Old Age

“There is no superior power which can check the cruel hands of death. No one wants to die, however acute the source of bodily sufferings may be. Even in the days of so-called scientific advancement of knowledge, there is no remedial measure either for old age or for death. Old age is the notice of the arrival of death served by cruel time, and no one can refuse to accept either summon calls or the supreme judgment of eternal time.” (Shrila Prabhupada, Shrimad Bhagavatam, 1.13.19 Purport)

You’ve seen the news. Eat blueberries to extend your life. Exercise a certain number of times each week and you can prevent the onset of a specific disease. And of course the claims are backed up by studies. Recent research shows this and shows that. Then there are the newer studies coming out which refute the older ones. “Scientists now believe that coffee is not good for you, while it was previously said that it was good for you.” One day oat bran was the secret to reducing the risk of heart disease, and the next day oat bran brought on so many side effects. While the focus is always on extending life and thereby trying to escape the undefeated warrior known as death, what about the issue of old age? How do we stop that?

Let’s think of it this way. Say that we listen to the advice that we get from the health experts, who use the advantages of modern medicine and the noted perceptions in recent scientific research to come up with their recommendations. Modern medicine has certainly given us many advancements, such as vaccines for debilitating illnesses and effective treatment for previously crippling diseases. The advanced machinery of today is very good at extending life, especially for people who are traumatically ill. In days past the same tragedies would have likely resulted in instant death, but with advancements in treatment people can heal a lot faster now.

Recorded perceptions, commonly known as experimental research, are what brought about these advancements. You started with a certain hypothesis. Next, you created a controlled environment, and finally you ran your tests. If the results are the same through repeated retries, you can assert that the original hypothesis was correct. This is the basic scientific method. You have both observation and experiment. Without observation the experiment is of no value. Without experiment, your observation is as good as a guess. Statements that begin with “I believe” can be countered by another person’s belief. As each person is a valid human being, who is to say whose belief is more valuable? How do we decide which opinion carries more weight?

So we have a specific set of recommendations that was created through past experiments and conclusions. For the moment, we’ll ignore the fact that past recommendations and conclusions have sometimes later on been refuted through new research, which in turn reveals the flaw in relying solely on the scientific method. The root cause of the defect is quite easy to spot as well: who is able to perceive every single event in history? We may create a controlled environment, but this doesn’t mean that we can think of every possible combination of conditions. For instance, studying weather patterns over a period of thirty years to come up with a guess as to the future changes in climate is silly because the earth has existed for much longer a period of time. If you can’t go back and study the entire history of the earth and its climate, the entire process is academic. If somehow you could absorb the information pertaining to all of weather’s history, you still have no idea how the millions of living entities residing on earth will behave going forward and what effect that behavior will have on the environment.

The recommendations we’re following from the health experts in this hypothetical scenario relate to daily habits. We’re told to sleep at least eight hours a night, so we do that. We eat on time, avoid saturated fat, exercise regularly, but not too strenuously, and eat all the foods that are purported to prolong life. For this situation, let’s say that everything works out. We live for a very long time, long enough to see the birth of our great-grandchildren. We reached old age, so the previous effort is considered worthwhile. The recommendations were effective because they extended our time within the present body.

But what about old age itself? Where does that fit into the equation? If I live to a point where my body starts to decay, what is the use in continuing on? Moreover, what have the recommendations done for my quality of life? If I lived a long time but remained stuck to a wheelchair or had difficulty walking around, should not those defects be a concern? In this respect the scientific advancements have done little to nothing. Eating the “right” foods can help you live longer, but nothing can be done to stop old age from coming, let alone death. A cure has yet to be found for old age, which is the messenger of death, telling the living entity that their time for exit is approaching.

Why bring this up? So what if healthy living doesn’t address old age? Would we rather live dangerously and die young? The reason the defect requires mentioning is that the living spirit has the potential to do great things. Extending life is not one of them and neither is preventing old age. Surely one should try to remain healthy, attempting to keep the spirit soul tied to an active form, but the real aim of life is to put an end to the cycle of birth, old age, disease and death. This can only be done through fostering the proper consciousness.

“As the embodied soul continually passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. The self-realized soul is not bewildered by such a change.”  (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 2.13)

The continuous cycle is known as reincarnation. One doesn’t have to die and get born again to be part of the transmigration process. The changing body can be seen through visual evidence, which shows that reincarnation is a scientific fact and not a dogmatic belief. Your outward form changes but you as a person do not. Identity is tied to spirit, which is immutable. In the C# computer programming language, the “string” data type is immutable. This means that you can’t change the contents of a string object after it is created. You can perform some operations on it and get a resultant value, but that new value must be reassigned completely to the original variable if you want to access the new value.

Following a similar concept, the spirit soul residing within the body cannot be altered, but it can be assigned to a new body. Old age also represents a kind of new body; thus the reassignment occurs constantly. When there is a complete shift in bodies, at which point memory is totally erased, the corresponding events are known as death and birth. There is no way to stop this from happening, at least in the immediate future, but through the proper consciousness one can escape the cycle going forward.

And what consciousness is that? The fear over death is what drives the scientific studies and the consuming public to follow the outputted recommendations. That same fear can be used as impetus to learn about the Supreme Lord, who is not a sectarian figure. His association is the most cherished, and through following the proper set of procedures, one can live a virtuous life and at the same time advance in consciousness. If you follow the regulations passed on by scientific studies, you can perhaps find a healthy condition that prolongs life, but the issue of consciousness is not addressed. When following the highest system of religion known as bhakti-yoga, or devotional service, every situation can become favorable.

How does this work exactly? The quintessential act of bhakti is the chanting of the holy names in a mood of love and devotion. You chant so that you can occupy your time and hear transcendental sound vibrations. Hearing is the easiest devotional act and it is also the most effective in terms of changing thought for the better and increasing intelligence. If you’re smarter you can recognize nonsense in instruction a lot easier. You can also follow the right path with more confidence. Hearing can take place with laziness on the outside, but the mind actively engages during the process by creating mental images and forming counterarguments to the thoughts that arise. If you’re forced to think while hearing, you will be better off in the long run.

“And whoever, at the time of death, quits his body, remembering Me alone, at once attains My nature. Of this there is no doubt.”  (Lord Krishna, Bg. 8.5)

By regularly reciting, “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare”, the consciousness gradually becomes so pure that it looks for ways to continue to stay in that sublime setting. Thus a proper scheme to follow on a go-forward basis is created without a problem. You learn to prolong your spiritual life, which continues after death. From the holy names, the forms and features of the Supreme Personality are revealed, and they are so pleasurable that you hope to bask in their glory without cessation. Whether in youth or old age, the devoted soul finds a pleasurable situation, and knowing that their cherished object of worship is protecting them, the time of death is no longer one to be feared.

In Closing:

From experts issues of health to resolve,

But still the problem of old age to solve.

 

Perhaps by eating right live long you will,

But from an aged body a problem there is still.

 

Know that every second your form is decaying,

But your identity the same it is staying.

 

Therefore must address the needs of the soul,

Through consciousness on its fate gain control.

 

Fix the mind on the Supreme Lord’s lotus feet,

In bhakti’s bliss, death with a smile you’ll greet.

Superconsciousness

“Consciousness of the material body means spiritual consciousness expressed through the medium of a material body. This consciousness is inferior, destructible and perverted. But superconsciousness of the supramind in the spiritual plane is as good as the spirit soul and is never annihilated.” (Shrila Prabhupada, Shrimad Bhagavatam, 1.6.4 Purport)

The individual being has an existence that is revealed through consciousness. From the thoughts, words and deeds emanating from the living being we can understand that there is a consciousness within steering activity. As Shri Hanuman so nicely points out in the Ramayana, it is the mind which instigates the senses to take to actions which bring forth all the auspicious and inauspicious conditions we see in life. The mind is a subtle material element that reports on the disposition of the consciousness. That consciousness is safe for only as long as the form it is encased within remains intact. As soon as that form is destroyed, the thoughts of the mind vanish. But there is a higher consciousness, which when developed carries over from life to life, moving like the aromas through the air.

“The living entity in the material world carries his different conceptions of life from one body to another as the air carries aromas.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 15.8)

Why is it important for consciousness to carry over? Shouldn’t the destruction of our worst thoughts be a welcomed event? If I’m suffering mentally from many traumatic past events, why would I want those mental images to linger forever? The development of the higher consciousness has nothing to do with temporary ups and downs, highs and lows, encountered in a relative existence. The individual living being’s original consciousness is unchanged; it is permanent. When the spirit soul assumes a dress composed of gross and subtle earthly elements, that pure consciousness gets pervertedly reflected, sort of like taking a beam of light and deflecting it in various ways. The sun provides immeasurable heat and light, but should a series of clouds cover the sky, the original energy is absorbed differently by the target individual.

When the living entity is unaware of their constitutional position, the pure consciousness gets misdirected towards areas of illusion. This refracted consciousness is destroyed at the time of death, even though the soul continues to exist. How can we be sure that these assertions are valid? How do we know that the perverted consciousness doesn’t remain intact and that the spirit soul continues to exist? For starters, we witness these changes through our own experiences. Memory is a product of consciousness, and we know that we don’t have perfect memory. If we did, we could call to mind what we had for lunch on any particular day from any time in the past. We sat through these lunches after all; our consciousness was present. If the thoughts of the past didn’t get destroyed, why can’t we remember them?

Along the same lines, we know that our entire dwelling has changed in appearance during the course of our lifetime, yet our identity remained intact. If you look at old pictures of yourself, you’re essentially viewing a different person, someone who will never return. Yet you were present during that time, and since then your identity hasn’t changed. This means that spirit is transcendental to the shifts of matter. The soul continues in existence regardless of what happens to the body. The Vedas say that the changes continue into the next life, for the soul never takes birth or dies.

“For the soul there is never birth nor death. Nor, having once been, does he ever cease to be. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing, undying and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain.” (Lord Krishna, Bg. 2.20)

If we have information of value, we’d like to keep it safe and secure. Backup strategies are not put into place to store irrelevant data and viruses. Rather, important documents useful towards meeting the interests of the proprietor of the machinery are stored securely. A business establishment backs up their data regularly so that even if their hardware should fail, they have full availability to their critical business information.

To meet this requirement, the concept of cloud computing has really taken off. Instead of hosting your data in just one place, it is dispersed in a cloud, which can represent one or more systems located many miles apart. The benefit of the cloud is that if you should happen to travel somewhere, access to your data will not be limited. Moreover, if just one piece of the cloud should fail, the data is still intact, as the distribution of energy is well maintained. If a large server suddenly fails, as is known to happen, information will not get lost. It will stay safe in the cloud.

The living being’s material desires vanish at the time of death, for the newborn has to become educated and progress through maturity all over again. If at the time of death we are expert poets, in the next life we will not even know how to write in the beginning stages. Therefore physical and mental dexterity are wiped out at the time of death, like information lost in a server that crashes.

There is a higher consciousness, that when developed travels from life to life. It stays safely in a cloud-like environment, where it can be accessed when needed. This is the consciousness that accompanies a spirit soul’s existence. That consciousness is always there, but unless the individual knows how to use it while residing in a material body, it can be forgotten for long periods of time. Think of having millions of dollars in the bank and not knowing it. Obviously you will struggle hard for an existence and worry about financial matters when you don’t have to. The spirit soul is a lover of God fully protected by the Supreme Lord, who is the master of all energies. Forgetful of these facts, the miseries borne of birth, old age, disease and death arrive. The fear of death is itself an indication of ignorance, for why should someone be afraid when they know that they are constitutionally eternal?

When the material consciousness is developed, it remains in existence for as long as the body is safe. As soon as that house crumbles, so does everything within it. The superconsciousness, however, carries over to the next life. If I connect with God in some way during my lifetime, that progress continues in my next birth. This fact has been validated so many times in the past, with Shrila Narada Muni’s travels being one of the most famous examples. In one particular lifetime he had the benefit of eating the remnants of food taken by advanced transcendentalists. Just having their association stimulated an intense interest in spiritual life, to the point that in the next life Narada took birth as a devotee of the Lord capable of travelling to any planet at will. By the Supreme Lord’s grace Narada was able to remember his past experiences, but that wasn’t necessary, as he had the purified consciousness safely secured through his past desires.

