I say why there should be Hindu religion and Muslim religion or Christian religion? There cannot be. Just like gold is gold. And nobody can say, "This is Indian gold, this is American gold, this is Christian gold, and this is Muhammadan gold." Gold is gold.

Godless Religiosity

A Christian orphanage was burned in retaliation for the killing of Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati

God is equal to everyone

manye tvam kalam ishanam
anadi-nidhanam vibhum
samam charantam sarvatra
bhutanam yan mithah kalih

"My Lord, I consider Your Lordship to be eternal time, the supreme controller, without beginning and end, the all-pervasive one. In distributing Your mercy, You are equal to everyone. The dissensions between living beings are due to social intercourse." [SB 1.8.28]

Kuntidevi is presenting her conception of Krishna, or God consciousness. Perfectly she's presenting that Krishna, or the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is present everywhere. And He is equal, equally merciful. In everything He is equal to everyone. Just like the sun. The sun is equally distributing the sunshine. Now, in some country, we find there is cloud; sun is covered. There is no sunshine. The sun is shining, but due to our misfortune or something else, the sun is covered, and we cannot see. It is not that the sunshine is stopped. Sunshine is there. Similarly, Krishna's mercy is equally there. Samo 'ham sarva-bhuteshu [Bhagavad-gita 9.29: "I envy no one, nor am I partial to anyone. I am equal to all. But whoever renders service unto Me in devotion is a friend, is in Me, and I am also a friend to him."]. Krishna says, "I am equal to everyone." Otherwise, how He can be God? God is not partial, that He is merciful upon me and not merciful upon you. God cannot be like that. Just like a state government. Government is equal to everyone, all citizens.

But why somebody is going to the university to take his M.A. degree, and why one is going to the prison house to be imprisoned and suffering for so many years and...? It is not the government's partiality, that somebody will go to the prison house and somebody will go to the university and occupy responsible position. No. It is our fault that we do not take opportunity or the facilities offered by the government or Krishna. It is our fault. Why there are so many discrepancies and nonequality? Somebody is very rich; somebody is very poor. Somebody is eating stool, and somebody eating nice prasadam, halava. It is all due to the living entity's karma. Otherwise, God is equal to everyone. Samam charantam sarvatra [SB 1.8.28: "In distributing Your mercy, You are equal to everyone."]. God is not partial. Just like nowadays, these rascals, they say, "Why God is unkind to the poor man?" No. God is not unkind to the poor man. The poor man, he has become poor by his karma.

Karmana daiva-netrena [SB 3.31.1]. Daiva-netrena. Daiva means superior, or godly. Netren means by the eyes, or by the leadership, leadership, or superintendence. Whatever we are doing... Because God is everywhere situated... Krishna is there, everywhere. Ishvarah sarva-bhutanam hrid-deshe arjuna tishthati [Bg. 18.61: "The Supreme Lord is situated in everyone's heart, O Arjuna, and is directing the wanderings of all living entities, who are seated as on a machine, made of the material energy."]. Ishvara, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is situated in everyone's heart. So we cannot conceal anything from God. In another place it is said, "Just like the sun is the eye of God..." Yac-chakshur esha savita sakala-grahanam. Savita means sun, Surya, is the eye of Govinda. So if you are doing something, any part of the world, the sun is seeing. This is a crude example. Similarly, at night the moon is seeing, and Krishna says: raso 'ham apsu kaunteya prabhasmi shashi-suryayoh [Bg. 7.8: "O son of Kunti, I am the taste of water, the light of the sun and the moon, the syllable om in the Vedic mantras; I am the sound in ether and ability in man."]. The sunshine is also Krishna. So if you think that "I am doing something for my sense gratification, nobody is seeing: I am stealing some sugarcane from the field, and nobody's seeing," how you can say nobody's seeing? The sun is seeing. How you can conceal? "No, I shall do it at night." Oh, the moon is seeing. So how can you conceal? So parasya shaktir vividhaiva shruyate ["The Supreme Lord has multipotencies, which act so perfectly that all consciousness, strength and activity are being directed solely by His will.Ó — Shvetashvatara Upanishad 6.8, cited in Chaitanya-charitamrita Madhya 13.65, purport]. He is so omnipotent that He can see from anywhere and everywhere what you are doing, what you are willing, what you want to do. You cannot conceal. That is not possible. Therefore it is said, daiva-netrena. You can bluff the material police, but you cannot bluff Krishna. That is not possible. If you are doing anything wrong, then it is being seen by the Supreme Personality. Samam charantam. He's everywhere.

