​​​​What happens after death

​Congregation program at Panama City, Panama

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So I will speak on the topic of what happens after death. Now the first question that comes up is how do you know or how can anyone know what happens after death? Does anything happen at all? There is an American comedian Woody Allen. He said I am not afraid of death.
I just don’t want to be there when it happens. I just don’t want to be there when it happens. That means what he is saying is he is admitting that death is not a very pleasant event.
But the idea is that maybe I will not be there at the time of death because I will be dead. So it’s an interesting logic. It’s a sleigh of hand but by such word jugglery we cannot evade reality.
So if somebody says no I won’t be there at the time of death. We can turn the logic around and say okay were you there at the time of your birth? Obviously I was there otherwise who took birth? So the same I who was there at the time of birth that person is going through various changes and just as birth is an event that happened to me similarly death is an event that is going to happen to me. So now death itself is inevitable.
There has been tremendous scientific research in the field that is called as gerontology. Gerontology is basically the study of various ways to help people in old age. And there are many ways in which such study has helped people.
At the same time so many claims are made oh just take this medicine and you will become young again. Just take this medicine and you will get back all your energy. So many claims are made and people are so eager to believe these claims that they fall for it.
And the International Gerontological Association issued a statement in public interest stating that there is no technology, no medicine, no surgery known that can either reverse, stop or slow the aging process. It can’t reverse that means we can’t make old people young. It can’t stop that means we can’t stop say young people to become middle aged, middle aged people to become old.
And we can’t slow it down also. What we can do is cover up the signs. My hair start becoming, my hair start falling, start becoming white.
I can make them black again or I can try to remove the wrinkles from my face. So we can’t actually stop old. So just as the passage of time is unstoppable and by that passage of time death is going to come.
So death is unavoidable. Now if you want to know what happens after death, first thing is to know that death is going to happen. And then in any field we acquire knowledge not with our eyes.
We acquire knowledge with our intelligence. Say today economics plays such an important part in people’s lives. Not just money management but the whole branch of economic development.
So somebody may see at the stock market there is a computer screen on which a graph goes down. And as the graph goes down people’s spirits go down. If the graph goes down suddenly somebody might get a heart attack.
And a person who knows nothing about economics, that person may think what is this? Some line went down on a graph, on a computer screen. Why are you people getting so worked up about it? So what happens over here is the information that goes in through the eyes, information leads to comprehension through education. The information that I see that leads to comprehension, some understanding when there is education.
Without that the information is just so much visual signals. So what happens after death is not just necessary for us to see with our eyes to understand. Because even if we see with our eyes we won’t be able to understand unless we have the proper education.
So if you consider information to be here, comprehension to be here. The bridge between information and comprehension is built through education. A lay person may see some person’s nails and say oh your nails look discoloured.
And a medically trained person say you have got anemia. The same information is there but the comprehension is different and the difference is based on education. So to know what happens after death we need education.
Now what kind of education do we need? There are different branches of knowledge and each branch of knowledge has its utility, has its importance. But just as say if you have a financial advisor who tells you where to invest, how to avoid paying too many taxes or basically how to manage your money. And that person has given very good advice to you.
Tomorrow if you get stomach pain will you go to that person? Now expertise in one field does not imply expertise in all fields. A person is expert in finances but as far as health or medicine is concerned it is a different field. So like that there are different fields of knowledge and for getting reliable knowledge of any field we need to go to the appropriate experts or the appropriate in this case books for acquiring knowledge.
So the Bhagavad Gita offers us knowledge of our spirituality. The first teaching of the Bhagavad Gita is that our destiny is bigger than our biology. Our biology means the body and the changes that happen to the body.
But our destiny that means what we are going to achieve, what we are meant to achieve, who we are that is bigger than our physical self and this is not all that difficult to understand. If we consider from purely scientific perspective this bar is ultimately made of atoms and molecules or we could go down further because it is made of fundamental particles. Now the hand is also made of similar atoms and molecules and yet there is a big difference between this bar and this hand or between this bar and me.
Biologically speaking ultimately if I go down I am made of the same chemicals as this is made of. But I have consciousness, you have consciousness. If I ask any of you, do you exist? What a strange question.
Obviously I exist. But if I ask this bar, do you exist? It exists but it doesn’t know that it exists. So the awareness of one’s own existence and awareness of the existence of things around us that is consciousness and this consciousness does not come from atoms and molecules.
Atoms and molecules have no capacity to be conscious. So scientists have found that the more we study the human body, the more we can explain how the human body works. But consciousness remains like a missing element.
So there is a, I just came from Canada. From Canada I came to America then I came here. So one of Canada’s most famous scientists, a Nobel laureate Dr. Wilder Penfield, he did 40 years of research in brain and basically now it’s well known that different areas of the brain correlate with different bodily functions.
So for example say the frontal lobe of the brain correlates with the motor nervous system. So the movement of the hands, the movement of the legs. So he did an experiment in which he asked a subject raise your hand.
When the subject raised the hand they found that say particular area of the brain, the frontal lobe, that was activity. He asked the subject describe what happened. He says my hand, I raised my hand.
He says put your hand down, put his hand down. And he found that that part of the brain had got deactivated. And he asked what happened.
I put my hand down. Now in the second case, the second iteration of the same experiment, Dr. Penfield with an external probe activated that part of the brain. When he activated that part of the brain, the hand went up.
And he asked the subject what happened. He said my hand went up. Did you raise your hand? No, I didn’t.
You did. And he deactivated that part of the brain. What happened? He said my hand fell down.
Did you put your hand down? I didn’t. You did. Now to understand the implication of this experiment, we can compare say if there is a printer, if there is a computer over here and there is a printer attached to it.
And the printer has a printing hand which moves and prints the text. So now there could be a control on the computer, say print button. When the print button is pressed, the printing hand starts moving.
Now the correlation between the print button and the printing action, that is clear enough. Now I can come and press the print button and the printing hand will move. I can be observing and you can press the print button and the print hand will move.
Now similar is the frontal lobe of the brain, that is like the print button. The movement of the print hand is like the hands moving up and down. Now in the second case, it was Dr. Penfield who pressed the print button.
