The Lord descends on this mortal world to show His pastimes in Vṛndāvana full of happiness. When Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa was in Vṛndāvana, His activities with His cowherd boys friends, with His damsels, with His friends, damsel friends, and with the inhabitants of Vṛndāvana and His occupation of cowherding in His childhood, and all these pastimes of Lord Kṛṣṇa were full of happiness. The whole of Vṛndāvana, the whole population of Vṛndāvana, was after Him. They did not know except Kṛṣṇa. Even Lord Kṛṣṇa restricted His father, Nanda Mahārāja in worshiping the demigod Indra because He wanted to establish that people need not worship any other demigod except the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Because the ultimate aim of life is to return to the abode of the Supreme Lord.
Mortal (Lectures)
Lectures
Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures
People do not know that there can, we can become immortal. Immortal we are, but we have been embodied in this material body. Therefore we have to accept mortality, birth and death. These things stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, this is the beginning of spiritual life.
As soon as one become dhīra, sober, these so-called material pains and pleasure does not disturb me (him). Then he is fit for becoming immortal. Everyone is immortal, but he is fallen in such material condition that he thinks himself as mortal.
Because we have got information in the Bhāgavata that in the Siddhaloka the inhabitants there, with this very body, they go from one planet to another without any instrument, without any sputnik, without any aeroplane, or without anything. (laughter) Yes. We have got this information. They take pleasure in the sky. Just like sometimes we stroll in open field, similarly, they take pleasure by in the sky traveling. You see? So that is possible. But still, they are mortal. They are mortal. They have got this material body. Now, when you get spiritual body, how much freedom you'll have.
Deductive knowledge is considered to be more perfect. And what is that? Just like "Man is mortal." This is a truth, accepted. How man is mortal, nobody's going to enter into discussion. It is accepted that man is mortal. Now, Mr. Johnson is a man. So he is mortal. This is the deductive conclusion. Because man is mortal and Johnson is a man, therefore he's mortal. This is the process of deductive knowledge.
The other party, those who are inductive, follower of inductive process, they want to see actually by experiment and observation how man is mortal. They want to study, "This man dies. That man dies. That man dies. That man dies." Therefore they make a general conclusion, "Well, all men are mortal."
Now, in the inductive process you have got some defects. What is that? Now, your experience is limited. Suppose if you have not seen a man who is not mortal, who is not mortal. There may be. Because you are going on with your personal experience, but your personal experience is always imperfect.
Śabda-pramāṇa means to take the truth from the highest authority. That is called śabda-pramāṇa. Just like "Man is mortal." Now, this "Man is mortal," nobody knows wherefrom this sound has come first. Who has experienced that man is mortal? But we are accepting this. We are accepting this. By tradition, we know man is mortal. Now if we, if somebody says, "Who found this truth first? Who discovered that man is mortal?" That is very difficult to say. But it is coming down. The knowledge is coming down, "Man is mortal," and we accept everything.
nd who is bona fide spiritual master? That is also described, śrotriyaṁ brahma-niṣṭham: "One who has heard from his spiritual master." This is... Spiritual master becomes by disciplic succession, ascending process. Just like we learn "Man is mortal" from higher authority, from my father, from mother or any other authority.
But the descending process, when the sun rises, you understand immediately. Ascending process—my endeavor, what is called inductive process. Inductive process. Just like my father says that man is mortal. I accept it. Now if you want to study whether man is mortal, you study, you see many thousands of men, whether he is immortal or mortal. That will take so much time. But if you take the knowledge from the superior authority, that man is mortal, your knowledge is complete.
Martya means those who are eligible for dying. Who are? These conditioned souls, beginning from Brahmā down to the insignificant ant, they are all martya. Martya means there is a time when they will die. So martyeṣu. Amongst the dying mortals he becomes the most intelligent. Asammūḍhaḥ sa martyeṣu. Why? Sarva-pāpaiḥ pramucyate. He is free from all kinds of reactions of sinful action.
Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures
Therefore Vidyāpati has sung, kata caturānanam, mari mari yavat, na tuyā ādi avasana. Caturānana means the Brahmā. Brahmā, his life, duration of life, is very, very long. We know from Bhagavad-gītā that sahasra-yuga-paryantam ahar yad brahmaṇo viduḥ (BG 8.17). He's not also immortal. He's mortal. Although his one day is equal to our forty-three lakhs of years multiplied by one thousand, but still, he's not immortal.
First of all he wanted, "Make me immortal." Brahmā said, "I am not immortal. How can I make you immortal? That is not possible." Then he thought, "I am intelligent enough. I shall indirectly become mortal. I shall not be killed in this way, I shall not be killed in this way.
So now our consciousness is immortal consciousness or mortal consciousness, that is to be seen. I am absorbed in thought of this mortal consciousness, "This is my country, this is my body, this is my family, this is my community, this is my nation..." They are all mortal. But immortal consciousness is that "I am Kṛṣṇa's." That is immortal consciousness.
So even if you go there, ābrahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ, or any planet, or any place, there must be death. Death you must have. But I am eternal. Why shall I accept death? That is intelligence. That information is given in Bhagavad-gītā, mad-dhāma gatvā punar janma na vidyate: "If you come to My place, My planet, then you will have no more to come back again to this mortal world."
