Prabhupada Comments on Prabhupada: …from where everything emanates. He is the source of all life. Whatever we see, it is in the Absolute Truth. All these universes, all these planets, all the suns and moons, the sky, and everything, they have come from the original source, the Absolute Truth. Now, in the material world we have got so many contradictions, but that contradiction is there also in the Absolute Truth. Just like fighting. Fighting is not a very good thing, but still, the fighting spirit is there in the Absolute Truth. Otherwise, how fighting can be exhibited? So the theory, nonviolence… Nonviolence is not absolute. Nonviolence and violence, everything is there in the Absolute Truth. But in the Absolute Truth, either nonviolence or violence, they are absolute. Here we have got bad effects of violence, but when violence is performed by the Absolute, it has no bad effect, it has good effect. Just like in the Bhagavad-gita. The Bhagavad-gita is spoken in the battlefield, and Arjuna was denying to fight but Krsna was asking him to fight. So the fighting was good because it was the will of the Absolute Personality of Godhead. Therefore at the end of understanding Bhagavad-gita, Arjuna agreed, “Yes, I shall fight.” So fighting for the matter of executing the desire of the supreme will is also absolute. It is not different from Absolute Truth. So sometimes it is… Just like we sometimes see mock-fighting, because that fighting spirit is there. The father and son, the little son is fighting with the father. That is not fighting, but the mock fight. But the fighting spirit is there. You cannot deny it. Similarly, the fighting spirit is there. Sometimes that is exhibited by the Supreme Personality of Godhead. And He wanted to exhibit such fighting spirit, so who will fight with Him? Ordinary living being cannot fight with the Supreme Lord. Therefore some of His devotees, some of His associates, must fight with Him. Just like in the Bhagavad-gita it is said that Arjuna was inquiring from Krsna that “You say that millions of years before You spoke this Bhagavad-gita yoga to the sun-god.” Imam vivasvate yogam proktavan aham avyayam [Bg. 4.1]. The Lord said that “Many, many, many, many millions of years before, ago, I explained this science of Bhagavad-gita to the sun-god.” Now, to eliminate any doubt in the minds of ordinary persons like us, Arjuna inquired that, “Krsna, You are my friend. We are almost of the same age. How do you say that You explained this Bhagavad-gita millions and millions of years ago to the sun-god? How can I believe it?” In answer to this question, Krsna said that, “Both you…” [break] “…descended on this material world many many times, but you have forgotten. I remember.” That is the nature of ordinary living entity. The nature is forgetfulness. But God does not forget. He knows past, present, and future. That is the difference between Arjuna and Krsna. So the fighting spirit, it is to be understood. The fighting spirit is there in the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and it is exhibited at a certain period just to teach us that when fighting should be taken. Fighting is not very good thing, but if there is necessity… Just like in the Battlefield of Kuruksetra. The Battlefield of Kuruksetra was organized by two rival parties. One party was pious; another party was impious. So Krsna took side of Arjuna, and he was victorious. That is the history of Kuruksetra fight. So the Lord wanted to exhibit His fighting spirit. And who will fight with Him? Therefore two of His devotees were resigned that they should go in the material world and fight with the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Because in the Vaikuntha world there is no question of fighting. There is no enmity. Everyone accepts the Supreme Personality of Godhead as the protector, as the master, as the Lord, and they serve faithfully. So there is no question of fighting. In the material world everyone wants to be the lord, everyone wants to be God. So therefore there is fight. The fighting here takes place because everyone wants to lord it over the material nature. So there is difference of interest. I want to be lord, you want to be lord: now there must be fight. But in the Vaikuntha world there is one Lord and all others servitors. Therefore there is peace. So fighting was not possible in the Vaikuntha world; therefore these two doorkeepers were sent to the material world by the plan of the Supreme Lord so that they could fight as Hiranyakasipu and Hiranyaksa with the Lord. That is stated in the Srimad-Bhagavatam. Now the spiritual spark is entering into the material world, penetrating seven layers. This is called avyakta, nonmanifested. Just like in the sky there are nonmanifested and manifested things. If you go high, some 25,000, fifty thousand miles up, you’ll simply find in the sky nothing manifested. But if you go still higher, higher, higher, you will find some other planets existing. So the part which is nonmanifested is called avyakta, and the part which is manifested, that is called vyakta. So these two souls from Vaikuntha, they are coming into this material world. So they’re penetrating the nonmanifested matter. As the matter… Five elements—earth, water, fire, air, ether. And then… These are gross elements. And there are subtle elements: mind, intelligence, ego. And then spiritual. Our body is composed of three things—the spirit soul, and it is covered by subtle body: mind, intelligence ego; and there is gross body: fire, water… earth, water, fire, air, ether. So this universe, this universe is only one universe, but there are millions of universes, and they are covered with the gross and subtle elements. And penetrating that gross and subtle elements, when one comes to the