View source for Just imagine in your previous lives you had been a great man of knowledge, but in this life, since your childhood, you had to go to school, college, and acquire knowledge. The knowledge which you had in your previous lives is now forgotten

<div id="compilation">
<div id="facts">
{{terms|"Just imagine in your previous lives you had been a great man of knowledge, but in this life, since your childhood, you had to go to school, college, and acquire knowledge. The knowledge which you had in your previous lives is now forgotten"}}
{{notes|}}
{{compiler|Krsnadas}}
{{complete|ALL}}
{{first|22Jun12}}
{{last|22Jun12}}
{{totals_by_section|BG=0|SB=0|CC=0|OB=0|Lec=1|Con=0|Let=0}}
{{total|1}}
{{toc right}}
[[Category:Just Imagine]]
[[Category:your]]
[[Category:Previous Life]]
[[Category:you]]
[[Category:Have Been]]
[[Category:Great Man]]
[[Category:knowledge]]
[[Category:but]]
[[Category:In This Life]]
[[Category:since]]
[[Category:your]]
[[Category:Childhood]]
[[Category:go To]]
[[Category:school]]
[[Category:colleges]]
[[Category:Acquiring Knowledge]]
[[Category:knowledge]]
[[Category:which]]
[[Category:you]]
[[Category:now]]
[[Category:forgotten]]
</div>
<div id="Lectures" class="section" sec_index="4" parent="compilation" text="Lectures"><h2>Lectures</h2>
</div>
<div id="Bhagavad-gita_As_It_Is_Lectures" class="sub_section" sec_index="0" parent="Lectures" text="Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures"><h3>Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures</h3>
</div>
<div id="LectureonBGLectureExcerpts24445258NewYorkMarch251966_0" class="quote" parent="Bhagavad-gita_As_It_Is_Lectures" book="Lec" index="104" link="Lecture on BG Lecture Excerpts 2.44-45, 2.58 -- New York, March 25, 1966" link_text="Lecture on BG Lecture Excerpts 2.44-45, 2.58 -- New York, March 25, 1966">
<div class="heading">Just imagine in your previous lives you had been a great man of knowledge, but in this life, since your childhood, you had to go to school, college, and acquire knowledge. The knowledge which you had in your previous lives is now forgotten. Therefore we are seeking eternal knowledge, but that eternity of knowledge is not possible with this temporary body. We have to understand that thing.
</div>
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Lecture on BG Lecture Excerpts 2.44-45, 2.58 -- New York, March 25, 1966|Lecture on BG Lecture Excerpts 2.44-45, 2.58 -- New York, March 25, 1966]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="text"><p style="display: inline;">Vedas, Veda. Veda means the book of knowledge. Now, the book of knowledge... According to the climate, according to the population, according to the country, there are different books of knowledge. Just like in India the book of knowledge is accepted as the Vedas, Vedas, Vedic knowledge. In your European, American countries the book of knowledge accepted as the Old Testament, New Testament. Similarly, the book of knowledge amongst the Muhammadans, they have accepted as the Koran. Actually, they are book of knowledge, undoubtedly. There is no doubt about it. But what are these book of knowledge, religious scripture? Religious scripture means they are meant for training you to that conception of life that you are pure soul, nothing more. They restrict your bodily activities under certain conditions, under certain conditions. That is called morality. Just like your Bible has got ten commandments. Ten commandments. What is that commandments? To regulate your life. Because without regulation you cannot... Because we have to control the body to reach to the highest perfection. So if we don't follow any regulative principles, how we can make our life perfect? So that regulative principle may be a little, little different from my country to your country or my Veda to your Bible, but that does not matter. That is made according to the time, condition and the mentality of the population. But there is the regulative control. Regulative control. A human society is not considered civilized unless, unless and until the members of the society are put into some regulative control. The whole state, your American state or any state, the citizens are controlled by regulative principle. Without regulative principle, you cannot make the progressive march of the state or the people or the citizens.</p>
