The Main thing is: I’M NOT THIS BODY
The main thing is we understand we are not the body so no matter what we do to the body it will not give us satisfaction in the long term.
The body is a machine, like a motor car is a machine. I am within this body as the driver is within the motor car.
Now the motor car has many needs. It needs gas, it needs oil, it needs to have it’s tires pumped up and so on. But if one forgets the driver in the car and simply concentrates on the machine and the needs of the machine the driver will not be satisfied.
He will be sitting in the car starving.
Because the food of the driver is different from the food of the car. You can not feed the driver gas. His food is different.
So we are the driver of this body.
This body has so many needs, but these bodily needs are different from our needs, we are the driver of the body, the soul within the body, “the ghost in the machine…”
So our idea is to satisfy the bodily needs only as much as necessary to maintain the body in a healthy condition and spend the rest of our time and energy in spiritual activities which help us to reawaken our original spiritual consciousness, these are our real needs, the needs of the soul.
It is not that we do not eat, or sleep, or have sex or defend, but these things are done in a regulated way to maintain the body in a healthy condition. But as the motor car is simply a vehicle which is meant to transport the driver to his destination, we see this material body as a vehicle which can be used to transport the driver–the soul–to his ultimate destination: back home, back to Godhead.
If we spend all our time trying to satisfy the senses of our body we will waste all our time and energy in this way and become completely distracted from the real purpose of life which is to get out of this material world and get back home to the spiritual world where we will get an eternally youthful spiritual body full of knowledge and full of pleasure… Then we will really be happy…
Please let me know what you think.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
About the Author
Madhudvisa dasa My first contact with a Hare Krishna was a most merciful Mataji in Oxford Street, London who sold me a "Higher Taste" cook book in 1984 while I was on holidays there. I started seriously reading Srila Prabhupada's books in Australia 1985 and by 1986 Srila Prabhupada had convinced me "Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead" and "we should surrender to Krishna." I joined the Hare Krishnas in Perth, Western Australia in 1986. Since then I have been chanting Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare, reading and distributing Srila Prabhupada's books and preaching as much as I can. That's my life and full-time occupation now really. I like it more than anything I've ever experienced before. Srila Prabhupada's books are so amazing... Even after reading them all many times they're still fresh and new. They are truly transcendental! That's it really. Now I'm just hankering to once again see the world chant Hare Krishna, dance and feast and float away in the ecstasy of Lord Caitanya's Sankirtana movement as it did in Srila Prabhupada's physical presence. Let the whole world drown in the ecstatic flood of love of Krishna!
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Hare Krishna Prabhu ji
Your preaching really helps me a lot and now I’m stumbled upon a question, looking for your mercy. well, my question is- we are souls right? not this gross body and I tried to contemplate that a lot but couldn’t realize that I’m a soul. I experience this world through my senses( gross body), so how can I shift my perception? I feel knowing and realizing are completely different aspects ( knowledge isn’t soaked well in to the heart if there is no self realization)
I know it! but how do I realize that truth?
need your blessings.
Hare Krishna Akash
It is very good contemplation, trying to realize that you are not the body. It is quite easy really. When you go to sleep you find yourself in a dream. So in that dream you have a different body and you are in a different place and you are doing different things while the body that you normally identify with is sleeping in your bed. So when you are dreaming that dream body seems quite real to you also and you are thinking that you are that body in the dream and you are interacting with the other people and things in your dream, but then you wake up and the dream body is finished and you find yourself back in your body lying in the bed.
So it is the same thing. One is a waking dream and the other is a sleeping dream. You wake up from your sleeping dream into your waking dream. But you are the same actually. You, the person, you are there in your dream body and you are also there in your waking dream body. But when you are actually awake you will realize you are not any of these bodies, you are not the waking body, you are not the dreaming body, you are the spirit soul present within the body and when that body is old and useless you, the spirit soul, will be forced to move on to another body.
So there are many other ways you can contemplate that you are not the body. If you have a very close friend and he dies then you see his dead body on the ground you say, “My friend has gone!” But your friend’s body is lying there on the ground. Nothing has gone. Your friend is still there. But you say, “My friend has gone!” Why? Because it was not the body of your friend who was your friend, it was the spirit soul, the person, within the body who was your friend, and he is gone now and the dead body remains.
The body is a machine, a dead machine, it only appears to be living because of the presence of the spirit soul.
So it is really simple to comprehend that we are not the material body and chanting the Hare Krishna mantra:
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
at least 16 rounds a day and strictly following the four regulative principles (no illicit sex, no meat eating, no gambling and no intocication) and reading Srila Prabhupada’s books at least 1-2 hours a day, this will help you quickly actually realize that you are not the material body but the spirit soul within the body and that you are actually an eternal servant of Krishna and that your only business is to serve Krishna.
