Death means forgetting

Expressions researched:
"Death means forget" |"Death means forgetful" |"Death means forgetfulness" |"Death means forgetting" |"Death means to forget" |"death means a forgetting" |"death means this forgetfulness" |"death means to forget"

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Lecture on BG 4.3-6 -- New York, July 18, 1966:

The difference between you and Me is this, that tāni veda, tāny ahaṁ veda sarvāṇi, I, I remember what I did in the past, long, long years before, but you cannot remember." That is the difference between God and man, or God and living entity.

Our, our position as living entity... We are also eternal. Just like God is eternal, similarly, we are also eternal. But the difficulty is that we change our body. We change our body. Vāsāṁsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya (BG 2.22). Just like we change our dress, similarly, we change our body. And as soon as we change our body, now, we forget everything. Death means forgetfulness. That's all. Just like at night, when you sleep, you forget yourself. You forget yourself that "I am the father of such and such children, I am the husband of such and such..." You dream that you are in a different place. Sometimes you are on the sea, sometimes on the sky, sometimes on something. You forget yourself. You forget yourself. Again, when you wake up, oh, you remember, "Oh, I am such and such person. I have to do such and such and such and such..." So this is going on. So death means forgetfulness. That's all.

Lecture on BG 4.5 -- Bombay, March 25, 1974:

Therefore Kṛṣṇa said that "I also take My birth, and you also take your birth, but the difference is..." Tāny ahaṁ veda. "I know how many times I took birth, but you... You also took, many times, but you have forgotten." That is the difference. Tāny ahaṁ veda sarvāṇi na tvaṁ vettha parantapa. You cannot remember. Actually, we do not remember. What I was in my last birth, I do not know. Death means forgetfulness. Death means to forget everything.

Just like daytime and nighttime. Nighttime also, when we sleep, we forget all our business in daytime. We have got everyday experience. We are different person at night. We are dreaming something, dreamland, somewhere I have gone, and forget that I have got a body which is lying on the bed, I am the father of such and such sons, I am the husband of such and such... No, you forget everything. And again, in the daytime, you forget everything, what you dreamed. This is our practical experience.

Lecture on BG 4.10 Public Meeting -- Rome, May 25, 1974:

Question: Does the soul reincarnate?

Prabhupāda: Yes, the soul does not manipulate. It simply... Just like you had your childhood body, boyhood body. Now you have got a body of young man, youthhood body. And again you will get an old man's body, just like I have got. So these bodies are changing. Here everyone can remember that "I had a small body," but that body is not existing anymore. But I know that I possessed such body. Similarly, when this body will be finished, you will accept another body. You may forget it. Death means forgetting. But the body changing of body is going on perpetually, and spiritual life means how to stop this change of body and remain in the spiritual body. That is blissful and full of knowledge.

Lecture on BG 4.10 Public Meeting -- Rome, May 25, 1974:

Yes, the soul does not manipulate. It simply... Just like you had your childhood body, boyhood body. Now you have got a body of young man, youthhood body. And again you will get an old man's body, just like I have got. So these bodies are changing. Here everyone can remember that "I had a small body," but that body is not existing anymore. But I know that I possessed such body. Similarly, when this body will be finished, you will accept another body. You may forget it. Death means forgetting. But the body changing of body is going on perpetually, and spiritual life means how to stop this change of body and remain in the spiritual body. That is blissful and full of knowledge.

Lecture on BG 10.4 -- New York, January 3, 1967:

We are combination of matter and spirit. Actually I am a spirit, but I am now covered, embodied by matter. When we make a complete analytical study what is matter, what is spirit, that is called knowledge.

Material knowledge, any subject matter you can take, but that is temporary. Just like this body is temporary, similarly, any material knowledge you acquire, either you become a chemist or physicist or a medical man or an engineer, whatever you may acquire knowledge, all this knowledge will finish as soon as this body is finished. You forget. Death means forgetfulness.

Because the spirit does not die, eternal, so spiritual knowledge continues. If you develop spiritual knowledge... Suppose cent percent spiritual knowledge you acquire in this body. Then that will continue with you. Even after destruction of this body that spiritual knowledge will continue with you, and when you get next body, you begin... You finished your ten percent. You will begin again from eleven percent. That knowledge will not be lost. That is the law of nature. Spiritual knowledge... In the Bhagavad-gītā we have studied already, svalpam apy asya dharmasya trāyate mahato bhayāt. If you cultivate spiritual knowledge even one percent, two percent, that can render you greater service because it will continue.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Lecture on SB 1.2.9-10 -- Delhi, November 14, 1973:

So this is the position. Everyone is very happy. This is called māyā's influence. Unless a hog feels happy, how he can live in this abominable life? This is called prakṣepātmika-śakti, covering. If one man knows or..., that "I was king in my previous life. Now I have become a poor cobbler" or something like..., then he will become mad. So therefore he forgets. Death means forget. Because the living entity does not die. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). There is no death. Death means forgetting everything of my past life. That's all. Just like we forget. At night, when we dream, we accept another body, and we forget this body. And in the daytime we forget the night dream body and accept this body. We have got daily experience. So death means forgetting the past life. Otherwise, there was past life. That's a fact. But as we forget daily night body in the daytime and day body at nighttime, so similarly, we are changing our body according to the infection of the quality or material nature, and we are entangled in this material world. Although we are part an parcel of Kṛṣṇa, God, or we ar sons of God, but unfortunately, we have come in contact of this material modes of nature. This is going on.

