Prabhupada 0027 - They do Not Know That There is Next Life
Lecture on CC Adi-lila 7.1 -- Atlanta, March 1, 1975
So (reading:) "A person in the conditional stage of material existence is in an atmosphere of helplessness. But the conditioned soul, under the illusion of māyā or the external energy, thinks that he is completely protected by his country, society, friendship and love, not knowing that at the time of death none of these can save him." This is called māyā. But he does not believe. Under the illusion of māyā, he does not also believe that what is the meaning of saving. Saving. Saving means saving oneself from this repetition, cycle of birth and death. That is real saving. But they do not know. (reading:) "The laws of material nature are so strong that none of our material possessions can save us from the cruel hands of death." Everyone knows it. And that is our real problem. Who is not afraid of death? Everyone is afraid of death. Why? Because any living entity, he is not meant for dying. He is eternal; therefore birth, death, old age and disease, these things are botheration for him. Because he is eternal, he does not take birth, na jāyate, and one who does not take birth, he has no death also, na mriyate kadācit (BG 2.20). This is our actual position. Therefore we are afraid of death. That is our natural inclination.
So to save us from death... That is the first business of humankind. We are teaching this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement for this purpose only. That should be the purpose of everyone. That is the sastric injunction. Those who are guardians... The government, the father, the teacher, they are guardians of the children. They should know it, how to give protection to the world's... Na mocayed yaḥ samupeta mṛtyum (SB 5.5.18). So where is this philosophy all, over the world? There is no such philosophy. This is the only, Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, which is putting forward this philosophy, not whimsically but from authorized śāstra, Vedic literature, authorities. So that is our request. We are opening different centers all over the world for the benefit of the human society that they do not know the aim of life, they do not know that there is next life after death. These things they do not know. So we are trying to educate them that "There is next life undoubtedly, and you can prepare your next life in this life. You can go to the higher planetary system for better comfort, material comfort. You can remain here in a secure position." Secure means this material life. Just like it is said,
- yānti deva-vratā devān
- pitṟn yānti pitṛ-vratāḥ
- bhūtāni yānti bhūtejyā
- mad-yājino 'pi yānti mām
- (BG 9.25)
So you can prepare yourself for better life in the heavenly planets or in a better society in this world or to go to the planets where ghost and other wretches are controlling. Or you can go to the planet where Kṛṣṇa is there. Everything is open to you. Yānti bhūtejyā bhūtāni mad-yājino 'pi yānti mām. Simply you have to prepare yourself. Just like in youth life they are educated—somebody is going to be engineer, somebody is going to be medical man, somebody is going to be lawyer and many other professional man—and they are preparing by education, similarly, you can prepare for your next life. This is not difficult to understand. But they do not believe in the next life, although it is very common sense. Actually there is next life because Kṛṣṇa says, and we can understand the philosophy by a little intelligence that there is next life. So our proposition is that "If you have got to prepare yourself for the next life, then why don't you take the trouble of preparing for going back to home, back to Godhead?" This is our proposition.