SOME BASIC AND ESSENTIAL TRUTHS FOR SPIRITUALISTS. WE MUST ALWAYS REMAIN ESTABLISHED IN DEVOTIONAL PRACTICES, THEN, WHEN DEATH COMES WE SHALL BE PREPARED
The illusory energy, or material nature, is so bewildering that immediately upon seeing, smelling, touching or even hearing an object of our desire, we FORGET EVERYTHING. As soon as we stop chanting the holy name of Krishna, immediately we BECOME BEWILDERED and are put into ILLUSION. Therefore, we must always establish ourself in DEVOTIONAL PRACTICES with great determination. Then, when the time of death comes, we shall be so rooted that we cannot help but chant and be situated in Krishna consciousness. That is the whole purpose of devotional practice: to prepare ourselves to give up this material life, this material existence and this material body with all its paraphernalia, such as friends, household and so on.
As long as the soul is present, the body is ANIMATED with LIFE and appears very beautiful, and we enjoy very nice dealings with our friends, family members and countrymen. As soon as the life air leaves the body, the body reveals its true ABOMINABLE CHARACTER. It is a simple combination of NASTY INGREDIENTS--blood, mucus, fat, muscle, bone, bile, urine and stool. When the living force is separated from the body, it immediately begins to DISINTEGRATE and DECOMPOSE, and a very obnoxious odor begins to emanate from it. Rigor mortis sets in, and we have to find a way to DISPOSE of the body. It is very embarrassing to have a dead body about. No one keeps a dead body, however beautiful it might have been and however much affection we might have had for the body while living. That affection stops when LIFE LEAVES the body. At that time, we can understand that the body is not really beautiful at all; that the element of beauty within the body was actually the SOUL.
MAYA is so strong that even though this experience takes place not only in the human form of life but at every moment in all species of life, we still continue to act in the bodily concept of life. Our father has died, his father died. Now we are fathers, and we too shall die. Our children will become fathers, and they also will die. Still, we are STUCK on this MISTAKEN concept of life. We are working day and night to maintain the body by earning money for sense gratification. This is MAYA, and the whole material creation is under the spell of this MAYA.
In HUMAN LIFE we are SUPPOSED to be engaged in the progressive program to GET FREE from this MAYA. This is the essence of HUMAN INTELLIGENCE: to understand our real spiritual nature. When this is understood, then we shall be released and can go back home, back to Godhead for an eternal life of full knowledge and bliss. This Moha-Mudgara-Stotra is very graphic in drawing our attention to these NAKED TRUTHS which have to be thoroughly understood by an aspiring transcendentalist. These are the most basic and essential truths for a spiritualist to understand.
JAYA SRILA PRABHUPADA
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