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sky our vision is still confined within only one universe, and there are
unlimited universes clustered together within what is called the material
world. But beyond those clusters of unlimited numbers of universes is
the spiritual sky, which is also mentioned in Bhagavad-gétä, where the
Lord says that beyond the material world is another nature, which is
eternal; there is no history of its beginning, and it has no end.  Eternal
refers to that which has no end and no beginning. The Vedic religion is
therefore called eternal because no one can trace back when it began.
The Christian religion has a history of two thousand years, and the
Muhammadan religion also has a history, but if one were to trace back
Vedic religion, he would not find its historical beginning. Therefore it is
called eternal religion.
We may rightly say that God created this material world, and this
indicates that God existed before the creation. This very word  created
suggests that before the creation of the cosmic manifestation, the Lord
was existing. Therefore God is not under the creation. If God were
under the creation, how could He have created? He would instead have
been one of the objects of this material creation. But God is not under
the creation; He is the creator, and therefore He is eternal.
There is a spiritual sky, where there are innumerable spiritual planets
and innumerable spiritual living entities, but those who are not fit to
live in that spiritual world are sent to this material world. Voluntarily
we have accepted this material body, but actually we are spirit souls who
should not have accepted it. When and how we accepted it cannot be
traced. No one can trace the history of when the conditioned soul first
accepted the material body. There are 8,400,000 forms of living
Copyright © 1998 The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust Int'l. All Rights Reserved.
44
entities water, 2,000,000 species of life are among the plants and
vegetables. Unfortunately, this Vedic knowledge is not instructed by any
university. But these are facts. Let the botanist and anthropologist
research into the Vedic conclusion. Darwin s theory of the evolution of
organic matter is, of course, very prominent in the institutions of
learning. But the Bhägavata Puräëa and other authoritative scriptures of
scientific magnitude describe how the living entities in different forms
of body evolve one after another. It is not a new idea, but educators are
giving stress only to Darwin s theory, although in Vedic literature we
have immense information of the living conditions in this material
world.
We are only a fractional portion of all the living entities in the many
universes of the material world. Those who are in the material world and
material body are condemned. For example, the population in prison is
condemned by the government, but their number is only a fraction of
the whole population. It is not that the whole population goes to prison;
some, who are disobedient, are confined in prison. Similarly, the
conditioned souls within this material world are only a fraction of all the
living entities in the creation of God, and because they have disobeyed
God because they did not abide by the order of Kåñëa they have
been put into this material world. If one is sensible and inquisitive, he
should try to understand:  Why have I been put into this conditional
life? I do not wish to suffer.
There are three kinds of suffering, including miseries pertaining to the
body and mind. In Hawaii, in front of my house, a man was keeping
some animals and birds for the purpose of taking them to be slaughtered.
I gave this example to my students:  These animals are standing here,
and if you tell them,  Oh, my dear animals, why are you standing here?
Go away! You are meant for the slaughterhouse, they cannot go. They
have no intelligence.
Suffering without knowledge, without remedy, is animal life. One who
cannot understand that he is suffering and who thinks that he is very
well off is in animal consciousness, not human consciousness. The
human being should be cognizant of suffering the threefold miseries of
this planet. One should know that he is suffering in birth, suffering in
death, suffering in old age and suffering in disease, and one should be
Copyright © 1998 The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust Int'l. All Rights Reserved.
45
inquisitive as to how he may avoid the suffering. That is real research
work.
We have suffered from the beginning of our birth. As a baby, the human
being is tightly placed in the abdomen of the mother in an airtight bag
for nine months. He cannot even move, there are insects biting him,
and he cannot protest. After the child comes out, the suffering
continues. The mother undoubtedly takes much care, but still the child
cries because he is suffering. There are bugs biting or there are pains in
his stomach; the child is crying, and the mother does not know how to
pacify him. His suffering begins in the womb of his mother. Then, after
his birth, as he grows up, there is more suffering. He does not want to go
to school, but he is forced to. He does not want to study, but the teacher
gives him tasks. If we analyze our life, we will find that it is full of
suffering. Why then are we coming here? The conditioned souls are not
very bright. We should inquire,  Why am I suffering? If there is a
remedy, we must take advantage of it.
We are eternally connected with the Supreme Lord, but somehow or
other we are now in material contamination. Therefore, we must take up
a process by which to go back again to the spiritual world. That linking
process is called yoga. The actual translation of the word yoga is  plus.
At the present moment we are minus God, or minus the Supreme. But
when we make ourselves plus connected then our human form of life
is perfect. During our lifetime we have to practice approaching that
point of perfection, and at the time of death, when we give up this [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]