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Bhagavad-gita 4.24 4/MAY/1995 Tasmania Australia
brahmarpanam brahma havir
brahmagnau brahmana hutam
brahmaiva tena gantavyam
brahma-karma-samadhina
"A person who is fully absorbed in Krishna consciousness is sure to attain
the spiritual kingdom because of his full contribution to spiritual
activities, in which the consummation is absolute and that which is offered
is of the same spiritual nature."
Krishna consciousness is so nice that everything involved in it becomes
spiritual.
You may ask, "What is the need for spiritual consciousness?", "Aren't I
happy the way I am?" We have been educated [brainwashed?] to think we are
happy, or at least, "When I get some more money I'll be happy," or "If I
find a nice girl I'll be happy," or "If I get a big important job I'll be
happy." The idea is we work very hard to achieve these goals and become
happy. This is the material world. However, if you carefully analyze what's
happening here you will find nobody is happy. Everybody is thinking, "Some
time in the future I'll be happy." Even if people get what they want, if
they find a nice women, or get a good job, still they are not happy. "I want
something else. I want something more... When I get it then I will be
happy..." This goes on and on, even if we became so wealthy and powerful
that we owned all the wealth of the entire universe we still wouldn't be
happy. We would still want more.
Why is this? How is this possible? Everyone has had the experience, we want
something, we're really convinced, "When I get it, it will be fantastic!"
But we get it and it may be fantastic for a little while, one day, two
days... then we get sick of it. Then we want something else. Why do we get
sick of things? Because these things are material and we are not material.
We are not these bodies. I'm thinking, "I am this body." I think, "I am an
Australian man," and you think you are an American or an Indian or a woman
but this body is not me. If you analyze the body you will find it is made of
earth, water, fire, air and either, the five material elements. We find
these material elements everywhere. Everything in this world is a
combination of the same five material elements but there is a distinction
between conscious beings and dull matter. For example: I am conscious, I can
think, I can make decisions about what I'm going to do in the future. I can
direct my body to perform certain actions. This is different from a chair.
Although if you study a chair you will find it is constructed with the same
five material elements. What is the difference? The difference is I am
conscious.
What is this consciousness? Consciousness cannot be explained as a
combination of chemicals. Scientists would have us believe we come from a
combination of chemicals. They say, "In the beginning there was a big
bang... then the earth formed..." They explain it like this. But they can't
explain the consciousness. No matter how they try there is no way to explain
this consciousness. Consciousness is not a product of the five material
elements, it is something spiritual, it is something living. All the
material elements are dead, even this body, although I see it is working
very nicely now, is actually a lump of dead matter. As soon as I, the spirit
soul, leave this body it's useless and it starts to rot. Nobody in this
world can do anything about it, if the spirit soul is gone from the body it
rots -- no one can stop it. That's the way it works.
We have to understand we are not these bodies. I am the spirit soul, I am
the person inside this body. I am controlling the body. We see practically
on the highway so many motorcars and we know each motor car is being
controlled by a driver. The cars are not moving of their own accord, nor can
they move of their own accord, it is not possible. If you see a car moving
on the road you immediately understand there is a person inside steering it.
It's logical -- cars don't move by themselves, the car is just a machine.
Similarly in Bhagavad-gita Krishna describes our bodies as machines,
yantrarudhani mayaya, "the body is a machine made of the material energy".
It is constructed from matter in the same way a motor car is constructed
from matter. The difference is I, the person, am sitting within the body
thus giving it the symptoms of life and consciousness. When I leave this
body the body is simply a lump of flesh and blood and bones lying on the
ground, it is useless.
If we can understand this point, that I am not this body but I am the spirit
soul, I am the person inside this body, I am controlling this body. This is
the beginning of spiritual life, the beginning of real life. When we change
our objectives in life our activities become different. If I am convinced I
am the body I think, "If I can satisfy the body I'll be happy." So we try
and satisfy the senses, I try to satisfy my genitals by finding a nice girl,
I try to satisfy my tongue by eating very nice food." These things are
giving pleasure to the body only but we are not the body, we are the soul,
the spiritual person within.
If we neglect our spiritual life and just try to satisfy the body we have
missed the point of human life. The purpose of human life is to question,
"Why am I here?", "Who am I?". A thoughtful person will understand he is
suffering. Generally we think we can be happy but this world is not a place
for happiness. This material world is described as dukhalyam asasvatam, "A
place of mister where repeated birth and death go on." We are crazy if we
think we can be happy in this miserable place.
Even if we manage to get a good position we become full of anxiety trying to
protect and maintain it.