<p>So similarly, here it is stated that traiguṇya-viṣayā vedā nistraiguṇyo bhavārjuna: "Arjuna, these Vedas or the scriptures, they are meant for regulating the three modes of nature. But if you want to be situated in your, I mean to say, pure..." (break) ...of identifying this body. So Lord Kṛṣṇa says, bhogaiśvarya-prasaktānām (tape gets very faint) tayāpahṛta-cetasām vyavasāyātmikā buddhiḥ samādhau na... Bhoga. Bhoga means enjoyment, enjoyment, enjoyment of the body. Everyone wants enjoyment. Who does not want enjoyment? But is that (indistinct)? No. Enjoyment, why (indistinct)? Without pure life... (too faint) (break) ...pure constitution... (break) ...made of enjoyment. So we want for enjoyment to be, naturally. It is not unnatural. But the process of enjoyment is... We, therefore, do not get complete satisfaction by material enjoyment. Enjoyment is your birthright because you are spirit soul. Spirit soul. The constitution of the spirit soul is three divisions: enjoyment, eternity, and knowledge. (break) Spirit soul is full of knowledge, full of happiness, and unending, not that this knowledge...</p>
<p>Suppose we are accumulating so many knowledge. Somebody is chemist, somebody is politician, somebody is metaphysist, somebody is artist, somebody is something. Everyone knows something of everything and everything of something. That is knowledge. But this knowledge, whatever knowledge you acquire, as soon as you leave this body, whole knowledge is void. Just imagine in your previous lives you had been a great man of knowledge, but in this life, since your childhood, you had to go to school, college, and acquire knowledge. The knowledge which you had in your previous lives is now forgotten. Therefore we are seeking eternal knowledge, but that eternity of knowledge is not possible with this temporary body. We have to understand that thing. Bhogaiśvarya. We are enjoying, we want to enjoy life, but the instrument of enjoyment is not proper. We are thinking of enjoying through this body. But bodily enjoyment is not my enjoyment. It is artificial. So if you want to stick up to this artificial enjoyment of life, then you cannot enjoy or you cannot be elevated to your real constitutional position of eternal enjoyment. Therefore Lord Kṛṣṇa says, bhogaiśvarya-prasaktānāṁ tayā apahṛta-cetasām. Apahṛta-cetasām, one whose mind and intelligence has been misled by this false enjoyment, false enjoyment, for him, the working on the pure consciousness platform, vyavasāyātmikā buddhiḥ, that "I am not this body"... We are talking of this, that "I am not this body. I am pure consciousness. I am pure soul."</p>
<p>So we have to work in such a way that our bodily conception of life is completely rejected and we are situated in the engagement, occupation of pure consciousness. We are talking on this subject matter. So Lord Kṛṣṇa says, "Those who are captivated by this false enjoyment, bodily, bhoga..." Now, our bhoga enjoyment means through this body. But body is my diseased condition. As a diseased man cannot enjoy life... How it is possible? Take, for example, a man who is suffering from jaundice. It is practical. You can test practically. If a man... You find out a man who is suffering from jaundice. You give a piece of sugar candy and ask him to take. He will say, "It is bitter." He will say, "It is bitter." He won't taste its sweetness. Because his condition is diseased, therefore, he actually cannot enjoy the sweetness of sugar candy. But when he is cured, a man in healthy state, if you give him sugar candy, oh, he will say, he will appreciate, "Oh, it is very sweet, very nice." The same sugar candy, according to our condition of life, is tasted differently. So unless we cure from this disease of wrong conception of life, we cannot have any taste. Anything, anything, we cannot taste, have any taste for it. The bitter taste. We will have bitter taste.</p>
<p>Now, this world, this world... Even Mahatma Gandhi... I have read his life. The day when he was to be killed, he did not know in the morning that he was going to be killed in the evening. But as a big man, he was receiving so many letters, so many congratulation, so many condemnation. You do not know. At the end of Gandhi's later part of life he was so disgusted with his life that he always wanted..., he spoke to his secretaries, associates, that "If death would come to me, I would be satisfied." Such a big man, such a great man. One of his practical difficulty was that he could not sleep soundly, partly due to his big occupation and partly due to the disturbance of the people. Wherever he will go, thousands and thousands of people will gather and will loudly speak, "Mahatma Gandhi kī jaya." Even at dead of night, at twelve o'clock of night, he is passing through a train, and if the train is stopped at the middle station, people will get information and gather, "Mahatma Gandhi kī jaya." So I have seen personally. When he was going through some crowd, he was closing, capping his ears like this. His brain was being unnecessarily taxed with this sound, "Mahatma Gandhi kī jaya." People thought that they were glorifying Mahatma Gandhi, but Mahatma Gandhi was being killed by that voice.</p>
