Bhagavad-gétä 4.

1–6
—
January 3, 1969, Los Angeles

690103BG-LOS ANGELES [45:53 Minutes]

Bg-04.01–06_690103BG-LOS ANGELES

Prabhupäda: Where is the book? All right. Page?

Madhudviña: Page 108.
Prabhupäda: Heh? Page?
Madhudviña: One-0-eight. The beginning of Chapter Four.
Prabhupäda: All right. Begin. Read.
Madhudviña: Chapter Four: "Transcendental Knowledge."
One: "The Blessed Lord said: I instructed this imperishable science of yoga to
the sun-god, Vivasvän, and Vivasvän instructed it to Manu, the father of
mankind, and Manu in turn instructed it to Ikñväku." Purport...
Prabhupäda: Transcendental knowledge. There are two kinds of knowledges:
mundane knowledge and transcendental knowledge. Mundane knowledge
means how to maintain this body, ähära-nidrä-bhaya-maithunam [Hitopadeça
25],
[Both animals and men share the activities of eating, sleeping, mating and
defending. But the special property of the humans is that they are able to
engage in spiritual life. Therefore without spiritual life, humans are on the
level of animals.]
To meet the demands of this body. What are the demands of this body? We

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require to eat something. Eating, sleeping. We require rest. After working
hard, after eating sumptuously, we require sleeping. Eating, sleeping, and
during sleeping we sometimes dream, fearing, or without dream, fearing. So we
take protection. While sleeping, we close our doors. So eating, sleeping, fearing
and mating—sense gratification. So to arrange for these necessities of life of
the body, the knowledge that we require, that is called mundane knowledge.
Just like in the modern materialistic civilization, we have very good
arrangement [child making noise] for eating, for sleeping, for defending and
for sense gratification. The modern material civilization is simply based on this
mundane knowledge, but there is no arrangement or university for imparting
transcendental knowledge. There is no section in the university, practically,
that, what is called, brahma-jijïäsä, the science of knowing the spirit soul.
[Now, therefore, one should inquire into Brahman (the Supreme
Personality of Godhead).]
That is called transcendental knowledge.
So we are busy with mundane knowledge, but the most important part of
knowledge is transcendental knowledge: "What I am? Wherefrom I have come?
What is my constitutional position? Am I this body or I am beyond this body?"
These are transcendental knowledge. So Kåñëa is beginning the
transcendental knowledge.
Go on.
Madhudviña: Purport. "Herein we find the history of the Bhagavad-gétä traced
from a remote time when it was delivered to the kings of all planets. The royal
order is especially dedicated to the protection of the inhabitants, and as such,
its members should also understand the science of the Bhagavad-gétä in order
to rule the citizens and to protect them from the onslaught of the material
bondage to lust.
Human life is meant for the cultivation of spiritual knowledge in eternal

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relationship with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and the executive
heads of all states and all planets are obliged to impart this lesson to the
citizens by education, culture and devotion.
In other words, the executive heads of all states are intended to spread the
science of Kåñëa consciousness so that the people may take advantage of this
great science and pursue a successful path, utilizing the opportunity of the
human form of life."
Prabhupäda: Yes. In the Bhagavad-gétä it is stated...
[babies making noises] Oh, you should remove. Yes.
...evaà paramparä-präptam imaà räjarñayo viduù [Bg. 4.2].
[This supreme science was thus received through the chain of disciplic
succession, and the saintly kings understood it in that way. But in course of
time the succession was broken, and therefore the science as it is appears to be
lost.]
This knowledge, this transcendental knowledge, was imparted formerly to the
kings, because the kings were very responsible for the welfare of the citizens.
When the kings were not responsible, then gradually the government by the
people was introduced. Otherwise, formerly, the kings were very responsible,
especially for the advancement of transcendental knowledge of the citizens.
Evaà paramparä-präptam imaà räjarñayaù. Räjarñayaù means "the sages among
the kings." Although they were in royal order, they were very saintly persons.
There are many examples, just like Mahäräja Yudhiñöhira, Mahäräja Parékñit.
They were emperor of the world, but still, so pious, so religious, and so
advanced in transcendent knowledge that there is no comparison. So it
especially meant that this was taught to the kings, to the royal order, who were
very pious and advanced in spiritual knowledge.
Go on.

