Kṛṣṇa says also that sambhavāmy ātma-māyayā (BG 4.6): "I appear and disappear by My own energy." We are forced by the other energy. Just like I have got human body now. Now I shall have to change my body after my death. That change of body is not in my hand. Factually, it is in my hand, because according to karma, if I work nicely, then you get good body. And if you do not work nicely, then we get bad body. That is we can understand from the śāstra. Ūrdhvaṁ gacchanti sattva-sthāḥ (BG 14.18). How we can understand? Śāstra-cakṣusā: you have to see through the śāstra. Otherwise, we have no eyes to see past, present, future. Just like the astrology. Astrology, by calculation through the śāstra, astrological calculation can say what you were in your past life and what you will become in your next life. That is astrological system. They can say like that. So through the śāstra, by right calculation, we can understand.
So what is that? The total is that ūrdhvaṁ gacchanti sattva-sthāḥ (BG 14.18). Those who are situated in the modes of goodness, brahminical qualification, satyaṁ śamo damas titikṣā ārjavam, jñānaṁ vijñānam āstikyaṁ brahma-karma svabhāva-jam (BG 18.42). If we remain perfectly a brāhmin, truthful, clean, satyaṁ śaucaṁ; śamaḥ, sense-controlling, mind-controlling. Satyaṁ śaucaṁ śamo damas titikṣā, tolerance; ārjava, simplicity; jñānam, full knowledge; vijñānam, application of knowledge in life, vijñānam; āstikyam, full knowledge of the Absolute Truth, āstikyaṁ; brahma-karma svabhāva-jam (BG 18.42). If we remain in this qualification, brahminical qualification, this is called sattva-sthā, situated in the sattva-guṇa. The rajo-guṇa and tamo-guṇa cannot conquer. In that situation you'll be elevated to the higher planets. This is śāstra says. Ūrdhvaṁ gacchanti sattva-sthā madhye tiṣṭhanti rājasāḥ (BG 14.18). And the middle planetary system . . . this earthly planet is the middle, bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ, up to Svargaloka. So if we remain in the modes of passion, then within these planets we may rotate.
And jaghanya-guṇa-vṛtti-sthā adho gacchanti tāmasāḥ. Those who are tāmasāḥ, because they have got very abominable characters . . . the abominable character is described in the śāstra, sinful life: illicit sex, intoxication, meat-eating and gambling. These are the four pillars of abominable life. Tamasi. The śāstra says, tamasi mā jyotir gamaḥ. So if we remain in this tamasi, then jaghanya-guṇa-vṛtti-sthā adho gacchanti tāmasāḥ. Adho gacchanti means lower planetary system or animal life, degraded life, abominable life, low-grade life. We shall get. This is the sum and substance. But we do not know . . . although we do not know, but the nature's law will oblige me to accept a body like that. Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa jantur dehopapattaye (SB 3.31.1). We get another body according to the karma we are performing now.
So Arjuna is a devotee. That has been explained in the previous . . . bhakto 'si. Bhakto 'si me sakhā ceti. Arjuna is not only a devotee, ordinary . . . not ordinary devotee, but personal friend. Arjuna is personal friend of Kṛṣṇa. Bhakto 'si, sakhā ceti. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says tāni. Bahūni me vyatītāni janmāni tava cārjuna: "You are My bhakta and personal friend, so whenever I appear, you also appear with Me." Because he is bhakta. Bhakta and Bhagavān, they must be together. That is the advantage of bhakta. Although he has got the frailty . . . because the living entity is the minute particle of God, mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūtaḥ (BG 15.7), therefore his intelligence, his power, is also very minute. But God's power is unlimited. By unlimited power Kṛṣṇa knows the past, future and present, everything, perfectly. But our limited knowledge, we cannot know that. Therefore we have to receive knowledge from Kṛṣṇa. This is our position. Tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet, samit-pāṇiḥ śrotriyaṁ brahma-niṣṭham (MU 1.2.12).
So we have to approach either Kṛṣṇa or Kṛṣṇa's representative. Then we can understand Kṛṣṇa. Otherwise, simply by mental speculation, by so-called erudite scholarship, nobody can know.
- panthās tu koṭi-śata-vatsara-sampragamyo
- vāyor athāpi manaso muni-puṅgavānām
- so 'py asti yat-prapada-sīmny-avicintya-tattve
- govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi
- (Bs. 5.34)
Even . . . just like you go by airplane. This is air speed. There is another speed. Panthās tu koṭi-śata-vatsara-sampragamyo, vāyor athāpi manaso muni-puṅgavānām. There is another speed, mind speed. We have experience of the light speed, of the air speed, but we do not know what is the mind speed. Mind speed is so strong that within a second you can go many millions of miles, within a second. And you can understand, if the mind speed is so strong, how much the spirit of speed . . . speed of spirit is so strong. Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā, tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti kaunteya (BG 4.9). If you become fully conversant with Kṛṣṇa consciousness, the result will be, tyaktvā deham, just giving up this body, just immediately after death. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti (BG 4.9).
Others, those who are not Kṛṣṇa conscious, they will accept another material body. Immediately they will have to enter into the womb of a mother, particular mother. Daiva-netreṇa. As soon as decision is made by superior power that, "This living entity has done such and such thing. He should be promoted or degraded. He should enter into such mother's body through the semina of the father," so immediately he's given place in the material body of a mother. But those who are Kṛṣṇa conscious, immediately they are transferred where Kṛṣṇa is there. This is the process. Immediately, by spiritual force . . . tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti kaunteya (BG 4.9). Mām eti. "Immediately he comes to Me." Kṛṣṇa is there. Within this material world He's also there, in some of the universes. There are innumerable universes, I have already explained. Somewhere He is there. So a devotee, just after giving this body . . . giving up this body, immediately he is transferred to that universe where Kṛṣṇa is there. And when he's trained up, then he is, again, he's transferred to the Goloka Vṛndāvana, the spiritual sky. These are the description of Sanātana Gosvāmī in Bṛhad-bhāgavatāmṛta, how a living entity . . .
So in this way we are changing our body, but because we are minute particle of Kṛṣṇa . . . we have got qualities of Kṛṣṇa not cent percent; seventy-eight percent. When they are perfect, so minute quantity, then we can also become a little more advanced than at the present moment. But not like Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is cent percent perfect. We can become minutely perfect, seventy-eight percent. These are all analyzed by the Gosvāmīs. So in the present stage, our conditioned stage, there is no comparison with Kṛṣṇa, what to speak of becoming Kṛṣṇa. The rascal foolish persons, they claim that they have become Kṛṣṇa. It is not possible. This is the defect, that we forget. They ask, the so . . . so many the incarnation of God, about his past life. They cannot speak.