View source for We are given the opportunity by nature to utilize our consciousness, to utilize our intelligence, to understand God. But if we do not utilize, if we live like cats and dog, then next life we have to accept, by nature's law, the body of cats and dogs

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[[Category:We Are]]
[[Category:Given The Chance]]
[[Category:Opportunity]]
[[Category:By Nature]]
[[Category:Utilizing Our Intelligence]]
[[Category:Consciousness]]
[[Category:Understanding God]]
[[Category:If We]]
[[Category:Live Like...]]
[[Category:Cats and Dogs]]
[[Category:Next Life]]
[[Category:We Have To]]
[[Category:Have To Accept]]
[[Category:Laws of Nature]]
[[Category:Accepting Animal Bodies]]
[[Category:Pages Needing Audio - SHARMISTHA]]
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<h2>Lectures</h2>
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<h3>Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures</h3>
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We are missing the opportunity of this human form of life. We are simply living like cats and dogs and dying like cats and dog. And if we maintain that mentality like cats and dog, then next life . . . because we are given the opportunity by nature to utilize our consciousness, to utilize our intelligence, to understand God. But if we do not utilize, if we live like cats and dog, then next life we have to accept, by nature's law, the body of cats and dogs. This is bhāgavata-dharma.
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[[Vanisource:730906 - Lecture SB 07.06.01-2 - Stockholm|730906 - Lecture SB 07.06.01-2 - Stockholm]]
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Don't think nature is blind. Nature is matter, material energy. It cannot work independently. Just like machine—machine, it is made of matter but if there is no driver, however efficient machine it may be, it is useless, a lump of matter. There must be driver. Similarly, whatever wonderful activities you find within this material nature, that is not being done independently. That is being done under the driver. Just like the big car or this airship is running very nicely so long the pilot is there, so long the driver is there. Without pilot, even the arrangement is very nice, good machinery assembly, but it cannot work. Similarly, this nature, although we find very wonderfully working, but behind this nature there is the living entity, supreme living entity, God.

So to understand that God, how He is working, what we are, what is our relationship with God, why we are here, why we are transmigrating from one body to another—all these are called bhāgavata-dharma. This is called bhāgavata-dharma. Bhāgavata means in relationship with God. So our this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is bhāgavata-dharma. Bhāgavata-dharma means we are presenting God. People are searching out whether there is God, God is dead or alive. But we are giving, "Here is God. Here is His name, here is His address, here is His activities." Everything we are giving distinctly, not blindly; but there is philosophy, there is reason, there is logic, and these are all stated in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, sixty volumes.

So Prahlāda Mahārāja says that everyone, from the very childhood, that means from when education begins, this bhāgavata-dharma. Otherwise we are missing the point. We are missing the opportunity of this human form of life. We are simply living like cats and dogs and dying like cats and dog. And if we maintain that mentality like cats and dog, then next life . . . because we are given the opportunity by nature to utilize our consciousness, to utilize our intelligence, to understand God. But if we do not utilize, if we live like cats and dog, then next life we have to accept, by nature's law, the body of cats and dogs. This is bhāgavata-dharma. This is an opportunity. Here is the opportunity to make your choice whether again you are going to be cats and dogs or whether you are going to be elevated to the highest position, back to home, back to Godhead. That is highest perfection.

Na te vidhuḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇum. Practically, the so-called civilized men at the present moment, they do not know what is the actual goal of life. The Prahlāda Mahārāja advising, although he's a child, but he has heard from authority, from Nārada Muni; therefore he's instructing his class friend. Because his father was a great atheist, Hiraṇyakaśipu. He was very angry. When Prahlāda Mahārāja used to talk of God consciousness, he was very much disturbed, he used to chastise him: "Wherefrom this nonsense boy has learned this 'God, God, God'?" He was very much disturbed. So he was very afraid of his father at home. But in the school, as soon as the teachers were away, tiffin hour, he would take the opportunity and preach something about God. That is the statement here. So he says, durlabhaṁ mānuṣaṁ: "My dear friends, this human form of life is very rarely obtained." Durlabhaṁ mānuṣaṁ janma tad apy adhruvam ([[Vanisource:SB 7.6.1|SB 7.6.1]]). Adhruvam means it will also not stay. "Because I have got this human form of body, therefore, I'll live forever," no. I'll have to die like cats and dog. But because I have got this human form of life, I can understand what is the truth. That is my opportunity. Durlabhaṁ mānuṣaṁ janma tad apy . . . durlabhaṁ mānuṣaṁ janma tad apy adhruvam. It will not stay.
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