(Click to enlarge painting of the gopis mesmerized by Krishna playing His flute)
"Try to understand on this point. It is very important point. We have simply created a situation. We have not created a situation; Kṛṣṇa has given us a situation. Because we wanted to imitate Kṛṣṇa, so Kṛṣṇa has given an opportunity: 'All right. Imitate. You want to be imitation king in the stage. So feel like this. Play like this. Do like this. People will applaud: 'Oh, a very nice king. Very nice.'
So everyone in this material world, they are playing some part. They wanted, 'I want to be prime minister.' 'All right.' 'I want to become very big business magnate.' 'I want to be leader.' 'I want to be a philosopher.' 'I want to be a scientist.' So all this nonsense, they are trying to play—Kṛṣṇa is giving him the opportunity: 'All right.' But it is a nonsense, all nonsense. Simple dreaming. Just like you are dreaming; next moment when the dream is gone, everything is finished: no more tiger, no more jungle, no more... Everything is finished. Similarly, so long this body is continuing, I am thinking, 'I am a responsible leader, I am this, I am that.' But as soon as this body is finished, oh, these are gone.
Sarva-haraś cāham. The death means... Kṛṣṇa says, 'I am death. I take it away, all, everything. Gone.' Now just think of our past life. Suppose I was a king or something like that. From Bhṛgu-saṁhitā it was ascertained, they said—I do not know—that I was a big physician in my last life, very spotless character, no sin, like that. He explained me. So it may be. But actually I have no remembrance that I was a physician. So what do we know? I might have been a very big physician, influential physician, having a good practice, but where is all...? All gone.
So this situation, our contact with matter, is just like dream. Actually we are not fallen. Therefore, because we are not fallen, at any moment we can revive our Kṛṣṇa consciousness. As soon as we understand that 'I have nothing to do with. I am simply Kṛṣṇa's servant, eternal servant. That's all,' immediately he becomes liberated. Exactly like that: as soon as you... Sometimes we do that. When the fearful dreaming becomes too much intolerable, we break the dream. We break the dream; otherwise it becomes intolerable.
Similarly, we can break this material connection at any moment as soon as we come to the point of Kṛṣṇa conscious: 'Oh, Kṛṣṇa is my eternal master. I am His servant.' That's all. This is the way. Actually we are not fallen. There cannot be any fallen. The same example: actually there is no tiger; it is dreaming. Similarly, our fallen condition is also dreaming. We are not fallen. We can simply give up that illusory condition at any moment. At any moment. So if you study all these verses very nicely, you get all this knowledge quickly...
Kṛṣṇa said, mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti te. 'As soon as one surrenders unto Me, he has no more illusion.' Māyām etaṁ taranti. Immediately. So people are conditioned, encaged. So many big, big words. The Māyāvādī, they are undergoing austerities and penances just to become liberated. Yogīs, they are also trying to become one. So many endeavors are going on. But the simple process is, as soon as you surrender, that you are not fallen: 'It was illusion. I was dreaming. I am Kṛṣṇa's,' finished. All gone. 'I am Kṛṣṇa's. I am Kṛṣṇa's eternal servant. These are all nonsense'—he immediately becomes liberated. Just try to understand. Immediately, within a second. Liberation can be attained within a second, provided we abide by the order of Kṛṣṇa. Sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja. This is the position. We are not fallen. We are thinking fallen. So we have to give up this nonsense thinking. Then we are liberated. Is there any difficulty to understand?"
(Srila Prabhupada Lecture, Tokyo, April 20, 1972)
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