asyāpi deva vapuṣo mad-anugrahasya

svecchā-mayasya na tu bhūta-mayasya ko 'pi

neśe mahi tv avasituḿ manasāntareṇa

sākṣāt tavaiva kim utātma-sukhānubhūteḥ (SB 10.14.2)

My dear Lord, neither I nor anyone else can estimate the potency of this transcendental body of Yours, which has shown such mercy to me and which appears just to fulfill the desires of Your pure devotees. Although my mind is completely withdrawn from material affairs, I cannot understand Your personal form. How, then, could I possibly understand the happiness You experience within Yourself?
PURPORT
In Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Volume One, Chapter Fourteen, Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that in the present verse Lord Brahmā expressed the following prayerful sentiment: "Your appearance as a cowherd child is for the benefit of the devotees, and although I have committed offenses at Your lotus feet by stealing away Your cows, boys and calves, I can understand that You are now showing me Your mercy. That is Your transcendental quality: You are very affectionate toward Your devotees. Yet in spite of Your affection for me, I cannot estimate the potency of Your bodily activities. It is to be understood that when I, Lord Brahmā, the supreme personality of this universe, cannot estimate the childlike body of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, then what to speak of others? And if I cannot estimate the spiritual potency of Your childlike body, then what can I understand about Your transcendental pastimes? Therefore, as it is said in the Bhagavad-gītā that anyone who can understand the Lord immediately becomes eligible to enter the kingdom of God after quitting the material body. This statement is confirmed in the Vedas, and it is stated simply: By understanding the Supreme Personality of Godhead, one can overcome the chain of repeated birth and death. I therefore recommend that people should not try to understand You by their speculative knowledge."
When Brahmā disrespected the supreme status of the Personality of Godhead, Lord Kṛṣṇa first bewildered him by exhibiting the Lord's own transcendental power. Then, having humbled His devotee Brahmā, Kṛṣṇa gave him His personal audience.
According to Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura, Lord Kṛṣṇa's transcendental body can also function through the agency of His plenary expansions, called viṣṇu-tattva. As stated by Brahmā himself in the Brahma-saḿhitā (5.32): ańgāni yasya sakalendriya-vṛttimanti. This verse indicates not only that the Lord can perform any bodily function with any of His limbs but also that He can see through the eyes of His Viṣṇu expansions or, indeed, through the eyes of any living entity, and similarly that He can hear through the ears of any Viṣṇu or jīva expansion. Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura points out that although the Lord can perform any function with any one of His senses, in His transcendental pastimes as Śrī Kṛṣṇa He generally sees with His eyes, touches with His hands, hears with His ears and so on. Thus He behaves like the most beautiful and charming young cowherd boy.
The Vedic knowledge expands from Lord Brahmā, who is described in the first verse of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam as ādi-kavi, the primeval Vedic scholar. Yet Brahmā could not understand the transcendental body of Lord Kṛṣṇa, because it is beyond the reach of ordinary Vedic knowledge. Among all the transcendental forms of the Lord, the two-armed form of Govinda — Kṛṣṇa — is original and supreme. Thus Lord Govinda's pastimes of stealing butter, drinking the gopīs' breast-milk, tending the calves, playing His flute and playing childhood sports are extraordinary even in comparison with the activities of the Lord's Viṣṇu expansions.

My dear Lord, neither I nor anyone else can estimate the potency of this transcendental body of Yours, which has shown such mercy to me and which appears just to fulfill the desires of Your pure devotees. Although my mind is completely withdrawn from material affairs, I cannot understand Your personal form. How, then, could I possibly understand the happiness You experience within Yourself?