Who pressed it in the first case? In the first case, it was the subject. But who is the subject? Where is the subject? The subject is someone different from that area of the brain. Because in the second case, the brain was activated but he said I am not doing it, you are doing it.
Now Dr. Penfield replicated the experiment trying to activate different areas of the brain while repeating this experiment. Now whichever part of the brain was activated, different things happened. Sometimes the subject got memories of childhood, the subject got some different emotions.
But nowhere did the subject feel that I am raising my hand or I am lowering it. So like this he did many experiments and after 40 years of study of the brain, Dr. Penfield concluded and wrote in his book The Mystery of the Mind. He said that the source of consciousness is extra cerebral.
Extra cerebral means outside the brain. That means consciousness does not exist in the brain. Consciousness exists separate from the brain and consciousness operates the brain just as I may operate the computer’s print button.
So what is this consciousness? Where does this come from? The Bhagavad Gita is a book which gives us answers to such questions. Science by its advancement can point towards spiritual truths. But science cannot give us conclusive knowledge about spiritual truths because science focuses on material things.
And by focusing on material things, it cannot address the spiritual damage. I am talking about science means modern materialist science that is prevalent in today’s world. But it can point towards spiritual truths.
So the Bhagavad Gita explains what that extra cerebral source of consciousness is. That is the Atma. abhinashita tad viddhi yena sarvamidam tatam vinashyam avyasyasya na kashchit karpa madhye That which pervades the body, Krishna explains in 2.17 in the Bhagavad Gita, knowing to be indestructible, that is the consciousness, that is the soul.
And later on in chapter 33-34, Krishna uses two examples to illustrate how the soul relates with the body. He says, yatha prakashyatyekah kruchnam lokam imamravih kshetram kshetritah kruchnam prakashyam bharatam He says, the sun exists far away from the earth. But the sun illumines the whole universe.
Similarly, the soul exists separate from the body. But the soul illumines the body. Now, the sun doesn’t just illumine the body.
Sorry, sun doesn’t just illumine the earth. The sun also activates the earth. That is all the reproduction, vegetation, growth that happens in the earth, that is because of primarily photosynthesis.
And photosynthesis cannot happen without the sun. So, the sun may be separate from the earth, but the sun activates the earth. Similarly, the soul is different from the body.
And the soul activates the body. So, the source of consciousness, the source of life is different from the body. And death means the destruction of the body.
Death is not the destruction of the soul. Because the soul being consciousness is indestructible. Now, what will happen to the soul after the body is destroyed? From the soul’s perspective, death is not a termination.
It is a transition. It is a change. It is not the end.
So, our life does not begin at birth. It does not end at death. It is our present life which begins at birth and ends at death.
Now, the soul goes from one body to another body based on its desires. So, just to understand this, Krishna gives an example that what is the relationship between the body and the soul? Vāsāṁsi jīrṇānyathā vihāya na vāni grūṇāti narobarāṇi tathā śarīrāṇi vihāya jīrṇānyānyāni smīyāti na vāni dehī So, in 2.22, the Bhagavad Gita says, just as we give up old clothes when they become worn out and we take up new clothes, like that, the soul gives up old bodies and takes up a new body. Now, if when we are going to get new clothes, how do we decide which clothes to get? Or what decides which clothes we get? Basically, two factors.
One is my likes. Hey, this dress looks fashionable. I want to get this.
First is my likes. But my likes alone are not enough. Along with my likes, my budget is important.
I might say very fashionable clothes, but if I don’t have the money, I can’t get those clothes. So, basically, just as we get our clothes based on our desires and our budget, similarly, the soul gets the next body based on its desires and its karmic budget. Now, our budget financially is determined by how much money we have earned.
The karmic budget means what kind of karma we have done. Karma is the principle of action and reaction. And this is something which we see throughout the universe.
In fact, all of science is based on an implicit understanding of the correlation between cause and effect. Modern science is said to have begun with the time when Newton saw the fruit falling. One of the defining incidents.
He saw the fruit falling and he asked, what made this fruit fall? And from that, he postulated the theory of gravity. Now, it’s definitely his intelligence that he thought of the theory of gravity. But at the same time, there is an underlying assumption.
When he asked, what made this fruit fall? There is an assumption that things don’t happen just by itself. Something has made this fruit fall. The falling of the fruit is an effect.
And this effect must have a cause. So, now, for example, if, say, you go home and one of your relatives says they have got a cut on their hand and you naturally ask them, what happened? What happened implies that the cut cannot have come just by itself. It must have a cause.
So, throughout our life, whatever we do, we implicitly understand that every effect has a cause. And conversely, every cause will produce an effect. Now, sometimes, some cause-effects may be delayed.
Just like, say, if a person starts smoking, there may not be much effect for maybe one year, five years, ten years, fifteen years, twenty years. Afterwards, George Bernard Shaw, he said, at one end of a cigarette is fire, at the other end is a fool. That’s what happens in the burning of their lungs.
Maybe twenty years later, they get lung cancer. So, the time delay between the cause and the effect may vary. But every cause produces an effect and every effect has a cause.
So, the system of nature that determines or that shapes the correlation between cause and effect, that is called as karma. So, the kind of actions that we do, they produce reactions. Some reactions come immediately.
Some reactions come after a few years. Some reactions come after many years. Some reactions may come in a future lifetime.
So, we could consider, just like we have a bank balance. We have earned some money, we have spent some money. And whatever remains is our bank balance.
So, like that, we could say we have a karmic bank balance. So, in this karmic bank balance, the actions that we are doing, they are adding something, either good karma or bad karma. And what we are getting, that is exhausting the karma, some of the karma.
We get sometimes good things in life, sometimes we get bad things in life. So, based on what exists in our karmic bank balance, accordingly, we will get an exploit. In 14.18, in the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna states, उर्द्वं गच्छन्ति सद्वस्था मद्ये दिष्ठन्ति राजसः जगन्य गुणद्दिस्था अधोगच्छन्ति तामसः He says, उर्द्वं गच्छन्ति देखो आपको सद्वस्था Those who have lived virtuously, those who have lived piously, those who have lived good lives, they will go up.