This means that if we have valuable information we want to keep, it must involve connection with Lord Krishna, or God. The Supreme Godhead is the heavenly father whose name is certainly hallowed. The Vedas reveal that the father in heaven has forms and names. Krishna is the original form, and His name addresses His all-attractiveness. Connect with Krishna through yoga and you won’t have to worry about losing your maturation in consciousness in the next life.

“The Blessed Lord said: Son of Pritha, a transcendentalist engaged in auspicious activities does not meet with destruction either in this world or in the spiritual world; one who does good, My friend, is never overcome by evil.” (Bg. 6.40)

Shri Krishna personally takes charge of those who try to connect with Him. For the materially developed consciousness, the mind, intelligence and ego somewhat carry over to the next life, but only through the influence they have on the type of body assumed. Whether I’m born as a merchant or an administrator is really of no concern, as the superconsciousness is still not fully developed. With taking to bhakti-yoga, or devotional service, the consciousness that knows the Supreme Lord carries over to any body type that I assume, and I can continue my devotional efforts from the place I left off in the previous life.

How do I practice bhakti? How do I know that I won’t forget the principles within my own lifetime? How do I know that Krishna’s promise is true? Bhakti is love, so in order to practice love there has to be connection, some type of association. The holy name is all-encompassing in this regard, so reciting it regularly through formulas like, “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare”, keeps one connected with God, granting His divine association immediately through the medium of the ears and the tongue. The tongue produces this sacred sound vibration and the ears then relish the sound. From sound comes the necessary intelligence to keep that association going in the future.

It is not that the devotee turns into a robot that just follows a mechanical approach. Rather, the full intelligence belonging to the soul gradually gets uncovered, allowing the individual to be crafty enough to figure out ways to practice yoga in even the most difficult circumstances. As eating can become a distraction, the devotee purifies the behavior by first offering food in the mode of goodness to the Supreme Lord and then eating the remnants known as prasadam, or the Lord’s mercy. Something as basic as commuting to work gets purified by hearing and chanting the holy name during the travel. While falling asleep one can recite the holy names within the mind over and over again. To hear nice stories, to spend time contemplating the glorious qualities of others, the devotee reads sacred texts and their commentaries, which describe the intricacies of Krishna-bhakti in detail.

Chanting of the holy name never goes in vain, as one step taken towards Krishna brings the Lord many steps closer to you. After one exits the current body, the devotional attitude is kept safely within the spiritual cloud, where it is again accessed in the next life. Lifetime after lifetime, the individual basking fully in the transcendental light of the pure consciousness remains attached to their eternal occupation, devotional service to Shri Krishna.

In Closing:

Material elements superconsciousness does shroud,

Like the sunlight blocked off by passing cloud.

What you have only for short time is safe,

Upon destruction of dwelling nothing you can take.

By connection with the Lord of all different,

That consciousness continues, it is persistent.

Therefore with no other means take a chance,

Just delight in Krishna and His charming glance.

In the next life divine consciousness continues,

For sustenance holy name’s chant always use.

Best Fit

“It is by great fortune that one comes to Krishna consciousness on the path of bhakti-yoga to become well situated according to the Vedic direction.” (Shrila Prabhupada, Bhagavad-gita, 6.47 Purport)

“Time to try on new clothes. So many different kinds are here, so which set will be the best one to wear?” When in these scenarios, will we select something twice our recommended size? What about the clothes that are too small? Obviously only the perfect fit will suffice, for otherwise the stated objective can’t be reached. Whether it’s to look good or finish some work, the clothes must properly match our bodily dimensions to maximize comfort. In the bigger picture, the human form of body can be considered the best fit for the spirit soul looking to release its unlimited potential for divine love.

How do we know that this potential exists? And why the qualification of “divine”? Does not the animal love? Dogs and cats are known to be affectionate towards their significant others and family members, so how can we deny their potential for love? To understand the uniqueness of the human form, imagine having only a spoon to use to cut your food. What if someone gave us a fork to eat our soup? These objects are mismatches, so we won’t be able to accomplish what we want. The tools may be useful, but they don’t fit the particular situation, the task that requires completion. In the same manner, every type of material body has some value, some utility, but not all of them allow for the constitutional activities of the soul to take place uninhibited.

What is the difference between constitutional activities and non-constitutional ones? The distinction is rooted in situation – time, circumstance and objective. A person playing baseball has the constitutional activity of catching, throwing and hitting a baseball. If they were to show up in a soccer uniform, their ability to play baseball would be hindered. If you showed up to a soccer match with a tennis racket, the extra weight in your hand would only slow you down as you ran up and down the field.

The spirit soul is the essence of identity, the spark of life if you will. As a tiny spark, the soul can have many different homes. The living entity is therefore called sarva-ga, which means he can travel to every destination there is. A human being must live inside a home, a fish inside of water, a bird on a tree, and a tiger in the jungle, but the living entity in general can actually be placed anywhere. The same identifying aspect is present within every life form. One individual spirit soul can find a destination in the sky, water, earth, or even deep within the ground, like where the worms and ants live.

If we, being spirit soul, can live anywhere, where is the best place to go? For the human being not fully God conscious, being unaware of their spiritual identity, the most pleasant home is that place where amusements and delights can be found in great abundance. As this usually comes from good association, any place where friends and family can be found becomes the most pleasant destination. One person’s friends and family may not be located in the same place as another’s; therefore it is impossible to say that a single area’s pleasantness applies universally, across every single human being.

Upon further abstraction, we see that it is the spirit soul which seeks pleasure. The soul is blissful by nature, wherefore it seeks ananda. It is also eternal and in full knowledge. These last two aspects are little difficult to perceive on our own. After all, we know that birth and death mark the beginning and end points of a person’s existence. Sort of like cutting out a segment from a timeline, the person’s lifetime is determined by the amount of time elapsed between birth and death. Where they were before birth and where they end up after death are both mysteries that can’t be uncovered by the naked eye. Because of this deficiency, to understand that the spirit soul is eternal is a little difficult at first.

“As the embodied soul continually passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. The self-realized soul is not bewildered by such a change.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 2.13)

The Bhagavad-gita, India’s treasured treatise on spirituality, dissipates some of the fogginess. It’s difficult to understand that the soul of the living being existed prior to the current birth and that it will continue to remain vibrant after death, but these relevant facts can be revealed by observing the outward changes to a living entity. From the time of birth, the body constantly morphs, yet the identity of the individual does not. The baby is completely different in shape, behavior and intelligence than the same person as an adult, yet the identifiable aspect within does not undergo change. We don’t consider the baby and the adult of the same being to be two different people.

Reincarnation, or the transmigration of the soul, is best perceived through observing the changing body. As soon as there is death, another body type is assumed by the same living entity. This also means that prior to the current birth there was a different body type assumed, sort of like putting on and taking off clothes. The clothes analogy works nicely because it also accounts for the variety in behavior. Some people are known to be quick to acquire intelligence, learn instruction and follow a specific path that is otherwise deemed difficult. Others are perpetually in darkness and misery, finding difficulties in every turn in life. The differences are due to the body type assumed, which has accompanying material qualities. In Sanskrit these qualities are known as gunas, which can also translate to “ropes”. A rope is useful in specific situations, but if it should happen to be tightly wrapped around our body against our will, we would be severely limited in our autonomous movement.

We might be tempted to say that the person tied up with ropes couldn’t do anything, but that is not the case. While bound up they could still think, hear, see, and make observations with the brain. Their consciousness would still be there, which means that the body and its movement are not the determining factors in the vibrancy of the living entity. As long as consciousness is present, there is life. Since the consciousness comes from the soul, the body of the living being does not form its identity; the soul does.

The body types of the lower species can be likened to forms that are tied with ropes. The tree is a living entity, but it cannot move. Though it lives in the same spot for many, many years, no one would dare consider the tree more advanced than the human being. In the theory of evolution, fitness is measured by survivability. Species are considered evolved if they can better adapt to their environment. Adaptation refers to the ability to survive in the specific conditions. Surviving means staying alive. In that case, the tree doesn’t have to adapt at all; it can remain alive through every season, sometimes standing still for thousands of years. Simply by observing the tree, the measurement of fitness in the theory of evolution is invalidated, as living longer is not always better.

When presented the choice, would a human being rather remain tied up with ropes for one hundred years or go about enjoying life without ropes for fifty years? As most would choose the latter, we see that living long is not the ideal measure of advancement. Rather, the ability to exercise one’s natural qualities, which come from the soul, is what determines auspiciousness in conditions. The individual’s inherent qualities cannot come from the body type inherited; this body can only dampen qualities. The lamp that is shining brightly is the source of light in a room, even when a shade is covering it. Some shades may let out more light than others, but never, at any time, does the shade itself become the source of the light.

In living beings, the spirit soul is the spark of life, and the body types assumed can only hamper the soul’s exhibition of its natural dharma, or inherent characteristics. Within any species, the soul’s primary dharma is the desire to serve, which is based on love. In the human species, where the ropes of material qualities are the loosest, the serving propensity is evidenced in every activity. Even in the wealthiest individuals, those with billions of dollars in net worth, eventually there comes a time when guilt sets in, where happiness is no longer found through the accumulation of more money. At that time, the wealthy person turns to philanthropy, desiring to serve their fellow man. If serving is beneficial after you have satisfied your senses with money, then surely it is just as beneficial for those who forgo that passionate pursuit from the beginning.

The human body is the best fit for the conditioned living entity – he who travels through the endless spiral of reincarnation – because it brings the best opportunity for consciousness to be fully developed. We send children to school because from past experience we know that if a child is educated properly and thoroughly, they can grow up to be wise adults, capable of staying self-sufficient and making a beneficial contribution to society.

Since consciousness can be developed, its development should be aimed in the proper direction. This is where bhakti-yoga, or devotional service, comes in. Religion without philosophy is sentiment, and philosophy without religion is mental speculation. Therefore to find the real fruit of existence, we need to combine both philosophy and sentiment to give us real religion. Bhakti-yoga fits in perfectly, for it already incorporates reincarnation, the position of the soul, the inhibiting influence of material nature, and the need to love.

The right sentiment is introduced when the ideal beneficiary of service is identified. Not surprisingly, that person is God, whom most of the world knows in some way. Even if God is not known or His existence vehemently denied, He is honored and worshiped through His form of nature. The wealthy person honoring money shows respect to God in some way, for the Lord is the original proprietor. Every person acknowledges a higher force, so each person’s understanding of God correlates with the recognized influence of that higher power.

God is known as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, or Bhagavan, in the Vedic tradition, which gives us wonderful scriptures like the Bhagavad-gita and Shrimad Bhagavatam. Bhagavan is the ultimate authority; He is the complete manifestation of everything honored in this world. He is the ideal beneficiary for the loving propensity of the spirit soul because He is inherently linked to every living entity. From one God came many spiritual sparks, like tiny children inheriting the qualities of their father to a lesser degree.

The Supreme Lord is known as Krishna because He is all-attractive. Acting like magnets, the tiny spiritual sparks traveling through reincarnation are inherently attracted to loving service to Krishna, but depending on the body type they assume, that inclination may be inhibited. The human being has the best opportunity for rekindling the dormant God consciousness resting within the heart. Divine love is awakened through acts of devotion, the most effective of which is the chanting of the holy names, “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare”. Chant Krishna’s names, hear the sound vibration that represents Him fully with your ears, and keep the vision of His sweet form that holds a flute and wears a peacock feather within your mind. Through properly conditioning consciousness you will find pleasure in any situation.

The best fit of the human body allows for devotion to continue uninterrupted and without motivation. As both interruption and motivation are negated, there is no chance of being taken away from the bhakti platform. How can any ropes tie down the devotee sincerely desirous of connecting with Krishna, who is the most powerful? Why would the Supreme Lord ever let His devotees be affected by outside influences when all they want is to think about Him, chant His glories, and hear about His activities?

In other species, other body types, the fit isn’t perfect; therefore the loving propensity gets directed to other areas. In the human species, the fit can also lead us in the wrong direction, but at least there is the opportunity for finding the right playing field, one whose properties match the constitutional qualities of the living entity. Just as the human body is the best fit for the spirit soul separated from Krishna’s company, the holy name is the perfect sound vibration for the tongue desirous of speaking and singing. Prasadam, the remnants of foodstuff offered first to Krishna, is the perfect fit for the taste buds of the tongue, and the vision of the Shri Vigraha [deity] is the perfect fit for the eyes which are desirous of staring at something beautiful. Using every sense to remain in Krishna consciousness, the perfect fit of a home, the spiritual world, is granted to the liberated soul at the time of death.

