View source for If you have got your family and you are thinking you are the master of your wife, children, of your servants, of your business, that is false. You are the servant of your wife, you are the servant of your children, you are the servant of your servants

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{{terms|"if you have got your family, if you are thinking that you are the master of your wife, of your children, of your servants, of your business, that is false. You are the servant of your wife, you are the servant of your children, you are the servant of your servants"}}
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<div id="Lectures" class="section" sec_index="4" parent="compilation" text="Lectures"><h2>Lectures</h2>
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<div id="Bhagavad-gita_As_It_Is_Lectures" class="sub_section" sec_index="0" parent="Lectures" text="Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures"><h3>Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures</h3>
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<div id="LectureonBG614NewYorkSeptember21966_0" class="quote" parent="Bhagavad-gita_As_It_Is_Lectures" book="Lec" index="209" link="Lecture on BG 6.1-4 -- New York, September 2, 1966" link_text="Lecture on BG 6.1-4 -- New York, September 2, 1966">
<div class="heading">Everyone in this material world, he's a servant. Nobody is master. One thinks that "I am the master," but he is actually servant. Suppose if you have got your family, if you are thinking that you are the master of your wife, of your children, of your servants, of your business, that is false. You are the servant of your wife, you are the servant of your children, you are the servant of your servants. That is your real position.
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<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Lecture on BG 6.1-4 -- New York, September 2, 1966|Lecture on BG 6.1-4 -- New York, September 2, 1966]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="text"><p style="display: inline;">There are four stages of life according to Vedic culture. We have many times explained to you that brahmacārī, gṛhastha, vānaprastha, and sannyāsī. Brahmacārī means student life, to be trained up in spiritual understanding, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, fully trained up. He is called brahmacārī. Then, after full training, he accepts wife, he gets himself married and lives with family and children. That is called gṛhastha. Then, after fifty years, he leaves the children alone and gets out of home accompanied by his wife and travels in the holy places. That is called vānaprastha, retired life. And at last he gives up his wife to the care of his children, grown-up children, and he remains alone. And that is called sannyāsa, or renounced order of life. So these four orders of life there are.</p>
<p>Now, Kṛṣṇa says that simply renouncement is not all. Simply renouncement is not all. There must be some duty. Kāryam. Kāryam  means "It is my duty." Now, what is that duty? He has renounced the family life. He has no more botheration how to maintain his wife and children. Then what is his duty? That duty is very responsible duty—to work for Kṛṣṇa. Kāryam. Kāryam means it is the real duty. There are two kinds of duties in our life. One duty is to serve the illusion, and the other, another duty is to serve the reality. When you serve the reality, that is called real sannyāsa. And when we serve the illusion, that is called māyā.  Now, either to serve the reality or to serve the illusion, I am in such a position that I have to serve. My position is not to become the master but to become the servant. That is my constitution.</p>
<p>Everyone in this material world, he's a servant. Nobody is master. One thinks that "I am the master," but he is actually servant. Suppose if you have got your family, if you are thinking that you are the master of your wife, of your children, of your servants, of your business, that is false. You are the servant of your wife, you are the servant of your children, you are the servant of your servants. That is your real position. Any case you take. The president, he is considered to be the master of your country, but actually he is the servant of your country. So if you go on analyzing that our position is always servant... So either we shall become the servant of illusion or we shall have to become the servant of God. But if we remain the servant of illusion, then our life is wasted. Everyone is servant of illusion. He's servant of nobody but servant of illusion. He is expecting some profit. For serving, he is expecting some profit, but that profit is transient and illusion. Therefore he is servant of illusion. And when a person becomes to his real senses, transcendental senses or jñānam, when he becomes actually the person in knowledge, then he becomes the servant of the reality. Because I am servant always, this way or that way.</p>
<p>So knowledge means: "Then why shall I serve the unreal illusion? Let me serve the reality. If my business is to serve and nothing to be...never to be master, always to serve, then why I shall serve the illusion? Let me serve the reality." That sense is called knowledge. So anāśritaḥ karma-phalam. Sannyāsa, renounced order of life, means one who is in perfect knowledge, he can take sannyāsa. Otherwise, if he takes all of a sudden the renounced order of life, he will create misery for himself and misery for others. In full knowledge, that sannyāsa. So here, how that full knowledge is exhibited after sannyāsa, that is explained here by the Supreme Personality of Godhead. What is that? Kāryam. "It is my duty to become Kṛṣṇa conscious and to serve the cause of Kṛṣṇa. Oh, that is my duty. That is my real duty." When we come to this knowledge, then we become mahātmā, or the great soul. Vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti sa mahātmā sudurlabhaḥ. You'll find in the Bhagavad-gītā. Bahūnāṁ janmanām ante jñānavān māṁ prapadyate ([[Vanisource:BG 7.19|BG 7.19]]). "After many, many births, when a person, when a soul, is perfectly elevated to the platform of real knowledge, transcendental knowledge," then what does he do? "He surrenders unto Me," Kṛṣṇa says. "He surrenders unto Me." Vās... Why? Vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti ([[Vanisource:BG 7.19|BG 7.19]]), "You are everything, Vāsudeva." Vāsudeva means Kṛṣṇa. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. But Kṛṣṇa says, "Such...," sa mahātmā sudurlabhaḥ, "such great soul is very scarce, rarely found." But any intelligent person, if he understands this philosophy, that "My ultimate goal of life is to surrender unto Kṛṣṇa, why not surrender immediately? Why shall I wait?" Bahūnāṁ janmanām ante. "Why shall I wait for so many births?"</p>
<p>So that stage is called real sannyāsa. Kāryam. Kāryam means "It is my duty." I am not forced, but voluntarily, out of love, transcendental love. Just like mother serves this child out of love. There is no question of salary or remuneration. The mother loves this child. Similarly, you can love the Supreme Lord in many ways. You can love the Supreme Lord as master, you can love the Supreme Lord as friend, you can love the Supreme Lord as child, you can love the Supreme Lord as your husband. Any way. There are five different rasas or humors, in which we are eternally related with the Supreme Lord. And when we are actually in the liberated stage of all knowledge, we can understand that "Our relationship with the Lord is in this way." That is called svarūpa-siddhi. That is real self-realization. That is real self-realization. Everyone has an eternal relationship with the Lord, either in the conception of master and servant, or in the conception of friend and friend, or in the conception of parents and the child, or in the conception of husband and wife, or in the conception of paramour and lover, and the beloved. So these relationships are there eternally.</p>
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