मद्ये दिष्ठन्ति राजसः Krishna uses the words सत्व, रजस and तमस. सत्व, रजस and तमस basically refers to three kinds of mentalities. So, those people who think about higher things in life, they are सत्व गुण.
Those who think only about immediate pleasures here and now, they are रजो गुण. And those who simply want their own desires irrespective of what consequences are for others, those who don’t hesitate to hurt others for their own pleasures, and they are in तमो गुण. So, Krishna says, those who live in सत्व गुण, those who think about life’s higher sides, those who live virtuously, they go up.
Those who live materialistically, they stay here itself. And those who live extremely selfishly, often hurting others, they go down. Now, what does this up, here and down refer to? Sometimes, you know, we have a very simplistic idea of up and down.
Say now, India and Panama, they are almost antipodes. Antipodes on the opposite sides of the globe, almost. Now, you see, people in India, if they are asked, where is heaven? They say, it’s up.
People in Panama are asked, where is heaven? It is up. Now, if the earth is round, the up is in two opposite directions, isn’t it? So, the up in India and up in Panama is in opposite directions. So, what exactly is this up? So, actually, when Krishna says that those who live virtuously, they go up, that up is not a geographical up.
It is a karmic up. That from the perspective of karma, there are places in the universe which are endowed with better facilities for living. And to those places, people will go who have lived virtuously.
And those who live viciously, selfishly, they will go down to lower places. So, our post-mortem destination, where we go after our death, is determined by the way we live in this life. And this is simply the law of cause and effect extended further.
Now, specifically where we will go, that will vary from person to person. And it is very difficult for us to know exactly where we will go. Because the specifics of our desires, the specifics of the kind of karma that we have done, all this is not very well known even to us.
Even psychologists tell us that as far as our desires are concerned, that there are some desires at the conscious level and many are below the surface, at the subconscious level. So, all such conscious and subconscious desires, they shape our destiny. And regarding our karma also, we know little bit of our karma.
We don’t know what kind of karma we have done in previous lives. Even in this life, what all we have done, we may not remember it. So, the important thing is that we understand the principle that my actions now will determine my destination in the future.
And actually, the capacity to perceive the future and to prepare for the future. This is based on inference. For example, when we are working, we may plan, okay, I will be working till the age of 50, 55, 60, after that I retire.
I will be retiring. So now, I do not know exactly what is going to happen to me when I retire. I may not know exactly that I will be living here, I will be living there.
We can make some general plans. But we understand, broadly the principles of life that are applicable to me, they will apply later also. So, we prepare for the future and the capacity to prepare for the future is a sign of intelligence.
So, this capacity to prepare for the future, we extend it in this life from now to 10 years, 20 years, 30 years. The Bhagavad Gita tells us, extend it from now to beyond this life also. That the way we live now, it should take care of us not just in this life but also in the next life.
Now in 14.18, Krishna talks about these three options. Go up, stay here and go down. But two verses later, Krishna talks about a fourth option.
He says, get out. So, he says that one who understands that actually I am not material, that I am spiritual, that person does not just go up, that person gets out. Now what is the difference between going up and getting out? To give another example of the relationship between the soul and the body.
The first example was of a person and their dress. Another example we could give is of a person and their house. Now when we leave one house, what kind of house we get next will be again based on our desires and our budget.
So, if we are living as tenants in a particular house, then once the period of tenancy, the contract ends, we will have to leave. Now any person who is living in a rented house, they may want, okay, next time I will rent a better house. Okay, this is a 1BHK house, I will have a 3BHK house.
Okay, I have a row house, I will have a bungalow. Now this desire is good. But a wise person will not just want to rent a better house.
They will want to buy a house. Why buy a house? Because the hat is permanent. When I am renting a house, it’s always insecurity.
I will have to leave it. And my landlord may tell me to leave anytime. I may just be left homeless.
So just as a wise person always plans to get a permanent house, similarly the Bhagavad Gita says, a wise person aims to get a permanent body. The body that we have right now is temporary. So the soul is a resident in this body.
And Krishna says, the people who live virtuously go up. That means they get a better body. They get a body which is more good looking, more healthy.
They are born in a more wealthy family. Which is all good. But again that body is temporary.
So the wise thing to do is to get a permanent body. And what is a permanent body? Actually the soul by nature is eternal. And the soul has eternal existence in the spiritual world.
This world is the material world. In 8.20 the Bhagavad Gita Krishna states, parastasmātubhāvanyo yato yataḥ sanātanaḥ yahasasarveṣu bhūteṣu naśyatsūnavi naśyate So he says, parastasmātubhāvanyo. There is another bhāv, there is another nature.
And it is beyond this world. And that is, yahasasarveṣu bhūteṣu naśyatsūnavi Everything in this world will be destroyed. Na vi naśyate.
That part will not be destroyed. Now somebody may say, I don’t believe in this idea of a spiritual world. Yes, it’s reasonable to be skeptical.
At the same time, skepticism also has its limitations. Some people, they are skeptical. I don’t believe this, I don’t believe this, I don’t believe this.
It’s good. We shouldn’t be believing anything and everything without any reason or logic. But at the same time, skepticism can only tell us what is wrong.
It can never tell us what is right. That means, if I am sick and I go to a doctor, I am skeptical. The doctor doesn’t take the treatment.
I am skeptical. Maybe the doctor wants to make money out of me. That’s why the doctor is telling me to do this.
Okay, I can be skeptical. But by being skeptical, I will never be treated. So skepticism can only tell me what is right, what is wrong, never what is right.
So to learn what is right, we have to use our intelligence and take a leap of faith. Now, going ahead, okay, is there some eternal world beyond this world? How can we infer about this? Suppose, now this room, now this room has a marble floor. On this floor, suddenly, we see a gold neck, a gold earring falling over.
Now naturally, the first question will come, of course, if there is a thief, the first question will come, how can I take it and slip away? But more honest person will think, where did this come from? Who has got a gold ring over here? Who might be having a gold ring? So gold is out of place over here. We don’t see gold right now all around scattered over here. So when we see something out of place, we question, where is its place? Now, where has it come from? Similarly, none of us have a desire to die.
