The eternal soul's journey toward Krishna Consciousness solves what material civilization cannot: transcending birth, death, disease, and old age.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Lecture — April 2, 1968, San Francisco 680402LE-SAN FRANCISCO [39:23 Minutes] [kīrtana] [prema-dhvani] [devotees offer obeisances] [10:36] [break] Prabhupāda: ...consciousness movement was started five hundred years before, by Lord Caitanya. This is not a new movement. Practically, it is as old as the creation of this world, but as things change in course of time, so it required rejuvenation. So this movement was rejuvenated about five hundred years ago.
Before that, Lord Kṛṣṇa... You might have heard His name. Most of you have read Bhagavad-gītā, the famous philosophical doctrine of Indian Vedānta philosophy. Lord Kṛṣṇa instructed Bhagavad-gītā in the Battlefield of Kurukṣetra five thousand years ago. This Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement means the last instruction of the Bhagavad-gītā. In the Bhagavad-gītā we find everything complete so far God consciousness is required.
The first and foremost qualification to understand the science of God, or to become Kṛṣṇa conscious, is to understand yourself. The first thing is what you are or what I am. In the Battlefield of Kurukṣetra this perplexed question was there before Arjuna. Arjuna was to fight with his brothers and relatives on the other side, to decide who shall be the emperor of the region. So in the Battlefield of Kurukṣetra, when he actually came in front of his relatives, he decided so that "It is no good fighting with my relatives and taking the kingdom.
Better I shall beg. I don't want this kingdom." That is a very nice proposal, nonviolence, not to fight. But on this point the Bhagavad-gītā, or the science of God, developed from the lips of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa said that "Why you are deviating from your duty? You are kṣatriya.
Your business is to fight." Now this term kṣatriya also to be understood. Kṣatriya means one who protects other from being hurt by others. This material world is so made that everyone is prepared to attack another person. And one who protects that person who is attacked, he is called kṣatriya.
And the kṣatriyas were in charge of administration. That means the person who can protect the citizen from being hurt or from suffering, they are called kṣatriyas. So just like it is the duty of the police department or law order department to protect the citizens, and sometimes violence is required, similarly, the kṣatriyas also were meant for that purpose, and they were entrusted with the administration of the government. So when Arjuna decided not to fight, Kṛṣṇa instructed him this Bhagavad-gītā. It is very interesting. He said that "You do not deviate from your duty.
Do not think that you are killing your relative, because you, Me, and all the persons who have assembled in this battlefield, they were existing before, they are existing at the present moment and they will continue to exist. It is simply changing the dress." That means you, I, or all of us present here, we are all individual spirit souls, and we are present here as in different dress. Similarly, we are present here in this world and in any other world with different kinds of bodies. According to Vedic literature there are 8,400,000's of different kinds of bodies. So He gave very nice example.