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Madhudviña: "This supreme science was thus received through the chain of
disciplic succession, and the saintly kings understood it in that way. But in the
course of time the succession was broken, and therefore the science as it is
appears to be lost."
Three: "That very ancient science of the relationship with the Supreme is
today told by Me to you, because you are My devotee as well as My friend;
therefore you can understand the transcendental mystery of this science."
Purport: "There are two classes of men, namely the devotee and the demon.
The Lord selected Arjuna as the recipient of this great science owing to his
being a devotee of the Lord. But for the demons it is not possible to understand
this great, mysterious science.
There are a number of editions of this great book of knowledge, and some of
them are commented upon by the devotees, and some of them are commented
upon by the demons. Commentary by the devotees is real, whereas that of the
demons is useless."
Prabhupäda: Because it is said here that "That very ancient science of the
relationship with the Supreme is today told by Me to you because you are My
devotee." So this transcendental science cannot be understood simply by
academic education. It is not possible. There is a secret.
Just like in the ordinary educational field, nobody is allowed to study law
unless he is a graduate of the degree college. At least in India that is the law.
Nobody can be admitted in the law college unless he is a graduate, because he
will not be able to understand. Similarly, in the Vedas it is also said, "Unless
one has acquired brahminical qualification, he should not study Vedas."
So in every department, if you want to take education in a particular line, you
have to qualify yourself to enter that school or college. Similarly, if you want to
study Bhagavad-gétä, then you have to become a devotee. Simply academic
educational qualification will not help you, because it was spoken to the

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devotee.
Kåñëa says that "That very ancient science of relationship with the Supreme is
today told by Me to you because you are My devotee." So how the nondevotees
can understand? Nondevotee cannot understand. And who is a devotee and
who is a nondevotee? Devotee means one who accepts the supremacy of the
Supreme Lord, and he is convinced his eternal relationship with God.
Just like Lord Jesus Christ. He was threatened with death punishment. He was
crucified. Still, he was convinced his relationship with God. Here is a devotee,
example of devotee. Devotee means he is firmly convinced about his
relationship with God. And what is that relationship? That relationship is on
the basis of love. The devotee loves God, and God loves devotee. This is the
only relationship. That's all. God is after devotee, and devotee after God. This
is relationship.
So one has to establish this relationship. Just like Arjuna is in relationship
with Kåñëa as a friend, similarly, you can be in relationship with God as a
lover. You can be in relationship with God as master and servant. You can be
in relationship with God as father and son. There are so many relationships.
As we have got relationship within this material world, this is only perverted
reflection of that five relationship with God.
But we have forgotten that. This Kåñëa consciousness movement is to revive
that consciousness. It is nothing new. It is just to bring an insane man to the
normal condition of life. To forget God means that is abnormal condition, and
to have relationship with God is normal condition. So Kåñëa consciousness
means to be reestablished in our normal condition of life.
Go on. "Arjuna is..."
Madhudviña: "Arjuna is recognized by the Lord as a devotee. Therefore one
who follows the line of Arjuna in understanding the Gétä will derive benefit
from it. Otherwise, one will simply waste his valuable time in reading

