Ladies and Gentlemen, I thank you very much for your kindly participating in this great Ratha-yātrā festival. I have already explained what is this Ratha-yātrā festival. It is in commemoration of a grand visit by Lord Kṛṣṇa along with His elder brother, Balarāma, and His youngest sister, Subhadrā, in a solar eclipse ceremony at Kurukṣetra. This occasion is the subject matter of this Ratha-yātrā festival.
Apart from these historical references in the matter of Ratha-yātrā festival, there is another spiritual meaning: that the Lord is situated in everyone's heart, and this body is just like ratha, or car. He is sitting in everyone's heart. It is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, sarvasya cāhaṁ hṛdi sanniviṣṭaḥ: "I am sitting in everyone's heart." Mattaḥ smṛtir jñānam apohanaṁ ca (BG 15.15): "I am giving everyone the intelligence as well as I am taking away the intelligence from everyone."
This double work is being done by the Supersoul. In one side He is helping how to realize self, how to realize God, and other side He is helping also to forget God. How it is that the Supreme Personality of Godhead, as paramātmā, is doing this double work? The sense is that if we want to forget God, God will help us in such a way that we'll forget God life after life. But if we want to reestablish our relationship with God, from within He will help us in every way.
This human form of life is a chance for God realization. Without God realization, our life is frustrated. We, being part and parcel of God, it is our duty to understand our relationship with God and act accordingly, and then our goal of life is achieved. The ultimate goal of life is to attain eternal life, full of knowledge and bliss, sac-cid-ānanda vigraha (Bs. 5.1). Sat means eternal, ānanda means bliss and cit means knowledge.
This body is just the opposite. It is not sat. This body is temporary. It is not eternal. This body is full of ignorance. There is practically no knowledge. We do not know, after closing our eyes, we do not know what is happening before our eyes. So our knowledge is always imperfect. And this life is also miserable. It is not at all blissful.
Every step, there are three kinds of miserable condition: ādhyātmika, adhibautika, adhidaivika. Ādhyātmika means miseries pertaining to the body and the mind. Adhibautika means miserable condition offered by other living entities. And adhidaivika, natural disturbances. So either of these three, or at least one or two, there must be always present. This is the material condition of life. But as spirit soul, we are sac-cid-ānanda vigraha, part and parcel of sac-cid-ānanda vigraha. Sat means eternal, cit means knowledge and bliss, and ānanda means blissfulness.
So if we want to have eternal life, full of knowledge and blissfulness, then we must take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Our this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is the greatest welfare activities in the human society. We are giving information to every man, without any discrimination of cast, creed and color, that every human being especially . . . not only human being; all living entities, including the animals, beasts, birds, trees, aquatics—everyone—they can achieve to the highest perfection of life by this Kṛṣṇa consciousness. But especially the extra intelligence of the human being can be utilized to realize Kṛṣṇa. If we don't do that, we are missing a great opportunity.