om ajnana-timirandhasya jnananjana-salakaya
caksur unmiltam yena tasmai sri-gurave namah
vancha-kalpatarubhyas ca krpa-sindhubhya eva ca
patitanam pavenebhyo vaisnavebhyo namo namah
UNKNOWN PRAYER (6.51 – 7.11)
shri-krishna-chaitanya prabhu nityananda
shri-adwaita gadadhara shrivasadi-gaura-bhakta-vrinda
Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare
Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare

This morning, we are reading from the prayers which are being offered by Lord Brahma to the lotus feet of Sri Govinda. Here Lord Brahma is expressing his utter inability to properly understand the great mercy that is being bestowed upon him. And we read in the purport how Lord Brahma is described in the Bhagavatam as Adi Kavi which means he is the original and supreme scholar of this entire universe. Infact all the Vedic knowledge originates in this material universe through him. tene brahma hṛdā ya ādi-kavaye muhyanti yat sūrayaḥ (SB 1.1) Lord Brahma is the father of all creatures within this universe. Not only all human beings, but every animal, every aquatic, every insect, every plant, every tree, he is the father of all life within this universe. We read in Shrimad Bhagavatham that how Lord Brahma through various Prajapatis created all the various species of life. And as the supreme father of the universe, it is through him that Lord Shri Krishna first revealed the truth of the Vedas. “Veda” means knowledge. There are various scriptures in the world which according to time, place and circumstance are spoken to gradually elevate people to the transcendental plane of consciousness. But the Vedas are different in the sense that they are not spoken according to time, place and circumstance. They are spoken according to all places, all times and all circumstances. It is the absolute truth revealed at the very beginning of the creation. The example that our Guru Maharaj used to give is that just as when you buy any complex machine from the market place be it a tape recorder, a computer always they will give you an instruction manual of how to properly utilize it and get the most if it. Otherwise it would just left to figurate on our own, we will, It may take us or whole life time before we get proper use. And most likely we will break it. We will ruin it. So for a little machine such as a computer, it is required to have an instruction manual – What to speak of this creation. When the Supreme Lord created this universe through Lord Brahma, at the very beginning, He gave an instruction manual that upholds the truths from the beginning of the creation to the end of creation. Infact it upholds the truth eternally. Sanatan Dharma is the eternal truth. This knowledge is before creation and it will remain after creation. It is absolute. Therefore this is the special feature or characteristics of the Vedic literatures over all other spiritual literatures in the world. The Vedic truths are timeless. They provide from the most beginning neophyte instructions to gradually elevate those who are
deeply steeped in demoniac path (not clear 13.13) to the most elevated, the most pure and highest knowledge of one’s transcendental lila with the Supreme Lord in the spiritual world and everything in between. And factually all the great scriptures of the world, we can find where its place is categorically by studying the Vedas. That is why historically the Indian religion, the Vedic religion is the most tolerant, the most open and the most compassionate. Because if the other religions, there is a very circumstantial revelation of God’s will, according to those people in that place kala, desa, patra. And therefore when they see a literature, an other scripture which is revealing God’s word according to other people, other time and other circumstance, they consider, “This is not the same as ours. We have faith in ours. If we accept theirs, they will disturb our own faith. Therefore we must reject. Therefore we must accept that only our scripture is the true revelation and all others are created by a demoniac energy to mislead society from our conception of truth. Then we find that practically all the great religions of the world practice this type of fanaticism and sectarianism because factually unless they really deeply understand the essence of their own religion, intellectually the only thing that have to judge the truth by is just a very circumstantial revelation truth and they consider that as absolute and everything. But in the Vedic literature, we find that there is a whole spectrum of every type of variety by which we can approach God according to various times, various circumstances. Tamo guna, Rajo Guna, Sattva Guna. There are Vedas for those in he mode of ignorance, those in the mode of passion, those in the mode of goodness and those who are sincerely seeking to surrender to the Lord and attain the absolute truth. Therefore those who understand properly the Vedic literatures through the lips of bonafide representatives of the authorized parampara, they can see, they can accept, they can assimilate the teachings of all the great revealed scriptures of the world and understand exactly which category this falls in, who it is being spoken to, why it is being spoken like this, what level of consciousness its trying to bring people to, what aspect of the absolute truth is being revealed. The Vedas are an entire broad encyclopedia of truth of the material world, of the spiritual world, of God, of the living entity, of karma, of time, everything is there. In all this great great great eternal religion manifested within this world, originated from Lord Brahma, Adi Kavi, such a scholar, such a personality. And Brahma’s power of cognizance is explained in