Overcoming False Ego.

The subtle body, as stated, is composed of mind, intelligence and ego. We should therefore always think of Krsna in our minds, and we should also employ our intelligence in working for Krsna. We should also change our false ego. Ego means "I am," and false ego means "I am American, I am European, I am Indian, I am a human being, and so on." This false "I am" has to be changed to "I am an eternal servant of Krsna." If one can thus educate or transfer the activities of the subtle body-mind, intelligence and ego-one can give up the material subtle body at the time of death. One can then attain a spiritual body and go back home, back to Godhead. This is the process of Krsna consciousness. At death one automatically gives up the gross body; now we should practice giving up the subtle body. To give up the subtle body, one has to develop love of God.

In the beginning of this process one must have some faith or respect. For instance, you have come to this temple out of faith and respect. We do not discuss politics, sociology or anything else here. Our business is simply to talk about God. Those who discuss God are called santas, saintly persons. There are two types of men in the world-materialists and transcendentalists. Those who are interested in spiritual life talk of self-realization, and those who are materialistic talk about the body and things that pertain to the body-politics, sociology, welfare activities and so on. A materialistic person will read the newspaper, but a transcendentalist will read authorized books of Vedic wisdom like Srimad-Bhagavatam. It was the great sage Sukadeva Gosvami who told Pariksit Maharaja: "My dear King, there are many hundreds and thousands of topics for the materialistic person." This is a fact, as we can easily observe. There are so many novels, magazines, newspapers, so-called philosophies, cinemas and so on. Because materialists have no information about the soul, they are always talking about the body, or, at most, they philosophically discuss the mind. One philosopher theorizes one thing, and another philosopher theorizes something completely different. Thus a great deal of literature is generated, but it is all nonsense because it is mental speculation. I may speculate in one way, and you will speculate in another; you will refute me, and I will refute you. Therefore there are so many various points of view about the body and mind. Why do people engage in all this talk? Sukadeva Gosvami says that it is because they have no vision of the soul.

Those who are interested simply in maintaining the body are called grhamedhi, Generally atheistic men have no interest in God. Atheists were present, of course, many thousands of years ago. In fact, two classes of men are always living in this world-atheists and theists, or asuras and devas. One should not think that atheism is some sudden new development. The number of atheists may be increased at the present moment, but they were also present thousands of years ago. For instance, there was Carvaka Muni. The word muni refers to a mental speculator or thoughtful person. Carvaka Muni also presented his philosophy of atheism: "As long as you live," he said, "live very joyfully and enjoy your senses." This is the atheistic principle. In India, sense enjoyment is based on ghee, clarified butter. If one has butter, he can prepare many nice foodstuffs. If one goes to India, he can see that many asramas offer sweets and good foodstuffs prepared from grain, fruit, sugar and butter. This is part of the basic principle of materialistic life-eating, sleeping, defending and mating. Thus Carvaka Muni advises that we eat very nicely and enjoy our senses. This is atheistic philosophy.