Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Forever?
Compiled by
Radheshyam Das, M.Tech., IIT Mumbai
Director, VOICE
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Dedicated to
His Divine Grace
A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Founder Acharya: International Society
for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON)
Compiled by
Radheshyam Das, M. TECH., IIT MUMBAI
Assisted by:
Jai Gopal das, B. Arch
Daujipriya das, Aniruddha das
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‘Life after death’, ‘Transmigration’, ‘Re-
incarnation’, ‘Astral-travel’ - These are
topics which were once hardly mentioned
but are now much talked about.
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Lesson One
EACH OF US IS A LIVING
SOUL WITHIN MATERIAL
BODY
Lump of Chemicals?
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wit, consciousness, which I cannot see to be
matter or force.” Consciousness gives the
proof of the soul.
Near Death Experience (NDE)
NDEs, as the name suggests, involve
people who have a close call with death.
Many people having NDEs also have Out-
of-Body Experiences (OBEs) in which they
report observing their physical body and
events relating to it from a perspective
outside the body during severe illness or
physical trauma resulting in
unconsciousness. A typical case might
involve a person who is resuscitated from a
heart attack and reports that he observed,
from a point outside his body, the medical
personnel endeavoring to revive him. At
such times, according to standard medical
opinion, the normal functioning of the
brain, as indicated by certain brain waves, is
impaired, and the patient should be
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unconscious, if indeed consciousness is a
manifestation of the brain.
There is enough research work in NDE
presented by individuals with impeccable
scientific credentials. For example, Dr
Michael B Sabom, a cardiologist and
professor at the Emory University Medical
School, was openly skeptical of NDEs but
changed his mind after investigating them.
Based on rigorous research, Sabom writes:
“If the human brain is actually composed of
two fundamental elements – the ‘mind’ and
the ‘brain’ – then could the near death crisis
event somehow trigger a transient splitting
of the mind from the brain in many
individuals... The out-of-body hypothesis
simply seems to fit best with the data at
hand... Could the mind which splits apart
from the physical brain be, in essence, the
soul, which continues to exist after final
bodily death, according to some religious
doctrines? As I see it, this is the ultimate
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question that has been raised by reports of
the NDE.”
Past Life Memories
Rigorous, unbiased studies have been
carried out by serious researchers on past-
life memories. Dr Ian Stevenson, Carlson
Professor of Psychiatry at the University of
Virginia, has extensively investigated
spontaneous reincarnation memories
recounted by children. In such cases he has
been able to positively corroborate what the
child has claimed by thoroughly
investigating details of the place and people
they describe, including the dead person
they claim to have been. Stevenson has
assembled numerous accounts and verified
them, always taking great care to screen out
fabrications. His studies give convincing
evidence that the conscious self can travel
from one physical body to the next.
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Clearly, when one body dies, the
contents of its brain are destroyed, and
there is no physical process by which they
can influence the contents of another brain.
The simplest interpretation is that the
conscious self must be an entity distinct
from the brain.
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Relationship Between
Body and Soul
The body is compared to a car and the
soul to the driver. If an unintelligent puppy
sees a big car coming on the road, it may be
scared thinking a big animal is coming on
four wheels. But a knowledgeable man will
know that it is only a dead car, which is
driven by a driver. There are headlights in
the car to see the road, you also see with
your eyes. The car produces sound with the
horn, you also speak. The car has four
wheels, you also have two hands and two
legs. The car moves from place to place and
you also do the same. But once the driver
gets down from the car, the car cannot
budge even one inch after 100 years.
Similarly when a person dies, his body
becomes completely inactive. It is exactly
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like a car without a driver. The body that we
see is actually dead. It appears to be lively
because of the presence of the soul. When
the soul leaves the body, the body becomes
inactive.
What Happens at Death?
The Bhagavad-gita (2.13) explains: “As
the embodied living soul continuously
passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth
to old age, so the same soul passes into
another body at death.”
Our bodies grow and change because the
living soul is present within the heart. But
when the soul leaves the body, then all
physical activities cease. The eternally
living soul transmigrates to another body.
This experience is known as death.
At the time of death, the gross body lies
down, and the soul covered by the subtle
body, according to the dictation of nature,
occupies another body. The Bhagavad-gita
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(1.22) explains transmigration with an
analogy: “As a person puts on new
garments, giving up the old ones, similarly,
the soul accepts new material bodies, giving
up the old and useless ones.”
* * * * *
Lesson Two
THE LIVING ENTITIES ARE EVOLVING
THROUGH
VARIOUS SPECIES
Transformations of the Body
Every living body in this material world
undergoes six changes: birth, growth,
maintenance, production of by-products
(chemicals, offspring), diminution and
destruction. These changes happen to all
living bodies, whether they be plants,
animals or human beings. For example, a
child is born, grows into youth, remains
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young for a few years, produces a child,
gradually ages and finally dies. We cannot
stop this by our so-called material science.
