What is the nature of eternal life?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

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Does that answer your question? If reincarnation is a movement towards eternal life, what exactly is the eternal life? Basically, the Bhagavad Gita says that this world is like a reflection of the spiritual world. So, it gives the metaphor of a tree.
If we have a tree in which the roots are upwards, the branches are downwards. And we would see such a tree in a reflection, say in a reflection in a river. So, it says this world is like this.
That means, whatever is in the tree, it is there in this reflection also. But the reflection doesn’t have a real substance. If I want to eat a mango, if I dive into the river, try to catch the reflection, I won’t get it.
But if I climb up the tree, I can get the mango. So, this world is like a reflection of the spiritual world. And whatever is present in the reflection is present in the reality, in the object, in its pure form.
In the reflection, if some stone is thrown, then the shapes may get distorted. But the reality is undisturbed. So, just as we have relationships in this world, we have the roles and responsibilities and a life of interactions in this world.
Similarly, it is there in the spiritual world. So, the difference is that here it is all self-centered. Where I relate with other people based on how much pleasure they give me.
They stop giving me pleasure, then tendency is that people often want to end the relationship. Whereas, in the spiritual world, it is not self-centered in the sense of body-centered. It is God-centered.
There is love, there is pure love. And in that pure love, there is eternal reciprocation. So, just as we are persons here, we will be persons there also.
Just as there are loving reciprocations, relationships which you have over here, they are there also. But because the loving relationships here are tainted by selfishness, so often there are problems, there are conflicts. And ultimately, because everything here is temporary, there is great frustration.
In contrast, in the spiritual world, because there is no selfishness, and because everything there is eternal, there is no frustration in the relationship. On the other hand, there is eternal fulfillment in those relationships. So, basically, the eternal life is also a life like the life in this world.
But without the misery and the temporariness of life in this world.