Does the spiritual world really exist? – SPIRIT acronym

[Congregation program at Washington DC, USA] Video:

So, thank you very much for coming today evening.

And I'll speak today on the topic of is the spiritual world just a religious mythology? So, I'll speak on this using an acronym SPIRIT, where I'll talk about several ways of inferring about the existence of some other world. So, just about a couple of months ago, I was in Silicon Valley. I was speaking at Stanford University.

And there, after that, Professor of Religious Studies, he was talking and he said that this idea that there is some other world beyond this world. This is simply a religious conception meant to keep people docile. Now, that is, of course, Karl Marx's well-known idea that religion is the opium of the masses.

So, he said that. So, I said, okay, it could be like that. But I said that if you consider that way, it is not just religion which keeps people docile.

You see, mass entertainment is doing the same thing today. Isn't it? People are fed with so much mass entertainment that people just stop thinking. And it's, that means there is, there could be an effect of something, but we can't judge the validity of a thing only by its effect.

We have to look at the content of the belief, or content of the idea. So, I'll talk about this. What do we exactly mean by the spiritual world, first of all? That is the idea that there are two levels of reality broadly.

This is the world we live in is the material world. And beyond this, there is another level of reality, which is called the spiritual reality. And the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna talks about this at several places.

Most clearly in 8.20, where he says, परस्तस्मात्तु भावोन्यो व्यक्तो व्यक्तात् सनातन्ह यहस सर्वेशु भूतेषु नश्यत्सु नविनश्यति He says, परस्तस्मात्तु, there's another word, भावोन्यो, it is of another nature. व्यक्तो व्यक्तात् सनातन्ह It is sanatana, it is eternal. And to emphasise that point, Krishna says again, यहस सर्वेशु भूतेशु When all in this world is destroyed, नश्यत्सु नविनश्यति That part remains as it is.

So we could look at this from different perspectives. So first perspective is that, as I said, I'll talk about the acronym SPIRIT. S is SPIRITUAL LONGING.

Now what do we mean by spiritual longing? Again, the Bhagavad Gita uses the word SPIRIT in a specific sense. Sometimes the word SPIRIT is used in a sense of essence of something. Like say, if in a cricket match, somebody plays in a very aggressive way, somebody cheats, somebody sledges too much, then they say this is going against the spirit of cricket.

So there we use the word SPIRIT-DRIVEN, the essential activating mood, something like that. So SPIRIT is used in that sense. But the Bhagavad Gita uses SPIRIT in another more specific sense, that SPIRIT is a level of reality.

And spiritual longing refers to a longing for that spiritual level of reality. Now what does this mean? Spiritual is differentiated from the material primarily based on the longevity. Krishna says that of the eternal, there is no cessation and of the temporal, there is no endurance.

So the eternal is spiritual and the material is temporary. So that by spiritual longing, we simply mean a longing for the eternal. Everyone, everywhere, all living beings strive very strongly to live forever.

If we consider the world around us, nothing in the world lasts forever. Even the giant rocky mountains or Himalayan mountains or whichever mountains we may consider, they don't last forever. Now with the spectre of climate change threatening the world, there are giant glaciers and icebergs which have been there for a long time and it's just dissolving away.

So things which we consider as lasting forever, they just disappear in one moment. So basically nothing, absolutely nothing lasts forever. And yet every one of us has a desire to live forever.

So where does this desire come from? If a child in say a remote Native American reservation where there is no internet, there are no phones, there's no connection to the outer world, bigger world, that child suddenly goes and tells his mother, Mom, I want a baklava. Now the first thing the mother will ask is, what do you think she'll ask? Yeah, what is a baklava? Or even if she knows about it, yeah, how did you come to know exactly? So if there's nothing in the environment of the child that gives the child the idea of that kind of thing, so naturally then the question will come, where does it come from? So similarly, nothing around us lasts forever. And yet we all have a desire to live forever.

Our body doesn't last forever. The things outside don't last forever. So where does the desire come from? You know, that example, they say, after this programme, when the devotees are say winding up and cleaning up, they suddenly see a gold ring over it.

They say, where did this come from? There's nothing directly golden. The floor is not golden. The wall is not golden.

So where did it come from? Isn't it? So if something is not there in its surroundings, then we naturally get the question, where did this come from? So just as we understand, somebody must be having a gold ornament or there must be some gold treasure somewhere from where it came out. So similarly, if we consider that nothing in the world is eternal and yet we have a desire, deep rooted desire to live forever. So this suggests that this desire comes from some other level of reality.

The gold comes from some other place. Similarly, this longing for eternal life points to an arena where there is eternal life. None of these are foolproof arguments.

They are reasonable inferences. The word proof itself is used in different senses. So if I say right now that the time in LA is 4.25. So you can check it.

You can check on your Google. You can have some time apps and check. You can call somebody and check over there.

So if we give some objective figure, some objective fact, it can be checked. But if somebody asks you, what is the proof that your mother loves you? Well, she's been taking care of you since my childhood. This, this, this, this.

But you cannot reduce it to one particular proof. So proof, there are different ways of proving different things. So we cannot have quantifiable scientific proofs in the sense of quantifiable, verifiable way.

In science itself, there are different ways of proving. In fact, it's a whole different subject, but I'll mention briefly here that there is no scientific proof that you exist. Scientific proof exists because you exist.

What do I mean? There is no scientific proof that you exist. Science can scan the whole body and see, OK, this is your lung. This is your heart.

This is your medulla oblongata. This is your pituitary gland. All those things can find out.

But where are you, the centre of awareness? Obviously, if you are not there, you would not be asking this question. So you are there. But that you cannot be formed by science.

There is no scientific proof. It's a foundation. So scientific proof exists because you exist.

If there had been no conscious observer, there would be no consciousness, there would be no observation, and there would be no science. So there are certain things which are bedrock truths. So the point I'm making is that there are different ways of proving different things.

So the spiritual world, we can infer about it from certain angles of analysis. So S is the spiritual longing that is there within all of us. Now P is paranormal phenomena.

Paranormal phenomena is a scientific term that is used for many phenomena that are not explainable by the current scientific world view. There are many in this. There is telepathy, where people can communicate certain messages to others.

And there is a whole universe out there which science doesn't know about. There is a well-known paper written by a researcher in spirituality and health. And he called that paper provocatively as where science and spirituality kiss each other.

