Bhagavatam-daily 174 – 11.10.16 – Holding that consciousness is eternal but not transcendental is misleading

It is accepted that we continue to exist even after death because if one holds the materialistic philosophy purely materialistic worldview and the pursuit of material sense gratification actually ends with death and it becomes not just ends with death it becomes futile and pointless because all that we have worked for will be wasted when we will be lost and will be wasted when we die so it accepts the karma accepts the point that we continue to exist after death and what we do in this life does affect the destination that we get in our next life so it accepts the law of karma also and that the law of karma continues to act beyond death and it accepts that there is something which continues to exist beyond death now that consciousness that which can source of consciousness which can be considered the atma but the idea is the defining conception and the defining illusion here is that the atma is eternal but not transcendental so atma is eternal in the sense that the soul will exist even after the body dies in this life as well as the next life and forever but the atma is not transcendental the purpose of the soul is not to pursue sense gratification the purpose of the soul is to pursue sorry the purpose of the soul is not to attain transcendental situation to attain liberation but it is to pursue sense gratification and the whole art of living is how to get better sense gratification how to get dharmic sense gratification and not not get under not do sins and thereby get dharmic sense gratification and then have to suffer the reactions for that so the problem with this notion is that although one may think that I can pursue sense gratification dharmically still sense gratification itself is unfulfilling and even with even in this life and like in all lives one cannot pursue sense gratification lifelong the body grows old body gets deceased and then there is not much facility there for sense gratification so overall in material existence no matter how well one tries to adjust the misery is much more than the pleasure and yes by acting dharmically we will maximize our misery and by acting dharmically we can decrease the misery but still whether we are dharmic or dharmic the miseries of old age disease and death and again rebirth are there and this philosophy perpetuates the cycle of birth and death and makes the purpose of existence not liberation from the cycle of birth and death but better situation within the cycle of birth and death eternally and it requires it demands the performance of rituals so that one can get better sense gratification and this in this as well as in future lives so Krishna talks about this in 2.42 43 in the Bhagavad Gita and again in 9.20 21 where he says that Trayividhyam Trayividhyamam Somapahaputapapa Yajnairishva Svargathim Prarthayante E Punyama Satya Surendralokam Ashnantidivyan Dividevabhogan Trayividhyam so they studied the three Vedas Somapahaputapapa and they drink Soma as a part of the Vedic rituals and they become purified of sins papa Yajnairishva Svargathim Prarthayante Yajnair they are performing Yajna Ishma what is their Swargatim prarthayante. They want to attain swarga. Te punyam asadhya surendralokam.
Te punyam asadhya. They do punya, by accumulating punya, surendralokam. They want to attain indraloka, swarga.
Ashnanti divyan divideva bhogan ashnanti. And they just want to enjoy thereafter. Divyan, here divyan refers not to transcendental, but celestial, heavenly.
Heavenly delights. Divideva bhogan. The joy, the pleasures that are enjoyed by the gods.
And he says, next verse, 9.21 te tam bhuktvā svarga-lokam viśālaṁ śrīne puṇya-mṛtyu-lokam viśanti evaṁ trai-dharma-manu-prapannā gata-gataṁ kāma-kāma-alabhante te tam bhuktvā, after having enjoyed this, svarga-lokam viśālaṁ. In svarga-lokam, Krishna acknowledges that they will get a lot of enjoyment. Viśālaṁ, it is large amount of enjoyment.
But bhuktvā, after having enjoyed, śrīne puṇya, they have accumulated some puṇya. After the puṇya gets over, mṛtyu-lokam viśanti. They will return back to mṛtyu-loka, earthly planetary system.
evaṁ trai-dharma-manu-prapannā In this way, trai-dharma, the dharma which is talked about in the three Vedas, or the dharma which focuses only on dharmārtha-kāma, doesn’t go to mokṣa. Anu-prapannā, by following it, what is the result? gata-gataṁ kāma-kāma-alabhante gata-gataṁ They go there and come back, and their desires are fulfilled, and their desires are frustrated. And this just goes on and on, eternally.
labhante, this is all that they get. So they live eternally in the cycle of fulfillment and frustration of desire. And they never get any situation of lasting fulfillment.
And Krishna says, this is unfortunate. He’s already labeled them as, marked them as avipaścitah. Here, the same misconception is being refuted by Krishna, bhāvo janmādayo asakret That lifelong, or eternally, they will have to go on the cycle of birth and death.
So the soul is not just eternal, but the soul is also transcendental. The eternality of the soul should point us towards the eternal source of happiness. Not the eternal pursuit of temporary sources of happiness.
And that eternal source of happiness is Krishna. And that’s why Krishna says in 15.15 vedaś ca sarvair āmeva vedyo Dad, the purpose of the Vedas is to know Me. And those who know Him, they attain lasting happiness.
They attain eternal fulfillment. And this is the next verse in the same section. In 15.19 yoma ameva sammado jnāti puruṣottama sa sarvaveda bhajati māṁ sarvabhāvena bhārata So those who know Krishna and offer their heart to Krishna, they are sarvaveda.
They truly know everything. They know the purpose of the Vedas and they fulfill the purpose of the Vedas and thus they attain the perfection of life. Thank you.