Place Of Danger

His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada has said that if someone were invited to an apartment where he knew there would be the danger that he might lose his life, then naturally he wouldn't go there. Similarly, these bodies are places of great danger. Why are we accepting them? It is obvious that these bodies are causes of misery, danger and suffering, and they only prevent us from experiencing our eternally joyous and cognizant nature. Since this is true, why have we decided to take these bodies? Also, what is the process of liberation from them?

Krsna Himself says in Bhagavad-gita:

Intelligence is, as stated by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the prerequisite for deciding not to take a material body. This intelligence is described by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada as "the power to analyze things in their proper perspective." If we understand that the contact with the senses of the material body is the source of our suffering, then we have the proper perspective described as intelligence.

Intelligence is necessary in order to understand the difference between matter and spirit and to become aware of the incompatible situation which occurs when they come in contact. "When one fails to take advantage of intelligence he becomes a deranged man, so a living being is dependent on intelligence, or the direction of a superior being." (Bhag. 2.2.35, purport) The process by which we become trapped in this illusory consciousness and subsequently lose intelligence is also clearly described in Bhagavad-gita:

When we fail to distinguish between spirit and matter and falsely think that we are these bodies or minds, then we are in ignorance of our true spiritual nature. "Ignorance is like animal existence. The animal's life is full of suffering, but the animal does not know that he is suffering." (Krsna, the Reservoir of Pleasure, pg. 10) It is due only to this ignorance of our true eternal nature that we suffer. We have all forgotten that our natural position is to engage in loving service to the Supreme Lord, Sri Krsna.

There is a nice story in Teachings of Lord Caitanya in this connection. "The story involves the instruction of Sarvajna to a poor man who came to him to have his future told. When Sarvajna saw the horoscope of the poor man, he was astonished that the man was so poor, and he said to him, 'Oh, why are you so unhappy? I see from your horoscope that you have some hidden treasure left to you by your father. The horoscope, however, states that your father could not disclose this to you because he died in a foreign place. But now you can search out the hidden treasure left by your father and be happy.' " (TLC, pg. 55)

Because of ignorance and forgetfulness of our true nature and of our relationship with Krsna, we continually take new material bodies, due to the force of our material consciousness.

If, therefore, one spends an entire lifetime thinking of material nature as experienced by the senses and the mind, what else can one think of at the point of death but material nature? Sri Īsopanisad says:

Within our modern civilization it can be said that a great percentage of the population is engaged in "the so-called culture of knowledge." Today it is common for one to have a college degree, the standard symbol of education. But what kind of education is it which ignores our spiritual nature? Because we ignore our spiritual nature, we experience that instead of becoming happier, as modern science and education have promised, "… the result is that people are more unhappy than before on account of too much stress on material advancement without any taste of the most important aspect of life, the spiritual aspect." (Sri Īsopanisad, pg. 45)