apareyam itas tv anyam
prakrtim viddhi me param
jiva-bhutam maha-baho
yayedam dharyate jagat
The Gross and subtle material energies have been explained in the previous verse. earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intelligence, and false ego these are all material energies. The material energy has nothing to do with the spiritual energy, and because it is not spiritual energy, it is called apara, “inferior.”
For example, in our body there are some superior parts and some inferior parts. The brain is a superior part. But there are other parts, where we pass stool and urine. everything is part of my body, but the position is different, superior and inferior. Similarly, everything is God sarvam khalv idam brahma but still there must be a distinction between His superior and inferior energies. although everything is Brahman, God, still for practical purposes there is a and modern scientists distinction between superior and inferior. Those who foolishly do not make this distinction are called nirvinesa-vadis. They are impersonalists. Nirvinesa means “without any varieties.” But there are varieties.
The body is one, but different parts of the body are considered superior and inferior. This is called acintya-bhedabheda philosophy, “simultaneously one and different.” The anus and the genitals are part of the body, and the brain is also part of the body, but the brain is superior to the anus and genitals.
Bheda means “distinct,” and abheda means “one.” We should not take only one part of the philosophy: “everything is one.” no. everything is one, but there is variety as well. That is explained in the Bhagavad-gita (9.4):
maya tatam idam sarvam
jagad avyakta-murtina
mat-sthani sarva-bhutani
na caham tesv avasthitan
The material world is the combination of two energies: the superior energy and the inferior energy. Our body is made of the inferior energy earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intelligence, and false ego. But what I am, that is superior. That is explained here by the word jiva-bhuta, which refers to the living being. Beyond these two gross and subtle energies there is another, superior energy. In today’s verse, anyam prakrtim viddhi me param means that there is another energy besides the material energy and that other energy is superior to the material energy. and what is that energyn Jiva-bhuta, the living being within the gross and subtle body.
Fire, Heat, and Light
Modern scientists cannot understand the clear distinction between the inferior energy and the superior energy. Both of them are energies, and Krishna is their energetic source. everything comes from Krishna, just as heat and light come from fire. and the fire is distinct from the heat and light. The Vishnu Purana (1.22.53) states,
eka-dena-sthitasyagner
jyotsna vistarini yatha
parasya brahmanan naktis
tathedam akhilam jagat
“Just as the illumination of a fire, which is situated in one place, is spread all over, the energies of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Parabrahman, are spread all over this universe.” If you study whatever God has created, you become a philosopher. The sun is situated in one place. every day we can see it, a fiery substance. From the heat and light of the sun, all planets are created and the vegetation and all other products are coming out. Without sunlight you cannot do anything. Heat and light are essential.
Both the material world and the spiritual world are manifestations of the supreme energetic. you and I also have energy. you cut your hair; automatically the hair will grow again. So there must be some energy causing this. a dead man’s hair will not grow anymore. But a living man, because he has that energy, can shave today and have new hair tomorrow. This is called inconceivable energy. We can talk foolishly with some bombastic words “These cells and this and that” but this phenomenon is not within our control.
The Spiritual World
These two energies, the material energy and the spiritual energy one superior, one inferior are working within this world as a mixture. and the spiritual world is the place where there is no material energy, simply spiritual energy.
The land in the spiritual world is not like this land. The Brahma-samhita (5.29) describes the spiritual world. Cintamani-prakara-sadmasu. There are also buildings there, but those buildings are not like these buildings of brick and stone. Cintamani means “touchstone,” and prakara means “houses.” There are also trees, but those trees are spiritual trees, kalpa-vrksa. Here if you go to a mango tree, you get mangoes, but there you can go to any tree and ask for anything and it will be supplied. We cannot imagine how one tree can supply everything. But that is possible because they are spiritual. For example, if I ask a disciple, “Bring a mango,” he’ll go anywhere and bring a mango because he is a living spirit soul. But if I ask this pillow, “Bring a mango,” it will not be possible.
That is the distinction between material and spiritual. and these foolish scientists are trying to prepare spiritual energy by combinations of material energy. just see their foolishness. They are trying to create the living force by chemical combination. Therefore Krishna says they are munha, “rascals.” you cannot manufacture life by combining material chemicals. That is not possible. Here it is said apara: life is a different thing, superior. How is it superior? Yayedam dharyate jagat: it uses this world. This world is important because of the spiritual energy; otherwise it has no value.
The User of Matter
The spiritual energy, the living soul, knows how to utilize matter. Yaya idam dharyate jagat. Jagat, this world, is made of material energy, but the spiritual energy, the living entity, knows how to utilize this material energy. He knows how to utilize earth by making bricks and making lime to construct a nice house. The controller is the spiritual energy. Therefore the controller is called param, superior energy. The so-called scientists consider the material energy and spiritual energy to be the same. They have no brain to distinguish between them.
