Prabhupāda: The mistake of the human civilization is that they have forgotten the relationship with God. So here is the scientific statement of our relationship with God. And then, according to that relationship, exactly in the same way, just like understanding your relationship, your citizenship in a state you can act nicely, similarly if we know our relationship with God, we can act very nicely and that is peaceful life. And besides that, this life, the present life is not all. We have got life after death. That is a fact. Just like we are continuously in life, in this present life, you were a child, I was a child. Everyone of us were a child. That was a life. Then we became boy, then we became youth. Now we are, I am becoming old, and generally, when this body will be useless, I will have to take another body. This is the way. Unfortunately, the people, they do not believe in the next life. Although in every day affair they are experiencing that "I am eternal. I can remember the days of my childhood. I can remember the days of my youthhood, my boyhood, and I am still working. That means I am continuously there although my body in different ways have changed." So it is a fact that even after changing this body, you will have another body.
Life after death (Conversations and Letters)
Conversations and Morning Walks
1968 Conversations and Morning Walks
1972 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Whatever you say. So we should utilize this human body for furtherance of knowledge. And the first important knowledge is that we should know that there is life after death. That is the basic principle of knowledge. Unfortunately at the present moment, in no university there is any department of knowledge where this education is given where there is life after death. I am traveling all over the world. There is no such department. They have completely evaded or set aside because they cannot make any solution whether there is... I talked with one Mr. Kotovsky, a Russian professor in Moscow. I was in Moscow. He said, "Swamiji, there is no life after death." Just see. He's a big professor and his knowledge is so imperfect that he says that there is no life after death. So that is the position everywhere. Those who are teachers, they are with imperfect knowledge. The teachers in the universities, they are with imperfect knowledge. Now, life after death, in the Bhagavad-gītā it is very easily explained that just like a child has next life, boyhood. The boy has next life as youthhood. The youthhood has next life, the old age. So why not the old age next life? If we are passing through so many stages of life from birth or from the womb of the mother, then what is the reason that one does not believe there is no life after death? Can you say, any one of you? What is the reason? You remember your boyhood body; I remember my youthhood body. So that body is no longer existing, but I am existing. I remember my childhood body. My babyhood body also, I remember, particularly.
Ātreya Ṛṣi(?): They're simply miserable, Prabhupāda.
Prabhupāda: They're going to be cats and dogs and trees. They don't believe that there is life after death, so they think that "Whatever we have got now, let us enjoy sense." And the university education is giving them facility, "Yes, take education and gratify your senses from the age of twelve years." And at the last stage they think that "I would have liked that one would have shot me down on my head." What that old lady was talking?
Pañcadraviḍa(?): Oh, yes. (laughs)
Devotee (2): She said if someone else didn't shoot her, she would. She'd just do herself in.
Prabhupāda: Hopeless life. Māyā-sukhāya. Because they waste their time simply for flickering happiness, in future everything is zero. Śūnyavādī, nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi. Śūnyavādī means whose ultimate goal is zero. Pāścātya-deśa, Western countries. Nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi. (chants japa) Every one of you should take this movement very seriously and save your country. Misguided.
Devotee: He asks: Lord Jesus Christ, when he came, brought a message of hope, peace and confidence, not only in this life but also the future life, life after death. He asks if Your Divine Grace would like to speak about (indistinct) your speaking.
Prabhupāda: So we are giving a message by which everyone can be happy in this life and next life also. Generally all religious sects they do not believe in the next life. Or even they believe they have no clear idea of the next life.
Prabhupāda: The scientist says there is no life after death.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: No, they do not know that. They do not say also, they do not know that. They do not say that there is not life after death because they do not know.
Devotee (1): There is one plan to freeze people at the time of death. This is actually going on now—to be awoken out of such frozen state when the science is advanced...
Prabhupāda: That means there is no life. If you want to keep it frozen, that means after this body there is no life.
1973 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: When you have to go?
Devotee: (indistinct) around 7. (indistinct)
Scholar: (indistinct) life after death.
Prabhupāda: Yes. No, bring (indistinct). Call him.
Devotee: He has left.
Prabhupāda: Oh, he has left, all right. You come here, near.
Scholar: Life after death, he is asking.
Prabhupāda: Yes, there is life after death. This is your question?