All of us want to live forever. Now, if we look at the world around us, everything is destructive. Nothing stays forever.
Even big, big skyscraper buildings, big, big mansions, they may have survived for centuries, but even they are going to be destroyed. So, if nothing stays forever, then where did our desire to live forever come from? If we are just creatures of matter, if our desires are simply circumstantial, then why did we ever get the desire to live forever? There is nothing around us which lives forever. So, how do we get a desire for that? For example, if I hear about a pizza, if I am living in some tribal village in India, I have never heard about pizza, how will I get a desire to eat a pizza? It’s only when I have some experience of something, if there is nothing in my experience at all, nothing in my recollection at all, nothing in my circumstance at all, I cannot even desire that.
So, when nothing around us is eternal, why do we have a desire to live eternal? Where does this desire come from? So, this desire cannot come from anything material, because the material is destructive. And just as, if I find a gold ring over here, and I think, oh, maybe somebody has a treasury where there is some gold, and from there it has fallen down. So, this gold is out of place over there.
It should be placed back in the treasury. Similarly, our desire to be eternal, to live forever, this points to a world that is eternal. And that is where we belong.
That is where we are meant to be. And the purpose and perfection of this life is to live in such a way that we can attain that eternal world. And how do we attain that eternal world? The Bhagavad Gita explains that sadā tadbhāva bhāvitah tadbhāva, bhāva means mental attitude, bhāvitah is that which manifests, the physical existence which manifests.
So, Krishna says that from the mental comes the physical. That means the way we think, that is what will manifest in future. So, where we go after death, earlier I said it is determined by our karma.
The same principle if we go deeper, actually, it is determined by what is our desire. Of course, our karma is there, but more important is our desire. So, to attain the eternal, we need to learn to love the eternal.
If I love the temporary, if I love wealth, if I love power, if I love position, if I love temporary things, then by my desire, I will take birth again to try to enjoy those temporary things. But if in this life, I can learn to love the eternal, then the universe is actually impartial. Krishna describes in the Bhagavad Gita, ये थामां प्रपद्यन्ते ताम् सुथईव जाम्याँ In 4.11 he states, as all people surrender unto me, I reward accordingly.
So, if we desire the eternal, Krishna will give us the eternal. If we desire the temporary, Krishna will give us the temporary. So, the purpose of human life specifically is to learn to love the eternal.
And the process for learning to love the eternal is called as Yoga. Yoga is not just physical postures. The word Yoga comes from the word Yuj.
From the same Latin root comes the word Yoke. Yoke in English is used, if we have a bullock cart, and we yoke the cart to the bullock. Or if we have blowing fields, then we yoke the blow to the bull.
So, yoke means to connect two things. That same word Yuj comes as Yoga. Yoga is that which connects.
Connects what? Connects the finite consciousness, the soul, with the infinite consciousness, that is God. There are different types of Yoga, that is different ways, in which we can connect with the eternal reality, with God. The most efficacious way, the fastest, the easiest, the best way is that way which channels our strongest force.
What is the strongest force within us? Actually, it is our emotions. Now, based on our emotions, we do things. Even when we are using our intelligence, it is not just based on intelligence.
Along with it, if we do something wonderful, we use our intelligence to understand how to do it. But there has to be some inspiration. I have to feel some emotion.
I have to feel strongly. I want to achieve this. So, our emotions are our strongest force.
And the path of Bhakti Yoga channels our emotions for spiritual growth. So, Bhakti Yoga is the process by which we learn to love the eternal, learn to love God. God has many different names and different traditions.
The Bhagavad Gita knows Him by the name Krishna. And Bhakti Yoga is the process by which we learn to increase our love for Krishna. अतः जित्तं समाधातुं निशक्नोसिमाईस्तिरम् अभ्यास्योगिन तोमां चाप्तुन दिनन्दे Krishna says that Abhyasa Yoga, by repeatedly exposing yourself to me, by hearing kirtans, just like before this class we heard sweet kirtans.
So, by hearing kirtans, by taking darshan, by understanding the philosophy of Krishna Bhakti, by this we are all exposing ourselves to Krishna. And by such exposure, what will happen? मां इच्छाप्तुन दिनन्देया Our desire for Krishna will increase. Our desire for the eternal will increase.
And as this desire for the eternal increases, then we will progress towards eternal. इफ अध टाइम देथ अन्तकाले चिमामेव स्मरन्मुक्त्वा कलेव यह प्रयाति समध्भाव याति नास्ति अत्रसंचेह Krishna says in 8.5 in the Bhagavad Gita that if at the time of death we remember him, then we will attain. Now, how can we remember him at the time of death? Actually, psychologists say that usually whenever there is great pain, at that time, we instinctively, our thoughts gravitate towards that in which we have experienced the greatest pleasure, the greatest comfort, the greatest safety.
That’s why even battle-hardened soldiers you know, when they get a wound, they may call out mother. Why? They are not crybabies who are calling out their mother. But actually, instinctively, if in their mother’s arms they have experienced shelter, at that time, naturally their thoughts go to their mother.
So, death is the time of the greatest pain, greatest fear. So, at that time, what will we remember? Our thoughts will naturally go towards that activity or that thing, that relationship in which we have experienced the greatest shelter, the greatest security. So, to remember Krishna at the time of death, during the course of life, we need to experience the greatest shelter in the remembrance of Krishna.
And that’s why two verses later, 8.5, Krishna says, if you remember me at the time of death, you will attain me. In the next verse, 8.6, he says that whatever you remember at the time of death, you will attain that. And 8.7, he says, therefore, स्माद् सर्वेषु कालेषु मामनुस्मर्युद्यज़ मय्यारं तन्नु पुत्ते मामेवेश्यस्य संशयय He says, therefore, always remember me.
स्माद् सर्वेषु कालेषु मामनुस्मर्युद्यज़ And he says, युद्यज़, fight. So, why fight? Arjuna is a Kshatriya, his duty is to fight. This is significant.
