The time to understand time is now

[Congregation program at Chicago, USA]

Video:

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Thank you for coming today evening. And I’ll speak today on the topic of the time to understand time is now.
I’ll speak this in three broad parts. First I’ll talk about the experiential aspect of time, as we experience it. Then I’ll talk about the scientific understanding of time.
And then I’ll talk about the philosophical and devotional understanding of time and its application in our life. So, we today live in a very time-driven world. And if we had a time machine and went back say 500 years before, a question that we ask ourselves and we ask others very often, what is the time? That would have been very uncommon in the past.
People would just look at the sky, look at the position of the sky, and they get an approximate understanding of the time. Position of the sun or whatever in the sky. And people have different devices of measuring time.
But today we are so conscious of what is the time and we have to get to various places in time. And we all experience at some time or other the irrevocability of time. If something is not done on time, it’s over.
There’s no chance to redo it. For me, probably the most frustrating experience of this was in my 10th standard, in India we call it SSC exam. 10th standard.
I had prepared, I started my preparation for 9th standard for 10th standard. 9th standard only itself, by the end of 9th standard, I had almost finished studying half of my 10th standard books. So in my whole school I was expected to be in the merit list.
And in my prelims also I did very well. My marks were way way above what would be expected to get into the merit list. And the first exam was physics.
And I was good at physics. So I completed the paper almost 30 minutes before. And then I rechecked everything.
There’s something lacking, something is missing over here. I checked it again, I checked it again, nothing struck me. And then the bell rang for the time.
And the examiner collected the paper. And that was the moment it struck me, I had made a mistake. All the time, as soon as, it was almost as if the paper left my hand and what was the mistake struck me.
And that was one sum of 10 marks had gone wrong. And in these kind of competitive exams, one 10 marks loss means it’s all over. So I did well, but I didn’t miss the merit list at that time.
So I was so frustrated. Initially I was just so angry, I was banging my fist over there. Why couldn’t I get this 2 minutes before? I was good at that and even in 2 minutes I could have redone the sum and redone the whole answer.
It just didn’t come to me at that time. So then, that was the time when it struck me that our life is so controlled by something which is beyond our control. There are of course certain factors which we understand are beyond our control.
But there is something, at one moment it is in our control, at the next moment it goes out of our control. So what is that? So that was the time in India, maybe a little bit earlier, a little bit later, but that was the time in India when the Mahabharata serial was going on. And each Mahabharata episode would begin with, Main samay hoon.
So that was fascinating. What is this main samay hoon? I used to wonder about that. As far as our experience of time is concerned, we all have that experience that if you are going to catch a bus or a train or a flight, it’s a few moments late.
Then it’s over. When I first took a flight in India, I think it was from India to Kolkata, one of my devotee friends called me. I was notorious for just reaching on time to catch the train.
So then this devotee friend called and told me, you cannot reach in time to catch the flight. You have to reach at least 50 minutes, 60 minutes, one hour before. One, one and a half hours before.
I said, what do you do one and a half hours? He said, no, that’s what you have to reach. So once I reached late, and it was a small airport in Belgaum, and we reached, we saw the flight, but we couldn’t get into the flight. Just 10 minutes late.
So there is this irrevocability of time that we all experience at different times in our life. And for us, we experience time as something which we need to keep track of so that we can do things. That’s a functional understanding of time.
I will do this at this time, this at this time, this at this time. And if this is not done by this time, it creates trouble. So basically, we treat time functionally as a tool or as a parameter by which we keep track of our activities.
And this is one approach to understanding time. I will come back to this approach a little later. Now if you look at the scientific aspect of what time is, in science, if you consider the international unit of quantities or international unit of parameters, time is considered one of the seven physical quantities.
And time is measured in terms of the observed repetitions within a particular, of a particular cyclical event. It may be the moving of a pendulum, or it may be the patterns of a cesium atom, which is how we measure a second, whatever it is. Einstein took this concept of time further and he said that time and space are integrated together as space-time.
So time in this respect to physics is a very curious parameter. At one level, it is a physical parameter. In terms that it can be physically measured.
It can measure the height, the breadth, the width. Similarly, we can measure time. So science is the language of science functions, at least physical science or what is called hard science, that functions based on mathematics.
That’s why anything theory is considered serious when it is expressed in the language of mathematics. So time is very much of a parameter that is mathematically measurable. But it is unlike any other parameter.
Because with respect to all other physical parameters, we can go forward and backward. If this is the length, I say this is 7 inches. Then I can move my finger forward, I can move my finger backward.
So if we consider motion in space, we can have forward motion, we can have backward motion. But with respect to time, we cannot have backward motion. Now why we can’t have backward motion? That is something which at a functional level, we understand that time is irrevocable.
But at a level of the philosophy of science, if time were a parameter like the parameters of space, length, breadth, width or whatever, then why is it not reversible? That is something which as of now, science doesn’t have any answers. So when Einstein integrated time as a continuum of space-time, integrated time with space, that is one feature which is puzzling about space-time. In space we can move backwards, but in time we can’t.
And scientists still consider whether the concept of time travel is possible. Space travel is definitely possible. And we have various instruments to do that.
Time travel is a popular concept in science fiction, in even romantic fiction and various kinds of fictions. But whether time travel is even conceptually possible, that is a question which is very puzzling. And a typical problem with time travel is called as the grandfather paradox.
The grandfather paradox is, suppose there is a person A, and the person had a father B and his grandfather C. And if A gets on a time machine, and goes into the past, and meets C, before C has got married. And suppose A kills C. The grandfather never got married. So if the grandfather never got married, then the father would not be born.
And if the father is not born, then this person would not be born. So he is existing, so how can he go back into the past, and change some things. So some philosophers, now this time travel as of now is like a conceptual exercise.
Some people say that we can go into the past, but we can’t change the past. So we are just able to travel backwards. But we just observe what we can do when we travel backwards.
So the grandfather paradox has no resolution per se, within science or the philosophy of science. But conceptually, if time were a parameter just like space, then both forward and backward travel would be possible. Now even with respect to space, we can travel in space at our pace.
We can walk, we can drive in a car, we can go in a plane, we can go in a spacecraft, each at increasing pace. Now time travels at its own pace. Now our experience of that travel may be relative.
Einstein talked about relativity of time, and he said that if you are sitting with a boring person, then 5 minutes can seem like 5 hours. I am paraphrasing over here. And if you are sitting with somebody you are very attracted to, 5 hours can go like 5 minutes.
Now this is the experiential aspect of time. But as far as the actual functional aspect is concerned, time is going at its own pace. So there is an aspect of time that is beyond what we can compute or even comprehend through the normal parameters of science.
With this background, if you look at the spiritual understanding of time now, there is a famous verse in the Bhagavad Gita, 11.32 in the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says, Time I am. And he says further that the destroyer of all the worlds. And Oppenheimer who was one of the prominent scientists associated with the development of the atom bomb, he when first he tried the bomb and it worked and just destroyed a huge landmass.