Scholar: Yes.
Prabhupāda: That whether there is life after death. What is your question?
Guest: (indistinct)
Prabhupāda: What is your opinion? It is a fact. Just like you are a child, now you are a young man. So you have changed your body. Similarly, when you change this body, you get another body.
Scholar: Life after death.
Prabhupāda: That is life after death.
Guest: Is there any world...
Prabhupāda: Eh?
Guest: Any description of the worlds...
Scholar: Maybe the question is that whether the life after death is the same like our life here...
Prabhupāda: But, but, that is not (indistinct). If you get another body, naturally the same way of life. Same way of life means this life... This material body means four functions: eating, sleeping, sex intercourse, and defense. So as soon as you take another body, it's the same business (indistinct). It may be dog's life, it may be cat's life, or it may be human life. But the business is the same: eating, sleeping, sex intercourse and defense.
Prabhupāda: Kena upaniṣad. This "why?", simply so many "why's". Harer nāma harer nāma... (CC Adi 17.21). (pause) After making so much research and invention, after all, the scientist's going to die like cats and dogs. Then what is the use of his thinking? The cats and dogs also will die, and Professor Einstein will also die. So where is the difference? Real unhappiness, neither the scientist can check, neither the cat and dog can check. So where is the use of your thinking foolishly? And they do not believe that there is life after death. So far we are concerned... (break) Neither they do believe that there is life after death. Although practically we are seeing, after child's life, there is youth's life, after youth's life, there is elderly life, after elderly life, old life... So this we are seeing. Still we do not believe, that after this body, there is life again. Natural sequence. Big, big professors, they say: "Oh, after this body, everything is finished." And they're planning all happiness on this basis. Harer nāma harer nāma... (CC Adi 17.21).
Prabhupāda: Yes, that is their philosophy. Hedonism.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: If they know that there is life after death or life started from life, then they would not be doing like this.
Prabhupāda: So many things you will change. (pause) And that is mystic power for me.
Prabhupāda: Therefore, this human life should be utilized in such a way that we do not become subject to these four tribulations, birth, death, old age and disease. That is perfection. But people are not given that chance, the modern education, modern civilization. They've no knowledge; they do not know that there is life after death, although it is a simple fact. Just like in our present existence we have got past, present and future. Just like you are young man, you have your past. You are a child, or a boy, now that is past. Present, you are young man, and in future you are expecting to become old man.
Prabhupāda: Don't encroach upon others' right. This is renunciation. But they are encroaching upon others' right. Especially the human society. And that is the cause of all troubles. Because they have no God consciousness, they have no sense about God, and there is no sense about next life... What is your opinion about life after death?
Dr. Arnold Toynbee: My opinion is that an individual human being is, in life in this world, is temporarily separated from the whole of spiritual reality, and after death we rejoin the reality that we are separated from.
Prabhupāda: Actually, by the increase of demoniac people, people are not very happy, and they are missing the ultimate goal of life. That is the defect of the modern civilization. They do not believe that there is an ultimate goal of life, there is life after death, and what kind of body he's going to get next. These things are not, neither in the university education curriculum, neither people are interested. So at the present moment... This is called Kali-yuga. So people are being misled.
Guest (2): I don't know actually. I'm a doc. I'm trying to find some answer but what difference does it make? Suppose a person thinks of God all his life and dies, and a person who doesn't think of God at all also dies. What is our life after death?
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Guest (2): Then why do we have to think of God? Why do we have to forget about the material world?
Prabhupāda: First of all you have to understand that there is life after death.
Guest (2): Why, is it a faith or belief?
Prabhupāda: Does it mean they like that some congregation of fools and rascals? Such a big professor, he does not know, he cannot understand even that there is life after death. He has to accept another body. As we are accepting different bodies. I was a child. You were a child. Then I became a boy. That is different body. Different consciousness also. A child, three-four years, he talks in a different way. A boy, ten-twelve years, he talks in a different way, and a young man, educated young man, he talks in a different way. So with the change of the body, the consciousness is changing. Is it not?
Prabhupāda: I was a child, I was a boy. Where is that body? It is gone. It is a fact. I am in a different body. Dehāntara-prāptiḥ. Still, they won't believe that there is life after death. Dehāntara-prāptiḥ we are experiencing in this life. But they won't believe that after this deha, there is another deha. That they won't believe, such dull-headed. (Hindi) Are they dull-headed or (are) they intelligent scholar and scientist? What is your opinion? What is your opinion? You are practical man.
