In the Image of God

The same ideas are also stated in the Vedanta-sūtra, the most perfect philosophy presented in the Vedic language. The Vedanta-sūtra says, athato brahma-jijnasa: "Human life is meant for inquiring about God." This Krsna consciousness movement, therefore, is meant to enable one to understand God. This movement has been active in the Western countries only for the last six or seven years, but it has been on this planet for the last five thousand years. When I say "Krsna consciousness," this means God consciousness. Human life is meant for understanding God and becoming God conscious. An animal cannot possibly understand God. Our advertisements have invited everyone to this meeting to discuss something about God, but only human beings have come, not cats and dogs. The human life is a chance given by nature with which to understand God, but if one does not fulfill this opportunity, his next life may not be that of a human being. The soul is within the body, and it is a part and parcel of God. If you can understand the soul, therefore, you can partially understand God. Indeed, if you study yourself, to some extent you study God because you are a sample of God. In the Bible it is also said that man is made in the image of God. Therefore if you study yourself-that study is called meditation-then you can understand God.

For those who are in the bodily concept of life, the yoga system and meditation are very important for self-realization. In fact, however, if you want to understand yourself, you can do it very easily by a very simple method. Just consider your finger and ask yourself whether you are your finger. The answer will be no. I am not the finger; it is my finger. Everyone, even a child, will say, "This is my finger, this is my hand, this is my leg, my head." No one will say, "I finger, I head, I leg." Therefore the conclusion should be that I, the soul, am different from this material body.

The material body changes because of the presence of the soul. For example, a child changes his body and gets a different body-that of a young boy. Then the boy changes his body and gets a different body-that of a young man, who in turn gets the body of an old man. Every one of us can consider himself in this way: "I had the small body of a child, I had the body of a small boy, I had a youthful body, and now I have an old body." By this simple study I can understand that I am different from the body. And I can also understand that because I am eternal, I was existing within all these bodily forms. Therefore in Bhagavad-gita it is said, na hanyate hanyamane sarire: after the destruction of this body, I, the soul, am not destroyed but continue to live." As described in Bhagavad-gita, the soul is eternal.

"For the soul there is never birth nor death. Nor, having once been, does he ever cease to be. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing, undying and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain." [Bg 2.20]