At that time he remembered this verse. He had been a reader of the Bhagavad Gita and he felt this power is extraordinary. So time I am the destroyer of the worlds.
So it’s interesting in the Bhagavad Gita, there are two points in this verse. The Bhagavad Gita is spoken by Krishna and the Bhagavad Gita itself describes Krishna to be the Supreme Lord, to be God. And further the Bhagavad Gita says that Bhagavad Gita is identifying Krishna with time or time with Krishna, time I am.
And secondly, at that particular phase, the Bhagavad Gita is identifying time with the destructive function. Lokakshaya Krita Pravrnda, Kshaya, Kshaya is destruction. So time we could say, that is something which we measure with a clock or with various parameters.
With respect to space, if I consider length. Now length is a parameter of a physical object which I can measure with a tape or with some other device. So, length has an objective reality.
The object itself has a reality and length is a parameter of that object. Now does time have an independent reality apart from our measuring of time? No. Tomorrow if all the clocks in the world would be destroyed, would time still exist? Yes.
If, yes, if you say, if I had to write that paper and I gave my physics paper and at that time just before I gave my paper if I had realized it, oh, I have to change this. And if I just pick up a stone and break the clock over there, hey, the time has stopped, I will write my paper now. So, even if our measurement of time is stopped, time itself is not stopped.
So, we may not be able to measure time per se, but that does not mean that time itself will stop existing. Time has its self-existence separate from our capacity to measure time. And when we say time flows, the Bhagavatam gives the example of yatha ambasa anala, that just as clouds are moved by wind, similarly all living beings are moved by time.
It is a very striking metaphor for three reasons. First is that the cloud is a visible and a tangible object. And the wind is invisible, it is tangible in the sense we can feel it, but otherwise we cannot, we cannot see it.
And yet that which is tangible and visible is that is substantial, that is moved by wind which is completely invisible and we cannot catch wind, so in that sense it is insubstantial. So, something subtle moving something gross, something visible moving something invisible, so that indicates how we, all of us are moved by time. There is a Hindi lecture of Shila Prabhupada in which he says that koi buddha nahi hona chahata hai, par prakrati sabko chupcha buddha mana deti.
He says nobody wants to grow old, but material nature will without any protest quietly make everyone old. So, we are all pushed by time, time is invisible. Second parameter of this metaphor is that although the cloud is huge, the cloud has no capacity to resist the pushing of the wind.
Now, normally if we are caught in say a flowing water, say a tsunami comes or a flood comes and we are being swept away, at that time we might catch hold of something, we might catch hold of a branch or a pillar or something and protect ourselves from being swept away. But a cloud cannot catch hold of anything, there is nothing in the sky. The cloud will be irrevocably swept away.
And similarly, all of us are also swept by time. And the third point of the metaphor is that this, when the wind starts acting and the cloud starts moving, if we are looking at the cloud, unless the cloud is very small and the cloud is close to us, we won’t tangibly see the cloud moving moment to moment. But if we look now and maybe I look at a few minutes, the cloud is here, it’s come over here.
So, the moment which is, the time is subtle, so the wind is subtle and the wind causes the cloud also to move subtle. So the moment is subtle and that’s why at a moment to moment level, we don’t perceive it. So similarly for us, at every moment, we are growing, we are aging, we are changing, but we don’t perceive it.
And it’s over a period of time. Say when a couple has a child and the child is eating every day, there is a pastime of Krishna where Krishna, Krishna is not like small children, not ready to eat food. So mother Yudhishthira tells Krishna that Krishna, you should eat this milk, drink this milk.
No, I don’t want to drink this. If you drink this milk, then you will become strong and then when you go to herd the cows, with your strong muscles, you’ll be able to control the cows, control the cows and the cows. Krishna is very happy.
Yes, yes, I want to drink milk. And he drinks a glass of milk and then immediately he looks at his muscles, it’s not grown. And then mother Yudhishthira says, no, it will take time to drink every day.
So children may expect immediate results, but we understand that nature acts, but it acts gradually. Just as growth that happens, it is, if a mother has a child, it’s not that the mother will be missing the child every day and not even notice the child is growing, but a relative comes after three months, six months, one year, you’ve grown so much. So we understand this.
So the effect is subtle, so it’s not noticeable at a continuous level, but over a period of time it becomes noticeable. Now, when Krishna identifies the time I am, what exactly does this mean? So he’s talking about how, I gave the example of a cloud to illustrate this point that time is subtle and we might put a mathematical figure or a mathematical parameter to measure time, but that is our, that is, we could say our intellectual construct that we are putting. Time has its intrinsic self-existence separate from the construct that we may impose on it.
And that Krishna is saying, it’s divine. So Prabhupada explains in the first canto, in the 8th chapter, 22nd verse, Kunti Maharani is praying and she says, mannetvam kalam ishanam, anadi nidhanam vibhum, samam charantam sarvatra bhutanam yana mithakali says mannetvam kalam ishanam, I consider you to be time, the supreme controller, anadi nidhanam vibhum, anadi means no beginning and no end. So it’s interesting, what is being said is time has no beginning and no end.
Time causes things to begin and move towards the end. But time itself has no beginning and no end. Now, before we go into this point of what we mean by God is time, I’ll take one more philosophical concept and then I’ll end with the philosophy, will not become too much of overdose.
But there is a philosophical question that often people, atheists, they ask this question that you say God created everything, then who created God? In fact, there are atheists who say this is the ultimate, this is the ultimate question to refute theism, belief in God. So this is the ultimate unanswerable question. Well, the question is unanswerable till, only till we question the question itself.
There are some questions which cannot be answered without questioning the foundation of that question. What does that mean? Suppose, if somebody asks a man, have you stopped beating your wife? Now, if you say yes or if you say no, in both cases you are trapped. If you say no, shameless guy, you are still beating your wife.
If you say yes, that means you acknowledge you are beating your wife. So, before that question can be answered, we have to question the foundation of the question itself. Who says that? I beat my wife.
So, like that when you ask who created God, the question is, the question needs to be asked is, who said that God needs to be created by anyone? You say why, if everything is created, why should God not be created? Every field of knowledge has to begin with certain definitions. And for most people, their knowledge of God begins with the depiction of God, not the definition of God. So, the depiction of God means, they may say a particular image in a temple or a particular form.
And they think, okay, you call this, this is God, this is just one person over here. And you think this is the, this person just looks like, this person just looks like me, this person just looks like you. And how can this be God? We think, okay, this painting was created by so and so, this image was created by so and so.
So, like that, if we say depiction, if we do, if we start with depiction, then you misunderstand God. But you start with definition. The definition of God is sarva karana karanam.
So, this is important to understand that, why is this related to our discussion is, first I’ll answer the question, then I’ll come back to the discussion. So, if somebody says, who created God? The definition of God is the cause of all causes. If anyone or anything created God, then that person would be God.