So try it.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
🕉️🌹💕🙏 dear Madhudvisa Dasa.
….thank you 😊
Hare Krishna 💕🌹
This is very simple to understand . I don’t think anyone sane would disagree .If you are heavily involved (entangled) in the material world ie run a business ,have home with bills etc , work long hours, how does one incorporate these practices ?how to start ?(. 16 rounds . 1-2 hrs reading of SP books.) Doesn’t one also need association?
My other question is how to connect my business to Krsna ? it’s often encouraged that we should donate to a temple but can we also spend on book distribution or open a centre ? I basically mean rather than hand it over can we spend it more locally in krsna’s service . Thanks for our answers in advance
Hare Krishna Bhakta Nick
To advance in spiritual life we need the association of pure devotees of Krishna. It is not that any sort of ‘devotee’ association is good. If we want to advance we have to associate with advanced devotees. And the best advanced devotee association you will find in Srila Prabhupada’s books. So reading Prabhupada’s books 1-2 hours a day is directly personally associating with Srila Prabhupada and Krishna and all the other great souls who appear in Srila Prabhupada’s books.
As far as starting you just have to start. You can get out of bed early and chant Hare Krishna and read Prabhupada’s books and you can find more time during the day to chant Hare Krishna and read, and in the evening also. So you can easily adjust your life so you can chant 16 rounds and follow the regulative principles and read Prabhupada’s books 1-2 hours a day.
And we have to do this. Because these things are only the beginning of spiritual life. We can not fool ourselves that we are devotees, that we are Krishna conscious, or anything like that, if we are not at least chanting 16 rounds of the Hare Krishna mantra every day, strictly following the four regulative principles and reading Prabhupada’s books 1-2 hours a day. So we just have to do it. That is the most important part of our life.
So you just organize it. And as far as giving the money to Krishna these days it is not advisable to give it to temples. Temples are these days generally corrupt and you are just wasting your money if you give it to a temple. Far better if you establish a preaching center yourself and use your money for getting Prabhupada’s original books and distributing them to the general public and for purchasing bhoga [food] and cooking it and offering it to Krishna and distributing Krishna prasadam to the general public. So this kirtan and prasadam distribution and book distribution is the best use of your money. You do not have to give it to anyone else. You can use it yourself in the service of Srila Prabhupada and Krishna. That will be the perfection of your work.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
hare krishna.
please take my dandavaty. i love evry krishna devotees. you ars so mercyful to mankind. because of your mercy we know about God. krishna is God. now i am sure in this.
please tell my how i can progress in krishna consciousness if my encirclement and all my relatives are against.
i am from georgia, Caucasus.
Hare Krishna!
In this world almost everyone is more or less against Krishna Consciousness. We must become determined to follow the process Srila Prabhupada has given. The beginning of this process is, follow the four regulative principles- no illicit sex, no meat eating, no gambling, no intoxication. Chant Hare Krishna mantra at least 16 rounds a day, read Srila Prabhupada’s books at least 1-2 hours a day. It takes great effort to reach this stage, especially when we are surrounded by non-devotees. But we have to keep struggling and do as much as we can until we reach the beginning stage.
Yes. We have to do it, even though it can be very difficult at times. But it is not actually difficult. It is very happy and a very joyful process. Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Dear Madhudvisa Dasa. Hare Krishna 🕉️♥️🙏🌹 thank you for sharing your divine Krishna Conscious association ♥️ hare Krishna 🕉️❤️🙏🌹🌹🌹
Hare krishna..
Very illustrative explanation.
All Glories to Srila Prabupad &
All Glories to the Vaisnavas who put
so much efforts to spread Krishna consciousness
Hari Bol !
Definitely the motor of the body is soul, but as you mention the motor “body” have some need such as eating, sex, sleeping, and cleanness…but at some point we get so attached to these needs that we aren’t able to concentrate on our soul…we just keep thinking about bodily needs…what should be done, in that case???
Then you need to become Krishna conscious. That is the only solution. And that is a science that needs dozens of books to explain. And you can learn how to become Krishna conscious by reading Prabhuapda’s books, and you can get them at http://www.KrishnaStore.com...
Krishna never said about any sacrifice. Krishna says, this is the life and you have to live the life withing your dharma and karma. Everyone is here is due to his will of previous birth or due to his previous karma. Krishna is awareness. To understand the Krishna we need to understand Zero.. 0 has no beginning and no end. So Krishna has neither beginning nor end.
Hare Krishna!
Read Bhagavad-gita As It Is by His Divine Grace AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.
Then you will know that Krishna says “Give up all religion and surrender unto Me” and not “live the life within your dharma and karma”.