In Closing:

In shopping the keen purchaser clothes buys,

That match their dimensions, the perfect size.

Wrong fit brings pain and discomfort,

Wearing them not fun, enjoyment they hurt.

Living entity can take on many body types,

From gunas material conditions one must fight.

By ability to love God is fitness measured,

To chant holy name of Krishna that is treasured.

Thus for spirit soul human form is best fit,

Allows for reaching God after body quit.

The Amazing Soul

“The fact that the atomic soul is within the body of a gigantic animal, in the body of a gigantic banyan tree, and also in the microbic germs, millions and billions of which occupy only an inch of space, is certainly very amazing.” (Shrila Prabhupada, Bhagavad-gita, 2.29 Purport)

A soul is inside of the largest animal, inside of a banyan tree, in the tiny little germs that we try to avoid, and in so many other areas of space. Who would ever think it? The same spark that is responsible for the amazing capabilities of the human being – his unique ability to do math, science, reading and political analysis without any hesitation – is so tiny that it can fit into an area of space that is impossible to measure. Knowledge of the properties of the soul is meant to further a purpose, not just to be marveled at. Indeed, only the human being can realize the amazing soul and study its properties. More amazing than its ability to fit into the oddest areas is the soul’s natural penchant for loving service. When offered to the right purpose, flowers of devotion blossom within and leave a peaceful and pleasant condition that lasts permanently.

“Some look on the soul as amazing, some describe him as amazing, and some hear of him as amazing, while others, even after hearing about him, cannot understand him at all.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 2.29)

First of all, how do we know that the soul exists inside of animals and nonhuman species? Don’t many religious traditions deny the existence of souls inside of animals? Aside from taking the information from authority, we can use outward perception. We know that human beings move, develop, and leave byproducts for as long as they are alive. When death occurs, the life is deemed over, but the material elements often remain as they were prior to the person’s death. The same hands, legs and face are there, but they cease to do anything. It’s as if someone took the force of life out of the body.

Animals and plants have similar behavior. In fact, many animals are so human-like that theories are posited that the human being evolved from them. There is the same eating, sleeping, mating, defending and the stopping of vital functions once death occurs. Rather than turn a blind eye to these similarities, the wise person realizes that the same spark of life found within the human being must be present in other species as well. Otherwise, how could they move on their own? There is no computer operating the movements of an ant, telling it to crawl into the tiniest of spaces and follow the other members of their community. There is no computer telling the dog when to bark and when to go running outside. Even if there are commands made in these areas, it is still up to the dog to decide when and where to act.

If the soul is so amazing, why would it ever choose to remain in an inferior species? Ah, but are these species inferior? Who is making that judgment and why? The gigantic animal is very powerful and feared. Who is going to take on the elephant, which is so large that no one can move it? Who is going to mess with the lion, the king of the jungle? Wouldn’t everyone love to be feared, or at least respected? The bird can fly on its own without any external fuel source or a pilot. It doesn’t have to worry about mortgage payments, marriage, raising the national debt limit, or losing weight. Rather, the bird simply eats when it needs to and flies to wherever the climatic conditions are ideal.

Even the plants and germs have unique abilities. Some trees can live for thousands of years, while the germs can go undetected. The fly is so elusive that no one can catch it, as it buzzes around wherever it needs to go. Lest we think that these species are universally held in low esteem, just see how many human beings try to imitate their behavior. The tiger eats the flesh of other animals through killing, and similarly many human beings range the forests to shoot wild game. The trees stand naked for extended periods of time, and so the human being tries to dance with little or no clothes on for pleasure. The birds soar through the beautiful sky, and the human being desires to fly in airplanes and rocket ships that go into outer space.

Though these abilities of lower importance are present in animals, there is no need for human beings to artificially imitate them. The same soul that is present in the lower species is there in the human being. So, the question that must be asked is why the human form exists in the first place? Why not stay in a body that can allow us to fly all over the place? Mental speculation in this area will lead to theory after theory, with no one winning the debate because of the tenuous standing of the conclusions.

Rather, the best way to understand such complexities is to go to the proper authority sources. Again, there are likely many figures claiming to be authorized teachers in this area, so we can apply a few filters to weed out the pretenders. Now, wouldn’t it make sense to approach someone who already knows the information about the soul and its ability to transcend the human form of body? Wouldn’t it be wise to approach someone who has confidential information about the soul, its properties, the reason for its residence in different species and where its ideal home should be? This is where the Vedas stand out; they are the only spiritual tradition that provides as much information as possible to allow for the sober human being to make an informed decision as to their direction in life.

The Vedas also happen to be the oldest scriptural works in history. There is no coincidence in this area, as spirituality is meant for all classes of men spanning every single period of historical time. The requirement for sobriety is there because in the absence of rational thought, the human being is no different than the animal. Sanatana-dharma, or the eternal occupational duty of the soul, can never change, but in lower forms of life there is no expectation that the soul retain its cognizance of its obligations. This is similar to how we don’t expect children to work or have the correct viewpoint on important issues. There is a voting age restriction precisely for this reason. Not until maturity is reached can the human being be taken seriously in his opinions and thoughts.

Man’s curiosity is fully accounted for in the Vedas. The Vedas are full of nuance and complexities, with so many different branches of information. The root of the tree is Lord Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the same God that everyone either worships, ignores, or denies exists. Since Vedic wisdom sprouts from Krishna, there is a variety of information presented, fruits of wisdom that can be used to further different purposes. Since the soul transcends every type of outward manifestation, however, it is a complete entity, one whose satisfaction can result in favorable conditions in any circumstance.

Vedic wisdom is summarized and presented in a beautiful song format in the Bhagavad-gita, which was delivered on the battlefield of Kurukshetra some five thousand years ago. In this wonderful work, Lord Krishna is the teacher and Arjuna the student. Sanjaya, the servant of the king Dhritarashtra, was the broadcaster, giving play by play of everything that was going down. The backdrop was a battlefield that was to see the war to end all wars, but the subject matter covered the full spectrum of philosophy and rational thought.

Right off the bat, Krishna started by describing the properties of the soul. This indicates that for any real discussion on the meaning of life to take place, familiarity with the soul’s constitutional position, its eternality, its inability to be killed, and its travels through different forms must be present. Otherwise, there will only be speculation about the place of the human being within the grander scheme. With speculation, there can never come an assertive conclusion that can be confidently followed. On the other hand, accepting Krishna’s information wholeheartedly not only removes hesitation, but it ensures that the proper path can be followed, one that has passed the necessary quality control tests.

“Arjuna said: I have heard Your instruction on confidential spiritual matters which You have so kindly delivered unto me, and my illusion is now dispelled.” (Bhagavad-gita, 11.1)

Okay, so why the different species? The soul is autonomous and blissful, but based on its desires it can be placed into different homes. Think of it as the soul wanting to travel to vacation spots. Not every person chooses the same destination for a vacation. Based on their desires and past experiences they will choose to relax at specific places each year. Similarly, the soul looking to imitate God lives in different bodies from life to life, experiencing material existence and swinging back and forth on the pendulum of acceptance and rejection.

When the amazing soul has tasted sufficient animal delights, it gets the best life in the human form of body. The reasons for this classification should be quite obvious. The human form allows for cognizance of the soul’s presence to emerge and thus also for a more tangible path in life to be followed. If the human being simply imitates the animals then he has not made any progression. On the other hand, if he takes to understanding God, studying His scriptures, chanting His names, worshiping His deity, immersing Himself in a life full of transcendental service that goes on uninterrupted and unmotivated, he tastes the sweet fruit of his existence. If not for transcendental love, what need is there to even be? Why should we exist if not for finding supreme pleasure that never dries out?

That sublime life is found only through bhakti-yoga, or devotional service. Just as Krishna is the root of all knowledge, devotion to Him is the root of all service. Every other type of engagement is a derivative of devotional service, with the target beneficiaries narrowing in scope and having but a partial reflection of Krishna’s transcendental energies. If devotion to Krishna is taken as the topmost engagement, the ray of spiritual sunshine remains bright within the heart, the temporary residence of the spirit soul. When basking in the soothing light of Krishna’s association, no amount of separation, temporary loss, frustration, or dejection can bring the devoted soul down from the transcendental plane of consciousness.

Even the information about the soul is meant to further the cause of devotion to Krishna. If we know that the soul can exist within any type of body, we will try to find out what leads to those shifts. In the Gita, Krishna reveals that whatever state of being one remembers at the time of death, that state they will attain without fail. This means that if we remember Krishna while quitting the body, we will get His association in the next life. Since He lives in the spiritual world, the departing soul gets a spiritual body, one with abilities more amazing than those of every body type combined. The Krishna consciousness needed at the time of death can only come from practicing devotion during one’s time on earth. The sober person accepting the authorized information directly descending from Krishna dedicates their time to bhakti-yoga, and especially to its quintessential act, the constant recitation of the holy names, “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare”.

“I see souls here; I see souls there; I see souls everywhere.” Because of the amazing ability of individual sparks of spirit to fly into different forms of body, we are never alone in our journey through life. The sparks come from the original fire that is Shri Krishna, so drifting too far away from the comforting light of the Truth is never beneficial. If in the advanced human form the mind can become convinced of the need for returning back home, back to Godhead, that reward will surely be granted. The Supreme Soul is never limited in His exhibition of powers. When He should choose to act on behalf of the devoted soul, nothing can stop His forces. Shri Krishna is there for whoever wants to be with Him; that choice just needs to be made known.

In Closing:

Spirit soul is completely amazing,

In so many species its presence sparkling.

Can take this information from authority,

Or can see by observing life attentively.

Regardless, information must be put to use,

Otherwise just mental effort producing no fruit.

Soul’s properties learned from Shri Krishna’s talk,

In Bhagavad-gita, outline for spiritual path did He chalk.

A lover of God is soul meant to be,

From material attachment it can be set free.

Follow the divine path, yoga in bhakti,

Liberated soul shows all that individual can be.

Soul’s most amazing feature is loving ability,

Find ideal match with Krishna, chant His name with sincerity.

Get Out of Jail

“We are searching for a friend to give us peace and tranquility. That friend is Krishna, God. Just make friendship with Him; you’ll find everyone to be your friend. Because God is situated in everyone’s heart, if you make friendship with God, He will dictate from within so that you will also be treated in a friendly way.” (Shrila Prabhupada, Krishna Consciousness The Topmost Yoga System, Ch 9)

It’s a typical day. You’re riding along in your automobile, paying scant attention to what’s in front of you. For experienced drivers travelling on a highway at steady speeds with minimal traffic, the navigation essentially takes care of itself, with the mind on autopilot, left to contemplate other things. It’s not that the driving is done recklessly; rather, the instincts of the driver take over. In this relaxed state, nothing is worse than seeing a police officer come up behind you. “Okay, let me slow down and change lanes. He’s approaching pretty fast, so let’s just hope he doesn’t get behind me.” On most days nothing happens, but today is not your lucky day. The officer comes up right behind you and flashes on his lights. Caught! Now you have to pull over. As the officer approaches your stopped car, you remember that you have a way out, a little card that will hopefully make the officer go easy on you. What you consider a “get out of jail free” card is really just something given to friends, family and well-wishers of police officers. When you show the officer your license, you happen to slip in this card, which is hopefully tied to the officer’s particular organization, be it state, city, or county police. Seeing the card, the officer gives you a stern warning, but no ticket. Whew! You made it.

In the bigger picture, this entire world we live in is managed by a larger governing body known as nature, and its rules are not so biased. Nevertheless, if we get on the good side of the owner, something that can’t happen through payments or claims of ancestry, we won’t have to live under the prison rules. On the contrary, the prison then turns into a playground.

The comparison of the material world to a prison house is one commonly made by Vaishnava preachers, those who are dedicated to Lord Krishna or one of His non-different expansions like Lord Vishnu or the other incarnations. The comparison is understandable based on the information presented in the Vedas, the ancient scriptures of India, which reveal that Lord Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the entity most of the world refers to as God. The material world is not directly related to God, though. Just as the prison house is reserved for those who violate the laws of the state, the phenomenal realm serves as the abode of the wayward spirit souls who desire to not be in God’s association in a loving mood. This is a unique viewpoint on the world, because under the goals of fruitive activity and sense enjoyment supported by most faiths, both religious and nonreligious, there is nothing really detrimental about life on earth. If anything, the land represents a sort of vacation, one which will end in ascension to heaven in the afterlife, provided that there is a basic acknowledgment of a higher power made.

