“The whole cosmic order is under Me. By My will it is manifested again and again, and by My will it is annihilated at the end.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 9.8)

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प्रकृतिं स्वामवष्टभ्य विसृजामि पुन: पुन: ।
भूतग्राममिमं कृत्स्नमवशं प्रकृतेर्वशात् ॥

prakṛtiṁ svām avaṣṭabhya
visṛjāmi punaḥ punaḥ
bhūta-grāmam imaṁ kṛtsnam
avaśaṁ prakṛter vaśāt

“When people are questioned on the issue of religion, they may resort to the following response. They say that they certainly believe in a higher power. They are not exactly sure what that power is. They do not know which religion specifically aligns with this kind of belief, but they are not on the side which thinks that the entire existence lacks meaning.

“To me, this is an appealing argument. It is free of dogmatic insistence. It is not rooted in following blindly. It is not based on casting a glance across the entire population and creating a vision of a series of checkboxes. Those who are saved versus those who are not. The believers against the sinners. The good people and the bad people, and so on.

“To someone who does say that they believe in a higher power, what is the appeal from within the Vedic tradition? Why should such a person read Bhagavad-gita, for instance? What will be in it for them? What do they have to gain from the experience?”

As His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada explains, the atheists are actually bluffing. They say that there is no God. They say that there is no higher power. They say that they don’t believe in any of that make-believe or mythology.

But the truth is that they will submit to a higher power. They will see this higher potency, which can be considered Divine. The meeting occurs at the time of death. The atheist will submit. They will be forced to acknowledge the existence of something greater.

This means that everyone already believes in a higher power, whether they publicly admit it or not. The appeal from the Vedic tradition is to expedite the meeting, in a positive way. Rather than wait to see God in His gruesome, all-devouring form of death, create a friendly relationship.

As Krishna explains in Bhagavad-gita, the living beings appear and disappear, across the timespan of billions of years. The entire cosmic manifestation is like the unrolling of a scroll. At some point in time, everything rolls back up and returns to the originator, who oversees everything.

The Vedic tradition is ideal for the open-minded person, who wants to apply their intellect towards spiritual life in the same way that they have expanded knowledge in the areas of technology, science, medicine, psychology, and health. They want to believe in truth in a meaning to an existence, the proper method of identification of the individual, and the potential travel points for the future, after the time of death.

यं यं वापि स्मरन् भावं
त्यजत्य् अन्ते कलेवरम्
तं तम् एवैति कौन्तेय
सदा तद्-भाव-भावितः

yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran bhāvaṁ
tyajaty ante kalevaram
taṁ tam evaiti kaunteya
sadā tad-bhāva-bhāvitaḥ

“Whatever state of being one remembers when he quits his body, that state he will attain without fail.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 8.6)

The consciousness carries forward with the individual. What was previously on the mind, influenced by committed actions, led to present circumstances. Just as we see that two people who graduated from high school in the same year end up in two totally different places, because of the decisions they made, so the individual can go to wherever they like in the future.

The potential is for reaching as high as the planet of Lord Brahma, the creator, and as low as the hellish region, to suffer for sinful life. These are two endpoints encompassing the full range, but the category is the same. There is always another birth. This is the cycle of transmigration of the soul, coming and going.

आ-ब्रह्म-भुवनाल् लोकाः
पुनर् आवर्तिनो ऽर्जुन
माम् उपेत्य तु कौन्तेय
पुनर् जन्म न विद्यते

ā-brahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ
punar āvartino ‘rjuna
mām upetya tu kaunteya
punar janma na vidyate

“From the highest planet in the material world down to the lowest, all are places of misery wherein repeated birth and death take place. But one who attains to My abode, O son of Kunti, never takes birth again.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 8.16)

Those who reach the planet of Shri Krishna, the Vaikuntha realm, do not have to return. That realm is unmanifest in the sense that it is never created or annihilated. It is not subject to the dualities of seen and unseen, high and low, alive and dead, and so forth. Vaikuntha is as eternal as its chief resident.

If I do not want to return to Vaikuntha, if I insist on remaining where I am, there is full facility. Again and again, the host of beings complete the landscape of the material world. There is no shortage. There is no lack of opportunity.

For the person who questions the purpose to it all, for one who wants to experience a higher taste, who wants to be finished with the dualities of a material existence, nirvana, genuine spiritual life is the way. Krishna is both the goal and the constant companion along the way, shining the light of knowledge from within.

तेषां सतत-युक्तानां
भजतां प्रीति-पूर्वकम्
ददामि बुद्धि-योगं तं
येन माम् उपयान्ति ते

teṣāṁ satata-yuktānāṁ
bhajatāṁ prīti-pūrvakam
dadāmi buddhi-yogaṁ taṁ
yena mām upayānti te

“To those who are constantly devoted and worship Me with love, I give the understanding by which they can come to Me.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 10.10)

In Closing:

Both companion and the goal,
For interested spirit soul.

Who with nirvana in mind,
No more dualities that bind.

Shri Krishna the path alighting,
Through maya’s intrusion fighting.

Such that in Vaikuntha to land,
From Divine’s helping hand.

Categories: questions

Tags: faith, god, hare krishna, hinduism, poem, poems, poetry, religion