the Bhagavatham (abhijñaḥ svarāṭ) That the absolute truth is all cognizant, is fully independent. And as the jiva, the part and parcel also has a fragment of part of his cognizance and his independence, his freedom. According to the particular karmic positioning, we have a particular power of cognizance and independence. What cognizance do we have? We can see only in one direction at a time and we can only see a few meters at a time and most of us, we have glasses, without the help of lenses, we cannot see anything around us – everything is a blur. And even if we do not have glasses, in a few years we will. Like (unclear 19.01) Prabhu, a few years ago, he never had glasses. Now he cannot see without glasses. And what is his age- forty three, forty four and forty five years old. So this is our power of vision. We are helpless without our glasses. But Lord Brahma, we never see photos of Lord Brahma wearing glasses. (laughter) And he is billions of years old. He has never lost his eyesight. And he has four heads which means he can see all four directions at all times and not only that, but he can see the entire universe. This is the extent of his vision. He could see the entire universe any time he wants and simultaneously he could see everywhere. You see we are so foolish. We are thinking by our advanced technology, we are becoming great, but what greatness compared to these souls. Its like – if you go to a very expensive store in the west especially, one expensive apartment building even in people’s homes, you see they have this close circuit TVs right, where they have cameras all over and somebody sitting in the control room where they can just see on the television screen, every part of the store, who might be stealing what or what robbers are coming in and they think “Ah, This is very advanced, see How advanced! We can see the whole store every part of it. We could see this whole property, the backyard, the front yard, the gardens, every room by our television screens. All of these television screens and all of these cameras, are only just to make up for our inability to see properly. But Lord Brahma, he does not need to sit in a control room with all television screens. He can just look and simultaneously and see everywhere all four directions and everyone of he so desires. This is the power. And yet here, this great personality who is just insurmountably greater in every respect than any of us, what to speak of his greatness in spirituality. He was just after his birth on the lotus flower. He was not born as a little baby passing stool and urine and crying like we were, right. He didn’t need have a mother to feed breast milk or anything like. He was born a full grown man with all consciousness and everything and he immediately began to perform tapasaya. He heard two words tapas. Ah this means, I have to perform tapas. So he started performing meditation, fasting everything, such a highly spiritual being. And he heard the voice of God, just after he was born. And not only he heard the voice of God, but he was revealed the spiritual world by Krishna directly personally, such a personality – materially, spiritually – he is incomparable. And yet he is explaining here that my Lord my conclusion is this. That I have seen Shiva, in fact Shiva was born of Brahma. You know the story that Lord Brahma created the four Kumaras. And he desired that the four Kumaras become Prajapatis to help him in his mission. Because his mission is essentially was to create all species of life within this universe and to give the Vedic knowledge to everyone, to give everyone the opportunity to come out of the clutches of the material nature that they have chosen to be under the subordination. So he told the four Kumaras, “Now you marry, you become very pious, very religious and set the example of ideal Grihastas and populate the universe. Four Kumaras they were not at all interested in sex life and associating with women what to speak of populating the universe. They just wanted to absorb their minds in Brahman. So they refused the order of their father. And also, Lord Brahma was their Guru as well as their father. Srila Prabhupad explains that if you are a liberated soul, completely free from the tinges of material desire this is the one instruction, if you are on that platform – this is the one instruction you can disobey your Guru if he tells you to marry. And if you are so liberated, you can say, “No! I will not” And you will not be committing an offence. But if you are not on that level, and as any other instruction, it is an offence to disobey your Gurudev. So the four Kumaras, they just told Brahma, with all due respects, “we are not interested in this particular Seva (laughter). So Brahma became angry, transcendentally angry. And how do we know, it was transcendental. Because through his anger, you know when you become angry, your eyebrows curl to the middle of your forehead and from the middle of his forehead emanated Lord Shiva – Rudra was born. That is correct (unclear at 26.06) (laughter). So imagine what type of a personality this is. But here Lord Brahma, who knows Vishnu, who knows Shiva, who knows everything, he is explaining that the greatest most incomprehensible of all principles within all of existence is your mercy. I cannot understand you mercy. It is just too much. And what is your mercy. You appear just to fulfill the desires of your pure devotees. Although my mind is completely withdrawn from material affairs, I cannot understand your personal form. How then I can possibly understand the happiness that you experience within yourself. Lord Brahma is here showing the preliminary state of consciousness which is required to surrender. Through these