Therefore Kṛṣṇa comes. Kṛṣṇa is the father of everyone. He canvasses, "My dear children, why you are rotting in this material world? Come back."

Lecture on SB 2.1.1-2 -- New York, April 19, 1973:

"Such-and-such politician, he is now one of the two dogs of a gentleman in Sweden." You see. So this time, in this life I may become very big man, or big politician, big diplomat, big businessman, but next life, after your death, it is your big, your greatness of this material will not help you. That will depend on your work, and nature will offer you a certain type of body, you'll have to accept. Of course you will forget. That is the concession given by nature. Just like we do not remember what we had been in our past life. If I remember that suppose I was a king in my past life, now I have become a dog, then how much suffering it will be. Therefore by nature's law one forgets. And death means this forgetfulness. Death means this forgetfulness.

So this is a great science. People do not know it. Our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is very scientific, authorized, so our business is to enlighten people as far as possible, and at the same time we must remain enlightened. We may not be again covered by the darkness of māyā. That we should be... That you can keep yourself very fit not to be covered by the māyā. Mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti te (BG 7.14). If you very strictly adhere to the principle of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then māyā will not be able to touch you. That is the only remedy. Otherwise māyā is always looking after the opportunity, loophole, how she can capture you again. But if you remain strictly in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, māyā will not be able to do anything. Mām eva ye prapadyante. Daivī hy eṣa guṇa-mayī mama māyā duratyayā. It is very difficult to get out of the clutches of māyā. It is very difficult.

Lecture on SB 2.1.3 -- Delhi, November 6, 1973:

"Then where shall I go?" Mām eti: "You come to Me." If you go back to home, back to Kṛṣṇa, then, as Kṛṣṇa has got eternal body never to be destroyed, similarly Kṛṣṇa has got eternal body. Don't think that Kṛṣṇa has got a body like us. Just like Kṛṣṇa, when it was inquired by Arjuna, Kṛṣṇa said that "This Bhagavad-gītā philosophy I spoke first of all to the sun-god." That (I) have calculated. It is about 400,000,000's of years ago He said. How does He remember? That means He does not change His body. We, we forget because just like in our last, past birth... Now I can remember not all, but some of my incidences of my life I remember. But I do not remember anything of my past life. Death means forgetting about the past life. So because I have changed my body, I have forgotten. But anyone who does not change his body, he does not forget. And that is the proof that Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa's body is not ordinary body. Anyone who thinks Kṛṣṇa as one of us, He is a mūḍha. Avajānanti māṁ mūḍhāḥ. Avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam (BG 9.11). Because He comes just like a human being, we consider that He is also a human being.

Lecture on SB 2.9.4 -- Japan, April 22, 1972:

The evidence of death is... Just like in our past life we had some body and we died. We have got another body. Kṛṣṇa does not die means He does not change His body. Sambhavāmy ātma-māyayā (BG 4.6). If He would have died, then He could not recollect in His mind the incident which happened millions of years ago. He says, vivasvān, proktavān aham avyayam, vivasvān manave prāha. When Arjuna inquired that "You say that You instructed this Bhagavad-gītā, this science, to Vivasvān long, long, millions of years ago. How can I believe it?" Therefore He said, "I remember it. You don't remember. Therefore I do not die. You die." This is it. One who can remember, he does not die. Just like I... So long I can remember of my childhood activities, boyhood activities, I have not died. Is it not? Although the body is gone. This is the evidence that Kṛṣṇa does not die. Try to understand this point. Death means forgetting everything. That is death. But if you can remember, that is not death. It is clear?

