"So it may be for five years or fifty years or utmost hundred years, or a million years, just like Brahmā—but they are all temporary. In the eternal time, five years or ten years or hundred years or five million years, they are all limited. They are not eternal. But we are eternal. We living entities, we are eternal. So why we should be illusioned by the noneternal? That is called illusion.
That is called jñāna that, "I learn from Bhagavad-gītā that 'I am eternal. There is no birth and there is no death.' " Na jāyate na mriyate vā kadācit. Kadācit, at any time. Not that it has begun now. No. Never we are born. Na hanyate hanyamāne . . . (BG 2.20). So this is the fact. So why I shall be interested in something noneternal? This is called knowledge. If I am eternal, and my position is to enjoy life . . . ānandamayo 'bhyāsāt (Vedānta-sūtra 1.1.12).
By nature I am part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ (Bs. 5.1), and Kṛṣṇa says, mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūtaḥ (BG 15.7). So qualitatively I am also sac-cid-ānanda. So why I am enjoying this temporary life for ten years or twenty years or two hundred years? This is called knowledge."
(Prabhupada Lecture, November 10, 1974, Bombay)
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