Our Real Life’s Mission

We have spoken and heard of illusion so many times, but what is this illusion? This illusion is the thought that "I am the proprietor and everything is mine," when, in fact, nothing is mine. We are not proprietors at all. This is the real situation; everything belongs to Krsna or God, and this is the proper conception of spiritual communism.

In the Īsopanisad verse quoted above, we find that whatever property there is-whatever material resources there are, not only on this earth but on other planets and in outer space as well-whatever exists within the creation is to be considered the possession of the Supreme Lord. Who can deny it? Can we create anything or manufacture anything without utilizing the energy supplied by prakrti or nature? This nature belongs to God, for the original elements were created by Him. In this modern age we have made so many advancements in chemistry, but without the basic elements of sulfur, mercury, etc., there is no question of the art of chemistry. Raw materials must be taken from the earth; man can only transform them from one form to another. We must come to understand that these things cannot be manufactured artificially. God is their source and supplier. If a carpenter is supplied wood, tools and also wages and builds a table, whose table is it? Does it belong to the carpenter? No, it belongs to the person who supplied the wood, tools and wages. Similarly, whatever we can show as a result of our labor, whatever products result from our energy, is the property of the Supreme Lord. When we come to this understanding we can establish ourselves in our pure consciousness, Krsna consciousness.

The material conception of life, which arises from ignorance, is due to our attachment to material enjoyment. The strongest material allurement is sex enjoyment, which illusions us into thinking, "This is mine. I am the proprietor. Everything is mine, etc." Thinking in this way, we spend our time trying to make an economic solution, trying to enhance our financial standing. How does all this begin? The Bhagavad-gita indicates that lust is the beginning; the more we become attracted by sex life, the more illusioned we become. It is not that we are to abandon sex life, but change our conceptions of it. Sex is a necessary part of life and a demand of the body, but it should be regulated, not increased unrestrictedly. It is necessary that we eat in order to maintain our health, and it is necessary to sleep in order to refresh the body. Similarly, sex is also required; that is not denied. What we have to understand is that eating, sleeping and mating are not our real missions in life; they are required for maintaining the body only. Our real life's mission is to understand what and who Krsna is and what our relationship with Him is-in other words, to establish ourselves in Krsna consciousness.

Because we have no information of Krsna consciousness, we try our best to gratify this material body. Now we have to understand that somehow or other we came in contact with this material body, and now our problem is how to make the best use of a bad bargain. Therefore we have to understand how to use this body for getting out of this material entanglement. We have to treat the body in such a way that it will not cause us disturbance. If the body is not properly maintained, we will be disturbed. If we want to go from California to New York in an automobile, that vehicle must be in proper order, otherwise we won't be able to complete the trip. The mission of life should not be that we become too much involved and absorbed in bodily needs, but we should keep the body fit in order to execute our real mission of Krsna consciousness. Consequently if we at all want to be spiritually advanced, our eating, sleeping, defending and mating must be regulated. We should not be absorbed in them, thinking that they are our only goal. Nature's laws will not allow us to abandon ourselves to them without suffering unpleasant reactions. For instance, it we eat more than necessary, we will have indigestion. If we overindulge in sex life, we will become weak and ultimately impotent. If we oversleep, we will become dull and stupid. These are nature's laws. We cannot overindulge in these things and at the same time have spiritual life; therefore the best course is to minimize these bodily demands. That is the point of brahmacari education, and that is the basic principle of ancient Vedic civilization.

In the ancient Vedic civilization we find that only kings or royal families had very nice houses to live in. Common men used to live in huts. They did not require more, and they did not spend their energy unnecessarily. In this regard there is the example of the sage who used to meditate on the banks of the Ganges. He was to live until all the hairs on his body fell off. He was a very hairy sage, and he only lost one hair every time Brahma died. Brahma lives for one hundred years, as calculated on the Brahmaloka planet, where each year is equal to 4,300,000 x 2 x 30 x 12 earth years. At the end of this fantastic period of time, one of the hairs of the sage falls off, so it would be difficult to imagine the duration required for all his hairs to fall off. At any rate, when this sage was standing on the banks of the Ganges and meditating, a person came to him and said, "Why are you just standing here on the beach meditating? You are out in all sorts of weather. Why don't you build a nice cottage?"

The sage replied, "Oh, why should I bother? I am just here temporarily."

The sage was aware that any position in this material world is temporary, whereas he is eternal. We should understand that whatever position we have is temporary, because the body is temporary. Whatever we possess in relation to the body is also temporary. If we move into an apartment and are going to stay there for only three days, do we take pains to decorate the apartment very nicely? No, why should we spoil our energy in decorating that room? We should always remember that this body is temporary and that its needs are temporary, but as spirit souls we are eternal. Our real concern should be to fulfill our eternal mission and to make arrangements in this human form of life to live eternally after leaving this body.