So here you see that He is the perfect being who is eternal... And eternal. Eternal means that... Eternal means everything. Eternal in consciousness. Now, Kṛṣṇa says that "You and Myself and all these beings were like this" because He has got eternal consciousness. He has actually experienced what I was. But because my consciousness is not eternal, I have forgotten what I was in my previous birth. Neither I can say what I shall be in my next birth. These are the distinctions. If we falsely claim that "I am God, I am that supreme consciousness," it is our lunacy. It is our lunacy. We should not indulge in that way, and anyone teaching in that way, that is a cheating. It is not possible. Here is an authoritative book. He is the perfect being who is eternal and all-pervading, omnipotent, omniscient. All individual selves are more or less subject to the affliction of ignorance. We are, all living entities except God, everyone, everyone, they are subjected to ignorance, forgetfulness. That's a fact. Ignorance, egoism. Egoism means that without having the qualification, one declares that "I am God." This is egoism. Without having the qualification of God, if one declares that "I am God," a foolish man, that is called egoism. Egoism, desire, aversion and dread of death. They have to do various kinds of work, good, bad, and indifferent, and reap the consequences thereof. That means they are subjected to the acts of your, I mean to say, reaction of their acts. If you do some good thing, then you reap the good result. If you do some bad thing, then you reap the bad result. And because we are defective, therefore we do something good, sometimes bad.
Eternal means
Lectures
Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures
Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures
Eternal means those who have not come in contact with this material nature. There are living entities, I mean to say, many, many more times than the living entities who are within this material world. They are in the spiritual world. Just like the number of population outside the prison house is very great, and the number of population within prison house is very small, this material world is supposed to be the prison house. Those who are condemned, those who want to try to lord it over, they are imprisoned within the walls of material universe. So their number is very small. That is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā, that ekāṁśena sthito jagat: (BG 10.42) "It is only a portion of My creation, little portion." This unlimited number of universes and their unlimited number of planets, and, in each planet, unlimited number of living entities—all taken together is only a fractional demonstration, manifestation of the potency of the Lord. The major manifestation is in the spiritual world. So they are all liberated, nitya-mukta.
General Lectures
So our problems of life, as it is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, is to solve these four things: no more birth... Because we are... Always remember that we are all eternal. Just like in this body, beginning from my mother's womb up to this old age, I am the same eternal soul, but my body is changing. So after changing this body also, I shall remain the same. Simply I shall have another body. This plain truth, there is no difficulty to understand. Now if I am eternal... If I am eternal means no death, no birth, no disease, no old age. That is eternal. So if I am eternal, whether it is possible to get an eternal body? Or eternal happiness? That is the problem of human society. If you can solve that problem, then you be proud of your civilization. Otherwise there is no difference between cats' and dogs' civilization and your civilization. Because you are simply trying to solve the problems of eating, sleeping, defending and mating. But these problems are already solved by nature's law.
Lord says that "Beyond this material world, there is another bhāva, nature." Just like this is material nature. He says, paras tasmāt tu bhāvaḥ, bhāvaḥ anyaḥ (BG 8.20). Anya means another. "There is another nature, which is sanātana." Sanātana means eternal. There is no history of its beginning, or there is no end—that is called sanātana, eternal. Eternal means which has no end, no beginning. Nobody knows where it has begun and where it has ended. Nobody knows. Just like the Vedic religion is called sanātana-dharma because nobody can trace out when this Vedic religion begun. Therefore it is called sanātana-dharma. Every religion in our present experience, it has got a history. Your Christian religion, it has got a history, two thousand years old. Buddhist religion, it has got a history, 2600 years. Muhammadan religion, it has got a history, one thousand years. But if you trace out Vedic religion, you cannot find out the history, date. There is no date. You cannot find out. No historian can give. So therefore it is called sanātana-dharma.
Conversations and Morning Walks
1976 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: If he thinks. Otherwise nobody is outside. If you think that you are not... There are so many rascals, they think that with the body everything is finished. But he may think so, but that is not fact. Similarly, if one thinks that "I am not sanātana-dharmi, I am Christian." You may think like that, but actually you are sanatanist. But if you think otherwise, you can think. Who can check it? When Kṛṣṇa says, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20), the soul does not annihilate after the destruction of the body, is it meant for the Hindus? Everyone. Everyone is a living entity, everyone is a soul, and he's eternal. And eternal means sanātana.
Hari-śauri: So it depends on how one acts as to whether he can be accepted as...
Prabhupāda: Then... One acts means he must act accordingly. If he does not act accordingly, that is his business. That's all.
1977 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Fifty, sixty... Average India, thirty-five years. In your country a little more. Nobody lives hundred years. That is also another bluff. But even if you live for hundred years, does it mean that you have stopped death? Then what is the benefit? You are eternal. Na jāyate na mriyate vā, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). You are eternal, but why you are dying? What the scientists have done? Na jāyate na mriyate. Eternal means one who has no birth, no death. But you have birth and death, so where is your scientists' help?
Upendra: The reason the original faith was placed in the scientists was because radio, airplanes, tape recorders have been manufactured, and people are impressed by these originally.
Prabhupāda: So what is the benefit? Without radio, people were dying, or with radio they are not living?
| Page Title: | Eternal means |
| Compiler: | Rishab, Serene |
| Created: | 30 of Mar, 2012 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=4, Con=2, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 6 |