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Real aim of life is to stop the cycle of birth and death. That is real aim of life. If we do not know this, then we are ignorant

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"real aim of life is to stop the cycle of birth and death. That is real aim of life. If we do not know this, then we are ignorant"

Lectures

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Real aim of life is to stop the cycle of birth and death. That is real aim of life. If we do not know this, then we are ignorant. We are ignorant.

Prabhupāda: Four billion, three hundred years or something like. That is our . . . As our twelve hours, Brahmā's twelve hours is that. Then add twelve hours again, four hundred billion years. That means altogether eight billions of years. That is one day, Brahmā's. Then calculate one month. Then calculate one year. Such hundred years he lives. So that is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. Sahasra-yuga-paryantam ahar yad brahmaṇo viduḥ (BG 8.17). Sahasra-yuga-paryantam. One yuga means forty-three lakhs of . . ., hundred thousands of years. Sahasra means thousand times. That is . . . Everything is stated there. You can learn. You can understand. So that is called Brahmaloka. And it is also stated, ābrahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ punar āvartino 'rjuna (BG 8.16). Even if you reach to the Brahmaloka, you can get long duration of life; there is no doubt. But again, punar āvartinaḥ, you have to die and you have to go to another body and another planet. But I am eternal. We are eternal. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). By destruction of this body, maybe after two hours or four minutes . . . There are many, many living entities, they live for some minutes, some second, some years. The human in this material world, in this planetary system, we live, say, utmost, hundred years. But in other planetary system they live for millions of years. It is a ques . . . This world is relative. According to your position the relative condition is there. My past and present and future is not the same past, present, future of an ant. The ant's past, future, may be three hours or four hours. Our past, present, means hundred hours, and Brahmā's past, present, millions of years. Everything is relative, according to the position.

So real aim of life is to stop the cycle of birth and death. That is real aim of life. If we do not know this, then we are ignorant. We are ignorant. First of all we must know that "I am eternal." That is . . . In the beginning of the Bhagavad-gītā it is very nicely explained that antavanta ime dehā nityasyoktāḥ śarīriṇaḥ (BG 2.18): "My dear Arjuna, this body is destructible, but the proprietor of the body, he is eternal." That is the first instruction. I am not this body; I am the proprietor of this body. You are not this body; you are the proprietor of this body. But if we think that "I am body," then that is the same thinking as the dog is thinking. Therefore I have given in the statement that if we think this lump of matter as "myself," then we are no better than the dog. The dog is also thinking like that. That human form of life is meant for understanding that "I am not this lump of matter; I am . . ." Ahaṁ brahmāsmi: "I am spirit soul." That is required. The whole Bhagavad-gītā teaching is based on this principle, first of all to understand that "I am not this body; I am spirit soul, Brahman." Ahaṁ brahmāsmi.

brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā
na śocati na kāṅkṣati
samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu
mad-bhaktiṁ labhate parām
(BG 18.54)

If from this material conception of life, somehow or other you come to the understanding that you are not this body, lump of matter—you are spirit soul; you are different from this body—that is called brahma-bhūtaḥ state. And as soon as you become on the brahma-bhūtaḥ status, then symptom will be na śocati, prasannātmā—you become happy immediately. Everyone is unhappy in this material world. That's a fact. And because . . . Why we are unhappy? Because we have accepted, misaccepted, wrongly accepted this body, "myself." This is the defect of modern civilization. So long you do not understand that you are not this body, you are different from this body, you are Brahman, you are part and parcel of God, then your activities become different. Because at the present moment we are acting on the bodily concept of life: "I am American," "I am Indian," "I am Australian," "I am white," "I am black," "I am brāhmaṇa," "I am śūdra," "I am this, that"—only this bodily concept of life. And the Kṛṣṇa consciousness begins when you are free from this bodily conception of life. That is called brahma-bhūtaḥ.

brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā
na śocati na kāṅkṣati
samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu
mad-bhaktiṁ labhate parām
(BG 18.54)

Bhakti, this activity, begins when you are brahma-bhūtaḥ. Now, what is the symptom of becoming brahma-bhūtaḥ? That is stated: prasannātmā, happiness, only happiness. There is no question of distress. That is brahma-bhūtaḥ. You cannot say, "Now I have become Brahman-realized, brahma-bhūtaḥ, but I am crying, crying for cigarette." (laughter) No. Immediately test. So you cannot be unhappy: "I have not got this thing, that thing." Because here we are creating wants. Kāṅkṣati. This material civilization means simply creating wants, that's all, big want or small want. That is called kāṅkṣati. And another counterpart of this material life is whatever you have got, if it is lost, then you cry. One side is you are hankering after something which you do not possess, and if your possession is lost, then you cry for the loss. This is two business: kāṅkṣati, śocati. But if you become brahma-bhūtaḥ, self-realized, these two things will be absent immediately. Na śocati na kāṅkṣati.

Samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu. Samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu. Now there is racial animosity all over the world. You are American; you are Russian; you are Indian; you are Chinese; you are Pakistani. Their fighting is going on on this understanding: "We are Chinese," "We are Americans," "We are Russians . . ." So when you come to the platform of na śocati, not identifying with this body, then samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu—you see everyone on the same platform. You do not see "Here is a Chinese" or "American" or "Australian." You see: "A soul is entrapped in a material body." So material body is lump of matter. We are concerned with the spirit soul. Then samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu, paṇḍitāḥ sama-darśinaḥ (BG 5.18). One who is learned paṇḍita, he is sama-darśī. He has no more this vision that "Here is an American."

Just like in our Society you will find people from all parts of the world. There are Americans and Indians and Africans, Canadians, Japanese. But we don't feel like that: "I am Japanese," "I am Indian," "I am American." We all feel servant of Kṛṣṇa. This is Kṛṣṇa conscious. Na śocati na kāṅkṣati. This is United Nation, not that going to the United Nation and barking like the dog, "I am American," "I am Indian," "I am this and that." What is the benefit? Therefore they are barking for the last twenty, thirty years. What benefit has come? You cannot make the dogs . . . You bring some dogs from America and from Australia and from India and put them together and ask them, "Please live very peacefully." (laughter) If you keep them as dogs, they will simply bark. There will be no more peace. Just try to understand practically. You have to make them a human being. If you keep them dogs and cats, there cannot be any peace.

Page Title:Real aim of life is to stop the cycle of birth and death. That is real aim of life. If we do not know this, then we are ignorant
Compiler:SharmisthaK
Created:2022-10-20, 05:37:39
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=1, Con=0, Let=0
No. of Quotes:1