plant of devotional service

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In the course of time, while fully absorbed in thinking of Krsna, Narada reached that point, commonly called death, when the change of body suddenly occurs. Narada told his pupil: "Being freed from all material taints, I met with death just as lightning and illumination occur simultaneously." It is told further that just as the illumination follows the lightning, the devotee changed his material body after death and evolved a spiritual body by the will of the supreme. The material body is a product of karma, earned by our accumulation of material desire, action and reaction. It is temporary and subject to miseries, and it is unenlightened. The spiritual body residing dormant within the material body, is eternal, blissful and in full knowledge. It is understood from authorized scriptures that even while in the material body, a pure devotee's body becomes surcharged with spiritual energy by the constant engagement of his senses in the service of the transcendental eternal Lord. It is like an iron rod in contact with fire: after a while the iron rod acts not like iron, but like fire. The material body is afflicted with inebrieties and is taken on by the living entity as a result of his desires to enjoy temporary sense gratification, without understanding his real position-that he is eternal servant of the Lord and meant to please His senses. Therefore when the devotee's body becomes engaged in devotional service he becomes surcharged with the transcendental qualities. His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami writes on this important matter, so often misunderstood by neophytes: "Change of the body means stoppage of the reaction of the qualitative modes of material nature (goodness, passion and ignorance) upon the person of a pure devotee. There are many instances in the revealed scriptures where Dhruva and Prahlada and many other devotees were able to see the Personality of Godhead face to face apparently in the same body. This means the quality of a devotee's body changes from material affinity to transcendence. By the mercy of Krsna the devotee becomes exempt from the karmic reactions of his work." In order to understand how the body of a devotee becomes spiritualized, we have to understand that consciousness is the sign of life. The sensation you have when you are pinched means you have consciousness. This consciousness, which is spread all over the body, is eternal, though the body of flesh and blood is perishable. Consciousness is a symptom of the presence of the soul, which is located in the heart. This is confirmed in the Upanisads and Bhagavad-gita. If an ordinary conditioned human being meets a pure devotee and his consciousness is changed from the polluted desire to enjoy with the body, and he instead starts to use the body as a vehicle for service in Krsna consciousness, then his body becomes spiritualized. Any material object, a telephone, a typewriter, becomes spiritualized if used in the direct service of Krsna consciousness for propagating the Lord's transcendental message. His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami has written that, in the eye of the Supreme Lord Krsna, the body of the converted or reclaimed devotee who has changed his standard of consciousness from material to Krsna consciousness is as good as the eternal spiritual body of a jiva in the spiritual sky who has never fallen under the conditioned state. The example Srila Prabhupada has given is that of a gold box and a gold-plated box. The gold box is compared to those who have never fallen to the material world. But once a fallen soul takes a bona fide spiritual master and becomes one hundred percent engaged in devotional service, then he too becomes liberated, even while remaining in the present body and he is thus compared to a gold-plated box. The Lord accepts the gold-plated box as equal to and as good as the gold box. (More...)

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