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commentaries. Arjuna accepts Çré Kåñëa as the Supreme Personality of
Godhead, and any commentary of the Gétä following in the footsteps of
Arjuna is real devotional service to the cause of this great science.
"But the demons do not accept Lord Kåñëa as He is. The demons concoct
something out of their imagination about Kåñëa's instructions. Here is a
warning regarding such misleading paths. One should try to follow the
disciplic succession from Arjuna and thus be benefited by this great science of
the Çrémad-Bhagavad-gétä."
Prabhupäda: Yes. If we want to study Bhagavad-gétä, then we follow the
principles. Just like we have explained this in the introduction, that when you
take a bottle of medicine, there is some direction that, "two tablets, twice in a
day, after meals." So you have to follow the instruction. Then you get benefit.
You cannot take any instruction about taking that medicine from a friend or
from an expert educationist. No. You have to take direction only from the
physician. He is the expert in that line.
Similarly, here is the direction, the bottle, of Bhagavad-gétä. Kåñëa says, "It
should be understood by the devotee, or you have to understand Bhagavad-gétä
from a devotee." This is the direction of this medicinal bottle. How you can go
otherwise? Then you will get the benefit. That is explained.
Madhudviña: "Arjuna said: The sun-god Vivasvän is senior by birth to You.
How am I to understand that in the beginning You instructed this science to
him? The Blessed Lord said..."
Prabhupäda: Yes. Now, here Arjuna... Kåñëa said that "Long, long ago I spoke
this science, this transcendental knowledge, to the sun-god." Now, generally, if
I said that "The other day I was speaking this Bhagavad-gétä in the sun planet,"
oh, you will immediately understand that "Swäméjé is an insane man." You see?
"You were speaking to the sun-god?" Yes. That is natural. Now, Kåñëa says that
"I spoke to sun-god." So others will say, "Oh, this Kåñëa is also another insane
person." That is natural.

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So in order to clear this idea, Arjuna is asking, "How it is that You spoke this
science to sun-god? Because I know that You took Your birth just, say, about
seventy or eighty years ago." When Kåñëa was speaking this Bhagavad-gétä, He
was not less than ninety years old. He remained on this earth for 125 years. So
Arjuna was His contemporary friend and cousin-brother. Therefore he is
surprised: "Kåñëa, how You are saying that You spoke this science to sun-god?"
That is a question of millions and millions of years ago, because if we take...,
accept this statement, that means Bhagavad-gétä was spoken not less than forty
millions of years ago. Vivasvän manave präha. Because "The sun-god said to his
son, Manu," and if you simply calculate the age of this present Manu,
Vaivasvata Manu, it comes to four hundred millions of years, or more than
that. So he is surprised. So he is clearing the matter: "How You spoke it?"
Go on.
Madhudviña: "The Blessed Lord said: Many, many births both you and I have
passed. I can remember all of them, but you cannot, O subduer of the enemy."
Prabhupäda: Yes. The difference is that Arjuna, being constant companion of
Kåñëa, he was also present when Kåñëa said to sun-god, but he has forgotten.
But Kåñëa, being the Supreme Personality of Godhead, He has not forgotten.
Just like a..., my child. I say, "My dear child, twenty-five years ago you fell down
and you were hurt in this way." Although the child has forgotten, but the
incident is fact. The father knows. Similarly, Kåñëa, the supreme father, He
knows everything, and Arjuna might have forgotten.
Because one has forgotten, one cannot give details. Just like we had many,
many births before this form of body, but we have forgotten that. That does
not mean that it did not take place. We had to pass through millions and
millions of births. The other day I was explaining, jalajä nava-lakñäëi sthävarä
lakña-viàçati [Padma Puräëa].
[There are 900,000 species living in the water. There are 2,000,000

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nonmoving living entities [sthävara] such as trees and plants. There are
1,100,000 species of insects and reptiles, and 1,000,000 species of birds. As far
as quadrupeds are concerned, there are 3,000,000 varieties, and there are
400,000 human species.]
Simply we had to live in the water to pass through 900,000 species of life. Two
millions' species of life, plant and trees. In this way we have passed through. So
we might have forgotten, but that does not mean it did not take place.
Go on.
Madhudviña: Purport: "In the Brahma-saàhitä we have information of many,
many incarnations of the Lord. It is stated there, 'I worship the Supreme
Personality of Godhead, Govinda, Kåñëa, who is the original person, absolute,
infallible, without beginning, although expanded into unlimited forms, still the
same original, the oldest, and the person always appearing as a fresh youth.
Such eternal, blissful, all-knowing forms of the Lord are usually understood by
the best Vedic scholars, but they are always manifest to pure, unalloyed
devotees.'
"It is also stated in the same scripture, 'I worship the Supreme Personality of
Godhead, Govinda, Kåñëa, who is always situated in various incarnations, such
as Räma, Nåsiàha, and many subincarnations as well, but who is the original
Personality of Godhead known as Kåñëa, and who incarnates personally also.'
"In the Vedas, too, it is said that the Lord, although He is one without a second,
nevertheless manifests Himself in innumerable forms. He is like the vaidurya
stone, which changes colors variously yet still is one, although His multiforms
are understood..."
Prabhupäda: There is a valuable jewel stone: if you turn, you will find many
colorful manifestations, although that stone is one. Similarly, although God is
one, He can manifest Himself in many forms. That is the prerogative of God.
Goloka eva nivasaty akhilätma-bhütaù [Bs. 5.37].