So the idea was that there were people who were sick. And the two people who had cancer and it was a curable cancer, but a serious cancer. And one of them was allured.

They didn't have any loving, many relatives with them. And the other person had, I'm just giving a broad framework, the experiment is much more detailed. But the other was where there was this couple, they had been married together for 40 years.

And the woman was sick. So the husband was told that you transmit messages of love and well-being in your mind to her. Just offer your good wishes.

Is it as if she was sitting next to you and you would speak encouraging words to her. So speak like that. And then they found that it is experiment, similar experiments in several occasions.

And they found that the cure happened much faster just because of this. All other parameters were considered and equated more or less. But in general, it is found that a loving atmosphere, a sentiment of love, when people feel cared and loved and valued, then they recover faster.

So now what does this mean? This doesn't directly prove the spiritual reality. All that it proves is that there is something beyond what we consider as the physical phenomena of health. The physical understanding is the body is a machine.

And if certain parts get structurally damaged or physiologically imbalanced, then the body becomes sick. But the medication can remain the same and something more can make a difference. Big difference.

This field of health has now become a big, big field. I spoke in Salesforce again in San Jose. So there they have mindfulness rooms on almost each building.

And they have mindfulness, they have Zen Buddhist monks who come and they do retreats free at the company's cost for the employees. And they have found that by this, the stress level of the employees goes down. So again, all this means that there is something beyond the tunnel vision of life that we have.

I get this, this will improve my health. I take this pill, this will improve my health. I do this, this will improve my health.

So now another very interesting paranormal phenomena is what is found through something called the staring experiment. Staring experiment means, let's say I'm sitting here right now and somebody sits behind me. I can't see them at all.

And then that person is told, stare at this person. And sometimes they will stare, sometimes they will not stare. And I have to guess, is this the person staring at me or not staring at me? So now normally, if it's a complete random probability, it will be 50%.

I could get it right, I could get it wrong. But almost universally, everybody gets it right about 60%. Some people get it right 90% also.

And most of us have had this experience. Now we feel somebody is looking at us and we turn around and that person then looks away, something like that. So we all have that intuitive sense if somebody is staring at us.

Now, where does this come from? So this indicates that if we consider this physical reality, there is physical reality in which there are cause-effect phenomena. But from the physical reality perspective, there is no way I can come to know somebody who is far away from me. If somebody is physically close, I can sense their breath or I can feel their proximity.

But if they are a significant distance away, they're looking at me, how do I come to know? There is no, there is much more to the universe than what we observe. Many paranormal phenomena have been investigated by various scientists. In fact, Alfred Wallace was the co-founder of the theory of evolution.

And he wrote a whole book on the paranormal. And he starts his book with by saying that we don't ask our readers for faith. We ask our readers for doubt.

He said, we don't ask that you have faith that the paranormal exists. He asked that you have doubt about the rightness of your pre-existing beliefs. Be open to some higher reality.

So there is a huge amount of evidence and William James, the prominent psychologist, almost 100 years ago, he said at that time itself, and since then the evidence has ballooned much, much more. He said that to dismiss all such phenomena as just bad data, that is poor scientific method. Generally, in science also, like everywhere else in life, biases come in.

And Robert Frost was a social critic. He said that the theories we like, we call them facts. And the facts we don't like, we call them theories.

So, paranormal phenomena are quite well documented. Even Carl Sagan, who was a sceptic, he said that this paranormal phenomena is something which needs to be investigated. Because the sheer amount of evidence for it was so much that he said we need to find out more about it.

So this is paranormal phenomena. All this, what are we talking about here? That there's something beyond the world that we experience in our daily life. There is some higher reality beyond that.

Now, I, are we talking about the, what is the acronym we are discussing? Spirit, yeah. So, P was paranormal phenomena. S was? Spiritual longing, spiritual longing itself we have.

Now, when we talk about I, here, we focus primarily on, I will come twice here. So, I is the, is the immortal longing for love. The slight difference between this.

First is that, I'll just call it immortal love. First is we long to live forever. But we don't just want to live forever, we long to love forever.

We long to love forever means that most of the movies, most of the novels, they are about romance. And they all end with, most of them end again with H-E-A. Happily ever after.

Now, if you look at the Bhagavad Gita, what it says is, Dukkha lev ashashvata. It's the exact opposite. Happily ever after.

Dukkha lev ashashvata. So, now, the Bhagavad Gita is not being pessimistic. It's simply being realistic.

That this is the nature of the world. And yet, why do we have this longing to love forever? So, one is the nature of our own existence. And the other is the nature of the existence, an inference towards the existence of the other.

Who is also eternal. And this, so we are going up and down in the hierarchy now. First is, through S, I talk about there is something higher up there.

Which we don't, some realm where there is eternality. And the second I talked about, there is something beyond the physical world. What is the nature of the physical world? What is the nature of the non-physical reality? We may not know.

But there is something beyond the physical. Then, beyond that, if we consider I, this indicates that there is, the immortal love that we long for, indicate that spiritual realm is not necessarily a depersonalised homogeneity. That there is just existence.

So, some people argue or they believe that in the spiritual level, there is only consciousness existing. So, right now, so you are looking at me, I am looking at you. So, when this is happening, there are three elements.

If I am speaking and I am looking at you, then you are the object of my consciousness. I am being conscious of you. And I am the subject.

Subject means I am observing, the person who is observing. And in between is the stream of consciousness. So, there is the object of consciousness, there is the object of consciousness, subject of consciousness and the stream of consciousness.

That's how perception takes place. Now, some people hold that in the spiritual reality, there is no subject and no object. There is only the stream of consciousness.

So, in Hindi, they say that aisa dhyan karo ki kaun dhyan kar raha hai, kiska dhyan kar raha hai, kaise dhyan kar raha hai, iska bhi dhyan nahi rahe. Now, it sounds nice. Yes, it's good as a mood for getting so absorbed that we forget everything.

But, to get absorbed like that, there has to be someone who will get absorbed. And when you are absorbed, absorption is a state of consciousness. It is not a state of reality.

There is a difference, isn't it? I may forget everything around me, but everything around me still exists. So, through this pointing out that immortal love, which we all long for, indicates that if there is an eternal level of reality, there are other people in that reality. Now, what the nature of those other people are, what the nature of that other world is, that is something which at this stage we can't know.

But we can infer that there is a likelihood of there being personality, persons in that eternal realm where we can reciprocate. Then, R is revelation and realisation. Revelation of scripture and realisation of the saints.

If we see the world's traditions, across history, across geography, have talked about some higher world. Whether it is Christianity, whether it is Islam, even Buddhism, which does not necessarily accept the idea of a god, but they also talk about some higher reality. In certain aspects, these philosophies are very different.

But in certain aspects, they're very similar. We consider Christianity and Buddhism. It's Christianity, Islam, all the Abrahamic religions.

So, Christianity accepts soul, but not reincarnation. Buddhism accepts reincarnation, but not a soul. So, their idea is, Christianity says, yeah, we have a soul, but the soul is not going to come back.

It's only one chance. And Buddhism says that actually there is no self. Who is it that is going to reincarnate? Well, that's a question that their philosophers have been thinking for 2,500 years now.

There is just an illusion that there is a self. I'm not going to get into technicalities of different religions and their differences, but the point I'm making is, although there are differences, significant differences in other ideas, there is, in general understanding, that there is some higher level of reality. And that is where we belong.

So, in fact, a defining difference, a difference between, say, the pre-modern worldviews and the modern worldview is that in the modern worldview, people started rejecting the idea of some other world. Before the advent of modernity, we started with the age of science from the 17th century onwards, but it picked up momentum in the 19th century, especially. So, before that, all over, people understood that this world is a transitional place.

Jesus said that this world is like a bridge, cross over it, don't build your house on it. So, similarly, in the Vedic tradition also, it's understood that this world is temporary, we belong to some other world. So, across traditions, there have been description of some higher world.

And this revelation has also been reinforced by the realisation of great saints. In the Vedic tradition, there is a concept called Jeevan Muktaha. There is, there are two kinds of Mukti, there are two kinds of liberation.

There is Videha Mukti, that is happens at death, when the soul has no attachment to the body. Then that soul leaves the body and goes to the spiritual world. But there will be some souls who are so advanced that they have no, that they have no bodily attachments.

So, although they are in the body, but they are no longer attached to the body. So, those souls who are completely devoted to spiritual reality, spiritual pursuits, they are considered as Jeevan Muktha. And all the faculties are used simply for the service of the Lord.

Then at that time, even although they are in the body, they are no longer attached to the body. They are already liberated. And it's only a matter of time when the body will run its due course and then they will attain eternal life.

So, there have been saints who have talked about other world. And they have had visions of that world. And they revealed those, they have shared those visions with others also.

So, if we consider, if we consider Prabhupada himself, Prabhupada did not focus so much on his paranormal visions. But Vishnu Prabhupada, when he would, there were devotees with Prabhupada and at one time, the devotee, there's a beautiful picture of Krishna eating lunch with his friends. And as Prabhupada was gazing at it, and Prabhupada was gazing at such, such devotion, such love, such absorption.

And the devotees came and talk with him. Devotees came to talk with him and he saw that Prabhupada was absorbed. He looked, he started looking at the picture.

And Prabhupada was gazing, lost for some time. Then he came back to external consciousness. He says, would you like to go there? So, I think it was Yamuna Mataji who tells this.

She says that, you know, the way Prabhupada spoke it, as if, it's like sometimes we may see a, see a picture of Kashmir or maybe a picture of Alaska or maybe see a picture of some other hill station, beautiful place. Would you like to go there? So it was just like that. So for Prabhupada, it was as objective a reality as the physical world that we consider to be real.

So there have been saints who have had such extraordinary experiences where they just get transported to another level of reality. Many of the bhakti saints, in their own revelations, there is a famous story of a saint in that tradition, Raghunath Das Goswami. He, he was very austere.

He, he would hardly, he would just take a little buttermilk once in two, three days. He was extremely renounced. And, one day, he was feeling a little sick.

So they called a vaidya, so his followers called a vaidya. And the vaidya diagnosed and he said, Swamiji has eaten too much sweet rice. Now his disciples got offended.

He says, what to speak of sweet rice? He doesn't even take rice. He just takes a little curd. That's all he eats.

It's a, see the law, there is a law of karma, but there are, the law of karma works in exceptional ways. Say like, some people, normally when we eat, if we eat too much, we gain weight. But it's not that simple.

Some people may have some, some disease, if somebody has some thyroid issue or something like that, they eat a little, and still their body balloons out. And there are some people, who treat their tongue like a conveyor belt. So they eat a lot, but nothing seems to happen to them.

They stay slim and light. So the, we normally think of this cause will lead to this effect. But reality is always more complex.

So when we see an effect, then not necessarily that this has to be the cause. So the effect that they saw was, the vaidya was, the doctor was, he was making inference. He said, the stomach is upset.

And the logical cause of this is, somebody has eaten too much sweets. So then they said, he doesn't eat sweets. You are offending him.

So no, no, that is the cause. So then, they felt a little apprehensive, but they decided to go and ask Saguna Das Goswami. And this is what the vaidya is saying.

That's true. This is what? He said that, yesterday night, in the spiritual world, there was a big festival. And there, Radha Rani had herself cooked sweet rice for Krishna.

And after Krishna ate sweet rice, everybody else took sweet rice. So, Raghunatha Goswami, in the spiritual world, is an associate of Radha Rani. He is a Manjiri over there.

He says, the remnants were so delicious, that we also took it. And, I, because of that sweet rice I took, my stomach has got upset now. So now, I say that, this is not a convenient expression for us to use.

But, actually speaking, he was experiencing reality at a different level. There is a physical reality and there is a spiritual reality. So sometimes, what happens at the spiritual level can get transmitted to the physical.

The effects may come at the physical level. So then there is, Dr. Jan Stevenson is, he is a prominent researcher in, in, past life memories. And he has written a paper called Paranormal Modification of Biological Form.

But he talks about how, the physical body can be affected by, by impressions. So, he found that, if a mother who is pregnant, she, sees some very fierce, full stimuli. Say, the documented cases that a mother who was pregnant, she used to watch a lot of horror movies.

And, so then, especially movies involving a lot of fire. So this child, whenever, after he was born, whenever you see fire, you start crying. Whenever he sees fire, he would start crying.

So there are, there are traumas that get transmitted like that. So similarly, there is a physical reality, but from a higher level of reality, things can happen over here. So this is real, revelation of scripture, and realisation of the seeds.

Then, I, is, the, again, this is slightly different, but again, the innate, longing for a better life. Innate longing for a better life means, earlier I talked about, how we long to live forever, we long to love forever. But, beyond that, mainstream scientists, or people who are atheistic, may say, we don't believe in all this revelation, realisation.

That is all just people's delusion. Okay, that might be so. But then, as I said, before the pre-modern times, everybody almost believed, that there is a higher world, which we are to attain.

So now with the, with the advent of science, especially of technology, what has happened is, that that same longing, has now been transmitted, into the world of technology. I mean, people have rejected the idea, of a religious paradise, but now everybody is dreaming, of a technological paradise. Through technology, we'll control all our environment.

And if it's too hot, we'll make it cold. If it's too cold, we'll make it hot. Now, if we can, to whatever extent, we can change it.

But the idea, that we can create a paradise over here, that is not going to work. I believe in the California fire, that is tragically going on. This is a, there is a town called Paradise.

And it is razed to the ground, completely eliminated, practically. So, we cannot create paradise in this world. In fact, there is a field of science, scientific research, which they call it as, transhumanism.

Transhumanism is the idea that, we want humanity to transcend, its human limitations. And they say, human life is beset with problems. And the most crippling problems are, old age, disease, death and birth.

Now, of course, for them, birth is not rebirth. For them, birth is population explosion. But the point is, they're talking about it the same way.

Old age is there, disease is there, death is there. And somehow, we want to stop it. So, much technological advancement is geared towards this.

So, we are not given up the idea of a religious paradise. We are still longing for it. So, we have an innate longing for a better life, which we have some, we are not abandoned that as unscientific, is redirected in some other way.

I was once giving a class on Narasimha Chaturdashi. And one boy, he asked a question about that. We live in the age of science.

How can you believe in something as mythological as a half man, half lion? So I said, why do you believe in something as mythological as a half man and a half bat? Or a half man and a half spider? Is it? So no, we don't believe in it. Then why do you watch it? Oh, we watch it only for entertainment. No, but while you are trying to seek entertainment, what are you doing? You are suspending your disbelief.

Now, why would you do that? So no, that's just for enjoyment. But why would you consciously seek something which you know is unreal for your enjoyment? That indicates that reality as it exists is not satisfying for you. And that's why you want to go to some other reality.

And that reality is, at one level, you could say fictional or virtue. See, most entertainment today is escapist entertainment. People want to escape, not just from their lives.

People want to escape from themselves. I just don't want to be me. I want to become someone else.

So if you consider this is the physical reality, this is a spiritual reality. So we have rejected the spiritual reality, saying this is what we call mythological. But then that innate longing for a, to have a better life, better world, to be a better person, we have simply transposed it to, not upwards the spiritual level, but downwards to a fictional level, to a virtual level.

And that's where we long to enjoy life. So the longing itself is eternal. It's universal.

But we have simply redirected it. And it's not just redirected, it's unfortunately misdirected right now. Because that brings the last part of this, that T is the transformational potency of spirituality.

Spirituality, we say, different people believe in different worldviews. Or you believe in your spiritual worldview. I believe in materialism.

Yes, different people can have different worldviews. But what the Bhagavad Gita tells us is, that what is offering is not just a different worldview. It is offering a different world to you.

That means it offers us a process, by practising which, our consciousness can become elevated. And once that consciousness becomes elevated, we will actually perceive spiritual reality. This is physical, this is spiritual.

And this is not just a matter of abstract conception, that this is the spiritual, this is the spiritual. The Bhagavad Gita tells us, there's a process you can follow. By which you can raise your consciousness upwards.

And the fictional, no matter how many books, how many books or movies of Batman or Spider-Man, somebody watches, they're not going to actually see Batman or Spider-Man. Isn't it? There is no Batman Loka, or Spider-Man Loka, isn't it? Where people will go. And so this is, it's fictional and it's always going to be fictional.

But there are great saints, who have told, they've experienced a higher reality. And after experiencing that reality, they have come to share that experience with us. The transformational potency means, that we can ourselves become transformed.

I was in Canada, I was talking, I was giving a class about the existence of God. So one person asked a question, have you seen God? So I said that, whatever I answer, it'll just be a matter of faith for you. If I say yes, you will say, what is the proof? If I say no, what are you talking about? I said that, but Prabhupada asked this question, Prabhupada gave answers in different ways.

One way he answered was that, how does that matter to you? He said, I am giving you a process, by which you can see God yourself. And to the extent, we follow the process, we start moving forwards. So we don't have to necessarily believe somebody's claims.

Those claims, those visions, can be a pointer for our faith. But the most important aspect of spirituality is, that we ourselves, by our spiritual practises, can realise, that we don't have to be so dependent on the body, and on material things. We can start experiencing, peace, strength, and joy, coming from some higher level of reality.

What do I mean by a higher level of reality? So just as if there's a small child, and a baby is newborn, the baby doesn't even know, what is all around it. Even when the mother is holding the baby, the baby doesn't even understand there is a mother. Even when the mother is breastfeeding the baby, all the baby understands is, oh there is some soft substance, something soft is coming.

Doesn't understand anything at all. But as the baby starts growing, then she starts understanding, oh this is the person who loves me very much. Gradually then she will start associating the name, oh this is my mom, this is my mother.

So now, suppose that baby has grown up, to understand that there's a mother, and mother loves me, and she's sleeping at night. And suddenly it becomes cold, and she starts shivering. She starts shivering, at that time, the mother sees it.

Oh, the baby is trembling, and the mother puts a comforter on the baby. When the mother puts the comforter, the baby's eyes are still closed. The baby has not seen her mother.

But just by the transformation, oh I was feeling cold, now I'm feeling cosy. Just by the transformation she infers, oh my mother must be here, my mother must have put the comforter on. So similarly for us right now, our eyes are closed, we are spiritually asleep.

So we can't directly perceive spiritual reality. But even while we are spiritually asleep, we can perceive the transformation that comes, because of spiritual reality. The baby is in the sleep state, but in the waking state, in physical reality, the baby is a mental world, it's in sleep dream state.

The physical level, a change has happened, comforter has been put on her body, she feels it. Similarly for us, we are caught in the physical level of reality, physical mental, but beyond that is the spiritual level. And when we practise bhakti, when we chant the holy names, when we worship the deities, when we immerse ourselves in Krishna Nila, we experience a certain relief, we experience a certain comfort, we experience a certain strength, we experience a certain joy.

And that experience is a pointer, that there is a higher reality, there is a higher experience. Krishna, the higher reality, is what I am experiencing right now. And as we, as the baby awakens, baby will see her mother also.

Similarly, when we practise bhakti, bhakti, bhakti is a process which gives us experience of the transcendental Lord. And that experience leads to We don't become so dependent on other things, for our strength, for our security, for our peace. Yes, in the world things will go up and down, but by our inner strength, we will stay focused, we will stay purposeful, we will stay peaceful.

This transformation is the ultimate test of spiritual reality. Krishna says 9.2 in the Bhagavad Gita. You will experience it yourself.

Just a few days ago, we celebrated the Prabhupada's disappearance day. In the Prabhupada's disappearance, there is a video of that, the final lesson. It describes Prabhupada's physical state, Prabhupada's condition in the last few months of his life.

And Prabhupada was completely emaciated. He was so emaciated, in fact, that he just moans. One of his scientist disciples, Dr. T.D. Singh, Bhaktiswaro Daundar Swami, he became later, he came to meet him and he was shocked to see Prabhupada's condition.

And when he saw Prabhupada, Prabhupada saw that he was shocked. And Prabhupada was so transcendental, although his body was such a terrible condition, Prabhupada was so transcendental, Prabhupada said, you are a scientist, you want proof, isn't it? As all my life, I have been telling you, you're not the body, you're the soul. See, but now I'm demonstrating it to you.

My body is gone, but I'm still here. So Prabhupada's spiritual strength, Prabhupada's spiritual purpose was there. You see that video, towards the last time of his life, he has so little strength that he can barely move his lips and produce some sound.

The devotees are keeping a dictaphone right near his mouth and he's dictating the purports to the human Bhagwat, even in that condition. And on the last purports, he says, Krishna is the supreme controller, everything happens by his will. And then he says that the modes of passion and ignorance in this world are very dangerous.

If we stay in the association of devotees, then we can stay in goodness and move towards transcendence. And thus we can attain Krishna. So Prabhupada himself demonstrated life at a higher level of consciousness.

Despite the trauma of death, he was completely, he was, he was transcendent to it. And thus, he also demonstrated transcendence. And we all, if we practise bhakti, we will experience some level of higher reality.

Something which gives us strength, by which say 10 years ago, 15 years ago, when we're not practising bhakti, if a problem came in our life, we might have been overwhelmed by it. But now the problem comes, we're still concerned, but we don't get that overwhelmed. From somewhere within, strength has come.

That strength has come by our experience of higher spiritual reality. So this transformational potency of spirituality is the greatest, is the greatest conviction, conviction provider for all of us. About maybe seven, eight years ago, I was in Mumbai, in the Juhu temple.

I was in the morning programme, I was walking and chanting. And somebody had spilled some water over there. So I didn't notice it.

And I just walked on it. I slipped and fell. So at that time, I used to wear a brace.

So the brace means the leg doesn't get folded. So when I fell, the leg just went completely off like that. And I had osteoporosis for many years because I have polio.

So it was a small fall, but it is almost like the thigh bone, the femur almost came out. Three fourth of it was severed. And it was horribly painful.

And at that time, I somehow have some connection with the Bhagavad Gita. I love to recite the Bhagavad Gita verses and memorise and recite and contemplate. So at that time, suddenly I just started chanting the Bhagavad Gita verses.

Then I started chanting, reciting second chapter, third chapter verses. It's almost as if the pain just went away. As soon as I stopped reciting, the pain came back.

So normally on Gita Jayanti or something, we recite the whole Bhagavad Gita. So that three, four hours from that time, initially we thought the pain is the circumstance because of a small fall. Then we did an x-ray and then they found out it was a terrible fracture.

They said you have to go to the hospital immediately. You'll have to do a surgery. So those four, five hours in which we travelled from Juhu Temple to Bhaktivanta Hospital and other part of Mumbai.

All that time I was reciting the Bhagavad Gita. That was probably the most intense recitation of the Gita that I had done. And it struck me that actually it was almost like my body is here.

I am here. And this, if I can keep reciting the Bhagavad Gita, my consciousness comes where I am. I mean the consciousness comes to spiritual level.

As soon as I stop reciting, consciousness goes into the body. And as soon as the consciousness goes into the body, so of course, I did not do that out of devotion. I did it simply to avoid the pain.

One day I hope I'll do it with devotion in future. But for all of us, we can. When problems come in our life, if we can take shelter of Krishna, we can experience some relief.

We can experience some strength. And that indicates that there is a higher reality. And that higher reality can give us strength and shelter even amidst the negativities that we may experience in physical reality.

So in that sense, and the spiritual world is not just something which you will experience when after we die, we are pure enough to go to Krishna's abode. The potency of the spiritual reality of the spiritual world we can experience even now if we strive to become absorbed in Krishna. 12.8 Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita, If your mind and intelligence are fixed in me, then you are already living in me.

Your intelligence is engaged in me. Then, You are already living in me. You already have attained spiritual reality.

So in that way, for those who become absorbed in Krishna, the spiritual world is not mythology. It's not a possible reality. It actually becomes a fundamental reality.

It is on the basis of spiritual reality that we have consciousness. And through that, we experience all other realities, including the physical, which is what we normally consider the spiritual. So Krishna is not just real.

He is realer than reality. That means he is the foundation of what we call as reality. And that conviction the devotee gets, the devotee advances and experiences the transformational potency of spirituality.

So I'll summarise. I spoke today about is this spiritual world just a religious mythology? I talked about an acronym. What was that? Spirit.

So S was spiritual longing. We all long for eternal life. And because everything around us is temporary, this longing is as out of place as a remote Native American child wanting to know about a baklava or we finding a gold in a place where there's no gold.

So it points that this belongs somewhere else. There is some other level of reality where this longing resides. P was paranormal phenomena.

I talked about two prominent phenomena. One was the where science and spirituality kiss. How loving relationships and love messages sent to a sick person has been found to accelerate their healing.

And secondly, staring experiment. But people can guess better than what would be by a normal guesswork. Whether somebody is staring at them.

So these phenomena indicate that the physical reality is not all that there is. Something beyond it. We have a conception.

This cause this effect. But there can be some other cause and there can be some other effect also beyond what we see as cause of a connection. Then I was yeah, immortal love.

I'm born longing for love. Thank you. We all long not just to live forever, but to love forever.

So that indicates that the spiritual world, if it's a reasonable inference, I talked about how we can't prove conclusively anything. Even our own existence in terms of mathematical or scientific proof. There is no scientific proof that we exist.

Scientific proof exists because we exist. We can draw an inference that that spiritual level is not just non-differentiated consciousness. There is a subject of consciousness.

There is an object of consciousness. There is a stream of consciousness. The spiritual reality is also personal where there are different persons reciprocating love.

That's that's the most reasonable explanation for a longing for immortal love. Then R was yeah, thank you. Revelation and realisation talked about how across the world the traditions talk about some other world which is our ultimate destination.

And saints have had experiences of that. Raghunanda Goswami, a physical effect on his health was because of the food that he ate at a spiritual level. Then I was second I Yeah, our innate longing for a better world is slightly different versus our our own self-existence should be eternal.

We should have an eternal object for love and we want a better world to live in. So innate longing this I talked about science has not rejected. Science has not eliminated our longing for a better world for an eternal world.

They simply redirected it. And that's why we instead of seeking a religious paradise now are seeking a technological paradise. But of course, through technology we cannot create a paradise because the world has its own nature.

And last was T transformation transformational potency of spirituality. So there Bhagavad Gita doesn't offer just as another world view but offers another world to view. That means people they may reject they may say that OK, you believe in a half man half law and I believe in a half man half bat.

What's the big difference? Even atheists sceptics believe in something like this indicate that there's a longing. But the difference is no matter how much somebody becomes absorbed in Batman or Spider-Man they're not there's no Batman look where they will go and see anything. But absorption Krishna can give us experience of Krishna and that experience is that we experience peace, strength and joy by our connection with Krishna.

Just as a baby with closed eyes can infer the mother's presence and love by the warm that she feels when a comforter is put on her. Similarly, when we put the comforter of Krishna consciousness on our consciousness try to become conscious of Krishna then we will experience relief, strength, calmness, joy and these point to the spiritual reality. And I talked about Prabhupada's transcendence amidst his great physical incapacitation towards the end of his life and how we all can also experience amidst physical pain and distress strength from a higher level of reality and that experience of some non-physical strength is the greatest conviction that there is a non-physical spiritual reality.

Thank you very much. Hare Krishna. Are there any questions or comments? Yes, please.

Prabhu, you were talking about revelations and realisations of saints. Yeah. So the realisations of saints for the others it becomes almost as good as revelations only.

Okay. Right. So basically at one point of time it feels like it's a revelation for personally for me because I have not experienced it.

Okay. That's true. So given that situation it could only act as a pointer for me.

That's true. And it's my choice to pursue that path and pointer. So as you are saying like it looks more like it's the direct experience that is going to convince me to walk the path on a consistent basis.

Can you elaborate on that? Okay. Good question. So when you talk about revelations of realisation of saints we have no idea of what they're experiencing.

So it's just a like a revelation that we have to accept on faith. Now, what will spur us on? Is it our own experience? Okay. By experience we can have two distinct meanings for this.

Now, as far as moving forward in our spiritual life is concerned and our spiritual journey what is it that will take us forward? If we are, I gave a whole class on I gave a class on how to emigrate to the spiritual world. Now emigration is a big issue right now. How to emigrate from here to the spiritual world.

So basically if you want somebody who wants to come from India to America what is the required? First of all there's a desire. Then second is the qualification. And third is the process.

And then the process there's a difficulty there's an attitude. You have to have confidence. You have to have faith.

You have to be optimistic. You can move on like that. So for us in our spiritual journey also how do we get the desire? Desire is what we primarily need.

Now desire can come through other's experiences, through our experiences. But more sustainably it comes through our conviction. Jeeva Goswami explains in the Shat Sandar verse that for those who are completely spiritually realised, those who are Siddhas, those who are spiritually perfected, they stay in bhakti because of their priti.

They love Krishna. And that's why they are naturally practising bhakti. But for sadhakas, he says what will keep them in bhakti is not priti but bhakti.

Intelligence. Because sometimes we feel a lot of devotion for Krishna. Sometimes we may do our japa and we will feel such peace, such strength.

We feel that japa should never end. But most days however, japa never ends. It's going on and on and on.

So, for us, the feelings will keep going up and down. So in that sense, if we consider experiences in terms of what am I experiencing right now? Well, those experiences are very fickle. If we count on those experiences, we will not be able to commit ourselves to anything in life or to speak of spiritual life, even in our relationships.

Is it that even when we love someone, is it that we love everything that they do? We love every moment with them? Not necessarily. A mother naturally feels love for her newborn child, for a baby. But if after a long day's work, the mother is sleeping and suddenly at night the baby starts crying, love is not the first emotion the mother may feel at that time.

Mother will wake up and care for the child. But that's because, not because of just it's not just because of some loving sentiment, it is because of a loving commitment. So similarly, for us, we need to have philosophical conviction to move forward studying in our spiritual life.

And then, where does our philosophical conviction come from? It will come usually from hearing the philosophy. Hearing the philosophy, hearing the past times. In general, there are two aspects.

There is conviction and there is attraction. So we could say that the conviction comes from the philosophy. The attraction comes from the past times.

But we need both. If we do not have the philosophy, then the attraction that comes, today I am attracted to Krishna. There are some people who see, who hear Bhagavad Katha or Ramayan Mahabharata as pious entertainment.

So they will be watching on YouTube or on TV some Bhagavad Katha and they hear about the Gopi's separation from Krishna. They read about how Jatayu sacrificed, they watch Jatayu sacrificing his life. And they start crying tears.

And then the programme ends. They change the channel and the cricket match is going on. And say, Virat Kohli gets out early.

And they start crying there also. So then, that means that their emotions are not that spiritual. Yes, spiritual emotions means that Bhakti Pareesha Anubhava Virakti Ranyatra Chaya.

We should be attached to one of their emotions. So conviction is what is required and that's why we need to study philosophy regularly. Siddhanta Baliya Chitte Na Kare Alas Iha Haite Krishna Lage Sudhrudha Manas They said that Siddhanta Baliya Don't call this is a simply philosophy.

I'm not interested in it. Don't be lazy about it. By this, what will happen? Krishna Lage Sudhrudha Manas Your mind will be fixed on Krishna.

So it is the philosophical conviction that we'll get the impetus to move forward in our spiritual life. Thank you. Very Krishna.

Yes, yes. I have a question. In the spirit acronym as the key, the paranormal activities and phenomena, what is the concept of subconscious mind written there? Okay.

In my personal life example, there have been times when I have been very particular about say, waking up early in the morning, and I set up my mind to get up at 3 a.m. And without an alarm clock, I have gotten up at exactly. And I looked at the clock, it is exactly at 3 a.m. Is that something paranormal or is the subconscious mind? What is it that how would you call that activity? Okay. Yeah.

Okay. So, if we determined to do something, say, I want to wake up at 3 a.m. And even without an alarm, we wake up exactly at the same time. So, how does that work? Yeah.

See, sleep is a great mystery, actually. We sleep every day, but biology, it has still not been able to explain why we need to sleep. We need to rest.

That's required for the bodily rejuvenation. But why does our consciousness need to switch off? If you see, when we sleep, the only time we think about sleeping, or we think about not sleeping, about sleep. We think about sleep, the only time we do it is when we are unable to sleep.

Otherwise, we feel sleepy, we sleep. We have to wake up, we wake up. When you think about it, sleep, it's not just being tired, it's not just lying down in a comfortable place.

But there is a moment beyond our control when the consciousness switches off. And that switch off of the consciousness is when we are able to sleep. Sometimes we may lie down, especially if we have, if you have travelled from India to America or America to India, there's jet lag.

And then, what happens when there's jet lag? We can't sleep at the right time, and we end up sleeping at the wrong time. So, it may be night, and everybody is sleeping, but we just, we just can't sleep. So, the, the, the transition, there are four states of consciousness.

What we are right now in is Jagruti, the awakened consciousness. What we are all, hopefully in. Some of us might be in Swapna also right now.

So, Swapna is a sleep state, then beyond that is the deep dreamless sleep that is called Sushupti. And then beyond that is Turiya or Samadhi, where there is spiritual awareness. So, normally we go from Jagruti to Swapna and Swapna to Jagruti.

And this transition is something which is not in our control. It just happens. So, of course, as I said, we can't necessarily sleep just by willing to sleep.

And we can't necessarily wake up just by willing to wake up. But this doesn't mean our will doesn't matter. Our will also matters.

But our will is not the soul decider. So, when we are able to make a resolution, when we resolve to wake up at a particular time and we do wake up, what happens is that it is explained that in everything that we do, there are three factors involved. There is the Jeeva, there is the Ishwar, and there is the Prakriti.

So, the soul, the Supreme Lord, and the material nature. So, in each action, all these three factors are involved. So, the Jeeva desires, the super soul sanctions, and the material nature Prakriti executes.

So, right now, when I am speaking, it is just an effortless act. But it's not effortless. Why? It's not effortless in the sense that I don't even know how it happens.

I get a thought and I want to express my thought. I don't know how my voice box works, how the voice chords move specifically to produce particular sounds which mean particular things. So, I desire to do something.

When I desire to do that, it is Krishna who sees the desire and Krishna sanctions. And then the body acts accordingly. And that's how the material nature executes.

So, sometimes if our desire is strong to do something, then, when the super soul sanctions it, even when we are asleep, the super soul does not sleep. And the super soul actually signals it to material nature. This person wants to wake up at this time, he will wake up at this time.

But sometimes what happens is, we have two sets of desires. So, for example, even when what to speak of waking up as per our intention, even with the alarm clock, which is set, and the alarm clock rings, and the alarm clock says get up, and something inside says go to sleep. So, what happens is, that voice inside, go to sleep, we usually hear that voice.

And then we go to sleep again. So, basically, what we need to do is that we cannot rely only on external aids, but we cannot rely only on internal resolution. Because we will see that sometimes we decide to wake up at a particular time, and we are able to wake up.

But sometimes if we decide not to wake up also. So, why is that? Because our desire, our intention is only one factor in the equation. And there are other factors which are not in our control.

So, now, the subconscious is used in two different senses. Going back to that question about a subconscious mind. There is basically in our mind, mind is the place where impressions are stored.

And in those impressions, we could say, right now, we are conscious of some things. Right now, you are looking at me, I am looking at you, you are hearing me. I am speaking something.

But beyond what we are conscious of, there are a lot of other things in our mind also, which we can be conscious of which we choose to. So, you are sitting next to someone. Now, you have not met that person for a long time, but you know that person.

And if you focus on them, you will remember their name, you will remember about their family, you remember about their background, and you can talk. But that is not in the forefront of your consciousness. So, if you consider a computer metaphor, the conscious mind is like what is the information on the computer screen.

The subconscious mind is what is the information in the computer's hard disc. You can recall it when you want. But beyond that, there is an unconscious mind also.

Unconscious mind is like information that is there in the computer, you do not even know it is there. So, there are some impressions we are not even aware of. And it requires a lot of effort to become aware of those things.

So, from a psychological perspective, this is conscious mind, subconscious and unconscious. So, this conscious mind is like the tip of the iceberg and is a lot more below. However, the subconscious mind, there are books written on the power of the subconscious mind or things like that.

So, there basically, in psychology or in self-help literature, there is a tendency to make the mind into God. That means, if you desire something, and if you just desire it strongly enough, it will happen. Now, yes, our desire, our intentions do matter and it is always good to have a positive attitude.

But, it is not that our desire is going to make anything and everything happen. Isn't it? If somebody has got a terminal disease and they are about to die, they say, And then, they will leave their body and they will go to Yamaraj and he will say, you are dead. So, just thinking that I am not going to die is not going to stop the biological death.

So, there is a physical reality and the in the power of the subconscious mind, when they say that, you just take your intentions and let them percolate into your subconscious. And then, whatever you desire, you will achieve. That is exaggerated claim.

It is an overstatement. Certainly, the intentions that are more deeply internalised, we will draw energies more than our conscious energy for fulfilling them. But it is not that they are omnipotent.

We have more potency than what we think we have. But that doesn't, more potency doesn't mean infinite potency. Does it answer your question? Yes.

Thank you. Any last question? Yes, please. Prabhu, when we make this, you said that we should use our buddhi to be on the spiritual path.

Right. And we definitely make an effort. But there are so many things which are distracting us, pulling us, making it difficult to follow the spiritual path.

Sometimes, we don't even understand these things properly. So, how do we… What do you mean by so many things means? Like, you know, living in the world, living with people, living with job and living with the opinions of different people, there are many things to distract us from the spiritual path. And sometimes, our own weakness makes it hard to, you know, work on our, what we believe is the right thing.

And we come across this on regular basis. So, how do we actually keep moving forward, just working through all these obstacles which are coming our way? Is that correct? Mm-hmm. Okay.

So, when we've… when we face many distractions in our life, how can we move forward amidst those distractions? Yeah. It's a challenging situation. Determination is… both our intelligence, which leads to conviction and the determination thereof.

They are not like a fixed deposit. I have to invest that much and it's always there. It's more like a deposit in a stock market share.

So, depending on how the stock market is going, the value will be very high, the value will be very low also. Like that, our conviction and determination keep varying. So, we need to replenish it regularly.

Now, replenishing means that we have to observe within the broad activities within the broad activities of bhakti, what activity energises me the most. We have standard activities of sadhana bhakti that we do. But along with that, the activity that energises us the most, we need to take special time out to do that.

So, if we like to do puja of the deities, then that's what we need to make time for that. Rupa Goswami calls this as uddhipan. Uddhipan means spiritual stimulus.

And it can vary from individual to individual. Just like we can consider sensual stimulus, material stimulus. Now, for all of us, what might agitate our minds materially can be we look at food items.

Not everybody is attracted to the same food item necessarily. Everybody is attracted to different food items. So, just as there are different sensual stimuli that may attract us, similarly, there are different spiritual stimuli that may attract each one of us.

So, we have to find out what spiritual stimuli can connect us with Krishna most effectively. And we keep that readily accessible to us. So, it might be if we like to hear classes of a particular devotee, then keep some in their classes or some extracts on their classes, some specially inspiring classes, keep them readily accessible.

If we like to hear Kirtan and keep Kirtan readily accessible. So, when we keep these things readily accessible, then whenever the mind, when we start feeling weak, then we can draw on the sources of strength. So, we need not see our spiritual weakness as a character flaw.

Our spiritual weakness is simply a circumstantial inevitability. We will be strong for some time and after that we will become weak. So, rather than thinking, oh, something must be wrong, why am I feeling like this? Yeah, something is wrong, but it's not that there's something because it's not that there's something because of which I cannot practise spiritual life.

I cannot be serious about spiritual life. Okay, I can practise it at whatever. I just need to get the strength back again and then I'll be able to practise it.

So, that's one aspect to it wherever we get the strength from, we make time to do that activity. The second is that we don't have to necessarily reduce spiritual life to just a certain set of activities. That means if I'm not able to do this, this, that means I'm not spiritual.

Spiritual life is more a set of, more a matter of consciousness than of activities. So, I write articles on the Bhagavad Gita every day at githardinji.com. So, there I try to put the Gita's message in memorable terms. So, one article I wrote recently was that even if we can't succeed in Krishna consciousness, we can fail in Krishna consciousness, not fail out of Krishna consciousness.

Now, what does that mean? That means that failing in Krishna consciousness means that even if I'm not able to do a particular thing, say, if I decide to wake up in the morning, but I'm not able to wake up in the morning. Now, one reaction could be that I can't wake up in the morning, therefore, the spiritual life business is not for me, let me give it up. So, I won't be able to chant, I won't be able to do the sadhana, just let me give it up.

That is failing out of Krishna consciousness. But, it is not that if you can't chant in the morning, that doesn't mean you're banned from chanting. There are no rules for chanting.

So, that would mean that if I can't succeed in Krishna consciousness, I can fail in Krishna consciousness. That means, Krishna, my conditioning is so strong, I'm not able to do this. My conditions are such that there are too many distractions right now.

Too many other things are coming up. So, let me, I'm not able to do this right now, but please, I want to serve you. Please guide me how I can serve you best in this situation.

So, sometimes, certain things do require time and attention. When Srila Prabhupada was, before he started his con, when he was a grahastha, he was in Varanasi, and he was in Allahabad, he had his own pharmacy business. And he used to give medicine, and there was a doctor who used to prescribe the medicine.

Prabhupada was a dispenser. So, that doctor's interview is there, about it. At that time, Prabhupada was Abhay Babu.

It is clear that Abhay Babu was a very deeply religious person. But, he says, at that time, his main question was, the main thought dominating was, how can I earn more money? He had his daughters to get married, one of his sons was very sick, and he had to be treated properly. So, Prabhupada was burdened by those thoughts.

So, if we see, Prabhupada might not have seemed to be, say, going to the Gauriyamma temples regularly. Some of his Gauriyamma devotees, Godbrothers were saying, why don't you just move into the temple? Prabhupada was not doing that. But in his own way, he was Krishna conscious.

So, we have to see that, the distractions may stop us, or limit us, from the external activities of Krishna consciousness. But, they don't have to stop our Krishna consciousness itself. We can see that, even in this, Krishna, I long to be with you.

I want to do this service, but I'm just not able to do it. Please guide me how I can do it. That longing is there, when we are moving towards Krishna.

It's like a traffic, if we are travelling to a particular station, the traffic is too much, we'll have to go slowly. But, if we are really eager to go to that place, then we'll look, how can I move forward? How can I move forward? Is there some other route? And then, as soon as the route becomes clear, we'll move faster. So, similarly, there are situations in which, the traffic in our life will become just too much.

And then, we can't do the external Krishna consciousness activity that much. That's okay. Krishna is an understanding God.

He's not a judging God. But, the test is that, after the traffic clears, even after that also, we are going slowly. That means, we are not interested in going early.

So, when the conditions become a little less inclement, when they become more favourable, then we can intensify. Okay. So, thank you very much.

Ishwara Prabhupada Ki! Jai! Gaur Bhakta Vindaki! Jai! Jai Gaur Premanandai! Ishwara Prabhupada Ki! Jai! So, now we'll have Damodarashtra.