Yoga Retreat—The Goal of Human Life

Giriraj Swami: So, the topic is “The Goal of Human Life.” In order to understand the topic, we have to understand what is life, what is the human form of life, and what is the goal of human life. According to the Bhagavad-gītā, Lord Krishna has two energies, one is called the superior energy, para-prakriti, and the other is called the inferior energy, apara-prakriti. So the inferior energy consists of the material elements: earth, water, air, fire, space, and then the more subtle material elements: mind, intelligence, and false ego. Then, apart from the inferior energy, is this superior energy, which is the spiritual energy, which comprises the living entity. So what we see as life in the material world is a combination of the superior energy, or the living entity, with the inferior energy in the material body. But life is actually the symptom of the soul. As long as the soul is in the body, the body works. As soon as the soul leaves the body, the body cannot function because the body is just a machine made of material elements. But the soul is the person who operates the machine. The body is like a motor car, and the soul is like the driver. So the body actually is never alive, but as long as the soul is present in the body, it appears to be alive because it moves, it speaks, it does so many things. But as soon as the soul leaves the body, we say the body is dead because it can no longer act. But actually, the body is always dead; only due to the presence of the soul does it act.

Now, there are eight million four hundred thousand forms of life, which means forms of body. And when the soul leaves one body, it enters another body. The body is like an apartment for the soul. So we are given notice that in so many days, you will have to leave the apartment. So then, what does the person do? He has to find another apartment where he can live. So similarly, when the soul leaves the body, he has to find another body where he can live. Now, an ordinary person can get an apartment or get a bungalow according to his finances. If he has more money, he can get a better place than he has. If he has less money, he will have to settle for a lesser place. So what body we get also depends on our pious credits. Every conditioned soul within the material world engages in pious activities and sinful activities. Pious activities are activities performed according to the injunctions of the Vedas, which are beneficial for others, and sinful activities are activities which transgress the Vedic injunctions and which are harmful. So the result of pious activities is material enjoyment, and the result of sinful activities is suffering. And the body we get determines how much we enjoy and how much we suffer. So, according to our activities or karma, we get our next body. If we have been pious, we can get a better body, like a demigod’s body, and live on a higher planet. And if we have been very sinful, we get a lower body, like an animal’s body, and suffer more. And if we have been mixed, pious and impious, we may come again as a human being. But even among human beings, there are different gradations. Some are more pious and they enjoy a better standard of life, and some are more sinful; they suffer a worse condition of life. So our body depends on our work or activity.

So, as I mentioned, there are eight million four hundred thousand species of life, and out of those, four hundred thousand are considered human. Of course, not all of the species are seen on Earth, but within the universe, there are eight million four hundred thousand species. And the special feature of the human form of life is that the living entity in the human form of life has more highly developed consciousness. So he can understand, “Who am I? Who is God? What is this material world? What is my relationship with God?” He can understand. The animals cannot understand, and therefore the human form of life is considered very important, very crucial. The living entities in the lower forms of life live naturally, according to their nature, they live. For example, the tiger is carnivorous; every tiger will kill animals and eat the flesh. And every elephant is herbivorous; every elephant will eat leaves and vegetable matter. So in the lower forms of life, there is nothing like pious activity or sinful activity. For a tiger to kill an animal and eat its flesh is not a sin because the tiger simply acts according to his nature. And for the elephant to eat meat is not a virtue because the elephant also acts according to his nature. So it is only when we come to the human form of life and the more highly developed intelligence in the human form of life that the living entity is responsible for his activities, either pious or impious. Therefore, when one is in a lower species of life, all he has to do is live for a certain duration in a particular species of life, and he is automatically elevated to the next species, automatically. But the human form of life is more responsible. We are responsible for what we do. So in the human form of life, it is not automatic that we will go up. If we perform pious activities, we can go up, but if we perform sinful activities, we can go down. We can go down all the way to the very beginning and take birth in the body of a microbe, a germ.

