“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)

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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

“I am sure you follow the latest buzz in the areas of science and technology. Okay, so medicine seems to have ground to a halt. They are now resorting to force, to scaring people into taking experimental medication. They somehow think you can obstruct the flow of air through a flimsy covering over the mouth. The silliness is off the charts; people are turning into a walking farce, and they are completely unaware.

“Within science, we see this push towards living on another planet. Mars is the latest target. The future is bright. The future has untapped potential. Just wait until human beings can colonize that place. We are not entirely sure which flag will be planted, to somehow claim ownership over a collection of elements that has been set in place for thousands of years, long before any of us took birth.

“What do you make of this plan? I have talked with people who are excited about the proposal. They are looking forward to it. They would be first to volunteer for uprooting their current situation and moving there. They want to live on Mars. They think life will be much better. Is there truth in that?”

Fortunately, a wise, respected, and celebrated acharya like His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, in living up to the trikala-darshi description, had the foresight to account for such desires, which are supposedly new. In truth, this desire dates back to before anyone can remember, when there was first this discovery of planets, of other places to travel within the universe.

There is even a corresponding book, to satisfy the inquisitive soul: “Easy Journey to Other Planets”. The Vedas give the missing information that there is indeed life across the solar system. It is not that earth is the exclusive home to living beings. In fact, the planets themselves are like people, but with a different visual.

This is easy to understand when we have proper knowledge of our identity. We are spirit soul. The size of the soul is the same across different instances. You are not me and I am not you, but we are both the same in quality. It is said that the soul can be compared to the tip of the piece of hair, divided into ten thousand parts. The soul is like one of those parts.

“The living entity is one 10,000th part of the tip of a hair, but the Lord is so inconceivably small that He enters into the heart of this particle. Therefore He is called smaller than the smallest. As the Supreme, He can enter into the atom and into the heart of the smallest and control him as the Supersoul. Although so small, He is still all-pervading and is maintaining everything. By Him all these planetary systems are sustained.” (Shrila Prabhupada, Bhagavad-gita, 8.9 Purport)

We look different from one another because of the covering. That covering is matter. The exact consistency is not fixed; it is always changing. That is why one day I am a child and another day I am an adult. I am the same person throughout the changes. The bodies are also different, which explains the variety in species. The same spirit soul can have an extremely large body, consisting only of fire. This explains the presence of the sun. The planets are like individuals with an immensely large collection of elements to serve as a temporary body.

जल थल नभ गति अमित अति अग जग जीव अनेक
तुलसी तो से दीन कहँ राम नाम गति एक

jala thala nabha gati amita ati aga jaga jīva aneka
tulasī to se dīna kaham̐ rāma nāma gati eka

“There are an infinite number of living beings, both moving and nonmoving, who have many different abodes, with some residing in the earth, some in the sky, and some in the water. But O helpless Tulsi, for you Shri Rama’s holy name is your only home.” (Dohavali, 37)

These different planets are all potential destinations, but only through the mechanism of birth. As in our earthly realm the potential for birth spreads across different landscapes such as in the ground, on a tree, within the ocean, and so forth, in the future there is the chance for promotion to a higher planet or demotion to a realm of pain and torture.

The push to shift to a different planet within this single lifetime is an artificial way of reaching a different standard. There is a larger issue to consider, though. Why will the life on another planet be different? What exactly is going to change? Is it the mere lack of people? The sparseness in numbers? The smaller population density? Instead of so many neighbors walking their dogs in the morning, I will get to roam free, absent obstruction, interference, and interruption?

Goswami Tulsidas describes our world as shokadhama. It is the resting place of shoka, which is grief. What is the reason? Desire. The Sanskrit word is kāma. For as long as a person maintains kāma, they will be in grief. This is a tough pill to swallow. It is a difficult truth to accept, as everything we do has kāma at the root.

तब लगि कुसल न जीव कहुँ सपनेहुँ मन बिश्राम
जब लगि भजत न राम कहुँ सोकधाम तजि काम

taba lagi kusala na jīva kahum̐ sapanehum̐ mana biśrāma
jaba lagi bhajata na rāma kahum̐ sokadhāma taji kāma

“For as long as there is not devotion to Shri Rama and the release of material desires, which are like an abode of grief, the living being should not expect to find welfare and peace of mind, even in a dream.” (Dohavali, 131)

There is a solution. We simply remove kāma and have devotion to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This is His universe, after all. What can we really do here? What progress can we really make? Considering the factor of kāla, which destroys, how much will we even get to enjoy life on a different planet? Why not find a solution today, right now, that does not involve extensive and expensive travel?

Shri Krishna reveals that all the planets in the material world have birth and death. We tend to only think of earth as mrityu-loka, or the planet of death, but the property applies across all planets. There is one exception. Those who reach the planet of Krishna, who also goes by Rama, Vishnu, and other beautiful and descriptive names, do not return to mrityu-loka.

That is the only way to reach transcendence. Otherwise, whether we live on the east coast or the west, in this hemisphere or that, on this planet or that, we will continue to suffer the same miseries. Kāma will not bring lasting satisfaction. There will be anger, wrath, and resentment through the conflicts, through the diminishing returns. That transformation from desire to bewilderment applies to any planet in which we live, but if we have the spiritual consciousness, it is like any place can immediately turn into Vaikuntha, which is free of anxieties.

जानुद्वयं जलजलोचनया जनन्या
लक्ष्म्याखिलस्य सुरवन्दितया विधातु:
ऊर्वोर्निधाय करपल्लवरोचिषा यत्
संलालितं हृदि विभोरभवस्य कुर्यात्

jānu-dvayaṁ jalaja-locanayā jananyā
lakṣmyākhilasya sura-vanditayā vidhātuḥ
ūrvor nidhāya kara-pallava-rociṣā yat
saṁlālitaṁ hṛdi vibhor abhavasya kuryāt

“The yogi should fix in his heart the activities of Lakshmi, the goddess of fortune, who is worshiped by all demigods and is the mother of the supreme person, Brahma. She can always be found massaging the legs and thighs of the transcendental Lord, very carefully serving Him in this way.” (Shrimad Bhagavatam, 3.28.23)

In Closing:

Not satisfied with the moon,
To reach Mars desperate and soon.

New chapter of life to start,
In seconds this place to depart.

But what exactly will I do?
From kāma same conflict too.

Better Vaikuntha planet to see,
Of birth and death to be free.

Categories: questions

Tags: dailyprompt, mars, poem, poems, poetry, science