Prabhupāda: In the Bhagavad-gītā it is said that even if you go to the topmost planet, there is also birth, death, old age and disease. You cannot avoid this. So long you shall remain within this material world, you have to accept these four principles of material condition, that you'll have to die. Either you live for ten thousands of years or ten millions of years, it doesn't matter; you have to die. Even Brahmā dies, who has got many millions of years. It is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, Brahmā's one day, daytime duration, which is calculated, our twelve hours. There are twelve hours day, twelve hours night. That is twenty-four hours. So Brahmā's one daytime duration, twelve hours ours, is calculated to be forty three hundred thousands of years multiplied by one thousand. Now calculate what is the . . . That is forty three hundred thousands of years. Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: 4,000,300,000.
Prabhupāda: Four billion, three hundred years or something like. That is our . . . As our twelve hours, Brahmā's twelve hours is that. Then add twelve hours again, four hundred billion years. That means altogether eight billions of years. That is one day, Brahmā's. Then calculate one month. Then calculate one year. Such hundred years he lives. So that is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. Sahasra-yuga-paryantam ahar yad brahmaṇo viduḥ (BG 8.17). Sahasra-yuga-paryantam. One yuga means forty-three lakhs of . . ., hundred thousands of years. Sahasra means thousand times. That is . . . Everything is stated there. You can learn. You can understand. So that is called Brahmaloka. And it is also stated, ābrahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ punar āvartino 'rjuna (BG 8.16). Even if you reach to the Brahmaloka, you can get long duration of life; there is no doubt. But again, punar āvartinaḥ, you have to die and you have to go to another body and another planet. But I am eternal. We are eternal. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). By destruction of this body, maybe after two hours or four minutes . . . There are many, many living entities, they live for some minutes, some second, some years. The human in this material world, in this planetary system, we live, say, utmost, hundred years. But in other planetary system they live for millions of years. It is a ques . . . This world is relative. According to your position the relative condition is there. My past and present and future is not the same past, present, future of an ant. The ant's past, future, may be three hours or four hours. Our past, present, means hundred hours, and Brahmā's past, present, millions of years. Everything is relative, according to the position.
So real aim of life is to stop the cycle of birth and death. That is real aim of life. If we do not know this, then we are ignorant. We are ignorant. First of all we must know that "I am eternal." That is . . . In the beginning of the Bhagavad-gītā it is very nicely explained that antavanta ime dehā nityasyoktāḥ śarīriṇaḥ (BG 2.18): "My dear Arjuna, this body is destructible, but the proprietor of the body, he is eternal." That is the first instruction. I am not this body; I am the proprietor of this body. You are not this body; you are the proprietor of this body. But if we think that "I am body," then that is the same thinking as the dog is thinking. Therefore I have given in the statement that if we think this lump of matter as "myself," then we are no better than the dog. The dog is also thinking like that. That human form of life is meant for understanding that "I am not this lump of matter; I am . . ." Ahaṁ brahmāsmi: "I am spirit soul." That is required. The whole Bhagavad-gītā teaching is based on this principle, first of all to understand that "I am not this body; I am spirit soul, Brahman." Ahaṁ brahmāsmi.