The Lord is very near and dear
November 14th, 1994
New Delhi, India

na hy asyasti priyah kascin
napriyah svah paro pi va
atmatvat sarva-bhutanam
sarva-bhuta-priyo harih [SB 6.17.33]

Translation and purport by Srila Prabhupada, Jai Srila Prabhupada!
Translation: He holds no one as very dear and no one as inimical. He has no one for His own relative, and no one is alien to Him. He is actually the soul of the soul of all living entities. Thus He is the auspicious friend of all living beings and is very near and dear to all of them.
Purport: ‘The Supreme Personality of Godhead, in His second feature, is the Supersoul of all living entities. As one’s self is extremely dear, the Superself of the self is still more dear. No one can be the enemy of the friendly Superself, who is equal to everyone. Relationships of dearness or enmity between the Supreme Lord and the living beings are due to the intervention of the illusory energy. Because the three modes of material nature intervene between the Lord and the living beings, these different relationships appear. Actually, the living entity in his pure condition is always very near and dear to the Lord, and the Lord is dear to him. There is no question of partiality or enmity.’

na hy asyasti priyah kascin
napriyah svah paro pi va
atmatvat sarva-bhutanam
sarva-bhuta-priyo harih

This is the statement of Sri Rudra uvaca, Lord Siva is speaking. Yesterday we saw, because Lord Siva is humble, he said, no I don’t know the Lord. Not only me but others also, na kumara naradau na brahma putra munayah na suresah, no one knows.
na surasura-gana devaya tasmai namah, na viduh surasura-gana,
No one knows. The suras- the demigods don’t know, asuras also, no one knows. So point was made, that these exalted personalities talk in this language out of humility. They say they do not know the Lord, that is also all right; if they say they know the Lord, that is also all right. Sometimes they may say, ‘Where is Krsna? Where is Krsna?’ Six Gosvamis may say as if they have not seen where is Krsna, they may say so. Some other devotees will say, He is always with me. I am always seeing Him. As we saw yesterday, Prabhupada said, I am always seeing. So some contradictory, as Lord also has described in Isopanisad, He is very near and He is very far as well. So these contradictions could be reconciled. Both things are possible and this is how He is Purnam. So devotees also take two different stands, I know and I don’t know the Lord. He is with me and He is not with me.

Lord when He is with them, like in case of Radharani, one time He was sitting next to Radharani, but she started crying thinking that He has gone away. And Madhumangal had come and he came with the stick; Madhumangal the friend of Lord Krsna. He is very humorous friend, very jolly and joking and keeps Lord Krsna in humorous mood. He came with the stick because of the bumble bee and Madhumangal thought, this bumble bee is disturbing the mood of Radha and Krsna. He came with the stick to drive away this little honey bee, Madhu. And He said, ‘Oh, I drove him away. I got rid of Madhu’. As soon as Radharani heard this, what was Her conclusion? She thought ‘This Madhumangal is fool. He got rid of, I had been waiting for ages to meet Krsna—They had just met last night and now They were meeting again this morning, but Radharani thinks, She is meeting Krsna after long-long time.– After long-long time, I had met, but this Madhumangal, what did he do? He drove away my Madhusudan.’ Thinking like this, what She did? Started crying, tears were gliding down her chicks, down Her body and to the ground and into the nearby lake.

When Krsna saw Radharani crying, He was wondering why She is crying? He also couldn’t control seeing Her crying, and He also started crying. And the tears from the eyes of this divine couple, they flow in a big stream and this made a big lake. Between Barasana and Nandagrama, there is lake called Prema sarovar and this lake is made up of tears of the divine couple. So this Radharani, the supreme devotee and She is thinking, Krsna is not with me, even if He is there. Somehow someone got rid of Him and He is not with me. So Krsna is with the devotee and He is not with the devotee. Devotee is scared of loosing Him and when He is away, he is trying to gain Him, again take Him back, get Him back, so these both moods are found in the devotees and they express their mood.

Now as we read this statement of Lord Siva, Rudra uvaca, we can only say that Lord Siva knows the Lord, knows the Supreme Lord. We always talk of knowing God. So with the help of someone like Lord Siva, vaisnavanam yatha sambhu, we could know the Lord. We could take help of other devotees. And Siva is one of those devotees, Mahajana. If anyone knows the Lord, Mahajana must know the Lord.

Mahajano yena gatah sa panthah

First of all follow in the footsteps of Mahajana and svayambhu naradah sambhu these are the Mahajanas. There are more, we are mentioning these three. Naradah Kapilau Manu, Prahlad, Janaka, Bhisma, including Yamaraja, the twelve personalities. So when they speak, then that is all knowledge. Lord is what? na hy asyasti, for the Lord there is no one who is priya or apriya, someone is dear, someone is not dear. Jai Radha Parthasarthi ki jai.