The creator of God would be the actual God. So, wherever the chain of cause and effect stops, that is the point that is God. So, another simple example to understand this would be, say if a child reads a novel for the first time, and likes all the characters in the novel, oh, this character, this character, okay.
This, this is, this child is this person’s son. And this is son, his father is this one, his father is this one. The child looks at all the genealogy and understands everything.
And then after reading the book, the child comes to know, oh, this book is written by author. Say, if somebody reads Harry Potter, and then they come to know that, oh, this is written by J.K. Rowling. Then the child starts reading the whole book, where is J.K. Rowling in the book? Now, J.K. Rowling is not inside the book.
She created the timeline, she created the storyline, she created the characterization of the characters, she created the plot twists, but she exists outside the book. So, similarly, God, when we ask who created God, we, the implicit assumption there is that God is a creation within time. But God is not a creation within time.
God is the creator of time. God is not created through time. God creates through time.
God has a self-existence beyond time, and he creates through time. So, when we understand this point that God exists, sath asath param dhva gautam se, the Bhagavad Gita says that, that there is the cause-effect chain in this world, and the Absolute exists beyond the cause-effect chain. And therefore, this question itself indicates, we don’t understand what God is.
If somebody asks who created God, the question itself indicates that one doesn’t understand the conception of God. Asking who created God is like asking who made a circle circular. Who made a circle circular? You can circle by definition a circle.
Similarly, God, by definition, is the cause of all causes. So, he doesn’t have a cause. And how does this, that God exists outside time, and he causes, he creates through time.
And through time, so when Bhagavad Gita says, I am time, that means this energy which brings about the change, that energy is manifestation of God. So, this irrevocable, unstoppable force that propels us from birth to death, that is God manifesting in this world. Sushila Prabhupada says that, Atheists may decide that we are not going to bow down to God.
That’s fine. But when death comes, everybody has to bow down. So, that is when even a person who does not believe in God has to bow down to God.
So, now time brings about three distinct changes. We could say there is creation, maintenance and destruction. In the Bhagavad Gita, first Krishna identifies that I am time.
And then he says, I am the destroyer, destroyer of all the worlds. So, it’s interesting, Krishna doesn’t identify over there, that I am the creator, I am the maintainer. He says, I am the destroyer.
He could identify very well with that also. But that brings us to the context of the Gita. This particular verse comes in the 11th chapter.
And the 11th chapter is probably the most dramatic chapter of the Bhagavad Gita in terms of visual drama. The remaining chapter, it’s all intellectual drama. So, it’s internal.
Oh, you understand this concept, you understand this concept. In the 11th chapter, Arjuna asks Krishna, So, in 11.4 he says, Oh Krishna, if you think it is possible for me, then please let me see your universal form. And the Bhagavad Gita adopts a very interesting narrative structure to describe the form, the universal form.
Normally, when we see something which is very unusual, which is very dazzling, we can’t make sense of it. Normally, we think we make sense of things with what we see with our eyes. However, what we see with our eyes doesn’t make sense unless our intelligence makes sense of things.
Suppose a person from a completely rural area who has never heard of a stock market. That person wanders into a stock exchange. And he says, everybody is sitting looking glued at a big screen.
And then on that big screen, one line crashes down and everybody catches it. What is the big deal? One line went down on the screen. Why are you so worried about it? So, actually we see not with our eyes, but with our intelligence.
So, the universal form that Arjuna is going to see is so extraordinary that the Bhagavad Gita, while describing, adopts a threefold descriptive structure. So, first from verses 5 to 8 in the 11th chapter, before Krishna reveals the universal form, he tells Arjuna what I am going to reveal. So that Arjuna can make sense.
This is what you are going to see. Nobody has seen this before you. Arjuna, I will show it to you.
And then in the 9th verse, the Bhagavad Gita is actually a conversation between Krishna and Arjuna, which is reported by Sanjay to Dhritarashtra. So, in the 9th verse, Sanjay then says, then Yogeshwar darshayatmanupam, that Yogeshwar Lord, he revealed his form. And then text 10 to 13 gives Sanjay’s description of the universal form, of what Sanjay is showing.
And then 14th verse says, it gives Arjuna’s reaction first. Arjuna starts trembling, he folds his hands and he offers his obeisances. And then from verse 15 to verse 31, there is Arjuna’s description of what he is seeing.
So first, Krishna describes what he will show. Then Sanjay describes what Krishna is showing. And then Arjuna is describing what I am seeing.
And when Arjuna describes what he is seeing, he starts seeing. He has asked to see the universal form and he is delighted. Pashyami Vishweshwara Vishwaroopa O Lord of Universe, I see your universal form.
Now, as he is seeing it, initially he says, Oh, there are heads over here, everywhere, there are hands, Aneka Bahudhara Vaktra Netram There are hands everywhere, eyes everywhere, faces everywhere. It’s a majestic form. And Vismitosmi He is filled with astonishment.
But then as he is looking at this universal form, now the universal form of Krishna, he has shown it several times in the past. The Mahabharata war happens at a particular time, the Kurukshetra war happens at a particular time in the life of Krishna and the Pandavas. So which are the times before this when Krishna has shown the universal form? Yes? Varaha Varaha That is another time, that is another avatar itself.
Peace messenger, yes, very good. That is one time when he shows as a peace messenger when Duryodhana tries to arrest Krishna and Krishna expands in a huge form and all the soldiers fall back. That’s one time.
Thank you. Any other time? Yes, Yashodamayi. He says, Krishna, show me your mouth.
And he opens his mouth and she sees, amazingly enough, the whole universe and not only she sees the whole universe, in the universe she sees Vrindavan and in the universe she sees herself. She says, what is this? Is this maya? Am I an illusion? She just can’t make sense of anything. So these are two main occasions.
Now after this, once more also Krishna shows the universal form to a sage. But let’s compare these three reactions which will be Yashoda’s reaction, Duryodhana’s reaction and then Arjuna’s reaction. Now when Yashoda sees, he says, what is this? Am I dreaming? She pinches herself.
No, I’m awake and this is really my child. How am I seeing this? Has Maya Devi has Maya Devi created some illusion? But I’m just an innocent cowherd girl cowherd woman. Why would Maya bother to create me and put an illusion? Does my child have some mystic powers? Has he created some illusion like this? Yeah, Gargamuni had said that this child is extraordinary like Narayan and maybe my child has extraordinary mystic powers.
That’s why he has created illusion like this. But how can he have mystic powers when he doesn’t get milk on time, he cries. As he is thinking like this and she just closes her eyes.
And when Krishna sees Krishna has a particular flavour in his relationship with Yashoda. So that flavour is that he wants her love as a mother and he wants to reciprocate with her as her son. Sometimes Krishna may reveal his divinity but that is just occasional for some particular Leela purposes.
But in Vrindavan his major flavour of the relationship is he is just a lovable cowherd boy. So Krishna says that this is rasabas, I don’t want Yashoda to be praying to me. So he exercises his potency, Maya potency and the whole universal form disappears.