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 [I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, residing in His own realm, Goloka,
with Rädhä, resembling His own spiritual figure, the embodiment of the
ecstatic potency possessed of the sixty-four artistic activities, in the company
of Her confidantes [sakhés], embodiments of the extensions of Her bodily form,
permeated and vitalized by His ever-blissful spiritual rasa.]
He can expand Himself in millions and trillions of forms; still, He is one. The
same example: that vaidurya stone, jewel, although one, but you will find
him..., you will find it in many colors at the same time. So this example is very
nice.
Go on.
Madhudviña: "...although His multiforms are understood by the pure, unalloyed
devotees but not by the simple study of the Vedas. Devotees like Arjuna are
constant companions of the Lord, and whenever the Lord incarnates, the
associate devotee also incarnates in order to serve the Lord in different
capacities. Arjuna is one of these devotees, and in this verse it is understood
that when Lord Kåñëa spoke the Bhagavad-gétä to the sun-god Vivasvän,
Arjuna in a different capacity was also present there some millions of years
before.
But the difference between the Lord and Arjuna is that the Lord remembered
the incident, whereas Arjuna could not remember. That is the difference
between the part-and-parcel living entity and the Supreme Personality of
Godhead."
Prabhupäda: Yes. Here is... Nowadays there are many gods. Especially anyone
comes from India in the name of so many saintly person, and they claim that
they are gods. Everyone says, "I am God." Or somebody says that "Everyone is
God." But here is the difference between God and ordinary living entity. What
is that? God does not forget, and we forget.
If I ask you just exactly at this time what you were doing last evening, you will
have to remember. You have forgotten. And what to speak of one week ago or

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one year ago? That is our nature, forgetfulness.
So here Arjuna and Kåñëa, although they are on the level of friendship, one is
God and another is ordinary living entity. God does not forget; living entity
forgets. That is the distinction. How you can say that you are God? You are so
forgetful that you cannot say what you were doing a few hours before, and you
claiming that you are God? They have made God as very cheap thing.
Everyone is claiming, "I am God." They do not know what is God.
Now, here try to understand what is the difference between God and dog. A
dog forgets. A dog comes to your place to eat something. You give it a slap. He
goes away, again comes. He forgets that slapping. You see? That is the dog's
nature. And God's nature is different.
So if we increase our memory, then we approach godly nature. In this age we
are decreasing our memory. Formerly, when this Bhagavad-gétä was written by
Vyäsadeva, before that, people were so sharp in their memory that there was
no need of publication of books. As soon as one hears from the spiritual master
of any Vedic instruction, they remember for life. Now, gradually, that memory
is decreasing. That means we are not advancing. We are decreasing in our
duration of life. We are decreasing in our memory. We are decreasing in our
prosperity.
There are eight kinds of decreasing process in this age. Out of that, this
memory will be decreased more and more, and the duration of life also will be
decreased. Now, you can take history of the past years. Your forefathers were
living eighty years, ninety years, hundred years. Now, generally, they live sixty
years, seventy years.
And gradually it will decrease so much that—these are all statement of
Çrémad-Bhägavatam—that if a man lives for twenty to thirty years, he will be
considered a grand old man. You see? That time also will come very soon. So
we are not improving actually. We are not improving. We are decreasing in
every respect, and we are proud of advancement of civilization.

