670107 - Lecture CC Madhya 22.05 - New York
So we are going to have our relationship with that Supreme Personality of Godhead. Then how that can be achieved? That is now being explained by Caitanya Mahāprabhu, and that is called—the process of executing the service by which we can attain to that point—is called abhidheya. Abhidheya means execution of duties, execution of duties, or execution of obligation—not duty: obligation. Duty you sometimes may avoid, and you may be excused, but obligation we cannot. Obligation means you have to. Because you are meant for that, if you do not do that, then you will be in difficulty.
Our obligation as living entities . . . we are part and parcel of the Supreme. Just like the hand. At once I feel some itching sensation here, so at once the hand comes, without asking for it. It is so made psychologically and mechanically, and whatever you may say, at once I feel some itching, at once the hand comes—obligation. It is obligation.
Similarly, we are part and parcel of the Supreme. We have got obligation to serve Krishna. If we are not doing that . . . that means if the hand is cut off from this body, there is no obligation. The hand which is cut off from this body, that hand will not come to cure my itching. That means it is fallen. His business is finished.
Similarly, if we do not . . . just like if the hand does not work the obligation which it has—to serve this body—then it is to be understood the paralyzed or diseased, infected. And doctor sometimes advise, "Cut it off. If you want to save your other parts of the body, then cut it off."
Similarly, these conditioned souls, they are now conditioned, or in one way they are cut off from the original, I mean to say, relationship—forgetfulness. So if we want . . . if this hand wants to remain in healthy state, it is the duty of the hand to fulfill the obligation of the hand's duty, and then it remains very healthy condition.
So our duty is to serve God. There is no other duty. That is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's preaching, that "You have no other duty, anything. That is all false, illusion. If you have selected any other duty than to serve Krishna in Krishna consciousness, then you are foolish—you are doing something wrong, which is not for your interest." This is the teaching of Lord Caitanya and the Bhāgavata also.
So if somebody may argue, "Oh, if I completely engage myself in service of Krishna, then what to do? How I shall live in this material world? Who will take care of my maintenance?" That is our foolishness. If you serve an ordinary person here, you get your maintenance; you get your wages, the dollars. You are so foolish that you are going to serve Krishna and He is not going to maintain you? Yoga-kṣemaṁ vahāmy aham (BG 9.22).
Krishna says in the Bhagavad-gītā that, "I personally take charge of his maintenance." Why don't you believe it? Practically you can see it. That means faithlessness. There is no reason. Suppose I am serving some master, so-called master, and he is at once paying me wages—"Take your wages"—twenty-five dollars, ten dollars or whatever it may be, at once paying. And I am going to serve the Supreme, and there is no maintenance for me? Oh, what a foolishness.
This is called forgetful. This is called spell of māyā. Māyā will dictate, "Oh, you are going to serve Krishna? How you'll maintain yourself, you foolish? Don't go there. Don't go to the Krishna consciousness Society. It is cheating." No, it is not cheating, it is actual fact. Yes. It is not cheating. But if you want to gratify your senses, oh, there is no scope. Then go to hell. Then go to hell. But if you want to serve Krishna, there is every arrangement for you. There is every arrangement for you. If you want to cheat Krishna, then Krishna will also cheat you.
Dyūtaṁ chalayatām asmi (BG 10.36). Krishna has said in His vibhūti-yogam that "Amongst all cheating process, I am gambling. I am gambling." There is cheating process. Wherefrom this cheating process comes? There is cheating process in Krishna also, because He is the origin of everything. Whatever there is, even cheating process, thieving process, what is condemned in this world, that is also there in Krishna, but that is without any contamination. That is difference. When He cheats, it becomes worshipable.
Krishna wanted to cheat Dronācārya. That is a fact in the Mahābhārata. He advised Arjuna, "Just go . . ." asked Yudhiṣṭhira that "Just go and tell lie to Dronācārya that 'Your son is dead.' " Don't you think Krishna is trying to cheat? So there is cheating. Everything is there, but that is in full. God is good—therefore His cheating is good, His thieving is good.
Everything is absolute. Unless you cannot understand this Absolute Truth, there is no understanding of Krishna. There is no understanding of Krishna.
| 