Prabhupāda: But at the modern time there is no such information, neither anybody is interested. Even big, big professors, they do not know what is there after life. They do not believe even that there is life after death. So this is a blind civilization going on. We are trying our bit to educate them that the aim of life, especially in the human form of life, is different from the bodily necessities of life: eating, sleeping, mating and defending.
1974 Conversations and Morning Walks
Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: Prabhupāda, their philosophy is that this is all there is, this life. After death, it's finished. And so they're trying to enjoy, enjoy, enjoy.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: So if they have information that this is not the only life, then won't they automatically become more austere?
Prabhupāda: Yes. (indistinct) consider what kind of life I'm going to get. (indistinct) They have made their own rascal philosophy that there is no life after death. Although they're experiencing that I am changing my body in this duration of life. I know that I have a child's body, child's body. That body's finished. Still I'm existing. So why I shall not exist after this body's finished? Where is the logic? Where is the... The simple logic they cannot understand. So dull brain. And they're advanced in civilization, big, big professor, big, big Indologist, this logic. The simple reason they cannot understand. What did they say? You have talked to many men about this logic?
Guru-gaurāṅga: About life after death?
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Satsvarūpa: They say it doesn't go beyond... They have to agree that the baby's body is gone and the young man's body is gone. They have to agree. But they say that that doesn't mean logically that I have to take another body.
Jyotirmayī: Vaiṣṇava philosophy. And we'd like to invite also M. Misraki. He's a compositor of music, but he also wrote book on life after death and many different things. So he was interested to come also. So they all came together.
Prabhupāda: So they are all nice gentlemen and ladies. It is...
Jyotirmayī: And very interesting too, that the first question, one of the first questions that Pere Fransad asked me, was: "Do you believe in love of God, and that God is a person? Some people say that God is not a person, and we say God is a person."
Bhagavān: So you can translate in French so that they can understand.
Prabhupāda: At least Christians cannot believe in impersonal God.
1975 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: First of all, we have to understand that we... There are many sources of knowledge, but the summary is that knowledge gathered by experience and knowledge gathered by, through authority. So both knowledge is helping me about the change of body. So how can you deny it? And still, if you remain ignorant, then you are foolish. How you can say there is no life after death? I am giving you evidence by experience and by authority. Then mostly, perhaps you have got experience of the... In the, especially in the Western countries... Here, if you ask ordinary cultivator, he'll believe: "Yes, there is life." They they are philosopher. "Yes, in my past life I did something wrong. Therefore I am suffering. And if I do wrong, I'll suffer in my next life." You'll get this knowledge even from the cultivator. This is India.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Entire, whole world. They are going on. They are fighting on this bodily concept of life. So, apart from fighting... Of course, you cannot stop fighting. But at least a section of men must be in right knowledge. So what I say, that in the Western countries, they, even the very high, topmost educationists, they also do not believe that there is life after death, is it not? Am I right or not?
Haṁsadūta: So that... She says, yes, if one thinks in this way, then life has no sense, that there's no sense to it, if one does not believe in a life beyond this life. It is senseless.
Girl: (German) Then it's no life, no life after death.
Haṁsadūta: She says therefore, therefore they feel anything can be done in this life because in next life there is nothing.
Prabhupāda: Nothing. That I talked with big professors. They say. They say like that. Here also, the so-called Indian leaders, they are also thinking like that.
Girl: (German)
Haṁsadūta: She says she has heard that in the universities in America it is being taught about Kṛṣṇa consciousness. In some of the universities Kṛṣṇa consciousness is being taught.
Amogha: A lot of them will accept, "Yes, there is future after death," but...
Prabhupāda: That he does not know, what is that future.
Amogha: "Oh, yeah, we haven't discovered that right yet."
Paramahaṁsa: Many of them say we cannot prove there is any life after death.
Prabhupāda: Yes, this if proof. Just as the boy is there and the father is there, the boy is going to become father. This is future. Both of them are there. The boy is going to be the father, and the father is going to be the grandfather. Where there is no future? The rascals, they do not know, say that, but there is future. How can you stop it? The boy is going to be father, the father is going to be grandfather. This is future.
