Two misunderstandings about this world that can make us take birth again

Although we have been practicing Krsna Consciousness and hearing spiritual instructions for many years, we often don’t really have a desire to leave this material world.

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Although we have been practicing Krsna Consciousness and hearing spiritual instructions for many years, we often don’t really have a desire to leave this material world. Of course, we understand that it would be nice to be with Krsna in the spiritual world, sitting under the kalpa-vṛkṣa trees, never having to fear death and disease, but at the same time, we feel that this material world is not so bad, and we don’t really feel an urgency in leaving it.

When a person who is really suffering in life comes in contact with Krsna Consciousness, often he or she starts practicing very seriously. Because of the past suffering, there is an understanding that the material world is not a good place, and thus one has a strong impetus to get out of it. Even the austerity of living in a temple, waking up early for mangala-artik, sharing a room with others, fasting on festival days, and going out on harināma or book distribution for hours on end is not perceived as something difficult, because it’s much easier than life in the previous conditions.

However, as one practices spiritual life, the past karma is cleared, and one’s life improves. One doesn’t suffer as much as before, and often there is even a sense of satisfaction. This is one of the early results of chanting the holy names, but it is also a test.

Because one’s previous karma is cleared, the material suffering subsides, and simultaneously, there is a feeling of internal satisfaction that comes from the contact with the mode of goodness. In this platform, the material world stops looking like such a terrible place. It’s like the material energy saying to us, “See, you wanted to become free because your life was miserable, what about having another go as a first-class prisoner?”

At this point, we often start remembering our old material attachments, having the idea of again experiencing things we did in the past, or experiencing new things we only heard about, forgetting how painful it was in the past. At this point, there may be a strong urge to go back to material life, at least partially, continuing to chant Hare Krsna, but at the same time, try to enjoy a little more.

That’s a trap, because at this point we may settle into just living a pious life, enjoying the pleasures of life, but at the same time continue chanting and following basic regulative principles. When we fall into this illusion, the material world stops looking like such a dangerous place, and we have the impetus to continue playing with it, losing our sense of urgency in going back to Godhead.

It is important to understand that this feeling is very different from the feeling of a pure devotee, desiring to just serve Krsna, life after life. A pure devotee doesn’t want anything to do with this material world; he just wants to serve Krsna. Because he is already so strongly connected with Krsna, there is no real difference between the material world and the spiritual world to him. All he wants is to remain connected with Krsna in loving service.

The idea that we can stay in this material world, having material enjoyment while practicing Krsna Consciousness, to some degree, on the other hand, comes from illusion and complacency. Still, however, this is a trap for which most of us fail at some point in our spiritual lives. Many will later come out of it and again become serious in spiritual life, while others may just continue on this path until the end and have to accept another body.

We can fall into this trap due to two misunderstandings about the nature of this material world.

The first misunderstanding is the idea that we can safely play a little with Maya without risks. Maya is so powerful that even great sages like Mārkaṇḍeya Ṛṣi and Nārada Muni came under illusion after requesting the Lord to show them the power of the illusory potency. Mārkaṇḍeya Ṛṣi ended up staying for billions of years struggling in the ocean completely forgotten of his real position, while Nārada Muni ended up coming to earth and marrying a village girl and living many years with her absorbed in family life, just remembering who he was after drowning in the river (a story that is told by Bhakti Pūruṣottama Swami in his book “Maya”). Normally, pure devotees don’t fall into Maya, because they are protected by Krsna, but even they can fall temporarily under illusion when they ask Krsna to remove this protection and show them the full power of Maya. So, the idea that we can safely play with it is not very wise. We should not take more risks than necessary.

The second misunderstanding is about the real nature of this material world. The idea of continuing to live in this material world as a pious person, or pious devotee, or maybe as a demigod, enjoying beautiful women or beautiful men, may not sound so bad, but the problem is that these are two very small privileged classes. The absolute majority of souls in the material world live in the lower species, such as animals, plants, insects, microorganisms, and so on. Living like a demigod may not sound so bad, but living as a cockroach is a completely different story. One may think that he or she can remain in a privileged position in life after life by doing the right activities, but all it takes is a small mistake to go back all the way down to the lower species. One may take his next birth in a wealthy family and become a materialist, or one may offend some pure devotee, for example, and once one falls back into the lower species, the way back is extremely long.

In Vedic cosmology, we study that time passes very fast for the demigods on the high planets, and it goes progressively slowly the lower we go. A demigod lives for a whole manvantara (about 300 million years), but in his perception, this is like 100 years for us. On the other hand, many insects and bacteria live for just one day, and in their perception, this amount of time also equals 100 years. Time passes so slowly for them because such entities have to wait trillions of lives until they have a new opportunity in human life. This means that if we become a demigod, we will enjoy what we will perceive as 100 years, but if we fall down into the lower species, we will have to endure what we will perceive as hundreds of trillions of years in very harsh conditions until we come back to where we are now. It’s not worth the risk.

The material world works in such a way that almost everyone is suffering in the lower species just to maintain a few privileged souls living as human beings and demigods. It’s like a five-star hotel where thousands work in very harsh conditions to maintain the luxuries of a few guests. The real nature of this material world is not the comfortable (or even not so comfortable) life we have now, but the perpetual struggle for existence in the lower species. It’s a nasty place, and a small mistake can put us back in the meat grinder. Honestly, it’s really not worth the risk. Our place is not here.

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