prayers, we will find how Lord Brahma is utterly surrendering his life at the lotus feet of Shri Krishna. I was just reading last night Srila Prabhupad was explaining the meaning of the tridanda of a sannyasi. He was saying, there was actually one devotee who was arrested and charged with brainwashing young people of America and he was being brought to court. And he was facing a jail sense as well as they were trying to take away the temple and all the money and everything. This was in New York city. So this devotee came to Mayapur Dham and he was talking to Prabhupad. What should I tell him. And he gave a long explanation of what to tell him. One thing he said was this – You are a sannyasi and you walk in with your danda. And you tell them – what is the meaning of this danda. Danda means stick. Stick means – you use a stick to discipline someone. You use a danda to discipline someone. When you want someone to surrender to you, you take a stick and you say, “Do this” And that person will go, “I Surrender”. So these four dandas that are there in the sannyas staff indicate that under the stick of God’s mercy, we are surrendering our body, our mind, our words and our life, in His loving service. So this is Brahma’s ambition. He wants to surrender his body, his mind, his words, his very life to Shri Krishna. And here he is explaining through wonderful way that in order to first surrender, we must first admit how small we are and how great Krishna is. In all of the features of Krishna, the greatest is His mercy. Patita Pavana. That Krishna’s mercy is so great that however fallen, however lowly, however ignorant we are, his mercy can easily lift us up and bring us to the highest transcendental platform in all of creation. And this is the hope for a devotee. As long as a devotee thinks that he is very good, “I am a very pious man and I am a very learned man and I am a very wonderful Vaisnava devotee of the Lord”. As long as we are thinking like that then we don’t really require much mercy. All we need is a little facility, Right? (laughter). “I don’t need your mercy, Krishna. I just need some facility. Just give me the proper food and proper place to stay and give me enough money and give me enough ability to learn and all of these things. We think that, “All I need is some facility because I am very good”. But a real devotee of the Lord understands that we have such a tiny insignificant capacity, whoever we are, even up to Lord Brahma that facility is not what I need. Its mercy that I need. That’s the only thing that I can save. Please grant me your causeless mercy. And we read in the prayers of all the great and true Vaisnava devotees of the Lord throughout history that they are always appealing to Lord’s mercy. They never ask for facilities. Because, even if we have all facilities, we are utterly useless unless we are uplifted by His causeless mercy. So this is Bhakti. To recognize and accept the incomprehensible, inconceivable glory of Krishna’s mercy. And to put our life in utter dependence on that mercy and that mercy alone which of course is coming through His name and coming through his devotees and coming through his words in this world. Srila BhaktiVinod Thakur prays to his Gurudev that “Your mercy is all that I am made of. I have nothing else. I know nothing else. I need nothing else. Your mercy is everything. Viswanath Chakravari Thakur, it is being explained in the purport, the greatness of Krishna how we really have to be conscious of this that Krishna - He can see through any of His own limbs as we read in Brahma Samhita. He can see through His feet, He could taste through His eyes, He could hear through His eyes, He could hear through His mouth – all of his limbs are interchangeable. They are spiritual, they are inconceivable to us. But on that, He could perceive through any of the senses, of any of His expansions or parts at any time. In other words, Krishna is not only experiencing through the Vishnu forms but even through a jiva. Krishna can see through your eyes. He could also see through your ears. He could hear through your hands. And you don’t think, He is doing that? He is. As the super soul, the Paramatma, the original form of Krishna is perceiving everything through every limb, every sense of every living entity. This is the greatness of Krishna. That is why in Gita, Krishna says, “Everywhere are My arms and legs, My eyes and faces, everywhere. Whoever is seeing anything, whoever is hearing anything, Krishna is experiencing through that. And if we want to break it down to even finer understanding, what to speak of seeing through our eyes or hearing through our mouth, Krishna can experience all the sensual perceptions directly or indirectly as He chooses through any cell or any atomic molecule within our body. Krishna is conscious of what is happening. And Krishna is witnessing through our hearts. He is localized there. But He is witnessing everything through our senses, through every particle of the creation. That is why Prabhupad used to say that the Supersoul is in and between every atom. And He is watching you. And He is hearing you. So do not think that you can get away with anything (laughter). You can escape the laws of the state if you are intelligent criminal but you cannot escape the laws of God. And a devotee is conscious of this fact and this is why a devotee is respectful to all living beings because he knows that Krishna is actually experiencing our offerings everywhere and in everything. In the beginning stages, it is essential that we learn to worship the deities because we can actually learn to be very conscious that Krishna is standing before me and how to be very respectful to Him and how to properly make our