WHAT IS OUR VALUE WITHOUT KRISHNA?

By His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

ke vayam nāma-rūpābhyām yadubhih saha pāndavāh

bhavato ‘darśanam yarhi hrsikānām iveśituh

[SB 1.8.38]

Kunti prays to Krishna, “As the name and fame of a particular body is finished with the disappearance of the living spirit, similarly, if You (Krishna) do not look upon us, all our fame and activities, along with the Pāndavas and Yadus, will end at once.”

This is the case not only with the Pāndavas but every one of us. When somebody dies, big man, big scientist, big politician, big philosopher, when he’s dead, the big name, “Here is Mr. Nixon, here is Mr, Sir Isaac Newton, or…,” has no value. Nāma-rūpābhyām. Nāma means name and rūpa means form. So long we are living, our name, our fame, our form, our activities, are glorious. And as soon as the life is gone, nobody cares. It is a lump of matter. That’s all. When a big man is living, nobody can go before him or touch him—there are so many guards. But the same man, when he’s dead, if he’s lying on the floor, if somebody