The same case is with Radha Parthasarathi. We are just trying to know Radha Parthasarathi. So for Radha Parthasarathi, no one is priya, apriya, this person is dear and this person is not dear; this is not applicable to the Lord Radha Parthasarathi. Then svaparo api va, someone is sva, His own party, Lord’s party, this party is parah, outsiders, others. This is also not the case with the Lord, na svaparo api va.

ayam nijah paro veti ganana laghuchetasam

ayam nijah-These people are my people and paro veti- one who thinks these people are outsiders, ganana laghu cetasam- as soon as you begin to think like this, you become person of laghu cetasam, whose cetana, consciousness is laghu, he always thinks- ayam nijah, these are my people, these are paro veti, veti means to know, veti tattvatah. So when one thinks like this, he is laghu, laghu cetasam. One who is guru, he doesn’t think like this; laghu and guru. Laghu means small minded and guru means heavy minded. Laghu also means light and small minded and guru means heavy and broad minded. So this heaviness and broad mindedness where does it come from? It has to come from Krsna. This is standard answer, very easy answer. Where anything comes from? You can close your eyes and say Krsna. You don’t even have to think. This is very easy answer. Everything comes from Krsna including this one. Lord is heavier than heaviest, but He is Purnam so He is lighter than lightest also. So the guru, spiritual master, he is very close to God, very close to Krsna. So Krsna’s quality he is exhibiting.

So Krsna is broad minded, sarva bhuta priyo harih, devotees are very dear to the Lord and Hari is sarva bhuta priya, very dear to all the living entities. The reason why all the living entities are very dear to the Lord is atmatvat sarva bhutanam, and the Lord is their soul. We already have a soul. The body has a soul. Body is there because of the soul, but the soul is because of Supersoul. So that Supersoul is the soul of all souls. This is how Prabhupada translated, soul of all souls, due to being the soul of all souls. And in purport Prabhupada is explaining, what is dear to all of us? Ourselves! Of course, lot of time we don’t know what is our self. So we think the body is our self and we try to love and serve the body; that is big mistake. But because we think we are bodies, we love, serve the bodies. But in fact love for the body, we are supposed to serve, love our soul. We love our soul and one who is loving the body, his target is the soul, love the soul itself. So if we love our soul so much then Prabhupada is making the point, what then about the soul of the soul. We would love that soul of the soul more than we love our soul. We love our soul so much that how much love the soul must have for the soul of the soul, who is Supersoul, atmatvat sarva bhutanam.

So the verse is talking of sarva bhuta priyah hari, the Lord is very-very dear, sarva bhuta priyah hari, who is dear to who? Living entity is dear to Hari or Hari is dear to the living entity? Of course both! But in purport, Prabhupada is talking, to the living entity the Lord is very-very dear’.

Question 1: Lord is very dear to the living entity, living entity is very dear to the Lord; they are so intimately connected. The living entity is part and parcel and the Supersoul is described here as the soul of all souls. Then why there are no feeling of being dear to the Lord and why so many people do not exhibit that love for the Lord.
Answer: From Lord’s side He is always loving, all the living entities, whether that devotee is demon, Lord is not seeing that. na me dvesyosti na priyah, Krsna says in Bhagavad Gita. So what comes in between this love of both parties? Why there is no reciprocation. Love is reciprocal. Love means two parties. There can not be just one party loving. You love somebody. There is always object of love, otherwise love has no meaning. So from Lord came all the living entities and don’t ask from when. And this expansion, Lord wanted the plural number around Him. What for? To enjoy, love them, the dealings, reciprocation. But we do not see that. In this world we do not see the people on the road, we do not see them loving. They are not rushing, running, the gate is wide open for darsana, but how many of them are rushing in for darsana? Instead they are rushing running to a cinema house, or Kapil comes in the town, Kapil, the captain of cricket team or the miss universe, they stay in Delhi. People are rushing, running, that shows their love, they are loving someone else. They are not loving the Lord. So the question is why is that? Lord is talking that He has love for everybody. Living entity is also supposed to be loving the Lord. Lord is soul of all the souls. But why there are such things? Where is that reciprocation of love, we don’t see that’s happening. This is the question. Very common question!

And the reply is there in the purport. Prabhupada is explaining. What is the explanation? Standard answer is Maya. In technical term, daivi hy esa gunamayi mama maya, gunamayi maya means trigunamayi maya. Tri-guna- sattva guna, rajo guna and tamo guna; gunamayi maya. Duratyaya, means very difficult, this tri-gunamayi maya makes it very difficult. So who is in between? The living entity and the Lord, they both have such intimate relationship and love for reach other, but that love has now transferred into lust. Living entity is seems to be lusty and not loving. And what is the relationship between love and lust? Perverted reflection, one is reality and other one is reflection. Like a moon and it has a reflection in the water or milk is transformed into yogurt. There is relationship, but that is a different thing. Love is divine and it is there, so as soon living entity is pure, he takes that Maya away, this three modes of material nature out and then immediately there is reciprocation of love, pure love.

