Jnanis and Yogis are generally impersonalists and although they attain temporary liberation by merging into the unmanifested Brahmajyoti, that is, the spiritual sky, their knowledge is not considered pure according to the Srimad-Bhagavatam. By austerities, self-control and meditation they may advance to the level of the Supreme Truth, but as explained before, they fall down again to this material world because they have not taken seriously the personified form of Lord Krishna. Unless one worships the lotus feet of Lord Krishna, one has to again descend to the material plane. Therefore the most ideal attitude would be, "I am Your eternal servant. Kindly engage me in Your service in some way or other." Lord Krishna is called ajitah, that is, He cannot be conquered, because nobody can conquer the Lord, but according to the Srimad-Bhagavatam, one who has developed such a nature,One can easily conquer the Lord. It is also recommended in the Srimad Bhagavatam that we should give up the futile process of measuring the Lord. We cannot measure even the limits of this sky, what to say about the Supreme Lord. It is not possible to measure the length and breadth of Lord Krishna with our limited knowledge and one who comes to this conclusion is considered wise according to the Vedic literature. One should very humbly understand that he is a very insignificant part of this universe. One should become humble by giving up the attempt to understand the Supreme Lord with our limited knowledge or with our mental imaginations and hear about the Supreme Lord from the authentic scriptures like the Bhagavadgita or from the mouth of a self-realized person.
In the Bhagavad-gita, Arjuna is hearing about the Lord from the mouth of Krishna Himself. Thus Arjuna has set the standard for the method of understanding the Supreme Lord by humble listening. This is our situation whether we hear the Bhagavad-gita from Arjuna's mouth or from His authorized representative, the spiritual master. After listening, it is necessary to practice the acquired knowledge in daily life. The devotee prays, "My dear Lord, You are invincible, but You have been conquered by this method of hearing." The Lord is invincible, but He is conquered by Him.are won over by devotees who have given up mental imaginations and begun to hear from authoritative sources.
According to the Brahma-samhita there are two ways of acquiring knowledge: the ascending way, and the descending way. In the ascending way a man progresses by the knowledge he has acquired himself. In this he thinks, "I do not care for any scriptures or great men. I will acquire knowledge by myself by meditation or by philosophy, etc., etc. Thus I will understand the Supreme." In the second way, the descending way, knowledge is acquired from superior authorities. The Brahma-samhita states that even if one were to travel by the ascending way at the speed of the wind or the mind for millions of years, he would still not attain knowledge. To him this subject will always remain inaccessible and unthinkable. But this subject is given in the Bhagavad-gita: ananyacetah: Krishna says to meditate on Him without deviating from the path of humble devotional service. To one who worships Him in this way: tasyaham sulabhah: "To him I am very easily available." The method is this: If one works for Lord Krishna twenty-four hours a day, Krishna cannot forget him. By being humble he can attract the attention of the Lord. As our Guru Maharaja Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati used to say, "Do not try to see the Lord. Should He come and stand before us like a servant just because we want to see Him? That is not the way of humility. We have to grace Him by our love and our service."
The correct method for mankind to reach Krishna was given by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and was praised by his first disciple Rupa Goswami. Rupa Goswami was a minister in the Muslim government, but he gave up his government position to become a disciple of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. When he first went to meet Mahaprabhu, he approached him reciting the following shloka:
O greatly generous one, bestower of love for Krishna, I offer my obeisances to you. O Kṛṣṇa, whose name is Kṛṣṇa consciousness, You effulgent like cows.
"I offer my respectful obeisances unto the feet of the Supreme Lord, Sri Krishna Chaitanya, Who is more generous than any other incarnation—even Krishna Himself—because He is freely distributing the pure love of Krishna without any discrimination, as no one else has done." (Chaitanya Charitamrita, Madhya 19.53)
Rupa Goswami called Chaitanya Mahaprabhu the most generous and altruistic personality because he was giving away the most valuable commodity-Krishna love-very cheaply. We all want Krishna and yearn for Him. Krishna is the most He is the most attractive, the most beautiful, the most opulent, the most powerful and the most knowledgeable. He is the object of our attachment. We are looking for the beautiful, the powerful, the knowledgeable and the wealthy. Krsna is the reservoir of all these things, so we just need to turn our attention to Him and we will get everything. Everything—whatever we desire. By this method of Krsna consciousness, all the desires of our heart will be fulfilled. One who dies in Krsna consciousness, as stated before, is sure to go to the supreme abode, Krsnaloka, where Lord Krsna resides. One may ask the question, what is the benefit of going to that planet? Krsna Himself has answered it:
Having attained Me, rebirth is an eternal abode of misery. The great souls who have attained the supreme perfection do not attain it.
