Now, life after death, in the Bhagavad-gītā it is very easily explained that just like a child has next life, boyhood. The boy has next life as youthhood. The youthhood has next life, the old age. So why not the old age next life?
If we are passing through so many stages of life from birth or from the womb of the mother, then what is the reason that one does not believe there is no life after death? Can you say, any one of you? What is the reason?
You remember your boyhood body; I remember my youthhood body. So that body is no longer existing, but I am existing. I remember my childhood body. My babyhood body also, I remember, particularly.
When I was about six months old, I still remember very vividly, I was lying down on the lap of my eldest sister, and she was knitting. I remember still. Yes, six months. I remember when I was only about one year old, there was a great saṅkīrtana in our house and I also joined the dancing party. And I was seeing up to their knees, very small. So I remember those days. And then after that, I was a boy. I was very much fond of cycling. So many things. Yes. So many dangers, so many adventures. Now I am old man.
So all those different stages of body, I remember. But these bodies are not existing. So similarly, I remember or forget, but I was in different types of body—that's a fact. So similarly, after leaving this body, I will have another body. That is natural conclusion. What is the difficulty?
Comments
Yes, so what is the difficulty? - a narrow time sense, and an inability to see a broader picture or to understand patterns and consistencies in the universe. Small mindedness blinds, is the result of sins and poor desires followed through, such that one is punished by nature, virtually unable, like an animal, to perceive the full picture, and thus is bound to suffer.
As soon as Krishna wills, you can be released immediately. We are bound and unable to desire purely. Perhaps, if we hear the words of the self realized soul, Srila Prabhupada, we will imbibe clear and broad minded intelligence, as he attempts to sweep away the veils of our misunderstandings.
The general rule is, as above, so below. the principle is that our highest self agrees to share certain aspects of His pleasure dance with His immediate expansions, the Gopis and Gopas, Mother Yasoda, etc. The soul's eternal identitiy is female ie subordinate controlled enjoyed servitor in intimacy with the eternal beloved or husband as the case may be.
There is of course pleasurable lovemaking of Godhead and His associates. there is some hint that the jiva souls there may have some relation with others there, for example husband and wife etc. but that is secondary and not the source of pleasure, which is the mystical flow of prema from the pastimes of Radha Krsna. They have friends and many varieties of pastimes They have manjaris or intimate associates of many types and varieties and categories.
We can learn more by reading Krsna book, Srimad Bhagavatam etc. Jaiva dharma by Srila Bhaktivinode is very good. Caitanya Caritamrta is also rich , all the literature s of the six Goswamis. Its a question of reading. Nectar of Devotion is our main sourcebook.
The activities there in Krsna loka are scenically as of a wonderful magickal forest, many forests in fact, filled with a village and associates who live life as simple villagers there. It is all infinite and saturated with pleasure at every step. The bodies themselves are MADE of blissful energy!
so, for example, in the afternoons, Krsna and the gopis party and drink and swim and feast, tell jokes, tell poetry, embrace their heart's object of love. The manjaris also there to serve and play music, dance, bring foods and drinks, etc as part of the party.
I imagine myself carrying plates, cooking, cleaning the courtyard and rooms, singing, dancing a little maybe, playing music, enjoying all kinds of Krsna "intoxication" and taking prasadam, the same things i always did in the temple. One also spends much time with other devotees, performing services together in infinite varieties of ways, just like any other villagers.
Krsna says i am sex life which is not in contradiction of scriptures. All things originate in godhead, what is below is above, but unhindered by illusions or matter or bodily lust. All relations there are pure and spiritual, there is not lust which is not pure and properly directed to increase the bliss of Radha Krsna and hence all the parts and parcels. Their pleasure truly becomes OUR pleasure there, as we become one with Them and seperate eternally.
I hope our friend Suresh will answer this question as well, and tell us what is his understanding?
Yes, all have parents and relatives! Jaya!
Pregnancy takes place only in lower-grade life. For example, animals like dogs and hogs become pregnant twice a year, and each time they beget at least half a dozen offspring. Even lower species of life such as snakes give birth to hundreds of young at one time. This verse informs us that in grades of life higher than ours, pregnancy occurs once in a lifetime. People still have sex life, but there is no pregnancy. In the spiritual world, people are not very attracted to sex life, due to their exalted devotional attitude. Practically speaking, there is no sex life in the spiritual world, but even if sometimes it does occur, there is no pregnancy at all. On the planet earth, however, human beings do become pregnant, although the tendency is to avoid having children. In this sinful age of Kali, people have even taken to the process of killing the child in the womb. This is the most degraded practice; it can only perpetuate the miserable material conditions of those who perform it.
sb 5.17.12 purport
Of course there is physical touch and sex life within the spiritual world Prabhu. What Prabhupad says here is that sex life is not like every couple in every house will have regular sex life. In that sense practically there is no sex life in the spiritual world. But Krsna's pastimes with the gopis are the ultimate sex life, and there is no lack of physical dealings between Krsna and the cowherd boys as they tend their cows and play innumerable varieties of games. Sex attraction between man and woman is the highest attraction in the material world, so in the spiritual world it is the exact opposite - sex attraction between two living entities is considered very abominable. But the opposite is true - sex attraction between a living entity and Krsna is highly exalted. But in the spiritual world such attraction is pure and based on love for Krsna and the willingless to sacrifice one's everything for Him, unlike in material world where the basis is one's own sense gratification. So Krsnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami differentiates between mundane sex desire and spiritual sex desire as the difference between iron and gold.
