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Swami A. C. Bhaktivedanta was born Abhay Charan
De in Calcutta, India, in 1896. Trained at the finest
Indian universities, he was a successful young busi­ nessman when, in 1922, he met his Spiritual Master,
Sri Srimad

Bhakti

Siddhanta

Saraswati,

Founder

Acharya of the Goudiya Math Institutions. Just be­ fore the Master's departure from this world in 1936,
Swami Bhaktivedanta was charged with the responsi­ bility of spreading the Samkirtan Movement to the
English-speaking world. Shortlythereafter, anEng­ lish fortnightly was established and work was begun on a number of books and translations, the most am­ bitious of which is a proposed sixty volume transla­ tion with commentary ofthe Srimad Bhagwatam, still in progress. Finally, in 1959, he took up the life of a sanyasin, fully engaged in the duties ordered by his Spiritual Master, and in 1965 the seventy-year­ old Swami sailed to the West with the message en­ trusted to him nearlythree decades earlier: "Rejoice

in the Lord always, and again I say REJOICE."

KRI SHNA,

THE

RESERVOIR

OF

PLEASURE

by Swami A. C. Bhaktivedanta

Krishna-this sound is transcendental. Krishna means the highest pleasure. All of us, every living being, seeks pleasure. But we do not know how to seek pleasure perfectly. With a materialistic concept of life, we are frustrated at every step·in satisfying our pleasure because we have
.
no information regarding the real level on, which to have real pleasure. For the last few weeks we have been learning that we are not this body; we are consciousness. Not exactly consciousness, for consciousness is actually the symptom of our real identity: we are pure soul, now merged within this material body. Modern material science lays no stress on this; there­ fare the scientists are sometimes misled in their understanding of spirit soul. But spirit soul is a fact, which anyone can understand by the presence of consciousness. Any child can understand that consciousness is the symp­ tom of the spirit soul.
Now, the whole process we are trying to learn from the Bhagavad Gita
(The Song of God) is how to bring ourselves to this level of consciousn�
And if we act from the level of consciousness, then we may not be pushed again into the level of this bodily conception; and, if we can continue on that level, if we can continue to act in pure consciousness, then, at the end of this body we shall be free from material contamination, our spiritual life will be revived, and the ultimate result will be that, in our next life, after leaving this body, we shall have our full, eternal spiritual life. Spirit, as we have already discussed, is described as eternal.
Even after the destruction of this body, consciousness is not destroyed.
Rather, consciousness is transferred to another type of body and again makes us aware of the material conception of life. That is also described in the Bhagavad Gita. At the time of death, if our consciousness is pure, we can be sure that our next life will not be material-our next life will be spiritual. If our consciousness is not pure at the point of death, then, after leaving this body, we shall have to take another material body. That is the process which is going on. That is Nature's law.
We have now a final body. The body which we see is the gross body.
It is just like a shirt and coat: within the coat there is a shirt and within the shirt there is a body. Similarly, the pure soul is covered by a shirt

i/

4

and coat. The garments are mind, intelligence and false ego.

False ego

means the misconception that I am matter, that I am a product of this ma­ terial world. This misconception makes me localized.

For example , be­

cause I have taken my birth in India, I think myself Indian. Because I have taken my birth in America, I think myself American. But as pure soul, I am neither Indian nor American. I am pure soul. These others are designations. American, or Indian, or German, or Englishman; cat or dog, or bee or bat, man or wife: all these are designations. In spiritual consciousness we become free from all such designations. That freedom is achieved when we are constantly in touch with the Supreme Spirit,
Krishna.
The International Society For Krishna Consciousness is simply intended to keep

us

in constant touch with Krishna. Krishna can be in constant com-·

panionship with us because He is omnipotent. touch with us by His words. His

Therefore, He can be fully in

words anrl He are not different. That is

omnipotence. Omnipotence means that everything relating to Him has the same potency.