Sometimes people foolishly think that by
scientific advancement human beings will
become immortal. We cannot even stop
these six changes in the body, where is the
question of stopping death?
Complete and Perfect Knowledge of
Evolution
Darwin's evolution theory is an imperfect
understanding of the real spiritual
evolution, which takes place by the
transmigration of the soul from one body to
another. Originally, the living entity is a
spiritual being, but when he desires to enjoy
this material world, he falls down from the
spiritual world. First, the living entity
accepts a body that is human in form, but
gradually, due to his degraded activities he
falls into lower forms of life - into the
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animal, plant and aquatic forms. By the
gradual process of evolution through 8.4
million species of life, the living entity again
attains the body of a human being and is
given another chance to get out of the
process of transmigration. If he again misses
the chance in the human form to
understand his position, he is again placed
in the cycle of birth and death in various
types of bodies. This is the complete and
perfect knowledge of evolution.(Srimad
Bhagvatam 4.29.2 ).
The Padma Purana also says:
jalaja nava lakshani
sthavara laksha vimshati
krmaya rudra sankhyakah
pakshinam dasa lakshanam
trimsal lakshani pashavah
catush lakshani manavah
“There are 900,000 species of aquatic
life; 2,000,000 species of plants and trees:
1,100,000 species of insects; 1,00,000
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species of bird life; 3,000,000 species of
beasts, and 400,000 species of human life”.
The meaning of “species” understood by
biologists is different from the meaning
implied here. The meaning of “species”
used by biologists applies to the gross
physical appearance or the gross
morphological feature of the living material
bodies. The Vedic meaning, however, is
based on the level of consciousness of the
living being. For example, biologists say
that all human beings belong to one species,
whereas the Vedic literatures list 400,000
human species.
In other words, there are 400,000 grades
of human beings on different levels of
consciousness. In the lower levels of
consciousness, a living entity, although in a
human body, behaves just like an animal. In
a higher level, his consciousness may be
slightly evolved and he may be selfish for
his family. In a still higher level, he is
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concerned about his community, then about
his state/country. At a higher level, one may
become an altruist/philanthropist. And after
many lifetimes one starts to enquire about
God. The living entity still develops several
conceptions about God in many, many
lifetimes, until he comes to understand that,
“Lord Krishna is the Supreme Personality
of Godhead and surrendering to Him is the
highest goal of life”. To stop the repetition
of birth and death in different forms of life,
we must transcend the covering of material
nature and come to the platform of pure
consciousness. But if we do not learn the
transcendental science of Krishna
consciousness, then at death we must
transfer to another body, either better or
worse than our present one.
*****
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Lesson Three
ACTIONS WE PERFORM IN THE
HUMAN BODY DETERMINE OUR
FUTURE BODIES
This vast universe is filled with untold
billions of eternally living spiritual souls or
sparks of life and all of them are
transmigrating from one body to the next.
From the tiny one-celled amoeba to the
great blue whale, all living organisms
consist of two basic components: the
material body and the spiritual soul. The
material body is a lifeless yet complex
arrangement of physical elements and the
spiritual soul is a spark of life - a spark of
supreme life, God. Though only one ten-
thousandth the tip of hair in size, the soul
animates one body after another. In its
evolutionary course, the soul transmigrates
from one species to another. In some
species he remains only a few seconds, in
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others for as long as several thousand years.
When a particular body is no longer fit for
habitation, the soul leaves it and enters a
seed, egg or womb to begin developing his
next body.
Does the soul’s transmigration from body
to body take place randomly or does some
higher authority supervise? In one lifetime
the spiritual soul may enjoy as a lusty
rogue, and in the next lifetime he may be
kicked as a street dog. What determines a
particular soul’s next body?
According to Bhagavad-gita, each soul
receives punishment or reward for the sinful
or pious acts he performs during his human
lifetime. This is known as the law of karma.
Every act a human being performs is either
in accord with or contrary to the universal
laws that God gives in the revealed
scriptures. God’s scriptural laws govern
only those souls who are in the human
form, because unlike the dull creatures in
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the lower species, the human being has
sufficient intelligence to freely obey or
reject the Lord’s scriptural instructions.
However, along with that freedom comes
accountability. Thus a sinful soul - one who
breaks God’s laws - may be born as a dog in
his next life, a pious soul may take his next
birth as an aristocrat, and a self realized soul
may break free from the bonds of karma
altogether and enter into the deathless
spiritual world.
