The Spiritual World

Bhakti may be defined as devotional service. When one renders devotional service he becomes free from all designations. One may be born an American, an African, an Indian or whatever, but on the absolute platform of rendering service to Krsna, devoting the senses to engagement in the work of Krsna, and spreading Krsna's message through this society for Krsna consciousness, one can transcend all these designations of nationality, birth, species, etc.

In working for Krsna the individual living entity forgets his designation, which in actuality only belongs to the body. Devotees of Krsna only think of themselves as servants of Krsna and consider themselves in different categories of servitude. Someone may write for Krsna, or paint for Krsna, or wash dishes for Krsna-whatever the activity is, the purpose is satisfaction of Krsna, and therefore all engagements are on the same platform. In this way when one works in Krsna consciousness he can become free from all designations.

This may sound very difficult, but Krsna, who is sitting in everyone's heart, will give the living entity all facility as soon as He sees that the person is sincere. Krsna is the Supreme, and if He likes He can give the living entity whatever he desires. The goal should be to become a sincere servitor of Krsna, and if we sincerely desire this position, Krsna will grant it to us. In Bhagavad-gita Krsna enjoins Arjuna and all men to engage in His service, to abandon all other engagements and simply surrender unto Him. Krsna then vows to take charge of the living entity and give him all protection. We all suffer from our sinful activities, but Krsna assures us that He will protect those who are devoted to Him from the resultant actions of their sinful activities. Except for those who are devoted to serving Krsna, everyone is engaged in sinful activities more or less. That is a fact. Consequently in the material world there are so many varieties of bodies, so many species of life. In Vaikuntha, the kingdom of God, there is only one variety of living entity-the four-handed Narayana form of the Lord. Everyone is a servant of Narayana or God, but everyone in His transcendental abode has the same features-the features of God. In our present position we cannot understand what the situation is in the Vaikunthas, the transcendental world, but it is surely different from what we experience here. The Bhagavad-gita gives some hint of what the Vaikunthas are like-there is no need of sunlight, moonlight or electricity because everything is illumined by the effulgence of the Almighty.

Beyond this manifested and unmanifested material nature there is another nature, which is called sanatana, or eternal. Everything in this material world has a certain date of birth or manifestation, a certain duration of life-everything grows, gets old, dwindles and then vanishes. In the spiritual world there is no question of birth, death, growth or diminution or death. Everything there is eternal. We get information about the spiritual world from Krsna via Vedic literature or from His line of disciplic succession. There are many differences between the material and spiritual worlds, but the primary difference is that the material world is temporary and the spiritual world is eternal. Therefore if we want eternal, blissful life, full of knowledge, we must take to this Krsna consciousness process. It is recommended by the great sages, by the disciplic succession stemming from Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu and from Lord Sri Krsna Himself in Bhagavad-gita.