offerings through everything we do for His pleasure. But as we become purified in our perception we gradually can perceive the personal consciousness of Krishna everywhere and within everything, within every molecule, within every atom whereas scientists would say within every electron and neutron and whatever particles are smaller than that, that they cannot even understand Krishna is there watching us, hearing us. So this is how, great devotees, they are so respectful of everything because they see Krishna everywhere in this world. It is not that everything becomes God. No, Radha Gopinath or God. Try to understand it in this way. They are there in their localized forms on the altar and that altar as you can see is Goloka Vrindavan. Those Peacocks, those birds, those monkeys, those cows is Goloka Vrindavan. River Jamuna, swans, monkeys – so they are there playing in their divine abode. But in this temple room, there are these speakers, there are these walls, there are these pictures, there are the lamps, there are the devotees, there are the guests – we should understand that Krishna, that Lord of Braj Bhoomi that is standing is witnessing through everything. This is the difference - It is not that everything becomes God. It is that Krishna witnesses His senses expand themselves to perceive through everything that exists. This is the Vaishnav Siddhanta. And therefore we find in the life of Srila Prabhupad, he taught us how to respect everything. One time, Srila Prabhupad was taking a morning walk. And he was walking through suburban neighborhood in new Los Angeles, California. And they were walking and someone left a water faucet in their garden and which was water and Prabhupad walked all the way through the lawn to turn it off (laughter). Had nothing to do with the devotees directly but he said, “We should not allow Krishna’s energy to be wasted”. Because it is His energy. And He is witnessing through it. And therefore this is the consciousness by which a devotee is motivated to use everything in Krishna’s service. On one level, everything is Krishna’s property and Krishna is expecting everything to be used in Krishna’s service. But on another level, Krishna is in everything that exists, He is experiencing everything that exists and if we use it as an offering to Him, He reveals His true glory in everything where He is. If we disrespect any particle of this material creation, we should know that Krishna is witnessing us all through that. Therefore Krishna never wastes anything, never disrespects anyone because he knows Krishna is watching from within and without. And every jivatma, what to speak of devotees, who are Krishna’s most beloved dear representatives on this earth, How we must respect them if we all want to please Krishna. But Prahlad Maharaj was seeing the divinity within Hiranyakasipu. Krishna is even watching us through every atom in the body of the demons (laughter). And if we kill them for Krishna’s service, He is pleased. It’s that what He wants. This is how we are reciprocating. Krishna says, “For one who sees Me everywhere and everything in Me, for him I am never lost nor is he ever lost to Me”. Viswanath Chakravarthi Thakur is giving us a sublime understanding of really what this means. This is the power of God. And Lord Brahma is explaining that ultimately through all of these divine manifestations, there is only one thing taking place – the revelation of your mercy. All the greatness, all the glory, all the power of God, of which we are only speaking of a tiny fragment - it is all simply the exhibition of Krishna’s mercy. Whatever He does, Wherever He does it, He is simply exhibiting His mercy. So who could calculate the mercy of Krishna? And this is our hope that the only refuge is in His mercy – however fallen, however sinful. People say to me often that “I cannot properly chant my rounds. My mind is running here, there, everywhere else to terrible places and I am trying to chant. What happens?” Everyday people are coming to me, asking me, “How to improve my chanting?” Yes, there are many wonderful techniques by which we can put to practice to try to best focus our mind but the real thing is that if we are really sincere, if we are really just sincere and are really just humble praying that, “Lord, I can’t do it. My mind is a rascal. I can’t control this mind. But I sincerely Krishna, I want to be your servant. I want to be your humble devotee”. We are appealing for Krishna’s mercy and we are just explaining the greatness and the power and the infinite omnipotent nature of Krishna’s mercy. You don’t think that that mercy can control your little mind? Of course, it can. So we understand ultimately that this is our only shelter, this is our only hope. But we have infinite hope. Because we know something in principle about the power of Krishna’s mercy. So, therefore from Lord Brahma, down to the most insignificant insect, the devotees are always understanding that whatever position we may be in, Krishna’s mercy is all we have. His divine mercy is our only refuge, our only hope. And His mercy is such that is there to deliver anyone who is simply willing to accept it, to accept it with faith. Lord Nityananda was distributing the supreme mercy of the Lord by giving out the Holy Name and he said that, “There is only one price to receive this mercy – your faith, your sincere faith that this mercy is everything and all. And this is what we mean when we say that the most important principle is this verse of “Trinad api sunicena taror api sahisnuna” because in that consciousness we can have complete faith in a sincere desire to receive the mercy of the Lord, to receive the infinite mercy that is manifesting through Krishna’s name.
