Prabhupada 0689 - If You Keep Divine Association, Then Your Consciousness is Made Divine
Lecture on BG 6.35-45 -- Los Angeles, February 20, 1969
Devotee: "By virtue of the divine consciousness of his previous life, he automatically becomes attached to the yogic principles - even without seeking them. Such an inquisitive transcendentalist, striving for yoga, stands always above the ritualistic principles of the scriptures (BG 6.44)."
Prabhupada: Yes.
Devotee: "But when the yogi..."
Prabhupāda: No, let me explain this. "By virtue of divine consciousness." We are preparing this consciousness, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, divine consciousness. And the consciousness will go. Just like the flavor, the aroma of a rose flower is carried by the air and if the air passes through us we also experience the rose flavor. Similarly, when we die, this material body is finished. "Dust thou art, dust thou beist." This is made of five elements: earth, water, air, fire, ether. So the… So far earthy materials are concerned, that is mixed up. Somebody burns this body, somebody buries, or somebody throws it for being eaten by the animals. The three system in the human society. Just like in India, Hindus, they burn the body. So the body comes, transformed into ashes - means earth. Ash means earth. Those who are burying the bodies of their forefathers, the body turns into dust, as the Christian Bible says, "dust thou art." This body is dust and again turns into dust. And those who are throwing for being eaten by the animals and birds, vultures, just like in India you have got the community, Parsee community. They do not burn, neither they bury. They throw, and the vultures immediately comes and eat. Then the body turns into stool.
So either it will turn into ashes, or into dust, or into stool. This beautiful body, which you are soaping so nicely, it will turn into three stages, stool, ashes, or dust. So the finer elements - means mind, intelligence and ego - that is, altogether it is called consciousness. That will carry you, the spirit soul, small particle of spirit. That will be carried by these three finer elements: mind, intelligence and ego. And according to the… Just like the flavor, if it is rose flavor aroma, you enjoy, "Oh it is very nice." But it is filthy flavor, passing through stool or any other filthy place and you say, "Oh, it is very bad smell." So this consciousness will carry you either in a stool smell or rose flavor, according to your work, as you make your consciousness. So if you make your consciousness, train your consciousness into Kṛṣṇa, then it will carry you to Kṛṣṇa. This is not very difficult to understand. You cannot see the air but you can experience by smelling. "Oh the air is passing through like this." Similarly, these different kinds of body are developed according to the consciousness.
So if you have trained up your consciousness to the yogic principle, then you get a body, similar body. You get good chance, you get good parents, good family where you'll be allowed to practice this system, and automatically you'll get chance again to revive your same consciousness in which you left your previous body. That is explained here. By virtue of divine consciousness. Therefore our present duty is how to make the consciousness divine. That should be our business. If you want divine life, if you want spiritual elevation back to Godhead, back to home, that means eternal life, blissful life, full of knowledge, then we have to train ourselves in divine consciousness or Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That you can very easily do by association. Saṅgāt sañjāyate kāmaḥ (BG 2.62). If you keep divine association, then your consciousness is made divine. And if you keep hellish association, demonic association, then your consciousness is trained up in that way.
So we have to train our consciousness, divine. That is the duty of human form of life. If we make our consciousness divine, then we are preparing for next divine life. As there are different grades of life, so human form of life is a chance to make your next life completely divine. Completely divine means eternal, blissful and full of knowledge. So automatically, by divine consciousness, you’ll try to contact with persons who are developing divine consciousness. So this is explained in this verse. Go on.