So the human form of life is very important. If we use it properly, we can achieve the highest perfection, and if we misuse it, we can fall down again to the lowest grade of life. So what is the goal of human life? Whatever species we inhabit, we have to suffer. There may be relative degrees of pleasure and pain, but in every species, we have to suffer. And in particular, we have to suffer birth, disease, old age, and death. We cannot escape, although we may try by so many means to counteract the miseries of birth, death, old age, and disease, we cannot succeed. The scientists, the politicians, they are trying to relieve the citizens of suffering. They are promising the citizens relief, but actually, they cannot do anything. For example, birth: there has been so much propaganda against birth. It should be family planning and so many other things, but birth is continuing. They haven’t stopped birth; they haven’t reduced the rate of birth. Similarly, disease: there has been so much advancement in the field of medicine, but actually, the miseries of birth, disease, old age, and death cannot be stopped by any material means. Although the scientists claim that they are curing disease, but actually they are not. If they are actually curing disease, then everyone should be healthy. There should be no more disease. The hospitals should become empty; the doctors should become free. But disease has not stopped. Disease is not even decreasing; it is increasing. And therefore, there is always demand: more hospitals, more beds, more medicine, more nurses, more doctors.

To get admission in medical college is very difficult. People have to have a lot of. . .they may have to have good marks, and they also have to have a lot of money, usually. Why? Because there is a great demand for doctors. People are willing to pay to get medical treatment. There is a great demand for doctors. Why? There is so much disease. If disease was decreasing, there wouldn’t be so much demand. But it is not decreasing. So we have to accept the fact: we cannot solve the problems of life by material means. The problems of life, especially, are these: birth, death, old age, and disease. Old age—they don’t even pretend to be able to solve the problem of old age. And death, practically, they don’t talk about death because they have no solution. And these are the real problems of life. So, an intelligent person will think, How to solve the problems of life? We don’t want to suffer, but we are forced to suffer. Why? This inquiry is the beginning of human life. Until we inquire, “Why am I suffering, and how can I become free from suffering?” we are not really considered human. We are just like animals, eating, sleeping, and enjoying.

So the human form of life is very important because in the human form we can inquire how to make a solution to the problems of life. And the solution is given by God Himself in Bhagavad-gītā: jarā-maraṇa-mokṣāya, that one can be liberated from the repetition of birth and death if he surrenders unto God or Krishna. There is no other way. There is no other way. We are forced to take birth and suffer because we engage in sinful activity. And in Bhagavad-gītā, Lord Krishna says, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja, give up all other varieties of religiousness and just surrender to Me.” And what will be the results? ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ—"I will deliver you from all sinful reactions.” Krishna will deliver us from all sins if we surrender unto Him. Man-manā bhava mad-bhakto, always engage your mind in thinking of Krishna, and become His devotee. mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru, worship Him and offer obeisances to Him. mām evaiṣyasi satyaṁ te pratijāne priyo ‘si me, and if you do this, you will come to Krishna; you will never have to take birth again in the miserable material world. So the goal of human life is to become liberated from the repetition of birth and death. This is the only goal of human life.

There are other activities of human beings, but the same activities are shared by animals, like eating, sleeping, mating, and defending. One of the symptoms of the modern age of Kali-yuga is that people cannot distinguish between human life and animal life. The animals engage in eating, sleeping, mating, and defending, and if a human being engages in the same activity, he is nothing but an animal. But most so-called human beings act just like animals. They think if they can eat, sleep, mate, and defend in a better way, they are human. But actually, you cannot change the quality of eating, sleeping, mating, and defending. For example, the animal may eat with his teeth and claws, and we may eat with our knife and fork, but he enjoys his eating as much as we enjoy our eating. The human being may sleep on a soft mattress, and the animal may sleep on the floor of the jungle, but when the animal is asleep, he doesn’t know that he is in the jungle, and when the man is asleep, he doesn’t know that he is in the apartment. So the animal enjoys his sleeping as much as the man; the quality is the same. Similarly, the animal may mate anywhere in the open without any consideration, and the man may mate in the apartment behind closed doors, but the pleasure is the same; the experience is the same. And defending: the animal may defend with his teeth and claws, and the human being may defend with his guns and bombs, but the process is the same.

So, simply to develop new ways, better ways, so-called, of eating, sleeping, mating, and defending does not make a person a human being. Only God consciousness, or Krishna consciousness, makes a man human. Therefore, it is said, dharmeṇa hīna paśubhiḥ samānāḥ, that without religion, a man and an animal are the same; there is no difference. Like Srila Prabhupada said that the animal runs around on four legs, and the man runs around on four wheels, but there is no difference because their business is the same: sense gratification. So the goal of human life is to put a stop to this suffering because the human form of life is the only form of life which enables us to escape from the cycle of birth and death. Therefore, the goal of human life is to become liberated from the repetition of birth and death. And if we don’t try to do that, we are not really human beings; just polished animals or dvi-pāda-paśu, two-legged animals.

Now, what is liberation? Of course, the simple definition of liberation is freedom from the repetition of birth and death. One no longer is one forced to accept another material body within the eight million four hundred thousand species, and therefore he is no longer forced to suffer. So that is liberation. But there are different concepts of liberation also. Unfortunately, the most popular, at least at the present moment, the most popular concept of liberation is that the soul leaves the body and merges and becomes one with God. But that liberation is not actually desired or desirable, especially by devotees. It is not even real liberation because the Bhāgavatam says that although the impersonalist, jnanis, and yogis, may try to merge and become one with the impersonal light, but because they neglect the service of the lotus feet of the Lord, they fall down again; patanti adha, they fall down again. They are not actually liberated. Real liberation means to be established in our constitutional position as eternal servants of Lord Krishna. That is real liberation. It is like someone may be suffering from disease and lying in bed, and because of the pain, the person may think, Let me give up my life; let me commit suicide. But suicide is no solution. By suicide, one may gain relief from the pain, one may think he can gain relief, but actually, it is no solution; it is negative. It is not positive. Positive solution is to cure the disease, not kill the patient, but cure the disease. Then the patient will be able to enjoy life.

So right now, we are in the diseased condition of material existence, and we are suffering. But the solution is not to commit spiritual suicide by merging and trying to become one with God. The solution is to actually cure the disease. The disease is that we are not serving Krishna; we are trying to take the place of Krishna and ourselves be the Lord. That is our disease. So we should cure our disease, and instead of trying to imitate Krishna or take the place of Krishna, we should act in our normal, healthy, happy condition of life, which is as the eternal servants of Krishna. So when we do that, we can actually be liberated from the repetition of birth and death, and beyond being liberated from the miseries of material existence, we can enjoy the bliss of Krishna consciousness, which is millions and trillions of times greater even than the bliss of impersonal liberation. So what to speak of the happiness or so-called happiness of this world.

So the Krishna consciousness movement is actually teaching the process by which we can become liberated from the material miseries of life and enjoy the supreme happiness of devotional service or Krishna consciousness. So the human form of life is very rare and very difficult to attain. One has to pass through eight million species before he can come to the human form of life, and it is very rare, it is very difficult to attain, and it is very valuable because in the human form of life, we can realize God and become free from the miseries of material existence. So the Krishna consciousness movement is teaching the process how we can surrender to Krishna and become free from the cycle of birth and death. And the most essential process is the chanting of the holy name.

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

By chanting the holy names of the Lord, we become free from the ignorance that binds us to the material world, and we realize ourselves as the eternal servant of God or Krishna, and thus we are automatically liberated. So there are many details to this science, but I have just given a very brief explanation just to give you a general idea. And now if you have any questions, you can ask. Do you all agree about the definition of a human being? What is the definition of a human being? You don’t know? Do you know?

Guest: To inquire about God consciousness.

Giriraj Swami: To inquire about God consciousness, and what is the goal of human life?

Guest: [Unintelligible 00:29:25]

Giriraj Swami: To know Lord Krishna. Yes, to attain liberation from the repetition of birth and death. But what he said is also correct because Bhagavad-gītā says,

janma karma ca me divyam
evaṁ yo vetti tattvataḥ
tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma
naiti mām eti so ‘rjuna

That one understands the transcendental nature of Lord Krishna’s appearance and activities in the world, he is liberated. He no longer has to take birth again in the miserable material world, but he goes back home, back to Godhead. So yes, the goal is to be liberated from the repetition of birth and death, or to know Krishna. And what is the process? What is the means to reach the goal?

Guest: Chanting. Surrender to Krishna.

Giriraj Swami: Yes, surrender to Krishna. And the process of surrendering to Krishna is called bhakti-yoga. And within bhakti-yoga, the main process is chanting. So now, what is the natural conclusion for all of you? What will you do with your human life? This young lady, yes.

Guest: Try to live in perfect way.

Giriraj Swami: Try to live in a perfect way by chanting the Lord’s name. Very good. Living a perfect way means according to the instructions of the perfect person, according to the instructions of Lord Krishna. And that means, because in Bhagavad-gītā, it says to surrender to Him and engage in devotional service. And there are nine processes in bhakti-yoga—śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ smaraṇaṁ pāda-sevanam arcanaṁ vandanaṁ dāsyaṁ sakhyam ātma-nivedanam. Śravaṇaṁ means hearing about Krishna, like you are sitting here, what are you doing? You are hearing about Krishna. So, that is the first process hearing, śravaṇaṁ. And after śravaṇaṁ, kīrtanaṁ, glorifying Lord Krishna. Just like Krishna includes Krishna’s name, His form, His qualities, His pastimes, His entourage. So to glorify Krishna means to glorify His name, forms, qualities, pastimes, paraphernalia. But first comes the name. Suppose we want to glorify the qualities or the form of Krishna, we will say that Krishna is so beautiful. He stands in a threefold bending form and plays on His flute. His head is decorated with a peacock feather. But first, we will say Krishna is beautiful, so the name is there. Then the description of the form, then the qualities. Krishna is merciful. He always wants to deliver these poor fallen souls from material existence.

Then, Krishna lifted Govardhana Hill. So wherever there is glorification of the Lord, there is first glorification of the name. So therefore, we put more emphasis on nāma-kīrtana, the glorification of the name, and then from that comes glorification of the form, qualities, pastimes, and so on. But there is also a question of quality in chanting, and we should chant without committing offenses. We should chant without committing sin. And especially, there are four types of sinful activity which we should avoid completely. That is, we should observe no eating of meat, fish, or eggs; no taking of intoxicants, even coffee, tea, and cigarettes; no illicit sex, no sex outside marriage; and no gambling. So if we follow these four principles and chant Hare Krishna, we will get very quick results. Even if we don’t follow all of the principles and still we chant Hare Krishna, still we will get the results, but it will take much longer. But if we follow the principles and chant Hare Krishna, we will get the results very quickly. And even in vegetarian food, we should take kṛṣṇa-prasāda. We should not just take ordinary vegetarian food because if we take ordinary vegetarian food, we become implicated in sinful actions and reactions more and more. Because even vegetables have life, even plants have consciousness. So when we take a vegetable, we may also be taking life. Even if we don’t take life, we are causing pain. Because if we take a mango from the tree, we are not killing the tree, but we are actually causing pain. If we take a tomato from a plant, we are not killing the plant, but we are causing pain. And if we take a potato, we are taking the life.

So even if we take vegetarian foodstuffs, we are involved in causing pain to other living entities and perhaps in killing, which is sinful. And when we commit sin, we have to suffer. Furthermore, everything belongs to God or Krishna. We may see a tree, and we may pluck a fruit, but actually, the tree does not belong to us. The food does not belong to us, even if I have planted it in my own garden, still, it doesn’t belong to me because I didn’t produce the seed. Where did the seed come from? It came from Krishna. I didn’t produce the earth, I didn’t create the water, I didn’t create the air, I didn’t create the sun. It all belongs to Krishna. It all comes from Krishna, and it all belongs to Him. So it doesn’t belong to me. So if I take even an apple, even a cup of water, I am taking Krishna’s property. That means I am stealing; means I am being sinful. That means I am liable to suffer. So, does it mean then that we can’t take anything? No food, no water, no air, no sunlight? We can take, but we must take permission from Krishna first because it is not our property. And in Bhagavad-gītā, Krishna says how, under what conditions, He will give permission. He says, patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ yo me bhaktyā prayacchati, “If you offer Me with love and devotion, a leaf, a fruit, a flower, or some water, I will accept it.” Krishna will accept our offering, and then He will leave what we have offered to Him for us as prasāda.

Therefore, in Bhagavad-gītā, where Krishna says that those who take food only for their own bodily nourishment are verily eating sin, they are eating sin, lumps of sin. But those who eat the remnants of food offered in sacrifice to Lord Krishna, they are liberated from sin. So the remnants of food offered as sacrifice to the Lord is prasāda. So by taking prasāda, we become liberated from sinful reactions. We become eligible to go back home, back to Godhead. And by eating ordinary food, even vegetarian food, we become more and more entangled in sinful actions and reactions. Therefore, Srila Prabhupada said, we are not non-vegetarian, certainly, but we are also not vegetarian. But we are Krishna-tarian. We only take food offered to Krishna. So if we chant Hare Krishna and if we can hear the philosophy of Krishna consciousness from Bhagavad-gītā and other books like Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and take kṛṣṇa-prasāda, then we will purify our existence. We will free ourselves from sinful life, and we will become eligible to go back home, back to Godhead, and be liberated.

So by your visit here, you should become convinced of the philosophy of Krishna consciousness. And then you should apply the philosophy in practical life, which means you should adopt the practices of bhakti-yoga. And whatever you see us do here in the temple, you can do at home. There is nothing that we do here that you can’t do. Very few people can actually live in the temple. Most people will live at home, but they can make their homes into temples and do the same things at homes that we do here. We chant Hare Krishna here; you can chant Hare Krishna at home. We read Bhagavad-gītā, you can read it at home. We offer food to Krishna and take the remnants as prasāda, you can offer your food to Krishna. And here we worship the deity, and at home also you can worship the deity. So everything that we do in the temple, you can do at home. And we don’t expect that you will move into the temple, but we want that you will follow the same process that we follow here. And then you will be on the path to the goal of human life, which is to go back home, back to Godhead, our original home.

Sometimes people want to do good for others. They want to engage in welfare activities. But the best welfare activity is Krishna consciousness. The Krishna consciousness provides a permanent solution. Suppose someone is hungry, you can give him some food, but in three hours, he will be hungry again. Someone may be suffering from some disease, and you may cure the disease, but after some time, the disease may come back, another disease will come instead. So there is no permanent solution. But if you give someone Krishna consciousness, then all of his problems are solved forever. No more repetition of birth, disease, old age, and death. No scarcity. Everything will be provided by Krishna. Just like, say, some rich man’s son runs away from home, and he ends up living on the footpath as some ordinary beggar. So, he may approach you for some paisa, and you may give him paisa and he may buy some bread. But again, in a few hours, they will be hungry again. Or he may not even buy bread; he may buy sweets, or he may buy wine. But if you say, “Oh, you are the son of a very rich man. Why are you living in the streets? You should go back to your father. You should go back to your home.” If the child takes the advice of the friend and goes back to his father, all his problems are solved forever, and the father will be so pleased.

So, we are all children of Krishna. We are like children who have run away from home, and we are suffering, and our father is also remembering us, thinking of us, wondering, When will my child come back? So, if we want to do good for others, the best we can do is bring them back to Krishna. That is the best service to them and the best service to the father. Even if the father is very rich, even if he has many other children, but if one child runs away from home, and the father knows he is suffering in the world, the father will always be thinking of that son, wondering, When will that son come back? Of course, first, we should rectify our own relationship with God, revive our own relationship with God, and simultaneously do good to others by bringing them back to Krishna. That is the best service to Krishna. Actually, we cannot offer Krishna anything because Krishna already has everything. In one sense, everything is Krishna’s, because it is Krishna’s energy. Krishna already has everything; you can’t really give Him anything. We can only give Him our love and bring others to Him. That is the best service we can offer to Krishna. And therefore, devotees are very merciful.

There are some transcendentalists who just go to the mountains or the jungles to achieve their own liberation but devotees are not interested only in their own liberation. One great devotee Prahlada Maharaja prays that, prāyeṇa deva munayaḥ sva-vimukti-kāmā, “That there are many saintly persons O my Lord, but I see they are mostly ambitious for their own liberation. They are desirous for their own liberation, and they don’t care about the people of the world. They leave the cities and other places where people congregate and go to the forest, mountains. But I am not like them. I do not want to go back home, back to Godhead alone, but I want to take as many of these poor souls with me as possible.” This is the goal of the devotee, not just to go back home, back to Godhead himself, and leave others to rot in the material world, but his goal is to bring others with him back home, back to Godhead. And that is his effort. And by giving such a great service to Krishna, bringing others to Krishna, Krishna becomes so pleased that automatically the devotee or the preacher, he must go back home, back to Godhead.

Krishna says in Bhagavad-gītā that, “There is no servant in the world more dear to Me than he who preaches the message of Bhagavad-gītā, who teaches the science of Bhagavad-gītā.” And Krishna says that in the end, for him, devotional service is guaranteed, for the preacher, devotional service is guaranteed, and in the end, he will go back home, back to Godhead.

Hare Krishna.

Any comments or questions?

Do you all agree? Then we expect you all to join with us, both following the practices of Krishna consciousness and working for the benefit of others to bring them Krishna consciousness. Thank you. Hare Krishna.

Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!

Nitai-Gaura premānande Hari Haribol!