So from Lord’s side, He has no problem. Not that He loves somebody and He hates somebody. Like parents, they love their children. Someone has five ten children, sometimes they have. They love all their children. It is choice of some child to disobey the parents, or to go away from the family. They do so many things, try to beat, kill parents sometimes. Like this conditioned soul is trying to blaspheme the Lord, offend the Lord. Family and children are doing same things. We are also children, of whose family? Krsna’s family! He is head of the family. He is father, He is mother, He is Bandhu, mama sarva deva devah, He is all in all and the living entities, as they are in illusion, as children when they are young, they get carried away, they get constipated, not just like drinking, but they misuse their power, and whatever. Youth makes you pramatta, half mad, crazy. Then you don’t behave properly, shistachar, etiquette you forget. And you do so many things against the parents. Same thing is happening here in the world. The parents are nothing against the children, but children take that stand somehow, the misunderstanding, why parents why not me. How long he is going to hold on to the key of the treasury. Why does not he giving the charge to me? Same thing! Why Krsna why not me? There is no God. I don’t care for the parents; I don’t care for the Lord. I don’t care for anybody. I care for myself.

So Lord’s view point is all children He loves and He is waiting and everyone, they are all children of the Lord, not only human beings but other beings are also Lord’s children. Lord was in Jharkhand forest, Caitanya Mahaprabhu was walking through the forest and then what happened? Everyone joined the Sankirtana party, there was Maha-harinam party, joined by lions, tigers, elephants, deer, snakes, birds, peacocks, in other words everybody joined kirtan. Everyone was so joyous. They were all happy. Some were walking, some were crawling on the ground, some were flying in the air just above Mahaprabhu. There is a big crowd. In the painting which we see, the painter just chose one or two lions, three elephants, ten birds, few snakes. But do you think there were so many, if you look at their painting? How many do you see? There are thirty creatures. Do you think, thirty, grand total of residents of forest joined Mahaprabhu? Everybody, all of those who were residing in that forest, they were all influenced. There was no blood shade. Not drinking of blood. They were embracing each other as brothers and sisters do, as loving members of family do that; that is how they did for this period. They have these different bodies. Elephants, tigers, they are enemies. Elephants, tigers, they are not friends. The deer and the lion, are they friends? Do they sit together to take lunch? One party is lunch of another party. But when Caitanya Mahaprabhu was there, they did not think that this is some enemy or something that I should eat this bird, this animal. They were like a pure spirit soul. They are dancing in ecstasy in the presence of the Lord.

Lord, sarva bhuta priya harih, Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu exhibited His love for all the living entities. He proved and please don’t think this is some fiction. This is not mythology. This is a history. Krsnadas Kaviraj is not imagining something happened in the forest. There is no exaggeration, no cheating. He is not that kind of authority, not that kind of writer. Free from all this! So this happened just 500 years ago when Caitanya Mahaprabhu was there. Lord’s love is not limited only to the human beings. But as soon as we become conditioned, we begin acting as a crazy; we love only ourselves, and in that self, we love only our body. And in fact we forget the soul, the interest of the soul and what to speak of the interest of the Supersoul. We forget all this. We begin making groups. Divide the society; divide the family. Broadmindedness is finished with this maya. Maya divides and who unites? Krsna unites. Krsna unites, maya divides. If you are a follower of Maya, mayar chela, disciple of Maya, close follower, then you will be agent to divide. You will divide, country, family, society.. Your job will be how to divide, if you are into maya. So acting on behalf of maya! But if you are Krsna conscious, you will think everybody is Krsna’s family, part of Krsna’s family and you will try to unite. So world needs unity and the party that unites the world, who is that party? Krsna conscious, then you are that person who could unite, they are qualified to unite the world.

So, not that these qualities are found only in the Lord, but these qualities of the Lord are also found in the devotees of the Lord.. Bheda abheda, simultaneously we are one and different from the Lord. Qualitatively we are one with the Lord, all qualities of the Lord are found in living entities also , but the quantity is different. Quantity of that quality is different, but all qualities of the Lord are found in the living entities.

The parents, they want their children united, right? Similarly, the Supreme father, Lord Krsna also likes to see all His children to stay together and we are dividing things. Oh these are Hindus, these are Muslims. Does Lord Krsna love only Hindus and He hates Muslims? If He would do that then He is not the Lord. Does Allah, He loves Muslims, He hates Hindus? No! He doesn’t even hate the lower species, non humans. What to speak of Lord hating Muslims. If we hate muslins, if we hate Sikhas, this hatrated is not pleasing to the Lord. Try to understand! Even in Bible it is given that, one hates the sin and not the sinner.