And when mother Yashoda opens her eyes again and sees, disappeared. And by the arrangement of Yoga Maya, this is my child, she picks him up and he must be hungry, let me feed him. And she forgets everything.
So for her there is a temporary realisation of Krishna’s divinity but all that happens in the end result is intensification of her affection for Krishna. In the case of Duryodhana, he thinks that Krishna is a prominent warrior. If I can arrest him then the odds will turn dramatically in my favour.
That’s why he decides to arrest Krishna. But while when he comes to arrest Krishna, he just falls back. In fact the universal form is so dazzling at that time, fire coming from the eyes, sparks coming from the ears and it’s so such a fierce form that actually most people faint.
And those who don’t faint they have to close their eyes, they can’t just see this form. By Krishna’s inconceivable arrangement those whose eyes are open, they get closed. But the one person whose eyes are closed Krishna arranges for his eyes to be opened.
Who is that? Dhritarashtra. So Dhritarashtra says, Oh Krishna, I want to see your universal form. And Krishna says, Krishna gives him eyes to see.
But actually again Duryodhana has the eyes to see but he closes the eyes. Dhritarashtra doesn’t have the eyes to see, Krishna gives him the eyes. He sees but still he does not see.
Pashyan api na pashyati For neither of them their hearts change. Then later on, how does Duryodhana explain this? Before the Kurukshetra war, the previous night, Duryodhana is so cocky so cocksure that I am going to win this war. He feels as if there is not even going to be a fight.
You just have 7 akshayamunis, I have 11. I have Bhishma and Drona with me. You will just be crushed.
And in order to have some fight he sends Uluka. Uluka is the son of Shakuni and he sends Uluka to the Pandavas to give very insightful messages not insightful full in the sense of INSIGHT but INCITE something which is meant to incite them and he insults everyone through that message. Now when Uluka goes like sometimes if we have to convey a very unpleasant message to someone the first thing you say I am not saying this.
This person is saying this. I am only the messenger. As they say, don’t shoot the messenger.
So like that Uluka he tells Yudhishthira oh king according to the time honored codes a messenger is never to be punished. Yudhishthira says don’t worry be rest assured of your safety. But then he starts conveying Dhritarashtra’s message and he insults everyone and then he speaks to Krishna.
He is basically conveying Dhritarashtra’s message to Krishna and he says Krishna when you came as a peace messenger you showed a magical form. He says I can also show many magical forms but those magical forms are not going to work on this war field. So show whatever forms you want to show but I am going to show my promise and I am going to win the war.
So he explains it away. He says this is just a magic which Krishna did and he deceived us. That means that if somebody does not have a desire at least a spark of a desire to turn towards Krishna to become devoted to Krishna to become spiritual that person even if they see God himself even if they see God in his huge majesty as a universal form even then their hearts will not change.
I wrote a book on reincarnation called demystifying reincarnation in which I gave many cases of past life children who remember the past lives. So after I wrote the book I did a further study to look at these children’s lives many of them had vivid irrefutable memories of past lives and yet not even one of these children became spiritually minded because of that. Yes I had a past life I know I met my parents from that past life I met my relatives let me move on with this life.
So they that knowledge was there but that remembrance of the past life did not necessarily promote any spirituality it can but it is not that that recollection is the cause of spirituality it is our own choice it is our own intention so if that intention is not there whether we remember our past lives or whether Krishna comes right in front of us nothing is going to change now in the case of Arjuna let us see what is the effect so Arjuna sees the universal form and he is thrilled he is astounded but then his description starts from the fifteenth verse and as he moves forward in describing first he is describing and appreciating oh such a blazing form that I cannot see it properly but then slowly his that reaction from astonishment moves towards apprehension and with fear my mind is completely afflicted and then by the end when he says he says the fire of destruction is coming from your mouth and everyone everything around you is getting destroyed and first he sees that actually there are all these Gods who are offering prayers to the Vishwaroopa and then he sees that there is this fierce fire coming out and then he sees actually all the warriors in the Kurukshetra war itself they are entering into that fire and he becomes alarmed and then initially when Krishna surrenders to Arjuna he says I ask you who are you I am sorry I ask you please tell me what is Dharma but then when he sees this fierce form he says I ask you who are you and here he uses a very respectful second person address Bhawan in English we just have you as a second person address in Hindi we have Tu and Aap sometimes he may pick up a phone call Aap kaun ho so like that Arjuna’s address changes from Tuam to Bhawan and now please tell me who you are now what does this question mean who are you that means obviously he knows it is Krishna who is showing the universal form and he is already told that I am seeing your universal form but why is it that suddenly he asks who are you so it is there are two metaphors I will use to explain this suppose actually I will go on I will come back later this is very interesting so then Krishna says I am time I am the destroyer you should fight this war and then Krishna says Arjuna says please I don’t want to see this form anymore it is a glorious form I am grateful to see it but I don’t want to see it anymore and then Krishna teases Arjuna actually it is a very rare form nobody will be able to see it you are going to see it no no no I don’t want to see it so then Krishna says I don’t want to say it to you so it is a say if you turn on a TV if a child turns on a TV and sees a movie going on and that movie seems to be some interesting movie going on some nice visual effects are there and then suddenly you find that movie like a horror movie everything is being destroyed everyone is being killed and then as you keep watching it what happens and suddenly you see as if in that movie your own house is being destroyed you get scared and then you try to press the I don’t want to watch this movie you try to press the remote to change the movie and the remote doesn’t work hey what is this so for Krishna for Arjuna it becomes like that what is this a remote visual majesty of God is fine but when he sees everything around him being destroyed he just can’t bear it so that is one metaphor the other metaphor would be when he is asking who are you why is he asking like this suppose say we know someone and we know them to be very nice gentle sweet person and suddenly one day they start shouting and yelling and snarling and speaking all kinds of harsh words who are you what did you do to my friend many times when parents have kids and children go into teenage and the parents wonder when the child was small nice sweet person and who is this sullen uncommunicative teenager who has come in his place so it just happens when we think we know someone and then that person starts exhibiting a characteristic exhibiting a characteristic that is completely out of character with what we know of them then we ask who are you so similarly now in the Vishwaroopa when Krishna showed the Vishwaroopa previously to Yashoda as well as to Duryodhana at that time he basically showed the spatial the spatial aspect of the Vishwaroopa how it is so huge how all the Gods in the universe are present in the form of Lord the spatial dimension of the Vishwaroopa was shown but there is a dimension of space and there is a dimension of time and that within the Vishwaroopa the dimension of time is called the Kaalaroopa so that Kaalaroopa is shown by Krishna to Arjuna only and that is why when Arjuna asks the question who are you Krishna does not say I am Krishna Krishna does not say I am Vishwaroopa he says I am Kaala so this unfamiliar within the familiar what is that so within the Vishwaroopa the Kaala manifestation Krishna shows that Arjuna can’t identify and Krishna identifies that for him time I am and then Arjuna becomes very reverential he offers his prayers and he says normally if we come to a house and we see there is a temple over there we offer obeisances this is divine he says I have to offer obeisances but where do I offer obeisances Vishwaroopa is everywhere so he says that I will offer I will offer obeisances from front, I offer your obeisances from behind, I offer your obeisances from right I offer your obeisances from left I offer your obeisances hundreds of times to you Punapurastha Vishwaroopa from front, from back, I offer your obeisances in this way he says complete so I said the time has the aspects of creation maintenance and destruction now the Kurukshetra war is the time