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Go on.
Madhudviña: "Arjuna is addressed herein as a mighty hero who could subdue
the enemy. At the same time, he is unable to recall what has happened in his
various past births."
Prabhupäda: Yes. We are addressed as Doctor, Ph.D., D.A.C., but if you ask
him, a Ph.D., D.A.C., "My dear sir, what you are? Wherefrom you have come?
Where you are going next?" oh, he cannot answer. Similarly, Arjuna is
addressed here as the most powerful, but he cannot remember.
Go on.
Madhudviña: "Therefore a living entity, however great he may be in material
estimation, can never equal the Supreme Lord."
Prabhupäda: Yes. They cannot be. Nobody can be equal with God. God's
another name is Asamordhva, Sanskrit name is. Asama means nobody is equal
with God, and ürdhva, nobody is greater than Him. That means everybody is
lower than Him. One may be very great in the estimation of our knowledge,
but nobody can be equal with God.
God is great. That is the real version, "God is great." And nobody can be
greater. Then he is not God. If somebody becomes greater than God, then
what kind of God He is? God is great. Yes.
Go on.
Madhudviña: "Anyone who is a constant companion of the Lord is certainly a
liberated person, but he cannot be equal to the Lord."
Prabhupäda: You may be very much elevated, you may be very much... You may
be liberated completely. Still, you cannot be equal with God. God is always
great.
Go on.

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Madhudviña: "The Lord is described above in the Brahma-saàhitä as infallible,
acyuta, which means He never forgets Himself, even though He is in the
material contact."
Prabhupäda: The Mäyävädé philosopher says that "I am God, but I have
forgotten myself that I am God." So how God can forget? Here it is the
evidence. How God can forget? If you forget, then you are not God,
immediately. There is no other argument. God cannot forget. God remembers
always. Acyuta. Acyuta means infallible.
God cannot be entrapped by mäyä. The Mäyävädé philosopher says that "I am
God. Now I am under illusion of mäyä. I have forgotten myself, that I am God,
and by meditation I shall become God." This is all nonsense. Nobody... God
cannot forget Himself. Then He is not God, immediately. God cannot forget
Himself.
Go on.
Madhudviña: "The Lord and the living entity can never be equal in all respects,
even if the living entity is as liberated as Arjuna. Although Arjuna is a
devotee of the Lord, he sometimes forgets the nature of the Lord. But by the
divine grace a devotee can at once understand the infallible condition of the
Lord, whereas a nondevotee or a demon cannot understand this
transcendental nature. Consequently, these descriptions in the Bhagavad-gétä
cannot be understood by demonic brains."
Prabhupäda: There are six opulences, transcendental qualification of God.
One is that He is full of knowledge. So if God is in full of knowledge, how He
can be in forgetfulness? That is impossible.
Go on.
Madhudviña: "Kåñëa remembered acts which were performed by Him millions
of years before, but Arjuna could not, despite the fact that both Kåñëa and
Arjuna are eternal in nature. We may note herein that a living entity forgets

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everything due to his change of body."
Prabhupäda: Yes. Another thing to be noted here, that why we forget? We
living entities, why we forget? It is a fact that from my past life I have
transmigrated to this body. Now I cannot say in my past life what was my body.
This is my nature, because I change my body.
Just like you can remember some years, say, twenty years, twenty-five years. Or
suppose I am now seventy-three years old; I can remember some accident when
I was only three years old, that, because it is in this life. But I cannot remember
what I was in my past life.
That means if you change your body, then you forget. But Kåñëa remembers.
That means Kåñëa does not change His body. This is another argument. Kåñëa
remembers means He... And it is said, you will find in the Bhagavad-gétä, He
says, tadätmänaà såjämy aham [Bg 4.7]
[Whenever and wherever there is a decline in religious practice, O
descendant of Bharata, and a predominant rise of irreligion—at that time I
descend Myself.]
"I appear. I appear as I am," ätma-mäyayä, "by My own internal energy."
Just like I appear or any living entity appears in this material world, that is not
under my control. As soon as I give up this body, I am fully under the control
of nature. The nature will offer me a particular type of body according to my
work. That is the way.

