“This Krsna consciousness movement will be written down in history for having saved the world.” Srila Prabhupada

During his quest to find the greatest devotee of the supreme personality of Godhead Sri Krsna, Devarsri Narada scanned both the spiritual and material worlds. On his journey he came across various great personalities including his father Lord Brahma.

During their conversation exchange, Lord Brahma cited several examples to his son describing the defective nature of a Jivatma. Srila Brahma, himself being a Jiva, narrated the pastimes of lord Nrsimhadeva to Srila Narada where he granted a boon to the demon Hiranyakashipur which turned out to be detrimental to the whole material creation. Later on after killing Hiranyakashipur, Lord Nrsimhadeva chastised Sri Brahma for his mistake, thus he spoke the following words :

Mairam Vibho suranam te/Pradeyah padma-sambhava/Varah-Krura-nisarganam/Ahinam amrtam yatha

“My dear lord Brahma, O great lord born from the lotus, just as it is dangerous to feed milk to a snake, so it is dangerous to give benedictions to demons, who are by nature ferocious and jealous. I warn you not to give such benedictions to any demon again.” (S.B 7.10.30).

Lord Nrsimhadev was particularly furious to Sri Brahma because his great devotee Sri Prahlad Maharaj was excessively tortured by his demon father Hiranyakashipur. The latter became practically immortal and invincible due to the boon granted to him by Lord Brahma. Later on , although already been chastised by the supreme personality of Godhead himself, Lord Brahma confirmed his imperfection as a Jiva by giving supernatural powers to the evil Ravana. The demon Ravana ,in turn, caused great distress to the devotees and offended Lord Ramachandra by kidnapping mother Sita. Thus the topmost Jiva , although born from the navel of the supreme Lord Narayana, is subject to the miseries and defects of this material world, what to speak of us.

The four defects

The Bhagavad gita mentioned four defects that are visible in conditioned soul: Imperfect Senses, The propensity for cheating, Certainty of committing mistakes, and certainty of being illusioned. These four principle defects are the prime factors responsible for conditioned life within the material world. Conditioning means that there is a domination of the different modes of nature over the senses as confirmed by Srila Prabhupada in his purport “BG 14.5″ :

“The living entity, because he is transcendental, has nothing to do with this material nature. Still, because he has become conditioned by the material world, he is acting under the spell of the three modes of material nature. Because living entities have different kinds of bodies, in terms of the different aspects of nature, they are induced to act according to that nature. This is the cause of the varieties of happiness and distress.”

Samsara - Material existence

Thus wandering sometimes from the heavenly planets, sometimes to the earthly planets and sometimes to the lower planets and lower species, the living entity is unable to find his way out of this material world. Encaged in a temporary body and trapped in this prison house he constantly suffers the kicks of Maya’s weapons. Birth, old age, disease, death and various other kinds of sufferings are inevitable for those enduring karmic reactions.

According to the Bhagavad-Gita unless one offers his fruits of activities to the supreme Lord Sri Krsna,he will endure karmic reactions.Lord Krsna is also known as adi purusam or the supreme enjoyer.By offering the result of one’s activities such as our prescribed duties,the lord immediately relieved one from the burden of material existence; this is also known as devotional service. In his purport of BG 18.73, Srila Prabhupada revealed the constitutional position of a living entity as stated by Lord Caitanya; to be an eternal servant of the supreme lord. But unfortunately deluded by pride and overcome by illusion, he thinks himself to be the master of this material world, thereby wanting to control it. Thinking himself to be the doer, he becomes proud and arrogant, thus challenging the existence of Krsna or God. But it is simply a waste of time since he cannot avoid death.

Krsna Conciousness , the ultimate remedy

So,Srila Prabhupada said our senses are all imperfect and whatever action one performs , the result will be imperfect. So we have to connect ourselves to something perfect, and that is Krsna Conciousness.This movement is especially meant for conditioned people, for those who are fed up with material sufferings and for those who want to revive their constitutional position with the supreme lord Sri Krsna or God as an eternal servant.

“The individual living entities, by their free will and desire nature, suffer from material conditioning. When at last our conditioned desires are channeled towards love of God through devotional service, our understanding of the Absolute becomes pure and complete.” ( SB purport 1.8.20)

Srila Prabhupada also mentioned in his purport BG 7.14 that another meaning for the word guna means rope; so our present condition is that we are tightly tied by the ropes of illusion and unless we take shelter of someone who is unbound we cannot free ourself. Therefore only Krsna or his bona fide representative,the spiritual master, can release the conditioned soul from the clutches of maya or illusion because they are perfect beings. So, Krsna Consciousness movement or devotional service is the proper medium to revive our long lost relationship with Krsna or God.Srila Prabhupada said that this movement is pure because it is connected to a pure source which is perfect and that perfect source is Sri Krsna, the supreme personality of Godhead.This is confirmed in the conclusion of the Brahma-Samhita :

I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, whose effulgence is the source of the non-differentiated Brahman which is mentioned in the Upanisads, and which, being differentiated from the infinity of glories of the mundane universe, appears as the indivisible, infinite, and limitless truth. Millions and millions of universes emanate from that Brahman effulgence, which is infinite, causeless, and unlimited. That Brahman effulgence is simply the light emanating from the brilliant form of the Supreme Lord Govinda. (Brahma-samhita 5.40)

References: Conversation between Lord Brahma and Sri Narada : Brihad Bhagavatamrta - By Srila Sanatan Goswami

Translated by his HG Gopiparanadhana Prabhu