of destruction and that’s why at that place Krishna stresses I am the destroyer so Krishna could very well in another context say I am a time and time the creator I am time, time the maintainer but at that particular point he stresses I am time the destroyer now for us as devotees when we are spiritually and we are trying to practice understand spirituality, apply it in our lives this understanding of time is significant now we Prabhupada would quote Chanakya Pandit about the irreplaceability of time that that even one moment of time cannot be got back by giving thousands of dollars, thousands of gold coins also that is the utilitarian conception of time that time is a very valuable resource and that we need to use properly but the Bhagavad Gita offers us another understanding of time time is not just use time is not significant just because we can do something valuable that is the utilitarian conception of time but time is significant intrinsically intrinsically it is significant because time is a manifestation of God time is not just valuable or invaluable time is sacred and when we value Krishna as time or rather when we value time as Krishna time is a gift that Krishna has given me Krishna has come as a gift to me when we value time and use that time for serving Krishna then Krishna takes us beyond the domain of time to the extent we see time as Krishna and we engage our time in the service of Krishna then time will take us towards Krishna time will take us towards Krishna whatever time we do at a horizontal level time is going to take everyone of us towards old age, disease and death but if at a level of consciousness we appreciate that time is Krishna then there will be this parallel journey that will happen this body will go towards its inevitable destruction but the soul will rise in its consciousness and when the soul rises in its consciousness the soul comes closer and closer towards Krishna so Bhakti Yoga is the process of taking us from the arena of time to the arena of timelessness the arena of time is this material world where we are controlled by time and the body will inevitably be controlled but if we learn to serve Krishna, if we learn to devote ourselves to Krishna understanding that time is a manifestation of Krishna meant to connect us with Krishna then this very time can elevate us towards Krishna the Bhagavatam says that āyur harati vai puṁsāṁ udyan asanjāya sasau that with every rising and setting of the sun the life span is getting over except for those who are engaged in the glorification of Lord Hari when we glorify Krishna by glorifying Krishna, by hearing the glories of Krishna we become attracted to Him this is basic human psychology whatever we hear about repeatedly we will become attracted to it and an Indian in India may be a mad after cricket and an Indian in India may not even know about rugby or basketball much but the same Indian comes to America and university where everybody is mad after basketball first when he comes he doesn’t know anything about basketball six months later he will be cheering like mad for the basketball team what has happened? just by exposure so whatever we are exposed to everywhere, oh this match is so exciting, this player is so good this team is so great hear about it we become attracted so similarly if we keep hearing about Krishna, hearing about His glories then we become attracted to Him and the more we become attracted to Him the more our consciousness becomes elevated and the consciousness becomes elevated basically at the time of death which will come for every one of us if we are more attached to Krishna then we are attached to the world then Krishna will take us out of this world Krishna is simply reciprocating with our desires if Krishna becomes our foremost attachment then He takes us out of this world so that is the time when we unite with Krishna, so you see the time to understand time is now there is a title, what it means is that we understand this irrevocability of time, we understand the divinity of time and we see time as a precious opportunity for connecting with Krishna if we start practicing bhakti wholeheartedly using whatever time we have to invest our consciousness in Krishna to connect our consciousness with Krishna then we will understand that Krishna is already with us it is not that Krishna is a destination to be attained actually I conclude with this example that suppose we are going to meet some VIP and say we are going to LA we are going by flight and we have never seen that VIP before so we are excited and then we get there we go to that person’s house we knock on the door and they open the door and they welcome and then we notice that the person who opened the door was the same person who was sitting next to us in our flight throughout our flight but because we didn’t know that person so we didn’t appreciate that person was with us right now so similarly for us Krishna is not just a person whom we will meet when we get back to the spiritual world Krishna is right now with us Krishna is present in our heart as the Paramatma Krishna is present in the world as a force of time Krishna is present in the world as his deity manifestation Krishna is present as the holy name Krishna is present as the Bhakti scriptures as the Bhagavad Gita, as the Bhagavatam and so Krishna is not just a destination to be attained, he is a companion to be realized how far away is Krishna from us he is just one thought away he is just one thought away, we just think about Krishna we can feel his presence we can connect with him and that one thought which is Krishna, the Atma is here, the Paramatma is here the bridge between the Atma and the Paramatma is just one thought and that thought we have the opportunity to think of right now at this very moment we can build a bridge between ourselves and our Lord by thinking about him and when we do that then we experience Krishna’s presence in the here and now and thus Bhakti can make not just the end of our journey relishable but Bhakti can make our journey itself relishable that it happens when we realize the proximity of Krishna for us and time is a manifestation bridge we are almost always conscious of and if we can connect that consciousness with Krishna actually this moment is an opportunity given by Krishna to me let me use it the best way I can let me see that this is Krishna manifesting as time in the Chaitanya Charita Amrit that is when the Gaur Purnima in Chaitanya Mahaprabhu appearance is described at that time Krishna says that I offer obeisances to that Purnima day on which Lord Chaitanya appeared not that I offer obeisances to Lord Chaitanya I offer obeisances to that day because that day is also sacred so time for us is sacred and when we connect with the supreme sacred reality with the time that we have then our life becomes spiritualized and sanctified supremely sanctified so I will summarize I spoke on the topic of the time to understand time is now I started by the experiential understanding of time we keep track of time so that we can get our things done and we realize the irrevocability of time if something is not done in time it is lost forever like for me in my 10th standard exam few moments delay and I just lost the merit rank forever now this in the past we were not so conscious about the specific units of time time existed although our time measuring devices didn’t exist so in science time is considered to be like a parameter like length breadth width length breadth height whatever but it is distinct because it cannot be taken backwards and its forward movement can’t be changed which can be done within space the grandfather paradox prevents in conception also time travel towards backwards so time apart from as we measure it does it have any independent existence yes even if clocks were destroyed time would exist so what is time independent of as it is measured in science time is a manifestation of the divine in the example of how the clouds are pushed by the wind similarly we are all pushed by time so this three significance of this metaphor is the subtle is pushing the gross the gross has no capacity to resist the subtle and the gross is being pushed so subtly that at a moment to moment level we can’t perceive it but gradually in incremental intermittent levels we can perceive it and then we talked about is who created god the atheistic question that question has assumption which needs to be challenged like have you stopped beating your wife don’t answer the question question the question so the question in the question means who told you that god is a created being so god is a cause of all causes he is like the author who is not present as a specific character in the novel but is the creator of everything in the novel so god is not created by time but rather god creates time and creates through time god exists beyond time and then I talked about the bhagavad gita says that time I am the destroyer of the world so why the destroyer in that connection I told krishna’s manifesting of vishwaroopa how he manifested to yashoda manifested to duryodhana and to arjuna yashoda just became her she was bewildered temporarily but her devotion intensified duryodhana was also overwhelmed initially was baffled but his animosity did not go down he persevered he obstinately went on with his evil intentions krishna when he showed the