Ticket to a World Without Death–The perfect vehicle
If TWA were selling tickets for a flight to a newly discovered planet where no one grew old, no one suffered disease, and no one ever died, who wouldn’t want to purchase a ticket to go there, at any cost?
We all long to live forever, but have you ever stopped to wonder why? If death is natural, why does everyone just as naturally try to avoid death?
In Bhagavad-gita, one of the Vedic literatures, the ancient Sanskrit texts of India, Lord Krsna addresses this very question: “For the soul there is never birth nor death. Nor, having once been, does he ever cease to be. He is unborn, eternal, ever-exising, undying and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain.” (Bg. 2.20)
The Vedic writings define God–or, more precisely, the Absolute Truth–as “that from which everything has emanated.” God is eternal and full of knowledge and bliss, and we living entities, being part and parcel of God, have qualitative oneness with Him.
As a drop of ocean water has the same qualities as the rest of the ocean but in a smaller quantity, we all have a minute quantity of God’s qualities. Therefore, since God is eternal, we are also eternal, and thus we do not wish to die.
At the present moment, however, we are under the false impression that we are the temporary material body. Everyone is thinking, “I am Canadian,” or “I am American,” or “I am black,” or “I am white,” or “I am Christian,” or “I am Hindu.” In reality we, the eternal conscious self, have nothing to do with these temporary external identities. Lord Krsna elucidates this point in Bhagavad-gita (2.22): “As a person puts on new garments, giving up old ones, similarly the soul accepts new material bodies, giving up the old and useless ones.” To clarify this point further, let us consider the expression “This is my hand.” The word my is a possessive pronoun denoting that the object, the hand, belongs to me. But let us reflect upon the word me. Who am I? I am obviously something other than my hand, because I am observing my hand. Then who am I? I am that which is aware, the conscious perceiver within the body: the self.
Now, the special facility we have in the human form of life is that we can realize our true self, understand the relationship between the individual self and the Supreme Self, and ultimately develop love for Him.
To achieve these goals, we must be trained by a self-realized person. Why people today refuse spiritual training has always puzzled me. To become an expert cook, painter, dancer, mechanic, technician, lawyer, or doctor, one must approach an experienced teacher and take instruction from him. Nevertheless, when it comes to the most important subject–the science of God realization we stubbornly insist, “I don’t need anyone’s help.
” This false pride limits us to an incomplete understanding of the Absolute Truth. Because we are imperfect, our senses are limited, and we tend to make mistakes. How, then, can we possibly expect to attain liberation on our own? If I am bound hand and foot, how can I free myself? I need. help from someone who is free.
Out of his causeless mercy and kindness, the Lord sends His ambassador, the liberated spiritual master. Though in the material world, he is not in material consciousness, because he is in constant touch with the Lord in his heart. Just as a fish in an aquarium is in a room but simultaneously in a world apart, the water, so the spiritual master is in this material world but simultaneously in a world apart–the kingdom of God.
If one takes shelter of the instructions of such a bona fide spiritual master, one’s deliverance from the material world is guaranteed by Lord Krsna: “Just try to understand the truth by approaching a spiritual master.
Inquire from him submissively and render service unto him. The self-realized soul can impart knowledge unto you because he has seen the truth.” (Bg. 4.34)
The liberated, self-realized spiritual master is like the TWA airplane pilot who knows the bearings of the spiritual destination. The spiritual master, by imparting the knowledge contained in revealed scripture and by his own undaunted example, trains his disciples to render unconditional devotional service to Lord Krsna despite all material difficulties.
The Vedic literature declares that because God is absolute, there is no difference between the Lord and His name. In other words, one can associate with God by associating with His name. Thus the contamination of bodily misconceptions is cleansed away by the antiseptic power of associating with the Lord’s holy name. This axiomatic principle is given in the Vedic literature, and those who are scientifically minded should make a spiritual experiment by chanting the Lord’s holy names: Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama Hare Hare. The Vedic literature recommends this chanting process as the most potent means of devotional service in this age.