Sometimes people say, oh, if you become spiritual, you will become irresponsible, you will give up everything. No, Krishna is not recommending that kind of spirituality. Krishna is telling that, Arjuna, you are a Kshatriya, you have to do your duty, fight.
But, do that duty in a spiritual way. Remember me and fight. मामनुस्मर्युद्यज़ And, how can I do this both? Somebody may ask, should Arjuna be fighting, shooting arrows? Should Arjuna be thinking about Krishna? How can he do both? Krishna describes the secret in the next verse.
मई अर्पित मनोवित धिर्येर It is our mind and intelligence are dedicated to Krishna. That means, we have understood that Krishna is the ultimate goal of my life. And then, our mind and intelligence become dedicated to him.
And then, he says, मै अर्पित मनोवित धिर्येर मा एवाईशस्य असंविशयः You will definitely attain me. So, I will conclude with this, explaining this one point. What does it mean to always remember Krishna? What does it mean to dedicate our mind and intelligence to Krishna? So, when we start practicing bhakti, the first level of bhakti is that, okay, I am living at my home.
I go to my office. I should go to temple also. At least once a week.
Some people say, we go very regularly to the temple. How regularly? Once a year at Janmashtami. That is their level of regularity.
It is good. At least that much piety is there. But, how much will one remember Krishna, if one is going to Krishna’s temple only once a year? So, at least initially we will, okay, I have to remember God, to practice some bhakti, I go to the temple.
So, the idea is, God exists in the temple, and I should go and worship him. That is good. The next level of bhakti is, that yes, God exists in the temple, but I want him to be manifest in my house also.
So, I transform my home into a temple. That means, in our home, in a proper section, we have altar, there we worship Krishna, we perform aarti for him, we offer bhoga to him, we offer the food to him and then take the prasad, and we make him the lord of our home. And third level is, second level of bhakti is, that Krishna comes to my home.
Krishna is not just in the temple, he is in my home. The third level of bhakti is that Krishna comes in my heart. That the purpose of going to a temple, the purpose of having Krishna in the home, purpose is actually to bring Krishna into our heart.
And how does this happen? How does Krishna manifest in our heart? When we start offering whatever is in our heart to him. See, now if I say Krishna, I want to offer my heart to you. But my heart is filled with thoughts of money, thoughts of position, thoughts of this, thoughts of that.
So, how can I bring Krishna at my heart? So, whatever is in my heart, I offer it to Krishna. So, whatever abilities I have, if I have singing ability, I can sing so many things, but I sing songs about Krishna. If I have some ability to manage things, I can manage many things, but if there is some seva in the temple, where a program is to be managed, I manage that.
Whatever abilities we have, they are close to us in our heart. We use them for Krishna’s service. Similarly, one thing that has a very close place in our heart, is money.
So, when we offer that which is in our, our purpose is to offer our heart to Krishna. But because our heart is filled with other things, we start our bhakti by offering that which is in our heart to Krishna. By offering that to Krishna, what happens is, we give Krishna a place in our heart.
And thus we move closer to Krishna. So, the idea is, the Bhagavad Gita tells us, we don’t have to renounce the world. But rather, we have to renounce the illusion that the world will make me happy.
In this world, many things we need to live. Money is vital for living in this world. But, there is a difference between what we live with and what we live for.
We live with money. We don’t live for money. At least we shouldn’t live for money.
Living for money means, money is the goal of my life. Nothing else. That is a very unbalanced way of living.
Because for the sake of money, then we neglect relationships, we neglect ethics, we neglect spirituality. And then, money, ultimately, it offers only cold comfort. I have money.
To not have money is bad. But to have nothing except money is much more bad. I have alienated all my friends.
I have alienated all my relatives. People don’t trust me. People don’t care for me.
And I have a lot of money. What is the use of that? The Bhagavad Gita tells us to live a balanced life. And living a balanced life means that whatever we are doing in this world, we do it responsibly, but we do it in a mood of devotion.
How do we do it in a mood of devotion? That every day, on a regular basis, we take some time of our life and devote it directly to Krishna Bhakti. Chanting His holy names, studying the Bhagavad Gita, on a daily basis, on a weekly basis, we allocate a part of our time, a part of our life to Krishna. And through that, this is called a sadhana.
Through this sadhana which we do, then the seva bhava, the service attitude comes in our heart. Then even when we are doing our work, we do that in a mood of service. I am not just earning money to show the world how wealthy I am.
My home is a temple and I am earning money so that I can take care of my home temple. My family members are not just my family members. They are actually Krishna’s children.
They are interested in my care about Krishna. If parents see their children as God’s gift to them, they will take greater care. This is Krishna who is interested in this child in my home.
So we take care of them. But we see that the service attitude, the seva bhava can be maintained when we have sadhana. And thus, by sadhana and seva bhava, when we live gradually in whatever we do, Krishna becomes the foremost presence for us.
Krishna becomes the central purpose of our life. And when we live in this way, when Krishna is the central purpose of our life, at the end of our lives, naturally our thoughts will go to Krishna. And thus, we will attain Krishna.
And a great saint once asked Krishna, that Krishna, I may strive to remember you throughout my life, but what if at the time of death, I get a sudden accident, heart attack or something and I can’t remember you. So Krishna says, that at that time, I will remember you. I will remember you and I will manifest in your heart and give you my remembrance.
And thus, what you have done will be ultimately rewarded. So, Krishna is a God who loves us and He wants the best for us in this world and in the next world. When we entrust our life to Him, when we devote our life to Him, He will enable us to gain happiness not just in the next life but also in this life.
So, while practicing bhakti, just try to focus on Krishna. Don’t tell God how big your problems are. Tell your problems how big God is.
Yes, I have this big problem and I come to God and say, God, I have this big problem. Please solve it. Actually, even when we are coming to God, we are not God-conscious.
We are problem-conscious. Then we are not really connecting with Krishna. But, machittah sarva durgaani mat-prasadat Krishna says, if you become conscious of me, you will pass over all obstacles by my grace.
So, if we become conscious of Krishna, Krishna will give us the intelligence either to solve the problems or He will give us the fortitude, the strength to tolerate the problems and to grow through these problems. And as Krishna consciousness brings auspiciousness in this life as well as the next. I will summarize.
