Śrī Brahma-saṁhitā, Verse 33
Stockholm, September 6, 1973, Upsala University
Prabhupāda: I'll sing from Vedic literature the description of the spiritual world. (chants verses from the Brahma-saṁhitā with devotees) So there are about thirty-five verse like this in the Brahma-saṁhitā describing the tran... [break] ...place of the Lord. It takes time. I have cited about a dozen only. Let me try to explain some of them. Because I have already taken much time. So one verse in these we find:
advaitam acyutam anādim ananta-rūpam
ādyaṁ purāṇa-puruṣaṁ nava-yauvanaṁ ca
vedeṣu durlabham adurlabham ātma-bhaktau
govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi
[Bs. 5.33]
The Lord is one, without a second, advaita. Acyuta: the Lord never falls down. The distinction between Lord and ourself... We are also eternal living entities, and the Lord is also eternal. He's also a living entity, a person, just like us, but His name is Acyuta. He never falls from His position. But we living entities, sometimes we fall down. Just our material condition of life. This is our falldown. Therefore He's called advaitam acyutam anādim. And He has no beginning. He is the beginning of everything. The creation is from Him, but He has no creator. So advaitam acyutam anādim ananta-rūpam [Bs. 5.33]. And He has got multi-forms. He can expand Himself. The one expansion is that īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe arjuna tiṣṭhati [Bg. 18.61]. He has expanded Himself to live with you within your heart. Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānām. Not only that; another place it is described, eko 'py asau racayituṁ jagad-aṇḍa-koṭi. One portion of the Lord... That is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā: ekāṁśena sthito jagat [Bg. 10.42]. Jagat means this material world. That is being maintained by one of His plenary portions, which is called Paramātmā. Or Garbhodakaśayī Viṣṇu, or Kṣīrodakaśāyī Viṣṇu. So one portion of His plenary portion, He is within the material world. A material world means within the universe. Aṇḍāntara-stham. Aṇḍa, brahmāṇḍa means this universe. This is not only one universe, but there are many millions of universes. So He's there. Advaitam acyutam anādim ananta-rūpam [Bs. 5.33]. And aṇḍāntara-stham: He is within the universe. Aṇḍāntara-stha-paramāṇu-cayāntara-stham: [Bs. 5.35] and He is within the atom also. Just, just imagine expansion of God. So advaitam acyutam anādim ananta-rūpam ādyaṁ purāṇa-puruṣaṁ nava-yauvanaṁ ca. Although He's the oldest of all, you'll find Kṛṣṇa always a young man. He's, from His face, we'll find a young boy, twenty to twenty-five years. Nava-yauvanaṁ ca. Vedeṣu durlabham. If you want to search out God by studying Vedas, it will be very difficult. Adurlabham ātma-bhaktau. But He's very easily available from His devotee. This is the description.
Then, in another place,
ānanda-cinmaya-rasa-pratibhāvitābhis
tābhir ya eva nija-rūpatayā kalābhiḥ
goloka eva nivasaty akhilātma-bhūto...
[Bs. 5.37]
The Lord... Everything is not material. That is sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha [Bs. 5.1]. Kṛṣṇa is sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha. His form is eternity, blissful and full of knowledge. So all His paraphernalia in the Goloka Vṛndāvana, that is His expansion of that quality, eternity, blissfulness and knowledge. Ānanda-cinmaya-rasa-pratibhāvitābhis. His gopīs, His consorts, His father, His mother, His friends, His trees, His flowers, His calves and cows—everything is spiritual, expansion from Him. Everything... The... We are also expansion from Him. We are marginal potency. And this is spiritual potency. So everything is expansion. Therefore the Vedic literatures say, sarvaṁ khalv idaṁ brahma: "Everything is Brahman." We are now combination of two energies, marginal energy and the external energy. But in the spiritual world, everything is only spiritual energy. So we are constitutionally spiritual energy. Somehow or other we have been entangled with this material energy. So if we try in this human form of life, we can get out of this material energy and again go back to the spiritual energy. That is the opportunity. Ānanda-cinmaya-rasa-pratibhāvitābhis tābhir ya eva nija-rūpatayā kalābhiḥ [Bs. 5.37].
Another śloka is to explain: aṅgāni yasya sakalendriya-vṛtti-manti [Bs. 5.32]. The spiritual body is equally qualified for doing everything. Just like with our hand, we can touch only. We cannot do... Or we can pick up something. But by simply having hand, or with the hand, we cannot eat. For eating we shall have to use this mouth, we have to use the stomach. But in the spiritual world, Kṛṣṇa, about Him is described: aṅgāni yasya sakalendriya-vṛtti-manti [Bs. 5.32]. Each and every limb of Kṛṣṇa has got the potency of other limbs. He can eat by His eyes. He can hear from His eyes. And anything, all the parts of the limbs, because they are spiritual, you can use it for any purpose. This is not understandable in this material condition of life, but it is possible. These things are there.
aṅgāni yasya sakalendriya-vṛtti-manti
paśyanti pānti kalayanti ciraṁ jaganti
ānanda-cinmaya-sad-ujjvala-vigrahasya
govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi
[Bs. 5.32]
So His spiritual world, this, His planet, is described that cintāmaṇi-prakara-sadmasu kalpa-vṛkṣa-lakṣāvṛteṣu surabhīr abhipālayantam [Bs. 5.29]. In His planet, there are many trees, many palaces, but they're all spiritual. Cintāmaṇi means spiritual. The houses, they're made of touchstone. Just like here the houses are made of bricks and wood; there the houses are also spiritual. The touchstone... It is described in the śāstra that if there is any touchstone in this material world, the touchstone can turn the iron into gold. So anyway, the houses... There are houses also. Big, big palaces, like here. Cintāmaṇi-prakara-sadmasu kalpa-vṛkṣa. And the trees are kalpa-vṛkṣa. Kalpa-vṛkṣa means where you can get fruit, one kind of fruit from one tree, but there, any fruit you want, you can get any tree. That is spiritual world. Prakara-sadmasu kalpa-vṛkṣa. Kalpa-vṛkṣa means that. And surabhīr abhipālayantam [Bs. 5.29]. And Kṛṣṇa is very fond of tending cows. And what are those cows? Surabhī. Surabhī means you can take as much milk as you like and as many times as you like. Here in this material world you have got cows, but you can take milk, limited quantity. And also once or twice. That is the difference.
In this way, if you read Brahma-saṁhitā, you'll get complete description of the spiritual world, the spiritual entities, the Supreme Lord, His associates. His country, His pastimes, everything, very nicely described. And if we become attached to such place, then we can try, we can try, we can prepare ourself for going back to home, back to Godhead. That is the perfection of life. That is the mission of Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement.
Thank you very much. Hare Kṛṣṇa. (end)