjoying in Thailand with prostitutes. These things happen. Now we must use our intelligence, we must scientifically understand Krishna. Srila Prabhupada is so powerful that even he's not physically present, he is still preaching. Such a powerful preacher. Still preaching through his books, through his videos. He can also preach through you if you sincerely accept him as your spiritual master.
So, this is our problem, instead of recognising Krishna's existence and His supreme proprietorship over everything, we say 'Oh, no, it doesn't belong to anyone, I just take it, It's mine'. No, it's not yours. You have your quota, Krishna has given you material nature, your tiny little piece of material nature. So you can enjoy it, that's okay. It's not that we should cut enjoyment. You enjoy very nicely, even sex life you can enjoy, that is okay. We never say that sex life is bad. Krishna is that sex life which is practised according to the religious principles. But don't encroach upon others' property, their quota. We must encroach because we cannot control our senses.
The nature of senses, Krishna explains in the Bhagavad Gita, is just like pouring oil in a fire. The fire is increasing, the more you enjoy on a sensual platform, the more the senses require it, 'more, more, more, come on'. The human life begins when we perform tapasya, when we say 'No, no, no, wait a second.
I must do the opposite!' In our materialistic society, the emphasis is 'Enjoy your senses like a pig.'
But in Krishna consciousness, we say, 'No, don't enjoy like a pig. Enjoy like a human being'. What does it mean to enjoy like a human being? Enjoy with Krishna in the centre of your life. That's it. If we put Krishna in the centre then everyone is satisfied. It is not a selfish enjoyment. If we please Krishna, if we enjoy with Krishna, everyone is pleased. Why? Because everyone is part and parcel of Krishna.
mamaivamso jiva-loke jiva-bhutah sanatanah
manah-sasthanindriyani prakrti-sthani karsati (Bg 15.7)
Krishna says, 'All of you, all you guys. Bill Gates, Trump, Americans, Indians, Chinese, all of you are My fragmental parts and parcels'. So if you please Krishna then everyone is pleased. People argue, 'Why... you just always, this 'Krishna'. You should also help others. Why are you so selfish? Show compassion. Take care of your fellow man, your neighbour, love your neighbour, it says in the Bible'. So, we must understand it scientifically. You please Krishna, you serve Krishna and thus you're serving everyone. And if you're serving your fellow man, then you're not serving your fellow man, because you're serving his body, and he's not the body. The body is changing, but we're not changing. We're the soul. We can observe it, 'Yes, my body has changed. Look at my body, oh my God, I'm 38 years old.'
But I am not this body, I'm eternal. I'm not 38 years old. I'm not a man or a woman. I'm not ugly, I'm not beautiful. Try to meditate on this. 'I'm not this body. I'm not hungry. I'm not sleepy. I don't have the sex desire. These are all senses, dragging us to the material nature, to the cycle of samsara. 'Come, take birth in 8,400,000 species of life. Come with me'. Maya is always asking, 'Leave Krishna alone. I'll give you everything. In my kingdom, you are Krishna'. That is maya's allurement. So we must be intelligent. We should not indulge in the senses. Tapasya, that is the beginning of human life. It is not simply 'Oh, you, Krishnas, only you have this restriction. In our Christian religion, we can indulge, in our Muslim religion...' No! Forget religion. This is a universal principle of religious life. You must perform tapasya. And you must perform charity. Charity also requires sacrifice. This is how we know who is religious and who is just a fake. He must manifest the symptoms of a religious person. You can say so many things, people make so much show. You must exhibit the symptoms of a religious person. Doesn't matter what religion you follow, we don't care for this. We kick out these designations, we don't care. If a Muslim comes here, we welcome. Yes. Islam means submission to God. Very good.
You pray five times a day. First-class. It should be encouraged. And similarly, we must perform sacrifice because nothing in this world belongs to us, we're just renting, we have our quota. And even within that quota, we're encroaching upon others. We kill the ants, we kill the bacteria, we breathe, we kill so many living entities. So we must perform sacrifice to become purified, from all these sinful reactions. Especially in eating. Prabhupada explains that we offer our food to Krishna. We are not vegetarian or vegan, we are not concerned with these designations. Again designations, 'Oh, I'm vegan, I'm vegetarian, I'm this, I'm that'. We don't care. Offer your food to Krishna. Of course, you must know what Krishna wants, not that you offer Him any damn nonsense.
And how do you know? The spiritual master tells you. Srila Prabhupada tells us, and even Krishna Himself, He says,
patram puspam phalam toyam yo me bhaktya prayacchati
tad aham bhakty-upahrtam asnami prayatatmanah (Bg 9.26)
Leaf, water, fruits, anyone can offer this. Even if you're not a vegetarian, even if you eat meat. You can still offer to Krishna. Take a flower, take an incense, take a fruit, put it before a picture of Krishna and offer it. That is the beginning of your Krishna consciousness. You take that fruit, buy it and think, 'Oh, Krishna has tasted these fruits'. Meditate on Krishna. That is a top-notch meditation. We meditate by eating. See? All these impersonalists, they meditate on nothingness. That is impossible. They don't meditate on nothingness, they meditate on sex life. But we meditate on Krishna, by eating sweet tasty prasadam. How wonderful this Krishna consciousness is? By eating you liberate yourself from material existence. By eating you're doing the greatest sacrifice. It is inconceivable. This is the mercy of Krishna, Lord Caitanya.
So people are grabbing this world. 'Everything is mine, the corporations are taking over everything, stealing like crazy. Everything - the forest, the woods, flowers, trees, the grass the waters the oceans everything is being stolen by these rascals. Prabhupada says that they're liable to be punished by the laws of material nature. That's going on, you'll get punished. You're kicked out at the time of death. 'Oh, this is yours? Your America? Yeah? Get out! Take birth in China you rascal'. Trump's complaining about China, 'China, China, the Chinese, Chinese...' He dies and he thinks of China, he's taking his birth in China, and that bomb that he released very nicely falls on his baby head in China. Very twisted reality, all filtered through the body.
So this Sri Isopanisad is highly recommended. Read this book every day. You'll get all the knowledge you need about God, about your relationship with God, Krishna, and how to live peacefully. People need to know this, that this is the property of Krishna. It's not your property. You must sacrifice that property for Krishna's service. This is required. Otherwise, you can give... people get puffed up, 'Oh, I give charity to the poor, I give to African children'. But this is not yours, you have stolen Krishna's property and now you're giving it out and you're taking credit for yourself. What is this? This is very bad. Let's say I steal $1 million dollars from a bank, and I give to the homeless, I throw the money in the street and when I get arrested and I'll say, 'I did charity. I am a very good person'. 'No, go to jail'.
So Prabhupada is giving us a formula for peace. Just be conscious. Everything belongs to Krishna. If we understand that it belongs to Krishna and it should be used for Krishna, then there is no problem. Nothing is mine, nothing is yours - that is spiritual communism.