Lot of things in the spiritual world are similar to the material world, yet none of them is comparable with anything in material existence as they are made of eternity, bliss and knowledge. But this doesn't mean they are vapor-like or something, as many people conceive, and that we cannot touch it or feel it - the touching, feeling, everything is there because these are the same constituents for a spirit soul - but they are on a different platform, a platform of eternity and bliss, every action in the spiritual world is eternal and eternally relishable, although no activity in the spiritual world is repeated again. Every step a dance, every word a song - of course, you would know. The same touching, feeling create misery in material world because they are against the Lord's will, but the same are source of boundless bliss because they are in parallel with the will of the Lord. It is not that, there you cannot touch or feel, there is no wind, etc. as many people unwittingly imagine. Everything which we see here is there, with addendums. Trees are here, trees are there. But trees there can walk and talk. Stones are here, stones are there. But stones there can move at command, make way, etc. The quality of existence in the spiritual world is different. But because a pure devotee as Srila Prabhupada sees everything as part and parcel of God, for him there is no difference between the material and spiritual worlds. This is the secret. Hare Krsna!
Beautiful replies, Suresh Prabhu ji.Jaya Radha Govindadeva Sri Sri Radha Gopinatha!
Excellent wonderful inquiries, Bhakta Lou.
The stones, trees, flowers, land, water, wind, cows in Vrindavan are all living entities in santa-rasa, Prabhu. Such forms are eternal although if they wish to serve Krsna in a different form they are independent to do so, just like the independent citizen of state can serve the state as he desires.
Living entity is called 'sarva-gatah', means he can exist anywhere, any material condition. Prabhupad says that even in the material world stones, at least some of them, are actually living entities:
Svarūpa Dāmodara: For that matter, Śrīla Prabhupāda, when one comes to that stage, there is no difference between animate and inanimate. Is that true?
Prabhupāda: Highest stage?
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes.
Prabhupāda: Highest stage, everything animate.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes. So a stone... Even a stone has soul.
Prabhupāda: Oh yes, yes. Just like this tree. You cut; it does not protest. The consciousness is not developed. That is the... But it has got life. You scientists, you do not believe that stone has also life?
Svarūpa Dāmodara: No, they say it's just matter.
Prabhupāda: Eh?
Svarūpa Dāmodara: They say there's no life there.
Prabhupāda: No, there is life.
Nitāi: Every stone has life?
Prabhupāda: Yes. No, dead stone has no... But there are many mountains, they are increasing. You know, at Benares there is a stone? Tila-bandhesvara. (?)
Svarūpa Dāmodara: I don't know.
Prabhupāda: Yes. That increases. If you go, see today, and go ten years after, you'll see—take the measurement—it has increased. They'll go...
Svarūpa Dāmodara: But they will say that because of the position of the dust particles the size will increase. Even a small...
Prabhupāda: No, no, no. It is clean. There is no... It is being washed even. Its name is Tila-bandhesvara. (?) So there is no uncleanliness. Still, the body increases. There is still Tila-bandhesvara. (?) There is temple of Tila-bandhesvara. People go to see.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: But the consciousness is covered there.
Prabhupāda: Covered, yes. Dullness means consciousness is covered. You put a child in open air. He'll not feel much cold. You see practically. He'll not feel. Because consciousness is not developed. Animal, they will not feel cold. But we feel.
Bahulāśva: But Prabhupāda, there are still such things as dead matter?
Prabhupāda: Not dead matter. The soul is there.
Bahulāśva: Suppose something, well, something like this shoe that I'm wearing...,
Prabhupāda: It is now dead matter. But when you go, the higher understanding, it is a composition of atoms. So we learn from Vedic śāstra that within the atom there is life. Aṇḍāntara-stha-paramāṇu-cayāntara-sthaṁ govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi [Bs. 5.35]. There is, there. If within the atom there is life, then what to speak of anything else.
Bahulāśva: That's a jīvātmā?
Prabhupāda: No, no. Govinda is there.
Bahulāśva: Kṛṣṇa.
Prabhupāda: When Kṛṣṇa is there, then Kṛṣṇa is there with everything. Kṛṣṇa cannot be alone.
Bahulāśva: This is the real science, Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Of course, it is an offense to consider anything at all inanimate in Sridham Vrindavan or Mayapur. Everything is actually animate. Even the land we walk on, the earth, there is bhumi-devi. And she is not burdened by the weight of the people, but she is burdened by the sins the people commit. There are so many things.
But our business is to know that, as Prabhupad told now, Govinda is everywhere and so we cannot distinguish good and bad, because where there is Krsna, there is opulence, victory and perfect dharma. (BG last verse)
Hari bol!
Re Lou's earlier comment; ... and the wind cried, " Mary ! "
Hare Krishna
Glad to see your comments, A.C. dasa!
Suresh, you either write too much, or not enough, hint hint, now its not enough, lately! hk lol But also, as you see, we are getting many wonderful comments, yes? HR
Yes, Prabhu. There is just so much that we can never know enough about Krsna!
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