vishwaroopa to arjuna arjuna initially admired the vishwaroopa krishna first describes what I am showing what I am showing you and sanjay says what is being shown and then arjuna describes what is being shown we don’t see just with our eyes we see with our intelligence that helps us to make sense of what we are seeing with our eyes so the bhagavad gita gives an adequate preface to make sense of the vishwaroopa and yet arjuna’s initial astonishment changes into alarm as he is beholding the vishwaroopa why because he sees the destructive aspect of it so its like a child watching a horror movie so watching a movie which suddenly turns to be a horror movie and not just about something far away but your own house is being destroyed or we have a friend with whom we are talking and that friend suddenly starts becoming furious in a way we have never seen before so we ask who are you so when arjuna sees this destructive form he asks who are you then krishna replies he says I am time so the time kala roopa is never shown by krishna to anyone else its shown only to arjuna and because the war is a place of destruction krishna emphasizes I am the destroyer of the worlds so what happens to arjuna after seeing this kala roopa is that he offers respectful obeisances he surrenders to krishna he becomes an instrument of krishna he becomes devoted to krishna similarly for us when we understand the kala aspect then we too can become devoted to krishna so time is not just an invaluable resource for us to use for some constructive purposes time is itself sacred and time is a manifestation of god and to the extent we appreciate time as a manifestation of god and use the time to serve krishna although our body will go towards destruction our soul will rise towards liberation by the increased attachment towards krishna and as we appreciate krishna’s presence in this world as time as the deities as the holy name as the sacred scriptures then we understand that krishna is not just a destination to be attained but he is also a companion to be realized whose presence is to be realized and krishna is always just one thought away from us so the time to understand time is now, the time to think of krishna is now the time to bridge the distance between the atma and the paramatma is now and the time to live in the presence of krishna is now. Thank you very much Hare Krishna Thank you Thank you Any questions or comments Yes Najeeb I have one question we started time as a you know so time is always final you know and you gave an example of time machine that people want to go backwards and forward so do the time stays finite in those conditions we have a scriptural reference like we are you know living beings specially they travel time and they were like you know there were changes but do time stays finite for everyone are you saying are you talking about time’s finiteness or time’s unchangingness in terms of like you know a person comes up with a fixed time like we say we have fixed number of breath in that rhythm oh so your question is is our life span finite fixed is that your question like the concept is like you cannot regain time like what time is lost is lost like I am working I may do it again but the time lost can never be you know but when we see these examples like you know coming up modern technologically we can go back and we can get back that time or we can go ahead in time but as a unit as I feel time will always be finite may we go back or forward what do you mean by the word finite in this I am not understanding the word if our life span is say 60 years now even if you go back would it change anything ok the unit aspect of time ok so ok ok good question so is time always finite whether in science we talk about or in science we can talk about going back in time or going ahead in time or in our scriptures we talk about going across different levels of the universe where time flows differently so is time always finite ok there are two different aspects over here which we need to understand see time is also a part of the of the universal arrangement for of karma and action and reaction so when we say in the heavenly planets time flows slower or they live longer whichever way you want to put it they live longer so 6 months here can be just one moment over there one year over here can be one day for Brahma when we say this what does it literally mean what it means is that ultimately time causes change and we want to live happily forever that’s the idea in romantic movies, romantic novels we want to be happy so that eternal happiness is present in the spiritual world so we could envision the effect of time or the manifestation of time like a pyramid so like a pyramid means at the top is the spiritual world in the spiritual world there is what I say the eternal present that’s what the Brahma Samhita says this time is eternal Krishna is a 16 year old youth Radharani is a 15 year old young girl but that is how they stay eternally in the spiritual world time exists but time doesn’t exist as a controller it is not that when Krishna is performing pastimes with Radharani in the forest he looks at his watch time over now I have to go Krishna time is a part of the spiritual world for facilitating the pastimes of Krishna so time does change in the morning Krishna does some activities evening Krishna does other activities night he has different pastimes but in none of these Krishna is controlled by time rather time is controlled by Krishna so in that sense it’s eternal present that means time does not have any controlling capacity whatever Krishna wants Krishna does through that but if we consider time like a pyramid moving down down down down so one moment in the spiritual world can be like eternity in the material world because it’s a pyramid which moves downwards now within that pyramid as I said time is a part of the universal arrangement through which we get our karma comes upon us so those who live in the heavens they go there because they have done punya because they have done virtuous work and therefore they are meant to enjoy the fruits of their virtue for a long time Krishna says go to heavens enjoy immense heavenly delights so the idea is the slow flow of time in the heavens correlates with their being able to enjoy the heavenly delights for a long time the fast flow of relatively speaking fast flow of time on the earth is correlating with we all have done some finite karmas and because we have some finite good karma finite bad karma so whatever good we are also meant to enjoy that is for a finite time we can’t really enjoy for very long in this world even if we work hard and get all the enjoyable objects for us it will be there for a short time so time is finite in the sense that time is a part of this finite material world, the time that we have is finite time as a unit is it finite that’s an interesting question because if you consider the history of the universe as explained in the Vedic scriptures in conceptual terms the Pradhan the unmanifested material nature exists and when Vishnu glances the Upanishads say that by the glance creation begins at a philosophical level what this means is through the glance the material nature is impregnated with the souls and material nature is activated through time so then the material nature starts becoming active and so that time is injected as the activity agent just like if we are cooking food and at that time we may have a pan now we have to put the right ingredients above and we have put the flame below when the right ingredients are above, the flame is below then the items get cooked so like that the right ingredients coming from above are the souls who are injected in the material world and the flame coming from below is the time and then through that all the souls start getting manifested so herein time is seen as something which activates so now when the creation is unmanifested thus time exists at that time time exists in the sense that it is an energy of the divine which is withdrawn into him so it is said that the universe is created at a particular time, the universe exists for a particular time, the universe is destroyed it enters into the into the huge form of Vishnu and then after sometime it becomes manifested so there is a cosmic time scale let me describe for all this that indicate that time still exists because according to cosmic time scale it is happening but within the universe time is finite and time is finite for us as we live the world and when somebody moves from this level to another level it is that they cannot move unless they have the punya to move that’s why when Arjuna goes to the heavens he considers that even Dhritarashtra is astounded how can anyone go to the heavens in the self same body and he says I got to see Mahadasanartham he says I got to sit on the same throne as Indra by his side, Indra treated Arjuna as his son and he got to sit on his side so he says there that that is that means that person if they have to go in the self same body they have to have that special punya or there has to be special grace of the lord something extraordinary so if somebody is to experience the expanded life span of the heavens then that person has to go to the heavens for that and that person has to go to the heavens they have to have that necessary punya so Arjuna does the Arjuna does the lot of tapasya to get to