Material things are not so important, our real business is to serve Krishna,
God. Of course we have a very bad experience of service. As soon as we hear
"You should serve God," we immediately think that's terrible because our
experience is when we serve someone here they take advantage of us, they
cheat us. But Krishna is not like that. If we serve Krishna He will never
cheat us. He will respond to our service. He says:
ye yatha mam prapadyante
tams tathaive bhajamy aham
mama vartmanuvartante
manusyah partha sarvasah
"All of them -- as they surrender unto Me -- I reward them accordingly.
Everyone follows My path in all respects, O son of Prtha [Arjuna]"
(Bhagavad-gita 4.11)
Krishna will respond to our service... He's a person and He like to see us
serving Him. We will feel some pleasure from serving Him, some relationship
with Him. That relationship is eternal, it is in our heart, we have just
forgotten it -- it just has to be awakened. We are all eternally servants of
Krishna but we have come to this material world to forget that, to try and
become independent gods. We are all trying to become the master, to become
the lord, to become the most important person. This is our disease. Our
disease is, "I want to become Krishna, I want to be the controller." We see
it everywhere, everyone is trying to become a "big man" but really Krishna
is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, He is the big man and we are all
small men who are meant to serve Krishna. This diseased condition can be
cured very easily by one simple method, the chanting of Hare Krishna Hare
Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare / Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama Hare
Hare. This sound vibration causes the soul to wake up. We are sleeping at
the moment, we are sleeping in the lap of maya, and in this sleeping
condition we are completely in ignorance. But if we hear this Hare Krishna
Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare / Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama
Hare Hare we will wake up and be able to see things as they are. Then we
will understand our position as a servant of Krishna.
We have been born into this world many times in different bodies, this is
not the first time. I have this mans body at the moment but prior to this
body I was in another body and when this body is finished my soul will
travel to the womb of my next mother and I will then take birth in another
body.
An intelligent person doesn't live only for the temporary, fleeting
pleasures of the body, he lives in such a way that he doesn't have to take
another body in the material world ever again, instead he goes back to the
original spiritual world, the place where Krishna lives. He goes back home,
back to Godhead and resumes his original spiritual form to serve Krishna
there.
There is another world... The world we are seeing at the moment is the
material world but the Bhagavad-gita describes:
paras tasmat tu bhavo 'nyo
'vyakto 'vyaktat sanatanah
yah sa sarvesu bhutesu
nasyatsu na vinasyati
"Yet there is another nature, which is eternal and is transcendental to this
manifested and unmanifested matter. It is supreme and is never annihilated.
When all in this world is annihilated, that part remains as it is."
That spiritual world is eternal, full of knowledge and full of pleasure.
These are the things we are looking for, we want pleasure -- our nature is
anandamaya or "full of pleasure" but this is covered here. The spiritual
world is full of pleasure. We want to remain young forever -- nobody wants
to get old, to get sick or to die but these things are forced upon us in the
material world -- In our natural, original position in the spiritual world
we remain youthful eternally, we don't have to get old there. Here, in the
material world, we are all trying to get knowledge, that's why there are so
many universities, so many scientists, they are all trying to get knowledge
but in the material world our knowledge is always imperfect -- we are always
illusioned -- Instead of having knowledge we are full of ignorance. But our
original, natural position is to be full of knowledge.
My request is that you consider these things and question: "What is my
life?", "If I achieve the goals I have set will I really be happy?" We all
have ideas of getting something wonderful in the future -- if you think
carefully about what it is you are going to get and then if you look at
other people who have these things already you'll most likely find they are
not happy. You can look at very famous people who have had everything we
could wish for, look at Elvis Presley, he was very wealthy, anything he
wanted was immediately supplied, he could have any number of women, he could
get any drugs or whatever he wanted... he could have it. But he drank
himself to death. He wasn't happy. He was perhaps one of the most worshipped
people on this planet, so many people were Elvis Presley fans, he had
everything but he wasn't happy.
If we are thoughtful we should consider these things. We should ask the
question, "If I also become wealthy and famous would I actually be happy?"
An intelligent person will understand these things are not so important,
then he will change his priorities understanding his real business is to
make spiritual advancement, to reestablish his relationship with Krishna.
This is for thoughtful people, not everybody will be attracted by this, but
I ask you to at least consider it.
Please chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Thank you. Hare Krishna!
Madhudvisa dasa
(madhudvisa@krishna.org) /sudarsana
All glories to His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada!
Sudarsana Home madhudvisa@krishna.org