Aside from being substantiated by the authority of the Vedas, the comparison to the prison house and the reason for the living entities sentencing are logical. Accompanying life in prison is the rule that one cannot leave until he has rehabilitated himself, a change which is determined by a review of the parole board, which judges the prisoner’s attitude, demeanor and overall desires. Similarly, at the time of death, when the spirit soul quits their body, the commanders of nature measure the soul’s desires found within the consciousness. If there is even a hint of material association craved, a renewed sentence in the prison house is granted. This is actually very kind on the part of the higher authorities. Why should there be automatic ascension to heaven when the person doesn’t desire it?

Aside from the fact that one is forced to go there against their will, the primary detriment to living in prison is the there is limited activity and enjoyment. The area of the prison is very small, and the activities are tightly monitored. In this sense, life in the material world, which follows repeating patterns and cycles, is not all that different from the prison. During youth this correlation is difficult to detect, but once adulthood is reached the repetition is much more evident. If it weren’t, there would be no such things as mid-life crises and impulse buys. For the student, life is always changing, as there is promotion to a new class in subsequent years. Adults, however, can go entire decades without having any change to their lifestyle. Go to work five days a week, relax on the weekends, and then repeat the same cycle the following week.

For the student, likely the best day of each year is when school lets out, as there is no responsibility or work for the next few months. The adults almost never have this luxury. Even if they are off from work, the responsibilities pertaining to family and home must be met. In this sense life becomes very much like a prison. Most of the day is spent in an office or at the jobsite. At night the worker is too tired to do anything else, so they just rest inside the home. There may be some fun on the weekends, but the return to the grind is inevitable.

“From the highest planet in the material world down to the lowest, all are places of misery wherein repeated birth and death take place. But one who attains to My abode, O son of Kunti, never takes birth again.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 8.16)

Now just imagine that after having been spun around this wheel for an entire lifetime, you are forced to repeat it all over again. The miseries of birth, old age, disease and death return after having served so long in the prison-like environment of the material world. This repetition is guaranteed for as long as desire is not changed. Unlike with the prison house holding hardened criminals, a simple desire to have a higher association grants escape from the cycle of birth and death, that wheel of suffering known as the samsara-chakra.

There are different ways to get that needed change in desire. One way is to continually perform your work and not have any attachment to the fruits. For instance, maintain your family and home but don’t hanker after having a big house or a fancy car. Just do your job and don’t sweat the small stuff. At the same time abide by religious principles, such as adhering to fasting days and giving in charity at the appropriate times.

Another option is to study Vedanta philosophy, wherein the differences between matter and spirit are carefully analyzed. “Oh, so I’m a spirit soul and not my body? I see now; this makes a lot of sense. Therefore my suffering is actually caused by material elements and nature, and I am transcendental to all of this. Let me study this some more.” As further knowledge of the laws of spiritual science and self-realization is gathered, eventually the misery causing activities can be renounced.

“The yogi who knows that I and the Supersoul within all creatures are one worships Me and remains always in Me in all circumstances.” (Lord Krishna, Bg. 6.31)

A third option is to try meditational yoga. Rather than work with detachment or study philosophy which is beyond the comprehension of the mind, just find a quiet place and meditate. Limit your food intake and sleep, and remain completely celibate. Sitting in the proper postures, contemplate on the Supersoul resting within the heart. The individual souls go through reincarnation fueled by material desires, and the Supersoul comes along for the ride, even though it has no obligation to abide by nature’s laws. Rather, the Supersoul is a plenary expansion of the giant storehouse of energy, Shri Krishna, who is God.

These three options are viable and valid in their own right, but a more direct approach is to connect with the person who manages the prison house, the owner of everything matter and spirit, in a loving way. Bhakti-yoga, or devotional service, seeks to connect the yogi with Krishna in a friendly relationship through regularly chanting His names, “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare”. The holy name is not different from the Supreme Person it addresses. Bhakti is actually the culminating stage of yoga practice, the summit of the mountain of activity in the material existence for those who want out of the prison-like environment.

The cop who lets us off the hook because of the card we show him does so as a courtesy to other officers. We go from being a culprit to a friend because of our association. Similarly, when our friend is Krishna, when we are known to regularly chant His name out of affection free of any desire for making gains in the prison house, the authority figures, the people running the show, understand that we should be treated the right way and that our business is not related to anything in the material world. When there is competition for personal sense gratification, there must be inhibiting forces, as no one can reign supreme over everyone else. God is the only Supreme Controller, so the very desire to become the most powerful or richest person is flawed. Those tainted by this hankering are cast into the material ocean, where they get to futilely compete for temporary titles. As no one can ever become equal to Krishna in status, such competition eventually results in misery every time.

A bhakta, or devotee, is not interested in this competition. They may have found their way into the prison house, but their only desire is to love Krishna as much as possible. Therefore the higher authorities will ensure that they have the necessary tools to carry out their service. Who would ever think of being unfriendly to someone who just reads about Krishna’s pastimes found in texts like the Ramayana and Shrimad Bhagavatam? Who would harbor hatred for a person who has no desire to amass large amounts of wealth or enjoy with many members of the opposite sex? Who would have resentment for someone who simply speaks of the glories of God and tries to get others to love Him even more than they do?

“One who works in devotion, who is a pure soul, and who controls his mind and senses, is dear to everyone, and everyone is dear to him. Though always working, such a man is never entangled.” (Lord Krishna, Bg. 5.7)

It must be noted that not everyone will treat a bhakta fairly or kindly, but this doesn’t mean the favoritism from Krishna is not present. After all, the primary result of remaining linked to God in consciousness is that an unambiguous indication is given to the higher authorities that release from the cycle of birth and death is desired. In this respect no ill-treatment or inhibiting force can stop salvation from occurring. What’s even more wonderful is that the place that was previously viewed to be a prison turns into a field of endless opportunities for service. Our friends are our equals with whom we share experiences and emotions. With Krishna, our friendship with Him is facilitated through glorification. The more we are able to speak about and praise the sweetheart situated in the spiritual sky holding a flute in His hands and wearing a peacock feather in His hair, the happier we will be.

This shouldn’t be very difficult to understand, as the human being is naturally inclined towards praising others. Even rampant criticism and strong dislike are rooted in love, as they are the inverse emotions of the loving propensity. The postgame shows aired on television after sporting events essentially follow two paths. There is praise for the winning team and criticism for the losing team. When a player retires, there is the retirement ceremony and maybe the retiring of the jersey; both occasions which allow for others to offer praise and worship in the form of attendance and applause.

The human being would much rather be for something than against it. Since Krishna exists eternally and has an endless reservoir of divine qualities, there is no exhaustion in praising Him. Even if we are not capable of composing beautiful poetry, songs that tug at the heartstrings, or books describing His pastimes, simply reciting His name in a loving way is enough to sufficiently praise Him. This is why sankirtana-yajna, or the sacrifice of chanting the holy names of the Lord, is the single most recommended spiritual practice for the current age. Kirtana is often associated with music, but at its root the word means “describing” or “praising”. What better way to salute our friend than to sing about His glories every single day? How can any place be considered a prison when all the time in it is spent singing, dancing, and crying tears of joy over the exhibitions of divine love and compassion coming from Shri Krishna and His numerous incarnations and devotees?

With our coworkers, family members, and sometimes even our friends, we are beholden to their interests because of the relationships they have to us. Though we are intimately tied to Krishna because of His presence within our hearts as the Supersoul, fulltime devotion to Him is actually rooted in a defeat, or a victory depending on how you look at it. The sweet smiling face of Shyamasundara, which melts away the pride of even the proudest person, and the loving exchanges the Lord has with His friends, family and the gopis, win over the heart of the hardened criminal who has served more than enough of their sentence in the material world. When Krishna’s divine qualities conquer over our false ego, the result will be a friendship that keeps us forever free from the negative influence of the punishing land known as the material world. Just as there is no better friend to have than Krishna, there is no better place to reside than the spiritual land of Goloka Vrindavana. By following the principles of bhakti-yoga, our Friend can make sure that we reach that imperishable land in the next life.

A Controlling Authority

“A Krishna conscious person knows that whatever he has is not under his control. If we do not believe in God, we must believe in some power beyond us which is controlling us at every step, call that power God or nature or whatever. There is a controlling power in the universe, and no sane man can deny it.” (Shrila Prabhupada, Raja-vidya, Ch 4)

In every sphere of activity there is a relative caste system, wherein individuals are given specific tasks and assignments based on their standing. Even while doing something as simple as reading a newspaper or internet website, there is a distinction between the content provider and the person viewing the content. In an airplane, there are class distinctions between the passengers, the pilot and the hospitality crew. The more the scope of control is expanded out, the easier it becomes to see that in the larger picture there is a grand controller, a force whose superiority everyone acknowledges in some way or another. The Vedic tradition identifies this commander by describing His names, forms, qualities and pastimes. Moreover, the controller Himself has a never-ending promise to provide satisfaction through personal interaction to anyone who is wise enough to acknowledge His presence and take to understanding Him. That controller is Lord Krishna, and since He is beautiful in every way, recognizing Him as our Supreme Controller brings the greatest satisfaction, knowledge and bliss.

Just by glancing at the laws of nature, it is seen that no one is supremely independent. For instance, we know that the laws of gravity apply to all objects. No sane man would jump out of a high story building and expect to avoid injury. The voluntary restriction on movement to avoid pain itself is an acknowledgement of a force that cannot be defeated. Similarly, the need for sleep, the dependence on the sun, the need for moderation in eating and drinking, and so many other regulations of everyday life prove that the living entity has very little control. Even the animal species, which according to human estimation has little to no intelligence, understands when someone is attacking and when there is hunger. In this way the animals also work within the bounds set by higher authorities.

In the human form of life, there is every opportunity to identify the higher power and benefit from knowing Him. Without full knowledge, however, the animalistic tendencies take over and the human brain searches for ways to get around the basic laws of nature and defeat the controlling authority. This attitude is most vividly seen in the fervent pursuit to cheat the greatest equalizer, the one force that has yet to lose: death. Advancements in material science, travels through outer space and the frantic research to find cures for common ailments all point to the desire to escape death, which, along with taxes, is guaranteed.

The all-devouring forces of death compel every single person to reveal that they are religious, that they acknowledge the presence of God. After all, to acknowledge a superior controller, one who has full authority, is to verily accept the existence of a “God”. For those who do not know the nature of the Supreme Person or who stubbornly consider His existence to be a myth or a concoction of the stupid who had trouble coping with the difficulties in life, the time of death serves as the most humbling experience. The atheist eventually will see God when they are quitting their body, because, by definition, one who is attached to worldly life will have no desire to escape their body. When a famous person passes away even at an old age there is great sadness throughout society, as the time of death is seen as the completion of life, the endpoint of material existence and all enjoyment as well for the departed.

Regardless of how He is viewed, the mastermind behind the workings of nature is always present, and His forces play no favorites. Whether one tries to buck the forces of nature and their most powerful agent known as death, or whether one wholly acknowledges the supremacy of the entity governing all functions of life, the workings of the sun, moon, gravity, etc. will not change in the slightest. What can be achieved, however, is a permanent end to death on the local level. Just as the measurements of time are not limited to single instances, the duration of one’s existence within a particular body type isn’t tallied just one time. The soul, the identifiable aspect within all life forms, exists perpetually, as it is above and beyond the forces of nature. The outer covering a soul assumes at a particular time may not remain manifest for very long, but this has no effect on the spiritual spark within. For instance, once we turn into adults, our childhood body is lost forever. There is nothing we can do to get it back; it is dead and gone. The skin, blood, flesh, etc. have all been replaced through the influence of time.

“As the embodied soul continually passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. The self-realized soul is not bewildered by such a change.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 2.13)

Just because we only get one childhood in a single lifetime doesn’t mean that the soul is affected in any way. Similarly, just because a particular body type goes through a cycle of birth and death doesn’t mean that the soul ceases to exist afterwards. The soul remains in existence for as long as the eye can see. The spiritual spark has also been around for as far as the mind can go back in time. This is the very meaning of sanatana, or eternal. Just as the soul is eternal, so are its inherent characteristics, the foremost of which is a loving propensity towards the Supreme Controller. But when desires temporarily shift towards competition in the areas of creation, maintenance and destruction, residence is granted in a realm governed by the impersonal forces of nature. These energies are described as such because the workings of the sun, wind, moon, etc. don’t play favorites. The sun doesn’t rise in the morning to particularly favor any one person. The sunlight is there for everyone’s benefit, as are the moonlight, water, food, and so many other aspects of nature.