"Having attained Me, the great souls who are bhakti-yogis never return to this temporary world of suffering, for they have attained the highest perfection." (Bhagavad Gita 8.15) The Creator Lord Krishna has described this material world as a place of sorrow. Then how can we make it pleasant? Is it possible to make this world pleasant by the so-called progress of science? No, it is not possible to make it pleasant.३६
beyond birth and death
Not possible. As a result, we do not even want to know what these sufferings are. As explained earlier, these sufferings are those of birth, death, old age and disease, and because we cannot solve them, we try to avoid them. Science has no power to solve these problems that are always troubling us. On the contrary, they direct our attention to building spaceships or atomic bombs. The solution to these problems is given here in the Bhagavad Gita: If one attains the abode of Lord Krishna, one does not have to return to this earth of birth and death. We must try to understand that this place is full of suffering. To understand this, some developed consciousness is needed. Dogs, cats and pigs cannot understand that they are suffering. Man is called a rational animal, but his thinking ability is being used to promote animalistic mentality instead of finding a solution to get rid of the suffering condition. Here Krishna clearly says that one who reaches him will never be born again to suffer. The great souls who go to him have attained the greatest siddhi of life, which liberates the soul from the conditioned life.
One difference between Lord Krishna and an ordinary person is that an ordinary person can stay in only one place at a time.But Lord Krishna can be present everywhere in the entire universe as well as in His own abode. In the spiritual world, Lord Krishna's abode is called Goloka Vrindavan. Vrindavan in India is the same Goloka Vrindavan that has descended to earth. When Lord Krishna descends by His internal potency, His abode also descends to earth. In other words, when Lord Krishna descends to this earth, He appears at that particular place. Nevertheless, Lord Krishna's abode always remains in the transcendental atmosphere of Vaikuntha. In this verse, Lord Krishna declares that one who comes to His abode, Vaikuntha, never has to take birth again in this material world. Such a person is called a Mahatma. In the West, the word Mahatma is commonly heard in connection with Mahatma Gandhi, but we should understand that Mahatma is not a title for a political leader. Rather, mahatma means a first-class Krishna conscious person who is qualified to go to Krishnaloka. The perfection of a mahatma is that he uses the resources of human life and nature to free himself from the cycle of birth and death.
A wise man knows that he does not want misery, but misery is forced upon him. As before It is explained that we are always in a miserable condition, caused by the mind, the body, natural calamities or other living entities. Misery of one kind or another is always imposed upon us. This material world is made for misery. Unless there is misery, we cannot be Krsna conscious. Misery is actually the stimulus that helps us to rise to Krsna consciousness. The intelligent person asks why these miseries are imposed upon him? But the attitude of modern culture is, "Let me suffer. Let me cover up the miseries by taking intoxicants. That is all." But as soon as the effect of the intoxicants wears off, the miseries return. The miseries of life cannot be solved by artificial intoxicants. The solution is Krsna consciousness.
One may say that although the devotees of Krsna are trying to enter Krsnaloka, everybody else is interested in going to the moon. Is not going to the moon also perfection? The attitude of traveling to other planets has always been there in living beings. One of the names of living beings is sarvagata, which means, "one who wants to travel everywhere." Traveling is a part of the nature of living beings. The desire to go to the moon is not a new desire. Yogis also desire to go to the higher planets, but in Bhagavadgita "In this material universe, all the planets from the highest to the lowest are abodes of misery, where birth and death are repeated. But one who attains My abode, O son of Kunti, is never born again."
This universe is divided into higher, middle and lower planetary systems. The earth is considered to be a member of the middle planetary system. Lord Krishna says that even if one reaches the highest planet called Brahmaloka, there also the cycle of birth and death is found. The other planets in the universe are full of living entities. We should not think that we are the only ones here and all the other planets are empty. From our own experience we can see that no place in this earth is empty of living entities. If we dig deep into the earth, we will find insects; if we go deep into the water, we will find aquatic animals and if we go into the sky, we will find many birds. So how is it possible to conclude that there are no living entities in other planets? But Krishna says that even if we reach the planets where the great demigods reside, there also we will be subject to death. Again Lord Krishna reiterates that one who reaches His planetary system has to take birth again Doesn't have to.
We must be very serious about achieving our eternal life of bliss and knowledge. We have forgotten that this is really the purpose of our life and this is our real self-interest. Why have we forgotten? We are held captive by mere material glitters—tall buildings, big factories, political games—though we understand that no matter how big we build, we cannot live there forever. We must not waste our energy building big factories or cities, because they will further bind us in the bondage of material nature. We must use our energy to develop Krsna consciousness and obtain a transcendental body, so that we can enter Krsnaloka. Krsna consciousness is not just a religious formula or a spiritual pastime, but it is a vital part of life.