QUESTIONS
Devotee: Today you revealed to us about this mercy. In what category that the mercy fall? Is it an energy of Krishna?
HHRNSM: (laughter) It is the reason behind all the energies of Krishna. His mercy is all pervading in every aspect of Himself. Even in His personal form, His eyes are simply distributing His mercy. His ears are simply distributing His mercy. All of His energies are simply distributing His mercy. Shri Radha Rani, who is the pleasure potency of the Lord, is the transcendental (unclear 48.33) medium by which Lord Krishna reveals His highest mercy and engages everyone in His loving service which is the supreme mercy. To give us that entrance into His loving service is His supreme mercy. And that entrance is manifested through Shri Radha Rani. But Balaramji is the original spiritual master. And in that form, He is doing the same thing. He is calling everyone to assist in the divine affairs of Shri Radha and Krishna. So, through all of the expansions, through all of the energies and through His own personal direct pastimes, in everything, He is simply showering His infinite mercy everywhere on everyone. The only question (unclear: 49.44) is to what extent are we willing to receive, accept His mercy with faith and humility.
Devotee: So, my next question is the connection between Krishna consciousness and mercy of Krishna, there seems to be an equation when Prabhupad said become Krishna conscious, society of Krishna consciousness, the society of those who seek the mercy of Krishna, prepared to take the mercy of Krishna, (unclear 50:24) Is it correct?
HHRNSM: Krishna consciousness means in essence to receive Krishna’s mercy (laughter). And that mercy is coming through spiritual master, through the Guru Parampara and they are revealing that we can receive that mercy in full by learning the proper means of chanting the Holy Names.

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
And this is the difference between the ascending process and the descending process of yoga. The Karma kandis, the Janana kandis, they are very much by their own prowess, by their own abilities trying to attain higher levels of consciousness. And you can attain certain higher powers of consciousness but whether they know or do not they are getting it all by the mercy of Krishna. They don’t recognize the mercy of Krishna. But they are getting it all by the mercy of Krishna. The air that they breathe, the Vedic formulas by which they practise their jnan, their yoga is all coming by the mercy of Krishna. But what is a bhakta. A bhakta is aspiring to be fully conscious, aware and grateful that Yes, everything is coming by your mercy. And that consciousness can bring about divine love and no other.
Devotee: As you all know there cannot be a creation without a creator, for example when we see a table, we know that there is a carpenter who had made this table. So it is very easy for us to understand
HHRNSM: Here in Bombay, especially because they take so long (laughter). Our carpenter just to build his platform took weeks and weeks. Krishna makes us really conscious at all times that He is the creator. Usually when there are so many mistakes, you become very angry with the creator (laughter). But we should accept this as Krishna’s mercy as He is revealing this truth to us very nicely, Go on.
Devotee: So we see that this material itself is so easy for us to know that something is logical that when there is something over here there is some creator behind it. But why are these impersonalists believing that way that out of nothing, something comes like they believe that Krishna or any other person, they assume this personal form out of something which is impersonal. Like for example, Isaac Newton also, he wanted to prove to his colleague that there is a creator behind. He could not believe it but when he made a small planet of the Sun and the planets revolving and when he said, “No, No this has just come all of a sudden. I just found it.”, He could not believe that. But when you say there is some God who is behind this, there is some creator behind this creation, they don’t believe it, why is it so difficult for them to understand this?