As long as the supreme controller is identified as nature, fellow human beings, or even the personal self, residence on the material planets continues. An individual may adopt different bodies through the process of reincarnation, but the foremost characteristic of the soul remains in a dormant state due to the nature of desire. Therefore the aim of human life, which is considered the most advanced species, is to realize the true controller of the universe and take to His service. Not only will this reawaken the dormant love for God that exists within the soul, but it will put a permanent end to death, as there will be no more chance of taking birth in a temporary realm governed by ignorance of the highest authority figure, His blissful nature, and His open-ended offer for salvation to those who kindly surrender unto Him in a mood of pure love and devotion.

As this seems like a lot to swallow at one time, the religious institutions provide for a gradual elevation process through education, wherein one first learns that they are not their body, aham brahmasmi. Without this primary understanding, the basic functional unit of any bona fide spiritual discipline, there will not be any tangible progress made. Without first knowing who we are, how can we possibly even begin to fathom the workings of the Supreme Controller, whose familiarity will bring us the greatest pleasure? If the false identification adopted at the time of birth continues all the way up until death, how can desires shift from the material world to the spiritual world? If I identify myself solely as a human being having certain attributes, my desires will naturally be focused on meeting the demands of the senses. Since the senses are part of the temporary body, they will have to be renounced at the time of death. Yet if my desires are still focused on the senses at the end of life, the higher authorities will have no choice but to grant me a body in the next life that is commensurate with my wishes.

On the other hand, if I am taught that I am not my body at the beginning of my spiritual education, I can gradually take the steps necessary to transcend the effects of the senses. As mentioned before, the workings of nature will always be there, irrespective of whether the supreme authority is acknowledged or not. But the knowledge of aham brahmasmi, or “I am Brahman”, helps because it immediately removes the urge to fight against nature and the attempt to supersede its authority. The struggle against the natural forces represents the greatest waste of time, as even the animals aren’t stupid enough to follow this pursuit. Why try to create the most powerful source of artificial light and energy when the sun already takes care of this for us without requiring any external source or maintenance? Why create a giant reservoir of water when the clouds already supply all the water we need through periodic rainfall?

When proper identification of the self is present, a person can realize the need for resisting the temptations for gratifying the senses and instead focus on maintaining a simple lifestyle. At this point, the skeptic may retort with, “What’s wrong with searching after higher enjoyment? Why would I want to simply sit around all day and do nothing and pretend to be happy when I can go out and explore life?” Knowledge of Brahman is only the first step; it is not meant to be a tool to stop all activity. Rather, this wonderful teaching provided in the beginning stages of Vedic instruction reveals the secret to finding mental felicity. It is not the engagement per se that brings happiness, but rather the effect an activity has on the mind.

Let’s try and think of it this way: Say that we have two cellular telephones that have identical features. They can both fetch email, send and receive text messages, browse the internet, take photographs and, of course, make phone calls. If you were to carefully study both phones, you’d see that their capabilities are completely the same. There is one difference, however, in the internal makeup. Under similar usage, one phone requires recharging only once a week, while the other requires recharging every other day. Right away we see that the phone that only requires recharging once a week is superior due simply to efficiency. When equal supplies of energy are provided, one phone operates for a longer period of time; thus it is superior.

In a similar manner, if you have one living entity who can survive on a simple lifestyle and remain ever-satisfied within the mind, and you have another person who requires travelling to the moon at great expenditure to feel a little bit of happiness – which comes with great stress and turmoil as well – you’d have to say that the simpleminded man is more efficient. After all, the end result is the effect on the mindset, for consciousness is the ultimate source of happiness. The outward cause always appears to be some event in nature or some effect in one’s life, but the true determinant of happiness and distress is consciousness.

Through this rudimentary analysis we see that the highest engagement in life is to find that set of procedures and guidelines to follow that will lead to a permanent shift in consciousness for the better. This is where the higher stages of spiritual understanding really take on their value. By knowing that we are spirit soul in the beginning, we can slowly realize the need for finding counterparts in association. Not surprisingly, the ideal companion is God, who is known by many names in the Vedic tradition, with one of them being “Krishna”, which also addresses His original and most complete form.

Krishna is the very same supreme controller that everyone else acknowledges in some way or another. Yet through directly accepting Krishna’s supremacy, we get to personally interact with Him, whereas others will only associate with the separated expansion of energy known as material nature. Everything is Krishna, but only the Lord’s personal association, which can be easily had by regularly chanting, “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare”, extracts the soul’s primary characteristic, or its dharma, and brings it to the forefront of consciousness.

The beauty of association with Krishna is that He is fully animate and capable of reciprocating feelings and thoughts. The same can’t be said of any other labeled authority figure, be it a powerful politician, celebrity, or nature itself. The powerful human being may be able to elicit adulation offered in person or through communication media, but they can never be conscious of every single person in the world. Moreover, simply reciting the name of such praiseworthy persons will not bring about their audience. But with Krishna, who is the all-pervading witness, or antaryami, these defects are absent. The name of God and the personal form of the Lord are not different from one another.

If we are going to worship someone and anoint them as the highest authority figure, it might as well be Krishna. Not only is the Lord ever-blissful, beautiful, full of form, and the holder of every beneficial attribute, He also interacts with us through His pastimes and His teachings, which can be found in sacred texts like the Shrimad Bhagavatam and Bhagavad-gita. Accepting nature as the supreme controller does nothing to purify consciousness, whereas thoughts and remembrance of Krishna in a mood of love and devotion, even from those who are unaware of the truths of spiritual life, immediately turn the bewildered soul into the most efficient living entity, one who can survive any and all situations with minimal external support. Those who are Krishna conscious think of their beloved Shyamasundara at all times and appreciate the workings of His nature even more. Knowing the effect He has on His devotees, who wouldn’t take to worshiping Bhagavan Shri Krishna, who, as the Supreme Lord, transcends all sectarian traditions and barriers erected through ignorance? Everyone worships Krishna in some way or another, but only the devotees extract the sweet nectar that is the Lord’s personal association.

An Offer You Can’t Refuse

“The sunshine is available, but if we close our doors and want to keep ourselves in darkness, that is our decision. Similarly, Krishna is everywhere, Krishna is for everyone, and Krishna is ready to accept us as soon as we surrender.” (Shrila Prabhupada, Teachings of Queen Kunti, Ch 11)

What if someone were to come up to us and say, “If you follow my prescription, I can give you eternal life, one that is blissful in every way. No longer will you have to hanker or lament over trivial things, issues which resolve themselves automatically, similar to how the ripples of the ocean wash off whatever has been collected on the shore. This sublime engagement, when followed under the guidelines passed down by authority figures dating back thousands of years, can awaken the true knowledge resting inside of you and make you love at a level you didn’t think possible.”? Would we take stock in what they were telling us? Obviously there will be skepticism when reviewing such statements, but aside from the lack of faith, the promised goals are certainly well worth seeking after. Indeed, every engagement and its various proponents promise similar things. The promise of being taken up to heaven and never coming back down is wonderful to hear, but actually believing in the prescriptions recommended for achieving those ends can turn out to be a waste of time with almost every engagement except one, a system which has existed since the beginning of time and which, when understood in the proper context, presents an offer that can’t be refused.

“Engage your mind always in thinking of Me, offer obeisances and worship Me. Being completely absorbed in Me, surely you will come to Me.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 9.34)

Both the desperate salesman and the leader of the television infomercial put forth very appealing sales pitches, but we know that deep down their only concern is how to separate us from our money. The desire for profit serves as their motivation more than anything else, so it’s a little difficult to believe what they are telling us. In addition, we may have purchased a few of these products in the past in what are known as “impulse buys”, only to have been burned later on when the product didn’t live up to its billing. In the realm of spirituality, the promises of salvation are even more appealing, but the preponderance of religious systems and their numerous champions immediately have a diluting effect, removing the potency from the messages put forward.

Yet one system in particular is very logically sound. If even followed for a short period of time, it can bring tremendous results, a taste of the true bliss that is to come should we wholeheartedly put our faith into the process. While the salesman wants to get our money, the elevated transcendentalist wants to remove us from our body, permanently. Surely death signals the end of the current life, but as long as material desires remain, a new dress will be occupied in what is known as the next life. For the continuation of reincarnation to completely cease, a properly situated consciousness is required. This shouldn’t be a difficult concept to understand. If we don’t adopt the proper mindset while taking an academic course, we will be forced to repeat the class in a subsequent year. Regardless of how badly we may or may not want to remain in the class, if the proper level of intelligence isn’t acquired by the time of the course’s completion, promotion cannot be granted.

“One who has taken his birth is sure to die, and after death one is sure to take birth again. Therefore, in the unavoidable discharge of your duty, you should not lament.” (Lord Krishna, Bg. 2.27)

In a similar manner, we may hate or love the current life we have adopted and its accompanying surroundings, but as long as desires are not purified completely, rebirth is guaranteed. At this point the skeptic may intervene with, “Well, that’s what the Hindu system says. How do I know that reincarnation is real? Why won’t I just go to heaven after the current life is over?” As we have no memory of our previous lives, it is difficult to accept the statements of the Vedas, the ancient scriptures of India, pertaining to reincarnation as gospel. However, from our experiences in the current life, we can understand the concept of changing bodies. We know from the statements of our parents that prior to our entry into the world we survived as a tiny organism within the womb of our mother. Even though we have no memory of this experience, it most certainly occurred. Similarly, our entire body has shifted in appearance throughout the course of our lifetime, so there is no reason to think that in the future we won’t exist.

As far as going to heaven automatically, why would the Supreme Person, the entity who is in charge of the topmost realm, want to take us away from our happy place, the land that we have grown accustomed to? What about people who don’t make it to adulthood? Do they go to heaven automatically as well? If so, then one would have to assume that living long is actually a detriment, for if one can be killed while as a young child, prior to all of life’s struggles taking place, then heaven can be attained much more easily. Applying a little logic and common sense, we see that the Vedic assertion of the soul’s getting what it wants in the future makes more sense than the idea of an automatic ticket to heaven or hell reserved for those who take to fruitive activity in the current life.

The key to attaining the transcendental realm is having the right consciousness, which is driven by desire. Based on past and present activities, the predominant mindset is shaped. If we spend all of our time drinking alcohol, gambling, having illicit sex and voraciously eating animal flesh, naturally our consciousness will not be purified. On the other hand, taking to knowledge acquiring activities, getting involved in charity and sacrifice of the religious variety, and performing austerities can purify the mind, which in turn leads to a better condition.

“From the highest planet in the material world down to the lowest, all are places of misery wherein repeated birth and death take place. But one who attains to My abode, O son of Kunti, never takes birth again.” (Lord Krishna, Bg. 8.16)

The offer presented by the devotees, those following the ancient art of bhakti-yoga, or devotional service, is that if you simply focus your attention on God at all times in a loving attitude, every beneficial goal and condition can be had. The scientists explore outer space and the moon in order to find something that is lacking in their current lives, to fill a void. But from the Bhagavad-gita, the Song of God sung by Lord Krishna Himself, who is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, we learn that all the planets of the material world are places where birth, old age, disease and death take place. Therefore there is really no difference between material life in one realm and another. The fish live in the water while the human beings live on land. If the human beings wanted a change in lifestyle by taking up residence in the water, would they become free of death and disease? By the same token, man may fly off millions of miles into outer space and see new surroundings, but the workings of the mind and the environment will still be there.

The imperishable land, the one inhabited and personally ruled over by God, is the only place where the four miserable events tied to material existence do not exist. Time and space are present in the spiritual land, but they have no effect. Time is only noted in our present life because of the effect it has on us. As time goes on, our bodies start to decay and we lose whatever previous conditions we had, both favorable and unfavorable. Similarly, space limits the breadth of our activities and the interactions we have with nature. In the spiritual land, even the bodies assumed by the inhabitants are considered spiritual, thus there are no inhibiting effects like birth and old age. Everyone is constantly engaged in glorifying and interacting with the Supreme Person, Shri Krishna.