Amogha: But then he dies, and they cannot see any future after that.
Prabhupāda: (break) ...believe it.
Justin Murphy: But I will become an old man anyway in the course of my life.
Prabhupāda: Yes. So therefore there is future life. If you say, "I don't believe in it,"...
Justin Murphy: Are you talking about reincarnation, life after death?
Prabhupāda: Yes. Reincarnation, you are already reincarnated. Where is your that childhood body? Where is that body?
Justin Murphy: Here it is. It's grown.
Prabhupāda: No. No, it is changed.
Prabhupāda: Yes, that enjoy. Pramattaḥ. They are called madmen. Pramattaḥ paśyann api na paśyati. They know it certainly, "Every one of us will die," but seeing also, they do not see. And that is madman. Pramattaḥ paśyann api na paśyati. That the animal, he is seeing that "One animal is being killed. Next time is mine," but still eating grass. He has no anxiety. This is called pramattaḥ paśyann api na paśyati. This is animal life, that even though fact is there, they will close their eyes. That's all. This is animal life.
Australian devotee 1: Śrīla Prabhupāda, even if there is a life after death, I don't know what it's going to be like, so why should I worry about it now?
Prabhupāda: Yes, if you are a man, you should be worried. Because you are not human being, next life you are going to be cat, you should be worried.
Australian devotee 1: But the cats and the dogs, they are also happy.
Prabhupāda: And if you want to become cats and dogs and happy, you be. Don't worry. That's all. But we are worried: "Why shall I become cat and dog? We shall go back to home, live with Kṛṣṇa." That is our ambition. Your ambition is to become cat and dog. You become.
Prabhupāda: This is material condition. Either lower grade of bodies or higher grade of bodies, but we have to change. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). Just like we are changing our bodies from childhood to babyhood, babyhood to boyhood, boyhood to youthhood, then old age, similarly, when this body will be finished, no more usable, then we'll have to accept another body. But we... The present civilization is so foolish they do not know—even big, big professor; I have talked—that there is life after death. They do not know, although it is very evident. That they have no such knowledge, even common sense.
Prabhupāda: So throughout the whole world there is no such institution to study all this fact. They are going just like fourth-class men. They have decided out of their own accord that there is no life after death. Young men say that there is no old age, but nature will not agree. Your next life is old age. That is natural. You cannot say, "No, no, I don't believe in it." You believe or not believe, it will come. Similarly, you believe or not believe, your next life is there. That is described in the Bhagavad-gītā. Find out.
Prabhupāda: That requires tapasya. So at least we should follow the standard, how to raise our children to become first-class. There is no current? You can get on the light. At the present moment, people cannot understand even that there is life after death. Most people. There is life after death—they cannot understand, even big, big professors, big, big learned scholars. Everyone is thinking, "This body is accidental and when the body will be finished, everything is finished." That is the general understanding. But Bhagavad-gītā, you read. It is said, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre: (BG 2.20) "After the destruction of the body, the soul is not destroyed."
Prabhupāda: So you will never discover the cure, and he will never come out. Now somebody was saying that this freezing, the body within, they decompose. The parts of the body are separate. That is... As we have... You take the frozen vegetable. It is tasteless. It is decomposed.
Paramahaṁsa: So actually it comes down to what Tamāla Kṛṣṇa asked. For example, the scientists may say, "Well, you say that we have a life after death, that we should conquer over death, but I cannot see it. I cannot see anyone who has come back."
Prabhupāda: You cannot see even what is there after hundred years. What is the value of your eyes? Why you are proud of your eyes?
Prabhupāda: This life is finished." That is the whole philosophy of the modern educated man, "There is no life." Big, big professors, they say like that, "There is no life after death." Therefore the Ārya-samājī rascal was: "That is Hindu belief." Why Hindu belief? Does the Mohammedan do not grow old? That answer he could not give. He is such a rascal. And at last he said that "I am God."
Dr. Patel: It is not self-luminous. All grahas are not self-luminous. When we observe in the sky, those stars are bleeping like this. The grahas are straight as that, the Sukra behind us, just steady light.
Prabhupāda: (break) ...philosophy is also incorrect, there is no life after death.