The Bhagavad-gita further explains that
a living soul receives a particular kind of
body according to his particular desires.
The subtle body, which accompanies the
soul during the transitional state between
death and rebirth, contains a record of all
his thoughts, desires and activities, and
these determine the kind of gross body the
living entity will inhabit in his next life.
When you go to a cloth shop you find
varieties of clothes - shirts, suits, pants,
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jeans etc. Similarly there are 8.4 million
species for us to choose. We may acquire
any of them to fulfil our desires. Even
amongst human beings there are so many
varieties – asuras, civilized, devas etc.
Krishna is capable of fulfilling every living
entity’s desires.
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air, fire, water and earth are manifested
from the subtle from.
Mental existence transforms into tangible
form as soon as there is an opportunity. So,
the soul being carried by the subtle body
occupies a womb depending on the
unfulfilled desires stored in the subtle body.
Think of any desire.
Do you know someone who likes to
sleep a lot?
Nature can award him a polar bear’s
body so that he can peacefully sleep for 6
months in a year without being ridiculed by
his friends or scolded by his parents.
Do you know someone who likes to eat
flesh and drink blood? Nature will say:
“Come On! Take the body of a tiger or a
lion and eat flesh the natural way!”
Do you know someone who likes to be in
water always and keep swimming? (Some
swimmers are mad; they want to swim from
the Palk Strait to the English canal!) Nature
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will say: “Come on! Take the body of a fish
and swim to your heart’s content”.
Some people don’t want to wear proper
clothes on their body. They want to expose
major part of their body and draw the
attention of opposite sex. Nature says: ‘Take
the body of a tree, and stand naked to your
heart’s content in all seasons.’
In this way each species represents a
different ways of enjoyment. So these are
allotted to the living entities based on their
desires.
So we may think of the body either as the
soul’s vehicle for expressing his material
desires, or as the end result of good or bad
acts the soul performed in his last human
birth. Both concepts are correct.
But in either case, we see that there must
be a witness and controller who fulfils the
particular desires of each spiritual soul, and
who rewards or punishes each soul as he
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deserves. That witness, controller, and
judge is the Supersoul.
Lesson Four
IN THE HUMAN BODY THE SOUL
CAN DISCOVER THE SUPERSOUL
Who is the Supersoul? The Bhagavad
Gita (13.23) says, “Besides the atomic
spiritual soul. In this body there is another
enjoyer a transcendental enjoyer who is the
Lord. He is the supreme proprietor, oversee,
and perimeter, and He is known as he
Supersoul.” In other words, within each
body there are two souls – the atomic soul
(the individual spark of life) and the
Supersoul (the supreme source of all life).
The atomic soul and he Supersoul reside
together within the heart of each and
everybody throughout the universe at the
time of death the Supersoul accompanies
the atomic soul to his next body.
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But the Supersoul is not an ordinary
living entity. Only by the Supersoul’s
arrangement does each atomic soul receive
his proper body, only by the Supersoul’s
sanction can the atomic soul fulfils his
desires for happiness. The Supersoul is the
personal expansion of Lord Krishna, the
Supreme Personality of Godhead. The
atomic soul dwells within the material body,
and he suffers and enjoys the various pains
and pleasures arising from his particular
body. But the Supersoul, although fully
aware of these pains and pleasures, is aloof
from them.
Because He is aloof from the changing
body, whether He accompanies the atomic
soul within his insect body, his dog body, or
his human body, the Supersoul stays in the
same situation - in transcendence.
As the constant companion of each
individual atomic soul, the Supersoul
fulfils the desires and awards the
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particular material bodies of every living
entity. And he accompanies them on their
course of birth, old age, disease, and death –
life after life. Lord Krishna explains in the
Bhagavad-gita (13.28): “One who sees the
Supersoul accompanying the individual soul
in all bodies and who understands that
neither the soul nor the Supersoul is every
destroyed he actually sees.”
One may wonder, “If the Supersoul –
God – is always with the individual atomic
soul, why is the atomic soul suffering? Why
doesn’t the Lord in the heart divert the
atomic souls from their suicidal course of
repeated birth and death? If the Supersoul
is actually our well wisher, why doesn’t He
end our suffering?” The Upanishads answer
this question with the analogy of the two
birds in the tree.
Lesson Five
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THE SOUL AND THE SUPERSOUL
ARE LIKE TWO BIRDS IN THE TREE OF
THE BODY
The Upanishads compare the body to a
tree and the soul and Supersoul to two
friendly birds sitting within the tree. The
first bird (representing the atomic soul like
you and me) is eating the tree's fruits, which
are of two kinds - happiness and distress.
The second bird (representing the
Supersoul) is self satisfied, so He doesn't
bother with the fruits. He simply watches
his friend, the first bird.