<p>So this is the... Just like you know. There is a English proverb, "What is play to you is death to me." So that is the position here. Even if you are glorified, still, you cannot enjoy. You cannot enjoy. Anything, any position. Because this wrong conception of bodily existence is a diseased form of my constitution, so I cannot enjoy. Now, a patient who is suffering from some disease, he is unable to enjoy, but if he forcibly enjoys, then his life becomes risky. He becomes more implicated. Just like... Of course, in your country I know that there is no such disease as typhoid, but India there is a fever called typhoid. Here it is called typhosis, or something like, medical term. That typhoid is disease of intestine. Now, in that disease, any solid food is strictly forbidden. First time is twenty or fourteen days, then twenty-one days, then forty-one days, up to sixty days. He is to live only on glucose water. That's all. Other things is dangerous for him. Now, if that typhoid patient desires to eat some solid food and if somebody, out of compassion, gives him some solid food, then it is death for him because in that condition he cannot enjoy. His enjoyment is forbidden. Therefore, in our diseased condition of this bodily conception of life, if we increase our so-called enjoyment, enjoyment of the body, oh, then we shall be more and more entangled in this conditional life of material existence. If you really want freedom from this material existence and miseries of material existence, then we must minimize the bodily enjoyment. We must minimize. Just like a diseased man is given some liquid food. He is forbidden... He is forbidden to take any food because any food will aggravate his disease, but still, because he has to exist, he is given some glucose water, some barley water, some fruit juice, little. Just... It is also psychological. The patient may think also that "I am eating something. I am eating, not I am starving. I am eating." That is also psychological effect. At the same time, this light food, fruit juice or glucose water, that is easily digested, so there is no harm.</p>
<p>Similarly, we have to... Our, the present life is diseased condition, so if we want to cure this disease of repeated birth and death, then we have to restrict, restrict our bodily enjoyment, because we cannot enjoy. It is simply so-called enjoyment. Actually, we cannot enjoy this diseased condition of this body. Enjoyment, real enjoyment means that is nonstopping, nonstop. There is a verse in Mahābhārata. Ramante yoginaḥ anante ([[Vanisource:CC Madhya 9.29|CC Madhya 9.29]]). Yoginaḥ, those who are yogis or spiritualists. Yogis means spiritualists. The general meaning of yogi is spiritualist, those who are endeavoring to emancipate from this material condition of life and try to elevate to the spiritual platform, he is called yogi. Now, those yogis are different types, but the method or process of spiritual realization may be different. Your process or my process may be a little different, but that does not hamper. The thing is that your aim is also spiritual realization. Just like generally there are three classes of spiritualists. The jñānīs, the yogis and the bhaktas. Jñānī means those who are trying to realize spiritual self through speculation of metaphysics and philosophy. They are called jñānīs. And yogis—those who are trying to realize spiritual self by meditation and controlling the senses. Yoga indriya-saṁyama. This haṭha-yoga meditation means that our senses are engaged in varieties of work, so by that haṭha-yoga gymnastic, the process, the mind is concentrated into the Paramātmā, Supersoul. That means those who are too much bodily addicted, for them, this haṭha-yoga process is good, recommended. So yogi, the jñānī and the yogi and the bhakta. Bhakta means devotees, devotees, spiritual realization. The objective of spiritual goal is realized in three different phases: Brahman, Paramātmā, and Bhagavān. Brahman is impersonal conception of the Supreme. So these jñānīs, those who are proceeding through philosophical speculation and metaphysical analysis, they attain up to the impersonal Brahman. Those who are meditating by yogic process, they attain to the Paramātmā feature, or Supersoul. And those who are devotees, they attain the Supreme Personality of Godhead.</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>