Prakåteù kriyamäëäni
guëaiù karmäëi sarvaçaù
[Bg. 3.27]

[The bewildered spirit soul, under the influence of the three modes of
material nature, thinks himself to be the doer of activities, which are in
actuality carried out by nature.]

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Just like you have got this body, American body, I have got this Indian body,
and the dog has got dog body. These are all manufactured by the law of nature.
According to my mind, according to my activities, the body is developed. But
Kåñëa's body is not like that. He appears. There is no distinction between His
body and Himself. The same thing.
The nondevotees, they cannot understand. They cannot understand that
there is no difference between Kåñëa and His body. We are different. I am
soul, but I am different from this body. These things will be explained in this
chapter of transcendental knowledge.
Go on.
Madhudviña: "The Lord remembers because He does not change His
sac-cid-änanda body. He is advaita."
Prabhupäda: Sac-cid-änanda body. Sat means eternal. Cit means full of
knowledge. Sat, cit, änanda. Änanda means blissful. That is His body. Our body
is just the opposite. It is not sat, it is not eternal; it is temporary. And it is not
full of knowledge. We are full of ignorance. We do not know what is there
beyond this wall. Therefore it is full of ignorance. We are proud of our eyes. If
the electricity is immediately gone, we cannot see.
So we see, we act, under some conditions offered by the material nature. So we
are not fully aware of everything; neither our body is eternal; neither we are
blissful. This body is the source of so many diseases. The body is subjected to
birth, death. The body is forgetful. The body is suffering old age. So this is not
blissful body. But Kåñëa's body—just opposite. His body is blissful, full of
knowledge and eternal. So how can you compare with Kåñëa? It is not possible.
Go on.
Madhudviña: "He is advaita, which means there is no distinction between His
body and Himself. Everything is spirit, whereas the conditioned soul is
different from His material body. And because the Lord is identical in His

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body and self, His position is always different from the ordinary living entity,
even when He descends to the material platform. The demons cannot adjust
themselves to this transcendental nature of the Lord, as the Lord explains in
the following verse."
Prabhupäda: Therefore, if we try to understand God by our limited knowledge,
it will be a failure. We have to understand God from God. Then that will be
perfect knowledge. So this Bhagavad-gétä is the science of God where God is
speaking about Himself. And it is accepted by all great scholars, philosophers
and, I mean to say, religionists, everyone.
Go on.
Madhudviña: "Although I am unborn and My transcendental body never
deteriorates, and although I am the Lord of all sentient beings, I still appear in
every millennium in My original transcendental form."
Prabhupäda: Yes.
Devotee: Purport: "The Lord has spoken about the peculiarity of this verse.
Although He may appear like an ordinary person, He remembers everything of
His many, many past births, whereas a common man cannot remember what
he has done even a few hours before.
If somebody is asked what he did exactly at the same time one day earlier, it
would be very difficult for him to answer immediately. He would have to
dredge his memory to recall what he was doing. And yet men often dare to
claim to be God, or Kåñëa. One should not be misled by such meaningless
claims.
"Then again, the Lord explains His prakåti, or His form. Prakåti means nature
as well as svarüpa, or one's own form. The Lord says that He appears in His
own body. He does not change His body, as the common living entity does,
from one to another. The conditioned soul may have one kind of body in the
present birth, but he has a different one in the next birth.

