We may think ourselves very safe because we have a big bank balance, but actually no one is safe. Eventually everyone will dry up and be thrown in the fire.

Soft Cow Dung Laughing

False standard of living

Actually there is no material advancement in the USA. Material advancement means there is amply opportunity for eating, sleeping, mating, and defending. Superficially, it appears that in the USA there is sufficient provision of eating, sleeping, mating and defending, but actually nobody is safe even in his good apartment. I have got practical experience in New York. Several times my typewriter and tape recorders were stolen and the police could not take any action. There are many persons in the Bowery street, they have no shelter to live. So if a certain fraction of the people are supposed to be very materially happy at the cost of others, that is not material advancement. Had it been so, then why there are so many persons confused and frustrated? So actually there is no material advancement here. Here, I am seeing practically that Gaurasundara, such a nice intelligent and qualified boy, he has to work hard 12 hours simply for his subsistence. I think there are many instances like that, so this is not material advancement. You can call it capitalist advancement, and the reaction for such advancement is communism. Such movement is simply suppressed in your country, but actually the reaction is this. So the Western type of civilization, industrialism and capitalism, is no material advancement. It is material exploitation. When one gets the bare necessities of life, namely peaceful home, sumptuous eating, necessary sex life, and feeling of security, then it is called material advancement. In the absence of such four preliminary necessities of life, it is not at all material advancement—just try to understand. According to Vedic civilization, a man is supposed to be rich when he has got sufficient grains and cows. Here we have neither sufficient grains or cows, but you have got sufficient quantity of papers only—falsely thinking that it is money. When there is some catastrophe, this bunch of papers will neither supply milk or grain. They will be seen only and the man will starve.

Your position is not at all secure

There is a Bengali proverb: Dry cow dung is used for fuel, and it is said that when the dry cow dung is being burned, the soft cow dung is laughing, saying, "Oh, you are being burned, but I am safe." It does not know that when it dries out, it will be thrown into the fire too. We may laugh because President Nixon is in trouble, and we may think ourselves very safe because we have a big bank balance, but actually no one is safe. Eventually everyone will dry up and be thrown in the fire. That is a fact. We may survive for a few years, but we cannot avoid death. In fact, it is said, "As sure as death." And what is the result of death? One loses everything—all honor, money, position and material life itself. Krishna states in Bhagavad-gita (10.34), mrityuh sarva-harash chaham: "I am all-devouring death." Krishna comes as death and plunders everything—bank balance, skyscrapers, wife, children and whatever. One cannot say, "My dear death, please give me some time to adjust." There is no adjustment; one must immediately get out.

Foolish people are unaware of the miserable conditions of material life. Krishna says in Bhagavad-gita (13.9), janma-mrityu jara-vyadhi-duhkha-doshanudarshanam. Real knowledge means knowing that however great one may be, the four principles of material life are present: birth, old age, disease and death. These exist in the highest planetary system (Brahmaloka) and in the lowest (Patalaloka).

tasyaiva hetoh prayateta kovido
na labhyate yad bhramatam upary adhah
tal labhyate duhkhavad anyatah sukham
kalena sarvatra gabhira-ramhasa

"Persons who are actually intelligent and philosophically inclined should endeavor only for that purposeful end which is not obtainable even by wandering from the topmost planet down to the lowest planet. As far as happiness derived from sense enjoyment is concerned, it can be obtained automatically in course of time, just as in course of time we obtain miseries even though we do not desire them." (Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.5.18)

When Dharmaraja asked Maharaja Yudhishthira what the most wonderful thing in the world was, Maharaja Yudhishthira replied: ahany ahani bhutani gacchantiha yamalayam: "Every moment people are dying, but those who are living are thinking, 'My friend has died, but I shall live forever.' " (Mahabharata, Vana-parva 313.116) Soft cow dung thinks the same way. This is typical of conditioned beings.

