You are living eternally

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Prabhupada, Bombay, November 10, 1974: […] You are living eternally. Na hanyate hanyamane sarire [Bg. 2.20]. This body is finished, you have to accept another body. And that you do not know what kind of body you’ll get. There are so many bodies. Jalaja nava-laknani sthavara lakna-vimsati: 8,400,000 forms of body. So you have to enter some of the, some of them, one of them.

So in this way our life is going on. But temporarily, if we are situated in a position, “This is my wife, this is my children, this is my house, this is my country, this is my nation, this is my, mine…” Aham mameti [SB 5.5.8]. This illusion. You’ll not be allowed to stay in these circumstances of aham mameti [SB 5.5.8]. That’s a fact. Everything will be taken away, but we are attached to this. This is material life.

Therefore Devahuti proposes, “Sir,…” Yah avagrahah. This false conception of life, aham mameti… [SB 5.5.8]. “I am American”, “I am Indian”, “I am Hindu”, “I am Muslim”, “I am Christian…” Or “I am brahmana”, “I am ksatriya…” This avagraha… It is called upadhi, designation: “For the time being.”

Just like you become minister for five years or three years. Or president. Just like Nixon was president; now he’s not president. So this is an upadhi. You are Indian, American, this, that—they are all upadhis. Therefore if we are attached, if we are attached to the upadhi, that is called avagraha. Aham mameti [SB 5.5.8]. And according to the upadhi, I become attached to “me” and “mine”—”I am this,” “I am that,” and “It is mine, it is…” But actually, they are all illusion. Fact it is. If you suppose… Just like the president was five years very powerful. Now he’s dragged down. Then what is the value?

What is the value? So it may be for five years or fifty years or utmost hundred years. Or a million years. Just like Brahma. But they are all temporary. In the eternal time, five years or ten years or hundred years or five million years, they are all limited. They are not eternal. But we are eternal. We living entities, we are eternal. So why we should be illusioned by the noneternal? That is called illusion.

That is called jnana, that; “I learn from Bhagavad-gita that; ‘I am eternal. There is no birth and there is no death.’ Na jayate na mriyate va kadacit. Kadacit, at any time.

Not that it has begun now. No. Never we are born. Na hanyate hanyamane… [Bg. 2.20]. So this is the fact. So why I shall be interested in something noneternal?” This is called knowledge. Full Lecture