For example, here in this material world, if we are thirsty

and we want water, simply repeating "Water, water, water, water, " will not satisfy our thirst, because this word has not the same potency as water itself. We require the water in substance. Then our thirst will be satisfied.
But in the transcendental, Absolute World, there is no such difference­

Krishna's Name, Krishna's Quality, Krishna's Word-everything is Krishna and provides the same satisfaction.
Some people argue that Arjuna was talking with Krishna because Krishna was present before him, whereas in my case, Krishna is not present. So how can I get directions? But that is not a fact. Krishna is present by His words-The Bhagavad Gita. In India, when we speak on the Bhagavad Gita or Srimad Bhagawatam, we regularly perform worship with flowers, or with other paraphernalia, as is required for worshipping. In the Sikh religion also, although they have no form of the Deity, they worship the book Granthasahib. Perhaps some of you are acquainted with this Sikh community. They worship this Grantha. Similarly, the Moslems worship the Koran. Similarly,· in the Christian world, the Bible is worshipped.
It is a fact that the Lord Jesus Christ is present by His words. Krishna is also present by His words.
These personalities, either God or the Son of God, Who come from the
Transcendental World, keep their transcendental identity without being contaminated by the material world.

That is their omnipotence. We are

in the habit of saying that God is omnipotent. Omnipotence means that He is not different from His Name, from His Quality, from His Pastimes, from His Instruction. Therefore, the discussion of Bhagavad Gita is as

5

good as a discussion with Krishna Himself.
Krishna is seated in your heart, and in my heart too. Iswara Sarva­ bhutanam Hrdese Arjuna Tisthat. God is situated in everyone's heart. God is not away from us. He is present. He is so friendly that, in our repeated change of births, He remains within us. He is waiting to see when we shall turn to Him. He is so kind that though we may forget Him, He never forgets us. Although a son may forget his father, a father never forgets his son. Similarly, God, the original Father of everything, everybody, all living entities, will never forsake us. We may have different bodies, but they are our shirt-coats.

That has nothing to do with our real identity.

Our real identity is pure soul, and that pure soul is part and parcel of the
Supreme Lord. There are

84

lacs

(8, 400, 000)

of species of life. Even the

biologist and the anthropologist cannot calculate this accurately, but from authoritative, revealed scripture we get this information. Human beings represent 400

thousand species, and there are

8

million other species.

But Krishna, the Supreme Lord, claims that all of them, whether beast, man, snake, god, semi-god, demi-god-anything whatever-all of them are, in reality, His sons.
The father gives the seed, and the mother receives the seed. The body is then formed, according to the mother's body. And when the body is c ompletely formed, it comes out-either from cats, from dogs, or from man. That is the process of generation. The father gives the seed, and it is emulsified with two kinds of secretion in the womb of the mother, and on the first night the body is formed just like a pea. Then, gradually, it develops. There are nine holes that develop: two ears, two eyes, nostrils, a mouth, a navel, a penis, and an anus.
According to his last karma, or action, one gets this body to enjoy, or to suffer. That is the process of birth and death. And after finishing this life, again one dies, and again one enters into the womb of some mother. Another type of body then comes out. This is the process of reincarnation. We should be very diligent as to how we can discontinue this process of repeated birth and death and change of body. That is the prerogative of the human form of life. We can stop this process of repeated change through birth and death. We can get our actual spiritual form again, and be blissful, full of knowledge and eternal life. That is the purpose of evo­ lution. We should not miss this. The entire process of liberation begins just as we have now begun this chanting and hearing. I wish to point out that this chanting of the Holy Name of God (HARE KRISHNA7 HARE
KRISHNA, KRISHNA KRISHNA7 HARE HARE, HARE RAMA, HARE RAMA,
RAMA RAMA, HARE HARE) and hearing the truths of the Gita is as good

6

as

bodily association with Krishna. That is stated in the Gita. This pro­

cess is called "kirtan." Even if one does not understand the language, still, just by hearing, he acquires some piety. His assets lead him to a pious life, even if he does not understand-it has such power.
There are two topics concerning Krishna. Two kinds of topics, ac­ tually. One topic is this Bhagavad Gita. It is spoken by Krishna. And the other topic concerning Krishna is Srimad Bhagawatam. That is spoken about Krishna. So there are two types·of Krishna katha