sky, there are innumerable planets. The planets are seen, the suns and stars, like that. So the two souls, Jaya and Vijaya, they are coming on this earth. That is shown in this picture. Now they came as demons because they had to fight with the Supreme Lord. The devotees will not fight. The devotees are servitors, but the atheists, the demons, they are always inimical to the Personality of Godhead. That is the nature. Demonic nature means they do not believe in God. “Oh, what nonsense, God. I am God.” Although he’s a dog, he thinks himself, “I am God.” That is demonic nature. He is being kicked every minute by the laws of nature, and still, he is superficially thinking that “I am God.” God is not so cheap, but they have made to become God is very cheap. If you pay thirty-five dollars to a person, he’ll give you a mantra and you become within six months God. This is very nice statement and people will follow. Thousands and thousands will follow. But if you say, “Oh, you have to undergo much austerity, penance, regulation and tapasya,” “Oh, this is botheration. We shall enjoy material life, and the same time become God.” So these cheap things are exhibited by the demons. And when a demon is born, the natural disturbances are there. When there are natural disturbances, we must know that there is some demonic principle. That is stated in all Vedic scriptures. At the present moment, because we are increasing daily demonic principles, or demonic population is increasing, we are meeting with so many disturbances. So when these two demons, playing the part of demons, they also took birth on this planet, there were so many disturbances and this picture is there, that so many disturbances are being created at the time of their birth. Next picture? Ah. So when the demons became full- fledged human being, got this body… Demons and… There are two classes of men. One is called demon, and other is called demigod, or god. The demigod and the… The difference between demons and demigods is that the demigods, they are also human beings, but they obey the Supreme Personality of Godhead and they believe in the supremacy of the Supreme Lord. But the demons, they do not believe in the existence of God or they obey the supremacy of the Lord. That is the difference between demons and demigods. In the Bhagavad-gita also, in other scriptures also, you’ll find, dvau bhuta-sargau loke ’smin daiva asura eva ca. There are two classes of men. Men means living entities. Either in this planet or any other planet. But in this planet the demons, number of demons, are great, not in other planets. So there are two classes of men. One class is called demon, and other classes are god, or demigod. And what is the difference between them? Visnu-bhaktah bhaved daivah. The godly persons, who are devoted to the Lord, they are called demigods. And asuras tad-viparyayah. Asura means demons. They are just opposite number. They are very much against anything God. They want simply, cheaply to become God. That is their demonic principle. So where, there was fight. And the demons are always very much inimical to the gods. There are many men… You have got experience, some of you, that if you speak something about God, they become very angry: “What nonsense, God? I am God. Everyone is God. What special qualification of God?” This is demonic principle. So there is always… Not now, there is always fighting between the gods and the demons. So when these demons grew up with full- fledged strength by the grace of the Lord, so they fought with the demigods in other planets. And sometimes the demons became victorious, sometimes the gods became victorious. So when the gods became victorious, Hiranyakasipu, his wife was arrested. At that time, his wife was pregnant, and the demigods arresting the wife of Hiranyakasipu were dragging her to take her into their, I mean to say, planet. In the meantime, Narada Muni met. Narada Muni asked them, “What you are doing? This innocent woman you are dragging?” They replied that, “The woman is innocent, I know,” the head of the demigods, Indra, “but she is pregnant, and the child is born of the demon. So we shall keep this woman under our custody, and as soon as the child is born we shall kill him. That is our program. We are not going to do any harm to the woman.” So Narada Muni informed that “This child, although he’s born of a demon father, he’s a great devotee. He’s a great devotee, and do not try to kill. Neither you can kill him. This is not possible.” But the demigods, they accept the instruction of the authority. Narada is an authority. So immediately they accepted that “This woman has got a child who is a great devotee.” So in order to show respect to the child, they offered their obeisances and circumambulated the mother and they left the woman. They went to their own places. And Narada advised the wife of Hiranyakasipu, “My dear daughter, you don’t worry. I shall give you protection. Your husband has gone away. So long he does not come back, I will give you protection. You come to my asrama.” So he took the woman to his asrama, and as it is the duty of saintly persons to instruct about God and His activities, so he was daily explaining about God and His activities, and the child was hearing from the womb of his mother. The mother was anxious to give protection to the child, but the child was fortunate that he was hearing directly from the Narada. And as a result of this, when the child came out of the womb of his mother he became a great devotee… [break] So will it go on, still more? Devotee: Whatever you think. Prabhupada: It is quarter to nine. All right, next day we shall see. Come on. Let us have… (end)
Prahlada Maharaja Slides
by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
August 25, 1968, Montreal