Ātmānaṁ sarvato rakṣet. The śāstra says to protect yourself, that is a . . . what is called? In English there is a proverb: "Self-preservation is the first law of nature"? What is that? So self means soul. Your soul may not fall down. That is your first business. Ātmā, ātmā means soul, mind and the body. So we have taken body. Everyone is prepared . . . now people are not even anxious how to protect this body.
They violate so many laws of eating, sleeping, mating, and become diseased. Even they do not know how to protect this body, what to speak of the mind and the soul. They're so rascal. Ātmānaṁ sarvato rakṣet tato dharmaṁ tato dhanam. That is the version in the Vedic literature that, "Try to protect yourself first, then dharma, then your religious principle, then dhana, then money." But at the present moment they don't care for the self; they don't care for religion. They want simply money.
So our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is not one-sided. It is not that people may think that they are sentimentalist and simply chanting and dancing. No. There is volumes of philosophy of life, from all angles of vision. Dharma, artha, kāma, mokṣa (SB 4.8.41, CC Adi 1.90). From the point of religion, from the point of economic development, from the point of sense gratification and from the point of ultimate liberation, go back to home, back to Godhead. It is so nice movement.
Unfortunately . . . of course, people are gradually trying to understand the gravity of this movement, but at least you should know the gravity of this movement. It is not ordinary movement. It is not a sentimental. It is most scientific, authorized movement, how to make people happy in this world and in the next. Dharma, artha, kāma, mokṣa. Because ultimately, he must have liberation. This is the chance.
Now, this liberation, there are different types of liberation, five kinds of liberation: sāyujya-mukti, sārūpya-mukti, sālokya-mukti, sārṣṭi-mukti . . . hmm, sāyujya, sārūpya, sālokya, sārṣṭi, sāmīpya. Mukti, liberation. There are different kinds of liberation. The first liberation, as the jñānīs or the speculators want, it is another side of voidism, to merge into the existence of the Absolute. They don't want varieties.
Because they have got a very bad experience of the varieties in the material world, they, as soon as there is question of varieties, they become shuddered, "Oh, again varieties?" They do not know that there is blissful varieties in association with Kṛṣṇa. They cannot accommodate in their brain, on account of poor fund of knowledge. Therefore they want sāyujya-mukti, to merge into the existence of the . . . to become one with the Supreme.
That is possible. You can have it. But if you lose your individuality, then you can get eternity, but you cannot get blissful life of knowledge, because you lose your individuality. So that is suicidal. But a living entity, being individual soul, he cannot remain in that impersonal state of life. Because the other two factors, namely acquire knowledge and acquire blissful life, is wanting there. It is simply negation of these material varieties. Or eternity only—sat. But there are two other parts, cit and ānanda. That is absent there.
So because it is not fully realized, therefore such living entities who take sāyujya-mukti, they again fall down in due course of time. Because he doesn't get in the sāyujya-mukti the other two parts, component parts of his life, blissfulness and knowledge, full knowledge.
- Āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ
- patanty adhaḥ anādṛta-yuṣmad-aṅghrayaḥ
- (SB 10.2.32).
The impersonalist Māyāvādīs, they undergo severe austerities, penances, and rise up to the Brahma effulgence, becomes merged into it, but again falls down. Just like the spark: it enters the flame of the fire, but there is again chance of falling down.
So sāyujya-mukti . . . sārūpya-mukti, to have the . . . for Vaiṣṇavas, they don't accept this sāyujya-mukti, to merge into the existence of the Lord. They accept sārūpya-mukti. Sārūpya-mukti means to have the same features of the body like Viṣṇu. In Vaikuṇṭhalokas all the living entities, devotees, they have got four hands.
And only in Kṛṣṇaloka, Kṛṣṇa has got two hands and His devotees also have two hands. In other lokas, Vaikuṇṭhalokas . . . there are innumerable Vaikuṇṭha planets, Nārāyaṇa is the predominating Deity, Lakṣmī-Nārāyaṇa. And those who enter such planets, they get the same bodily feature, exactly looking like Nārāyaṇa.
You have seen the picture of the Viṣṇudūtas who came to deliver Ajāmila. They were exactly looking like Nārāyaṇa. The same helmets, the same ornaments, exactly. You can understand. Just like your president or queen, if you are also dressed, you'll also look like queen. Or if you are dressed, you'll look like the president. But that does not mean you are president or you are queen, simply by dressing.
Similarly, although the devotees and the living entities, they get the same feature of the body just like Nārāyaṇa, Viṣṇu, they're not viṣṇu-tattva. That is called sāyujya, sārūpya. Similarly, sālokya, to live in the same planet. Sāmīpya, to live nearby, near exactly with Nārāyaṇa. Just like we are living together, similarly, you can live with Nārāyaṇa, sāmīpya, side by side. These are the different kinds of liberation.
So this liberation should be the ultimate goal of life, how to get this liberation, go back to home, back to Godhead. That should be our mission. Not for this so-called economic development. That is already fixed up. Just like . . . in our Kṛṣṇa Society we are not very much anxious for economic development or sense gratification. We are simply interested how to develop our Kṛṣṇa consciousness.