I started speaking on the topic of what happens after death. So, first thing we need to know is that death is something that happens to us. It is not something happening to other people.
I can’t even read death. Just as birth happened to me, death is also going to happen. No matter how much science advances, it cannot reverse, stop or slow the aging process.
And it cannot stop death. So, how do I know what happens after death? We don’t learn just by seeing. More important than seeing is the knowledge which helps us to understand what we see.
So, from information to comprehension, the bridge is built through education. Stock market, the graph falls. What does it mean? Only by economic education I understand.
So, to get that education we need the appropriate sources of knowledge. Just as a finance advisor cannot give us medical advice. Similarly, there are many branches of knowledge.
Scientific knowledge cannot tell us about spiritual truths. For that we need spiritual books. We need the Bhagavad Gita.
The Bhagavad Gita tells us that the source of consciousness, the source of life, that is the Atma, that is eternal. Science also points towards that. I talked about Dr. Penfield’s experiment about raising the hand and bringing it down.
Who was it actually raising the hand and bringing it down? It was not that area of the brain. That area of the brain was like a print button activated. Who is the activator? The source of consciousness is extracellular.
And that source is the Atma. The soul illumines the body and it activates the body. Just like the sun causes vegetation to grow on the earth.
And the soul and the body are like a person and their dress. So, we buy a new dress and similarly we get a new body based on our desires and our karma. Now, law of karma is not simply an act of belief or article of faith.
It is an implicit principle in all of existence. Whenever we see somebody is injured, we ask what happened? Noodle saw the fruit falling, we ask what happened? So, whenever we see an effect, we assume there is a cause. So, the kind of actions that we do, they add to our karmic bank balance.
And based on that, based on the kind of balance that we have at the end of our life, we get an ex-body. If we live virtuously, we go up. This up is not simply geographical up, but it is a karmic up.
A place where we get better material facilities. If we live materialistically, we stay here. If we live selfishly, if we live in a way that hurts others, then we go down.
The Bhagavad Gita recommends not just going up, but getting out. That is like a person who is living in a rented house. Instead of thinking that I want a bigger rented house, he goes and thinks, I want my own house.
So, this wise soul does not just want a better material body. The wise soul wants an eternal body. That is a spiritual body which we can get when we go in the spiritual world.
How can we know there is some eternal world? That is on inference. It is like if I see a gold particle here, a gold ring, I will ask, where did it come from? It is out of place here. Similarly, in a world where everything is destructible, why do I have the desire to live forever? This desire comes because I am out of place here.
I at my core am eternal and my desire to be eternal has not come from my circumstance. It has come from my core. So, I belong to the spiritual world.
And how can we attain that eternal world? By learning to love the eternal. Yoga is not just a process of physical exercise. Physical exercise is preliminary to ultimately huge connection with the eternal reality God.
Among various forms of yoga, Bhakti yoga is the most efficacious because it channels the most powerful force at our command. That is the force of emotions. But how do we learn to love love Krishna by practicing Bhakti yoga? We want to offer our heart to him.
So, we offer that which is in our heart to him. Our wealth, our talents, our interests. We connect them in a mode of service to Krishna.
So, first, our Bhakti is that I go to a temple. Second is, my Bhakti is that I make my home into a temple. And third is, I make my heart into a temple.
And when we do sadhana daily in a dedicated way, focus, give exclusive time to connecting with Krishna, then that evokes sevabhava, service attitude within us. And with that sevabhava, whether it is our profession, whether it is our family responsibilities, all of them, we can permeate them with spiritual consciousness. I am doing this as a service to Krishna.
And thus, through not just our sadhana, but through all walks of our life, we can actually move closer to Krishna. And in this way, to attain Krishna, we have to remember him at the time of death. To remember him at the time of death, we need to experience the greatest shelter and comfort in him during our life.
That’s where our thoughts would go at the time of death. By sadhana bhakti, we experience that shelter. So, when we face problems, we all face problems.
If we become conscious of Krishna, instead of going to Krishna and telling, I have this problem, that problem, don’t tell God how big your problems are. Tell your problems, how big God is. This problem, no matter how big it is, it is temporary.
Krishna is eternal. Let me focus on being devoted to Krishna and he will give me the intelligence to solve the problem or he will give me the strength to tolerate the problem and grow through the problem. Thus, by being devoted to Krishna, we attain auspiciousness in this life as well as the next.
Thank you very much. Hare Krishna. … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … have a part of his greatness.
Now the problem is not the desire to be great. The problem is the desire to be great that separates us from the greatest. In the Ramayana, Hanuman achieves great things.
In fact, in some ways Hanuman achieves greater things than Rama. Rama to cross the ocean has to build a bridge. Hanuman leaps across the ocean and he is acclaimed as a hero.
So it’s not that we are not meant to desire great things, but rather our desire for greatness should not disconnect us from the supreme, from the greatest being. Everything can be very favorable if it is connected with Krishna. Everything becomes unfavorable if it is disconnected with Krishna.
So right now, see all of us have the desire to be great, but and we can’t wish it away. It is there. Say for example, if I have some talent, if I have speaking ability, if I have singing ability, then if I think, if I speak or if I sing, I will become proud.
Therefore, I will not speak, I will not sing. Then that will not save me from pride. Why? Because it is not that when if I don’t sing, I will not become proud.
When I’m thinking that I won’t sing or I won’t speak and I won’t become proud. What I’m assuming there is I’m not proud right now. But pride is already there within us.
We just don’t have some way to express that pride. So when I have some talent, then I express that pride. So the cure for pride, the cure for pride is not separation of talent.
The cure for pride is purification of intent. That means, okay, I have wealth and I’m proud of my wealth, but what do I do? I use the talent, I use that resource with a pure intent. I have singing ability, I can sing about many things, but I will sing about Krishna.
Now if I sing about Krishna, over a period of time, I will observe that gradually it is singing about Krishna that gives me greater absorption. Before I was introduced to bhakti, I had a desire to be a public speaker and I used to speak reasonably well before also, but then after I got introduced to Krishna Bhakti, there was so much to speak. Earlier, I would run out of ideas.
