His Pious Deeds Exhausted

Now that abode is not to be thought of as heaven. "Heaven" refers to the higher, more subtle planets of this material world. In heaven the living entities are all very pious and the enjoyment very fine, but still they are subject to the desire to enjoy for themselves, so they also return to the lower earth-like planets, when their reactions for pious deeds must expire. These souls are traveling always about the universe where there are planets and civilizations established through each of the eight material elements, earth, air, water, fire, ether, etc. The earth, for example is a water planet where most of the planet's surface is water, the bodies are mostly water, etc. But the supreme abode of the Personality of Godhead, Krsna, is described in the Brahma-samhita as the cintamani-dhama. "That abode of Lord Krsna, known as Goloka Vrndavana, is full of palaces made of touchstone. There the trees are called desire-trees, and the cows are called surabhi. The Lord is being served by hundreds and thousands of goddesses of fortune-He whose name is Govinda, the Primal Lord and the cause of all causes. There the Lord plays His flute; His eyes are like lotus petals and the color of His body like a beautiful cloud. On His head there is a peacock feather. He is so attractive that He excels thousands of cupids."

Here something of the infinitely beautiful form of the Lord has been described. It is not a fanciful creation of the imagination formed after visualizing the beautiful things of this world. This is the all-attractive blissful body of Lord Krsna as He is eternally. In another place in Bhagavad-gita, at the conclusion of Chapter Six, Prabhupada's purport concludes, "The ideal yogi concentrates his attention on Krsna, who is called Syamasundara and is beautifully colored like a cloud. His lotus-like face is as effulgent as the sun, and His dress is brilliant. He wears earrings, and His body is flower-garlanded. Illuminating all sides is His gorgeous luster, which is called the brahma-jyoti. He incarnates in so many different forms, such as Rama, Nrsimha, Varaha, and Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead; and He descends like a human being, as the son of Mother Yasoda; and He is known as Krsna, Govinda and Vasudeva. He is the perfect child, husband, friend and master, and He is full with all opulences and transcendental qualities."

The form of the Lord which has been described is, again, no imagined concoction. Rather, this is how the Personality of Godhead is eternally manifest. We are well acquainted with this form because we all know Him as our living, eternal father. The soul has this knowledge, but due to our lust we have been bound in this material world for millions of births in different bodies. Some births have been on low, hellish planets. Many have been on earth-like middle planets. Still all have been material, temporary, unreal. The unreality is due to our false ego's attachment to bodily lust. This lust causes us to become bewildered. Bewilderment results in delusion and loss of memory. Thus we have forgotten the all-blissful Personality of Godhead due to our wanting personal selfish sense gratification. That's all.

In the real, eternal world, spiritual abode, which is located beyond the reach of the material senses, everything is full of knowledge. Everything is always blissful. Everything is conscious. The Lord is present there, and He is surrounded by so many individual living entities who are serving Him in love. In this material world where we are exercising our lustful potential in different capacities, we are serving our senses and are deluded by these senses, this body, to act as God. We demand service from everything surrounding us, and we are totally out of contact with the real, eternally existing truth. So this world is the antithesis of the spiritual sky. Here is pain. There is pleasure. Here is temporality. There is eternity. Here, misery. There-bliss. Here God is not manifest to our senses. There, God is directly manifest to the transcendental senses of the spiritual body. The material world is but a perverted reflection of that spiritual sky. It is as if there were a river reflecting a tree on the bank. This world is all illusory energy, just like the illusory tree. The form is there, but it is temporary. If we try to hold it, we cannot be satisfied with it because its nature is ultimately mutable. When there is no sunlight, there is no more tree.

Many people, notable impersonalists, say that God has no form, but clearly we can see the fault is not with form but the nature of the form. Forms are healthy, alive, blissful, eternal, real, etc., or sick, temporary, ultimately dead, endlessly mutable, etc. That is the trouble. The impersonalists just have a poor fund of knowledge. But there are so many revealed scriptures and eternally realized spiritual masters who are completely illumined by the mercy of the Lord, and these realized souls are associating with Him in blissful pastimes. So they can teach others this knowledge. And they state that the Absolute is ultimately a person.

So far, the situation, that we are eternal spirit soul living entities, part and parcel of Krsna, the original Supreme Personality of Godhead, has been explained. And the problem, that we are in a contaminated atmosphere of material illusion where lust is God, completely alien to our real, eternal life of knowledge, and bliss, has been made apparent. The solution which Krsna consciousness teaches is Krsna consciousness itself. It is giving direction how to return home, back to Godhead.