We have to understand this point from Krishna; therefore Krishna’s instruction is so important. If you don’t take Krishna’s instruction, then in spite of your so-called higher advancement of education, you simply remain a munha, rascal. Those who are not aware of the distinction between the spiritual energy and the material energy are called munha. But if you understand the superior energy, the spiritual energy, then it will be possible to understand Krishna.
Krishna is full spiritual energy, sac-cid-ananda-vigraha:
sac-cid-ananda-vigrahan
anadir adir govindan
sarva-karana-karanam
“Krishna, who is known as Govinda, is the Supreme Godhead. He has an eternal blissful spiritual body. He is the origin of all. He has no other origin, and He is the prime cause of all causes.” (Brahma-samhita 5.1)
The distinction between the material and spiritual energy is the first lesson to enter into spiritual understanding. From the beginning of the Bhagavad-gita, in the second chapter (2.13), Krishna teaches that the spiritual energy is within the body.
dehino ’smin yatha dehe
kaumaram yauvanam jara
tatha dehantara-praptir
dhiras tatra na muhyati
“As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. a sober person is not bewildered by such a change.”
There are many evidences in the Vedic literature that the spiritual energy is different from the material energy. and if you understand spiritual energy, then you can understand God, because spiritual energy is a sample of God. Krishna says in the Bhagavad-gita (15.7), mamaivamno . . . jiva-bhuta. What is the jiva-bhutan The living entities. Mama eva amna: “They are minute parts of me.” a son is part of the father bodily, not spiritually. Spiritually he is part of Krishna, and materially he is part of the body of the father. So we are not talking of the material. The Bhagavad-gita is spiritual understanding.
A Sample of God
The jiva-bhuta is controlling the material nature. and Krishna says, “These jiva-bhuta, living entities, are parts of me.” Therefore, if you try to understand the living entities, who are part of God, then you can understand God. For example, if you are boiling a big volume of rice and you take one grain of rice and press it in your hand, you can understand that the whole pot of rice is ready. Similarly, if you thoroughly understand this spiritual entity the individual living entity then you can understand God. another example: If you take a drop of ocean water and analyze it chemically, then you can understand the chemical composition of all seawater.
If you study human nature, you can also learn something about the nature of God. But His nature is perfect and unlimited, and we have His qualities in a very minute quantity.
In contact with the material energy, your nature is imperfect. But if you become liberated from material bondage, then you become perfect. you can understand, “I am as good as God, but God is great; I am very, very small.” That is self-realization. If you think, “I am fully as good as God,” that is your foolishness. you are as good as God in that you possess qualities like His, but you are not as great as God. To understand this point is self-realization. Therefore nastra (scripture) says, “If the spiritual spark is equal to the supreme whole, then how has he come under His control?” This is the reasoning. We are under the control of someone. In the material atmosphere we are fully controlled. and when we are spiritually free, still we are controlled, because God remains the great and we remain the small.
Unlike in the material world, in the spiritual world the fact that God is great and we are small does not cause us to disagree with Him. Try to understand the distinction between the material world and the spiritual world. The living entity is a very minute particle of God. In the spiritual world everyone is aware of his position. The living entities there know, “I am a small particle of God.” Therefore there is no disagreement. everything is going on nicely. Here in the material world we are in disagreement with God because we are falsely thinking, “I am as good as God.” That thinking is the basis of material life. To be free from this wrong conception of life is liberation.
The Small Serves the Great
All the bhaktas, devotees, have accepted that “God is great; I am small, a very small particle. Therefore, as the small serves the great, my real duty is to serve God.” This conception is liberation. In fact, to serve someone greater is natural. everyone is going to the office, to the factory, to work. What are they doingn Going to serve someone greater. Otherwise they might stay at home. Why are they going to the factory, to the officen Because it is natural for the small to serve the great.
God is the greatest. Then what is your businessn To serve Him, that’s all. This is your natural position. In the material world someone is going to serve someone else for bread, and still he is thinking, “I am God.” just see what kind of God he is. This rascal is thinking he is God, but if he is driven away from the office, he’ll not get his bread. Still he is thinking he is God.
This is the nature of the material world. everyone is thinking, “I am God.” Therefore they have been called munha, rascals. They do not surrender to God. Lord Krishna says in the Bhagavad-gita (7.15),
prapadyante naradhaman
mayayapahrta-jnana
asuram bhavam anritan
“Those miscreants who are grossly foolish, who are lowest among mankind, whose knowledge is stolen by illusion, and who partake of the atheistic nature of demons do not surrender unto me.” Apahrtajnananh “his real knowledge is taken away.” He does not know that he is small, that God is great, and that his business is to serve God. This knowledge is taken away. This is the sign of a rascal.
We can understand that a person is a rascal by one symptom. just as by pressing one grain of rice from a whole pot of rice you can understand that the rice is quite all right, by one symptom you can understand who is a rascal. What is that symptomn Na mam . . . prapadyante. He is not a devotee of Krishnan Then he’s a rascal. That’s all. Immediately you take it without any other consideration that anyone who is not a devotee of Krishna, who is not prepared to surrender to Krishna is a rascal. This is our conclusion.
Thank you Very Much.