How is the material world non-existent as Prabhupada states in the Gita introduction?

Transcript

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Hare Krishna. Hare Krishna, Prabhu. Question.
In the Bhagavad Gita introduction, Srila Prabhupada says that our, the material world is non-existent. Can you please explain? Answer. Srila Prabhupada doesn’t precisely say that the material world is non-existent.
He says that our very existence is in the atmosphere of non-existence. And then he says that we are not meant to be threatened by non-existence like this. What he essentially means is that everything in this material world is temporary.
And when we live in this temporary material world and when we live in a temporary material body, we feel threatened at every moment. Padam padam yad vipadam as the Bhagavatam says and as Prabhupada would often quote. So, we as souls are eternal and we long for eternal existence.
In fact, that is our very nature and our right. But because we have become attached to matter and have placed ourselves in a temporary situation, in this material world, in the material body, we feel threatened by extermination, by non-existence. So, now is the material world non-existent or is it existent? It depends on what we mean by the word existent or non-existent.
Sometimes this word is used to refer to eternal and temporary. So, is it temporary or eternal? Definitely the material world is temporary. And just as in a dream something exists and when we wake up it no longer exists.
So, like that, in the present, the material world around us appears to be existing. But when we die and leave this body and go somewhere else, this will be as if it had never existed for us. It will appear like a dream.
So, of course, in this sense of it being temporary and having no eternal or intrinsic connection with the soul, the material world is non-existent. But at the same time, the matter is also an energy of the Supreme Lord and matter itself continues to exist always. It may be manifest in a particular form, not manifest in a particular form at a particular time.
But it always exists. And the important thing to recognize is that we do not belong to this world and as long as we stay at the material level, we feel threatened that our existence may be in any moment. And that’s why the way to resolve this conflict between our longing for eternity and the circumstance where we are put in the temporary world, the way to resolve this is by returning back to the spiritual world.
And the Bhagavad Gita tells us how to do that. Thank you.