Lecture on SB 6.1.49 -- Detroit, June 15, 1976:

We are changing the circumstances, naṣṭa-janma-smṛtis. As soon as one form of body is finished... Death means forgetfulness. Death means forgetfulness. Everyone is continuing life, but when one forgets the activities of this life and accepts another body, that is called death. Otherwise, a spirit soul has no death. So therefore we should be careful that I have already got this body which is meant for suffering. More or less, it doesn't matter. There is suffering. A cat or dog is suffering more than a human being, but it does not mean that the human being is without suffering. That is not possible. Everyone is suffering. So in the human form of life we can inquire, "Why I am suffering." That is human being. So śāstra says that you are already suffering, in any form of body. Either you are President Nixon or a man in the street, you are already suffering. That's a fact. Now you are suffering on account of this body. Nūnaṁ pramattaḥ kurute vikarma (SB 5.5.4). And still you are doing something which will cause to accept another material body. Nūnaṁ pramattaḥ kurute vikarma. And you are suffering because you indulged in your past life sense gratification, and you have got this body according to karma, and again, if you are engaged in sense gratification, do not try to elevate yourself from this platform of sense gratification, then you'll again suffer. You'll get, by nature's way, you'll get another body according to the desire.

General Lectures

Lecture -- Seattle, October 11, 1968:

Prabhupāda: No. Death means forgetfulness. Death... Just like when you sleep you forget your day's activities. So sleep is partial death. In sleep also, you sometimes think that you have got a different body, you are floating on the air, or you have gone somewhere which you never seen. So that means the mind is forgetful of the day's activities. It has taken a different activity. Similarly, as soon as the body's changed, the mind is also changed. Mind function is thinking, feeling, and willing. So we feel, think, and will according to circumstances. Just like now you have got an American body, you are thinking like American. I have got an Indian body, I am thinking like Indian. Similarly, a dog has got a dog body, he's thinking like a dog. So mind changes also according to the position of the body.

Young man (6): Is it possible through Kṛṣṇa consciousness to, in the supreme state, to be able to remember all that you were?

Prabhupāda: Yes. It is possible. If you come to the supreme state, you can remember. That is also possible. Because there are instances... One King Bhārata, he died thinking of a deer, so he got his next body as a deer. But he remembered that "I was such and such person." There are sometimes report in the newspaper that a child is dictating that "I have got my home there," and when he goes there he says, "He is my son. Here I kept in this box this thing." Perhaps... There are many instances like that. So that is, exceptional cases it is possible.

Lecture -- Los Angeles, July 11, 1971 :

"Yes, millions and millions of times I also appeared, and you also appeared. The difference is that you do not remember, I remember." That is the difference between God and ordinary living being. Otherwise, qualitatively, God and the living entity the same. So only difference is that He is great, infinite. Therefore, we can not calculate His infinite qualities. But I, being infinitesimal, my qualities, my capacities, my energy, they are very infinitesimal. Therefore, I forget. And because I forget, therefore I cannot remember what was my body in my last birth. Because I cannot remember. Death means forget. Just like at night you forget everything, sleeping. Similarly, when this body is finished, we forget about this body. We are interested in the next body. So this forgetfulnss is the opposite number of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Kṛṣṇa conscious, we are trying to revive Kṛṣṇa consciousness means we are trying to get out of this conditional life of forgetfulness. That is our perfection of life. We are trying to achieve that perfectional state of life. That is called struggle for existence, and somehow or other defeated.

So, our last point of perfection, where we can survive eternally, is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. This, this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is started in your country. It is not a new manufactured thing, concocted thing. It is very old, because the Bhagavad-gītā is there. Kṛṣṇa consciousness means Bhagavad-gītā. Even from historical calculation, the Bhagavad-gītā was spoken at least five thousand years ago. So, this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is, even from historical calculation, at least five thousand years old.

Philosophy Discussions

Philosophy Discussion on Henri Bergson:

Hayagrīva: There seems to be an inconsistency here when he says, "our personality, which is being built up with its accumulated experience." Now if personality is determined by experience and if death means a forgetting of our past experience, then a new personality must emerge when we take on a new body.

Prabhupāda: No. The..., your deeds in the past you may forget, but Kṛṣṇa does not forget. He therefore gives you chance that "You wanted to do this, now here is the opportunity, you do it."

Hayagrīva: At death it's said that we take the mind...

Prabhupāda: Death means the body is changed.

Hayagrīva: Yes.

Prabhupāda: But the soul is not changed. So soul continues with his reaction of past deeds, and even though he forgets what he has done in the past, Kṛṣṇa is there. He reminds that "You wanted to do this. Do it now."

Hayagrīva: The person is the same but the false personality changes then?

Prabhupāda: Yes. So this personality can change to become perfect if he follows the instruction of Kṛṣṇa.