Lord Krsna further reveals, “To those who are constantly devoted and worship Me with love, I give the understanding by which they can come to Me. Out of compassion for them, I, dwelling in their hearts, destroy with the shining lamp of knowledge the darkness born of ignorance.” (Bg. 10.10-11)
Thus the disciple’s genuinely humble service attitude brings him to the point of firm conviction and steadiness in devotional service. Next, his taste for chanting the Lord’s holy name and glories increases. Then he comes to the stage of spontaneous service, and finally he reaches the culmination of spiritual life: devotional service in pure love of God.
If one stays aboard the airplane of devotional service, one is sure to reach his destination. “After attaining Me, the great souls, who are yogis in devotion, never return to this temporary world, which is full of miseries, because they have attained the highest perfection.” (Bg. 8.15) This process of devotional service is scientific and authorized because we receive it directly from Lord Krsna in Bhagavad-gita. We should not manufacture any new method; the old method is perfect.
Everyone who has stepped into the boxing ring of human life has been pulverized by the blows of death. Death is guaranteed. If there is even the slightest hope of escaping death and rebirth in this material world, why not take it? If your house is on fire and you see a door leading to safety, do you stop and look around for other possible exits? No! You take the first sure door to safety. That is intelligence.
Why not set aside your doubts (at least temporarily) and make a scientific spiritual experiment? Chant the Lord’s holy names. What Ponce de Leon searched for and never found–the fountain of eternal youth–can be tasted by anyone who purchases the ticket of the nectarean names of Krsna.
[From Back to Godhead Vol. 16 No. 9]
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Hare krishna prabhu,
Please clarify my doubt,in scriptures it was said that one must
approach a self realised soul who is a pure devotee of lord who is serious in achieving
the goal of human life.My doubt is that if we follow the 4 restricions and reading prabhupad’s books and chant HARE KRISHNA,will we become perfect?If not where can we find such great souls who can guide and train us ? Please forgive me if I spoke anything incorrect as I am a conditioned soul.Please clarify the doubt of mine prabhu.
Yes you will become purified. Because Srila Prabhupada is such a great soul and he is living in his books and you are directly personally associating with Srila Prabhupada as you read his books.
Good evening,hare krishna,assalamalaikum to everyone,i am the student of 10th standard and have a great desire to know about science and i want to become a scientist like albert einstein and stephen hawking,one day i searched some information about god particle on internet,but i was so surprised by seeing that it shows a link to me in which it was written as like “quran and geeta tells about the god particle”i had read it and from that time i too take interest to know about god and holy books revealed by him,i read whole geeta and quran but i have a great confusion that-where the geeta says that the person who commits sins in his/her live would take birth and the person who do good deeds,i would take him to heaven,but the sinner make round and round cycle of birth and rebirth,but quran says that person would enter into heaven and hell according to his or her deeds and no one would take birth again,so please help me to find the answer of these questions,if quran and geeta are truely the words of god then
Hare Krishna Sajid
Koran and Bible also are the message of God but not in such detail as the Vedic texts from India. So in Koran and Bible you will find the spiritual principles explained but not in a very deep and scientific way. This is because a preacher has to present the things according to the ability of his audience to understand. So Jesus found himself preaching to some fishermen in a desert who were not very nice really. After three years of his preaching they got upset with him and tried to kill him by nailing him on the cross. I am not so knowledgeable about Mohamad and the Koran but it is probably a similar situation.
In the Bible the eternal soul is described and Heaven and Hell is described. And it says if you are good you go to Heaven after death and if you are bad you go to Hell after death. I expect Koran is similar. This is not wrong. But it is greatly simplified.
The reality is there is not just one Heaven and one Hell. There are many heavens and many hells. And we are all eternal spirit souls and our consciousness at the time of death determines the destination of the soul after death.
So depending on our consciousness we can go anywhere after death. And we continue taking birth and dying in the material world over and over and over again until we can be liberated from the material world.
This is the cycle of samsara or birth and death or reincarnation. It is a fact. It is not elaborately described in the Bible or Koran but it is the truth.
The reality is things are not very elaborately described in Bible or Koran and if you want the full description you need to go to the Vedic texts like Bhagavad-gita and Srimad-Bhagavatam to get the full details.
So please go to http://www.PrabhupadaBooks.com and search for the things you want to learn about there.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa