Gita 08.20 Those who reject a world beyond this world sentence themselves to pointless business in this world

Bhagavad Gita 8.20 parastasmāt tu bhāvānyo vyakto vyaktāt sanātanaḥ yahasa sarveṣu bhūteṣu naśyatsu na vinasyati so here Krishna is telling in this verse of the Bhagavad Gita Krishna is speaking about the existence of another world beyond this world now if you consider or contrast modernity with pre-modernity then a defining characteristic of modernity is the loss of belief in any world beyond this world the notion of any higher world which shelters this world which is to be the destination beyond this world that notion is almost entirely rejected from the human psyche the idea that there can be anything beyond this world is seen as pre-scientific mythology however again there is no scientific evidence that there is no higher world non-existing so the non-existence of a higher world is a scientific presumption not a scientific conclusion and it is not even a scientific presumption, it is a presumption of some people who misappropriate the power and glamour of science to boost up that presumption and many scientists are religious people and they do believe in some higher destination beyond this world now we may say what difference does it make whether someone believes in some other world or does not well actually the major difference that it makes is in terms of giving an overall context and purpose for our life in this world for most people there is almost a frantic sense of meaninglessness that pervades their entire life a sense of meaninglessness which they try to cover up by a frantic sense of busyness wherein people want to read this, watch that buy that enjoy that and all this frantic busyness is meant to numbers of our sense of emptiness of pointlessness because life in this world is so uncertain so shockingly vulnerable to death at any moment by just a bug or a bang that whenever we are confronted by the specter of death we just express shock, horror disbelief but thereafter we soon return back to our quotidian lives our routine lives wherein we start numbing ourselves to the sense of meaninglessness that gnaws at our existence when we think about how it can be wiped out in one moment by death so what can we do about it now someone may say that actually if life is meaningless then it is better to be courageous and acknowledge the meaninglessness of life rather than imagine some meaning when no such meaning actually exists however that exactly is the question of debate who has proven that life has no meaning in many ways science progress has also been a search for meaning of course its meaning in a functional sense not a fundamental sense functional sense means what makes this fruit fall that's a functional sense but why does the fruit exist at all why does the force that causes the fruit to fall exist at all where does the earth on which the fruit exists at all the how question is often a functional question whereas the why question is a fundamental question we may not get a why for the specifics of life why did this thing happen that way why did that thing happen that way but we can indeed get a why for the overall purpose of life and that why just can't exist if we presume life to be having no existence beyond this world when we reject even the possibility of the existence of a non material world the central feature of almost all traditional world views was this that our life here is simply a prelude that it is actually a preparation it is a stepping stone towards some life beyond this world and to the extent we recognize this reality to the extent we can put together in a coherent way the inextricable connectedness of this world with the other world we understand that death which in the materialistic world view signifies a termination of existence that very death signifies in the spiritual world view a transition to another level of existence and where that transition takes us that is shaped that is determined by how we look at life in this world as preparation for the world beyond the Bhagavad Gita talks about three modes of material nature goodness, passion and ignorance in goodness there is the capacity for calm reflection and by such calm reflection we all can understand that there is much more to life than what we have been taught to believe that life does not begin with birth it exists before birth and it does not end with death it extends beyond death so the arena for our prenatal and postmortem existence prenatal means before birth postmortem means after death the arena for our prenatal and postmortem existence can either be this world or it can be another world but the important thing is that either this world or another world they are all in a continuity rather it is our existence which is in a continuity at this world and another world the Bhagavad Gita talks about a world beyond this world as being multi level not just being monolithic that is there are other material levels of existence also that exist beyond this world and beyond that there are there is a spiritual world so in the same chapter of the Bhagavad Gita Krishna has talked in 8.16 four verses earlier he is talking about Brahma Loka and Bhuvada Loka from the top most planet from the top most planet from the top most Loka from the top most level of existence in this material world to the lower most level of existence Krishna says that they are all places of misery whereas it is his abode which is beyond misery and that should be the ultimate destination which wise people aspire for so the key point here is that the Gita's world view holds that the other world is not just monolithic it is multi-level and this implies that we can go to various destinations after we leave this world that's why it's important to not let ourselves be caught in tunnel vision of reality to think that this world is all that is is to live inside a tunnel by opening ourselves to the wisdom of the Gita we can actually organize that there is so much more to live for that there is so much more for all of us to aspire for in our lives that if we just steadily pursue a spiritual life then we all can move towards a higher richer, deeper sweeter level of existence the process of Krishna Bhakti is ultimately meant to take us to that higher level of existence and when we connect with Krishna through remembrance through service, through prayer through meditation, through introspection, through scriptural study through devotee association we start perceiving this higher reality we start connecting with this higher reality, we start relishing this higher reality and the more we live in the presence of Krishna the more the higher reality becomes self evident for us the more this world is seen as a as a reality but still it is a lower reality and rather than rejecting the other world as meaningless as pre-scientific mythology we start recognizing this world as as a preliminary preparatory ground so rather than regarding the other world as mythology we start seeing this world as a preparatory and such a radical shift in our vision of life of the world of our purpose that gives us a profound sense of stability while coping with the uncertainty and insecurity that dogs life in this world instead of burying ourselves into busyness to deny the pointlessness of life at the material level we busy ourselves in constructive purifying activities that raise our consciousness to the spiritual level where life eternal and life ecstatic await us thank you.