Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 7.9.27
—
Māyāpur, March 5, 1976
It is very important verse. Discrimination. Sometimes the atheist class demons, they say, "Why God has made somebody so opulent and why somebody so poor?" This is the general question. Perhaps you have met, eh? So that is being solved. Parāvaratvam. Para means better, and apara means inferior. Superior and inferior. There are two things, superior and inferior, everywhere, but in the eyes of God, Kṛṣṇa, there is no such thing, superior or inferior. He's superior, and everything is superior. This should be understood. There is no such discrimination that "Here is a devotee, so he's superior, and here is a nondevotee, he's inferior." That is not God's discrimination. That is your discrimination. If you like to remain as inferior, you can remain. God has given you independence. And if you like to become superior, you can become superior. It is not God's discrimination; it is your discrimination. Mind this verse very carefully. Kṛṣṇa says that "You fully become dependent upon Me, and I shall give you full protection." This is superiority. As soon as I fully surrender to the supreme superior, Kṛṣṇa, then my position is immediately superior. And if I don't do that, then I remain inferior.
There is a verse in the Bhagavad-gītā, ye yathā māṁ prapadyante tāṁs tathaiva bhajāmy aham: [Bg. 4.11] "It is up to you to... If you surrender cent percent, then I am also fully cent percent for you." But if you have got discrimination—"Certain percentage for my wife, certain percentage for my children, certain percentage for my country, certain percent...," so on, so on, so on, so on, ultimately, "Zero for God"—then God is also zero. It is up to you. But if you take God—"You are my everything"—then He is also for you, everything. It is up to you. Parāvaratvam. He does not discriminate. You discriminate. There are many persons, they come to Vṛndāvana, and whatever they have earned throughout the whole life, so they give everything to the wife and children and make contract that "I am going to Vṛndāvana. You send me at least two hundred rupees for my expenditure." "And what about two lakhs and crores?" "Oh, that is yours. The two lakhs and crores, what I have earned, that is for you, my dear children, my dear wife, and you give me two hundred for God. So I am going to Vṛndāvana." So Kṛṣṇa is very intelligent: "All right, I am also for you two hundred. (laughter) I am also for you two hundred." Ye yathā mām... This is the meaning, real meaning. Ye yathā māṁ prapadya... Kṛṣṇa is for you. It is called... What is called the exact word? Responsive cooperation. "If you have surrendered to Me cent percent, then I respond cent percent. If you have surrendered twenty-five percent, then I respond twenty-five percent." This is the position.