Therefore those who are God conscious, as theists... That is the Indian culture. They think, "I am doing this nonsense. Krishna, God, will see it." Even an ordinary person who has no education, still, he will admit, "God will see." That's a fact. That's a fact. So if everyone is God conscious, that "God is everywhere," then how he can act sinfully? It is not possible. If he is God conscious, if he knows that "God is everywhere, and He will see if I do something sinful by bluffing others..." then he will hesitate. Therefore God consciousness is so important. If Krishna consciousness movement is spread and if it is taken by all people, then so many things will be automatically reformed. There will be no need of police. There will be no need of C.I.D. Because if one is God conscious, he'll not do anything wrong. But because people are not God conscious, they are doing so many wrong things that is has been almost impossible to govern the people. Therefore Krishna consciousness movement is very essential to understand this fact, that samam charantam sarvatra bhutanam yan mithah kalih [SB 1.8.28: "In distributing Your mercy, You are equal to everyone. The dissensions between living beings are due to social intercourse."].

We have created so many religious systems, so many religious system. And the Hindu is fighting with the Muslim, Muslim is fighting with the Hindu, that "My religion is better than your religion." Or any other, other countries also, the Jews fighting with the Christian; Christian, Jews; and the black fighting with the white; white fighting with the black. That is the result of this material existence.

Samsara-davanala-lidha-loka ["People are afflicted by the blazing fire of material existence"]. That is the work of this material nature. Even if you want to live very peacefully, you'll not be allowed to live. Daivi hy esha gunamayi mama maya duratyaya [Bg. 7.14: "This divine energy of Mine, consisting of the three modes of material nature, is difficult to overcome." ]. It is not a place to live very peacefully. But if you think artificially that "We are very happy. We are advanced in material civilization and we have very comfortable life," where is comfort? There cannot be any comfort. Therefore it is the duty of maya to remind you, always putting you in distressed condition. Duhkhalayam ashashvatam [Bg. 8.15: "This temporary world is full of miseries."]. You cannot live peacefully, happily, within the prison house. Because you are condemned to this prison life, you cannot expect very comfortable life there.

So God is equally kind, equally merciful, but we fight. We, I mean to say, disagree in religious principle. That is due to Kali. Kali means due to our fighting spirit. It is not God. God is equal to everyone. We fight because we have got misconception. So we think that this religion is better than that religion, or that religion is better than... Every religion must be good, provided one is God conscious. We say that.

So many people question in the Western countries, "Whether one can attain perfection by following Christian religion?" Why not? You can also attain. But who is following? First of all, let me see who is following Christian religion. The Christian religion says in the beginning, first commandment, "Thou shalt not kill," and you are simply killing. So where is Christian? Christian religion is not bad. No religion is bad. But where is Christian? Where is Hindu? They are all godless rascals. Therefore there is misunderstanding. Otherwise, if everyone is God conscious, if everyone knows that God is present everywhere, "Whatever I do, He will see. He'll see as sunshine. He'll see as moonshine. He'll see as water..." Who can avoid water? Who can avoid sunshine? Who can avoid moonshine? Nobody can. So God says, "These things are I am." Raso 'ham apsu kaunteya prabhasmi shashi-suryayoh [Bg. 7.8]. So how you can avoid God's vigilance? Then how you can commit sinful activities? They do not believe in God, actually. Godlessness. They do not believe in existence of God. They have been taught like that, and they do not know what is God. This is the misfortune of the present civilization. Present godless civilization. They have created simply chaotic situation all over the world.

Therefore the movement, Krishna consciousness movement, is very, very important and essential. Those who are sober, they are understanding it. Just like in Australia, the priestly class, they understood that this movement is trying to direct people to see towards God, back to Godhead. You have advanced in civilization by so-called material advancement, scientific progress, but what you have done? You have created simply chaos. Therefore we say... Our magazine is named Back to Godhead. Now you have finished your business—now see back to Godhead. Just like if you do not see the sun, if you keep the sun backside, then you'll simply see a long shadow of your body, black shadow. That's all. But if you turn towards the sun, you'll not see the black shadow; you'll see all light. Simply you have to turn. So we have named this Back to Godhead very scientifically. You see towards God; then everything is light. Where there is God, there is no nescience. This is not manufactured. There is a verse in the Chaitanya:

krishna-surya-sama; maya haya andhakara
yahan krishna tahan nahi mayara adhikara

Krishna surya-sama, Krishna is just like sun. There is no darkness. Can you expect any darkness in the sun planet? No. There is no possibility. Sun planet is always bright. So similarly, this is the example of the spiritual world, the sun planet, krishna surya-sama. So if you go to the spiritual world, then everything is bright. Na tad bhasayate suryo na shashanko na pavakah [Bg. 15.6]. That is the description of the spiritual world. In the spiritual world, there is no need of sun because everyone is brilliant; every planet is brilliant.

