Unfortunately, people are so foolish at the present moment that they do not believe even in the next life. Mudha. What to speak of understanding God and Krsna, they have no even the basic principle of spiritual knowledge

Expressions researched:
"Unfortunately, people are so foolish at the present moment that they do not believe even in the next life. Mūḍha. What to speak of understanding God and Kṛṣṇa, they have no even the basic principle of spiritual knowledge"

Lectures

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Unfortunately, people are so foolish at the present moment that they do not believe even in the next life. Mudha. What to speak of understanding God and Krsna, they have no even the basic principle of spiritual knowledge. Basic principle of spiritual knowledge is to understand that "I am not this body. I am spirit soul.

730928 - Lecture BG 13.05 - Bombay

Prabhupāda:

. . . bahudhā gītaṁ

chandobhir vividhaiḥ pṛthak

brahma-sūtra-padaiś caiva

hetumadbhir viniścitaiḥ

(BG 13.5)

Yesterday we were discussing tat kṣetram, kṣetram, this body, how we enter into different types of bodies, how it is obtained. There are 8,400,000 forms of body according to the qualities. Three qualities: three multiplied by three, it becomes nine; nine multiplied by nine, it becomes eighty-one. So at least, in the lower grades of forms, there are eighty-one lakhs, or 8,100,000, and above that, about 400,000 forms of human being.

So one has to understand. Unfortunately, people are so foolish at the present moment that they do not believe even in the next life. Mūḍha. What to speak of understanding God and Kṛṣṇa, they have no even the basic principle of spiritual knowledge. Basic principle of spiritual knowledge is to understand that, "I am not this body. I am spirit soul. I am now fallen in this material condition, and therefore, according to my different desires, I am accepting different types of bodies and wandering throughout the whole universe—sometimes this body, sometimes that body, sometimes in this planet, sometimes in other planet. This has become my unfortunate condition of life."

Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu therefore says, ei rūpe brahmāṇḍa bhramite kono bhāgyavān jīva (CC Madhya 19.151). We are wandering in this cycle of birth and death and wandering in the universe. In this way, in the process of our wandering, some way or other, if we become fortunate by association of devotees, by understanding the Vedic knowledge . . . jñāna-vairāgya-yuktāya (SB 1.2.12). Human life is meant for achieving knowledge and vairāgya, not that to increase the animal propensities even up to the point of death. That is not human life. Human life is meant for tapasya. Tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena śuddhyet sattvam (SB 5.5.1).