Purports to Songs

Purport to Gaura Pahu -- Los Angeles, January 10, 1969:

"Why I have invited the spiritual death? Because I am engaged in something which is useless and I have rejected the real purpose of my life."Adhama means valueless things. And dhana means valuables. So actually, everyone of us, neglecting our spiritual emanicipation, we are engaged in material sense gratification, and therefore we are losing the opportunity of this human form of body to elevate myself on the spiritual platform. This human body is especially given to the conditioned soul to take a chance for spiritual emancipation. So anyone who does not care for spiritual emancipation, he is inviting spiritual death. Spiritual death means to forget oneself, that he's spirit. That is spiritual death. So in the animal life it is fully forgetfulness. They cannot be reminded at any circumstances that they are not this body, they are different from this body. It is only in this human form of body, human form of life, one can understand that he is not this body, he's spirit soul. So by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, one can easily understand this fact, and by worshiping Lord Caitanya, following His principles and ways, one can chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and very easily come to the platform of spiritual understanding. But Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura says on our behalf that we are neglecting this. Therefore we are inviting spiritual death.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Two Buddhist Monks -- July 12, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: The brain is so dull. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). "As I have changed so many bodies..." I exist. I remember, I had this body. So I may forget. Suppose in my babyhood, what was the feature of my body, I do not know. But there was. My mother knows. He can, she can explain, "My dear child, you were like this, you were like this." So forgetfulness is also not that I did not exist. I may not remember my last birth. That does not mean I did not exist. So forgetfulness is my nature. I cannot remember even what I was doing exactly this time yesterday. If somebody asks me. I can generally speak, that "I was sitting." But actually, what I was doing, I'll have to remember. So the forgetfulness is our nature. Because I have forgotten... Death means forgetting. Just like in dream. At night, when we get another body and dream and hover, we go somewhere and talk with somebody, we forget about this body. And again, when I come to this body, I awaken, I forget the dreaming body. So I..., every day I am forgetting. At night I am forgetting this body, and daytime I am forgetting my night body. So forgetfulness is not the basic principle of knowledge. The things as they are we have to study. That body we change, but we are, as living entities, we are existing. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). This is confirmed by authorities. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). After destruction of this body, the soul is not destroyed. The soul continues. He accepts another body. Now, what sort of body we have to accept—that is responsibility.

Room Conversation with Graham Hill Former World Champion Race Car Driver -- London, August 26, 1973:

Prabhupāda: Yes, in the past. You forgot, but in the past you had life. Just like in the past I was young man. That's a fact. Similarly, but that young body is no more existing. Similarly, I had a past life but I have forgotten. That is the... Forgetfulness is our nature. Death means forgetting what was your first, past life. That is by nature you become forgetful because if you remember our past life and compare with this life... Suppose one was very rich man and if he becomes a poor, a cat and dog, then if he remembers, then it is very unbearable for him. Therefore nature helps him to forget. Forget. Otherwise he cannot do it. But the real problem is that we are eternal soul, we are changing our body one after another, birth and death. Apart from worldly happiness and distress, this birth and death, that is not very good process. At death time we have to suffer so much that we give up this body. And then again we enter into the womb of a mother. That is not very good situation. Then when come out there are so many tribulations, disease, then again old age. So people do not understand that he is passing... Especially when we are in other than human life. There are 8,400,000 species of life. Aquatics, then birds, trees, plants, insects, then beasts. In this way we come to human form of life. This is evolution. So in this human form of life there is chance of understanding the problems of life. In other forms of life it is not possible.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- April 11, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: And one who is giving real knowledge, it is natural conclusion, he has got eternal body. We cannot give real knowledge because we forget. As we change our body, we forget. Just like at night we dream, but we forget the body, this body. In another body we go to some dreamland. So because we change body therefore we forget. And because Kṛṣṇa is giving knowledge perfect, past, present and future, therefore it means that He has got eternal body. This is the proof. One should understand everything with logic. Is it not? We forget because we have no eternal body. Last birth, what I was, what you were, we have forgotten, because changed body. Death means forgetting. So because Kṛṣṇa is giving perfect knowledge of past, future and present, therefore it is to be understood that He has got eternal body. And eternal body means there is no misery. Misery means janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi (BG 13.9), to take birth, to die... (aside:) (Hare Kṛṣṇa.) And to suffer from disease, to suffer from old age. These are the miseries. So because Kṛṣṇa hasn't got this temporary body, therefore He is not suffering from these things. Therefore Kṛṣṇa, you will see always, young man. You will never see Kṛṣṇa's picture as old man, because He is eternal body. This is the conclusion.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Evening Darsana -- July 7, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: No, that he forgets. Death means forgetfulness. Just like accepting that I was existing in previous life, but now I do not remember. This is death. But I am existing, that's a fact. The same example. Everyone knows that he was existing as a child, he was existing as a young man. So because it is short period, I remember, but when the body is completely changed, the atmosphere is completely changed, we forget. But actually I exist continually. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). This is the authoritative statement, that I am not annihilated on account of my body being annihilated. So they bury the body or giving some name, some tomb, that is the business of my relatives, my friends, my family members. But as I am, I am aloof from this. I have accepted another body. And then begin my life in a different way. So people do not try to understand this science, how it is happening. That is all described in the Bhagavad-gītā. If we study Bhagavad-gītā very carefully, we can understand the philosophy of life correctly.