Dr. Patel: Who says so?
Prabhupāda: Oh, so many, all Westerners.
Dr. Patel: The Easterns... That does not mean... The Eastern philosophy is only with the jāgrati stage. But the jīva has got three stages, and the fourth stage, the turīya stage, is the real stage that we understand. They don't have idea of it, unfortunately. So that philosophy is not the real philosophy of life. Life as a whole should have its own philosophy. They don't understand that there is anything beyond the jāgrati stage. But then there is a svapna stage, there is a sleep stage and the turīya stage. In that if I am wrong you may correct me, sir.
1976 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Gradual process, but do they think they will be able to stop death? We are confident that we are going back to home, back to Godhead, Kṛṣṇa. But where is their confidence that they will be able to stop death, old age, disease?
Dr. Wolfe: The newest fad is now that they say that they're trying, they've established the fact that there is life after death.
Prabhupāda: There is.
Dr. Wolfe: They try to do this scientifically again.
Prabhupāda: Let them do. Scientifically, there is life after death. That we repeatedly say, that my child's body is dead, it's gone, vanished. I have got a different body. So after death there is life. This is practical. So this Kṛṣṇa says, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). So similarly, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). This is authoritative statement of God, and practically we see that we get one body after another, but I continue. So where is the objection? So there is life after death. So-called death means annihilation of the body. So if we can stick to that life, that there is no more death, then that is to be sought after. That is intelligence. That is mentioned in the Bhagavad-gītā, that if you simply understand Kṛṣṇa and you become fit to go back to Him, then no more death.
Dr. Wolfe: These people who are investigating into this, into the problem of life after death, are basing their observations on dying people. And there are three or four authors now, especially one woman who is a specialist in the field of dying. She is convinced, firmly convinced, that there is life after death. Her name is Kubler-Ross, and she has written several books on the subject.
Prabhupāda: Where she is, English? English woman?
Dr. Wolfe: She is American, German-American.
Prabhupāda: Yes, that.... One has to come to this conclusion undoubtedly. And that is education. Her education is now complete, that he (she) has understood, he (she) is trying to explain scientifically that there is life after death. That is complete education. So everyone should try by his education to establish what is already said in the śāstras. That is a fact. When Kṛṣṇa says, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13), one gets another body, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre... (BG 2.20). Kṛṣṇa says there cannot be any mistake. So if scientist, philosopher, establishes the statement of Kṛṣṇa by their scientific knowledge, that is real perfect scientific knowledge. And if he wants to defy the statement of Kṛṣṇa, that is māyā. That is not possible. But he's vainlessly trying to do that. But if one by scientific knowledge establishes what Kṛṣṇa says, that is perfection.
Prabhupāda: Then people will be happy. Not only happy in this life, but also next life. Unfortunately, the present education does not provide knowledge of next life. There is no such education. They are kept in darkness like cats and dogs. They do not know that there is life after death, and we get our next life according to our present activities—karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa (SB 3.31.1). These things are unknown. Very risky life. If I am prime minister in this life or president, and if I am going to become a dog next life, then what is the benefit of becoming prime minister or president? And nature's law is that you get your next life according to the mentality at the time of death.
Prabhupāda: This opportunity is there. If you want you can go again to the higher planetary system, live there for so many years, and again when your resultant action of pious activities is finished, you again come and become a grass, and again begin... This is going on. But where is the science to understand how the process is going on? Therefore people are kept in ignorance. They have dismissed the idea, that there is no life after death, that's all. (guest leaving) There is no education. They are kept in ignorance. That is the problem, risky civilization, that people are kept in dark ignorance about the problems of the life. They do not know.
Prabhupāda: If one does not understand this simple thing, that he is not body, then he is no better than animal. That is the first understanding of spiritual platform. If he thinks that he is body, then he is in the same category as the animals.
Rāmeśvara: Her question is... Suppose someone has some faith in life after death, and he also may be an intelligent man by material standards. Why isn't he automatically...?
Prabhupāda: No, material standard is no intelligence. Material standard is that "I am this body. I am American. I an Indian. I am fox. I am dog. I am man." This is material understanding. Spiritual understanding is beyond that, that "I am not this body." And when he tries to understand that spiritual identification, then he is intelligent. Otherwise he is not intelligent.