(topics) ,

and both

of them axe equally potent because they are connected with Krishna.
Because the Bhagavad Gita is spoken on the Battlefield of Kurukshetra some people have asked what we have to do with the battlefield. We have nothing to do with any battlefield. We are after knowledge of the spiritual sphere. Then, why should we bother about this battlefield? Because Krishna is on the battlefield, and therefore the whole battlefield has become Krishna­ ized. Just as when an electric current is passed into some metal, the whole metal becomes surcharged with electricity; so too, when Krishna is interested in some matter, that matter becomes Krishna-ized. Other­ wise, there would be no need of discussing the Battlefield of Kurukshetra.
That is His omnipotence.
This omnipotence is also described in Srimad Bhagawatam. There are many Krishna kathas. The Vedic literature is full of them. Veda� mean that they are Krishna kathas. Scripture, including the Vedas, may appear to be different, but they are all meant for Krishna katha. If we simply hear these topics on Krishna, then what will be the result? It is pure transcendental vibration, and the result will be spiritual conscious­ ness. We have accumulated many inauspicious things within our hearts due

to our material contamination during the course of many, many births.
Many, many births-not only this birth, but past births as well. So, when we search into our hearts with the Krishna katha, then the contamination we have accumulated will be washed off. Our hearts will be cleansed of all rubbish. And, as soon as all the rubbish is cleared off, then we are situated in pure consciousness.
It is very difficult to eradicate all the false designations from one­ self. For example, I amindian. It is notvery easyto immediatelythink that

I am not Indian, but pure soul. Similarly, it is not a very easy task for any­ one to end his identification with these bodily designations. But still, if we continue hearing the Krishna katha, it will be very easy. Make an experi­ ment. Make an experiment to see how easily you'll be able to free yourself from all these designations. Of course, it is not possible to clear out the rubbish from the mind all of a sudden, but we are immediately aware that

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7 the influence of the material nature has become slackened.
The material nature is working in three modes-goodness, passion, and ignorance. Ignorance is hopeless life. Passion is materialistic. One who is influenced by the modes of passion wants this false enjoyment of material existence.

Because he does not know the truth, he wants to

squeeze out the energy of the body just to enjoy this matter. That is called the mode of passion. As for those in the mode of ignorance, they have neither passion nor goodness. They are in the deepest darkness of life.
Situated in the mode of goodness, we can understand, at least theoretically, what I am, what this world is, what God is, and what our interrelationship is. This is the mode of goodness.
By hearing Krishna katha, we will be freed from the stages of ignorance and passion. We will be situated in tht: mode of goodness. At least we'll have the real knowledge-knowledge of what we are. Ignorance is like the animal existence. The animal's life is full of suffering, but the animal does not know that he is suffering. Take the case of a hog. Of course, here in New York City no hog is seen.

But in villages in India one sees the hog.

Oh, how miserable his life is, living in a filthy place, eating stools, and always unclean. Yet the hog does not know tnat he is in a nasty condition.
He is very jolly. The hog is very happy by eating stools, and having con­ stant sexual intercourse with the she-hog, and just getting fat. The hog gets very fat, because of the spirit of enjoyment which is there-although, for him, it is sensual enjoyment.
We should not be like the hog, falsely thinking that we are very happy.
Working hard all day and night, then having some sex life-we think that in this way we are very happy. But this is not happiness. This has been described in the Bhagawatam as a hog's happiness. Man's happiness is when he is situated in the mode of goodness. Then he can understand what true happiness is.
In our daily routine, if we hear this Krishna katha, the result will be

y

that all the dirt

things in the heart, accumulated life after life, will be

cleared out. As a matter of fact, we will see that we are no longer in ig­ norance or in passion, but are situated in the mode of goodness. What is that position?
We will find ourselves joyful in every circumstance of life. We will never feel morose. In the Bhagavad Gita we find that this is our Brahma­ bhuta (highest stage of goodness) situa�on. The Vedas teach a:rellot this matter. We are Brahman. Aham brahmasmi.

us

that we

Lord Sankar­

acharya preached this gospel to the world. We are not this matter; we are Brahman-spirit. When spiritual realization is actually accomplished,

8

then our symptoms will change. What are those symptoms? When one is situated in his own spiritual consciousness, then he will have no han­ kering and no lamentation. Lamentation is for loss, and hankering is for gain. Two diseases characterize this material world: What we do not possess, we hanker after. "If I get these things I'll be happy. I have no money, but if I get a million dollars, then I'll be happy." And when we have a million dollars, somehow it will be lost. So we'll cry, "Oh, I have lost it!" When we hanker for earning, that is a kind of distress.
And when we suffer loss, that is also distress.