Now, when I have so many ideas, I don’t know when to speak and when to write about those ideas. Krishna’s glories are so much. But the point is, initially when I started speaking as a devotee speaker, I was very conscious how attentively people are hearing me and after the class, how many people come and praise me.
If nobody praises me, your class was so good, then I used to feel, what is the use of my class? But one day, it happened that I gave a very good class. At least I thought it was a very good class. I prepared nicely, all my thoughts were flowing very nicely and I was relishing the class that I was giving.
So many good connections came up and somehow after that class, no one appreciated me and I was feeling irritated at that time, but then it struck me that actually, I was happier speaking about Krishna than I was when I was expecting others to praise me for having spoken about Krishna. Similarly, any service that we do for Krishna, over a period of time, initially we will start off that service by thinking, oh, I want to be praised for this service. But as we keep doing that service, we will realize, actually the service itself gives more joy than the praise that comes from that service.
The praise will come, the praise will go, but the absorption that I am getting through service, that can always be there for me, because the service is there. So now what is going to happen, that means, this is my desire to be special. This is the circle of the desire to be special.
This is the circle of Krishna Bhakti. So I find the intersection between the two and then I situate myself in that intersection and then initially I sing, I speak, I work because I want to be special. But if I do it for Krishna, gradually the connection with Krishna gives me so much happiness that my focus will shift from me to Krishna.
So it is not that we have to suppress the desire to be special, rather we have to channel that desire to be special in a way that connects us more with Krishna. And as we get connected with Krishna more and more, gradually that desire to be special will become not weaker in the sense that we will not be craving for recognition through that special thing. Rather, that special ability that we have, we will use it to connect with Krishna and get absorption there.
So the process of Bhakti is essentially about connecting with Krishna. And anything that disconnects us from Krishna, that is unfavorable. We could see our talents as simply expressions of our ego.
I have so much talent, that’s my ego speaking, I have this talent. But we can also see our talents as gifts from Krishna. So what we are is God’s gift to us.
What we become is our gift to God. And this is how we can make our life a life of loving service. I have given you some abilities, that’s God’s gift to me.
Now I can use it to become proud and I can go disconnected from Krishna. But if I use that to serve Him, and I become an advanced devotee by that, I become a good whatever in that service I am doing, good singer, good speaker, good manager, good whatever it is, good professional, then that is my gift to God. This way we can channel the desire to be special to connect with the most special being.
Does it answer the question? Yes. Great. Any other questions? Yes.
You can speak, I will repeat the question. Well, I have so many questions, but at the same time I want to reduce to only one. Yes, please tell me.
I have so many questions because I want to translate to Spanish to my wife. At the same time I have so many questions, but I want to reduce to one. Because we know we die at some time.
We don’t know when. Nobody knows that. But based on our karma we say, good karma, bad karma, etc.
Sometimes we can see in our life, especially personally, I passed through the door many times, but never crossed the door. But I know for so many reasons, I just approached this door, experimented, the body was close to die, but at the same time, you know that. What is this? The destiny is based on karma or Krishna don’t want you to do that? So if I understand the question right, what you are asking is, many times we come close to death, but somehow we don’t cross over that door.
So is that happening by our karma that we come close but don’t cross over? Or is it Krishna’s arrangement? Is that what you are asking? Life is actually very precipitous. It’s dangerous. At any moment it can end.
At any moment we may just die. Right now the roof may crash and I may die or I get a heart attack and I may die. But there is also a normal way we live.
We are young, we are middle-aged, we have a family, we grow old and eventually we die. So now just as when we take a rented house, usually we have a contract. Okay, I will be staying in this house for one year, two years, three years.
Like that, when we get the body, this body we have got based on our past karma from previous lives. So this body comes with a particular time duration. That time duration is not just in terms of seconds or minutes.
It’s actually in terms of breaths. So for that breath, the soul will be in this body. And during the course of that life, depending on the kind of karma that we may have done, we will experience different events in our life.
So for example, some people, throughout their life they are always very sickly. Some other people, they are very healthy. Some people, they eat a little bit, maybe too spicy or too oily and their stomach gets upset.
Some other people, they treat their tongue like a conveyor belt. Whatever they eat, they keep eating and still they stay healthy. So this difference or what we go through in our life, that is also based on karma.
So our karma determines not just when our lifespan will end, when our stay in this body will end, but also the broad patterns of events that we will experience in this life that is determined by karma. Now what is not determined is how we respond. So it’s like say, from here, if I take a flight to go to New York, now based on the kind of weather that is there along the way, as soon as I decide to go to New York, then I will experience that kind of weather.
Sometimes it may be turbulent, sometimes it may be peaceful. So similarly, when I decide to go to New York, not only is my destination determined, but also to some extent the turbulence that is going to there is determined. But at the same time, what I respond to, how I respond to, with that turbulence I may become panicky.
And sometimes when the plane starts moving up and down, some people become so panicky, they start screaming, crying and some people may get a heart attack because of that. Or some people may say calm and okay, this plane is turbulent, but the pilot is competent, they will get it back in control. So what happens to us is destiny.
How we respond to it is freedom. So our response is never determined. That response is up to us always.
So some of us, by our past karma, by the kind of karma that we have, we may have more danger filled lives. Lives which take us many times close to death and get us back. Others may have not such adventurous lives, not such dangerous lives.
That’s actually the result of karma. Now, what we should see is not what happens to me is not in my control. But how I respond to it is in my control.
And if I can respond wisely, whatever happens, if I come close to death and then I am pulled back from there, then I can see it is death was so real, I was so close to death and this is going to happen. So therefore, let me focus on the eternal. Let me not get so infatuated by the temporary.
So the art of living wisely is to actually translate whatever happens into a way that is favorable for our growth. So if I have a very peaceful life and there is no danger, then I can think that actually Krishna is so kind to me that he has given me a peaceful material life so that I can focus undistractedly on growth. On the other hand, if I have a danger filled life, then I can think Krishna is so kind that Krishna is giving me constant reminders of the dangers that await us in this world, of the ultimate danger that is going to come to me at the time of death.