Prabhupāda: Similarly, the so-called death is also a change of body. This has to be understood first.
Mike Robinson: Yes, I think I've got that far. Now if we could go on from there. And then we said, you said that it therefore made a difference in the life after death, how you lived, that there were natural laws that determined that.
Prabhupāda: Yes. The process is that the spirit soul is invisible in our material eyes, very small. So after the destruction of this gross body, there is another body, subtle body—mind, intelligence and ego. So at the time of death, when finishing this body, mind works. So, according to that process, the mind carries the small spirit soul to another body. Just like the air carries the flavor. Nobody can see wherefrom this rose flavor is coming, but it is being carried by the air, very subtle. You cannot see, but it is being done. Similarly, the soul is very subtle. It is being carried by the mind. According to the mind, he enters into the womb of another mother through the semina of the father, and then he develops a particular type of body given by the mother. It may be human being, it may be cat, dog or anything.
Harikeśa: "Every man everywhere is trying to obtain the greatest amount of sense enjoyment by various endeavors. Some of them are busy engaged in trade, industry, economic development, political supremacy, etc., and some of them are engaged in fruitive work to become happy in the next life by attaining higher planets. It is said that in the moon the inhabitants are fit for greater sense enjoyment by drinking soma-rasa, and the Pitrloka is obtained by good charitable work. So there are various programs for sense enjoyment, either during this life or in the life after death."
Prabhupāda: Such a pleasing planet, and these rascals say there is no life. The moon is described everywhere, the most pleasing planet. Actually, when there is moon in the sky, how it is pleasing. So that planet is meant for the high-class pious persons, and they get their life for ten thousands of years. They live very comfortably, drink soma-rasa. These are the descriptions we get from śāstra. And these rascals say it is desert. And we have to believe them. And practically we see how pleasing it is. As soon as the moon planet is there, the whole atmosphere becomes pleasing. And it is desert. And we have to believe these rascal scientists and disregard the description of the śāstra. What do you think? Is that very good intelligence?
Prabhupāda: Everywhere materialistic. Manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu kaścid yatati siddhaye (BG 7.3). Spiritualistic means siddhi, perfection. Who cares for perfection? Bring money and enjoy. That's all. Who cares for perfection? They do not know what is perfection. They think that you get money, you live comfortably as far as possible, and after death, everything's finished. Is it not? This is the philosophy. Who cares to know that there is life after death and better life, better planet, better world? This is not at all good, it is full of miseries. They are driving all day, car, but they do not think it is tiresome. They think it is pleasure. To have a car and drive whole day, they do not feel that is tiresome. They think "I have got a car, I'm driving, people are seeing. It is pleasure."
Prabhupāda: And if you ask the goal of life, "What is goal of life?" "After death everything is finished," that's all. "Let me enjoy." Ṛṇaṁ kṛtvā ghṛtaṁ pibet.(?) Beg borrow, steal, bring money and enjoy. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). If by his activities he's going to be a lower animal next life, then what is the value of his so much business and activities? Therefore they do not believe in next life. Close the eyes. Never mind, where is the danger in front.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Not convenient, foolishness. A rabbit, when there is some big animals, he closes his eyes. He thinks, "There is no danger." That does not mean he's out of danger. He'll be eaten up. So simply by concocting that there is no life after death, you'll not be escaped. In Bhagavad-gītā informs, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ. There is no need of studying any literature, Vedic literature. Dehāntara-prāptiḥ, Kṛṣṇa is giving evidence. Dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā (BG 2.13). This dehāntara-prāptiḥ, I was not this body in the beginning, I was a very jubilant child like this.
Prabhupāda: No. How long they can go on with false pretense? And these people, they have no idea what is spiritual life. It is a profession for collecting money. So if you... We do not like to criticize. Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Kanayalal Munshi, he did not believe there is life after death or he did not believe there is Kṛṣṇa, fact. This is the founder. So what is their knowledge? And Vivekananda made Nārāyaṇa daridra. So this is their manufacturing ideas. They have no sound knowledge, vacant. They are misled themselves, and they will mislead others. This is going on. But if you say that, "You are the only man?" I can say, "Yes, I am the only man" at the present moment. You believe or not believe.
Indian man (1): We consider that man gets life after death according to his karma.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Do you believe on this?