yasya prabha prabhavato jagad-anda-koti-
kotishv ashesha-vasudhadi-vibhuti-bhinnam
tad brahma nishkalam anantam ashesha-bhutam
govindam adi-purusham tam aham bhajami

[Brahma-samhita 5.40 – see footnote 1]

Everything is there. So if we become Krishna conscious, there cannot be any darkness. There cannot be any ignorance. There cannot be any sinful life. Everything bright, everything peaceful. Therefore we must take to Krishna consciousness if we want to save from the clutches of maya. And that is also confirmed in the Bhagavad-gita:

daivi hy esha gunamayi
mama maya duratyaya
mam eva ye prapadyante
mayam etam taranti te

"This divine energy of Mine, consisting of the three modes of material nature, is difficult to overcome. But those who have surrendered unto Me can easily cross beyond it." [Bg. 7.14]

This is the process.

...So misunderstanding of God... There is no misunderstanding of the authorities. Just like in Australia, when I spoke, there was no misunderstanding. There was agreement by the priests and myself. There was complete agreement. They, after hearing my lecture for one hour, they agreed and clapped for ten minutes. So there cannot be any misunderstanding. They questioned, "What is your opinion of Lord Jesus Christ?" and I said, "He preached God consciousness. He's our guru. Anyone who preaches the message of God, he is guru." So they very much appreciated, and actually it is so. Vaishnava who is preaching, it may be in a different way, according to time and place and the party—they have to change something, desha-kala-patra—but we have to see the essence. Wherever there is God consciousness... Just like we sometime consult dictionary, a small dictionary, pocket dictionary, and a big international dictionary. Both of them are dictionaries. But according to time—desha-kala-patra—for small child, that small dictionary is sufficient. Whether higher mathematics or lower mathematics, two plus two is always the same. It is not that in the higher mathematics two plus two equals to five, no. So the principle is the same. It is the distinction of desha-kala-patra [according to time, place and circumstances].

Just like the statements in the Srimad-Bhagavatam are meant for highly developed conscious persons. They are not for ordinary persons. Paramo nirmatsaranam satam vastavam vastu vedyam atra shrimad-bhagavatam, paramo nirmatsaranam [SB 1.1.2: Completely rejecting all religious activities which are materially motivated, this Bhagavata Purana propounds the highest truth, which is understandable by those devotees who are fully pure in heart."]. People are envious—"Oh, he's Christian," "He's Muhammadan," "He is this," "He is that." No. A paramo nirmatsara, paramahamsa [one who is pure in heart], he does not see "He is Muhammadan," "He is Christian," "He is Jew." Panditah sama-darshinah [Bg. 5.18]. He will see everyone equal, the part and parcel of God, Krishna.

Krishna says, mamaivamsho jiva-bhutah: [Bg. 15.7] "All living entities are My part and parcel." Why he shall take the skin? Because the skin is Muhammadan or the skin is Christian or skin is Hindu... Krishna is not the skin-observer. He is observing the within. Within this body the spirit soul is there. This is the education of spiritual education in the beginning—just see inside, introspective, not outward seeing. Those who are seeing outwardly, they are asses.

So one should be advanced by hearing the authorities, that God is equal to him. I say why there should be Hindu religion and Muslim religion or Christian religion? There cannot be. Just like gold is gold. And nobody can say, "This is Indian gold, this is American gold, this is Christian gold, and this is Muhammadan gold." Gold is gold. So actually one who is God conscious, for him, there is no such distinction, because he knows, samam charantam sarvatra bhutanam: [SB 1.8.28] "God is present everywhere." Simply he has forgotten. That forgetfulness is applicable to anyone, either Hindu, Muslim or Christian. It doesn't matter. Our business is to rectify that forgetfulness. Rectify. To remove that forgetfulness. This is Krishna consciousness movement.

1. Brahma-samhita 5.40: "I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, whose effulgence is the source of the nondifferentiated Brahman mentioned in the Upanishads, being differentiated from the infinity of glories of the mundane universe appears as the indivisible, infinite, limitless, truth."