The mother of all hoaxes, and of all deceptions is the perpetuation of the bodily concept of life.

What is Astonishing

Epitome of the state of affairs, from top down

In reference to the must-read swindle of the century (see Pulling Off The Great Bank Robbery by Praghosa das), the author (of A 9/11 CHECKMATE makes a good point: the more contrary the truth is to accepted convention, the more difficult (if not impossible) it is for the crowd, or mainstream society to accept it.

Living in denial

The central point of Bhagavad Gita or Prabhupada's teachings is: "I am not the body, but the living force that moves the body", and therefore the whole world since time immemorial has been engaged in a futile struggle for existence. The individual person finds it impossible to grasp or accept that not only has he wasted his entire life, and will waste the little remaining, but the whole history of the world must be dismissed as meaningless struggle for an imaginary concept of bodily identification.

We are astonished again and again by the audacity of some individuals who perpetrate one hoax after another of gargantuan proportions (financial, political, social, scientific etc.) on the mass of people. However, the mother of all hoaxes, and of all deceptions is the perpetuation of the bodily concept of life (by our parents, educators, politicians, friends, lovers, etc.). That deception is made possible by the systematic denial of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krishna, the absolute truth, the creator, maintainer and absolute knower and ruler of all things, the best friend of all living beings.

In light of that, some person or persons blowing up a skyscraper or two is really insignificant, or some person's hijacking billions and trillions of dollars from the government or the public is insignificant.

It just shows that as devotees, we are often out of perspective as to the magnitude of our calling and the nature of our present condition.

What is really astonishing is that everyone is going to die, but no one is talking about, or making any preparation for that. That is astonishing. Even though we are early pioneer devotees, we are often oblivious to this. One devotee remarked to Prabhupada, "Sometimes I fall into maya..." Prabhupada replied, "No, you are always in maya, but sometimes you fall into Krishna."

Anyway, I am also astonished by the insignificant rascals. We all are. But sometimes I am also overwhelmed by Srila Prabhupada's pulling the curtain of maya away so we might get out of this place.