And therefore, let me intensify my bhakti. So what we should do is whatever kind of events happen in our life, we need to translate them in a way that helps us to go closer to Krishna. Does it answer your question? Any other questions? So you just said our life, the life span we have is based on our breath, right? Yeah, correct.
So at the same time, we know doing exercise is very good for us. So when we start doing exercise, we increase our breath intakes. So are we actually reducing our life span? Okay.
Good question. That would depend on your answer. You will stop exercising from tomorrow.
Okay. See, if we say that the number of breaths are fixed, then sometimes when we exercise, we know exercise is good for the health, but then exercise also makes us breathe faster. So are we actually increasing our longevity or decreasing our longevity when we exercise? See, there are principles and there are specifics.
So the broad principle applies in the sense that our life span is fixed. As I gave the example that when we get a body by our karma, how long we are going to stay in that body is fixed. Now, how I act in my life based on that understanding, that is based not just on that philosophical principle.
It is based on practical action. See, for example now, if, I’ll give an extreme example of this, that we know that whatever happens to us is by our past karma. But in this life, we are not meant to judge people based on their past karma.
For example, if a person is robbed and that person goes to the king, I have been robbed. The king says you are robbed by your past karma. Well, this is ridiculous.
Or take this to a further extreme. You know, a mother has a small baby and the baby is crying. The mother says she is crying because of her past karma.
Now, what will happen to humanity? What will happen to love? So, we understand the principle of past karma. Yes, a person may be robbed because of past karma. A particular baby, when she is born, she has some complications because of which she cries more.
We could say that is because of past karma. But when we are acting in this world, our focus is not on what is whose karma. Our focus is on what is my dharma.
So, as a king, the king’s focus is not on okay, is this person robbed because of their past karma. The king’s focus is what is my dharma. I am in charge of law and order over here.
I have to make sure that this injustice is corrected. So, from this life’s perspective, a person being robbed is unjust. From this life’s perspective, a baby is crying.
No, it’s mother. Mother has to do something about it. So, similarly, when we think about taking medicines or doing exercises or adopting healthy practices, the principle is that I know that there is my past karma.
I have a particular lifestyle. But there is my this life’s dharma also. So, one dharma of this lifetime is to take care of my body.
I can take care of my body as because I want to enjoy life or I can take care of my body because I see this body as a means by which I can serve Krishna. So, see, once we get this, if we get too paranoid about this concept of past life karma, you know, we will get paralyzed. Should we do anything or not in this life? You know, if I say, okay, if everything is going to happen by past karma, why should I take medicine? The disease has come because of past karma and if my karma is there, it will be cured also.
Well, we have to understand that what we experience in our life is not determined just by our past karma. It is past karma plus present karma also. It’s like, say, if somebody is riding a bike and they are riding rashly and there is water spilled on the road.
We can say that by their past karma, they were going to meet a situation where the water was spilled on the road. But they could have been driving slowly and there may be a small accident. If they were driving very rashly and they were thrown off, it could be a fatal accident.
So, that means, now the fact, the point of their meeting with accident, not a fatal accident, much more serious accident, we could say. So, the point is that our present life actions also affect. So, it is not just the past life actions.
Past life actions happen, they affect certain things. But when we get certain complication by our past life karma, the way I respond to it can aggravate that situation or it can mitigate that situation. So, when we are acting in life, we should focus on what is my this life dharma.
So, yes, by my past life karma I got a disease, I can say. But my this life dharma is I have to take medicine. Even in the Vedic tradition, there was Ayurveda.
You know, Ayurveda, if everybody was simply going to think in terms of past life karma, then why was Ayurveda there at all? Ayurveda, it accepts the existence of God. You know, we say that it is Vishnu who is acting through the Aushadhi, through the medicine. But still we take the medicine.
So, when we act in this life, we act primarily based on this life dharma. So, if I find that exercise is favorable for my health, then I should do exercise. It’s not that every single action I do, I want to calculate it, how much breath this is going to take.
It’s going to take too many breaths, it’s going to take too less breaths. That’s not the point. The point is that we recognize that there are certain things which are beyond my control and certain things which are in my control.
So, what is in my control, I do that. That’s why Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita also says, gahana karmano vati, that the intricacies of karma are very difficult to understand. So, the broad principles we focus on and as far as practical actions is concerned, we don’t have to get too caught up in this whole analysis of past life karma and what all is happening.
I think, what should I do right now? What is the best thing for me to do right now? How can I serve Krishna right now? So, whatever be the number of breaths I have, if I have a healthy body, you know, I will be able to serve it. And if exercise helps me to be healthy, then I will do the exercise. So, our focus should not be on too much on this past life karma.
See, the philosophy should be always used in such a way that it enhances our understanding and our purposefulness in life. Our philosophy should never be used in such a way that it shrinks our humanity. It kills our initiative.
It’s not meant for that. Any philosophy, you can turn it in the opposite way. In Mahabharata, Dhritarashtra, when Vidura tells him, stop Duryodhana from antagonizing the Pandavas.
Otherwise, the whole Kuru dynasty will be destroyed. So, at that time, Dhritarashtra says, that oh, but if it is the will of almighty destiny that our dynasty is going to be destroyed, then who am I, a tiny mortal, to stop the will of almighty destiny? Now, Vidura just cuts through Dhritarashtra’s rationalizations. And Vidura replies with a sentence that we all can memorize.
He says that destiny determines the consequences of our actions, not our actions themselves. So, if a student doesn’t study in an exam and say I failed because of destiny, that is not because of destiny, that is because of stupidity. You didn’t study.
If after studying somehow a student forgets or maybe the computer makes some mistake or something goes wrong, then that is destiny. So, our actions are in our hands and we need to do our actions responsibly. If after doing our actions, the results don’t come, then that is destiny.
So, exercise we should do. And sometimes we find some people, despite doing exercises, sometimes they fall sick. And some people don’t do exercises, still they seem to stay healthy.
But that is, we understand that is the result of past karma. But I know the general correlation is if I do exercise, so I stay healthy, so I do exercise. Does this answer the question? Any other questions? Thank you very much.
Prabhupada Ki Jai.