Those who are blind, apaśyatām ātma-tattvam, blind about understanding the soul, they have got many thousands and thousands of matter, subject matter for hearing—useless. The human life is meant for understanding what I am and what is God, what is my relationship with God. That is the real purpose of human life. Otherwise, "Where is food?" "Where is shelter?" "Where is service?" "Where is sex?" these are the inquiries of the animals only. The hog also inquiring, "Where is stool? Where is stool? Where is stool?" The stool-eater, he is also working hard, "Where is stool? Where is stool? Where is stool?" Do you think that is very creditable task, to work hard day and night for finding out where is stool? This is hog's business.
So at the present moment, the civilization is going on, "Where is food?" "Where is apartment?" "Where is sex?" and "Where is defense?" So these are the inquiries of the animals. They are also searching, "Where is food?" "Where is shelter?" "Where is sex?" and "Where is defense?" Āhāra-nidrā-bhaya-maithunaṁ ca sāmānyam etat paśubhir narāṇām (Hitopadeśa 25). The human life is meant for inquiring, "Where is God?" That is human life. Not "Where is stool?" That is hog's business. So we should not encourage this hog civilization. Hog civilization is to work hard day and night to find out where is food, where is shelter, where is sex and where is defense. Wrong type of civilization. The human civilization means "Where is Brahman, the Absolute Truth?" Athāto brahma jijñāsā. That is the Vedānta-sūtra. "Where is God?" "What I am?" These are the inquiries.
So personally the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, is teaching that the soul transmigrates. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ. Dehāntara-prāptiḥ means transmigrating from one body to another. Dhīras tatra na muhyati (BG 2.13). Those who are dhīra, sober, full of knowledge, they are not bewildered, they are not perturbed. Because he knows that, "My father or brother, everything, is said to be dead, it is . . . he is not dead." This gross body, this coat, coating of the body, has stopped. It is old enough, or by some reason it is torn, it is no longer usable. Therefore the soul has left this gross body and, being carried by the subtle body—mind, intelligence, ego—he has gone to accept another gross body. This is transmigration of the soul. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13).
Just like the mother knows, "My baby was on my lap. Now as a boy he is running." So she is not lamenting. She knows, "That is my child, same child. Simply he has transformed the body." Similarly, we should not lament when a man dies. We should not lament. Because Arjuna was thinking in terms of the body, in the battlefield he was bewildered whether . . . because the other side were all relatives. Therefore Kṛṣṇa is giving the knowledge that, "Don't think that your father or your grandfather or your brother, they will be finished. No. They will be simply . . . if you kill, they will simply be transferred to another body. Better you consider that your grandfather is possessing now an old body; if you kill your grandfather in the battlefield . . ."
Because formerly the war was declared not whimsically. The war was also religious war. So in the religious war, a kṣatriya . . . the kṣatriyas were fighting, not the śūdras, not the brāhmins, not the vaiśyas. There was a caste for fighters. Not like this, where a śūdra is elected as president, he is not fighting, he is in a safe place, and he is simply directing, "You go and fight. Let me see how you are fighting." No. The king, the kṣatriya, he will come forth in the front of fighting. That was fight.
If the king is killed by the opposite party, then it is declared that they are victorious—no more fight, no more unnecessarily killing other persons. The aim was to kill the king. The king was on the front. The other party, he was also in front. The king is fighting with king, and the soldiers are fighting with soldier. So when the king is killed, then the other party becomes victorious. That was the process of war, not that releasing atomic bomb from the sky and kill so many innocent persons. No. That is not war.
So war, if it is fought on principle, on religious principle, that is called dharma-yuddhi. That is not prohibited. But this killing process, unnecessarily, innocent men, that is not dharma-yuddhi. That is irregular fighting. That kind of war is not sanctioned by the Vedas.
So dhīras tatra na muhyati, now you can say: "I cannot see how my father has passed from this body to another body." That you have to know from the śāstra. You do not know so many things. But if you read books, authorized books, then you understand, things are there. The same example, that you do not know how big the sun planet is. But when you read books, scientific books, you understand that it is fourteen hundred thousand times bigger than this earth. Similarly, if you are in knowledge, then you can understand where your father has gone. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā:
- ūrdhvaṁ gacchanti sattva-sthā
- madhye tiṣṭhanti rājasāḥ
- jaghanya-guṇa-vṛtti-sthā
- adho gacchanti tāmasāḥ
- (BG 14.18)
Ūrdhvaṁ gacchanti sattva-sthā, those who are situated in brahminical qualification, goodness, modes of goodness, they are promoted to the higher planetary system. You are, at the modern times, they are trying to go to the higher planetary system by the machine. It is not possible. But if you place yourself in the modes of goodness, you can go to any higher planetary system up to Brahmaloka. Ūrdhvaṁ gacchanti sattva-sthā (BG 14.18).
There are three planetary system, triloki: the higher planetary system, the middle planetary system and the lower planetary system. So we are at the present moment Bhūrloka, Bhūrloka, middle planetary system. Above this there is Bhuvarloka. Above that there is Svarloka, there is Janaloka, there is Tapoloka, there is Maharloka, there is Satyaloka, there is Siddhaloka, there is Brahmaloka.
What do they know, the modern astronomers? They do not know anything. They do not know what is there in the moon planet, they do not know what is there in the sun planet, in the Venus—nothing. Still they are going on, they are proud. But if you read Vedas, you get all the information of the universe. Not only this universe—beyond the universe. Beyond the universe. Paras tasmāt tu bhāvo 'nyo 'vyakto 'vyaktāt sanātanaḥ (BG 8.20). There is another nature, which is never annihilated.
In this material nature, everything is annihilated. Bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19). Here, just like your body is produced at a certain date by the father and mother, and it will be finished at a certain date, similarly, this whole cosmic manifestation, this material world, innumerable universes, they have been produced at a certain date and they will be finished at a certain date. Everything will be finished.
But there is another nature, where the planets are everlasting. They are called Vaikuṇṭhaloka. Vaikuṇṭhaloka, vaikuṇṭha means vigata-kuṇṭha yasmāt. Kuṇṭha means anxiety. Here we are full of anxieties—"What will happen next?" Fearful always. "When my death will take place?" "What will be the political situation?" "What shall I eat?" "Where shall I sleep?"
Always full of anxieties. Anyone—bird, beast, animal, human being—full of anxieties, because the material world is like that. You have to be full of anxieties. But there is another world, where there is no anxiety. That is called Vaikuṇṭhaloka. Vaikuṇṭha. Vaikuṇṭha means vigata-kuṇṭha; kuṇṭha means anxiety.