Bhaktijana:
“Did Krishna create us for to serve Him?”
Prabhupada: “Eh?”
Bhaktijana:
“Did Krishna create us to serve Him?”
Prabhupada: “Yes.”
Bhaktijana:
“And to enjoy us?”
Prabhupada:
“Yes. Very nice. So we should prepare ourselves to our healthy condition. That is our healthy condition. As soon as we understand that Krishna created us… Krishna created… There is no creation. Just like if I say that my hand is created, no, it is not created. As long as the body is there, the hand is there. Otherwise, there is no meaning of body. Similarly, we are not created. Krishna is always there; we are also always there. And there are millions and millions of liberated souls who are engaged in Krishna. They never misuse their independence. And we small quantity, we misused our independence. We wanted to enjoy separately. Therefore we are conditioned.”
Bhaktijana:
“But there are, there are many…?”
Prabhupada:
“…liberated souls. They are never conditioned. They never become conditioned. Yes?”
Devotee:
“You mean they never were conditioned at any time or…”
Prabhupada: “Eh?”
Devotee:
“You said there were millions of souls…”
Prabhupada:
“Yes. They were never conditioned. They were never conditioned, never conditioned. They are called nitya-mukta, eternally liberated. We are only simple few, this material world. Just like I have several times told you that the prison house. The population of prison house is nothing in comparison to the whole population. What is there? Suppose in New York there is a prison house. Oh, what may be the number? A few thousand maybe. But here, millions. Similarly, the liberated souls are millions; we are only few thousand, or hundreds. Ekamsena sthito jagat [Bhagavad-gita 10.42]. We are thinking this universe is very great. It is nothing in comparison to the whole creation of the Lord. You are seeing only universe, but there are millions of universes like this. All together, they are ekamsena sthito jagat. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gita. This is only a part of Krishna’s creation. One devotee of Lord Krishna, er, Lord Caitanya, requested, “My dear Lord, You have come to deliver all the fallen souls.
You please take all the conditioned souls of this universe, and if You think they are not competent, they are sinful, You can give me all the sin to me. I shall suffer for them, but You kindly take.” So this is the desire of a pure devotee, that “All may go with Krishna. Let them become liberated. I shall suffer all their…” Now, Caitanya Mahaprabhu replied that “Suppose I keep your request. I take these, all the living entities of this universe. Do you think, is there any loss of this material world? It is just like a one mustard seed in the bag of mustard seeds.” So this universe is just like one mustard seed in one big bag of mustard seeds. Can you count how many mustard seeds are there in a big bag? So the idea was that Caitanya Mahaprabhu replied that “Even this universe is delivered fully, oh, there is a big bag of mustard seeds. It is only one grain.” There are so many conditioned souls, and these conditioned souls are only insignificant in comparison to the liberated souls. Just imagine what is the quantity of liberated souls.”
Bhaktijana:
“How could we make a poor choice if we were part and parcel of Krishna? How could we have chosen the material world?”
Prabhupada:
“Oh, because you have got independence. Don’t you see so many students come? They go away again. Yesterday Kirtanananda went to call Ranchora. He said, “Oh, I have forgotten this!” So you can forget. There is another student. He was also our student, Wally. “Oh, you can go immediately!” Suppose if you…
‘Oh, I don’t care for this Krishna consciousness Society. Who calls you? You can go.’
That independence is there. We can misuse.
Bhaktijana:
“But Krishna will always be there if we want to go back?”
Prabhupada:
“Eh? Krishna is always prepared to accept you. He’s always prepared. But because He has given us independence, we misuse it and we fall under the clutches of maya. That is our misfortune. We create this misfortune, and we can create our good fortune. “Man is the architect of his own fortune.” So if you become Krishna conscious, it is to your good fortune. If you become maya conscious, it is to your bad fortune. You are the creator.”
Bhaktijana:
“When the souls that were never conditioned at all…, do they also have the independence?”
Prabhupada:
“Yes, but they have not misused. They know that “I am meant for Krishna’s service,” and they are happy in Krishna’s service.”
(Continued in NEXT Segment)