Bhagavan, the Supreme Lord, is not in this position. It is therefore said: bhagavan atma-mayaya. We come onto this planet to enjoy or suffer life for a few days—fifty or a hundred years—but Bhagavan, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, does not come for that purpose (na mam karmani limpanti [Bg. 4.14]). It is further stated, na hy asya varshmanah: "No one is greater than Him." No one is greater than Bhagavan or equal to Him. Everyone is inferior. According to Chaitanya-charitamrita (Adi 5.142), ekale ishvara krishna, ara saba bhritya. There is only one master—Krishna. All others are subservient, beginning with Lord Brahma, Vishnu, Maheshvara, Indra, Chandra and all the demigods (there are thirty-three million demigods) and the middle and lower species. Everyone is bhritya, or servant. When Krishna orders, "My dear Mr. So-and-So, now please give up your place and leave,' one must go. Therefore everyone is a servant. This is the position of Lord Brahma and the ant as well. Yas tv indragopam athavendram aho sva-karma [Brahma-samhita 5.54]. From Lord Indra to indragopa, an insignificant insect, everyone is reaping the consequences of his karma. We are creating our own karma, our next body, in this life. In this life we enjoy or suffer the results of our past karma, and in the same way we are creating further karma for our next body. Actually we should work in such a way that we will not get another material body, How can this be done? We simply have to try to understand Krishna. As Krishna says in Bhagavad-gita (4.9):

janma karma cha me divyam
evam yo vetti tattvatah
tyaktva deham punar janma
naiti mam eti so 'rjuna

"One who knows the transcendental nature of My appearance and activities does not, upon leaving the body, take his birth again in this material world, but attains My eternal abode, O Arjuna."

This sounds very simple, but actually understanding Krishna is very difficult. If we become devotees of Krishna, understanding Krishna is easy. However, if we try to understand Him by jïana, karma or yoga, we will be frustrated. There are many types of yogis, but he who is devoted to Krishna is the topmost yogi. Sri Krishna is far above all yogic processes. In India there are many yogis who can display some magical feats. They can walk on water, make themselves very light or very heavy and so forth. But what is this compared to Krishna's yogic mystic powers? By His potencies, great planets are floating in space. Who can manage to float even a small stone in the air? Sometimes a yogi may show a little mystic power by manufacturing some gold, and we are so foolish that we accept him as God. However, we forget that the real yogi, the Supreme Lord Himself, has created millions of gold mines and is floating them in space. Those who are Krishna conscious are not befooled by yogis who claim to be Bhagavan. A Krishna conscious person wants only to serve the foremost yogi, Yogeshvara (varimnah sarva-yoginam). Because we are trying to become His devotees, we accept the Supreme Lord, Yogeshvara, as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Krishna Himself states in Bhagavad-gita (18.55):

bhaktya mam abhijanati
yavan yash chasmi tattvatah
tato mam tattvato jñatva
vishate tad-anantaram

"One can understand the Supreme Personality as He is only by devotional service. And when one is in full consciousness of the Supreme Lord by such devotion, he can enter into the kingdom of God."

This process is actually very simple. One must first of all realize that the first problem is the conquest of death. Presently we consider death compulsory, but actually it is not. One may be put into prison, but actually prison is not compulsory. It is due to one's work that one becomes a criminal and is therefore put in jail. It is not compulsory for everyone to go to jail. As living entities, we have our proper place in Vaikunthaloka.

paras tasmat tu bhavo 'nyo
'vyakto 'vyaktat sanatanah
yah sa sarveshu bhuteshu
nashyatsu na vinashyati
avyakto 'kshara ity uktas
tam ahuh paramam gatim
yam prapya na nivartante
tad dhama paramam mama

"There is another nature, which is eternal and is transcendental to this manifested and unmanifested matter. It is supreme and is never annihilated. When all in this world is annihilated, that part remains as it is. That supreme abode is called unmanifested and infallible, and it is the supreme destination. When one goes there, he never comes back. That is My supreme abode." (Bg. 8.20-21)

Everything is present in Vaikunthaloka. There we can have an eternal, blissful life full of knowledge (sach-chid-ananda). It is not compulsory for us to rot in this material world. The easiest way to go to the Vaikunthalokas is: janma karma cha me divyam evam yo vetti tattvatah [Bg. 4.9]. Simply try to understand Krishna. Why does He come? What are His activities? Where does He come from? Why does He come in the form of a human being? We only have to try to understand this and study Krishna as He explains Himself in Bhagavad-gita. What is the difficulty? God personally explains Himself as He is, and if we accept Bhagavad-gita as it is, we shall no longer have to transmigrate. Tyaktva deham punar janma naiti [Bg. 4.9]. We shall no longer have to endure birth and death, for we can attain our spiritual bodies (sac-chid-ananda-vigraha [Bs. 5.1]) and live happily in Krishna's family. Krishna is providing for us here, and He will also provide for us there. So we should know that our happiness is in returning home, back to Godhead, where we can eat, drink and be merry in Krishna's company.