Uncovering Our Real Identity

Because we belong to the superior, spiritual energy, we cannot understand our true identity or achieve eternal happiness in full knowledge if we continue to act on the false platform of the inferior, material energy. But if all our relationships in this material world are temporary and illusory, then with whom can we establish a meaningful and lasting relationship? Lord Krsna answers this question in the Bhagavad-gita (9.17-18); "I am the father of this universe, the mother ... and the most dear friend." Thus we do not have to give up personal relationships, but rather re-establish our real, eternal relationship with our most dear friend, Lord Sri Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

The Lord explains elsewhere in the Bhagavad-gita how this material world is actually a perverted reflection of the spiritual world: everything in this material world is there in Lord Krsna's abode, but in its ideal, perfect form, for that is the world of anti-matter or spirit. In the eternal kingdom of God, there are trees, animals, flowers, people and so on, but unlike the material world, they all exist in intimate loving relationships with Krsna.

Each of us has a place in the spiritual world, for that is our eternal home. As spiritual beings, we are not meant for this temporary world of matter. We are like a fish out of water: Just as a fish can never be happy with any number of comforts outside of the water, we can never be truly happy outside of the spiritual atmosphere of Krsna's abode. If we persist in trying to find pleasure in this material world, only repeated frustration and suffering await us. But if we make it our only business to cultivate our eternal relationship with Krsna, we can gain re-entry into that transcendental realm of Vaikuntha, the world without anxiety, and attain a life of complete knowledge and endless bliss.