Bhagavatam-daily 148 – 11.09.23 – Don’t see the spiritual world merely as a geographical neighbor of the material world

Thank you yāntena praveśitaḥ yāti tad sātmatāṁ rājan pūrva-rūpaṁ asantyajan kīṭaha peśu-skṛtaṁ dhyāyan kīṭaha kīṭaha refers to a insect peśu-skṛtaṁ refers to a wasp wasp is a slightly bigger creature significantly bigger creature than an insect dhyāyan dhyāyan means meditate kūtyāṁ tena praveśitaḥ the insect the wasp entered into the hive of the insect kūtyāṁ is hive yāti tad sātmatāṁ rājan yāti tad sātmatāṁ when the wasp entered into the insect’s hive and tormented the insect, threatened the insect, terrorized the insect then the insect became very fearful what happened? yāti tad sātmatāṁ rājan tad sātmatāṁ attained that kind of ātmatāṁ same level of existence rājan pūrva-rūpaṁ asante jan pūrva-rūpaṁ so pūrva-rūpaṁ means the formal form not giving up asante jan so this is actually an example given for what is commonly known as or is philosophically known as jīvanmukti so so what we think of that is what we become sooner or later so if we think too much about certain things then our consciousness becomes absorbed in this so this particular anecdote that is being told over here is about a particular creature which is not going to be of any specific use that is that is that wasp threatens an insect and the insect is terrorized keeps thinking of the insect keeps thinking of its terrorizer terrorizer terrorizer and eventually as it keeps thinking of its terrorizer eventually it gets that kind of body similarly if we think about Krishna constantly then we get liberated from material existence and we actually attain Krishna even if we are physically still in material existence we get liberated from material existence because we have already attained a higher level of existence we have already gone out of this body towards the eternal abode of the lord so there is videha mukti where a soul leaves the body and attains the next body whereas there is jivan mukti where the soul may still be physically in the body over here but the soul has actually gone to the next body so soul has gone to the next body means that the soul’s consciousness is practically situated in the same level as where it would have been situated if the soul had got a eternal spiritual body so the point of recognizing this is that Krishna is attainable even while we are in material existence in the case of the vast it gets in the vasculine insect the insect gets so caught in the thoughts of that other body of its predator it eventually attains the same existence as has been attained by the predator similarly we too attain eternal existence by meditating on the supreme lord now meditation is the foundation for transformation that is something which is true even in our day to day existence if someone wants to change someone wants to give up a bad habit somebody wants to develop something higher better nobler the way to develop that is by meditating all action begins in meditation now meditation can have a technical meaning where one sits in a particular posture and thinks of a particular thing that is meditation at another level meditation can have a non-technical meaning where when this is deeply absorbed in thought of something or the other so from that non-technical perspective meditation is one of the best we need to meditate on something before we can actually get out of the world without getting out of the world unless we actually focus on the lord unless we aspire to attain the lord we cannot attain him and when we aspire to attain him when our consciousness gets absorbed in him then even if we have not yet attained him even if we are still at the material level of existence and Krishna is at the spiritual level of existence still it is for all practical purposes we have actually got on to attaining an eternal level of reality at the level of desire at the level of consciousness sometimes we think of the spiritual world as just a geographical extension of the material world that means that geographical extension means that whatever is there in the material world we go up to a particular boundary and beyond that is the spiritual world and when we talk also about say that the Viraja river and there is the something we go beyond that and there is a spiritual world over there that may perpetuate the impression that the spiritual world is there is geography the spiritual world is also just in the geographical neighborhood of the material world but it is not exactly like that far from like that the spiritual world is of a different nature itself so yes there is transportation of the soul from material world to the spiritual world at the time of liberation but the transportation is not as simplistic as just say somebody getting a visa to America and going from India to America the soul itself is subtle the soul is actually spiritual which is subtler than what we call a subtle reality in philosophical terms and the spiritual world is Satchitananda so it is not it is of a different nature it is not just a geography it is not just a matter of geographical transportation it is a matter of emotional emotional redirection and spiritual perception emotional redirection means our desires our heart they have to change unless unless we are actually able to go out of this world unless we are able to move onwards in our devotion service towards Krishna we cannot attain eternal existence so emotional redirection means unless our heart moves from the world to the lord we cannot attain the spiritual world and if our heart has moved towards the lord and that emotional redirection has taken place then spiritual perception follows the soul has latent spiritual has spiritual faculty which is capacity for spiritual faculty which is currently dormant and once the soul has a strong desire to perceive spirit soul starts perceiving spirit just as a person who is caught in watching a movie on in a movie theater when the person breaks out of the spell of the movie and desires to look around the person has the eyes to look around and see who is sitting next to me what is the nature of the wall and other things in the theater so I can walk out of the theater also so like that the soul who is caught in matter can come out of matter if there is emotional redirection followed by perception was followed by spiritual perfection so that’s what we should aspire for rather than worrying too much about whether at death after death I will go back to the spiritual world or not should focus right now on whether I am actually doing emotional redirection substantially if I am substantially doing emotional redirection then the attainment of Krishna’s abode is only a matter of time it will surely come in the near future if we just persevere on that path thank you