How can a spiritual land with such wonderful attributes exist? How do we know that Krishna is God and not just some Hindu figure worshiped out of ignorance? In this respect there must be some trust in the beginning stages of devotional life; otherwise our skepticism will ruin any chances for progression. To properly attain the bhakti mindset there is no requirement of changing faiths or converting to the Hindu tradition. Indeed, God can only be a singular entity; otherwise He would lose His supreme standing. Krishna is a Sanskrit word that means “all-attractive”, thus it very aptly applies to the person most of us refer to as God. Even in the Vedic tradition the same Krishna is worshiped in many other forms such as Lord Rama and Lord Vishnu, but the result of the worship is the same. Therefore God is universally the most worshipable person, the entity who is most deserving of our love and respect. This position remains the same regardless of a person’s religious affiliation or country of origin.

As far as Krishna’s land being so wonderful, accepting this also requires some sobriety of thought and careful consideration. If the Lord can make large land masses known as planets float in space for all of time, why can’t His realm be full of the most wonderful delights? In fact, in the absence of the understanding of the Supreme Person’s wondrous nature and capabilities, professions of religiousness have little meaning. The bhaktas follow devotional service because it allows them to remain forever focused on the Supreme Lord and His wonderful pastimes that continually occur in the many planets dispersed throughout the innumerable universes.

How is bhakti practiced? The simplest method of its implementation is the chanting of the holy names, “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.” Chanting is both a means and an end, as in the beginning it causes a shift in consciousness and at the end the devoted soul remains so committed to connecting with Krishna that they can never let go of any of His personal aspects, including His name. A necessary ingredient in a panacea of existence is peace of mind, which comes about through a purified consciousness. While salesmen peddling products focus on narrow targets such as weight loss, dealing with stress, basic health, and who is running the government, the followers of the bhakti school aim to tackle the aggregate workings of the mind directly. This approach allows for evenness of thought in any and all situations.

Bhakti is so beautiful that the sincere devotee doesn’t even have to wait until the afterlife to reap benefits. The chanting of the holy names, through elevating the thought processes of the mind, mentally takes the individual up to heaven and never brings them down. After all, who could ever remain miserable while contemplating the wonderful spiritual form of the Supreme Lord, who is always holding a flute in His hands and wearing a peacock feather in His hair? Whose pride wouldn’t run away in fear upon seeing the beautiful face of Shyamasundara, who is elegantly decked out in flower garlands and the most precious jewels in the world? If we are unhappy over a certain unfavorable outcome in our present life, we can remember Krishna running around the spiritual land of Vrindavana and giving delight to His friends. Solace can be found by tapping into the transcendental sound waves coming from Krishna’s flute that permeate the cosmos.

The skeptic may argue that this technique of bhakti is simply a way to control the mind and that the same result can be had by focusing the mind on anything. In fact, this is the viewpoint of the impersonalist philosophers, whose ultimate aim is to stop all activity, including reincarnation, through deep meditation and a renounced order of life. They view bhakti as a tool for the less intelligent, sort of like training wheels for the transcendentalist who hasn’t yet figured out how to ride the bike to spiritual salvation. In reality, the roles are reversed. Those who have failed to understand the blissful nature of the Personality of Godhead seek to remain dedicated to specific methods of self-realization aimed at eliminating sense interaction with nature. The pure devotees, on the other hand, eventually lose all hankering for self-realization and alleviation of distress. Their wealth is the love they have for Krishna, and since this boon remains with them in abundance, they are never out of funds when it comes to purchasing time on the magical ride that is vishnu-bhakti.

“Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reaction. Do not fear.” (Lord Krishna, Bg. 18.66)

We can try to focus our mind on things besides Krishna, like a piece of wood or even the exploits of a worldly figure, but the level of devotion will always be checked. The limitation arises from the deficiencies present in the objects of worship, which are not personally related to God. Krishna is the ultimate reservoir of pleasure, and if we are wise enough to accept the kind words of the humble souls who try to spread vishnu-bhakti around the world, we can get a taste of what that wonderful life is like. The offer made by Krishna is that if we fully surrender unto Him, He will deliver us from all sinful reaction and that we should not have any fear about this. In spite of our constant refusal of His offer, it always remains on the table just waiting to be accepted, such is the mercy of Shri Krishna.

Working in Harmony

“In Goloka Vrindavana, the living entities are serving Krishna as friends, cowherd boys, gopis, lovers, fathers, mothers and so on. Even the trees, water, flowers, land, calves and cows serve Krishna in Goloka Vrindavana. This is also our business, but somehow or other we do not like to serve Krishna; therefore we have been put into the service of maya, in the three modes of material nature.” (Shrila Prabhupada, Teachings of Lord Kapila, Ch 12)

Who are we? Why are we placed into this world? The bewildered soul feels as if he is a stranger in a strange land, forced to roam an area where the proper course of action is not easy to decipher. In addition, there are the obvious pains and miseries to deal with, which can be inflicted by forces of nature, the mind and the body, and the influences of other living entities. Why can’t there just be peace and harmony? Why is there war, famine, pestilence, greed, envy, pride and so many other destructive agents? The Vedas, the ancient scriptures of India, fill in many of these details to the best level of understanding possible, for the human mind is incapable of gaining complete knowledge. This very deficiency is indicative of the primary difference between the superior entity and His subordinates. This discrepancy also provides a clue into helping us find the proper course of action in life, a path which leads to a reinstatement of the natural order. When the individual’s identity is properly understood, all work can be performed under the proper mindset and for the most worthwhile aim, thus relieving the distresses that are regularly encountered.

“Know that which pervades the entire body is indestructible. No one is able to destroy the imperishable soul.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 2.17)

The most difficult realization for the conditioned soul bewildered by the forces of nature to come upon is the proper identification. What does this mean exactly? Sense perceptions form the basis of all opinion and thought. This should make sense after all, for if we don’t hear, see or taste something, how will we understand anything? From the time of birth, what is known to us is our body; so the various parts it has, such as the hands, legs, face, and mind, are taken as the identifiable aspects. But through the sublime vision of the Vedas and the people who disseminate Vedic wisdom, the confidential information revealing the real identity of the individual comes to be known. The essence of individuality is the spirit soul, which is part and parcel of a higher being. From One came many, but the many can never be equal to the One. A piece of paper may be folded up and then ripped into many different pieces, thereby destroying the original, but in spiritual understanding, the Original can create an infinite number of fragments and still never be destroyed. Only in the spiritual world, a realm not affected by the pangs of material existence brought on by the forces of time, can one plus one equal one and two minus two equal two.

As the individuals have come from the Original, there is an inherent relationship established between the two entity types. The many are meant to act in the service of the Original, for one entity always remains superior and the other always subordinate. In the absence of this relationship in an active state, the many can never find a permanent, peaceful condition. The genesis of the material world, the realm we currently occupy, can be traced to the desire to break free from the constitutional position. When service to the Supreme Entity is neglected, there must be unhappiness and misery. At the same time, the Original never changes His position, as He is eternally situated in transcendence. Therefore the offer to rejoin His association is always open. One simply has to understand their true nature and follow the steps necessary for rekindling their dormant love for the Supreme Lord and all problems will vanish.

To help us better understand how and why turning our backs on our constitutional position has such a deleterious effect, we can study the workings of modern appliances and machines. By taking something as simple as a dishwasher we can see how specific components are meant to work in a certain way, and how deviating from the intended functions can have harmful consequences. With a dishwasher, we get a wonderful invention that allows for loads of dirty dishes to be cleaned at one time. When manually cleaning plates and glasses, there is much effort taken to wipe, wash and dry each plate, glass, knife and fork individually. Especially if one has a big family or if one is working in a large eating establishment, the number of dirty dishes can pile up very quickly. Therefore the dishwasher becomes a godsend, a machine that can save so much time and effort by washing many dishes at one time while requiring little manual labor.

The dishwasher has a specific constitutional position, meaning it can only be used to wash certain kinds of items. Inside of the machine there is typically a rack, which stipulates that the plates and glasses be aligned in proper order, with sufficient space separating them. This ensures that every dish is cleaned properly and thoroughly. There is also a designated dispenser for the dishwashing detergent, and the cycles of the machine are tailored specifically to clean and dry metal, porcelain, glass and silver utensils and kitchen items.

Now let’s say we wanted to clean our clothes inside of a dishwasher. This seems like a silly proposal, as there already exist machines to wash and dry clothes, but in a realm where there is freedom of action, anything is possible. It would be silly to go on violent rampages or ingest lethal doses of drugs and alcohol, but people go to these extremes regardless. Freedom brings with it the possibility of all outcomes occurring. The rational thinkers may realize that certain activities are foolish and should thus be avoided, but this doesn’t universally preclude the harmful actions from being committed. Therefore there is every possibility of a person placing shirts, pants or underwear into a dishwasher to clean.

The results of such a transgression are pretty obvious to predict. A clothes washing machine moves the garments around and spins them so that they will be easier to dry later on. The dishwashing machine has a completely different goal in mind. If the dishes were to be moved around, there would be a high risk of breakage during the process. Therefore the items requiring cleaning remain stationary. Because of this feature, a dishwashing machine will not clean clothes very well. In addition, the drying cycles are completely different; therefore the clothes can be damaged by the levels of heat employed.

Putting clothes in a dishwasher is one small example out of many actions that can be taken which violate the constitutional nature of the objects in question. Indeed, even in the washing machine if certain clothes are put through the incorrect cycle, the clothes can be damaged. Sweaters can shrink drastically in size if the wrong heat levels are applied during the drying stage. Mixing bright colors with whites will result in clothes with a pink color after washing. In this way, the constitutional position, the dharma of the particular object, must be maintained; otherwise the results will be unpleasant.

For the spirit soul, the machine occupied at the time of birth serves as the instrument for work. Identity comes from the spiritual spark within, with the body taking direction from it. Since the soul’s dharma is to be a lover of God, the natural occupational duty of the body becomes to act in the interests of the soul’s essential characteristic. Activities like hearing, chanting, remembering and worshiping God in all His glory are what the various body parts should be used for. When constitutional activities are absent, or when they are not given highest priority amongst all other behaviors within a daily routine, the body does not get utilized properly. As we saw with the dishwasher, if a machine is misused, there cannot be beneficial results. The miseries we see around us are due only to forgetfulness of God, a transgression which causes every resultant action taken to be unnatural.

But to understand that we are not our body is very difficult. How is it possible to realize that every aspect of our outer covering is simply dead matter that doesn’t represent who we are? The example often cited by wonderful and kind devotees like His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada to properly convey the principle of true identity relates to the hands and the stomach. The hands are very useful body parts capable of doing so many things. For the kshatriyas, the warrior class of men, the hands can be used for fighting, performing religious sacrifices, and giving in charity. Though a military man has many responsibilities pertaining to the defense of the innocent, his hands are still capable of bringing tangible benefits and carrying out prescribed duties in so many other areas of activity. The stomach, on the other hand, has the specific role of distributing the nutrients found in food to the rest of the body. Though the stomach seems to work involuntarily, its functions are regulated by the workings of nature, which dictate how material elements interact. As soon as food is ingested, the stomach knows just where to redirect the relevant nutrients.

What would happen if the hand decided that it was going to enjoy food for itself? The hand is equally as related to the body as the stomach is, so why should it be deprived of enjoying sumptuous food? Obviously this mindset is silly, for the hand’s constitutional position in eating is to serve the owner of the body by taking food and placing it into the mouth. In the absence of real knowledge of the way that food should be ingested, the hand would simply touch and hold food and do nothing else. Therefore there would never be any tangible benefit received.

The hands and stomach are attached to the body, so it is a little difficult to understand that they are separate from the individual. But what if we took the example of something similar to a hand, like a spoon? Say that the hand decided to hold a spoon and use it to pick up food and bring it to the mouth. When the spoon is attached to the body, it essentially becomes one with the individual, an appendage to the machine occupied by the soul. If the spoon decided to act outside of its intended functions, such as by writing, holding weapons, performing sacrifices, or lifting objects heavier than normal food portions, there would be no benefit to the body. The spoon can even be renounced without the individual being affected at all.

All of the body parts work in the same way, including the mind. Every aspect of the outer covering of the soul is a temporary manifestation of matter. The soul is given the giant machine known as the body to gain release from the cycle of birth and death. The human form of life is considered the most auspicious because only a human being can understand the high concepts that explain the differences between matter and spirit. The animal will forever think that its hands and legs form its identity. It is seen that a human being can survive after losing a hand or a leg; thus how can identity be taken from the body? Prosthetic limbs can perform many of the same functions as the original body parts, so there should be no difficulty in understanding that we are spirit soul, aham brahmasmi.