Krishna is the witnessing bird, and
Arjuna is the eating bird. Although they are
friends, one is still the master and the other
is the servant.
Forgetfulness of this relationship by the
atomic soul is the cause of his changing his
position from one tree to another or from
one body to another. The atomic soul is
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struggling very hard on the tree of the
material body, but as soon as he agrees to
accept the other bird as the supreme
spiritual master - as Arjuna agreed to do by
voluntary surrender unto Krishna for
instruction in Bhagavad-gita - the
subordinate bird immediately becomes free
from all lamentations. Both Katha
Upanishad and Svetasvatara Upanishad
confirm this:
samane vrkse puruso nimagno
'nisaya socati muhyamanah
justam yada pasyaty anyam isam
asya mahimanam iti vita-slokah
“Although the two birds are in the same
tree, the eating bird is fully engrossed with
anxiety and moroseness as the enjoyer of
the fruits of the tree. But if in some way or
other he turns his face to his friend who is
the Lord at once the suffering bird becomes
free from all anxieties.”
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Unfortunately, very few souls within this
material universe desire to serve the
Supersoul, break free from the bonds of
karma, and return home back home to
spiritual world. Although this material
world is always miserable and dangerous,
most people's hearts are filled with so many
desires to enjoy this world that they doom
themselves to stay here. Everyone has this
freedom and the Supersoul within the heart
perceiving each spiritual soul's desires,
helps him try to enjoy the material world as
he wishes birth after birth.
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Lesson Six
THE EVOLUTION OF THE SOUL
CULMINATES IN KRISHNA
CONSCIOUSNESS
As we can clearly see, the Supersoul is
our dearest friend. And since the Supersoul
is but an expansion of Lord Krishna, that
means Krishna is our dearest friend. Who is
Krishna? The Sanskrit word ‘Krishna’ means
‘all-attractive’. One who possesses all
beauty, all knowledge, all fame, all strength,
all riches and all renunciation only can be
addressed as ‘Bhagavan’ or Supreme Lord.
Because Krishna possesses all these in
completeness, Krishna is the all-attractive
Supreme
God beyond this material creation,
whose association all the souls are craving
for. (How Krishna can be called God is a
subject matter beyond the scope of this
small presentation and it can be explained
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properly and authoritatively if you kindly
send a request letter to us.
Krishna is our dearest friend. However,
although Krishna always want us to return
to Him – so that we can become free from
the suffering we've been going through in
one material body after another - He will
not interfere with our minute free will.
Without any freedom, we can't develop any
real love for Krishna, and without
developing love for Krishna, we can't break
our attachment to things of this world and
go back to the spiritual world.
It is only by surrendering to Lord
Krishna and accepting His instructions that
the spiritual soul can evolve to the highest
state of existence - pure Krishna
consciousness, pure love of God. The
Bhagavad-gita explains that the soul who
has attained love for Krishna doesn’t again
take birth in this material world after
leaving his present body. Such a pure soul
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attains a spiritual body in the spiritual
world.
Covered by illusion, we have been
desiring and obtaining body after body in
this miserable material world. Now, if we
awaken our spiritual desires, our love for
Krishna, He will award us an eternal
spiritual body in the spiritual world. The
spiritual world has none of the
disappointment, despair, fear, and pain that
plague this world. That is because in the
spiritual world every soul is engaged in his
eternal, natural activity - rendering loving
devotional service to Lord Krishna, the
Supreme Personality of Godhead. Unlike
the so-called loving relationships of this
material world, which are mere shadow
relationships, our loving relationship with
Krishna in the spiritual world is our
original, eternal relationship, and it alone
can give us real satisfaction and solace.
Having now attained a human body, we
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should all take up the process of developing
our love for Krishna as our most important
task - and reach the pinnacle of evolution
within this lifetime.
One can achieve that perfectional stage
by chanting:
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Books Published by
Vedic Oasis for Inspiration, Culture &
Education (VOICE)
Spirituality for the Modern Youth series
· Discover Yourself
· Your Best Friend
· Your Secret Journey
· Victory Over Death
· Yoga of Love
Pocket Books
· Art of Mind Control
· Pratical Tips to Mind Control
· Can I Live Forever?
· Do We Live More Than Once?
· Misdirected Love
Other Books
· Youth Preaching Manual
· Bhagavad-gita 7 day Course
· Value Education
· Horizon
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· Smiling Faces, Crying Hearts
· Selected Newspaper Articles
Children’s Books:
· My First Krishna Book
· Getting to Know Krishna
· More About Krishna
· Devotees of Krishna
· Wonderful Krishna
· Krishna’s Childhood Pastimes
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