Indian man (1): We have this belief.
Prabhupāda: Then what is the preparation? If we believe that we have to get another life after death, then what preparation we have made?
Indian man (1): Preparation? We... The real truth is we don't know.
Prabhupāda: That is I am saying.
Prabhupāda: Sattva, I am eternal. Now I am existing in a condition, birth and death. That they do not know. Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇum (SB 7.5.31). He does not know his interest. He's thinking, "This is life. Let me enjoy and there is no life after death, and even there is, who cares for it?" This is going on.
Guest (Indian man): That tapasya means?
Prabhupāda: Tapasya means restricted.
1977 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: So on, so on. And tomorrow by the laws of nature if I become a dog in Europe, then where is my nationalism? And it is possible. What is called? Because you are under nature's law, you are not independent. Therefore they have given up this idea that there is life after death. This is their first ignorance. Everyone is thinking that this life is everything for twenty years or thirty years or hundred years-eat, drink, be merry, enjoy then everything is finished. The whole Russian people, they think like that. Not whole, I don't, I cannot say but the learned, their learned professors, they think like that. The life is ended after this body.
Prabhupāda: Is there any purport?
Hari-śauri: "The demoniac accept that the enjoyment of the senses is the ultimate goal of life, and this concept they maintain until death. They do not believe in life after death, and they do not believe that one takes on different types of bodies according to one's karma, or activities in this world. Their plans for life are never finished, and they go on preparing plan after plan, all of which are never finished. We have personal experience of a person of such demoniac mentality..."
Prabhupāda: I am talking of that man.
Rāmeśvara: Research how to get new sources of food.
Prabhupāda: No.
Hari-śauri: Reader's Digest, that "Life After Death."
Prabhupāda: "Life After..." They do not believe. Western countries, they do not believe there is life after death. They are making research.
Hari-śauri: But if it comes in a scientific presentation, (laughs) then they accept.
Prabhupāda: What is this scientific presentation? (laughs) It is simple thing. Kṛṣṇa is giving the example, the dehāntara. A child is changing body to boyhood, boyhood... Very simple thing. But the brain is so dull, they cannot understand.
Prabhupāda: So inform him.
Rāmeśvara: Yes. Anyway, the most significant thing is that it's been published in this journal which is usually for middle class, nothing controversial. And now they have published life after death. It shows that people are beginning to believe.
Prabhupāda: As they are reading our literatures.
Hari-śauri: As Kṛṣṇa consciousness spreads... Just like we see these different things happening in the world that are coming nearer to a religious way of life or a spiritual understanding, even though that may not be directly connected with our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, still, is that the cause, because there's an auspicious atmosphere that people are...
Correspondence
1947 to 1965 Correspondence
You know that I am attached with one cultural mission of the name of the League of Devotees as well as Indian cultural Congress which is trying to broad caste this message of Paropakara. The standard of Paropakara should be such as will be useful both in the current life as well as life after death. Every sane man thinks of Paropakara in that way. Temporary sense gratification is not real Paropakara. Please therefore begin these Paropakara activities in the foreign countries as you have gone there. I think your going there is another __ preaching the Indian culture as above mentioned. I shall be glad to be in touch with you by correspondence so that I may be giving you my humble suggestion for this service.
This perfection of life will help also in building up the next progressive life after death. The human society is meant for liberal cooperation for this movement of all round perfection of the human society without any bar for class or nation or dogmatic faith. Spiritual culture is not dogmatic faith but it is based on philosophy, reason and culture.
Srimad-Bhagavatam gives all informations to attain the highest perfection of life both during the continuation of the present life as well as in the life after death.
I shall request you with all humility to cooperate with this mission and thus be benefited yourself. It is not the least exaggeration but actual fact and to become a member for this mission will to your own interest. And help others also who may be known to you.
1976 Correspondence
The public should be convinced of this point: that there is life after death, and then prepare for the next life. Otherwise what is the difference between men and animals? If a man has to go outside his home, he has to make so many preparations, but an animal will not—that is the difference between a man and an animal.
| Page Title: | Life after death (Conversations and Letters) |
| Compiler: | Rishab, JayaNitaiGaura |
| Created: | 18 of May, 2011 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=47, Let=4 |
| No. of Quotes: | 51 |