Martya means one who will die. Every one of us will die. But abhilabheta yas tu. But we can achieve a great success. Although this body's mortal, we can get, we can achieve a great success. And what is that? To take the dust of the lotus feet of a bhāgavata. Simple thing. Therefore it is said, jīvañ chavaḥ. Jīvañ chavo bhāgavatāṅghri-reṇuṁ na jātu martyo 'bhilabheta yas tu. After all, this body is dead. Everyone knows. It is simply moving on account of the presence of the spirit soul.
Arrival Addresses and Talks
Na jāyate vā mriyate vā kadācit. If he simply understands this one verse, he immediately becomes liberated. And actually, human life is meant for understanding this philosophy or this truth. Then his life is successful. And as soon as we understand that we are eternal, we are not mortal, then naturally our inquiry will be, "Where we can live eternally?"
Initiation Lectures
So anyway, so I was officially initiated in 1933, just before three years of his passing away from this mortal world. So at the last moment also, just a fortnight before his passing away, he wrote me the same thing. I wrote him one letter and just he replied the same thing that "You should try to preach this gospel amongst the persons who are conversant in English language. That will be very nice for you."
General Lectures
Just like the small microbe; it has got life, say, for few minutes, and you have got life, say, for a hundred years. That does not mean that you are immortal and that the microbe is a mortal. Both of us. Similarly, there are, in other planets, the duration of life may be very, very, very long, but that does not mean that they will not die. The death is there. Death can be eradicated only when you go to Kṛṣṇaloka, or in the spiritual sky.
Philosophy Discussions
Śyāmasundara: He says this dialectic, basic dialectic between being and nothing is the basis of becoming, that because these two things are always conflicting, we are always becoming.
Prabhupāda: Becoming, that's... Therefore, the question becoming means I am now in this awkward position, that I am eternal and immortal but I have been entrapped by something which is mortal, therefore I am changing my position. So when I shall stop this taking of different position, I shall remain in my own being, that is the (synthesis).
Prabhupāda: So, but Kṛṣṇa says, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). Although the body is not mortal, still the proprietor of the body is immortal.
Śyāmasundara: He says that for instance by relating one idea to its opposite that we discover a different truth about each of them which transcends their separate truths.
Prabhupāda: Yes. It is just like this Bhagavad-gītā says, that dehino 'smin... It says that this dehi, the soul which is within the body, that is immortal and this body is mortal. Two things are there.
Śyāmasundara: The synthesis transcends their separate beings.
Prabhupāda: Separate means mortal and immortal.
Śyāmasundara: The combination is higher than both of them.
Prabhupāda: Avināśi tu tad viddhi yena sarvam idaṁ tatam.
Śyāmasundara: Then what is the synthesis?
Prabhupāda: Synthesis is to get out, the soul, from this awkward position of matter.
Śyāmasundara: Is that a higher understanding than understanding the soul by itself?
Prabhupāda: Yes, when soul is liberated, that is higher understanding. The soul should be liberated. He is in awkward position within this material world. He is in awkward position.
Prabhupāda: If it is based on scientific examination of men, so our (indistinct) is limited. How many men we can examine to know that he is actually mortal? Just like individual, suppose you live for one hundred years and begin your study of the human being, say, at the age of twenty. So suppose for eighty years you go on examining. How many men you can examine every year? Say ten thousand men? Ten thousand men you examine, go on, eighty years, so how many-ten thousand into eighty?
Hayagrīva: Augustine believes that the physical body comes first, and then the spiritual. "What is so in a natural body arises a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. But it is not the spiritual which comes first, but the physical and then the spiritual. The first man was of the earth, earthy. The second man is from heaven, heavenly. But the body which, by the life-giving spirit will become spiritual and immortal, will under no conditions be able to die." So that man must first come as a, as man, as a mortal, physical being first, in order to attain immortality.
Prabhupāda: Why man? Every living entity has a mortal body. So to enter into the mortal body, that is a kind of punishment. And then there is evolutionary process from lower grade of body to higher grade of body. That is quite reasonable, that every living entity or soul is part and parcel of God, but on account of some sinful activities or disobedience to God, as they believe Adam on account of disobedience to God they lost Paradise and came to this material world, similarly, the soul belongs to the Paradise, or heaven, or Kṛṣṇa, but somehow or other he falls down within this material world, and he gets first a body like Adam.
Hayagrīva: Aquinas considered sins to be both venial, that is petty, and mortal. The venial sin can be pardoned, but the mortal sin cannot be pardoned. Consequently, the mortal sin stains the soul. Is there anything like this?
Prabhupāda: Yes. The mortal, mortal sin, mortal sin?
Hayagrīva: Mortal sin. A mortal sin would be a breaking of one of the direct commandments of God given in the Bible, such as "Thou shall not kill."
Prabhupāda: So anyway, we also have similar passage, that kṛṣṇa bhuliya jīva bhoga vāñchā kare. This is mortal sins, when the living entity disobeys the order of God, he is put into this material world, and that is his punishment. And he either rectifies himself by good association or he continues this transmigration one body after another and suffers this tribulations of material existence.
| Page Title: | Mortal (Lectures) |
| Compiler: | Rishab, ChandrasekharaAcarya |
| Created: | 23 of Dec, 2010 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=26, Con=0, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 26 |