“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.” (Lord Krishna, Bg. 2.22)

When the body parts act in the interests of maintaining the foremost characteristic of the soul, its sanatana dharma, there is no question of unhappiness or distress. The residents of Goloka Vrindavana, which is situated in the spiritual sky, best exemplify what the proper course of action looks like and what comes as a result of being wholly conscious of the Supreme Lord. The original fire of spiritual energy is known by many names in the numerous spiritual traditions around the world, but the Vedas proclaim that the two names “Krishna” and “Rama” best describe and address that Supreme Being. Krishna is the most attractive entity in all the universes. He is of a bluish complexion and is exquisitely beautiful. Just one look at His smiling face is enough to destroy the pride of the living entity deluded by the forces of nature. Dharma can be reinstated in just one second through a pure, loving sentiment directed at the Supreme Lord. Rama describes God’s ability to provide the most intense transcendental pleasure to the individual souls. This name is also used to address Krishna’s expansion as the warrior prince Lord Rama, who roamed this earth many thousands of years ago.

The non-different forms of Godhead are many, but the original personality never changes. Anyone who is devoted to God in thought, word and deed will never have to worry about the damaging effects of using the various aspects of material nature incorrectly. The residents in the spiritual land of Vrindavana always work for Krishna’s pleasure. Everyone there is wholly deferent to their specific mood of worship, the relationship they have established with Govinda, the pleasure giver to the senses and the cows. Normally we think of service as requiring a respectful attitude, where the servant doesn’t speak up and strictly follows all the orders given by the master. In the spiritual land, the service mentality can follow many different rasas, or transcendental mellows. The work of a devotee acting as Krishna’s parent is different from the actions undertaken by Krishna’s friend, but the mood of love and devotion is the same. The mother sometimes chastises Krishna and treats Him as if He were helpless, while the friend views the Lord as an equal, a confidante whose company should never be renounced.

All of these relationships can be established by any person residing in the material world through commitment to bhakti-yoga, or devotional service. Chanting the names of the Lord found in the maha-mantra, “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare”, is the bedrock of real yoga. Material nature is only illusory and the source of misery for as long as its various components are used improperly. When the bhakti mindset is adopted, all the parts of the machine known as the body can be used to reach the param dhama, the ultimate destination of the Supreme Abode belonging to the Supreme Person.

Rendezvous With Destiny

“Since Krishna is the source of our generation, or the supreme father, no one can be a better friend than Krishna, nor can anyone be a better well-wisher.” (Shrila Prabhupada, Bhagavad-gita, 9.18 Purport)

With some friends, it doesn’t matter how much time you spend away from them, the ease of interaction and compatibility in thoughts and interests will always remain. Despite the number of years spent separated, during which time new interests and desires are sure to be introduced, upon meeting again, all the old stories and common points of interest return. Interestingly enough, we have had a strong connection with one entity in particular since the beginning of time. No matter how much time passes or how much we try to forget His presence, His open offer of friendship and kindness never expires. Should we have the good fortune of understanding this notable personality and His ever-merciful nature, the loneliness brought on by material contact can forever fade away.

Every living entity assumes different qualities at the time of birth. This is readily perceptible to even the least spiritually conscious individual, as we see that certain children take to quiet behavior in their youth while others are overly active and driven to naughty behavior. The visible signs of a person’s inherent nature first appear in the early years, for it is not uncommon to learn that the great success stories in the entertainment, sports and business worlds polished their abilities while they were young. A star golfer likely first picked up a club before they were able to talk, a businessman honed in his skills at trading and earning a profit while still in school, and an actor was drawn to giving performances in the home in front of family and guests.

“Whatever state of being one remembers when he quits his body, that state he will attain without fail.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 8.6)

The Vedas, the ancient scriptures of India, kindly provide some background information in this regard. Based on the past desires of the essence of individuality, the individual spirit soul, a specific body type was crafted. For instance, if we wanted to be a star athlete in a previous life and took the necessary steps to direct our consciousness in that area, the next form of body was crafted perfectly to meet those desires. The reactions to our past work also played a role in our fortunes, as every action has a commensurate reaction, which can be favorable or unfavorable. This is how karma, or fruitive activity, operates.

The shaping of material bodies based on desire and work is generally considered an Eastern concept, but we actually see evidence of the workings of action and reaction in our daily endeavors. If an individual puts in the time to study and do well in school for the purpose of succeeding in a specific career path, they will likely get what they want later in life. Similarly, if someone should neglect an important action like stopping at a red traffic light or yielding to oncoming traffic, there will likely be a negative result in the form of a traffic accident. Where the Vedas are unique is that they don’t assume the reactions to work stop with death. Indeed, the spirit soul lives forever, as we know that life existed on earth prior to our birth. We also know from the passing of other entities that life will continue to exist should we leave our present body. Since the material nature continues to exist, it is safe to assume that the soul will exist perpetually as well.

The accumulation of reactions to work is not exclusive to the spirit souls dwelling in human bodies; the soul can be placed into any form. The animal species, those we view to be wholly ignorant, are spirit souls who have desires to enjoy their senses without any impediment. One who is addicted to sex life will have a much easier time fulfilling their desires in the body of a dog or a monkey than in a human form. The influence of adhyatmika miseries, those brought on by the mind and personal senses, is greatly reduced in the animal kingdom. A human being gets ulcers worrying about how to pay the rent, find a life partner and deal with issues at home and at the office, but the ignorant animal has no such concerns. They don’t even have to worry about wooing members of the opposite sex; they just have intimate relations with whoever is around.

The human being is advanced in its ability to acquire intelligence. The key is to make use of that potential, as imitating the eating, sleeping, mating and defending habits of the animal doesn’t represent any real advancement. A human being lacking God consciousness is really no different than an animal and can even be considered a less evolved species due to the increased miseries brought on by the mind, which is constantly hankering and lamenting. The pendulum consisting of the desire to enjoy and the need to renounce constantly swings back and forth, bringing about seeming changes in thoughts and circumstances, while not really taking the individual to any elevated level of consciousness.

Though the human species is considered the most advanced, based on the qualities assumed at the time of birth, there are still varying penchants for desire and interest. Friendships are formed based on common interest, as we will bond with people who like the same things that we do and who engage in the same types of activities that we enjoy. It’s interesting to note, however, that friendships cannot be forced. We can work with someone every day in the same office for years and try our best to form a connection with them in terms of interest and conversation, but if there is no compatibility in natures, a true friendship will never be formed. With some people it is very difficult to have conversations and develop a rapport that makes their association enjoyable.

With our good friends, however, no amount of time spent apart can break the connection. Indeed, the actual time it took to originally form the friendship could have been very short, maybe even a few weeks or months. To use an example, the friendships created during the short four years of college don’t necessarily bring about continued association after graduation. Individuals eventually part their separate ways and go on to settle down in cities that can be many miles apart. Yet upon reuniting with their college friends, the spark is still there in the conversations. Even when meeting after many years, it feels as if no time has passed at all, as the dialogue flows smoothly and evenly, with the interests still remaining the same.

“Physical nature is known to be endlessly mutable. The universe is the cosmic form of the Supreme Lord, and I am that Lord represented as the Supersoul, dwelling in the heart of every embodied being.” (Lord Krishna, Bg. 8.4)

These strong connections are rare in occurrence and thus worthy of appreciation. Fortunately for every form of life, there is a connection to a singular entity that remains forever intact, regardless of the level of awareness of the relationship. Just as the spirit soul forms the basis of activity and individuality within every form of life, there is a more powerful soul, one that emanates from the Supreme Person, that accompanies the individual spiritual spark in its travels from one life form to the next. Depending on the time, circumstance, and spiritual tradition of the specific geographic location, this individual can be addressed by different names, but the Sanskrit word “Krishna” very nicely describes His all-attractive features. The person most of us know as God must be more attractive than anyone else; otherwise His features would be inferior. If the Supreme Being were deficient in any category of opulence, He couldn’t be deemed greater than anyone else; hence He would also lose His status as the person most deserving of worship.

As the predominant proclivity of the soul is to seek pleasure based on attractiveness, Krishna becomes the ideal beneficiary for our service. Depending on the person we interact with and our level of connection with them, offering service can be quite difficult. It’s much easier to serve someone with whom we have an identified relationship. And the more intimate the relationship, the stronger the affection and kindness will flow. Moreover, if there is to be service, there must be a tangible benefit derived, something which satisfies the emotional needs of the performer.

Through the ancient practice of bhakti-yoga, or devotional service, the soul finds the occupation that it is naturally tailored towards. Through the religion of love, the service penchant that is part and parcel of individual spirit gets fully tapped into. Not only does the human being have a higher potential for intelligence, but he also has the ability to make the best use of his natural desire to love. Only when the beneficiary has a tremendously powerful connection with the servitor can the resulting engagement be deemed superior. As Krishna is all-attractive, He is capable of providing the greatest pleasure to the naturally inclined to serve living entity.

In the conditioned state, where knowledge of Krishna’s friendship is forgotten, the soul takes to serving other entities or even itself. Since the beneficiaries of such service don’t all carry the same level of connection, the resulting happiness through association can vary in potency. But only with Krishna can the link in consciousness remain firmly established once rekindled. Despite the thousands of lifetimes spent in ignorance of Krishna’s kind residence within the heart as the Supersoul, the Lord is openly willing to embrace us should we have the good sense to turn inwards and acknowledge His welcoming arms.

So how do we connect with the Supersoul? With our friends, we can meet with them personally after a long time and reignite the natural connection, but where do we go to find Krishna and talk to Him? The secret is to meet with a pure devotee, one who is already connected with the Supersoul through consciousness. This meeting can take place at any time in life and be supremely potent in its effectiveness. As an example, Prahlada Maharaja, while within the womb, heard of the glories of Shri Krishna and devotion to Him through the words of Narada Muni spoken to his mother. At the time of birth, Prahlada was able to recall this wisdom by connecting with the Supreme Consciousness. Despite all the subsequent efforts of his father, King Hiranyakashipu, to get him to turn his attention towards fruitive activity and royal administration, Prahlada was only interested in bhakti. Indeed, when his father asked him what he learned in school, Prahlada told him that the most important business in life was to take to hearing, chanting, remembering, worshiping, offering prayers, serving the lotus feet of the Lord, carrying out the Divine orders, becoming friends with God and completely surrendering unto the Supreme Spirit.

The unbreakable friendship can be established immediately through tapping into the Divine consciousness. For the conditioned entities of the modern age, the most powerful tool to bring about remembrance of Krishna and His names, pastimes and qualities is the regular recitation of “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare”. Every individual is inclined towards repeating this sacred formula, which is known as the maha-mantra. Since everyone is a long lost friend of Krishna’s, any of the processes of bhakti can be considered constitutional, or engagements we are accustomed to.

Lest we consider bhakti to be simply an ancient art of the Hindu tradition, we know that certain learned activities for the human being are practiced and perfected universally. For instance, the newborn has no idea how to walk, though through practice and sincere effort, this ability is eventually mastered. Once someone can walk, the activity is never renounced. Walking is such an integral part of daily activity that it occurs almost involuntarily. Similarly, bhakti-yoga, connection to Krishna through an always active link in consciousness, becomes second nature to the sincere devotee interested in remaining forever in the company of that one individual with whom they will always feel comfortable. Just as meeting with a long lost friend brings us comfort and happiness, reuniting with Krishna leads to the greatest joy, a level of satisfaction capable of allowing the individual to endure any and all situations. After speaking of the glories of bhakti, Prahlada Maharaja was subsequently tortured and made to live in the most fearful of conditions by his father, who was indirectly engaged in the service of the Lord through a mood of hatred. Even hate is a product of the natural loving propensity, as it is simply a complete inversion of the mood of transcendental affection.

Yet through it all, Prahlada maintained his steady demeanor, as his best friend saved him from danger at every step. Finally, the same friend, the Supreme Lord, appeared on the scene in a seemingly strange guise of a half-man/half-lion. This specific form, now celebrated as Narasimhadeva, took care of Hiranyakashipu and thereby permanently removed the sources of external distress for Prahlada. Though he got to see God personally, Prahlada never changed his level of devotion. Through steady allegiance to bhakti, the long awaited rendezvous with Krishna brings the most tangible result of a permanent shift in consciousness. As such, at the time of death, the individual is no longer subject to the cycle of birth and death known as reincarnation. Rather than have to relearn the basic activities of an animal, the liberated soul earns Krishna’s personal association for all of eternity.