the heavens now it’s interesting that same relativity of time which which say we have in the past time of some other past times like say Indradyumna Maharaj he goes up to the heavens and he comes back and he find that all the kings of his time are already gone or the same happens with Revati’s mother Balram’s wife’s father when he wants to get a husband for her but when Arjuna goes to heaven and comes back that doesn’t happen Arjuna goes to heaven and he comes back and it’s life span goes on so how does it work like that the whole idea there is that time exists for the purpose of serving the lord and for his leela as appropriate it happens so in that case Arjuna goes to the heavens and by going to the heavens multiple purposes are served first is that he himself gets mystical powers from the gods second is that he serves the mission of the gods because Indra has some demons whom he is not able to kill and Arjuna kills them and then he by coming back after going to the heavens he serves the purpose that for the for Duryodhana and for his opponents that he is such a powerful person that he could not only go to heaven and come back but he could even kill the demons whom the gods could not kill so that whole pastime is arranged in such a way that it should serve as a deterrent for Duryodhana you can’t fight a person like this and this person has defeated Arjuna had defeated all the gods in Khandav and then he defeated the demons whom the gods couldn’t defeat when he went on behalf of Indra so how can you fight against such an enemy so in this case that purpose of deterrence is to be served so he goes into that time zone and he comes back but it is just that finite amount of time it is not that millenia have passed off of course we could also say that Arjuna doesn’t go to Brahma Loka the distance between Swarga and Murti Loka is a little lesser Brahma Loka is much higher but the point is that that time warping or that time shifting that is not manifested so much in the Mahabharata thank you yes one of the common complaints that we see in the modern people say we don’t have much time to do things and when we compare our situation with maybe 10 or 20 years ago we see that there has been a rapid development in terms of science and especially in technology the main purpose of technology is that we want to get things done faster and save time we have smartphones, we have faster travel from one place to another so where is this contradiction coming from because things have progressed to save time but still people complain that we don’t have time that’s true so why is it that we have got so many devices and technological progress which is meant to save time but still we feel that we don’t have time see there is in 1920 there was an American thinker who wrote that essay within 20 years the biggest problem before humanity will be what to do with all the idle time that we have because machines will do all the work that we are doing and people will not know what to do with their time now yes machines are doing a lot of work that we are doing that we used to do earlier but somehow we just don’t have time so what why is this paradox coming, there are multiple reasons for this, one thing is that actually our time is taken not so much by our activity as by our mentality what do I mean by this that we normally think of our time in terms of our schedule, in terms of our activities morning I will do this if somebody is a student ok I have this class from this time to this time and this class from this time to this time like that we may divide our time in terms of the activity that we are doing but suppose someone say we go, a student goes to a class, we go to a class and just before we enter the class we greet someone another student and that student completely snubs us and then that one hour class our mind is filled with revenge fantasies next time in public in front of everyone I will snub this person how will I get this opportunity, how will I do this in terms of our schedule that one hour has has actually gone for that class but in reality at one hour this has gone with the thought of the mind so what often most time management or time analysis tools or whatever measuring tables or whatever they don’t recognize is that time is taken not just by activities time is taken by thoughts and one thought can actually take hours and hours like somebody is studying for an exam but they get a thought ok there is this cricket match going on, let me watch it they start watching it and they can be consumed by it and they may spend six hours watching it and then they think oh my god I got an exam coming up, what did I do so that six hours in this case of course externally they did some other activity but sometimes we just lose our time in our head this thought, this thought, this thought it just goes on and on so basically one of the characteristics of Kalyuga that is described in the Bhagavatam is the last characteristics prayan alpayu sabya kalavasmin yuge yuna mandasu manda matyo manda bhagya ya upadrutaha so ya means certainly so even if the previous character is not present but this last character is surely present upadrutaha upadrutaha means people are disturbed so because of the disturbed minds sometimes we talk about disturbed mind in terms of if somebody is very agitated, what if this happens, what if that happens that is not normally normally we consider as a disturbed mind and sometimes some even materialistic people may not seem to be disturbed that way they are very focused this is what I am going to do I am completely absorbed in doing it so now is their mind disturbed their mind may not be disturbed in terms of ten different thoughts dragging them in different directions but still there is a difference between self-controlled person there is a self-controlled person and there is a self that is controlled by there is a self who is in control of desires and there is a self who is controlled by desires we normally think of these two somebody I have controlled my desires there is a self-controlled pure soul somebody is controlled by their desires there is an impure contaminated conditioned soul but in between could be a self that is controlled by one desire. That person from the material sense may be very purposeful.
They work very hard, I want to become this, I want to win this Olympic gold medal. I just work extremely hard to achieve it. So the self is controlled by one desire.
In that sense they may not be disturbed. But from the ultimate perspective, how valuable is that? The Olympic gold medal is a great thing. I was in India once, I was going on a train.
I saw in the distance somebody standing and wearing a bead bag. So I was so happy. I went and talked with him.
He said, Sir, when were you introduced to bhakti? When have you been chanting? He said, What is chanting? I said, What is this? He said, This is not my bead bag, this is my nail bag. He said, What do you mean? He said, He was actually competing to enter the Guinness Book of World Records. So he had made a nail super long and that nail was kept in his nail bag.
So just recently I read a news that he actually, it is just, I don’t know whether it is the same person or some other person, just one month ago I read a news that this person, he got the record of having the longest nail and he entered in the Guinness Book. But after that when he cut his nail, he found that his finger had become atrophied. Because he had never used that finger.
Because he was so afraid that if I remove my finger, then the nail may break. So he kept the nail like that. Now he has lost the use of the finger itself.
So now he is completely fixed. I want to protect my nail so that I can enter in the Guinness Book of World Records. So he could say at one level he is self-controlled by one desire, I want to enter the Guinness Book of World Records.
But from the spiritual perspective he is still disturbed. So the point I am making here is that as long as our mind is disturbed, no matter how many time-saving devices we create, the disturbed mind will create engagements for us. And we will always stay overstressed.
So stress can sometimes be caused by situations. And yes, there are stressful situations, no doubt in life, sometimes. But stress is fundamentally caused by our own disorganized and wild thoughts.
And as long as these thoughts are going to continue, no matter how many things we create to save time, we will, even the saved time we will use in other things. And ultimately we will end up with very little time. So more than saving time through time-saving devices, we need to learn to save time by organizing our thoughts, by purifying our thoughts.
So the time-saving devices can be very useful if we have our mind in control. If you want to study and write a research paper, in the past, we may have to go to a library or go to different libraries and find the researches. Because now today, with technology, we can just search on Google and find that.
So we can save a lot of time for doing research. But if the mind is not controlled, you can sit in one room and sometimes people get hooked to video games and they can spend days and days just playing video games and they just, life may go away like that. So that’s why it’s, just as we are focusing on technological development externally, we need to also focus on spiritual development internally.