HHRNSM: It is difficult on one level because of our conditioning. Our conditioning is that no one could do any better than what I have seen people do. And because people are very limited, if something is unlimited, there must not be a person behind it. This is our conditioning. And where does this conditioning come from? It is coming from association. When a child is born and he is raised with all of these atheistic, scientific theories, he is conditioned to believe what makes no senses, whatsoever. There is no logic. There is no science. There is no sense. There is nothing behind this impersonalistic view that atheistic view. But they are brainwashed to think in this way. They are brainwashed to think that day is night and night is day. And they will accept it because that all thats what they have been taught. So actually, Prabhupad was saying room conversation, I was telling you about, he was telling them that they are accusing us of brain washing? Tell them that their brain is full of stool. Why don’t you let us wash it? Brainwashing is what you need. It is our service, It is God’s mercy. So people’s brains are so much filled with all the stool of material conceptions and calculations that although it is so obvious, it is so sensible, people wont believe it. They are programmed but ultimately where does it all stem from? We all have our independence. Krishna gives is innate freedom, inherent within the soul and we do not want to surrender to Krishna, we want to be the enjoyer. We want to be the controller. We want to be our own little Gods. And if we accept that Krishna is the supreme controller, that He is the supreme creator, we accept that there is a God, then we must accept that we are subordinate and we must surrender. So, by the power of Maya, the deluding potency, the illusory potency, if someone does not want to surrender to Krishna, if someone does not want to serve Krishna or wants to serve his own ego, then the maya potency deludes that person’s intelligence to such an extent that the most obvious thing to the most elementary child that where there is a creation, there must be a creator, he cannot understand it. Because of their desire to enjoy independent of Krishna, Maya just completely covers the most obvious thing from their vision and their understanding. And that’s the reason they are just totally deluded and bewildered by the power of Maya. And that’s why the great devotees even Lord Brahma, they are explaining this Maya potency is just inconceivable. How people cannot believe in God? There is no logic behind it. It’s a totally insane proposal. How is it possible? This is the power of Maya. They want to enjoy independently. Maya is so powerful that’s she can delude people to such an extent that they cannot even see the most obvious thing 24 hours a day that is before them the beauty of God’s miracles. They can’t see it. They are covered. They are blinded. They are so infatuated and intoxicated by Maya’s power and Maya’s power is so great that there is only one way out – by the mercy of Krishna which is coming through his devotees. There is no other way, no other way, no other way.
Devotee: Maharaj, what are the different factors that lead to pride?

HHRNSM: Forgetfulness of Krishna. You can be proud only if you are forgetful of Krishna. When Brahma forgot who Krishna was, he became proud. As soon as he remembered who Krishna was, he became humble like a blade of grass. Why are we proud? Because we are forgetting Krishna. We may think we are remembering Krishna. Externally we may be saying, “Oh! I am Krishna’s devotee. But somewhere deep within our heart we are really forgetting Krishna. Otherwise, how can we get proud
? How could we say, “I have done this?” We remember Krishna, we know, “I cannot breathe, I cannot even move my little finger without Krishna’s help, without his mercy, right? Krishna is doing everything. We are just instruments. As we were reading yesterday in the Caitanya Caritamrita, we are just dancing dolls in the hands of Krishna. According to how we want to dance, he makes us dance. We are dancing dolls. You can only be proud when you forget Krishna and since time immemorial we have been forgetting Krishna. We have so much ego in this way. So what is the cure? To remember Krishna. That’s the panacea cure for every disease - for lust, for envy, for greed, for pride – simply to remember Krishna. All these things are born of forgetfulness. Therefore by chanting the Holy Names, by hearing in the association of devotees, gradually we learn how to remember Krishna. As we remember Krishna, we become like Lord Brahma, we remember, how great is Krishna, how wonderful is Krishna, how Krishna’s energies are working and then we become like Lord Brahma. We say, “Krishna, Your mercy is everything. I am nothing. Please forgive me for my offences. This is the consciousness of someone who remembers Krishna.
HHRNSM: One more question.

Devotee: Krishna’s mercy is flowing continuously. But as you said until and unless we are in a humble consciousness, we are not able to understand Krishna’s mercy. Now the problem is that it is very difficulty for us to be constantly on a humble conditioning, means on a humble status itself, because our past conditioning is such that sometimes we become a humble attitude, we have it, sometimes, we do not have that humble consciousness altogether. As and when you don’t have that humble consciousness, we don’t realise that it is Krishna’s mercy and that humble attitude and the proudness and everything, it doesn’t come up, means it comes up altogether as and when we forget Krishna. So, how to see to it that the humble attitude is constant?

HHRNSM: You have to become pure. There is no substitute for purity. Only a pure heart can be in that state of constant humility. And therefore, we have to accept with all the humility at our command, the mercy of Krishna. We have to inquire submissively and render service to the great souls. And through this process, we become purified. And as we become purified, we become more and more humble naturally. Humility is the nature of the soul. As the soul is uncovered through the process of purification, that the beauty of the humility of the soul is also revealed within our lives. And our pride is so big and its so uncontrollable, we really have to call out for the mercy of Krishna. Because only His mercy has the power to slay this demon of false pride within our hearts. And His mercy is coming through the words of our Guru, through the instructions and if we follow those instructions, we receive that mercy. And that mercy is all powerful. Thank you very much!