Though the connection with Krishna is never broken, it can be forgotten. When memory of the Divine link is rekindled and activities are adopted based on that understanding, the pendulum of material enjoyment and distress immediately ceases. The Krishna conscious person is never without their best friend for even a second; therefore there is no opportunity for unhappiness, loneliness or distress.

Caught Under The Wheel’s Roll

“My dear Lord, I am a living entity perpetually disturbed by the conditions of material existence. I have been cracked to pieces by the smashing wheel of material existence, and because of my various sinful activities while existing in this material world, I am burning in the blazing fire of material reactions. Somehow or other, my dear Lord, I have come to take shelter under Your lotus feet. Please accept me and give me protection.” (Shripada Shridhara Svami, Krishna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Vol 2, Ch 32)

Samsara-chakra is known as the wheel of material existence, which continues in a cycle that is generally viewed in a negative light due to the perpetual suffering that accompanies each successive turn of the wheel, as each revolution brings about a variety of unpredictable fortunes. One who is not caught in this spinning, which is constantly working through the effects of time, is thus deemed liberated and free from any effects of material existence. The Supreme Lord, who resides in the spiritual sky and is the fountainhead of all energies, carries a different kind of chakra, one that is described as having an auspicious appearance, sudarshana. Material existence, or samsara, has just the opposite type of wheel, so in the matter of choosing between the two, a sober man would always opt for association with the more beautiful one, the wheel that does not impose any suffering or cause a grinding cycle of pain. Due to the living entity’s marginal potency, unless and until the proper choice is made, the suffering of samsara will continue.

A nice illustration of the resultant effects of not properly accounting for an exit condition from a cycle is seen in the world of computer programming. Due to the advanced technological age, computers have become a mainstay in everyday life, with the internet being the primary source of information, supplanting both television and print media. The software application, or program, is at the heart of the vital functions of the computer, as it is the component that gives the machine its appeal and utility. Without such programs, the computer would be simply a collection of parts incapable of doing anything tangible. Though computer programming can be quite intricate and complex, so much so that it is considered its own field of study, the basic units of a program aren’t too complicated to understand. Just as a large housing structure is composed of simple bolts and different manifestations of wood, a well-functioning computer application is a collection of programmatic instructions presented together in a proper flow and designed to handle and account for different types of input.

In the most basic application, the operations involve the declaration of variables and functions, assignment of different values, calling of functions, and the use of looping constructs. The loop is where things get interesting, as it is especially necessary for dealing with iterative operations, wherein one must traverse through a set of commands or a string of values entering the program from an external source. At the foundational level, the value that requires traversal could be something as simple as user input. Say we have a command line program that takes user input and then echoes back the same value onto the screen with spaces in between the entered characters. Say the user opens the program and enters the word “Krishna” on the screen. The expected output would then be “K r i s h n a ”. Though there are several ways to tackle this problem, as a rudimentary programming exercise the word entered would be stored in a string field, or at least an array of characters.

In this scenario the loop construct is required because the input is not known to the program, for the application is simply a collection of instructions after all. If one writes the program only to handle the word “Krishna”, then the code will fail or not function properly when any other type of input is entered. The code must be able to handle generic information; hence it requires the loop construct to iterate through the input. Since in this example the word “Krishna” is entered, the character string that must be iterated through contains seven letters, or characters. A basic algorithm for delivering the intended result would loop through the string, retrieve each character, append a space to it, store the resulting value in an output string, and then move on to the next character in the input. The output string would be stored in a variable which gets appended to during each iteration of the loop. So if the output variable starts with “K “, then the next iteration would add “K “ to “r “, resulting in “K r “.

When the loop finishes traversing the user input, the resulting string value is then outputted to the screen and the program exits. This all seems well and good, right? But what if the loop doesn’t properly exit? What if there is no proper break condition accounted for in the loop declaration? Most popular programming languages utilized today have a “for” or “foreach” looping construct which makes it easier to break out of the loop at the proper time, but what if we used a “while” loop in this scenario? In a while loop at the beginning of each iteration a simple test condition is applied which tells the code whether or not to continue in the loop. This test condition must evaluate to “false” when the loop has finally iterated through all the values.

When the proper break condition is not accounted for, the result is an infinite loop, one that never stops executing. In the history of computer science, these situations have occurred quite often, sometimes in some of the most large-scale programs. The results are, not surprisingly, sometimes disastrous, as the program continues to function without reporting anything back to the user. If a program errors out or if there is a simple bug not accounted for, the execution will stop and the intended functions will not complete. But the infinite loop doesn’t exit; it continues to perform operations perpetually. In our simple example, we are just reading data and iterating through a string, but what if our code called for a more memory intensive operation at each step in the loop? If the loop continues, it will eat up more and more of the computer’s memory, thus shutting out other programs from the resources they need to function. Moreover, an infinite loop will lock up the program currently being utilized, thus not allowing the user to know what is going on.

Since the beginning of time, man has pondered the reason for his existence and the justification for his being put on this earth. Though this inquiry can continue forever without a solid conclusion reached, through the submissive hearing process tied to the most authorized of sources we can actually find out the answers. The Vedas, the ancient scriptures of India passed down through an aural tradition, state that the jiva souls, which are marginal in their position, have a choice as it relates to association. They can either remain with pure spirit or with dull matter. Both energies, the spiritual and the material, are eternally existing and part of the Supreme Lord. Yet the material energy is considered a separated expansion, so the personal influence of the original storehouse of spiritual energy is absent. Matter is dull, lifeless, and temporary in its manifestations. Though the energy exists perpetually, the different forms that it takes and the influences that result are anything but permanent. Spirit, on the other hand, is directly tied to God, who is known as Krishna because of His all-attractive nature. The personal energy of God is never subject to destruction, ignorance, suffering, changes, or any type of pain.

“The Supreme Lord said, The indestructible, transcendental living entity is called Brahman, and his eternal nature is called the self. Action pertaining to the development of these material bodies is called karma, or fruitive activities.” (Bhagavad-gita, 8.3)

The jivas, we living entities, are in between dull matter, or maya, and pure spirit, or Brahman. Though we are Brahman by constitution, we are technically considered marginal because we have a choice in association. Krishna, as the creator of both energies, is Parabrahman; thus He has no defect in His association, nor is He required to choose between any realm. Wherever He goes is considered spiritual. The material world, the phenomenal realm we currently occupy, is ruled by the separated energy. Our presence on earth is due simply to our desires. When that desire was first initiated will forever be unknown, as only God, as antaryami, or the supreme witness, is supremely knowledgeable. For the jiva to understand any and all truths of spiritual life, he must become God; something which can never happen. Krishna’s post is not up for election nor is it ever vacant. God never becomes God; He is always the Supreme Lord.

Though the human mind may not be able to trace out the initial date of its descent from the spiritual sky, the pathway leading out of the suffering of material existence is quite straightforward. One who thinks of Krishna at the time of death makes their choice of spirit over matter well known. The jiva’s wishes are always respected, so when the desire to be with Krishna is sincere, the association with matter ceases. In the absence of this firm attachment to the Supreme Spirit, the wheel of material suffering will continue. Even at the time of death, when the grossly foolish believe everything finishes, the pure spiritual entity, the spark of life, assumes another temporary dress and is thus given a renewed opportunity to play on the temporary playing field known as the material world.

In computer programming terms, the jivas are caught in an iterative loop, one which executes similar operations during each iteration. Though the body types assumed during each turn of the wheel may differ, with some jivas dwelling in bodies of animals and some in humans, the steps encountered in the loop are similar. When the iteration has completed, i.e. when the time of death has come, the loop condition is measured, wherein the sincere desires of the soul and the results of past work are reviewed. As long as the loop condition continues to evaluate to “true”, i.e. the desire to take another stab at material existence remains, the iterations continue.

“O son of Kunti, at the end of the millennium every material manifestation enters into My nature, and at the beginning of another millennium, by My potency I again create.” (Lord Krishna, Bg. 9.7)

In the most ideal situation, the wheel of material existence will spin only one time for the fallen soul. One lifetime’s worth of separation from Krishna in consciousness should be enough to set the mind straight. But just as the properly written program must account for all types of input, the wheel of material existence is ready to accept an infinite number of loop iterations, so many that even when the entire creation is destroyed, the wheel starts spinning again when the next creation manifests. Whether a particular jiva only wants one material life to live or millions of them, the hourglass of time must continue to pour its effects of change on the material bodies of the residents of the temporary and perishable realm.

So how do we get out from under the rolling wheel that continually causes us pain? How do we ensure that the next loop condition evaluates to “false” so that we can get out of the spinning wheel? The Vedas, though an intricate set of scriptures that delve into many different topics, are primarily about devotion to God. Indeed, that is the entire purpose behind supreme knowledge, to understand that Krishna is the original proprietor of everything, the greatest enjoyer and the best friend of the living entities. The Vedas and devotional service, or bhakti, are equivalent. In this respect, love of Godhead is even more powerful than the Lord Himself. One who is conditionally situated has to work under the dictates of nature and the wheel of material suffering. But one who is wholly dedicated to Krishna in thought, word and deed is so exalted that even Krishna Himself cannot influence them.

The gopis of Vrindavana are the most sterling example of this truth. They love Krishna so much that they abandon attachment to their husbands, families and household duties. Surely they perform all of their required tasks and give outward deference to established codes of conduct, but internally they are always thinking about Krishna and hearing the transcendental sound of His flute playing. When Krishna asks them to stop loving Him and to go back to serving their husbands, to whom they are religiously duty-bound to provide pleasure and comfort, the gopis simply ignore Krishna, considering Him to be temporarily out of sorts. After all, if the Supreme Lord is the ultimate reservoir of pleasure, how can any behavior devoid of His association be deemed a superior engagement? Through the behavior of the pure bhaktas, Krishna’s influences become nullified, as He is incapable of matching their high standard of love.

Obviously ascending to this highest platform of Krishna consciousness is difficult, if not impossible, but the jiva souls aren’t required to become the most sublime lovers, just sincere enough to turn their backs on the allures of material life, which constantly attack the open and vulnerable senses of the individual. In the lower species such as the animals, the intelligence is lacking to fight off the urges of the senses. The human being, however, due to its higher potential for knowledge, can take the necessary steps to not only control the senses, but to focus the spiritual consciousness on topics relating to Krishna. Of all the practices recommended by the devotees of the Lord, none is more powerful than the chanting of the holy names, “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare”. This mantra contains the names of God and His pleasure potency, so the recitation of this sacred formula should never be abandoned or confused with any type of religious practice aimed at providing a temporary fruit. “Hare Krishna” is meant exclusively for the purpose of providing divine pleasure, one that transcends any and all fruits resulting from sense engagement.

One who regularly chants this mantra, making a routine of the practice, dedicating their lives to ensuring that their transcendental recitation continues day after day, will never have to worry about the loop condition any more. In programming one can wait for the next evaluation of the loop condition to determine if the iteration operations will continue, or one can explicitly call for a break, or an exit, from the loop. The devotees who become purely Krishna conscious through chanting and hearing of the Divine pastimes found in wonderful texts like the Shrimad Bhagavatam, Bhagavad-gita and Ramayana immediately break free of the spinning wheel effects. They are deemed liberated before they even exit their present body. The separated energy, maya, is only harmful and full of ignorance for those who don’t know how to utilize it properly. The paramahamsa, or the topmost transcendentalist, views maya as being Krishna’s dear servant; hence no negative side effects result from maya’s association for one with the proper mood.

When the wheel of material existence continues to roll, the living entities trapped underneath are not in very good conditions. The most debilitating effect of maya is that she continually deludes the jivas who are fully endowed with freedom into choosing matter over spirit. Therefore by regular chanting and adherence to the four regulative principles of abstention from meat eating, gambling, intoxication and illicit sex, the desire of the independent jiva can be altered. Chanting is the most effective method because it gradually brings about knowledge of the differences between Krishna’s three energies and our unique position within the grand scheme. Knowledge is power, and more powerful than knowledge is Krishna. One who has Krishna will never have to be trapped in an infinite loop ever again. Their life’s mission, that of thinking of God at the time of death, will be easily accomplished, thus allowing for a smooth and successful exit from the program of conditioned life.