Since I often say, when I give science and spirituality seminars in colleges and companies, I say that science, science can improve things. But it’s only spirituality that can improve people. So when we improve things without improving people and the improved things end up being used for destructive purposes.
But when we give equal energy at least, or at least a significant amount of energy to improve ourselves internally, then whatever external improvements are there, we will be able to use them more productively. Okay, how much time do we have? Okay, can you just come back to, we’ll ask, have questions about this class first. You can ask me personally also after the class.
About this class? Yeah. So this fact of going to, going back to Godhead or Brahman-loka. In your writings and lectures, Prabhu, whatever I have learned and read in your, this one or two books, you have given a very kind of more contemporary proofs of reincarnation.
Like, you know, different, four different theories. Do we have kind of similar proof or, you know, some kind of validation of going to, going back to Godhead? Like a lot of these spirituality, you know, ideas are, at the end, our desire is a spiritual desire and we want to go to Krishna-loka. Okay.
Do we have to take that as words of scriptures or do we have a kind of more contemporary? So if you’re going, if you say, at the end of all, I will go back to Godhead, is this something we just have to accept based on faith in scripture, or is it something which can be rationally understood? Okay. I will talk about this in three ways. It can be a whole class in itself.
But first is, we’ll talk about the existence of the spiritual world. Second is the existence of a benevolent God as the Lord of the spiritual world. And the third is our destination when we go from this world.
So first is, if we look at our life itself, all of us have a longing to live forever and to love forever. Every single living being longs to live forever. Now, if we are simply creatures of matter, if we were, then why would we have a desire to live forever? There is nothing in our vicinity anywhere that stays forever.
If there is an African child living in a remote tribal location, one day suddenly tells his mother, Mummy, I want a pizza. The first question the mother would ask him, where did you hear about a pizza? There’s nothing in your circumstance. Similarly for us, there is nothing around us that lasts forever.
So where does our desire to live forever come from? It doesn’t come from our external. It comes from our core. So if right now on this floor, we suddenly see a gold coin.
There’s nothing like a gold coin anywhere. We’ll ask, where did the gold coin come from? Or maybe somebody has a treasury from which the gold coin has come. So like that, if we understand that we have a longing for immortality that comes from our core, that is as out of place here like a gold on a stone floor.
So that longing for immortality and its source indicates that there is a bore of immortality. It’s an inference. There is no, for that which is spiritual, you cannot have any conclusive proof unless we experience it.
What we can have is reasonable inferences. And the other option is that we can have, we can conclude that there’s nothing beyond it. But then there’s no explanation for our immortality, our longing for immortality at all.
Second point is that if we understand that, if we observe the world around us and if we understand that, except that we understand the basic bhakti philosophy, we do understand that God exists and God loves, God cares. That’s why he’s arranged for the world. He’s arranged for his own descent to the world.
He has given us scriptures. So if we understand in principle that there is a benevolent God who arranges for the world. Now, of course, we may see some things going wrong in the world.
Many things are going wrong in the world. But sometimes atheists say that so many bad things are happening in the world. How can there be a good God? How can there be a God who is good? But actually speaking, if we take atheism to its strict logical conclusion, atheism does not allow for the very categories of good or bad.
Good or bad is a moral judgment. And when a lion pounces on a deer and eats it, is it good or is it bad? For the deer it is bad, for the lion it is good. So if we were purely materialistic creatures, then we are driven simply by our genes to survive and reproduce.
If that’s all that is meant for, that is all that life is meant for, then what is the conception of good and what is the conception of bad? Or if you go at an even more fundamental level, everything that exists is simply an interaction of insentient atoms and molecules or even insentient fundamental particles. So then they have no conception of good or bad. So when atheists ask why is there evil in the world, they are presuming the existence of conceptual categories such as good and evil that have no rationale in the atheistic worldview at all.
So we ask why bad things happen. So the answer is, if people say this whole analysis is a little complex, why do bad things happen to good people? Then you can turn around, why should bad things not happen to good people? No, no, no, but good things should happen to good people, bad things to bad people. But why? Who said that? Is that a law of physics? No, in physics there is no such thing as good or bad.
So basically the very fact that we ask why do bad things happen to good people implies that we presume the existence of some natural order in which good should lead to good and bad should lead to bad. And then we can ask where does this order come from? And then we can ask why is this order apparently violated sometimes? But the point is that the existence of God as a benevolent being who has created the order in the world, that is a reasonable inference. If I see 100 rooms in a house, in a mansion, and 99 of them are well, are very spick and span, neat and tidy, and one is completely disorganized.
I can look at that one room which is disorganized and ask why is this so unclean? And I can say there is no housekeeper, nobody is a housekeeper. I can look at the 99 and I can say that there must be a housekeeper. And maybe there is some reason why this room is unclean.
So for us when we ask why do bad things happen to good people, we ask that because normally we expect and we experience. When we do something good, we do get a good result. So 99 rooms are clean and one is unclean.
So having, again I said each of these points can become a whole class, but the third point now, if you understand that there is a benevolent God, then the purpose of life in the world is twofold. It’s experimentation and rectification. That means when we want to enjoy life in various materialistic ways, separate from God, the world offers us facilities for doing that.
But if we want to turn towards God, the world offers a facility for that also. So if God is benevolent and the world is a facility for both rectification, experimentation rectification, then if somebody tries to live a life that is devoted to God, there is no reason for God to keep this person in this world. If we wish to devote ourselves to God, if we wish to serve Him, then why would He keep us in a place where there are so many distractions from serving Him? Why would He not take us to a place where we could serve Him continuously? Therefore, if we devote ourselves to Krishna in this life, then it’s a reasonable inference that Krishna will reciprocate with us by taking us to Him.
Of course, if we have not yet developed that strong a desire to attain Krishna, then we may have to go to some other place in the material world where some of our other desires are fulfilled and then eventually we go to Krishna. But if we are devoting ourselves to Krishna, if we are intensifying our desire for serving Krishna, then why would He not take us to Him? So the question here is that we cannot have conclusive proof what to speak of somebody going back to God. From the material perspective, we can’t even have conclusive proof of the existence of God or the existence of the Kingdom of God.
But what we can have in logic that is called as forward reasoning and backward reasoning. Forward reasoning means that we make some reasonable axiomatic assumptions and we reason forward from them. Backward reasoning is that we look at the state of affairs now and then we trace backwards to the cause.
So generally in historical sciences, we can do backward reasoning where scientists infer to the best explanation by looking at the what led to the present. But for something in the future, we have to do forward reasoning. So if we look at the state of affairs in today’s world, we arrive at certain reasonable inferences and from that by forward reasoning, we can come to a reasonable conclusion that if somebody devotes themselves to God, then they will attain the Kingdom of God.
Thank you. Anyone who is here, you can take one book of Prabhupada’s name. Please feel inspired to buy more.