Yadrccha labha santusto dvandvatito vimatsarah, Lord Krsna says, My devotee is yadrccha labha santusto, whatever comes naturally, he is happy, santusta with that and dvandva ati, he is above dvandava, duality, Hindu, Muslim, eastern, western, man, woman, all these, my people, other people, my disciples, all these. Dvandvatit, free from dvandva; so this is expected or these qualities are found in the devotees, then what to speak of the Lord. Lord is dvandvatit, free form these dualities. Sva, same thing, someone is priya, someone is apriya, same thing. Someone is sva, his own, someone is parah, outsider, this is dvandva. Dvandvatito vimatsarah, no matsar, no envy is found in the devotee of the Lord and no duality is found.

Prabhupada always says that, there is so much only the talk of Lord, but who knows the Lord? Few things they say like God is great, God is love, but they can’t describe more. So here is the way to know the Lord, who Lord is, how are His qualities, His love for the Living entities.

Q 2:
Answer: So advice is asat sang tyagat eyi vaisnava acar, avoid those persons who are asat sanga. Stay away from asat sangies. First of all become Krsna conscious. This advice is for those who are in our possession. We are kanistha adhikaries, and we are madhyama adhikari. This advice is not for uttam adhikari. Uttam adhikari is paramahamsa. So he is transcendental. Sinners cannot influence him, change him. He is now nistha, his sraddha is irrevocable. So he could be anywhere, like Namacarya Haridas Thakur converted prostitute, so it works. But that is not advice for us. So, depending on your level! This advice is not for everyone. Those who are uttam adhikari, they see everybody is serving Krsna. So for our protection, ourselves we are asat, just recently, few months, few years ago, so if we will associate with them then our bad qualities will get revived, will get remembered. So better to stay at a distance and develop good qualities. And once you are fixed up in the good qualities then you could be anywhere.

Q 3: Why Lord Siva says he does not understand Lord Krsna?
Answer: Sometimes Lord Siva, sometimes he does not understand Lord, but we never understand. To make us realize, how difficult it is to know the Lord, Lord Siva exhibits this ignorance. Some of his activities looks like he is bewildered in the presence of Mohini murti, but there are some lessons for us to learn from that. By those activities of Lord Siva, no knowledge or ignorance of Siva or bewilderment of Siva, we should not think of offending Siva. We should not think that he is like us. Looks like Lord Siva has fallen down. Spread the news. Call the press conference. Lord Siva has fallen down. No! We should not offensively think like this. We could explain that Lord Krsna is using Lord Siva and Brahma, Lord is using His dear devotees to teach us. Lord Krsna put Arjuna in illusion, and immediately brought him out of the illusion. So Krsna may put His devotees in so called illusion, to create some history, some example, for whole world to learn from it. So, this happens, Siva, Brahma, Indra, there are so many big-big personalities, they seem to be doing something wrong. But their doing wrong is different from our doing wrong.
Q. —
Answer: You are mother yourself. Are you envious of your daughter? When there is talk of topmost love in this world, then the best example is mother’s love for the children. Abortion, they are killing their children. They are not even allowing them to take birth. Is this their love towards their children? It is killing, killing helpless children in the womb. In general, the point is they don’t know what the best interest of their children is, but they have the sentiments. They are the well wishers of the children. We say wishing well is not enough, we have to do something right. Like, if someone’s family member is sick, you wish that he get cured, but that wishing is not enough, what is necessary is to bring the right doctor who will diagnose and do the right prescription. So parents have the sentiments, they wish well, but these days these parents are not well trained, not guided by superior authority, guided by three modes of material nature. Na te viduh svartha gatim hi visnum, the best interest is to attain Lord Visnu, na te viduh, this is Prahlad Maharaja talking to his friends. No one knows the destination is Visnu. So what I said is not absolutely correct example, but could be understood that, at least they could wish their children to be happy. They don’t know how to make them happy. Like we say, happy new year! On the 1st January, few months from now, phones will be ringing, billions of people they call their family, friends and what do they say? I wish you happy new year, but as soon as the phone conversation is over, something unhappy, something that gives them distress happens. So it is wishing, they wish them to be happy. I wish you to have nice time. ‘Oh thank you for flying American airline. We wish you happy journey to your destination. Please enjoy weekend!’ Whole weekend, there is no sun, all cloudy. For all year people are waiting to go to the beach and during Christmas they go and there is no sun. All cold breeze, and they are waiting for the sun. They can’t enjoy the holidays. Someone may wish, ‘I wish you happy journey, happy weekend’, but at least wishing is there. But they have no control on so many things and they don’t know the real way to become happy. When people are healthy, doctors are not happy. And when they get sick, doctors are in bliss. Not devotee doctors!