But if we are situated

in Brahmabhuta, we will neither be distressed nor will we hanker. We will view equally everyone and everything. Even if we are situated in the midst of fiery turbulence,

we will not be disturbed. That is the mode

of goodness.
Bhagawatam means the science of God. If the science of God is per­ servered in, we will be situated in the Brahmabhuta status. From that
Brahmabhuta status, we have to work, for work is recommended here.
So long as we have this material body, we have to work. We cannot stop working; it is not possible. But we have to adopt the tactics of yoga, and in this way, even by doing some ordinary work, which, by destiny or circumstances we are put into, there is no harm. Suppose that, in one's own occupation, one must speak a lie or his business can't go on. Lying is not a very good thing, so one concludes that the business is not based on very moral principles and one should therefore give it up. In the
Bhagavad Gita , however, we find instruction not to give it up. Even if we are put in such circumstances that our livelihood cannot go on without some unfair practice, we should not give it up. But we should try to make it purified. How is it purified? We should not take the fruitive result of our work. That is meant for God.
Sukrita means pious activities. And Duskrita means impious activities.
On the material level we can be pious or impious. Either we are performing some pious activities, or we are performing some impious activitiesor we have a mixture, pious and impious. Lord Krishna advises that we should act with knowledge of, or devotion to the Supreme. What does that knowledge mean? It means that I am the part and parcel of the Supreme
Consciousness, or such that I am not this body. If I identify myself as an
American, as an Indian, or this or that, then I am on the material plane.
We should identify ourselves as neither Americans nor Indians but as pure consciousness. I am a subordinate consciousness of the Supreme
Consciousness; in other ·words, I am the servant of God. God is the
Supreme Consciousness, and I am His servant. So, for our present under-

----- -----·

9 standing, subordinate means servant.
We don't ordinarily carry out the work of a servant in relationship to God. Nobody wants to be a servant, but everyone wants to be the mas­ ter' because to become a servant is not a very palatable thing. But to be­ come the servant of God is not exactly like this. Sometimes the servant of God becomes the master of God. The real position of the living entity is to be the servant of God, but in the Bhagavad Gita we can see that the
Master, Krishna, became the servant of Arjuna. Arjuna is sitting in the chariot, and Krishna is his driver. Arjuna is not the owner of the chariot, but in the spiritual relationship we should not cling to the concept of the material relationship. Although the whole relationship, just as we have experience of it in this world, is there in the spiritual world, that re­ lationship is not contaminated by matter. Therefore .it is pure and tran­ scendental. It is of a different nature. As we become advanced in the spiritual conception of life, we can understand what the actual position in the spiritual, transcendental world is.
Here the Lord instructs us in Buddhi Yogata. Buddhi yoga means that we have full consciousness that we are not this body; and if I act with this understanding, then I am not body-I am consciousness. That is a fact.
Now, if we act on the level of consciousness, then we can overcome the fruitive result of good work or bad work. It is a transcendental stage.
It means that we are acting on another's account-on the Supreme's account. We are not liable to loss or gain. When there is gain, we should not be puffed up. We should think, "this gain is for the Lord." And when there is loss, we should know that this is not our responsibility. It is
God's work-His. Then we will be happy. This we have to practice: every­ thing on account of the Supreme. This transcendental nature we have to develop. This is the trick of doing work under these present circumstances.
As soon as we work on the level of bodily consciousness, we become bound by the reaction of our work. But when we work through spiritual conscious­ ness, we are not bound either by pious activities or by vicious activities.
That is the technique.
Manasvinam-this word is very significant. Manasvinam means thought­ ful. Unless one is thoughtful, he cannot understand that he is not this body.
But if one is a little thoughtful he can understand, "Oh, I am not this body.
I am consciousness." Sometimes, in our leisure time, we can see, "Oh, this is my finger, and this is my hand. This is my ear, and this is my nose.
Everything is mine, but what I, what I?" I am feeling this is mine, and that
I am. Simply a little thought is required. Everything is mine-my eyes, my finger, my hand. My, my, my, and what is the I? The I is that conscious­ ness, in which I am thinking, "this is mine."

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