We Can Know Him

Srila Gurudeva: People in this world may live in various different ways, but the soul is the same everywhere. All souls are eternal. In China, even in Russia, in America, or in any part of the world, the soul is same. They all have the same quality. But due to lack of good association, they have forgotten Krsna and they are forgetting Him more and more. In India, in Vedic culture and knowledge, they have developed so much that they have discovered the soul. They have even discovered God, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. They searched out some relation with that God, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. By these material eyes and this material knowledge, we cannot realize Him. We can never see or realize Him like this. But with the transcendental knowledge given by the Guru-parampara, by Krsna Himself, the Supreme Personality of Godhead by whom a Guru-parampara came from, we can know Him.

He gave transcendental knowledge to Brahma, Brahma gave it to Narada, Narada gave it to Vyasa, Vyasa gave it to Sukadeva Gosvami, and thus descending like this, we are hearing all these things today. We should have so much trust and faith in this Guru-parampara and try to follow them. What is the nature of God? How is He merciful? What relation do we have with Him? How we can realize Him and serve Him eternally? All of this has been explained in Srimad-Bhagavatam. I want to give some explanations of Srimad-Bhagavatam, Tenth canto. It will be very tasteful to hear and it will also be very helpful for practicing bhakti-yoga. Without bhakti-yoga, we cannot realize God. We cannot realize the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

He is so merciful that He sometimes descends in this world. Why? To bestow His mercy to everyone. He manifests in so many ways, in so many incarnations. Like first He comes as Matsya, as a fish, as Kurma, a tortoise, as a boar, Varaha, as Nrsimhadeva, then Vamana, then Parasurama, then Rama, then Baladeva, then Buddha, then Kalki. Like this, He comes in ten forms. But the root of all incarnations is Krsna. Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. So, He descends to this world and attracts everyone. What to speak of coming to save humans, he also attracts animals, deers, birds, creepers, trees, everyone.

Also you should know that souls are in trees, creepers, and even in water particles. They are even in dust. They are in hogs, pigs, fish, eggs, demigods, everywhere. If you will practice bhakti-yoga, you can see and realize this fact and gradually you will have bhakti. What is bhakti? There are two things that are eternal. Souls and the Supersoul. Supersoul means Krsna. There are so many souls. When two pure souls will meet together, they can meet together only by love and affection. This love and affection is called bhakti-yoga. This love and affection, prema, has so many categories.

Those souls who are liberated and are in Goloka Vrndavana, they serve Krsna there eternally. Then there are those who are bound and covered by maya with these two kinds of gross and subtle bodies. Those souls are called baddha-jivas, conditioned souls. The conditioned souls are always unhappy and feeling suffering in the endless chain of birth and death. How can we attain that eternal or transcendental stage of liberation? By practicing bhakti-yoga, from the beginning. From sraddha and gradually from sraddha to nistha, ruci, asakti, bhava, and then prema, in this way.

[Spoken by Srila Gurudeva on December 3rd, 1998, Malaysia, published as part of the Bhakta Bandhav Anthology, Volume 25]