15
In the material world the living entity transmigrates in this way. The Lord,
however, does not do so. Whenever He appears, He does so in the same
original body by His internal potency. In other words, Kåñëa appears in this
material world in His original eternal form, with two hands and holding a
flute."
Prabhupäda: Yes. In your Bible also it is said that "Man is made after God," not
that God is made after man. The atheist class, they say that "You have created
a God according to your own feature," but no scripture says like that. God has
eternal two hands, two legs. So man...
God is so kind that man is also made according to His form. That is a special
facility given to man, not that somebody imagines God, "Because man has two
hands, therefore God has two hands." No. That is not a fact. Here it is
explained nicely.
Go on.
Madhudviña: "He appears exactly in His eternal body, uncontaminated by this
material world. Although He appears in the same transcendental body, it still
appears that He has taken His birth like an ordinary living entity, although in
fact He is the Lord of the universe. Despite the fact that Lord Kåñëa has grown
up from childhood to boyhood and from boyhood to youth, astonishingly
enough, He never ages beyond youthhood.
"On the Battlefield of Kurukñetra when He was present, He had many
grandchildren at home, or, in other words, He had sufficiently aged by
material calculation. Still, He looked just like a young man, twenty or
twenty-five years old. We have never seen a picture of Kåñëa in old age,
because He never grows old like us, although He is the oldest person in the
whole creation, past, present and future.
Neither His body nor His intelligence ever deteriorates or changes. Therefore
it is clear herein that in spite of His being in the material world, He is the same

16
unborn, eternal form of bliss and knowledge, changeless in His transcendental
body and intelligence.
"Factually, His appearance and disappearance are like the sun rising, moving
before us and then disappearing from our eyesight. When the sun is out of
sight, we think that the sun is set. And when the sun is before our eyes, we
think that the sun is on the horizon. Actually, the sun is always there, but
owing to our defective, insufficient eyesight we must calculate the appearance
and disappearance of the sun in the sky.
And because His appearance and disappearance are completely different from
that of any ordinary common living entity, it is evident that He is eternal in
blissful knowledge by His internal potency, and He is not contaminated by
material nature.
"The Vedas confirm that the Supreme Personality of Godhead is unborn, and
yet He still appears to be taking His birth in multi-manifestations. The Vedic
supplementary literature also confirms that even though the Lord appears to
be taking His birth, He is still without change of body. In the Bhägavatam He
appears before His mother as Näräyaëa, with four hands and the decorations
of the six kinds of full opulences.
"His appearance in His original eternal form is His causeless mercy, according
to the Viçvakoça dictionary. The Lord is conscious of all His previous
appearances and disappearances, but a common living entity forgets
everything about his past body as soon as he gets another.
He shows that He is the Lord of all living entities by performing wonderful and
superhuman activities while on this earthly planet. The Lord is always the
same Absolute Truth, and is without differentiation between His form and
self, or between His quality and body.
"A question may now be raised as to why the Lord appears and disappears in
this world at all. This is explained in the next verse."

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Prabhupäda: All right. Stop. We shall discuss next. Hare Kåñëa. [devotees offer
obeisances]
Very nice. [chuckles] All right.
Any question regarding this discussion?
Balabhadra: I thought Kåñëa was sixteen only.
Prabhupäda: Yes.
Balabhadra: But in the Bhagavad-gétä it said that He was twenty or twenty-five.
Prabhupäda: Yes. Just like you see the sun, you say, "Twelve o'clock," or "Sun is
older." But sun is the same thing. It is your calculation. Sun at twelve o'clock,
midday, is not older than it was in the morning, but it is our calculation that
"Sun is now, say, six hours older from His appearance. That is our calculation.
So Kåñëa is always sixteen, but we calculate like that.
Devotee: Prabhupäda? Does Lord Jesus Christ appear in the spiritual sky with
the body he manifested on the earth?
Prabhupäda: Yes. Otherwise how there can be resurrection? Ordinary body
cannot be resurrected. He appeared in his spiritual body, certainly. [pause]
Jesus Christ told, if I remember, that "Lord, excuse these persons," who were
crucifying him. Is it not?
He knew that "These rascals, they are killing me, but... They are offending,
certainly. So they do not know that I cannot be killed, but they are thinking
that they are killing." You see? But that was offensive; therefore he begged
Lord to be excused, because God cannot excuse to the offenders of the
devotee. He can excuse one who is offender to God, but if somebody is
offender to the devotee, God never excuses. Therefore he prayed for them.
That is devotee's qualification. He prays for everyone, even of his enemy. And
he could not be killed. That he knew. But those rascals, they thought they were

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killing Jesus Christ. That's all.
[pause] All right. If there is no question, chant Hare Kåñëa. [end]

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